Richard Lamm on Multiculturalism Did Richard Lamm make a speech saying multiculturalism is destroying America?

A Frightening Analysis

We all know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration-overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of Americans finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor named Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, Mexifornia, explaining how immigration  both legal and illegal  was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.

Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then lets destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'

Here is how they do it, Lamm said: First to destroy America, Turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar Seymour Lipset put it this way: The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans.

Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America, Invent multiculturalism and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. I would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.

Third, We could make the United States a Hispanic Quebec without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved! Not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentrically and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.'

Lamm said, I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America reinforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities.

Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school.

My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of Victimology. I would get all minorities to think their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population.

My sixth plan for Americas downfall would include dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other  that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity! Unity is what it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games.

A common enemy Persia threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to over come two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell.

E. Pluribus Unum  From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the pluribus instead of the Unum, we can balkanize America as surely as Kosovo.

Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits ~ make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of diversity. I would find a word similar to heretic in the 16th century  that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like racist or x! xenophobes halt discussion and debate.

Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of Victimology, I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them.

In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said, Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Daviss book Mexifornia. His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, dont read that book.

There was no applause.

A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Every discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate diversity. American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America  take note of California and other states  to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwells book 1984. In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: War is peace, Freedom is slavery, and Ignorance is strength.

Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy are deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we dont get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream.

HAT TIP: Mark Levin Show
ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump would not commit Wednesday to being interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of the Russia investigation and called the prospect "unlikely," despite saying last year that he would be willing to speak with him.



"We'll see what happens," Trump said when asked if he would be open to such a meeting. "Certainly I'll see what happens, but when they have no collusion and nobody has found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview."



Trump's position, stated during a news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House, came in the wake of reports this week that Mueller and his team raised the possibility of an interview with the president during a meeting with his attorneys.



A source with knowledge of the meeting, which occurred last month, said that it was not the first instance in which Mueller expressed a desire to meet with Trump as he continues to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion with the Trump campaign.



Last June, the president provided a different answer when asked by ABC News' Jonathan Karl whether he would open to speaking with Mueller. At the time Trump was refuting congressional testimony by former FBI director James Comey in which Comey claimed that the president had asked for Comey's loyalty.



Trump said he would "100 percent" be willing to share his version of the encounter with Comey under oath. When Karl followed up to ask if he would do so with the special counsel, the president said he "would be glad to tell him exactly what I just told you."



As has become routine, Trump fervently denied Wednesday that any collusion took place and described such a suggestion as "a phony cloud" that has hung "over this administration and our government."



"It has hurt our government," he added. "It does hurt our government."





Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
After hinting for weeks that he would run for governor, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin officially entered the crowded primary field of Democratic candidates challenging Gov. Scott Walker Wednesday with a couple of announcement events.

At his third campaign speech of the day, at the Inn on the Park on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison, Soglin named his strategy to garner votes across the state as the supper club campaign.

I will be in the diners and wherever we find Wisconsinites, and I will be listening to them and answering their questions, Soglin said. I think thats the way to campaign in Wisconsin is to go where the people are in basically an unstructured environment where everyone can be open and speak their mind and Ill be listening.

Soglin officially announced his campaign with an email released Wednesday morning and followed up with visits to Waukesha, Milwaukee and Madison.

Though he previously said he had no interest in running for governor, Soglin announced he would consider the position last June at the state Democratic convention. Soglin has attributed his changed mindset to the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

Supporters of Soglin have pointed out the similarities between the mayor and Sanders including age, demographics of supporters, background and experience. However, Soglins presence as the longtime mayor of Wisconsin's capital city and liberal stronghold could be a liability when looking for support outside Dane County.

Soglin said Wednesday that Wisconsin voters choose competency, trust and leadership when supporting a candidate for governor. He believes his long tenure as Madisons mayor  serving from 19731979, 19891997 and 2011 to the present  make him a strong candidate.

Im going on 21, 22 years as mayor and with that I bring the ability to fashion solutions, implement them and deliver on the result, Soglin said.

At 72, Soglin is the oldest candidate running against Walker. He first joined Madison politics in 1968, when he served on the City Council after gaining notoriety as a University of Wisconsin-Madison student leading demonstrations for the Civil Rights movement and against the Vietnam War.

Former Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, who defeated Soglin in 2003 and lost to him in 2011, said he thinks Soglin will be competitive despite the challenges of running as a leader from Madison.

He has a built in base of voters in Madison and in a highly fragmented field, even a small base is a big advantage, Cieslewicz said. I'm convinced that the Democrats are better off with a big, diverse field.

So far that field includes former state Rep. Kelda Roys, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout of Alma, Rep. Dana Wachs of Eau Claire, Madison firefighter Mahlon Mitchell and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers.

Evers announced on Wednesday that his campaign is endorsed by former Madison Mayors Sue Bauman and Joel Skornicka.

Soglin estimated he needs 20 to 25 percent of the vote to win the primary election. Apart from his name recognition in Madison, Soglin said generations of Wisconsinites passed through the city since he was a student.

They are now scattered throughout the state and thats not to be overlooked, Soglin said.

'What does Scott Walker have?'

In his campaign statement, Soglin criticized Walker for supporting the federal tax overhaul, changing voter ID law, ending equal pay protections and the states failure to implement high speed internet under his administration.

Reinforcing his opposition to the nearly $4 billion in tax breaks for the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn to move to Wisconsin, Soglin said the money could have been spent on schools, transportation, universities and small businesses.

He also touted his own experience in the private sector, which includes stints as an attorney, a project manager for Epic Systems, and government relations consultant.

Ive been negotiating partnerships with the private sector for many years now and, in fact, Ive been on both sides of those agreements, Soglin said during his speech. Ive got 25 years of experience in the private sector. What does Scott Walker have?

Shortly after Soglin released his campaign announcement Wednesday morning, Walker responded on Twitter, saying that the last thing we need is more Madison in our lives.

(Soglin) is the latest extreme liberal who wants to take our state backward -- just like he did in Madison, where businesses have left and murders have gone up, Walker said. We want to go forward.

On economic development, Soglin said Madisons success is far superior to the rest of the state. The unemployment rate in Madison is at 2.1 percent, below the statewide average of 3.2 percent, according to November 2017 Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

We are the ones who are making him look good, and he better say thank you, Soglin said.

While Walkers campaign knocked Soglin and Madison Wednesday, his jobs agency released an ad featuring views of young people enjoying Madison meant to persuade Chicago residents to move to Wisconsin.

Soglin acknowledged what works in one part of the state may not be successful in another, but he said there are common attributes that can be replicated including investing in an intelligent workforce, creating a community where families want to raise children and recreational opportunities.

On violence, Madison has not had a homicide since August, which Soglin attributed to a focused Madison Police Department initiative and efforts to engage those caught up in the cycle of violence to minimize retaliation. The mayor also introduced a public-health approach as a strategy to addressing and preventing violence.

Soglins seat and all 20 City Council districts are up for reelection in the spring of 2019. Soglin has not said if he would run again for mayor.
Economic hardship not the outcome of ...
Calaveras County Seal View Photos

San Andreas, CA  Calaveras Countys roiling drama over cannabis continues as the board of supervisors struggle in the stormy aftermath of its 3-2 vote to shut down the industry.

Today while Calaveras County officials are alerting registered growers and the public as to the ramifications of the commercial marijuana ban passed after a tumultuous day-long meeting (reported here), they are holding in tandem meetings to potentially prepare a twin-set of board-sponsored initiatives aimed at reassigning the decision to the voters.

The new ordinance limits the cultivation of cannabis for commercial and medical use to the limits imposed by California State law, which includes cultivating no more than six live cannabis plants per residence. Any cannabis grown within the legal limits of California law must be screened from public view and secured with child-resistant locks. The temporary permits issued under Calaveras Countys urgency regulatory ordinance will now automatically terminate within 90 days of the effective date of the ordinance. Growers who were previously allowed to cultivate under the urgency ordinance must restore their site(s) to the former state within 24 months. This includes ensuring permits were completed and filed for any grading or water diversion activities that were conducted.

In Bans Wake, A Ballot Initiative?

In an interview with Clarke Broadcasting, County CAO Tim Lutz recounts the boards direction to staff following the ban vote, which came after District 3 Supervisor Michael Oliveira voiced great displeasure with an outright ban, stating that such a sweeping decision should be determined by voters. The result of an ensuing discussion and board poll led to a move to have county staff develop two competing measures for the June ballot.

The question of the ballot measure has been brought up a number of times through the last year, and ultimately, I think that it is the best-case scenario in what has been such a divisive topic, Lutz says thoughtfully. Unfortunately, by the sake of the citizens [ban] initiative from the election last year, it really forced the ball back into the boards court. Ultimately, something as controversialand divisive as this is, is better decided by the residents and the voters.

He speculates that a board-sponsored ban measure would probably be similar or even identical to the ordinance approved yesterday. The other, being a regulatory ordinance, would cover a scope that he says is still to be determined. When staff brings it back to the board for deliberation, at that point it would get feedback and direction as to if it mirrors what they considered yesterday - mostly directed by [District 1 Supervisor and Board Chair Gary] Tofanellior if it would be broader, such as considerations that the Planning Commission recommended, Lutz explains. After consulting with County Clerk-Recorder Rebecca Turner, who overviewed timelines, Lutz says that Jan. 30 might be the deadline for the board to get a framework so that there would be time for measures to be certified for the election, which needs to happen sometime in February.

A Different Kind Of Ballot Race

Staff thought it was doable but it is certainly going to be a very tight turnaround, Lutz confides. He adds that success would hinge on the boards ability to agree on what a regulatory ballot measure would look like. Ostensibly, he says it would not be any more restrictive than the strict local rules the board was considering but could not come together on. Among the issues that created yesterdays impasse were firm stances by the boards three already ban-favoring supervisors that would limit grows to very large parcels, requiring considerable setbacks.

As to buzz about a citizens ballot initiative, which requires signatures and thus a longer timeline, Lutz says efforts that might be underway in that direction, if successful, might more easily qualify for the November ballot. At any rate, as of today the supervisors have three opportunities to further discuss the potential twin-measures as a special meeting is now slated for Jan. 16 and two more regular meetings are scheduled Jan. 17 and 23.

.

Right now, obviously, staff is regrouping, Lutz offers, an inarguable understatement. We are having meetings to discuss what needs to come back to the board for discussion points, how we want to structure that, and I would expect that we would have more information in the coming days as we work through those questions.
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MEXICO CITY (AP)  Five states in Mexico now have the sternest "do not travel" advisories under a revamped U.S. State Department system unveiled Wednesday, putting them on the same level as war-torn countries like Syria, Yemen and Somalia.

The five states are Tamaulipas on the U.S. border and Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero on the Pacific coast. All the states are hotspots of drug cartel activity, either hosting trafficking routes or extensive drug-crop cultivation.

Tamaulipas shares a border with Texas, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Laredo.

READ ALSO: Employee of Mexican music group reportedly beheaded by Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas

The State Department had previously discouraged travel to all or part of those states but the new warnings are sterner, placing them on a level 4 warning, the highest level of potential danger.

Now Playing: The U.S. State Department has released an updated travel advisory for Mexico, home to some of the country's most popular tourist destinations. Adian Kelly has the details. Video: Brandpoint

Mexico as a whole has a level 2 rating, meaning Americans should "exercise increased caution" because of concerns about crime. But an additional 11 Mexican states got a level 3 warning Wednesday, which urges people to "reconsider travel" there. Mexico has 31 states, half of which are now under level 3 or 4 warnings.

Those states where Americans are urged to reconsider travel include the State of Mexico  Mexico's most populous state, which includes most suburbs of Mexico City  and Jalisco, home to the city of Guadalajara, the Puerto Vallarta resorts and the lakeside expat community of Chapala and Ajijic. But the travel advisory said there are "no restrictions on U.S. government employees for stays in ... Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Chapala, and Ajijic."

RELATED: Acapulco, once popular Mexican town, deteriorates as warring cartels provoke killings and violence

Mexico's federal tourism department was not immediately available to comment on the new warnings.

Most of northern Mexico, including the border states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Sonora as well as Durango, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, are under level 3 warnings.

Some of the states have long been off limits for U.S. government employees. Last year, the State Department extended a total ban on personal travel by U.S. government personnel to Guerrero.

U.S. personnel had previously been allowed to fly to the resort of Ixtapa, the last place in Guerrero where they had been allowed to go. Personal travel by land and to the resort city of Acapulco had already been prohibited.

Tamaulipas has long been riven by turf wars between rival drug cartels, and Sinaloa is home to the cartel of the same name. Michoacan was so dominated by a drug cartel that vigilantes took up arms in 2013 to drive them out.

RELATED: Report: 8 cartel members arrested in Mexico after officials say they killed 16 people

Colima has seen homicides skyrocket in recent years due to the growth of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, and the state now has Mexico's highest homicide rate, with 83.3 killings per 100,000 residents, according to figures for the first 11 months of 2017.

The state with second-highest homicide rate  61.6 per 100,000  was Baja California Sur, home to the twin resorts of Los Cabos. The state conserved its level 2 advisory, "exercise increased caution," despite a series of shootouts and killings in recent months.

Rising levels of violence have not so far affected Los Cabos, which saw a 16 percent increase in tourism arrivals and an 18 percent rise in hotel occupancy in 2017, said Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board.

Esponda said local officials and tourism operators are investing in increased security, including camera systems and the construction of a new marine base.

"We are going to keep working very hard in 2018 to make sure that Los Cabos continues as a safe destination," Esponda said.

Speaking to local media earlier this week, Tourism Secretary Enrique De la Madrid said, "In my opinion, the most important challenge we have in the tourism sector are crime events occurring where they didn't before, for example in Cancun, la Paz and Los Cabos."
Matthew Busch, For The San Antonio Express-News / For The San Antonio Express-News

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A certain celebrity has been roaming the Alamo City unnoticed, it appears.

Carly Rae Jepsen, of "Call Me Maybe" fame, shared an image Monday of the Shops at Rivercenter mall downtown near the Alamo ahead of her performance at the AT&T Center, where she will open for Katy Perry Wednesday night.

RELATED: Katy Perry will make S.A. her 'Witness' with January 2018 tour stop

The photo featured her bassist, Adam T. Siska, who in turn shared an image of the Alamo on his own account on Monday.

Perry and Jepsen will head to Little Rock in Arkansas and Dallas after their San Antonio performance, according to Perry's website.

No photos of Perry have popped up on social media but an employee at Thai Lucky posted she had served Perry's band.

Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. | Read more of her stories here. | kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwas government has reportedly withdrawn former First Lady Grace Mugabes State security detail, as the former First Family continues to adjust to life after former President Robert Mugabe was forced to resign last November.

Grace, who was kicked out of the ruling Zanu PF in November, where she was womens league boss, used to have security agents specifically assigned to her, but these were withdrawn progressively until Monday.

Her close security team used to be headed by a police commissioner, Olga Bungu, who is now reported to be operating from the commissioners pool at the Police General Headquarters in Harare.

Sources confirmed yesterday that Graces security team had been reduced gradually since her husbands ouster, with most aides assigned to her being recalled and reassigned.

She no longer has a team that is dedicated to her, a source said on condition of anonymity.

Grace will largely depend on the team that is assigned to the former President.

She can no longer determine how the aides operate, but will be an indirect beneficiary of her husband.

Presidential spokesperson, George Charamba, declined to comment on the matter, referring NewsDay to the new Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) director-general, Isaac Moyo, and the Police Protection Unit in charge of Mugabes security.

The CIO and police would give you a correct position on the matter, he said.

But, logically, I believe it would be expensive for the government to provide security to Chatunga [Mugabes youngest child] now whenever he travels to America or decides to relocate there.

I think the idea is that security details and other benefits are accrued to the principal [Mugabe].

Other members now enjoy through the principal and not by virtue of their position or association.

Police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, said she was unware whether Bungu was still attached to the former First Lady. I dont know, I will need to find out, she said.

According to a recent Government Gazette, Mugabes security team has been slashed to a minimum of six officers and its size could be varied depending on circumstances.

The former President is entitled to a salary equivalent to that of the sitting President, will have two drivers, two private secretaries and two aide-de-camp officers or personal assistants and two office attendants, among other benefits.

University of Zimbabwe lecturer and constitutional lawyer, Lovemore Madhuku, said, at law, First Ladies do not have separate security, but benefit from the team that is assigned to their spouses, hence, the move should be viewed as downgrading and not withdrawal.

She (Grace) is part of the [former] Presidents team, so the same people attached to protect the [former] President are the same who should be available to her as well, he explained.

Even the current First Lady [Auxillia Mnangagwa], she benefits from the team that is responsible for the President because you cannot separate the two.

Meanwhile, Chimurenga Gandanga Gurus, a popular My Zimbabwe News reader who regularly comments on our Facebook page has ordered the former talkative First Lady not to worry much after losing State bodyguards as she could get her own security guards, popularly known as ana mahobho.

 NewsDay

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MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been told to make his succession plans known as it is key for a winning presidential campaign.

This statement was made by prominent lawyer and Mt Pleasant house of assembly aspirant Fadzayi Mahere after MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu refuted claims that Tsvangirai will soon resign from the partys presidency.

In his New years message published by various media in Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai hinted that he would hand over power to a youthful leader.

Chamisa was reportedly being groomed for the top post.

Maybe Tsvangirai should speak directly to the people and make his plans known explicitly, tweeted Mahere.

A clear message on who is running and a strong vision are vital for a winning Presidential campaign. As things stand, we have neither.

MDC-T has merged with various political parties under the banner MDC Alliance aimed at unseating the ruling party in the forthcoming elections.

However, these efforts might be offset by the current squabbles and succession challenges that haunted Zanu PF and led to the ouster of former President Robert Mugabe.

 Takudzwa Chiwara

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Emmerson Mnangagwas post-Mugabe regime is consolidating its power even as it takes steps to open the economy.

To that end, the new president has appointed as his vice president the former army chief, Constantino Chiwenga, the man who orchestrated the coup against Robert Mugabe that brought Mnangagwa to power.

Further, Mnangagwa has announced the arrest of two ministers who supported the efforts to make Mugabes wife Grace his successor.

Former foreign minister Walter Membi and former energy minister Samuel Undenge have been charged with criminal abuse of office.

Former finance minister Ignatius Chombo has already been arrested, but all three are free on bail. Finally, Mnangagwa has ruled out any possible coalition arrangement with perennial opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is fighting colon cancer. Mnangagwa has, however, offered official help with Tsvangirais medical bills.

Mnangagwas biggest break from Mugabe so far is in his concrete steps to revive Zimbabwes collapsed economy. To that end, he is seeking international investment and loans from international financial institutions.

To bolster international confidence, he has started to return seized farms to white owners and his spokesman is saying that land reform is over. The Mugabe ban on foreign ownership of Zimbabwean assets has also been lifted, with only a few exceptions.

Nevertheless, Mnangagwa and Chiwenga are both notorious for violating human rights while serving as Mugabes enforcers, most notably in the early 1980s in Matebeleland and in 2008 during elections.

Chiwengas elevation to vice president is a signal that little has likely changed in the character of Zimbabwes leadership.

In the short term, Mnangagwas strategy of economic liberalization while maintaining Mugabes illiberal political system (despite some new faces at the top) is likely to work.

It may encourage him to proceed with national elections in 2018, as international opinion is pressuring him to do so.

 US Council of Foreign Relations

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Malawi government has dismissed reports that it has granted political asylum to fugitive professor Jonathan Moyo.

A Malawian publication has claimed that the man is currently in Malawi.

But the Minister of Information and Communications Technology Nicholas Dausi has dismissed as fake reports that Moyo is in Malawi.

ZimEye earlier on also exposed that the Malawian publication is in fact based in the United Kingdom.

He is not here in Malawi [and] there has been no granting of political asylum, Dausi said.

Jonathan Moyo whose whereabouts are unknown surprised many when he appeared on British television programme HardTalk on early this morning, but refused to disclose his whereabouts fearing for his safety.

Speaking on BBCs Hardtalk programme, Moyo said he was not a fugitive because he left Zimbabwe legally and there was no warrant of arrest against him at the time.

I left Zimbabwe with the help of people who to me are angels because they saved lives, Moyo said. I escaped the net of the military people to be where I am legally.

I ran away from a death warrant  an unlawful attack on my house, Moyo said.

He said the only charges against him were political and that these wouldnt be of interest to Interpol, the global police agency.

Jonathan Moyo was regarded as the brains behind the G40 faction that orchestrated Mnangagwas expulsion from ZANU PF in attempt to block his presidential bid.

 ZimEye

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By Shepherd Bliss, Sonoma County, Northern California

Putting the words death and cafe together may seem unusual. In the United States, many of us ignore our own pending, inevitable mortality. Many Americans do not accept that they will surely die, much less talk openly about it with others, especially strangers. On the other hand going to ones favorite cafe is something that many enjoy. Being in a cafe setting talking about death may not seem inviting, yet it can be invigorating.

Death Cafes began in Europe. More than 5,400 monthly Death Cafes now exist in over 52 countries. Initiated in 2010 by John Underwood in London, they began in Sonoma County, California, soon after that, with various facilitators over time.

Adults of all ages are invited to sit around tables, share snacks and tea. They talk about their experiences, hopes, and fears at Death Cafes around the world. The basic idea is to create a comfortable, informal, and respectful environment, where people can talk openly and candidly.

Tess Lorraine has been facilitating them monthly since 2014 in Santa Rosa and began offering them in Sebastopol this January on the third Friday of each month, 3:30 to 5 p.m., at the Sebastopol Area Senior Center. They are open to all adults. The Santa Rosa gatherings happen at the Fountaingrove Lodge on Saturday afternoons.

Increasingly, as we age, conversations happen regarding degenerative and life-threatening diagnoses, said Lorraine. The cost of denial is that we lose the opportunities for the wisdom, growth, and healing that can occur when we share authentically. Our death is our final frontier and our lasting legacy.

In a Sonoma Death Cafe monthly newsletter Lorraine published the following Ancient Celtic Wisdom poem:

Be a full bucket, drawn up the dark way of the well. Something lifts you up into the light and shows you your wings. A full cup is set before you. You taste only sacredness.

According to the deathcafe.com website, At a Death Cafe people gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death. Our objective is to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) livesThere is no intention of leading people to any conclusion, product or course of action.

A Death Cafe is a group-directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counseling session, the website continues.

Death Cafes are not a place to proselytize, seeking to convert others to ones beliefs about death and dying. It is a place to tell and honor ones stories, as well as to hear different perspectives.

Death Cafes offer a structure and format that encourage conversation. Laughter is not unusual, especially as people get to know each other and feel comfortable enough to share in a safe, facilitated environment. Death Cafes are one indication of growing death awareness here and elsewhere in the U.S.

For everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted, according to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh had a beautiful way of putting it when a little girl asked him if hed decided what hed be in his next life. He said maybe a little dust, and some soil and a bit of the sky, a cloud, a flower, and perhaps other stuff. Then he said oops, he had to be careful or he might step on the flower, if he wasnt being mindful and laughed, according to Deborah Thayer.

Many indigenous cultures are more death aware than the dominant American cultures. For example, this reporter lived in Mexico and appreciates that countrys annual Day of the Dead celebration, where families go to graveyards at night to honor their ancestors. It is still my favorite holiday. I have attended them here in Sonoma County.

A deep connection exists between love and death. As the poem For Those Who Have Died by Chaim Stern starts Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch.

For more information and to get on the monthly email list for Sonoma County Death Cafe meetings: tesslorraine@mac.com.
A sense of profound grief has enveloped a Clonmel family after losing a fourth member to cystic fibrosis following the death of forty four year old Kieran Hickey from Kilmacomma in a Dublin Hospital.

Devastated parents Michael and Bridie , who have endured the passing of cystic fibrosis sufferers Kay, Brian and Laois, are mourning the loss of their brother Kieran who passed away in St.Vincents Hospital in Dublin.

Michael, has been recognised by Cystic Fibrosis Ireland for his lifetime of dedication to cystic fibrosis sufferers all over Ireland and his incredible fundraising achievements.Kieran is also survived by his brother Micheal, sister in law Marie, nephews Brian and Ciaran,niece Ailish,aunts,uncles, cousins and friends.

Kierans funeral will arrive at St. Marys Church, Irishtown, Clonmel at 7.30pm on Thursday evening (11th January 2018). Funeral Mass on Friday at 12 noon followed by burial in Touraneena Cemetery. Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to Cystic Fibrosis Unit, St. Christophers Ward, St. Vincents Hospital, Dublin.

The first member of the Hickey family to pass away from CF was one year old Laois who died in 1969, fifteen year old Kay

died in 1982 and Brian died in 1996

aged 25.

Their parents Michael and Bridie have worked tirelessly for families of cystic fibrosis sufferers and was been given a special recognition award by Cystic Fibrosis Ireland.

Even while coping with difficulty in his own family, Michael has been a support to other families, serving as the chairman of the Tipperary Branch of Cystic Fibrosis Ireland since 1984. In all Michael and his wife Bridie have been involved with the Tipperary branch of CFI for 47 years.

At a Cystic Fibrosis Irelands Better Together conference in Galway, some years ago Michael was honoured with the special recognition award as his friends and colleagues marked his retirement as the local branch chairman, a role he held for 27 years.

Michael was also honoured by the local regional group TLC4CF, who are fundraising for a specialised CF unit at Limerick Regional Hospital, in thanks for all his support for the project.

The awards were a special thank you to a man who has dedicated most of his life to helping and supporting others in his community and were presented by CFI ambassador and GAA pundit Joe Brolly.

Paying tribute to the family Philip Watt,Cystic Fibrosis Chief Executive Officer said Michael and Bridie were held in such high esteem in the cystic fibrosis community in Ireland.

"Nobody should be visited by this in their lifetime.To lose four children, we just cannot imagine the scale of the loss .Our love and condolences go out to all the family.Despite all of the challenges they faced in their own family they also devoted themselves to helping so many others," said Philip Watt CEO.

He described Kierans parents Michael and Bridie as "truly wonderful people" and paid tribute to the very significant role they played in raising funds for the new CF unit in Limerick Hospital which was spearheaded by the Tipperary,Clare and Limerick CF branches.

In 2013 Cystic Fibrosis Ireland brought out a book "For The Roses" to tell the stories of families around the country who are dealing with cystic fibrosis.

The following is an excerpt from the book on Michael Hickey and his family.

Michael Hickey (above) is a youthful 75 years of age and is a long-time volunteer

and Chairperson of the Tipperary branch of the CFAI. Michael and

Bridie Hickey live in Clonmel. They have had five children, of whom



four were born with CF. They lost three of their children to CF. Kay

died in 1982 aged 15, Laois died in 1969 aged 1 and Brian died in 1996

aged 25. Their son Kieran, who also has CF, will be 40 years old in July.

Michael is their only child without CF.

Michael shares with us his memories of Kay,

Kay was a lovely bright child and attended the local Presentation College

in Clonmel. I cant speak highly enough of the nuns who were her teachers,

they really looked after and encouraged her. Even though Kay was ill, she

was determined to sit her mock exams for the Junior Cert. The school was

very helpful and arranged for her to sit her exams in Ardkeen Hospital in

Waterford, but before she could take her exams, she suddenly took a turn for

the worse and she died surrounded by her books.

Michael remembers his son Brian,

Brian was 25 when he died in 1996. He was big into cars and was the

proud owner of the registration 92TS1. He was being treated in St Vincents

Hospital under the excellent care of Dr. Muiris FitzGerald. Brian knew he

was dying and asked to be taken home to Tipperary. Dr. FitzGerald only

agreed after some persuasion as he knew that there was nothing left that could

be done for Brian but he did not think he could survive the journey home.

Just as we arrived back to our house, Brian tore the oxygen mask off his face

and threw it over his shoulder and asked for Bridie to come out to him in

the car. He told us mam and dad I love you. I carried him into the sitting

room where he died peacefully in a chair. I think it made a huge difference to

him to be allowed die at home. Brian was very close to his sister Kay. When

Kay died, Brian was only 12 at the time but he said when it was his time to

die, he wanted to be buried on the outside of the family plot with Kay in the

middle for protection. Father OBrien, our Parish Priest was very moved and

he made sure Brian got his final wish.

Despite the grief of losing three children to CF Michael says,

We are blessed to be parents of five loving, caring and compassionate

children. There are many in the world who are worse off than us. We still

have two wonderful sons, Kieran and Michael, and we have three lovely

grandchildren.
South Tipperary General Hospital launched a new quality initiative Hello my name is.... this week to improve patient care.

Nurses, doctors, allied health professionals and other HSE staff  particularly frontline staff - are being asked to tell their patients their name, as part of the #hellomynameis campaign for more compassionate care.

#hellomynameis was started by Dr Kate Granger in the UK after she became frustrated with the number of staff who failed to introduce themselves to her when she was an inpatient with post-operative sepsis.

Kate had terminal cancer and started a campaign on Twitter and on her own website asking staff to make a pledge to introduce themselves in future to their patients. Kate believed it is not just about common courtesy, but it runs much deeper. Introductions are about making a human connection between one human being who is suffering and vulnerable, and another human being who wishes to help. They begin therapeutic relationships and can instantly build trust in difficult circumstances, making every patient contact count.

Kate sadly passed away on 23rd July 2016. Her legacy lives on through #hellomynameis which continues to go from strength to strength improving patients experience of healthcare

All STGH staff are being provided with name badges, #Hello my name is and have pledged to always introduce oneself to patients and visitors,treat people as you would a friend or family member,always see the person not just the condition and treat people with respect and dignity.

Simple things like introducing oneself can put patients at ease and positively influence the patient experience.All healthcare staff in South Tipperary General Hospital will commit to putting patient engagement and compassion at the heart of our healthcare services in Tipperary, said General Manager Maria Barry.
(Natural News) Censorship, discrimination and mandatory anti-bias training sessions that cross the line into political indoctrination are now common stories for conservatives on college campuses. But they are increasingly the norm at another haven of young progressives: Silicon Valley.

(Articles by Peter Hasson republished from DailyCaller.com)

A class action lawsuit filed on behalf of former Google engineer James Damore and other right-of-center Google employees describes a culture of censorship and discrimination: managers openly discuss blacklists meant to encourage and coordinate the sabotage of promotions, performance reviews, and employment opportunities for those with conservative viewpoints, Google employees are pressured to undergo one-sided Bias Busting re-education sessions focusing on white male privilege, and employees risk their careers by speaking out against progressive orthodoxy, the lawsuit states. The suit claims that Google illegally discriminates against white male employees as part of the companys diversity efforts.

Internal messages included in the lawsuit reveal employees openly conspiring against Damore after he shared a memo criticizing the companys diversity polices and calling for more tolerance of conservative viewpoints. You know, there are just certain alternative views, including different political views which I do not want people to feel safe to share here, one high-ranking Google employee wrote on a company message chain. Added another employee: If Google management cares enough about diversity and inclusion, they should, and I urge them to, send a clear message by not only terminating Mr. Damore, but also severely disciplining or terminating those who have expressed support. Damore was fired shortly afterward.

Thats just whats going on internally at Google.
(Natural News) The accumulation of heavy metals such as cadmium in food is a major issue in scientific communities and international food organizations, due to the high toxicological risks to consumers, and because there is no detailed record of such contaminants actual content.

This is why researchers at Universidad Pedagogica y Tecnologica de Colombia felt the need to conduct a study, so as to be able to find out the concentration of cadmium in products such as table chocolate, which is produced and consumed greatly at the regional and national levels in Colombia. (Related: Original cacao is ancient treasure of chocolate from the Ecuadorian rainforest (updated).)

In the study, cadmium content in powdered and granulated table chocolate was identified in the municipality of Chiquinquira, Boyaca-Colombia, via the different pulse voltammetric method of anodic redisolution. Cadmium quantification in samples of granulated and powdered chocolate showed values of concentration between 214 and 260 parts per billion (ppb), with the highest concentrations of powdered chocolate.

Table chocolate is produced using cacao beans, which is third in the world market of raw materials after sugar and coffee. Cacao is endemic to Asia, South America, and western and central Africa. Colombia is the eighth largest cacao producer in South America, with more than 54,000 tons produced annually since 2014. While Colombia presently accounts for only one percent of global cacao production, experts forecast that it might be contributing more in the years to come.

Cacao production is chiefly for domestic consumption, with the countrys two largest processing firms  Medellin-based Grupo Nutresa (formerly called the National Chocolate Company) and Manizales-based CasaLuker  getting between 80 and 90 percent of output.

Domestic consumption of cacao is 0.8 kilogram (kg) per capita, with Federacion Nacional de Cacaoteros (Fedecacao) executive president Eduard Baquero Lopez saying domestic consumption can be increased to 1 kg per capita.

Colombia started exporting excess production in 2011; in 2013, exports of cacao reached 7,600 tons. The same year, 250 tons of cacao were exported via Fedecacao directly, primarily to Europe; by 2014, the organization recorded almost 300 tons of export. We are confident we can reach 1,000 tons in 2014, Baquero said.

Most of our commercialization efforts are directed at Holland, Belgium, and the U.K. For the extent of their consumption and the size of their processing industries, but Switzerland, Germany, Russia, the U.S., and Canada have all shown interest in our cacao, he added.

According to the New York Mercantile Exchange, cacao has reached $3,071 per ton in May 2014. Prices are forecast to rise due to expectations of demand surpassing supply, with the International Cocoa Organization predicting that demands will skyrocket to one million tons by 2020 as requirements in Asian markets, especially China, soars.

The Colombian government is targeting to provide an additional 700-meter hectares of land for cacao cultivation, while at the same time giving producers incentives and financing instruments to work on government plots.

How cadmium has become bioaccumulative in food products such as table chocolate

Natural processes such as volcanic activity or rock erosion, plus excessive waste deposition in different ecosystems, have led to a heightened presence of of compounds and xenobiotic elements with bioaccumulative and toxic materials, among which are heavy metals like cadmium, which pass directly or indirectly to different foods, of which fruits, vegetables, and meats and their by-products are the most vulnerable.

Cadmium is a danger to health as it negatively impacts the pulmonary tract, causes tubular damage to the kidneys and bones, and increases the risk of cancer.

The study found that even though the cadmium values obtained from locally-grown cacao were below the maximum tolerable weekly limit intake set by the World Health Organization, they are still high compared with other studies from other countries, due to contamination from planting, harvesting, and fruit transporting during product manufacture. As such, greater care should be exercised when importing various food products from different countries.

For more news stories on chocolate and cacao, visit Cacao.news.

Sources include:

Scielo.org [PDF]

OxfordBusinessGroup.com
(Natural News) Using DNA samples from a 500-year old mummified remains of a child, researchers were able to crack the genetic code of an ancient strain of the hepatitis B virus (HBV).

The finding, wherein scientists were able to sequence the complete genome of the virus, could help medical experts understand the intricacies of HBV, which is a pervasive, complex, and deadly pathogen that today kills nearly one million people every year. Although its evolutionary history and origin remain a mystery, the data they shared establishes the fact that HBV has plagued humans for hundreds of years.

The 16th-century remains, which was buried in the Basilica of Saint Domenico Maggiore in Italy, was at first analyzed to be an infection of the Variola virus (commonly known as smallpox)  with experts even thinking that this was the oldest evidence for the presence of smallpox in Medieval remains that had a critical time stamp as proof of its origins. However, earlier studies did not include DNA testing as part of the procedure.

Now, with advanced sequencing techniques, researchers now posited that the mummified child was indeed infected by HBV. Children infected with HBV may develop the Gianotti-Crosti syndrome, which includes a facial rash similar to those found in the mummy, which could have been misidentified as smallpox. This just goes to show how complex the process of identifying infectious diseases in the past was.

Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary geneticist with the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, said: These data emphasize the importance of molecular approaches to help identify the presence of key pathogens in the past, enabling us to better constrain the time they may have infected humans.

The researchers extracted small tissue samples of skin and bone from the mummified child, which then yielded tiny fragments of DNA. The group then pieced together these fragments of genetic information to form a more complete picture.

While their findings have identified the connection between both the ancient and modern strains of HBV, they are both missing temporal structure. This means that there is no measurable rate of evolution throughout the 450-year period which separates the mummy sample from modern samples.

Since viruses evolve very quickly, evolution may only take a couple of days. In this case, scientists believe this particular ancient strain of HBV hasnt changed much despite its age and that its evolution is complex. (Related: Hepatitis B Vaccines in Infants: Helpful or Harmful?)

According to some estimates, 350 million people are currently diagnosed with chronic HBV infections, and one-third of the global population has been infected with the virus at least once in their lives. With these numbers, researchers believe that it is important to prioritize studies on ancient viruses.

Hendrick Poinar, a principal investigator with the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, concluded that further study on the behavior of earlier pandemics and outbreaks could help us understand how modern pathogens could work and spread. Using this information, we could effectively control diseases such as HBV.

Natural remedies for hepatitis

Hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, has various symptoms that can be eased using these natural remedies:

Ayurvedic medicine suggests beets , which can promote the regeneration of liver cells.

, which can promote the regeneration of liver cells. Burdock and dandelion can cleanse the liver and the bloodstream.

can cleanse the liver and the bloodstream. Licorice root can help treat viral hepatitis, especially chronic active hepatitis, because of its antiviral properties. Avoid this herb if you have high blood pressure.

can help treat viral hepatitis, especially chronic active hepatitis, because of its antiviral properties. Avoid this herb if you have high blood pressure. Milk thistle extract contains silymarin, a flavonoid that can help the liver heal and rebuild.

extract contains silymarin, a flavonoid that can help the liver heal and rebuild. Olive leaf extract is a potent antifungal agent.

is a potent antifungal agent. Schizandra, a Chinese herb, can help protect the liver.

You can read more articles about hepatitis and disease prevention at Prevention.news.

Sources include:

NewsWise.com

HomemadeMedicine.com
(Natural News) Experts have released guidelines on how to protect yourself from carbon monoxide poisoning following the tragic death of a 13-year old girl in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

Major winter storms heighten the risk of poisoning  with people turning up the heat to cope with the weather. However, the same heating devices also produce fumes that contain carbon monoxide. If the room or area is not properly ventilated, this odorless, tasteless, and colorless gas builds up, which can ultimately lead to serious consequences.

In an article that appeared in Newswise, Dr. Diane Calello, executive of the New Jersey Poison Control Center, explained that severe weather often results in illness and deaths from hypothermia and carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, as well as exposures to a variety of substances.

If theres a silver lining to this, its that people can do something to prevent exposure to the gas. Rest assured that the states poison control center will be here to respond to your calls for help, 24/7, Dr. Calello reassured.

How to minimize the risk of CO exposure or poisoning

Always run generators outside, and keep a safe distance when using them. Experts recommend maintaining a distance of more than 20 feet (6.1 meters) from you and your neighbors home, including open doors and windows. This will ensure that CO gas cannot be blown back into the building.

Keep all heating and dryer vents free from snow.

Ensure gas appliances are well-ventilated. You can open up a window to allow airflow.

Open flues when youre using the fireplace.

Do not use the stove to heat your home. Aside from carbon monoxide poisoning, an open flame in the house can be a fire hazard.

Never bring nor run generators, pressure washers, grills, camp stoves, or other gasoline, propane, natural gas or charcoal-burning devices inside your house. This includes the basement, garage, and carport, as well as campers, boat cabins, or tents. Dont even bring them near an open window or door.

Do not use a charcoal grill, hibachi, or camping stove inside the house, or tents and campers.

Do not idle a car in a closed garage. This also applies to confined spaces where there is a possibility of carbon monoxide buildup. Once you pull in, turn off your engines immediately. Also, dont run your engine if youre less than 20 feet from an open window, door, or an exhaust leading to an enclosed area.

If your car is in a snowbank or stuck in the snow, dont put it on idle. Clear out the snow first, then check if your tailpipe and its surrounding area are clear. This prevents exhaust fumes from being blown back to the car.

Install carbon monoxide detectors in your house, if you dont have them yet. If you already have them, check if they still work properly or need immediate replacement.

The most common symptoms of CO poisoning include headaches, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. However, people who are asleep or are inebriated are at greater risk  they can die from CO poisoning without ever having symptoms.

If you think youre suffering from CO poisoning, taking immediate action can be the key to your (and your familys) survival.

If a person is unconscious or does not respond, get him out of the house immediately and call 911.

Get out of the house or building immediately. This reduces the risk of inhaling more fumes.

Contact the authorities and seek immediate treatment.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted at least 5,000 deaths in the past decade, with an average of 430 deaths per year. In the latest string of carbon monoxide-related deaths, a teenager died on January 4, 2018, after an apparent case of poisoning in New Jersey. Aside from the teenager, 35 other victims in the multi-family home were rushed to the hospital following the incident. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the poisoning. (Related: Chemical leak at New Hampshire hospital nearly causes 20 patients and staff to lose consciousness  this is a place of HEALING?)

Sources include:

Newswise.com

CDC.gov 1

CDC.gov 2

ABC7NY.com
Griffith Foods is very pleased to announce that Doug Pritchard has joined the team as vice president/general manager, Canada. Doug has more than 20 years of food industry experience in Canada and the US. Most recently, Doug held the position of North American president for Soda Steam International, Ltd. Prior to this, he was vice president of beverages for Kraft Canada, and held various marketing positions with General Mills in Canada and the US. He has experience developing, manufacturing, and marketing new brands and innovation with both grocery and QSR customers.

Doug has succeeded Jim Thorne as GM at Griffith Foods in Canada. Jim has been promoted to vice president, global marketing & strategy for Griffith Foods International, Inc., relocating to Griffiths head office in Alsip, Illinois.

Doug is excited to join the team at Griffith Foods Canada. Doug will oversee the activation of Griffith Foods new Purpose Driven Strategy to blend care and creativity to nourish the world. By Creating Better Together with our customers and industry partners, Griffith Foods is committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet.
NBC Bay Area has learned that San Francisco is investigating complaints of a drunken party at a city fire station that may have left the stations only on-duty paramedic incapacitated.

The probe, which is being conducted by San Franciscos emergency services agency, focuses on a gathering in September at Station 11 in Noe Valley. The complaint was that the celebration of a firefighters transfer got out of hand.

At least five firefighters and command staff have been notified that they are under investigation, sources told NBC Bay Area.

One thing investigators want to know is whether the station misrepresented its ability to handle life-saving calls when its on-duty paramedic was incapable of fulfilling his advanced life-support function, sources said.

That could violate the service agreement between the Fire Department and the Department of Health, according to city Supervisor Aaron Peskin.

Peskin called the allegations very disturbing.

The emergency services agency of the Public Health Department declined to comment.

Lt. Jonathan Baxter, a Fire Department spokesman, also would not discuss specifics of any personnel matter. But he confirmed there is an ongoing probe into very serious allegations when specifically asked about the Station 11 case.

The Station 11 case is not the first time the department has faced accusations of drunken firefighters.

Back in 2013, Michael Quinn was allegedly under the influence when he drove the rig that struck a motorcyclist. Quinn resigned after the incident but still faces criminal charges. The victim, Jack Frazier, was seriously injured and ended up getting nearly $5 million in a legal settlement with the city.

As for the latest incident, sources told NBC Bay area that the firefighters and commanders who recently received letters alleging misconduct will be interviewed in coming weeks.
An Aeromexico plane nearly landed on the wrong runway at San Francisco International Airport, and the Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating the incident, officials confirmed Wednesday.

The incident was reported Tuesday when Aeromexico Flight 688 from Mexico City was given clearance to land on Runway 28R at SFO.

"Aeromexico Flight 668 was cleared to land on Runway 28R, and correctly read back that clearance. When the plane was about a mile from the airport, air traffic controllers noticed the aircraft was lined up for Runway 28L and instructed the crew to execute a missed approach. A Virgin America jet was on Runway 28L at the time," FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said.

Aviation consultant Mike McCarron viewed the flight's track approaching SFO, saying air traffic controllers noticed the jet was headed for runway 28L, where the Virgin America airliner was set to take off for Kona, Hawaii.

McCarron said the jet was about 500 feet off the ground and a mile away from the other aircraft when it was diverted.

"Youre looking at about 20 seconds, 15 to 20 seconds, to cover a mile," McCarron said. "So it was close, but there was more than enough time."

An Aeromexico plane nearly landed on the wrong runway at San Francisco International Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating the incident, officials confirmed Wednesday. Terry McSweeney reports.

Passengers on Flight 668 shared their thoughts on the close call.

"We almost landed then we had to go back up and go back around because the planes were too close," said Melanie MacDonald of San Francisco.

McCarron said passengers can take comfort in the fact that the system worked.

"All the backup systems kicked into place," he said. "The controllers watched, they saw he wasnt lined up properly, they give the command to go around, he went around it and landed safely."

The FAA is investigating the incident.

Tuesday's close call follows a pair of SFO incidents involving Air Canada flights that made headlines last year.

In October, a pilot for Air Canada Flight 781, an Airbus 320, failed to respond to air traffic control's warning not to land on the runway because it was not clear whether another jet was still on that runway.

In July, the FAA said an Air Canada pilot almost landed on the taxiway instead of the runway at SFO. In response to the close call, the FAA issued new rules for nighttime landings and control-tower staffing at SFO.

NBC Bay Area's Terry McSweeney contributed to this report.
Body parts found inside a Hayward warehouse in June 2017 have been confirmed to be those of missing San Francisco Uber driver Piseth Chhay, according to the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office.

The San Francisco Police Department Homicide Detail Unit is conducting a homicide investigation for Chhay's death, and investigators have identified Bob Tang as a suspect. Tang is believed to have fled to the country to Cambodia.

SFPD is working with its law enforcement partners to locate and arrest Tang.

Tang was a longtime employee at the Hayward warehouse where the body parts were discovered June 25, and police had searched the warehouse previously without finding anything, the San Francisco Police Department said.

The body parts found at U.S. Trading Co., a food distributor, were tested by the San Francisco Medical Examiner against DNA samples provided by the family of Chhay, an Uber driver who went missing May 14. Chhay left his San Francisco home that day to meet Tang, a family friend, and never returned, Chhay's wife, Rattana Kim, said.

Tang worked at U.S. Trading for several years, the company said. NBC Bay Area also learned that the company is owned by relatives of Tang.

The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Cambodia, so it's not clear yet whether Tang could be forced to return to the Bay Area to face any possible charges if he is found.

Immigration attorney Joseph LaCome says someone who kills here and escapes to there may never face justice.

"Even with something as bad as murder, the U.S. can't force the Cambodian government to bring him back," LaCome said.

Anyone with information regarding the case or information of Tangs whereabouts is asked to contact the San Francisco Police Department at (415) 575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous.
Gary Calvin gripped his bass guitar and dug into a low-end funky groove, eyes clenched as his fingers plucked a flurry of notes that reverberated off the room full of empty metal tables  drawing the sleepy gaze of an armed guard.

Maybe this particular music wasnt historic, but the place of its conception certainly was. This was Dining Room Two at Folsom State Prison  the exact spot where the Man in Black on Jan. 13, 1968 introduced himself with the words, Hello, Im Johnny Cash, and kicked off the most famous prison concert in history.

Hes kind of a monument, Calvin, a Folsom inmate said. It doesnt matter race, gender, whatever  everybody knows Johnny Cash.

In advance of the 50th anniversary of Cashs famous concert, which became a live album, prison officials invited a gaggle of reporters to tour the famous prison of Cashs song. In reality, the prison yard was too far away to hear an actual "train a coming," but it still felt as if you might hear one rumbling by.

There were no plaques marking the dining room location where Cash played  but the space seemed to give off a musical aura  as if he might strap on his Gibson flattop at any second and break into his famous "Folsom Prison Blues."

The cruel irony was that hundreds of inmates whove served time in Folsom knew the lyrics of that song before theyd actually experienced the intimate longing it refers to.

I heard it, and I never thought Id end up here, said inmate Andrew Clayton, who plays guitar in the prisons band. It happens.

Cash showed up for the concert with his soon-to-be wife June Carter and his band the Tennessee Two along with Carl Perkins. Cash played two concerts that day, cherry-picking the best songs of both for his "At Folsom Prison" album. In the end, all but two songs came from the first concert.

His first choice venue to perform the concert was actually Marin Countys San Quentin State Prison, home to Californias death row. But calls from his manager to the prison went famously unreturned. So Cash instructed his manager to reach out to Folsom, which jumped at the chance.

The album went on to make the prison so popular that it later opened a museum, which sits just beyond the main gate where Cash posed for an iconic photo. Inside the museum, cases display old handcuffs and uniforms  although the majority of visitors from around the world come to see the tiny room of vintage pictures from the iconic visit or to buy a Cash T-shirt.

People come in, thats usually the first thing they ask is 'Where was Johnny Cash?' said Jim Brown, a former Folsom prison guard who now oversees the museum. A lot of them think he did time here and I kind of have to break their bubble and say No, he was here for concerts.

[BAY GD/RM JR] Folsom State Prison Marks 50th Anniversary of Famous Johnny Cash Concert

Theres no one still at the prison who actually witnessed Cashs concert, but its as if the show and its lore are now permanently wired into the facility  an electricity coursing through the generations of inmates whove since come and gone.

Prison officials took visiting reporters into an automotive training building where inmates were learning to work on cars. Inmates consulted manuals to rebuild engines or to learn how to change the rubber on a tire.

Even here among inmates of diverse backgrounds, Cash was a language everyone seemed to speak.

I know hes never done time here, said inmate Patrick Conrad. Hes iconic here.

In another building where inmates learned the ins and outs of commercial home wiring, inmate Curtis Weary marveled at the thought a performer as famous as Cash would want to visit a prison and perform.

So when you have entertainers that take the time out of they day and they life, that means a lot to me, Weary said. Knowing that Johnny Cash did that back in his days, that was a real good thing that he did.

The dining room where Cash played looks pretty much like it did in 1968 when he performed for about 1,000 prisoners on a stage thats long gone. A nearby room where hangings were once carried out served as Cashs green room.

Barbed wire rings the dining room and an old mural-like painting was a relative of another mural that was visible in pictures from the concert but has been since taken down.

Calvin, the bass player, was among a group of the prisons inmate musicians tapped to play in the dining room for visitors  though these days the group is more likely to play funk or jazz fusion than a country song. But Calvin counts Cash as an idol  if nothing else for the redemptive lessons of Cashs own life, which landed the entertainer in jail several times.

For me, hes the example, you can go through this, Calvin said. You can go through this and you can come out and be successful and make a positive difference.

Calvin and his bandmates laid into a dark funky dirge  a sound that bounced off the stone walls where a sign read No warning shots fired. Cash had stood in this same spot, playing to a roomful of men who found temporarily solace in a rare afternoon of music.

The prison planned to mark the anniversary with a concert by a Johnny Cash impersonator. But for many in Folsom, it was almost as if the real Johnny Cash was still headlining too.
The group fighting to oust the judge who came under fire for his handling of a sexual assault case involving former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner turned in its recall petition on Thursday.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky drew criticism nationwide after he sentenced Turner to six months in jail for sexually assaulting a woman who had passed out behind a trash bin near a fraternity house. Critics blasted the sentence as being too lenient.

After spending months gathering signatures at Stanford University, farmers markets, San Jose's Christmas in the Park, and other community events, volunteers filed in to the Santa Clara County Registar of Voters office on Thursday with 11 boxes containing 95,000 signatures in support of recalling Persky.



Officials now have 30 days to verify those signatures. If 58,634 signatures are verified, Santa Clara County voters will take up the issue during the June election.

Michelle Dauber, who chairs the comittee that is leading this effort, said the volume of signatures collected speaks to the outrage over what she says is Persky's troubling pattern of decisions in cases regarding women.

"The voters of Santa Clara County are saying loud and clear: Hold accountable ... athletes and privileged offenders who commit offenses against women," she said.

Jennie Richardson, co-director of the Recall Persky Campaign, echoed the same sentiment.

"As weve seen recently, with the #MeToo campaign and 'Time's Up,' theres been a cultural shift where people are starting to hear victims," she said, "and believe them."

A group called Voices against Recall, however, supports Persky, saying that such a move over an unpopular, but legal decision is inappropriate and sets a dangerous precedent.

In a statement submitted to the registrar without specifically referencing the Turner case, Persky indicated that he did follow sentencing guidelines.

"As a prosecutor, I fought vigorously for victims," the statement read. "As a judge, my role is to consider both sides. California law requires every judge to consider rehabilitation and probation for first-time offenders. Its not always popular, but its the law, and I took an oath to follow it without regard to public opinion or my opinions as a former prosecutor."

If voters oust Persky, he will only be the third judge in California to be recalled since it became an option in the early 1900s.

In December, Turner filed an appeal. In the 172-page appeal filed in Mill Valley, Turner's legal team said the initial trial was "a detailed and lengthy set of lies" and asked for a new trial. Turner's team is also looking to overturn the convictions against him, which mandate he register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

NBC Bay Area's Robert Handa and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
San Jose police announced a new online portal system Wednesday that will allow the public to search and examine use of force data.

According to San Jose police Chief Eddie Garcia, San Jose is the largest city in the nation that uses this system and one of just two that will provide the information to the public.

The system, in partnership with Police Strategies, LLC, allows residents to search through multiple dashboards with 150 different filters, according to police Lt. Gina Tibaldi.

SJPD sent its police reports from 2015 to 2017 to Police Strategies, LLC before launching the website. The department continues to submit reports, but there is a little bit of a lag, meaning cases from October 2017 to December 2017 will probably show up in February, Tibaldi said.

The portal was designed to be user friendly for those who don't consider themselves tech savvy, so it is possible to search for many different cases by division, district, beat and more. Tibaldi displayed the features at a news conference Wednesday.

Tibaldi said users could tailor the tool for themselves by looking up the area they live in and what kind of crime is happening there.

"It can help people separate fact from fiction," she said.

San Jose police are pleased with the data that came out of submitting their reports, with one of the highlights being that racial disparity is "virtually nonexistent" in San Jose when considering frequency and level of force, according to Garcia.

Garcia also confirmed that complaints about use of force went down in 2017 in comparison to 2016, which is a relief to the whole department.

"We are not a department in crisis, nor do we have systemic cultural issues surrounding our use of force," Garcia said.

The chief talked about how the new system will promote transparency in how crime is handled in the community and will continue the conversation about it. He said residents deserved better than one annual report each year, and now they have it.

Though the department is practicing some of the best practices in the nation for use of force at this time, it doesn't mean the force will settle there, Garcia said. He wants to continue to keep the numbers down.

"This organization just wants to maintain the lead to a game that will never end," said Garcia.

Wednesday's announcement comes on the heels of an officer-involved shooting, in which a man allegedly armed with an ax and pipe was fatally shot by officers Tuesday evening at the Metcalf Energy Center in South San Jose.

The man refused officers' commands to stand down and also charged at the officers, according to police.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner emerged from the Illinois Veterans' Home in Quincy Wednesday after a weeklong stay. His visit was spurred by the controversy an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at that facility, taking center stage just weeks before the March primary election.

Rauner, feeling the heat from lawmakers and the public about the state's response to the deaths of 13 residents of the Quincy facility since 2015, moved into the home last week. He lived in one of the rooms like the veterans - drinking the water, showering, eating the food and more.

While critics called it a publicity stunt, Rauner emerged from the home committed to making major changes.

The state plans on "building a major new home, brand new building here that has the latest technology," Rauner said at a news conference Wednesday.

Facing a tough reelection battle, Rauner is mired in the controversy less than 10 weeks ahead of the primary election in which he faces a challenge from the right.

How the state handled the disease outbreak in Quincy is the subject of a House and Senate investigation, and has become an issue that Democrats running for governor are pouncing on as well.

"When we're causing death because of government inaction, that's real," Democratic candidate Chris Kennedy said at a news conference Wednesday, as his back-and-forth with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel continued.

"But that occurs at different levels of government," he added. "When you have a record number of shootings. when the city of Chicago has more killings than LA and New York combined, it's just another sign of government failure."

Kennedy unveiled his economic plan Wednesday, days after blaming Emanuel for driving African-Americans out of the city. The mayor pushed back, but a week later, Kennedy said he stands by his criticism.

"If you're not willing to stand up to another politician, you'll never stand up for the people of our state," Kennedy said.

Emanuel's spokesman said it was Kennedy who asked for an endorsement months ago - a claim the candidate vehemently denied.
Former first lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to visit Indianapolis for an event hosted by the Women's Fund of Central Indiana.

"A Moderated Conversation with Former First Lady Michelle Obama" is planned for Feb. 13 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The Women's Fund distributed 500 free tickets to women and girls who otherwise would not have been able to attend. The event is to be moderated by Alecia DeCoudreaux, a founding board member of Women's Fund and a former president of Mills College.

The Women's Fund is a special interest fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation. The fund seeks to create options and opportunities for women and girls in central Indiana.
The largest teachers union, the Illinois Education Association, is endorsing Democrat J.B. Pritzker for governor. The 135,000 members of the IEA represent the state's largest education employee's organization.

IEA President Kathi Griffin noted: "It was Pritzker's strong commitment to funding K-12 education, his promise to invest in higher education, his pledge to protect collective bargaining rights," as well as his support for a progressive income tax that lead to the endorsement.

Pritzker said he is pleased to have received this endorsement.



"Every child in Illinois deserves a quality education, no matter their zip code," he said.

All candidates, Democrats and Republicans, were invited to complete a questionnaire as well as in-person interviews. Republican candidates State Rep. Jeanne Ives and incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner did not participate in the IEA endorsement process.
More than 1,600 Puerto Rican families displaced after Hurricane Maria are living in Connecticut.

There is now a new push for state lawmakers to help them.

Archie Santiago Rivera has been living in a hotel in Connecticut. He left Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, but now its not clear how long he can stay.

"FEMA said, 'Come to the U.S.- in this case, come to Connecticut. Well pay for your hotel in Connecticut, and well work on your case'," Hartford City Council member, Wildaliz Bermudez, said. "Some of those cases are closed. So if their case is closed, as of January 14, these people will be displaced. Theyre going to be homeless."

State Rep. Angel Arce is calling on the federal government for help.

"Puerto Rico is an American territory and we deserve the same treatment as Texas, Florida, and any other state," Arce said.

House Majority Leader Matt Ritter said its time to start streamlining services.

"Getting representatives from the department of social services, the DMV, the department of housing," Ritter said. "They get a lot of questions on a daily basis. Its good to put everybody in a room on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to make sure everybody is following the same procedures."
A University of California, San Diego senior faces deportation after his roommate made a wrong turn at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing south of San Diego.

Orr Yakobi, 22, is an Israeli citizen who is in the U.S. under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. The immigration program allows those who entered the U.S. as minors to stay in the U.S. with some restrictions including traveling outside of the country.

Yakobi and his friend, Ryan Hakim, were shopping at an outlet mall in San Ysidro Sunday when the pair got on southbound Interstate 5 instead of northbound Interstate 805.

"Once we got onto the ramp, we couldn't turn around. We couldn't pull over," Ryan Hakim said. "We were forced into Mexico."

Hakim was behind the wheel and said they had no intention of crossing the border.

"We're freaking out about his documentation. How is he going to get back in? How are we going to get back in," Hakim said.

When the men attempted to return to the U.S, officials with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped the vehicle and checked Yakobi's documentation.

Under the DACA program, he is permitted to stay in the U.S., but cannot leave the country.

As a result, Yakobi was detained at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Now he's in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement-- detained in Otay Mesa and facing deportation.

"Its very political. Depending on what the mood of the government is right now, what ICE is willing to do, Immigration Attorney Jacob Sapichnick said.

His attorney is negotiating his release and getting support from state and federal lawmakers, among others.

It is unbelievable. In 24 hours we've got Todd Gloria, we've got Scott Peters, we got people from other states," Sapochnick said.

Yakobi, a math and computer science major, was well on his way down the road to success. He was just two classes from graduating and already working as a freelance programmer.

Yakobi was brought to the U.S. by his parents when he was 5 years old.

Yakobi is in good spirits and remains hopeful. Meanwhile, his classmates are garnishing support on campus from students, faculty and administration.

"I want to see Orr back at home. We all just want to give him a big hug," Hakin said. "We want to see him do what he wanted to do with his career. I want to see him achieve his dreams."

Yakobi 's DACA status expires in March. The student was detained because he didn't have a travel permit to leave the country.

His attorney is hoping to bond him out of detention so he might finish school while the case makes its way through the courts.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted a request by California and other plaintiffs to prevent Trump from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program while their lawsuits play out in court.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. court system is -- in his words -- "broken and unfair."


North Texans are bracing for a decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA) and the impact it could have on families across the state.

A federal judge halted a plan from President Donald Trump's administration to end the program that allows immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as youth to stay and work. The ruling says the administration must renew protections for so-called "dreamers" until the lawsuits can play out in court.

Employers around North Texas are keeping close watch on the courts, especially school districts that would lose teachers who are here under DACA.

Luis Juarez, a fifth grade teacher at Lipscomb Elementary School, has been watching DACA decisions, which have been nothing short of nerve-racking.

"You wake up with it. You go to sleep with it. It's very present in your mind," he said. "I have nothing to go back to. My life is here. My family is here. My career is here."

In the Dallas Independent School District, there are 68 DACA employees, including 36 teachers. The Fort Worth Independent School District has 76 DACA employees, including 27 teachers.

"The only preparation that we can have is to have substitute teachers, which would not be ideal," Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said.

What teacher shortages around the nation, it could become a nightmare situation.

"It was even more catastrophic for us, because many of these are bilingual teachers and that's the biggest shortage area," Hinojosa said. "People don't realize that we have 44 percent of our students as English learners."

"If we would have lost them in the middle of the year, it would have had a traumatic impact on our school system," Hinojosa said.

Hinojosa said the recent court ruling offers some help and "wiggle room."

"The actual ruling by the judge helps us, because it defers it until there is a resolution of that lawsuit. So we can at least get through the entire academic year and it won't create chaos in our classrooms," he said.

"The ruling, it's a spark of light," Juarez added. "You have to put on your brave face for your kids."

Dallas ISD is working provide resources for teachers and students' families affected by DACA.
A 63-year-old Tomah man was referred to the Monroe County District Attorney for delivering heroin after an investigation by the Monroe County Joint Investigative Task Force.

According to the report, Donald Means told a police informant Dec. 15 that he was going to Illinois and return to Tomah with heroin. The informant told Means that he was interested in some of the heroin upon his return.

On Dec. 19, the informant said he ran into Means at the Tomah Veterans Administration Medical Center, where Means is employed in the mail room. Means reportedly handed the informant a cigarette wrapper containing a small chunk that was later confirmed as heroin. He also said he was making another trip to Illinois and told the informant if he wanted heroin, it would cost $140 per gram. The informant gave Means a $100 and two $20 bills, and he told the informant to meet him at work Dec. 26 at the VA.

The informant was equipped with a recording device for the Dec. 26 meeting, and the transaction was completed. The informant turned the gram of heroin over to police, according to the report. Two days later, the informant said Means was making another trip to Illinois and that he again asked for $140 for a gram of heroin up front. The transaction was made the following the day, according to the report.

Means was arrested at the VA Jan. 2 and transported to the Monroe County Jail. He was referred for possession of heroin and delivery of heroin.

In other Tomah Police Department news:

Tonya Marie Adams-Fisher, 34, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for bail jumping. She is accused on two separate occasions of violating a no-contact order.

Laphazier Devonta Bennett, 23, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for multiple charges after a Dec. 28 incident.

Police were called to an East Milwaukee Street residence on a report of Bennett and woman yelling at each other with Bennett hitting the woman. When police arrived, Bennett denied any altercation occurred and allegedly gave police a false name. Bennett has a bond condition that prohibits contact with the woman.

Bennett was referred for disorderly conduct, violating a no-contact order and obstructing an officer.

David Albert Beyer, 61, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for bail jumping. He is accused of violating a bond condition that prohibits him from consuming alcohol. A preliminary breath test registered a blood-alcohol level of .329.

Sammuel Ray Helmkamp, 25, Wyeville, was referred to the district attorney for multiple charges after he allegedly fled the scene of a traffic accident Dec. 30.

Police were called to Kwik Trip on West McCoy Boulevard shortly after 2:30 p.m. for a hit-and-run complaint. The victim said a vehicle reportedly driven by Helmkamp struck her from behind and left the scene. A witness later told police that the same vehicle had been operated erratically at Long John Silvers, where it struck a pole, causing the vehicles license plate to fall off.

Police caught up with Helmkamp about 90 minutes later. When asked if he had been operating the vehicle, which was registered to another person, he reportedly replied, At one point yes, but not the same time you think of. He was referred for hit and run, fourth offense operating after revocation/drunk driving-related and failure to install an ignition interlock device.

Dennis J. Porter, 58, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for bail jumping. He is accused of violating a bond condition that prohibits him from consuming alcohol or entering a tavern or liquor store.

Jessie Damien Fries, 28, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for disorderly conduct and resisting an officer after a Dec. 31 incident outside Dimensions bar.

Fries was observed by a police officer shortly before 2:30 a.m. being pulled away from the bar by a female. When the officer approached the two, Fries reportedly broke free of the womans grasp and ran south along Superior Avenue before entering the Crow Bar. He then went out the front door and ran north along Superior Avenue before being subdued by police, according to the report.

The report says Fries was uncooperative after his arrest and spit on the hood and windshield of a squad car. A witness later told police that Fries had been thrown out of Dimensions for trying to get behind the bar and starting a fight. A preliminary breath test recorded Fries with a blood-alcohol level of .204.

Shawni M. Birch, 25, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for multiple chargers after a Jan. 5 incident.

Police were called to a residential group home on East Holton Street, where Birch was reportedly combative with staff. When police arrived, food and other items were strewn on the floor. A staff member said Birch became upset with her, called her names, threw food and kitchen utensils at her and punched her. The staff member was transported to Tomah Memorial Hospital, where she reported a swollen nose, which made it difficult for her breathe.

Birch was referred for battery, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct.

Shannon DeShannon, 44, Alma Center, was referred to the district attorney for disorderly conduct after a Jan. 6 incident outside the Breakroom Bar.

Police responded to a report of a woman outside the bar who had passed out and wasnt adequately dressed for the weather. An employee of Dimensions told police the woman had been in the bar earlier with DeShannon and that the two had gotten into a physical altercation.

Terry G. Koerner, 37, Milwaukee, was referred to the district attorney for multiple charges after police arrested him for fourth-offense drunk driving Jan. 7.

Police received a complaint about a car doing donuts in the parking lot of The Strike Zone around 3 a.m. The vehicle headed north on Superior Avenue before police arrived but returned a short time later. Police could hear loud music coming from the vehicle.

Police approached the vehicle, opened the door and turned down the stereo. The report said Koerner was slurring his speech and giving nonsensical answers to police questions. The report says he was unable to perform the field sobriety test and failed to supply a sufficient breath sample for a preliminary breath test.

The report says Koerner became increasingly agitated and profane during the process. The report says he threatened to kill one of the officers, kicked the inside of the squad car and demanded that police remove his handcuffs. He was transported to Tomah Memorial Hospital for a blood draw.

Koerner reportedly told police and hospital staff that nobody would be able to draw his blood. He allegedly made a gunshot gesture toward an officer in the examination room and told the officer he should be scared.

In addition to drunk driving, Koerner was referred for operating after revocation, failure to install an ignition interlock device, threatening an officer, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct and bail jumping.

Michael Edward Kaspari Jr., 35, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for multiple charges after a Jan. 7 incident.

Police were called to a Dogwood Lane residence, where a woman had locked herself in a bathroom because Kaspari was yelling at her. The woman made comments about Kaspari having marijuana pipes, and the report says police found marijuana and drug paraphernalia on a bedroom night stand.

Kaspari was referred for disorderly conduct, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He also has a probation/parole hold.

Leasia Rayna Pruitt, 19, was referred to the district attorney for bail jumping. She is accused of violating a bond condition that prohibits her from consuming alcohol.
Firefighters with Dallas Fire-Rescue recovered an electrocuted man whose body was suspended from scaffolding in Deep Ellum Wednesday afternoon.

The man was apparently working on the exterior of The Lizard Lounge when he or the scaffolding came in contact with nearby power lines.

The jolt caused the man to fall, but his clothing got caught on the scaffolding and his body hung suspended two stories over Swiss Avenue.

Dozens of first responders surrounded the scene, on the roof of the building and on the ground, but none were able to touch the man until crews from Oncor Electric arrived and cut power to the lines.

When the power off, and after the Dallas County Medical Examiner confirmed the man's death, DFR firefighters began the task of hoisting the man's body from the scaffolding.

The man's identity and the nature of the work he was doing have not been confirmed.

Oncor released the following statement Wednesday afternoon:

"We at Oncor are heartbroken to hear of the tragic incident involving a private construction worker this afternoon on Swiss Avenue in Dallas. Oncor has crews on scene and we are working with first responders to determine the cause. We were notified shortly after 1 oclock this afternoon that a private construction worker had made contact with a power line just outside of a business. Oncor crews were on site shortly thereafter to de-energize the line and assist first responders. While Oncor equipment is safe, its important to always use caution while working around electricity. Our thoughts and prayers are with this workers family, friends and all those affected by this tragedy."

Traffic along Swiss Avenue, between Central Expressway and Hawkins Street was diverted while the recovery was underway.

While they couldn't confirm if it was related, DART said the nearby Pearl Street station temporarily lost power Wednesday afternoon. Power has been restored at the station but riders should expect delays.
After a Louisiana school teacher's arrest at a public school board meeting went viral, Deyshia Hargrave is back teaching and hopes her experience sends a message to her fellow educators.

"I'm hoping for teachers, people outside of education, to have a voice," the middle school English teacher said Thursday on the "Today" show. "Show up. You don't have to say anything. Just show up. Just do something."

Hargrave's arrest came Monday at a public school board meeting, where the board approved by a 53 vote a $30,000 salary increase for Superintendent Jerome Puyau. Teachers, meanwhile, haven't received a salary increase in about decade.

Hargrave was asked by a board member to comment on the vote, according to video taken of the meeting by a local reporter, and she asked Puyau, "How are you going to take that money, because it's basically taken out of the pockets of teachers?"

The school board president then banged his gavel and said her question was irrelevant. The crowd became agitated and Hargrave was asked to leave the meeting by a school resource officer hired by the board, The Associated Press reported.

Video showed Hargrave on the hallway floor being handcuffed, though it did not capture the moments just before her arrest. The officer arrested her for "remaining after being forbidden" and resisting an officer, according to the AP. She bonded out of jail, and the city said she won't be prosecuted.

Now, Puyua agrees with Hargrave that teachers deserve more money, but he wonders why she questioned his salary increase.



We "can always use more money in the classroom," he told "Today." "But, when is a good time for a superintendent to get a raise?"

"I don't support our people getting arrested," Puyau added. "However, a person has to follow the rules."

In an interview with CBS, Puyau took responsibility for the incident, saying, "I'm the superintendent, I'm to blame."

When asked what he did wrong, Puyau told CBS, "I should have stood up, OK? That's what you want to hear, and it's the truth. I should have stood up [and said,] 'Let her speak.'"

Since the video was posted online, where it has drawn more than a million views, Puyau told "Today" he and his family have received death threats. School system offices even went on temporary lockdown.

"More people were hurt. It is not fair to our family," he said emotionally.

Hargrave said she has only seen the video of her arrest twice because it's "too disturbing" to watch.

"It's sad that a woman has to be forcibly, violently removed from a board meeting for people to start caring," she said on "Today" of the response to the video.



She added that she felt uneasy "with the realization that my students were gonna see the video and I had to go to work the next day."

"I wasn't sure how they were gonna feel about it," she said.

However, Hargrave added, "They're fine, so I'm fine."

Hargrave said she would like an apology from Puyau and the officer who arrested her. And the Louisiana Association of Educators and Vermilion Association of Educators hosted a local rally Thursday afternoon in support of Hargrave, who was expected to speak at the event.

About 100 people gathered in a light rain Thursday to rally to support Hargrave.

"I hope and pray my experience will empower you  my students, young women everywhere  to know that you have a voice," Hargrave told the crowd. "Use it. Many, many women suffered tremendously and sacrificed greatly for us to have this voice. ... And this is for the boys, too. You matter."

She was backed by fellow teachers wearing black T-shirts that read: "#standbydeyshia." Signs held by members of the crowd included one reading, "We will not be silenced."
Vermont is poised to become the first state in the country to approve the recreational use of marijuana by an act of the Legislature rather than through a citizen referendum.

The state Senate approved the legislation Wednesday by voice vote. Republican Gov. Phil Scott has indicated he will sign the bill, which was approved by the House last week. It's unclear when that signing will take place.

The bill would allow adults over 21 to possess of up to one ounce of marijuana and have two mature marijuana plants or four immature plants. The legislation does not contain a mechanism to regulate the production and sale of marijuana, as has been done in some other states.

Some backers of the proposal call it a baby step and say they hope the Legislature will pass a tax-and-regulation system.

Scott vetoed a marijuana legalization bill last May, but indicated he only did so because of the bill's timing.

Fifty-seven percent of Vermont voters support legal marijuana for adults, according to a March 2017 Public Policy Polling survey.

Once the bill is signed, Vermont will become the ninth state to legalize recreational marijuana for adults, following its New England neighbors in Massachusetts and Maine.

"Vermonters should be proud that their state is becoming the first to do this legislatively, rather than by ballot initiative," said Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Legislatures in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island are also considering bills that would make marijuana legal for adults this year; New Hampshire's House approved a bill on Tuesday.

The Vermont Senate's vote comes amid growing concerns over the future of legal weed after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama-era Justice Department memo that allowed the legal marijuana industry to flourish in states that had approved it.

"Now that yet another state has rejected marijuana prohibition, there is even more pressure for Congress to take action to prevent any federal interference from Attorney General Jeff Sessions," said Matthew Schweich, interim executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "It's time for the federal government to respect the authority of states to determine their own marijuana practices."
A FREE DAY... in a California State Park, one that's redwoods-y in theme, feel, scent, and vibe? It sounds like a marvelous vision straight from a nature lover's daydream. But sometimes daydreams find solid footing, and adventurers can enter gorgeous treeful spaces without paying an entry fee. And "sometimes" is now, as in 2018, for a partnership between the Save the Redwoods League and California State Parks, with funding by Oracle, is set to help a whole lot of people spend a happy second Saturday among the giants. Yes, we did type...

"SECOND SATURDAY"... right there, for the situation is this: "(M)ore than 16,000 free vehicle day-use passes will be available in 2018 for more than 40 redwood state parks," with over 200 passes still available, as of Jan. 9, for Saturday, Jan. 13. Yes, that's the first second Saturday of the year, as in second Saturday of the month, and all second Saturdays of all months in the year ahead will be part of the program. How to sign up for your free pass? Begin here. Are there important tips and suggestions and must-knows, like visiting in off-hours and when new passes become available for the next second Saturday? Oh, you got it, and there all on this FAQ.

WHAT PARKS ARE PARTICIPATING? Humboldt Lagoons State Park, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Mendocino Headlands State Park, and a few dozen more. Will your favorite park be on the list? Does a redwood have burls? (Yes, it does.) If this all feels familiar to you, and yet fresh and exciting, that's understandable, for the day after Thanksgiving has been a free day in the redwoods state parks for a few years now. But the whole second-Saturday set-up is a new venture, one that's sure to bring thousands of new visitors into the free-loving, forest-loving fold. Details on everything, parks, dates, and how to use your pass, should/when you get one? Here, burl buffs, right here.
A federal judge on Tuesday night temporarily blocked the Trump administration's decision to end a program protecting young immigrants from deportation.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted a request by California and other plaintiffs to prevent President Donald Trump from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program while their lawsuits play out in court.

Alsup said lawyers in favor of DACA clearly demonstrated that the young immigrants "were likely to suffer serious, irreparable harm" without court action. The judge also said the lawyers have a strong chance of succeeding at trial.

DACA has protected about 800,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas. The program includes hundreds of thousands of college-age students.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in September that the program would be phased out, saying former President Barack Obama had exceeded his authority when he implemented it in 2012.

Trump tweeted the ruling was evidence that the justice system is "broken and unfair" and the White House called the ruling "outrageous" in a statement released Wednesday, which noted that Trump was working with members of Congress from both parties on a DACA fix.

"An issue of this magnitude must go through the normal legislative process," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.



On Tuesday, the Department of Justice said the judge's decision doesn't change the fact that the program was an illegal circumvention of Congress, and it is within the agency's power to end it.

"The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend this position, and looks forward to vindicating its position in further litigation," department spokesman Devin O'Malley said in a statement.

Sessions' move to phase pout DACA sparked a flurry of lawsuits nationwide.

Alsup considered five separate lawsuits filed in Northern California, including one by the California and three other states, and another by the governing board of the University of California school system.

"DACA covers a class of immigrants whose presence, seemingly all agree, pose the least, if any, threat and allows them to sign up for honest labor on the condition of continued good behavior," Alsup wrote in his decision. "This has become an important program for DACA recipients and their families, for the employers who hire them, for our tax treasuries, and for our economy."

That echoed the judge's comments from a court hearing on Dec. 20, when he grilled an attorney for the Department of Justice over the government's justification for ending DACA, saying many people had come to rely on it and faced a "real" and "palpable" hardship from its loss.

Alsup also questioned whether the administration had conducted a thorough review before ending the program.

Brad Rosenberg, a Justice Department attorney, said the administration considered the effects of ending DACA and decided to phase it out over time instead of cutting it immediately.

DACA recipients will be allowed to stay in the U.S. for the remainder of their two-year authorizations. Any recipient whose status was due to expire within six months also got a month to apply for another two-year term.

The Justice Department said in court documents that DACA was facing the possibility of an abrupt end by court order, but Alsup was critical of that argument.

People took out loans, enrolled in school and even made decisions about whether to get married and start families on the basis of DACA and now face "horrific" consequences from the loss of the program, said Jeffrey Davidson, an attorney for the University of California governing board.

"The government considered none of this at all when they decided to rescind DACA," he said at the hearing.

DACA recipients are commonly referred to as "dreamers," based on never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act that would have provided similar protections for young immigrants.

"Dreamers lives were thrown into chaos when the Trump Administration tried to terminate the DACA program without obeying the law," California Attorney General Becerra said in a statement after Tuesday's decision. "Tonight's ruling is a huge step in the right direction."
President Donald Trump referred to a group of nations that included African countries and Haiti as "s--thole countries" during a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators Thursday at the White House, a Democratic aide briefed on the meeting told NBC News.

Trump's comments were first reported by the Washington Post, which said the group of nations referenced also included El Salvador.

The comments came as senators huddled in the Oval Office with the president to discuss the path forward on an immigration deal. Trump questioned why the United States would want people from nations such as Haiti, while being briefed on changes to the visa lottery system.

When the group discussed immigration from Africa, the aide said, Trump asked why we want all these people from "all these s--thole countries" and that the U.S. should have more people from places like Norway.

A spokesman for the White House did not deny the president's use of the vulgar word. Hours later, Trump said on Twitter Friday morning that, "the language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!"
What to Know Some luggage from Air China flights to JFK Airport have popped up inside a ballroom at a nearby hotel, a worker tells NBC 4 New York

It comes two days after images obtained to News 4 show hundreds of bags sitting in the snow under a ramp at the airport

The Port Authority says former Obama transportation secretary Ray LaHood will lead an investigation into the airport meltdown

Some luggage left behind in the meltdown at John F. Kennedy International Airport following last week's winter storm are being housed at a nearby hotel, a hotel worker told NBC 4 New York.

New video shows the bags being stored inside a ballroom at the Hilton New York JFK Airport and a hotel worker said they were from Air China and arrived Wednesday morning.

The airline, which had about 400 bags that had not returned to passengers on Thursday, hasn't responded to requests for comment.

At the height of the JFK baggage disaster, tens of thousands of bags had been separated from their owners, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

The number had dwindled to 5,000 by Wednesday afternoon, but dozens of frustrated travelers were continuing to contact News 4 Thursday about their missing luggage. The station reported exclusively that there were dozens -- possibly hundreds -- of bags still piled underneath a terminal ramp Tuesday, alongside the snow.

"They keep telling me, 'We found your bag,' when they clearly did not," said NYU student Michelle Tsai, who's been unable to study for her math final without the textbooks lost in her luggage.

"I've never lost a bag that took more than an hour. Usually, it's, 'It got on the truck, we're going to bring it over,'" she said. "It's never been, 'It's lost into the ether.'"

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"Today is Thursday, and I still do not have my luggage," said Deborah Serri, estimating she spent four hours on hold with Delta this week. Delta had said Wednesday that it is "delivering bags to customers and expects to return its baggage operation to normal levels [Wednesday night]."

Other Delta passengers are baffled by the airline's online messages supposedly tracking the luggage. One flier got a message from Delta with a timeline showing the bag had been checked on Jan. 6, then listed as expedited for return on Jan. 8, 9 and 11. It still wasn't back by Thursday.

Delta hasn't responded to News 4's questions as to why so many people are still waiting for bags. Workers at a delivery company called BEX, which is contracted by Delta to return luggage, did not want to speak to News 4 when reporters showed up at the Queens location Wednesday and found hundreds of suitcases sitting in the yard.

Joshua Carlani, part of a group from the College of New Jersey delivering supplies to children in Ghana, is still awaiting the supplies, donated by organizations.

"Everything went wrong that possibly could," he told News 4 from overseas.

The terminals at JFK have made progress in clearing out the luggage from the airport, at least: by Thursday evening Terminal 1 had just over 260 bags (mostly from Air China, some from Turkish Air), compared to its height of 1,000. And at Terminal 4, all 4,000 bags had been processed and removed.

JetBlue, which operates out of Terminal 5 at JFK, says it wasn't impacted to the same degree as other terminals; there were about 100 bags being held for pickup or delivery on Wednesday, and another 60 from international partner carriers at JFK.

The Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, which oversees operations at all three area airports, said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that it "shared the public's outrage and has directed the airlines to have all bags out of JFK and on their way to customers by day's end."

"This unacceptable delay has inconvenienced too many travelers and we continue to work with the airlines to aggressively address the situation and provide assistance as needed," the Port Authority added.

The agency later announced it had tapped former Obama transportation secretary Ray LaHood to lead an investigation into how it the fiasco happened at JFK, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. That investigation will begin next week; however, the findings could be months away.

The airport debacle started Thursday, when a powerful winter storm hit New York amid unusually cold weather and forced the airport to close for the day. When it reopened on Friday, some terminal gates got tied up and led to a backlog of international flights trying to get in and out. Temperatures in the low teens also impacted equipment.

Then a water main burst and flooded a Terminal 4 on Sunday. Amid the chaos, thousands of pieces of luggage got separated from their owners.

Are you in the tri-state area and still missing luggage from JFK? Please fill out the lost luggage survey in this article (above) and contact us at tips@nbcnewyork.com.
What to Know A van full of MS-13 members and associates were about to abduct a 16-year-old boy in Brentwood when detectives stopped them, police say

Five people who were allegedly in the van face federal charges; four of them are Brentwood High School students

They allegedly planned to kill the boy to elevate their status in the gang

A grand jury indicted 17 alleged members and associates of the notoriously violent MS-13 gang on charges related to the machete killing of a 13-year-old boy, other murders and drug trafficking following a seven-month investigation that spanned several states, officials announced Thursday.

Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said the county and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency started the investigation into the gang's activities in May, identifying activities that stretched from New York to New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Texas.

It started with a focus on narcotics trafficking but expanded to encompass murder and other acts of violence, including the killing of a 15-year-old Long Island boy, and focused on the "Hollywood" and "Sailors" cliques, or cells, of MS-13 on Long Island.

Officials said the Long Island clique leaders answered to leaders in El Salvador, and sent them proceeds from criminal activity.

"This massive multi-agency investigation laid bare the global size, complexity and brutality of MS-13, and these indictments strike a heavy blow to the gang's operations on Long Island," Singas said. "These alleged gang members have terrorized vulnerable immigrant communities (and) trafficked deadly heroin into our neighborhoods."

Federal prosecutors believe MS-13, or the Mara Salvatrucha, has thousands of members across the U.S., mostly Central American immigrants.

The gang, believed to be behind 25 killings on Long Island in the past two years, has become a prime target of President Donald Trump, with both the Republican president Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions coming to Long Island to speak on efforts to fight it. The gang originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s, though it's now led from Central America.

The indictment includes the murder of Angel Soler, who was 15 when he disappeared in July. His body was discovered in mid-October in a wooded lot in the hamlet of Roosevelt. Soler's remains were one of three sets found close to each other over the course of nine days.

Authorities have said Soler was attacked by a group of people and hacked to death with a machete, and a 26-year-old man was charged in November with his murder.

The criminal complaint in that case said the suspect acted with others who had not yet been arrested. The 21-count indictment announced Thursday names another alleged MS-13 member as a suspect in Soler's death.

"MS-13 gangs mission is to control our towns through brutal violence, but today we took that control away from them," said DEA Special Agent in Charge James Hunt. Not only did we arrest the highest level MS-13 leader in the Northeast who reports to MS-13 in El Salvador, but we sent a message that we will continue to investigate their violent crimes and bring justice to their victims."



The 17 defendants face up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the top charges, prosecutors said.



Officials said the investigation also helped thwart three murders that were being planned in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. Investigators also passed on information that led to arrests of individuals in Maryland suspected of being gang members in connection to murders in that state
What to Know Walmart is closing Sam's Club locations across the country, including in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut

Thousands of employees will be laid off in the wake of the closures

Walmart confirmed the closures on the same day it announced it's boosting its starting salary for U.S. workers and handing out bonuses

Sams Club stores in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are among dozens closing across the country in the coming weeks, reports say.

The closure of the stores will lead to the laying off of thousands of employees, according to Business Insider, which reported several stores closed abruptly Thursday and some employees only learned when they arrived for work.

These 8 Grocery Stores Have Some of the Best Prices in America, Study Says

A Walmart official told Business Insider that ten of the affected stores nationwide will be turned into ecommerce distribution centers and that employees from those stores can apply to positions at the ecommerce locations. The remaining stores will close permanently over the next several weeks.

America's 20 Favorite Grocery Stores Have Been Revealed

Sams Club posted a statement about the closures on Twitter: "After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, weve decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy. Closing clubs is never easy and were committed to working with impacted members and associates through this transition."

The location in Linden was among those that closed abruptly Thursday. The Union County Freeholder Board said it was offering assistance to any Union County resident among the estimated 200 full-time and part-time employees laid off by the sudden closure. More information available here.

In a joint statement, Freeholder Chairman Sergio Granados and Freeholder Christopher Hudak, a resident of Linden, said: "We would like these former employees to know that the County stands prepared to immediately assist with employment services through our various agencies, and we urge all to take advantage of them."

Also on Thursday, Walmart -- the world's largest private employer -- announced it is boosting its starting salary for U.S. workers to $11 an hour, handing out one-time cash bonuses to those who don't benefit from the pay hike and expanding its maternity and parental leave benefits.

Grocery Stores Opening in New York City and New Jersey

Below are the stores known to be closing in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. You can check to see if your local store is still listed here at www.samsclub.com/locator.

 69 Pavilions Dr, Manchester, CT 06042

 2 Boston Post Rd, Orange, CT 06477

 81 International Dr S, Budd Lake, NJ 07828

 1900 E Linden Ave, Linden, NJ 07036

 301 Nassau Park Boulevard, Princeton, NJ 08540

 2649 Erie Blvd E, Syracuse, NY 13224

 720 Fairmount Ave, Jamestown, NY 14701

 700 Elmridge Center Dr, Rochester, NY 14626

 1600 Marketplace Dr, Rochester, NY 14623
What to Know Akayed Ullah is accused of trying to bomb the subway system on Dec. 11; he was the only person seriously injured

Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Wednesday, less than a month after the bombing

Ullah faces charges related to terrorism and using a weapon of mass destruction

The Bangladeshi immigrant accused of setting off a pipe bomb in a Manhattan subway tunnel last month has been indicted on federal terrorism charges, prosecutors announced Wednesday.



Akayed Ullah, 27, is accused of detonating a pipe bomb that was strapped to his body in a pedestrian tunnel linking two busy Times Square subway stations during the morning rush. He was the only person seriously injured.

In selecting this time and place, Ullahs alleged purpose in the Port Authority bombing was painfully clear: to inflict as much damage as possible, and to strike fear into the hearts of New Yorkers in the name of ISIS, Acting Assistant Attorney General Boente said in announcing the indictment.

The six-count indictment against Ullah charges him with one count each of: providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group; using and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction; bombing and attempting to bomb a place of public use; destruction and attempted destruction of property by means of fire or explosives; conducting and attempting to conduct a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system, and using a destructive device during and in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Ullah was expected to face a judge in court Thursday to answer to the indictment. He has been housed at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility in Lower Manhattan since he was moved from Bellevue Hospital last month.

Ullah made his first court appearance from his hospital bed in December: he could be seen on video laying on a hospital bed with his head propped up on a pillow and his body covered up to his neck in sheets. Two assistant public defenders, who stood beside his hospital bed, did not request bail.

Ullah didn't enter a plea at the time but answered a few of the judge's questions, including answering "I can see you" when she asked if he could hear her and "yes I do" when he was asked if he understood his rights.

Prosecutors said that after his capture he told interrogators he was on a mission to punish the U.S. for attacking the Islamic State.
A petition for rezoning has been filed for a parcel of land on Gopher Avenue in the town of Tomah.

Stuart Giusberg, managing director of Tomah Associates, the property owner, filed the petition for the possible development of the land, which would include retail, office, hotel and banquet facilities and a convenience store to support the new hospital.

No development plans have been finalized, Giusberg said.

The city of Tomah Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Jan. 25 at 5:30 p.m. at city hall to consider the rezoning application.

Giusberg, who lives in Chappaqua, New York, said the property has been owned by Tomah Associates since the 1970s and that the land has been used for farming. However, no move has been made to develop the land until recently. He said the town of Tomah had a study done for the development of the property after the groundbreaking for the new $66 million hospital project across the road.

He also said recent changes in traffic patterns make the site more desirable for development. He said there has been an increase in traffic taking Interstate 90 at the Interstate 90-94 split east of Tomah. Previous patterns had westbound traffic at the split taking Interstate 94, which is why the south (end of Tomah) has had virtually no development.

Now with the traffic reports that were referenced to me from the Monroe County Economic Development person, the traffic patterns are now almost 50-50, Giusberg said. That piqued the interest of the county, town and property owners to position this parcel for development.

The rezoning of the parcel is the second step in the development process, Giusberg said. The first step was getting the property annexed to the city of Tomah in December.
What to Know Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams were both arrested during a protest for Ravi Ragbir on Thursday

Ragbir is an outspoken immigrants rights activist who protesters said was detained by immigration agents earlier in the morning

Hundreds of protesters were at the scene following an ambulance where they said Ragbir was being held

Two New York City councilmen were among the 18 people arrested at a demonstration for an immigrant rights leader detained by federal authorities.

Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez said in a tweet that he and fellow Democrat Jumaane Williams were cuffed Thursday during the protest after Ravi Ragbir was taken into custody by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Manhattan.

"Arrested with Councilman @JumaaneWilliams and more than 10 people for fighting for Ravi and all undocumented brothers and sisters," Rodriguez said in a tweet.

Arrested with Councilman @JumaaneWilliams and more than 10 people for fighting for Ravi and all undocumented brothers and sisters. #ImmigrationReform NOW @NewSanctuaryNYC @NYCCouncil pic.twitter.com/rG75QRXAil  Ydanis Rodriguez (@ydanis) January 11, 2018

Williams, in a Facebook post Thursday added " Today, after more than two decades of living in this country, he was detained by ICE and removed in an ambulance. I was arrested while protesting his detention, alongside Ydanis Rodriguez and several of Ravi's supporters. We need your voices to declare that #IStandWithRavi."

It's not clear what charges Rodriguez, Williams or the 16 protesters arrested faced. Images posted to Twitter during the demonstration showed the two councilmen and a handful of other protesters with plastic handcuffs at the scene.

The New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, the organization that staged the protest, said hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Jacob Javits Federal Building and followed an FDNY ambulance they said housed the Ragbir.

According to the group, Ragbir has lived under threat of deportation for more than a decade after a conviction for wire fraud 16 years ago and was in immigration detention for 22 months. When he was released, the New York resident became an outspoken activist for immigrants in the country.

Ravi Ragbir means everything to this city," said Kaji Dousa, the organizations co-chair. "A longtime New Yorker, a husband and a father, Ravi is beloved by all of us who have had the privilege of working with him to make New York a welcoming community for all of its residents. The fact that ICE has taken him as if his spirit, family ties, and contributions to the community mean nothing is inhumane.
More than two decades since charter schools were authorized in Pennsylvania, their effect on public education across the state remains inconsequential to improving student performance, and costly to local districts, a new report found.

"A greater share of traditional public school students met grade level expectations" than their charter school counterparts on 2016 state tests, the Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) said in the report released Thursday.

The non-profit also described charter school costs for local school districts that "keep rising" in the form of "stranded costs," which is the money it takes to continue to support traditional schools that have less children. More than 130,000 Pennsylvania students now attend charter schools. Some 60,000 of those students live in Philadelphia.

"If 28 children are in a classroom and two leave to attend a charter school, the district does not close a classroom," the report said. "It spends the same amount on space for the remaining students, the teachers salary, benefits and pension costs, etc."

It is the newest collection of data in a long-running debate between school choice advocates who have successfully pushed for expansion of charters in districts across the state and supporters of traditional public education.

In Philadelphia, charter schools have been the most polarizing educational issue of the last two decades. Charter accountability and expansion will remain at the top of the debate among city leaders when a school board is appointed in the next couple months to replace the deposed School Reform Commission.

The PCCY report goes on to call for state oversight that imposes stronger fiscal management and transparency of charter schools and a framework for increasing test scores of charter students.

"Regardless of performance, charter costs keep rising for school districts and taxpayers," the report said. "Adopting potent legislation that rewards high quality schools with an expedited renewal process and closes poor performers would encourage schools to strive for excellence."

To read the entire report titled "Expanding High Quality Charter School Options: Strong Charter School Legislation Matters," here is a direct link.
A seemingly fit 21-year-old man is among the 18 people who have died from influenza complications in Pennsylvania during the current flu season.



The family of Kyler Baughman of Latrobe, Pennsylvania told NBC10 affiliate WPXI he was always into physical fitness and was going to school to be a personal trainer. When Baughman came home to visit during the holidays however, he appeared to be sick.

After celebrating with his family on Christmas, he returned to work on December 26 but went home early after not feeling well. Baughmans fiancee told WPXI he was coughing and complaining of mild chest pain. Baughmans condition grew worse the next day and he began running a fever on and off.

He was taken to a Westmoreland County emergency room and then flown to UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh. Less than a day later, on December 28, Baughman was pronounced dead. His family said he died from organ failure due to septic shock caused by influenza. They also said he never got a flu shot.

I just think he ignored it and thought itd go away like most people, and I think people need to pay more attention to their bodies, Baughmans mother told WPXI.

So far this season, 18 flu deaths have been reported in Pennsylvania. Baughman is the only victim between the ages of 19 and 49. One person under the age of 18 also died from the flu. The rest of the Pennsylvania victims are over the age of 50.

While the young, the sick and the elderly are most at risk during the flu season, doctors warn that young, healthy people arent immune.

For young people, think of it in the perspective of college-age kids in a dorm situation, in close contact, with many other people, Dr. Robyn Baron, medical director of Temple University Health Systems Readycare division told NBC10. In that situation, that predisposes them to something contagious like influenza.

While the flu season is in full swing, its not too late to get a flu shot.

Immunizations are usually (available) up to March 30, Dr. Baron said. Those people at risk, they definitely want to immunize.

To learn more about the flu and ways to stay healthy, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Health website.


A more than 13-hour standoff that caused officials to close 14 schools in Gloucester Township, leaving thousands of children out of class, ended Thursday morning the 24-year-old suspect dead.

Police responded to reports of shots fired from a townhouse near Hampshire and Yorkshire roads in the Brittany Woods neighborhood of Sicklerville around 8 Wednesday night and the incident turned into a barricade situation.

"It's been a rough night," mother Nicole Bea said after hearing nearly one dozen gunshots.



Gloucester Township Police Chief Harry Earle said an armored rescue vehicle with officers inside was struck numerous times with bullets from an assault rifle. Police later showed off the armored vehicle with bullet holes in it.

NBC10

"No shots were fired by police," Earle said.

Police continued to be in contact with the suspect over the phone Thursday morning until he stopped answering the phone prompting them to enter the home, investigators said.

Heavy machinery and robots were used to breach the home, police said. SWAT officers could then be seen going into the home.



Police found the suspect dead. Police found a handgun and assault rifle in the home.

A woman, who was unharmed, was found in the home and taken in for questioning, Earle said.

Authorities evacuated about 18 nearby residents and told others to shelter in place over a three square-block radius. Some residents, unable to get home, rode out the situation inside their cars.

Around 9:30 a.m., police said residents could "resume normal activities."

Nearby Timber Creek Regional High School was used as a staging scene.

Gloucester Township Public Schools closed all 11 of its elementary and middle schools and the Black Horse Pike Regional School District closed its three high schools  Highland, Timber Creek and Triton regional high schools  Thursday morning.

A tense standoff in Sicklerville, New Jersey ended Thursday morning with a man in custody. Gloucester Township police say residents can resume their normal days.
UPDATE: Herbert Christian Dallas Randall has been found safe, police say.

A 14-year-old boy has gone missing in Potomac, Maryland, Wednesday night, police say.

Herbert Christian Dallas Randall, of Morning Ride Drive, was last seen when he walked out of his home about 6 p.m., his family told police.

His family and friends haven't had contact with him since then.

Randall is described as a white boy, approximately 5 feet 7 inches and 120 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black jacket and blue jeans.

Police and family are concerned for Randalls physical and emotional welfare.

Anyone who knows where he is should call the Montgomery County Police Departments non-emergency number at 301-279-8000.
Workers and managers at 7-Eleven stores in D.C. and Maryland were questioned by immigration agents on Wednesday in what officials described as the largest operation against an employer under Donald Trump's presidency.

Three 7-Elevens in D.C. and seven in Maryland were among the 98 franchise locations where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) served audit notices, the agency confirmed Thursday.

ICE said the Maryland locations are in: Baltimore; Frederick; Glen Burnie; Landover; Pasadena; Severna Park and Upper Marlboro. ICE did not release any specific addresses, or information on the locations of the D.C. stores.

The agency targeted stores in 17 states, including California, New York and Texas. The action appears to open a new front in Trump's expansion of immigration enforcement, which has already brought a 40 percent increase in deportation arrests.

ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan, who is performing the duties of the director, said the agency will eliminate "unfair competitive advantages for companies that exploit illegal immigration.

Todays actions send a strong message to U.S. businesses that hire and employ an illegal workforce: ICE will enforce the law, and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable, he said in a statement.

Derek Benner, a top official at ICE, said the operation Wednesday was "the first of many" and "a harbinger of what's to come" for employers.

"This is what we're gearing up for this year and what you're going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters," said Benner, acting head of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, which oversees cases against employers.

After the inspections, officials planned to look at whether the cases warrant administrative action or criminal investigations, Benner said.

7-Eleven Stores Inc., based in Irving, Texas, said in a statement that the owners of its franchises are responsible for hiring and verifying work eligibility.

The chain with more than 8,600 convenience stores in the U.S. said it has previously ended franchise agreements for owners convicted of breaking employment laws.
A Washington, D.C. landmark that serves retired military veterans is facing a $15 million lawsuit from the District's water and sewer agency.

A copy of the suit, which was filed in D.C. federal court this week, accuses the Armed Forces Retirement Home of failing to pay water and sewer bills since 2004.

The Armed Forces Retirement Home operates a retirement housing program for 375 people on a large federal site on Rock Creek Church Road in Northwest Washington, a retirement home spokesman told the News4 I-Team. The retirement home is an independent federal agency.

In its lawsuit, the DC Water and Sewer Authority said it notified the Armed Forces Retirement Home in January 2004 that it would begin charging the agency for sewer services on the retirement home's Washington, D.C. campus. According to its suit, the DC Water and Sewer Authority said the home "refused to pay for the sewer services billed by DC Water" beginning in June 2004.

The suit said the water agency and the retirement home entered a series of agreements between 2004 and 2010, but said the Armed Forces Retirement Home has breached its contract with DC Water by failing to pay bills between 2010 and the present.

The suit said the bills due since 2010 total $15,000,000.

In a statement to the News4 I-Team, a DC Water and Sewer Authority spokesman said, "DC Water has been working for several years to resolve the billing issue with AFRH. This suit was filed to preserve DC Water's rights. We are hoping to resolve the issue amicably.

The Armed Forces Retirement Home declined to comment on the suit.

But according to federal documents reviewed by the News4 I-Team, the AFRH had an agreement with D.C. government for free water service since 1938 in exchange for access to an aquifer on its property. In 1990, according to the Armed Forces Retirement Home Congressional Budget Justification, the DC Department of Public Works said it would honor the agreement. However, DC Water challenged that when it formed in 1996, later deciding to bill the property for sewer service beginning in 2004. According to the report, negotiations to resolve the dispute between AFRH and DC Water stalled.



According to the Armed Forces Retirement Home's newsletters, the average age of its residents is 84.

Federal officials first created the home and agency after the Mexican-American War in the mid-1800s to serve aging veterans.

The Armed Forces Retirement Homes handbooks and newsletters said the agency offers continuing care, meals, rehabilitation and activities for elder military veterans, including bible study, recreational, educational programming. The oldest current resident is 99, according to the most recently posted newsletter.
Human remains found last fall in Prince George's County, Maryland, are those of a 22-year-old D.C. man who disappeared after he left home to go on a date with a woman he met online, police say.

Marty William McMillan Jr. was last seen on April 22, 2017, on the 2900 block of M Street SE. He told family members he was meeting a woman he met on the online dating website Plenty of Fish.

His family never heard from him again.

"His mom is going crazy. His grandma is going crazy. I definitely want to know exactly what happened or where my son is," his father, Marty McMillan Sr., said shortly after his son's disappearance.

McMillan had just started a new job as an electrician, and his grandmother had just bought him a 2003 Volkswagen Passat.

D.C. police said Thursday  on what would have been McMillan's 23rd birthday  that human remains discovered Oct. 30 are those of McMillan. The remains were found on the eastbound side of Suitland Parkway, between Interstate 495 and the ramp to the north gate of Joint Base Andrews.

He was shot multiple times. A D.C. homicide investigation is underway.

According to the preliminary investigation, police believe McMillan was shot inside an apartment on the 2600 block of Martin Luther King Ave. SE. Information on when he was shot was not available.

Body of local man missing since April has been found. Family says police identified body found in PG County in October as Marty McMillan Jr. Family still looking for answers as to what happened. pic.twitter.com/gY1ALg0eyc  Mark Segraves (@SegravesNBC4) January 11, 2018

His grandmother, Forlesia Cook, wept as she spoke about the killing.

"He was a human being. He didn't deserve to be laying out there all that time like that, just thrown away like a piece of trash," she said.

McMillan was just trying to go on a date when he disappeared, his grandmother said.

"He didn't do anything wrong that day -- just trying to hang out and meet a girl," she said in a Facebook Live video published in June.

A 22-year-old man has been missing from D.C. for nearly a month.

Investigators told McMillan's family the last phone call he made was to the woman he was supposed to meet.

But when investigators spoke to the woman more than a week later, she told them she didn't have her phone when he was communicating with her, and that she never saw him.

McMillan's bank cards were used after he disappeared, The Washington Post reported.



After McMillan's disappearance, his family launched a campaign to find him and spent every weekend searching for him. In May, his grandmother found his car on the 5800 block of Foote Street NE, three miles from where he was last seen.

McMillan's grandmother said D.C. police should have done more to search for her grandson.

"They wouldn't elevate his case to homicide. It was 'critical missing,' and it stayed that way until now, even though he was dead from the first day," she said through sobs.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information on McMillan's disappearance or death is asked to call police at 202-727-9099. Anonymous tips may be made by texting 50411. A reward of as much as $25,000 is offered.
A new round of layoffs is taking effect this week at the Carrier Corp. factory in Indianapolis a little more than a year after President Donald Trump touted a deal that staved off the plant's closure and saved some of its jobs.

About 215 people are being let go starting Thursday, leaving about 1,100 workers at the plant, according to the company. That's down from the some 1,600 factory, office and engineering jobs at the facility when Carrier announced plans in early 2016 to move production to Mexico.

This week's previously announced layoffs follow about 340 job cuts at the factory in July.

Trump frequently criticized Carrier's plant closing plans during the 2016 campaign. He traveled to the Indianapolis factory three weeks after his election win to announce a tax-incentive agreement partially reversing the closure and keeping some 800 furnace production jobs.

Retired United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones, who was chastised by a Trump tweet after complaining that Trump gave false hope to Carrier workers by inflating the number of jobs being saved, said the president hasn't followed up on his campaign talk of stopping the country's loss of manufacturing jobs.

"We haven't seen anything that would indicate that he plans on living up to those promises and commitments," Jones said.

Trump and other Republicans maintain the business tax cuts included in the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul he signed into law last month will lead to more jobs and higher wages across the country.

The latest Carrier job cuts follow the final closing in November of a 350-worker Rexnord Corp. industrial bearings factory in Indianapolis. Milwaukee-based Rexnord didn't change its decision to shift much of the factory's work to Mexico despite a tweet from Trump blasting Rexnord for "rather viciously firing" its workers.

Carrier's parent company, Connecticut-based United Technologies, is also closing a control panel factory in the northeastern Indiana town of Huntington. The last of the plant's roughly 700 production workers are expected to be laid off this year, with that work also going to Mexico.

Indiana officials have approved an incentive package that includes directing $7 million in state tax breaks and grants over 10 years to Carrier toward keeping the Indianapolis factory open. The deal includes Carrier investing $16 million for automation at the plant. The company's CEO has said that will ultimately mean fewer jobs at the factory.

Robert James, who took over this summer from Jones as the union's local president, said Carrier officials have yet to discuss those automation plans with the union.

Carrier Corp. said in a statement it has offered reimbursement programs for employees who seek college degrees or vocational training certifications. It also said United Technologies plans to hire nearly 25,000 people in the U.S. over the next three years.

Jones said he appreciated that Trump helped save about 800 jobs at the Indianapolis factory, but lamented those that are being lost.

"I think, without a doubt, that there's a lot more he could do so we wouldn't be losing these jobs at the rate we are," Jones said.
The Tomah City Council approved the creation of Tax Incremental Finance District 9 at Tuesdays council meeting.

The council approved the resolution 4-3, with council members Mary Ann Komiskey (District 1), Luke Bohlen (District 2) and Wayne Kling (District 7) dissenting.

TID 9 is an industrial district at Townline Road and Industrial Avenue. It would allow development of properties in and around the citys industrial park.

The district includes 58 parcels with an value of $37 million on 415 acres.

Andrew Bremer of MSA Professional Services, a contractor hired by the city to work on TID development, said the TID is intended to be driven by development incentives and private investment.

When project plans are created for new TID districts ... youre going to be heavy on costs related to constructing brand new roads, extending sewer and water, sanitary sewer out into an area, he said. This area already has those amenities.

The district was initiated after the city was approached by a business looking to expand, Bremer said.

So that really kind of jump-started the thought process of creating this district, but as we looked at this area, we realized that there were a number of parcels in this area that could really benefit from creating a TID district, he said. There are a lot of parcels and businesses that could benefit from this district over the next 20 years.

Development in the TID area began in the 1970s with most of the development occurring in the 80s and 90s, Bremer said. Some of the development is approaching 40 years old, so opportunities exist for redevelopment.

It certainly provides opportunities to provide incentives for existing businesses to expand or the potential for the city to play a role in helping to attract new businesses to the area, he said. Once we started to dive into the district ... there were definitely opportunities for multiple businesses to expand.

Bremer said razing existing buildings and consolidating parcels can create a site that would meet more modern standards for businesses and what modern businesses might need as far as maybe a potentially larger site and maybe a newer building out there.

Bohlen voted against the TIDs creation. He said a new TID isnt needed.

Im currently satisfied with the way the TID we have is functioning, and based on conversation with my constituents and some general analysis of the business environment as a whole across the nation and the development of our economy, I feel comfortable with the incentives that are currently available, he said.

Komiskey there was too much uncertainty surrounding the TID.

We werent sure about what the jobs were that were coming in and that our workforce in Tomah could accommodate the company, she said. The other thing was there was no signed agreement with the business that they definitely are going to expand. So I didnt feel comfortable without having that assurance.

Council man Mike Murray voted for the TID. He said its important for cities to anticipate the future.

One thing to take a look at, when it comes to these TIDs ... while I cant quote it verbatim, there is an old Greek proverb that says, the success of a society is based upon old men planting trees of which they should never enjoy the shade, he said. When we are putting these things together, we have to keep in mind that ... these are projections down the road, these are trees that are planted that we dont know how tall theyre going to be or how much shade they will cast, and some of us may not even be around for the trees to grow, but it is, in fact, things to think about for down the road with the community and the potential benefits that could exist.

In other business, the council:

Passed a resolution for the allocation of excess tax increment from TID 9 to TID 8.

Approved a professional service agreement with MSA for the creation of TID 10, which would be located on the south end of the city near the new Tomah Health hospital project.
A Rhode Island rapper whose songs include "Sell Drugsz" and "Feds Watching" was sentenced this week to three years in federal prison for trafficking heroin and fentanyl.

Michael Persaud, aka "Montana Millz," 30, of Johnston, pleaded guilty in October to five counts of distribution of fentanyl and one count each of possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl and distribution of heroin.

Prosecutors said he was arrested following a 4-1/2 month investigation during which an undercover East Providence police detective arranged for several purchases of heroin and fentanyl from Persaud, totaling nearly 22 grams of fentanyl and 2 grams of heroin.

In several instances, prosecutors said Persaud used other people to assist in the delivery of the drugs. On at least two occasions, he was driven by his girlfriend and mother of three of his children to deliver fentanyl to the undercover detective.

Last March, East Providence police and members of the Rhode Island Drug Enforcement Administration Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at the home of the mother of one of Persaud's children, where they seized 44 grams of fentanyl he had hidden in the residence.

Persaud also faces sentencing on similar charges out of Pennsylvania, where he was convicted in August as a result of an investigation into his drug trafficking activities in that state back in 2016.

The Lebanon County, Pennsylvania district attorney said Persaud and a female accomplice sold heroin to an undercover police officer during a month-long investigation. The district attorney said they sold 70 bags of heroin to an undercover officer in Lebanon and were arrested.

The Lebanon County district attorney said police raided the couple's hotel room and found more than 2 ounces of heroin worth about $11,500.
If you called for a cab with Braintree Best Taxi in Massachusetts over the past week, this is the message you would have gotten: "I've owned and operated the company for about 30 years and after trying everything, exhausting every avenue, I'm sorry to announce that I will no longer be able to stay in business due to the entry of Uber into our city of Braintree."

Greg Najjar decided to close his cab company  the largest one in town  after he says he couldn't compete with Uber and Lyft.

Najjar says he felt helpless leaving about 100 drivers and mechanics without work.

"I feel for him, the marketplace has changed, I don't like to see small businesses go out of business," said Braintree Mayor Joseph Sullivan.

Mayor Sullivan says the town did look at ways it could regulate Uber and Lyft to protect local cab companies a few years ago, but ultimately decided it made more sense to let the state regulate them.

"We just couldn't be one community out of 351 that were going to operate under different rules," said Mayor Sullivan.

"The convenience of it makes it hard to compete with, for sure," said Jameson Malgeri of Danvers.

Riders we spoke with said they don't like seeing longtime local companies like Braintree Best Taxi going out of business, but it comes down to price and a ride at your fingertips.

"It's best to pay $3 than $10," said Igor Gomes of Braintree.

"I think it's definitely sad that small businesses are failing because of Uber, but personally, I use Uber a lot," agreed Megan Alakel of Weymouth.
Kathy Reardon returned Wednesday night to salvage what she could, her car still soaking wet in Gloucester, Massachusetts, after a historic storm.

"It's totaled. Totally underwater, the car was underwater," Reardon said. "It's unbelievable, we have never seen anything like that. It looked like a graveyard of cars underwater."

Reardon, a home health care nurse, spent Wednesday evening pulling soggy papers and other items out of her car's trunk.

While she did, she was still thinking about Thursday's storm that flooded the parking lot of Gloucester High School, where her car, and more than 70 others, were parked.

"All you could see were cars, and they looked like they were in the middle of the ocean," she said.

Vanessa Lucido also had her car parked in the high school lot.

"I was staying at my friend's house for her birthday, and the next day, I got a call from my boyfriend, and he told me the lot was underwater," she said. "I thought he was messing with me for a second."

"Never seen anything like that in my life," she said.

City officials say they have used the public lot for decades, providing some relief for those in town who don't have off-street private parking during snow emergencies.

"Certainly, the city feels for these residents, and [it's] frustrating for the folks who had the loss, as well as the city, who are trying to give them some support," said Jim Destino, the city's chief administrative officer. "We have reached out to our insurance company to see if they would be covered, and they are not covered."

Destino says the parking lot has been used for decades without issue.

"Never had this type of problem before," he said. "It was a very unique storm, with the storm surge, and unfortunately we had the loss there."

MEMA field officers will be in the area later this week to see if the region can qualify for national disaster relief. In the meantime, the city has reached out to local car dealerships to provide deals, and is also waiving towing and storage fees for those who lost their cars.

"We are doing everything we can to help these people in a very, very frustrating situation," Destino said.
Police in New Hampshire have arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting two young children.

Twenty-seven-year-old Lebanon resident Michael Lauzon is facing two counts of felonious sexual assault on a child under the age of 13, according to police.

Lauzon was arrested Wednesday following an investigation that began Jan. 2 after accusations that he assaulted two kids ages 6 and 8.

The children know Lauzon, but are not related to him, police said.

Lauzon's home was searched during the investigation.

He was held on $10,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned in the Grafton County Superior Court Thursday. It's unclear if he has an attorney.


Norwich man reports from Rohingya refugee clinic Norwich man reports from Rohingya refugee clinic

Norwich-based Disaster Assistance Response Team Eldred Willey reports direct from a Samaritans Purse emergency diphtheria clinic he has helped to set up over the past two weeks in Bangladesh to serve Rohingya refugees.
More than a decade ago, I launched the forerunner to SD-WAN Experts, MPLS Experts, on a project to China. Back then finding out telecom services in another country, let alone another continent, seemed like a mission impossible. China was among the most difficult.

Much has changed in our industry. MPLS has given way to SD-WAN, but some things remain the same. We still need global connectivity and China continues to remain a mystery. My story about China blocking VPN traffic  and potentially SD-WAN traffic  caused quite a stir in the industry, in large part because, like so many things when dealing with China, concrete information remains scarce (particularly for non-native speakers).

To recap: According to a notice China Telecom send to one of my customers, the Chinese Government will require commercial Chinese ISPs to block TCP ports 80, 8080, and 443 by January 11, 2018. Port 80 is of course the TCP port commonly used for carrying HTTP traffic; 8080 and 443 are used for carrying HTTPS traffic.

I've also seen similar notices from China Telecom circulated on social media, Yuan Yang, the Beijing correspondent for the Financial Times, wrote to me in an email. Commercial ISP customers interested in maintaining access to those ports must register or apply to re-open the port through their local ISP.

Now, we know that China policy blocks some traffic. Thats not new. In June of 2017, several sources reported that China would be blocking consumer VPN traffic. There would be crackdowns on accessing the Internet beyond the Great Firewall  the worlds most sophisticated state-censorship operation, which employs at least 2 million online censors.

Whats new here are the specifics. China Telecom will be blocking traffic from commercial users starting today. What exactly is a commercial user? Whats the scope of the regulation?

The focus on commercial users is particularly important. There are some whove suggested that the notice is only targeting external use  companies who sell internet-based services. The Chinese regs (thank you Google Translate) discuss how Internet information service providers (which are different from Internet service providers) must register or else be blocked by their ISPs.

The notice I found is effective January 1, 2018. Close to, but not quite the February 1 deadline. (Im hardly a Chinese telecom lawyer and am the first to admit that my reading of this regulation might be wrong.)

Yang suspects the same. The Shanghai Telecom notice you forwarded me lightly suggests the same, since it asks companies to provide their ICP license  only internet companies would usually consider applying for an ICP license. But it's not conclusive as to who it's addressed at, she says.

If indeed only Internet companies are being targeted  and by that we mean companies selling goods and services to online customers  then IT managers may be able to breathe a sigh of relief. Im still uncertain how many companies who dont sell anything online, but if the description is accurate, at least as far as SD-WAN systems are concerned, IT operations should remain unaffected in most cases.

SD-WAN appliances are typically used within companies, which would put them outside of regulatory scope. Thats good, since they rely on Internet access to some degree, blocking 443 (and certainly port 80 and 8080) would most likely disrupt many SD-WAN solutions.

Even hybrid WANs that mix MPLS and Internet could be impacted, at least indirectly. Theyll work fine for those applications running across the private data service, but will be disrupted when failing over to the Internet or sending traffic across the encrypted Internet tunnel as the primary traffic driver. If the regulations do not target internal use, though, then SD-WANs site-to-site VPNs run by companies should not face a problem.

Sounds good, right? But heres the rub: my customer isnt an internet company. Its also not unique in receiving such as notice. I have also heard of non-internet companies that have been affected, wrote Yang.

As it turns out there are cases when non-internet companies have registered their VPNs. As I was finishing up on this blog, Yang wrote back with the following:

I spoke to a western multinational in Beijing (a professional services firm not an internet/tech-related company) who had successfully registered their company-internal VPN with the authorities a couple of years ago, when the regulations over VPNs first came out. The registration process was NOT the same as the ICP licensing process. So, it is possible to register your company-internal VPN.

A bit lost? Youre not alone. I have spoken to tech lawyers in Beijing who have also said their clients are confused. So am I, to be honest.

And theres more. Is the regulation only blocking those ports within China or will traffic exiting China on those ports also be subject to the regulations? Difficult to say. One way around the issue would seem to use private data service, such as a leased line or MPLS circuit. China Telecom (not surprisingly) offers such a service.

But thats hardly a solution. MPLS services are expensive, cumbersome to deploy, and the Chinese government still has the right to inspect your traffic. The whole point for SD-WAN is to move away from private data services not adopt them. Besides, itll probably take you longer to get your MPLS circuit deployed than it will to find out the scope of the regulation.

In my last article, I recommended you check with your provider. I still think thats sound advice. And sit tight for now before racing off for a technology decision that might constrain you going forward.

The mystery should start clearing up very soon.
Police appealing for witnesses after 73-year-old was pulled to the ground

AN elderly woman was robbed of her handbag in what police are describing as a "very distressing" incident in Newbury last Thursday.

The 73-year-old victim was walking along Racecourse Road at 6.50pm and reportedly on her way to a church meeting when she was approached from behind by a man.

The man grabbed her handbag strap and the force of doing so pulled the victim to the ground.

While on the ground the victim tried to shout for help to passers-by. The offender managed to pull the bag from the victim and ran off over Stroud Green towards Nightingales Estate.

The victim was not injured. Her black fabric bag was stolen during the incident which contained cash and bank cards.

The offender is a man wearing dark clothes and gloves.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Martin Turner, based at Newbury police station, said: This incident occurred at a busy time of the day in a busy area of Newbury.

"It was a very distressing incident for the victim and we are working to locate those responsible.

If you saw this incident, or have any information relating to it which you think could help our investigation, please get in touch.

Anyone with any details should call the Thames Valley Police non-emergency number on 101.

If you have any information relating to this case, call 101 quoting reference '43180003880', or contact Crimestoppers anonymously.
Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, and nonmelanoma skin cancer is the most common type of skin cancer, affecting more than 3 million Americans every year. Moreover, NMSC incidence is growing at an exponential rate -; between 1976-1984 and 2000-2010, the overall incidence of basal cell carcinoma increased by 145 percent, and the overall incidence of squamous cell carcinoma increased by 263 percent.

The American Academy of Dermatology has addressed this growing health concern with the release of its guidelines of care for the management of basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology on Jan. 10. Developed by a work group composed of board-certified dermatologists and other experts in the field, the evidence-based guidelines cover best practices for the management of NMSC.

"These two guidelines will help doctors provide the best possible care for patients with BCC and SCC," says board-certified dermatologist Christopher K. Bichakjian, MD, FAAD, co-chair of the work group that developed the guidelines. "If they are left untreated, some NMSCs may grow and spread, potentially leading to disfigurement and even death. When detected early, however, these skin cancers are highly treatable."

According to the guidelines, surgical treatment -; excision, Mohs surgery, or curettage and electrodessication -; is the most effective option for most cases of NMSC. In some cases, however, doctors may consider other treatments, such as cryotherapy, radiation or topical therapy. The guidelines do not include recommendations for treating NMSC with laser therapy or electronic brachytherapy, as there was not enough evidence available for the work group to make an informed decision.

"Board-certified dermatologists have the training, knowledge and experience to provide NMSC patients with the highest-quality care," says board-certified dermatologist Murad Alam, MD, FAAD, co-chair of the guidelines work group. "If you are diagnosed with BCC or SCC, a board-certified dermatologist can work with you to determine the treatment option that's best for you."

To emphasize the importance of considering the patient perspective in determining how to treat BCC and SCC, the AAD's work group included patient advocate Kristi Schmitt Burr, who has been dealing with NMSCs for more than five decades due to a genetic condition called basal cell nevus syndrome (also known as Gorlin-Goltz syndrome). Burr says it's important for patients to understand their available treatment options and to have input in their medical care.

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"I sincerely appreciate the AAD's including patient engagement as an integral component in developing these guidelines, as it is vital for patients and their families to have a voice in their care," Burr says. "Over the decades, trained dermatologists have provided my family with ample resources and counseling to help us achieve optimal outcomes. I hope these guidelines encourage further dialogues between expert doctors, their skilled staff and the patients in their care."

In addition to providing recommendations on NMSC treatment, the guidelines also provide follow-up recommendations for patients who have been diagnosed with BCC or SCC. According to the guidelines, these patients should receive an exam to check for new skin cancers at least once a year and take steps to prevent the development of future skin cancers. The AAD recommends that everyone, whether or not they have had a previous skin cancer, protect themselves from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays by seeking shade, wearing protective clothing, and using a broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher.

The AAD also recommends that everyone perform regular skin self-exams to detect skin cancer early, when it's most treatable. Those who notice any new or suspicious spots on their skin, as well as anything changing, itching or bleeding, should see a board-certified dermatologist.

"Prevention and early detection are the first steps in the fight against skin cancer, so it's important to protect your skin from the sun and keep an eye out for new, changing or suspicious spots," says board-certified dermatologist Henry W. Lim, MD, FAAD, president of the AAD. "If you are diagnosed with BCC or SCC, you can trust a board-certified dermatologist to provide you with the best possible treatment."
Elderly patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed improved overall survival (OS) when treated with chemoradiation (CRT) compared to definitive radiation (RT) alone.

Lung cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. NSCLC constitutes between 80-85% of all lung cancers and more than 30% of those are diagnosed with stage III disease over the age of 65. Despite this large population, elderly patients are often excluded or underrepresented in clinical trials resulting in limited treatment options for this population of patients. Given that NSCLC is a heterogenous disease requiring a multidisciplinary treatment approach, and the limited treatment data available in this population, the optimal treatment strategy for stage III NSCLC in the elderly needs to be further explored.

A group of investigators at The Ohio State University in the United States conducted a retrospective study to compare the effectiveness of RT alone verses CRT in elderly patients 70 years old with stage III NSCLC not treated surgically. Patients 70 years old with stage III NSCLC not surgically treated from 2003-2014 were selected from the National Cancer Database. Patients were divided into two cohorts: patients treated with definitive RT and patients treated with definitive CRT. The CRT patients were considered to have received concurrent CRT if chemotherapy was delivered within 30 days prior to or after initiation of RT, while sequential CRT was defined as RT delivered 30 days after initiation of chemotherapy. The OS between treatment groups was compared using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards regression before and after propensity score matching (PSM) to reduce potential selection bias.

The results of the study were published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, the official journal of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). The study identified 5,023 elderly patients treated with definitive RT and 18,206 patients treated with CRT. Univariate analysis revealed that younger age, male sex, white race, higher income, stage IIIB, increased distance from the treating hospital and a Charlson-Deyo score <1 were associated with higher odds of receiving CRT. These covariates were used to calculate propensity scores. Treatment with CRT was associated with improved OS compared to RT before PSM (HR=0.66, 95%CI 0.64-0.68, p<0.0001) and after PSM (HR=0.91, 95%CI 0.85-0.96, p=0.002). After PSM, treatment with CRT corresponded to a 33% reduction in the risk of death (HR=0.67, 95%CI 0.64-0.70, p<0.001). The benefit of CRT was greater for elderly patients treated with multi-agent chemotherapy (HR=0.64, 95%CI 0.61-0.67, p<0.001) compared with single-agent chemotherapy (HR=0.83, 95%CI 0.75-0.92, p<0.001). Finally, patients treated with CRT were further subdivided into those treated with concurrent verses sequential CRT with 15,840 treated with concurrent CRT and 2,366 treated with sequential CRT. Treatment with sequential CRT corresponded to a 9% reduction in the risk of death (HR=0.91, 95%CI 0.85-0.96, p=0.002).

The authors comment that, "Treatment of the elderly with locally advanced NSCLC is challenging and, with an aging population, will remain an issue for the U.S. healthcare system for the foreseeable future. To our knowledge, our study represents the largest reported cohort of elderly stage III NSCLC patients not treated surgically. We found that CRT is superior to definitive RT in elderly patients with stage III NSCLC not treated surgically. We also found that in patients that receive CRT, sequential chemotherapy and RT resulted in improved OS compared to concurrent CRT. Treatment of the elderly with stage III NSCLC should involve a multidisciplinary discussion. All patients not eligible for surgery should first be considered for CRT, with either concurrent or sequential RT. Based on our findings, multi-agent chemotherapy is preferred over single-agent regimens in suitable patients. When multi-agent chemotherapy is not feasible, a single-agent regimen is supported by our results. When chemotherapy is contraindicated or not recommended, then definitive RT alone should be considered."
Choice of words might matter when doctors communicate uncertainty of diagnosis to their patients. A paper published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care shows that the parents of pediatric patients may react more negatively to doctors who communicate uncertainty of diagnosis explicitly, such as directly stating they are unsure, as compared to doctors who use implicit language, such as discussing "most likely" diagnosis or providing several possible diagnoses under consideration.

Diagnostic uncertainty is widespread in clinical practice and physician guidelines generally recommend that doctors explain the degree of uncertainty associated with their diagnosis. However, how exactly doctors should communicate uncertainty is a matter of debate. This communication can lower visit satisfaction, decrease adherence to doctor instructions, lessen trust, and decrease confidence in the doctor.

The researchers here surveyed parents of pediatric patients who hypothetically received a diagnosis with an element of uncertainty. The uncertainty in the diagnosis was communicated in one of three ways; either with an explicit expression of uncertainty (such as "I'm not sure which disease this is"), an implicit expression of uncertainty using broad differential diagnoses (such as "it could be this disease or this other disease"), or another implicit expression of uncertainty (such as "it is most likely this disease"). Researchers found that explicit expressions of uncertainty were associated with lower perceived technical competence of the doctor, less trust and confidence, and a less willingness to adhere to doctors' advice.

"Misdiagnosis is common in medical practice and to enable improvements, uncertainty of diagnosis is something both doctors and patients will need to embrace" said Hardeep Singh, MD, MPH, senior author and researcher at the Houston Veterans Affairs Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety and Baylor College of Medicine. "Our study provides a foundation for future development of evidence-based guidance on how doctors can best communicate diagnostic uncertainty to patients to improve diagnosis and care outcomes."
A team of cancer researchers from the University of Liverpool, has made an important contribution to our understanding of cancer cell regulation which could better inform future cancer treatments.

The research is funded by North West Cancer Research, which has ring-fenced 180,000 for the three-year-long project which started in 2015.

Led by Professor Ian Prior at the University of Liverpool, in collaboration with researchers at AstraZeneca, the research focuses on a group of proteins found in the human body called kinases.

Their research measures how changes in kinase activity can influence the growth, development and regulation of cancer cells. They measure kinase network rewiring that occurs in cancer patients so that they can identify new strategies for killing cancer cells.

Their insights into this important family of proteins have been published in the highly regarded Cancer Research Journal and will provide a foundation for future research on the use of kinases in cancer treatments.

Some kinases are currently being successfully targeted in cancer therapies, which work by inhibiting kinases that trigger cancer cells to divide and grow. Yet there is still a lot to learn about kinases and the important role they could play within future cancer treatments.

The research has been published in the Journal of Cancer Research.

Professor Prior, NWCR Chair of Molecular Oncology at the University of Liverpool explains: "Our research focused on getting under the microscope of cancer cell behavior and understanding the effects that different proteins can have on this behavior.

"Research into kinases has been underway for many years now, but most attention has been focussed on only a few types, with relatively little known about the remaining types.

"Our publication in the Cancer Research Journal highlights emerging and overlooked areas within kinase research and discusses the successes and challenges associated with treating cancer patients."

North West Cancer Research secured 4million of funding for cancer research projects across Merseyside and the North West in 2017.

This includes 1million of funding to sustain research at the North West Cancer Research Centre at the University of Liverpool until 2021.

Alastair Richards, CEO North West Cancer Research said: "As a funder of cancer research, we are always pleased to hear when projects we have supported generate important breakthroughs in our understanding of cancer.

"We are committed to funding only the best quality research to help the fight against cancer here in the North West. But we cannot do this alone. We rely solely on public donations - which is why every penny we raise is so important.

"Without the help of our supporters and fundraisers we would not be able to continue to support the lifesaving research which is being carried out on our doorstep today."
According to researchers at the Queen Mary University of London, trying out a single cigarette could raise the risk of taking up smoking as a habit for two thirds of the individuals. The study titled, What Proportion of People Who Try One Cigarette Become Daily Smokers? A Meta-Analysis of Representative Surveys, was published in the November 2017 issue of the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research and outlined data on smoking among over 215,000 people in surveys from UK, US, Australia and New Zealand.

Image Credit: Preeda2531 / Shutterstock

The team of researchers collected data from 216314 individuals in the eight surveys through the Global Health Data Exchange. They had initially accessed 2776 surverys globally and finally only 8 of these met their criteria and provided them with detailed and complete accessible data to analyze.

They noted that of the 60 percent of the participants who tried smoking for a single time, 68.9% went on to become full-fledged smokers who smoked daily. These eight surveys that they used were all involving English speaking populations and came between 2000 and 2016 from the developed nations. The number of people who took up smoking after their initial experiment is termed as conversion rate by the researchers.

Lead researcher Peter Hajek explained that this was the first time that such an information was revealed and it is worth a note that cigarettes do have the potential to become a habit after just a single experience in such a large number of individuals. He explained that the actual numbers may be bigger. This is mainly because the study included eight surveys, each of which have been conducted in different manners using different methodologies and study designs. The range percentages of people who took up smoking after a single smoking experience was between 60.9 percent in one survey to up to 76.9 percent in another survey.

An earlier study in 2007 had looked at 1246 sixth-grade students belonging to in six communities in Massachusetts. They had found that 10 percent of the participants became addicted to nicotine within two days of smoking their first cigarettes and a quarter were into the habit by a month. A single cigarette is not free from harm says the 2010 U.S. Surgeon General report and can raise the risk of acute health problems as well as long term risk of heart disease and heart attacks. According to Hajek only 19 percent of 11- to 15-year-olds in the UK have ever tried a cigarette and this means the number of kids getting hooked onto cigarettes has reduced significantly from the past. Among adults the number of smokers has gone down by 19.9 percent between 2010 and 2016.

Hajek declared at the end of the study that he is a consultant and has obtained funds for research from manufacturers of medications that assist in cessation of smoking. This could be conflict of interest feel some experts. However, it is undisputable that young people should be discouraged to try their first cigarettes and warned about the harmful effects of even a single light.

Source: https://academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ntr/ntx243/4591649?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Scleroderma is a terribly debilitating disease with no effective treatments and the mortality rates are still upwards of 20%-50%, the highest of any rheumatic disease.

This disabling autoimmune disorder results in inflammation and fibrosis leading to the thickening of the body's connective tissue, including the skin; and for decades its treatment has been symptomatic and, at best, inconsistently effective. But new research by a team from Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City may signal hope for patients suffering from the condition.

The mechanism behind systemic sclerosis is not well understood. However, new research published today in Science Translational Medicine reveals a potential breakthrough into the cause of this disease, and also provides a possible treatment lead. Led by HSS researcher Dr. Franck Barrat -- the Michael Bloomberg Chair and Senior Scientist at HSS - along with clinicians of the Scleroderma center of HSS, the work implicates what are called plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) in contributing to scleroderma.

Normally pDCs secrete a compound called interferon to help fight off infections. However, as Dr. Barrat's study revealed, in scleroderma patients these cells are chronically activated and infiltrate the skin causing fibrosis and inflammation.

"Plasmacytoid dendritic cells are known to be activated in many other rheumatic conditions, including lupus," explains Dr. Barrat. "But our findings suggest that they participate in both establishing and maintaining fibrosis in the skin as well. This is a very interesting finding as it opens new ways to tackle this condition."

Dr. Barrat found that depleting pDCs in an animal model of scleroderma prevented the disease from forming, while also reversing already existing fibrosis.

The new research also revealed that a receptor on the surface of pDCs called TLR8 is responsible for their increased activity.

Dr. Barrat fully acknowledges the limitations of the new study in particular the part where the research used animal models of scleroderma, which only partially reflect the complexity of the disease in humans. But he's hopeful that not only will the new findings help illuminate the pathology of a puzzling disease, they may also represent potential novel approaches to treatment.

Strategies to eliminate pDCs are currently being evaluated by drug companies in diseases other than scleroderma. And though these potential treatments are still years away from being available, Dr. Barrat hopes that "a better understanding of the role pDCs play in fibrosis will open up the possibility of repurposing existing drugs to treat patients with scleroderma".
Dawn of DC kicks off with new titles for Green Lantern, Shazam!, Superboy, Doom Patrol, and more

And there's even a little Batman in the mix, of course
All 10 Asean leaders confirm participation in India's Republic Day celebrations

New Delhi : Leaders of all 10 Asean countries have confirmed their participation as Guests of Honour at India's Republic Day celebrations to commemorate 25 years of New Delhi's close ties with the southeast Asian bloc.

Preeti Saran, Secretary East in the External Affairs Ministry, told reporters here on Wednesday that it was "unprecedented" in India's history to have 10 Guests of Honour at the Republic Day parade -- a mix of India's military might and cultural heritage.

"This time, we will have all the 10 Asean leaders. We are delighted and honoured that all the 10 Asean leaders have confirmed their participation in the commemorative summit as well as to be Guests of Honour at the Republic Day," Saran said.

She said it was a landmark year for Asean and India as they are celebrating 25 years of friendship, 15 years of summit partnership and five years of strategic partnership.

She said that in the run up to the summit on January 25, the government also planned to organise another 16 major events.

The leaders from Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will start arriving by January 24. The summit will begin with a banquet hosted by President Ramnath Kovind, to be followed by a plenary and a "gala dinner to be hosted by Prime Minister" Narendra Modi.

Saran said special arrangements have been made for spouses of at least six of the 10 leaders who would travel to India.
MEA confirms India, Pakistan NSA meeting over terrorism in Bangkok

New Delhi : India for the first time confirmed on Thursday that National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart Nasir Khan Janjua in Bangkok last month with a focus on how to fight terror and end cross-border terrorism.

"Yes, I agree talks took place. I also agree that the issue is of terrorism. Talks were held on how to rid this region of the scourge of terrorism, how to ensure that terrorism doesn't affect this region. I think we raised the issue of cross-border terrorism (with Pakistan) in those talks," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He was answering queries about media reports on the meeting between Doval and Janjua in Bangkok on December 26 -- a day after the mother and wife of retired Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav met him in Islamabad and were subjected to humiliation by Pakistani authorities and a section of the press.

The spokesperson de-linked the meeting between the NSAs from the stalled India-Pakistan dialogue process and said it was a part of operational level engagement between the two countries.

"The dialogue process between India and Pakistan... We have said talks and terror cannot go together. But apart from that, there are other dialogue mechanisms that take place between India and Pakistan like talks at DGMO level, talks between BSF and Pakistan Rangers, there is a regular mechanism. Likewise, talks between NSAs is a part of operational level talks."

He said while India believed that "terror and talks cannot go together but talks on terror can definitely go ahead".

Asked if more such meetings between the NSAs were scheduled, Kumar said "these operational-level mechanisms do take place... but we don't announce these meeting. As and when these meetings take place, you will get to know."
Pakistan engulfed in protests over rape and murder of 7-year-old

Islamabad : Massive protests have erupted in Pakistan over rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl Zainab Ansari; her body was found on Tuesday near a garbage dumpster, roughly two kms from her house.

According to reports by Pakistani TV channels, the girl was raped and then apparently strangled to death. Pakistan police officials told Dawn News that the post-mortem report of the child confirmed suspicions that she was raped before being murdered.

The news left Pakistan residents fuming in anger, leading to protests across the nation. According to reuters, this is not the first time such incident has been reported from Kasur. In the past year, there have been at least 12 such reported incidents in that region.

On January 4, Zainab Ansari had left her aunt's house to attend Quran class in the neighbourhood from where she was abducted. The family registered a missing complaint after the girl did not return home till late night.

CCTV footage obtained by the family shows the girl walking with a stranger and holding his hand. Some reports claimed that the girl was walking without any apparent signs of fear.

On January 9, a police constable recovered her body from a heap of rubbish.

The victims father Ameen Ansari claimed that the police did not cooperate with the family members who registered the complaint. My relatives and neighbours told me that the police used to come, have food and leave, he told local media. While they didnt do anything, my friends and family spent day and night looking for my daughter, he added.
US announces new travel advisory, asks citizens not to visit Pakistan

Washington : The United States of America on Wednesday released new travel advisory for its residents in which it says 'reconsider travel' plan to Pakistan, placing it at Level 3 of its four point safety ranking system.

Amid tough calls against Pakistan, the US cited 'terrorism' and 'increased risk' as the prime reasons behind such move. It also advised its countrymen to not travel to Balochistan province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas among others.

The new advisory has come days after the United States decided to cut down $225 million military aid to the country.

As per the latest safety ranking system of the United States, Level 1 advises travellers to exercise normal precaution, while Level 4, which has countries like Afghanistan, recommends "Do Not Travel".

"Will issue an overall travel advisory level for every country, levels of advice may vary for specific locations or areas within a country" the state department said. It further stated "improvements will provide US citizens with clear, timely, and reliable safety and security information worldwide"

India has been placed at Level 2, which pertains to 'exercising increased caution'.

Countries have been issuing travel advisories for its citizens time and again, considering the present global scenario. Now every country has a travel advisory based on this system, which has replaced all the previous such advisories.
Californias Department of Water Resources was blasted in an independent report for having a culture of complacency and incompetence that contributed to last years near-disaster at Oroville Dam.

The full 584 page independent forensic team report is here.

The agencys largest water storage site and the nations tallest dam at Lake Oroville fell into disrepair. In February, pounding rain and large water releases caused the reservoirs spillway to collapse. A back-up spillway also failed. Fears that water would pour uncontrollably downstream prompted the evacuation of 180,000 people.

The independent panel of safety experts said the dam was badly built from the start in the 1960s. The principal designer of the spillway told the dam-safety team that he had just completed post-graduate work at the time he worked on the Oroville project decades ago, had had no previous engineering employment beyond two summer stints, and had never designed a spillway before.

Fifty years of incompetence and complancency

The seriousness of the weak as-constructed conditions and lack of repair durability was not recognized during numerous inspections and review processes over the almost 50-year history of the project. Over time, chute flows and temperature variations led to progressive deterioration of the concrete and corrosion of steel reinforcing bars and anchors, with likely loss of slab strength and anchor capacity. There was likely also some shallow underslab erosion and some loss of underdrain system effectiveness, which contributed to increased slab uplift forces. The particularly poor foundation conditions at the initial service spillway chute failure location contributed to likely low anchor capacity and shallow underslab erosion.

Due to the unrecognized inherent vulnerability of the design and as-constructed conditions and the chute slab deterioration, the spillway chute slab failure, although inevitable, was unexpected. Once the initial section of the chute slab was uplifted, the underlying poor quality foundation materials were directly exposed to high velocity flows and were quickly eroded. Undermining and

uplift of other portions of the chute slab resulted in further removal of slab sections and more foundation erosion.

Although the poor foundation conditions at both spillways were well documented in geology reports, these conditions were not properly addressed in the original design and construction, and all subsequent reviews mischaracterized the foundation as good quality rock. As a result, the significant erosion of the service spillway foundation was also not anticipated. Following the unexpected chute slab failure and erosion, and subsequent closure of the service spillway gates to examine the damage, delicate and difficult risk tradeoffs, involving myriad considerations, were necessary over the next few days in order to manage the incident.

There were many opportunities to intervene and prevent the incident, but the overall system of interconnected factors operated in a way that these opportunities were missed. Numerous human, organizational, and industry factors led to the physical factors not being recognized and properly addressed, and to the decision-making during the incident. The following are some of the key factors which are specific to DWR:

 The dam safety culture and program within DWR, although maturing rapidly and on the right path, was still relatively immature at the time of the incident and has been too reliant on regulators and the regulatory process.

 Like many other large dam owners, DWR has been somewhat overconfident and complacent regarding the integrity of its civil infrastructure and has tended to emphasize shorter-term operational considerations. Combined with cost pressures, this resulted in

strained internal relationships and inadequate priority for dam safety.

 DWR has been a somewhat insular organization, which inhibited accessing industry knowledge and developing needed technical expertise.

 DWRs ability to build the appropriate size, composition, and expertise of its technical staff involved in dam engineering and safety has been limited by bureaucratic constraints.
Amphibious warship Portland (LPD-27) will have a combat laser weapon installed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and will serve as the flagship of this years Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in Hawaii.

The laser gun that is considered a next-generation follow-on to the Laser Weapon System (LaWS) that was tested for three years in the Middle East aboard afloat forward staging base USS Ponce.

The laser will be installed as early as this fall and will be a bolt-on capability, much like LaWS.
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Wednesday, January 10, 2018

J. Thomas Oldham recently posted an Article entitled, A Survey of Lawyers Observations About the Principles Governing the Award of Spousal Support Throughout the United States, Family & Children's Law eJournal (2017). Provided below is an abstract of the Article:

At the beginning of this project, I distributed 5000 questionnaires to family lawyers around the country. I asked the lawyers to respond by estimating the spousal support award, if any, that would result for six hypothetical divorcing couples in their jurisdiction. While the response rate was not great, the responses received suggest that there are three different types of spousal support systems in the U. S. today. In some states, spousal support is rarely awarded, and then only to prevent severe hardship. In others, spousal support is frequently awarded when the spouses incomes are substantially different at divorce. In most states, however, it appears that there is no clear spousal support policy, and the award, if any, in any given case is the result of which judge is assigned to hear the matter. In these states, spousal support determinations appear to be arbitrary. I have included as an appendix to my article a summary of the responses.



Some states have responded to this lack of clarity regarding spousal support standards by adopting guidelines. These guidelines attempt to provide more uniformity in terms of award amounts and award duration. To date, they have not attempted to provide guidance regarding when a spousal support award is warranted. In this article, I discuss how spousal support standards could be clarified in those states where there appears to be no clearly accepted policy.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2018/01/article-on-a-survey-of-lawyers-observations-about-the-principles-governing-the-award-of-spousal-supp.html
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A fund managed by Morgan Stanley PE Asia has invested INR 152 Cr in Manna Foods

Business

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

A fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia has invested INR 152 Cr in Southern Health Foods, makers of "Manna Foods" brand of natural health food products.

Manna Foods' flagship product, Manna Health Mix is a ready to cook improvisation of 'sathumaavu', a traditional homemade multi-grain mixture of cereals, millets and pulses that is cooked in hot milk. Apart from its flagship product, Manna Foods has a strong suite of health food products including ready to cook millet based infant food, millet grains, soya nuggets, dried fruits, purees, pastes etc. Manna is a well-known household brand in South India, trusted by a huge number of households.

"Led by Manna Health Mix, Manna Foods has created a unique health food platform with an array of natural, preservative-free and ethnic food products range. At a time when people are quitting synthetic preparations and switching over to organic and traditional food, Manna Foods is excited about the partnership with Morgan Stanley to write a true success story in Health Foods space in India", said I.S.A.K Nazar, Company promoter.

Arjun Saigal, Co-Head of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia in India, said, "We are excited to back a fast growing brand such as Manna which has consistently delivered on its customer promise of natural, healthy and high quality products. At a time when India's eating habits and lifestyles are creating health challenges, we believe that Manna's natural foods are well positioned to offer appealing choices to consumers. Additionally, foods based on home-grown grains such as millets are regaining popularity, offering 'superfood'-type nutritional content at an affordable cost. We look forward to driving Manna's next phase of growth."

The proceeds will be used to fund Company's expansion in South India as well as provide part exit to existing investors. The Company had earlier raised INR 30 Cr from early growth investors led by Fulcrum in 2015.

"Having partnered with Manna in 2015, Fulcrum has been very happy working with the Manna team under the able leadership of Mr. Nazar. We have always felt that Manna has a strong brand and the same has reflected in the strong sales growth posted by the Company over the past 2 years. Joining hands with Morgan Stanley will further help strengthen Company's positioning in the FMCG space", said Ethan Khatri, Partner at Fulcrum.

MAPE Advisory Group acted as the sole financial advisor for the transaction.

About Southern Health Foods

Southern Health Foods is the maker of "Manna Foods" brand of natural health food products. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Chennai, Manna manufactures and sells ethnic millet based breakfast cereals, instant drink mixes, infant foods, dried fruits and other everyday food products that are 100% natural, have high nutritional value and are gluten free/diabetic friendly. Manna's health foods are based on traditional household recipes and are made from natural nutrient rich ingredients that boost mental and physical development, increase immunity and improve digestion. Today, Manna has a marketing network of 40+ super-stockists and over 500 distributors that cater to 67,250+ retail outlets across 350 towns in India.

About Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia

Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia is one of the leading private equity investors in Asia-Pacific, having invested in the region for over 20 years. Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia invests primarily in highly structured minority investments and control buyouts in growth-oriented companies. The experienced investment team is led by senior professionals with extensive industry relationships, in-depth market knowledge and the ability to apply international investment principles within each local context. Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia has offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Mumbai and New York, and leverages the brand and unparalleled global network of Morgan Stanley.

About Fulcrum

Fulcrum is a private equity investor specializing in Indian Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare opportunities. The team comprises of a seasoned investment & operational professionals with hands on domain expertise. Founded in 2000, by the promoters of erstwhile pharmaceutical company - American Remedies, Fulcrum has built a strong track record for adding operational value to portfolio companies and generating superior returns.

Contact Details: Ms. Jayashree

Southern Health Foods Private Limited

129, Z BLOCK (PLOT # 1160), 6th AVENUE, ANNA NAGAR CHENNAI - 40

P: 044- 2628 3991 / 2628 6620; Mobile: 9840283164

website: www.mannafoods.in
J&K: Curfew relaxed for 12 hours in Bhaderwah, educational institutions likely to reopen on Monday

Assam: Indefinite curfew in Dhula town after man dies in police firing during protest

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Guwahati, Jan 11: On Wednesday, Dhula town in Assam's Darrang district remained tensed after a person died and several others were injured in a police firing.

Prior to the police firing incident, at least 5,000 people gathered in front of the Dhula Police Station to protest against the alleged custodial death of a person.

According to reports, policemen resorted to lathi-charge and firing as protesters went unruly. In order to control the situation, authorities have imposed an indefinite curfew in the town.

The mob burnt tyres, blocked NH-15 and gheraoed the police station claiming that one of their co-villagers had died due to torture in police custody after being picked up from his home, according to district deputy commissioner Ashok Kumar Barman.

The villagers alleged the 37-year-old man was picked up from his residence in remote Attakari village number 2 on Tuesday night and demanded his body. Officials said the man was arrested on suspicion of possessing illegal arms.

The protests continued despite the suspension of the police station in-charge and assurance of stern action against policemen found guilty.

District Superintendent of Police Sreejith T told PTI the mob brick-batted the police station, breaking windows and glass panes of doors. He said seven personnel were injured in the attack, prompting the police to open fire near Kharupetia to control the situation.

One person was killed in the police firing and two others, including a woman, injured, he said.

Following this, indefinite curfew was clamped in the area under the Dhula police station barring NH-15, Barman said. Security measures in the area were also tightened to prevent any untoward incident, he said.

Those injured in the brick-batting were a deputy sub-inspector, headquarters, Kharupetia police station officer-in-charge and three security personnel of Darrang SP's office and two other constables, Sreejith said.

He said when the man, whom the police had picked up, was being taken to the police station, he complained that he was feeling unwell and was rushed to the hospital first, and then taken into the custody. He was later taken to Guwahati Medical College.

On being asked if the man died due to police torture as alleged by the villagers, the SP replied that anything can be said only after investigation.

The district administration on instructions of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has ordered a magisterial enquiry by Additional Deputy Commissioner, Law and Order, Naranarayan Nath. He would submit his report within 15 days, official sources said.

Meanwhile, an official release in Guwahati said Sonowal expressed concern over the incident and ordered another enquiry by Additional Chief Secretary MGVK Bhanu.

The opposition, however, said the enquiry ordered was "inadequate" and demanded a judicial probe into the incident.

The leader of Opposition in Assam Debabrata Saikia of the Congress alleged that incidents of firing, use of teargas shells and lathi charge by the police have become frequent in the past few months in the state.

The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti accused the BJP-led government in the state of running a "police raj" and misusing power over the common people.

"The Dhula incident is a clear case of violation of human rights. People came out on roads to peacefully protest the death of a person in police custody but they were received by bullets. Such incidents are not happening for the first time," the KMSS said in a statement.

OneIndia News
Indian-origin Sikh woman who wears turban is new councillor of Canadian city Brampton

Haryana: Billed 20 Lakhs by hospital, alleges family of pregnant woman who died

India

oi-Madhuri

A pregnant woman, who was suffering from fever, died at Faridabad's Asian Hospital on January 11.

The Hospital administration handed over a bill of Rs 18 Lakh to her family for a 22-days treatment.

According to uncle,''She had fever but was shifted to ICU. They said she has typhoid & later said she has a perforated intestine. They asked us to submit Rs 3 Lakh for operation & said it'll be done once the entire amount is submitted. We submitted Rs 10-12 Lakh so far. They asked for Rs 18 Lakh.''

However, Relatives demanded an investigation against hospital administration.

Earlier, Fortis Hospital in Gurugram came under the scanner for charging 15 lakhs for the treatment of a 7-year-old girl suffering from dengue, who later died.

OneIndia News
When lawyer shows up without case file, SC says 'it's like Sachin without bat'

Hindu prayers in Central schools: SC to examine plea

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre on a plea that questioned the practise of making students in Kendriya Vidhyalayas recite prayers in Hindi and Sanskrit.

The petitioner contended that this practise amounted to the violation of religious freedom of students of other faiths. These schools should be barred from following this practise, the petitioner also said.

This amounts to the violation of Fundamental Rights under Articles 25 and 28 of the Constitution, the petitioner, Veenayak Shah contended. The petitioners whose children passed out of Kendriya Vidhyalaya school said that the morning prayers begin with a recitation of prayers in Sanskrit and Hindi which are based on Hindu religion.

The above prayer is being enforced throughout the country in all Kendriya Vidhalayas. As a result, parents and children of the minority communities as well as atheist and others who do not agree with this system of prayers such as agnostics, scepticists, rationalists and others would find the imposition of this prayer constitutionally impermissible, the petitioner also contended.

OneIndia News
Amit Shah to chair two-day 'Chintan Shivir of Home Ministers'; Mamata to skip the meet

'Beauty is not about how you look': Mamata Banerjee apologises for Trinamool minister's comments on President

Mamata Banerjee receives D Litt from Calcutta varsity

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday was honoured with a Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt.) degree by the Calcutta University. Banerjee, an alumnus of the university, was recognised for her social service.

Speaking at the convocation ceremony, Banerjee said, "Intolerance is rising in the country. History should not be distorted. India has diversity of origin and we should respect that."

Former North Bengal University VC Ranju Gopal Mukhopadhyay had moved a public interest litigation on Monday challenging the university ' s decision to give a DLitt to Mamata Banerjee.

The CU has announced that it will bestow the honorary D.Litt on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, an alumnus, for her contribution to social service at its convocation on January 11.

Advocate General Kishore Dutta submitted before a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee that the decision to confer the honorary degree was taken by the syndicate and senate of the university and there was no sufferance of public interest.

Dutta claimed that as such it should not be treated as a PIL and the petition should be dismissed.

Petitioner Ranjugopal Mukherjee, a former professor of the university, claimed that the decision to confer the award was arbitrary and opaque.

His counsel Bikas Bhattacharya submitted that university issues and education itself are of public interest and as such the petition was justified to be a PIL.

He submitted that the syndicate or senate decision did not attribute any reason for conferring the award on Banerjee.

In their petition, the petitioners have argued that Calcutta University is a state-funded institution and will suffer a "credibility loss" if it confers the degree upon the highest executive authority of the state.

Petitioners also argue that serious doubts have already been raised in public domain over academic credentials of Mamata Banerjee including her so-called "PhD Degree" which she herself refrains from using.

However, the AG said there was no bar on awarding the honorary degree to an incumbent chief minister, and submitted that Pranab Mukherjee was conferred the degree when he was the president of the country.

The West Bengal government told the HC that a PIL challenging Calcutta University's decision to confer honorary D.Litt to CM Mamata was politically motivated.

Claiming that the petition "is out and out in political interest," Dutta submitted that "except character assassination, nothing is there."

Appearing for the university, counsel Saktinath Mukherjee submitted that the petition lacked "justifiability" and should be rejected at the outset.

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)
JNU makes minimum 75 pc attendance compulsory for students

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Jan 11: Jawaharlal Nehru University administration has made minimum 75 per cent attendance compulsory for all students. However, if a student is absent on valid medical grounds then 60 per cent attendance will suffice.

The circular issued by Assistant Registrar(Evaluation) Sajjan Singh, based on recommendations of the compulsory attendance committee, said, for students of BA, MA, MSc, MTech, PG diploma, MPhil, Phd and all part-time programmes a minimum of 75 per cent attendance in a course in mandatory for appearing in the end-semester examination.

"If a student of part-time programme, BA, MA, MSc, MTech, PG diploma, Mphil and Phd course work is absent on valid medical grounds, a minimum 60 per cent attendance will suffice," it said.

When contacted, Sajjan Singh was not available for comments. The committee, whose recommendations have been accepted, has also said at least two contact/interaction sessions with the supervisor in a month is mandatory. "MPhil and PhD students who are absent from the university on valid academic grounds must have prior approval from supervisor/chairperson of the centre concerned and the competent authority," the circular said.

The MPhil and PhD students have also been granted 30 days leave in an academic year with the supervisor's permission. "An attendance sheet which has been attached with the circular will be completed for each lecture/practical/lab by course instructor/teacher. The sheet will be submitted by the teacher on the same day at centre/school office," the circular said.

The centre/school office will maintain the attendance records and a copy of the sheets will be submitted every month, it added. JNU Teachers Association announced its decision to boycott the compulsory attendance for students and said it was "unproductive" and "meaningless" form of bureaucratic work for teachers.

PTI
Kamala Mills fire: '1Above' pub co-owner Abjijeet Mankar arrested, all 3 owners in custody

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

The three owners of resto-bar 1Above in the city's Kamala Mills compound, where a fire killed 14 people in December, were arrested by the Mumbai Police late on Wednesday night. The only accused missing now is Yug Tuli, the owner of Mojo's Bistro.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III) Virendra Mishra confirmed that Mankar had been picked up and placed under arrest early on Thursday morning.

Late on Wednesday night, the police had arrested Jigar and Kripesh Sanghvi, the other co-owners of 1Above.

The Sanghvis and their partner Abhijeet Mankar had gone underground after police charged them with culpable homicide.

On Tuesday, Vishal Karya, a known face in Mumbai's social circles was arrested for allegedly helping Abhijeet Mankar evade arrest.

A fire broke out in Mojo's Bistro and spread to the adjoining 1Above, also injuring 55 others.

The Mumbai Police had filed a case initially against the management of 1Above but later also added the names of the owners of Mojo's Bistro. 1Above and Mojo's Bistro are pubs located on the rooftop of a building in Kamala Mills Compound. According to the probe by the fire department, the fire started at Mojo's Bistro and spread to 1Above on December 29.

Last week, the police on Saturday arrested Yug K Pathak, the son of a retired DGP-rank IPS officer and the co-owner of The Mojo's Bistro, where 14 people were killed in a fire on December 29.

Prior to Pathak's arrest, two managers of '1 Above' pub Kevin Bawa and Lisbon Lopez were also arrested in connection with the fire tragedy.

An offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under sections 304, 337, 338, 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the three owners of '1 Above' at the NM Joshi Marg police station following the incident.

OneIndia News
PM Modi lauds Karnataka chief secretary for her benevolence

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Karnataka chief secretary K Ratna Prabha as a role model for her peers and citizens during all-India deputy commissioners' conference recently in New Delhi.

PM Modi said he was inspired by a tweet of a senior IAS officer, who recalled how her small benevolence to a shepherd, some 27 years ago, brought a smile to her face. "Though I cannot recollect her name, such officers should be a role model for others," Modi said.

"It's heartening to know this country has such officers. If all officers and lawmakers follow in her footsteps, no one can stop this country from progressing, " Times of India quoted PM Modi as saying.

Narsappa of Idapnur village Raichur said he was grazing sheep near a school & I was passing by as DC in my car, stopped called the school teacher & admitted him & now 27 years later he was before me as a constable.came to Thank Me!! Cant believe small actions hve lasting results.  Ratna Prabha (@Ratnaprabha_IAS) January 3, 2018

Ratna Prabha shared an incident on Twitter. When she was deputy commissioner of Raichur district she had helped a shepherd, Narasappa, get admission in school. After 27 years Narasappa came to meet and thank the Chief Secretary.

On January 3, Ratna Prabha had tweeted: "Narasappa of Idapnur village Raichur said he was grazing sheep near a school & I was passing by as DC in my car, stopped called the school teacher & admitted him & now 27 years later he was before me as a constable. came to Thank Me!! Cant believe small actions have lasting results''.

Reacting to this, Ratna Prabha tweeted, PM Modi's appreciation was more than awards and certificates she received in her career.

As Congrats pour in, inplenty Im humbled by our Prime Ministers mention of my tweet. wld have recd many certiificates& medals(stored in mycupboard) this Live Certificate from the revered PM will remain in my heart & people forever. Its the most treasured certificate & compliment  Ratna Prabha (@Ratnaprabha_IAS) January 10, 2018

OneIndia News
'Prevent channels from spreading vicious propaganda in Kashmir', MHA told

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Centre's interlocutor in Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma has sought the intervention of the Union Home Ministry about the propaganda that is being spread by some television channels.

"It does not help the cause when channels spread vicious propaganda against Kashmiris", he has told the Home Ministry. "When these channels air such propaganda, it tends to defeat the purpose of talks", he also said.

The Home Ministry is likely to convene a meeting with the representatives of the channels shortly. The Home Ministry would, however, tread carefully on the matter as it would not want to step on the freedom of the press.

During the meeting, the Home Ministry would tell the channels to tread responsibly on the issue. There is no point in making a mountain of a molehill, the ministry would say.

For instance, when four to five students are involved in incidents of stone pelting, channels would try and depict that the entire student community is involved. This paints Kashmiris in very poor light and the very purpose of talking peace in Kashmir is defeated.

OneIndia News
"RSS, BJP are terrorist organisations," says Siddaramaiah, political war breaks out in Karnataka

India

oi-Anusha

Recommended Video

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah calls BJP, RSS terror organisation | Oneindia News

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's statement calling the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bajrang Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) "terrorist organisations" have led to a political uproar in the state. The BJP has now decided to launch a statewide "jail bharo" protest condemning Siddaramaiah's statement. KPCC working President, Dinesh Gundu Rao's statement backing Siddaramaiah's claims have only led to more protest and anger from the BJP in Karnataka which is scheduled to face assembly polls later this year.

"Hindutva should be in our hearts and not on our plates or the food we eat. What they (BJP) are preaching is not Hindutva. They are followers of Nathuram Godse. They are not Hindus, they lack humanity. They are like terrorist organisations, only Hindutva terrorists," Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister, Karnataka had said on Wednesday. The Congress leader reiterated his statement on Thursday despite criticisms from the BJP.

During a protest in Bengaluru on Wednesday, KPCC working PResident Dinesh gundu Rao repeated Siddaramaiah's allegations and accused the BJP of promoting violence in the name of Hindutva. "The BJP is becoming a terrorist organisation. I am making this serious allegation. Talk about empowerment, development, infrastructure and actual issues but the BJP does not want to. All they want to talk about is Violence, Hindutva and Manuwad.

Dinesh Gundu Rao, Working President, KPCC said. On Thursday, Rao said that the BJP's demands to ban PFI were mere agenda-driven politics since the power to ban any organisation was vested with the union government. "Banning PFI or SDPI or Bajrang Dal is the Central Government's job, if they have proof then they can ban any organization. If we don't believe in a fascist ideology like Hindutva which produces terrorists and hate doesn't mean we are not Hindus, in fact, we are more Hindu than BJP RSS who use religion for politics," he added.

The BJP meanwhile has challenged the Congress government in Karnataka to arrest its members if the organisation was breeding terror. BJP leader and Member of Parliament Shobha Karandlaje have given all party workers a call to take up 'Jail Bharo" protests across the state on Friday. "We urge both Siddaramaiah and Dinesh Gundu Rao to tender an unconditional and unqualified apology. If not, this jail bharo programme will continue," Shobha Karandlaje said. The BJP has been seething ever since Congress leaders called the party as well as its ideological head, the RSS, terrorist organisations. "Who is the terrorist organisation in the state? It is the PFI which is encouraged by you. It is indulging in jehadi activities and I am not making these claims, the Kerala police, as well as NIA dossiers, are making these claims. You set the PFI, SDPI, KFD members accused in 175 criminal cases scottfree so they can create havoc in the state and then accuse the BJP?," asked Malavika Avinash, spokesperson, BJP.

Karnataka has been witnessing communal unrest for months now and the murders of Deepak Rao and Ahmed Basheer in Suratkal this year has only fueled the unrest further. While the BJP has accused the Congress government of turning a blind eye towards the murders of Hindu activists, the Congress has alleged that the saffron party has been using the unfortunate deaths to further Hindutva as their election agenda and polarise the masses ahead of the Karnataka assembly polls.

OneIndia News
India's first PM was the first patient at this Kerala Medical College

Kerala CM accuses Gov of 'acting as RSS tool' on his order to VCs to resign

SNC-Lavalin case: SC agrees to examine Pinarayi Vijayan's aquittal, issues notice

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin corruption case based on the CBI appeal against the discharge of Kerala Chief Minister and two others from all charges.

The CBI had approached the apex court after the Kerala High Court upheld Pinarayi Vijayan's acquittal in the controversial SNC-Lavalin case.

The matter is related to late 1990s when Vijayan was Power Minister in Kerala.

A Bench of Justices N.V. Ramana and Abdul Nazeer issued notice on the CBI appeal against the discharge of Mr Vijayan, K. Mohanachandran, former principal secretary, Department of Power; and A. Francis, then joint secretary in the same department said reports.

In August, Justice Ubaid bench of the Kerala High Court held that Vijayan was being made a scapegoat in the case and upheld the lower court order acquitting him of all charges. Vijayan along with other accused was acquitted by the Thiruvananthapuram special court earlier. The CBI had filed charges of criminal conspiracy against Pinarayi Vijayan for influencing the Rs 374 crore deal.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in a project dating back to 1995 when the Kerala government signed a memorandum of understanding with Canadian company SNC-Lavalin for the renovation and modernization of the Pallivasal, Sengulam, and Panniar hydroelectric projects. The total deal was worth Rs 374 crore and as per the contract sanctioned by the state cabinet, the company was supposed to provide a grant of Rs 98.30 crore to the Malabar Cancer Institute. The hospital, however, received an amount of Rs 8.98 crore.

The CAG reported a largescale loss to the exchequer in the deal due to technical defects in the equipment renovated. The CAG also said that the very objective of improvement in power generation could not be achieved since there was no improvement in the efficiency of the machines. In 2007 the Kerala High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the case.

OneIndia News
Suspected LeT terrorist arrested from Delhi airport

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

A suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist was arrested from Delhi airport on Wednesday evening. 37-year-old Bilal Ahmed Kawa was allegedly involved in a terrorist attack on Red Fort, Delhi, on December 22, 2000.

The suspected terrorist was arrested in a joint operation by the Special Cell of Delhi Police and Gujarat ATS.

On the evening of December 22, 2000, LeT terrorists sneaked into the Red Fort and began firing indiscriminately. The left two armymen and one civilian dead. The terrorists then escaped from the spot by scaling the wall.

In 2001, Delhi Police had filed chargesheet against one Ashfaq and 21 others in the case. However, the special sessions court hearing the matter framed charges only against 11, including Ashfaq and Rehmana. The court sentenced Ashfaq to death, while his four accomplices, including his wife, were give seven years in prison. Two more terrorists convicted in the case were given a life term.

OneIndia News
AAP vs LG fight again and this is time it is on Gandhi Jayanti

The Tashkent Files- Movie on mysterious death of Lal Bahadur Shastri

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Tributes poured in on the 52nd death anniversary of India's second prime minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri, the man who gave the iconic slogan 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan'. Leaders cutting across party paid their tribute.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute in a tweet, "We pay homage to Shastriji on his punya tithi (death anniversary). His impeccable service and courageous leadership will be remembered for generations to come."

Congress party paid tribute, saying "Lal Bahadur Shastri, India's second Prime Minister. He was instrumental in setting up the National Dairy Development Board which then led to the White Revolution."

His died on 11 January 1966 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, a day after signing the Tashkent Declaration, reportedly due to cardiac arrest. His death remains one of biggest mysteries of modern India.

Award-winning filmmaker and writer Vivek Agnihotri are set to direct a movie- 'The Tashkent Files', based on the mysterious death of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Agnihotri has roped in ace actors Naseeruddin Shah and Mithun Chakraborty in the lead roles. Still, the hunt is on for the role of Shastri.

On this day, our 2nd PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri died mysteriously in Tashkent. Was it heart attack or poison? Even after 52 yrs, the truth of the biggest cover-up of free India has been denied to his family, followers, citizens. After years of research, I present #TheTashkentFiles pic.twitter.com/k53WBSrKk8  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) January 11, 2018

OneIndia News
Not on May 23, it was on July 30 that the opposition truly lost

Triple talaq bill: Centre mulls ordinance route

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The government is likely to take the ordinance route to criminalise triple talaq. The decision comes in the wake of the failure to muster up the numbers to push the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha.

The government is looking at various options including a joint session of Parliament during the budget session in a bid to push the bill through. The bill went through in the Lok Sabha but was stuck in the Rajya Sabha after the opposition and an NDA ally, the TDP expressing reservation.

The opposition demanded that the bill is referred to the parliamentary committee for review. The bill proposes to make instant triple talaq a criminal offence. There is a non-bailable provision in the bill and it also provides for three years imprisonment along with a fine.

The Centre is currently mulling several options to push the bill through. In all probability, the Centre is likely to take the ordinance route for now. Following this, a joint session of Parliament is likely to be convened during the budget session to ensure that the bill sees the light of the day.

OneIndia News
Venkaiah Naidu offers worship at Lord Venkateswara shrine in Tirupati

India

pti-PTI

Tirupati(AP), Jan 11: On his maiden visit to the famous shrine after assuming office as the Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu offered prayers at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala near at the crack of dawn on Thursday.

Naidu arrived at Tirupati by an Indian Air Force aircraft last evening and stayed at a heavily-guarded Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) guest house on the hills.

His family members too came to Tirupati separately from Nellore and accompanied the vice president to the shrine on the hills. On his maiden visit after assuming office as vice president on August 11 last year, Naidu was accorded a warm welcome with full temple honours and conducted to the sanctum sanctorum by priests amid Vedic hymns, temple sources told PTI.

He was in the shrine for about half an hour, they said. After offering prayers at the Sri Ranganayaka Mandapam inside the temple, Naidu was honoured with sacred silk cloth and holy prasadams while a group of priests bestowed divine blessings upon the him. Later, speaking to reporters outside the temple, he said all countries were keenly watching ancient Hindu practices, culture and spirituality that taught how to lead a meaningful life. Quoting Swami Vivekananda and other Hindu personalities, Naidu said Hinduism should not be treated as a religion or a way of worship but as a way of great kind of living that harms none. PTI CORR ROH AAR
"We are of no use to society": Elderly couple write to President seeking euthanasia

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Recommended Video

Mumbai couple demands 'Active Euthanasia' , writes to President Kovind | Oneindia News

If the President has the power to pardon life sentences then he ought to have power to "right to death", said 86-year-old Narayan Lavate who along with his wife have written to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking permission for an "active euthanasia".

Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending a life to relieve pain and suffering. Voluntary euthanasia is legal in some countries. Non-voluntary euthanasia is illegal in all countries. Terminally ill patients are in some countries allowed to end lives with medical help. The entire issue of euthanasia is highly debated and a is the most active area of research in contemporary bioethics.

The Lavate couple, who have requested the President for active euthanasia, do not have any health problems, reported ANI. They also do not have any hardships in life, yet they say that "we do not want to live".

"At present, we don't have any ailment or deformity. There is no guarantee that it'll be the case even in future. Instead of living further and creating trouble for others it is better to die," Narayan Lavate told ANI.

Narayan Lavate, who retired in 1989 from the State Transport Corporation, said that he and his wife do not have any children.

"At this stage of life, we simply do not want to live. We don't have hardship in our life but still, we do not want to live," said Iravati Lavate who is former principal of a High School in Mumbai.

"I have had two operations. It is not possible for me to go out alone. It is tough for me to sit idle. I was a teacher. What is the purpose for me live now," Iravati Lavate added.

Passive euthanasia is legal in India under exceptional circumstances. On March 7, 2011, the Supreme Court of India legalised passive euthanasia by means of the withdrawal of life support to patients in a permanent vegetative state. The decision was made as part of the verdict in a case involving Aruna Shanbaug, who had been in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) until her death in 2015.

OneIndia News
'Why cant we bar you from practising in courts', Bar Council asks MPs, MLAs

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Bar Council of India has sought to know why it cannot bar Members of Parliament and Members of State Legislative Assemblies from practising. The BCI sought to know why those MPs and MLAs doubling up as advocates should not be barred from practise.

The question was asked on a plea filed by an advocate, Ashwini Upadhyay seeking to bar legislators from practise. He contended that MPs and MLAs are salaried public servants and they cannot be riding two horses at a time.

There are at least 500 lawmakers who are practising advocates in various courts including the Supreme Court of India. The BCI will now issue notices to the MPs and MLAs and also seek their response in the matter.

A meeting of the BCI is scheduled to be held on January 21 where a final decision would be taken after examining the Advocates Act. In the petitio, it was contended that legislators draw salaries from the consolidated fund of India and hence are employees of the state. Under the BCI rules a salaried employee is restricted from practising as an advocate, the petitioner pointed out. It was also stated such practise amounted to professional misconduct.

OneIndia News
Yogi Adityanath is Oneindia's Newsmaker 2017; Who else are in the top five

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has got the most number of votes in Oneindia's Newsmaker 2017 polls. The firebrand BJP leader topped the list, comprising of famous people from all walks of life, by getting 19 % votes.

It has to be said that Adityanath's rise in 2017 was meteoric. From being Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, to being chosen as Chief Minister of a state which has a significant impact on national politics, his rise has been phenomenal.

Adityanath is also the Mahant or head priest of the Gorakhnath Math, a position he has held since the death of his spiritual father, Mahant Avaidyanath, in September 2014.

Adityanath was born as Ajay Mohan Bisht on 5 June 1972 in the village of Panchur, in Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand. His father Anand Singh Bisht was a forest ranger. He completed his bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand. He left his home in the 1990s to join the Ram temple movement. He was influenced by the preachings Mahant Avaidyanath, the chief priest of the Gorakhnath Math and became his disciple. Subsequently, he was given the name 'Yogi Adityanath' and designated as the successor of the Mahant Avaidyanath.

Adityanath first won Lok Sabha election in 1998 and became youngest MP in the 12th Lok Sabha. He was 26-years-old then. He has won five consecutive terms from Gorakhpur seat since then. Adityanath is said to be so strong in this region that the BJP, as per some reports, used to be scared to field candidates without his consent. In 2007, Adityanath threatened to field 70 candidates for the state assembly against the BJP candidates. But he reached a compromise in the end.

Since becoming the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath launched several initiatives including the cleanliness drive, banning of illegal slaughterhouses, forming of anti-Romeo squads, transferring of many police officials and ban on the use of tobacco products in government offices. Many of his moves were criticised by the opposition, but Adityanath paid no heed.

How others fared in Newsmaker 2017 polls:

Miss World Manushi Chillar Miss World Manushi Chillar stood second in the Oneindia Newsmakers 2017 polls. She got 18% votes in the poll. Manushi Chillar won the Miss World 2017 pageant and became sixth Indian woman to win the title. Chillar won the title after a gap of almost 16 years after Priyanka Chopra won Miss World in 2000. She is pursuing a medical degree at the Bhagat Phool Singh Medical College in Sonipat. Mukesh Ambani Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani stood third in the Oneindia Newsmakers 2017 polls by getting 9% of the total votes.His net worth is 38 billion dollars. He has retained his spot as the world's richest Indian for the tenth consecutive year. Nirmala Sitharaman Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stood fourth in the Oneindia Newsmakers 2017 polls by getting 8% votes. In September last year, Sitharaman became India's first full-fledged defence minister.Sitharaman has served as a Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance headed by Arun Jaitley and the Minister of Commerce and Industry with independent charge. She is a Rajya Sabha member and represents Karnataka in the Parliament. Kasinathuni Viswanath Veteran Telugu actor, director, and screenwriter Kasinathuni Viswanath stood fifth in the Oneindia's Newsmakers 2017 polls by bagging 7% votes.Viswanath was awarded the 2017 Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in Indian cinema, at the 64th National Film Awards.In a film career spanning sixty years, Viswanath has directed fifty-three feature films in a variety of genres, including films based on performing arts, visual arts, and aesthetics.

OneIndia News
US Navy tries to recover jet that fell into South China Sea

China objects to Indian investment in South China Sea

International

pti-PTI

Beijing, Jan 11: China said it is firmly opposed to infringement of its rights using development of bilateral ties as an "excuse" and objected to Vietnam's invitation to India to invest in oil and natural gas sector in the disputed the South China Sea.

Vietnam's Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh on Tuesday had told an Indian news channel that his country would welcome Indian investments in the South China Sea.

Responding to remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: "China does not object to the development of normal bilateral relations of relevant countries in our neighbourhood".

"But China firmly opposes relevant party to use it as an excuse to infringe upon China's legitimate rights and interests in the South China Sea and impair regional peace and stability," Lu said.

Ton had also said defence cooperation is one of the important and effective areas of cooperation between India and Vietnam and India can be helpful in expanding Vietnams defence capabilities.

China has been opposing India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) exploring oil in wells claimed by Vietnam in the South China Sea (SCS) for years. India has been asserting that the ONGC's exploration is a commercial operation and not connected with the dispute.

China claims almost all of the SCS while Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims. Oil exploration in the SCS is a sensitive issue in the Vietnam-China relations.

India, which is ramping up ties with Vietnam, calls for freedom of navigation in the SCS through which trillions of dollars of trade happens every year.There were anti-China riots in Vietnam when China tried to deploy oil rigs in areas claimed by Vietnam few years ago.

PTI
US visa processing time expected to fall by mid-2023, says official

Dont travel to J&K, US asks citizens to exercise caution while visiting India

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Washington, Jan 11: How much travel advisories issued by the United States (US) affect the flow of American tourists to India? Experts say, not much.

According to data, over 1.3 million Americans visited India in 2016. The flow of tourists from the US grew 27 per cent over the last four years in 2016. America accounts for around 15 per cent of India's foreign tourist arrivals and is now the second largest source market for Indian tourism, stated a report by Business Standard.

Once again, the US has issued a new travel advisory for countries including India on Wednesday.

According to American officials, the travel advisory is "user-friendly" as it is based on the ready-to-understand level of advice ranging from one to four.

India has been ranked Level 2 (exercise increased caution) while Pakistan has been placed in Level 3 (reconsider travel). Level 1 advises travellers to exercise normal precaution, while Level 4, which has countries like Afghanistan, recommends "Do Not Travel".

Now every country has a travel advisory based on this system, which has replaced all the previous such advisories. "These improvements will provide US citizens with clear, timely, and reliable safety and security information worldwide," the State Department said.

Placing India on Level 2, the State Department identified "crime and terrorism" for Americans to exercise increased caution. However, it asks Americans not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir, except for eastern Ladakh and Leh and not to venture within 10 miles of the India-Pakistan border due to the "potential for armed conflict".

The State Department explained that while it will issue an overall travel advisory level for every country, levels of advice may vary for specific locations or areas within a country.

"Indian authorities report rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. Violent crime, such as sexual assault, has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations," the new India travel advisory said.

Terrorists or armed groups are active in east-central India, primarily in rural areas, it added.

"Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities," it said.

Ranking Pakistan on Level 3, the State Department asked Americans to reconsider travel to this country due to terrorism.

It advises Americans not to travel to travel to Balochistan province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) due to terrorism.

Americans are also advised not to travel to Pak-Occupied Kashmir due to terrorism and the potential for armed conflict.

"Over the past six months, there have been at least 40 significant terrorist attacks across Pakistan, resulting in over 225 deaths and 475 wounded, most of which occurred in Balochistan, KPK, and the FATA. In the past, there have been large-scale terrorist attacks resulting in hundreds of casualties," it said.

If one goes through the travel advisory issued by the US for its citizens, India has nothing much to cheer. From rape to terror attacks, India is vulnerable to some of the worst crimes in the world.

"Every country has its own problems. India too has its specific issues. It does not mean that India is an unfriendly country for tourists. We have witnessed some horrific incidents against tourists in the country. In spite of all these problems, India is a favourite tourist destination," said a Delhi-based tour operator.

According to the tour operator, most Americans love to travel to Agra, Jaipur, Kolkata and parts of Kerala whenever they visit India.

OneIndia News
Has the quality of education improved in India compared to decades ago? Here's what UNICEF survey says

UNICEF highlights the plight of 60,000 Rohingya children trapped in Myanmar

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Geneva, Jan 11: The latest report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) brings to light the plight of thousands of Rohingya children in Myanmar's trouble-torn Rakhine state.

According to the UNICEF, 60,000 Rohingya children remain nearly forgotten and trapped in appalling camps in central Rakhine where the shelters teeter on stilts above garbage and excrement.

"Partners have identified about 20 children separated from their families during the violence but estimate the total number to be at least 100 - most of whom are in parts of northern Rakhine state that they still cannot access," Marixie Mercado, UNICEF spokesperson told journalists in Geneva recently during a briefing on her visit to Myanmar from December 6 last year through January 3.

She painted a harrowing picture of the situation in Rakhine, noting that prior to August 25 last year, when the most recent outbreak of violence occurred, the UNICEF had been treating 4,800 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition; these children are no longer receiving this life-saving treatment.

"All 12 of the outpatient therapeutic treatment centres run by our partners are closed because they were either looted, destroyed or staff can't access them," she informed.

Mercado called the inability of UN agencies to access vulnerable Rohingya children who remain in northern Myanmar "troubling". She added that while "the eyes of the world" are focused on the 655,000 refugees who have fled across the border into Bangladesh, 60,000 Rohingya children remain "almost forgotten and trapped" in squalid camps in central Rakhine.

"The Rohingya children who do remain in rural areas are almost totally isolated. We hear of high levels of toxic fear in children from both Rohingya and Rakhine communities," she said.

She stressed that the UNICEF stood ready to work with the Myanmar government and Rakhine state authorities to provide humanitarian relief to all children--regardless of ethnicity, religion, or status--but needed unlimited access.

The spokesperson described two of the worst camps that she visited, in Pauktaw township--reachable only by a four-to-five-hour boat ride.

"The first thing you notice when you reach the camps is the stomach-churning stench. Parts of the camps are literally cesspools. Shelters teeter on stilts above garbage and excrement," she recounted.

"Children walk barefoot through the muck. One camp manager reported four deaths among children ages 3-10 within the first 18 days of December."

Mercado also pointed to "an acute level of fear between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities," recalling a story that parents in one Rohingya village said they hadn't had their children vaccinated against Japanese Encephalitis because the government vaccinators were accompanied by security officers--while government workers said they dared not go to Rohingya communities without security.

"Rohingya children need a political solution to the issue of legal identity and citizenship. In the interim they need to be recognised first and foremost as children," she said, stressing that the Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees rights to health, education and opportunities to learn and grow to all children, irrespective of their ethnicity or status or the circumstances in which they find themselves.

OneIndia News
'Working with countries like India a good thing', says Trump

International

pti-PTI

Responding to a question on US desire to improve the relationship with other countries, President Donald Trump has said that working with countries like India, Russia and China is a good, not bad thing.

"Working with countries, whether it's Russia or China or India, or any of the countries that surround this world and encompass this world, is a very good thing. That's not a bad thing," he told reporters at a joint White House news conference with Prime Minister, Norway, Erna Solberg.

Trump said he was for strongest military, massive oil and gas and a lot of energy. "Putin (Russian President Vladimir Putin) can't love that," he added.

Trump said it was "very much better" having to do with North Korea where the US currently has a problem.

"That should have never been my problem. It should have been a problem solved many years ago when it was much less dangerous. But it was given to him, along with a big mess of other things," he noted.

He blamed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his presidential rival in 2016 elections, saying she "was not was not for a strong military".

"Hillary, my opponent, was for windmills, and she was for other types of energy that don't have the same capacities at this moment certainly," he said.

Trump said it was a "lot better" to work with other countries.

"We're working with China on North Korea. We're working with various other countries, and I think we're doing very well. We had a great talk, as you know and as you reported.

"We had a great talk this morning with President Moon (of South Korea), and I think that a lot of good things are happening. We're going to see what happens," the US president said.

Solberg said Norway has a "very good" relationship with Russia.

"As a neighbouring country we do day-to-day work on things that we have to solve for the people and the economic activity that is in that area, which is a fragile area for the whole world," she said.

Norway shares the border with Russia.

Responding to a question on allegations of Russian interference in elections in European countries, Solberg said her government has found no such evidence in Norway.

"I think that it's up to every political system and countries to scrutinise and discuss their own political agenda in their countries. And I respect that very much and that this is an issue for American politics," she said.

PTI
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"In Bottom-Up, Rob Kall offers a blueprint for human surviving and thriving that everyone can follow. Using personal stories from his many famous contacts (from Capra to Quinn), he shows how in every aspect of life we can reconnect with that which is in our DNA by replacing our artificial and oppressive hierarchical priorities via a return to a consciousness based on the kind of egalitarian relationships that we honored for most of human history."



Four Arrows, aka Don Trent Jacobs, PhD, EdD, author of Unlearning the Language of Conquest and Teaching Truly: A Curriculum to Indigenize Mainstream Education
The story appeared, astonishingly, in The New England Journal of Medicine in the summer of 2007. Adopted as a kitten by the medical staff

, Oscar reigned over one floor of the Steere House nursing home in Rhode Island. When the cat would sniff the air, crane his neck and curl up next to a man or woman, it was a sure sign of impending demise. The doctors would call the families to come in for their last visit. Over the course of several years, the cat had curled up next to 50 patients. Every one of them died shortly thereafter.

SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE, writing for the NYTimes
From Counterpunch



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There is a real -- but largely concealed -- war which is taking place throughout the African continent. It involves the United States, an invigorated Russia and a rising China. The outcome of the war is likely to define the future of the continent and its global outlook.

It is easy to pin the blame on US President Donald Trump, his erratic agenda and impulsive statements. But the truth is, the current US military expansion in Africa is just another step in the wrong direction. It is part of a strategy that had been implemented a decade ago, during the administration of President George W. Bush, and actively pursued by President Barack Obama.

In 2007, under the pretext of the "war on terror," the US consolidated its various military operations in Africa to establish the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). With a starting budget of half a billion dollars, AFRICOM was supposedly launched to engage with African countries in terms of diplomacy and aid. But, over the course of the last 10 years, AFRICOM has been transformed into a central command for military incursions and interventions.

However, that violent role has rapidly worsened during the first year of Trump's term in office. Indeed, there is a hidden US war in Africa, and it is fought in the name of "counter-terrorism."

According to a VICE News special investigation, US troops are now conducting 3,500 exercises and military engagements throughout Africa per year, an average of 10 per day. US mainstream media rarely discusses this ongoing war, thus giving the military ample space to destabilize any of the continent's 54 countries as it pleases.

"Today's figure of 3,500 marks an astounding 1,900 percent increase since the command was activated less than a decade ago, and suggests a major expansion of US military activities on the African continent," VICE reported.

Following the death of four US Special Forces soldiers in Niger on October 4, US Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, made an ominous declaration to a Senate committee: these numbers are likely to increase as the US is expanding its military activities in Africa.

Mattis, like other defense officials in the previous two administrations, justifies the US military transgressions as part of ongoing "counter-terrorism" efforts. But such coded reference has served as a pretense for the US to intervene in, and exploit, a massive region with a great economic potential.

The old colonial "Scramble for Africa" is being reinvented by global powers that fully fathom the extent of the untapped economic largesse of the continent. While China, India and Russia are each developing a unique approach to wooing Africa, the US is invested mostly in the military option, which promises to inflict untold harm and destabilize many nations.

The 2012 coup in Mali, carried out by a US-trained army captain, Amadou Haya Sanogo, is only one example.

In a 2013 speech, then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautioned against a "new colonialism in Africa (in which it is) easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave." While Clinton is, of course, correct, she was disingenuously referring to China, not her own country.

China's increasing influence in Africa is obvious, and Beijing's practices can be unfair. However, China's policy towards Africa is far more civil and trade-focused than the military-centered US approach.

The growth in the China-Africa trade figures are, as per a UN News report in 2013, happening at a truly "breathtaking pace," as they jumped from around $10.5 billion per year in 2000 to $166 billion in 2011. Since then, it has continued at the same impressive pace.

But that growth was coupled with many initiatives, entailing many billions of dollars in Chinese credit to African countries to develop badly needed infrastructure. More went to finance the 'African Talents Program', which is designed to train 30,000 African professionals in various sectors.

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From Our Future

The new year had barely started when the world got new grist for the "Trump-is-crazy" mill, one of the few American industries to experience a boom since Trump became president.

Michael Wolff's profile of the current White House, "Fire and Fury," is filled with rumors and backbiting. But the book, and the president's unhinged reaction to it, provide new evidence that Trump is cognitively and emotionally unfit for office.

Wolff got headlines, even in the august New York Times, for saying Trump has "less credibility" than anyone who has ever walked on earth." Hard news becomes indistinguishable from hyperbole and high school gossip. That's understandably irresistible for a lot of people. And a person's sanity becomes existentially important when they hold a nuclear button, regardless of its size.

But the deeper forces of history move on, and we ignore them at our peril. While the nation obsesses about Trump, he and his fellow Republicans are radically rewiring our political and economic order. The tax bill they passed at the end of last year proves it.

Years are arbitrary divisions, of course, but they're a useful reminder to note our individual and collective progress -- or lack thereof.

There are always end-of-year retrospectives. But how does the Trump era look from a centuries-long perspective on our nation?

200 years ago, at the start of 1818, President James Monroe was about to claim the continent for American military expansion. General (and future president) Andrew Jackson invaded Florida during the so-called "Seminole Wars," a military incursion against indigenous people and the Spanish colonial government there.

There was a growing belief in the federal government's ability to accomplish things. Close to my own childhood home, a major infrastructure project was kicked off in 1817 when construction of the Erie Canal began in Rome, N.Y. (I was born in nearby Utica, where the canal has long since been paved over.)

Monroe began promoting his own brand of national unity, based on a political consensus that supposedly transcended party divisions. In some ways, it foreshadowed the "centrist" bipartisanship promoted by Democrats like Barack Obama and the Clintons.

This period came to be known as the "Era of Good Feelings," a name that could hardly be applied to our own. But then, it undoubtedly didn't feel good for the slaves, women, native peoples, and poor whites who struggled to survive every day.

A century later, 1917 had just ended. It was an eventful year. The country entered World War I after a German terror attack blew up a naval ship docked in Lyndhurst, N.J. Germans, not Muslims, were the country's most hated and feared immigrant group in those days, as we noted back in 2016. The Alien Enemy Act was passed, placing immigrants like Trump's father under the watchful eye of the authorities.

The National Archives tell of German-language newspapers shut down or forced out of business. Bilingual churches were pressured to stop conducting services in German. German-language societies and even choral groups were disbanded as "volunteer watchdog societies reported on "German American gatherings and activities to federal authorities."

In an echo of Monroe's wars of expansion, General John "Black Jack" Pershing launched another one of his "punitive expeditions" into Mexico.

In 1917, racism's structural violence led to African-American uprisings -- often called "riots" -- in East St. Louis, Houston, and elsewhere.

Feminist heroines were beaten and tortured in Virginia's Occoquan Workhouse for demanding the right to vote. By January 9, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson had announced his support for women's suffrage. (The Nineteenth Amendment was finally ratified in 1920.)

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The voice tells them home is warm.

They moo and make brute music with their hoofs.

He drives them with a flowering branch before him,

Smoke pluming their foreheads.



Boor, bond of the herd,

Tonight stretch full by the fire!

I bleed by the black stream

For my torn bough!





Reflections: (Spoiler: This is a plug for lucidity.) This was a very poignant poem for me, and I'm glad I chanced to find it. (I was reading Patti Smith's memoir, "Just Kids" and she mentioned a collection of Joyce's poems, Pomes Penyeach [1927]. "Tilly" is the first poem in this book.) Several of the images pulled me right in, like a dream. The images, all by themselves, spoke to me. I could identify with the herdsmen on the red clay road driving his cows to the music of their plodding progress, the steam from their breathing enveloping their heads. The third and last stanza introduces an outside voice with a bitter message that casts a shadow over the first two stanzas in which "he" (the herdsman) is at one with the herd and content with his work. By contrast, the third stanza is spoken in the first person, which I assume is the voice of the poet, or even Joyce himself. The poet cannot be the romantic who is content to stay with the herd and sleep on the ground by the fire at night. For the poet, the flowering bough that the herdsman uses to guide the cows, is the "torn bough". The stream is black and he himself is bleeding, as if he identifies with the torn branch. The poet feels the pain of the world whereas his counterpart, the herdsman, is part of nature and lacks this awareness. This poem reenacts the fall, the exile from paradise, but not necessarily in the Christian sense of the fall. What it depicts for me is the fall into lucidity from which all meaningful living proceeds. In other words, the poet, we, are the bough torn from the tree of life, and with that revelation of separateness begins our long journey home again, a journey of healing on multiple levels via lucidity.

(Article changed on January 11, 2018 at 18:54)
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com.

Here's a cheery note for you: the last mass killing of 2017 took place moments before midnight on New Year's Eve. A 16-year-old New Jersey boy picked up a semi-automatic rifle, "lawfully acquired" by a member of his family, and killed his father, mother, sister, and a family friend. In doing so, he helped ensure that 2017 would be the deadliest year for mass killings in our modern history. (There is now, on average, slightly more than one mass killing a day in this country.) Nonetheless, guns of all sorts, including military-style assault rifles and even bump stocks like the 12 Stephen Paddock evidently used to turn his semi-automatics into functional automatics and slaughter 58 people from a hotel window in Las Vegas, are still readily available. Nowhere on Earth, not even in ravaged Yemen (which takes second place in gun ownership), is more weaponry available to more types of people. As the years go by here, such weapons are more easily and openly carried with only the most minimal of background checks (or less than that). Think about this: Americans, 4.4% of the people on this planet, own 42% of the guns and commit 31% of the mass killings.

Oh, and I did promise you that there was something cheery in all this, didn't I? So here it is: the Trump administration, knowing a good thing when it sees it, is now hard at work ensuring that American weapons makers will make it a remarkably similar world. Its officials are intent, it seems, on recreating the planet in an American image. Keep in mind that U.S. arms makers like Lockheed, Raytheon, and General Dynamics already monopolize the global arms market in a way that should (but in this country regularly doesn't) stagger the imagination. U.S. weapons sales in 2016, for instance, took about 50% of global market share and many of those major weapons systems went into planetary hot spots, including Yemen (thanks to the American-backed Saudi war of annihilation there). Weaponry from other countries, year after year in this century, came in a distant second, third, or fourth. Between 2012 and 2016, in fact, the U.S. sold weaponry to at least 100 countries.

So Washington is already, in significant ways, arming the world, but evidently, as far as President Trump and the weapons makers he loves are concerned, not yet enough of it. As a result, his administration is reportedly planning to open the global spigot on the very sorts of weapons now regularly used in this country for mass killings, making it far easier for American gun and ammunition manufacturers to sell to anyone interested abroad and far harder for law enforcement here to track whose hands those weapons end up in. Administration officials supposedly plan to cut down on oversight for such sales by making the Commerce Department, not the State Department, responsible for them, while streamlining small arms export controls, a process the Obama administration began. At news of this, the (non-bump) stocks of gun manufacturers surged.

Think of this in Trumpian terms as the global deregulation of American firearms which could, in turn, according to critics, put such weaponry ever more easily in the hands of both criminal gangs and extremist groups. If this happens, we'll truly be in an open carry, NRA world, and Donald Trump will have fulfilled a campaign promise made at that organization's annual meeting last year. ("You came through for me and I am going to come through for you.")

From nuclear weapons to handguns, "arms control" increasingly seems like a concept from another century. There are nonetheless voices still speaking up against the wholesale American weaponization of the planet and one of the most knowledgeable is that of TomDispatchregular William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. So let him fill you in on what the coming boom years are likely to look like for the Pentagon, the arms makers, and their weaponry. Tom

War Pay

Another Good Year for Weapons Makers Is Guaranteed

By William D. Hartung As Donald Trump might put it, major weapons contractors like Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin cashed in "bigly" in his first year in office. They raked in tens of billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts, while posting sharp stock price increases and healthy profits driven by the continuation and expansion of Washington's post-9/11 wars. But last year's bonanza is likely to be no more than a down payment on even better days to come for the military-industrial complex. President Trump moved boldly in his first budget, seeking an additional $54 billion in Pentagon funding for fiscal year 2018. That figure, by the way, equals the entire military budgets of allies like Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Then, in a bipartisan stampede, Congress egged on Trump to go even higher, putting forward a defense authorization bill that would raise the Pentagon's budget by an astonishing $85 billion. (And don't forget that, last spring, the president and Congress had already tacked an extra $15 billion onto the 2017 Pentagon budget.) The authorization bill for 2018 is essentially just a suggestion, however -- the final figure for this year will be determined later this month, if Congress can come to an agreement on how to boost the caps on domestic and defense spending imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011. The final number is likely to go far higher than the staggering figure Trump requested last spring. And that's only the beginning of the good news for the big weapons companies. Industry officials and Beltway defense analysts aren't expecting the real increase in Pentagon spending to come until the 2019 budget. It's a subject sure to make it into the mid-term elections. Dangling potential infusions of Pentagon funds in swing states and swing districts is a tried and true way to influence voters in tight races and so will tempt candidates in both parties. President Trump has long emphasized job creation above much else, but if he has an actual jobs program, it mainly seems to involve pumping more money into the Pentagon and increasing overseas arms sales. That such spending is one of the least effective ways to create new jobs evidently matters little. It is, after all, an easy and popular way for a president to give himself the look of stimulating economic activity, especially in an era of steep tax cuts favoring the plutocratic class and attacks on domestic spending. Trump's much-touted $1 trillion infrastructure plan may never materialize, but the Pentagon is already on course to spend $6 trillion to $7 trillion of your taxes over the next decade. As it happens though, a surprising percentage of those dollars won't even go into the military equivalent of infrastructure. Based on what we know of Pentagon expenditures in 2016, up to half of such funds are likely to go directly into the coffers of defense contractors rather than to the troops or to basic military tasks like training and maintenance. While the full impact of Trump's proposed Pentagon spending increases won't be felt until later this year and in 2019, he did make a significant impact last year in his role as arms-dealer-in-chief. Early estimates for 2017 suggest that arms sales approvals in the first year of his administration exceeded the Obama administration's record in its last year in office -- no mean feat given that President Obama set a record for overseas arms deals during his eight-year tenure. You undoubtedly won't be surprised to learn that President Trump greatly exaggerated the size of his administration's arms deals. Typically enough, he touted "$110 billion" in proposed sales to Saudi Arabia, a figure that included deals already struck under Obama and highly speculative offers that may never come to fruition. While visiting Japan in November, he similarly took credit for sales of the staggeringly expensive, highly overrated F-35 combat aircraft, a deal that was actually concluded in 2012. To add insult to injury, those F-35s that the U.S. is selling Japan will be assembled there, not in the good old U.S.A. (So much for the jobs benefits of global weapons trading.) Nonetheless, when you peel away the layers of Trumpian bombast and exaggeration, his administration still posted one of the highest arms sales figures of the last decade and there's clearly much more to come. In all of this, the president may not have done major favors for America's workers, but he's been a genuine godsend for the country's arms manufacturers. After all, such firms extract significantly greater profits on foreign deals than on sales to the Pentagon. When selling to other countries, they normally charge higher prices for weapons systems, while including costly follow-on agreements for maintenance, training, and things like additional bombs, missiles, or ammunition that can continue for decades. In fact, Trump's biggest challenge in accelerating U.S. arms exports may not be foreign competition, but the fact that the Obama administration made so many high-value arms deals. Some countries are still busy trying to integrate the weapons systems or other merchandise they've already purchased and may not be ready to conclude new arms agreements.

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From Our Future

Remember all those pictures of smiling Iraqi citizens proudly holding up their blue, ink-stained fingers when they voted for the first time after the fall of Saddam Hussein? The Republicans -- and far too many Democrats -- who had supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq hoped those vivid images would appeal to the democracy-loving instincts of the American people.

Americans do love democracy, at least in principle, although they've long abandoned their support for that misguided war. So how is it that the party that distributed those photos of blue fingers has also been able to engage in a decades-long assault on democracy at home, without paying a political price? And why isn't the party at the losing end of those machinations doing more about it?

The latest evidence of the Republican Party's anti-democratic activities comes from a federal court ruling, issued Tuesday, which found that North Carolina Republicans deliberately drew congressional district boundaries in order to benefit their own party.

Judges usually do infer undemocratic motives by the way districts are drawn. But North Carolina Republicans made it easy for the judges in this case statements like this one, from state representative David Lewis, who was responsible for redistricting. "I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats," said Lewis. "So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country."

Well, okay then.

The Supreme Court already ruled against North Carolina Republicans in 2017, finding that they had discriminated against black voters in drawing up congressional districts. That limited the electoral participation of a predominantly Democratic voting bloc. Earlier that year, a federal district court found that Republicans had similarly discriminated against black and Latino voters.

This kind of dirty politics doesn't happen by accident. David Daley has written a detailed accoun t of "REDMAP," the GOP plan to regain political power by redrawing district lines in their own favor. Daley's book is entitled "Ratf*cked," and we interviewed him about it here.

An analysis by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice found that, nationwide, partisan gerrymandering has given Republicans 16-17 additional congressional seats.

As another court decision reminds us, this sort of thing is nothing new for Republicans. This week another judge lifted a consent decree against the Republican National Committee that had been in place since 1982. That's when the RNC was barred from their practice of sending intimidating mailers to African-American voters and hiring armed, off-duty law enforcement officers to stand watch at polling places in minority neighborhoods.

A related tactic, known as "voter caging," consists of sending mass mailings to neighborhoods that typically vote against your party; minority neighborhoods are the typical target. When mailers are returned, voters are then struck from the rolls.

By targeting certain neighborhoods rather than others, voter caging is used for partisan purposes. Worse, as the Brennan Center explains, this tactic is often targeted against registered members of a political party.

As the Brennan Center notes, caging is a "notoriously unreliable" technique for legitimately purging ineligible voters. It's extremely effective, however, in helping one party gain an unfair advantage over another. That was also true of an Ohio Republican scheme, led by Secretary of State Jon Husted, which gamed election law to purge legally-registered voters for infrequent voting.

A Reuters investigation found, unsurprisingly, that Ohio Republicans benefited from Husted's actions. Two million voters were purged from Ohio's rolls between 2011 and 2016, according to Ari Berman of The Nation, with 1.2 million of them purged for infrequent voting.

But, as bad as things are for Democrats today, they could get much worse very quickly. If the Supreme Court rules in Ohio's favor, caging and its variants could become common practice in the two-thirds of state governments controlled by Republicans.

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Why did Obama say this? And why do Democratic Party leaders like Schumer, Pelosi and "Saint Bernie" Sanders, as well as "flavors of the month" like Doug Jones, keep talking about how they're willing to work with Trump?

Because they are on the same team. They're telling the truth about this. It's one of the rare cases when they do tell the truth. So people need to face what this means--and its implications for society.

First, what team are they talking about? It's "Team America." It's the team made up of those ruling and representing America's capitalist-imperialist system. Let's not forget that "Team America" founded itself on the genocide of Native peoples and the enslavement of millions of Black people. Team America to this day has white supremacy, male supremacy, and American global supremacy knitted into its very core--it is a capitalist-imperialist system that cannot do without any of that.

And what kind of "work" is it that they're talking about doing together? Making sure their "team" and its murderous, oppressive system "succeeds in today's world."

The top Democrats do have sharp differences with Trump and the Republicans--but they're not over how to best serve the interests of humanity; they're over how to best run their empire and maintain the stability and coherence of their oppressive society at home.

That means that no matter how sharply the Democrats disagree with this or that Trump policy, they are doing so from within that framework. So one of their core goals is keeping people loyal to the "team"--their system and working through its social and political channels.



No moral dilemma whatsoever #trump #obama #muslimban

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This is why the only thing you can "rely" on these Democrats for is to keep the struggle within the narrowest possible bounds and to use whatever credibility you lend them to suppress those people who DO take this fascist threat seriously--people who do NOT feel as if they are on the "same team" as people trying to restore open white supremacy, people directly threatening nuclear destruction, people unapologetically bragging about sexual molestation and assault.

Don't believe it?

Then why, last April did the Democrats cheer when Trump launched 59 cruise missiles against Syria? Senator Chuck Schumer called it "the right thing to do." The "militant" Senator Elizabeth Warren agreed: the "Syrian regime must be held accountable." The "radical" Bernie Sanders mildly criticized the war criminal Trump for not consulting Congress first. This normalizes U.S. aggression around the world, normalizes Trump's fascism, and trains people not only to passively tolerate U.S. crimes around the world but to root for the imperialist "team" no matter who is in charge.

Why did leading Democrat Schumer agree with Trump on moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem (a U.S. rubber stamp of approval for Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people), but also criticized his "indecisiveness" Trump didn't say when the U.S. embassy would move, and he wouldn't recognize Israel's total control over all of Jerusalem (East Jerusalem remains home to over 400,000 Palestinians, nearly half the population of the entire city, and has been seen as a potential Palestinian capital in any "two-state" solution.) Here again, Schumer normalizes Trump, and casts those who oppose Israel's genocide as beyond the pale.

For nearly three years Saudi Arabia has been waging a reactionary and barbaric war in neighboring Yemen. With U.S. bombs and military support Saudi Arabia has targeted broad sections of the Yemeni people, killing thousands and pushing millions into the death-grip of famine and cholera. Some Democrats have raised concerns that Saudi Arabia's actions could weaken it and U.S. power in the region. But they have not called for breaking ties with and ending military aid to the bloodthirsty, fundamentalist Saudi monarchy or condemned it for committing war crimes. This is shamefully imbuing people with the notion that the only lives they should care anything about are American, and that they should stay silent in the face of mass genocide and towering crimes against humanity.

Trump repeatedly threatens to "destroy" North Korea with nuclear "fire and fury" and many experts fear a U.S. war on North Korea is a real and looming possibility. This is an enormous, cataclysmic danger which will take determined mass protest and resistance by millions to stop. Yet the Democrats are fighting for people to confine their actions to calling Congress, cheering a few Democratic speeches or resolutions, and waiting until the 2018 elections (which won't change anything fundamental).

What about racism and white supremacy? The Democrats talk of inclusivity and equal right, but in Alabama, Doug Jones didn't call out Roy Moore's pro-slavery ravings. He mobilized Black voters on the down-low, while reaching out to Trump's fascist base. Squarely confronting and challenging the racism and white supremacy at the core of Trump's fascism has the potential to mobilize millions to become part of driving this regime from power. But the Democrats refuse to do so because they understand white supremacy is woven deeply into the fabric of America and unleashing millions to take it on could threaten or call into question their whole system.

#MeToo and women's oppression? The Democrat's quickly ran Al Franken out of the Senate after he was accused of harassing several women. Some Democrats have issued statements against Trump for his sexual predation, but the Democrats have refused to call out people like theocrat Roy Moore and the whole misogynist, Christian fascist agenda at the core of the Trump/Pence regime which aims to strip women of their most basic rights and reassert open patriarchy with a vengeance--much less mobilize the millions awakened by the #MeToo movement to take on this whole regime. Just compare how the Democrats still tolerate and only very mildly and intermittently bring up Trump's admitted molestation of women to the kind of all-out struggle waged by the Republicans over Bill Clinton's crap.

Trump's ugly fascist program has been clear from the day his campaign began and has become uglier, and more apparent and dangerous since. Yet the Democrats continue to counsel patience and working through the same channels that brought Trump to power in the first place--even muzzling talk, repeat talk, of things like impeachment as a "distraction" from the 2018 elections.

Given all this, how, in good conscience, can you rely on the Democrats to STOP this monster before he drags down the entire globe in flames?

So the real question is, which team do you want to be on? It depends on what you're trying to do. If you want to advance and maintain capitalism-imperialism, making some criticisms of Trump where you think he is harming imperialist interests but you don't want to call out or take on fascism per se, then clearly--the Democratic Party is the thing for you.

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Trump's Cabinet is Full of Climate Change Deniers Donald Trump's cabinet is filled with climate change deniers tied to the oil industry. Goodbye, dear planet. Subscribe to Fusion: youtube.com/c/this isfusion?sub_confirmation=1...

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A collage of Climate change deniers in the Trump administratio

As I read articles on climate change from the likes of Dahr Jamail, Naomi Klein and the latest being Paul Street's, "Climate Denial Will Kill Us" [1] , my thinking often digresses to who are these people.

With so much irrefutable evidence provided by esteemed climate scientists how is it possible for people to remain in climate denial? Maybe we should ask the "Donald", himself a chief climate change denier.

What follows here is simply one man's hypothesis on climate change deniers:

Firstly they're supremely anti-intellectual, distrusting scientific evidence, even ridiculing it. Many reject evolution, are "creationists" and believe the earth is 10,000 years old. They even have a creation museum in eastern Kentucky showing man walking with dinosaurs.

Further many/most are deeply religious fundamentalist Christians who seem to take the bible-New Testament- literally and in particular the Book of Revelation, the end days, Armageddon, Tribulation, Apocalypse, false prophet, anti-Christ, Satan, the second coming of Christ et al. So for them why worry about climate change when the 2nd coming of Christ is in their future and they'll be saved.

In the early 1970's I read a book titled, "The Late Great Planet Earth", by Hal Lindsey to get some idea of what those fundamentalist Christians were apparently believing what was in our future.

As I remember it in particular just before some fiery apocalypse all true believing Christians will miraculously be transported above it all saving them while all those left on Earth will perish.

I could not help thinking at the time there were some 6 billion people. Though most people in the world were Christians say 25%, the majority 75% were non Christians.

I thought what sort of God would condemn billions of people to a fiery end and save only his flock?

When one thinks about it "saving" only true believing Christians was condemning, condescending, elitist, smug and downright hateful toward billions of people who weren't Christians. This coming from those god fearing, true believing Christians. Hardly something they would normally see themselves as being.

Today there's some 9 billion people, over a billion Muslims, Hindu's, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews, who also believe in God but certainly aren't Christians.

Occasionally I'll hear or read about an "end days" scenario about to befall us. Apparently the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 was a harbinger of the coming "end days". I suppose some believe Obama was the false prophet, the anti-Christ, maybe Satan himself. How about "Dubya" Bush's endless war on terror or all of America's endless wars. Are they harbingers of the "end days"?

Supposedly "Dubya" was a true believer himself as is current Vice President Mike Pence.

I read somewhere America is the most church going people of all democratic countries in the West. Most Europeans are not church goers.

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Scope Creates Drug Monographs for a Leading Health Portal

Chennai, India, January 08, 2018: Scope e-Knowledge Center (Scope), a leading provider of specialized knowledge services for publishers and information providers, is pleased to announce the successful delivery of 135 drug monographs for one of the worlds leading health information portals.Drug monographs were developed for drugs approved by the European Medicine Agency (EMA), as well as drugs not approved by the EMA but approved in selected countries outside the United States. The monographs allow users to easily evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of approved drugs.The complex and specialized project required a very refined level of understanding of clinicalpharmacology. Scope leveraged its in-house team of medical SMEsphysicians and pharmacologists  who conducted extensive research and analysis of the drugs and created monographs that would integrate with already existing monographs for the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Therefore, the content required standardization to a particular format.To aid in standardization, Scopes process experts built a workflow that automated components of the editorial and formatting process. For this project and those with similar requirements, Scope leverages cutting-edge technology for scale, and expertise of in-house SMEs, for accuracy. This unique hybrid approach helped Scopes team evaluate an extensive volume of relevant drug information efficiently and accurately.Dr. Sheeba Chandru, Head of the Medical Content Division at Scope said, EMA monographs are based on brand, which means a single generic US monograph may be linked to multiple brand alternatives in the European Union. This called for a very refined level of understanding of clinical pharmacology. Our inhouse SMEs were able to successfully meet this challenge. She continued, Apart from this, there was the challenge to deliver content in a standardized format. This would have normally been time-consuming if not for an automated workflow built by our technology team. This automated workflow helped quickly populate the fields in the monograph.Tram Venkataraman (Tram), President, Scope e-Knowledge Center said, "At Scope, we are focused on enabling publishers, information product and enterprise content managers get the maximum ROI from existing content. We are thrilled that our unique hybrid, technology + SME delivery methodology was instrumental in making this project a success. The fact that the client partnered with us in developing guidelines for creating monographs for drugs was the icing on the cake.For more information, please contact:Richard KobelVice President,Business Development,USAScope e-Knowledge Center+1 631 375 1555Narendra Venkatramani (Venky)Senior Vice President -Sales & MarketingUS, UK & EuropeScope e-Knowledge Center+1 917 525 0944About Scope e-Knowledge CenterScope e-Knowledge Center, a Quatrro Global Services company is an award-winning provider of outsourced, cost effective Content Enhancement Services, Data Management Services, Business Research Services and Patent Analytics for information providers around the world. With more than 1,000 advanced degree subject matter experts in science, technology, medicine, business, legal, social sciences and humanities disciplines, Scope combines advanced domain expertise with proprietary inhouse platforms and technology solutions to deliver accurate, high quality deliverables in a scalable, customizable model in accordance with client specifications. Scope also publishes the daily online newsletter Knowledgespeak, a comprehensive news service focusing on the STM information industry.Scope eKnowledge CenterII Floor, Temple Towers,Nandanam, 672 Anna Salai,Chennai - 600 035, IndiaTel: 91 44 24314201-03Fax: 91 44 24314206
P2P Investment Loan Platform Enters Blockchain Sector with ICO Launch

FAST INVEST CEO - Simona Vaitkune

Fast Invest is excited to announce the launch of its native cryptocurrency token (FIT) during their upcoming ICO on December 4th. The FinTech company has been operating since 2015 in the investment loan space, connecting funders with loan-seekers in a peer-to-peer exchange. With more than 8,500 daily users from 36 countries, Fast Invest is expanding into the largely unoccupied cryptocurrency lending sector.Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies have been rapidly in 2017, racking up a seventeen times (at the time of this press release) increase in market capitalization since the beginning of 2017. As these financial technologies mature new opportunities arise, especially for unbanked and underbanked populations. This is because digital currencies allow for the exchange of value without the need for central banks or other intermediaries. Fast Invest aims to leverage these developments to democratize investment by allowing people to invest as little as one dollar on their loan platform. This enables users to band together to crowdfund a loan that gets paid back with interest, which can then generate returns for the loan suppliers.In what may be a first for the industry, Fast Invest will allow users to use their bitcoin or ethereum as collateral for loans in traditional currencies. Due to the nature of smart contracts, loans like this can be executed with very little human input and all parties can be sure that the terms of the loan will be carried out. This is because smart contracts utilize code and mathematics to enforce agreements without the need for human intervention.By expanding to cryptocurrency-based investment instruments the company aims to reduce friction in the world of P2P investment and loan services. These offerings include a cryptocurrency exchange, digital wallet for holding tokens, cryptocurrency investment services, decentralized lending, and a payment card that can be funded by cryptocurrencies but used like a credit card.CEO Simona Vaitkune had this to say:From the very beginning our mission is to help people generate secure and stable passive income stream and achieve their financial freedom. I am delighted that we are expanding our platform to a new infrastructure of the blockchain. This will enable our customers use both fiat and crypto currencies for daily banking operations. The future of digital banking is almost here and we are ready to meet it.FAST INVEST is the successfully operating business. Since 2015 team of dedicated specialist are developing powerful investment platform that is based on investing in consumer loans across Europe and globally. The company is expanding and building new infrastructure on the blockchain to offer new digital banking products. Fast Invest will merge at and cryptocurrencies and enable users to use both for their daily banking operations.-FAST INVEST-Kao Hockham Building, Edinburgh Way, Harlow, Essex CM20 2NQ, United Kingdom-Dovile Zili dovile@fastinvest.com
United States Web Offset Printing Machines Market Report 2018

Industry Research Analysis: United States Web Offset Printing Machines Market Report 2018

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The United States Web Offset Printing Machines Market Report 2018 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Web Offset Printing Machines industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Web Offset Printing Machines Industry analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Web Offset Printing Machines industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Geographically, this report splits the United States market into seven regions: The West, Southwest, The Middle Atlantic, New England, The South and The Midwest.with sales (volume), revenue (value), market share and growth rate of Web Offset Printing Machines in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast).United States Web Offset Printing Machines market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Web Offset Printing Machines sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingPrakash GroupThe Printers House (tph)Naph GraphicsTensor InternationalSanden MachineSahil GraphicM/S SUD & WAREN (P) LTDNBG Printographic Machinery Co. Pvt. LtdGoss International.DGMThalloBlue Print LineEdelmann Printing MachinesMANUGRAPH INDIA LTDOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoBy Speed Options16,000 CPH30,000 CPH36,000 CPHOthersBy product typeStack Unit Web Offset Printing Machines3 Colour Satellite Web Offset Printing Machines2Hi Tower Web Offset Printing Machines3Hi Tower Web Offset Printing Machines4Hi Tower Web Offset Printing MachinesMono Unit Web Offset Printing MachinesOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, includingCommercialNewspaperPackagingOthersBrowse full report sample:Email to tinaning@qyresearch.com.Table of contents:Chapter 1 - Web Offset Printing Machines OverviewChapter 2 - United States Web Offset Printing Machines Market Competition by Players/SuppliersChapter 3 - United States Web Offset Printing Machines Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)Chapter 4 - United States Web Offset Printing Machines Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Type (Product Category) (2013-2018)Chapter 5 - United States Web Offset Printing Machines Sales (Volume) by Application (2013-2018)Chapter 6 - United States Web Offset Printing Machines Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales DataChapter 7 - Web Offset Printing Machines Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 8 - Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 9 - Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 10 - Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 11- United States Web Offset Printing Machines Market Size (Value and Volume) Forecast (2018-2025)Chapter 12 - Research Findings and ConclusionChapter 13 - AppendixRelated Reports:Europe Web Offset Printing Machines Market Report 2018China Web Offset Printing Machines Market Report 2018India Web Offset Printing Machines Market Report 2018Korea Web Offset Printing Machines Market Report 2018Global Web Offset Printing Machines Market Report 2018Japan Web Offset Printing Machines Market Report 2018Contact Details:Company Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITED | focus on Market Survey and ResearchTina| Sales ManagersTel: 0086-20-22093278(CN)Email: sales@qyresearcheurope.com or tinaning@qyresearch.comWeb:QYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base cand seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business.Room 2901 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road
Global Skin Toner Market 2018-2023 LOreal, Kose, Johnson & Johnson

Skin Toner Market

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Skin Toner Market Research 2018A market study "Global Skin Toner Market" examines the performance of the Skin Toner market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Skin Toner market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Skin Toner market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Skin Toner Market 2018 report includes Skin Toner market Revenue, market Share, Skin Toner industry volume, market Trends, Skin Toner Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Skin Toner Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Skin Toner Market 2018 :1. LOreal2. Kose3. Kao Corporation4. Johnson & Johnson5. Shiseido6. The Procter & Gamble7. The Unilever8. Lotus Herbals9. Burt?s & Bees10. LUMENE11. Sea Breeze12. Himalaya Drug13. Herbaline14. Zymo Cosmetics15. Debon HerbalBanSkin Toner Market : By ApplicationPowderLiquidSkin Toner Market : By TypeE-commerceStoreFirstly, the report covers the top Skin Toner manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Skin Toner report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Skin Toner industry, Skin Toner industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Skin Toner Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Skin Toner research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Skin Toner market revenue worldwide.Finally, Skin Toner market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAContact: +1-214-661-1669Web:
Global Vitamin B12 Market 2018-2023 Sanofi, Hebei Yufeng, Ningxia Kingvit

Vitamin B12 Market

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Vitamin B12 Market Research 2018A market study "Global Vitamin B12 Market" examines the performance of the Vitamin B12 market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Vitamin B12 market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Vitamin B12 market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Vitamin B12 Market 2018 report includes Vitamin B12 market Revenue, market Share, Vitamin B12 industry volume, market Trends, Vitamin B12 Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Vitamin B12 Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Vitamin B12 Market 2018 : Sanofi Hebei Yufeng Group Hebei Huarong Pharmaceutical Ningxia Kingvit Pharmaceutical NCPC VICTORVitamin B12 Market : By Application0.980.020.01Vitamin B12 Market : By TypeFood IndustryFeed IndustryFirstly, the report covers the top Vitamin B12 manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Vitamin B12 report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Vitamin B12 industry, Vitamin B12 industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Vitamin B12 Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Vitamin B12 research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Vitamin B12 market revenue worldwide.Finally, Vitamin B12 market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"QY Markets Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAContact: +1-214-661-1669Web:
Water Heater 2018 Global Industry Key Players -A.O. Smith Corporation, Rheem Manufacturing Company, Bradford White Corporation Market Analysis And Forecast To 2025

Global Water Heater Market

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Global Water Heater MarketGlobal water heater market valued approximately USD 34.7 billion in 2016 is expected to grow by CAGR 5.3% over the forecast period 2017-2025. Rising real estate development along with the increasing demand from commercial places are the major driving factors which are anticipated to fuel the market growth. Moreover, increasing demand for tankless water heaters in point of use applications is also likely to fuel the market growth over the forecast period.Request a Sample Report @Water heaters consume significant amount of electricity and hence manufacturers try to develop water heaters with higher efficiency. One of the newest development is hybrid heating technology, which can save up to 40% of electricity consumption. The global water heater market report is segmented upon energy source, storage type, end use and regions. Below mentioned is the brief description of each segment:Energy Source: Electric GasStorage Type: Tank Tankless / InstantaneousEnd-Use Commercial ResidentialRegions: North Americao U.S.o Canada Europeo UKo Germanyo France Asia Pacifico Chinao Indiao Japan Latin Americao Brazilo Mexico Rest of the WorldIn 2016, gas heaters accounted more than 53% of the total market share. These are energy efficient equipment with a higher level of safety in operation owing to which they have been significantly popular in the past few years. However, over the forecast period, electric heaters are likely to grow with the highest growth. This growth is attributed to the increasing technological development pertaining to heating elements coupled with the declining prices of electric water heaters.In 2016, the industry is dominated by Asia Pacific followed by Europe and North America. This enormous growth in the Asian region is largely attributed to increasing population with higher disposable income coupled with growing real estate sector. Additionally, change in customer preference towards the superior quality of life is also anticipated to fuel the demand over the forecast period.Some of the key players involved in the water heater industry are; A.O. Smith Corporation, Rheem Manufacturing Company, and Bradford White Corporation. These key players have a strong foothold in the industry due to their wide product offerings and geographical presence. The above-mentioned companies accounted more than 50% of the total market share in 2016. The industry is also experiencing new entrants such as Kenmore and Eemax which are exclusively designing smart tankless water heaters. Further, merger and acquisition is the key strategy adopted by key players, this has enabled them to gain competitive advantages and their hands on recent technological developments. Furthermore, it also helps to increase the sales presence in different regions and countries. For instance, A.O. Smith Corporation has acquired Ohio-based William R. Hague, Inc. this acquisition has helped A.O. Smith to get their access to water softening technology.Chapter 1. Research Methodology1.1. Research Process1.1.1. Data Mining1.1.2. Analysis1.1.3. Market Estimation1.1.4. Validation1.1.5. Publishing1.2. Research AssumptionChapter 2. Global Water Heater Market Definition & Scope2.1. Objective of The Study2.2. Market Definition2.3. Scope of The Study2.4. Years Considered for The Study2.5. Currency Conversion Rates2.6. Report LimitationChapter 3. Executive Summary3.1. Key Trends3.2. Global & Segmental Market Estimates & Forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion/Million, Million Units)Chapter 4. Global Water Heater Industry Dynamics4.1. Growth Prospects4.1.1. Drivers4.1.2. Restraints4.1.3. Opportunities4.2. Industry Analysis4.2.1. Porters 5 Force Model4.2.2. PEST Analysis4.2.3. Value Chain Analysis4.3. Analyst Recommendation & ConclusionChapter 5. Global Water Heater Market by Energy Source5.1. Market Snapshot5.2. Water Heater Market, Sub Segment Analysis5.2.1. Gas5.2.1.1. Market estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion/Million, Million Units)5.2.1.2. Regional breakdown estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion/Million, Million Units)5.2.2. Electric5.2.2.1. Market estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion/Million, Million Units)5.2.2.2. Regional breakdown estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion/Million, Million Units)Continued..To enquire about this report visit @Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Jan 11, 2018: CMP Slurry Market Forecast 2023 Cabot Corporation, Hitachi Chemical, Samsung Electronics

CMP Slurry Market

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CMP Slurry Market Research 2018A market study  Global CMP Slurry Market  examines the performance of the CMP Slurry market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the CMP Slurry market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of CMP Slurry market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global CMP Slurry Market 2018 report includes CMP Slurry market Revenue, market Share, CMP Slurry industry volume, market Trends, CMP Slurry Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, CMP Slurry Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2023.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global CMP Slurry Market 2018 : Cabot Corporation Hitachi Chemical Samsung Electronics FujiFilm Dow Chemicals BASF Applied Materials 3M Evonik Fujimi CorporationFirstly, the report covers the top CMP Slurry manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the CMP Slurry report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of CMP Slurry industry, CMP Slurry industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. CMP Slurry Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The CMP Slurry research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the CMP Slurry market revenue worldwide.Finally, CMP Slurry market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"QYMarketsResearch" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@qymarketsresearch
Jan 11, 2018: Combination Microwave Ovens Market Size 2023 Galanz, Midea, Panasonic, SHARP

Combination Microwave Ovens Market

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Combination Microwave Ovens Market Research 2018A market study  Global Combination Microwave Ovens Market  examines the performance of the Combination Microwave Ovens market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Combination Microwave Ovens market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Combination Microwave Ovens market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Combination Microwave Ovens Market 2018 report includes Combination Microwave Ovens market Revenue, market Share, Combination Microwave Ovens industry volume, market Trends, Combination Microwave Ovens Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Combination Microwave Ovens Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2023.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Combination Microwave Ovens Market 2018 : Galanz Midea Panasonic SHARP Whirlpool Electrolux Siemens GE(Haier) LG Samsung Toshiba Bosch BrevilleFirstly, the report covers the top Combination Microwave Ovens manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Combination Microwave Ovens report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Combination Microwave Ovens industry, Combination Microwave Ovens industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Combination Microwave Ovens Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Combination Microwave Ovens research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Combination Microwave Ovens market revenue worldwide.Finally, Combination Microwave Ovens market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"QYMarketsResearch" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@qymarketsresearch
Jan 11, 2018: Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing Market Size 2023 Arcam, Arconic, EOS

Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing Market

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Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing Market Research 2018A market study  Global Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing Market  examines the performance of the Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing Market 2018 report includes Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing market Revenue, market Share, Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing industry volume, market Trends, Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2023.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing Market 2018 : Arcam Arconic EOS ExOne GKN Hoganas Materialise Stratasys 3D SystemFirstly, the report covers the top Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing industry, Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing market revenue worldwide.Finally, Commercial Aerospace 3D Printing market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"QYMarketsResearch" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@qymarketsresearch
Jan 11, 2018: Complete Blood Count (CBC) Market Share 2023 Abbott, BioMrieux, Cepheid

Complete Blood Count (CBC) Market

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Complete Blood Count (CBC) Market Research 2018A market study  Global Complete Blood Count (CBC) Market  examines the performance of the Complete Blood Count (CBC) market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Complete Blood Count (CBC) market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Complete Blood Count (CBC) market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Complete Blood Count (CBC) Market 2018 report includes Complete Blood Count (CBC) market Revenue, market Share, Complete Blood Count (CBC) industry volume, market Trends, Complete Blood Count (CBC) Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Complete Blood Count (CBC) Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2023.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Complete Blood Count (CBC) Market 2018 : Abbott BioMrieux Cepheid C. R. Bard Roche Thermo Fisher Siemens Healthcare Beckman Coulter BD AlereFirstly, the report covers the top Complete Blood Count (CBC) manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Complete Blood Count (CBC) report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Complete Blood Count (CBC) industry, Complete Blood Count (CBC) industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Complete Blood Count (CBC) Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Complete Blood Count (CBC) research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Complete Blood Count (CBC) market revenue worldwide.Finally, Complete Blood Count (CBC) market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"QYMarketsResearch" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@qymarketsresearch
Rubber Anti-Tack Agents Market - Influential Factors & Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Rubber Anti-Tack Agents Market:OverviewThe global rubber anti-tack agents market share is moderately consolidated. Players in the market are experiencing intense competition in the recent past on account of the extensive presence of major fatty acids production facilities. This is especially true for North America and Asia Pacific where many key production facilities for fatty acid esters are present. Players in the market have entered into partnerships and collaborations with suppliers of raw materials present in Asia Pacific, with an aim to procure the raw materials at low cost. This strategy is adopted by many producers. In addition to this, players have also invested in production facilities in various regions so as to cater to the demands of the end user industries in Asia Pacific. Another strategy which is adopted by industry players operating in the global rubber anti-tack agents market is the development of new products by taking advantage of technological advancements. This is helping players to increase their profitability.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The robust growth in the automotive industry and increasing modifications in rubber processing are two major drivers, which will boost the growth of the global rubber anti-tack agents market in the period from 2017 to 2025. The rubber anti-tack agents market in Asia Pacific is expected to lead in the coming years. The region, more specifically Indonesia, China, India, and Malaysia is expected to account for over half of the total volume. The flourishing automotive industry, fueled by the increasing disposable income and growing population is the main factor boosting the Asia Pacific rubber anti-tack agents market.Global Rubber Anti-Tack Agents Market: Brief DescriptionThe self-adhesive characteristic of rubber hinders several purposes that it is used for, and therefore the need for anti-tack agents that can be applied on products in a form of thin layer and achieve the desired durable product. As rubber remains as an essential material for several sectors such as packaging and automobile, the demand in the global rubber anti-tack agents market is expected to remain constantly progressive with a healthy CAGR during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.Request TOC of the Report @This report on the global market for rubber anti-tack agents is a comprehensive analysis of all the crucial factors that are expected to influence the market over the course of next few years. Some of the key trends of the market have also been highlighted and explored in order to adjudge their near and far implications. Another key feature of the report is the company profile section, wherein several prominent vendors have been analyzed for their market share, geographical outreach, product portfolio, and latest strategic developments. The global rubber anti-tack agents market can be segmented on the basis of product, into fatty acid esters, fatty acid amides, stearates, soaps, silicone polymers, and others. Geographically, the report studies the opportunities available in the regional markets of Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World.Global Rubber Anti-Tack Agents Market: Influential FactorsWith growing population across the globe, and increasing disposable income among the urban community, the demand for automobile is at an all-time peak and consequently, the demand for rubber anti-tack agents is escalating, which is used in tire manufacturing. Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) is now increasingly used in the tire industry for its property to offer abrasion resistance. Additionally, the modifications in rubber processing has helped the players improve efficiency of the production to meet the incremented demand. In the medical and industrial sector, anti-tack agents are also used to remove the cohesive property of rubber products. Nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) is now increasingly used to manufacture gloves that prevent transmission of viruses. Moreover, stearic acid is an important feedstock stearate production, which is commonly present in vegetable and animal oils and fats. Certain stearates such as lead and zinc, which are primarily used in PVC processing, are put under severe environmental regulations and hence the demand is decreasing. This factor is expected to hinder the growth rate during the forecast period.Get Discount @Global Rubber Anti-Tack Agents Market: Regional OutlookNorth America serves the maximum demand for anti-tack agents, primarily driven by the country-wide market of the U.S, owing to factors such as growing awareness pertaining to hygiene by restricting bacteria and virus transmission in the healthcare sector. Growing aging population in the country is also extending the demand for nitrile gloves. Asia Pacific, which resides vast populations, is anticipated to extend the demand at the most robust rate among all regions, gaining from countries such as India, China, and Malaysia wherein automotive industry is thriving. Malaysia is the most prominent rubber manufacturers globally.Companies mentioned in this research reportBaerlocher, Schill + Seilacher, Evonik, H.L. Blachford, and the Hallstar Company are some of the key companies who hold significant share of the market while Croda International, Lion Specialty Chemicals, King Industries, Peter Greven GmbH, FACI SPA, SASCO Chemical Group, Stephenson Alkon Solutions, and McLube are some of the other notable players. The nature of competition is moderately concentrated and several partnerships and collaborations are underway, or expected during the forecast period, which will somewhat change the market scenario.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Stationary Catalytic Systems Market - Players Operating Systems & Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Stationary Catalytic Systems Market: SnapshotThe players operating in the global stationary catalytic systems market are anticipated to leverage on the heightened demand for steel. Moreover, players will also bank on the increased purchasing power of the construction and automotive industries. In the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, metal, petrochemicals, and chemical applications are predicted to gain great focus. This is especially true for emerging economies as these countries are witnessing a surge in the construction and infrastructure activities over the past few years, and shall continue to do so. The growing demand for oxidation catalysts for annihilating carbon emissions, volatile organic compounds, and formaldehyde from gas turbine power generators is expected to push the growth of the global stationary catalytic systems market during the forecast period.The rise in industrialization is another major reason behind the growth of this market. In addition to this, the high requirement for power and the rapid increase in population will also drive the growth prospects of the global stationary catalytic systems market in the years to come. Power is in high demand from the commercial, residential, as well as the industrial sector and is expected to accelerate the growth of the stationary catalytic systems market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Stationary catalytic systems find applications in manufacturing, refining, cement, and food sectors, among others. The growth in the food, cement, or manufacturing industry is therefore, directly aiding the global stationary catalytic systems market. Growing infrastructure developments in emerging economies will propel the petrochemicals and chemicals sector in the coming years.Global Stationary Catalytic Systems Market: Inclusive InsightsStationary catalytic systems help in reducing the harmful emissions such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides from power-plants as well as petro-chemical and other manufacturing industries. Besides destroying carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons with oxidation catalysts, these stationary catalytic systems can also capture fine particulate matter and are are built to withstand high operating temperatures or thermal shock. With the growing environmental concerns across the world, global stationary systems market is projected for a healthy growth rate during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.This report on global market for stationary systems market is a comprehensive analysis of all the factors that are expected to impact the growth rate over the course of next few years, and presents estimations of the future scenario. Considering stringent guidelines set by several governments as a primary factor of this market, the report highlights some of the important regulations in place in various countries. One of the key feature of this report is the section on company profiles wherein some of the key players in this market have been analyzed for their market share, regional outreach, product portfolio, and recent strategic developments. The global stationary catalytic systems market can be segmented on the basis of technology into selective catalytic reduction and catalytic oxidation, and on the basis of application into power plants, chemical and petrochemicals, cement, and metal.Request TOC of the Report @Global Stationary Catalytic Systems Market: Drivers, Restraints, and OpportunitiesRegulations pertaining to GHG emission, which are getting stricter every passing year due to growing environmental concerns, is the primary driver for the market. For instance, in the U.S., regulations such as National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) is in place for industries to follow in order to reduce industrial pollutant emissions. Coal fired boiler replacement program in China is another recent development that will positively reflect on global stationary catalytic systems market. China, a country with vast population and landscapes, retrofitted 400,000 MW of existing coal-fired boilers with selective catalytic reduction in 2012. With an average life of 3 to 5 years, the country-wide market of china is expected to generate fresh demand for stationary catalytic systems during the forecast period. Some of the other factors complementing the growth rate are expanding adoption of oxidation catalysts to control pollutant emission from gas turbine power generators, varied application of catalytic incineration process at refining, chemical, metal, and food and beverage industry in Asia Pacific, escalating demand for electricity with growing population, and rapid industrialization.The report detects that selective catalytic reduction segment has the maximum demand in terms of product segment while application-wise, power plant stationary catalytic systems dominate owing to electricity demand from the commercial, industrial, and residential sector.Get Discount @Global Stationary Catalytic Systems Market: Regional OverviewCountry-wide markets of China and India make Asia Pacific the most lucrative region, and with growing number of power plants, the region is anticipated to remain highly profitable through-out the forecast period. Government of India has set aside a budget of US$44 bn for the development of 35,000 km road across the country, which will augment the demand for stationary catalytic systems. France generates maximum demand from Europe market while Canada dominates North America market. Canadian government has pledged an investment of US$11.9 bn for the improvements of social infrastructure that is in sync with environment.Companies mentioned in the reportDCL International Inc., Johnson Matthey, BASF, CORMETECH, Amec Foster Wheeler, Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, MECA, APC technologies, Ducon Technologies, Air Clean LLC, and Hamon Corporation are some of the prominent names in global stationary catalytic systems market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Polymer Filler Market: Growing Demand From Automotive and Industrial Applications

MarketsandMarkets

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The global polymer filler market size is estimated to reach USD 53.10 Billion by 2020 at a CAGR of 3.3% between 2015 and 2020. The report segments the market by type into (organic: natural fibers, & inorganic: oxides, hydroxides, salts, silicates, and metals), by end users (automotive, building & construction, industrial, and packaging), and by region (Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, and RoW). The base year considered for the study is 2014, and the forecast period is between 2015 and 2020.Download PDF Brochure:Salts, silicates, and oxides, the largest types of polymer fillerThe growing popularity of polymer fillers in various types play a significant role in driving the market. Salts, silicates, and oxides are its most important types. The rising demand for low-cost fillers in countries, such as the U.S., Germany, India, and Brazil is expected to increase their demand in the coming years. Stringent environmental regulations and government guidelines have increased the importance of polymer fillers globally in the recent years. The U.S. is focused on increasing investments in the chemical processing sector, which will boost the demand for polymer fillers in the packaging, industrial, and automotive segments.Rising demand in Asia-Pacific is the major driver for of the polymer filler marketAsia-Pacific was the largest and North America was the second-largest market for polymer fillers in 2014. The Asia-Pacific region also registered the highest growth rate between 2015 and 2020. The high demand in Asia-Pacific is due to growth in the building & construction and packaging industries in the last few years. The Chinese market for polymer fillers is growing at a fast pace, primarily due to the growing manufacturing sector driving the consumption of plastics-related products, domestically.The key companies profiled in the polymer fillers market research report are Imerys S.A. (France), LKAB Group (Sweden), Minerals Technologies Inc. (U.S.), Omya AG (Switzerland), 20Micron Limited (India), Hoffman Minerals (Germany), GCR Group (Spain), Unimin Corporation (U.S), Quarzwerke Group (Germany), and Karntner Montanindustrie Gesellschaft M.B.H. (Austria).Speak To Analyst:The scope of the report covers detailed information regarding the major factors influencing the growth of the polymer fillers market such as drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. A detailed analysis of the key industry players has been done to provide insights into their business overview, products & services, key strategies such as investments & expansions and mergers & acquisitions, and recent developments associated with the market. The polymer fillers market has been segmented by type (organic: natural fibers and inorganic: oxides, hydroxides, salts, silicates, metals, and others), by end user (automotive, building & construction, industrial, packaging, and others) and by region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW).About MarketsandMarketsMarketsandMarkets is the worlds No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.M&Ms flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7,SEZ, Magarpatta city, Hadapsar
Epoxidized Soybean Oil Market - Overall Operations & Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Global Epoxidized Soybean Oil Market: SnapshotEpoxidized soybean oil or ESBO refers to a collection of different organic compounds that are extracted from the epoxidation of the oil of soybean. It is employed as a stabilizer and plasticizer in polyvinyl chloride plastics. Epoxidized soybean oil is a yellowish viscid liquid. During the manufacturing process of vegetable oils are broadly employed as precursors to the epoxidized oil products as they have sizeable number of carbon-carbon double bonds that are accessible for epoxidation.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Epoxidized soybean oil is used in the PVC gaskets that applied in the glass jars that are used to store food products. It acts as a scavenger and plasticizer for the hydrochloric acid which is released when the degradation of the PVC occurs thermally at the time when the food product goes through sterilization. The most lucrative opportunities for epoxidized soybean oil is likely to arise from the food and beverages, plastic, rubber industries. The global epoxidized soybean oil market is likely to be positive impacted by the growing adoption of organic stabilizers in PVC stabilization procedure and as an emerging substitute for oil-based lubricant in the short and medium run. In the long run the easy availability of ESBO in low price is anticipated to be a core driving factor.The challenges that this market is expected to face in the years ahead are the health hazards that are likely to occur in the industry of food and beverages to the excess use of ESBO and low product competitiveness that it creates.Global Epoxidized Soybean Oil Market: OverviewThe global market for epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO) is forecast to exhibit strong growth between 2017 and 2025. It will significantly gain from the increasing demand from the plastic additives industries, especially in North America. Besides this, research and development activities by the leading players, coupled with the recent merger and acquisition strategies they adopted will help this market rake high revenue over the forecast period. Additionally, the rising use of epoxidized soybean oil across diverse eco-friendly applications will aid the markets growth.Request TOC of the Report @This report presents a detailed assessment of the recent market developments besides strategically identifying the most lucrative segments. It covers the growth drivers and key restraints to help readers gain a better perspective of the global epoxidized soybean oil market. The report also profiles the leading market players and identifies their core competencies. The effect of Porters five forces on the overall market operations is evaluated as well.Global Epoxidized Soybean Oil Market: Trends and OpportunitiesAmong the key end-use segments, the market is gaining maximum from the rising use of epoxidized soybean oil in food and beverages packaging. As the retail sector gears for spike in the demand for processed food, the significance of phthalate-free plasticizers food packaging will scale higher. This will create significant opportunities for the market in the beverage can coating segment as well. Epoxidized soybean oil is available at a lower cost and offers high flexibility and thermal stability. It is also an eco-friendly bio-plasticizer hence, considered to be a food-grade product. It is due to the same reason that epoxidized soybean oil is extensively used in the food and beverages industry for packaging of products.By application, plasticizers will emerge as one of the key market segments. The segment includes PVA, PVC, and chlorinated rubber applications. The demand for epoxidized soyabean oil is thus considerably high in North America, wherein stringent environmental laws have compelled industries to lower dependence on phthalate plasticizers.Get Discount @Also, soybean oil is most likely to remain the leading segment among raw materials due to its extensive use in the production of epoxidized soybean oil. This vegetable oil is derived from the seeds of soybean and is known to have many inedible applications besides its use in food products. Out of the many inedible applications, soybean oil acts as an excellent additive and stabilizer in plasticizers. Plasticizers become more reactive when epoxidized soybean oil is added. Soybean oil is widely available and is an eco-friendly alternative due to which it is also preferred by oleo chemical producers. Spurred by these factors, the global epoxidized soybean oil market will exhibit robust growth in the forecast period.Global Epoxidized Soybean Oil Market: Regional OutlookRegionally, the European markets will prove to be the most lucrative and faster growing. This trend is likely to continue through the course of the reports forecast period. In addition, the increasing demand from France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, and the U.K., will seal Europes position as the dominant market for epoxidized soybean oil in the forthcoming years. The high demand for epoxidized soybean oil in Europe is ascribable to stringent environmental regulations in place in the European Union, which curbs the use of non-phthalate plasticizers in food and beverages packaging. Currently, Germany is one of the leading consumers of epoxidized soybean oil in the region and will continue to remain so through the forecast period.Global Epoxidized Soybean Oil Market: Vendor LandscapeAmong the companies who were able to establish strong foothold in the global epoxidized soybean oil market, Ferro Corporation (U.S.), Arkema SA (France), Galata Chemicals (U.S.), Hairma Chemicals (Gz) Ltd. (China), and The Chemical Company (U.S.), are a few of the prominent brands. The report analyzes their strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis, which also gives insights into the opportunities and threats they may face over the forecast period.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Jan 11, 2018: Centrifugal Chiller Market Forecast 2023 Haier, Dunham Bush, Midea, Carrier

Centrifugal Chiller Market

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Centrifugal Chiller Market Research 2018A market study "Global Centrifugal Chiller Market" examines the performance of the Centrifugal Chiller market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Centrifugal Chiller market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Centrifugal Chiller market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Centrifugal Chiller Market 2018 report includes Centrifugal Chiller market Revenue, market Share, Centrifugal Chiller industry volume, market Trends, Centrifugal Chiller Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Centrifugal Chiller Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2023.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Centrifugal Chiller Market 2018 : Johnson Controls Carrier TRANE DAIKIN Hitachi Mitsubishi LG Midea Haier GREE DunAn GRAD STARS(GUANGZHOU) Dunham BushFirstly, the report covers the top Centrifugal Chiller manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Centrifugal Chiller report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Centrifugal Chiller industry, Centrifugal Chiller industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Centrifugal Chiller Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Centrifugal Chiller research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Centrifugal Chiller market revenue worldwide.Finally, Centrifugal Chiller market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Jan 11, 2018: Circular Saw Market Forecast 2023 Craftsman, Milwaukee, Makita, Sencan, Clarke

Circular Saw Market

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Circular Saw Market Research 2018A market study "Global Circular Saw Market" examines the performance of the Circular Saw market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Circular Saw market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Circular Saw market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Circular Saw Market 2018 report includes Circular Saw market Revenue, market Share, Circular Saw industry volume, market Trends, Circular Saw Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Circular Saw Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2023.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Circular Saw Market 2018 : Makita DEWALT Skil Milwaukee RIDGID BOSCH Poter-Cable Hitachi Power Tools Black&Decker Craftsman Clarke RAGE FESTOOL Chicago Pneumatic Big Foot Kawasaki Ryobi Panasonic SencanFirstly, the report covers the top Circular Saw manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Circular Saw report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Circular Saw industry, Circular Saw industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Circular Saw Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Circular Saw research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Circular Saw market revenue worldwide.Finally, Circular Saw market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Intense Technologies Ltd

Intense Technologies Ltd

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Intense Technologies LtdIntense Technologies Ltd   Company Profile & Financial Analysis contains in depth information and data about the company and its operations. You will find information on the business structure, areas of operation, products and services offered by the company. It also comprises SWOT analysis, key ratios, historical financial data and insiders view on financial stability and industrial ranking with financial forecasts for two- year period.This report is a decisive resource for industry executives and stakeholders who are looking to access key information about Intense Technologies Ltd . It helps you formulate strategies that augment your business by enabling you to understand your partners, customers and competitors better.The report utilizes a wide range of primary and secondary sources, which are analyzed and presented in a consistent and easily accessible format. SKBKS strictly follows a standardized research methodology to ensure high levels of data quality and these characteristics guarantee a unique report.Try Sample Report @ABSTRACTIntense Technologies Limited is a global enterprise software products company, headquartered in India with a strong and emerging presence in USA, LATAM, EMEA and APAC. The companys enterprise software products are used globally by Fortune 500s for digital transformation of customer centric business processes resulting in improved revenues, greater customer centricity and reduced operational expenses.Intense Technologies serves customers in 35 countries across 4 continents, with a 70% market share in Telecom in South Asia. Today, it processes US$25bn worth of client revenue data and has a 500 million subscriber base across its engagements. It has sales offices in Singapore, UAE, USA and UK.REPORT HIGHLIGHTS Business description  A detailed description of the companys operations and business divisions Corporate business strategies  Analysts summarization of the companys business strategies Major products and services  A descriptive list of major products, services and brands of the company. Company history Major milestones achieved by the company Stock details- Ticker code at BSE and NSE, Market capitalization, Share price, 52 week relative performance at BSE, share holding pattern for the recent quarter Major Mergers & Acquisitions trends-a descriptive strategic acquisitions done by the company during the course of operations Financial Analysis- Five year financial summary; financial performance analysis of the company- a yearly and quarterly Detailed financial ratios for the past five years  The latest financial ratios derived from the annual financial statements with 5 years history. Cost structure- Five year cost structure analysis as percentage of sales Industry and peer competitors  Competitive economic environment in the industry and comparative financial analysis of peers. SWOT Analysis  A detailed analysis of the companys strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. Recent developments and Investment-Includes recent activities and strategies followed by the company and investments done and planned for future Outlook- Outlook of the industry with growth drivers Analysts view on the company with forecast for two year period. Supplemented with graphs and tabular information wherever necessaryFor Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @REASONS TO BUYu Quickly enhance your understanding of Intense Technologies Ltdu Gain insight into the marketplace and a better understanding of internal and external factors which could impact the industry.u Increase business/sales activities by understanding your competitors businesses better.u Recognize potential partnerships and suppliers.u Examine potential investment and acquisition targets with this reports detailed insight into the companys strategic, business and operational performance.u Gain key insights into the company for academic or business research purposes. Key elements such as SWOT analysis and corporate strategy are incorporated in the profile to assist your academic or business research needs.For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.Contact Us:Norah Trent+1 646 845 9349 / +44 208 133 9349Follow on LinkedIn:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra,Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Global DNA Sequencing Products Market 2017: Region Wise Analysis of Top Players in Market By Types and Application

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The global DNA sequencing products market has been witnessing a positive growth. This can be attributed to the confluence of declining prices of sequencing and increasing development in sequencing technologies.Request a free sample report:The latest report by IMARC Group, titled DNA Sequencing Products Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2017-2022, finds that the global DNA sequencing products market reached a value of more than US$ 3 Billion in 2016. Over the past few decades, DNA sequencing has become an important part of biology and other sciences. It ascertains the physical order of four bases of DNA which include adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine. Apart from this, DNA sequencing is also used for measuring the sequence of individual genes, entire genomes and full chromosomes of any organism. Some advantages offered by DNA sequencing include high accuracy and speed, low cost and precise results from low sample input.Highlights of the global DNA sequencing products market:Advancements in technology act as a major factor bolstering the growth of the market.Research organisations represent the largest application area accounting for the majority of the global share.North America is the leading market for DNA sequencing products.In recent years, a number of manufacturers across the globe have invested in several R&D projects due to which there have been technological developments in personalised medicines. For instance, an international scientific research project, namely, the Human Genome Project brought about a major transformation in DNA sequencing technologies. Medical facilities are now offering sequencing-based treatments, quantitative assessments of genomic sequences and rapid DNA sequencer for large-scale and Sanger sequencing. This, in turn, has positively contributed to the growth of the global DNA sequencing products market. As a result, global DNA sequencing products market is further expected to reach a value of more than US$ 9 Billion, exhibiting a CAGR of more than 19% during 2017-2022.On the basis of product type, consumables and reagents currently exhibit a clear dominance in the market, followed by equipment. Based on application, research organisations represent the largest application area of DNA sequencing products market. It is followed by hospitals, pharmaceutical and life science companies. Region-wise, North America accounts for the majority of the total global share. This is due to declining costs of sequencing along with the presence of well-established vendors in the region. Other major markets include Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. The competitive landscape of the market has also been analysed with some of the key players operating in the market being Illumina Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Roche Diagnostics, Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. and Beckman Coulter.Read full report with TOC:The report by IMARC Group has examined the global DNA sequencing products market on the basis of:Product Type:Consumables and ReagentsEquipmentApplication:Research OrganisationsHospitals, Pharmaceutical and Life Science CompaniesRegion:North AmericaEuropeAsia PacificLatin AmericaMiddle East and AfricaKey Players:Illumina Inc.Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.Roche DiagnosticsPacific Biosciences of California, Inc.Beckman CoulterBrowse related reports:Cataract Surgical Devices Market Research Report:Artificial Organs Market Research Report:About UsIMARC Group is a leading market research company that offers management strategy and market research worldwide. We partner with clients in all sectors and regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform their businesses.IMARCs information products include major market, scientific, economic and technological developments for business leaders in pharmaceutical, industrial, and high technology organizations. Market forecasts and industry analysis for biotechnology, advanced materials, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, travel and tourism, nanotechnology and novel processing methods are at the top of the companys expertise.Contact usIMARC Group309 2nd St, Brooklyn, NY 11215, USAWebsite:Email: sales@imarcgroup.comUSA: +1-631-791-1145Follow us on twitter: @imarcglobal
Power Distribution Unit Market - Present Scenario and the Growth Prospects with Forecast 2024

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The global power distribution unit market is expected to reach US$2.26 bn by the end of 2024. Its valuation in 2015 was US$1.14 bn and between 2016 and 2024, the market is expected to demonstrate a CAGR of 7.9%. In terms of revenue, the IT and telecom sector emerged dominant with a share of 31.3% in the overall market in 2015. Regionally, North America emerged dominant with a share of 35.7% in the global market in 2015. However, Asia Pacific is likely to showcase the most lucrative opportunities during the forecast period.Get an exclusive sample of this report @Demand for Effectively Storing Data Generated across Organizations to Fuel Installation of PDUsAs organizations grow bigger and integrate automation, they are faced with new challenges, the most crucial being efficiently storing the staggering volume of data generated every day. Moreover, a majority of enterprises are inclining towards cloud-computing, which entails big-data generation. This is a chief factor creating the demand for data centers and thus power distribution units. As online shopping become a mainstay, the demand for power distribution units will rise further, said a lead TMR analyst.Obtain Report Details @High Cost of PDUs May Emerge as Key RestraintOn the downside, the high cost of power distribution units is acting against the markets growth targets. The market players are also reeling under the presence of compatibility issues due to the increased complexity of data centers. Nevertheless, with recent innovations such concerns can be easily mitigated with. Better features are being developed to help public distribution units cope with the dynamic environment in data centers.Purchase the report @About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Breast Feeding Aid Market to Register a Stout Growth by 2025

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Breastfeeding has boundless benefits. Breast milk has everything that baby needs, such as proteins, fats, minerals, iron, lactose and vitamin which is necessary for the babys growth. Breastfeeding keeps the baby away from all types of infections and allergies and creates an emotional bond between mother and baby. Breastfeeding might be a natural thing for many moms, but for some, it does not come naturally. They either have leaky breast or they experience pain whenever their babies latch on to the breast. These new-age mommies need little help and breastfeeding aids may help them during their feeding challenges. There are some must have breastfeeding aids such as breast milk pump, breast milk storage bag, nursing pillow, breast pads and ointment, breastfeeding cover, nursing bras, breastfeeding vitamins, silicon nipple shield, breast shells etc.Request Report for TOC @Breast Feeding Aid Market: Advantages and disadvantagesFor many moms, breast feeding is deprivation from sleep. Sleep deprivation may lead to a decrease in their milk supply. In such situation, breast milk pump makes their lives easier. Through breastfeeding pumps women can extract some milk during the day which can be useful in feeding the baby at night with the help of a bottle. However, to store the milk which is extracted through breast milk pump is not possible without milk store bag. These are specially designed bags which ensure to keep the beneficial properties of the milk. To hold the baby in arms during the entire breastfeeding session can cause back pain. However, the nursing pillows not only support babies during a feed but also give comfort to moms which make easier the entire birth recovery period.Breast pads can absorb the milk from the leaky breast and keep the area dry, while nipple ointments reduce the pains and inflammation in nipples. Although the breastfeeding aids have many beneficial qualities, there are some disadvantages too which are associated with these aids. For instance, silicon nipple shield is recommended to many moms who have sore nipples, however, they can reduce the amount of milk that baby gets as baby do not get milk straight from the breast. The milk expression can also be decreased due to excessive use of breast milk pumps, while in the case of milk storage bag, they are not eco-friendly. They are not as strong as plastic or glass containers, so the chances of leaking are comparatively more in milk storage bags.Breast Feeding Aid Market: Drivers and restraintsThe rise in the population of working mother is one of the driving factors which is contributing to the growth of global breastfeeding aid market. Breast milk pumps are particularly popular among working moms, as they can ensure that their babies would get breast milk even when they are away from their babies at work for long hours. Increasing world population is also creating a positive impact on the breastfeeding aid market. Apart from this, technological advancement fast paced lifestyle, and favourable health care policies are creating robust development in global breastfeeding aid market. This market, however, has hindrances too and one of the major factors which are hampering the growth of global breastfeeding aid market is to launch a new device is a costly affair. The amount of investment in launching a new product is very high and even after investing this amount the approval process from FDA for these new products is tedious. Besides, there is a growing debate on the usage of breastfeeding aids which will act as a hindrance in the growth of global breastfeeding aids market.Request to Sample of Report @Breast Feeding Aid Market: RegionsNorth America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and rest of the world are some of the regions which are considered while covering this market. At present, North America is dominating the breastfeeding aid market with more than half of the market share followed by Europe. Due to rising population, favourable healthcare policies initiated by the government, and an increasing number of working mothers are some of the important factors in Asia-Pacific market which are fuelling the breastfeeding aid market.Breast Feeding Aid Market: Key playersPigeon, Tommee Tippee, Philips, Comotomo, Playtex, Nuby, Chicco, Medela and Summer Infant are some of the prominent players across the globe.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Load Cell Market - Opportunities, Growth Forecast Analysis by Manufacturers and Advanced Technologies

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Rising demand for load cells in healthcare sector is expected to increase demand for load cells. Medical devices and equipment including dialysis machines (in-center and in house hemodialysis), infusion pumps and surgical instruments among others are increasing the demand for load cells. The growth of hemodialysis machines including home hemodialysis (HHD) is driven by growing patient population, replacement of existing HHD machines among others. Rising demand for HHD machines (which serves only a single patient) will increase demand for load cells. The growth of infusion pumps will be driven by increasing occurrence of chronic diseases, geriatric population and rising surgical procedures.Get an exclusive sample of this report @There is a growing demand for load cells in testing applications across aviation and aerospace industry. Load cells are used in design and testing during initial design, pre-flight and in-flight stages. In the design phase, standard load cells are used for aircraft component-testing such as cockpit instruments, aircraft flaps, seat belts among others. In the pre-flight stage dual bridge load cells test the frame structure. In the in-flight stage, load cells monitor forces acting on airframe, pilots touch on control stick and aircraft flight control system.Obtain Report Details @Rising demand for load cells in upstream, midstream and downstream activities are increasing the demand for load cells. Load cells are used in the construction of oil rigs. Rising demand for oil rigs will increase the demand for load cells. New, high specification and harsh environment oil rigs, replacement of old rigs, and interest of private equity to purchase oil rigs is expected to push the number for oil rigs which will positively impact the demand for load cells. Rising demand for oil rigs from shale gas producers in the U.S. is expected to increase demand for load cells.Purchase the report @About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
New Research Report Explore Organic Oats Market Expected to Represent a Value of US$ 200 Mn by the 2027

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This research report offers a comprehensive analysis of the Organic Oats Market: Oat Flour Product Type Segment Expected to be the Second Fastest Growing Segment During the Forecast Period: Global Industry Analysis (2012 - 2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017 - 2027) The main objective of this report is to deliver insightful information and clear-cut facts pertaining to the growth trajectories of the market.Request to view Sample Report @A 1.8x increase in revenue to be observed in the global organic oats market from 2017 to 2027An ingenious research report on global organic oats market published by Future Market Insights reflects the volume and value projections of various segments across various regions for a period of 10 years. It covers detailed analysis of each segment in the organic oats market thus portraying a complete intelligence package. According to this resourceful research report on organic oats, the global market for organic oats is expected to grow at a high CAGR of 6.4% throughout the period of forecast. In 2017, the global market is valued at around US$ 200 Mn. By the end of the year of assessment, the global organic oats market is estimated to reach a valuation of more than US$ 360 Mn. This 1.8x increase in revenue can be attributed to increasing demand for organic food, increasing consumer confidence towards organic food, increasing market penetration of organic foods and emergence of modern trade and online retail formats.Rolled oats to cement its dominance with a high market value in the coming yearsSince past couple of years, the consumption of rolled oats has seen an upward graph. This trend is likely to continue in the years to follow. The rolled oats segment in the product type category is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 6.7% throughout the period of forecast, 2017-2027. This segment is the fastest growing segment in the product category and is also likely to dominate the global market in terms of market valuation. The rolled oats segment is estimated to reach a valuation of a bit under US$ 175 Mn by the end of the year of estimation from a value of US$ 91 Mn in 2017. Even with respect to volume, the research study portrays that the rolled oats segment leads the market during the forecast period.Browse Full Report with TOC @Steel cut oats to offer significant growth opportunities for the global organic oats market during the forecast periodSteel cut oats are groats of whole oats that are chopped in two or more pieces. Steel cut oats are typically used for making porridge and oat cakes. They are high in nutritional value and have a lower glycaemic index. The steel cut oats segment in the product type category is expected to show high potential in the years to follow. Steel cut oats segment is estimated at US$ 54.1 Mn in 2017 and is anticipated to reach a value a little under US$ 100 Mn by the end of the year of forecast (2027). This segment is projected to grow at a high CAGR of 6.2% during the period of assessment and is the second largest segment in terms of value during the said period.Brief outlook of rolled and steel cut oats segments across North America, Western Europe and APEJIn North America, rolled oats segment is expected to grow at a 7.2% CAGR and is expected to lead the market. The steel cut oats segment in this region is estimated to reach a value of US$ 27 Mn by 2027 end. Rolled oats segment in Western Europe is expected to grow at a higher pace than other segments. The rolled oats segment valuation is almost double than that of steel cut oats segment in this region. Steel cut oats segment in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region is the second largest and second fastest growing segment. It is projected to grow at a 6.2% CAGR during the forecast period. To conclude, rolled oats segment dominates the global market across every region during the period of assessment, 2017-2027.Enquire about this Report @Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Market Highlight key Growth factor and Forecast to 2017  2027

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Cleaning tight corners and hard-to-reach spaces in homes, floors, pools, and other residential spaces is often difficult without an efficient cleaning tool. Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaners, popularly known as robovacs, are widely used for effectively cleaning residential surfaces. Robovacs are equipped with intelligent sensors and several advanced features that enable room mapping, laser vision, and self-charging. Growing urban settlements and busier lifestyles of people across urban areas are predominantly driving the global market for residential robotic vacuum cleaner.Get Free Sample of Report @The global residential robotic vacuum cleaner market is expected to grow impressively over the next five years. During the forecast period 2016-2021, FMI indicates that the market may see exponential growth, taking a leap from US$ 1,491.0 Mn expected in 2016, to US$ 2,475.0 Mn by the end of 2021. Throughout the forecast period, the market for residential robotic vacuum cleaner is anticipated to expand at a healthy CAGR of 12%.Changing Lifestyle and Growing Inclination toward Automated Cleaning Fuels MarketIncreased emphasis on the quality of indoor air, improving lifestyle in developing regions, busier daily schedules, and lack of time for household chores are identified to be the key factors that will continue to create the demand for residential robotic vacuum cleaners. In addition, rising disposable earning in dual-income households is strongly supporting the sales of vacuum cleaners across the globe. A few more key drivers sustaining sales in global market include compact size, light weight, portability, and time-efficiency of residential robotic vacuum cleaners that facilitate cleaning and mopping on a daily basis.Burgeoning Concerns about Health and Indoor Air Pollution Propel SalesIncreasing priority to health and hygiene, coupled with a growing tendency to lead a sustainable lifestyle, induce the need for efficient, automated home cleaning solutions. This will remain another major driver to the residential vacuum cleaner market. Moreover, rising prevalence of asthma raises the demand for vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters, ultimately contributing to the market growth. Rising preference for indoor air pollution management among the population of developing countries has been fuelling the growth of the market since the past few years.Key Market Trends Continue to Push Market GrowthSuperior performance and enhanced functionality of robotic vacuum cleaners will remain the key factors augmenting the adoption of vacuum cleaners in households. A growing trend of bag-less vacuum cleaners is also identified to accelerate market growth. In addition, rising adoption of automated cleaners in emerging economies is a remarkable trend that has been positively impacting the market since the past few years.New Product Launches Set to Sway the MarketThe market has been witnessing a few innovations, such as vacuum cleaners with UV sterilisation, spinning brushes, security cameras, and so on. Such advancements are expected to push the market further. Discovery of a novel technology stair-climbing robotic vacuum cleaners is likely to present lucrative opportunities in near future. However, strict regulatory measures regarding energy-efficiency and higher costs of robotic vacuum cleaners will continue to pose a challenge to market growth in the long run.In-house Robot Continues to Dominate Outdoor RobotBased on robot type, the global residential robotic vacuum cleaners market is segmented into in-house robot and outdoor robot segments. In-house robot segment is likely to dominate with nearly 75% market share by 2021 end, attributed to the convenience of charging manually as well as automatically. However, adoption of outdoor vacuum cleaners is expected to rise over the next few years. This segment will exhibit a robust CAGR of 20.1% over the assessed period.View Complete Outlook of Report @Europe Remains the Largest Market, Middle East and Africa Emerges FasterOn the basis of regional analysis, the market for residential robotic vacuum cleaner in Europe has been registering the highest revenue share over the years. This region will continue to dominate over the forecast period as well, accounting for nearly 44% share by 2021 end. Asia Pacific is likely to expand at a significant CAGR of 13.4%, whereas MEA is projected for the fastest CAGR over 2016-2021.Product Innovation Is on the Paramount for Key PlayersSome of the most prominent players in the global residential robotic vacuum cleaners, include Yujin Robot, Co., Ltd., Neato Robotics, Inc., Ecovacs Robotics, Inc., Robot Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Dyson Inc., Hayward Industries, Inc., Philips Electronics N.V, Milagrow Business & Knowledge Solutions (Pvt.) Limited, and Pentair plc. Recently in 2015, iRobot Corporation introduced a robotic vacuum cleaner (Roomba 980) with in-built adaptive navigation, visual localisation, and connected app control. It is designed for enhanced efficiency on carpets. A majority of leading companies are increasingly concentrating on R&D of unconventional products in order to gain a competitive edge.For more Info, Send an Enquiry @About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY, (United States)  12207Telephone: +1-518-730-0559 (US - Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
India Nuclear Power Sector Generation and Investment Opportunity Outlook 2032 Report Download

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Nuclear power sector in India has already travelled quite a long way to reach the present stage with 6780 MW installed capacity and 22 reactors from starting with two boiling water reactors worth 320 MW in 1969. Today, nuclear power provides nearly 3% of total electricity in India and this percentage will go up soon due to massive capacity addition in the coming years. Though Indias nuclear power sector is 100% controlled by the central government in operation and maintenance, the expansion of nuclear power sector is equally attractive to numerous private enterprises across the world, obviously including India. It is therefore imperative to know the prospective and driving factors of Indian nuclear power sector for industries, nuclear energy experts, policymakers across the world.India Nuclear Power Sector Generation and Investment Opportunity Outlook 2032 report highlights:* India Nuclear Power Sector Overview* India Nuclear Power Sector Indicators* India Existing and upcoming Nuclear Power Plants Overview* Indian Nuclear Power Regulatory and Policy Framework* India Nuclear Power Plants Infrastructure* India Nuclear Fuel Supply ScenarioDownload SampleFor Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.comReport Weblink:Table of Contents1. India Power Sector Overview1.1 Power Generation1.2 Current Power Demand1.3 Future Power Demand2. India Nuclear Power Sector Overview3. India Nuclear Power Sector Indicators3.1 Installed Capacity3.2 Projected Capacity4. India Nuclear Power Plants Overview4.1 Existing Nuclear power Plants4.2 Upcoming Nuclear Power Plants5. Indian Nuclear Power Regulatory Landscape6. India Nuclear Power Generating Companies6.1 Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL)6.2 Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (BHAVINI)7. India Nuclear Power Sector Policy Feamework8. India Nuclear Power Plants Infrastructure8.1 Types of Nuclear Reactors Used in India8.2 Details of Indias Existing Nuclear Power Plants9. India Nuclear Fuel Supply9.1 Domestic Supply9.2 Nuclear Fuel Imports10. India Nuclear Power Sector Dynamics10.1 Market Drivers10.2 Challenges11. India Nuclear Power Sector Future Outlook11.1 Nuclear Power Expansion Plan11.2 Nuclear Power Sector Growth Impacts on Economy12. ConclusionKuick Research is a market research and analytics company that provides targeted information for critical decisions at business, product and service levels. We are quick, predictive and known by the recommendations we have made in the past. Our result-oriented research methodology offers understanding of multiple issues in a short period of time and gives us the capability to keep you full with loads of practical ideas. By translating research answers into strategic insight and direction, we not only rate the success potential of your products and/or services, but also help you identify the opportunities for growth in new demographies and find ways to beat competition.Neeraj Chawlaneeraj@kuickresearch.comKuicK ResearchL29 - L34, First FloorBlock L,Connaught PlaceNew Delhi-110001+91-11-47067990
Smart Rings Market - Android Systems to Hold a Dominant Share in the Smart Rings Market

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Transparency Market Research (TMR) observes that competition in the global smart rings market is slated to intensify in the coming years due to the strong presence of several players. To stay ahead of the cut-throat competition, players are focusing on product innovation such as rings enabled with next generation NFC and better payment technologies. Some of the leading players in the market are McLear Ltd., Logbar Inc., Fujitsu, and Moodmetric.Obtain Report Details @According to the research report, the global smart rings market is likely to be worth US$11.44 mn by the end of 2025 from US$1.67 mn in 2016. During the forecast years of 2017 and 2025, the global market is expected to progress at a CAGR of 24.0%. Out of the three operating systems, the android operating system segment held a dominant share in the global market. This segment is expected to acquire a share of 57% in the global market by the end of 2025 due to the growing popularity of android smartphones. From a geographic point of view, the global market is likely to be led by Asia Pacific as emerging economies are slated to be key consumers of smartphones. Analysts expect that the Asia Pacific region is likely to surge at a pace of 25.1% in the global market over the forecast period.High Penetration of IoT Nurtures Growth of Global Smart Rings MarketThe global smart rings market has been flourishing due to major advancements in technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and its acceptance. The new-age smartphones that come with smart watches and rings for receiving emails, messages, phone calls, and notification about posts on social networking sites have augmented the growth of the global market. The incredible support offered by IoT to these functionalities has been a great boon to the global market. In the coming years, the ability of smart rings to store incredible amount of data such as text messages, emails, phone calls, authentication and access control details, and payment details is anticipated to favor market growth in the near future.Request a PDF Sample for this Research Report @The growing disposable income of the younger population and the increasing awareness about better technologies have been instrumental in shaping the future of the global smart rings market. Analysts anticipate that demand for smart rings will remain persistent in the healthcare sector. Both patients and physicians are expected to show a significant demand for smart rings are these held in monitoring heart beats, pulse rates, and blood pressure levels, which could be signs and symptoms of a larger ailment. The increasing health risks due to poor lifestyles have augmented the demand for smart rings to ensure prevention instead of cure.Lack of Interest from Big Players becomes Challenge for the Global MarketThe high dependency on battery has been identified as a key challenge for the global smart rings market. The inconvenience of charging smart rings with dongles or cables has made the experience of using them unenjoyable. Furthermore, the market still continues to be in its nascent stage and is long way to go before it evolves thoroughly. OTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendationsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Nano Chemotherapy Market and Clinical Trials Outlook 2022 Report Download

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Global Nano Chemotherapy Market and Clinical Trials Outlook 2022 report highlights the current development in the in the field of nano chemotherapy. Report gives comprehensive insight on various clinical and non-clinical parameters associated with the expansion of global nano chemotherapeutics market. The clinical and pricing insight on chemotherapeutics nanoformulations of approved drugs helps to understand the current market scenario of the nano chemotherapeutics.Download SampleFor Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.comReport Weblink:Table of ContentsNano Chemotherapeutics Mediations andndash; Solicitation to Nanomedicine1.1 Overview1.2 Nano Chemotherapeutics with Pharmaceutical PotentialSignificance of Nano Chemotherapeutics to overcome the Chemotherapy Limitations2.1 Limitations of Conventional Chemotherapy2.2 Nanotechnology in Cancer Targeting2.2.1 Active Targeting2.2.2 Passive Targeting2.2.3 pH Dependent Drug Delivery Through NanoparticlesRole of Nanotherapeutics in Various Diseases Treatment3.1 Nanotherapeutics Approach for Cardiovascular Disease3.2 Nanotherapeutics Approach for Cancer Therapy3.3 Nanotherapeutics Approach for Diabetes Treatment3.4 Nanotherapeutics Approach for Rheumatoid ArthritisChemotherapeutics Nanoformulations of Approved Drugs: Clinical Insights and Price Analysis4.1 Abraxane (Advanced Lung, Pancreatic, Breast Cancers)4.2 Depocyte (Lymphomtous Meningitis)4.3 Doxil (Kaposis Sarcoma, Ovarian Cancer)4.4 Marqibo (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia)4.5 Neulasta (Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia)4.6 Oncospar (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia)4.7 Zevalin (Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma)Chemotherapeutics Nanoformulations in Clinical Trials: Clinical Insight and Mode of Action5.1 MM-302 (Metastatic Breast Cancer)5.2 Thermodox (Hepatobiliary Tumors)5.3 CPX-351 (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia)5.4 IHL-305 (Solid Tumor Malignancy)5.5 MM-398 (Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer)5.6 BIND-014 (Metastatic Prostate Cancer)5.7 NK-012 (Solid Tumor Malignancy)5.8 CRLX-101 (Solid Tumor Malignancy and Rectal Cancer)Global Market Nanotherapeutics Outlook6.1 Market Scenario of Nanotherapeutics6.2 Market Size of NanomedicineCancer Nanotherapeutics Market Revenue7.1 Sales of Nano Chemotherapeutic Drugs7.2 Top Nanotherapeutics Companies Revenue7.3 Global Cancer Nanomedicine Clinical Pipeline OverviewGlobal Nano Chemotherapeutics Market Dynamics8.1 Favorable Parameters8.2 Challenges to the Market GrowthFuture Perceptive of Nano ChemotherapeuticsCompetitive Landscape10.1 Ablynx10.2 AMAG10.3 Amgen10.4 Celgene10.5 CytImmune10.6 Cornerstone10.7 Delpor10.8 Ensysce10.9 MagForce AG10.10 Merrimack10.11 Nanotherapeutics10.12 Nanobiotix10.13 Nanospectra10.14 Spectrum pharmaceuticals10.15 TarvedaKuick Research is a market research and analytics company that provides targeted information for critical decisions at business, product and service levels. We are quick, predictive and known by the recommendations we have made in the past. Our result-oriented research methodology offers understanding of multiple issues in a short period of time and gives us the capability to keep you full with loads of practical ideas. By translating research answers into strategic insight and direction, we not only rate the success potential of your products and/or services, but also help you identify the opportunities for growth in new demographies and find ways to beat competition.Neeraj Chawlaneeraj@kuickresearch.comKuicK ResearchL29 - L34, First FloorBlock L,Connaught PlaceNew Delhi-110001+91-11-47067990
Global CAR T Cell Therapy Market and Clinical Trials Insight 2022 Report Download

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Global CAR T Cell Therapy Market and Clinical Trials Insight 2022 report highlights the ongoing clinical and non-clinical advancement in the field of Car T Cell Therapy. As per report findings, the promise of CAR modified T cell therapy derives from its combined immunologic benefits and include the specificity of a targeted antibody, the ability to expand the T cell population and the potential for long term persistence to facilitate the ongoing tumor surveillance. The success in early phase trials, assess the feasibility of evaluating the treatment modality across the multiple centers and in larger patients. Currently, there are 99 CAR T Cell based therapies in clinical pipeline and most of them belong to Phase-I and Phase-I/II clinical trials.Global CAR T Cell Therapy Market and Clinical Trials Insight 2022 report highlights:* CAR T Cell Therapies Delivery Pipeline and Mechanism of Action* Global CAR T Cell Therapy Clinical Trials for Cancer Treatment* Global CAR T Cell Therapies Clinical Pipeline by Company, Indication and Phase* Global CAR T Cell Therapies Clinical Pipeline: 99 Therapies* CAR T Cell Therapies in Highest Phase: Preregistration* Majority of CAR T Cell Therapies in Phase-I/II Trials: 16 Therapies* Global Market Scenario of CAR T Cell Therapy* Global CAR T Cell Therapy Market Future ProspectsDownload SampleFor Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.comReport Weblink:Table of Contents1. Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cell Therapy - Next Era in Immuno Oncology1.1 Overview1.2 History and Development of CAR-T Technology2. Evolution of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cell Design2.1 Structure of CAR T Cell2.2 1nd Generation Chimeric Antigen Receptor2.3 2nd and 3nd Generation CAR T Cell3. Principle of Chimeric Antigen Receptor Design3.1 CAR Modified T Cells: Targeting3.2 CAR Modified T Cell: Signaling4. CAR T Cell Therapies Delivery Pipeline and Mechanism of Action4.1 Process of CAR T Cell Therapy4.2 Mechanism of Action5. Approaches to Improve the CAR T Cell Therapy5.1 Introduction5.2 Targeting the Tumor Stroma with CAR T Cells5.3 Targeting the Cytokine Networks5.4 Combination Strategies for CAR T Cells5.5 Targeting the Immune Checkpoints6. Global CAR T Cell Therapy Clinical Trials for Cancer Treatment6.1 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia6.2 Multiple Myeloma6.3 Brain Tumors6.4 Lymphoma6.5 Solid Tumors7. Global CAR T Cell Therapies Clinical Pipeline by Company, Indication and Phase7.1 Research7.2 Preclinical7.3 Clinical7.4 Phase-I7.5 Phase-I/II7.6 Phase-II7.7 Preregistration8. Global Market Scenario of CAR T Cell Therapy8.1 Overview8.2 Estimated Price Analysis of CAR T Cell Therapy9. Global Market Size of CAR T Cell Therapy9.1 Market Share of Cancer Immunotherapy by its Technology9.2 CAR T Cell Therapy Market Value10. Global CAR T Cell Therapy Market Dynamics10.1 Favorable Parameters10.2 Challenges11. Global CAR T Cell Therapy Market Future Prospects12. Competitive Landscape12.1 Autolus12.2 Bellicum12.3 Bluebird12.4 Celgene12.5 Cellectis12.6 Celyad12.7 Eureka Therapeutics12.8 Fortress Biotech12.9 Immune Therapeutics12.10 Juno Therapeutics12.11 Kite Pharma12.12 Novartis12.13 Sorrento therapeutics12.14 TILT Biotherapeutics12.15 ZiopharmKuick Research is a market research and analytics company that provides targeted information for critical decisions at business, product and service levels. We are quick, predictive and known by the recommendations we have made in the past. Our result-oriented research methodology offers understanding of multiple issues in a short period of time and gives us the capability to keep you full with loads of practical ideas. By translating research answers into strategic insight and direction, we not only rate the success potential of your products and/or services, but also help you identify the opportunities for growth in new demographies and find ways to beat competition.Neeraj Chawlaneeraj@kuickresearch.comKuicK ResearchL29 - L34, First FloorBlock L,Connaught PlaceNew Delhi-110001+91-11-47067990
Cinnamon Market Expected to Expand at a Steady CAGR through 2025

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Cinnamon is a spice which is acquired from the inner bark of tropical tree species from genus Cinnamomum. Cinnamon is available in two main varieties including Cinnamomum cassia and Cinnamomum zeylanicum. Cinnamomum cassia is a popular spice in North America which has a dark brown color and stronger taste and is most widely used for flavoring various food products. Cinnamon zeylanicum is also known Ceylon cinnamon or true cinnamon which appears in a lighter color along with having a sweeter and delicate flavor than cassia cinnamon. The most used cinnamon varieties are pale and parchment-like in appearance cinnamon species. Cinnamon is primarily used in various bakery products such as cakes, pancakes, and other baked goods along with milk and rice puddings. Cinnamon is also used in fruit desserts and chocolate dishes primarily in pears and apple fruit desserts. Cinnamon can also be used to spice creams, syrups and flavored wines. Cinnamon powder is also used for enhancing a variety of drinks, soups and sweets.Download PDF Brochure @Global Cinnamon: Market SegmentationThe global cinnamon market is segmented on the basis of product type, application and region. The cinnamon market is segmented on the basis of product type such as Ceylon cinnamon, Saigon cinnamon, cassia cinnamon, and korintje cinnamon. In the product type, cassia cinnamon is widely used spice and is dominating the global cinnamon market as it is cheaper than others. The global cinnamon market is segmented on the basis of application in which cinnamon is used in application such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food and beverage, and others. Cinnamon are widely used to flavor bread-based products, cereals and fruit desserts. Cinnamon are used as a spice for flavoring various savory dishes. Hence, the global cinnamon market is expected to significantly increase the revenue contribution over the forecast period.Global Cinnamon Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global cinnamon industry can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East and Africa. Globally, among all regions, Asia Pacific has developed as the dominant region in global cinnamon market followed by Europe. Increasing demand for spices as a flavoring agent in various food products, has strengthened the growth of global cinnamon market and hence is projected to significantly expand the revenue contribution of the market over the forecast period.Global Cinnamon Market: Growth DriversThe global cinnamon market driving factors are increasing demand for cinnamon in various food products as a flavoring agent in various savory dishes and beverages worldwide. Increasing opportunities in bakery, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics industries is also another factor in driving the cinnamon market. Manufacturers are focusing on providing healthier product offerings by using cinnamon in various products such as bakery products and confectionery. Cinnamon helps consumers in managing their blood sugar levels, which is another major factor for driving the cinnamon seed market worldwide. Cinnamon is also used in various cereals, and meals, coupled with increasing consumer demand for cinnamon, in ground format and whole quills, has also raised among UK food producers, wholesalers, bakers, and retailers. Hence, the global Cinnamon market is expected to observe robust growth over the forecast period.Buy this Report at:Global Cinnamon Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified across the value chain of the global cinnamon market include Pure Ceylon Cinnamon, Adam Group, Bio Foods (Pvt) Ltd., HDDES Group, SDS SPICES (PVT) LTD., Ceylon Spice Company, Elite Spice, First Spice Mixing Company, C.F. Sauer Company, EHL Ingredients, and Bart Ingredients. The companies are expected to expand their business by enhancing their product portfolio in global cinnamon market. The companies are projected to frame certain strategies in future in order to gain the competitive advantage in global cinnamon market till 2025.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Bio-based Ethylene Industry Insights, Demand and Forecast up to 2025

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Polyolefins are the most frequently used plastics. There are two types of polyolefins: polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE). These polyolefins are known by the fact that their density is less than 1gm/cm3, which allows polyolefins to float on water. Polypropylene and polyethylene can be manufactured from renewable resources. In 2010, Braskem developed a 100% bio-based plastics equivalent to HDPE, which revolutionized the bio-plastics industry. Development of bio-based polyolefins was driven by its renewable resource content and not compostability. Polyolefins are derived from sugarcane ethanol. Bio-based polyolefins are chemically equivalent to their petroleum-based counterparts; therefore, they can be employed for the same applications.Request Report Brochure @Braskem currently has a capacity of nearly 200 kilotons capacity in Brazil. However, in 2015, the company declared it will not be following its Green PP initiative. The company also announced that it will not be investing any additional effort into bio-ethylene. Dow Chemical and Mitsui Chemicals have also postponed the US$1.5 Bn project in Brazil to manufacture PE from sugarcane. These projects are expected to produce ethanol from sugarcane, which is expected to be used to manufacture 900 kilo tons of bio-based polyethylene of various grades per year. These projects were expected to be world's largest biopolymers investments in this decade. The delay in these projects are ascribed to the concerns regarding the economics of these products. Additionally, the increasing availability of low-priced shale gas in the U.S. is expected to restrain the market in the next few years. These recent declarations regarding the project delays are anticipated to intervene or possibly inverse any near-term expansion/penetration in the bio-based polyolefins market. These factors are predicted to significantly change the growth predictions for bio-plastics during the forecast period. For bio-based polyolefins, the increasing quantity of cheap shale gas looks to be negatively affecting initiatives in the field of bio-based polyolefins.Bio-based Polyolefins Market: SegmentationThe bio-based polyolefins market can be segmented based on type:Bio-based polyethyleneBio-based polypropylenePolyethylene is the simplest and most commonly used plastic. The global production capacity of polyethylene is nearly 80,000 kilo tons per year. Production of plastics using renewable resources has gained interest in the recent years. In Brazil, bio-ethanol is manufactured from sugarcane employing a fermentation process for many years. This bio-ethanol is recently being used to manufacture ethylene. This bio-ethanol is further used to produce bio-polyethylene.Read Report Overview @Bio-based polypropylene can also be manufactured using bio-ethanol; however, the process of manufacturing bio-based polypropylene is comparatively more complex. Polypropylene is considerably newer than polyethylene. It is used in various technical applications. The global production was nearly 50,000 kilo tons in 2010. The production of bio-based polypropylene involves numerous ways of obtaining the propylene monomer C3H6 from various renewable resources.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Cancer Immunotherapy Market and Clinical Trials Outlook 2022 Report Download

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Global Cancer Immunotherapy Market and Clinical Trials Outlook 2022 report gives comprehensive insight on clinical and non-clinical developments in the field of cancer immunotherapy. According to report, cancer immunotherapy has emerged as the new growth frontier for the pharmaceutical companies involved in the clinical research and development of cancer drugs and therapeutics. Currently there are more than 2000 cancer immunotherapies based drugs/therapies are in clinical pipeline. Majority of these are in preclinical, Phase-I and Phase-II trials. There are 14 cancer vaccine, 44 Cancer monoclonal antibodies, 3 cancer cell therapies and 61 cancer Immunomodulators are commercially available in the market.Global Cancer Immunotherapy Market and Clinical Trials Outlook 2022 report highlights:* Categorization of Cancer Immunotherapy* Market Aspects of Cancer Immunotherapy* Clinical Trials and Development Insight* Global Cancer Immunotherapy Pipeline Overview* Marketed Cancer Immunotherapy by Class* Global Cancer Immunotherapy Market Future Prospects* Competitive AnalysisDownload SampleFor Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.comReport Weblink:Table of Contents1. Immunotherapy: Mending Cancer Regimens1.1 Preface to Cancer Immunotherapy1.2 Evolution of Cancer Immunotherapy2. Categorization of Cancer Immunotherapy2.1 Specific Cancer Immunotherapy2.1.1 Cancer Vaccines2.1.2 Monoclonal Antibodies2.2 Non-Specific Cancer Immunotherapy2.2.1 Adoptive Cell Transfer Immunotherapy2.2.2 Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors3. Fundamentals of Cancer Vaccines3.1 Prologue of Cancer Vaccines3.2 Cancer Vaccines in Immunotherapy3.3 Commercial Aspects of Cancer Vaccines4. New Era of Monoclonal Antibodies4.1 Rudiments of Monoclonal Antibodies4.2 Advents of Monoclonal Antibodies4.3 Commercial Aspects of Monoclonal Antibodies5. Trails of T-Cell Therapies5.1 Adoptive Cell Transfer Technology5.2 Strategies of Adoptive Cell Transfer5.3 Commercial Aspects of Adoptive Cell Therapy6. Aspects of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors6.1 Prelude to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors6.2 Implications of Immunecheck Point Inhibitors6.3 Commercial Aspects of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors7. Immunomodulators in Cancer Immunotherapy7.1 Perspective of Immunomodulators7.2 Clinical Aspects of Immunomodulators7.3 Commercial Aspects of Immunomodulators8. Oncolytic Viral Immunotherapy8.1 Concept to Oncolytic Viruses8.2 Potential Approaches of Oncolytic Viruses8.3 Commercial Aspects of Oncolytic Viruses9. Cytokines in Cancer Immunotherapy9.1 Fundamentals of Cytokines9.2 Classification of Cytokines9.3 Commercial Aspects of Cytokines10. Interferons in Immunotherapy10.1 Potentials of Interferons10.2 Classification of Interferons10.3 Clinical Applications of Interferons11. Interleukins in Immunotherapy11.1 Potentials of Interleukins11.2 Clinical Applications of Interleukins12. GM-CSF in Immunotherapy12.1 Potentials of GM-CSF12.2 Clinical Applications of GM-CSF13. Global Economic Evaluations13.1 Economic Aspects of Cancer Immunotherapy13.2 Cancer Immunotherapy Cost by Product14. Market Aspects of Cancer Immunotherapy14.1 Current Market Trends14.2 Cancer Immunotherapy Pipeline Overview15. Global Cancer Immunotherapy Market Dynamics15.1 Favorable Market Parameters15.2 Commercialization Challenges16. Marketed Cancer Cell Therapies Drugs16.1 Sipuleucel-T (Provengeandreg;)16.2 T-Lymphocyte Cell Therapy(Immuncell-LCandreg;)17. Marketed Cancer Cytokines Drugs17.1 Aldesleukin (Proleukinandreg;)17.2 Denileukin Diftitox (ONTAKandreg;)17.3 Interferon Alpha (Multiferonandreg;)17.4 Interferon Alpha-2a (Roferon-Aandreg;)17.5 Interferon Alpha-2a (Veldonaandreg;)17.6 Interferon Alpha-2a Biosimilar(Inferonandtrade;/Inmutagandtrade;)17.7 Interferon Alpha-2b(Intronandreg; A)17.8 Interferon Alpha-2b Biosimilar(Bioferonandtrade;)17.9 Interferon Alpha-2b Biosimilar (Intalfaandreg;)17.10 Interferon Alpha-2b Biosimilar17.11 Interferon-Alpha-n3 (Alferon Nandreg;)17.12 Interferon-Beta-1b (Feronandreg;)17.13 Interferon-Gamma (Ogammaandreg;)17.14 Interleukin-2 Biosimilar (Ilcass)17.15 Teceleukin (Imunaceandtrade;)18. Marketed Cancer Vaccines18.1 Bladder Cancer Vaccine (PACISandreg;)18.2 Bladder Cancer Vaccine18.3 BV NSCLC 00118.4 Dendritic Cell Vaccine (CreaVax-HCCandreg;, CreaVax-PCandreg; and CreaVax-RCCandreg;)18.5 Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Quadrivalent (Gardasilandreg;/Silgardandreg;)18.6 Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Recombinant Bivalent (Cervarixandreg;)18.7 Melanoma Vaccine (MVaxandreg;)18.8 Melanoma Vaccine (Melacineandreg;)18.9 Racotumomab (Vaxiraandreg;)18.10 Sipuleucel-T (Provengeandreg;)18.11 Tertomotide (LucaVax)18.12 Vitespen (Oncophageandreg;)19. Marketed Cancer Monoclonal Antibodies19.1 Bevacizumab19.2 Trastuzumab Emtansine19.3 Trastuzumab Subcutaneous19.4 Brentuximab Vedotin19.5 Catumaxomab19.6 Ipilimumab19.7 Nivolumab19.8 Pembrolizumab19.9 Pertuzumab19.10 Rituximab19.11 Trastuzumab20. Global Cancer Immunotherapy Market Future Prospects21. Competitive Landscape21.1 Abbvie21.2 Advaxis21.3 Altor BioScience21.4 Amgen21.5 Biogen Idec21.6 Biogenomics21.7 Celldex Therapeutics21.8 Dendreon Corporation21.9 Eli Lilly21.10 Expression Genetics21.11 Galena Biopharma21.12 Genmab21.13 Gilead Sciences21.14 GlaxoSmithKline21.15 ImmunoCellular Therapeutics21.16 ImmunoGen21.17 Inovio Pharmaceuticals21.18 IRX Therapeutics21.19 Merck21.20 NeoStem Oncology21.21 NewLink Genetics21.22 Northwest Biotherapeutics21.23 Novartis21.24 Peregrine Pharmaceuticals21.25 Pfizer21.26 Philogen21.27 Regulon21.28 Roche21.29 Seattle Genetics21.30 ZymoGeneticsKuick Research is a market research and analytics company that provides targeted information for critical decisions at business, product and service levels. We are quick, predictive and known by the recommendations we have made in the past. Our result-oriented research methodology offers understanding of multiple issues in a short period of time and gives us the capability to keep you full with loads of practical ideas. By translating research answers into strategic insight and direction, we not only rate the success potential of your products and/or services, but also help you identify the opportunities for growth in new demographies and find ways to beat competition.Neeraj Chawlaneeraj@kuickresearch.comKuicK ResearchL29 - L34, First FloorBlock L,Connaught PlaceNew Delhi-110001+91-11-47067990
Intelligent Platform Management Interface Market 2017 by Key Players: Cisco Systems, Intel, Dell, HPE, Microsoft, ARM Holdings, Emerson, NEC, Softlayer Technologies

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Intelligent Platform Management Interface Market Research Report- Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market HighlightsIntelligent Platform Management Interface defines a precise way for embedded management subsystems so that it can be connected through computers, LAN and serial lines. The subsystems in the intelligent platform management interface consists of baseboard controller, enclosure management controller and peripheral management controller among others so that it can help the servers to control.Factors such as increasing implementation of the system, increasing number of data centers and technological innovations are expected to boost the intelligent platform management interface market over the forecast period, 2017-2023.The global Intelligent Platform Management Interface Market is expected to reach approximately USD 4 billion by the end of 2023 with 13% CAGR during forecast period 2017-2023.Key PlayersThe key players in the global intelligent platform management interface market include- Cisco Systems (U.S.),Intel Corporation (U.S.), Dell, Inc. (U.S.), HPE (U.S.), Microsoft (U.S.), ARM Holdings Inc. (U.K.), Emerson (U.S.), NEC Corporation (Japan), Softlayer Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), Super Micro Computer, Inc. (U.S.) among others.Get Sample of Report @Intelligent Platform Management Interface MarketAccording to Market Research Future, market has been segmented into component, applications verticals and region.On the basis of verticals, the market has been segmented into healthcare, banking and finance, retail, education, manufacturing, it & telecommunications and public sector among others. Out of the applications retail and telecommunication sectors accounted for the largest market share majorly due to number of systems used in a particular day and Japan has a large market scope for telecommunication industry.Market Research Future AnalysisThe global intelligent platform management interface market is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period, 2017-2023. Retail and IT & Telecommunications segment of intelligent platform management interface market globally drives the market majorly due to increasing demand for internet systems. The market is expected to have higher growth rate as compared to the previous years.Asia-Pacific region expected to grow at a fast pace over the forecast period, 2017-2023. Countries such as Japan contributes majorly due to advancement in the telecommunication sector. IT and telecom industry need intelligent platform management interface because a single failure in hardware can damage the sale of that particular period. Also, countries such as India, China contributes largely to overall market share majorly due to large consumer base.North-America accounted for the largest market share majorly due to demand for high-speed broadband services and increasing number of small and medium scale enterprises.Get complete Report @Intended Audience Manufacturers Distributors Suppliers Original Equipment Manufacturers Research Institutes Integrators Research firms Software Developers Vendors Semiconductor Manufacturers End-user sectors Technology InvestorsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst membersMedia Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Micro Actuator Market Progresses for Huge Profits During 2016 - 2024

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Transducers are those devices which helps to convert one form of energy to another form of energy. Actuator is a type of transducers which helps in producing mechanical movement through converting a source of energy. Here the source of energy may include electric current, pneumatic pressure or hydraulic fluid pressure. Whereas micro actuator helps to transmit a measure or fixed amount of energy for the operation of other mechanism. In other words it is mainly used to produce small forces in entities of small sizes and motions at over small distances. Growing advancement in industries such as automotive, healthcare and wellness is expected to drive the demand of micro actuator in the forecast period.Request Report for TOC @Micro Actuator Market SegmentationOn the basis of types micro actuator can be segmented as electric micro actuators, functional material based micro actuators, shape memory alloy (SMA) micro actuator, and others. Electric micro actuator can be further sub segmented as electromagnetic micro actuators and electrostatic actuators. Among both these sub segments electromagnetic micro actuator is expected to account for larger market share as compared to electrostatic actuator. Rising wide application of electromagnetic micro actuator devices especially in space crafts is expected to support the demand of electromagnetic micro actuator across the globe.Furthermore, functional material based micro actuator is further sub segmented as piezoelectric micro actuator. Rising application of piezoelectric devices in various applications ranging from energy generation in medical instrument, or gathering of pedestrian traffic to power localized street lightening or portable devices to power the sensors in vehicles is expected to support the demand of functional material based micro actuator in the forecast period. Moreover, shape memory alloy (SMA) micro actuator is further sub segmented as electroactive polymer (EAP) based micro actuator. Rising considerable attention for the use of sensors for micro fabricated devise is driving the growth of electroactive polymer (EAP) based micro actuator in the near future. In addition, the others segment of micro actuator includes bimetallic thermal actuator and magnetostrictive actuators.The micro actuator market can also be segmented on the basis of region which includes North America, Latin America, Easter Europe, Western Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Japan. Among all the regions North America is expected to account for the highest market share followed by Europe. In North America United States is expected to be the major contributor as compared to other countries in the region. Rising demand of automotive products and, health and wellness industry is expected to support the growth of micro actuator market across the region. Moreover, Asia Pacific is expected to register a substantial growth in the forecast period. Among all the countries in Asia Pacific China is expected to be the major contributor. Rising number of aging population have led to the increased production of innovative medical instruments, which is expected to support the growth of micro actuator market in China in the forecast period.Request to Sample of Report @Micro Actuator Market Drivers & RestraintsRising wide number of application in automobile industry, health and wellness industry and other industry such space crafts or industries where heavy machineries are required is expected to support the demand of micro actuator market across the globe. Moreover, rising demand of micro fabricated sensors in above mentioned industries is also expected to support the growth of micro actuator market across the globe in the forecast period. However high cost incurred in manufacturing of micro actuator devices may hamper the growth of micro actuator market in the future.Micro Actuator Market: Key PlayersThe key international players operating in micro actuator market includes IBM Corporation, ST Microelectronics, Agilent Technologies, Stmicroelectronics Ltda, NanoSniff Technologies Pvt. Ltd., SAES Group and others.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Non-volatile Memory Market : Size, Status and Forecast 2025

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Global Non-volatile Memory Market: OverviewNon-Volatile memory or NVM is a different kind of computer memory that has been programmed to recover stored data and information even after being switched off and back on. A few examples of non-volatile memory are punched cards, paper tape, optical discs, magnetic tape, floppy discs, hard disk drives, ferroelectric RAM, flash memory, and read-only memory. This special type of memory is specifically employed for the purpose of a long-term persistent storage or secondary storage. The most commonly employed form of primary storage at present is an instable form of RAM or random access memory, which means that when the computer is turned off, all the contents stored in the random access memory is lost. Nevertheless, several different types of non-volatile memory have certain limitations that tend to make them an unsuitable option for usage as a primary storage mode. Usually, the cost of non-volatile memory is more and also its performance is low. Moreover, its endurance is also lower than volatile RAM.Recently, leading companies such as Intel has started shipping different, innovative storage drives which is based on the 3D XPoint non-volatile memory technology targeted towards the workloads which are data driven.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Non-volatile Memory Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe global market for non-volatile memory is largely driven by the growing demand for easy and fast access along with rising need for low power consuming memory devices. This has impacted the led to an expanded consumption of NVM particularly in the industries such as healthcare, automotive, and consumer electronics. Henceforth, the global non-volatile memory market is likely to expand at a moderate rate over the coming years owing to the facilities such as optimized consumption of power and high speed access of data. However, the growth of the market is likely to be inhibited by its limited storage capability and substantially low rate of write endurance. Regardless of the several challenges, market vendors can expect opportunities from the rising demand for non-volatile memory in flexible electronics and the emergence of innovative and advanced storage techniques such as NRAM, SONOS, MRAM, and 3D XPoint.Different types of NVM such as embedded non-volatile memory and traditional non-volatile memory. The market for 3D and 2D NAND is likely to be extensively be driven by the growing demand for Flash memories in the section of consumer electronics due to properties such as low consumption of power and low price.Request TOC of the Report @Global Non-volatile Memory Market: Market PotentialOne of the leading companies in data, Everspin, introduced a new type Spin Torque MRAM over a PCIe card. The first of its kind, the new and innovative nvNITRO E range is expected to be half length and half height PCIe card which will work as an NVMe solid disk or as a MMIO. These types of card entitle 1,500,000 IOPS with an end-to-end latency of six microsecond.Global Non-volatile Memory Market: Regional OutlookThe global market for non-volatile memory market can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. It has been expected that Asia Pacific will account for a significant share in the global market due to the growing number of data centers and rising manufacturing of consumer electronics and automotive.Request Discount of the Report @Global Non-volatile Memory Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the leading companies in the market are Micron Technology Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., Sandisk Corporation, Sidense Corporation, Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Kilopass Technology Inc., Crossbar Inc., Viking Technology, and Adesto Technologies Corporation.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Global Breast Cancer Predictive Genetic Testing Market Outlook 2022 Report Download

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Global Breast Cancer Predictive Genetic Testing Market Outlook 2022 report analyzes the various aspects related to the emergence and development of breast cancer genetic test market across the globe. The current and future aspects of cancer genomics have covered a long path of advances and the journey is still ongoing. The technological improvements in genomic sciences had allowed parallel sequencing of both tumors and germline mutations and had provided the weapon of next generation sequencing. Under the supervision of intellectual property laws and appropriate guidelines cancer susceptibility testing has become one of the major assets in medical practice. There appears to be pervasive belief in both scientific and public circles that genetic testing is going to be the cornerstone of much, if not all, of what medicine holds for the future. Besides, what is generally meant is the wide scale testing for susceptibility to common diseases especially for cancer and for responsiveness to drugs has come to be described as genetic profiling.Global Breast Cancer Predictive Genetic Testing Market Outlook 2022 Report Highlights:* Hereditary Breast Cancer Genes* Conceptual of Breast Cancer Susceptibility* Predictive Cancer Testing Essentials* Economical, Ethical and Social Aspects* Global Prevalence of Breast Cancer* Market and Cost Analysis of Predictive Testing* Insurance Affairs for Breast Cancer Predictive TestingDownload SampleFor Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.comReport Weblink:Table of ContentsCancer Susceptibility Testing1.1 Prologue to Cancer Susceptibility1.2 Aspects of Cancer Susceptibility TestingBreast Cancer Susceptibility2.1 Conceptual of Breast Cancer Susceptibility2.2 Trail of the Inherited Susceptible GenesHereditary Breast Cancer Genes3.1 High Penetrant Genes3.1.1 Breast Cancer Gene1 (BRCA1)3.1.2 Breast Cancer Gene 2 (BRCA2)3.1.3 TP533.1.4 PTEN3.1.5 STK11 and CDH13.2 Intermediate Penetrant Genes3.2.1 CHEK23.2.2 PALB23.2.3 ATM3.2.4 Other Genes3.3 Low Penetrant GenesBreast Cancer Susceptible Syndromes4.1 Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer4.2 Cowden Syndrome4.3 Li-Fraumeni Syndrome4.4 Peutz-Jeghers SyndromeCancer Susceptibility Testing Essentials5.1 Prerequisites towards Cancer Susceptibility5.2 Sequential Stages in TestingGenetic Cancer Susceptibility Testing6.1 Risk Assessment6.2 Genetic Counseling6.3 Genetic Testing6.4 Post-Test CounselingManagement of Hereditary Risk7.1 Surveillance7.2 Chemoprevention7.3 Bilateral Prophylactic MastectomyEconomical, Ethical and Social Aspects8.1 Economic Aspects of Cancer Susceptibility Testing8.2 Ethical Aspects of Cancer Susceptibility Testing8.3 Social Aspects of Cancer Susceptibility TestingGlobal Prevalence of Breast Cancer9.1 Breast Cancer Incidences9.2 Germline Breast Cancer EthnicityPrevalence over Geographic Regions10.1 Prevalence in Developed Regions10.1.1 US10.1.2 Europe10.1.3 Canada10.1.4 Japan10.2 Prevalence in Developing Regions10.2.1 China10.2.2 India10.2.3 AfricaPreface of Monetary Prospects11.1 Cost of Breast Cancer Susceptibility Testing11.2 Insurance Affairs for Breast Cancer Susceptibility TestingAspects of Cancer Susceptibility Market12.1 Breast Cancer Susceptibility Market Overview12.2 Direct To Consumer MarketGlobal Breast Cancer Predictive Genetic Testing Market Dynamics13.1 Accelerative Parameters13.2 ChallengesGlobal Breast Cancer Predictive Genetic Testing Market Future AspectsCompetitive Landscape15.1 Cancer Genetics15.2 Invitae15.3 Iverson Genetics15.4 Myriad Genetics15.5 NeoGenomics15.6 Oncocyte15.7 PerkinElmer15.8 Quest Diagnostics15.9 Roche15.10 Thermo Fisher ScientificKuick Research is a market research and analytics company that provides targeted information for critical decisions at business, product and service levels. We are quick, predictive and known by the recommendations we have made in the past. Our result-oriented research methodology offers understanding of multiple issues in a short period of time and gives us the capability to keep you full with loads of practical ideas. By translating research answers into strategic insight and direction, we not only rate the success potential of your products and/or services, but also help you identify the opportunities for growth in new demographies and find ways to beat competition.Neeraj Chawlaneeraj@kuickresearch.comKuicK ResearchL29 - L34, First FloorBlock L,Connaught PlaceNew Delhi-110001+91-11-47067990
Biliary Atresia Treatment Market Growth Prospects, Key Opportunities, Trends And Forecast 2025

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Biliary atresia or extra hepatic ductopenia is an acquired disease of the liver. This disease is characterized by the obliteration of the extra hepatic biliary system which results in obstruction of the bile flow from the liver to gall bladder. This can lead to damage to the liver or liver cirrhosis and can become fatal if not treated at an early stage. It occurs because biliary ducts are not normally developed in infants. Currently, there is no known cause of biliary atresia. However, various studies suggest that Reovirus 3 infection, congenital cytomegalovirus infection, and congenital malformation might be responsible for causing biliary atresia in humans.Report Overview @Some of the symptoms associated with biliary atresia are pale or clay-colored stool, jaundice, dark urine, slow or no weight gain, mild hepatomegaly, and enlarged spleen. The treatment regimen widely used to treat biliary atresia can be medications including bile acids, glucocorticoids and antibiotics, and surgical procedure. The most common treatment is a surgical operation called Kasai procedure (connects liver to the intestine for the flow of bile) which is successful if performed before the baby is eight weeks old. However, a liver transplant may or may not be needed depending on the future condition of the baby. The three forms of biliary atresia are: type I or perinatal biliary atresia, type II or biliary atresia splenic malformation, and type III or cystic biliary atresia.Rise in incidence of biliary atresia is the primary factor contributing to the growth of the biliary atresia treatment market. Moreover, other factors such as high demand for safe and effective pharmacological therapies fuel the growth of the market. Furthermore, increasing patient population and introduction of innovative products are expected to drive the untapped biliary atresia treatment market. However, rise in overall health care expenditure and safety concerns are the major factors likely to hamper the growth of the biliary atresia treatment market in the near future.Download Report Brochure @The global biliary atresia treatment market can be segmented based on type of treatment. In terms of type of treatment, the market can be sub-segmented into medication and surgery. Medications can be categorized into bile acids such as ursodiol, glucocorticoids such as methylprednisolone and antibiotics such as trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Surgical procedure involved in the treatment of biliary atresia is Kasai hepatoportoenterostomy (HPE).Geographically, the global biliary atresia treatment market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is the largest market for biliary atresia treatment products owing to high incidence and prevalence rates of biliary atresia. Various studies conducted on biliary atresia suggests that the overall incidence rate of biliary atresia in countries in Asia is 1 per 8,000 live births. Moreover, it is more common in infants in China as compared to those in Japan. However, the overall incidence rate of biliary atresia in the U.S. is 1 per 10,000 to 15,000 live births, while it is approximately 1 in 12,000 births in Europe.Pre-Book Full Report @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Power Electronics Market : Opportunities Sales, Revenue, Outlook and Forecast to 2025

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Global Power Electronics Market: OverviewPower electronics are solid state circuitry devices that convert and control electric power from the source to load. These devices ensure effective delivery of power, providing high security, reliability, and flexibility to the power system. They improve switching speed and also enable power management to prevent power loss. The materials commonly used for these devices are silicon, gallium nitride, silicon carbide, and sapphire. Some of the common types of devices are transistors, diodes, thyristors, modules, and ICs. These devices find applications across industrial verticals such as information and communication technology, consumer electronics, industrial, automotive, power, and aerospace and defense.Global Power Electronics Market: Key TrendsThe rising awareness regarding the benefits of power electronics is boosting their uptake across different applications. Presently, about 30% of all power generation is carried out using power electronic devices, either at the stage of power generation or at the final electricity consumption point. It is anticipated that by 2030, up to 80% of the electricity produced will use power electronic devices. The burgeoning demand for energy-efficient battery-powered portable devices is also fuelling the global power electronics market. Moreover, the growing reliance on renewable energy resources is working in favor the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Other factors such as improving power infrastructure and the increasing demand for energy harvesting technologies are stoking the growth of the global market. On the other hand, high complexity and cumbersome integration process of advanced technology devices make their manufacturing time consuming, which in turn negatively impacting the growth of the global power electronics market. Furthermore, the high initial costs of power electronics are hampering the growth of the market.Global Power Electronics Market: Market PotentialMaterial forms the foundation of power electronic devices and thus, researchers are focusing towards developing materials that have higher efficiency and enable better power generation. A research by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in August 2015 proved the higher efficiency of gallium nitride over silicon. As a result, gallium nitride started emerging as the next generation semiconductor for power electronics and replacing conventional materials. Similarly, researchers at the University of Minnesota and the University of Utah announced that the conjoin of two oxide compounds, namely neodymium titanate (NTO) and strontium titanate (STO), makes an extraordinary conductive material that could be up to five times more conductive than silicon and can vastly improve power transistors. Another case in point is the development of organic thin-film, high-voltage transistors in March 2017 by a team of researchers at the Linkoping and Umea universities in Sweden. This transistor is estimated to be a breakthrough in the field of organic power electronics. Therefore, such developments are imparting significant momentum to the global power electronics market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Power Electronics Market: Geographical SegmentationGeographically, Asia Pacific is expected to be a prominent revenue contributor to the growth of the global market. The rapid expansion of manufacturing facilities along with the robust growth of the consumer goods sector is supplementing the growth of the region. Cost advantages and increasing initiatives taken by governments are boosting the domestic manufacturing of power electronics devices, thereby contributing to the growth of APAC. The growth of Europe can be attributed to countries such as the U.K. and Germany.Global Power Electronics Market: Competitive LandscapeThe presence of a large number of global and regional participants in the global power electronics market and low differentiation in their product offerings have rendered the arena highly competitive. The intensity of rivalry will remain high due to switching cost also. Some of the prominent companies operating in the market are Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors N.V., ON Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics N.V., Microsemi Corporation, Vishay Intertechnology Inc., Texas Instrumentation Inc., Toshiba Corporation, and ABB Ltd.Request Discount of the Report @About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Saudi Arabia Airport Privatization Opportunity Outlook 2022 Report Download

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Saudi Arabia Airport Privatization Opportunity Outlook 2022 report gives comprehensive insight on the privatization opportunity existing in the Saudi Arabia aviation sector. Report highlights the ongoing initiatives undertaken by the Saudi Arabia government to promote and attract foreign investments in civil aviation sector. The domestic and international passenger travel in Saudi Arabia is increasing by 10% CAGR in last six years with total travel estimated to surpass 140 Million by 2022.Saudi Arabia Airport Privatization Opportunity Outlook 2022 report highlights:* Saudi Arabia Aviation Industry Overview* Privatization in Saudi Arabia* Investment and Expansion Opportunities for International Investors* Civil Aviation Laws and Policies Framework* Ongoing Privatization Projects* Privatization Build - Operateandndash;Transfer (BOT) Business ModelDownload SampleFor Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.comReport Weblink:Table of ContentsSaudi Arabia Aviation Industry OverviewPrivatization in Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority3.1 General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA)3.2 International Air Transport AssociationSaudi Arabia: General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) Initiatives4.1 GACAs Role4.2 Airport City4.3 Privatization Strategy4.4 Security, Safety and Air Transport4.5 Watani Hub Program4.6 Cargo Village at King Fahd International Airport4.7 Airport Expansion Plans4.8 Domestic Cap FaresSaudi Arabia Airport Sector: Investment and Expansion Opportunities for International InvestorsSaudi Arabia Civil Aviation Laws and Policies Framework6.1 Privatization Methods and Regulations6.1.1 Methods of Privatization6.1.2 Rules for the privatization of public establishments and projects6.2 Basic issues to be Dealt with in the Privatization process6.2.1 Regulatory framework for privatized sectors6.2.2 Fees for providing service6.3 Preparing and Restructuring the Sectors and Public Enterprises to be Privatized6.3.1 Strategic partners6.4 Criteria for Setting Priorities and Continued Implementation of the Privatization Program6.4.1 Criteria for determining priorities in Selecting Enterprises to be Privatized6.4.2 Continued in Implementation of Privatization ProcessSaudi Arabia: Ongoing Projects Privatization Projects7.1 King Khalid International Airport Project, Riyadh7.2 Prince Mohammad Bin Abdul Aziz International Airport Project, MedinaSaudi Arabia New Airport Projects8.1 King Abdul Aziz International Airport Project, Jeddah8.2 King Fahd International Airport Project, Dammam8.3 Abha Airport Project8.4 Taif International Project,Saudi Arabia Airport Privatization Build - Operateandndash;Transfer (BOT) Business ModelSaudi Arabia Airport Privatization: PEST Analysis10.1 Political Environment10.2 Economic Environment10.3 Social Environment10.4 Technological EnvironmentSaudi Arabia Airport Privatization Sector Favorable Factors11.1 Increasing Air Traffic11.2 Government Support and Regulatory Framework11.3 Strengthening Saudi Economy11.4 Benefits to Saudi Tourism11.5 Transition from PetrodollarSaudi Arabia Airport Privatization Sector Challenges12.1 Financial Problems on Domestic Routes12.2 Airlines Withholding Capacity12.3 Lack of InvestmentSaudi Arabia Airport Privatization Sector Future Forecast14. Competitive LandscapeKuick Research is a market research and analytics company that provides targeted information for critical decisions at business, product and service levels. We are quick, predictive and known by the recommendations we have made in the past. Our result-oriented research methodology offers understanding of multiple issues in a short period of time and gives us the capability to keep you full with loads of practical ideas. By translating research answers into strategic insight and direction, we not only rate the success potential of your products and/or services, but also help you identify the opportunities for growth in new demographies and find ways to beat competition.Neeraj Chawlaneeraj@kuickresearch.comKuicK ResearchL29 - L34, First FloorBlock L,Connaught PlaceNew Delhi-110001+91-11-47067990
Synthetic And Bio Based Butadiene Market will Reflect Significant Growth Prospects by 2023

Synthetic And Bio Based Butadiene Market

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Transparency Market Research has published a new report titled Butadiene (Synthetic and Bio-based) Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2015 - 2023. According to the report, the global synthetic & bio-based butadiene market for was valued at US$ 15.24 Bn in 2014 and is anticipated to reach US$ 23.45 Bn by 2023, expanding at a CAGR of 4.9% between 2015 and 2023.Butadiene is one of the major petrochemical and holds significant importance in end-user industries such as automotive and tire. High demand from tire and automotive industries is driving demand for synthetic & bio-based butadiene during the last few years. Butadiene derivatives such as SB rubber, ABS, and butadiene rubber are used in the processing of tires and automotive parts. SB rubber products such as S-SBR and E-SBR are primarily consumed raw materials in the production of tires. These materials provide low rolling resistance and better grip, thus resulting in reduced CO2 emissions and improved fuel economy. Rise in demand for ABS in Asia Pacific, especially in China and Southeast Asia, is another key factor propelling growth of the market for synthetic & bio-based butadiene. Furthermore, development of innovative technological processes for the production of bio-based butadiene is likely to fuel the butadiene market in the near future. However, volatility in raw material prices coupled with stringent environmental regulations are expected to hinder the market growth during the forecast period.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @Synthetic butadiene was the largest product segment, accounting for a significant share of the global synthetic & bio-based butadiene market in 2014. Synthetic butadiene is produced from a mixture of C4 feedstock and is further processed to obtain derivatives such as ABS, SB rubber, and SB latex. These derivatives are employed in tire and automotive industries. Bio-based butadiene is likely to be the fastest-growing product segment of the synthetic & bio-based butadiene market in the next few years. Stringent regulations are primarily boosting growth of the bio-based butadiene market. Alignment towards eco-friendly and cost-competitive production is estimated to drive the market growth during the forecast period.In terms of demand, butadiene rubber has been dominating the synthetic & bio-based butadiene market in the past years. Butadiene rubber is primarily used in tire production; however, it is also used as an additive in plastics such as polystyrene and ABS. SB rubber accounted for the second-largest share of the synthetic & bio-based butadiene market in 2014. SB rubber is a synthetic rubber obtained through copolymerization of butadiene and styrene and is used in the production of tire and its products. ABS and adiponitrile are considered to be among the fastest-growing application segments of the synthetic & bio-based butadiene market. A similar trend is anticipated to continue during the forecast period.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @Asia Pacific accounted for over 50% share of the global synthetic & bio-based butadiene in 2014. Increasing demand from China and Southeast Asia is expected to drive growth of the synthetic & bio-based butadiene market in this region. Europe and North America are likely to exhibit decline in the market growth due to lower demand and stringent regulations related to butadiene. The Middle East & Africa is expected to be one of the fastest-growing regions for synthetic & bio-based butadiene during the next decade. Growth in tire and automotive industries in this region is likely to provide potential opportunities for the butadiene market in the next few years.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Predictive Breast Cancer Gene Testing Market Key Players and Production Information Analysis 2025

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The American Cancer Society stated that in 2014 about 237,000 women and 2,200 men were diagnosed with breast cancer and nearly 465 men and 41,211 women in the U.S. succumbed to breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, among women in the U.S. Predictive gene testing is also known as presymptomatic testing. Considering the fact that this test is completed even before the early signs of the disease or disorder are yet to observed and thus enable determining persons risk of suffering disorder or disease. Predictive breast cancer gene testing is done to identify the risk of developing the cancer in a person having a family history of this disease. Earlier detection of breast cancer helps to completely cure the patient and save the affected breast. Since the advantages of early detection of breast cancer, governmental and non-governmental organizations around the globe have started taking initiatives to spread awareness regarding the disease and early detection techniques available in their respective territories. Increasing prevalence of breast cancer is a major concern for governments that is encouraging them to conduct awareness programs to reduce the mortality rate of caused by the disease.Report Overview @Increasing incidence of breast cancer globally and initiatives taken by governmental organizations to reduce morbidity rate caused by breast cancer are factors driving the predictive breast cancer genetic testing market. However, acquisition of small market entrants by leading market players, high initial capital investments, and strict government regulations for predictive breast cancer genetic tests restrain the predictive breast cancer gene testing market.The global predictive breast cancer genetic testing market can be segmented into patient type, end-user, and geography. Based on patient types, the predictive breast cancer genetic testing market can be divided into family history, age group, and gender. Family history is taken into consideration due to people having breast cancer in their family are at higher risk of developing breast cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, around 13% patients diagnosed with breast cancer have a family history of this disease. According to a survey conducted by the University of North Carolina, around seven percent women are diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40. Prevalence of breast cancer is higher in women who are in age group between 40 and 55. Being a women is the strongest risk factor for breast cancer, though rare men also are risk of breast cancer. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, in 2015 around 220 men were diagnosed with breast cancer in Canada. In terms of end user, the predictive breast cancer genetic testing market is segmented into clinical laboratories, cancer hospitals, research laboratories.Download Report Brochure @Based on geography, the predictive breast cancer gene testing market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. North America dominates the predictive breast cancer gene testing market followed by Europe. Growing awareness regarding breast cancer among the adult population and availability of sophisticated technologically and advanced treatment options are factors propelling the market in these regions. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, approximately 1,175 new breast cancer cases are likely to be diagnosed in women under the age of 40, representing nearly 5% of all new breast cancers and nearly 3,300 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women between the ages of 40 and 49, representing about 13% of all new breast cancers in 2017. Asia Pacific is one of the most promising regions for the predictive breast cancer gene testing market as the region is developing rapidly. Emerging economies and easy market penetration in developing countries in Asia are projected to drive the predictive breast cancer gene testing market in the near future.Pre-Book Full Report @Key players operating in the predictive breast cancer gene testing market are Myriad Genetics, Inc., Complete Genomics Incorporated, Ambry Genetics, PreventionGenetics, and Illumina, Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Rechargeable Poly Lithium-Ion Batteries Market - Industry Analysis, Growth and New Market Opportunities Explored

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Lithium-ion batteries are a common type of battery in use all over the world. Rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries are an advanced variant of lithium-ion batteries used in a wide range of applications, including automobiles and consumer electronics. Rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries use the popular lithium-ion technology in a pouch format to make them lighter. The higher energy efficiency of rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries has been the primary driver for the global market for the same. The compact size of rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries has also helped the market gain significant demand across the world.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The report examines the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market comprehensively, including an overview of the historical trajectory exhibited by the market, the markets current dynamics, and forecasts regarding the markets development in the forecast period. Key players in the rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market are analyzed in the report to determine the competitive hierarchy of the market. The major factors influencing the growth trajectory of the market are also reviewed to provide a complete analysis of the growth patterns of the market. The major segments of the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market are highlighted in the report to provide a granular view of the market.Rechargeable Poly Lithium-Ion Batteries Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market is propelled primarily by growing demand from various end-use segments. The rising demand for electric vehicles, many of which use rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries, is a major driver for the global market. Increasing public and government support for electric vehicles has resulted in growing sales of the same, indirectly driving the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market. Rising awareness about the need to reduce the consumption of energy in terms of the ecological threats faced by humankind has boosted the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market.Increasing demand for consumer electronics such as laptops and smartphones is another major driver for the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market. The increasing disposable incomes of consumers in developing regions such as Asia Pacific have driven sales of smartphones in key markets such as China and India in recent years. The availability of a number of low-budget options has also boosted the demand for smartphones, driving the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market.Another driver working in favor of the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market is the low maintenance requirements of rechargeable batteries. The self-discharge of rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries is much lower than other batteries, which also provides a longer duration of use.Obtain Report Details @Rechargeable Poly Lithium-Ion Batteries Market: Region-wise OutlookNorth America and Europe are the major regional players in the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market. The main factor responsible for the dominant share of these two regions is the high environmental awareness among the consumers, which has resulted in a steady increase in the demand for electric vehicles. This has the potential to be highly influential in the development of the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market in the coming years.The high disposable income of consumers in these regions has also resulted in these two regions becoming major markets for consumer electronics. This has also been a major factor in these two regions claiming the top spots in the global rechargeable poly lithium-ion batteries market.Major companies profiled in the report include Sony, Kodak, Olympus, Nikon, Motorola, Fujifilm, and Nippon Chemicals.About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Polypropylene Market to Reach US$133.3 billion by 2023

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A new Transparency Market Research report states that the global polypropylene market was valued at US$81.6 bn in 2014 and is predicted to reach US$ 133.3 bn by 2023. It is expected to expand at a 5.7% CAGR in the forecast period between 2015 and 2023. The title of the report is Polypropylene Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023.The rising demand for polypropylene within the food and beverages packaging industry, along with the rising demand for lightweight vehicles, is predicted to fuel the market for polypropylene in the coming years. On the other hand, the rising concern regarding the hazardous effects of plastics on the environment and the unpredictable prices of raw materials may inhibit the growth of the market for polypropylene in the coming years. To overcome this obstacle, manufacturers of polypropylene are focusing on biobased polypropylene, which will bring in new opportunities by the end of 2023.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @On the basis of end user, the polypropylene market is segmented into automotive, packaging, electrical and electronics, consumer products, construction, and others including agriculture, medical, furniture, etc. Amongst these, in 2014, packaging dominated the market, representing a share of over 45% and is also the most swiftly developing end-use segment in the polypropylene market. This is due to the fact that polypropylene has significant uses in both rigid and flexible packaging because of its resistance to high temperatures and strong chemicals.The automotive end-use segment trailed the packaging segment and took the second biggest share in the market the same year. Polypropylene presents the right amount of mechanical strength and flexibility and provides a high-quality surface finish in vehicles. Polypropylene is also lightweight  around 15-20% lighter when compared to other plastics. This lowers the total weight of vehicles and as a result reduces fuel consumption and resultant carbon dioxide emissions. Hence, the growing demand for lightweight motor vehicles in developing and developed economies is accelerating the global market for polypropylene.On the basis of geography, the polypropylene market is segmented into Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Amongst these, in 2014, Asia Pacific constituted a share of more than 50% in the global market for polypropylene and is predicted to rise even more by 2023. The demand for polypropylene is predicted to rise in India, China, Brazil, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), owing to rising demand for food containers within these countries. Additionally, the increasing number of supermarkets within these countries is further raising the demand for polypropylene in the packaging industry.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @On the other hand, Latin America is predicted to increase at an above-average rate owing to rising polypropylene demand from the automotive, construction, and packaging industries. Europe is a stagnant market for polypropylene, however, the rising automotive industry in this region is expected to fuel the polypropylene market in the forecast horizon. BASF SE, Total S.A., Braskem, LyondellBasell Industries N.V., SABIC, Borealis AG, Sinopec, and Reliance Industries Limited, among others are the key players dominant in the market.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Polyols Esters Market, 2017-2025 by Segmentation Based on Product, Application and Region

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Polyols Esters Market: IntroductionEsters are the chemical compound and are derived from the carboxylic acids and alcohols. Polyols ester are the synthetic oil having relatively high thermal and oxidation stability and is derived from esterification, having significant application in refrigeration compressors. Polyol esters are less hydroscopic and bio-degradable compounds, possessing fair hydrolytic stability. The primary appearance of the polyol esters is transparent, oily, colorless and pale yellow in color. The high end physical and chemical properties which amplifies the demand for polyol esters across end-use industries include, its low volatility, low vapour point, good lubricantion and also compatibility with other additives. The key application of polyol esters is in jet turbine engine. In addition to this, polyol esters have various applications including, as an active agent in pharmaceuticals  an important application in field of medicine. Polyol esters form derivatives which are used in application of oil & refinery industry and also in urea activators. Moreover, Polyol esters have other prominent areas of application, such as in chemical industry, foam industries, petrochemicals, among others. From refrigeration lubes to oven chain lubes, polyol esters can be customized for a range of applications. Owing to their application diversity across various end-use industries, the market for polyol ester is expected to experience significant growth opportunities over the forecast period of 20172027.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @Market Dynamics: Polyols Esters MarketGlobal demand for Polyols esters is expected to witness steady growth over forecast period. Rising demand for Polyols esters due to rising number of application in various end use industries such as chemical industries, heavy goods, food & beverages, electrical & electronics and among others is estimated to enhance the growth of global polyols esters market. Exceptional characteristics which include good lubricant, compatible with additives, low pour point are the key growth drivers for the market. Moreover significant demand from automotive and for ultra-low viscosity lubricant additives is expected to account for more than half of the market volume share. Robust sales & distribution network across the region is expected to create an opportunity for the market. In line with this, manufacturers are planning to increase their production capacity. The only impact which can restrict the growth of the market is increasing crude oil prices which is expected to create challenge for the market in between the forecast period.Crude oil derivatives and esters are raw materials for the manufacture of Polyols esters. Hence, their prices being largely dependent on crude oil prices, the increase in the latter is expected to translate into higher esters prices, thereby increasing the production cost of Polyols esters. Hence, rising crude oil prices are expected to impact the Polyols esters price trends in the future.Request Sample Report @Regional Outlook: Polyol Esters MarketIn order to identify opportunities based on product type, application across end-use industries in respective regions, the global polyol esters market is studied among seven key regions. The overall chemical industry growth, with synergistic effects of urbanization and population growth, is projected to facilitate the Asia pacific market in achieving new heights with regard to the polyol esters market over the forecast period. Market in Western Europe is estimated to experience relatively stable market conditions, while that of in the Eastern Europe, especially in Poland and Russia will experience comparatively faster growth conditions. North American market is also expected to create sustainable market opportunities in terms of consumption for polyol esters through 2027.Market Participants: Polyol Esters MarketExamples of the market participants in the Polyols ester market are as follows:CormsquareCalumet SpecialtyHuntsman CorpDow ChemicalShell ChemicalLANXESSPerstropInolexPurinovaPre Book Full Report @ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Sri Lanka Mutual Fund Market Opportunity Outlook 2022 Report Download

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Sri Lanka Mutual Fund Sector Opportunity Outlook 2022 report gives comprehensive insight on the mutual fund (unit trust) sector in Sri Lanka. Report highlights the ongoing trends in the development of mutual fund segment and its future growth opportunity. During last six years (2011-2016) the mutual fund sector returns grew by more than 11%. The highest growth was witnessed in 2015, when the sector returns grew by almost 17%. Currently Open Ended Money Market funds dominate the mutual fund sector landscape with total share of close to 63% and assets vale of US$ 433 Million.Sri Lanka Mutual Fund Sector Opportunity Outlook 2022 report highlights:* Sri Lanka Financial Sector Overview* Sri Lanka Unit Trust/Mutual Fund Market Overview* Types of Unit Trusts/ Mutual Funds* Funds and Fund Managers* Rules for Unit Trust/ Mutual Fund CompaniesDownload SampleFor Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.comReport Weblink:Table of ContentsWhat are Unit Trusts (Mutual Fund)?Types of Unit Trusts (Mutual Funds) in Sri Lanka2.1 Types of Funds2.1.1 Open Ended Funds2.1.2 Closed Ended Funds2.2 Types of Trust Units2.2.1 Gilt Edged Funds2.2.2 Indexed Funds2.2.3 Income Funds or High Yield Funds2.2.4 Balanced Funds2.2.5 Growth Funds2.2.6 Money Market Fund2.2.7 Sector Funds2.2.8 Sharia FundsSri Lanka Financial Sector OverviewSri Lanka Unit Trust Market Overview4.1 Current Market Scenario4.2 Market IndicatorsFunds and Fund Managers in Sri Lanka Unit Trust Market5.1 Ceylon Asset Management Company Limited5.2 Com Trust Asset Management (Private) LimitedForeign Investment in Sri Lanka Unit Trust (Mutual Fund) Market7. Sri Lanka Unit Trust Market Regulatory Authorities7.1 Security and Exchange Commission7.2 Unit Trust Association of Sri Lanka7.3 Central Bank of Sri LankaRules for Unit Trust/ Mutual Fund Companies in Sri LankaSri Lanka Unit Trust Market Dynamics9.1 Improved Economy9.2 Government initiatives to the develop the industry9.3 Demographic Factor9.4 Digital RevolutionSri Lanka Unit Trust Market ChallengesSri Lanka Unit Trust Market PEST Analysis11.1 Political Environment11.2 Economic Environment11.3 Social Environment11.4 Technological EnvironmentSri Lanka Unit Trust Market Future Forecasts 2022Competitive Landscape13.1 Ceylon Asset Management13.2 Comtrust Asset Management (Pvt.) Limited13.3 NDB Wealth Management Limited13.4 Ceybank Asset Management (Pvt.) Limited13.5 National Asset Management Limited13.6 First Capital Asset Management Limited13.7 Capital Alliance Limited13.8 Candor Asset Management Pvt. Limited13.9 Asset Trust Management13.10 Guardian Acuity Asset management (Pvt.) LimitedLicensed Finance Companies and Specialized Leasing Companies Statistics14.1 Indicators14.1.1 Capital Adequacy Ratio14.1.2 Asset Quality14.1.3 Profitability14.1.4 Liquidity14.2 Assets, Liabilities and Capital14.2.1 Earnings and ProfitsKuick Research is a market research and analytics company that provides targeted information for critical decisions at business, product and service levels. We are quick, predictive and known by the recommendations we have made in the past. Our result-oriented research methodology offers understanding of multiple issues in a short period of time and gives us the capability to keep you full with loads of practical ideas. By translating research answers into strategic insight and direction, we not only rate the success potential of your products and/or services, but also help you identify the opportunities for growth in new demographies and find ways to beat competition.Neeraj Chawlaneeraj@kuickresearch.comKuicK ResearchL29 - L34, First FloorBlock L,Connaught PlaceNew Delhi-110001+91-11-47067990
2-Ethylhexanol Market Intelligence Study for Comprehensive Insights 2015-2025

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2-Ethylhexanol is a colorless liquid, which is rarely soluble in water and highly soluble in organic solvents. It is industrially produced through aldol condensation of n-butyraldehyde, and subsequent hydrogenation of hydroxyaldehyde, which is obtained from the prior reaction. 2-Ethylhexanol is primarily used to manufacture low volatility esters such as dioctylphthalate. It is also used in low volatility solvents for resins, vegetable oils, animal fats, resins and petroleum derivatives. It has applications in coatings and is used in the extractant production of heavy metals. It can also be used as an octane booster when reacted with nitric acid.Most of the demand for 2-Ethylhexanol is obtained from the plasticizer manufacturing industry. The advantage of 2-Ethylhexanol are its low solubility in water and high miscibility with organic solvents. It readily forms esters with various organic acids and is a low volatility solvent. Human exposure to highly concentrated 2- Ethylhexanol, is toxic and results in dizziness, headache, throat irritation and sore eyes. However it does not have any carcinogenic properties.Request For Report Sample@Asia Pacific region is the highest consumer of 2-Ethylhexanol, accounting for almost two-third of the global demand. This region is expected to grow substantially in the foreseeable future and has high potential in China. The growing middle-class in Asia and the rapidly transforming industrial scenario in this region drive the demand for the chemical in this market. The demand in Asia is driven by plasticizer manufacturers. North America and Europe market demands are however driven by 2-Ethylhexanol acrylate and 2-Ethylhexanol nitrate manufacturing segments, which are used in adhesives and paints.Visit For TOC@Some of the companies which manufacture 2-Ethylhexanol acrylate are Dow Chemical Company, Eastman Chemical Company, Zak S.A, Chengdu XiYa Chemical Technology Co., Ltd., Tianjin Zhongxin Chemtech Co., Ltd. and Meryer (Shanghai) Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. among many others. This research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically-supported and industry-validated market data and projections with a suitable set of assumptions and methodology. It provides analysis and information by categories such as market segments, regions, product types and distribution channels.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACTFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http.futuremarketinsights.com
US Antidiabetics Drug Market Outlook 2022 Report Download

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US Antidiabetics Drug Market Outlook 2022 report gives clinical and non-clinical insight on trends associated with the development of Antidiabetics drug market in US. Report helps to identify the diabetes epidemiology (Prevalence of Type 1 and 2 Diabetes) in the US market along with the associated economic burden and productivity loss.US Antidiabetics Drug Market Outlook 2022 report highlights:* US Diabetes Epidemiology* US Antidiabetics Market Overview* Key Marketed Antidiabetic Drugs in US* US Biosimilar Insulin Market* US Antidiabetics Drug Market Future ProspectsDownload SampleFor Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.comReport Weblink:Table of ContentsAntidiabetics: Regimen for Diabetes Mellitus1.1 Prologue Towards Diabetes1.2 Preface to AntidiabeticsAntiquity of Managing Diabetes Mellitus2.1 Trajectory from Diabetes to Insulin2.2 Historical En Route towards Oral Diabetic MedicationTreatments Available for Diabetes Mellitus3.1 Non-Pharmacological Approaches for Diabetes Mellitus3.2 Pharmacological Approaches for Diabetes MellitusCataloguing of Antidiabetic Agents4.1 Antidiabetic: Oral Agents4.1.1 Biguanides4.1.2 Thiazolidinediones (TZDs)4.1.3 Sulfonylureas4.1.4 Meglitinides4.1.5 andalpha;- Glucosidase Inhibitors4.1.6 Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitor4.1.7 Bile Acid Sequestrants (BAS)4.1.8 Dopamine Agonist-2Antidiabetic: Injectable Drugs5.1 Insulin: A life saving Modality5.2 Non-Insulin Alternatives for Diabetes MellitusUS Diabetes Epidemiology6.1 Prevalence of Type 1 and 2 Diabetes6.2 Economic Burden Associated with Type 1 and 2 Diabetes: Productivity Loss and Medical BillsUS Antidiabetics Market Overview7.1 Antidiabetic Injectable Market Trends in US7.2 Antidiabetic Oral Drugs Market Trends in US7.3 Commending Trends of AntidiabeticsUS: Key Marketed Antidiabetic Drugs8.1 Insulin Degludec (Tresiba)- Injection8.2 Insulin Lispro - Injection8.3 Insulin Inhalation(Afrezza) - Inhalation8.4 Insulin Glargine (Toujeo) - Injection8.5 Insulin Glulisine (Apidra) - Injection8.6 Insulin Aspart (NovoLog) - Injection8.7 Insulin Detemir (Levemir FlexTouch) - Injection8.8 Insulin Glargine (Lantus) - Injection8.9 Insulin Aspart/Insulin Protamine Aspart (NovoLog) - InjectionUS Biosimilar Insulin Market: Glargine Basaglar andndash; The First Biosimilar Insulin9.1 First Insulin Biosimilar9.2 Impact of Basaglar LaunchUS Antidiabetics Drug Market Dynamics10.1 Accelerative Parameters10.2 Major ChallengesUS Antidiabetics Drug Market Future ProspectsCompetitive Landscape12.1 AstraZeneca12.2 Bayer12.3 Boehringer Ingelheim12.4 Eli-Lilly12.5 Johnson and Johnson12.6 Merck12.7 Novartis12.8 Novo Nordisk12.9 Sanofi12.10 TakedaKuick Research is a market research and analytics company that provides targeted information for critical decisions at business, product and service levels. We are quick, predictive and known by the recommendations we have made in the past. Our result-oriented research methodology offers understanding of multiple issues in a short period of time and gives us the capability to keep you full with loads of practical ideas. By translating research answers into strategic insight and direction, we not only rate the success potential of your products and/or services, but also help you identify the opportunities for growth in new demographies and find ways to beat competition.Neeraj Chawlaneeraj@kuickresearch.comKuicK ResearchL29 - L34, First FloorBlock L,Connaught PlaceNew Delhi-110001+91-11-47067990
Solder Balls Information and Analysis with Forecast Growth - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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"Solder Balls Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.. .Description-' '  Global Solder Balls Market: Overview  Solder balls are bumps of solder that has been placed manually or by automated equipment, and are held in place with a tacky flux to provide the contact between the chip package and the printed circuit board. Rise in quality and performance standards from end-user industries and improvement in living standard in developing countries across the globe is observed to boost the demand for solder balls across the globe.. .Get Sample Report @' '  Global Solder Balls Market: Scope of Study  The report estimates and forecasts the solder balls market on the global, regional, and country levels. The study provides forecast between 2017 and 2025 based on volume (Units) and revenue (US$ Mn) with 2016 as the base year. The report comprises an exhaustive value chain analysis for each of the product segments. It provides a comprehensive view of the market. Value chain analysis also offers detailed information about value addition at each stage. The study includes drivers and restraints for the solder balls market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. The study also provides key market indicators affecting the growth of the market. The report analyzes opportunities in the solder balls market on the global and regional level. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities mentioned in the report are justified through quantitative and qualitative data. These have been verified through primary and secondary resources.The report includes Porters Five Forces Model to determine the degree of competition in the solder balls market. The report comprises a qualitative write-up on market attractiveness analysis, wherein applications and countries have been analyzed based on attractiveness for each region. Growth rate, market size, raw material availability, profit margin, impact strength, technology, competition, and other factors (such as environmental and legal) have been evaluated in order to derive the general attractiveness of the market. The report comprises price trend analysis for solder balls between 2017 and 2025.Secondary research sources that were typically referred to include, but were not limited to company websites, financial reports, annual reports, investor presentations, broker reports, and SEC filings. Other sources such as internal and external proprietary databases, statistical databases and market reports, news articles, national government documents, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market have also been referred for the report.In-depth interviews and discussions with a wide range of key opinion leaders and industry participants were conducted to compile this research report. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. Key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents were reviewed for competitive analysis and market understanding. This helped in validating and strengthening secondary research findings. Primary research further helped in developing the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.  Global Solder Balls Market: Market Segmentation  The study provides a comprehensive view of the solder balls market by dividing it on the basis of end-use and geography segments. The solder balls market has been segmented into up to 100um, 100um  400um and 400um and above based on size type. Size type segment have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends.Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for solder balls in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Additionally, the report comprises country-level analysis in terms of volume and revenue for various segments. Key countries such as the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., Spain, Italy, India, China, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil have been included in the study. Market segmentation includes demand for individual applications in all the regions and countries.  Global Solder Balls Market: Competitive Landscape  The report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report includes Duksan Metal Co. Ltd., Senju Metal Industry Co. Ltd., Indium Corporation, Nippon Micrometal Corporation, Hitachi Metals Nanotech Co. Ltd. and others. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview (wherever applicable).The global solder balls market has been segmented as follows: Solder Balls Market  Alloy Type AnalysisLead Solder BallsLead Free Solder Balls Solder Balls Market  Solder Type AnalysisEutecticNon-Eutectic Solder Balls Market  Size Type AnalysisUp to 100um100um  400um400um and above Solder Balls Market  Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.ItalySpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanASEANRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaGCCSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin America. .More Clear Details get Table of Contents @ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Four years after the dedication of Haditchs new hospitality center its numbers are soaring. And some days, the city in central (east) Ukraine, also spelled Hadiach Hadyach, Gadyach, Gadiach, Haditch, or Hadziacz, sees 100 percent increase in Jewish traffic.

The early 90s brought the fall of communism and the refurbishing of Judaisms iconic sites in Eastern Ukraine. One of these is Haditch, the resting place of Chabads founder, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, famously known for authoring Chabads foundational text, the Tanya and the Code of Jewish Law, or Shulchan Arukh HaRav.

It took years for the Haditch fever to catch. In 1995, a core group of about ten direct descendants of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, also known as the Alter Rebbe, began a twice-yearly pilgrimage to pay their respects.

We stayed at the home of a local Haditch resident, not Jewish, who we subsequently hired for the upkeep of the cemetery. It was just us, says Rabbi Shneur Zalman Deutch (Shushu), Chabads remote and semi-on-site program coordinator of Haditch activities.

After a few years, more clamored to join in.

We began schlepping kosher meat, chicken and other produce from Israel for the 200 people who were beginning to come to town semi annually, recalls Deutch.

The circumstances were, if not charming, rustic. We had to sit on a cardboard box and slide down an icy, snowy hill to reach the resting place, reminisces Rabbi Yechiel Levitansky, Chabad emissary of nearby Sumy, Ukraine.

It wasnt until the brand new, sleek hospitality center, built with the generous support of Mr. George Rohr and local community members from Dnepropetrovsk, Kiev, and other nearby towns and villages, that the number of visitors grew exponentially.

This December, a group from Kievs Jewish community traveled a four-hour distance to visit the Alter Rebbes resting place.

The commemoration of special calendar dates brings the numbers in crowds. This year, for example, from the eve of Wednesday, January 10th until Thursday night, corresponding to 24 Teves, the Hebrew date of passing of the Alter Rebbe, founder of Chabad, Haditch hospitality staff are preparing accommodations for 2,500, says Deutch.

Surprisingly, the majority of these visitors are not affiliated with Chabad.

They are Jews who feel connected to the Alter Rebbe. They have studied the Tanya or Rabbi Shneur Zalmans Code of Jewish Law. Some have simply heard of the Alter Rebbes wisdom and loving-of-humankind persona, and feel drawn to that, Deutch says.

Chabad emissary Levitansky has observed the new centers impact on the local Jewish community. It is, he points out, a kind of spiritual oasis for the local Russo-Ukrainian Jewish population. There is something palpable here.

The new hospitality center caters to many groups that arrange weekend getaways for their local communities as well as to the mass pilgrimages on special occasions. It is also open to the individual Jew who seeks a solitary weekend to connect to this giant of a man.

Deutch monitors the foot traffic which fluctuates. Last week we had a group of 75, and this coming Shabbos we are having full accommodations for four people.

One man from Sumy made a daunting resolution after an inspiring Shabbaton in Haditch, organized by Chabad of Sumy, that Rabbi Levitansky wasnt prepared for.

I was so moved after spending Shabbos at the Alter Rebbes resting place, says Alexander Baruch Baguta, 73, that I decided to have a bris in the new building in Haditch.

Built through the support of Mr. George Rohr, the Haditch hospitality center will play host to thousands of visitors this week.

A contingent of women from nearby Sumy traveled to Haditch this year to pray where the founder of Chabad is buried.
IndiCure listed as ONE OF THE BEST STARTUPS by CXO Stories

IndiCure is among the most renowned medical tourism companies in the world

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Medical Tourism to India has seen a phenomenal growth during the past decade. The industry is growing at a pace of 30% annually and is expected to reach to USD 8 billion by 2020.Counted as the second most popular destinations in the world, India offers medical treatment to people looking for quality and affordable treatment for both medical and elective surgeries. This includes serious procedures such as cancer treatment, heart treatment, organ transplants and not so serious surgeries such as general surgery. India also sees a great number of medical tourists coming for plastic surgery, weight loss surgery and dental treatment as the cost of these procedures in Western countries is very expensive.However, when people choose to seek treatment outside their country, in an unknown place, they always look for a reliable person who can help them plan their surgery, advise them about the best available options and hold their hand while they are in a foreign country.IndiCure was started with the same aim, to provide advisory and complete facilitation to medical tourists on their visit to India. The company started in a humble one room in a corner of a rented house has grown steadily to be one of the best medical tourism companies in the world with offices in Mumbai, Delhi and New York.IndiCure has been recently listed as one of the best startups by CXO stories- the UK based company highlighting the startups across the world.Its a proud moment for us. The entire team at IndiCure is enthralled with the development and we are gearing up for our next big achievement, says Annu Puri, the director of the company.With dedicated websites for medical procedures, cosmetic procedures and weight loss surgery, IndiCure has been a pioneer of cosmetic surgery tourism to India.Patients from US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand are used to a certain standard of care and services. IndiCure plays a vital role in seamlessly delivering those services to these patients, which has worked best for them.A lot of our new business comes from the referral of our old clients since they have been happy with the services. And word of mouth always works best, says Dr Ruchika who heads the cosmetic surgery part of the business.India has the potential to increase the volume of medical tourism inflow by 5 times since we have everything that it takes to deliver world class services- highly qualified and experienced doctors, world-class hospitals with state of the art infrastructure and technology and qualified nurses.Professional medical tourism companies like IndiCure are doing their bit to spread India as the global healthcare destination and increasing the flow of medical tourism to India.IndiCure is the most renowned medical tourism company based in India and US. IndiCure provides expert consultation and facilitation to patients seeking India as treatment destination.Mumbai Address109, Grow More Towers, Sector 2,Kharghar, Navi Mumbai-410210E-mail: info@indicure.comTel: +91-932-003-6777US Address295, Madison AveNew York-10017E-mail: info@indicure.comTel: +1-877-270-2448
Technological Advancements to Influence Europium Market Growth 2015-2025

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Europium is a rare earth metal which oxidizes readily in presence of air and water. It is generally present in oxide form and has applications in automobiles, catalysts, consumer electronics, flat panel displays, metallurgy and fluorescent lamps and as a dopant of glass in lasers and optoelectronic devices.Growing demand from flat panel displays and LEDs in Asia Pacific market is expected to drive the market. The shift from traditional lighting to solid state lighting systems in displays is expected to fuel the market for flat panel displays and LEDs. Increasing civil infrastructure is the main factor behind growing demand for LEDs owing to its use in street lighting and highway lighting. However, the supply issues and lack of refining, alloying and fabricating technologies for europium are expected to hamper the growth of this market. Technological advances in the field of earth metal nano-crystals are expected to provide immense opportunities for the players in this market. Europium nano-crystals are being use in the LEDs as a phosphor which emits wide range of spectrum.Request For Report Sample@Asia Pacific region was the largest consumer of europium and its derivative products. China contributes highest for the consumption of this metal owing to increasing population, improving living standard and disposable income. Growing demand from Japan, Korea and China for consumer electronics is fueling the market in this region. China is the largest manufacturer of europium and its derivatives. However, export restrictions and increasing local demand has been causing supply issues. Asia Pacific is followed by North America owing to demand from LEDs and consumer electronics industries. Decreased exports from China causing development of new exploration and production sites in this region to fulfill the demand.Visit For TOC@The key players in europium market include Rare Element Resources, Avalon Rare Metals Inc., Molycorp, Lynas, Minmetals Corporation, Baotou Steel Rare-Earth, Xiamen Tungsten, Great Western Minerals Group Ltd., Indian Rare Earth, Arafura Resources Ltd. and Canada Rare Earth Corporation among others. This research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically-supported and industry-validated market data and projections with a suitable set of assumptions and methodology. It provides analysis and information by categories such as market segments, regions, product types and distribution channels.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACTFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http.futuremarketinsights.com
Fragrance Market to Discern Steadfast Expansion by 2020

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Commonly known as perfume, fragrance is a mixture of essential oils or aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents commonly used to provide pleasant scent to the human body, animals, food, objects and any living space. Over the years, people used herbs and spices such as almond, coriander, myrtle, conifer resin or and bergamot as well as flowers to provide pleasant aroma or scent to their food ingredients. Fragrance oil also known as aromatic oil is used to provide aroma/pleasant scents to the products. These oils are blended with synthetic aroma compounds or natural essential oils which are diluted with scented oil such as, propylene glycol, vegetable oil or mineral oil. Aromatic oils are mostly used for perfumery, cosmetics and flavoring of food.Request Report for TOC @Fragrance in the western countries is mostly applied to the pulse point of the body such as behind the ears, nape of the neck and insides of wrists, elbows and knees. The pulse part of the body is warm as compare to other body parts, it provide warmth to the perfume which allow it to release continuous fragrance. Fragrance industry manufactures various types of perfume depending upon the usage. Lightly scented products such as bath oil, shower gel and body lotion are used in the morning, eau de toilette for afternoon and perfume for evening. Perfume can hold its scent for longer period of time as compare to other scented products.Global fragrance market can be bifurcated into three categories such as perfume, deodorant and others. Households user has the largest market share for fragrance products, followed by personal care. North America has largest market share for fragrance products, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. Asia-Pacific region is expected to show highest growth for fragrance products in coming future owing to increasing domestic demand in the developing countries such as India and China.Increasing population coupled with increasing disposable income in the developing countries such as India and china is expected to drive the global fragrance market. Increasing disposable income allow the customer to spend more on luxury products among which fragrance plays key role.Request to Sample of Report @According to the National Bureau of Statistics China, annual per capita disposable income of urban households in China increased from USD 2,271.0 in 2008 to USD 3408.5 in 2012. The overall annual disposable income in India medium household income increased from USD 1,366.2 billion in 2010 to USD 1,587.6 billion in 2013. Additionally, use of fragrances for reduction of stress and change in moods and increasing use of fragrances by household is expected to provide ample growth opportunities for the global fragrance market.Appearance and personal care have become sense of pride, self reliance and confidence. From being non-essential product fragrance/perfume have emerged as an essential product in todays era. Also, economic development in growing markets coupled with increased demand for youth-oriented fragrances and celebrity scents are expected to drive the global fragrance market.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Thrombectomy Devices Information and Analysis with Forecast Growth - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022

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"Thrombectomy Devices Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.. .Description-' ' Global Thrombectomy Devices Market: Overview This report on the global thrombectomy devices market projects the demand to increment at a CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022. The report has been developed by experience market research analysts and aspires to serve as a credible business tool for targeted audiences such as healthcare service provides including hospitals and surgical centers, government regulatory authorities, non-government organizations, clinical research organizations, research laboratories and academic institutes, and research and development companies.. .Get Sample Report @' 'Increasing acquisition or collaboration of small specialized hospitals by tier-1 hospitals, increasing prevalence of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases, escalating number of product approvals and patents, ongoing technological advancements in minimally invasive surgeries, favorable reimbursement policies and improving healthcare infrastructure in a number of emerging economies are some of the key factors augmenting the demand in the global thrombectomy devices market. On the other hand, strict regulatory policies, lack of awareness among the patients pertaining to thrombectomy, which results in delayed treatment for peripheral vascular diseases, lack of product differentiation, adverse effects of thrombectomy devices, and increase in product recalls are a few factors obstructing the market for thrombectomy devices from attaining its true potential. Increasing number of research activities in the field of thrombectomy and diversifying application of ultrasound in vascular treatment are opening new opportunities in the global thrombectomy devices market, whereas strategic acquisitions of business segments and technological advancements in the advent of laser and UV radiation are some of the key trends.This report on the global thrombectomy devices market explores the current and future prospects of the demand across the globe. The report not only aspires to serve the stakeholders of companies that are engaged in the manufacturing and commercialization of thrombectomy devices, but also is directed towards new entrants who are aiming to enter this market. This report comprises an elaborate executive summary along with a market snapshot providing overall information on global thrombectomy devices market dynamics, supply chain, cost structure, list of distributors, average pricing, and technological assessment. This section also provides the overall information and data analysis of the global thrombectomy devices market with respect to the leading market segments based on major products, end user, application, and regions. Global Thrombectomy Devices Market: Segmentations On the basis of product, the global thrombectomy devices market has been segmented into aspiration, mechanical, ultrasonic, and hydrodynamic. On the basis of end-use, the market for thrombectomy devices has been bifurcated into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), clinics, and others. Application-wise, this report on the global thrombectomy devices market classifies it into cardiovascular, neurovascular, and peripheral vascular. Geographically, the report takes stock of the potential of thrombectomy devices market in the regions of North America (The U.S. and Canada), Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina), Europe (Germany, France, Spain, The U.K., Italy, and Nordic), Asia Pacific except Japan (China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, and Singapore), The Middle East and Africa (GCC countries, Nigeria, South Africa, and Israel), and in the country of Japan. For each of these countries, the report provides revenue comparison on the basis of product, end user, and application. Global Thrombectomy Devices Market: Competitive Landscape Stryker Corporation, Argon Medical Devices Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Medtronic PLC, Penumbra, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, BTG International Ltd., Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, Phenox GmbH, Teleflex Inc., Terumo Corporation, and Spectranetics Corporation are some of the key companies currently operating in the global thrombectomy devices market. The report throws light on the existing competitive landscape, market shares of the companies, analysis of recent strategic decisions such as mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, and product launches, and other details.. .More Clear Details get Table of Contents @ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Nap Pod Market: Industry Trends Analysis and Key Growth Drivers 2017 to 2025

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Nap pod is the special chair or cubicle, used to allow people to take nap often at the workstation and or in corporate places. Nap pod is also known as energy pod or nap capsule. Nap pod allows employees to take a short 15-20 minute nap which is in the effective and easy way. Nap pod takes off the pressure on cardiac system with the elevation of the feet and relaxes the muscles of the lower back with a slight bend in the keens. The nap pod responsible to boost the alertness and productivity of the person. Nap pod comes with the advanced features such as timer, speakers and lights effects.The rising trend of using nap pods as it help to lower healthcare costs and increases productivity and creativity, minimizes mistakes as powernaps increases awareness by 100 percent and creativity by 40 percent, which has become the growth opportunity for the nap pod market over a long run.Request for Table of Contents @The global nap pod market is expected to register a significant CAGR over a forecast period. The increasing awareness about the benefits of nap pod at the workplace such as improvement of productivity, health and talent retention of the employees, is anticipated to boost the demand for the nap pods and drives the growth of the global nap pod market. The increasing use for nap pods at the airport for travelers rest purpose, is also expected to bolster the demand for the nap pods and became a key driver of the global nap pod market over forecast period. The increasing focus on the human welfare and allowing them to take necessity nap to improve the health and efficacy, also anticipated to drives the growth of the global nap pod market over forecast period. The advantages of nap pod over the conventional techniques such as ergonomic perfection, privacy visor, interface console, timed waking facility and build in speakers, also expected to propel the demand and drives the global nap pod market.However, the higher price of the nap pod and limited number of manufacturing players, may hinder the demand for nap pods and restrain the growth of the global nap pods market. The less awareness about the benefits of power nap at the workstation and at corporate and acceptance of power nap trend, also may hamper the growth for the global nap pod market.Request to View Sample of Research Report @On the basis of regional presence, the global nap pod market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. The North America is dominating and contributed the leading shares to the nap pod market in terms of revenue and expected to register a significant growth over a forecast period due to the increasing awareness about the benefits of the nap pods in the region. The Europe has also contributed the moderate shares and registered a healthy growth rate to the global nap pod market followed by North America. The APEJ has become the lucrative market for nap pod and anticipated to register significant opportunities over the forecast period due to the increasing demand of nap pods at airports and corporate workstations in the region. The Latin America and MEA are at a nascent stage to the global nap pod market and expected to show a moderate growth over a forecast period.Some of the market players in nap pod Market globally include GoSleep, NapCabs GmbH, SnoozeCube, MinuteSuites, 9 Hours, Jet Quay, Snooze at my space, Metronaps and Sleepbox. The market is currently witnessing a number of strategic collaboration and partnership activities by manufacturers and end users.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Asia Pacific Unsaturated Polyester Resin Market Industry trends, competitive landscape, company profiles 2015 - 2023

Asia Pacific Unsaturated Polyester Resin Market

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Transparency Market Research has published a new report titled Unsaturated Polyester Resin Market - Asia Pacific Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2015  2023. According to the report, the Asia Pacific unsaturated polyester resin market was valued at US$ 3.98 Bn in 2014 and is anticipated to reach US$ 7.45 Bn by 2023, expanding at a CAGR of 7.2% between 2015 and 2023.Increasing demand for unsaturated polyester resin in the building & construction industry is one of the key factors driving the market growth in Asia Pacific. Growth in building & construction activities in Southeast Asia, China, and India is projected to chiefly boost industry growth. Furthermore, high demand for composite materials is likely to drive the market for unsaturated polyester resin in this region. Composite materials are primarily consumed in marine, transport, and pipes & tanks. Growth in chemical and maritime industries is likely to drive the unsaturated polyester resin market in Southeast Asia. However, stringent regulations related to styrene and volatile raw material prices are expected to hamper growth of the unsaturated polyester resin market in Asia Pacific. Increasing application scope of unsaturated polyester resin in wind energy and marine industries is likely to open new growth opportunities during the forecast period.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @In terms of demand, orthophthalic resin was the most widely used product segment, accounting for over 35% share of the unsaturated polyester resin market in Asia Pacific in 2014. This resin is widely consumed in building & construction due to its high tensile strength and fatigue limits. Isophthalic resin held the second-largest share of the unsaturated polyester resin market in Asia Pacific in 2014. Isophthalic resins possess higher strength and resistance as compared to orthophthalic resins and are principally used in automotive and marine industries. However, DCPD resins are projected to be one of the fastest-growing product segments during the forecast period due to high demand from transport and marine industries.Building & construction constituted the largest share of the unsaturated polyester resin market in 2014. Unsaturated polyester resin is chiefly employed in reinforcement, roofing, composites, and concrete. Tanks & pipes accounted for the second-largest share of the unsaturated polyester resin market in Asia Pacific with 20% share in 2014. Artificial stones held the third-largest share of the unsaturated polyester resin market in Asia Pacific in 2014. However, high demand for unsaturated polyester resin in wind energy and marine industries is projected to provide strong growth opportunities during the forecast period. This is due to resistance and hydrolytic stability properties offered by unsaturated polyester resin.China dominated demand for unsaturated polyester resin, accounting for over 55% share of the market in Asia Pacific in 2014. Growth in building & construction coupled with high demand for composite materials has been driving the unsaturated polyester resin market in this country. India held the second-largest share of the unsaturated polyester resin market in Asia Pacific in 2014. Growth in the chemical industry coupled with rise in automotive and marine activities have been primarily boosting growth of the market in India. Countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand are likely to witness upsurge in demand for unsaturated polyester resin due to growth in building & construction and transport industries. Furthermore, significant development in the marine industry in Southeast Asia, especially in pleasure boats and yachts, is estimated to provide lucrative market opportunities in the near future.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @The report provides a comprehensive view of the unsaturated polyester resin market in terms of volume and revenue. It includes current demand analysis and forecast for product segments and end-users in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Rest of the Asia Pacific.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Digital Instrument Clusters Market Forecast Report Offers Actionable Insights 2015-2025

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Instrument clusters with digital displays are increasingly replacing electromechanical pointer instruments. Moreover, digital instrument clusters are poised to supersede the analog instrument clusters in the next generation vehicles. The global instrument clusters is basically categorized into three groups: digital, analog and hybrid. Analog cluster is a classic instrument panel that contains a physical dial and a needle for the speedometer. A digital instrument cluster displays all these classical instruments on the LCD, VFD or TFT-LCD screen. Such digital instrument clusters can be programmed to display the appropriate selection of virtual instruments according to the drivers preferences. A hybrid cluster is the combination of the analog and digital cluster. Furthermore, they can enhance the appeal of a vehicle with eye-catching graphics. Therefore, most of the luxury brands are seeking to differentiate their vehicles through the inclusion of digital instrument clusters. It is expected that over seven million cars will have fully digital instrument clusters by the 2018. Digital instrument clusters that offers personalization are a key selling point.Digital Instrument Clusters: Drivers & RestraintsThe key factor driving the digital instrument clusters market is substantial rise in the automobile output and its personalization. A digital instrument cluster that is reconfigurable is very appealing. Features such as distance until next charge, information on battery charge, and other driver information, can easily be displayed using a digital instrument clusters. These features are driving the market for global digital instrument clusters. Another factor driving the market for global digital instrument is consumer trend. The tablet, PC and smartphone ownership is increasing and there are opportunities to integrate these devices to drive global digital configurable instrument clusters. Furthermore, the economical and the environmental constraints upon the engine designs are driving the introduction of digital instrument clusters since the interior gains more attention from OEMs as a way to differentiate. Another features that are driving the global digital instrument clusters market includes advanced technological features such as reusability, dynamic, scalable, simple and attractiveness. Digital instrument clusters needs a larger LCD display- often 1280 x 480 pixels, thus leading to higher cost. Also, an 8 or 16-bit CPU cannot transfer that many pixels, hence the digital cluster needs a 32-bit CPU. In addition, the level of software capability needed extends beyond the traditional entrenched skill set. These factors act as restraints for the digital instrument clusters up to a certain extent.Request For Report Sample@Digital Instrument Clusters: SegmentationOn the basis of application, the global digital instrument clusters market is segmented into:SmartphoneTablet PC/Desktop/NotebooksAutomobilesOthers (Digital cameras, inverters, power suppliers, painters, car radio, LED lighting, payment terminals)The demand for digital instrument clusters in automobiles is anticipated to grow at an accelerated pace mainly due to significant growth in the automobile industry globally. Furthermore, the smartphone segment is also expected to grow at a high CAGR during the forecast period.Digital Instrument Clusters: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of region North America, Asia Pacific and Japan are expected to be the dominant players as a result of growing economy in these regions. The Indian electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) industry is one of the fastest growing industry in the country, which is further boosting the demand for digital instrument clusters in the region. The global digital instrument cluster market is anticipated to grow at a steady rate in other regions of the world as a result of a slowing global economy in these regions.Visit For TOC@Digital Instrument Clusters: Key PlayersSome of the market participants in the global digital instrument clusters market are Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd., Ford Motor Company, Audi AG, Renault, Volkswagen, Kia Motors Corp., BMW AG, Jaguar Land Rover Limited, NVIDIA Corporation and Tesla Motors.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, types, technology and applications.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACTFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http.futuremarketinsights.com
Level Transmitter Market Forecast and Segments, 2017-2025

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Level Transmitter Market: OverviewLevel Transmitter is a device that provides continuous and non-physical contact level with respect to measurement of the fluid or solid within a container. It delivers an electrical output related to the level of material in the container. Level transmitter is capable of computing levels in both clean as well as harsh situations providing cost-effective results. Level transmitter measures liquids such as viscous fluids, water and fuels and dry material like bulk solids and powders. Level transmitters are used in a wide range of applications that requires level measurement within tanks or containers. Many industries namely food and beverage, chemical, material handling, water treatment and power often employ level transmitters. Additionally, with the growing need of level transmission without going through the desired location in all industries is going to uplift the growth of global level transmitter market over the forecasted period.Level Transmitter Market: DriversRising demand for level transmitters, due to increasing need for precise level measurement in industries like oil and gas, water and wastewater management, chemicals, food and beverages, etc. and is anticipated to fuel the growth of the global level transmitter market during the forecast period. Moreover growing demand for wireless connectivity in level transmission is also one of the key factors responsible for the growth of global level transmitter market. This wireless level transmitter provides visibility in a wide range of offshore applications. It provides quick outputs and are easy to install. Additionally, usage of level transmitter in effluent treatment plant for effluent level measurement is also anticipated to drive the level transmitter market. Hence, wide application areas of level transmitters and its rising demand from emerging economies like APEJ has been estimated to create substantial opportunities for this market in the near future.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @Level Transmitter Market: RestraintsLack of product awareness in regions such as Latin America and Africa is one of the key factor responsible for restraining the growth of level transmitter market. Moreover skilled workers and network congestion are some other factors responsible for hampering the growth of level transmitter market. In level transmitter data is produced from many ports and is transferred to a significant computer systems for processing. Thus the chances of network congestion getting increased owing to bottle neck which can cause interruption in decision making procedure and can even disturb the production schedule. Moreover, trained specialists are needed in this industry for operating latest tools and software systems. Therefore the existing workers needs to be properly trained with all latest technological systems. Additionally, the industries are adapting new technologies but they have to face a lack of highly skilled staff and proficient labors which act as a key challenge in the growth of level transmitters market.Level Transmitter Market: Regional OutlookNorth America is expected to dominate the global level transmitter market in the forecasted period. Owing to the presence of level transmitter market participants in this region. Moreover Asia Pacific is estimated to show healthy growth during the forecasted period. Rapid expansion and development in the APEJ region along with huge investment in various key industries such as wastewater treatment, pharmaceuticals and oil & gas extraction are the important factors that are responsible for driving the level transmitters market in APEJ region. Additionally Europe is also anticipated to ho hold significant share of level transmitter market in the forecasted period.Request Sample Report @Level Transmitter Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the main level transmitter market participants areABB Ltd. (Switzerland)Emerson Electric Co. (U.S.)Siemens AG (Germany)Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan)Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.)General Electric (U.S.)SAPCON INSTRUMENTS.Dwyer Instruments, Inc.Jaycee Technologies Private LimitedSemrad Pty LtdVEGA Grieshaber KGPre Book Full Report @ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Optical Network Management Market Projected to be Resilient During 2017 - 2025

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Around the globe, many enterprises are looking for high-quality, innovative solutions to develop, install, maintain and optimize the networks. Hence optical network management came in the existence which can fulfill the requirements of the enterprises. Optical network management system improves the network availability, enrich the visibility into network performance and speed service provisioning. Optical network management helps enterprises by improved network availability, quality of service (QoS), simplifies the management of service level agreement (SLA) and also provides enterprises with the detailed information on service status. Optical network management continuously monitors the network to safeguard from unexpected network errors. The Optical network management provides automated toolsRequest Report for TOC @Optical network management generates service reports which provide valuable information on the long-term performance of the network. Optical network management provides various levels of security to ensure that sensitive data is protected against unauthorized access.Optical Network Management Market: Drivers and ChallengesThe major drivers for optical network management market are the increase in digital data traffic flow over the current network and the rapid increase in demand for high bandwidth, and rising market for data center and increase in cloud storage adoption by many enterprises.Request to Sample of Report @Optical Network Management Market: key playersSome of the key players for optical network management are Cisco Systems, Inc., Alcatel-Lucent, ADVA Optical Networking, Ciena Corporation, Huawei, ZTE Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Sumitomo Electric Networks, Inc., Motorola Broadband Communications, NEC Corporation, Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., PMC-Sierra Inc, Tellabs Inc, Wave 7 Optics Inc., and others.Optical Network Management Market: Regional OverviewOptical network management market is currently dominated by North America on the basis of spending and adoption of the optical network management and services. Asia Pacific optical network management market is growing especially in India which is probably single largest beneficiary of Digital India because of all National Optic Cyber Networks, smart cities and huge spending in defense sector.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Polypropylene Random Copolymer Market : Comprehensive Evaluation Of The Industry 2015 - 2023

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A new Transparency Market Research report states that the global polypropylene random copolymer market stood at US$5.9 bn in 2014 and is predicted to reach US$9.2 bn by 2023. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.20% from 2015 to 2023. The title of the report is Polypropylene Random Copolymer Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @As per this research report, the market for polypropylene random copolymers is predicted to be fuelled by the rising demand for food containers and the increasing usage of syringes in injectable drugs. The increasing count of super/hypermarkets in many countries around the world is also raising the demand for polypropylene random copolymers. The industry for beverages is expected to present widespread opportunities for the manufacturers of polypropylene random copolymers during the forecast horizon. On the other hand, increasing competition from alternatives and the fluctuating prices of raw materials are anticipated to restrict the growth of the polypropylene random copolymer market in the forecast horizon.On the basis of end user, the polypropylene random copolymer market is segmented into building and construction, packaging, healthcare, and others including furniture, media packaging, sports, toys, etc. Amongst these, in 2014, the packaging industry led the market on the basis of volume and held a share of more than 55% in the market. The preference for polypropylene random copolymers in the packaging industry is due to their exceptional stiffness, transparency, heat resistance, sealability, and organoleptic nature.These qualities of polypropylene random copolymers make them a highly suitable packaging material for food and beverages. Polypropylene random copolymer containers are utilized for storing fruits, grains, meat, vegetables, dairy products, etc. The health industry trailed the packaging industry by the volume of polypropylene random copolymers consumed and constituted the second biggest share in the market in 2014. Polypropylene random copolymers are extensively used in the healthcare industry, particularly in labware, syringes, and bottles.On the basis of geography, the polypropylene random copolymer market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. Amongst these regions, in 2014, Asia Pacific constituted the biggest share in the market on the basis of volume and represented around 50% of the polypropylene random copolymer market. The market for polypropylene random copolymers is predicted to increase substantially within India, China, and ASEAN countries due to the rising demand for food containers here. On the other hand, the Latin America market is expected to rise exponentially owing to the increasing demand from the medical and food and beverages industries. However, Europe and North America are stagnant polypropylene random copolymer markets and are predicted to decline in the market by 2023.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @According to the report, the top players in the market for polypropylene random copolymers include SABIC, Borealis AG, Sinopec, Reliance Industries Limited, Sasol, INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Pinnacle Polymers LLC, Flint Hills Resources, Exxon Mobil Corporation, and Entec Polymers, among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Aeroplane Engines Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Player and Forecast to 2022

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In this report, the global Aeroplane Engines market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Aeroplane Engines in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Aeroplane Engines market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingGESafranPratt & WhitneyRolls-Royce...Request a Sample Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPiston EngineGas Turbine EngineOther EngineOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingCommercial AircraftsMilitary AircraftsIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsGlobal Aeroplane Engines Market Research Report 20181 Aeroplane Engines Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Aeroplane Engines1.2 Aeroplane Engines Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Aeroplane Engines Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Aeroplane Engines Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Piston Engine1.2.4 Gas Turbine Engine1.2.5 Other Engine1.3 Global Aeroplane Engines Segment by Application1.3.1 Aeroplane Engines Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Commercial Aircrafts1.3.3 Military Aircrafts1.4 Global Aeroplane Engines Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Aeroplane Engines Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Aeroplane Engines (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Aeroplane Engines Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Aeroplane Engines Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Aeroplane Engines Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Aeroplane Engines Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Aeroplane Engines Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Aeroplane Engines Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Aeroplane Engines Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Aeroplane Engines Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Aeroplane Engines Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Aeroplane Engines Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Aeroplane Engines Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Aeroplane Engines Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Aeroplane Engines Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.8 Japan Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.9 Southeast Asia Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.10 India Aeroplane Engines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 Global Aeroplane Engines Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Aeroplane Engines Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Aeroplane Engines Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Aeroplane Engines Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.4 China Aeroplane Engines Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.5 Japan Aeroplane Engines Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.6 Southeast Asia Aeroplane Engines Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.7 India Aeroplane Engines Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)5 Global Aeroplane Engines Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Aeroplane Engines Production and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2 Global Aeroplane Engines Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Global Aeroplane Engines Price by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Global Aeroplane Engines Production Growth by Type (2013-2018)6 Global Aeroplane Engines Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Aeroplane Engines Consumption and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6.2 Global Aeroplane Engines Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2013-2018)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesContinuedMake an enquiry of this Report @Contact Us:Norah TrentPartner Relations & Marketing ManagerSales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Benzaldehyde Market : Worldwide Industry Analysis 2015 - 2023

Benzaldehyde Market

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Transparency Market Research has published a new research report on the global benzaldehyde market. According to the new research report, the global benzaldehyde market is expected to reach US$318 mn by 2023. The report, titled Benzaldehyde Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023, states that the global benzaldehyde market was valued at US$234.4 mn in 2014 and is predicted to grow at a 3.40% CAGR during the period between 2015 and 2023.Increase in demand for benzaldehyde in the pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and aroma chemicals end-use industries will drive the global benzaldehyde market. Benzaldehyde is typically categorized into FCC grade and technical grade. FCC grade benzaldehyde is commonly utilized to introduce different flavors such as cherry and almond. FCC grade benzaldehyde is also used in toiletries and soaps to impact fragrances. Technical grade benzaldehyde is used as an intermediary in the production of flavoring chemicals and odorants. Growth of these end-use industries will help the development of the global benzaldehyde market.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @The global benzaldehyde market is segmented on the basis of end use and geography. By geography, the global benzaldehyde market is divided into regions such as North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Asia Pacific led the global benzaldehyde market in 2014, as the region held a 50% market share of global demand for benzaldehyde. The Europe and North America regions are predicted to generate moderate demand for benzaldehyde during the forecast period, whereas development of the benzaldehyde market in the Middle East will be slow.The global benzaldehyde market is widespread, with different multinational companies covering different regions in the global market. Some of the leading companies in the global benzaldehyde market are Emerald Performance Materials, LLC, Kadillac Chemicals Private Limited, Shimmer Chemicals Pvt. Ltd., Nantong Tianshi Chemical Co., Ltd., Shenyang Huijinfengda Chemical Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Jiamai Chemical Co., Ltd., Lanxess AG, Lianyungang Taile Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Chematek S.p.A., Wuhan Dico Chemical Co., Ltd., and Merck KGaA.By end use, the global benzaldehyde market is divided into aroma chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, coatings, and others. The aroma chemicals segment led the global benzaldehyde market in 2014 and will continue to maintain its dominant position during the forecast period. Collectively, aroma chemicals and agriculture accounted for 60% of the global benzaldehyde market in 2014. The aroma chemicals segment of the benzaldehyde market is driven by its usage in artificial almond and cherry flavors. Benzaldehyde is commonly used as the primary ingredient in the production of many flavored chemicals, such as cinnamaldehyde and cinnamic acid.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @In 2014, agriculture was the second biggest end-use segment and will continue to maintain its position during the forecast period. Demand for benzaldehyde in the agriculture segment is predicted to increase due to the increase in the use of benzaldehyde in herbicides and pesticides, particularly in developing economies. The demand for benzaldehyde from the pharmaceuticals and coatings industries is also expected to grow during the period from 2015 to 2023.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Market Research on Fire Rated Cables Market 2017 and Analysis to 2025

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Global Fire Rated Cables Market: IntroductionFire rated cables, also referred to as circuit integrity cables or fire resistive cable are cables capable of functioning in the presence of fire for a specified time under defined conditions. These cables are specially designed to maintain circuit integrity and for interconnections of various compartments within large buildings or complexes during a fire outbreak. They are good flame retardants known for their favorable characteristics, such as excellent electrical and mechanical properties.Fire resistant cables are typically constructed in the following format:Standard Annealed Copper ConductorGlass Mica Tape Fire Resisting BarrierCross-linked Polyethylene/Ethylene Propylene Rubber Insulated/Silicon Rubber/Ethylene Vinyl Acetate /Polyethylene/Poly Vinyl Chloride Primary insulationLow Smoke Halogen free (LSOH) or Flame Retardant PVC SheathingFire rated cables are easy to install cables that play an important role in assuring the orderly shutdown of systems and evacuation of building occupants. They are capable of maintaining continuity as well as circuit integrity of electrical circuits, such as electric heaters, furnaces, ovens, heating & air conditioning equipment, kilns, cooking equipment, appliances, lighting fixtures, fire safety equipment and alarm systems for a longer duration in the event of a fire. The global fire rated cables market is estimated to be driven by safety standards in various commercial and residential buildings as well as standards that ensure the safety of roadway tunnels, refineries and transit systems. A fire rated cable consists of insulation and a fire proof layer that can survive high temperature ranging from 750C to 950C.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @Global Fire Rated Cables Market: DynamicsDriversSafety & security regulations, especially in countries, such as the U.S., Europe and Japan are forecasted to support growth of the global fire rated cables market. Additionally, favorable characteristics, such as the ability to withstand high temperatures (750C-950C), low toxicity, non-corrosiveness and low smoke emission during a fire are estimated to drive the market. Difficult to install MI cables, expensive fire rated structures and blankets or wraps can be replaced by fire rated cables. NICEIC has already highlighted through national shows and seminars the importance of using fire rated cables in electrical installations.RestraintsThe high cost of fire rated cables, as compared to other fire protection cables may hamper growth of the market, especially in cost sensitive regions, such as Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa.Global Fire Rated Cables Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of region, the Latin America fire rated cables market is estimated to be driven by countries, such as Mexico and Brazil, due to positive economic growth predictions. It is expected that government policies in the U.K. will promote growth of the global fire rated cables market. For example, the national standard for electrical installations in the U.K. is IEE Regulations  BS 7671, which promotes the use of fire resistant fastenings and fixings.Request Sample Report @The Asia-Pacific fire rated cables market is estimated to witness rapid growth, owing to an increase in stringent safety standards and growth in building & industrialization. Europe and North America are estimated to dominate the global market over the forecast period, owing to high safety & security measures mandated by governments in these regions. The Japan fire rated cables market is estimated to grow at a significant rate, owing to consumer behavior of adopting safety measures. On the other hand, Middle East & Africa are estimated to register stable growth over the same time frame.Global Fire Rated Cables Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global fire rated cables market identified across the value chain include:Prysmian GroupNexans S.A.Elsewedy ElectricTPC Wire & Cable Corp.Relemac Technologies Pvt. LtdRR KabelRSCC Wire and CableCleveland Cable CompanyUniversal Cable (M) BerhadCavicel S.p.AHelkama BicaPre Book Full Report @ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
New Research Report Explore Pneumococcal Vaccines Market Expected to Represent a Value of US$ 20,515.5 mn by 2026

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This research report offers a comprehensive analysis of the Pneumococcal Vaccines Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2026 The main objective of this report is to deliver insightful information and clear-cut facts pertaining to the growth trajectories of the market.Request to view Sample Report @With the increasing prevalence of pneumococcal diseases, government organizations across various countries are introducing programs to promote the use of pneumococcal vaccines. For instance, UNICEF along with the WHO has launched the Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD) to control incidence and mortality rate in children suffering from severe diarrhea and pneumonia by 2025. The investment in developing countries has also increased to help in the development and delivery of vaccines. For example, GAVI is a vaccine alliance that brings together public and private sector to offer immunization to the children in worlds poorest countries.The high cost of advanced vaccines is one of the factors hampering the growth of the market. However, manufacturers are competing for development of cost-effective and high quality of vaccines by focusing on research and development activities.According to the report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global market for pneumococcal vaccines is likely to witness robust growth, registering 8.3% CAGR between 2017 and 2026. The global market for pneumococcal vaccines is also projected to bring in US$ 20,515.5 million revenue by 2026 end.13- Valent PCV to be the Top-Selling Product in the Global Market for Pneumococcal VaccinesCompared to the various products, 13- valent PCV is likely to emerge as one of the top-selling product in the global market for pneumococcal vaccines. By 2026 end, 13- valent PCV is projected to bring in close to US$ 9,500 million revenue. PVC13 has offered a significant benefit in reducing carriage of Antibiotic-Nonsusceptible Streptococcus Pneumoniae (ANSP). Moreover, 13- Valent PCV includes thirteen serotypes of pneumococcus, also, serotypes 19A and 6A are present only in PCV13. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also recommended PCV13 for adults above the 65 years of age.Hospitals to Emerge as the Largest Distribution ChannelPneumococcal vaccines are likely to be distributed by Hospitals on a large scale between 2017 and 2026. Hospitals are projected to surpass US$ 12,400 million revenue towards the end of 2026. Increasing number of patients are being hospitalized for various infections and diseases, hence hospitals are emerging as the biggest distribution channel for pneumococcal vaccines, thereby reducing mortality associated with the pneumococcal infection.Browse Full Report with TOC @North America to be the Largest Region in the Global Market for Pneumococcal VaccinesNorth America is likely to emerge as one of the biggest regions in the global market for pneumococcal vaccines during 2017-2026. Pneumococcal Conjugated Vaccine (PCV) is the part of routine vaccine immunization in Canada and the U.S., since 2000. The countries have also witnessed highly-effective results since the vaccine was introduced. Investments by the government organization and private companies have also increased for promoting vaccination and towards the research and development of new vaccines. North America has also emerged as a main center for many vaccine producing companies.Meanwhile, PCV is also the part of the vaccination program in countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Albania, Greece and Serbia. Increasing incidence of pneumococcal disease in various countries in APEJ also presents an opportunity for companies producing pneumococcal vaccines. Brazil is also witnessing a significant increase in pneumococcal diseases. Hence, various programs are being introduced in Brazil to increase the vaccine coverage.Competition TrackingThe report provides a detailed analysis of the leading companies operating in the global market for pneumococcal vaccines such as Merck & Co. Inc., Pfizer, Inc., Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline PLC. The companies are focusing on the research and development of new pneumococcal vaccines. There has also been an increase in partnership between the leading companies and distributors in order to expand in the global market.Enquire about this Report @Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Condition Monitoring Equipment Market Regulations and Competitive Landscape Outlook to 2025

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Condition Monitoring Equipment Market: IntroductionIn most manufacturing and processing operations, maintenance attributes for almost half of all operating costs. Thus, manufacturers focus on implementing equipment that can potentially lower these costs. For the purpose of determining machinery reliability, condition monitoring equipment observe physical parameters linked with machinery operation, such as temperature, vibration and others. This information can be used for many different purposes, such as maintenance and loading activities once the reliability of a machine has been estimated. On the basis of product type, the vibration monitoring equipment segment estimated to grow rapidly in various applications as compared to other condition monitoring equipment, owing to its ability to detect machine deterioration and faults before the occurrence of indications, such as heat, greater electrical consumption, lubricant impurities and sounds. Therefore, vibration monitoring remains the most preferred condition monitoring equipment.In terms of maintenance activities, the ultimate goal of condition monitoring equipment is to schedule maintenance and other activities to be undertaken so as to avoid faults and result in the optimum use of resources. Condition monitoring equipment can also be used as process monitoring tools and they are also useful in mending end product quality control.Condition Monitoring Equipment Market: DynamicsDrivers:The growing demand for smart factories is estimated to fuel the growth of condition monitoring equipment. Rise in smart factories has created a need for automation, which in turn is estimated to support growth of condition monitoring equipment to fulfil the requirement of predictive maintenance to protect expensive machinery against damage. Remote monitoring helps control condition monitoring equipment with or without physical presence. Wireless sensors collect information and alert the maintenance department before the breakdown of the machine, thus ensuring smooth functioning of the plant and machinery.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @As the focus is shifting from product centred to service centred technology solutions, the service industry is expected to surge the demand for condition monitoring equipment. The entry barrier for the condition monitoring equipment market is fairly low as there are a few giant players in this market, due to low capital requirement.Development of low cost conditional monitoring equipment with quick processing functions, improved software and the ability to connect huge databases with multiple programs is expected to fuel market growth. Factors, such as increasing demand for smart factories, growing wireless technology, growth in the HVAC systems market and growing focus of manufacturers towards predictive maintenance are estimated to positively impact growth of this market.Restraints:Growth of the global condition monitoring equipment market is estimated to be hampered by factors, such as unpredictable maintenance periods and additional expenses incurred in old machines. Convincing higher management to install condition monitoring equipment to minimize the risk of complete failure is a challenging task, which may prove to be a growth deterrent for this market.Request Sample Report @Condition Monitoring Equipment Market: SegmentationThe global condition monitoring equipment market can be segmented on the basis of product type as: vibration monitoring, lubricating oil analysis, thermography, corrosion monitoring, motor current signature analysis and ultrasound emission.The global condition monitoring equipment market can be segmented on the basis of application as: energy & power, oil & gas, metals & mining, automotive, chemicals, aerospace & defense, food and beverages, marine and others.Condition Monitoring Equipment Market: Regional OutlookEurope and North America are estimated to dominate the condition monitoring equipment market over the forecast period. On the basis of region, the Asia-Pacific Condition Monitoring Equipment market is estimated to witness rapid growth, owing to economic growth and significant rise in industrialization in this region. These factors are expected to stimulate demand for smart factories, which in turn is expected to fuel growth of the condition monitoring equipment market over the forecast period.Additionally, the Japan condition monitoring equipment market will contribute significantly to global growth, owing to constant growth in adopting factory advanced technologies. Middle East & Africa and Latin America are also estimated to register significant growth over the forecast period.Pre Book Full Report @Condition Monitoring Equipment Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global condition monitoring equipment market identified across the value chain include:National Instruments.Parker Hannifin CorporationSchaeffler Technologies AGAzima DLI Corp.The Emerson Electric CompanyGeneral ElectricNational InstrumentsSKF GroupALS Ltd.Meggitt PLCVibrotech Reliability Services LimitedThe IKM GroupABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Saudi Arabia Passive Fire Protection Materials Market : Industry Outlook and Forecast 2015 - 2023

Saudi Arabia Passive Fire Protection Materials Market

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Transparency Market Research (TMR) has published a new report studying the Saudi Arabia passive fire protection materials market . This is a comprehensive report that presents insights into the key growth drivers, potential restraints, threats, and opportunities shaping the growth trajectory of the passive fire protection materials market across Saudi Arabia between 2015 and 2023. The report is titled Passive Fire Protection Materials Market - Saudi Arabia Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023 and is available for sale on the company website.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @As per the findings compiled in this 66-page report, the Saudi Arabia market for passive fire protection materials had a valuation of US$89.7 mn in 2014. Exhibiting a modest yet a positive CAGR of 4.40%, the market will reach US$131 mn by 2023. Passive fire protection materials provide safety against fire or spread of smoke. These materials have attained commercial prospects since they are essential in mapping a route to escape during such unforeseen occurrences. These materials are used in accordance with fire codes and building codes that local governing bodies mandate.The economy of Saudi Arabia has risen incredibly in the last couple of years. Among the economic sectors leveraging the booming economic prospects in the region, the construction industry is exhibiting exponential growth. Rapidly increasing construction activities have augmented the demand for passive fire protection materials in the region. Furthermore, the increasing number of rig counts in the Middle East is also touted as a significant factor fuelling the demand from the passive fire protection materials market in Saudi Arabia. A lead analyst from TMR says, While the market witnesses impressive growth prospects in the region, rigorous government regulations and emission control norms on volatile carbon compounds emission may hamper the overall demand for passive fire protection materials across the region.For the purpose of the study, the report segments the passive fire protection materials market in Saudi Arabia based on parameters including product type and application. Based on product types, the foams and boards segment led the passive fire protection materials market in 2014, accounting for a whopping 90% share. Foams and boards are primarily used in building interiors, apart from which they also provide protection to steel structures. These passive fire protection materials are relatively economical and also add aesthetic value to the overall structure. Intumescent coatings, according to the report, will register the fastest growth among the several product segments during the forecast period. This type of material is primarily used to fireproof steel structures. Other passive fire protection materials, which will exhibit steady growth, include fire blocks, mortar plugs, and cementitious sprays.The report states that structural steel fireproofing is the largest application segment of the regional passive fire protection materials market. The segment, as per the report, occupies over 25% of the market. Structural steel protection is integral to fire protection in buildings. The civil application of passive fire protection materials in Saudi Arabia, therefore, is poised to grow exponentially over the reports forecast period. The cable and wire tray fireproofing segment also held a substantial market share in 2014. Other application segments of the market include glasses, windows, and doors.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @The market for passive fire protection materials in Saudi Arabia is moderately fragmented and characterized by the presence of a large number of vendors. Some of the leading players profiled in the report are Jotun, Carboline Company, Fire Protection Ltd., Electropar Performed Line Products, Promat International, the Fireseal Group, Hilti Group, NAFFCO, and 3M Company.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Forging Market 2018 Global Key Players: Hinduja Foundries, Bharat Forge Limited, Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, Thyssenkrupp AG, KITZ Corporation, Ellwood Group,.

Forging Market

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Forging Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Forging Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025reports to its database.Executive SummaryGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Forging in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Forging market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingHinduja FoundriesBharat Forge LimitedAllegheny Technologies IncorporatedThyssenkrupp AGKITZ CorporationEllwood GroupKalyani ForgeAmerican Axle & ManufacturingPrecision CastpartsNippon Steel & Sumitomo MetalArconicAubert & DuvalOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoClosed Die TypeOpen DieRolled RingsOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingWindOil & GasPower GenerationAgricultureOrdnanceMiningConstructionAerospaceIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Report @Table of content:Global Forging Market Research Report 20181 Forging Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Forging1.2 Forging Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Forging Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Forging Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Closed Die Type1.2.4 Open Die1.2.5 Rolled Rings1.3 Global Forging Segment by Application1.3.1 Forging Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Wind1.3.3 Oil & Gas1.3.4 Power Generation1.3.5 Agriculture1.3.6 Ordnance1.3.7 Mining1.3.8 Construction1.3.9 Aerospace1.4 Global Forging Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Forging Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Forging (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Forging Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Forging Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Forging Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Forging Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Forging Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Forging Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Forging Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Forging Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Forging Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Forging Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Forging Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Forging Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion7 Global Forging Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Hinduja Foundries7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Hinduja Foundries Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Bharat Forge Limited7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Bharat Forge Limited Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Allegheny Technologies Incorporated7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Allegheny Technologies Incorporated Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Thyssenkrupp AG7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Thyssenkrupp AG Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 KITZ Corporation7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 KITZ Corporation Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Ellwood Group7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Ellwood Group Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Kalyani Forge7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Kalyani Forge Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 American Axle & Manufacturing7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 American Axle & Manufacturing Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 Precision Castparts7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 Precision Castparts Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Forging Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Forging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 Arconic7.12 Aubert & DuvaContinuousFor further information on this report, visit -Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. 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Cartridge System Packaging Information and Analysis with Forecast Growth - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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"Cartridge System Packaging Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.. .Description-' '  Global Cartridge System Packaging Market: Introduction:  Printing is an influential source of communication for packaging manufacturer as it plays a game-changing role in brand and marketing of products. With printing industry accounting to nearly 14% of its revenue from packaging market. These factor has significantly propelled the growth across cartridge system packaging market. Manufacturer of cartridge system operating across the developed regions is engaged in technological growth and product development. With the region of North America are way too ahead in innovation and product development of cartridge system packaging market.. .Get Sample Report @' 'Moreover, the manufacturer of cartridge system has developed are producing double layered cartridge system filter which has a pneumatic dispensing system as well as battery powered. In addition, the contemporary cartridge system has clarification indication of liquid which renders a reminder alert to end user. Also, the material used in cartridge system packaging market are hydrophobic and hydrophilic. With increasing demand in electrical and electronic industries for digital printing application, it is luring the growth for the cartridge system packaging market. Such demand is expected to showcase a sustainable growth over the forecast period.  Global Cartridge System Packaging Market - Market Dynamics:  Over the years, manufacturers of cartridge system packaging market are engaging in organic growth by acquiring printing companies with the aim of reducing manufacturers overall cost. Also, there is an increasing trend of automation in printing and packaging industries across the APEJ market which is fueling the production output capacity of the company.On the flip side, with increasing the use of social media marketing channels is posing a potential threat to cartridge system packaging market as the manufacturer are increasingly opting for the digital platform to communicate with industrial and end user. Also, a slowing demand in the printing industry is hampering the growth of other relative markets such as cartridge system packaging market. Additionally, the pace of technological changes is a problematic issue for manufacturers of Hong Kong and Singapore to engage in such enormous long-term investment.  Global Cartridge System Packaging Market - Market Segmentation:  Geographically, the global cartridge system packaging market is segmented into material type and end user base. On the basis of material type the global cartridge system packaging market is segmented into plastic and steel type. Furthermore plastic cartridge system packaging market is sub-segmented into polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA), polyethylene (PE), and others. On the basis of end user base the market is divided in beverage, electrical and electronic, food, cosmetics, manufacturing, healthcare and cosmetic industry.  Global Cartridge System Packaging Market - Regional Outlook:  North AmericaLatin AmericaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeAsia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)Middle East & Africa (MEA)JapanThe global cartridge system market is highly concentrated across the region of APEJ and Europe wherein the countries of India, China are accounting for a significant share of global cartridge system market. This is fueled due to the immense demand for cartridge system market across the countries of Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. Region of Eastern Europe in specific Poland country are expected to witness a robust growth over the forecast period. Moreover, increasing application use of cartridge system in electronic industry has gassed up the demand for cartridge system packaging market.  Cartridge System Packaging Market  Key Players:  Some of the key players operating in the global cartridge system packaging market are SS Filters Pvt Ltd., Merlin Packaging Technologies Inc., Masterbond, PackSys Global AG, Kartpol Group Sp. z.o.o, Semco Packaging & Application System, EpoxySet Inc., Vanrx Pharmasystems Inc., Adhesives Technology Corporation, MG America, Prosys Innovative Packaging Equipment, Dispense Pak Inc.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications. The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysis The regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.  Highlights of the report:  A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market. .More Clear Details get Table of Contents @ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. 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Home Textile Product Information and Analysis with Forecast Growth - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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"Home Textile Product Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.. .Description-' ' In recent years, home textile products have surfaced as one of the most attractive and fashion sensitive segments in the overall textile market. After going through a barren phase during the fiscal crisis of 2008, the home textile product market has recovered and is registering considerable growth during the past few years. This economy recovery is expected to generate GDP growth, increase consumer purchasing power, and bolster the housing market, all of which combined are expected to boost the sales of home textiles products. Although the home textile product market accounts for only a small share of the total textile market, it is expected to grow at a healthy rate during the forecast period primarily driven by strong performance by exporting countries like India, China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.. .Get Sample Report @' ' There are many factors driving the global home textile product market. Rising focus on the market by governments and favorable regulatory policies are expected to be one of the major reasons for the markets upheaval. Such support has met with growth in investments in the market, further bolstering growth. The growing real estate market along with growing consumer spending on home decoration/renovation is also expected to be another major driver of growth for the market. Growth in fashion trends and sensitivity toward household furnishing is also expected to add to the markets expansion. Furthermore, the market is expected to reach new heights with the emergence of e-commerce with growth in number of shopping websites. There are, however, some factors which are restraining the market growth. The global home textile product market is expected to face considerable challenge from the high cost of logistics. The main producers of home textile products are located in developing countries that have weak infrastructure and logistics chains which is expected to emerge as a major factor restraining market growth. Such economies have abundance of low-quality raw materials and face shortage of high-quality raw materials which are essential for making high quality products of international standard. Moreover, the long product replacement cycle of home textile products is expected to hinder the markets growth. The global home textile product market can be segmented on the basis of category and geography. On the basis of category, the market can be segmented into bed linen & bed spread, bath/toilet linen, kitchen linen, upholstery, floor and others. Based on category, upholstery is expected to be the largest segment. On the basis of geography, the market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America. North America is expected to hold a major share of the total market owing to the soaring demand for home textile products. The region is driven by countries like the U.S., where the market has seen huge amounts of home textile products imported from Asia. Europe is expected to follow North America in terms of market share. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a significant rate owing to the booming housing market and rapidly growing middle class. The region is expected to be primarily driven by countries such as India, China, and Bangladesh, which have abundance of product suppliers. Major players in the global home textile product market are Welspun Group, Alok Industries Limited, Trident Group, Himatsingka Seide Limited, Bombay Dyeing, Bombay Rayon Fashions Ltd, Indo Count Industries Ltd., Sunvim Group, Raymond Ltd, Orient International Holding, Shanghai Hometex Co., Ltd., Luolai Lifestyle Technology Co. Ltd, Honsun Home Textile Co., LTD., and Hunan Mendale Hometextile Company Ltd. Other prominent market players include RUBELLI GROUP, Etro S.p.A., Ralph Lauren Media LLC, Nina Campbell Ltd., de Le Cuona, Marvic Textiles, and FAZZINI s.r.l. The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications. The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysis The regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa) The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain. A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period. Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market. .More Clear Details get Table of Contents @ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Global Marine Cables And Connectors Market Is Anticipated To Expand At A CAGR Of 5.3% Throughout The Forecast Year From 2017 To 2025 Rise To US$14,081.3 Mn

Marine Cables and Connectors Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Marine Cables and Connectors Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.This report on the global marine cables and connectors market provides analysis for the period 20152025, wherein 2016 is the base year and the period from 2017 to 2025 is the forecast period. Data for 2015 has been included as historical information. The report covers market dynamics including drivers, restraints opportunities and trends expected to influence the global marine cables and connectors market growth during the said period. Various type of cables such as electrical cable and fiber-optic cable that are playing a major role in driving the global marine cables and connectors market have also been covered in the report. The study provides a comprehensive analysis on market growth throughout the above mentioned forecast period in terms of revenue estimates (in US$ Mn), across different geographies. Marine cables and connectors provide a competitive advantage in terms of high performance, efficiency, and better transmission capabilities in compare to satellite communication. Marine cables and connectors is anticipated to be the next generation technology and thus different countries are indulged in widespread development and implementation of these product for streamline their infrastructure.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Marine Cables and Connectors Market: Key SegmentsThe marine cables and connectors market has been segmented on the basis of type, cable type, underwater depth, end use industry and geography. On the basis of type, the market is segmented into cable and connector. By Cable, the market is sub segmented into  electric cable and fiber-optic cable. By underwater depth, the market is divided into beach joint 1, beach joint 2, burial and freelay. Based on end-use industry, the market is bifurcated into oil & gas, military and defense, telecommunication, power transmission, others.Global Marine Cables and Connectors Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the report classifies the global marine cables and connectors market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America. The regions are further analyzed in terms of revenue generation. Furthermore, the study also includes quantitative analysis of the competitive scenario for region wise prominent countries. These countries include the U.S, Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., Netherlands, China, India, Japan, GCC countries, South Africa, and Brazil. The market size and forecast for each region has been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025 along with the CAGR (%) for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025.Global Marine Cables and Connectors Market: Scope of the StudyThe report also includes key market indicators in the marine cables and connectors market.Porters five forces analysis is also included in the report. Value chain analysis which identifies the key participants in the marine cables and connectors is also covered in the report. The marine cables and connectors market report covers segment wise comparison matrix and market positioning analysis for all regions covered in the scope of our research. The report also includes market attractiveness analysis for all the segments and for all the regions in the scope of study which identifies and compares segments market attractiveness on the basis of CAGR and market share index.The report includes competition landscape which covers competition matrix, market positioning analysis of major players in the global marine cables and connectors market based on their 2016 revenues, profiling of major players. Competition matrix benchmarks leading players on the basis of their capabilities and potential to grow. Factors including market position, offerings and R&D focus are included to explain the companys capabilities. Factors including top line growth, market share, segment growth, infrastructure facilities and future outlook are attributed to companys potential to grow. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments carried out by the leading players.Global Marine Cables and Connectors Market: Competitive OutlookCompany profiling includes company overview, major business strategies adopted, SWOT analysis and market revenues for past years. The global marine cables and connectors market is dominated by players such as TE Connectivity, Inc., Eaton Corporation Plc., Fujitsu Limited, SAMCO Inc., Molex, Scorpion Oceanics, Teledyne Marine, Huawei Marine, General Cable Company, ZTT Corporation and Nexans. Other significant players in the market include SAMCO Inc., Sea and Land Technologies Pte. Ltd., SEACON, HESFIBEL, Hengtong Optic-Electric Co., Ltd., Axon Cable and OCC Corporation among others.The global marine cables and connectors market is segmented as below:Market Segmentation:Marine Cables and Connectors Market, by TypeCable- Electric Cable- Fiber-optic CableConnectorMarine Cables and Connectors Market, by Underwater DepthBeach Joint 1Beach Joint 2BurialFreelayMarine Cables and Connectors Market, by End-use IndustryOil and GasMilitary and DefenseTelecommunicationPower TransmissionOthersGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Marine Cables and Connectors Market, by GeographyNorth America- The U.S.- Canada- Rest of North AmericaEurope- Germany- France- The U.K.- Rest of EuropeAsia Pacific (APAC)- China- Japan- South Korea- Rest of APACMiddle East and Africa (MEA)- GCC- Israel- Rest of MEASouth America- Brazil- Rest of South AmericaAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Market For World Phosphorescent Pigments Is Predicted To Reach A Value Of Around US$753.2 Mn Between 2017 To 2025 At A Steady CAGR Of 4.7%

Phosphorescent Pigments Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Phosphorescent Pigments Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Phosphorescence is a process in which energy absorbed by a substance is released slowly in the form of light. Phosphorescent pigments are of the two types: zinc sulphide and strontium aluminate. Zinc sulphide phosphorescent pigments consist of very fine crystals of zinc sulfide; copper is then added to the zinc sulfide as an activator. This allows the crystals to absorb light and slowly emit it over time. Strontium aluminate is the latest Application pigments which is doped with Europium or Dysprosium in order to improve the brightness and the duration of the glow. The main characteristic of phosphorescent pigments is their capacity to absorb, store and emit light. After absorbing light they can glow in the dark for up to twelve hours. In addition the material is stable, non-toxic, has no radioactive additives and has good weatherability.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: Scope of the StudyThe report estimates and forecasts the Phosphorescent Pigments market on the global, regional, and country levels. The study provides forecast between 2017 and 2025 based on volume (tons) and revenue (US$ Mn) with 2016 as the base year. The report comprises an exhaustive value chain analysis for each of the Product segments. It provides a comprehensive view of the market. Value chain analysis also offers detailed information about value addition at each stage. The study includes drivers and restraints for the Phosphorescent Pigments market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. The study also provides key market indicators affecting the growth of the market. The report analyzes opportunities in the Phosphorescent Pigments market on the global and regional level. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities mentioned in the report are justified through quantitative and qualitative data. These have been verified through primary and secondary resources. Furthermore, the report analyzes substitute analysis of Phosphorescent Pigments market and global average price trend analysis.The report includes Porters Five Forces Model to determine the degree of competition in the Phosphorescent Pigments market. It comprises qualitative write-up on market attractiveness analysis, wherein products, processes, applications and countries have been analyzed based on attractiveness for each region. Growth rate, market size, raw Process availability, profit margin, impact strength, Application, competition, and other factors (such as environmental and legal) have been evaluated in order to derive the general attractiveness of the market. The report comprises price trend analysis for Phosphorescent Pigments between 2017 and 2025.Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: Research MethodologyThe study provides comprehensive view of the Phosphorescent Pigments market by dividing it into product, application and geography. The Phosphorescent Pigments market has been segmented by application into paints and coatings, plastics, printing inks, textiles, and others.Secondary research sources that were typically referred to include, but were not limited to company websites, financial reports, annual reports, investor presentations, broker reports, and SEC filings. Other sources such as internal and external proprietary databases, statistical databases and market reports, news articles, national government documents, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market have also been referred for the report.In-depth interviews and discussions with wide range of key opinion leaders and industry participants were conducted to compile this research report. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. Key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents were reviewed for competitive analysis and market understanding. This helped in validating and strengthening secondary research findings. Primary research further helped in developing the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: Regional OutlookRegional segmentation includes the current and forecast of Phosphorescent Pigments in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Key countries such as the U.S., France, Germany, the U.K., China, India, ASEAN, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil have been included in the study. Market segmentation includes amount of phosphorescent pigment consumed by product, process, and application in all the regions and countries.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: Competitive OutlookThe report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Major players profiled in the report include Nemoto Lumi-Materials Co. Ltd., GloTech International Ltd., Allureglow International, LuminoChem Ltd., Honeywell International Inc., Kremer Pigmente GmbH & Co. KG, and Badger Color Concentrates Inc. etc. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview (wherever applicable).The Phosphorescent Pigments market has been divided into the following segments.Phosphorescent Pigments Market Product AnalysisZinc SulphideStrontium AluminatePhosphorescent Pigment Market- Application AnalysisPaints and CoatingsPlasticsPrinting InksTextilesOthers (Construction materials, toys, glassware)Phosphorescent Pigments Market Regional AnalysisNorth America- U.S.- CanadaEurope- Germany- France- Italy- U.K.- Spain- Rest of EuropeAsia Pacific- China- India- Japan- ASEAN- Rest of Asia PacificLatin America- Brazil- Mexico- Rest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & Africa- South Africa- GCC- Rest of Middle East & AfricaMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Electron Microscope Market Poised to Garner Maximum Revenues During 2017 - 2025

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The demand for an enhanced and refined magnified image output of objects up to several nanometres has led to the introduction of electron microscopes. When compared with an optical light microscope, electron microscope generate much magnified and detailed output. Unlike optical light microscopes, electron microscope make use of an electron optical lens in place of a glass lens. A magnified image, comprising of information regarding the characteristics of an object, of up to 10,000,000x is generated as electron microscopes function on shorter wavelengths. The digital cameras installed on the electron microscopes generate electron micrographs providing information about the characteristics of the object under consideration.The major applications of an electron microscope is observed in gathering information about microorganisms, cells, biopsy samples etc. Its application in healthcare industry has witnesses a growth with the advancements in technology. Additional, applications of an electron microscope is observed for data storage, material research and biology & life sciences.Request Report for TOC @Electron Microscope Market: Drivers and RestraintsPrimary factor driving growth of electron microscopes market, is its higher refining and resolving power, which provide enhanced output image ranging up to several nanometres. In addition to this, increased demand for instruments functioning on nanotechnology also drives the growth of the market. Furthermore, an increased demand for semiconductors also propel the growth of electron microscopes, as electron microscopes are required for the inspection of small sized semiconductors such as wafers. Multiple applications of electron microscopes in several industries also result into an increased demand of the equipment, across various industry verticals.The principal factor restraining the growth of electron microscope market is its high manufacturing and maintenance cost. In addition to this, specific conditions required for proper functioning of the equipment is also an important restrain in this market.Request to Sample of Report @By geography, Electron Microscope market can be segmented across North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. It is expected that APAC will dominate the global Electron Microscope market in terms of value, as the region witnesses an increased investment in industries such as pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics, high manufacturing etc. Since, application of electron microscope lies in these industries a higher demand for the product is, henceforth, expected. North America, and Europe are expected to follow APAC in electron microscope market, owing to increased industrialization and availability of high quality facilities in the healthcare sector.Global Electron Microscope Market Key PlayersSome of the major Electron Microscope global players include KEYENCE CORPORATION, Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, ZEISS, Thermo Fisher Scientific, JEOL Ltd., COXEM. ,Ltd, Phenom-World, and Merck KGaA.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Machine Vision System Market Estimated to Record Highest CAGR by 2025

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With increasing demand for automation processes, machine vision system has observed an increase in its adoption, as it eliminates the supervision and evaluation of products in an industry. Machine vision systems effectively extract information of a product by its digital images generated with the use of digital sensors.The maximum adoption of machine vision systems is observed under the industrial vertical for a products information, evaluation, and rectification. Machine vision systems makes use of computer science, optical science, mechanical engineering, and industrial automation to extract the information and characteristics of a product. Various components of a machine vision system are lighting instrument, lenses, image sensors and vision processing.Request Report for TOC @Machine Vision Systems are used during manufacturing process for the inspection of mobile devices, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, food & beverages, semiconductors and electronics. Various applications of a machine vision system are measurement, counting, decoding, and recognition.Machine Vision System Market: Drivers and ChallengesReplacement of humans by machine and transiting towards automation is the primary factor driving the growth of machine vision system market. The replacements results into higher production yield, and reduced labor cost. In addition to this, factors such as performing repetitive tasks with an enhanced accuracy with a faster and a consistent rate also drives the demand for machine vision systems. Furthermore, various application of machine vision systems also governs the growth of overall machine vision systems market.The primary factor challenging the growth of machine vision system is its high operating cost, especially at industries where a lower volume of products are to be catered. Other factors restraining the demand of machine vision systems is its lack of accuracy against high contrast images and its interdependency on its component parts i.e. if one component fails to function, the processing of machine vision systems comes to a halt.Request to Sample of Report @Machine Vision System Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players of machine vision system market are Cognex Corporation, Basler AG, OMRON Corporation, National Instruments, KEYENCE CORPORATION, Teledyne DALSA Inc., Texas Instruments Incorporated, Allied Vision Technologies GmbH and Intel Corporation.Machine Vision System Market: Regional OverviewBy geography, Machine Vision System market can be segmented across North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Among various regions, North America is expected to dominate the global Machine Vision System Market during the forecast period, owing to high density industrial base in the region. APEJ is expected to grow at the fastest rate in the forecast period, corresponding to the increasing demand for automation in its industries.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Flare Fireplaces: Decorate Your Houses with Modern Contemporary Fireplace Designs

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Flare Fireplaces is a dynamic and innovative engineering company Plano Texas, US providing a wide range of modern fireplaces with contemporary designs for matching your houses existing designs. With the winter having its full effect in this season, the need of the fireplaces is rapidly increasing, making it a necessary item at this time. Traditional fireplaces may still persist in many homes, but they are dangerous as they omit a lot of gases and unnecessarily heat the houses at the time. Modern Fireplaces, on the other hand, are developed with full engineering technology that helps them to control the temperature, as well as emission of radiations. Moreover, with their contemporary designs, they are also proving to be decorative items in the houses, giving them a modern touch.Contemporary fireplaces are such type of fireplaces that can be easily installed into existing houses with minimum modifications to the existing structures. Moreover, they have style and beauty features that can be easily be adapted to the existing design and can be used for occasional heating and cooling at times. Modern Contemporary fireplaces can also be wall mounted given them a decent look and saves a lot of space. Some have also a feature that includes mounting a TV above them for adding more style and fun and hence giving the houses a more decorative look.Given below are some of the reasons for availing services from Flare Fireplaces for modern contemporary fireplace designs:1) They provide expert advice and professional help to their customers that can ensure them unique and custom installation, which can meet their expectations.2) They provide ultimate importance to the customers and provides the service on the basis of each one's budget. They can also cut short the budget, just in case the budget is low just to ensure that each one of their clients can get a modern fireplace design.3) Their contemporary fireplace design consultation can help you get the expert advice on your personal desires about modern fireplace at your homes.4) They provide certified professionals who have expert knowledge on fire pits, fire bowls, gas fireplaces, wood fireplaces and electric fireplaces.About Flare Fireplaces:Flare Fireplaces has risen as an inventive building organization in Plano Texas, US giving extravagance, high caliber and contemporary composed Modern Gas Fireplaces that can be utilized to enrich our homes in this winter season. Their item classes, for the most part, comprise of Frameless Fireplaces like Modern Gas, Linear, Linear Gas, Corner Gas and Contemporary Fireplaces which can be profited all through United States (US).Their modern fireplaces have the following features, making them worth to be installed in your homes:1) They provide frameless designs, for a clean and sleek look. They also have smart control phone application for enabling them to control with your phones.2) They have taller glasses for improving the viewing angle of the flames.3) Their summer kit products have the same look with less heat.4) Their linear fireplaces have frameless longer look over the wall.5) They have outdoor fireplace options for a modern look, with electric ignition and battery backup with all of their fireplaces.6) They have stylish firebox media options and flame color control options for LPG and NG.To know more about Flare Fireplaces and their products/services, please visit their official website:Flare Fireplaces has risen as an inventive building organization in Plano Texas, US giving extravagance, high caliber and contemporary composed Modern Gas Fireplaces that can be utilized to enrich our homes in this winter season. Their item classes, for the most part, comprise of Frameless Fireplaces like Modern Gas, Linear, Linear Gas, Corner Gas and Contemporary Fireplaces which can be profited all through United States (US).Company Name: Flare FireplacesContact Person: Eyal RotmanAddress: 1406 Capital Ave. Suite 104 Plano Texas 75074Phone: 1-866-639-1590Fax: 1-866-639-1590Email: info@flarefireplaces.comWeb:
Magnesium Silicate Market to Garner Brimming Revenues by 2025

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Magnesium silicate is a chemical compound that consists of silicon, oxygen and magnesium. It can be found in both natural and manufactured form. When magnesium silicate is hydrated it is known as talc. Primarily it is used as a thickener in beauty and cosmetic products. In cosmetics it is commonly used in baby powder and talcum as an adsorbent and in pharmaceuticals it is used to improve the powder flow in the tablet compression. Magnesium silicate is useful for the variety of applications such as purifying adsorbent, (odors, vegetable and animal oils, sugar, dry cleaning, resins,); filler (ceramics, rubber, refractories, paper, and glass,); filter medium, catalyst carrier, etc. increasing applications of magnesium silicate in various end use industries is expected to increase the demand for magnesium silicate during the forecast period.Request Report for TOC @Global Magnesium Silicate Market: Drivers and RestraintsGrowing demand for emulsifier and anti-caking agents in food and beverages industry is primarily driving the growth of global magnesium silicate market. Moreover, the growing personal care industry due to rising lifestyle of consumers is also fuelling the growth of global magnesium silicate market as it is used as an emulsifier in cosmetics and other personal care products. Furthermore, the global supply chain has made the product easily available everywhere, which also has made the positive impact on the magnesium silicate market. In addition, the increasing applications of magnesium silicate due to extensive research and development programmes by the various companies is also fuelling the growth of the global magnesium silicate market. Moreover, the enormous growth in healthcare industry for last few years is also expected to increase the demand for magnesium silicate during the forecast period.Global Magnesium Silicate Market: Region wise OutlookThe global magnesium silicate market is divided into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan and Middle East and Africa (MEA). ). Asia Pacific and Latin America are among the emerging clusters of the globe, which are anticipated to witness an above average CAGR over the forecast period. However, the global magnesium silicate market is expected to witness a steady growth by the end of 2027. Moreover, the demand for magnesium sulphate is increasing from developing countries due to growing health care industry owing to increasing disposable income of consumers.Request to Sample of Report @Global Magnesium Silicate Market: Key PlayersSome of the prominent players in the global magnesium silicate market are-Vedanta CeramicaInnovative Resins Pvt LtdSimplex Trades & IndustriesBaroda Minerals Grinding IndustriesPar Drugs & Chemicals Private LimitedLeisha Pharma Solutions Pvt. Ltd.Triveni Interchem Pvt. Ltd.Peekay Minerals & Allied ProductsPre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global EAS Systems Market 2018 Tyco, Nedap, Gunnebo, Gateway, SenTech, WGSPI

EAS Systems

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Recently published a detailed market study on the "EAS Systems Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report on the global EAS Systems market uses the top-down and bottom-up approaches to define, analyze, and describe the EAS Systems market 2018 trends for the next five years up to 2023. The EAS Systems market report further provides production, capacity, EAS Systems market price per region, gross margin, EAS Systems production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in EAS Systems report.Get Sample Here:The Global EAS Systems Market 2018 report includes EAS Systems market Revenue, market Size, market Share, EAS Systems industry volume, market Trends, EAS Systems Growth aspects. The EAS Systems Market research report analyses and provides the EAS Systems historical data along with current performance of the global EAS Systems industry, and estimates the future trend of EAS Systems market on the basis of this detailed study. EAS Systems Market also focuses on the EAS Systems market growth drivers and restraints for the EAS Systems key market players during the forecast period 2023.Top key Playes In EAS Systems Market :1. Tyco Retail Solutions2. Checkpoint Systems3. Nedap4. Universal Surveillance Systems5. Gunnebo Gateway6. SenTech7. Hangzhou Century Co., Ltd8. WGSPI9. Sentry Technology10. All Tag11. Amersec s.r.o.The competitive landscape of EAS Systems global market is determined by assessing the major industry participants, EAS Systems market production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, EAS Systems market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and EAS Systems revenue generated by each manufacturer in the EAS Systems market globally.Get Full Report :The EAS Systems Market report provides upstream and downstream analysis of EAS Systems market that covering major raw material used in manufacturing of EAS Systems along with detailed manufacturing sources. EAS Systems report Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with EAS Systems manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report.About UsQYMarketsresearch.com is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.5001 Spring Valley Road, Suite 400 East, Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Embedded System Market to Reach Valuation US$ 254.87 billion by 2022

Embedded System Market

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The Global Embedded System Market was worth USD 132.50 billion in the year of 2012 and is expected to reach approximately USD 254.87 billion by 2022, while registering itself at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.06% during the forecast period. Embedded systems are systems that are application-specific and are intended to meet the necessities of the objective systems in which they are embedded. Developing requirement for gadgets, for example, smart electricity meters is relied upon to drive the worldwide market over the gauge time frame.Get Sample Copy of the Report here:Report Overview:The report Embedded System Market Render a wide-ranging analysis of the said market in terms of product, regional, application and end user segmentation. The report comprises of the present market size of this industry. Also, the potential outlooks and current market summary of this segment has been thoroughly analyzed in this report. Moreover, chief market players of the Embedded System are studied on various factors like product portfolio, company profile, sales analysis, revenue generation through the forecast period.In 2013 Embedded hardware represented 93.8% of the general piece of the overall industry, and is relied upon to keep ruling the general market over the estimate time frame. It principally comprises of Digital Signal Processors (DSP), microcontrollers, microprocessors, and so on. Embedded software contains middleware, operating system (OS) and in addition tools. Embedded systems have requirements on real time basis since they are utilized for a wide range of security purposes. This has prompted the requirement for effective programming custom fitted for the objective application.Regional Outlook:In 2013, North America was the biggest regional market. It is foreseen to keep up its dominance in the upcoming years. The Asia-Pacific market is projected to witness significant growth in the upcoming years. This is made conceivable by the significant number of trained experts associated with programming improvement for embedded systems in the locale. Also, the existence of creation plants, for example, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has lightened helped reducing production costs.To Grab the Complete Report, Please Visit:The global Embedded System Market is segmented as follows:By Application:AutomotiveTelecommunicationHealthcareIndustrialConsumer ElectronicsMilitary and AerospaceOthersBy ProductEmbedded HardwareEmbedded softwareTable of Contents1. Introduction2. Executive Summary2.1. Key Highlights3. Market Overview3.2. Market Dynamics3.2.2. Restraints3.2.3. Opportunities4. Embedded Systems Market, By Product4.1. Introduction4.2. Embedded Systems Market Assessment and Forecast, By Product, 2012-20224.3. Embedded Hardware4.4. Embedded software5. Embedded Systems Market, By Application5.1. Introduction5.2. The Embedded Systems Market Assessment and Forecast, By Application, 2012-20225.3. Automotive5.4. Telecommunication5.5. Healthcare5.6. Industrial5.7. Consumer Electronics5.8. Military and Aerospace5.9. Other Applications6. Embedded Systems Market, By Region7. Company ProfilesAsk For Customization:About Crystal Market Research:Crystal offers a one-stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customized research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact Us:Judy304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.comBlog:Website:
Global Image Guided Surgery Devices Market Will Value US$4,998.2 Mn in 2025: Emerging Nations to Offer Market Lucrative Opportunities

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Image Guided Surgery Devices Market Will Value US$4,998.2 Mn in 2025: Emerging Nations to Offer Market Lucrative Opportunities" to its huge collection of research reports.This report on the global image guided surgery devices market analyzes the current and future prospects of the market. The report comprises an elaborate executive summary, including a market snapshot that provides overall information of various segments and sub-segments.The research is a combination of primary and secondary research. Primary research formed the bulk of our research efforts along with information collected from telephonic interviews and interactions via e-mails. Secondary research involved study of company websites, annual reports, press releases, stock analysis presentations, and various international and national databases. The report provides market size in terms of US$ Mn for each segment for the period from 2015 to 2025, considering the macro and micro environmental factors. Growth rates for each segment within the global image guided surgery devices market have been determined after a thorough analysis of past trends, demographics, future trends, technological developments, and regulatory requirements.A detailed qualitative analysis of factors responsible for driving and restraining market growth and future opportunities has been provided in the market overview section. This section of the report also includes market attractiveness analysis that provides a thorough analysis of the overall competitive scenario in the global image guided surgery devices market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Market revenue in terms of US$ Mn for the period between 2015 and 2025 along with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) from 2017 to 2025 are provided for all the segments, considering 2016 as the base year. Market size estimations involved in-depth study of services and product features of different types of applications. Additionally, market related factors such as increasing preference for technologically advanced products, product innovation, and increasing incidences and prevalence of chronic diseases and traumas in various geographies and historical year-on-year growth have been taken into consideration while estimating the market size.Image Guided Surgery Devices Market: SegmentationBased on device type, the global image guided surgery devices market has been segmented into computed tomography (CT) scanners, ultrasound systems, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), endoscope, x-ray fluoroscopy, positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Based on application, the image guided surgery devices market is segmented into cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, urology, gastroenterology, oncology surgery and others. Based on end user, the image guided surgery devices market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, clinics, and research & academic institutes.Image Guided Surgery Devices Market: Geographical and Competitive DynamicsGeographically, the global image guided surgery devices market has been segmented into five regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. In addition, the regions have been further segmented by major countries from each region. These include the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Japan, China, India, Australia & New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, GCC Countries, South Africa, and Israel.Browse TOC @The report also profiles major players in the image guided surgery devices market based on various attributes such as company overview, financial overview, SWOT analysis, key business strategies, product portfolio, and recent developments. Key companies profiled in the report include GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, Olympus Corporation, Medtronic, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Analogic Corporation, Brainlab AG, KARL STORZ GmbH & Co. KG, Stryker, Varian Medical Systems, Inc.The global image guided surgery devices market has been segmented as follows:Global Image Guided Surgery Devices Market, by Device TypeComputed Tomography (CT) ScannersUltrasound SystemsMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)EndoscopeX-ray FluoroscopyPositron Emission Tomography (PET)Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)Global Image Guided Surgery Devices Market, by ApplicationCardiac SurgeryNeurosurgeryOrthopedic SurgeryUrologyGastroenterologyOncology SurgeryOthersGlobal Image Guided Surgery Devices Market, by End UserHospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersClinicsResearch & Academic InstitutesGlobal Image Guided Surgery Devices Market, by GeographyNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeU.K.GermanyFranceItalySpainRussiaRest of EuropeAsia PacificJapanChinaIndiaAustralia & New ZealandRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesSouth AfricaIsraelRest of Middle East & AfricaAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Yoga Pants Market Innovative Product Designs & Sales 2017

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Yoga Pants Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.A newly added research report about the global market for Yoga Pants produces a 360-degree overview of it. The report brings to the fore important details and elucidates every aspect expected to mold its path going forward. It sheds light on stimulants and deterrents affecting the market. It also provides a quantitative and qualitative description of their expected impact on the market over the course of the forecast period. The primary intent is to help key stakeholders comprehend the dynamics and calculate their moves accordingly.The various segments of the global market for Yoga Pants have been discussed carefully at length. The various application segments, product segments, and end user segments have been discussed in the report, leveraging historical and current figures. Leveraging both primary and secondary research, the report arrives at growth figures for each of the segments. This enables it to find out the global market for Yoga Pantss growth prospects. This helps to furnish a granular overview of the market for Yoga Pants and the areas where main opportunities lie.Get Free Report Sample and Customization:A thorough examination of the competitive landscape of the global market for Yoga Pants has also been provided in the report. Prominent participants in the global market for Yoga Pants have been examined and data pertaining to their sales and revenues, among other things, have been presented. The report examines their strengths and weaknesses. This report has been prepared carefully with data gathered through primary and secondary research methods.The primary intention of the report is to help the companies operating in the global market for Yoga Pants to gain an insight into the current market dynamics, including opportunities and pitfalls that would enable them to strategize sagaciously. To do, it deploys analytical tools to understand the competitive landscape at present.Table of ContentsGlobal Yoga Pants Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Yoga Pants1.1 Definition and Specifications of Yoga Pants1.1.1 Definition of Yoga Pants1.1.2 Specifications of Yoga Pants1.2 Classification of Yoga Pants2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Yoga Pants2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Yoga Pants2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Yoga Pants2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Yoga PantsAccess the Report and full TOC @3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Yoga Pants3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Yoga Pants Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Yoga Pants Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Yoga Pants Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Yoga Pants Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Yoga Pants Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Yoga Pants Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Yoga Pants Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Yoga Pants Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Yoga Pants Sales Analysis (Company Segment)Enquiry For Discount Visit @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Yoga PantsTable Product Specifications of Yoga PantsTable Classification of Yoga PantsFigure Global Production Market Share of Yoga Pants by Type in 2016Figure Cotton PictureTable Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Yoga Pants Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Yoga Pants Major Manufacturers in 2016About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comBlog:
Global Methanol Market Projected To Reach US$ 131,344.3 Mn By 2024 - APEJ To Dominate The Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Methanol Market Projected To Reach US$ 131,344.3 Mn By 2024 - APEJ To Dominate The Market" to its huge collection of research reports.Methanol also known as wood alcohol has some of the similar characteristics of conventional fuels. Hence, methanol is emerging as a perfect replacement for fuels such as diesel and petrol. There has also been an increase in the use of methanol also filling stations. Various combinations of methanol such as M3 to M85 are being used on a large scale. The demand for alternative transportation fuel is also rising with the depleting crude oil reserves. Exceptional blending properties is also one of the reasons for the increasing demand for methanol.Governing bodies across the globe are coming up with new regulations on decreasing emissions of harmful gases such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides. Methanol, due to its clean burning qualities can help in reducing or eliminating these emissions. Hence, the use of methanol is growing globally as a vehicle fuel and as a marine fuel. Meanwhile, there is ongoing research to come up with some new methods or technology to produce methanol in a more eco-friendly way.Global Methanol Market- Research MethodologyThe report on the global methanol market offers key insights on all the major factors that will impact the methanol market during the forecast period 2017-2026. Meanwhile, the report also focuses on the future trends and opportunities in the global methanol market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report also examines historical trends and long-term forecasts for production, supply/demand, capacity, and trade of the global methanol market. Quantitative and qualitative data is also provided in the report. The report provides information on various market segments and regions that will impact the growth of the methanol market in the coming years.The research report also provides in-depth analysis of the market dynamics including trends, opportunities, drivers, and challenges. The report also offers an estimation of revenue, market size, market share, year-on-year growth, and CAGR. Additionally, the report also provides analysis on market attractiveness, along with Porters five force analysis, and SWOT analysis. Detailed profiles of the leading companies operating in the methanol market are also given in the report. Financial overview, company overview, product portfolio, key strategies, and new product development of each of the given companies is provided in the report. The primary and secondary research was also done to provide useful information on the market.Browse TOC @Global Methanol Market- Market SegmentationThe global methanol market is segmented into feedstock type, end use, and region. On the basis of feedstock type, the market is divided into natural gas, coal, and other feedstock types. On the basis of end use, the market is segmented into formaldehyde, acetic acid, MTBE, MMA, gasoline blending, biodiesel, dimethyl ether, MTO/MTP, and others. This segmentation also includes country-wise analysis based on all the key parameters in the global methanol market.Region-wise, the market is segmented into Latin America, Japan, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ).Global Methanol Market- Competitive LandscapeThe report includes company profiles and key strategies adopted by the leading market players in the global methanol market such as SABIC, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, Mitsui Chemicals, Inc., Methanex Corporation, BASF SE, and Celanese Corporation. The companies are evaluated on various parameters such as product portfolio, company overview, latest product development, financial overview, and key business strategies.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Barrier Shrink Bags Market growing at a robust CAGR of 6.4% during 2017 - 2027

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Barrier shrink bags are a type of packaging solution that is made of plastic shrink films that are flexible and shrink around a product like its second skin upon application of heat. Barrier shrink bags also have barrier properties that protect the product from environmental gases, aroma, moisture etc. Barrier shrink bags are available in a variety of designs including round bottom, straight bottom and side sealed. Barrier shrink bags are widely used in the packaging of food items, as these bags increase the shelf life of perishable food products such as packed meat and cheese. Barrier shrink bags are manufactured using various materials such as polyethylene, polypropylene, EVOH, polyamide etc.A new report by Future Market Insights titled Barrier Shrink Bags Market: Global Industry Analysis 2012-2016 and Opportunity Assessment 2017-2027 provides a brief overview of the global barrier shrink bags market along with its current and projected market size for the forecast period 2017-2027. According to the research study, the global barrier shrink bags market is expected to be valued at more than US$ 2,100 Mn in 2017, and is projected to reach a valuation of about US$ 4,070 Mn by the end of 2027, growing at a robust CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period.Request For Report Sample @Global Barrier Shrink Bags Market: DynamicsThe inherent features of barrier shrink bags make it an attractive option for use in the packaging of different products. Barrier shrink bags have the ability to extend the shelf life of packaged food products, which makes it an obvious choice of packaged food companies. Some of the other major drivers of the global barrier shrink bags market are increasing concerns of people regarding food safety and hygiene, increasing disposable income of the middle class, and an increasing preference for packaged food product such as packaged meat.However there are also a few factors that are expected to restrain revenue growth of the global barrier shrink bags market such as the environmental impact of plastic production. Furthermore, an inadequate storage space available for storing products that are packed with barrier shrink bags is another challenge to the revenue growth of the global barrier shrink bags market.Global Barrier Shrink Bags Market: Segmental HighlightsThe global market is segmented on the basis of product type, material type, barrier type, thickness, application and abuse strength.By product type, the side sealed segment is expected to lead the market with a value share of more than 45% throughout the forecast period.By material type, Polyethylene and EVOH are the most attractive segments in the barrier shrink bags market. The EVOH Segment is expected to gain 70 basis points in market share between 2017 and 2027.Among the barrier type segments, the high barrier segment is the fastest growing segment with a market valuation of about US$ 1,381 Mn in 2017, reaching a revenue of over US$ 2,600 Mn by the end of 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% during the forecast period. High barrier shrink bags are commonly used for the packaging of meat, poultry and seafood products.Among the segments based on thickness, the 50 to 70 Microns segment stands out with the highest expected market value of just under US$ 996 Mn in 2017, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% during the forecast period.In the segmentation based on application of barrier shrink bags, the food segment is the dominating segment with meat contributing the most to the segments growth. The food segment is anticipated to hold a market value of just under US$ 2,160 Mn in 2017.In the segmentation based on abuse strength, high abuse is the dominant segment in the global market, anticipated to reach a valuation of over US$ 2,600 Mn by the end of 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period.Request For Table Of Content @Global Barrier Shrink Bags Market: Regional AnalysisFuture Market Insights tracks the performance of the global barrier shrink bags market across the key regions of North America, APEJ, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, MEA, and Japan. North America is the largest regional market for barrier shrink bags in terms of revenue share followed by Western Europe. APEJ is emerging as a fast growing regional market for barrier shrink bags and is expected to witness an increase of 90 basis points in market share in 2027 over 2017.Global Barrier Shrink Bags Market: Competitive LandscapeThis exhaustive research includes analysis of the competitive landscape of the global barrier shrink bags market. Some of the key market players profiled in the report are Bemis Company, Winpak Ltd, Sealed Air Corporation, Kureha Corporation, Coveris Holdings S.A. etc.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) Market 2018 - NXP, IDT, Semtech, Intersil

Global Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) Market

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The statistical surveying information incorporated into the Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) report is the aftereffect of significant essential and optional research exercises. The report fragments the global Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) market based on makers, item compose, applications, and regions. In this report, each fragment is contemplated completely and measurements are introduced in detail. The report offers an exact outline of the global Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) advertise covering key factors, for example, drivers and restrictions affecting the development.Get the sample report :Top manufacturers of Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) Market Report :NXPTexas InstrumentsSemtechIntersilAnalog DevicesROHM SemiconductorCactus SemiconductorSkyworks Solutions, Inc.ON SemiconductorMicrosemiIntel CorporationLinear TechnologyPower Integrations, IncIDT (Integrated Device Technology)Monolithic Power Systems(MPS)The Global Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) advertise report is the result of the intensive investigation of the market, which will help showcase players to manage and develop exponentially in the gigantically aggressive market.Enquire before buying Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) Market report :The Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) report is set up after essential and auxiliary levels of research exercises. Essential research speaks to the heft of research endeavors, supplemented by a broad optional research. Auxiliary research incorporates investigation of late exchange, web sources, and factual information from government associations, exchange affiliations and offices. This has ended up being the most dependable, powerful and fruitful approach for getting exact Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) advertise information, catching industry member's bits of knowledge and perceiving business openings. The write about the Global Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) showcase likewise talks about a portion of the main players display in the market, winning rivalry, key procedures received and their current advancements.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
Cryoballoon Ablation System Market size in terms of volume and value 2017 - 2027

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Cryoballoon ablation system is a minimally invasive treatment that is used cryo-thermal energy for pulmonary vein isolation in atrial fibrillation patients. Cryoballoon ablation systems are available in two different sizes (23 nm and 28 nm). The device consists of inner balloon and second non-compliant outer balloon. The cooling temperature for Cryoballoon ablation systems is approx. -80oC and it can be achieved by refrigerant nitrous oxide. The thermocouple is used to measure the temperature changes and it is at the proximal end of the balloon. Therefore, temperature changes are influenced by blood flow. Lesion formation with cryoballoon ablation system is complex, and freezing cycle involves both and thawing and freezing. It is the advantage of a cryoballoon ablation system that lesion formation is slower than other ablation techniques, resulting in recommended freezing cycles with 5 minutes duration. Because of this, cryoballoon ablation results in less thrombus formation and less endothelial disruption. Generally, cryoballoon ablation system uses extremely cold temperatures to destroy diseased tissue. The basic instrument includes cryotherapy diffuser which housed inside the balloon (self-sizing) and it has the ability to direct the cryoballoon to the targeted tissue. Cryoballoon conforms the shaping lumen without exerting any tension on the walls of the esophagus.Request For Report Sample @Cryoballoon Ablation System Market: Drivers and RestraintsAccording to CDC, 2.7-6.1 Mn people in the USA have atrial fibrillation and its progress with age. Raising prevalence of atrial fibrillation fuels the growth of the cryoballoon ablation system market. Atrial fibrillation also affects physical condition, quality of life, social functioning and mental health of the individual. It also leads to dementia, stroke, cognitive heart attack and even death. Cryoballoon ablation system proven clinically for pulmonary vein isolation in atrial fibrillation and also reduces the risk of stroke, heart failure, dementia, and death. Cryoballoon ablation systems reduce the treatment duration and reduce the post-traumatic pains. Cryoballoon ablation system is more advantageous than traditionally available procedures because of it's cost-effective and minimally invasive nature respectively. Cryoballoon ablation system with a single application, it delivers continuous lesion around ostium and it is considered as a simplified approach for pulmonary vein isolation. All these factors act as a driver in the burgeoning of cryoballoon ablation system market.Due to lack of flexibility and awareness in emerging markets limits the growth of the Cryoballoon Ablation System market.Cryoballoon Ablation System Market: SegmentationSegmentation based on End UserHospitalsClinicsAmbulatory Surgical CentersCryoballoon Ablation System Market: Market OverviewGlobal Cryoballoon Ablation System market has witnessed a robust growth due to increasing demand due to rising prevalence of atrial fibrillation. Cryoballoon Ablation System market has a presence of few regional players which have a huge market share in developing countries operating at regional or country level. There are huge opportunities for the untapped markets in emerging countries due to few approved players of the Cryoballoon Ablation System. The key players in the Cryoballoon Ablation System market are mainly focused on expansion by collaborations and partnerships with local vendors to increase the market reach of the products. The future of Cryoballoon Ablation System market anticipated with double CAGR during forecasting period.Request For Table Of Content @Cryoballoon Ablation System Market: Region-Wise OverviewGlobal Cryoballoon Ablation System market segmented into following regions North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan and the Middle East and Africa. North America is dominant in the Global Cryoballoon Ablation System market mainly due to high adoption. In North America, particularly the USA is dominating due to the high penetration. Economic conditions in the APAC region are set to drive the Cryoballoon Ablation System market to new heights. European and APAC are fastest growing region due to raising awareness. Growth in the Middle East and African region is considerably less when compared to the other regions. However, North America would maintain its position in the Cryoballoon Ablation System market, though, we are anticipating emerging economies such India, China, Brazil, to have the highest growth rate in Cryoballoon Ablation System market.Cryoballoon Ablation System Market: Key ParticipantsThe key participants in the Cryoballoon Ablation System market mainly include Synmed.CO.UK, Pentax Medical, Medtronic, and others. Companies are mainly focused on R&D to strengthen core competencies of the companys product portfolio.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids Market Expected to Expand at a Steady CAGR through 2026

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Global Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids Market: OverviewThe food industry is recording significant growth across the globe leading to various innovations and development. Increasing inclination among consumers towards functional food has led to prominent growth of food additives. To enhance the shelf live, flavour and appeal food additives are widely used across various food preparations. Emulsifiers are extensively used food additives in food preparation especially bakery products. Monoglycerides and diglycerides are emulsifiers which are commonly used to combine ingredients containing water and fat and also enhances the shelf life of food products especially in processed foods such as flour, bread among other baked products. The esters of mono- and diglycerides are formed by the esterification reaction of free hydroxylic groups of mono- and diglycerides with food acids such as citric acid, lactic acid, acetic acid and tartaric acid. Tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids are obtained from tartaric acid, natural fatty acids and glycerol. It is extensively used as stabiliser and emulsifier. It is abundantly used in baked products such as bread, flour. Tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids are mainly derived from plant as well as animal origin.Download PDF Brochure @Global Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids Market: Drivers and RestraintsIncreasing demand among consumers for processed and convenience food is expected to upwell the tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids market. Tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids is ectensivley used in yeast-based bakery products in form of dough conditioner apart from bakery products it is also used in the manufacturing of frozen pizza, chocolate mix, biscuits, salad dressing among other food products as foaming agent. It has a peculiar property to improve gas-holding ability of the dough by working at the interface of flour lipid and gluten proteins hence helps to strengthen the dough to obtain a finer crumb grain under high stress system. Moreover, it helps to prolong the shelf life of the baked products and also adds bulk to pastry and cakes therefore, acting as bulking agent. Hence, is gaining popularity among food manufacturers, thereby, propelling the tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids market.Although, tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids doesnt tend to show any side effects. However, the source of tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids also involve animal source. Hence, many bakery products are not preferred among vegan population due to presence of animal source. Thereby, hampering the growth of tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids market.Buy this Report at:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Filter Coffee Makers Market: EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, & Forecast, 2017

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Filter Coffee Makers Market: EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, & Forecast, 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the EMEA Filter Coffee Makers market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Filter Coffee Makers for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast)Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux;Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.EMEA Filter Coffee Makers market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Filter Coffee Makers sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingElectroluxConair CorporationBonavitaPhilipsTechnivormMelittaNACCOJardenDelonghiBoschBUNNBlack & DeckerKrupsIllyMorphy RichardsTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoManual Filter Coffee MakersAutomatic Filter Coffee MakersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K Units), market share and growth rate of Filter Coffee Makers for each application, includingCommercialOfficeHouseholdBrowse TOC @Table of ContentsEMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Filter Coffee Makers Market Report 20171 Filter Coffee Makers Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Filter Coffee Makers1.2 Classification of Filter Coffee Makers1.2.1 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Manual Filter Coffee Makers1.2.4 Automatic Filter Coffee Makers1.3 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-20221.3.2 Commercial1.3.3 Office1.3.4 Household2 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers2.1.1 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Sales Volume and Market Share of Major Players (2012-2017)2.1.2 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Revenue and Share by Players (2012-2017)2.1.3 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Sale Price by Players (2012-2017)2.2 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers (Volume and Value) by Type/Product Category2.2.1 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.3 EMEA Filter Coffee Makers Sale Price by Type (2012-2017)About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Bearing Market Outlook to 2025 - Wafangdian Bearing Group Co, The Timken Company, SKF Group, Rexnord Corporation, RBC Bearings Incorporated

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ReportsWeb.com added Bearing Market - Global Trends, 2017 Analysis and 2025 Forecasts report to its research database. This Report is spread across 150 Pages and Supported by 10 Company Leaders.Bearings are the machine elements which helps to restrains the relative motion to preferred motion by reducing friction between the moving machine parts. They offers high durability, reliability and precision with the ability to rotate at fast speed by minimizing vibrations and noise. The increasing production of vehicles and the rapid industrialization mainly in developing countries will fuel the bearing market in the forecast period.The factor that can act as a restraint in the growth of the market is the growing sale of imitation products may hamper the bearing market. However, the boost in the demand of energy-efficient vehicles and the escalating need of bearings from the aerospace industry will create new opportunities in the market of bearings.The "Global Bearings Market Analysis to 2025" is a specialized and in-depth study of the bearings industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global bearings market with detailed market segmentation by product, components, application, and geography. The global bearings market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Request Sample Copy is Available atThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global bearings market based product, components, and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall bearings market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 16 counties globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.Besides this, the report analyzes factors affecting market from both demand and supply side and further evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend. The report also provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions namely; North America, Europe, APAC, MEA and South America after evaluating political, economic, social and technological factors effecting the market in these regions.Also, key bearings market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years. Some of the key players influencing the market are Wafangdian Bearing Group Co., Ltd., The Timken Company, SKF Group, Rexnord Corporation, RBC Bearings Incorporated, NTN Corporation, Schaeffler Group, C&U Group Ltd., Asahi Seiko Co., Ltd., and Luoyang LYC Bearing among others.Inquire Before BuyingGlobal Bearing Market Players:1. Wafangdian Bearing Group Co., Ltd.2. The Timken Company3. SKF Group4. Rexnord Corporation5. RBC Bearings Incorporated6. NTN Corporation7. Schaeffler Group8. C&U Group Ltd.9. Asahi Seiko Co., Ltd.10. Luoyang LYC BearingComplete Report is Available atAbout ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.Contact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.com
Carpal Tunnel Release Market size and Key Trends in terms of volume and value 2017 - 2027

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Carpel tunnel release is surgery which is used to treat carpel tunnel syndrome, which is weakness and pain in the hand which is caused by the pressure on median nerve in wrist. Median nerve is the nerve in the wrist that allows feeling and movements to the parts of the hand which include thumb, palm, index fingers, thumb side of the ring finger and middle finger. The area where the nerves enters in the wrist is known as carpel tunnel. Carpel tunnel is very narrow and a little swelling can pinch the nerve and cause numbness, pain, weakness and tingling which is known as carpel tunnel syndrome. Carpel tunnel syndrome is caused by many factors such as heredity, hand and wrist position, repetitive hand use, pregnancy and several health conditions such as diabetes, thyroid gland imbalance. Carpel tunnel release for the compression of the median nerve is the most common and successful procedures in hand surgery. Carpel tunnel syndrome can be treated with non-surgical methods as well. Over the counter inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen are taken. Other non-surgical method include cold or ice compress, physical therapy and splints to keep wrist straight so no tension comes on the nerve. If the non-surgical therapy doesnt work then the electrical activity of the median nerve with an EMG is taken which shows the problem with the carpel tunnel syndrome and carpel tunnel release surgery is done. There are two types of carpal tunnel release surgery open and endoscopic where the ligament is cut around the carpel tunnel to take off the pressure from the median nerve. With the endoscopic surgery the healing is faster and have less pain.Request For Report Sample @Carpal Tunnel Release Market: Drivers and Restraints The carpel tunnel market is increasing owing to the increase in the prevalence among people. Rise in the arthritis, diabetes and thyroid gland imbalance also drive the carpal tunnel release market. With the increase base of geriatric population, obesity, change in the lifestyle are the major factor that drive the carpal tunnel release market. Technological advancement in visualization in the endoscopic surgery will boost the market of carpal tunnel release. High cost of the procedures and little reimbursement by the government in the carpel tunnel release are the major factors which inhibit the market globally. Limited number of skilled professional also hinder the growth of the carpal tunnel release market.Carpal Tunnel Release Market: Segmentation Tentatively, global carpal tunnel release market has been segmented on the basis of techniques, and end user. Based on technique, global carpal tunnel release market is segmented as below: Open carpal tunnel release , Endoscopic carpal tunnel release Based on end user, global carpal tunnel release market is segmented as below:Hospitall, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, Specialty clinicsCarpal Tunnel Release Market: Overview Carpal Tunnel Release Market is growing owing to the increasing noninvasive procedures which are easy and less complicated. Rise in the adoption of endoscopic surgeries with advancement in the technology owing to low risk procedures are the major factor which boost the carpal tunnel release market in the forecast period. High demand of endoscopic tunnel release surgery with increase in the awareness among the people will grow the carpal tunnel release market. Endoscopic surgeries in the hospitals is furnished with the devices used for many noninvasive procedures. Hospitals acquires the largest share in the carpel tunnel release market owing to the collaboration and partnership with the manufacturing companies.Request For Table Of Content @Carpal Tunnel Release Market: Regional Outlook The market for limb correction system are examined across the region such as North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America dominates the Carpal Tunnel Release Market due to increasing investment by the government towards the noninvasive technologies. Increasing outpatient procedure in the United States with the increase in the incidence of medically diagnosis carpel tunnel release is increasing which drive the North America carpal tunnel release market. Asia Pacific is the emerging market in the carpel tunnel release owing to less cost procedure, advancement in the endoscopic technology and expansion of rural healthcare facilities will boost the carpal tunnel release market.Carpal Tunnel Release Market: Key Players Some of the key players in the Carpal Tunnel Release Market are Arthrex, Inc, MicroAire Surgical Instruments, LLC, LMT Surgical, S.E.G-WAY Orthopaedics inc., Thayer Intellectual Property, Inc., Smith & Nephew, A.M. SURGICAL, INC., Integra LifeSciences Corporation, SONEX HEALTH, LLC. , whereas some and regional players also have a significant presence in carpal tunnel release market.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Biogas and Biomethane Market 2018 - SGN, VERBIO, MagneGas, ORBITAL

Global Biogas and Biomethane Market

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The statistical surveying information incorporated into the Biogas and Biomethane report is the aftereffect of significant essential and optional research exercises. The report fragments the global Biogas and Biomethane market based on makers, item compose, applications, and regions. In this report, each fragment is contemplated completely and measurements are introduced in detail. The report offers an exact outline of the global Biogas and Biomethane advertise covering key factors, for example, drivers and restrictions affecting the development.Get the sample report :Top manufacturers of Biogas and Biomethane Market Report :Gasrec Ltd.EnviTech Biogas AGPlanET Biogas Global GmbHCNG Services LtdSGNFuture Biogas LimitedVERBIOMagneGasGazasia LtdBiogas Products Ltd.Schmack Carbotech GmbHSoCalGasETW ENERGIETECHNIK GMBHORBITALJ V EnergenThe Global Biogas and Biomethane advertise report is the result of the intensive investigation of the market, which will help showcase players to manage and develop exponentially in the gigantically aggressive market.Enquire before buying Biogas and Biomethane Market report :The Biogas and Biomethane report is set up after essential and auxiliary levels of research exercises. Essential research speaks to the heft of research endeavors, supplemented by a broad optional research. Auxiliary research incorporates investigation of late exchange, web sources, and factual information from government associations, exchange affiliations and offices. This has ended up being the most dependable, powerful and fruitful approach for getting exact Biogas and Biomethane advertise information, catching industry member's bits of knowledge and perceiving business openings. The write about the Global Biogas and Biomethane showcase likewise talks about a portion of the main players display in the market, winning rivalry, key procedures received and their current advancements.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
CMOS Linear Image Sensor Machine Sales In Global Market Including Product Specifications, Manufacturing Processes, Cost Structures and Raw Materials

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "CMOS Linear Image Sensor Machine Sales In Global Market Including Product Specifications, Manufacturing Processes, Cost Structures and Raw Materials" to its huge collection of research reports.CMOS Linear Image Sensor Market Report by Material, Application, and Geography Global Forecast to 2021 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).The report firstly introduced the CMOS Linear Image Sensor basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.The report includes six parts, dealing with:1.) basic information;2.) the Asia CMOS Linear Image Sensor Market;3.) the North American CMOS Linear Image Sensor Market;4.) the European CMOS Linear Image Sensor Market;5.) market entry and investment feasibility;6.) the report conclusion.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of ContentsPart I CMOS Linear Image Sensor Industry OverviewChapter One CMOS Linear Image Sensor Industry Overview1.1 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Definition1.2 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Classification Analysis1.2.1 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Application Analysis1.3.1 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Main Application Analysis1.3.2 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Main Application Share Analysis1.4 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Industry Development Overview1.5.1 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Product History Development Overview1.5.1 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Product Market Development Overview1.6 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Global Market Analysis1.6.1 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Global Market Analysis1.6.5 CMOS Linear Image Sensor Global Market Development Trend AnalysisBrowse TOC @Chapter Two CMOS Linear Image Sensor Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Materials Analysis2.1.1 Upstream Raw Materials Price Analysis2.1.2 Upstream Raw Materials Market Analysis2.1.3 Upstream Raw Materials Market Trend2.2 Down Stream Market AnalysisAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
New Report Covers Global Military GPS Device Market With Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2017 - 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "New Report Covers Global Military GPS Device Market With Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Military GPS Device MarketMilitary operations mostly rely on real time data in order to carry out precision attacks, and hence the use of GPS-enabled devices is rapidly increasing. Military experiences can be enhanced by using GPS-enabled devices. Military forces are highly dependent on satellite technology for their mission critical applications such as communications and accurate positioning. Use of GPS enabled devices in the military sector is increasing significantly in order to perform mission critical operations efficiently. GPS-enabled devices provide not only tracking and navigation but also precise digital mapping. GPS systems receive information from GPS satellites and then find out the geographical position of a device. Various operations such as target acquisition, search and rescue, command and control, and many more can be done with the help of GPS systems.Several countries are planning to develop unmanned vehicles with GPS enabled devices to perform specialized tasks with high levels of efficiency and precision. These unmanned vehicles withstand dangerous situations and hazardous chemicals in war zones. GPS enabled unmanned vehicles are primarily used to protect soldiers from dangerous circumstances that can potentially harm their life. A number of nations are launching satellite navigation systems to get more precise and accurate signals. They are also introducing GPS guided missiles to overcome jamming effects. In collaboration with several defense companies, defense ministries are primarily focusing on the reduction in overall cost of installing GPS enabled devices in various military platforms.Implementation of new technologies and an increasing range of military applications for GPS devices are expected to have a positive impact on the industry. High-tech gadgets, advanced robots, and drones are recent advancements in military technology. Increasing demand for satellite navigation and communication is one of the prime factors driving the growth of the global military GPS device market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Integration of satellite navigation technology with other navigation systems is trending in the military sector in order to derive accurate information in a short period of time. Helicopters and other aircrafts are mostly dependent on GPS-enabled systems for precise navigation. Increasing investment in GPS enabled systems and ongoing technological advancements in various devices are anticipated to boost the market over the forecast period. However, susceptibility to spoofing and jamming attacks may hamper the growth of the global military GPS device market. Failure of receivers to connect directly to the network is another challenge that armed forces are facing. Anti-jamming GPS devices and differential global positioning systems (DGPS) are latest trending factors in the global military GPS device market.The global military GPS device market can be segmented by application, end users, and geography. On the basis of application, the market can be segmented into tracking, navigation, unmanned systems and others. On the basis of end users, the market can be divided into navy, marine, airborne, and land. Airborne segment is expected to dominate the market in future owing to the increasing need for real time navigation and trafficking. Geographically, the global military GPS device market can be segmented into . Military GPS-enabled devices have been adopted by the American military for accurate target tracking. The North America region is anticipated to witness significant growth due to the introduction of advanced navigation technologies that offer enhanced navigation.There are a number of market players in the global military GPS device market. Some of the key players are BAE Systems, Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman, Thales, Raytheon, Harris Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Garmin, Harris, and KB Navis.Browse TOC @The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Nail polish packaging Market size and Key Trends in terms of volume and value 2017 - 2027

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The cosmetics industry is witnessing growth in leaps and bounds mainly attributed to the rising demand from the youth for products to enhance their looks and presence. There are a wide variety of products available in the market, out of which nail polishes are used to provide a finish to the nails as well as color them. Growing nail polish market is directly aiding to the growth of the global nail polish packaging market.Nail polish packaging manufacturers are focusing on lucrative packaging format for differentiating their product. Consumers are spending more on nail polish packs, they preferring premium nail polish packs over the plain and simpler packs. This factor is encouraging packaging manufacturers to develop new nail polish packaging designs and formats. Nail polish packaging manufacturers are focusing on creating designs that are attractive small, easy to carry during travelling and are unbreakable.Request For Report Sample @Global Nail polish packaging market: Dynamics Rising disposable income of the middle class population coupled with an increasing emphasis on enhancement of looks is driving the growth of the global nail polish packaging market. Global Nail polish packaging market is driven due to high consumption of nail polish by the consumers. Nowadays nail polish is part of the outfit, for the aesthetic appeal of the consumers. They are using nail polish for daily purpose and commercially in the nail Spa and salons. Thus increase the application of nail polish, raising the demand for the nail polish packaging. The packaging of nail polish has a high impact on the nail polish buyer. As, there are variety of nail polish present in the market, to differentiate, nail polish manufacturers are depending on packaging manufacturers to bring out such packaging solution that wins on shelf competition. One of the trend of the nail polish packaging market, is that consumers are preferring decorative bottles, elongated caps over conventional nail polish bottles. Nail polish packaging manufacturers are using different packaging materials like glass, plastics, and other material. Consumers are showing interest in nail art and investing more in do it yourself fashion trend.Nail Polish Packaging Market Segmentation By Product Type - Glass, Plastics, Others; By Packaging Type - Premium Nail Polish Packs, Standard Nail Polish Packs; By End Use - Nail Spas, Salon, Homecare, OthersRequest For Table Of Content @Global Nail polish packaging market: Regional analysis Global nail polish packaging market is segmented into seven regions including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and Japan. In Asia Pacific region, nail polish packaging market is showing growth, as consumers are spending more on salons, nail Spas, this rises demand the nail polish. So, nail polish packaging manufacturer have great scope to develop the market in this region. In North America, there is a constant demand for the nail polish, thus the constant growth of the nail polish packaging market over this region. Majorly manufacturers depend on e-commerce sites for sales. Changing lifestyles of consumers over the Middle East and Africa region is rising demand of the nail polish over the region, as there is less competition for local packaging manufacturers, there is scope for global nail polish manufacture to establish market over this region.Global Nail polish packaging market: Key Players Some of the key players of nail polish packaging manufacturers are Gerresheimer AG, Amcor Ltd, Silgan Holding, Shandong Dingxin Glass Co., Ltd.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Anti-Dermatomycosis Skin Drugs Market Set To Surge Significantly During 2025

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Dermatomycosis is a type of skin disease majorly caused by the infection of different species of dermatophytes, yeast such as Candida species and Malassezia furfur or variety of fungi species like microsporum, genera trichophyton and epidermophyton. These organisms invade into the layer of skin and affect dermal appendices of hair, nails and epidermis. The condition is mainly characterized by colonization of the keratinized layers by these organisms on the surface of patients skin. These organisms have rigid cell wall and are complex in structure thus, anti-bacterial agents are not effective against organisms. Anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs like ketoconazole, clotrimazole and others are effectively used for the treatment of infection. These drugs are commonly used to treat conditions like ringworm, athletes foot and other systemic fungal infections like cryptococcal meningitis, and other types of infections. In addition, physical examination and microscopic examination of dermal lesions can be helpful to detect the disease condition.The Market Of Anti-Dermatomycosis Skin Drugs is witnessing positive growth owing to the rise in fungal infections cases globally. World Health Organization (WHO) stated that nearly 20% of the world population is suffering from skin infections and the percentage is even higher in subtropical or tropical areas. In addition, good penetration and distribution of these drugs into hair folicles and horny layers will offer effective treatment in skin infection disorders and hence drives the market growth of anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs. However, less specific actions of anti-fungal drugs restrains the growth of global anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs market. In addition, high rate of side-effects like nausea, vomiting, constipation, hepatitis will restrain the market of anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs. In severe condition, adverse effects like renal toxicity, hypokalaemia, hepatic failure, anaphylactic shock can be developed. Thus, high rate of adverse effects, using these drugs will restrain the market growth of anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs. Additionally, high cost coupled with high rate of unwanted drug interactions of drugs will further restraint the market growth.Request to View Brochure of Report -Geographically, North America dominates the global anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs market. The growth of this market in North America is mainly attributed to increase incidence of skin infections. Europe is considered as the second largest region for global anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs market owing to increasing use of anti-dermatomycosis drugs. The market of anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs in Asia-Pacific region holds strong growth opportunities due to favorable climate condition for the development of skin infectious organisms. This factor would ultimately increase the number of patients seeking for the treatment of skin infections hence drives the market growth of anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs market. Additionally, countries like China and India are considered as the major market for anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs market owing to the high demand of these drugs among patient population which will eventually help Asia-Pacific region to grow steadily.The market of anti-dermatomycosis skin drugs is majorly dominated by the key players like Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Vectura Group plc, Pfizer, Inc., AstraZeneca PLC, Eli Lilly and Company, Aparna Biosciences Corporation, Helix BioMedix, Inc., Aegera Therapeutics, Inc., Globeimmune, Inc. and others.Pre-Book Full Report -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Circulatory Support Devices Market Growth, Trends and Forecast up to 2025

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Circulatory Support Devices are used to overcome the condition of shock or hypotension. These are also required to prevent conditions in patients who are at a risk of organ failure. A shock is nothing but an acute circulatory failure with insufficient or inaptly distributed tissue perfusion that results in comprehensive cellular hypoxia. It is a life-threatening medical emergency. A mechanical assistance is required for patients with advanced heart or pulmonary failure in order to keep their heart pumping enough blood. To fulfill this requirement, circulatory support devices are being used to complement or swap the action of the failing heart or lungs. It can be used either on a temporary basis or need to be integrated permanently inside the organ. Intensive care unit or high dependency areas are the best providers of such kind of circulatory support to patients in need.Increased incidence of congestive heart failure and heart attacks are being recorded each year in developed countries due to changing lifestyles and related diseases such as diabetes and thyroid disorders. Hence, the mortality rate among the affected individuals is increasing. Coronary heart disease and high blood pressure are other heart-related problems growing at a faster pace. Increasing prevalence of congestive heart failure is one of the major drivers of the global circulatory support devices market. Rise in number of patients suffering from congestive heart failure is driving the hospitalization rate and burden on society in terms of total expenditure across the globe. Most of these people belong to the age group of 65 and above. Patients with class III, IV, and stage C, D of congestive heart failure disorders are highly recommended to use circulatory support devices, which in return propels demand for these products.Request to View Brochure of Report -Geographically, the global circulatory support devices market can be segmented into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America dominates the global circulatory support devices market, with the U.S. accounting for a major market share. Manufacturers in the Americas are developing innovative products to cure congestive heart disorder by using advanced technologies. The safety and efficacy of these new products are being ensured by premarket approval through clinical trials. For instance, St. Jude Medical is focusing on obtaining the U.S. FDA approval for HeartMate 3 system by conducting IDE trial. Moreover, demand for circulatory support devices is increasing in the region due to rising government initiatives in order to provide cover to the growing population with congestive heart disease. Europe is considered to be the second largest market. However, the market in Asia Pacific is projected to expand at the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to factors such as governmental initiatives, increased awareness about cardiac safety, rise in focus of major players in India and China. Emerging markets with rapidly growing economies offer significant opportunities in the market because of changing lifestyle and increase in awareness among people.Key players in the global circulatory support devices market are St. Jude Medical, Medtronic, ABIOMED, Reliant Heart, and Berlin Heart. Other prominent companies in the market include CorWave, CardiacAssist, Evaheart, Leviticus Cardio, Jarvik Heart, and Ventracor.Pre-Book Full Report -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Laboratory Glassware Washers Market To Reflect Impressive Growth Rate During 2025

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Laboratory glassware washers are equipment used to wash and dry several types of laboratory glassware. Different types of laboratory glassware such as beakers, slides, burettes, volumetric flasks, measuring cylinders, and Petri dishes are used in clinical laboratories to perform routine tasks. Laboratory glassware is designed and developed to clean and remove organic as well as inorganic compounds from used laboratory glassware. These are also available in portable models and fixed bench top models and have either single door or multiple doors as per the requirements of end-users. Laboratory glassware washers feature wash cycle times and programs, water heating range, wash and drying mechanisms, and programmable controls. Other considerable features of these washers include noise levels, network compatibility, and energy efficiency. Laboratory glassware washers are widely used by hospitals & diagnostic laboratories, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and other life sciences industries.Demand for laboratory glassware washers is influenced by rapid growth of the life science, health care, and food & beverage industries. The worldwide increasing burden of biological sample processing in diagnostic or pathology labs has encouraged development of automated laboratory systems with improved accuracy and reduced the turnaround time for sample processing. Technological advancement in glassware washers such as automation, network compatibility, and programmable controls are likely to fuel demand in the near future. Increasing base of diagnostic laboratories in emerging countries is anticipated to boost demand for laboratory glassware washers during the forecast period. For example, Metropolis Healthcare, a leading multinational chain of pathology laboratory, has 130 pathology labs in India, Mauritius, South Africa, and Sri Lanka, and plans to increase the number to 250 by the end of 2019. Increase in life sciences R&D expenditure by governments and the private sector is projected to propel The Laboratory Glassware Washers Market during the forecast period. However, high cost and inability to wash plasticware in these washers are likely to restrain the global glassware washers market during the forecast period.The global laboratory glassware washers market can be categorized based on type of washer, capacity, component, end-user, and region. The three different types of laboratory glassware washers are: undercounter, freestanding, and portable. Undercounter glassware washers are the most commonly used and basic type of washers. Freestanding glassware washers are generally large capacity washers and are used by large institutions having centralized washing systems. Glassware washers are available in three different capacities: small, medium, and large. The medium capacity glassware washers segment is anticipated to dominate the market by the end of 2025. In terms of component, the market can be segmented into lower baskets and upper baskets. Based on end-user, the global laboratory glassware washers market can be classified into hospitals & diagnostics centers, pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, research institutes, food & beverage companies, and academic medical centers.Request to View Brochure of Report -Geographically, the global laboratory glassware washers market can be segmented into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America and Europe are projected to account for significant market share by the end of 2025 owing to well-established health care infrastructure, increase in R&D investments by both governments and commercial players, and shortage of laboratory professionals. Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest-growing market during the forecast period due to rapid development of the health care industry in countries such as India, China, South Korea, and Malaysia. Additionally, increase in investment by the leading life science and pharmaceutical companies in these countries is projected to boost demand for laboratory glassware washers in the near future.Key players operating and accounting for significant shares of the global laboratory glassware washers market include SP Industries, Inc., Lancer Sales USA (Getinge Group), Labconco Corporation, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., VWR International, Cole-Parmer Instrument Company, LLC (GTCR), Miele & Cie. KG, Scientek Technology Corporation, and Smeg S.p.A.Pre-Book Full Report -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Baby Food Market: Infant Formula Sales to Record Rapid Growth - Industry Analysis & Opportunity Assessment, 2017 To 2022

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Baby Food Market: Infant Formula Sales to Record Rapid Growth - Industry Analysis & Opportunity Assessment, 2017 To 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.Essentially the first substitutes to breast milk, baby foods are instrumental in all-round development of toddlers. Manufacturers continue to boost the nutritional content of baby food products, without making them complex for digestion among infants. Proper baby food plays a pivotal role in improving the quality of life of babies at such a tender age, which is why parents from around the world continue to seek ideal infant formulas and solid dried foods for their broods. This report, published by Future Market Insights, provides a 5-year forecast on the global baby food market for the period 2017-2022, and offers key insights about future market direction.Report StructureThe principal objective of this report is to offer key updates on the global baby foods market, tracking advancements in terms of market expansion and market consolidation. Data analysed across multiple parameters enables this report to offer an insightful forecast on how the market for baby foods will expand globally in the next five-year period.The report commences with an abridged summary that enlists highlights encompassing the expansion of global baby foods market across multiple regions. This executive summary also offers historical data on the growth of the global baby foods market over the past five years. The report advances with an introduction to the global baby foods market, assessing key aspects that have governed the dynamics of the market till date.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Report SegmentationThe following section enlists key segments included in the taxonomy of the global market for baby foods. In this section, the categories used for segmenting the growth of baby foods from a market standpoint, include product-type, sales channel, packaging type, and age group. As an extension to this section, the report also offers key definitions on terminologies and abbreviations employed throughout the report.A distinctive section on the dynamics of global baby foods market is also included in the report. Factors governing the undercurrents of baby foods sales across the globe are addressed by gauging their influence on driving the growth of the overall market in the future. A comprehensive analysis on pricing and cost structure of baby foods is also compiled in the report. To accompany this section, the report also provides profitability margins associated with sales of baby foods, and delivers an all-inclusive value chain assessment. Following this section, the report gives details on key raw material sourcing strategies employed by leading manufacturers of baby foods, and also profiles key participants in the global baby foods market on the basis of their market presence.Browse TOC @Key sections of the report include a segment-wise analysis & forecast across the aforementioned segments, and a cross-sectional analysis for evaluating the growth of baby foods markets across multiple regions and different countries. The report concludes with competition tracking of prominent manufacturers of baby foods in the global market. Regulatory undertakings, product developments, mergers and acquisitions involving these players are also included in this section.The scope of Future Market Insights report is to analyse the global market for baby foods and provide an unbiased prognosis on how the market will shape itself by the end of the assessment period.Table Of Content1. Global Baby food Market - Executive Summary2. Global Baby food Market Overview2.1. Introduction2.1.1. Global Baby food Market Taxonomy2.1.2. Global Baby food Market Definition2.2. Global Baby food Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-20222.2.1. Global Baby food Market Y-o-Y Growth2.3. Global Baby food Market Dynamics2.3.1. Drivers2.3.2. Restraints2.3.3. Trends2.4. Cost Structure Analysis2.5. Pricing Analysis2.6. Trade Outlook2.7. Value Chain Assessment and Profitability Margins2.8. Raw Material Sourcing Strategy and Analysis2.9. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By Region3. Global Baby food Market Analysis and Forecast By Product Type3.1. Global Baby food Market Size and Forecast By Product Type, 2012-20223.1.1. Dried Baby Food Baby food Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20223.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By RegionAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Monocyte Activation Test Market To Receive Overwhelming Hike In Revenues By 2025

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The monocyte activation test is a type of pyrogen test. Pyrogens are substances that cause fever after administering injection. Increase in body ache and body temperature are harmful reactions caused due to injection of in the body. In monocyte activation test, Human blood cells are used to test a fever reaction that mimics the human immune reaction. Monocyte activation test measures cytokine released from monocytes when the human blood is exposed to a test substance. The quantity of cytokines released in the activation is done by the enzyme-linked immunesorbent assay (ELISA).The monocyte activation test serves as the replacement for the rabbit pyrogen test and can be used to test parenteral drugs for non-endotoxin contaminations and endotoxin. Monocyte activation test is both robust and highly sensitivity. The monocyte activation test kit includes all the required consumables to perform the monocyte activation test that helps increase the convenience to perform. In addition to the kit, manufacturing companies also provide consulting services and technical support in setting up the monocyte activation test. Monocyte activation test is the preferred test option of the European pharmacopoeia, owing to the monocyte activation test does not use animals. Increasing production of cosmetic products supports the expansion of The Monocyte Activation Test Market, owing to the cosmetic products need to be tested for pyrogens. Increasing inclination toward animal-free detection tests, rising government initiatives to prevent diseases in order to curb health care costs, and increase in pharmaceutical outsourcing boosts the demand for monocyte activation test. However, high entry barrier for new market entrants and presence of small players are some factors restraining the global monocyte activation test market.Globally, increasing number of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and rising health care awareness is shifting focus of patients toward the treatment of chronic and lifestyle diseases. These factors are driving the monocyte activation test market. Increasing research & development activities in the health care industry, rise in the number of new drug approvals, and growing incidences of chronic diseases are propelling the market. The global monocyte activation test market can be segmented based on application type, end-user, and region. In terms of application type, the market can be categorized into testing of air quality, lipid parenteral, dialysis liquids, toxic/immune-modulatory drugs, blood products, and medical devices. Based on end-user the market can be divided into pharmaceuticals industry, biotechnology industry, medical devices industry, and others.Request to View Brochure of Report -Geographically, the monocyte activation test market can be divided into Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, North America, and Middle East & Africa. North America held a dominant share of the market in 2016 due to growing health care awareness presence of key players in the region, and rise in technological advancements in research & development activities. Europe was the second dominant region in 2016 owing to companies initiatives, for instance, in September 2016, Merck joined DiViNe Projecta European consortium of six companies that work to address the challenges of development, manufacture, and delivery of vaccines. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow during the forecast period owing to increasing focus of key companies expanding their presence in countries in Asia to meet the growing market demand. Moreover, increasing government initiatives for health care awareness in the region also support the expansion of the market. Rising patient population diagnosed with chronic diseases the Asia also propel the market in the region. The market in Latin America and Middle East & Africa are anticipated to expand during the forecast period owing to increasing government initiatives.Key players operating in the global monocyte activation test market include Microcoat Biotechnologie GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., and Merck KGaA.Pre-Book Full Report -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Endoscopic Ultrasound Needles Market To Receive Overwhelming Hike In Revenues By 2025

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Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a minimally invasive procedure that involves visual as well as ultrasonic imaging of the thoracic and abdominal regions. Since its introduction in the 1980s, EUS has gained wide acceptance among surgeons and physicians in the fields of pulmonology and gastroenterology. A conventional endoscope can provide imaging of the inner wall of the gut, while EUS provides ultrasound imaging of the organs beyond the gut wall. The EUS procedure is performed for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Selection of the EUS endoscope depends on the application and the organ. EUS-guided needles are used for collection of specimens from organs such as the pancreas, the liver, and the lymph nodes for cytological and histological studies. These specimens are collected for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, hepato-billiary diseases, and metastatic cancer. Other methods used to diagnose these diseases are computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound imaging. However, specimens collected by using EUS-guided needles offer cytological and histological studies of the diseased organ.EUS needles are widely used for collection of specimens from the pancreas, the liver, and the lymph nodes for diagnosis of cancer and other chronic diseases. According to the American Cancer Society, around 53,670 cases of pancreatic cancer are estimated to be diagnosed in the U.S. by the end of 2017. According to the World Cancer Research Fund International, pancreatic cancer is the 12th most common type of cancer in the world, with around 338,000 new cancer cases diagnosed across the world in 2012. According to the Center for Disease Control & Prevention, around 3.9 million adults were diagnosed with liver disease in the U.S. in 2016. This high prevalence of cancer and liver diseases is likely to lead to adoption of EUS needles for better diagnosis. Moreover, key players are introducing technically advanced EUS needle devices with features such as better ultrasound visibility and better needle strength. This is estimated to fuel The Market For EUS Needles in the near future. However, high cost of endoscopic ultrasound systems, requirement for skilled operators and technicians, and high cost of EUS needles are factors likely to restrain the market from 2017 to 2025.Request to View Brochure of Report -The global endoscopic ultrasound needles market can be segmented based on product, application, end-user, and region. In terms of product, the market can be divided into aspiration needles (EUS-FNA) and biopsy needles (EUS-FNB). The aspiration needles segment is likely to account for a leading share of the global EUS needles market during the forecast period, owing to wide usage of these needles in pulmonology and gastroenterology. Technological developments in EUS biopsy needles are estimated to result in high growth of the biopsy needles segment during the forecast period. Based on application, the endoscopic ultrasound needles market can be segmented into bronchial EUS needles and enteral EUS needles. Increasing adoption of EUS needles in gastroenterology is likely to fuel the enteral EUS needles segment in the next few years. Based on end-user, the market can be segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and specialty clinics. The ambulatory surgical centers segment is estimated to register the maximum growth rate during the forecast period, owing to increasing number of these centers and rising number of endoscopic ultrasound procedures performed in these centers.Geographically, the global endoscopic ultrasound needles market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is estimated to constitute a leading share of the global market during the forecast period, owing to high adoption of EUS needles and high health care expenditure in the region. Europe is anticipated to account for a significant share of the global market between 2017 and 2025. Increase in the incidence of cancer and chronic hepatobiliary diseases in Europe is projected to fuel the market in the region during the forecast period. The market in Asia Pacific is projected to witness high growth during the forecast period, due to increasing health care expenditure in the region.Major players operating in the global endoscopic ultrasound needles market are Olympus Corporation, Medtronic, Cook Medical, CONMED Corporation, and Boston Scientific Corporation.Pre-Book Full Report -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Automotive Seats Market is Expected to Expand US$ 74.19 Bn by 2025

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Automotive Seats Market: Global Industry Analysis (20122016) and Forecast (20172025), is the new report published by Persistence Market Research for the estimated period of 8-years. With a CAGR of 3.7%, this market is expected to witness steady growth throughout the forecasted period. Slowdown in the global automotive production and increasing use of public transport to cut down the transportation cost are significant reasons behind the slow growth of the global market for automotive seats. Global sales of automotive seats is estimated to be valued at US$ 55.34 Bn in 2017 and is projected to increase and to be valued at US$ 74.19 Bn by 2025.Request Sample Report@Global Automotive Seats Market: RestraintsLowering hide production to act as restraint in the Europe automotive seats marketAdoption of Low-cost and Inferior SubstitutesSoaring government regulations and rules are acting as hurdles for the manufacturersSlowdown in the Global Automotive ProductionIncreasing use of public transport to cut down the transportation costGlobal Automotive Seats Market: Segmental Analysis and ForecastThe market is segmented into product type, vehicle type, cover material, by technology, and by sales channel. Product type segment include bench and bucket. Sales of Bucket segment Seats segment is estimated to be valued at US$ 35.46 Bn in 2017 and is slated to reach US$ 48. 82 Bn by 2025.On the basis of vehicle type, the market is segmented into passenger cars, LCV (Light Commercial Vehicles) and HCV (Heavy Commercial Vehicles). The Passenger Car market segment is estimated to dominate the global automotive Seats market with a 75.1% market value share, valued at US$ 41. 57 Bn by 2017 end; expanding at a CAGR of 4.1% over the forecast period of 2017-2025. This segment is expected to create a total incremental opportunity of US$ 15.71 Bn between 2017 and 2025. The segment is anticipated to reach a market value of US$ 57.28 Bn by 2025 end, in the global automotive seats market.Cover Material segment consists of genuine leather, synthetic leather and fabric material.The Fabric Material segment by cover material is estimated to dominate the global automotive seats market with a 63.6% market value share, valued at US$ 35,205.1 Mn by 2017 end; expanding at a CAGR of 4.2% over the forecast period of 2017-2025. This segment is expected to create a total incremental opportunity of US$ 13.58 Bn between 2017 and 2025. The segment is anticipated to reach a market value of US$ 48.78 Bn by 2025 end, in the global automotive seats market.Request Report for TOC @Technology segment include standard, powered, heated and massage. By Technology, the powered segment is expected to be a relatively attractive segment in terms of market growth rate and market size with a market value share of 17.4% by the end of 2025.By sales channel, the market is segmented into OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and aftermarket. OEM segment is expected to create a total incremental opportunity of US$ 18,339.7 Mn between 2017 and 2025. Sales of OEM segment is estimated to be valued at US$ 71,360.6 Mn by 2025 end as compared to is US$ 53,020.9 Mn in 2017.Global Automotive Seats Market: Forecast by RegionThe report covers five regions namely, North America, Latin America, Europe, APAC and MEA. Sales of Automotive Seats in North America is estimated to be valued at US$ 9889.3 Mn by the end of 2017 and is expected to reach US$ 12.45 Bn by the end of 2025, registering aCAGR of 2.9% in terms of value over the forecast period. On the other hand APAC market is estimated to dominate the global automotive seats market with a 49.5% market value share, valued at US$ 27.36 Bn by 2017 end; expanding at a CAGR of 4.1% over the forecast period of 2017-2025.Global Automotive Seats Market: Competitive LandscapeAdient PLC, Faurecia SA, Lear Corporation, Toyota Boshoku Corporation, TS Tech Co., Ltd., Magna International Inc., Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd., Tachi-S Co., Ltd., NHK Spring Co., Ltd., Guelph Manufacturing Group, RECARO Holding GmbH, Gentherm, Camaco LLC, Amvian Automotive (Pvt.) Ltd., Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. KG, Kahovec, s r.o., Daewon Kangup Co Ltd, Siemens AG, PHOENIX SEATING LIMITED, and Autostop Global are some of the key player in the global automotive seats market.For more information about this report visit @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated re-search, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Con-sumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Sparkling Water Market Overview & Industry Landscape by Focusing On Top Key Vendors: Nestle, Danone, Fiji, Coca Cola, Pepsico, Roxane, Gerolsteiner, Ferrarelle, VOSS

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A comprehensive analysis of the Global Sparkling Water Market is been done in this intelligence report. It includes the investigations done on the past progress, ongoing market scenarios, and future prospects. An accurate data of the products, strategies and market shares of leading companies in this particular market is mentioned. This report presents a 360-degree overview of the competitive scenario of the Global market. The report further projects the size and valuation of the global market in the coming forecast period. The report also presents a thorough qualitative and quantitative data affecting the projected impact of these factors on markets future growth prospects.Top Key Vendors:Nestle, Danone, Fiji, Coca Cola, Pepsico, Roxane, Gerolsteiner, Ferrarelle, VOSSGet Sample Copy of this Report @It explains a detailed outline of the Sparkling Water Market depending on the important parameters. End users, products, regions, and many other segments are studied and explained. A brief idea of the driving forces which help make the market more flourishing is discussed in order to help the client understand the future market position.According to the research report, the global market for Sparkling Water Market is witnessing a continual rise in its valuation with the advancement in technologies, which is impacting the consumer behavior and, accordingly, their purchasing patterns to a great extent. In addition to this, the rising penetration of internet and the surge in mobile surfing are anticipated to boost the demand for Sparkling Water across the world, states the research report.On the basis of geographical regions, the Global Sparkling Water Market is segmented broadly into Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The global market is still in its exploratory stage in most of the regions but it holds the promising potential to flourish steadily in coming years. The major companies investing in this market are situated in Canada, U.K., and the US, India, China and some more countries of Asia Pacific region. Consequently, Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Europe are estimated to hold more than half of the market shares, collectively in coming years.Get Up to 40% Discount on this report:This statistical surveying research study presents an all-inclusive evaluation of the worldwide market for Card Personalization Equipment, taking various industry parameters, such as the capacity of production, product pricing, demand, supply, and sales dynamics, returns on investments, and the growth rate of the overall market into consideration.In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the Sparkling Water Market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report.Table of ContentsThe Global Sparkling Water Market Research Report 20181 Sparkling Water Market Overview2 Global Sparkling Water Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Sparkling Water Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2018)4 Global Sparkling Water Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2018)5 Global Sparkling Water Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Sparkling Water Market Analysis by Application7 Global Sparkling Water Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Sparkling Water Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Sparkling Water Market Forecast (2018-2023)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin  77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977sales@researchnreports.com
Thiocolchicosie Market Overview, Segmentation & Competitive Landscape by Focusing On Top Key Vendors: Reva Pharma, Taj Pharmaceuticals, Alchem International, Indena

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The report, titled Global Thiocolchicosie Market. The report on the global market offers an elaborate assessment of key drivers and restraints, emerging trends, notable opportunities, prominent business use cases, and recent technological advancements. The research presents a thorough insight into the market share and size of various types of lucrative avenues, and competitive landscape.This report studies Thiocolchicosie in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2013 to 2018, and forecast to 2023.Top Key Vendors:Reva Pharma, Taj Pharmaceuticals, Alchem International, IndenaGet Sample Copy @The report offers a fundamental overview of the Global Thiocolchicosie Market. It includes definitions, product specifications, classification, and applications of the global market. The study also comprises an industry chain analysis and an industry overview of the major regions and their status in the global market.The next section of the report analyzes the development plans and policies, manufacturing process, and product cost structure of the Thiocolchicosie market. The report specifically focuses on the leading regions and manufacturers engaged in the production of consumer devices along with the analysis of the competitive landscape, development trends, and prime regions status of development. The report also contains information such as company profiles, product specification and picture, production capacity, cost, revenue, and gross profit margin.The report profiles the key market players which are dominant in the global Thiocolchicosie market. It also provides essential information about leading companies, such as product specification, financial overview, business overview, contact information, and recent developments. The list of figures provided in the table of content has mentioned all of the statistical representations of the market offered in the report.On the basis of geographical regions, the Global Thiocolchicosie Market is segmented broadly into Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The global market is still in its exploratory stage in most of the regions but it holds the promising potential to flourish steadily in coming years. The major companies investing in this market are situated in Canada, U.K., and the US, India, China and some more countries of Asia Pacific region. Consequently, Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Europe are estimated to hold more than half of the market shares, collectively in coming years.Get Up to 40% Discount on this report:The research report profiles the players and offers a detailed report about the competitive landscape present in the global Thiocolchicosie market. Additionally, the report also includes a Porters five forces analysis, which examines the threat of the new entrants, the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, and the intensity of the competitive rivalry. The report also discusses the business and marketing strategies likely to be implemented by these in the coming few years.In the concluding divisions of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the  Thiocolchicosie Market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report.Table of Content:Global Thiocolchicosie Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Global Thiocolchicosie Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixAbout QYReports:We at QYReports, a leading market research report publisher cater to more than 4,000 prestigious clients worldwide meeting their customized research requirements in terms of market data size and its application. Our list of customers includes renowned Chinese companies multinational companies, SMEs and private equity firms. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering you accurate, in depth and reliable market insight, industry analysis and structure. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in an and execution of a new project globally and in Chinese markets.Contact:The Work Lab,FC Road, Pune, MH, India411016
Market Size of Texturized Vegetable Protein Market, Forecast Report 2017  2027

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Texturized vegetable protein (TVP) often known as soya chunks are made from multiple sources like wheat, cotton seeds, oats etc. It is also known as textured soy protein (TSP) or soy meat. Texturized vegetable protein is high in protein content and quick to cook, due to which it is also used as a substitute of meat or meat extender by vegetarians. Texturized vegetable protein is originated from highly processed soy protein isolate. Texturized vegetable protein is low in calories, fats and carbohydrates which is rising its demand in health conscious people. Texturized vegetable protein are dehydrated pieces which can be rehydrated during the use and have long shelf life too. Processing of texturized vegetable protein includes addition of flavour enhancers, artificial colorings, emulsifiers etc. which can sometimes harm health in various ways. People with soy allergy are not recommended to eat texturized vegetable protein as it can cause symptoms like hives, tingling in mouth, swelling, stomach pain etc.Market Segmentation:Texturized vegetable protein market is segmented on the basis of raw material source as cotton seed flour, rape seed or canola concentrates, wheat, rice, oats, peanut flour, defatted sesame flour and soy protein such as soybean grits, flakes, meal, isolates and concentrates. Soy protein is the highly used source for the texturized vegetable protein production followed by other sources.Texturized vegetable protein market is segmented on the basis of distribution channels as retail stores, food malls, online portals etc. Distribution of texturized vegetable proteins is increasing through e-Commerce sites due to easy availability, also texturized vegetable protein are in demand from retail stores globally.Texturized vegetable protein market is further segmented on the basis of regions as North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East and Africa.Request Report Sample@Market Regional Outlook:On the basis of regions, the Texturized vegetable protein market has been segmented into North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific region, Japan, Middle East and Africa. Texturized vegetable proteins are increasing its demand globally, the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, China and India are the major soy producing countries globally. Other countries like Uruguay, Bolivia, Ukraine, Canada and Paraguay are increasing the soy production facilities to cater to high demand of soy based products like texturized vegetable protein.Market Drivers and Trends:The trend towards healthy food is increasing globally which is helping texturized vegetable proteins market as it has multiple health benefits such as it can boost lung cancer treatment effectiveness, improves heart health, bone support, breast and endometrial cancer and also symptoms of menopause. As a substitute of meat, texturized vegetable protein is increasing its popularity in vegetarians as well as in children. Texturized vegetable proteins are low in calories, fats and carbohydrates which makes it more popular in health conscious consumers like bodybuilders, athletes etc. is driving the market. Availability of texturized vegetable protein on e-Commerce sites is also one of the reasons for driving the global market. Better taste, easy to cook and long shelf life are key reasons for rising demand of texturized vegetable proteins in the market.Visit For TOC@Texturized vegetable protein Market Key Players:Some of the key players in the Texturized vegetable protein market include ADM Proteins, Bob's Red Mill, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited, Galpro Srl, Avi Agri Business Pvt. Ltd., Harbi Hi-Tech Soybean Food Co. Ltd., Sinoprotein Biotech Co. Ltd., Nahar Agro World, Indian Soya Industries Pvt. Ltd., Oppenheimer Faith Foods Pvt.Ltd., Vippy Industries Limited etc. are among these.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Third Party Logistics Services Market size in terms of volume and value 2017 - 2027

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Globalization, free trade and opening up of the markets for foreign multinational companies is a recent trade which is influencing the major trend of elongating supply chains and industrialization. Rising cross border trade is the result of increasing collaboration between logistics service providers, government bodies and leverage of technology. Growing worldwide demand for logistics services has led the third party logistics (3PL) market to grow rapidly in the last decade. But, as the time went, increase in third party logistics (3PL) players is resulted into fierce competition between 3PL market players. Today, third party logistics (3PL) players have few customers and at the same time they are dealing with the risk of increased prices. Emerging economies like South Africa, India, Nigeria, China, Brazil and Argentina are the sweet spots for the investments in third party logistics services. The investments have grown more than two fold in these emerging markets.Third party logistics (3PL) service providers are increasingly adopting advanced technologies based on Internet of Things (IoT), cloud storage, data analytics, forecasting, real time product tracking etc. Massive public and private infrastructure developments related to transportation, agriculture, and defence sectors are bringing the traction in third party logistics (3PL) services market. Recent trend in third party logistics (3PL) services market shows, the complete outsourcing of supply chain activities to third party logistics (3PL) players, increased transparency and customer-client engagement etc. This has led to the third party logistics (3PL) players handling complete activities of packaging, raw material procurement, transportation, inventory management, warehousing, distribution etc. Rising e-Commerce distribution has also influenced the growth of 3PL services market.Request For Report Sample @Global Third Party Logistics Services: Market Dynamics Third party logistics (3PL) helps manufacturers to focus on their core business by providing complete or partial supply chain services like packaging, warehousing, procurement and distribution. There are two kinds of third party logistics (3PL) service providers. One who owns the assets like warehouses, trucks etc. and other just uses the rented assets. Then there are 4PLs, who are consultants and complete supply chain intelligence providers and there are 5PLs, who help in efficient resource utilization. 5PLs aggregate the demand of many third party logistics (3PL) service providers and then they hire the cargo planes, ships, warehouses and other transportation services etc. Growing demand for cold chain services from pharmaceuticals and food & beverages sectors is driving the third party logistics (3PL) services market.Growing regulatory environment and government policies related to distribution of pharmaceuticals and food & beverages is driving the global third party logistics (3PL) services market. Growing industrialization and trend of countries striving to become self-reliant and free from imports is pushing the demand for third party logistics (3PL) services market. Procurement of raw materials like polymers, pulp & paper, metals and distribution of finished products like automobiles, packaging products, FMCG goods etc. at right times is a challenging task for third party logistics (3PL) service providers. Lack of labour force is restraining the growth of third party logistics (3PL) services market.Third Party Logistics Services Market Segmentation By Service Type - Warehousing, Transportation, Packaging, Procurement, Distribution, Inventory Management, Others; By Asset Ownership - Asset Based 3PL, Non-Asset Based 3PL; By Asset Contract Type - Public, Private; By End-Use - Food & Beverages, Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Automotive & Aerospace, Electronics Goods, Others Global Third Party Logistics Services Market: Regional outlookThird party logistics service market has been segmented on the basis of region into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Japan. Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) is expected to dominate the overall global third party logistics service market, followed by Western Europe. This is due to massive infrastructure development projects happening in China, India and other countries in APEJ region.Request For Table Of Content @Global Third Party Logistics Services Market: Key players Some of the players associated with the global third party logistics service market are Yusen Logistics Co., Ltd., DHL Supply Chain & Global Forwarding, Sinotrans Limited, CEVA Logistics, Nippon Express Co., Ltd., DB Schenker Logistics, Kuehne + Nagel International AG, Ryder, Menlo Logistics, C.H. Robinson, Exel (tie) Schneider Logistics, Penske, APL Logistics, Danzas AEI (tie) Hub Group, TNT Logistics (tie) USCO Logistics, EGL Eagle Global Logistics and others.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Market Overview, Segmentation & Competitive Landscape by Focusing On Top Key Vendors: Eli Lilly, Perdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Shire, Glaxosmith Kline

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The report, titled Global Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Market. The report on the global market offers an elaborate assessment of key drivers and restraints, emerging trends, notable opportunities, prominent business use cases, and recent technological advancements. The research presents a thorough insight into the market share and size of various types of lucrative avenues, and competitive landscape.This report studies Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2013 to 2018, and forecast to 2023.Top Key Vendors:Eli Lilly, Perdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Shire, Glaxosmith Kline, Novartis, Celltech GroupGet Sample Copy @The report offers a fundamental overview of the Global Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Market. It includes definitions, product specifications, classification, and applications of the global market. The study also comprises an industry chain analysis and an industry overview of the major regions and their status in the global market.The next section of the report analyzes the development plans and policies, manufacturing process, and product cost structure of the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder market. The report specifically focuses on the leading regions and manufacturers engaged in the production of consumer devices along with the analysis of the competitive landscape, development trends, and prime regions status of development. The report also contains information such as company profiles, product specification and picture, production capacity, cost, revenue, and gross profit margin.The report profiles the key market players which are dominant in the global Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder market. It also provides essential information about leading companies, such as product specification, financial overview, business overview, contact information, and recent developments. The list of figures provided in the table of content has mentioned all of the statistical representations of the market offered in the report.On the basis of geographical regions, the Global Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Market is segmented broadly into Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The global market is still in its exploratory stage in most of the regions but it holds the promising potential to flourish steadily in coming years. The major companies investing in this market are situated in Canada, U.K., and the US, India, China and some more countries of Asia Pacific region. Consequently, Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Europe are estimated to hold more than half of the market shares, collectively in coming years.Get Up to 40% Discount on this report:The research report profiles the players and offers a detailed report about the competitive landscape present in the global Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder market. Additionally, the report also includes a Porters five forces analysis, which examines the threat of the new entrants, the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, and the intensity of the competitive rivalry. The report also discusses the business and marketing strategies likely to be implemented by these in the coming few years.In the concluding divisions of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report.Table of Content:Global Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Global Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixAbout QYReports:We at QYReports, a leading market research report publisher cater to more than 4,000 prestigious clients worldwide meeting their customized research requirements in terms of market data size and its application. Our list of customers includes renowned Chinese companies multinational companies, SMEs and private equity firms. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering you accurate, in depth and reliable market insight, industry analysis and structure. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in an and execution of a new project globally and in Chinese markets.Contact:The Work Lab,FC Road, Pune, MH, India411016
Breakfast Drinks Market Poised for Steady Growth in the Future 2017  2027

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Breakfast drinks are defined as a food products that are formulated through processing cereals with milk or other liquid ingredient. It is marketed as a supplementary food and positioned as a healthy, fast and convenient option for breakfast. Breakfast drinks must be shelf stable and liquid or dairy based. It must contain added minerals and vitamins and should be packed in on-the-go format. Growing number of single individuals along with rising number of working women across the globe is leading to changing lifestyle, improving living standards and increasing urbanization are some of the factors which are expected to drive the market of breakfast drinks over the forecast period.Market Dynamics of Breakfast Drinks Market:Consumers are increasingly shifting preference from edible breakfast products to drinkable breakfast products. They are looking for new product variants in the on-the-go market, owing to which, manufacturers are expanding product offerings by launching new flavored breakfast drinks regularly. For instance, in August 2016, Sanitarium Health & Wellbeing launched new flavors such as Up & Go Raspberry, Coconut & Yoghurt and Up & Go Energize Choc Coconut, followed by launch of Up & Gos 500ml bottle range in April 2016. In addition, younger consumers are shifting their preference towards healthy alternative drinks owing to increasing awareness regarding healthy lifestyle and wellness. Instead of having coffee or tea, these consumers prefer healthy alternatives such as soy drinks or other dairy-based drinks. This in turn is fuelling demand for on-the-go breakfast drinks among this consumer segment. For instance, in Australia, under 25-years consumers are the prime target segment for on-the-go breakfast products, with around 13% buying breakfast drinks each month. Consumers aged 3549 are also developing a taste for breakfast drinks, which is further expected to drive growth of the market during the forecast period.Request Report Sample@Market Segmentation of Breakfast Drinks Market:Breakfast drinks market is segmented on the basis of region which includes North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa and Japan. Geographically, Europe is expected to be the major market in terms of value for breakfast drinks, owing to increasing consumer shifting preference towards convenient breakfast options. Among the countries, U.K. is expected to remain major markets in terms of consumptions for breakfast drinks followed by Germany. North America is expected to represent the favorable market for breakfast drinks in terms of consumption. In the region the U.S. is expected to represent major value share during the forecast period. Increasing consumption of on-the-go breakfast alternatives is expected to support the market growth in the country. Asia Pacific is expected to represent a rapid growth in breakfast drinks market. Presently Australia is the largest consumer of breakfast drinks in the region as well as across the globe. Continuous product launch and targeted towards specific segment is expected to support the market growth in the country. For instance in Australia manufacturers are focusing on the children or pre-teen segment, who are known to skip breakfast. Independent surveys reveal that 1 in 10 children skip breakfast daily. In order to tap into opportunities this segment offers, manufacturers are introducing new products specially designed for kids. In 2013, Kellogg NA Co. launched its first two breakfast drinks for kids in Australia. The product was launched under its Nutri-Grain and Coco Pops brands. Moreover, among ASEAN countries Singapore is expected to represent potential market both in terms of value and volume consumption.Visit For TOC@Continuous introduction of new breakfast drink products coupled with increasing awareness among the consumers through aggressive advertisement by the manufacturers is expected to drive the market growth during the forecast period. Moreover, increasing per capita expenditure on prepared food coupled with rising demand for convenience breakfast products is further expected to fuel the market growth in the near future.Key Market PlayersSome of the key players operating in breakfast drinks market includes Quaker Oats Company, Kellogg Co., General Mills Inc. MOMA, Sanitarium and Anchor among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Intraoperative D Navigation System Market Trends and Key Developments

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Intraoperative care is a time period during operation in which patient is monitored, prepped, anesthetized and surgery is performed. Navigation system is the integral part of the surgery which enable surgeons with anatomical localization by means of imaging and computer technology along with accurate execution of surgical intervention with patients safety & comfort. Surgical navigation system helps in performing minimally invasive procedure by tracking the position of surgical device. It also considered as most reliable technology that render complications and risks during surgery and optimize the functioning of operation rooms. With increase in number of surgical procedures the demand for intraoperative navigation technology will also rise, which transform surgical procedures more precise and enhance economic value.3D application simplifies the processing, image viewing and altering for navigation of surgical instrument and helps in improving favorable outcomes. Patients suffering from asymmetric deformities need 3D approach surgical navigation system. 3D navigation system helps in guiding neurosurgery procedures such as tumor resection, CSF management, biopsy and deep brain stimulation. The benefits of 3D navigation system are assimilate CT scans directly in the operation room & minimizing interruption, less chances of errors, actual placement can be compared directly with pre-operative target plan.Request Report For TOC @Intra-operative 3D navigation system market are witnessing robust growth owing to technology improvement, better alignment, favorable patient outcome in surgery, accurate result, better visualization helps surgeons in real-time information of patients condition during surgery and aid in taking surgical decisions. Moreover, it also helps surgeons to perform more accurate procedure, less cumbersome, reduce complications and risk. However, deformities with device, decline in durability of systems over time, deformation of soft tissue with device, high cost of system, lack of reimbursement facility and chances of error with critical components of 3D navigation system impede the growth of intra-operative 3D navigation system market.The 3D navigation system has to perform the seamless fusion of medical imaging anatomy with real time tracking to improve patient outcomes. The demand for 3D navigation system in intra-operative care is rising due to increase in the complicated surgeries that need to be performed by surgeons even though ensuring the time duration, for that the navigation system helps them to perform more precise procedure. It also, help surgeons to make data which drive them to take decisions during surgery by integrating most advanced technologies and if the system is used at a broader scale it will be cost effect for hospitals. The intra-operative 3D navigation system has an advanced visualization technology enable for 2D, 3D viewing.Request to Sample of Report @Depending on geographic region, intra-operative 3D navigation system market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America held the largest revenue share in intra-operative 3D navigation system market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific owing to established healthcare infrastructure, technological advancements and majority of surgeries performed in these regions. The developing nations in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa hold huge potential for growth in the Intra-operative 3D navigation system market due to increase in the demand for less invasive procedures, accessibility and medical tourism in these regions.Some of the key participating global players in intra-operative 3D navigation system market are Medtronic, DOTmed.com Inc., Brainlab AG, FIAGON GMBH, Zimmer Inc., Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Stryker, XION GmbH and B. Braun Melsungen AGPre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Shrink Label Machine Market size in terms of volume and value 2017 - 2027

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Recent trends in packaging industry shows the rapidly changing needs of packaging buyers. To serve the maximum number of buyers, label manufacturers are preferring fully automated label making machines. Growing consumer demand and preference for high graphic glossy labels which are expected to drive the retail sales is enhancing the demand for shrink labels. Due to recent developments in label printing technology and label material today, the label making machine manufacturers are launching innovative machines with attractive added features. Packaging buyers are moving from traditional pressure sensitive labels to shrink sleeve labels. Shrink sleeve labels are glossy, provide aesthetic look, easy to apply on any product with any shape. Growing demand for shrink sleeve labels from FMCG manufacturers is boosting the demand for shrink label machines.Shrink label machine market is highly dominated by small & medium scale manufacturers. Manufacturers are dominantly concentrated in China, Taiwan, Japan and India. Growing demand for low cost machines from China is driving the shrink label machines market in Asia Pacific region. China exports shrink label machines to North America, Western Europe and Africa and Asia. Although the demand for shrink labels is growing worldwide, the manufacturers individual production capacity has increased considerably. Due to this the market is anticipating pierce competition.Request For Report Sample @Global Shrink Label Machine: Market Dynamics Shrink labels provide tamper proof or tamper evident feature to packaging products. There are various types of printing technologies e.g. flexographic printing, lithography, digital printing etc. available for label manufactures. Flexographic printing is anticipated to grow at a higher annual growth rate. The flexibility of printing and tamper proof features are driving the demand for shrink label machines. Suitable label material includes PVC, PET, OPP and OPS. The shrink label machines can be used to label round bottle, square bottle, flat bottle, curved bottle and cup-shaped, etc. Shrink labels enable excellent product presentation.They also provide full 360 reverse text printing, which makes them perfect solution for packaging products like bottles, cups, tubes, metal cans, boxes & bins etc. Growing demand for consumer packaged goods (CPGs) from middle class population and tough competition between FMCG manufacturers to push their brands is influencing the demand for shrink label machines. Tamper evident shrink label packaging brands is the new trend in the packaging industry. Tamper evident feature provides fast and easy way to secure the containers, add value and protection to products. Tamper evident shrink labels are excessively used in personal care, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.Global Shrink Label Machine: Market Segmentation Shrink Label Machine Market Segmentation By Material Type - Glass, Metal, Paper, Plastic, Wood ; By Performance - Less Than 50 Products/Min, 50 To 150 Products/Min, 150 To 250 Products/Min, 250 To 400 Products/Min, More Than 400 Products/Min; By Application - Apparel, Beverage, Chemical, Commodity, Food, Machinery & Hardware, Medical, TextilesRequest For Table Of Content @Global Shrink Label Machine Market: Regional outlook Shrink label machine market has been segmented on the basis of region into North America, Latin America Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Japan. Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) is expected to dominate the overall global shrink label machine market, followed by Western Europe. This is due to increasing number of shrink labels machine manufacturers in Western European countries like Germany and France. Over the forecast period, APEJ shrink label machine market is expected to dominate the global shrink label machine market. China, North Korea, Taiwan and India are expected to drive the APEJ shrink label machines market.Global Shrink Label Machine Market: Key players Some of the players associated with the global shrink label machine market are Engage Technologies Corporation (American Film & Machinery), U. V. Tech Systems, Shanghai Xinhua Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd., Shanghai Chuangling Packaging Machine Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Shanghai Leadworld Machinery Technology, Sanket Packseal Machines Pvt. Ltd. and others.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Advanced Technology Catheters Market Present Scenario and the Growth Prospects

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Catheters are the tubes which are made from medical fine grade materials such as silicon rubber, plastic, nylon or PVC for multiple functions. Catheters are inserted into the patients body to diagnose the disease or perform surgical procedure to treat the disease. Medical procedures such as cardiac electrophysiology, angioplasty and neurosurgery require catheterization as primary co-procedure. Advanced technology catheter is a minimally invasive medical device that consists of braid reinforced tube, a thin walled and shaft with multiple durometers. Advanced technology catheters assist physicians to map the body systems and helps to ablate body tissue.These Advanced technology catheters enable the delivery and placement of other implantable devices such as heart valves, emboli, stents etc. Generally, advanced technology catheters are used in minimally invasive cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, and neurovascular procedures. Peripheral advanced technological catheters are generally larger than 6 French (Fr), cardiovascular advanced technology catheters are generally less than 6Fr, and neurovascular advanced technology catheters are as small as 2.3Fr depending on the specific application. Certain specific characters of catheters like pushability, trackability, torqueability, kink resistance are essential for success of the advance technology catheters.Advanced Technology Catheters market is continue to witness significant growth owing to increased demand for newer technologies for various surgical procedures and growing demand for minimally invasive procedures and increased prevalence of life style disease such as diabetes and cardiovascular and diseases. Apart from this, demand for advance technology catheters are fuelled by increased incidence of kidney and urinary bladder failure that will help to bolster advanced technology catheters market over the forecast period. However, lack of skilled professionals to perform surgical procedures with advanced technology catheters, cost associated with the surgical procedures and, availability of inferior healthcare infrastructure in developing and under developed economies may hamper the growth of advanced technology catheters market over the forecast period.Request Report For TOC @Global advanced technology catheters market is experiencing significant growth owing to wider application in various diseases ailments such as cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, structural heart, electrophysiology, neurovascular diseases and kidney, urinary bladder failure. Advanced technology catheters market is expected to experience robust growth owing increased demand for advanced technology catheters among medical fraternity, increased usage of advanced technology catheters in place of conventional catheters and, positive and reliable outcomes by these technology catheters may positively impact the market dynamics over a given period of forecast.Moreover recent development of newer catheters, ongoing research and development in this area and presence of research driven players in the market may help grow this market significantly. Apart from aforementioned factors, advance technology catheters market undergoing dynamic changes with agreements and collaboration among varied size market players for the development and advancement advance catheters research, this may prompt the advance technology catheters market to the newer levels with significant market share in catheters market.Request to Sample of Report @Geographically Advanced Technology Catheters market is classified into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. North America and Europe will remain key markets for Advanced Technology Catheters market due to presence of sophisticated healthcare infrastructure and awareness among key stake holders in the market. Asia Pacific is anticipated to register positive growth owing to rising governments initiatives in healthcare sector, improved healthcare infrastructure and increased ageing population in the region.Some of the key players in the Advanced Technology Catheters market are AdvancedCath, Biomerics, Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics., Vention Medical, Edwards Lifesciences Corporation., Medtronic, to name a few.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
New Research Report on Tempeh Market, 2017  2027

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Tempeh is a type of fermented soy cake product which can be consumed with rice or as a snack.Tempeh is obtained from fermentation of soybean with Rhizopus oligosporus as a starter culture. Tempeh was originated in Indonesia and has been increasing its demand in global market as a competitor of tofu. Tempeh has many health benefits such as reducing cholesterol, increasing bone density, reducing menopausal symptoms, promoting muscle recovery, etc. Tempeh is a rich source of manganese, copper, fiber, protein, phosphorus, vitamins, magnesium, etc. which makes it popular in health conscious consumers globally. Tempeh is a better meat alternative of all fermented soy products. Tempeh contains high nutritional value and hence is used in various vegetarian cuisine worldwide, where it is used as meat analogue. Tempeh contains high levels of vitamins B6, B5, B3, and B2. Tempeh has the ability to have many textures and flavors which makes it a better substitute for meat and meat-based products.Market Segmentation:The global tempeh market is segmented on the basis of type, distribution channels, form, and region. The global tempeh market is segmented on the basis of type such as tempeh bacem, tempe bongkrek, tempe mendoan, and tempe semangit. The global tempeh market is segmented on the basis of distribution channel as supermarket/ hypermarket, retail shops, online shops etc. The global tempeh market can also be segmented on the basis of form such as organic tempeh and conventional tempeh. On the basis of form the demand for organic tempeh is growing worldwide as a result of increasing health awareness among consumers. Hence, the global tempeh market is expected to significantly increase the revenue contribution over the forecast period.Request Report Sample@Market Regional Outlook:On the basis of regions, the tempeh market has been segmented into North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa. Globally, among all regions, Asia Pacific has developed as the dominant region in global tempeh market followed by North America. Tempeh is originated in Indonesia which produces and consumes maximum amount of tempeh domestically. China is growing in producing tempeh to cater to consumer needs in global market. Japan, Korea and India are some countries which are gaining interest in producing fermented food products from soybean in turn growing tempeh market globally.Market Drivers and Trends:Tempeh is a healthy food containing probiotic which helps increasing antibodies, build stronger immune system, regulate appetite and reduces sugar. Tempeh is popular in health conscious consumers as it helps in reducing cholesterol levels naturally. Availability of tempeh in supermarket/ hypermarkets is also driving market for tempeh in urban countries. Increasing awareness of consumption of healthy food is driving market for tempeh globally. As a result of growing population of working professionals demand for ready-to-eat tempeh is increasing in urban areas driving market for tempeh globally. Manufacturers are focusing on providing healthier product offerings. Tempeh also has many health benefits such as its helps in muscle building, reduces risk of diabetes and treats inflammatory diseases which helps in growing global market for tempeh. Hence, the global tempeh market is expected to observe robust growth over the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Tempeh Market Key Players:Some of the key players in the tempeh market include Lalibela Farm, The Cultered Bean Company, Nutrisoy Pty Ltd., Impulse Foods, ALIVE & HEALING INC., and American Soy Asia are among these. The companies are expected to expand their business by enhancing their product portfolio in global tempeh market. The companies are projected to frame certain strategies in future in order to gain the competitive advantage in global tempeh market till 2027.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Car Covers Market A cutting-edge technology,industry survey and new business opportunities 2023

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Global Car Covers Market Report. The authors of this publication have predominantly focused on the demand and trends in the markets by country. Understood from the title of the publication, the 20182023 forecast period considered here has been kept in view to foresee the overall revenue, price, consumption by country, and sales by type and application of the market.Top Key Vendors: BDK, Xtremecoverpro, Budge, Coverking, Formosa Covers, Hubcaps Plus, Classic Accessories, CarCapsule, Covercraft, Rampage, WeatherTech, ADCO, Eevelle, DuckCovers, California Car Cover, Car Cover WorldGet an exclusive sample of this report@:The publication has estimated the sales forecast values for the global Car Covers market for the period 20182023. The forecast of the sales growth has also been calculated on the basis of type, application, and region. A section on the evaluation of market effect factors has shed light upon some of the most crucial aspects such as environmental change due to economic or political reasons, change in consumer preference, and technological evolution in associated sectors. This study has been expected to provide the much required insight of how the global market will fare in the foreseeable future.The first part of the report encapsulates the scope and the product overview of the global market. The classification and applications come next in the report. In the next sections of the report, the sales in the global Car Covers market have been studied in different areas such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. Similarly, the most lucrative areas in the market have been presented coupled with their growth prospects by the end of 2023. In addition, the key manufacturers and the price trend in the sale of the market in each of these areas have also been analyzed under the geographical segmentation section of the study.The report provides comprehensive details of the global market, particularly in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. In terms of upgrade programs and MRO, expenditure is expected to be the highest in the North American region during the forecast period. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is projected to account for the second largest market, followed by Europe, over the forecast period.Ask for a Special Discount on this Report@:In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the market have been presented. These manufacturers have been examined in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report. The recent developments that took place in the global Car Covers market and their impact on the future growth of the market have also been presented through this study.Table of Content:Global Car Covers Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Car Covers OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixGet more Information about this report:About QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.com
Automotive Glass Market Explores New Growth Opportunities By 2018 - 2023

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Global Automotive Glass Market Report. The authors of this publication have predominantly focused on the demand and trends in the markets by country. Understood from the title of the publication, the 20182023 forecast period considered here has been kept in view to foresee the overall revenue, price, consumption by country, and sales by type and application of the market.Get an exclusive sample of this report@:The publication has estimated the sales forecast values for the global Automotive Glass market for the period 20182023. The forecast of the sales growth has also been calculated on the basis of type, application, and region. A section on the evaluation of market effect factors has shed light upon some of the most crucial aspects such as environmental change due to economic or political reasons, change in consumer preference, and technological evolution in associated sectors. This study has been expected to provide the much required insight of how the global market will fare in the foreseeable future.The first part of the report encapsulates the scope and the product overview of the global market. The classification and applications come next in the report. In the next sections of the report, the sales in the global Automotive Glass market have been studied in different areas such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. Similarly, the most lucrative areas in the market have been presented coupled with their growth prospects by the end of 2023. In addition, the key manufacturers and the price trend in the sale of the market in each of these areas have also been analyzed under the geographical segmentation section of the study.The report provides comprehensive details of the global market, particularly in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. In terms of upgrade programs and MRO, expenditure is expected to be the highest in the North American region during the forecast period. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is projected to account for the second largest market, followed by Europe, over the forecast period.Ask for a Special Discount on this Report@:In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the market have been presented. These manufacturers have been examined in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report. The recent developments that took place in the global Automotive Glass market and their impact on the future growth of the market have also been presented through this study.Table of Content:Global Automotive Glass Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Automotive Glass OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixGet more Information about this report:About QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.com
Market Intelligence Report Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic Packaging Market, 2017  2027

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Packaging products made of eco-friendly material are gaining popularity as market players are adapting to sustainable packaging methods. Products and materials sold in the consumer markets, which have served their intended purpose or completed their life cycle are sent to material recovery facilities (MRFs). Packaging products made of plastic materials recovered from MRFs contribute to the category of post-consumer recycled plastic packaging. One of the prominent material which is being recycled is the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic. PET plastic is the most widely used and accepted plastic, as it is quite easy to recycle and can be recycled more than once, thus promoting the post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market. Recycled products have many environmental benefits and are being preferred by the manufacturers adopting sustainable principles. The increased demand for packaging products produced using recycled content has also propelled the post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market.Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic Packaging Market- Market Dynamics:A major factor supporting the growth of post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market is the improved material sorting infrastructure across many significant regions like U.S., Canada and Western Europe. The global market for post-consumer recycled plastic packaging is witnessing the incorporation of new material processing technologies for manufacturing of post-consumer recycled products and materials. Light weight nature of recycled plastic is another factor fuelling the growth of post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market. The growth of post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market is propelled by certain properties of recycled plastic such as strength and crack-resistance. Another prominent factor promoting the growth of post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market is the environmental friendly property of the plastic. However, the shortfall in supply has restricted the growth prospects for post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market. FDA regulations applicable to packaging of food products across geographic regions are a matter of concern for market players operating in the global post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market.Request Report Sample@Manufacturers are identifying new infrastructure for segregating and collecting mixed plastics at the recovery facilities in order to implement appropriate sorting mechanism. Effectiveness of the selection process plays a vital role in the amount of materials recovered in these facilities.Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic Packaging Market- Market Segmentation:The post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market can be segmented on the basis of product type, material type, process type and end use. On the basis of product type, the post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market can be segmented into bottles, cups, containers (jars and tubs), bags, clamshells and blister packs. Mostly all the recycled plastic packaging products are thermoformed and the FDA approved products are even safe for direct food contact. On the basis of material type, the post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market can be segmented into PET (polyethylene terephthalate), HDPE (high density polyethylene) and PP (polypropylene). PET plastic is expected to be the major contributor due to its abundance availability and ease in processing technology. On the basis of process type, the post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market can be segmented into mechanical (melting and refining) process and chemical process. On the basis of end use, the post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market can be segmented into beverage (bottle and dairy products), electronics, home care, pharmaceuticals, and personal care.Visit For TOC@Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic Packaging Market- Regional Outlook:Geographically, the post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America is the leading manufacturer of post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market as U.S. and Canada have taken major steps to initiate material sorting infrastructures in the regions and is anticipated to witness a healthy growth. Asia-Pacific is expected to witness a significant growth over the forecast period driven by the developments in China and India.Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic Packaging Market- Key Players:Some of the key players of post-consumer recycled plastic packaging market are Placon Corporation Inc., Seventh Generation Inc., Amcor Rigid Plastics USA Inc., Genpak, LLC, Papier-Mettler, Inhaber Michael Mettler e.K., Tray-Pak Corporation, Alpha Packaging, Inc., and Eco-Products, Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
US Defense Industry Market 2017-By Segment Analysis Opportunity and Forecast 2022

US Defense Industry Market

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SummaryWiseGuyReports published new report, titled Future of the US Defense IndustryThe Future of the US Defense Industry - Market Attractiveness, Competitive Landscape and Forecasts to 2022, published by Strategic Defence Intelligence, provides readers with detailed analysis of both historic and forecast defense industry values, factors influencing demand, the challenges faced by industry participants, analysis of industry leading companies, and key news.GET SAMPLE REPORT @SynopsisThis report offers detailed analysis of the US defense industry with market size forecasts covering the next five years. This report will also analyze factors that influence demand for the industry, key market trends, and challenges faced by industry participants.In particular, it provides an in-depth analysis of the following - The US defense industry market size and drivers: detailed analysis of the US defense industry during 2018-2022, including highlights of the demand drivers and growth stimulators for the industry. It also provides a snapshot of the countrys expenditure and modernization patterns- Budget allocation and key challenges: insights into procurement schedules formulated within the country and a breakdown of the defense budget with respect to capital expenditure and revenue expenditure. It also details the key challenges faced by defense market participants within the country- Porters Five Force analysis of the US defense industry: analysis of the market characteristics by determining the bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitution, intensity of rivalry, and barriers to entry- Import and Export Dynamics: analysis of prevalent trends in the countrys imports and exports over the last five years- Market opportunities: details of the top five defense investment opportunities over the next 10 years- Competitive landscape and strategic insights: analysis of the competitive landscape of the US defense industry. It provides an overview of key players, together with insights such as key alliances, strategic initiatives, and a brief financial analysisScope- Being the largest defense spender in the world, with a budget of US$586.7 billion in 2017, the US is expected to sustain its superiority over other nations in the coming years. During the historic period, the total defense budget, including funding for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), was relatively flat, registering a CAGR of 0.40% due to the sequestration measures imposed by the government.- Between 2013 and 2017, the US allocated an average of 34.2% of its total defense budget to capital expenditure, primarily to fulfill the equipment needs of its overseas contingency during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. However, with the country expected to focus on the replacement of damaged and obsolete defense equipment rather than on war needs, the capital expenditure is estimated to average 36.3% over the forecast period. Consequently, the share of revenue expenditure is expected to average 63.7% during the forecast period as compared to 65.8% during 2013-2017.- Oppurtunities are expected to emerge in Networking, Multi-role aircraft, IT-software, multirole aircraft MRO andf IT-Hardware.Key points- This report will give the user confidence to make the correct business decisions based on a detailed analysis of the US defense industry market trends for the coming five years- The market opportunity section will inform the user about the various military requirements that are expected to generate revenues during the forecast period. The description includes technical specifications, recent orders, and the expected investment pattern by the country during the forecast period- Detailed profiles of the top domestic and foreign defense manufacturers with information about their products, alliances, recent contract wins, and financial analysis wherever available. This will provide the user with a total competitive landscape of the sector- A deep qualitative analysis of the US defense industry covering sections including demand drivers, Porters Five Forces Analysis, Key Trends and Growth Stimulators, and latest industry contracts..CONTINUEDAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
System on a Chip Market 20182022 : Drivers, Opportunities, Trends, and Forecasts

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Market HighlightsA System on a Chip or SoC is a microchip designed for electronic devices and holds all the necessary electronic circuits and parts required for a given system. SoC is used in various electronic equipments but the major application areas are smartphones or wearable computer. As smartphones/tablets and wearable devices are basically a smaller computer, they require most of the component which is available in any laptop or a desktop but due to the low availability of space compared to a PC or a Laptop, the internal parts needs to be designed in such manner which can fit into the smartphone and wearable devices. And SoC is a smaller version of all the hardware required in any smartphone and wearable devices. SoCs application is not limited to a smartphone or a wearable devices but it can be used in every electronic device.Growing demand for the consumer electronic devices are need of power efficient devices are driving the market of System on a Chip whereas changing technological environment and government rules are some of the major restraint to the market.Request a Sample Report @Major Key PlayersBroadcom Corporation (U.S.),Infineon Technologies AG (Germany),Qualcomm Inc., (U.S.),Texas Instruments Inc., (U.S.),Intel Corporation (U.S.),Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., (US),Toshiba Corporation (Japan),MediaTek Inc. (Taiwan),STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland)Samsung (South Korea),The Global SoC Market is expected to reach at USD 81 billion with 13% of compound annual growth rate.Global System on a Chip Market SegmentsThe Global System on a Chip Market has been segmented on the basis of type, application and region. By type, the market has been bifurcated into digital and analog among others whereas by application, the market includes- consumer electronics, automotive, IT & telecommunication, healthcare among others. Further, the market has been segmented into four regions which includes- North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and RoW.Regional AnalysisAsia-Pacific is dominating the market of System on a Chip. High demand for consumer electronic devices especially for smartphones and wearable devices is giving boost to this market. Also, rich manufacturing industry in China, Japan and South Korea are some of the other major factor of this growth. North America stands as second biggest market. High spending on personal devices and growing technology environment in U.S. and Canada are some of the factor behind this growth. Europe is also showing positive growth towards the market due to the growing healthcare industry in U.K., Germany, France and Italy.Access Report Details @Intended Audience SoC Manufacturers SoC Distributors Research/Consultancy firms Vendors from various industry verticals such as Automotive, and Electronics & Semiconductors among others OEMs Semiconductor ManufacturersAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Antifungal Drugs Market - The Biggest Trends to Watch out for 2016 - 2024

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Antifungal drugs medication is done for treating fungal infections with minimal side effects on the body. Basically this fungal infections are organism that feed by breaking down the living tissue these fungi are commonly known as dermatophytes. Dermatophytes can cause infection of the skin, hair and nail as they have a unique ability to utilize the keratin. There are some common fungal infections such as ringworm, athletes foot, fungal n ail infection and vaginal thrush these can be treated by antifungal drugs. Antifungal drugs works by either killing the fungal cell by causing the contents of the cell to break and leak out and the cell to die and also by preventing the cell from growing. There are different types of antifungal medicines such as topical antifungals which are mostly applied on the skin, nails or hair, secondly there are oral antifungals which are consumed or swallowed in capsule, liquid form or pill and last is intravenous antifungal which are directly injected in the blood stream so as to prevent the fungal infection. The antifungal drugs are segmented as over-the-counter drug products particularly for dermal infections. Advancement in technology and drug delivery is expected to boost the global antifungal market.According to Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approximately 46,000 new cases of Invasive candidiasis occur every year in U.S. which is a common bloodstream infection in U.S. The incidence rate of fungal infections such as Candida species causing infection vary substantially by geographic location and patient population and it is therefore causing challenge to healthcare professionals. The antifungal drugs market is mainly driven by the incidence and prevalence rate of the antifungal infections. Moreover due to benefits such as cost effective products, growing population of immunocompromised individuals and minimal side-effects physician are prescribing these products. Healthcare professionals are conducting patient education program for creating the awareness among the general population. However antifungal drugs market has some restraints such as presence of alternative therapies may hinder the growth of the antifungal drugs market.Request Report For TOC @With the fungal disease leading to increase in the incidence of fungal infections Antifungal drugs market is increasing very rapidly. Moreover significant rising awareness among general population and rise in disposable income will boost the Antifungal drugs market during the forecast period.Geographically the Antifungal drugs market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and MEA region.Request to Sample of Report @In the United States, Candidemia is the common form of invasive candidiasis and a common bloodstream infections. North America followed by Europe is dominating the Antifungal drugs market as high incidence of fungal infections and development of novel antifungal biopharmaceuticals. In Asia Pacific region the antifungal drugs market is expected to deliver significant growth due to the rise in per capita income in this region which is expected to further fuel market demand. This growth is also due to the increasing awareness towards personal safety and health care. China is expected to register significant market growth in antifungal drugs owing to the growing access of public with healthcare professional and growing economy. Also the antifungal drugs market is expected to become highly competitive due to entry of potential entrants in the market by the end of forecast period.Some major companies in the Antifungal drugs market are Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Kramer Laboratories, Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Laboratories, Novartis, Merck & Co., Bayer Healthcare and Glaxosmithkline GileadPre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Blood Virus Testing Market Set to Witness an Uptick by 2024

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Viral testing is carried out to detect infections caused by viruses by destroying cells of immune system. Viruses breed only in living cells and cause diseases by destructing or injuring the cells they infect, damaging the body's whole immune system, altering the genetic material (DNA) of the cells they infect, or cause inflammation that can damage the complete organ. A viral infection can occur in different parts of the body such as intestine, respiratory tract and lungs. Common viral infections include common cold which is caused due to infection in the upper respiratory tract and influenza. Diagnostic virology is formulating diagnosis of viral disease and is moving rapidly mainstream in clinical medicine. Blood tests play a crucial role in diagnosing viral infections through various tests such as antibody testing, viral DNA or RNA detection tests. These test can show the exact virus causing an infection in the body.Recently a test has been created which can determine patient history for viral infections through one drop of blood where the antibodies remain active even after the infection is moved out. The test compares viral infection in large population with great accuracy and is proved to be an alternative for viral testing methods which detects specific types of viruses.Request Report For TOC @According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 59 outbreaks of viral hepatitis during 2008 to 2015 from which hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infections accounted for greatest burden of disease. As viral hepatitis infections are asymptomatic and were not completely identified or reported. A report by WHO (World Health Organization) revealed that, there are more 357 million new infections detected annually and along with 500 million people with genital infections. Due to growing epidemiology of viral infections the blood virus testing market is estimated to drive growth over the years. Diagnostic virology has evolved from the traditional viral diagnostics and has achieved diagnosis by scanning a single drop of blood.Globally, there is rapid increase in number viral infections which are difficult to diagnose due to the nature of viruses which has surged the demand for viral testing. Blood virus testing has been proved to be successful in diagnosis of such viruses and thus blood virus testing market is estimated to represent colossal growth during the forecast period (2016-2024). Various research organizations such as Howard Hughes Medical Institute are working to develop one-stop-shop testing for viruses and have been successful recently. Improving research and medical facilities powered by technology is expected to develop new market opportunities for blood virus testing over the forecast years.Request to Sample of Report @On the basis of region presence, Blood virus testing market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.North America market is estimated to lead the global market for blood virus testing due to high prevalence rate of viral infectious diseases such as hepatitis, followed by Europe due to the rising cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Zika virus. According to the epidemiology of viral infections such as Ebola and Zika virus worldwide, the need for blood virus testing is raised. However, factors such as lack of accessibility to healthcare facilities and limited awareness about viral infections are likely to hamper the market especially in the developing economies.Some of the key market players in the manufacturing of the treatment products (drugs) for Blood Virus Testing includes F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, bioMerieux SA, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Omega Diagnostics Group PLC, Randox Laboratories Ltd., OraSure Technologies, Inc.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Meningitis Drugs and Companies Pipeline Review H2 2018

Meningitis

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Summary"Meningitis is the inflammation caused by viruses and bacteria on the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. The cause of inflammation can be infection by viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms, and less commonly by certain drugs. As the inflammation is in proximity to the brain and spinal cord, meningitis can be life threatening.Viral meningitis is not life-threatening and the people affected with this can be cured and recover quickly, but bacterial meningitis is serious and life-threatening. There are three major bacteria which lead to bacterial meningitis. Neisseria meningitides are one of these, and causes meningococcal meningitis. Researchers have identified 13 major serogroups of N. meningitides, out of which the majority of cases are from one of five serogroups: A, B, C, Y and W-135. Drugs and vaccines are available to treat the serogroups AC, C, ACWY, and A. There are also vaccines available to prevent meningitis caused by serogroups A, C, Y, W-135. There are no vaccines or drugs available for the prevention and treatment of meningococcal meningitis caused by serogroup B. This represents a major unmet need in the market. Pneumococcal meningitis is another major bacterial cause of meningitis, caused by the bacteria streptococcus pneumonia, while haemophilius influenza is the third, and causes meningitis in infants. Approximatiely 44-46% cases of bacterial meningitis have all of the following three symptoms - severe headache, nuchal ridgidity ((inability to flex the neck forward passively due to increased neck muscle tone and stiffness) and altered mental status. Out of this triad of symptoms severe headache is the most common and occurs in 90% of the cases. If nove of the above mentioned symptoms are present, then occurrence of bacterial meningitis is least likely.Other clinical feature include photophobia (fear of bright light), phonophobia (fear of loud noises). In small children above symptoms are difficult to spot. Vague symptoms like irritability and unwell appearance are more common in them. In infants up to 6 months bulging of the fontanelle (soft spot on babys head) may be visible. Other less severe illnesses like extreme cold, abnormality in skin color and leg pain may also be distinguishing features for meningitis."GET SAMPLE REPORT @Report HighlightsPharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Meningitis - Pipeline Review, H2 2017, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Meningitis (Infectious Disease), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Meningitis (Infectious Disease) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Meningitis and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Phase III, Phase I, IND/CTA Filed and Discovery stages are 1, 4, 1 and 4 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Preclinical stages comprises 3 molecules, respectively.Meningitis (Infectious Disease) pipeline guide helps in identifying and tracking emerging players in the market and their portfolios, enhances decision making capabilities and helps to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage. Additionally, various dynamic tracking processes ensure that the most recent developments are captured on a real time basis.Scope- The pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Meningitis (Infectious Disease).- The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Meningitis (Infectious Disease) by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.- The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.- The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities.- The pipeline guide reviews key companies involved in Meningitis (Infectious Disease) therapeutics and enlists all their major and minor projects.- The pipeline guide evaluates Meningitis (Infectious Disease) therapeutics based on mechanism of action (MoA), drug target, route of administration (RoA) and molecule type.- The pipeline guide encapsulates all the dormant and discontinued pipeline projects.- The pipeline guide reviews latest news related to pipeline therapeutics for Meningitis (Infectious Disease)Reasons to buy- Procure strategically important competitor information, analysis, and insights to formulate effective R&D strategies.- Recognize emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage.- Find and recognize significant and varied types of therapeutics under development for Meningitis (Infectious Disease).- Classify potential new clients or partners in the target demographic.- Develop tactical initiatives by understanding the focus areas of leading companies.- Plan mergers and acquisitions meritoriously by identifying key players and its most promising pipeline therapeutics.- Formulate corrective measures for pipeline projects by understanding Meningitis (Infectious Disease) pipeline depth and focus of Indication therapeutics.- Develop and design in-licensing and out-licensing strategies by identifying prospective partners with the most attractive projects to enhance and expand business potential and scope.- Adjust the therapeutic portfolio by recognizing discontinued projects and understand from the know-how what drove them from pipeline.Table of Content: Key PointsList of TablesList of FiguresIntroductionMeningitis - OverviewMeningitis - Therapeutics DevelopmentPipeline OverviewPipeline by CompaniesPipeline by Universities/InstitutesProducts under Development by CompaniesProducts under Development by Universities/InstitutesMeningitis - Therapeutics AssessmentAssessment by TargetAssessment by Mechanism of ActionAssessment by Route of AdministrationAssessment by Molecule TypeMeningitis - Companies Involved in Therapeutics DevelopmentChongqing Zhifei Biological Products Co LtdContraFect CorpMatinas BioPharma Holdings IncViamet Pharmaceuticals IncMeningitis - Drug Profiles(Haemophilus influenzae [serotype B] + meningococcal [serotypes A, C]) vaccine - Drug ProfileProduct DescriptionMechanism Of ActionContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Australia Ammonia Market to expand at a CAGR of 6.3% by 2024

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Persistence Market Research delivers key insights on the Australia ammonia market in its latest report titled, Australia Market Study on Ammonia: Increasing Consumption in Nitric Acid Production to Drive Growth by 2024. The ammonia market in Australia is estimated to register 5.8% Y-o-Y growth in 2016 over 2015 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.3% over the forecast period (2016-2024).By product type, anhydrous ammonia segment is expected to continue to dominate the market in terms of value and volume share throughout the forecast period (20162024). Production of ammonium nitrate by explosives manufacturers to cater to demand for industrial explosives from the mining sector is anticipated to drive growth of the Australia ammonia market over the forecast period. Also, increasing demand for nitrogen-rich fertilizers such as DAP and MAP is expected to drive volume sales of ammonia during the forecast period. However, volatility in natural gas prices and increasing dependency on fertilizer imports are factors expected to restraint growth of the ammonia market in Australia.Australia Ammonia Market Research Report Overview @On the basis of end use, nitric acid segment is expected to exhibit relatively strong projections by 2024 end, owing to pivotal use of nitric acid both directly and as precursor to other downstream products. The segment is expected to continue to account for major value and volume shares in the Australia ammonia market throughout the forecast period, to account for 46.2% by 2024 in terms of value and expand at a CAGR of 7.9% in terms of volume during the forecast period. Ammonium nitrate segment in the Australia ammonia market is expected to be valued at US$ 172.0 Mn by 2016 end, registering 7.3% Y-o-Y growth over 2015.Request Sample Report@On the basis of application, industrial chemicals segment is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Explosives segment is expected to register the second-highest CAGR of 7.5% over the forecast period, to reach value of US$ 298.2 Mn by 2024 end.Western Australia is the largest market for ammonia. The market in the region is estimated to be valued at US$ 230.7 Bn by 2016 end. The ammonia market in New South Wales is anticipated to expand at a significant CAGR of 7.2% in terms of value over the forecast period.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @Key players in the Australia ammonia market include Yara International ASA, Orica Limited, Incitec Pivot Limited, and CSBP Limited (Wesfarmers Limited). The Australia ammonia market is highly consolidated, with limited number of ammonia manufacturers and suppliers. However, major players in the market are focusing on expanding their production of ammonium nitrate to cater to demand for industrial explosives from the mining industry. Increase in ammonium nitrate production is anticipated to significantly increase demand for ammonia and nitric acid.Get full Report Now @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Loan Origination Software Market 2025 Global Key Players: Ellie Mae, Calyx Software, FICS, Fiserv, Byte Software, PCLender, LLC, Mortgage Builder Software,.

Loan Origination Software Market

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Loan Origination Software Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Loan Origination Software Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025reports to its database.Executive SummaryThis report studies the global Loan Origination Software market, analyzes and researches the Loan Origination Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeEllie MaeCalyx SoftwareFICSFiservByte SoftwarePCLender, LLCMortgage Builder SoftwareMortgage Cadence (Accenture)WiproTavant TechD+H CorpLending QBBlack KnightISGN CorpPegasystemsJuris TechnologiesSPARKAxcess Consulting GroupTurnkey LenderVSCMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoOn-demand (Cloud)On-premiseMarket segment by Application, Loan Origination Software can be split intoBanksCredit UnionsMortgage Lenders & BrokersOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Report @Table of content:Global Loan Origination Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Loan Origination Software1.1 Loan Origination Software Market Overview1.1.1 Loan Origination Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Loan Origination Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Loan Origination Software Market by Type1.3.1 On-demand (Cloud)1.3.2 On-premise1.4 Loan Origination Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Banks1.4.2 Credit Unions1.4.3 Mortgage Lenders & Brokers1.4.4 Others2 Global Loan Origination Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Loan Origination Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Ellie Mae3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Calyx Software3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 FICS3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Fiserv3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Byte Software3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 PCLender, LLC3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Mortgage Builder Software3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Mortgage Cadence (Accenture)3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 Wipro3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Tavant Tech3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Loan Origination Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 D+H Corp3.12 Lending QB3.13 Black Knight3.14 ISGN Corp3.15 Pegasystems3.16 Juris Technologies3.17 SPARK3.18 Axcess Consulting Group3.19 Turnkey Lender3.20 VSCContinuousFor further information on this report, visit -Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042
Laser Diode Market Trends and Forecasts to 2025 by Business Growth, Development Factors, Application and Future Prospects

The Insight Partners

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A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, and stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Laser Diode Market By Type, By Application, By Region - North America, Europe, South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the global Laser Diode market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.Worldwide Laser Diode Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Laser Diode industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Laser Diode market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Laser Diode market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Laser Diode players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Major Laser Diode Market Players:- ASML Holding NV- Axcel Photonics, Inc.- Coherent Inc.- IPG Photonics Corp.- Newport Corp.- Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc.- Sharp Corporation- Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.- Trumpf GmbH + Co. KG- Panasonic Semiconductor Solutions Co., LtdView Complete Report atThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Laser Diode market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Laser Diode market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Also, key Laser Diode market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.FREE | Request a Sample Report atReason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Laser Diode market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Inquire before Buying atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Isostearyl Alcohol Market is expected to Surpass 19,594.4 tons by the end of 2024

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The global isostearyl alcohol market was pegged at 14,700.0 tons in 2015 and is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 3.2% over an eight-year forecast period to reach 19,594.4 tons by the end of 2024. Persistence Market Research in a latest report titled Global Market Study on Isostearyl Alcohol: Increasing Demand for Isostearyl Alcohol as an Ingredient in Personal care Products and Cosmetics Likely to Boost Market Growth? focuses on the growth of the global isostearyl alcohol market from 2016 to 2024 and provides useful insights into key market dynamics impacting this growth.A rising demand for isostearyl alcohol as an ingredient in personal care products and cosmetics is expected to boost growth of the isostearyl alcohol market over the forecast period. However, increasing demand for multifunctional personal care ingredients and development of natural ingredients for anti-aging skin care products are major challenges likely to affect the global isostearyl alcohol market. Isostearyl alcohol is basically derived from isostearic acid and globally, 16%18% of isostearic acid produced is captively consumed for production of isostearyl alcohol. However, isostearic acid producers are moving towards development of environmentally friendly emollients and surfactants, which could reduce the percentage of conversion of isostearyl acid into isostearyl alcohol over the forecast period. The report focuses on the key drivers and trends likely to impact the global isostearyl alcohol market over the forecast period.Isostearyl Alcohol Market Research Report Overview @The global isostearyl alcohol market is segmented on the basis of application, end use, and region. On the basis of application, the emollient and solvent segments collectively accounted for 49.5% share of global consumption of isostearyl alcohol in 2015 and are expected to exhibit CAGRs of 3.9% and 3.5% respectively over the forecast period. The glossing agent and dispersing agent segments collectively accounted for 28.0% share of global consumption of isostearic alcohol in 2015 and are expected to exhibit CAGRs of 4.4% and 3.9% respectively over the forecast period. On the basis of end use, personal care is currently the most prominent segment in this market in terms of volume while the cosmetics segment is expected to gain traction over the forecast period due to a rising demand for anti-aging products. Increasing per capita consumer expenditure on personal care and cosmetics products and a growing demand for skin care products in the Asia Pacific geography especially in China are some of the factors driving demand for anti-aging products, in turn anticipated to boost growth of the isostearyl alcohol market.Request to Sample of Report @By region, the market is segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The Europe and North America markets collectively accounted for 57.5% share of global consumption of isostearyl alcohol in 2015 and are expected to exhibit CAGRs of 3.0% and 2.5% respectively over the forecast period. Asia Pacific accounted for 22.4% share of global consumption of isostearyl alcohol in 2015 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 4.2% over the forecast period to account for 24.0% share by the end of 2024. Latin America accounted for 15.2% share of global consumption of isostearyl alcohol in 2015 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 3.7% over the forecast period to account for 15.9% share by the end of 2024.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @Croda International Plc., Oleon N.V (Avril Group), Jarchem Industries Inc., and Nissan Chemicals America Corporation are the top producers of isostearyl alcohol. While isostearic acid is the basic raw material for the production of isostearyl alcohol, most producers are shifting their production to other isostearic acid derivatives due to the monotonic properties of isostearyl alcohol as compared to other fatty alcohols.Get Full Report now @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Cryosurgery Equipment Market Analysis, Forecast, and Assessment 2025

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Cryosurgery is the application of extremely low temperature to destroy abnormal tissue. The technique has been successful in treating some types of cancer and skin disease. Extreme low temperature for cryosurgery is achieved by using liquid nitrogen or argon gas. For treatment of external conditions, liquid nitrogen is applied to the diseased skin cells with the help of a cotton swab or spraying device. To treat internal conditions, liquid nitrogen or argon gas is passed through hollow probes, which are efficiently guided by MRI or ultrasound. Cryosurgery has been successfully applied for treating cancers such as retinoblastoma, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, and cervical cancer. The technique is also used for treating cervical dysplasia.Browse Premium Industry Research Report with Analysis:Cryosurgery is a minimally invasive procedure. Increasing prevalence of cancer in developing countries is likely to drive the growth of the cryosurgery equipment market. Moreover, as the application is localized and restricted to abnormal tissues, healthy tissue is maintained and side-effects are reduced. Cryosurgery treatment can also be used in combination with other methods such as hormone therapy, radiation and chemotherapy leading to the reduction in use of drugs causing harmful side effects. Cry-Ac, Cryoalfa, CryoClear, CryoPen, Verruca-Freeze, Premier CryOmega, and CryoProbe are examples of cryosurgery products.According to World Health Organization, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women, and the seventh overall, with an estimated 528,000 new cases in 2012. There were an estimated 266,000 deaths from cervical cancer worldwide in 2012, accounting for 7.5% of all female cancer deaths. Almost nine out of ten (87%) cervical cancer deaths occur in less developed regions. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2014, 12,578 women in the United States were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,115 women in the country died from this cancer. The cryosurgery equipment market is segmented by product type, application, end user, and geography. Based on products, the market is segmented into systems and consumables. Based on application, the market is segmented into cancer, skin tags, skin tumors and others. Based on end user, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers and others.Request for Sample Copy of Report:Geographically, the cryosurgery equipment market has been categorized into five regions, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to be the dominant market in terms of revenue due to increasing demand for minimally invasive procedures and technologically advanced products. Europe is expected to be the second largest market owing to increasing prevalence of cancer. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 25,000 women die from cervical cancer in the WHO European Region. It remains the second most common cancer among women aged 15-44. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to expand at the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to increasing prevalence of cancer in the region. According to National Center for Biotechnology Information, every year in India, 122,844 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 67,477 die from the disease. India has a population of 432.2 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cancer. The Latin America cryosurgery equipment market is expected to grow due to increasing demand for minimally invasive procedures. The Middle East & Africa region is expected to witness growth due to increasing disposable income and establishment/expansion of Western companies (North America and Europe) in the regions. Major players operating in the cryosurgery equipment market include Brymill Cryogenic Systems, Cortex Technology ApS, Wallach Surgical Devices, CryoSurgery, Inc., CryoIQ AB, Cryoswiss GmbH, Medtronic, CryoConcepts LP, and Zimmer MedizinSystems among othersPurchase this Report:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Terrain Awareness and Warning System Market to Witness Comprehensive Growth by 2025

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Terrain Awareness and Warning System Market: OverviewTerrain awareness and warning systems (TWAS) are used to prevent controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents. The technology provides an important layer of protection for aircraft navigation as it changes course as per the terrain and as per weather conditions.TAWS draws data from GPS pertaining to aircrafts position, speed, and direction as well data pertaining to aircrafts altitude and configuration. This information is used to compare data pertaining to Earths terrain and manmade hurdles.In the U.S., highly accurate GPS information is obtained as a combination of radar topography imagery captured by the U.S. space shuttle program, information from Department of Defense, and other data.Terrain Awareness and Warning System Market: Key TrendsThe global TAWS market is primarily driven by the paradigm shift in transport sector leading to the increasing number of commercial flights. Furthermore, mandates for aircraft to be equipped with TAWS as laid out by stipulations of aviation regulation agencies is driving the growth of the TAWS market. The directives for use of hi-tech systems for aircraft protection are largely in place in developed countries such as the U.S., and the U.K. among several other countries.Request Sample Copy of the Report @However, high deployment cost is limiting the adoption of this technology only by countries that have a strong technical base and large budgets for enhancing aircraft security system. Lack of skilled personnel and integrators for TWAS is also challenging the markets growth.Implementation of TAWS in private jets and cargo flights will extend growth opportunities to the TAWS market. The growth of international trade due to favorable business reforms in many countries worldwide is expected to benefit the markets growth.Terrain Awareness and Warning System Market: Market PotentialAcross the world, defense forces are vying for hi-technology systems to prevent CFIT accidents, which in turn, helps prevents loss of life and loss of property. In a breakthrough development, the Indian Air Force has announced about equipping its new convoy of six C-130J Hercules aircraft with TWAS, as per a solicitation by the U.S. Air Force.Request TOC of the Report @The U.S. Air Force, C-130J Division, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, and Wright Patterson AFB has been seeking to identify potential bodies that possess the expertise, experience, and capabilities needed to enter a contract for six C-130J aircraft for a terrain awareness warning system. The subscription will be for 40 months commencing from May 31, 2017, through August 31, 2020.Prior to this, the Indian Air Force had procured six C-130Js, of which one was lost in an accident in 2014 and another damaged in February this year.Terrain Awareness and Warning System Market: Regional OutlookNorth America is currently the leading market for terrain awareness and warning system and is expected to retain its position over the next few years mainly due to the factors favoring the adoption of TAWS. In North America, high government funding for hi-tech aircraft safety systems as per Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandates, strong technical base, and the presence of key players in the region are favoring the regional markets growth. The presence of top companies for TAWS such as Universal Avionics Systems Corporation, L3 Technologies Inc., and Honeywell International Inc. enables the latest technical developments for aircraft navigation to be first implemented in the region.Request Discount of the Report @Terrain Awareness and Warning System Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the key companies operating in the global terrain awareness and warning system market are Honeywell International Inc., Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems LLC, Avidyne Corporation, Rockwell Collins, Aspen Avionics Inc., Universal Avionics Systems Corporation, L3 Technologies Inc., Garmin Ltd., Sandel Avionics Inc., Mid-Continent Instrument Co. Inc., and Genesys Aerosystems.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Chinese Defense Industry Market 2017  By Analyzing the Performance of Various Competitors 2022

Future of the Chinese Defense Industry

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SummaryWiseGuyReports published new report, titled Future of the Chinese Defense IndustryThe Future of the Chinese Defense Industry - Market Attractiveness, Competitive Landscape and Forecasts to 2022, published by Strategic Defence Intelligence, provides readers with detailed analysis of both historic and forecast defense industry values, factors influencing demand, the challenges faced by industry participants, analysis of industry leading companies, and key news.GET SAMPLE REPORT @SynopsisThis report offers detailed analysis of the Chinese defense industry with market size forecasts covering the next five years. This report will also analyze factors that influence demand for the industry, key market trends, and challenges faced by industry participants.In particular, it provides an in-depth analysis of the following - The Chinese defense industry market size and drivers: detailed analysis of the Chinese defense industry during 2018-2022, including highlights of the demand drivers and growth stimulators for the industry. It also provides a snapshot of the countrys expenditure and modernization patterns- Budget allocation and key challenges: insights into procurement schedules formulated within the country and a breakdown of the defense budget with respect to capital expenditure and revenue expenditure. It also details the key challenges faced by defense market participants within the country- Porters Five Force analysis of the Chinese defense industry: analysis of the market characteristics by determining the bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitution, intensity of rivalry, and barriers to entry- Import and Export Dynamics: analysis of prevalent trends in the countrys imports and exports over the last five years- Market opportunities: details of the top five defense investment opportunities over the next 10 years- Competitive landscape and strategic insights: analysis of the competitive landscape of the Chinese defense industry. It provides an overview of key players, together with insights such as key alliances, strategic initiatives, and a brief financial analysisScope- China is the second largest defense spender globally after the US. The countrys large military budget is primarily driven by its robust economic growth and its desire to match-up with the US in terms of military capabilities. Additionally, China shares its borders with 14 countries, and is involved in several border disputes which increase the need to invest in the recruitment and maintenance of a large number of troops to prevent infiltration or other hostile acts. The Chinese defense budget grew at a CAGR of 7.33% during 2013-2017, from US$115.9 billion in 2013 to US$153.9 billion in 2017.- Chinas military modernization plans require a huge capital inflow and the government is expected to meet the requirements of these programs over the forecast period. The countrys defense capital expenditure increased from US$37.9 billion in 2013 to US$50.4 billion in 2017, growing at a CAGR of 7.37%.- Initiatives to combat organized crime and increase border security expenditure, and investments in infrastructure development, have driven the homeland security budget between 2013 and 2017. Over the forecast period, these factors are expected to continue to drive the countrys defense expenditure.Key points- This report will give the user confidence to make the correct business decisions based on a detailed analysis of the Chinese defense industry market trends for the coming five years- The market opportunity section will inform the user about the various military requirements that are expected to generate revenues during the forecast period. The description includes technical specifications, recent orders, and the expected investment pattern by the country during the forecast period- Detailed profiles of the top domestic and foreign defense manufacturers with information about their products, alliances, recent contract wins, and financial analysis wherever available. This will provide the user with a total competitive landscape of the sector- A deep qualitative analysis of the Chinese defense industry covering sections including demand drivers, Porters Five Forces Analysis, Key Trends and Growth Stimulators, and latest industry contracts..CONTINUEDWise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
The Cocktail Market Will Be Fiercely Competitive in 2018

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Cocktail to its huge collection of research reports.The global Cocktail market has been exclusively and elaborately examined in this report while taking into account some of the most pivotal factors holding the capability to influence growth. For the said forecast tenure, the report has shed light on critical market dynamics, which include trends, opportunities, restraints, and growth drivers. The analysts have provided ample of information on the growth of the market across various regions and using estimations in terms of revenue. Readers have also been anticipated to receive information on market growth expected to take shape in different countries of the regions studied.Market segmentation is another crucial part of the study where the report unveils significant growth opportunities in various segments of the global Cocktail market. Each segment has been comprehensively evaluated for readers to receive a sound understanding of hidden prospects and those about to reveal themselves in the near future. This could help readers to plan beforehand their business strategies to stay ahead of the competition. The report has been expected to come out as a brilliant source of comparison matrix based on segments, market share analysis, and market attractiveness analysis. It could help to identify threats from competition, substitutes, and new entrants and determine the bargaining powers of buyers and suppliers.For more info, get the sample report for FREE here:The company profiling feature of the report has been projected to unveil some of the vital strategies, recent developments, and other important aspects of key players functioning in the global Cocktail market. The report has also estimated the market shares of the companies profiled based on various factors. Besides company profiles and company shares, the researchers have painted a clear picture of future competitive scenarios and how the vendor landscape could shape in the coming years. On the whole, it could be said that the report is a comprehensive guideline for players to secure a strong position in the market.Global Cocktail market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingLiquorBolsCaptainmorganKitchnSIAM WINERYCointreauBelvedereRio WineSnake Oil Cocktail CompanyMiami Cocktail Co.Read Complete Table of Content of the Report at:Table of ContentsGlobal Cocktail Market Research Report 20181 Cocktail Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Cocktail1.2 Cocktail Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Cocktail Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Cocktail Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Long Drink1.2.4 Shont Drink1.3 Global Cocktail Segment by Application1.3.1 Cocktail Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Wedding1.3.3 Cocktail Party1.3.4 Backyard BBQ1.3.5 Others1.4 Global Cocktail Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Cocktail Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Cocktail (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Cocktail Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Cocktail Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Cocktail Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Cocktail Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Cocktail Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Cocktail Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Cocktail Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Cocktail Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Cocktail Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Cocktail Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Cocktail Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Cocktail Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, ExpansionTo check available discount on this report, visit at:3 Global Cocktail Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Cocktail Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Cocktail Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Cocktail Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Cocktail Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Cocktail Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Cocktail Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Cocktail Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.8 Japan Cocktail Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.9 Southeast Asia Cocktail Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.10 India Cocktail Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 Global Cocktail Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Cocktail Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Cocktail Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Cocktail Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)...About QYResearchReports.comQyresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from Qyresearchreports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Cosmetic Preservatives Market : Global Forecast over | 2024

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Cosmetic preservatives are used as antimicrobials, antioxidants, and stabilizers. Many cosmetics are produced via biodegradable elements. These can decay due to a variety of microbes. The presence of water in products is another reason for decomposition of cosmetics if stored for a long time. This may result in change of odor, viscosity, and color. Cosmetic preservatives are primarily added to product formulations to inhibit the growth of microbes. Based on raw material, preservatives are classified as natural and synthetic. Natural preservatives include oil extracts from plants such as curry leaf, cinnamon leaf, and clove bud. Commonly used synthetic preservatives include parabens, formaldehyde releasers, isothiazolinones, phenoxyethanol, and organic acids. However, synthetic compounds have been proved to be more effective in controlling the development of the bacteria. North America has been the largest cosmetic preservatives market in the world since the last few years.Read Report Overview @Preservatives are used in the formulation of face masks, lotions, sunscreens, and scrubs. Various preservatives are available, depending on products such as rinse-off, leave-on, and wet wipes. Leave-on products include creams, body lotions, and deodorants. Rinse-off products comprise shampoos and soaps. Wet wipes include wet tissues and baby wipes.Parabens are commonly used preservatives and include a wide range of chemicals such as germaben II, methylparaben, and propylparaben. Parabens offer characteristics similar to that of natural preservatives. They also have less adverse effects on the skin when applied. Parabens can be employed in leave-on and rinse-off products. Formaldehyde releasers act as an antimicrobial to prevent side effects caused by excess formaldehyde. Commonly used formaldehyde releasers include germall plus, DMDM hydantoin, imidozolidinyl urea and diazolidinyl urea. The parabens and formaldehyde releasers market is likely to hamper due to carcinogenic effects.Phenoxyethanol preservatives such as optiphen and optiphen plus are used widely in products such as shampoos, shaving gels, and toothpastes. The market for phenoxyethanol preservatives is expected to expand at a significant rate, owing to the demand for long lasting and more effective products. Isothiazolinones are primarily employed in products such as hair shampoos and other rinse-off products. The Isothiazolinones market witnessed moderate growth in 2014 and is expected to continue in the forecast period. Organic acids such as benzoic acid, sorbic acid, levulinic acid and anisic acid are used as preservatives. These are considered as natural alternatives manufactured synthetically. The organic acid based preservatives witnessed a rise in market in last few years and is expected to continue owing to increasing demand for natural products.The cosmetic preservatives market has shown a considerable growth in North America. This growth was due to the increased awareness regarding beauty products. China has witnessed steady growth in the past and is anticipated to continue thus in the cosmetic preservatives market. This rise in demand is likely due to the increase in consumption of cosmetic products such as facial creams, hair gels and increased health consciousness of the people.This acts as a major driver for the cosmetic preservatives market in China and other developing regions including India and ASEAN. The cosmetic preservatives market in Europe has expanded significantly. The natural preservatives market is expected to emerge largely due to the stringent regulations in the European Union, which limits the use of manufactured chemicals. The global cosmetic preservatives market is anticipated to expand owing to the rising demand for premium products during the forecast period.Request to view Sample Report:Key players operating in the cosmetic preservatives market include The Dow Chemical Company, Ashland Inc., AE Chemie, INC., Clariant AG, Finetech Industry Limited, Jinan Haohua Industry Co., Ltd., The Procter & Gamble Company, Spectrum Chemical Manufacturing Corporation, Penta Manufacturing Company, LLC., and StruChem Co., Ltd.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Cardiac Assist Devices Market Progresses for Huge Profits During 2015-2025

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Heart Failure (HF) is a potentially life-threatening condition that weakens the heart muscle, reduces its ability to pump enough blood throughout the body. Even without a heart transplant, patients' lives can be extended and improved with the use of small, implantable devices called Cardiac Assist Devices.Cardiac Assist Devices (CAD) are type of mechanical pumps that work along with the heart to improve its pumping efficiency and maintain the optimum blood flow throughout the body. The devices are typically employed in patients suffering from End-Stage Congestive Heart Failure, where the chances of survival through oral medications alone become minimal. The scarcity of donor organs has led to the development of these devices.Globally, there are around 23 million cases of HF and around 5.8 million people in United States have HF. About half of the people who develop heart failure die within 5 years of diagnosis.Cardiac Assist Devices Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe Cardiac Assist Devices market is driven by aging population, increasing prevalence of HF, high adaptation rates of these devices, and new technology innovations.Increasing rates of cardiovascular diseases and aging population has boosted the cardiac assist devices market globally. The shortage of donor hearts for transplantation is also leading to an increase in adoption of cardiac assist devices in patients with end-stage heart failure.Cardiac assist devices are also being used as a Bridge-To-Transplantation (BTT), Bridge-To-Recovery (BTR) or Destination Therapy (DT), depending on the requirement of the patient and the severity of the disease. Technological advancements that make the devices more efficient and minimally invasive are expected to further drive the demand for cardiac assist devices in the future.Request to Sample Report -Presence of alternative treatment like heart transplantation, pacemaker and etc. and the few risk which are associated with the device implantation, such as development of blood clots, respiratory failure and device failure and other surgical complications such as bleeding, kidney failure, stroke and infection. Such complication are acting as a barrier in the adoption of such treatment and devices.Cardiac Assist Devices Market: SegmentationThe global market of cardiac assist devices is segmented into following types:Ventricular Assist Devices (VAD)Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumps (IABP)Total Artificial Heart (TAH)Further, Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) are segmented into the following types based on the defect and placement of the device.Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD)Right Ventricular Assist Device (RVAD)Bi-Ventricular Assist Device (Bi-VAD)External Ventricular Assist Device (VAD)Cardiac Assist Devices Market: OverviewWith rapid technological advancement and wide acceptance of cardiac surgery procedures among patients with heart problem, the global cardiac assist devices market is expected to exhibit a double-digit growth in the forecast period (2015-2025).With FDA approving SynCardia Systems Total Artificial Heart to conduct clinical studies on destination therapy, more and more end stage heart failure patient will be benefit from this nature of therapy and the market is expected to expand significantly in the forecast period.Request Report TOC @Cardiac Assist Devices Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, global cardiac assist devices market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa.North America is the leading markets for cardiac assist devices with highest prevalent cases with heart failure, technological development, high patient awareness and reimbursement coverage for CAD implantation procedures. Europe is the second largest market followed by Asia Pacific and Japan.Cardiac Assist Devices Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in global cardiac assist devices market are Thoratec Corporation, MAQUET GmbH & Co., Teleflex Incorporated, Heart Ware International, Berlin Heart GmbH, ABIOMED and SynCardia Systems, Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :
Global Automotive Gear Stick Market 2018 - ZF,GHSP,SL Corporation,Sila,Ficosa

Global Automotive Gear Stick Market

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Global Automotive Gear Stick Market 2018 Analysis Report audits a Market Regions, Product Categories, with Sales, Business Revenue, Goods cost, Automotive Gear Stick piece of the overall industry and Growth patterns, concentrating on driving Automotive Gear Stick industry players, showcase size, request and supply examination, utilization volume, Forecast 2018 to 2022.The major regions present in the continents like United States, Germany, Japan and China and their contribution to global Automotive Gear Stick market is elaborated in this research document. In next section, the report discusses industry policies and plans, cost structures, the outline of Automotive Gear Stick market globally, manufacturing processes. The growth rate exhibited by Automotive Gear Stick market based on consumption ratio, consumer volume, market gains is included in this report.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:The Global Automotive Gear Stick report gives a thorough situation of the present and gauge Automotive Gear Stick showcase procedures, improvement methodologies and development openings. Starting a discussion on the contemporary condition of Automotive Gear Stick showcase, the report extra dissects the market powerful moving each area begun in it.Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportKongsbergZFGHSPSL CorporationSilaFicosaFuji KikoKostalDURATokai RikaNingbo GaofaChongqing DownwindNanjing AolinThe report additionally concentrates the Automotive Gear Stick bits of knowledge of the organizations and suggestions that will help the perusers to have progressive learning of the Automotive Gear Stick showcase.Enquire Before Buying @A principal diagram of the Automotive Gear Stick market is introduced to the perusers with the assistance of market definition, order, different applications, and production network examination. The Automotive Gear Stick report covers the investigation of conventional and the developing markets. The report more expresses the Automotive Gear Stick showcase rivals, their business profiles, freshest news, their piece of the overall industry, developing arrangements and methodologies, client volume and creating strategies.All in all, it is an exhaustive research report which will help perusers to break down the possibility of interest in Automotive Gear Stick advertise.Apex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Frank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
Network Forensics Market : Application, Strategies, Growth & Opportunities 2025

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Global Network Forensics Market: OverviewNetwork forensics refers to the capturing, recording, and analysis of network events with a view to discovering the origin of security attacks and other related issues. In other words, network forensics is the specific network analysis that is conducted after security attacks and similar cybercrimes. Numerous methods are used in network forensics. Some kinds of network forensics are similar to law enforcement vehicle checkpoints, wherein network forensics investigators can analyze all the traffic entering a certain point of network. The two broad methodologies of network forensics are stop-look-listen and catch-it-as-you-can.According to a recent survey conducted by Ponemon Institute, almost 70% of the sampled organizations were losing significant amounts of confidential information or experiencing operational disruption in their operational technology (OT) environments since the last twelve months.Global Network Forensics Market: Key TrendsOwing to the greater vulnerability to numerous cyber-adversaries such as cybercriminals, hackers, malicious insiders and nation-states, there has been a greater acknowledgement of the need for network forensics. These entities pose financial, regulatory, and reputational risks to industries worldwide. The banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector might exhibit greatest demand over the forecast period, emerging as the leading end user. The energy and utilities sector is also expected to contribute a handsome amount of revenue to the overall market. As a result, the demand for network forensics is likely to escalate to a substantial extent, fuelling the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @On the other hand, privacy laws and other kinds of legal restrictions applying to network forensic investigations might impede the growth of the market. However, fresh opportunities might emerge from the widespread adoption of big data and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).Global Network Forensics Market: Market PotentialAdvanced products are being introduced by several firms. For instance, in March 2017, CSPi Inc., a company providing IT technological security services and managed security, announced the launch of its new solution framework to protect data from cyber-attack. The new Advanced Forensic Framework is powered by the recently introduced Myricom nVoy Series, which can be incorporated into any existing security infrastructure. It features a whole new approach to verifying and detecting threats.Another key trend in the competitive landscape is the espousal of strategic partnerships and collaborations. For example, a leading industrial cyber security company offering cyber solutions to OT infrastructures, CyberX, announced its partnership with T-Systems and Deutsche Telekom in April 2017. The common objective of these companies is to ensure that critical industrial infrastructures are unaffected by advanced cyber-attacks. T-Systems, a major subsidiary of Deutsche Telecom, caters to prominent IT service providers such as Royal Dutch Shell, Daimler, BP, and Volkswagen.Request TOC of the Report @Global Network Forensics Market: Regional OutlookBased on geography, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and Europe can be the key segments of the global market for network forensics. North America might emerge as the largest market in terms of revenue over the forecast period. The existence of a large number of market players in this region will assist growth. The presence of innumerable small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia Pacific is likely to catalyze growth in the region. The need to protect critical data from advanced persistent threats (ATPs) in highly industrialized nations such as the U.S., Germany, Russia, China, India, Singapore, Australia, France, Italy, and Spain can spawn the growth of the market.Global Network Forensics Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the prominent players operating in the global market for network forensics are Symantec Corporation, NIKSUN, IBM Corporation, EMC RSA, NETSCOUT Systems, Viavi Solutions, FireEye, LogRhythm, Savvius, and Cisco Systems.Request Discount of the Report @Strategic alliances, partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions have been adopted by several market players in order to cater to the needs of a larger clientele. For instance, Demisto, Inc., a company innovating security operations technology and ProtectWise TM, a firm that offers unlimited forensic exploration, pervasive visibility, and automated threat detection, entered a strategic partnership in March 2017.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Ice-cream and Frozen Dessert Market to Record Sturdy Growth by 2025

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Ice-cream and frozen dessert belongs to frozen food industry. Ice-cream and frozen dessert are primarily consumed after meal or served as a refreshment and can be enjoyed between the meal courses. Ice-cream and frozen dessert are mainly made up of milk and cream, and often combined with fruits, nuts and flavours. Rising consumer disposable income coupled with increasing inclination of people towards sweet dishes is expected drive the growth of Ice-cream and frozen dessert market across the globe.Ice-cream and Frozen Dessert Market SegmentationIce-cream and frozen dessert market is segmented on the basis of types includes regular Ice-cream and low fat ice-cream. Among both of these segment regular Ice-cream is expected occupy the major contribution on the pie. However low fat ice cream is predicted to account for healthy CAGR in next five to six years. Shifting consumer preferences towards consumption of healthy food is expected to support the demand of low fat Ice-cream in the near future. On the basis of type frozen desserts segmentation includes sherbet, frozen yoghurt, frozen ice, frozen tofu and others. Among all of these segments frozen yoghurt is expected to be the major contributor in terms of revenue followed by sherbet. Introduction of frozen yoghurt in various flavour and in innovative packaging is attracting children a lot which is expected to fuel the growth of frozen yoghurt in the near future.Request to Sample Report -Ice-cream and frozen dessert market is segmented on the basis of end user which includes household and hotel/restaurant/cafe. Among both of these two segments hotel/restaurant/cafe is expected to account for major share in terms of revenue contribution. Rising consumer preferences for outside dining coupled with increasing inclination of teenager towards the consumption of frozen food is expected to support the demand of ice-cream and frozen desserts market during the forecast period. Moreover, household is expected to show a substantial growth in the near future. Increasing availability of ice-cream and frozen dessert in packaged form and in variants for household consumption is expected to support its growth during the forecast period.Geographically, North America is expected to be the major contributor in terms of value followed by Europe. However, these region is predicted to be a mature market and is expected to show a stable growth in the near future. Introduction of new variant in flavours coupled with offering low fat products may fuel the growth of Ice-cream and frozen dessert market in these region. In developing countries of Asia Pacific region, China is expected to dominate the market in terms of Ice-cream and frozen dessert consumption followed by India. Moreover Japan is expected to show a substantial growth during the forecast period. Increasing consumption of flavoured yoghurt especially in countries such as China and Japan is predicted to support the growth of ice-cream and frozen dessert market across Asia Pacific region during forecast period.Request Report TOC @Ice-cream and Frozen Dessert Market DriversRising disposable income coupled with shifting consumer eating habits is expected to drive the demand of Ice-cream and frozen dessert in the near future. Moreover, increasing availability of flavoured yoghurt especially in developing region is predicted to be major factor supporting the growth of Ice-cream and frozen dessert market during the forecast period.Ice-cream and Frozen Dessert Key PlayersSome of the major players operating in ice cream and frozen dessert market includes Baskin-Robbins, Nestle SA, Unilever, Danone Groupe SA, Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., Cielo USA, Kraft Foods Group Inc. among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :
Nano Enabled Packaging Market is Poised to Reach USD 15.0 billion in 2020

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According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research Global Market Study on Nano-Enabled Packaging For Food and Beverages: Intelligent Packaging to Witness Highest Growth by 2020, the global nano enabled packaging market for food and beverages industry was worth USD 6.5 billion in 2013 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.7% during 2014 to 2020, to reach an estimated value of USD 15.0 billion in 2020.The global progress in technologies is making lives simpler and safer. Nanotechnology is one such field which is dynamically progressing and is contributing to the development of several industries, including food and beverages packaging. Nano-enabled packaging gives longer shelf life to food and beverages as compared to traditional plastic packaging. Food and beverages packaging is done through two different technologies under nano-enabled packaging-active and intelligent packaging. Active packaging has a comparatively larger market than intelligent packaging.Nano Enabled Packaging Market Research Report Overview @Intelligent packaging is growing at a faster rate as compared to the active packaging. Customers prefer traceable food and beverages packaging, since it offers information such as expiry date and best use period, present state of the consumables. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags keep customers informed about the state of the food within the packaging. Intelligent packaging is mostly used for fruits and vegetables, meat products, and beverages. Stricter regulations associated with active packaging have been stimulating the use of intelligent packaging in Europe and North America.Intelligent packaging in the U.S. is growing mainly due to the increasing demand for fresh fruits and vegetables. Americans are shifting their breakfast preference from junk foods to fresh alternatives. The U.S. is one of the largest producers and exporters of cherries globally. With the ease in trade regulations, fruit exports of the U.S. have increased. In September 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that after ten years of negotiations, U.S. cherries can be exported to Western Australia, one of the most important markets for cherries. The increasing demand for intelligent packaging in international trade (especially in fruits) is laying out opportunities for this technology in food packaging.Request Sample Report@The Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) proposed by FDA in 2011 is another growth indicator for intelligent packaging wherein the fresh produce, including fruits and vegetables, are required to be scientifically grown, harvested, packaged, and stored. The farm products that come in the acts domain are lettuce, spinach, cantaloupe, tomatoes, sprouts, mushrooms, onions, peppers, cabbage, citrus produce, strawberries, and walnuts.Nano-enabled packaging finds its application in several industries, including bakery, meat, beverages, fruit and vegetables, prepared foods, and others. The increasing demand for meat products, beverages, vegetables, and prepared foods is expected to drive their respective nano-enabled packaging markets, while the market share of bakery products is expected to decline on account of the rapid growth of other application segments.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @Nanotechnology is at a nascent stage and, therefore, usage of nano-enabled packaging is low in the food and beverages industry. Limited numbers of buyers have more leverage to negotiate with nanotechnology companies. On the other hand, there is a plethora of companies providing nano-enabled packaging solutions to the food and beverages industry.Nano-enabled packaging market for food and beverage is very competitive with a large number of players offering an array of patented products. The major players in this industry include Amcor Limited, Bemis Company, Inc., Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, L.L.C., Klockner Pentaplast, Sealed Air, and Tetra Pak International S.A.Get full Report Now @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Wearable Technology Market Emerging Opportunities and Current Trends with SWOT Analysis till 2025

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A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, and stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Wearable Technology Market By Type, By Application, By Region - North America, Europe, South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the global Wearable Technology market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.FREE | Request a Sample Report atWorldwide Wearable Technology Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Wearable Technology industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Wearable Technology market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Wearable Technology market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Wearable Technology players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Major Wearable Technology Market Players:- Google Inc.- Nichia- Apple Inc.- Nike Ltd.- Microsoft Cooperation- Xiaomi Inc.- Adidas Groups- Sony Cooperation- Zephyr Technology- Suunto Oy- Medtronic- Garmin International Inc.- Eurotech S.p.A.- tbit Inc.- Cerora Inc.- CuteCircuit Ltd.- Mio Global- Epson America Inc.View Complete Report atThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Wearable Technology market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Wearable Technology market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Also, key Wearable Technology market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Reason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Wearable Technology market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Inquire before Buying atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Connected Car Market : Intelligence with Competitive Landscape 2025

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Global Connected Car Market: OverviewToday, connected car is the big buzz word in the automotive and car industry. A connected car is equipped with Internet connectivity to share information between devices within the vehicle or to share information with devices outside the car such as in other cars, office, home, or other physical spaces.Connected cars receive information pertaining to traffic, collisions, and other safety alerts in a timely manner. Connected car features can be categorized into safety, infotainment, payments, navigation, and diagnostics/efficiency.Typically, connected cars that have been introduced after 2010 has a head-unit, in-dash system equipped with a screen for the driver to view or manage operations of the connections, and an infotainment unit.Global Connected Car Market: Key TrendsThe top factor driving the global connected car market include regulatory mandates on connected car modules. Moreover, rising demand for smartphone features in cars and real-time connectivity with cars to obtain vehicle data updates for vehicular safety is driving the connected car market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @However, factors such as network coverage limitation and risk of misuse of customer data by cybercriminals for unscrupulous activities is challenging the markets growth.The connected car market is expected to be benefitted as connected car is considered to be a stepping stone for autonomous vehicles, consumer electronics providers for connected cars can offer telematics and infotainment devices at a cheaper cost, and insurance rate for connected cars is dependent on usage.The connected car market faces challenges with respect to disparity of product design procedures between OEMs, in-built solutions of cars, and smartphones. Also, the connected car market will benefit with reduced cost of telematics and infotainment equipment and services. In this scenario, creating an ecosystem that functions through cross-industry collaborations between OEMs, technology companies, and mobile network operators is poised to be the winning imperative for the industry.Request TOC of the Report @Global Connected Car Market: Market PotentialAt the recent Seoul Motor Show 2017, Hyundai Motors announced a multitude of future-vehicle initiatives, which includes connected cars and electric vehicles. Developed by a team of in-house experts Hyundais new Connected Car Service platform will diminish the lines between mobility, living, and working spaces by means of voice control and allow vehicle owners to connect their vehicles with global appliance service providers.Global Connected Car Market: Regional OutlookNorth America is the leading regional market for connected cars. The U.S. is the leading contributor to the North America connected car market due to regulations in place for monitoring telematics applications.Furthermore, in the U.S., the transportation system is reaching its capacity thus alternatives need to be sought to address the increasing traffic congestion issues. The transportation network in the U.S. is nearing saturation and infrastructure expansion by means of traditional methods is not a viable solution. Connected cars equipped with telematics and navigation tools is an ideal solution to address this issue. Moreover, the U.S. being home to some of the worlds major automobile companies such as General Motors Company, Ford Motor Company, and Tesla Motors Inc., along with the presence of software giants such as Microsoft Corporation and IBM Corporation and telecom providers such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and Sierra Wireless are favoring the growth of the connected car market in the region.Request Discount of the Report @Global Connected Car Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the key players in the global connected car market include Audi AG, General Motors Company, Google Inc.,Delphi Automotive Plc, AT&T Inc.,Robert Bosch GmbH, Wirelesscar, BMW AG,Tesla Motors Inc.,Volvo Car Corporation, Vodafone Group Plc., Denso Corporation,and Airbiquity Inc.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Organic Light Emitting Diode Market Development, Investment Scenarios, Financial Overview, Company Size and Future Opportunities to 2025

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A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, and stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Organic Light Emitting Diode Market By Type, By Application, By Region - North America, Europe, South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the global Organic Light Emitting Diode market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.FREE | Request a Sample Report atWorldwide Organic Light Emitting Diode Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Organic Light Emitting Diode industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Organic Light Emitting Diode market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Organic Light Emitting Diode market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Organic Light Emitting Diode players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Major Organic Light Emitting Diode Market Players:FUTABA CORPORATIONSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.Universal Display CorporationKunshan Visionox Display Technology Co., LtdDLC Display Co., LimitedPioneer CorporationSony CorporationKoninklijke Philips N.VAcuity Brands Lighting IncSEIKO EPSON CORPORATIONInnolux CorporationOLEDWorks LLCLG Electronics IncOSRAM GmbHRITEK CorporationView Complete Report atThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Organic Light Emitting Diode market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Organic Light Emitting Diode market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Also, key Organic Light Emitting Diode market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Reason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Organic Light Emitting Diode market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Inquire before Buying atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
New Automotive Semiconductors Market 2022: Development Trend, Distributor Chain Analysis, Challenges

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The automotive semiconductor industry manufactured goods life cycle is long and complex, thus manufactures of automobiles are disinclined to change semiconductor suppliers, as it involves very high costs. The beginning of a smart vehicle period is expected to sharply increase the significance of automotive semiconductors. Hybrid electric car requires approximately ten times more semiconductor parts in their making. Motor inverter is necessary to change the alternating current to direct current and vice versa; a DC/DC converter is required for managing bidirectional voltage control system; a battery supervision system is required to check the position of the battery and plug-in charger is mandatory for recharging the battery.View Summary of This Report @Technical advancements which includes self-driving cars, vehicle connectivity and interactive safety systems, are expected to drive the growth of automotive semiconductor industry over the forecast period. The automobile will require new skills and is expected to attract novel competitors from outer part of industry. Growing trend of mobility configuration is influencing the demand of self driven vehicle which in return is expected to propel the market over the forecast period. .Autonomous vehicles programmed not to crash are on the horizon. Moreover, combination of nonautonomous and autonomous vehicles in a same traffic mix will be a major challenge for automotive semiconductor industry. The vehicles of the prospective future will be linked and will be having ability not only to check its own operational parts and the safety surroundings around it but also be able to communicate with other vehicles and with progressively more intellectual road ways transportation. When each vehicle is expected to become a source for accepting and transferring bits of information over millions of commands, efficiency and safety should improve and automobile makers ought to be in a situation to confine the valuable data.These Electronic advancements are expected to drive the growth of automotive industry over the forecast period. Safety guidelines are expected to fuel the implementation of ADAS technology over the forecast period. Owing to support from local authorities and supervisory bodies for enhanced safety standards, OEMs are gradually adopting ADAS applications such as Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), Forward Collision Warning (FCW)and Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and among other technologies. The infotainment field is also expected to provide strong expansion chance over the forecast period owing to increasing demand of consumer and mobile devices. On the basis of types automotive semiconductor market can be segregated into sensor semiconductor, Logic Semiconductor, Power Semiconductor, ASSP semiconductor and Processor Semiconductor.Request a Sample Copy of This Report @Get in touchAt Million Insights, we work with the aim to reach the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our representatives strive to understand diverse client requirements and cater to the same with the most innovative and functional solutions.Contact Person:Ryan ManuelResearch Support Specialist, USAEmail: ryan@millioninsights.comMillion InsightsOffice No. 302, 3rd Floor, Manikchand Galleria,Model Colony, Shivaji Nagar, Pune, MH, 411016 Indiatel: 91-20-65300184Email: sales@millioninsights.comVisit Our Blog:
Aplicaciones Tecnologicas protects chemical waste Factory in Portugal

Resiquimica, a chemical waste Factory located in Sintra, Portugal, has renewed all its lightning protection system and has chosen the protection offered by DAT Controler PLUS + AT-Remote Tester air terminal.Resiquimica has been a customer of Aplicaciones Tecnologicas for several years and they have already had four DAT Controler PLUS lightning rods installed on their building. In September this year, they updated their lightning protection system, now being able to verify the status of their air terminals without having to physically reach the lightning rods, thanks to the AT-Remote Tester device.DAT Controler PLUS with AT-Remote Tester is an Early Streamer Emission lightning rod that, thanks to the Remote system, allows for a continuous verification of the air terminal through a specific analysis device. The display of the obtained data is managed through a specific website. This system works with a small solar panel installed on the lightning rod, guaranteeing its durability without depending on rechargeable batteries that often need to be replaced.The 87,000 m2 factory, which produces synthetic resins, is now protected against lightning strikes, guaranteeing the viability of its production and the protection of goods and people.In APLICACIONES TECNOLOGICAS, S.A we are experts in lightning protection systems and lightning rods. We have at your disposal all the existing technology and innovate every day, giving suitable solutions to each particular case. We manufacture our products according to maximum quality standards. Research, innovation and safety are the key factor underlining our leadership and presence the world over.Aplicaciones Tecnologicas SAParque Tecnologico de Valencia C/Nicolas Copernico, 446980 PaternaValencia ESPANA
Fabry Disease Market to Register a Stout Growth by 2026

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Fabry diseaseis also known as Anderson-Fabry disease and alpha-galactosidase A deficiency. It is a rare genetic disorder of lipid metabolism resulting from the deficient activity of the alpha-galactosidase A (a-Gal A) enzyme. The deficiency of the enzyme is caused by the alterations in the genes that instructs the cells to make alpha-galactosidase A (a-Gal A) enzyme. Fabry disease is known to cause variety of systemic symptoms and complications, one of them being metabolic disorders. The metabolism of sphingolipids is minimized, in fabry disease which results in the multiple organ failure and death. Owing to the deficiency of alpha galactosidase A enzyme, glycolipid called Gb3 accumulates in the blood vessels and other organs and thus results in formation of blockage or clots that leads to malfunctioning of the system.Fabry Disease Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe major drivers that drive the fabry disease market growth are extensive R&D activities, adoption of advanced technologies in the research practices. Due to hereditary nature and severity of the disease, complications in physiological systems, such as cardiac system, urinary system and others are expected to increase the demand for trustworthy treatment. Extensive R&D practices is one of the valuable drivers of the market. Due to this, various therapeutic products, such as, PRX-102, JR-051, NP-003, GC-1119 and others, are under pipeline studies. However, rare incidence rate (1 in 40,000), lack of awareness about advancements in genetic sciences, technological limitations in certain region of the world are some of the restraining factors that may affect the growth of the fabry disease market.Request to Sample Report -Fabry Disease Market: SegmentationThe global fabry disease market has been classified on the basis of treatment, end use and geography.Based on treatment, the global fabry disease market is divided into following:Enzyme replacement therapyGene therapyPharmaceutical formulations containing agalsidase alphaAnalgesicsAnticonvulsantsNSAIDsBased on end user type, the global fabry disease market is divided into following:HospitalsClinicsFabry Disease Market: OverviewThe enzyme replacement therapy is designed to provide enzyme to the patients suffering from enzyme deficiency. It was found that this treatment was not a complete cure though it improved the metabolism. Enzyme replacement therapy is the most expensive and unaffordable treatment among the treatments for fabry disease, hence the market for enzyme replacement therapy is expected to register moderate growth in overall fabry disease market. The analgesics, anticonvulsants and NSAIDs are generally known for the treatment of pain and other symptoms associated with fabry disease hence, contributing majorly to the market.Request Report TOC @Fabry Disease Market: Regional OverviewGeographically, the global fabry disease market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APAC, Japan, Middle East and Africa.North America is estimated to be the most lucrative region owing to the affordability of the treatment followed by Europe. The rare incidences in APAC and MEA countries are expected to limit the growth of fabry disease market in these regions.Fabry Disease Market: Key PlayersThe major players operating in this market and involved in development of new medications include Sanofi-Aventis LLC, iBio, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Genzyme Corporation, and Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Some of the existing key players in the global fabry disease market are Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Merc & Co., Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, AbbVie Inc., Amgen Inc., Teva pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Pfizer Inc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :
Periodic Fever Syndrome Market - Current and Future Plans 2024

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Periodic Fever Syndrome are autoinflammatory diseases which cause episodic illness and do not have an infectious cause. Periodic Fever Syndrome are genetic and are also present during childhood. It is defined by the various genetic defects, by the clinical features of the syndrome, the affected part of the body, age of the patient and the area of the world from where the patient belongs. Treatment is based on the understanding of the gene defect. Despite similarities in symptoms, periodic fever syndrome has different patterns of inheritance, causes, length and frequency of attacks.' Some of the chronic condition associated with Periodic Fever Syndrome includes Cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS), hyperimmunoglobulinemia D syndrome (HIDS), TNF receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS) and Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis Syndrome (PFAPA). The symptoms of Periodic Fever Syndrome are cyclic in nature, coming and going, with the difference in severity.Periodic Fever Syndrome affects many organs and tissues and has its own set of symptoms along with high temperature during attacks. Elevated serum levels of acute-phase reactants such as fibrinogen and serum amyloid A, leukocytosis and high level of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) are associated with periodic fever syndrome.Diagnostic tools and genetic test are available for patients with periodic fever. For some conditions such as Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis Syndrome (PFAPA), no genetic test are available yet. Hereditary periodic fever syndromes (HPFSs) are rare and is characterized by short and recurrent attacks. These attacks undergo remission without the use of antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, or immunosuppressive treatment. The patient feels healthy and is back to its daily routine until the next episode of periodic fever occurs.Request Report For TOC @Previously, there was no approved medicine for the treatment of TNF Receptor-Associated Periodic Syndrome (TRAPS), Hyperimmunoglobulinemia D Syndrome (HIDS)/ Mevalonate Kinase Deficiency (MKD). In September 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Novartis ilaris (canakinumab) expanded use for the treatment of these three rare and distinct types of Periodic Fever Syndromes.Treatment with oral anti-inflammatory drugs, e.g. corticosteroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), helps to control the symptoms but does not assist in the prevention of Periodic Fever Syndrome.Based on the Indication, the global periodic fever syndrome market is segmented into Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), Cryopyrin-Associated Periodic Syndrome (CAPS), Hyperimmunoglobulinemia D Syndrome (HIDS) and TNF Receptor-Associated Periodic Syndrome (TRAPS). Familial Mediterranean fever is less common in other ethnic groups compared to people of Eastern Mediterranean ancestry. TNF Receptor-Associated Periodic Syndrome and Hyperimmunoglobulinemia D Syndrome (HIDS)/ Mevalonate Kinase Deficiency (MKD) are less common among people and is estimated to affect around 1-2 people per million (Mn). Expansion of the clinical pipeline by companies and the greater focus on patient care and monitoring have been the major strategies adopted by major players to fuel growth within the forecast period of 2016-2024 in the global Periodic Fever Syndrome Market. Key challenges faced by the market is limited knowledge, and limited treatment options as periodic fever syndrome is a rare disease. There is difficulty in the diagnosis of periodic fever syndrome due to unrelated symptoms.Request to Sample of Report @On the basis of geography, global periodic fever syndrome market is segmented into five key regions i.e. North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to dominate the global Periodic Fever Syndrome Market due to high demand from U.S.Some of the major players in global Periodic Fever Syndrome Market are Novartis AG, Simvastatin, Merck & Co., Inc., Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Boost in Technology Driving the Proteases Market globally

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The amino acids are organic compounds containing amine and carboxylic groups. In proteins are these amino acids are linked by peptide bonds. Proteases are the class of enzymes which catalyzes the hydrolysis reaction of peptide bonds in proteins. There are different types of proteases which differ on their source type, some of which includes ficain, asclepian, papain, clostripain etc. The mechanisms of proteases include serine proteases, cysteine proteases, metalloproteases, glutamic acid proteases etc. Generally, proteases from fungal and bacterial source are modified genetically by transfer of some genes or by deleting to enhance their performance. Thus, genetically engineered proteases result in enhanced catalytic activities, stability, modified pH and temperature levels. Proteases are widely used in food applications such as in dairy it helps in milk coagulation, flavor modification whereas in a bakery it enhances gluten development. Other food applications include seafood processing, animal protein processing, in yeast hydrolysis, etc.The proteases market is primarily driven by the growth of food and detergent industries. The high demand for cleaning formulation drives the global proteases market. Besides, Protease is an important ingredient in the pharmaceutical application. This is also a factor for the growth of global proteases market.The global proteases market is segmented on the basis of source of organism, active pH range, application, and end user.Request to Sample Report -Based on the organism source, global proteases market is segmented into:Plant source (chymosin, trypsin, pepsin)Animal source (bromelain, papain, ficin)Bacterial (subtilisin, bacillopeptidases)Fungal (Aspergillopepsin)Based on the active pH range, global proteases market is segmented into:Acid proteasesAlkaline proteasesHigh-alkaline proteasesNeutral proteasesBased on application, the global proteases market is segmented into:Pharmacology & drug manufactureIndustrial applicationsWaste treatmentHard surface cleaning formulationsContact lens cleaning formulationsAnimal feeds additivesDigestive supplementsBased on end user, the global proteases market is segmented into:FoodDetergentIndustrialPharmaceuticalOthersThe global proteases market is geographically divided in to five key regions including North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa.North America and Europe holds maximum share in the global proteases market. The detergent, pharmaceutical industries contributes majorly in the consumption of proteases. However, in Asia Pacific proteases market is in its growth phase, where major industries include food and pharmaceutical. China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam are important countries for proteases market growth prospectus. Latin America and MEA are expected to grow quite slower during the forecast period due to economic conditions.Request Report TOC @Key PlayersSome of the key players identified in the global proteases market are Noor Enzymes Pvt Ltd, Novozymes, Associated British Foods plc, Chr. Hansen Holding A/S, DuPont, DSM N.V etc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :
Global Car Front and Rear Bumper Market 2018 - Tong Yang,Hyundai Mobis,Plastic Omnium,HuaYu Automotive

Global Car Front and Rear Bumper Market

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Global Car Front and Rear Bumper Market 2018 Analysis Report audits a Market Regions, Product Categories, with Sales, Business Revenue, Goods cost, Car Front and Rear Bumper piece of the overall industry and Growth patterns, concentrating on driving Car Front and Rear Bumper industry players, showcase size, request and supply examination, utilization volume, Forecast 2018 to 2022.The major regions present in the continents like United States, Germany, Japan and China and their contribution to global Car Front and Rear Bumper market is elaborated in this research document. In next section, the report discusses industry policies and plans, cost structures, the outline of Car Front and Rear Bumper market globally, manufacturing processes. The growth rate exhibited by Car Front and Rear Bumper market based on consumption ratio, consumer volume, market gains is included in this report.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:The Global Car Front and Rear Bumper report gives a thorough situation of the present and gauge Car Front and Rear Bumper showcase procedures, improvement methodologies and development openings. Starting a discussion on the contemporary condition of Car Front and Rear Bumper showcase, the report extra dissects the market powerful moving each area begun in it.Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportTong YangHyundai MobisPlastic OmniumHuaYu AutomotiveSeoyon E-HwaJiangnan MPTEcoplasticSMPZhejiang YuanchiBentelerMagnaThe report additionally concentrates the Car Front and Rear Bumper bits of knowledge of the organizations and suggestions that will help the perusers to have progressive learning of the Car Front and Rear Bumper showcase.Enquire Before Buying @A principal diagram of the Car Front and Rear Bumper market is introduced to the perusers with the assistance of market definition, order, different applications, and production network examination. The Car Front and Rear Bumper report covers the investigation of conventional and the developing markets. The report more expresses the Car Front and Rear Bumper showcase rivals, their business profiles, freshest news, their piece of the overall industry, developing arrangements and methodologies, client volume and creating strategies.All in all, it is an exhaustive research report which will help perusers to break down the possibility of interest in Car Front and Rear Bumper advertise.Apex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Frank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
Vegetable Glycerin Market expected to Witness a Sustainable Growth over 2026

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Vegetable glycerin is natural product extracted from vegetable oil by heating oil at a very high temperature under water pressure. It is produced from palm oil, soy, coconut/ palm oil and others. In terms of taste and color, vegetable glycerin is odorless, colorless and has a sweet flavor. Primary demand for vegetable glycerin is in food and beverage, personal care products and medicines. In food and beverage industry, vegetable glycerin is used as a sugar substitute or sweetener and in personal care and cosmetic products, it is often used in skin care products to make skin moist and healthy. North America and Western Europe are expected to gain largest market share in terms of value and volume during the forecast period.Global Vegetable Glycerin Market: Market DriversSome of the key drivers which are influencing the demand for vegetable glycerin are from the food and beverage manufacturers as it helps to thicken and control the moisture level in food. The majority demand for vegetable glycerin is from processed food manufacturers in which it is added as a humectant and used for preservative purpose. It is also gaining its demand from dairy and confectionery manufacturers where it is primarily used as sweetener. Demand for vegetable glycerin in personal care manufacturers and pharmaceutical industry is also increasing as it often used in moisturizing skin care products. In the global market, demand for vegetable glycerin is also driving due to increasing number of health conscious consumers as in compare to sugar, vegetable glycerin is less sweetens than sugar. Moreover, it is also preferred by consumers seeking for food and beverages with the lower amount of carbohydrates.Request to Sample Report -Global Vegetable Glycerin Market: Market segmentationVegetable glycerin market is segmented on the basis of by source, by grades and by application. Market segment as by source includes palm oil, soy, coconut/palm oil and others (grape seed). Vegetable glycerin market is segmented on the basis of grades such as food grade, pharm grade and industrial grade. Vegetable glycerin market segmentation on the basis of application, it includes food and beverages, personal care and cosmetics and medicines. On analyzing the demand for vegetable glycerin in the global level market, it assesses that majority of its application is from food and beverage industry followed by personal care and cosmetic products. Recently the demand for vegetable glycerin is increased in food industry as it is used as a thickener, wetting agent and as a sweetener. It is mostly used as a food additive in food industry such as in confectionery products, dairy products, prepared and processed food products and many other food products. On the other side, its demand is also expected to increase in personal care and cosmetic industry as it used as a humectant in skin care products, body lotions, shampoos, soaps etc. In pharmaceutical, vegetable glycerin is used as an ingredient in medicines and ointments.Global Vegetable Glycerin Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of regional segment, vegetable glycerin market is segmented in seven regions including North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan and the Middle East & Africa. On analyzing the market share on graph, it is expected that North America and Western Europe accounts to majority of share in terms of value in global vegetable glycerin market. Furthermore, increasing demand for confectionery, dairy and processed food products and personal care and cosmetic products among the urban population in developing regions shows that Asia-Pacific is expected to be one of the attractive market in near future.Request Report TOC @Global Vegetable Glycerin Market: Key playersSome of the key players operating in global vegetable glycerin market are Procter & Gamble, NOW Foods, VVF L.L.C., Cargill, Incorporated, Dutch Glycerin Refinery (DGR), The Dow Chemical Company, Parchem fine & specialty chemicals , Avril Group, Essential Depot, Inc. among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :
Future Outlook of Biochar Market - Explore The 2017 To 2023 Trends, Analysis, Forecasts, and Overview and Market Development of Top Key Players: Johnson Matthey, BioChar Products,Agri-Tech Producers,Diacarbon Energy

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The report of Global Biochar Market represents the current scenario of the market, and based on in-depth analysis of all the major factors that are expected to influence the demand in the near future, it estimates the state of the global Biochar market by 2023. The report takes stock of the market on the basis of its attractiveness as well as investment feasibility. It also offers qualitative and quantitative description of every aspect of the market and catches the emerging industry trends. The aim of the report is to enable the readers to focus on the global market based on product specifications, existing competitive landscape and the market's revenue with profitability.Key Players: BioChar Products,Agri-Tech Producers,Diacarbon Energy,Biochar Now,Carbon Gold,Kina,The Biochar Company (TBC),Swiss Biochar GmbH,ElementC6,BlackCarbon,Cool Planet Energy Systems,Carbon Terra,Pacific Biochar,Vega Biofuels,Liaoning Jinhefu Group,Hubei Jinri Ecology-Energy,Nanjing Qinfeng Crop-straw Technology,Seek Bio-Technology (Shanghai),Hawaii Biochar,Walking Point,Ec6GrowCHECK SAMPLE COPY:Biochar Report by Material, Application, and Geography. Global Forecast to 2023 is a professional and comprehensive research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).With all of the information congregated and analyzed using SWOT analysis, there is a vivacious picture of the competitive landscape of the Global Biochar Market. Openings for the future market progression were revealed and preoccupied concentrated threats in like manner textured. The drifts and inclinations of this market were considered and it reveals that there was an illustrious strategic direction observed. By getting a grip on the market foundation and using the determined guidelines, techniques, and slants of other driving markets for references, market data was understood.FOR ENQUIRY:The report moreover includes the growth trends in the overall Biochar market. Variables, for instance, new project speculations, the achievability of new tasks, import, export, supply, and sale cost are moreover explored in the report. The consumption value and consumption volume of the market is investigated on the premise of application, type, and region.An increase in the varieties of management solutions from both driving and new associations is relied upon to make new advancement opportunities for the Biochar industry in the coming years. The entry of new associations is foreseen to make the business competitive in the next five years. The industry is exceedingly competitive and partitioned into the top three players, who are expected to dominate with their new advancements.To conclude, contemplation of the noteworthy enactment of the Global Biochar Market is driven by various analysis tools and wide-ranging research reports. Citations are engaged to mount clear results and validate them.Table of Content:Global Biochar Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Biochar Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixAbout QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.com
New Market Research Report of Scuba Diving Equipment Market in Global Industry : Growth, Trends and Application 2017-2022

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Scuba Diving Equipment Market Research Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Scuba Diving Equipment market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Scuba Diving Equipment in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Scuba Diving Equipment market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingAqualungJohnson OutdoorsHeadPoseidonTusaAmerican Underwater ProductsSaekodiveCressiSherwood ScubaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoOpen Respiratory SystemClosed Respiratory SystemOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingRecreational DivingProfessional DivingMake an Enquiry about TOC @Table of ContentsGlobal Scuba Diving Equipment Market Research Report 20171 Scuba Diving Equipment Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Scuba Diving Equipment1.2 Scuba Diving Equipment Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Open Respiratory System1.2.4 Closed Respiratory System2 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Scuba Diving Equipment Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type3 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Scuba Diving Equipment Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.us
Global Maritime and Border Security Market 2017  By Analyzing the Performance of Various Competitors 2027

Global Maritime and Border Security Market

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SummaryWiseGuyReports published new report, titled Global Maritime and Border Security MarketThe demand for maritime and border security equipment is anticipated to be driven by internal security threats, such as terrorism, threats to sovereign integrity, illegal border infiltration, piracy, drug trafficking, and critical infrastructure security, among several others. The market is expected to be dominated by the Asia Pacific, followed by North America and EuropeGET SAMPLE REPORT @SynopsisThe Global Maritime and Border Security Market 2017-2027 report offers a detailed analysis of the industry, with market size forecasts covering the next ten years. This report will also analyze factors that influence demand for maritime and border security equipment, key market trends, and challenges faced by industry participantsScope- The global maritime and border security market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.38% over the forecast period.- The market consists of four categories: Maritime Surveillance and Detection, Border Surveillance and Detection, Border Infrastructure and Protection, Maritime Infrastructure and Protection. It is expected to be dominated by the Maritime Surveillance and Detection, followed by Border Surveillance and Detection.- The Asia Pacific region is forecasted to dominate the sector with a share of 41.5%, followed by the North America market, which is dominated by the US market. Russia, UK and Turkey to account for major market share in the European region.Key points- Determine prospective investment areas based on a detailed trend analysis of the global maritime and border security market over the next ten years- Gain in-depth understanding about the underlying factors driving demand for different maritime and border security segments in the top spending countries across the world and identify the opportunities offered by each of them- Strengthen your understanding of the market in terms of demand drivers, industry trends, and the latest technological developments, among others- Identify the major channels that are driving the global maritime and border security market, providing a clear picture about future opportunities that can be tapped, resulting in revenue expansion- Channelize resources by focusing on the ongoing programs that are being undertaken by the defense ministries of different countries within the global maritime and border security market- Make correct business decisions based on thorough analysis of the total competitive landscape of the sector with detailed profiles of the top maritime and border security providers around the world which include information about their products, alliances, recent contract wins and financial analysis wherever available..CONTINUEDWise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Travel Insurance Market Global Outlook 2018: Marketing Strategy, Analysis and Forecast

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The report entitled Global Travel Insurance Market 2018 delivers the comprehensive and in-depth research analysis of the key regional industry standing of the Travel Insurance market on a global level. This report especially focuses on the core regions such as North & South America, Europe, Africa, South & Middle East Asia and Australia and also the key countries like (USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Russia, India, China, South Korea and Japan).Get Sample Copy of Report Here:This Travel Insurance market report state and future prospects of the segment have jointly been examined. Additionally, key methods within the Travel Insurance market that features partnerships, product developments, link-ups, and acquisitions, etc., mentioned. Besides, Upstream raw materials, equipment, and downstream consumers analysis is equally carried out. This extensive research encompasses of market profit, sales, Travel Insurance market revenue, potentials, and challenges also project the growth rate.Inquiry for Buying, Visit Here:In the first segment, The Travel Insurance report covers the marketing research and forecast of Travel Insurance Market on a regional also the world level. The Travel Insurance report is generically divided into six components and each half aims at the summary of the Travel Insurance past, present and future conditions of the market, the feasibility of the investment on many methods and policies. Excluding the classification and definition, the Travel Insurance market report conjointly discusses the analysis crucial and export and explain a comparison of the Travel Insurance market that is targeted at the trends and development. Key Emphasizes the Travel Insurance Market:1. Travel Insurance Market evolution for the regional as well as country level segments.2. Depth Analysis of global market forecasts and outlook for 2022, and forecasting of CAGRs through an expected period.3. In-depth analysis of Types/product and applications.4. Competitive mapping the prevailing key trends.5. Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the Travel Insurance market estimations.6. Analyze the crucial market trends and new evolution technologically in the Travel Insurance Market.After that, This Travel Insurance report deals with the precise info on the selling Channels and novel project investments. So the modern professionals and the mainstream industry rival get the direction of these markets trends as well as regional analysis. This report also supports the new entrants, readers, investors and the established players to set up their plans and decide which segment or sub-segment to invest on so as to reap maximum profits.Finally, In Travel Insurance report key details, methods, and variables are examined and also whole helpful data are combined together for the learning and understanding the key facts related the worldwide Travel Insurance market. The Travel Insurance market share and production price with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated into this report.About Us:Business Worldwide is a trusted brand in the research industry with a capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Business Worldwide, we believe in building long-term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive, Software and Aerospace.Contact Us:Joel JohnSuite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
Global Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market Projected to Reach US$7.9 bn by 2024

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Intelligent Virtual Assistant MarketRequest a Free Sample Report @Social media is playing an important role in the development of the global market for intelligent virtual assistants. The expanding traffic on social media platforms are prompting players to offer improved features on their sites and applications and thus, these players are banking on intelligent virtual assistants.the global intelligent virtual assistant market for is expected to proliferate at a remarkable 32.8% CAGR from 2016 to 2024, reaching a valuation of US$7.9 bn by 2024 from US$627.7 mn in 2015. The sweeping shift from analog to digital technologies in organizations worldwide is also working in favor of the market. Moreover, the burgeoning demand for effective and sophisticated work ecosystem is translating into the greater adoption of these systems across several industries such as insurance, travel, healthcare, and government.Demand for Intelligent Virtual Assistants to Remain Strong in Large EnterprisesOn the basis of technologies, the global intelligent virtual assistant market is segmented into speech recognition and text-to-speech. The speech recognition segment held a large share of 53% in the overall market value in 2015. The segment will also exhibit the most promising prospects, progressing at a CAGR of 33.3% between 2016 and 2024. Based on application, the market is divided into messenger bots, websites, and contact centers. The website segment was the leading revenue contributor to the global intelligent virtual assistant market in 2015 with a share of around 70% in the overall market. The messenger bots segment will expand at a CAGR higher than another segment during the same period.The key end users of intelligent virtual assistants are large enterprises, small and medium enterprises, and individual users. Among these, large enterprises will be the most prominent segment throughout the forecast horizon. The growth of the segment can be attributed to the increasing efforts by large enterprises to improve their customer care strategies. Small and medium enterprises will register a noteworthy CAGR during the same period.Outlook Complete Report with Table of Content @From geographical standpoint, the global intelligent virtual assistant market is classified into Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America held a dominant share of 40% in the overall market revenue in 2015. The presence of a large pool of multinational organizations in the U.S. is fuelling the growth of the region. These organizations have been increasingly relying on intelligent virtual assistants to enhance their relationships with clients, improve customer relationship management, and support the burgeoning demand for internet self-service. Over the coming years, the adoption of intelligent virtual assistants in the healthcare and BFSI sectors is likely to increase. With all these factors put together, the region is poised to retain its dominance through 2024.Europe is estimated to post moderate growth during the review period, with the EU7 at the forefront of growth. Asia Pacific holds immense potential and therefore, the region is anticipated to register impressive CAGR during the same period. The increasing emphasis on customer relationship management by both public bodies and companies is likely to trigger the demand for intelligent virtual assistants in the region.Latin America and the Middle East and Africa are expected to experience sustainable growth in the global intelligent virtual assistant market. In MEA, countries such as the U.A.E., Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel will be the sights of high growth rates during the forecast period. Some of the prominent companies operating in the global intelligent virtual assistant market are CodeBaby Corporation, eGain Communications Corp., Nuance Communications Inc., Artificial Solutions Ltd., Anboto Group, Creative Virtual Ltd., Speaktoit Inc., Next IT Corporation, and IntelliResponse Systems Inc.Send an Inquiry @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Market by Application, Demand, Industry Overview and Forecast to 2018

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Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are electronic components installed in vehicles, which present an intelligent driving experience to the driver. These systems comprise of unique sensors such as ultrasonic, image, RADAR, LiDAR, infrared and LASER. Deploying ADAS to enhance comfort levels and ensure safety and security on road is the majorly growing trend within the automobile sector. The implementation of ADAS has been considered as a revolution as it provides dynamic features such as adaptive.As an initial stage of automatic driving, ADAS's promotion received support from several countries, such as NHSTA Level 0-Level 4 (Manual, ADAS, PA, HA, FA), the German VDA rating (PA, HA, FA)This report describes the development of the industry by upstream & downstream, industry overall and development, key companies, as well as type segment & market application and so on, and makes a scientific prediction for the development industry prospects on the basis of analysis, finally, analyzes opportunities for investment in the industry at the end of the report.Company (Continental Ag, Delphi Automotive PLC, Robert Bosch Gmbh, Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd., Denso Corporation, Denso Corporation, Valeo, Magna International, Trw Automotive Holdings Corp., Hella Kgaa Hueck & Co., Ficosa International S.A., Mobileye NV, Mando Corp., Texas Instruments Inc., Tass international etc.):Company ProfileProduct & ServiceBusiness Operation DataMarket ShareInvestment Analysis:Market FeaturesInvestment OpportunityInvestment CalculationFor More Information About This Report:Industry ChainRaw MaterialsCostTechnologyConsumer PreferenceIndustry Overall:HistoryDevelopment & TrendMarket CompetitionTrade OverviewPolicyRegion (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East, Africa):Regional MarketProduction DevelopmentSalesRegional TradeRegional ForecastRequest Sample Copy At:Table of Content1 Industry Overview2 Industry Overall3 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Market by Product4 Key Companies List5 Market Competition6 Market Demand by Segment7 Region Operation8 Market Investment9 ConclusionInquire For This Report At:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Composite Adhesives Market Size & Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Composite Adhesives market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @Composite Adhesives Market: OverviewUsually, composites consist of two components: a matrix and a reinforcement. Both these components have their own physical and chemical properties. The unique nature of composites i.e. lighter weight and higher mechanical strength makes them useful in several applications. Some of the most commonly used composites are glass fiber, carbon fiber, kevlar, and graphite composites. Composite adhesives provide bonding to themselves as well as to other substrates. They exhibit significant mechanical strength and good performance upon exposure to extreme conditions.Composites are used in various industry verticals such as automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, construction, and consumer goods. The matrix of a composite can be organic or inorganic, while the reinforcement is made of fiber, in a majority of the cases.Composite Adhesives Market: Dynamics and TrendsIn the aerospace industry, materials required for the manufacture of aircraft components need to be very light in weight and possess high mechanical strength. Composites meet these requirements. The use of composites in the aerospace industry dates back to several years. Moreover, the growing number of innovations in composite materials to reduce their weight is expected to propel the demand for composites in this industry, thereby accelerating the demand for composite adhesives.As composites and their adhesives are eco-friendly, their demand is projected to rise in low-carbon-emitting vehicles. The rise in accountability of people toward environment conservation is propelling the demand for low-carbon-emitting vehicles and this factor is expected to drive the demand for composite adhesives in the next few years.Demand for composite adhesives is increasing also due to the growing usage of composites in wind energy production. As composites are of less weight, they are employed in rotor blades of windmills. Rotor blades play a significant role in electricity generation. The blade deformation should be minimal, as blades need to last longer. Also, blades need to sustain high wind pressure. Composites is the only choice to meet all these requirements. Increased use of composite adhesives in different industry verticals such as construction and consumer goods is expected to boost the market in the next few years.New entrants in the market for composite adhesives are anticipated to have ample growth opportunities in the near future, as governments of developed as well as developing economies are increasing their expenditure on environment conservation. The eco-friendly nature of composite adhesives is expected to offer growth opportunities for new players entering the market in the next few years.View Report @Composite Adhesives Market: SegmentationIn terms of type, the composite adhesives market has been divided into structural adhesives and synthetic adhesives. The structural adhesives segment is expected to dominate the market in the near future. Structural adhesives offer high resistance to mechanical shocks and several chemicals. These adhesives can also withstand high levels of stress and are known to reduce the weight of the component. Since structural adhesives are inexpensive, they are preferred over other adhesives. Demand for structural adhesives is expected to rise in the next few years.Based on resin type, the composite adhesives market has been segmented into epoxy, polyurethane (PU), polyamide, and others. The epoxy resin segment is expected to lead the market during the forecast period. Epoxies can be used to bond different composite materials. They offer excellent bonding to a majority of composite materials such as kevlar and graphite composites. Epoxy resins are less toxic and they have higher impact and compression strength compared to other resins.Based on end-user industry, the composite adhesives market has been segregated into automotive, aerospace, construction, energy & power, and others. The automotive segment is expected to dominate the market in the next few years. The surge in demand for composite adhesives is primarily due to the increasing demand for composite materials in the construction of automobile components due to their high strength and low weight that improve fuel efficiency. Also, the rise in demand for light-weight vehicles is augmenting the demand for composite adhesives.Composite Adhesives Market: Regional OutlookIncreasing demand for green energy in the U.S. and Canada is significantly contributing to growth of the composite adhesives market in North America. The growing number of innovations in aircrafts and automobiles is driving the market in the region.The market in Latin America is anticipated to expand at a good growth rate during the forecast period. The increase in measures toward green energy generation in Mexico is expected to contribute significantly to growth of the composite adhesives market in Latin America during the forecast period.China is expected to hold a significant share of the Asia Pacific composite adhesive market in the next few years. The increasing use of composite adhesives in wind energy generation in China is anticipated to boost the market in Asia Pacific in the near future. High availability of raw materials and availability of low-waged labor in developing economies of APAC are factors projected to raise the number of manufacturers, thereby driving the composite adhesives market in the region.Composite Adhesives Market: Key PlayersSome of the major stakeholders in the global composite adhesives market are 3M, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Integra Adhesives, SIKA AG, Arkema Group, The Dow Chemical Company, Huntsman Corporation, LORD Corporation, and Illinois Tool Works, IncThe report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Request For Enquiry @The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Check Discount @Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Wireless Chargers Market: An Insight On the Important Factors and Trends Influencing the Market

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The process of recharging batteries of various electrical devices without making use of any cables that are connected physically. The communication that takes place between the source of power i.e. transmitter and the device called receiver is generally through electromagnetic induction or microwave. Wireless chargers refer to that device that enables such a charging process.The market of wireless chargers is driven by the rapid growth in the usage of electric vehicles, small electronic gadgets and computers market. Growing application of communication technology and computer all over the world has been contributing to the growth of the market. Increasing demand of transmission bandwidth and high-speed connectivity are also responsible for the growth of the market of wireless chargers market.Obtain ReportAlternative wireless charging techniques such as solar power or ultrasound have been developed and this acts as restraining factor for wireless chargers that run on electricity.However, wireless chargers are costlier options and this is one of the restraining elements of the market of wireless chargers. Wireless chargers, however, takes longer to charge, consumes more electricity and generates more heat. Thus these attributes act as restraining factors for the market.The market is segmented by application, technology and by geography. By application, the market is divided into consumer electronics, healthcare and automotive. The segment of consumer electronics accounted for the largest market share in 2016. Increasing usage of smartphones, wearables and tablets. These chargers are mostly used in small gadgets such as smartphones, however, laptops, computers also use wireless chargers. These wireless chargers also find its usage in the healthcare department. Gadgets like sugar measuring device use wireless chargers. Increasing usage of these chargers in office automation, medical and communication are also propelling the growth of this segment.Pre Book ReportOn the basis of technology, the wireless chargers market is divided into magnetic resonance, radio frequency, inductive coupling technology and other microwave optical beam. The inductive coupling category held the largest market share during 2016 and is expected to propel this market over the forecast period. When used in closer proximity, greater efficiency, operational convenience and ease of implementation are responsible for the growth of the market segment of inductive coupling technology.Geographically, the market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Middle East and America (EMEA) and Latin America. North America has been leading the market and accounts for the biggest market share. North America is anticipated to grow substantially during the forecast period of 2016-2024 owing to the increasing demand and usage of small-sized consumer electronics gadgets across the continent. The US accounted for the biggest market share in this geographical segment and is expected to lead throughout the forecast period.Europe also accounts for a substantial market share in this market and occupies the second largest market share of wireless chargers market. The region is expected to grow well over the forecast period of 2016-2024. Owing to the increasing penetration of internet and data traffic and high growth of smartphones in the APAC region, the region is set to experience the fastest growth over the forecast period.Obtain BrochureAlso increasing demand of laptops and personal computers in this region has led to the growth of this market. In China, Japan these chargers are increasingly used in electric vehicles. The market of Middle East and Africa is also expected to grow significantly over the forecast period.Some of the major players of the wireless chargers market Qualcomm Incorporated (the U.S), Energizer Holdings (the U.S.), Evatran (the U.S.), Powermat Technologies Ltd (Israel), WiTricity (the U.S.), Fulton Innovation (the U.S.), Integrated Device Technology, Inc (the U.S.), Texas Instruments Inc. (the U.S.), Leggett and Platt (the U.S.), UBeam (the U.S.) amongst many others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Animal Autoimmune Diseases Testing Market Expansion to be Persistent During 2017 - 2025

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Animal autoimmune diseases are the result of specific immune responses and directed against self. Animals have the ability to control immune aggression. It acquired the capacity to avoid self-reaction called as tolerance, which allows removal of antigenic pathogens in the absence of self-recognition. Sometimes, autoimmune cells will get activated due to molecular imitation between pathological antigens and self. Animal autoimmune diseases mostly arise from prolonged sustained immune responses against self. This mechanism is responsible for the breakdown of animal autoimmune tolerance. Animal autoimmune diseases mainly induced by triggering lymphocytes. In some cases because of autoimmune diseases, the animal loses complete or part of the targeted tissue. In other cases, animal tissues are damaged chronically by an autoimmune reaction, which results in inhibition of the tissue. Once if the autoimmune reaction started, it leads to the impairment of the targeted tissue. The reasons for animal autoimmune diseases are obscure; it appears that malfunction occurs in recognition, whereas animal body fails to differentiate foreign and self. Trauma, viral infections, and vaccination are most common reasons for autoimmune diseases in animals. Most common type of autoimmune diseases in animals are systemic lupus erythematosus, autoimmune myasthenia gravis, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, diabetes mellitus, and thrombocytopenia. Treatment mainly includes conventional steroids at high doses.Request for Table of Contents @Increasing incidence of autoimmune diseases of animal requires a continuous diagnosis and treatment because they pose a potential threat to the life of the animal. In most of the cases, autoimmune diseases cant treat. So proper care and diagnosis in early stages are required to save the life of the animals. Due to technology transfer, diagnostics test become more precise, convenient, and easy than the conventional diagnostic test which gives result faster and detailed. It results in the complete understanding of autoimmune diseases by veterinary doctors. It makes easy to control the autoimmune diseases by the animal owners. A range of diagnostic tests is used to diagnosis the autoimmune diseases. It gives a new opportunity to the animal autoimmune disease testing manufacturers. The government is also taking initiates to protect the companion animals from autoimmune diseases. All these factors drive the burgeoning growth of the animal autoimmune diseases testing the market.Gaps in epidemiological knowledge on certain autoimmune diseases and pitfalls in identifying animal antigen/immunogenic structure are acts as the restraint in the growth of the animal autoimmune diseases testing the market.Rising awareness of animal autoimmune diseases and increasing care of companion animals are fueling the growth of the animal autoimmune testing market. Companies are mainly focusing on customization of diagnostic tools to address the unmet needs of animal autoimmune diseases testing the market. The future of animal autoimmune diseases testing anticipated with double CAGR during the forecasted period.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Global Animal Autoimmune Diseases Testing Market segmented into North America, Europe, Asia -Pacific & Japan, The Middle East and Africa regions and Latin America by region wise. North America dominates the global Animal Autoimmune Diseases Testing Market due to the high penetration of diagnostic testing in this region, and in North America, USA is a major stakeholder. Europe and Asia-pacific are the fastest growing market in Animal Autoimmune Diseases Testing Market due to rising awareness of autoimmune diseases in these regions. The economic conditions in Asia-pacific region rise the animal autoimmune diseases testing market to new heights. The Middle East and Africa regions and Latin America are also showing significant growth because of increasing number of awareness in this regions during the forecasted period.The key participants in Animal Autoimmune Diseases Testing Market are Alvedia, VMRD, Inc, IVD Technologies, Nova Tec Immundiagnostica GmbH, Immunolab GmbH and others. The companies are mainly focusing on collaboration and partnership to keep up the pace of the competitiveness and to acquire new markets.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Geothermal Power Generation Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2022

Geothermal Power Generation 2018

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WiseGuyReports.Com adds Geothermal Power Generation Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2022 Research to its Database.Description:Geothermal power, namely geothermal electricity, is electricity generated by geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 24 countries.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Geothermal Power Generation in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comMarket Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversChevronCalpineEnergy DevelopmentComision Federal de ElectricidadEnel Green PowerKenGenContact EnergyOrkuveita ReykjavikurPertamina Geothermal EnergyCalEnergy GenerationStar Energy LtdNorthern California Power AgencyTerra-Gen, LLCORMATMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoBack PressureBinaryDouble FlashDry SteamSingle FlashTriple FlashAsk Query @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Geothermal Power Generation market.Chapter 1, to describe Geothermal Power Generation Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Geothermal Power Generation, with sales, revenue, and price of Geothermal Power Generation, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Geothermal Power Generation, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Continue..Table Of Contents  Major Key Points1 Market Overview1.1 Geothermal Power Generation Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Back Pressure1.3.2 Binary1.3.3 Double Flash1.3.4 Dry Steam1.3.5 Single Flash1.3.6 Triple Flash1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Chevron2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.1.1 Chevron Geothermal Power Generation Description2.1.1.2 Chevron Geothermal Power Generation Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.1.2 Chevron Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.1.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.1.2.2 Chevron Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.1.3 Chevron Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.1.3.1 Chevron Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.3.2 Chevron Geothermal Power Generation Market Share in Global in 20162.2 Calpine2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.1.1 Calpine Geothermal Power Generation Description2.2.1.2 Calpine Geothermal Power Generation Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.2.2 Chevron Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.2.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.2.2.2 Calpine Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.2.3 Calpine Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.2.3.1 Calpine Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.3.2 Calpine Geothermal Power Generation Market Share in Global in 20162.3 Energy Development2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.1.1 Energy Development Geothermal Power Generation Description2.3.1.2 Energy Development Geothermal Power Generation Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.3.2 Energy Development Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.3.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.3.2.2 Energy Development Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.3.3 Energy Development Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.3.3.1 Energy Development Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3.3.2 Energy Development Geothermal Power Generation Market Share in Global in 20162.4 Comision Federal de Electricidad2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.1.1 Comision Federal de Electricidad Geothermal Power Generation Description2.4.1.2 Comision Federal de Electricidad Geothermal Power Generation Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.4.2 Comision Federal de Electricidad Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.4.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.4.2.2 Comision Federal de Electricidad Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.4.3 Comision Federal de Electricidad Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.4.3.1 Comision Federal de Electricidad Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4.3.2 Comision Federal de Electricidad Geothermal Power Generation Market Share in Global in 20162.5 Enel Green Power2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.1.1 Enel Green Power Geothermal Power Generation Description2.5.1.2 Enel Green Power Geothermal Power Generation Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.5.2 Enel Green Power Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.5.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.5.2.2 Enel Green Power Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.5.3 Enel Green Power Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.5.3.1 Enel Green Power Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5.3.2 Enel Green Power Geothermal Power Generation Market Share in Global in 20162.6 KenGen2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.1.1 KenGen Geothermal Power Generation Description2.6.1.2 KenGen Geothermal Power Generation Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.6.2 KenGen Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.6.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.6.2.2 KenGen Geothermal Power Generation Product Introduction2.6.3 KenGen Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.6.3.1 KenGen Geothermal Power Generation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6.3.2 KenGen Geothermal Power Generation Market Share in Global in 2016Continue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Bio-Absorbable Implants Market to Garner Brimming Revenues by 2025

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The bio-absorbable implant is chemical compounds which are designed to be absorbed by the body without eliciting the immune response. Bio-Absorbable implants are used to overcome the issues like rigidity, radiopacity, infections, growth disturbances, etc. Bio-Absorbable implants are an internal fixation of fractures, ligament injuries, arthrodesis, and osteotomies. Bio-Absorbable implants maintain fixation and decompose gradually without no stress shielding. They do not require a surgical procedure for removal. They are different types of materials are used for Bio-Absorbable implants namely polyglycolic acid, polylactic acid, polydioxanone, etc. Polyglycolic acid occurs in different forms namely poly Dextro- and polylevolactic acid. The degradation of Bio-Absorbable implants mainly occurred by hydrolytic breaking and non-specific enzymatic reactions. The degradation rate of Bio-Absorbable implants varies, a polylevolactic acid having the longer degradation time. The Bio-Absorbable Implants completely adsorbed within the bone tissue and the degradation proceeds. Newer Bio-Absorbable polymers offer reduced incidence of side effects along with more resorption time parameters. The commercially available Bio-Absorbable implant includes pins and screws. They are more tensile and flexible when compared to traditional implants with easy adoption.Request for Table of Contents @Bio-Absorbable implants are the best replacement for bionic materials; they do not require a surgical procedure to remove devices. Additionally, the risk of peri-implant osteoporosis, infection, stress shielding reduced. They are biocompatible and placed across the mobile surfaces which reduce concerns about complications. The use of Bio-Absorbable implants now extends to spinal reconstructive surgeries. In spinal surgeries, implants mostly used for anterior interbody construction, bone graft harvest site reconstruction, band plating, and graft containment. Bio-absorbable implants offer an advantage of radiolucency, reduced need for hardware removal, facilitates radiographic examination and allow load transfer to the healing tissues. They also provide mechanical strength like bionic materials which required for fixation of fractures. All these factors act as a driver for burgeoning growth of Bio-Absorbable implant market.The complications associated with the use of Bio-Absorbable implant includes osteolysis, hypertrophic fibrous encapsulation, synovitis, and sterile sinus tract formation. All these factors act as restraint in the growth of the Bio-Absorbable implants market. Comparatively, it is more advantageous because all complications can be managed efficiently.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Global Bio-Absorbable Implants market witnessed robust growth due to high adoption among orthopedics. The demand of Bio-Absorbable implants is also increasing rapidly due to more compliance when compared to the traditional implant. They are mimicking traditional metallic devices with similar efficacy regarding maintaining stability. Companies are mainly focusing on innovation, like a novel use of Bio-Absorbable implants as bone graft extenders. The potential and diversity of Bio-Absorbable implants are increasingly rapidly from ortho to neurological, general surgery, craniomaxillofacial, etc. The future of Bio-Absorbable Implants Market is anticipated to grow at double CAGR during forecasted period.Global Bio-Absorbable Implants market witnessed robust growth due to high adoption among orthopedics. The demand of Bio-Absorbable implants is also increasing rapidly due to more compliance when compared to the traditional implant. They are mimicking traditional metallic devices with similar efficacy regarding maintaining stability. Companies are mainly focusing on innovation, like a novel use of Bio-Absorbable implants as bone graft extenders. The potential and diversity of Bio-Absorbable implants are increasingly rapidly from ortho to neurological, general surgery, craniomaxillofacial, etc. The future of Bio-Absorbable Implants Market is anticipated to grow at double CAGR during forecasted period.The key participants in the Bio-absorbable implants market are Bioretec Ltd., TEKNIMED, Stryker, Smith & Nephew, Biocomposites, Tesco Associates, SBM France, etc. The companies are mainly focusing on collaboration and partnership to keep up the pace of the competitiveness and to acquire new markets.Pre Book Full Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Automatic Checkweighers Market Global Outlook 2018: Loma, Thermo Fisher, Avery, BIZERBA, Ishida

Automatic Checkweighers Market 2018

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The report entitled Global Automatic Checkweighers Market 2018 delivers the comprehensive and in-depth research analysis of the key regional industry standing of the Automatic Checkweighers market on a global level. This report especially focuses on the core regions such as North & South America, Europe, Africa, South & Middle East Asia and Australia and also the key countries like (USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Russia, India, China, South Korea and Japan).Get Sample Copy of Report Here:This Automatic Checkweighers market report state and future prospects of the segment have jointly been examined. Additionally, key methods within the Automatic Checkweighers market that features partnerships, product developments, link-ups, and acquisitions, etc., mentioned. Besides, Upstream raw materials, equipment, and downstream consumers analysis is equally carried out. This extensive research encompasses of market profit, sales, Automatic Checkweighers market revenue, potentials, and challenges also project the growth rate. Producers Analysis and Prime Sellers of world Automatic Checkweighers Market 2018:1. Loma Systems2. Marel France3. Mettler-Toledo4. VinSyst Technologies5. Thermo Fisher Scientific6. Cassel Messtechnik7. Citizen Scales8. Shenzhen General Measure Technology Stock9. AMTEC Packaging Machines10. Avery Weigh-Tronix11. BIZERBA12. Cardinal Scale13. IshidaInquiry for Buying, Visit Here: Automatic Checkweighers Market (Type Analysis):- Food industry, In-line monitoring, Pharmaceutical industry, Chemical industry, OthersIn the first segment, The Automatic Checkweighers report covers the marketing research and forecast of Automatic Checkweighers Market on a regional also the world level. The Automatic Checkweighers report is generically divided into six components and each half aims at the summary of the Automatic Checkweighers past, present and future conditions of the market, the feasibility of the investment on many methods and policies. Excluding the classification and definition, the Automatic Checkweighers market report conjointly discusses the analysis crucial and export and explain a comparison of the Automatic Checkweighers market that is targeted at the trends and development. Key Emphasizes the Automatic Checkweighers Market:1. Automatic Checkweighers Market evolution for the regional as well as country level segments.2. Depth Analysis of global market forecasts and outlook for 2022, and forecasting of CAGRs through an expected period.3. In-depth analysis of Types/product and applications.4. Competitive mapping the prevailing key trends.5. Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the Automatic Checkweighers market estimations.6. Analyze the crucial market trends and new evolution technologically in the Automatic Checkweighers Market.After that, This Automatic Checkweighers report deals with the precise info on the selling Channels and novel project investments. So the modern professionals and the mainstream industry rival get the direction of these markets trends as well as regional analysis. This report also supports the new entrants, readers, investors and the established players to set up their plans and decide which segment or sub-segment to invest on so as to reap maximum profits.Finally, In Automatic Checkweighers report key details, methods, and variables are examined and also whole helpful data are combined together for the learning and understanding the key facts related the worldwide Automatic Checkweighers market. The Automatic Checkweighers market share and production price with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated into this report.About Us:Business Worldwide is a trusted brand in the research industry with a capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Business Worldwide, we believe in building long-term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive, Software and Aerospace.Contact Us:Joel JohnSuite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
Breast Cancer Therapeutics Market Size, Share 2015 - 2023: Technological Advancement to Increase Demands

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This report on the breast cancer therapeutics market studies the current as well as future prospects of the market globally. The stakeholders of this report include pharmaceutical companies and intermediaries engaged in the new drug discovery, pipeline development of various breast cancer therapeutics as well as new entrants planning to enter this market. This report comprises an elaborate executive summary along with a market snapshot providing overall information of various segments and sub-segments considered in the scope of the study. This section also provides the overall information and data analysis of the global breast cancer therapeutics market with respect to the leading market segments in terms of geography.Get the sample copy of report :The global breast cancer therapeutics market has been studied based on major drug class segments, and their regional as well as national markets. Based on drug class, the global market has been categorized into five major segments: HER2 inhibitors, mitotic inhibitors, anti-metabolites, aromatase inhibitors, and hormone receptors. The market for these segments and sub-segments has been extensively analyzed based on their utility, effectiveness, sales, and geographic presence. Market revenue in terms of US$ Mn and compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) from 2015 to 2023 are provided for all segments, considering 2014 as the base year.The market overview section of the report explores the market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities that currently have a strong impact on the breast cancer therapeutics market and could influence the market in the near future. Market attractiveness analysis has been provided in the market overview section in order to explain the intensity of competition in the market across different geographies. The competitive scenario among different market players is illustrated through market share analysis in the competitive landscape section of the report. All these factors would help market players to take strategic decisions in order to strengthen their positions and expand their shares in the global market.Request for TOC of report :Geographically, the breast cancer therapeutics market has been segmented into five regions: North America (the U.S. and Canada), Europe (the U.K., Germany, and Rest of Europe), Asia Pacific (Japan, South Korea, and Rest of APAC), Latin America (Brazil and Rest of Latin America), and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Market revenue in terms of US$ Mn and CAGR % from 2015 to 2023 are provided for all the regions and countries, considering 2014 as the base year.The recommendations section included in the report would assist existing market players in expanding their market shares and new pharmaceutical companies in establishing their presence in the global breast cancer market. The report also profiles leading and emerging new players in the breast cancer therapeutics market based on various attributes such as company overview, financial overview, business strategies, product portfolio, and recent developments. Major players profiled in this report include AstraZeneca plc, Eisai Co., Ltd., Eli Lilly and Company, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Novartis International AG, Pfizer, Inc., Puma Biotechnology, Sanofi S.A., and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.View full report :The global breast cancer therapeutics market has been segmented as follows:Global Breast Cancer Therapeutics Market, by Drug ClassOverviewGlobal HER2 Inhibitors Market Revenue, 2015MRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments. We have built a veritable reputation for our commitment to fulfilling our clients' exacting market research solutions. From Fortune 500 companies to SMEs, our clients place their trust in us for reports from verified publishers.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Solar PV Glass Market: Global Industry Expected to Grow at CAGR 34.16% and Forecast to 2023

Solar PV Glass Market

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The Solar PV Glass Market was worth USD 1.59 billion in the year 2014 and is expected to reach approximately USD 22.36 billion by 2023, while registering itself at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.16% during the forecast period. Clean and sustainable power source is a reasonable other option to fossil fuel-based electricity. Its usage can help check the over-reliance on coal and fossil fuels, decrease air pollution and by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and broaden control supply.Book Your Sample Copy of the Report here:Report Overview:There has been a rising political and social agreement toward implementing clean energy generation techniques, subsequently driving the worldwide market. The worldwide solar PV glass market is described by a few key patterns that are anticipated to play a vital part in the coming years. Reducing solar PV glass costs are presumed to boost the worldwide market development over the estimate time frame.On the basis of revenue, utility was the biggest application fragment in 2016 and represented 49.3 percent of the aggregate share of the market. Expanding requirement for proficient and cost-effective energy assets is foreseen to drive the product requirement in utility portion throughout the following years. Solar PV glass has turned out to be progressively famous in the large-scale and additionally small-scale power generation applications in utility fragment. The primary components adding to the extensive product demand in the utility part incorporate the convenience and establishment and the decrease in its costs.North America has encountered an expansion in the establishment of solar systems by an astounding 17 Percent in 2016 when compared with 2015 One such case of a power station is Mojave Project, which was finished in the year 2014 and is situated in Barstow, California. The expanding interest toward sustainable power source combined with rising adoption of solar energy plants is anticipated to boost the market over the conjecture time frame. Asia Pacific is foreseen to rise as the biggest market before the finish of figure period.Browse Complete Report with TOC:Major Market Players:The global Solar PV Glass Market is extensively competitive due to the existence of key players such as Yingli, Guardian Industries, Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd, Saint-Gobain, Asahi India Glass Ltd, Trina Solar and Guardian Industries.The global Solar PV Glass Market is segmented as follows-By Application: Non-residential, Residential, UtilityTable of Contents:1.Introduction2.Executive Summary3.Market Overview3.1.Introduction3.1.1.Market Definition3.1.2.Market Segmentation4.Solar PV Glass, By Application4.1.Introduction4.2.Solar PV Glass Assessment and Forecast, By Application, 2014-20234.3.Utility4.3.1.Market Assessment and Forecast, By Region, 2014-2023 ($Million)4.4.Residential4.4.1.Market Assessment and Forecast, By Region, 2014-2023 ($Million)4.5.Non-residential4.5.1.Market Assessment and Forecast, By Region, 2014-2023 ($Million)Ask For Customization:About Crystal Market Research:Crystal offers one stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customized research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact Us:Judy304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107, United States.Toll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.comBlog:Website:
Artificial Heart Valve Market Global Outlook 2018: Medtronic, Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Terumo, LivaNova

Artificial Heart Valve Market 2018

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The report entitled Global Artificial Heart Valve Market 2018 delivers the comprehensive and in-depth research analysis of the key regional industry standing of the Artificial Heart Valve market on a global level. This report especially focuses on the core regions such as North & South America, Europe, Africa, South & Middle East Asia and Australia and also the key countries like (USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Russia, India, China, South Korea and Japan).Get Sample Copy of Report Here:This Artificial Heart Valve market report state and future prospects of the segment have jointly been examined. Additionally, key methods within the Artificial Heart Valve market that features partnerships, product developments, link-ups, and acquisitions, etc., mentioned. Besides, Upstream raw materials, equipment, and downstream consumers analysis is equally carried out. This extensive research encompasses of market profit, sales, Artificial Heart Valve market revenue, potentials, and challenges also project the growth rate. Producers Analysis and Prime Sellers of world Artificial Heart Valve Market 2018:1. Medtronic2. St. Jude Medical3. Boston Scientific4. Biotronik5. Abbott6. Johnson & Johnson7. Edwards Lifesciences8. Terumo9. LivaNovaInquiry for Buying, Visit Here:In the first segment, The Artificial Heart Valve report covers the marketing research and forecast of Artificial Heart Valve Market on a regional also the world level. The Artificial Heart Valve report is generically divided into six components and each half aims at the summary of the Artificial Heart Valve past, present and future conditions of the market, the feasibility of the investment on many methods and policies. Excluding the classification and definition, the Artificial Heart Valve market report conjointly discusses the analysis crucial and export and explain a comparison of the Artificial Heart Valve market that is targeted at the trends and development. Key Emphasizes the Artificial Heart Valve Market:1. Artificial Heart Valve Market evolution for the regional as well as country level segments.2. Depth Analysis of global market forecasts and outlook for 2022, and forecasting of CAGRs through an expected period.3. In-depth analysis of Types/product and applications.4. Competitive mapping the prevailing key trends.5. Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the Artificial Heart Valve market estimations.6. Analyze the crucial market trends and new evolution technologically in the Artificial Heart Valve Market.After that, This Artificial Heart Valve report deals with the precise info on the selling Channels and novel project investments. So the modern professionals and the mainstream industry rival get the direction of these markets trends as well as regional analysis. This report also supports the new entrants, readers, investors and the established players to set up their plans and decide which segment or sub-segment to invest on so as to reap maximum profits.Finally, In Artificial Heart Valve report key details, methods, and variables are examined and also whole helpful data are combined together for the learning and understanding the key facts related the worldwide Artificial Heart Valve market. The Artificial Heart Valve market share and production price with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated into this report.About Us:Business Worldwide is a trusted brand in the research industry with a capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Business Worldwide, we believe in building long-term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive, Software and Aerospace.Contact Us:Joel JohnSuite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
Gypsum in India 2018 Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 6.5% and Forecast to 2022

Gypsum in India Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com adds Gypsum in India 2018 Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 6.5% and Forecast to 2022 Research to its Database.Description:With the support of rising demand from industries such as construction, ceramic, and cement; the Indian gypsum market is poised to grow significantly in the coming years. Government is also backing the industry by allowing up to 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) for gypsum products. As a result, FDI inflows to gypsum products industry in India have registered significant growth in the last few years.Moreover, with ongoing rapid infrastructural developments, the countrys gypsum consumption is rising vigorously. To match with this growing demand, Indian cement makers are now looking for acquisitions of overseas gypsum mines as a valuable option and increasing the production of synthetic gypsum. As per our estimates, gypsum consumption in India would grow at a CAGR of around 6.5% from 2016-17 to 2021-12.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe report India Gypsum Industry Outlook 2022 is an outcome of our exhaustive research and comprehensive analysis of the countrys gypsum market vis-a-vis the global market. The report studies the state of gypsum production, its consumption and trade in India. It also talks about prevailing industry trends and drivers to provide an understanding of market dynamics and the industry structure.Our report covers different facets of the India gypsum market, integrating thorough analysis of its various categories. The production section studies production of natural gypsum, Selenite and other types of gypsum, while the consumption section incorporates consumption of natural gypsum, by-product gypsum, marine gypsum and gypsum moulds. Overall, our research portrays the state of each of these categories over a period of 8 years (during 2012-13 to 2021-22).As for gypsum trade in the country, we have covered a comprehensive analysis of the products import and export by value and volume during 2011-12 to 2016-17. Further, information about the major gypsum producing states in the country viz. Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir etc. has also been incorporated in the report.To provide a balanced outlook of the countrys gypsum market to clients, our report includes the profiles of major industry players with their key financials. Also, it covers an analysis of major gypsum based product manufacturers from different industries in India. In a nutshell, the research provides all the prerequisite information for intending clients looking out to venture into this industry and facilitates them to devise strategies while going for an investment/partnership in the India gypsum market.Ask Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key Points1. Analyst View2. Research Methodology3. India Gypsum Industry: An Overview3.1 India in Global Context4. Industry Trends and Drivers4.1 Growing Foreign Investment4.2 Construction Industry Major Driving Force for Gypsum Market4.3 Gypsum Products an Important Component in Green Buildings4.4 Industry Eyes on Overseas Mining4.5 Increasing Demand for Synthetic Gypsum5. Gypsum Industry Outlook to 20225.1 Production5.1.1 By Category5.1.1.1 Natural Gypsum5.1.1.2 Selenite5.1.2 By State5.1.2.1 Rajasthan5.1.2.2 Jammu & Kashmir5.1.2.3 Others5.2 Consumption5.2.1 Natural Gypsum5.2.2 By-Product Gypsum5.2.2.1 Phospho-gypsum5.2.2.2 Fluoro-gypsum5.2.2.3 Boro-gypsum5.2.2.4 Marine Gypsum5.3 Trade Analysis5.3.1 Import5.3.1.1 By Country5.3.2 Export5.3.2.1 By Country6. Gypsum Industry Verticals6.1 Cement Industry6.1.1 Specification6.1.2 Pricing6.2 Plaster of Paris6.2.1 Specifications6.2.2 Pricing6.3 Ceramic6.3.1 Specification6.3.2 Pricing6.4 Others6.4.1 Specification6.4.2 Pricing7. Industry Players7.1 Industry Structure7.2 Major Gypsum-based Products Producers7.3 Major Gypsum Producers7.3.1 Rajasthan State Mines & Minerals Ltd (RSMML)7.3.2 FCI Aravali Gypsum & Minerals India Ltd (FAGMIL)Continue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Tablet Computers Market Analysis, Market Size, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2018 To 2023, Focusing On Top Key Vendors Acer, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, nabi, Nextbook

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The report is titled Global Tablet Computers Market Research Report 2018 and hastens a boundless and centered investigate into this market. The market size is concluded through comprehensive study and examination through subordinate research. The numbers interpreted from subordinate research is converged into the research report after approval of the market data approximations through different conferences and analyses directed and gathered information from the industry and market authorities.Top Key Vendors: Acer, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, nabi, Nextbook, Polaroid, RCA, Samsung, ToshibaGet Sample Copy:On the basis of geographical regions, the Global Tablet Computers Market is segmented broadly into Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The global market is still in its exploratory stage in most of the regions but it holds the promising potential to flourish steadily in coming years. The major companies investing in this market are situated in Canada, U.K., and the US, India, China and some more countries of Asia Pacific region. Consequently, Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Europe are estimated to hold more than half of the market shares, collectively in coming years.This research study presents an all-inclusive evaluation of the global Tablet Computers market taking various industry parameters, such as the capacity of production, product pricing, demand, supply, and sales dynamics, returns on investments, and the growth rate of the overall market into consideration.Know more about this Premium Report@According to the research report, the global Tablet Computers market is witnessing a continual rise in its valuation with the advancement in technologies, which is impacting the consumer behavior and, accordingly, their purchasing patterns to a great extent. In addition to this, the increasing penetration of internet and the surge in mobile surfing are expected to boost the demand across the world, states the research report.The major growth drivers, challenges, and trends influencing the global Tablet Computers market are inspected at length. The report also presents a thorough qualitative and quantitative data affecting to the projected impact of these factors on markets future growth prospects. A number of analysis tools such as Porters five forces analysis and SWOT analysis have been employed to provide an accurate understanding of this market. Also, the report is compiled in a way for the readers and customers to understand better.In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the Tablet Computers Market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report.Table of Content:Global Tablet Computers Market Research Report 2018-20231 Industry Overview2 Global Tablet Computers Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles and Key Data4 Global Tablet Computers Market Size Application (2012-2018)5 United States Tablet Computers Development Status and Outlook6 EU Tablet Computers Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Tablet Computers Development Status and Outlook8 China Tablet Computers Development Status and Outlook9 India Tablet Computers Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Tablet Computers Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions and Application (2018-2023)12 Tablet Computers Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Methodology and Data Source15 Research Finding /ConclusionAbout QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.com
New Research on Global Crane and Hoist Market by focusing on Top Companies like Konecranes, Terex, Liebherr, Manitowoc, Cargotec, Zoomlion, Ingersoll Rand and Forecast To 2018-2025

Global Crane and Hoist Market- Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025

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Global Crane and Hoist Market Type (Mobile Cranes, Fixed Cranes), Operations (Hydraulic, Electric, Hybrid), Industry (Construction, Aerospace & Defense, Shipping & Material Handling, Mining, Automotive & Railway, Marine, Energy & Power, Others), Geography  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025Request for a sample copy of this research report@The Global Crane and Hoist Market accounted to USD 32.6 billion in 2017 growing at a CAGR of 5.9% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2016, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.Competitive Analysis:The Global Crane and Hoist Market is highly fragmented and is based on new product launches and clinical results of products. Hence the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, clinical trials, market initiatives, high expense on research and development, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of crane and hoist market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.Get Detail TOC @Market Segmentation: By type The global crane and hoist market is segmented into mobile cranes, and fixed cranes. Mobile cranes segment is further sub-segmented into crawler cranes, rough terrain cranes, all-terrain cranes, truck loader cranes, ship cranes, mobile harbor cranes, and automatic stacking cranes. Fixed cranes segment is further sub-segmented into industrial cranes, tower cranes, ship-to-shore cranes, and gantry cranes. By operations the global crane and hoist market is segmented into hydraulic, electric, and hybrid. By industry the global crane and hoist market is segmented into construction, aerospace & defense, shipping & material handling, mining, automotive & railway, marine, energy & power, and others. On the basis of geography:- global crane and hoist market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Some of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Brazil among others.In 2018, North America is expected to dominate the market.Talk to our experts @Top Competitors Of Market:Some of the major players operating in global crane and hoist market are:- Konecranes, Terex, Liebherr, Manitowoc, Cargotec, Zoomlion, Ingersoll Rand, Columbus Mckinnon, Kito, Tadano, Komatsu, XCMG, Mammoet, Palfinger, ZPMC, Voima Cranes and Components Private Limited, EMC among others.Get More Insights Of This report@Key Questions Answered in Global Crane and Hoist Market Report:-What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Crane and Hoist Market in 2024?What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Crane and Hoist Market?What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Crane and Hoist Market?Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Crane and Hoist Market?Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Crane and Hoist Market?What are the Global Crane and Hoist Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit Blog:
Medium Voltage Transformers Market will Reach a Valuation of US$ 14,805.7 Mn by 2027 end

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According to the recently published report titled Medium Voltage Transformers Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012 2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017  2027) that tracks the performance of the global medium voltage transformers market for a period of 10 years between 2017 and 2027, the market is expected to expand at a value CAGR of 4.5% over the forecast period (20172027). It is expected that the market will reach a value of US$ 14,805.7 Mn by 2027 end. In terms of volume, the market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 3.4% over the forecast period and account for the sales of 899,241 units by 2027 end. Growing industrialisation coupled with increasing demand from the construction sector across the globe is estimated to drive the growth of the global medium voltage transformers market over the forecast period. APEJ along with North America and Western Europe holds the highest market potential in the global medium voltage transformers market.Global Medium Voltage Transformers Market: Key TakeawaysIncreased manufacturing activities in various regions such as Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Latin America are expected to have a medium level impact on the global marketThe presence of multinational and regional IT corporations as well as an increase in IT spending is expected to have a medium to high level of impact on the marketGrowth in the construction industry will have a direct impact on the growth of the global medium voltage transformers market over the forecast period; increase in construction activities coupled with stringent government norms will promote the growth of the marketThe growth in both urban and rural population is anticipated to increase the development of housing and infrastructural facilities that will simultaneously increase the demand for electric power and medium voltage transformersHigh disposable income and improved purchasing power parity observed in consumers is anticipated to have a low to medium level impact on the marketRequest for Sample @Global Medium Voltage Transformers Market: Forecast and Segmental AnalysisThe rating type segment includes 1,200 kVA, 1,500 kVA, 2,000 kVA, and 2,500 kVA segments.1,200 kVA segment is anticipated to create incremental $ opportunity 4X that of the incremental $ opportunity created by the 1,500 kVA segment over the forecast period. In terms of value, the 1,200 kVA segment is anticipated to be valued at US$ 5,665.3 Mn by 2017 end. The segment is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% and reach a value of US$ 9,419.0 Mn by the end of 2027.By product type, the market is categorised into dry type, oil immersed type and VPI type. Oil immersed type medium voltage transformers market is anticipated to grow 1.7X in terms of value during the forecast period. The segment is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 4.7% during the forecast period.On the basis of configuration, global medium voltage transformers market is segmented into single phase and three phase. Three phase transformers are likely to replace single phase transformers owing to less power losses in three phased equipment.The application segment comprises segments such as building establishments, civic infrastructure, industrial and IT-data and server centres. With growth witnessed in a number of IT service industries that have cropped up globally, the demand for medium voltage transformers is also likely to grow as IT companies require power supply that is coherent and streamlined in nature.Global Medium Voltage Transformers Market: Forecast by RegionAPEJ accounts for more than 50% of the market share in terms of value in the global market. Thinly spread out domestic players in some regions such as APEJ, MEA and countries like Taiwan and Hong Kong, has a direct impact on the sales of domestic players. Furthermore, the presence of foreign players in the South East Asia market has enabled the supply of medium voltage transformers through many distributors and hence, distributor sales is estimated to expand with a healthy CAGR over the forecast period.Request for Table of Contents @Global Medium Voltage Transformers Market: Key PlayersSome of the players operating in the global medium voltage transformers market are ABB Group, Kirloskar Electric Company, Siemens AG, MGM Transformer Company Co., General Electric Company, Amran Inc., Hitachi, Ltd., Tianan Electric Group Co., Ltd., Fuji Electric Co. Ltd., RITZ Instrument Transformers GmbH, Schneider Electric SE, RECO Transformer Pvt. Ltd., Eaton Corporation PLC, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Jinpan International USA Ltd., Koncar Distribution and Special Transformers, Inc., CG Power & Industrial Solutions Ltd., Fortune Electric Co., Ltd., Schaffner Holding AG, and Hammond Power Solutions Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Islamic Finance Industry Market 2017 - Current and Future Plans

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SUMMARYWiseGuyReports published new report, titled Islamic financeThe Islamic finance industry has witnessed strong double digit growth in recent years, and yet serious problems persist that are likely to stop it from growing beyond a certain point. These include a lack of access to financial institutions in Muslim majority nations, general instability in large parts of the Muslim world, as well as a lack of concensus amongst the Islamic clergy from their various respective schools of thought, as to what exactly is "Islamic finance".GET SAMPLE REPORT @Islamic finance, also known as sharia compliant finance, is a fast growing industry in many countries with high growth potential. The term Islamic finance refers to the provision of financial services that do not contradict traditional Islamic values in relation to the charging of interest or investing in companies producing forbidden items such as alcoholic products, and so forth. The Islamic finance industry has witnessed strong growth in recent years and further strong potential growth in this industry has caught the eye of major international banks such as BNP Paribas and JPMorgan.The Islamic finance industry has grown at a strong pace in the last two decades. However it was in the 1970s that efforts were made to adjust it to better fit with the modern economic system. Subsequently efforts were made to standardize the industry which has yielded positive results to some extent. However growth has been dominated by nine countries, whilst the majority of Muslims continue to use non-sharia compliant financial services or in some cases none at all. A major reason for this is due to a lack of scholarly consensus on many questions relating to the Islamic finance industry. This lack of consensus coupled with low urbanization rates and political and economic instability in large parts of the Islamic world have served to undermine the growth of the Islamic finance industry. Nevertheless strong growth potential persists and with a strong decisive consensus building approach towards the problems facing the industry, this potential can materialize into tangible solid growth in the near future.Some major forms of Islamic financeOver the past several decades, numerous forms of sharia compliant financial services are now being offered by financial institutions and banks. A common feature, at least in theory, in the Islamic finance industry is the concept of risk sharing wherein both the borrower and financier share the profits generated from a certain activity, rather than the borrower owing a fixed or variable amount of interest to the financier, regardless of whether any profit is being generated or not.Some major forms of Islamic finance include Sukuk bonds,Ijarah contractsMudaraba contracts...CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Traffic Sensor Market Demand and Technology Acquisitions 2018 to 2022

Traffic Sensor Market

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HTF MI recently broadcasted a new study in its database that highlights the in-depth market analysis with future prospects of Traffic Sensor market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, industry executives and other key people get ready-to-access and self analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. Some of the key players mentioned in this research are TE Connectivity Ltd. (Switzerland), Flir Systems, Inc. (US), Kistler Group (Switzerland), Sick AG (Germany), LeddarTech Inc. (Canada), Siemens AG (Germany), Sensys Networks, Inc. (US), Raytheon Company (US), Axis Communication AB (Sweden), Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Austria), International Road Dynamics, Inc. (Canada), Swarco AG (Austria), Efkon AG (Austria), Transcore (US) & Q-Free ASA.Enquire for customization in Report @The research covers the current market size of the United States Traffic Sensor market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data. It also covers various types of segmentation such as by geography [The West, Southwest, The Middle Atlantic, New England, The South & The Midwest], by product /end user type [Inductive Loops, Piezoelectric Sensors, Image Sensors, Infrared Sensors, LiDAR Sensors, Radar Sensors, Magnetic Sensors, Acoustic Sensors & Thermal Sensors], by applications [Vehicle Measurement and Profiling, Weigh In Motion (WIM), Traffic Monitoring & Automated Tolling (e-toll)] in overall market. The in-depth information by segments of Traffic Sensor market helps monitor performance & make critical decisions for growth and profitability. It provides information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the United States Traffic Sensor Market.This study also contains company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of various international, regional, and local vendors of United States Traffic Sensor Market, some of them are TE Connectivity Ltd. (Switzerland), Flir Systems, Inc. (US), Kistler Group (Switzerland), Sick AG (Germany), LeddarTech Inc. (Canada), Siemens AG (Germany), Sensys Networks, Inc. (US), Raytheon Company (US), Axis Communication AB (Sweden), Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Austria), International Road Dynamics, Inc. (Canada), Swarco AG (Austria), Efkon AG (Austria), Transcore (US) & Q-Free ASA. The market competition is constantly growing higher with the rise in technological innovation and M&A activities in the industry. Moreover, many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new vendor entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Check for discount @The research study is also segmented by Application such as Vehicle Measurement and Profiling, Weigh In Motion (WIM), Traffic Monitoring & Automated Tolling (e-toll) with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Traffic Sensor in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast). To get a deeper view of Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2012-2017), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2012-2017) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Key questions answered in this report - United States Traffic Sensor Market Report 2018What will the market size be in 2022 and what will the growth rate beWhat are the key market trendsWhat is driving United States Traffic Sensor marketWhat are the challenges to market growthWho are the key vendors in United States Traffic Sensor market space?What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the United States Traffic Sensor market?What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the United States Traffic Sensor market?Buy PDF version of this research report @There are 15 Chapters to display the United States Traffic Sensor market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Traffic Sensor, Applications of Traffic Sensor, Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Traffic Sensor, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes The West, Southwest, The Middle Atlantic, New England, The South & The Midwest, Traffic Sensor Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Traffic Sensor Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Traffic Sensor;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Inductive Loops, Piezoelectric Sensors, Image Sensors, Infrared Sensors, LiDAR Sensors, Radar Sensors, Magnetic Sensors, Acoustic Sensors & Thermal Sensors], Market Trend by Application [Vehicle Measurement and Profiling, Weigh In Motion (WIM), Traffic Monitoring & Automated Tolling (e-toll)];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Traffic Sensor;Chapter 12, to describe Traffic Sensor Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Traffic Sensor sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Get Access to sample pages @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.Connect with us atHTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road, Edison, NJ USA - 08837sales@htfmarketreport.comPh: +1 (206) 317 1218
Electronic Medical Records Market by Component Type, Functionality, Anti-Obesity Drugs, Regional Share, Competitor Analysis and Forecasts to 2023

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Global electronic medical records market estimated to be valued US$ 23,420 Mn in 2017 and poised to grow at CAGR of 7.1% over 2017-2023. Market for electronic medical records projected to reach US$ 35,340 Mn by 2023 owing to growing demand for advanced healthcare solutions.Global Electronic Medical Records (EMR) market report gives comprehensive outlook on electronic medical record software and hardware components across the globe with special emphasis on key regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). The report on electronic medical records market gives historical, current, and future market sizes (US$ Mn) on the basis of component type, functionality, application, EMR type, mode of delivery, end user, and geographic regions. This report studies electronic medical records market dynamics elaborately to identify the current market trends & drivers, future opportunities and possible challenges to the key stakeholders operating in the market. In addition, electronic medical records market report includes the competition analysis with vividly illustrated the competition dashboard to assess the market competition. Moreover, PBI analyzed electronic medical records market to better equip clients with possible investment opportunities across the regions (Regional Investment Hot-Spots) and market unmet needs. Key stakeholders of the electronic medical records market report include hardware & software vendors, hospitals, physician offices, policy makers, and healthcare service providers who are engaged in usage of Electronic Health Records (EMR).For more informationGrowing shift from pen-paper driven healthcare records to E-health records significantly drive market revenue growthE-healthcare records capture the data pertaining to clinical, demographic, and financial information, which can use by clinicians and other HCPs of the organization. These E-medical records contain pooled patient information that is shared between the organizations. Moreover, the advantages of E-medical records over pen-paper records such as improved patient care, reduction in dose errors, informed decision making, and reduced operational cost & time, are driving the adoption Electronic medical records adoption in various healthcare setups. In addition, increasing regulatory requirement to capture the patient health records for drug product approval also projected to drive market revenue growth over the forecast period.Increasing demand from key stakeholders for efficient healthcare solutions is likely to create lucrative growth opportunitiesThe wave digital transformation is helping to upgrade existing healthcare infrastructure with more efficient electronic record system in the in developing countries, which is propelling market revenue growth in emerging countries. Moreover, key stakeholders such as patients, Healthcare Professionals (HCPs), policy makers, and regulators increasingly seeking for detailed patient health records to make informed decisions. The growing demand from patient fraternity for improved healthcare services, improved treatment and diagnosis decisions by HCPs are creating market demand for electronic medical record across the globe.North America market leads the global electronic medical records marketNorth America market leads the global electronic medical records market and projected to remain dominant over the forecast period owing to rise in adoption EHR in across the healthcare setups in the region. Asia-pacific electronic medical records market projected to grow at significant CAGR over the forecast period owing to digital transformation of EHR and economic growth in the region.Competition AssessmentKey players profiles in the global Electronic Medical Records market include:-Allscripts (U.S)-Cerner Corporation (U.S)-CureMD Healthcare (U.S)-Eclinicalworks, LLC (U.S)-Epic Systems Corporation (U.S)-GE Healthcare (UK)-Healthcare Management Systems (U.S)-Healthland (U.S)-McKesson Corporation (U.S)-Meditech (U.S)-NextGen Healthcare (U.S)Request Sample CopyPlayers in the electronic medical records market are entering into partnerships, collaborations, and acquiring smaller players to garner larger market shareKey Findings of the Report:-Global electronic medical records market expanding at 7.1% CAGR over 2017 to 2023 to reach market value of US$ 35,340 Mn by 2023-Based on mode of delivery, cloud based EMRs accounted for larger market revenue share in 2016 as these systems are well accepted among healthcare providers as these does not require in-house servers-Software component segment growing with significant growth rate in the global EMR market-Hospital based EMRs accounted larger revenue share in the global market and expected to remain attractive over the forecast period.Key Features of the Report:-The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2023)-The report covers in-detail insights about the competitor's overview, company share analysis, key market developments, and their key strategies-The report outlines drivers, restraints, unmet needs, and trends that are currently affecting the market-The report tracks recent innovations, key developments and startup's details that are actively working in the market-The report provides plethora of information about market entry strategies, regulatory framework and reimbursement scenario-The report analyses the impact of socio-political environment through PESTLE Analysis and competition through Porter's Five Force Analysis in addition to recent technology advancements and innovations in the marketDetailed SegmentationBy Component Typeo Hardwareo Softwareo Services & ConsultingBy Functionalityo Basic Systemso Fully Functional SystemsBy Applicationo Specialty basedo General ApplicationsBy EMR Typeo Traditional EMR'so Speech enabled EMR'so Interoperable EMR'so OthersBy Mode of Deliveryo Cloud basedo On-premise modelo HybridBy End Usero Hospital-based EMRo Physician based EMRMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com published Electronic Medical Records Market from its database. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Membrane Air Dryers Market 2017 - Atlas Copco Corp, Donaldson Company Inc, Gardner Denver, Inc., Parker, Pentair

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Membrane Air Dryers is a drying device. The principal of diffusion, exchanging water vapor from the gas stream into the fibers where the captured water vapor is removed by the sweep air. Hollow fiber technology allows only moisture to pass through the fiber wall, while the dry compressed air is delivered to the application.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Membrane Air Dryers in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Request For Sample Report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversAtlas Copco CorpDonaldson Company IncGardner Denver, Inc.ParkerPentairGracoSMCPUREGASWALMECHANKISONMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversPorousNon-PorousMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoFood & BeverageMedicalIndustrialTelecommunicationOthersBrowse Full Report With TOC @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Membrane Air Dryers market.Chapter 1, to describe Membrane Air Dryers Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Membrane Air Dryers, with sales, revenue, and price of Membrane Air Dryers, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Membrane Air Dryers, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Membrane Air Dryers market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Membrane Air Dryers sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.About Fior MarketsFior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry. Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise. We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover. Fior Markets provides you the full spectrum of services related to market research, and corroborate with the clients to increase the revenue stream, and address process gaps.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog:
Global Clear Brine Fluids Market Expected to Reach US$1,444.7 mn by 2023

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Clear Brine Fluids Market Request a Free Sample Report @With increasing oil and gas drilling activities worldwide, companies operating in the global clear brine fluids market are being presented with lucrative opportunities to expand their business. As developed nations are striving to gain energy security, they are focusing on the development of shale reserves as a part of their strategy. The rise in oil and gas drilling activities for this purpose is likely to drive the sales of clear brine fluids as they are used in the completion process of oil and gas extraction. The increased drilling activities for the exploration of unconventional resources is an opportunity that manufacturers of clear brine fluid can capitalize on. However, the unstable economic and political situation in the Middle East is likely to impede oil and gas exploration activities resulting in a dip in the sales of clear brine fluids.As a result of all these factors, the global clear brine fluids market is likely to expand at a 6.2 % CAGR from 2015 to 2023. The market was worth US$891.3 mn in 2015 and is projected to touch a valuation of US$1,444.7 mn by 2023.Rise in Oil and Gas Drilling Activities to Enhance Sales of Clear Brine Fluids in North AmericaWith leading oil and gas companies operating in the region, North America emerged as the largest region in the global clear brine fluids market. As developed nations are motivated to gain energy security, the oil and drilling activities in the region are increasing rapidly. To maintain their position in the market and not be dependent on OPEC for energy sources, the countries in North America have increased their drilling activities to discover more shale reserves. North America accounted for 65.7% in terms of volume of the global clear brine fluids market in 2014 and is expected to hold a share of 64.8% by 2023.Outlook Complete Report with Table of Content @Asia Pacific emerged as the second largest region in the global clear brine fluids market owing to the presence of a large number of shale gas reservoirs in the region. China holds the largest share in the recoverable shale gas industry, which has made it the largest region in terms of consumption of clear brine fluids in Asia Pacific. The ongoing oil and gas drilling activities in Asia Pacific are subsequently boosting the sales of clear brine fluid in the region.Potassium Chloride Brine Fluids Products Segment to Witness Fastest GrowthPotassium chloride brine fluids are used for stabilizing water sensitive clays during the extraction completion process. It helps in controlling the formation damage and pressure in reservoirs during the extraction process, thus making it the most used clear brine fluid among various end-use industries. The global potassium chloride brine fluids segment is projected to expand at a CAGR of 6.5% in terms of revenue between 2015 and 2023.The calcium chloride brine fluids products segment is expected to witness the second fastest growth in the coming years. The single-salt composition of calcium chloride brine fluids makes it an effective component used in the formation of brine completion and workover fluids. Owing to the increasing demand for calcium chloride brine fluids in the oil and gas industry for preventing clay hydration during drilling, this product segment is likely to grow at a steady pace in the coming years.Send an Enquiry @The leading companies in the global clear brine fluids market are Israel Chemicals Ltd., Great Lake Solutions, Albemarle Corporation, and TETRA Technologies Inc.About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Pressure Relief Devices Market to Expand at a CAGR of 6% during 2017-2025

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Persistence Market Research (PMR), in its report, projects the global pressure relief devices market to register 5.3% CAGR during the forecast period 2017 to 2025. In 2016, the market was evaluated at revenues worth US$ 2,280.4 Mn; by 2025 this number is estimated to reach nearly US$ 3,600 Mn.Demand for pressure relief devices is on a surge in developing economies including Asia Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). With the advent of medical tourism in various APAC countries such as Vietnam Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Philippines, the market in this region is expected to witness considerable growth. Provision of after sales will be the key focus area of the global pressure relief devices market. Various global players have signed strategic partnerships & collaborations with regional players for offering sales and aftersales services in developing markets.According to a study by Hill-Rom, growing number of patients with hospital-acquired pressure ulcer has led to a robust adoption of pressure ulcer devices in North America. In addition, rising prevalence of obesity and growing geriatric population has also driven the demand for pressure ulcer devices. These factors are expected to drive growth of the market in this region. However, reimbursement stands as a critical factor, considering the fact that products are highly priced. Private insurers in North America are adopting reimbursement restrictions for pressure ulcer treatment, which in turn will restrain market growth in this region.Global Pressure Relief Devices Market Research Report Overview @Increasing out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure is current trend in both developed and developing countries of APAC. This is expected fuel demand for medical devices including pressure relief devices in this region. In addition, provision of government initiatives is expected to offer better healthcare facilities across developing economies, which is further expected to fuel demand for pressure relief devices in APAC. In contrast, affordability of purchasing new pressure relief devices is a major challenge for large number of population across this region. This is because of limited support from government policies covering pressure ulcer treatment in developing economies, and lack of health insurance. These factors are expected to impede market growth in Asia Pacific.Sales of Pressure Relief Devices to Long-term Care Centers to Reach Nearly US$ 1,700 Mn by 2025-EndLong-term care centres will continue to remain most lucrative end-users of pressure relief devices, with revenues estimated to reach nearly US$ 1,700 Mn by 2025. Demand for pressure relief devices from long-term care centres is expected to witness expansion at 6% CAGR through 2025. In addition, hospitals are estimated to be second largest end-users of pressure relief devices. Revenue garnered by demand for pressure relief devices from hospitals is expected to surpass US$ 800 Mn in 2017.Request Sample Report@By product type, specialty beds will remain sought-after in the market. Sales of specialty beds is expected to exhibit 5.8% CAGR through 2025. Specialty beds are expected to account for over 50% market share by 2025-end. In addition, sales of pressure relief mattress is projected to reach nearly US$ 600 Mn in 2017. In contrast, mattress overlays are expected to witness a comparatively low CAGR in the market.North America to Remain the Largest Market for Pressure Relief DevicesNorth America will remain the largest market for pressure relief devices. Sales of pressure relief devices in this region will reach nearly US$ 800 Mn in 2017; by 2025 this number is estimated to surpass US$ 1,000 Mn. In addition, APAC is expected to witness fastest growth in the market. Sales of pressure relief devices in APAC is projected to expand at 6% CAGR through 2025. In contrast, MEA is expected to exhibit sluggish expansion in the market during the forecast period.Key players identified in PMRs report include Arjohuntleigh AB, Hill-Rom Global Holdings B.V., INVACARE CORP, PARAMOUNT BED CO., LTD., Talley Group Limited, STRYKER CORPORATION, SIDHIL LIMITED, MEDTRONIC PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY, SMITH & NEPHEW PLC, Apex Medical Corp, Proma Reha, s. r. o., Besco Medical Co., Ltd., Hirtz & Co. KG, GF Health Products, Inc., ADL GmbH., Linet spol. s r.o.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Anti-Diarrheal Drugs Market Sees Promising Growth during 2018-25

Anti-Diarrheal Drugs Market

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HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Anti Diarrheal Drugs market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global Anti Diarrheal Drugs market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Children & Adults], products type [Prescription Drugs & OTC Drugs] and various important geographies like United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global Anti Diarrheal Drugs market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers. The in-depth information by segments of Anti Diarrheal Drugs market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global Anti Diarrheal Drugs Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global Anti Diarrheal Drugs Market, some of them listed here are Actelion, Lupin, GSK, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Perrigo & Pfizer. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Global Anti Diarrheal Drugs (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Prescription Drugs & OTC Drugs. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Children & Adults with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Anti Diarrheal Drugs in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Anti Diarrheal Drugs market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Anti Diarrheal Drugs, Applications of Anti Diarrheal Drugs, Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Anti Diarrheal Drugs, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia, Anti Diarrheal Drugs Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Anti Diarrheal Drugs Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Anti Diarrheal Drugs;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Prescription Drugs & OTC Drugs], Market Trend by Application [Children & Adults];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Anti Diarrheal Drugs;Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe Anti Diarrheal Drugs sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Enquire for customization in Report @What this Research Study Offers:Global Anti Diarrheal Drugs Market share assessments for the regional and country level segmentsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersStrategic recommendations for the new entrantsMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional marketsMarket Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsCompetitive landscaping mapping the key common trendsCompany profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developmentsSupply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsBuy this research report @Reasons for Buying this ReportThis report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamicsIt provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growthIt provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to growIt helps in understanding the key product segments and their futureIt provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitorsIt helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segmentsThanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact us :HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Automotive Exhaust Gas Recirculation Systems Global Market, Growth, Data Validation, Analysis and Outlook to 2022

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"According to Publisher, the Global Automotive Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) Systems Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.1% during the forecast period". One of the key factors driving the market is raising usage of EGR system that helps in eliminating gas emissions. However, more acceptance of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) compared to EGR system is the factor restraining the market growth. Combination of EGR and SCR in upcoming diesel engines is one of the major trends observed in the automotive exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems market.Diesel application segment held the largest share in the EGR system market. Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to the stringent environmental policies that decrease emission levels which in turn will boost the exercise of exhaust gas recirculation systems.For more information atSome of the key players in Automotive Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) Systems Market include Airtex Vehicle Electronics, Automotive LLP, BorgWarner Inc., Cambustion Ltd., Delphi ANSYS Inc., DENSO Europe B.V, Eberspacher Climate Control Systems GmbH & Co. KG, ElringKlinger AG, Friedrich Boysen GmbH & Co. KG, IAV GmbH, MAHLE GmbH and Wells Vehicle Electronics.Applications Covered:- Gasoline- DieselProducts Covered:- Electric EGR Valve- Pneumatic EGR ValveVehicle Types Covered:- Heavy Commercial- Light Commercial vehicles- Passenger Cars- Other Vehicle TypesRequest Sample Copy:Regions Covered:- North Americao USo Canadao Mexico- - Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe- Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific- Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Concrete Cooling Market is expected to reach market Size of USD 1200 million by 2022, Keywords- Fujian Snowman Co., Ltd., North Star Ice Equipment Corporation, and KTI-Plersch Kaltetechnik GmbH

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Market Synopsis of Concrete Cooling MarketConcrete Cooling is required for mass concrete construction for like in dam construction projects to avoid the cracks in construction. The strength in concrete is developed by evolution of heat as the cement cures and hardens (heat of hydration). Increasing demand of concrete cooling systems from regions with high temperatures are projected to drive the growth of the market in the future.The increasing popularity of such concrete cooling systems have led to the systems which are custom made and designed to best fit the applications and settings in which it will be used. The companies these days are highly tuned in to the needs of their clients such as strength, durability, and safety. The global concrete cooling market size was valued at around USD 900 million in 2015 and is expected to cross USD 1200 million by the end of the forecasted period.Regional Analysis of Concrete Cooling MarketMiddle East and Africa region is the highest performing region in global Concrete Cooling market. This increase in demand is attributed to high temperatures in the region and growing construction activities. Concrete cooling solutions usage is essential to achieve appropriate curing of concrete in such high temperatures.Get Free Sample of report @Key PlayersThe key players of Concrete Cooling market report include- Fujian Snowman Co., Ltd., North Star Ice Equipment Corporation, KTI-Plersch Kaltetechnik GmbH, LINTEC Germany GmbH, Coldcrete Inc., ConCool LLC, Recom Ice Systems, Kirloskar Pneumatic Company Limited, Icelings, and Focusun Refrigeration Corporation.Target Audience Manufactures Raw Materials Suppliers Aftermarket suppliers Research Institute / Education Institute Potential Investors Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerProduct Analysis Product matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional Information Regulatory Landscape Pricing Analysis Macroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic Analysis Geographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany Information Profiling of 10 key market players In-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report title Competitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Global Concrete Cooling Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Browse report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Medication Dispenser Market : Pharmacy based ADSs to Rise at 7.5% CAGR during 2017-2025

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Factors as such are anticipated to support the growing use of medication dispenser in ambulatory surgical centers, hospitals and nursing homes. Moreover, the need to eliminate manual task of dispensing medicines is further boosting the demand for medication dispensing systems of late. As per the latest report published by Persistence Market Research, the global medication dispenser market will reach a valuation of US$ 1,824.7 Mn, riding at a CAGR of 7.0% over the forecast period (20172025).Reformation in healthcare policies across various countries has resulted in enhancement of healthcare services, favoring the adoption of medication dispenser in hospitals. The change in the quality of healthcare services provided to patients is mainly ascribed to ongoing technological advancements, which is simultaneously elevating the effectiveness of healthcare systems. Such positive alterations are helping healthcare organizations to increase productivity as well as mitigate healthcare costs and medical errors. Further, hospitals are bound to offer quality care to patients in order to stay competitive. Increasing adoption of novel medical technologies such as Electronic medical record (EMR), Pharmacy Information Systems (PIS), and Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) has led to the automation of various procedures in hospitals.Global Medication Dispenser Market Research Report Overview @PMRs report, titled Medication Dispenser Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2025) also cites that the medication dispenser market in North America will retain its top spot over the forecast period. The region is expected to account for nearly 64.3% revenue share of the global market by 2017-end. This is primarily owing to the rising geriatric population and availability of highly accurate medication services in the region. During this eight years of the forecast, the region is projected to expand at a CAGR of 7.2% and reach a market valuation of US$ 1,187.1 Mn. In addition, the contribution of the U.S. in the regions market will remain exceptionally high throughout the assessment period. Meanwhile, APEJ is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 8.2% over 2025, primarily due to increasing per capita income and a greater healthcare reach in many of the emerging countries in the region.On the basis of product type, pharmacy based ADSs currently hold the largest share of the global medication dispenser market in terms of revenue, and the trend is projected to continue throughout the forecast period. Pharmacy based ADSs are anticipated to account for 55.4% share of the market over the forecast period, expanding at a CAGR of 7.5%.Request Sample Report@By end-user, demand for medication dispenser is expected to remain robust from hospital pharmacies in 2017 and beyond. Hospital pharmacies are anticipated to account for around 61.9% share of the global market over 2025.PMR in its report has profiled some of the leading companies operating in the global medication dispenser market, which include: Becton, Dickinson and Company, Omnicell Inc., Cerner Corporation, Capsa Solution LLC, InstyMeds Corporation, PARATA SYSTEMS, LLC, TriaTech Medical Systems Inc., ARxIUM Inc., ScriptPro LLC, YUYAMA Co.,Ltd, Howard Industries, Inc., Swisslog Holding AG, Healthmark, Talyst, Robotik Technology, Tema Sinergie, Synergy Medical, RxMedic Systems, Inc., Accu-Chart Plus Healthcare Systems, Inc., Medipense Inc.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Electric Vehicle Plastics Market by Vehicle Type & Data Validation, Analysis and Outlook to 2022

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"According to Publisher, the Global Electric Vehicle Plastics Market is accounted for $0.36 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $1.75 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 25.3% during the forecast period". Use of high grade plastics, bio-based plastics, strict emission regulations leading to lightweighting of vehicle and favourable government policies for alternate fuel vehicles are some of the key factors fueling the market. However, plastics decomposition and expensive batteries used in alternate fuel vehicles are some factors hampering the market growth.Globally in terms of value, plastics used for interior applications acquired the fastest growing segment. The interior application of a passenger car includes the dashboard, seats, interior trim, and car upholstery. Plastics in the interior of a car allow designers to have improved flexibility in styling, manufacturing, and assembling automotive components with reduced costs. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to dominate the electric vehicle plastics market, and is projected to grow at the highest CAGR. Considerable efforts made by china to become a leader in the electric vehicle market and in addition to make the country a hub for electric vehicle manufacturing.For more information atSome of the key players in Electric Vehicle Plastics market include Albemarle Corporation, Amfine Chemical Corporation, Akzo Nobel N.V., BASF SE, Chemtura Corporation, Croda International PLC, The DOW Chemical Company, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Eastman Chemical Company, Exxon Mobil Corp., Evonik Industries AG, Lyondellbasell Industries Holdings B.V., INEOS CAPITAL LIMITED, Rhein- Chemie Rheinau GmbH, Plastic Omnium, PMC Global, Inc and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).Materials Covered:- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)- Polyamide (PA)- Polypropylene (PP)- Polyurethanes (PU)- Polyethylene (PE)- Polycarbonate (PC)- Acrylonitrile- Butadiene-Styrene (ABS)- Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB)- Other MaterialsApplications Covered:- Lighting & Electric Wiring- Interior- Under the hood- ExteriorVehicle Types Covered:- Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV)- Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)- Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)Request Sample Copy:Regions Covered:- North Americao USo Canadao Mexico- Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe- Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific- Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao Egypt10 Company Profiling10.1 Albemarle Corporation10.2 Amfine Chemical Corporation10.3 Akzo Nobel N.V.,10.4 BASF SE10.5 Chemtura Corporation10.6 Croda International PLC10.7 The DOW Chemical Company10.8 E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company10.9 Eastman Chemical Company10.10 Exxon Mobil Corp.10.11 Evonik Industries AG10.12 Lyondellbasell Industries Holdings B.V.10.13 INEOS CAPITAL LIMITED10.14 Rhein- Chemie Rheinau GmbH10.15 Plastic Omnium10.16 PMC Global, Inc10.17 Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic)Make an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Plasterboard Market Analysis and Insights by 2022, Key Players- Gyprock, Knauf Insulation, BGC Plasterboard, Beijing New Building Material (Group) Co., Ltd., Boral Limited

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Plasterboard Market  Market OverviewPlasterboard is basically an inner layer of gypsum sandwiched between two outer layers of lining paper including various additives in the gypsum layer and varying the weight and strength of the lining paper, will give the finished board different properties.One of the most widely-used product in constructing ceiling and wall interiors is plasterboard, also known as gypsum board. Plasterboard has also been known to be the most versatile materials because of its flexibility and its plasticity. Plasterboard is easy to be shaped or moulded to any design. It is a lightweight product which is known for safe, dry & clean construction, easy to transport and to install. This type of construction allows developers to speed up the construction process, contributing to cost effectiveness while providing high quality standard for construction.The plasterboard industry has positive outlook due to elevating growth in the construction industries. Rising per capita income and rising trends of safe and sustainable construction are improving the demand for standard, fire-resistant, sound-resistant, and moisture-resistant plasterboards. The market is mainly driven by the demand from the parent industry which in this case is construction. Growth in modern retailing, rise in consumer income & employment, and increase in demand for new construction projects are some of the factors influencing the growth of the plasterboard market. On the other hand, lack of awareness among the end-users of the residential sector, along with lack of availability of plasterboard waste disposable plants, is likely to restrain the market growth in the future.This report is segmented on the basis of type, edge type, application, and region. The fire-resistant segment, by type, is projected to be the fastest-growing in the plasterboard market during the forecast period. The gradual shift of building contractors and consumers toward cost efficient, eco-friendly, and modern building techniques is creating growth opportunities for the plasterboard market. On the basis of edge type, it is segmented into tapered, rounded, square-edge and others. Moreover, by application, Non-residential sector to gain maximum traction during the forecast period. Geographically, North America has dominated the plasterboard market. Asia-Pacific is expected to become fastest growing market for plasterboard. Emerging countries like China and India has recently seen a significant growth in the plasterboard market due to the expansion of various international player across the region.Accrediting the colossal growth the Plasterboard market is witnessing currently and the potential the market is demonstrating to accrue pervasively further in the years to come; the Market Research Future has recently published a meticulous study report giving out the complete market insight up till 2023. This report on global plasterboard market is a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the factors that are expected to influence the demand over the course of next few years. The report also highlights some of the trends of the market that may help the buyers plot their strategic expansion plans on in order to tap new available opportunities. According to research, continuing with the trends the global plasterboard market is projected to perceive an outstanding growth by 2023 registering a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2023).Request a sample report for free @Key Players:Gyprock, Knauf Insulation, BGC Plasterboard, Beijing New Building Material (Group) Co., Ltd., Boral Limited, Chiyoda UTE Co., Ltd., PT Siam-Indo Gypsum Industry, Saint-Gobain, Lafarge, Etex, National Gypsum Company Properties, LLC and Yoshino Gypsum Co., Ltd are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global Plasterboard market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Plasterboard Market  Competitive AnalysisPlasterboard Market appears to be highly fragmented and competitive owning to the presence of numerous large and small players active in regional market. The key strategies traced from the analysis of recent developments of the key players include Product Launch, Agreement & Partnership, Acquisition and expansion. Strategic partnerships between Key players support the growth and expansion plans of the key players during the forecast period. On the product and sales side, companies are investing in innovation/R&D, brand building, and fostering strong relationships with customers to support their competitive position.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:October 2013, Boral Limited and USG Corporation, entered into strategic joint venture to create a world-leading building business (plasterboard & ceilings). The transaction is a major step forward for Boral and our vision is to create a world-leading interior linings business in Asia, Australasia and the Middle East.May 21, 2017, USG Boral will build a new plasterboard plant at an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore in South India.Browse report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting ServicesContact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
2018-2025 Global Mango Butter Market Key Players: Hallstar BIOCHEMICA, Manorama Group, Jarchem Industries Inc., AOT, Alzo International Incorporated, EKOLOGIE FORTE PVT. LTD, Avi Natural,.

Mango Butter Market

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Mango Butter Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Mango Butter Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025reports to its database.Executive SummaryGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Mango Butter in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Mango Butter market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingHallstar BIOCHEMICA (US)Manorama Group (India)Jarchem Industries Inc. (US)AOT (DE)Alzo International Incorporated (US)EKOLOGIE FORTE PVT. LTD (US)Avi Natural (India)...On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoBy Refining ConditionRefined Mango ButterUnrefined Mango ButterBy FormCream FormSolid FormBy Mango HabitatOganic Mango ButterNon-Oganic Mango ButterOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingCosmeticsFoodPharmaceuticalIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Report @Table of content:Global Mango Butter Market Research Report 20181 Mango Butter Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Mango Butter1.2 Mango Butter Segment By Refining Condition1.2.1 Global Mango Butter Production and CAGR (%) Comparison By Refining Condition (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Mango Butter Production Market Share By Refining Condition (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Refined Mango Butter1.2.4 Unrefined Mango Butter1.3 Mango Butter Segment By Form1.3.1 Cream Form1.3.2 Solid Form1.4 Mango Butter Segment By Mango Habitat1.4.1 Oganic Mango Butter1.4.2 Non-Oganic Mango Butter1.5 Global Mango Butter Segment by Application1.5.1 Mango Butter Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.5.2 Cosmetics1.5.3 Food1.5.4 Pharmaceutical1.6 Global Mango Butter Market by Region (2013-2025)1.6.1 Global Mango Butter Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.6.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.6.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.6.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.6.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.6.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.6.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.7 Global Market Size (Value) of Mango Butter (2013-2025)1.7.1 Global Mango Butter Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.7.2 Global Mango Butter Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Mango Butter Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Mango Butter Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Mango Butter Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Mango Butter Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Mango Butter Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Mango Butter Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Mango Butter Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Mango Butter Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Mango Butter Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Mango Butter Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion7 Global Mango Butter Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Hallstar BIOCHEMICA (US)7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Mango Butter Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Hallstar BIOCHEMICA (US) Mango Butter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Manorama Group (India)7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Mango Butter Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Manorama Group (India) Mango Butter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Jarchem Industries Inc. (US)7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Mango Butter Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Jarchem Industries Inc. (US) Mango Butter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 AOT (DE)7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Mango Butter Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 AOT (DE) Mango Butter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Alzo International Incorporated (US)7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Mango Butter Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Alzo International Incorporated (US) Mango Butter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 EKOLOGIE FORTE PVT. LTD (US)7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Mango Butter Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 EKOLOGIE FORTE PVT. LTD (US) Mango Butter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Avi Natural (India)7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Mango Butter Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Avi Natural (India) Mango Butter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business OverviewContinuousFor further information on this report, visit -Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042
Global HPV Testing Market : Latin America Growing at 11.8% CAGR during 2017-2025

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According to the report, North Americas Human Papillomavirus testing market will be valued at nearly US$ 640 Mn, dominating the global market revenues. The demand for Human Papillomavirus testing will also be significant in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, while Middle East & Africas Human Papillomavirus testing revenues will attribute to less than 4% of global market value. The report also projects that over 60% of global HPV testing revenues will be accounted by DNA-based test products. While hospitals will be largest end-users of HPV testing globally, the end-use of Human Papillomavirus testing will gain traction in diagnostic centers as well. And, the report also reveals that close to 90% of global Human Papillomavirus testing market value throughout the forecast period will be accounted by molecular diagnostic application of Human Papillomavirus testing.Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Testing Market Research Report Overview @Various healthcare and government insurance providers are offering reimbursement for diagnosis of chronic disorders such as cervical cancer screening. For instance, Medicare  U.S. government-funded health insurance provider, provides reimbursement to people who are of age 65 or older and some younger population with disabilities. Moreover, for cervical cancer diagnosis, such plans cover reimbursement for one pap test every three years or a combination of pap test & HPV testing every five years. Favorable government initiatives as such are expected to drive the demand for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) testing market in the years to come.HPV testing is gradually becoming crucial for cervical cancer screening, according to recent report published by Persistence Market Research. The report estimates that in 2017, the global market for Human Papillomavirus testing will reach an estimated value of US$ 629.4 Mn. Improving reimbursement scenario, coupled with high sensitivity of Human Papillomavirus testing in low resource setting, is expected to drive the markets growth. By the end of 2025, the global market for Human Papillomavirus testing will have soared at 7.6% CAGR, bringing in more than US$ 1,100 Mn in revenues.Request Sample Report@Global HPV Testing Market  Key ChallengesA key limitation for Human Papillomavirus testing is that these tests are confined to women as men undergoing HPV testing have higher risks of getting infected with genital warts. In addition to this, patients are not willing to take Human Papillomavirus tests because of lack of diagnosis options. Over-diagnosis of Human Papillomavirus testing can cause more complications and can even risk the life of patients. Meanwhile, the global revenues from Human Papillomavirus testing are being lowered due to availability of HPV vaccines. Preference to HPV vaccines is directly impeding the revenues arising from Human Papillomavirus testing. High cost of HPV screening test, overburdened healthcare system, low awareness on HPV prevention, and imperfections in organized screening programs are some other challenges impacting the growth of global HPV testing market.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Translation Software Market 2018-2022 : Key Players SDL, MemoQ, Atril, LEC, Prompt, Babylon, LinguaTech, IdiomaX, AuthorSoft, WordMagic, NeuroTran

Translation Software Market

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The Translation Software Market report gives an essential review of the business including definitions, characterizations, applications and industry chain structure. The Translation Software Market analysis is accommodated the global markets including development trends, competitive landscape, and key areas improvement status.This report focuses on price, sales, revenue and growth rate of each type, and additionally the sorts and each type price of key manufacturers, through meeting key makers. Second on premise of sections by manufacturers, focuses on the sales, business, cost of each kind, average price of Translation Software, revenue and market share, for key manufacturers.Grab your Sample Report @The Report Global Translation Software Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application covers the manufacturers data, detailed view about regions and countries of the world; which demonstrates a regional development status, volume and value, including market size, as well as price data. Along with segment data, including : by Type and Application segment etc. On the basis of geography this report covers North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa.This Report Focuses On the Top Players in Global Market, LikeSDLMemoQAtrilLECPromptBabylonLinguaTechIdiomaXAuthorSoftWordMagicNeuroTranBrowse full report with Table of Content @Market segment by Application, Translation Software can be split intoCompaniesFreelancersOrganisations and InstitutionsUniversitiesOthersMarket segment by Type, Translation Software can be split intoMacintosh System OnlyWindows System OnlyOthersTable of ContentsGlobal Translation Software Market Research Report 20181 Industry Overview of Translation Software1.1 Translation Software Market Overview1.1.1 Translation Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Translation Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Translation Software Market by Type1.3.1 Macintosh System Only1.3.2 Windows System Only1.3.3 Others1.4 Translation Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Companies1.4.2 Freelancers1.4.3 Organisations and Institutions1.4.4 Universities1.4.5 Others3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 SDL3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Translation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 MemoQ3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Translation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Atril3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Translation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent DevelopmentsTo be continuedRequest Discount of the Report @About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on Global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWebsite-
2018-2022 Global Tool Boxes Market Industry Key Players: Apex Tool Group, STAHLWILLE, Staubli Electrical Connectors, Peli Products, Ningbo Dayang Enclosure, NWS,.

Tool Boxes Market

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Tool Boxes Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Tool Boxes Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025reports to its database.Executive SummaryThis report studies Tool Boxes in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringApex Tool GroupSTAHLWILLEStaubli Electrical ConnectorsPeli ProductsNingbo Dayang EnclosureNWSMaschinenfabrik WagnerBeta Utensili...On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPlasticAluminumBy Application, the market can be split intoCommercialHouseholdBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Report @Table of content:Global Tool Boxes Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Tool Boxes1.1 Definition and Specifications of Tool Boxes1.1.1 Definition of Tool Boxes1.1.2 Specifications of Tool Boxes1.2 Classification of Tool Boxes1.2.1 Plastic1.2.2 Aluminum1.3 Applications of Tool Boxes1.3.1 Commercial1.3.2 Household1.3.3 Application 31.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Tool Boxes2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Tool Boxes2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Tool Boxes2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Tool Boxes3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Tool Boxes3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Tool Boxes Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Tool Boxes Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Tool Boxes Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Tool Boxes Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Tool Boxes Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Tool Boxes Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Tool Boxes Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Tool Boxes Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Tool Boxes Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Tool Boxes Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Tool Boxes Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Tool Boxes8.1 Apex Tool Group8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Apex Tool Group 2016 Tool Boxes Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Apex Tool Group 2016 Tool Boxes Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 STAHLWILLE8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 STAHLWILLE 2016 Tool Boxes Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 STAHLWILLE 2016 Tool Boxes Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Staubli Electrical Connectors8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Staubli Electrical Connectors 2016 Tool Boxes Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Staubli Electrical Connectors 2016 Tool Boxes Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Peli Products8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Peli Products 2016 Tool Boxes Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Peli Products 2016 Tool Boxes Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Ningbo Dayang Enclosure8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Ningbo Dayang Enclosure 2016 Tool Boxes Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Ningbo Dayang Enclosure 2016 Tool Boxes Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 NWS8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 NWS 2016 Tool Boxes Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 NWS 2016 Tool Boxes Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Maschinenfabrik Wagner8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Maschinenfabrik Wagner 2016 Tool Boxes Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Maschinenfabrik Wagner 2016 Tool Boxes Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 Beta Utensili8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 Beta Utensili 2016 Tool Boxes Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 Beta Utensili 2016 Tool Boxes Business Region Distribution AnalysisContinuousFor further information on this report, visit -Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042
Comprehensive Report on Artificial Intelligence In Healthcare Market by Future Market Insights 2017  2027

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Artificial intelligence can be defined as the use of technology to perform tasks using different algorithms, decision-making capabilities and deliver solutions. Artificial intelligence in healthcare and medicine would induce the tremendous change in the current healthcare system. Artificial intelligence in healthcare would organize the patient data, treatment plans and would strengthen providers and payers by providing them the necessary information.Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market: SegmentationArtificial intelligence in healthcare market would provide various applications to the industry, and by different application areas, we can segment the market into the following:Data ManagementAnalytics and ResearchClinical Decision SupportPatient Health ManagementPrecision MedicineRevenue-Cycle ManagementDrug DevelopmentArtificial Intelligence in healthcare market can also be segmented by end users which are as follows:PayerInsurance CompaniesGovernmentOthersProviderHospitalsClinicsIt is anticipated that the growth in artificial intelligence in healthcare market would be tremendous over the years due to the introduction of big data into healthcare. By deployment we can segment the artificial intelligence in healthcare market into the following:Request For Report Sample:Cloud-basedOn-PremiseArtificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market: DynamicsArtificial intelligence in the healthcare market is primarily driven by a few key factors such as evidence-based healthcare decisions and clinical outcomes by introducing artificial intelligence in healthcare, analytics based on the vast amount of healthcare data, and improved healthcare setting. In addition to this artificial intelligence in healthcare market also observes significant growth due to its functionality in revenue cycle management for the healthcare environment. Artificial intelligence in healthcare market gains a great drive from applications such as claims management for insurance companies by detecting the number of fraudulent claims. Artificial intelligence in healthcare market will also strengthen the healthcare market by significant cost reductions.Artificial intelligence in the healthcare market, however, require tools which can analyze unstructured data as most of the healthcare data is in the form of physician notes, and prescription reports which limit access to artificial intelligence in the healthcare market. Artificial intelligence in the healthcare market is also associated with a high cost for deployment and lack of skilled workforce which restraints the artificial intelligence in healthcare market growth over the period.Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market: Region-wise OutlookBased on geography, the Artificial intelligence in healthcare market can be segmented into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa. At present, North America holds a leading position in the Artificial intelligence in healthcare market followed by Europe. The major driving factors which have driven the growth of the Artificial intelligence in the healthcare market in this region is support from the government, and increase the number of operational setups by various companies. Following North America, European countries are also anticipated to show steady growth in the Artificial intelligence in the healthcare market. In the next few years, Asia-Pacific would show remarkable growth in the Artificial intelligence in healthcare market as it is developing at a very rapid pace and has shown the emergence of many regional players.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market: Key PlayersIn the past decade, the artificial intelligence in the healthcare market has witnessed a massive influx of players. Some of the major players operating in the artificial intelligence in healthcare market are IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, iCarbonX, Welltok, Butterfly Network, Apixio, Pathway Genomics, and many others. Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market has a presence of many regional players which have a huge market share in emerging countries.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Abhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Rotomolded Containers Market Research Study for the Period 2017  2027

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To fulfill the requirement of a product with high durability and heavy duty capability has led to the invention of rotomolded containers. The rotomolded container can be designed in the shape of complex parts in different colors without altering its physical and chemical properties of high resistance property from water and salt corrosion. Rotomolded containers are inert in nature it does not react with product hence keeping the packaging atmosphere odor free and hygienic. Rotomolded containers are used for storing food and beverages, chemicals, equipment and other products as it can withstand the temperature variations in the range of -30?C to 70?C. Rotomolded can be customized according to the product storage requirement whether it is for frozen food, chemicals or equipment.Rotomolded Containers Market: Market DynamicsRigid packaging is preferred over flexible packaging to contain liquid products or for cushioning internal material from external shocks. Rotomolded containers are one of the widely used forms of rigid plastic. Rigid plastic packaging market is estimated to be over US$ 200 Bn and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.4% over the forecast period. Rotomolded containers are cost-effective and easy to maintain since it is 100% resistant to water and salt corrosion making it a favorable choice for end users and generating the demand in rotomolded containers market. Rotomolded containers are seamless and stress-free products with superior finish making it superior over others products of the same category. The light weight of rotomolded containers is another factor supporting the demand in the rotomolded market. Rotomolded containers are commonly manufactured by single base material making them recyclable and sustainable. However, most of the countries looking for an alternative to plastic is creating an unfriendly environment for rotomolded containers market. Moreover, technological advancements in the packaging industry are poised towards reducing the plastic waste and carbon footprint for packaging manufacturers which might reduce the preference for rotomolded containers market. On the backdrop of the wide area of application rotomolded containers market may have new opportunities in the future.Request For Report Sample:Rotomolded Containers Market: Market SegmentationRotomolded containers market is segmented by material type, by product type and end-use industries.Based on the material type, the rotomolded containers market is segmented into:Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)NylonPolypropylene (PP)Polyethylene (PE)High-density polyethylene (HDPE)Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)Linear Low-density polyethylene (LLDPE)Based on the product type, the rotomolded containers market is segmented into:CasesStandard casesRackmount casesContainersBoxesIBCTanksOthersBased on end use industry, the rotomolded containers market is segmented into:Food industrySea FoodFrozen foodMeatIce-creamChilled beveragesAlcoholicNon-AlcoholicDairy productsMilitary useChemical industryPharmaceutical industryOthers (industrial packaging, etc.)Rotomolded Containers Market- Regional Outlook:Regionally global rotomolded containers market is segmented intoNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeAsia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)Middle East & Africa (MEA)JapanRequest For Report Table of Content (TOC):APEJ is expected to account for largest value share for the rotomolded containers market attributed to the presences many small and medium players and the entrance of industrial leaders in the regional market. North America is expected to follow APEJ in rotomolded containers market, growth in the region is led by the consumption pattern being in line with the market. Latin America is expected to be the attractive region for the rotomolded market due to the high economic growth rate in the region. Western Europe is expected to exhibit moderate growth while demand in MEA and Eastern Europe for rotomolded containers market is expected to be sluggish. Japan is expected to contribute significant value share in rotomolded containers market due to large consumption of seafood in the region.Rotomolded Containers Market - Key Players:Some major players of the rotomolded market are Elkhart Plastics, Inc., MODRoto, Inc., SKB Corporation, Rotomoldeos de Galicia S.L., Snyder Industries, Inc., Dutchland Plastics LLC, Rotomolding Technology Co., Ltd, Finncont Oy, Shanghai Power Oriental Industrial Co.,Ltd. and Fibertech Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Abhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Parkinsons Disease Drugs 2018 Global Market Outlook,Research,Trends and Forecast to 2022

Parkinsons Disease Drugs Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com adds Parkinsons Disease Drugs 2018 Global Market Outlook,Research,Trends and Forecast to 2022 Research to its Database.Description:Parkinsons disease is a long term neurodegenerative disorder which affects the dopamine producing neurons in specific areas of the brain known as substantia nigra. This disease belongs to a group of conditions called motor system disorders. The symptoms for Parkinsons disease develop slowly over the years. The four primary symptoms of Parkinsons disease are tremors, rigidity, slowness of movement and postural instability. Although, there is no cure for Parkinsons disease, several medications are used to suppress the symptoms of the disease.According to researcher report Global Parkinsons Disease Drugs Market Outlook 2022, the global Parkinsons disease drugs market is anticipated to witness a moderate growth during 2016-2022. The report provides information about the current and future market scenario of the global Parkinsons disease drugs market. The report also highlights the major drivers, such as increasing awareness about Parkinsons disease and its treatment options, research grants and funds, for the global Parkinsons disease drugs market. Furthermore, the recent approval of novel Parkinsons disease drugs, which includes generic versions and first ever Parkinson related dyskinesia drug, is also expected to drive the global market of drugs for this disease.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comMoreover, few hindrances, such as high cost of treatment and patent expiry of blockbuster drugs, which are slowing down the growth of the global Parkinsons disease drugs market have also been mentioned in the report. In addition, the report also highlights various opportunities available for growth of the global Parkinsons disease drugs market.The global Parkinsons disease drugs market has been segmented on the basis of type of therapy into levodopa therapy, dopamine therapy, MAO-B inhibitor therapy, COMT inhibitor therapy, and other types of therapies.Among all the types, levodopa therapy is the first and most potent treatment for the Parkinsons disease. The benefits of the medication are witnessed soon after administration.Numerous pharmaceutical and biotech companies are also developing novel treatment options, such as stem cell therapy, for the treatment of Parkinsons disease. Stem cell therapy is an evolving field which makes use of stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition, such as Parkinsons disease. Even a minimal success from this procedure can mean significant improvement in quality of life for patients. SanBio Inc and International Stem Cell Corp are some of the companies carrying out clinical trials for stem cell therapies for the treatment of Parkinsons disease. Hence, stem cell therapy presents great opportunities for the growth of global Parkinsons disease drugs market in the coming years.Based on geography, the report divides the market into North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. In 2016, North America accounted for the largest share in the global Parkinsons disease drugs market. Moreover, the report also highlights various mergers and acquisitions taking place in the global Parkinsons disease drugs industry. The drugs pipeline of Parkinsons disease has also been mentioned in the report.The prominent players in global Parkinsons disease drugs market have been discussed in the last section of the report. A brief business overview and financial information about each of these players has been provided, along with their product portfolios, product pipeline and recent developments.Overall, the research contains exhaustive information that will help clients in formulating market strategies and assessing opportunity areas in the global Parkinsons disease drugs market.Ask Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key Points1. Analyst View2. Research Methodolog3. Parkinsons Disease: An Overview4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.1.1 Increasing Funding Support & Research Grants4.1.2 Increasing Awareness4.1.3 Rising Healthcare Expenditure4.1.4 Increasing Life Expectancy4.2 Challenges4.2.1 Patent Expiry of Blockbuster Drugs4.2.2 High Cost of Treatment4.2.3 Side-Effects of Parkinsons Disease Drugs4.3 Opportunities4.3.1 Collaborations with Academic Institutions for Developing Innovative Solutions4.3.2 Reduction in Off Time to Improve Patient and Economic Outcomes4.3.3 Growing Geriatric Population5. Global Parkinsons Disease Drugs Market Outlook 20226. Major Products in Parkinsons Disease Market6.1 Duodopa/Duopa6.2 Azilect6.3 Mirapex/Mirapex ER6.4 Requip6.5 Neupro6.6 Rytary/Numient6.7 Xadago6.8 Nuplazid7. Market Segmentation by Type of Therapy7.1 Levodopa Therapy7.2 Dopamine Agonist Therapy7.3 MAO-B Inhibitor Therapy7.4 COMT Inhibitor Therapy7.5 Other Therapy8. Market Segmentation by Geography8.1 North America8.2 Europe8.3 Asia-Pacific9. Trends & Developments9.1 Stem Cell Therapies - Revolutionizing Parkinson Treatment9.2 Incessant Launch of Novel Products10. Mergers & Acquisitions11. Drugs Pipeline of Parkinsons Disease12. Company Profiles12.1 Abbvie Inc.12.2 Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA12.3 Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc.12.4 Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH12.5 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited12.6 GlaxoSmithKline plc12.7 UCB S.A.12.8 Novartis AG12.9 Impax Laboratories, Inc.12.10 Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.12.11 Merck & Co., Inc.12.12 Mylan N.V.12.13 F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.12.14 US WorldMeds, LLCContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
New Business Opportunities of India Medical Skull CT Market in Global Industry : Overview, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis and Research 2017

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "India Medical Skull CT Market Research Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The India market consumption of skull CT increased from 414 Units in 2012 to 449 Units 2016. The CAGR is about 2.05%. The market value of skull CT reached 122 million USD in 2016 and it was 126 million USD in 2012. The CAGR of the market value is about -0.81% from 2012 to 2016.This report studies the Medical Skull CT development status and future trend in India, focuses on top players in India, also splits Medical Skull CT by type and by applications, to fully and deeply research and reveal the market general situation and future forecast.The major players in India market includeSiemens HealthcareGE HealthcarePhilipsToshibaHitachiShimadzuTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Geographically, this report splits the India market into six regions,North IndiaSouth IndiaEast IndiaWest IndiaNortheast IndiaCentral IndiaOn the basis of product, the Medical Skull CT market is primarily split into2S Spiral Scan CT16S Spiral Scan CT64S Spiral Scan CT128S Spiral Scan CTOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report coversPrivate HospitalPublic HospitalMake an Enquiry about TOC @Table of Contents1 Medical Skull CT Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Medical Skull CT11.2 Classification of Medical Skull CT by Product Category21.2.1 India Medical Skull CT Sales (Unit) Comparison by Types21.2.2 India Medical Skull CT Sales (Unit) Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 201631.3 India Medical Skull CT Market by Applications/End Users52 India Skull Computed Tomography (CT) Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers162.1 India Skull Computed Tomography (CT) Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Manufacturers (2012-2017)162.2 India Skull Computed Tomography (CT) Revenue and Share by Players/Manufacturers (2012-2017)182.3 India Skull Computed Tomography (CT) Average Price (K USD/Unit) by Players/Manufacturers (2012-2017)203 India Skull Computed Tomography (CT) Sales and Revenue by Regions (2012-2017)243.1 India Skull Computed Tomography (CT) Sales (Unit) and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)243.2 India Skull Computed Tomography (CT) Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)253.3 India Skull Computed Tomography (CT) Price (K USD/Unit) by Regions (2012-2017)27ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.us
Emulsion Polymers Market Expansion Projected to Gain an Uptick During 2017 - 2027

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Introduction: Emulsion Polymers MarketEmulsion polymers is a polymer produced through monomer, water and emulsion of surfactant. The common type of emulsion polymer are oil-in- water, all the emulsion polymers have molecular weights which may results in fast polymerization. Surfactant plays a vital role in the manufacturing of emulsion polymer for particle nucleation, stabilization and to increase the life of the product. However, there extra presence may lead to adverse effects on the final product. All the emulsion polymers are belongs to green products which may lead to eco -friendly products of coatings, paints and many more. The application of emulsion polymers are for improving the quality of heat sensitivity, self-repairing abilities of paints and coatings during manufacturing.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Dynamics: Emulsion Polymers MarketEmulsion polymers is expected to thrive the demand in terms of value and volume in between the forecast period. Market is expected to gain traction in near future owning to some key drivers such as, fruitful growth in paints and coatings market, swiftly growing paper and paperboards demand in end use customers as well as government stringent regulations all these factors are expected to contribute the growth of the emulsion polymer market in the forecast period. Along with these key factors strong growth in adhesives market is also expected to increase sales of emulsion polymers, while enhanced output of quality coated paper is expected to support demand for styrene-butadiene. The awareness towards the use of bio based emulsion polymers is expected to witness strong opportunity for the emulsion polymer manufacturers. The major key factors which is expected to hamper the market growth is the fluctuating raw materials prices. On the basis of application, acrylic is expected to dominate the emulsion polymer market and is expected to gain more than one third market in terms of value and volume. The demand for the acrylic polymers are increased due to its strong durability and wide range of end use applications.On the basis of geographical region, Asia pacific is expected to create significant incremental $ opportunity in the emulsion polymer market. China is anticipated to witness for one third of market value share in terms of value and volume. The fastest growth is projected for India in Asia Pacific emulsion polymer market, gains is expected to fueled by growth in the production of paper, adhesives, high quality coating, especially in the emerging economies of AsiaTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Market Segmentation: Emulsion Polymers MarketEmulsion polymers market is segmented on the basis of material type, packaging type, product type and end usersOn the basis of product type, emulsion polymers market segmented asStyrene Butadiene LatexVinyl Acetate PolymersAcrylicsOthersOn the basis of application the emulsion polymers market segmented asAdhesivesPaints & CoatingsPaper & PaperboardsInksTextileOthersRegional Outlook: Emulsion Polymers MarketGlobally, North America and Western Europe is anticipated to dominate the market over the forecast period owing to growing a polymer industry. Emulsion polymer is the mature market and gain in the market is expected from a rebound in construction and manufacturing activities. As well as from the adoption of the stringent regulations. However, key manufacturers are planning to ramp up their investments and set up their production hubs in APAC to hit the increasing necessities of markets in the region. Furthermore, APAC is anticipated to be primarily driven by China and India. Middle East & Africa and Latin America are projected to witness for sluggish steady growth over the forecast period. Latin America countries such as Mexico and Brazil are expected to represent significant incremental $ opportunity in between the forecast period.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Abhishek BudholiyaFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
United States Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Market Segments by Size, Share and Application - Forecast to 2022

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"The Latest Research Report United States Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Market by Manufacturers, States, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"This report mainly focused on dental CAD/CAM Milling Machine systems. CAD/CAM Milling Machine uses CAD/CAM (computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing), using rotary burs, to produce dental prostheses, including crowns, crown lays, veneers, inlays and onlays, fixed bridges, dental implant restorations, dentures (removable or fixed), etc.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines in United States market, to split the market based on manufacturers, states, type and application.Get Sample Copy of this report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversDentsply SironaIvoclar VivadentRolandStraumannZimmerZirkonzahnWillemin-MacodelDentiumAmann Girrbachimes-icoreDATRONSchutz Dentalvhf camfactureYenadentB&D DentalINTERDENT d.o.o.MECANUMERICCadBlu DentalBien-Air DentalReitel FeinwerktechnikMarket Segment by States, coveringCaliforniaTexasNew YorkFloridaIllinoisMarket Segment by Type, covers4 Axis5 AxisOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoDental ClinicDental LabOthersBrowse Complete Report with TOC @There are 17 Chapters to deeply display the United States Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines market.Chapter 1, to describe Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by States, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the United States market by States, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines, for each state, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key States by Type and Application, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, revenue and market share by types and applications;Chapter 12, Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines market forecast, by States, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source.View Sample PDF @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 4 Axis1.2.2 5 Axis1.2.3 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Dental Clinic1.3.2 Dental Lab1.3.3 Others1.4 Market Analysis by States1.4.1 California Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Texas Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 New York Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Florida Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Illinois Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Dentsply Sirona2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Dentsply Sirona Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Dentsply Sirona News2.2 Ivoclar Vivadent2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Ivoclar Vivadent Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 Ivoclar Vivadent News2.3 Roland2.3.1 Profile2.3.2 Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Roland Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3.4 Business Overview2.3.5 Roland News2.4 Straumann2.4.1 Profile2.4.2 Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Straumann Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4.4 Business Overview2.4.5 Straumann News2.5 Zimmer2.5.1 Profile2.5.2 Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Zimmer Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5.4 Business Overview2.5.5 Zimmer News2.6 Zirkonzahn2.6.1 Profile2.6.2 Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Zirkonzahn Dental CAD/CAM Milling Machines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6.4 Business Overview2.6.5 Zirkonzahn NewsBuy Now This Report From Here @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Stretch Films Packs Market Intelligence with Competitive Landscape 2017  2027

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Stretch Films Packs: Market IntroductionThe shipping & logistics sector is growing on the backdrop of e-Commerce industry, wherein consumers ensures the delivery of the products in pristine condition. Stretch film packs is a flexible packaging solution which consists of a corrugated pad to which stretched plastic films is attached. Stretch film packs possess unique properties like lightweight, easy moulding, clarity etc. making it a better choice for packaging of products. The film stretches around the product giving required tension to hold the products securely in place. Stretch film pack has barrier properties such as weather proof, dust proof etc. stretch film pack is used to secure and unitize loads. The most common application of stretch film packs is to bundle multiple products together and secure the product over transportation. Stretch film packs offers flexibility in packaging as multiple products can be bundled together. Stretch film packs offers packaging solutions to various industries such as food and beverages, healthcare, electronics etc. Shrink films possess unique properties like lightweight, easy moulding, clarity etc. making it a better choice for packaging of products.Stretch Films Packs: Market DynamicsThe factors accentuating the market growth of the stretch films packs market are rapid industrialization, rising demand for consumer goods, increase in retail outlets etc. Increased traction of stretch films packs in place of blister packs or clamshell packs tends to drive the market share of stretch films packs. The key features accentuating the market share of stretch films packs is that stretch films packs are not easily punctured by pointed objects and sharp edges, especially during transportation of the products. Furthermore, stretch films packs reduces the packaging volume during transit by using the less films overall helping manufacturers who are seeking for material cost reduction. In addition to this, stretch film packs have excellent appeal for product display and offers consumers a convenient packaging solution such as easy to use, lightweight etc. stretch films packs offers flexibility in packaging solutions as multiple products can be packaged simultaneously increasing cost and productivity efficiencies. Stretch films packs eliminates the product damage during transportation, and therefore the manufacturers have been attracted towards the stretch films packs. Moreover, reduced prices of crude oil in developing economies is expected to increase the momentum of stretch films packs market attributed to cheap availability of raw materials.Request For Report Sample:Despite the favourable conditions for the growth of stretch film packs market, there are certain factors that hinder the growth such as government regulations against the use of plastics.Stretch Films Packs: Market SegmentationStretch film packs market has been segmented on the basis of material type, applications, and end-user industries.On the basis of material type, stretch films packs has been segmented asPolyethylene (PE)LLDPEHDPEPolypropyleneOthersOn the basis of application, stretch film packs has been segmented asWine packagingCrockery packagingGlassware packagingOthersOn the basis of end-use industries, stretch films packs has been segmented asFood and beveragesPharmaceuticalsElectrical & electronicsHomecareOthersStretch Films Packs: Regional OutlookStretch film packs market has been segmented on the basis of the region into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America. North America is expected to dominate the market share of stretch film packs owing to the consolidation of the manufacturers in the region. North America is followed by Western Europe due to increasing penetration of e-commerce and shipping and logistics in the region. APEJ is anticipated to register the highest growth rate during the forecast period owing to the reduced price of raw materials and low cost availability of labor. MEA region is expected to register stagnant market during the forecast period due to stagnant economy.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Stretch Films Packs: Key PlayersSome of the key players in the field of stretch film pack market are DuPont, Smurfit Kappa Group, Atlas Container Corporation, Berry Global Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Abhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Digital pathology Market Analysis, Segment, Trends and Forecasts 2022

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With the evolution of information technology in the past few years, a rapid change has being observed in the practice of pathology. Various novel techniques have been implemented, primarily in the form of digital imaging and Telepathology (TP). The Global Digital Pathology Market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period growing rapidly. Digital pathology is a branch which can be defined as the electronic capture, management, analysis and distribution of gross or microscopic specimens. It encompasses the use of digital imaging as well as TP. Digital pathology has a wide spectrum of applications that includes primary diagnosis, intraoperative diagnosis, consultation, quality assurance, archiving, research and academic studies. This technique helps in speeding up the process of diagnosis and further treatment. It also helps in research procedures by offering an easy access to the previously stored digital information. As per the Royal College of Pathologists, in the UK alone pathologists carry out 121,000 autopsies each year which has supported the market growth.Get a Sample Report @The global digital pathology market is growing with the rapid pace; mainly due technologically advanced diagnostic tools for the chronic diseases such as cancer has upsurged the demand for digital pathology. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2022, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2022).The market is expected grow with the same trends during the forecast period. The major drivers will be rapid technological advancements in digital pathology system such as advancements in digital imaging, robotic light microscopy, and multiple fiber optic communications among others. Moreover, growing prevalence of chronic conditions, that has expected to uplift the demand for digital pathology in order to improve existing patient diagnostic imaging measures and reduce high cost associated with the traditional diagnostics methods. For instance, as per National Pathology Programme, nearly 800 million tests are being performed annually which is equal to 14 for each person in England and Wales. Additionally, increasing R&D applications of static and dynamic systems is fostering the market growth of digital pathology market.Global Digital Pathology Market - Competitive AnalysisThe market for digital pathology is characterised by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global market of digital pathology appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. Global players are increasingly expanding their footprint in the emerging nations, making it putting pressure on the regional players, especially in terms of features such as type, product portfolios, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to get more intensified further during the forecast period. Well established players are entering into mergers & acquisitions, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and product launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position.Order Copy of 85 Premium Pages is Available @Companies like Leica Biosystems; Hamamatsu Photonics, Inc.; and Olympus Corporation are increasingly adopting extensive collaborative strategies to gain more profits and capturing new markets. For instance, in March 2017, Leica Biosystems entered into a strategic partnership with Leeds Hospital to improve productivity and workflow.Key participants like Royal Philips has acquired the Irish PathXL, one of the largest pathology, image-based analysis firms in order to develop integrated tools targeting applications in computational biology, workflow solutions, education, and image analytics. In addition, these key activities the companies are aiming towards supporting the gradual transition of medical institutions present across the globe from the conventional pathology systems to digital pathology systems.Thus, we can say that these competitive developments will further enable pathologists to perform high-throughput analysis of clinical image datasets that are diverse in nature and expedite improvement in the diagnosis quality, thereby presenting a potential for adoption new ad improved therapies to enhance patient health outcomes.microDimensions GmbH (Germany), Mikroscan Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), Q2 Solutions (U.S.), Omnyx, LLC (U.S.), GE Healthcare (UK), Philips Healthcare (U.S.), Huron Digital Pathology Inc. (Canada), ViewsIQ Inc. (Canada), 3DHISTECH Ltd (Hungary) Apollo Enterprise Imaging Corp. (U.S.), Xifin Inc. (U.S.), Definiens (Germany) and others. are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Digital Pathology Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.List of TablesTable 1 Global Digital Pathology Market, By Types, 2013-2022 (USD Million)Table 2 Global Digital Pathology Market, By Products, 2013-2022 (USD Million)Table 3 Global Digital Pathology Market, By Application, 2013-2022 (USD Million)Table 4 Global Digital Pathology Market, By End User, 2013-2022 (USD Million)Table 5 Global Digital Pathology Market, By Region, 2013-2022 (USD Million)Ask to Expert @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Memory Integrated Circuits (IC) Market is Expected to Witness a Steady Growth by 2020

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An integrated circuit (IC), also known as chip or a microchip is a layout of electronic circuits built over a small plate made of semiconductor material. ICs are very compact and can have up to several hundreds of transistors and other components embedded on a semiconductor plate of very small size. ICs were made possible by various experiments showing that semiconductor devices can perform the functions of vacuum tubes. The mass production and reliability of ICs ensured the rapid adoption of standard integrated circuits in place of circuits using discrete transistors. ICs can store data of over 64 GB on a single chip of size comparable to a fingernail. There are primarily two types of ICs for memory storage viz. volatile and non-volatile memory. Volatile memories are memories such as random access memories (RAM) which can retain data stored on them as long as power supply is provided. Non-volatile memories are read-only memories (ROM) which have data stored on them irrespective of power supply.A sample of this report is available upon request @The memory ICs find applications in memory based electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers, tablets, medical devices, smart cards, digital cameras, communication equipments and other digital electronic devices. Memory ICs are predominantly used in smart-phones, media players, and USB drives. With growing adoption and enhancements in smart-phones, there is a rising demand for sophisticated memory ICs in recent years. This demand is expected to grow at a high rate owing to the ongoing development in the smartphone devices. Another application contributing to the demand of memory ICs is tablet computers. The demand for memory ICs is expected to rise with growing adoption of tablet PCs.In addition, increasing use of digital cameras and camcorders worldwide too contributes to the demand for memory ICs. Memory ICs are also used in smart cards such as driving license, e-passport and other identification cards. Installation of memory ICs makes it convenient to maintain records of the card holder leading to growing adoption of these cards. Automotive and medical sectors are the emerging application areas of the memory ICs. Memory ICs are used to maintain the records of patients in medical equipment such as electrocardiographs, diagnostic imaging apparatus, medical PCs, blood analysis devices and other electronic medical recording systems.Geographically, Asia-Pacific has shown the fastest growth in memory ICs market due to the growing population and consumption of consumer electronics in this region. Asia-Pacific accounts for over a quarter of the global memory ICs market. In addition, rising number of suppliers of semiconductor material required for manufacturing of ICs is boosting the production of memory ICs. North America follows Asia-Pacific with growing development in medical and automobile sector along with the consumer electronics.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @In North America, Agilent Technologies, CyOptics, Enablence Technologies, Ciena, Emcore Corporation, Hewlett Packard, Finisar Corporation, Infinera Corporation, JDS Uniphase, Kaiam Corporation, Intel Corporation, Kotura Inc, Luxtera, Oclaro Inc., Neophotonics Corporation, Onechip Photonics among others are the providers of memory ICs. In Europe, Aifotec AG and Alcatel Lucent are leading manufacturers of memory chip ICs. In Asia-Pacific, Avago Technologies is among the leading manufacturers of memory ICs.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems Market: Challenges and Opportunities Report 2017  2027

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Contact-free sleep monitoring system is a medical device for the monitoring the patient sleep and records the stages of sleep in the different times at the night. This device is connected to user smartphone app. This app receded s all the activities during the sleep time of the particular patient. After recording the data about different stages of sleep it also suggests the improvement in the sleep position. Besides that, it also suggests the improvement in the eating and drinking to improvise patient sleep. This device works on sound wave technology and records the slightest movement of the patient. These devices sweep the sound waves 16 times every second to the patient which is responsible for the granular level observation of sleep. The app connected to this device generate the static data of sleep which make the user to understand the areas of improvement in their sleep. This app also suggests the optimum sleep time for the patient and trigger the alarm to awake the patient.Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems Infection Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe rising prevalence of sleep deficiency is the primary factor driving the growth of contact-free sleep monitoring system market. The advancement in the smartphone technology will responsible for the launch of the improved product for sleep testing which increases the penetration of contact-free sleep monitoring system market over the forecast period. The rising incidences of chronic health problem due to high stress and lack of sleep will also upsurge the growth of contact-free sleep monitoring system market. Increasing healthcare expenditure and focus on personal care will propel the growth of chronic disorder of sleep The lack of awareness people regarding the contact-free sleep monitoring system in under developing economies will hamper the growth of this market. Besides the strict regulatory scenario for the approval of the medical device for sleep testing will also deter the growth of contact-free sleep monitoring system market over the forecast period.Request For Report Sample:Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems Market: SegmentationThe global Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems market is classified on the basis of component type type, distribution channel and geographic region.Based on component type, Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems market is segmented into following:SystemSoftwareBased on end user, Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems market is segmented into following:HospitalsLong Term Care CenterRehabilitation CentersHomecare SettingsContact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems Market: OverviewContact-free sleep monitoring system market is expected to show significant growth over forecast period due to rising incidences of chronic disorder of sleep. Accor ding to report published on Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine current 50-70 million Americans are suffering from chronic disorder of sleep and wakefulness. Chronic disorder of sleep affect daily functioning, safety, quality of life, health, and longevity which force the consumer to focus on the their health. There are only few contact-free sleep monitoring system available in the market where as few systems are in the pipeline. The leading manufacturer of contact-free sleep monitoring system are focusing to collaborate will the rehabilitation centers and long term care centers to upsurge the awareness of this product among the consumers.Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems Market: Regional OverviewBased on geographic region Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems market is classified into seven key regions, North, America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America dominates the contact-free sleep monitoring system market due to high health care spending by consumers. This market is the followed by Western Europe and Japan. Increasing focus of among consumer about personal care is responsible for the robust t growth of contact-free sleep monitoring system market in Western Europe and Japan over the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems Market: Key PlayersExamples of some of the market participants in Contact-Free Sleep Monitoring Systems market identified across the value chain include SleepScore Labs, Resmed, Samsung, EarlySense Ltd., Sense. There are few device in the pipeline for contact-free sleep monitoring. Leading manufacturer of contact-free sleep monitoring is focused to collaborate with the regional and local distributors to expand their market presence and upsurge their revenue from this system.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Abhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Semiconductor Inspection System Market Will Generate New Growth Opportunities by 2026

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Semiconductor industry has witnessed drastic changes over the years and these changes led to make complex semiconductor manufacturing assembly lines. Semiconductor inspection system operates in the semiconductor production lines in order to improve the quality of manufactured semiconductor device. The primary functions of semiconductor inspection system to provide application support provisioning, yield and process management provisioning, and inspection and evaluation system module provisioning.There are various type of inspection required in the production line of semiconductor industry; in-line inspection, on-line defect analysis, and critical dimension-measurement in lithography. Moreover, wafer detection systems are also used to detect pattern defects and particles and analyzes possible causes for poor yield.A sample of this report is available upon request @There is a tectonic shift in semiconductor industry due to the exponential growth in internet of things (IoT) market. Without the semiconductor sensor technology, the existence of IoT cannot be imagined. Hence, the role of semiconductor inspection systems became more crucial in order to produce sensors of extreme quality.Semiconductor Inspection System Market: Drivers and ChallengesNow-a-days, miniaturization is playing a vital part in the manufacturing of the semiconductor devices. Miniaturization is immensely contributing in reduction of material cost, on the flip side of this, it is also increasing the complexity in the assembly lines. This might take the productivity of a particular assembly line to south. It has led to the demand of semiconductor inspection system that integrates and controls high-performance inspection and evaluation tools.In near future, Planarization process and multi-layer wiring will be more comely used in assembly lines of semiconductor industry. It can generate some serious inspection problems such as metal grain and color variations. The existing inspection systems arent capable to inspect and detect such kind of problems. It is the biggest challenges for vendors to provide inspection systems that are capable in eliminating these false defects in order to detect true defects.Semiconductor Inspection System Market: SegmentationSegmentation of semiconductor inspection system market on the basis of types:Wafer Inspection System :Wafer inspection systems assist semiconductor manufactures enhance integrated circuit (IC) chip gain. The IC industry deploys inspection system to detect defects that happen during the manufacturing process. The main function of these system to check whether the process is under control. If the system find any discrepancy during the manufacturing process, it indicate the root cause of the problem. Wafer inspection systems are holding maximum chunk of overall semiconductor inspection system market.Mask Inspection System:In semiconductor industry, a mask or a photo mask is a series of electronic data that lay the foundation for photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication. Mask inspection is nothing but task perform before actual fabrication of real mask. Since a mask acts as a light absorbing layer of semiconductor chip, the inspection of it is essential as the defected mask can entirely damage the semiconductor chip.KLA-Tencor, Applied Materials, Herms Microvision, Lasertech, ASML Holding, FEI, Hitachi High-Technologies, and Nanometrics are some of the key vendors of semiconductor inspection system market.Regional OverviewThe North America region holds the largest market share of global semiconductor inspection system market. The semiconductor device manufactures are speeding huge amount of money in countries such as US and Canada in order to expand their capacity and opening the new facilities. The North America region is also home to many of the key vendors of semiconductor inspection system. The Asia Pacific region is closely following the North America region and is expected to have the highest growth rate in coming future due to the growth of semiconductor industry in countries such as China, Taiwan, and Japan.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @In the Europe region, the semiconductor inspection system market is witnessing moderate growth rate. Germany is contributing immensely in the Europe semiconductor inspection system market as it is the largest electronics manufacturing country of the Europe. Germany is also hub of automotive and industrial electronics. Moreover European semiconductor vendors are eying to acquire US companies. For instance, in 2015 NXP Semiconductors acquired Freescale and became the largest player in the automotive semiconductor market. The strong merger and acquisition outlook in semiconductor industry will further drive the growth of semiconductor inspection system market in Europe.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Crop Production Software Market is touching new level - A comprehensive study with key manufacturers segmented by Geography, Application

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HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Crop Production Software market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global Crop Production Software market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Cloud-based, On-premise based & Web-based], products type [] and various important geographies like United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global Crop Production Software market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers. The in-depth information by segments of Crop Production Software market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global Crop Production Software Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global Crop Production Software Market, some of them listed here are AG Leader Technology, Agjunction, EFC Systems, Deere & Company, SST Development Group, Agrivi, Dickey-John Corporation, Granular, Agrovision, Trimble Navigation, Iteris, Conservis Corporation, Agworld PTY, The Climate Corporation, Farm Dog & Farmersedge. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Global Crop Production Software (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as . Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Cloud-based, On-premise based & Web-based with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Crop Production Software in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Crop Production Software market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Crop Production Software, Applications of Crop Production Software, Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Crop Production Software, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia, Crop Production Software Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Crop Production Software Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Crop Production Software;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [], Market Trend by Application [Cloud-based, On-premise based & Web-based];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Crop Production Software;Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe Crop Production Software sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.What this Research Study Offers:Global Crop Production Software Market share assessments for the regional and country level segmentsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersStrategic recommendations for the new entrantsMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional marketsMarket Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsCompetitive landscaping mapping the key common trendsCompany profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developmentsSupply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsBuy this research report @Reasons for Buying this ReportThis report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamicsIt provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growthIt provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to growIt helps in understanding the key product segments and their futureIt provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitorsIt helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segmentsEnquire for customization in Report @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837+1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.comConnect with us at
Industrial Operational Intelligence Solutions Market Rugged Expansion Foreseen by 2026

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Industrial operational intelligence is a business analytics and real time dynamic solution that provides greater insights and visibility for businesses. Operational intelligence is used by organisations for real time capabilities to take immediate decisions like stopping any business process or making changes in any traditional systems. Operational intelligence helps in improving and analysing business data through understanding the information related to shortfalls and finding simple ways of responding to any issues.Operational intelligence is simple and easy to be managed by skilled professionals. It helps to acquire information on financial performance of industries and enterprises, thus it has become a major trend in financial services sector. Another major trend observed in operational intelligence is adoption of mobile tools for its operations. Thus in short operational intelligence automated the process of decision making that eliminates delays in process, and improves market responses and decision making. The industrial operational intelligence solutions market is anticipated to expand at a modest CAGR in the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @Global Industrial Operational Intelligence Solutions Market  Drivers and RestrainsFocus of companies to improve market responses and performance as well as the necessity to upgrade their processes are the major driving factors for the growth of global industrial operational intelligence solutions market. The ever increasing automobile and other manufacturing industries and their need to reduce the delays in decision making, automatic decision and real time access to the information are some factors that would bolster the global industrial operational intelligence solutions market.However, skilled professionals are required to operate the operational intelligence solutions and also they need to be trained for its handling and these can slowdown the growth of global industrial operational intelligence solutions market. Also the initial cost of operational intelligence solutions is very high and can act as a restraining factor for operational intelligence market.Global Industrial Operational Intelligence Solutions Market  SegmentsOn the basis of types, global industrial operational intelligence solutions market can be segmented as follows:Enterprise Manufacturing Operational IntelligenceEnterprise Operational Intelligence SoftwareIT Service IntelligenceEnterprise SecurityOn the basis of applications, global industrial operational intelligence solutions market can be segmented as follows:Supply chain and logisticsAssembly line quality assurancePreventive maintenanceExploration & production optimisationSmart meter analysisOn the basis of end-use industry, global industrial operational intelligence solutions market can be segmented as follows:AutomobilesFood & BeveragesElectronicsLogisticsOil & GasAviationGlobal Industrial Operational Intelligence Solutions Market  Region Wise OutlookThe global industrial operational intelligence solutions market can be divided into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East and Africa. North America is anticipated to be the leader in the global operational intelligence solutions market owing to its services and other flourishing industries particularly in the countries of US and Canada. Asia Pacific is expected to be the next major region in global operational intelligence solutions market because of the upcoming food & beverages sector, electronics and logistics industries.China and India and supposed to be the countries in this region having major applications of operational intelligence solutions. Europe also contributes significantly in the global industrial operational intelligence solutions market due to its dominance in automobiles market and leadership in meat market. Latin America and Middle East and Africa are at a nascent stage and are projected to have a modest CAGR in the forecast period.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Global Industrial Operational Intelligence Solutions Market  Key PlayersSome of the key players in the global industrial operational intelligence solutions market are:APRISOIFSMapR Technologies, IncSiemens AGARC Advisory GroupAB&R (American Barcode and RFID)Flexeye LtdSplunk CorpStarview Inc.Vitria Technology IncAbout UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Customer Experience Management (CEM) In Telecommunication Market to Witness Comprehensive Growth by 2026

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CEM can be defined as a management technique that acquires relevant information about the customer, through different types of interactions. This acquired data is useful for improving the customers experience in the future. Customers experience develops over a period of time, influenced by the services offered to them. When a customer is ready to purchase more than one service, it becomes essential for the company to generate a complete profile of its customers.Having the clear understanding of customers experiences, will help telecom providers to offer improved services that meet an individuals needs. Many companies are coming up with interactive ways to better understand their customers experience. This transformation is helping the telecommunication industry grow tremendously. The major drawback here is investing time and money to cater to every individual customers requirements. Developing a virtual agent to tackle the issues generated by the customer, also calls for large investments for developing and training. Even after putting in a huge amount of money, the customer might not be satisfied with the response.A sample of this report is available upon request @Customer Experience Management (CEM) in Telecommunication Market: DriversCustomers are becoming more aware about the services offered to them, and are equally keen in helping companies to offer better services. Many companies are realizing the importance their customers experience hold, and are using this to improve the standards of the products they offer. This is driving the growth of the market. However, the cost involved in the digitization of the customer experience management is impeding the growth of the market.Customer Experience Management (CEM) in Telecommunication Market: SegmentationThe segmentation of customer experience management can be done on the basis of types of interaction, verticals, organization, application market and region. The types of interaction could be classified into human to human interaction, and machine to human interaction. Human to human interaction could be further sub segmented on the basis of medium of communication, i.e., in the branch or store, on call, on web chat, on social media, and e-mail. Machine to human interaction can be sub segmented on the basis of medium of communication into, on call, on web chat, on social media, and through interactive applications. On the basis of verticals, it is segmented into telecommunication service providers and companies manufacturing telecommunication devices.Customer Experience Management (CEM) in Telecommunication Market: Regional OutlookThe customer experience management market is expect to grow vastly in the coming years. North America and Europe are the expected upcoming leaders in this market, owing to the fact that their telecommunication industry has long been investing in customer interaction. Whereas, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa are expected to see a moderate growth in their market.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Customer Experience Management (CEM) in Telecommunication: Competition LandscapeSome of the key players in the market are, Adobe Systems Inc., Tech Mahindra, SAP SE, Medallia, IBM, Oracle Corporation, Verint Systems, Amdocs Inc., Hewlett-Packard Development Company, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, Ericsson, Cisco Systems Inc. and Clarabridge. Recently, McorpCX, Inc., a customer experience software and consulting leader, acquired a leading company in customer experience management called, PersonaDrive, Inc. Companies grow their market by following business strategies like acquisition, partnerships and others.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Tricyclodecenyl Propionate Market trends estimates high demand by 2024

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A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Tricyclodecenyl Propionate Market. The study, titled Tricyclodecenyl Propionate Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Tricyclodecenyl Propionate Market: OverviewTricyclodecenyl propionate or CYCLAPROP, with the molecular formula C??H??O? and also called 3a,4,5,6,7,7a-Hexahydro-4,7-methanoindene-6-carboxylic acid ethyl ester, 4,7-Methanoinden-6-ol, and 3a,4,5,6,7,7a-hexahydro propionate, is a concentrated aromatic ingredient used as a fragrance compound. It has a perfume composition, which is a mixture of fragrances and auxiliary substances that may be dissolved in an appropriate solvent or blended with a powdery substrate and then used to impart the desired odor to the skin and/or various products. Essential consumer goods in which tricyclodecenyl propionate is used include soaps, washing agents, dish washing & cleaning agents, air fresheners & room sprays, pomanders, candles, cosmetics such as creams, colognes, pre- & after-shaving lotions, talcum powders, hair care agents, body deodorants, and antiperspirants.View Report Preview:The auxiliary agents and solvents include 3-phenyi ethanol, 3-phenyiethyi acetate, benzyl alcohol, benzyl acetate, benzyl salicylate, benzyl benzoate, and amyl salicylate. Synthetic fragrances such as tricyclodecenyl propionate comprise a polycyclic structure and a woody and amber-like odor reminiscent of natural wood or ambergris which persists effectively even when small amounts are applied to the skin, hair, and clothes so as to enhance the value preference and functionality of the product.Tricyclodecenyl Propionate Market: Dynamics & TrendsThe amount of tetrahydrofurans used with tricyclodecenyl propionate can vary depending on the product in which the perfume is used, the nature & amount of its components, and the odor effect desired. It is included in the listings of the FDA (Food & Drug Association), FEMA (Flavor & Extract Manufacturers Association: 19651), or the Cotmcil of Europe. In Japan and other countries, due to the lifestyle changes, affluence, pleasure, and emotional effect brought about by fragrances, have attracted global attention to improve life quality. Fragrances with high safety parameters post mixing with auxiliary solvents are in great demand since they are not a burden on the environment. Tricyclodecenyl propionate has eventually replaced a few long-known floral fragrance materials which are being criticized for their instability in applications such as shampoos, shower gels, and conditioners. These materials are hexylcinnamaldehyde, 2-methyl-3- (p-tert-butylphenyl) propanal, 2-methyl-3- (p-isopropylphenyl) propanal, 3-(p-tert-butylphenyl) propanal(p-tert-butylphenyl) propanal, and hydroxycitronellal. A few fragrance materials with tricyclodecenyl propionate are being used with alcohol and alcools as cis/trans and stereo-isomeric mixtures as well as with various Cis and Trans and stereoisomers as fragrance materials.Tricyclodecenyl Propionate Market: SegmentationThe tricyclodecenyl propionate market can be divided by application (soaps, perfumes, colognes, and others) and by region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa).Tricyclodecenyl Propionate Market: Region-wise OutlookAsia Pacific and MEA are estimated to be the leading markets. Government targets and policy support in are likely to drive the tricyclodecenyl propionate market in these regions. Currently, North America and Europe are the market leaders.Tricyclodecenyl Propionate Market: Key PlayersKey players in the tricyclodecenyl propionate market include Vigon International, Berje, Inc., Phoenix Aromas & Essential Oils, Inc., Lluch Essence S.L, The Lermond Company, and Ernesto Ventos S.A.Request to view Sample Report:The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Market Key Trends, Challenges and Opportunities 2018

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report 5G Infrastructure to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the Asia-pacific 5G Infrastructure market offers elaborate and comprehensive assessment of key growth drivers, challenges, noteworthy trends, major technological advances, and strategic landscape. The analysis presents a detailed overview of the current market offerings, their scope in various regions, and major research and development activities influencing their growth. The study presents a detailed assessment of various types of business risks, notably operational and strategic, and highlights the prevailing governmental regulations in various regions. It further takes a closer look at expected growth areas and lucrative prospects emerging in the Asia-pacific 5G Infrastructure market. Key innovations likely to open up new revenue streams in untapped markets are also covered in the report.A diverse range of trends is causing considerable shifts in consumer preferences in the Asia-pacific 5G Infrastructure market in various developing and developed regions. The study offers a granular analysis of such aspects and the likely opportunities that will emerge on account of this are covered. It further zeroes in key factors that will support public and private investments in the Asia-pacific 5G Infrastructure market.For more info, get the sample report for FREE here:The study highlights major recent developments in end-use sectors likely to change the competitive dynamics of the overall market. It estimates the current revenue share and size of various players in the 5G Infrastructure market and analyzes the factors that will account for the dominant position of some over the assessment timeline.The research methodology employed in analyzing the 5G Infrastructure market draws from approaches universally accepted by industries and reflects the findings from a wide spectrum of primary and secondary research. This is supported by extensive rounds of interviews with CXOs, business executives, policy makers, and industry leaders. The findings offered in the research study is invaluable for various market participants, stakeholders, and budding entrepreneurs.Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure market competition by top manufacturers/players, with 5G Infrastructure sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingQualcommIntelEricssonSamsungNECQorvoAT&THuaweiNokiaMediaTek...Read Complete Table of Content of the Report at:Table of ContentsAsia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Market Report 20171 5G Infrastructure Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of 5G Infrastructure1.2 Classification of 5G Infrastructure by Product Category1.2.1 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Types (2012-2022)1.2.2 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Small Cell1.2.4 RAN1.2.5 Macro Cell1.3 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)1.3.2 Automotive1.3.3 Consumer Electronics1.3.4 Retail1.4 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Market by Region1.4.1 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 South Korea Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.8 Australia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Asia-Pacific Market Size (Value and Volume) of 5G Infrastructure (2012-2022)1.5.1 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Sales Volume and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure (Volume) by Application2.4 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure (Volume and Value) by Region2.4.1 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.2 Asia-Pacific 5G Infrastructure Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)To check available discount on this report, visit at:3 China 5G Infrastructure (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 China 5G Infrastructure Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 China 5G Infrastructure Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 China 5G Infrastructure Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 China 5G Infrastructure Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)...About QYResearchReports.comQyresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from Qyresearchreports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Memristor Market to Significant Growth Foreseen by 2026

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Memristor is an innovative electric component consists of memory resistor, two terminal electrical component related to the magnetic flux linkage as well as electric charge. The memristor has properties of both memory element and resistor. The electrical resistance isnt constant but it depends on current flowed through it and resistance depends on how much electric charge flowed in what direction in the past. The device has memory history. When current flows in a direction resistance increase, and current flows in opposite direction resistance decreases. Memristors can replace the flash memory. The advanced technologies and rapid innovations enables create opportunities for the companies. The global memristor market anticipated to exhibit a significant CAGR as well as annual growth rate over the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @Memristor Market: Drivers and restraintsThe memristor market can be driven by the following factors, increased chip performance can be done by addition of transistors on circuit. The higher densities increase the problem of heat generation which affects the devices. Memristor enables replace the increasing number of transistors on a circuit. Memristor enables replace D-RAM. The computers using the D-RAM lack of ability to retain information once they shut down. Memristors can remember voltage and no need to reboot the computer. Increased applications of memristors enables drive global memristor market. Increased awareness among the people regarding the technological advancements and innovations in computers enables create lucrative opportunities for the memristors market. Regulatory bodies are implementing stringent regulations towards maintain the required quality of products is major challenge for the market. However, lack of skilled professionals is the major challenge and memristor costlier than the conventional devices, which may hamper the global memristor market.Memristor Market: SegmentationGlobal Market can be segmented as following typesBased on RAM4 GB8 GB16 GB32 GB64 GBBy Product TypeStatic RAM (S-RAM)Dynamic RAM (D-RAM)EPROMMemristor Market: OverviewGlobal memristor market is gaining uptake in surge across the globe due to increased awareness among people. The memristor has its significance such as it can replace flash memory and D-RAM. The global memristor market is witnessed a significant CAGR as well as annual growth rates over the forecast period.Memristor Market: Region-Wise OutlookGlobal market is segmented into seven key regions, those are North America (N.A), Latin America (L.A), Eastern Europe (E.E), Western Europe (W.E), Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Japan.North America is anticipated to have a maximum market share in global market due to increased awareness among the people in the countries like US and Canada. Asia-Pacific follows North America in terms of market share in global memristor market owing to the drastic change in Asian countries economy as well as information technology industries in India and china. European region is expected to witness a significant contribution in global memristor market. The global memristor market is anticipated to account for significant CAGR as well as lucrative opportunities for the companies over the forecast period.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Memristor Market: Key playersSome of the key players areToshiba CorporationSanDisk CorporationIntel CorporationFujitsu Ltd.Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.Cypress Semiconductor CorporationIBMHewlett PackardSeagate Technology LLC.SK HynixSony CorpAbout UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Methyl Dihydrojasmonate Market share will expand till 2024

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A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Methyl Dihydrojasmonate Market. The study, titled Methyl Dihydrojasmonate Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Methyl dihydrojasmonate is an ester and aroma compound, with a fragrance similar to that of jasmine. It is a liquid with a typical fruity, jasmine-like blossomy aroma and has been produced from tea. It is prepared via the addition of malonic acid esters to 2-pentyl-2-cyclopentene-1-one, followed by hydrolysis and decarboxylation. Methyl dihydrojasmonate, a high-quality perfume compound consists of mixtures of isomers. The intensity of its fragrance depends on the tendency of these isomers. Methyl dihydrojasmonate is a fragrant substance belonging to the esters group and is used extensively in flavor and fragrance products.View Report Preview:Based on occurrence, the methyl dihydrojasmonate market has been divided into the following groups: jasmine, tea, and heliotropium peruvianum. Tea accounts for a significant share in the global market owing to its high availability in Asia Pacific. Jasmine is expected to experience a high growth rate, driven by the growing demand for it in the perfume industry. Changing consumer preferences and fashion trends are anticipated to boost the need for perfumes and therefore for methyl dihydrojasmonate during the forecast period.In terms of geography, the global methyl dihydrojasmonate market has been distributed over Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Asia Pacific was a major market in 2015 and is estimated to expand due to the increasing demand for perfumes here. The growing requirement for flavors and fragrances in the fashion and cosmetic industries is also projected to boost the need for methyl dihydrojasmonate in the near future. Its applications are driven by the rising need for perfume products such as body sprays, deodorants, and face powders. The surge in the disposable incomes of consumers in North America and Europe is also projected to propel the methyl dihydrojasmonate market in these regions, especially in the U.S. and U.K., which are likely to constitute major shares in the cosmetic products market here, also due to the new product launches taking place in these countries. Developing economies in Asia, namely China and India, are also projected to register a high growth rate in the perfume & fragrance industry due to the increasing incomes of consumers and changing lifestyles which, in turn, are expected to propel the methyl dihydrojasmonate market, along with the rising propensity among men as well as women to spend on perfumes and fragrance products. New product developments and marketing strategies are expected to boost the demand for methyl dihydrojasmonate in the perfume industry during the forecast period.Global demand for perfumes and fragrances is anticipated to rise significantly in the near future, thereby offering high growth opportunities for the methyl dihydrojasmonate market. Rapid increase in the demand for them in end-use applications, competitive manufacturing costs, and high economic growth rates are motivating the methyl dihydrojasmonate market in Asia Pacific. These factors are attracting companies to adopt expansion and R&D strategies in the region. Market players are focusing on Asia Pacific to gain extensive market shares. Producers of methyl dihydrojasmonate have been compelled to adopt acquisition strategies to meet the global demand and several of them are shifting their plants to countries such as China and India due to the high demand and low raw material and labor costs there.Request to view Sample Report:Major players operating in the global methyl dihydrojasmonate market are Aecochem Products, Ernesto Ventos, S.A., Netvertise GmbH., and Simagchem Corporation.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global ISO Certification Market to touch US$ 2.8 Bn by 2025

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ISO or International Organization for Standardization, endorses global standardization for specifications and requirements concerned with products, materials, procedures, information, formats and quality management. Over the years, there has been a surge in making goods and services more standardized in order to fulfill the quality needs of the global population. To study about the wide market for ISO certification, Market Research Hub (MRH) has included a new report titled ISO Certification Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2025). This research study talks about the global market covering different geographical regions, namely, North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa.Get Free Sample Report @Research SpecificsThis report offers an in depth analysis focusing on the various factors present in the global market. Further, various opportunities and trends are also enclosed that will decide the future prospects in the ISO certification market targeting drivers which pose a direct influence on the growth of the market. Readers can even access details about market restraints that can assist in framing out detours to evade hurdles in the market and prepare an organized growth track for the coming years.Market BifurcationAs the report proceeds, readers are offered a brief description about the market segmentation. Based on certification, the prime division include ISO 9001:2015, ISO 27001-2013, ISO 22301: 2012, ISO/IEC 27032: 2012, ISO 14001: 2015 and ISO Lead Auditor Training. Further, on the basis on industry, the prime application sectors include information technology, retail, construction, retail, machinery and equipment, chemical and fiber, transportation, storage and communication, aerospace and BPO. Each of these segments is studied with a stern focus on BPS analysis, Y-o-Y growth projections and market size (US$ Mn), 2017-2025.Browse Complete Report with TOC @The final section of the report is a clear cut analysis of the major players active in the global ISO certification market. This research study highlights the competition dashboard as well as market structure and pricing structure analysis. Some of the primary players mentioned in the report are Bureau Veritas, DNV GL AS (International Standards Certifications Global FZ LLC), Lloyd's Register Group Services Limited, Intertek, SGS SA, CERTIFICATION EUROPE, The British Standards Institution, NQA, URS Holdings and Lakshy Management Consultant Pvt. Ltd. Readers can grab crisp knowledge about the financials, recent developments and strategies followed by each of these players.Enquire About this Report @About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:
Bioherbicides Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2023

Bioherbicides Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com adds Bioherbicides Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2023 Research to its Database.Description:Herbicide is a pesticide which is used to kill the unwanted plants. Bioherbicides are derived from microbes to prevent the growth of unnecessary plants of weed during the yield of crop. Bioherbicides are majorly derived from fungi, protozoa, bacteria, and phytotoxic extracts of plants. Bioherbicides have several advantages compared with synthetic herbicides. For instance, synthetic herbicides cause soil and water pollution and affect the human health through food consumption. Bioherbicides do not cause any harm to farmers during handling process. In addition, crops harvested by using bioherbicides are safe for consumption.Market Dynamics: Bioherbicides MarketIncrease in demand for organic products, need for higher product yield and quality with reduced chemical hazards, government initiations for the eco-friendly farming practices, and increase in awareness among the farmers about the bioherbicides are anticipated to propel the bioherbicides market over the forecast period. Moreover, due to synthetic herbicide tolerance on soybean and maize, stringent regulations posed by developed countries on importing such crops, leads to higher adoption of bioherbicides usage. In addition, advantages over the synthetic herbicides, low R&D costs, and easier residue management are expected to boost the bioherbicides market over the forecast timeframe. However, risk of secreted toxic metabolites by microbes, high cost of the bioherbicides, and lesser availability of products are expected to hinder the growth of bioherbicides market over the forecast period.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comMarket Scope: Bioherbicides MarketIt is segmented on the basis of source, mode of application, and formulationBased on the source, it is segmented into the following:MicrobialsBiochemicalPhytotoxic plant residuesOthersBased on the mode of application, it is segmented into the following:SoilSeedFoliarPost-harvestBased on the crop type, it is segmented into the following:Arable cropsPermanent cropsothersBased on the formulation, it is segmented into the following:LiquidGranularPowderOthersMarket Summary: Bioherbicides MarketBioherbicides market is growing at a significant CAGR owing to increase in the awareness about the benefits of bioherbicides over the synthetic herbicides among farming comunity. Increase in the R&D activities by small and big firms for the innovation of newer bioherbicides propels the bioherbicides market revenue. Diversification of business segments by registration of bioherbicides in the various markets is a key opportunity for the market players. In addition, government support for the smaller companies for the synthesis of bioherbicides might upsurge the revenue growth of the market. Moreover, acquisitions and mergers, collaborations, patent fillings and product launchings are the strategies followed by companies for dominating the global bioherbicides market. For instance, in May 2012, Marrone Bio innovations received U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval for MBI-005, a broad-spectrum bioherbicide used on variety of crops. In addition, in May 2014, Emery Oleochemicals received Canadas Health Pest Management regulatory Agency approval for Emerion 7005, a bioherbicide used in weed and crop management.Regional Analysis: Bioherbicides MarketGeographically, Bioherbicides market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America bioherbicides market growing at significant rate due to increase in awareness about organic farming, rise in adoption towards eco-friendly farming techniques, increase in the demand for healthy food products, and rise in government support for bioherbicides usage. Europe bioherbicides market accounted for significant share due to increase in the usage of bio-herbicides, high-quality fruits and vegetable cultivation, and rise in R&D activities for innovation of newer bioherbicides in the Europe bioherbicides market. Moreover, Asia Pacific bioherbicides market exhibiting significant growth, which is attributed to increase in population depending on the farming majorly in India and China, rise in adoption of organic farming practices, and increase in the demand for high quality and quantity yields are expected to propel growth of the market over the forecast period.Market Participants: Bioherbicides MarketSome of the players in bioherbicides market are Deer Creek Holdings (U.S.), Emery Oleochemicals (Malaysia), Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. (U.S.), Verdesian Life Sciences, LLC (U.S.), EcoPesticides International, Inc. (U.S.), Innovative Biologicals (Canada), MycoLogic Inc. (U.S.), Bioherbicides Australia Pty Ltd. (Australia), and Hindustan Bio-tech (India) to name a few.Notable Market Developments: Bioherbicides MarketIn April 2017, Premier Tech partnered with agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for the development and commercialization of bioherbicide formulated from an indigenous fungus (Phoma macrostoma)Ask Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key Points1. Executive Summary2. Global Bioherbicides Market Introduction2.1. Global Bioherbicides Market  Taxonomy2.2. Global Bioherbicides Market Definitions2.2.1. Source2.2.2. Mode of Application2.2.3. Formulation3. Global Bioherbicides Market Dynamics3.1. Drivers3.2. Restraints3.3. Opportunities/Unmet Needs of the Market3.4. Trends3.5. Global Bioherbicides Market Dynamic Factors - Impact Analysis3.6. Global Bioherbicides Market  Regulations3.6.1. U.S.3.6.2. Europe3.7. Global Bioherbicides Market Trends4. Global Bioherbicides Market Analysis, 2012  2016 and Forecast, 2017  20234.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)4.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%)4.3. Market Opportunity Analysis5. Global Bioherbicides Market , By Source, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)5.1. Microbials5.1.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)5.1.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)5.1.3. Market Opportunity Analysis5.2. Biochemical5.2.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)5.2.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)5.2.3. Market Opportunity Analysis5.3. Others5.3.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)5.3.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)5.3.3. Market Opportunity Analysis6. Global Bioherbicides Market Forecast, By Mode of Application, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  20236.1. Soil6.1.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)6.1.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)6.1.3. Market Opportunity Analysis6.2. Seed6.2.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)6.2.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)6.2.3. Market Opportunity Analysis6.3. Foliar6.3.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)6.3.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)6.3.3. Market Opportunity Analysis6.4. Post-Harvest6.4.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)6.4.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)6.4.3. Market Opportunity Analysis7. Global Bioherbicides Market Forecast, By Formulation, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  20237.1. Liquid7.1.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)7.1.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)7.1.3. Market Opportunity Analysis7.2. Granular7.2.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)7.2.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)7.2.3. Market Opportunity Analysis7.3. Powder7.3.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)7.3.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)7.3.3. Market Opportunity Analysis7.4. Others7.4.1. Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)7.4.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis (%)7.4.3. Market Opportunity AnalysisContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
World Analysis on Earthmoving Equipment Market 2017-2022, Key Players- Bobcat Company, Atlas Copco, Bharat Earth Movers Limited, Ingersoll Rand Inc., Case Construction Equipment

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Market ScenarioAn earthmoving equipment is the heavy-duty vehicle designed specifically for execution of construction jobs, mostly related to the earthwork operation. Earth moving equipment is used majorly in construction industry for moving large amounts of earth or to dig foundations for large building structures and landscape areas. Operating earthmoving equipment, requires technically skilled labor, trained for operating such equipment.Rapidly increasing urban population demanding for better infrastructure facilities is expected to positively impact the demand of earthmoving equipment market over the forecast period. Various government initiatives which are undertaken for development of infrastructure and the increasing investments in the construction industry are projected to drive consumption of the global earthmoving equipment market. Need for better connectivity and enhanced transport facilities are also anticipated to drive the industry over the forecast period. Increasing globalization is expected to create a favorable environment for foreign direct investment which is estimated to enhance the growth of the market in the forecast periodRegional Analysis of Earthmoving Equipment MarketAsia-Pacific is expected to dominate the global earthmoving equipment market followed by the Europe and North America region. In Asia-pacific region, China is expected to lead the market with the large number of construction activities in the region. The construction equipment market was hampered by the global recession, but the earthmoving equipment market is expected to show gradual growth in the forecast period. The earthmoving equipment market is expected to remain steady over the forecasted period as the market is near to maturity level. The North America region is forecasted to experience a sluggish growth due to economic uncertainty in the region.Request sample @Key PlayersThe key players of Earthmoving equipment market are Bobcat Company (U.S.), Atlas Copco(Nacka), Bharat Earth Movers Limited (India), Ingersoll Rand Inc. (Republic of Ireland), Case Construction Equipment (Netherlands), New Holland Construction (Italy), Track Marshall. (U.K.), Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. (Japan), The Liebherr Group (Bulle) and Volvo Construction Equipment (Belgium) and others.Intended Audience Earthmoving equipment manufacturers Distributer & Supplier companies End Users consultants and Investment bankers Government as well as Independent Regulatory AuthoritiesProduct Analysis Product matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional Information Regulatory Landscape Pricing Analysis Macroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic Analysis Geographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany Information Profiling of 10 key market players In-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report title Competitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Earthmoving equipment market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Browse report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Implantable Ports Market : Future Demand, Market Analysis & Outlook to 2017 - 2025

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Implantable ports (also called portacaths, chest ports, or subcutaneous ports) are thin, hollow, soft tubes made of plastic with a silicon rubber disk at the end. An implantable port is usually inserted into the vein of the patients chest or the arm. It is one among the group of devices called central venous catheters, wherein the port is attached to the catheter positioned just under the skin of the patients chest or the arm. The port is most commonly used for administration of chemotherapy as well as oncology drugs. It can be used for IV administration of pain medication antibiotics, nutritional supplements, and blood factors as well as for drawing blood samples.Estimates by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the WHO indicate the prevalence of 21.7 million new cancer patients across the world in 2017, which would increase the use of chemotherapy in the near future. This, in turn, would augment the demand for implantable ports in the next few years. Major advantages of implantable ports over IV include the fact that, with the use of ports, repeated puncture of the skin is avoided. Also, an implantable port is more efficiently accessed than an IV site. Additionally, certain medications may sometimes lead to tissue damage when administered through IV, which can be avoided by using implantable ports. Once inserted, they can be used for weeks or months depending on the therapy. However, implantable ports may have some disadvantages such as risk of infection at the site of insertion, formation of clots, blockages, and damage caused to the port.Request Sample Copy of the Report @One of the primary drivers for the implantable ports market is technological advancements. Increasing efforts by manufacturers for the development of highly advanced, technology-based, implantable ports with advanced delivery systems is another driving factor. Manufacturers are also focused on reducing the safety issues associated with implantable ports. PASV valve technology-based Xcela port introduced by AngioDynamics is the first proximally valved CT-rated port. It provides clinicians with saline-only maintenance. Future development of medication and innovative drugs would also fuel for the future expansion in therapy possibilities where usage of port is favored. Some of the restraints for the implantable ports market is availability of peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) and peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) and comparatively high price of implantable ports could hamper the market.Based on product, the implantable ports market can be segmented into venous, arterial, intraperitoneal, and epidural. Based on the number of access points, the implantable ports market has been divided into single-lumen ports and double-lumen ports. Based on material used to manufacture the port, the market has been divided into metal ports (usually made of titanium or stainless steel) and plastic ports (usually made of silicone, polyurethane, polysulfone, polyoxymethylene, or polydamide). Based on end-user, the implantable ports market has been classified into ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), hospitals, and clinics.Check Discount @Based on geography, the global implantable ports market has been segregated into North America; Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific (APAC). Growth of the implantable ports market in different geographies is dependent on factors such as reimbursement issues, medical practices, and education and training. Considering the revenues generated by implantable ports, North America is expected to be the most attractive market owing to the increasing demand in the U.S due to rise in prevalence of chronic disorders and increase in geriatric population. The implantable ports market in Europe is projected to be driven by factors such as health care industry restructuring, changes in reimbursement policies, and increasing availability of home care facilities in the region. Home care facilities offer an alternative for inpatients, as the patient would return to the hospital only to get implantable ports refilled. The market in developing countries of Asia Pacific such as Japan, China, and India is anticipated to expand at a rapid pace during the forecast period, due to increase in use of chemotherapy and rise in awareness about the use of ports in these countries.Some of the key players operating in the global implantable ports market are AngioDynamics, Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Cook Medical, C. R. Bard, Inc., Smiths Medical, Vygon S.A., and Teleflex Inc.Report Details @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Active Implantable Medical Devices Market : Future Demand, Market Analysis & Outlook to 2017 - 2025

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Active medical devices are types of medical devices that require electric energy or any other source of power for effective functioning. These devices seldom rely on a source of energy which is directly generated by gravity or from the human body. Active implantable medical devices are active medical devices intended to be introduced totally or partially, surgically or medically into the human body by medical intervention and intended to remain in the body after the procedure.Types of active implantable medical devices are implantable cardiac pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, implantable nerve stimulators, cochlear implants, and implanted infusion pumps. These devices are used in different health conditions and they fulfill different treatment purposes. Implantable cardiac pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are generally used in arrhythmia, a disorder that affects the heart rhythm or rate. An ICD helps in monitoring heart rhythm and sends electric signals if it detects dangerous rhythm. Pacemakers aid in controlling the abnormal heart rhythm by using electric pulses for proper functioning of the heart. In case of an individual suffering from chronic pain, implantable nerve stimulators provide relief and help in pain management. Cochlear implants are medical devices that aid in the hearing process for persons who experience issues with their hearing or suffer from hearing loss. Implanted infusion pumps are miniature devices inserted under the skin for consistent and targeted medication to alleviate pain experienced by patients.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Rising geriatric population and increasing prevalence of neurological and cardiovascular diseases are major factors driving the global active implantable medical devices market. In 2015, a report by the United Nations stated that the number of people aged 60 years and above worldwide had increased from around 607 million in 2000 to nearly 901 million in 2015. The geriatric population is expected to rise by 56%, which is nearly 1.4 billion, by 2030. It is anticipated to increase from 901 million in 2030 to about 2.1 billion by 2050. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is the major cause of deaths globally with over 17.7 million deaths caused by CVDs in 2015, which represents 31% of deaths occurring worldwide. Middle- and low-income countries are the most affected, with 75% of deaths caused by CVDs occurring in these countries. As per the WHO estimates, around 6 million deaths occur due to stroke every year across the globe. Around 47.5 million people across the world are affected by dementia and 7.7 million new cases are reported every year. Globally, the number of people with epilepsy is estimated to be more than 50 million. Rise in the number of patients with cardiovascular and neurological disorders is expected to boost the demand for devices such as implantable cardiac pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, and implantable nerve stimulators during the forecast period.Additionally, rising investments by major players in the development of technologically advanced active implantable medical devices and favorable reimbursement scenarios in developed countries are anticipated to drive the demand for these devices in the near future. On the other hand, high costs of implants, challenges related to deployment of active implantable medical devices, and unfavorable health care reforms prevalent in the U.S. are likely to hinder the active implantable medical devices market during the forecast period. Development of novel products such as subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillators and easy-to-use implantable products with enhanced shelf-life is expected to provide significant growth opportunities to the market during the forecast period.Check Discount @The global active implantable medical devices market has been segmented based on product, procedure, end-user, and region. In terms of product, the market has been classified into implantable cardiac pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, implantable nerve stimulators, cochlear implants, and implanted infusion pumps. Based on procedure, the active implantable medical devices market has been divided into cardiovascular implants, neurological Implants, hearing implants, and others. In terms of end-user, the market has been segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, and cardiac centers.In terms of geography, the global active implantable medical devices market has been divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America accounts for a leading share of the global active implantable medical devices market, due to rise in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders in the region. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to register the maximum growth rate during the forecast period, due to rising health care expenditure and growing geriatric population in the region.Key players operating in the global active implantable medical devices market are Boston Scientific Corporation Limited, Abbott Laboratories (St. Jude Medical, LLC.), Medtronic Plc, BIOTRONIK SE & Co. KG, Cochlear Ltd., Zimmer Biomet, and Sonova Holding AG (Advanced Bionics).Report Details @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Tourettes Syndrome Treatment Market to Register Substantial Expansion by 2017 - 2025

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Tourettes syndrome is a severe and rare neurological disorder characterized by stereotyped, repetitive, involuntary movements, and vocalizations. It usually affects children aged between six years and 17 years. A tic is a sudden, no rhythmic motor movement, repetitive or vocalization involving discrete muscle groups. Generally, tics are categorized into simple or complex tics. Simple tics are defined as sudden, brief, repetitive movements of muscles. Others include eye blinking, facial grimacing, head or shoulder jerking, shoulder shrugging, and repetitive throat-clearing. Complex tics are coordinated patterns of movements associated with several muscle groups. Facial grimacing, sniffing or touching objects, bending, twisting, and jumping can be termed as complex tics. Usually, the first symptoms of tics occur in head and neck area and progress to trunk and extremities muscles. Tourettes syndrome is associated with other additional neurobehavioral problems such as inattention, impulsivity (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder-ADHD), problems with reading and writing, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms.Health care professionals diagnose Tourettes syndrome based on motor and vocal tics for at least a year. Other neurological or psychiatric conditions including compulsive behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder and stereotypic behaviors in autism also help to diagnose Tourettes syndrome. Neuroimaging studies including computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalogram (EEG) scans, and certain blood tests help to diagnose Tourettes syndrome. Neuroleptics is one of the most recommended medications for the treatment of the syndrome. Haloperidol and pimozide are popular medicine for Tourettes syndrome. Other medications such as clonidine and guanfacine can also be useful to reduce tic severity. Increase in research and development as well as health care infrastructure globally drive the Tourettes syndrome treatment market. Rise in medical costs restrain the market in developing countries.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The global Tourettes syndrome treatment market can be segmented based on medical treatment and region. In terms of medical treatment, the market can be categorized into behavior, psychotherapy, and medication. Medicines including fluphenazine, haloperidol (Haldol), and pimozide (Orap) can help control tics in Tourettes syndrome. Non-tic symptoms can be treated with anti-obsessionals such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs or ADHD medication including dextroamphetamine, atomoxetine, and methylphenidate. Depending on the severity, combination drug is also recommended by health care professional for Tourettes syndrome.Geographically, the global Tourettes syndrome treatment market can be segmented into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. These regions can be further segmented into countries and medical treatment. North America is the leading market for Tourettes syndrome treatment. In terms of revenue, the U.S. holds a major share of the market in North America. The market in Europe is expanding rapidly due to rise in prevalence of Tourettes syndrome in the region. The market in Asia Pacific and Latin America is projected to expand significantly in the near future due to high annual incidence of Tourettes syndrome. Developing economies such as China and India are anticipated to contribute to the growth of the market in Asia Pacific between 2017 and 2025 due to better health care infrastructure, economic growth, increase in the number of insurance payers, growth of the private health care sector, and increase in awareness among people. Brazil and Mexico dominate the Tourettes syndrome market in Latin America. South Africa, Turkey, and other developing countries in Middle East & Africa are the major markets for Tourettes syndrome treatment in this region.Check Discount @Key players operating in the global Tourettes syndrome treatment market are Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., Novartis AG, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Apotex, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, and Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Report Details @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market 2018 Global Analysis,Research,Review,Applications and Forecast to 2023

Lung Cancer Therapeutics 2018

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WiseGuyReports.Com adds Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market 2018 Global Analysis,Research,Review,Applications and Forecast to 2023 Research to its Database.Description:Lung cancer or lung carcinoma is the disease characterized by the abnormal proliferation of tumour cells in the lung tissues. Lung cancer is classified into 3 types namely lung carcinoid tumour, small cell lung cancer, and non-small cell lung cell cancer. Common symptoms associated with the lung cancer include a cough, weight loss, shortness of breath, and chest pains. Smoking and prolonged use of tobacco are the common risk factors for the lung cancer. Lung cancer can be diagnosed by the biopsy performed by using CT-guidance or bronchoscopy. Lung cancer can be treated by radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery.Increasing pollution owing to rapid industrialization, a rise in the number of tobacco consumption and smoking population, growing government funding for the R&D activities, and rise in demand for targeted therapies are anticipated to fuel the growth of lung cancer therapeutics market. Moreover, innovation of newer radiotherapies, a launch of low priced generic drugs, and rise in prevalence of non-small cell lung cancer are expected to propel the lung cancer therapeutics market over the forecast period. However, stringent regulatory policies, patent expiry of lung cancer therapeutics, poor cancer diagnostics in underdeveloped countries, and adverse effects associated with the treatment might hamper the growth of lung cancer therapeutics market.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comLung cancer therapeutics market segmented based on the treatment type, disease type, and end userBased on the drug type, lung cancer therapeutics market segmented into the following:ChemotherapyTaxolNavelbineAlimtaCisplatinCamptosarOthersTargeted therapyGilotrifTarcevaAvastinIressaOthersBased on the disease type, lung cancer therapeutics market segmented into the following:Small cell lung cancerNon-small cell lung cancerLarge carcinoid tumourBased on the end user, lung cancer therapeutics market segmented into the following:HospitalsOncology ClinicsAmbulatory surgical centresGlobal lung cancer therapeutics market is growing at a significant CAGR over the forecast timeframe owing to increase in the R&D activities clinical trials for the innovation of new drugs and vaccines for the treatment of lung cancer. Increase in the prevalence of lung cancer (according to world cancer research fund international 2012, lung cancer was the most common cancer which contributes 13% share of the new cancer cases diagnosed) also propelling the lung cancer therapeutics market. Acquisitions & mergers, collaborations are the key strategies adopted by the players to gain revenue growth in lung cancer therapeutics market. For instance, in November 2015, Eli Lilly and Co. and Merck & Co., Inc. collaborated to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a combination of the Alimta and Keytruda under phase III trials for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Moreover, in January 2016, VisionGate acquired a patent from University of Colorado for Iloprost used in the treatment of lung cancer. Similarly, In September 2014, Asterias Biotherapeutics collaborated with Cancer Research UK for the development of a vaccine for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.Geographically, Lung cancer therapeutics market is segmented into the Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and North America. North America lung cancer therapeutics market is growing due to increase in the prevalence of lung cancer majorly in U.S. (according to CDC 2014, about 215,951 people diagnosed with lung cancer and 155,526 people died of the lung cancer). In addition, increase the funding for the R&D activities, and early diagnosis of the disease is expected to propel the lung cancer therapeutics market in North America. In Europe region, rise in the prevalence of lung cancer majorly in Hungary, Serbia, U.K and other Europe countries (according to Cancer Research UK, about 46,403 new lung cancer in the UK and 35,895 people died of the disease), rise in the government funding for lung cancer R&D activities, and advanced healthcare infrastructure are boosting the lung cancer therapeutics market. Asia Pacific region is exhibiting significant growth in lung cancer therapeutics market owing to rapid industrialization and availability of low-cost generic products in the region.Some of the players in lung cancer therapeutics market are Eli Lilly and Company (U.S.), GlaxoSmithKline Plc (U.K.), AstraZeneca (U.S.), Pfizer, Inc. (U.S.), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland), Merck & Co. Inc. (U.S.), Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Germany), Novartis AG (Switzerland), Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. (Japan), Abbvie, Inc. (U.S.), VisionGate, Inc. (U.S.), and Asterias Biotherapeutics (Biotime) (U.S.) to name a few.In April 2017, Takeda Pharmaceutical received an approval from FDA for Alunbrig (brigatinib) used in the treatment of ALK+ non-small cell lung cancerIn April 2017, AstraZeneca received approval from European Commission for the marketing authorization of Tagrisso used in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancerAsk Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key Points1. Executive summary2. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market Introduction2.1. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market  Taxonomy2.2. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market Definitions2.2.1. Drug class2.2.2. Distribution Channel3. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market Dynamics3.1. Drivers3.2. Restraints3.3. Opportunities/Unmet Needs of the Market3.4. Trends3.5. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market Dynamics  Factors Impact Analysis3.6. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market  Regulations3.6.1. U.S3.6.2. Europe3.6.3. Japan3.6.4. China3.7. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market  Pipeline Analysis4. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market Analysis, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017  20234.1. Market Analysis, 2012  2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)4.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%)4.3. Market Oppurtunity Analysis5. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market, By Drug Class, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017 - 20235.1. Drug Class Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2023) by Revenue (USD Mn) and Y-o-Y Growth (%)5.1.1. Chemotherapy5.1.1.1. Taxol5.1.1.2. Navelbine5.1.1.3. Alimta5.1.1.4. Cisplatin5.1.1.5. Camptosar5.1.1.6. Others5.1.2. Targeted therapy5.1.2.1. Gilotrif5.1.2.2. Tarceva5.1.2.3. Avastin5.1.2.4. Iressa5.1.2.5. Others5.1.3. Market Opportunity Analysis6. Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market Forecast, By Disease Type, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017 - 20236.1. Small Cell Lung Cancer6.1.1. Market Analysis, 2012  2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)6.1.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis6.1.3. Market Opportunity Analysis6.2. Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer6.2.1. Market Analysis, 2012  2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)6.2.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis6.2.3. Market Opportunity Analysis6.3. Large Carcinoid Tumor6.3.1. Market Analysis, 2012  2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)6.3.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis7. Market Opportunity Analysis Global Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market Forecast, By End User, 2012 - 2016 and Forecast, 2017 - 20237.1. Hospitals7.1.1. Market Analysis, 2012  2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)7.1.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis7.1.3. Market Opportunity Analysis7.2. Oncology Clinics7.2.1. Market Analysis, 2012  2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)7.2.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis7.2.3. Market Opportunity Analysis7.3. Ambulatory Surgical Centers7.3.1. Market Analysis, 2012  2016 and Forecast, 2017  2023 (Revenue, USD Mn)7.3.2. Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y) Growth Analysis (%) and Market Share Analysis7.3.3. Market Opportunity AnalysisContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Global Door System Market Analysis and Market Forecast by 2022, Key Players- Ply Gem Holdings Inc., Masco Corporation, Allegion plc, Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc., Masonite International Corporation

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Market Scenario:Door system is an important component of the decisions involved while planning a residential and non-residential project. The recent trend in door system is that of various folding and sliding door systems with different runner types which permit solutions for all furniture segments. Moreover, different sizes and materials have resulted in increased popularity of such systems. With the boom in the construction industry, there is an increasing need for security, convenience, and concerns about the environment. Demand for high quality doors for residential as well non-residential purposes is some of the other factors that drive the door system market. Increase in the disposal income, innovation and the growing demand for construction are fueling the market demand. However, lack of awareness about the various technologies in door system acts as a major barrier for the market.Regional AnalysisAsia-Pacific is the fastest & the largest growing region for door system market. The region has the highest growth rate due to high demand for construction from countries such as China and India. Asia-Pacific is forecasted to witness significant growth due to increasing development and automation in the developing economies. Moreover, demand for the repair and renovation, in residential and non- residential sectors drives the door system market in the APAC region.Get a free sample report @Key PlayersThe major players operating in the global door system market areASSA ABLOY (Sweden), Ply Gem Holdings Inc. (U.S.), Masco Corporation (U.S.), Allegion plc, (Ireland), Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc. (U.S.), Masonite International Corporation (U.S.), DuluxGroup Limited (Australia), PGT, Inc. (U.S.), Andersen Corporation (U.S.) and Jeld Wen, Inc. (U.S.).LIST OF FIGURESFIGURE 1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGYFIGURE 2 GLOBAL DOOR SYSTEM MARKET: BY MATERIAL (%)FIGURE 3 GLOBAL DOOR SYSTEM MARKET: BY TECHNOLOGY (%)FIGURE 4 GLOBAL DOOR SYSTEM MARKET: BY APPLICATION (%)FIGURE 5 GLOBAL DOOR SYSTEM MARKET: BY REGIONFIGURE 6 NORTH AMERICA DOOR SYSTEM MARKET, BY MATERIAL (%)FIGURE 7 NORTH AMERICA DOOR SYSTEM MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGY (%)FIGURE 8 NORTH AMERICA DOOR SYSTEM MARKET, BY APPLICATION (%)FIGURE 9 EUROPE DOOR SYSTEM MARKET, BY MATERIAL (%)CONTINUE..The report for Global Door System Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advance Door system, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regionsBrowse report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting ServicesContact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Middle East & Africa Blood Coagulant Market Key Vendors, Manufacturers, Suppliers and Analysis Market Report 2023

Middle East & Africa Blood Coagulant Market

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The Middle East & Africa Blood Coagulant Market growth is majorly attributed to increasing prevalence of the bleeding disorders, rising funding, healthcare insurance coverage, and awareness programs for bleeding disorders. On the other hand, there are certain factors that also hinder the growth of this market such as lack of R&D capabilities in the regions, presence of counterfeit drugs, and lack of awareness in most of the parts of developing and underdeveloped countries in the region. The Middle East & Africa Blood Coagulant Market is expected to grow at the CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period 2017-2023.Coagulation is the process, by which blood changes from a liquid to a gel, forming a blood clot. In general terms, coagulation is a process in which the blood forms clots to block and then heal a lesion/wound/cut and stop the bleeding. The Middle East & Africa blood coagulant market growth is majorly attributed to increasing prevalence of the bleeding disorders, rising funding, healthcare insurance coverage, and awareness programs for bleeding disorders. In the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, bleeding disorders have become a huge problem due to limited screening, ignorance of diseases, and poor access to treatment. As per the study published in Blood Coagulation Fibrinolysis journal, 2016, it is reported that in the Yaounde Hemophilia Treatment Center (HTC) of Cameroon multiple cases of hemophilia and von willebrand disease (VWD) have been registered According to the 2014 Annual Global Survey of World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH), in 2014 the total population of Egypt was 86,895,099 out of which 5,246 people were living with hemophilia, 513 were living with von willebrand disease, and 1,123 with other bleeding disorders. It is also reported that 4201 cases of hemophilia A were registered and among them 37% were under 4 years A research study published in Medicine journal in 2017 stated that hemophilia A is the most common type of hemophilia in Saudi Arabia and most dominant in male patients: 1 : 5000 to 10,000. Whereas, prevalence rate of hemophilia B: 1: 34,500 male patients.Key Findings: Hemophilia segment dominates the market with nearly 45.5% share of the MEA market MEA coagulation factor market is projected to reach about USD 141.68 million by 2023 MEA blood coagulants market for hemophilia segment was estimated to be USD 31.55 million in 2016 UAE is the fastest growing region in the MEA blood coagulants market with 10.1% CAGR during 2017 to 2023Key Players for MEA Blood Coagulants Market:Pfizer Inc. (U.S.), Bayer AG (Germany), Novo Nordisk AS (Dernmark), Shire (Republic of Ireland), SOBI (Sweden), Octapharma (Switzerland), and CSL Limited (Australia).Get Sample Copy atSegmentation:The MEA Blood Coagulants Market is segmented on the basis of types, indications, and by country.On the basis of types, the market is segmented into coagulation factor and others. Coagulation factor is further segmented into recombinant coagulation factor, plasma coagulation factor, and others.On the basis of indication, the market is segmented into haemophilia, surgery, other bleeding disorders, and others. Haemophilia is further divided into haemophilia A and haemophilia B.On the basis of country, the market is segmented into KSA, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt, and Rest of Middle East & Africa.Regional Analysis:The Middle East & Africa Blood Coagulants Market is segmented on the basis of countries into Saudi Arabia (KSA), United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt, and rest of Middle East & Africa. Saudi Arabia account for the largest market share of the Middle East & Africa blood coagulants market by countries in 2016. The large share is majorly attributed to increasing prevalence of the haemophilia disease in this country, high usage of the expensive recombinant coagulation factors for the treatment, and high disposable income of the population, and better healthcare facilities in this country.Major Illustrations:Topic 1 Report PrologueTopic 2 Research MethodologyTopic 3 Market DynamicsTopic 4 Middle East & Africa Blood Coagulants Market By TypeTopic 5 Middle East & Africa Blood Coagulants Market, By IndicationTopic 6 Middle East & Africa Blood Coagulants Market, By CountryTopic 7 Company ProfilesTopic 8 List Of Tables$Topic 9 List Of Figures T.O.C. ContinuedApply for Discount @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMRFR has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in refining market research parameters, choosing right market studies, and evaluating both the market scope and the research methodologies of varied segments.We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.Years of research into diverse fields of work has ingrained within us, a proficiency so distinguished that our industry-specific specialists identify with your business ideas and feel the pulse of your challenges and opportunities. This enables us for providing assistance, through our consulting and strategic consulting services, in informed managerial decision making. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industries, WantStats Research and Media often conducts industrial visits for its research analysts. Relevant inputs from various established market participants, help our clients make significant contribution in respective markets are a huge motivation for all of us to endlessly furnish quality. We depend greatly on profound insights into complex realms of our study.Pune, India
Global Smart Beacon Market Boosting CAGR of +56.5% from 2018 with Top Manufacturers, Growth, Size, Analysis, Competitive Landscape and Forecast till 2025

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The Global Smart Beacon Market accounted for USD 1,363.9 million in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 56.5% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.For In depth Information Get Free Sample Copy of this Report@Global Smart Beacon Market By Connectivity Type (Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Hybrid), By Beacon Standard (Ibeacon, Eddystone), By Offerings (Hardware, Software, Service), By End User (Transportation & Logistics, Retail, Public Gatherings and Spaces, Hospitality, Healthcare, Automotive, Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI), Sports Education, Aviation), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025Complete report on Global Smart Beacon Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresMarket Definition: Global Smart Beacon MarketSmart Beacon is also known as Bluetooth Low Energy beacon which is a vicinity guide that sends a signal utilizing bluetooth innovation. At the point when a cell phone or tablet is in the signals range, it triggers a warning on the gadget.Key Questions Answered in Global Smart Beacon Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Smart Beacon Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Smart Beacon Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Smart Beacon Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Smart Beacon Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Smart Beacon Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Smart Beacon Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Request for Detailed TOC:Top Key Players: Grenade Forward Foods YouBar OhYeah! Nutritional Atkins Nutritionalals NuGo Nutritional KIND Snacks NuGo Nutritional and Orgain Kellogg General Mills Premier Nutritional Quest Nutritional thinkThin ellogg NA Co Kashi Company Clif Bar & Company Mars Incorporated. Premier Nutritional Corporation Stokely-Van Camp, Inc. Luna Bar Quaker Frank Food Company Abbott among others.Major Market Drivers: Rising need for spatial data to be utilized in analytics Growing adoption of smart phones Usage of smart beacons in transportation and logisticsMarket Restraint: Increasing trend of opting online platforms in retailInquire Before Buying @Customize report of "Global Smart Beacon Market" as per customers requirement also available.Market Segmentations:Global Smart Beacon Market is segmented on the basis of Connectivity Type Beacon Standard Offering End User GeographyMarket Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Connectivity Type, the global smart beacon market is segmented into bluetooth low energy (BLE) and hybrid. Bluetooth low energy (BLE) is sub segmented into BLE 4.0 and BLE 5.0.On the basis of Beacon Standard, the global smart beacon market is segmented into ibeacon and eddystone.On the basis of Offering, the global smart beacon market is segmented into hardware, software and service. Hardware is sub segmented into standard beacon, sticker beacon and card beacon.On the basis of End User, the global smart beacon market is segmented into Transportation & logistics, retail, public gatherings and spaces, hospitality, healthcare, automotive, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), sports education and aviation.On the basis of Geography, North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaCompetitive Landscape: Global Smart Beacon MarketThe global smart beacon market is consolidated due to the presence of limited number of players concentrated in few countries. These major players have adopted various organic as well as inorganic growth strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, and others to strengthen their position in this market.Speak to Author of the report @Other ReportGlobal Location-based services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Location-based services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) Market, By Geography; Location Type (Indoor, Outdoor); Technology (Satellite, Microwave & Infrared Remote Sensing, OTDOA & E-OTD, RFID & NFC, Context-Aware Technology, Wi-Fi/WLAN, UWB, BT/BLE, Beacons, A-GPS); Hardware; Software; Service; Application Area  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit BlogFollow us on LinkedIn:
Global Baby Carriers Market 2018 Size,Share,Growth,Forecast-2023

Baby Carriers

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Market Research Explore recently announces that, research report Global Baby Carriers Market 2018 analyses the crucial factors of the Baby Carriers market based on present industry situations, market demands, business strategies adopted by Baby Carriers market players and their growth scenario. This report isolates the Baby Carriers market based on the key players, Type, Application and Regions.Get Sample Research Report :A baby carrier is one of the most comfortable and secure ways of carrying the baby around. With a baby carrier, your baby will always be close to you, without you having to sacrifice your arms to holding them. You can carry on working  inside the house, or outside  while your baby sleeps serenely beside you. Baby carriers are especially helpful when you are travelling or visiting friends or family, and pushing a stroller around is not a choice.The global Baby Carriers market will reach xxx Million USD in 2018 and CAGR xx% 2011-2018. The report begins from overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of Baby Carriers by product, region and application, in addition, this report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report.The Baby Carriers market research report mainly focuses on Baby Carriers industry in global market. The major regions which contribute to the development of Baby Carriers market mainly cover Baby Carriers market in various regions including North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and Middle East & Africa.The Baby Carriers report provides the industry environment covering Baby Carriers policy, Baby Carriers economics, Baby Carriers sociology and Baby Carriers technology. Furthermore, the opportunities and the threats to the development of Baby Carriers market are also covered at depth in this research document.Initially, the Baby Carriers manufacturing analysis of the major industry players based on their company profiles, annual revenue, demand, sales margin, growth aspects is also covered in this report, which will help other Baby Carriers market players in driving business insights.Get Full Report with TOC :Key Highlights Of The Baby Carriers Market :The fundamental details related to Baby Carriers industry like the product definition, product segmentation, price, variety of applications, demand and supply statistics are covered in this report.The comprehensive study of Baby Carriers market based on development opportunities, growth limiting factors and feasibility of investment will forecast the market growth.The study of emerging Baby Carriers market segments and the existing market segments will help the readers in planning the business strategies.Finally, the report Global Baby Carriers Market 2018 describes Baby Carriers industry expansion game plan, the Baby Carriers industry knowledge supply, appendix, analysis findings and the conclusion.About Us:MARKET RESEARCH EXPLORE is a huge market research platform which provides market intelligence reports and consulting services. It includes latest industrial reports by reputed publishers. MRE covers public and private industries such as chemicals & materials, technology, food & beverages, consumer goods, electronics, pharmaceutical, healthcare and others. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and we daily update our database to provide updated reports to our clients. MRE continuously track emerging trends and events to fulfill clients needs.Contact Us :Steel EnidSales ManagerChicago, IL United StateEmail @: sales@marketresearchexplore.com
Anesthesia Endotracheal Tubes Market 2016 - 2024 Shares, Trend and Growth Report

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Anesthesia endotracheal tube is a tube implanted in trachea to administer anesthesia, maintain the airway passage of lungs, prevent aspiration into the lungs, and allow mechanical ventilation. It also establishes the aspiration of secretions and anticipation of the pathway of extraneous material into the tracheobronchial tree. The endotracheal tube is of two types: orotracheal tube and nasotracheal tube. The orotracheal tube is rooted through the mouth, while the nasotracheal tube is rooted through the nose into the trachea. Both are used for anesthesia management.With the advancement of health care facilities and modern technologies, surgery of vital organs such as lungs has become easy. Anesthesia endotracheal tubes make it easy for the surgeons to sedate the patient and perform the surgical procedure. Also, these tubes are accepted and used by the patients of all age groups with breathing or lung problems. This is a major factor driving the market for anesthesia endotracheal tubes. Growing industrialization leading to rise in air pollution and habits such as smoking are responsible for increasing incidence of respiratory diseases. This can be considered as a factor propelling the anesthesia endotracheal tubes market. Rising incidence of other respiratory diseases, lung diseases, and breathing disorders also drives the market.Download Report Brochure @Introduction of advanced technology in the medical field, which enables easy performing of critical surgeries and usage of high-quality consumables in the field are the recent trends in the global anesthesia endotracheal tubes market. However, availability of an increased number of alternative disposable devices and upcoming better options may act as a barrier for the anesthesia endotracheal tubes market. The anesthesia endotracheal tubes market has been segregated into organized and unorganized as well as global and regional players. The unorganized local market in developing countries may give a tough competition to the global players by maintaining high quality standards at reasonable pricing. The dealers in the developed market are targeting back with product innovations.Based on the product type, the global anesthesia endotracheal tubes market can be segmented into: orotracheal tubes and nasotracheal tubes. Orotracheal tubes are implanted in the patients trachea through the mouth. Nasotracheal tubes are implanted in the trachea through the nose. These tubes are employed in the cases wherein the patients mouth needs to be operated.Based on the end-user, the anesthesia endotracheal tubes market can be segmented into: hospitals & clinics and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs).High demand for home-based therapy and modernization in video laryngoscopes also drive the global anesthesia endotracheal tubes market. However, complications in the anesthesia delivery system, availability of a small number of skilled medical practitioners to perform critical surgeries with perfection, and growing preference to laryngeal masks over anesthesia endotracheal tubes are likely be major factors restraining the growth of the market during the forecast period.Based on the geographical region, the anesthesia endotracheal tubes market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is a major market for anesthesia endotracheal tubes, due to respiratory disorder-prone lifestyle of people in the region and a large number of elderly population. Asia Pacific is an expanding market due to increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases in the region.Pre-Book Full Report @Some players operating in the global anesthesia endotracheal tubes market are Medline Industries, Medtronic, C. R. Bard, ConvaTec, GE Healthcare, Smiths Medical, KindWell Medical, ROYAX, Fuji Systems, Teleflex, Neurovision Medical, and Intersurgical.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Pneumatic Tyres Market is Expected to Witness a Steady Growth by 2020

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In the past, rubber tyres were solid not pneumatic. In the recent scenario, majority of tyres are pneumatic inflatable structures and comprising a doughnut-shaped body of cords and wires encased in rubber and usually filled with compressed air to form an inflatable cushion. Pneumatic tyres production needs various raw materials such as synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric and wire, along with other chemicals. Different types of rubber are used for production of pneumatic tyres, the most common being styrene-butadiene copolymer.Request to Sample of Report-Pneumatic tyres consist of a tread and a body. The tread provides traction while the body provides containment for a quantity of compressed air. Pneumatic tyres provide grip to the vehicle, resist abrasion and carry and transport loads. Thus pneumatic tyres provide safety and performance to the vehicle. On the basis of vehicle type pneumatic tyres market can be classified as bicycle, bus and lorry, car, motorcycle and aircraft. The use of tyres are not limited in new vehicles only, it can also be used in old vehicles due to wear and tear and for replacement purpose, which is also a major market for tyres. Airplane tyres are a niche market, but is a high revenue contributor to the pneumatic tyres market.North America is the largest market for pneumatic tyres, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market. China and India hold the key for future market trends in pneumatic tyres market owing to large population, rising disposable income and high growth rate of automotive industry in these regions. Germany, France and Italy are hub for some of the major automobile manufacturers in Europe where as the U.S. is the largest market in North America.The market of pneumatic tyres is expected to witness a double digit growth rate in the coming years. Some of the major drivers contributing the overall market growth of pneumatic tyres include increased in the production of vehicles globally, rising disposable income and ever-increasing population. Increasing price of raw materials and rise in fuel prices can act as restraints for pneumatic tyres market.Request Report for TOC @The major companies operating in the pneumatic tyres market include Dunlop, Michelin, Bridgestone Corporation, MRF, Goodyear and Maxxis International.Pre Book Full Report About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Specialty Fats Market By players, Regions, Product Type, Consumers Forecast 2017-2022

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"The Report Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Specialty Fats Market 2017 Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Specialty Fats MarketSpecialty Fats are tailor made to imitate the many positive traits of cocoa butter or other properties to make them more suitable for specific applications.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Specialty Fats in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversAAK ABWilmarCargillIOI GroupMusim MasFuji OilISFBungeMewah GroupPremium VegetableOlenexOleo-FatsIFFCOLiberty Oil MillsRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversCocoa Butter EquivalentsCocoa Butter SubstitutesOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoHouseholdRestaurantIndustryOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Specialty Fats market.Chapter 1, to describe Specialty Fats Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Specialty Fats, with sales, revenue, and price of Specialty Fats, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Specialty Fats, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Specialty Fats market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Specialty Fats sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Specialty Fats Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Cocoa Butter Equivalents1.2.2 Cocoa Butter Substitutes1.2.3 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Household1.3.2 Restaurant1.3.3 Industry1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 AAK AB2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.1.1 AAK AB Specialty Fats Description2.1.1.2 AAK AB Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.1.2 AAK AB Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.1.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.1.2.2 AAK AB Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.1.3 AAK AB Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.1.3.1 AAK AB Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.3.2 AAK AB Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 20162.2 Wilmar2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.1.1 Wilmar Specialty Fats Description2.2.1.2 Wilmar Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.2.2 AAK AB Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.2.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.2.2.2 Wilmar Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.2.3 Wilmar Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.2.3.1 Wilmar Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.3.2 Wilmar Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 20162.3 Cargill2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.1.1 Cargill Specialty Fats Description2.3.1.2 Cargill Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.3.2 Cargill Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.3.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.3.2.2 Cargill Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.3.3 Cargill Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.3.3.1 Cargill Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3.3.2 Cargill Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 20162.4 IOI Group2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.1.1 IOI Group Specialty Fats Description2.4.1.2 IOI Group Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.4.2 IOI Group Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.4.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.4.2.2 IOI Group Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.4.3 IOI Group Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.4.3.1 IOI Group Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4.3.2 IOI Group Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 20162.5 Musim Mas2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.1.1 Musim Mas Specialty Fats Description2.5.1.2 Musim Mas Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.5.2 Musim Mas Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.5.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.5.2.2 Musim Mas Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.5.3 Musim Mas Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.5.3.1 Musim Mas Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5.3.2 Musim Mas Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 20162.6 Fuji Oil2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.1.1 Fuji Oil Specialty Fats Description2.6.1.2 Fuji Oil Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.6.2 Fuji Oil Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.6.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.6.2.2 Fuji Oil Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.6.3 Fuji Oil Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.6.3.1 Fuji Oil Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6.3.2 Fuji Oil Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 20162.7 ISF2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.1.1 ISF Specialty Fats Description2.7.1.2 ISF Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.7.2 ISF Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.7.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.7.2.2 ISF Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.7.3 ISF Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.7.3.1 ISF Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7.3.2 ISF Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 20162.8 Bunge2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.1.1 Bunge Specialty Fats Description2.8.1.2 Bunge Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.8.2 Bunge Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.8.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.8.2.2 Bunge Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.8.3 Bunge Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.8.3.1 Bunge Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8.3.2 Bunge Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 20162.9 Mewah Group2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.1.1 Mewah Group Specialty Fats Description2.9.1.2 Mewah Group Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.9.2 Mewah Group Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.9.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.9.2.2 Mewah Group Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.9.3 Mewah Group Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.9.3.1 Mewah Group Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9.3.2 Mewah Group Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 20162.10 Premium Vegetable2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.1.1 Premium Vegetable Specialty Fats Description2.10.1.2 Premium Vegetable Specialty Fats Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.10.2 Premium Vegetable Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.10.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.10.2.2 Premium Vegetable Specialty Fats Product Introduction2.10.3 Premium Vegetable Specialty Fats Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.10.3.1 Premium Vegetable Specialty Fats Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10.3.2 Premium Vegetable Specialty Fats Market Share in Global in 2016Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Growth of Crystalware and Glassware Market in Future due to Increasing Expenditure on Beautifying Homes along with Swelled Disposable Income

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The global crystalware and glassware market is segmented into application such as drinking vessels, tableware, ornamental and decorative and others. Among these segments, tableware segment is expected to occupy remarkable CAGR over the forecast period. Further, the growth of this segment is attributed to the growing adoption of leisure products due to rising per capital income. Moreover, growing inclination of consumers towards fine dining is also projected to flourish the growth of crystalware and glassware market over the forecast period.Global crystalware and glassware market is expected to expand at a noteworthy CAGR over the forecast period. Moreover, the global crystalware and glassware market is expected to reach outstanding revenue by the end of 2024. Rising personal disposable income along with increasing inclination towards luxurious lifestyle are key reasons which are propelling the demand for crystalware and glassware across the globe.In terms of regional platform, Europe and North America are the most prominent regional markets of crystalware and glassware. Moreover, North America region contributed the largest market for crystalware and glassware in 2016 and is projected to continue its dominance over the forecast period. Rising number of tourism in North America countries such as Canada and U.S. have augmented the demand for hotels and restaurants with fine dining which is projected to boost the demand for crystalware and glassware. Apart from this, Asia-pacific is the most lucrative market owing to burgeoning middle class along with robust expansion of hotel and restaurant industry.Increasing Popularity of Fine DiningRapid urbanization coupled with changing lifestyle of the population across the globe has pushed them to spend on state-of-art products such as glass crockery and others. Further, swelled disposable income along with rising expenditure on beautifying homes is also believed to bolster the growth of global crystalware and glassware market in upcoming years.Request Free Sample Pages@Robust Expansion of Housewares IndustryAccording to International Housewares Association, global housewares market retail sales witnessed an upsurge of 2.6% in 2016. Further, robust growth of housewares market is projected to foster the growth of crystalware and glassware market. Moreover, wide scale application of crystalware and glassware such as ornamental, decorative and other applications is also anticipated to escalate the growth of crystalware and glassware market.However, presence of other alternatives such as ceramic and plastic and availability of cheap products are envisioned to dampen the growth of crystalware and glassware market.The report titled Crystalware and Glassware Market: Global Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2024 delivers detailed overview of the global crystalware and glassware market in terms of market segmentation by product, by application, by price and by region.Further, for the in-depth analysis, the report encompasses the industry growth drivers, restraints, supply and demand risk, market attractiveness, BPS analysis and Porters five force model.Request Free Table of Contents Here:This report also provides the existing competitive scenario of some of the key players of the global crystalware and glassware market which includes company profiling of Noritake, Villeroy & Boch AG, Guy Degrenne SA, Lifetime Brands, Lenox Corporation, The Zrike Company, World Kitchen, LLC, Libbe, Oneida, WMF Wurttembergische. The profiling enfolds key information of the companies which encompasses business overview, products and services, key financials and recent news and developments. On the whole, the report depicts detailed overview of the global crystalware and glassware market that will help industry consultants, equipment manufacturers, existing players searching for expansion opportunities, new players searching possibilities and other stakeholders to align their market centric strategies according to the ongoing and expected trends in the future.Purchase this Premium Report:About Research NesterResearch Nester is a leading service provider for strategic market research and consulting. We aim to provide unbiased, unparalleled market insights and industry analysis to help industries, conglomerates and executives to take wise decisions for their future marketing strategy, expansion and investment etc. We believe every business can expand to its new horizon, provided a right guidance at a right time is available through strategic minds. Our out of box thinking helps our clients to take wise decision so as to avoid future uncertainties.Contact for more Info:Ajay DanielEmail: ajay.daniel@researchnester.comU.S. +1 646 586 9123U.K. +44 203 608 5919
Drone Analytics Market Size, Share, Analysis  Forecasts To 2025

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Drone Analytics MarketThe market report is designed to provide a complete view on the drone analytics market. This business intelligence report has been categorised into qualitative and quantitative insights over the forecast period (2017-2025). The demand and supply matrix section falls under the qualitative information category, wherein, the market dynamics for drone analytics have been studied considering a short term forecast of the factors/variables influencing the industry. The market segments and their respective estimates & forecasts have been covered under the quantitative information category. Forecasts & trend analysis for each country and region is also available in the study. The report concludes by providing competitor analysis for major market participants profiled by analysing their organic & inorganic growth strategies, regional presence, and product portfolio among others.Request for a sample copy of the drone analytics market report at:Vendor Landscape: Drone Analytics MarketThe report contains a chapter dedicated to vendors operating in the market, covering raw material manufactures, equipment developers, manufacturers, and distributors. The report provides these insights on a regional level. This section of the report entails contact details, experience, products manufactured/supplied, and geographical presence of companies.End-User Landscape (Consumer Profile): Drone Analytics MarketThe report provides a detailed list of end-users operating across the world. The end-user landscape includes consumer contact details, geographical presence, revenue, product portfolio, organic and inorganic growth strategies among others.Competitor Analysis: Drone Analytics MarketThe major companies profiled in the drone analytics market include Pix4D, DroneDeploy, Dreamhammer Inc., 3D Robotics, Precision Hawk, Drone Volt, and ESRI. The report also includes a list of several other companies operating in the market. Companies are investing in innovation/R&D, brand building, and fostering strong relationships with customers to enhance their competitive position.Check our annual research partnership service at:Were constantly identifying and analysing high growth markets and revenue pockets. In consultation with various industry experts, our team of highly-skilled industry analysts study these markets through sophisticated tools and fail-safe, industry-approved methodologies.Name: Global Market Estimates Research & Business ConsultantsAddress: A-9, Silver Croft CHSL, Mumbai:400064, IndiaContact No,: +91 9146632316Email Address: sales@globalmarketestimates.com
Disposable Blood Bags Market Shares, Strategies and Forecast Worldwide, 2016 - 2024

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Disposable blood bags is a term primarily associated with storage, collection, transportation as well as transfusion of blood along with its components viz. RBCs, WBCs, and platelets. These components, in particular, require sophisticated disposable blood bags. Moreover, disposable blood bags have greatly replaced glass bottles for the collection and storage of blood and its components, which would drive the global market for disposable blood bags. Demand for disposable blood bags is rising, due to the increase in demand for sterile processes of transportation and transfusion of blood and its components. The market for disposable blood bags is expected to expand at a significant rate in the next few years. However, lack of unprofessional staff to handle the disposable blood bags can prove to be a restraint for the market, especially in low-to-medium-income countries of the world.However, growing incidence of blood-related illnesses and rising demand for transfer bags are factors expected to drive the global disposable blood bags market during the forecast period. Moreover, the increasing number of blood transfusion procedures is expected to fuel the demand for disposable blood bags during the forecast period. Furthermore, rising incidence of accidents in developed as well as developing countries is poised to augment the demand for blood transportation and transfusion. This is likely to propel the global disposable blood bags market. Different types of disposable blood bags are available all over the world; for example, CPDA blood bags, CPD/SAGM blood bags, and transfer bags.Download Report Brochure @The transfer bags segment is projected to witness rapid growth in the near future. This can be primarily attributed to the storage capacity of these bags, which ranges from 150 ml to 1000 ml. This enables the separation of blood components in a more sterile manner and eliminates the requirement for cleaning processes. The disposable blood bags market is anticipated to expand at a high rate in the next few years, owing to increase in the number of accidents/trauma incidents. Moreover, scientific improvements and increase in the requirement for blood transfusion and transportation worldwide would promote the market growth.The disposable blood bags market can be segmented on the basis of product type, end-user, and geography. Based on product type, the disposable blood bags market can be categorized into CPDA blood bags, CPD/SAGM blood bags, transfer bags, and others. The product type segments can be sub-segmented on the basis of usage into single, double, triple, and quadruple blood bags. Furthermore, based on end-user, the disposable blood bags market can be segmented into surgery and/or operation units, emergency units, intensive care units (ICUs), ambulatory centers, and others.Globally, North America was observed to be the leading market for disposable blood bags, due to extensive use of blood tests alongside a large number research and development activities in the region. Additionally, the U.S. and Canada have been successfully utilizing a large number of blood bags. This, in turn, would boost the market for disposable blood bags in North America during the forecast period. Moreover, presence of well-established health care organizations, government initiatives in promoting the use of disposable blood bags, and constantly improving sterility aspects would further propel the market in the region in the near future. Europe is likely to be the second leading market for disposable blood bags in the next few years, owing to enhanced health care processes and growing concerns about health in the region.Asia Pacific is estimated to be the rapidly expanding market for disposable blood bags during the forecast period. Major factors that would drive the disposable blood bags market in Asia Pacific include the increasing number of accidents/trauma, and the rising number of blood transportation and transfusion procedures. China and India are emerging economies in the region and hence, they would increasingly contribute toward the growth of the market for disposable blood bags in Asia Pacific. In Latin America, Mexico and Brazil are the countries with significant potential for growth of the market, due to development of medical organizations and rising disposable incomes in the two countries.Pre-Book Full Report @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Anti Reflective Glass Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report Europe Anti Reflective Glass Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Europe Anti Reflective Glass Market"Anti-Reflective Glass is a specialised glass product that has been treated to reduce the amount of surface reflection seen from the face of the glass.Get Sample copy of this Report @It is a glass that has been optically coated on one or two sides to diminish reflections and increase the light transmission, to reduce surface glare and increase substrate transmission and brightness offering better contrast definition by reducing surface reflection over a specific wavelength range. Ghost images and multiple reflection can be minimized and possibly eliminated by applying an AR coating on the glass surface."Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Anti Reflective Glass in Europe market, especially in Germany, UK, France, Russia, and Italy. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Request for TOC @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversScohott AGCorningSaint-GobainAGCNSGGuardian Industries Corp.Abrisa TechnologiesDSMEuropeTec GroupeAVIC Sanxin Co., LtdMarket Segment by Countries, coveringGermanyUKFranceRussiaItalyMarket Segment by Type, coversArchitectural WindowsInstrumentation WindowsElectronic DisplaysFront Panel DisplaysOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoDouble layersFour layersOthersThere are 17 Chapters to deeply display the Europe Anti Reflective Glass market.Chapter 1, to describe Anti Reflective Glass Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by countries, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Anti Reflective Glass, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers in Europe, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the Europe market by countries, covering Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Anti Reflective Glass, for each country, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type and application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key countries by manufacturers, Type and Application, covering Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia, with sales, revenue and market share by manufacturers, types and applications;Chapter 12, Anti Reflective Glass market forecast, by countries, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe Anti Reflective Glass sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.View Report @Chapter 16 and 17, to describe Anti Reflective Glass Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceTable of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Anti Reflective Glass Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Architectural Windows1.2.2 Instrumentation Windows1.2.3 Electronic Displays1.2.4 Front Panel Displays1.2.5 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Double layers1.3.2 Four layers1.3.3 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 Germany Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 France Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 UK Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Russia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Italy Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Scohott AG2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Scohott AG Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Scohott AG News2.2 Corning2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Corning Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 Corning News2.3 Saint-Gobain2.3.1 Profile2.3.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Saint-Gobain Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3.4 Business Overview2.3.5 Saint-Gobain News2.4 AGC2.4.1 Profile2.4.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 AGC Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4.4 Business Overview2.4.5 AGC News2.5 NSG2.5.1 Profile2.5.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 NSG Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5.4 Business Overview2.5.5 NSG News2.6 Guardian Industries Corp.2.6.1 Profile2.6.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Guardian Industries Corp. Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6.4 Business Overview2.6.5 Guardian Industries Corp. News2.7 Abrisa Technologies2.7.1 Profile2.7.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Abrisa Technologies Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7.4 Business Overview2.7.5 Abrisa Technologies News2.8 DSM2.8.1 Profile2.8.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 DSM Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8.4 Business Overview2.8.5 DSM News2.9 EuropeTec Groupe2.9.1 Profile2.9.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 EuropeTec Groupe Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9.4 Business Overview2.9.5 EuropeTec Groupe News2.10 AVIC Sanxin Co., Ltd2.10.1 Profile2.10.2 Anti Reflective Glass Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 AVIC Sanxin Co., Ltd Anti Reflective Glass Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10.4 Business Overview2.10.5 AVIC Sanxin Co., Ltd NewsBuy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
India Furniture Market is Riding on the Back of Swift Development of Corporate Sector and the Positive Real Estate Growth, according to Research Nester

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India furniture market is segmented into material type such as wood, metal, leather, plastic and glass furniture, out of which wood furniture market is expected to grab the top position in the market. The popularity of traditional furniture has strengthened the demand for wood in the manufacturing of furniture in India. Over the past few years, the utilization of wooden goods in home has increased as people have started using wood furnishing cupboards, decorating and for other purposes.The India furniture market is expected to register a remarkable CAGR of 12.91% over the forecast period. Moreover, the market of furniture in India is expected to reach noteworthy revenue by the end of 2023. The market is expected to expand on the back of the rising adoption of furniture in the residential sector.The commercial furniture segment by application is estimated to register a CAGR of 11.52% during the forecast period. Furthermore, demand for contract furniture in India is rising on the back of various factor such as rising corporate sector, growing trend of state of the art office furniture and rising need of workstations in various businesses. Moreover, the utilization of workspace is one of the major factors which are driving the demand for contract furniture. The positive growth in corporate sector in India attributed to entry of multinational corporate players in India.Rapid Pace in Real Estate GrowthThe real estate growth is primarily driven by the growth in the hospitality industry and the intense competition in order to provide better services to the customer. Moreover, 100 percent FDI policy for townships and settlements development project is attracting more foreign investors in the real estate sector which increases the quality of residential apartments.Request Free Sample Pages@Rapid UrbanizationGrowing urbanization in Indian states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chennai and others is supporting the culture of housing societies. Moreover, the corporate sector in India is uplifting on the back of ease of doing business reforms introduced by the government. The technological advancements such as availability of high speed internet networks such as 4G and spiked absorption of smart gadgets such as smart phones and tables is boosting the e-retail sector in India. These advancements further provide ease to the customers to buy furniture through online channels.On the contrary, presence of large number of unorganized players in the furniture industry is restraining the growth of furniture market in India.The report titled India Furniture Market Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023 delivers detailed overview of the India furniture market in terms of market segmentation by material type, by application, and by region.Further, for the in-depth analysis, the report encompasses the industry growth drivers, restraints, supply and demand risk, market attractiveness, BPS analysis and Porters five force model.Request Free Table of Contents Here:This report also provides the existing competitive scenario of some of the key players of the India furniture market which includes company profiling of Nilkamal Limited, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Zuari Global Ltd, Wipro Enterprises (P) Ltd., Furniturewalla, Featherlite, Millennium lifestyles, Urban ladder, Damro, IKEA, HNI BP Ergo India, Geeken India, Evok (Subsidiary of Hindware Home Retail Pvt. Ltd. (HHRPL)), Durian Furniture, Home Town. The profiling enfolds key information of the companies which encompasses business overview, products and services, key financials and recent news and developments. On the whole, the report depicts detailed overview of the India furniture market that will help industry consultants, equipment manufacturers, existing players searching for expansion opportunities, new players searching possibilities and other stakeholders to align their market centric strategies according to the ongoing and expected trends in the future.Purchase this Premium Report:About Research NesterResearch Nester is a leading service provider for strategic market research and consulting. We aim to provide unbiased, unparalleled market insights and industry analysis to help industries, conglomerates and executives to take wise decisions for their future marketing strategy, expansion and investment etc. We believe every business can expand to its new horizon, provided a right guidance at a right time is available through strategic minds. Our out of box thinking helps our clients to take wise decision so as to avoid future uncertainties.Contact for more Info:Ajay DanielEmail: ajay.daniel@researchnester.comU.S. +1 646 586 9123U.K. +44 203 608 5919
2018-2025 Global Metal Building Materials Market Industry Key Players: ArcelorMittal, HBIS, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, Posco, JFE, TATA, Nucor Corporation,.

Metal Building Materials Market

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Metal Building Materials Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Metal Building Materials Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025reports to its database.Executive SummaryGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Metal Building Materials in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Metal Building Materials market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingArcelorMittal,HBIS,Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal,Posco,JFE,TATA,Nucor Corporation,Steel DynamicsUnited States Steel CorporationSSABAK Steel Corporation, Novolipetsk Steel, SeverstalMMKEvrazCompanhia Siderurgica NacionalGerdauUsiminasBaosteelHBIS GroupShagang GroupBohai Steel Group CompanyXinxing Cathay InternationalShougang GroupAnsteelBaowuJiscoShandong iron & Steel Group.On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoSteelAluminumCopperOthersOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingMetal ProfileMetal PlateMetal PipelineOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Report @Table of content:Global Metal Building Materials Market Research Report 20181 Metal Building Materials Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Metal Building Materials1.2 Metal Building Materials Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Metal Building Materials Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Metal Building Materials Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Steel1.2.4 Aluminum1.2.5 Copper1.2.6 Others1.3 Global Metal Building Materials Segment by Application1.3.1 Metal Building Materials Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Metal Profile1.3.3 Metal Plate1.3.4 Metal Pipeline1.3.5 Others1.4 Global Metal Building Materials Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Metal Building Materials Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Metal Building Materials (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Metal Building Materials Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Metal Building Materials Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Metal Building Materials Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Metal Building Materials Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Metal Building Materials Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Metal Building Materials Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Metal Building Materials Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Metal Building Materials Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Metal Building Materials Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Metal Building Materials Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion7 Global Metal Building Materials Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 ArcelorMittal7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 ArcelorMittal Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 HBIS7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 HBIS Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Posco7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Posco Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 JFE7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 JFE Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 TATA7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 TATA Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Nucor Corporation7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Nucor Corporation Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 Steel Dynamics7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 Steel Dynamics Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 United States Steel Corporation7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 United States Steel Corporation Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 SSAB7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Metal Building Materials Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 SSAB Metal Building Materials Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 AK Steel Corporation, Novolipetsk Steel, Severstal7.12 MMK7.13 Evraz7.14 Companhia Siderurgica Nacional7.15 Gerdau7.16 Usiminas7.17 Baosteel7.18 HBIS Group7.19 Shagang Group7.20 Bohai Steel Group Company7.21 Xinxing Cathay International7.22 Shougang Group7.23 Ansteel7.24 Baowu7.25 Jisco7.26 Shandong iron & Steel Group.ContinuousFor further information on this report, visit -Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. 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Global InGaAs Image Sensors Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report Europe InGaAs Image Sensors Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About InGaAs Image Sensors MarketInGaAs image sensors are image sensors that contain a CMOS IC readout circuit for easy signal processing. They operate in charge integration mode that accumulates the generated charge to increase the output signal making them ideal for low-level light detection. Applications include photometry in the near-infrared region up to 2.6 m, such as in physics and chemistry measurement, industrial measurement, and DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing).Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the InGaAs Image Sensors in Europe market, especially in Germany, UK, France, Russia, and Italy. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversHamamatsu PhotonicsSensor UnlimitedTeledyne DALSAXenicsNew Imaging TechnologiesSYNERGY OPTOSYSTEMSFLIR SystemsMarket Segment by Countries, coveringGermanyUKFranceRussiaItalyRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Type, coversInGaAs Linear Image SensorsInGaAs Area Image SensorsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPhysics and chemistry measurementIndustrial measurementDefense and SurveillanceOptical CommunicationThere are 17 Chapters to deeply display the Europe InGaAs Image Sensors market.Chapter 1, to describe InGaAs Image Sensors Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by countries, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of InGaAs Image Sensors, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers in Europe, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the Europe market by countries, covering Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia, with sales, price, revenue and market share of InGaAs Image Sensors, for each country, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type and application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key countries by manufacturers, Type and Application, covering Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia, with sales, revenue and market share by manufacturers, types and applications;Chapter 12, InGaAs Image Sensors market forecast, by countries, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe InGaAs Image Sensors sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe InGaAs Image Sensors Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 InGaAs Image Sensors Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 InGaAs Linear Image Sensors1.2.2 InGaAs Area Image Sensors1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Physics and chemistry measurement1.3.2 Industrial measurement1.3.3 Defense and Surveillance1.3.4 Optical Communication1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 Germany Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 France Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 UK Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Russia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Italy Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Hamamatsu Photonics2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 InGaAs Image Sensors Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Hamamatsu Photonics InGaAs Image Sensors Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Hamamatsu Photonics News2.2 Sensor Unlimited2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 InGaAs Image Sensors Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Sensor Unlimited InGaAs Image Sensors Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 Sensor Unlimited News2.3 Teledyne DALSA2.3.1 Profile2.3.2 InGaAs Image Sensors Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Teledyne DALSA InGaAs Image Sensors Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3.4 Business Overview2.3.5 Teledyne DALSA News2.4 Xenics2.4.1 Profile2.4.2 InGaAs Image Sensors Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Xenics InGaAs Image Sensors Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4.4 Business Overview2.4.5 Xenics News2.5 New Imaging Technologies2.5.1 Profile2.5.2 InGaAs Image Sensors Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 New Imaging Technologies InGaAs Image Sensors Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5.4 Business Overview2.5.5 New Imaging Technologies News2.6 SYNERGY OPTOSYSTEMS2.6.1 Profile2.6.2 InGaAs Image Sensors Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 SYNERGY OPTOSYSTEMS InGaAs Image Sensors Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6.4 Business Overview2.6.5 SYNERGY OPTOSYSTEMS News2.7 FLIR Systems2.7.1 Profile2.7.2 InGaAs Image Sensors Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 FLIR Systems InGaAs Image Sensors Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7.4 Business Overview2.7.5 FLIR Systems NewsBuy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Automatic Gate Opening System Market is Considered as One of the Rapidly Growing Dynamic Markets 2016 - 2026

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Automatic Gate Opening System Market: IntroductionWith the increasing need for automation in industrial and residential sectors automating gates has become one of the primarily concerns for end-users. Also increasing urbanization and infrastructural development such as shopping malls, hyper & super markets has also led to increase in the demand for automated equipments in order to reduce the overall labor cost. Automatic gate opening systems can be defined as gate integrated with electronic components such as proximity sensors, actuators and controlling software primarily to reduce human effort in opening and closing of gates. These systems are primarily used in traffic areas where opening and closing frequency of gate is high such as shopping malls, theaters, industrial warehouses and electronic toll collection systems.Request to Sample of Report-Automatic Gate Opening System Market DynamicsIncreasing need for automation in industries combined with technological advancements in automatic gate opening systems is primarily increasing their adoption in industrial and commercial applications. Also road infrastructure development resulting in increased road transportation with the improvement in connectivity between cities and towns is also driving the growth of global automatic gate opening systems market.Key players are integrating secondary components such as counters and tire killer in automatic gate opening systems providing additional applications which in turn is likely to increase their adoption over the forecast period.High installation cost combined with high operating maintenance cost resulting in long payback period is primarily restraining the growth of global automatic gate opening systems market.Automatic Gate Opening System: Regional OutlookGlobal Automatic Gate opening systems market is segmented into seven key regions namely North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, APEJ, MEA and Japan. By region, APEJ market is expected to represent a significant CAGR primarily due to increasing infrastructure development. Increase in the number of vehicles owing to increase in consumer spending is primarily driving the growth of Automatic Gate Opening Systems market in North America.Request Report for TOC @Automatic Gate Opening System Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players in the Global Automatic Gate Opening Systems Market areCame UK,RIB S.R.L.,Aleko Products,King Gates S.R.L.,Katres Automation,Proteco S.R.L.,Newturn Automation Pvt. Ltd.,FAAC Group,Somfy SA,Life Home Integration,ABA Automatic Gates & Doors,Nevosys Smart Home Systems,Beninca Group,Nortek Inc.,SOMMER Antriebs- und Funktechnik GmbH,Quiko Opening Solutions,Nice S.p.A.;Pre Book Full Report About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Tunnel Boring Machine Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report Europe Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Tunnel Boring Machine MarketA tunnel boring machine (TBM) is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They may also be used for micro tunneling. In Japan and China, The machines used for soil are called shield tunneling machines and machines used for hard rock are called tunnel boring machine. But in Europe and USA, they are called the same name tunnel boring machine. The research we did include all of them.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) in Europe market, especially in Germany, UK, France, Russia, and Italy. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversHerrenknechtCRTGCRCHIRobbinsTianheLNSSKomatsuMitsubishiNHIKawasakiIHITerratecSELITianye TolianHitachi ZosenXugong KaigongSTECJIMTRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Countries, coveringGermanyUKFranceRussiaItalyMarket Segment by Type, coversSoft Ground TBMsHard Rock TBMsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoCity Rail SystemRailway and HighwayMunicipal EngineeringOthersThere are 17 Chapters to deeply display the Europe Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) market.Chapter 1, to describe Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by countries, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers in Europe, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the Europe market by countries, covering Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), for each country, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type and application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key countries by manufacturers, Type and Application, covering Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia, with sales, revenue and market share by manufacturers, types and applications;Chapter 12, Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) market forecast, by countries, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Soft Ground TBMs1.2.2 Hard Rock TBMs1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 City Rail System1.3.2 Railway and Highway1.3.3 Municipal Engineering1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 Germany Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 France Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 UK Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Russia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Italy Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Herrenknecht2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Herrenknecht Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Herrenknecht News2.2 CRTG2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 CRTG Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 CRTG News2.3 CRCHI2.3.1 Profile2.3.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 CRCHI Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3.4 Business Overview2.3.5 CRCHI News2.4 Robbins2.4.1 Profile2.4.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Robbins Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4.4 Business Overview2.4.5 Robbins News2.5 Tianhe2.5.1 Profile2.5.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Tianhe Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5.4 Business Overview2.5.5 Tianhe News2.6 LNSS2.6.1 Profile2.6.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 LNSS Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6.4 Business Overview2.6.5 LNSS News2.7 Komatsu2.7.1 Profile2.7.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Komatsu Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7.4 Business Overview2.7.5 Komatsu News2.8 Mitsubishi2.8.1 Profile2.8.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Mitsubishi Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8.4 Business Overview2.8.5 Mitsubishi News2.9 NHI2.9.1 Profile2.9.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 NHI Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9.4 Business Overview2.9.5 NHI News2.10 Kawasaki2.10.1 Profile2.10.2 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Kawasaki Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10.4 Business Overview2.10.5 Kawasaki NewsBuy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Ultrasonic Sensors Marine Industry Market For Marine Industry Is Used To Monitor Oxygen

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Ultrasonic sensors is a device which uses sound waves with higher frequency than the human audible range to measure the distance of the object. The physical principles followed by ultrasonic sensors for marine industry is the Doppler Effect, the attenuation of sound waves and the time of flight. Once object come to surrounding area ultrasonic sensors can automatically switch to active zone and give all related information. At some time, Ultrasonic sensors might not detect some object due to object shaped or placed in such way that sound wave are bounced off the object but are deflected away from the sensor. These factors should be considered while designing and programming device using Ultrasonic sensors. Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry is used to monitor oxygen and pressure in vapor emission control systems.The higher accuracy governed with ultrasonic sensors in comparison with electromagnetic sensors has increased the demand for ultrasonic sensors for marine industry. The highest accuracy is attained because of the ultrasonic sensors, processing on high frequency and shorter wavelengths, resulting in high resolution images and accurate distance measurements. In addition to this, wide variety of applications of Ultrasonic sensors for also drive the growth of Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry globally. Furthermore, ultrasonic sensors have higher measurement range, high frequency, high sensitivity and high penetrating power makes the detection process more efficient.The lower response speed and accuracy in comparison with optical sensors are the factors limiting the growth and adoption of Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market. Additionally, because of a material's density, consistency and material type errors can be observed that can act as a restraint for the global Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market. During the upcoming year, entry of new vendors in the market of ultrasonic sensors for marine industry has increased focus on emerging economies and increasing investment in R&D for improvement in product quality to various end-users and increasing speed response will increase further opportunities in the market.Request Sample @ :The ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market can be bifurcated on the basis of type, application and geographical regions. By type, ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market can be further divided into ultrasonic retro-reflective sensors, ultrasonic proximity sensors, ultrasonic 2 point proximity switches and ultrasonic through beam sensors. Ultrasonic through beam sensors segment consider for the major shares of the ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market. By Application, ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market can be segmented into pallet detection, distance measurement, object detection, liquid level measurement, anti-collision detection, and others. Furthermore, the Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market can also be segmented according to region into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South America. Europe is the most dominant region the global Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry s market due to technological innovations in automotive industry has led to continuous enhancements, of Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry. APAC are expected to follow North America in the global Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market.The global Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market has extensive growth potential because of increase adoption of Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry by various end-user and manufacturer segments. Players of Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry in the market are looking forward to increase their production by investing in research and development region to give quality product to their consumer. Many players are involved in the Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market with wider solution portfolio. Some of the key vendors in the Ultrasonic sensors for marine industry market are Siemens AG, Rockwell Automation, Honeywell Automation, Baumer, Pepperl+Fuchs, Murata Manufacturing, , Microsonic, Banner Engineering, Precision Acoustics, Keyence, Balluff, BeStar Electronics, APC International, Omron, Blatek, Migatron, Maxbotix, Vermon, Esaote, Acuson, GE, Philips, and Crest ultrasonic.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email:sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
2018-2025 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market Key Players: MSD Animal Health, Bayer HealthCare, Sanofi(Merial), Brilliant Bio Pharma, Agrovet,.

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market

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Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025reports to its database.Executive SummaryGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingMSD Animal HealthBayer HealthCareSanofi(Merial)Brilliant Bio PharmaAgrovetInova Biotecnologia Saude Animal Ltda.IILMEVACBVIVETALVSVRIBiog nesisVECOLLimor de ColombiaRVSRICavet BioShen LianPVICAHICTecon GroupJinyu GroupChina Animal HealthcareOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoA-TypeO-TypeC-TypeSAT-1 TypeSAT-2 TypeSAT-3 TypeAsia-1 TypeOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingPigCattleSheepOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Report @Table of content:Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market Research Report 20181 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines1.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 A-Type1.2.4 O-Type1.2.5 C-Type1.2.6 SAT-1 Type1.2.7 SAT-2 Type1.2.8 SAT-3 Type1.2.9 Asia-1 Type1.3 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Segment by Application1.3.1 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Pig1.3.3 Cattle1.3.4 Sheep1.3.5 Others1.4 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion7 Global Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 MSD Animal Health7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 MSD Animal Health Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Bayer HealthCare7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Bayer HealthCare Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Sanofi(Merial)7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Sanofi(Merial) Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Brilliant Bio Pharma7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Brilliant Bio Pharma Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Agrovet7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Agrovet Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Inova Biotecnologia Saude Animal Ltda.7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Inova Biotecnologia Saude Animal Ltda. Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 IIL7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 IIL Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 MEVAC7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 MEVAC Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 BVI7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 BVI Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 VETAL7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 VETAL Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 VSVRI7.12 Biog nesis7.13 VECOL7.14 Limor de Colombia7.15 RVSRI7.16 Cavet Bio7.17 Shen Lian7.18 PVI7.19 CAHIC7.20 Tecon Group7.21 Jinyu Group7.22 China Animal HealthcareContinuousFor further information on this report, visit -Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042
eNose Technology Explained: In Depth Analysis

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An electronic nose (e-nose) is a substitute for the human sense of smells which detects odor and flavor. This device uses electronic sensing for comparison, identification, quantification, and even data storage and recovery. Electronic noses comprise three primary elements: a delivery system, a discovery system, and a calculating system. Presently, industries perform tests with the help of gas chromatographs and human experts to test the flavors and scents of goods during production, as well as to measure their levels of freshness and damage.The e-nose affords a comparatively higher number of benefits. For example, for companies handling large-scale production activities, it is not logistically possible to track the freshness, quality, and cleanliness of each product by means of human sensing. In these cases, the e-nose helps ascertain if the goods meet quality standards. E-noses are cost-effective and cover larger areas.Usage of e-noses as the first line of defense against hazardous environments for health care and consumer goods is expected to grow during the forecast period. Artificial sensors which identify and test a range of parameters could be incorporated into an analytical apparatus and used to scan the general situation, or particularly to detect the leak of dangerous gases or decayed goods.Browse the Report @E-noses are essentially a real-time tool identifying hazardous gases at a lower cost. In the food and beverages industry, they are employed to assess the freshness of goods used as both input and output  an essential step to verify product quality. Due to an increasing demand from this sector, manufacturers are estimated to raise their production capacities. E-noses are also helpful to store previously identified readings which could be used for future reference.There is a rising incidence of sanitary and phytosanitary measures with respect to import restrictions in developed nations such as the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Major exporting countries such as India, Bangladesh, China, and Japan take measures to ensure quality product delivery, resulting in a high demand for the e-nose in these countries during the forecast period.Request Sample @A major influence on the market is also the implementation of micro-electro-mechanical sensors (MEMS) in e-noses. However, the bulky size of the device is a major constraint. Developments have been made in MEMS to produce miniaturized versions of e-noses. These sensors have a much greater variety of applications.The global e-nose market has only a few vendors and is therefore not very competitive. It is likely to expand at a low but steady rate. Manufacturers have constantly been engaged in R&D to create a low-cost, mass-producible, transportable device. Due to marginal profits, it is difficult for even the existing players to sustain.End-users of the e-nose include laboratories, food & beverages, crime & security, and the rapidly growing health & security and environmental monitoring segments. With the development of a portable e-nose capable of providing accurate results in an open-air environment, the demand from the crime & security sector is projected to rise as well. The expansion of the food & beverages industry (especially cold and packaged food) plays a role as well.By region, this market is distributed over North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific. North America accounts for a major share in this market, which is also estimated to grow steadily. The market in Asia Pacific holds a significant potential, owing to the development of the production industry.Key e-nose manufacturers include Alpha MOS in France, E-Nose Pty in Australia, Electronic Sensor Technology in the U.S., The e-Nose Company in the Netherlands, and Odotech in Canada.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Sputter Coating Market: Making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market

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The field of electron microscope requires the coating of samples for better imaging. Furthermore, the created layer is conductive in nature which enables charging and reduces the thermal damage to improve the secondary electron signals for topographic examination.Sputter Coating is one such method which involves the process of applying an ultra thin coating of electrically conductive metals such as gold, silver platinum and palladium among others. These coatings have a thickness range of 2-20 nanometers. The market is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period.The sputter coating technology is increasingly being applied in the glass coating technology. The rising technological innovation in the glass displays is aiding to the growth of glass coating. This will indirectly drive the market for sputter coating market. Furthermore, the technological innovations in the semiconductor industry have lead to the growth of internet of things (IoT) market. Sputter Coating technology also finds it application in semiconductor industry.Hence the rising demand for IoT market is expected to drive the market for sputter coatings market significantly. In addition, there are several technologies under sputter coating which includes ion-assisted deposition which is one of the methods. This method is being used in medical implants, which is in return, pushing the demand for sputter coatings in the healthcare industry. Furthermore, the rising concern and upcoming government regulations for controlled hexavalent chrome emission is further driving the demand for sputter coating market globally.Browse the Report @However, the use and application of sputter coating technology involves high expenditure which is restraining the growth of the market. In addition, proper application of sputter coating requires highly skilled technicians. These factors are expected to slow the growth of the market across all the regions.The market is expected to witness robust growth in future. The rising demand for voice over LTE (VOLTE) services in developing regions is expected to drive the market for sputter coatings in the telecommunication industry. Moreover, the demand for improved telecommunication is expected to create the need for improved smart phones with enhanced network capabilities.With the rise in telecommunication and smart phone industry, the overall semiconductor sector is expected to grow robustly. Sputter Coating technology is an essential aspect in rising demand in the semiconductor domain and hence expected to witness a steady growth globally.Request Sample @The sputter coating market can be segmented by substrate, target material, application and geography. In terms of substrate, the market can be segregated into semiconductors, insulators and metals & dielectric. Furthermore, in terms of target material, the market can be bifurcated into compounds, alloys and pure metal.The sputter coatings find their application in several areas which includes automotive, energy, defense, lighting, optical coating, healthcare, architecture, electronics and decorative coating among others.By geography, the sputter coating market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South America. North America and Europe are expected to witness steady growth at the initial stage as they are the early adapters of new technology.Furthermore, the use of sputter coatings involves high initial investment which is not available across all the regions. However, Asia Pacific region is expected to witness a strong growth in future due to the presence of developing regions like China and India.The sputter coating market is witnessing strong competition from the major players. Frequent mergers and acquisition among the top players is aiding to the growth of the market globally. The leading players in the market include Umicore Group, Heraeus Deutschland GmbH & Co. Kg, AJA International Inc., Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Treibacher Industries AG, Corning Precision Materials Korea Co., Ltd., Hitachi Metals, Ltd., Intevac Inc, Soleras Advanced Coatings, Honeywell Electronics Material and Plansee among other players.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Galvanic Isolation Market to Register a Stout Growth by 2025

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Global Galvanic Isolation Market: OverviewGalvanic isolation is a designing technique that isolates functional sections of electrical systems to eliminate stray current. Optical isolators and transformer are generally used for galvanic isolation, which ensure AC signals to pass through the circuit but not stray current. Various galvanic isolation components such as relays and capacitors are used in intrinsic safety isolators, and healthcare equipment and monitoring system. In addition, galvanic isolation can be used in medical imaging devices, UPS, and invertors etc.Global Galvanic Isolation Market: SegmentationGalvanic isolation market is segmented into vertical and region. On the basis of vertical the global galvanic isolation market is segmented into telecom sector, healthcare sector, public sector, industrial sector, manufacturing sector, energy and utility sector, and transportation sector. FMI forecasts, telecom sector is expected to create a huge market opportunity for key players operating in the galvanic isolation market. Region wise the global galvanic isolation market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, and Middle East and Africa (MEA).Request for Sample @Global Galvanic Isolation Market: Region Wise OutlookThe global galvanic isolation market is expected to witness a considerable growth in CAGR during the forecast period from 2015 to 2025. North America held the lead in terms of relative market share consumption value of galvanic isolation market in 2014. As per FMI projection, the galvanic isolation market in APEJ region is expected to grow at a fastest CAGR during the forecast period.Global Galvanic Isolation Market: DriversGalvanic isolation device is easy to install, provides signal conversion options and is cheaper than other isolators. In addition, long-term performance of galvanic isolation device and application specific design are some of the major factors identified in the market that are driving the growth of galvanic isolation market across the globe.Global Galvanic Isolation Market: RestraintFailure of galvanic isolation devices without any notification, alert or symptoms can act as a restraint which is expected to hinder the growth of the galvanic isolation market.Global Galvanic Isolation Market: Competitive LandscapeMajor players in the global galvanic isolation market focus on investing on research and development activities in order to come up with advanced products. For example, Avago Technologies limited launched dual-channel R2Coupler optocoupler devices, the ACFL-621xT and ACFL-521xT in 2015. These optocoupler have especially been designed for automotive applications. Additionally, in the same year, Avago Technologies limited launched a wide range of latest industrial fiber optical products in Europe.Request for Table of Contents @Global Galvanic Isolation Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players operating in the global galvanic isolation market are Corrpro Companies Inc., Avago Technologies limited (AVGO), STMicroelectronics N.V., ROHM Semiconductor, Perle Systems Europe Ltd., Infineon Technologies AG, Professional Mariner LLC., Pepper+Fuchs GmbH and Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) etc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Polyethylene Terephthalate Market Revenue, Opportunity, Forecast and Value Chain 2015-2025

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Polyethylene terephthalate, which is also called PET is a thermoplastic polymer resin produced by the reaction of raw materials monoethylene glycol (MEG) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA). The material exhibits exceptional barrier properties towords moisture and water. Polyethylene terephthalatefinds applications across diverse industries such as automotive, food and beverage packaging, electronics among the others.Recently, Reliance Industries have announced to open two petrochemical plants in Dahej, Gujrat, for making polyester plastic and would also commissioned a 650 KTA polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin capacity and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant. It will increase their global capacity share of almost 4 percent and would also lower the operational cost and achieve full chain margins.Request for Sample @Polyethylene Terephthalate Market: Drivers & RestraintsIncreasing demand of polyethylene terephthalate from food and beverage sector like in carbonated soft drinks packaging, increase demand for packaged food due to rise in consumption of frozen and processed food, rise in demand for electronics and automotive applications/industries and eco friendly substitution are the most important driving factors in the polyethylene terephthalate market. Also, rapid urbanization, innovative packaging and high economic growth is contribution in increasing the demand for polyethylene terephthalate regardless of the geographical location.Stringent environmental rules and regulations by government and threat of substitutes, are acting as a barrier for polyethylene terephthalate market.Polyethylene Terephthalate Market: SegmentationPolyethylene terephthalate market are broadly classified on the basis of the following segments By Application:Sheets/FilmsPackaging (Bottles)Consumer GoodsOthersBy End User:AutomotiveElectronicsFood and BeveragesOthersPolyethylene Terephthalate Market: OverviewPolyethylene terephthalate market has grown substantially at a healthy CAGR due to an increase use of PET in food and beverages industry. With rapid technological advancement market and increasing demand from end user industries like automotive, packaging and electronics is expected to fuel the growth of the polyethylene terephthalate market. Asia Pacific represents the largest market for this product category. China and India will emerge as the fastest growing region for polyethylene terephthalate market.Polyethylene Terephthalate Market: Region-wise OutlookPolyethylene terephthalate market is expected to register a double-digit CAGR for the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions polyethylene terephthalate market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market followed by Europe and North America. This is due to the increasing demand of polyethylene terephthalate and ethylene from these regions. Theres is a robust demand of polyethylene terephthalate from Africa and Middle East.Request for Table of Contents @Polyethylene Terephthalate Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in polyethylene terephthalate market are Toray Industries, Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik (BASF), DuPont, DSM, M&G Group, Indorama Ventures, Jiangsu Sanfangxiang Group, Lanxess Corporation, Nan Ya Plastics, Far Eastern New Century.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Smartphone 3D Camera Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players  Soft Kinetic, SONY, Infineon Technologies, Pelican imaging, Toshiba Group, PMD Technologies

Smartphone 3D Camera Market

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SummaryAccording to Stratistics MRC, the Global Smartphone 3D Camera market is estimated at $140 million in 2015 and is expected to reach $2028.8 million by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 46.5% from 2015 to 2022. The market has been growing its popularity more among present generation youth due to its latest features such as live sensing of the object, clarity and HD performance. High cost of smartphones is restraining this market in the upcoming years. Innovation of new features in smartphones are the key opportunity for the market.In the market, the 8-16MP segment is the most selected resolution by the consumers and is the highest growing segment due to less price with good resolution of photos. Asia-Pacific region is largest opportunity market. The increasing practice of smartphone and increase in purchasing power of consumers is driving the market growth. In Asia Pacific countries such as China and India, the people using smartphones are more than 800 million users, according to World Bank. Further, most of the smart phone vendors start their smartphones manufacturing units in countries such as China, Japan, and Taiwan.Click here for a sample report @Some of the key players in the market are Sharp Corporation, Soft Kinetic, SONY Corporation, Infineon Technologies, Pelican imaging, Toshiba Group, PMD Technologies, Microsoft Corporation, Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Panasonic Corporation.Technologies Covered: Time-of-Flight (TOF) Stereoscopic CameraResolutions Covered: Below 8MP 8-16MP Above 16MPRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptAt any Query @Table of Contents1 Executive Summary2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope2.4 Research Methodology2.4.1 Data Mining2.4.2 Data Analysis2.4.3 Data Validation2.4.4 Research Approach2.5 Research Sources2.5.1 Primary Research Sources2.5.2 Secondary Research Sources2.5.3 Assumptions.8 Key Developments8.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures8.2 Acquisitions & Mergers8.3 New Product Launch8.4 Expansions8.5 Other Key Strategies9 Company Profiles9.1 Sharp Corporation9.2 Soft Kinetic9.3 SONY Corporation9.4 Infineon Technologies9.5 Pelican imaging9.6 Toshiba Group9.7 PMD Technologies9.8 Microsoft Corporation9.9 Intel Corporation9.10 Samsung Electronics9.11 LG Electronics9.12 Panasonic CorporationBuy NowWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsContinued....Contact infoContact Us: sales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRESS:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
The Best Deals on Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Industry: QYResearchReports 2017

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Market Report 2017 to its huge collection of research reports.QYResearchReports.com has added a new report covering the global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines market to its vast database. The research report studies the global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines market to analyze the factors impacting it. The report has been divided into several chapters that discuss the global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines market in absolute detail. The report begins with the discussion of the industry overview, which includes definitions and specifications of Fiber Laser Cutting Machines. It also explains the classification of Fiber Laser Cutting Machines, its applications, the industry chain structure, the status of the major regional segments of the global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines market, industry policies, and recent news.The report gives an analysis of the manufacturing cost structure with the help of data about raw material suppliers and price analysis. This chapter also offers an explanation of the analysis carried out for equipment suppliers and prices. Furthermore, the chapter includes an analysis of labor costs, other costs, and manufacturing process analysis.Get Free PDF Brochure For More Technical Insights@The report explains the role of end users in regions such as Europe, China, and Japan, along with sharing the details regarding the segmentation of the global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines market. The comprehensive report also explains the governmental policies acting on the global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines market and studies the market in the context of the political scenario, economic condition, social dynamics, technological advancements, legal implications, and environmental demands and regulations.The research report on the global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines gives a clear picture of the competitive landscape of the market. The report offers an insight into the financial overview and details about sales, revenue, and price concerning the leading vendors operating in the global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines market. It also provides a SWOT analysis and Porters five forces analysis of the important players in the market.Table of ContentsGlobal Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Market Report 20171 Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Fiber Laser Cutting Machines1.2 Classification of Fiber Laser Cutting Machines by Product Category1.2.1 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Active Optical Fiber1.2.4 Semiconductor Laser Diodes1.3 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Metal Materials Cutting1.3.3 Non-metal Materials Cutting1.4 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Market by Region1.4.1 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Status and Prospect (2012-2022)Access the full Report TOC in Detail @2 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3 United States Fiber Laser Cutting Machines (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Volume and Market Share by Players3.3 United States Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Volume and Market Share by Application4 China Fiber Laser Cutting Machines (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.4 China Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Volume and Market Share by Application5 Europe Fiber Laser Cutting Machines (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe Fiber Laser Cutting Machines Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationEnquiry For Discount Visit @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Control Foot Switches Market- Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2022

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Control Foot Switches is any of a number of different types of switches operated by the feet. It can either work in a simple binary manner, with only an on and off setting, or it can work on an increasing scale. The one that most adults are familiar with is the gas pedal of a car.To Order For a Sample Report Copy, Please Visit:Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Control Foot Switches in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversSchneider ElectricStrykerLinemasterMarquardtSiemensSteute SchaltgerateABBAMETEKHerga TechnologySchmersalSSC ControlsBERNSTEINOjidenCHINTLemaLEXDAMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Purchase the Complete Report here:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Control Foot Switches market.Chapter 1, to describe Control Foot Switches Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Control Foot Switches, with sales, revenue, and price of Control Foot Switches, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Control Foot Switches, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;.About Us:Global Info Reports, a market research company that renders broad analysis of global market sizing, determines the industry intelligence, wrapping markets where advancements in science and technology are persistently improving the entire standard, quality and business upkeep. We have the most copious collection of market intelligence services online. We provide market reports and update our collection frequently to offer you with immediate online access to complete enhanced database of expert insights on global industries, products, market players, companies, and latest trends.Contact us:Email- sales@globalinforeports.comFollow Us:Twitter:Facebook:Google Plus:
Global Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Market projected to Reach $891.02 Million by 2020

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) MarketRequest a Free Sample Report @Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method is a technology that involves extraction of crude oil from oil reservoirs that cannot be extracted through conventional technologies. It is also known as tertiary recovery method as it takes place after primary and secondary recoveries. Oil extracted through primary recovery accounts for 5% to 15%, while secondary recovery accounts for 20% to 60% of the total oil present in the reservoir. By using enhanced oil recovery technology, 35% to 75% oil can be extracted from the reservoir.EOR technology uses methods such as thermal injection, gas injection and chemical injection to extract oil from the reserves. Thermal injection technology uses hot water and steam to extract crude oil from the reservoir. It is widely used to extract heavy viscous oil, that cannot flow on its own. Thermal injection technology reduces the viscosity by increasing temperature of the crude oil. Most commonly used thermal injection method are steam injection and In-situ combustion. Commonly used steam injection methods are steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) and steam flooding. Steam injection method is mostly used on oil sands. Countries such as Canada, Indonesia and California are using steam injection on their oil fields. SAGD has application in heavy oil sands of Alberta region. Steam flooding method is used on light oil reservoirs. In-situ method is used for heavy oil sandstone reservoirs. Countries such as Romania and Canada, have some projects using In-situ combustion process. Thermal injection technology dominated the EOR market in the year 2012 but by 2023 its market share is expected to decrease. Major challenges faced by thermal injection technology is the lack of availability of low price natural gas. Gas required for steam generation can be used for other purposes such as power generation and transportation.Gas injection technology is mostly used on light oil reservoirs. It is mainly used on sandstone field. Gas injection technology especially uses CO2. It is expected to increase for two reasons including disposal of green house gas and increase in crude oil recovery. CO2 released in the atmosphere through power generation and industrial sector, is used in gas injection technology to extract crude oil. Thus huge amount of CO2 is captured for EOR technologies which may pollute the environment. With more than 100 CO2 commercial EOR projects worldwide, most of them are concentrated in West Texas in U.S. Due to the availability of low cost CO2 from nearby fields and reservoirs CO2 EOR projects have gained popularity worldwide.Browse Complete Report with Table of Content @Chemical injection method uses polymer, surfactant solution and alkali to extract crude oil from the reservoirs. It can be applied on both carbonate and sandstone formations. Chemical injection technology can be combined with other EOR technologies to derive advantages of each other. Primary objective of chemical EOR process is to reduce ther interfacial tension between water and oil through the use of surfactants. Mobility of crude oil is controlled by adding polymers. Hydrolyzed polyacrylamide is the commonly used polymer in chemical EOR method. Major challenges faced by Chemical EOR process is the lack of availability of compatible chemicals in high saline and high temperature environment.North America dominated the global EOR market in terms of volume as huge demand arises from U.S, Canada and Mexico. Europe is expected to be a booming market for EOR technology as number of upcoming projects are there in Russia. Rest of the World (RoW) is expected to show the highest growth rate as number of oil reserves exists in Middle East. Thus, in future Middle East is expected to be the most attractive market for EOR technology.Send an Inquiry @Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, BP Plc, Cenovus Energy Inc, Chevron Corporation, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil Corporation, OAO Lukoil, Petronas, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Statoil ASA are expected to dominate the market for enhanced oil recovery technology.About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Coffee in Mexico 2018 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 5.83% and Forecast to 2020

Coffee in Mexico Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com adds Coffee in Mexico 2018 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 5.83% and Forecast to 2020 Research to its Database.Description:The analysts forecast the coffee market in Mexico to grow at a CAGR of 5.83% during the period 2016-2020.The coffee market in Mexico comprises fresh roasted and ground coffee, instant coffee, RTD coffee, and coffee pods. Increasing demand from the millennial population has contributed to the rise in demand for coffee in Mexico. An improved economy and increased job opportunities have made different types of coffee more affordable for younger consumers. This demography is more likely to spend on premium beverage brands. This has led to a spurt of cafes and coffee shops, which has further strengthened Mexico's coffee market.Mexico has many certified organically grown coffees, sold in many North American specialty coffee stores. These coffees are certified by independent monitoring agencies. Coffee from Mexico is exported to the US, Japan, and Europe, especially to Germany.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the coffee market in Mexico for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, Technavio considers the revenue generated from the total consumption of coffee in Mexico. The report does not include revenue generated from the aftermarket service of the product.The market is divided into the following segments based on types: Instant coffee Fresh roasted and ground coffee RTD coffee Coffee podThe report, Coffee Market in Mexico 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Grupo LALA Nestle Sabormex Sigma AlimentosOther prominent vendors Cafinco Mondelez InternationalMarket driver Demand for organic coffee For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Price volatility of coffee For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend High demand for single-serve coffee pods For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Ask Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summary HighlightsPART 02: Scope of the report Market overview Base year Vendor segmentation Numerical figures Top-vendor offeringsPART 03: Market research methodology Research methodology Economic indicatorsPART 04: Introduction Key market highlightsPART 05: Coffee market outlook Global coffee market Coffee market in North America Global annual per capita consumption of coffee Global top 10 coffee producing countriesPART 06: Mexico: An overview Mexico: OverviewPART 07: Market landscape Market overview Market landscape by production Market landscape by consumptionPART 08: Market segmentation by distribution channel Segmentation of coffee market in Mexico by distribution channelPART 09: Market segmentation by type Segmentation of coffee market in Mexico by type 2015-2020 Instant coffee market in Mexico Fresh roasted and ground coffee market in Mexico RTD coffee market in Mexico Coffee pod market in MexicoPART 10: Market drivers Increasing demand from millennial population Demand for organic coffee Rise in demand for RTD coffee Increased per capita consumption Extensive scope through organized retailingPART 11: Impact of driversPART 12: Market challenges Price volatility of coffee Cost of coffee production Environmental sustainability Effect of natural disasters and adverse weather conditions Threat from substitutesContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
IT Security-as-a-Service 2018 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 19.1% and Forecast to 2020

IT Security-as-a-Service 2018

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WiseGuyReports.Com adds IT Security-as-a-Service 2018 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 19.1% and Forecast to 2020 Research to its Database.Description:The analysts forecast the IT security as a service market to grow at a CAGR of 19.1% during the period 2016-2020.The global IT security as a service market is growing steadily as cloud services remain the most promising market over the decade. Organizations can reduce risks by virtualizing applications and users, and integrating data leak protection functions into a secure cloud-hosted environment. This enables users to experience an improved traditional environment, while the data remain in on premise end-point.With growing adoption of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and chose-your-own-device (CYOD) among organizations, the need for IT security as a service is growing rapidly. The rapid growth in the IT infrastructure of a business has given rise to new and sophisticated threats, such as Trojans, zero-day malwares, and advanced persistent threats, that can put organization's critical data at risk. Enterprises are increasingly adopting managed security services to secure their networks from growing security threats and provide their employees with secured access to confidential information.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the IT security as a service market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, Technavio considers the revenue generated from the total consumption of IT security as a service globally. The report does not include revenue generated from the aftermarket service of the product.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: APAC Europe Latin America MEA North AmericaThe report, Global IT Security-as-a-Service Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Blue Coat Cisco IBM Intel Security SymantecOther prominent vendors Alert Logic Barracuda Networks BT Global Services CA Technologies CenturyLink CGI Group CheckPoint Software Technologies CipherCloud Computer Sciences CYREN FishNet Security Fortinet HP Microsoft NTT Com Security Panda Security Proofpoint Radware Trend Micro Trustwave ZscalerMarket driver Increased need for mobile security For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Concerns over data mismanagement For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Growing adoption of SMAC technology among workforces For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Ask Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summary HighlightsPART 02: Scope of the report Market overview Top-vendor offeringsPART 03: Market research methodologyResearch methodology Economic indicatorsPART 04: Introduction Key market highlightsPART 05: Market landscape Market overview Applications of IT security as a service Benefits of IT security as a service Market size and forecast Five forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by products Segmentation of global IT security as a service by productsPART 07: Market segmentation by end-user End-user segmentation of global IT security as a service marketPART 08: Geographical segmentation Geographical segmentation of global IT security as a service North America Europe APAC Latin America MEAPART 09: Market driversPART 10: Impact of driversPART 11: Market challengesPART 12: Impact of drivers and challengesContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and eDiscovery Market Segments, Key Players Strategies, Analysis and Forecasts Till 2023

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This study covers the market dynamics and trends in major countries that are expected to influence the current market scenario and future status of the Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and Ediscovery Market over the forecast period.GET SAMPLE REPORT @MarketResearchFuture.com adds Healthcare Archiving and Ediscovery Market -2017 Asia Pacifici Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2023 reports to its database.Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and Ediscovery Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 Report Provides In-Depth Analysis of Parent Market Trends, Macro-Economic Indicators and Governing Factors Along With Market Attractiveness as Per Segments. The Asia Pacific healthcare archiving and eDiscovery market is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 8.5%.Market Highlights of Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and Ediscovery Market:In healthcare, many organizations are not fully prepared with the right information technology systems to address data storage and retrieval requirements. These organizations have to comply with numerous rules and regulations, governing the management of medical records. Therefore, there is need of an information governance solution, with an eDiscovery platform.Healthcare data is of two types namely, structured and unstructured. Structured data can be referred to as alphabets, numbers and can be easily processed and stored whereas unstructured data can be referred to as email, images, audio and video files which constitutes a scattered data. In Asia Pacific, healthcare archiving and eDiscovery market is driven by an increase in the demand for information technology in healthcare, strict regulations governing the use of medical records, and extensive use of software system for healthcare management. Risk of managing healthcare data such as using pirated software, data security issues and threat of cyber-attacks may act as obstacles for the growth of the market.Key Players For Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and Ediscovery Market:Some of the key players in this market are Actiance Inc. (U.S.), Barracuda Networks, Inc. (U.S.), Commvault Systems Inc. (U.S.), Global Relay Communications Inc. (U.S.), Google Incorporation (U.S.), International Business Machine (IBM) Corporation (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Allscripts (U.S.) and Siemens (U.S.).Intended Audience of Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and Ediscovery Market:Healthcare Archiving and eDiscovery system providersCloud platform providersRegulatory and compliance agenciesInvestors and venture capitalistsGovernment bodiesSegmentation of Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and Ediscovery Market:Asia Pacific healthcare archiving and eDiscovery market is segmented by types including archiving and eDiscovery. Based on storage method, the market is segmented into on-premise system and cloud system. On the basis of data storage, the market is segmented into revenue cycle management, electronic health record, practice management system, laboratory information system, radiology information system, picture archiving system and other systems.GET FULL REPORT @Regional Analysis of Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and Ediscovery Market:Asia Pacific market for healthcare archiving and eDiscovery consists of regions namely Japan, China, India, Republic of Korea, Australia and rest of Asia Pacific. Rising patient pool, demand for information technology by healthcare professionals and need of cost effective storage of medical records of the patients are major drivers for the market growth. Furthermore, increasing patient pool, awareness regarding importance of medical records in legal matters also contribute to the progressive growth of this market. Additionally, government incentives and initiatives to promote healthcare IT, and technological advancements are some of the other drivers of this market in Asia Pacific. On the contrary, high cost of these software and their installation act as a barrier to the market growth in developing countries of Asia Pacific.Major TOC of Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and Ediscovery Market:Chapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market IntroductionChapter 3. Research MethodologyChapter 4. Market DynamicsChapter 5. Market Factor AnalysisChapter 6. Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and EDiscovery Market, By TypeChapter 7. Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and EDiscovery Market, By DeploymentChapter 8. Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and EDiscovery Market, By ApplicationChapter 9. Asia Pacific Healthcare Archiving and EDiscovery Market, By RegionChapter 10. Company ProfileChapter 11. ConclusionChapter 12. AppendixCONTINUEDGET DISCOUNT @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com
Connected Car M2M Connections and Services in UK 2018 Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 32.26% and Forecast to 2020

Connected Car M2M Connections and Services in UK

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WiseGuyReports.Com adds Connected Car M2M Connections and Services in UK 2018 Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 32.26% and Forecast to 2020 Research to its Database.Description:The analysts forecast the connected car M2M services market in the UK to grow at a CAGR of 32.26% during the period 2016-2020.A connected car ecosystem comprises of many players such as telecommunications providers, third-party app vendors, connected car manufacturers, device manufacturers, operating system (OS) and platform providers, analytics providers, and aftermarket telematics providers. These players are forging partnerships to provide connected car M2M services to consumers at competitive prices.Connected technology enables drivers to access accurate and updated travel information on route options and learn about the possible cost and environmental impact of those options. For optimal fuel efficiency, vehicles can communicate with traffic signals to eliminate avoidable stops.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the connected car M2M services market in the UK for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, Technavio considers service revenue generated from OEM and aftermarket equipment and from infotainment, navigation, and telematics services.The market is divided into the following segments based on usage: OEM AftermarketThe report, Connected Car M2M Connections and Services Market in UK 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Audi Connect BMW British Telecom Gemalto GMOther prominent vendors Delphi Automotive Ford Motors IBM IMS Mercedes-Benz Connect Parrot Automotive PSA Peugeot Citroen Qualcomm Sierra Wireless Tech Mahindra Toyota Motors Volkswagen Wipro Verizon Enterprise SolutionsMarket driver Awareness of safety and security among drivers For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge High cost of connected car M2M connections and services For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Deployment of V2X technologies in vehicles For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Ask Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summary HighlightsPART 02: Scope of the report Market overview Top vendor offeringsPART 03: Market research methodology Research methodology Economic indicatorsPART 04: Introduction Key market highlightsPART 05: Market landscape Market overview Market size and forecast Five forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by application Connected car M2M services market in UK by application Safety and driving assistance Connectivity Navigation services Infotainment services Diagnostics and maintenancePART 07: Market segmentation by shipment units Connected car M2M connections and services market in UK by shipment unitsPART 08: Market segmentation by usage Connected car M2M OEM market in UK Connected car aftermarket in UKPART 09: Market driversPART 10: Impact of driversPART 11: Market challengesPART 12: Impact of drivers and challengesContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Biologics Market Segments, Key Players Strategies, Analysis and Forecasts Till 2027

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Global Biologics Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2027 Report Provides In-Depth Analysis of Parent Market Trends, Macro-Economic Indicators and Governing Factors Along With Market Attractiveness as Per Segments.GET SAMPLE REPORT @MarketResearchFuture.com adds Biologics Market -2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2027 reports to its database.Global Biologics Market  Overview:Biologics are compounds of pharmaceutical importance such as sugars, proteins, and nucleic acids or complex combinations of these substances, or they can be living entities by themselves which are inclusive of such cells and tissues. Biologics can be isolated from natural sources including human beings, animal, or microorganism, and may be produced by biotechnological procedures through various cutting-edge technologies. Gene-based and cellular biologics are at the forefront of various biomedical research, and can be used as novel strategy for the treatment of a variety of medical conditions. Rising prevalence of different chronic and acute diseases such as cancer, diabetes, besides others, and increasing demand for the better and biological therapy drives the growth of the market during the forecast period. According to the National Cancer Institute in 2016, approximately, 1,685,210 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. and 595,690 people died from the disease. Moreover, it was estimated that the national expenditures for cancer care in the U.S. could reach from USD 125 billion in 2010 to USD 156 billion by 2020. Additionally, growing geriatric population and rising healthcare expenditure boosts the market growth. According to the Johns Hopkins University, for people who are over the age of 65 years, there is an 11-fold increased incidence of developing cancer as compared to younger individuals. Moreover, according to the Population Reference Bureau, the number of the Americans who age 65 or more is projected to reach over 98 million by 2060. However, the market growth can be restricted by the long term approval time and high cost for environmental condition management.The global biologics market is growing with a sound pace. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the Global Biologics Market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is projected to demonstrate a sound growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2027).Global Biologics Market  Competitive Analysis:AbbVie, Amgen, Biogen Idec, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline plc., Johnson and Johnson, Merck and Co., Merck KGaA, Novartis, Pfizer, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, and Sanofi are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Biologics Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Characterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global biologics market appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. International players are expanding their footprint in the developing economy, making it difficult for regional vendors to compete with them, especially in terms of features such as product portfolios, quality, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to get more intensified further during the forecast period. The intense competition prevalent in the market dictates the consolidation among marketers.Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and product launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position.GET FULL REPORT @Merck KGaA is one of the prominent players in the Global Biologics Market and is headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany. In January 2017, the company acquired acquired BioControl Systems Inc., a global leader in food safety testing. The acquisition opened growth opportunities for Merck in the food and beverage space; particularly in the U.S.In August 2016, FDA approved Pfizers TROXYCA ER extended-release capsules CII for pain management. This drug is used for abuse-deterrent properties for the management of pain and will help Pfizer to improve their goodwill and sales with this new productIn April 2017, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. FDA for the CINtec Histology test. This test is the only clinically validated p16 biomarker test. The CINtec Histology test will help physicians make informed decisions as to the best course of care for patients with high-grade pre-cancerous cervical disease.Global Biologics Market  Regional Analysis:Geographically, the North America has the largest biologic drug market. Due to increasing prevalence of diseases like Cancer and diabetes in the North America is the major factor for the growth of the market. North America is followed by Europe in biologic market. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for biologic market. Biologic market growth of Asia Pacific is majorly driven by Japan, China and India. Beside this a huge population base in this region has provided a fuel for the growth of the market. Middle East and Africa has the least biologic market.The report for Global Biologics Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsCONTINUEDGET DISCOUNT @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com
Medical Tourism Market - Latest Development and Trends 2023

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The Global Medical Tourism Market is growing at a steady pace and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.4% during the forecasted period 2017-2023.Medical tourism or health tourism refers to traveling abroad to a foreign nation for the purpose of seeking healthcare services. The activities are not restricted to only surgical intervention and may involve medical check-ups, and other practices that require skilled medical interventions. According to OECD estimates, nearly 50 million medical tourists travelled to the emerging nations in 2016.Market dynamics of the Global Medical Tourism MarketThe Medical tourism market is been driven by factors such as rising geriatric population, high cost of treatment in developed countries, availability of cost-effective and quality treatments in developing countries, development of effective travel especially air travel, assistance from tourism departments and local governments, availability and spread of latest medical technologies throughout the world, high penetration of health insurance, development of communication technology, and others.Get a Sample Report @The rise of in-vitro fertilization, surrogacy, retro-production has also stimulated the market. International accreditation is a key factor boosting international medical tourism. Currently, over 600 health facilities in the world are accredited by the U.S. Joint Commission International (JCI), which is growing by 20% each year.The market restraints are limited coverage and insufficient reimbursement offered by insurance companies, difficulties associated with cross border travel, such as cultural barriers, connectivity issues, documentation, and VISA approval issues, and others.Key Players in the Global Medical Tourism MarketSome of the key players in this market are Asklepios Kliniken Verwaltungs gesellschaft mbH (Germany), Fortis Healthcare (India), Gleneagles Global Hospitals Group. (India), Prince Court Medical Centre (Malaysia), Samitivej PCL (Thailand), Christus Muguerza (Mexico), Anadolu Medical Center (Turkey), and others.Mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, and joint ventures for delivering enhanced medical care, is an attractive strategy that is being pursued by many players. These mergers result in increased buying power for the players leading to economies of scale. The cost saving due to the economies of scale help to sustain the intense competition resulting in higher returns on investment. It also strengthens the market positions. Examples of collaborations include Bumrungrad International Hospital (Bangkok) and IBM Watson for better cancer care, and the collaboration of Anadolu Medical Centre (Turkey) with Johns Hopkins Medicine (U.S.).Segments of the Global Medical Tourism MarketMedical tourism market has been segmented on the basis of treatment types, which comprises of orthopedic/spine treatments, oncology/cancer treatments, cosmetic treatments, cardiovascular/cardiology treatments, dental treatments, neurology/neurosurgery treatments, fertility/IVF treatments, and others.This treatment may include a wide array of medical services; however, the most frequently availed services include cancer treatment, orthopedic treatment, neurological disease treatment, elective surgery, fertility treatment, and others.Order Copy of 80 Premium Pages is Available @Regional Analysis of Global Medical Tourism MarketMedical Tourism Index ranks Canada, U.K. Israel, and Singapore as the key destinations. Globalization has led to a huge impact on the market for medical tourism as can be witnessed by the dominance of Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is home to many emerging economies of the world. The Asia Pacific region accounted for the largest share of the global medical tourism market, of greater than 40% in 2016. This growth is attributed to infrastructure development, rising economy, technology up gradation of health facilities, low cost and quality medical services, and government initiative to promote medical tourism in this region. Asia Pacific market was led by Malaysia, Taiwan, India, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The rise of x-soviet economies is the hallmark of medical tourism in the European continent. Countries such as Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia have leveraged their healthcare systems for medical tourism.Americas holds the second position in the medical tourism, followed by Europe. Central and South American countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba and Ecuador are popular destinations for medical tourists. The South American nations have specialised in cosmetic surgery and includes destinations such as Brazil, Argentina and others. According to Patients Beyond Borders, global medical tourism market grew at CAGR rate of 15% to 25% and Mexico was predicted to the fastest growing market. The Middle East and Africa have poor market owing to poorly developed healthcare sector and socio-economic development. Israel and Jordan are the best destinations for medical tourism in Middle East and Africa.The global medical tourism market is likely to witness a flurry of branding activities as marketing has a large effect on the return on investment. Many destinations have specialised in specific segments. For example, India, Thailand, and Singapore are renowned for specialist cardiac surgeries, cosmetic surgery and complicated surgical procedures respectively. Malaysia offers state-of-the-art medical infrastructure and is anticipated to acquire one of the top market positions in the global medical tourism market, during the forecast period.Ask to Expert @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Tissue Transglutaminase Test Market Poised to Expand at a Robust Pace Over 2023

Tissue Transglutaminase Test Market

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The Worldwide Tissue Transglutaminase Test Market Research Report provides detailed analysis of the key regional market status of the Healthcare Industry. The Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~17.5% during the forecast period. The tissue transglutaminase (tTG) testing is used for the diagnosis of certain autoimmune diseases, which is mostly restricted to celiac disease. In celiac disease, gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats) is seen as a foreign invader and in response to it the body mounts an immune response to its enacting enzyme known as transglutaminase (which restricts the proteolysis of the glutin). tTG enzyme gets attacked by the (tTG) IgA and (tTG) IgG. For diagnostic purposes (tTG) IgA is exploited more frequently than the tTG (IgG) as tTG (IgG).Increasing prevalence of celiac disease drives the growth of the market. According to the World Gastroenterology Organization in 2016, 1% of the total population in western countries was diagnosed with the celiac diseases and the prevalence have substantially increased across the globe. According to Celiac Disease Foundation in 2016, hospitalization have increased by 600% from 1998 to 2013.TG testing Market Key Players: Some of key players profiled in the report are Quest Diagnostics Incorporated., SQI Diagnostics, Trinity Biotech, ZEDIRA GmbH, Demeditec Diagnostics GmbH, ARUP Laboratories, Cell Science Systems, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Pfizer Inc., Celimmune, LLC., and others.Get Sample Copy @Increasing prevalence of autoimmune diseases mainly celiac disease, increasing geriatric global pool, and increasing investments healthcare drives the market growth. Low healthcare expenditure in developing regions, costs considerations, false positive diagnosis in geriatric population marked due to conditions such as diarrhoea, etc. likely to affect the market growth negatively.SegmentationThe global tissue transglutaminase testing market has been segmented on the basis types and end users.Based on types, the market has been segmented into serological, biopsy testing, and others. The serological testing is sub-segmented into tissue transglutaminase (tTG) antibody- IgA, serum and tissue transglutaminase (tTG) antibody- IgG, serum.Based on the end users, the market has been segmented as hospitals & clinics, homecare, research organizations, and others.Regional AnalysisThe Americas account for a significant market share owing to extensive use of medications and high expenditure on the health care. Additionally, the fastest uptake of new technology in the US drives the global tTG testing market. Additionally, concentration of major research companies and research organizations in the developed countries of this region boost the market growth.Europe is the second largest market in the world due to high income and healthcare penetration.Asia Pacific region is expected to grow rapidly. China and India are likely to lead this market due to fast growing healthcare sector during the forecast period.Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are estimated to drive the Middle East & African market. The African region is expected to witness a moderate growth owing to poor economic and political conditions and poor healthcare development.Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 50 market data tables and figures spread over 80 pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content (TOC) & market synopsis on global tissue transglutaminase testing market research report  Forecast till 2023.Table of Contents1. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size Estimation3.5 Forecast ModelContinuedGet Discount @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMRFR has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in refining market research parameters, choosing right market studies, and evaluating both the market scope and the research methodologies of varied segments.We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.Years of research into diverse fields of work has ingrained within us, a proficiency so distinguished that our industry-specific specialists identify with your business ideas and feel the pulse of your challenges and opportunities. This enables us for providing assistance, through our consulting and strategic consulting services, in informed managerial decision making. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industries, WantStats Research and Media often conducts industrial visits for its research analysts. Relevant inputs from various established market participants, help our clients make significant contribution in respective markets are a huge motivation for all of us to endlessly furnish quality. We depend greatly on profound insights into complex realms of our study.Pune, India
North America Microarray Market Insight Report Offers Development Prospects 2027

North America Microarray Market

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Abcam, Asterand Bioscience, Ihc World Llc, Novus Biologicals Llc (Acquired By Bio-Techne), Origene Technologies Inc, Pantomics, Inc, Protein Biotechnologies Inc, Us Biomax, Inc., Us Bioupton Int, and Vitrovivo Biotech, Llc. are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the North America Microarray Market.North America Microarray Market - OverviewThe North America Microarray Market is growing with the rapid pace; mainly due to the technological advancement. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The North America Microarray market has been booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecasting period. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during 2016  2027. The North America Microarray market is expected to reach USD 1,635.4 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 4% during 2016 to 2027.Get Sample Copy@:North Americas Microarray Market is predominantly driven by the technological advancements. Additionally, factors such as improved healthcare infrastructure, increasing research and development activities, usage of personalized medicines, government initiatives and rise in the incidences of cancer are fostering the market growth up to large extent.Moreover, increasing government spending, rise in research and development activities, need for early cancer detection, increasing healthcare expenditure, and diagnosis and large-scale DNA/gene chip initiatives are expected to drive the North America market for microarrays during the forecast period. In addition, adoption of personalized medicines, wide range of application areas, and technological advancements are expected to drive the market for microarrays.Standardization in microarray data and lack of skilled professionals are some of the major factors anticipated to challenge the growth of the North Americas Microarrays market.North America the market for Microarray is increasing rapidly. A Microarray is a multiplex lab-on-a-chip. It is a 2D array on a solid substrate, usually a glass slide or silicon thin-film cell, that assays large amounts of biological material using high-throughput screening miniaturized, multiplexed and parallel processing and detection methods. Globally the Microarray market is dominated by DNA Microarrays. The protein Microarray is currently the fastest growing market. The use of peptide and carbohydrate Microarrays is expanding. Tissue and cell Microarrays are in their infancy stage and are developing slowly because of many complications in the process development. North American market for Microarray is expected to grow at the rate of about 4.0% from 2016 to 2027.North America Microarray Market - Competitive AnalysisCharacterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the North America Market of Microarray appears to be highly fragmented and competitive. Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and product launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position. The Key players operating in the market compete based on pricing, availability, brand, and variety. Manufacturers adopt modern manufacturing process to ensure safety and convenience. Marketers employ a continuous improvement strategy to analyze and update drugs, implementing improvements and launching new solutions to meet the changing needs of both patients and health care professionals. Manufacturers invest heavily in to developing pipeline of innovative drugs to address unmet patient needs. Investment activities in the Microarray Market are interpreted as capacity expansion plan and intensive R&D with an aim of obtaining vast growth opportunities.North America Microarray Market - SegmentsThe Microarray Market can be segmented in to 4 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation By Type : Comprises Protein Microarray, Tissue Microarray, and Cellular Microarray.Segmentation By Product : Comprises Paraffin Tissue Sections (FFPE), Frozen Tissue Sections and otherSegmentation By Application : Comprises Immunohistochemistry, In-Situ Hybridization.Segmentation By Regions : Comprises Geographical regions and countries of - North America such as US, Canada etc.Paraffin tissue sections (FFPE) hold the largest share of 54.6% of the North America Tissue Microarray market.Immunohistochemistry segment holds the largest market share of 47.5% in 2015.Get Discount@:North America Microarray Market - Regional AnalysisIn North America, U.S. is the largest market for Tissue Microarray. Canada is the second-largest market and is expected to be fastest growing market for Tissue Microarray in North America.U.S. holds the largest market share of North America Tissue Microarray market and is anticipated to reach $364.2 million by the end of 2027.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comMRFR has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in refining market research parameters, choosing right market studies, and evaluating both the market scope and the research methodologies of varied segments.We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.Years of research into diverse fields of work has ingrained within us, a proficiency so distinguished that our industry-specific specialists identify with your business ideas and feel the pulse of your challenges and opportunities. This enables us for providing assistance, through our consulting and strategic consulting services, in informed managerial decision making. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industries, WantStats Research and Media often conducts industrial visits for its research analysts. Relevant inputs from various established market participants, help our clients make significant contribution in respective markets are a huge motivation for all of us to endlessly furnish quality. We depend greatly on profound insights into complex realms of our study.Pune, India
Spinal Implants Market Dynamics, Highlights & Synonyms, Comprehensive Analysis & Forecast to 2022

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Spinal implants market information, by type (fusion implants, non-fusion implants), by procedure (open surgery, minimally invasive surgery) by material (titanium, titanium-alloy, stainless steel, and plastic) - Forecast till 2022The global spinal implants market has been evaluated to be rapidly growing market and is expected to grow tremendously in the near future. Spinal implants are devices used by surgeons during surgery to treats deformities, stabilizes and provides strength to the spine and to expedite the fusion process. Spinal implants are used to treat spine related disorders including degenerative disc disease, scoliosis, kyphosis, fracture and spondylolisthesis.As age increases bone density declines which leads to chronic back problems which is common in old age people. This elevates spinal cord damage risk. Recently there have been amazing innovations in implantable devices allowing enhancement of the same the result of which is their use have increased in spinal and orthopedic surgeries. Advanced spinal implantable devices are widely accepted globally as maximum people are willing to spend on spinal surgeries which includes use of these devices. The demand for minimally invasive surgical procedures is more as it provides benefits like less blood loss, less recovery time, reduce risk of medical complication, infections, pain and muscle damage. Minimally invasive spinal surgeries are done more which has boosted the market of spinal implants.Get a Copy of Sample Report @There are some other factors which have substantial impact on the spinal implant market. Rise in number of vehicular accidents, increased spinal injuries and disorders, increasing geriatric and obese population, lack of proper nutrition and exercise which are consequently increasing chronic back problems. All these are some of the factors which are responsible for the growth of the global spinal implants market. However, high cost of the spinal implants, spinal surgical procedures and unstable reimbursement policies put immense pressure on developing nations and the low income economies causing hindrance to the growth of the spinal implants market.Go through the market data and market information presented through more than 50 market data tables and figures in 80 pages of the project report. Read the table of content (TOC) & market synopsis on Spinal Implants Market Research Report Global Forecast till 2022.Key Players for Spinal implants Market: Alphatec Spine Inc Amedica Corporation Depuy Synthes Inc. (Johnson & Johnson) Exactech Inc. Globus Medical Inc. Integra LifeSciences, K2M Inc. LDR Holding Corporation Medtronic plc NuVasive Inc. Orthofix Holdings, Inc. RTI Surgical Inc. Stryker Corporation Quandary Medical LLC Zimmer BiometSegments:Spinal implants market has been segmented on the basis of type of implant which comprises of fusion implants and non-fusion implants. On the basis of procedure, market is segmented into open surgery, and minimally invasive surgery. On the basis of material, market is again segmented into titanium, titanium-alloy, stainless steel and plastic.Regional Analysis of Spinal Implants Market:Globally North America is the largest market for spinal implants. Europe is the second-largest market. Furthermore Asia Pacific market is expected to be the fastest growing market for spinal implants.Browse Full Report Details @The report for spinal implants market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsStudy Objectives of Spinal Implants Market:Providing detail analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 7 years of various segments and sub-segments of the spinal implants market. Giving insights about factors which are affecting the market growth. Analyzing the market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, Porters Five Force Analysis etc. Providing record about the past along with estimated future revenue of the markets segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa. Giving country level analysis of the market with respect to current market size and estimated future growth of the same. Providing country level analysis of the market segments by type, by procedure, by material and its sub-segments. Providing an overview of key players along with their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies and drawing their current status in the market with respect to competition. Tracking and analyzing competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments along with research and developments currently happening in the global spinal implants market.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Spinal Implants Market Research Report - Global Forecast To 2022chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
In-Depth Analysis on CAS9 Technology Market & Global Forecast to 2022

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CAS9 technology Market Analysis by application, by medium (Enzyme, RNA, others), by delivery (IV Infusion, Injection, Inhalation others), By Key Companies (Editas Medicine, Horizon Discovery Group plc., New England Biolabs., Transposagen Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics) by end-users (hospitals, cardiac care centers, ambulatory and others) - Forecast till 2022CAS9 is an exceptional technological innovation that empowers genetic and therapeutic analysts to alter parts of the genome by removing, including or changing sections of the DNA. This technology right now is less complex, most adaptable and has precise technique for genetic manipulation hence it is causing a buzz in the science world. CAS9 is a genome altering technology that is creating a buzz in the science/healthcare world. It is faster in operation, monetarily less expensive and more efficient than previous technology used for altering DNA and has an extensive range of potential applications.This technology is yet to be performed upon humans, focus is currently on animals and on isolated human cells. It will help the healthcare/science industry to treat patients with fatal diseases. Based on the promising results of this technology, companies are investing massively in its research and development and are hoping to get the technology out of clinical trials as soon as possible. Globally the market for CAS9 technology is growing steadily and has a bright future.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Regional Analysis of CAS9 Technology Market:Globally North America is the largest market for CAS9 technology. Europe is expected to be the second-largest market. Furthermore Asia Pacific market is expected to be the fastest growing market for CAS9 Technology.Key Players for CAS9 Technology Market: Some of the key players in this market are:, CRISPR Therapeutics, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Lonza, Agilent Technologies, GenScript, Editas Medicine, Horizon Discovery Group plc., New England Biolabs, Transposagen, Inc. CRISPR Therapeutics, Albany Molecular Research Inc. and others.Segments:CAS9 technology market has been segmented on the basis of medium which comprises of enzyme, RNA and others. On the basis of application the market is segmented into DNA sequence, DNA repair, gene library development, cell line engineering, genetic engineering, cancer, hepatitis B, gene therapy and others. On the basis of delivery IV infusion, injection, inhalation. On the basis of end-user, market is segmented into hospitals, biotechnology companies, research centers, and others.The report for CAS9 Technology market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsBrowse Full Report Details @ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global CAS9 Technology Market Research Report- Forecast To 2022 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
MRSA Drugs Market Research By Drug Origin, By Drug Class, Industry Share & Development Stages, Forecast to 2022

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Market research future published research report on global MRSA Drugs Market. The global MRSA Drugs Market is expected to grow at a CAGR over ~ 4.4 % from 2017 to 2023 .Most MRSA infections occur mostly to individuals who've been in hospitals or in other medicinal services facilities, for example, nursing homes and dialysis centers. When it occurs in these places, it's known as healthcare services related MRSA (HA-MRSA). HA-MRSA infection normally is related with obtrusive techniques or gadgets, for example, surgeries, intravenous tubing or fake jointsAnother type of MRSA disease has happened in most healthy individuals. Methicillin-safe staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) contamination is caused by a type of staph microscopic organisms that is resistant to a number of anti-toxins which are used to treat ordinary staph infections.Global MRSA Drugs Market is expected to reach USD 3.1 Billion by the end of the forecasted period from 2016 to 2022; it is confidently expected that this market has a bright future.Among these individuals who are diagnosed with MRSA (CA-MRSA), it ideally starts as an excruciating skin boil and spreads by skin-to-skin contact. People who are contaminated maximum are at-hazard populations which includes, secondary school wrestlers, child care workers and individuals who live in crowded places.Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an antibiotic resistant strains of the pathogen. MRSA infections are classified as hospital-acquired (HA-MRSA) or community-acquired (CA-MRSA). MRSA causes infections such as skin infections, bone and joint infections, bacteremia, animal infections and others.According to bulletin of the atomic scientists, about 10 million people in the US (3.6 percent of the population) are immune-compromised. The World Health Organization estimated that about 36.7 million people had HIV/AIDS worldwide in 2016. Thus, the rising immune-compromised population is expected to propel the market growth over the review period. Additionally, growing geriatric population projected to support the growth of the market since older people are more susceptible to MRSA infections. World Health Organization estimated that during 2015-2050, the proportion of the world's population will be nearly double from 12% to 22% and by 2020, the number of people aged over 60 years likely to outnumber children younger than 5 years.Another strong driver is growing concerns of MRSA infections and increasing government support to curb MRSA. For example, hospital readmissions reduction program established under Affordable Care Act (ACA) financially penalizes hospitals if they have higher than expected 30-day readmission rates for diseases such as pneumonia. The recommendations of the committee has resulted in hospital readmissions national priority and a direct financial incentive to reduce readmissions. The financial incentives for reducing readmissions and the rising cost of non-compliance is expected to benefit the MRSA drugs market.High cost of novel drug therapy and low healthcare expenditure in developing regions projected to hamper the growth of the market over the review period. Moreover, patent expiry is also expected to lower the market value due to generic competition. For example, Pfizers Zyvox and Mercks Cubicin, used for the treatment of MRSA have lost patents in major markets and their patent for alternative formulations and chemical forms is threatened by imminent patent expiry dates, which is expected to lower the market due to competition from generics and greater market fragmentation.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players for MRSA Drugs Market: Allergan, Plc Merck Inc Pfizer Savara Pharmaceuticals Sealife Pharma Sequella Inc Theravance Biopharma Baxter International AstraZeneca GSK Cempra Inc Biopharma AS Galapagos NV XBiotech NovaDigm Therapeutics Inc.Regional Analysis of MRSA Drugs Market:Globally North America is the largest market for MRSA Drugs; Europe is expected to be the second-largest market. Furthermore Asia Pacific market is expected to be the fastest growing market for MRSA Drugs.Segments:MRSA drugs market has been segmented on the basis of drug class which comprises of folate antagonist, lipopeptides, tetracycline, oxazolidinone, cephalosporin, and lipoglycopeptide. On the basis of drug origin the market is also segmented into semisynthetic drug, synthetic drugs and others.Get Discount @The report for MRSA Drugs Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from MRSA Drugs Market Research Report- Global Forecast To 2022 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Variable Data Printing Labels Market Global Research Report 2018 Analysis & Forecast to 2022

Variable Data Printing Labels Market

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Variable Data Printing Labels Market 2018Summary:Global Variable Data Printing Labels Market Information Report by Type (Release Liner, and Linerless Labels), by Composition (Facestock, and Topcoat), by Application (Food & Beverage, Pharmaceuticals, Personal Care, Consumer Goods, and others) and Region - Global Forecast To 2022Market Scenario:Variable data printing is a form of digital printing where elements such as text, graphics and images are changed from one printed piece to another by using information from an external database. Variable data printing labels allows personalizing the printing requirements according to a specific set of data. The growth of the market is expected to be driven by the ability of variable data printing labels to generate customized product information and serialized number printing at low cost and in less time. The variable data printing label is gaining importance with the rapid increase in the use of printing barcodes in various industry verticals such as pharmaceutical, consumer goods, and food & beverage. With the increase in the concept of barcode scanning for generation of invoices and the increase in demand for huge volume inventory tracking, the variable data printing labels market is growing significantly. The growth of packaging industry is also contributing significantly to the growth of the market.Global variable data printing labels market is expected to grow at around 14% CAGR during the forecast period.Key Players:The key players of Variable Data Printing Labels Market are HP Inc. (U.S.), WS Packaging Group, Inc. (U.S.), Canon Inc. (Japan), Cenveo, Inc. (U.S.), 3M Company (U.S.), Quad/Graphics Inc. (U.S.), Xerox Corporation (U.S.), Avery Dennison Corporation (U.S.), R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (U.S.), Mondi Plc. (South Africa), and others.Request For Sample Report @Study Objectives of Variable Data Printing Labels Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Variable Data Printing Labels market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To Analyse the Global Variable Data Printing Labels market based on various factors such as supply chain analysis, and Porters five force analysis To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regions and their respective key countries To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by type, composition, application and region To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analysing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyse competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Variable Data Printing Labels MarketThe report for Variable Data Printing Labels Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Complete Report Details @Table of Contents1 Executive Summary..8 Competitive Analysis8.1 Introduction8.2 Competitive Scenario8.2.1 Market Share Analysis8.2.2 Market Development Analysis8.2.3 Type/Service Benchmarking8.3 HP Inc. (U.S.)8.3.1 Overview8.3.2 Type/Service Offering8.3.3 Strategy8.4 WS Packaging Group, Inc. (U.S.)8.4.1 Overview8.4.2 Type/Service Offering8.4.3 Strategy8.5 Canon Inc. (Japan)8.5.1 Overview8.5.2 Type/Service Offering8.5.3 Strategy8.6 Cenveo, Inc. (U.S.)8.6.1 Overview8.6.2 Type/Service Offering8.6.3 Strategy8.7 3M Company (U.S.)8.7.1 Overview8.7.2 Type/Service Offering8.7.3 Strategy8.8 Quad/Graphics Inc. (U.S.)8.8.1 Overview8.8.2 Type/Service Offering8.8.3 Strategy8.9 Xerox Corporation (U.S.),8.9.1 Overview8.9.2 Type/Service Offering8.9.3 Strategy8.10 Avery Dennison Corporation (U.S.)8.10.1 Overview8.10.2 Type/Service Offering8.10.3 StrategyContinued.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.CONTACT US:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Top Trends Barrier Film Market Growth, Trends, Futures Prospects Analysis to 2022

Barrier Film

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The market report, global Barrier Film market uses qualitative and quantitative research techniques to showcase competitive landscape for the forecast period, 2018 - 2023. Besides this, the report further blends in primary and secondary research techniques to assess, interpret the segment as well as forecast the total revenue generated by the Barrier Film industry across various regions. Business owners/stakeholders can chalk-out expansion plan by leveraging statistics on market share, size, sale volume, growth rate and return over-invest discussed in the study.Gets sample copy for these 126 Pages profiling 26+ companies Report here@This report is based on the in-depth study of the global Barrier Film Market. The report provides annual estimates and forecast of the market for the period 2017-2022.In this report, the global Barrier Film market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Scope of the Report:This study takes the closer look at different growth trends, futures prospects, Industrial revenue performance, market shares and regulations that will standardize the industry in near future; this would help business owners to strategically evaluate their micro-markets. Researchers behind the study have included some Key market players and assessed their industry shares, milestones achieved as well core competencies. Resource charts, tables and graphical images are included to make decisive statistics self-explanatory.Discount on this Automatic Speech Recognition software Market spread across 126 pages, profiling 26+ companies click here inquire of this Report @Barrier Film market segmentation by manufacturers, the report covers the following companies-Amcor LimitedBemisGlenroy, Inc.Sealed AirMondiWinpak Ltd.Atlantis Pak Co. Ltd.Cosmo Films LtdAmpac Holdings, LLCClondalkin Group Holdings B.V.Accredo Packaging, Inc.DupontDSMBostikEagle Flexible PackagingAcpo ltdLietpakVF Verpackungen GmbHKOROZO Ambalaj San.ve Tic A.S.Supravis Group S.A.ToppanInnovia FilmsTOYOBOSchur Flexibles Holding GesmbHLinpac Packaging LimitedUflex Ltd.Barrier Film market segmentation by types of duty-free retail shops, the report covers-PerfumesCosmeticsAlcoholCigarettesOthersBarrier Film market segmentation by applications of the duty-free retail shop, the report covers the following uses-AirportsOnboard AircraftSeaportsTrain StationsOthersThe market intelligence report blends in the best of both the primary and secondary research techniques to evaluate the project size of the Barrier Film industry across different countries. Besides, examining the share occupied by the market leaders the study assesses the sub segments dependent on the primary segments. Apart from this, the study applies qualitative and quantitative study methods to identify the major outcomes of technology upgrades, joint ventures, collaborations, product launches and mergers and acquisitions worldwide. Researchers have used self-explanatory tables, graphs and infographics to present data on customer preference, consumption volume, production capability, distribution channel and supply chain management.About usTeam Reports and Data united for one reason  to deliver accurate, highly dependable and revealing market insight. Proudly independent, our solutions purely focus on your purpose to locate, target and analyze consumer behavior shifts across demographics, across industries and help you make a smarter business decision.Group of intellectuals at Reports and Data partner to measure out actionable insights as well as primary and secondary data, thereby lowering risks and augmenting customer delight. Equipped with latest technical expertise and analytical abilities we work alongside your team to handle complex researches.Contact us40 Wall St. 28th floor New York City,NY 10005 United Statessales@reportsanddata.com+1-212-710-1370
Global Email Marketing Software Market by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023

Global Email Marketing Software Market

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Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It usually involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. Marketing emails can be sent to a purchased lead list or a current customer database. The term usually refers to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing a merchant's relationship with current or previous customers, encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and sharing third-party ads.Email marketing develops large amounts of traffic through smartphones and tablets. Marketers are researching ways to advertise to more users and to make them view advertising for longer. However, the rate of delivery is still relatively low due to better filtering-out of advertising and users having multiple email accounts for different purposes. Because emails are generated according to the tracked behavior of consumers, it is possible to send advertising which is based on the recipient's behavior. Because of this, modern email marketing is perceived more often as a pull strategy rather than a push strategy.Companies Profiled In This Report:iContact, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, Campaigner, Get Response, A Weber, Pinpointe, Benchmark Email, Vertical Response, Mad Mimi, Campaign Monitor, Zoho Campaigns, Sendin Blue, Infusionsoft, HubSpot, Pardot, Vertical Response (Deluxe)Access Sample Copy:By Regions, this report covers North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, IndiaA deeper knowledge of the Global Email Marketing Software Market could be attained through this report as the researchers have attempted to unveil important distributors and traders and vital factors such as market positioning and marketing channel. Readers have been offered with an intelligent analysis of marketing strategy for the sales while focusing on elements such as target client, brand strategy, and pricing strategy. With a view to helping understand the concept of a marketing channel for glass beads sales, the researchers have exposed some of the significant trends of marketing channel development, indirect marketing, and direct marketing.The report also looks into influential external factors likely to affect the development of the Global Email Marketing Software Market in the coming years. These include the technological framework of the industry and likely advances expected in the coming years, consumer preference patterns, economic environment, and the demand for alternative technologies and devices. The report presents studied 2018-2023 forecasts for the Global Email Marketing Software Market.Access to Remarkable Discount & Benefits on This Report:In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report. The recent developments that took place in the Global Email Marketing Software Market and their impact on the future growth of the market have also been presented through this study.For More Information:Table of Contents:Global Email Marketing Software Market Research Report 2017Chapter 1: Global Email Marketing Software Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Global Email Marketing Software Market ForecastIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Access This Report Now:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Name: Vijay TannaCompany: It Intelligence MarketsAddress: Survey No-9/4, Flat# 6, Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044Mail Id: sales@itintelligencemarkets.comContact No: +91 705-760-0700
Global Ransomware Protection Market Growth Scenario and Market Perspective with Study Of Top Players & Revenue To Significant Growth Forecasts By 2023

Global Ransomware Protection Market

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Ransomware is a predominant cyber threat that installs on the victims computer either encrypting the files or locking the entire system, until a ransom is paid. The organizations have increased investments in securing the data, network, and endpoints from crypto-malwares such as ransomware and other advanced cyber threats.The ransomware protection market size is expected to grow from USD 10 Billion in 2018 to USD 22 Billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of +20%.Ransomware protection solutions have been deployed across various industry verticals, including government and defense, BFSI, healthcare, education, and others. The healthcare vertical is expected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period, as the cybercriminals are targeting valuable electronic patient health information, which has huge demand in the black market. However, BFSI vertical is estimated to have the largest market size in 2016, which is fueled by the advent of crypto-currencies such as Bitcoins.Companies Profiled In This Report:Intel Security(US), Symantec Corporation(US), Trend Micro(Japan), FireEye(US), Sophos(UK), Bitdefender(Romania), Kaspersky Lab(Russia), Malwarebytes(US), Zscaler(US), SentinelOne(US)Access Sample Copy:By Regions, this report covers North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, IndiaThreat intelligence solution is expected to grow the fastest in the ransomware protection market.Threat intelligence solution is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the ransomware protection market, during the forecast period. Organizations are increasingly adopting threat intelligence solutions to combat ransomware and other advanced cyber threats, as these solution provide effective and reliable threat detection to alleviate cyber threats based on security events and security intelligence feeds to manage business risks. Furthermore, security web gateways solution is expected to have the largest market share in the ransomware protection market, during the forecast period.Email protection segment is expected to gain high traction in the ransomware protection marketThe email protection segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018-2023. The emails are number one source of ransomware distribution and cybercriminals target victims with emails having malicious attachments. Hence, email protection is of utmost importance due to the rise in instances of Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams, globally. The network protection segment is estimated to contribute the largest market size to the ransomware protection market, due to rise in the number of security breaches targeting enterprise networks.Access to Remarkable Discount & Benefits on This Report:In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report. The recent developments that took place in the Global Ransomware Protection Market and their impact on the future growth of the market have also been presented through this study.For More Information:Table of Contents:Global Ransomware Protection Market Research Report 2017Chapter 1: Global Ransomware Protection Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Global Ransomware Protection Market ForecastIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Access This Report Now:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Name: Vijay TannaCompany: It Intelligence MarketsAddress: Survey No-9/4, Flat# 6, Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044Mail Id: sales@itintelligencemarkets.comContact No: +91 705-760-0700
Global Animation Software Market by Global Market Trend, Share, Profit, Growth and Key Manufacturers Analysis Report 2018

Global Animation Software Market

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Animation software is designed to generate animated images by using computer graphics. It is one of the innovative ways in exercising ones imaginations, engaging target audiences and promoting businesses. This software generally consists of customizable characters, which can be dragged or dropped, pre-defined sets, libraries of animations and automatic lip synching. This software is cheap, readily available and anyone possessing the basics in drawing skill can easily use it. However, the flaw with this software is that it does not have an undo button and tasks like erasing and redrawing, when mistakes are committed, could be very time consuming.Stop motion animation software makes use of physical objects for the purpose of creating animation. In this type of animation, the images are captured and physically manipulated so that the images appear to move on their own. The animated visual is very appealing, especially, if toys are used. However, the flaw in using this software is the amount of creativity required in executing various frames at a time. 2D animation software is the digital version of flipbook animation and consists of various tools that can be used to conveniently draw faster.Companies Profiled In This Report:Adobe(US), Autodesk(US), Toon Boom Animation(CA), TVPaint(FR), Moho(NZ), Dragonframe(US)Access Sample Copy:By Regions, this report covers North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, IndiaIt is also possible to add visual effects and there are built-in functions by which it is possible to take the back-up of work in progress. The flaw in using 2D animation software is that it is expensive and one needs to be proficient in using computers. 3D animation software is used for creating visuals that are realistic and aesthetically stunning. This software is implanted to create blockbuster movies like Batman and Transformers to bring fictional thoughts to real life. There are numerous amounts of tools that are made available for the artist to make the artwork look real, however, the flaw being that learning 3D animation software takes lot of time and can be learned only under proper guidance. Also, this software is beyond the reach for students with no or less income.The report also looks into influential external factors likely to affect the development of the Global Animation Software Market in the coming years. These include the technological framework of the industry and likely advances expected in the coming years, consumer preference patterns, economic environment, and the demand for alternative technologies and devices. The report presents studied 2018-2023 forecasts for the Global Animation Software Market.Access to Remarkable Discount & Benefits on This Report:In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report. The recent developments that took place in the Global Animation Software Market and their impact on the future growth of the market have also been presented through this study.For More Information:Table of Contents:Global Animation Software Market Research Report 2017Chapter 1: Global Animation Software Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Global Animation Software Market ForecastIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Access This Report Now:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Name: Vijay TannaCompany: It Intelligence MarketsAddress: Survey No-9/4, Flat# 6, Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044Mail Id: sales@itintelligencemarkets.comContact No: +91 705-760-0700
Extreme snowfall expected to last through weekend

Snowfall is expected to continue through Sunday, Nov. 20, according Matt Gillen, meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
The Qualifier events have been a real success when they were introduced in 2016 and its great to see them expanding this season. Demand for EWS entries grows year on year and the Qualifier events are a great way for riders, especially amateurs, to have a clear and fair pathway into the World Series. Weve been overwhelmed by the number of applications weve had to host Qualifiers this year, and its great to see so many countries involved - with 43 nationalities already entered in this seasons EWS races its amazing to see how truly global the sport has become. Its great to offer so many riders the chance to participate in the series and we look forward to seeing who rises through the Qualifier ranks to qualify for the main EWS races in 2019.  Chris Ball, Managing Director EWS
As highlighted by the many best of countdowns published at the end of last year (including our own), 2017 spawned some truly wonderful progressive rock and metal albums from both top artists and up-and-coming darlings. Its only fitting, then, that we start looking ahead to see what the next 12 months have in store for genre fans. Of course, my list will differ from yoursand these certainly arent the only extraordinary bands releasing material in the near futureso feel free to comment below with your most anticipated LPs. (Note: some of these are speculative rather than guaranteed, but theres a strong likelihood that all will be released sometime in 2018. Also, unless otherwise specified, all quotes come from direct conversations with the artists.)



Photo courtesy of artist

Gazpacho  Soyuz

Norwegian sextet Gazpacho has always been a remarkably distinctive band, as their penchant for tense yet beautiful orchestration, unconventional arrangements, metaphysical lyricism, and overwhelmingly poignant vocals help them put the art in art rock (especially on albums like Demon, March of Ghosts, and Night). Theyre also quite fertile, releasing nine full-length works within 12 years, with the last being 2015s Molok. Naturally, theyre gearing up to issue their next effort, Soyuz, before too long, and its shaping up to be another exquisite sequence.

First and foremost, Soyuz sees former drummer Robert Johansen replacing Lars Erik Asp (who departed in 2017). Having played on seminal early LPs like Tick Tock and Firebird, his return is certainly welcomed. As for the concept and style of the album, keyboardist Thomas Andersen explains:

It is about being frozen in time. Originally, it was only going to be a tone poem about the feeling you get from watching a white sail on a blue sea, but it grew into the monster it has become with the usual misanthropic drive now taken to an extreme, with the protagonist wanting to stop time in order to exist within a frozen moment. It laments the death of the old world, where everywhere was a different place with cultures and beliefs to match and not the homogenized marketplace the world has become.

As for the records title, he says that it comes from starting a new song about the Seahenge monument, as an example of something being frozen in time. The roots seem to grasp towards the heavens and the stars and it evolved into a long song ending with the inevitable crash of the Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Finally, Andersen classifies it as a fresher version of the old Gazpacho, and I for one cant wait to hear how it all unfolds.



Infernal (Cover Art)

Phideaux  Infernal

Folk/psychedelic ensemble Phideaux is definitely among the most underappreciated acts in the genre, as theyve yet to become a household name despite releasing what many fansincluding myselfconsider three of the best progressive rock albums of all time with 2007s Doomsday Afternoon, 2009s Number Seven, and 2011s Snowtorch. As such, the wait for the next studio workInfernalhas been grueling to say the least, especially since it was announced several years ago (it was even featured in our 2015 Progressive Rock Preview) and will serve as the concluding chapter of a trilogy that began with 2006s The Great Leap and continued with Doomsday Afternoon. Thankfully, it looks like 2018 will be the year of Infernal, as vocalist/violinist Ariel Farber confirms that its ready to be mastered and will definitely be out before the end of the year.

Continuing its predecessors storyline involving Big Brother authoritarianism, ecological emergency, and ill-fated protagonists, Infernal will feature interwoven, related themes, melodies, and lyrics that reference the earlier entries in the saga. Farber adds that it will take the Phideaux phenomenon to soaring heights of otherworldly music, which is quite possible considering the quality of their past releases. Frankly, I couldnt be more hyped for this record, and I hope you are, too.

Photo: Hajo Muller

Riverside  TBD

With the release of 2003s Out of Myself (the first in the Reality Dream trilogy), Riverside cemented itself as arguably the premier Polish progressive rock/metal band. Since then, theyve completed that sequence and crafted several more collections, each of which presented a unique identity while maintaining the exquisite songwriting and arrangements central to the Riverside sound. Sadly, the sudden passing of founding guitarist Piotr Grudzinski in 2016 brought a lot of turmoil and uncertainty about what the remaining trio bassist/vocalist Mariusz Duda, drummer Piotr Kozieradzki, and keyboardist Micha apajwould do next.

Fortunately, they elected to carry on by releasing a collection of new and old experimental pieces (Eye of the Soundscape) and touring last year (with help from guitarist Maciej Meller). Expectedly, theyll continue with a more traditional successor to 2015s Love, Fear and the Time Machine later in 2018. Specifically, and according to Duda, the album should arrive in September and feature a darker sound set in a postapo, or post-apocalyptic, mood. (Note: Duda also confirms that hes also putting out a successor to last years Fractured, the fifth album from his solo project, Lunatic Soul.) Clearly, itll have the inspiration and drive to be another highly catchy, complex, and cathartic aural journey.



Photo: Alex Solca Photography

Spocks Beard  Noise Floor

When Enchant vocalist Ted Leonard joined Californian outfit Spocks Beard in 2011effectively starting their third incarnation, following the Neal Morse and Nick DVirgilio phases of 1992  2002 and 2002  2011, respectivelyhe helped transform their sound into a more commercially accessible yet still intricate mishmash. Therefore, when the band announced that DVirgilio would be the percussionist on their upcoming album (replacing Jimmy Keegan, who left at the end of 2016), many devotees started speculating about how it will sound (and if DVirgilio is once again an official member. Hes not). While theres little doubt that it will follow in the sonic footsteps of 2015s The Oblivion Particle, the inclusion of DVirgilio is sure to add a bit of nostalgic flair as well.

Delving further into it, bassist Dave Meros remarks that the LP is tentatively called Noise Floor, will probably be come out in late spring or early summer, and contains no overriding theme its just a collection of different songs. Finally, he adds that as of now, there are 12 pieces planned for the track list, and while none are short, there arent any massively long multi-part songs, either. One can only wait patiently over the next few months for this third Leonard-era discand 13th studio album overallto see the light of day. (In the meantime, you can check out some behind-the-scenes clips of them recording it.)



Photo: Tom Barnes

TesseracT  TBD



Sounding a bit like the lighter stylistic sibling of Periphery, English troupe TesseracT has delighted fans with three stellar studio albums2011s One, 2013s Altered State (which featured vocalist Ashe OHara instead of Daniel Tompkins), and 2015s Polaristhat offer, in varying degrees, a lovely mixture of djent foundations, heavenly atmospheres, and soaring, emotive singing. Although very little has been officially states about the upcoming fourth full-length, there are been some details that help entice.

First, the latest single, Smile, demonstrates that the tried and true TesseracT sound is still intact (whether or not the track makes it onto the next record remains to be seen, however). Of course, theres also the planned inclusion of field recordings into the arrangements, which, as the group states in the official posting, is mean to give them some insight into the complex and varied lives of [their] friends from around the world, adding, the idea is to use [them] in different ways throughout the album, to weave them in and out of songs to make the album a more unified experience for us and for you. All in all, it looks like the fourth TesseracT opus will be just as powerful as its predecessors.



Publicity photo via Amazon

The Neal Morse Band  TBD



Neal Morse is easily among the most revered and prolific artists in modern American progressive rock, having releases several solo gems, as well as founded both Spocks Beard Transatlantic. That said, many fans feel that his current project, the Neal Morse Bandwhich is rounded out by vocalist/guitarist Eric Gillette, bassist Randy George, vocalist/keyboardist Bill Hubauer, and drummer Mike Portnoyproduces the best work of his career. In fact, their last studio outing, 2016s conceptual opus The Similitude of a Dream, is commonly championed as his ultimate masterpiece. As a result, devotees are clamoring to learn about and hear the quintets follow-up, which they began working on earlier this month.

To be fair, not much is known at this point, even by the band themselves. In speaking with Hubauer, he revealed that like 2015s The Grand Experiment, theyre coming in with no specified plan trying to force a vision would probably backfire. We are just playing together and seeing what happens it could be a bunch of songs, or it could be a concept. Too early to tell! Either way, the next Neal Morse Band albumwhatever its called and whenever it comes out this yearis sure to maintain the same level of engrossing songwriting and eccentric arrangements that make them so beloved.



Photo: Will Ireland (Courtesy of artist)

The Sea Within  TBD



Flower Kings mastermind Roine Stolt is no stranger to collaborative projects; as a prominent member of Transatlantic and Anderson/Stoltamong other partnershipshe never fails to delight when working with other genre royalty. Thats exactly why his latest project, the Sea Within, is so exciting. Rounded out by bassist Jonas Reingold (the Flower Kings, Karmakanic), guitarist/vocalist Daniel Gildenlow (Pain of Salvation), keyboardist Tom Brislin (Yes, Renaissance, Spiraling), and drummer Marco Minnemann (the Aristocrats, Steven Wilson), the quintet is gearing up to release their debut in May, and it sounds quite promising, to say the least.

Stolt enthusiastically divulges that they have an assorted 85 minutes of new music to pick from, adding that while some would call it pop or art rockor even prog rockin the end, [theyre] just a rock group using all of modern technology to file share the basic tracks last September. While theres no official title yet, Stolt could imagine it just being called The Sea Within since its sort of a debut album. As youd expect, the track lengths vary greatlyfrom three minutes to 14 minutesand all five members have contributed songs to yield styles that merge nicely or fiercely, with a diversity that shows signs of pink, pop, metal, prog, and cinematic music. Taking all of this into account, its fair to say that the LP should be on every progressive rock fans radar.

Tool  TBD

Its been 12 years since American quartet Tool released their last (and most progressive) album, 10,000 Days. Since then, and fueled by reports of personal, creative, and legal issues postponing their work, followers have gone through every emotion imaginablesadness, excitement, confusion, and frustration, mostlywhile making countless running jokes about the delay across the internet, including plenty of great memes. Furthermore, these annoyances were compounded by the fact that the members were doing other thingssuch as vocalist Maynard James Keenans newer involvements with A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, as well as drummer Danny Careys supergroup side project, Legend of the Seagullmeninstead of working solely on their next major release. Clearly, its been a stretched and arduous road towards the fifth Tool LP.

Luckily, it looks like the wait is almost over, as Carey told Loudwire in December 2017 that the quartet will probably have it done in the first half [of the year] if things go as planned. Granted, Keenan recently tweeted a resounding burp in response to Careys news, but still, this latest update, combined with bassist Justin Chancellor telling Metal Sucks (and reported by Alterative Press) that theyre about 90 percent there last June, should make Tool fans breathe a sigh of relief that theyll get it relatively soon.
BUHL  The Buhl Public Library will begin its winter and spring adult book talks this month at 215 Broadway Ave. N.

The first session will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16, with Ray Holm leading the discussion of Thomas L. Friedmans nonfiction book Thank You for Being Late. Friedman, a New York Times columnist, takes a look at the acceleration of change in a world that may not be ready for it and the key factors causing it.

A book discussion will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 13 with Mike Cothern exploring H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald. A prize-winning book and Amazons best book for March 2015, this nonfiction work tells the story of an author overcome with grief who seeks to come back to normal through working with the notoriously prickly and murderous goshawk, Mabel, a deadly bird of prey.

With the recent release of Ken Burns documentary on the Vietnam War, comes a look back at a major fiction work about the Vietnam War The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien. This book talk is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 13 with Eileen Scheldt leading the discussion. OBrien, a Vietnam veteran, has used his war experiences to create compelling fiction works about the war. The book is a collection of linked short stories and is semi-autobiographical inspired by OBriens own experience there as an Army sergeant.

The book talk on April 17 brings another nonfiction title by a favorite book talk author Timothy Egan. He visited the College of Southern Idaho last year to discuss this book and was featured at an Idaho Humanities Council presentation in Boise. The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero tells the story of Thomas Francis Meagher who led a failed uprising in Ireland during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, was banished to a Tasmanian prison, and wound up in America leading an Irish brigade during the Civil War at Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Cindy Bjorneberg Snyder will lead the discussion.

On May 15, Elizabeth Smith will lead a discussion on the fiction book The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. Another Irish immigrant figures in this novel, a young girl, Lavinia, who arrives orphaned and must take work as an indentured servant on a slave plantation in the South. Lavinia provides insights into class, race, dignity, buried secrets and familial bonds.

All of the programs are free and the books are available for check out from the library. Information: 208-543-6500.
Coming-out narratives have always comprised a core theme for queer comics and they show no sign of abating. Nor should they  their importance transcends simply narrative qualities. Two decades ago, Jen Bacon observed (in a 1998 article for the journal World Englishes) that As stories about rhetorical selves, coming out narratives may also serve political functions, especially in terms of identity management and community building.

In a society which, for all its progress, remains heavily heteronormative, coming out often remains a fraught process. While coming-out experiences are shaped by a wide range of individualized factors, popular culture continues to exert a strong influence on how the coming-out process plays out. Theres no shortage of studies on the topic, such as this 2014 report in the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, which emphasized the significance of new media on identity development and coming-out processes for queer youth; in particular the impact of YouTube videos and other social media in shaping individuals expectations and experiences of coming-out.

Comics may not be a new media, but they are an important form of media and the recent explosive growth in popularity of comics and graphic novels means that they too play an important role in shaping popular perceptions of queer identity. Hillary Chute, writing in the 11 December 2017 edition of The Paris Review, flagged queer comics as the fastest growing area in comics right now.

Coming-out narratives comprised some of the earliest iterations of queer comics. Early examples, as noted by Chute, include Lynn Johnstons For Better or ror Worse  a serialized comic strip carried in hundreds of mainstream newspapers  which featured a 1993 story arc on a male secondary character who comes out as gay (at least 19 papers purportedly cancelled the strip in retaliation). More than two decades earlier, the Wimmens Comix anthology featured Trina Robbins story Sandy Comes Out about a lesbian coming out experience (based on the real-life experience of Sandra Crumb, cartoonist Robert Crumbs sister). In 1973, Mary Wings launched Come Out Comix. And thats just the tip of the iceberg.

But times change, and with them the experience of coming out in a still largely heteronormative world. Coming-out stories retain their importance; the experiences shifting nuances and emerging societal challenges mean contemporary coming-out narratives will always speak more clearly to contemporary readers. Theres no shortage of examples out there, but here are three contemporary examples from international comics artists who continue to carry the flame proudly.

My Brothers Husband

My Brothers Husband is a refreshingly straightforward and endearing manga. Its the work of Gengoroh Tagame, and represents a remarkable departure from his usual fare. Tagame made a name for himself as a producer of gay mens erotica, including S&M-themed material. Hes also credited with having popularized larger, muscular men in Japanese gay mens erotica, diversifying the more traditional bishonen (a slighter, more androgynous look) imagery. With My Brothers Husband, however, hes produced a family-friendly, overpoweringly kawaii (cute) manga, one thats entertaining as well as profoundly educational.

The action surrounds Taichi-san, a middle-aged single father (divorced) who is raising his young daughter Kana. Taichi-sans twin brother, Ryuichi, left Japan ten years ago after coming out as gay, an event which led the brothers to drift apart from each other (Taichi, as it turns out, didnt know how to respond to his brothers coming out). Ryuichi moved to Canada, where he wound up marrying Mike Flanagan, a large hulk of a Canadian. Ryuichi has recently died and his husband Mike comes to Japan on a personal mission to visit his deceased husbands homeland and meet his family.

Its a set-up rife for all sorts of potential drama, and in the hands of a less-skilled manga artist might have turned into an awful effort to exploit the situation for its humorous potential. Tagame, who has been out himself since the mid-90s, uses this set-up to produce a brilliant educational tool, tackling many of the deeply ingrained stereotypes and prejudices sure to be prevalent among readers both in Japan and elsewhere.

Taichi-san is a good person, one who struggles to be open-minded even while this requires him to interrogate and challenge many of his own deeply ingrained prejudices. His daughter, Kana, provides the innocent voice which makes this self-examination possible. Childish and uninhibited, she asks the questions adults are too afraid or awkward to ask; nothing is out of bounds for her. When she detects hesitation, awkwardness, or contradiction in the response of the adults around her, shes quick to recognize it and call it out. Her quick and easy acceptance of the fact she had a gay uncle, and her growing love for Uncle Mike, is counterpoised against the awkward burden of memories and guilt that her father must struggle with. He finds it difficult to take the two mens marriage seriously, to treat Mike as an actual relative, and to confront his own painful memory of his brothers coming out. Mikes gentleness and perseverance slowly wins him over, after which he is forced to confront the prejudices and bigotry of others in their neighbors and friends circles.

My Brothers Husband is an educational manga par excellence, but its the characters that drive it forward. Kana is realistic as an innocent, childish young girl, whos over-the-moon to discover she has a big hairy Canadian uncle, and promptly insists on showing him off to all her friends. Taichi-san epitomizes the well-intentioned ally, who wants to do the right thing  both for himself, the education of his daughter, and the memory of his brother  but simply doesnt know what the right thing is in the various circumstances he faces. Hes full of prejudice and ignorance, but he struggles to confront it, courageously and honestly. He emerges, through the authors careful construction, as the ally par excellence. Mike, foreign to Japanese culture, struggles to honour his husbands family and culture while also gently and insistently drawing boundaries between what he will accept (as cultural difference) and what he wont (as bigotry and discrimination). The story as a whole is emotionally authentic and deeply compelling.

The cultural confrontations are powerful as well, and help to underscore the often arbitrary nature of cultural values. Why is gay marriage permitted in one place, and not in another? Why are hugs suitable expressions of endearment in one culture, yet not in another? Why is one form of employment considered admirable in one country, yet shameful in another? Tagame uses the manga to educate about Japanese culture, but theres also a larger message here about cultural relativity and the arbitrariness of dominant social mores and values; a message which is made possible by the childish and universalizing innocence of Kana, who asks the questions adults are often too inhibited and afraid to ask.

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is one of the most unabashedly and unflinchingly honest personal accounts to hit the written page. The autobiographical narrative of Nagata Kabi, it explores her struggle for self-awareness and self-love. Kabi dropped out of university in her first year and struggled with a range of mental illness: depression, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts. She loses her first job at a bakery and cant find steady employment. The only thing she vaguely loves is making manga  but despite one initial publication, she cant seem to make a viable career in that field, either. She lives at home, and her parents expectations weigh heavy on her. She knows that shes lesbian, but has never had a sexual relationship, or even a romantic encounter. She doesnt have any friends. Huddled under the covers, glued to the Internet, one day she finds a lesbian escort agency. She realizes that this is a way she can enact the sexual identity that calls to her. She holds off for some time, but the mere knowledge that its a possibility helps renew her ability and desire to live.

Finally, she takes the plunge  rationalizing as she does so that if nothing else, itll give her material for her manga. This certainly turns out to be the case  the experience opens up as many difficulties, challenges, and doubts as it does possibility. But she recognizes that if she is to produce from her own hand the deeply personal and authentic manga that she loves to read, she needs to be honest in telling her story  and so she is. The resulting manga proves to be a hit beyond her wildest expectations. She still doesnt have friends or romantic relationships, but at least shes started to feel that in telling her story through manga, shes found the thing she most yearned for all along  a place to belong, a thing to do that matters. Despite its dealing with heavy topics  depression, loneliness, suicide  the overall message is an uplifting one, and its unabashedly honest authenticity makes it easily relatable to the average reader.

Her account also offers a powerful and positive portrayal of sex workers. Her first (and second, as she explores in a bonus chapter for the English edition) sexual experience is with a lesbian escort agency, and the sex workers kindness and empathy played a huge role in her positive (albeit also challenging and difficult) experience.

Her parting chapters worth of advice  love yourself, and do what you love  rings with the power and personal honesty of her own experience, so honestly captured and explored. Its impossible not to shed tears while reading this work; Nagatas unflinching honesty is courageous, but the reason it resonates is because it parses experiences many of her readers have, but have never been able to give voice to. Nagata gave voice to her experience and that has allowed her readers to realize they are not alone.

Generations

Flavia Biondis Generations is the classic gay coming-out story, but skillfully modernized and cast in a European setting. The protagonist Matteo is a young gay man in his early 20s. Originally from a small town in rural Italy, he left home as soon as he was old enough and moved to big-city Milan in pursuit of love (and to escape from his fathers angry homophobic rejection). Now, three years later, he slinks back home: single, unemployed, with no future prospects or plan in life. He hopes to move in with his grandmother while figuring out his next move, but discovers that three aunts and a cousin have already moved in with her. Nevertheless family is family, declares the grandmother in defiant opposition to the houses other residents, and offers him an indefinite stay on her sofa.

The setting is ardently contemporary: a broken economy, poor unemployed youth, poverty forcing extended families back under one roof together. The setting, so casually depicted, makes the story authentic and relatable as well. Theres nothing really new about this tale, but its good to see it modernized and placed in a contemporary setting. Theres a sort of message implicit in the bleak backdrop: in a world without much hope for the future, in which youth find it tougher than ever to find a place for themselves, it is the inner self, and our relations with others, which are among the few things we can actually exert some control over. Professional futures are bust, and employment options few, but we can still determine how we engage with the people and community around us.

Family plays an important role here; hence the books title. Matteo finds himself embraced by some of his relatives; rejected by others. Most of them struggle to find common ground. It is that process, that struggle, which forms the crux of the tale; the slow and gradual terms under which differing generations and identities learn to live together and even take pleasure in each others company. Not everyone can be won over, but life overall can become meaningful and tolerant. Matteo himself, having now accepted his gay identity, learns to see the unexpected virtues of a quiet and out-of-the-way town that he only ever found stifling and boring while growing up. Again, in a world where we feel increasingly helpless to effect change, it is the intimate relations we have  with family, with neighbours and community, with the village square and the forests beyond  that allow us to play an active role in shaping something, even if it is only our personal relationship with these people and places.

Biondis storytelling is compelling and the story is sweet and endearing. While it has its share of heavy and dark moments, the overall message is a heartwarming one. Matteo learns, through his lifes alternating ups and downs and from four generations of relatives, that theres no such thing as a total failure. Mistakes make up our baggage, just like joy and memories if it hadnt been for them, I wouldnt understand. I wouldnt be here today.

Culture clashes, loneliness, austerity economics, generational strife  the comics artists of today are doing a first-rate job of putting the coming out experience in its persistently complex contemporary context and in keeping their narrative at the forefront of popular culture.
It has been an incredible year to be a Sufjan Stevens fan, probably the best year since 2005 or perhaps ever. We have received

Planetarium, a luscious live record, Tonya Harding, and The Greatest Gift. Stevens has always been prolific, but delicate. Nothing in his whole discography seems forced. Many items are random or unexpected but all have his soft sense of purpose.

One of the joys of Stevens fandom is his deck-clearing releases. After his magnum opus

Illinoise we got The Avalanche  an underrated collection of Midwest brilliance that could have weighed down its parent record to double length. As a prequel to The Age of Adz we got All Delighted People which broke a half-decade pop song silence and contained some of the best tracks of those sessions  The Owl and the Tanager and others.

For

Carrie and Lowell, Stevens best reviewed record in ten years, we are getting an album of remixes and bonus tracks. Wallowa Lake Monster could have made Carrie and Lowell the Oregon state album from the long dormant / abandoned project. Its a beautiful body of water almost a mile above sea level in the northeast corner of the state. Its the mix of fantasy and reality that has long made Stevens albums so precious and with more obscure and abrasive lyrics coming from his songs  Wallowa is a welcome return to a more typical Stevens.

These lakes and towns and people take on their mythical status in his imagination and our world. I was driving in Michigan last summer and saw a sign for Pickerel Lake I couldnt help but take the exit and visit. Its a rarity for single songs to bridge the gap to choices that we make, but thats the power of Stevens tunes. Part of being a Sufjan fan is wondering what the California or Maine record would have sounded like. But these clues dropped here allow us see what one of the other 48 could have been.

Taking also into account the exculpation of the painfully beautiful Tonya Harding  a spiritual follow up to John Wayne Gacy and her birthplace of Portland even more shades of the potential Oregon record are filled in. Cant you picture it  Welcome Oregonians or some cool name plus a track about the 90s computer game The Oregon Trail plus a song about the Salem witch trials. Too bad it will probably never exist.

The remixes are nice  none add any legs to the songs or bring anything other than a fresh take on beautiful songs. Drawn to the Blood is Stevens remix of his song from a more Age of Adzy angle, we also get another version of the song from a

Seven Swans point of view. The Death with Dignity remix is nice enough but cant improve on the tender balladry of the original. The iPhone demos show rawer versions of Carrie and Lowell and John My Beloved, and they also give a barer vision of why Stevens is so talented as none of the emotion is lost. They also give a nice view inside how little Stevens needs the studio to make compelling creations. These inside angles also show how Stevens has filled the hole Elliott Smith left when he passed.

The big draw to this record is the B-sides  The Greatest Gift is a tender, Christian exploration, Exploding Whale which was released elsewhere finds a better home here as a slight remix. Others include The Hidden River of My Life and City of Roses both small, beautiful ruminations but in a year where those two immaculate soundtracks songs were released on the

Call Me By Your Name soundtrack its hard to see as much here as in a sparser release year.

The Greatest Gift is a record for those who are already Stevens diehards, and there are a LOT, including myself J. 2017 was deck clearing for our indie hero  finally releasing the old Planetarium project, the live record, extra tracks and using this mixtape to close the chapter on his most fruitful studio season since Illinoise.
Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell speaks during a news conference last week in Cayce with SCANA CEO Jimmy Addison. Since announcing a proposed takeover of SCANA, Virginia-based Dominion has undertaken an all-out push to win over regulators, lawmakers and the public. Andy Shain/Staff
The day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she would step aside, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York announced his own history-making bid Friday to become the first Black American to helm a major U.S. political party in Congress as leader of the House Democrats. The 52-year-old Jeffries gave nod to the "legendary figures" before him, Pelosi and her leadership team, while encouraging his colleagues to embrace this "once-in-a-generation opportunity to further unleash our full potential as a team." Read moreHakeem Jeffries makes historic bid to lead House Democrats after Nancy Pelosi
I was so intrigued by Robert Behres Oct. 17 column and the newspaper's strong editorial Nov. 10 in support of a park being developed in the former SCE&G lot between Meeting and King streets that I decided to investigate further. Read moreCommentary: Proposed downtown Charleston park would provide a richer future
BOISE  The former wife of an Idaho Republican state lawmaker who shot and killed himself this week says he was under investigation for molesting two girls, including a young female relative who was abused for more than 10 years.

Brandon Hixon, 36, was found dead in his home in southwestern Idaho on Tuesday from a single gunshot wound, the Canyon County Coroners office said.

Former colleagues at the Idaho Statehouse have offered kind words about Hixon, but his ex-wife Danielle Eirvin Hixon said the suicide robbed her familys hopes of finding justice and closure though the legal system.

She told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that she told police about the abuse and that her husband raped and inappropriately touched one of the alleged female victims for about 11 years.

Brandon made people believe that he was a stand-up, morally correct person, said Hixon, who was married to the former lawmaker for 10 years until their divorce in 2016. But behind the house walls, he would cheat on me and molested children.

Scott Graf, spokesman for Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, said Wasdens office had no comment on the investigation.

Hixon  a three-term Republican from Caldwell  had resigned from the state legislature in October after news emerged that he was the subject of a criminal investigation involving possible sexual abuse, though no details were made public.

His ex-wife said she had been told by investigators not to disclose details about the case until charges were filed against her ex-husband, but that the reason to keep the information confidential ended with his suicide. She said she and two other people had been scheduled to testify before a grand jury on Wednesday.

Graf declined comment on whether a grand jury had been scheduled. The attorney generals office took over the investigation after Canyon County Prosecutor Bryan Taylor asked Wasden made that request because of an undisclosed conflict of interest.

I had no idea it was happening, Danielle Eirvin Hixon said of the alleged abuse, adding that the girl who told her kept it quiet for so long.

The second alleged victim was not related to the lawmaker, she said, adding that she learned about that girl from the girls mother.

The AP generally does not name alleged victims of sexual abuse.

Records also show that the former lawmaker was previously the focus of a separate police investigation in 2014 after he was accused of inappropriate touching. He denied the accusations and told police he was worried they would harm his political career. Its unknown if the new investigation, ongoing since Oct. 5, was connected to the earlier case.

Danielle Eirvin Hixon said comments by lawmakers praising her ex-husbands character prompted her to speak up about the abuse allegations. She said she wanted people to know her side of the story.

I say he was a coward by taking the easy way out, she said of his suicide.

House Speaker Scott Bedke, a Republican, has said the chamber is planning on offering some sort of financial support to the ex-lawmakers family.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the attack on her husband, Paul, by an intruder in their family home made her think about staying on as the House Democratic leader. She says she almost thought about being leader again because she couldnt give them that satisfaction of intimidating her out of politics. Pelosi spoke to reporters Thursday at the Capitol after announcing she would step aside for a new generation of leaders. She will remain the congresswoman from California. Pelosi says shes not sad about her choice to step aside but feels balanced in her decision. She has no plans to endorse a successor and no desire to meddle with the new leadership's vision. Read morePelosi's big decision: 'Theres a life out there, right?'
Welcome to another delightful edition of "I can't believe the stuff that shows up in our email."

As a hard-working reporter who covers myriad issues, it stands to reason that I would love to receive unsolicited information on a variety of topics.

Yeah. That's not exactly true. And here's my proof.

Welcome to the wonderful world of nakationing. Huh?

Some nice public relations guru someplace thought the Post Bulletin -- a family newspaper -- might be interested in running a story on the growing naked vacation industry. After all, she noted, it's a $533 million industry that has grown from one clothing-optional cruise in 1992 to 65 naked cruises and 30,000 in-the-buff passengers hitting the buffet annually on the lido deck. (Is that sanitary?)

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Add in nudist resorts and other clothing-optional options, and you've got quite the trend in people undressing as they unplug.

Needless to say, the editor to my left, who originally received the email, gave the idea a big "No."

Into The Weeds

The fine folks of California have been sending breathless updates on the ongoing marijuana law changes in that state. One activist let us know that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was killing the buzz in the Golden State with his promise to enforce federal marijuana laws.

That didn't stop one resourceful PR pusher from offering to tell us all about three cannabis companies investors should be high on. Did I want to talk with their CEOs? Again, pass.

And even while I have specifically asked to receive press releases from U.S. Rep Jason Lewis, his stance on pot -- "As I've said before, especially in regard to medical marijuana, the federal government has no business sending in the FBI and Department of Justice to prosecute people in full compliance with their own state's law." -- doesn't rise to the level of me writing an article.

Still, with that kind of attitude, the folks in California can relax. As if they weren't already.

Call Me, Maybe

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The fact is, like tweets, texts and even Facebook posts, email can be a poor substitute for face-to-face or even phone conversations. Occasionally, people will ask if I can interview them via email.

Sounds simple enough. I write my questions. When they find time in their busy lives to answer them, they do. I can copy-and-paste their answers and avoid any fake news. Win-win-win. Right?

Well ...

That's fine as a last resort, but it also leads to two problems. The first is that whatever answers the person might give, those answers might elicit followup questions.

In a story about job reductions in the office staff at McNeilus , a local TV station (I won't name names) reported that a 7 percent reduction of office staff at the manufacturing plant would mean the loss of 100 jobs. However, the loss was to 7 percent of the administrative staff not the whole plant.

Three emails back and forth with a spokesperson for McNeilus' parent company (I also called her, but she only responded via email) never did adequately answer my questions, though it was sort of made clear that, no, 7 percent of the office staff did not constitute 100 people. The whole process was frustrating.

Don't Say A Thing

The second problem is that some people do not talk in emails the way they talk in person or over the phone. For a recent story on the new Aldi in Red Wing , I called (and called, and called) the folks at Aldi, and was finally contacted by a media specialist (that's PR-speak for "buffer between you and the person you want to talk to") who took my questions to pass along to a someone who would answer my questions.

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"You want him to call you back or just email the answers?" the flack said.

Me (not thinking straight): "He can just email me."

Here's how that went. I asked where Aldi envision itself fitting into the lives of Red Wing shoppers considering the other options in town.

The response: "We want our customers to love grocery shopping as much as we do. We take our time choosing our products so we can guarantee quality and freshness, all while keeping customers' grocery carts full and their wallets even fuller."

Huh?

None of the other answers were any better, and if you read the story, you'll notice I don't bother quoting the Aldi folks.

So, email me if you must. I'm at btodd@postbulletin.com . But if you have something truly important to say, let's, at the very least, chat on the phone.
WINONA and RED WING  Minnesota State College Southeast is offering 16 $2,500 scholarships to new students pursuing degrees in high demand areas.

The grant, part of Minnesota State's Workforce Development Scholarship program, will provide 16 students that enroll in "high growth, high demand" career areas in the 2018-19 school year with scholarships.

Those career areas include manufacturing, health care and information technology, according to MSC Southeast. At MSC Southeast, that would include the Industrial Technology, Practical Nursing, and Cyber and Information Security programs.

The scholarships are for students who are starting college in fall 2018  including new high school graduates and "non-traditional" students, like adults who may be changing careers.

To be eligible, prospective students must apply online in one of the following program areas:

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Manufacturing:

 CNC Machine Tool

 Industrial Technology

 Welding

Health Care:

 Massage Therapist

 Medical Laboratory Technician

 Medical Support Careers

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 Nursing

Information Technology:

 Cyber and Information Technology

 Network Administration and Technology

 Software Development and Support

The criteria include:

 Students must be enrolled for at least nine credits each semester

 The scholarship may be used toward a degree, diploma or certificate (minimum of 18 credits)

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 Students must maintain a 2.0 GPA

 The scholarship will be distributed in two installments  one in the fall 2018 and another in spring 2019

Then, they must complete an application for the scholarship, available at www.southeastmn.edu/scholarships, by March 1. Scholarship awards will be announced on March 30.
A 26-year-old Rochester man is in police custody today after he allegedly stabbed a woman in a Rochester school parking lot on Wednesday afternoon.

Rochester Police Capt. John Sherwin said that Wade Smith IV, 26, went to Hawthorne Community Education at about 2 p.m., looking for a 26-year-old woman with whom he had a domestic relationship.

Office staff told Smith they couldn't tell him where she was, but that they could call her down to the office if he needed to speak with her, Sherwin said.

When the victim met Smith, she could tell he "had been drinking" and she knew he could be "volatile" when he drinks, Sherwin said. Smith told the victim he needed her to drive him somewhere, so the two walked to the parking lot and got in her car.

The victim told officers that she keeps a knife in her car; Smith pulled it from the console and opened the blade. Then, he allegedly stabbed her in the hand. The wound cut to the bone.

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She fled from the vehicle, back into the school, which was put on lockdown, Sherwin said.

When officers arrived, Smith was still on scene and initially uncooperative. They took him into custody at gunpoint, Sherwin said. The knife was recovered in the vehicle.

The woman was transported to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys Campus for her injuries.

Smith may face charges of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, as well as domestic assault. He could be charged as early as today.
An outspoken critic of Islam made his second Rochester area speaking appearance on Sunday, this time at the Rochester Public Library.

Usama Dakdok, an Egyptian Coptic Christian who's created his own translation of the Quran and considers himself a "specialist in Islam and evangelism to Muslims," gave a presentation called "Revealing the Truth about ISIS."

The two-and-a-half hour event drew about 80 people to the library's auditorium, including Rep. Cindy Pugh, R-Chanhassen , and Phillip Parrish, a Republican gubernatorial candidate .

The event's purpose, Dakdok said, was to draw attention to Islam, which he called a violent religion; he said that ISIS was a "true representation of Islam."

"There are plenty of Muslims here and we need to reach out with the truth of the gospel," Dakdok said.

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Dakdok's critics say he delivers a negative and distorted view of Islam. He is known for telling listeners that Muslims are in the U.S. to behead Christians and Jews.

The speaking engagement comes just months after he was set to speak at the Stewartville Sportsman's Club  an event that was canceled after the venue learned of Dakdok's controversial message.

But supporters booked the Cascade Township town hall as a last-minute venue on Oct.29. Gary Froiland, of Stewartville, rented the township hall under the auspices of hosting a family event, without mention of Dakdok's three-hour presentation.

"He (Froiland) sent me an application (to rent the hall) under the auspices of a family event," said Sara Rudquist, acting township clerk told the Post Bulletin .

Booking the library wasn't a problem  though the event wasn't listed anywhere on the library's website. Dakdok's flier for the event also carried this disclaimer, as required by library policy: "This event does not occur in partnership with, nor is it endorsed by the Rochester Public Library or the City of Rochester."
BURLEY  The Burley Planning and Zoning Commission turned down a city request Jan. 10 for a recommendation to rewrite language in an ordinance that would have smoothed the way for the citys use of eminent domain laws.

After a nearly two-hour meeting in a packed City Council chambers, commissioners Scott Hansen, Trevor Reno and Jorge Rodriquez voted to deny a recommendation to approve the changes to the City Council.

Commissioners Mike Atchley and Richard Randklev voted against it. Commissioner Dennis Dexter abstained.

The way this is written, no one is safe, Burley resident Carrie Harwood said. This ordinance should scare everyone.

Sam Diddle, an attorney for Franklin Building Supply, spoke in opposition of the proposed amendments saying an eminent domain lawsuit against the company filed by the city was dismissed immediately after the companys attorney requested a copy of the city ordinances.

He said the amendments would pave the wave for the citys use of eminent domain laws to take property from the company for a road on the east side of its building that would connect the Walmart parking lot with Third Street North where a stop light exist on Overland Avenue.

The city found out that Franklin Building Supply would fight them taking the road, Diddle said.

Two days later, the city dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice so they could clean up the city ordinance before refiling it, he said.

City Engineer Bryan Reiter said Franklin originally wanted the road, too, in the early planning stages and produced an email verifying his statement.

Diddle said the company was being blind-sided with the old email and said it was written by a former manager who did not have authority with the company to make the statement.

While City Attorney David Shirley outlined the ordinance changes, no one spoke in favor of the project. Several people spoke neutrally and several spoke in opposition, including local residents.

Shirley said the amendments to the ordinance were not specific to the Franklin road.

Many people expressed concern that while the city said the road would be built to increase safety, that it would actually make the area unsafe with a narrow road, blind corners and a residential area that would encounter more traffic on Third Street North.

Burley resident Wes Patterson, who lives in the neighborhood behind Walmart, said the city was trying to circumvent the planning and zoning commissions power with the proposal.

Harwood said the ordinance was a broad brush stroke that covered the citys back in case anything written in the city ordinance would cause a stumbling block during an eminent domain lawsuit.

Burley resident Logan Harris said hes in the construction business, and he worried how the new road would affect his access to Franklin Building Supply. Others at the meeting agreed.

Burley resident Tom Tolness, along with other residents, suggested changing traffic patterns coming out of Walmart on Overland Avenue to allow only right turns.

But Reiter said only the Idaho Transportation Department could make those changes.

Commissioner Randklev said he did not believe the citys intentions were solely to smooth the way for the Franklin road, but the changes would clarify the ordinance and help the city in other ways as it continues to grow.

Commissioner Atchley said he was not opposed to the language changes but thought the Planning and Zoning Commission could recommend the city commission more studies on the safety of the road.

The commission did not agree to provide the study recommendation to the City Council.
Rochester residents have access to a sand-salt mix to help keep sidewalks clear of ice.

Rochester Public Works provides residents with a bucket-worth of the mixture at two locations: behind the Fiesta Cafe in the Northbrook Shopping Center, 1633 N. Broadway, and in at the end of 1st Ave Southwest next to the YMCA, 709 First Ave. SW.

Residents must bring their own supplies as buckets or bags and shovels are not provided by the city.

After use, Public Works is encouraging residents to sweep up salt and sand left on bare pavement for future re-use and to prevent it from running off into nearby waterways.

Rochester residents with a public sidewalk or path abutting their property are required to fully remove snow and ice within 24 hours after a snowfall. The full sidewalk width must be free of snow and ice and pathways must have a clear path that is at least 5 feet wide.
Minnesota's worst influenza outbreak in four years has claimed the life of a local man.

Keith Colmer , of Claremont, died Sunday at Saint Marys Hospital due to complications from influenza and pneumonia, according to an obituary submitted Tuesday by his family. The 1983 West Concord High School graduate was 53 years old. He was buried Wednesday at Moland Lutheran Cemetery in rural Kenyon.

Karen Martin, an epidemiologist at Minnesota Department of Health, says several flu deaths have been reported across the state since Oct. 1. Martin was not aware of any other flu-related deaths in Southeast Minnesota, though MDH tracks pediatric deaths more closely; none had been recorded as of Dec. 30.

"Unfortunately, we do see those every year," Martin said of Colmer's untimely death. "With a year that's shaping up to be a pretty severe one, that's not surprising."

Minnesota had 1,021 influenza-related hospitalizations as of Dec. 30, which qualified for "widespread" status by MDH's Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology Prevention & Control. That compares with149 hospitalizations at this time last year.

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According to MDH, 7 percent  or 72  of the 1,021 hospitalizations occurred in Southeast Minnesota.

The outbreak has occurred earlier than in previous years and spiked in recent weeks; nearly 60 percent of hospitalizations across the state have occurred since Dec. 16. It's hit the elderly especially hard, with the average age of hospital admission at 72 and 32 outbreaks confirmed at long-term care facilities across the state.

MDH's next influenza report is due out this afternoon.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that 22 states are experiencing high rates of influenza, including the entire west coast and most of the south. Minnesota is on the low/minimal end of that spectrum, though experts warn it may soon reach epidemic levels across the country.

Dr. Daniel B. Jerigan of the CDC recently said that the outbreak began about a month earlier than normal.

"The virus was able to start circulating in time so that, when folks went home for Thanksgiving or they went home for Christmas, they were able to transmit it to the folks that they're with," Jerigan said. "Because of that, it's able to circulate quickly. But we know this particular virus does cause more cases and it can be more severe."

Heather Nessler, communications director at Rochester Public Schools, says the district has not noticed a significant increase in flu-related absences thus far. Officials at Olmsted County Public Health have not reported any notable uptick in local cases.

However, it may just be a matter of time.

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Experts have suggested that this year's version of the flu vaccine may just 10 percent to 33 percent effective, based on comparisons. That's far below the traditional efficacy of 40 percent to 55 percent.

Martin admits the AH3 strain of influenza has been "another whammy" that's been difficult for health officials to handle, but she still recommends getting a flu shot.

"Even though it's not a perfect vaccine, it's still one of the best tools we have," Martin said. "If someone hasn't been vaccinated yet, it's not too late."

Flu shots are still readily available at a variety of venues, including local clinics, pharmacies and other sites. Costs vary based on insurance coverage.

Influenza with Olmsted County Public Health experts

What is it: Leah Espinda-Brandt, a disease prevention specialist, says that influenza often includes fever, fatigue, body aches and a variety of other ailments. It can also feature vomiting and diarrhea.

Who has it: Libby Schmidt, another disease prevention specialist, says it's considered widespread in Minnesota, 39 schools districts reported outbreaks as of Dec. 30 and a Dodge County man died Sunday at Mayo Clinic.

How long does it last: Brandt says typically three to seven days and recommends not returning to day care, school or work until you've been fever-free for 24 hours.

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How to treat it: Drink plenty of liquids, get plenty of rest and take fever/pain reducing medication. Seek medical treatment if you aren't getting better after a few days.

How to prevent it: Stay home if you're sick. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Wash your hands a lot. Get the flu shot, even if the efficacy appears to be roughly half its normal rate.
Rochester City Council President Randy Staver said he decided last year that he would unplug from social media in 2018.

He pulled that plug Thursday after frustrations from a pair of Rochester City Council meetings on Wednesday spilled onto social media.

Shortly after council member Michael Wojcik posted his regular meeting recap Wednesday night, Staver replied, calling the nine-minute video a "nice summary and not completely inaccurate."

He also cited frustration over Wojcik's actions, pointing to what he has seen as disrespect for Mayor Ardell Brede and former City Administrator Stevan Kvenvold, as well as an unexpected push for a vote on a proposed update to the city's comprehensive plan.

"This is the kind of behavior that makes it extremely difficult to work with Michael," Staver wrote.

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Reached by email Thursday, Wojcik said he decided not to respond to the comments online, noting he was disappointed in the reply but wanted to move forward.

"I appreciate his passion," he wrote. "I am not bothered by stylistic differences and wish to focus on issues."

Staver said the decision to suspend his Facebook and Twitter accounts on Thursday had nothing to do with his recent post or responses to it.

He said the decision followed earlier discussions about removing himself from social media, citing the often negative tone taken in comments.

"Nobody ever wins," he said, pointing to circular arguments and an inability to engage directly with critics. "It just turns out to be a tremendous time burden."

Rochester resident Abe Sauer, who commented on Staver's reply to Wojcik's recap, said he was disappointed by the decision.

"Having council members disengage from social media  for whatever reason  helps nobody," he wrote after posting images of comments made by Staver and his personal reply.

Sauer acknowledged challenges exist with adding social media to local politics but said they can be met.

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"Politicians in the modern age have learned to use social media," he said, noting it requires being able to overcome criticism.

Without it, he said, politicians are likely to miss out on input from younger constituents, who favor online communication.

"To just erase it is giving up a huge portion of the population," he said.

Staver said he has no desire to limit access for any constituents. His phone number and email address are available on the city's website.

"I'd rather speak to people face to face or at least by phone, where you have a chance to truly discuss something rather than go back and forth with that type of commentary," he said.
"Dear Future Self," a new art exhibit that opens at the Charter House, is like a time capsule but in reverse.

Instead of looking backward, it asks a group of young Rochester artists to look forward and imagine their lives decades from now. What would you say to yourself?

The artists in "Dear Future Self" are middle school students ages 12 to 14. But the show aspires to be something more than a kids show, using imagination and memory to find common ground between the generations, between young and old.

The show opens Saturday with a reception from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Keeping with its youth-oriented theme, the reception will feature the musical ensemble Southeastern Minnesota Youth Orchestra.

Students have been working on the art project since the beginning of the school year, said Karla Giguere, curator and event coordinator for the show. Students were given prompts and themes to guide them in the creation of their art, which includes paintings, drawings, and embroidery.

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Students were asked to imagine their lives decades from now. What memories will they look back on and cherish? How do they imagine their hopes and dreams will have panned out?

Even as they were looking forward, the show includes the perspective of the elderly looking backward. Members of Rochester's senior community were invited to share a cherished memory or experience from their youth. The stories, about 30 in all, are presented in letter form and tacked on canvas for visitors to read, like mail on a refrigerator.

"I wanted to get a very good feel for what was happening to their generation at the time when they were in their early teens. So these kids get an idea of what it was like for them," said Giguere. "And I wanted the seniors also to get an idea of what these kids are going through now."

Giguere said she interviewed from 15 to 20 seniors from Charter House and other senior communities for the exhibit.

Most of the young artists are students at Friedell Middle School's gifted and talented program, Kellogg Middle School and Lincoln K-8 Choice School. Though some of have had their art on display before, being part of an art show will be a first for many of them.

The students are Rayyan Nassr, Tommie Olson, Maia Merkel, Maika Suzuki, Erin Stoeckig, Rowan Vernocke, and Genevieve Giguere.

"Excited and nervous," said Vernocke, an 11-year-old student when asked about the exhibit.

Giguere said one of her goals in organizing the exhibit was that it not be seen as a kiddie show. She wanted to treat the kids as working artists, because many are aspiring to be artists.

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"I really wanted them to be proud of their work," Giguere said. "It has been a very serious process. They have worked very hard."

Students drew their inspiration from a variety of sources. Genevieve Giguere, 13, talked about how a heavy influence in her art was pop artist Andy Warhol.

"He's a topic I typically discuss with lots of my artist friends," said Genevieve Giguere, the daughter of Karla Giuere. "I love his bright colors. I love how they stick out to the eye."

Students drew inspiration from their anxieties and worries as well as their hopes and dreams. Tommie Olson's work included an American flag in the image of a dollar. It's a reflection, he said, of his concern about the country's growing debt problem that he believes will trail him and other students much of their lives. He is worried that the debt will mean less opportunities for students like himself, because there will be less dollars for financial aid.

"If we're in debt, there might not be the opportunities," he said.

Merkel, 12, depicted the aftermath of the Texas church shooting that occurred last November and resulted in 26 deaths. Merkel said she sought to portray the "politics of today." But she said it was hard to follow guidelines sometimes.

"I tend to not do so well when it comes to guidelines," Merkel said. "Art is whatever you want it to be."

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Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo and her counterparts from Hawaii and the Northern Marianas are urging for additional federal funding as hosts to the uncontrolled entry of immigrants through the Compact of Free Association.

They did so today via the reintroduction of legislation in Congress. Hawaii Reps. Colleen Hanabusa and Tulsi Gabbard and Northern Marianas Del. Gregorio Sablan co-authored the legislation.

More than 76,000 immigrants have moved to the United States, with Guam as their destination of choice, as a result of the open-border U.S. policy for citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands, Bordallo told Congress.

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Guam hosts about 17,000 of these migrants, for an island with a population of 160,000.

In 2017, GovGuam estimated Compact impact funding at $142.6 million for just fiscal year 2016 but received just $16.2 million from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which administers federal Compact aid.

The legislation:

 Would ensure that at the request of state or territorial governors, Compact migrants will be eligible for federal programs and benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance.

 Increases federal funding for hospitals and clinics in Guam and other affected jurisdictions like Hawaii to offset costs of serving Compact migrants, with federal Medicaid matching funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

 Increases federal funding for public schools to offset costs of serving Compact migrant schoolchildren on Guam and nationwide, by reclassifying them as federally connected students eligible for impact aid from the U.S. Department of Education.

 Expands federal national/community service programs to make Compact migrants living in the United States eligible for federally funded national and community service programs like AmeriCorps and the Youth Conservation Corps, which also teach job skills.

 Requires comprehensive assessment of the Compacts of Free Association and their implementation ahead of fiscal year 2023 expiration, including inadequate Compact impact aid to Guam and other affected jurisdictions.

 Specifies that Compact migrants be counted in the upcoming 2020 census and future censuses. The U.S. Department of the Interior uses these headcounts to determine Compact impact funding to Guam and other jurisdictions, so an accurate count is critical.

 Authorizes annual federal economic assessments for all 5 U.S. territories and the three Freely Association States, including the economic impact of Compact migrants residing in the territories. Currently, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis only provide gross domestic product estimates for the five territories.

 Directs the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a national strategy to meet the health needs of Pacific Islanders, including Native Hawaiians, Guams Chamorro people, and FAS citizens. Pacific Islanders have substantially different health challenges and needs than mainland residents. Congresswoman Bordallos intent is that better data will improve healthcare delivery to Pacific Islanders and provide additional federal support to underserved islands communities.

 Expands Guams and other Insular Areas long-standing waiver from legal requirement that territorial governments match federal funding in order to receive federal grants. Without this expanded waiver, many federally funded infrastructure and economic development projects on Guam and the Insular Areas will remain at a standstill due to lack of available local funding to fulfill federal matching requirements.

 Doubles existing waiver, from $200,000 to $400,000 for all federal grants to Insular Areas (Guam, the Northern Marianas, American Samoa, and U.S. Virgin Islands), and increases waiver for Guam and other jurisdictions impacted by Compact migrants to $600,000 per grant for unreimbursed Compact impact costs.

 Allows GovGuam and other governments affected by Compact migrants to meet federal matching fund requirements above the new waiver limit with in-kind services rendered for unreimbursed Compact impact costs. This ensures that federal agencies take into account the significant, unreimbursed costs borne by GovGuam in serving Compact migrants when awarding federal grants.

 Provides new federal resources for workforce development and vocational training on Guam and other U.S. territories, including federally funded Job Corps centers. Clarifies that Compact migrants are indeed eligible for these federally funded vocational training programs, along with U.S. citizens and nationals.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 17:13:01

LONDON, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barings, one of the world's leading asset management firms, announced today that it has sold its investment in Wireless Infrastructure Group ("WIG" or the "Company") to 3i Infrastructure plc ("3i Infrastructure").

Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, WIG is an independent communications infrastructure provider. The Company operates a portfolio of over 2,000 communication towers and is the United Kingdom's market leader for the deployment of neutral host distributed antenna system networks needed to deliver mobile signals to large public venues. Barings initially made its controlling investment in WIG in December 2012, and the transaction comes as the Company continues to scale up its deployment of high capacity, 5G-ready wireless infrastructure. This includes new communication towers serving rural communities, together with small cells and fiber networks in busy urban centers.

"We are delighted that 3i Infrastructure has extended its investment into WIG," said Scott Coates, CEO of Wireless Infrastructure Group. "WIG is busy investing in new infrastructure across the United Kingdom, from new towers in the Highlands of Scotland to 5G-ready small-cell networks that will connect self-driving cars in the West Midlands. Barings has been a great partner and WIG is well positioned to continue our scale up."

"Barings' five-year investment in WIG has been highly successful, with the company doubling in scale, developing a leading position in small cells, expanding its capabilities and delivering great service to customers," said Matt Sandoval, Head of Telecom and a managing director in Barings' Private Equity / Real Assets Group. "WIG is a prime example of the real asset and asset-based private equity investments that Barings targets. With WIG, we early on identified a macro theme that has played out favorably and yielded outstanding results for our clients."

With over 650 investment professionals globally, including more than 250 dedicated solely to alternative investments, Barings leverages its global presence and local expertise to source investment opportunities worldwide. Within Barings, the Barings Alternative Investments group seeks to find differentiated sources of return in global real estate, private equity and real assets through; a Private Equity / Real Assets group that focuses on control investments within real assets and asset-based businesses; a Real Estate group that offers a diverse range of opportunities across the four quadrants in both public and private real estate equity and debt markets; and a Funds and Co-Investments group that makes minority investments in unaffiliated, third-party private equity funds, as well as related equity co-investments, and transactions in the private equity secondary market. Learn more at www.barings.com/strategies.

About Wireless Infrastructure Group

Wireless Infrastructure Group is an independent communications infrastructure provider headquartered in the Edinburgh with offices in London, Solihull, Bellshill, Basingstoke and the Netherlands. Following its launch in 2006, Wireless Infrastructure Group has invested in over 2,000 assets including communications towers and other wireless infrastructure. The business builds and operates communication towers in rural and suburban areas, together with fiber-based networks to enable mobile coverage in large buildings and on city streets. Wireless Infrastructure Group is fully independent of any network operator and invests in high capacity infrastructure available to all networks. For more information about Wireless Infrastructure Group, visit www.wirelessinfrastructure.co.uk.

About Barings

Barings is a $299 billion* global asset management firm dedicated to meeting the evolving investment and capital needs of our clients. We build lasting partnerships that leverage our distinctive expertise across traditional and alternative asset classes to deliver innovative solutions and exceptional service. Part of MassMutual, Barings maintains a strong global presence with over 650 investment professionals and offices in 16 countries. Learn more at www.barings.com.

*As of Sept. 30, 2017

17-348232

Contact: Brian Whelan, Barings, 704.805.7244, brian.whelan@barings.com

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Barings via Globenewswire


PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 11:48:47

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Increase in government initiatives to boost the research and development is driving the growth of biopreservation marketIncrease in number of human sperm and egg banks, and rising demand for preservation of new born stem cells, and adoption of in- house sample storage in hospitals are some of the major factors driving the growth of biopreservation market. Government initiatives in the form of grants, funds, and contract or other type of funding will boost the research and development activities for various companies and research organizations is expected to boost the market. For Instance, according to UK government policy, 2015 explains that there is an expected investment of 5 billion in health and research development by 2020 and additionally Welcome Trust (WT) UK is going to provide funds around 13.9 billion in healthcare research.Request a sample copy of this report: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/748 Biopreservation is the technique used to increase shelf life of product, and to ensure the stability, purity of bio specimens. Bio-preservation is used for the storage of cells, tissues, organs and its recent trend includes its use in food safety. The equipment such as refrigerators, liquid nitrogen and consumables, and media and laboratory information management systems are used for bio preservation. Biobanking is a type of biopreservation that is widely used in medical research such as genomics research and for personalized medicine. Numerous type of bio specimen like saliva, plasma, and purified DNA can be maintained through biopreservation technique and maintain safe from contaminants. Some samples can be stored for longer time with the help of biopreservation so that it can be used for longer research studies.Increase in healthcare expenditure globally, investment in bio-banks and personalized medicines, are also propelling the biopreservation market growth. The rising population with lifestyle related diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and hypertension are other factors that are driving the growth of biopreservation market. According to World Health Organization (WHO), in 2015, cardiovascular diseases caused 31% of all diseases and 8.8 million people died due to cancer. However, there are certain restraints effecting the market which includes chances of tissue injury during the preservation, high cost of instruments and their maintenance. The technological breakthroughs and regenerative drugs along with the applications of biobanking for cell, tissue, and organ is expected to create numerous opportunities in the biopreservation market.Bio-banking segment dominates the biopreservation market due its extensive application in numerous areasThe global biopreservation market is segmented by application, by product type, by biospecimens, by end user and by region.On the basis of application, the market is segmented intoBio bankingHuman eggsHuman spermsVeterinary IVFRegenerative medicineCell therapyGene therapyDrug discoveryAsk for customization: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/748 On the basis of product type, the market is segmented intoVialsStrawsBagsMicrotiter platesEquipmentFreezersRefrigeratorsConsumablesOthersOn the basis of biospecimens, the market is segmented intoTissue samplesStem cellsOrgansOthersOn the basis of end users, the market is segmented intoBio banksHospitalsResearch organizationsOthersBiopreservation market is expected to show a sustainable growth in Asia Pacific due to the increase in awareness about preservation of umbilical cord cellsRegional segmentation of global biopreservation market by Coherent Market Insights comprises of North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. North America dominates the biopreservation market owing to the factors such as development of novel drugs, increasing demand for diagnosis of chronic diseases, therapies in healthcare sector, and regulations by government to support ethical usage of biological samples. Biopreservation market is driven in the Asia Pacific region due to some factors such as rising population, rise in investments in healthcare research, and growing awareness about preservation of umbilical cord cells. The statistics published in New England Journal of Medicines informed that in 2012, Japan and China had increased their total medical research spending by U.S. $9.0 billion and U.S. $6.4 billion respectively and contributed as 13.8% and 3.1% of worlds total medical research expenditure.Click here to know more about this report: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/biopreservation-market-748 Broad product portfolio of major industries helping them to lead in the biopreservation marketKey players operating the market are Biolife solutions, THERMO- FISHER SCIENTIFIC, BioCision LLC, Simport scientific, Cesca Therapeutics, Atlanta biologics, Lifeline scientific, LabVantage solutions, Hamilton Company, Core dynamics ltd., and others. The major industry players are leading in the biopreservation market due to their broad product portfolio particularly related to media, freezers, refrigerators, consumables and their wide regional presence.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Visit our news Website: http://www.coherentnews.com
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 10:00:13

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Canada Zinc Metals Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture:CZX). has issued a press release with the following headline:Canada Zinc Metals Announces Completion of Initial Earn-in On the Pie Option PropertiesTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Canada Zinc Metals Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Canada Zinc Metals Corp.Source: Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture: CZX, ISIN: A0RAQJ, WKN: CA1353061080)Date: January 11, 2018Time: 4:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Canada Zinc Metals Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Canarc Resources Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Canarc Resources Corp. (TSX:CCM). has issued a press release with the following headline:Canarc Appoints VP ExplorationTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Canarc Resources Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Canarc Resources Corp.Source: Canarc Resources Corp. (TSX: CCM, OTCQB: CRCUF, ISIN: 876 981, WKN: CA13722D1015)Date: January 11, 2018Time: 8:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Canarc Resources Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
TWIN FALLS  Feeling good about local gas prices? Enjoy them while you can.

AAA Idaho predicts that Idaho gas prices will go up for the rest of the year, averaging between $2.65 and $2.85 for a gallon of regular gas. As of Wednesday, average prices were $2.55 in Idaho, down from a month ago but about 19 cents higher than a year ago.

In Twin Falls, prices jumped 11 cents in a week to $2.53  though AAA Idaho spokesman Matthew Conde couldnt explain why. The citys gas prices were about the same as in December, and 22 cents higher than this time in 2016.

Without a snowpocalypse, the weather is a little more favorable, and people are going out and doing stuff, Conde said.

Prices will continue to inch up as the warmer weather returns, so if youre planning on any travel, choosing to beat the rush might also save you money on gas.

Nationwide, the average price for a gallon of regular gas was $2.49 on Wednesday.

AAA Idaho also reported that over the course of 2017, Idaho drivers paid on average about 28 cents more per gallon than they did in 2016. The lowest average prices of the year were in January, with a monthly average of $2.36.

Although prices dipped briefly in July, the solar eclipse and hurricane activity had effects on travel and supply, Conde said.

The Rocky Mountain Region typically has a fairly stable supply, but low unemployment, increasing population and high consumer confidence means more people are traveling, he said. Retailers seize that as an opportunity to raise prices.

When the supply hasnt grown and the population has, it puts a greater demand on whats available, Conde said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, meanwhile, has continued to curb supply to artificially inflate prices, Conde said. But in response, the U.S. becomes motivated to pump more oil, and the supply increases.

The good news? Prices still arent as high as they were in 2014, and theyll probably stay well below $3 per gallon, Conde said.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 17:30:14

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Eagle Plains Resources Ltd.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Cranbrook, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (TSX Venture:EPL). has issued a press release with the following headline:Eagle Plains Partner Aben Resources Makes Cash and Share Payments, Plans Winter Drill Program for Chico Gold Project, SaskatchewanTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Eagle Plains Resources Ltd., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Eagle Plains Resources Ltd.Source: Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (TSX Venture: EPL, ISIN: CA2699062022, WKN: 588696)Date: January 11, 2018Time: 11:30 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 10:03:20

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Mayur Vihar Phase 1, New Delhi, 110091Support Head+91 888 200 1155

New Delhi, India: Are you looking for unique Birthday Gifts for Boyfriend that can please him and but not getting the one? Irrespective of the occasion, choosing the best gifts for the loved one who is close to the heart is essential as this is one of the ways to convey heartfelt feelings to him. At Giftalove.com , one can find an amazing collection of gifts one place that can also be sent to the exact shipping address at a surprise gift. The portal also offers the benefits of customizing gifts that can give it a personal touch, making the loved one feel special.If anyone is willing to delight the mood of her boyfriend on his birthday, then Giftalove.com is an ideal shopping place that offers the latest & trendy collection of Birthday Gifts for Boyfriend. Amid different choices available, sometimes it is difficult to choose the best one. Here, one can find gifts in the different price range that again is a beneficial part of online shopping wherein find the best gifts within the budget is easy & simple.On a conversation with one of the companys authorized representative stated, Finding the right gift for boyfriend can be very easy if you are aware of his likes and dislikes. However, if you are clueless then browse the website of Giftalove.com that offers plenty of gift items at one place. Right from Birthday Flowers, chocolates, cakes to personalized gifts, you have a wider range of gifts available in one place. If he loves to play games, gift his collection of new games or if he is the technocrat guy, then electronic gadgets would be a perfect choice for a birthday gift ( https://www.giftalove.com/birthday-gifts-5.html) to him. Arranging for a surprise birthday party or dinner where you both can spend quality time together will also be a wonderful idea to win his heart once again also making him feel special. Talking more with the spokesman of the online gift portal explained, It hardly matters where you or your boyfriend resides. It could be your long-distance relationship or might be both of you are in the same city. In todays fast life, sometimes, it becomes impossible to celebrate the important day of the dear ones together but that cant spoil the mood of the person. With the online gift shop, it is easy to send Birthday Gifts for Boyfriend irrespective of the location you both live in. We offer prompt delivery services such as Same Day delivery and Midnight delivery services to customers who wise to give midnight surprise. In the wide range of gifts that one can buy or send online to her boyfriend includes Wallets, Birthday flowers bouquet, Perfumes, birthday cakes in different flavors and designs, personalized gifts items such as Coffee Mug, Cushion, Photo frame, wooden plaque, watch, grooming kit, desk accessories and a lot more.Apart from offering Birthday Gifts, one can also shop for Anniversary gifts ( https://www.giftalove.com/anniversary-gifts) , Wedding gifts, New Year gifts, Christmas gifts, Valentines Day Gifts, Housewarming gifts, Get well soon gifts, Retirements gifts, New Born gifts and many other occasions.About the Company: Giftalove.com is a renowned place to shop online for Birthday Gifts for Boyfriend, girlfriend, father, mother, sister, brother and various other relations. To meet the ever-changing requirements of the people, the portal presents variegated types of gifts at one place. From Birthday flowers to Anniversary Cakes and also the personalized range of gift items, the portal has everything for you and is hardly a few fingers away from getting it delivered to the recipients address. Choose the Same Day delivery services or any other services offered at the portal and get the ordered gifts delivered right at the doorsteps of the dear and loved one. For more information, visit the company website and get more information.Media Contact:-Name: Mritunjay KumarDesignation: HR HeadContact: +91 888 200 1155Email: support@ giftalove.com Website :- https://www.giftalove.com/
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 16:00:14

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Gungnir Resources Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Gungnir Resources Inc. (TSX Venture:GUG). has issued a press release with the following headline:Gungnir Receives Final Approval for New Permits in Sweden and Provides Summary of Company AssetsTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Gungnir Resources Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Gungnir Resources Inc.Source: Gungnir Resources Inc. (TSX Venture: GUG, OTC Pink: ASWRF, FWB: AMO1, WKN: A116WL, ISIN: CA40281L1094)Date: January 11, 2018Time: 10:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Gungnir Resources Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 11:21:01

Haier: Golden Time for Chinese Home Appliances? A Glimpse at the Global Influences of Chinese Brands via Google Trends

Haier

Michelle Li, 86-18561509919

3040437593@qq.com

Haier, a leading Chinese home appliances manufacturer, is glad to announce that the company ranked among top home appliances brands in terms of overall influence according to statistics recently released by Google Trends.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201801110054

Brand Influence of Chinese Home Appliance Brands in Eight Countries in the World. (Graphic: Business Wire)

On January 1, 2018 local time in the U.S., Google Trends disclosed worldwide popularity of brands in 2017, which showed that five Chinese brands, namely Haier, Midea, GREE, TCL and Hisense, delivered excellent performance in eight selected countries of the world, including the U.S., Germany, France and Japan, indicating that the era of Chinese Brands globalization has arrived.

In 2012, the BBC launched a campaign themed Made-in-China in My House, soliciting comments and feelings of people around the world about Chinese products. According to some people, Made-in-China could be interpreted as cheap and ordinary. But in recent years, as the brand awareness of the Chinese companies is growing, impression of the world on made-in-China products is turning for the better, and the Chinese Brands are among the top in the world. In 2017 alone, growth of applications for patent in China accounted for 80% of the world as a whole.

The year 2018 witnesses the 40th anniversary of Chinas Reform and Opening Up. Over the past 40 years, countless marks of Made in China have been printed on products that are sold worldwide. Among the first Going Out Chinese enterprises were quite a number of home appliances brands like Haier. After improving the image of Made in China from cheap to quality, they are now experiencing a transition from Made in China to Designed in China, According to the China's National Image World Report issued by Kantar Millward Brown, a leading consulting company for data and insights, Haier was the most familiar brand of home appliances for foreign users, which was also again proven by the Blue Territory of eight countries by Google Trends.

Furthermore, as the leading Chinese brand in terms of globalization, Haier has merged with Fisher&Paykel from New Zealand, GE Appliances from the U.S. and Sanyo Electric Co. from Japan, and has been benefiting from the emerging global synergy effects.

Two decades ago, in order to expand its presence in the global market, Haier adopted the localization model of Three in One (combining R&D, manufacturing and marketing) and created the Salesperson and Order in One model which was of great historical significance. John P. Kotter, the strongest voice in leadership and change of major enterprises worldwide, believes that Haier is building a model for a successful global enterprise in the 21st century which will not only help establish a great company, but will benefit the entire country as well.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201801110054

Haier, a leading Chinese home appliances manufacturer, ranked among top home appliances brands
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 14:30:14

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Kapuskasing Gold Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Kapuskasing Gold Corp. (TSX Venture:KAP). has issued a press release with the following headline:Kapuskasing Announces Significant Copper Mineralization Intersected at Lady Pond Property, NewfoundlandTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Kapuskasing Gold Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Kapuskasing Gold Corp.Source: Kapuskasing Gold Corp. (TSX Venture: KAP)Date: January 11, 2018Time: 8:30 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Kapuskasing Gold Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Lithium Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Elko, Nevada (FSCWire) - Lithium Corp. (OTCQB:LTUM). has issued a press release with the following headline:Lithium Corporation Receives Preliminary Results from BC Sugar Graphite PropertyTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Lithium Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Lithium Corp.Source: Lithium Corp. (OTCQB: LTUM, ISIN: A0YJFZ, WKN: US5368041076)Date: January 11, 2018Time: 9:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Lithium Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 15:03:01

Therapy Delivered via the Medtronic SynchroMed(TM) II Infusion System

DUBLIN - January 11, 2018 - Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) today announced the publication of results from the 'Spasticity In Stroke-Randomised Study' (SISTERS) trial in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry (JNNP). These results demonstrate the superiority of Medtronic ITB TherapySM with LioresalIntrathecal (baclofen injection) delivered via the SynchroMed(TM) II Infusion System compared to conventional medical management (CMM) for the reduction of severe post-stroke spasticity (PSS) in adults. The SynchroMed II Infusion System is the only system approved in the United States for ITB Therapy.

People suffering from severe spasticity have tight, stiff muscles that make it difficult to move or control their arms, legs, or body, which can make everyday activities exhausting and difficult. More than 12 million people worldwide suffer from spasticity.1 PSS impacts up to 43 percent of patients in the first year after their stroke2 and is considered severe when it interferes with comfort, function or caregiving, despite oral medications.3 Without effective treatment, the excessive muscle tone can cause pain and stiffness, deformity and reduced range of movement, significantly reducing overall quality of life.4

SISTERS is the first randomized, controlled, open-label, multicentre study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ITB Therapy versus CMM with oral antispastic medications for treatment of PSS after six months' active treatment. Professor Leopold Saltuari, M.D., from the Tirol Clinic in Hochzirl, Austria, served as the coordinating investigator of the study, which randomized 60 patients in Europe and the United States. The primary outcome of the study was change in muscle tone and spastic hypertonia as measured by the change in average Ashworth scale (AS) score in the lower extremity (LE) of the affected body side from baseline to month six.5

Results of the study show ITB demonstrated a significant improvement over CMM in reducing muscle tone in the affected lower and upper extremities. On the 5-point AS scale, analysis showed mean AS score reduction for the affected lower extremity, -0.99 [ITB] vs. -0.43 [CMM] and for the affected upper extremity -.0.66 [ITB] vs. -0.17 [CMM]. Functional change was evaluated using the Functional Improvement Measure (FIM). The ITB group demonstrated an improvement in FIM total score from baseline to month six (+2.68), while a worsening occurred in the CMM arm (-2.58).5

More patients reported adverse events in the ITB group (24/25 patients, 96 percent; 149 events) compared to CMM (22/35, 63 percent; 77 events), although events were generally consistent with the known safety profile of ITB Therapy. Around half of the drug, device and procedure related adverse events occurred during implant and titration phase. No patient discontinued ITB Therapy due to treatment related adverse events.5

"ITB Therapyis underused when it comes to treating severe spasticity in post-stroke patients," said lead author and study investigator Michael Creamer, D.O., of Central Florida Pain Relief Centers in Orlando, Fla. "The study results demonstrate that ITB Therapy is superior to oral medications in decreasing muscle tone." Dr. Creamer will be presenting the study results at the 21st North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) Annual Meeting in Las Vegas on Saturday, January 13, 2018.

Stroke affects people all around the world regardless of gender, age or race. According to the World Health Organization, 15 million people suffer stroke worldwide each year, of these, 5 million are permanently disabled.6

"All over the world, PSS patients are suffering from inadequately managed severe spasticity that can interfere with their quality of life," said Charlie Covert, vice president and general manager, Targeted Drug Delivery, Medtronic Pain Therapies. "At Medtronic, we're committed to raising awareness of ITB Therapy as an effective treatment for severe PSS and to ensure it is available to the patients who need it most."

About ITB Therapy

ITB Therapy with Lioresal Intrathecal (baclofen injection) is indicated for use in the management of severe spasticity resulting from stroke, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and brain injury. Patients should first respond to a screening dose of Lioresal Intrathecal prior to consideration for long term infusion via an implantable pump. For spasticity of spinal cord origin, ITB Therapy should be reserved for patients unresponsive to oral baclofen therapy, or those who experience intolerable CNS side effects at effective doses. Patients with spasticity due to traumatic brain injury should wait at least one year after the injury before consideration of long term ITB Therapy.

Abrupt discontinuation of intrathecal baclofen, regardless of the cause, has resulted in sequelae that include high fever, altered mental status, exaggerated rebound spasticity, and muscle rigidity, that in rare cases has advanced to rhabdomyolysis, multiple organ-system failure and death.



Prevention of abrupt discontinuation of intrathecal baclofen requires careful attention to programming and monitoring of the infusion system, refill scheduling and procedures, and pump alarms. Patients and caregivers should be advised of the importance of keeping scheduled refill visits and should be educated on the early symptoms of baclofen withdrawal. Special attention should be given to patients at apparent risk (e.g. spinal cord injuries at T-6 or above, communication difficulties, history of withdrawal symptoms from oral or intrathecal baclofen).

Consult the technical manual of the implantable infusion system for additional postimplant clinician and patient information (See WARNINGS).

For important safety information, including BOX WARNING, refer to the Lioresal Intrathecal (baclofen injection) prescribing information and the SynchroMed II Drug Infusion System Brief Statement.

About SynchroMedII Intrathecal Drug Delivery System

The Medtronic SynchroMed II pump and catheter are implanted under the skin and deliver medication into the intrathecal space, enabling clinicians to prescribe the lowest possible dose and tailor drug delivery to patient needs. Patients with chronic, intractable pain or severe spasticity who have not had success with other treatment options or have experienced intolerable side effects with oral medications are candidates for SynchroMedII. The system is also full-body MRI conditional under conditions specified in the product labeling. More than 375,000 patients worldwide have received therapy from Medtronic drug infusion systems since they were introduced over 30 years ago.7

About Medtronic

Medtronic plc (www.medtronic.com), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is among the world's largest medical technology, services and solutions companies - alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people around the world. Medtronic employs more than 84,000 people worldwide, serving physicians, hospitals and patients in approximately 160 countries. The company is focused on collaborating with stakeholders around the world to take healthcare Further, Together.

Any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties such as those described in Medtronic's periodic reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from anticipated results.

Lioresal is a registered trademark of Saol.

SynchroMed is a registered trademark of Medtronic.

-end-

Sources:

1. American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Spasticity. Available at: http://www.aans.org/Patients/Neurosurgical-Conditions-and-Treatments/Spasticity. Accessed January 4, 2018.

2. Dvorak E, Ketchum N, McGuire J. The underutilization of intrathecal baclofen in poststroke spasticity. Top Stroke Rehabil. 2011 May-Jun;18(3):195-202.

3. Saulino M, Ivanhoe C, McGuire J, et al. Best practices for Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy: Patient Selection. Neuromodulation. 2016 Aug;19(6):607-15.

4. Gillard PJ, Sucharew H, Kleindorfer D, et al. The negative impact of spasticity on the health-related quality of life of stroke survivors: a longitudinal cohort study. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2015;13:159.

5. Creamer M, Cloud G, Kossmehl P, et al. Intrathecal baclofen therapy versus conventional medical management for severe post-stroke spasticity: results from a multicentre, randomised, controlled, open-label trial (SISTERS). J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. Published online Jan 2018. Doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2017-317021

6. World Health Organization (WHO): Global Burden of Stroke. Available at: http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/en/cvd_atlas_15_burden_stroke.pdf?ua=1. Accessed December 15, 2017.

7. Medtronic Data on File. Accessed January 3, 2018.





This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Medtronic plc via Globenewswire


PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 08:00:37

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Noram Ventures Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Noram Ventures Inc. (TSX Venture:NRM). has issued a press release with the following headline:Noram Amends Clayton Valley Joint Venture Agreement with Alba to Acquire an Additional 25%To view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Noram Ventures Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Noram Ventures Inc.Source: Noram Ventures Inc. (TSX Venture: NRM, WKN: A1JD6V, ISIN: CA65542J1066, OTC Pink: NRVTF, FWB: N7R)Date: January 11, 2018Time: 2:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Noram Ventures Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 11:57:16

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Ocular drug delivery is associated with the treatment of ophthalmic diseases. Ophthalmic diseases affect various parts of the eye anatomy, which are mainly categorized on the basis of their position namely, anterior segment and posterior segment. Ocular drugs are directly administered onto the affected area or near the affected area for fast absorption and rapid onset of action feasible. Topical ocular drug formulations are primarily available in liquid form such as solutions, suspensions, and emulsions for treating anterior eye segment diseases. Posterior segment diseases are treated with more advanced therapies such as implants and injections. Materials used in ocular drug delivery include polymers, bioadhesive gels, and hydrogels. Novel drug delivery systems enable better penetration of the therapeutic agent, providing long lasting effect by bypassing the natural barriers associated with the eye anatomy. Anterior segment diseases can easily be treated with conventional drug delivery, whereas, posterior segment diseases are treated with the help of novel drug delivery systems such as intravitreal, subconjunctival, and suprachoroidal injections. Newer therapeutic systems and dosage forms are under research, which can act for longer durations with maximum patient compliance.Request For Sample Copy@ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1214 Increasing need for better and effective treatment options and increasing eye diseases prevalence is expected to boost growth of the ocular drug delivery technology market Incidence of ophthalmic diseases and disorders in the recent past years has increased significantly due to factors such as rising geriatric population (leading to macular degeneration and cataract), excessive strain on eyes owing to long working hours, and increasing diabetes prevalence leading to retinopathy. Diabetes is a major cause of retinopathy and according to World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people with diabetes was 422 million in 2014 which is expected to increase in the near future. Incidence of age-related macular degeneration is also increasing and according to International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, 196 million people are expected to have macular degeneration by 2020. This is expected to support growth of the market over the forecast period. Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market Taxonomy The global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented on the basis of product type, formulation type, application, end user, and geography On the basis of product type, the global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented into: Topical,Intraocular Implants,Biodegradable,Non-Biodegradable,Hydrogel Systems,Iontophoresis,Ocular Inserts,Non-Erodible,Erodible,Others (Punctal plugs, cyclodextrines) On the basis of formulation type, the global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented into: Solution,Suspension,Liposomes,Emulsion,Nanoparticles,Nano suspensions,Others (Niosomes, dendrimers) On the basis of application, the global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented into: Glaucoma,Diabetic Retinopathy,Macular Degeneration,Diabetic Macular Edema,Cataract On the basis of end user, global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented into: Hospitals,Ambulatory surgical centers,Ophthalmic Clinics,Others Regional segmentation of the ocular drug delivery technology market by Coherent Market Insights comprises North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. North America market is expected to be dominant over the forecast period. This is owing to increasing demand for treatment of posterior eye problems as according to American Academy Of Ophthalmology, in 2050 an estimated 7.32 million people in the U.S. are expected to suffer from open angle glaucoma, increasing geriatric population (that are at high risk for eye diseases), and advancement in technology in ocular therapy. IACTA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was granted the North American rights to develop and commercialize NM133, comprising of molecular envelope technology to treat dry eye in July 2017. Furthermore, Sun Pharma launched its first branded ophthalmic product, Bromsite, in the U.S. in 2016. Asia Pacific market is expected to exhibit the highest growth rate over the forecast period. This is due to factors such as major concentration of local manufacturers, and low costs associated with treatment favoring the medical tourism in the region as according to International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Review and Research, 2015, eye surgeries in developed economies such as the U.S. cost three to four times more than in India. Initiatives such as World Health Organizations (WHO) Universal Eye Health plan till 2019 spreads awareness regarding eye health which is expected to aid in the ocular drug delivery technology market growth. Key Competitors Key players operating in the Ocular Drug Delivery Technology market are Alimera Sciences, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Clearside Biomedical, INC., Taiwan Liposome Company, Ltd., Novartis, Pfizer Inc., Envisia Therapeutics, and Graybug Vision Inc.Get More Details On this Report: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/ocular-drug-delivery-technology-market-1214 About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 14:13:02

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PDTI (CSE:PDTI) today announced that they were mentioned by name in the latest leading dental 3D printing research report titled 3D Printing in Dentistry 2018 issued by SmarTech Publishing, the leading industry analysis firm for the 3D printing industry.

Mr. Erik Siegmund, President stated "We are honored to have received a name mention in the report. We are one of only three companies mentioned by name in this prestigious publication. I am greatly encouraged by the recognition we have gained on the world stage amongst all the other dental implant companies"

"SmarTech is encouraged by the efforts of a particular group of innovative dental implant solutions companies, to include Preferred Dental Implants, who are taking steps to further the acceptance of 3D printing technologies in the fast-growing area of implantology" commented Scott Dunham, SmarTech's Vice President of Research and primary author of the study. "Print technologies have already had a massive impact on the dental prosthetics market, but as demand for implant-supported restorations grows worldwide, it will be up to companies like Preferred Dental to bring the potential benefits of 3D printing to dental practitioners, and ultimately to patients."

For details on how to access the full research report visit, https://www.smartechpublishing.com/reports/3d-printing-in-dentistry-2018-a-ten-year-forecast-and-opportunity-analysis

About SmarTech Market Publishing:

SmarTech Publishing is the leading industry analysis firm dedicated entirely to covering trends and market opportunity forecasting to the 3D printing and additive manufacturing industry. It's client roster includes all major players in the printing industry spanning North America, Europe, and Asia. Since 2013 SmarTech has created nearly a dozen research report series' which are now considered required reading for stakeholders in various areas of the 3D printing industry.

Lawrence Gasman

President

SmarTech Markets Publishing, LLC

Info@smartechpublishing.com

www.smartechpublishing.com

About PDTI

Preferred Dental technologies Inc. (PDTI) has been established to advance development and commercialization of various evolutionary and disruptive technologies in the dental implant industry.

MISSION - INNOVATIVE & PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR THE DENTAL INDUSTRY

Visit: www.preferreddentalimplant.com

www.prefdent.com

On behalf of Preferred Dental Technologies Inc.

Erik Siegmund

Chief Executive Officer

Email: info@preferreddentalimplant.com

Tel: 204.691.3722

www.prefdent.com

This news release may contain forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts.

Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release may include, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Neither The Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of The Canadian Securities Exchange accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Preferred Dental Technologies Inc. via Globenewswire


TWIN FALLS  In a medical emergency, every second counts.

Air St. Lukes started using two new Bell 429 twin-engine helicopters in August meaning improved safety and a faster flight for critically-ill patients, more advanced technology, a further range and better likelihood a patients loved one can ride along.

One helicopter is based at St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center and the other in Boise.

Theyre the premiere EMS helicopters in the country, said Blaine Patterson, director of emergency medical services for St. Lukes Magic Valley.

The new helicopters  which each cost between $7 million and $8 million  are owned by Idaho Helicopters Inc., and St. Lukes leases them.

Air St. Lukes  which has been flying since 1989 and under its agreement with Idaho Helicopters since 2002  logs about 500 flights each year from its Twin Falls base. Its service area includes southern Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada.

A Magic Valley-based critical care crew includes four pilots and 12 paramedics and nurses. They care for patients in situations such as those with a traumatic injury, stroke and heart attack patients, and pregnant women and babies.

The new helicopter for the Twin Falls base was up-and-running just in time to use in the Wood River Valley for the total solar eclipse in late August.

It has excellent avionics, including night vision capabilities, Patterson said, and features such recessed lighting and tinted windows so it doesnt get as hot. Its also about 200 pounds lighter than the previous helicopter.

Its increased our range quite a bit, Patterson said.

It means, for example, crews can pick up a patient at the scene of an accident in a rural area outside of Twin Falls and fly them non-stop to the University of Utahs Burn Center. Thats a scenario that happened twice this fall. With the older helicopter, the patient would have likely come to Twin Falls for treatment first, said Dr. Kevin Kraal, medical director for emergency medical services.

Plus, the speed and power of the helicopter has a significant impact and allows for transporting patients faster, Patterson said, such as those whove had a stroke or heart attack and are being taken to Boise.

And there are more times when theres enough weight capacity to allow a loved one to ride along. That happened frequently before the upgrade, but occasionally, it wasnt possible.

Having a family member in the helicopter is provides peace of mind for the patient, Patterson said.

And for the relative who rides along, theyre not in panic while driving long distances to another hospital.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 14:00:38

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Sunvest Minerals Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Sunvest Minerals Corp. (TSX Venture:SSS). has issued a press release with the following headline:Sunvest Provides Update on Brazil Lake Cobalt ProjectTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Sunvest Minerals Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Sunvest Minerals Corp.Source: Sunvest Minerals Corp. (TSX Venture: SSS, WKN: A2AFZ5, ISIN: CA86804N1069)Date: January 11, 2018Time: 8:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Sunvest Minerals Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 10:01:04

Talentia Software Acquires Swiss Company Addedo

Media Relations:

Wellcom Agency

Ingrid Zemor, + (331) 46 34 60 60

ingrid.zemor@wellcom.fr

Talentia Software, leading provider of HR and Financial Performance enterprise software, accelerates its international development through the acquisition of Swiss company Addedo. This acquisition is an integral part of Talentia Softwares strategy to extend its lead in Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software and become a key European player on this market.

Switzerland, Zug-based Addedo is an IT consultancy firm specialized in Corporate Performance Management (CPM) services and applications. Addedo consulting services focus on the implementation of CPM software, covering key functions such as financial consolidation, budgeting, planning, reporting and analytics. Addedo also acts as an independent licensed reseller for market leading CPM software solutions, offering maintenance and support services to its clients. With close to 11 Million euros in sales, about 25 employees and 200 clients among which many publically listed corporations-, Addedo has offices in Switzerland, Germany and Canada.

With more than 55 Million euros in sales (2016), Talentia Software has operations in France, the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Consistent with the companys acquisition strategy, this external growth opportunity enables Talentia Software to establish a physical presence and expand operations in the countries served by Addedo. This acquisition will also greatly enhance the activity and expertise of its Financial Performance product line.

Addedo is a licensed reseller for IBM Cognos (ESA Partner) and Longview, providing implementation, maintenance and support services to its clients. As part of this acquisition, Addedo will keep operating under its own brand, leveraging its strong partnerships and awareness to expand on its markets. This acquisition will also leverage a natural complementarity and help realize strong synergies between Talentia Software, a software provider and Addedo, an IT consulting, deployment and support services firm.

Michael Kempter will remain President of Addedo to lead Talentia Softwares operations in the DACH region (Germany Austria Switzerland) and the starting operations in North America, with the full support of his current management team. He is joining the Executive Board of Talentia Software and he will report directly to Viviane Chaine-Ribeiro.

Says Viviane Chaine-Ribeiro, President of Talentia Software: This acquisition is a new critical step in our external growth strategy. It will further reinforce our market lead on the fast growing CPM market and accelerate our growth in countries such as Switzerland and Germany. It will also enable us to set foot in North America where Addedo recently opened an office. We are thrilled to join forces with Addedo, who achieved sustained growth over the years to reach a market-leading position today. Talentia Software will greatly benefit from Addedos insights and proven Financial Performance expertise, and in turn, we will be able to provide additional value to our clients and staff.

Says Michael Kempter, President of Addedo: We are pleased to join Talentia Software and merge our skills and capability. We share common values, including the commitment to delivering the highest quality of service to our clients. We will benefit from each others expertise, expand our current product portfolio and combine forces for the benefits of our clients Financial Performance.

About Talentia Software

With more than 3,600 customers in over 30 countries, Talentia Software is a market-leading European software provider of Finance software (Accounting, Financial Performance) and HR software (Payroll, Human Capital Management).

Talentia Software directly markets, deploys and supports its solutions in France, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy. The company also provides its solutions through a wide network of channel partners across Europe and South America.

For more information, please visit www.talentia-software.com

Follow us on social networks:

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View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201801110050

@TalentiaSW accelerates its international development through the #acquisition of Swiss company Addedo.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 02:01:02

TITANIUM ASIA Conference in Singapore to Address Aerospace, Supply Chain Issues

International Titanium Association

Jennifer Simpson, 1-303-404-2221

Executive Director

ita@titanium.org

The International Titanium Association (ITA) will host the first TITANIUM ASIA 2018 conference and exhibition February 4th-5th, the day before the Singapore Airshow starts, at the Grand Hyatt Singapore.

One backdrop to the Singapore gathering is that European aerospace giant Airbus recently announced plans to ramp up production of its A320 jets at an existing assembly facility near Beijing. A January 9th report by BBC News, along with a similar Airbus press statement, said the company expects to produce six A320 jets a month by the year 2020. Aerospace is a key, high-profile global business market for the titanium industry and much of the projected growth for the aerospace industry will be generated in the greater Asia region.

As it turns out, Nicole Lecca, the senior vice president of material and part procurement for Airbus, tops the roster of speakers for TITANIUM ASIA. Lecca has spent three decades with the aerospace company and last year was promoted to her current post, where she deals with metallic and composite raw materials, along parts procurement for all Airbus Group programs.

Henry Seiner, vice president of business strategy for Titanium Metals Corp. (TIMET), also will address the Singapore conference. Seiner, who serves as the chair of the ITAs board of directors, has extensive experience in the aerospace sector, is responsible for TIMET international supply chain, and oversees the companys marketing, product management, purchasing and production planning.

Dr. MP Sukumaran Nair, chairman of Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd. (KMML), will discuss Indias goals for expanding its ascending titanium/zirconium market and aerospace industry.

Other speakers addressing the TITANIUM ASIA conference will be: Jeremy Halford, president of Arconic Titanium and Engineered Products; Shuanxiao Jia, general manager, Baoji Titanium Industry Co. Ltd.; Gary Lantzke, chief executive officer of Callidus Welding Solutions; Gunter Busch, the head of southeast Asian representation for ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH; Graham P. Walker, vice president, sales and marketing at AMETEK Specialty Metal Products; Nick Corby, titanium product manager for ELG/Utica Alloys; and Heming Hao, market analyst, Argus Media.

Exhibitors at TITANIUM ASIA include: ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH; AMETEKReading Alloys; Aries Alloys; Baoji Boze Metal Products; Baoji Jiaqi Metal; Baoji Titanium Industry Co. Ltd.; BOHLER Bleche GmbH and Co. KG; China Huaxia Special Metal Ltd.; ELG Utica Alloys; Friggi North America Inc.; Grandis Titanium Co.; Hangsterfers Laboratories; Hangzhou King Titanium Co.; Hempel Special Metals AG; Inductotherm Group China; Industrial Metals International; KV-Titan Ltd.; Luoyang Sunrui Titanium Precision Casting Co.; Perryman Company; Retech; Supra Alloys, a division of Titan Metal Fabricators; Titanium Industries Inc.; TIMET; Tinita Engineering Private Ltd.; Tipro International Co. Ltd.; Toho Titanium Group; Tricor Metals; Uniti Titanium; Zhangjiagang Huayu Nonferrous Metal Material Co. Ltd. (Valueti); Xian Metals and Minerals; and Zhejiang Shenji Titanium Industry Co. Ltd.

Contact the ITA (www.TitaniumAsia.org), or by telephone 1-303-404-2221 for more information on how to attend the event.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201801100063

International Titanium Association will host TITANIUM ASIA 2018 conference & exhibition February 4+5 #ITATITANIUM
PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-11 14:15:15

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for ZTEST Electronics Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---North York, Ontario (FSCWire) - ZTEST Electronics Inc. (CSE:ZTE). has issued a press release with the following headline:ZTEST Announces Private Placement OfferingTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on ZTEST Electronics Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/ZTEST Electronics Inc.Source: ZTEST Electronics Inc. (CSE: ZTE, OTC Bulletin Board: ZTSTF)Date: January 11, 2018Time: 8:15 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of ZTEST Electronics Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
A Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele, has reportedly made her Hollywood debut in Marvels Avengers: Infinity War.

Her name appeared on a line-up provided by IMDb, a reputed online database known for listing latest film projects.

Akindele has been listed as a member of a long list of casts and will play a member of the Black Panthers guards, Dora Milaje.

The Dora Milaje are superior women recruited from every tribe of the fictional Wakanda who serve as the personal bodyguards of the Black Panther.

She might feature alongside Hollywood hot shots, Don Cheadle, Chris Pratt, Scarlett Johansson and others. .

PREMIUM TIMES reached out to the 41-year-old actress for a confirmation of the report. She was yet to provide a response at the time of filing this report.

An earlier release, Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, saw the filmmakers feature a place named Lagos in a fighting scene where some Marvel superheroes engaged themselves in battle.

If the report concerning the actress involvement in the film is true, it will be the first time a Nigerian-born actor will appear in a Hollywood superhero movie.

The Avengers: Infinity War movie, which is being directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, has been set for a May 4, 2018, release.
Thousands of Pakistanis rallied on Thursday to seek justice for an eight-year-old girl, who was raped, murdered and her body left on a rubbish tip.

Young students from schools, colleges and universities were joined by the civil society activists and lawyers at protests against the crime in the city of Kasur in the central province of Punjab.

Police found the body of the girl on the rubbish tip in the middle of the city on Tuesday, a week after she was kidnapped, local Police Chief Zulfikar Ahmed said.

Ahmed said an autopsy on Wednesday suggested the girl was raped before being strangled to death at least six days ago.

Protests that erupted in the city on Wednesday continued for the second day as an angry mob ransacked a hospital and the private residence of a local member of parliament, police official Iftikhar Ahmed said.

Students called for the death of the perpetrator at rallies from the southern metropolis of Karachi to the north-western city of Peshawar.

We want the culprit to be hanged publicly so that no one dares commit such a crime in the future, a mother at the protest in Peshawar told Dunya Television.

He said there have been a dozen similar incidents in Kasur in the past in which minors were kidnapped, raped and killed, Iftikhar.

He said the DNA testing of the latest victim and in previous cases suggested that a lunatic serial killer was behind almost all of the crimes.

FAT/SH
Germanys Federal Court of Justice has overturned the acquittals of members of a vigilante Sharia Police patrol, and on Thursday sent the case back to a Lower District Court for retrial.

The court in the western city of Wuppertal made an error in its assessment of whether wearing a safety vest bearing the words Sharia Police violated Germanys uniform ban, the federal court ruled.

In November 2016, the Wuppertal court acquitted all seven defendants of either violating the uniform ban or aiding others in doing so.

In response, state prosecutors lodged an appeal.

Members of the Sharia Police group, founded in 2014, patrolled the streets of Wuppertal in orange vests in an effort to enforce sharia regarding alcohol consumption and gambling among adherents of Islam.

The lower court had ruled that the men had not violated the ban because their vests did not count as a uniform and they did not have an intimidating effect one eyewitness at the time thought the men were part of a stag party group.

Germany bans the wearing of uniforms that are overtly militant or intimidating, and expressed shared political beliefs in public.

The case stirred international and domestic outrage at the time.

(dpa/NAN)
The police in Benue are holding back on their offensive against suspected killer herdsmen on rampage across the North-Central state, saying they would prioritise an immediate succour and enduring tranquillity for the affected communities instead.

The Benue police commissioner, Bashir Makama, informed PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday night that the police are concentrating their energy and resources towards a safe return of recently displaced residents to their communities.

Let there be peace. Let there be calm. Then, the suspects can be followed and arrested, Mr. Makama said by telephone amidst demands for government clampdown on the culprits which followed widespread outrage about the killings.

But anti-open grazing campaigners faulted the police tactics, warning that the comments could fuel speculation that the federal government was colluding with the herdsmen.

You beat the iron while its still hot, thats the blacksmith principle, said David Ogbole, a Pentecostal preacher in Makurdi who leads a civic coalition against herdsmen activities in Benue State. The blacksmith knows that if you beat the iron after it gets cold, it wont bend.

An estimated 69 people have been killed in suspected herdsmen attacks on villages in the agrarian Benue State between December 31 and January 8, according to Benue State Government officials.

Fifty-nine of the deceased are slated for a mass burial in a village near the Air Force Base in Makurdi, the state capital, on Thursday morning.

The figures include the three officers killed following an ambush on a police patrol team on Monday in Logo Local Government Area, about 200 kilometres east of Makurdi.

The local government was amongst the two local government areas razed down by suspected herdsmen between the New Year eve and New Year day.

An exasperated Governor Samuel Ortom blamed the attacks on herdsmen of Fulani extraction. He said federal authorities knew their identities and location but were dithering on bringing them to book.

Mr. Ortom said the leaders of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, an association of cattle breeders, had earlier threatened to attack residents in Benue State, He described them as a threat to our collective interest and said they must be dealt with. The governor also said the state had forewarned the police of the plan to attack the state by the herdsmen.

President Muhammadu Buhari expressed strong sympathies for the people of the state and charged security agencies to go after the suspects with assurances that such attacks are forestalled in future.

As part of the Buhari administrations response, the Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris was asked on Monday to relocate to the troubled Benue State effective immediately.

Mr. Idris arrived Makurdi on Wednesday, reiterating that over 660 officers had been deployed to 10 different units across the state for protection. After a meeting with the governor and other stakeholders on Wednesday, Mr. Idris said he did not receive the early warning notifications by the governor but promised to investigate it.

The police chief is also expected to keep an eye on Adamawa and Taraba States, where there have also been violence between Fulani communities and those of other ethnic groups.

Asked by PREMIUM TIMES if the police had made new arrest since the January 2 arrest of eight suspects, Mr. Makama said efforts had since shifted to helping those sacked from their villages return.

Let there be peace to create confidence for people to return to their home rather than emphasise on effecting the arrest of people who have done what they have done and fled, Mr. Makama said.

No fewer than 50,000 people were reportedly displaced by a string of attacks on the villages which are occupied mostly by farmers.

An anti-open grazing law came into effect in the state last November, but reports of herdsmen sightings are still rife.

The law was the states response to repeated attacks against residents, including the February 2016 massacre of over 500 villagers in Agatu.

A PREMIUM TIMES investigation showed how an estimated 1,269 were killed in attacks linked to herdsmen between 2013 and 2016, but hardly had anyone been punished for the killings.

The governor said the attacks were being launched by herdsmen from the neighbouring state of Nasarawa, seeing it as an expansionist aggression against the people of his state.

Herdsmen have accused the villagers of rustling their livestock, with Fulani leaders telling PREMIUM TIMES in a 2016 interview that the massacre in Agatu was a reprisal attack for the alleged theft and the 2013 killing of one of their leaders.

The annual cost of the conflict between pastoralists and villagers across the country was placed at about $14 billion by the UK-funded global humanitarian agency, Mercy Corps.

The commissioner said he had been to the local government where the killer herdsmen are allegedly using as hideouts but found no immediate leads.

I have been to that village myself, Mr. Makama said. There are so many people there.

You cannot just be carrying everybody. Its not a random arrest; its specific arrest, he added.

But Mr. Ogbole, the leader of the Movement Against Fulani Occupation, criticised the commissioners statement as misplaced and provocative.

All this is nothing but diversionary tactics to allow these herdsmen to decimate Benue communities and leave through the Taraba border to Cameroon back to their hideout.

What is stopping them from going after these men now? When there was killing in Omoku in Rivers State on New Years Day, how many days did it take to fish out the suspect and kill him?

Mr. Ogbole likened the situation in Benue to the recent development in Rivers State in which the police killed a prime suspect in an attack on churchgoers January 1.

Why should Benue people wait until the thing calms down? Why should they go back to the precarious situation when theres no guarantee that the people will be safe if they go back to their villages?

All this could fuel suspicion that theres a collision between the federal government and the militia.

We already have information that the police are slow to go after the herdsmen, which is why men of the Civil Defence Corps were no longer working with the police, Mr. Ogbole said.

The commissioner said the Inspector-Generals team would likely include men who are capable of following vigorous leads that would help in nabbing the killers.

Now that the investigation team has come, they would be going after the culprits, he said.
The Nigerian Labour Congress on Thursday broke through a police cordon in Kaduna to begin a protest against the sack of teachers considered incompetent by the state government. The teachers were fired after they failed a primary four test administered on them by the states education ministry.

Police said they deployed 8,000 officers to stop the demonstration called in defiance of the state government.

Soldiers and armoured vehicles were also deployed to stop the march.

Gov. Nasir El-Rufai warned he would sanction teachers who join the protest.

But the NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, said the union would not be intimidated and that the protest would continue.

By afternoon, thousands of protesters broke through police blockade and marched along Independence Way towards along Muhammad Buhari way.

Anybody who think we cannot come out for the protest has malaria, and that malaria must be treated today, Mr. Wabba, said while addressing members inside the Labour House.

The protesters continued as they marched to the Government House to deliver a letter to the governor.

They held banners and placards with different inscriptions.

Three police vans later joined to give security cover along Ali Akilu Road by NNN round about.

Governor El-Rufai has insisted he would carry on with his reform of the education sector despite opposition from labour and other interest groups.

The governor said those opposing the reform had perhaps benefited from the rot of the past.

More details later.
Delegates to a rare conference of South-east, Sout-west, South-south and North-central political leaders have demanded that the Federal Government declare the Miyetti Allah cattle breeders group, and Fulani herdsmen as terrorist groups.

The groups are accused of killing over 70 people in Benue State in the last two weeks. The Benue government held a mass burial for victims on Thursday.

The Handshake Across the Niger conference, held in Enugu on Thursday, was attended by former governors Cornelius Adebayo, Ikedi Ohakim, Jonah Jang and Olusegun Mimiko; former Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Olu Falae, son of former President Nnamdi Azikiwe, Uwakwe Azikiwe, Banji Akintoye, a professor, and former minister, Femi Fani- Kayode.

Others are Anya Anya, Pat Utomi, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe of Onitsha; Ifeanyi Uba, Yinka Odumakin, Ngozi Odumuko, Victoria Aguiyi Ironsi, wife of former military leader, Donald Fajuyi whose father, Adekunle Fajuyi was killed with Aguiyi-Ironsi in the 1966 counter coup, Femi Ajayi, former Akwa Ibom military governor Idongesit Nkanga and Joe Irukwu.

The president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Nnia Nwodo, in his address at the conference, said the activities of the herdsmen had a become a threat to the unity of the country.

The delegates also said a minority part of Nigeria, namely, the North West and North East, cannot hold the other regions with over 99 million population to ransom by refusing to agree on restructuring.

The delegates warned that if the country is not restructured before the 2019 general elections, it may be heading towards disintegration.

The conference, held at Base Event Centre Enugu, was organised by Nzukor Umunna, an affiliate of Ohaneze Ndigbo.

The representative of the chairman of Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, said the meeting was a catalyst for the unity of Nigeria.

He said the meting was not a gang up or a forum for the formation of a political party, but a meeting against common oppressors of progressive Nigerians.

Its only restructuring that can guarantee your rights in Nigeria. Cheating, injustice and even corruption can only be wiped out through restructuring, he said.

President Buhari will not do that, instead he has ensured that all military and paramilitary institutions are under his control and he has refused to to name herdsmen as terrorists yet he pounced on IPOB that seeks for justice.

A minute silence was observed for the victims of Benue killings.

A communique issued at the end of the conference, said the time has come for the regions that attended the meeting to end the mutual suspicion between them.

They agreed to collaborate closely and to create mutually beneficial opportunities.

They also declared support for a truly federal union of Nigeria that is democratic, stable, secure, peaceful, just and fair to all its citizens.

They resolved to set up a joint committee to ensure constant exchange of ideas between various groups from the regions for the economic and political resuscitation of the country.

The meeting was however boycotted by governors of the South East, South South and South West.
A Chief Magistrate Court in Tinubu, Lagos, on Wednesday granted full custody of the children of the son of former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, Aminu, to his estranged wife, Fatima Bolori.

Kikelomo Ayeye, the Chief Magistrate, ordered that the two children  Aamir, 7, and Ameera, 9  reside with Ms. Bolori at her residence in Katampe Extension in Abuja.

Aminu and his lawyer were absent in court.

The applicant (Ms. Bolori) is ordered to put the children in schools suited for their educational needs in Abuja, the magistrate said.

Access is granted to the respondent (Aminu) to visit his children in Abuja and request for the children to spend holidays with him.

The respondent is ordered to pay monthly upkeep for the children in the amount of N250,000 monthly beginning January 2018 and also effect medical insurance on each of the children.

Aminu and his estranged wife, Ms. Bolori, engaged in a messy custody battle over their two children last year after their divorce in 2011.

The children were living with their mother, with an arrangement that they should be allowed to spend their vacation with their father.

In October, the magistrate ordered that Aminu be remanded in a transit cell of the court for disobeying a court order to produce Aamir, but was later released when he fulfilled the court order.
A presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, has frowned at those accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of condoning killings occasioned by farmers/herdsmen conflicts across the country.

Mr. Adesina, who is the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, in a video message he posted on his personal Facebook account on Wednesday in Abuja, dismissed the insinuations that the president was condoning the killing because he is a Fulani man.

According to him, such killings by herdsmen predated the Buhari administration.

He said: Something that is disturbing that I have heard about it is linking those developments to the fact that a Fulani man is president and so, he is brooking such kind of evil acts.

I think that is very unkind. And I will try to back my position with statistics.

In 2013, particularly, there were nine cases of herdsmen invading communities in Benue state alone and more than 190 people were killed.

The presidential aide also noted that in 2014, there were about 16 of such tragic developments with more than 231 people killed.

He further explained that there was a change of government in May 2015, but between January and May 2015, there were six attacks which left about 335 people dead.

Now, the question is, during that period, did we have a Fulani president? This is showing us that the issue of herdsmen attacking settlements, attacking farmers, attacking communities is pure criminality and it is something that government must deal with.

It is the duty of government to preserve the lives of the citizenry. It is the responsibility of government to maintain law and order and that this government is determined to do.

Therefore, let nobody say that all this is happening because we have a Fulani president.

We have had many Fulani presidents in the past and this issue of herders and local communities at loggerheads has predated this government, he added.

Mr. Adesina, therefore, appealed to all citizens to continue to support and cooperate with the Buhari administration as the government was poised to find lasting solutions to the conflicts.

According to him, the government is determined to get to the bottom of it and it will get done.

(NAN)
A Karshi Grade I Area Court, Abuja, on Thursday ordered the remand of 27-year-old Friday Bamidele, for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl.

The judge, Aliyu Kagarko, ordered the remand of the defendant in prison pending the conclusion of police investigations and result of medical test conducted on the victim.

Mr. Kagarko adjourned the case until January 29 for ruling on the bail application of the defendant.

The defendant, a resident of Jikwoyi, Abuja, is standing trial for alleged defilement of a minor.

The prosecutor, Mahmud Ismaila, had told the court that Okechukwu Ikechukwu, of Phase 1, Jikwoyi, who is a neighbour of the defendant, reported the incident to Jikwoyi Police Station on January 9.

Mr. Ismaila told the court that on the said date, the defendant forcefully dragged the victim into a bush close to their residence and allegedly defiled her.

He said the defendant also threatened to kill the victim if she reported the incident to anyone.

Mr. Ismaila informed the court that immediately after the act, the teenager however, reported the incident to her parents and she was immediately taken to the General Hospital Nyanyan for necessary medical examination.

The defendant denied committing the offence.

(NAN)
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, has registered 12,100 Cameroonian refugees in Benue and Cross River.

Antonio Canhandula, UNHCR Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, gave the figure during a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.

He said that 4,000 of the Cameroonians were registered in Benue while 8,100 others were registered in Cross River.

According to the UN official, there are Cameroonian refugees in some other parts of the country, but they are more in Benue and Cross River, which need urgent intervention by government and humanitarian partners.

What are the figures today? When talking about figures, our organisation, UNHCR, talks about figures that have been verified, and the people who have been registered.

So far in Cross River State, we have registered 8,100 refugees; certainly, they are more and that is why the team is still on ground. So, we cant state how many more.

But what we can state is that they are still coming, and they are coming daily. In Benue, we have a total of 4,000 refugees; 2,310 in Abande and 1,690 in Abasse; these are figures that we can vouch for.

He further noted that the 40,000 figure that was earlier stated was for contingency plan and not the actual figure of registered Cameroonian refugees in the country.

We have worked with our partners since this crisis started; we have prepared a contingency plan and the contingency plan has a figure.

That figure in the plan should not be used as the figure of refugees that are in the country already. With the contingency plan, it means that we are preparing the resources.

In case we reach that number, the contingency figure is 40,000 so far, which can be reversed, the UNHCR representative said.

According to him, the UN body is trying to accelerate the registration process, to get the actual figures of Cameroonian in those states.

Sadiya Farouq, the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displayed Persons, NCFRMI, said on the occasion that Federal Government had started giving out relief materials to refugees in the affected states.

She said that government was working with other partners to address the situation, by putting them in camps and ensuring that those camps were secured.

Ms. Farouq, however, said that discussion was ongoing with the Cameroonian government to ensure that the political crisis being faced at the moment was resolved.

Tamuno Jaja, the Deputy Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service noted that not all the Cameroonians came through the borders.

He said that some of them came into the country through communities close to them, stating that the most affected states were Taraba, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Cross River.

Mr. Jaja said that all efforts were geared toward resuscitating them in the interim, noting that the peace of Cameroon is the peace of Nigeria. (NAN)
The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has called on Nigerians to eschew acrimony, embrace tolerance and peace to foster unity and development.

Mr. Idris made the call at a meeting with stakeholders in Nasarawa State in view of the recent killings in Benue and Nasarawa states.

He said the meeting was at his instance toward resolving the issues within the various communities affected by the crisis.

The president has delegated me to be here to reconcile the various interest groups in Benue and Nasarawa states.

I was in Benue yesterday with stakeholders and I am here today to hear your views and experiences on the incidences in the various communities to arrive at an amicable resolution.

As security officers, we do not demonise people but carry out actions geared toward ensuring peace and harmony in various communities, he said.

He urged Nigerians to be tolerant and be their brothers keepers for peace and harmony to prevail.

The inspector-general assured the people of the state that the police and other security agencies would not relent to provide security for them.

In this light, I am deploying five additional mobile police units to Nasarawa State to ensure the security of the people, especially those in the border communities.

Gov. Umaru Al-Makura appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari for the initiative aimed at solving the problems bedeviling the two states.

Mr. Al-Makura assured that the state government would give the security agencies all necessary support to succeed in the assignment of restoring peace and unity amongst all ethnic nationalities.

He maintained that the stakeholders meeting was an avenue to speak truthfully in order to arrive at a lasting solution to the issues bothering all parties to the crisis.

He said that government would continue to engage all stakeholders in the state through its community-based conflict resolution mechanism and recommended that other states of the federation should adopt same for peaceful co-existence.

(NAN)
The Nigerian Union in South Africa say six guest houses owned by their members were burnt during attacks against Nigerians in Rustenburg, North West Province of South Africa.

The Chairman of the union in the Province, Paul Nwanedo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the telephone from Rustenburg, on Thursday that the attackers beat a woman and her child.

These attacks began on Sunday. Four Nigerians are in critical condition in the hospital. We also received a report that the Taxi drivers also beat a Nigerian woman and her child.

We can also confirm that six guest houses belonging to our people were burnt by the drivers.

We have not recorded any incident today. We have advised our people to remain indoors and ensure their safety.

As we speak, stakeholders comprising the police, taxi drivers and senior government officials are still in a meeting. The union was not allowed to be part of the meeting, Mr. Nwanedo said.

The chairman said that the union was still taking stock of losses by Nigerians and would communicate to appropriate federal government representatives in South Africa.

NAN learned that the taxi drivers went on the rampage following allegations that Nigerians sold drugs to a gang that attacked their members.

They also alleged that a Nigerian abducted and raped a 16-year-old South African girl.

Mr. Nwando said the allegations were false and spurious.

Our investigation so far showed that these allegations are false. No Nigerian has been arrested for alleged abduction or rape. The allegation of drugs selling to the gang is also untrue, he said.

(NAN)
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has joined the government and people of Benue State to mourn the victims of the recent suspected herdsmen attacks as they were given a mass burial earlier on Thursday in Makurdi, the state capital.

Residents of Makurdi came out in hundreds to mourn as bodies of the victims of the attacks of January 1 and 2 in parts of the state were buried.

Government offices, commercial banks, markets and schools were closed in the state capital in observance of the work-free day earlier declared by the state government in honour of the victims.

Mr. Ekweremadu who expressed sadness over the preventable loss of lives in Nigeria, reiterated his call for decentralised policing in the country.

In a statement signed by his special adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu, he said: This is a black Thursday, not only for the people of Benue State, but also for the entire nation. My heartfelt condolences go to the government and people of Benue State as the victims of the suspected herdsmen attacks are committed to mother earth.

While I join fellow Nigerians to pray for the peaceful repose of the souls of the victims and fortitude to those who lost their loved ones, let me reiterate that we must avert such future occurrences by urgently rethinking our security system.

The deputy Senate president called for a decentralisation of the countrys police system in order to enable every federating unit to take its fate in its own hand in effectively protecting the lives and property of Nigerians.

This is the primary object of government, he said.
The police have deployed 8, 000 personnel across Kaduna metropolis ahead of the protest by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over the sack of 36,000 civil servants by Gov Nasir El-Rufai.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that heavily armed security personnel were stationed at the NLC headquarters along Independence Way and strategic areas of the metropolis while others were patrolling the town.

The police and other security personnel were also stationed along major streets in the city including Kaduna-Kachia road, Kaduna-Zaria highway and Kaduna-Abuja expressway.

Most streets were empty with minimal vehicular movement due to the high presence of security personnel within the town, with few commercial vehicles plying the roads.

The NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, is expected to lead other union members from across the country to protest the mass sack of workers by the state government.

However, the police and state government on Wednesday announced total ban on all forms of protests in the state.

Muktar Aliyu, spokesman of Kaduna State Police Command, told NAN that about 8,000 policemen were deployed in the city to stop the planned protest and ensure law and order.

The police will not fold its arms to whatever will disrupt peace and order in the state.

We are on top of the situation to ensure maximum protection of lives and property, Mr. Aliyu said. (NAN)
A journalist working with the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, in Kaduna on Thursday rammed into a group of security operatives deployed to curtail the ongoing protest by organised labour in Kaduna, injuring one police officer.

The journalist, Hajia Ummul Kairi, who was driving a Peugeot 307 lost control and ran into security officers who included soldiers and policemen, damaging a police car in the process.

The workers are protesting the proposed sack of over 21, 000 teachers, who recently failed a competency test set by the state government.

The state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, despite serial protests and a court ruling, has insisted on carrying out the sack and has threatened to deal with any worker who takes part in the ongoing strike in the state.

The journalist said she was confused when she approached the area where the security operatives were manning and as she tried negotiating a bend to enter into the NTA premises close to Labour House, where the protest emanated from, she ran into the security team.

She also hit another Peugeot 406 belonging to a Leadership Hausa reporter.

They have towed my car and the police vehicle involved in the accident, she said, visibly shaken.

The premises of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN and NTA Kaduna are located beside the Labour House, which is presently heavily guarded by armed security operatives.

Meanwhile, The NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, has said the protesters would not be intimidated by the heavy security presence sent to curb their protest.

Anybody who thinks we cannot come out for the protest has malaria, and that malaria must be treated today, Mr. Wabba said while addressing members inside the Labour House.

He said over 8,000 security personnel were drafted to intimidate and prevent the protest. Police said they deployed 8,000 office ERS to stop the protest.
Akwa Ibom Governor, Udom Emmanuel, and his predecessor and godfather, Godswill Akpabio, are at war against each other.

The public, for several months, has been fed with the information that the two leaders were enjoying the best of relationship, until during the yuletide, when Mr. Akpabio, the Senate Minority Leader, publicly accused the governor of neglecting his area, the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District.

The senator, at a get-together organised for the chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in his district, said it was better to inform the governor that 2018 is less than one year to election, all is not well.

Referring to the governor, apparently, he added, Dont allow anybody to deceive you that all is well.

Thereafter, things went sour. A rejoinder from Governor Emmanuels media aide, Aniekeme Finbarr, who enumerated all the good things the governor has done for Mr. Akpabios senatorial district, attracted a rebuke from the senators media aide, Anietie Ekong.

Looking at it on its face value and for whatever it is worth, what Mr. Finbarr sought to do is to reply Senator Akpabio that contrary to what the Senator had said, indeed the concerns by the elders, youths, women, leadership and the entire people of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District is (sic) misplaced, Mr. Ekong said in a statement he issued in a response to Mr. Finbarr.

Its like telling Senator Akpabio, shut up, sir, Mr. Ekong said in the statement.

And then the governor himself on Wednesday dropped the bombshell: He threatened to deal decisively with anyone trying to cause trouble in the state, irrespective of his status.

Mr. Emmanuel, according to a Government House statement, said he was aware that people would try to change the narrative in order to score cheap political points because 2019 election was around the corner.

This year is going to be a little bit busier in terms of politics and once you enter into a political terrain of this nature so many things come up.

But let me also use this platform to warn any Akwa Ibom person that with the sacrifice weve made to maintain peace in the state, we wont tolerate anybody, anybody underlined, to breach that peace.

You can see that people have made a lot of sacrifices in the last three years to maintain peace in the state, the governor said, apparently referring to the remarks from Mr. Akpabio.

The statement quoted the governor as saying that he was shocked at the emerging political theory whereby excellence is sacrificed on the altar of mediocrity.

Let me also say here that its just a new political theory where a postgraduate student would score 100 per cent and you say its a mock examination and is a failure.

So if you score 100 per cent and under the new dispensation of a political theory, it is a failure. It means we have to go back to the drawing board and know what the pass mark is.

If 100 per cent under the new political theory is a failure then it holds much to be desired, the governor said.

Mr. Akpabios grouse, going by his public remarks, is that Mr. Emmanuel has abandoned the Four Point by Sheraton Hotel in Ikot Ekpene and the Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road started by the senator when he was the governor of the state.

Mr. Akpabios thinking, as expressed by his media aide, Mr. Ekong, is that if he (Akpabio) could dualise the road from Uyo to Ibesikpo-Asutan, where the former governor of the state, Victor Attah, is from, even when Mr. Attah did not want or support him as governor, then there is no reason why the present administration that he birthed and has been supporting could not complete the Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road.

Governor Emmanuel is said to be angry and frustrated with the Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road because of the huge amount of money allegedly taken out for the road project by the Akpabio administration, without completing it.

An audio clip from the Government House was leaked to the press in November, last year, in which Governor Emmanuel was heard saying, Some people would go and write Oh, he has abandoned Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road! Do you know how much I pay to Julius Berger?

Immediately I got into office, I went and borrowed N6 billion from Zenith Bank and gave to Julius Berger for them to continue that Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road, they took the money and claimed that it was for past indebtedness.

They didnt put one naira on that road.

Theres no single month that I dont give Julius Berger at least N1 billion to run that road, the governor said.

The governor also spoke on the Four Point by Sheraton Hotel.

For the Ikot Ekpene hotel, that one I cant help it. We must still put in more money. A lot of people have started making noise that the government has refused to open the hotel. Sorry, building is different from hotel.

I need $7.2 million to turn that building into a hotel. And as at today, I have paid a deposit of $4 million, remaining $3.2 million. And I am still looking for the $3.2 million to pay so that I can turn that building into a hotel. It is not yet a hotel, he said.

People from different walks of life, as it is expected of this kind of war, have jumped into the fray to express their loyalty to either the governor or the senator.

Clement Ikpatt, a former aide to Mr. Akpabio when he was the governor took to Facebook on Thursday to criticise Governor Emmanuel for yelling out a last warning threat against Mr. Akpabio.

General peace is not being threatened in Akwa Ibom State since former governor, Godswill Akpabio, said that all is not well with his people and district. So, why the warning?

In an election year, folks are going to take strong positions and wield strong partisan influences as is expected in a free and democratic society.

Udoms last warning threat is uncalled for and grossly undemocratic. If he cannot stand the heat, he should leave the Akwa Ibom State political kitchen by simply resigning from office, Mr. Ikpatt said.

Democracy must and will thrive in Akwa Ibom State, he added.
Justice Mairo Nasir of an FCT High Court on Thursday granted Maimuna Aliyu bail in the sum of N10 million.

Mrs. Aliyu, a former Executive Director, Aso Savings and Loans plc, is accused of N57 million fraud while in office.

She faces a separate charge in a murder case involving her daughter, Maryam Sanda, who is accused of murdering her husband, Bilyaminu Haliru.

Justice Nasir granted the defendant bail, following a formal application filled before the court by her lawyer, Joe-Kyari Gadzama.

The judge also granted the defendant bail with two sureties who must be resident within the jurisdiction of the court and must swear an affidavit means of livelihood.

Justice Nasir adjourned the matter until March 12 for commencement of hearing.

The News Agency of Nigeria report that the ICPC on November 27, 2017 filled a three-count charge bordering on fraud against the defendant.

The defendant was not arraigned since charges were filed because she was a co-defendant with her daughter, Maryam Sanda, in a murder case before another court in Jabi.

Maryam was alleged to have stabbed her husband to death on November 19, 2017. Her husband, Bilyaminu Haliru, is the son of the former Peoples Democratic Party Chairman, Bello Haliru.

The ICPC counsel, Akponimisingha Ekoi, had earlier told the court that one of the charges of the fraud filled against the ex-director was punishable under Section 19 of the ICPC Act 2000.

Mr. Ekoi said that the other offence were punishable under section 25(1a)(b) of the ICPC Act 2000 and section 312 of the Penal Code Act, CAP 532 Laws of the Northern Nigeria 1990.

He told the court to use its discretion in doing justice to the matter.

However, the defendants counsel, Mr. Gadzama, prayed the court to grant his client bail adding that all necessary document to that effect were already before the court.

He also told the court to see the defendant as innocent in accordance with the provisions of Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.

Mr. Gadzama said that the defendant will not jump bail if granted and will provide all necessary requirement needed for the bail.

(NAN)
The Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday delivered its protest letter to Governor Nasir El-Rufai against the sack of incompetent teachers by the state government.

The President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, delivered the letter to the governor amidst armed security operatives at the Government House, Kaduna.

Hundreds of protesters crossed security barricades and marched about seven kilometres through major roads to Government House to deliver the letter.

Saidu Adamu, Councillor on Information and Communication Strategy to the governor, received the letter on behalf of the governor, who was said to be in Abuja on an official engagement.

I have received the protest letter from the NLC President, Mr. Wabba. The message was that they are still asking the governor to try and understand their problem so that they can still come back to the drawing board and sit down on the table; to please listen to them and settle amicably. That is the message, Mr. Adamu told journalists after receiving the letter.

Naturally, after accepting the message, I am going to deliver it to the governor, he said.

He denied that the government tried to muzzle Labour on the sack of the workers.

The governors aide said: When it comes to demonstration in Kaduna town, we know what happened right from the 1991 Kafanchan crisis up to 2001 during Governor Ahmed Makarfi, we know what happened. Simple issues will turn out to be something different.

That was why we had to go to the State Assembly to enact a law banning any kind of demonstration, because a demonstration that started like this, some miscreants will like to take advantage and before you know it, lives and properties will be lost and it will turn into either religious or ethnic crisis.

That was why we were sceptical to allow any kind of procession in Kaduna. So, for anybody to think that we thought something could happen, thats why we tried to prevent it, yes, of course, anything could happen.

No right thinking governor would allow the death of people in his state. We are not saying they should not demonstrate, but it must be on a special arrangement and I have given a scenario of what has happened in the past in Kaduna, Mr. Adamu stated.

He also commented on the recent issuance of sack letter to the affected teachers.

He said: If you check the history of what happened, since November, 2017, Kaduna State Government had taken decision on the issue of primary school teachers. It was only in the month of December, after one month, (that) the passing of the judgement (occurred). We had already fast-tracked the process. We have not employed anybody yet. The court did not stop us from continuing with the process.

If you ask the NLC and the NUT, they have also agreed that those who scored less than 60 per cent are not fit to be a teachers. Amicably, they told us and we agreed in a meeting. So, those are the category that we started giving letters in consent with what the NUT had said. So, what are they talking about?

The Kaduna State government did not violate any law, Mr. Adamu insisted.

The NLC President, Mr. Wabba, after delivering the letter to the representative of the governor, expressed gratitude that the protest ended peacefully.

We also thank the representative of the governor for his understanding and demonstrating spirit of leadership by example despite the tensed situation, he said.

Industrial Court said status quo should be maintained, nobody should be given letter. But we were dismayed that the court order was violated, workers were issued sack letters. This does not comply with the rule of law that we talk about every day and we will continue to condemn it.

I am assuring Kaduna State workers that the struggle is just beginning. No retreat, no surrender. If it warrants us to carry out a nationwide protest, we will do it. If it warrants us to go back and do it in Abuja for the whole world to see, we will do it. If it warrants us to come back to Kaduna and carry out a weekly or monthly protest, we will definitely do it.

Therefore, workers of Kaduna State that their rights have been violated and their jobs taken away from them, we pray to God to take revenge on your behalf.

Nigerian workers where ever they are, have raised their hands up and praying to God on your behalf, he said.

Mr. Wabba said before the protest, NLC wrote the Inspector-General of Police notifying him of the protest and requesting for security cover.

He said many of their members were stopped on roads entering Kaduna from Abuja and from other parts of the country.

Nigerias Supreme Court had emphasised the constitutional right of anybody to gather and show his disaffection and protest for government to hear. So we cannot be intimidated.

Earlier at the gate of Government House where the police prevented the protesters from accessing the premises, Agyole Abeh, the State Commissioner of Police, said he was exercising caution to ensure that the protest did not lead to breakdown of law and order.

But, by all indication, the action is confrontational to the security agencies, confrontational to the environment.

Unfortunately, their leaders are adamant, as if they did not put into consideration the safety of their members whom they claim they are protecting.

Honestly, if they become very violent, I will be left with no option than to use maximum force, the police chief said.

Mr. Abeh had at a press conference on Wednesday in Kaduna warned that any plan for public protest or procession should be shelved. He said the police would not stand by and watch the peace enjoyed by the citizens of the state truncated.

The police said they deployed 8,000 officers to stop the demonstration called in defiance of the state government.

Soldiers, five armoured vehicles and about 30 vans were also deployed to stop the march.

Governor El-Rufai warned he would sanction teachers who joined the protest.
The Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, on Thursday said he advised his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom, against implementing the anti-grazing law on his state.

Clashes between locals and herdsmen had led to the death of several people in Benue State since the beginning of the new year.

Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, Mr. Lalong said his state used to face the same problem as Benue.

He said, however, that his decision to embrace ranching has led to peace in Plateau State. Excerpt:

Q: What dis you discuss with the President?

A: I just returned from my vacation and I felt I should come and see Mr. President especially as my state celebrated Christmas and new year peacefully, to wish him happy new year and brief him on the happenings in the state in the last one year. With the support I am getting from Mr. President, we are having relative peace. So I came to brief him, especially when you see insecurity in neighbouring states, so that if there are areas of improvement, we will also do the improvement so that we dont have cases like we are seeing.

Q: So whats the secret to the relative peace you are enjoying in the state?

A: I have said it a number of times, it is a matter of accommodating interests; you take everybody as your own. In Plateau state, I did that because when I came, I inherited a protracted crisis in the state. And so my first priority was how to handle this crisis and ensure we have peace in Plateau State. Within three months, we were able to achieve peace in Plateau State. Most of the lingering crisis were between farmers and herdsmen in Plateau. But today in most parts of the state, you will see beautiful relationship between herdsmen and farmers.

At the end of last year, something small happened. But Im not saying it was between herdsmen and farmers. It was as a result of criminal activities, and so we focused on fishing out those criminals. Most of the crisis that happened was not on the farm, it was just pockets of people; Christians and Muslims killing one another; and so we addressed those issues, we are handling them.

Let me also say that Plateau was one of those that embraced ranching. I had a lot of opposition initially when I said Plateau was keying into ranching. Some states said they dont have land but I said whether I have land or not, we have to provide land for ranching, because that I see as solution to the conflicts. In Plateau, we have gone far, we have donated land voluntarily, many people donated land for ranching.

Last year, I sent a 12-man team to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, they spent almost a week there to study and the team was headed by former Vice Chancellor of University of Jos, Professor Onazi. We went round all the communities in Plateau, it took three months and Plateau people, including the Fulanis accepted that we must embrace ranching.

Ranching as a concept is a policy and there are states realizing the importance of the policy. I cannot wake up like some people said last year that I should go and do anti-grazing law. And I asked: anti-grazing law for what? We are talking about ranching, we are talking about development of livestock business and I cannot use the word anti to start driving people who are interested. It is for those who are interested to come and get involved in it.

Secondly, I cant implement anti-grazing law. There are levels of implementation which will require government intervention, provision of ranchers. And thirdly, when you are talking of ranching, it is a component of agriculture business, you will also require subsidy. Subsidy must come from federal and state governments. And by the time we develop it and put every structure on ground, then we can bring laws to regulate the implementation. So I dont want to jump one step before the other.

Q: So why did you not advise your colleagues about this?

A: To be honest with you, I did. I told the Governor of Benue when he was doing the law; I said look, why dont you tread softly, just be careful, take other steps before you start implementation. But you see, states are different, his own concepts are different and for us on the Plateau is different. I said I will not do the law before implementation. I have not developed the ranching areas, so I cannot go and say I will put a law, to stop who? If I stop the people, what is the alternative?

So I said do consultations, allow the people to understand and buy into the concepts.

Q: You are talking about ranching and the federal government is now talking about colonies, what does that mean?

A: For me, anytime I hear anything about agriculture, I dont jump into conclusions, I go and study it. Yesterday (Wednesday), I was at the federal ministry with my agricultural team, commissioner and others, we spent almost five hours because I said they must convince me and explain to me what colony is. So that when I go back, just like I did with ranching, I will go and tell my people that this is the concept. When I had the briefing with them, I was convinced about colony.

They said the difference between colony and ranches is that one is bigger than the other. You get a very big field, you get investors, demarcate the area, somebody will ranch bees, somebody will ranch goats, somebody will ranch cattle, but government will develop the place, put grasses, water and anybody who is coming in must pay. And you cannot go and force any land, is voluntary land that government has. For me in Plateau, we have two large areas already, that is the concept and my eyes is already going back.

So, they are saying they are going to visit the place as part of the solution to farmers/herdsmen clashes in my state.

When Plateau wanted anti-grazing law and I asked against who? and they said against a particular tribe. And I said, tell me who in Plateau who is not into open grazing? Seventeen local governments we are all into open grazing. Is either you are grazing cattle, goat, sheep, or even chicken because the law will protect and restrict the movement of all these animals, these are general livestock. If you are talking of this thing, we will take a holistic approach in preparing for implementation. And when you do that, with a lot of consultation like we are done in Plateau when I got back, I heard the Fulanis were moving from state to state sensitizing their people on the need to embrace ranching.

Q: But people say providing colony is a way of pampering the herdsmen?

A: Let me tell you, nobody said ranching is only for Fulani herdsmen. Like I said, in Plateau, I said ranching is everybodys business. Many youths, thousands of graduates have registered, ready to go into that business. It is everybodys business. We must help the federal government to find ways of addressing issues because agriculture is not just agriculture now, it is now a means of diversification. And if you have to diversify, it is serious business for everyone, it is not for a tribe.

So I said if we have to encourage people to go into ranching, I will not use the word anti.

Q: What is your comments regarding the coming local government elections in your state?

A: I want to assure that sometimes when you see conflicts or problems in an election, it is when there is no primaries, when people engage themselves in carnivals.

In Plateau, when you go and ask of the best primaries, they will tell you it was the last primaries organised by the APC. So, if we had good primaries, definitely you can be rest assured that you are looking forward to the best of local government elections.

Q: What was the Presidents response after your meeting?

A: He was very happy. Of course, the president is always happy when he hears that, number one, your state is peaceful; and two, that you are paying salaries up to date. For me, salary is no longer an issue. Last December, I started paying gratuity. So, I came to tell him that through his efforts, you can see what bailout is doing to compliment the efforts of what some state governors are doing, so that we dont start condemning governors anyhow.

In my state, I inherited 11 months arrears and eight months of pensions; and today I have cleared them. I am now into payment of arrears of gratuity and development projects. Let me not forget, part of the visit was to ask for a shift of date in the presidents visit to the state from January to February, and he has agreed. And he said I will come any time you want me to come.
The Gombe State Government is to commence preliminary study to ascertain the types of minerals resources deposited in the state and their quantities.

Commissioner Ministry of Mines and Solid Minerals Development, Bakura Mohammed, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe on Thursday.

The commissioner said that the ministry had started receiving applications from various consultants who were interested in the job.

We know that Gombe is blessed with abundant natural resources, but we cannot ascertain the type and quantity.

The only ones we are sure of, is gypsum, limestone and coal which are being mined by Ashaka Cement Company he said.

According to him, utilising the service of consultants is necessary because only experts can speak authoritatively.

According to him, before the end of the first quarter of this year the successful consultants will commence work.

Mr. Mohammed said that the first round of the study would pave way to bring in investors.

(NAN)
The House of Representatives Committee on Army on Thursday began a two-day working visit to appraise the ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the North-East.

Ossy Prestige, the Team Leader, made the disclosure during a courtesy visit to Governor Kashim Shettima in Maiduguri.

Mr. Prestige said that the visit was part of the oversight functions of the lawmakers to assess the militarys performance in the operations.

He said the federal government had ensured adequate provision of funds, arms and ammunition to fight the insurgency.

It is our responsibility to check whether the funds appropriated by the National Assembly to the Army were properly utilised in the campaign against Boko Haram insurgency.

Our aim is to get first-hand information on anti-terrorism war and to ensure that the state is free from terrorists, he said.

Mr. Prestige noted that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, was very concerned toward ensuring that the North-East was free from terrorism.

He reiterated the commitment of the National Assembly to the restoration of peace to the region.

Mr. Shettima commended the committee for its support to the people of the North-East.

He called on the National Assembly to provide necessary support to the military to enable it to win the war against insurgency.

(NAN)
The Nigerian army said troops on internal security operation on Wednesday captured a suspected gunrunner along Akwanga highway, Nasarawa State.

The army made this known in a statement signed by Sani Usman, Director, Army Public Relations on Thursday.

Mr. Usman, a brigadier general said the culprit, Mohammed Bello was intercepted in an Opel Vectra saloon car with the fabricated guns heading to Saminaka to link up with his gang leader, Damina Saminaka.

The statement also noted the illegal arms trafficker led the troops to a local gun manufacturer in Nasarawa where he purchased the weapon.

During preliminary interrogation, the suspect claimed to purchase the N30,000 (weapon) from a blacksmith gun fabricator named Dan Asabe Audu, who resides at Angbo Village, Wamba Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

Determined to get to the root of the matter, the troops further went to the village where they found out that indeed, Dan Asabe Audu has been in the business of illegal arms manufacturing for criminals for quite sometime, he said.

They found a complete arms factory with equipment and the products at various stages of production, Mr. Usman added.

The army said weapons recovered from the manufacturer include three completely locally fabricated guns, 20 locally fabricated guns at various stages of production, seven units of 9mm empty cases, one 9mm blank ammunition.

Other items are, two drilling machines, one power generating set and three mobile telephone handsets.

The suspects would soon be handed over to the relevant security agency for further investigation and prosecution, army said.
Nigerias former Senate President, David Mark, said on Thursday that he donated a house of worship to his community in Benue State.

Said to be 3,000-seat capacity, the building for St. Augustine Catholic Church would be formally dedicated on Saturday in Oturkpo, Oturkpo Local Government Area of the state.

The Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Bishop of Oturkpo, Michael Apochi, and scores of clergymen are amongst the personalities expected are the event, according to a statement signed by Mr. Marks spokesperson, Paul Mumeh.

I am fulfilled and humbled because God has used me as an instrument for the realization of this church, Mr. Mark was quoted as saying by Mr. Mumeh during an inspection visit to the church ahead of Saturdays opening.

I thank the Almighty God for his faithfulness, mercy, grace and blessing on me and my family, Mr. Mark added. I can never quantify or measure his kindness and blessing. I will serve God and humanity for the rest of my life.

The donation comes as corruption investigation of Mr. Mark continues at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The EFCC said Mr. Mark mismanaged government funds during his tenure as Senate President and also procured a public property without following due process.

Mr. Mark is also being probed by the presidential committee on the recovery of stolen government property.

The politician, who was first elected to the Senate in 1999 and still remains a senator, has denied the allegations, and has vowed to exonerate himself before the law court.
The federal government has explained the reason for its planned establishment of cattle colonies, saying it is a measure to quickly curb the incessant bloody clashes between farmers and herdsmen.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, said this when Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State visited him in Abuja.

The Director, Information, Tolu Makinde, said this on Thursday in a statement by Oluwakemi Ogunmakinwa.

The minister noted that the policy would not transfer communal land ownership to herdsmen wherever it was established.

Mr. Ogbeh was reacting to fears by some citizens that the policy was an attempt by the federal government to forcibly collect land from citizens and hand them over to herdsmen.

He noted that there was no truth in speculations that the government was conspiring to grant supremacy over communal land to herdsmen.

The minister commended the Plateau State Government for its interests in developing agriculture.

Cattle colony is not using herdsmen to colonise any state. It is going to be done in partnership with state governments that will like to volunteer land for it.

The federal government will fund the project and those wishing to benefit from it will pay some fees.

While ranching is more of an individual venture for the herdsmen and those wishing to invest in the livestock sector, cattle colonies is a larger project where up to 40 ranchers can share same facility that will be provided by the government at a reduced rate.

Already, 16 states have volunteered land, he said.

The minister said the federal government would soon hold a stakeholders forum with the herdsmen and other stakeholders on the implementation of the new policy.

Earlier, Mr. Lalong said that he was at the ministry to understand the new policy.

He said that the state would key into the policy to maintain peace in the state.

I happen to be one of the persons that keyed into the ranching policy when it was introduced.

We saw some lands in Plateau and we provided them for the implementation of the policy.

The introduction of this policy is of interest to us, that is why we are always here.

We also heard about the introduction of another one, that is the cattle colony and I said let me still come back again. We will also key into this policy, he said.

News Agency of Nigeria recalls that Mr. Ogbeh had on January 8, disclosed the Federal Governments plan to establish cattle colonies in the country.

(NAN)
The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has described as misinformed President Muhammadu Buharis support for the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-rufai, over the latters plan to sack about 21,780 teachers in the state.

President Buhari in November 2017 publicly backed the governors educational reforms including the decision to sack the teachers who failed the competency test conducted by the state government.

The state government said the reforms are to ensure efficiency of the education sector. It said over 25,000 competent graduates will be employed in a transparent way to replace the sacked teachers.

Reacting to this on Thursday, Mr. Sani said the presidents support for the sack indicates tyranny and facism against the workers.

President Buharis misinformed support for Elrufais sack of Kaduna teachers after an illegal and premeditated sack of Kaduna Teachers emboldened tyranny, aided fascism and abetted arbitrariness of the governor against workers in the state, he said.

The lawmaker condemned the decision of the state government to ban a peaceful protest of the workers.

At a press briefing in Kaduna on Wednesday, the spokesperson of Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Samuel Aruwan, said security agencies had decided not to allow the protest hold because protesters had attacked the State House of Assembly and destroyed public properties during a similar protest in November last year, also organised by the NLC.

Mr. Sani in a statement he released on Thursday declared support for the protesting workers.

I wholeheartedly support the rights of Kaduna State teachers and workers to embark on strike and hold peaceful rallies and procession.

The state government has no constitutional rights to ban peaceful protest or intimidate or blackmail workers using the police.

Sponsored pro-government protest has been organised on many occasions by the state government and its agents. Why should workers be denied the rights to protest?

Mr. Sani advised the governor to go after kidnappers and herdsmen instead of the workers.

Mr El-rufai should order the police to go after Herdsmen and Kidnappers that had made Kaduna State their national headquarters and not after unionists, activists, journalists and perceived critics of his administration. Mr El-rufai, if you are really brave and courageous, go after herdsmen and kidnappers and not workers and teachers, he added.

Despite the announced ban on the rally and the deployment of thousands of security operatives to foil it, the NLC still held the march in Kaduna on Thursday.
The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Warri Zonal Office, has sanctioned over 95 erring petrol stations in Delta State since fuel scarcity resurfaced in December 2017.

The Zonal Operations Controller, Antai Asuquo, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Warri that the petrol stations were sealed over offences bordering on hoarding, over-pricing and diversion of products.

According to him, over 80 of the fuel stations were sanctioned between December 2017 and January 3, while 15 others were booked in the last one week by the regulatory agency.

He also said that two staffs of a fuel station in Warri were recently apprehended by the surveillance team for violating DPR seals rules.

The controller added that the culprits would be released and the station unsealed after the owner pays N1 million as penalty.

He also said that one station in Warri was sanctioned on Wednesday for diverting 38,000 litres of petrol, stressing that it would pay N200 per litre of the volume as punishment.

Mr. Asuquo said he led a group of surveillance team to some depots in Koko, Warri North Local Government after monitoring some petrol stations in Warri and environs on Wednesday.

According to him, the aim is to ascertain the claim by petroleum marketers that they purchase the products above the government approved ex-depot price of N133.28k per litre.

Earlier, some petroleum marketers had told NAN in Warri that the landing cost of their product from the depots hovers between N167 to N178 per litre, as such it would be unwise for them to dispense at N145 per litre.

Mr. Asuquo, however, cautioned depot owners and marketers against hoarding, noting that such would be counter-productive to the economy.

DPR have been monitoring and we will continue to intensify surveillance to ensure that marketers and depot owners comply strictly to the government approved pump prices.

We have sanctioned over 80 erring petrol stations before and in the last one week, we have sealed additional 15 stations across the state for hoarding, over-pricing and diversion of products.

We deploy two monitoring teams every working day to the field to ensure that we effectively covered all the Local Government Areas in Delta.

We also revisit the already visited petrol stations to ensure they dispense at the approved pump price of N145 per litre to the consumers, he said.

Mr. Asuquo urged depot owners to support governments effort towards normalising the situation, adding that marketers should stop patronising depots that sell above approved price.

We appeal to the depot owners to sell at the government approved price as the product is provided to them by the government, they should also sell directly to the marketers rather than the bulk or third party, Asuquo said.

He commended the State Security Service, SSS, for its support and expressed confidence that the situation would soon be over.

(NAN)
The purported rift between Ogun lawmakers and Governor Ibikunle Amosun ahead of the 2019 polls should be disregarded, Olakunle Oluomo, the Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, said on Thursday.

The report is untrue, it is total lies; we are in a political `perilous times, so you should expect a lot of things, he said while reacting to a social media report which alleged that the governor and the lawmakers are now at loggerheads after a botched meeting of APC lawmakers called by Mr. Amosun on Monday.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the social media was awash with reports that the meeting which was also attended by National Assembly members was unsuccessful as the attendees and the governor disagreed over second term tickets in 2019.

Mr. Oluomo, who featured in an interview forum of the Correspondents Chapel of Ogun Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, said the face-off is a rumour and a lie.

He said the relationship between the governor and the lawmakers elected on the platform of APC was cordial.

The governor also enjoys cordial relationship with lawmakers representing the state at the National Assembly.

The governor has a policy at the beginning of every year to call all members of the National Assembly and the State House of Assembly for an interaction on his programmes.

The legislators had a `fruitful meeting with the governor.

So, the same thing happened on Monday and in fact, only the principal officers of the State House of Assembly were at the meeting because the House is on recess, the deputy speaker said.

(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.




SAN ANTONIO, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A'GACI, LLC, a leading fashion retailer in Texas, which filed for Chapter 11 relief on Tuesday, January 9th, will shortly begin discussions with landlords regarding 49 of its locations.

In a court filing on Tuesday, A'GACI sought court approval to close up to 49 of its 76 operating stores, but noted the Company's management team and its advisors continue to evaluate whether certain of these stores should remain open.

"The actual number of store closings will depend on our ability to work with landlords for many of our locations to negotiate more favorable lease terms and rent reductions," said David Won, A'GACI's Chief Merchandising Officer.

Store evaluation and landlord negotiations are an important step forward in the Company's plan to restructure its costs. The Company and its advisors estimate that lease costs at approximately 2/3 of its locations are unfavorably high.

"Although we are operating  like many retailers  in a challenging environment, we have excellent employee teams in our stores, a loyal customer base and very strong relationships with our vendors. We are especially excited about next season's fashion which we have begun to roll out at a number of stores. If we can meaningfully improve our rent costs, it is possible that we will keep a large number of stores open," said Mr. Won.

A'GACI has been an innovator in the fast fashion apparel industry for a number of years. "By filing for Chapter 11 and entering into negotiations with landlords, we believe we will be able to address our overall cost structure which is not sustainable given the current retail environment. The results of this action, combined with our strong store base and online presence, will allow A'GACI to emerge as a more competitive player in the fashion industry," noted John Won, the Company's Chief Executive Officer.

"We greatly appreciate our customers, our vendors and, especially, our employee family, who have shown overwhelming support for our reorganization."

About A'GACI: founded in San Antonio, TX, A'GACI is a lifestyle brand catering to young fashion lovers who are sexy, feminine and confident in their style. A'GACI owns and operates 78 stores in the U.S including 37 in Texas, and also represents a large online presence known within the fashion blogger community as the place for value-priced, trend-right fashions. To find out more about A'GACI, please visit www.agacistore.com.

SOURCE AGACI, LLC

Related Links

http://www.agacistore.com


NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Harver, the leading software in AI pre-hiring and talent-matching, today announced it has raised an additional $4.2 million USD in growth round as part of a Series A funding led by Insight Venture Partners. This brings Harver's total funding to $15.6 million USD.

With this additional funding, Harver plans to expand the team, continuing its rapid growth and supporting its mission of solving major recruitment problems. By hiring additional team members, Harver will focus on bringing its AI matching technology to companies of all sizes, specifically within the United States.

Over the past two years, Harver has captured the attention of big-name tech and Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, Harver signed deals with Zappos, Netflix, Booking.com, Vodafone, OpenTable, and Casper. However, Harver CEO and founder, Barend Raaff, recognizes recruitment pains and problems are present in companies of all sizes.

"We believe hiring the best talent is important for any company; big or small. In the past years, we have enhanced our platform and AI to make our matching technology available for any job, in any language, anywhere in the world. Based on requests from the market over the past years, we believe it's the right time to accelerate on these opportunities," he said.

Harver's software allows companies and applicants to eliminate the resume, establishing a more accurate and effective hiring process while also removing hiring bias and discrimination. Through automating the application process, Harver analyzes modules, tests, and assessments to match the right candidate to the job  without factoring in age, name, look, gender, or resume.

In the past year, Harver has transformed its software to an open ecosystem, allowing the technology to fit the hiring needs of companies of all sizes and languages.

"Our AI matching technology has been heavily utilized by some of the world's most successful brands and the they are very happy with the results. We want to make it available to companies of all sizes and we believe the time for further expansion is now." Raaff said.

In 2017, Harver used their first round of Series A funding to expand to the United States by opening its US Headquarters in New York City. Because US companies understand the value and importance of finding the best talent, Harver believes their matching technology will fill a big need within the market.

About Harver

Harver (https://harver.com) is a pre-hiring and talent matching technology company that automates pre-hiring and replaces the resume and manual processes to increase efficiency and quality of hire. Harver's proprietary AI-powered recruitment platform uses predictive analytics to make the recruitment process smarter, faster and more efficient. Harver improves the quality of the hiring match by accurately predicting a candidate's aptitude and ability to succeed throughout their career. Harver also significantly reduces short-term employee turnover, increasing efficiency in the recruitment process as much as 90 percent. Harver currently has clients across 20 countries and pre-selects job candidates in 42 languages. The company's list of big name customers includes Zappos, Netflix, Booking.com, OpenTable, Casper, Xerox, Vodafone, Swisscom, Arvato and many more.

Founded in 2014, Harver is a privately held company with International HQ in Amsterdam and US Headquarter in New York City and additional offices in London, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Follow @HarverHRM on Twitter or LinkedIn.

About Insight Venture Partners

Insight Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight has raised more than $18 billion and invested in over 300 companies worldwide. Our mission is to find, fund and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to foster long-term success. Across our people and our portfolio, we encourage a culture around a core belief: growth equals opportunity. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit www.insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Harver

Related Links

https://www.harver.com


DUBLIN and BARCELONA, Spain, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Altran, global leader in Engineering and R&D services (ER&D), is collaborating with UBiqube, a leading network and security orchestration software vendor, to deliver next generation integrated SDN (software defined network) and NFV (network functions virtualization) solutions to their joint customers.

Through this collaboration, Altran will bring to its customers UBiqube's network and security orchestration technology and provide professional services and custom development on a global scale.

SDN & NFV deployments are becoming a reality in the Communication Service Provider space, but also in other verticals. Altran is contributing to this modernization effort in the Networking industry, bringing its experience and expertise working alongside major companies, not only in Telecoms, but in the Aerospace, Automotive, Defense, Energy, Finance, Life Sciences and Railway sectors.

The process of orchestration and program automation ensures seamless integration of virtualized and physical network infrastructure to run customer application and services. While virtualization has become the focus of the industry, the lack of integration between multi-vendor components and systems is slowing digitalization efforts dramatically.

The MSActivator, a DevOps enabled framework by UBiqube, realizes end-to-end services in an agile and flexible environment while the company's self-service management capabilities allow service providers or enterprise customers to orchestrate their networks through a single-pane-of-glass customer portal.

"We are very proud to partner with UBiqube, an innovative company in the network and security orchestration space. We will be able together to provide our customers with the ability to on-board services quickly, letting their enterprise customers develop the automated processes they need across multivendor environments and across different service types," says Jose Ramon Magarzo, CEO Spain of Altran.

"We are extremely excited to be partnering with Altran. Their consulting expertise, global reach, and innovative approach goes hand in hand with UBiqube's goal to accelerate the migration from legacy infrastructure to NFV, and provide forward-thinking companies with an agile solution for network and security services process automation," says Nabil Souli, CEO of UBiqube.

About UBiqube

UBiqube is a global software supplier, providing vendor neutral, end-to-end network and security orchestration solutions to service providers and large and medium enterprises. Leading the digitalization of the networking industry, UBiqube developed the MSActivator, a DevOps enabled open framework for the design, automation, and orchestration of services over hybrid communication infrastructures (legacy, SDN/NFV/IoT).

UBiqube is headquartered in Dublin, with offices in France, India, UAE, Japan, and Silicon Valley, USA. For more information, visit www.ubiqube.com.

About Altran

As a global leader in Engineering and R&D services (ER&D), Altran offers its clients a new way to innovate by developing the products and services of tomorrow. Altran works alongside its clients on every link in the value chain of their project, from conception to industrialization. For over thirty years, the Group has provided its expertise to key players in the Telecoms, Aerospace, Automotive, Defense, Energy, Finance, Life Sciences, and Railway sectors, among others. In 2016, the Altran group generated revenues of 2.120bn. With a headcount of more than 30,000 employees, Altran is present in more than 20 countries.

http://www.altran.com/

SOURCE UBiqube

Related Links

http://www.ubiqube.com


GLENDALE, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Beyond Limits, a developer of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing solutions, today announced it has appointed Dann Wilkens as its new Chief Marketing Officer.

Mr. Wilkens is a proven marketing leader with 25 years of creative and management experience in everything from consumer products to complex technology ecosystems. Proficient in a wide range of categories, he is a multi-dimensional creative executive who has helped build brands that connect with both B2B customers and consumers.

Dann Wilkens, new Chief Marketing Officer of Beyond Limits.

"Artificial intelligence is a fascinating technology category with relevance for every industry today. All CEOs need to learn how the powers of advanced AI can magnify the talents of their people, and even transform their business," said Mr. Wilkens. "Beyond Limits is a unique AI company, with Caltech/JPL heritage and proven experience in the space program that gives us a huge head start. No other company has developed AI to drive autonomous vehicles on science missions 150 million miles from Earth. It's a marketer's dream."

Prior to joining Beyond Limits, Mr. Wilkens built and ran the global marketing organization for PacketVideo, a disruptive mobile technology start-up that was the first company to send video to a mobile phone. He also started and led a design team creating popular multimedia products for AT&T, Orange, NTT DoCoMo, Verizon and Vodafone. He holds four patents for innovative multimedia products.

Mr. Wilkens was a Clio award-winning creative executive at FCB San Francisco, responsible for brands like Levi Strauss & Co., Clorox, Disney, Epson, Autodesk, National Semiconductor, Palm, Seagate and the California Raisins. As an independent marketing and brand strategist, he drove marketing, strategy and advertising projects for brands including Google, The North Face, Contrast Security, Drawbridge, Livongo Health, Marqeta, Pubmatic, Apple, Watchwith, Linkbee, and Source Intelligence.

"We are very excited to welcome Mr. Wilkens to the Beyond Limits team. His diverse background and expansive experience with more than 25 years in marketing makes him a unique and well-versed asset that will strengthen our team," said AJ Abdallat, Beyond Limits CEO.

About Beyond Limits

Beyond Limits is a pioneering Artificial Intelligence company based in Glendale, California, with a storied history in space and defense, notably AI technology developed at JPL that assisted operation of the Mars Rover Curiosity. From its origins at Caltech/JPL, the NASA facility in Southern California, Beyond Limits owns exclusive licenses to 42 blocks of sophisticated IP developed through NASA investment in R&D.

Founded in 2014, Beyond Limits develops IP enhancements for NASA, and also drives new innovation on its mission to bring space program technology to commercial applications here on Earth. The company is a recognized AI leader with breakthrough cognitive technology that goes beyond conventional AI, binding deep learning and machine learning tools together with symbolic AIs that emulate human intuition. Beyond Limits cognitive agents are trained and deployed to solve a variety of industrial and enterprise problems in energy, fin-tech, healthcare, and logistics. For more information, please visit our website at www.beyond.ai.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Rodriguez

Firecracker PR

[email protected]

(888) 317-4687 ext. 703

SOURCE Beyond Limits

Related Links

http://www.beyond.ai


PARIS, Jan. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BCDiploma presents a breakthrough proposition landmarking the best of Ethereum to offer a unique one-click diploma and data certification service. BCDiploma is an innovative framework that allows to certify data and share it through a simple URL link. Learning establishments from around the globe face an epidemic of increasing degree falsification and forgery worldwide.

BCDiploma

Stakeholders in the Education sector are willing to offer their graduates an innovative digital tool aimed at defending their brand. It is also imperative that HR professionals have a reliable way to check the integrity of a candidate's diploma. Renowned institutions are following this technological evolution, avoiding forgery and degree counterfeiting. School and universities are now ready for adoption of this blockchain degree authentication service. Engaging their mission to bring a solution adapted to the issues they are facing, as forged certifications are strongly hurting their reputation and businesses.

Data First Technology

BCDiploma's technology is not based on hash technology to authenticate the diploma. Instead, its innovative technology stores the diploma's data directly in the Ethereum's blockchain. It certificates the school's identity using DApps, and stores the diploma content and data on the public blockchain ledger. Therefore, any industry is guaranteed to retain access to data and DApps forever.

BCDiploma is offering schools and universities a turnkey solution and a transparent access to blockchain technology. No specific blockchain knowledge is required to use the service.

Considering they respect personal data legislation and the "right to be forgotten," as they are reliable and sustainable, on-chain registers have a huge potential: certifications, regulated occupations, company and administrative documentation. Application fields are limitless.

Anyone can easily use the BCDiploma authentication service. The cost per certification will be approximately 1.5USD without a subscription or recurring fee. The service will be free for graduates and for anyone who consults the diploma. No Ethereum address required.

Expert Team

Founders have over 10 years of experience in the education software market and know exactly what schools are expecting and how to fulfill all of their requirements. Also partnered with Managexam, DS Avocat, Lexing Bensoussan Avocats and Arpege. A source from within the company stated:

"BCDiploma aims to create the standard for on-chain registers of tomorrow: cost-effective, easy-to-implement, Ethereum-based and open source framework."

European General Data Protection Regulation body, which will become enforceable 25th May 2018, is now the new reference text on personal data protection and will become applicable globally. The innovative solution developed by BCDiploma is already compliant with these new regulations.

This Is Just the Beginning

BCDiploma is the first use case of the EvidenZ framework, designed to certify all kinds of data: certificates of competence diplomas, certificates, professional registers, administrative data. The fields of application are countless, and EvidenZ's simplicity of use aims to set it as the standard of certified data.

Token Sale

BCDT token is a utility voucher for BCD framework. BCDT are used to pay certified data issuance like diplomas, professional certifications, certificates of insurance or proprietary certificate through BCD smart contracts. Anyone can get its entity certified and use the service with the token. For each and every verified data issuance, the BCD smart contract will burn a percentage of BCDT tokens automatically.

BCDiploma token presale is a unique opportunity to take part in the future of certified data with a 20% bonus. Presale is now live and will end on January 18th.

For further information visit www.bcdiploma.com and register in order find out further information and upcoming events.

Visit the BCDiploma Website  https://www.bcdiploma.com

Check out the whitepaper here  https://www.bcdiploma.com/img/BCD-WhitePaper_last.pdf

Follow BCDiploma on Twitter here  https://twitter.com/bcdiploma?lang=en

Find BCDiploma on Facebook here  https://www.facebook.com/BCDiploma

Media Contact

Contact Name: Raphael Frayssinet

Contact email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH4WX09BniorbDeixHR0JNg/videos

BitcoinTalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2221629.0

BCDiploma is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

SOURCE BCDiploma
WESTBURY, N.Y., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BioIVT, a leading provider of biospecimens and related services, today announced the launch of its BioIVT Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). BioIVT's eminent and world-renowned SAB members will provide the company with scientific and business insights and help it to identify future growth areas.

"During the past year, with our acquisition of Asterand Bioscience and Qualyst Transporter Solutions, BioIVT has evolved from a global biological products provider into a true drug discovery research partner. We now offer a comprehensive range of cell processing, target and biomarker validation, ADME-toxicology, and phenotypic and clinical assay development services, in addition to producing control and disease-state matrices," said BioIVT's Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Chris Hansis.

"Furthermore, through our BioIVT SAB, we gain access to a group of world-class scientific advisors, who are willing to share their wisdom and further broaden and deepen our areas of drug research and development expertise," added Dr. Hansis.

BioIVT's SAB is chaired by James Rothman, PhD, co-recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research into how molecular messages are transmitted by human cells. Professor Rothman is the Sterling Professor of Cell Biology and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology, Yale School of Medicine.

His fellow SAB members include Professor Amin Rostami, PharmD, PhD, Senior Vice President of Research and Development, and Chief Scientific Officer at Certara. An expert in the use of modeling and simulation to facilitate drug development and enable precision drug dosing for individual patients, Professor Rostami is also Professor of Systems Pharmacology and Co-director of the Centre for Applied Pharmacokinetic Research at the University of Manchester, UK. Professor Rostami has authored/co-authored more than 220 articles. In 2017, he was recognized by ISI as one of the world's most highly-cited researchers in pharmacology and toxicology.

They are joined by Binodh DeSilva, PhD, Head of Analytical and Bioanalytical Operations at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. Dr. DeSilva is well known for helping to set standards for ligand binding assays in the regulated environment. She was President of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Bioanalytical Consortium representing North America. Dr. DeSilva is also Chair of the Biotech Special Interest Group of the International Pharmaceutical Federation, and a BioAgilytix SAB member.

Providing clinical insights are Johannes Zakrzewski, MD, a pediatric oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center with expertise in cell therapy and bone marrow transplantation, and Martin Rosenberg, PhD, retired Chief Scientific Officer, Senior Vice President, and Corporate Director at Promega Corporation, and current Director of DNASTAR, Scarab Genomics, and the International Biomedical Research Alliance. Dr. Rosenberg also spent 20 years of his career as a Senior Vice President in Research and Development at GlaxoSmithKline.

About BioIVT

BioIVT, formerly BioreclamationIVT, is a leading global provider of high-quality biological specimens and value-added services. We specialize in control and disease-state samples including human and animal tissues, cell products, blood and other biofluids. Our unmatched portfolio of clinical specimens directly supports precision medicine research and the effort to improve patient outcomes by coupling comprehensive clinical data with donor samples. Our PHASEZERO Research Services team works collaboratively with clients to provide target and biomarker validation, phenotypic assays to characterize novel therapeutics, clinical assay development and in vitro hepatic modeling solutions. And as the premier supplier of ADME-toxicology model systems, including hepatocytes and subcellular fractions, BioIVT enables scientists to better understand the pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism of newly-discovered compounds and their effects on disease processes. By combining our technical expertise, exceptional customer service, and unparalleled access to biological specimens, BioIVT serves the research community as a trusted partner in elevating science. For more information, please visit www.bioivt.com or follow the company on Twitter @BiorecIVT.

BioIVT Contact: Courtney Noah, Vice President of Marketing, 516-483-1196

Media Contact: Lisa Osborne, Rana Healthcare Solutions, 206-992-5245, [email protected]

SOURCE BioIVT

Related Links

http://www.bioivt.com


CHICAGO, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicago businessman Brett Immel, represented by Schiff Hardin LLP, has been acquitted after a one-week federal jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Immel was indicted with two co-defendants for conspiring to commit bank fraud through a series of real estate transactions designed to allow investors to take advantage of the GO-Zone tax incentive in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"The verdict in Mr. Immel's favor vindicates our defense strategy, which was to emphasize that the government had no evidence of criminal intent," said Schiff Hardin partner William Ziegelmueller, who led Mr. Immel's defense at trial. "We are proud to have cleared Mr. Immel's name and convinced that justice was served in this case."

Mr. Immel, a partner in Hanover Companies, introduced investors from across the country to investment properties along the Gulf Coast. The government alleged that Mr. Immel conspired with a closing agent and title attorney to conceal Hanover's role in the transactions, in part through the creation of two different HUD-1 settlement statements, only one of which was provided to the mortgage lenders who financed the investors' purchases of properties from developers.

According to Ziegelmueller, most trials involve a significant dispute as to the facts, but in this case there were few factual disputes. "From the beginning, the government saw two HUD-1s and concluded there must be fraud," Ziegelmueller said. "They never considered that the defendants believed in good faith that there were two separate transactions, only one of which involved the lender and, therefore, that two closing statements were appropriate."

One co-defendant, closing agent Daniel Bomar, pled guilty in advance of trial and testified against the remaining defendants. The other co-defendant, Mississippi attorney James Wright, was also acquitted at trial.

"I am extremely gratified that this ordeal is behind me and I can move forward with future business ventures," Mr. Immel said.

Mr. Ziegelmueller was assisted at trial by Camille M. Knight of Burleson, Pate & Gibson, LLP in Dallas, Texas.

About Schiff Hardin LLP

Schiff Hardin LLP is a general practice law firm with offices in Ann Arbor, Chicago, Lake Forest, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. Our attorneys are strong advocates and trusted advisers  roles that contribute to many lasting client relationships. www.schiffhardin.com.

SOURCE Schiff Hardin LLP

Related Links

http://www.schiffhardin.com


NEW YORK, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

For the North American cannabis industry, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision (http://nnw.fm/7hbPL) to remove the protections to cannabis operations provided by the Cole Memo has created an environment of frustrating challenges, albeit one coupled with immense opportunity for neighbors in the north. While the AG's broadside has increased uncertainty in the U.S. cannabis sector, federal authorities in Canada have taken a completely different tack. With legalized medicinal cannabis use already in the books, Canada's impending Cannabis Act will allow adults to possess and access regulated, quality-controlled, legal cannabis, effective July 1, 2018. These shifting tides continue to increase interest in Canadian cannabis companies like DOJA Cannabis Company Ltd. (CSE: DOJA) (OTC: DJACF) (DOJA Profile), Aurora Cannabis, Inc. (OTC: ACBFF) (TSX: ACB), Hydropothecary Corp. (OTC: HYYDF) (TSX-V: THCX), OrganiGram Holding, Inc. (OTC: OGRMF) (TSX-V: OGI) and WeedMD Rx, Inc. (OTC: WDDMF) (TSX-V: WMD).

The decision by Sessions will remove the safe harbor provided to the industry since 2013 by the Cole Memo, which promised to avoid federal interference with state laws if compliance with certain conditions were in place. Among other stipulations, these included safeguarding public health, particularly from the risk of impaired driving, and preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors and to states where it remains illegal.

Now under his indictment that the Cole Memo 'undermines the rule of law,' the AG has left a controversial wake that frustrates the laws of the 30 U.S. jurisdictions that currently permit the use of cannabis for either medical or recreational purposes.

Despite the disheartening developments in the U.S., the cannabis industry in Canada appears headed for comprehensive liberalization and regulation of cannabis. The Canadian government has committed to bringing the proposed Cannabis Act into force this summer, allowing adults to legally possess, grow and purchase cannabis with restrictions (http://nnw.fm/FSz7L). The Act would also allow individuals 18 years of age or older to have up to 30 grams of dried cannabis or its equivalent in their possession when in public. Unlike in the U.S., federal and local legislation are framed to work in harmony, with provincial governments being able to set an additional layer of regulation over federal law if they so desire.

In Canada's rapidly growing cannabis industry, DOJA Cannabis Company Ltd. (CS E: DOJA) (OTC: DJACF) is poised to become the preeminent craft cannabis brand house in the Canadian adult-use cannabis market.

On December 21, 2017, DOJA disclosed it had signed a binding Letter of Intent to acquire Tokyo Smoke (http://nnw.fm/UoY1c), an award-winning Canadian cafe company dubbed 'the Starbucks of Cannabis' (http://nnw.fm/0UOla). Under the terms of the agreement, DOJA will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Tokyo Smoke, creating an emerging company with the proposed name, Hiku Brands Company Ltd.

Tokyo Smoke, recently named Brand of the Year at the Canadian Cannabis Awards, is a lifestyle label that blends elements of cannabis culture with Japanese influences. The company has six brick-and-mortar cafes in Toronto and Calgary, which offer coffee, tea, juice and snacks along with a variety of cannabis accessories.

The DOJA merger with Tokyo Smoke is bolstered by funding from Aphria, Inc., which will inject C$10 million in equity into the combined company and Aphria will also enter into a supply agreement for cannabis concentrates with Hiku. Aphria, recognized as one of Canada's lowest cost producers, is the first medical cannabis producer licensed under Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) to report positive cash flow and positive earnings from operations in consecutive quarters. Aphria recently announced (http://nnw.fm/j3OJn) receipt of a Dealer's License pursuant to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act under Health Canada, which authorizes it to possess, sell and transport medical cannabis oil and resin to international markets. The news has pushed Aphria's stock up over C$22 per share with a market cap of nearly C$3.5 billion.

Aphria's investment in Hiku gives them a stake in British Columbia's premium cannabis market, though Aphria's financial interest will go beyond being a passive investment. In what is expected to be a supply-constrained market at the onset of legalization, Hiku's agreement with Aphria will increase Hiku's accessibility to product (http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/doja-cannabis-closes-125-million-private-placement-led-by-aphria-668425993. html).

The DOJA-Tokyo Smoke deal has the potential create a highly differentiated Canadian craft cannabis label that has significant national retail presence and a growing portfolio of premium cannabis lifestyle brands including DOJA, Tokyo Smoke, and Van der Pop. The combined entity, Hiku, will have seven operational, legal cannabis accessory stores in Alberta,  British Columbia, and Ontario, representing an unrivalled platform to build brand awareness and reach consumers and will prioritize retail expansion in provinces allowing private cannabis retail. Post-merger, Hiku is expected to have a cash balance of approximately C$31 million, which the company plans to invest in scaling up production capacity, expanding its retail and global footprints, and further build-out of its portfolio of cannabis brands.

DOJA also operates a cannabis production facility in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. The company is now building a new production facility, FUTURE LAB, to be located in Kelowna, British Columbia, which will support production capacity in excess of 5,000 kg per year. DOJA also operates the Culture Cafe, located on Kelowna's busiest street, which serves as a cannabis information center that generates brand awareness. Late last year, DOJA announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Northern Lights Marijuana Company, a licensed cannabis producer under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR), had successfully completed its initial cannabis harvests and had requested a Pre-Sales License Inspection from Health Canada (http://nnw.fm/6KF4o). The Pre-Sales License Inspection is the last step prior to the issuance of a Sales License under the ACMPR.

DOJA (the name is slang for cannabis) has emerged as a producer of high-quality product, supported by grow rooms equipped with equipment from Surna Inc., cultivation experts and agricultural engineers, and fitted with ductless air handlers, commercial-grade dehumidifiers, in addition to bio-security products using photo-catalytic reaction that sanitizes the air and minimizes breakouts of pests, pathogens and mold.

Trading at C$3.50 on the Canadian Securities Exchange with a market cap of C$214 million, DOJA is pacing its potential alongside some of the industry's leading players.

Aurora Cannabis (OTC: ACBFF) (TSX: ACB), the only licensed producer (LP) located in Alberta, is also taking steps to capture its share of Canada's increasingly ripe cannabis industry. Aurora kicked-off 2018 with news it plans to buy a 17.6 percent stake in privately held marijuana grower Green Organic Dutchman Holdings for C$55 million (USD 44 million) (http://nnw.fm/4Wc1N). The deal gives Aurora the rights to buy up to 20 percent, or more than 20,000 kilograms of Ontario-based Green Organic Dutchman's annual production of cannabis at full capacity. And it allows Aurora to purchase up to 33 percent if Aurora increases its ownership to 31 percent. Aurora has also announced a deal with Danish tomato and pepper producer Alfred Pedersen & Son to produce and sell cannabis in Europe (http://nnw.fm/G2Fm6).

Eastward in Quebec, Hydropothecary (OTC: HYYDF) (TSX-V: THCX) is planning to expand production 30-fold from 3,600 kg to 108,000 kg per annum, according to the company's website (http://nnw.fm/5tPbM). Economies of scale and Quebec's low utility rates have made Hydropothecary possibly one of the lowest cost producers in Canada.

In New Brunswick, OrganiGram Holding (OTCQB: OGRMF) (TSX-V: OGI) announced the closing of its C$57.5 Bought Deal financing during December 2017 (http://nnw.fm/TaMh8). Around the same time, the company provided an update on how the construction of its facilities is proceeding (http://nnw.fm/3HEsN). About 80 percent of the net proceeds of the financing will fund the construction of an additional 255,000 square feet of production space at the Moncton campus. The company has also signed an MOU with New Brunswick provincial authorities to provide a minimum of 5 million grams yearly to the adult recreational market, a deal valued at between C$40 million and C$60 million.

Ontario-based WeedMD Rx (OTC: WDDMF) (TSX-V: WMD) is also raising funds. In December 2017, the company entered into a letter of engagement for bought deal equity financing of $15 million. WeedMD intends to use the net proceeds of the funding for working capital, general corporate purposes and to position itself to expand production capacity within its recently announced existing 14-acre greenhouse. WeedMD is the publicly traded parent company of WeedMD Rx Inc., a federally licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis. The company operates a 26,000-square-foot indoor facility in Aylmer, Ontario, and is awaiting its second-site cultivation license for a greenhouse in Strathroy, Ontario, representing 610,000 square feet, or 14 acres under glass.

While cannabis companies in the U.S. mull through Sessions' recent decision regarding the Cole Memo and what it means for their operations, Canadian cannabis companies are stretching their legs to prepare for a significant boost in product demand and subsequent opportunity in market share.

For more information on DOJA Cannabis Company, visit DOJA Cannabis Company Ltd. (CSE: DOJA) (OTC: DJACF)

For a more in-depth look into DOJA Cannabis (CSE: DOJA) (OTC: DJACF), view the full report on Microsmallcap.com.

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CannaRoyalty to contribute Bodhi Research position into the JV in exchange for equity

OTTAWA, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - CannaRoyalty Corp. (CSE: CRZ) (OTCQX: CNNRF) ("CannaRoyalty") and Aequus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TSX-V: AQS) (OTCQB: AQSZF) ("Aequus") (together the "Partners"), today announced a collaboration (the "JV") to advance a suite of cannabis-based therapies targeting neurological disorders into clinical trials in Canada, in collaboration with Canadian doctors and key opinion leaders.

CannaRoyalty and Aequus have formed this collaboration to clinically advance a number of cannabis-based therapies in partnership with Canadian clinicians to create truly differentiated products supported by clinical data focused on the medical community. The collaboration will leverage CannaRoyalty's deep expertise in identifying, funding and commercializing cannabis related products in California and Aequus' expertise in clinical development and drug delivery, and commercializing differentiated therapeutics in Canada.

CannaRoyalty intends to contribute its 10% equity stake in Bodhi Research & Development Inc. ("Bodhi") into the JV in exchange for an initial ownership position in the JV, subject to conditions and approvals. CannaRoyalty made a $250,000 investment in Bodhi in 2016 in exchange for 10% equity in the company. Bodhi has completed a research trial into the use of cannabis in the treatment of concussion and post-concussive syndrome. The JV has been identifying additional capital from third-party investors that will be invested directly into the collaboration and used to advance those clinical trial programs that the Partners agree to fund.

"We see a significant opportunity for validated, research-based data regarding cannabinoid-based treatments and commend the group at Bodhi for the progress they have made to date," said Marc Lustig, CEO of CannaRoyalty. "In the near-term, the JV will provide Bodhi with the drug development and commercial expertise to progress its research toward further validation and commercialization, while freeing-up our in-house team to continue building our leading platform of value-add cannabis businesses in California. I intend to commit significant personal capital as a lead third-party investor and I expect CannaRoyalty shareholders to benefit in several ways from the JV: continued progress at Bodhi; exposure to an expanded range of cannabis-based therapies targeted at neurological disorders; the potential for CannaRoyalty to introduce proven in-house and investee products to the JV over time; and the potential to introduce JV-developed products through CannaRoyalty's growing distribution network."

Doug Janzen, CEO of Aequus added, "Aequus and CannaRoyalty have complementary business models and geographic focuses, and we are excited about the potential for this collaboration to offer patients in Canada and California differentiated and clinically validated cannabis-based therapeutics targeting a number of neurological conditions. We have been in discussions with Canadian clinicians with extensive experience in treating patients with cannabis-based therapies for their neurological and pain-based conditions. We see the opportunity to collaborate with these clinicians to identify and advance the most efficacious formulations into clinical trials to validate safety and efficacy."

Mr. Janzen continued, "In a 2017 survey we completed with 400 specialists and general practitioners in Canada and the US, the lack of clinical safety and efficacy data and dosing data were the top reasons why clinicians were reluctant to recommend cannabis to their patients. We see a clear opportunity through this JV with CannaRoyalty to meet the requests of the clinical community by providing improved forms of dosing, clinical data showing safety and efficacy, and then working closely to commercialize these validated products in Canada through our existing sales infrastructure and relationships with Licensed Producers and potentially elsewhere, where Aequus and CannaRoyalty and our various partners operate."

About Bodhi

Bodhi Research and Development, Inc. is an Ontario-based research company that is conducting research trials for exploring the use of cannabis in the treatment of concussions and post-concussive syndromes. Bodhi's research has been done in collaboration with some of the world's foremost experts in concussions and pain management.

About CannaRoyalty

CannaRoyalty is an active investor and operator in the legal cannabis industry. Our focus is building and supporting a diversified portfolio of growth-ready assets in high-value segments of the cannabis sector, including research, consumer brands, devices and intellectual property. Our management team combines a hands-on understanding of the cannabis industry with seasoned financial know-how, assembling a platform of holdings via royalty agreements, equity interests, secured convertible debt, licensing agreements and its own branded portfolio. CannaRoyalty's shares trade on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE) under the symbol CRZ and internationally on the OTCQX under the symbol CNNRF.

About Aequus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Aequus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TSX-V:AQS, OTCQB:AQSZF) is a growing specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing high quality, differentiated products. Aequus' development stage pipeline includes several products in neurology and psychiatry with a goal of addressing the need for improved medication adherence through enhanced delivery systems. With a focus in neurology and other specialty areas, our most recent addition to the development pipeline was a long-acting form of medical cannabis, where there is a high need for a consistent, predictable and pharmaceutical-grade delivery of products for patients. Aequus intends to commercialize its internal programs in Canada alongside its current portfolio of marketed established medicines and will look to form strategic partnerships that would maximize the reach of its product candidates worldwide. Aequus plans to build on its Canadian commercial platform through the launch of additional products that are either created internally or brought in through an acquisition or license; remaining focused on highly specialized therapeutic areas. For further information, please visit www.aequuspharma.ca.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in CannaRoyalty's and Aequus' periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will, could, plan, estimate, expect, intend, may, potential, believe, should," and similar expressions, are forward- looking statements.

Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements including the CannaRoyalty's and Aequus' expectations with respect to pursuing new opportunities and future growth and other statements of fact.

Although CannaRoyalty and Aequus have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, including, but not limited to: dependence on obtaining regulatory approvals; investing in target companies or projects which have limited or no operating history and are engaged in activities currently considered illegal under US Federal Laws; changes in laws; limited operating history; reliance on management; requirements for additional financing; competition; hindering market growth and state adoption due to inconsistent public opinion and perception of the medical-use and adult-use marijuana industry and; regulatory or political change.

There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, the results or events predicted in these forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results or events.



Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. CannaRoyalty and Aequus disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and CannaRoyalty and Aequus do not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any other company mentioned herein.

SOURCE CannaRoyalty Corp.
DES PLAINES, Ill., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Americaneagle.com recently created the newly-redesigned website for the 2018 Chicago Auto Show. Americaneagle.com has been proud to host and redesign the website every year since 2004 for Chicago Auto Show, one of the world's largest auto shows.

Mike Svanascini, President of Americaneagle.com, commented, "The Chicago Auto Show is a highly valued Americaneagle.com client. Our goal each year is to produce a site that truly represents the prestige of this acclaimed auto show to the world. We have continuously evolved the Chicago Auto Show site over the years to ensure this iconic event is always represented by a cutting edge design with advanced, user-friendly functionality, suitable for the largest auto show in North America. This year we really focused on making the ticket buying process much easier."

John Hennessy, 2018 Chicago Auto Show Chairman, commented, "We are very excited to have our new site up and ready for Chicago Auto Show attendees to browse. Our longstanding relationship with Americaneagle.com means that each year we can trust the team to take the lead and produce an outstanding site we're always proud of. Thank you to the Americaneagle.com team for another stunning website!"

This year, Americaneagle.com conducted user analysis to make data-driven changes to the site design. This process led to a clean design that is bold, eye-catching, and easy for users to navigate.

The Chicago Auto Show mobile app has also been updated with new features and functionality. Ticket pages, contest pages and the 'best of show' page are now all native to the app  previously they were pulled in from the website. Customers can also purchase tickets on the mobile app using Apple Pay.

In addition to redesigns each year, Americaneagle.com also does all programming, hosts the site, and offers ongoing maintenance and support to the Chicago Auto Show team.

About Americaneagle.com

Americaneagle.com, Inc., founded in 1978, is a leading Web design, development, and hosting company based in Des Plaines, Illinois. Currently, Americaneagle.com employs approximately 400+ professionals in offices throughout the country including Chicago, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Some of their 7,000+ clients include Komatsu USA, FASTSIGNS, Stuart Weitzman, WeatherTech.com, Chicago Bears, and the American Dental Association. For additional information about Americaneagle.com, visit www.americaneagle.com.

Contact

Michael Svanascini, President

[email protected]

847-699-0300

SOURCE Americaneagle.com

Related Links

https://www.americaneagle.com


Mr. Fedele, a native of Northeast Indiana, returns to the region after serving as the Director of Sales and Marketing for WLEX-TV (NBC) in Lexington, Kentucky for the past ten years. Prior to that, he spent five years as the President and General Manager of WPTA-TV (ABC) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Mr. Fedele spent fourteen years at WPTA-TV, serving at various times as the General Sales Manager, Local Sales Manager, and National Sales Manager. He began his broadcasting career at Blair Television in New York after graduating from Ball State University in 1991.

For the past several years, Pete Veto has served as the General Manager of WTVG as well as WJRT (ABC) in Flint, Michigan. After too many years of sacrificing personal time to maintaining the market-leading positions of both stations, Mr. Veto will now focus exclusively on his hometown station, WJRT.

About Gray:

Gray owns and/or operates over 100 television stations across 57 television markets that collectively broadcast over 200 program streams including over 100 channels affiliated with the CBS Network, the NBC Network, the ABC Network and the FOX Network. Our portfolio includes the number-one and/or number-two ranked television station operations in essentially all of our markets, which collectively cover approximately 10.4 percent of total United States television households. For further information, please visit www.gray.tv.

SOURCE Gray Television

Related Links

http://www.gray.tv


MIAMI, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gridics LLC, a Miami-based real estate tech startup, today announced a partnership with the City of Delray Beach, FL to use its Zonar.City software application. The Zonar.City application is the first interactive digital zoning code program of its kind and is designed to change the way cities manage and interact with their cumbersome zoning needs.

City of Delray Beach, FL Adopts Zonar.City, Worlds First 3D Zoning Code Application City of Delray Beach, FL Adopts Zonar.City, Worlds First 3D Zoning Code Application

By adopting Zonar.City, the City of Delray Beach will be able to integrate its zoning code into Zonar's proprietary rules-engine so that all the regulations, variables, property records and parcels can be manipulated and analyzed in real-time on a 3D map interface. Zonar.City is a cloud-based application capable of integrating any city's zoning code to deliver immediate as-of-right building scenarios. Additionally, once a city's code is digitized, users can expedite development plan compliance reviews and visually test proposed zoning code changes.

As part of the partnership with Delray Beach, Gridics will work with the city's planning department to create an online, interactive 3D zoning map. Cities that integrate their code with the Zonar.City platform are newly enabled to easily answer community questions regarding building parameters and can more quickly analyze development plans for compliance to reduce plan review backlogs.



"Zonar's 3D technology forms an integral part of our efforts to continue enhancing our Central Business District. We can now test zoning code changes in real time and see how new development will affect the overall character and scale," said Tim Stillings, Director of Planning, Zoning, & Building for the City of Delray Beach. "Zonar makes it easy to manipulate planning and zoning scenarios and see the results graphically saving time and improving communication."

Founded by three University of Miami graduate students with backgrounds ranging from urban planning and architecture to real estate tech and engineering, Gridics is focused on developing innovative solutions to complex, data-driven problems in the world of real estate. The team partnered with the City of Miami and some of Miami's leading real estate developers and architects to uniquely position the software and tune its accuracy before launching the product in late 2017. The City of Miami has since signed a contract with Gridics to use the Zonar.City platform to enhance their zoning and planning operations.

"We've solved a complex problem with Zonar that is helping cities large and small convert their written development regulations into a web-based, property-specific 3D visualization tool," says Jason Doyle, CEO of Gridics. "We're excited to partner with a progressive city like Delray Beach that has been setting a strong example for other cities to follow with its planning practices."

To learn about Zonar for your city, county, or private sector real estate firm, please visit www.zonar.city or register for one of our free and open webinars held every two weeks (http://webinars.zonar.city).

About Gridics: Headquartered in Miami, FL, Gridics is a real estate technology company developing targeted software applications in the areas of real estate development, zoning and market analysis. For more information, visit www.zonar.city or www.gridics.com.

About the City of Delray Beach: Delray Beach is a first-class resort destination and a diverse, vibrant, community situated on the Atlantic Ocean between Boca Raton and West Palm Beach. Home to 67K residents, Delray Beach is only an hour north of Miami and a two-time winner of the coveted All-America City Award (1993, 2001).

Media Contact:

Austin Rhoads

[email protected]

3054989410

SOURCE Gridics, LLC

Related Links

http://www.gridics.com


SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CleanSpark, Inc. (OTC: CLSK), a microgrid company with advanced engineering, software and controls for innovative distributed energy resource management systems, today announced that it has been officially contracted to design a turn-key, fully engineered 'off-grid' solution for a cryptocurrency mining operator.

The contracted project will serve to provide specifications, optimization, and permit ready design for a modular DC-Centric microgrid. Power is anticipated to be generated by, stored within, and fed to an optimized DC driven load bus. The CleanSpark design will be optimized to feed both DC and AC loads and ensure maximum efficiency from solar generation technology paired with energy storage. By utilizing a DC-Centric design, the efficiency and temperature control of the system can easily be maximized. Energy is the single largest operational expense for cryptocurrency mining operations. Through increasing efficiency and leveraging on-site power generation with energy storage, energy expenses can be dramatically reduced.

The containerized solution, along with CleanSpark's mPulse controller will allow a wide-variety of applications, from Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency mining, to a fully 'off-grid' agricultural grow facility power source, to a power demand management solution as the end use-case drivers suggest. It is also designed for quick deployment, and removal, as required. Finally, the configuration and automation of the system allow for virtually unmanned operation.

CleanSpark's Senior Electrical Engineer, Jeff Trueblood stated, "When the 'grid-in-a-box' design concept was suggested for remote military applications, we anticipated the commercial, industrial, and residential opportunities for a containerized solution would be substantial. With the well-publicized energy demands of Cryptocurrency mining operations, our product seemed to be an intuitive solution. A prior CleanSpark engineering service customer recognized the same and retained us to engineer a version of our 'best-in-class' solution for just that purpose."

About CleanSpark, Inc.

CleanSpark provides advanced energy software and control technology that enables a plug-and-play enterprise solution to modern energy challenges. Our services consist of intelligent solar monitoring solutions, microgrid design and engineering, project development consulting services, system installation and consulting, and turn-key microgrid implementation services. We also combine our microgrid services with a revolutionary and patented stratified downdraft gasifier. By integrating new and existing energy generation and storage assets with advanced load management capacities, CleanSpark's software allows energy generated locally to be shared with other interconnected microgrids. This unique capability enables microgrids to be scaled and widely adopted for commercial, industrial, military, municipal, and remote community deployment.

For more information on CleanSpark, please visit http://www.cleanspark.com.

Information about Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release relating to plans, strategies, testing and operational performance, projections of results of specific activities and other statements that are not descriptions of historical facts may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. This release contains "forward-looking statements" that include information relating to future events and future financial and operating performance. The words "may," "would," "will," "expect," "estimate," "can," "believe," "potential" and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which that performance or those results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time they are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: fluctuations in demand for the Company's products, the introduction of new products, the Company's ability to maintain customer and strategic business relationships, the impact of competitive products and pricing, growth in targeted markets, the adequacy of the Company's liquidity and financial strength to support its growth, and other information that may be detailed from time-to-time in the Company's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the Company, please refer to the Company's recent SEC filings, which are available at http://www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Website: http://www.cleanspark.com

Contact - Company:

S. Matthew Schultz, CEO

801-244-4405

[email protected]

SOURCE CleanSpark, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cleanspark.com


Rogier van Nieuwenhuizen, Executive Vice President, ClickFox EMEA, comments, "ClickFox launched its European operations with Barclays UK 5 years ago, becoming part of Barclays' enterprise-wide journey analytics solution. Looking back, I am proud of what we have achieved together in terms of business impact. We continue to build on the tremendous value that connected data and customer journeys generate as we enter the next chapter of our partnership."

"Over the past 5 years ClickFox's Journey Analytics tools have proven to be key in changing the way we listen to, and understand, our customers," says Nick Hall, Managing Director for Analytics, Customer Experience and Experience Insights, Barclays UK. "The insights the platform continuously delivers have driven critical digitization and complaint reduction initiatives for the bank."

ClickFox provides Barclays with the customer experience analytics tools for unlimited scaling across data and analytics use cases; tying data points together to better understand customer journeys in order to optimize experience and improve underlying processes. Over the years an unrivalled big data asset has been created, connecting data from 35 different sources and spanning all retail and cards customers. This has enabled Barclays' analysts to complete 100's of use cases, including branch optimization, digital adoption, and complaints reduction, resulting in 10s of millions in value captured through the analysis of 300 million monthly touch points.

Going forward, ClickFox will migrate Barclays to FOX, ClickFox's next generation Customer Journey Analytics product suite, which redefines the way data gets connected and analysed. This will empower executives to spark true customer journey and customer experience led business change, powered by four core capabilities:

Journey Exploration : FOX enables data to take shape in a way that enhances traditional as well as predictive analytics driving a new age approach to solving complex questions.

: FOX enables data to take shape in a way that enhances traditional as well as predictive analytics driving a new age approach to solving complex questions. Journey Management : Quickly connect data sources to generate new journey maps and/or enrich existing customer experience.

: Quickly connect data sources to generate new journey maps and/or enrich existing customer experience. Journey Trace : Driven by ClickFox's machine learning algorithm, the Trace application helps to rapidly identify root causes leading up negative outcomes.

: Driven by ClickFox's machine learning algorithm, the Trace application helps to rapidly identify root causes leading up negative outcomes. Journey Dashboarding: The executive dashboarding application tracks customer journey related KPIs in real-time.

"Connected data and Journey Analytics are reshaping the way businesses engage with their customers," says Marco Pacelli, CEO of ClickFox. "Through the renewal of our partnership, we're able to help Barclays tap into even deeper pockets of value using the incredible capabilities that the FOX ecosystem delivers."

About ClickFox

ClickFox, The Journey Company, offers a one-of-a-kind platform that connects data from any source into sequential journeys over time, as well as applications to analyse and syndicate connected journeys.

Analysing customer, employee, patient and device journeys has been proven to be the most effective way to make informed business decisions and surface tangible opportunities from big data.

Leveraging ClickFox's proprietary journey algorithms and Journey Science approach, Fortune 500 clients have gained insights leading to significant customer experience improvement and billions in cost savings and revenue growth.



Reveal the meaningful shape of data.

For further information about ClickFox, The Journey Company, please visit: www.clickfox.com

For further information about the Journey Science movement, please visit: www.journeyscience.com

About Barclays

Barclays is a transatlantic consumer and wholesale bank with global reach, offering products and services across personal, corporate and investment banking, credit cards and wealth management, with a strong presence in our two home markets of the UK and the US.

With over 325 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 40 countries and employs approximately 85,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide.

For further information about Barclays, please visit: www.barclays.co.uk

SOURCE ClickFox, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.clickfox.com


VALENCIA, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bioness, Inc., the leading provider of state-of-the-art, clinically supported rehabilitation and pain management medical devices, today announced several clinical experts will present data from four unique studies demonstrating the clinical benefits of the company's StimRouter Neuromodulation System at the 2018 North American Neuromodulation Society's (NANS) Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Between January 11th-14th, clinicians from leading medical institutions will showcase the surgical approach techniques and associated clinical results that reinforce the ability of StimRouter to provide significant relief to patient suffering from peripheral nerve pain.

Studies conducted by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, Stanford Medical School, the University of Toronto, and The Pain Management Center examined how the StimRouter can be applied to chronic pain conditions, originating from the peripheral nerve region of the shoulder, tibia and other areas of the body.

Topics involving the effects of the StimRouter to be presented during the NANS poster session are:

Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for Chronic Shoulder Pain: A Proof of Concept Anatomy Study;

Use of Ultrasound for Placement of a Novel Peripheral Nerve Stimulator for Chronic Neuropathic Pain: Single Institution Results;

The Use of Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Tibial Neuralgia: Description of the Use of Ultrasound Guidance Technique for Percutaneous StimRouter Lead Placement with Anatomical Considerations;

Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for Chronic Idiopathic Orchialgia; and Novel Lead Placement for Suprascapular Nerve Peripheral Nerve Stimulation

"The need to support patients in chronic pain with treatmentsproven through careful researchis critical for pain management. Patients have a better understanding of how the treatment process works and are taking an active role in their care by asking for data-supported solutions when traditional, temporary therapies are providing marginal returns on pain relief," said Dr. Youssef Josephson, DO, clinician at The Pain Management Center which has clinics throughout the state of New Jersey. "With a resurgence of Peripheral Nerve Stimulation therapy over the last few years, the StimRouter is a promising solution for patients in chronic pain who are not finding significant relief with other therapies."

"Physicians who treat chronic pain patients are not just looking for FDA approved treatments, but also innovations that are continuously studied to demonstrate further independent validation," said Todd Cushman, President and CEO at Bioness. "We are thrilled to support the findings of these medical professionals and are confident their work will result in more physicians being educated on the benefits of StimRouter and more patients gaining access to this critical technology and the durable pain relief it offers."

StimRouter was the first FDA cleared, long-term, minimally invasive peripheral nerve stimulator indicated to treat chronic pain of a peripheral nerve origin, excluding the cranial facial region. This non-drug, patient-controlled medical device is an adjunct to other modes of therapy and is being well received by patients and clinicians alike.

For more information on the StimRouter or to speak with a patient currently using the device, stop by Bioness' booth #317 at NANS or visit www.stimrouter.com.

About StimRouter Neuromodulation System

The StimRouter Neuromodulation System is indicated for pain management in adults who have severe intractable chronic pain of peripheral nerve origin, as an adjunct to other modes of therapy (e.g. medications). The StimRouter is not intended to treat pain in the craniofacial region. StimRouter is a minimally invasive neuromodulation medical device consisting of a thin, implanted lead with conductive electrode, external pulse transmitter (EPT), and hand-held wireless patient programmer. Electrical signals are transmitted transdermally from the EPT through the electrode, down the lead to the target nerve. StimRouter is programmed at the direction of the physician to meet patient requirements but is controlled by the patient to address the patients' specific, changing pain management needs.

About Bioness, Inc.

Bioness is the leading provider of innovative technologies helping people regain mobility and independence. Bioness solutions include implantable and external neuromodulation systems, robotic systems and software based therapy programs providing functional and therapeutic benefits for individuals affected by pain, central nervous system disorders and orthopedic injuries. Currently, Bioness offers six medical devices within its commercial portfolio which are distributed and sold on five continents and in over 25 countries worldwide. Our technologies have been implemented in the most prestigious and well-respected institutions around the globe with approximately 90% of the top rehabilitation hospitals in the United States currently using one or more Bioness solution. Bioness has a singular focus on aiding large, underserved customer groups with innovative, evidence-based solutions and we will continue to develop and make commercially available new products that address the growing and changing needs of our customers. Individual results vary. Consult with a qualified physician to determine if this product is right for you. Contraindications, adverse reactions and precautions are available online at www.bioness.com.

Media Relations Contact Information

Next Step Communications

[email protected]

781.326.1741

SOURCE Bioness, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.stimrouter.com


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Browse 69 market data Tables and 41 Figures spread through 136 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Cognitive Radio Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cognitive-radio-market-219954724.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Technological advancements in the wireless communication field, optimized spectrum utilization, and the increasing adoption of the 5G technology are some of the major factors that are expected to drive the growth of the global Cognitive Radio Market. Furthermore, the rising adoption of the cognitive radio technology in government and defense organizations and increasing demand for the cognitive radio technology in commercial applications are expected to provide significant opportunities for the growth of the Cognitive Radio Market.

The government and defense end-user is expected to be the largest contributor in the Cognitive Radio Market during the forecast period.

The governments of various countries are focused on developing and implementing advanced communication technologies, such as cognitive radios and Software-Defined Radio (SDR), for serving the requirements of the modern nature of warfare. Moreover, the government bodies, such as public safety and homeland security, are responsible for ensuring the protection of citizens, organizations, and institutions against threats to their well-being and the prosperity of their communities. The major issue faced by the government agencies is the highly congested radio frequencies allocated for emergency communication in many areas. The cognitive radio helps these government bodies tackle this issue by ensuring efficient and effective spectrum usage as well as responding to emergency incidents efficiently.

The managed services segment is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period.

The demand for services is expected to grow with the evolution of the Cognitive Radio Market, specifically for managed services. The managed services segment is expected to have the faster growth rate during the forecast period. Managed service providers deliver third-party infrastructure services that help organizations manage their wireless communication devices. Managed service providers take care of all the hardware and software functions, while organizations are only responsible for updating and installing business applications and configuring company policies.

North America is expected to have the largest market share during the forecast period.

North America is expected to be the most competitive region in the Cognitive Radio Market during the forecast period. North America, among all the regions, has shown the maximum adoption of the cognitive radio technology, due to its early implementation in the majority of verticals. The region is expected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period. The US and Canada are expected to extensively implement cognitive radios for wireless communication.

The major cognitive radio vendors are BAE Systems (London, UK), Raytheon Company (Massachusetts, US), Thales Group (Paris, France), Rhode & Schwarz (Munich, Germany), Spectrum Signal Processing (Burnaby, Canada), xG Technology (Florida, US), Nutaq (Quebec, Canada), Ettus Research (California, US), Shared Spectrum Company (Virginia, US), DataSoft (Arizona, US), EpiSys Science (California, US), and Kyynel (Oulu, Finland).

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FALLS CHURCH, Va., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Solomon Hess Capital Management ("Solomon Hess"), announced today that its flagship CRA-eligible SBA Loan Fund received a Aaa-bf bond fund rating from Moody's Investor Services. This rating is based on Moody's assessment of the creditworthiness of the portfolio and is an indication that the SBA Loan Fund holds assets judged to be of the highest credit quality. Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Solomon Hess Bill Einstein said, "The SBA Loan Fund received the highest possible rating given by Moody's (triple A), which reflects the portfolio's composition of such a high concentration of federally guaranteed assets."

The SBA Loan Fund is a private fund which provides bank investors with Community Reinvestment Act ("CRA") eligible investments for community development impact by acquiring the guaranteed portion of Small Business Administration ("SBA") 7(a) loans where the underlying small business borrower is located in a low or moderate or otherwise economically distressed region as targeted by bank investors. Since its inception in 2004, the SBA Loan Fund has invested over $1.3 billion in small businesses located in low or moderate income or redevelopment areas across the nation and has supported the creation and/or retention of over 38,000 jobs.

An example of the types of loans in the SBA Loan Fund's portfolio is an equipment finance loan made to The Warrior Services Company located in Valley Stream, New York. The borrower is a Veteran-owned and operated business in a moderate income census tract that provides durable mobility equipment and mobility support services for retired Armed Forces veterans and civilian patients with limited mobility. The small business loan supported the creation and/or retention of 25 jobs. "When we review small business loans for investment, we look for businesses that embody the spirit of community development regulations and go beyond the CRA requirements," said Bill Einstein. The SBA Loan Fund has 112 investors and over $460 million of assets, making it a well-established CRA-eligible investment fund in the market place.

About Solomon Hess Capital Management

Solomon Hess is an alternative asset manager that creates value for investors through community and economic development impact funds. Since inception in 2004, Solomon Hess has invested over $1.7 billion across 10 investment vehicles. The firm's flagship fund is the SBA Loan Fund which provides bank investors with CRA eligible investments for community development. Solomon Hess has expertise in the acquisition of SBA and U.S. Department of Agriculture ("USDA") program loans and associated servicing assets, such as Interest Only Strips, in the secondary market. Strategies are available through private funds, sub-advisory services and separate accounts. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, Solomon Hess managed assets of $608 million on behalf of over 150 institutional and accredited individual investors as of September 30, 2017. More information is available at www.SolomonHess.com.

Media Contact: Michelle Lai, Investor Relations, 703.466.0483, [email protected]

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SOURCE Solomon Hess Capital Management

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SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Consumer Watchdog's challenges filed under Proposition 103 to proposed auto, home and business insurance rate increases saved consumers $227.4 million in 2017, the nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest group said today.

Since 2003, the group's challenges in rate proceedings before the Department of Insurance have saved consumers a total of $3.4 billion. Savings have averaged a little more than a quarter of a billion dollars  $227 million  per year.

"Proposition 103 was a populist revolt that has really paid off for California consumers, stopping outrageous insurance overcharges and stabilizing the insurance marketplace while allowing insurance companies to earn a fair profit," said Harvey Rosenfield, Consumer Watchdog founder and author of Proposition 103. "In an era when regulation is under constant attack by big corporations and their political lackeys, and the middle class is struggling to survive, $3.4 billion in lower insurance premiums proves that citizen-based, grassroots reforms can save people money."

Proposition 103, passed in 1988, requires insurance companies to open their books to public scrutiny and justify rates before they are approved by the Insurance Commissioner. It bars insurance companies from charging excessive auto, home and business rates, and authorizes consumers to challenge illegal rates and other insurance practices. Proposition 103 also made the Insurance Commissioner an elected post.

California drivers have saved more than $100 billion since voters passed Prop 103 in 1988, according to a 2013 report on state auto insurance regulation by the Washington DC-based Consumer Federation of America. The report found that California is also the only state in the nation where auto insurance rates went down in the period between 1988 and 2013, by 0.2%. Across the nation the average rate increase was 47%. California's auto insurance market is the third most competitive in the nation, and auto insurers' profitability in California is above average.

See the chart of rate savings resulting from Consumer Watchdog rate challenges, 2002-2017 here.

Insurance Companies Campaign in Courts to Undo Proposition 103

These consumer savings are at risk, Consumer Watchdog warns. Twenty-nine years after California voters passed Proposition 103, the insurance industry has launched a campaign in the judicial branch to undo the law, even though it was unanimously upheld  twice  by the California Supreme Court.

State Farm, the nation's largest insurance company with over $168 billion in assets, filed suit in San Diego Superior Court in 2016 to block $250 million in rate reductions and refunds, claiming it can't afford to lower its homeowners insurance premiums; that case is expected to go to trial next month.

Mercury Insurance, joined by State Farm and other insurers, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 103's reforms after two California courts rejected their arguments. Mercury is also fighting in the California Court of Appeal to escape a $25 million penalty levied by the Insurance Commissioner for overcharging motorists in violation of Proposition 103.

Farmers Insurance is fighting in two courts at the same time  Los Angeles Superior Court and the Court of Appeal  to stop state regulators from holding a public hearing on charges that it is using algorithms to overcharge motorists in violation of Proposition 103.

"Insurance companies are trying to win from the judicial branch what they lost at the ballot box: the right to rip us off. We are fully engaged in the battle to protect Californians' insurance reforms and with the public's help we are confident of victory," Rosenfield said.

Visit our website at www.consumerwatchdog.org

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog

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"Sonji has taken on a vast number of responsibilities over the course of the past four years, overseeing executive communications and leading the company's public affairs efforts," said Bob Jimenez, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Administrative Services. "I am confident that with her deep industry knowledge and understanding of Cox Enterprises' values and priorities, Sonji will thrive in her new role."

Over the past four years, Jacobs has held increasingly expansive roles at Cox. She led communications for former President and Chief Executive Officer John Dyer and his senior team. In her former role as Sr. Director, Corporate Affairs, Jacobs led the company's corporate social responsibility team while also bolstering the company's overall public affairs strategy.

"Cox Enterprises is at a key point in our 120-year history  both for the company and our employees," said Jacobs. "As we begin a new era of opportunity and growth, I'm excited about working with our stellar communications team and the company's new leadership to help deliver on our enterprise-wide business goals."

A New York native, Jacobs moved to Atlanta in 2004 to work for Cox as a political reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She served as the Director of Communications for the City of Atlanta and Mayor Kasim Reed in his first term. She was named to the Georgia Trend and the Atlanta Business Chronicle's 40 Under 40 lists and is a member of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2016. She serves on the Board of Directors of Zoo Atlanta and the North Carolina Outward Bound School.

Jacobs earned a bachelor's degree cum laude in history and literature from Harvard University and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

About Cox Enterprises:

Cox Enterprises is a leading communications, media and automotive services company. With revenues exceeding $21 billion and approximately 60,000 employees, the company's major operating subsidiaries include Cox Communications (cable television distribution, high-speed internet access, telephone, home security and automation, commercial telecommunications and advertising solutions); Cox Automotive (automotive-related auctions, financial services, media and software solutions); and Cox Media Group (television and radio stations, digital media, newspapers and advertising sales rep firms).

The company's major national brands include Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book and Manheim. Through Cox Automotive, the company's international operations stretch across Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America. To learn more about Cox's commitment to people, sustainability and our communities, please visit www.CoxCSRReport.com.

SOURCE Cox Enterprises
MONTREAL, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - La Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec ("CPDQ"), a long-term institutional investor, announced that it will support Colombia-based energy company Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) with a US$250 million (CAD$313 million) loan. This transaction will contribute to EPM's overall growth, notably the Ituango hydroelectric project, the largest renewable energy project in Colombia to date.

CDPQ's investment is part of a US$1 billion facility. For this transaction, CDPQ joins a group of lenders led by IDB Invest, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group and the principal source of private sector development financing for Latin America, and including several other global financial institutions.

In Colombia, as in many other regions of Latin America, rapid urbanization has caused a shortage in electricity in densely-populated areas. As a leader in hydroelectric energy production, transmission, and distribution, in a region where hydroelectricity accounts for approximately 80% of the supply, EPM is working toward ensuring that the large demand is met while having a positive impact on market prices.

"We were highly motivated to participate in the financing of EPM, a leader in the markets it serves with an excellent reputation and extensive experience," said Marc Cormier, Executive Vice-President, Fixed Income at CDPQ. "To benefit from the potential that exists in growing markets, CDPQ is looking for companies with attractive prospects and assets that contribute to local growth."

"Financing a company such as EPM, that supports sustainable energy solutions, made this opportunity attractive to CDPQ," added Anita George, Executive Vice President, Growth Markets. "This transaction demonstrates CDPQ's approach of working with high quality partners such as IDB Invest and EPM to enter new markets. As we expand our global presence, CDPQ will continue to seek partners who share our long-term vision and are looking to build sound businesses in growth markets."

EPM, which also operates in the natural gas, telecommunications, and water sectors, is CDPQ's second Colombian investment within four months. In October 2017, CDPQ made its first direct private investment in Colombia, a senior loan to Pacifico 2, a toll highway sponsored by Colombian concessionaire Odinsa under the Colombian government's PPP program for transport infrastructure.

ABOUT CAISSE DE DEPOT ET PLACEMENT DU QUEBEC

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at June 30, 2017, it held CAD$286.5 billion in net assets. As one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers, CDPQ invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. For more information, visit cdpq.com, follow us on Twitter @LaCDPQ or consult our Facebook or LinkedIn pages.

SOURCE Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec

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LONDON, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

India has all the makings of becoming the driving force of the global steel industry. As China cuts steel capacity, India could be stirring for rapid acceleration in growth, but obstacles remain.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/536199/CRU_Logo.jpg )



China's consolidation of its steel sector through planned capacity cuts, as well as stricter environment norms and mining safety inspections, has had a massive impact on the global steel industry. But, while China grapples with overcapacity issues, it is time to turn the spotlight on India, which is projected to be the single largest driver of steel demand in the next 20 years, with capacity estimated to rise over 50%. Indeed, with similar population numbers, India's steel intensity of 61 kg per capita against China's 647 kg per capita calls for attention to the massive expansion potential that the country holds.

Although there is a rationale for India to scale-up its steel making capacity, we discuss the impediments faced by the country that will make this journey challenging. Bureaucratic roadblocks to project implementation, credibility of government mandates and incentives and supply chain management of key raw materials are some of the major challenges discussed. Alongside this, we also look at the signs of progress observed in recent times.

The elephant in the room

India's steel growth targets are often criticised for being overambitious and that is the very reason that the initial buzz created by any new scheme or expansion plan quickly fizzles out. On top of this, the opaque and complex nature of the steel sector's workings across different states, as well as political influence, especially in the mining industry, makes it harder to digest the optimism around growth plans. However, it is noteworthy that, despite the hurdles India faces, it has managed an average steel production growth of 5.6% in the last five years and now has the third largest steel industry after China and Japan, having displaced the USA in 2015. This growth is underpinned by the leading economic growth of 7.9% witnessed in 2016 against global growth of 2.4%. India may not be ready to soar, but it can surely run.

Read the full story: http://bit.ly/India-steel-giant

Read more about CRU: http://bit.ly/About_CRU

About CRU

CRU offers unrivalled business intelligence on the global metals, mining and fertilizer industries through market analysis, price assessments, consultancy and events.

Since our foundation by Robert Perlman in 1969, we have consistently invested in primary research and robust methodologies, and developed expert teams in key locations worldwide, including in hard-to-reach markets such as China.

CRU employs over 260 experts and has more than 10 offices around the world, in Europe, the Americas, China, Asia and Australia - our office in Beijing opened in 2004.

When facing critical business decisions, you can rely on our first-hand knowledge to give you a complete view of a commodity market. And you can engage with our experts directly, for the full picture and a personalised response.

CRU - big enough to deliver a high quality service, small enough to care about all of our customers.

SOURCE CRU
ATLANTA, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today reported financial results for the December quarter 2017. Highlights of those results, including both GAAP and adjusted metrics, are below and incorporated here.

Adjusted pre-tax income for the December 2017 quarter was $1.0 billion, despite a $60 million impact from the combination of December's power outage at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and Winter Storm Benji. For the full year, adjusted pre-tax income was $5.5 billion, a $621 million decrease relative to 2016.

"Delta people rose to the challenges of 2017 to produce solid financial results, industry leading operational reliability and strong improvements in customer satisfaction, and it's an honor to recognize their achievements with $1.1 billion in profit sharing," said Ed Bastian, Delta's chief executive officer. "Looking ahead to 2018, we expect to drive solid earnings growth by growing our top line 4 to 6 percent, improving our cost trajectory and integrating our international partner network. As a result, we are able to increase our previous full-year guidance to $6.35 to $6.70 per share due to additional benefits from tax reform."

Revenue Environment

Delta's operating revenue of $10.2 billion for the December quarter was up 8.3 percent, or $787 million versus prior year. Total unit revenues excluding refinery sales increased 4.4 percent for the December quarter.

Passenger revenue increased $527 million, including $200 million from Delta's Branded Fares initiatives. Passenger unit revenues increased 4.2 percent, including 0.5 points from one-time revenue adjustments, on 2.3 percent higher capacity.

Cargo revenue increased 14.4 percent, driven by higher volumes and yields. Other revenue improved 17.9 percent primarily due to higher loyalty revenue and a $150 million increase in third-party refinery sales.

For the full year, Delta's operating revenue of $41.2 billion was up 4.0 percent, or $1.6 billion versus prior year. Total unit revenues excluding refinery sales increased 2.4 percent on 1.0 percent higher capacity.

"We enter 2018 with significant momentum and every entity delivering positive passenger unit revenue for the first time in five years, driven by a robust demand environment and improving business fares," said Glen Hauenstein, Delta's president. "We expect to deliver total unit revenue growth of 2.5 to 4.5 percent in the March quarter and leverage our unrivaled domestic network, international partnerships, and solid pipeline of commercial initiatives to deliver similar performance each quarter throughout 2018."









Increase (Decrease)







4Q17 versus 4Q16







Change Unit



Revenue 4Q17 ($M)

YoY Revenue Yield Capacity

Mainline 4,766

8.7 % 3.4 % 4.4 % 5.1 %

Regional 1,423

1.8 % 6.7 % 7.6 % (4.6) % Total Domestic 6,189

7.0 % 3.5 % 4.4 % 3.4 %

Atlantic 1,181

9.0 % 7.4 % 3.7 % 1.5 %

Pacific 559

0.1 % 1.6 % 0.7 % (1.5) %

Latin America 572

4.5 % 4.0 % 5.0 % 0.5 % Total Passenger 8,501

6.6 % 4.2 % 4.1 % 2.3 % Cargo Revenue 200

14.4 %





Other Revenue 1,544

17.9 %





Total Revenue 10,245

8.3 % 4.4 %



See Note A for reconciliation of total unit revenue (TRASM) change

March 2018 Quarter Guidance

For the March quarter, Delta is expecting improving revenues and the benefit from tax reform to partially offset fuel cost increases and the period of highest non-fuel expense growth for the year.



1Q18 Forecast Earnings per share $0.60 - $0.80 Pre-tax margin 6% - 8% Fuel price, including taxes and refinery impact $2.05 - $2.10 Total unit revenue excluding refinery sales (year-over-year) Up 2.5% - 4.5% CASM-Excluding fuel and profit sharing (year-over-year) Up 2% - 4% System capacity (year-over-year) Up ~3% See Note A for information about reconciliation of projected non-GAAP financial measures

2017 Cost Performance

Adjusted fuel expense2 increased $349 million compared to the same period in 2016 as market fuel prices increased throughout the quarter. Delta's adjusted fuel price per gallon for the December quarter was $1.93, which includes $0.03 of benefit from the refinery.

CASM-Ex3 including profit sharing decreased 0.4 percent for the December 2017 quarter compared to the prior year period driven by the impact of Delta's pilot agreement ratified in the December 2016 quarter. The pilot agreement resulted in $475 million of expense in the prior year period and included a $380 million retroactive payment for the first three quarters of 2016.

Normalized CASM-Ex4 including profit sharing increased 5.6 percent versus the prior year period, driven by continued investments in Delta's people, product and operation, as well as pressure from accelerated depreciation due to aircraft retirements.

For the full year, CASM-Ex including profit sharing increased 4.3 percent compared to 2016. Excluding profit sharing, 2017 CASM-Ex increased 4.7 percent driven by targeted investments in Delta's employees, fleet, and product.

Non-operating expense increased $36 million for the December quarter due to higher interest expense from Delta's unsecured debt financing primarily used to fund its pension plan, as well as foreign exchange pressures.

"Our focus for 2018 is to bring our unit cost trajectory back in line with our long-term 0 to 2 percent target," said Paul Jacobson, Delta's chief financial officer. "We have a line of sight to achieving our cost goal, and expect our March quarter to be the peak of our non-fuel expense growth as we lap investments in our business and higher levels of depreciation, and the savings from our fleet and efficiency initiatives begin ramping up as we move through the year."

Cash Flow, Shareholder Returns, and Adjusted Net Debt

Delta generated $1.7 billion of adjusted operating cash flow and $435 million of free cash flow during the quarter. The company invested $850 million into the business for aircraft purchases and improvements, facilities upgrades and technology. The company also spent $450 million to purchase its 10 percent stake in Air France-KLM.

Delta generated $6.8 billion of adjusted operating cash flow and $2.0 billion of free cash flow for the full year, and invested $3.6 billion into the business and $1.2 billion in equity stakes in partner airlines.

During the December quarter, Delta announced an order for 100 state-of-the-art Airbus A321neo aircraft with deliveries beginning in 2020 and a long-term commitment with Pratt & Whitney for Delta TechOps to be a major maintenance, repair and overhaul provider for the PW1100G and PW1500G engines, powering Delta's A321neo and C Series aircraft.

Adjusted net debt at the end of the quarter was $8.8 billion, up $2.6 billion versus the prior year largely as a result of a $2.5 billion increase in unsecured debt, primarily issued to accelerate pension funding. The company's unfunded pension liability declined by $3.6 billion from the end of 2016 to $7.0 billion at the end of 2017.

For the December quarter, Delta returned $541 million to shareholders, comprised of $325 million of share repurchases and $216 million in dividends. For the full year, Delta returned $2.4 billion to shareholders, comprised of $1.7 billion of share repurchases and $731 million in dividends.

Tax Reform

As a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Delta recognized a one-time charge of $150 million in the December quarter from the estimated impact of the inclusion of foreign earnings and revaluation of deferred tax assets and liabilities. This one-time charge is being excluded from Delta's results as a special item. For 2018, Delta expects the reduction in the corporate tax rate will result in an all-in book tax rate for the company of 22-24 percent.

December Quarter Results

Special items for the quarter consist primarily of the impact from tax reform noted above and mark-to-market adjustments on fuel hedges.



GAAP Adjusted GAAP Adjusted ($ in millions except as noted) 4Q17 4Q16 4Q17 4Q16 FY17 FY16 FY17 FY16 Pre-tax income 1,089 952 1,025 923 5,701 6,636 5,450 6,071 Net income 572 622 681 604 3,577 4,373 3,568 4,017 Diluted earnings per share 0.80 0.84 0.96 0.82 4.95 5.79 4.93 5.32 Fuel expense (including regional carriers) 1,803 1,492 1,852 1,503 6,756 5,985 7,015 6,435 Average fuel price per gallon 1.88 1.59 1.93 1.60 1.68 1.49 1.74 1.60 Consolidated unit cost (CASM/CASM-Ex) 15.07 14.37 11.20 11.25 13.81 12.98 10.57 10.13 Operating cash flow 1,917 1,125 1,736 1,217 5,148 7,205 6,793 6,954 Total debt and capital leases 8,834 7,332 8,750 6,144 8,834 7,332 8,750 6,144 Total unit revenues (TRASM/TRASM-Ex) 17.06 16.11 16.65 15.95 16.22 15.74 16.02 15.65

About Delta

Delta Air Lines serves more than 180 million customers each year. In 2017, Delta was named to Fortune's top 50 Most Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the sixth time in seven years. Additionally, Delta has ranked No.1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey for an unprecedented seven consecutive years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 314 destinations in 54 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs more than 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 800 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading transatlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with key hubs and markets including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK and LaGuardia, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products and services, and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on the Delta News Hub, as well as delta.com, Twitter @DeltaNewsHub, Google.com/+Delta, and Facebook.com/delta.

End Notes

(1) Note A to the attached Consolidated Statements of Operations provides a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures used in this release to the comparable GAAP metric and provides the reasons management uses those measures.



(2) Adjusted fuel expense reflects, among other things, the impact of mark-to-market ("MTM") adjustments and settlements. MTM adjustments are defined as fair value changes recorded in periods other than the settlement period. Such fair value changes are not necessarily indicative of the actual settlement value of the underlying hedge in the contract settlement period. Settlements represent cash received or paid on hedge contracts settled during the period. These items adjust fuel expense to show the economic impact of hedging, including cash received or paid on hedge contracts during the period. See Note A for a reconciliation of adjusted fuel expense and average fuel price per gallon to the comparable GAAP metric.



(3) CASM - Ex, including profit sharing: In addition to fuel expense, Delta believes adjusting for certain other expenses is helpful to investors because other expenses are not related to the generation of a seat mile. These expenses include aircraft maintenance and staffing services Delta provides to third parties, Delta's vacation wholesale operations and refinery cost of sales to third parties. The amounts excluded were $520 million and $338 million for the December 2017 and December 2016 quarters, and $1.5 billion and $1.2 billion for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. Management believes this methodology provides a more consistent and comparable reflection of Delta's airline operations.



(4) Normalized CASM-Ex, including profit sharing: Delta's new pilot contract was ratified on December 1, 2016 and was retroactive to January 1, 2016. As a result, Delta recognized $380 million in retroactive wages and other benefits in the December 2016 quarter that were related to previous quarters. We believe that adjusting this period allows investors to better understand and analyze the company's core operational performance on a year-over-year basis.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this investor update that are not historical facts, including statements regarding our estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections or strategies for the future, may be "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the estimates, expectations, beliefs, intentions, projections and strategies reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the effects of terrorist attacks or geopolitical conflict; the cost of aircraft fuel; the impact of fuel hedging activity including rebalancing our hedge portfolio, recording mark-to-market adjustments or posting collateral in connection with our fuel hedge contracts; the availability of aircraft fuel; the performance of our significant investments in airlines in other parts of the world; the possible effects of accidents involving our aircraft; the restrictions that financial covenants in our financing agreements could have on our financial and business operations; labor issues; interruptions or disruptions in service at one of our hub, gateway, or key airports; breaches or security lapses in our information technology systems; disruptions in our information technology infrastructure; our dependence on technology in our operations; the effects of weather, natural disasters and seasonality on our business; the effects of an extended disruption in services provided by third party regional carriers; failure or inability of insurance to cover a significant liability at Monroe's Trainer refinery; the impact of environmental regulation on the Trainer refinery, including costs related to renewable fuel standard regulations; our ability to retain management and key employees; competitive conditions in the airline industry; the effects of extensive government regulation on our business; the sensitivity of the airline industry to prolonged periods of stagnant or weak economic conditions; uncertainty in economic conditions and regulatory environment in the United Kingdom leading up to and following the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union; and the effects of the rapid spread of contagious illnesses. Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that could cause differences between actual results and forward-looking statements is contained in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2016. Caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which represent our views only as of Jan. 11, 2018, and which we have no current intention to update.

DELTA AIR LINES, INC. Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited)





























Three Months Ended





Year Ended









December 31,





December 31,



(in millions, except per share data) 2017 2016 $ Change % Change

2017 2016 $ Change % Change Operating Revenue:



















Passenger:





















Mainline $ 7,078 $ 6,575 $ 503 8%

$ 29,105 $ 28,105 $ 1,000 4%



Regional carriers 1,423 1,399 24 2%

5,714 5,672 42 1%



Total passenger revenue 8,501 7,974 527 7%

34,819 33,777 1,042 3%

Cargo 200 174 26 14%

729 668 61 9%

Other 1,544 1,310 234 18%

5,696 5,194 502 10%



Total operating revenue 10,245 9,458 787 8%

41,244 39,639 1,605 4%























Operating Expense:



















Salaries and related costs 2,632 2,869 (237) (8)%

10,436 10,034 402 4%

Aircraft fuel and related taxes 1,526 1,256 270 21%

5,733 5,133 600 12%

Regional carriers expense





















Fuel 277 236 41 17%

1,023 852 171 20%



Other 879 854 25 3%

3,480 3,459 21 1%

Depreciation and amortization 586 472 114 24%

2,235 1,902 333 18%

Contracted services 557 511 46 9%

2,184 1,991 193 10%

Aircraft maintenance materials and outside repairs 497 466 31 7%

1,992 1,823 169 9%

Passenger commissions and other selling expenses 443 419 24 6%

1,787 1,710 77 5%

Landing fees and other rents 383 367 16 4%

1,528 1,490 38 3%

Passenger service 261 233 28 12%

1,067 907 160 18%

Profit sharing 262 193 69 36%

1,065 1,115 (50) (4)%

Aircraft rent 92 81 11 14%

351 285 66 23%

Other 657 481 176 37%

2,249 1,986 263 13%



Total operating expense 9,052 8,438 614 7%

35,130 32,687 2,443 7%























Operating Income 1,193 1,020 173 17%

6,114 6,952 (838) (12)%























Non-Operating Expense:



















Interest expense, net (99) (93) (6) 6%

(396) (388) (8) 2%

Miscellaneous, net (5) 25 (30) NM

(17) 72 (89) NM



Total non-operating expense, net (104) (68) (36) 53%

(413) (316) (97) 31%























Income Before Income Taxes 1,089 952 137 14%

5,701 6,636 (935) (14)%























Income Tax Provision (517) (330) (187) 57%

(2,124) (2,263) 139 (6)%























Net Income $ 572 $ 622 $ (50) (8)%

$ 3,577 $ 4,373 $ (796) (18)%























Basic Earnings Per Share $ 0.81 $ 0.85





$ 4.97 $ 5.82



Diluted Earnings Per Share $ 0.80 $ 0.84





$ 4.95 $ 5.79



























Basic Weighted Average Shares Outstanding 707 732





720 751



Diluted Weighted Average Shares Outstanding 711 737





723 755





DELTA AIR LINES, INC. Statistical Summary (Unaudited)

















Three Months Ended

December 31,



Year Ended

December 31,



2017 2016 Change

2017 2016 Change Consolidated:













Revenue passenger miles (millions) 51,180 49,985 2.4%

217,712 213,098 2.2% Available seat miles (millions) 60,060 58,715 2.3%

254,325 251,867 1.0% Passenger mile yield (cents) 16.61 15.95 4.1%

15.99 15.85 0.9% Passenger revenue per available seat mile (cents) 14.15 13.58 4.2%

13.69 13.41 2.1% Total revenue per available seat mile (cents) 17.06 16.11 5.9%

16.22 15.74 3.0% TRASM, excluding refinery- see Note A (cents) 16.65 15.95 4.4%

16.02 15.65 2.4% Operating cost per available seat mile (cents) 15.07 14.37 4.9%

13.81 12.98 6.4% As reported CASM-Ex, including profit sharing- see Note A (cents) 11.20 11.25 (0.4%)

10.57 10.13 4.3% Normalized CASM-Ex, including profit sharing- see Note A (cents) 11.20 10.60 5.6%

10.57 10.13 4.3% Passenger load factor 85.2% 85.1% 0.1 pts

85.6% 84.6% 1.0 pts Fuel gallons consumed (millions) 959 941 1.9%

4,032 4,016 0.4% Average price per fuel gallon $ 1.88 $ 1.59 18.2%

$ 1.68 $ 1.49 12.8% Average price per fuel gallon, adjusted - see Note A $ 1.93 $ 1.60 20.9%

$ 1.74 $ 1.60 8.6% Number of aircraft in fleet, end of period 999 966 33























Mainline:













Revenue passenger miles (millions) 46,089 44,601 3.3%

196,873 191,714 2.7% Available seat miles (millions) 53,801 52,153 3.2%

228,406 225,268 1.4% Operating cost per available seat mile (cents) 14.55 14.06 3.5%

13.30 12.51 6.3% CASM-Ex, including profit sharing - see Note A (cents) 10.84 11.08 (2.2%)

10.22 9.75 4.8% Fuel gallons consumed (millions) 813 790 2.9%

3,431 3,405 0.7% Average price per fuel gallon $ 1.87 $ 1.58 18.4%

$ 1.66 $ 1.50 10.7% Average price per fuel gallon, adjusted - see Note A $ 1.93 $ 1.60 20.6%

$ 1.74 $ 1.63 6.7% Number of aircraft in fleet, end of period 856 832 24























Note: except for number of aircraft in fleet, consolidated data presented includes operations under Delta's contract carrier arrangements.

DELTA AIR LINES, INC. Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended



December 31, (in millions) 2017

2016 Cash Flows From Operating Activities:





Net income $ 572

$ 622 Depreciation and amortization 586

472 Deferred income taxes 497

332 Changes in air traffic liability (640)

(516) Other working capital changes, net 902

215

Net cash provided by operating activities 1,917

1,125









Cash Flows From Investing Activities:





Property and equipment additions:







Flight equipment, including advance payments (798)

(468)

Ground property and equipment, including technology (362)

(326) Purchase of equity investments (450)

- Net redemptions of short-term investments 132

1,023 Other, net 146

216

Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities (1,332)

445









Cash Flows From Financing Activities:





Payments on long-term debt and capital lease obligations (439)

(306) Proceeds from long-term obligations 450

- Repurchases of common stock (325)

(300) Cash dividends (216)

(149) Other, net 281

309

Net cash used in financing activities (249)

(446)









Net Increase in Cash and Cash Equivalents 336

1,124 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 1,478

1,638 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 1,814

$ 2,762





DELTA AIR LINES, INC.



Consolidated Balance Sheets



(Unaudited)

















December 31,

December 31, (in millions) 2017

2016



ASSETS Current Assets:







Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,814

$ 2,762

Short-term investments 825

487

Accounts receivable, net 2,377

2,064

Fuel inventory 916

519

Expendable parts and supplies inventories, net 413

372

Prepaid expenses and other 1,499

1,247



Total current assets 7,844

7,451











Property and Equipment, Net:







Property and equipment, net 26,563

24,375











Other Assets:







Goodwill 9,794

9,794

Identifiable intangibles, net 4,847

4,844

Deferred income taxes, net 942

3,064

Other noncurrent assets 3,308

1,733



Total other assets 18,891

19,435 Total assets $ 53,298

$ 51,261















LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Current Liabilities:







Current maturities of long-term debt and capital leases $ 2,242

$ 1,131

Air traffic liability 4,888

4,626

Accounts payable 3,674

2,572

Accrued salaries and related benefits 3,022

2,924

Frequent flyer deferred revenue 1,822

1,648

Other accrued liabilities 2,925

2,338



Total current liabilities 18,573

15,239











Noncurrent Liabilities:







Long-term debt and capital leases 6,592

6,201

Pension, postretirement and related benefits 9,837

13,378

Frequent flyer deferred revenue 2,296

2,278

Other noncurrent liabilities 2,111

1,878



Total noncurrent liabilities 20,836

23,735











Commitments and Contingencies

















Stockholders' Equity 13,889

12,287 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 53,298

$ 51,261

Note A: The following tables show reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures. The reasons Delta uses these measures are described below

Delta sometimes uses information ("non-GAAP financial measures") that is derived from the Consolidated Financial Statements, but that is not presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. ("GAAP"). Under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules, non-GAAP financial measures may be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, but should not be considered a substitute for or superior to GAAP results. The tables below show reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures used in this release to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

Forward Looking Projections. The company does not reconcile forward looking non-GAAP financial measures because MTM adjustments and settlements will not be known until the end of the period and could be significant.

Pre-Tax Income, adjusted and Net Income, adjusted. We adjust for the following items to determine pre-tax income, adjusted and net income, adjusted, for the reasons described below:

Mark-to-Market ("MTM") adjustments and settlements. MTM adjustments are defined as fair value changes recorded in periods other than the settlement period. Such fair value changes are not necessarily indicative of the actual settlement value of the underlying hedge in the contract settlement period. Settlements represent cash received or paid on hedge contracts settled during the period. These items adjust fuel expense to show the economic impact of hedging, including cash received or paid on hedge contracts during the period. Adjusting for these items allows investors to understand and analyze our core financial performance in the periods shown.

Investment MTM adjustments. We record our proportionate share of earnings from our equity investment in Virgin Atlantic and Aeromexico in non-operating expense. We adjust for these MTM adjustments to allow investors to understand and analyze the company's core financial performance in the periods shown.

Tax reform charge. As a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Delta recognized a one-time charge of $150 million in the December quarter from the estimated impact of the inclusion of foreign earnings and revaluation of deferred tax assets and liabilities. We adjust for this charge to allow investors to understand and analyze the company's core financial performance in the periods shown.

Income tax. We included the income tax effect of adjustments when presenting net income, adjusted. We believe that presenting the income tax effect of adjustments allows investors to understand and analyze the company's core financial performance in the periods shown.



Three Months Ended

Three Months Ended

December 31, 2017

December 31, 2017

Pre-Tax

Income

Net

Net Income (in millions, except per share data) Income

Tax

Income

Per Diluted Share GAAP $ 1,089

$ (517)

$ 572

$ 0.80 Adjusted for:













MTM adjustments and settlements (49)

18

(31)



Investment MTM adjustments (15)

5

(10)



Tax reform charge -

150

150



Total adjustments (64)

173

109

0.16 Non-GAAP $ 1,025

$ (344)

$ 681

$ 0.96 Year-over-year change $ 102













































Three Months Ended

Three Months Ended

December 31, 2016

December 31, 2016

Pre-Tax

Income

Net

Net Income (in millions, except per share data) Income

Tax

Income

Per Diluted Share GAAP $ 952

$ (330)

$ 622

$ 0.84 Adjusted for:













MTM adjustments and settlements (11)

4

(7)



Investment MTM adjustments (18)

7

(11)



Total adjustments (29)

11

(18)

(0.02) Non-GAAP $ 923

$ (319)

$ 604

$ 0.82

































Year Ended

Year Ended

December 31, 2017

December 31, 2017

Pre-Tax

Income

Net

Net Income (in millions, except per share data) Income

Tax

Income

Per Diluted Share GAAP $ 5,701

$ (2,124)

$ 3,577

$ 4.95 Adjusted for:













MTM adjustments and settlements (259)

88

(171)



Investment MTM adjustments 8

4

12



Tax reform charge -

150

150



Total adjustments (251)

242

(9)

(0.02) Non-GAAP $ 5,450

$ (1,882)

$ 3,568

$ 4.93 Year-over-year change $ (621)













































Year Ended

Year Ended

December 31, 2016

December 31, 2016

Pre-Tax

Income

Net

Net Income (in millions, except per share data) Income

Tax

Income

Per Diluted Share GAAP $ 6,636

$ (2,263)

$ 4,373

$ 5.79 Adjusted for:













MTM adjustments and settlements (450)

166

(284)



Investment MTM adjustments (115)

43

(72)



Total adjustments (565)

209

(356)

(0.47) Non-GAAP $ 6,071

$ (2,054)

$ 4,017

$ 5.32

Operating Cash Flow, adjusted. We adjusted operating cash flow because management believes this metric is helpful to investors to evaluate the company's ability to generate cash that is available for use for capital expenditures, debt service or general corporate initiatives. Adjustments include.

Hedge deferrals, including early settlements. During the March 2015 quarter, we effectively deferred settlement of a portion of our fuel hedge portfolio by entering into transactions that, excluding market movements from the date of inception, would provide approximately $300 million in cash receipts during the second half of 2015 and require approximately $300 million in cash payments in 2016. During the March 2016 quarter, we further deferred settlement of a portion of our hedge portfolio until 2017 by entering into transactions that, excluding market movements from the date of inception, would provide approximately $300 million in cash receipts during the second half of 2016 and require approximately $300 million in cash payments in 2017. Additionally, during the June 2016 quarter, we early terminated certain of our outstanding deferral transactions and made cash payments of $170 million, including normal settlements. Operating cash flow is adjusted to include the impact of these deferral transactions in order to allow investors to understand the net impact of hedging activities in the periods shown.

Hedge margin. Operating cash flow is adjusted for hedge margin as we believe this adjustment removes the impact of current market volatility on our unsettled hedges and allows investors to understand and analyze the company's core operational performance in the periods shown.

Reimbursements related to build-to-suit facilities and other. Management believes investors should be informed that these reimbursements for build-to-suit leased facilities effectively reduce net cash provided by operating activities and related capital expenditures.

Pension plan contribution. In 2017, we contributed $2 billion to our pension plans using net proceeds from our debt issuance. We adjusted operating cash flow to exclude this contribution to allow investors to understand the cash flows related to our core operations in the periods shown.







Three Months Ended

Three Months Ended (in millions)

December 31, 2017

December 31, 2016 Net cash provided by operating activities (GAAP)

$ 1,917

$ 1,125 Adjustments:







Hedge deferrals, including early settlements

(51)

75 Hedge margin



17 Reimbursements related to build-to-suit facilities and other

(130)

 Net cash provided by operating activities, adjusted

$ 1,736

$ 1,217





























Year Ended

Year Ended (in millions)

December 31, 2017

December 31, 2016 Net cash provided by operating activities (GAAP)

$ 5,148

$ 7,205 Adjustments:







Hedge deferrals, including early settlements

(224)

(159) Hedge margin



(92) Reimbursements related to build-to-suit facilities and other

(131)

 Pension plan contribution

2,000

 Net cash provided by operating activities, adjusted

$ 6,793

$ 6,954

Total Revenue Per Available Seat Mile "TRASM", excluding refinery. We adjust TRASM for refinery sales to third parties to determine TRASM, adjusted because these revenues are not related to our airline segment. TRASM, excluding refinery therefore provides a more meaningful comparison of revenue from our airline operations to the rest of the airline industry.





Three Months Ended

Three Months Ended







December 31, 2017

December 31, 2016

Change TRASM (cents) 17.06

16.11

5.9% Adjusted for:









Third party refinery sales (0.41)

(0.16)



TRASM, excluding refinery 16.65

15.95

4.4%















Year Ended

Year Ended







December 31, 2017

December 31, 2016

Change TRASM (cents) 16.22

15.74

3.0% Adjusted for:









Third party refinery sales (0.20)

(0.09)



TRASM, excluding refinery 16.02

15.65

2.4%

Fuel expense, adjusted and Average fuel price per gallon, adjusted. The tables below show the components of fuel expense, including the impact of the refinery segment and airline segment hedging on fuel expense and average price per gallon. We then adjust for MTM adjustments and settlements for the reason described below:

MTM adjustments and settlements. MTM adjustments are defined as fair value changes recorded in periods other than the settlement period. Such fair value changes are not necessarily indicative of the actual settlement value of the underlying hedge in the contract settlement period. Settlements represent cash received or paid on hedge contracts settled during the period. These items adjust fuel expense to show the economic impact of hedging, including cash received or paid on hedge contracts during the period. Adjusting for these items allows investors to understand and analyze our core operational performance in the periods shown.

Consolidated:





















Average Price Per Gallon





Three Months Ended



Three Months Ended





December 31,



December 31, (in millions, except per gallon data)

2017 2016



2017 2016 Fuel purchase cost

$ 1,805 $ 1,461



$ 1.89 $ 1.56 Airline segment fuel hedge impact

22 (11)



0.02 (0.01) Refinery segment impact

(24) 42



(0.03) 0.04 Total fuel expense

$ 1,803 $ 1,492



$ 1.88 $ 1.59 MTM adjustments and settlements

49 11



0.05 0.01 Total fuel expense, adjusted

$ 1,852 $ 1,503



$ 1.93 $ 1.60 Year-over-year change

$ 349

















































Year Ended



Year Ended





December 31,



December 31, (in millions, except per gallon data)

2017 2016



2017 2016 Fuel purchase cost

$ 6,833 $ 5,579



$ 1.70 $ 1.39 Airline segment fuel hedge impact

33 281



0.01 0.07 Refinery segment impact

(110) 125



(0.03) 0.03 Total fuel expense

$ 6,756 $ 5,985



$ 1.68 $ 1.49 MTM adjustments and settlements

259 450



0.06 0.11 Total fuel expense, adjusted

$ 7,015 $ 6,435



$ 1.74 $ 1.60















Mainline:





































Three Months Ended



Year Ended





December 31,



December 31,





2017 2016



2017 2016 Mainline average price per gallon

$ 1.87 $ 1.58



$ 1.66 $ 1.50 MTM adjustments and settlements

0.06 0.02



0.08 0.13 Mainline average price per gallon, adjusted

$ 1.93 $ 1.60



$ 1.74 $ 1.63

Non-Fuel Unit Cost or Cost per Available Seat Mile, Including Profit Sharing ("CASM-Ex"). We adjust CASM for the following items to determine CASM-Ex, including profit sharing for the reasons described below:

Aircraft fuel and related taxes. The volatility in fuel prices impacts the comparability of year-over-year financial performance. The adjustment for aircraft fuel and related taxes (including our regional carriers) allows investors to understand and analyze our non-fuel costs and year-over-year financial performance.

Other expenses. Other expenses include aircraft maintenance and staffing services we provide to third parties, our vacation wholesale operations, and refinery cost of sales to third parties. Because these businesses are not related to the generation of a seat mile, we adjust for the costs related to these sales to provide a more meaningful comparison of the costs of our airline operations to the rest of the airline industry.

Pilot contract impact, normalized. Delta's new pilot contract was ratified on December 1, 2016 and was retroactive to January 1, 2016. As a result, Delta recognized $380 million in retroactive wages and other benefits in the December 2016 quarter that related to previous quarters.

Consolidated CASM-Ex:

























Three Months Ended















December 31, 2017

December 31, 2016

Change



CASM (cents)



15.07

14.37







Adjusted for:

















Aircraft fuel and related taxes



(3.00)

(2.54)







Other expenses

(0.87)

(0.58)







CASM-Ex 11.20

11.25

-0.4%



Adjusted for:

















Pilot contract impact, normalized



(0.65)







CASM-Ex, adjusted for pilot contract impact, normalized 11.20

10.60

5.6%























































Year Ended















December 31, 2017

December 31, 2016

Change



CASM (cents)



13.81

12.98







Adjusted for:

















Aircraft fuel and related taxes



(2.66)

(2.38)







Other expenses

(0.58)

(0.47)







CASM-Ex 10.57

10.13

4.3%























Profit sharing per ASM

(0.42)

(0.44)







CASM-Ex, excluding profit sharing 10.15

9.69

4.7%























Mainline CASM-Ex:

























Three Months Ended

Year Ended







December 31, 2017

December 31, 2016

December 31, 2017

December 31, 2016 Mainline CASM (cents)



14.55

14.06

13.30

12.51 Adjusted for:

















Aircraft fuel and related taxes

(2.82)

(2.40)

(2.50)

(2.27) Other expenses

(0.89)

(0.58)

(0.58)

(0.49) Mainline CASM-Ex 10.84

11.08

10.22

9.75

Free Cash Flow. We present free cash flow because management believes this metric is helpful to investors to evaluate the company's ability to generate cash that is available for use for debt service or general corporate initiatives. Adjustments include:

Hedge deferrals. During the March 2016 quarter, we deferred settlement of a portion of our hedge portfolio until 2017 by entering into transactions that, excluding market movements from the date of inception, would provide approximately $300 million in cash receipts during the second half of 2016 and require approximately $300 million in cash payments in 2017. Free cash flow is adjusted to include the impact of these deferral transactions in order to allow investors to understand the net impact of hedging activities in the period shown.

Pension plan contribution. In 2017, we contributed $2 billion to our pension plans using net proceeds from our debt issuance. We adjusted free cash flow to exclude this contribution to allow investors to understand the cash flows related to our core operations in the periods shown.

Reimbursements related to build-to-suit facilities and other. Management believes investors should be informed that these reimbursements for build-to-suit leased facilities effectively reduce net cash provided by operating activities and related capital expenditures.

Net purchases (redemptions) of short-term investments and other. Net purchases (redemptions) of short-term investments represent the net purchase and sale activity of investments and marketable securities in the period, including gains and losses. We adjust free cash flow for this activity, net, to provide investors a better understanding of the company's free cash flow position core to operations.













Three Months Ended (in millions)







December 31, 2017 Net cash provided by operating activities







$ 1,917 Net cash used in investing activities







(1,332) Adjustments:









Hedge deferrals







(51) Reimbursements related to build-to-suit facilities







35 Net redemptions of short-term investments and other







(134) Total free cash flow







$ 435







































Year Ended (in millions)







December 31, 2017 Net cash provided by operating activities







$ 5,148 Net cash used in investing activities







(5,366) Adjustments:









Hedge deferrals







(224) Pension plan contribution







2,000 Reimbursements related to build-to-suit facilities







71 Net purchases of short-term investments and other







338 Total free cash flow







$ 1,967

Adjusted Net Debt. Delta uses adjusted total debt, including aircraft rent, in addition to long-term adjusted debt and capital leases, to present estimated financial obligations. Delta reduces adjusted debt by cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and hedge margin receivable, resulting in adjusted net debt, to present the amount of assets needed to satisfy the debt. Management believes this metric is helpful to investors in assessing the company's overall debt profile. Management has reduced adjusted debt by the amount of hedge margin receivable, which reflects cash posted to counterparties, as we believe this removes the impact of current market volatility on our unsettled hedges.

(in millions)

December 31, 2017

December 31, 2016 Debt and capital lease obligations

$ 8,834



$ 7,332

Plus: unamortized discount, net and debt issuance costs

99



104

Adjusted debt and capital lease obligations



$ 8,933



$ 7,436 Plus: 7x last twelve months' aircraft rent



2,456



1,995 Adjusted total debt



11,389



9,431 Less: cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments



(2,639)



(3,249) Less: hedge margin receivable







(38) Adjusted net debt



$ 8,750



$ 6,144

SOURCE Delta Air Lines

Related Links

http://www.delta.com


DENSO's roster of engineering and recruiting experts will be available to help guide interactive mobility technology displays and virtual reality experiences that illustrate how a future of connected, autonomous, shared and electrified transportation becomes a reality. This is DENSO's 14 th consecutive year participating at NAIAS. DENSO is a premier sponsor of the event.

"Transportation will change rapidly over the next decade, as will society's and our customers' needs," said Bill Foy, senior vice president of Engineering at DENSO's North American headquarters. "Our presence at NAIAS will express how we intend to deliver on these needs and create a future where mobility benefits society without hurting the environment."

Future Mobility Technology Experience

DENSO's booth will introduce participants to the current and future state of connected, autonomous drive, shared mobility and electrification (CASE) technologies. These key technologies will influence how society gets around for years to come. DENSO brings them to life through several interactive displays:

Oculus Rift VR Connected Driving Demo : Connectivity will reduce accidents, improve vehicle efficiency, and make driving easier and more enjoyable. Participants can jump into the cockpit of a future connected car through a virtual reality headset.

Oculus Rift VR Autonomous Driving Demo : Self-driving and autonomous vehicles will take over the tasks of seeing, thinking and doing from drivers. Screens and displays throughout will explain how DENSO sensors enable vehicles to safely navigate the roads, as well as showcase next-generation V2X, human machine interface (HMI) and driver status monitoring technology.

Powering Future Electric Vehicles & Shared Mobility : Vehicles will soon be largely powered by renewable energy, electric batteries and fuel cells. Participants can see how DENSO inverters and other technologies will make electric vehicles more viable. DENSO will also showcase an example of what shared mobility could look like in the future.

AutoMobili-D Future Automotive Career Exposition (FACE)

Engineers, skilled trade workers and others with diverse skill sets will play a major role in designing and building the future of mobility. Since last year's event, DENSO has invested in creating these job opportunities, including more than 1,000 new jobs as a result of its $1 billion North America manufacturing hub investment in October 2017. This year, DENSO engineering and recruiting leaders will meet with qualified individuals to discuss new job opportunities.

Mobility Startup Investment Meetings & Opportunities

Tony Cannestra, DENSO's Director of Corporate Ventures will meet with early-stage startups seeking funding to create the next innovation with automotive applications. DENSO acquired or invested in several diverse technologies over just the past few months, from phone-as-a-key technology to the software backbone for advanced carsharing and ridesharing services. The company plans to continue actively investing in 2018 and beyond.

Speaking Engagements

Automotive News World Congress

Wednesday, January 17 , 11:00 a.m. ET : Bill Foy , DENSO's SVP of Engineering, will participate in a supplier panel discussing the current transportation transformation and challenges to build the future of mobility

Questions and Interviews

If you would like to schedule an interview with DENSO executives, please contact Bridgette LaRose at 248-372-8266 and bridgette[email protected], or Kevin Memolo, Finn Partners at 312-329-3985 and [email protected]

About DENSO in North America

DENSO is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electronics and information and safety. With its North American headquarters located in Southfield, Michigan, DENSO employs morWebsite - http://www.densocorp-na.come than 23,000 people at 28 consolidated subsidiaries and 4 affiliates across the North American region. Of these, 25 are manufacturing facilities located in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In the United States alone, DENSO employs more than 17,000 people in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Iowa, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. DENSO's North American consolidated sales totaled US$9.6 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. For more information, go to www.denso.com/us-ca/en. Connect with DENSO on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DENSOinNorthAmerica.

DENSO Worldwide

DENSO Corp., headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan has more than 200 subsidiaries and affiliates in 38 countries and regions (including Japan) and employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, totaled US$40.4 billion. Last fiscal year, DENSO spent 9.0 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development. DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges. For more information, go to www.denso.com, or visit our media website at www.denso.com/global/en/news/media-center/

SOURCE DENSO

Related Links

http://www.densocorp-na.com


- Projects to include Fintech Cloud for Small Business, Internet Finance Investment Fund & Supply-Chain Trading Platform

SHANGHAI, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dianrong and the Dalian Finance Development Bureau and Dalian Finance Industry Investment Group (DFIIG) recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement to drive financial innovation in Dalian and across China. According to the agreement, Dianrong will develop a series of specific projects in partnership with the Dalian government, including:

Assist the Dalian Finance Development Bureau in creating a financial technology (fintech) cloud platform to provide fintech capabilities for small loan and guarantee companies, and other small and medium-sized financial institutions in the region and at large. Tools and services will include sophisticated fraud detection, big-data risk management tools, payment channel integration, and compliance reporting. The fintech cloud platform will also provide regulators with easier monitoring of local lending activities and trends in an ongoing and comprehensive way, helping them provide timely policy guidance and support on risk management.

to provide fintech capabilities for small loan and guarantee companies, and other small and medium-sized financial institutions in the region and at large. Tools and services will include sophisticated fraud detection, big-data risk management tools, payment channel integration, and compliance reporting. The fintech cloud platform will also provide regulators with easier monitoring of local lending activities and trends in an ongoing and comprehensive way, helping them provide timely policy guidance and support on risk management. Work with DFIIG to establish a special Internet finance investment fund for Dalian . The fund will focus on investment in fintech projects and startups with the potential to strengthen Dalian's new economy and financial services industry.

for . The fund will focus on investment in fintech projects and startups with the potential to strengthen new economy and financial services industry. Develop a supply-chain trading platform in Dalian utilizing advanced fintech and blockchain capabilities to help more small and medium-sized suppliers secure needed funding. Last year, Dianrong created the first blockchain platform for supply-chain finance with FoxConn Group, a global leader in consumer electronics.

Hong Dengjin, the Vice Mayor of Dalian; Zhang Bing, the Director of Dalian Finance Development Bureau; Liu Liyan, Executive Deputy General Manager of DFIIG; Soul Htite, Executive Chairman of Dianrong; and Long Hsiang Loh, CEO of Dianrong attended the signing ceremony in Dianrong's Shanghai headquarters.

The Dalian government officials noted that The State Council implemented guiding principles to promote greater Dalian and Shanghai collaboration with the hope that Dalian will benefit from Shanghai's extensive financial services and fintech experience. For example, Dianrong's advanced fintech and risk management capabilities can be leveraged by Dalian to enhance the capability of the traditional financial institutions and therefore strengthen the SME sector in the region.

Dalian government officials also indicated that this strategic cooperation agreement between Dianrong and Dalian Finance Development Bureau reflects the government's strong support for fintech overall as a means to drive financial and business innovation in the region.

Mr. Htite said, "Fintech, which combines the power of finance and technology, delivers value to both the public and private sectors, including small businesses and local governments. That is why at Dianrong, we never stop pushing the boundaries of fintech's potential. And our cooperation agreement with the Dalian government and DFIIG is an important next step in the China fintech story. Our success together will benefit not only Dalian, but other cities in China and around the world, as well."

About Dianrong

Dianrong, a leader in online marketplace lending in China, originates US$500 million in monthly assets for 4 million retail lenders. Founded in 2012, Dianrong offers small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals a comprehensive, one-stop financial platform supported by industry-leading technology, compliance and transparency. The company's sophisticated and flexible infrastructure enables it to design and customize lending and borrowing products and services, based on industry-specific data and insights, all supported by online risk-management and operation tools. Dianrong's specific offerings include marketplace lending-related services and fintech solutions. The company was named in 2016 to the executive directorship of the National Internet Finance Association of China, led by the People's Bank of China. Dianrong is headquartered in Shanghai. For more information, please visit www.dianrong.com/en.

About Dalian Finance Industry Investment Group

The Dalian Finance Industry Investment Group (DFIIG) is a multi-sector, regional and integrated financial business co-founded by ORIX Group, an internationally renowned financial institution, Dalian Anywide Holdings Co., Ltd., Dalian Construction Investment Group Co., Ltd., and Dalian Rongda Investment Co., Ltd. Committed to building the financial industry as its core business, DFIIG's business covers banking, insurance, investment funds, asset management and financial services.

SOURCE Dianrong.com
NORTH CANTON, Ohio, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Diebold Nixdorf (NYSE: DBD), a world leader in driving connected commerce, today announced that Mark S. Brewer has joined the company as senior vice president and managing director, Global Retail. Brewer is responsible for leading the company's retail connected commerce strategy and operations, including business development, customer relationship management and global sales. As a member of Diebold Nixdorf's senior leadership team, he will report to Juergen Wunram, Diebold Nixdorf interim co-president and co-CEO.

Brewer comes to Diebold Nixdorf from DXC Technology, where he most recently served as global vice president, Enterprise and Cloud Applications. Prior to this, he spent many years in leadership roles at IBM. Brewer's roles at IBM included group general manager, Global Technology Services, for IBM Australia; vice president, North America retail, consumer packaged goods, travel and transportation industries; managing director Retail Industries, North America; and various solution and sales leadership roles in IBM Europe.

"Mark's extensive retail industry and technology services experience, as well as his strong track record across the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific, give us the opportunity to capitalize on our strategic opportunities within the retail industry and further deliver solutions that surpass consumer demands," said Wunram. "He is a perfect fit to lead our retail team and execute our retail growth strategy around the world." Brewer is based at the company's headquarters facility in North Canton.

A native of the U.K., currently residing in northern Virginia, Brewer received a bachelor's degree, with honors, in Systems Design and Mathematics from the University West of England, Bristol, U.K.

About Diebold Nixdorf

Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) is a world leader in enabling connected commerce for millions of consumers each day across the financial and retail industries. Its software-defined solutions bridge the physical and digital worlds of cash and consumer transactions conveniently, securely and efficiently. As an innovation partner for nearly all of the world's top 100 financial institutions and a majority of the top 25 global retailers, Diebold Nixdorf delivers unparalleled services and technology that are essential to evolve in an 'always on' and changing consumer landscape.

Diebold Nixdorf has a presence in more than 130 countries with approximately 24,000 employees worldwide. The organization maintains corporate offices in North Canton, Ohio, USA and Paderborn, Germany. Shares are traded on the New York and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges under the symbol 'DBD'. Visit www.DieboldNixdorf.com for more information.

SOURCE Diebold Nixdorf

Related Links

http://www.diebold.com


LAS VEGAS, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Digipath, Inc. (OTCQB: DIGP) ("DIGP" or the "Company"), a service oriented independent cannabis testing laboratory and media firm focused on the developing cannabis market, today announced that Dr. Cindy Orser, Chief Science Officer at Digipath Labs, recently published original research on the application of terpenoid chemoprofiles for cannabis classification in the peer-reviewed journal, Natural Products Chemistry & Research. This research furthers Digipath's scientific analysis on the importance of terpenoid data for growers and consumers.

The detailed chemical database resulting from the analyses of thousands of cannabis flower samples from an artificially geographically restricted area can serve as the basis for the development of a chemotaxonomic classification scheme outside of conjectural cultivar naming by strain. Chemotaxonomic classification schemes for cannabis cultivars have previously been reported by others based largely on cannabis strains grown under an unregulated testing environment or in Europe from strains grown by a single cultivator. In this study 2,237 individual cannabis flower samples, representing 204 individual strains across 27 cultivators in a tightly regulated Nevada cannabis testing market, were analyzed across 11 cannabinoids and 19 terpenoids. Even though 98.3% of the samples were from Type I cannabis strains with high THCA content, principal component analysis (PCA) of the combined chemometric dataset resulted in three distinct clusters that were distinguishable by terpenoid profiles alone.

Dr. Cindy Orser commented, "We propose that three terpenoid cluster assignments account for the diversity of drug-type cannabis strains currently being grown in Nevada. Expanded chemometric datasets will be used to further refine the Digipath terpenoid-centric classification scheme across cannabis cultivars."

Todd Denkin, President and COO at Digipath Labs, reiterated the company's goal of leveraging terpenoid data by stating, "after years of focusing solely on THCA content, cannabis growers are now paying more attention to the distinctive subtleties that terpenoids contribute."

About Digipath, Inc. (OTCQB: DIGP)

Digipath, Inc., supports the cannabis industry's best practices for reliable cannabis testing and education and brings unbiased cannabis news coverage to the cannabis industry.

Digipath Labs provides pharmaceutical-grade analysis and testing to the cannabis industry to ensure producers, consumers and patients know exactly what is in the cannabis they ingest and to help maximize the quality of its client's products through analysis, research, development, and standardization.

Information about Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that include information relating to future events. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which that performance or those results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time they are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in, or suggested by, the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: the Company's need for additional funding, the demand for the Company's products, governmental regulation of the cannabis industry, the Company's ability to maintain customer and strategic business relationships, the impact of competitive products and pricing, growth in targeted markets, the adequacy of the Company's liquidity and financial strength to support its growth, and other risks that may be detailed from time-to-time in the Company's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting Digipath, please refer to the Company's recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which are available at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contact

Harrison Phillips

Viridian Capital Advisors, LLC

(212) 209-3086

[email protected]

SOURCE Digipath, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.digipath.com


Event to be held in Shanghai from 4 to 5 December, 2018

BRUSSELS, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

EDANA, the leading global association serving the nonwovens and related industries, has opened the call for papers for the 11th edition of FILTREX.

The event will run in tandem with 10th China Filtration & Separation Exhibition and the 7th Filtration & Separation Asia (FSA) event (the largest filtration exhibition in Asia) and is co-organised by the China Filtration Society (CFS), China Nonwovens Technology Association (CNTA) and UBM China.

The conference will feature presentations on the latest market trends and technical developments and processes in the field of filtration and ensure opportunities to network with industry peers and sector experts.

Delegates will be able to combine their participation with a visit to the exhibition.

EDANA is now inviting papers on the following topics:

Innovative filter media technologies

Automotive filtration (oil, fuel, engine, cabin)

Air filtration

Liquid filtration

Filter testing and standards

Presentations that are specifically relevant to Asia's challenges in air pollution control and indoor air quality are particularly welcome.

Persons interested in presenting are invited to send abstracts in English to [email protected] or in Chinese to [email protected]. They should include a proposed title, 3-4 bullet points summarising the presentation, and full contact details of the speaker. The deadline for submission is 30 March.

About EDANA

EDANA helps its members to design their future, serving more than 250 companies in the nonwovens and related industries, across over 40 countries. Its mission is to create the foundation for sustainable growth of the nonwovens and related industries through active promotion, education and dialogue.

About CNTA

CNTA is devoted to technical innovation and R&D in nonwovens and filtration and to promoting trade cooperation between Chinese companies and foreign partners. Besides, CNTA is organizing Shanghai International Nonwovens Conference & Exhibition (SINCE) and FSA together with UBM China for the benefit of the industry's development.

About UBM Asia

Owned by UBM plc listed on the London Stock Exchange, UBM Asia is the largest trade show organiser in the region and the largest commercial organiser in China, India, Malaysia and Thailand, covering 19 market sectors. Every year, UBM Asia connects over 2,000,000 buyers and sellers from 150 countries and regions. www.ubmasia.com

For further information, please contact:

Sean Kerrigan, Communications and Media Relations Executive, EDANA

+32 2 734 93 10

[email protected]

www.edana.org

SOURCE EDANA
Wrightson has been instrumental in establishing and developing the firm's public sector practice. Since 2012, the firm has acquired several public sector clients, with assets totaling approximately $24 billion, in addition to conducting numerous complex projects. Wrightson and her team provide a comprehensive offering of retirement plan services to public clients, including investment consulting, Requests for Proposals for Third Party Administrator services, implementation projects, strategic reviews, contract negotiation, and plan consolidation. Currently, the firm serves plans totaling more than one million participants.

With more than a decade of experience at Cammack Retirement Group, Wrightson is recognized by team members, clients and industry partners for her leadership and commitment to clients. As an industry thought leader, she has spoken at conferences, served as a moderator for AssetTV's Master Class, and contributed to Cammack Retirement's Staying Ahead of the Curve thought leadership series. She also serves on the Participant Engagement Committee for the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA). For her contributions to the industry, she was recognized by the National Association of Plan Advisers (NAPA) as one of the Top Women Advisors.

Wrightson also has a passion for mentoring, which is why she created the Cammack on Campus program. The initiative aims to educate college students about the importance of saving for retirement, provides resources for career development and insight into the financial services industry.

"We are thrilled to have Emily lead the firm's public market practice," said Earle Allen, Partner. "Emily is an invaluable resource to the firm and her clients. I am confident that her dedication and passion will help many public retirement plan participants achieve better retirement outcomes."

ABOUT CAMMACK RETIREMENT GROUP

Cammack Retirement Group provides investment advisory, consulting and actuarial services to retirement plans with assets totaling more than $90 billion. Founded over 50 years ago, our firm takes a comprehensive approach to fiduciary plan management and is committed to long-term client relationships. With offices in New York City, Wellesley, Massachusetts and Lexington, Kentucky, Cammack Retirement serves clients nationwide. For more information on Cammack Retirement Group, please visit www.cammackretirement.com.

Media Contact:

Cara McAuley

781-997-1490

[email protected]

SOURCE Cammack Retirement Group

Related Links

http://www.cammackretirement.com


ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Endgame, the leader in endpoint protection against targeted attacks, today announced it has won a sole source contract with the U.S. Navy to safeguard endpoints from global attackers. As part of this agreement, the Navy, specifically the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. Tenth Fleet, will receive Endgame's endpoint protection platform to prevent, detect and respond, and hunt for advanced threats to protect critical infrastructure.

"Endgame is honored to enter this partnership with the U.S. Navy," said Nate Fick, Endgame CEO. "The Navy is widely known as being on the cutting-edge of cybersecurity defenses, and we were happy to exceed their protection requirements during this competitive process. Safeguarding the most targeted organizations across the Department of Defense is an important part of our mission, and we look forward to continuing it with the Navy."

The U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. Tenth Fleet will leverage Endgame to protect the entire Navy, including more than 500,000 computers and ships' hull, mechanical and electrical systems, weapons and navigation systems, aviation systems, and the technology controlling physical devices on bases and facilities. U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. Tenth Fleet's mission is to "serve as the Numbered Fleet for Fleet Cyber Command and exercise operational control of assigned forces; to direct and deliver tactical and operational effects in and through cyberspace, space, and the electromagnetic spectrum to Navy commanders worldwide and ensure successful execution of Fleet Cyber Command assigned mission areas."

Endgame credits this contract win to its heritage protecting the federal government, including the U.S. Air Force, from targeted attacks. Endgame is rapidly becoming the standard endpoint protection platform across the Department of Defense due to its layered protections and ease of use for inexperienced analysts. As the need for more sophisticated protections has expanded into the commercial sector, Endgame's commercial customer base has grown rapidly, including in critical industries like financial services, healthcare and education. With Endgame, users of any skill level can prevent, stop, and proactively hunt ongoing threats that bypass incumbent security solutions.

The Navy chose Endgame primarily because of its ability to protect against targeted attack techniques and technologies outlined in the MITRE ATT&CK Matrix. The MITRE Corporation recently validated Endgame protections across the breadth and depth of the Matrix during a nation-state emulation exercise. Endgame will continue to work with MITRE to redefine the scope of endpoint protection to ensure technologies are truly effective against modern attacks.

About Endgame

Endgame's converged endpoint security platform is transforming security programs - their people, processes and technology - with the most powerful endpoint protection and simplest user experience, ensuring analysts of any skill level can stop targeted attacks before information theft. Endgame unifies prevention, detection, and threat hunting to stop known and unknown attacker behaviors at scale with a single agent. For more information, visit www.endgame.com and follow us on Twitter @EndgameInc.

Media Contact:

Margot Koehler

[email protected]

(202) 649-0517

Follow Endgame:

Website: endgame.com

Blog: endgame.com/blog

Twitter: twitter.com/endgameinc

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/endgame

Facebook: facebook.com/EndgameInc

YouTube: Endgame on YouTube

SOURCE Endgame

Related Links

http://www.endgame.com


CHICAGO, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Evive, the leader in enterprise benefits engagement, announced today a $43 million minority-interest investment by Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC (SGE). This funding represents the first outside investment in the company's 10-year history.

Evive co-founders Peter Saravis and Prashant Srivastava will continue in their current roles as Executive Chairman and CEO, respectively.

The additional capital will expedite Evive's strategy to expand across the entire benefits spectrum, including not only health but also financial and work/life benefits for large employers. In particular, the investment will accelerate product innovations, broaden the team with subject-matter experts, and advance channel investments.

"The benefits navigation space, particularly as it applies to a total-rewards approach to benefits for large employers, is expanding rapidly," says Scott Feldman, Managing Director of SGE. "It's clear from talking to Evive's blue-chip roster of clients and HR thought leaders that the company is leading the way forward."

"For a team that's been mission-driven from day one, Evive is thrilled by what this funding will mean for our clients as we further invest in our technology platform," says Evive CEO Prashant Srivastava. "Our clients rely on us to help solve their most pressing benefits issues, and these increasingly are best accomplished with smart and innovative technologies that extend the work Evive is already doing."

Evive Executive Chairman Peter Saravis notes that "SGE has a proven track record of backing the long-term growth of SaaS technology companies. Given its entrepreneur-based approach to investing, the SGE team is the ideal partner for Evive's next generation of growth."

About Evive

Evive changes how people use benefits. Integrating richly layered data sets that represent the whole person, Evive activates principles of predictive analytics and behavioral economics to inspire awareness, motivate intelligent decision-making, and obtain demonstrable outcomes. A flexible portfolio of solutions offers engagement across a range of configurations, from health to wealth to work/life. Evive's platform-agnostic, SaaS-based services help people to improve their lives and Fortune 1000 enterprises to optimize their investments. Visit goevive.com to learn more.

About Susquehanna Growth Equity

Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC (SGE) invests in growth stage technology companies in the software, information services, internet and financial technology sectors. SGE was founded in 2006 and is backed by a unique and patient source of capital, which enables the firm to give management teams and entrepreneurs freedom and flexibility to maximize growth. The firm has invested in over 40 companies and has portfolio companies across the US, Canada, EU, and Israel. To learn more, please visit us at www.sgep.com.

For media inquiries contact:

Michael Matascik, VP of Marketing Holly Haseley, PR Counsel [email protected] [email protected] 312.824.6675 414.270.7148

SOURCE Evive Health

Related Links

http://goevive.com/


AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Investment will modernize Warren Truck Assembly to produce Ram Heavy Duty

Ram Heavy Duty truck production will relocate from Mexico to Michigan in 2020

to in 2020 Plant will add 2,500 new U.S. jobs to support production of heavy duty truck

Approximately 60,000 FCA employees in the U.S. will receive special bonus payment

Total U.S. investment grows to more than $10 billion since 2009, with over 25,000 jobs created to date

since 2009, with over 25,000 jobs created to date Production move solidifies U.S. as the global manufacturing hub for Ram products

FCA announced today two actions made possible in part by the passage of U.S. tax reform legislation late last year - an additional investment in its U.S. manufacturing operations and a special payment to recognize employees for their continued efforts towards the success of the Company.

First, the Company confirmed that it will invest more than $1 billion to modernize the Warren Truck Assembly Plant (Michigan) to produce the next generation Ram Heavy Duty truck, which will relocate from its current production location in Saltillo, Mexico, in 2020. This investment is in addition to the announcement made in January 2017 which committed to spending a portion of $1 billion in Warren Truck Assembly to expand the Jeep  product line with the addition of the all-new Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. The Saltillo Truck Assembly Plant will be repurposed to produce future commercial vehicles for global distribution.

To support the increased volume at the Warren facility, 2,500 new jobs will be created, above and beyond the jobs announced as part of the January 2017 announcement.

Second, the Company confirmed that it will make a special bonus payment of $2,000 to approximately 60,000 FCA hourly and salaried employees in the U.S., excluding senior leadership. The payment, which recognizes employees for their continued commitment to the Company's success, will be made in the second quarter of this year, and will be in addition to any profit sharing and salaried performance bonuses that employees would otherwise be eligible to receive in 2018. The special bonus will be paid to all eligible employees of the FCA automotive and components operations in the U.S.

"These announcements reflect our ongoing commitment to our U.S. manufacturing footprint and the dedicated employees who have contributed to FCA's success," said Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive Officer, FCA. "It is only proper that our employees share in the savings generated by tax reform and that we openly acknowledge the resulting improvement in the U.S. business environment by investing in our industrial footprint accordingly."

Investment in U.S. Manufacturing Grows

FCA has invested $10 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations since June 2009. Most recently, the Company announced investments totaling $3.5 billion, with the addition of 3,700 new jobs, to strengthen its U.S. manufacturing base, and align U.S. capacity to extend the Jeep and Ram product lines.

Those investments and related actions involved production shifts at three plants in Illinois, Ohio and Michigan to gain capacity for the Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler and Ram Light Duty truck, and the introduction of three new Jeep models at plants in Ohio and Michigan.

The investments include:

$350 million in the Belvidere Assembly Plant ( Illinois ) to produce the Jeep Cherokee, which moved from Toledo, Ohio in 2017. More than 300 new jobs were added to support production.

in the Belvidere Assembly Plant ( ) to produce the Jeep Cherokee, which moved from in 2017. More than 300 new jobs were added to support production. $700 million in the Toledo Assembly Complex ( Ohio ) to retool the North plant to produce the next generation Jeep Wrangler. Approximately 700 new jobs will be added to support production.

in the Toledo Assembly Complex ( ) to retool the North plant to produce the next generation Jeep Wrangler. Approximately 700 new jobs will be added to support production. $1.5 billion in the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant ( Michigan ) to build the next generation Ram 1500 truck. More than 700 new jobs will be added to support production.

in the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant ( ) to build the next generation Ram 1500 truck. More than 700 new jobs will be added to support production. $1 billion in the south plant of the Toledo Assembly Complex to prepare the facility to produce an all-new Jeep truck, and in the Warren Truck Assembly Plant to modernize the plant to build the all-new Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. More than 2,000 new jobs will be added at these two plants to support production.

The plant investment actions announced today are subject to the negotiation and final approval of incentives by state and local entities.

About FCA

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. ("FCA"), the seventh-largest automaker in the world based on total annual vehicle sales, is an international automotive group. FCA is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "FCAU" and on the Mercato Telematico Azionario under the symbol "FCA."

SOURCE FCA US LLC
STOCKTON, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

WHO:

Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-9)

(CA-9) Mayor Michael Tubbs , Stockton, CA

, Lawrence Parks , Senior Vice President, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

, Senior Vice President, Federal Home Loan Bank of Jose Blanco , President and CEO, Central Valley Fund

, President and CEO, Central Valley Fund Jason Mills , President and CEO, Utility Telecom

, President and CEO, Utility Telecom John Ypma , President and CEO, Initiative Foods

, President and CEO, Initiative Foods David Harrison , Board Member, New World Foundation

, Board Member, New World Foundation David Maurrasse , Senior Fellow, New World Foundation

WHAT:

Remarks by Mayor Tubbs and Rep. McNerney, followed by a press conference where Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBank San Francisco) Senior Vice President Lawrence Parks and New World Foundation (NWF) Board Member David Harrison present a $5 million check to Jose Blanco, President and CEO of the Central Valley Fund (CVF), as part of the Quality Jobs Fund initiative. FHLBank San Francisco seeded the Quality Jobs Fund (QJF) with a $100 million charitable contribution to facilitate quality job creation, finance small business expansion, and support job training in its three-state district of Arizona, California, and Nevada, and in other communities nationally. NWF administrates the program and chooses the recipients. The groundbreaking initiative will improve the wealth-building potential of working families, help generate future homebuyers, and serve as a catalyst for sustainable, long-term community development programs, especially those in underserved communities. The $5 million will be used to invest in companies that develop quality jobs. After the check presentation, Initiative Foods CEO and President David Ypma and Utility Telecom CEO and President Jason Mills will discuss how Central Valley Fund investments in their companies helped them grow and offer quality jobs, fair wages, and good benefits to employees. The press conference will end with a Q&A.

WHERE:

Utility Telecom

4202 Coronado Avenue, Stockton, CA 95204

Live streamed at bit.ly/qjflivestream

WHEN:

Friday, January 12, 2018

9:30 AM PST/ 12:30 PM EST

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Michael K. Frisby 202-625-4382 or [email protected]

Kevin Blackburn 510-377-8999 or [email protected]

(Please contact Mr. Frisby or Mr. Blackburn to schedule a broadcast or print interview with Mr. Parks or Mr. Seibly, President and CEO of FHLBank San Francisco to discuss the initiative.)

* FAST COMPANY's RICK WARTZMAN PROFILES THE QUALITY JOBS FUND: http://bit.ly/qualityjob

SOURCE FHLBank San Francisco
The first patient was treated last week at New York University (NYU) Hospital by Larry Chinitz, MD, a cardiac electrophysiologist and director of NYU Langone's Heart Rhythm Center in New York City.** The trial will enroll 1,250 patients at approximately 90 hospitals, and follow them for five years.

"The WaveCrest System is designed to enable physicians to close the heart's LAA, where most stroke-causing blood clots occur," said Dr. Chinitz. "For patients with AFib seeking an alternative to anticoagulants or blood thinners, this may be an important procedural option that could reduce the risk of stroke and save lives."

According to the American Stroke Association, people with AFib have a five times higher risk of stroke than the general population1.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 87% of all strokes are ischemic strokes2, in which blood flow to the brain is blocked by the formation of a clot. Stroke is one of the most devastating and debilitating diseases, costing the United States an estimated $34 billion each year.3

"Preventing and reducing the risk of stroke in AFib patients is a significant unmet need," said Shlomi Nachman, Company Group Chairman of Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Cardiovascular & Specialty Solutions. "We are committed to investing in meaningful innovation and are excited by the prospect of bringing the WaveCrest System to the U.S. market so that more patients can benefit."

The study is a prospective, multicenter, randomized, active controlled clinical trial of the WaveCrest Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion System compared to an existing FDA-approved LAA Closure Device for the reduction in risk of embolic stroke in subjects with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.

Although the device is under clinical study and not approved for use in the US, the WaveCrest Device is CE Mark approved and available in Europe.

About the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies

The Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies* have been working to make surgery better for more than a century. With substantial breadth and depth in surgical and orthopedic technologies and interventional solutions, we aspire to improve and enhance medical care for people worldwide. Together, we are working to shape the future of health through differentiated products and services.

About Biosense Webster, Inc.

Biosense Webster, Inc. is a global leader in the science of diagnosing and treating heart rhythm disorders. The company partners with clinicians to develop innovative technologies that improve the quality of care for arrhythmia patients worldwide. Biosense Webster, Inc. is part of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. More information can be found at www.biosensewebster.com.

*Comprising the surgery, orthopedics, and cardiovascular businesses within Johnson & Johnson's Medical Devices segment

**Dr. Larry Chinitz is compensated for his services as a primary investigator for the WaveCrest Trial.

086606-180109

 Biosense Webster, Inc 2018

1 http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/LifeAfterStroke/HealthyLivingAfterStroke/UnderstandingRiskyConditions/When-the-Beat-is-Off---Atrial%20Fibrillation_UCM_310782_Article.jsp#.WlPC_baZMQ9

2 Benjamin EJ, Blaha MJ, Chiuve SE, et al. on behalf of the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Heart disease and stroke statistics2017 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2017;135:e229-e445.

3 https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm

SOURCE Biosense Webster, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.biosensewebster.com


AKRON, Ohio, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- For the 12th consecutive year, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) has earned recognition for its emergency response efforts from the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), a leading electric industry organization.

FirstEnergy was honored with the "Emergency Assistance Award" as a result of sending more than 600 line workers and support personnel to assist Florida Power and Light, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric Company and South Carolina Electric and Gas after Hurricane Irma caused wide-spread damage and large-scale power outages in Florida and South Carolina. Over a 15-day period in early September last year, FirstEnergy personnel were part of an effort that ultimately helped restore electric service to more than 4 million customers.

FirstEnergy also earned the "Emergency Recovery Award" for restoration efforts on behalf of its own customers following confirmed tornados and severe thunderstorms that caused nearly 350,000 FirstEnergy customers in Pennsylvania and Ohio to lose power in early May of last year. Overall, more than 480 utility poles and 280 transformers were replaced, along with approximately 52 miles of wire. FirstEnergy crews were able to restore about 95 percent of the affected customers within four days.

"The tireless work by FirstEnergy crews during Hurricane Irma and during the thunderstorms and high winds in May exemplifies our industry's commitment to customer service," said EEI President Tom Kuhn. "FirstEnergy crews worked diligently to safely restore service to customers and are deserving of these awards."

"Receiving both awards is a special honor because it means our employees used their considerable skills to benefit our own customers, and those of other utilities," said Steven Strah, senior vice president of FirstEnergy and president of FirstEnergy Utilities. "Hurricane Irma was a historic storm that caused multiple challenges that our employees were able to overcome, including hazardous travel conditions, a heat index up to 110 degrees, and massive tree damage."

EEI presents awards twice annually to member companies to recognize extraordinary efforts to restore power or for assisting other electric companies after service disruptions caused by severe weather conditions and other natural events. Winners are chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process. The awards were presented January 10, 2018, during the winter EEI Board of Directors and CEO meeting in Arizona.

EEI is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. Members provide electricity for 220 million Americans, and operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As a whole, the electric power industry supports more than 7 million jobs in communities across the United States. In addition, EEI has more than 60 international electric companies as International Members, and hundreds of industry suppliers and related organizations as Associate Members.

FirstEnergy is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate more than 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com. Follow FirstEnergy and its utilities on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp, @ToledoEdison, @IlluminatingCo, @OhioEdison, @MonPowerWV, @JCP_L, @Penn_Power, @Penelec, @Met_Ed, @PotomacEdison, @W_Penn_Power.

Editor's Note: A photo of Steven Strah, senior vice president of FirstEnergy and president of FirstEnergy Utilities, accepting the emergency response award from EEI President Tom Kuhn is available for download on Flickr.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

Related Links

http://www.firstenergycorp.com


COSTA MESA, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On February 19th, the third North American-based Fisher & Paykel Experience Center will open its doors in Costa Mesa, CA. Designers, architects, builders and customers will have the opportunity to view the full range of premium appliances in an environment designed to inspire and ignite creativity.

Located within the Segerstrom Center for the Arts complex and South Coast Plaza, in the heart of design and luxury in Orange County, the Experience Center is the culmination of refined New Zealand inspired design for human-centered appliances. "We believe collaboration is at the heart of great kitchen design. That's why we have created a seamless experience in which customers and designers alike can interact with our appliances in an immersive environment," said Mark Elmore, General Manager of Design Integration at Fisher & Paykel.

"Our Costa Mesa Experience Center is approximately twice the size of our other North American based Centers which enables us to expand on our proven concept of a curated brand experience. We have incorporated a large, fully functioning culinary kitchen as well as additional kitchen vignettes to showcase the breadth of our product portfolio  which has significantly increased over the past few years. We are excited to continue our investment in the designer and builder channel and significantly expand our presence in this market," says Kevin Dexter, Fisher & Paykel President of North America.

The 6,500 sq.ft. showroom sits next to the North American headquarters and is complete with a culinary stage and live cooking stations for product training and hands-on learning. The Experience Center showcases the performance of the products and operates as a space to hold workshops, design industry events and cooking demonstrations. All demonstrations in the live kitchen are led by the Experience Center's Executive Chef.

With the freedom to relax and embark on a kitchen design journey, guests are able to view a selection of 108 products, including 20 new products that launch throughout 2018 for Fisher & Paykel and DCS appliances. Between the physical products, proprietary interactive technology and cutting-edge digital tools, guests will walk away fully armed with specifications, images and design inspiration.

The Costa Mesa Experience Center will be open to the public, 9am  5pm, starting February 19th. Guests can make appointments, by calling 855-372-1934, or can simply walk in.

About Fisher & Paykel

Founded in New Zealand in 1934, the Fisher & Paykel design heritage has been founded on a pioneering spirit and culture of curiosity that challenges conventional appliance design to consistently deliver products tailored for human needs. Fisher & Paykel and DCS incorporate innovative technologies driven from a passion to produce the most technically advanced and efficient appliances, designed with real life in mind. Fisher & Paykel Appliances is a global company operating in more than 50 countries.www.fisherpaykel.com

CONTACT:

Caitlin Davis

949-790-8900 Ext. 3327

[email protected]

SOURCE Fisher & Paykel
BOSTON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Japanese Skincare Brand LENAJAPON is newly entering the body care market.

"LENAJAPON" products offer a simple, gentle skincare and now body care as well with precious botanical extracts.

NEW RELEASE- LJ MOIST BODYSOAP Feel the happiness as if you are hugged by rich foam, scent of natural essential oil, and moisturizing beauty serum.

LENAJAPON USA (https://www.lenajapon.us/) is thrilled to introduce new product; LJ MOIST BODY SOAP in February 2018.

LENAJAPON's natural botanical products are designed for all ages and skin types.

Following the skincare and hair care products, LJ MOIST BODY SOAP is additionally created to make your beauty from head to toe. It contains 8 kinds of naturally derived botanical ingredients such as Quince Seed Extract, known as the queen of moisturizing.

Feel the happiness as if you are hugged by rich foam, scent of natural essential oil, and moisturizing beauty serum. While protecting moisture with gentle amino acid soap, LJ MOIST BODY SOAP gently cleanses your body without over drying. A pleasant aroma of Geranium and Rosemary makes you feel luxurious and calm. According to the study, it is said that" happy hormones" will come out by hugging once a day. Make your bath-time a hugging-time and bring you a happiness every time you use it.

About LENAJAPON

It all began with a distress call from a half the world away. Lena, daughter of Reiko Kanise, was studying classical ballet in Europe and constantly vexed by extra dry skin. She tried myriad creams, lotions and potions but none of them delivered promised benefits. "Mom, help me," Lena, despaired, called her mother. Well, Necessity is the mother of invention. True to the adage, Reiko, with her motherly love and extensive experience in the cosmetics industry, embarked on creating a truly safe, effective and simple-to-use moisturizing lotion for her daughter. She got inspiration from Lena's grandmother. Grandma, aged but surprisingly smooth-skinned, didn't use fashionable cosmetics but always cleansed her face neatly before applying beauty lotion. It was the very basics of skincare upon which the LENAJAPON products were built. They are the fruits of three generations of experience and wisdom you can always rely on.

Founder and CEO of LENAJAPON

Mother of Lena, LENAJAPON founder and CEO, Reiko Kanise was born and raised in Fukuoka, a major southwestern Japanese city blessed with the bounty of nature. In 1975, she joined Hakuhodo, Japan's leading advertising agency, as a branding specialist and copywriter primarily in the field of food and cosmetics (such as Estee Lauder, Origins) before becoming President and CEO of Aeon Forest in 1999, the head franchisee of The Body Shop in Japan. Her passion and dedication for setting women free from uncomfortable skin disorders led her to start her own skincare firm in 2007 and create the LENAJAPON brand. It is now internationally recognized as being among the best natural skincare products available anywhere.

Contact:

Lena Kanise Jensen

6465844742

[email protected]

website - www.lenajapon.us

SOURCE LENAJAPON USA

Related Links

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GREENWICH, Conn., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gramercy Funds Management LLC, a $6 billion dedicated emerging markets investment manager, today announced the appointment of Belinda Hill to the position of Managing Director, Research Analyst. Ms. Hill has over 16 years of experience, most recently with Apollo Global Management where she analyzed emerging markets sovereign, quasi-sovereign and corporate issuers across all sectors while sourcing and evaluating strategic initiatives and private investment opportunities.

Ms. Hill will be a senior member of the research team and will bring her significant experience to the idea generation process and asset management functions at Gramercy. She joins a team of approximately a dozen analysts covering corporate and sovereign credit in emerging markets.

Commenting on the appointment, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer Robert Koenigsberger said, "Fundamental, proprietary credit research has always been at the core of Gramercy's investment process. Belinda's analytical expertise strengthens our team and her ability to generate investment ideas will directly benefit our portfolios."

"Gramercy is known as a leader in emerging markets investing," said Ms. Hill, "I am excited to join a team that shares my passion for the asset class and will allow me to have a tangible impact for investors."

Prior to Apollo, Ms. Hill was an emerging markets corporate credit analyst at Schroders Investment Management, where she conducted fundamental research on investment grade and high yield credit across all sectors. She also provided various portfolio managers with value-added actionable trading recommendations for Latin America based on fundamental and relative value analysis. Ms. Hill also spent time at HPP, PepsiCo and Credit Suisse. She graduated Cum Laude from Georgetown University earning her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

About Gramercy:

Gramercy is a $6 billion dedicated emerging markets investment manager based in Greenwich, Connecticut with a research presence in London, Hong Kong, Mexico City and Buenos Aires. The firm, founded in 1998, seeks to provide investors with superior risk-adjusted returns through a comprehensive approach to emerging markets, supported by a transparent and robust institutional platform. Gramercy offers both alternative and long-only strategies across all emerging markets asset classes including capital solutions, private credit, distressed debt, equity, private equity, special situations, USD debt, local currency debt and high yield/corporate debt. www.gramercy.com

SOURCE Gramercy
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Oracle announced that Group Dynamite deployed Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Cloud Service to propel teams forward with an integrated, science-based cloud planning solution. Groupe Dynamite operates more than 400 stores and online shopping experiences in 10 countries and employs more than 6,000 people with brands Garage and Dynamite.

As a fast fashion retailer, Groupe Dynamite delivers creative and fresh merchandising to drive customer engagement across multiple touch points. Groupe Dynamite required one unified global planning approach to drive inventory performance, the flexibility to configure the interface and the ability to infuse data science into assortment prioritization, all while supporting open-to-buy processes.

"Our current process and incumbent solution required an assortment planning process that was time consuming and cumbersome. By shifting to Oracle Retail, we are empowering our teams with an intuitive and modern interface, and a holistic planning solution that provides store level detail and allows us to make more strategic merchandise decisions," said Julie Fillion, Senior Director of Planning, Groupe Dynamite.

"Currently we have a team of regional product intelligence professionals dedicated to analyzing data and identifying and transferring products into stores. With millions of items per year, we need to be more efficient with how we allocate time for products, especially in a highly competitive market," said Sylvain Duval, Chief Operating Officer, Groupe Dynamite. "We want to apply the science and optimization of Oracle Retail Cloud Services to drive efficiency and productivity today. The deployment of Oracle Retail Merchandising Financial Planning Cloud Service took three months and we stayed on time and on budget and look forward to the next phase to implement Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Cloud Service."

Groupe Dynamite has a long-standing partnership with Oracle Retail. In 2011, Groupe Dynamite launched fast fashion women's apparel retailer brands Garage and Dynamite in the U.S. supported by Oracle Commerce solutions. Underlying these applications is Oracle SOA Suite, which Groupe Dynamite is using to streamline real-time messaging processes. In 2014, Groupe Dynamite deployed Oracle Retail Merchandising, Stores and Financial Inventory Management solutions to accelerate international expansion with a single view of inventory.

"We are pleased to extend the partnership with Groupe Dynamite to the next step of their IT transformation. Our Oracle Retail Planning Cloud Services offer best-in-class solutions that enable retailers to drive profitability and remain flexible to the changing retail environment," said Ray Carlin, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Retail. "With the minimized costs associated with cloud deployment retailers like Groupe Dynamite are able to experience return on investment more quickly."

Oracle Retail at NRF 2018

Oracle Retail will be showcasing the full suite of Oracle Retail solutions and cloud services at the National Retail Federation Big Show Jan. 14-16, 2017, in New York City at the Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center. Oracle Retail will be located at booth #3521. For more information check out: www.oracle.com/retail

About Oracle Retail

Oracle provides retailers with a complete, open, and integrated suite of best-of-breed business applications, cloud services, and hardware that are engineered to work together and empower commerce. Leading fashion, grocery, and specialty retailers use Oracle solutions to anticipate market changes, simplify operations and inspire authentic brand interactions. For more information, visit our website at www.oracle.com/retail.

About Oracle

The Oracle Cloud delivers hundreds of SaaS applications and enterprise-class PaaS and IaaS services to customers in more than 195 countries and territories while processing 55 billion transactions a day. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

About Groupe Dynamite

Groupe Dynamite, a Montreal-based company with two brands at the heart of its success, operates more than 400 stores in Canada and worldwide and employs close to 6,000 people. The Company creates, designs, markets and distributes a constantly evolving edited fashion collection to a large network of Dynamite and Garage retail stores. The brand's core strength is rooted in a solid understanding of its customer and is a design-driven fashion retail organization. More information on Groupe Dynamite is available at www.dynamite.ca

SOURCE Oracle

Related Links

http://www.oracle.com


"Our dry seasoned loin filets are a perfect way to enrich the already flavorful and juicy cuts of meat," said Megan Elliott, brand manager at Hormel Foods. "Providing a delicious, simple and easy to make dry seasoned loin to complement our existing Hormel Always Tender products is something our consumers have been asking for, and we are happy to deliver."

The three available flavors are dry seasoned with the following simple ingredients:



Greek Inspired  dry seasoned with onion, oregano, and thyme

Herb  dry seasoned with rosemary, thyme, and basil

Sun-Dried Tomato  dry seasoned with sun-dried tomato, basil, and oregano

Hormel Always Tender Dry Seasoned Loin Filets are available in 1.5 pound packages and can be found in stores nationwide.

For more information on Hormel Always Tender products, including the dry seasoned loin filets, visit www.hormel.com/Brands/AlwaysTender.aspx.

About Hormel Foods  Inspired People. Inspired Food.

Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Austin, Minn., is a global branded food company with over $9 billion in annual revenues across more than 80 countries worldwide. Its brands include Skippy, SPAM, Hormel Natural Choice, Applegate, Justin's, Wholly Guacamole, Hormel Black Label and more than 30 other beloved brands. The company is a member of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, was named one of "The 100 Best Corporate Citizens" by Corporate Responsibility Magazine for the ninth year in a row, and has received numerous other awards and accolades for its corporate responsibility and community service efforts. In 2016, the company celebrated its 125th anniversary and announced its new vision for the future - Inspired People. Inspired Food. - focusing on its legacy of innovation. For more information, visit www.hormelfoods.com and http://csr.hormelfoods.com/.

SOURCE Hormel Foods Corporation

Related Links

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Muress is a well-known industry veteran who, over the course of his career, ascended the ranks from claims adjusting trainee to executive leader. He most recently served as CEO of international operations for a large global adjusting firm, where he had responsibility for all business outside the U.S. He also was a member of the firm's global executive management team.

In his new role, Muress will leverage his deep understanding of global claims management and quality standards to oversee and support Sedgwick and subsidiary Vericlaim's expanding international operations.

"Ian Muress is the ideal person to lead our rapidly growing multi-national business," said Sedgwick Group President Mike Arbour. "His reputation for customer service is unparalleled, and his expertise will be instrumental as we work to bring our services to additional global markets."

"Each of Sedgwick and Vericlaim's highly respected executives around the world enjoys an enviable market reputation; together, we represent a formidable team focused on the unique opportunities presented to us as an unrivalled, worldwide claims organisation capable of servicing global clients across all sectors," Muress said. "I look forward to working with the many outstanding businesses in the UK and around the world in my new role as Sedgwick's CEO of international operations."

"At Sedgwick, taking care of people is at the heart of everything we do," said Dave North, Sedgwick president and CEO. "Having a leader of Ian's caliber at the helm of our international operations will enable us to be there for more people in more places when unexpected losses occur."

About Sedgwick

Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc., is a leading global provider of technology-enabled risk and benefits solutions. At Sedgwick, caring countsSM; the company takes care of people and organisations by delivering cost-effective claims, productivity, managed care, risk consulting and other services through the dedication and expertise of nearly 15,000 colleagues in some 275 offices located in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland. Sedgwick facilitates financial and personal health and helps customers and consumers navigate complexity by designing and implementing customized programs based on proven practices and advanced technology that exceed expectations. Sedgwick's majority shareholder is KKR; Stone Point Capital LLC, La Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) and other management investors are minority shareholders. For more, see www.sedgwick.com.

SOURCE Sedgwick

Related Links

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The company is today able to offer its complete LAN, FTTx and DC assortment to the Brazilian market. The production is meeting the quality standards of the R&M Group. "The plant in Brazil plays an important role in our production framework for the Brazilian and other cabling markets in Latin America," said Markus Stieger, COO of R&M. "In our plant in Minas Gerais we produce high-quality fiber optic products for datacenters and public networks. In the last months, we established copper patch cord and platform assembly lines with the support of technical experts from the headquarters in Switzerland.

"R&M is now able to manufacture a complete line of copper and fiber optic products in Brazil. This will support us in strengthening our position in the LAN market," added Paulo Campos, Managing Director Latin America: "There is still a large need for high-quality communication infrastructure." The entire region is managed from its subsidiaries in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais in Brazil. R&M has in addition to the two locations a comprehensive partner network in Brazil and other countries to meet the demands of its customers.

About R&M

R&M (Reichle & De-Massari AG) is a leading global producer of future-proof products and systems for communication and data networks. The company's close collaboration with certified partners results in pioneering connectivity solutions in the sectors LAN, public and telecom networks, and data centers. The Swiss family company stands for innovation, quality, and proximity to customers. More information can be found at www.rdm.com.

SOURCE R&M

Related Links

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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet Brands has reached an agreement to acquire Avvo, Inc. and add the renowned brand to its expansive Legal portfolio. Terms of the transaction were not made public. The closing between the parties is expected to be completed shortly.

Founded in 2006 and based in Seattle, Avvo is a leading online legal marketplace connecting lawyers and consumers. The brand attracts more than 100 million annual visits to its namesake website and mobile apps through a comprehensive offering of legal services, attorney profiles, Q&A forums, and educational content for consumers and attorneys. More than 300,000 attorneys are active Avvo users.

Avvo will join Internet Brands' Legal vertical, a robust and innovative online legal network simultaneously serving consumers and attorneys. Internet Brands entered the Legal space in 2010 and operates flagship online legal brands Nolo (high-quality legal content for consumers and attorney leads), Martindale-Hubbell (legal directory, websites and peer ratings), Ngage (live chat) and Total Attorneys (attorney leads).

With the addition of Avvo, the Internet Brands Legal vertical will offer an extensive product offering for attorneys, including directory listings, leads, websites and chat.

"Avvo's culture of rapid innovation with the mission of serving both consumers and attorneys mirrors the strategy that has guided the Internet Brands Legal portfolio to strong growth over the past decade," said Bob Brisco, CEO of Internet Brands. "We look forward to continuing to transform how consumers connect with attorneys while helping attorneys grow their businesses."

"Internet Brands is a uniquely great fit for us," said Mark Britton, Founder and CEO of Avvo. "With their commitment to and understanding of the legal vertical, we quickly envisioned a collective whole that would bring more consumers and lawyers together than ever before. I am excited about what we will accomplish together."

The Avvo brand will be retained following completion of the acquisition, and Avvo will continue to operate from its headquarters in Seattle under the direction of its existing leadership team.

Citi is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Avvo in connection with the transaction and Perkins Coie is serving as its legal advisor.

About Internet Brands

Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Internet Brands is a fully integrated online media and software services organization focused on four high-value vertical categories: Health, Automotive, Legal and Home/Travel. The company's award-winning consumer websites lead their categories and serve more than 100 million monthly visitors, while a full range of web presence offerings has established deep, long-term relationships with SMB and enterprise clients. Internet Brands' powerful, proprietary operating platform provides the flexibility and scalability to fuel the company's continued growth. Internet Brands is a portfolio company of KKR and Temasek. For more information, please visit www.internetbrands.com.

About Avvo, Inc.

Avvo helps people find and connect with the right lawyer through industry leading content, tools and services. Founded in 2006 in Seattle, Avvo provides transparent information about attorneys, with Avvo-rated profiles for 97% of practicing lawyers in the United States. A free Q&A forum with more than 11 million questions and answers, and on-demand legal services that provide professional counsel for a fixed cost, make legal faster and easier. For more information on how Avvo helps people through legal issues from research to resolution, visit www.avvo.com.

SOURCE Internet Brands

Related Links

https://www.internetbrands.com


MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- On January 3, 2018 Knowledge First Financial announced the acquisition of Heritage Education Funds Inc. and Heritage Education Funds International, LLC to pursue a shared goal of helping families maximize their education savings. The companies will create the largest Education Savings Plan provider in Canada and select international markets with a total of $6.4 billion in assets under management. Knowledge First is owned by a not-for-profit Foundation, while Heritage was privately held.

Each company brings more than 50 years of helping families across the globe save for post-secondary education through the use of a focused education savings plan. Heritage Education Funds International has been serving the education savings needs of customers around the globe for more than three decades.

"We are very pleased to bring together these two strong, long-standing financial institutions," says George Hopkinson, President and CEO, Knowledge First Financial. "We believe the combined size and scale of these two organizations will enable us to meet a growing need for education specialists who are dedicated to helping families maximize their education savings."

"It's a privilege to serve families around the world who are planning ahead so their children can pursue a post-secondary education," said Jason Maguire, outgoing president and CEO of Heritage Education Funds International, LLC. "Now we are in an even stronger position to make our education savings plans available to more parents and grandparents."

The Heritage International Scholarship Trust Plan is a US dollar-denominated savings plan which has, to date, over US $115 million in asset under management and has benefited over 20,000 students attending post-secondary institutions in the Caribbean, United States, Canada, UK and other parts of the world. The Plan is sponsored by The Heritage International Scholarship Trust Foundation, a not-for-profit Canadian corporation which was also part of the acquisition. Since its inception, The Heritage International Scholarship Trust Foundation has returned more than US$152 million in principal, educational assistance payments and scholarships to qualified students.

The Heritage International Scholarship Trust Plan will continue to be distributed and managed as it is today. The international business will operate under the name of Knowledge First International Inc. and the company will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Knowledge First Foundation. The Knowledge First Foundation is a not-for-profit Canadian corporation that reinvests its net revenue in initiatives that support student success. Since 1965 the Knowledge First Foundation has provided students with nearly $50 million in additional discretionary top-up payments and has awarded more than $1 million in post-graduate scholarships.

George Hopkinson will continue as President and CEO and will lead the integration activities. Jason Maguire will join Knowledge First as Managing Director to assist in the integration and continue to lead and support the international operation.

The acquisition closed January 2, 2018.

The acquisition is not expected to have any impact on subscribers or beneficiaries to the Heritage International Scholarship Trust Plan or Knowledge First Plans. Blair Franklin Capital Partners Inc. is serving as financial advisor and Wildeboer Dellelce, LLP is acting as legal counsel to Knowledge First.

About Knowledge First Financial

Canadian families have relied on education savings plans offered by Knowledge First Financial for more than 50 years. Today the company provides sound financial management and administers $3.72 billion in assets on behalf of more than 250,000 customers. Since 1965, payments from the plans have reached $3.6 billion.

Knowledge First Financial Inc. is the investment fund manager, administrator and distributor of the Registered Education Savings Plans.

About Heritage Education Funds

Heritage Education Funds is a leading and trusted provider of Education Savings Plans, with over 50 years of experience in Canada and over 30 years in select international markets.

Heritage Education Funds International operates in Jamaica, Bahamas, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.

visit www.HeritageESPcom.

SOURCE Knowledge First Financial
NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kroll ("the Company"), a global leader in risk mitigation, investigations, compliance, cyber resilience, security, and incident response solutions, today announced the appointment of four new Managing Directors, enhancing the Company's leadership team across the globe. Each of the following appointments became effective January 1, 2018.

Fernanda Barroso , Sao Paulo, Brazil

, Sao Paulo, Greg Michaels , Secaucus, New Jersey

, Cem Ozturk , Singapore

, Katy Shanahan , Boston, Massachusetts

"In their time at Kroll, Fernanda, Greg, Cem, and Katy have consistently demonstrated the values and strengths that make Kroll the leading global provider of risk and investigative services: deep professional knowledge, client service excellence, strong entrepreneurial mindset, a drive to continually improve, and dynamic cross-regional/cross-practice collaboration," said David Fontaine, Chief Executive Officer of Kroll and its parent, Corporate Risk Holdings. "Each excels at successfully meeting the most complex needs of our global clientele, and earning the trust and confidence of clients and colleagues alike. I am very proud to announce their elevation within the Kroll organization and look forward to seeing them continue to grow and succeed in our firm."

Fernanda Barroso, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Ms. Barroso joined Kroll in 2015 and was named Head of the Sao Paulo office in 2017. With a background in finance and journalism and an advanced degree in economics and quantitative analysis, Ms. Barroso has led engagements that range from large-scale forensic accounting investigations to internal fraud investigations. She frequently consults with law firms and corporations on investigative issues related to financial fraud, such as revenue or expense falsification, corruption, and employee wrongdoing. Ms. Barroso has also coordinated projects relating to entry alternatives in Brazil, business internationalization, and regulatory assessment. She came to Kroll with more than a decade of experience working on a broad array of business transactions, such as domestic and international due diligence and business intelligence assignments. Her previous work history includes service with a Big Four accounting firm, commercial banks, private banks, private equity firms, and government departments. Ms. Barroso is a graduate of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and Saint Paul Escola de Negocios, and is a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. She is fluent in Portuguese and English.

Greg Michaels, Secaucus, New Jersey

Mr. Michaels, who joined Kroll in 2014, partners with clients at the strategic and operational level to build proactive information security programs, helping them to comply with regulatory requirements and to minimize enterprise risk. He has extensive experience collaborating across functional units and communicating complex technical matters in plain spoken terms to executive stakeholders. Mr. Michaels has particularly deep experience helping healthcare organizations enhance their security, privacy, and compliance programs, enabling them to navigate the complex regulatory landscape and emerging global threats. Prior to joining Kroll, Mr. Michaels worked as Chief Security Officer for BluePrint Healthcare IT, where he led the Security, Privacy, and Compliance practice for more than five years. Earlier in his career, Mr. Michaels worked as an Information Security Analyst for i3 Global (United Health Group) and as a Network & Security Administrator for PXRE Group, Ltd. Mr. Michaels is a graduate of Seton Hall University School of Law, Capitol College, and Rutgers University, and holds the following certifications: Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP); PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA); Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC); Certified Information Systems Manager (CISM); Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA); Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP); Project Management Professional (PMP); and Systems Security Certified Professional (SSCP).

Cem Ozturk, Singapore

Since joining Kroll in 2011, Mr. Ozturk has progressively risen in the firm to his current role as Managing Director. Originally from Virginia, he has more than 14 years of in-country Asia Pacific experience and specializes in investigative projects in low-transparency markets with weak rule of law and a high degree of overlap between political and economic issues. With a strong regional network that enables him to efficiently provide intelligence to strategic and legal teams, Mr. Ozturk has experience managing complex investigations into hidden stakeholders, directing research into high-profile partnerships, and providing Kroll's Western and Japanese clients with local insight around challenging regional risk issues. He has conducted substantial fieldwork in over 20 countries, including deep investigative experience in Indonesia and Myanmar. He has also been involved in multiple complex global asset traces across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the West Pacific. Prior to joining Kroll, Mr. Ozturk spent over a decade in political journalism, publishing, and NGO work in six Asia Pacific markets, including India, Thailand, and Korea. Mr. Ozturk is a graduate of the Nanyang Technological University and the University of Virginia. A native English speaker, Mr. Ozturk is also conversant in Japanese.

Katy Shanahan, Boston, Massachusetts

Ms. Shanahan, who joined Kroll in 2006, has worked on, and currently manages, a variety of complex multi-jurisdictional investigations on behalf of clients across diverse industry sectors. She has led and provided analysis on hundreds of due diligence assignments, both domestic and international, including large-scale due diligence engagements in support of IPOs and other commercial transactions. Ms. Shanahan also has experience conducting investigations involving employee fraud and misconduct, theft of intellectual property, and competitive intelligence matters. Additionally, she has managed and worked on several domestic and international asset search investigations for Fortune 100 companies, individuals, and judgment creditors. Her efforts support her clients' needs in crisis management, litigation support, and corporate contests. Prior to joining Kroll, Ms. Shanahan was an Investigator with the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). There, she helped promote labor union and labor-management transparency through the enforcement of reporting and disclosure requirements for unions and their officials, employers, labor relations consultants, and surety companies. Ms. Shanahan is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross.

About Kroll:

Kroll is the leading global provider of risk solutions. For more than 40 years, Kroll has helped clients make confident risk management decisions about people, assets, operations, and security through a wide range of investigations, cyber security, due diligence and compliance, physical and operational security, and data and information management services. Headquartered in New York with more than 35 offices in 20 countries, Kroll has a multidisciplinary team of nearly 1,000 employees and serves a global clientele of law firms, financial institutions, corporations, non-profit institutions, government agencies, and individuals. For more information visit www.kroll.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's performance and growth, and other non-historical statements. Forward-looking statements identify prospective information. Important factors could cause actual results to differ, possibly materially, from those stated in the forward-looking statements. In some cases you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "predict," "potential," "should," "will" and "would" or the negatives thereof, variations thereof or other similar words. You should read statements that contain these words carefully because they discuss the Company's future priorities, goals, strategies, actions to improve business performance, market growth assumptions and expectations, future business opportunities, capital expenditures, financing needs, financial position and other information that is not historical information or state other "forward-looking" information. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by which, such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking information is based on information available at the time and/or management's good faith belief with respect to future events, and is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in the statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information except to the extent required by applicable securities laws. If the Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that the Company will make additional updates with respect thereto or with respect to other forward-looking statements.

Contact:

Kroll (U.S. Contact)

Nicole Cueto

212-833-3481

[email protected]

Media Contact:

Infinite Global

Ada Oni-Eseleh

646-685-8075

[email protected]

SOURCE Kroll

Related Links

https://www.kroll.com


KARACHI, Pakistan, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

U.S.-based Centennial Group reveals the Aga Khan University's multi-faceted impact as a pioneer and exemplar: empowering women, serving the poor, and implementing life-saving solutions

The Aga Khan University announced today the results of a unique study which found that AKU has an annual economic impact in Pakistan of $1 billion and is sparking change as a pioneer in medicine, education and the promotion of gender equity.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/627600/Aga_Khan_University_Logo.jpg )



The study is the work of a team of economists from Centennial Group International, a U.S.-based consulting firm, many of them former senior officials at the World Bank. It is believed to be the first comprehensive economic impact study of a Pakistani university.

Most university economic impact studies focus only on quantifiable impacts that can be expressed in monetary terms. Centennial's report is different, providing a qualitative analysis of the public benefits AKU creates. The authors call the University "a national innovator and a powerhouse for quality," and "a nationwide role model for high-quality tertiary education and medical care."

As a pioneer in achieving international quality standards, the Aga Khan University Hospital was Pakistan's first hospital accredited by the U.S.-based Joint Commission International, and its laboratory was the country's first accredited by the College of American Pathologists. AKU transformed the nursing profession in Pakistan, clearing a pathway to professional advancement for countless women. Two-thirds of AKU students are women, as are half of its senior faculty.

Seven of Pakistan's top 10 health researchers are AKU faculty, according to the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology. The University's health research is helping to save the lives of women and children living in poverty. AKU is the only university in Pakistan that is researching and implementing life-saving initiatives on a truly national scale. It also has influenced health policy and action at the global level.

Over five years, the University will be working with government health providers to improve health for 11.5 million women and children in Pakistan through its Umeed-e-Nau (Hew Hope) project, funded by a $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest in AKU's history.

To learn more, and to download the report, go to http://www.aku.edu.

SOURCE Aga Khan University
FRESNO, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lozano Smith, LLP, a leading California education and public agency law firm, is pleased to announce that Trevin Sims, Edward Sklar and Sloan Simmons have been promoted to Lozano Smith's equity partnership.

"Trevin, Ed and Sloan are distinguished and talented attorneys who have dedicated their careers to public agencies and to the students and communities that our clients serve," said Karen Rezendes, Managing Partner of Lozano Smith. "In addition to their remarkable achievements as attorneys, all have served in leadership roles within the firm helping to generate incredible success and growth for our firm. Our clients have been enriched by each attorney's depth of expertise and quality of legal services."

Trevin Sims first joined Lozano Smith in 1996 and later became an office-managing non-equity partner in 2007. Throughout his career, Mr. Sims' practice has focused on virtually every area of public education law, including facilities and business, board governance, municipal finance, special education, student discipline, classified and certificated employee discipline, and school district reorganization. Trevin also leads Lozano Smith's Public Safety Practice Group, and trains public agency leaders throughout the state.

Edward Sklar began his career with Lozano Smith in 2001 and later became a non-equity partner in January 2007. Mr. Sklar has held various leadership positions, including serving as the Charter School Practice Group co-chair since 2008 as well as the Walnut Creek office managing partner for the past eight years. Ed is an expert on charter school issues and provides statewide trainings for public entities.

Sloan Simmons' career began at Lozano Smith in 2002. He was the Student Practice Group co-chair from 2009 until 2013 when he became co-chair of the firm's Litigation Practice Group. His practice focuses on all aspects of public entity litigation, with a record of success in litigation on complex and wide impact cases, and the student arena including constitutional and other statutory student rights and requirements, student discipline, student records, and all other aspects of student-school related issues. Sloan is a regular contributor and sought-after speaker for the National School Boards Association, the California School Boards Association, the Association of California School Administrators, and other California education associations.

Get to Know Lozano Smith

Lozano Smith is a full-service education and public agency law firm serving hundreds of California's K-12 school districts, community college districts, and numerous cities, counties, and special districts. The firm's expertise includes, but is not limited to, personnel matters, labor relations, technology, real property and construction matters, constitutional issues, special education, student discipline, school funding, charter schools, bond elections, governance, and litigation in all areas of representation. Lozano Smith has offices in 8 California locations: Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles, Mission Viejo, Monterey, Sacramento, San Diego and Walnut Creek. For more information about Lozano Smith or to see full attorney bios, visit www.LozanoSmith.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter. You can also download the Lozano Smith App.

Contact: Andy Garcia

Executive Director

559.431.5600

[email protected]

SOURCE Lozano Smith

Related Links

http://www.lozanosmith.com


WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is pleased to present a new report, Make America Great Again in Space. The report recommends bold new policy to ensure US leadership in space in the realms of commercial enterprise, defense, and intelligence.

Driving American Enterprise and National Security in Space

Make America Great Again in Space examines the essential role of the US Government in laying the foundations for enterprise and economic development, by investing in infrastructure and R&D. It outlines the history of the space industry of today and advocates for continued investment in infrastructure and research needed to support commercial development of space.

Every major nation on Earth, and many corporations and consortia, are making major investments in space infrastructure and R&D. The space economy is projected to be worth $1-4 trillion by 2040. It will take leadership to ensure that America is at the forefront of the growing space economy.

Make America Great Again in Space proposes a reorganization of the US national space program to ensure American leadership in this next space race. It includes a radical new vision for NASA as an enabler and driver of this economic boom. Make America Great Again in Space declares that space will be a warfighting domain, and that the Department of Defense must begin preparing now. It also draws parallels between the military's historic role in supporting commercial enterprise by providing security, and the coming need for security in the growing space economy. The report describes the need for intelligence capabilities to maintain awareness of activities in space to understand the intent of our adversaries, just as we do on Earth.

The contributors to the Make American Great Again in Space report include Michael Swetnam, Dr. Jerry Krassner, Kathryn Schiller Wurster, Luke Koslosky, Chloe Hite, Erica Turner, Dr. Sara Usher, and Dr. Derek Denning, with contributions and ideas from a wide range of experts. This report is the inaugural product of the Potomac Institute's Center for Enterprise, Exploration, and Defense in Space (CEEDS), formed to develop strategy and policy for space.

About the Potomac Institute

The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is an independent, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit public policy research institute. The Institute identifies and aggressively shepherds discussion on key science, technology, and national security issues facing our society, providing in particular, an academic forum for the study of related policy issues. From these discussions and forums, we develop meaningful policy options and ensure their implementation at the intersection of business and government.

For further information see www.potomacinstitute.org. Media inquiries please contact: [email protected], 703-525-0770.

Follow us on Twitter: @PotomacInst

SOURCE Potomac Institute for Policy Studies

Related Links

http://www.potomacinstitute.org


IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With the demand for fresher ideas and ingredients on the rise, MARUGAME UDON presents traditional Japanese Sanuki UDON noodles prepared your way. The upscale cafeteria style, made-to-order UDON noodles restaurant concept will expand to a second location in U.S. mainland on January 18, 2018 at Noon (PST) at Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco, 3251 20th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132.

"With San Francisco being one of the key markets of MARUGAME UDON's expansion, we are honored and excited to offer traditional Japanese cuisine to this great city in an entirely new light and bringing this to the forefront," said Jun Goto, President and CEO of TORIDOLL DINING CALIFORNIA, LLC/MARUGAME UDON USA, LLC.

MARUGAME UDON is the #1 UDON noodles restaurant chain in the world with a total of 990 stores, including 786 stores in Japan and 204 stores across 12 countries. MARUGAME UDON specialize in authentic Sanuki UDON noodles, which differs from typical Japanese UDON noodles in its taste and texture. To create these noodles, MARUGAME UDON is equipped with an original machine imported from Japan that mimics traditional methods to efficiently knead the flour, every day on-demand. The noodles are perfected with a delicate aging process managed at controlled temperatures, then stored in a way that maintains freshness to ensure the noodles are at optimal conditions every day for a perfect al-dente texture.

MARUGAME UDON creates their soups daily by hand utilizing fish stock such as sardine, mackerel, and bonito, adding Japanese kelp and soy sauce to further balance the flavor. Every dish is made-to-order in a beautiful open kitchen every day. UDON noodles are freshly kneaded, cut, boiled and cooked right in front of customers. Upon receiving the UDON noodles, guests are directed to the Tempura station to fully customize their UDON noodles with choices of freshly fried chicken, shrimp, squid, and many kinds of vegetables, a variety of Musubi (rice balls), Inari (fried bean curd sushi) and drinks, and a diverse array of complimentary toppings.

Pricing is very affordable, starting at $4.50 for Regular UDON noodles, $1.30 for Tempura and $1.00 for Rice Balls. Complimentary toppings (green onions, tempura flakes, gingers, various sauces) are also available.

MARUGAME UDON is located at 3251 20th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132 with free parking. Total sq.ft. is 2,983. Seating capacity is a total of 100 with 68 inside and 32 on the outside patio. The operating hours are daily from 11am to 11pm (last call 10pm).

To celebrate the Grand Opening, MARUGAME UDON will offer special promotions to the first 100 arrivals including $10 gift cards and $2 Nikutama Udon Regular size per person.

About MARUGAME UDON USA, LLC:

The mission of MARUGAME UDON USA, LLC is to present a dining adventure of authentic Japanese Udon noodles across the U.S. the likes of which has never been experienced before.

About TORIDOLL DINING CALIFORNIA, LLC:

TORIDOLL DINING CALIFORNIA, LLC was founded in 2006 (formerly Dream Dining California LLC) and it is a 100% subsidiary company of TORIDOLL Holdings Corporation, headquartered in Japan. We offer an exciting fast-paced launch/expansion of new branded restaurants in the states to be a leadership company of restaurant industry.

In the three decades since TORIDOLL's establishment, the corporation has grown into a variety of high-level brands that operates total 1,272 restaurants (Japan 896, Overseas 376) around the world as of September 2017.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.



SOURCE MARUGAME UDON USA, LLC

Related Links

http://marugameudon.com/


NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the Mesothelioma Victims Center's top priorities is seeing to it that a manufacturing or factory worker with confirmed mesothelioma has instant access to some of the nation's most skilled and capable mesothelioma attorneys who consistently get the best financial compensation results for their clients. The group would like to speak with any recently diagnosed individuals anytime at 800-714-0303 about the direct connection between a factory or manufacturing worker with mesothelioma receiving the best possible financial compensation settlement and being represented by the nation's most capable mesothelioma attorneys. http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

The Mesothelioma Victims Center says, "We know it's overwhelming when you or a loved one receives news of a confirmed diagnosis of mesothelioma, especially if we are talking about a manufacturing or factory worker. As we would like to discuss anytime at 800-714-0303, frequently other people have been diagnosed after working in the same factory or manufacturing facility. We also know there may be local car accident attorneys near the factory that would love to try and handle mesothelioma compensation claim; please avoid calling law firms like this unless they are full-time mesothelioma lawyers."

Vital tips for anyone going through a mesothelioma diagnosis and wanting to know about compensation:

"We offer on-the-spot access to some of the nation's most skilled and experienced mesothelioma attorneys.

"Mesothelioma compensation claims is all the legal experts we suggest handle on a full-time basis and they have nationwide expertise.

"The incredibly capable mesothelioma lawyers we recommend consistently get the best financial compensation settlements for factory or manufacturing workers who have recently been diagnosed with mesothelioma. When we mention, 'best possible financial compensation results' we are talking about potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional compensation because the lawyers we suggested did an extremely thorough job for their client and identifying every possible exposure to asbestos-and they know how to capitalize on this information."

Before hiring a lawyer to assist with a mesothelioma compensation claim, call 800-714-0303 for on-the-spot access to some of the nation's most experienced and capable mesothelioma attorneys for a much better financial compensation outcome. http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com



The Mesothelioma Victims Center is especially focused on manufacturing or factory workers in the following states:

Michigan

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Indiana

Washington

New York

Pennsylvania

Wisconsin

New Jersey

West Virginia

Maine

Virginia

Illinois

Texas

Georgia

North Carolina

Oregon



For information on manufacturing in the United States please the National Association of Manufacturer's website on this topic: http://www.nam.org/Newsroom/Top-20-Facts-About-Manufacturing/.

High-risk work groups for exposure to asbestos include Veterans of the US Navy, power plant workers, shipyard workers, steel mill workers, oil refinery workers, factory workers, plumbers, electricians, welders, pipefitters, millwrights, pipefitters, miners, auto mechanics, machinists, pulp or paper mill workers, printers, firemen, rail road workers and construction workers. In most instances people with mesothelioma were exposed to asbestos in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, or 1980's. http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

According to the CDC the states indicated with the highest incidence of mesothelioma include Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Washington, and Oregon. However, a former factory worker with mesothelioma could live in any state.

The Mesothelioma Victims Center says, "If you call us at 800-714-0303, we will see to it that you have extremely honest advice about all that is involved in obtaining the best possible mesothelioma compensation. The mesothelioma attorneys we suggest consistently get the best possible financial compensation results for our clients-nationwide." http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

For more information about mesothelioma please refer to the National Institutes of Health's web site related to this rare form of cancer: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mesothelioma.html

Media Contact:

Michael Thomas

800-714-0303

[email protected]

SOURCE Mesothelioma Victims Center
ANN ARBOR, Mich, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --The Michigan Growth Capital Symposium (MGCS), the premier platform for Midwest emerging growth companies seeking funding to connect with investors, is scheduled to take place May 15-16 at the Marriott Resort in Ypsilanti, Mich. More than 400 attendees are expected, including leading venture capitalists, angel investors and technology transfer professionals from across the U.S., as well as founders and CEOs of Midwest-based early stage and emerging, high-growth companies.

Thirty-six companies will be chosen to present and have the opportunity to pitch their businesses to potential investors and stakeholders in attendance. The MGCS will also feature a dedicated University Research track to showcase emerging companies coming out of the Midwest's top-ranked universities. Several informative panel presentations comprised of some of the country's top investors and entrepreneurs will also be featured, as well as several keynote speakers. Previous speakers have included Clay B. Thorp of Hatteras Venture Partners, Jim Flynn of Deerfield Capital Management and Adam Lilling of Plus Capital.

"Venture capitalists and entrepreneurial leaders across the country are beginning to give the Midwest and its top-notch startups and talent the attention they deserve," said David Brophy, professor of finance at the University of Michigan and founding director of MGCS. "For almost four decades, MGCS has been proud to give the high-growth startups here in the Midwest a forum to make the connections and find the resources they need to bring their businesses to a national level."

The annual Michigan Growth Capital Symposium was recognized by the Michigan Venture Capital Association in 2017 with the inaugural Community Impact Award, which recognizes organizations, events or individuals that create the meaningful, effective connections necessary to build Michigan's entrepreneurial economy. MGCS is hosted each year by the University of Michigan's Center for Venture Capital & Private Equity Finance at the Ross School of Business, with support from the Michigan Venture Capital Association.

Call for Presenting Company Applications

Application forms for companies to present that are seeking seed, A and B rounds of funding will be available online from January 16-March 6 at www.Michigan-GCS.com.

Call for Sponsors

Organizers are currently enlisting sponsors for the 2018 event with packages ranging from $1,000-$10,000. For more information, please contact Mary Nickson at 734-615-4424 or [email protected].

About the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium

The Michigan Growth Capital Symposium (MGCS) is the original university-based venture investment fair. First held in 1981, this decades-old nationally attended event is the largest Midwest venture fair of its kind that brings together venture capital investors, angel investors, high-growth companies, university tech transfer officers and research faculty. MGCS is presented by the Center for Venture Capital & Private Equity Finance and the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, with support from the Michigan Venture Capital Association.

About Michigan Ross

The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan is a vibrant and distinctive learning community grounded in the principle that business can be an extraordinary vehicle for positive change in today's dynamic global economy. The Ross mission is to develop leaders who make a positive difference in the world. Through thought and action, members of the Ross community drive change and innovation that improves business and society. Ross is consistently ranked among the world's leading business schools. Academic degree programs include the BBA, MBA, Part-time MBA (Evening and Weekend formats), Executive MBA, Global MBA, Master of Accounting, Master of Supply Chain Management, Master of Management, and PhD. In addition, the school delivers open-enrollment and custom executive education programs targeting general management, leadership development, and strategic human resource management.

SOURCE The Zell Lurie Institute

Related Links

http://zli.umich.edu


WASHINGTON and DETROIT, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a column January 11 in the Detroit Free Press, former White House and Conyers spokesman Robert Weiner and policy analyst Ben Lasky argue that despite the allegations against him, Democrats already miss Cong. John Conyers' issues and tough questioning, including his ability to get AG Jeff Sessions to admit investigating political opponents was "inappropriate." The article is "Missing Conyers already." He retired December 5.

Weiner and Lasky begin, "U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. has been named the new Democratic Leader ('Ranking Member') of the House Judiciary Committee. It was the powerful post held by Conyers, pressured to resign from the committee and then retire from Congress due to allegations of sexual harassment."

They continue, "On Nov. 14, his last major public appearance, Conyers led the Democratic questioning of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions at his committee's day-long hearing."

They explain, "In his lead-off questioning, he asked Sessions, 'In a functioning democracy, is it common for the leader of the country to order the criminal justice system to retaliate against his political opponents?'"

Sessions answered: "Mr. Conyers, I would say the Justice Department can never be used to retaliate politically against opponents. That would be wrong." Conyers persisted, and Sessions confirmed that the President's actions would be "improper" and "cannot influence an investigation."

They write, "Now, consider the next hearing December 13, with Conyers gone, and the witness Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Cong. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) used a similar question to what Conyers asked Sessions, Rosenstein's boss, a month earlier: 'Do you think it's appropriate for the president to call for the investigation of specific individuals?'"

The question was more generic and Rosenstein got away with "I'm certainly not going to comment on that. other than to tell you that it's my responsibility, along with the attorney general to make sure that those decisions are made independently on facts and law."

The writers assert: "Conyers, known for precision, would have used the hearing's punch and asked something like, 'Attorney General Sessions said last month that it is improper for a president to ask DOJ to investigate his political opponent. Do you agree?'" He would have forced the issue for an answer.

Weiner and Lasky lay out Conyers' enormous past and recent accomplishments. In addition to creating Martin Luther King Day decades ago, they cite in recent years getting a majority of Democrats for the first time to support his single payer "Medicare for All" healthcare bill, leading a lawsuit against President Trump for violating the Constitution's emoluments (profits) clause, laws stating no wars in Iran and North Korea without Congressional approval, and legislation banning bulk data collection by intelligence agencies, a position recently endorsed by the Supreme Court.

They conclude, "Nadler is a strong progressive with brilliant and insightful understanding of the Constitution. He has large shoes to fill from John Conyers."

LINK TO FULL PUBLISHED ARTICLE: https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/01/10/john-conyers-judiciary/1014794001/

Weiner and Lasky also provided links to two recent radio shows by Weiner on The Alan Nathan Show on Main Street Radio Network, with 200 station airings:

The Alan Nathan Show:-Weiner's regular weekly discussion with host, discussing national politics:

January 10, 2018 scroll to 30:45. Subject: national Immigration policy

http://www.mainstreetradionetwork.com/audio/shows/BATTLELINE-HR1-180110.mp3

January 5, 2018 scroll to 31:21: Subjects: Russia and national politics:

http://www.mainstreetradionetwork.com/audio/shows/BATTLELINE-HR1-180105.mp3

Weiner and Lasky wished everyone Happy New Year and said feedback is always welcome to articles and radio-TV.

Contact: Robert Weiner/Ben Lasky 301-283-0821, cell 202-306-1200 [email protected]

SOURCE Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change
HOUSTON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CITGO President and CEO Asdrubal Chavez conducted his first corporate meeting today with top senior executives and management to review the Company's 2017 results, including the record-setting safety performance and operational achievements.

Building on this momentum into 2018, CITGO will continue to emphasize excellence in all aspects of its operations to enhance competitiveness within the oil industry and support the hundreds of locally owned and operated marketers and retailers across the United States. Mr. Chavez, a chemical engineer, arrives at the CITGO headquarters in Houston with more than 30 years of industry experience and plans to unveil his vision for the future of the Company over the coming months.

About CITGO

CITGO Petroleum Corporation, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. The company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more information, visit www.CITGO.com.

SOURCE CITGO

Related Links

http://www.CITGO.com


WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new book about the scandal that shook and forced a president to forfeit his office contains what the author calls "The untold story about Watergate and Richard Nixon's downfall." To order a print copy or ebook (Kindle) edition of "Watergate and the Grave National Security Matter", go to www.nationalsecuritymatter.com and then go to the "About" section.

The book states that Daniel Ellsberg, who released The Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, was considered by the Nixon Administration as "The Most Dangerous Man in America" and was subject to a covert operation by the Nixon administration, but there was at the same time a companion operation known in Watergate tapes as "The California Caper." President Nixon, says the book's author, considered an active duty Air Force officer a Soviet spy in a conspiracy with Ellsberg and that covert actions were taken to "neutralize" and destroy this officer, who was a seasoned criminal investigator and counterintelligence/counterespionage agent. Unknown to the Nixon administration, the officer detected certain governmental actions; however, the actions destroyed a promising military career in the national security field. President Nixon, states the book, called it a "grave national security matter" that should never be disclosed. The book goes on to say that it was feared that public knowledge of this grave national security matter would destroy the command and control of the entire U.S. military.

The author, Jerry Rogers, asserts he was the Air Force officer. This book provides his comprehensive public records research, efforts to debrief Watergate principals, and his own military experiences, especially as relates to Watergate.

Media Contact Information

Jerry Rogers

email: [email protected]

SOURCE Jerry Rogers
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nicholas J. De Blouw, a member of the Employment and Consumer Class Action group at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, has been named a partner of the California employment law firm.

De Blouw's practice area focuses on complex class actions brought on behalf of employees and consumers against large companies. He has experience with a variety of employment issues, including wage and hour class actions, wrongful termination, unpaid commission wages, missed meal and rest breaks, and violations of The Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Nicholas De Blouw has been named Partner at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP

De Blouw has worked on approximately 300 class actions involving many types of claims made under various California and federal labor laws. He received his J.D. from California Western School of Law and his undergraduate degree in Political Science, with honors, from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is a leading California employment law firm with offices in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Riverside, and Chicago, Illinois. The firm represents consumers and employees in individual and class action cases involving violations of state and federal labor laws, including overtime pay, unemployment, employer retaliation, discrimination, wage and hour laws, wrongful termination, employee benefits, and Fair Credit Reporting Act violations.

For more information, visit bamlawca.com.

Contact:

Nicholas J. De Blouw, Esq.

858-952-0354

[email protected]

SOURCE Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP

Related Links

http://www.bamlawca.com


NETANYA, Israel, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbit Communications Systems Ltd. (TASE: ORBI), a leading provider of precision tracking-based communications solutions and airborne communications management systems, announced today that it ended 2017 with record orders in December worth over US$20 million.

Below are highlights of seven key deals:

Depicted in the image are the four deals announced Jan 11, 2018: Gaia 100 to SAR leader, sample Airbus plane equipped with ADAMS, sample cruise ship equipped by NGSO satellite operator with OceanTRx 7-500, and Israel MoD HQ, Tel Aviv

Previously announced

As announced on December 5, a leading US aircraft manufacturer and defense contractor ordered several digital audio management systems worth approximately US$1 million. Delivery of the initial systems, which will be used for integration testing, is expected in 2018.

As announced on December 7, an Asian defense organization ordered aeronautical telemetry systems for approximately US$7 million. Delivery of the high-precision systems is expected to continue until 2020.

As announced on December 20, the United States Air Force extended its service contract with Orbit for approximately US$1 million. The renewal will go into effect in 2018.

Announced here

A global Search and Rescue leader ordered multiple Gaia 100 ground stations worth approximately US$1.4 million, with delivery expected in 2018 and 2019. This repeat order refers to a framework agreement first announced on February 23, 2017.

Airbus placed a follow-on order for Orbit's Airborne Digital Audio Management Systems (ADAMS) worth approximately US$1.6 million. Delivery of the systems, customized for a leading Coast Guard, is expected to begin in 2018 and continue through 2022.

Orbit received a repeat order from a global NGSO (Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit) satellite operator worth approximately US$2.8 million for its OceanTRx 7-500 Ka-band maritime satellite communications platform. Delivery of the additional systems, which will deliver continuous broadband connectivity via satellite to cruise ships, is expected in 2018.

Orbit received a follow-on order worth approximately US$6 million from the Israel Ministry of Defense (MoD) for advanced communications systems. This latest order is part of a long-term agreement between Orbit and the MoD, with delivery expected during 2018 and 2019.

"2017 was an important year for Orbit," stated Eitan Livneh, Orbit's CEO. "Our financial stability was enhanced when FIMI Opportunity Funds became our controlling shareholder and our strategic focus was validated by a record month of orders in December."

About Orbit



Orbit Communications Systems Ltd. is wholly-focused on precision tracking-based communications  in the areas of satcom, telemetry and remote sensing  and provides an innovative solution for airborne audio management. With certification by defense, government and commercial agencies, we deliver tailor-made, turnkey solutions on land, at sea and in the air. Orbit's unique combination of smart design, high reliability and field-tested experience means that if you can conceive it, we can provide it.

Contact information



Orbit

Ian Tick

Head of Communications

[email protected]



Gelbart-Kahana Investor Relations

Aviram Uzi

[email protected]

SOURCE Orbit Communication systems Ltd
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PNM Resources (NYSE: PNM) management will meet with analysts and investors this week in Arizona.

The presentation materials are available on the company's website at http://www.pnmresources.com/investors/events.cfm.

Background:

PNM Resources (NYSE: PNM) is an energy holding company based in Albuquerque, N.M., with 2016 consolidated operating revenues of $1.4 billion. Through its regulated utilities, PNM and TNMP, PNM Resources has approximately 2,791 megawatts of generation capacity and provides electricity to more than 767,000 homes and businesses in New Mexico and Texas. For more information, visit the company's website at www.PNMResources.com.

CONTACTS:

Analysts Media

Jimmie Blotter Pahl Shipley

(505) 241-2227 (505) 241-2782

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Statements made in this news release that relate to future events or PNM Resources, Inc.'s ("PNMR"), Public Service Company of New Mexico's ("PNM"), or Texas-New Mexico Power Company's ("TNMP") (collectively, the "Company") expectations, projections, estimates, intentions, goals, targets, and strategies are made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that all forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and estimates. PNMR, PNM, and TNMP assume no obligation to update this information. Because actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, PNMR, PNM, and TNMP caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. PNMR's, PNM's, and TNMP's business, financial condition, cash flow, and operating results are influenced by many factors, which are often beyond their control, that can cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of risk factors and other important factors affecting forward-looking statements, please see the Company's Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which factors are specifically incorporated by reference herein.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

GAAP refers to generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. Ongoing earnings is a non-GAAP financial measure that excludes the impact of net unrealized mark-to-market gains and losses on economic hedges, the net change in unrealized impairments on available-for-sale securities, and certain non-recurring, infrequent, and other items that are not indicative of fundamental changes in the earnings capacity of the Company's operations. The Company uses ongoing earnings and ongoing earnings per diluted share (or ongoing diluted earnings per share) to evaluate the operations of the Company and to establish goals, including those used for certain aspects of incentive compensation, for management and employees. While the Company believes these financial measures are appropriate and useful for investors, they are not measures presented in accordance with GAAP. The Company does not intend for these measures, or any piece of these measures, to represent any financial measure as defined by GAAP. Furthermore, the Company's calculations of these measures as presented may or may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. The Company uses ongoing earnings guidance to provide investors with management's expectations of ongoing financial performance over the period presented. While the Company believes ongoing earnings guidance is an appropriate measure, it is not a measure presented in accordance with GAAP. The Company does not intend for ongoing earnings guidance to represent an expectation of net earnings as defined by GAAP. Since the future differences between GAAP and ongoing earnings are frequently outside the control of the Company, management is generally not able to estimate the impact of the reconciling items between forecasted GAAP net earnings and ongoing earnings guidance, nor their probable impact on GAAP net earnings; therefore, management is generally not able to provide a corresponding GAAP equivalent for ongoing earnings guidance.

SOURCE PNM Resources, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.pnmresources.com


As part of its strategic renewal plan, the Pollo Tropical brand has made a commitment to quality, fresh, wholesome ingredients. For people in search of more natural food offerings, NAE chicken is becoming a new benchmark for the industry and Pollo Tropical's transition marks a significant milestone for the company.

"Serving No Antibiotic Ever chicken is a very important moment in Pollo Tropical's proud 30-year history. Our supply chain team has spent a tremendous amount of time and effort to ensure that we provide the best quality chicken in a highly responsible manner to our guests," said Fiesta Restaurant Group President and CEO, Rich Stockinger. "In our renewal plan, we made the commitment to improve all aspects of our business. NAE chicken is another promise kept."

NAE chicken ensures that antibiotics were never introduced through feed, water sources or any other means during the life of the bird. To ensure this, Pollo Tropical's chicken producers are only those approved and certified as "NAE compliant" by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). If at any time these producers lose their certification, they are removed from the Pollo Tropical supply chain network. The brand will also work closely with each supplier to ensure that the NAE qualifications are upheld.

"NAE chicken is a major commitment to our guests," said Stockinger. "We will be talking to them, as well as our soon-to-be new customers, about this exciting news through all forms of advertising, social media and in-store communication."

For more information about Pollo Tropical, or to view a complete online menu please visit www.pollotropical.com.

About Pollo Tropical

Pollo Tropical, a subsidiary of Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc., is a quick-service concept known for its fresh, fire-grilled chicken marinated in a proprietary blend of tropical fruit juices and spices. Other craveable favorites include Mojo Roast Pork and freshly made sides including rice, beans, corn casserole, and more. The menu's emphasis is on freshness and quality, with a focus on flavorful chicken served "hot off the grill." Founded in 1988, the Miami-based company currently owns and operates more than 140 locations throughout Florida and Georgia, plus five licensed restaurants on college campuses and 31 franchised locations throughout the Caribbean, Central America, South America and Puerto Rico. For more information, visit Pollo Tropical's website at www.pollotropical.com.

About Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc.

Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc., owns, operates and franchises Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana restaurant brands. The brands specialize in the operation of fast casual/quick service, ethnic restaurants that offer distinct and unique flavors with broad appeal at a compelling value. The brands feature fresh-made cooking, drive-thru service and catering. For more information about Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc., visit the corporate website at www.frgi.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

RockOrange for Pollo Tropical

[email protected]

(305) 731-2012

SOURCE Pollo Tropical

Related Links

http://www.pollotropical.com


MONTREAL, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Resolute Forest Products Inc. (NYSE: RFP) (TSX: RFP) today expressed praise for yesterday's filing by the Government of Canada at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Canada launched a wide-ranging complaint against the United States, challenging a host of measures inconsistent with its WTO obligations.

Resolute applauds the Canadian action, standing up for Canadian jobs and families, the company's customers and business partners in the United States, and the international rule of law.

"Resolute has been a victim of this pattern of behavior by the United States Department of Commerce. We are repeatedly confronting the same discredited protectionist policies when we fairly sell paper and lumber to American consumers who need and want these products," stated Richard Garneau, president and chief executive officer. "Many more jobs are at risk in the United States when there is not enough lumber to build houses or paper to print newspapers and books. Unfortunately, it is American consumers who pay the price of unfair duties. Canada is rightly emphasizing the United States is a continental partner, and free trade between the two nations is in the best interests of both countries and their shared economic prosperity."

About Resolute Forest Products

Resolute Forest Products is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including market pulp, tissue, wood products, newsprint and specialty papers, which are marketed in over 70 countries. The company owns or operates some 40 manufacturing facilities, as well as power generation assets, in the United States and Canada. Resolute has third-party certified 100% of its managed woodlands to internationally recognized sustainable forest management standards. The shares of Resolute Forest Products trade under the stock symbol RFP on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Resolute has received regional, North American and global recognition for its leadership in corporate social responsibility and sustainable development, as well as for its business practices. Visit www.resolutefp.com for more information.

SOURCE Resolute Forest Products Inc.

Related Links

www.resolutefp.com


CHICAGO, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RetireUp, a retirement planning software for financial advisors, today announced the acquisition of their strategic partner, RepPro, a smart forms and digital business execution platform. This acquisition comes on the heels of the companies' latest joint endeavor, the launch of RetireUp Pro, an end-to-end retirement income planning platform that elevates the client experience from start to finish, while helping advisors accelerate their business. The joint company will assume the RetireUp brand, headquartered in Chicago, IL.

"RetireUp was created to bring the complexities of retirement planning to life in a simple and engaging way so the client and the advisor can work together, on the same side of the table," said RetireUp President and Chief Sales Officer, Michael Roth. "When we were introduced to RepPro, there was an automatic synergy between the functionality of the two platforms, as well as the mission both companies shared of making retirement planning more accessible for people and more profitable to advisors. We're incredibly proud about this partnership and believe that RepPro's best-in-class software will continue to improve the workflow at every stage of our advisors' planning process, as we've already seen with our RetireUp Pro product  enabling advisors to allocate valuable time back to serving their clients."

Founded in 2012 by a team of financial advisors, RetireUp serves thousands of financial advisors across the nation. The platform is a comprehensive, web-based retirement planning tool which uses engaging charts and graphs to transform complex financial concepts into easy to understand, "big-picture" visuals that invite clients to become active participants in their own financial futures creating personalized income plans within 30 minutes.

Users of RetireUp Pro have full access to RepPro's automated smart forms and business logic, which uses powerful data integration, and a fully automated filing system to expedite administrative tasks from start to finish while reducing human error. As a result of the acquisition, Patrick Kelly, RepPro Co-Founder and CEO, will assume the role of Executive Vice President, Business Development of RetireUp.

"Joining RetireUp is an exciting next chapter for RepPro," said Kelly. "The two technologies fit seamlessly together to create the end-to-end business and client solution that advisors have been searching for especially as they strive to provide scale and next-level client service to compete in the growing marketplace. After launching RetireUp Pro and seeing the overwhelmingly positive response from distributors and their advisors, we're excited to see what's next for RetireUp and the impact we can make together."

For information about RetireUp or to request a demo, visit www.retireup.com. For media inquiries, contact [email protected].

About RetireUp



RetireUp transforms client conversations into the centerpiece of the Retirement Income Story - with compelling discussions around the full picture of defined income (Social Security, variable annuities, fixed index annuities, pensions) and other assets. RetireUp's web based tool sets itself apart with a focus on the distribution phase of retirement, the ability to model annuity and insurance products, and an engaging interface. The tool provides a useful balance between basic retirement calculators and complicated retirement planning tools. RetireUp works with enterprises, registered representatives, independent financial advisors and RIAs. For more information go to www.retireup.com.

About RepPro



RepPro was designed to eliminate the headaches, hassles, and inefficiencies that exist with current processing methods. The platform takes the entire transition process online and creates a system that significantly reduces time and errors. Store your clients' information, fill out and execute their plan, and in the future, accessing a client's information and status is just a few clicks away. For more information go to www.reppro.co.

Media Contact:

Olivia Gagnon

FiComm Partners

O: (917) 636-4809

[email protected]

SOURCE RetireUp

Related Links

https://www.retireup.com


BOSTON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new year brings promises of new adventures, resolutions and more. For 2018, Road Scholar introduces new learning adventures for Baby Boomers and beyond that delve into contemporary issues and world affairs, combine the best of Central America into an epic journey of learning and discovery, and offer opportunities to live like a local in weeks-long programs around the globe.

Road Scholar Introduces New Learning Adventures in 2018.

Exploring Espionage and Modern Politics

Go undercover in Santa Fe with intelligence experts, war historians and retired spies to learn about the world of espionage and discover the atomic secrets of the Manhattan Project.

With experts from the BBC, Al Jazeera and the University of Oxford, delve into the pressing topics of modern politics during a special conference at Oxford University.

Epic Adventures

Experience eight countries and 19 cities in Central America in 40 Days. Swim in a cenote, stand on the rim while looking into a volcano and meet locals who share ancient traditions that are still part of modern life.

In 1634, with the bubonic plague ravaging Europe, the people of the Bavarian town of Oberammergau pleaded with God, promising that they would perform a Passion Play if they were spared. Ever since, the town comes together every 10 years to perform the elaborate play. Be part of this centuries-old tradition in 2020.

Living and Learning

The Tetons

Spend four weeks at Murie Ranch, the birthplace of the conservation movement, as you live like a local, learn about wildlife and conservation, and actively participate in environmental service projects.

Cuenca

Experience Cuenca, Ecuador, like a local as you take a private apartment, attend daily language classes and get to know the city on your own during this independent living adventure.

Sicily

Live like a Palermitano for six weeks in your own apartment as you experience the best of Sicilian cuisine, culture and local life.

About Road Scholar

Road Scholar is the nation's largest not-for-profit educational travel organization for adults  a true university of the world. It offers 5,500 programs in 150 countries and 50 states and financial aid for those who otherwise could not participate in its programs.

Road Scholar educational adventures are created by Elderhostel, the world leader in educational travel since 1975. Learn more at press.roadscholar.org.

SOURCE Road Scholar

Related Links

http://www.roadscholar.org


LONDON, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Roskill is pleased to announce its inaugural Battery Supply Chain Europe Conference will be held in Dusseldorf this March. The event provides an "end-to-end" in-depth view of the battery supply chain, focusing on the growth markets for batteries and the vital raw material supply needed for the ramp up in electric vehicle production over the next ten years.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150909/264974LOGO )



The conference on March 13-14th will take place at the Inter-Continental Hotel in the centre of Dusseldorf and provide comprehensive analysis of the batteries sector for all industry participants, from raw material producers, intermediate processors, transport companies, battery cell and pack producers through to end-use manufacturers and related sectors across the value chain.

Delegates can book now for the preferential rate of just US$1,295. There are also further discounts for group bookings. By booking early, delegates can also secure a hotel room at the Inter-Continental Hotel at Roskill's discounted conference rate.

Conference attendees will share the latest trends, expertise and opportunities for growth in battery supply with a panel of international speakers and delegates. The event will provide an excellent forum for companies to network with their global peers.

The topics to be discussed include:

EV market trends - regionally and globally

Electric storage systems

Cutting-edge research battery technologies

Cathode manufacturing trends

Nickel sulphate

Lithium

Manganese

Graphite

Cobalt

As well as gaining crucial market intelligence and enjoying excellent networking opportunities, the Battery Supply Chain Europe 2018 Conference will also offer a range of excellent value sponsorship opportunities for companies to increase their profile in this fast-growing market. Roskill events attract customers from around the world, providing the ideal opportunity for corporate messages to reach a global audience.

Roskill is a leader in providing market information on battery raw materials including lithium, cobalt, nickel sulphate and graphite, with clients based in over 100 countries.

Contact for further information:

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44-208-417-0087

Web: https://roskill.com/event/battery-supply-chain-europe-2018/

SOURCE Roskill Information Services
HOUSTON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Salata, the Houston-based fast-casual salad restaurant brand, is proud to announce expansion plans in partnership with franchisee Grafton Way Restaurant Group. Over the next five years, Grafton Way will open eight Salata locations across The Valley in Texas, including Victoria, Laredo, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, and McAllen, marking the brand's entryway into each of these local markets.

"Grafton Way Restaurant Group has always endeavored to make valuable investments in The Greater Houston area and we are looking forward to developing the Salata brand in The Valley," said Karim Haji, Chief Executive Officer of Grafton Way Restaurant Group.

Salata and Grafton Way Restaurant Group reveal plans for expansion on the heels of reopening Salata in Kingwood, Texas in December after the original property closed due to Hurricane Harvey. The Kingwood restaurant is the second Salata restaurant for Grafton Way after opening Salata in Westlake Marketplace in Houston, Texas in November. Plans for continued growth amplify the health-focused lifestyle that stands as a cornerstone of the Salata brand. A gluten-free certified group of restaurants with over 70 locations, Salata not only encourages, but guides patrons toward body wellness through nutrient-rich foods. Guests are able to choose from an array of lettuces, vegetables, fruits, cheeses, seeds, nuts, chicken, seafood and vegan proteins. All dressings, soups and sauces are house-made, solidifying Salata's holistic commitment to health.

"Grafton Way's continued investment in Salata illustrates our commitment to the progressive and community-involved lifestyle that the brand represents. We are thrilled to be growing our presence in communities seeking access to restaurants serving delicious, healthy options at a competitive price," said Tony Kyoumjian Co-Founder of Salata.

Fatigued by repetitive salad toppings? Salata, the Houston-based fast-casual salad restaurant, makes the case for inspired intervention by serving fully customizable, tossed-to-order salads and wraps from a selection of more than 50 fresh and pure ingredients including twelve lean proteins such as pesto grilled chicken, baked salmon and falafel. Additional offerings include ten house-made dressings, hand-cut croutons and pita chips, seasoned and baked in house; signature soups such as tomato basil, broccoli and chipotle white bean; and a state-of-the-art beverage station with tea taps. Taps deliver house-made teas and lemonades through a system resembling that of draft beer. Salata is pleased to offer organic teas such as plum cinnamon, tropical green tea and black china, and signature lemonades such as peach lemonade, raspberry lemonade and prickly pear limeade.

The forthcoming Salata locations in The Valley will serve to further Salata's growing national imprint. The Salata name has become synonymous with fresh, delicious and pure food. Salata is the quintessential advocate for healthy dining options, and aims to rejuvenate market foodscapes by continuing its mission to spotlight bold and healthful ingredients. For more information about Salata please visit salata.com.

ABOUT SALATA

Founded in 2005, Houston-based Salata is ranked among the fastest-growing small chains in the U.S. by Restaurant Business. Salata has more than 70 corporate-owned and franchise locations in Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Georgia and Southern California and plans to open in multiple new markets, starting with Florida in 2018. For more information, visit salata.com or facebook.com/salatasalads.

PRESS INQUIRIES, CONTACT:

Sawyer Armstrong, Green Olive Media

(404) 815-9327

[email protected]



SOURCE Salata

Related Links

https://www.salata.com


MIAMI, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Oceanic whitetip sharks move with extreme efficiency, exploiting physics to maximize their energy surplus for both hunting and downtime.

A team of scientists that included shark biologists, an aerospace engineer and statisticians spent several years developing precise calculations based on the oceanic whitetip's average size, swimming location, water temperatures, location of prey in the water and daily activities. The team was led by FIU marine scientist Yannis Papastamatiou, who wanted to learn more about the elusive creatures.

Oceanic whitetips reside almost exclusively in open water, making them more difficult to study than coastal sharks. Papastamatiou likens their habitat to the desert, a vast ecosystem where food is sparse. When any animal consumes prey, it gets energy. When it's searching for prey, it's losing energy. Papastamatiou wanted to know what behavior could maximize an animal's energy surplus and if oceanic whitetips behaved as such. He called on Gil Iosilevskii, an aerospace engineer from Technion  Israel Institute of Technology, for some basic calculations. Papastamatiou quickly realized basic wouldn't cut it. Iosilevskii turned to calculations he uses to determine optimal flight performance for planes.

These models predicted the optimal swim speeds for the sharks. They also predicted the sharks should dive at small angles and maintain almost constant speed throughout a dive, yet sharks are negatively buoyant meaning they naturally sink in water when they stop swimming. That makes descending easier than ascending.

The team went to the Bahamas, where oceanic whitetips are known to seasonally aggregate, and tagged several sharks with sensors to measure speed, acceleration and depth. They also attached cameras to two of the sharks they were tracking. The scientists discovered the sharks actually do swim and behave optimally, going so far as to control their speed and remain constant while ascending and descending, the very thing physics says they should do. The team's findings were published today in Scientific Reports.

They were very surprised, however, to discover one of the sharks made an unexpected move when it took off from 160 meters vertically at 4 meters per second and breached the surface. Normal speed for the species is 0.6 to 0.7 meters per second and breaches typically originate from around 10 meters. Papastamatiou says they have no idea what caused the sudden burst of activity. It's possible it was a high-speed ambush of prey, though it's unlikely from such a depth. What they do know is that 40-second breach is energetically equivalent to 50 minutes of swimming for the oceanic whitetip's average cruising speed.

"I can't imagine this shark could see something at the surface from that depth," Papastamatiou said. "It was going full force in a vertical ascent."

Papastamatiou has witnessed similar breaches by oceanic whitetips, once in-person and other times on video. It's something he hopes to explore further as his research on oceanic whitetips continues.

Other than the occasional breaches, oceanic whitetips appear to live a life of minimization. They survive in a food-poor environment by swimming optimally and by keeping their energetic costs low. Papastamatiou says he will continue to combine physics and biology in his research to help uncover the secrets of the large marine predators that have long proven difficult to study.

Media Contact:

JoAnn C. Adkins

305-348-0398

[email protected]

news.fiu.edu

@FIUNews

SOURCE Florida International University

Related Links

http://fiu.edu


WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new in-depth survey presented the three key provisions of the Alexander Murray bill, that addresses issues with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to a sample of 2,511 registered voters and had them evaluate arguments for and against each provision. In the end, all three proposals were endorsed by about six in ten voters. These include allowing Americans age 30 and up to have low cost, high deductible 'copper plans,' and reversing the Trump administration cuts for health-care cost subsidies for low-income people, and cuts for outreach and education for the ACA exchanges.

The survey of 2,511 registered voters was conducted by the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland (PPC), fielded by Nielsen Scarborough, and released today by the nonpartisan organization, Voice of the People.

The bill's lead sponsors are Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democrat Patty Murray of Washington.

One of the most controversial aspects of the ACA is that Americans age 30 and up cannot have what are called 'copper plans,' which have lower premiums, but require patients to pay nearly all of the medical costs until they meet the high deductible of $7,150. The proposal in the Alexander-Murray bill is to allow older people to have such low-cost plans as well.

Asked for their final recommendation, 60% favored making copper plans available in the ACA exchanges to anyone seeking individual insurance, including people age 30 and older. This included 54% of Democrats, as well as 68% of Republicans.

The second part of the proposed bill restores subsidies that were ended by the Trump administration that help cover health care costs for low-income people. These subsidies ensure that a person with an income of less than $30,000 does not have to pay more than $2,250 for out-of-pocket expenses in a particular year for things like covering deductibles and co-pays. These subsidies have been paid directly to the insurance companies to reimburse them for covering the out-of-pocket costs of low-income people.

For their final recommendation, 58% favored restoring the subsidies that go to insurance companies to reimburse them for covering the out of pocket costs of low income people, including 84% of Democrats but just 29% of Republicans.

Another key proposal in the bill is to restore funding for services that help familiarize people with the ACA's insurance exchanges, including advertising, education, training "navigators" to help people find their way to a health plan, and notifying people if there is a problem with their coverage. The Trump administration reduced funding for outreach by over 70 percent.

Fifty-eight percent favored restoring spending on outreach and education for the ACA's insurance exchanges, including 85% of Democrats, but only 29% of Republicans.

The Program for Public Consultation, at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, seeks to improve democratic governance by consulting the citizenry on key public policy issues governments face. Voice of the People is a nonpartisan organization that seeks to re-anchor our democracy in its founding principles by giving 'We the People' a greater role in government. Neither organization takes a position on the policy issues it explores.

Survey Questionnaire: http://www.publicconsultation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Alexander_Murray_Quaire.pdf

Slide Presentation: http://www.publicconsultation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Alexander_Murray_Slides.pdf

Take the survey: http://bit.ly/2EoP8o8

The survey was conducted online from December 6-13, 2017 with a national probability-based sample of 2,511 registered voters, provided by Nielsen Scarborough from Nielsen Scarborough's sample of respondents, who were recruited by mail and telephone using a random sample of households. The margin of error was +/- 2.0%.

Contact: Steven Kull

202-232-7500, [email protected]

SOURCE Program for Public Consultation

Related Links

http://www.publicconsultation.org


ALAMO, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Social Detention (OTC Pink: SODE) is pleased to announce the company's wholly owned subsidiary, ELLA, has sub-contracted an additional grow op build under partner Cann American Holdings.

The project, located on five acres in Nevada County California, is scheduled to commence in February consisting of one hoop house that can sustain up to 200 plants.



ELLA will be responsible for grading, trenching, footings, setting rebar, and erection of the steel hoop structure. Cann American will be responsible for irrigation systems and consultation on the grow and crop yields upon completion of the build.



With California's recreational market now in effect SODE believes the ongoing partnership with Cann American will continue to increase shareholder value as the companies aggressively pursue opportunities within the marijuana industry as a premiere infrastructure developer and grow op consultant.



Social Detention will continue to keep investors informed on progress.

About:

Social Detention Inc. is in the business of building infrastructure. The company has been successful in winning contracts from $1-$5 million for its partners and intends to build on those successes with its acquisitions to grow sales from within, instead of for outside parties to gain contracts in the multi-millions.



For more information about Social Detention Inc. visit www.sodetention.com.

Contact:

Social Detention Inc.

Robert P. Legg II

[email protected]

Cann American Holdings, LLC is a Northern California based boutique firm of industry professionals specializing in consulting, business incubation, product placement, and acquisitions within the medical marijuana and industrial hemp markets.

Contact:



Jason Black



[email protected]



FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Except for historical information, this news release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve unknown risks, and uncertainties that may cause the Company's actual results or outcomes to be materially different from those anticipated and discussed herein. Important factors that might cause such differences are discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, if new information becomes available in the future.

SOURCE Social Detention Inc.

Related Links

http://www.sodetention.com


DALLAS, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Solovis, a multi-asset class portfolio management, analytics and reporting platform for limited partners, asset owners, and allocators, today announced that it will present at two upcoming Senior Delegate Roundtable events hosted by the Institutional Investor Institute.

Michael Siminoff, Chief Analytics Officer, will speak on the panel session titled "The Technology Between Us," to be held Wednesday, January 17th at 11:00am in Aspen, CO, and Josh Smith, CEO & Co-Founder, will speak on Thursday, February 8th at 3:45pm in Miami, FL. The sessions will focus on the challenges asset managers face in managing and providing data across multiple third-party technology platforms.

"Institutional investors need an aggregate view of their overall investment portfolio in order to make strategic investment decisions," said Smith. "But this is challenging because the data on each asset class is often housed in different technology systems with different data paradigms and reporting frameworks. I look forward to an interactive dialog with III attendees on how to provide cohesive data and aggregation."

About Solovis



Solovis is a multi-asset class portfolio management and reporting solution for foundations, endowments, pensions, OCIOs, and family offices. Designed and built for open architecture asset management, Solovis is a flexible, robust technology platform that enables detailed analysis and dynamic data modeling across multiple portfolios and pools of capital for actionable, transparent insights that empower investors from the front to back office.

Contact: Laleh Kadjar, [email protected]

SOURCE Solovis
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of National Pharmacist Day on January 12, Spectrum Pharmacy Products, a leading North American manufacturer and distributor of pharmaceutical compounding chemicals, equipment and supplies, would like to acknowledge the significant role of pharmacists in healthcare and patient outcomes.

National Pharmacist Day

National Pharmacist Day is observed annually on January 12. The day has been set aside to recognize and honor all pharmacists across the nation.

Craig A. Recatto, PhD, President of Spectrum Pharmacy Products, said, "On the occasion of National Pharmacist Day, we want to express our appreciation to our pharmacist customers. Serving the needs of compounding pharmacists for more than forty years, we have seen the role of pharmacists continually expand. Not only do pharmacists compound and dispense medications, they offer education, medication adherence support, vaccinations, financial savings programs for prescriptions and more for patients."

As part of their renewed commitment to compounding pharmacists, in 2017 Spectrum Pharmacy Products launched the Spectrum Pharmacy Institute to provide continuing education to compounders and pharmacy technicians.

Pharmacist Super Heroes

Pharmacists are committed to the health of their patients and communities. In the aftermath of hurricane devastation in Houston, Texas and Puerto Rico, pharmacists were among the first volunteers even though many of them were also hard hit by the hurricanes. Amid havoc, they were traveling to shelters to check on patients' needs and to make sure they had their medications.

Recatto added, "With their extraordinary service, these pharmacists have expressed the highest standards of the pharmacy profession and we honor them."

Spectrum works closely with pharmacists during disasters and drug shortages to provide inventory and resources that ensure patients have continued access to life-saving medications.

About Spectrum Pharmacy Products

Spectrum Pharmacy Products, a division of Spectrum Chemical Manufacturing Corporation, manufactures and distributes high-quality compounding chemicals, equipment and supplies. Spectrum has been serving compounders for more than 40 years with the industry's largest portfolio of USP/NF grade products and DEA Controlled Substances (Schedules I V). The company's bicoastal cGMP facilities in New Jersey and California are FDA registered and inspected, with additional certification to the ISO 9001:2015 standard. In 2017 Spectrum Pharmacy Products launched the Spectrum Pharmacy Institute, a 42,000-square foot pharmacy distribution, manufacturing, and compounding education facility located in New Brunswick, New Jersey. For more information, visit SpectrumRx.

SOURCE Spectrum Pharmacy Products

Related Links

https://www.spectrumrx.com


BOSTON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SysAid, a leading provider of help desk and IT service management (ITSM) solutions, has been recognized as one of the top five B2B software companies in Israel by G2 Crowd. Today, SysAid serves more than 10,000 organizations in over 140 countries. Verified users gave SysAid strong marks for customer satisfaction and indicated a high likelihood of recommending the platform.

Founded in 2002, SysAid was among the early companies that built Israel's reputation for innovative software and technology. The solution integrates all the essentials of IT service including ITSM, Help Desk, IT Asset Management, and Analytics. SysAid led the movement to cloud-based ITSM and continues to push the frontiers with sophisticated analytics, integrations, and automations.

Over 100,000 sysadmins currently use SysAid to provide IT service, with more than 50 percent of SysAid's customer base located in North America. The company recently opened a new office in Toronto, Canada to better support these users. SysAid also provides global support coverage from its US office in Boston, as well as offices in Brazil, Australia, and Romania.

The G2 Crowd reviews reflect SysAid's commitment to helping sysadmins excel at their work. SysAid's Automated Ticket Routing technology earned a 97 percent satisfaction rating from users, while its Ticket Notifications system garnered a 90 percent rating. Overall, reviews from 69 verified users placed SysAid among the top five B2B tech companies in Israel. SysAid also ranks as a Leader in the G2 Crowd Grid for Service Desk.

"We're proud to represent the community of innovators and entrepreneurs who have made Israel one of the most prolific tech scenes in the world," said Sarah Lahav, CEO of SysAid. "We congratulate the other honorees and thank our users for sharing their experiences with SysAid."

SysAid's G2 Crowd ranking builds upon a strong track record of accolades from analysts and users. Info-Tech Research Group recently named SysAid the 2017-18 Champion of Service Desk Software. In 2017, SysAid also ranked #3 in Capterra's list of the Top 20 Most Popular ITSM Software and was named a Master in the FrontRunners Quadrant for Help Desk Software.

G2 Crowd's "State of B2B Israel Tech" report recognized SysAid and 17 other SaaS companies as the leaders of Israel's tech scene. Overall, the report covered 60 companies representing over $350,000,000 in VC funding and 3 IPO exits.

Read the full report to see how SysAid is contributing to the state of the B2B Israeli tech scene.

About SysAid Technologies

Founded in 2002, SysAid Technologies Ltd. partners with IT professionals to make their work easier. The company provides IT service management (ITSM) solutions to more than 10,000 customers in 140 countries. From small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, IT departments use SysAid to deliver better service.

Available in 42 languages as a cloud-based or on-premises solution, SysAid combines all the essential IT tools in one simple and clever platform. For more information, please visit www.sysaid.com.

-Join more than 180,000 IT professionals in the SysAid Community

-Follow SysAid on Twitter @Joe_the_IT_Guy and @SysAid

Contact: Lindsey Pugh, 847.415.9306, [email protected]

SOURCE SysAid Technologies Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.sysaid.com


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Taylor Morrison Home Corporation ("Taylor Morrison") (NYSE:TMHC), today announced the commencement of an underwritten public offering of 19,206,656 shares of its Class A common stock.

The offering consists of 17,706,924 shares of Class A common stock to be issued and sold by Taylor Morrison and an additional 1,499,732 shares of Taylor Morrison's Class A common stock to be sold by affiliates of and funds managed by TPG Global, LLC, one of Taylor Morrison's equity sponsors.

Taylor Morrison intends to use all of the net proceeds that it receives from the offering to purchase partnership units in its direct subsidiary - TMM Holdings II Limited Partnership - along with shares of Taylor Morrison's Class B common stock, held by its current equity sponsors that are affiliates of and funds managed by TPG Global, LLC and Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. The aggregate number of partnership units and corresponding shares of Class B common stock purchased by Taylor Morrison will be equal to the number of shares of Class A common stock sold in the offering. Taylor Morrison will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the 1,499,732 shares of Class A common stock sold by the selling stockholders in the offering.

In addition, in a separate privately negotiated transaction, Taylor Morrison intends to purchase an additional 3,750,000 partnership units and corresponding shares of Class B common stock from the equity sponsors at a purchase price per unit equal to the price per share paid by the underwriters for the Class A common stock in the public offering. The consummation of the unit repurchase from the equity sponsors is subject to certain conditions, including the consummation of the public offering.

Following the completion of the transactions described above, the equity sponsors will no longer beneficially own any of the Company's common stock. As a result, our equity sponsors will no longer be entitled to any designees on the Company's board of directors, and the Company expects that Jason Keller, James Sholem, Kelvin Davis and Rajath Shourie will resign from the Company's board of directors.

The existing $100 million repurchase authorization under Taylor Morrison's stock repurchase program will not be reduced by the sponsor equity repurchase and such authorization will remain in effect thereafter, subject to the existing terms and conditions of such repurchase program.

Citigroup and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC are acting as joint book-running managers and underwriters for the proposed public offering, and may offer the shares of Class A common stock purchased by them from Taylor Morrison and the selling stockholders from time to time in one or more transactions on the NYSE, in the over-the-counter market or through negotiated transactions at market prices or negotiated prices.

An effective shelf registration statement relating to such shares of Class A common stock has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). A copy of the preliminary prospectus supplement relating to the offering has been filed with the SEC and may be obtained from the website of the SEC at www.sec.gov, or from Citigroup, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, telephone at (800) 831-9146; or Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, New York 10282, telephone at (212) 902-1171, facsimile at (212) 902-9316 or email at [email protected].

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. The offering may only be made by means of a prospectus supplement and related prospectus.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on those statements because they are subject to numerous uncertainties and factors relating to the public offering and unit repurchase described above, Taylor Morrison's operations and business environment, market conditions and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond Taylor Morrison's control.

About Taylor Morrison Home Corporation:

Taylor Morrison Home Corporation (NYSE:TMHC) is a leading national homebuilder and developer that has been recognized as the 2016 and 2017 America's Most Trusted Home Builder by Lifestory Research. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona we operate under two well-established brands, Taylor Morrison and Darling Homes. We serve a wide array of consumer groups from coast to coast, including first-time, move-up, luxury, and 55 plus buyers. In Texas, Darling Homes builds communities with a focus on individuality and custom detail while delivering on the Taylor Morrison standard of excellence.

Contact:

Investor Relations Contact:

Taylor Morrison Home Corporation

(480) 734-2060

[email protected]

CONTACT: Taylor Morrison Home Corporation

Investor Relations

(480) 734-2060

[email protected]



SOURCE Taylor Morrison

Related Links

http://www.taylormorrison.com/ContactUs


NOVI, Mich., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Expect to see increased investor activism, more private equity involvement and accelerated merger and acquisition activity in the automotive supplier sector in 2018, as the emerging trends of electrification, autonomous driving, connected cars and shared vehicles continue to send shockwaves through the auto industry.

That prediction comes from strategy expert, Paul Eichenberg, an automotive strategy consultant with 25 years of experience working with Fortune 500 auto suppliers.

For 2018, Eichenberg predicts the top five most important stories affecting global auto suppliers are:

1. China will announce the ban of the internal combustion engine (ICE) by 2030; Germany will follow.

In early September, Xin Guobin, China's vice-minister of industry and information technology, told a forum of automakers held in Tianjin that the government would ban the production and sale of fossil fuel cars. Most Chinese automotive insiders believe this ban will take place starting in 2030. BAIC Group's chairman, for example, said the company's goal is to stop sales of its conventional fuel-powered cars in Beijing by 2020 and stop their production and sales nationwide by 2025.

Eichenberg expects Germany to follow quickly with its own ban of ICE, as it strives shift to electrification to retain technological leadership to protect the German automotive industry.

2. More automotive supplier spin-offs.

As technological advancement creates new products and business model opportunities, suppliers will continue to refocus their product portfolios away from some of their traditional mechanical products and expand their electronic/electrical offering to position themselves for the new future. Other suppliers will follow the lead of suppliers such as Delphi, Honeywell and Autoliv who have completed or announced spin-offs, due to:

The different pace of technology advancement in their two business segments

Different market needs driving investments for growth and innovation

Different skill sets of people throughout the organizations (leadership, engineering, sales)

Different sales growth rates over the near and long-term with limited customer or operational synergies, and

A potentially different shareholder profile due to the timing of returns.

Eichenberg expects these challenges to potentially drive spin-offs from companies such as Continental and Valeo who have portfolios of both traditional mechanical products and new electrical, electronic or software related products.

3. Mega-mergers will continue, led by the new tech entrants.

With the advent of connected and automated cars, the consumer and industrial electronics giants and new entrants from the semiconductor industry view the auto industry as an attractive growth market. Companies such as LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, Mitsubishi and Hitachi are bringing expertise in high-volume production of lithium-ion batteries from the consumer and industrial electronics sectors, giving them the critical scale needed to compete.

And with this market alone having the potential to grow to over $100+ billion by 2030, Eichenberg expects more large-scale acquisitions of traditional suppliers by these tech players in 2018, such as Samsung's rumored interest in acquiring Magneti Marelli.

4. Private equity firms increasingly will dominate automotive mid-market merger and acquisition activity.

As technological advancement creates new products and business model opportunities for larger suppliers, mid-size and smaller suppliers who lack global reach and scale will be continually disadvantaged in a fast-paced environment that requires increasing investment and significant business transformation. These mid-market companies lack resources required to make the necessary strategic shifts in new product/technologies to remain competitive.

For example, Eichenberg questions how a traditional mid-market manufacturer of ICE components can deal with an industry disruption like the ban of the ICE and the shift towards battery electric vehicles. This type of business transformation will require significant investment and the development of new core competencies and new products over the next several years.

Many suppliers faced with this situation will opt out and exit the business instead of taking on the risk associated with transformation. In this environment, the investors likely to have the appetite to take on these challenges will not be strategic investors, but will increasingly be financial investors like private equity firms.

5. Investor activist activities will increase within the automotive supplier space.

In late 2016, stock analysts had already started downgrading the long-term outlooks for even the world's best suppliers that have significant involvement in the ICE ecosystem, as automakers confront intense pressure to completely shift vehicle propulsion from ICE to electric.

While this shift will not occur overnight, analysts expect it could create significant risk to many suppliers' future earnings trajectories. Understanding these headwinds and the competitive challenges ahead, Delphi and some other major suppliers have already undertaken strategic spinoffs to proactively address investor concerns.

Other suppliers that are not already making strategic shifts  including many of the top 100 auto suppliers  will likely face increased pressure from activist investors who seek to unlock value and raise stock valuations.

Overall, Eichenberg said the automotive supply chain will see more challenge and change in 2018 than the industry has witnessed in the previous 50 years. For his latest insights, visit: www.chief-strategist.com.

About Paul Eichenberg Strategic Consulting

Founded in 2015 and based in Novi, Michigan, USA, Paul Eichenberg Strategic Consulting specializes in helping clients develop and execute solutions to the complex challenges facing the global automotive industry in this era of disruption. Eichenberg has 25 years of experience in strategic planning, product management and merger and acquisition activities with Fortune 500 automotive suppliers, including Magna Powertrain, Magna Electronics, PPG Industries and Dura Automotive Systems. Current clients include hedge funds, investment banks, private equity investors and automotive suppliers. For more info, visit: https://chief-strategist.com

SOURCE Paul Eichenberg Strategic Consulting
NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p03627696





The ESL market is expected to be worth USD 392.3 million in 2017 and USD 1,424.8 million by 2023, at a CAGR of 23.98% between 2017 and 2023. The growth of the overall market can be attributed to driving factors such as increasing operational efficiency with real-time product positioning, more cost-efficient and less time-consuming alternative to paper labels, and trending retail automation. However, high expenses of installation and supporting infrastructure restrain the growth of the ESL market



The ESL market for display components is likely to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

The highest CAGR of the market for displays is attributed to the inclusion of various liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and full-graphic e-paper displays. The rapid adoption of full graphics and LCD ESLs is also propelling the demand for the display components among the end users.



Information on LCDs are clearly visible, and even in narrow shelves, ESLs with small LCD screens are being installed for better visibility of products. A full-graphic e-paper ESL displays the price, QR code, barcode, and other messages on a single screen. These advantages of displays are accelerating the adoption of ESLs in the market



Full-graphic e-paper ESL held the largest share of the ESL market in 2016

The largest market size and highest CAGR for full-graphic e-paper ESL are attributed to the growing demand for price automation from Tier I and Tier II retailers that rely on these ESLs to a large extent, as these ESLs support the graphic content and information. In addition, full graphical e-paper ESLs are a key to gain customer attention and make the in-store communication dynamic



The ESL market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

The globalization and development of organized retail in APAC are likely to contribute to the highest CAGR of the market in APAC during the forecast period. Additionally, the readiness of retailers (i.e., ESL end users) in APAC to follow the ongoing trends of the retail market also leads to the growth of the ESL market in this region.



Moreover, Japan is the major adopter of ESLs in APAC, thus contributing the growth of the overall market in APAC. In Australia, the labor costs are high, and the Australian retailers are spending a great deal of money on price management to maximize the promotional activities for various products.



In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and subsegments obtained through secondary research, extensive primary interviews have been conducted with officials from the key players. The break-up of the profile of primaries has been given below:

 By Company Type: Tier 1 = 25 %, Tier 2 = 35%, and Tier 3 = 40%

 By Designation: C-Level Executives = 35%, Directors = 25%, and Others = 40%

 By Region: Europe = 43%, APAC = 29%, North America = 14%, and RoW = 14%



The key players in the ESL market profiled in the report are as follows:

1. Pricer (Sweden)

2. SES-imagotag (France)

3. Samsung Electro-Mechanics (South Korea)

4. E Ink Holdings (Taiwan)

5. Displaydata (UK)

6. M2Communication (Taiwan)

7. Diebold Nixdorf (Germany)

8. Opticon Sensors Europe (Netherlands)

9. Teraoka Seiko (Japan)

10. NZ Electronic Shelf Labelling (New Zealand)



Research Coverage:

The report studies the ESL market segmented on the basis of component, product type, communication technology, and store type. It also includes the forecast of the market size, in terms of value, with respect to 4 main regions, namely, North America, Europe, APAC, and RoW. The study identifies and analyzes the market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges for the market. It also profiles the key players operating in ESL market as well as describes the overall value chain of the market.



Reasons to Buy the Report:

1. The report would help the stakeholders to understand the pulse of the market and provides them the information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.

2. This report would help stakeholders to understand their competitors better and gain more insights to strengthen their position in the market. The competitive landscape section includes competitor ecosystem and the recent development strategies adopted by the key players in the market, which include product launches and developments, partnerships, and mergers and acquisitions.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p03627696



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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MIAMI, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Miami-Dade County's performing arts center opened its doors in 2006, but it was not until January 10, 2008, when national business leader and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht made her historic $30 million gift, that the young Center's future was secured. In recognition of her foresight and commitment, the Center was named the Adrienne Arsht Center of the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

"The sheer impact of Adrienne's gift on the Miami community over the past 10 years is extraordinary," said John Richard, president and CEO of the Arsht Center. "Her landmark contribution helped secure the Arsht Center's future and paved the way for advancing our cultural and diverse programming as well as our award-winning arts education programs, and catapulted the Arsht Center into one of the most renowned performing arts centers in the country."

Ms. Arsht first became involved with the Center through its Foundation and pledged her initial gift in 1998 in the sum of $250,000, which went toward funding Water Scores, the fountains created for the outdoor Parker and Vann Thomson Plaza for the Arts. Subsequently, Ms. Arsht made additional gifts funding many milestone occasions, including the Center's groundbreaking event.

In the years since her $30 million contribution, Ms. Arsht has continued to invest in the Arsht Center, Miami's cultural crown jewel. She has provided $5 million which has raised an additional $10 million from community philanthropists. As honorary chair of the 10th anniversary Gala in 2016, she once again challenged the philanthropic community to support the Center by matching every $100,000 gift. The challenge raised more than $2.5 million, making it the Center's most successful gala.

"Following Ms. Arsht's landmark gift, we've welcomed millions through our doors for enlightening performing arts experiences," said Ira Hall, chair of the Performing Arts Center Trust Board of Directors. "Today, the Arsht Center is woven into the fabric of our Miami community, serving as a cultural hub that educates, invests and produces programming with emerging talent."

During the decade that has passed since Ms. Arsht's contribution, the Arsht Center has more than fulfilled the promise to offer diverse and high-value programming that appeals to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The Arsht Center has also served as a performance home for its three resident companies, provided educational arts experiences for 300,000 children, hosted 17 world premieres and commissioned 17 new works from high-caliber artists such as Alvin Ailey's Robert Battle and composer Avner Dorman. In the past 10 years, the Arsht Center has welcomed more than four million guests and generated more than $2 billion in economic impact.

In 2016, during the Center's 10th anniversary, it reached three big milestones: first, it launched a series of 10 commissions called "[email protected]" to commemorate its first decade, which became one of the largest number of commissions to be completed all in the same year by a performing arts center less than 10 years old. Then, the Center's AileyCamp Miami program received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, which is the nation's highest honor for creative youth development programs. Finally, in 2017, the Center launched its first ever STEAM-focused musical for seventh graders called Kitty Hawk, which serves as part of the Learning Through the Arts program.

"There is no greater gift to bestow upon a community than complete access to the arts," said Tony Argiz, chairman of the Adrienne Arsht Center Foundation. "Adrienne's gift will forever positively impact future Miamians while continuing to inspire homegrown, new talent."

Over the years, Ms. Arsht's philanthropic contributions have extended well beyond the Center; she has generously donated to multiple organizations that have allowed her to promote access to the arts, emphasizing the importance of civic engagement. As with the Arsht Center, she has left an indelible mark on both the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2012, her contribution of $11 million in support of the transformation of Lincoln Center's facilities and public spaces was recognized with the dedication of the Adrienne Arsht Stage in Alice Tully Hall. Furthermore, she donated $10 million to establish the Adrienne Arsht Theater Fund at the Kennedy Center. Recently, she was awarded the 2017 Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence, recognizing her visionary and outstanding contributions to cultural and nonprofit institutions in the United States.

Among her civic engagements, Ms. Arsht is a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and she serves as a vice chairman of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She is also executive vice chairman of the Atlantic Council. In Miami, she is trustee emerita of the University of Miami and an honorary board member of Amigos For Kids.

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is made possible by the public support of the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council and the City of Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, as well as the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. The Adrienne Arsht Center also receives generous support from individuals, corporations and local, state and national foundations.

About the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County

Set in the heart of downtown Miami and designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is one of the world's leading performing arts organizations and venues. Since opening in 2006, the Arsht Center, a 501C3 non-profit organization, has emerged as a leader in presenting innovative programming that mirrors South Florida's diversity as well as a catalyst for billions of dollars in new development in the downtown area. Spotlighting legends and serving as a launch pad for local artists to make their mark on the international stage, the Center presents nearly 400 events each year across its flexible, state-of-the-art performance spaces. The Center programs several Signature Series, including the largest jazz series in South Florida, a major annual Flamenco Festival, and a robust program of new theatrical works as well as free programming for the community and an arts education program that serves nearly 60,000 children each year. As Miami's new Town Square, the Arsht Center also houses BRAVA by Brad Kilgore, a fine dining restaurant; the Cafe at Books & Books in the historic Carnival Tower and a weekly Farmers Market.

SOURCE Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County
BALTIMORE, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Transamerica today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to transform the administration of Transamerica's insurance and annuity business lines in the U.S. The partnership enables Transamerica to accelerate the enhancement of its digital capabilities and the modernization of its platforms to service its customers in all lines of business. The agreement, a multi-year partnership with more than USD 2 billion of revenues to TCS, is expected to be completed by the second quarter 2018.

This agreement is expected to lead to annual run-rate expense savings for Transamerica of approximately USD 70 million initially, growing to USD 100 million over time. The majority of these expense savings is expected to benefit underlying earnings. Total transition and conversion charges are estimated to amount to approximately USD 280 million, and these amounts will be recorded in non-underlying earnings. The majority of these charges are expected to be recorded over the first three years of the agreement, with approximately USD 100 million of transition and conversion charges reflected in the first half of 2018.

TCS will administer Transamerica's life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance and workplace voluntary benefits products and take on administration of over 10 million policies. In addition, Transamerica is considering entering into a similar servicing and administration arrangement for its long term care customers. Any forthcoming decision would be announced separately. Transamerica will continue administration and servicing of its retirement plans, IRAs, Advice Center, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and stable value solutions on existing platforms.

This decision supports execution of Transamerica's customer centric strategy and focus on sustainable growth. "Transamerica continues to put our customers at the forefront of everything we do. I'm very excited to embark on this partnership with TCS, whose transformation and technology innovation capabilities will supplement our focus on improving our customers' experience in a digitally enabled way. This supports meaningful growth in all business lines  including insurance and annuities  and advances our competitive positioning. TCS was carefully selected because of its significant, ongoing investments in technology and its expertise in the insurance and annuity industry," said Mark Mullin, Transamerica President & Chief Executive Officer. "TCS' core competencies complement ours. TCS will provide valuable administration and quality customer service, and Transamerica will continue to engage with our customers, clients, and advisors in ways that are most meaningful to them by utilizing our digital engagement platforms and by developing new solutions that help people save, protect, invest and retire."

All of the Transamerica employees currently supporting these business lines and whose roles are in scope will be offered positions by TCS, helping to ensure a consistently excellent experience for Transamerica customers. The transition will affect approximately 2,200 current Transamerica employees. Transferring employees will be given the opportunity to remain in the same U.S. cities where they are currently based.

Founded in 1968, TCS is a leading global IT services, digital, consulting, operations and business solutions company that has operated in the U.S. for more than 40 years. It offers deep expertise in the insurance sector and works with more than 100 insurers today, including six of the world's top 10 insurance companies. TCS will expand its existing relationship with Transamerica under this transaction, and will locate in Transamerica's current offices in various U.S. cities. The agreement between Transamerica and TCS represents a notable expansion of TCS' insurance business in the U.S., and the company plans to establish its new North American insurance hub for business operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as part of its plan to make a significant investment in the region.

"TCS continuously invests in the latest technologies, local talent and U.S. facilities to help leading U.S. companies adapt to rapidly evolving customer demands. This agreement marks TCS' entry into a highly specialized U.S. Insurance Third Party Administration marketplace and will establish TCS BaNCS as a formidable digital platform for the U.S. insurance industry, following its stellar global track record over the past decade," said Suresh Muthuswami, President and Global Head, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Platforms, at TCS. "TCS has partnered with its global insurance clients in their transformation journeys and played an integral role in their growth. We have enabled improved speed-to-market, customer engagement and cognitive operations through our innovative technology services, the TCS BaNCS agile and digital platform, and our unmatched industry expertise. TCS is proud to partner with Transamerica in its ongoing transformation to enhance its customer experience, and looks forward to welcoming their current employees for new careers at TCS."

TCS has invested nearly USD 3 billion in the U.S. over the past three years and is among the top two job creators in IT services in the U.S. It is also one of America's 50 most community-minded organizations, engaging nearly two million Americans through its extensive nationwide STEM education programs, academic partnerships and endowments to schools such as Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell Tech and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About Transamerica

With a history that dates back more than 100 years, Transamerica is recognized as a leading provider of life insurance, retirement and investment solutions, serving millions of customers throughout the United States. Recognizing the necessity of health and wellness in order to enhance the prospects for a lifetime of financial security, Transamerica's dedicated professionals work to help people take the steps necessary to live better today so they can worry less about tomorrow. Transamerica serves nearly every customer segment, providing a broad range of quality life insurance and investment products, individual and group pension plans, as well as asset management services. In 2016, Transamerica fulfilled its promises to customers, paying more than USD 7.2 billion in insurance and annuity benefits, including return of annuity premiums paid by the customer. Transamerica's corporate headquarters is located in Baltimore, Maryland, with other major operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Transamerica is part of the Aegon group of companies. Based in the Netherlands, Aegon is one of the world's largest providers of life insurance, pension solutions and asset management products, operating in more than 20 markets worldwide. For the full year of 2016, Aegon managed USD 784 billion in revenue generating investments. For more information, visit www.transamerica.com.

About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, digital, consulting, operations and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPS, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model (GNDM), recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India's largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 389,000 of the world's best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $17.58 billion for year ended March 31, 2017 and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and the NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. For more information, visit www.tcs.com.

Media inquiries





Transamerica TCS Julie Quinlan Ben Trounson 303-383-5923 646-313-4594 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Transamerica

Related Links

http://www.transamerica.com


WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- United Franchise Group (UFG), the Global Leader for Entrepreneurs, with more than 1,400 franchise locations spanning 80 countries, is pleased to announce plans by Transworld Business Advisors owners and business partners Lauren Jason and Dale Hester. Jason and Hester, to open a second UFG-affiliated franchise business, Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs, in January of 2018.

Jason and Hester's Transworld Business Advisors franchise is located in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area and specializes in business brokerage, franchise consulting, and franchise development. Jason and Hester assist clients with the sale of their businesses, provide consulting services, and help business owners with purchases of franchises, including first-time business owners.

The ownership pair will now expand their entrepreneurial talents to grow the business markets they serve with the opening of the new Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs location in Arlington. Jason and Hester are both licensed CPAs, and also hold licenses in real estate, insurance, and securities. Through Paramount, they will provide a customer-focused approach to tax preparation and accounting services. Jason is President of the DFW Transworld Business Advisors location, and Hester is VP of Client Development. Jason and Hester also own HCO Four Trees Real Estate Services and HCO Clearmark Financial and Insurance Services, both in Canton, TX. They plan to open 25 more Paramount Tax locations over the next six years throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.

"With our CPA background, it was a perfect fit to combine Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs' services with our real estate, insurance and securities licenses to provide an all-inclusive business experience for our clients," said Hester. "The brand provides a fresh, exciting and completely customer-focused experience to accomplishing your tax and accounting needs. It was an easy choice to team up with a fantastic brand such as Paramount Tax."

Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs began in 2008, blending strong professionalism with an interactive tax preparation and accounting service for individuals and businesses, without the high prices of a large CPA firm. The company also offers general accounting services, as well as a free, three-year tax review, financial planning, and strategic business planning.

"We're thrilled that Lauren and Dale have decided to open a Paramount Tax & Accounting location," said Ray Titus, UFG CEO. "Their experience as business owners and advisors through Transworld will enable them to provide strong, service-focused ownership for the new company, and they can immediately begin serving customers who need affordable, strategic tax accounting advice. We love to see our franchisees grow and expand, and wish them all the best in this new endeavor."

Franchising opportunities are available for all UFG businesses. For more information, go to https://unitedfranchisegroup.com/.

About Transworld Business Advisors

Transworld Business Advisors is part of United Franchise Group, a successful group of franchise systems with more than 25 years of experience and over 1,400 franchisees. Formerly Transworld Business Brokers, a company based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with over 35 years of brokerage experience, Transworld represents acquisition-minded corporations and individuals alike interested in owning their own company, or in franchising. With over 150 franchised offices worldwide, Transworld offers the professional services that successfully bring buyers and sellers together. From business brokerage to mergers and acquisitions, Transworld Business Advisors are the business sale specialists. For more information on owning a Transworld franchise, visit www.tworldfranchise.com.

About Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs

Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs was originally founded in 2008 by Jon Wilhelm, who brought 20-plus years of CPA and executive leadership experience to the business at that time. As part of United Franchise Group, this unique franchise blends professionalism and strategic marketing in an interactive tax preparation and accounting service model. Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs is poised to become a national leader in CPA-driven tax preparation services. Returns completed through Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs are verified by CPAs to ensure their accuracy. The company also offers a broad base of accounting services, including a free three-year tax review, financial planning, and strategic business planning. Backed by the strength of the entire United Franchise Group system, Paramount is on the leading edge of the industry. For information on owning a Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs franchise, visit www.paramountfranchising.com.

About UFG

Led by CEO Ray Titus, United Franchise Group, a group of affiliated companies and brands, is home to a variety of internationally recognized brands including Signarama, Fully Promoted, Experimac, Jon Smith Subs, Venture X, SuperGreen Solutions, Transworld Business Advisors and Paramount Tax & Accounting CPAs. With over three decades in the franchising industry and more than 1,400 franchisees throughout the world, United Franchise Group offers unprecedented leadership and solid business opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Media Contact:

Ashley Soto

305-631-2283 x1005

[email protected]

SOURCE United Franchise Group

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Figures compiled by realestate.com.au show that searches for Australian property by Chinese-based property seekers fell 15 per cent nationally last year.

Sydney searches were down more than 30 per cent and Melbourne down over 10 per cent.

"The biggest drops were in the last quarter of 2017," REA Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee told Fairfax Media.

"I think a lot has to do with taxes introduced last year, sentiment towards Australian property in general and perhaps a slowdown in the construction cycle meaning less to buy.

"Chinese capital controls are perhaps also making an impact  fewer Chinese developers may be impacting buyers."
The veteran property developer Harry Triguboff said many of his Chinese buyers "can't settle" on their off the plan apartment purchases.

"And everyone thought that the Australian buyer would come in when the prices started coming down  they haven't  I knew they wouldn't."

"It's not bad, it's very bad," developer Harry Triguboff said in response to government taxes and credit restrictions on foreign buyer's residential property acquisitions.

A sharp drop in foreign buyers was detailed in the latest ANZ/Property Council of Australia survey of more than 1700 property professionals from across the industry.

"When we start saying that stamp duty for foreign buyers should be 12 per cent instead of 4 per cent, that is called stupid," Triguboff told The Australian Financial Review.

Triguboff said foreign buyer demand started to soften more than a year ago, with prices now going "lower and lower".

"Many of the Chinese can't settle. So now we have to resell them  there is another problem."
"I am pulling out of the residential space," Jonathan Hallinan told the press this week. "Policy makers have repeatedly hit our industry with several regulatory changes, which are now compounding to result in what is likely to be a devastating effect on housing supply and affordability in the long term," he had previously blogged. "Over my 22-year career as a property developer, I have had to remain nimble enough to withstand changing market forces. "I have not tried to forecast economic swings or predict fluctuations in the housing economy, but rather create a formidable business model that can endure the inevitable peaks and troughs of the property cycle. "However, the last 12 months of successive government restrictions on the property industry have put insurmountable pressures on many developers that are far beyond most local developers ability to restructure their business models and adapt. "It would appear that our policy makers, who evidently believe that their actions are alleviating the pressures of an over-heated housing market, are, with great success, crippling the very industry that has the power to ease the housing affordability crisis." Hallinan lists the recent adverse changes:

1. Introduction of APRA regulations on banks and financial lenders which resulted in changes to investment lending, reducing the borrowing power of investors.

2. Removal of the stamp-duty concession from off-the-plan purchasers for investors

3. Introduction of plot ratios to the Melbourne planning scheme, hugely lessening the number of dwellings that could be built on a development site.

4. Implementation of apartment design guidelines, forcing developers to build fewer larger and more expensive apartments.

5. Limitations on foreign purchasers to not more than 50% ownership in a given apartment project

6. 7% foreign surcharge on all offshore purchasers

7. Enforcement of minimum $5,000 FIRB application fees

8. Increase of 5.5% stamp duty fees on foreign purchasers

9. Enforcement of absentee surcharges on purchasers with properties vacant for six months or more

10. Proposed introduction of a new tax on the four banks as part of the 2017 Budget.

"Since the [stamp duty] changes have been implemented, foreign sales have been almost non-existent," Hallinan told the Australian Financial Review.

He reaffirmed that supply of new apartments would "fall off a cliff" as more developers followed suit.

"Supply is about to fall of the cliff, so my predictions are that rental occupancy will decrease when this happens.

"You will see price growth and yet another boom over and above the one we already are witnessing," he suggested in his blog post.

One of BPM's most recent acquisitions was a two-storey commercial King Street building in the centre of Melbourne for $12.35 million with a plans for a new hotel as part of a mixed-use development.

Jonathan Hallinan founded BPM in 1995 securing early success with luxury townhouses in Melbournes bayside areas.

In 2015 BPM was working on its first high-rise luxury development, Shadow Play, a $300 million project of 494 apartments which is shortly due for completion.

Designed by Ellenberg Fraser, with interior finishes from designers Hecker Guthrie, the project is at the corner of City Rd and Clarendon St, previously home to King Furniture.
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Workman Publishing has named Traci Todd as director of childrens publishing, effective January 29. At that time, Sara Corbett will return to the companys childrens division as art director.

Todd was most recently at Abrams, where she recently took on the role of editorial director of Abrams Appleseed and childrens licensed publishing. Since joining Abrams in December 2014, Todd specialized in books for children up to age five and licensed publishing for all ages. She began her career at Leapfrog and worked for other educational publishers, before moving to Chronicle Books. Todd is also the author of the picture book biography A Story of Nina Simone, which is tentatively scheduled for release by Putnam in 2021.

Todd said in a statement, I feel very fortunate to be moving from one innovative publisher to another, and am very much looking forward to building upon Workmans tradition of thoughtful, surprising childrens books with my new team.

Corbett had previously held positions in the Workman art department from 2009 to 2011, at which time she designed and art directed childrens books, graphic novels, and art books. Her design of The Art of Rube Goldberg was awarded first place in the New York Book Show and received an Eisner Award nomination. Corbett returns to the company from Penguin Workshop, where she served as associate art director. Her prior experience included positions at Polaris Images, ARTnews, and the Pratt Institute. Corbett said in a statement, Im thrilled to begin a new adventure at a company I already love so much. Workman has a wonderful backlist and a remarkable staff, and I cant wait to see what books we create in the coming seasons.

Dan Reynolds, chief executive officer of Workman, said in a statement, Workman has a long history of publishing groundbreaking titles for kids of all ages, and bringing to our program the kind of talent and experience that both Traci and Sara have makes us extremely excited about the future. I cant wait to see how they help us evolve in the days and years ahead.

Todd replaces Daniel Nayeri, the former publisher of childrens books, who left Workman in October to start a new imprint at Macmillan, along with editorial director Nathalie Le Du and creative director Colleen AF Venable.
Grupo Salinas has named Patricia Jasin as new vice president for Azteca Internacional.





Through the appointment, the Mexican company aims to strengthen international content and networks distribution, particularly in the US Hispanic market, after Salinas subsidiary Azteca America was acquired by the holding company HC2 Network Jasin will report to Alberto Ciurana, chief content and distribution office, TV Azteca, who will assist her to introduce the companys content into new markets across the Americas.According to TV Aztecas latest financial report , international sales are on the up, but still represent a small share of the business compared to the companys strong position in the Mexican market.The Argentinean executive, now based in Miami, has 20 years of experience within the TV industry, having worked for Frecuencia Latina and launched her own company, Fly Content, of which she will remain CEO.The arrival of Patricia Jasin is part of TV Aztecas new strategy to become a magnet for talented people , stated Grupo Salinas.
The content producer behind Netflix hit drama series Narcos, Gaumont, has added two key executives to bolster its TV distribution efforts.





Mathilde Rottier has joined the company as VP, US and Canada TV Distribution; and Ezequiel Olzanski has joined as VP, Latin American TV distribution and co-production.The appointments come as Narcos is being presented for the first time to linear TV partners worldwide at the NATPE market.With Narcos linear TV rights soon available in addition to all our new releases coming up this year, the timing is perfect to round out our sales team and these new appointments ensure that we have seasoned executives on the ground across the globe to represent Gaumonts growing programming roster, said Vanessa Shapiro, Gaumont president, worldwide TV distribution and co-production.Previously, Rottier served as VP of North American sales at Miramax. She joined the company in 2011, following a long-standing tenure with MGM in various roles, including VP of North American television.Prior to his new role, Olzanski spent 20 years in positions at Snap TV, where he served as director of international sales and distribution, and at Endemol International.
The book sat on the table under the light of a sunny December morning. Called The Country and authored by Marie, Queen of Romania, its pages were darkened by time, and by the years spent tucked away in a dark corner of the shelves. Those courageous enough to keep it at all had risked running afoul of the Communist regimes censorship of Romanias royal past. Seen now in the second decade of the 21st century, it had the look of a survivor.

The chapters were published during the First World War so that Romanian soldiers could read about the country they were fighting for, seen through the eyes of their English queen. The book was published in 1925 in London, and copies reached Bucharest. But on December 30, 1947, the Communists forced Michael, Maries nephew and the last king of Romania, to abdicate. Everything good about the countrys royal past had to be erased from the peoples memory, and silence fell on Queen Maries book, which would not be published again in Romania until 2016.

But even whispered words cut sharp against bad times.

On the first page stood a short message written calligraphically in Romanian: To you, one of my dearest books. There was a beautiful signature and the date, 1937. I asked my grandmother whether that was the authors signature. Seeing her smile, I sat down, knowing she was going to tell me a story that would only be shared with a whisper. And she did: The custom in the old days was that you give away a book you have read and care about with a note. You would only write something to good friends. And you would sign, never including your full name and the date. To state the level of respect and affection, youd use the best pen you have. Because a book you read is a part of you already, and that means that you are actually giving away a part of your soul. You cant do that just for anyone. She then looked through the icy window, and explained that nothing else can be treasured more than those books bearing the signatures of souls.

I liked when my grandmother told me about old customs and whispered stories about the royal family. From her, I learned that Romania once had been ruled by King Ferdinand, who was married to Queen Marie. There was something extraordinary about them. First, they had ruled Romania in times of war, when Romanians fought for Transylvania. Second, King Ferdinand had been the name of our village, located 15 kilometers south of downtown Bucharest. That was before the Communists changed the villages name to 30 Decembrie  December 30. I had never been told why it was called that way, but I knew it was not right that it had its name changed. I also knew, at the time of Communist rule, not to mention to anyone outside our home of the whispered stories of my grandma.

The stories were beautiful  they spoke of when the queen had a house near our church, and of times when the royal automobiles would come driving down the main road. There were also those fun stories about small airplanes landing on the far bank of the river and about my grandma, in her happy childhood days, running and shouting at the planes as they took off again. She would also tell me that I had to study and learn to speak foreign languages. Her biggest regret was that she never managed to go to college  for that, too, the Communists were blamed. Because her father didnt want to give his land to the Communists (and I had no idea why the Communists wanted this land in the first place), she was forced to stop studying and come back home from Bucharest. She used to tell me about walks through the parks of Bucharest, about the theatres I had to visit when I grew up. She never forgot to add that Romania had been noble, that there had been a royal family just like in Europe, which, back then, I took for a country. She always ended her stories with a different, sharper smile, concluding that she was a peasant, but she has had a lovely lifeand with that sending me on about my own business.

That was before the crying years. In 1984 Ceausescu decided that Bucharest, and eventually Romania, had to adopt the North Korean style of architecture, which had enchanted him when he paid state visits to Pyongyang. Whole areas of the capital were demolished. In 1988, my family knew that my grandparents house was to be demolished soon. It was said that Romanias dictator had passed by and with a gesture ordered that new blocks of flats be built on the sides of the main road linking Bucharest to Giurgiu. That news was bad to me  not because our house had to be demolished, as others already had been demolished elsewhere in Bucharest. I didnt truly understand at the time what the word demolish meant. It was bad because my grandmother was no longer able to smile  all she did, while she was not working, was cry. Sometimes, when she would walk with me to my violin classes, she would cry in complete silence. Since that time, I have always hated crying. So I hated the Communists too.

My grandmother would still tell me how to behave, how to address elders, how not to ask inappropriate questions when visiting someones house, how to excuse myself when leaving the room, the small things I would make her tell me by misbehaving  partly because I didnt know the rules but also because, knowing the rules, I wanted her to tell me more about why I should behave in a certain manner. I wanted to hear those stories about the royal family, about her childhood years, about how my grandfather would ride white horses, and the family had a sleigh and carriage to ride out onto our land. Even if I had no idea what that even meant: our land. I didnt like that I had to respect the rules of those times yet be deprived of their stories.

In 1990, after the Romanian revolution brought down the Communists that I so despised, my grandparents started talking openly about King Michael. The name of the village was soon changed into 1 Decembrie, and they were upset that it was not renamed, in accordance with the old days, to Regele Ferdinand, King Ferdinand. But they were fine with the new date  after all, they said, King Ferdinand had made of December 1 the key date in Romanias history, the date when Transylvania became part of Romania. He and his wife, Queen Marie, the author of that forgotten book in the library. Our house was safe from demolishing  in fact, it was renovated instead. It was to become white, after a family meeting where my parents and my grandparents debated all sorts of things related to its modernization. My grandma was happy again and only cried when she heard on the radio that the king was not allowed to come into the country, on his first attempt, on Dec. 25, 1990. She was happy when he visited again in 1992  he was then no longer considered such a big threat to the new government installed in Bucharest and was allowed to visit on the condition that he return to Switzerland after a few days. Well, there was something about the king for sure. But I wasnt much interested and went on about my business.

In a roundabout way not totally surprising, considering the stories I liked when I was a child, my business became geopolitics. So, I learned about who King Michael was. I learned why Dec. 30 was a bad day  in 1947, that day was when the king had to leave Romania. I learned about the meaning of Aug. 23 and why it should have been a date Romanians remember with pride, as hundreds of thousands of lives were saved when King Michael of Romania decided to change sides and join the Allies. I learned about tactics and strategy, and I learned all about war. I write about the balance of power in the world. I write about the politics of the region. I try to stay objective and judge the larger picture. I look at Europe every day and consider how stable it is. And I have definitions for what influence and power are. I ponder the future, read about the present, and study history.

On Dec. 16, 1989, Romanian rage against Communism erupted in Timisoara. By the end of the year, my grandmother was smiling again. There was hope that we would keep our house, and there was hope Id get an education.

On Dec. 16, 2017, Romanias last king was buried, and he was buried at home. Thousands of people were in the streets of Bucharest, more still in the railway stations that the train carrying his remains passed through, and millions were watching the procession. Media criticized the outbursts of applause. Some academics and political commentators said the population was clueless about protocol. They said Romanians are not educated enough to know how to behave for such a funeral.

And so we were.

We were not educated to know who our king was, nor to find out. That was one among many things we were not educated to understand. But we were and still are able to feel. To feel what is not right. To distinguish the good from the bad. We were probably not much educated in December 1989 and did not know what to do when fired upon. We had no clue what was going to follow. But in the chaos of the moment, the population understood what sacrifice looks like  and many sacrificed for freedom without being educated enough to know what freedom was. I like to think that in looking back at the kings life, those who were uneducated enough to bid their farewell with applause understood that a big part of his life was also marked by sacrifice for Romania.

Many of them discovered a model that they had heard whispered about in their childhood. Many never even knew he was really there. Many will go looking to find out who he was. But to them all, it was the bad in the society we live in today that created the relevance of the good in the kings life. It is what they perceive to be the lack of political leadership and morale of todays ruling elite that had Romanians applauding the kings abundance of both. December 16, 2017, was a day for serious childhood. A sad fairytales end  and a whisper for the future.
Jordan has been left with no choice but to oppose US President Donald J. Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel because the issue impacts the kingdoms security and politics.

As Jordanian King Abdullah II focuses more attention on Jerusalem and the unresolved question of Palestinian statehood, Jordan finds itself torn between one regional axis led by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and another led by Turkey and Qatar.

Abdullahs December 6 meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoA?an in Ankara provided signs that Amman might be veering from its traditional Persian Gulf allies. Such a move would bring Jordan closer to the spheres of influence of Russia, China, and Iran. That said, it is quite likely that Amman will attempt a delicate balancing act in order to avoid strain in its alliances with Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Washington.

Days after the Ankara meeting, ErdoA?an, speaking at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Istanbul, described Abdullah as the guardian of the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

If Jordan pivots toward what ErdoA?an has described as a new alliance of Muslim powers opposed to Trumps Jerusalem decision, Abdullah will have paved the way for Ankara to insert itself in the Palestinian struggle via Amman.

Trumps decision on Jerusalem has led to increasingly anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric from Turkey. The vocal reaction from Ankara was in sharp contrast with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which have been relatively cautious.

Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa tweeted: Its not helpful to pick a fight with the USA over side issues while we together fight the clear and present danger of The Theo-Fascist Islamic republic. He was referring to Iran.

Jordan does not view Trumps decision on Jerusalem, which has major implications for the internal security of the kingdom that hosts more than two million Palestinian refugees, as a side issue.

Despite Jordans clear interest in the Trump administration reversing its recognition of Jerusalem, it is not clear how Amman will navigate the impact of the crisis and the growing divisions between Sunni states in the Middle East.

In 2018, Jordan will come under pressure from global powers that will be eager to influence Ammans foreign policy and the kingdoms alignment in the regional geopolitical order. As the Sunni Arab world grows increasingly polarized, Jordan will find it harder to promote regional stability in the wake of the Islamic States defeat in Iraq and Syria this past year. This will be due to the growing unrest and anger directed at the United States and Israel over the Palestinian issue, which has returned front and center in the Arab worlds public discourse.

When Jordan called on Arab states to hold an extraordinary summit to discuss the challenge posed by Trumps Jerusalem decision, some leaders in the region rejected the kingdoms suggestion on the grounds that the Arab Summit in Riyadh in March would be the forum for such a discussion. Amman saw this position as unhelpful in view of the likely immediate repercussions for Jordan from a new intifada (uprising) in the West Bank.

Indeed, Jordan remains vulnerable to the potential spillover of violence from East Jerusalem and the West Bank as a result of Trumps controversial decision. There is, therefore, a high probability that 2018 will be an important year for the trajectory of Ammans future foreign policy alignments in the Middle East as well as the international geopolitical order.

Reprinted with permission from The Atlantic Council. Shehab al-Makahleh is the director of Geostrategic Media Center. Follow him on Twitter @shehabmakahleh. Giorgio Cafiero is the chief executive officer of Gulf State Analytics. Follow him on Twitter @GiorgioCafiero.
On July 1, 2018, as many Americans reluctantly begin to think about the forthcoming midterm elections, and with the primary season in full swing, another non-U.S. election will occupy the minds of policymakers in Washington and a number of state capitals. On that day, Mexicans go to the polls to elect a new president, 128 federal senators, five hundred federal deputies and nine state governors, as well as mayors and state congressional representatives. For most Americans, this election will be just another item in their news feed, but it may also turn out to be a more significant political juncture for the United Statesmore so than anything else that might happen in 2018.

Though Mexico has been in the headlines in the United States for the past two years, first as an issue in the 2016 election campaign and then as grist for the mill in the Trump administrations trade agenda, most Americans remain shockingly unaware of the importance of the bilateral relationship that the United States maintains with its southern neighbor. Although it is true that there is a substantial trade deficit with Mexico, it is the United States third largest trade partner (in 2016 this amounted to almost $600 billion), the second largest importer of American goods and services, and it is the first or second export market for twenty-nine states. The United States has substantial surpluses in the bilateral energy and services trade. Mexico is also a crucial element in the North American manufacturing platform that guarantees the competitiveness of thousands of American firms, and is directly tied to almost five million U.S. jobs. Additionally, in recent years Mexico has become a critical partner in protecting the United States from terrorist threats, as Mexican and U.S. officials have worked ever more closely on intelligence and information sharing.

What is most surprising for many people is Mexicos changing connection to U.S. immigration. Although Mexico was the largest source of illegal immigration flows during the first decade of the twenty-first century, there is now net negative Mexican migration, meaning that there are now more Mexicans leaving the United States than arriving. Furthermore, Mexico has become a reliable and crucial partner in controlling flows of Central American migrants: for the last two years the Mexican government has deported more Central Americans during their journey across Mexico than the United States has from American territory.

For all these reasons, Julys election will have far-reaching implications for the United States. The next government in Mexico will determine the extent of ongoing cooperation with the United States and whether or not the friendly nature of bilateral relations will continue. Although bilateral affairs have been transformed over the past thirty years from enmity to friendship and partnership, continuity is far from guaranteed. While it is true that the majority of the contenders profess an amicable approach to Washington, the current front-runner has a complicated relationship with the United States and is perhaps the most stridently nationalist.

The Issues

Although polls show that Mexicans are far from convinced about the benefits of democratic politics for their lives, they are nonetheless motivated by a number of issues in this electoral cycle. Disappointing economic growth, a seemingly perennial issue, combined with a dramatically worsening public security situation and rising levels of violence due to the drug conflict in many parts of the country, are pushing Mexicans to seek new policy ideas. Trump and the NAFTA negotiations have raised the profile of the bilateral relationship and the specter of anti-Americanism in an election for the first time in decades. But perhaps corruption is the most important issue for voters this time around. The current government of President Enrique Pena Nieto is immensely unpopular and has been hit by a number of corruption scandals, including an ongoing investigation into the connections between Odebrecht and the national oil company, Pemex. Surveys have identified fighting corruption as a policy priority for Mexicans, although most have little faith that politicians will ever be able to break their dependence on what they see as a well-established system of kickbacks and payoffs.

The Contenders

One candidate in particular has seized on the salience of this issue. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO as he is known to almost everyone in Mexico, has been one of the most recognizable political figures in Mexico for almost eighteen years. As leader of the leftist PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution) he was elected mayor of Mexico City in 2000, he used his platform as the head of government in one of the worlds largest cities to proselytize his message of change for the country, and narrowly missed out on winning the presidency in 2006an election that he still claims was stolen from him by electoral fraud. AMLO then proceeded to set himself up as the legitimate president of Mexico, occupying downtown Mexico City and challenging the credibility of President Felipe Calderon. AMLOs massive public events in the center of the city, often attracting hundreds of thousands of fanatical followers, became a regular feature of political life in the country. He ran again in 2012, coming in second again, but this time by a much wider margin to the winner, Pena Nieto. In 2013, AMLO broke with the PRD and created a new party, MORENA (Movement for National Regeneration), which performed well in the midterm elections in 2015 and is now building its national presence ahead of the July elections.

AMLO remains an enigma to many: he is most commonly portrayed as a firebrand radical populist who will upset the established political and economic order in Mexico. However, his previous policy experience, particularly as mayor of Mexico City, showed him to be a pragmatist who made important improvements to the citys infrastructure and social security system. In fact, rather than his radicalism, it may be his lack of depth on contemporary policy issues that presents the biggest threat to Mexico. This was seen clearly in a lackluster performance at a Wilson Center event in Washington in the Fall of 2017 and recently in a much criticized suggestion that he would offer amnesty to organized crime bosses if he wins the presidency. AMLO supporters, however, openly recognize that he is not a policy man, but rather a passionate leader who speaks for the weak, vulnerable and dispossessed.

Running a distant second at this point in the polls and representing the current ruling PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) is the former finance secretary, Jose Antonio Meade. Meade is among the best qualified candidates ever to run for the Mexican Presidency: in addition to his role as Secretary of Finance, he has held cabinet posts for energy, social development and foreign affairs across two different governments of different political persuasions and has a PhD from Yale. Meade is almost universally recognized as a dedicated public servant, talented policy maker, charming conversationalist and sophisticated thinker, and he has the backing of the PRI, which changed its internal rules to allow a non-party member such as himself to be the partys candidate. As such, he has many of the qualities that should make him a viable contender for the presidency.

But Meade must overcome three major obstacles that block his path to the presidency. The first is that he is clearly associated with the current government and especially President Pena Nieto, who has record low approval ratings for a Mexican president. The unpopularity of the current administration is a major problem for Meade and he must try to distinguish himself from its policies and personalities without alienating the party base. Secondly, having never run for elected office, Meade has not spent any time building his own brand, and is still largely unknown among the electorate, despite his impressive record in two cabinets. This means that he has the opportunity to build a positive image with the electorate, but he must start early in 2018 to gain momentum if he is to stand a chance of catching AMLO.

The third serious contender for the presidency is Ricardo Anaya Cortes, former president of the center-right PAN (National Action Party), which has opted to ally with the leftist PRD party and Movimiento Ciudadano, a smaller party that has shifted its alliances in recent years. Anaya will be only thirty-nine years old when the election is held, but he has already been a major figure in national politics for six years. He is smart, he is a strategic thinker, and he hails from Queretaro in the PAN heartland of the Bajio, which is the plateau to the north of Mexico City. The PAN appeared to be well-positioned to challenge AMLO in 2018 until a very public dispute between Anaya and Margarita Zavala, the wife of former President Felipe Calderon, resulted in Zavala quitting the PAN and taking around 7 percent of voters with her, thus seriously handicapping both her and Anayas bids for the presidency. Thus far Anaya has been unable to generate broad support among the Mexican electorate, but the campaign season kickoff in March will offer him (and Meade) the opportunity to take on the front-runner.

In addition to the established party candidates, for the first time in Mexico independents will be allowed to run for the presidency. Zavala is one, so is the governor of the state of Nuevo Leon, Jaime El Bronco Rodriguez, and Armando Rios Piter, the former senator from Guerrero, is another. They are among many other high-profile independents interested in the presidency. Although none of the independent candidates appear to have a serious chance of winning the election, their candidacies will take votes away from the main parties. In the end, they may prove to be pivotal in determining the final outcome.

What to Expect

The campaigns officially begin in March, and it is widely predicted that the campaigns will be intense, conflictive and will involve huge amounts of spending by the parties. Although there are strict limits on how much private cash can go into the race, past experience shows that the electoral authorities have little prospect of restricting unauthorized spending by the parties. The prospect of illegal money from organized crime entering the campaigns is a daunting prospect that very few politicians wish to discuss in public.

AMLO has a huge advantage going into 2018 with his near universal name recognition, but he is burdened by very high negative numbers in addition to his high positives. This means that he has little room to grow his base, whereas both Meade and Anaya (and of course the independents) have the opportunity to increase their support. Past experience in Mexican elections has shown that candidates and campaigns matter a great deal, and it is likely that the same will hold true this year. AMLO has the most to lose, and he is in a similar position to that which he held in 2006, when his lead in the polls was whittled away and undermined by a concerted campaign by Calderon, who cast him as a threat to Mexicos stability and prosperity. We should expect to hear more of the same this time around, but it is far from certain that Mexican voters will be as convinced of that threat.

One last wrinkle in the story involves the United States and President Trump. Since Trump took office, Mexican public opinion of the United States has turned dramatically negative. This means that candidates will be tempted to exploit anti-American and anti-Trump sentiment on the campaign trail, and those who do so effectively may pick up a few extra points. If the White House returns to a vehement anti-Mexico, anti-NAFTA, anti-immigrant and pro-border wall message, then the chances of this happening increase still further. In the end, of course, the election is likely to be determined by internal factors; but a series of hostile tweets from the U.S. president could still play a role in bringing a leftist populist to power in a country that is critical for American prosperity and security.

Reprinted with permission from The National Interest. Duncan Wood is the director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Mexico Institute and a Senior Adviser at McLarty Associates.
One of the single most tragic days in millennial history is when Twitter announced on Octobe
DACA is an essential part of the infrastructure of the U.S. economy. Without DACA, many immigrants who have actually grown up in America will suffer.
Rokita's office, Bernard's attorneys spar in court over patient privacy

Attorneys on both sides sparred over the ethics and limits of patient-physician confidentiality during witness questioning on Friday.
Mu Sochua, vice president of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, escaped her country in early October 2017 ahead of warnings she would be arrested for conspiring with jailed party leader Kem Sokha to overthrow the Cambodian government. She spoke from exile to Vuthy Huot of RFAs Khmer Service about the Hun Sen governments pressure on CNRP members and her efforts to focus international attention on Cambodias political crisis.

RFA: Have you declared your assets as required by the Anti-Corruption Unit after the CNRP officials are banned from politics?

Mu Sochua: It is unacceptable that laws are used to harass us. The laws are used as tools for the ruling elites to remain in power longer and restrict our freedom and rights. Its not a big deal whether we declare our assets. The big deal is the life of democracy in our country. We are not afraid to lose our assets as long as we do not lose our democracy. To revive our democracy, Kem Sokha must be released immediately and unconditionally and there must be free and fair elections.

RFA: Are you not afraid that you will be punished for failing to declare your assets?

Mu Sochua: No, Im not. What I fear the most is when our country has become a victim of the ruling elites who are undermining our democracy. We need to rescue our nation and democracy.

RFA: CNRP officials are lobbying the international community to put pressure on Hun Sens government. However, CPP officials say that the CNRP has failed to convince buyers to stop buying goods from Cambodia. What is your reaction to that?

Mu Sochua: I wish to specify that we are not inciting the international community to stop buying clothes or other goods from Cambodia. Big buyers are actually very mindful of their moral obligation. They only buy products from a country that respects human rights and democracy. What we are lobbying the international community for is to restore human rights and democracy in Cambodia.

RFA: Since the CNRP is dissolved, party officials have conducted protests and delivered petitions to foreign governments. How effective have these efforts been so far?

Mu Sochua: Democracy is now dead. We are finding ways to make it alive again. Our fight to get international attention is working. The international community including the US and EU have already imposed some forms of sanctions against the Hun Sen government. I strongly encourage Cambodians everywhere to continue to stay engaged in politics and stage peaceful protests to pressure for the restoration of democracy and rule of law.

RFA: What do you think about Hun Sens recent move to meet factory workers at least twice a week?

Mu Sochua: It is good that he does that. It is exactly what the CNRP has been doing. For he follows what we do now, I would like him to also follow our call for him to allow Cambodians to also enjoy their freedom, human rights and democracy fully. May I challenge Hun Sen to fight like a man. I want to challenge Hun Sen to be brave enough to allow for a free and fair election in which political parties compete for votes from the people at the polling stations.

RFA: Hun Sen accuses the president of the CNRP of treason. He also accuses some NGOs of receiving assistance from foreign governments. In the meantime, Hun Sen has received assistance from foreign governments like China. What do you think about this?

Mu Sochua: We are very concerned with Chinas influence in Cambodian politics. China has exploited our natural resources on a large scale. China is a one-party state. It is a communist country. It is very sad that Hun Sen has let go of democracy and chose communism. It is very sad that he has labeled us as traitors. However, I strongly believe that Cambodians are not fooled by Hun Sen. I really respect our people who still strongly believe in the CNRP, which is the only hope for a democratic change.

Translated by Nareth Muong.
A Rohingya refugee from Myanmar fixes his makeshift shelter at Kutupalong refugee camp in the Bangladeshi district of Ukhia, Cox's Bazar, southeastern Bangladesh, Jan. 9, 2018.

Though Myanmar has nearly completed housing for 5,000 returning Rohingya Muslim refugees, the government is still waiting for Bangladesh to send lists of those who are eligible for repatriation slated to begin later this month, officials said Wednesday.

The government will first accept refugees at two reception centers in Taung Pyo Let Wae and Nga Khu Ya villages in northern Rakhine state.

All buildings in Taung Pyo Let Wae and Nga Khu Ya will be ready for refugees on Jan. 22, Win Myat Aye, minister for social welfare, relief, and resettlement, told RFAs Myanmar Service. We can accommodate about 5,000 people at the same time by the end of January.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in November to repatriate some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled the region during a brutal military crackdown that began in August 2017, which included killings, rapes, and village burnings.

Though officials from the two countries have a working group dedicated to the repatriation program, Bangladeshi officials said Monday that the voluntary repatriations would not likely begin on Jan. 22 because the logistics are not yet in place. Those who can prove prior residency in Myanmar will be permitted to return.

But Win Myat Aye said the repatriations can begin on Jan. 22 and that the two reception centers will be expanded to handle 30,000 Rohingya.

With financial assistance from the World Bank, the Myanmar government has purchased more than 1,000 waterproof tents that can each hold 10 people, he said.

China, Myanmars major trading partner, is also providing assistance for displaced persons in Rakhine state. On Jan. 6, the country delivered about 100 prefabricated houses to accommodate up to eight people each, Chinas official Xinhua news agency reported.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the delivery, Hong Liang, Chinas ambassador to Myanmar, pledged to continue Chinas assistance to conflict-displaced people in the region as well as help develop the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone to build up Rakhine states economy, the report said.

Rights groups and the United Nations have cautioned against a hasty return of the refugees, saying that they will continue to face repression and discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and access to basic services.

They also argue that some Rohingya who want to return may not have documents proving prior residency because their homes were burned during the crackdown and they fled with few belongings.

While Myanmar officials insist that immigration officers have records to verify residency claims, they say the problem now is that they have not yet received any completed repatriation application forms from Bangladesh.

We have sent the forms for refugees who want to return voluntarily to complete to fill out, and [we have] buildings and teams of workers in place to process the returnees, said Myint Kyaing, Myanmars permanent secretary of the Ministry of Labor, Immigration, and Population. But the Bangladeshi government has not sent any forms back to us yet.

The Bangladeshi government said Rohingya repatriation can be delayed, but this is not because of the Myanmar side, because we have everything ready, he said. It is because of their process. [Myanmars} Union government, all ministries, and the Rakhine state government have willingly been working together on the refugee repatriation process.

There was no immediate response from Bangladesh to Myint Kyaings assertions.

A Myanmar military investigation team examines a mass grave where soldiers buried Rohingya Muslims they killed in Inn Din village, Maungdaw township, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, in an undated photo. Credit: Office of Commander-in-chief of Myanmar's Armed Forces/Facebook Admission of wrongdoing

In a related development, Myanmars military said on Wednesday that it would take action against soldiers who killed and burned 10 Rohingya during attacks in early September following the murder of an ethnic Rakhine man.

The killings occurred during the military crackdown that began in response to deadly assaults on police outposts by the Muslim militant group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Aug. 25

After the army announced that a mass grave containing 10 bodies had been discovered in Rakhines Inn Din village in Maungdaw township, a senior officer was appointed to investigate. His probe found that soldiers killed the 10 men, according to an announcement on the Facebook page of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of Myanmars armed forces.

The 10 men were part of a larger group of 200 Rohingya terrorists who attacked security forces with sticks and swords, the statement said.

They were captured after soldiers drove the rest away by firing into the air, the statement said.

Some villagers from Inn Din village and security forces confessed they killed 10 Bengali terrorists, the Facebook post said, using a derogatory term for the Rohingya.

The decision was made to kill them at a cemetery, it said.

The announcement came as a rare admission of wrongdoing by the Myanmar military, which has denied committing extrajudicial killings and other atrocities against the Rohingya during the crackdown.

The United Nations and United States have said that the campaign amounted to ethnic cleansing, while others have suggested that the militarys actions may constitute genocide.

London-based Amnesty International said on Wednesday that the militarys admission exposed extrajudicial killings of Rohingya during the crackdown

This grisly admission is a sharp departure from the armys policy of blanket denial of any wrongdoing, said James Gomez, the organizations regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, in a statement.

However, it is only the tip of the iceberg and warrants serious independent investigation into what other atrocities were committed amid the ethnic cleansing campaign that has forced out more than 655,000 Rohingya from Rakhine state since last August, he said.

It is appalling that soldiers have attempted to justify extrajudicial executions by saying they were needed as reinforcements elsewhere and did not know what to do with the men, he said. Such behavior shows a contempt for human life which is simply beyond comprehension.

Foreign extremist groups

Min Aung Hlaing said on Tuesday that foreign extremist groups are likely backing ARSA, which carried out an ambush on Jan. 5 that injured six soldiers and their civilian driver. ASRA said the attack was in retaliation for the military continuing to commit atrocities against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine.

It is most likely that terrorist organizations based in other countries are backing the ARSA extremist Bengali terrorists, Min Aung Hlaing said during a meeting with his Singaporean counterpart in Naypyidaw, the online news service Democratic Voice of Burma reported.

For that reason, Myanmar will cooperate with other friendly countries in preventing acts of terror perpetrated by these terrorists, he was quoted as saying. Several countries have endured experiences similar to those of Myanmar. Thats why we need to cooperate together more than ever.

The Myanmar government has pledged to fight back against ARSA on Monday after the group issued a statement claiming responsibility for the ambush.

Reported by Thiri Min Zin and Khin Khin Ei for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
An Afghan media watchdog says that 2017 was the bloodiest year ever for journalists and other media personnel working in Afghanistan, with the Taliban and Islamic State (IS) militant groups being blamed for much of the violence.

The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC) said in a report released on January 11 that 20 journalists and media workers were killed last year, an increase from 13 deaths in 2016.

The group said there were 169 reported cases of violence and threats against journalists on the job, with 12 of them directed toward female media workers. In 2106, AJSC documented 101 such cases.

The report said terrorist groups such as the Taliban and IS were responsible for all cases of the killings of journalists. The Taliban was blamed for the deaths of 18 journalists, while IS was blamed for two.

The Western-backed government in Kabul has been fighting Taliban extremists since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001 drove them from power. IS and other terror groups have also begun operating in Afghanistan, often attacking mosque worshippers and government and security officials, along with journalists.

An unprecedented increase in threats and violence against journalists has created serious concern about the survival of freedoms of expression and press, the Kabul-based AJSC said in its regular six-month report.

Because freedom of expression, freedom of press, and media pluralism are among the countrys most important achievements in the past 16 years, the threat to media is considered a threat to the countrys overall progress, added the group, which describes itself as an independent, nonprofit organization supporting press freedom in Afghanistan.

The report also blamed government workers for some of the attacks on the press, saying they are responsible for 34 percent of the violence and intimidation against journalists.

In 2017, the majority of incidents of violence against media personnel took place in Kabul and in northern provinces -- specifically Parwan, Kapisa, and Panjsher. The safest areas for journalists were in the southeastern provinces, the report said.

Although the governments leadership has made many commitments to protect journalists and collaborate with the media -- issuing numerous decrees for protecting journalists -- these official measures have failed to deliver the desired results in reducing violence against journalists, the AJSC said.

Along with direct violence, the report cited examples of intimidation against media outlets by the Taliban and IS, leading to situations of self-censorship.

It said that in insecure provinces such as Ghazni, Logar, and Pakitia, the extremist groups have forced the media to avoid broadcasting and printing content that includes female songs, music, promotional ads of security forces, and ads related to the peace process.

In a report last month, the international Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that 65 professional journalists, citizen-journalists, and media workers were killed across the world in 2017, representing an 18 percent decline from the 2016 figure.
Human rights activist Oyub Titiyev has been charged with drug possession and ordered jailed for two months in pretrial detention in Chechnya, a lawyer and associates said.

A lawyer for Titiyev, Pyotr Zaikin, told the Interfax news agency that a court in the Chechen city of Shali granted a prosecution request at a custody hearing on January 11.

Zaikin vowed to appeal the ruling, which came as supporters said Chechen authorities were piling pressure on Titiyev's relatives and the European Union voiced strong concern about his detention on a marijuana charge colleagues contend was fabricated.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini became the latest Western official to voice concern over the arrest of Titiyev, the head of the Moscow-based human rights group Memorial's office in Chechnya, calling for his release in a pointed statement.

Mogherini said the case "continues a worrying trend of arrests, as well as attacks, intimidations and discrediting of independent journalists and human rights defenders who work in that region of the Russian Federation."

She said Titiyev's arrest was "especially concerning given that his predecessor, [Natalya] Estemirova, was killed in 2009 and that no one has yet been brought to justice for this crime."

Earlier in the day, Memorial chief Aleksandr Cherkasov said that Titiyev was charged with possession of a "large amount" of illegal narcotics, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Titiyev, 60, was detained on January 9 by police who claimed to have found about 180 grams of marijuana in his car.

Memorial said that on January 10, police stormed into Titiyev's home in the village of Kurchaloi in a search for Titiyev's 28-year-old son Bekkhan and the activist's brother Yakub.

After discovering the two men were not at the house, Memorial said, police forced other relatives there to leave, locked the doors and confiscated the keys -- warning that the family would face "big problems" if Bekkhan and Yakub did not report to police.

A leading member of Moscow-based Memorial, Oleg Orlov, said "it is clear that a criminal case is being fabricated in order to persecute Oyub for his human rights activities."

Theres no doubt that Titiyev's arrest is an attempt to finally push Memorial...out of Chechnya."

Meanwhile, the chairman of President Vladimir Putin's advisory council on human rights, Mikhail Fedotov, urged Investigative Committee chief Aleksandr Bastrykin to look into the circumstances of Titiyev's detention.

In a letter to Bastrykin, Fedotov said there are "grounds to believe" that Titiyev may have been targeted for his human rights activities and that the marijuana police said was found in his car "could have been planted," the council said.

The new developments increased concerns in Russia and the West about Titiyev's case, which rights defenders suspect is an example of the authorities in Chechnya inventing alleged crimes to target activists and silence dissent.

They may also raise fears that Chechen authorities are using the threat of collective punishment to advance their goals -- a practice that rights groups including Memorial say the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has turned to in the past.

"Theres no doubt that Titiyev's arrest is an attempt to finally push Memorial -- which has been extensively reporting on collective punishment practices, enforced disappearances, torture, punitive house burnings, and other abuses by local authorities -- out of Chechnya," Tanya Lokshina, Human Rights Watchs Russia program director, said on January 9.

In addition to the EU, human rights groups and other countries have condemned Titiyev's detention and called for his release.

A group of six top rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Front Line Defenders, issued a joint statement on January 11 calling the drug charges against Titiyev "bogus."

"Titiyev should not be in custody, where we fear his health and safety are at risk," said Hugh Williamson, Central Asian director at Human Rights Watch.

The U.S. State Department said on January 10 it was troubled by the reported arrest of Titiyev, calling it the latest in a string of reports of alarming recent human rights violations in Chechnya.

A statement called on Chechen authorities to release Titiyev and allow independent civil society to operate free from harassment and intimidation.

The Moscow-based Committee for the Prevention of Torture (KPP) on January 10 called Titiyev's detention an "abduction" and said his rights under the Russian Constitution and other laws were blatantly violated.

Germany urged Russian authorities to ensure Titiyev is treated in a "transparent manner and according to the rule of law."

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr told reporters that the work of Titiyev and Memorial is "invaluable to many people, especially in Chechnya," adding that Germany is closely monitoring the case.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Russia has an "obligation" as a member state "to ensure that law enforcement bodies do not abuse the law to prevent human rights defenders from carrying out" their work.

OSCE human rights chief Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladotti urged Russia to ensure Titiyev's rights "including access to a lawyer and...a fair trial, to physical integrity and dignity, and to protection from judicial harassment, criminalization, and arbitrary arrest."

The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, called Titiyev's detention "a very worrying signal" and called for his release.

Chechnya's information minister, Dzhambulat Umarov, told Current Time TV that he saw no political motivation behind Titiyev's detainment.

"If this is a misunderstanding, I assure you it will be cleared up," Umarov told the Russian-language network, which is run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

Memorial chairman Cherkasov said on January 10 that Titiyevs home was searched overnight and that no drugs or other illegal items were found.

Cherkasov, who has known Titiyev for years, said the accusation of drug possession or transport was "implausible" and that the detention was most likely motivated by his human rights work.

Lokshina, of Human Rights Watch, called the drug case against Titiyev a pure fabrication and spoke of "several other cases when critics of the government in Chechnya were put on trial on fraudulent drug charges and actually went to jail.

This is yet another case of this sort, and it seems that the Chechen authorities are now frequently using these particular tactics to silence their opponents," she told Reuters.

Kadyrov's spokesman, Alvi Karimov, rejected statements by Western governments and human rights organizations, calling them "attempts to influence the ongoing investigation."

"This is an impudent, unscrupulous, and unabashed attempt to meddle in and impose pressure on the investigation.... Neither Memorial, nor anyone else is entitled to conclude if someone is guilty or not guilty," Karimov said on January 11.

Activists say that Kadyrov, appointed by Putin in 2007 to head the Russian region, rules through repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces in the province. Rights activists claim Kadyrov has been responsible for abuses that include the kidnappings, disappearance, torture, and killing of political opponents.

Natalya Estemirova, a Memorial activist who was investigating alleged rights abuses in Chechnya by regional authorities and Russian military forces, was kidnapped and killed in Grozny in 2009.

Kremlin critics say Putin turns a blind eye to alleged abuses and violations of the Russian Constitution by Kadyrov because he relies on the former rebel to control separatist sentiments and violence in Chechnya, the site of two devastating post-Soviet wars and an Islamist insurgency that spread to Russia's other mostly Muslim regions in the North Caucasus.

With reporting by Current Time TV, RFE/RL's Russian Service, Interfax, and Reuters
A prominent opposition activist from Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia has been detained upon arrival to his native region.

The Ingush Interior Ministry on January 11 said Magomed Khazbiyev was detained on his arrival from neighboring Chechnya, where he had been under local government protection since 2015.

Khazbiyev, a fierce critic of Ingush officials and President Vladimir Putin, has been wanted in Ingushetia for alleged illegal weapons possession and insulting an official.

Khazbiyev said earlier that he planned to voluntarily return to Ingushetia to answer questions related to the case against him. He maintains his innocence, saying the charges are politically motivated.

In February 2015, unidentified gunmen opened fire at Khazbiyev's car in the Chechen capital, Grozny, after which Chechen authorities took him under protection.

Khazbiyev, a former chairman of opposition PARNAS party's branch in Ingushetia, has faced pressure from the authorities for years.

In 2014, he was in Kyiv supporting pro-Western protesters who ousted Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.

Chechnya is ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, who portrays himself as fiercely loyal to Putin.

With reporting by Kommersant
In a newly released video, a long-jailed brother of the late former leader of the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) says he was released from prison in October after 23 years behind bars.

Zohid Yuldoshev's video statement, carried by several Uzbek media outlets on January 11, was the first public indication that he is out of prison.

The founding leader of the IMU, Tohir Yuldosh, whom the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov considered his personal nemesis, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in 2009.

He and his associate, Juma Namangani, created the IMU in early 1990s after fleeing to neighboring Afghanistan and said toppling Karimov and creating an Islamic caliphate in Central Asia were their main goals.

Between 2000-03, the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, and Russia officially designated the IMU a terrorist organization.

Yuldosh's three brothers -- Zohid, Muhammad, and Mamadin -- were arrested in Uzbekistan in the 1990s and sentenced to long prison terms on various charges, including terrorism.

Their mother, Karomathon, was forced several times to publicly denounce her sons on television in their native city of Namangan.

In the video, Zohid Yuldoshev praised President Shavkat Mirziyoev, who came to power after the death of the long-ruling Karimov in 2016.

Yuldoshev said that Mirziyoev "is taking care of our people" and "opening the eyes of people like me, who have strayed."

Mirziyoev has taken some steps to open up Uzbekistan, which Karimov ruled with an iron fist, but the country and the media remain under tight control.

Dozens of activists and politicians widely seen as political prisoners have been released under Mirziyoev.

It was not immediately clear whether Yuldosh's other brothers were released.
Outraged by the sight of a dog wearing their beloved kalpak, the traditional Kyrgyz hat, lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan have drafted legislation to raise the status of the felt, yurt-shaped headwear favored by many men.

Officially unveiled by its ruling and opposition co-authors on January 8, the bill would put the kalpak on equal footing with Kyrgyzstan's national hymn, flag, and its coat of arms.

It would require all male Kyrgyz officials -- including the president and foreign minister -- to wear the kalpak at official events and when traveling abroad.

All male athletes on Kyrgyz national teams would be strongly "advised" to wear a kalpak at events in Kyrgyzstan and abroad -- including the Olympics -- in order to "improve the image of the most important element of the cultural heritage of the Kyrgyz people."

The bill reasons that their counterparts in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei always wear the songkok cap at official events and the Kyrgyz can therefore do the same with the kalpak.

The authors of the legislation even borrowed some lines from late Kyrgyz literary giant Chingiz Aitmatov to promote their bill about the country's favorite chapeau.

"You will see light in heaven, know -- this is a star. You will see who put on a kalpak, know -- this is a Kyrgyz," Aitmatov once wrote.

The kalpak bill follows the appearance in December of images of an Akita pup with a white kalpak on its head at a dog show at a downtown Bishkek shopping mall.

The photos sparked patriotic indignation from politicians and celebrities, as well as on social-media sites.

Tazabek Ikramov of the opposition Onuguu-Progress party demanded that police bring the owner of the dog to justice for "insulting" the kalpak.

Another legislator, Ryskeldi Mombekov of the governing Social Democratic Party, echoed his colleague's anger. "We put our national symbol on a dog," he fumed, according to Eurasianet.org. "They made a dog Kyrgyz, and a Kyrgyz [symbol] a dog."

"Tomorrow a pig will wear a kalpak and the national flag will be used as cat litter," Mombekov added.

The Akita's young owner, who is reportedly an ethnic Russian, said she was surprised at the negative backlash in the press and expressed concern about showing up at her school.

But popular TV anchorwoman Assol Moldokmatova came to her defense, writing on her Facebook page that "we have to thank this girl for speaking Kyrgyz, dancing a Kyrgyz national dance, and for being a patriot even though she is ethnic Russian."

Former legislator Ishenbai Kadyrbekov suggested that passing a law forcing people to wear traditional ethnic clothing may not be such a good idea for a multiethnic country like Kyrgyzstan.

"To have to identify yourself as 'Kyrgyz' by wearing a kalpak is wrong," he said.

About one-fifth of Kyrgyzstan's population of 6 million is made up of ethnic Uzbeks (about 15 percent) and Russians (6 percent).

Tempest, Meet Teacup

Film director Yrysbek Jabirov, who helped to successfully lobby parliament in 2016 to designate March 5 as national Kalpak Day, sent an open letter to police officials and demanded that the dog show's organizers seek public forgiveness, since "the kalpak on the animal made a mockery of the Kyrgyz people."

The organizers responded by saying they were not responsible for the costumes that participants put on their dogs and added it was simply a dog show.

Still upset by the photos a week after the December 22 show, several activists held a rally outside the mall where the event was held to protest the "insult to national dignity."

They also demanded that the mall's owners pay a fine of 10 million soms (about $143,000).

But many other Kyrgyz were bemused by the uproar the unsuspecting hound and his hat caused, and some criticized lawmakers for devoting so much attention to the topic.

"[The deputies] need to pay attention to the issues of corruption, the environment, and security," human rights activist Dinara Oshurahunova said. "But parliament [has instead] ground to a halt [discussing this issue]. What is the benefit of this [kalpak] initiative? What will change if we all put on kalpaks?"

Civil activist Rita Karasartova summed up the situation: "It is not what [Kyrgyz officials] wear that is important but what they do [as politicians] and how honestly they do it [that matters]."

Written by Pete Baumgartner with reporting by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service correspondent Kanymgul Elkeeva
Macedonia's parliament has adopted legislation extending the official use of the Albanian language to the entire country.

The bill passed on January 11 with the backing of 69 lawmakers in the 120-member parliament, with the main opposition party boycotting the vote.

The draft law, which makes Albanian the country's second official language along with Macedonian, requires approval by President Gjorge Ivanov before coming into effect.

It has sparked much criticism from members of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party and others who described the text as unconstitutional and against Macedonias national interests.

After the vote, the VMRO-DPMNE said that the proposed law "deepens the differences and damages the homogeneity of Macedonian society."

"The bilingualism will create chaos in the legal order; it will create inefficient institutions," it said in a statement.

However, lawmaker Artan Grubi from the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration told journalists that Macedonia will benefit from this law; ethnic relations will relax."

In neighboring Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama hailed the vote as a historical achievement that democratizes and strengthens Macedonia itself."

The bill is meant in part to make it easier for members of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority to communicate with institutions such as municipalities, hospitals, and courts.

The current law on languages defines Albanian as an official language, but it has that status only in areas where ethnic Albanians make up at least 20 percent of the population.

Ethnic Albanians make up around one-quarter of Macedonia's 2.1 million population, living mostly in the northwest near the borders with Kosovo and Albania.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia promised to bring in the new law when he struck a coalition deal with Albanian parties last year.

The coalition agreement ousted the VMRO-DPMNE party, in power since 2006.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
Moscow authorities have once again removed an improvised memorial near the Kremlin where Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in 2015.

The website OVD-Info, which tracks arrests in Russia, said on January 11 that representatives of Moscow's directorate for bridges, Gormost, and several men in civilian clothes took flowers and posters commemorating Nemtsov away from the bridge overnight.

According to OVD-Info, the men also seized backpacks containing documents, cash, and credit cards from two activists, Dmitry Kosachyov and Olga Avilonova, who were guarding the makeshift memorial.

Avilonova said she was physically assaulted by the men.

Nemtsov, a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, was fatally shot on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge on February 27, 2015.

Authorities regularly remove the makeshift memorial.

In May, an activist who was attacked while guarding the memorial died in the hospital.

Five suspects from Russia's North Caucasus region are being tried for Nemtsov's killing, but relatives and supporters believe those who carried out the contract-style killing were following orders from someone higher up.

The latest removal of the memorial came a day after the Washington, D.C., city council advanced plans to rename the street in front of the Russian Embassy to the United States after Nemtsov.
Protesters have rallied in several Pakistani cities amid widespread public outrage over the rape and killing of a 8-year-old girl.

Lawyers and the women's wing of the religious Jamaat-e-Islami party marched through the northern city of Peshawar on January 11, while activists in the capital, Islamabad, also called for police to find and prosecute the killer of Zainab Ansari.

In Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province, dozens of protesters blocked a major road.

"We need to start talking about sexual abuse openly," said actress Mahira Khan, who was among those who demonstrated in the southern port city of Karachi.

The rallies come a day after angry protesters attacked a police station in the town of Kasur in Punjab Province on January 10, resulting in the deaths of two people. The Punjab government said four police officers and two civil defense personnel who allegedly opened fire at the demonstrators were arrested.

Ansaris body was found in a garbage bin in Kasur on January 9, four days after she was reported missing. Markets in the town remained shut on January 11.

Reuters cited police as saying Ansari was the 12th girl to be abducted, raped, and killed in the past year in the Kasur district.

Ansaris case drew widespread outrage in Pakistan and attracted the attention of the country's civilian and military leadership.

The chief minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, visited Ansari's parents on January 11 to assure them that justice would be done, a provincial government spokesman said.

Sharif also announced 10 million rupees ($90,000) for anyone giving information about the kidnapper, spokesman Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan told Reuters.

Speaking after meeting with the Punjab chief minister, the father of the girl criticized police for being slow to respond when his daughter went missing.

A police official was quoted as saying that 26 people were in custody and being questioned.

More than 4,000 cases of sexual abuse were reported in Pakistan in 2016, up 10 percent on the previous year, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Pakistan criminalized sexual assault, child pornography, and trafficking in 2016, after a pedophile ring was exposed in Kasur. Previously, only rape was criminalized.

Several police officials were transferred following the 2015 scandal and at least two people were convicted in connection with the case.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa, Dawn, and Thomson Reuters Foundation
Russian President Vladimir Putin has alleged that anticorruption crusader Aleksei Navalny is being supported by the United States in his election bid.

Putin made the comments, without providing evidence, during a televised meeting with top editors and executives from several Russian media outlets on January 11.

Navalny, a lawyer who has built a national following on his campaign to root out government corruption, has been barred by election officials from standing in the March 18 presidential vote, due to a criminal conviction on an embezzlement charge. He and his supporters say the prosecution was trumped up and politically motivated.

The United States and European Union have condemned the decision to keep Navalny out of the race.

Asked about U.S. criticism of the decision, and allegations that Russia had meddled in U.S. elections, Putin asserted it was the United States that was meddling in Russian affairs. He also avoided mentioning Navalny by name, as he has in most or all previous comments about the opposition politician.

"The individual you mentioned, he is not the only one who hasn't been allowed [to run]. For some reason, they aren't talking about the other people," Putin said.

"This obviously shows the preferences of the U.S. administration when it comes to who they want to lead other countries, who they want to move forward in Russian politics, and who they'd like to see in the country's leadership."

Putin is widely expected to win another six-year term.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un won this round in the latest standoff with the United States and South Korea over his nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.

"I think that Mr. Kim Jong Un has obviously won this round, Putin told a group of Russian editors and media executives in Moscow on January 11.

He has completed his strategic task: He has a nuclear weapon, he has missiles of global reach, up to 13,000 kilometers, which can reach almost any point of the globe," the Russian president added.

Putin said now that Kim had reached many of his goals, he was looking to calm the situation down.

"He is already a shrewd and mature politician," he added.

Putins comments come after the two Koreas held talks on January 9 in an effort to ease tensions ahead of the Winter Olympics scheduled for February 9-25 in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang.

North Korea boycotted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, but it agreed in the talks to send athletes and officials to the upcoming games.

Pyongyang and the United States have engaged in a war of words amid the Norths continued testing of its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, which have been banned by United Nations resolutions.

Russia has voted at the UN in favor of international sanctions against Pyongyang, but it has also urged the West to exhibit restraint and has called for talks over the nuclear issue.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin again denied persistent allegations that Moscow has interfered in election campaigns in the United States and European countries.

Speaking on January 11 to a group of Russian editors and media executives, Putin also again laid blame for the deepening tensions between Russia and the United States on Washington.

Putins remarks come a day after the release of a report commissioned by U.S. Senator Ben Cardin that documented nearly two decades of Russian efforts to influence politics across Europe.

The report also criticized President Donald Trump, accusing him of doing too little to address the issue in the United States.

Since the January 2017 conclusion by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia engaged in a hacking-and-propaganda campaign to sway the 2016 presidential election, Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusation of meddling.

With strong bipartisan backing for those conclusions, in Congress and much of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, the meddling allegations have helped send U.S.-Russian ties spiraling downward.

Putin did not appear to mention the Cardin report, but he broadly rejected the allegations.

In my view, this is absolutely incorrect, Putin said in televised comments. "No one likes it when someone interferes in their internal political question and affairs, and our American friends in particular do not like this.

Trump has called for a better relationship with Russia, but in recent months Moscow and Washington have engaged in tit-for-tax expulsions and restrictions on diplomatic personnel in each country.

And the U.S. administration later this month is expected to widen financial sanctions against Russian companies and politically connected individuals, a move that will further strain ties.

Asked about the prospect for improved relations, Putin said it was up to Washington.

"At the moment, it does not depend on us but on the U.S. Will they show goodwill? Will they gather courage and show common sense and realize that after all the United States is also interested in improving relations with Russia, as it is in their national interest? he said.

As long as the Americans continue to play the Russian card in their domestic political struggle, it will keep souring our relations, he said.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the concerns of Russian interference were "paranoid and "not only hurt bilateral relations but the U.S. itself."

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have agreed to visa-free travel between the two Central Asian countries and other border-crossing measures, according to Tajik media.

Media reports on January 11 said that the decisions came during a visit to Dushanbe by Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov.

They said Aripov and his Tajik counterpart, Qohir Rasulzoda, agreed to finalize and sign the new border protocols in the near future.

Aripov also held talks with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon on January 10, the first day of his two-day visit to Dushanbe.

The new border regulations will allow Tajik and Uzbek citizens to visit each others countries without visas for up to 30 days.

They will also provide for the building of new checkpoints along the border and the opening of several bus links to connect the two nations' towns and cities.

The reports said an agreement was also reached regarding the disputed dam of the Soviet-era Farhod hydropower station along the border.

Under the accord, the land on which the station stands will be Tajik property, while the station itself -- including its equipment and infrastructure -- will be owned by Uzbekistan.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, ties between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have often been tense due to disagreements on issues including borders, water and energy resources, and transit routes.

But relations have improved since the death of longtime Uzbek President Islam Karimov in 2016.

President Shavkat Mirziyoev, who assumed rule after Karimov's death, has said that improving ties with Uzbekistan's neighbors is a major foreign-policy priority.

With reporting by TajikTA and Asia-Plus
U.S. President Donald Trump expressed optimism on January 10 that a diplomatic opening with North Korea that emerged this week in talks with the South could lead to broader dialogue to quell tensions in the region.

Trump's upbeat mood after months of escalating threats over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development programs came as the UN Security Council said it welcomes "possibilities for confidence building and trust building on the Korean peninsula" that emerged this week.

"We have certainly problems with North Korea," Trump said at a news conference, but "a lot of good talks are going on right now. A lot of good energy...Hopefully it will lead to success for the world, not just for our country, but for the world."

"Who knows where it leads?" he said.

The move toward dialogue began with an agreement between North and South Korea on January 9 to reopen talks between their militaries and welcome a team from the North to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month at the first formal talks between the two sides in more than two years.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in's office on January 10 said that Trump indicated in a phone conversation that there would be no military action of any kind while the two Koreas continue to hold talks.

The White House said Moon and Trump agreed that, as long as the North refuses to discuss curbing its nuclear devlopment, the global community should continue to exert "maximum pressure" through stiff sanctions imposed on Pyongyang by the UN council this year.

But, at the same time, the White House said, "Trump expressed his openness to holding talks between the United States and North Korea at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances."

Trump has previously scoffed at what he said was the futility of talking with the North.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
Italy's foreign minister says he will visit Ukraine and Russia in the coming weeks to "intensify" efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, as he took up the post of chairperson-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

"Our main testing ground is the search for a solution to the Ukrainian crisis," Angelino Alfano told a meeting of the OSCE in Vienna on January 11, announcing that he planned to visit Ukraine and Russia on January 30-February 1.

Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed by fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists who control parts of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict -- have failed to hold.

The latest cease-fire agreement was meant to begin on December 23, but both sides have accused each other of cease-fire violations since then.

The Ukrainian military said on January 11 that three of its soldiers were killed and four wounded in clashes that took place in eastern Ukraine during the previous 24 hours.

A Defense Ministry statement said the separatists violated the cease-fire seven times in skirmishes where separatists fired machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars.

The separatists, meanwhile, claimed that two civilians were wounded in mortar and gunfire attacks by Ukrainian government forces.

Presenting his agenda as chairman of the OSCE, Alfano urged the sides to fully implement the Minsk agreements, adding that recent "mutual provocations have created a climate that risks compromising the confidence-building measures adopted thus far by the parties."

A recent exchange of prisoners between Kyiv and the separatists was one of the "few positive signs," but much more needed to be done, especially on humanitarian access, the Italian minister added.

The OSCE supervised the long-awaited prisoner swap, which enabled hundreds of former captives to return to their homes for the New Year holiday.

Hundreds of unarmed observers are monitoring the conflict as part of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

Discussions about deploying a peacekeeping force have heated up since September, when Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed deploying UN peacekeepers along the line separating Ukrainian government forces and the Russia-backed separatists.

The plan swiftly drew criticism from both Kyiv and the West, largely because of concerns that deployment only along the front line would cement Russian control over separatist-held territory and do nothing to stop Russia from sending fighters and weapons into Ukraine.

Putin later said he was open to adjustments to his initial proposal, but no agreement has been reached.

With reporting by AFP and dpa
Ukraine's military says that three of its soldiers have been killed and four wounded in clashes that took place in the eastern part of the country during the previous 24 hours.

A Defense Ministry statement on January 11 said Russia-backed separatists violated a frequently-breached cease-fire seven times in skirmishes where separatists fired machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars.

The separatists, meanwhile, claimed two civilians were wounded in mortar and rifle attacks by Ukrainian government forces.

Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed by fighting between Kyiv's forces and the Russia-backed separatists who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict -- have failed to hold.

A new cease-fire agreement was reached in late 2017 and was meant to begin on December 23, but both sides have accused each other of cease-fire violations since then.

With reporting by Interfax and TASS
The president of the UN Security Council says members are considering a visit to Afghanistan to get a better understanding of the war-torn country's prospects and needs.

"We think it's important for Security Council members to get the update of the situation from the ground," Kazakh Ambassador Kairat Umarov said on January 11.

Umarov did not give any date for the visit, which he said would be the first to Afghanistan by the full council in seven years.

"We would like them to feel the situation there and work with the Afghan government on what the needs are," said Umarov, the 15-member Security Council's president for this month.

Earlier this week, U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster briefed ambassadors of the Security Council in New York following a series of high-profile U.S. visits to Afghanistan.

Umarov said the members of the council agree on the need for a "more comprehensive approach" that puts a stronger focus on development in Afghanistan and is not limited to increasing security.

The Western-backed government in Kabul has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014.

U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled in August his new strategy for the South Asia region, under which the United States has deployed 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan to train, advise, and assist and to conduct counterterrorism missions.

The United States currently has about 14,000 uniformed personnel in the country.

The White House says Trump and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev will discuss Afghanistan among other things when they meet at the White House on January 16.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
The first special editions From Honda in 2018 include 20th Honda City Anniversary Edition, Honda Amaze Pride Edition and Honda WR-V Edge Edition. Honda City Anniversary Edition marks 20 years and 4 generations of the City sedan in India.

Available in the top ZX variant, Honda City Anniversary Edition packages an attractive exterior -Distinct exterior styling  20th Anniversary Edition emblem, front bumper centre and side marked up, door lower styling, and trunk end molding. For good measure, 1 month of free Honda Connect subscription is part of the package. Honda City 20th Anniversary Edition is available at an ex-showroom Delhi prices of Rs 13,74,532 for petrol CVT, and Rs 13,82,382 for diesel MT.

Amaze Pride Edition features an advanced infotainment system, and is offered in the S(O) variant and is available as a MT variant for an ex-showroom Delhi price of Rs 6,29,900 for petrol, and Rs 7,83,486 for diesel. The package features Digipad, Pride Edition seat covers, front centre arm rest, steering wheel cover, door edge garnish. Pride Edition emblem, and rear parking sensors. Honda Amaze Privilege Edition was launched six months earlier.

Honda WR-V Edge Edition based on S variant features R16 Gunmetal Finish multi-spoke alloy wheels, Special Edition Edge Emblem, rear camera with IRVM Display, rear parking sensors and Honda Connect with 1 month free subscription. WR-V Edge edition is available at an ex-showroom Delhi prices of Rs 8,01,017 for petrol MT, and Rs 9,04,683 for Diesel MT.

Jnaneswar Sen, Sr. Vice President, Marketing & Sales, Honda Cars India Ltd said, We are extremely delighted to introduce the special editions for City, Amaze and WR-V and are confident that these will be appreciated by our customers for the enhanced value they offer.

The Honda City completes 20 years of unparalleled success in India and has emerged as the largest selling mid-size sedan in 2017. The 20th Anniversary edition of Honda City embodies our appreciation and gratitude to our customers who have provided us with tremendous support for the past 20 years, and we look forward to their support for years to come, he added.
San Franciscos mayoral race is wide open, with acting Mayor London Breed, former state Sen. Mark Leno and Supervisor Jane Kim running neck and neck, a new poll shows.

None of the three candidates, however, is setting the electoral world on fire. Leno and Breed were the top pick of only 15 percent of the voters surveyed, and Kim came in with 12 percent.

Former Supervisor Angela Alioto polled 4 percent in the survey, as did City Attorney Dennis Herrera,who said Tuesday that he had decided not to run.

So whos really doing well? That perennial candidate Undecided. Half those polled hadnt made up their mind whom theyll vote for June 5.

The online EMC Research survey of 395 likely voters was conducted in English, Spanish and Chinese, from Dec. 27 to Jan. 3. The poll had a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points and was commissioned by the business-friendly San Francisco Committee on Jobs.

The poll differs from a phone poll taken days earlier that showed Leno with 26 percent, Breed with 20 percent and Kim with just 5 percent.

I always expected Jane to show more strength, said Jim Stearns, the political consultant who commissioned the first phone poll. He said that survey probably undercounted younger, pro-Kim voters who rely on cell phones rather than landlines.

This is a jump-ball election, said Stearns, who just joined the Leno campaign.

Tony Winnicker, political consultant and former adviser to the late Mayor Ed Lee, and who is supporting Breed, didnt disagree.

The race for mayor is wide open, he said.

Toll time: After months of polling and behind-the-scenes debate, Bay Area transit officials are ready to move on a proposal to raise tolls on the Bay Areas seven state-run bridges by $3 in the coming years.

If approved by voters in June, the first dollar hike would kick in come January 2019, followed by subsequent $1 hikes down the line. Each dollar increase is expected to generate $125 million a year. The money would be used to fund a host of Bay Area road and transit projects.

Carpoolers would continue to get half off on their tolls, and drivers whose commute takes them across two bridges a day  say, from Solano County to San Francisco  would get a 50-cent discount on their return trip home.

That appears to be the consensus, said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

One question yet to be resolved is how to phase in the toll increases.

Some members of the Bay Area Toll Authority, which will meet on Wednesday, want the hike to be spread over eight years to lessen the bite on drivers. Others want a six-year phase-in to start the money flowing faster.

That is going to be a point of healthy debate, said Orinda City Councilwoman Amy Worth, who favors the longer phase-in.

Rentschler says officials are optimistic the measure will win the required majority approval in the nine Bay Area counties. When voters were told what the hikes would pay for, support in one recent poll hit 60 percent, he said.

The toughest haul, however, will be in places like Contra Costa and Solano counties, where plenty of drivers pay tolls. Three key East Bay lawmakers  Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of Concord, Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Brentwood, and GOP Assemblywoman Catharine Baker of San Ramon  have already come out against the hike.

Its an unfair burden on working families and small businesses, plus I dont see any real oversight on how the money will be spent, Baker said.

Support for the increase, however, likely will be strong in parts of the Bay Area that stand to gain from the new money.

The Trump administration isnt going to help us out, so we need to raise our own money to reduce gridlock, said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Plus, with Bay Area business groups like the Bay Area Council and Silicon Valley Leadership Group backing the measure, the yes campaign is likely to be well-organized and well-funded.

Whatever the final outcome, the MTC hopes to have the measure ready by the end of the month.

Street wars: Lawyers for the South Bay couple who snatched up San Franciscos prestigious Presidio Terrace street in a 2015 tax auction  only to have the Board of Supervisors reverse the sale  have filed a lawsuit to get it back.

Attorneys for Silicon Valley engineer Tina Lam and her husband, real estate investor Michael Cheng, claim the board exceeded its authority in setting aside the $90,100 property sale in November, giving the private street back to homeowners who had failed to pay $994 in back property taxes.

The homeowners argued that they had been denied due process because the tax bills were sent to the address of a bookkeeper who retired in the 1980s.

We are asking the court to stay everything and maintain the status quo, said Timothy Yoo, the couples Los Angeles attorney.

Scott Emblidge, the Presidio Terrace Homeowners Associations lawyer, declined to comment.

As for the couples chances of prevailing in the San Francisco Superior Court suit?

We believe we have a meritorious case, Yoo said, or we wouldnt have filed it.

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
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Californias last nuclear power plant  Diablo Canyon, whose contentious birth helped shape the modern environmental movement  will close in 2025, state utility regulators decided Thursday.

The unanimous vote by the California Public Utilities Commission will likely bring an end to nuclear energys long history in the state. State law forbids building more nuclear plants in California until the federal government creates a long-term solution for dealing with their waste, a goal that remains elusive despite decades of effort.

The decision comes even as California expands its fight against global warming. Owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Diablo Canyon is the states largest power plant, supplying 9 percent of Californias electricity while producing no greenhouse gases.

With this decision, we chart a new energy future by phasing out nuclear power here in California, said commission President Michael Picker. Weve looked hard at all the arguments, and we agree the time has come.

Diablo Canyons planned shutdown is the latest blow to Americas nuclear power industry, beset by plant closures and the cancellation of proposed reactors.

It will also hit San Luis Obispo County hard.

With 1,500 employees, many of them highly skilled, Diablo Canyon is the countys fourth-largest employer, pumping an estimated $1 billion per year into the local economy. PG&E had proposed spending $85 million in the surrounding communities over the next seven years to help wean them off the loss of tax revenue. But the commission rejected that idea, saying it would require action by the Legislature.

These are great jobs, said Wade Horton, the countys chief administrative officer. Were very concerned.

PG&E will, however, be able to shift onto its customers $241.2 million in costs related to shutting down the plant, including retaining its staff. PG&E estimated Thursday that customer bills would rise less than 0.5 percent on an annual basis as a result of the commissions decision.

PG&E opened Diablo Canyon in 1985 on a coastal bluff near San Luis Obispo despite fierce opposition from environmentalists convinced that the plants proximity to fault lines  one of them just 650 yards away  posed a lethal risk. Waves of demonstrations, including one addressed by a young Gov. Jerry Brown, failed to block the plant.

Three decades later, radical changes in Californias electricity market, including the rapid rise of renewable power, threaten to make the plant uneconomical to run. PG&E reached an agreement with environmental groups and labor unions in 2016 to retire Diablo Canyon when its two federal operating licenses expire in 2024 and 2025 and replace its output with renewable power and energy efficiency measures.

While the utilities commission agreed with the larger goal of closing the plant, it jettisoned much of the agreement hammered out among PG&E and its negotiating partners.

The commissions decision gave PG&E less money  $222.6 million instead of $363.4 million  to retain Diablo Canyons employees and retrain some of them for the decommissioning process. It provided no firm requirement that the plants output be replaced with carbon-free resources.

The decision undermines what should have been an inspiring model for the rest of the country and the world on best practices for planning for the closure of giant, expensive, and inflexible nuclear plants, said Ralph Cavanagh, co-director of the energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups that negotiated the closure agreement with PG&E.

The commission, he said, did not seem to appreciate the amount of thought the negotiating partners, some of which had a long history of fighting PG&E, put into the details of their agreement.

It was a joint proposal by numerous parties that have never agreed on anything, Cavanagh said.

Several commissioners said Thursday that while they wanted Diablos output replaced with carbon-free energy sources, those purchases should be handled in a separate proceeding already created for long-term power acquisition. They also sympathized with the potential economic impact on surrounding communities. But Picker said the kind of community spending program that PG&E had proposed would need approval from the legislature rather than the commission, which governs utility rates.

Utility rates should be used to provide utility services and not government services, no matter how beneficial those services might be, he said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Horton said the county would consider pursuing legislation to approve the program, or one like it.

PG&E, meanwhile, said it would meet with its partners to decide how to proceed.

While we are disappointed that they did not approve the full employee retention program, as well as the community impact mitigation and energy efficiency programs, we are appreciative that the CPUC took the positive step to increase the amount of funding for employee retention beyond their original proposed decision, PG&E spokesman Blair Jones said.

The commission gave PG&E $18.6 million to cover expenses the utility incurred while exploring the possibility of renewing Diablo Canyons federal operating licenses.

While antinuclear demonstrators mobilized against Diablo Canyons construction and commissioning, advocates of nuclear energy have in recent years organized to keep it open.

They saw the plant as essential to Californias effort to combat climate change. Californias greenhouse gas emissions, which have fallen almost every year since peaking in 2004, rose in 2012 after the abrupt closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station north of San Diego. (That years drought, which cut the output of hydroelectric dams, also helped push up emissions.)

But proponents of nuclear power were unable to convince state legislators to get involved, said Michael Shellenberger, a pro-nuclear writer and activist in Berkeley.

Its a brick wall, said Shellenberger, president of the Environmental Progress nonprofit group, whose experience trying to save Diablo inspired him to run for governor. I tried to meet with everyone I could, Democrats and Republicans, and it was useless. There was no interest.

David R. Baker is a San

Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF
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A plan to close Californias last atomic power plant, Diablo Canyon, in seven years could win the approval of state regulators Thursday, despite the efforts of pro-nuclear activists to save it.

The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to decide Thursday whether to shut down the plant when its two federal operating licenses expire in 2024 and 2025.

Perched on a seaside bluff near San Luis Obispo, Diablo Canyon has been a source of controversy since long before it opened in 1985. It has also been the states single largest power plant, generating 9 percent of the states electricity without producing greenhouse gases.

The plants owner, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., in 2016 reached an agreement with several labor and environmental groups to close the plant, which the utility forecast would soon become uneconomical to run. The surprise move prompted a campaign to save Diablo Canyon by nuclear power advocates, who argued that closure would hurt Californias fight against global warming.

If, however, the commission votes as expected, both sides of the debate could come away disappointed, albeit in very different ways.

The proposed decision would authorize PG&E to shut down the plant. But it would give PG&E less money than the utility wanted  $222.6 million instead of $363.4 million  to retain the plants staff in the years before closure and retrain some of them for the decommissioning process. The commissions staff had initially proposed spending even less, just $171.8 million, but boosted the amount this week.

PG&E and the other parties to the agreement also proposed spending $85 million in the communities surrounding Diablo Canyon to help them prepare for the loss of tax dollars flowing from the plant. The proposed decision argues that only the Legislature  and not the utilities commission  can approve such a program.

Finally, PG&Es plans to start lining up replacement resources for the plants power output would be folded into the utilitys regular process for long-term power purchases, under the proposed decision.

PG&E and its allies therefore find themselves in an awkward position.

If a majority of the commissions five voting members approve the proposed decision, Diablo Canyon will close. But PG&E and its negotiating partners will have to come up with a new plan for closing it.

Its vital that we have an effective employee retention program in place to retain our highly skilled employees, PG&E spokesman Blair Jones said. We also think its critical that we get an early start in replacing the output of (Diablo Canyon) with carbon-free energy resources, and believe that the local community needs economic transition and public services assistance.

Some of the groups involved said the commissions staff appeared to ignore the hard work necessary to come up with a closure plan that could satisfy not only PG&E but labor unions and environmental groups as well.

Were pretty dissatisfied, and think this misses a lot of opportunities, said Damon Moglen, senior adviser with Friends of the Earth, one of the groups behind the joint proposal. Were excited and proud to see theyre going to affirm the decision to close Diablo Canyon, but theyve missed huge opportunities to ensure that its replaced with greenhouse gas-free resources, whereas they should be seizing that opportunity.

Nuclear power advocates, meanwhile, consider the entire move misguided.

Pro-nuclear writer and activist Michael Shellenberger, founder of the Breakthrough Institute think tank, noted that Californias greenhouse gas emissions rose after the sudden shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station north of San Diego in 2012.

State and, reportedly, federal investigators later looked into whether the utilities commission and its former president, Michael Peevey, struck an improper backroom deal with San Onofres owners over the financial details of closing that plant. No charges were filed. Shellenberger on Wednesday sent a letter to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of California urging that the investigation continue.

A reasonable outside observer might look at that and say, Hey, we need to resolve the criminal investigation into the closure of one nuclear plant before they close another, Shellenberger said Tuesday in an interview.

David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF
California should create a public college entirely online to help millions of working adults gain the skills they need to work in the new economy and raise their pay, Gov. Jerry Brown said Wednesday as part of the $132 billion state budget he proposed for 2018-19.

Brown, who has long urged the California State University and University of California to rely more on online courses to reduce costs and raise graduation rates  and has often been frustrated in the process  has now turned to a method he believes will be more successful: a community college, dedicated to helping adults without a college degree improve their job prospects, that would even enable students to take classes through their phones.

This is targeted to several million people who can upgrade their skills by taking online courses and maintaining their employment, which they certainly need, Brown said, in presenting his proposed budget at the state Capitol.

Although anyone could enroll, the college would focus on adults age 25 and older. The idea is to work with employers in a range of careers: health care, home support services, and child development to begin with, then add more in time, said Eloy Ortiz Oakley, the states community college chancellor.

Under Browns proposal, which has broad support among community college leaders and advocates  though not among faculty union leaders  the state would spend an initial $100 million to get the college going, then spend $20 million a year from voter-approved Proposition 98, a pool of money in the general fund that already supports Californias community colleges and K-12 education.

Now Playing: Governor Jerry Brown is set to release his final state budget as the 39th Governor of California. Video: KCRA

If approved by the Legislature, the online school would seek accreditation and open in fall 2019 as the states 115th community college. The state community college Board of Governors would serve as the schools trustees, at least at first.

It is an aggressive timeline, Oakley said. But weve learned a lot about how to deliver online instruction in the last five years, as each community college has begun offering online courses  including tutoring, counseling and orientation  to a growing number of students. One in 3 now takes at least one class over the Internet, Oakleys office reports.

Brown also offered an 11-page white paper in which he justifies his idea and refers to 2.5 million Californians aged 25 to 34 who are economically and educationally stranded because work and family obligations hamper their ability to travel and participate in traditional classrooms.

Private, for-profit colleges have also swooped in the last few decades and recruited students to take expensive courses that community colleges could provide at far less cost to students, Brown argued.

More for you Jerry Brown unveils record $132 billion California budget for...

The governor said 100,000 students, many of them low-income, pay seven to nine times more per academic unit at for-profit colleges than public community colleges charge  and then take on burdensome levels of student debt.

He said he thinks community colleges are ready to take back the role of helping adults complete or improve their education.

Browns Department of Finance produced a fact sheet suggesting that the state community college systems Online Education Initiative has turned educators into experts at this kind of instruction, and that evolving technology has made it easier for students to take advantage of it.

Nearly all households in the state, 95 percent, are wired for high-speed Internet, while the state has recently made available $645 million to improve access in underserved areas, the finance department said. It even suggested that the targeted population could take classes over the phone because Americans with less than a bachelors degree, and low-income Americans are more likely to rely on smartphones for Internet access.

The arguments have done little to persuade labor leaders representing community college faculty, who have traditionally argued in favor of maintaining and improving face-to-face classroom instruction. Its a sentiment widely shared across Californias public universities, from the CSU to the UC.

I dont want to say that online is categorically bad, said Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, which represents thousands of community college instructors. It probably has its place. But generally, we feel that what makes education work well is when an instructor is interacting with students.

In brick-and-mortar classrooms, he said, Students can ask questions and can work with other students.

Other college advocates, however, lauded the proposal as a way to improve college access and job skills across the state.

California must expand access to college to improve the lives of its residents and meet the challenges of the future economy, said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, which regularly polls residents on social and political issues. The community college system is ideally situated to pioneer and rigorously evaluate this concept of online education.

Michele Siqueiros, executive director of the nonprofit Campaign for College Opportunity, called the idea a lifeline for the millions of working Californians.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
Thanksgiving dining, carryout options are still available in Michiana

Want to take a break from the kitchen on Thanksgiving? We have some options and a reminder to support local businesses on Nov. 26.
Police were outside this home on Waverly Road in Pawleys Island after a teenager was shoot Dec. 14.
"We are lacking an experience by operation of recovering a vehicle and reflying it. This is exactly what we would like to do with Callisto,"  Jean-Marc Astorg, head of Launch Vehicles Directorate, CNES.

WASHINGTON  Reusable rocketry in Europe took a step forward last year with a funding boost for Prometheus, a program meant to develop a reusable engine manufacturable at one-tenth the cost of the Ariane 5's first-stage liquid engine. A parallel effort dubbed Callisto could test a European ability to launch, return and refly a rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in South America.

The French and German space agencies (CNES and DLR, respectively) have for the past two years collaborated on a scaled-down rocket that would allow Europe to practice different aspects of recovery and reuse. Callisto's first flight is planned for 2020.

Callisto officials said the goal of the program is not to create a new vehicle in 2020  the Ariane 6 is scheduled to debut that same year  but to establish a base of knowledge for future launch vehicles that could, maybe, be reusable. [Reusable Rocket Launch Systems: How They Work (Infographic)]

"Prometheus and Callisto are two key elements of our future launcher preparatory roadmap," Jean-Marc Astorg, head of CNES's Launch Vehicles Directorate, told SpaceNews. "Prometheus is a new engine to equip Ariane 6 evolutions or brand-new launchers, and Callisto is developed to learn about reusability in Europe, which we have not done before. We are lacking an experience by operation of recovering a vehicle and reflying it. This is exactly what we would like to do with Callisto."

Around 1 to 2 percent of Ariane 6's 3.6-billion-euro ($4.3 billion) development budget is spent on Callisto, Astorg said, describing it as a "modest approach." Callisto is still in a preliminary design phase, he said, with a full decision on the realization of the demonstrator anticipated this June.

"What we do on Callisto will be very useful to check if reusability is interesting from a cost point of view," Astorg said. "That will feed our work in the coming years."

France is leading Callisto's guidance system and flight software development, Astorg said, and providing the launch site. The Guiana Space Centre won't need major investments because of the small size of Callisto, he said.

Hansjorg Dittus, executive board member for space research and technology at DLR, told SpaceNews that his agency will bring trajectory, aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic expertise to Callisto, as well as assistance on some subsystem aspects.

Development of a liquid-hydrogen tank would likely be developed in cooperation between the two countries, Astorg said, with industry supplying the engine  which has not been decided  and the liquid-oxygen tank, he said. Callisto's current configuration calls for a hydrogen engine, Dittus said.

The SpaceX effect

The idea for Callisto did come in part as a response to SpaceX, which has now landed 20 boosters and flown five customers on used rockets, but both Astorg and Dittus describe the project as very different.

"It's not a copy of what SpaceX is doing," Dittus said. "In some aspects we are also skeptical [about reusability as] the right path, but we will see what is best and then we can come up with ideas of how we proceed."

Dittus said Callisto would help understand key technologies that would then influence future studies and investments beyond 2020. Questions, he said, include:

To what extent do the stages have to be winged?

What is the throtability of engines?

What kind of engines would be the best to use for reusability?

"That's why we do this now," he said.

Asked whether it was a concern that SpaceX will be much further ahead by the time Callisto flies, Astorg said not being first brings some advantages, such avoiding the use of kerosene in favor of more reusable-friendly fuels like hydrogen or methane. SpaceX's Falcon 9 Merlin engines use liquid oxygen and kerosene. The U.S. company is investing in a methane and liquid-oxygen engine called Raptor for the Big Falcon Rocket, the successor to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.

"To be the first to test a technology is very good to be in the media, but it is not always good to be the first in business," he said. "Today we operate Ariane 5 with 82 successes in a row. We are now close to the first flight of Ariane 6 in 2020. These are our main workhorses to service our needs and for the launch commercial market. For the future we will need to learn from our own experience, we will need to check what others are doing to find the right vehicle for the future."

"With Ariane 6, industry will reduce the launch cost by two with a new organization and also using technologies tested on CNES demonstrators 10 years ago," he added. "We are working now on the technologies that will again reduce the launch cost by two in 10 years from now."

Callisto + Prometheus?

Callisto scale

Callisto's size as compared to today's European launcher family, Vega, Soyuz and Ariane 5. (Image credit: CNES)

Prometheus was originally a CNES project with industry partner ArianeGroup, but last year evolved into a European Space Agency program with substantially more funding (ESA signed a 75 million euro contract with ArianeGroup in December for the first two prototypes). Callisto, in contrast, is not an ESA program, and its progress is somewhat separate from Prometheus. Astorg said Callisto will need to launch with a different engine because it will be too small for Prometheus, and also because Prometheus will not be ready to fly on Callisto in 2020.

The first vision of Callisto is projected at 13.5 meters high and one meter in diameter, Astorg said. As the project matures, larger versions would fly that could then potentially use Prometheus, he said.

Dittus said if Callisto were to use Prometheus, it would likely be as an ESA project.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
This image shows an artist's rendering of the inner regions of a quasar powered by a supermassive black hole at the center. As the disk of gas and dust falls into the black hole, the high temperatures create light. Differences in this light can help astronomers measure the black hole's mass.

Monster black holes hide in the centers of most galaxies in the universe, and now, a new technique is helping scientists measure the mass of some of the very largest black holes in the universe, even when they lie at the centers of very faint, distant galaxies. The new approach could dramatically improve scientists' understanding of how these behemoths form and evolve, and how they influence galaxy evolution.

"This is the first time that we have directly measured masses for so many supermassive black holes so far away," Catherine Grier, a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State, said in a statement from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Grier led a project to measure the masses of a wealth of so-called supermassive black holes using SDSS data. She reported the results Tuesday (Jan. 9) at the American Astronomical Society meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.

"These new measurements, and future measurements like them, will provide vital information for people studying how galaxies grow and evolve throughout cosmic time," Grier said. [Images: Black Holes of the Universe]

Mass-measuring black holes

Based on decades of galactic observations, astronomers now theorize that the heart of nearly every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole (SMBH). These monstrous beasts can be millions or billions of times more massive than Earth's sun. Black holes don't radiate or reflect light, so these SMBHs can't be seen directly. But as the gravity of an SMBH draws in dust and gas from the surrounding galaxy, it creates a swirling disk of material that falls into the black hole. That infalling material heats up and begins to radiate light, making the black hole "visible" (albeit indirectly). In some cases, the light from these disks becomes brighter than all of the stars in the galaxy; these incredibly bright galaxies are then called active galactic nuclei (AGN). The brightest AGN are called quasars, which astronomers can see all the way across the visible universe; they indicate the presence of a supermassive black hole, according to the statement.

Black holes have only three measurable properties  mass, spin and charge  so calculating the mass is a huge part of understanding an individual black hole. In nearby galaxies, astronomers can observe how groups of stars and gas move around the galactic center and use those movements to deduce the mass of the central black hole. But distant galaxies lie so far away that telescopes can't resolve the stars and clouds of material around the black hole, according to the statement.

A technique known as reverberation mapping has made it possible for astronomers to measure the masses of these outlying black holes. First, researchers compare the brightness of the radiating gas in the outer region of the galaxy with the brightness of the gas found in the inner region of the galaxy. (This inner region, very close to the black hole, is known as the continuum region). The gas in the continuum region affects the fast-moving gas farther out. However, light takes time to travel outward, or reverberate, causing a delay between the changes seen in the inner region and their effect on the outer region. Measuring the delay reveals how far away the outer disk of gas is from the black hole. Coupled with its rotation rate around the galaxy, this allows astronomers to measure the SMBH's mass, Grier told Space.com in an email.

But the process is painfully slow. To observe the reverberation effect, an individual galaxy must be studied over and over again for several months, while distant quasars can take several years of repeated observations, researchers said in the statement. Over the past 20 years, astronomers have managed to use the reverberation technique for only about 60 SMBHs in nearby galaxies and a handful of distant quasars.

As a part of the SDSS Reverberation Mapping Project, Grier and her colleagues have begun mapping SMBHs faster than previously possible. The key to this faster mapping comes from the project's dedicated wide-view telescope, located at the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, which can collect data on multiple quasars at the same time, according to Grier. It is currently observing a patch of the sky that contains about 850 quasars.

The researchers observed the quasars with the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope in Hawaii and the Steward Observatory Bok Telescope in Arizona to calibrate their measurements of the incredibly faint objects. In total, the researchers have now measured reverberation time delays for 44 quasars, and they used those measurements to calculate black hole masses ranging from 5 million to 1.7 billion times the mass of Earth's sun, according to the statement.

"This is a big step forward for quasar science," Aaron Barth, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, who was not involved in the team's research, said in the statement. "They have shown for the first time that these difficult measurements can be done in mass-production mode."

The new measurements increase the total number of galactic SMBH mass measurements by about two-thirds. Because many of those galaxies are very far away, the new measurements reveal SMBH masses from further back in time, to when the universe was only half its current age.

By continuing to observe the 850 quasars with the SDSS telescope over multiple years, the team will accumulate years of data that will allow them to measure the masses of even fainter quasars, whose longer time delays cannot be measured with a single year of data.

"Getting observations of quasars over multiple years is crucial to obtain good measurements," said Yue Shen, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois and principal investigator of the SDSS Reverberation Mapping Project. "As we continue our project to monitor more and more quasars for years to come, we will be able to better understand how supermassive black holes grow and evolve."

After the current fourth phase of the SDSS ends in 2020, the fifth phase, SDSS-V, will begin. SDSS-V features a new program called the Black Hole Mapper, in which researchers plan to measure the SMBH masses in more than 1,000 quasars, observing fainter and older quasars than any reverberation mapping project has ever managed.

"The Black Hole Mapper will let us move into the age of supermassive black hole reverberation mapping on a true industrial scale," Niel Brandt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and a longtime member of the SDSS, said in the statement. "We will learn more about these mysterious objects than ever before."

Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook, or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
There are a lot of STEM toys that teach kids the joys of programming by having them build and control a robot. The Kano Camera Kit takes a different approach, providing children as young as six with the pieces to build a 5-MP camera, which they can then program. Due out in 2019 for an estimated price of $99, the kit helps kids develop serious programming skills while having fun shooting animated GIFs, or illuminating the camera with flashing rainbow colors.

The Kano Camera Kit comes in a box with about half-a-dozen pieces you have to snap together, and a simple instruction manual that explains how to do it. The final product is a small, clear box with bright yellow buttons on top, and an LED ring around the lens on the front. The LED lights offer full RGB functionality, and you can program them to flash in different colors.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Using the free Kano Code app, kids can make the camera shoot pictures and videos with all kinds of filters and outputs, including pixelation and animated GIFs. They can also write programs that use sound to trigger the camera. During a demo, Kano showed us a code sample that made the camera take a picture when you clap your hands.

Available for macOs, Windows and Linux, the Kano Code app uses a block-based programming language, but also shows you the equivalent JavaScript code while you work. A future version of the software will let you write directly in JavaScript, so kids can go from dragging blocks around to typing in their commands.

Though the Camera Kit won't be on sale until next year, users can register now to receive an update when it starts shipping.

Originally published on Tom's Guide.
Henrietta Leavitt (left), came up with the Leavitt's Law, which used Cepheid variable stars to determine cosmic distances. Kate Hartman (right) showed that these same stars could be counted in an astronomy survey that will reveal hidden structures in the Milky way.

An astronomy technique developed in the early 20th century helped researchers measure distances to other galaxies and discover that the universe is expanding. Now, the stars that formed the basis of that century-old technique are part of a survey to map the history of the Milky Way galaxy.

In 1908, Henrietta Swan Leavitt  one of several women who worked as Harvard "computers" in the early 1900s, studying photographic plates of the night sky  discovered a relationship between the changes in the apparent brightness of "variable" stars and those stars' actual brightness, or absolute magnitude.

Because light dissipates in a predictable way as it travels through space, knowing a star's absolute magnitude made it possible to measure a stars distance from Earth. More than 100 years later, astronomers continue to use this discovery, known as the Leavitt's law, in even more advanced ways. Now, astronomers with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have included these stars in a survey of stars in the Milky Way that will help reveal the galaxy's structure and history. [Star That Changed the Universe Shines in Hubble Photo]

Leavitt's law came specifically from Leavitt's studies of Cepheid variable stars, which periodically vary in brightness (or pulse) in cycles that typically last a few days or weeks. The SDSS' Apache Point Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) is designed to map the position and composition of cool, old "red giant" stars found throughout the Milky Way galaxy. But the two telescopes now being used for the APOGEE survey can also detect Cepheid variables, which are typically younger than red giants but similar in temperature, according to the statement. Therefore, the APOGEE data allows astronomers to map both young stars and old giant stars in the same way, and, in turn, connect structures from the ancient galaxy to those that formed more recently, according to the statement.

Astronomy undergraduate student Kate Hartman set out to determine whether the variable nature of Cepheids would prevent them from being included in the study.

"It's been fascinating to work with such historically significant stars," Hartman, a student at Pomona College, said in the statement. Hartman announced the results of the study Tuesday (Jan. 9) at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.

Hartman studied Cepheid variables over the course of a 10-week summer research project at Carnegie Observatories, during which she worked alongside her research adviser, Rachael Beaton, who is a Hubble and Carnegie-Princeton fellow now based at Princeton University.

Hartman looked at how the APOGEE telescopes measure the chemical composition of Cepheid variables, which can vary greatly in temperature, surface gravity and atmospheric properties during their brightness pulsation cycles. The chemical composition of a star can be measured via a method called spectroscopy, which indicates the presence or absence of chemical elements based on the appearance of specific wavelengths in the light from the star. The results of the study showed that it is possible to collect consistent measurements of the composition of Cepheid variables, regardless of when in their cycle APOGEE observed them, the researchers said in the statement.

"I had to look at multiple spectra from the same Cepheid variable and measure the amount of different elements in the star," Hartman said. "When we looked at a star's spectrum across its entire pulsation cycle, we found no significant differences in the results. That means that we're getting reliable results every time we look."

Researchers say this data is particularly useful, as it greatly expands the scope of stars that astronomers can include in the APOGEE survey. In fact, APOGEE now operates simultaneously with twin instruments on telescopes in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, allowing astronomers to study the entire galaxy and its nearest neighbors (the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds), according to the statement.

"The survey will observe the most nearby and well-studied Cepheids with observations several times a month, will target Cepheids in the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud in January, and plans to eventually target all Cepheids in all parts of the sky we observe," Jen Sobeck, APOGEE's project manager from the University of Washington, said in the statement. "These observations are an important addition to the APOGEE map of the galaxy."

With these new tools, astronomers can continue to build on the work of astronomers like Leavitt, the researchers said.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
The giant black hole at the center of a distant galaxy has been spotted taking in gas and letting out two mighty "burps" of high-energy particles, lending support to the theory that such galactic cores go through cycles of messy activity.

Researchers presented images of the belching black hole today (Jan. 11) at the American Astronomical Society's winter meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, showing lingering evidence of two burps in a row.

"Black holes are voracious eaters, but it also turns out they don't have very good table manners," Julie Comerford, an astronomer at the University of Colorado Boulder, said during a news conference at the event today. "We know a lot of examples of black holes with single burps emanating out, but we discovered a galaxy with a supermassive black hole that has not one but two burps." [The Strangest Black Holes in the Universe]

Researchers observed the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy SDSS J1354+1327 with the Chandra X-ray Telescope (pink) and Hubble Space Telescope, noticing evidence of two "burps" of high-energy particles emanating from the black hole. One (below the black hole) has spread further, suggesting it burst out 100,000 years before the other (above the black hole). (Image credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/University of Colorado/J. Comerford et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI)

Supermassive black holes that lurk at the center of galaxies can have masses ranging from a million to a billion times that of the sun. Although they often lie relatively dormant, they can snap into action when gas comes near, sucking it inward and blasting out some high-energy particles in the process  the "burp." (Note that those particles come from near the black hole's event horizon, but not within its point of no return.)

The supermassive black hole in question lies at the center of a galaxy called SDSS J1354+1327, about 800 million light-years from Earth, and it seems to be making meals of gas released by a companion galaxy. Comerford's team combined images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope to pinpoint the black hole (in X-ray) and two emerging bubbles of gas shocked into motion by the fast-moving particles: one above, and one below. The older burp happened earlier, and the bubble has had time to expand 30,000 light-years from the black hole, Comerford said. The newer burp, by contrast, appears as just a little loop that's made it 3,000 light-years from the black hole.

"This new burp is actually moving like a shock wave  it's coming out very fast, and so it's kind of like a sonic boom of a burp," Comerford said, "whereas the gas to the south shows us an older burp that happens 100,000 years earlier before that newer burp."

Theory held that supermassive black holes would go through a cycle of feasting, burping and then napping for a while, Comerford said, and spotting these belches helps set a pace for that process. While two burps 100,000 years apart may seem like a pretty slow metabolism, it's very fast on cosmic scales.

The pace matched computer models of how those interactions would work, Comerford added. In the video below, for instance, from work by Jared Gabor and Frederic Bournaud of CEA Saclay in France, you're watching a galaxy from the side as burps emerge above and below it.

The black hole Comerford imaged is getting its fuel from a companion galaxy next door  the two are exchanging a stream of stars and gas after recently colliding.

Closer to home, there's evidence that the black hole at the center of the Milky Way burped as well, at least once: In 2010, researchers found bubbles of gas expanding outward from the galactic core, from an event millions of years ago. The pace of such burps suggests that the Milky Way will indeed burp again someday.

"Right now, our galaxy's supermassive black hole is firmly in the nap phase of the feast-burp-nap cycle, but it's just waiting for its next meal to come along," Comerford said. "In the future, it will probably feast and burp once again."

But that galactic burp is nothing to worry about, she told Space.com. "If our Milky Way's black hole became active again, we are far enough away from it that we would be fine," Comerford said. "If our solar system was very close to the black hole, though, we'd be fried."

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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Brussels (Belgium), Jan 09, 2018 (SPS) - the Delegate Minister for Europe, Mohamed Sidati, appealed Tuesday to the European Union to work to support the process of resolving the conflict in the Sahara Western led by the United Nations. "

The Saharawi diplomat highlighted that the visit of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Western Sahara, Horst Kohler, is an opportunity for the EU to change its policy towards the Western Sahara to play a "constructive role"

Mohamed Sidati said that "unfortunately, the EU has not demonstrated its political will to resolve the conflict and continues to provide support for the Moroccan occupation", which is reflected in the permissiveness of the plundering of Morocco of the Sahrawi natural resources, by violating the European Court of Justice ruling of 2016.

On the other hand, the high representative of the foreign policy of the EU, Federica Mohgerini, expressed the will of the European bloc to support the efforts of the United Nations to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara. SPS

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Chahid El Hafed, Jan 09, 2018 (SPS) - After the general lawyer of the European Court of Justice, Wathelete, comes to the conclusion that the fishing agreement between the EU and Morocco is illegal to include Western Sahara and the adjacent waters, the Frente POLISARIO has requested by means of a communique that "all the instances of EU" consider the judgments and legal principles of its justice, in relation to the illegality of the agreements with Morocco that include the Western Sahara.

In this sense, " POLISARIO, calls for a direct dialogue to impose the right of the Saharawi people on their natural resources", and reminds the European Commission, that with the violation of judicial decisions, the suffering of the Saharawi people is prolonged and "is responsible in the legal, moral and historical."

"The POLISARIO, sends an appeal to all European companies present in Western Sahara and adjacent waters (...) that in the current state, are developing their activities in the framework of illegality," as claimed by the Attorney General.

Finally, POLISARIO urges that this judicial advance will relaunch the process of decolonization in Western Sahara, under the direction of the United Nations, a process that was blocked by the intransigence of Morocco.

It should be recalled that the general lawyer of the European Court, settled in its conclusions, published today, that the fishing agreement formed by the European Union and Morocco, lacks legality as it includes the territory of Western Sahara and adjacent waters. SPS

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B itcoin plunged on Thursday after South Korea pledged to ban crypto-currencies in a sign of increasing regulatory scrutiny of the financial phenomenon.

A number of crypto-currency exchanges were also raided in the South Korean capital of Seoul overnight amid allegations of tax evasion.

Bitcoin at one point fell 8% to $13,699.19 after pre-Christmas highs when it threatened to breach the $20,000 mark.

South Korea has become a hub for crypto-currency with more than a dozen exchanges operating in Seoul.

Some of the biggest, like Coinone and Bithumb, were raided by police and tax authorities. The government is preparing a draft bill to put before the National Assembly to ban the exchanges.

There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and the justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban crypto-currency trading through exchanges, South Korea justice minister Park Sang-ki said.

Bitcoin prices surged more than 1000% last year as retail investors piled into the speculative currency, which is created by harnessing computer-processing power.

Investment guru Warren Buffett became the latest to weigh in on the topic yesterday when he said he expected a bad ending for bitcoin.
C ompanies should stop being so shy about Brexit. Businesses know Theresa May is about to inflict huge damage on our economy. But, with few exceptions, they have kept their heads down.

Its easy to see why. Many firms are consumer facing. Our retailers, phone companies and other big brands know that half their customers voted Leave in the referendum two years ago. These companies are scared that, if they sound the alarm, the Brexit press will write vicious articles accusing them of being saboteurs or enemies of the people and their business will suffer.

Many other firms  defence companies, outsourcing groups, consultants and utilities  do business with the government or are heavily regulated by it.

They are afraid that, if they criticise the prime ministers policies, they will be punished.

True, the CBI and other trade groups have spoken about the need for a transitional period to cushion the blow when we quit the EU next year. But thats not good enough.

Few businesses will campaign against Brexit, at least for now. But they could and should push for an honest Brexit.

For a start, they should say that the two-year implementation phase that May says she wants wont do the trick.

Its based on the lie that we will be able to clinch a spanking new free trade deal with the EU by March of next year and all that will then be required is to implement it.

This is bunkum.

We wont even start the trade talks proper until next year.

Theyll then drag on for years.

After that, if we manage to cut a deal, it will need to go through a laborious ratification process in all the EUs parliaments. Only then will we be ready to implement it.

The whole process could easily take five years and maybe much longer. So if the prime minister gets her two-year implementation phase, she will merely have shifted the cliff edge to 2021.

Industry needs to spell out that this means massively reduced access to the EUs single market, which accounts for half our trade.

Well have to rely on the World Trade Organisation until we figure out a deal and that means tariffs and non-tariff barriers for our manufacturing and agriculture, and virtually no help for our world-beating services industries.

Industry wont invest during the two-year interregnum, or during the multi-year hiatus after that. And all the while other European countries will lure our juiciest businesses pharma, finance, creative industries, aerospace, cars and so forth  to their shores.

After explaining that a two-year transition wont work, companies then need to show why the governments policies mean that the eventual trading arrangements we get with the world will be far inferior to what we now have.

This is because the prime minister has decided to pull us out of both the EUs single market and its customs union.

The first decision, combined with Mays plan to stop free movement of people, means the best free trade deal we can expect with the EU is something like what it already has with Canada.

We wouldnt have tariffs. But, otherwise, the deal wouldnt be a lot better than relying on the WTO. It would, for a start, do little for services that account for 80% of our economy.

Meanwhile, pulling out of the customs union will lead to border checks, gumming up manufacturers supply chains which criss-cross Europe. The official reason the prime minister wants to inflict this wound on the economy is so we are free to cut lots of other deals with the rest of the world.

But thats nonsense too. Quitting the EU means well immediately lose deals it already has with over 50 countries including Switzerland, South Korea and Canada.

We can, of course, plead with Donald Trump to give us a trade deal. Maybe the prime minister will arm-twist Prince Harry to invite the American president to his wedding to curry favour. But even if the US decides to do a deal, its economic clout means it can largely dictate the terms. The same goes for China.

Business needs to explain why this means that, even when we finally sort out our trading arrangements with the world, we wont be as attractive a place to invest in, and well be fighting the global war for talent with one hand tied behind our back.

As a result, well be stuck in the slow lane of the world economy for as far as the eye can see.

If industry sets out these points clearly and unemotionally, we could end up with a less destructive Brexit than the one the Tories are hell-bent on. And if the voters listen, theres even a chance that theyll decide they dont want Brexit at all and put pressure on politicians to stop the whole mad escapade.

Hugo Dixon is editor-in-chief of InFacts
S ean Dixon reveals how he came to launch tailoring business Richard James in 1992...

What is Richard James?

It is a luxury menswear retailer I co-founded with my business partner Richard James in 1992. I am now managing director of the firm, which we started to bring some more modern styles to Savile Row and attract younger customers.

The firm does make traditional sharp, tailored suits but is also known for its ready-to-wear collection and bolder prints. It notched up revenues of 10 million last year and employs 30 people in London, of whom six are designers and tailors.

Last year, Richard and I sold a majority stake to US property investor Charles S Cohen, who has plans to expand the business overseas. We both now have minority stakes.

What do you do?

I am involved in every aspect of the business. That includes meeting with the managers of our two standalone shops in Savile Row and Clifford Street every week to check sales targets are being met, and liaising with stockists such as Selfridges, Mr Porter and Liberty to find out what is most in demand. I give presentations throughout the year to the press and to customers.

I am also leading our international expansion. We will open our debut US store in New York by the end of February and will look to expand in the US and Asia after that.

What do you like about it?

I love that we have loyal followers who love our designs.

I remember one time that Liam Gallagher, Sir Elton John and former BP chief executive Lord Browne were all in our Savile Row shop at the same time. I dont think there are many bosses who can say that.

What dont you like?

Business rates are horrendous, and rents in the West End are getting completely out of control. It must be so difficult for younger designers to open a debut shop in central London.

Biggest break?

I grew up in Croydon, and as a teen I would help mates to promote events at nightclubs like The Wag in Soho and The Fridge in Brixton. I enjoyed it but when I started a Saturday job at fashion retailer Browns while studying at college, I realised that I loved the apparel industry more. It was there I met Richard, who was menswear buyer at the time.

I left to cut my teeth with other designers but I stayed in contact with him as we both had ambitions to launch our own business.

We started the company with a 10,000 overdraft secured against our homes.

Biggest setback?

The first two years were the hardest. We were broken into three times and cleared out of stock. It was upsetting and tough. So after that, we would empty the shop each night and store clothing off-site, which required time and extra rent. We kept that up until we could afford better security.

Hows your work/life balance?

I am separated so when my eight-year-old daughter stays with me at my Bayswater flat for part of each month, I make sure she gets my full attention.

For the remainder of the month it can be long days but I try to fit the gym in every morning.

Any tips?

If you want to work in the fashion business, get experience working on a shop floor. It is the best way to get an eye for how retail works.
S nowflakes, your country needs YOU! It seems only a few tweaks would be necessary to update Lord Kitcheners famous First World War recruitment poster for the modern Army  the Brighton Pride-friendly moustache would stay, of course  and yet mysteriously those in charge have opted for a totally new approach.

The Belonging Campaign, as its been termed, uses TV radio and online ads to ask a series of soppy questions, such as What if I get emotional? and Can I be gay in the Army? and is voiced by serving soldiers, including a Muslim who explains how he has been allowed to practice his religion. Needless to say, the retired officer contingent arent best pleased.

Major General Tim Cross sees it as proof the Army is going soft: The concern I think for a lot of people is that you end up with an army thats not capable of doing what you want it to do.

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, is more worried that the Army, like the rest of Government, is being forced down a route of political correctness. He also shared with BBC Breakfast his concerns that the campaign is neglecting the main group of people who are interested in joining, who are going to be attracted by images of combat, because thats why people join the armed forces.

Is it? If so, I suspect that this main group  those attracted to a military career by all the killing and maiming; Ill call them bloodthirsty psychopaths for brevity  will always have a home in the British Army. The problem is, surely, that these personality types do not necessarily have all the skills for 21st-century combat. And even if every one in the land could be put in a uniform, and trained in cyber-warfare and drone operation, falling recruitment figures suggest theres simply not enough of them.

Between April 2016 and March 2017 more soldiers left the Army than joined it and only three of these 9,775 leavers were redundancies. Last summer, a report compiled by MP Mark Francois warned of a perfect storm of recruitment challenges, including an ageing population and over 16s staying in education.

In October 2017 the number of UK regular forces personnel was down 21,000 to just over 82,000 compared with five years earlier.

Clearly the old guards reputation for exclusion and emotional repression doesnt much appeal to a generation of potential recruits with very different values. Todays 16 to 32-year-olds dont read Boys Own comics and dream of subduing savages in the name of Queen and country  they listen to Ed Sheeran singles and talk about their feelings in Insta-story confessionals.

Society has changed and, as Army head General Sir Nick Carter realises, the Army must change too  both by recruiting more broadly and by creating a barracks culture which welcomes and values its new recruits.

It must do so not because this is the trendy or politically correct thing to do, but because there is no realistic alternative. That is, of course, unless those retired officers are planning to pick up a weapon and return to the front line to help make up the numbers? Fancy it, lads? Talk about Massacre of the Middle-Aged Men.

It would be wiser, of course, to keep calm and carry on, safe in the knowledge that this isnt actually anything all that new. The military has always been sustained by emotional bonds of brotherly love and belonging. These are the only impulses strong enough to compel most people to kill or be killed.

So, yes, of course every British soldier must know how to be lethally tough when necessary. But lets remember that its all that touchy-feely teamwork stuff which allows her to be.

Williams is worth 20 Wahlbergs

Most serious film fans would agree that one Michelle Williams is worth roughly 20 Mark Wahlbergs, plus two Seth Rogens and a sprinkling of late Eighties Kevin Bacon, and yet revelations about pay disparity on reshoots for upcoming thriller All the Money in the World suggest a different calculation.

According to reports, Williams was paid $1,000, while Wahlberg made $1.5 million. Williams apparently agreed to this on the understanding that everyone was donating their time, leading some commentators to conclude that there is no gender pay gap here. Williams volunteered to be paid less out of the kindness of her heart and the meekness of her temperament. In fact, this Hollywood yarn gets at the very crux of the issue: our society values labour according to the gender of the person who undertakes it.

This week, new figures from the Office for National Statistics show that women aged 25-34 get on average 3.5 hours less leisure time a week than men. Why? Because womens time is taken up with a larger share of childcare and chores. If its a form of work that goes unacknowledged and unpaid, you better believe its a woman who does it.

* Schoolchildren of the Nineties will be familiar with this technique for avoiding tedious coursework  just do a rap instead!

I had flows on the Ancient Egyptians, tadpole life cycles and the London Transport Museum. Most involved rhyming school with cool and all of them culminated in adopting a B-boy stance in front of the whiteboard.

Now, thanks to the SNPs Hannah Bardell and her hype man-cum-beat-boxer MP David Linden, we know this strategy also passes muster in the House of Commons.

Her anti-Brexit rap was ridiculed but was it really any more cringeworthy than your average Prime Ministers Questions pun?
O ne of the British Museums most famous visitors  and his admiration for its most famous exhibit  is the subject of its new blockbuster show.

Around 80 works by French sculptor Rodin, including a version of his piece The Kiss, will go on show alongside sections of the Elgin Marbles which inspired him.

The 2,500-year-old sculptures have been the subject of one of the longest cultural rows in Europe.

They were acquired by Lord Elgin from the Parthenon between 1801 and 1805 before he sold them to the British Museum in 1816. They have been on public display since 1817. Greece has long demanded their return, claiming they were taken illegally.

The exhibition will also include a number of sketches of the marbles Rodin made during trips to the British Museum from the 1880s onwards. The Rodin sculptures have been borrowed from Pariss Musee Rodin.

Curator Ian Jenkins said the genesis of the exhibition, called Rodin And The Art Of Ancient Greece, was an attempt to tell the overlooked story of Rodin and his relationship with the Parthenon Sculptures.

British Museum director Hartwig Fischer said: Rodin is not alone in being inspired by the Parthenon sculptures but few responded with his passion that was to last a lifetime.

Rodin And The Art Of Ancient Greece, sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, will run from April 26 to July 29 in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery at the British Museum
S uspense is so simple, Lee Child told me once. You ask or imply a question at the beginning of the book and you self-consciously withhold the answer. That might be a cheap trick but it absolutely works.

Leila Slimani takes the opposite approach in Lullaby, which has been a huge hit in France, winning the Prix Goncourt, selling some 275,000 copies and attracting the admiration of Emmanuel Macron who, in November, appointed her minister for Francophone affairs.

She clobbers you with the outcome of her novel in her first sentences. The baby is dead. It took only a few seconds. Her British publisher has even chosen to put those words on the cover, to entice browsers.

For Lullaby (Chanson Douce) is about a nanny who murders the two little children she is looking after before attempting suicide. From this shock opening chapter of just two-and-a-half pages, it backtracks to give us the full story of this horror.

Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, is married to Paul, a music producer. They live in a small flat in chic central Paris. When Myriam has her first baby, a girl called Mila, she stops work, happy to look after her. She becomes pregnant again when Mila is 18 months old, as an excuse not to leave the sweetness of home, and has a son, Adam. But she finds two children much more of a challenge. Theyre eating me alive, she thinks.

When shes offered a new job she leaps at the chance  and she and her husband speedily recruit Louise to be their nanny. She has a glowing reference from her previous employers and she seems perfect at first, not just devoted to the children but wonderfully hard-working, cleaning up the flat and cooking great meals into the bargain.

Horror story: Leila Slimanis bestseller imagines every working parents worst fear / AFP/Getty Images

But Louise, in her forties though looking much younger, serene and doll-like in appearance, is a very damaged person underneath. The survivor of an abusive marriage, previously hospitalised for psychosis, she has a daughter of her own with whom she has completely lost contact. She is isolated and desperate.

Gradually, Myriam and Paul become worried about how much she has battened on to their family and her odd, mean ways. When they go away for a week she secretly moves into their flat. There is a particularly disturbing episode involving the carcass of a chicken left on the table, picked completely clean. As the months pass, Louise begins to disintegrate.

But Myriam and Paul have come to depend upon their nanny and do not pick up the danger signals. Nor have they ever really enquired about Louises life or circumstances, happy just to presume on the services she provides and to get on with their own ambitious, busy lives.

In this novel, inspired by a real-life case of a Dominican nanny who murdered her charges in New York in 2012, Slimani has identified a vital subject: the challenge all working parents face in handing the care of their small children to strangers, who may be trusted and treated as honorary members of the family, equals indeed, but truly are not.

Slimani also has some challenging views about motherhood not always being as pure and loving as it is often politely assumed to be. She has even declared that she believes that maternal instinct is a male construct that has been used for centuries to keep women in their place, at home.

So: taboos are challenged here, buttons pressed. Yet it must be said that the book itself is almost entirely painful to read, an ugly experience, since you must work through it knowing the intolerable end of the story from the start. A new Gone Girl, it is not. But if it perhaps rightly abjures suspense as just too meretricious an approach for such a terrible subject, it doesnt compensate for its absence by being well enough written or sufficiently sharply observed to convince you of its own plot.

Louise remains completely opaque and uninterpretable as a character, despite the slow release of her back story. Towards the end, were told: Her heart has grown hard. The years have covered it in a thick, cold rind and she can barely hear it beating. Nothing moves her any more. Really? Myriam and Paul are never more than sociological ciphers. Only the babies, Mila and Adam, touch you more. And they are sacrificed.
I t seems flu season is here to stay, since a strain of Japanese flu is set to follow the Australian one.

As we previously reported, the Aussie flu or H3N2 is one of the strains of flu circulating this year and now it has been joined by the Japanese flu.

Both types of flu originated in their namesake countries and have travelled intercontinentally. The Japanese flu is currently reported to be spreading in Greater Manchester.

Here's everything you need to know about the new strain.

What is Japanese flu?

Dr Steve Iley, Medical Director for Bupa UK told the Standard: "Also known as Yamagata flu, Japanese flu is a strand of influenza. Symptoms are similar to other flu and may include a high temperature or fever along with coughing, sneezing and a runny nose. People can also experience muscle aches and pains along with exhaustion and fatigue.

"Symptoms will typically last for up to one week, but you can speed up your recovery by getting plenty of rest, while staying warm and hydrated. Ibuprofen or paracetamol can also help manage the aches and pains."

Vitamin C Rich Foods - In pictures 1 /10 Vitamin C Rich Foods - In pictures Kiwi AFP/Getty Images Papayas AFP/Getty Images Strawberries Getty Images Red peppers Getty Images Garlic Getty Images Cauliflowers AFP/Getty Images Kale AFP/Getty Images Oranges Getty Images

How is this different from the Australian flu?

Japanese flu a strand of influenza B meaning that it only affects humans. Other types of flu  including the Australian flu  are strands of influenza A.

Dr Iley explained: "This means they can affect other animals like birds, helping them spread quicker. Its unusual for influenza B to spread to pandemic levels."

Is the Japanese flu more contagious than the Aussie flu?

While it is more contagious, the symptoms are typically much less severe than the Australian flu.

Dr Iley added: "Japanese flu is easily spread amongst children as their immune systems excrete more of the virus. Likewise, their hand washing and personal hygiene is less thorough, making them super spreaders, and helping Japanese flu spread more quickly than Australian flu."

Alarming images show the spread of a potentially deadly flu virus as it engulfs the UK following a surge in cases over the weekend

What can you do to avoid getting the Japanese flu?

Dr Iley offers three ways to contain the spread of Japanese flu: "For children under eight, the best prevention will be from the widely available flu nasal spray. Only the spray covers Yamagata, the jab does not. However by vaccinating children  who are the biggest spreaders of the virus  were preventing the germs being passed on to other groups. It is still worth getting the jab if you are an adult as this can help minimise symptoms should you get the flu.

"Secondly, be sure to wash your hands properly and regularly, especially before eating. Its a good idea to carry around some hand sanitiser, especially if youre catching public transport or if youre in close contact to a lot of people. Flu viruses can live on hard surfaces for up to 24 hours.

"Finally, if you do get the flu then be sure to stay home. Resting will help you recover quicker, and it will also help prevent the flu from spreading further. Flu viruses can only live on a tissue for about 15 minutes, so use tissues and bin them as quickly as possible, again regularly washing your hands."

If you do get the flu, symptoms should pass on their own within a week but if you're in a high risk group (very old or very young, pregnant or have other chronic medical conditions) then your GP may be able to give you anti-flu medicine.
N early 12 years ago the victoria cruziana were declared endangered and shortly after they disappeared completely, presumed extinct.

The victoria cruziana is the name given to gigantic lily pads native to Paraguay that can reach a diameter of more than five feet (the largest on record is eight feet, nine inches).

Now, these lily pads have reappeared in a Paraguayan lagoon, much to the locals' delight, at the mouth of the Salado River, a tributary of the Paraguay River.

The pad has a pink and white flower that blooms for just 48 hours at a time and the nearby town of Piquete Cue has started offering boat rides to the lily pads.

However, the reason they initially disappeared was due in part to dredging and tourists fishing them out of the water  now anyone seen touching or taking a lily pad will be fined.

The victoria cruziana in the 1900's / Missouri Botanical Garden

The pads are referred to locally as alligator lillies because they are large enough to fit an alligator underneath.

How can I visit the lily pads?

The best way to visit the lily pads would be to fly into Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay and get a bus or taxi to Piquete Cue  located around 25km north of Asuncion.

You can fly direct to Asuncion from London with return flights costing around 780.

Paraguay has a relatively untapped tourist market as it is landlocked between three South American nations  Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia.

Many make the trek to Bolivia each year to visit the Bolivian salt flats while Paraguay is often overlooked in favour of its surrounding neighbours.

But Paraguay offers many other-worldly charms. From the 17th century building located in the capital, to the Ybycui national park where you can see capuchin monkeys and swim beneath waterfalls  the lily pads are now just another reason to add Paraguay to your bucket list.
M 25 rapist Antoni Imiela is being considered for parole.

Imiela, 63, was handed seven life sentences for the rape of nine women and girls and was jailed in 2004.

The decision, confirmed by the Parole Board on Thursday morning, came a week after it emerged London black cab rapist John Worboys would be freed.

Imiela became known as the M25 rapist because many of his attacks happened near the motorway. His crimes took place in London, Surrey, Kent, Berkshire, Hertfordshire and Birmingham.

The Parole Board said Imielas case had been referred for a parole review, which could take six months.

M25 rapist: Antoni Imiela when he was convicted / PA Archive/PA Images

A Parole Board spokeswoman said: We can confirm that the Ministry of Justice has referred the case of Antoni Imiela for an parole review.

The review is following the standard six month process for all indeterminate sentence prisoners and will be reviewed on the papers in the first instance.

The review may be concluded on the papers or alternatively it may be directed to an oral hearing.

Last night a source close to the case told the Sun newspaper it is inconceivable Imiela is being considered for release.

The release of Worboys, 60, who is thought to be one of Britains worst sex offenders, emerged after a parole board found he was no longer dangerous and ordered his release.

He was jailed for life in 2009 when he was convicted of 19 offences and ordered to serve a minimum sentence of eight years.

A panel of experts ruled the cab driver should be freed directly from top-security Wakefield Prison.

Imiela is also held at Wakefield, which is known as Monster Mansion.
P olice have launched a hunt for two suspects after a man was stabbed in the eye in an alleged targeted attack that has left him in danger of losing his sight.

CCTV images of two men have been released after the 20-year-old was allegedly attacked with a machete and a knife outside a Co-op store in Chingford, north east London.

Meanwhile video footage obtained from the store appears to show two suspects lunging at the victim with weapons outside.

Emergency services were called to the shop in Hatch Lane after the man entered with his face covered in blood, police said.

Police appeal: Officers wish to trace these men / Met Police

He rushed to an east London hospital by the LAS with life changing injuries.

Police said he was since been discharged, but requires a number of operations on the injured eye and could lose the sight in the left eye altogether.

Detective Constable Stephen Eyres, of Waltham Forest CID, said: "This was a targeted attack. The victim was ambushed by two men who were intent on causing him serious harm.

"It was a particularly violent attack which has resulted in the victim requiring numerous operations on the injured eye and he could lose the sight in the left eye altogether.

"We are appealing for any information as to the identity of these two suspects."

The first suspect is described as a white man, aged in his late teens to early 20s. He was wearing a dark hooded top with grey shoulders, dark tracksuit trousers and grey trainers.

The second is described as a black man, also aged in his late teens to early 20s. He was wearing a dark hooded top and grey trousers.

The incident, which happened on Friday December 15 at about 10.30pm, is believed to have started in nearby Ashwood Road.

No arrests have been made, police said.

Anyone who can assist the investigation is asked to contact Waltham Forest CID on 020 3276 0947 or by Tweeting @MetCC.

To give information anonymously contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org
T wo teenagers have been arrested after a shopkeeper was allegedly killed by a single punch when he refused to sell Rizlas to underage customers in north London.

Vijay Patel, 49, was knocked to the ground and suffered a fatal head wound in the late-night attack outside Rota Express in Mill Hill Broadway on Saturday, police said.

The father-of-two spent nearly two days on a life support machine before he was pronounced dead on Monday evening.

After launching a manhunt and releasing CCTV stills of suspects, police, on Wednesday evening, arrested two teenage boys, aged 15 and 16, on suspicion of violent disorder. They remain in custody.

Police at the scene in Mill Hill after the attack / Nigel Howard

Another teenage boy, 16, who was charged with murder in connection with the attack, appeared at Willesden Magistrates Court on the same day. He was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on January 12.

Scotland Yard said Mr Patel was with a colleague in the shop when three teenage boys attempted to buy items including cigarette papers but were refused.

They allegedly became aggressive and threatened to vandalise the shop. Mr Patel and the colleague went outside and then he was allegedly hit and fell to the floor.

Mr Patel in hospital before his life support was switched off

The colleague suffered minor injuries when he was also struck by the teenagers, who then fled the scene in the direction of Mill Hill Broadway Station.

Mr Patel, who lived in Kingsbury, had moved to London from India in 2006 to provide a better life for his wife Vibha and their two sons Neel and Dhruv, his family said on Tuesday.

His brother Prakash, 47, told the Daily Mail: He was the greatest man in the world. He always wanted to help and do the right thing.

A 16-year-old boy appeared at Willesden youth court today charged with murder. He was remanded in custody until January 24.

Anyone with any information that could assist the investigation is asked to contact the Incident Room on 020 8358 0200 - you can tweet information to @MetCC. Alternatively, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A moped thug has been found guilty of an attack on a police officer that left him unconscious and with a dislocated shoulder.

Ayoub Benhammwu, 22, was spotted acting suspiciously by two police officers on patrol in Notting Hill in August 2016.

He ran off when he noticed the pair and was chased by one of the officers while another one followed in a car.

After a short half-a-kilometre chase through the streets of west London, suspect Benhammwu was tackled by the officer, detective superintendent Rafaele DOrsi who is the acting borough commander of Kensington and Chelsea.

Benhammwu, of Lisson Grove, NW8, kicked out at the officer, dislocating his shoulder and knocking him unconscious.

Have-a-go hero members of the public helped the second police officer detain Benhammwu, who was found to be carrying herbal cannabis and cannabis resin.

He was arrested and on Monday was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm plus two counts of possession with intent to supply cannabis at Isleworth Crown Court.

DS D'Orsi said "'I would like to thank those members of the community, my local colleagues and specialist trained firearms officers who came to my aid when I was kicked unconscious during this attack.

"Policing is very much about working with communities to reduce harm. I know that had it not been for the help of members of the Notting Hill community, PC Paul Maher might not have detained Benhammwu, a moped enabled violent drug dealer.

"I am also very grateful for those public witnesses who came forward to give evidence of the attack I was subjected to; without their brave evidence justice may not have been secured."

Benhammwu will return to Isleworth Crown Court on February 16 to be sentenced.
A 19-year-old man is fighting for life after being stabbed in a street brawl in Hackney on Wednesday night.

Armed police swarmed to Lordship Road, in Stoke Newington, after witnesses reported hearing gunshots and seeing a fight.

The Met said a group of men was involved in an altercation near Church Street at 7pm.

One young man was rushed by ambulance to an east London hospital where he remained in a critical condition.

Police were called to Lordship Road at around 7pm on Wednesday. / @999London

Police said they had not located any victims suffering from gunshot injuries.

"There have been no further reported injuries at present," said the spokesman.

Witnesses reported hearing 'loud bangs' / @999London

On social media, local residents said they heard "two loud bangs".

Armed police were reportedly seen by residents in Stoke Newington. / @999London

One man said: "I didn't see anything but heard two loud bangs and [my] housemate saw a guy with a gun".

A crime scene remained in place on Wednesday night while officers from the Met's Trident and Area Crime Command began investigating the incident.

There have not been any arrests yet.
U p to 200 pregnant women a year are choosing to give birth in London without medical assistance, the Standard can reveal.

The practice, known as free births, was uncovered as the capital became the first part of the NHS to centrally log clinical data on every newborn child.

The women typically choose a home birth but opt not to have an NHS or private midwife present, instead giving birth alone or relying on family, friends or lay experts from their own culture.

Kenny Gibson, NHS Englands head of public health commissioning in London, said there were 170 to 200 free births in the capital each year.

There has never been a midwife involved or a doctor involved or a clinician involved, he told the Standard. These women choose not to access any practitioner.

They give birth on their own, or with some degree of support from a culture or group adviser. These births were never captured until now.

Mr Gibson said the women were typically affluent, intelligent and independent. He said there was no obvious cultural or religious demographic.

There are about 140,000 births a year in London. NHS England has established a single digital platform containing 133 pieces of data on every child, drawn from the capitals 1,407 GP practices and 19 hospital trusts providing maternity services. Speaking at a London Assembly inquiry into giving children the best start in life, Mr Gibson said the data-gathering had shone a light on previously unknown free births.

The new digital platform enabled such mothers to apply for an NHS number for their baby, he added, ensuring access to screening and immunisation programmes. They may be mothers who have given birth three or four times before and they want the comfort of their own family with them, he said. Some of them are just totally independent of social support systems. They dont go to mainstream schools.

As a clinician you are always concerned about someone who has no antenatal plan, but Im not unduly concerned. The ones I have met are experienced mothers.

Women have always supported women. All Im concerned with is that these women shouldnt be disadvantaged in not having a digital tool that helps them care for their child.
T he number of people in hospital with flu has soared by 50 per cent in the last week, figures from Public Health England have revealed.

GPs recorded a 78 per cent hike in seasonal flu cases in the first week of January while the number of patients admitted into hospital because of the virus doubled.

Nearly a fifth of all people hospitalised with flu last week had caught the deadly strain known as Australian flu, A(H3N2).

The number of people rushed into intensive care after catching flu also shot up by 65 per cent, the PHE stats show.

Medical director of PHE, Professor Paul Cosford, said doctors are seeing a mix of flu types as he told people it is not too late to get vaccinated.

Cases of seasonal flu have rocketed. / Shutterstock

So far a total of 85 people have died from flu this season, with 27 flu-related deaths in the last week.

Outbreaks of the virus have been seen across Europe, with France, Croatia, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey all reporting a medium intensity.

Dubbed Aussie flu, the A(H3N2) strain got its name after circulating in the UK last winter before spreading to Down Under.

The strain particularly affects older, more vulnerable age groups.

PHE is telling people it is not too late to vaccinate. / AFP/Getty Images

PHE said the main strains currently spreading across the UK are A(H3N2), A(H1N1) and Flu B.

Many of the B flu cases are thought to be a strain of "Japanese" flu called Yamagatu.

In the week leading up to Christmas, 21 out of 25 flu B viruses examined in the UK belonged to Yamagata lineage, Public Health England (PHE) confirmed.

Professor Cosford from PHE said: Our data shows that more people are visiting GPs with flu symptoms and we are seeing more people admitted to hospitals with the flu.

We are currently seeing a mix of flu types, including the A(H3N2) strain that circulated last winter in the UK and then in Australia.

We encourage anyone who is eligible to take up their offer of the flu vaccine  it is not too late. People suffering with flu-like symptoms should catch coughs or sneezes in tissues and bin them immediately, wash their hands regularly with soap and warm water and frequently clean regularly used surfaces to stop the spread of flu. Avoid having unnecessary contact with other people if you or they have symptoms of flu.

Along with the Department of Health, PHE has launched a new Catch It, Bin It, Kill It campaign urging people to wash their hands regularly as the flu virus can live for many hours on hard surfaces.

Seasonal flu usually circulates for several weeks each year.

The so-called intensity of circulation depends upon the underlying population immunity, the viruses and external factors such as the weather. It is an unpredictable virus and it is not possible to anticipate how flu levels will progress, PHE said.
A cyclist is fighting for his life in hospital after a suspected hit-and-run crash in Camden.

The cyclist, a man aged 47, was knocked down opposite Camden Road Overground station at shortly after 11.30pm on Wednesday.

The driver failed to stop at the scene, police said.

Paramedics and police attended the scene on Camden Road at the junction with Royal College Road and the cyclist was rushed to hospital. On Thursday, the Met said he remains in a critical condition.

The car which was believed to be involved in the crash was found abandoned half a mile away on Kings Terrace.

The crash happened opposite Camden Road Overground station. / Google

A large stretch of the road was closed and the police and Transport for London told motorists to avoid the area.

Campaigners have previously called the road an accident black spot and last September staged a die in vigil and protest following the death of cyclist Ardian Zagani.

Officers working in the Mets Roads and Transport Policing unit are investigating the collision and appealing for witnesses or anyone with information about the driver to come forward.

Anyone who can help is asked to call the Met's Serious Collision Investigation Unit on 0208 991 9555, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
N igel Farages call for a second referendum on Brexit has been praised by Remain campaigners who said they would relish the chance to hold a new vote.

In a surprise intervention, the former Ukip leader said he was confident holding a second referendum would "kill off" the debate about Britain's EU membership in the future.

"I'm reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum on EU membership," he told Channel 5's The Wright Stuff.

"I think if we had a second referendum on EU membership, we'd kill it off for a generation. The percentage that would vote to leave next time would be very much bigger than it was last time, and we may just finish the whole thing off."

His comments came despite him launching a strongly-worded attack on Remain-backing Labour peer Lord Adonis during a debate on a second referendum, branding him a "twisted little weasal".

Responding to Mr Farage's apparent U-turn on Thursday, the peer tweeted: "So Nigel Farage wants a referendum on Mrs Mays Brexit deal. I agree. Bring it on!"

Referendum call: Nigel Farage / Getty Images

Before the referendum in June 2016, Mr Farage said there could be unstoppable demand for a second vote in the event of a narrow win for the Remain campaign.

His latest comments were also welcomed by Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who has campaigned for a close ongoing relationship with the EU.

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For perhaps the first time in his life, Nigel Farage is making a valid point, he said.

"In a democracy like ours, the British people have every right to keep an open mind about Brexit.

"If the Brexit that is delivered does not match up to the promises of Leave campaigners - with no sign of 350 million extra per week for the NHS but a whopping great divorce bill of 39 billion - then everyone is entitled to ask if this is the right choice for our country."

Lib Dem Brexit spokesman Tom Brake added: "Tony Blair and Nigel Farage aren't two people I'd normally like to be put in a group with, but on this issue they are speaking sense.

"But Farage shouldn't be so confident of winning. People are now far more aware of the costs of Brexit and the fabrications of the Leave campaign."

His intervention came after a survey of more than 4,000 people by Queen Mary University and YouGov found that the vast majority of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish Nationalist Party voters backed a second EU referendum.

Of Labour voters, more than three-quarters backed a second vote, while 87 per cent of SNP voters and 91 per cent of Lib Dems also wanted a new referendum.

But the Prime Minister's official spokesman insisted today: "We will not be having a second referendum."

Senior Ukip figures said they would not back a re-run of the referendum.

Deputy leader Peter Whittle told The Times: "By doing this we would be giving the anti-democratic remoaners such as Blair, Clegg, Adonis a moral victory. Rest assured they would never give up, even after 3, 4, 5 referenda.
T heresa Mays former chief of staff was today branded a politically tone deaf policy Rasputin after accusing Justine Greening of blocking university reforms before she was sacked as Education Secretary.

Nick Timothy, who left No 10 after the bungled snap election last year, claimed Ms Greening exasperated the PM. He welcomed her replacement in the reshuffle by Damian Hinds, now tipped as a contender for Tory leader.

In the Daily Telegraph, Mr Timothy wrote: Greening was unpopular with officials, she frustrated reformers, and she exasperated the Prime Minister.

Charged with making Britain the worlds great meritocracy, she put the brakes on policies that work, like free schools, and devised bureaucratic initiatives of little value.

Ms Greening did not dissent in public from Mrs Mays proposals to allow new grammars and increase sponsorship of state schools by universities, private schools and the Catholic church, but Mr Timothy claimed she stalled as far as she could. He alleged: Greening blocked proposals to reduce tuition fees and refused to hold a proper review of tertiary education.

But his attack on the Putney MP drew a ferocious response from one of her friends who described him as a politically tone deaf policy Rasputin, adding: Same idiot giving advice and same idiot results. Hes already done incalculable damage to Tory party and seems intent to continue.

The ally stressed: The more important question being asked by Tory MPs already angry post the reshuffle is if Nick Timothy was banished by party in June after catastrophic and disastrous election as condition for PM staying, how would he possibly know at all what was happening in autumn after ... unless he is still talking to someone and still pulling the strings in No 10?

Ms Greening is understood to have put forward alternative proposals to calm the universities tuition fees row.

Mr Timothy denied allegations that he had orchestrated her dismissal.

He said: Its categorically untrue that I had anything to do with the reshuffle or that Im in any way influencing things inside Government.

His criticisms of Ms Greening were rejected by former universities minister Jo Johnson, who worked under her from 2016 until the reshuffle.

Mr Johnson, now a transport minister and Minister for London, tweeted: So wrong, this stuff re Justine Greening  she supported me in every single reform we undertook of our universities, was a terrific colleague and faultlessly loyal.

It came as Michael Gove continued to fuel speculation about the next Tory leadership battle by praising two Cabinet members. After a Times article in which he tipped Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Education Secretary Mr Hinds as future leaders, he backed them in a series of radio interviews to contest the top job.

A No10 source said: Nick Timothy left Downing Street more than seven months ago and doesnt speak for the PM or the Government.

The PM is grateful for the excellent work Justine Greening did as Secretary of State for Education, including her work on the review of student finance, further steps on which will be announced shortly.
U p to 87,000 jobs in London are at risk if Theresa May walks away from the European Union without a deal, it was claimed today.

The capitals professional and financial services would be worst hit with 29,000 fewer jobs by 2030 if the UK crashes out of the EU.

There would also be 11,000 fewer jobs in science and technology, 5,000 in construction and 6,000 across Londons creative sector than if the UK stayed in.

Sadiq Khan issued a stark warning that the capital could be heading for a lost decade of lower growth and employment.

Up to 87,000 jobs in London are at risk / jasonhawkes.com

Just over 480,000 jobs could disappear nationwide by 2030, along with 50 billion foreign investment, in the event of a hard Brexit with no transition.

Even with a two-year transition period, moving onto World Trade Organisation rules could mean 470,000 fewer jobs.

The bleak economic picture emerged in Brexit impact papers commissioned by the Mayor in response to the Governments failure to produce its own.

Brexit Secretary David Davis was heavily criticised after a long delay in publishing impact study documents he then said had key information stripped out of them.

He later admitted the Government had not produced the detailed papers as previously claimed. Chancellor Philip Hammond then came under pressure to publish another set of hidden documents on how a series of possible Brexit outcomes, including no deal, would impact on the economy.

City of London: Jobs are at risk in the Square Mile thanks to Brexit, the report warned / AFP/Getty Images

Last night it was reported that even senior ministers had not seen the taxpayer-funded analysis.

The Mayor said it was astonishing that ministers had failed to publish any proper impact assessments on what Brexit could mean for the British economy.

Their complete lack of preparation is irresponsible and shows that they are putting party politics ahead of the national interest, he said.

The studies for the Mayor, by independent experts Cambridge Econometrics, model five different scenarios, ranging from the UK staying in the single market and customs union  more or less the status quo - to a hard Brexit with no transition period.

They cover nine key sectors of the economy including financial services and the creative industries.

The findings, revealed by the Standard, show that every outcome would be bad for the British economy, but that the harder the Brexit, the more severe the economic damage could be.

City Hall aides said that the one silver lining for London was that it would bounce back quicker economically from Brexit than other parts of the country.

However, that raised the prospect of a further widening of geographic inequality across the UK.

Economic output nationwide could be at least 3 per cent - or 55 billion - lower by 2030 than if Britain remained in the single market and customs union, the study found. But in London output would be just 2 per cent lower.

UK-wide there could be 119,000 fewer jobs in financial and professional services, 92,000 in science and technology, 43,000 in construction and 27,000 across the creative sector.

Mr Khan, who has called on ministers to push for continued British membership of the single market and customs union, said: If the Government continue to mishandle the negotiations we could be heading for a lost decade of lower growth and lower employment.

The harder the Brexit we end up with, the bigger the potential impact on jobs, growth and living standards. Ministers are fast running out of time to turn the negotiations around.

Their sheer incompetence in handling the negotiations means that a no deal hard Brexit is still a very real risk  the worst possible scenario.

Theresa May believes free trade deal can be negotiated before Brexit day

Even the so-called Norway option - the UK remaining in the single market but leaving the customs union after a transition period could result in 176,000 fewer jobs - 31,000 of them in London - as well as an 18.6 billion drop in output and 20 billion fall in investment.

The EU has said it wants the final deal, including full details of any transitional deal and the outline of a future trading relationship, agreed by this October to give time to ratify the agreement.

Ben Gardiner from Cambridge Econometrics said: Our analysis is particularly valuable to local leaders because it indicates the potential impact on employment and output of Brexit under a range of scenarios, which is necessary given the uncertainty surrounding the final outcome of negotiations.

City of London chief Catherine McGuinness said the figures painted a worrying picture for the capital while Jasmine Whitbread, boss of business group London First, urged ministers to stop its internal politicking and set out a coherent plan for trade with the EU.

A spokesman for the Department for Exiting the EU said: "The fact is we are working to secure the best and most ambitious Brexit deal for the whole of the United Kingdom.

"December's European Council showed that, having made sufficient progress, both sides believe we will achieve an ambitious deal securing prosperity for the UK and E27.

"We have made good progress, having reached an agreement with the EU on some very difficult issues such as citizens rights and the financial settlement, and we are looking forward to starting the next round of negotiations.

"The UK wants a deep and special partnership with the European Union, a partnership that spans a new economic relationship and a new relationship on security."

However, the analysis also showed that jobless Londoners could benefit from Brexit as restrictions on immigration could reduce the number of overseas workers available to employers.

It read: London residents who were unemployed or inactive may be employed following migration restrictions because there is less competition for jobs.
J ulian Assange will not be granted diplomatic status as a way of breaking the deadlock over his presence in the UK.

The Foreign Office rejected a request from the Ecuadorian government to grant the Wikileaks founder protection.

Mr Assange, 46, has been living in the London embassy of the south American country for five-and-a-half years after being granted political asylum as he fought sex-related claims in Sweden.

An FCO spokesman said: "The Government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Mr Assange here in the UK.

"The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter.

"Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice."

Swedish prosecutors have dropped their investigation into allegations against Mr Assange, which included a claim of rape.

But he fears he will be extradited to the United States if he leaves the embassy, and that there is a sealed indictment ordering his arrest.

Julian Assange - In pictures 1 /30 Julian Assange - In pictures 2019 Julian Assange on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court on April 11 Jack Taylor/Getty Images 2019 Julian Assange made a defiant gesture with his fist as he arrived at court AFP/Getty Images 2017 Julian Assange puts his fist in the air as he steps out to speak to the media from the balcony of the Embassy Of Ecuador Getty Images 2012 Protesters gather outside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks is staying Getty Images 2012 Masked supporters of Julian Assange outside the Embassy of Ecuador in Knightsbridge Dominic Lipinski/PA 2010 Photographers hold cameras to the windows of a Serco prison van believed to be carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Reuters 2016 ulian Assange's cat, is adorned with a tie and collar inside the window of the Ecuadorian Embassy PA 2016 Pamela Anderson delivers lunch to Julian Assange at Embassy of Ecuador Getty Images 2010 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is pictured through the heavily tinted windows of a police vehicle as he arrives at Westminster magistrates court in London AFP/Getty Images 2010 Jemima Kahn leaves the City of Westminster Magistrates Court after offering to stand as surety for Julian Assange Getty Images 2010 Julian Assange of the WikiLeaks website speaks to reporters in front of a Don McCullin Vietnam war photograph at The Front Line Club in London Getty Images 2010 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange gestures inside a prison van with red windows as he arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice Getty Images 2011 WikiLeaks website founder Julian Assange arrives at The High Court Getty Images 2011 Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, shakes the hand of a supporter as he leaves Trafalgar Square after addressing the crowd during the 'Antiwar Mass Assembly' organised by the Stop the War Coalition Getty Images 2011 Journalist John Pilger and Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, chat before addressing the crowd during the 'Antiwar Mass Assembly' organised by the Stop the War Coalition at Trafalgar Square Getty Images 2012 Placards are left by supporters of Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks whistle-blowing website, outside the Ecuadorian Embassy Getty Images 2015 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with Reverend Jesse Jackson outside the Embassy of Ecuador in London PA 2016 People attend a video conference of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the International Center for Advanced Communication Studies for Latin America (CIESPAL) auditorium in Quito AFP/Getty Images 2016 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds up his new kitten at the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London WikiLeaks 2017 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during a press conference from inside the Ecuadorian embassy AP 2018 Supporters of Julian Assange outside Westminster Magistrates Court, London where a court decision is due on whether a UK arrest warrant against the WikiLeaks founder is still valid PA 2018 British hacker Lauri Love and his girlfriend Sylvia Mann are surrounded by media after visiting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London on 6th February 2018 AFP/Getty Images 2018 A cat named 'James' wearing a collar and tie yawns by the window of the Ecuadorian Embassy where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been for over five years on 6th February 2018 AFP/Getty Images

Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, said: "No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out."

A United Nations panel concluded in 2016 that Mr Assange was under arbitrary detention.

A statement by Mr Assange's legal team said: "The UN ruling, issued almost two years ago, is crystal clear in its language. Mr Assange is unlawfully and arbitrarily detained by the UK authorities and must be released.

"The UK should not permit itself to be intimidated by the Trump administration's public threats to 'take down' Mr Assange."
M eghan Markle and Prince Harry are set to visit Wales next week as part of a trip to celebrate the countrys culture.

Their first stop next Thursday will be at Cardiff's historic castle, which is to host a Welsh Culture Festival.

During a tour of the 2,000-year-old building, the couple will hear performances from musicians and poets, meet leading athletes and learn how organisations are promoting the Welsh language and cultural identity.

The Prince and Ms Markle will then visit Star Hub, a community and leisure centre in the north-east of the city, to see how sport is being used to engage young people.

Prince Harry & Meghan Markle visit Terrence Higgins Trust, Nottingham 1 /37 Prince Harry & Meghan Markle visit Terrence Higgins Trust, Nottingham Meghan Markle greets well-wishers during a visit a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day Charity Fair in Nottingham Jeremy Selwyn Prince Harry and his fiancee US actress Meghan Markle greet wellwishers on a walkabout as they arrive for an engagement at Nottingham Contemporary AFP/Getty Images Meghan Markle is greeted with flowers by well-wishers Jeremy Selwyn Meghan Markle arrives at the Contemporary Centre for a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair Reuters People hold USA and British flags as they wait for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Reuters Meghan Markle is greeted with flowers by well-wishers Jeremy Selwyn Meghan Markle arrives at the Contemporary Centre for a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair AP Meghan Markle is greeted by well-wishers Reuters Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day Charity Fair in Nottingham AP Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day Charity Fair in Nottingham Rex Features Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are greeted with flowers at Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day Charity Fair in Nottingham Reuters Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle arrive at the Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair in Nottingham AP Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day Charity Fair in Nottingham Jeremy Selwyn Meghan Markle is greeted by well-wishers AP Crowds gather outside the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham PA Meghan Markle arrives at the Contemporary Centre for a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair AP Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at Nottingham Station ahead of their first official engagement together. PA Meghan Markle greets well-wishers AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at Nottingham Station ahead of their first official engagement together PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at Nottingham Station ahead of their first official engagement together PA Police outside the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham, ahead of a visit by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle PA Britain's Prince Harry greets well-wishers on a walkabout as he arrives AFP/Getty Images Crowds gather outside the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham, ahead of a visit by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair on their first official engagement together PA Meghan Markle greets well-wishers during a visit a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day Charity Fair in Nottingham Jeremy Selwyn Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during a visit to the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during a visit to the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair, during a visit to the Nottingham Contemporary on their first official engagement together PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair, during a visit to the Nottingham Contemporary on their first official engagement together Reuters

They will also see how StreetGames, an organisation with which Harry has previously worked, is helping bring sport to young people of all social backgrounds.

Earlier this week, the couple were met by adoring crowds as they visited a radio station in Brixton, south London.

Meghan Markle at Reprezent in Brixton / Dominic Lipinski/PA

Fan gathered and cheered and screamed when they were acknowledged by the loved-up pair who smiled and held hands.

Once inside the station, in POP Brixton, the beaming royal couple met some of the radio presenters and put on headphones to listen to the live broadcast.

The pair held hands as they greeted crowds (Yui Mok/PA ) / Yui Mok/PA

Ms Markle praised the presenter, adding: "I can see why your show is so popular. You're so thoughtful and your approach is so engaging."

The bride-to-be then made everyone laugh when she added: "I must tune in."

"Harry! Meghan!" Listen to royal fanatics go crazy in Brixton

The radio station's work programme, which was set up 10 years ago in a response to knife crime, trains hundreds of young people every year in media and employment skills.
T he Queens bra-fitter has been stripped of its royal warrant after leaking details from inside Buckingham Palace.

Lingerie company Rigby & Peller, which has held the royal warrant since 1960, said it was deeply saddened by the Royal Household Warrants Committee's decision to cancel it.

June Kenton, head of the London-based firm, published Storm In A D Cup in March last year which revealed details of her working relationship with the Queen, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.

It is not clear whether the two events are linked and Buckingham Palace said it did not comment on individual companies.

Rigby & Peller said in a statement: "The Royal Household Warrants Committee has decided to cancel the royal warrant granted to Rigby & Peller and Mrs June Kenton.

The Queen and Prince Philip: Early years of Marriage 1 /42 The Queen and Prince Philip: Early years of Marriage A personal photograph of the Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at the top of the Coyles of Muick, taken by The Countess of Wessex in 2003. PA 1951 The royal family AFP/Getty Images 1949 Princess Elizabeth, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, looking over Valetta from the roof of the Villa Guardamangia, Malta PA 1951 Prince Charles, Prince Philip, Princess Anne and Queen Elizabeth Getty Images 1947 Then Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh leave Westminster Abbey after their wedding ceremony PA 1949 Princess Elizabeth talking to Prince Philip at the Royal Horse Show at Windsor, England Getty Images 1950 Portrait of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip with their baby daughter Princess Anne following her Christening Getty Images 1951 Attending a concert at festival hall Getty Images 1951 At Riverdale Park in Toronto PA 1951 In Quebec Getty Images 1951 In Fort William, Ontario Getty Images 1952 Portrait of the Queen and Prince Philip Getty Images 1952 The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace PA 1952 The Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Princess Anne at Balmoral AFP/Getty Images 1953 Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Imperial State Crown after her coronation PA 1954 Prince Philip with Princess Margaret PA 1954 In Hobart, Tasmania PA 1954 In Kandy, Sri Lanka Getty Images 1954 The royal family wave after returning from a trip around the world AFP/Getty Images 1955 In the grounds of Balmoral PA 1956 The Queen with one of her corgis PA 1957 Touring Springfield PA 1958 Watching a cricket match at Highclere Castle Getty Images 1959 During their royal tour of Canada PA 1959 Meeting President Eisenhower Getty Images 1960 With French President Charles de Gaulle and his wife PA 1961 With then-American President John F Kennedy and his with Jacqueline PA 1962 Driving around Hove Stadium PA 1964 At the conclusion of the Trooping of the Colour PA 1965 Prince Philip, Prince Charles, the Queen, Prince Edward, Princess Margaret and Prince Andrew PA 1968 With Prince Andrew AFP/Getty Images 1972 In Balmoral AFP/Getty Images

"Rigby & Peller is deeply saddened by this decision and is not able to elaborate further on the cancellation out of respect for Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Warrant Holders Association.

"However, the company will continue to provide an exemplary and discreet service to its clients."

Mrs Kenton, from Bushey in Hertfordshire, bought Rigby & Peller with her husband in 1982 for 20,000 before selling a majority stake in 2011 for 8 million - although she remains on the board.

It comes after newly-engaged American actress Meghan Markle, who is set to wed fiance Prince Harry in May, deleted her social media accounts ahead of her entry into the royal family.

Harry and Meghan will wed at St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle and after live in Nottingham Cottage in Kensington Palace, near to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Additonal reporting by Press Association.
T heresa May will today pledge to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste in the UK within 25 years.

The Prime Minister will set a deadline of 2042 when she unveils the Government's long-term plan to improve the natural environment.

Under the plans, supermarkets will be urged to introduce "plastic-free" aisles where shoppers can pick up products which are not packaged in plastic.

The 5p charge for plastic carrier bags will be extended to all retailers in England, closing the Government's loophole excluding smaller shops, while taxes and charges on single-use items such as takeaway containers will be considered.

In a speech to launch the long-awaited 25-year environment plan, the Prime Minister will say the problem of plastic waste, much of which ends up as damaging pollution in the seas, is "one of the great environmental scourges of our time".

May wants the UK to show global leadership on the issue of plastic waste / PA Archive/PA Images

"We look back in horror at some of the damage done to our environment in the past and wonder how anyone could have thought that, for example, dumping toxic chemicals, untreated, into rivers was ever the right thing to do," she is expected to say.

"In years to come, I think people will be shocked at how today we allow so much plastic to be produced needlessly.

'In the UK alone, the amount of single-use plastic wasted every year would fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls."

Plastic damages wildlife and habitats, washing into the ocean, killing sea birds, mammals and turtles which get tangled in waste and causing harm to marine species which swallow it as food.

She will pledge the UK will show global leadership on the issue, taking action at every stage of the production and consumption of plastic.

The Government will use aid money to help developing countries tackle pollution and reduce plastic waste, increase marine protected areas in the UK and establish a protected "blue belt" in Overseas Territories.

Meanwhile plans to help more children engage with the environment will include 10 million for school visits and a programme to create school grounds which allow youngsters to learn more about the natural world.

The environment plan aims to meet the Government's commitment to being the first generation to leave the natural environment in England in a better state than it was found.

Single-use plastic wasted in the UK every year would fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls / Getty Images

Publication has been delayed several times amid the shifting circumstances of Brexit and changes in environment secretary, while a leaked draft of the plan in circulation last year was criticised as lacking policies.

Ahead of its publication, Patrick Begg, from the National Trust, said it looked as if it would be "pretty comprehensive - tackling issues like restoring wildlife populations, people's access to green spaces near where they live, cleaning up rivers and turning around the damage that's been done to the quality of our soil".

But he warned: "The biggest issue will be whether the plan will have the institutions and laws to ensure it really delivers across the UK."

Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, welcomed steps by the Government to cut plastic waste, such as a ban on tiny plastics known as "microbeads" and extending the 5p bag charge.

He said the UK used 38.5 million single use plastic bottles and 50 million cans every day, with only half recycled, with many ending up on beaches and in the seas.

"The time for action is now and we urge the Government not to kick the proverbial plastic bottle down the street, but implement new policies and legislation that the country is crying out for to finally go plastic free."

He added: "We must reinvent our relationship with single-use plastic to eliminate, replace and recycle plastics faster and more effectively."
T he price of Bitcoin plunged after South Korea announced a plan to ban the trading of cryptocurrencies.

About 10 per cent was wiped off the value of Bitcoin  the best known cryptocurrency  after the announcement by the South Korean government.

It said there were great concerns over digital currencies, after several cryptocurrency exchanges in Seoul were raided as part of a probe into alleged tax evasion.

Bitcoin and other digital cryptocurrencies have seen prices surge in recent months, though fluctuations in their values have been significant.

"There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges," said South Korean justice minister Park Sang-ki.

Legislation for an outright ban of virtual coin trading will require a majority vote of the total 297 members of the countrys National Assembly, a process that could take months or even years.

Park Nok-sun, a cryptocurrency analyst at NH Investment & Securities, said the herd behaviour in South Korea's virtual coin market has raised concerns.

Indeed, bitcoin's 1,500 percent surge last year has stoked huge demand for cryptocurrency in South Korea, drawing college students to housewives and sparking worries of a gambling addiction.
W ikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted citizenship by Ecuador.

Mr Assange has been holed up for more than five years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he was granted asylum in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations.

Ecuador's foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa confirmed Assange's citizenship request at a press conference in Quito.

She added she feared for threats to Assange's life coming from third party states.

It comes after Britain earlier said it had refused a request by Ecuador for Mr Assange to be given diplomatic status, a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Julian Assange in 2011 before he sought refuge in the embassy. / Getty Images

The spokesman said: The Government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Mr Assange here in the UK.

"The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter.

Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice.

Mr Assange at a Stop the War Coalition rally in Trafalgar Square, London, in 2011. / Getty Images

Mr Assange sought refuge at the South American country in June 2012 in a bid to avoid being extradited to Sweden.

Swedish prosecutors have since dropped their investigation into Australian-born Mr Assange after visiting him at the Knightsbridge embassy in November 2016.

But Mr Assange now fears there is a sealed indictment ordering his arrest and he will be extradited to the United States if he leaves the embassy where he could face charges over leaking classified US documents.

Julian Assange - In pictures 1 /30 Julian Assange - In pictures 2019 Julian Assange on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court on April 11 Jack Taylor/Getty Images 2019 Julian Assange made a defiant gesture with his fist as he arrived at court AFP/Getty Images 2017 Julian Assange puts his fist in the air as he steps out to speak to the media from the balcony of the Embassy Of Ecuador Getty Images 2012 Protesters gather outside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks is staying Getty Images 2012 Masked supporters of Julian Assange outside the Embassy of Ecuador in Knightsbridge Dominic Lipinski/PA 2010 Photographers hold cameras to the windows of a Serco prison van believed to be carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Reuters 2016 ulian Assange's cat, is adorned with a tie and collar inside the window of the Ecuadorian Embassy PA 2016 Pamela Anderson delivers lunch to Julian Assange at Embassy of Ecuador Getty Images 2010 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is pictured through the heavily tinted windows of a police vehicle as he arrives at Westminster magistrates court in London AFP/Getty Images 2010 Jemima Kahn leaves the City of Westminster Magistrates Court after offering to stand as surety for Julian Assange Getty Images 2010 Julian Assange of the WikiLeaks website speaks to reporters in front of a Don McCullin Vietnam war photograph at The Front Line Club in London Getty Images 2010 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange gestures inside a prison van with red windows as he arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice Getty Images 2011 WikiLeaks website founder Julian Assange arrives at The High Court Getty Images 2011 Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, shakes the hand of a supporter as he leaves Trafalgar Square after addressing the crowd during the 'Antiwar Mass Assembly' organised by the Stop the War Coalition Getty Images 2011 Journalist John Pilger and Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, chat before addressing the crowd during the 'Antiwar Mass Assembly' organised by the Stop the War Coalition at Trafalgar Square Getty Images 2012 Placards are left by supporters of Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks whistle-blowing website, outside the Ecuadorian Embassy Getty Images 2015 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with Reverend Jesse Jackson outside the Embassy of Ecuador in London PA 2016 People attend a video conference of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the International Center for Advanced Communication Studies for Latin America (CIESPAL) auditorium in Quito AFP/Getty Images 2016 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds up his new kitten at the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London WikiLeaks 2017 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during a press conference from inside the Ecuadorian embassy AP 2018 Supporters of Julian Assange outside Westminster Magistrates Court, London where a court decision is due on whether a UK arrest warrant against the WikiLeaks founder is still valid PA 2018 British hacker Lauri Love and his girlfriend Sylvia Mann are surrounded by media after visiting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London on 6th February 2018 AFP/Getty Images 2018 A cat named 'James' wearing a collar and tie yawns by the window of the Ecuadorian Embassy where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been for over five years on 6th February 2018 AFP/Getty Images

Earlier this week, Ecuadors foreign minister confirmed the country was looking for a third country to mediate and resolve the deadlock, after calling the current situation not sustainable.

A United Nations panel concluded in 2016 that Mr Assange was under arbitrary detention.

A statement by Mr Assange's legal team said: "The UN ruling, issued almost two years ago, is crystal clear in its language. Mr Assange is unlawfully and arbitrarily detained by the UK authorities and must be released.

"The UK should not permit itself to be intimidated by the Trump administration's public threats to 'take down' Mr Assange."
B oris Johnson is set to raise the case of jailed British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with his Iranian counterpart at an international summit.

The Foreign Secretary will attend talks in Brussels focused on the Iran nuclear deal amid concerns about US President Donald Trump's opposition to the agreement.

But he will also raise the issue of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual-national consular cases with Tehran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Mother-of-one Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, from Hampstead, north London, is currently serving a five-year sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

Boris Johnson met his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in December / AP

The main focus of the talks, which will also be attended by French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel and EU high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini, will be the nuclear deal.

The US has said it would consider scrapping the 2015 deal, in which Iran restricted its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, but the EU parties remain committed to the agreement.

Mr Johnson said: "The UK has always been clear: the Iran nuclear deal is a crucial agreement that makes the world safer.

"It is vital that we continue to work with our European partners to preserve the Iran deal, and with it the security and prosperity it is bringing to the people of Iran and the world.

"It is those shared interests which will drive our discussions in Brussels.

"Of course there are areas where we disagree with Iran, not least on its destabilising regional activity and its ballistic missile programme. This will be an important part of our conversation.

"I will be making it clear to foreign minister Zarif, on the subject of the recent protests in Iran, that the right to peaceful demonstration within the law is central to any truly thriving society.

"I will also raise all of our Iranian dual-national consular cases."
N ew Yorks homeless crisis is threatening to spiral out of control after 45 rough sleepers were seen on a subway train.

The homeless men and women had crowded onto the underground E train when temperatures plunged to minus 15C because of a lack of shelters. As commuters looked on, they curled up under blankets with their belongings in plastic bags. One man took off his soaked boots to dry his socks.

The citys Democrat mayor, Bill de Blasio, has pledged to combat inequality but has struggled to deal with the homeless problem. In 2013 he vowed to find a solution because there were 51,000 sleeping in shelters, the highest number since the Great Depression. Today the figure stands at more than 60,000.

Some 3,900 people sleep rough on the streets of New York compared with around 8,000 in London.

But in Manhattan they are much more visible due to the lack of a safety net, especially for the mentally ill.

Rough sleepers crowded on to a subway train due to a lack of shelters as temperatures plunged well below freezing / Getty Images

A report in the New York Times said that as the bomb cyclone crippled much of America, the homeless in Manhattan were turning to the subway to keep warm.

At 2.30am on a recent trip on the E train the 45 people were spread across the carriages. One man had a bin bag of cans and most were sleeping. The carriage was littered with spirit bottles and other alcohol.

Christopher Mendoza, a supervisor for a security company who was commuting, said: This whole train is homeless people.

During the cold spell earlier this month more than 100 officials patrolled the transport system to try to encourage the homeless to go into shelters, but with mixed success.

Snow in New York as 'bomb cyclone' hits US 1 /17 Snow in New York as 'bomb cyclone' hits US Workers remove snow during a snowstorm in Times Square in Manhattan REUTERS New Yorkers wander through the snow in Times Square REUTERS The 'bomb cyclone' storm is sweeping the east coast of the US REUTERS A worker removes snow during the storm in Times Square REUTERS A snowy subway station in Manhattan REUTERS A woman seeks shelter from the storm in Manhattan REUTERS Snow hits the quiet streets of Boston during the storm Getty Images Snowy conditions in Brooklyn, New York Getty Images The snowstorm in Ocean City, Maryland Getty Images Tracks in the snow in Brooklyn, New York Getty Images A woman holds a blanket as she walks through the empty streets of Boston Getty Images A snow plow in Brooklyn, New York Getty Images Snow hits Ronald Reagan airport, near Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images

New York police said lying on seats and blocking the movement of passengers was forbidden, even for the homeless. A ban on sleeping on the subway is sporadically enforced.

But Mr de Blasios officials have admitted they were naive to think they could solve the homeless issue easily in New York, which is the third most unequal city in the States.

In 2014, the mayor brought back rental subsidies for homeless families after numbers in shelters rocketed.

More recently, New York has been housing the homeless in expensive private accommodation he has referred to as cluster sites.

Under one initiative unveiled last month, these will be converted into affordable homes for the same residents to live in  a move critics branded even crazier than his previous policies.
A dead koala found screwed to a wooden post has sparked anger in Australia, with animal rights groups condemning the act as "sick".

Koala Rescue Queensland posted a photo on social media after they found the koala attached by its hands to a wooden hut in Queensland on Wednesday.

The animal may have been alive when it was "cruelly attached" to the post, said the 24-hour koala rescue service.

The heartbreaking image was greeted with fury by people on Facebook, and the post has been shared more than 4,000 times.

RSPCA Australia is investigating the incident, and will organise an autopsy to determine cause of death.

Perpetrators of animal cruelty could face a maximum penalty of seven years in jail in Queensland.

"It's just sick, it makes me want to throw up," Murray Chambers, of Koala Rescue Queensland, told the BBC.

"I've been doing this job for 10 years and I've never seen anything like it."

The not-for-profit group shared the image on Facebook in a bid to find the culprit.

One woman, named Laurie Stone, commented: "Oh my goodness, how can someone be so cruel. What has happened to the world. This is just so sad."

Queensland RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty told Reuters: "This is very disturbing.

"Whether or not the koala was dead, how somebody would think this was in some way humorous, when little kids go to that lookout area, is beyond me."

Koalas are one of Australia's major tourist attractions and the animal was listed as a "vulnerable" species under an Australian conservation law in 2012.

The koala was fixed to the pole with building screws, according to local media.
A newsreader in Pakistan went on air with her daughter in the studio in protest at the horrific rape and murder of a young girl.

The death of eight-year-old Zainab Ansari, whose body was found dumped in a dustbin after being sexually assaulted, sparked angry protests and left people around the world shocked.

Little Zainab, whose age has been the subject of conflicting reports, was abducted after leaving her home in Punjab to go to a nearby house for Quran study.

On Wednesday evening, the presenter of Pakistani news channel Samaa TV dedicated the broadcast to the young girl as her own daughtersat on her lap.

The death of Zainab has left the world reeling.

She said: Today I am not Kiran Naz. Today I am a mother. That's why I am sitting with my daughter.

I have nothing else to talk about today, except Zainab. It is true that a child's corpse is the heaviest. Today Pakistan is buried beneath the burden of the little one's funeral.

On Thursday, the father of Zainab, who was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife at the time of his daughter's disappearance, spoke has accused the police of being slow to respond after she went missing.

Clashes have broken out across the country with many people claiming the authorities failed to investigate the case.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has assured the family that justice will be done and fired the police chief of Kasur, where the family live.

Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and champion for female education, tweeted Wednesday she was "heartbroken" about Zainab's tragic fate and demanded action against the killer.


A ctress Jessica Falkholt ha had her life support machine switched off just one day after her parents funeral.

The Home and Away star is the fifth victim of the tragic Boxing Day car crash that claimed the lives of her mother, father and sister.

The 29-year-old actress had been in a medically-induced coma since the horrific collision in New South Wales over Christmas, with her family keeping vigil at her bedside.

Falkholts parents Vivian, 60, and Lars, 69, were killed instantly during the collision, while her sister Annabelle, 21, died three days later in Liverpool Hospital.

Annabelle Falkholt, 21, died in hospital three days after the crash. / Jordan Brohier/Facebook

Craig Whitehall, 50, the other driver involved in the collision, also died at the scene.

According to Australias Daily Telegraph, Whitehall was a serial traffic offender who had previously been jailed four times for dangerous driving.

Soap star: Jessica Falkholt in an episode of Home and Away / Channel 5

Friends and family of the Falkholts gathered for the funeral of Lars, Vivian and Annabelle at St Mary's Catholic Church at Concord in Sydney on Wednesday.

Annabelles boyfriend Jordan Brohier led the pallbearers as hundreds gathered at the church to pay tribute to the family.

Folkholt had appeared as Hope Morrison in popular Australian soap Home and away in 2016 and has shot scenes for the upcoming supernatural horror film, Harmony.
B lue Planet II has beaten the likes of Strictly Come Dancing and Im a Celebrity as the most watched TV show of 2017.

BBC held on to the title of broadcaster of the most watched show for another year, however this time it wasnt The Great British Bake Off.

Blue Planet II drew in 14 million viewers with its first episode which included footage of walruses fighting and a fish that could change sex.

The show tugged at heart strings when David Attenborough warned viewers about the decline of our oceans including horrifying footage of coral bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef.

Top 10 most watched shows 2017 1.Blue Planet II BBC One 29 October 14.01m 2.Strictly Come Dancing BBC One 16 December 13.01m 3.I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! ITV 19 November 12.69m 4.One Love Manchester BBC One 4 June 11.63m 5.Broadchurch ITV 17 April 11.61m 6.Britain's Got Talent ITV6 May 11.51m 7.Sherlock BBC One 1 January11.33m 8.Call The Midwife BBC One 19 February 10.63m 9.New Year's Eve Fireworks BBC One 31 December 10.4m 10.The Moorside BBC One 14 February 10.23m

Second place also went to the BBC due to the 13 million people who tuned in to watch the Strictly Come Dancing final.

ITV took third place with Im a CelebrityGet Me Out of Here! which attracted an audience of 12.7 million for its first episode.

The BBC was usurped when it came to drama, with ITVs Broadchurch raking in the most views in that category.

The last episode of the crime-thriller starring David Tennant was watched by 11.6 million which is the biggest audience for a TV drama in 2017.

ITV was also able to claim the most watched soap, with Coronation Street attracting 9.2 million viewers for an episode broadcast in June.

The One Love Manchester concert, held to raise money for victims of the Manchester Arena terror attack, was the fourth most watched show on TV, it was watched by 11.63 million.
S ick of dry January? Then join me in the Transgender documentary drinking Game, a time-honoured trans community in-joke.

The rules are simple: for every cliche, take one shot of tequila. American writer Helen Boyd, who has a transgender partner, lists 35 classic clangers, including: trans woman putting on make-up (two shots for reverse camera shot into mirror); showing before photos; any reference to genital surgery that includes finally becoming a woman; and anything with a trans woman sitting in an above-the-knee skirt, posed so you can see what great gams (legs) she has. Camera in the operating room? Down the whole bottle.

I hope you can handle your drink. ITVs Transformation street is a perfect example of what I can only call transition porn  that ancient genre where trans people lay around in hospital beds talking about their not-so-private parts, a curious mix of the prurient and the mawkish.

The action here focuses on a London transgender clinic and surgeon Chris Inglefield, a friendly, fatherly man whose cosmetic surgery skills have been known to the capitals well-heeled for some years now. (Full disclosure: I had rhinoplasty with him in 2013 and, five years on, Im still very happy with the results).

If youre fascinated by statements like: Im a woman with the wrong body. Ive got no interest in my penis, I want my vagina please, youre going to love it.

Supportive: Lucas with his mum Karen / ITV

Indeed, anyone whos been living under a rock for the past 50 years and has yet to realise that  deep breath  MEN can become WOMEN, will be awe-inspired.

Perhaps, as a trans woman myself, my tolerance for this sort of thing is lower than your average viewer but if I have to listen to one more person talk about chopping up their genitals to become the person theyve always felt themselves to be, Im going to scream.

That said, the show has a real heart, and the producers clearly wish to educate as well as entertain.

Despite the endless media fascination with the trans community, many people have never even met a trans person before. In that context, a show such as this can be a force for good.

And the public will no doubt fall in love with young adult author Juno Dawson, who turns up in search of a softer forehead.

New TV shows to look forward to in 2018 1 /22 New TV shows to look forward to in 2018 The Little Drummer Girl Florence Pugh as Charlie with Alexander Skarsgard as Becker in the John le Carre thriller BBC / The Little Drummer Girl Distribution Limited. The Cry Jenna Coleman and Ewen Leslie Synchronicity Films Ltd/Lachlan Moore Vanity Fair ITV and Amazon's remake of William. M. Thackeray's classic novel starring Olivia Cooke and Tom Bateman ITV Wanderlust Toni Collette and Steven Mackintosh star in BBC's new raunchy drama BBC/Drama Republic Press Charlotte Riley and Ben Chaplin go head-to-head as rival newspaper editors in new drama from Doctor Foster creator Mike Barlett BBC Death and Nightingales Jamie Dornan, Ann Skelly and Matthew Rhys star in a three-part drama for BBC Two BBC Maniac Emma Stone and Jonah Hill star in the limited Netflix series coming September Michele K. Short / Netflix Disenchantment Matt Groening is back and on Netflix with new adult comedy following Princess Bean and friends Netflix / Matt Groening Age Before Beauty Age Before Beauty on BBC One with Polly Walker, Sue Johnston and Lisa Riley follows a family business with plenty of secrets BBC/Mainstreet Pictures/Todd Antony Hard Sun Luther creator Neil Cross has another dabble at the cop show format in this crime/sci-fi drama inspired by the Bowie song Five Years. BBC/Euston Films A Very English Scandal Hugh Grant stars in this drama from Doctor Who/Sherlock writer Russell T Davies, which adapts John Prestons book about the scandal that surrounded Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe BBC/Blueprint Television Ltd Kiri National Treasure writer Jack Thorne pens a four-part drama about the abduction of a young black girl. The ever-reliable Sarah Lancashire is unconventional social worker Miriam, who finds herself being blamed. Channel 4 Britannia Filmed in Wales and Prague, Jez Butterworths historical drama is set in 43AD, when Roman General Aulus (David Morrissey) is attempting to conquer the Celts. Sky Collateral David Hares four-part drama (his first original TV series) explores the repercussions after a pizza delivery man is shot dead. Carey Mulligan plays Detective Inspector Kip Glaspie, who investigates. BBC/The Forge Save Me In the absence of Doctor Foster, Suranne Jones stars as the mother of a missing girl who believes that her ex- (Lennie James, who wrote the show) is guilty of the abduction, forcing him to work to clear his name. Sky Atlantic Troy: Fall of a City Swords and sandals epic in eight parts made in a collaboration with Netflix, written by David Farr (who also wrote The Night Manager). BBC/Wild Mercury Productions Patrick Melrose Benedict Cumberbatch looks right at home in this adaptation of the Edward St Aubyn novels about an outrageous aristocrat struggling to overcome the damage inflicted by an abusive father. Dave Benett

Then theres Lucas, a young trans man and his mum Karen. Seeing parental support like this is still relatively new, and important at a time when 45 per cent of trans children in the UK have attempted suicide, according to research by LGBT charity Stonewall.

Bullying, social stigma and family rejection dont help but a growing number of loving parents are choosing to support their children rather than force them to try and be the gender they were assigned at birth.

Many of these mums and dads feel voiceless amid the relentless vitriol and misinformation published about the issue of trans kids by newspapers daily, not to mention the rubbish said on TV and radio news shows, so its refreshing to see a supportive mum.

As she puts it: Boy or girl, I still love him. Its moments such as this that make Transformation Street rather sweet, in the end.

Still, Id rather see a documentary on the fact that  as the show itself points out  with waiting lists as long as two and a half years on the NHS, many people are saving up to have surgery privately.

Why has no one made that film? That might offer real help to the trans community, who are battling to get the healthcare theyre entitled to on the NHS. Evidently its easier to change gender than genre.

Transformation Street airs Thursday, January 11 at 9pm on ITV.
I t is the nightmare scenario for the worlds largest tech fair: a power cut.

Geeks were left with blank-screened gadgets and companies were unable to show off their inventions when a blackout hit the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday.

Lasting about two hours, it highlighted the fragility of the wizardry on display as lights went dead and the internet shut down.

The Central Hall at the 3.2 million sq ft Las Vegas Convention Center, hosting giants like LG, Samsung and Sony, sank into darkness. The walls of high-res OLED TVs became black mirrors, and virtual reality exhibits and web-connected smart fridges were bricked.

CES: Consumer Electronics Show CES 2018 - In pictures 1 /18 CES: Consumer Electronics Show CES 2018 - In pictures The Polaroid booth at CES 2018 AP Pole-dancing robots perform at the Sapphire Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas AFP/Getty Images The Mito underwater robot by Navatics is demonstrated in a tank of water Getty Images 3D print outs, including U.S. President Donald Trump Getty Images The Mercedes AMG Project One is on display at CES 2018 Getty Images Lenovo Group Ltd's augmented reality headset with Star Wars: Jedi Challenges game Bloomberg via Getty Images LG's CLOi personal assistant robot Getty Images Attendees examine a 5G immersion display at the Intel booth Getty Images Mercedes Smart Vision EQ concept vehicle on display Getty Images A car is scanned by the Artec Leo handheld smart professional 3D scanner Getty Images A Roborace car is on display at the Nvidia booth Getty Images A person dressed as a so-called "glowbot" entices people to the Hisense booth AFP/Getty Images Human sleeves are on display to promote Netflix's sci-fi series Altered Carbon AP An exhibitor (right) demonstrates the ICAROS virtual reality exercise machine AFP/Getty Images

Delegates found their way by the light of mobile phones while guards barred bits of the venue and information came via Twitter. A worker at the Intel booth played a violin in the dark.

Tech radio host Molly Wood tweeted: I love how like, electricity just big-footed #CES2018 in the most apex predator way. Like, Hows all that innovation going for you now, losers?

Staff said two days of heavy rain caused the roof to leak. At 11.15am the Central Hall and South Hall ... lost power, the Consumer Technology Association said. A preliminary assessment indicates that condensation from heavy rainfall caused a flashover on one of the facilitys transformers. We are grateful to customers and their clients for their patience. The show went bravely on with...

The Ubercopter

CES 2018: Volocopter flying taxi could cut congestion in major cities

An electric urban air taxi helicopter is being developed by Bell and Uber. The four-person cabin has wifi, a touch console and screens for conference calls. The front has a joystick, which hints it is not fully autonomous. Bell Helicopter chief executive Mitch Snyder said: The future of urban air taxi is closer than many people realise.

Hip sounds

Echobox

A 450 wooden music player takes inspiration from hip flasks. Echoboxs Explorer comes in maple, ebony, mahogany and zebrawood. The open-source Android device connects to blueooth and wifi for Tidal streaming.

Fame of drones

The 350 Kodak Riot 250R Pro aims to be one of the fastest racing drones. It goes from 0-60mph in under a second with a top speed of 96mph.

Mark Blunden flew as a guest of Virgin Atlantic, which flies the Boeing 747-400 daily from Gatwick to Las Vegas. More details: virginatlantic.com
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Prime Minister Mihai Tudose on Wednesday said that a Government restructuring is needed to a number beginning with "1," however he pointed out that besides the Interior Minister, Carmen Dan, he has no problems with any other minister.

"We want to make the governance act more efficient. We want spending on state functioning be lower. 21 ministries is a bit too much. (...) I would like [their number] to begin with 1, not 2. Be them 11, be them 19, at least to begin with 1. A bunch of structures have been created in time belonging to the same ministry in the territory, a bunch of branches, I would like to see them merged back, as this also eliminates bureaucracy. (...) We have committed and I have committed to do this thing - debureaucratization, a much more coherent functioning of the state institutions, and we have taken up on this task. If it bothers some and some don't agree and speculate that there are sides (...), what do you want me to do? To say that what I think is wrong? This is how I think, this is how I see it. (...) I will be in this office as long as I can do what I feel that I can do well. If I can no longer do this, I will go home. (...) This is my firm conviction [that a restructuring is needed]," Tudose told Antena 3 private television channel.He underscored he wants a lighter government, closer to the citizen.Tudose also maintained that he isn't taking sides and that he is a Social Democratic Party (PSD) member.On the other hand, the PM said that Health Minister Florian Bodog is trying to solve the problems in the healthcare system.

AGERPRES .
Prime Minister Mihai Tudose on Wednesday stated about justice laws that any law can be perfected and the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) might say certain things need to be improved.

"The decision to bring these laws directly to Parliament belonged to the coalition. (...) They never reached the Government. The justice law did not leave from the Ministry of Justice and, for various reasons, it couldn't be properly finalized. One of these reason was of a technical nature, since these laws couldn't be brought out by the Government without the approval of the Venice Commission, which was set to meet only now, in January, and other approvals were needed too, and then it was decided to bring it directly to Parliament, since there was no need for such approvals there. Secondly, from a procedural point of view or, if you want, from a media perspective, the huge scandal in January 2017 burst because the government members drafted the laws overnight, "like thieves", without submitting it to Parliament, which is the democratic forum of the country, for debate. (...) If they are good, or bad, or they can be perfected, for any law can be perfected, since we did not write the Bible now, the Constitutional Court will decide, this is life. In the end, the Parliament, which is the supreme democratic institution, gave its opinion," Tudose Told Antena 3 private television channel.The Prime Minister said that he endorsed the procedure of adoption of the justice laws, but he added that he was not a specialist in constitutional law."First of all, I endorse the procedure. I am not a specialist in constitutional law. The Constitutional Court could resolve that certain things need to be improved, we will see if they are very good or not. I voted for them," said Tudose.

AGERPRES .
Opinion surveys show the military government continuing to lose support. Popularity has fallen 18 percent from its late 2014 high of 7.02 (on a 1-10 scale). The economy is stuck with GDP growth between 3.6 and 4 percent. Elections are expected by the end of 2018, which may be just in time for the generals. Paying attention to what people want wins elections, not just ordering people to do what some generals and their cronies think is best. Eventually the coup must end or face the risk of a nationwide insurrection. As with past coups there will be elections and the generals want to ensure that a vindictive elected government doesnt get power and seek revenge. The most obvious error the generals made was changing the constitution to give the military more power permanently. The other damaging policy was depending on China (for weapons and investment) despite the knowledge that such an approach drives away traditional (Western) business partners. The continuing decline in their ratings indicate a failure to deal with these problems.

Another obstacle is the fact that most Thais prefer to maintain the alliance with the United States rather than do more business with China. It was the American connection that made Thailand a popular (and profitable) place for Western (especially American) firms to set up Asian manufacturing operations since the 1960s. Thailand became one of the most prosperous nations in the region with per-capita GDP increasing tenfold from 1960 to 2016. Thais expect this to continue but instead Thai GDP growth has fallen behind all of the neighbors since the latest coup. The army realized the economic problems could not be ignored. Unemployment is still low but income was declining as are opportunities for getting better jobs. As far as the economy goes everyone else in the region is doing better and the military cannot hide that or explain it away.

Most Thais remember that in all the post-World War II coups (1951, 1957, 1958, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1991 and 2006) the economy improved after the army took over. So the army suffers when it fails here. Accepting major investments from China did not help as much impact as hoped. Worse, the increased presence of the Chinese was not welcome. Many Thais fear greater Chinese influence in the economy will hurt Thailand in the long run.

All Quieter On The Southern Front

One bring spot is in the Moslem south where the military governments efforts have led to a continuing decline in separatist and Islamic terrorist violence has declined to record low levels. The violence started in 2004 and mainly occurs in the three Moslem majority provinces nearest to Malaysia. In the last 14 years there were 15,164 violent incidents 4,235 involved firearms, 3,439 used bombs and 1,505 were arson. There have been 3,949 deaths (65 percent local civilians, 24 percent soldiers and police officers, three percent were teachers and clerics while two percent were terrorists with six percent local defense volunteers). The violence has been declining steadily since 2010 and the army has been withdrawing soldiers each year as they are replaced by local defense violence. Over the next few years there will be major reductions in the number of soldiers (currently 58,000) in the south.

A recent terrorism survey (GTI or Global Terrorism Index) showed Thailand making progress in in reducing Islamic terrorist violence compared to the rest of the world. In 2016 Thailand ranked number ten out of 163 nations. The top four slots were filled by the usual suspects (Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Syria). The top ten nations by terrorist activity (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Syria, India, Somalia, Yemen, Philippines and Thailand) is more volatile and it seems likely that Thailand will drop out of the top ten. Note that most of the terror related deaths are Moslem related. Only India and the Philippines had a significant minority of terrorist deaths that were not carried out by Moslems. In those two countries the minority terrorists were leftist rebels who are slowly fading away.

At the end of 2017 the army revealed that it was investigating ten local (but unnamed) politicians for involvement in the violence. This was long suspected and the military and police found that a disproportionate number of terrorism suspects belonged to the families of ten wealthy politicians. One theory is that these politicians were seeking to discourage outside investment in the south as it would mean competition for local businesses owned by the ten families. This sort of violence in common (and ancient) throughout the region as local leaders seek to perpetuate their power.

January 10, 2018: The air force received the first four South Korean T-50 jet trainers it has on order. Another eight were ordered in July 2017 for $33 million each. This followed a 2015 order for four at about $28 million each. The T-50 can also operate as a ground attack aircraft. The first four aircraft were delivered on schedule. The first order included an option to buy twenty more. The T-50 will be used for advanced training of pilots for the Jas-39 and F-16 fighters used by the air force.

January 9, 2018: In the south (Pattani province) ten soldiers and local defense volunteers were wounded by a roadside bomb. Later in the day two suspects were arrested and others were being sought.

January 4, 2018: In the south (Yala province) soldiers arrested twenty people suspected of involvement with recent terror attacks.

January 3, 2018: The United States has agreed to build a maintenance center, including a parts storage warehouse, in Thailand to enable American made weapons used by the Thai military to get repairs and depot maintenance faster and cheaper. These facilities will be ready by 2019. This deal was first proposed in 2014 but suspended after the 2014 coup.

December 28, 2017: In the south (Narathiwat province) a roadside bomb was used in a failed attempt to attack an army patrol (five rangers). The radio controlled bomb was planted ineffectively and most of the explosion was directed away at the rangers, none of whom were injured. This was the worst of a number of Islamic terrorist incidents that occurred around New Years.

December 25, 2017: In the south (Yala and Narathiwat provinces) a number of coordinated attacks against the electrical distribution system left thousands of homes in several areas without power on Christmas Day. There were several injuries, mostly from vehicle accidents caused by the terrorists blocking roads or firing on passing vehicles.

December 21, 2017: Work officially began on $5.2 billion high speed 253 kilometer long railway that China is building from Bangkok to the Chinese border in northeastern Thailand. This first section in the capital is 3.5 kilometers long.
Universities Minister David Willetts has declined to offer any support to PhD student Owen Holland, who was suspended for seven terms last week for his involvement in an anti-Willetts protest last year.

Willetts had so far refused to comment on the matter, which has outraged students and academics nationwide. However, appearing at the European University Associations annual conference at the University of Warwick on Friday, Willetts was asked about Hollands actions and sentence by Allan Pall, president of the European Students Union. Willetts responded: It is important to sustain freedom of speech in universities, but it was the only time that I have been shouted down and been unable to give a speech. I had many people who wrote in and were very shocked about what happened.

Of the punishment, he added: It is a matter for the university and for their disciplinary procedures.

Willetts said he was still keen to engage with students despite the hostile receptions that have greeted some of his visits to universities. One can engage with students, he said. I was at Southampton where students were addressing me through a loudhailer. They could not hear me because they were talking so loudly, so I was able to use their loudhailer to speak to them.

Owen Holland was among a group of protesters from activist group Cambridge Defend Education who interrupted a talk by Willetts (pictured above left, as the protest started) in Lady Mitchell Hall on the Sidgwick Site on November 22nd last year. Willetts was prevented from speaking at all, as several students around the hall began chanting a 25-minute poem beginning David Willetts, the future does not belong to you/This is an epistle that is addressed to you. The chanting was done using the so-called peoples microphone method, whereby Owen Holland read out each line, which was then repeated back by all the other protesters. Willetts had been due to give a speech on The Idea of the University, but left the hall during the course of the epistle. The protest divided opinion among Cambridge students, many of whom, including CUSU President Gerard Tully, claimed that it had violated David Willetts right to freedom of speech. The protest was followed by a week-long occupation of Lady Mitchell Hall by Cambridge Defend Education activists.

University Council sources confirm that Vice-Chancellor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz phoned Willetts following the protest to apologise in a personal capacity for the hijacking of his speech. Two days after the protest, the University Council issued a Statement on the Principle of Freedom of Speech in the University, expressing its deep regret that the actions of a small group of protestors  had prevented Willetts from speaking. The statement went on: The Council values diversity of opinion and view. It believes that freedom of expression and speech is a fundamental principle of the University. The action of the protestors violated this principle.

Holland was found guilty by the Universitys Court of Discipline last week of recklessly or intentionally impeding free speech within the Precincts of the University and ruled that Holland not be allowed to attend the University until October 2014  a so-called rustication of seven terms. It is understood Holland is appealing the decision.

A petition was soon launched by Cambridge University Students Union (CUSU), entitled This Is Not Justice: Stop the Sentence, calling on the Septemvirii (the University appeal court) to quash the extreme sentence. It has so far gathered 2900 signatures from Cambridge students and academics, and states: Given that 60 other members of the University publicly stated that they were also involved in the protest for which the student has been punished, we are deeply concerned that the University has singled out one individual.

We believe, irrespective of individual opinions on the action itself, that this exemplary and punitive sentence undermines the Universitys professed commitment to freedom of speech and the right to protest.

We call for the suspended student to be reinstated.

Over 100 members of the University staged a silent protest against the decision outside the Senate House on Wednesday morning, while Lord Sainsbury was being officially installed as the new University Chancellor. Speaking to the BBC at the protest, Dr Drew Milne, Hollands PhD supervisor said he was very concerned at the damage this is likely to do to his research. He went on: I think its a clear case of victimisation  a student who has been picked out from a large group in a collective protest, presumably to make an example of him but in a way that I think is completely unfair.

A new letter, which is to be sent to the Vice-Chancellor next week, is currently being circulated amongst Cambridge academics for their signature, which states, In imposing this sentence, the Court of Discipline has brought the University into disrepute, noting the negative publicity that the decision has received in national and international media. The letter seeks to deplore and condemn in the strongest possible terms Owen Hollands sentence, and calls for a review of the processes used by the Court of Discipline, in order to guarantee that they are as transparent and as fair as the Universitys members require. The letter ends demanding Owen Hollands reinstatement with immediate effect.

Michael Yoganayagam, Associate News Editor
Technically, Nvidia did not announce any smart TVs at CES. Instead, the company announced a set of 65-inch monitors that its calling Big Format Gaming Displays. Built by Acer, Asus, and HPbut all using the same 4K HDR paneltheyre supposed to bring high-end PC gaming into the living room.

But if you look past the gaming elements, Nvidias BFGDs could become the best smart TVs that money can buy when they arrive in the second half of this year. Their display quality rivals some of the best televisions from companies like Samsung, they use a fancy variable refresh rate technology that no other television has yet, and they have the guts of an Nvidia Shield TVarguably the best media streamer on the market todaybuilt in.

The only thing missing is a TV tuner for pulling in over-the-air TV broadcasts, which precludes Nvidia from using the term television to describe its new creations. That doesnt mean you should overlook BFGDs next time you need a new living room display.

Its all about that panel

Although Acer, Asus, and HP use different industrial designs and might offer some minor distinguishing featuressuch as more HDMI inputs or better built-in speakersall three BFGDs use the same panel, manufactured by AUO. Its a stunning display, using the same kind of quantum dot filtering that appears on high-end LED TVs from Samsung and others. It also has a peak brightness of 1000 nits, which is what the UltraHD Alliance recommends to see the full benefits of 4K HDR.

Perhaps more importantly, the BFGDs will be among the first TV-sized displays to support variable refresh rates, in this case using Nvidias proprietary G-Sync technology. This allows the BFGDs to avoid screen tearing and stuttering by matching the displays framerate on the fly to whatevers happening on screen.

While variable refresh rate is obviously useful for matching the ups and downs of video game framerates, it also comes in handy for video, whose refresh rate can vary depending on the source. The BFGDs can switch between 60-frames-per-second YouTube videos and 24-frames-per-second movies without having to flash a blank screen like todays TVs do. It can also handle 25-frames-per-second videos in the PAL format that U.K. broadcasters use without any screen tearing.

The Shield factor

Granted, Nvidia wont be the only company offering those features in a television this year. Samsung plans to support variable refresh rate in some of its new high-end televisions, which also offer 4K HDR with quantum dot technology. Variable refresh rate should also come to more televisions in the future through the HDMI 2.1 connector.
GeckoLinux offers both seasoned users and new distro adopters an easy way to try an openSuse-based spin that is loaded with features and an ample inventory of the leading Linux desktops.

The developer released a major update of GeckoLinux earlier this week. I enjoyed testing the beta version last fall, and I was even more pleased with the added embellishments packed into this final version.

Among the attractions of GeckoLinux are its innovations within the openSuse community. These include non-free packages not found in openSuses default repositories.

GeckoLinux has a reputation for polish and out-of-the-box usability. It offers users a better hands-on experience than the more traditional approach taken by the openSuse community.

This latest release, GeckoLinux 423, uses a new build system, called Kiwi. The openSuse community last year changed to another system merged build tool, Open Build Service.

That change caused the GeckoLinux developer some delays in releasing this new spin  but the result was worth the wait.

Both Rolling and Static

GeckoLinux spares users from the nagging dilemma of choosing between Linux distros that offer static versus rolling upgrades. It does both. All you have to do is pick the maintenance method you prefer when you download the ISO file.

GeckoLinux rolling editions are based on openSuse Tumbleweed. The rolling editions update fully tested portions of the operating system as they are developed. No need to wait and install an entire new system on a finite release schedule.

The rolling release editions come in eight desktop flavors: Cinnamon, XFCE, Gnome, Plasma, Mate, Budgie, LXQt and Barebones.

The Plasma desktop leaves much to be desired. It is one of eight desktop options available in the latest GeckoLinux release.

GeckoLinux static editions are based on openSuse Leap 42.2 with its periodic release cycle and long-term support. The Budgie desktop is not available. The other seven desktop choices are available for download.

Each desktop environment has its own ISO file, so you can try your preferred desktop on GeckoLinux or grab one or more desktops to try. The ISO easily converts to a fully functional live session that runs on a DVD or USB. It loads without changing anything on your hard drive. Nothing messes with your existing OS.

Added Benefits

This new release includes live USB persistence. Without persistence, you can not save system settings and added or removed software configured during a live session. Now you can use GeckoLinux as a portable OS that runs just the way you used it in your last live session.

Depending on your hardware, running GeckoLinux from a USB installation may be slower  but you will not notice much sluggishness if the host computer has ample installed RAM.

The benefit is you can install GeckoLinux onto your mail computer and carry the equivalent of a cloned copy on a USB drive to run on any computer you use. You can access your documents on either a USB drive or from a cloud storage center as long as you have an Internet connection.

Having USB persistence, a fully functional live session, and your choice of desktop environments makes using GeckoLinux a flexible computing platform.

GeckoLinux now offers a much smoother booting experience. I like the splash screen added to the live system startup.

Some of my hardware is notorious for being finicky. Some of the test rigs refuse to play well with software designed for newer technology. GeckoLinux did not fall victim to such troubles.

GeckoLinux 423 has better hardware detection. It worked well with the X.Org startup on two very troublesome graphics cards. This new version also includes a repository containing Nvidia drivers enabled by default.

Switching Gears

When I reviewed the beta release last fall, I worked with the Cinnamon edition. That was partly because I use that desktop as my primary driver in Linux Mint.

For the final version testing session, I picked the Plasma edition. I used to be an avid fan of the KDE environment, but my dissatisfaction with Plasma caused that relationship to wither.

My initial experience this time with the Plasma edition was no more rewarding than the last time I tried it, on another distro. That is not the fault of the GeckoLinux distro, though. Plasma performed well within the limitations of its desktop toolkit.

A major benefit of GeckoLinux is the ease with which you can try out leading desktop offerings with a solid OS. So I will share my initial reactions to Plasma without any intention of degrading my otherwise happy experience with the OS itself.

Plasma on GeckoLinux

The Plasma desktop is the latest iteration of the KDE environment. It is based on KDE Plasma 5.9.2. The KDE community, however, released a later version early this month.

It includes the KDE applications. Many of the worthwhile KDE-branded applications, however, are no longer part of the Plasma environment.

Configuring the virtual workspaces in GeckoLinux depends on the desktop environment you run. The options panel in the Plasma desktop is one of its best features.

For instance, KWrite is gone. In its place is the LibreOffice suite. The Plasma desktop is now an overly simplified user interface that does a poor job of competing with the GNOME interface.

I never had much use for the Activities feature in KDE, though accessing an Activities display on the desktop was handy. You pushed the mouse into the upper left screen corner. Now, you thrash through the main menu to reach it via an applet you install on the panel bar.

The Plasma integration into the GeckoLinux infrastructure works well, but I suspect that only die-hard KDE fans will be drawn to using it here.

Bottom Line

I was disappointed in GeckoLinux in only one situation. The practice of including a password for the live session demo mode was a new feature promised in this release. The product description hawks the convenience of not having to enter passwords for the live session user account.

Yet the brief documentation for the ISO download mentions the user password for the live session as linux. I was hoping that the developer merely forgot to update the download information.

Alas, the new version still needs a password. Oh well, maybe the next release.

Otherwise, GeckoLinux 423 is a worthy release that provides improvements over the standard openSuse mindset.

Want to Suggest a Review?

Is there a Linux software application or distro youd like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?

Please email your ideas to me, and Ill consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.

And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input!
Despite China's recent plans to limit power use by some bitcoin miners, the practice is so profitable in the country that even if the cryptocurrency's price dropped by half, miners would still make money.

Sophie Lu, an analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, says the miners will keep on profiting as long as bitcoin's price remains higher than $6,925. While it recently suffered a price drop following South Korea's plans to further tighten regulations surrounding crypto trading (and perhaps even ban it), bitcoin is currently worth $13,738.

The 1400 percent rise in bitcoin's price last year has seen a greater demand for electricity to run mining computers in the country.

Mining bitcoins can use a lot of electricity, but the low costs in China--- from $0.03 to $0.13 per kilowatt hour---make it profitable even if the price drastically drops. The overcapacity of the power-generating sector has enabled the lowest rates, which could allow miners to break even at a bitcoin value of $3689.

Electricity needed for bitcoin mining rose to around 20.5 terawatt-hours a year by the end of 2017. That's more than half of the 38 terawatt-hours of power used each year by the world's biggest traditional mining company, BHP Billiton.

Despite China being home to the world's largest community of bitcoin miners, they only use 0.2 percent of the country's annual electricity production, or 15.4 terawatt hours, according to the report.

Earlier this month, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) asked local authorities to regulate bitcoin miners' power usage to slowly reduce the scale of their production. If this happens, it's likely that the miners will just move to new regions.
While Google's $1.1 billion buyout of HTC's Pixel team brought plenty of headlines, it seems the search giant made another, smaller acquisition last year that flew under the radar. According to Bloomberg, the company acquired a Cambridge, UK startup called Redux that makes technology designed to turn surfaces into speakers.

The company's Crunchbase profile states that Redux "creates products and bespoke systems that enable customisable, high-resolution haptic feedback and speakerless surround sound audio."

Redux's said in 2017 that its patented bending wave techniques could allow it to turn a smartphone screen into a high-quality speaker. Should Google use this tech to remove the need for speakers in its future smartphones, it would free up space for other components and perhaps larger batteries, while doing away with bezels altogether. Google might also use the acquisition to improve its future handsets' haptic feedback.

"When it comes to mobile phones, we are not only saving valuable real estate and creating a waterproof housing, we are eliminating the need for additional speaker holes and most importantly, improving the audio quality," said CEO Nedko Ivanov in an interview with New Electronics.

Redux shares were transferred to Google on December 13, according to UK regulatory filings, though Crunchbase said the deal took place back in August. No word on how much it paid, but the $5 million Redux raised in March suggests it could be around that figure.

Some of Redux's tech has already appeared in PCs and vehicle infotainment systems. In an April 2017 statement, it told Engadget that the move to smartphones would take place this year. The company had 178 granted patents, according to its LinkedIn page.
Currently, the volcano maintains low activity and is not in an eruptive process, according to the Geophysical Institute. | Read More
Texas C-Stores Fight Skimming

The new c-store industry-specific effort offers tips to avoid skimming and cautions against using Bluetooth as a skimming detection tool.

AUSTIN January 11, 2018; NACS Online reported that consumers in Texas and across the United States need to be vigilant about new threats to their data from card skimmers. This week, the Texas Food and Fuel Association (TFFA) launched new campaign to share tips for keeping card data safe at the pump. The effort includes three public service announcements (PSAs) featuring Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, a social media campaign and a website.

Skimming is an unfortunate part of todays technology-driven society, Acevedo says in the video PSAs. If youre concerned about a gas pumps security, or think youve detected a skimmer, report it to the store management immediately. Convenience stores, law enforcement, and consumers in Texas all play a crucial role in preventing skimming at the pump.

Fortunately, incidents of credit card skimming make up a very small fraction of the over-all fill ups across our state but our industry is committed to arming consumers with the information they need to protect their credit card data, said Paul Hardin, TFFA president. Chief Acevedo is a recognized and well-respected leader in law enforcement. We appreciate his commitment to this issue and his partnership with us in our consumer awareness campaign.

According to the TFFA, here are key tips for consumers to stay safe at the pump:

Physical examination: when at the pump, check the dispenser door for signs of forced entry. A good indicator of a problem is a door that does not align properly or has unusual scraping or wear around the edges.

If the gas pump has security labels, check to see if they have been broken.

Pull on the card reader and run your fingernail around the edge of the keypad to make sure they are firm and secure; thieves often install overlays that are loose and have a tendency to wiggle.

If using a debit card at the pump, run it as a credit card instead of entering a PIN. If thats not an option, shield the keypad when entering a PIN.

As always, its a good idea to monitor credit card and bank accounts regularly to spot unauthorized charges.

The Texas convenience store industry also is working to combat misinformation such as reports encouraging customers to use their Bluetooth to detect skimmers at the pump. Hardin said this method is unreliable for key reasons:

A cell phone Bluetooth range can pick up signals from nearby vehicles or bystanders up to 30 feet away.



Bluetooth naming is not regulated: While a random string of numbers and letters on a device list might appear suspicious, that does not mean the signal is being emitted from a skimmer on the pump.

Using a smartphones Bluetooth isnt an accurate or reliable way to detect the presence of a skimmer, Hardin said. And doing so may lead to a false positive reading that can cause a pump to be shut downoften for several weekswhich can negatively impact a convenience store, the owners, employees, and customers.

Collectively, TFFA members own, operate and supply more than 12,000 retail, commercial and agriculture fueling sites across Texas; distribute approximately 9 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel each year; and supply fuels to end users including motorists, aviation, marine, manufacturing, government, agriculture and construction. The convenience retailing industry is working to combat this issue through employee education, software upgrades, and modernized equipment, Hardin said.

More information from TFFA on card skimmers is available at skimmingprevention.org.

Skimming resources for the convenience and fuel retailing industry can also be found at convenience.org/skimming.
James Franco. Photo: Frazer Harrison / Staff/2018 Getty Images

Five women have accused actor James Franco of sexual misconduct in a report published Thursday by the Los Angeles Times. The accusations range from coerced oral sex to exploitative work environments. On Sunday, Franco accepted a Golden Globe for his work on The Disaster Artist while wearing a Times Up pin.

Four of the women were students of Francos at various acting schools, while one said he was her mentor. Sarah Tither-Kaplan told the Times that, while filming a nude orgy scene three years ago, Franco removed several actresses plastic guards covering their vaginas while simulating oral sex. Tither-Kaplan tweeted after the Golden Globes that Franco had put her in what she considered an exploitative situation. The tweet went viral, along with a series by actress Ally Sheedy.

Hey James Franco, nice #timesup pin at the #GoldenGlobes , remember a few weeks ago when you told me the full nudity you had me do in two of your movies for $100/day wasn't exploitative because I signed a contract to do it? Times up on that!  Sarah Tither-Kaplan (@sarahtk) January 8, 2018

Two others, Hilary Dusome and Natalie Chmiel, recounted Franco growing angry on a set when none of the actresses would take their shirts off at his request. Chmiel also said that she was told the footage would be used for a jeans commercial, while Dusome believed it was for one of his art films. They, along with Tither-Kaplan and fellow accuser Katie Ryan, met Franco through the acting schools Playhouse West and Studio 4.

Ryan told the Times that she received many mass emails from Franco about auditions to play a prostitute or a hooker and that Franco, would always make everybody think there were possible roles on the table if we were to perform sexual acts or take off our shirts.

Finally, Violet Paley, who also tweeted allegations against Franco after the Golden Globe awards, said Franco had pressured her into performing oral sex on him. After the incident, she says they had a consensual sexual relationship. Per the Times:

I was talking to him, all of a sudden his penis was out, said Paley. I got really nervous, and I said, Can we do this later? He was kind of nudging my head down, and I just didnt want him to hate me, so I did it.

Francos attorney denied each womans allegations to the Times. Franco responded to the tweets after the Golden Globes, before the Times report was published, on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. He told Colbert:

The things that Ive heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice, because they didnt have a voice for so long. I dont want to shut them down in any way. I think its a good thing and I support it.

Tither-Kaplan said that late last year, post-Weinstein, Franco reached out to her to apologize if he had made her uncomfortable.

I want to give him credit for at least being open to communicating with me, she said. I felt that he was still not really taking accountability for the environment on the sets.
Anitere Flores and Oscar Braynon. Photo: Steve Cannon/AP

On Tuesday, two Florida state senators issued a joint statement in which they acknowledged having had an extramarital affair.

According to the Sun Sentinel, Anitere Flores and Oscar Braynon, both married, admitted to their relationship after a website called floresbraynonaffair.com published video of Flores entering Braynons Tallahassee apartment one night in April, and leaving the next morning. The website appears to have been shut down.

In their statement, the pair wrote:

As this 2018 session of the Florida Legislature gets underway, we do not want gossip and rumors to distract from the important business of the people. Thats why we are issuing this brief statement to acknowledge that our longtime friendship evolved to a level that we deeply regret. We have sought the forgiveness of our families, and also seek the forgiveness of our constituents and God. We ask everyone else to respect and provide our families the privacy that they deserve as we move past this to focus on the important work ahead.

Flores and Braynons affair is the latest sexual scandal to rock the Florida Capitol. In October, State Senator Jeff Clemens resigned after he acknowledged having had an affair with a lobbyist. Two months later, State Senator Jack Latvala resigned after he was accused of sexually harassing multiple women, and of violating corruption laws by trading legislative favors for sexual favors.

I will not defend somebody engaging in an extramarital affair, said Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran on Tuesday. What I will defend is that its a hell of a lot different than being a sexual predator and its a hell of a lot different than raping somebody. Its a hell of a lot different than committing a crime.
Photo-Illustration: Stevie Remsberg; Photos: Getty Images

In October, I created a Google spreadsheet called Shitty Media Men that collected a range of rumors and allegations of sexual misconduct, much of it violent, by men in magazines and publishing. The anonymous, crowdsourced document was a first attempt at solving what has seemed like an intractable problem: how women can protect ourselves from sexual harassment and assault.

One long-standing partial remedy that women have developed is the whisper network, informal alliances that pass on open secrets and warn women away from serial assaulters. Many of these networks have been invaluable in protecting their members. Still, whisper networks are social alliances, and as such, theyre unreliable. They can be elitist, or just insular. As Jenna Wortham pointed out in The New York Times Magazine, they are also prone to exclude women of color. Fundamentally, a whisper network consists of private conversations, and the document that I created was meant to be private as well. It was active for only a few hours, during which it spread much further and much faster than I ever anticipated, and in the end, the once-private document was made public  first when its existence was revealed in a BuzzFeed article by Doree Shafrir, then when the document itself was posted on Reddit.

A slew of think pieces ensued, with commentators alternately condemning the document as reckless, malicious, or puritanically anti-sex. Many called the document irresponsible, emphasizing that since it was anonymous, false accusations could be added without consequence. Others said that it ignored established channels in favor of what they thought was vigilantism and that they felt uncomfortable that it contained allegations both of violent assaults and inappropriate messages. Still other people just saw it as catty and mean, something like the Burn Book from Mean Girls. Because the document circulated among writers and journalists, many of the people assigned to write about it had received it from friends. Some faced the difficult experience of seeing other, male friends named. Many commentators expressed sympathy with the aims of the document  women warning women, trying to help one another  but thought that its technique was too radical. They objected to the anonymity, or to the digital format, or to writing these allegations down at all. Eventually, some media companies conducted investigations into employees who appeared on the spreadsheet; some of those men left their jobs or were fired.

None of this was what I thought was going to happen. In the beginning, I only wanted to create a place for women to share their stories of harassment and assault without being needlessly discredited or judged. The hope was to create an alternate avenue to report this kind of behavior and warn others without fear of retaliation. Too often, for someone looking to report an incident or to make habitual behavior stop, all the available options are bad ones. The police are notoriously inept at handling sexual-assault cases. Human-resources departments, in offices that have them, are tasked not with protecting employees but with shielding the company from liability  meaning that in the frequent occasion that the offender is a member of management and the victim is not, HRs priorities lie with the accused. When a reporting channel has enforcement power, like an HR department or the police, it also has an obligation to presume innocence. In contrast, the value of the spreadsheet was that it had no enforcement mechanisms: Without legal authority or professional power, it offered an impartial, rather than adversarial, tool to those who used it. It was intended specifically not to inflict consequences, not to be a weapon  and yet, once it became public, many people immediately saw it as exactly that.

Recent months have made clear that no amount of power or money can shield a woman from sexual misconduct. But like me, many of the women who used the spreadsheet are particularly vulnerable: We are young, new to the industry, and not yet influential in our fields. As we have seen time after time, there can be great social and professional consequences for women who come forward. For us, the risks of using any of the established means of reporting were especially high and the chance for justice especially slim.

When I began working in magazines as a new college graduate in 2013, I was furtively warned away from several of my industrys most well-known abusers. Over the intervening years, Ive met these characters in various guises. There was the hard-drinking editor who had worked in all the most prestigious editorial departments, who would down whiskeys until he was drunk enough to mention that he could help your career if you slept with him. There was the editor who would lean too close but who was funny enough that he would often charm women into consensual encounters that were then rumored to turn abruptly, frighteningly violent. Last summer, I saw two of the most notorious of these men clutching beers and laughing together at a party for a magazine in Brooklyn. Doesnt everyone know about them? another woman whispered to me. I cant believe theyre still invited to these things. But of course we could believe it. By then, wed become resigned to the knowledge that men like them were invited everywhere.

The spreadsheet was intended to circumvent all of this. Anonymous, it would protect its users from retaliation: No one could be fired, harassed, or publicly smeared for telling her story when that story was not attached to her name. Open-sourced, it would theoretically be accessible to women who didnt have the professional or social cachet required for admittance into whisper networks. The spreadsheet did not ask how women responded to mens inappropriate behavior; it did not ask what you were wearing or whether youd had anything to drink. Instead, the spreadsheet made a presumption that is still seen as radical: That it is men, not women, who are responsible for mens sexual misconduct.

There were pitfalls. The document was indeed vulnerable to false accusations, a concern I took seriously. I added a disclaimer to the top of the spreadsheet: This document is only a collection of misconduct allegations and rumors. Take everything with a grain of salt. I sympathize with the desire to be careful, even as all available information suggests that false allegations are rare. The spreadsheet only had the power to inform women of allegations that were being made and to trust them to judge the quality of that information for themselves and to make their own choices accordingly. This, too, is still seen as radical: the idea that women are skeptical, that we can think and judge and choose for ourselves what to believe and what not to.

Nevertheless, when I first shared the spreadsheet among my women friends and colleagues, it took on the intense sincerity of our most intimate conversations. Women began to anonymously add their stories of sexual assault; many of the accounts posted there were violent, detailed, and difficult to read. Women recounted being beaten, drugged, and raped. Women recounted being followed into bathrooms or threatened with weapons. Many, many women recounted being groped at work, or shown a colleagues penis. Watching the cells populate, it rapidly became clear that many of us had weathered more than we had been willing to admit to one another. There was the sense that the capacity for honesty, long suppressed, had finally been unleashed. This solidarity was thrilling, but the stories were devastating. I realized that the behavior of a few men I had wanted women to be warned about was far more common that I had ever imagined. This is what shocked me about the spreadsheet: the realization of how badly it was needed, how much more common the experience of sexual harassment or assault is than the opportunity to speak about it. I am still trying to grapple with this realization.

Over the course of the evening, the spreadsheet expanded further: Many of the incidents reported there were physical, but there were also accounts of repeated sexual remarks, persistent inappropriate passes, unsolicited drunken messages. There was an understanding of the ways that these less-grave incidents can sometimes be harbingers of more aggressive actions to come, and how they can accrue into soured relationships and hostile environments. For clarity, I imposed a system that visibly distinguished violent accusations from others: Once a man had been accused of physical sexual assault by more than one woman, his name was highlighted in red. No one confused a crude remark for a rape, and efforts were made to contextualize the incidents with notes  a spreadsheet allows for all of this information to be organized and included. But the premise was accepted that all of these behaviors were things that might make someone uncomfortable and that individuals should be able to choose for themselves what behavior they could tolerate and what they would rather avoid.

I took the spreadsheet offline after about 12 hours, when a friend alerted me that Shafrir would soon be publishing an article at BuzzFeed making the documents existence public. By then, the spreadsheet had gone viral. I had imagined a document that would assemble the collective, unspoken knowledge of sexual misconduct that was shared by the women in my circles: What I got instead was a much broader reckoning with abuses of power that spanned an industry. By the time I had to take the document down, more than 70 men had been named on the version that I was managing (other versions, assembled after the spreadsheet was taken offline, appeared later). The men ranged in age from their 20s to their 60s, and 14 had been highlighted in red to denote more than one accusation of sexual assault or rape. Some have expressed doubts about the veracity of the claims in the document, but its impossible to deny the extent and severity of the sexual-harassment problem in media if you believe even a quarter of the claims that were made on the spreadsheet. For my part, I believe significantly more than that.

I cant pretend that the spreadsheet didnt frighten me. As the stories accumulated and it became clear that many, many more women were using the document than I had ever imagined, I realized that I had created something that had grown rapidly beyond my control. I was overwhelmed and scared. That night, I went to a friends house to make dinner, and while I was there I confided in her about my fears. I worried that managing the document would eventually put me in the uncomfortable position of needing to decide whose stories belonged there and whose didnt. I thought that I would lose my job and the career Id worked so hard to build. My friend could hear the anxiety in my voice; she urged me to take the document down. But I was conflicted. What was going on there was clearly cathartic for the women who were using it, telling their stories, encouraging one another, saying that it had happened to them too. Many women dont have the privileges that mitigate the risks of doing such a thing  privileges like whiteness, health, education, and class  and I do; it would be easier for me than for other people. I hoped that women reporters who saw the document might use it as a tip sheet and take it upon themselves to do the reporting that the document couldnt do and find evidence, if there was any, of the allegations made there. I began to think that maybe some of the assaults that women were warning one another about on the spreadsheet could be stopped by the power of the spreadsheet itself.

I was incredibly naive when I made the spreadsheet. I was naive because I did not understand the forces that would make the document go viral. I was naive because I thought that the document would not be made public, and when it became clear that it would be, I was naive because I thought that the focus would be on the behavior described in the document, rather than on the document itself. It is hard to believe, in retrospect, that I really thought this. But I did.

In some ways, though, I think the flaws in the spreadsheet were also a result of my own cynicism. At the time when I made it, I had become so accustomed to hearing about open secrets, to men whose bad behavior was universally known and perpetually immune from consequence, that it seemed like no one in power cared about the women who were most vulnerable to it. Sexual harassment and assault, even when it was violent, had been tolerated for so long that it seemed like much of the world found it acceptable. I thought that women could create a document with the aim of helping one another in part because I assumed that people with authority didnt care about what we had to say there. In this sense, at least, I am glad I was wrong.

In the weeks after the spreadsheet was exposed, my life changed dramatically. I lost friends: some who thought I had been overzealous, others who thought I had not been zealous enough. I lost my job, too. The fear of being exposed, and of the harassment that will inevitably follow, has dominated my life since. Ive learned that protecting women is a position that comes with few protections itself.

This escalated when I learned Katie Roiphe would be publishing my name in a forthcoming piece in Harpers magazine. In early December, Roiphe had emailed me to ask if I wanted to comment for a Harpers story she was writing on the feminist moment. She did not say that she knew I had created the spreadsheet. I declined and heard nothing more from Roiphe or Harpers until I received an email from a fact checker with questions about Roiphes piece. Katie identifies you as a woman widely believed to be one of the creators of the Shitty Men in Media List, the fact checker wrote. Were you involved in creating the list? If not, how would you respond to this allegation? The next day, a controversy ensued on Twitter after Roiphes intention to reveal my identity was made public. People who opposed the decision by Harpers speculated about what would happen to me as a result of being identified. They feared that I would be threatened, stalked, raped, or killed. The outrage made it seem inevitable that my identity would be exposed even before the Roiphe piece ran. All of this was terrifying. I still dont know what kind of future awaits me now that Ive stopped hiding.

But over the past months Ive also had many long, frank conversations with other journalists, men and women, about sexual harassment and assault in our industry. Many came to me with stories of their own abuse, some of which they had been too afraid to add to the spreadsheet, even anonymously. Others told me that they had seen their own attacker or harasser on the document and that they hadnt put him there. That meant that what that person had done to them, he had done to other people, too. In some of these conversations, we spent hours teasing out how these men, many of whom we knew to be intelligent and capable of real kindness, could behave so crudely and cruelly toward us. And this is another toll that sexual harassment can take on women: It can make you spend hours dissecting the psychology of the kind of men who do not think about your interiority much at all.

A lot of us are angry in this moment, not just at what happened to us but at the realization of the depth and frequency of these behaviors and the ways that so many of us have been drafted, wittingly and unwittingly, into complicity. But were being challenged to imagine how we would prefer things to be. This feat of imagination is about not a prescriptive dictation of acceptable sexual behaviors but the desire for a kinder, more respectful, and more equitable world. There is something thats changed: Suddenly, men have to think about women, our inner lives and experiences of their own behavior, quite a bit. That may be one step in the right direction.

Last year, I wrote that women just recounting their experiences of sexism did not seem like enough. I wanted action, legislation, measurable markers of change. Now I think that the task at hand might be more rudimentary than I assumed: The experience of making the spreadsheet has shown me that it is still explosive, radical, and productively dangerous for women to say what we mean. But this doesnt mean that Ive lowered my hopes. Like a lot of feminists, I think about how women can build power, help one another, and work toward justice. But it is less common for us to examine the ways we might wield the power we already have. Among the most potent of these powers is the knowledge of our own experiences. The women who used the spreadsheet, and who spread it to others, used this power in a special way, and Im thankful to all of them.
H&M faced a swift and powerful backlash after photos of a sweatshirt reading coolest monkey in the jungle modeled on a black child went viral. However, the child models mother says its no big deal and to get over it.

The hoodie went viral after New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow tweeted a photo of the product with the caption @hm, have you lost your damned minds?!?!?! He quickly garnered support (from celebrities like LeBron James and Sean Diddy Combs) calling the design racist for seemingly comparing the black child to a monkey. Musicians G-Eazy and the Weeknd said that they would no longer collaborate with the brand because of it.

However, in an interesting twist, the child-models mother is telling people to get over it. Terry Mango wrote on social media, Thats my son  Ive been to all photo shoots and this was not an exception, everyone is entitled to their opinion about this. This is one of hundreds of outfits my son has modeled  stop crying Wolf all the time, unnecessary issue. Mango, according to her Facebook page, appears to be from Kenya and based in Sweden.

H&M has removed the photo and the sweatshirt following the backlash, and apologized on social media.
Kenosha Unified School District. Photo: Google

Wisconsins Kenosha Unified School Board will pay an $800,000 settlement in the case of Ash Whitaker, a transgender student who says his high school discriminated against him, according to reporting by BuzzFeed News and Kenosha News.

Whitaker, who is currently a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, alleged that officials at his former high school invasively monitored his bathroom use, forbade him from running for prom king, ostracized him, repeatedly called him by his birth name, and referred to him using female pronouns, according to the Transgender Law Center. In July 2016, he sued the Kenosha Unified School District, and in June 2017, an appeals court ruled that Whitaker could use the boys restrooms at school.

Tuesday night, the Kenosha Unified School Board voted 5-2 to settle with Whitaker, and withdrew its U.S. Supreme Court appeal challenging the lower courts landmark ruling. According to Ronald Stadler, an attorney for the school district who spoke to BuzzFeed News, around $150,000 will go to Whitaker and the other $650,000 will go toward his attorneys fees.

We are pleased that KUSD decided not to needlessly drag this case through the courts any further, to compensate Ash for the concrete and avoidable harms he suffered, and to finally allow Ash to move on from this painful chapter of his life, said Joseph Wardenski, a lawyer at the civil-rights law firm that represented Whitaker, in a statement from the Transgender Law Center. Whitaker, too, is celebrating.

I am deeply relieved that this long, traumatic part of my life is finally over and I can focus on my future and simply being a college student, Whitaker said in the same statement. Winning this case was so empowering and made me feel like I can actually do something to help other trans youth live authentically.
A 33-year-old man from California died after separating from his walking companion during a very hot day in central Australia. (Wikimedia Commons)

American Tourist Dies on Popular Hike in Central Australia

An American man has died while hiking in central Australia after taking a wrong turn.

The 33-year-old hiker from California died on the popular Larapinta Trail, west of Alice Springs, on Wednesday, Jan. 10, reported ABC.

The man  so far unnamed  set out in the morning at 8:30 a.m. with a 40-year-old walking companion to climb Mount Sonder. During their decent from the mountain the pair got separated. The 33-year-olds dead body was found later the same day at 5:00 p.m. some 750 meters (2,500 ft) from a carpark.

Temperatures had reached 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in the area on that day.

[Mount Sonder is] about 1,300 meters tall and the actual walk that they undertook was about 16 kilometers there and back  so quite a hike, Duty Superintendent Rob Burgoyne told the ABC.

Mount Sonder is the 4th highest peak in the NT and marks the end of the Larapinta Trail in the Red Centre. Pic: mrbenblanche (via IG) #NTaustralia pic.twitter.com/3QyL3a450n  Northern Territory (@AusOutbackNT) December 31, 2017

The 40-year-old man told police his companion ran off on their return and it seemed he went the wrong way.

They both descended the mountain, unfortunately it appears the deceased took a wrong turn at that stage, Duty Superintendent Burgoyne said.

His partner made it back to the Redbank Gorge carpark and raised the alarm, but unfortunately the 33 year-old didnt arrive and his body was eventually located about 400 meters (0.25 miles) down the track where hed turned the wrong way, he said.

It was about three hours from when he was last seen and when his body was found.

Mount Sonder boasts some of the best views over the West MacDonnell Ranges, near #AliceSprings. Pic by @persephonetemplar pic.twitter.com/gSNyLc1u5O  Northern Territory (@AusOutbackNT) August 12, 2017

While police said investigations were continuing, they said there no suspicious circumstances about the mans death.

We do know he had water with him, but he did do a very foolish thing in that he apparently ran away from his companion after the descent, he said.

It wouldnt be a terribly advisable thing to do in 40-degree heat  to actually sprint away.

The final section of the trail that the men were walking is a steep, rocky incline with very little to no tree shade to help reduce heat exposure, reported the ABC.

Chris Day from Parks and Wildlife told the ABC about the dangers of dehydration.

Its almost physically impossible to put back the fluids that youre going to lose as quickly as youre losing them, and unfortunately people become dehydrated very rapidly before even realising that its even happening, said Day.

The U.S. Consulate has since been advised of the Americans death and a report is being prepared for the coroner, reported the ABC.

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An Amish family must connect to a municipal sewer even though doing so would go against their beliefs, a Pennsylvania court ruled.

The five-year legal battle started because the Yoder family wanted to continue using an outhouse that, in line with their traditional Amish beliefs, did not include any electricity.

The Commonwealth Court, though, has ordered the family to connect to the public sewer system, which would require using an electric grinder pump to move waste away from their home, reported Penn Live.

Two out of three judges approved the opinion, with Judge Robert Simpson saying there were other instances that the Yoder family used electricity in the pasthe said they had used telephones and power tools, and ridden in cars, without being shunned by their community.

But Judge Patricia McCullough in her dissenting opinion expressed concern with the ruling.

I believe (the Yoders) are being denied their rights to religious freedom, she wrote.

A Pennsylvania state court has ordered an Old Order Amish family to use electricity and connect to a public sewer system  even though it violates their religious beliefs. https://t.co/kYIbQIAzE2 pic.twitter.com/RAlmkDXOIA  Kat Murti (@KatMurti) January 10, 2018

Currently the Yoders use an outhouse devoid of both running water and electricity at their Sugar Grove Township home, according to Simpsons majority opinion.https://t.co/7PHaAzFWSj  Legal Intelligencer (@thelegalintel) January 11, 2018

Sara Rose, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, agreed.

They didnt consider the other ways that the government could have achieved its ends, she told the York Daily Record. She said the ruling could be used in the future to act against people despite the states Religious Freedom Protection Act.

Numerous people commented on the Penn Live news article, saying they were either for or against the ruling.

Your religious freedom ends when it becomes detrimental to the publics health, said one person in support of the ruling. Having a sanitary sewer system is essential to stop the spread of some very nasty diseases.

But others argued against the decision.

Piece by piece the government is chipping away at our long time constitutional freedoms, said one respondent. If their out door facility is not harming anyones water supply or causing offensive odors then they should be left alone to live life as they see fit.

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Body of Missing Florida Fisherman Found

The body of a missing 38-year-old fisherman from Florida was found by a commercial vessel on Wednesday, Jan. 10.

Nik Kayler, an army veteran, husband, and father, went missing during a fishing tournament on Lake Okeechobee last Thursday on Jan. 4. His story gained widespread attention after it was first reported.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission told the Palm Beach Post in an email that his body was found in the vicinity of the Clewiston water tower on the lake.

Friends and family gathered Wednesday morning to comfort each other.

Its been rough, but we got him home, Niks brother, Phil Kayler said. Its not what we would have liked, but were at ease right now, the newspaper reported.

According to CBS12, Kayler vanished after strong waves knocked him out of the boat he was on during the first day of the Fishing League Worldwides three-day Costa Series tournament on Thursday.

His fellow angler, Bill Kisiah, 51, was also knocked into the waves but managed to get back on.

Both of them were ejected in the water, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Carol Lyn Parris told the newspaper. He (Kisiah) was able to get back into the boat. He got the boat to Pahokee Marina.

Kisiah tried to save Kayler but was unable to.

Efforts made by Mr. Kisiah were unsuccessful, as he was unable to recover his passenger due to suspected engine damage and conditions, a report by the commission stated. Weather officials said winds on that day made the lake choppy, according to the newspaper.

Tournament organizers canceled the rest of the bass-fishing event on Friday. Authorities, fellow boaters, and volunteers frantically searched the large lake since last week. According to the Palm Beach Post, the lake is about one-third as big as all of Palm Beach County. On Monday, Jan. 8, a former water survival instructor said he was still holding out hope on Kaylers status. Anthony Llanos said Kayler had undergone survival training and survived a similar stranding a few years back. He added that Kayler was also in top shape. Kaylers family had offered a $10,000 reward for his recovery. In addition, another competitor in the tournament set up a GoFundMe page to help the family. The goal was set at $15,000. According to the Palm Beach Post, the money-raising page collected over $20,000 in one day. By Wednesday afternoon, it was over $42,349. For the people that cant help look Im sure everything is appreciated. Lets show our support and take something off his familys mind, the pages description states. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: 2017 Year in Review
Concordia University Says Its Taking Sex Allegations Seriously Amid New Claims

MONTREALConcordia University is taking seriously all of the allegations of sexual misconduct involving members of its English department, including new claims following a blog post earlier this week, the schools president says.

The initial allegations surfaced in a post by Mike Spry, a writer and former Concordia student, about the universitys creative writing department.

Spry, who did not respond to an email seeking comment, alleges he witnessed and was made aware over the years of innumerable instances of unwanted affection, groping, inappropriate remarks and propositions.

His allegations of sexual harassment and predatory behaviour toward students are detailed in the post titled, No Names, Only Monsters.

Since the post appeared on Jan. 8, other people have made allegations, including award-winning Montreal author Heather ONeill, who says she was harassed during her time at the university in the late 1990s.

Concordia president Alan Shepard issued a statement Jan. 10 and announced three measures: an investigation into the allegations; a meeting with students, faculty, and staff in the English departments creative writing program; and the launch of a university-wide assessment of our current environment.

It is important to say again that all sexual misconduct is unacceptable, in direct violation of our values and policies, and will not be tolerated, Shepard said.

He told a news conference later in the day he would not comment on any specific department, faculty member, or allegation due to the confidentiality of the investigative process.

He also declined to say whether any university staff or faculty members had been suspended as a result of the allegations.

ONeill, meanwhile, said the allegations in Sprys blog post mirror the harassment she experienced with a professor at Concordia nearly two decades ago.

I felt that I had to say something because I also endured sexual harassment while I was at Concordia, she said in an interview.

Just to show that this is not something that you can pinpoint on a few professorsits endemic and systematic within Concordias creative writing program and I do not believe theres a single professor there who doesnt know whats happening.

ONeill, whose 2006 debut novel Lullabies for Little Criminals won several prestigious awards, said her initial instinct at the time was to dismiss her own experience during which she felt guilt and shame.

She said many emerging female writers feel terrified about coming forward because they are worried it will have an impact on their futures and careers.

That was the case for ONeill herself.

I didnt want to start my career by attacking these older, white men who had platforms and were very well connected, she said. As a young woman  I would say I was vulnerable to these forms of abuse. I didnt even realize how wrong it was.

ONeill said Concordia needs only to go online to find names and accusations.

The onus is on them to do their investigation immediately, she said. They dont need to start asking women to fill out obscure formsIm not filling out one of those forms, Im telling you exactly what happened.

Shepard said he hadnt been aware of any allegations of misconduct or impropriety within the creative writing department.

Ive been reading that its an open secret but it wasnt an open secret to me, he told the news conference.

I do my best to pay attention to these kinds of rumours because theyre important, and I wasnt aware. If I was aware I would have acted sooner.

ONeill said Concordia should trigger an immediate revision of policy governing relationships between professors and students.

Quebec universities are in the midst of reviewing their sexual-violence policies following the tabling of a provincial bill that would require them to develop guidelines for intimate relationships between students and faculty.

The proposed legislation, if passed, would require schools to establish a policy by September 2019 to prevent and fight sexual violence.

Some have said Canadian institutions should follow in the footsteps of some American counterparts and ban those relationships.

I think relationships between professors and students need to be prohibited, ONeill said.

Concordia spokeswoman Mary-Jo Barr said the institution hopes to speak to Spry to help its probe and that it takes all of the allegations seriously.

From The Canadian Press
Dental Company Agrees to Pay $23.9 Million for Exploiting Needy Children, Prosecutors Say

A dental company with more than a hundred clinics across 17 states has agreed to pay almost $24 million to settle five lawsuits which allege that its dentists performed unnecessary root canals on needy children and billed Medicaid for it, prosecutors say.

Benevis LLC and its 130 affiliated Kool Smiles clinics submitted false claims for medically unnecessary dental procedures, including baby root canals, tooth extractions, and stainless steel crowns, according to lawsuits prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department. The company also billed Medicaid for procedures its dentists did not perform.

According to the lawsuit, the company pressured its dentists to perform unnecessary procedures by disciplining unproductive dentists and rewarding productive dentists with cash bonuses based on the revenue they generated. The company ignored complaints when its own dentists brought the issue up, prosecutors say.

The allegations in these cases are particularly egregious because they involved medically unnecessary dental services performed on children, said John Durham, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Exploiting needy children for financial gain is inexcusable, Durham added. The U.S. Attorneys Office in Connecticut is committed to aggressively pursuing health care providers that submit fraudulent claims to government health care programs.

The government kicked off its investigation after five lawsuits were filed by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act, which allows people to sue on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in a portion of the governments recovery. As a result, three former Kool Smiles employeesAdam Abendano, Poonam Rai, and Robin Fitzgeraldwill receive more than $2.4 million as part of the settlement.

The conduct of Kool Smiles reached across state lines to impact many patients, many of them vulnerable children, said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Billing Medicaid programs for dental procedures that are not necessary contributes to the soaring costs of healthcare, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad Readler of the Justice Departments Civil Division. When healthcare providers put vulnerable patients at risk by performing medically unnecessary procedures to achieve financial goals, we will take action.

The settlement is not an admission of guilt by Benevis LLC and the company was not found legally guilty of any of the allegations.

It is intolerable when health care companies seek to boost profits by defrauding Medicaid and exploiting children, said Special Agent in Charge Phillip M. Coyne. Systematically performing and billing for medically unnecessary dental procedures undermines the well-being of these young patients, corrupts the impartiality of medical decision-making, and diverts money from taxpayer-funded health care programs designed to pay for legitimate medical needs.

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An antique American-made automobile is parked in the old part of Havana, Cuba, on Aug. 14, 2015. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Do Not Forget Cuba

Despite the propaganda, it's still a socialist hell

Its easy to forget about Cuba. Its there. It doesnt bother anyone. However, it still serves as the best example of why communism doesnt work and will never work.

An international consortium recently had to bail out Cuba with a credit line of $9.6 billion and by forgiving some of its debts. The cancellation of the regimes debt by some countries, unfortunately, has not helped to promote freedom and democracy, but instead has perpetuated the dictatorship.

The great lie of the communist regime and its supporters, used to justify the misery into which they have plunged the country in the last five decades, is the nonexistent trade embargo. There is none. An embargo is not a blockade.

Embargo? Cuba has more than 27 bilateral treaties with 90 countries. Embargo? Exports to Cuba, according to the World Bank, reached 17.15 percent of GDP in 2015.

The United States is one of Cubas largest trading partners, with $180 million changing hands in 2015. Spain is Cubas largest investor and third-largest trading partner. In a real blockade, no goods worth mentioning would slip through.

However, the fallacy of this supposed blockade is constantly used to whitewash and justify the misery and repression of the dictatorship. In reality, the Castro regimelike any socialist governmentis a machine of squandering subsidies.

Massive waste

The Castro regime dilapidated subsidies from the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1990 equivalent to five Marshall plans, and yet it failed to improve its economic growth or take advantage of these huge transfers to improve productivity. Between 1960 and 1990, Cuba received more than $65 billion from the Soviet Union, not to mention the money it received from other socialist countries.

Cuba even benefited from a subsidy from the Venezuelan regimewhich itself receives billions from Chinathat covered 70 percent of the countrys consumption. It also receives hundreds of millions from international organizations.

Despite this, the Nationmaster ranking, which compares the average salary for countries around the world, ranks Cuba last (176th place) in the world, with an average salary of $25.05 per month in 2014.

The shortage in basic products affects 70 percent of the population, according to El Diario de Cuba and Infobae. These numbers invalidate the infamous propaganda that claims there is no malnutrition in Cuba; in fact, almost all Cubans suffer from economic scarcity of one sort or another.

Anyone who travels to Cuba can see that the constantly repeated nonexistence of child malnutrition is false and only tries to defend a regime that still uses ration cards and propagates misery.

UNICEF notes that the number of underweight children has been reduced to just 4 percent, a large number compared to other developing countries.

In addition, Cuba suffers from the most expensive free health care in the world, as I was told in Havana. The myth of the quality and universality of health care has been dismantled on several occasions. Maria Werlau, from the NGO Cuba Archive, explained: Health care in Cuba is extremely bad for the ordinary citizen. There is an apartheid that favors the ruling elite and foreigners who pay in dollars.

The only way Cuba can catch up to other developing countries is by getting rid of communism.

Daniel Lacalle is chief economist at hedge fund Tressis and author of Escape From the Central Bank Trap, published by BEP.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Tide laundry detergent is seen on a store shelf on March 13, 2012 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Doctors Warn Against New Laundry Pods Eating Challenge

A new social media trend where teens are seen eating laundry detergent pods is worrying doctors.

The trend which started as a social media joke where memes feature photos showing laundry pods as pizza toppings or breakfast cereal, reported ABC15. The challenge then evolved into someone biting or consuming the detergent pods then spitting it out.

forget pineapple, in 2018 we putting tide pods on pizza pic.twitter.com/CM1PIOn64I  memes (@memeproviderz) December 31, 2017

Medical experts are warning against the trend as the consequences of consuming the detergent packets are dire.

Banner Health toxicologist Dr. Frank LoVecchio told ABC15 that the intentional consumption of the packets is concerning. He added that the chemical in the pods can burn your mouth, lips, and esophagus if ingested. But there is also another concern.

everyone wants to eat a tide pod so bad im the only one who will actually do it pic.twitter.com/pbtpOJHuOc  Hailey McEuin (@haileymceu) January 3, 2018

The membrane around it, when it dissolves, can cause central nervous system depression, LoVecchio told the news station. When it dissolves it can cause you to become sleepy or fatigued.

In early 2017, College Humor, a comedic content company, posted a video about eating laundry pods, reported News4jax. At the end of the video, it shows a guy being sent to the hospital after eating a bowl of laundry pods.

Tide x Totinos S/S 2018 pic.twitter.com/MUKMykPsrw  original pushbroom (@rebranded) December 29, 2017

A representative for Procter and Gamble, maker of Tide, told ABC15 in a statement that the laundry pods are only meant to clean clothes.

Our laundry pacs are a highly concentrated detergent meant to clean clothes, and theyre used safely in millions of households every day. They should be only used to clean clothes and kept up, closed, and away from children, the company said in a statement.

We have seen no indication of an increase of cases seeking medical treatment among infants and teenagers associated with the recent uptick in social media conversation or in consumer calls, the representative added.

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Supporters of the Hezbollah terror group listen to leader Hassan Nasrallah in a televised speech during a commemoration of Hezbollah's Martyrs Day in Beirut's southern suburb on Nov. 11, 2008. (RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images)

DOJ Announces Task Force to Investigate Obama-Era Drug Trade by Hezbollah

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the creation of a special task force to investigate and pursue prosecutions of individuals and networks that provided support to the Hezbollah terror group.

The announcement comes after a December order by Attorney General Jeff Sessions for a review of how Project Cassandra, a law enforcement initiative targeting Hezbollahs drug trafficking and related operations in the United States and abroad, was handled by Obama-era officials.

The review was ordered after Politico reported that the Obama administration had interfered with the years-long investigation into Hezbollah by DEA agents, so as not to upset Iran.

President Barack Obama shakes hands with White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest during his last briefing for the administration at the White House in Washington, DC on Jan. 17, 2017. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Iran is the main sponsor of Hezbollah, a terror group created in the early 1980s to advance Irans anti-Israel agenda. To this day, the group, which was officially designated a terror organization by the State Department in 1997, continues to carry out terror attacks against Israel.

The review by the DOJ raised enough concerns for Sessions to appoint the special task force.

While I am hopeful that there were no barriers constructed by the last administration to allowing DEA agents to fully bring all appropriate cases under Project Cassandra, this is a significant issue for the protection of Americans, Sessions said in ordering the review.

Individuals investigated by the task force could include Obama-era officials who allegedly obstructed the investigation, including President Barack Obama himself.

Hezbollah terrorists attend a ceremony on Martyrs Day on Nov. 11, 2010. (MAHMOUD ZAYAT/AFP/Getty Images)

The alleged efforts by Obama to prevent criminal prosecution of Hezbollah despite apparently ample evidence of drug trade and money laundering in the United States, came while his administration was reaching out for Iran to discuss its nuclear program.

Those negotiations resulted in 2015 in an agreement that put a halt on Irans development of nuclear weapons for 10 years. In 2026, key provisions of the agreement, including limitations on uranium enrichment, are set to expire. Experts believe that at that point the Iranian regime could develop a nuclear weapon within six months.

President Donald Trump announced in October that he would renegotiate those parts of the agreement that put time restrictions on the deal with the Iranian regime. He also said he wants to include Irans ballistic missile development program in the agreement, which is currently not covered by it.

The special task force, named the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team, consists of prosecutors experienced in investigating money laundering, organized crime, terrorism, and international narcotics trafficking.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks at a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington on Dec. 15, 2017. The Justice Department has multiple ongoing investigations on politicians and high-profile officials. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

The team will start by assessing the evidence in existing investigations, including cases stemming from Project Cassandra.

The Justice Department will leave no stone unturned in order to eliminate threats to our citizens from terrorist organizations and to stem the tide of the devastating drug crisis, said Sessions in a statement.

In an effort to protect Americans from both threats, the Justice Department will assemble leading investigators and prosecutors to ensure that all Project Cassandra investigations as well as other related investigations, whether past or present, are given the needed resources and attention to come to their proper resolution, he said.

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Five states in Mexico now have the sternest "do not travel" advisories under a new U.S. State Department system. (U.S. State Department website / Pixabay / CCO)

Five Mexican States Get Red Alert Do Not Travel Warning

Five states in Mexico now have the highest Level 4: Do not travel advisories under a new regime unveiled Wednesday. This puts them at the sternest advisory level, alongside war-torn destinations like Syria, Yemen, and Somalia.

According to the U.S. State Department announcement, the five states are Tamaulipas on the U.S. border and Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan, and Guerrero on the Pacific coast.

Due to crime is the reason given for placing the states at the highest level of potential danger.

All are known hotspots of drug cartel activity, either hosting trafficking routes or extensive drug-crop cultivation.

Mexico as a whole is at an advisory Level 2: Exercise increased caution.

Violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread, states the U.S. State Department, and urges travellers to exercise increased caution in Mexico due to crime, which occurs at a high rate and can be violent.

Resort areas and tourist destinations are said to be generally safer, though the State Department notes that there are exceptions.

At least two Mexican resortsIxtapa-Zihuatanejo and Acapulcoare in a do-not-travel state, Guerrero.

According to the New York Times, the Mexican governments Mexico Tourism Board said in a statement that Mexicos major international tourism destinations have been explicitly listed as having no travel restrictions.

The newly indicated no-travel states have for some time seen foreign tourist outflow. Extensive drug cartel activity and the violence it brings have been major contributors to the spike in homicides and other violent crimes.

Mexican Secretary of Tourism Enrique de la Madrid Cordero told Newsweek that U.S. tourists feel safe in Mexico, despite State Department report findings that 264 Americans died there in 2016, of which 75 were related to homicide.

This is more than any other country in the world.

In Mexicos main tourist areas for foreignersCancun-Riviera Maya and Los Caboswe havent heard of foreign tourists casualties that stemmed from insecurity in the last two years, so I would like to see those [death] cases and provide an answer based on that, de la Madrid Cordero told Newsweek. It may be anecdotic cases where one tourist kills his or her significant other or vice versa. These are not acts related to violence.

In Wednesdays revamp, an additional 11 Mexican states got a level 3 warning, which urges people to reconsider travel there.

Half of Mexicos 31 states are now under level 3 or 4 warnings.

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The Ford Motor Company logo is pictured at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 30, 2017. (REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo)

Ford Urges 2,900 Pickup Owners to Stop Driving After New Takata Death

WASHINGTONFord Motor Co said on Thursday it had confirmed a second death in an older pickup truck caused by a defective Takata airbag inflator and urged 2,900 owners in North America to stop driving immediately until they can get replacement parts.

The second largest U.S. automaker said it confirmed in late December that a July 2017 crash death in West Virginia in a 2006 Ford Ranger was caused by a defective Takata inflator. It previously reported a similar death in South Carolina that occurred in December 2015.

Ford said both Takata deaths occurred with inflators built on the same day installed in 2006 Ranger pickups. At least 21 deaths worldwide are linked to the Takata inflators that can rupture and send deadly metal fragments into the drivers body. The faulty inflators have led to the largest automotive recall in history. The other 19 deaths have occurred in Honda Motor Co vehicles, mostly in the United States.

A billboard advertisement of Takata Corp is pictured in Tokyo September 17, 2014. (REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo)

Ford issued a new recall for automobiles that had been previously recalled in 2016. Of those 391,000, the new recall announced on Thursday affects 2,900 vehicles. These include 2,700 in the United States and nearly 200 in Canada. The new recall will allow for identification of the 2,900 owners in the highest risk pool.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urged owners to heed Fords warning. It is extremely important that all high-risk airbags are tracked down and replaced immediately, NHTSA spokeswoman Karen Aldana said.

NHTSA Issues Statement on 2006 Ford Ranger https://t.co/TnLylWtRn2  NHTSA (@NHTSAgov) January 11, 2018

Ford will pay to have vehicles towed to dealerships or send mobile repair teams to owners homes and provide free loaners.

Takata said in June that it has recalled, or expected to recall, about 125 million vehicles worldwide by 2019, including more than 60 million in the United States. Some 19 automakers worldwide are impacted.

Takata inflators can explode with excessive force, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks. The defect led Takata to file for bankruptcy protection in June. Last year, Takata pleaded guilty to wire fraud and were subject to pay a total of $1 billion in criminal penalties in a U.S. court in connection with the recalls.

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Former Teen Mom Arrested in Pennsylvania Meth Lab Bust

A former reality television star has been arrested after a meth lab bust in Pennsylvania.

Keiffer Delp, who starred in Teen Mom 2, was booked by police after the bust in McKees Rock.

Police and Hazmat teams were called to an apartment building on Vine Street, and residents were evacuated, because of the strong, lingering odor inside the residence, reported KDKA.

Delp is Jenelle Evans ex-boyfriend.

TMZ reported in 2011 that police tagged Delp as a known drug user.



The online tabloid also noted earlier that year that Delp was arrested in North Carolina for allegedly punching a girl and her male friend in front of a convenience store.

Mike Manko, spokesman for the Allegheny County District Attorneys office, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that detectives were informed of Mr. Delps connection to the show before they entered the building.

Police had received more than one complaint about the basement apartment and had been investigating it for weeks. They obtained a search warrant and found items and chemicals inside to substantiate that there was a meth lab inside.

Delp faces felony charges and is being held in the Allegheny County Jail after being unable to post a $50,000 bond.

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Lifestyle: If You're Not Getting Closer to Achieving Your Goals, Try Using a Different Metric
Human Ken Doll Has Surgery to Remove Four Ribs to Get a Smaller Waist

Human Ken Doll Rodrigo Alves is known for his extreme plastic surgeries and his unique sense of fashion. He recently made headlines again after becoming the first man to have four ribs removed to achieve a slim waist.

The London-based social media star spent more than $670,000 transforming his body to become more like the doll. His latest surgery cost about $38,000 at a clinic in Los Angeleswhich was even live streamed on the surgeons Instagram account, reported The Sun.

I am the only man in the world to have this operation, Alves told The Sun straight after the procedure.

I am able to stand up or lie down but I am in excruciating pain. I feel like I have been run over by a truck. I am on very strong medication, he added.

The 34-year-old from Brazil initially wanted to remove six ribs to reduce his waistline from 34 inches to 26 inches, reported the newspaper. However, doctors said that would affect the function of his lungs.

If I have my ribs removed Im gonna have a classic figure. Its going to make my waist tiny so I can wear elegant, nice blazers, Alves told The Sun in November last year.

I have had friends that have done it before  its not a simple procedure but it can be done, he added.

Alves said the ribs will be sent to a cartilage bank after the surgery.

The plastic surgery addict first went under the knife in 2004after struggling with his self-image in his childhood, reported The Sun.

Since then hes had dozens of surgeries including botox and fillers, nose jobs, liposuction, pec and ab implants, fillers to his arms, hair transplant, laser lipo, leg lipo, calf shaping, fat transfer to give him a Brazillian bum, and a SMAS facelift. The removal of four floating ribs was his 60th procedure.

Male perfection is to me having symmetry. So a chiseled face, broad shoulders, a lean figure, a prominent jawline, defined abs and a chest in proportion, he told The Sun.

I have the most beautiful six-pack, he added.

His endeavors to look perfect are not without consequence. Alves admitted in 2017 that he wasnt able to breathe 100 percent after getting his surgeries.

Dr. Paul Nassif told Alves on the television program Botched in early 2017 that his nose might die and fall off.

His nostrils are so small, and after what hes gone through with the MRSA, this is probably one of the worst results and complications that Ive seen in my entire career, Nassif said on the program.

The issue is that what we call the soft tissue envelopethats the skin. By you having three surgeries in a period of 12 to 15 months, destroyed your tissue. The skins no good, the doctor continued.

If you try to insult your skin one more time now while its healing, theres a high possibility that if you let one of these doctors touch your nose now, this will turn black and then die and fall off, he added.

The 34-year-old was required to get subsequent surgeries to repair his breathing.

To repair. Ive had eight nose jobs, and its just like a domino effect, he told This Morning.

Many surgeons and psychologists fear patients do not understand the gravity or the potential risks of these operations, reported Forbes.

People think its like going out to lunch, Anne Wallace, chief of plastic surgery at the University of California, San Diego Health System, told Forbes. Like any surgery, it needs to be taken seriously.

Wallace warns that by changing one feature of your body it may throw off the appearance of another. The surgeon said shes seen cases of Botox injections, which paralyze certain facial muscles and causes other active muscles to appear strangely overpowering and odd, reported the news website.

Alves is originally from Sao Paulo in Brazil but also holds British nationality. He is the heir of several properties in Puerto Banus, that he rents to holidaymakers and receives a generous pension left to him from his grandparents, reported the newspaper.

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An Indian security official looks on as an aircraft of Jet Airways taxies at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Sept. 12, 2012. (Raveendran/AFP/GettyImages)

Jet Airways Hostess Arrested as Authorities Uncover $500,000 Smuggled in Her Luggage

A Jet Airways hostess has been arrested in India after she tried to smuggle some $500,000 in cash out of the country.

Devshi Kulshreshtha stood by with a somber expression as the authorities opened her luggage and, beneath clothes and cosmetics, discovered tinfoil-covered packages.

Upon unwrapping, the packages revealed wads of $50 and $100 bills to the tune of $480,200.

Kulshreshtha initially said she only carried $80,000, but it soon became apparent that wasnt the case.

She used the tin foil wrap to shield the cash from x-ray scanners. Its not clear if it had the intended effect.

She was arrested by the Indian Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials, who intercepted the flight in New Delhi, before it could take off for Hong Kong as scheduled for 2 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 8.

Kulshreshtha was reportedly working with a man from New Delhi, Amit Malhotra, who smuggled money to be used in gold purchases.

He would collect money from bullion dealers in New Delhi and have Kulshreshtha smuggle it abroad, where it would be used to purchase gold, which was then transported back to India.

Authorities suspect other Jet Airways employees were likely involved too.

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Missing Mom IDd as One of the Victims in Deadly Crash in Tennessee

A deadly crash in Cumberland County, Tennessee, left two people dead after the SUV they were in veered into oncoming traffic, on Saturday, Jan. 6.

Police identified the victims as 22-year-old Jessica Case from Knoxville and 24-year-old Samuel Foster from Kingston. Case was the mother who was reported missing over the weekend, reported WBIR.

Missing mother identified as one of two victims in deadly I-40 wreck near Crossville

: https://t.co/S9670TRdvl pic.twitter.com/ba46Ow2Jq4  WBIR Channel 10 (@wbir) January 10, 2018

The pair were traveling on the Interstate 40 on the wrong side of the road near Crossville between Crab Orchard and Westel. The SUV Foster was driving at the time of the accident struck into a semi-truck and both were ultimately killed in the crash.

Tennessee Highway Patrol confirmed in a crash report on Jan. 6 that it requested blood tests on both Case and Foster to determine whether they were under the influence at the time of the crash. The report indicated that Case tested positive for drugs and alcohol, while Foster did not have any signs of intoxication, reported the news station.

Final toxicology tests are still being conducted for both victims and have yet to be released.

Cases family reported her missing on Monday, Jan. 8 after she did not return home to her children in Knoxville on Friday, Jan. 5. The children were placed in the care of another family member during that time, reported the news station, citing police.

Investigators believed Case left home to meet her boyfriend. Police have not confirmed Fosters relationship to Case.

The driver of the semi-truck was not seriously injured, reported the news station.

Police said Case was reportedly driving a Silver 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe when she went missing, however, according to the crash report she was identified as a passenger in a 2015 Mazda CX9, which was allegedly stolen out of Knoxville, reported the news station, citing police.

From NTD.tv

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Missing Student Found In Mall Food Court Had Been Dead for Two Weeks

A 19-year-old student who was missing since October last year has been found dead in a Georgia mall.

Silling Mans body was found in an advanced state of decomposition, Gwinnett County Police said in a statement.

Man was a student at Georgia State University who had been missing since Oct. 10, 2017.

Her body was found in an empty food court by a maintenance worker at Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth on Dec. 21, but she was only formally identified on Wednesday, Jan. 10. She had been dead for around two weeks.

There were no surveillance cameras in the mall corridors at the time, police said.

Police are still investigating why Man died, although they have confirmed the death isnt being treated as a homicide.

Man was originally reported missing on Oct. 8 but she returned home. Two days later, she disappeared again, picking up her final paycheck on Nov. 20 from a different mall, Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, police said.

Police are appealing for information about what happened to her between mid-October and mid-December.

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Mom Charged in Death of 2-Year-Old Daughter Pleads No Contest

A mother of eight from Ohio was charged with aggravated murder after her 2-year-old was found dead. She will be sentenced later in January after her case was held up for years in court.

In 2015, Andrea Bradley was arrested for the torture death of her daughter, Glenara Bates, the Daily Mail reported.

But in a strange twist, Bailey said that she doesnt think her sentence is harsh enough. She asked for the death sentence in court.

Grandmother of Glenara Bates files wrongful death suit against Hamilton County https://t.co/YDbxiYWQAp pic.twitter.com/dr2G3UrhK6  WCPO (@WCPO) December 17, 2015

It dont matter what I want. Give the world what they want. If they want the death penalty, give it to em. I dont care, she said, reported WCPO.

Prosecutors, however, determined that her IQ is around 67, meaning that she has an intellectual disability. Anyone with an IQ below 75 cannot be executed in the state of Ohio because it is considered cruel and unusual punishment, reported the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Last week, Bradley pleaded no contest to the charges, and, according to the Enquirer, its treated as a guilty plea during the sentencing.

You accept this plea bargain? You understand this plea bargain? Judge Robert Ruehlman asked her, WLWT reported. Yes. Yes, Bradley responded.

Her sentencing starts Jan. 24. The maximum sentence is 23 years to life in prison, officials said, according to the report.

The girls father, Glen Bates, was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death in October 2016.

Bates was described as the principal offender.

In the case, officials discovered that the 2-year-old had been starved and weighed 13 pounds at the time of her death. They also found other signs of abuse.

There is no doubt in my mind this child was tortured for the majority of her pitifully short life, said Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Kode Sammarco, reported the Daily Mail.

The Mail reported in 2015 that the girl was taken away by child services due to malnutrition, but she was returned to Bradley weeks before her death.

Andrea Bradley appears in Hamilton Co Court to ask for a bench trial for her role in the death of her baby. @WLWT pic.twitter.com/4Y15dK9IXw  Chris Knight (@PhotogOnFire) December 4, 2017

The child services agency admitted that they didnt handle the case properly.

According to the Enquirer, the couples other children were not subjected to the same treatment.

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Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force ships sail in formation during naval exercises off Sagami Bay, Japan, on Oct. 22, 2006. (Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

North Korea Irate Over Japanese Military Upgrades

North Korea is fuming over news Japan is making a series of investments in its self defense force that give it better offensive capabilities in the face of threats from North Korea.

Among the upgrades, Japan could convert its helicopter carriers into aircraft carriers with the purchase of F-35B vertical-takeoff strike fighters.

The Japan Times reported the move in late December and on Jan. 10 North Korean state media said Japanese reactionaries were preparing military operations for aggression in any region and any time at will.

The North Korean newspaper, the Minju Joson, is a specialized publication meant for the inner circle of the North Korean regime, keeping the cabinet and senior officials attuned to Kim Jong Uns thinking.

The possibility that Japan could gain an offensive capability from the purchase of F-35Bs, which would let the four-island nation project air power beyond its shores, has rattled the North Korean leadership.

The editorial also takes aim at the Japanese defense ministry plan to set up a senior unit commanding space, cyber, and electronic warfare and the possibility of Japan making its own long-range cruise missiles.

The commentary makes no mention of previous North Korean threats towards Japan, including a statement in September calling for Japans nuclear annihilation.

The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche. Japan is no longer needed to exist near us, wrote North Koreas foreign affairs and propaganda committee in a September 2017 statement. Juche is the official ideology of North Korea and is usually translated as self reliance.

The Minju Joson commentary denounces Japans military upgrades as a dangerous act aimed at overseas expansion.

The goal sought by Japan, going keen on the ambition for overseas aggression, is turning the country into a military giant.

North Korea has a fraught history with Japan due to Japans colonization of the peninsula from 1910 to the end of World War II in 1945.

But after WW II, Japan transitioned to a free market democracy, one of only five Asian territories to make it into the top 50 of the Cato Institutes Human Freedom Index for 2016, along with Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore.

The editorial alleges that Japans overseas aggression is becoming a stark reality.

North Korea frequently takes aim at Japan, which is blamed second only to the United States as a scapegoat for the countrys ongoing ills, including disastrous policies that have left the vast majority of the population outside the capital city of Pyongyang in a constant state of hunger.

Other recent North Korean state media reports take aim at South Korea for sharing information with the United States and Japan, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for securing capabilities for a preemptive strike.

North Korea has used the military alliance between the United States and Japan, and between the United States and South Korea, in its ongoing effort to keep North Koreans in a constant state of fear of invasion.

North Koreans have long been told an attack from U.S. forces is likely, and thereby requires the entire nation to sacrifice its time and resources to maintain military preparedness.

North Koreas songun or military-first policy sees the needs of the military predominate all other needs of the society. It is the principal idea the regime uses to justify its repressive policies.

Japan has faced ongoing threats from North Korea as the current nuclear crisis has escalated.

Those threats include North Korea firing two ballistic missiles over Japan and landing its most powerful missile to date within 200 nautical miles of the Japanese coast on Nov. 28.

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Police: Friend of Pennsylvania Dead Student Had Scratches on Hands, Blames Fight Club

Editors note: The headline stated that Blaze Bernstein went to Penn State when he went to the University of Pennsylvania. The Epoch Times regrets this error.

A friend of a University of Pennsylvania student had scratches on his hands and dirt under his fingernails when police interviewed him, while blaming it on a fight club, officials said Thursday, Jan. 11.

The remains of Blaze Bernstein, 19, were discovered in Borrego Park in Orange County, California, on Tuesday. He went missing more than a week ago, according to reports.

Witnesses told investigators that he met up with a friend and both drove to Borrego Park. He got out of the car and disappeared into the woods and wasnt heard from again. He tried to contact Bernstein via Snapchat and left around 1 a.m. before driving to his girlfriends house. When Bernstein didnt respond, the friend went back to the park at around 3:40 a.m.

Two days after the teen disappeared, officials spoke with his friend again, noticing several small scratches and cuts on his hands. He claimed that the injuries were from a fight club that he was involved in, the Orange County Register reported.

The unnamed friend also said that he fell into a dirt puddle. He also was nervous and breathing heavy, talking fast and visibly shaking, according to the police report.

"What is so unusual about his disappearance is that everything was usual that night." Parents of #BlazeBernstein missing college student. The clues he left behind at 4/5/6 on @NBCLA #OC @OCSD pic.twitter.com/PMj4ceq40l  Vikki Vargas (@VikkiNBCLA) January 5, 2018

The friend had attended Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana with Bernstein, according to the Orange County Register.

The report also noted that while leaving the sheriffs headquarters, for every door (the friend) had to touch on the way out of the building he pulled his jacket over his hand to prevent his hand and fingers from touching any part of the doors he touched, according to the Register. It was also reported that the friend had camping equipment in his car.

He told investigators that Bernstein seemed depressed.

Officials said the friend is not in custody.

Detectives are investigating the case as a homicide.

During a press conference, his parents issued a statement, saying they were devastated by his death.

Our family is devastated by the news. We  like so many of you around the world  love Blaze and wanted nothing more than his safe return, said grieving dad Gideon Bernstein, reported the New York Post.

After he went missing, Bernstein became the subject of a widespread social media campaign to find him. Some celebrities, including Kobe Bryant, posted about the case.

hello anyone in the orange county, greater la area, etc, a boy named blaze bernstein has been missing since tuesday. he was also seen on the 241 toll road. PLS RT pic.twitter.com/WqObgBU7hc  yerin (@donghyckie) January 6, 2018

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Police: Woman Killed Husband Then Went to Pray at Church

An Arizona woman was arrested on Jan. 9, after she confessed to the police for shooting and killing her husband, according to a police statement.

Police said Katherine Herbert, 57, shot her husband James Herbert, 58, after the couple got into an argument on Jan. 6 that continued throughout the evening at their family home on Frontier Road in Peeples Valley.

Herbert said her husband started to become aggressive towards her and she felt scared of being assaulted. As a result, she retrieved a shotgun from the bedroom and pointed it at her husband while telling him to stop.

Her husband then walked away and returned with a black bag known to contain a handgun. He then went into a bedroom and started rummaging through the bag. Herbert, who had followed him into the room, claimed that she saw him load a round into the chamber, according to the police statement.

When he looked up, Herbert thought he raised his handgun and at that moment she fired a shot which struck him in the head.

After seeing her husbands lifeless body on the floor, Herbert panicked and drove to Snowflakenearly 240 miles away. She stopped at a church at 3 a.m. on Jan. 7 to pray before returning home, police said.

Herbert then spent the following two days cleaning the house and running errands. On the evening on Jan. 9, she called her daughter to tell her about the fatal shooting.

Her daughter then took Herbert to the Sheriffs Office in Prescott where she recounted her story.

She was charged with first-degree murder and currently remains in Camp Verde Detention Center.

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Maricopa County Sheriff Officer Joe Arpaio speaks during a news conference regarding an immigration raid his officers conducted at HMI Contracting in Phoenix, Arizona on Feb. 11, 2009. (Joshua Lott/Getty Images)

Senate Candidate Joe Arpaio Stands by Claim That Obamas Birth Certificate Is Fake

Joe Arpaio, a Republican candidate for Senate and former Arizona county sheriff, stood by his 2012 forensic investigation finding that president Barack Obamas birth certificate is a fraud.

Arpaio repeated his teams 2012 finding that the certificate was forged during an interview with CNN on Wednesday.

I started this because of a fake document, Arpaio said in response to the hosts claim that he was trying to delegitimize Obama. I didnt care where the president came from.

The Obama administration posted an electronic file on the White House website in 2012. Mike Zullo, head of the Arpaio Cold Case Posse, headed into an investigation into the file. That probe concluded that the file was put together in several pieces rather than being scanned whole into a file, the East Valley Tribune reported.

We have the evidence, Arpaio told CNN. Nobody will talk about it. Nobody will look at it. Anytime you want to come down, and anybody, well be glad to show you the evidence.

Arpaio didnt stop there, hinting that more revelations about the document would emerge.

And by the way, youre going to hear more about this fake, phony birth certificate, he said.

Arpaio announced his run for the Arizona US Senate seat on Tuesday. Arpaio gained national attention for his tough stance on illegal immigration as Maricopa County Sheriff, earning the moniker Americas toughest sheriff.

Arpaio is a close ally of President Donald Trump and was one of the first to endorse his candidacy for president. Trump pardoned Arpaio in August after the former sheriff was found guilty of defying a court order in course of doing his job.

Trump has also questioned the authenticity of Obama birth certificate for years. Trump gave up that claim on the campaign trail, but The New York Times reported that his still privately wonders about it.

When queried about Trump rescinding his doubt that Obama was born in the United States, Arpaio clarified that the president never gave a final statement about the authenticity of the birth certificate.

No doubt about it. We have all the evidence, Arpaio said. Its a phony document.

A high-resolution version of Obamas birth certificate can be downloaded from the White House website.

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College Avenue Secondary School students write their names on the sidewalk in Museum Square during a rally in Woodstock, Ont., after they and hundreds of their classmates walked out of school on June 7, 2016, to raise awareness of a suicide crisis that was gripping the small Ontario community. (The Canadian Press/ Geoff Robins)

Suicide Detection Pilot Project May Fall Short on Results, Say Experts

The federal government announced last week it is tapping a company that specializes in artificial intelligence and social media monitoring to try and predict potential spikes in suicide, but prevention experts are skeptical that future tragedies can be forecast with success.

Advanced Symbolics Inc. is a market research firm that boasts it was one of the few in the world able to predict Brexit, Donald Trump winning the White House, and Justin Trudeaus 2015 election win.

As part of the pilot project, the Ottawa-based company will first work together with health officials to define what are suicide-related behaviours. Once that is determined, the company will scan random samples of social media from 160,000 public accounts in an effort to detect red flags that a specific area may be headed toward a spate of suicides.

The project is expected to start early next month and Advanced Symbolics has said that it will be looking into previous suicide hot spots, such as in Cape Breton where three middle school students died by suicide within a short time last year.

If it can successfully detect patterns in such suicide clusters, the company will report its findings to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the government will use the information to better understand how to deploy mental health resources before tragedy strikes.

But a youth suicide expert, who worked closely with the Cape Breton community hit by suicide, doubts the data collected from social media research would be able to catch the red flags fast enough to connect the resources with those who are at risk.

Im always in awe of the incredible power of big data but I dont understand how to make the leap from identifying group trends [such as in] elections to individual behaviour, which is suicide, said Dr. Stan Kutcher, a psychiatry professor at Dalhousie University.

I cannot reveal details of the Cape Breton case because I cant, but there was absolutely no way, zero chance, that it could have been predicted which kids were going to die by suicide from the social media messages that those kids were sending because they didnt send any, he said.

To avoid breaching anyones personal privacy, Advanced Symbolics has said the artificial intelligence program will be looking for overall trends and not individual cases.

We also have additional safeguards in place to make it very difficult or even impossible for our own staff to look in and see who is having issues and finding out who that person is, chief scientist Kenton White told CTV News.

Suicidal behaviours highly individual

That approach concerns Kutcher, who questions how the project will effectively prevent suicides if it doesnt address the individual. He says suicide is a very personal issue and suicidal behaviours are highly individual.

You cant prevent the death of an individual by finding group trends. If you are able to spot a group trend then its not going to help predict which kid is going to die by suicide and which is not, he said.

Close to 11 Canadians die each day by suicide, and it is the second leading cause of death for those aged 10 to 19, according to PHAC.

Kutcher also notes that the age group with the most deaths by suicide is 50-54, a demographic that is less likely to use social media regularly.

As well, he said that even if the artificial intelligence does detect spates of suicides before they occur, there is no proof that throwing more mental health resources at a specific area at risk has an effect on lowering suicide rates.

Advanced Symbolics will have until June 30 to determine whether it can in fact accurately predict patterns in suicidal behaviours from past cases. If that works out, PHAC will determine whether to go ahead with the surveillance and market research on the general population of Canada in the next phase of the project.

Kutcher said he has been around the block enough to know that a lot of suicide prevention research comes with caveats, and when a company or charity is benefiting from the research it can be flawed in their favour without using the appropriate controlled variables that academic research requires.

White was unavailable for comment by press time, but Advanced Symbolics said in an email that it would be looking at controlled variables by also looking at communities that did not see a spike in suicides, which is an important factor in getting fair results, according to Kutcher.

James Coyne, an Emeritus psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania who wrote over 350 research papers including on topics of big data and suicide, said he doubts looking at social media samples would be able to predict suicide clustering like that in First Nations communities in northern Saskatchewan last year, where six deaths by suicide occurred.

The problem is you could [examine] the past like that but its not necessarily generalizable to the future. Theres such a unique set of circumstances that may not quite align themselves again that led up to that clustering in Saskatchewan, he said.

Coyne worked with a graduate student on a project examining a 2015 study that gathered data from Twitter to see if angry tweets could be connected with increases in heart attacks in counties in the United States. The two tried using the same algorithm to see if an increase in suicides could be connected to the angry tweets.

However, they found the opposite to be true: positive tweets predicted more suicides.

We had no confidence in those results but it also gave us a lot of doubt about these kinds of big data approaches, Coyne said.

Jared Gnam is a freelance reporter based in Vancouver. He broke into the world of journalism covering the Stanley Cup Riot in 2011.
Wakefield Road in Moldgreen, West Yorkshire, pictured at the location of an accident on Jan. 10, 2018 that destroyed the bus shelter. (Screenshot/GoogleMaps)

Teenager Caught in Bus Stop Crash Dies From Injuries

The schoolgirl who was caught in a car crash that destroyed the bus shelter where she was waiting has died.

The crash happened on Wednesday morning as the 15-year-old waited for her bus to school in West Yorkshire, UK, according to the Huddersfield Examiner.

Photographs of the aftermath show the bus stop in Moldgreen had been completely destroyed on Jan. 10.

The classical women drive

Huddersfield crash: Girl, 15, dies after car mounted pavement and smashed into bus stop https://t.co/pz8PlcLOIm  Doris-cheung#car covers umbrella# (@DorisCheun) January 11, 2018

At approximately 8.15 p.m., a car mounted the pavement on Wakefield Road, according to police.

A grey BMW 5 Series traveling from Huddersfield collided with a bus stop causing injury to three pedestrians, the driver of the car, and extensive damage to the bus stop, said a statement by West Yorkshire Police.

The 15-year-old girl was one of two victims who sustained life-threatening injuries, and was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary.

At around 6 p.m., Police said they were notified the girl had not survived her injuries, according to the Huddersfield Examiner.

The police had not named the girl, who was identified as Katelyn Dawson by the Examiner and by the Daily Mail.

Huddersfield crash horror: Girl, 15, dies after car mounted pavement and smashed into bus stop 

tributes flood in for Year 11 student https://t.co/FbkFSVGlaC pic.twitter.com/Zdy2MHLFsI  Daily Express (@Daily_Express) January 11, 2018

Lisa Boyd, who works at a nearby care home told the Metro, We heard a loud bang and just thought it was the bin men, then we heard the police and ambulance sirens.

The scene was described as absolute carnage by witnesses and like something out of a film, according to the Examiner.

Police are investigating the incident and appealing for any witnesses to come forward.

A Facebook page has been set up in memory of the girl, with tributes flooding in.

So today this gorgeous young woman was swept away and has become a beautiful angel flying high in the sky, she will be truly missed by many, RIP Katelyn, said one tribute.

Another friend wrote, Katelyn was amazing, she was kind, funny, beautiful and so so so loved by everyone. Shes been taken too soon and everyones going to miss her more than you can imagine.

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A screenshot from the surveillance footage shows the mugger approaching the 16-year-old. (Screenshot/NYPD)

Teenager Fights Off Gun-Wielding Man Who Tried to Steal His Coat

A teenager fought off a gun-wielding mugger in Brooklyn who tried to steal his coat.

Surveillance footage of the attack shows the 16-year-old walking down 61 Street near Bensonhurst on Tuesday morning, Jan. 9 when a mugger approached him, pulled out a gun, and demanded his coat, police said.

The teenager refused, and hurled the man into a nearby wheelie bin and wrestled with him on the icy pavement. The attacker struck him with his gun repeatedly during the struggle, causing cuts to the teenagers face and head.

The man fled east on 61 Street and left empty-handed.

Police are now searching for the suspect, who is described as black, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and was last seen wearing a beige jacket, a gray hoodie, gray sweatpants, and red boots or sneakers.

Footage from the surveillance camera is below.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

In a separate attempted robbery in May 2016, 19-year-old George Zelonka freed himself from a knife-wielding robber in Hampstead, North London.

The attacker burst into the teenagers bedroom, screamed, Im going to kill you and bound his hands with cable ties the Metro reported. But Zelonka managed to snap the cables and then chase the attacker out with an umbrella.

He was backing out jabbing his knife at me to keep me away. In the end he actually asked me, Can I go now? said Zelonka.

I grabbed the umbrella and followed him out. Its quite heavy and I thought I could do some damage with it so I kept chasing him, he told the newspaper.

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This New Jersey Town Wants Its Streets Removed From Google Maps. Heres Why

Its rare to find a driver nowadays who doesnt use Google Maps, Waze, or another navigation app when going to an unfamiliar place.

The apps often get people to their destinations faster, but can also create problems. Big problems.

One of those problems has befallen a sleepy New Jersey town, now inundated with traffic due to the apps suggesting some of the towns streets as alternate routes to traffic-choked corridors nearby.

Leonia is fighting back in two ways. One, its planning to restrict access to 60 of its streets during rush hour to only residents or workers. Two, it wants its streets removed from Google Maps, Waze, and other navigation apps.

The city will issue residents and people who work in the area yellow tags, and only those cars will be able to use the 60 streets between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., and between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., seven days a week, reported the New York Times.

The goal here, as soon as we enact it, is that the algorithms in navigational apps will remove those streets as restricted access streets from the recommendation engines, Leonia Mayor Judah Zeigler told FOX Business.

Watch the latest video at &lt;a href=http://www.foxbusiness.com&gt;foxbusiness.com&lt;/a&gt;

We are, because of our geographic location, at the confluence of three major interstate highways, a quarter mile from the George Washington Bridge, twenty minutes from midtown Manhattan. We are inundated from all sides.

He added to CBS, Because they have an app that says, Take a right then a left then a right then a left to shave three minutes off your commute, now theyre all over every narrow side street in this municipality.

Zeigler said town officials have researched whether they have legal authority to dictate such a move and said they do, citing a Supreme Court decision in 1977 that enables government entities to legislate restrictions on streets as long as there isnt discrimination against some residents.

However, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst, said he foresees problems: You cant stop somebody and ask them where theyre going and if theyre local going from home to the drug store they can stay on the street, but if theyre long distance going from Franklin Lakes to the George Washington Bridge youre going to give them a ticket, this simply isnt a valid public safety purpose for stopping them.



If he is able to take action, Zeigler wants to introduce a $200 fine to deter people who would otherwise attempt a shortcut through the area.

The intense traffic jams have been affecting locals.

Melissa Soesman says it takes her 15 minutes to leave her driveway some days.

It depends on whos going to be nice and how much Im going to push up against their car until they let me out, she told CBS.

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Three Dead in Murder-Suicide in Upstate NY Apartment Complex

Three people were found dead in an apparent double murder and suicide in Ulster County, New York.

Three bodies were found by an apartment complex in Ellenville, prompting the lockdown of nearby schools, on Thursday morning, Jan. 11, according to reports.

The shooting took place in the parking lot of the Canal Lock apartments on Center Street, ABC7 reported.

Ellenville Police Chief Philip Mattracion described the victims as one female and two males. A weapon was recovered, and police said one of the victims was the shooter.

According to the Daily Freeman, Mattracion didnt elaborate on a motive, although reports say police are calling it a double murder and a suicide.

Mattracion said that the shootings took place at around 9:55 a.m.

Ellenville Central School District officials told the ABC affiliate that all schools were placed on lockdown due to the shooting. Later, the lockdown was lifted.

During the lockdown, the Ulster County Sheriffs Office added that there was no intruder in any of the Ellenville Central School District buildings, the Freeman reported.

Video footage shot from the scene showed the citys Center Street closed off. Police vehicles could be seen around the block.

The town is located about 80 miles north-northwest of New York City and around 26 miles north of Middletown, New York.

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Jake Cairns, Brandon Sharples and Jack McInally (L to R) are pictured in this undated image from West Midlands Police. The three have been sentenced for sexual exploitation after holding a teenager captive (West Midlands Police)

Three Men Jailed For Capture and Sexual Exploitation of 14-Year-Old

Three men have been jailed for child sexual exploitation for plying a 14-year-old girl with drugs, then pushing her into prostitution by posting pictures of her online advertising her as an escort.

She was rescued by police from the house in Coventry in the UK, where police say she was held prisoner by the gang for five days.

The three men, who were found guilty after a two-week trial in November, were sentenced on Jan. 11 to a total of 18 years.

West Midlands Police praised the courage of the girl.

Offences like this are the most harrowing to deal with, it puts a lot of stress on her psychologically, Detective Inspector Joe Davenport said, reported the Coventry Telegraph. She has shown an enormous amount of courage to see this through all the way to court.

After the girl went missing on June 8, 2015, from a relatives home in Coventry, police launched a missing persons inquiry.

Five days later, they were led to an address in Somerset Road, where they found the teenager trying to climb out of a first-floor bathroom window, dressed only in her underwear.

They forced open the front door to the property and arrested three men: Jake Cairns, 21, Jack McNally, 21 and Brandon Sharples, 20.

Cairns began to exploit the victim after the pair struck up a friendship while he supplied her with drugs, said a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) statement.

Cairns had offered her a place to stay at a property in Radford, Coventry.

Over the next two days he gave the girl drugs and then encouraged her to work as a prostitute to repay her debt, said the CPS. Cairns made the victim pose naked for photos which were then uploaded onto a social media site advertising her as an escort.

Over the next three days, 20 men visited the property, paying to have sex with her.

She was treated as little more than a commodity to be utilised for their financial gain, said CPS spokesperson Alex Warren in the statement.

They were sentenced in Birmingham Crown Court on Jan 11, for a variety of offences.

All three were found guilty of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child. Cairns was also found guilty of distributing indecent photographs of a child.

Cairns was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, while McNally and Sharples were sentenced to five years.

They will all go on the sex offenders register for life.

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Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke steps from Air Force One as U.S. President Donald Trump arrives in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., Dec. 4, 2017. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Trump Administration Bars Oil Drilling Off Florida After Governors Plea

WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trumps administration will not allow drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Florida after urging from the states governor, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said on Tuesday.

I support the governors position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver, Zinke said in a statement. As a result of discussion with Governor (Rick) Scott and his leadership, I am removing Florida from consideration for any new oil and gas platforms.

Read my full statement on taking #Florida off the table for offshore oil and gas. Local voice matters. pic.twitter.com/fJhv0p0CDC  Secretary Ryan Zinke (@SecretaryZinke) January 9, 2018

The Trump administration last week proposed opening nearly all U.S. offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, a move aimed at boosting domestic energy production and which sparked protests from coastal states, environmentalists and the tourism industry.

The administrations decision on Tuesday removes from consideration a portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, an area that oil drillers have said they are interested in exploring  but not all of it.

Florida state waters extend 3 nautical miles from the shore on the Atlantic, and 9 nautical miles on the Gulf side, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Scott last week announced his opposition to the drilling plan and said he had asked to meet with Zinke.

Governor Scotts Statement on Trump Administrations Plan on Offshore Oil Drilling: pic.twitter.com/iQqNU9afsQ  Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) January 4, 2018

Zinkes decision to exempt Florida from offshore drilling leaves the door open for other governors opposed to offshore oil and gas development to seek a similar prohibition for their states.

Oceana, an environmental lobby group, said it was pleased that Zinke had removed Florida from areas open to drilling.

Such a quick reversal begs the question: Will the Trump administration give equal consideration to all the other coastal Governors from both parties who overwhelmingly reject this radical offshore drilling plan? Oceana campaign director Diane Hoskins said in a statement.

On Twitter, several governors, attorneys general and lawmakers representing coastal states asked Zinke to extend the exemption for Florida to their coastal waters.

The governors of New York and Oregon and the attorneys general of Maryland and California were among those who called on Zinke to ban offshore drilling.

President Trump has directed me to rebuild our offshore oil and gas program in a manner that supports our national energy policy and also takes into consideration the local and state voice, Zinke said in Tuesdays statement.

Zinke said last week that the departments draft National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2019 to 2024 would make over 90 percent of the outer continental shelfs total acreage available for leasing to drillers, a national record.

That would reverse the Obama administration order placing 94 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf off limits to drillers. Obamas 2017-2022 plan would be replaced by the new program when it is finalized.

The effort to open previously off-limits acreage in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans comes less than eight years after BP Plcs Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico  the largest in American history. The disaster caused billions of dollars in economic damage.

The Defense Department has raised concerns about opening drilling that had been banned off the eastern Gulf of Mexico, where military exercises are held.
Then acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on May 11, 2017. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Trump Dossier Used to Obtain Spy Warrant on Trump Team, Report Says

A dossier containing Russian disinformation on Donald Trump, which was paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was used by the FBI to obtain a warrant to spy on then-candidate Donald Trumps team, reports an award-winning national security reporter.

Citing multiple sources, Sara Carter wrote on her website that the FBI used the dossier, alongside other evidence, to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, to spy on members of Trumps team.

Carter wrote that the FBI used the dossier as evidence despite a large portion of the information contained in the dossier having been proven wrong or remaining unsubstantiated.

The dossier, which was produced by the D.C.-based intelligence firm Fusion GPS, relies almost exclusively on Kremlin-linked sources and has itself been described by experts as a Russian disinformation campaign.

The court warrant obtained by the FBI was used by top Obama administration officials to spy on Trumps team, and potentially Trump himself, during and after the elections.

Susan Rice (C) looks on as Former President Barack Obama (L) and US Trade Representative Michael Froman (R) meet with Vietnams Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi on May 23, 2016.

(JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

At the time, President Obamas National Security Adviser Susan Rice and his ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, made dozens of unmasking requests for the identities of members of Trumps teamasking to be provided with transcripts of conversations they took part in with their names not redacted, as would normally be done.

The monitoring of the communications of Trumps campaign and transition team raises serious concerns about whether the information was used for political purposes to support Hillary Clinton during the campaign or to interfere with the transition process after Trump was elected.

Obama endorsed Clinton during the campaign and was an outspoken supporter of her on the campaign trail.

The House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Devin Nunes, is currently working to determine the role that the dossier played during the 2016 elections, including whether it was used to obtain the FISA warrant.

The committee is also investigating the relationship between the FBI and Fusion GPS, and whether the Trump dossier formed the basis of its opening an investigation into Donald Trump.

Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) and President Barack Obama greet supporters during a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 5, 2016. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

From the limited information known so far, it appears that the FBI opened its investigation into Trump in July 2016, the same month that Christopher Steele, who was hired by Fusion GPS to produce the report, was talking to FBI agents.

Court documents from the UK, where Steele is currently being sued for defamation by a Russian businessman mentioned in the report, show that he was also instructed by Fusion GPS to give at least two briefings to major media organizations, including The New York Times, CNN, and Yahoo News.

Last week a federal court ordered Fusion GPS to hand over its bank records to the House committee. The committee had sought the bank records in part because they showed payments from Fusion GPS to journalists.

Of particular interest to the House committee are text messages sent between the FBI agent who initially led the investigation into Trump, Peter Strzok, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

The nearly 10,000 messages between them, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) had obtained, reveal a strong bias against then-candidate Trump, as well as a discussion on how to prevent him from being elected.

In one such text message Strzok sent to Page, he wrote I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andys office that theres no way he gets electedbut Im afraid we cant take that risk. Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA)(C) stands with Rep. Peter King (R-NY), (L) and Rep. Don DeSantis (R-FL) as he announces that his committee and the House oversight committee are starting the investigation into Russia and Obama Administration uranium deal. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Last week Nunes reached an agreement with the DOJ to provide his committee with all of the text messages as well as other documents and witness interviews related to Fusion GPS.

Also being investigated is DOJ official Bruce Ohr, who served as an associate deputy attorney general before being demoted after it was revealed he concealed multiple meetings he had with Fusion GPS officials during the elections.

Ohrs wife, Nellie Ohr, also worked for Fusion GPS during that time doing research on Trump.

Despite over a year of multiple investigations in Congress, as well as by the intelligence agencies, no evidence of collusion has been found between Trump or his campaign with the Russians to influence the election.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was asked by MSNBCs Chuck Todd on March 5, 2017, whether there was any evidence of collusion.

Not to my knowledge, he said.

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Twitter Employee Reveals Companys Anti-Trump Bias

Reveals Twitter retains numerous records on its users and employees have access to all their posts and private messages

A senior employee at Twitter was caught on video detailing the types of information the social media company keeps on users. He and many others at Twitter have a strong anti-Trump bias, and he said he is prepared to give the Department of Justice draft tweets and chat transcripts of President Donald Trump.

The video is part of a the American Pravda investigative series from Project Veritas, which specializes in undercover investigative journalism. The video series has exposed political bias at CNN, Washington Post, and the New York Times; and has recently begun exposing social networking companies.

Twitter, Facebook, and Google have been accused of censoring and discriminating against conservatives. Google is currently being sued by a former employee alleging discrimination for his conservative views, and Twitter has run into controversy over monitoring each users internet activity and potentially penalizing them for the sites they visit.

The latest video is the first part of a series exposing Twitter, and is mainly focused on Clay Haynes, a senior network security engineer who has worked at Twitter since September 2016. He describes his job to an undercover reporter as being the bouncer of the network.

Project Veritas president James OKeefe explains the purpose of the video at its start, stating that Twitter calls itself the global town square, but in reality they want to control thought, ideas, and even our political system itself.

Haynes reveals the amount of information that Twitter retains on its users, reveals that it keeps this information in case authorities request it, and suggests that some Twitter employees are able to access this information on users.

He states, We can absolutely look at every single message, every single tweet, whatever you log into, what profile pictures you upload, what profile pictures that you thought you were going to do.

Haynes elaborates further, stating What we can do on our side is actually very terrifying.

We have full access to every single persons account, every single direct message, deleted direct messages, deleted tweets, he says. I can tell you exactly who logged in from where, what username and password, when they changed their password.

In the videos, Haynes suggests he could use this information for political purposes.

Haynes describes himself as a bleeding-heart liberal, and says he doesnt like Trump and I want to get rid of him. He notes that internal reviews at Twitter suggest many of its employees hold similar views.

He then explains that he could use the data Twitter retains on its users to advance his cause, noting Were more than happy to help the Department of Justice in their little investigation. He says he could provide the Department of Justice with every single tweet that hes [Trump] posted. Even the ones hes deleted. Any direct messages, any mentions.

When asked by an undercover reporter whether Twitter is working with the Department of Justice on this, he responds I cant comment, and even if I knew I wouldnt commment.

Haynes position may not reflect Twitters official stance on Trumps tweets, however. He explains that Twitter regards Trumps tweets as newsworthy, and because of this we have to let those tweets up.

After the video was published, Haynes stated on Twitter, Well. This is no fun.

Well. This is no fun.  Tank ? ?? (@dark_15) January 10, 2018

Twitter responded to the video, telling International Business Times, We deplore the deceptive and underhanded tactics by which this footage was obtained, and states that Haynes was speaking in a personal capacity and does not represent or speak for Twitter.

It added, Twitter only responds to valid legal requests, and does not share any user information with law enforcement without such a request.

OKeefe stated in a press release, that even if Haynes was just speculating about helping Justice, his admission shows a clear and dangerous political bias at the highest levels of Twitter.

The question is: by Twitter giving private information about the President to the Justice Department, are they breaking the law, betraying a trust, following an official request or satisfying a political agenda by leading a crusade against the President, OKeefe said.
Suspects Tony Barber, 26 (L), from District Heights and Niko Boswell-Johnson, 25 (R), from Oxon Hill face charges of attempted armed robbery and other charges. (Prince George's County Police Department)

Two Men Caught Trying To Rob a Pizza Restaurant While Police Were Already There

Two masked men were taken into custody on Jan. 7 after they attempted to rob a pizza restaurant while police were already on the scene in Prince Georges County, Maryland investigating an earlier crime.

Detective Munawar had just stepped outside to look for the suspects car at around 11:30 a.m. when he saw two masked men approach the front door.

The second suspect spotted the officer and the two men dashed to their car in a nearby neighborhood. Munawar stopped the car with the help of patrol officers and three guns were recovered from the vehicle.

Detectives catch robbery suspects in the act and thwart a restaurant robbery. https://t.co/QZlEzbl4ka pic.twitter.com/MuOhyHi608  PGPDNEWS (@PGPDNews) January 10, 2018

The suspects are Tony Barber, 26, from District Heights and Niko Boswell-Johnson, 25, from Oxon Hill. The pair were charged with attempted armed robbery and other related charges, according to Prince Georges County Police.

Police are working out whether they are linked to additional robberies.

In a separate crime about a week ago, Munawar arrested a suspect a few minutes after a robbery at a convenience store in Mount Rainier.

The detective noted that the suspect would most likely use the nearby Metro station to escape, and headed straight there. The suspect was on a train platform and arrested.

He recovered a loaded handgun and the suspect has been linked to other robberies.

In an unrelated incident in southeast Washington, a man was arrested and charged on Jan. 10 after he allegedly stole a police cruiser that was parked outside Pennsylvania Avenue, the Washington Post reported.

Kenneth F. Davis, 38, was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, reckless driving, and other charges, according to police. He drove away in the cruiser just before 1 a.m. outside a convenience store, according to the newspaper.

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Tax Reform Prompts Walmart to Raise Minimum Wage, Hand out Bonuses, Expand Parental Leave

Walmart announced that it is increasing the minimum wage for its workers to $11 after Congress passed a tax reform bill that lowered individual and corporate rates.

The retail giant will also hand out bonuses of up to $1000 to a large number of its employees.

The company also announced it is expanding its maternity and parental leave policy in response to the tax cuts.

We are early in the stages of assessing the opportunities tax reform creates for us to invest in our customers and associates and to further strengthen our business, all of which should benefit our shareholders, said Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon in a statement.

The Walmart store located in Scarborough Town Centre, Toronto, currently undergoing renovation, on June 25, 2011. (Yue Pang/The Epoch Times)

The increase in wages will start in February and is estimated to cost the company $300 million for this fiscal year. The one-time bonuses are costing around $400 million.

President Donald Trump signed the bill, which was passed by a Republican House and Senate, into law on Dec. 22.

Not a single Democrat in the House and Senate voted in favor of the bill.

The tax overhaul lowers the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. This is below the 22.5 percent average worldwide corporate tax rate.

President Donald Trump signs the Tax Cut and Reform Bill in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, on Dec. 22, 2017. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

The reduction in the corporate tax rate will restore the nations competitive edge and level the playing field for U.S. companies, according to Republicans and many economists.

This is the biggest tax cut and reform in the history of our country. This is bigger than, actually, President Reagans many years ago, Trump said at the White House on Dec. 22.

In response to the tax cuts, multiple companies have announced increases in wages and bonuses for their employees.

What Tax Cuts Mean For Individuals

The bill reduces the individual tax rates while keeping the existing seven tax brackets. The rates are set at 10 percent, 12 percent, 22 percent, 24 percent, 32 percent, 35 percent, and 37 percent.

The new plan narrows itemized deductions to simplify the tax code. However, it nearly doubles the standard deduction for individuals from $6,350 to $12,000 and for married couples filing jointly from $12,700 to $24,000.

According to Republican leaders, this provision will simplify tax filing and enable nine out of 10 people to fill their taxes on a form so simple it could fit on a postcard. This coming April 15 will be the last time Americans will file their taxes under the existing tax code.

The bill expands the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 for both individuals and married couples filing jointly. The tax credit will be fully refundable up to $1,400, which means the credit can be used to increase or create a tax refund.

The child tax credit starts to phase out for families with income over $400,000. Under the current law, it phases out at $110,000 in income for married couples.

Many individual income tax provisions, including the child tax credit, will expire by the end of 2025, and the old rules will take effect unless the provisions are extended.

The plan also narrows the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) by capping it at $10,000. It allows taxpayers the option to choose among sales, income, and property taxes. Those who benefit most from the SALT deductions are taxpayers in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, and California.

In addition, the bill allows the deduction of mortgage interest for newly purchased homes (first or second home) up to $750,000, which is below the current $1 million cap. It also repeals Obamacares individual mandate provision, which requires most Americans to have a basic level of health insurance coverage or else pay a tax penalty.

Emel Akan contributed to this report

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Elite Chinese University Grades Students on Loyalty to Communist Party

Tsinghua University asks for political evaluations of graduating students work

At one of Chinas most prestigious universities, doing well on a senior year thesis or final dissertation wont be enough to graduate with flying colors.

A document from administrators at Tsinghua University in Beijingranked 30th on the world university listing by Times Higher Educationwas recently leaked online.

The notice, dated Jan. 4, 2017, was directed at instructors. It asked them to be more aware of students political stance and ideology when evaluating their submitted work for graduation, such as thesis papers and creative pieces. Teachers should also intensify keeping close tabs on ideology when teaching, the notice read. The same would be applied to undergraduates about to finish their bachelors degrees.

According to Liu Yinquan, a former history professor at Shandong University and current chief executive of the China Alliance Against Political Persecution, the notice indicated that students would be evaluated based on how their views aligned with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Liu said the regime is worried that the next generation of youth no longer believe in communist rule, and is thus stepping up political brainwashing. The purpose is to turn intellectuals into people who will defend the communist system, he said.

But public opinion is already changing, Liu said. People have learned the truth [about the CCP] through the internet and communication with those outside China.

History

The concept of political evaluations dates back to the Cultural Revolution, when Chinese were required to openly display their fervor and loyalty toward the Party, and denounce those who didnt. People who belonged to Mao Zedongs designated five black categorieslandlords, wealthy farmers, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements, and rightistswere persecuted. Meanwhile, Party cadres were elite members of society, though they could also be subject to struggle sessions, if denounced by the Party. Struggle sessions were a form of public humiliation and torture used by the CCP during the Cultural Revolution to humiliate, persecute, or execute those whose thinking was perceived to be against the Partys ideology.

After the Tiananmen Square massacre put an end to student protests for democracy in 1989, universities and colleges tightened up their political evaluations of students. Those who were active in the democracy movement were punished: Students from other provinces who were studying in Beijing got sent back. Those who were assigned to work at prestigious companies upon graduation found themselves without those opportunities.

Since then, students have been actively discouraged from expressing their views freely. In May 2013, professor Zhang Xuezhong from the East China Normal University in Shanghai revealed in an online post that the central authorities sent out a notice warning of seven not to mention topics: universal values, press freedom, civil society, civil rights, historical failures of the CCP, the bourgeoisie activities of powerful Party officials, and judicial independence.

In January 2015, the head of the Ministry of Education, Yuan Guiren, said at a national conference for universities and colleges that there were three things not allowed in the classroom: views that tarnish socialism; views that violate the CCP constitution and laws; and expressions of discontent or grievances by teachers.

In December 2016, the assistant minister, Shen Xiaoming, spelled out the intentions of the regime even more clearly, announcing that monitoring ideology on campus was front line work; schools needed to talk politics every day, every week, nonstop; and that teachers and students must agree with socialism and the CCPs leadership.

Cheng Xiaorong, Luo Ya, and Li Xinan contributed to this report.

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When Will the Bitcoin Bubble Pop?

The framework is in place for an epic collapse

The value proposition of bitcoin is that it exceeds gold in every one of Austrian economist Carl Mengers elements of liquidity, except one: stability.

The reasons for why bitcoin can never be stable, and therefore can have no monetary value, are subtle and far beyond the grasp of most economists, much less amateur speculators. Since it has no other claim to value except for replacing gold, it may eventually end up at zero.

However, in the meantime, speculative flows are pumping up bitcoin and other crypto assets. So is bitcoin a bubble, and if so, when will it pop? A bubble needs an increasing rate of speculative inows to avoid collapse, which is why bitcoin billionaires like the Winklevoss twins (also called Winklevii) are inserting the plumbing of wholesale and retail money markets into bitcoin to keep the money flowing.

Their Gemini.com exchange, for example, is a licensed exchange custodian that solves the problem of custody for hedge funds and other institutions. It is plugged into the Chicago Board Options Exchange, so traders and institutional investors can use their existing infrastructure for trading bitcoin without ever having to take custody of a single coin.

These trades affect the underlying market because every long futures contract requires a short. If there are no investors willing to go short, then the dealer has to create a short contract. The dealer then must balance his risk by directly going long on the underlying commodity.

This would be easy for a dealer that already has a huge amount of bitcoin inventory on hand, like the Winklevii. They spent $11 million, from a $65 million settlement with Facebook over who founded the company, buying nearly 100,000 bitcoins at around $120 each in 2013, making them the first confirmed joint bitcoin billionaires at the current price of $16,500. Now they can use this inventory to fund their dealer network.

If this is their exit strategy, then it is extremely clever. It is not easy to sell large amounts of bitcoin. Coinbase, the largest U.S. bitcoin exchange, for example, allows unlimited deposits, but limits withdrawals. Right now, the ows are inbound, so withdrawal limits should not matter much, yet they already have them. Imagine the scramble when everyone decides to get out.

The Winklevii, by organizing a primary dealer exchange, will have no trouble liquidating their estimated $1.65 billions worth of bitcoin. All they have to is take the short side of the futures contracts that institutions are buying.

History Rhymes

There is a close historical parallel of a major owner of an inflated asset liquidating through derivatives. During Frances Mississippi Bubble from 1716 to 1719, Richard Cantillon bought shares in the Mississippi Company early in the bubble, shares that had run from 200 livres to more than 10,000.

He then bought out his cousins interest in the family bank and began issuing credit to speculators, taking their shares as collateral. The speculators used the credit to buy more shares, sending the price higher, which in turn enhanced the value of their collateral and enabled them to borrow morea classic bubble.

Cantillon decided to cash out when the share price was nearing its apex and proceeded to sell not only his shares but also his customers collateral. When the share price collapsed, Cantillon bought back the now worthless shares to cover his short position and then moved to collect the full amount of the debts owed to him by the banks clients.

Cantillon became a multimillionaire (when that really meant something) and died under mysterious circumstances 15years later.

Like Cantillon, the Winklevii have positioned themselves as the most liquid player in the bubble, enabling them to liquidate their own position and go short when the time is right, if they have the wit.

But the time is not yet ripe. Weve seen mortgages being taken out to buy bitcoin.  People do credit cards, equity lines, said Joseph Borg, the president of the North American Securities Administrators Association, on a Dec. 11, 2017, CNBC interview.

As long as the price of bitcoin increases more than the interest owed on these credit lines, it seems like a good trade, and credit will continue to pour into the bubbleespecially when an ETF becomes available.

A bitcoin ETF will allow retail speculators to use the margin capacity of their stocks held in their brokerage accounts, capacity that will expand along with bitcoin prices.

A Different Bubble

Unlike every previous bubble in history, bitcoin prices do not generate a supply response. Real estate bubbles cause overcapacity in real estate; government bond bubbles bring government spending and huge supplies of new government bonds. But the quantity of bitcoin increases at a steadily slowing pace. And the higher its price runs, the more it seems to validate price targets of hundreds of thousands or even millions, enticing those who own bitcoin to take them off the market.

These dynamics could send bitcoins price significantly higher even from here, but the final price target is most likely zero, or maybe some curiosity value, such as $100 trillion Zimbabwean notes, which now sell as curiosities for $90 each.

Calling the top of a bubble is no easy task, especially in this case. Normally a bubble pops shortly after the cash ows of the speculative investments go negative. In other words, high real estate prices bring forth overcapacity, then rents fall, operators cannot meet their interest payments and default, and banks collapse. Those on the inside of the market have a good view of when cash ows start going negative, so they can get out.

In the present case, bitcoin does not generate any cash ow, and there is no overcapacity to observe. Instead, the inection point will come when those who are taking out mortgages and credit card and margin loans must sell to meet their interest payments, which will knock the price down, then generate margin calls and knock the price down further, and finally, topple the whole structure.

Banks will suffer, not because they are exposed to bitcoin directly but because the man who loses his mortgage advance to the Winklevii will be unable to make his mortgage payment. At present, the bubble by itself is surely too small to threaten the banking system. But, like subprime housing, the bitcoin bubble could perhaps already act to trigger the unwinding of other bubbles. This potential will grow along with the mania.

Many bubbles end with one last spike higher, such as in 1929 and 1999. The bitcoin phenomenon is likely the last ourish of Bernankes bubble. When all the credit money in all the bubble markets in all the world finally panics into gold, the results ought to be spectacular.

Dan Oliver is the principal at gold mining fund Myrmikan Capital LLC.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Woman Returns Dead Christmas Tree to Costco for a Refund, in January

A California woman was spotted returning a Christmas tree this Januaryand she is getting shamed by outraged social media users.

The unidentified woman wanted her money back for her tree because she claimed it was now dead, according to NBC affiliate, WFLA.

One man who witnessed the bizarre incident at the Costco store located in Santa Clarita, took to Facebook to post details of the shameless scene.

I cant make this stuff up, he wrote. Woman in line at Costco, totally nonchalant, to return her Christmas tree because it is dead on January 4th, according to WFLA.

Thursday, Jan. 4, is a full 10 days after Christmas Day.

The man even took a photo of the woman and her large tree as she was seen waiting in line.

According to his Facebook post, the woman surprisingly did get her money back for a full refund. But he said the store employees and customers around her did shame the woman a little bit.

If I didnt see it, I wouldnt believe that someone had so little moral values or lack of conscience, the man wrote. Heartbreaking to think she may have needed that money so much, she lost all self respect and dignity for it.

The man said the Costco employees questioned and verified the purchase on her account. But he added that it did not appear to faze the woman at all.

Another user who saw the original Facebook post later re-posted it to Imgur where it gained over 117,580 views by the time of this publication.

Social media users slammed the womans act, calling for Costco to revoke her membership.

Keep in mind for Christmas this year not to ask for a refund after your tree dies or you could be facing some public shaming.

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Yale Professor Who Analyzed Trump Is Unlicensed in Home State, Broke Ethics Rule

A Yale professor who briefed lawmakers in Washington D.C. about President Donald Trumps mental fitness is not licensed to practice psychiatry in her home state of Connecticut and violated ethics guidance recently issued by the American Psychiatric Association.

Bandy X. Lees physician license in Connecticut, the home state of Yale University, where she works, expired in May 2015, according to official records from the states licensing website. A reinstatement application is still pending.

Lee deleted her Twitter account after screenshots surfaced of her expired license.

Lee also violated an ethics guidance issued by the 37,000-member American Psychiatric Association (APA) which advises that psychiatrists should not give professional opinions about the mental state of someone they have not personally evaluated.

That guidance reaffirmed APAs support of The Goldwater Rule, which every member psychiatrist has had to abide by since 1973. The rule states that it is unethical to offer a professional opinion about an individual without conducting an examination.

The rule was created after Fact magazine surveyed 2,417 psychiatrists in 1964 and asked if Sen. Barry Goldwater, a presidential candidate at the time, was fit to serve as president. A total 1,189 psychiatrists responded that Goldwater was unfit to serve. Goldwater later won a defamation suit against Fact magazine.

The complexity of todays media environment demands that we take special care when speaking publicly about mental health issues, particularly when what we say has the potential to damage not only our professional integrity, but the trust we share with our patients, and their confidence in our abilities as physicians, wrote the president of APA, Dr. Maria Oquendo, in an APA blog post accompanying the guidance.

CNN reported on Jan. 5 that Lee briefed a dozen lawmakers on Capitol Hill in early December about Trumps fitness to be president. CNN disclosed that Lees comments are contrary to APA guidance, but did not specify that Lee was not licensed to practice in her home state.

Lee told CNN that at least one of the lawmakers was Republican.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called questions about the presidents fitness to serve disgraceful.

If he was unfit, he probably wouldnt be sitting there, wouldnt have defeated the most qualified group of candidates the Republican Party has ever seen, Sanders said, before praising Trump as an incredibly strong leader.

Trump dismissed the comments himself in a string of three Twitter messages.

Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018

.Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018

.to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius.and a very stable genius at that!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018

Despite lacking credentials to practice psychiatry and medicine in Connecticut, Lee has a list of achievements listed on her biography page on the Yale website.

According to the bio, Lee has consulted the governments of Ireland and France as well as California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York on violence prevention programming in prisons and in the community.

She has served as consultant to the World Health Organization Violence and Injury Prevention department, UNESCO, and other United Nations bodies, and as speaker to the World Economic Forum, her bio states.

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Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. The firm specializes in early stage, acquisition, distressed investments, short-term financing to mid-market companies, corporate carve-outs, recapitalizations, convertible, senior and mezzanine financings, operational and capital structure restructuring, strategic re-direction, turnaround, and under-performing midmarket companies. The firm invest in attractive businesses through the public debt and equity markets or by providing financing. The firm invest in Business services, Industrials and Residential sectors. Through its subsidiaries, the firm invests in the property, power, and infrastructure sectors. Its property business includes owning and managing office properties, developing master planned residential communities, and offering clients bridge and mezzanine lending, alternative assets funds, and financial and advisory services. Through its subsidiaries, the firm operates hydroelectric power facilities, interconnections and transmission facilities in Northeast North America, and development of wind power in Canada. Through its subsidiaries, it invests in specialty funds including private equity and makes direct investments in real estate, energy, and resource assets. The firm launches and manages equity and fixed income mutual funds. It also manages real estate and hedge funds. The firm invests in equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It also invest in British Columbia, United States, Brazil, Australia, Chile, Uruguay, New Zealand. It prefers to invest between $2 million and $500 million in its portfolio companies. The firm also prefers to take both minority and majority stakes in its companies. It was formerly known as Brascan Corp. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices in Bogota, Colombia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Calgary, Canada, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Gatineau, Canada, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, London, United Kingdom, Melbourne, Australia, Montreal, Canada, Mumbai, India, New York City, Perth, Australia, Shanghai, China, and Sydney, Australia.
IDEX Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides applied solutions worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Fluid & Metering Technologies (FMT), Health & Science Technologies (HST), and Fire & Safety/Diversified Products (FSDP). The FMT segment designs, produces, and distributes positive displacement pumps, small volume provers, flow meters, injectors, and other fluid-handling pump modules and systems, as well as offers flow monitoring and other services for the food, chemical, general industrial, water and wastewater, agricultural, and energy industries. The HST segment designs, produces, and distributes precision fluidics, rotary lobe pumps, centrifugal and positive displacement pumps, roll compaction and drying systems, pneumatic components and sealing solutions, high performance molded and extruded sealing components, custom mechanical and shaft seals, engineered hygienic mixers and valves, biocompatible medical devices and implantables, air compressors and blowers, optical components and coatings, laboratory and commercial equipment, precision photonic solutions, and precision gear and peristaltic pump technologies. This segment serves food and beverage, pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical, cosmetics, marine, chemical, wastewater and water treatment, life sciences, research, and defense markets. The FSDP segment designs, produces, and distributes firefighting pumps, valves and controls, rescue tools, lifting bags, and other components and systems for the fire and rescue industry; engineered stainless steel banding and clamping devices for various industrial and commercial applications; and precision equipment for dispensing, metering, and mixing colorants and paints used in retail and commercial businesses. IDEX Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.
Orange S.A. provides various fixed telephony and mobile telecommunications, data transmission, and other value-added services to customers, businesses, and other telecommunications operators in France and internationally. It operates through France; Spain and Other European Countries; The Africa and Middle East; Enterprise; International Carriers & Shared Services; and Mobile Financial Services segments. The company offers mobile services, such as voice, SMS, and data; fixed broadband and narrowband services, as well as fixed network business solutions, including voice and data; and convergence packages. It also sells mobile handsets, mobile terminals, broadband equipment, connected devices, and accessories. In addition, the company provides IT and integration services comprising unified communication and collaboration services, such as LAN and telephony, consultancy, integration, and project management; hosting and infrastructure services, including cloud computing; customer relations management and other applications services; security services; and video conferencing, as well as sells related equipment. Further, it offers national and international roaming services; online advertising services; and mobile virtual network operators, network sharing, and mobile financial services, as well as sells equipment to external distributors and brokers. Orange S.A. markets its products and services under the Orange brand. The company was formerly known as France Telecom and changed its name to Orange S.A. in July 2013. Orange S.A. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.
A 42-year-old man, Lucky Iyamu, on Tuesday explained how he narrowly escaped death when he was shot at by armed militia in Libya.

Iyamu spoke to journalists shortly after he and 333 other returnees were received by the Edo State Government in Benin.

He said he made up his mind to travel to France through the North African country when he could no longer provide for his family.

The father of two from the Uhunmwonde Local Government Area of the state, who was received by his little son on arrival in Benin, disclosed that the journey cost him N850,000.

Iyamu explained, I left Nigeria on July 19, 2017. I just decided to go through Libya because I wanted to travel to France to make more money. I used to be a cameraman but the work was not moving.

I have a family; I am taking care of my mother, a wife and two kids. I spent N850,000. The experience in Libya was very barbaric. The very day I was arrested, 233 blacks were shot dead in my presence in Shabashirim by the Libyan police and army.

He added that he survived by sheer luck as he did not think that he would return to Nigeria alive after he and 23 others were arrested and locked up in an underground prison.

He said, That very day, on July 19, if someone told me that I would be alive, I would not believe it because I escaped from being hit by bullets. There is a type of gun called Arabatash in Libya. It is usually mounted on a vehicle, but that day, they held it in their hands. When the bullets zoomed past one of my ears and destroyed a wall, I had to surrender along with 23 other Nigerians; we were later taken to an underground prison.

Iyamu, however, commended the federal and state governments for coming to the aid of the stranded returnees.

I am very happy and I thank the Federal Republic of Nigeria; I am proud to be a Nigerian. I did not expect what the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki and President Muhammadu Buhari did for us, he added.

Also, among the returnees was a 23-year-old nursing mother, Alice Monday, who was delivered of a baby on Christmas Eve. The babys father was a fellow Nigerian migrant, who fell in love with her in the North African country.

Monday, who hails from Akwa Ibom and claimed to be an orphan, said she embarked on the dangerous journey to earn a living.

She, however, stated that she did not know the whereabouts of the father of her child.

Source: Ships&Ports
The United Nations as we know it came about as a result of the aftermath of the killings that characterized the first and second World Wars.

In those two wars, millions of members of the human race were slaughtered.

But the Magna Carta of the United Nations or the universal declarations of Human Rights (UDHR) were birthed on December 10th of 1948.

These sets of principles were conceptualized to compel as an obligation the member states of the United Nations to deploy every means humanly possible to avoid a repeat of such large scale slaughter of members of the human race. However, United Nations has failed to become an effective buffer against needless wars.

The middle East has witnessed wanton killings of people even as the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq was actually destroyed based on false intelligence which the United States President as he then was Mr. George Bush and his ally from Britain Tony Blair used to manipulate the United Nations to okay the war which did not only unseat the then Saddam Hussein from office but completely destroyed the Country.

Also, one of the most remarkable mass killings that adversely challenged the consciences of humanity was the genocide masterminded by the war time German dictator Adolphus Hitlar in which an estimated 6 million Jews were killed for being Jewish. That treacherous and senseless genocide instigated the Second World War which compelled humanity through the World leaders to couple together what is today known as United Nations.

But many decades after all these killings that compelled humanity to frame up sets of beautiful legal principles to forestall large scale killings of human beings, the Rwandan genocide happened in the mid-nineties and inevitably posed some of the greatest moral questions as to the relevance or otherwise of the United Nations system.

The fact that all the signs that showed possible outbreak of ethnic genocide were neglected by the United Nations, seriously put the credibility of that world body to an ethical quagmire.

Few years after the bloody unrests which happened between two diametrically opposed ethnic nationalities in Rwanda classified as Hutu and Tutsi, the nation with the largest concentration of black people globally known as Nigeria is witnessing disturbing ethnic motivated mass murders even as the United Nations system is once more complicit and is fast asleep.

To make matters worse, and to further provide ammunitions for critics of the continuous relevance of the United Nations system, Nigeria which in the past few years has done nothing as a government to prevent the killings of certain class of people by armed Fulani herdsmen was recently rewarded with the unmerited membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council based on a charade called election.

Nigeria's erstwhile Environment minister under the current dispensation Mrs. Amina Mohammed was recently made the Deputy Secretary General of UN Mr. Gutierrez..

We will dwell briefly on the remote and immediate circumstances that nosedived into large-scale inter-ethnic genocide in Rwanda whilst the United Nations system headed by the Egypt born Mr. Boutros Ghali did nothing and watched as nearly one million people were killed.

It is after we established the conditions precedent that necessitated the Rwandan genocide then we can relate it to the sequence of killings that have happened and has continued to occur whilst all the relevant armed security forces under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani are actually speaking from both sides of their mouths whilst the killers are even appearing in the media and justifying their criminal acts.

The Rwanda genocide as earlier stated ignited a global wide consternation because it happened for virtually two months between April and June 1994 even as the World leaders did nothing in what is blamed on racism. The coupling together of two completely strange ethnic nationalities by the colonialists that provided the reasons for these inter-Ethnic disharmony that eventually resulted in the genocide.

An estimated number of 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days.

It was only after this large scale killings happened that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hagues, Netherlands came up with a Tribunal which sat in Arusha, Tanzania to try the war -lords who orchestrated the killings.

A fascinating but shocking accounts of what happened was captured by team of reporters from the British Broadcasting Corporation which did a very elaborate news report published on 17th May 2011.

The BBC summed up the scenarios that threw up the forces that masterminded the slaughter of human beings just because they share no ethnic affiliations. The case of Rwanda is pathetic because both the killers and victims worshipped hitherto in same churches.

Like most other historical accounts, the BBC reporters stated that the genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6th April 1994.

BBC recalled that a French judge has blamed current Rwandan President, Paul Kagame - at the time the leader of a Tutsi rebel group - and some of his close associates for carrying out the rocket attack.

Mr. Kagame vehemently denies this and says it was the work of Hutu extremists, in order to provide a pretext to carry out their well-laid plans to exterminate the Tutsi community.

Whoever was responsible, within hours a campaign of violence spread from the capital throughout the country, and did not subside until three months later, says the BBC

But the death of the president was by no means the only cause of Africa's largest genocide in modern times.

When the Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity.

The Belgians, according to BBC, considered the Tutsis to be superior to the Hutus. Not surprisingly, the Tutsis welcomed this idea, and for the next 20 years they enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities than their neighbours.

BBC never failed to remind her readers that bottled up angst and longstanding resentment among the Hutus gradually built up, culminating in a series of riots in 1959. More than 20,000 Tutsis were killed, and many more fled to the neighbouring countries of Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda.

When Belgium relinquished power and granted Rwanda independence in 1962, the Hutus took their place. Over subsequent decades, the Tutsis were portrayed as the scapegoats for every crisis.

BBC reported that this was still the case in the years before the genocide. The economic situation worsened and the then incumbent president, Juvenal Habyarimana, began losing popularity.

At the same time, Tutsi refugees in Uganda - supported by some moderate Hutus - were forming the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Mr. Kagame. Their aim was to overthrow Habyarimana and secure their right to return to their homeland.

BBC claimed that Habyarimana chose to exploit this threat as a way to bring dissident Hutus back to his side, and Tutsis inside Rwanda were accused of being RPF collaborators.

In August 1993, after several attacks and months of negotiation, a peace accord was signed between Habyarimana and the RPF, but it did little to stop the continued unrest.

When Habyarimana's plane was shot down at the beginning of April 1994, it was the final nail in the coffin.

Let us now return to what has happened in Nigeria now classified as armed Fulani insurgency, what makes the matter worst now are two things: the first is that the current President who is a Fulani and is known to own cows.

Secondly, in the appointments of key national security chiefs, President Muhammadu Buhari conceded the overwhelming positions of strategic national security posts to the Islamic Hausa/Fulani section of Northern Nigeria.

The minister of defence is also Hausa/Fulani ex-military officer just like his Fulani/Hausa counterpart who heads the internal security ministry. The Inspector General of Police is a Moslem Northerner.

The ministry of internal security otherwise known as ministry of interior which is headed by the retired ex-chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen Abdulrahma Danbazau is also dominated by handpicked Hausa/Fulani heads of agencies. Heads of Customs and Immigration that ought to monitor and stop the inflow of small weapons into Nigeria are all of the Ethnic Hausa/Fulani affiliations. There are accusations that weapons used by armed Fulani herdsmen may have been smuggled into Nigeria through the numerous borders.

The men calling the shots in both the internal security intelligence network (DSS) and the external wing are all from Katsina State. They are both Hausa/Fulani.

These lopsided appointments are blamed for the lackadaisical approach to stopping the growing army of armed Fulani attackers who have carried out systematic mass killings of farmers in all Christian dominated communities. Fast forward to the hurried proscription of the unarmed pro-Biafra Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) by the government and then followed by the deployment of armed soldiers in a highly criticized operation python dance two to the South East of Nigeria which applied sledgehammer to crush the civilian members of IPOB before using the backdoor to get the Federal High court headed by Hausa/Fulani to declare the body a terror organization even when it is a peaceful group. Then look at the partiality displayed in the treatment of the armed Fulani herdsmen's killings with kid gloves, what you see isn't fundamentally different from the situational built up to the Rwandan genocide.

What has further painted the circumstances playing out in Nigeria with the ongoing armed Fulani insurgency that make it look like the circumstances that built up which resulted in the genocide in Rwanda, is that of all the killings that have happened in southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Plateau and Enugu state, which resulted in over 10,000 victims, not one suspect has been prosecuted.

Aside the deliberate undermining of extant laws against culpable homicide, those who should enforce the laws are busy rationalizing and providing excuses for the mass murders even as millions of those whose loved ones have been killed are nursing an undying ambitions to avenge the killings.

We must remember what Augustine of Hippo wrote that "If justice be taken away, what are governments but great bands of robbets?"

Indeed, in some parts of the North central, some victims have decided to defend their communities since those who are obliged to enforce the laws are siding clearly with the killers and the Federal Government is even plotting juicy packages to reward the mass killers. Are all these not the same circumstances that sparked off Rwanda genocide?

A protege of Thomas Aquinas, the respected European Philosopher and Theologian in the medieval periods called Giles of Rome wrote that being a part of civil society is "living politically", and is essential to living a good life according to virtue. He submitted without equivocation that this is because civil communities are regulated by laws that ensure and safeguard the morality of their citizens. Giles postulated that good laws should enforce virtues, such as justice. For this great Philosopher who is reported to have partnered intellectually with the renowned Catholic Cleric and Philosopher Thomas Aquinas to popularize the works of one of the most revered fathers of ancient philosophy Aristotle, being a member of society (living politically) requires adherence to these laws; not abiding by them means living outside the society.

This therefore brings us to the critical question of how a democratically inaugurated administration like the current one in Nigeria is dangerously becoming grossly complicit in the cocktails of well-coordinated mass killings by armed Fulani herdsmen. Why does government undermine the law and is playing hide-and-seek with the apostles of hate filled genocidal killings? Why is the National Assembly at peace with the grave crimes that are being carried out by armed Fulani herdsmen in what even Professor Wole Soyinka has called a declaration of war? Nigerians from all walks of life must constructively look dispassionately at all these and other multitudes of questions arising from the official tolerance of the armed Fulani killings, so as to collectively prevent the Rwandan type genocide from happening in Nigeria. Wishful thinking or empty rhetorics can't resolve these self-imposed nightmares. The laws against murder must be strictly applied and the composition of the National Security team must comply with the constitutional provisions of Federal Character Principle so Nigerians will not continue to nurse the perception that the current administration is carrying out the FULANIZATION of the Nigerian State.

*Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @ @ www.emmanuelonwubiko.com ; www.huriwanigeria.com ; [email protected] .
Dozens of Cameroonian protesters demonstrated on Thursday in front of the embassy of Nigeria in Washington, DC, to demand the immediate release of their leaders allegedly arrested in Abuja.

Cameroonian anglophone separatists have claimed that their leaders were abducted in Abuja by what they believe to be Nigerias intelligence agency. The federal government have denied the allegations.

Cameroon Demonstrators at Nigeria embassy

The protesters, carrying placards that read Abducted in Nigeria, Ambazonians deserve the right to freedom, Let our President go.

The protesters are currently marching around the embassy condemning the alleged arrest and detention.

At around 7:30 p.m., the gunmen came into the hotel and abducted all of them, including the president, said Chris Anu, secretary of communications for what Cameroons English-speaking separatists have named the state of Ambazonia.

The separatist leader and six others were said to have been taken away during a meeting at the Neras Hotel in Abuja on Friday, January 5, 2018.

The unrest in Cameroon began in November 2016, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the Northwest and Southwest regions took to the streets, calling for reforms and greater autonomy. They were frustrated with the dominance of the French language in official matters and with what they saw as the marginalization of Cameroons Anglophone population.

The protests were followed by a harsh government crackdown, as well as internet shut-downs and arrests.

In October 2017, secessionist groups declared the independence of the so-called Anglophone state of Ambazonia. International rights groups say that between 20 and 40 people were killed in clashes since late September. According to Amnesty International, at least 500 people were detained in the aftermath of the announcement.
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LAS VEGASThe flash of the CES technology show in Las Vegas is all about robots, drones and smart gadgets. But its subtext is all about Google versus Amazon.

Both companies usually shun conventions such as CES, preferring to debut gadgets at their own press events. But these tech giants have built an imposing presence here this year as they work to weave their voice-operated digital assistants more deeply into our personal lives.

Google has plastered digital billboards and the Las Vegas Monorail with the Hey Google wake-up command. Its announced a range of new gadgets featuring its assistant on everything from smart displays to pressure cookers. And it has sent out the clowns  a jumpsuit-wearing army of advertising associates wearing brightly-coloured Converse sneakers and hovering around partner firms booths to explain how Googles technology works.

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Googles expanded presence at CES will help promote its digital assistant

Amazon launches Echo, Alexa in Canada

Google expands its digital assistant into more devices  including fridges

Amazon, which grabbed an early lead in this market, opted for a more subtle approach. Instead of an advertising blitz, its Alexa digital assistant has merely been popping up regularly in smart products across the convention  everything from mirrors and toilets to headphones and car dashboards.

Executives from both companies have also been turning up at press conferences held by other companies such as Panasonic, LG and Toyota. What were seeing is heavy competition between all the personal assistants, says Gartner analyst Brian Blau.

The stakes

The two companies  and to a lesser extent, Apple, with Siri, and Microsoft, with Cortana  are waging a fierce struggle to establish their assistants as de facto standards for a new generation of voice-controlled devices. Its similar in some respects to the decade-old battle between the iPhone and Googles Android system in smartphones, or to the much older fight between Apples Mac computers and Microsofts Windows PCs.

Both companies see the competition in existential terms. Getting shut out of voice devices could imperil Googles lucrative digital-advertising business, the source of its financial strength. Amazon, meanwhile, wants to ensure that its customers can directly access its everything store, in contrast to now, when they mostly shop via devices and software systems controlled by Amazons rivals.

For consumers, meanwhile, the spread of these assistants offers new convenience in the form of an ever-present digital concierge. But there could also be some uneasiness about revealing even more about their habits, preferences and routines to distant computers that are always listening for their commands.

The ever-present computer

In a video presentation by LG, one consumer cooks while reading a recipe from the smart screen of the companys voice-activated robot CLOi. Another prepares to embark on a vacation and shuts off her lights by saying, Hey, Google, Im leaving.

Google said this week its integrating its voice assistant to allow remote control of some settings in Kia and Fiat Chrysler vehicles, while Toyota announced a similar arrangement with Amazon that enables drivers to ask Alexa turn the heat up at home before they arrive.

But these smart products can  and sometimes do  support multiple assistants. Toyota Connected CEO Zack Hicks told reporters that were not exclusive with Amazon, and that nothing prevents Toyota from partnering with others.

General Electric is showing off a suite of smart kitchen gizmos that connect its Geneva voice assistant to those of Amazon and Google. For example, you can preheat your oven by saying, Alexa, tell Geneva to preheat the upper oven to 350. Chinas Baidu on Monday announced it was integrating its voice assistant into a lamp speaker and dome ceiling lights.

Whether people will truly pay more for the ability not to walk over and flip a switch themselves is unclear. But manufacturers arent taking the chance that theyll be left behind if one or the other assistant becomes dominant.

Five years ago, no one could predict what was going to happen with the smart home, says LG Electronics USA marketing vice-president David VanderWaal. Five years from now, were not quite sure either. So this open partner, open platform system, is definitely the way to go.

The runners up

For the moment, voice competitors to Amazon and Google remain largely in the wings.

Microsofts Cortana assistant, which is available on PCs running Windows 10, allows hundreds of millions of users to search the web using Bing. But it hasnt been a huge factor in gadget announcements leading up to CES. In fact, Alexa is even starting to encroach on Cortanas turf by making its way onto some PCs.

Apple hasnt been prominent this year, either. But many manufacturers have adopted its HomeKit software in order to ensure theyll work easily with iPhones and Siri. Apple, however, had to push back release of the HomePod, its almost-$350 (U.S.) smart speaker, until early this year; it was originally scheduled for December 2017.

Some analysts also say its too soon to rule out Bixby, Samsungs AI assistant, which the company vowed to make a more central part of all its connected devices by 2020.

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Ontarios Ministry of the Environment is investigating a Sarnia-area petrochemical company for an incident in which large flames billowed from an industrial plant last year.

Clouds of fire and steam towered over Imperial Oil for five hours on Feb. 24, 2017 after equipment malfunctioned.

Vanessa Gray, a resident of the nearby First Nation community of Aamjiwnaang, filed an application in October to have the provincial government investigate the incident. Grays co-applicant, Elaine MacDonald, a scientist with the environmental law not-for-profit agency Ecojustice, said the pair are happy the ministry heeded their request but are eagerly awaiting the results.

No community should have to withstand that type of activity, MacDonald said.

A joint investigation by the Star, Global News, National Observer, the Michener Awards Foundation and journalism schools at Ryerson and Concordia universities revealed a troubling pattern of secrecy and potentially toxic leaks in Sarnia, also known as the Chemical Valley.

In October, Ontario environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe blasted the provincial government for turning a blind eye to serious pollution in Indigenous communities, including Aamjiwnaang, for decades. Fifty-seven industrial polluters within 25 kilometres of Sarnia are registered with the Canadian and U.S. governments.

The flames at Imperial erupted from the facilitys flare stacks at about 6:20 p.m. on Feb. 23, 2017, the company has said. The flares continued for roughly five hours and continued to be larger than normal on-and-off for the next 10 days, according to Gray and MacDonalds filing.

The sight of a small flame atop a flare, generally used to burn off materials from the plant, is common in the Chemical Valley. Though flares can result in emissions  Saxe flagged the cumulative effects of such pollution as an issue in her annual report to Queens Park in October  many in the Sarnia area dont think theyre cause for alarm.

McDonald and Gray disagree.

Flaring shouldnt be normal, said MacDonald. Flaring should only be the rare exception.

The flames on Feb. 23, 2017 were not by any means a moderate or normal flare, McDonald added, saying the sight was shocking and frightening.

The filing by Gray and MacDonald alleges Imperial violated provincial laws by emitting contaminants, causing an adverse effect, and by causing discomfort and loss of enjoyment of property.

Gray has said she felt a burning sensation in her nose that evening.

Megan Hayden, who lives across the river in Port Huron, Mich., said noise from the plant made the windows in her home rattle. It sounded like a freighter going by, she said.

It literally looked like Canada was on fire, Hayden told the joint investigation last July.

Imperial and the ministry said at the time that air monitoring didnt detect harmful levels of any potentially toxic substances.

The wind on Feb. 23 was blowing away from air monitors on Aamjiwnaang. Though Imperial Oil hired a third-party company to test downwind, the equipment used wasnt sensitive enough to be sure if emissions exceeded provincial air standards, Gray and MacDonalds filing alleges.

The ministry has said Imperial was flaring volatile organic compounds, which can include the carcinogen benzene, and sulphur compounds. The ministry didnt do its own air monitoring at the time.

We have not been approached by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change about the investigation referenced in this letter, Imperial spokesperson Kristina Zimmer told the Star via email, redirecting questions to the ministry. Imperial will co-operate fully with any investigations by a government agency of which Imperial is involved.

The investigation stemming from Gray and MacDonalds complaint is under the Environmental Bill of Rights, meant to allow citizens to hold the government accountable for environmental issues. Ministry spokesperson Gary Wheeler said the province was already reviewing the incident  the company had reported it as required on Feb. 24  when it received the pairs complaint, and had decided to refer the incident to its enforcement branch for a separate but concurrent investigation.

The EBR investigation is expected to be completed in late February, with results to be shared with Gray and MacDonald within 30 days.

Should the government decide to press charges, and a judge side with the ministry, Imperial could be fined. The province previously fined Imperial $812,000 for a 2014 leak that triggered criticism about insufficient public warning.

Since January 2013, four incidents in the Sarnia area have resulted in ministry charges. The joint investigation revealed 500 incident reports for spills and leaks in the area between 2014 and 2015.

With files from Carolyn Jarvis, Global News

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OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeaus dealings with the Aga Khan presented ethical problems regardless of their personal relationship, Ottawas former ethics watchdog said Wednesday.

Mary Dawson told the House of Commons ethics committee that it didnt matter whether or not Trudeau and the Aga Khan were personal friends  there would be ethical problems either way.

If they were not friends, as Dawson concluded in her December report, then Trudeau should not have accepted an invitation to vacation on the Aga Khans private Bahamian island. If they were friends, Trudeau should not have been involved in discussions about federal funding for the Aga Khans charitable endeavours.

One way or another, there was going to be a problem, Dawson said, adding that she believes the friend exception for gifts in the Conflict of Interest Act should be removed given the difficulty of clearly defining that type of relationship.

In an unprecedented report in December, Dawson concluded Trudeau violated multiple ethics rules in accepting a 2016 vacation on Bell Island, a private Bahamian island owned by the Aga Khan.

The spiritual leader and philanthropist had been a friend to Pierre Trudeau, the prime ministers father, but he also is the head of the Aga Khan Foundation and the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa.

Both organizations are registered to lobby the federal government and have received hundreds of millions in public funds over the years from both Conservative and Liberal governments.

In her report, Dawson concluded that while there was no evidence Trudeau was influenced by the vacation, there was the appearance of a conflict.

Liberal MPs denied an opposition bid to summon Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to an ethics committee over his dealings with the Aga Khan. Opposition MPs are accusing the Liberal members on the committee of toeing the party line. (The Canadian Press)

Mr. Trudeau failed to arrange his private affairs in a manner that would prevent him from being placed in a conflict of interest. Neither Mr. Trudeau nor his family should have vacationed on the Aga Khans private island, she said.

While Trudeau has apologized, questions about the vacation continued to dog him this week. At a town hall question-and-answer session in Lower Sackville, N.S., on Tuesday, Trudeau was asked how it felt to be the first prime minister to break the law.

Conservative MP Peter Kent introduced a motion at Wednesdays committee meeting to invite the prime minister to respond to Dawsons statements. It was defeated 6-3 by the Liberal MPs that form a majority on the committee. A similar motion had been defeated Tuesday. But Kent said the invitation stands.

I quite strongly disagree  respectfully disagree  that the prime minister feels his conversation is only with the ethics commissioner and in town halls across the country. He has a duty and a responsibility as a fellow member of Parliament, not only as the first minister of this country, to discuss and to be accountable, Kent said.

New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen said Dawsons testimony brings up new questions for the prime minister, including whether Trudeau had been offered the trip or if he had asked to visit the island and what changes have been made in the PMO to make sure an ethical breach doesnt happen again.

Mr. Trudeau had an advance copy of where this report was going, knew that the whole friendship argument was not going to get him out of trouble, and continued to use it  continued to use it last night in public meetings, he said.

Dawson told the committee that she was satisfied with Trudeaus response to her report. Trudeau has vowed that he will clear any future travel plans with the ethics office and apologized for his decision to vacation on Bell Island.

Its just unfortunate, Dawson told reporters after the meeting. For him. For us. For everything. But I mean, it happens. People make mistakes.

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OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau was in teacher-mode Wednesday when he tried to school an angry heckler  and, by extension, all Canadians  on the Omar Khadr settlement.

Yes, the government paid the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner $10.5 million. But, Trudeau said, the taxpayer cost to compensate Khadr for his ordeal could have been higher if the government chose to continue its court battle with him and his lawyers.

I hate as a teacher to reward bad behaviour, Trudeau said, responding to a woman who hectored him from the bleachers during his town hall session at a McMaster University gymnasium Wednesday.

The anger that some people feel, and that a lot of people feel, about the payment the government made to Omar Khadr is real, he said.

The fact that, if we had extended that court case, it was almost certainly going to cost us in the realm of $30 to $40 million, is a bit of a consolation.

That line, and his subsequent assertion the Khadr case should serve as a reminder that we all pay when governments allow a Canadians rights to be violated, has been uttered before. Its been his standard explanation when asked about the settlement.

And that begs the question: did the Khadr settlement actually save Canada millions of dollars?

The Prime Ministers Office would not speak on-the-record about Trudeaus estimate. But legal experts said Thursday its not farfetched to say an extended court battle over Canadas culpability for what happened to Khadr could have been much more expensive than the $10.5 million payout.

Dennis Edney, one of Khadrs lawyers, said the costs absolutely could have been higher.

After all, the now-31-year-old Khadr was suing the Canadian government for $20 million. The man who was captured in Afghanistan at age 15 in July 2002 confessed to the killing of American Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer as part of a plea deal to get out of the notorious U.S. military jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In his lawsuit against the government, he alleged he was tortured, abused, and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment and false imprisonment.

Justin Trudeau told an Ontario town hall meeting that he shares the anger of many Canadians over the governments settlement with Omar Khadr. The prime minister was responding to a heckler at the Wednesday event in Hamilton. (The Canadian Press)

On top of that, in a ruling that led to his return to Canada where he served out the end of his Guantanamo prison sentence, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously agreed Khadrs rights were violated when Canadian officials interviewed him as a youth without legal representation while he was being deprived of sleep at the U.S. military prison.

I could go on forever (about) the amount of abuses and disregard  towards this guy, Edney said. I think they got off easy with $10.5 million.

Paul Champ, a litigation lawyer in Ottawa who focuses on human rights and national security, said the government was going to lose the lawsuit for sure.

But he added the Khadr case is so exceptional its difficult to estimate damages a court would have awarded in the end, with notable cases such as that of David Milgaard ending in a $10 million settlement in 1999 and Steven Truscott receiving $6.5 million in 2008.

Should there be greater damages in the context of Omar Khadr, given that he was imprisoned in a location where conditions were far worse than Canadian prisons? And furthermore that he was tortured or subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment with the knowledge and  in a sense  complicity of the Government of Canada, Champ said.

Would all of those factors lead to much greater damages than $10 million? Very possibly.

Aside from hefty damages, Champ said national security cases like this would also come with added court costs. These include hiring neutral lawyers known as friends of the court to assist with documents from several jurisdictions that have to be carefully handled and redacted, he said.

Former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr says in July he hopes a settlement reached with the federal government  reportedly for $10.5 million  wont cause people pain. The Liberals also apologized to Khadr in settling a lawsuit over violations of his rights. (The Canadian Press)

That whole process is enormously time-consuming and expensive for the government, Champ said.

In a blog post written after the $10.5-settlement was reported last summer, University of Ottawa lawyer Craig Forcese outlined his estimate that a trial on the Khadr lawsuit could have cost as much as $40 million. He pointed to the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian who was deported to Syria and tortured in prison. A commission that reviewed his case cost $20 million, and Arar received a $10 million settlement in 2007.

On Khadr, Forcese wrote: I think an all-in number in the $30-40 million range, including damages, costs to the court, etc. was very possible, even likely, and maybe even low-balling.

Of course, these figures are just educated guesses. Barry Swadron, a Toronto lawyer with years of experience in human rights and police abuse cases, said its impossible to know precisely how much a Khadr case would have cost without more information.

Edney, Khadrs lawyer, said the aim for the settlement was to arrive at a figure  $10.5 million  that most Canadians would accept as fair. To his surprise, many people appear to disagree that it is.

The abuse that Omar went through, they dont seem to be worried about that. Its more about money, he said.

What does that say about Canadians?

With files from Michelle Shephard

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WINNIPEGThe daughter of a Winnipeg couple killed in Jamaica says she will travel there to see her parents one last time and make sure their deaths are thoroughly investigated.

Its not real, it cant be real, its a bad dream, said Debbie Olfert, whose parents Melbourne Flake, 81, and Etta Flake, 70, were found dead Tuesday morning. Theyre going to come home. This is all going to be over.

I need to see them. I need to see them even in the state they are in. I need to see them. Until I see them, I wont believe it.

Jamaican police have confirmed they are investigating the deaths as homicides.

Olfert said her mother was suffocated and her father was beaten in an apparent botched robbery at their home.

One of the reports was burglary gone wrong, said Olfert. There was no forced entry.

Family members believe they were likely killed by someone they know, because the home was as secure as Fort Knox.

Melbourne, known as Jerry, and Etta Flake had lived in Winnipeg for 53 years after immigrating to Canada with two daughters, including Debbie. They had two more daughters and a son  as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren  in Canada. They now live in Vancouver, Toronto, Florida and Georgia.

Her father retired as a carpenter with the Department of National Defence and her mother retired after years as a nurse.

The couple had been spending their winters in either Florida or Jamaica, Olfert said. They both started spending more time in Jamaica after her father built a home there a few years ago.

Olfert, the eldest of the siblings, said they are making plans to go to Jamaica to see that her parents get a proper burial and a thorough police investigation. There have already been dozens of homicides in Jamaica this year, she said.

The rate of homicides in Jamaica has been absolutely ridiculous, she said.

She wants to make sure her parents case is solved as quickly as possible.

As Canadian citizens, we need to move them up that line, she said. Theres a backlog of loved ones waiting to be processed.

I need to go over there.

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Toronto Public Library users are displaying furious demand  like, really, really, really huge demand  for the new Donald Trump book.

On Thursday afternoon, there were 2,287 names on the waiting list to borrow a Toronto Public Library copy of journalist Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury, the explosive White House tell-all tome that Trump, the U.S. president, failed to quash.

New York Public Library, by comparison, was showing 1,943 holds on the book.

Torontos library system has 29 copies in circulation, but, to satisfy the clamour, has ordered a total of 330, plus 150 ebooks.

We dont have a firm date on when we will receive them, library spokeswoman Ana-Maria Critchley said of the 301 hard copies on order.

New York-based publisher Holt and Company rushed publication amid Trumps publicity-stoking threats of legal action. He has denounced the book as fiction.

Fire and Fury quotes members of Trumps inner circle, including former chief strategist Steve Bannon, Conservative media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and even the Presidents daughter Ivanka, mocking or insulting the president, who is portrayed as an ignorant, narcissistic man-child.

In the aftermath, Bannon was publicly belittled by Trump, issued an apology, then stepped down from far-right website Breitbart News Network. The book has stoked debate about Trumps mental fitness. The U.S. president reacted saying he is, in fact, a very stable genius.

"Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" was released on Friday. It paints a disparaging picture of U.S. President Donald Trump and his family. The president says it's filled with lies. One Washington bookstore opened overnight and quickly sold out. (The Associated Press)

Associated Press reported Wednesday that the book sold more than 29,000 hardcover copies, and more than 250,000 electronic versions, in its first week.

Caught off guard by its popularity, the publisher boosted the 150,000-copy print run to more than one million.

Jamie Broadhurst, vice-president of marketing for B.C.-based Raincoast Books, the Canadian distributor for Henry Holt publications, told the Star on Thursday that there has been huge demand everywhere: bookstores, libraries and in digital format, too.

Raincoast was the Canadian publisher for Harry Potter, and the demand for Fire & Fury has the same feeling.

The number of Torontonians with library holds certainly caught the attention of our colleagues (at Holt) in Manhattan, he said, adding that Raincoast sold out of Fire and Fury immediately and there is a massive resupply underway right now.

The intense interest, Broadhurst said, makes the point that books and libraries are still central to our public debate, and, although we sometimes take libraries for granted, we shouldnt, especially when the lawyer for the President of the United States is sending a cease-and-desist letter to publishers.

Rakuten Kobo, the Toronto-based ebook retailer, says Fire and Fury set a record last Friday for biggest one-day sales of a non-fiction title in the companys history.

Toronto Public Library says other books with long waiting lists in recent years include Madeleine Thiens Do Not Say We Have Nothing in November 2016); The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena one year earlier; The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins in April 2015, Donna Tartts The Goldfinch in April 2014, and, in February 2014, Crazy Town, then-Star reporter Robyn Doolittles account of the scandal-mired mayoralty of Rob Ford.

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A high-ranking Durham police officer is facing internal police charges for allegedly drinking on the job and tyrannical behaviour toward subordinates.

Insp. Nick Lisi is accused of being verbally abusive toward four officers, calling one sergeant a back-stabbing weasel and berating a constable in an intimidating and inappropriate way, according to the allegations included in a notice of hearing.

The veteran officer is also charged with allegedly inviting some members of his unit to drink alcohol in his office while on duty, as well as engaging in vexatious behaviour that ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome.

Lisi, who runs a division of 150 officers that patrols Pickering and Ajax, attended a brief disciplinary hearing on Wednesday morning. The matter was adjourned to March.

Lisi previously told the Star the allegations against him are untrue.

The information you have is erroneous and incorrect, he said.

At Wednesdays hearing, Lisi was represented by Durham police superintendent Joe Maiorano, who said the inspector was not prepared to comment at this stage of the disciplinary process.

Were not going to try this in the media, Maiorano said. Its what goes on in here thats of primary importance.

Durham police sources say Lisi plans to retire, a move that would effectively render the disciplinary proceedings moot as the force would likely not pursue Police Act charges against someone who is not an active officer.

Thats not something I can comment on, Maiorano said. It has to do with an individual and their life plan.

Some of the charges stem from a complaint filed by a female sergeant accusing Lisi of orchestrating a campaign of harassment and discrimination.

Durham Sgt. Nicole Whiteway alleged Lisi mocked subordinates appearances, ridiculed their personal lives and publicly gloated about the size of his penis.

Durham police substantiated some of the allegations contained in the harassment complaint but dismissed others as embellished and false, according to a memo to a complainant written by one of Durhams deputy chiefs.

A recent Star investigation found that Lisi is one of two senior Durham police officials who have been accused of harassing behaviour. The other is Rob Wallington, a civilian in charge of the police forces strategic planning unit.

Durhams police union said the force has a cultural problem, and has accused management of not doing enough to investigate rank-and-file officers complaints or protect employees from harassment.

A Durham police spokesperson said the force takes workplace harassment complaints seriously.

Inappropriate behaviour from any employee will not be tolerated and we are committed to an open, professional and equitable workplace, Dave Selby said.

In October, Durham police Chief Paul Martin sent out a force-wide email after an investigation clearly identified misconduct by one senior officer. Martins email does not name the officer, though multiple Durham police sources say it is in reference to Wallington.

The chief hired a retired deputy chief to probe the matter. That review was expected to be completed by late December, the chiefs email said.

Durham police would not comment on the status of that review.

If the chief did send an internal message to employees, it would not be a public document and therefore not something we would discuss in public, Selby said.

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Sixty homeless men now have a place to call home in Leslieville.

On Monday, the Salvation Army opened the doors of its New Hope Leslieville shelter at 29A/29 Leslie St., between Queen St. E. and Eastern Ave. for the first time.

Bradley Harris, the organizations executive director of Toronto housing and homeless supports, did a final walk-through of the new east Toronto shelter early Monday afternoon and declared it ready to welcome its first residents later that day.

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We are good to open. Well be accepting clients after 4 p.m., he told the Beach Mirror during a phone interview.

We want to get clients in (the shelter) and off the streets.

That first night, 14 people slept at the bright, loft-like and fully accessible space, which features a warm and welcoming reception area, polished concrete floors, offices, a triage room, a large dividable dining hall/community room, four dorm rooms, a full-service laundry area, washrooms, an elevator, a fenced-in patio and a warming kitchen.

A lot of guys were really excited with what they saw. They said they really appreciate the space, shelter manager Darryl Kinnear said during a recent tour of the new multi-level facility, which will provide emergency shelter, meals, supportive counselling, followup services, employment referrals, rehabilitation support and, most importantly, housing placement. Some of these supports will be made possible through partnerships with local agencies and organizations like the South Riverdale Community Health Centre.

Its very exciting for us to get to a point where we can have residents in a warm and safe place. A lot of effort has gone into (preparing this facility) and all that work is paying off, added Phil Clarke, the shelters assistant director.

The Salvation Armys plan is to be able to welcome 60 guests by this weekend.

The city of Toronto, through its central intake hotline as well as its Streets to Homes Assessment and Referral Centre at 129 Peter St., will be referring people to the new shelter, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The city will also be arranging transportation for guests, as needed.

It took more than two years for the Salvation Army to acquire the property, which was previously the home of a lithographic printing business, and renovate it into a full-service, year-round shelter for adult men.

Back in April 2015, the Salvation Army was forced to close its 124-bed Hope Shelter at 167 College St., at McCaul St., after that building was sold. The Christian church and international charitable organization was a long-time tenant of that site.

This (new shelter) is the continuation of 40 years of work we did at College and McCaul. Its been a long time coming. Its very exciting, Harris said.

Ward 32 Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon offered words of welcome to the new shelter in the community.

This is our first shelter in our ward and we are doing everything we can to support the Salvation Army with this new home, McMahon said in a Jan. 9 news release.

Our local working group has been meeting for months to collaborate on ideas to connect everyone to our community. The opening of our shelter is especially timely given the recent temperatures and we hope to be able to provide warm beds and services for those in need.

An open house/grand opening event for New Hope Leslieville is set to take place in the next couple of months. More details will be shared as they become available.

People can contact the shelter directly at (647) 362-3062 if they have any questions or concerns.

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He has survived bombing, years in a refugee camp and the culture shock of coming to a completely strange land.

So when Syrian refugee Mazen Khalaf was faced with a customer whose payment card wouldnt work at the gas station where he works, it would have been easy for him to tell the person to figure out a solution.

Instead, Khalaf, who earns minimum wage, paid the bill out of his own pocket.

The shocked customer was amazed and asked him why he did it.

Because somebody helped me (come to Canada). Id like to help people, too, Khalaf said.

He did it again for a woman who had the same issue. Both customers paid him back the next day, the man giving him a tip on top, but Khalaf didnt expect payback. He was happy to help because Canadians had done a lot to get him, his wife and his three sons to Canada six months earlier.

Khalaf, wife Dina, and sons Mohamad, 13, and twin boys Ibrahim and Yousef, 10, lived temporarily in a home in Thornhill when they first arrived in Canada. Theyve since relocated to a townhouse in Newmarket.

The kids English has improved considerably over six months and they are enjoying school.

They arent allowed to play video games during the week. They must focus on school work and learning English.

Aided by English interpretation from Syrian immigrant Anwar Alomar, who came to Canada more than 20 years ago and was of great assistance in bringing the Khalaf family to Canada, Mazen Khalaf spoke about his experience so far.

He said he doesnt spend much time outside, but did say, first winter here, too much cold.

Khalaf doesnt yet have a car, and acquiring a drivers licence as well as a vehicle is a top priority so he can attend his job at the gas station, where he works from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and so he can take English lessons at the local Welcome Centre. Because of his English level, he doesnt qualify for free transportation, and neither does his wife, Dina, who is at a lower level of English skill.

The job has worked out well for him. He initially struggled learning to sell Lotto tickets and cigarettes  because of the dozens and dozens of brands  but he caught on quickly. He said the customers have all been nice and many have asked him about his background. He said they want to know about Syria.

He hopes that once he learns to speak better English and gets more experience, he can apply for the kind of job he held in Syria, which was as a manager in a mall. He dealt with customers and knows that business.

Finally, he wants to be a Canadian citizen, a goal he hopes to achieve, along with the rest of his family in about three years, when they become eligible.

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NEW YORKA Bangladeshi immigrant was indicted Wednesday in the failed pipe bombing of the New York subway system last month.

Akayed Ullah faces numerous charges including providing material support to a terrorist organization, using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use and a public transportation system.

Ullah, 27, was the only person seriously hurt in the Dec. 11 attack. He was arrested soon after the pipe bomb failed to fully explode, though he was initially hospitalized after suffering burns. He remains held without bail at a lockup next to the federal court complex in lower Manhattan.

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His lawyer did not immediately comment. Ullah was scheduled for arraignment Thursday.

Ullah could face life in prison if he is convicted of all charges in the attack, which occurred in a pathway linking the subway to the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan.

Authorities said Ullah taunted President Donald Trump on Facebook before the attack. The president later demanded tightened immigration rules.

They also said in court papers that he admitted he wanted to cause carnage to avenge U.S. aggression toward Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

His initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge came via a monitor, which showed images of him in his hospital bed, flanked by his publicly appointed lawyers.

Law enforcement officials say the 27-year-old man who set off a pipe bomb in the New York City subway in December came to the U.S. from Bangladesh seven years ago with a type of preferential visa for people with relatives who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. (The Associated Press)

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LAHORE, PAKISTANThe father of an 8-year-old Pakistani girl whose rape and killing shocked the nation accused the police on Thursday of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing in eastern Punjab province.

The father, Anees Ansari, who was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife at the time of his daughters disappearance, spoke after meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Sharif travelled to the city of Kasur to visit the family hours after Ansari returned home from Saudi Arabia to attend his daughters funeral Wednesday.

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Outrage over rape, murder of 8-year-old girl in Pakistan prompts clashes that leave 2 dead

The girl, Zainab Ansari, disappeared last week while going to a nearby home for Quranic studies and her body was found in a Kasur waste-yard on Tuesday.

Her murder sparked clashes Wednesday between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in the clashes.

Sharif, who had assured Zainabs father that justice would be done, also fired Kasurs police chief over negligence in the case, according to a Punjab government statement Thursday. Three police officers were arrested for opening fire at the mob instead of into the air during Wednesdays clashes.

Zainabs killing, which has drawn wide public outcry, prompted dozens of civil society activists to rally on Thursday in the city of Lahore. A similar rally took place Wednesday in the port city of Karachi.

Pakistans Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and champion for female education, tweeted Wednesday she was heartbroken about Zainabs tragic fate and demanded action against the killer.

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MONTECITO, CALIF.More than two full days after mudslides ravaged the coastal town of Montecito, the search for the missing became an increasingly desperate exercise Thursday, with growing doubts about whether anyone would be found alive. Seventeen people from ages 3 to 89 were confirmed dead, and more than 40 others were unaccounted for.

In disaster circumstances there have been many miraculous stories lasting many days and we certainly are searching for a miracle right now, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. He noted that some people had been rescued Thursday.

Santa Barbara fire Capt. Gary Pitney said most if not all rescues conducted Wednesday and Thursday were of people who were safe but just wanted to get out of the area.

These were people that were sheltered in place that had needs that just took a while to get to some of them, Pitney said. They were OK but they wanted to get out.

The air smelled of sewage and ash as more than a dozen firefighters climbed through rubble in the backyard of a mansion that had been torn apart. Some rescuers used poles to probe the muck for bodies, while others waded chest-deep in the mire. Two Labrador retrievers swam around a debris-filled swimming pool, trying to pick up any scent.

At this moment, we are still looking for live victims, Santa Barbara fire Capt. Gary Pitney said. But he confessed: The likelihood is increasing that well be finding bodies, not survivors. You have to start accepting the reality of that.

He noted that one survivor pulled from the muck earlier in the week was suffering from hypothermia after just an hour.

Crews marked places where bodies were found, often far away from a home, and used that information to guess where other victims might have ended up as the surging mud carried or buried them.

The mudslide, touched off by heavy rain, took many homeowners by surprise early Tuesday, despite warnings issued days in advance that mudslides were possible because recent wildfires had stripped hillsides of vegetation that normally holds soil in place.

The disaster was already unfolding when Santa Barbara County officials sent out their first cellphone alert at 3:50 a.m. County emergency manager Jeff Gater said officials decided not to send one sooner out of concern it might not be taken seriously.

As the rainwater made its way downhill with gathering force, it pried boulders from the ground and picked up trees and other debris that flattened homes, cars and carried at least one body a mile away.

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Authorities now say 17 people have died in Southern California mudslides and another 13 are missing. Three people were rescued Wednesday and authorities say about 75 percent of the devastated area has been searched. (The Associated Press)

From an aerial view, the community that is home for celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Jeff Bridges, looked like two vastly different places.

Trashed areas were awash in a sea of mud, with only the tallest trees standing and some homes buried up to their roofs. Next to some of the devastated areas sat large estates untouched by the torrent, their lawns still green and the landscaping lush.

Santa Barbara County authorities offered wildly fluctuating numbers of the missing throughout the day. A spokeswoman early in the day sent a shudder through the community when she said the number of people unaccounted for had surged from 16 to 48. Within an hour, they said they had made a clerical error and the actual number of missing was eight.

How does that happen? Weinert asked. Thats a crazy mistake to make.

Later in the day, however, the sheriff said the number was at 43, combining missing persons reports filed with law enforcement and also inquiries by people who hadnt been able to contact family members or friends.

Brown said some of those people could have left the area before or after the mudslides or may simply be out of touch with people concerned about them.

After a better look at the damage, officials lowered the number of destroyed homes from 100 to 64 and raised the number of damaged ones from 300 to 446.

Overall, 28 people were injured. Twelve remained hospitalized, four in critical condition.

All of the dead were from Montecito, Brown said. The cause of each death was listed as multiple traumatic injuries due to flash flood with mudslides, which was due the recent wildfire

One of the victims was David Cantin, the father of a 14-year-old girl who was heavily caked in mud when she was pulled from the ruins of her home after a dramatic six-hour rescue.

Another was James Mitchell, who had celebrated his 89th birthday the day before with his wife, Alice, of more than 50 years. She also died.

Searchers had checked most of the debris zone for victims and some were doubling back to leave no stone unturned Thursday when a crew ended up in the backyard of Bill Asher, who lost his palatial home and a similar one he was restoring next door.

Asher returned with a pickax and five friends and trudged through the debris to salvage any possession he could find.

He was still shaken by his harrowing experience Tuesday with his pregnant wife and two young children as the violent gusher arrived with a deafening rumble.

I looked out my front window and saw my car fly by, he said. I screamed at my family and water started coming into the house. Windows went flying, doors went flying.

The family rode out the storm unharmed on kitchen counters as the debris smashed through the walls and water swirled around them.

Ashers return to the scene, where murky water was knee-deep, turned up at least one gem: his wifes engagement ring, the only keepsake she wanted him to find.

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Paris police on Thursday recovered most of the jewels stolen from the Ritz Hotel in a dramatic heist, but are still searching for two thieves and any remaining missing luxury merchandise.

The robbery on Wednesday evening raised questions about security in one of the worlds most prestigious neighbourhoods, the Place Vendome, whose well-guarded buildings include the Justice Ministry, high-end boutiques and the 19th century Ritz.

Workers cleaned up shattered glass Thursday morning and started to repair damage from the robbery. Otherwise business appeared to be returning to normal at the Ritz, with no significant increase in security.

Three perpetrators entered by the service entrance, smashed the jewelry stands, grabbed jewels that were clearly expensive with the help of axes, said Jean-Michel Huguet of police union Alliance Police Nationale.

They seized watches from display cases holding wares from Rolex and Piaget, and then targeted the Reza jewelry boutique inside the hotel.

The suspects inside threw bags of goods out a window to at least two accomplices outside, according to a police official. The three inside were then blocked when they tried to flee through another door, and quickly arrested, the official said.

The accomplices outside fled, one on a motorcycle and another in a car. The motorcyclist dropped a bag with jewels and hatchets when his motorcycle hit a pedestrian during his escape. The pedestrian was lightly injured, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation.

Other jewels were found scattered amid the debris of the shattered display cases during overnight cleanup efforts, the official told The Associated Press.

The overall value of the jewels on display was estimated at about 4.5 million euros ($6.8 million Canadian).

A judicial official said Thursday that most of the jewels appeared to have been recovered. Authorities were working with the jewellers to determine if any items are still missing and their value, according to the official.

Another police official said some of the thieves apparently had guns. Two people inside the hotel hid from the thieves and alerted police, the official said.

Patrons at the hotels renowned Hemingway Bar described panic as the thieves entered the hushed environment of the Ritz, where rooms start at 1,000 euros ($1,500) a night.

Several high-end Paris jewelry stores have been targets of dramatic robberies in recent years, including Cartier, Harry Winston and Chopard. Kim Kardashian West said she lost millions of dollars worth of jewelry when she was robbed at gunpoint in a Paris apartment in October 2016.

The Ritz was an especially luxurious target. The hotel has housed such famous names as Ernest Hemingway and Coco Chanel. It was the last place Princess Diana stayed before her fatal car crash in a Paris tunnel, and hosts elite guests from around the world drawn to the refined neighbourhood.

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QUITOEcuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after more than five years of living in asylum at the nations embassy in London, officials announced Thursday.

Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said officials accepted Assanges request for naturalization in December, and they continue to look for a long-term resolution to a situation that has vexed officials since 2012.

What naturalization does is provide the asylum seeker another layer of protection, Espinosa said.

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Ecuador gave Assange asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for investigation of sex-related claims. Sweden dropped the case, but Assange has remained in the embassy because he is still subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail.

He also fears a possible U.S. extradition request based on his leaking of classified State Department documents.

The Australian-born Assange posted a photograph of himself wearing a yellow Ecuadorean national soccer team jersey on Instagram Wednesday and his name now appears in the Andean countrys national registry.

The new citizenship status, however, appears to change little for Assange in the immediate future. He would still need to alert British authorities of any movement outside the embassy.

Even if he has two or three nationalities, the United Kingdom will continue in its efforts against him, said Fredy Rivera, an expert in foreign affairs at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador.

Espinosa said Ecuador is trying to make Assange a member of its diplomatic team, which would grant him additional rights under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, including special legal immunity and safe passage.

Britains Foreign Office said earlier Thursday it has rejected Ecuadors request to grant him diplomatic status in the U.K.

Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice, the office said.

Though protected by Ecuador, the relationship between Assange and nations leaders has at times been dicey. Ecuador has repeatedly urged Assange not to interfere in the affairs of other countries following his frequent online comments on international issues.

The biggest crisis came in October 2016, when the embassy cut his internet service after WikiLeaks published a trove of emails from then-U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clintons campaign.

He was also a point of contention in Ecuadors 2017 presidential election. Conservative candidate Guillermo Lasso pledged to evict the Australian within 30 days of taking office, while current President Lenin Moreno said he would allow him to stay. Assange later taunted after Lassos loss that he would cordially invite Lasso to leave Ecuador within 30 days.

Moreno issued a warning reminding Assange not to meddle in politics. He has also called Assange a hacker.

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Justin Trudeau is no doubt right that opposition members of the House of Commons ethics committee, who want the prime minister to testify before them about his illegal trip to the Aga Khans private island, are motivated at least in part by the impure desire to prolong this political scandal.

Liberal members of the committee voted the idea down on Tuesday, as their opposition colleagues surely knew they would. And Trudeau dismissed the gambit as pure political theatre. But in fact the proposal is not a bad one. Trudeau is the first prime minister ever found to be in violation of the conflict-of-interest law. If this does not warrant an extraordinary meeting of the House ethics committee, we cant imagine what would.

The oppositions call has particular appeal given Trudeaus inadequate response so far to the ethics commissioners damning December ruling, which found the prime ministers yuletide getaway violated four provisions of the conflict-of-interest law.

By accepting the hospitality of the Aga Khan, who heads two organizations, the Aga Khan Foundation Canada and the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa, that are registered to lobby the government, and then failing to recuse himself from decisions related to the spiritual leaders interests, Trudeau broke the law and undermined the public trust. Yet in the weeks since the decision, Trudeaus tone on the matter has shifted troublingly from contrite to brittle to robotic.

Asked in a recent scrum how he could have thought the vacation was a good idea, Trudeau paused for a long time before offering this: We work with the conflict-of-interest commissioner on a regular basis on a broad range of issues when the issues come up. On this issue of a family vacation with a personal friend, it wasnt considered that there would be an issue there.

Huh? It wasnt considered that? The passive voice suggests the decision belonged to someone other than himself, yet the prime minister cannot outsource his ethical judgment. Moreover, the answer skirts the question. Why wasnt it considered that? Well before the ethics commissioner delivered her ruling, the public seemed to understand that the prime minister had failed in his ethical obligations. He should have known better.

Finally, Trudeaus answer gives no sense of a lesson learned. The prime minister must make absolutely clear to the public that, indeed, he should have known better  and would know better should the question ever arise again.

Liberal MPs denied an opposition bid to summon Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to an ethics committee over his dealings with the Aga Khan. Opposition MPs are accusing the Liberal members on the committee of toeing the party line. (The Canadian Press)

As it is, thats not at all clear. Insofar as Trudeau has explained his ethical lapse at all, he has focused on his belief, technically mistaken, that the Aga Khan is an old family friend. The ethics commissioners ruling turned in part on her rejection of this claim. But while this semantic question may be at the heart of the legal ruling, it seems peripheral to the ethical dilemma at play. Should the prime minister really be accepting gifts from a lobbyist, even if that lobbyist is his friend?

We need clarity on where Trudeau stands on such questions. The prime minister says he will address Canadians concerns during a series of town hall meetings now underway. But while his commitment to public transparency is laudable, it is no replacement for the parliamentary accountability that is a cornerstone of our democratic system. Sooner or later he will have to submit to opposition grilling. Sooner is better.

As trust in government declines, so, too, does tolerance for anything that looks like entitlement or corruption. The public trust depends not only on integrity, but also on the appearance of integrity. When Trudeaus government defends unseemly cash-for-access fundraisers for too long, when his finance minister doesnt adequately distance himself from his own finances, when the prime minister breaks the conflict-of-interest law and fails to take responsibility, it gives ammunition to those who would use any pretext to attack government.

The way Parliament responds to ethical breaches can further erode trust or help to rebuild it. When the opposition does get the chance to question the prime minister, they should do all they can to suppress the inevitable urge to gloat or needle and instead surprise us by asking substantive questions about our conflict-of-interest law and the prime ministers understanding of his ethical obligations. The stakes are too high for point-scoring. And too high by far for the prime minister to keep offering glib dismissals in the hopes this goes away.

Clarification  January 11, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version to make clear that the two organizations that the Aga Khan heads, the Aga Khan Foundation Canada and the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa, not, the Aga Khan himself, are registered to lobby the government.

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Syrian refugees caught in limbo, Jan 2

Information in this article regarding the Syrian refugees in Turkey needs factual corrections.

Turkey hosts more than 3.4 million Syrian refugees as of Jan. 4, 230,000 of who stay in 21 camps. More than $30 billion has been spent from Turkeys own budget.

Furthermore, Syrian refugees are provided free health care, public education, legal work permits and social benefits.

During the past six years, more than 276,000 Syrian babies were born in Turkey. More than 32 million were treated at health centres and hospitals and more than one million medical procedures have been performed.

Currently, more than 620,000 of the 976,000 school-aged Syrian children in Turkey are enrolled in public schools. Another 17,000 Syrian students are attending Turkish universities, 4,000 of whom are provided scholarships.

The non-refoulement principle is strictly implemented by Turkey in accordance with UN obligations. Voluntary repatriation of Syrian refugees in safety and dignity is organized only in full co-operation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Turkey works hard in all platforms to bring sustainable peace and stability to Syria, where Syrians will live in peace and dignity.

Erdeniz Sen, Turkish Consul General, Toronto

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The business of bashing the minimum wage is a blot on the small business lobby.

Their doomsday tone brings to mind the Rorschach blot test  some business people persist in seeing what they want to see, without seeing the other side. The result is bitter polemics about rising costs, and dire projections about losing jobs.

Consider the double-double hypocrisy of those rogue Tim Hortons franchisees whose crude antics  denying paid breaks, scooping up tips  exposed the exploitation in some (though not all) small businesses. And helped to deconstruct one of our most coddled sacred cows.

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Tim Hortons locations hit by protests over wage clawbacks

Ontarios largest business lobby group appeals for help with $14 minimum wage

Minimum wage increase doesnt faze some local business owners

Protesters rallied Wednesday at several Tim Hortons locations against cuts some outlets made to employee breaks and benefits after Ontarios minimum wage hike. Toronto demonstrators explain why they dont support a boycott. (The Canadian Press)

Turns out that some of those legendary hard-working family enterprises are willing to make their harder-working workers pay the price for a wage hike. They see themselves as so victimized by having to pay a living wage that they are blind to the way they victimize vulnerable employees.

Most enlightened entrepreneurs would be mortified by such missteps. They realize human resources must be managed, not manipulated.

But our large corporations are hardly blameless in the badmouthing of the minimum wage, beginning with the brand managers over at Tim Hortons headquarters. Alarmed by the public relations disaster of disaffected local owners taking out their frustrations on their own workers, the corporation castigated them as a rogue group whose actions do not reflect the values of our brand.

In fact, the Brazil-based corporate owners of the Tim Hortons empire had set the stage for this power play by stubbornly barring franchisees from raising prices  putting the squeeze on them to find savings elsewhere. Which the local restaurateurs did, in their clumsy fashion.

Why not raise prices? Your local doughnut shop is not locked in gladiatorial combat with global competitors that precludes them from raising the price of a Timbit just a bit.

There is no free lunch. Doughnuts and dinners out can and should cost a little more, without Canada losing its competitive edge. Its not as if Timmies can serve the Toronto market by relocating its business across the border.

Nor is small business somehow under siege.

The cult of small business has so enchanted politicians from all three major parties that they still fall over themselves to dole out favours: The Liberal government cut the small business tax rate by 22 per cent late last year, plus more subsidies to offset the wage hike; the New Democrats demanded they act sooner; and the Progressive Conservatives promised to cut taxes further if they win power.

The problem with keeping small business tax rates so low is that they encourage business to stay small instead of aiming high. They pay a mere 3.5 per cent on their first $500,000 in income  compared to 8 per cent for small businesses in Quebec, and 11.5 per cent for bigger corporations in Ontario.

Despite these tax advantages, the small business lobby warns that hundreds of thousands of jobs might be lost in the fallout from raising the minimum wage from $11.60 to $14 an hour on Jan. 1 (rising again to $15 next year). Their warnings are echoed by big business, with Canadas big supermarkets among the first to wade in last year:

We are flagging a significant set of financial headwinds, Loblaw CEO Galen G. Weston said of the coming increase, pointedly describing it as the most significant in recent memory. That was before his firm fessed up to fixing the price of bread in breach of competition laws, and so Canadians may be forgiven for taking Westons yeasty musings on the minimum wage with a giant grain of salt.

He was merely the first of Canadas business class, big and small, to warn of the price to be paid for helping the working class. Next came the CFIB, then the Chamber of Commerce, then TD Bank, with wildly different warnings ranging from 50,000 to 185,000 jobs at stake in Ontario (a formidable margin of error).

Last week, critics cited a new Bank of Canada report suggesting 60,000 jobs might be lost. But like other studies, the central bank is not predicting layoffs, just that future job creation might be reduced nationwide (one scenario predicts a mere 30,000 jobs foregone  a rounding error in a roaring economy).

Some perspective: This week, the Bank of Canada followed up with its quarterly survey of business sentiment, which found that senior managers expect rising demand  and intense labour shortages as they try to hire more workers  in coming months. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada is reporting the lowest unemployment rate this century, with Ontario leading the downward trend to an impressive 5.7 per cent last month  as close to full employment as this province gets.

Which brings us back to the Rorschach blot test: Is this really the worst of times to raise the minimum wage, or is this not the best possible time to do the right thing?

Martin Regg Cohns political column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. mcohn@thestar.ca, Twitter: @reggcohn

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The unexpected thaw between North and South Korea has subtly changed the dynamics of the nuclear crisis there.

It has lowered the probability of any U.S. military strike aimed at derailing the Norths nuclear weapons program and breathed new life into the tit-for-tat diplomatic solution promoted by China and Russia.

It also threatens to side-swipe next weeks Vancouver summit on North Korea, a summit jointly hosted by the U.S. and Canada.

Calling the summit divisive and counterproductive, China said this week that it would not attend.

A senior Japanese official, meanwhile, questioned the utility of a summit on North Korea that included on its guest list countries such as Greece and Colombia.

In fact, there is a logic behind who was invited to Vancouver. But Ill get to that later.

Before this months limited rapprochement between North and South Korea, matters were grim. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un refused to give up his plans to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the United States. U.S President Donald Trump threatened war unless Kim did so.

Economic sanctions designed to force Kim to comply with demands from the United Nations Security Council that he abandon his nuclear program werent working.

Russia and China had suggested a quid pro quo compromise whereby Kim would freeze his nuclear program in exchange for a commitment by the U.S. and South Korea to suspend their regular military exercises. But the Americans werent interested.

This was the context in which Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came up with the idea of the Vancouver summit.

Invitees would include most of the 16 so-called sending states that contributed troops to the American-led UN command, which fought the North during the 1950-53 Korean War. Thats why Colombia and Greece were, initially at least, on the list.

Also invited would be South Korea, Japan and China (for obvious reasons), Sweden (because it has functioning diplomatic relations with the North) and India (because it is a big regional power).

Senior officials from the rival Koreas said Tuesday they would try to achieve a breakthrough in their long-strained ties as they sat for rare talks at their border. They're discussing how to cooperate in next month's Winter Olympics in the South. (The Associated Press)

North Korea was not invited. Neither it seems was Russia.

The final list of attendees to Tuesdays conflab remains secret according to a Canadian government spokesperson but will be revealed in due course.

Exactly why Tillerson and Freeland wanted to build their peace summit around belligerents from one side in the Korean War is unclear. Perhaps they thought this was the only way to make the idea palatable to Trump.

In any case, for those anxious to avoid war, the Vancouver summit was the only game in town  until North Koreas Kim made his New Years address.

In it, he made two major points: first, North Koreas quest to develop nuclear weapons capable of reaching the U.S. had been successfully completed; second Pyongyang was willing to talk with Seoul about taking part in the Winter Olympic Games the South is hosting this year.

South Korea jumped at the chance. Its President Moon Jae-in had been elected on a platform that promised improved relations with the North. This was his opportunity and he took it.

This week, the two sides agreed on the Norths Olympic participation. They also agreed to discuss unspecified military matters.

Trump took credit for the breakthrough and Moon, cannily, let him.

In fact, the real architect of this rapprochement is Kim who, in spite of being routinely mocked by Trump as little rocket man, has shown strategic cleverness throughout.

Temporarily at least, he has spiked Trumps guns. Yet he has done so without surrendering any of North Koreas nuclear ambitions.

By showing some flexibility, he appears to have pleased his patrons in Beijing while driving another wedge between the U.S. and China.

Internationally, he has shifted the focus of attention away from his standoff with Washington and toward his newly flowering relationship with the South.

When foreign ministers attending the Vancouver summit meet next week, they will be dealing with a political situation very different from the one that existed when this conference was dreamed up.

Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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Xerox (XRX) - Get Free Report is reportedly joining forces with Fujifilm, sending shares of the printer maker surging Thursday 10%.

It's not hard to see why Xerox would try to pursue such a path: it would probably mean CEO Jeff Jacobson gets to keep his job. At least that is the sense when looking back at reporting in December by TheStreet's Ron Orol. Orol reported that noted activist investor Carl Icahn, who is waging a boardroom battle with Xerox, is itching for change in the CEO ranks.

Here is that December 12, 2017 story.

Carl Icahn: Once Cleaned Up, Xerox Should Be Acquired

By: Ron Orol

Twitter

Corporate raider-turned activist Carl Icahn has a boardroom battle at Xerox Corp. underway. He's seeking to install a minority slate of four dissident directors to the document technology company's 11-person board.

However, Icahn's campaign's real focus is Xerox CEO Jeff Jacobson, who the billionaire insurgent argued in an interview with TheStreet hasn't performed well during his roughly one-year tenure at the company.

Icahn added that his director-election campaign is driven partly to nudge Xerox into bringing in a new chief executive. Making changes to corporate C-Suite executives is something Icahn has succeeded in accomplishing in recent years. For example, he helped drive eBay (EBAY) - Get Free Report , Forest Laboratories, Manitowoc Co. (MTW) - Get Free Report and Welbilt Inc. (WBT) - Get Free Report to install new CEOs. Welbilt split off from Manitowoc under pressure from Icahn.

A key issue for Icahn is a large segment of the Xerox board, which he contends are over-tenured and not willing to bring in a chief executive that will help drive value. He suggested that some directors have been on the board for too long, including Chairman Robert Keegan, Ann Nolan Reese, William Hunter and former Citigroup CEO Charles O. Prince. Icahn often pushes for capital distributions and M&A and as part of his activist campaigns. In the interview with TheStreet, Icahn suggested that stock buybacks or a sale of the business right now are not a top priority, but it could be if the company's situation improves.

"Times have changed but not the directors at Xerox that make up the old guard," Icahn said. "I think Xerox has great potential. There are many things to do here and a merger at the right time makes great sense. We're not against that, but it has to be at the right time. This company would be a much better candidate for an acquisition once they clean certain things up."

In a note released Tuesday, Icahn took issue with Keegan's background, working for Eastman Kodak at one time, as well as Jacobson, who had been a senior executive at Kodak in the past. Eastman Kodak, which invented the digital camera, had been a dominant company, but in 2012 filed for bankruptcy.

"The long-tenured members of the board seem to have their heads in the sand just like at Eastman Kodak," said Icahn. "There is still time for change -- but very little time."

According to a securities filing, a director that had previously been installed by Icahn, Jonathan Christodoro, resigned from the board on Dec. 8 so he could be renominated along with three other Icahn-backed dissident candidates. The candidates were nominated on the final day possible to be considered at Xerox's 2018 annual meeting, expected in May.

Xerox shares were rising slightly early Tuesday, Dec. 12.

Icahn owns a 9.72% stake in Xerox, a company that in January 2016 moved to separate into a document technology business, including printers and copiers, from its business processing outsourcing division as part of a deal with the insurgent fund manager. Icahn also maintains a 9.4% stake in the business processing operation, now called Conduent Inc. (CNDT) - Get Free Report .

Xerox insists that it is driving value for shareholders, evidenced by its stock price, which is up nearly 30% for 2017. However, about 75% of that hike took place between Dec. 30 and Jan. 3 as a result of the Icahn-driven split. The document technology company's shares have effectively been flat since then, though the company's share price dropped in late October after the company released lackluster returns.

In an activist 13D filing, Icahn only provided biographies for his candidates, without stating his goals for the company. In a letter to Xerox's board chairman released Monday, Dec. 11, Christodoro said that directors have been addressing issues he considers to be vital and until the last few weeks it appeared that "decisions would be consistent" with his views on the best interest of Xerox and shareholders. However, he added that it now appears the board will take the company "in a direction in which I strongly disagree."

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Nevertheless, it is possible Icahn will want to see Xerox sell itself in the coming months, now that it has been independent of Conduent for roughly a year. Corporations pressured by Icahn to split in two also are later urged by the activist investor not to install anti-takeover protections, which suggests that they could also be pressured to sell themselves down the road. Icahn successfully pressed Manitowoc to split in two in 2015. One of the units, a foodservices business, agreed to a series of governance provisions that could make it easier to be sold. Conduent agreed to waive a whole host of anti-takeover protections as part of a deal struck between Xerox and Icahn in January 2016. That also makes it more susceptible to activist pressure or an acquirer.

At Xerox, UBS analyst Steven Milunovich said in a Dec. 5 report that some investors are anxious for stock repurchases. He calculates that about $150 million would be available for buybacks, with an announcement either on the company's Q4 earnings call or in a March 9 analyst meeting. Icahn said buybacks weren't a top priority for him right now, though the activist investor has frequently called for capital distributions as part of previous activist campaigns.

Christodoro, one of Icahn's nominees on Monday, had served as a managing director at Icahn Capital between 2012 and February. In addition to Christodoro, Icahn nominated Keith Cozza, Icahn Enterprise's chief executive as well as Jaffrey Firestone, CEO of Prodigy Pictures Inc., a film and TV production company. Also, Randolph Read, CEO of Nevada Strategic Credit Investment and an independent director at New York REIT, was also nominated.

Xerox reached a follow-on settlement with Icahn in June 2016 to add Christodoro, then an Icahn deputy, to the company's board. However, the truce reached then was called off on Monday when Icahn nominated his candidates. In a statement, Xerox said that since the December 2016 separation of Conduent it has "delivered its commitments to shareholders" and are ahead of its plan to relative to our well-defined strategic transformation.

"In 2017 alone, we expect to meet or exceed our target of $600 million of gross cost savings, a critical step as we continue our journey to improving our revenue trajectory," Xerox said in a filing.

Xerox's shares are up slightly from mid-$23 a share it was trading at when it reached a deal to split off Conduent. It is also up from about $26 a share it traded at in mid-2016 when Xerox reached its agreement to include Christodoro to its board.

Xerox has already proven to be successful investment for Icahn, who acquired a 7.13% stake in Xerox in late 2015 at prices ranging from $9.64 a share to $10.66 a share. When the two businesses were split, Icahn received a large new stake in Conduent. Now he owns a 9.74% stake in Xerox, which is trading at $29.67 a share and a 9.4% stake in Conduent, which is trading at $15.31 a share.
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) - Get Free Report is getting ready to set sail into a land of strong profits thanks to the new tax law.

CEO Frank Del Rio told TheStreet on Thursday that a combination of rising consumer confidence, good job growth and worker bonuses should lead to more people splurging on cruise vacations in 2018.

The Tax Policy Center pegs the average tax benefit for households making $50,000 to $75,000 at $850 under the new law. Meanwhile, families will qualify for a child tax credit of $2,000 per child, higher than the $1,000 previously.

If that cash in the weekly paycheck isn't enough to spend on a cruise, perhaps a one-time bonus will do the trick. Companies such as Walmart (WMT) - Get Free Report , AT&T (T) - Get Free Report , Comcast (CMCSA) - Get Free Report , and Boeing (BA) - Get Free Report have promised employees bonuses thanks to the new tax law.

Comcast is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Jim Cramer buys or sells these stocks? Learn more now.

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Barclays wants you to binge Netflix Inc. (NFLX) - Get Free Report .

In a Jan. 11 note titled "Binging Recommended," analysts said the darling of the streaming industry could one day be worth almost as much as media giant Walt Disney Co. (DIS) - Get Free Report .

The bull case for Netflix is simple, analysts said. "If subscriber growth is faster than content cost growth over time, it could become one of the most successful media companies."

Netflix has the power to achieve just that given its global footprint and access to about 550 million broadband subscribers, its strong pricing power, an expanding content library, a focus on content and increasing "stickiness" with several seasons of original programs.

Netflix also has consumer inertia in its favor, Barclays wrote. "Inertia tends to benefit early movers and market leaders and is likely to help pricing growth and costs to potentially drive margin expansion over time."

Facebook, Alphabet and Apple are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells the stocks? Learn more now.

These factors combine to drive customer lifetimes up and churn down, analysts added. As that happens, Netflix will become the second-largest media company by revenue over the next three to five years, falling only behind Disney.

There are challenges to achieving that title, though. Netflix is the market leader, which leaves a target on its back from the competition. Its bundling opportunities are limited because it isn't a "platform" company in the sense that Facebook Inc. (FB) - Get Free Report , Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) - Get Free Report and Apple Inc. (AAPL) - Get Free Report are.

Plus, access to content and its price could represent challenges amid a changing media landscape peppered with mergers and local competitors in many large markets. And investing in the original content puts added strain on Netflix's free cash flow.

"But management vision and execution track record are meaningful offsets," analysts said. "While Netflix's building blocks are not unique, its success has derived from the way these blocks are combined."

Analysts at Barclays initiated their coverage of Netflix stock with an overweight rating paired with a target price of $245, representing about a 15% upside for shares from their Wednesday close. Netflix stock gained 2.24% in early trading on Thursday to $217.28.

Watch all of Jim Cramer's full NYSE live shows right here:

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Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A Swiss group has started a petition to oppose President Donald Trumps visit to the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, later this month.



Campax, described on its website as a progressive nongovernmental organization based in Zurich, launched the campaign after the White House announced Trump would be the first sitting U.S. president to attend the elite gathering in 18 years.



The petition reads that Swiss citizens "ought to resist Trump's inhumane politics," calling for a "World First  not American First vision.



The campaigners also highlighted their disgust with the U.S. administration's decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement and took issue with many of the White House's priorities.



"U.S. President Donald Trump is on outstanding phrases with racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism, misogyny, bellicosity, local climate modify denial, human legal rights abuse and a policy that deepens poverty and inequality," the petition reads.



But event organizers -- who host the world's richest and most powerful global financial, political and media elites each year at the chic ski resort in eastern Switzerland -- had hoped for high-level representation from Washington and are ready to welcome Trump.



Commenting on the news of the presidents announced visit on its website, the World Economic Forum said Trumps presence "will allow participants to get a direct perspective on U.S. political and economic priorities.



White House press secretary Sarah Sanders Wednesday told reporters the president will use the four-day forum, which starts Jan. 23, to talk about his worldview.



"He welcomes the opportunity to go there and advance his America First agenda with world leaders," Sanders said.



But critics say that the Forum couldn't be a more mismatched place for a presentation of the administration's policies.



In his first year in office, critics note, the president has criticized global trade pacts and international treaties that he says put the United States at a disadvantage. His positions are often at odds with the celebrities and chief executives who attend the forum.



The petition headlined "Trump not welcome - stay out of Davos" was launched on the campax.org website at 9 a.m. Wednesday and had gathered some 2,500 signatures by mid-afternoon.



"We would be happy to have 10,000 or 30,000" signatures, Campax chief Andreas Freimuller told Agence France-Presse.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
EAGAN, Minn. & WASHINGTON, D.C.,  Law firms have spent much of the past decade fortifying themselves against anticipated challenges. But strategies based on how the market has behaved in the past may be leaving many firms unprepared for the rapid transformations that are sweeping the legal industry. Those are among the conclusions of the 2018 Report on the State of the Legal Market just issued by the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center and Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute.



The report compares the strategies of many firms to the French strategy of the Maginot Line  a seemingly impregnable fortification that provided a false sense of security until it was easily defeated in the early stages of World War II. Strategic blind spots, decision-making inertia and unwillingness to adapt strategies to changing conditions can lead decision makers to ignore signs that the world has progressed and current strategies may not be working.



In recent years, the law firm market has managed to sustain small annual rate increases and maintain profits per equity partner at acceptable levels, but the report warns these achievements may be masking weaknesses, and causing many firms to fight the last war rather than adapt to new challenges.



Flat demand for law firm services, declining profit margins, weakening collections, falling productivity, and loss of market share to alternative legal service providers and others, are gradually undermining the foundations of firm profitability. For example, the annual declines in productivity since 2007 may not have been sufficient to trigger alarm in any given year. But the average lawyer is now billing 156 fewer hours than they did eleven years ago. At current average rates*, this is costing firms an average of $74,100 in lost revenues per lawyer each year.



The challenges facing law firm leaders in todays market are daunting, notes the report, but the good news is that there are many positive steps that firms can take to address them. Over the last few years, there has been mounting evidence that law firms that proactively address the needs of their clients  e.g., by implementing alternative staffing strategies, pursuing flexible pricing models, adopting work process changes, making better use of innovative technologies, and the like  can achieve significant success.



Sometimes, its all too easy to succumb to the lure of failed strategies that may have worked in the past, to the detriment of taking bold, risky steps to deal with new challenges, such as changing client needs and expectations, said James W. Jones, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law and the report's lead author. Firms that take proactive steps to address these serious market realignments have every prospect of doing well. Meanwhile, traditional strategies and models are increasingly unlikely to lead to future market success.



The report also notes that many of the levers firms used to help counteract the last recession (expense cuts, de-equitizing partner ranks, rate increases, etc.) will likely be less effective during the next economic downturn. The current economic expansion is now the third-longest since World War II, and the impact of the next downturn on the legal industry could be severe.



We are seeing some firms manage to achieve strong growth by breaking away from traditional strategies and better aligning with client expectations and increasing investments in business development and workflow technologies, said Mike Abbott, vice president, Client Management & Global Thought Leadership, Thomson Reuters. But for others, many key foundations that previously contributed to their success are now eroding underneath their feet, leaving them vulnerable to new competitors, further erosion of pricing power, or economic downturns. The willingness to make transformative changes is essential for ensuring long-term success.



The report is jointly issued annually by the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law and Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute, relying on data from Thomson Reuters Peer Monitor. It reviews the performance of U.S. law firms and breaks down the new market realities that drive the need for firms to take a longer-range, more strategic view of their market positions.



The 2018 Report on the State of the Legal Market can be downloaded at: http://legalexecutiveinstitute.com/2018-legal-market-report.



For more information on Peer Monitor, visit legalsolutions.com/peer-monitor.



*Calculated at the Peer Monitor average agreed rate of $475 per hour.



The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law is devoted to promoting interdisciplinary research on the profession informed by an awareness of the dynamics of modern practice; providing students with a sophisticated understanding of the opportunities and challenges of a modern legal career; and furnishing members of the bar, particularly those in organizational decision-making positions, broad perspectives on trends and developments in practice. For more information, see http://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics/centers-institutes/legal-profession/index.cfm.

Thomson Reuters



Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.

CONTACTS

Jeff McCoy

Thomson Reuters

651-687-4091

jeffrey.mccoy@thomsonreuters.com

Tanya Weinberg

Director of Media Relations

Georgetown Law

(202) 662-9694

tanya.weinberg@georgetown.edu


Telefonica, S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services in Europe and Latin America. The company's mobile and related services and products comprise mobile voice, value added, mobile data and Internet, wholesale, corporate, roaming, fixed wireless, and trunking and paging services. Its fixed telecommunication services include PSTN lines; ISDN accesses; public telephone services; local, domestic, and international long-distance and fixed-to-mobile communications; corporate communications; supplementary value-added services; video telephony; intelligent network; and telephony information services, as well as leases and sells handset equipment. The company also provides Internet and broadband multimedia services comprising Internet service provider, portal and network, retail and wholesale broadband access, narrowband switched access, high-speed Internet through fibre to the home, and voice over Internet protocol services. In addition, it offers leased line, virtual private network, fibre optics, web hosting and application, outsourcing and consultancy, desktop, and system integration and professional services. Further, the company offers wholesale services for telecommunication operators, including domestic interconnection and international wholesale services; leased lines for other operators; and local loop leasing services, as well as bit stream services, wholesale line rental accesses, and leased ducts for other operators' fiber deployment. Additionally, it provides video/TV services; smart connectivity and services, and consumer IoT products; financial and other payment, security, cloud computing, advertising, big data, and digital telco experience services; virtual assistants; digital home platforms; and Movistar Home devices. It also offers online telemedicine, home insurance, music streaming, and consumer loan services. The company was incorporated in 1924 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.
M&T Bank Corporation operates as a bank holding company that provides commercial and retail banking services. The company's Business Banking segment offers deposit, lending, cash management, and other financial services to small businesses and professionals. Its Commercial Banking segment provides deposit products, commercial lending and leasing, letters of credit, and cash management services for middle-market and large commercial customers. The company's Commercial Real Estate segment originates, sells, and services commercial real estate loans; and offers deposit services. Its Discretionary Portfolio segment provides deposits; securities, residential real estate loans, and other assets; and short and long term borrowed funds, as well as foreign exchange services. The company's Residential Mortgage Banking segment offers residential real estate loans for consumers and sells those loans in the secondary market; and purchases servicing rights to loans originated by other entities. Its Retail Banking segment offers demand, savings, and time accounts; consumer installment loans, automobile and recreational finance loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, and credit cards; mutual funds and annuities; and other services. The company also provides trust and wealth management; fiduciary and custodial; insurance agency; institutional brokerage and securities; and investment management services. It offers its services through banking offices, business banking centers, telephone and internet banking, and automated teller machines. As of December 31, 2021, the company operates 688 domestic banking offices in New York State, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia; and a full-service commercial banking office in Ontario, Canada. M&T Bank Corporation was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Buffalo, New York.
ALBANY  State Senate Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, on Wednesday denied a former female staffer's allegation that he forcibly kissed her outside a Lark Street bar in 2015.

Klein's hastily called news conference took place just before the Huffington Post published a story detailing the accusations by 30-year-old Erica Vladimer.

The Times Union was made aware of the allegations in November but at the time was not able to confirm the identity of the senator accused of misconduct.

On an afternoon conference call with fellow IDC Sen. Diane Savino, D-Staten Island, Klein told reporters  without identifying Vladimer by name  that they were smoking outside Justin's, which is now Savoy Taproom, on the night of March 31, 2015, following passage of the state budget. According to Klein, the woman has said that he forcibly kissed her while they were outside.

Klein said that he spoke to the woman twice that night, once inside the bar and again when they smoked outside. Both times she invited him to celebrate Passover with her family, which Klein declined, he said, adding they did not have physical contact.

He said that after finishing his cigarette, he remained at the bar for another half hour before leaving.

"Nobody there that night saw anything inappropriate happen because nothing did," he said. "Those are the facts. I just want to make it very clear to everyone that I have nothing to hide and welcome any investigation into the facts of this matter."

Vladimer told the Huffington Post that Klein grabbed her head and pulled her toward him while they were standing outside.

All of a sudden there was a hand on the back of my head and he shoved his tongue down my throat, she told the website. In my head it lasted forever, I dont think it lasted even three seconds.

Vladimer said she went back inside the bar and was very concerned that Savino, who has dated Klein, may have seen what allegedly happened, she told the Huffington Post. She then left the bar.

Klein and Savino, who were dating at the time of the alleged incident, said the woman never filed a claim regarding the allegation. Klein said he heard a rumor the following day about the allegation, but his immediate reaction was to say the incident did not occur and he did not follow up "because it did not appear to require any further action on my part."

Klein said he hired an attorney who conducted interviews about the incident as part of his own investigation. The findings of that internal investigation were released following the call.

"This incident never occurred," Savino said, charging that the large window at the front of the bar, which is below ground level, allows bar patrons to see outside. "And to insinuate that it would have occurred in front of me  and those of you who know me know I would not have remained silent, there would have been an incident that night had this occurred in full view of myself."

Klein said he will remain leader of the eight-member IDC, which has a majority coalition with Senate Republicans.

The senators said Vladimer, whom they did not name, worked for the IDC for two years. Klein said he had little contact with her and she later for another job about a month after the outing at the Lark Street bar. Savino said she first learned of the incident last week, when a Huffington Post reporter reached out to her and IDC spokeswoman Candice Giove about the allegation.

Klein said he has not previously faced allegations of inappropriate behavior.

A few hours after Klein and Savino's conference call, Giove sent out a statement from the other six members of the IDC.

"We have complete confidence in Sen. Klein, and we stand by him," it said. "We understand this is an important moment in our history and we want to continue to encourage women to come forward. However, we know Jeff Klein, and the allegations would be completely out of character for him. He is an longtime champion for women, and for our state."
Independent TD Mattie McGrath has called on Tipperary farming organisations and all interested stakeholders to consider making submissions for plans to revive the Beet industry within the agricultural sector. Deputy McGrath was speaking after a meeting of tillage farmers in County Wexford organised by Irish Grain Growers were informed of plans to construct a Beet processing plant on the Carlow-Kildare border:

Tipperary, and Clonmel and Thurles, in particular, have a very strong history of beet production. It would be a tremendous local boost if we were to actively work toward reviving the days when the beet industry within the county was strong and financially viable.

As I understand it, in terms of employment there are roughly 145,000 sugar beet growers in the EU in 20 different Member States, with a further 28,000 direct employees in the sugar beet processing end of things.

This demonstrates that there is a significant demand to be met and that Ireland and Tipperary can play a vital part in delivering that demand.

It is estimated that the UK alone imports over a million tonnes of beet annually from France. With Brexit coming down the tracks we can and should be reaching out to that market by developing and growing a fantastic indigenous industry.

As the plans for a revived beet industry progress, it is my firm hope that Tipperary farmers will play a significant role, concluded Deputy McGrath.
For the first show of 2018, Clonmel World Music is delighted to welcome Scullion, one of the best ever Irish Folk/Rock bands for the first show in the ninth year of Clonmel World Music shows.

Scullion grew from the chance meeting in the late seventies, of its two main founders, Philip King and Sonny Condell and Robbie Overson. As a band they started rehearsing and writing in a small apartment above a chip shop in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, which eventually followed with regular appearances at various Dublin haunts.

Condell is the creative core and inspiration for the band and he continues to invent and innovate writing music and songs that are powerful, poetic, soulful and joyful. He is one of Irelands most enduring creative artists and with Overson and King creates the signature sound that is Scullion.

Scullions back pages include the anthems, Down In the City; Eyelids into Snow; The Actor; and John the Baptist. Recent Scullion performances have sold out quickly, confirming their status as one of the best Irish bands ever.

During Scullion rest periods the trio keep busy: King with his film and radio work, Bringing it all back home,  Other voices, for TV and the South wind Blows his much loved radio series on RTE Radio One, and countless musical documentaries films. Condell continues with his solo work and songwriting, and goes on tour from time to time with Tir Na nOG, his great collaboration with Leo OKelly. During his rest periods with Scullion, Overson has played with Sean Keane, Eleanor Shanley, Karan Casey and Mary Black.

After a series of successful appearances and performances in 2017, Scullion play their first 2018 show in Ireland in Clonmel on Thursday 18 January and it promises to be the return that has long been anticipated ahead of some new recordings and special shows being planned throughout Ireland for 2018.

The band never stopped, we just have some periods of intense rest. Philip is a successful filmmaker and broadcaster and produces Other Voices and I have my own band and recording career, Robbie plays music the world over, so we come together when the time is right for us, explains Condell.

Doors for the gig will open at 8pm, and the music will commence at 9pm. Tickets for this great gig are on sale now, and are available online at www.clonmelworldmusic.com, also in Marians Bookshop. OConnell St. Clonmel, from South Tipperary Arts Centre, Nelson Street Clonmel, or from Gerry Lawless on 086 3389619.
The founder of the Family of Mary order will be in Tipperary this coming weekend and will participate in a special morning of prayer at Glencomeragh House in Kilsheelan  the Orders centre in Ireland.

Father Paul Maria Sigl (pictured) will be in Tipperary for the celebration of the first Irish Mass of recently ordained Thurles man, Fr Niall O'Riordan, which takes place in the Cathedral of the Assumption on Sunday afternoon next. And, he will be accompanied by a sizeable cohort of his colleagues for the joyous celebrations which will commence with an invitation to a morning of prayer in honour of Our Lady of All Nations in Glencomeragh House on Saturday morning at 10:00am. Eucharistic Adoration from 10-11:00am will be followed by a conference with Father Paul for the next hour, and the morning will conclude with Holy Mass at 12 noon.



Fr Paul Maria Sigl

Father Paul participated in the ordination of four men in his Order on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, Rome with Father Niall being the only Irishman ordained on this occasion. However, Fr Patrick Cahill, also a Thurles man, was ordained a few years ago and now heads up the Glencomeragh House facility on behalf of the Order. The Rosminian Order, which previously owned, and ran, the Glencomeragh house of prayer, officially handed over the building to the Diocese of Waterford & Lismore to run as a house of prayer for young adults.

Thurles native Fr Patrick Cahill.

It is being run by the Holy Family Mission having been officially opened by the then Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown in November 2016.

Further information on the morning of prayer can be obatained from Fr Patrick at 085 8221708 or from Glencomeragh House at 052 6133181.

All are welcome to come along and take some time out in reflection and prayer at the centre.
I'm ditching Android for the iPhone  and it's all because of this one thing

Being the only Android user when everyone else uses an iPhone can be a lonely experience, especially when it comes messaging software and the iPhone's notorious green bubble for Android users.
LAS VEGAS  Headphones have typically had one purpose: to play music, and to do it well.



Beyerdynamic, however, is giving the ubiquitous technology a new function: testing your hearing. I went ears-on with the company's latest cans, the Aventho Wireless, on the CES Showstoppers show floor here today (Jan. 10), and I was surprised by what I heard.

Currently available for $449, the Aventho Wireless headphones look every bit like a premium pair of cans. Constructed in Germany, the on-ear headphones are constructed from pillowy soft leather and metal. They're simple, refined and sturdy all at once. You'll find touch controls embedded in the right earcup.

MORE: Best Headphones

But the Aventhos are more than a pretty piece of tech. Using a free app called MIY (Make It Yours), the headphones administer a quick hearing test in each ear, creating a unique profile using something called Mimi Sound Personalization. If you're in a hurry to rock out, you can simply enter the year you were born, and MIY will create a profile with the approximate hearing profile for your age group.

Created in conjunction with audiologists from Mimi Hearing Technologies, MIY takes your hearing health to the next level, monitoring volume and listening duration. If you creep up on the 60-minute daily headphone limit that the World Health Organization recommends to maintain healthy hearing, the app will warn you with a prompt. Beyerdynamic and Mimi Hearing are so serious about your aural health that they're currently working to get the app certified by the FDA.

MORE: 8 Cheap Noise-Canceling Headphones

With the MIY customization applied, the Eagles' "Hotel California" had a lot more depth and warmth than what the headphones alone offered. It's not that the Aventhos sounded bad on their own  I could just pick up a lot more detail with the app switched on. As far as battery life is concerned, Beyerdynamic claims the Aventhos will last up to 20 hours on a single charge.

I'm looking forward to the chance to put the Aventho Wireless headphones through more rigorous real-world testing, such as blocking out the noise of the New York City subway. But I'm most intrigued by the MIY app and what it could mean for maintaining my hearing, especially if the app gets approved by the FDA. I hope these sonic personalization headphones will usher in awareness about good aural health overall.
Magic Leap 2 release date, price and all the new features

After the first Magic Leap glasses failed to take off, the company went back to the drawing board. Magic Leap 2 is the next attempt to make augmented reality happen. Heres what we know so far.
No phone maker has done a better job delivering value for money than OnePlus, and the new feature-packed OnePlus 6 is true to that goal.

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

The OnePlus 6 is like a certain NBA team whose return trip to the Finals is guaranteed just by bringing back the same players. It was a pretty safe bet that as long as OnePlus made the requisite annual updates, like improving the device's processor and dual cameras, the OnePlus 6 (starting at $529) would be another hit.

Sure enough, OnePlus has defined this year's flagship killer, with all the performance and features you could possibly want from any smartphone, rolled into a package that costs hundreds less than top-tier offerings from Apple, Samsung and Google. And while the company's value-for-money trick might not be as surprising or special the fifth time around, cash-strapped buyers can't argue with the results.



Update July 2: OnePlus will be offering a red version of the OnePlus for $579 that includes 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. It goes on sale July 10.



Price and Availability

The OnePlus 6 begins shipping on May 22, and you can preorder (opens in new tab) it now direct from the company. The base variant, priced at $529 and clad in a Mirror Black finish, is $30 more expensive than the cheapest OnePlus 5T was, but comes with the same 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.



Coughing up an extra $40 will grant you 8GB of RAM and double the space for media and apps. This configuration is available in the same guise as the cheaper one, as well as a matte-like Midnight Black and, as of June 5, a special edition Silk White colorway finished off with a hint of rose gold. Finally, topping the food chain is a variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, exclusively sold in Midnight Black and going for $629.

Like its predecessors, every OnePlus 6 is unlocked and compatible with GSM networks, including AT&T and T-Mobile. And if you're toying with picking one up yourself, a word to the wise: OnePlus makes limited quantities of all its phones, and it sells just one model at a time. Although the company has assured us it is building more of the OnePlus 6 than it did the 5T, that phone was discontinued after just five months  so don't say we didn't warn you.

OnePlus 6 Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally Price $529/$579/$629 OS Android 8.1 Oreo with OxygenOS Screen Size (Resolution) 6.28-inch AMOLED (2280 x 1080) CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 RAM 6GB/8GB Storage 64GB/128GB/256GB microSD Slot No Rear Camera Dual: 16 MP (f/1.7) with OIS; 20 MP (f/1.7) Front Camera 16 MP (f/2.0) Battery Size 3,300 mAh Water Resistance None Size 6.13 x 2.97 x 0.30 inches

Design: Big and beautiful

After several years of fitting its handsets with aluminum, OnePlus has transitioned to Gorilla Glass 5 all around with the OnePlus 6. Skeptics might fear a step backward in durability, but OnePlus says it has lavished the same attention on these glass backs as it had with the metal on any previous OnePlus device, and the effort shows.

In fact, the company specially treated each glass on each colorway independently, to emulate different materials. For example, our Mirror Black model evokes the depth and reflectivity of polished ceramic, while the Midnight Black version approaches the matte sheen of the OnePlus 5 or 5T. OnePlus' designers actually perforated the surface of the glass on the latter model with imperceptible holes to reveal the layer of film beneath.

The attention to detail is definitely appreciated, especially for such a relatively inexpensive handset. And because this is a OnePlus device, the thoughtful touches don't stop there. The company's handy Alert Slider returns on the OnePlus 6, though it's migrated from the left to the right edge since we last saw it. Better yet, users clutching onto their trusty wired headphones can breathe a sigh of relief, as the headphone jack has been miraculously spared.

However, OnePlus could go only so far working with glass. The OnePlus 6 lacks the heft or density of metal, nor does it feel quite as solid as the 5T. And despite no longer employing metal, OnePlus hasn't used that opportunity to enable wireless charging, a feature that has cropped up on a growing number of flagship phones over the past year. True water resistance also remains absent from OnePlus' devices.

The other major design change pertains to the OnePlus 6's notch, an element OnePlus publicized itself when it confirmed the notch's existence back in March. While I'm personally indifferent to this year's defining phone trend, I like that OnePlus owned up to it instead of playing it down. And truthfully, I didn't find it terribly obtrusive after spending a week with the phone. But if you remain vehemently opposed to a feature that is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid, there's a setting that hides the notch by painting the status bar black.

Those drawn to the OnePlus 6 for its no-compromise approach to features may find themselves compromising quite a bit when it comes to ergonomics.

My biggest gripe about the OnePlus 6's design actually does pertain to the notch, but only tangentially. Many phone makers have defended the notch because it increases usable screen space. In theory, this should allow for smaller devices with larger displays, much like the shift to 18:9 displays did. The LG G7 ThinQ, for example, shoehorns a massive 6.1-inch panel within a relatively compact footprint because it combines a notch with minimal bezels. This gives the user a ton of room to work with, while simultaneously making the whole thing easier to hold.

The 6.28-inch OnePlus 6, on the other hand, sports almost exactly the same dimensions as the notch-less 5T. The result is a handset with a screen that is much larger than it needs to be, and a device that I reckon many users will find clumsy, if not impossible, to cradle one-handed. Slap one of OnePlus' fine cases on the OnePlus 6, and it becomes just as tall and a bit wider than Samsung's 6.3-inch Galaxy Note 8. Those drawn to the OnePlus 6 for its no-compromise approach to features may find themselves compromising quite a bit when it comes to ergonomics.

Display: Stunning at any price

Of all the qualities that makes the OnePlus 6 remarkable for its price, its 6.28-inch AMOLED display might be the most compelling. This is a gorgeous panel eclipsed only by those in Samsung's latest flagships, which offer better brightness and pixel density. But the gap isn't as wide as you might assume.

To put what OnePlus has achieved into perspective, most phones at the $500 level, like the Honor View 10, the Essential Phone and the upcoming Asus ZenFone 5Z, come equipped with LCD screens. They tend to get the job done, but they're never anything special. The same can be said for even pricier devices like the LG G7 ThinQ and Sony Xperia XZ2, which are on the bleeding edge of LCD technology with HDR support and even more radiant backlighting.

Sat next to the OnePlus 6, any of those LCD handsets appear a generation behind. Darker scenes approximate a pastiche of grays on these phones, when they should be black. Hues that should look juicy and saturated are hazy and washed out. And if you think the OnePlus 6's representation of your favorite movie plays up the color a little too strongly, you can change the display profile to a more realistic sRGB or DCI-P3 palette.

The OnePlus 6 delivered a peak full-screen brightness of 574 nits when measured with our light meter, which is dead even with the iPhone X and not far off the Galaxy S9's 603 nits. It's also a vast improvement over the 394 nits we measured last year on the OnePlus 5T.

Regarding color reproduction, the OnePlus 6 registered a 240.3 color gamut within the sRGB spectrum, which is actually more than the Galaxy S9 at 220 percent  though those results will differ significantly if you opt for one of the alternate color profiles.

The OnePlus 6's display proved to be not only vivid but properly calibrated, with a Delta-E accuracy score of 0.39 (numbers closer to zero are better). Again, this was identical to the Galaxy S9, which notched a 0.40 result.

Camera: Good, but not great

Like OnePlus' previous phone, the OnePlus 6 relies on a pairing of 16- and 20-megapixel lenses at the back to handle photos. Both cameras have a wide f/1.7 aperture, and employ the same wide-view angle. That means you don't get the benefit of a telephoto perspective or optical zoom on that secondary lens like you do on either the iPhone X or the Galaxy S9+. But on the plus side, low-light performance should be better than it was on previous OnePlus phones, thanks to that larger aperture.

In fact, the two major improvements OnePlus made to its camera system were specifically designed to capture better shots in dim scenarios. The main 16-MP shooter is now equipped with optical-image stabilization, which will help mitigate blur when the camera needs to slow down the shutter speed to let more light in. The new primary image sensor is also 19 percent larger than that of the OnePlus 5T.

Additionally, OnePlus has leveraged the power of Qualcomm's Spectra 280 image signal processor to enable super slow-motion video at 480 frames per second (fps) and 720p resolution. While that's half as slow as the Galaxy S9's 960 fps mode, on the OnePlus 6 you can record for up to a minute. The Galaxy S9 can capture only 960 fps in very short bursts, like 1.2 seconds, played back in real time over a 6-second clip.

On a dreary morning in New York City, the OnePlus 6 delivered a balanced shot with strong contrast that compared favorably to what the Pixel 2 XL mustered. When you zoom in, however, Google's phone begins to show why it's our favorite for photography. The Pixel 2 XL exhibits more realistic greens, less noise and less distortion at the fringes. The Pixel's rendition is a fair bit sharper as well, something particularly evident in the buildings in the distance.

In our office, the OnePlus 6 composed a brighter still-life scene than the Pixel 2 XL, though that came at the expense of some clarity. OnePlus' device fails to properly convey the texture of the leaves, partially due to a lack of sharpness, and partially because of inferior dynamic range. The clouds through the window are also blown out on the OnePlus 6, which highlights the strength of Google's HDR processing.

A low-light test demonstrated OnePlus' enhancements weren't just lip service. While the OnePlus 6's shot is perhaps a hair darker, there's so much less noise in comparison to what the Pixel 2 managed that it's really no contest. An impressive feat, considering the Pixel 2's excellent low-light capabilities were primarily the reason why it earned the top spot in our photo comparison against the iPhone X and Galaxy S9+.

When it comes to shallow depth-of-field portraits, however, OnePlus still has work to do. The Pixel 2 XL handily outperformed the OnePlus 6 when I snapped photos of my colleague Paul, with crisper detail, more accurate white balance and impressive dynamic range that artfully reined in the highlights and lowlights. The OnePlus 6 was completely thrown off by the intensity of the fluorescent lighting in our office, misinterpreted Paul's skin tone and seemed ever so slightly blurrier all around.

I called upon both device's portrait modes a second time to take pictures of a flower, and despite having one less lens on the back, the Pixel 2 XL pulled out yet another gorgeous bokeh-effect shot. The OnePlus 6 applied less blur to the background and generally lacked the warmth that made the lavender burst from the frame in the image captured by Google's flagship.

Rounding out the comparison is a selfie from the OnePlus 6's front-facing 16-MP camera that is oddly flat and devoid of contrast. The Pixel 2 XL's shooter may be half the resolution, but there's no doubt it produced a more realistic portrait, visible in the texture of my skin as well as the color of my sweater.

Ultimately, while the OnePlus 6's photography won't top the Pixel 2's in every scenario, it will surprise you from time to time. Google's flagship begins at $649 for the 5-inch model, which has identical cameras to the $849 Pixel 2 XL we tested here. That translates to a $120 difference between the base models of OnePlus' and Google's phones. The Pixel's photos are surely better, but whether they're worth at least $120 more is debatable.

Either way, owners will appreciate that OnePlus continues to make its cameras better after release. The OnePlus 6's software was updated in June to include Google Lens. Previously, users who wanted to summon Google Lens had to take a picture, then analyze it inside the Google Photos app. Now, that can be done while using the camera in real time.

Google Lens appears as a new mode alongside Portrait, Panorama and the rest. Owners can either sideload the new camera APK now or wait for a future OTA update, which will discreetly add the feature.



Performance: Blazing fast

Armed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with Adreno 630 graphics, as well as either 6GB or 8GB of RAM depending on the model, the OnePlus 6 is up there with the year's fastest phones. Of course, those specs apply to almost every 2018 Android flagship, so it was interesting to find the OnePlus 6 outperform its rivals by a respectable margin in benchmarks.

In Geekbench 4, which measures overall system performance, our 8GB OnePlus 6 turned in a score of 9,098  well beyond the LG G7 (8,566) or the Galaxy S9+ (8,295), both of which feature less RAM. In fact, the OnePlus 6 gets closer to the A11 Bionic-powered iPhone X's 10,357 score than any other handset we've tested thus far.

3D Mark's Sling Shot Extreme OpenGL ES 3.1 graphics test produced similarly impressive results, with the OnePlus 6 reaching 5,124. Again, that's higher than both the LG G7 at 4,201 and the Galaxy S9+ at 4,634.

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How can the OnePlus 6 be so much faster with almost identical hardware? It might have something to do with clever under-the-hood tweaks. OnePlus tells us its latest phone renders on-screen content differently than most Android devices, by neglecting to draw layers that aren't visible to the user. Because of this, the company has cited gains of up to 10 percent faster app- loading times. That may explain why the OnePlus 6 not only tests but feels a hair quicker than nearly every phone out there.

The OnePlus 6 rarely wavered in its performance, no matter how we pushed its limits. Whether it was highly demanding multiplayer titles like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Mobile or crushing a succession of tasks in split-window mode, the phone handled almost everything without breaking a sweat.

I say "almost" because our real-world test of transcoding a 2-minute 4K video into 1080p via the Adobe Premiere Clip app seemed to trip the OnePlus 6 up. Many premium handsets can do this in less than 3 minutes  Google's Pixel 2's time was 2:55, while the Galaxy S9 took 2:32 and the iPhone X brushed it off in a mere 47 seconds. Yet it took OnePlus' latest phone 3 minutes and 45 seconds to do the same.

We haven't witnessed this kind of delay in any other application, and, on paper, the OnePlus 6 seems as though it would be too powerful to lose here. If anything, it's yet more proof that even the most powerful phones aren't perfect across the board, and their advantages and disadvantages reveal themselves in strange ways.

Battery Life: One step forward, one step back

Despite all that's changed in the OnePlus 6, the 3,300-mAh battery and Dash Charge technology used in the OnePlus 5 and 5T appear exactly the same here. It's not hard to see why  the OnePlus 5T was clocked as the fastest-charging smartphone of any we tested last year, and it delivered a commendable 11 hours and 22 minutes on our battery test.

Dash Charge remains a miracle charging solution.

Now, the OnePlus 6 has a larger screen, but it also has a slightly more efficient chipset, based on Qualcomm's figures on the Snapdragon 845. Unfortunately, the math didn't work out in the phone's favor, as it delivered 10 hours and 33 minutes in the same test, streaming websites from full to empty on T-Mobile's LTE network.

MORE: Smartphones with the Longest Battery Life

That's still pretty good in the grand scheme of things  the average smartphone lasts 9:50 on our test  but it is yet another step back after the OnePlus 5 managed 13:06 nearly a year ago. It's also quite a way off from the Huawei Mate 10 Pro's 14:39 and the Pixel 2 XL's 12:09, while the Galaxy S9+ and the iPhone X edged it out just barely at 10:59 and 10:49.

Thankfully, Dash Charge remains the miracle charging solution it was the last time around, as the OnePlus 6 once again posted the quickest times we've ever seen. The device reached 30 percent in 15 minutes, 60 percent in 30 minutes and 93 percent in an hour on the stock adapter. Those aren't just spot on with our previous results; they also align perfectly with OnePlus' claims, which, as we found during that aforementioned charging speed test, is a rare thing in this industry.

Software: Gestures you'll love

Android 8.1 Oreo and OnePlus' Oxygen OS 5.1.3 combine for a speedy and intuitive experience on the OnePlus 6, topped off with yet another major feature inspired by the iPhone X. However, this is one you definitely won't want to ignore.

OnePlus has introduced its own optional gesture-based navigation system in the OnePlus 6, and it actually differs considerably from what Android P will introduce later this year in a few pleasant ways. For starters, OnePlus' scheme doesn't require any sort of bar to house controls at the bottom of the screen. This is one of the major oversights of the current solution in the Android P beta, as it shows Google has missed the point why gestures might be preferable to buttons in the first place  to allow content to fill more of the display.

Without buttons, OnePlus' system works like this: You swipe up to go home, and swipe up and hold to view recent apps, just like the iPhone X. To go back, you swipe up from either the left or right side. I was able to get the hang of it in no time at all, and its quickly become my preferred way to use the OnePlus 6.

In some ways, OnePlus' gestures are brilliantly simple. Besides freeing up screen space, they're also equally manageable for left- and right-handed users alike, because you can go back from either corner. Although there's no shortcut to open the app drawer from any screen, that doesn't seem to be a terribly costly omission. A bigger MIA feature could be the lack of a suggested apps list when you're thumbing through your recents, but that's a new capability special to Android P that many users probably won't notice missing.

I was able to get the hang of the OnePlus 6's gestures in no time at all, and it's quickly become my preferred way of using the device.

No, the biggest problem with OnePlus' system is that it doesn't give Google Assistant a home, because there's no button to long press. Of course you can still access it with "OK Google," but that won't help much if you need to be silent and use the keyboard to type in queries. A few years ago, this might have been inconsequential, but the Assistant has morphed into a powerful asset for users that's becoming increasingly inseparable with Android.

Getting rid of a major way to access Google Assistant will surely rub some OnePlus 6 owners the wrong way, but perhaps the company can address that in an update. If not, the traditional three-button navigation remains available, and is still the default setting out of the box.

MORE: Android Tips to Unlock Your Phone's Full Potential

In addition to gestures, OnePlus has expanded its Gaming Mode beyond notification management with a handful of new features. Users can now prioritize data bandwidth for the game they're playing  forcing background processes and apps to take a breather to allow more throughput for multiplayer titles. There's also Gaming Battery Saver, which adjusts performance in apps that use the Unity Game Engine to prioritize longevity, rather than graphics.

Finally, Face Unlock returns after its introduction in the OnePlus 5T. While it functions exactly the same as before, using it in these spring months has demonstrated that it's not the best way to reliably unlock the phone if you prefer sunglasses. Our OnePlus 6 never passed the shades test in my experience, though it remained fast as ever when I took them off. And because it operates entirely in 2D without a depth map, it's not as secure as Face ID and can be fooled with a photograph  meaning you still can't use it to authenticate payments.

Bottom Line

If it were $200 more expensive, the OnePlus 6 would still be worthy of a recommendation. But starting at $529, it's a steal.

OnePlus has put on yet another master class in giving buyers exactly the features they want, in a package that is refined, rather than fraught with gimmicks. The performance and display are first rate, the design is meticulous (if a little on the unwieldy side) and the battery, even though it's taken a step back regarding longevity, remains the quickest to get up and running. The software and gestures are thoughtful, and although the camera can t go toe-to-toe with the Pixel 2's, it more than suffices given what you're paying.

Even without some desirable extras, like wireless charging, expandable storage or water resistance, the OnePlus 6 gets closer to covering all the bases and fulfilling most buyers' demands than any other smartphone. And it does so while saving you hundreds compared with the $720 Galaxy S9, let alone even pricier handsets like the $849 Pixel 2 XL and the $999 iPhone X.

That makes it all the more disheartening that the OnePlus 6 comes with a major caveat  a familiar refrain that lets down the best unlocked devices on our shores: If you subscribe to Verizon or Sprint, you can't use it. If you count yourself among the lucky half of the nation that can, snag a device while they're in stock  OnePlus' devices have a nasty habit of selling out too quickly.

Credit: Shaun Lucas/Tom's Guide


Samsung's Galaxy S9  and possibly other future Android smartphones  is likely to come with a feature that could help you listen to songs, as well as keep you safe in an emergency. A company called Tagstation, which manages the Next Radio app, has announced that Samsung is planning to turn on the FM radio chips in its future smartphone releases. The unlocking will take place only in the U.S. and Canada, however, according to the report.





(Image credit: Tom's Guide)



With their FM chips unlocked, Samsung handset owners will be able to listen to free FM radio signals through the free NextRadio app. Samsung, like many other handset makers, has locked FM radio chips in the past, requiring you to stream FM radio signals from over the Internet to access channels.



Tagstation said that it believes the move could ultimately help you use less battery and data by not relying on streaming services to access FM radio stations. More importantly, though, the move could also be a life-saving one.



MORE: Gorgeous Galaxy S9 Could Look Like This



Following the widespread devastation of Puerto Rico, Florida and Texas due to massive storms, citizens found it very hard to communicate. In Puerto Rico, specifically, victims of the devastating hurricane were unable to place calls or access the Internet from their phones. Meanwhile, emergency information came via FM radio signals  which, in many cases, the victims couldn't access, because their chips were locked.



Following the situation in Puerto Rico, regulators and companies like Tagstation, among others, called on major tech companies to unlock their FM chips. They argued it could ultimately save lives.



In a statement announcing the Samsung partnership this week, NextRadio president Paul Brenner said that Samsung's decision to unlock the FM chip will provide "a means to connect with life-saving information in emergencies."



Tagstation didn't say which future smartphones will have their FM radios unlocked, but given the timing and the fact that the Galaxy S9 is slated to launch next month, there's a good chance that Samsung's new flagship model be one of them.




During the AU-EU Summit, the Commission outlined plans for its future development policy. However, it remains open how it intends to ensure that the European Development Goals in the future are not primarily a reward for migration control measures.



With the EUs help, we have succeeded in developing a completely new source of added value. This will enable us to ensure that more than 5,000 participants and their families no longer suffer from poverty, produce autonomously and develop a perspective for the future, says D.A. Nii-Noi Adumuah, the head of the Ghanaian community of Adentan.

In Adentan, the EU is supporting one out of 37 Ghanaian projects over the 2016-2020 period. The municipality focuses on mushroom cultivation: from training over job creation to a subsidised purchase of the produced goods. With 820,000 in European funds, mushrooms from Adentan will soon be found in pizza, bread or chips throughout Ghana.

The interest in such regional offers is huge. Together with the authorities of the Greater Accra district, this creates a production and sales chain that is not only a pilot project but also creates structures that can function in the long term, Nii-Noi Adumuah says. he hopes that one day mushrooms from Adentan will be found in neighbouring African countries too.

But he wonders about the fears and plans in Europe: Within the ECOWAS countries, we have the option to stay visa-free for 90 days. Many African sales agents use this opportunity to do business. By the way, many Europeans do that too. What we, Africans, need are free trade routes for our products.

He is convinced that with educational and employment opportunities in African countries, fewer people will emigrate to Europe. So why create physical and mental borders between African countries when they are a prevention for an intra-African labour and trade movement, he wonders.

Reducing inequalities and increasing the mobilisation of domestic resources should be at the heart of the European External Investment Plan (EEIP), says Xavier Sol, director of the NGO Counter Balance.

If the external investment plan is meant to be an innovative tool, it must focus on quality projects that offer a high development value. Focus on small projects with positive social and environmental impacts for the local population and territories is necessary.

Yet, European goods are still flooding local markets and destroying them so it remains questionable how sustainable European development policy really is.

Schengen for us, fences for Africa

According to the theses on migration control in the German newspaper taz, European money flows predominantly to places where migration figures can be reduced quickly  countries like Niger, Eritrea, Sudan or Mali.

The losers are Africans, just like in colonial times. Development experts have been warning for a long time that the first steps in intra-African market liberalisation and labour migration, joint visa regulation or the free movement of goods could be dashed by the EUs efforts to strengthen intra-African borders.

If the EU succeeds in establishing Fortress Europe on the African continent, the European migration defence would be a side jab on the development policy in the African states. What is more important is that the European External Investment Plan (EEIP) is decoupled from European migration strategies and that it meets real development needs, says a report by Counter Balance NGO that monitors public investment banks.

Help through trade

Regional integration is the magic word which can bring economic development. Before the EU-AU summit, the Parliament with great majority adopted the EU-Africa Strategy, which proposes the creation of a continental free trade zone to boost inner-African trade by 50% until 2050.

But for that, effective escape clauses, asymmetrical liberalisation plans, protection for developing branches, simplification and transparency of custom proceedings are needed.

The EU is already one of the biggest Aid for Trade donors worldwide. In 2015 alone, it provided an annual record sum of 13.16 billion. The Aid for Trade strategy aims at better coordination and combination of already present instruments for development financing at the European and national level.

This can also benefit companies like Golden Exotic Limited (GEL) in Kasunya, one of Ghanas most modern and innovative banana plantations. It will receive more than 7 million under the Banana Aid Measures [BAM  a European aid fund designed to facilitate trade between banana-producing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific] over the 2015-2018 period.

GEL is currently the largest exporter of bananas (51,000 tonnes per year) for the European and regional markets.

We are concerned about the EUs intended free trade agreement with Latin American countries. They are direct competitors for African banana cultivation. Although we comply with Fairtrade and all EU Commission seals of approval, our products are already subject to stricter tariff and trade restrictions. As long as there is no free trade agreement with Africa, the agreement with Latin America would be another competitive disadvantage, says Golden Exotic Limited.

If the trade routes to North Africa are hampered by new border and trade regulations, this would be an additional barrier for intra-African trade.

This article was first published by EURACTIV Germany, and translated by Alexandra Brzozowski.
The dream of achieving low airfare in Africa may soon be realised should the African Unions plans run full course.

The bloc expects to launch its Single African Air Transport Market at the end of this month in Ethiopia.

According to the AU, 23 regional countries have committed to the cause whose full implementation will see, among other benefits, the cost of air travel drop by more than 25 per cent.

AU chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat in his New Year message said SAATM will be launched on the margins of the African Union Summit to be held between January 22-29 this year.

Twenty-three member States have pledged their solemn commitment to the Single Air Market, the implementation of which will increase the number of routes, reduce the cost of air travel and contribute to the expansion of intra-African trade and tourism, said Mr Mahamat in the statement.

Efforts to have African countries open up a common airspace has been frustrated by States that want to protect their weak airlines from competition, raising debate on whether this will be achieved.

Ministers of Infrastructure from Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) in a report last year October said some countries have been reluctant to embrace full implementation of a seamless airspace as it will expose their airlines to stiff competition.

Implementation has been hampered by reluctance by States that claim to have weak airlines to embrace full implementation as their airlines cannot compete, said the report in part.

The African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) is spearheading the creation of a seamless airspace in Africa.

Kenya is among the countries that have signed commitment to the implementation of the common airspace.

Regional countries have been trying to create a seamless airline since 1999 to no avail due to lack of enforcement mechanisms and domestication of agreements by States.

East African Community states, with an exception of Tanzania and Burundi, have been pushing for the formation of a common airspace in the past.

The four countries: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan were to negotiate air service agreements with foreign countries as one bloc.

The greatest benefit was expected to come from the classification of flights between the four countries as domestic airlines whenever they fly to each of the member states.

Rwanda in December 2016 signed a deal with Uganda and South Sudan to establish a legal framework for talks that were expected to see local airlines attaining what is technically known as fifth freedom rights along Juba-Nairobi, Nairobi-Juba routes.

In aviation, fifth freedom rights mean an airline is allowed to ferry passengers from one country to another and from that country to a third country.
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It's only happening in half the world. The rest of us can keep using plastic sticks. (Don't they know about ocean currents?)

This week, in response to consumer pressure, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson changed its outdated recipe for cotton buds (also known as cotton swabs). From now on, some of them will be made with paper sticks, instead of plastic. This is an important change because there is no proper way to dispose of cotton buds. They cannot be recycled, so after use theyre either tossed in the trash or flushed down the toilet, ultimately ending up in waterways and along shorelines  forever.

According to the Marine Conservation Society, which conducts annual beach clean-ups in the UK, plastic cotton buds were the sixth most common plastic waste item found on British beaches in 2016.

Johnson & Johnson has recognized the unnecessary damage caused by its plastic sticks. Group marketing manager Niamh Finan told The Independent:

We recognise that our products have an environmental footprint, and thats why were working hard to continually improve and champion best practice in sustainability, in line with our companys founding principles.



Scottish environmental group Fidra, which has long campaigned against plastic cotton buds, heralds the decision as a great success. Stated in a press release published on its Cotton Bud Project website:

The fact that cotton buds continue to be flushed down the toilet and escape through sewage works into the environment means it remains a problem. Switching cotton bud stems from plastic to 100% paper could provide a solution to this problem, combined with campaigns to raise consumer awareness about correct disposal methods. Paper stems should not be flushed, but those that do reach the sewage system will become waterlogged and settle out of wastewater, never reaching our beaches.



Hillary Daniels /CC BY 2.0

There is something extraordinary, however, about Johnson & Johnsons decision. The company is only switching from plastic to paper sticks in half the world. So stores in Europe will get paper-only sticks, but it seems that Australia, North America, and Asia will continue to stock plastic. Currently, there is no mention of whether or not the change will be happening elsewhere.

It is an oddly localized response to a serious global crisis. Ocean plastic pollution is a problem of the commons  something for which we all must take responsibility, no matter where we live. Responding naively by region doesnt even work because places like the UK receive plastic trash from all parts of the globe. (Watch A Plastic Tide documentary to learn the tragic story of a community in Scotland where Asias garbage washes up daily.)

The other irritating thing is that cotton buds, whether plastic or paper, are an example of an utterly superfluous product  something we dont even need to manufacture in the first place. Doing away with them all together would be a better way of professing concern for the planet  not only for the oceans but also for the cotton fields that soak up most of the worlds agrochemicals.

Ocean plastic pollution is a problem of the commons  something for which we all must take responsibility, no matter where we live.

One good thing to come out of the decision is reducing plastic production overall. Fidras press release cites research by British supermarket chain Waitrose, estimating this change will save 21 tons of plastic a year. But seriously, thats a mere drop in the ocean compared to the 4.8-12.7 million tons of total plastic waste that researchers calculate are entering our oceans every year.

I havent bought cotton buds in nearly a decade; I suspect its similar for most people who care deeply about avoiding single-use disposables. Suffice it to say; this regional corporate decision doesnt impress me all that much. Why can't Johnson & Johnson, at the very least, make the transition to all-paper buds worldwide? That would be some real progress.
I have seen questions and posts in this forum about trips to Guadalajara, in fact, this is where we got the idea to go. I am going to share a detailed description of our recent trip in the hope that this will be helpful to future travelers. Many thanks to all the people on the PV and GDL forums who answered our many questions via private message.

I am going to start with some general tips and comments. Guadalajara is probably the last large city in North America or Western Europe that is racially and linguistically homogeneous. Very little English is spoken. Consequently, there are a few tools that I recommend. First, get some basic Spanish greetings and expressions in your vocabulary (a little respect goes a long way). You must have a translation app and a mapping app on your phone (I used regular taxis twice and, on both occasions, I had to show the drivers directions to our apartment). I also highly recommend UBER  it does the communicating for you (usually  more on that later).

Another general comment: Guadalajara is a great bargain. The prices are a fraction of what you would pay in PV for taxis and UBER, restaurant food, ceramics, glassware, discount clothing, etc. For example: at a pub chain called Cerveceria Chapultepec (we saw one in Tlaquepaque and 2 on Paseo Chapultepec), every menu item is 19 pesos. That includes bottled beer, cocktails, shrimp or beef sliders, fries, snack food, etc. Another example, my wife bought a metal candy tray for 90 pesos. We saw the same tray for 290 pesos in PV.

Many in this forum recommend hotels in the Centro close to the historic plazas. We opted to stay in an apartment in Colonia Americana and are very happy we did. First, we could walk to and from Centro (in about 30 minutes). Second, Centro was teeming with people  the crowds were unbelievable (maybe it was the pre-Christmas rush, but the streets seemed even busier than Mexico City). We really appreciated being able to get away from Centro in the evening and having a little more sidewalk space. Also, Americana is a hip area  there are many young, stylish people around and there are lots of options for great coffee and excellent dinners. For example, there was a top-quality wood fire oven pizza restaurant a block from us where a large margarita pizza (with a ton of basil) was 80 pesos. Also, Americana has many beautiful restored mansions  exploring the area was delightful.

Saturday Dec 16

We had flown to PV from Vancouver on Thursday December 14. On Saturday morning, we took a cab to the bus depot. I had pre-booked tickets on ETN. I chose them because I thought it would be fun to sit up top at the front of a double decker bus  and ETN allows you to reserve a specific seat on-line (paying with Visa was difficult so I used PayPal). Unfortunately, it was a rainy day with very poor visibility in the mountains. The bus ride was long  traffic crawled through the mountain toward Sayulita and then again in the city. We had thought about getting off in Zapopan (on the western side of the city) but stayed on the bus for the excruciating bumper to bumper crawl to the main terminal. Fortunately, the bus was very comfortable with clean washrooms and a free ham and processed cheese sandwich.

There were many taxis waiting right in front of the bus depot. I had the address of our apartment written down. I was able to communicate that it was in Colonia Americana near Paseo Chapultepec. We seemed to be passed from cabbie to cabbie until we were taken by a grumpy guy. He warmed up when I attempted my Spanish on him and got even nicer when I gave him directions to our side street on my phone. He ended up hugging us goodbye at our destination. This was a pattern: people we interacted with seemed frosty and distant at first  and then became friendly (and in a few cases magically developed the ability to communicate in English) when we let them know we were from Vancouver (Vancouver might be a thing here: we saw a chain called Vancouver Wings  wings are not any sort of specialty in BC; we also saw a Vancouver English School with a big Canadian flag out front).

We had booked a pub tour in Americana for our first night (through Guadalajara Food Tours on TA). We were starving when we settled into our apartment, so we wandered out to have a late lunch/ dinner. We went to the first place we found, Senior Stone  tasty cheap food in a college/ punk rock environment. We got drenched on the way back to our apartment. Long story short, we cancelled our pub crawl (and were graciously offered to go on the food tour the next day).

Sunday Dec 17

This was our first opportunity to wander Americana and enjoy the beautifully restored homes in the area. On Libertad, we found a nice little restaurant called La Cafeteria. We had good coffee and a delicious breakfast on a pretty patio surrounded by greenery and poinsettias. The patrons looked well-heeled, possibly on their way home from church.

On Sunday morning, Av Vallarta (which turns into Juarez as you get closer to Centro) is closed to traffic so that cyclists, roller-bladers, joggers and pedestrians can take over the wide street). What a delight! We could have rented bikes (there was even a free bike station), but we were on our way to our food tour and were very happy to take our time and enjoy all the upbeat Sunday activities. We passed the beautiful Templo Expiatorio del Santisimo Sacramento (church) and a nice University of Guadalajara building (that houses an art gallery).

We started our food tour at La Rinconada  which is located in an impressive historic mansion on Morales (a pedestrian street) 2 blocks east of Teatro Degollado. The tour was one of the highlights of our visit (I have posted a full review). As the afternoon progressed, the crowds downtown got larger and more intense. It was helpful to be led around on our first visit to Centro (especially since some roads are closed for subway construction). We felt like we were well-oriented with the plaza areas by the end of the tour.

By the time the tour ended, the sidewalks downtown were almost impossible to maneuver. We decided to work our way home. We walked back along Juarez with a quick stop in a second-floor cantina where we purchased a beer (Victoria, 20 pesos each, so that we could use the banos).

That night we found the fantastic wood fire oven pizza restaurant mentioned earlier. I think it was called Pizza Libertad (the bill said Pizza I Nombre). Outstanding value and quality. We sat on the patio (bundled up  it is cool in GDL on a winter night). There was a line up of young people waiting by the time we left.

We ended our night walking 2 blocks from our apartment to Sueno Magico: Festival de Navidad on Av La Paz. This is an old home and property that was decorated with thousands of Christmas lights and various other seasonal festivities. This attraction is oriented for families with younger children, but we enjoyed walking through the property.

Monday Dec 18

We enjoyed another nice breakfast at La Cafeteria (2 coffees, omelette, fruit plate with oatmeal: 172 pesos = 11.61 Can). We then took an UBER to Tlaquepaque (approx. 30 minutes: 77 pesos = 5.20 Cdn). This area is a must see for the brightly painted buildings, lovely churches and plaza, good restaurants and excellent shops. The selection and value on offer in the shops is outstanding for glass, ceramics, leather, textiles and even tourist trinkets like fridge magnets and shot glasses. This was one of the few areas we encountered where shopkeepers spoke some English. We enjoyed two very pleasant strolls around town: once to see what was on offer and a second time to make our purchases. This is where my wife bought the metal candy tray mentioned above.

We had heard about El Parian, the courtyard with many restaurants and mariachis. We stopped by in search of banos and were directed to a corner of the building. I paid 5 pesos, was given paper and made my way upstairs to one of the dirtiest bathrooms I have seen in Mexico. We returned a few times over the day (we couldnt find any other public banos). At one point, there was a very sketchy man having a sponge bath in the sink. I am not sure whether the individual restaurants have their own private banos, but after seeing these bathrooms we resolved not to eat in El Parian. At one point, later in the afternoon when we returned to the banos, there were duelling mariachi bands playing at different sides of the courtyard. Not appealing at all.

While in Tlaquepaque, we had drinks and snacks in two locations. The first was the previously mentioned Cerveceria Chapultepec  a student-type establishment upstairs with a nice view of the pedestrian street, Independencia. Later, I heard mariachi music coming from El Patio and dragged my wife inside. This was a bit more touristy, and a bit more expensive, but a lovely setting with good antijitos and service. If we were staying in the evening, this would be an excellent dinner option.

We took an UBER back to Americana and, exhausted, returned to our new pizza hang out for a light dinner.

Tuesday Dec 19

We started our day with a walk up and down Paseo Chapultepec: from the imposing Nino Heroes monument at the south to Av Vallarta. This is a very attractive street with a wide, tree-lined median that has a nice sidewalk. The flower beds along the median were planted with bright red poinsettias. Along the street are medium sized office buildings, banks, and many restaurants and pubs. We checked out a few menus along the way for future reference.

We stopped into a great coffee shop called Coffee Legacy. This place has an endless array of bean and brewing options. The staff were delightful hip young people! They obviously do not get a lot of tourists in this area. At one point, all three workers were gathered at our table asking us questions about what Canadians think about Mexico and teaching us a few new Spanish expressions.

We walked to Centro, this time taking streets that ran parallel to Av Vallarta and Juarez stopping in to marvel at the selection of bulbs and gizmos in a few electronics stores. We made our way to the Museo Cabana  another must see. Lucky us, we visited on Tuesday when admission is free. This is a beautiful building with courtyards, galleries featuring Jalisco artists and, of course, the imposing murals of Jose Clemente Orozco. Highly recommended!

After the museum, we wandered around the downtown plazas. We went to the huge Mercado Libertad  San Juan de Dios to take a look. We realized that we were way over our heads here. The endless narrow corridors stuffed with merchandise and vendors were just too much. Without a guide or a map, we did not know where to begin. So, we backed out. The one area we saw was impressive  western items with beautifully detailed saddles, hats and leather items. We also walked around some of the nearby shopping streets. Like Mexico City, stores selling similar merchandise congregate in specific blocks. I highly recommend getting some kind of guide to which items are sold in each block. We walked through the formal dress area (quinceanera) marvelling at the dresses, and fancy clothes for young men. We made our way back to La Rinconada for a late afternoon snack and beverage. One item that stood out was a delicious dish with sauteed mushrooms and bread to dip in the sauce. There was a man playing piano in the interior courtyard. Delightful.

We were determined to stay downtown for the Christmas light show in the Plaza de la Liberacion behind the Cathedral. We sat on a bench and had a great view of the elaborate light show synchronized to seasonal tunes. At one point the recorded music stopped. It took us a while to realize that there was a Childrens choir performing on the other side of the square. We walked over for a closer look. It was enchanting to listen to the choir and look at the lights on the church and around the square. If you visit in December, I highly recommend this lovely Christmas event.

To be honest, we were a bit nervous to be downtown after dark away from the plazas. As the tallest, and whitest, man in the vicinity, I stood out from the crowds. To be fair, we never had a single incident or encounter in Guadalajara where we felt unsafe. But as first-time visitors, we decided to be extra cautious and avoid wandering around downtown after dark. We took the horse and carriage back to Americana. The driver seemed surprised that we wanted to be dropped off at Paseo Chapultepec, rather than take the usual round trip, but we agreed on a destination and price. The trip down Av Vallarta was gorgeous, with Christmas lights draped across the boulevard as far as we could see.

Back in our comfort zone, we stopped into a hip restaurant/ bar on Chapultapec, La Nacional, for a late dinner. We liked it so much that we returned a few days later.

Wed Dec 20

This was our Tequila day (the town and the beverage). And we learned something: dont take a trip 1.5 hours out of town unless you have a drive home. Seems simple, right? I tried to set up transportation, but: the TA excursions required a minimum of 4 people. I texted a man we met in Tlaquepaque but he said he did not have a car and could get a friend of his to take us. We were not comfortable with that. I also tried the FB page Dependable drivers in Guadalajara but that seemed to be more focused on drives to Lake Chapala. I checked UBER and since it indicated that that there were drivers I figured that would work.

Before the drama, we walked over to visit our new BFFs at Coffee Legacy. We had excellent coffee again, but were a bit disappointed with our egg bagels  the bagels were, in fact, simply buns that ended up mushy.

Back at our apartment, I hailed an UBER. I was given the price $477 pesos. I confirmed the ride but when the driver showed up he said he could not take us. Something about his tires. The next driver, something about permits. The third driver said he would take us, off UBER, but for $550 pesos. Given the official UBER price, that seemed reasonable, so we were on our way. The driver was wonderful. He pointed out the Esadio Omnilife as we drove by and numerous other attractions. Given that we missed seeing the area on our rainy bus trip into GDL, we were very happy to take this trip on a sunny day. It was beautiful! It reminded me of the Okanagan Valley in BC or Sonoma County in CA  but with fields of silvery blue agave. Our driver took us right into town and dropped us at the plaza with warm hugs goodbye. If only I thought to ask him to pick us up later.

We made our way to the Jose Cuervo La Ronena Distillery a short walk from the plaza. We paid for a tour and opted to pay extra for the tasting at the end. Of perhaps 15 people on our English tour, only one other couple stayed for the tasting. It was the best part. Our tour guide, a lovely fluently bilingual woman, took the group through the distillery and explained the process in detail. During this tour, guests were offered samples of raw tequila. Some were knocking it back; they should have stayed for the tasting to increase their appreciation. After the group tour, our guide directed us into a nice private room where different grades of tequila were poured into champagne flutes and the special family reserve in a snifter. There is a technique for drinking tequila  it does not involve throwing back shots and chasing it with lime slices. The family reserve was excellent  almost like cognac. We also enjoyed chatting with the other couple: travel bloggers who are taking an R.V. from the Arctic circle to Argentina.

During the tour, I asked the guide if we could find a cab back to the city. She said no problem. So we spent a nice afternoon wandering through town with a stop at a pretty restaurant patio by the plaza for a drink and snacks.

When it came time to head back to the city, we walked a few blocks to where taxis were parked. No one would drive into GDL  even when a kind fluent Spanish speaker lobbied on our behalf. He directed us to the bus stop. We arrived just as the bus to GDR was about to leave: $100 pesos. The bus was a rather rickety old milk run that stopped at almost every corner to pick up and drop off. Kind of fun, and we were on our way. But the trip dragged on. Three hours later, using Google maps, I realized that the bus was circumnavigating the city instead of taking the direct route from Americana that we took to get to Tequila. Did I mention that there was no restroom? Eventually, with my bladder at its breaking point, I dragged my wife off the bus at some dark transit depot next to the highway. I asked a taxi driver for directions to the banos - he very helpfully suggested (using colourful sign language) that I go against a fence across a nearby parking lot. After following his suggestion, I asked if he could take us to Americana. He said yes for 300 pesos. So off we went on the wildest and most frightening cab ride of my life  a bumper car ride through insane late rush hour traffic, with our driver fighting for every inch of pavement. Thanks to Google maps, I could see that we were going in our general direction, and was able to reassure my wife than we were not being kidnapped. We made it, albeit with frayed nerves.

Tequila is a beautiful town. Next time I would love to stay overnight to see the town before the tourists arrive. Oh, and have a ride there and back.

Thursday Dec 21

One reason I like to stay in a city for at least a week is that it takes a few days to get oriented to your area. Case in point, after 5 nights, we discovered a fantastic coffee shop, Neretta Cafe and Gelato, almost directly across from our apartment building. In addition to the usual array of brewing and bean options, they made fantastic little egg breakfasts (in a cast iron skillet in the oven). They also had a great selection of pastries.

Our goal today was to return to the historic district. We enjoyed another casual walk downtown from Americana. We made our way to the ornate Palacio Gobierno (state capital building). We walked into the building (with a typical courtyard set up) without any fee or security check. There is a jaw-dropping mural by Orozco above the main grand staircase. We also went into the legislative chamber where there was another huge mural on the ceiling. There were a number of smaller galleries and museums in the building featuring the history of Jalisco and Guadalajara. We spent at least an hour and a half wandering around the building. This is a must see. Our only regret is that we did not have an English guide book (or tour guide) to explain the significance of some of the exhibits.

We then circled around the central squares two or three times: people watching, purchasing some trinkets (I got a shirt from Chiapas), taking photos of the buildings, etc. We stumbled on the Las Famosas Tortas Ahogadas shop (that we visited on the food tour) and decided to try again. Guess what? Thursday is 2 for 1 day: we had a delicious and filling lunch for two for 40 pesos.

To celebrate our last night in town, we decided to go out along Chapultapec in Americana. Our first stop was El Deposito, a craft beer pub. We sat on the patio and tried a variety of excellent dark beers (antidote to watery Mexican brands) including a delicious chocolate stout. As we sat on the patio, we had a great time people watching  many trendy and stylish locals walked by. Also, a flat bed truck drove by with Star Wars characters waving at the crowds along the street. A second truck came by with Santa and friends.

My wife wanted to return to La National because she loved their quinoa salad. So that is where we went for a very nice, casual dinner. After we ate, we strolled up and down the median sidewalk on Chapultepec and looked at the merchandise offered by the various venders.

Friday Dec 22

We had booked a flight on Aeromar to return to PV. Our tickets were 140 Cdn each. We got up early, checked out of our apartment and hailed an UBER to the airport. The 30 minute ride was less than 10 Cdn. Our flight was a bit delayed, but the flight itself was 35 minutes, up and down, so there is much to be said about taking smaller airlines in Mexico rather than long bus rides.

We stopped into Walmart to stock up for the holidays, made our way to the Los Muertos Pier, where we met our kids and caught a water taxi to Yelapa for our Christmas and NYE vacation.

We are very happy that we chose to add a visit to Guadalajara to our itinerary this year. It really enhanced our understanding and appreciation of Mexico and Mexicans. We were amazed at how friendly and helpful everyone was, the great value to be had in food and merchandise, and how much we enjoyed digging deeper into Mexican history and culture. If you are thinking of going: do it
Hello,

Me and my fiance are planning to travel to Australia in March for 3 weeks.

We're planning to visit Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns +/- Brisbane on the way to Cairns. We'll most likely be flying from one city to the next.

My question is, is it better and cheaper to fly to one city and back from same city to the UK (e.g. London to Melbourne, then Melbourne to London) at the end of the 3 weeks and fly back from the last city to Melbourne (e.g. Cairns to Melbourne) or fly to one city from the UK and back to the UK from the last city we visit (e.g. London to Melbourne and Cairns to London) ?

What's the best city to fly to and from if we's flying from the UK? (if there's a "best" city)

Many thanks.
Hi,

I am planning to travel to Cambodia in April this year and have two kids aged 7 & 8. I have 5 nights to spend. Need advice if i split my travel plan between Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh cities. If so, how many days for Siem Reap and for Ho Chi Minh? What are the main attractions that needed to be covered? Please advice.

Thanks
Arriving SGN 5th September.

So far, all I have planned is second assault on Mui oi (after last year's failure) and a week at the end for PNKB and Oxalis Tu Lan Expedition tour starting on the 19th.

I've got just under two weeks to fill...

Would trekking https://goo.gl/CcPRhg over a couple of days or three or so be:

 Interesting

 Possible

 Foolhardy

 Crazy

 Dangerous

 Result in being sold across the border as a male bride

I'm assuming I'd get a xe om to take me as far as practicable and pick one up at the other end to get me back to Ha Giang, so probably less than 40k walk in total. I'd be reasonably self sufficient and expect to meet typical Vietnamese hospitality along the way. (Only accommodation showing up is across the border, so I won't be booking in there.)

Road is said to have deteriorated due to lack of maintenance but is clearly visible on Google satellite imagery.
Thank you! My mother-in-law has made some crocheted bookmarks so I am thinking of taking a bundle of those too to go with big (3kg!) bags of English chew sweets like drumsticks and refreshers to hand out to students there. The senior students we meet will probably also be able to receive a bookmark.

The mugs will have our school name on; weve ordered some British icons key rings to take too - phone boxes/taxis etc.

Now Ive got to plan what I can carry back for my work colleagues with little time to shop when we are out there!!
Hi,

Ive spent a lot of time researching and planning our family trip to Japan and have a lot of it booked. Ive just suddenly realised our kids (7&9) will be jet lagged when we arrive (Japan is 5 hours behind nz so 7am nz is 2am Japan) obviously we hope this is enough of a time difference that they adjust quickly. But I just thought maybe I have things arranged wrong - let me know your thoughts.

1 Sunday 5pm arrive Narita staying Hilton Tokyo bay

2 Monday - Disneyland

3 Tuesday - Disney sea

4 Wednesday - either Disney land or Disney sea (tickets were their Xmas present)

5 Thursday travel to kyoto (activate 7 day jr pass) - staying at Granbell kyoto

6 Friday kyoto

7 satd kyoto

8 Sun kyoto

9 Mon kyoto

10 Tuesday travel to hakone - staying at air bnb

11 Weds - travel to Tokyo after open air museum & hot springs - staying ginza Mercure

12 Thursday - tokyo

13 Friday - tokyo

14 Saturday - tokyo

15 Sunday - leave tokyo 6pm

Should I be taking advantage of the jet lag and waking early and doing sight seeing first? Then Disney last, either way they are going to get / be exhausted!!

In kyoto - we will do a day trip to Nara and to Osaka (aquarium) and will also do bamboo forest & monkey park

In Tokyo I want to go to Yoyogi Park on our last day as its a Sunday. Also want to go to ueno zoo while we are there, and Shinjuku / harajuku / asakusa. Is there a logical way to organise this ie maybe ueno & asakusa on same day. I dont want to go up the towers but do want to go to one of the tall buildings (mori building or govt building)

Thanks so much for any advice!
Is your company in need of the most reliable and efficient best Best Jasmine Tea s in the market? Your good luck led you to the ideal situation, so congratulations! You are in the best possible place. By eliminating the need to read through dozens of Best Jasmine Tea reviews, we are saving you time and stress.

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Kenyan citizens willing to travel to the UK even if for a short visit need to obtain a UK visa as it is in most countries. Additionally, the UK government has put in place a list of some of the general items that Kenyan citizens should have while applying for UK visa in Kenya. These applications are then reviewed by the UK border agency personnel. This article will shed light on how one can get a UK visa while in Kenya without much trouble.

UK Visa Application in Kenya: Requirements and Procedures

UK Visa Types in Kenya

1. UK Visitor Visa; this particular visa is needed by Kenyan citizens who wish to travel to the UK for a shorter period. This includes going for a holiday, family visit, to study a short course, to do PLAB exams as well as to get married among other reasons. Typically UK Visitor Visa is for six months; however, under exceptional circumstances, they can be extended to last for one, two, five, or even ten years. Please note that for the longer-term visa, the applicant can only stay in the UK for six months at a time.

READ ALSO: Kabianga University Courses And Application 2018

2. UK Work Visa; this visa allows Kenyan citizens to travel and work in the United Kingdom. Some specific work visas permit the holder to extend their visa options resulting into a permanent residence. Before applying for this type of visa, the candidate must have been offered a job by an employer in the UK. The UK work visas can be issued one day to five years, and its processing can take three to four weeks from the time or the application receipt.

3. The Tier Student (Adult) Visa; this visa is granted to scholars who wish to pursue a full-time course in an educational institution based in the UK. This particular permit is flexible and permits students to undertake both short and long-term courses. Before applying for this visa, the applicant must have been accepted into a recognized university or college and have the finances to sustain themselves while in the United Kingdom.

UK Visa Application in Kenya: Requirements and Procedures

4. UK Ancestry Visa; this type of visa allows Kenyan citizens who have grandparents born in the United Kingdom to live and work in the UK without restrictions for five years after which they can either choose to apply for permanent residence.

UK Visa Application Process from Kenya

To begin the process of your UK visa application online, you will need to fill a UK Visa application form in Kenya which you can download at www.vfs-uk-ke.com.

Other requirements include:

1. Two passport photos measuring 45mm by 35mm. They must be colored and clear. The passport photos need to be head shots with a grey or tan background and your face must be visible. Moreover, you need to have a neutral expression on the picture. Also, the photo should not be altered, airbrushed, or have red-eye effects.

2. The other important document you need is a valid national passport with its copy. The immigration passport must have at least one blank page and with a six-month validity left.

3. Visa Application fees; to have your application processed, you need to pay a small non-refundable fee of around 87 pounds. Additionally, you can decide to expedite your request for an extra cost as it will cost you 150 pounds and your visa can be processed in 5 days. This fee can be paid online at the UK governments immigration site.

4. Official Letter from a Health Insurance company; this document is proof that you have medical insurance covering you and you will be required to bring two copies of this letter along with your UK application form.

5. Original bank statement; the UK visa application center requires you to submit two copies of a current bank statement from an accredited bank as proof of your financial status.

6. If your UK visa application is for work or school, then you will need a copy of an official letter from your employer or university.

After completing your UK Visa application form Kenya, you must select an appointment date and time and pay the visa fees online. At that juncture, you will print and sign your completed online UK application document. Every person applying for a UK Visa needs to visit the UK visa application centre Nairobi in person. Adults need to provide their biometric data that includes a photograph and fingerprints scan while children only require a photograph. Children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by their guardian during the interview.UK visa application from Kenya can be applied three months in advance before the travel date, and one is urged not to confirm travel arrangements before they get their visas approved.

UK Visa Application in Kenya: Requirements and Procedures

Attending Appointment at the UK Application Centre

During the day of your interview at the UK application center, you must arrive early, like 10 -15 minutes before your appointment time because if you are late; you will be asked to reschedule the interview. Also, bring with you all the other requirements that we outlined earlier in this article. After your interview, your application will be directed to UK Visas and Immigration for processing.

UK Visa Kenya processing times vary depending on the category of the visa application. The processing might take anywhere from five days to twelve weeks. UK Visas and Immigration does not have a prescribed time frame for visa processing although it tries to ensure 90% of the applications are settled within two weeks to 12 weeks. You can decide to have your passport and other documents sent to you by courier or you can go back to collect them after your visa application has been settled.

READ ALSO: Top 10 Countries for Emigration from Kenya

UK Visa Application Kenya Contacts

UK nationals and Kenyan residents with any queries on consular services can contact the UK Visa Application Centre at +254 700 234987or visit their offices which are situated at;

Unit 2, 1st floor, 9 West

Ring Road Parklands

Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- A t least 60 boys from a school in Nakuru have been left without a place to call school

- Their school was converted into a girls' school

- The school administration says the boys had become unruly

- Parents and the boys protested as the decision was made without their knowledge

At least 60 male students from a school in Nakuru are stranded with no place to school after their school was converted to a girls' school by the management.

The boys from St. Georges Greenland Senior Boys School arrived for their first term like many other students across the country but were shocked when they were told the school was now for girls.

READ ALSO: Joho kando! Kutana na mwanasiasa ambaye sasa anawakosesha usingizi wanawake Wakenya

According to the school management, the decision had been arrived at as the boys had allegedly become unruly especially in 2017.

A signpost of St. George's Greenland Senior School Photo: Nation

READ ALSO: I am not behind your imminent sacking from the cabinet - Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka to Eugene Wamalwa

The boys have put the rest of the students at risk.We want to work hard to bring more girls to the school and make it a girls only school, George Gichimo, the school proprietor, said as quoted by Nation.

However, parents and students claimed the school management did not inform them of the decision and had even paid school fees for first term.

READ ALSO: Uhuru flies to South Africa amid anxiety over naming of new cabinet

They called on acting Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi to intervene as their students, some of them KCSE candidates, cannot be integrated in other schools.

But Gichimo claimed the school had refunded the money to the parents and made arrangements fro the students to be integrated in other schools in the area.

Kenyans call on government to end Kenya Power's monopoly on TUKO TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- Kenya's national carrier (KQ) is expected to commence direct daily flights from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)

- KQ will be traveling direct from Nairobi to New York starting October 2018, thus reducing flight time between the two cities from 22 hours to 15 hours

- Those planning to travel are expected to do the booking in advance as KQ gears up to make its first direct flight to the United States

Good news as Kenya's national carrier, Kenya Airways (KQ), prepares to start direct daily flights from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York.

Confirming the new trans-Atlantic flight schedules on Wednesday, January 10, Kenya Airway's chairman, Michael Joseph, said they will officially take off in October this year.

According to the KQ boss, they have already loaded the new flight schedules onto their system and travelers can start booking.

READ ALSO: Safety drill misjudged as a plane crash at Kisumu airport

Kenya Airways (KQ) will commence direct daily flights from Nairobi to New York in October 2018. Photo: Courtesy.

Install TUKO App To Read News For FREE

Those planing to travel are expected to do the booking early in readiness for the first ever direct flight to United States of America

The national carrier will be traveling direct from Nairobi to New York city. This is expected to significantly reduce flight time between these two cities from more than 22 hours to 15 hours.

READ ALSO: Scare at JKIA after police found a bottle of Russian vodka resembling an AK-47 rifle

Flight time between Nairobi and New York will be reduced from over 22 hours to 15 hours. Photo: Kenya Airways.

According to the carrier's officials, they have already been allocated a landing space at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

KQ will be leaving JKIA at 10.30 AM daily. It will land in New York the next day at 6.30 AM.

READ ALSO: Bungoma 'James Bond' gets dream flight to Nairobi

Those traveling back from New York to Nairobi will depart at 1.30 PM and land at JKIA at 10.30 AM the following day.

READ ALSO: Raila mobbed at Kisumu airport by a huge crowd

Kenyans call on government to end Kenya Power's monopoly - On Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
The term self-care is mostly associated to women however, there is a growing trend worldwide which also see men engaging in such practises and activities.

One company...King's Lounge Barber Spa is dedicated to the wellbeing of the total man. King's Lounge offers men an indulgent grooming experience in a luxurious environment and Reporter Sharla Kistow and Camerawoman Kerry Patrick visited the Arima branch earlier this week.
Russian-backed militants continue to violate ceasefire in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area in eastern Ukraine, increasing the number and intensity of the armed provocations. Over the past day, three Ukrainian servicemen were killed, and another four soldiers were wounded and injured.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.

Russian-backed militants launched a total of seven attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas over the past day. Ukrainian troops returned fire only once. Three Ukrainian servicemen were killed, another three soldiers were wounded and one serviceman was injured, reads the report.

As reported, in Luhansk direction, militants opened fire from mortars of different calibers on Ukrainian strongholds near Troitske (69km west of Luhansk). ATO troops outside Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk) came under 120mm and 82mm mortars and heavy machine gun fire. In addition, illegal armed formations shelled Ukrainian positions near Novoluhanske (53km north-east of Donetsk), using grenade launchers, machine guns and mortars of different calibers.

In Donetsk direction, militants fired automatic grenade launchers near Verkhniotoretske (22km north-east of Donetsk) and Butovka coal mine (11.4km north-west of Donetsk).

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Ukrainian air defense units have shot down a second unmanned aerial vehicle of the enemy during the New Year and Christmas truce, the press center of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) headquarters has reported.

"On January 10, at about 21.23, electronic warfare systems spotted an unmanned aerial vehicle of the enemy, probably of the Orlan 10 type. The enemy drone collected intelligence data along the Horlivka-Artemove-Kurdiumivka-Ocheretyne route," the report says.

According to the press service, at about 23.40, the UAV was destroyed by an air defense unit of the Ukrainian Air Force.

"It should be noted that overnight, in the Donetsk and Mariupol sectors, Ukrainian units of radio-technical troops recorded reconnaissance flights of two more enemy UAVs," the ATO HQ's press service reported.

On December 28, 2017, Ukrainian servicemen destroyed a Russian drone of the Orlan-10 type that was collecting intelligence along the Zaitseve-Kodyma-Semyhiria route.

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Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed, another four were wounded in hostilities in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesperson for ATO Oleksandr Motuzianyk said this at a press briefing on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"Unfortunately, our army sustained losses. Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed: two were killed in the blast of an explosive device near the village of Pisky, another soldier was killed in the enemy shelling of our position near Novoluhanske, Motuzianyk said.

According to the spokesperson, three Ukrainian soldiers were wounded near Novoluhanske and Verkhniotoretske, another serviceman was injured near Butivka coal mine. The soldiers were taken to military hospitals.

Motuzianyk added that Russian-backed militants over the past day launched seven attacks on the Ukrainian positions. The Ukrainian troops fired back one time.

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Russian oil extracting company Rosneft has completed the sale of retail assets in Ukraine, according to the company's reporting data, RBC reports.

In particular, a number of enterprises registered in Ukraine were excluded from the list of affiliates. In particular, they include RN-KART Ukraina, TNK-Industries Ukraine, Aviation Fuel Company, Glusco Retail and AvtoNafta.

Earlier, Rosneft in Ukraine had a network of 141 filling stations, the operator of the wholesale supply of petroleum products, TNK-Industries Ukraine, and the LINIK oil refinery in Luhansk region.

Russia's Interfax news agency, with reference to a Rosneft representative, reported that these assets were sold on December 20 last year.

It was reported in early 2016 that Russia's Rosneft had decided to sell its network of gas stations in Ukraine to Switzerland's Glusco Energy SA. However, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) refused to give permission for sale, referring to the inconsistency of the submitted documents and information with Ukrainian legislation.

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The European Union assesses the possibility of providing Ukraine with new tranche of macro-financial assistance.

Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli said this on the air of the Ukrainian Radio, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

At the Eastern Partnership Summit in November, President Poroshenko asked European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker whether the EU could provide new macro-financial assistance to Ukraine, and Mr. Junker told his services to assess the amount of assistance that Ukraine needs and the possibility of providing such new macro-financial assistance, he said.

According to him, the European Commission "now cannot" provide a EUR 600 million tranche of macro-financial assistance because of Ukraine's failure to comply with 4 out of 21 conditions for providing such assistance.

As reported, Head of the Support Group for Ukraine Peter Wagner will arrive in Kyiv to discuss further cooperation with Ukraine.

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An average salary of a Ukrainian teacher will increase up to UAH 7,600 in January of 2018, according to preliminary calculations of the Education and Science Ministry.

Education and Science Minister of Ukraine Lilia Hrynevych said this during a working visit to Chernivtsi region, the press service of the Education and Science Ministry reported.

"Two resolutions that regulate the increase in salaries for teachers have been passed at a government meeting today. In particular, we increased the amount of maximum wage premium for teachers to 30%," she said.

According to her, the amount of the maximum wage premium for teachers rises from 20% to 30%. The lower limit of the wage premium is set at the level of 5%.

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The Ukrainian pavilion will be opened at the world's largest consumer electronics exhibition CES 2018 in Las Vegas.

This is reported by VIDIA with reference to the Voice of America.

"This year we brought ten companies to the Ukrainian pavilion, and we expect more than 20 Ukrainian startups to be represented at CES. The companies are very diverse: from virtual reality to smart home," said initiator of the Ukrainian pavilion and executive director of the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA) Olha Afanasyeva.

Ukrainian projects have already been presented to a number of European and American investors, who have shown interest in some of them.

The presentation of Ukrainian companies at CES has been in recent years a solely private initiative. Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk will visit the Ukrainian pavilion at the CES this year, so Olha Afanasyeva hopes the state will support Ukraines participation in the exhibition in the future.

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A court in London has ordered Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov's SCM to pay the remaining $760 million to Cypriot company Raga Establishment Ltd for Ukraine's telecoms operator Ukrtelecom, LIGA.net has reported, with reference to the court materials.

There were not a lot of publicly available data on privatization and subsequent resale of Ukrtelecom. The state sold 92.79% of the operator's shares in 2011 to ESU, a subsidiary of Austria's EPIC Group. Two years later, the group re-sold the assets to Akhmetov.

"It suddenly turns out in early 2017 that there was one more deal - a secret one. A certain company, called Raga Establishment Ltd (formerly known as Epic Telecom Invest Ltd), as it turned out, rebought Ukrtelecom from EPIC and then resold it in 2013 to Akhmetov for $860 million. According to the Cyprus court decision, Raga belongs to Denys Horbunenko, a Ukrainian ex-banker living in London. According to Raga's claim, after the agreement in 2013, it received only the first tranche of $100 million from SCM. After that, Rinat Akhmetov's corporation stopped paying," reads the report.

LIGA.net appealed to legal representatives of Raga and asked them to provide more details about the trial. The Cyprus court ruling on Akhmetov's asset freeze was preceded by the decision of the London arbitration court on a lawsuit filed by Raga.

"It was [the London court] that ordered SCM to pay the remaining $760 million for Ukrtelecom. The plaintiff handed over to the editorial staff a copy of the London arbitration court decision, which contains a large number of details on how and from who exactly SCM bought Ukrtelecom," reads the report.

As reported, the Cyprus court ruled to freeze the assets of Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov for $820.5 million in the Ukrtelecom case.

The decision by the District Court of Nicosia related to Akhmetov and nine other parties was made on December 27 in the case on the sale of the telecoms group Ukrtelecom to Akhmetov's SCM Group. Raga, which is owned by Denys Horbunenko, a former Ukrainian banker, has been pursuing Akhmetov and others seeking full payment for the sale of the telecoms group.

The court's decision means that Akhmetov and other defendants are free to dispose of their assets, but under certain conditions, the main one of which is to always keep these assets at least for the amount of $820.5 million.

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President Petro Poroshenko held a meeting with the representatives of Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group on the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas (TCG) and its working subgroups, the presidents press service reported on Wednesday evening.

The parties discussed the results of the TCG achieved in 2017 and set the priorities and tasks for 2018.

The Head of State thanked the representatives of Ukraine in the TCG for the protection of the national interests and professional and selfless work for the restoration of Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, reads the report.

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Newly appointed Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz expressed his hope for an early settlement of historical disputes in the relations with Ukraine.

This is said in the statement of the Polish Foreign Ministry.

As noted, Czaputowicz held the first telephone conversations at his position with the foreign ministers of Hungary (at the request of the Hungarian side) and Ukraine.

"Czaputowicz reaffirmed Poland's commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and stressed that Poland would continue to support Ukraine's European aspirations and expressed hope that the historical disputes in relations between Poland and Ukraine would be settled as soon as possible," the statement reads.

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The key tasks of the Ukrainian side at the negotiations in Minsk for 2018 include the implementation of the humanitarian and security blocks, the release of all illegally held persons and the intensification of the search for missing persons.

Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) Iryna Gerashchenko reported this on her Facebook page after a working meeting of the President of Ukraine with the representatives of Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group and its working subgroups.

"Our key tasks for 2018 include priority implementation of the humanitarian and security blocks, adherence to the ceasefire regime, the release of all illegally held persons, the intensification of the search for missing persons with the involvement of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the opening of the Zolote checkpoint and the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the contact line," Gerashchenko wrote.

She stresses that the second wave of the hostage release is the priority task for the humanitarian group in the near future.

ish
Member of the European Parliament, Co-President for the Euronest PA Rebecca Harms will pay a visit to Ukraine from January 11 to 15.

Ukrinform learnt this from the press office of the German politician.

"MEP Rebecca Harms is going to visit Ukraine before a decisive vote in the Ukrainian parliament on necessary anti-corruption legislation," the report reads.

The visit is scheduled for the period from January 11 to 15.

In Ukraine, Harms will discuss problems and progress in the fight against corruption with Deputy Prime Minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, colleagues in the Verkhovna Rada, Head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) Artem Sytnyk, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, anti-corruption activists and representatives of civil society.

In addition, Rebecca Harms will hold meetings to discuss the situation in Donbas and prospects for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission to the east of Ukraine.

ish
The hostages, who were released from captivity in the temporarily occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, have met with Ukrainian lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

First Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Herashchenko posted this on her Facebook page.

"We had a very cordial meeting with our released hostages, who still undergo rehabilitation in hospitals, and their families. We talked for a long time about those, who are still held captive in the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and our duty to free them as soon as possible. We also discussed Ukrainian and international politics," Herashchenko wrote.

Former captives wished politicians wisdom, unity, courage, patriotism and faith in Ukraine.

As reported, the large-scale liberation of hostages took place in Donbas on December 27. A total of 73 Ukrainians returned from the occupied territory, namely cyborgs and other Ukrainian fighters, public activists and volunteers as well as scientist and historian Ihor Kozlovsky.

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Ukraine should do more for national communities in terms of financing their educational needs and in terms of developing new teaching methods, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

He said this at a joint press conference with Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu in Chernivtsi on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I believe that we have to do more for our national communities, including for the Romanian community. This concerns funding and changes in [teaching] methods," Klimkin said.

In this context, he noted that when children from minorities come to the first grade of the school, they should "not be scared away with Ukrainian grammar, which is new for them."

Klimkin said that during the meeting the Ukrainian and Romanian sides had agreed on bilateral cooperation both at the regional level and between the education ministries, as well as on dialogue with the communities, on how the new law on education should be implemented.

"The educational process is not political, it is focused on people, on communities. Therefore, I am grateful for what Teodor [Melescanu] said today about Romanian legislation, which allows us now to make scholarships and joint projects while improving the level of education and the level of teachers, because Ukrainian subjects will be taught by the same teachers who are now teaching, that is, it is our common interest," Klimkin said.

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Japan is interested in the successful implementation of the health care reform in Ukraine and it will support all initiatives in this field.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ukraine Shigeki Sumi said this at a briefing on the occasion of the transfer of X-ray equipment to the Kyiv Regional Hospital, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Japan is very interested in the health care reform in Ukraine. I would like to congratulate Ms. Suprun on the successful adoption of the law on health reform. We hope that this reform will be successfully carried out thanks to the work of Ms. Suprun and her team, as well as our support, which will include the supply of high technologies to Ukraine," the ambassador said.

He notes that the Government of Japan will support all the initiatives in this area in Ukraine.

ish
In March 2016, while chairing the first summit on the Beijing-initiated Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC), Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, in a speech, cited an anonymous Southeast Asian proverb: "When gentle breezes stick together, they can have the power of a typhoon."

Li addressed leaders of the nations through which the Mekong River flows, setting forth the foreign policy initiatives of the LMC with its objectives to engage and promote cooperation and development among the riverine nations.

Lesser known than another Chinese international development effort, the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing introduced the LMC in 2015, identifying it as "a new type of sub-regional cooperation mechanism" en route to a joint objective of "building a community of shared future among Lancang-Mekong countries."

With a second summit of the six Mekong nations  China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam  taking place January 10 and 11 in Phnom Penh to discuss a five-year development plan for the river, the LMC is rolling along. Central to discussions will be the issue of water management, including the development of dams and irrigation infrastructure, which represent control of the Mekong.

Bid to control

Originating in Tibet, the Mekong, known as the Lancang in Chinese, flows for 4,300 kilometers to drain into the South China Sea. Its fish provide livelihoods for an estimated 60 million people, and "as a source of food, touches the lives of more than 300 million from over 100 ethnic groups," according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Any measures to regulate the river's flow  such as dams  have the potential to affect the member nation's economies.

"The LMC is clearly a bid by China to take control of Mekong matters, after having refused to join the Mekong River Commission," said Milton Osborne, a Southeast Asia expert who wrote the 2000 book The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future.

"In doing so it seeks to legitimize its own actions in building dams within its own borders while its state-linked commercial companies are associated with dam building downstream from China," Osborne told VOA Khmer in an email.

The LMC represents a sign of the limitations the Mekong River Commission faced in stopping dam projects that could potentially be harmful to the Mekong region, he said.

Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam make up the commission. When it was formed in 1995, China and Myanmar opted out, which meant they could skirt the rule requiring commission members to present dam proposals for discussion.

"I am not optimistic that [the LMC] will play a positive part in addressing the major issues that now confront the environmental challenges aligned to the Mekong: decline in fish stocks, the issues associated with climate change, the particular problems of the Mekong Delta," Osborne said.

Elliot Brennan, an independent researcher on Southeast Asia affairs, told the South China Morning Post that "the Mekong issue had the potential to be the largest China-ASEAN conflict flashpoint after the South China Sea, and that Beijing regarded controlling the river as a strategic objective. If Beijing manages to achieve control of the Mekong's development it would quickly become a crucial artery for China's rise and exportation of influence into ASEAN."

A Chinese embassy spokesman in Phnom Penh could not be reached for comment Monday.

'Remarkable progress'

China has said the LMC initiative is moving forward and making "remarkable progress" since it took place a few years ago, vowing to implement the initiative with "neighborhood diplomacy policy" through the ideas of "amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness."

In the past few weeks, China and member countries Cambodia and Laos moved to forge deals on new funding projects. All six member nations  the Mekong nations  had created secretariats to take charge of LMC matters by the end of December 2016.

Policy research organizations, many of them aligned with the six riverine governments, joined to form the Global Center for Mekong Studies last year to advise LMC member countries on a range of topics from politics to business.

"The [LMC] has grown into a sub-regional cooperation framework with great potential and vitality," Li said in an op-ed published this week in the Phnom Penh newspaper, Khmer Times.

"In the context of rising backlash against globalization and protectionist sentiments as well as lack of momentum in East Asian cooperation, the LMC as a basic component of regional cooperation is not only conducive to narrowing the development gap within ASEAN and advancing ASEAN integration, but also enriches South-South cooperation and efforts to foster a more open, inclusive, and balanced economic globalization that benefits all," Li wrote.

The hosting Cambodian Foreign Ministry announced that the summit, with the theme of "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development," would discuss ways to fix the development gaps among the downstream nations in support of ASEAN integration and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, and ways to bolster people exchanges.

'Model for multilateral institutionalization'

Po Sovinda, international relations analyst with the East China Normal University in Shanghai, said China, as an upstream country of the Mekong River, likely would use the LMC as a model of Beijing-led multilateral institutionalizations by proving that it would "not seek hegemony." This would also build trust for its larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plan, he said.

Po Sovinda added that China could face a backlash, however, if it mismanages the river by pursuing unilateral decisions, which run contrary to its "'peaceful development' rhetoric."

By excluding China and Vietnam, the other LMC member states are not the claimants in the South China Sea conflict that in the past decade has had impacts on China's soft power engagement, analysts say.

Brian Eyler, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said Beijing could offset its "lack of multilateral engagement" in the South China Sea through its initiation of the LMC, adding that the Mekong engagement also could "shift attention away" from the conflicted sea.

"With the exception of the LMC being a multilateral initiative, China's approach is a continuation of its economic expansion and market dominance in mainland Southeast Asia," Eyler said.

"The LMC will [also] serve as a jumping off point for excess capacity in China's industries such as hydropower, coal, highways, rail, and port development and seek to add a layer of political legitimacy to the offloading of this excess capacity through the Belt and Road Initiative," he added.

Economic engine

A similar multilateral mechanism, the MRC, which is backed by the West, has been criticized for being unable to stop a number of controversial hydropower dams along the Mekong River. Up to 31 hydropower dams are expected to be built on the Mekong mainstream by 2030, according to the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research.

That the upstream dams are in China has allowed "water diplomacy" to emerge. In 2016, when downstream countries faced their worst drought in years, environmentalists said the intensity of the drought was caused, in part, by the dams. Vietnam asked China to release water and when China agreed, called the move a "gesture of goodwill."

China is playing a key role in many downstream LMC countries. The largest foreign financier and investor in Laos, China has voiced support for Myanmar in its internationally-condemned treatment of Rohingya.

In Cambodia, China is supporting Prime Minister Hun Sen's crackdown on dissent and Cambodia is supporting China on many regional and international agendas.

Within the LMC structure, China is funding all proposed projects expected to be adopted this week, Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan said, adding that each member state is given equal decision-making power through a consensus format.

"This [cooperation] works toward security, sustainable development, and well-being of our people as the most important trios," Phay Siphan said.

"For Cambodia's part, we seek investment on connectivity, irrigation infrastructure, and projects toward lower energy costs that could attract more investments and create more jobs."
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang has announced a series of large aid packages to Cambodia at the end of his first visit to the country this week as Cambodia turns further away from Western donors.

A total of 19 agreements were signed to fund large-scale infrastructure projects including seaports, expressways and an airport.

Li was in Cambodia from Wednesday for a Lancang-Mekong Cooperation summit of Southeast Asian leaders and China.

China will fund a 190-kilometer expressway connecting Phnom Penh to the countrys coastal city of Sihanoukville, where there is a dramatic surge of Chinese investment in real estate and construction.

Both sides also reached an accord to invest in a seaport in Preah Sihanouk provinces Stung Hav district and a new airport in Phnom Penh.

Cambodia oversaw the arrival of 5.6 million tourists in 2017, 1.2 million of whom came from China, according to Tourism Minister Thong Khon, as quoted by the government-friendly news outlet Fresh News.

China also offered help to Cambodia in other sectors, including technological exchanges, education, cultural heritage conservation, product standardization, forestry, agricultural modernization, and energy and telecommunications capacity expansion.

By October last year, China was top of the list of Cambodias biggest sources of investment, having spent about $12.57 billion, some 36.4 percent of Cambodias total foreign direct investment, according to Chinas Xinhua news agency.

China has also been the main supporter of the increasingly authoritarian rule of long-time Prime Minister Hun Sen amid an intensifying crackdown on dissent, including the dissolution of the countrys main opposition party and arrest of its leader, Kem Sokha.

Cambodia has accused the United States of allegedly backing Sokhas party to plot a popular uprising to unseat the 39-year rule of Hun Sens ruling party, the Cambodian Peoples Party. The U.S. and the European Union withdrew their support and questioned the legitimacy of the forthcoming July parliamentary election.

According to the joint communique issued at the conclusion of Lis visit, Cambodia and China said they share a vision to build the South China Sea into a sea of peace, friendship, and cooperation.

Cambodian political commentator Lao Monghay said he is concerned by the enormous amount of aid, suggesting that Cambodias over-reliance on China would send the countrys foreign policy further into an imbalanced future, citing the decline of Cambodias relations with the West in recent months.

I think the [Cambodian] government should take a neutral, non-aligned stance by also keeping good relations with all the countries in line with the constitution and the Paris Peace Agreement. It should stop verbal attacks on others like the U.S. and the E.U., Monghay said.

A spokesman for the Cambodian government could not be reached for comment on Thursday afternoon. But CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said Lis visit signaled a still strong relationship between the two countries, which was moving towards a timeless future.

Cambodia engages in friendship, solidarity, and cooperation with the other [countries], standing on the basis of equity and equal rights  with no discrimination ... But we just demand a foundation of no discrimination, no interference in our internal affairs, Eysan said.

China is a country of 1.5 billion people, but they treat a 15 million population country like Cambodia based on equality and equal rights without any problems on either side.

Cambodia and China mark their 60th year of diplomatic ties this year.
Cambodias national election body has announced that four parties have put forward candidates for the Senate elections in February.

The National Election Committee (NEC), which has come under fire in recent months for alleged political bias, said that the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party, Funcinpec, the Khmer National United Party, and Cambodia Youth Party had all nominated candidates.

The countrys main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which previously controlled a large number of Senate seats, was outlawed last year in a court ruling and will not be able to contest the election.

The NEC allotted the numbers one through four to the parties on the ballot, number one being reserved for Prime Minister Hun Sens CPP.

"The order of each political parties on the ballot papers will provide favorable conditions for parties like campaigning, voting, and helping voters recognize the party they like, NEC Chairman Sik Bunhok, a long-time CPP member, said in a statement.

Dim Sovannarom, an NEC member, said the body had allocated $2 million to the election, which will be held on February 25.

Due to the dissolution of the opposition party, seats held by its members will be contested by other parties.

Some 500 local council seats won by the CNRP in elections last year have already been allocated to minor political parties and the CPP.

Pich Sros, president of the Cambodian Youth Party, said his party was focusing on winning seats in the general election in June and would not expend much effort in the Senate elections.

I would like to say that we registered for the Senate election, but we have not thought about getting any seats in the Senate, he said. We are giving a chance to our commune councilors if we don't register, they will vote for the other parties or sell it to the other.

Meas Ny, a social analyst, said the results of the election would serve as a litmus test of whether Cambodia was moving further towards becoming a one-party state.

Four senators will be selected by the CPP-controlled parliament, while the remainder will be chosen by a vote of commune councilors, who are now almost exclusively composed of pro-CPP officials.
Jailed political analyst Kim Sok has told a Cambodian court that he has been beaten by prison guards after requesting access to writing materials.

The analyst was sentenced to 18 months in jail for alleging that leading members of the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, were involved in the murder of fellow analyst Kem Ley, who was gunned down in Phnom Penh in 2016.

Sok appeared before the Supreme Court on Wednesday for a parole hearing. His request was denied.

During the proceedings, Sok told the court that he was beaten and kicked by two guards in Prey Sar prison after he asked for a newspaper and books to read and some paper to write on.

Local media outlet Voice of Democracy quoted Sok saying: In prison, they do not allow us to take any documents inside. They do not allow us to have books, newspapers, pens or anything to write with.

Soks lawyer, Choung Chou Ngy, was not informed that the hearing on Wednesday would take place, he said.

If there was such violence, it is wrong. It violates the law and the person who did that should be punished, he said, adding that he was looking into the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the alleged attackers.

Nov Mony Chout, a court spokesman, said he was not aware of the allegations of violence as he had not attended the hearing. Prison officials could not be reached for comment.

Sok was an outspoken analyst prior to his arrest and regularly criticized the government in the media.
Paradoxically, the tens of thousands of people who flock each year to the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, the popular CES, are not consumers. They are all professionals - exhibitors, developers, engineers, researchers, scientists, investors or inventors, owners of startups. Many come with a small product, hardly more than an idea. But they dream big. VOAs George Putic talked with a few of them.
NATOs Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan says a U.S. soldier has been wounded in what it calls an "active ground engagement."

The incident occurred in the troubled Achin district in Nangarhar, said the missions public affairs director, Capt. Tom Gresback, but he did not discuss the nature of the clash in eastern Afghanistan.

No coalition service members were killed in the engagement. One U.S. service member was wounded and is in stable condition at a medical treatment facility, he said.

Local media quoted sources as saying the incident prompted the U.S. military to call in airstrikes against the assailants, causing several fatalities, but there was no official confirmation.

We are looking into the details of engagement with our Afghan partners and will provide more information when appropriate, Gresback said.

We continue to strategically push IS-K back from their fighting positions, taking seven kilometers and clearing much of the Mohmand Valley, Nangarhar, he added.

IS-K or Islamic State Khorasan is the Afghan affiliate of the Middle East-based terrorist group. The militants are active in several southern districts of Nangarhar, including Achin.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed the insurgent group was behind the attack.

In a statement sent to VOA, Mujahid said American forces were engaged in a meeting with members of a pro-government Afghan militia when two Taliban infiltrators opened fire on them. He said the insider attack left 16 Afghan and U.S. forces dead. The insurgent group often issues inflated casualty tolls for such incidents.

The attack came hours after the provincial government announced in a statement that Afghan forces killed nearly two dozen Taliban insurgents, including four commanders, in the nearby Khogyani district.

Mujahid, while commenting on that incident, confirmed the killing of its eight fighters but claimed ensuing fierce clashes also left 13 Afghan special forces dead.

Several southern districts in Nangarhar house IS and Taliban bases. Afghan forces backed by U.S. air power routinely conduct anti-terrorism operations in the province bordering Pakistan.

A New Years Day attack on a military patrol in Achin killed one U.S. soldier. One-third of the 21 American soldiers killed in combat in 2017 in Afghanistan died in Nangarhar, making it the deadliest province for the U.S. military.
Ax-wielding robbers stole jewelry on Wednesday possibly worth more than $5 million from a store in the famed Ritz Paris hotel, police said.

Five thieves carried out the heist at the luxury hotel in late afternoon. Three were arrested while two others got away. There were no injuries.

The loss is very high and remains to be assessed, one police source said. Another put the figure at 4.5 million euros ($5.38 million), but said that a bag had been recovered possibly containing some of the loot.

The hotel first opened in 1898 and was the first Paris hotel to boast electricity on all floors and bathrooms that were inside rooms.

The former home of fashion designer Coco Chanel and author Marcel Proust, the Ritz was a favourite drinking hole of American writer Ernest Hemingway.

It was at the Ritz that Diana, Princess of Wales, spent her last night in 1997 before the car crash that killed her and her lover Dodi Fayed, son of the hotel's owner Mohammed al-Fayed.

Armed heists targeting jewellery stores are not uncommon in the ultra chic avenues near Place Vendome square in central Paris where the Ritz is located.
In a summit big on fanfare but light on detail this week, China pushed through a five-year development plan with the countries along of one Asias most critical and embattled rivers  the Mekong.

Leaders of the Mekongs five downstream countries  Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos  met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh Wednesday for the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperative (LMC) leaders meeting.

Keqiang, whose country sits at the top of the river known as the Lancang in Mandarin, said as permanent chairman of the newly minted LMC, China would deliver benefits to all members.

The cooperation on Mekong/Lancang is not merely paying lip service, he said at press gathering in which questions were forbidden. We talked about important principles in the meeting. We have to respect each other and consider each other with equality for common development, he said.

The actual submitted plan is so broad - covering almost every area of governance - that it is hard to point to a specific objective and no concrete steps appear to have been taken to address the growing number of man-made threats to the river system.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told reporters that centers intended to enhance water resource and environmental cooperation, as well as a global Mekong studies center, would be created, but he did not proffer any further details.

Rivals

Born in 2015 under the stewardship of Beijing, the LMC rivals the much older Mekong River Commission - to which China is only a dialogue partner and thus exempt from a requirement to present its dam proposals for discussion.

While the MRC has been criticized by some as a largely toothless institution that has failed to safeguard the river and its dependents from harmful projects, there is nothing yet to suggest the LMC will fare any better.

Seen by observers as another mechanism to extend Beijings sphere of influence over a region critical to leader Xi Jingpings One belt one road signature foreign policy, it stresses the values of regional peace and cooperation.

But relations between the six countries are historically anything but harmonious and a Chinese strategy of heavily damming the Mekong itself while funding similar projects downstream threatens to inflame tensions between the mutually dependent neighbors.

The more than 4,000 kilometer river is home to the largest inland fishery in the world and feeds some 60 million people.

Its powerful currents overwhelm the discharge of Cambodias Tonle Sap lake for six months a year, causing it to reverse flood  a remarkable process found nowhere else in the world that triggers an explosion of fish stocks and general biodiversity.

From there it flows through Vietnams famously productive Mekong Delta region, where rising salinity and drought have wreaked havoc  leading China in 2016 to demonstrate its power by opening upstream flood gates to alleviate its neighbors pain.

China has already built eight dams on the river while more than 20 others are under construction or being planned in Yunnan, Tibet and Qinghai - according to International Rivers.

Laos, which plans to become the battery of Asia is currently constructing two highly controversial mainstream dams while preparing a third, ignoring its neighbors protests at the MRC, and has many more on the drawing board.

Cambodia meanwhile has just completed another on a Mekong tributary  the Lower Se San II - with a large mainstream dam - the Sambor - planned as well.

Maureen Harris, Southeast Asia director at International Rivers, said communities in Thailand and Laos had reported impacts from some of these dams for years, without any formal acknowledgement or redress.

During the past two decades, the dams upstream have drastically altered the rivers natural flood-drought cycle and blocked the transport of sediment, affecting ecosystems and fisheries downstream, she said.

A 2009 study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America found that if all 11 mainstream and 78 tributary dams planned on the river system were built, there would by a 51 percent decrease in the total fish biomass.

China has pledged billions in financing for more projects on the Mekong through the LMC.

Ian Baird, an associate professor of geography University Wisconsin-Madison who studies Mekong river fisheries, said while LMC members would happily take Chinas money, gaining their long-term respect and cooperation is more complicated.

I think time will tell how nimble China is in setting up a regional mechanism. Are they willing to give up enough power and say (influence) to the other countries that will make them really want to support this initiative, he said.

Chinese development forays into countries such as Laos were often portrayed as unstoppable where in reality a failure to appreciate the nuances of local power dynamics had led projects to fail, he noted.

These are some of the subtleties that I think people tend to forget. Theres this kind of China rising theatre which I think is sometimes overstated.

One of Chinas more complicated regional objectives is to secure greater support for - or at least diminished opposition to - its claim over almost the entire South China Sea.

Though LMC host Cambodia has pledged full support to Chinas claim, others such as Vietnam remain bitterly opposed.
The European Union and Norway are to convene end of Janu-ary an extraordinary session of donor countries in a move to fast-track the two-state solution peace deal between Palestine and Israel as soon as possible as prospect for such as a solu-tion appears in balance.

There is an urgent need to bring all parties together to dis-cuss measures to speed up efforts that can underpin a negoti-ated two-state solution, the EU said in a statement on Wednesday.

The session to be organized by Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), will be held in Brussels, end of this month and will al-so discuss the need to enable the Palestinian Authority to ex-ecute full control over Gaza based on the Fatah-Hamas rec-onciliation deal signed in Cairo on October 12, 2017, reports say.

Norway is chairing the committee, which also encompasses the US. The AHLC is the main coordination mechanism for de-velopment assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The two-state solution has been the international community-proposed remedy for the decades-long conflict between Pales-tinians and Israelis.

Peace talks between the two feuding sides is in a deadlock since 2014 in view of a series of wars and distrust.

US renewed attempts proposed by President Donald Trump look doomed for failure after the American leader in December unilaterally declared Jerusalem capital of Israel. Palestinians and much of the Muslim world rejected Trumps decision, de-claring that America has disqualified itself as neutral peace broker.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has turned to EU, Russia and China to play key role in the negotiations.

The EU also lambasted the decision by the White House saying the fate of the old city must be decided by both Palestinians and Israelis through negotiations.
More than 60 countries are represented at CES, the giant consumer electronics show taking place this week in Las Vegas, and the large international presence is a testament to the interest worldwide in entrepreneurship and technology.

But while many governments say they support a homegrown innovation economy, policy decisions may hamper entrepreneurial growth, according to a report out this week by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which puts on the marquee Las Vegas technology show.

Innovation factors

The report looked at 12 factors to determine whether a country is an "innovation champion." They include standard indicators like a countrys tax policy, the education level of its workforce, and broadband access and speeds.

Overall, Finland had the highest ranking, followed by the U.S., Canada, other European nations, Australia and New Zealand.

India, Morocco and Colombia were dubbed modest innovators, and they were among the lowest scoring nations.

A different set of countries emerged as leaders, however, when CTA looked at some of the more contentious areas of the tech economy, such as drones, ridesharing, self-driving cars and short-term home rentals such as Airbnb.

Ridesharing leaders

For example, when it comes to ridesharing, the report found that Panama, Peru, Poland, Rwanda and Mexico were among countries that allow ridesharing to operate most freely.

Likewise, for short-term home rentals such as Airbnb, the report gave its highest marks to Chile, Mexico, Nigeria and Peru among other countries.

The best countries for drone testing and deployment are Australia, Finland, Portugal, Singapore and Sweden.

In an interview with VOA, Gary Shapiro, the chief executive of CTA, said that countries were evaluated from a uniquely American perspective. The goal, he said, is to identify which countries have the best policies for innovators, and then encourage other countries to create similar environments.

French takeover

At Eureka Park, the exhibit area that's home to about 800 early stage startups at CES, about one-third are French. They occupy row after row of the show floor, all under signs reading La French Tech.

Senegal brought two IT companies that won a competition for their work for the government.

Right now we hope to meet a lot of companies here to check what we can do for our country, said Cheikh Bakhoum, with the Senegals State Informatics Agency.

Hrvoje Bujas from Croatia said he came hoping to meet investors, but he switched his goals once he arrived at CES.

I want to get some feedback from our potential users, women that want to get pregnant, he said.

His second goal? To get some space in media.
Authorities in northern China's coal country have demolished a Christian mega-church that clashed with the government.

The action underscores long-standing tensions between religious groups and the officially atheistic Communist Party that strives for complete political and social control.

Witnesses and overseas activists say paramilitary People's Armed Police forces used excavators and dynamite on Tuesday to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church in the city of Linfen.

Hundreds of police and hired thugs smashed the church and seized Bibles in an earlier crackdown in 2009.

There are an estimated 60 million Christians in China, many of whom worship in independent congregations like the Golden Lampstand. The surging popularity of non-state-approved churches has raised the ire of local authorities.

An official at the local religious affairs bureau denied the demolition took place.
The Marriott hotel chain apologized Thursday to China's government for referring to Tibet and self-ruled Taiwan as countries in a customer survey that news reports said Chinese police investigated as a possible crime.



Marriott International Group respects China's sovereignty, the company said on its website.



The survey sent to customers asked in which country they lived and gave options including Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

We absolutely will not support any separatist organization that will undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, said the Marriott statement. We apologize for any act that may give rise to misunderstandings.



Beijing is intensely sensitive about the status of Taiwan, the self-ruled island the communist mainland claims as part of its territory, and of Tibet.



It regularly lashes out at publishers of books, maps or software who depict Taiwan as an independent country.



Police questioned Marriott managers in an investigation into possible violation of China's cyber security law, according to news reports.
Chinas plan for a modern Silk Road of railways, ports and other facilities linking Asia with Europe hit a $14 billion pothole in Pakistan.

Pakistans relations with Beijing are so close that officials call China their Iron Brother. Despite that, plans for the Diamer-Bhasha Dam were thrown into turmoil in November when the chairman of Pakistans water authority said Beijing wanted an ownership stake in the hydropower project. He rejected that as against Pakistani interests.

China issued a denial but the official withdrew the dam from among dozens of projects being jointly developed by the two countries.

Projects canceled, delayed, renegotiated

From Pakistan to Tanzania to Hungary, projects under President Xi Jinpings signature Belt and Road Initiative are being canceled, renegotiated or delayed because of disputes about costs or complaints host countries get too little out of projects built by Chinese companies and financed by loans from Beijing that must be repaid.

In some areas, Beijing is suffering a political backlash because of fears of domination by Asias biggest economy.

Pakistan is one of the countries that is in Chinas hip pocket, and for Pakistan to stand up and say, Im not going to do this with you, shows its not as win-win as China says it is, said Robert Koepp, an analyst in Hong Kong for the Economist Corporate Network, a research firm.

Belt and Road, announced by Xi in 2013, is a loosely defined umbrella for Chinese-built or -financed projects across 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and Europe. They range from oil drilling in Siberia to construction of ports in Southeast Asia, railways in Eastern Europe and power plants in the Middle East.

Other governments welcomed the initiative in a region the Asian Development Bank says needs more than $26 trillion of infrastructure investment by 2030 to keep economies growing. Nations including Japan have given or lent billions of dollars for development, but Chinas venture is bigger and the only source of money for many projects.

Governments from Washington to Moscow to New Delhi are uneasy Beijing is trying to use its Belt and Road to develop a China-centered political structure that will erode their influence.

Chinas significance to Pakistan as a source of financing increased following U.S. President Donald Trumps Jan. 5 decision to suspend security assistance to Islamabad in a dispute over whether it was doing enough to stop Afghan militants.

Belt and Road is a business venture, not aid. A Cabinet official, Ou Xiaoli, told The Associated Press in April that lending will be on commercial terms. Beijing wants to attract non-Chinese investors, though that has happened with only a handful of projects, he said.

Among projects that have been derailed or disrupted:

Authorities in Nepal canceled plans in November for Chinese companies to build a $2.5 billion dam after they concluded contracts for the Budhi Gandaki Hydro Electric Project violated rules requiring multiple bidders.

The European Union is looking into whether Hungary violated the trade blocs rules by awarding contracts to Chinese builders of a high-speed railway to neighboring Serbia without competing bids.

In Myanmar, plans for a Chinese oil company to build a $3 billion refinery were canceled in November because of financing difficulties, the newspaper Myanmar Times reported.

No official list

There is no official list of projects, but consulting firm BMI Research has compiled a database of $1.8 trillion of infrastructure investments announced across Asia, Africa and the Middle East that include Chinese money or other involvement.

Many are still in planning stages and some up to three decades in the future, according to Christian Zhang, a BMI analyst.

Its probably too early to say at this point how much of the overall initiative will actually be implemented, Zhang said.

Tempered concerns

The stumbles for one of the worlds most ambitious infrastructure ventures could help temper concerns Beijing will increase its strategic influence.

There is a big possibility that China is going to have a lot of disagreements and misunderstandings, said Kerry Brown, a specialist in Chinese politics at Kings College London. Its hard to think of a big, successful project the Belt and Road Initiative has led to at the moment.

Even Pakistan, one of Chinas friendliest neighbors, has failed to agree on key projects.

The two governments are developing facilities with a total cost of $60 billion including power plants and railways to link Chinas far west with the Chinese-built port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean.

A visit by a Chinese assistant foreign minister in November produced no agreement on railway projects in the southern city of Karachi valued at $10 billion and a $260 million airport for Gwadar.

The same month, the chairman of the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority announced the Diamer-Bhasha Dam would be withdrawn from joint development. The site is in Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistans far north, part of the Kashmir region, which also is claimed by India.

Chinese conditions for financing the Diamer-Bhasha Dam were not doable and against our interests, the official, Muzammil Hussain, told legislators, according to Pakistani news reports.

Exporting Chinese goods, knowledge

Belt and Road is interwoven with official efforts to export Chinese rail, hydropower and other technology and steel, aluminum and other industrial goods.

In Thailand, work on a $15 billion high-speed railway was suspended in 2016 following complaints too little business went to Thai companies.

After more talks over costs, technology sharing and land ownership, Thai leaders announced a new plan in July for a first line to be built from Bangkok to the countrys northeast. Building contracts went to Thai companies while China will supply technology.

In Tanzania, the government has reopened negotiations with China and another investor, the government of the gulf nation of Oman, over ownership of a planned $11 billion port in the city of Bagamoyo. The Tanzanian government failed to raise $28 million for its contribution, leaving it unclear what share the government might get.

Tanzania wants to make sure its people get more than just taxes collected from the port, said the director of the Tanzania Ports Authority, Deusdedit Kakoko.

Land is for Tanzanians, and as the government were ensuring they get a share, Kakoko said in an interview.

Projects move ahead

Despite such setbacks, Chinese officials say most Belt and Road projects are moving ahead with few problems.

Work on pipelines to deliver oil and gas from Russia and Central Asia is making steady progress, said a deputy commerce minister, Li Chenggang, at a Nov. 21 news conference.

We have a lot of room for further cooperation, said Li.

The state-run China Development Bank announced in 2015 it had set aside $890 billion for more than 900 projects across 60 countries in gas, minerals, power, telecoms, infrastructure and farming. The Export-Import Bank of China said it would finance 1,000 projects in 49 countries.

Acting as banker gives Beijing leverage to require use of Chinese builders and technology. But it can lead to complaints host countries fail to negotiate hard enough.

In Sri Lanka, the government sold an 80 percent stake in a port in the southern city of Hambantota to a Chinese state-owned company on Dec. 9 after falling behind in repaying $1.5 billion borrowed from Beijing to build it. That prompted complaints the deal was too favorable to Beijing.

There is the perception of a Chinese incursion into their sovereignty by taking over the port, said BMIs Zhang.
South Africa's city of Cape Town is rapidly approaching what the mayor calls "day zero"  the day the seaside metropolis of four million residents will have to shut off the taps because it has run out of water amid years of drought. This week, the mayor moved the date up by a week, to April 22.



But it is not the only deadline faced by embattled Cape Town mayor Patricia De Lille. In South Africa's increasingly politicized climate, the water saga has also taken on political tones, with the mayor's warnings being overshadowed by allegations of misconduct. Her party will meet this weekend to decide whether to take action against her.



Day Zero, De Lille acknowledges, sounds like a Hollywood plot point. But the reality behind it is scary.

Three-year drought

The beautiful, beach-lined port city has suffered drought for three consecutive years, an unprecedented event. For months, the city has imposed strict controls on its water supply, which depends almost entirely on reservoirs sitting behind dams.

Capetonians have been banned from washing their cars, watering their lawns or filling their pools with municipal water, and have been encouraged to keep showers under two minutes and only flush the toilet "when absolutely necessary."



The latest set of restrictions, imposed January 1, slashed each household's monthly allowance from 20,000 liters per month to 10,500 liters, with a threat that violators will get special meters that will shut down beyond that point.



The restrictions will get even more harsh on April 22, or Day Zero, as De Lille explained on national radio this week.



"We will reach Day Zero when the dam levels go down to 13.5 percent," she said. "Then at that point, we will turn off most of the taps. We will not turn off the taps, we will reduce the pressure, in poorer areas like informal settlements. But we will turn off the taps and then at about approximately 200 sites across the city, people will have to go collect water from there. And when you collect your water from there, you will only receive 25 liters per person per day."



Blame it on the rain?

But critics of the mayor and her party say it's unfair to blame it all on the rain  or rather, the lack of it. De Lille is a member of the opposition Democratic Alliance party, which has long ruled the wealthy Western Cape province. She has recently come under fire for unrelated allegations of misconduct and corruption, which are prompting calls both inside and outside of her party for her dismissal.



Khaya Magaxa, acting leader of the ruling African National Congress in the province, said the DA's record of mismanagement is partly to blame for this water crisis.



"This problem has been exacerbated by the poor management on the DA side, both in the provincial government and in the municipality," he told VOA.

He said this was raised more than five years ago when a serious drought was underway in the western cape due to natural causes, including global warming.

But he said the "DA failed to execute mechanisms" to restrict the use of water and manage the process promptly, to the extent that "we are now reacting in a crisis that is already over our head."



Civil society groups like the South African Water Caucus say water allocation is the responsibility of the national government. They blame the ANC-led national government for failing to release enough drought funding because of mismanagement and corruption at the national level.



No water, no solution

Hydrologist Piotr Wolski of the University of Cape Town's Climate Systems Analysis Group has run mathematical analyses of the drought and the water supply. He believes Cape Town' engineers and administrators would have struggled to design a water system that could have held up to such a severe challenge.



"Water supply systems are usually designed with an assurance rate of 97 percent, which means that in worst case they may fail only 3 percent of the time," he wrote in his recent analysis. "The conditions we experience now seem to be well beyond what one usually plans for."



Mayor De Lille said she remains optimistic. She said if Capetonians can stick to the limits, they can push Day Zero back.



But her own Day Zero may come sooner still. As De Lille's party meets this weekend to decide whether to take action against her, a political storm hovers over what South Africans affectionately call the Mother City. But it is not the storm Cape Town so badly needs right now.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in asylum inside Ecuador's embassy in London for five years, was granted Ecuadorian citizenship, the country's foreign minister said Thursday.

The move was seen as an unsuccessful attempt to allow Assange to leave the embassy without facing arrest by British police. London denied Ecuador's request to grant Assange diplomatic status, which would give him safe passage out of the embassy.

"Ecuador is currently exploring other solutions in dialogue with the UK," Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, told reporters Thursday.

"There are well-founded fears we have about possible risks to his life and integrity, not necessarily by the UK but by third party states," she added.

Assange has been living at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012 under virtual house arrest to avoid being detained in connection with a Swedish rape investigation, which began seven years ago.

Though Sweden dropped the case against him, the Australian-born former journalist and computer programmer remained at the Ecuadorean embassy. British police have said they will arrest him on a charge of jumping bail if he tries to leave.

Assange also faces a possible sealed U.S. indictment against him. The U.S. Justice Department has been investigating Assange since at least 2010, when WikiLeaks published thousands of stolen U.S. security files.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the international agreement on Iran's nuclear program is working, and that while there are concerns about Iran's development of ballistic missiles and other activities in the Middle East, those should be dealt with as a separate issue.

She spoke after a meeting Thursday in Brussels with the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Iran to discuss the 2015 agreement, which limited Iran's nuclear program amid concerns it was working to develop nuclear weapons, and in exchange gave Iran relief from financial sanctions.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program was solely peaceful in nature. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif did not appear alongside the other diplomats as they spoke to reporters, but on Wednesday expressed support for the agreement while accusing the United States of implementing destructive policies.

Positive impact



Mogherini said the deal has allowed for deeper cooperation and dialogue with Iran on all issues as she stressed the need to see its continued success.

"The unity of the international community is essential to preserve a deal that is working, that is making the world safer, and that is preventing a potential nuclear arms race in the region, and we expect all parties to continue to fully implement this agreement," she said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said all parties must respect the nuclear deal, including the United States, which was part of the group that included Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany to negotiate the agreement.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it is important to build "worldwide support" for the deal and give Iran the chance to show it is a "good neighbor in the region."

"It is legitimate and right that we should in parallel - not connected with the JCPOA - but in parallel we should focus on what Iran can do to resolve the appalling crisis in Yemen, to help push forward a peace in Syria and to help resolve other questions in the region," Johnson said.

He added that he does not think anyone has come up with a better alternative to the Iranian nuclear deal.



Trump on sanctions

U.S. President Donald Trump is considering whether to continue waiving U.S. sanctions that were originally imposed to pressure Iran to give up any nuclear weapons activities. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Thursday he expected Trump to make a decision during a meeting at the White House later in the day.



Trump has been a harsh critic of the JCPOA, saying Iran got too much of a benefit while giving up too little.

The agreement was put in place through a United Nations Security Council resolution with monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has certified that Iran is complying with its responsibilities that include limiting its enrichment of uranium and dismantling equipment.

At a later European Parliament conference to discuss a democratic solution to Iran's activities in the Middle East, Martina Michels of Germany's Left Party said, "It is necessary to strictly comply [with] the nuclear agreement."

Arab political activist Mona Sielafi argued in favor of maintaining global pressure on Iran, which she accused of ethnic-driven suppression of Arab activists over water management and other environmental issues. She said the suppression led to the 2015 formation of the Council of Iranian Democrats, which declared two years later at a conference in Germany that "the current system does not work with Iran and it is the right moment" to establish "a different Iranian nation [that can] be respected and granted their individual collective rights."

Nasser Boladai is a spokesman for the Baluchistan Peoples Party, an Iran-based nationalist political party that advocates for the rights of the Baluch people of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Boladai warned that the global community must maintain a unified approach toward the regime in Iran.

People have to be prepared tochange this regime, otherwise were always going to have instability, war and everything else in the Middle East, in Central Asia and probably sometimes in the wider world if Iran gets what it wants, he said.
More than 100 Yazidi girls and boys who were kidnapped by the Islamic State in August 2014 have been rescued and sent to a shelter in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. A French humanitarian organization, Yahad In-Unum, is helping them cope with the trauma they experienced in IS captivity.
Armed men claiming to be Islamic State members have threatened residents of central Ghazni province, Afghanistan, to cease their support for the Taliban and join IS, according to a provincial official.

Khan Elham, chief of the Qara Bagh district of Ghazni province, told VOA that IS members hand-delivered and posted leaflets, warning residents not to support the Taliban.

The night letters [leaflets] ask people to remove their sons from the ranks of the Taliban and instead send them to join IS, Elham said. He added that IS threatened residents with severe punishment if they disobeyed.

Amanullah Kamrani, deputy chief of the provincial council, also confirmed IS activities in the province.

About 20 days ago, men who claimed to be related to IS delivered letters to some areas, and they posted similar warnings last night [Jan. 10], as well. Kamrani told VOA.

Afghan ministry: No IS in Ghazni

Meanwhile, the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs refutes the presence of IS in Ghazni province.

Based on intelligence and reconnaissance information we have in hand, we do not accept that IS has a presence in Ghazni, Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesperson for the ministry, told VOA.

Rahimi, however, confirmed that Haqqani network and Taliban insurgents are active in some areas of the province.

Presence in Zabul

An IS presence had been previously confirmed in parts of neighboring Zabul province, particularly the Khak-e-Afghan district. Ghazni provincial officials suspect the terror group might be attempting to find inroads into Ghazni province.

Arif Noori, provincial spokesman, downplayed the threat and charged that groups other than IS are behind the recent leaflets.

So far, IS does not have any activities in Ghazni, but some other groups are trying to spread fear and terror, Noori said. He did not specify who the other groups were. The night letters might be the work of some terrorist groups, but not IS, he emphasized.

The leaflets have been reportedly dropped in areas under the influence of the Taliban, who have yet to react.

Members of the provincial council urged the Afghan government to take the IS threat in the Ghazni province seriously and take necessary measures against the groups terrorist activities in the province.

The governors office told VOA that several operations are underway to crack down on all militants operating in the province.

IS attacks on the rise

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks in different parts of Afghanistan in recent months, including the capital of Kabul, sparking fears among Afghans that the terror group might be gaining strength.

Last week, a suicide bomber struck a convoy of the Afghan security forces in Kabul, killing at least 15 people, including security forces. The bomber detonated his explosives shortly after security forces arrived at the scene of a demonstration to control angry protesters. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last month, IS claimed responsibility for a suicide attack inside a Shiite cultural center in Kabul, which killed at least 40 people and wounded more than 90 others.

IS targeted in 2017

American and Afghan military forces had promised to eliminate IS in Afghanistan in 2017.

U.S. and Afghan security forces carried out many joint counterterrorism operations against IS in eastern Afghanistan where the terror group initially emerged in 2015, killing hundreds of IS fighters, including several senior commanders last year.

Despite defeats in eastern Afghanistan and elsewhere by U.S. and Afghan security forces, IS still seems able to carry out deadly attacks.

Afghan officials charge that IS is carrying out desperate attacks in urban areas of Afghanistan to make up for losses in its traditional stronghold of eastern Nanghar province, where the group was crushed by U.S- Afghan operations in 2017.
Israelis are calling for revenge after the drive-by slaying of a Jewish settler by a suspected Palestinian gunman in the West Bank.

The victim, Raziel Shevah, died in a hospital after he was hit by multiple bullets Tuesday night near Havat Gilad, an unauthorized Jewish settlement near Nablus. Israeli soldiers set up roadblocks and sealed off Palestinian villages surrounding the city on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to do "everything possible" to apprehend the shooter.

He again condemned the Palestinians' "martyrs' fund," which makes payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, militants and others killed or wounded in confrontations with Israeli police and soldiers.

"Funding and incentivizing murder doesn't exactly advance peace. Here's the principle they're communicating to their people: Kill Israelis and get rich. Now, what kind of message does that send to impressionable Palestinian children?" Netanyahu asked a group of foreign journalists Wednesday.

Havat Gilad is what Israel regards as an unapproved settlement, inside a remote part of the West Bank. Small numbers of Jewish hard-liners who insist the Palestinian West Bank is part of Israel populate such settlements, and the Israeli government sometimes tries to evacuate such areas by force.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future state and regard Jewish settlements  both approved and unapproved by the Israeli government  as a major obstacle to peace.
The non-binding opinion issued Wednesday by the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice on the fisheries agreement concluded between Morocco and the EU raises eyebrows and even suspicion.

Several international experts wonder why Belgian legal advisor Melchior Wathelet would choose to take an irrational stand, trying to undermine the extensive ties EU has with Morocco in trade, political and security matters.

Is it just a matter of personal opinion from an Advocate General who is supposed to be impartial, apolitical, abiding by the judiciary code of conduct? Or is it a worrying drift serving a secret agenda?

Some analysts sense a vindictive streak as Mr. Wathelet lost his case against Morocco in September 2016 when the European court overturned a verdict on farm deal with Morocco in the appeal lodged by the European Union.

The ruling dealt a hard blow to the Polisario separatists, backed by Algerian lobbyists who tirelessly seek to torpedo Moroccan-European relations by all means.

So, after he failed in his first attempt to torpedo the Morocco-EU farm deal, the same Advocate General of the European court resumed his offensive hoping to succeed this time.

But his second attempt is doomed to failure as he reproduced the same false and twisted arguments, which had already been set aside by the European court due to lack of understanding of facts on the ground and geopolitical risks.

He tried in vain to prove his point by defending the complaint lodged by a UK-based association supporting the Polisario separatist group, claiming the UE Fisheries deal signed with Morocco does not benefit the local inhabitants of the Sahara and breaches their rights.

But all these claims are baseless and false. In a first reaction made by the EU to Wathelets remarks, a spokesperson for Federica Mogherini, the current EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, describe Morocco as a key partner with whom the Union developed a rich and diversified partnership for several years.

It is our desire not only to preserve the privileged relationship that we share, but also to strengthen it further, went on to say the spokesperson.

Morocco has not so far reacted to the opinion of the Belgian legal advisor, remaining composed. According to some observers, such composure shows the Moroccan government is confident as regards its rights and the legitimacy of its sacred causes.

Furthermore, what arouses further suspicion over the fairness of the advisory opinion of the Advocate General is its timing. It strangely coincides with the EU decision to open talks with Morocco on new fisheries protocol. The current, 4-year protocol to the Fisheries Partnership Agreement will expire on 14 July 2018.

In 2017, both the Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella and the Moroccan Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Aziz Akhannouch expressed their intention to renew this instrument, which is essential for both parties.

Besides, an independent evaluation study made public last December underlines the positive impact of the current protocol in terms of sustainable fishing and its contribution to the socioeconomic interests of the fisheries sectors both in the EU and in Morocco.

The evaluation also highlights the clauses supporting economic development and benefiting local population, such as landings in ports and embarkation of local seamen.

About 120 vessels from 11 EU countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, The Netherlands, Ireland, Poland and United Kingdom) are concerned by the Fisheries accord with Morocco.

According to some analysts, the opinion of the Advocate General could eventually pose a problem to the EU, but not to Morocco. In the worst-case scenario, the North African country can replace the European fleet operating in its waters by others if it chooses not to renew fishing accord with the EU.

As to the financial compensation Morocco receives from the European bloc for the deployment of its fishing fleet in the countrys waters, it is well below the European countries gains.
Japan has lodged an official protest with China after a Chinese naval vessel was spotted in the East China Sea near a group of islands claimed by both countries.

A Chinese frigate was seen Thursday just outside the 22 kilometer limit that makes up Japan's territorial waters surrounding the islands. A spokesman for Japan's Defense Ministry said a foreign submarine, also believed to be Chinese, was detected in the same area Wednesday and Thursday.

In Tokyo, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama summoned Chinese ambassador Cheng Younghua to the Foreign Ministry to express "grave concern" about the incident.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters in Beijing the two ships were in the area to monitor the activities of Japanese vessels.

Japan and China have been engaged in a long, bitter dispute over the uninhabited islands, called Senkaku by Tokyo and by Beijing as Diaoyu. Japan has controlled the islands since 2012, a move that angered China and led to icy relations between the Asian rivals that have slowly begun to mend.
Kosovo President Hashim Thaci is insisting that he will sign legislation to abolish a special court set up to try former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) members for war and postwar crimes if parliament passes such a measure.

"The law on [the] special court is in place, but if the parliament votes otherwise, it will be my legal and constitutional duty to sign such legislation," he said in a Wednesday interview with VOA's Albanian Service.

It is unclear why Thaci, a former leader of the KLA, changed his position on the Hague-based special court, which was set up under Kosovo's jurisdiction. The law, which required constitutional changes, was passed in 2015 amid pressure from the international community. As foreign minister at that time, Thaci supported the legislation and played a key role in having it passed.

Asked whether he was concerned he might be among those charged with war crimes, Thaci said he was "not afraid of justice."

Equal treatment demanded

Echoing the opinions of those who see the establishment of the special court as unfair, the president warned that "Kosovo should not be discriminated [against] by the international community."

"It must be treated the same way as other former Yugoslav states," he said.

The motion to suspend the law was presented unexpectedly  late on December 22, just before the long Christmas holiday  by a group of 43 parliamentarians.

Alarmed at the surprise development, the U.S. ambassador, along with fellow Western ambassadors, immediately arrived at parliament in an effort to push back, urging Kosovo leaders to abandon the suspension by warning of serious consequences.

"The United States is deeply concerned by recent attempts of Kosovo lawmakers to abrogate the law on the Specialist Chambers," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a December 29 statement, referring to the special court by its official name. "We call on political leaders in the Republic of Kosovo to maintain their commitment to the work of the Chambers and to leave the authorities and jurisdiction of the court unchanged."

A few days later, another statement by Quint NATO countries  an informal decision-making group consisting of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States  was even harsher.

'Severe negative consequences'

"Anyone who supports [suspending the special court] will be rejecting Kosovo's partnership with our countries," it said, adding that if Kosovo continued on this path, it would have "severe negative consequences, including for Kosovo's international and Euro-Atlantic integration."

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on December 21 that "the pursuit of justice in the Balkans is not over" and that the U.S. "remains committed to supporting justice for the victims."

The head of the EU's office in Kosovo called the attempt "appalling" and "extremely damaging for Kosovo."

The special court would hear cases of alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious crimes committed during and after the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo.

Kosovo's parliament is in recess until next week, and it is unclear whether the motion will be put up for a vote.

This story originated in VOA's Albanian Service.
U.S. lawmakers are running short on time to agree on a plan to fund the government and achieve a bipartisan immigration deal.

The budget battle could lead to a government shutdown next week, and Democrats in Congress want any funding agreement to include a legislative fix for the more than 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who have been protected from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

On Wednesday, a group of House Republicans introduced a bill that would institute a much more wide-ranging immigration reform that includes a three-year renewable status for those covered under DACA, but offer no path for any kind of permanent residency.

The bill led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte would also restrict relatives of immigrants from coming to the United States, mandate that companies use an electronic system to verify the immigration status of employees, reduce overall immigration, and boost the number of green cards for skilled workers.

"The bill were proposing is strong but it's also a fair bill  it's strong because it gets serious about enforcing our immigration laws and making it tougher for people to enter our country illegally and stay here," said Rep. Raul Labrador, one of the Republican co-sponsors.

A White House statement said President Donald Trump is "grateful" for the introduction of the bill and that it would accomplish his "core priorities for the American people." The measure would also authorize construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, something Trump told reporters Wednesday is a necessary part of any immigration plan.

But the legislation seems unlikely to make it to Trump's desk. It would need some Democratic support in the Senate and the party has focused much of its immigration energy on finding a solution for the immigrants who came to the United States illegally when they were children.

Trump in September rescinded the DACA program and gave Congress until March to figure out how to address those immigrants, sometimes referred to as "Dreamers."

"The president agreed we ought to do it in two phases because we have an emergency," said Rep. Steny Hoyer. "We cant wait until March. We need to make sure theyre protected and included and welcomed now."

A group of 100 chief executive officers sent a letter Wednesday to Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress calling on them to immediately pass a permanent, bipartisan legislative solution to allow the young undocumented immigrants to continue living and working in the United States.

"While delay or inaction will cause significant negative impact to businesses, hundreds of thousands of deserving young people across the country are counting on you to work in a bipartisan way to pass permanent legislative protection for Dreamers without further delay," the letter said.

Those signing it include the CEOs of Facebook, General Motors, Apple, Target, Amazon, Google and the National Association of Manufacturers.

A federal judge in California issued a ruling Tuesday temporarily blocking the Trump administration from ending DACA, saying the program should remain in place until legal challenges against Trump's decision are resolved.

Tuesday's order specifies that the terms of the DACA program are to be maintained for anyone who was already covered by the program before Trump's September action, and that those people are allowed to renew their enrollments.

But the government does not have to process any new applications for people trying to enroll under DACA for the first time, and remains free to deport anyone it determines to be a national security or public safety risk.

Trump rejected the court ruling Wednesday, saying the judicial system is "broken and unfair."
Maines U.S. senators say they are getting behind an effort to restore net neutrality rules.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King say they support a bipartisan Congressional Review Act resolution to bring back net neutrality, which was repealed by the Federal Communications Commission last month.

Collins and King say in a joint statement that protections under net neutrality have allowed businesses in Maine and elsewhere to have equal access to the Internet so they can innovate, grow and compete in the global economy.

Collins and King wrote to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in December to call on him to cancel plans to repeal net neutrality. Pai has said the move eliminates regulations that are unnecessary. Its an Obama-era rule that guaranteed equal access to the internet.
As the trial of two Myanmar journalists begins in Yangon, the case has now passed from the sphere of Myanmars military, which retains full control of the police, to the sphere of the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, local reporters for global newswire Reuters, were arrested Dec. 12 in Yangon and have been detained by police since.

They face 14 years in prison for possessing classified material related to military operations in Rakhine State, which rights groups and the United Nations say amount to ethnic cleansing. Their families claimed the two were arrested immediately after meeting police sources for dinner, where they were handed the documents. Government spokesperson Win Htein told the press they were likely caught in a trap.

Espionage charges

Before a Yangon district judge Wednesday, government prosecutors sought charges against the journalists under Section 3.1 (C) of the Official Secrets Act, a 1923 law made to deter espionage against British colonial rule. An information ministry bulletin at the time of their arrest said they had illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media.

After a half-hour session, the case was adjourned until Jan. 23, when bail arguments will be heard. As Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were bundled back into a waiting prison van, their families broke down in shouts and tears. Outside the gates, several dozen local journalists held up a vinyl poster demanding their release. Their black T-shirts read, Journalism is not a crime.

Criminal cases in Myanmar are prosecuted under the attorney general, who is appointed by the president, Htin Kyaw. Though constitutionally supreme, Htin Kyaw is beholden to Aung San Suu Kyi, who, as state counselor, keeps a tight grip on the civilian government via her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

However, the government must share power with the military, which controls all security agencies and the local bureaucracy via the home affairs ministry.

The president authorized the initial police investigation. However, the NLD civilian government could, in principle, have chosen not to seek charges. That they have pressed ahead indicates the limits of international condemnation, which has included demands for their immediate release from Western governments, and a global media spotlight.

International reaction

In a statement released Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar said the U.S. is disappointed by todays decision. The day before, global rights group Amnesty International condemned the trial, saying, This clampdown on freedom of speech must end.

Criticism within the country has been far more muted and largely confined to Myanmars journalist community. Slurs that they are traitors have matched expressions of support for the Reuters journalists on Facebook. The independent Myanmar Press Council only offered to mediate and did not join calls for their release.

As the Myanmar government has met the international outcry over alleged atrocities against the Rohingya with blanket denials, critical foreign media has increasingly been viewed as part of a fake news conspiracy aimed at destabilizing the country. Through state media, the NLD-controlled information ministry had laid the groundwork for reporters in the pay of overseas news agencies to be viewed as the equivalent of spies.

The NLD government is firmly committed to freedom of expression. At the same time, the government must promote rule of law around the country, government spokesperson Zaw Htay told VOA. He added that the independent judicial process must continue, to determine whether Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are guilty or not.

Zin Mar Aung, an NLD parliamentarian who spent 11 years as a political prisoner, told VOA it would be difficult, in practice, for the civilian government to halt the proceedings against the journalists. The case, she said, is sensitive for the military, because it touches on what happened in Rakhine State, she said.

A trend?

The trial follows a year filled with clampdowns on press freedom in Myanmar. On Monday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists declared Aung San Suu Kyi the Biggest Backslider in Press Freedom in its Press Oppressors Awards.

In October, two foreign journalists, along with their fixer and driver, were prosecuted for flying a drone close to the national parliament.

In June, the editor and a columnist at local newspaper The Voice were charged with defamation for satirizing the military. The same month, three journalists from local outlets, The Irrawaddy and Democratic Voice of Burma, were arrested for making contact with an ethnic armed group in Shan State.

In all cases, after protracted trials, charges were eventually dropped, indicating a pattern that many hope will hold for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

Lawi Weng, The Irrawaddy journalist who spent two months in jail under the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act, expressed the same hope. He told VOA that the government could be using political prisoners, including jailed journalists, as bargaining chips to deter renewed sanctions from Western powers over the Rohingya crisis.

Asked about the NLD governments apparent refusal to support journalists, he said, maybe they dont understand press freedom.
New York City is making a move against the fossil fuel industry on two fronts.

Democratic Mayor Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday the city is suing five big oil companies for global warming and divesting $5 billion in oil investments from the city's pension funds.

"We're bringing the fight against climate change straight to the fossil fuel companies that knew about its effects and intentionally misled the public to protect their profits," de Blasio alleged Wednesday. "As climate change continues to worsen, it's up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient."

The mayor compared the oil companies to cigarette manufacturers, who knowingly made and marketed a product they knew was deadly.

Three of the five companies the city is suing -- Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell -- said the lawsuit has no merit and that the courtroom is not the place to fight global warming.

BP and ConocoPhillips declined to comment.

Mayor de Blasio and City Comptroller Scott Stringer also announced plans to sell off $5 billion in fossil fuel investments from the city's $189 billion pension fund for employees -- the largest such divestment of any U.S. city.

"Safeguarding the retirement of our city's police officers, teachers and firefighters is our top priority and we believe that their financial future is linked to the sustainability of the planet," Stringer said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced similar plans for the state pension funds last month.

Several other U.S. and European cities, universities and global funds have also sold off their oil company interests.
North Korea has found good material to attack U.S. President Donald Trump: Michael Wolffs bombshell new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

The book paints Trump as a leader who doesnt understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides. Trump and other White House aides have blasted it as inaccurate trash. But it was the top-selling book in the U.S. last week, and its numbers are likely to grow far higher.

On Thursday, the Norths main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, run by its ruling Workers Party, carried an article about the books subject matter, how Trump reacted and why it is selling so well.

Traded threats

Its sales reflect rapidly surging anti-Trump sentiments in the international community, the article said. The anti-Trump book is sweeping all over the world so Trump is being massively humiliated worldwide.

The books popularity foretells Trumps political demise, the article said.

Last summer, Trump threatened North Korea with fire and fury like the world has never seen in an exchange of taunts with the North, which claimed it was examining plans to launch missiles toward the American territory of Guam.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have since traded threats of war and crude insults, as the North conducted nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Trump called Kim Rocket Man on a suicide mission. Kim called the 71-year-old American president the mentally deranged U.S. dotard. In his New Years address last week, Kim said he has a nuclear button that could fire weapons anywhere in the United States, and Trump responded that he has a much bigger and more powerful nuclear button.

Ties with the South

Recently, North Korea has taken steps toward improving ties with rival South Korea in what critics call a tactic to divide Seoul and Washington and weaken U.S.-led international pressure and sanctions on the country. On Tuesday, it had its first formal talks with South Korea in about two years and agreed to send a delegation to next months Winter Olympics in the South and hold military talks aimed at easing front-line animosity.

But North Korea hasnt stopped its rhetoric against Trump. Last week, the Norths state media called Trump a war maniac and madman.

After Tuesdays inter-Korean talks, Trump said during a phone conversation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that the United States was open to talks with North Korea at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances, according to a White House statement.

Fire and Fury was released last Friday and sold 29,000 copies through Saturday, NPD BookScan told The Associated Press. Digital sales already top 250,000 and audio sales exceed 100,000, according to John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, the parent company of the books publisher, Henry Holt and Co. It has raised an initial announced printing of 150,000 to more than 1 million.
The father of an 8-year-old Pakistani girl whose rape and killing shocked the nation accused the police Thursday of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing in eastern Punjab province.

The father, Anees Ansari, who was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife at the time of his daughters disappearance, spoke after meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Sharif traveled to the city of Kasur to visit the family hours after Ansari returned home from Saudi Arabia to attend his daughters funeral Wednesday.

The girl, Zainab Ansari, disappeared last week while going to a nearby home for Quranic studies, and her body was found in a Kasur waste-yard Tuesday.

Her killing sparked clashes Wednesday between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in the clashes.

Sharif, who had assured Zainabs father that justice would be done, also fired Kasurs police chief over negligence in the case, according to a Punjab government statement Thursday. Three police officers were arrested for opening fire at the mob instead of into the air during Wednesdays clashes.

Zainabs killing, which has drawn wide public outcry, prompted dozens of civil society activists to rally Thursday in the city of Lahore. A similar rally took place Wednesday in the port city of Karachi.

Pakistans Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and champion for female education, tweeted Wednesday she was heartbroken about Zainabs tragic fate and demanded action against the killer.
A bipartisan group of six senators announced Thursday they had reached an agreement "in principle" on an immigration deal that would address the fate of more than 800,000 DACA recipients and other key immigration reform issues outlined by President Donald Trump.



The group said in a statement: We have been working for four months and have reached an agreement in principle that addresses border security, the diversity visa lottery, chain migration/family reunification and the Dream Act the areas outlined by the President."

"We are now working to build support for that deal in Congress," one of the six, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), said in a statement.



Getting to a deal may not be easy. With deep party divisions over immigration reform and only four working days left until funding runs out, the twists and turns on the path to passing that bill are anything but simple.



Asked earlier Thursday about preliminary reports that the senators were nearing an agreement, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there has not been a deal reached yet, but the president is hopeful.



"The president has been clear on what his priorities are in that process and we're going to continue working with members of the House and the Senate, Republicans and Democrats, to make sure that we try to get that deal done," she said.



In a meeting with lawmakers Tuesday, Trump issued a four-item wish list: DACA, a border wall, replacing family-based immigration with a merit-based one, and eliminating the diversity visa.

Since last September when Trump ended DACA, congressional Republicans have maintained that the program should be part of a broader immigration bill, opening the door to a wide range of issues.

Border security maybe, but no wall

Trump has specified DACA legislation has to include measures to "secure the border." The unresolved question here is whether this includes a continuous physical wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that was one of the president's centerpiece campaign promises or a package of border security measures.

Congressional Democrats facing re-election in the 2018 mid-terms will never agree to fund a physical border wall. They hold the cards in this debate; without their votes for a budget deal, the U.S. government will shut down after January 19.



"The president agreed we ought to do it in two phases because we have an emergency," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said Wednesday of the March 5 deadline for DACA expiration. "We need to make sure they're protected and included and welcomed now."



Republican Representatives Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both from Florida, have also promised to vote against any spending bill that does not include a DACA fix. Curbelo sponsored the Recognizing America's Children Act, one of several bills in Congress that if passed would provide a permanent legislative solution for DREAMers.



Democrats' calculations on the budget deal could change if the border enforcement piece included repair of existing sections of border fencing and more technology for surveillance. Border Congressman Will Hurd's (R-TX) proposal for a SMART "wall" using drone and biometric technology to police the border could provide a blueprint for that approach.



"We're willing to give a little when it comes to border security but we're not willing to give away the whole hog," said Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).



Democrats from the more progressive wing of their party will be reluctant to give too much on border enforcement in return for a DACA fix.

Immigration system

For Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), a longtime supporter of DREAMers, President Trump's desire to undo family-based immigration is ironic.

"He couldn't even go to the White House without bringing his daughter and his son-in-law with him well, guess what that's the way businesses work and that's how families thrive in America," Gutierrez told reporters Tuesday night. He added family-based migration is "fundamental to who we are."

Opponents say the current system of family migration creates a security risk by allowing an easy pathway into residency in the United States. Supporters say the practice allowing an immigrant into the U.S. to sponsor green cards for spouses, children and siblings reunites families.



A new bill introduced in the U.S. House by Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Michael McCaul (R-TX), joined by conservative Freedom Caucus member Raul Labrador (R-ID) and Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally (R-AZ) addresses all of these issues and eliminates the diversity visa, another item on Trump's wish list.



This bill would "honor the commitment the president made to couple it [DACA fix] with securing our borders and ending chain migration," Goodlatte said Wednesday.



Passing the bill, however, will take time and with neither side eager to appear responsible for shutting down the U.S. government, the expectation from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is that each of these issues will have to be resolved step by step.

"It's still my view that I will call up a DACA-related immigration bill that I know the president will sign," he said Monday, "and that it will not be a part of any overall spending agreement."
Although a federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration to keep in place the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), recipients may not see any benefits soon, or at all.

In Tuesdays court order, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup said immigration officials must begin to process DACA renewal applications again.

The ruling applies only to those who had DACA before President Donald Trump ended the program in September and does not apply to first-time applicants.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) shall post reasonable public notice that it will resume receiving DACA renewal applications and prescribe a process consistent with this order, the court ruling says.

Immigration officials were also ordered to keep records on all DACA-related applications and provide summary reports to the court (and counsel) on the first business day of each quarter.

Its a victory for our democracy, in which the courts continue to serve as an important check and balance against the un-American and unlawful actions of this administration, Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, told reporters.

Hincapie, however, says it might be days, weeks, months before anyone benefits from the courts order.

The court in the decision has made very clear that people with renewal applications would be able to go forward, but that DHS (Department Homeland Security) should within a reasonable period of time issue notice explaining how individuals would be able to do that, she said.

But the Trump administration has already announced its intention to appeal, setting off what advocates say will be a legal ping-pong, which could take months before actual relief is implemented, if at all.

Rulings effect on Congress

When he ended the program in September, Trump gave Congress six months to find a legislative fix for the roughly 800,000 immigrants who entered the country illegally when they were children.

Though the White House on Wednesday morning said the court decision was outrageous, it is not clear if it will impact the immigration negotiations in Congress.

(Trump) persistently and relentlessly promised an end to DACA. Well, technically, he has announced that that will happen on March 5 of this year, but also he is working to trade it for a series of immigration enforcement deals, Rep. Steve King, a Republican from Iowa, said.

Later Wednesday, Trump once again specified that funding for a border wall must be part of a DACA deal.

If Alsups 49-page ruling holds up, the March 5 deadline is gone. Alsup said the courts would need more time, and the temporary restraining order would remain in place past that date.

Anyone whose DACA benefits expire after March 5 could renew them until the case is fully litigated.

Government reaction

DACA was implemented unilaterally after Congress declined to extend these benefits to this same group of illegal aliens. As such, it was an unlawful circumvention of Congress, U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Devin OMalley said in a statement reacting to the ruling. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend this position and looks forward to vindicating its position in further litigation, he said.

It is unknown when DOJ will file its appeal. The agency declined to comment to VOA.

Michael Tan, an attorney at the ACLU Immigrants Rights Project (IRP), said until the government does appeal, the ruling is in effect.

They havent done so, yet. They could be quick. They could take their time. I think if they move ahead with an appeal, they will also seek a stay of the court's order, Tan said.

Lost in the mail

Separately, USCIS recently made an exception for DACA recipients to resubmit their documentation after U.S. Postal Service delays affected the arrival of renewal applications for benefits set to expire before March 5  the last of the renewals to be processed with the program ending.

USCIS spokesman Steve Blando said 1,900 DACA recipients were affected. He said DACA recipients had 33 days to resubmit their renewal forms but priority would not be given to applicants who had their documents held up by the post office.

While the post office apologized for the delays, USCIS initially refused to accept the applications.

According to the agency, 200 applicants resubmitted their documents before the government reached out to them, and about 1,700 are expected to receive letters from the immigration agency.

Melissa Michelson, a professor of political science at Menlo College, said Americans may have a better idea on what will happen on DACA in the next nine days. Congress faces a Jan. 19 deadline to reach agreement on U.S. government spending, and Democrats may hold their votes unless there is a fix for DACA.

What are the items the Democrats are going to insist upon? Is that going to include a clean DACA bill? What are they going to stand for, and what's going to end up being let go? Michelson said.

VOA's Victoria Macchi contributed to this report.
Were basically using microscale pillars as three-dimensional geometrical figures to capture poorly shaped cells while letting the morphologically normal through, Demirci said.

Compared to other standard clinical sperm-sorting methods  such as the swim-up method, in which semen is placed in a solution, and sperm unable to swim up into it are discarded  SPARTAN yields about twice as many morphologically sound sperm. Swim-up averages 24 percent, while SPARTAN averages 52 percent, the study said.

Over a period of about five years, Tuzel and Demirci tried out a variety of pillar alignments in their models. The arrangements tested patterns of different distances, both vertically and horizontally, and various sizes of pillars, until finally they landed on the most successful array, which they call periodic structures, as the pillars stand in series, or periods.

Tuzel and Kingsley, the graduate student who did the computational design and optimization work, said they used fluid physics to model human sperm to show how they move in a complex environment and within the pillar array. If you randomly selected pillar spacing, it would have taken years to come up with the right design. We used fluid mechanics, optimization and novel computational algorithms to figure out the right spacing with the pillars to get the fastest sperm captured in the least amount of time, said Tuzel. If wed been doing it randomly? Well, no researcher would have done that. It would be a wild goose chase.

Once the simulation showed the majority of strong, well-shaped swimmers reaching the end of the device, Demirci began to build it in his lab. To his delight, the device performed just as the simulation had predicted. Moreover, the researchers found that cells of the right shape and size could swim in a straight line the fastest and separate themselves from the rest of the pack. Upon further analyses, the strong swimmers also had lower rates of DNA damage.

Just keep swimming

SPARTAN separates the semen passively, meaning the cells swim through the devices maze on their own. The pillars sit in a fluid that naturally attracts sperm. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. It makes for a pretty easy user manual, Demirci said.

Its basically a two-step process: pipette raw semen into one end of the box, then collect the filtered, healthy sperm cells at the other end, he said.

I believe in the long run, were going to see these types of devices replace the current centrifuge-based methods used in embryology labs.

The ease of use is important for standardizing practices in the clinic; fewer steps mean fewer errors. But aside from the speedy sorting, Demirci said the passive nature of the device is crucial. Currently, many sperm-collection techniques use centrifuges, machines that spin samples of fluids and separate the components by density, to collect the sperm cells. The rapid, high-force motion is damaging to the cells, and actually induces destructive molecules called reactive oxygen species that harm the cells DNA. Swim-up tactics yield a collection of sperm cells in which 13 percent show DNA fragmentation, a type of DNA damage; SPARTAN brings that number down to about 5 percent, the study said.

Demirci and Tuzel have a patent pending on the technology.

SPARTAN offers a lot more advantages in terms of speed of sorting and fitness of the cells, Demirci said. And I believe in the long run, were going to see these types of devices replace the current centrifuge-based methods used in embryology labs.

The studys other Stanford co-authors are basic life science research associate Fatih Inci, PhD; and Barry Behr, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

Demirci and Behr are members of Stanford Bio-X. Demirci is a member of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, the Stanford Cancer Institute and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute. Behr is a member of the Stanford Child Health Research Institute.

A researcher at the University of California-San Francisco also contributed to the work.

This study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Stanfords Department of Radiology also supported the work.
Russia has denounced a U.S. Senate report which accuses the Kremlin of election meddling with the intent to undermine democracies, saying it is "unfounded" and damaging for relations between the two countries.

U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday warned that Russian operations to undermine democracy extend far beyond U.S. elections and accused President Donald Trump of failing to confront the threat.

Never before has a U.S. president so clearly ignored such a grave threat, and a growing threat, to U.S. national security, said the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin of Maryland, adding that unless action is taken, Russian interference will mar American elections this year and in 2020.



Cardin released a report prepared by the committees Democratic staff members that accused Russia of mounting a protracted assault on democracy at home and abroad, and urged a multi-pronged counter-strategy that begins with U.S. presidential leadership.



Putin's regime has developed a formidable set of tools to exert influence abroad" and "appears intent on using almost any means possible to undermine democratic institutions and trans-Atlantic alliances," the report said.

Kremlin reaction



On a conference call Thursday with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected any charges of interference and voiced alarm that the allegations were still being made.

"We can only express our dismay with this continuing campaign and once again remind that these fears, these accusations against our country about meddling, still have no basis and are absolutely unfounded."



Peskov dismissed the accusations as an "obsessive idea" in Washington that could hurt "not just U.S.-Russian bilateral relations but the U.S. itself."

Based on months of research and consultations with foreign governments targeted by the Kremlin, the 206-page report exhaustively documented the full array of tools Russia has wielded beyond its borders.



Putin's "asymmetrical arsenal" ranges from "a lethal blend of conventional military assaults, assassinations, disinformation campaigns, [and] cyberattacks" in Ukraine to plotting a coup in Montenegro to disinformation and cyberattacks in Germany, France, Britain and beyond, according to the report.



The document also details years of alleged oppression and violence within Russia against Putin's perceived adversaries and critics. The Russian leader, the report said, "gained and solidified power by exploiting blackmail, fears of terrorism, and war" and "combined military adventurism and aggression abroad with propaganda and political repression at home, to persuade a domestic audience that he is restoring Russia to greatness."

"This is not a report on the hacking of the 2016 [U.S.] election. It's a report about how Russia operates around the world," said a committee staff member who helped prepare the document, adding that the report is the first from a U.S. governmental entity that spells out "the scale and scope" of the Russian threat.



Without fully understanding that threat, the staffer said, "you can't prevent it from happening again."



The committees Republican chairman did not sign off on the minority report, but did not immediately contest its findings.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said, We [committee Republicans] received a copy [of the Democratic report] on Monday evening. Through a series of public hearings and classified briefings, the committee has conducted its oversight responsibilities related to Russia and most recently, worked directly with the Senate Banking Committee to expand sanctions against the government of Russia in response to its continued aggression, including its brazen cyberattacks and interference in elections.



The report detailed steps European nations have taken to combat Russian influence, both individually and within organizations such as NATO and the European Union. The United States, it contended, lags far behind.



"President Trump has been negligent in acknowledging and responding to the threat to U.S. national security posed by Putin's meddling," the report said. "The president should immediately declare that it is U.S. policy to counter and deter all forms of the Kremlin's hybrid threats against the United States and around the world... The president should also present to Congress a comprehensive national strategy to counter these grave national security threats."



Establishing a fusion cell



The report recommended establishing an inter-agency task force or "fusion cell" for combating Russian influence modeled on the National Counterterrorism Center. It also recommended designating countries that employ malign influence operations as "State Hybrid Threat Actors" and subjecting them to "a pre-emptive and escalatory sanctions regime."



Minority reports are common on Capitol Hill, and this one came in the context of multiple congressional investigations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that have increasingly spawned partisan friction on Capitol Hill.



Even so, Cardin expressed hope that Republicans would embrace the documents findings and recommendations.



"There is a long bipartisan tradition in Congress in support of firm policies to counter Russian government aggression and abuse against its own citizens, our allies, and universal values," Cardin wrote in an introduction. "This report seeks to continue that tradition."



Trump has repeatedly maintained that, whatever deeds Russia committed, he did not collude with Kremlin efforts to influence the 2016 race. Putin, meanwhile, has ridiculed any suggestion of Russian meddling outside its borders.
Russias government is threatening additional penalties against U.S. media operating in Russia. The threat is the latest in a back and forth dispute between Washington and Moscow over the treatment of media outlets operating in each others countries.

Ever since U.S. intelligence agencies issued a report last January, claiming a Russian media role in alleged Kremlin meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the media have been garnering unwelcome headlines.

First, the U.S. demanded the Russian state-affiliated RT news service register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, an 80-year-old law first introduced to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II.

In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law designating foreign media as foreign agents.

Voice of America, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, and several affiliated projects with U.S. government backing were soon added to the list.

Then this week, Russias state-affiliated media outlet Sputnik announced that the United States was forcing its parent company, RIA Global, to register under FARA by early February.

In a statement issued online, Russia's embassy in Washington called the move unacceptable and alleged that Russian journalists face problems with visas as well as harassment from U.S. security services.

While the U.S. has denied those accusations, Russia also warned that unavoidable mirror measures would be forthcoming, without elaborating.

Yet the media issue wasnt the only irritant surrounding Russias debated role in the U.S. elections.

On Thursday, the Kremlin denounced a U.S. congressional report issued by Senate Democrats that accused Russia of mounting a protracted and asymmetrical assault on democracy in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the report part of an ongoing baseless and groundless campaign against Russia.



RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan also weighed in, deriding the report as boring.

Wake me up in five years when they find nothing and dont want to admit there was no Russian interference, she said.

Yet the issue is unlikely to disappear soon.

While the U.S. Congress has multiple ongoing investigations into Russian election meddling, Russian lawmakers have been conducting their own.

Of key interest to the Duma is how U.S. media might seek to influence Russias presidential elections, slated for March 2018.
Ford Motor Co said Thursday that it had confirmed a second death in an older pickup truck caused by a defective airbag inflator of Takata Corp., and it urged 2,900 owners in North America to stop driving their vehicles immediately until they can get replacement parts.

The second-largest U.S. automaker said it confirmed in late December that a July 2017 crash death in West Virginia in a 2006 Ford Ranger was caused by a defective Takata inflator. It previously reported a similar death in South Carolina that occurred in December 2015.

Ford said both Takata deaths occurred with inflators built on the same day installed in 2006 Ranger pickups. At least 21 deaths worldwide are linked to the Takata inflators that can rupture and send deadly metal fragments into the driver's body.

The faulty inflators have led to the largest automotive recall in history. The other 19 deaths have occurred in Honda Motor Co. vehicles, most of which were in the United States.

Ford issued a new recall for automobiles that had been previously recalled in 2016. Of those 391,000 2004-06 Ranger vehicles, the new recall announced on Thursday affects 2,900 vehicles. These include 2,700 in the United States

and nearly 200 in Canada. The new recall will allow for identification of the 2,900 owners in the highest risk pool.

A Mazda Motor Corp. spokeswoman said Thursday that the company would conduct a similar recall and stop-drive warning for some 2006 Mazda B-Series trucks, which were built by Ford and are similar to the Ranger.

Japanese auto supplier Takata plans to sell its viable operations to Key Safety Systems, an affiliate of China's Ningo Joyson Electric Corp., for $1.6 billion. Takata did not immediately comment Thursday on the Ford action.

Agency echoes Ford warning

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urged owners to heed Ford's warning. "It is extremely important that all high-risk air bags are tracked down and replaced immediately," NHTSA spokeswoman Karen Aldana said.

Ford said it would pay to have vehicles towed to dealerships or send mobile repair teams to owners' homes and provide free loaners if needed.

Takata said in June that it had recalled, or expected to recall, about 125 million vehicles worldwide by 2019, including more than 60 million in the United States. Nineteen automakers worldwide are affected.

Takata inflators can explode with excessive force, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks, and have injured more than 200 people. The defect led Takata to file for bankruptcy protection in June.

In 2017, prosecutors in Detroit charged three former senior Takata executives with falsifying test results to conceal the inflator defect. None has come to the United States to face charges.

Last year, Takata pleaded guilty of wire fraud and was subject to paying a total of $1 billion in criminal penalties in a U.S. court in connection with the recalls.

Automakers have struggled to get enough replacement parts for the massive recalls. A November NHTSA report said about two-thirds of U.S. vehicles recalled had not yet been repaired.

Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said in a statement Thursday that the latest death was evidence of "the very definition of a failed recall." NHTSA must do more, he said, to make the recall a priority.

In November, NHTSA rejected a petition from Ford to delay recalling 3 million vehicles with potentially defective airbag inflators to conduct additional testing.

In June 2016, NHTSA warned that airbag inflators on more than 300,000 unrepaired recalled 2001-03 model year Honda vehicles showed a substantial risk of rupturing, and urged owners to stop driving them until they were fixed. NHTSA said the inflators have as high as a 50 percent chance of a rupture in a crash.
South Koreas largest cryptocurrency exchanges were raided by police and tax agencies this week for alleged tax evasion, people familiar with the investigation said Thursday.

A few officials from the National Tax Service raided our office this week, an official at Coinone, a major cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, told Reuters.

Local police also have been investigating our company since last year, they think what we do is gambling, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said Coinone was cooperating with the investigation.

Bithumb

Bithumb, the second largest virtual currency operator in South Korea, was also raided by the tax authorities on Wednesday.

We were asked by the tax officials to disclose paperwork and things yesterday, an official at Bithumb said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

South Korean financial authorities had previously said they are inspecting six local banks that offer virtual currency accounts to institutions, amid concerns the increasing use of such assets could lead to a surge in crime.

Busiest exchanges

The crackdown on Seoul-based operators of some of the worlds busiest virtual currency exchanges comes as the government attempts to calm frenzied demand for cryptocurrency trading in Asias fourth largest economy.

Bitcoins 1,500 percent surge last year has stoked huge demand for cryptocurency in South Korea, drawing college students to housewives and sparking concerns about a gambling addiction.
U.S. President Donald Trump says it "seems unlikely" that he would need to meet with special counsel Robert Mueller about Mueller's investigation into allegations that Trump's presidential campaign had ties with Russia.

Trump made the comment Wednesday during a news conference after a meeting with Norweigian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

He reiterated his statement that there was "no collusion" with Russia, adding, "It seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview."

"There is collusion, but it's really with the Democrats and the Russians," he said, adding, "the witch hunt continues."

Mueller has reportedly indicated to Trump's lawyers that his team would like to interview the president as part of the investigation. Trump has called the investigation a "Democratic hoax."

So far, the investigation has resulted in the indictment of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and a guilty plea from former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.

Mueller's team has interviewed a number of Trump aides, including Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump called the investigation "the single greatest Witch Hunt in American history."

Trump also assailed California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, calling her "sneaky" because on Tuesday she released a transcript of an August interview with the head of a firm that produced a dossier containing allegations about Trump's presidential campaign and Russia.

Glenn Simpson, co-founder of the research group Fusion GPS, said he gave the dossier about Trump to the FBI because he was "very concerned" about a potential national security matter. Feinstein released a lengthy transcript of Simpson's testimony without telling the majority Republican bloc on the committee.

Feinstein said Simpson requested the transcript of his testimony be released to the public and that the American people deserved the chance to see his words and judge for themselves.

Simpson's firm hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to produce the dossier, and that research was paid for by Democrats, including the campaign of Trump's election opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Trump has dismissed the dossier and repeatedly denied that his campaign colluded with Russia. Trump has contended that the investigations are an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset win over Clinton, a former secretary of state.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, objected to Feinstein's release of the testimony. A Grassley spokesman, Taylor Foy, called Feinstein's actions "confounding" and said she had undermined the committee's "ability to secure candid voluntary testimony relating to the independent recollections of future witnesses."

The committee is conducting one of several investigations into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election and possible connections with the Trump campaign.

U.S. intelligence agencies assessed last year that Russia had conducted a campaign targeting the election with the goal of hurting Clinton's chances of winning while boosting Trump.

In addition, Mueller is investigating whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI chief James Comey when Comey was heading the agency's Russia probe before Mueller was appointed to take over the investigation.
A NAFTA termination letter from U.S. President Donald Trump could become the ultimate sleight of hand from Washington as it seeks to gain negotiating leverage over Canada and Mexico in talks to update the 24-year-old trade pact.

While such a letter would start a six-month exit clock ticking, the United States would not be legally bound to quit the North American Free Trade Agreement once it expires.

Unlike the irreversible missile that Britain fired when it triggered a two-year countdown to its exit from the European Union last March, quitting NAFTA would still be optional for Trump. And an exit would almost certainly face court challenges over Trump's authority to leave without consent from Congress.

Quitting NAFTA without quitting

Canadian government sources told Reuters on Wednesday that they are increasingly convinced that Trump will soon announce the U.S. intention to pull out of NAFTA. The news sent Canadian and Mexican currencies lower and hurt stocks across the continent.

Sending a termination letter would allow Trump, who has been frustrated with Mexican and Canadian reluctance to meet aggressive U.S. demands on the sourcing of automotive parts and on dispute settlement, to take a key step toward meeting his campaign promise of quitting NAFTA if it cannot be revised to shrink U.S. trade deficits.

He can gain political mileage out of a big announcement to quit NAFTA without actually doing it, said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who has written extensively on NAFTA termination issues.

He could say that he'll withdraw from NAFTA sometime after the six-month deadline if we don't get better results in the negotiations, Hufbauer said.

Two more rounds, then a pause?

Using a withdrawal letter in this manner fits in with a scenario that some industry lobbyists and trade observers say is increasingly likely: If there's no deal after two more scheduled negotiating rounds in late January and March, NAFTA talks would be put on hold for several months as Mexico's presidential election campaign gets under way.

By the time talks resume, the withdrawal threat could have more potency as a negotiating tactic.

NAFTA's Article 2205 states: A party may withdraw from this agreement six months after it provides written notice of withdrawal to the other parties. If a party withdraws, the agreement shall remain in force for the remaining parties.

The president would be then free to declare the restoration of U.S. tariffs to levels agreed at the World Trade Organization, although experts say that Canada would revert to the terms of a 1987 U.S. trade agreement that predated NAFTA.

Legal challenges likely

Any move by Trump to invoke this clause is almost certain to be met with immediate legal challenges from U.S. business groups that would argue that congressional consent would be required because the U.S. Constitution grants Congress authority over trade matters.

In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers have been raising increasing concerns about the dangers of quitting NAFTA, particularly in U.S. farm states that count Mexico as their biggest grains customer.

On Wednesday, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue called quitting NAFTA a grave mistake that would send the U.S. economy five steps back.

Because implementing legislation would remain on the books, many provisions of NAFTA would still be active, including trade and investment dispute arbitration systems that the Trump administration wants to change.

I think this is headed for a huge legal morass if the president were to unilaterally send a notice of withdrawal, Jennifer Hillman, a Georgetown University law professor and former WTO appellate judge, told Reuters in November.
U.S. President Donald Trump aimed new broadsides Thursday at the investigations of his 2016 campaign, suggesting a U.S. intelligence authorization law was used to "badly surveil and abuse" his election operations.



Trump offered no evidence of eavesdropping. But he said the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "may have been used" to keep watch on his campaign, along with "help of the discredited and phony" dossier compiled by operatives paid for by his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, to collect information about Trump campaign links with Russia.



In Twitter comments related to the campaign that ended 15 months ago, Trump quoted a suggestion from his favorite morning news show, Fox and Friends, referring to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the country's top criminal investigative agency and the Democratic National Committee.

Eavesdropping bill

Months ago, Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wiretapping his campaign headquarters at Trump Tower in New York, a claim widely debunked by U.S. intelligence officials.

Trump's remarks about the surveillance act came as the House of Representatives is set Thursday to vote on renewal of a key section of the law that allows the National Security Agency to collect texts and emails of foreigners overseas without authorization, even when they are communicating with Americans.



Even with his concerns about alleged election surveillance of his campaign, the U.S. leader tweeted his support for renewing the eavesdropping law.

Russia probe

Trump's latest election commentary came hours after he said at a Wednesday news conference that it "seems unlikely" that he would need to meet with special counsel Robert Mueller about Mueller's criminal investigation into allegations that Trump's presidential campaign colluded with Russia to help him defeat Clinton.



He repeatedly said there was "no collusion" with Russia, adding, "It seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview." Months ago, he said there was a "100 percent" chance he would agree to an interview with Mueller.



"There is collusion," he said, "but it's really with the Democrats and the Russians." He added, "The witch hunt continues."



Mueller has indicated to Trump's lawyers that his team would like to interview the president as part of the investigation, which Trump has contended is a "Democratic hoax" used to explain his upset victory over Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state.



Mueller is investigating several Trump campaign links to Russian operatives and also whether Trump obstructed justice by firing forming FBI director James Comey while he was heading the agency's Russia probe before Mueller, over Trump's objections, was appointed to take over the investigation.



So far, Mueller has secured guilty pleas from Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and a foreign affairs adviser, George Papadopoulos, for lying to FBI agents about their contacts with Russians. Two other key campaign aides, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, have been indicted on money-laundering charges related to their lobbying efforts for Ukraine.



Mueller's team has interviewed a number of Trump aides, including Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, while several congressional panels are also investigating Russian interference in the U.S. election.
More than 300 protesters were arrested overnight, and the army was deployed in several Tunisian cities to quell violent demonstrations over prices, taxes and unemployment that have swept the country.

In Thala, near the Algerian border, troops were sent in after protesters burned down the national security building forcing police to retreat from the town, witnesses told Reuters.

Violent anti-government protests have raged in other towns in the North African country since Monday, among them the tourist resort of Sousse, against price and tax increases imposed by government to cut a ballooning deficit and satisfy international lenders.

While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among Arab Spring nations, it has also had nine governments since the overthrow of authoritarian leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, none of which have been able to deal with growing economic problems.

Three hundred and thirty people involved in acts of sabotage and robbery were arrested last night, interior Ministry spokesman Khelifa Chibani said bringing the number of detainees since the protests began to around 600.

The army was also deployed in several other cities, including Sousse, Kebeli and Bizert to protect government buildings that have become a target for protesters.

Uprisings in 2011 and two major militant attacks in 2015 damaged foreign investment and tourism, which accounts for much of Tunisias economic activity.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Wednesday accused the opposition of fueling dissent by calling for more protests.

On Tuesday, petrol bombs were hurled at a Jewish school on the southern tourist island of Djerba, home to an ancient Jewish community.
Sporadic protests continued across parts of Tunisia, overnight, as government security forces tried to put a stop to scattered violence that has hit a number of regions.

Tunisian government security forces used teargas to quell violence across the country, amid scattered protests that erupted last week following price increases imposed by the government. The Interior Ministry reported that several hundred people were arrested during the past 24 hours.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, visiting a region hit by violence, told journalists "irresponsible politicians" were trying to "stir up trouble," and provoke a "wave of vandalism:"

He says encouraging social unrest, violence and pillage by bringing young people out into the streets, who then get arrested, is not in anyone's interest. He claims it only benefits the corrupt and those who want to weaken the state. He says the government is standing firm, along with the army and security forces in protecting the country.

Some political leaders urged the government to impose martial law to stop the violence.

Spokesman Ziyad Akhdar, of the Popular Front political umbrella group that has been spearheading some of the protests, called the prime minister's remarks "irresponsible," and called for an "independent inquiry" into who is provoking the violence.

One protester told Arab media his main goal is to force the government to reverse its decision to introduce a value-added tax and raise prices on some basic staples.

He says protesters want to force the government to scrap this year's budget and then freeze or lower prices, since the people continue to get poorer.

Egyptian political sociologist Said Sadek tells VOA economic issues that prompted the 2011 Arab Spring revolution, which overthrew then President Zein al Abdine Ben Ali, still plague the country.

"The biggest problem for Tunisia is the economy is suffering. The economy has not been able to stand up and revive itself after the 2011 revolution and the same slogans of unemployment, poverty, and corruption, still remain," he said.

But Sadek does not believe the recent protests will incite a new revolution. "The violence has been amplified," he argues, "by some politicians calling for protests at night," rather than during the day, which is the usual custom in Tunisia.
U.N. Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has condemned the recent escalation of fighting in Eastern Ghouta in Syria, causing scores of civilian deaths and injuries.

The U.N. Human Rights office says 85 civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed and at least 183 injured in the besieged city of Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus.

These mass casualties have occurred since December 31 over a 10-day period. The UN office blames them on an upsurge in airstrikes and ground-based attacks by Syrian Government forces and their allies. During this same period, it notes armed opposition groups inside Eastern Ghouta have fired rockets into residential areas in Damascus, causing great fear among the population.

In condemning these attacks, High Commissioner Zeid Raad al-Hussein puts the warring parties on notice that under international law, they must distinguish between lawful military targets and civilians and civilian objects.

The High Commissioners spokeswoman, Liz Throssell, tells VOA she does not know what the Syrian Government and allies hope to achieve by escalating the fighting.

What we are really concerned about is the effect and the effect is a terrible upsurge in civilian casualties  the deaths and injuries  and absolute terror amongst the civilian population. There are airstrikes and ground strikes day and night and this means people are having to hide in their basements to escape, to shelter from possible attacks.

Zeid also expresses grave concern about the worsening situation in Idlib Governorate. Throssell says an estimated two million civilians are at risk of getting caught in clashes between Government forces, together with their allies, and an alliance of armed opposition groups.

Under an agreement brokered by Iran, Russia and Turkey in May, both Eastern Ghouta and Idlib Governorate are considered so-called de-escalation areas. The aim of this pact is to quickly end violence and improve the humanitarian situation in the designated areas.
Heavy gunfire erupted at two military barracks in Cote dIvoires second largest city, Bouake, local media reported late on Tuesday.

Early last year, Cote dIvoire was shaken by successive uprisings by low-ranking troops. Bouake was the epicenter of the army mutinies. The mutineers are understood to mainly be former rebels who were integrated into the army following the end of the war.

The rebels swept into the main city Abidjan from their stronghold of Bouake in 2011, helping Ouattara to take power after his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat in elections the previous year.

The cause of Tuesdays violence was not immediately known.

Last year, the West African nation has paid thousands of soldiers 15 million CFA francs each as part of buy-outs aimed at reducing the size of its unruly and mutiny-prone military. Some 4400 troops are to leave the army over four years.

President Ouattara, who won a second term in office in 2015, has been praised for transforming the economy and bringing back the country to the economic success story it was in the 1970s.

This prosperous West African country was Africas fastest growing economy in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to renew a key surveillance law the U.S. uses to thwart foreign terrorists plotting attacks against Americans.

The lawmakers voted 256-164 for the critical national security measure, but passage of the legislation was thrown in doubt when U.S. President Donald Trump suggested in an early-morning Twitter remark, without any supporting evidence, that the law might have been used to eavesdrop on his 2016 election campaign, seeming to signal his opposition to the law's renewal.

But an hour-and-a-half-later, Trump tweeted his support, saying, it "is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!"

The program, part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allows U.S. spy agencies, including the National Security Agency, to collect texts and emails of foreigners overseas without authorization, even when they are communicating with Americans.

Some lawmakers had voiced concern about the scope of the law because the conversations of Americans not suspected of planning a terrorist attack can be inadvertently swept up in the eavesdropping.

The House-approved legislation calling for a six-year renewal still must clear the Senate before Trump can sign it into law. It requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the country's top criminal investigative agency, to get a search warrant if it wants to read the content of Americans' conversations caught up in the surveillance.

But the House rejected, on a 233-183 vote, more stringent restrictions on the FBI that would have required it to get a warrant even when it started its search of the surveillance database when Americans might be involved.

Seen as valuable tool

FBI Director Christopher Wray says the law is a valuable tool for the U.S. in fighting terrorism. Officials in recent years have cited evidence they collected from the surveillance as giving law enforcement agencies the information they need to stop prospective terrorist attacks.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said that in March 2016, the eavesdropping "gave us the intelligence we needed to go after and kill ISISs finance minister. Because of the intelligence collected under this program, a foreign terrorist on foreign soil, the number two man at ISIS, who was in line to become the next leader. This program helped us get the information to stop him."

Ryan said in another instance, the surveillance allowed U.S. officials to thwart a 2009 attempt to blow up New York's subway system. He said the surveillance was used "to understand what people were planning overseas and what they were trying to do here in America, so that we could connect the dots and stop that particular terrorist attack," Ryan said.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a California Republican, called the House passage of the measure "a big step to ensure the continuation of one of the intelligence communitys most vital tools for tracking foreign terrorists. This bill also provides new, rigorous measures to protect Americans privacy and to ensure the program is used properly to target foreign terrorists, weapons proliferators, and other threats to Americans safety and security."
Prominent Chinese rights activist Wu Gan, a blogger who goes by the nickname Super Vulgar Butcher as he mocked corrupt officials as pigs, has sought to appeal his eight-year prison sentence after being found guilty of subverting state power.

In his petition to the high court in Tianjin, the outspoken rights defender argued that people have every right to subvert state power since article two of Chinas Constitution stipulates all power belongs to the people, local media reported.

Wu, who turns 45 next month, demanded the court overturns its guilty verdict on him as he has done nothing wrong but exercise his constitutional rights.

He has done no harm to the society. Instead, what he has said or done has promoted public awareness toward their civil rights while serving to reserve many miscarriage of justice cases, read his petition as cited by local media.

Wu appeals

On January 4, Ge Yongxi, one of Wus two lawyers, tweeted and confirmed that Wu had drafted his own petition and filed his appeal to the court the previous day.

During their two-hour meeting, Wu appeared to be at ease with smiles on his face, saying he has no regrets, according to Ge.

Both Ge and Yan Xin, the other lawyer, however, werent available Thursday to comment on the upcoming proceedings of Wus trial.

Wu also petitioned the judiciary to recommend the National Peoples Congress to either amend or nullify subversion-related charges and punishments as stipulated by article 105 of the nations Criminal Law.

Peoples rights to subvert

The rights advocate, who was arrested in May 2015 in southeastern China, had become known for mocking political officials in a long-running campaign against corruption and abuse of power.

His advocacy had combined spirited speech, satire and humor online as well as street performance. In one occasion, he posed for online portraits brandishing knives that he said he would use to "slaughter the pigs'' among local officials who'd done wrong.

But following a secret trial in August, a court in Tianjin in late December ruled Wu tried to "overthrow state power and the socialist system" through a series of "criminal actions, including spreading statements to attack state power and insult people online.

Eight-year sentence

Wu, who refused to plead guilty, was sentenced to eight years in prison  the longest to date among those tied to a sweeping crackdown in July 2015 on rights lawyers.

But Wu himself took it lightly, calling the conviction the highest form of affirmation for a citizen.

Wu was allegedly offered a reduced three-year jail term had he agreed to plead guilty.

Observers said Wus appeal is of great significance although it stands no chance of success.

Political unfairness

These appeals are always rejected. Theyre done in order to show what happens when [theres] an appeal inside this system. And its just another way to show that political unfairness of the system, said Perry Link, a China expert and professor at the University of California, Riverside.

The professor called Wu a bold and courageous man, who has stood up against the authoritarian rule as did late Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo.

Both the U.S. and German governments, as well as international rights groups, have called on the Chinese authorities to respect their international human rights obligations and commitments by immediately releasing Wu.

The group Chinese Human Rights described Wu as a victim of injustice and mistreatment, whose conviction it argued was a blatant violation of his universal right for free expression and peaceful assembly.

A victim of injustice

While Wus fight for justice has cost him his own freedom, both his appeal and earlier refusal to plead guilty have challenged the governments narrative about rights campaigners.

The rights groups researcher Frances Eve said that, as a creative cyber-activist, Wu has set an example to inspire many more to follow suit and stand up against social injustice.

He is a symbol for the fact that the government is failing to address these social issues and as it continues to fail and jails activists, it is ignoring the fact that more people like him will pop up and will use this tool [internet] to take up a similar advocate role, Eve said.

On Twitter, Huang Yuhui from Mayang of Chinas southern Hunan province threw her support behind Wu.

She said Wu was the one who had helped her familys forced eviction case and sided with those socially-disadvantaged people like herself.

We will never forget the Butcher. Brother Wu is innocent. Set him free immediately, Huang tweeted.
The White House is calling reports of Iranian protesters tortured or killed in prison "disturbing" and demands freedom for all political prisoners reportedly held in Iran.

"We will not remain silent as the Iranian dictatorship represses the basic rights of its citizens and will hold Iran's leaders accountable for any violations," a White House statement said Wednesday.

It says the Iranian people are expressing legitimate grievances over government oppression, corruption, waste and military adventurism.

"Iran's regime claims to support democracy, but when its own people express their aspirations ... it once again shows its true brutal nature," the statement said.

Protests against bad economic conditions, regional military interference and perceived government corruption erupted across Iran on December 28.

A number of demonstrators also called for the end of the Islamic Republic, which seized power in Iran in 1979.

Some of the marches grew violent, with at least 21 deaths reported.

It is unclear how many protesters have been arrested. Reform-minded lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi puts the number at 3,700. Iranian officials say most have been released.

While the Iranian government said the protesters have the right to be heard, it says it will not tolerate violence.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the United States for instigating the protests and condemned President Donald Trump's tweets that appear to egg on the marchers.
YouTube has removed blogger Logan Paul's channels from Google Preferred and will not feature him in the new season of "Foursome."



The company said in a statement Thursday that Paul's new video blogs also are on hold after he shared a video on YouTube that appeared to show a body hanging in a Japanese forest that is said to be a suicide spot.



YouTube star Logan Paul earlier announced he was stepping away from posting videos "to reflect" following an outcry when he uploaded images of the body and his reaction to finding it in the forest.



YouTube prohibits violent or gory content posted in a shocking, sensational or disrespectful manner, the company says. It issued a "strike" against Paul's channel for violating its community guidelines after the posting.



The video was viewed some 6 million times before being removed from Paul's YouTube channel, a verified account with more than 15 million subscribers.



A storm of criticism followed despite two apologies, with commenters saying Paul seemed disrespectful and that his initial apology was inadequate.



Google Preferred's advertising program aggregates top YouTube content for advertisers to buy time on.
Background:

Kliuchevskoi is Kamchatka's highest and most active volcano. Since its origin about 6000 years ago, the beautifully symmetrical, 4835-m-high basaltic stratovolcano has produced frequent moderate-volume explosive and effusive eruptions without major periods of inactivity. Kliuchevskoi rises above a saddle NE of sharp-peaked Kamen volcano and lies SE of the broad Ushkovsky massif. More than 100 flank eruptions have occurred at Kliuchevskoi during the past roughly 3000 years, with most lateral craters and cones occurring along radial fissures between the unconfined NE-to-SE flanks of the conical volcano between 500 m and 3600 m elevation. The morphology of its 700-m-wide summit crater has been frequently modified by historical eruptions, which have been recorded since the late-17th century. Historical eruptions have originated primarily from the summit crater, but have also included numerous major explosive and effusive eruptions from flank craters.

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Source: Klyuchevsky information by the GVP (Smithsonian Institution)
Wanted in Rome is a monthly magazine in English for expatriates in Rome established in 1985. The magazine covers Rome news stories that may be of interest to English and Italian speaking residents, and tourists as well. The publication also offers classifieds, photos, information on events, museums, churches, galleries, exhibits, fashion, food, and local travel.
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When President Trump met with six Republican senators last week to talk about trade, the lawmakers issued a stark warning: Implementing an unrestrained "America first" agenda  such as withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement  would endanger stock prices that have soared since his election. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Just steps from the Oval Office, the president listened as Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Pat Roberts (Kan.) depicted the potential fallout if Trump follows through on his threats to quit NAFTA.

The talks, which will resume later this month in Montreal, have been stalled over U.S. demands for significant concessions from Mexico and Canada. The impasse has prompted treaty proponents to search with growing urgency for any argument that might sway the president, leading to the new emphasis on investments.

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On Wednesday, pro-NAFTA forces looked prescient when an errant wire service report that Canada thought a U.S. pullout was imminent erased more than $2 billion from General Motors' value in less than 90 minutes.

The Roosevelt Room meeting on Jan. 4 included trade advocate Gary Cohn, who left his Wall Street job at Goldman Sachs to head the National Economic Council, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, who shares Trump's instinctive protectionism.

The two aides personify the tension between the record-setting bull market, which the president considers validation of his economic stewardship, and the tough trade measures that he has repeatedly promised his blue-collar supporters.

"The stock market is hitting one all-time record after another. . . . Everybody happy with your 401(k)? Because if you're not, there's something very wrong," the president told a Farm Belt audience in Nashville on Monday.

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After the meeting, the White House said the president talked to the senators about seeking "more equitable trade deals with our partners, increasing exports and ensuring American industries are treated fairly around the globe." A spokesperson from the trade representative's office declined to comment on the discussion, which was described by a former trade official who works for a pro-NAFTA farm group.

But the president's willingness to court a breakup of the 1994 treaty risks "serious market repercussions," said a business executive who is familiar with the internal administration debate and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential talks.

A second executive, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations, said treaty supporters are arguing that pulling out of NAFTA would neutralize the economic gains that the administration anticipates from the recent $1.5 trillion tax cut.

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Last week's White House meeting was at least the second time the president had heard from NAFTA supporters about the financial fallout of withdrawing from the treaty. In early December, during a similar session with another group of senators, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) showed Trump a chart demonstrating that his April threat to exit NAFTA caused pork futures to sink, according to a third executive briefed on the closed-door meeting.

NAFTA supporters hope that the warnings will resonate with a president who frequently boasts about lofty stock values. Earlier this week, Trump touted the market's performance on four out of five days, including three times on Jan. 4. Since the 2016 election, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 29 percent.

Trump's enthusiasm for the market is matched by his decades-long demand that the United States reorient its trade policy to benefit American workers. Within days of taking office, the president withdrew the country from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal that was the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's Asia policy.

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Since then, Trump's trade actions have paled in comparison to his tough campaign talk. On Tuesday, the White House announced that he will travel to Davos, Switzerland, this month for the annual World Economic Forum, an elite gathering regarded as the cradle of globalization.

But starting later this month, he is scheduled to decide several pending trade disputes that could reshape U.S. commercial ties with its largest trading partners. On Jan. 26, three days after the start of NAFTA renegotiations in Montreal, the president will face a deadline to announce whatever action he plans to take in a trade dispute involving Chinese-made solar panels.

"You're definitely going to get something on the trade front," said Chris Krueger, managing director of Cowen Washington Research Group, who advises portfolio managers on government policies. "When I think about policy risk from D.C., trade is at the very top of the agenda."

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The president also will confront decisions in cases involving imported washing machines, China's alleged theft of American intellectual property, and limiting imported steel and aluminum in the name of national security.

Urging him forward is Lighthizer, now the most assertive advocate of the "America first" approach, filling a void left by former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon. On Tuesday, Lighthizer unapologetically told a meeting of the White House Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations: "I am a nationalist."

White House officials say that the president is presiding over a deliberative process that balances a tougher trade stance's likely gains with its potential costs. Multiple White House agencies, including the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the National Economic Council and the National Security Council, are involved in creating the administration's trade stance.

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Information is often relayed to Trump, who has been critical of U.S. trade policy since the 1980s, in hopes of keeping him briefed on the potential fallout from any decisions. White House officials said that they are mindful of complaints raised by farmers and industry groups, and that they are conducting their own economic assessments.

"Any decision we take, we are thinking about how that affects the economy," said a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's internal process. "The president has really put the American economy in a really strong position and we don't want to do anything to jeopardize that. But we are going to take the actions we think are best for the economy."

Some pending decisions would be more consequential for financial markets than others. The International Trade Commission, an expert body that administers U.S. trade law, already has ruled that U.S. companies have been damaged by rising imports of solar panels and washing machines. So most analysts expect the president to authorize trade restraints in those cases, a move that would affect a limited number of companies.

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But a NAFTA walkout would be a diplomatic bombshell with the potential to cause much greater market damage.

Although investors are braced for the president's trade announcements, most expect the United States to reach a deal with Mexico and Canada on a modernized accord, which would include new language on trade in digital services and perhaps changes in provisions governing the energy sector.

Industry executives have been cheered by the company Trump has been keeping. When the president traveled to Nashville this week, he took along Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, a NAFTA supporter who assured worried farmers that the president would deliver them a new deal  not just blow up the current one.

Wednesday's rumor about an impending U.S. withdrawal sent stocks, bonds and currencies lower in all three NAFTA countries, a sign that investor confidence remains fragile,said several market professionals.

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"Whenever President Trump opens his mouth about tariffs, everybody gets nervous again," said Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at Bank of Montreal Capital Markets Corp., who expects a deal.

Despite the warnings that Trump is receiving, there is no iron link between global trade and the stock market. The S&P 500 index, the broadest measure of the U.S. stock market, has risen about 50 percent since the beginning of 2014 despite a decline in global trade volumes over that period, according to World Trade Organization statistics.

In continuing to climb through 2017, stocks also shrugged off a surge of Commerce Department trade enforcement actions. The Trump administration in 2017 opened 79 anti-dumping and countervailing-duty investigations  a 52 percent increase from the previous year.

But industry representatives who favor the status quo argue that a NAFTA collapse would so disrupt North American supply chains, especially in the auto industry, that it would trigger a market sell-off. Farmers are worried about losing export sales to Mexico if NAFTA ends. The beef industry has warned that Mexico would place 25 percent tariffs on U.S. exports.

The stock market link is less visible in the debate about potential trade actions against China, which also have broader support. U.S. companies have grown increasingly frustrated with China's failure to prevent counterfeiting of the firms' products and its requirement that they surrender their technology secrets in return for access to the Chinese market.

"A NAFTA withdrawal would be enormously disruptive of agriculture and a large number of supply chains. Plus, there's no good reason to do it  it's in the 'it ain't broke, so don't fix it' category," said William Reinsch, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "China, on the other hand, is actually doing the stuff Trump alleges, and I think there will be quiet support for it from business."

The White House delayed most key trade policy decisions last year to concentrate on completing the $1.5 trillion tax cut bill, but officials are now returning to their trade agenda. The move is driven by an awareness that the president, saddled with low public approval ratings, needs to deliver something to the working-class voters who cheered his trade message.

Trump was elected in part because of support in Rust Belt states that have lost millions of manufacturing jobs in recent decades.

Even as economists highlight the role of automation in reducing factory employment, many voters in those communities blame a quarter century of trade agreements for encouraging the movement of U.S. jobs to countries such as Mexico.

"With the liberalization of trade policy, you've really seen the people who put President Trump into office adversely affected," said Andy Puzder, former chief executive of CKE Restaurants and Trump's first nominee to be labor secretary.

Trump is approaching the trade decisions the way he has long handled business decisions, he added. "There are risks, but if you are a business person who has had experience in this area, you know how far to push," Puzder said.

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The Ethiopian parliament on Tuesday approved legislation banning international child adoptions in the horn of Africa nation. The country is a popular destination for families seeking to adopt.

The bill, based on the new National Child Protection Policy, encourages orphans adoption in their own country.

Lawmakers say orphans and other vulnerable children should be cared for under locally available support mechanisms in order to protect them from abuse abroad.

The policy is also designed to make sure orphans, vulnerable children as well as unaccompanied children grow with discipline only in their homeland, honoring their culture and tradition among their community.

Two years ago, Denmark controversially stopped the adoption of children from Ethiopia over what it said were concerns about possible human trafficking cases.

In 2013, adopting parents in the United States were sentenced to the maximum sentence for starving to death Hana William, a child who was adopted from Ethiopia.

The parliament is also discussing the extension of maternity leave as part of a review of family law. Currently, mothers get a three month-maternity leave.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Jan. 11 said the IRS will release a new withholding calculator as part of the implementation of the GOP tax bill. (Video: Reuters)

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Millions of Americans will need to use a new Internal Revenue Service online calculator to ensure their new paychecks are accurate, Trump administration officials said Thursday as they issued guidelines for implementing the recently passed tax law. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The guidelines are necessary for businesses to calculate how much to withhold in taxes from employees' paychecks beginning as soon as next month. The White House said Thursday that businesses should make these adjustments by Feb. 15, part of the administration's push for millions of workers to see bigger paychecks as quickly as possible.

In rushing the process, the Treasury Department is asking companies to rely on outdated forms to help determine how much to withhold.

A senior IRS official said Thursday that Americans with simple tax situations are likely to get accurate paychecks next month. But many Americans, including those who tend to itemize their tax returns, will need to use the online tool to ensure they are not dramatically overpaying or underpaying their taxes. The online calculator will not be available until sometime next month.

Republicans passed a tax bill in 2017; here's who benefits, and who doesn't. (Video: Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post, Photo: Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

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If they find their paychecks are inaccurate, it will be incumbent on the employees to tell their employers to make corrections.

"This will provide [Americans] with certainty so they are neither over-withheld or under-withheld," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday.

The new guidelines incorporate lower tax rates that were central to Congress's December tax overhaul. Trump administration officials said that the guidelines should lead to bigger paychecks for 90 percent of all wage earners.

President Trump signed $1.5 trillion tax bill into law on Dec. 22 in the Oval Office. (Video: The Washington Post)

But these tax withholding decisions are based on tax forms Americans file with their employers, known as W-4s, that were written to apply to an outdated tax system. The Treasury Department and IRS are designing new W-4 forms that millions of Americans will probably be able to fill out later this year to make their tax withholdings more accurate in the future, but they will not be ready in time for the paycheck adjustments next month.

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"We had an existing form," Mnuchin said. "We had existing technology. We had to figure out how to fit this in this format."

Senior Treasury Department officials said they expect employers to update their systems so that the new withholding tables go into effect by Feb. 15.

Americans typically have federal income taxes withheld from their paychecks, money that is aggregated over the course of the year to account for a person's federal tax liability. When they file their tax returns, if their tax payments were too high or too low, they must account for the difference through a refund or payment. Currently, 76 percent of Americans who file their taxes receive a tax refund. A senior IRS official said he expected that level to fall just a bit next year to around 73 percent.

But Democrats have alleged the number could fall much more, accusing the White House of changing the tax tables in a way that will lead to Americans dramatically under-withholding their tax payments during the year, only to be hit with big tax bills next year. They have ordered a review by the Government Accountability Office to determine whether the new tax guidelines are accurate.

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"Republicans are using brute force and speed to implement a law that will deliver a financial blow to hardworking Americans all across the country," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement. "I look forward to GAO's independent review of these tables, which will expose whether the Trump administration is tampering with Americans' paychecks, resulting in a whopping tax bill next year."

Many Americans are likely to see changes and adjustments this year in their tax payments as the law goes into effect.

The law lowers tax rates, which is the primary reason Americans will see bigger paychecks next month, but it also limits or scales back tax deductions, changes that might not be realized until Americans file their tax returns.

For example, there is a new $10,000 limit on the amount of state and local taxes a household can deduct from federal income. There are also new limits on the mortgage interest deduction, and the child tax credit was expanded.

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Senior IRS and Treasury Department officials told reporters Thursday that they would be encouraging all Americans to proactively use a new IRS tax calculator in late February to help them determine whether their paychecks are accurate. If they determine they are paying too much or too little in taxes, based on the size of their family or other variables, they can direct their employer to make changes.

Americans will not be asked to input personal information such as names or Social Security Numbers into this online calculator, but they will need to input their income levels, family status and a number of other details.

The tax law is projected to add between $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion to the debt over 10 years because of a fall in revenue, something Democrats have decried but Republicans have said will help spur economic growth.

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Employers must now rush to incorporate the new tax withholding tables into their payroll systems, a process that is expected to take several weeks.

The lower rates, an expanded standard deduction, and a larger Child Tax Credit are projected to reduce taxes for American workers and business owners by $180 billion in 2018, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

But that will be partially offset by new curbs on numerous tax breaks, including the elimination of personal exemptions and the new cap on state and local taxes.

These tax changes are all scheduled to expire after 2025, though Republicans have said they want to make them permanent.

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D.C. is experiencing a wine-bar boom. Cocktail lounges, craft-beer joints and neighborhood hangouts have steadily opened in recent years, but fewer arrivals have been dedicated to sipping a glass of pinotage or discovering a weirdly tasty Eastern European grape  until now. In the past year, more than a half-dozen wine bars have opened their doors.

The best part: While their menus are all on-trend  expect buzzwords such as "natural wine," "petillant-naturel" and "skin-fermented"  each of the newcomers is forging its own identity. "You're seeing completely different takes on what a wine bar is," says Brent Kroll, the founder of Maxwell Park in Shaw.

These bars eschew the stereotypical intimidating-sommelier attitude for something far more user-friendly, employing staff members who are happy to chat about the differences between two choices and offer free splashes of wine for customers who can't make up their minds. "We're all working with such small wines, we have to be open to doing that," says Sebastian Zutant, the owner of Primrose in Brookland. "I'm selling things that I've never even heard of before, so there's no way that people who just drink chardonnay are familiar with it."

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Is it a coincidence that this many wine bars have opened recently? Maybe, says Lauren Winter, Zutant's wife and business partner, but this spurt has been years in the making.

"Most of these owners, in the last decade, were servers or sommeliers in the D.C. restaurant scene and have been part of its growth," she says. "They have taken time to travel, to make wine, to explore other regions, and have settled down here to open spaces that exemplify what they've learned."

Here's a guide to the best of the crop.

The Dabney Cellar

This gem of a bar, hidden below the Dabney restaurant inside a 19th-century rowhouse's brick-walled basement, meets all the criteria for a date-night destination. It's cozy, but not too crowded. Lively, but not so loud you can't have a conversation.

Dabney chef Jeremiah Langhorne and partner Alex Zink were inspired by trips to Paris and Montreal, where cellar bars act as a waiting area for restaurants or as a place to grab a late-night snack. Upstairs, at the Michelin-starred restaurant, Langhorne works his magic cooking regional ingredients over an open hearth. Downstairs, plates are covered with gorgeous, paper-thin slices of Tennessee ham from Bob Woods's Hamery; seasonal, regional cheeses; and expertly shucked Chesapeake and Atlantic oysters from small producers. "Fundamentally and philosophically," Zink says, the Dabney and its wine cellar share a sensibility, but downstairs, "the lights are low and the music's louder."

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About 25 wines are available by the glass in the basement, and the wine list is reprinted every day. One staple: "wines that pair well with oysters and beautiful cheese," says Zink, who's the beverage director for both levels. The menu is more classic than ultra-trendy, with well-chosen wines from the Loire, Italy and, on one recent visit, a blend from Delaplane's extraordinary, award-winning RdV Vineyards.

Although the Dabney Cellar's down a slightly treacherous flight of stone stairs, with no sign other than a frosted-glass window, it has become popular since its early-December debut. There are only 30 seats, and the bar opens at 6 p.m. If you show up after 7, there's probably going to be a wait.

On busy nights, expect to be told to come back for an update in 30 or 45 minutes. "We wanted to keep it more casual, and we don't know how long people are going to stay," Zink says. "Some people are grabbing a bite pre-dinner. Some people settle in with a bottle of wine and put together a dinner."

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Once you get a seat, you'll just want to settle in and stay.

1222 Ninth St. NW. Wine by the glass, $10-$18.

Primrose

The first time you sit at Primrose's zinc bar, you might need to be reminded to look at the wine list. The scene is mesmerizing, transporting you to a quirkily hip Parisian bistro with its pressed-tin ceiling above robin's-egg-blue walls, gleaming hardwood communal tables and lamps swaddled with ostrich feathers.

Primrose is the first restaurant from veteran sommelier Sebastian Zutant  the nattily dressed guy who's been behind the wine lists at Komi, Proof and the Red Hen  and his wife, Lauren Winter, who's made a mark on the District with her bar and restaurant designs for Tail Up Goat, Calico and Tiger Fork. Together, they've created a wine-focused modern French bistro  "not super rustic, a little updated," Zutant says  serving classic dishes such as coq au vin and a vegetarian French onion soup, while pouring natural wines  a somewhat ambiguous term that may refer to wines that are organic, use indigenous yeast, remain unfiltered, or a combination of all three  from France and a smaller selection of cocktails.

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Zutant, who roams the room as the sommelier, describes the list of 14 wines by the glass as "always shifting. I've changed the wines by the glass list five times, and we've been open for a month."

His menu mixes small French producers and some of his own creations produced at Virginia's Early Mountain Vineyards and sold under the label Lightwell Survey. "I've gotten really dedicated to the idea that I can pour stuff no one else can get," he says. On this list, he's into the poulsard, a minerally, salty red with an edge from France's Jura region, and soft, easy-drinking cinsault from Languedoc. You may not recognize the style (or the grapes) right away, but Zutant's selection  and his enthusiasm  make everything effortlessly approachable.

Primrose is a bar that invites lingering  whether you're splitting an order of pate and sipping a few lesser-known wines, or settling in for a full meal. "We just wanted to open this little dreamland and have people get excited about some geeky wines," Zutant says.

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So far, it's working.

3000 12th St. NE. Wines by the glass, $9-$14.

Maxwell Park

"Stop taking wine so seriously" seems to be the message at this 33-seat Shaw hangout, the brainchild of former Proof and Neighborhood Restaurant Group sommelier Brent Kroll. Cozy up to the slate-topped bar, which has USB ports and doubles as a chalkboard for tasting notes and doodles; grab a window seat for people-watching the pedestrians on Ninth Street; or hang out around the patio's fire pit.

Then take a gander at the wine program. The themed menu of about 30 selections changes monthly to add dozens of new bottles. Previous topics have included Anything but Pinot Grigio (focused on other styles of Italian whites) and Friendsgiving (what tastes good with turkey and traditional sides).

Expect to find an additional 20 or so on the "core" menu, mixing popular varietals from small producers and odd grapes, plus dozens of by-the-bottle choices on a menu dubbed "The Great Big Bottle Book." The daily Aperitif Hour, from 5 to 7 p.m., brings a free glass of aperitif, such as vermouth, for everyone.

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Despite the relaxed, youthful vibe, Maxwell is exactly the kind of place where you can feel comfortable geeking out about wine. There's always at least one certified sommelier behind the bar: Kroll, or partners Daniel Runnerstrom, who worked with Kroll at Iron Gate, and Niki Lang, who served at Fiola Mare and Voltaggio Brothers Steak House. "To do a wine bar, I needed to make a wine bar that wouldn't annoy me as a customer," says Kroll, who, at 32, is the oldest sommelier on duty.

Having an expert in front of you changes the dynamic. "Instead of taking orders, we say, 'Tell us something you like or don't like about wine,' " Kroll says. "It's a conversation, not, 'What can I get you?' We'll pour [free] tasters. We'll serve you a half-glass."

The goal, he says, is to avoid being pretentious, "which is the cliche about wine bars."

1336 Ninth St. NW. Wines by the glass, $9-$30.

Dio

With the opening of Dio on H StreetNE, Stacey Khoury-Diaz returned to her Sonoma County roots after working as a contractor in Washington and East Africa and getting a master's degree in food studies. "Basically, the culture out [in Sonoma County] is wine culture," she says. "My family grows their own grapes to sell to wineries and make their own wine  I call it 'moonshine wine' in their barn."

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The 30-seat, light, airy spot has pretty mosaic tiles under the bar, copper lamps and columns, and towering blue shelves packed with wine bottles. Natural wines are Dio's focus, with about 20 by the glass (choose from red, white, sparkling and "pink and orange") and around four times as many by the bottle. Vineyards owned by women or created by female winemakers are highlighted, which Khoury-Diaz calls a reminder of a "burgeoning movement" in a male-dominated industry. Skin-contact wines  wines fermented with the grape skins on, which adds color and tannins  have proved more popular than she expected.

Many customers aren't familiar with natural wines, Khoury-Diaz says, but that's just an opportunity for her passion to shine through: "What I'm trying to do, if they're receptive, is tell them the story about the wine  explain whether it's natural or biodynamic and what that means. Even if you've been to tastings or winery tours, you might not know about the methods."

The bar hosts regular tastings  on Jan. 18, an importer will pour flights of six natural French wines for $16 from 6 to 9 p.m.  but later this year, Dio will begin hosting classes based on different styles and regions in the hopes of spreading the love of wine culture.

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904 H St. NE. Wines by the glass, $12-$16. Happy hour, which runs from 5 to 7 p.m. on weekdays, includes a red and a white for $8 per glass.

Little Pearl

Little Pearl, from the team behind the Michelin-starred Pineapple and Pearls and Rose's Luxury, is two businesses in one. Stop into the converted carriage house at the Hill Center between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., and you'll be greeted with breakfast wraps, gluten-free cinnamon toast and caffeinated beverages. But return after 5:30 p.m., and the lights are lower and the music is funkier. The focus is now on two dozen wines by the glass and a short, snacky menu that features a savory okonomiyaki spring roll  the traditional Japanese pancake that's rolled and sliced like maki  and a rich, moreish smoked onion dip with crackling house-fried potato chips.

The wine list is less funky than some others, with familiar styles and regions, but even so, it's embracing the natural movement: That flinty cabernet franc from the Loire? Organic and unfiltered with vineyard yeast. The cabernet sauvignon/syrah blend from Napa is organic and sustainable, even if the menu doesn't boast about it. (Also winning points, and making this prime territory for a baby shower: two non-alcoholic sparkling "wines" from Germany's Jorg Geiger.) If you're anticipating a nice tax break  or celebrating a special night out  go right for the menu's "Special Moments" section. It sounds like a line from Kay Jewelers, but it features a handful of special reserve wines, such as a nine-year-old chardonnay from Burgundy ($32).

Your enjoyment may depend on where you sit: The solarium-style dining room, with its glass walls and ceiling, becomes clatteringly loud when full on weekends, while the seven-seat coffee counter-turned-bar at the front is more laid-back and comfortable.

921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. Wines by the glass, $10-$17.

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Hundreds of rescue workers slogged through knee-deep ooze and used long poles to probe for bodies Thursday as the search dragged on for victims of the mudslides that slammed this wealthy coastal town. Seventeen people were confirmed dead, and eight others were missing. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Family members anxiously awaited word on loved ones who hadn't been heard from since early Tuesday.

"It's just waiting and not knowing, and the more I haven't heard from them  we have to find them," said Kelly Weimer, whose elderly parents' home was wrecked. The couple, Jim and Alice Mitchell, did not leave after a voluntary evacuation warning. They stayed home to celebrate Jim Mitchell's 89th birthday.

Santa Barbara County authorities sent a shudder through the community early Thursday when they reported that the number of people missing had surged from 16 to 48. But later in the morning, they said they had made an error, and the actual number of missing was eight.

As search dogs clambered on heaps of wood that used to be homes, mud-spattered rescue teams from all over California worked their way through the ruins of Montecito, a community of 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles that is home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey.

It was left covered with thick muck, boulders, wrecked cars, splintered lumber and tree limbs in a scene Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said looked like a World War I battlefield.

After a better look at the damage, officials lowered the number of destroyed homes from 100 to 59 and raised the number of damaged ones from 300 to 446.

Overall, 28 people were injured. Twelve remained hospitalized, four in critical condition.

By Wednesday, some 500 searchers had covered about 75 percent of the affected area, authorities said. They had a long slog ahead, filled with hazards seen and unseen.

"A lot of the street signs are gone. The roads are impassable. It all has to be done on foot," said Deputy Dan Page, chief of a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department rescue team.

Rescue crews worked up to 12 hours a day and risked stepping on nails or shattered glass, or being exposed to raw sewage, or dealing with leaking gas, Page said.

"We've gotten multiple reports of rescuers falling through manholes that were covered with mud, swimming pools that were covered up with mud," said Anthony Buzzerio, a Los Angeles County fire battalion chief. "The mud is acting like a candy shell on ice cream. It's crusty on top but soft underneath, so we're having to be very careful."

People in Montecito had counted themselves lucky last month after the biggest wildfire in California history spared the town. But it was the fire that led to the mudslide, by burning away vegetation.

"We totally thought we were out of the woods," said Jennifer Markham, whose home escaped damage in both disasters. "I was frozen yesterday morning thinking, 'This is a million times worse than that fire ever was.' "
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Courteney Monroe, 49, is chief executive of National Geographic Global Networks. She lives in Bethesda, where she grew up. National Geographic's first scripted series, "Genius," whose first season was about Albert Einstein, received 10 Emmy nominations last year. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Moving National Geographic into scripted content, such as adaptations of nonfiction books, is a big departure for the company's mission. What made you want to do it?

It's part of a broader journey we embarked on two years ago to kind of elevate what we're doing with content. It's really exciting.

What happened two years ago that changed the direction?

When I first assumed the CEO role, I really felt that the strategy we were pursuing didn't live up to the promise and expectations of the National Geographic brand. We were chasing the audiences of our competitors at the time, like Discovery and History Channel, who were mostly dabbling in male-skewing reality shows and survival shows. It was more of a tonnage strategy: just produce a ton of low-cost  I would argue mediocre  hours of television. And that just felt like not a winning strategy.

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So what makes Albert Einstein, say, a part of the purview of National Geographic?

We are looking for drama that's fact-based and authentic. You will never see dragons on National Geographic. We're looking for stories that are resonant and muscular and urgent, from the best creative minds.

You came to National Geographic from HBO. What was your first thought when National Geographic offered you the job?

I was unbelievably grateful to have a job in Washington, D.C.! We had relocated here as a family in 2010. My husband got a job at Department of Defense. Also, my mom had been ill for quite some time, and it was an opportunity to be closer to family. I kept my job at HBO initially. I'd go up [to New York] on Mondays and come back on Thursdays, and I did that until I decided that was a bonkers schedule. Life as a working mom is hard enough as it is.

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More than a quarter of the proceeds from National Geographic companies go back to the National Geographic Society. What adventures have you helped to make happen so far?

The Big Cats Initiative, which is at the forefront of saving big cats in Africa. We're very involved in that and produce a lot of programming around that. It's also something that is meaningful when we talk to A-list creative talent in Hollywood; it can be a real calling card. You can do good by doing good with us. You're supporting real science, real conservation and real exploration in the world.

You guys are huge on Instagram! How did that happen?

We basically turn over the keys to it to photographers. They sort of self-police it. It's this organic community of photographers, very pure and beautiful.

Do you like the wilderness?

I mean ... kind of?

Can I quote you there with a question mark?

Yeah! Kind of question mark.

For stories, features such as Date Lab, Gene Weingarten and more, visit WP Magazine.

Follow the Magazine on Twitter.

Like us on Facebook.

Email us at wpmagazine@washpost.com.

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Georgia-China free trade deal comes into play from January 2018

Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and China took effect on January 1, 2018, making Georgia the first country in the region to have made such a deal with China.Starting from January 1, 2018 ,Georgian wine, mineral waters, honey, tea, fruit, vegetables and agricultural products will be exported to Chinas market of 1.4 billion consumers, with zero tariffs, without additional customs fees and without any transition period.Georgia and China began discussing the possibility of establishing a free trade regime back in September 2015. However, the Memorandum on finalising a Free Trade Agreement was signed in October 2016 and the agreement was finally signed in May 2017.In recent years Georgia has forged strong ties with China through bilateral trade and economic cooperation; Georgian wine is one of the most promising exported products to China.Last year, 7,585,407 bottles of Georgian wine were exported to China, says the Georgian National Wine Agency. This is a 43 percent increase compared to 2016. With these results, China is on third place as the largest importer of Georgian wine.China is one of Georgias top trading partners . Georgias top 10 trade partners in January-November 2017 made for 66.5 percent of the countrys total trade turnover, with Turkey ($1.41 billion), Russia ($1.05 billion) and China ($834.3 million) taking the top three spots.Following the free trade agreement, Georgia and China had to work on developing innovative zones and joint industrial technologies. For this reason Georgia and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding on developing economic zones and entrepreneurial capacity between the countries within the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum in November 2017.In regards to the the Silk Road Forum should be noted that Georgia and China are strengthening cooperation within the One Belt, One Road initiative  a vast development strategy starting in China and spanning across Eurasia which includes reviving the Silk Road route for trade.Within the One Belt, One Road initiative Chinese corporation CEFC China Energy Company Limited purchased 75 percent of Poti Free Industrial Zone shares. Poti Free Industrial Zone is strategically located adjacent to the Black Sea port city of Poti  the largest sea port in Georgia. It brings significant logistics and supply chain advantages to companies looking for a straightforward and tax-friendly business environment.Meanwhile, another Chinese corporation ZPMC a famous equipment manufacturing company in China signed a deal with the Anaklia Development Consortium  a company which is responsible for building the Anaklia Deep Sea Port to become its long-term partner.ZPMC will invest $50 million in the construction of Anaklia Deep Sea Port and potentially attract additional investments from Chinese financial institutions.The Chinese corporation will also supply Anaklia Deep Sea Port with some of its products such as large-scale container machinery and a bulk cargo handling machine.
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Reader: I just started a new job about six months ago. It's my first "real" job coming out of college, and the people, environment and benefits are really great. Before taking this job, I had been planning to enter the military, but now I've decided to join the reserves instead.

My HR department told me they comply with rules allowing members of the reserves to take time off for training or deployment. But as a new enlistee, I would need to take off several months for basic training, interviews and physicals.

Should I wait a certain amount of time at my current job before pursuing this? How should I inform my supervisor and employers?

Karla: Your service plans are admirable  and you're smart to be mindful of how they will affect your civilian employment.

Under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), U.S. military veterans and members of the active and reserve components of the armed forces are entitled to job-protected leave to complete training or serve active duty. Employers are prohibited from denying "initial employment, reemployment  or any benefit of employment" to an employee or candidate because of that person's "membership, application for membership  or obligation for service" in the armed forces or reserves. For their part, employees are required to provide advance notice, have a cumulative absence of no more than five years (with exceptions), return to work within a specified period and avoid disqualifying circumstances such as dishonorable discharge.

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So, assuming you meet those criteria, it would seem your plan to join the reserves and return to your job after enlistment and training is legally protected under USERRA. But since I'm not a lawyer, you should start by consulting the experts at the Defense Department's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (esgr.mil). ESGR volunteers can educate you on your rights under USERRA and help you craft a strategic, diplomatic leave request to management.

After consulting ESGR, your next step should be to reach out to any co-workers who are reservists or veterans to get a realistic picture of how military-friendly your company is.

Finally, even with the law on your side, you should still use "courtesy and common sense" to avoid blindsiding your employer, says Bob Cartwright, a CEO of a Texas HR consulting firm who volunteers on veteran hiring campaigns. Try to time your enlistment to avoid leaving your employer in the lurch during a busy season. If problems arise, ESGR can help mediate and resolve conflicts between you and your civilian employer.

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Ideally, clear communication and mutual goodwill will lead your employer to support your enlistment and training. As my friend Kimberly Kolb Eakin, a retired Army sergeant and former reservist, says, "Who wouldn't want a more team-focused, responsible, self-confident, organized, disciplined person to work for them?"

PRO TIP: For more information on civilian employment rights and resources for veterans, or to file a formal complaint about USERRA violations, contact the Labor Department's Veterans' Employment and Training Service at dol.gov/vets .

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LOS ANGELES  At a posh Italian restaurant in West Hollywood last week, the actress Alfre Woodard was in full barnstorming mode. Hours earlier, she had introduced a screening of the World War II-era drama "Mudbound" at the Pacific Design Center across the street, praising it for "showing us where we've been, who we are and where we're going." At the after-party, having introduced the film's co-writer and director, Dee Rees, as well as supporting actress Mary J. Blige, screenwriter Virgil Williams and cinematographer Rachel Morrison, Woodard urged the crowd  many of them members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  to "tell 25 friends" about "Mudbound," adding, "And tell them to tell 25 friends."

Campaign season is heating up in Hollywood, where on Friday nominations for this year's Academy Awards will be finalized. (They will be announced on Jan. 23.) And in many ways, "Mudbound's" journey through the awards process crystallizes the anxieties, best intentions, blind spots and vertiginous changes gripping the motion picture industry.

After its premiere at Sundance a year ago, Rees's film  an ambitious, multilayered saga of two families in the American South  should have been subject to the kind of legendary bidding war that made Sundance famous. It didn't turn out that way. And to understand the reasons, one must recall Sundance one year earlier, when Fox Searchlight paid $17.5 million for the Civil War-era drama "The Birth of a Nation," actor Nate Parker's directorial debut, in just the kind of Cinderella story for which the festival has become revered by up-and-coming filmmakers.

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Keenly aware that the film  about a rebellion of enslaved laborers led by Nat Turner  was well timed to address the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, Searchlight clearly saw potential for a marketing coup. Which explains why the studio vastly overpaid for a film that, while commendable, exhibited much of the awkward obviousness and clunky storytelling typical of first films.

Ultimately, "The Birth of a Nation" was scuttled by accusations that surfaced from an episode of alleged sexual assault perpetrated by Parker while he was a college student. The film tanked, its awards prospects torpedoed. When, just a few months later, buyers saw "Mudbound" in Park City, rather than judge it on its own merits, they saw a "black film" and period piece that bore too close a resemblance to "The Birth of a Nation," even though it was thematically different, stylistically distinct and frankly, far more accomplished. The studio executives who could have shrewdly leveraged awards season to bring awareness to Rees's classic, masterful film, instead gave it a pass, made skittish by their own unexamined biases, cynicism and racist pigeonholes.

Then who should step into the breach but Netflix, which paid a healthy $12.5 million for "Mudbound," earning Rees's praise for "paying what the movie was worth" and giving it a realistic and deserved shot of connecting with audiences. Unlike its closest streaming competitor, Amazon, Netflix usually opens its films in theaters in only one or two cities; for "Mudbound" they made an exception, taking it briefly into a handful of theaters while making it available to home viewers.

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Because Netflix keeps box-office and streaming numbers private, we don't know how many people have seen "Mudbound." But we do know that the company is intensely interested in Oscars, having hired top awards strategists to help mastermind its awareness campaign. In addition to Woodard, Sandra Bullock co-hosted a party celebrating the film earlier this week at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles; Rees has been hitting the talk-show circuit with the likes of Trevor Noah; Blige was nominated for a Golden Globe for her revelatory performance in the film; and Morrison became the first woman to be nominated for an award from the American Society of Cinematographers. Even Barbra Streisand tweeted a few encouraging words.

The support bodes well for "Mudbound's" chances of being nominated on Friday. But at the party after Woodard's screening, the obstacles were clear, as well: Academy voters (many of them older white men) expressed ambivalence about Netflix, wondering aloud whether something can be called a "movie" if it's mostly seen on small screens, while wistfully noting that they wished they could get a piece of the company's deep-pocketed largesse. Although "Mudbound" has been nominated for a clutch of industry awards  including best ensemble from the Screen Actors Guild, a reliable harbinger for the actor-heavy academy  it was recently shut out for awards at the Directors and Producers Guilds. How it fares with the academy will be an index not only of its quality, but of changes in the movie industry having to do with technology, gender and race.

The biggest stumbling block might be the Netflix connection. Netflix founder Ted Sarandos is said to really want the prestige (and earned awareness) that Oscars bring. But he isn't doing himself many favors by continually dissing an industry that still prizes the big-screen theatrical experience as an essential part of the cinematic art form. Amazon (whose founder, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post) has been more diplomatic, making it a habit to open its movies in theaters before making them available for streaming.

Sarandos is far less accommodating. At Cannes last year, where Netflix premiered "Okja" and "The Meyerowitz Stories," Sarandos told the London Telegraph: "Remember, we're living in an age where everything is at our fingertips, and there are very few things in the world that you still have to do at a certain time and place. I know why I have to be at the airport at 8 o'clock to be on my flight, but I don't know why I have to be at the theater at 8 o'clock to see the start of my movie."

More insidious  and less quantifiable  than the Netflix problem is the fact that Rees is an African American woman; although this is a year when she and Greta Gerwig and Patty Jenkins and Jordan Peele could all fairly be nominated for their directing, they are in danger of being relegated to "slots" by the still majority-white-male academy, making it impossible for more than one to compete at a time.

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All of these factors will come into play as academy members complete their nominations this week. So far, "Mudbound's" best chances seem to be in the cinematography, adapted screenplay and supporting-actress categories. As for best picture: It would be a shame if voters' conflicting feelings about Sarandos and Netflix wind up punishing "Mudbound," not only because the movie possesses the scope, storytelling, acting prowess and pictorial grandeur that defines an Oscar movie, but because the artists who made it would make such an invaluable contribution to the cultural conversation that awards season inevitably entails.

As we've seen in the days since the Golden Globes ceremony (at which "Mudbound" was up for two awards), awards season isn't just about the horse race, but about the zeitgeist artists can help interpret, clarify and reframe. By rights, "Mudbound" should earn multiple Oscar nods  for best picture, director, cinematography, writing and acting, to name a few  purely on the basis of its excellence and craft. But it's also a movie for now, its refraction of history touching on questions of race, class, gender that feel both ancient and urgently of the moment. "Mudbound" deserves to be part of the Oscar race purely on the merits, but we could all stand to reflect on where we've been, who we are and where we're going.

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After a year of President Trump's Twitter diplomacy, speculation about the fate of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and reports of chaos at the State Department, it's easy to forget about the ambassadors. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Aside from the secretary of state, ambassadors are the most visible  and personal  representatives of the president's foreign policy worldwide. Traditionally, campaign donors and close friends are rewarded with plum postings, and this administration is no exception: The Senate has already confirmed more than two dozen Trump picks, notably for China, Russia, Israel, Britain and France.

But there are also curious gaps: There are no ambassadors to Germany, the European Union or South Korea.

Before his inauguration, Trump required all of President Obama's political ambassadors to leave their posts on Jan. 20. The directive has left some countries without an ambassador for more than a year  something that many view as a personal snub. "This is now bordering on a diplomatic insult," Australia's former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer said last week.

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Most presidents give about a third of top embassy spots to political appointees; the rest are filled by career diplomats. It typically takes months for a nominee to go through the confirmation process, although the Senate fast-tracked Nikki Haley, approving her as ambassador to the United Nations on Jan. 24, 2017. David Friedman, Trump's bankruptcy lawyer, was confirmed as ambassador to Israel in March, and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad was confirmed for China in May.

Then things stalled.

"Dems are taking forever to approve my people, including Ambassadors," Trump tweeted in June. "They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! Want approvals."

Of course, the reality is more complicated. Although several names for ambassadorships were floated early on, the administration has been slow to formally nominate its selections. On the day before his inauguration, Trump announced that billionaire Robert "Woody" Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and a generous donor to the president's campaign, was his pick for the prestigious posting to London. But Johnson's name wasn't sent to the Senate until June; he was confirmed in August.

Some embassies went to familiar names: Jon Huntsman, former governor of Utah and ambassador to China, was tapped for what is probably the most sensitive diplomatic posting of the administration  Russia. Scott Brown, a former senator from Massachusetts, is in New Zealand, and former senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas was named ambassador to NATO.

A number of other ambassadors were confirmed in the late summer and fall, many wealthy donors to Trump and the Republican National Committee. The White House selected business executive Kelly Knight Craft as envoy to Canada; investor Lewis Eisenberg for Italy; investor George Glass for Portugal; and William Hagerty, a member of Trump's transition team, for Japan.

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France went to Jamie McCourt, former co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Callista Gingrich, wife of former House speaker Newt Gingrich, landed the spot at the Vatican. Ed McMullen, a public relations expert who served on the Trump transition team, was named ambassador to Switzerland.

Spain is reportedly delighted that financier Duke Buchan is heading the U.S. embassy in Madrid, primarily because he studied in the country and is fluent in Spanish. Ken Juster, a Harvard lawyer and economic expert, is being warmly welcomed in India. But the newly confirmed ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, landed with a thud.

Last month, a Dutch reporter asked Hoekstra why he said there were places in the Netherlands where radical Muslims were burning cars and politicians. Hoekstra denied making that comment, calling it "fake news." After the reporter played a tape of the former Michigan congressman saying exactly that. Hoekstra denied having used the term "fake news" just moments earlier. And at his first official news conference this week, the new ambassador refused to answer multiple questions about the incident. It was all, well, odd.

Although most of Trump's picks have sailed through the confirmation process, not everyone has been rubber-stamped. In September, Trump nominated Richard Grenell, a former U.S. spokesman at the United Nations, as ambassador to Germany.

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Some senators took issue with Grenell's partisan attacks in appearances on Fox News. "There are few professions that probably prepare you worse for being a diplomat than being a cable news commentator," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said at Grenell's confirmation hearing. Other senators were offended by tweets about female political figures' looks. The Senate never scheduled a full vote on the nomination.

The White House renominated Grenell this week, along with former White House deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland as ambassador to Singapore. McFarland was nominated in May but was stalled amid questions about her ties to Gen. Michael Flynn and Russia.

Former ambassador Ronald Neumann, a career diplomat who headed the embassies in Afghanistan, Algeria, and Bahrain, calls Trump's ambassadors a "mixed bag. Some are apparently good, some weak. The question is: Do you send people without diplomatic qualifications to countries with sensitive political issues?"

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Like South Korea, for example. Despite the president's heated rhetoric about North Korea, the administration has not formally nominated anyone to serve as ambassador to Seoul. Victor Cha, an academic from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and the Center for International and Strategic Studies, is widely rumored to be under consideration for the post. But unless the nomination moves with unusual speed, it's unlikely that Cha would be confirmed in time to weigh in on the current bilateral talks between North and South Korea, or for next month's Olympic Games in PyeongChang.

Other notable countries without ambassadorial nominees: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Egypt, Hungary, Ireland, Jordan and South Africa. And although Trump was greeted with a lavish state visit last year, he has not named anyone to serve in Saudi Arabia.

The State Department did not respond to requests for comment about the confirmations or unfilled positions.

"We're still awaiting a lot of nominees to clear the processes and be confirmed," Secretary of State Tillerson said last month in Brussels. "I get a little criticism for that from time to time."

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The delays appear to be a matter of nominating people that both the president and Tillerson can agree on  the secretary of state has reportedly pushed back at some of the president's more controversial picks.

"The impression is that a lot of the slowdown is between the State Department and the White House," said Neumann, now president of the nonpartisan American Academy of Diplomacy.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, however, told ABC News that "we have worked closely with the State Department to get ambassadorship positions filled and have had great success in getting some of the most qualified and credible individuals in place to serve as representatives for our country."

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Congratulations, you survived another year of holiday travel. However, before you settle into your leather sectional and refuse to lift your "Complete Purchase" finger for another 316 days, you might want to rethink your non-strategy strategy. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight "This is a great time of the year to start planning a trip," said Patrick Surry, chief data scientist at Hopper, the online booking site and soothsayer. "The further ahead you start to watch [fares], the greater the chance you'll see a downward bump."

The company released its Travel Cheat Sheet for booking holiday flights in 2018. It culled several years' worth of historical data to help answer the nagging question: How far ahead should I book for [insert name of holiday]?

"There are similarities between what the airlines did in the past and what they are going to do in the future," he said. "They are pretty predictable."

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Though some variables can convulse airfares, such as a rise in oil prices, Surry said travelers should typically book their flights from three weeks to two months in advance, depending on the special day. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. Day (whoops, you missed this one), Presidents' Day (still time), St. Patrick's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day require the shortest window of time  at least three weeks ahead. For Easter and Columbus Day, the lead time jumps to six weeks. For Thanksgiving, start poking around for flights at least a month ahead. For Christmas and New Year's Eve, book no later than Oct. 30 and Nov. 5, respectively.

"For holidays, it's very rare to see last-minute price drops," Surry said.

Typically, prices fall in January and February, when traveler fatigue is high, and start to climb in June. For instance, round-trip domestic fares in January are 2.6 percent lower than last month, according to the study. The company highlighted several possible bargain spots in the States and overseas, such as Phoenix, San Diego, Shanghai, Delhi, Aruba and Morelia, Mexico. Surry also circled Europe.

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"If you are thinking of taking that once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe," he said, "this is a good time."

Several factors are yanking down fares to Europe. Demand is low, for instance, due to an increase in Americans sticking closer to home and a spate of terrorist attacks. There is also more competition in the skies, thanks to the emergence of low-cost foreign carriers such as Wow and Norwegian Air.

If planning ahead makes your head hurt, Surry suggests procrastinators zoom in on destinations that appeal more to leisure travelers (say, Hawaii and the Caribbean) than to business warriors (Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas). Airlines often hold back seats for desperado bookings and exact a high price for the short notice.

As for the age-old question of what are the best days to book a flight: Surry says Tuesday and Wednesday are still optimum, because airlines typically post flash sales midweek. But, he cautions, "You can't predict which Tuesday."

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For Gojko Adzic, it's not a question of if, but when, the next airline IT outage will happen. He should know. As the author of "Humans vs Computers," a book about ordinary people caught between wrong assumptions and computer bugs, he's had a front-row seat to several recent technological meltdowns. And as a software expert, who is based in London, he also understands how fragile and error-prone the airline industry's current technology infrastructure has become.

"I can't predict when the next IT outage will happen," he says. "Only that it will happen."

New research puts the industry's IT problem into troubling perspective. The number of technology-related outages among domestic airlines has risen unevenly during the past decade, from three in 2007 to six in 2017, with the highest number being 11 in 2015. A study conducted by Qualtrics on behalf of Sungard AS, a global IT services company, says just one outage can drive away a significant number of customers. More than one-third of passengers (34 percent) said they would not book another ticket on an airline with a technology-related service disruption.

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Experts say that on at least one level, there's nothing you can do about the airline industry's IT problems. No one knows when the next outages will strike, so it's impossible to plan a flight or vacation around one. Yet in another sense, passengers can take reasonable steps now to ensure that when an airline's systems go dark they can still get to their destination.

For instance, travel insurance can protect against an outage. The major carriers offer coverage for flight disruptions, which include any information-systems problems that cause delays or force an airline to cancel flights. Cast a broad net when you're researching coverage. Etherisc, for instance, lets you buy insurance up to 24 hours before your flight, track it in real time and receive an instant payout if your flight is delayed or canceled. There's no formal claims process.

"We use data triggers which pay customers the compensation they are owed immediately," says Etherisc chief executive Stephan Karpischek.

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Air travelers should also consider being more selective about the airlines with which they book their flights, says Jack Vonder Heide, president of Technology Briefing Centers, an Oak Brook, Ill., research and education center that frequently deals with IT issues.

"Carriers that have been through multiple mergers are most likely to suffer an IT outage," he adds. "This is due to the patchwork of systems, components and staffing that is prone to error."

Also on the "avoid" list: airlines that are in an aggressive cost-cutting mode. That can mean anything from a carrier that's financially troubled to a company that outsources key parts of its business. Information systems may also be underfunded, he warns. "IT staffs are spread too thin and infrastructure improvements are delayed," Vonder Heide says.

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(All of the major legacy airlines, plus Southwest Airlines, have recently completed mergers. Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines consider themselves "ultra" low-cost carriers.)

Also, schedule your flight early and book it as a nonstop, if possible. Many recent IT outages happened in the afternoon or evening, as server loads spiked. Passengers on early-morning flights weren't affected. And flying nonstop lessens the chance that you'll be stuck somewhere on a stopover.

You can also find information about an airline's legal obligation to you before a delay happens. If you're flying in the United States, your rights are outlined in the contract of carriage, the legal agreement between you and the airline. This dense and often difficult-to-understand contract contains several provisions that promise an airline will offer meal vouchers, phone cards and overnight hotel accommodations during a service disruption. Unfortunately, there's no requirement that an airline must re-book you  also known as "endorsing" the ticket  on a different carrier. However, airlines are known to consider doing that on a case-by-case basis.

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In Europe, your rights are outlined in a regulation called EU 261. The good news? The airline must not only take care of your food and living expenses while you're waiting for flights to leave, but also is required to offer cash compensation. The bad news: Airlines will try to use the "circumstances beyond our control" excuse, a loophole that says if the service disruption is caused by an event the airline couldn't control, it owes you nothing. But IT problems are within an airline's control, an opinion supported by numerous European court rulings.

On the day of your flight, check a site like DownDetector.com, which monitors complaints and outages for many companies, including airlines. That's what Eric Martin, who created the travel industry website Black & Abroad, does before he heads to the airport. During an IT outage, the airline's own apps will be unreliable, because they might be affected.

"It's better to rely on a third party for this information in case your airline's system is down and is unable to send you a delay notification," Martin says.

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When an airline starts canceling flights, as Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines did in 2016 during widespread IT systems outages, you need to know where to go first. Experts say trying to call the airline isn't the way to go  typically, stranded passengers jam the phone lines.

"The first place to go is social media  Facebook and Twitter in particular," advises Lars Sudmann, a Belgium-based business consultant and frequent traveler. You're likely to get a faster, more accurate response online rather than by tying up the phone lines, where you might wait for hours only to get disconnected.

If you're unfortunate enough to have your flight canceled because of an IT outage, just remember that you can ask for  and receive  a full refund on your ticket.

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About 60 families who were facing eviction from a Northern Virginia mobile home park will be able to stay under a deal finalized Thursday, that will transfer ownership to a nonprofit group with plans to fix the park's leaky sewer system. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Catholics for Housing purchased the East End Mobile Home Park in Manassas for $1.4 million, officials said. The group will pay an additional $1.6 million to repair eroding sewer and water pipes there, and then turn over operation of those utilities to the city, said Karen DeVito, executive director of Catholics for Housing.

The mostly Latino immigrant families had been facing eviction since August 2016 after city officials declared that the living conditions there were unsafe, and moved to buy the property with plans to tear it down.

The property's owner, the Helen Loretta Clark Trust, had been cited for several years for leaks that allowed raw sewage to pour into the park's grounds, but claimed that it didn't have the money to make repairs.

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Local activists, including Del. Lee Carter (D-Prince William), moved to rescue the park while arranging in Circuit Court to withhold rent payments to the owner.

After a series of ups and downs over the ensuing months, Catholics for Housing stepped forward with its purchase offer, which Manassas officials approved in October.

"We are looking forward to the reconstruction of the sewer and water facilities which will become part of the city's municipal system," said Manassas City Manager W. Patrick Pate. "We hope that under the management of Catholics for Housing, we will see continued revitalization of this neighborhood."

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More than 400 families and individuals who are without homes or teetering on homeless have been placed in housing since November as part of a focused effort by the administration of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D). Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Bowser launched the "Home for the Holidays" campaign as part of her goal to make homelessness in D.C.  where soaring home prices have led to an affordable housing crisis  "rare, brief and nonrecurring."

The District, which subsidizes the cost of housing for 1,300 families through its "rapid rehousing" program, used the campaign in part to recruit 10 new landlords who agree to accept city subsidies and rent to people exiting homelessness.

"We said to them that the District has stepped up to support families, and now we need you to step up to make quality, safe units available," Bowser said at a news conference where four District residents signed their new leases. "We said we wanted 400 families to be housed during the holidays, and what [the Department of Human Services] has been able to do is to exceed that goal."

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Through the campaign, the District identified 60 new units of subsidized housing, said Laura Zeilinger, the District's human services director.

Two-thirds of the families and individuals placed in housing through the campaign were enrolled in the city's rapid rehousing program, which has come under fire from advocates, while the remaining third are receiving vouchers for permanent housing, said Larry Handerhan, Zeilinger's chief of staff.

There were 315 families and 107 individuals who received housing during the campaign, compared to 220 families during the same time period last year, Handerhan said. A comparable figure on individuals was not available.

As of Tuesday night, there were 725 families in shelter in the District, including in D.C. General and motel rooms paid for by the city, Handerhan said. Those families are all waiting for housing subsidized by the city.

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To encourage landlords to participate in the rapid rehousing program, the administration created a fund that covers costs associated with property damage and unpaid rent. In exchange, the city asks landlords to relax some screening criteria, including poor credit and past evictions. The District also strengthened its case management systemto "provide better oversight" for those in its rapid rehousing program following complaints from landlords, Handerhan said.

Anything the city can do to recruit new, good landlords will benefit those seeking affordable housing, said Kate Coventry, a senior policy analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.

"I've met people who have housing vouchers but cannot find a unit," Conventry said. "No matter what kind of assistance we give people, we need more landlords."

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But advocates have also raised questions about the efficacy of the District's rapid rehousing program, which cost taxpayers $24 million in fiscal year 2018.

A report last year from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless found that in the quickly gentrifying D.C., a large number of families in the rapid rehousing program end up in apartments that are too expensive for them to keep after subsidies from the city  which typically range from 40 to 60 percent  run out.

Max Tipping, who authored the report, said he was happy that families were receiving places of their own through Bowser's campaign, but added that it is important to keep in mind what happens when the families' leases expire.

"What are we going to do to make sure that families don't cycle back into homelessness and get retraumatized in the shelter?" he asked.

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Zeilinger said although resources limit the number of long-term vouchers available, the year-long subsidies offered through the rapid rehousing program mean "people can do things they never thought possible because they have the stability of housing underneath them."

Antonio Wells, 30, who signed a 12-month lease for an apartment in Meadowbrook Run in Southeast on Wednesday, said he was grateful for the city's help and hopeful about making enough money to cover the $1,010 per month rent when the subsidy ends. Wells, who works part-time as a cook, said his lease stipulates he will start by paying $194 per month, which will vary based on changes to his income.

Wells, a native Washingtonian, said he was living with his mother and four-year-old daughter when his mother's landlord threatened to evict him because he was not on the lease. In September, he went to the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, where staff helped him into his new apartment, which he described Wednesday as "fresh, new and empty." He said he planned to surprise his daughter with their new home when she got home from school.

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Leaders at the District's only public hospital were planning to close the facility's nursery and delivery rooms before those units were shut down by District regulators because of safety problems, according to confidential documents obtained by The Washington Post. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The documents show that the consultants running the hospital prepared a proposal to close United Medical Center's obstetrics ward, citing its drain on hospital finances and concerns about the quality of care for patients. The proposal was emailed Aug. 6 to LaRuby May, the hospital board chairwoman appointed by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D).

The previously undisclosed plans shed new light on the closure of the ward, which left a wide portion of the nation's capital east of the Anacostia River without a hospital for women to give birth and receive prenatal care. The decision surprised and upset maternal-health advocates and community activists in Southeast Washington, where infant mortality is more than double the national rate.

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LaQuandra S. Nesbitt, director of the D.C. Department of Health, ordered the hospital to close its obstetrics unit Aug. 7, citing medical errors including the failure to adequately protect a newborn from contracting HIV and the treatment of a pregnant woman who died  and whose brain-dead newborn died days later  after spending about six hours in the emergency department without proper monitoring.

In December, after leaving the nursery and delivery rooms inactive for more than four months, the hospital board voted to permanently close them.

Former employees of the unit have told The Washington Post that plans were already in the works to eliminate obstetric services before regulators acted. They say that for months, hospital managers had not devoted adequate staff or resources to the nursery and delivery rooms, creating conditions that potentially put patients at risk.

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In previous statements and public testimony before the D.C. Council, hospital officials have said they were caught off guard by regulators' shutdown of the nursery and delivery rooms and suggested that it was possible the facilities would reopen.

However, in an email sent the day before Nesbitt formally notified hospital leaders of the closure, David Boucree  who worked for the consulting firm running the hospital  sent May a board resolution to close the obstetrics unit as well as a transition plan for smoothly eliminating the service and an explanatory "executive summary" highlighting the unit's declining number of deliveries and spiking liability costs.

"The steady decline in volume and the correlation between volumes and quality outcomes of care, coupled with the reality that providing for the liability coverage for this high-risk specialty has increased over 200 percent in the last five years, require that [the] Board of Directors . . . take action regarding the quality of care regarding the availability of our existing maternity services," the summary says.

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It continues: "Additionally, and arguably most importantly, several recent events related to quality patient care has necessitated hospital leaders and the Board of Directors to take action regarding the continuation of these services."

The accompanying board resolution states that "it is necessary to immediately suspend all services currently provided obstetric patients" at UMC.

In addition to May, Boucree's email was sent to two outside attorneys for the hospital and several other officials with the consulting firm Veritas of Washington, which has managed the hospital since 2016. They were Corbett Price, the company's executive chairman; Chrystie Boucree, the firm's owner, Price's wife and David Boucree's cousin; and Luis Hernandez, a Veritas employee and UMC's chief executive.

It is unclear how long the plans outlined in the email and documents had been pending, what became of the proposed board resolution or what "recent events" involving patients the summary referred to. Board members never publicly discussed the plans before regulators shut down obstetric services.

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Health department spokesman Tom Lalley said Nesbitt did not communicate to any hospital officials or board members that a closure of the obstetrics unit was imminent or urge them to close the ward voluntarily.

Through a spokesman, May declined to comment on the documents.

"United Medical Center does not have a comment because this is privileged and confidential information, and the property of United Medical Center only," hospital board secretary Mike Austin said in an email responding to questions submitted to May.

Veritas declined to comment through a spokeswoman. In November, the D.C. Council voted not to extend the consulting firm's $300,000-per-month contract, citing concerns about patient safety and allegations of mismanagement.

The consultants are expected to leave the hospital by the end of this month.

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David Boucree no longer works at the firm, spokeswoman Jennifer Devlin said.

D.C. Council member and health committee chairman Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) said the documents shared among Veritas consultants and May called into question statements that hospital officials made at a September public hearing on the closing of UMC's nursery and delivery rooms.

At that hearing, Boucree did not mention independent plans by the hospital to eliminate those services and said regulators' closure of the obstetrics ward took him by surprise.

"You didn't know something was coming?" Gray asked.

"No, I did not," Boucree said.

"It's pretty obvious that they were very disingenuous with us," Gray said last week. "At the very least, they did not reveal that they already had had internal discussions about shutting down the obstetrics services."

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Gray is planning a public roundtable on UMC on Tuesday and said he is expanding his review of the hospital and may seek subpoenas. "We will get to the bottom of this," he said in a statement issued Friday.

Wala Blegay, a staff attorney at the D.C. Nurses Association, said members of the union suspected that plans to close the obstetrics ward were already in motion.

However, Blegay said, human-resources officials at the hospital assured her that was not happening and that after the shutdown, hospital managers told her in meetings that the situation had been forced on them.

"They said it was not their fault it closed but it was because of the Department of Health," Blegay said.

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Sunscreen-clad scofflaws in D.C. schools could soon be law-abiding students if some District lawmakers have their way. A little-known provision in D.C. law prohibits students from using medicine on campus or at school-sanctioned activities without a note from a doctor. Turns out, the federal Food and Drug Administration regards sunscreen as an over-the-counter medicine, rendering the skin-protecting lotion an illicit substance on campus grounds.

But council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) wants to consign the sunscreen ban to a dark corner, and she introduced legislation this week that would do just that.

The School Sunscreen Safety Act would exempt sunscreen from the stringent ways schools typically handle medications, allowing a student to use it in school without a "medication action plan"  more commonly known as a doctor's note.

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"It shouldn't be that haphazard," Cheh said. "If parents want their kids to have sunscreen, they should be allowed to."

D.C. Public Schools and the D.C. Public Charter School Board could not immediately say whether the sunscreen prohibition is enforced in schools.

Cheh said she only recently learned that sunscreen was banned from schools unless students receive special permission. She didn't know about it when she sent her children to D.C. Public Schools in the 1990s.

"This flies under the radar," she said.

The District's public schools aren't the only ones that put sunscreen on the forbidden list. Lots of schools across the nation do, although those bans are receiving scrutiny. Last year, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Utah and Washington state passed laws similar to what Cheh has proposed.

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Virginia will consider the matter during the legislative session that convened Wednesday.

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that children and adults should apply sunscreen on exposed skin anytime they are outdoors to protect themselves from sunburn and some skin cancers. Sunscreen should be applied at least 15 minutes before going outdoors and reapplied every two hours.

Margaret Cellucci, spokeswoman for the National Association of School Nurses, said in an email that the group does not have a stance on the sunscreen rule.

Cheh's legislation has 10 co-sponsors on the 13-member D.C. Council.

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Man is accused of stealing police cruiser Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight A 38-year-old man was arrested and charged Wednesday after he allegedly stole a D.C. police cruiser in Southeast Washington. Kenneth F. Davis of Northwest was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, reckless driving and other charges. D.C. police said the cruiser was taken just before 1 a.m. in the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE, outside a convenience store.

A police report said officers parked their cruiser and went inside the store. They saw Davis get into the cruiser and drive off, the report said. The driver ran several stoplights along Pennsylvania Avenue and eventually crashed into another cruiser.

The driver tried to flee but was taken into custody, police said.

 Dana Hedgpeth

Girl is assaulted

while walking home

Authorities in Loudoun County said a middle-school girl was assaulted while walking home from school in the Sterling, Va., area, and they are asking for help identifying a man believed to be involved.

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It happened about 4 p.m. on Jan. 3 as the girl walked on a path near Wrightwood Place and saw a man who appeared to be jogging. Officials with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said the man grabbed the girl and then touched her inappropriately. She screamed, and the man fled.

Officials said the man is 25 to 30 years old and is about 5 feet 5 inches tall.

 Dana Hedgpeth

Woman seen hustled

out of hospital in cold

A Baltimore hospital said it was investigating Wednesday after video posted online showed an apparently incapacitated woman put out in the cold wearing nothing but a hospital gown.

On Wednesday, a man who said he was a psychotherapist and a student at the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus posted a video of the woman being hustled out of the hospital by staff and left at a bus stop, her possessions strewn on the street.

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The woman appeared to have a wound on her forehead, and was wearing a hospital gown that was falling off. She grunted and shouted, and appeared to say: "Please help me!"

The man who posted the video said it was 30 degrees outside and challenged hospital staff. "So y'all are just going to leave this lady out here with no clothes on?" he said in the video. "That is not okay."

A spokeswoman for the hospital verified its authenticity, and said it was filmed Tuesday.

"We share the shock and disappointment of many who have viewed the video," Lisa Clough, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said in a statement. "This unfortunate event is not representative of our patient-centered mission."

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7.5 Million Tourists Visited Georgia in 2017

By Mariam Chanishvili

International tourism is a rapidly growing industry and plays a major role in development of Georgias economy.In 2017, 7.5 million foreign tourists visited the country. The result shows an increase of 18.8% compared to the last year. About 3.4 million visits lasted longer than 24 hours (+ 27.9%).According to the report of Georgias National Tourism Administration, the majority of foreign travelers were from Armenia (+14.8%), Azerbaijan (+11.2%), Russia (+34.1%), Turkey(-0.8%) and Iran (+118.3%). A significant increase was registered in the number of British travelers that was increased by +39.9%, Dutch tourists -by 31.1%, Spanish +29.9%, French +29.6% and German +25.7% travelers.The Georgian National Tourism Administration intends to form and implementGeorgias state policy on tourism development to promote the sustainable tourism development, high export income growth and job creation by settingup tourism infrastructure. GNTA also intends to pay more attention to domestic tourism.For years, Georgia has remained a favourite destination for tourists from Eastern and Central Europe as well.Traveling to post-soviet countries, especially Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, has recently become popular. It feels like people are looking for more unique and authentic places, says Lera, a student of economy from Russia.
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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) joined a group of state and local leaders supporting the Paris climate accord on Wednesday, more than six months after Democrats pressed him to add his name to the list in response to President Trump pulling out of the agreement. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Hogan informed the U.S. Climate Alliance of his decision in a letter, saying his administration "will gladly invest our time and energy with state colleagues for this cause."

Democrats quickly accused the governor of trying to bolster his standing with Maryland voters in an election year.

"This is a political calculation, pure and simple," said Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. "If it was genuine, he could have jumped on board earlier like several other Republican governors."

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Hogan spokesman Doug Mayer said Wednesday that the governor decided to join after confirming that the alliance was taking real action to help states address climate change.

"We wanted to make sure this was something that was substantive and nonpartisan," he said. "Far too often in today's discussions about the environment, it's mainly focused on attacking people instead of working together."

Fourteen other states, Puerto Rico and the District have joined the U.S. Climate Alliance, committing to uphold the emissions-reduction targets of the Paris climate accord, which the United States signed on to under former president Barack Obama.

After Trump withdrew from the Paris accord, Hogan said he disagreed with the decision. But he balked at calls to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, questioning the intent of the group and the need for Maryland to be involved with it when the state's carbon-reduction goals were already stronger than those in the international agreement.

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Whereas the Paris agreement calls for the United States to reduce its emissions by about 28 percent by 2025, Maryland's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, which Hogan signed two years ago, requires the state to cut its emissions by 40 percent by 2030, using 2006 levels as a baseline.

In his letter, Hogan touted Maryland's efforts to reduce carbon emissions during his tenure in office, saying he and other state officials "will share our insights, experiences, and strategies in meeting and excelling beyond requirements of the Paris climate accord."

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Four years ago on the campaign trail, future Maryland governor Larry Hogan blistered his Democratic opponents for what he called onerous taxes and other anti-business policies that, he said, led Fortune 500 companies to flee Maryland. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight "We've chased out a lot of these businesses," Hogan (R) said in May 2014, in a typical comment. "That would change on Day One in our administration."

What a difference it makes to hold office.

When Discovery Communications announced Tuesday that it was moving its corporate headquarters from Silver Spring to New York  reducing the number of Fortune 500 companies based in Maryland from four to three  Hogan sounded considerably less alarmed.

"We're not responsible. They assured us it didn't have anything to do with Maryland," the governor told reporters. "Of course, we're disappointed when we lose one job, let alone hundreds . . . but in the grand scheme of things, it's not the end of the world."

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Those remarks instantly drew sharp criticism from state Democrats, who hope to oust Hogan from the governorship in November.

"It's deeply frustrating to see the governor be so out of touch as to say this is no big deal," said Ben Jealous, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former NAACP president. "It's going to impact families. It's going to impact small businesses."

Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D), who also is seeking the Democratic nomination, said, "The governor has talked about Maryland being open for business. The way you show it is by providing the incentives and opportunities to keep important folks like Discovery Channel in the state."

The Democrats' pounce was inevitable, given Hogan's past rhetoric, according to political and business analysts. Timing was also a factor, with Democrats eager to score political points as the annual General Assembly session began.

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But the economic reality was that neither Hogan nor his predecessor, Martin O'Malley (D), had much influence over such corporate decisions, the analysts said. In the case of Discovery, as with companies that relocated during the O'Malley years, the principal reason for departing was a merger or other factors that neither governor could control.

Discovery "was going to move no matter what Hogan did," said Matthew Crenson, a professor emeritus of political science at Johns Hopkins University. "He is bearing the blame for it now, partly because of the line he took earlier when he criticized his predecessors. . . . A lot of those companies were going to leave anyway, too."

Peter L. Scher, chairman of the Mid-Atlantic region for JPMorgan Chase, said that "it's a mistake for any politician to be looking for short-term political gains for these things."

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Discovery, which has 1,300 employees in Silver Spring, is in the process of acquiring Scripps Networks Interactive in a $14.6 billion deal that is triggering a consolidation of operations and contributed to the decision to change headquarters. The company also cited its desire to be in New York, which it called "home to the global media industry."

Discovery did not provide specific numbers, but Chief Corporate Operating Officer David C. Leavy said several hundred Discovery jobs were expected to remain in Maryland, with the rest going to New York, Knoxville, Tenn.; Sterling, Va.; and Los Angeles.

The political assault from Democrats was  perhaps not surprisingly  selective. Those who sharply criticized Hogan had nothing bad to say about the all-Democratic Montgomery County government, which, like the state government, wooed Discovery and offered it incentives to stay.

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Within Montgomery, Democrats vying to succeed outgoing County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) this fall steered clear of blaming Hogan. They said both the state and county did everything in their power to keep Discovery in Silver Spring and were simply unable to compete with New York's thriving media scene and Knoxville's low cost of living.

"If you're Governor Hogan and Ike Leggett, wouldn't you put everything you've got not to lose a Fortune 500 company?" said County Council member Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda). "You don't think we played hard? There are just some things you can't overcome."

Another candidate, council member Marc Elrich (D-At Large), said he was "not interested in blaming Hogan. . . . I don't think it'd be intellectually honest."

State Del. C. William Frick (D-Montgomery), who also is seeking the nomination to be county executive in the June 26 primary, used the relocation to buttress his argument that Montgomery is "not as competitive" and is lagging behind its regional peers in job growth.

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The only Republican candidate so far, Robin Ficker, has said he would cut taxes in the county to help retain companies such as Discovery. In an interview, Ficker criticized Hogan for not going far enough to provide the company with an incentive to stay.

"We put in a huge public investment in the Silver Spring transit center, and one of the reasons we put that in was for the Discovery Channel, and now that's all for naught," Ficker, an attorney, said.

State Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) said he wouldn't fault Leggett and Montgomery council members because, unlike Hogan, "they have not been parading around the state talking about the poisonous business climate."

The state Democratic Party said Discovery's departure marked the first time in more than two decades that a Fortune 500 company chose to move its headquarters from Maryland to another state.

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During the 2014 campaign, Hogan drew criticism from the media and independent observers for exaggerating Maryland's loss of Fortune 500 companies. He repeatedly claimed that 10 of Maryland's 13 Fortune 500 companies left during the O'Malley administration.

In fact, based on lists provided this week by Hogan's office and the state Democratic Party, the number of Fortune 500 companies that relocated was four: Constellation Energy, Black and Decker, Coventry Health Care and Catalyst Health Solutions. In each case, the move followed an acquisition of the Maryland company by a corporation outside the state, rather than a company headquartered in Maryland electing to move elsewhere.

Hogan spokesman Doug Mayer declined to discuss what Hogan said in 2014 but said the governor had turned Maryland's economy around since then.

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"By any normal person's definition, Maryland is a much more competitive and business-friendly state under the governor," Mayer said.

He said Hogan's comment that Discovery's move was "not the end of the world" was in the context of the creation of more than 130,000 jobs in the state during Hogan's term.

That explanation isn't likely to quiet the Democrats, at least at the state level. Donald Norris, emeritus professor of public policy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, predicted they would continue to pound the governor.

"It's going to play right into the Democrats' narrative. If it isn't a big deal now, why was it such a big deal four years ago?" Norris said.

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Lawyers for a fourth pregnant immigrant teen in federal custody asked a judge in Washington on Thursday to quickly intervene to allow the teen to terminate her pregnancy. The request from the American Civil Liberties Union is part of an ongoing challenge to the Trump administration's policy of blocking or preventing access to abortion services for pregnant teens held in government-funded shelters after crossing the border illegally.

Since March, the administration has adopted a policy of refusing to "facilitate" abortions for unaccompanied minors. Court documents unsealed last month show the head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement denied access to abortion services for a 17-year-old who said she had been raped and threatened to harm herself if she could not end her pregnancy.

The office's director, E. Scott Lloyd, denied the teen's request over the recommendation of a senior staff member who said the office should assist the teen in getting an abortion, according to the filing.

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In explaining his decision, Lloyd said in a December memo that the government office "cannot be a place of refuge while we are at the same time a place of violence. We have to choose, and we ought to choose [to] protect life rather than to destroy it."

ACLU attorneys say the administration's policy affects hundreds of teenagers in custody and is an unconstitutional curb on abortion rights. There were 420 pregnant girls in custody during fiscal 2017, according to court records.

Under the Obama administration, the government did not pay for abortions for teens in custody except in cases of rape, incest or a threat to the woman's life. Officials did not block immigrants in U.S. custody from obtaining abortions at their own expense.

The latest court filing says the fourth teen, identified only as Jane Moe, requested an abortion about two weeks ago but has not been allowed to end her pregnancy and instead was required to visit an antiabortion crisis pregnancy center. The filing does not identify the teen's home country or the state in which she is being held.

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"Without this court's immediate intervention, defendants will continue to deny Ms. Moe the ability to access abortion, and ultimately will force her to carry to term against her will," according to the ACLU's filing.

The teen's attorneys say she is being asked to disclose her pregnancy to her parents and "fears retaliation because she has requested an abortion, and she does not want her family or others to know."

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families said in a statement Thursday that the teen has "the option to voluntarily depart to her home country or find a suitable sponsor."

"If she chooses not to exercise these options, HHS does not believe we are required to facilitate Jane Moe's abortion, out of concern and responsibility for the mother's best interests," the statement said.

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U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan in Washington has previously ordered the administration to allow access to abortion services for the other teens.

In the case of the first teenager in October, the government missed the time window for trying to get an order from the Supreme Court to stop the abortion. But the administration took the unusual step of asking the high court to consider disciplinary action against the girl's lawyers for what it says were misleading statements about the timing of the procedure. That request is still pending before the Supreme Court.

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There's no such thing as a free breakfast  at least that is what a Maryland woman who sued Burger King last year claimed when the company consistently overcharged her for Croissan'wiches. Prince George's County resident Koleta Anderson filed a class-action lawsuit against the fast-food giant in May, alleging the company misled customers by inflating the price of the sandwiches when patrons presented buy-one-get-one-free coupons. Anderson claimed that when she bought the breakfast sandwiches without the coupons in various locations in the District, Maryland, Virginia and Florida, they turned out to be $1 to $3 cheaper.

"Burger King's nationwide scheme is stealing untold millions of dollars from hard working Americans," her lawyers wrote in a complaint in U.S. District Court in Maryland.

Seven months after the suit was filed, Burger King announced a settlement in the case. Affected customers will be entitled to $5 in cash or a $2 gift card if they fill out a claim form and meet the eligibility requirements.

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As part of the settlement, the company denied wrongdoing. Burger King blamed the discrepancy on a technological glitch that occurred only when customers requested to have it their way  special-order sandwiches without egg, cheese and/or meat  while using the buy-one-get-one-free coupons.

The company said in court filings that after receiving Anderson's complaint, it immediately launched an internal investigation and fixed the electronic sale systems that were charging the higher price with coupons on the buy-one-get-one deals.

"Based upon a random sampling of receipts, fewer than 10% of all BOGO [buy-one-get-one] orders were for two modified Croissan'wiches and were conceivably impacted by the problem, with the remaining 90%+ of Croissan'wich purchasers redeemed BOGO coupons unaffected by any problem," according to the settlement agreement approved by a federal judge in December.

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The problem with the coupons began to unfold when Anderson, 44, went to a Burger King in Forestville, Md., in March. She ordered a Croissan'wich with her coupon and was charged $3.19. One minute later, she bought another Croissan'wich without the coupon and was charged $2.16.

The same thing happened at a Burger King on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest Washington in April, where she was charged $4.61 for a Croissan'wich with the coupon and only $1 without. And at a Burger King in Alexandria, she was charged $2.99 with a coupon but $1.79 without. Attorneys sent someone to conduct the same transactions in Florida and found similar results.

"This is a simple case of consumer deception," attorneys for Anderson said in their complaint.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Anderson said she could not comment on the matter.

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In a statement, Anderson's attorney, Stuart Davidson, commended his client for investigating the issue and bringing the case forward. He called the settlement with Burger King a fair agreement for customers.

"This is a great settlement for Burger King consumers and it could not have been achieved but for the tenacity of Ms. Anderson, who investigated and uncovered on her own a nationwide problem at Burger King restaurants," said Davidson, a partner at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd. "As a result of Ms. Anderson's actions, and the injunction Burger King has agreed to, consumers can be assured that they will never again be overcharged by Burger King when redeeming a BOGO coupon."

Anderson is expected to receive a $500 "service award" as part of the settlement and have her attorney's fees covered.

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Those entitled to payment under the settlement must have purchased two or more Croissan'wich breakfast sandwiches without egg, cheese and/or a meat from a Burger King with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon and been charged an inflated price between Oct. 1, 2015, and May 19, 2017.

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A man was shot and critically wounded late Wednesday night in Southeast Washington, D.C. police said.

Police found the victim unconscious and unresponsive near the intersection of 24th Street and Skyland Place about 10:30 p.m., said Officer Sean Hickman, a police spokesman. Police did not immediately release further details on the victim's medical condition.
Police said the man  Marty William McMillan Jr.  had been shot multiple times. The medical examiner in Maryland ruled his death a homicide, and police said they believe he was killed in the District.

The remains of a body discovered in October along a highway in Prince George's County has been identified as a 22-year-old man who was reported missing from Southeast Washington in April, D.C. police said Thursday.

Police said he disappeared April 23 from his home in Southeast Washington after heading out for a date with a woman he had met on the Internet. Relatives found his car, police said, and his bank cards had been used after his disappearance.
Ivan Williams, 28, and Dennis Davis, 26, were found guilty by a jury in Alexandria federal court Wednesday evening. Prosecutors said the men used the proceeds from prostitution to fund their dreams of rap stardom.

Several former prostitutes testified against the two men, including two women who pleaded guilty to helping traffic minors. One, Davis's ex-girlfriend, had worked for him as a prostitute when she was underage. When he went to prison for that crime, she had his name tattooed on her hip. She testified against him in this case, she said, because he had attacked her younger brother.
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A 29-year-old man was arrested Tuesday and charged with 20 counts of felony possession of child pornography, Fairfax County police said. Jaeyoung Lee, a resident of the Fairfax County section of Alexandria, was alleged to have at least 20 photos and videos, said Officer Reem Awad, a county police spokeswoman. Lee is being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center without bond, Awad said.

Online court records do not indicate whether Lee has retained or been assigned an attorney.

Lee was arrested after detectives traced a device that they said contained the child pornography, back to him. Information about how long Lee was allegedly in possession of the photos and videos was not available from police who said the information was found on external hard drives.

Detectives have yet to determine whether Lee had contact with any of the children in the photos and videos, Awad said.

A preliminary hearing has been set for March 6.

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Wounded Suspects Father Demands Victim Status for His Son

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze

(TBILISI)The Father of Temirlan Machalikashvili, who was wounded in an anti-terrorist raid on December 26 in Georgias Muslim-populated Pankisi gorge, demands the victim status for his son.Malkhaz Machalikashvili says the law-enforcers made a mistake.I am completely sure that the serviceman believed my son held a hand grenade, while he just had a mobile phone, Machalikashvili says.He also told the media that his daughter heard how other servicemen verbally abused their colleague after he shot the 19-year-old.However, the State Security Service says Machalikashvili and the four other suspects detained during the Pankisi raid were linked with Ahmed Chatayev, allegedly an Islamic State terrorist, who blew himself up in Tbilisi on November 22, during a counter-terrorism operation.The Security Service released a video footage depicting Machalikashvili with the two alleged members of Chatayevs group.The State Security Service also reports they hold a bank document confirming that Machalikashvili was supporting terrorists.The 19-year-old suspect is wounded in head, his condition remains critical until now and shall be transported abroad for treatment.The raid in Pankisi came in the wake of a large-scale anti-terrorist operation in the outskirts of Tbilisi on November 21-22, which saw three suspects killed and one suspect detained. As a result of the operation, one serviceman was killed and four others were wounded.The Security Service named Chatayev as the leader of the group that planned attacks on diplomats in Georgia and Turkey.
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State voter registration data collected by President Trump's abandoned election fraud commission will be destroyed and not shared with the Department of Homeland Security or any other agency, a White House aide told a federal judge. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight White House Director of Information Technology Charles Herndon also said in a legal filing in Washington late Tuesday that none of the controversial panel's other "records or data will be transferred to the DHS or another agency" from this point on, except for disclosure or archiving that a court or federal law might require.

Herndon's declaration left unclear what other information the panel may have assembled since its formation in May, if any analysis was done and whether information had already been shared with others outside the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, according to lawyers who participated in a telephone conference call with the court Wednesday.

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The call included lawyers for the government and for a panel member who had sued the commission alleging it kept him in the dark on its operations. The commission faces lawsuits by 10 other voting rights and public accountability groups challenging its data collection, privacy impacts and lack of transparency.

"The Commission did not create any preliminary findings," Herndon wrote for the government. "Pending resolution of outstanding litigation involving the Commission, and pending consultation with [the National Archives and Records Administration], the White House intends to destroy all state voter data," he said.

Herndon's declaration appears to contradict statements Jan. 3 by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders when she said Trump had dissolved the panel and asked DHS "to review its initial findings and determine next courses of actions."

That same day, the panel's vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach, had said DHS's Immigration and Customs Enforcement "has a greater ability to move quickly to get the investigation done." He said in a weekend interview with The Washington Post that he thought DHS could recreate the state data rather easily if need be.

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The DHS Office of Public Affairs did not respond to a request for comment after Tuesday's filings.

Trump created the commission after repeatedly suggesting that millions of illegal voters cost him the popular vote in 2016. Studies and state officials from both parties have found no evidence of widespread voting fraud, and the request triggered a political firestorm as state leaders from both parties objected to the potential release of personal information, suppression of voter participation and encroachment on states' oversight of voting laws.

A coalition of voting rights and public-interest groups Wednesday praised the White House for its intent to destroy state voter records but continued to accuse the administration of attempting a "hide-the-ball trick" to evade open government and privacy laws by not disclosing records of work the commission already had done.

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"The Commission was created, it existed for several months, and it gathered information about issues of vital public importance, and it cannot . . . simply be thrown down the 'memory hole,' " said an attorney for Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (D), a commission member who sued the panel in November to disclose more of its records.

"I think we still have a right to know what our government is working on, and as a member of the commission, I have an obligation to know what was going on," Dunlap said Wednesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly largely agreed with Dunlap in a Dec. 22 ruling.

The White House's new filing came as Dunlap urged the court to order the commission to preserve all records pending compliance with the judge's order. Government attorneys asked the judge to toss out her order, saying it was moot now that the panel is no more.

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In Wednesday's conference call, Justice Department lawyers reiterated that the commission produced no findings and that the White House Counsel's Office and the office of records management would decide what records to archive, according to Dunlap's lawyers.

The call did not clear up what former commissioners or staff could do with other data or materials gathered or produced for the panel, said Melanie Sloan, senior adviser to American Oversight, a watchdog group representing Dunlap. The judge ordered more briefings.

Eleven privacy and civil rights groups who have sued the commission wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen on Monday asking her not to "accept or maintain" any personal data from the effort. She is set to testify Tuesday before a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing.

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The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed suit Monday for records of any discussions between the commission and DHS, noting 20 states sent data responding to the request for voting information of more than 150 million registered voters.

The Brennan Center for Justice called proposals to use DHS immigration, detention and citizenship application databases to purge voter rolls an error-prone misuse of enforcement authority that would probably disenfranchise eligible voters.

John Wagner contributed to this report.

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The Virginia General Assembly opened its 2018 legislative session with a record number of 28 women serving in the House of Delegates. (Video: Virginia House of Delegates, Photo: Timothy C. Wright/Virginia House of Delegates)

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For generations, the only thing that changed in the Virginia legislature was the hair. Powerful men in dark suits and powdered wigs became powerful men in dark suits and comb-overs. The Virginia House of Delegates, which bills itself as the oldest lawmaking body in the New World, remained stubbornly and steadfastly male  the same as state legislatures across the nation.

Until now. #TimesUp, boys.

In Richmond on Wednesday, the sea of dark suits was broken up with bright spots of red and robin's-egg blue, the splash of jade green, the pastels of an infant sleeping on a baby blanket, a purple sheath.

It was a historic day, with a record number of women who had been elected to the House of Delegates taking their seats.

Of course, let's not get too carried away. The Virginia House is now just 28 percent female, so there's a long way to go to achieve gender parity. Still, that's a huge change from being only 17 percent female before November's landmark election.

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And get this. Gov.-elect Ralph Northam (D) also made history with his Cabinet appointments  the Cabinet for the first time will be majority female.

Look at that, Justin Trudeau. It's one better, isn't it?

This is also significant for stubbornly masculine Virginia, which has managed to elect a woman to a statewide office only once in its history  Mary Sue Terry, who served as Virginia attorney general.

Terry lost a 1993 run for governor against Republican George Allen, who trailed her in early polling. But the far right had plenty of time to catch up, with personal attacks on Terry, who was single and childless at 46.

The governor's mansion shouldn't be "a sterile building" but a home "where a man and his wife live, and with the laughter of their children," former National Security Council official Oliver North said as he campaigned for Allen.

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Almost 25 years later, women faced similar flavors of scrutiny on the campaign trail. Just about every mom running for office was excoriated in comment sections for her choices. When Jennifer Carroll Foy, one of the Virginia Military Institute's first female graduates and a longtime public defender, won her race, here's how one local television station played it: "Mother of Premature Twins Wins Virginia House of Delegates Seat."

But this year, condemnations didn't scare voters away.

And there was no better evidence than the photo of federal workplace policy expert and new delegate Kathy Tran (D-Fairfax) as she took the oath of office on opening day of the legislative session Wednesday, her infant daughter  her fourth child  cuddled on her shoulder.

It was especially delicious that Tran took over the House seat vacated by Del. David B. Albo, who helped make Virginia the butt of national jokes because his wife was turned off by his party's move to require intrusive, transvaginal ultrasounds 24 hours before an abortion.

Five years ago, Albo actually turned on some whacka-whacka porn music on the House floor as he whined to his pals that after the kids were in bed, with the red wine popped and the 46-inch TV on, his wife called it a night when the transvaginal ultrasound debate took over the big screen.

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Really.

Did I say #TimesUp already?

"It was the right moment, the right time, because women just said, 'We are not going to take this anymore,' " said Susan Platt, who lost her run last year to match Terry's historic feat when she was beaten in her primary race for lieutenant governor.

In 2008, Platt, who had run campaigns and political staffs for 30 years, got together with Terry and lamented at the state of the House of Delegates. At the time, it was 11 percent women.

They created a group called the Farm Team, and they began mentoring 23 women on how to run for state offices. "Women are different candidates," Platt said. "Whenever you want a woman to run, you have to ask her three times. Men? They just assume they're ready and going to win, and they run." For nearly 10 years, Terry and Platt met with potential candidates, went to meet-ups, sponsored breakfasts. And now? Their efforts helped make that 11 percent a 28 percent.

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"But it's not just about different colors and lipstick and making it look different by adding more women," Platt said. "Women govern differently. Women have a different way of listening and compromising. They don't just get up and walk away from the table when things don't go their way."

That can be summed up in a viral tweet that online comic James Breakwell, who tweets as @XplodingUnicorn, posted this week.

"I played Dungeons and Dragons with my daughters," he wrote. "They were supposed to fight the wolves surrounding a town. Instead, they fed the wolves and turned them into their friendly wolf army. Girls, man. They'll take over the world."

Women are fed up. And that was clear as the makeup of state legislatures changed across the nation in the 2017 elections.

"What is noteworthy is that, nationally, the percentage of legislators who are women has at last reached 25," said Katie Fischer Ziegler, a program manager at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

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Again, let's not get too excited. That's only halfway to equality in a country 51 percent female. And it reminds us that Congress is only 19 percent female. But that state number is an upward tick after years of no progress.

"That ratio has hovered at 24-point-something percent for almost 10 years," Ziegler said.

And maybe this is the real ground zero for the women-in-power revolution, the gathering of pebbles that will become a mountain.

Because day to day, legislation at the state level often has the bigger impact on Americans' lives. And more women in state offices will ultimately lead to more women in Congress and more women in governors' mansions.

No state government accurately represents its constituents yet.

Arizona and Vermont come closest, with 40 percent of their legislative seats held by women, according to the NCSL's data.

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Virginia is now solidly in the middle, ranking 22nd in the nation with its influx of women. Maryland does a little better, with 31 percent women.

But check this out. What do you think is the worst state for women in elected office, with only 11 percent?

It's a lesson in peaking early. The territory of Wyoming was the first place in the nation, in 1869, to offer women unrestricted suffrage. The state's official nickname is the Equality State.

But with a state legislature that's only 11 percent female, Wyoming, you get the sad trombone sound.

No. The highest glass ceiling didn't break in 2016. But every glass ceiling is held up by beams, columns, structures and supports. Fine, then. Little by little, women across the country will simply bring those down first.

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For more than a century, Virginia has designated a day in January to honor two military leaders from its secessionist past. As in previous years, most state offices will close Friday for Lee-Jackson Day, which celebrates Confederate generals  and native Virginians  Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight But Confederate history's grip on official Virginia is not as ironclad as it used to be. Although the holiday remains in place, a growing number of cities and counties across the commonwealth have chosen in recent years not to recognize it.

Lynchburg, Norfolk, Newport News and Hampton are among the cities that don't observe the holiday. Charlottesville stopped in 2016, Blacksburg in 2017. Even Richmond, Virginia's capital and the capital of the South for most of the Civil War, doesn't shut down its city government for Lee-Jackson Day. A number of counties, including Fairfax, Arlington and Loudoun, have also taken a pass on the day.

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"I think it is certainly dying on the vine," said U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat whose congressional district encompasses much of southeastern Virginia. As a state senator in 2016, McEachin introduced a measure to end Lee-Jackson Day as a state holiday and instead make Election Day a holiday. The proposal was voted down in committee on party lines, but McEachin said he would not be surprised to see the General Assembly revisit the issue.

He is succinct in his reasoning for not honoring Lee and Jackson.

"My preference would be that we not celebrate their lives as they were basically in rebellion against the Union," he said.

This year's holiday will be the first Lee-Jackson Day celebration since white supremacists descended on Charlottesville in August to protest the city's planned removal of a Lee statue from a downtown park. The Unite the Right rally sparked violent confrontations with counterprotesters and led to three deaths and many injuries.

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Wes Bellamy, the Charlottesville City Council member who led the effort to remove the Lee statue  and later a Jackson statue  said he doesn't think any municipality should celebrate men who were slave owners and who fought to preserve slavery.

"It's actually mind-boggling to me that people don't understand just how disrespectful and flat-out wrong celebrating that day is to so many different people," Bellamy said. "It just shows that on the one hand, we still have a very long way to go."

As much as Bellamy wants the holiday to disappear immediately, Frank Earnest wants it to remain in place forever. Earnest is a member of the Virginia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an association formed in 1896 for male descendants of those who fought for the South, and is a staunch supporter of the holiday. A resident of Virginia Beach, Earnest has traveled across the state trying to keep Confederate monuments from being removed and fighting perceptions about the Confederate cause that he says are misconstrued or misunderstood.

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Earnest blames the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville for damaging the efforts of his group to preserve Confederate markers and monuments.

"The Sons of Confederates have nothing to do at all with whatever those people are, Nazis, whatever they call themselves," he said. "Those idiots did us more harm than anyone. Believe me, if anyone didn't want them there, we're the ones who didn't want them there. That has nothing to do with General Lee or our heritage."

Earnest regards Lee and Jackson as heroes who sacrificed everything for their state. But even as he rallies to keep Lee-Jackson Day a holiday, he recognizes it is imperiled. And he worries that Virginia  which is chockablock with towns, schools, buildings and roads named for Confederate leaders  will soon be bogged down renaming all of them. He's pushing back even as he recognizes the debate is pressing forward in the commonwealth and the country.

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"This has gotten so much bigger than just Virginia," he said. "The only thing that's going to save Lee-Jackson Day, memorials and everything else is when the country itself realizes that if you start this purge of history, it has no logical conclusion."

The history of the Lee-Jackson holiday is tangled. Virginia's General Assembly designated Jan. 19, Lee's birthday, as a holiday in 1890, according to Brent Tarter, a retired historian with the Library of Virginia. In 1904, the Assembly made the holiday Lee-Jackson Day, adding Jackson, who was born Jan. 21.

In 1978, the General Assembly, pushed by L. Douglas Wilder  who was then a state senator and later became governor  created a state holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which was celebrated on Jan. 1. Six years later, in a move that baffled many observers, the Assembly voted to honor all three men on the third Monday in January and called it Lee-Jackson-King Day in tribute to the "defenders of causes." Martin Luther King Day was first observed as a federal holiday in 1986, but it wasn't until 2000 that the Assembly detached Lee-Jackson Day from the King holiday.

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Mississippi and Alabama are the only states that continue to celebrate a holiday honoring Lee and King on the same day. Arkansas lawmakers voted last year to end the dual holiday and honor Lee on a separate day that was not a state holiday.

Nowhere has the battle over Lee-Jackson Day played out more visibly than in Lexington, Va., where a parade has been held by the Sons of Confederate Veterans for the past 15 years to honor the men. Lexington is home to the burial sites of Lee and Jackson, and it has become a pilgrimage destination for some whose ancestors fought for the South.

But last year, the parade plans were upended by a local group, the Community Anti-Racism Effort, which obtained a permit to hold a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade at the same time and location as the Confederate group.

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"We were a group of concerned citizens who were fed up with them coming into Lexington," said Reginald A. Early, spokesman for the anti-racism group. "It felt like what they were doing was a misrepresentation of what Lexington is about. Ours is a community concerned about racial justice and equality for all people."

But this year, the Confederate supporters will hold their parade as scheduled and the anti-racism group will have its event on Monday, the King holiday.

Despite the ongoing controversy over the name and implications of honoring Lee and Jackson, there are no signs that state political leaders are interested in addressing the holiday right now. Although there is no bill in the offing, Gov.-elect Ralph Northam, whose inauguration is scheduled for Saturday, would sign such legislation if the General Assembly approved it, an official in the incoming administration said. Passing such legislation might be a hard sell, particularly for representatives from more conservative districts.

"You'd certainly never establish such a holiday anymore, but whether you could undo one, I don't know," Tarter, the state historian, said. He suggests that legislatures avoid naming future holidays after people.

"You're only going to piss people off when you get rid of the holiday," he said. "I've always thought naming a holiday after a person was idolatrous."

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RICHMOND  The bill she was filing was due at 10 a.m., two hours before Danica Roem would be sworn in Wednesday as Virginia's first openly transgender state lawmaker. The newcomer from Prince William County had made a procedural error earlier in the week, when she tried to assign a commuter-rail study to the wrong agency. She did not want her first official day to begin with another error.

But as she tried to finalize the language on legislation that would shield journalists from being forced to reveal their sources, a stream of well-wishers and lobbyists stopped by her office in the Pocahontas state legislature building, offering congratulations, hugs and advice.

Roem politely thanked each visitor before finally shutting her office door and leaning in to a laptop covered with death-metal band stickers.

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"I am not going to blow this thing," she said, under her breath.

"You're going to get it in one way or another," said her aide, Maria Salgado.

Roem hunched her shoulders and kept typing.

Many LGBT groups and progressives  who helped fund Roem's campaign against a longtime incumbent who once described himself as Virginia's "chief homophobe"  see Roem's presence in the General Assembly as an affirmation of the arrival of transgender people into the country's mainstream.

Her victory over former Del. Robert G. Marshall (R) in Prince William County's 13th District was part of a wave of Democratic wins in November that nearly leveled the balance of power in Richmond. But for Roem, and for advocates, it was about more than which party has control.

"Her swearing-in is a milestone for the community," said Sarah McBride, press secretary for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, who at the Democratic National Convention in 2016 became the first trans American to address a major party convention. "It's a tangible reflection of the progress we have been making."

Five other transgender candidates across the country also won local races in November, triggering what advocates describe as a flood of new LGBT candidates seeking office this year.

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"In Texas alone, there is something like 41 LGBT candidates running at all different levels," said Annise Parker, a former Houston mayor who is president of the Victory Fund, an organization that helps elect LGBT candidates. "People are inspired, and they want to go out there and be part of the change that is happening in America."

Roem is believed to be the first state lawmaker in the country to be sworn in after campaigning as an openly transgender candidate. She enters Richmond as a standard-bearer for that community, her 64,000 Twitter followers lending muscle to her legislative agenda, which is mostly about good governance and fixing local infrastructure.

She is chief sponsor of 10 bills so far, including a resolution that addresses her signature pledge to alleviate traffic congestion on a key thoroughfare. The legislation calls on the state Department of Transportation to study alternative intersection designs along Route 28, a precursor to getting rid of traffic signals on the highway. Another bill seeks to extend a ban against lobbying by former state employees from one year to three.

Del. Danica Roem (D-Prince William) is Virginia's first transgender lawmaker and the first openly transgender person elected and seated in a state legislature. (Video: The Washington Post)

Roem's ability to get bills passed will depend on how well she navigates Richmond's deceptively polite political landscape. One of her first attempts at coalition building came when she asked state Sen. J. Chapman "Chap" Petersen (D-Fairfax) if she could champion House versions of bills he introduced seeking to further regulate Dominion Energy, the state's biggest corporate political donor.

"I give her credit," Petersen said. "She has approached people like myself with a little bit more seniority and is using our experience to be a more effective delegate."

On Wednesday, Roem was unsure how to fit into the sometimes buttoned-down culture of the General Assembly, or even where to find the House chambers.

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For her swearing-in,she had planned to sport the same rainbow headscarf she wore constantly while campaigning. She said it would be a declaration of what many Democrats are calling "a new day" in the General Assembly, where Republicans now hold a slim 51-49 majority. But, acknowledging the decorum inside the state capitol designed by Thomas Jefferson, she decided against that fashion choice.

"My presence here is exclamation enough," Roem said.

On Tuesday night, Roem was full of nervous energy. One minute, she spoke passionately with an entrepreneur camped outside a party caucus meeting about the need to upgrade the aging water system in the city of Manassas Park. Another, she exulted over how there had been no anti-LGBT bills filed yet in the legislature, and practiced yoga poses in a crowded hotel lobby, hoping to generate more good vibes.

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"This is how you do the crow position," Roem said to state Sen. Jennifer Wexton (D-Loudoun), bending forward to place her hands on the carpet and raise her rear end in the air.

"Don't show us," Wexton said nervously. "We get the idea."

Roem's predecessor spent 26 years in the House of Delegates and was a well-liked, avuncular figure, despite extreme views on fiscal and social issues that put him to the right of many Republican lawmakers.

During a bitter general election campaign, Marshall attacked Roem's gender identity and refused to refer to her as a woman or with female pronouns. Roem, for her part, criticized Marshall for being too focused on pursuing a conservative, anti-gay agenda.

She said Marshall has not called to offer any congratulations or advice, even in areas where they agree, such as their mutual concern over rampant development in Prince William.

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"It's not my responsibility now," Marshall said when reached by phone on Wednesday. "People who are there have to best figure out what to do."

He said he was spending his day at home in Manassas, going through old files and deciding what to keep.

Roem said that, despite her celebrity, she is determined to "make government boring again" by reading every bill that comes across her desk before she votes. She said she would limit her socializing in Richmond, though that has proved a challenge so far.

Wherever she went, Democratic colleagues stopped Roem for a hug or to gather for a selfie while news cameras hovered. Republicans, meanwhile, mostly kept their distance.



"Enjoy these moments," Del. John Bell (D-Loudoun) told Roem about her first day. "They're special. Every time I'm in the chamber, I look at this ornate space and go: 'I'm actually in this place. Oh, my God.' "

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Once she finally set foot inside the House chamber for the swearing-in ceremony, Roem glanced up toward a balcony where her mother and other family members sat. She smiled as she held up a lanyard bearing her delegate's credentials so they could see.

When it was time to recite the oath to uphold the U.S. and Virginia constitutions, Roem raised her right hand and spoke in clear, measured tones.

In her left hand, she later said, she tightly gripped her rainbow headscarf.

Patricia Sullivan contributed to this report.

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Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe bounds out of a gray SUV in the loading dock under the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Washington. Bodyguards in suits race to keep up. Moments later he's seated in a darkened ballroom, where Deputy National Intelligence Director Sue Gordon is warning cybersecurity-conference attendees about threats and vulnerabilities. Intelligence officials and security executives, dining on chicken, clap soberly.

Then McAuliffe takes the lectern.

"Good afternoon, everybody!" he booms. "How many Virginia residents we got?"

The crowd seems to perk up. "Woooo!" a few people shout.

"Fantastic," McAuliffe says. "Maryland?" A slightly softer chorus of wooos, to which he responds: "You guys like paying taxes. I'm okay with that."

This jab at his neighboring state never fails to get a laugh, whether McAuliffe delivers it to an audience of cyber-spooks or to a startled patron in a coffee shop. It's salesman's patter, honed after four years of using his position as governor to pitch companies on the advantages of locating in Virginia. Now his term in office is winding down, but McAuliffe is still wound up.

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"We got some California folks, right?" he says, to more whoops. "Yeah? You like sharks? . . . You come to Virginia, we don't have sharks in Virginia Beach. Dolphins, they come right up to the beach, they pick up your children, they give rides, they drop them back off."

Gov. Terry McAuliffe says "please go home and never come back" to white nationalists who planned a rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. (Video: Reuters)

The bada-bing is why some wrote off McAuliffe as miscast for stiff-necked Virginia politics. He was too slick, a Bill Clinton crony and operator who was unprepared for the tedious grind of governing.

But when he steps aside Saturday for his chosen successor and fellow Democrat, Gov.-elect Ralph Northam, the 60-year-old McAuliffe can point to a slate of achievements  low unemployment, $20 billion in promised business investment, a revived Port of Virginia, increased money for education, positive approval ratings.

As it turns out, being a manic salesman has its political advantages, especially in a divided state government where the opposing party controls the legislature. Issues don't have to be partisan if they're hitched to the all-American ideal of making a buck.

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Democrats credit the governor's approach with positioning them for sweeping victories statewide, from Virginia's being the only Southern state to go for his old friend Hillary Clinton in 2016 to November's surge that brought them to near-parity with Republicans in the House of Delegates. McAuliffe leaves office as a credible name on the list of 2020 Democratic presidential contenders.

While coy about his plans after office, McAuliffe has said that he will work with former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. on his redistricting project to end gerrymandering and will help Democratic candidates running for governor in 36 states  two initiatives that will keep McAuliffe visible across the country.

"I don't know what I'm going to do about 2020. I really don't," he says in an interview. "I'd never be in Congress. It's not my personality. Never in the Senate." Would he be a presidential running mate? "That's a great question. Never been asked that," he says. "You know, that's not my action. But, I mean, never say no."

Republicans argue that McAuliffe never pulled off any big legislative wins. His showiest accomplishment  the restoration of voting rights to some 173,000 convicted felons  was an end run around the General Assembly. Republican leaders took him all the way to the state Supreme Court to try to block it.

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There's one area, though, where even his staunchest political opponents give him credit.

"This governor has worked very hard on economic development," Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) says. The real test, Norment warns, is how much of the bluster about development deals comes to fruition. "He is effusive in his enthusiasm about what he has accomplished and what the out-year results are going to be. . . . We're hopeful that they will [bear fruit], but I do think that his enthusiasm is a little exaggerated."

Off on the wrong foot

Even grudging respect from Republicans is something of an accomplishment for McAuliffe, whose campaign in 2013 against Ken Cuccinelli II was an unusually ugly partisan brawl by Virginia standards.

After his narrow victory, McAuliffe's showboating style got him off to a bad start with Republicans in the legislature. His priority was to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and he boasted that he would wine and dine the opposition until they capitulated.

"This word will sound more negative than I mean it to be," political scientist Quentin Kidd says, "but he was Trumpian in the way he would sell himself and sell what he could do. Republicans were very dismissive of him. They were beside themselves that they lost to a guy like Terry McAuliffe."

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Then-House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) pledged before McAuliffe was even sworn in that the legislature would never expand Medicaid, and no amount of schmoozing ever moved the General Assembly's tough corps of Republican leaders.

So after a disappointing first year, McAuliffe adapted. He kept putting the Medicaid expansion in his budgets, but he also developed working relationships with the chairmen of the legislative finance committees. Virginia has a constitutional requirement to balance its budget each year, and there was never much drama as McAuliffe and Republicans filled shortfalls and constructed basic budgets.

And he shifted his rhetoric to his natural strong suit, economic development. Initially, McAuliffe struck some as too hung up on simply wooing companies to move to Virginia.

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"When he came in and said 'jobs, jobs, jobs,' I'm not sure he really focused on the training and skill sets you need for those jobs," says Bobbie Kilberg, president and chief executive of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.

An arm of the council known as TechPAC had endorsed Cuccinelli for governor, a shock to the pro-business McAuliffe. When McAuliffe interviewed with the influential group, he struck some members as superficial and unprepared to talk policy.

Kilberg, a longtime Republican, says McAuliffe has matured in office. He deserves credit, she says, for realizing that Virginia's economy requires unglamorous underpinnings  workforce training, money for higher education, a reshaping away from dependence on government contracting.

"He's grown tremendously in his understanding of specific policy initiatives and his ability to implement them," she says. "If that was one of the criticisms that TechPAC had back then, I think he's overcome those."

Economy trumps ideology

McAuliffe wielded economic development as a kind of weapon against ideologically charged issues.

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He used it to attack legislation from conservatives that would have required transgender people to use bathrooms that conform to their birth gender. Tech companies won't consider locating in a state that even debates such a bill, McAuliffe warned. If such bills passed, McAuliffe vetoed them. Last year he broke the Virginia record for vetoes, eventually hitting 120.

He used the need to improve the state's business climate to push for better funding for schools, teacher raises, mental-health services and transportation. While motorists have howled about high tolls on the new 66 Express Lanes in Northern Virginia, McAuliffe gets kudos in Hampton Roads for jump-starting tunnel expansion and express-lane projects that have begun to ease years of worsening congestion.

Similarly, the southeastern Port of Virginia had been struggling and was on the verge of being sold before McAuliffe led an overhaul. Now it's setting one tonnage record after another.

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And he backed plans for two major natural-gas pipelines through rural parts of the state, angering environmentalists and the progressive wing of his party. They'll create jobs, he argued.

Because many of those positions were also in line with Republican priorities, opponents argue that McAuliffe takes too much credit.

"What is Terry McAuliffe's signature accomplishment?" says Garren Shipley, a longtime GOP provocateur who represents the Republican National Committee in Richmond. Playing the "Seinfeld" TV theme music on his phone, Shipley says, "It's the governorship about nothing."

From a tactical point of view, though, Shipley acknowledges admiration for the way McAuliffe linked social issues to economic development. "Full marks for that. We have noticed that, as well," he says. "Terry McAuliffe is many things, but stupid is not one of them."

Developing a legacy

McAuliffe's most in-your-face act was his aggressive move to restore felon voting rights. When the state Supreme Court agreed with Republicans that he had overstepped by granting rights to all former felons at once, McAuliffe vowed to sign the restorations one at a time. Thousands of them.

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He says it's his single proudest achievement, the centerpiece of a record on civil rights that included a forceful response to the violent white nationalist rally last summer in Charlottesville. That event, in which one counterprotester died and two state troopers were killed in a helicopter crash, brought out rare displays of anger and emotion in McAuliffe.

But it's not what he cites as his legacy. "I think I will be known as the governor who truly diversified Virginia's economy," he says in an interview.

If so, it's something that will take years to play out. Virginia is still heavily dependent on federal spending, and though its overall unemployment rate has fallen to 3.7 percent, parts of the state are worse off than others.

McAuliffe routinely  as in, several times a day  cites the capital investment he has attracted to Virginia. The roughly $20 billion is far more than any of his predecessors. From a billion-dollar Facebook data center to massive Amazon warehouses to a proliferation of breweries and cideries all over the state, the new investment is tied to some 207,000 new jobs.

The catch is that many of those projects are a long way from fruition. There have been a handful of notable busts  a Chinese manufacturer that got $1.4 million in state grants for a factory in Appomattox County that never materialized, for instance, and another Chinese company that promised to pay back $5 million in state loans after failing to deliver a giant facility in Chesterfield County.

But with his rallying cry of "Sleep when you're dead," McAuliffe says the more you attract, the more will stick. He only half-jokes that he'll work up until his final minute in office trying to tip that number over $20 billion.

The state official most burdened by that goal is Todd Haymore, who as secretary of commerce and trade has accompanied McAuliffe on 33 of his 35 foreign trade trips and myriad jaunts around the state to announce new deals.

Haymore could probably win a lifetime of free beers in Richmond with tales about keeping up with McAuliffe: They ate chicken feet in China after busting open an embargo against Virginia poultry. After one deal fell through, an angry McAuliffe ordered him to get off the helicopter  in midflight. The governor told French sommeliers  in Paris  that Virginia wines are the best in the world. Haymore dozed off at an official dinner after 36 hours of travel, and McAuliffe punched him in the leg to wake him up.

Haymore played a similar role for McAuliffe's predecessor, Republican Robert F. McDonnell. He, too, was an economic-development whiz  his slogan was "Bob's for Jobs"  though his legacy has been overshadowed by the money-for-favors scandal that nearly sent him to prison.

But Haymore says nothing really compares with McAuliffe's frenetic pace.

"I've never experienced anything like it," Haymore says.

On this typical day last month, McAuliffe called a company in Europe at 2 a.m. to try to close a deal, then got on the state Beechcraft in Richmond at 8 a.m. and flew to Virginia Beach to announce a factory expansion. From there he flew to Manassas to help a glass company announce 40 new jobs. Then he drove to Washington for a news conference about Metro. Later that night he had a fundraising dinner. In between, the cybersecurity conference.

McAuliffe made cybersecurity his signature issue in 2016 when he served as head of the National Governors Association, so he's no stranger to the topic. But speaking to the audience, his larger focus becomes clear.

He tells the officials how important their work is. He describes how he has gotten Virginia to spend more money for cyber-job training, to build a workforce for the future. He boasts of being the only governor to attend a particular global security conference. Suddenly this wonkiest of gatherings has become something else. A sales pitch.

"If you want to be a success," McAuliffe says, "you've got to put your business in Virginia." Then he closes with a classic move, getting the mark to participate in the pitch. Where do you suppose, he asks the crowd, is the first National Guard unit in the country with a cyber-command center?

"Virginia!" the conference-goers say in unison.

"Folks," McAuliffe says, laughing, "I'm just trying to tell you here. I'm just trying to make you some money."

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RICHMOND  The drama of recounts and tiebreakers for control of Virginia's House of Delegates gave way to pledges of trust Wednesday as Republicans and Democrats agreed unanimously on how to organize the closely divided chamber. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight And outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), in jubilant remarks delivered as his final state of the commonwealth address Wednesday night, urged the lawmakers to set aside partisan differences and get things done.

Members voted 98 to 0 for Republican M. Kirkland Cox (Colonial Heights) to take over as speaker, recognizing the 51-to-49 advantage the GOP retains in the House after a fall wave election brought Democrats to near-parity.

There were not 100 votes because one Democrat was absent to tend to a family illness, and Cox carried on a tradition of not casting a vote for himself.

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The House avoided an ugly showdown over power after the Democrat who lost a random tiebreaker  Shelly Simonds, who had been locked in a tie with Republican incumbent David Yancey for a district in Newport News  conceded defeat Wednesday morning and pledged not to seek a second recount.

Democrats pressed for rules changes to give them more influence on committees, and then fell into line behind Cox for the powerful role of speaker. He succeeds William Howell (R-Stafford), who retired after 15 years in the position and 30 years in the House.

Cox, 60, a 28-year House veteran, immediately called for a new era of bipartisanship.

"We are not two parties; we are one House," he said. "We cannot allow the partisanship that has infected so much of our country to distract us any longer."

In that spirit, Cox's nomination as speaker was seconded by a Democrat, Del. Luke Torian (Prince William). "You might be surprised by my rising" to speak, Torian told the House. "I don't look at the politics, I look at the man . . . I know without a shadow of a doubt that he will lead this House well."

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In return, Democrats won some concessions on the rules under which the House will operate. Republicans put in writing that they will continue to observe proportional representation on committees, and extended that practice to subcommittees  meaning the newly empowered Democrats will have a greater voice in determining which bills reach the full chamber.

Before November's elections, Republicans enjoyed a 66-to-34 advantage in the House and total control over the committee process.

In a change that sounds arcane but was hailed by members as an improvement in transparency, the leadership also agreed to record votes taken in subcommittees. The change means the majority party can no longer kill bills through the anonymity of voice votes.

"That's a big win for us," said Del. Marcus Simon (D-Fairfax). "I think we've got great rules."

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One concession Democrats failed to get in writing was a promise that the Republican leadership would consult with them in assigning members to committees. Majority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) assured Democrats that they would be heard on such things.

"It is clear that we are in a much different posture with respect to one another than we have been in the past, and that we will continue to have to work together closely on many issues going forward," Gilbert said.

That changed environment was evident as soon as members began gathering in the House chamber for the noon opening of the 60-day legislative session. There were 19 new members  16 of them Democrats, and 12 of them women. Amid hugs, high-fives and at least one near-escape of a baby  Democratic Del. Kathy Tran's young daughter had to be scooped up by a doorkeeper as she nearly crawled out into the hallway  the House of Delegates had a celebratory air.

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When Torian rose to second Cox's nomination, House Clerk Paul Nardo at first couldn't locate him because he was sitting among the swollen Democratic ranks in what was once Republican territory.

Down the Capitol's marble hallway, there was little drama in the Senate, whose 40 members were not up for election in November. Gov.-elect Ralph Northam (D) presided over the chamber, as he will until his term as lieutenant governor wraps up at the end of the week. He will yield the gavel to Lt. Gov.-elect Justin Fairfax (D) after their inaugurations Saturday.

In the Senate gallery as a visitor, Fairfax received a standing ovation from the Senate, which Republicans control by a 21-to-19 margin. Among those who took to their feet was the Republican Fairfax defeated in November, state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Fauquier). Northam's wife, Pam, was also recognized in the gallery as "first lady-elect." Northam jokingly informed her from the rostrum that she was moving to Richmond soon and needed to pack her bags.

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Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment (R-James City) razzed Northam, who spent six years in the Senate before becoming lieutenant governor, over his choice of tie.

The camaraderie underlined how close Northam is to many in the legislature, and the hope that many expressed for some bipartisan cooperation.

After the House adjourned, Cox told reporters that he sees potential for bipartisan deals on opioid addiction, economic development and support for veterans, but that Republicans wouldn't back down from their conservative vision even with a slimmed majority.

Cox maintained that Medicaid expansion  the top Democratic priority  would be too costly but said he could see possible agreement on other issues surrounding Medicaid.

"Once again, I think the test when we're doing this is that we work across the aisle. Now, let's also say we are in the majority; it is 51-49. We also feel like we have a mandate," he said.

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Extending health-care coverage has long been the goal of McAuliffe, who implored lawmakers to expand it in his address to the legislature.

McAuliffe also called on the General Assembly to act on other priorities that he and Northam share, such as gun safety measures, criminal justice reform, prohibiting candidates from putting campaign funds to personal use and cracking down on predatory student loans.

"None of these items are inherently political," McAuliffe said in his prepared remarks, before  much as Cox had earlier in the day  calling on the lawmakers to put aside differences and work to solve such problems.

He paid tribute to the new, more diverse look of the House of Delegates. "As I look across this room, I see many new faces. The people of Virginia, in their wisdom, have made significant changes to the composition of this General Assembly with a simple message in mind: Work together to get things done," he said.

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The new legislature, he said, is an opportunity "to do things differently than they have been done in the past, and to finally break the gridlock on issues where we haven't made as much progress as we should."

Befitting a governor who made economic development the centerpiece of his administration, McAuliffe rolled out one last business announcement  the $45 million expansion of a metal manufacturing plant outside Petersburg. And he claimed credit for sparking a turnaround in Virginia's economy, with unemployment low and state revenue collections running well ahead of predictions.

But the ebullient McAuliffe also hit a somber note, paying tribute to the young woman and the two state troopers who lost their lives during last summer's white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. He called it the lowest point of his time as governor.

"That day was full of hatred, cowardice and unspeakable loss," he said. "But as we continue to mourn their loss, I hope we will honor their legacy by finding the good in each other and in our commonwealth, even in times of great challenge."

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Twice a day, the 86-year-old man went for long walks and visited with neighbors along the way. Then, one afternoon he fell while mowing his lawn. In the emergency room, doctors diagnosed a break in his upper arm and put him in a sling. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Back at home, this former World War II Navy pilot found it hard to manage on his own but stubbornly declined help. Soon overwhelmed, he didn't go out often, his congestive heart failure worsened, and he ended up in a nursing home a year later, where he eventually passed away.

"Just because someone in their 70s or 80s isn't admitted to a hospital doesn't mean that everything is fine," said Dr. Timothy Platt-Mills, co-director of geriatric emergency medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, who recounted the story of his former neighbor in Chapel Hill.

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Quite the contrary: An older person's trip to the ER often signals a serious health challenge and should serve as a wake-up call for caregivers and relatives.

Research published last year in the Annals of Emergency Medicine underscores the risks. Six months after visiting the ER, seniors were 14 percent more likely to have acquired a disability  an inability to independently bathe, dress, climb down a flight of stairs, shop, manage finances or carry a package, for instance  than older adults of the same age, with a similar illness, who didn't end up in the ER.

These older adults weren't admitted to the hospital from the ER; they returned home after their visits, as do about two-thirds of seniors who go to ERs, nationally.

The takeaway: Illnesses or injuries that lead to ER visits can initiate "a fairly vulnerable period of time for older persons" and "we should consider new initiatives to address patients' care needs and challenges after such visits," said one of the study's co-authors, Dr. Thomas Gill, a professor of medicine (geriatrics), epidemiology and investigative medicine at Yale University.

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Research by Dr. Cynthia Brown, a professor and division director of gerontology, geriatrics and palliative care at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, confirms this vulnerability. In a 2016 report, she found sharp declines in older adults' "life-space mobility" (the extent to which they get up and about and out of the house) after an emergency room visit, which lasted for at least a year without full recovery.

"We know that when people have a decline of this sort, it's associated with a lot of bad outcomes  a poorer quality of life, nursing home placement and mortality," Brown said.

Other research suggests that seniors who are struggling with self-care (bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring from the bed to a chair) or with activities such as cooking, cleaning and managing medications are especially vulnerable to the aftereffects of an ER visit.

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Why would seeking help in an ER often become a sentinel event, with potential adverse consequences for older adults?

Experts offer various suggestions: Seniors who were previously coping adequately may be tipped into an "I can't handle this any longer" state by an injury or the exacerbation of a chronic illness, such as diabetes or heart failure. They now may need more help at home than what's available, and their health may spiral downward.

Other possibilities: Seniors who fall and injure themselves  a leading cause of ER visits  may become afraid of falling again and limit their activities, leading to deterioration. Or, underlying vulnerabilities that led to an ER visit  for instance, depression, dementia or delirium (a state of acute, sudden onset confusion and disorientation)  may go undetected and unaddressed by emergency room staff, leaving older adults susceptible to the ongoing impact of these conditions.

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In response to concerns about the care older adults are receiving, the field of emergency medicine has endorsed guidelines designed to make ERs more senior-friendly. With the rapid expansion of the aging population, which accounts for more than 20 million ER visits each year, "our traditional model of emergency medicine has to shift its paradigm," said Dr. Christopher Carpenter, associate professor of emergency medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The guidelines call for educating medical staff in the principles and practice of geriatric care; assessing seniors to determine their degree of risk; screening older adults deemed at risk for cognitive concerns, falls and functional limitations; performing a comprehensive medication review; making referrals to community resources such as Meals on Wheels; and supplying an easily understood discharge plan.

Starting in February, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is launching an accreditation program for emergency rooms, certifying at least a minimal level of geriatric competence  another effort to improve care and outcomes for older adults. Three levels of accreditation  basic, intermediate and advanced  will be offered.

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For each of these levels, ERs will be required to provide walkers, canes, food and drink, and reading glasses to older patients. For intermediate and advanced accreditation, physicians will have to oversee improvement initiatives, such as limiting the use of urinary catheters in older patients. Also, changes to the ER environment such as nonslip floors and enhanced lighting will be required, along with amenities such as hearing devices, thicker mattresses and warm blankets.

Family members can also help older adults during and after a visit to the ER.

"My biggest piece of advice is get there and stay by their side throughout the experience, because things happen very quickly in emergency rooms, and these are difficult environments to navigate under the best of circumstances," said Dr. Kathleen Unroe, associate professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Dr. Kevin Biese, chair of the board of governors for ACEP's geriatric ER accreditation initiative, offers these recommendations:

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Federal health officials have suspended a program that helps thousands of professionals and community groups across the country find effective interventions for preventing and treating mental illness and substance-use disorders. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) is housed within the Health and Human Services Department's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The registry, which was launched in 1997, offers a database of hundreds of mental health and substance abuse programs that have been assessed by an independent contractor and deemed scientifically sound. Getting a program or therapeutic approach included in this registry amounts to receiving federal recognition as an evidence-based practice. Mental health and addiction specialists say they rely on this database as a key source for finding appropriate and effective therapies.

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Since 2015, the registry has also included evidence that certain interventions do not work, which helps practitioners avoid wasting resources on those programs.

Administration officials confirmed that the contract for running the database has been terminated. A new entity will take over the program's duties. A director for that group was announced Monday, but no other staff members are in place. Agency spokesman Brian Dominguez said Wednesday that the new entity is "working closely" with other parts of the agency to "institute an even more scientifically rigorous approach to better inform the identification and implementation of evidence-based programs and practices."

Officials did not give specifics about how the new approach will work, when it will launch or whether existing validated programs will be included.

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Agency officials froze the existing website in September, and no new postings have been added, according to mental health advocacy groups. As a result, about 90 new programs that have been reviewed and rated for their scientific merits since September are not available to the public, they said.

"I know there are quite a number of new studies that could be breakthrough strategies for prevention of psychiatric disorders, opiate addictions, autism spectrum disorders  any number of things," said Dennis Embry, president of Paxis Institute, a for-profit Arizona organization that helps communities identify evidence-based practices for the prevention of psychiatric disorders.

Asked about the freezing of the website, agency spokesman Christopher Garrett said Wednesday that the agency's job is to "lead the efforts to rapidly institute evidence-based practices in all behavioral health treatment programs" in the country.

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"The federal government should not be in the business of having a single contractor determine winners and losers in behavioral health care," he said.

In a statement late Thursday, SAMHSA's top official criticized the registry, calling it a "poor approach to the determination of" evidence-based practices.

For most of its existence, the database "vetted practices and programs submitted by outside developers  resulting in a skewed presentation of evidence-based interventions, which did not address the spectrum of needs of those living with serious mental illness and substance-use disorders," said Elinore McCance-Katz, the agency's new assistant secretary for mental health and substance use. As currently configured, the program "often produces few to no results" when common search terms such as "medication-assisted treatment" or illnesses such as schizophrenia are entered, she said.

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While agency officials work on the new approach, the registry will remain online, officials said.

The possibility of losing the registry, or of having it essentially frozen, has outraged mental health professionals and members of Congress. Mental health professionals are especially concerned that moving the process in-house could politicize the process of evaluating programs.

"NREPP is one of the most important tools we have. Nobody has a financial stake," said Catherine Tucker, president of the Association for Child and Adolescent Counseling, a membership organization for counselors who work with young people. She added: "It's an impartial, nonpartisan, trustworthy source that represents thousands and thousands of hours of work."

That responsibility will now be led by a new entity within the agency, the National Mental Health and Substance Use Policy Laboratory, or Policy Lab. The lab was authorized under a sweeping health-care law passed in 2016. Known as the 21st Century Cures Act, the law increased funding for research into cancer and other diseases, and also made changes to the mental health system, including the creation of the new assistant secretary for mental health and substance use position at SAMHSA.

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Trump's nominee for that position, McCance-Katz, a psychiatrist and former medical director at SAMHSA, was confirmed last summer. In testimony to Congress last month, she said the primary focus of the Policy Lab is to "periodically review programs and activities" relating to the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and recovery from mental illness and substance-use disorders. The lab will also identify programs or activities "that are duplicative and are not evidence-based, effective or efficient," she said.

The Policy Lab will also play a role in awarding grants to state and local governments, educational institutions and nonprofits to develop evidence-based interventions, she said.

The move has unsettled lawmakers from both parties.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who included a provision in the 1997 Drug-Free Communities Act that requires that any prevention programs authorized by the law be certified under the registry, said in a statement that when it came to the suspension, "I'm concerned and looking into it."

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"I've long believed we must use federal funds for evidence-based programs that work and we must continue to make this a priority," Portman said.

Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, sent a letter to McCance-Katz just last week praising the registry as a "critical tool in fighting addiction."

Earlier this week, "I was shocked to learn that the NREPP contract has been terminated as an opioid epidemic continues to shake our nation," Meng said. She has sent another letter to ask why. She noted that every mention of the registry in the agency's budget plan indicates that it will be funded through September 2018.

"I'm determined to find out why SAMHSA has made such a mind-boggling decision," she said.

The agency has been criticized by some outsiders as paying insufficient attention to the treatment needs of the seriously mentally ill. One of its most ardent detractors was former congressman Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), who pushed for changes such as the new assistant secretary position at SAMHSA during bitter hearings several years ago.

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The registry itself is not without controversy. In July, a paper in the International Journal of Drug Policy said the database was not "weeding out" ineffective programs. Between September 2015 and January 2017, the paper noted, 113 interventions were added to the registry. Of these, the evidence for 14 percent of them consisted of a single, non-peer-reviewed report, and 45 percent of them relied primarily on a single peer-reviewed article.

Amy Sechrist, a certified prevention specialist at Compass Mark, a Pennsylvania nonprofit that works to reduce substance addictions, said that while the registry has had its problems, "we need leadership and clearinghouses for interventions that work."

"We are always communicating to our clients, the public and legislators that prevention is a science," said Sechrist, whose group uses interventions in the database. "We look to SAMHSA for prevention science," she added, saying that if it stops offering it, that undermines how Americans view the programs her agency and others offer.

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Agency officials notified the contractor Dec. 28 that they were terminating the contract for the registry "for the convenience of the government," according to an email sent by the contractor to program participants. All activities have been suspended, said the contractor, Development Services Group Inc. of Bethesda, Md.

Scott Bryant-Comstock, president and chief executive of the Children's Mental Health Network, said he spoke to a senior agency official about the termination but didn't get clear answers about what strategies will be considered "evidence-based" under a new system.

Referring to the acrimonious House hearings on mental health that led to the creation of the Policy Lab and other agency changes, he said that "for advocates, it's really important to ensure this doesn't just become solely focused on the seriously mentally ill and doesn't take into account some of the prevention things."

Amy Ellis Nutt contributed to this report.

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The Trump administration issued guidance to states on Thursday that will allow them to compel people to work or prepare for jobs in order to receive Medicaid for the first time in the half-century history of this fundamental piece of the nation's social safety net. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The letter to state Medicaid directors opens the door for states to cut off Medicaid benefits to Americans unless they have a job, are in school, are a caregiver or volunteer, or participate in other approved forms of "community engagement"  an idea that some states had broached over the past several years but that the Obama administration had consistently rebuffed.

The new policy comes as 10 states are already lined up, waiting for federal permission to impose work requirements on able-bodied adults in the program. Three other states are contemplating them. Health officials could approve the first waiver  probably for Kentucky  as soon as Friday, according to two people with knowledge of the process.

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The guidance represents a fundamental and much-disputed recalibration of the compact between the government and poor Americans for whom Medicaid coverage provides crucial access to health care.

The idea of conditioning government benefits on "work activities" was cemented into welfare more than two decades ago, when a system of unlimited cash assistance was replaced by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which has work requirements and time limits. The link between government help and work later was extended to anti-hunger efforts through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as food stamps are now called.

But most health policy experts, including a few noted conservatives, have regarded the government insurance enabling millions of people to afford medical care as a right that should not hinge on individuals' compliance with other rules.

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Recent polls suggest that the president's GOP constituency overwhelmingly supports the idea, with more than 80 percent of Republicans favoring it, along with a smaller majority of Democrats.

Several congressional Democrats swiftly condemned the new policy. Republican lawmakers were largely silent.

The Trump administration has signaled from the outset that it wanted to set a more conservative tone for Medicaid, a 1960s-era program that was part of Lyndon Johnson's anti-poverty programs known as the Great Society. On the day in March when she was sworn in as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma dispatched a letter to governors encouraging "innovations that build on the human dignity that comes with training, employment and independence."

While some conservatives pressed her agency to issue guidelines quickly, lawyers within the Health and Human Services and Justice departments jockeyed for time to construct a legal justification that could withstand court challenges.

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The legal issue is that states must obtain federal permission to depart from Medicaid's usual rules, using a process known as "1115 waivers" for the section of the law under which the program exists. To qualify for a waiver, a state must provide a convincing justification that its experiment would "further the objectives" of Medicaid.

Unlike the 1996 rewrite of welfare law, which explicitly mentions work as a goal, Medicaid's law contains no such element, and critics contend rules that could deny people coverage contradict its objectives. To get around this, the 10-page letter argues that working promotes good health and repeatedly asserts that the change fits within the program's objectives. The guidance cites research it says demonstrates that people who work tend to have higher incomes associated with longer life spans, while those who are unemployed are more prone to depression, "poorer general health" and even death.

"[A] growing body of evidence suggests that targeting certain health determinants, including productive work and community engagement, may improve health outcomes," the letter says. "While high-quality health care is important for an individual's health and well-being, there are many other determinants of health."

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The critics are prepared to pounce on that rationale.

"This is going to go to court the minute the first approval comes out," predicted Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, whose members reflect a spectrum of views about requiring work.

Once CMS gives one state permission, "we would be looking very, very closely to the legal options," said Leonardo Cuello, health policy director at the National Health Law Program. "It's not a good idea, and it's illegal."

Cuello said the argument that work promotes health is "totally contorted . . . It's a little like saying that rain causes clouds. It's more that people [with Medicaid] get care, which helps them be healthy and makes them able to work." In a letter Thursday to Brian Neale, the CMS deputy director who oversees Medicaid, the organization said the administration's new policy "entirely ignores the wealth of literature regarding the negative health consequences of work requirements" and was issued without any opportunity for public input.

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Mary Beth Musucemi, associate director of the Kaiser Family Foundation's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, said the new approach "will penalize individuals by having them lose health coverage, rather than incentivize them, as a voluntary program with adequately funded supportive services necessary to overcome barriers would."

Calling the new policy "unconscionable and illegal," Eliot Fishman, senior health policy director at the liberal consumer health lobby Families USA, said in a statement: "Today's announcement isn't about work. It is about taking away health insurance from low-income people."

In a CMS call with reporters Thursday morning, Verma countered, "This policy is about helping people achieve the American Dream." She quoted from a presidential speech Johnson gave a half-century ago, when he said that Medicaid's aim "is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty but cure it."

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Verma also said that any drop in Medicaid rolls as a result of work requirements would stem from people no longer needing it. "We see people moving off of Medicaid as a good outcome," she said.

The White House also cited a separate rationale. Asked at Thursday afternoon's briefing whether people are taking advantage of the system, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders replied: "I think there are certainly cases where that happens. . . . [T]hat's an issue and something we want to be sure to address."

The most recent federal figures show that Medicaid enrolls more than 68 million low-income Americans, including children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and the elderly. Under the Affordable Care Act, the program has expanded in more than 30 states to cover people with incomes of up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

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In states that now choose to link Medicaid to work, the requirement would apply only to able-bodied adults, as defined by each state.

Sixty percent of Medicaid's non-elderly adults already work, according to a recent analysis of census data by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of those without a job, more than a third are ill or disabled, 30 percent are caring for young children, and 15 percent are in school, the analysis shows.

The CMS guidance gives states a great deal of flexibility to define their own exceptions to a work requirement, as well as what counts toward work. "Each state is different," the letter says, and sSuch activities "include, but are not limited to, community service, caregiving, education, job training, and substance use disorder treatment."

The guidance specifies only that pregnant women and "medically frail" people be exempt  though frailty is not defined  and that people with opioid addiction be either exempted or allowed to count time in drug treatment toward work activities. It also suggests that states take into account the local availability of jobs in creating requirements. People receiving TANF cash assistance or SNAP food benefits who meet those programs' work requirements will be considered in compliance with Medicaid's rules.

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While states should help people on Medicaid meet their requirements  for instance, by helping them find child care, transportation or job training  they may not use any Medicaid funds to do so, the letter says.

In the states that adopt such requirements, critics say, the effect will spread far beyond the healthy adults who do not already comply. Those who have a job, are in school or care for young children will need to document to their state's Medicaid agency that they are in compliance  or risk losing their benefits.

Under Kentucky's waiver application, for instance, people on Medicaid would be required to report income changes within 10 days, noted Cara Stewart of the Kentucky Equal Justice Center. For low-wage workers, such as waitresses with fluctuating wages, "it boggles my mind," Stewart said.

Before she became the CMS administrator, Verma was a health-care consultant who specialized in helping states redesign their Medicaid programs. She was an architect of Kentucky's waiver application once a Democratic governor who had eagerly embraced the ACA was succeeded by Matt Bevin, a Republican who campaigned on a pledge to reverse the program expansion there.

Verma also had a major role in designing an unorthodox approach to Medicaid in Indiana, which had asked the Obama administration to approve a work requirement. In the end, that state included in its Medicaid expansion only an encouragement of voluntary efforts by beneficiaries to train for work or find jobs. Indiana rewrote its waiver request last summer, this time asking for federal permission to compel work activities.

Verma has recused herself from ruling on those two states' requests but has imported the ideas behind them into the new federal policy.

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RALEIGH, N.C.  Republican leaders in North Carolina pledged Wednesday to appeal a federal court's decision striking down their plan for redrawing congressional districts, promising to take to the Supreme Court a case that could have broad repercussions for future elections nationally. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight A three-judge panel on Tuesday invalidated the map drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2016, calling it improper partisan gerrymandering. The decision was the first striking down of a congressional map on the grounds that it was rigged in favor of a political party.

The court panel ordered lawmakers to redraw the boundaries by Jan. 29, although Republican leaders said Wednesday they plan to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court; they said they also plan to request a stay of the ruling. They have a good chance at success, as the Supreme Court is often hesitant to become involved in a state's contests in an election year.

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The decision still could reverberate widely, as lawmakers across the country are turning to technology to draw ever-more intricate maps aimed at controlling the outcome of elections. Already this term, the Supreme Court will consider challenges to gerrymandered maps in Wisconsin, where the legislature also is controlled by Republicans, and in Maryland, where it is controlled by Democrats.

The decision adds to a growing movement to have the Supreme Court finally decide whether partisan gerrymandering can be so extreme as to violate voters' constitutional rights. While the court has thrown out maps for other reasons, such as racial bias, it has never thrown out a state's redistricting plan on the grounds that it was too partisan. Such a ruling could radically change American elections.

Republican leaders said they would move swiftly to appeal to the Supreme Court. "We're absolutely going to file an appeal and we're absolutely going to request a stay," Rep. David Lewis, who chairs the House redistricting committee, said Wednesday. That process will start sometime this week, Lewis said.

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Robin Hayes, chairman of the North Carolina GOP, defended the map, which looks more or less tidy  carefully drawn to avoid the irregular-shaped districts that have been a hallmark of gerrymandering.

"A 'gerrymander' is, by definition and common understanding, a strange-looking 'monster' drawing," he said in a statement. "This map is clearly not that."

He also took aim at the judge who authored the decision, James A. Wynn Jr., an appointee of President Barack Obama's.

"Judge Wynn is not being a judge, he is acting as a pundit by trying to impose his liberal beliefs instead of making a judicial ruling," Hayes said.

The panel's decision was in fact unanimous. Wynn was joined by U.S. District Judges W. Earl Britt, a Jimmy Carter appointee, and William L. Osteen Jr., a George W. Bush appointee. Osteen dissented on part of Wynn's rationale, however.

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Tuesday's decision was made easier for the panel by a kind of smoking gun: Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly openly conceded that the 2016 map was drawn to benefit Republicans.

They hired a consultant from the Republican National Committee to draw the map and excluded Democrats from the process, the court panel said. That consultant, the court said, testified that he was told "to minimize the number of districts in which Democrats would have an opportunity to elect a Democratic candidate."

"Rather than seeking to advance any democratic or constitutional interest," the panel wrote in a lengthy opinion, "the state legislator responsible for drawing the 2016 plan," Lewis, declared that he drew the map to advantage Republican candidates because he thinks "electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats."

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The court's decision drew praise from some Democrats, who have been critical of Republican-led gerrymandering efforts. Those efforts have gained more attention because many state legislatures are controlled by the GOP.

"Today's ruling was just the latest example of the courts telling state legislators in North Carolina that citizens should be able to pick their representatives, instead of politicians picking their voters," Eric H. Holder Jr., attorney general under Obama and chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said in a statement.

North Carolina has seen a cascade of redistricting challenges since a GOP takeover of the legislature in 2010. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature relied on racial gerrymandering when drawing the state's congressional districts in 2013.

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The decision gave a boost to dozens of protesters assembled across the street from the General Assembly on Wednesday morning to oppose a different redistricting effort  one that would redraw the state's judicial districts and put a constitutional amendment on this year's ballot to end judge elections, replacing them with a system that gives the legislature more influence.

Fred Barbash contributed to this report.

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State Senate approves Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight use of recreational pot The state Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would allow the recreational use of marijuana, putting Vermont on course to become the first state in the country to legalize pot by an act of the legislature rather than through a citizen referendum. By a voice vote, the Senate agreed to a proposal that would make it legal for adults to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana but does not set up a system to tax and regulate the production and sale of the drug. The bill was approved by the House last week, and Gov. Phil Scott (R) has indicated he will sign it.

The bill, which would take effect July 1, would allow adults older than 21 to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and have two mature marijuana plants or four immature plants in each dwelling unit, no matter how many people live there.

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 Associated Press

Court rejects award

to man shot by deputy

A federal appeals court has thrown out a $23 million jury award to a black man who was unarmed when he was shot and paralyzed by a Florida sheriff's deputy.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ordered a new trial on claims by Dontrell Stephens, 24. Two of the three judges agreed that jury instructions were flawed. A federal jury in South Florida had awarded the verdict last February.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Sgt. Adams Lin shot Stephens in September 2013, four seconds after stopping Stephens for riding his bike into traffic.

Lin mistook Stephens's cellphone for a gun, saying he feared for his life when Stephens flashed his left hand toward him. Lin's dashboard-camera video showed the phone was in Stephens's right hand.

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 Associated Press

ISIS-linked suspect

indicted in bomb plot

The Bangladeshi man accused of attempting a suicide bombing in a busy New York City commuter hub in the name of the Islamic State in December was indicted on U.S. terrorism charges by a grand jury on Wednesday.

Akayed Ullah, 27, faces charges that include supporting a foreign terrorist organization, using a weapon of mass destruction and carrying out a terrorist attack against a mass transit system, according to an indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Ullah was previously charged in a criminal complaint filed by prosecutors shortly after his arrest last month.

According to prosecutors, Ullah attempted to detonate a pipe bomb secured to his body in a pedestrian tunnel in the subway station in Manhattan's Times Square that is connected to the sprawling Port Authority Bus Terminal on the morning of Dec. 11.

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Ullah was hospitalized with injuries suffered after the bomb ignited but failed to detonate; three other people suffered minor injuries, according to prosecutors.

Ullah, who has lived in the United States since 2011, told police after the blast that he "did it for the Islamic State," according to the criminal complaint.

 Reuters

Puppy joins Boston museum staff: Boston's Museum of Fine Arts on Wednesday introduced the newest addition to its staff, a Weimaraner puppy named Riley that will be trained to sniff out insects or other pests that could potentially damage priceless works of art. Riley belongs to and will be trained by Nicki Luongo, the museum's director of protective services. Deputy Director Katie Getchell told the Boston Globe that insects are an ongoing concern for museums. Riley will be used behind the scenes and won't be seen by visitors.

 Associated Press

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Military: Troops, others killed 10 Rohingya Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Burma's military acknowledged Wednesday that its forces and Buddhist villagers killed 10 Rohingya Muslims whose bodies were found in a mass grave in a village in troubled Rakhine state. The public admission of wrongdoing is the military's first since it launched "clearance operations" against ethnic Rohingya in August, prompting more than 650,000 to flee into neighboring Bangladesh to escape what the United Nations has called "ethnic cleansing."

A statement on the military commander in chief's Facebook page said the Rohingya found in the grave had threatened Buddhist villagers and were killed in retaliation.

The United Nations and other groups accuse the military of widespread atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.

The government of Buddhist-majority Burma has refused to accept Rohingya Muslims as a minority group, even though they have lived in the country for generations. They were stripped of their citizenship in 1982.

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In related news, prosecutors formally charged two journalists from the Reuters news agency on Wednesday with violating the Official Secrets Act, signaling that the case will go forward despite international condemnation.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested Dec. 12 after police accused them of violating the colonial-era law by acquiring "important secret papers" from two police officers who had worked in Rakhine.

 Associated Press

Lawmakers back ban on foreign adoptions

Ethiopian lawmakers have approved a ban on foreign adoptions amid concerns about mistreatment of children overseas.

The approval came after rare heated debate as some lawmakers worried that the East African nation does not have enough child-care centers to absorb the fallout from the ban.

Ethiopia had been among the top 10 countries for adoptions in the United States, according to State Department figures released last year. But the 2011 death in the United States of an Ethiopia-born girl, with her adoptive mother convicted of homicide by abuse, led to an outcry back home, and Ethiopia reduced foreign adoptions by 90 percent that year.

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The new National Child Policy says orphans should grow up in their homeland while honoring their culture and traditions.

The law will come into effect once it is published in the government legal gazette, probably in the coming weeks.

The number of foreign children adopted by U.S. parents dropped almost 5 percent in 2016 to 5,372, continuing a steady decline over more than a decade, according to the latest State Department data.

 Associated Press

About 100 migrants feared dead at sea: The Libyan navy said about 100 migrants are missing at sea and feared dead while the coast guard rescued at least 279 others off the coast of Libya. The migrants, mostly Africans, had embarked on the perilous trip across the Mediterranean aboard several vessels. Those missing were from a single rubber boat that capsized. Libya has become a frequently used route to Europe for those fleeing poverty and conflict.

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2 dead in protests over Pakistani girl's rape, killing: A mob angered over the recent rape and killing of an 8-year-old girl attacked a police station and a nearby government building in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, triggering clashes that left at least two people dead and several injured. The violence erupted in the city of Kasur hours before the funeral of Zainab Ansari, whose case has drawn wide outrage. Police said her body was found in a garbage bin.

Malaysia says it will pay up to $70 million if firm finds plane: Malaysia said it will pay the U.S. company Ocean Infinity up to $70 million if it can find the wreckage or black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 within three months, in a renewed bid to solve the plane's disappearance nearly four years ago. The government signed a "no cure, no fee" deal with the Houston-based company to resume the hunt, a year after the official search was called off. The plane vanished March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

Death toll in Madagascar cyclone rises to 33: The U.N. humanitarian agency said the death toll from a cyclone in Madagascar has reached 33. A statement citing national authorities said 22 people remain missing. Tropical Cyclone Ava struck the Indian Ocean island over the weekend, causing the evacuation of more than 24,000 people.

 From news services

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In 2007, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments celebrated its 50th anniversary with the symposium "Charting the Future of the National Capital Region." Perhaps its most significant observation was made by Robert Lang, director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute , who predicted that by the mid-21st century, Baltimore and Richmond would join with the stronger Washington economy to form the Chesapeake megapolitan region. He further envisioned Mid-Atlantic and New England regions, leading to a super-megapolitan region stretching from Washington to Boston.
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CYNICISM HAS always been a part of politics, but rarely are politicians so brazen and self-serving as President Trump and his interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, have been over the past week. First they announced a new offshore drilling plan that would force unwilling coastal states to open up their waters to oil and gas exploration, prioritizing "energy dominance" over long-standing local concerns. Then just a few days later, they gave swing state Florida a special exception from the unpopular drilling plan, crediting Gov. Rick Scott (R), who may run for Senate this year, for securing the dispensation.

Critics, including longtime drilling opponent Sen. Bill Nelson (D), Mr. Scott's likely opponent in November, immediately accused the Trump administration of orchestrating these announcements to boost the Republican in a key 2018 race. Yet the alternative  that this spectacle was not planned but just as rushed and arbitrary as it seemed  is hardly better. Also discomfiting is the question of how much Mr. Trump's ownership of Florida beachfront property factored into the decision. The president appears to be treating public policy as a tool for partisan and personal gain while reinforcing the sense that important federal decisions depend on his moment-to-moment sense of how they might help or hurt him.

For his part, Mr. Zinke defended the decision to exempt Florida by arguing that the administration always intended to consult with governors before making any final drilling decisions. "Local voice matters," he insisted. "I support the governor's position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver."

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It took approximately no time for leaders in other drilling-skeptical states to call Mr. Zinke on his words.

"Virginia's governor (and governor-elect) have made this same request, but we have not received the same commitment. Wonder why..." Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) tweeted.

"California is also 'unique' & our 'coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver,' " California Attorney General Xavier Becerra tweeted. "If that's your standard, we, too, should be removed from your list. Immediately."

Shortly after the announcement, a bipartisan group of governors from states such as New York, Oregon and South Carolina all asked publicly for their own special exceptions.

We have long advocated for increased drilling off the country's coasts, as long as it is smartly regulated. But the decision to do so will be neither durable nor fair if it comes by selectively ignoring the complaints of states in which the president does not identify a political or personal interest. One cannot help but compare this episode to the tax bill Mr. Trump just signed, which strips deductions from taxpayers in blue states in order to fund various GOP ideological priorities.

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If the Florida decision had been the result of a thoughtful process that ended in a report explaining how Florida's coast is somehow more precious than every other stretch of coast the Trump administration has slated to open, it would have at least appeared less capricious. Instead, the administration exposed one of the big drivers of its severe dysfunction: its attitude that the federal government is a fiefdom that Mr. Trump and his lieutenants rule according to their whim.

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During World War I, chemist James Conant was deeply involved in research on what was considered the worst imaginable weapon: poison gas. During World War II, as a science adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt, Conant was so central to the development of the atomic bomb that he was at Alamogordo, N.M., on July 16, 1945. His most disruptive act, however, may have come in the interim when, as Harvard's president, he helped put the university, and the nation, on the path toward a meritocracy by advocating adoption of the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

As his granddaughter Jennet Conant explains in her new biography, "Man of the Hour: James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist," the Harvard at which he, from a middle-class Dorchester, Mass., family, matriculated in 1910 was a place of insufferable snobbery and mediocrity, devoted to passing on the inherited privileges of the families whose boys were funneled there from prestigious prep schools. To the consternation of Boston's Brahmins, Conant became Harvard's president in 1933 at age 40, hoping that standardized tests for admissions would mitigate the large degree to which enrollments at elite institutions reflected the transmission of family advantages. Ninety-two years after the SAT was first offered in 1926, it seems to have only slightly modified the advantages transmitted.

The Brookings Institution's Richard V. Reeves, writing in the Chronicle Review, says that colleges and universities, partly because of the complexity of the admission process, are "perpetuating class divisions across generations" as America develops what the Economist calls a "hereditary meritocracy." It is, however, difficult to see how something like this can be avoided. Or why it should be.

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TM Landry College Preparatory school in Breaux Bridge, La., film the moment their seniors get accepted into college. It's inspiring people around the country. (Video: Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)

Also in the Review, Wilfred M. McClay of the University of Oklahoma decries higher education's "dysfunctional devotion to meritocracy," which he says is subverting the ideal that one's life prospects should not be substantially predictable from facts about one's family. Meritocracy, "while highly democratic in its intentions, has turned out to be colossally undemocratic in its results" because of "the steep decline of opportunity for those Americans who must live outside the magic circle of meritocratic validation." Entrance into that circle often is substantially determined by higher education, especially at elite institutions. At two premier public universities, the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia, the percentages of students from the bottom 60 percent of households ranked by earnings (17 and 15 percent, respectively) are comparable to the percentages at Yale and Princeton universities (16 and 14, respectively).

In "A Theory of Justice," the 20th century's most influential American treatise on political philosophy, John Rawls argued that "inequalities of birth and natural endowment are undeserved." So, social benefits accruing to individuals because of such endowments are justified only if the prospering of the fortunate also improves the lot of the less fortunate. And Rawls's capacious conception of what counts as a "natural" endowment included advantages resulting from nurturing families. But as sociologist Daniel Bell warned in 1972, "There can never be a pure meritocracy because high-status parents will invariably seek to pass on their positions, either through the use of influence or simply by the cultural advantages their children inevitably possess."

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Actually, the cultural advantages are so salient that the importance of crass influence is diminishing. Furthermore, to the extent that a meritocratic society measures and rewards intelligence, which is to some extent a genetic inheritance, equal opportunity becomes difficult even to define.

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A meritocratic assignment of opportunity by impersonal processes and measurements might seem democratic, but it can feel ruthless and can be embittering: By using ostensibly objective standards to give individuals momentum toward places high in society's inevitable hierarchies, those who do not flourish are scientifically stigmatized.

And as the acquisition and manipulation of information become increasingly important to social flourishing, life becomes more regressive: The benefits of information accrue disproportionately to those who are already favored by aptitudes, both natural and acquired through family nurturing and education. Add "assortative mating"  well-educated and upwardly mobile strivers marrying each other  and society's cognitive stratification reinforces itself.

Something , however, has to sort people out, and we actually want the gifted and accomplished to ascend to positions that give scope to their talents. Furthermore, we do not want to discourage families from trying to transmit advantages to their children. The challenge is to ameliorate meritocracy's severity by, among other things, nuanced admissions policies at colleges and universities that seek students whose meager family advantages can be supplemented by the schools.

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President Trump, it has long been observed, has a propensity to agree with the last thing he hears. Certainly he has core convictions  Hillary is crooked, there was no collusion, he is very successful and brilliant  but beyond that he has shown himself to be swayed with remarkable ease: He said he was rethinking his position on Obamacare after a post-election talk with President Obama, revised his views on NATO after speaking with Europeans, softened his views on China after a chin-wag with the Chinese, shifted on NAFTA after talking with the Mexicans and switched his budget views after hearing from Chuck and Nancy.

This raises the tantalizing prospect that Trump could be a better president if he were not surrounded by the likes of Stephen Miller, as well as the alarming possibility that he could be even worse if the last voice he heard before making a decision were that of, say, Vladimir Putin, or Alex Jones (who boasts that Trump repeats his conspiracy theories word for word).

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President Trump on Jan. 9 said he wants Congress to pass a bill of love to address DACA and border security. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

But this all depends on what is going on in Trump's head when he repeats the last words he hears: Is he actually internalizing the views, or is he merely echoing? Is he a chameleon or a parrot?

Now we know. This week's extraordinary session in the Cabinet Room with a bicameral, bipartisan group of lawmakers, and an impulsive decision by Trump to let journalists film 55 minutes of his meeting, gave the world a glimpse of Trump's agree-with-the-last-speaker tendency we've heard described.

Clearly, Trump is merely echoing, not embracing, the words he hears. No mind could possibly assimilate as many diametrically opposed ideas as Trump's appeared to in those 55 minutes.

Trump says on Jan. 10 that his performance during a bipartisan meeting on immigration the day before got great reviews from the press. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Watching that session was as exciting as watching China's Olympic ping-pong team  and the president was the ball. Trump  remarkably unideological and also undisciplined  pinged from one lawmaker's argument to another's, agreeing heartily with virtually all, no matter how at odds they were with each other.

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Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told Trump that DACA legislation to protect immigrant "dreamers" had to be done "in a matter of days  literally of days," referring to a Jan. 19 budget deadline.

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Replied Trump: "I agree with that, Dick. I very much agree with that."

A few minutes later, Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) took exactly the opposite view, suggesting that DACA action could wait until March and that instead there had to be an immediate Pentagon budget increase: "Those who need us right now before the January 19 deadline is our military."

Replied Trump: "I think a lot of people would agree with that. We need our military."

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), paddled Trump back the other way, saying more military spending would have to be accompanied by similar hikes for domestic programs such as infrastructure.

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Replied Trump: "I think we can do a great infrastructure bill."

This was fun!

Minutes after Hoyer invoked the phrase "comprehensive immigration reform"  a phrase hard-liners see as code for "amnesty"  Trump was using the phrase, too.

"When you talk about comprehensive immigration reform," Trump said (after Sen. Lindsey Graham, a GOP maverick, had also floated the idea), "which is where I would like to get to eventually  if we do the right bill here, we are not very far way."

Anybody can play this game.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) both said border security and a solution to "chain migration"  a conservative priority  must be included in the DACA bill. Trump readily agreed.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) proposed the opposite, a "clean DACA bill"  that is, without border security and chain migration  before taking up a comprehensive overhaul, and Trump said, "I would like to do that."

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McCarthy, alarmed, swatted Trump back in the other direction. He reiterated that the DACA bill should include border security and chain migration.

Trump agreed with this, too. "And the lottery," he added, tossing in another conservative priority about making immigration merit-based.

Back and forth Trump bounced.

One moment he appeared to agree with Perdue that the DACA bill would include the conservatives' chain-migration plan. The next moment he appeared to confirm to Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that the DACA legislation would not be paired with that provision.

One moment he was saying "without the wall, we cannot have border security." The next he was assuring Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) that "there are large areas where you don't need a wall."

Trump called it a success. "We're all very much on a similar page," he concluded.

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Perhaps he didn't care that, in his reflexive echoing of each speaker, he had contradicted himself repeatedly. More likely he didn't even notice.

Twitter: @Milbank

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You wouldn't expect to find good news in a federal government report titled "Prisoners in 2016," but this lugubriously named Justice Department document is indeed full of fact-based reasons to feel better about the United States. Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up. ArrowRight Specifically, it confirms that the U.S. incarceration rate reached a 19-year low at the end of 2016: There were 450 prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents held in state and federal prisons in 2016, compared with 444 prisoners per 100,000 in 1997. This rate was 11 percent below the all-time peak of 506 per 100,000 in 2007.

There's a lesson here, and it's not just the familiar one about the need to remember all the ways life in the United States might actually be improving, or at least not getting worse  despite the endless flow of troubling, and spectacular, news from President Trump's Washington.

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It's also about the relationship between alarmism and progress, and how the former may help bring about the latter, even if the facts don't necessarily support it 100 percent.

We now know that the U.S. incarceration rate, though still far higher than that of other industrialized democracies, was already on its way down as of 2010, when Michelle Alexander published "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," propelling the issue of racially disparate imprisonment onto the national agenda. We also know, thanks to Justice Department data, that the incarceration rate for African Americans declined almost twice as fast as the rate for whites between 2007 and 2016.

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The consciousness that Alexander's book raised cannot possibly explain these trends, because they started before it was published. Yet if she hadn't rung the alarm, positive developments might not have intensified as rapidly or as durably as they did.

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Her ideas swiftly mutated from radical critique to conventional wisdom, influencing policy from the then-Obama administration to state governments in the deep-red Deep South, where several states' imprisonment rates have been declining faster than the national average.

Another example of the alarmism-progress dialectic from a different policy area: Concern over rising health-care costs is the stuff of both Republican and Democratic jeremiads, with the GOP blaming Obamacare and Democrats blaming a different cast of villains, including private insurance companies and Big Pharma.

What if both blue and red alarmism are, at least in one respect, behind the times? According to a newly published study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the gap between the per capita growth rate in health-care spending and the per capita growth rate of the overall economy has been shrinking for years.

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The two rates were essentially the same between 2010 and 2013, though health-cost growth exceeded economic growth modestly in 2014 and 2015. There's a good chance the 2010s will see the lowest differential between health-cost growth and overall growth since the 1990s.

In short, growth in health care's share of the economy is decelerating. We may be slowly but surely bending the cost curve downward, to a sustainable rate of growth, even at a time of coverage expansion.

There are undoubtedly many reasons for this, including the simple fact that there must be some inherent limit on health-cost growth. We can't devote 100 percent of the economy to health care any more than we could sentence 100 percent of the population to prison.

Cost control in Obamacare, such as the proposed excise tax on "Cadillac" private health plans, probably helped, too; but surely one source of progress was the general belief, accurate or not, that the situation was getting worse and therefore required urgent action.

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Could Trump administration policy reverse these two positive trends, given Attorney General Jeff Sessions's tough-on-crime rhetoric, plus the president's promises to repeal Obamacare and otherwise fiddle with health care? Maybe, but the states, not the Justice Department, control the vast majority of criminal prosecutions and prison sentences; Obamacare repeal, meanwhile, keeps failing, though ending the individual health-insurance mandate via Republican tax reform did cloud the picture.

Reality and perceptions of reality will probably never coincide perfectly. Yet the role that alarmism sometimes plays in spurring change shows that this is not necessarily a bad thing. The point is to take neither alarm at the status quo, nor satisfaction with it, to a counterproductive extreme.

A balanced sense of both the challenges and opportunities in our current predicament  a.k.a. sanity  would seem to be the appropriate aspiration.

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And notwithstanding everything that you see, hear and read, optimism is sane. The data prove it.

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PRESIDENT TRUMP says he is optimistic a deal can be struck to shield "dreamers," the young undocumented immigrants whose lives he put in jeopardy by stripping them of work permits and deportation protection, beginning March 5. His price, and that of many Republicans, is up to $33 billion in border-security measures, including Mr. Trump's "beautiful" wall.

If that's the deal  not one freighted with a laundry list of other items on the GOP wish list  Democrats should take it.

Granted, Mr. Trump once told Americans that a border wall, paid for by Mexico, would cost $4 billion. After that, he said $6 billion or $7 billion, and later $10 billion. Now his administration says it's really $18 billion for 722 miles of wall, of which just 316 miles would be a brand-new structure along the 2,000-mile southwest frontier. Oh, and Mexico's credit card seems to be missing.

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The wall is a dumb idea. It won't do much to suppress illegal border crossings, which in any event have been falling for decades. And the additional border-security spending proposed by the administration, including thousands of new Border Patrol agents, is largely a waste. Rather than seriously addressing the opioid epidemic, or mounting cyberwarfare threats, or America's crumbling infrastructure, the president wants to fortify a border where illegal crossings, as measured by Border Patrol apprehensions, are already at their lowest point since the Nixon administration.

But consider how rare it is that a dumb idea in Congress actually buys something smart in return. In this case, the return on that dumb idea would be huge. (And betting that the courts will save the dreamers is too risky, notwithstanding a federal judge's ruling Tuesday freezing dreamers' protections  for now.)

The wall's $18 billion price tag would be spread over a decade. If a few billion dollars annually is the trade-off that provides certainty  a pathway to citizenship or permanent legal status  for nearly 700,000 young immigrants brought to this country as children by their parents, it's worth it. Because the alternative  all those lives ruined, all those jobs lost, all that education and promise cut short  is much worse.

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Democrats who choke on the wall, loath to hand Mr. Trump a political triumph, might ask themselves what other deals they might strike that would do so much tangible good, for so many people, so immediately  and at such a relatively modest price. The likely answer is: very few.

Some Republicans are angling for more than half a loaf. Using the dreamers as hostages, they want to decimate legal immigration, slash family reunification visas and dissolve the lottery system that provides visas for people from Africa and other regions that generate relatively few immigrants.

Those measures would inflict real harm on real people. By contrast, spending billions on border security, while profligate, has enjoyed bipartisan support in the past. In 2006, many prominent Democrats, including then-Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, voted for 700 miles of fencing at the southwest frontier, albeit at a time when illegal crossings were more than three times greater than they are today.

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Many in Congress may have lost the muscle memory required to strike a compromise, but here's a reminder: In politics, as in life, compromise is often painful. That doesn't mean you refuse it.

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The News in Brief

Release of Georgian Prisoner Sparks Protest in Sokhumi



Pardoning and the subsequent release of Giorgi Lukava from Abkhazias Dranda prison has stirred public protest in the region with members of the Sokhumi legislature convening an emergency session yesterday amidst the heavy opposition criticism.



51-year-old Lukava, native of Abkhazias easternmost Gali district, was arrested by Sokhumi authorities in 2012, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2013 (the penalty was reduced to 16 years in accordance with the regions law on prison terms).



Sokhumi authorities claimed Giorgi Lukava committed a number of offences in 1994. Accusations include acts of murder and kidnapping of Abkhaz officials while allegedly being a member of the Forest Brothers, an armed group consisting of residents of the predominantly ethnic Georgian-populated Gali district (the group ceased to exist in 2004). Lukava, however, denies the accusations.



Lukavas release from custody was first announced by the State Security Service of Georgia, saying in its brief statement on December 25 that the prisoner was released as a result of months-long negotiations, and that the decision of the de facto [Abkhaz] authorities was a positive step which would add productive dynamics to the Gali Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meetings.



Lukavas release was, however, strongly condemned by opposition groups in Sokhumi, with Amtsakhara, Kyarazaa and Ainar parties slamming Raul Khajimba, the Moscow-backed leader of the region, for pardoning the terrorist . They called the decision a betrayal and a blasphemy over the memory of those who died for freedom of Abkhazia.



The Abkhaz security service commented on the discussion on December 29, saying Lukavas release was a part of the tripartite prisoner exchange process, which was initiated in response to the request of the authorities of the Republic of South Ossetia, the active phase that took place in March 2016.The security service clarified that Lukava was in the list as well, but noted that the process did not finish for several reasons.Subsequently, when these reasons expired, Lukava was handed over to the Georgian authorities, reads the statement.



The response failed to address the opposition concerns, with the main opposition Amtsakhara party (a political movement uniting veterans of the 1992-93 war which supported ex-Abkhaz leader Alexander Ankvab) calling a political council meeting on January 2, and also announcing a rally in front of the regions presidential administration on January 3.



The announcement prompted the regions leader Raul Khajimba to issue his clarifications on the matter. The presidents press office stressed in its late-night statement on January 3 that Lukava was transferred to Tbilisi as part of the prison exchange process initiated by the authorities of the Republic of South Ossetia, and called on the public to demonstrate patience and refrain from following provocative appeals.



Khajimba reiterated that Lukava was in the list of those who were to be exchanged, but his transfer was stopped at that moment. He then noted that Giorgi Lukava and Giorgi Giunashvili (an ethnic Georgian who was serving a 20-year prison term in Tskhinvali) were released in exchange for Roland Zhiba, who was hiding in Georgia and who is suspected in the murder of B. Kvitsinia (Sokhumi authorities had previously claimed Zhiba was arrested on May 5, 2017).

(Civil.ge)







Ukraine detains ship carrying cigarettes from Abkhazia



On December 31, Ukrainian border guards fired warning shots at a ship off the coast of Odessa and took it into custody.



The ship that was flying a Tanzanian flag ,was found to be carrying counterfeit cigarettes to Bulgaria via Abkhazia.



According to the Ukrainian media, the border guards noticed the vessel in the vicinity of Kurortnoe settlement, in Odessa Oblast. Later on, it turned out that the vessel set out from Ochamchire port in the breakaway region Abkhazia and was heading to Varna, Bulgaria.



The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) decided to carry out a check of the vessel and deployed Pryluky, a Matka class hydrofoil missile boat of the Ukrainian Navy.



The suspect vessel attempted to disobey orders, but after artillery was used to fire warning shots, it stopped and a special unit of the SBU conducted a search on board, turning up 1,740 boxes of cigarettes.



The cargo was accompanied by the document ,issued by authorities in breakaway Abkhazia which is not recognized by Ukraine as a legitimate entity. Hence, the cigarettes were assumed to be counterfeit. Eventually the vessel was arrested and convoyed to the Odessa port.

(DF watch)




With indications that special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking an interview with President Trump, here are some burning questions his team will want to ask. (Video: Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

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At his news conference Wednesday, President Trump pointedly declined to say whether he would agree to answer questions from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III  but then suggested that such a session wouldn't be warranted in any event. "When they have no collusion  and nobody's found any collusion at any level  it seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview," he observed.

The president is wrong. What is unlikely  unimaginable, in my assessment  is that Mueller would conclude his investigation without seeking to interview the president.

The president's repeated insistence that he did nothing improper does not mean an interview is unnecessary. After all, if prosecutors decided there was no need to speak with every subject who proclaimed his own innocence, they would never get very far. Mueller, of course, is not required to take the president's word for it on the question of collusion.

Equally misguided is the president's claim that no one has found "any collusion at any level." We simply don't know whether that's true. There certainly have been suspicious reports about events such as the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower and contacts between Russian individuals and campaign adviser George Papadopoulos (who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating). Due to the secrecy surrounding grand jury investigations, we don't know exactly what Mueller has found. Trump may repeat this denial as frequently as he likes (as he did again Wednesday on Twitter), but the grand jury is still out on the question of collusion (or, more accurately, criminal conspiracy).

Opinion writers Charles Lane, Molly Roberts, Jennifer Rubin and Dana Milbank discuss the likelihood of President Trump sitting for a Russia probe interview. (Video: The Washington Post)

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Even if there were no evidence at all of collusion, that would not make an interview unnecessary. It seems pretty clear that in addition to allegations of conspiracy with Russian nationals, Mueller is investigating other crimes, including obstruction of justice. Much of that probe may center on the president's own actions, such as the firing of then-FBI Director James B. Comey. Attempting to interview the president himself concerning these other allegations is a critical step in Mueller's investigation.

Finally, even if the president is completely innocent of any wrongdoing, prosecutors would still want to talk to him. Mueller's team cannot get a full picture of events surrounding the campaign without speaking to the candidate himself.

So despite the president's claim that an interview seems "unlikely," there's little doubt that Mueller's team will want to talk to him. Trump's comments Wednesday suggest he might not agree to sit down with prosecutors voluntarily. That probably would be in line with the legal advice he would receive from most defense counsel, although refusing to cooperate could have serious political implications. It also would invite Mueller to respond by subpoenaing Trump to the grand jury  far less friendly terrain for the president. His lawyers definitely have their hands full in deciding how best to respond to the special counsel. But despite what the president may hope, Mueller is not going to simply go away.

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Trump administration officials announced this past week that the government would terminate provisional residency permits for about 200,000 Salvadorans next year. The decision is part of President Trump's "America first" agenda, restricting the rights of immigrants in order to protect U.S. workers. But, as previous immigration experiments demonstrate, the policy will not aid American workers. And it certainly won't make Salvadorans pack their bags. Trump's order is likely to have the opposite effects.

President George W. Bush granted Salvadorans temporary protected status (TPS) after devastating earthquakes hit El Salvador in 2001. He and President Barack Obama repeatedly extended the status. Beyond its humanitarian impact, TPS provides significant economic benefits. It doesn't give applicants access to any federal welfare  so there are few costs  but it does grant the legal right to work. And Salvadorans with TPS work at very high rates: Eighty-eight percent participate in the labor force, compared with 63 percent of all Americans.

Legal employment has helped Salvadorans achieve a relatively high standard of living. The median household income for Salvadorans with TPS is $50,000, higher than the roughly $36,000 for unauthorized immigrants. Their higher wages, combined with the lack of public benefits, has been a big win for U.S. taxpayers.

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Canceling TPS will make it illegal for these Salvadorans to work, but it's unlikely to force them home. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush granted TPS to some 185,000 Salvadorans during the country's civil war, and when President Bill Clinton canceled their status in 1996, few returned. Deportations rose only slightly, and many Salvadorans just worked illegally until 2001.

At this point, 28 years since the original TPS designation and 17 years since the subsequent one, the incentives to stay will be too large for any mass migration back to El Salvador. Trump can try to drive them out with immigration raids and increased deportations, as other presidents have tried, but the highest percentage of unauthorized immigrants deported in a given year is 2.1 percent  three times the amount this administration deported in 2017.

Losing the legal right to work doesn't prevent immigrants from finding jobs. They can use fake or borrowed documents from U.S. citizen family members, or employers can pay them off the books. Illegal employment, however, pays less than legal employment  employers compensate for taking the risk of hiring someone who may be here illegally.

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Researchers discovered this effect in the 1980s, when employers began facing penalties for hiring unauthorized immigrants. In 1986, Congress paired such sanctions on employers with a program to legalize 3 million unauthorized immigrants. After 1986, illegal immigrants received lower wages than legal immigrants for the first time.

Rather than discouraging unauthorized immigrants from finding jobs, however, lower wages incentivized them to take on additional jobs to make up the difference. After the sanctions were implemented, unauthorized immigrants worked more, and their labor force participation rate rose . Meanwhile, the employment rate among the immigrants legalized by the 1986 bill dropped , especially for women.

A similar experiment has played out in Arizona since 2008, when the state mandated E-Verify, which checks employees' identification against federal databases. While it has been ineffective  workers can still borrow documents  it has lowered wages for unauthorized men. But this has incentivized more spouses to work, causing more illegal competition for jobs.

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In the short term, many employers will choose to play it safe and fire the Salvadorans losing TPS, even if they know that other employers will hire them later under borrowed identities. This turnover will needlessly harm the immigrants and impose at least $1 billion in costs for companies to find, hire and train new staffers  costs that U.S. consumers will end up paying.

And the lower wages for unauthorized workers are not likely to force them out. Central American immigrants' salaries are between 250 and 300 percent higher in the United States than in their home countries for the same work; a modest 10 or 20 percent decline in pay is simply insufficient to persuade many people to leave.

Moreover, the lower wages could result in Salvadorans sending less money back to El Salvador. Because so many people there rely on money sent from abroad  which accounts for 17 percent of the country's gross domestic product  even more Salvadorans could end up heading north illegally. The TPS cancellation might not only fail to discourage illegal immigration, it could encourage more.

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Even if the complete removal of all TPS beneficiaries were achievable, U.S. workers wouldn't benefit. The most relevant evidence comes from the 1964 cancellation of the bracero guest worker program, which had allowed seasonal workers to enter the United States legally for more than a decade.

Proponents claimed that eliminating the guest workers would increase wages on farms that had many such workers  those farms lost about a third of their seasonal workforce  but wages on these farms did not rise compared with those on farms without many guest workers. In fact, in the years after the program's end, they rose more slowly than on farms that had never hired guest workers.

Farmers grew crops that required fewer workers, produced fewer crops or adopted technology to harvest them. They did not raise wages. To the extent that the TPS cancellation results in more Salvadorans leaving the United States, no evidence suggests that Americans will benefit.

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Trump's decision to cancel Salvadorans' TPS won't decrease illegal immigration or protect Americans from foreign-worker competition  it will increase illegal immigration and labor force competition. U.S. businesses will needlessly endure major compliance costs. The government will lose tax revenue. And it will bring fear and pointless suffering for Salvadoran residents of this country, many of whom have built their lives here over decades. They don't deserve to be thrown into turmoil for a policy that is doomed to fail.

Twitter: @David_J_Bier

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Former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon has hired prominent Washington attorney William Burck to represent him as he prepares to testify to the House Intelligence Committee about his role in Donald Trump's presidential campaign, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Bannon had previously insisted that he did not need a lawyer because he had not been drawn into the multiple investigations into whether Trump's team coordinated with Russia during the 2016 campaign. But in recent weeks, the House intelligence panel made a request that Bannon testify before the committee.

Bannon's hiring of Burck was first reported by the Daily Beast.

Burck, co-managing partner at the firm Quinn Emanuel, is also representing other key members of Trump's campaign and White House staff, including former chief of staff Reince Priebus and White House Counsel Donald McGahn.

Stephen K. Bannon used to be a member of President Trump's inner circle, but now he's been ousted from Breitbart News after critical comments in a new book. (Video: Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

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The person familiar with the arrangement said Burck's representation is limited to congressional testimony and does not include preparing Bannon to speak to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. It also covers only Bannon's role on Trump's campaign, as opposed to events that occurred during the presidential transition or while Bannon served as a top aide to Trump in the White House.

Earlier this week, Bannon was forced to leave his role as executive chairman of Breitbart News, the conservative outlet whose platform propelled him to national prominence, in the wake of anger from the White House about comments he made in a new book by journalist Michael Wolff, "Fire and Fury."

In the book, Bannon said it was "treasonous" of Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. to accept a meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 who he thought would provide damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father's campaign.

After the book's publication, Bannon expressed regret about his statements, saying his criticism was aimed at Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, who also attended the meeting. He called Trump Jr. a "patriot."

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MONTECITO, Calif.  Emergency crews climbed and clawed through thick flows of mud and dangerous debris Wednesday in some of Southern California's most exclusive neighborhoods, as the death toll from the collapse of rain-soaked hillsides rose to 17 people with more than a dozen others missing. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight This neighborhood of gated homes and sloping streets just south of Santa Barbara has taken on the character of a Hollywood set, weeks after flames threatened the kind of destruction that mudslides have done in days. Wide swaths of ash and earth have smashed multimillion-dollar homes into pieces, filled hotel lobbies with muck, and blocked the main highway from Los Angeles for miles with mud several feet deep.

But the human tragedy, which unfolded overnight Tuesday and continued Wednesday, far exceeded the emotional punch of the severe property damage. Whole families have been carried away by the mud. Rescued children who survived their parents remain in critical condition in a hospital whose staffers are challenged by road closures and their own damaged property. At least 13 other people are missing.

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A San Diego Coast Guard crew rescued a family of five trapped in their houses during mudslides in Santa Barbara County, Calif., on Jan. 9. (Video: U.S. Coast Guard)

As helicopters picked families off the roofs of their battered homes, community members branched out on their own to look for survivors and bodies, searching creek beds and canyons, runoff points at local beaches, and splintered piles of wood and stone that once were homes.

Churches became shelters for the thousands of evacuees, who may have no place to live for months. Thousands of others are without water or power and may remain so for days.

Brenda Bottoms, a Montecito resident, described on Wednesday the muddy handprints she saw on the sides of neighboring homes, which had been slammed and partly carried off by a fast-moving mudflow.

"This is a neighborhood," Bottoms said, tears running down her cheeks. "You know the family with five kids that live right over there. And now everything's gone."

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The mudslides mark the cruel postscript to the Thomas Fire, which burned for much of December, becoming the largest wildfire by area in California history. For weeks before Christmas, flames scorched the steep hills above Montecito, squeezed between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean northwest of Los Angeles, forcing 9,000 residents to evacuate.

Firefighters from across the state worked to save nearly all of Montecito's houses, an achievement that city residents describe as nothing short of a miracle given the intensity of the offshore winds and the ferocity of the fire that burned through tinder-dry brush and tree stands in a rainy season without rain.

The blaze left the mountains bare, especially along the slopes and in the canyons just above Montecito, a stretch running from near Westmont College to roughly Romero Canyon, where a few hundred residents were trapped temporarily by the mudslides.

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Those neighborhoods, which include the homes of Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and other Hollywood stars, are now the most vulnerable. Evacuation orders were issued days before the predicted downpour this week, sparing many when the hillsides, no longer held together by brush and trees, spilled into the neighborhoods.

Santa Barbara County fire officials said Wednesday that 100 homes were destroyed by the mudslides and an additional 300 were damaged. Many more remain in jeopardy  fire officials say as many as 1,500  but the weather could turn in their favor.

The National Weather Service forecasts sun and light wind through early next week, when work crews also expect that Highway 101 will reopen where it passes through Montecito. But periods of rain are predicted to follow.

One of the main arteries for the mud has been Hot Springs Road and Olive Mill Road, which join and run from the hills to the sea, passing Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, running over Highway 101 and ending at the exclusive Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club. Bodies have been found along its length, and a woman's remains were recovered on Butterfly Beach, just below the Coral Casino.

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Things looked "apocalyptic" after the deluge, said Lindsey Reed, 33, who works as a bartender and server at the private beach club.

"It's terrifying, and you just have no control, and it's taking out everything in its path," she said.

Where Olive Mill meets Coast Village Road stands the Montecito Inn, a local landmark whose ground floor has been filled with mud and debris. Along Coast Village, the main business route in Montecito that runs parallel to Highway 101, businesses have been damaged. Fire officials said eight have been destroyed so far in the county.

Throughout Wednesday, residents who ventured outside witnessed the grim chore of search and rescue. Some crews had to be dropped into impassable areas by helicopter Wednesday, and the California National Guard has lent military vehicles that rescue officials say have proved invaluable.

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Peter Hartmann, a dentist who lives in Santa Barbara and works in Montecito, watched crews gingerly dig through mounds of mud, unsure of what they would find. What they did discover was agonizing.

"A 2- or a 3-year-old girl had been pulled out of the mud by firefighters," said Hartman, 60, recounting what he saw. "She wasn't breathing yet, from what I understand from a neighbor who was there."

Hartmann said "it was just heart-wrenching" to see her small, mud-covered body emerge. He said he recalled thinking, "God, just let her live."

Rescue workers tended to her, cleaning the mud off her face. And as they cleaned her up, she started breathing.

"That firefighter actually broke down and cried after she was in the ambulance," he said.

Hartmann, a freelance photojournalist in his spare time, spent Wednesday traversing the area, mostly on foot with many roads closed or impassable. Some residents who ignored the evacuation orders were effectively cut off. He saw others trekking a mile to the supermarket, walking back with water bottles and food stuffed into their backpacks.

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Early Wednesday afternoon, Hartmann came across another group of search-and-rescue workers digging in the mud, this time with a tragic result.

"I think they just found another body," he said. "The coroner came and took it away."

On Para Grande Lane, near the base of Cold Spring Creek, Boris Romanowsky, 59, shook his head Wednesday as he surveyed the damage. Romanowsky, a former firefighter, could see what should have been done before the slides began.

"I knew that bridge should have been fixed about five years ago. That thing was a choke point," he said, pointing first to the bridge that was destroyed by the flooding, and then to the property adjacent to the bridge, where the walls showed a water line several feet off the ground.

"This house just sold," he said. "They just had a big estate sale about six months ago."

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Romanowsky said the rush of the flood, coupled with harsh rains and a large gas explosion on the east end of town, made for a disorienting experience.

"The noise was so loud you could hardly hear yourself think," he said. "We had fire on the eastern sky before sunrise and we had this train wreck of a river going through at the same time, and we had rain so loud that you could hardly see."

Romanowsky said he has been checking in on his neighbors, many of whom, like him, still have no power or water. He said, despite the forecasts for more rain in the coming weeks, he has no plans to leave.

"I monitor on a transistor radio," he said. "I've been here since the first fire. I don't evacuate."

Berman and Wilson reported from Washington. Avi Selk, Marwa Eltagouri and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

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The Trump administration's decision to exempt Florida from expanded offshore drilling kicked off a frenzy Wednesday in other coastal states, with governors from both political parties asking: Why not us? Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight "We cannot afford to take a chance with the beauty, the majesty and the economic value and vitality of our wonderful coastline," South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R), who backed President Trump in his state's competitive 2016 primary, said in a statement.

"Not Off Our Coast," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) wrote in a tweet. "We've been clear: this would bring unacceptable risks to our economy, our environment, and our coastal communities."

The Florida carve-out, announced Tuesday by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, created new doubts about the fate of the entire offshore drilling decision  and immediately became another challenge for Republicans as they work to hold off Democrats in the midterm elections. Nine of the 11 states that opposed the drilling order have gubernatorial races this year, and many of the most competitive contests for the House of Representatives will unfold in districts that touch coastline.

The governors of several coastal states reacted with alarm after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke granted Florida Governor Rick Scott a waiver on Jan. 9. (Video: Reuters)

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By Wednesday afternoon, state attorneys general, joined by environmental groups, were suggesting that Zinke had undermined the entire drilling rule with his high-profile visit to Tallahassee, where he heaped praise on "straightforward, easy to work for" Gov. Rick Scott (R)  a political ally whom Trump has repeatedly urged to run for the U.S. Senate.

"The Administrative Procedure Act requires there to be a reasonable rationale behind agency decisions, and that they can't be arbitrary and capricious," said Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, referring to a 1946 law governing major regulatory changes. "So, saying Florida is exempt because Rick Scott is straightforward and trustworthy? That Florida's coastlines are unique? That seems to be the definition of arbitrary and capricious."

Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone said the governor had not contacted the White House about the issue but had expressed his concerns to Zinke in face-to-face meetings in October and on Tuesday, as well as in multiple phone calls.

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In a Wednesday interview with The Washington Post, Zinke said he first met Scott when his state and the federal government were preparing for Hurricane Irma, then a second time when the two worked on Everglades restoration. Zinke said he felt a personal connection with the governor, so when Scott contacted him in writing he felt an obligation to respond.

"Quite frankly, Gov. Scott called me and [also] expressed in writing a desire to have a meeting," he said. That meeting was the first "in what I believe will be a series of conversations" with other governors, the secretary said.

"I will no doubt talk to every governor," Zinke said. "It doesn't matter to me whether you're Republican or Democrat. This is going to be a long process. This is going to be at least a year with public comment. We have to get it right, look at the geology, look at the science."

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The White House declined to say whether Trump was personally involved in the decision to exempt Florida. Two senior aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they were not aware of any efforts on his behalf.

"Secretary Zinke has been directed to develop a 5-year program for development in the Outer continental shelf," deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement. "The Secretary is currently in the process of speaking to stakeholders, like Governor Scott yesterday, to determine the most responsible and environmentally sound path forward. All states have different concerns and needs which is why this is an ongoing process with a built-in 60-day comment period."

The decision has been subject to a torrent of ridicule and anger from coastal governors and senators who wonder why their states have not been exempted. In a conference call with reporters, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) unloaded on Zinke and Trump, saying that Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-Va.) and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) had asked for an exemption and heard nothing back.

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"Is it because the governor of Florida is a Republican and the Virginia governor and governor-elect are Democrats?" Kaine said. "Are they putting Florida off-limits because President Trump has a vacation property  Mar-a-Lago  on the Atlantic coast of Florida and he worries about the environmental risk there, but he's not worried about environmental risk in Virginia?"

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) called the decision "outrageous," saying in an interview that she had contacted Zinke with hopes of having a similar conversation but had not heard back.

"Our tourism is as important to Oregon as tourism is to Florida," she said, adding that drilling would also be a detriment to her state's natural resource industries.

To Brown, it appeared that Trump was either trying to bolster Scott's political prospects, helping his own standing in a key swing state for 2020 or "protecting his real estate holdings in Mar-a-Lago."

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"What else am I supposed to think?" Brown asked.

The commentary about Trump's properties was bipartisan. Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), a former governor who represents his state's Atlantic coastline, suggested during an interview with CNN that the president held one standard for states where he vacationed and one for the rest of the country.

"It smacks of what we never want to see in politics which is: Is it self-serving?" Sanford said. "I mean, you can't say, 'I don't want to see an oil rig from Mar-a-Lago' as you look out from the waters of Palm Beach, but it's okay to look at an oil rig out from Hilton Head or Charleston, South Carolina."

But most of the opposition to both the drilling order and the Florida exception came from Democrats. In an interview, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said that the standards Zinke applied to Florida  the importance of tourism and coastal industries  were "standards that California can meet." He also suggested that Zinke had given states strong grounds to challenge the drilling decision and that industries hoping to develop energy off the coast should not necessarily expect it to happen.

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"This puts some of that into doubt," Becerra said. "We want to make it clear to everyone in California that things have not changed as a result of this announcement."

Democrats, who view Scott as the GOP's best challenger to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), added to the chorus by suggesting that they would turn the decision into a liability. Before the carve-out, Nelson had been urging bipartisan legislation to halt the entire offshore drilling order.

"I have spent my entire life fighting to keep oil rigs away from our coasts. But now, suddenly, Secretary Zinke announces plans to drill off Florida's coast and four days later agrees to 'take Florida off the table'?" Nelson said in a statement Wednesday. "I don't believe it. This is a political stunt orchestrated by the Trump administration to help Rick Scott, who has wanted to drill off Florida's coast his entire career. We shouldn't be playing politics with the future of Florida."

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In a separate statement, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called Scott "a self-serving con-man" and said Trump had helped "manufacture a crisis to try to help his political ambitions."

Scott spokesman John Tupps said in a statement that the governor's success in getting the exemption had been a clear win for the state.

"Senator Nelson and anyone else who opposes oil drilling off Florida's coast should be happy that the governor was able to secure this commitment," Tupps said. "This isn't about politics. This is good policy for Florida."

Scott is not the only Republican governor who would stand to benefit politically from an exemption. In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) is up for reelection this year in a Democratic-leaning state and has been an outspoken opponent of offshore drilling.

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"The governor has made it extremely clear that he opposes this kind of exploration off our coastline and that will never change," Hogan spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said Wednesday."The administration will continue making the case to the federal government that Maryland's bays and beaches are vital to the health and economy of our state and region."

She added that Hogan previously asked the state's attorney general to take "any legal action necessary."

In 2016, Hogan was one of several high-profile Republicans who refused to support Trump for president. Instead, Hogan wrote in the name of his late father, who had been the first Republican congressman to call for the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon.

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The relationship between President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has deteriorated in recent months. Heres a look at how they got to this point. (Video: Taylor Turner/The Washington Post, Photo: John Bazemore/The Washington Post)

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions is trying to find his way back into President Trump's good graces. For months, Sessions has asked senior White House aides to make sure the president knows what he is doing at the Justice Department, two White House advisers said, and has told allies he hopes policy decisions that garner news coverage will please Trump. Sessions's team at Justice has crafted a public campaign to highlight the work it is doing to advance the president's agenda. The department has also begun looking into matters that Trump has publicly complained are not being pursued.

Top Trump advisers, including White House counsel Donald McGahn and counselor Kellyanne Conway and former chief of staff Reince Priebus and former strategist Stephen K. Bannon, have at times joined the effort and pressed Trump to give his attorney general a second chance. They note that his department has helped reduce illegal border crossings and carried out a number of the president's initiatives, such as cracking down on leaks and targeting the MS-13 street gang.

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But Sessions, who was one of Trump's earliest backers and gave up a safe Senate seat to join the administration, has, by all accounts, been unable to repair his relationship with the president. Trump has dismissed praise of Sessions, according to four White House officials and advisers, as he continues to rage about the Russia investigation and Sessions's decision to recuse himself from the probe into Moscow's meddling in the 2016 election and whether there was any coordination with the Trump campaign.

"He's one of the most active Cabinet secretaries there is," one White House official said. "He's done a fine job. Does it wash away the sin of recusal? I don't think so."

A second senior administration official said Trump rarely speaks to Sessions, but the attorney general's staff chats with Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, and McGahn has regular lunches with Sessions in the West Wing, sometimes accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.

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The Posts Matt Zapotosky explains how Jeff Sessions has been quickly and effectively implementing President Trumps vision for America. (Video: Joyce Lee, Matt Zapotosky/The Washington Post)

This official said Trump frequently talks to Cabinet members including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis but rarely calls Sessions because he is cautious about the probe and the appearance of impropriety  and will delegate others to call Justice on policy issues. This official also said Trump mainly sees the attorney general at Cabinet and national security meetings.

White House officials have begun privately guessing who will replace Sessions  even though he has said he has no plans to leave. Trump does not like to fire people  contrary to his TV image  and by publicly humiliating him has unsuccessfully tried to make Sessions miserable and force him to quit.

"Yes, I do," Trump said recently, when asked if he had confidence in Sessions.

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Still, when Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote an op-ed in the Washington Examiner calling for Sessions to be fired, arguing that he didn't have control over the FBI and that the Russia investigation had run amok, they received no blowback from the White House  aides said they guessed the lawmakers simply were trying to promote Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) for the job or gain favor with Trump. Other potential replacements include New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, advisers said, and Politico reported Friday that Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, also wants the job.

Trump has, at times, shaken his head or groused when he sees Sessions on TV, advisers said, and has directed some of his frustration over the loss of Sessions's Alabama Senate seat toward the attorney general.

Trump is even turned off by the portrayal of Sessions on "Saturday Night Live" by Kate McKinnon, advisers said. A senior White House official said that Trump's frustrations were not a reflection of Sessions but that he found the portrayal "insulting."

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Trump has quick word associations with people and Sessions does not evoke positive thoughts, according to aides. "Weak," the president will say. Or, in the words of another adviser: "He should have never recused himself." Trump, one longtime adviser said, doesn't consider Sessions to be loyal, a key trait to him.

The president will see reports on Fox News or hear from friends about issues related to the Clintons or Democrats, advisers said, and wonder why Sessions isn't looking into them  a frustration he has aired publicly in tweets. A senior White House official said Trump has never demanded that Sessions open an investigation.

"The president likes to hear he is investigating these things, but I don't believe they have had those conversations," one senior White House official said.

Sessions's place in the administration has become even more precarious as he loses allies in the West Wing. Rick Dearborn, his Senate chief of staff, has announced plans to leave, and Stephen Miller, Sessions's Senate communications director, has distanced himself from his former boss even as he has pursued policies similar to Sessions's.

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But Kelly, who commands respect from Trump, is said to like Sessions, a boon for the attorney general, and McGahn also frequently backs Sessions.

Sessions's Justice Department has shown itself to be somewhat amenable to concerns expressed by congressional Republicans, which are similar to those raised by Trump. The attorney general recently directed senior federal prosecutors to look into a host of matters that Republicans had asked him to investigate, including Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and the controversial sale of a uranium company to Russia. Separately, the FBI has been investigating the Clinton Foundation for many months. Though that probe technically predates Sessions, it had been put on hold around the presidential election, and news of its revival became public last week.

Whether Trump will eventually change tacks and fire Sessions remains unclear. The op-ed by Meadows and Jordan calling for Sessions to be ousted raised eyebrows, because Meadows is seen as a close Trump ally who frequently speaks with the president.

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At the Justice Department, officials have tried to publicly tout their successes, hopeful that political allies and the president, a frequent television viewer, will take notice. They have done work that  in their view  should appeal to the president and his base, such as settling lawsuits with tea party groups, issuing guidance on religious liberty, cracking down on illegal immigration and rolling back various Obama-era guidances, including one advising courts to be wary of imposing heavy fines on those who can't afford them.

"We're trying to get our successes out in the ether," one department official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss dynamics with the White House.

The official said Justice has communicated with some conservative constituencies, like law enforcement groups, and was recently heartened when the Fraternal Order of Police issued a statement praising Sessions's decision to make it easier for U.S. prosecutors to enforce federal marijuana laws in states that had legalized the substance, advisers said.

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"It's that kind of stuff that you figure will lead to this tipping point where the audience of one says, 'Wow, that's pretty impressive,' " the official said.

But the official acknowledged that the department can't seem to overcome the president's frustration over Sessions's recusal, and even some publicizing of successes can lead to mixed results. The department has allowed its top spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, to make television appearances, but while half of the interview will be about work officials want to promote, the conversation often turns to the Russia investigation, which is not helpful to Sessions, if Trump is watching.

Justice Department officials are particularly frustrated by Republican House members critical of the attorney general for his recusal from the Russia investigation.

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One department official said Sessions had no real option under federal regulations but to recuse himself. Even a number of top White House lawyers and aides argued to Trump that Sessions needed to step aside.

Trump will frequently remind aides that he was blindsided by the recusal and had to watch it live on Air Force One, just before an event, and that it looked as if Sessions was giving into the probe and giving it credibility. The Justice Department notified McGahn of Sessions's decision to recuse himself less than an hour before telling the public.

Sessions's office pays attention to what special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is doing from what is publicly reported, and is mindful of the scope his investigation  though Sessions's office is walled off from Mueller's work, which is being supervised by Rosenstein.

The official said that, despite the president's criticism, Sessions still "really, really believes in the president" and remains "almost in awe of the president's political instincts."

Sessions is widely disliked among liberals, who say his policies are rolling back decades of social and civil rights progress. But among conservatives and those on the far right, Sessions is a strong spot in the administration.

A few months ago, Leonard Leo, a legal adviser to Trump, said the president asked him about Sessions. Leo said he told the president he was impressed by the department, particularly its "religious liberty" guidance and the performance of the solicitor general's office. Leo said Trump largely listened to his assessment.

"For conservatives going into the Trump administration, the question was whether the department's morale could be restored and whether there would be a greater sensitivity to respect for the rule of law in the department," Leo said in an interview. "I think Attorney General Sessions has done a good job of creating the right atmosphere in the department."

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The Fixs Eugene Scott explains how Trumps shithole countries comment is the latest example of his history of demeaning statements on nonwhite immigrants. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post, Photo: Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

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Immigration talks on Capitol Hill foundered Thursday after the White House and some GOP lawmakers rejected a tentative deal from a bipartisan Senate group  and President Trump made incendiary remarks about people from developing countries. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight In a midday immigration meeting with senators in which they discussed the fate of certain immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations, Trump became frustrated and made a reference to "shithole countries," arguing that the U.S. should bring in more immigrants from Norway instead, according to several people briefed on his comments.

Those explosive remarks from the president roiled the debate as Democrats erupted in outrage and accused Trump of setting back prospects for any deal.

"This is like throwing gasoline to the fire," said Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. "It's not consistent with what the behavior of a president should be."

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The fast-moving developments came as lawmakers and the White House try to come up with a solution for immigrants brought illegally to this country as children, who are losing temporary protections granted with executive powers by President Barack Obama under a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Trump plans to phase out the program completely in March unless Congress replaces it.

The president's remarks came at a moment of frustration during an Oval Office meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers Thursday, as they were presenting an opening bid for a broad immigration package.

The deal included a solution for "dreamers," as well as improvements to border security and changes to two other elements of the immigration system: one allowing U.S. citizens to sponsor certain relatives for citizenship, and the other, known as the "diversity visa lottery," which distributes 50,000 visas annually to nations with low rates of migration to the United States.

President Trump says any deal that Congress reaches about immigration issues has got to include the wall that hes pledged to build on the southern border. (Video: The Washington Post)

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Trump became angry during a conversation about the visa lottery program, which benefits some African countries, and about the temporary protected status afforded to immigrants from certain nations, including El Salvador and Haiti.

"Why do we need more Haitians?" Trump said, according to people familiar with the meeting. "Take them out."

The comments left lawmakers taken aback, according to people familiar with their reactions. And the events left any solution looking even more elusive  and raised prospects for a government shutdown because Democrats are insisting on a DACA deal before they vote for spending legislation that must pass by midnight on Jan. 19.

Late Thursday, Trump took to Twitter to attack Democrats and push for a border wall. "The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process," he tweeted. "It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!"

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He was back at it Friday. In back-to-back tweets, Trump picked apart the proposed DACA deal as a "big step backwards." Among Trump's grievances: it did not offer enough money for the border wall and did not go far enough toward a "merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level."

Thursday began much differently, with rumors circulating on Capitol Hill that senators from both parties were close to an immigration deal.

Not long after, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) announced that there was indeed an agreement.

We "have an agreement in principle. We're shopping it to our colleagues," Flake told reporters.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), another member of the group, added that "we have answered the call" of Trump, who brought Democrats and Republicans together at the White House earlier this week and called on them to reach a deal he can sign.

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But the tentative plan from just six senators in a closely divided body of 100 immediately sparked fresh tensions over how Republicans should oversee the emotionally charged immigration debate.

White House officials and top GOP Senate leaders insisted that no deal had been reached. Adding to the confusion, other groups of lawmakers are meeting separately to come up with a solution, including the vote counters in each chamber, who have been called on by Trump to reach consensus. Some of these lawmakers bridled at the notion that a small group of their colleagues, especially a group that does not include any immigration hard-liners, could come up with a deal and impose it on everyone else.

"I'm sure there's good things in it, but six people can't agree to something that will bind the Congress," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), the Senate majority whip.

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"It's my job to count votes, and we need to have more than six votes for a proposal," Cornyn said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that there is no deal yet on immigration. "However, we still think we can get there," she said.

In addition to Flake and Graham, the bipartisan group includes Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), all of whom have worked on immigration issues for several years and hail from states with large immigrant populations.

According to details provided by aides, the deal would allow DACA recipients a minimum 10-year path to citizenship and allocate at least $1.5 billion for design and construction of a border fence as well as at least $1 billion more for additional border surveillance, technology and manpower; specify that parents of DACA recipients would be ineligible for citizenship; and replace the diversity lottery program with a new system dividing the visas between people who have received temporary protected status and people selected on the basis of merit from low-immigration countries.

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Graham and Durbin presented details of the plan to the president and a handful of conservative Republicans at a hastily arranged Oval Office meeting, where Trump made his insulting remarks, including the outburst about Haiti because of its participation in the TPS program along with El Salvador and Nicaragua, several aides said. The surprise meeting, which Graham and Durbin had sought, angered senior Republican leaders and conservatives who are eager to fulfill Trump's campaign pledges on immigration and control floor debate on the issue. But any attempt to pass immigration and border security legislation will require Democratic support in the divided Senate.

Democratic votes will also be needed to keep the government open  which is why Democrats, under intense pressure from immigrant advocates, are determined to use their leverage to force a long-sought immigration deal.

Graham would not say how the president responded, but he said that coming up with bipartisan support in the coming days "will matter to the president."

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Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), however, an immigration hard-liner and ally of Trump's who also attended the Oval Office meeting, said that the bipartisan plan "is unacceptable" because of how it deals with ending the diversity lottery program and with family-based migration policy, a practice that conservatives deride as "chain migration."

"It doesn't end chain migration," Cotton said of the bipartisan plan. "It merely delays it for an extremely small class of persons. On the diversity lottery, it simply takes all those visas and gives them away to other people for no rhyme or reason; it doesn't just end the diversity lottery."

Cotton added that the group's border security proposal "doesn't give near enough resources to meet the president's demands."

Told of Cotton's public criticisms, Graham snapped back: "Senator Cotton can present his proposal. We presented ours. I'm not negotiating with Senator Cotton, and let me know when Senator Cotton has a proposal that gets a Democrat. I'm dying to look at it."

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Flake added that "I don't think we'll get all Republicans  I never thought that."

Meanwhile, other Republicans have released a flurry of new legislation in recent days designed to placate the concerns of conservatives wary of a potential bipartisan deal.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) and Reps. Raul R. Labrador (R-Idaho) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday unveiled a conservative plan that would grant dreamers an opportunity to apply for a legal residency that would be renewed every three years. Democrats and some Republicans reject such a plan.

The bill also would authorize construction of border walls and fencing; allow federal immigration and security agencies to hire at least 10,000 new agents; end the diversity lottery program; end the ability of new U.S. citizens to legally move family members into the United States; withhold federal funding from cities that refuse to help federal agencies enforce immigration laws; and intensify use of the E-Verify system to check an employee's immigration status.

Privately, aides to GOP leaders say the bill would not be able to pass in the House.

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), on the other hand, whose Denver-area district is being closely targeted by Democrats this year, introduced a bill to grant permanent legal residency to people protected by TPS. It is unclear whether it might ever earn a vote.

David Nakamura, Mike DeBonis and Brian Murphy contributed to this report.

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President Trump is expected to agree this week to continue granting Iran a reprieve from sanctions over its nuclear program, while again signaling his displeasure with the international nuclear deal that lifted the penalties, U.S. and European officials, congressional aides and others said. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight He also is expected to announce new sanctions linked to human rights and other issues that would not directly affect the nuclear agreement but would underscore U.S. concerns about Iran's response to recent anti-

government protests and other actions, officials and others said.

The decision, first reported by the Associated Press, keeps the United States in the Iran deal, at least for the time being, despite Trump's suggestion last year that he was inclined to walk away from it. Most of Trump's national security advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have urged him to waive the sanctions again.

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Had Trump decided to reimpose nuclear sanctions that the Obama administration suspended almost two years ago to the day, the United States would have reneged on its commitment under the deal and isolated itself from allies that have insisted they will stick with it.

It could also have emboldened Iranian hard-liners. The political unrest, which rocked the clerical and political establishment, spread amid deep disappointment that sanctions relief provided by the nuclear deal has not trickled down economically to ordinary Iranians. Some analysts say that the United States would be seen as turning its back on the protesters and their economic demands if it reimposes broad economic sanctions.

Instead, any additional sanctions imposed now or in coming weeks would probably target the government or military elite, and not the wider Iranian economy, two officials said.

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A spokesman for the White House National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday night, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders posted a statement on Twitter condemning arrests of Iranian protesters.

"We will not remain silent as the Iranian dictatorship represses the basic rights of its citizens and will hold Iran's leaders accountable for any violations," she wrote.

Refusing to waive sanctions would have empowered Iranian hard-liners who distrust the United States and turned Washington into an adversary they could blame for internal disruptions, said John Glaser, head of foreign policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.

"It would be insulting if the United States and its leaders would try to take credit for the protests or superimpose them onto our own political, domestic issues here," he said.

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The president faces deadlines beginning Friday to approve the continued relief from sanctions, Iran's main benefit from the landmark 2015 agreement that Trump has called the "worst deal" imaginable for the United States. He also faces another deadline to tell Congress whether he will "certify" that Iran is complying with the deal and that it is serving the interest of the United States.

Trump withheld that certification at the last deadline, in October, and his anticipated decision to do the same this time would have no immediate effect. But he seems to be laying the groundwork for an eventual withdrawal.

Officials and observers interviewed this week said Trump has been advised against making big changes now, before Congress has come up with promised legislation to address concerns about what he calls loopholes in the deal and add conditions for future U.S. participation.

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Officials and others who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decisions are not final said they expect Trump to agree with that approach but cautioned that he could still balk. At issue is the Republican president's resentment at being asked to keep alive a deal he loathes, and that his Democratic predecessor considered a signature accomplishment.

Under current law, the president has to suspend nuclear sanctions on a rolling basis  each time the certification deadline or separate deadlines to keep the sanctions in suspension come due.

The congressional leaders working on what they call "fixes" to the deal met with White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster last Thursday to recommend that the president continue to suspend nuclear sanctions, congressional and administration officials said.

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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and ranking Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.) have been working together on a package that would address Trump's concern that the deal only delays Iran's ability to obtain a nuclear weapon. Various members of Congress and U.S. allies, including Israel, have said that as restrictions against Tehran are lifted under the deal, Iran's "breakout" window will shorten dramatically.

The deal expanded the breakout window from an estimated two months before the negotiations to one year, presumably giving governments time to react if Iran were found to be cheating. But some of the current restrictions eventually expire.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who has been an influential voice for Trump on Iran issues, has warned that by 2030 the breakout window will be "a matter of weeks."

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Corker accompanied Trump to Nashville on Monday, riding with the president on Air Force One with the goal of making his case about holding the line.

Changing the terms of the agreement itself would require approval from European co-

signers as well as Russia, China and Iran.

Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, committing itself to never pursue nuclear weapons, but it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

If Trump again withholds Iran's certification, much of the world may shrug it off.

"His so-called violations of spirit are outside the scope of accord, and Iran remains in compliance with its commitments," said Kelsey Davenport, who has researched Iran's nuclear and missile programs for the Arms Control Association. "So his posturing on the ineffectiveness of the deal and its weaknesses is expected. An immunity is built up in the international community."

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European allies have repeatedly urged the United States not to walk away from the agreement and to deal separately with concerns about Iran's missiles, human rights abuses and support for militant groups in neighboring countries.

Mark Dubowitz, head of the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said he expects more non-nuclear sanctions over some of the issues that protesters were most concerned about, including corruption, human rights abuses and "cyber repression."

"Are we actually going to see measures that strike a blow at the heart of the regime's corruption and repression, or are they going to be meaningless sanctions targeting a few individuals?" Dubowitz said. "I hope we're going to see them strike at the supreme leader's network of foundations and companies he has built on the back of illegally expropriated Iranian private property. It's a target-rich environment, if the administration is serious."

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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spoke out on Jan. 9 about the state of the congressional Russia investigations after one year of work. (Video: Reuters)

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Democrats are striking out on their own this week over all but one of the congressional investigations into Russian meddling, independently releasing reports and transcripts, and attacking Republicans they accuse of intentionally undermining active probes in deference to President Trump. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Senior Democratic officials in the Senate, frustrated by what they consider a Republican campaign to discredit the law enforcement and intelligence agencies investigating the president, cleared their members to release the interview transcript of one of the Russia investigation's most sensitive witnesses and, separately, to publish a report detailing the disinformation and intimidation tactics the Kremlin deploys against democracies globally.

In the House, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) endorsed a letter sent Tuesday to Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), accusing him of orchestrating a campaign to bury a congressional probe into Trump's alleged ties to the Russian government and defame the agencies investigating those matters.

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President Trump labeled Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) as sneaky in a Twitter attack on Jan. 10. (Video: Jordan Frasier/The Washington Post)

Throughout the Capitol, partisan divisions have engulfed the Russia investigations, transforming what were supposed to be nonpartisan probes into political flamethrowing competitions, as each side accuses the other of going rogue. And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are bracing for the partisan sniping to worsen.

"We get political up here pretty quick . . . and we'll fight among ourselves what oversight looks like" at every stage of the investigation, Judiciary Committee member Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) predicted, "as long as there is breath in us all."

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat, Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), went around committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) to publish the transcript of a 10-hour closed-door interview in August with Glenn Simpson, founder of Fusion GPS, the research firm behind a now-famous dossier detailing Trump's alleged Russia ties.

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The move earned a rebuke from Grassley, who has been fixated on the dossier and last week urged the Justice Department to investigate possible criminal charges for its author, former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele.

Feinstein said Wednesday that with the transcript's release, "people can make up their own minds" about what materialized during the committee's interview with Simpson, noting that she intended to apologize to Grassley for not notifying him first.

Feinstein also indicated she felt "pressured" to release the transcript but later retracted that statement and dismissed Trump's assertion that her decision was politically motivated.

Increasingly, Democrats see Republicans as dedicating more energy to attacking federal law enforcement than seriously investigating the allegations that have been unearthed. For them, the criminal referral of Steele  who approached the FBI in 2016 over concerns Trump could be blackmailed or compromised, Simpson told the committee  was "a breaking point," according to one congressional aide.

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Democrats across Congress charge that the GOP has long since abandoned its commitment to investigate allegations against the president. They say Republicans' focus on the dossier, their continued scrutiny of the FBI's conduct during the Hillary Clinton email probe, their revived interest in how the Justice Department explored the circumstances of a 2010 uranium deal, and recent calls for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to step down over alleged bias in his team's ranks all are attempts to block for Trump.

The criminal referral for Steele, however, was an unprecedented escalation, aides said  and one that necessitated a direct response.

"The effort plainly is to discredit the investigation before it reaches a potentially incriminating conclusion," said Sen. Richard J. Blumenthal (D-Conn.). "To stop the investigation  but if not stop it, at least demean its credibility before charges are brought."

Feud over Trump dossier intensifies with release of interview transcript

Although not every Republican condemned Feinstein's decision "to set the record straight" by releasing the Simpson transcript, the move infuriated Grassley, who accused her of undermining the investigation's integrity.

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"You want other people to voluntarily comply? And it may make them nervous. You're giving everyone they want to talk to, they know what the questions are going to be," Grassley said. "It weakens our chance of getting information."

Grassley and Graham, who co-authored the letter referring Steele for a criminal inquiry and together have led the Senate charge for a second special counsel to review the FBI's conduct, say the steps panel Republicans have taken are legitimate.

"It's not a distraction to see how the Justice Department used the dossier, how reliable it is, because that goes to the heart of the rule of law," Graham said.

Several House committees have launched similar probes in recent months, fueling an already bitter feud among leading Democrats and Republicans over the pace and direction of the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. Panel Republicans, led by chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), are developing what's been characterized as a "corruption" report about FBI officials involved in the Russia probe, while Democrats are writing a report of their own about what they see as GOP efforts to undercut and prematurely shutter the investigation.

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House Democrats are incensed that the committee's splintering probe is being eclipsed by new GOP-led investigations into the FBI's conduct during the Clinton email scandal.

"House Republicans have chosen to put President Trump ahead of our national interests," a group of six Democratic committee ranking members wrote to Ryan this week, suggesting he and other GOP leaders "have blocked, stonewalled, and rejected our basic requests to investigate, hold public hearings, and advance legislation" related to Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections.

In response, Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said it "would be irresponsible" not to "put forward the results of the investigation sooner rather than later," in keeping with the goal of "identifying Russia meddling in our election and preventing it in the future."

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Of the three congressional panels investigating the president and Russia, only the Senate Intelligence Committee appears to have maintained bipartisan calm. Panel heads Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) continue to cooperate as they interview witnesses. But it is unclear whether their investigation will conclude soon enough to serve as a cautionary lesson for future election cycles, which experts believe will be as susceptible to foreign meddling as the 2016 presidential contest was.

That was the motivation behind a decision from Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to weigh in this week as well, publishing a 200-plus page report on how Russia deploys an "asymmetric arsenal" of tactics to interfere, disinform, and compromise the integrity of democracies that challenge its interests or global standing.

The committee has not been investigating allegations concerning the president or anomalies of the 2016 U.S. elections. But panel Democrats  who failed to bring along any GOP support for their report in the year since the ranking Democrat, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D), commissioned it  say it is vital that Trump heed their warnings to deter Russians from meddling in upcoming elections in 2018 and 2020.

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"President Trump must be clear-eyed about the Russian threat, take action to strengthen our government's response and our institutions, and  as have other presidents in times of crisis  mobilize our country and work with an international coalition to counter the threat and assert our values," Cardin said.

It is unclear whether the report, which relies on public information, will have much impact beyond buttressing the historical record of Russian aggression against the West. Committee aides stressed that it is the first government report to comprehensively lay out the threat's size and scope.

A spokesman for the committee chairman, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), acknowledged he had received a copy but said "no further full committee activity is planned at this time."

Ed O'Keefe contributed to this report.

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The Republican effort to enlist formidable candidates for the Senate suffered another setback Thursday when Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) announced that he will not run despite President Trump's personal appeals for him to challenge Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in one of the year's top battlegrounds. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Cramer's decision to instead seek reelection in the House, which he announced in a radio interview, followed other recruiting letdowns for Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in deeply conservative states where Republicans are hoping to unseat Democratic senators and pad their 51-49 majority.

"That's a disappointment. Yeah, I know Kevin  he would've been a great candidate," said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), one of McConnell's top lieutenants.

At the beginning of 2017, with Trump's inauguration, Republicans were optimistic about increasing their Senate majority. With Democrats defending more than three times as many seats as the GOP, Republicans saw opportunities to build  perhaps even reach the filibuster-proof number of 60  and give themselves considerable leverage on future legislation.

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But attracting top candidates in key Senate races has been an ongoing struggle for a party facing strong political head winds. A pair of Republican retirements  Jeff Flake in Arizona and Bob Corker in Tennessee  have opened the door for Democrats in GOP-held states. In Montana, Wisconsin, Michigan and now North Dakota  all states that Trump won and where Democratic senators face elections this year  top Republicans have passed on the Senate contest to pursue other opportunities.

Democrats will be looking to hold on to 26 seats, including in Minnesota after Al Franken stepped down amid sexual misconduct allegations, and the two independent seats in Vermont and Maine. Republicans have eight seats on the ballot in November after Democrat Doug Jones stunned the GOP with a win in ruby-red Alabama last month.

Cramer, who has been a staunch supporter of Trump and has a higher profile than most Republicans in his state  North Dakota has only one seat in the House, making its representative more visible than most  said family considerations led him to conclude that it was in his best interest to run for the House, not the Senate.

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"It's far less intense than flying around the country for the next 10 months every weekend, going to Chicago and New York and, you know, cities far away to raise adequate funds to, you know, to run," he said on the radio program "What's on Your Mind?"

Cramer said he did not want to "diminish the impact" of Trump urging him to run. He added that "while he was very persuasive, he was also very understanding when we raised concerns."

Trump extensively courted Cramer for the race, even calling his wife to make his pitch. The two met on Jan. 2 in the Oval Office. By the end of 2017, White House officials had thought Cramer was going to run and were even predicting the date of his announcement. Senate Republican officials were also keen about getting him onboard.

The North Dakota Senate race is a top priority for Republicans this year. It is one of 10 states Senate Democrats are defending that Trump won. He carried the state by more than 36 percentage points in 2016.

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Republican state Sen. Tom Campbell has announced his candidacy, but he is not as well known as Cramer. Other Republicans could be tempted to challenge him, triggering a potentially bruising primary.

Heitkamp was reluctant to talk about Cramer's decision. As she boarded a subway in the Capitol, she tried to brush aside questions. "I've issued a statement," she said. A campaign representative provided a statement from Heitkamp that made no mention of Cramer.

"It's telling that people don't want to take on that race  and for good reason. Because Heidi's been all about North Dakota," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Cramer's decision adds to the list of Trump's personal recruiting missions that have proved unsuccessful.

The president tried to convince Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) to run for reelection  even organizing a trip to Utah last year largely to court him. Aides made sure Hatch was alone with Trump in certain moments and photo opportunities.

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But Hatch announced earlier this month that he plans to retire, clearing the way for Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic, to launch a likely bid for his seat.

Trump's political director, Bill Stepien, frequently met with Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, who ended his Senate campaign last week, citing an unspecified health problem his wife is dealing with as the reason for his decision.

After Mandel ended his bid, the White House was successful in nudging Rep. James B. Renacci (R-Ohio) to run instead. Renacci met with Stepien on Wednesday at the White House and announced Thursday that he was ending his campaign for governor to run for the Senate.

Still, the sting of Cramer's decision could be felt in the hallways of the Capitol, where some Republicans were plainly deflated by the news.

"Very disappointing. He's a good congressman. He would have made a very good United States senator," said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).

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The first time Jeff Reilly lost a bidding war, he was trying to buy a duplex east of the H Street corridor in the District. He had a $50,000 escalation clause, to $370,000, and was beaten by a $380,000 cash offer. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Reilly, 29, did not have his heart set on the purchase. He was planning to use it as an investment property and continue to rent in Alexandria.

But once he got engaged to Charlotte Perpall, 29, in May, they switched gears, and decided to buy a house they could live in while Reilly fixed it up.

The next two months were so full of house tours, bidding wars and sellers who accepted no bid at all that the couple, now married, can hardly remember which happened when.

They think they bid on six other houses they didn't close on. Or was it five?

Noel Sesay, an agent with One Real Estate in Washington, represented them for most of that time. He said about 75 percent of the bids he submits are going up against other buyers.

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The database of sales in the region does not track sales for which there were multiple bids, so there's no way to accurately say how often it's happening in any jurisdiction.

Ben Stern, a real estate agent who mostly represents buyers in the District for Buyer's Edge, paused for a long time when asked how often he had a buyer who was not competing with simultaneous offers. He guessed: once a year?

The problem happens because too many people are chasing too little inventory, especially across the $350,000-to-$700,000 price range of the rowhouses and single-family homes in the District and Takoma Park in Montgomery County.

"Everything does seem to be faster," said Dan Metcalf, a real estate agent with the Finn Family group in Takoma Park. Metcalf mostly represents sellers in Takoma Park, and he said commonly they request bids Tuesday after the first weekend on the market.

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Perpall and Reilly were up for making decisions quickly.

Their next attempt was to buy a Craftsman house on a half-acre in Woodridge, in Northeast Washington, east of Brookland and near Mount Rainer in Prince George's County.

"The bones of the house were beautiful," Reilly said. But even though their agent found the owner a new place to move to, as requested, the would-be seller ultimately stayed put.

Next came the house they call the "pee house."

"You walk in the house, you get smacked in the face with the stench of urine," Reilly said. It went for more than $500,000, and the couple's bid had been at asking, in the mid-$400,000s.

The next time they didn't have the highest offer in a bidding war was near the Rhode Island Avenue Metro, one Perpall called "the chicken house," because the neighbors had chickens in the back yard.

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That was the highest bid they'd made so far, with escalation to $580,000, even though, in retrospect, Reilly's not even sure if it could have passed inspection to qualify for a VA loan.

"You were pretty demoralized after the chicken house," Reilly said to his wife. She agreed. "I was totally heartbroken."

The couple were renting month-to-month in Alexandria and decided to retreat from the D.C. housing market. Reilly's commute would have been much longer if they had moved to Northeast Washington  he's a contractor at Quantico  but he was willing to do it for the opportunity to make money when they resold the house in a few years.

Reilly grew up tagging along with his dad on construction jobs in New Mexico, so he thought he'd buy in an up-and-coming D.C. neighborhood, do the renovation himself and catch the wave of appreciation.

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But, back in Alexandria, they were still outbid on a place near the Braddock Road Metro station in late May. Finally, Reilly found the house they bought July 3, and Sesay wrote the offer on July Fourth. The asking price was $545,000; they offered $535,000, and compromised on $540,000. They were the first offer in, although five more followed on July 5, and they heard one was higher.

"Noel was amazing, how fast he could turn around an offer," Reilly said.

Reilly's fiancee, now wife, didn't even see the house until after they closed. But it wasn't the first time one pulled the trigger when the other just saw photos on the Internet. Reilly had been out of town for work when she entered a bid on one of the D.C. houses.

Besides just deciding to offer more money, buyers adjust to the hyper-competitive market in a number of ways, agents say.

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One is lowering their expectations of what they can afford. If they wanted a two-bedroom condo, they'll look at one-bedroom properties. If they wanted a rowhouse that didn't need any work, now they're willing to redo an ugly kitchen. They'll drop off-street parking as a requirement.

But for folks who want a rowhouse, they usually won't downsize to a condo, Stern said. They'll shift to a neighborhood earlier on the gentrification curve instead.

In the District, that generally means moving north or east. Instead of Shaw, Bloomingdale. Instead of Bloomingdale, Eckington. Instead of Eckington, Trinidad. Instead of Petworth, Brightwood.

Stern said it's not as common for someone to start looking in the District but ending up buying in a more affordable suburb such as Mount Rainier, West Hyattsville or Silver Spring.

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But Ann Wenzel, 33, and Scott Wallace, 32, changed more than just Zip codes when they repeatedly failed to win bids several months ago.

The couple had been renting a bungalow in Takoma Park for $2,200 a month when they decided in December 2016 to start looking to buy in that city within a mile of Metro  for less than $500,000.

The first bid was on a house in Takoma Park that had gone on the market that month. The sellers had dropped the price about $10,000, which put it below the half-million mark.

They offered the asking price but asked for $5,000 back at closing, and lost out to a buyer who had 20 percent down. They had only a 10 percent down payment. "We didn't know what we were doing," Wenzel said.

Next, they tried a Cape Cod in Silver Spring, about two miles to downtown. They went in asking at $495,000, and asked for $5,000 back because it needed a roof. The successful bidder paid $516,500.

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Sesay said it's rare to have a buyer with five or six failed bids, but that winning on the third try is pretty typical.

Ann and Scott did win their third bid, a Brightwood rowhouse for $487,000 that they thought needed $50,000 worth of work.

"We were like, 'Oh, [expletive]," Ann recalled, after learning they were chosen. After inspection, the couple were told it might need $80,000 to $100,000 to put in air conditioning, remodel the kitchen and fix a sagging porch. They backed out.

Their lease was up May 31, and their landlord wasn't willing to go month-to-month, so they were on the verge of giving up. Then a house in Brightwood that had a recently redone Ikea kitchen and had air conditioning came on the market for $458,000. They put in an escalation clause for up to $475,000, and they needed every last dollar of it. There were 11 other offers, but theirs, even with only 3 percent down, was the winner. They learned the kitchen remodel had been done without a permit, so they've picked up some DIY skills and upgraded to safe outlets in the kitchen, put handles in the shower, painted, and patched and smoothed plaster.

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Although a lack of shower handles didn't deter these bidders in Brightwood, Metcalf said more buyers should consider more houses that aren't cute. "The market right now is extremely driven by aesthetics," he said.

Metcalf said buyers who are outbid can learn from their mistakes. Don't offer below asking and pair it with an escalation clause past asking. Make your earnest deposit at least 5 percent of the asking price if you are going to be putting that much or more down. More is better. The deposit isn't at risk until after inspection.

And, he said, consider houses that have been sitting on the market for weeks. "If it's over 15 days on the market, no one looks at it," he said. "If it's mispriced, that could be fixed."

Although most said it was exhausting to shop for houses in a market that Stern called "peak craziness," Reilly looks back on the months of frenetic activity with fondness.

"I enjoyed it," he said. "If you're getting beat, you know you're not overpaying."

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Ecuador has granted citizenship to fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the South American nation announced Thursday, in a bid to end his more than five-year stay at its embassy in London and resolve a protracted dispute with Britain. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight But a standoff continued with the British government, which rejected an Ecuadoran request that it grant diplomatic status to Assange, insisting instead that the Australian national must "leave the embassy to face justice."

Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, subsequently said that Assange would not leave the embassy in the absence of security guarantees. She said in a news conference Thursday in Quito, the Ecuadoran capital, that Assange was granted citizenship Dec. 12, after having applied for it in September.

Espinosa also said that Ecuador was concerned about potential threats to Assange's life from unspecified other nations and was looking for a "dignified" way to resolve an "unsustainable" situation at its London embassy, where Assange has been living in a small office, and end the stalemate with Britain.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks at Ecuadors embassy in London on May 19, 2017. (Video: Reuters)

The British government said in a statement Thursday that the granting of Ecuadoran nationality "does not in any way change Julian Assange's legal status" in Britain.

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"Julian Assange is in breach of bail conditions set in 2012 and chose to enter the Ecuadorean Embassy of his own volition," the statement added. "The government of Ecuador knows that the way to resolve the situation is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice. Nobody should pretend that granting him Ecuadorean citizenship is a route to solving this longstanding issue."

Assange, who angered the U.S. government when his anti-secrecy organization published troves of classified documents obtained in 2010 from a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, sought refuge in the Ecuadoran Embassy in August 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was sought for alleged sexual offenses. Sweden later dropped the case, but Assange remained ensconced in the embassy because he still faced arrest in Britain for jumping bail.

He also has expressed fear of extradition to the United States, where the Justice Department is weighing whether to charge him for his role in publishing the secret documents leaked by Army soldier Bradley Manning, now known as Chelsea Manning.

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News of the move to grant Assange citizenship emerged Wednesday when the Ecuadoran newspaper El Universo reported that, according to the country's civil register, he had been assigned an identity number. The daily reported that Assange also may have been issued a passport.

The Ecuadoran Foreign Ministry at first responded that it would not address "rumors or distorted or out-of-context information," Germany's DPA news agency reported.

Assange surrendered to British police in December 2010, a month after Sweden requested his extradition, and was held for 10 days before he was released on bail. But when his effort to block extradition was rejected, he jumped bail and became a fugitive, seeking asylum at the Ecuadoran Embassy.

His asylum request was granted by Ecuador's then-president, Rafael Correa, a fiery leftist and fierce critic of Washington who once expelled the U.S. ambassador and the U.S. Agency for International Development from his country.

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However, Correa was succeeded last year by his former vice president, Lenin Moreno, who has sought to put Ecuador on a more moderate path. The new president also engaged in a public spat with Assange over the WikiLeaks founder's vocal support for Catalan separatists in Spain.

The Washington Post reported in April 2017 that federal prosecutors were weighing whether to bring criminal charges against members of WikiLeaks, revisiting the 2010 publication of U.S. diplomatic cables and military documents, and investigating the organization's more recent revelation of sensitive CIA cyber-tools.

Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department decided not to charge WikiLeaks for revealing some of the government's most sensitive secrets on grounds that doing so would be like prosecuting a news organization for publishing classified information. But President Trump's Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff Sessions has indicated that it may take a different view.

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When Assange sought refuge in the red-brick Ecuadoran Embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London, next to Harrods department store in one of the city's poshest areas, he said his underlying concern was that returning to Sweden would lead to extradition to the United States.

Last year, Swedish prosecutors said they were dropping an investigation into sexual assault allegations because they were unable to serve him notice.

Internal memos from staff at the embassy, seen by BuzzFeed and the journalist Fernando Villavicencio, paint a picture of a sometimes stressful and difficult relationship between Assange and his hosts.

A more public dispute emerged in 2016 when Ecuador cut off Assange's Internet connection due to concerns that WikiLeaks was interfering in the U.S. presidential election after the organization published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee.

A medical evaluation of Assange, written anonymously and tweeted by WikiLeaks in 2016, said his bedroom was "just big enough for a single bed and a small cupboard for clothes." It complained that "there is no room for a chair or desk" and that "the room receives no sunlight." It added that Assange has "shared use of a second room," containing a desk, chairs and a treadmill.

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At her news conference Thursday in Quito, Espinosa lamented that Ecuador's latest attempts to resolve the stalemate in a way acceptable to Britain were leaked prematurely. Apart from trying to arrange diplomatic status for Assange, she said, "Another option has been granting the asylee a special status, recognized under the Geneva Convention of diplomatic relations, with the aim of increasing his chances of protection."

WikiLeaks first burst onto the world scene a decade ago with headline-grabbing revelations about alleged abuses at the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The nonprofit, whose mission was to publish leaked documents revealing official malfeasance and overreach, and its flamboyant but reserved boss quickly became darlings of progressives and freedom-of-information campaigners.

But since then, Assange and his organization have fallen from favor, alienating many on the left by providing a conduit for purloined Democratic Party emails that helped undermine Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the stolen material came from Russian hackers working for the Kremlin, although Assange has denied knowing their provenance.

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The sexual assault allegations also tarnished Assange's reputation. Unable to interview the only suspect in the case, Swedish prosecutors shelved their investigation, although they could reopen it if they were able finally to gain access to him.

For Correa, providing refuge to Assange offered the then-president a chance to raise his international profile while cementing his leftist credentials during a stormy period at home. However, Moreno, with whom Correa has now had a spectacular falling-out, has proved a less enthusiastic ally of Assange.

The current Ecuadoran president has publicly told Assange to refrain from getting involved in Catalonia's independence struggle and politics more generally. In response, Assange angrily tweeted back that Moreno was trying to "gag my reporting of human rights abuses."

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Ecuadoran analysts said Moreno has been looking for a face-saving strategy to get Assange out of the London embassy, where his continued presence brings the president little domestic political benefit while placing him at diplomatic loggerheads with the United States and other Western democracies.

Ramiro Crespo, a Quito-based investment analyst, said the Moreno administration has become increasingly "uncomfortable" hosting Assange in the embassy, adding that Ecuador no longer needs to deflect attention from its repression of journalists, an authoritarian Correa policy that Moreno has reversed.

"Assange's presence in the embassy has very high diplomatic and reputational costs for Ecuador," Crespo said. "Correa used Assange as a propaganda weapon to say that he was a defender of human rights, something that no one in Ecuador believes anymore."

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Moreno "is more pragmatic" and "wants to have good relations with the U.S. and Europe," Crespo added, "and Assange really has no utility for him."

Adam reported from London. Tegel reported from Lima, Peru.

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Top European diplomats offered Iran's foreign minister renewed support Thursday for the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran even as the White House weighs whether to step away from the pact. But the European envoys also questioned Mohammad Javad Zarif over contentious matters such as Iran's missile program and its role in Syria's war as a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad.

The messages from the foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany sought to acknowledge the range of Western concerns, including Iran's ballistic missile development and its crackdown on dissent after street protests in the country this month.

But Europe also signaled its opposition to the Trump administration over the nuclear deal, which ended most international sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

"Unity is essential to preserve a deal that is working, that is making the world safer, that is preventing a nuclear arms race in the region," the European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said after the talks in Brussels.

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President Trump must decide by Friday whether to continue to back the provisions of the nuclear deal, which effectively opened Iran to international commerce, including a tentative deal with U.S. aircraft maker Boeing.

Officials in the administration have suggested that the president plans to extend the waivers that lifted sanctions on Iran but could seek new measures over issues such as human rights and Tehran's missile program. This was first reported by the Associated Press.

Such a move would offer some relief in Europe, where leaders fear that unilateral U.S. sanctions could unravel the nuclear deal hammered out between Iran and six world powers.

In October, Trump declined to certify that the agreement was in U.S. national security interests despite reports by the U.N. nuclear agency and others that Iran was abiding by the terms of the deal.

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In a statement before the Brussels meeting, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson highlighted the sharp break with Washington, calling the nuclear deal "a crucial agreement that makes the world safer."

"There is no indication today that could call into doubt Iranian respect of the agreement," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters.

On Twitter, Zarif posted a message noting "strong consensus in Brussels" that Iran was complying with the nuclear deal and saying that any attempt to undercut the accord was "unacceptable."

The meeting was the Iranian foreign minister's first face-to-face dialogue in the West since a wave of unrest was touched off by frustrations over Iran's stumbling economy. Among the protesters' grievances was the failure of the nuclear accord to quickly boost the Iranian economy, as promised by the deal's key backers, including President Hassan Rouhani.

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Thursday's talks also highlight one of the major points of friction between the United States and Europe that could be raised during Trump's planned visit to the World Economic Forum this month in Davos, Switzerland.

European firms have moved quickly to reestablish business ties after the nuclear deal, with aviation and carmaking firms leading the way. Europe's Airbus consortium has reached a deal to sell up to 100 airliners to state-run Iran Air. Some industry experts put the value of the deal at more than $16 billion.

Airbus rival Boeing also has sealed an agreement, estimated to be worth as much as $20 billion, to sell Iran Air up to 80 aircraft. The Boeing plans have been thrown into question by Trump's opposition to the nuclear pact, but Iran Air's chief, Farzaneh Sharafbafi, told Iranian media in October that the sale could go through even if the United States abandoned the nuclear accord.

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A new legal challenge seeks to end indefinite detention without trial at Guantanamo Bay, as lawyers for 11 men who have been held at the military facility for up to 16 years argue that their imprisonment has gone on too long. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The motion, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington on Thursday, asserts that the detention of 11 prisoners, none of whom have been charged during their decade and a half at Guantanamo, violates U.S. and international law.

The group represents a large share of the detainees remaining who are not facing trial in a military court process at the prison, which President Trump has promised he will keep open and potentially use to house new terrorism suspects.

Wells Dixon, a senior staff lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which was involved in putting forward this week's action, said the Trump administration had opened itself up to a legal challenge because it appeared to intend to leave inmates at Guantanamo for the foreseeable future, even those who face no charges.

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The motion argues "really for the first time, that the men who remain at Guantanamo simply have been held for too long," Dixon said. "These men will likely die in Guantanamo unless the courts intervene."

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment, saying that officials were reviewing the filing.

The new legal action could present a test of the Trump administration's resolve in keeping the controversial prison in operation and breaking with the previous administration's practice of releasing detainees overseas, which many Republicans allege has threatened American security.

With 41 prisoners remaining, the population at Guantanamo is a fraction of the more than 700 it housed in the wake of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Trump, criticizing the actions of his predecessor, vowed after his election that he would end detainee transfers and fill the detention facility, perched on a corner of Cuba, with "bad dudes."

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Trump has backed off that promise in recent months, suggesting that it would take too long to try the suspect in a November terrorist attack through the dysfunctional process for trying Guantanamo detainees. More than 16 years after the 9/11 attacks, trials for those suspects are stuck in years of logistical and security delays and could be years away from conclusion.

A spokesman for the National Security Council, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said decisions regarding "terrorists" were made on an individual basis, grounded in the particulars of each case. "President Trump remains committed to using military detention and all available tools to defeat terrorism and protect the United States and its interests abroad," he said.

Several of the men included in Thursday's filing were granted approval to be resettled overseas after undergoing a security review by the Obama administration but did not end up being among the 196 inmates repatriated or sent to a third country.

The highest-profile prisoner in the group is Abu Zubaida, an alleged al-Qaeda operative who was tortured at a secret CIA facility before being brought to Guantanamo in 2006.

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In their filing, the attorneys for the detainees argue that the Trump administration's decision not to consider resettlement or alternative arrangements for detainees who have not been charged violates their due-process rights.

A spokeswoman for the Pentagon said the Periodic Review Board process, which convenes officials from across the government to consider whether a detainee continues to pose a risk, has continued.

But the Trump administration has not appeared to use that review mechanism to move prisoners toward overseas transfer.

Lee Wolosky, who served as special envoy for Guantanamo closure under the Obama administration, said the Trump administration's approach "flies in the face of the history of U.S. detention policy under both Republican and Democratic administrations."

The motion also argues that the ongoing detention of two men already cleared for transfer, a Yemeni and a Moroccan, has no legal purpose, because the Trump administration does not intend to move them overseas.

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Also at issue is the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. It has been cited as a basis for military detentions and ongoing combat operations overseas, but attorneys for the 11 men assert it does not justify indefinite imprisonment.

Jack Goldsmith, a professor at Harvard Law School who has written extensively about national security issues, said that assertion, and the argument that the Trump administration has failed in its responsibility to examine each detainee's case individually, is unlikely to succeed in court.

"It is doubtful but conceivable that those arguments could get traction," Goldsmith said in an email, also referring to the motion's argument that Trump has already lost legal challenges that assert he has demonstrated bias against Muslims.

Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.

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BOGOTA, Colombia  The breakdown of a cease-fire with a left-wing rebel group is threatening President Juan Manuel Santos's goal of delivering peace and an end to Latin America's longest-running war before the end of his eight-year term this August. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight After five decades of conflict between the Colombian state and various anti-government rebel groups, Santos brokered a peace agreement with the country's main Marxist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)  winning a Nobel Peace Prize in the process  but a deal with anotherrebel band, the National Liberation Army (ELN) remains elusive, and key elections are just months away.

The three-month cease-fire between the army and the ELN ended on Tuesday. Within hours, the rebels blew up the national oil pipeline near the border with Venezuela and threw a grenade at soldiers. In a separate attack near the frontier, a sniper killed a Colombian soldier. Colombia's military attributed the attack to the ELN.

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Santos responded shortly afterward by recalling his chief negotiator from Quito, Ecuador, where talks had been scheduled.

"I deplore the ELN for restarting terrorist attacks against civilians, armed forces, and infrastructure. Our government had always, always been ready to extend a cease-fire with this group," he said Wednesday.

It was the latest headache in the long and fraught road to a deal with the ELN, which has a reputation for being a much more difficult negotiating partner than the FARC, which has formed a political party since laying down arms last year.

While few observers expect the ELN guerrillas to launch a major offensive, the breakdown in the cease-fire indicates the complexity of finally ending the insurgency. Within hours of the attacks, the ELN chief negotiator made a public statement affirming the group's interest in continuing talks.

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"Talks with the ELN have been an enormous frustration for the Santos administration," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Latin America-focused think tank in Washington. "ELN doesn't have the kind of discipline and structure FARC did, so there are units that commit these attacks and put the whole process at risk. I think clearly these are setbacks. And of course, the administration has to respond very forcefully in this electoral environment."

Elections for Colombia's congress are scheduled for March, followed by a presidential vote in May. Santos's National Unity coalition is deeply involved in the peace process. And though he doesn't have outright backing from Santos, 71-year-old Liberal Party candidate Humberto de la Calle served as his chief negotiator with the FARC and is seen by many to be the one who most likely would keep Santos's peace policy intact.

Any setbacks in the talks would benefit the conservative opposition.

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"I think it would help conservative, right-leaning candidates like Ivan Duque: that guerrilla rebels can't be trusted and they break their word. This is further evidence of that  it bolsters their case a little bit," Shifter said.

Duque is the 42-year-old presidential candidate for the conservative Democratic Center founded by former president Alvaro Uribe, the Santos government's biggest critic  one who remains popular and campaigned heavily against negotiations with the rebels.

"The ELN never complied with the cease-fire. They were always harassing the civilian population, recruiting young kids, and continuing terrorism," Duque told The Washington Post. "The ELN must submit itself to international supervision, suspend criminal activity, and there needs to be a period for demobilization, disarmament and reinsertion [back into society]."

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Like the FARC, the ELN has been fighting the government since 1964, kidnapping people and clashing with security forces in its struggle to topple the state. Just days ahead of Pope Francis's visit to Colombia last year, ELN and government negotiators settled on the conditions for a cease-fire that went into effect on Oct. 1, 2017.

In return for suspending hostilities, the ELN was promised better conditions for imprisoned rebels and increased security for leftist community leaders, dozens of whom have been killed in recent months.

Since negotiations started last February, there has been a drop in violence, according to the Bogota-based conflict studies center CERAC. Its study published in October last year showed a 43 percent reduction in combat incidents during the peace process compared with the same eight-month period in 2016.

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A failure of peace talks with ELN, however, could also endanger Santos's other great achievement, peace with the FARC. "The impact of not achieving a deal with the ELN on the current peace agreement [with the FARC] would be huge," said Catalina Giron, an independent political risk analyst, explaining that ELN rebels could move into the FARC's old strongholds, derailing attempts to bring fighters from that group back into society.

"It's especially a risk for commitments related to reintegration of FARC fighters there back into civilian life," she added.

Though they share a Marxist ideology,the FARC and ELN are really two different animals, noted Giron. While the FARC always demanded land reform, ELN ideology was more about a total redistribution of all resources, so they insist on separate conditions for their peace process  complicating talks.

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Still, it is too early to count out Santos's Liberal Party in the coming elections. As long as the talks get back on track by the time the elections roll around, the ongoing negotiations could bolster the party's chances, suggested Jorge Restrepo, the director of CERAC.

"It's important to note that there are electoral benefits for keeping negotiators at the table," he said. "It's a political advantage for the Santos government that it could pay off in May/June elections in favor his candidate."

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BEIRUT  Russia on Wednesday identified the village from which a swarm of drones attacked its main military base in Syria and released photographs of the crudely constructed aircraft that were used. The revelations only somewhat cleared up the mystery surrounding what amounts to the biggest concerted attack on Russia's main military base of Hmeimim since the Russian military intervention in Syria began in 2015.

Russia said it held Turkey accountable for the drone attack, calling it a breach of their cease-fire agreement in northern Syria, while Turkey accused Russia and Iran of jeopardizing the entire peace process by launching an offensive to take control of an opposition-held air base in the area.

The Russian Defense Ministry named the opposition-controlled village of Muwazarra in southern Idlib province as the location from which a swarm of at least a dozen drones armed with crude explosives was launched Saturday, attacking the Hmeimim air base and the nearby naval base of Tartus in northwestern Syria. Under the cease-fire deal, Turkey is supposed to restrain opposition forces in Idlib province.

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The Defense Ministry posted photographs of one of the drones on its Facebook page, showing what looked like a homemade model aircraft that did not seem particularly sophisticated.

The fixed-wing drone resembled an oversize toy aircraft and appeared to have been cheaply assembled from a type of plywood, said Aaron Stein of the Washington-based Atlantic Council. The craft was attached to the kind of engines used to power lawn mowers and strapped with at least nine small rockets that could have been dropped from the drone or used to turn the craft into a bomb.

It was unclear from the photographs how the drones were guided, but simple GPS devices could conceivably have been programmed to fly the planes over a long distance to reach the air base, using GPS coordinates available on the Internet, Stein said.

Syrian reporter Yaman al-Sayed of Orient News was injured while covering bombings near Damascus, Syria on Jan. 3. (Video: The Washington Post)

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"The drones look to me like a DIY project, and decidedly low-tech," he said.

The drones nonetheless represent the first time such a weapon has been used in Syria in this way.

Six days earlier, two Russian servicemen were killed in what was widely reported as a mortar attack on the Hmeimim base. At least some fighter jets in Russia's fleet also appear to have been damaged in the attack. But increasingly there are suspicions that the attack also may have been carried out with weaponized drones.

Neither of the attacks has been claimed, heightening the mystery around who was responsible.

The Islamic State has used commercially available quad-type drones to drop small quantities of explosives on enemy troops in Syria and Iraq, but those devices have a range of no more than one to two kilometers, according to the IHS Markit consultancy group.

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Russia says the drones used in the attacks had a range of about 30 to 60 miles and on Wednesday said they were launched from the village of Muwazarra, about 50 miles from Hmeimim. The village is controlled by the "moderate opposition," said a report in Russia's official Defense Ministry newspaper.

Residents of the village in the Jabal Zawiya mountains said they had no knowledge of the attack and expressed fear that Russia would retaliate against them. "We reject the Russian accusations completely," said Mohanned Issaf, 27, who lives in the village and was contacted over social media. "The village has always come under shelling, and the regime and Russia don't need an excuse to bomb us. But now they might bomb more after these false accusations."

Muwazarra has been on the front line of the war between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad since the earliest days of the war, when the region quickly came under the control of U.S.-allied moderate rebels with the Syrian Revolutionary Forces.

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But after the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra drove the SRF out of the area in 2014, it has been under overall control of the extremists. The village remains loyal to the moderate opposition, but military positions surrounding it belong to the Nusra offshoot Harakat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, said another man who lives in the village and did not want his name to be used. The closest HTS base, lying in a valley to the east of the village, was destroyed in a Russian airstrike earlier this week, he said  after the attacks on Hmeimim.

The HTS is a possible suspect in the drone attack "because they are the biggest and strongest of the opposition groups" in the area, said Aron Lund, who analyzes Syria for the Century Foundation. If they were responsible, it is not clear why they would not claim the attack.

Many Syrians and also Russians have speculated that foreign intelligence agencies with reasons to provoke the Russians may have helped a local group conduct the attack. "There's a lot of fishy stuff going on in Idlib  agents running around, and groups working with groups they shouldn't work with," Lund said. "It's very, very murky."

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In a letter sent to top Turkish officials, Russia said it held Turkey responsible for the drone attacks, which it described as a breach of their cease-fire deal in Idlib province, according to the Defense Ministry newspaper. Under an understanding reached between Russia, Turkey and Iran last year, Turkey is supposed to be responsible for restraining the opposition in Idlib and Russia and Iran is responsible with preventing the regime from carrying out attacks.

The Hmeimim attacks coincide with an escalation of fighting in Idlib, with a new offensive that was launched by the Syrian government, backed by Russia, now underway.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu complained Wednesday that Iran and Russia were not upholding their agreements under the cease-fire and called on them to halt their offensive.

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The outlines of a potential new deal appear to be emerging under which Russia agrees to prevail upon the Syrian government to refrain from attacking any more opposition territory and Turkey agrees to prevent the opposition from attacking Russian bases, said Jennifer Cafarella of the Institute for the Study of War.

Zakaria reported from Istanbul.

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ISTANBUL  A withering United Nations report on Yemen's civil war provides fresh evidence about the extent to which Saudi Arabia and Iran have intervened in the conflict, pursuing their regional proxy war even as Yemen disintegrated into "warring statelets" that would be difficult to reunite. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight A 79-page report by a U.N. expert panel bolstered accusations by the Trump administration that Iranian weapons, including ballistic missiles, have been supplied to a Yemeni rebel group called the Houthis. The U.N. panel said there were "strong indications of the supply of arms-related material manufactured in, or emanating from, the Islamic Republic of Iran," in violation of a U.N. embargo on Yemen.

But the report also had harsh words for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the Trump administration's closest Arab allies, saying they have continued or expanded their support for Yemeni forces that undermine the authority of the government and could hasten the fragmentation of the state.

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The U.N. experts were particularly critical of airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition. The U.N. previously had said that the majority of the more than 5,000 civilian deaths in the conflict were a result of the airstrikes, which are carried out by a handful of coalition countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, often using U.S.-supplied munitions.

The report, which has not yet been made public, was obtained by The Washington Post.

The panel's findings, nearly three years after the eruption of widespread hostilities in Yemen, add weight to repeated warnings by aid workers and analysts about the risks of a humanitarian catastrophe, rampant human rights abuses and the potential for the battle to spill over Yemen's borders.

With the proliferation of local rivalries and armed groups with competing loyalties, "Yemen as a state has all but ceased to exist," the report said.

What began as a largely domestic fight after the Houthi rebels seized control of Sanaa, the capital, and drove the government from power has been transformed into an arena for the regional feud between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition, which receives military support from the United States, entered the war in 2015 to restore the government and dislodge the Houthis, whom the Saudis accused of acting as an Iranian proxy force, a charge the Houthis have long denied.

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Eight million people, or a third of Yemen's population, are facing famine. A cholera outbreak that has affected roughly a million people is one of the largest ever recorded. More than 10,000 people have been killed since the war began.

Houthi missile attacks in recent months targeting Saudi Arabia  including one that reached the Saudi capital  have raised fears that the war could spark a wider regional conflict. The United States and the Saudis have accused Iran of supplying ballistic missiles to the Houthis, while arguing that the weapon transfers are proof of Iran's destabilizing role in the region.

The Iranian government has denied providing the Houthis with weapons.

At least four attacks on Saudi Arabia were carried out with missiles capable of a range "beyond that normally expected of the known missiles" in the Houthi arsenal, the panel said. The U.N. panel examined the remnants of two of the missiles  fired July 22 and Nov. 4  and found that they were consistent with the design of an Iranian missile and "almost certainly produced by the same manufacturer."

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While the report criticized Iran for failing to halt the transfer of weapons, the panel could not say with certainty how they were transported to the Houthis or who the supplier was.

In reviewing the conduct of Saudi-led military activity, the U.N. panel examined 10 airstrikes last year that killed 157 people, including 85 children, and found that "measures taken by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in its targeting process to minimize child casualties, if any, remain largely ineffective." And a coalition committee tasked with investigating the airstrikes had in some cases denied that strikes had taken place despite "clear evidence" to the contrary, the report said.

In response to international concern over the strikes, Saudi officials have said that targeting practices are improving and that errant strikes are thoroughly investigated.

The report also found that the rule of law was "deteriorating rapidly across Yemen" as all parties to the conflict had carried out widespread violations of human rights. The panel had corroborated media reports that the United Arab Emirates  part of the Saudi-led military coalition  had tortured prisoners under its control. The Saudi-led coalition, which enforced a blockade on Yemen, was using the "threat of starvation as a bargaining tool and an instrument of war."

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The Houthis had carried out extrajudicial executions and mass detentions, fueling a cycle of revenge that "may last for years."

The war, in the Arab world's poorest country, shows no end in sight, the panel wrote. "All parties to the conflict continue to believe that they can achieve a military victory that would negate the necessity for political compromise."

"Political decision makers on all sides are not bearing the brunt of the war," the report added. "Yemeni civilians are."

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In a tense moment during the Florida House Public Integrity and Ethics Committee meeting on Thursday, the lawyer for a TV executive hired by the state held up a stack of documents, declaring the committee could have as many of his client's documents as they wished  except the ones they are seeking by subpoena.

"I have all the documents Mr. Roberts can provide ... and I'll be happy to give them to anybody who wants them at any point in time," said Mark Herron, referring to his client C. Patrick (Pat) Roberts, a longtime Tallahassee political fixture and current president of the Florida Broadcasters Association.

The committee did not take him up on the offer.

In a rare move, the committee instead unanimously voted that the House issue a separate subpoena from the committee's, which was issued in October and is being litigated in court.

Unlike that order, a House subpoena comes with a sledgehammer ability for self-enforcement outside of a court, meaning as long as the House is in session it can impose fines of $1,000 each day the requested documents aren't forked over or even imprison the subject.

"Where do we seek protection for our trade secrets?" Herron asked. "This House seems to be taking the position that they can investigate anything, ask for anything and get anything while they're in session."

The documents in question are IRS filings and contracts related to a $2.8 million tourism ad campaign for which Visit Florida, a state agency, hired Roberts and his company in 2012. It also paid Roberts $11.6 million to produce a cooking show featuring the celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse.

Herron contended during the meeting that his client has handed over all documents that he is able to legally provide, and that he delivered on his promise to produce 62 episodes of the requested show as well as other marketing materials.

The outstanding documents, which include contracts between Robert's company and other vendors that assisted with the show's production, have legally-binding confidentiality agreements, he said.

But Visit Florida's spending practices have long been under scrutiny by House Speaker Richard Corcoran, whose political brand has been to combat corruption during his tenure.

Then the Naples Daily News reported that Robert's firm had kept all advertising and sponsorship revenue in addition to the contract payments, as well as a boat worth $175,000 gifted by one of the programs sponsors.

Ranking committee member Rep. David Richardson, D-Miami Beach, a former forensic expert witness, said Herron's explanations of Roberts's point of view doesn't replace black and white evidence.

"Honestly as someone who's done forensic work for many, many years, I don't really want to hear someone's story until I have their documents," he said.

During the meeting, committee chair Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, said the House's "prosecution prerogative is not only reasonable, it's necessary" for the state to conduct a thorough investigation.

The last time the legislature issued subpoenas was about two decades ago, when then-Senate President Toni Jennings took on the tobacco industry in the 90s.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/01/2018 (1773 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg nurse who has saved lives for the last 25 years now needs the publics help saving her own.

Sheila Wolfe has worked as a nurse in the emergency room of the Victoria General Hospital for most of her career. Last fall, her jaw started to feel sore. After doing a blood test, doctors diagnosed the 59-year-old with acute myeloid leukemia in October.

Ive been so healthy, never a problem at all. I ran every day, ate right, dont smoke, dont drink  I did everything right, Wolfe said in an interview Wednesday, discussing what its like being on the other side of the health-care system.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Sheila Wolfe is a nurse with leukemia who's in desperate need of a stem cell transplant. Her family is organizing a stem cell registry drive at Victoria Hospital Thursday.

Its very hard to be a patient, because you know a little bit, but not enough. I didnt really know anything about leukemia until this affected me.

Wolfe needs a stem cell transplant in an effort to survive her rare form of blood cancer. So far doctors have been hard-pressed to find a match for Wolfe, partly because she is biracial and her match needs to be of similar ethnicity.

Stem cells are immature blood cells that can turn into any of the three main components of healthy blood (red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets) needed to help fight off disease.

Only about 400,000 Canadians are registered in the OneMatch system as possible stem cell donors and about 75 per cent of them are Caucasian, said Darrin Desmedt, Canadian Blood Services territory manager for stem cells in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Were not fully representative of Canada as a whole. So thats why when we look to what we would call an optimal donor, its definitely someone thats culturally diverse, but also males, Desmedt said.

Males would be included in our optimal donors just because we have better patient outcomes with male donors in general, he said, adding mens blood-donation volumes are higher and they are typically more physiologically stable.

Wolfes family is helping organize a stem cell donor drive at the Victoria hospital Thursday, from noon to 9 p.m., hoping to encourage more people to sign up.

The process is quick and simple: those interested need a few minutes to fill out paperwork and take a cheek swab.

Donors must be between the ages of 17 and 35 to ensure best possible outcomes, said Desmedt, who noted those registered stay in the system until theyre 60.

We want people to understand that when theyre signing up tomorrow theres always that potential they could be a match with Sheila, but they may not, he said. So they have to understand that it could be someone else that theyre willing to donate to as well across Canada.

If you cant make it to the Victoria (2340 Pembina Hwy.), at-home swab kits are also available through blood.ca.

Wolfe, who is on medical leave, wont be at the drive Thursday, but said she misses going to work and her co-workers at the hospital. Shes trying to stay strong for her two daughters, Sarah, 23, and Andrea, 21.

Theyre optimistic. They keep me going. Thats why Im fighting so hard for them, because I want to see them finish school, get married, have kids, she said.

But its been hard, because Im their mom and were very close, she added, with a sigh. Its been a journey.

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu
About an hour and a half before the Florida House took up a controversial bill that would ban sanctuary cities and impose penalties on elected officials and communities that do not comply with the ban, about a hundred immigration rights advocates and several legislators held a protest outside the chamber decrying the bill as"flagrantly racist" and a threat to local governments.

The bill, HB 9, which would prohibit communitites from adopting sanctuary policies protecting undocumented immigrants at the risk of incurring penalties, would also compel Florida cities to comply with detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"They're tired of seeing, year after year, anti-immigrant bills being introduced," said Julio Calderon, a campaign manager for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, as he stood in front of demonstrators hailing largely from South and Central Florida. "We need to stop dehumanizing our communities."

The bill, a legislative priority of House Speaker Richard Corcoran, is primed to pass the House, though unlikely to pass the Senate.

Several Democratic politicians, including Miami-area Sens. Annette Taddeo and Jose Javier Rodriguez, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum and Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando attended and spoke in support.

Rep. Robert Asencio, D-Miami, who spoke out against the bill, said he had proposed two amendments, including language that would ensure the bill deferred to federal immigration law and make an exception for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.

Picking up a 2-year-old boy named Alejandro as he spoke, Asencio asked, "Should we subject him to being deported? Should we subject his family to being deported?"

Alejandro's mother, 26-year-old Eugenia Echeverria of Orlando said she traveled from Central Florida last night worried about the future for her youngest child and her other two children, ages 6 and 7. Both she and her husband, who works in construction, are undocumented.

"I'm fearful that something happens to me or to my kids," she said in Spanish.

Photo: Elizabeth Koh
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 11/01/2018 (1772 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

About 90 people have been laid off and another 150 jobs are in jeopardy in Bissett after the mine owner announced disappointing results for 2017.

True North, formerly known as the Rice Lake mine, has not produced as much gold or money as expected, said Klondex Mines Ltd. in a press release.

Klondex reopened the mine in 2016 and projected a return of 45,000 to 65,000 ounces per year.

Winnipeg Free Press Files Klondex reopened the Bissett mine in 2016 and projected a return of 45,000 to 65,000 ounces of gold per year, but last year only produced 24,000-27,000 ounces.

But gold production from the mine formerly owned by San Gold Corporation was just 24,000-27,000 ounces in 2017. The company said in a press release it required a bare minimum of 35,000-40,000 ounces.

The mine will be run until contracts expire at the end of March and then be placed on care and maintenance status, when more layoffs are expected.

However, Bissett Mayor Doug McPherson is hopeful about 130 jobs can be saved. He is optimistic the layoffs are more of a blip until changes are made to allow long-term profitability for the mine.

(Klondex) found out the way theyre operating the mine is not going to work, said McPherson, who, along with other councillors, met with Klondex officials on Thursday morning.

The problem is the method used for mining the gold deposit is taking in too much waste rock, making processing unprofitable. The company is looking to convert to a method called stope mining, essentially blasting a smaller swath of rock using smaller equipment but more manpower.

Theyre going to analyze what theyre doing and restructure it to operate at a smaller scale, McPherson said.

Klondex did not return messages from the Free Press.

The company is encouraged by certain positive operational improvements made and additional understanding of the vein structures and mining methods gained during the past year, it said in a press release.

This information will help Klondex better define future alternatives.

In the meantime, the company said it will continue to use the mill to process tailings from the previous owner. An estimated $20-million worth of gold was left behind in the tailings.

Klondex president Paul Huet is quoted in the release saying that True North Mine and the recently acquired Bison Gold Resource properties nearby continue to be valuable assets and we are taking the necessary steps to build the foundation for their long-term success within the Klondex portfolio.

Klondex is an international company with headquarters in Nevada and a Canadian office in Vancouver. Klondex has three other operating mines in Nevada.

It purchased the shuttered Rice Lake gold mine in Bissett in late 2015 for US$32 million. It opened in September of 2016.

The Rice Lake mine first opened in 1931 and has open and closed many times throughout its history. Bissett is about 260 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

The area is accustomed to ups and downs in the mining business, said McPherson.

Its not discouraging for the community, he maintained.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 11/01/2018 (1772 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fifty-nine per cent of Manitobans believe municipal governments should reap one-half or more of the provinces excise-tax revenue from cannabis sales after legalization, according to a Probe Research poll commissioned by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.

The random telephone poll asked 1,000 adult Manitobans how much, if any, of the revenue from marijuana should be earmarked for municipalities?

A plurality of respondents, 33 per cent, said local governments should get about half of the revenue, with 16 per cent favouring most of it and 10 per cent calling for all of the provinces future cannabis excise tax revenue to end up with municipalities. Nineteen per cent of respondents said municipalities should receive less than half of the revenue, and five per cent said municipalities should receive none.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Municipal association leaders Jenny Gerbasi, left, and Chris Goertzen want the provincial government to share excise-tax revenue from cannabis with municipalities.

Manitobans aged 55 and older and Manitoban homeowners were more likely to call for municipalities to get at least half the revenue, compared respectively to Manitobans age 35 and younger and Manitobans who rent their home. The poll was conducted between Nov. 23 and Dec. 14 of last year, and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

The survey results show Manitobans understand the work ahead for municipalities in terms of cannabis legalization, said Association of Manitoba Municipalities president and Steinbach mayor Chris Goertzen at a press conference in Winnipeg on Thursday.

Lets face it, a great deal of the implementation, the administration and the enforcement costs will be placed on municipalities, yet municipal budgets have been frozen at 2016 levels this year and theres no certainty for an increase in the coming year, Goertzen said.

That is why revenue from the sale of cannabis is critical now, more than ever.

Goertzen said AMM supports a provincial-municipal revenue-sharing model proposed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which represents almost 2,000 local governments in Canada. That organization is calling for one-third of provincial cannabis excise-tax revenues to be earmarked for municipal governments.

In a December letter to federal finance minister Bill Morneau, FCM offered a preliminary estimate of the costs of marijuana legalization to municipalities: $3 million to $4.75 million per 500,000 people. That includes administration costs ranging from $750,000 to $1.5 million and policing costs ranging from $2.25 million to $3.25 million.

Implementing this federal commitment will reverberate across as many as 17 municipal departments, said FCM president and Winnipeg deputy mayor Jenny Gerbasi at the press conference.

There are bylaws to develop, administer and enforce, zoning and business licences to tackle, she said. Protecting Canadians from drug-impaired drivers will require police training, equipment and public education. All of this will cost money that municipalities do not have.

The FCM call for one-third of provincial tax revenue would serve as a starting point that could be adjusted later if necessary, said Goertzen. The Association of Manitoba Municipalities is in continued dialogue with the province about that future tax revenue right now, he said.

Policing costs are the biggest concern for municipalities, Goertzen said.

In an e-mailed statement, Manitoba Municipal Relations Minister Jeff Wharton said the provinces and territories will bear the majority of costs associated with the health, social and policing implications of legalized of cannabis, including establishing the regulatory and distribution system.

Well continue to work with all levels of government in establishing a framework for Manitoba that takes these realities into account.

Its still unclear exactly how much revenue the proposed federal-provincial excise tax on legal cannabis will actually bring in after legalization, which is expected this summer.

The federal government initially floated the idea of splitting that tax revenue 50-50, but later reached a deal with most provincial finance ministers to share 75 per cent of the excise tax with provincial and territorial governments, who will then pass on a portion to municipal governments.

Manitoba, however, did not sign onto that agreement. In an emailed statement, Finance Minister Cameron Friesen said the province still has not made a decision.

If Manitoba does not sign on to the federal framework, the federal government will only collect the federal share of the excise tax. We are currently reviewing our options, including the level and type of taxation appropriate, said Friesen.

Winnipeg civil servants are working diligently to prepare for cannabis legalization, said Gerbasi, speaking as the citys deputy mayor.

Its certainly something thats on our minds. As a council, its being talked about and we know theyre working hard at it, and were looking forward to hearing something soon.

Portage la Prairie mayor Irvine Ferris said his city, which will allow cannabis sales, still has a lot of questions about legalization.

The message Ive had from the majority of people in Portage that have talked to me about this is they understand there will be extra costs that we will incur because of this. They feel very strongly that the taxpayers of Portage should not be picking up these costs, he said. These costs should be paid for by the revenue produced from the sale of cannabis.

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

@sol_israel
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/01/2018 (1773 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  A Winnipeg couple say theyll continue a decades-long quest to have their 1974 marriage recognized as Canadas first gay wedding, after Manitobas human-rights tribunal dismissed their case Monday.

The provincial human-rights commission said it will appeal that ruling, on behalf of the couple.

A Unitarian church in Winnipeg married Richard North and Chris Vogel in 1974, and the couple sought a provincial marriage certificate shortly afterward. Officials denied the couple, because the law at the time restricted marriage to a man and a woman.

Winnipeg Tribune archives Chris Vogel (left) and Richard North look over their marriage certificate in this 1974 photo. The province refused to recognize their nuptials.

Since then, the couple has gone through court battles to guarantee shared health benefits for common-law same-sex couples. Theyve also organized protests, interviews and letter campaigns to get formal recognition for their wedding.

Vogel, 70, said its mystifying he still isnt legally married to North, 66.

Thisll take a moment of data entry in the Vital Statistics database, and I guess maybe theyll send us a piece of paper saying theyve done it, which will cost them a dollar. But apart from that, theres nothing to this, he said.

In a decision rendered Monday by the Human Rights Board of Adjudication, Robert Dawson sided with the provinces arguments that recognizing the 1974 marriage would require a change in federal law.

This complaint is not about human rights and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Instead, the complaint has more to do with administrative law, Dawson wrote.

The province had noted that a court ruling months after the 1974 marriage ruled that it didnt qualify as a legal wedding under the existing laws. The province argued only the federal Parliament could retroactively change the definition of marriage.

It is not open to a human rights adjudicator to overrule that finding, Dawson wrote, encouraging the couple to instead ask Ottawa to change the law.

Without such intervention, a bizarre and embarrassing irony will persist, Dawson wrote. It is neither fair nor just that the law refuses to recognize the 1974 marriage of a homosexual couple whose long-standing activism and advocacy have made it possible for same-sex couples of today to take for granted their right to marry.

But the couple said theyve intentionally resisted involving Ottawa, believing it would be simpler to get a bureaucratic change at the provincial level rather than a bill passed in Parliament.

Vogel used to work in the provincial civil service, where he said ministers and deputy ministers regularly asked him to override existing rules. He doesnt see why the bureaucracy, during any political partys reign, hasnt made an exception for him.

Im just aware of all the various ploys and tactics they use to try and put off difficult people, he said. This has always been odd, always strange, always inexplicable  and always no.

In a Wednesday statement, Manitoba Justice echoed its stance that Ottawa would have to change past laws.

The federal Parliament has jurisdiction over who can lawfully marry and the provinces have jurisdiction over the process to solemnize a marriage, the department wrote. Because capacity to marry falls within federal jurisdiction, Manitoba cannot unilaterally recognize Mr. Vogel and Mr. Norths marriage.

MP Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre), the federal Liberals adviser for LGBTTQ* issues, declined an interview request, as the couple had not approached him to intervene.

Vogel said he laments the amount of time and taxpayer money thats gone into this commission complaint. But he also says the couple decided not to seek a second wedding after Canada legalized gay marriage in 2005.

It was a lovely occasion, but we saw no need to do it again just because the government was being ugly.

The provincial commission has already decided to seek a judicial appeal, though its unclear on what grounds. Vogel is hoping for a more understanding hearing, saying Dawson seemed to side with the province from early on.

He was quite hostile to the case from the very beginning, he said.

The couple filed their complaint with the commission in late 2015, originally on behalf of all same-sex couples married in Manitoba prior to the provinces September 2004 recognition of gay weddings, but the commission was not able to locate any other couples.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

Human-rights tribunal decision
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 11/01/2018 (1772 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg (UFFW) president Alex Forrest may want to consider an old proverb: no one can serve two masters.

Despite being on leave from his job with the city, the UFFW president gets 60 per cent of his $116,342 salary from the City of Winnipeg rather than union members.

This is an unusual arrangement. Normally when a union official takes leave from their regular duties at the city, the city stops paying and the union picks up the entire tab. The Canadian Union of Public Employees pays for all of its presidents salary and benefits, as does the Winnipeg Police Association and the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union. Its common sense: union presidents work for union members, so union members should pay for union presidents.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The unconventional salary arrangement for United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg president Alex Forrest (right) is a cause for concern for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Its also common sense that unions shouldnt be forwarding taxpayers bills. Winnipeg taxpayers already pay nearly $106 million to firefighters in salaries and benefits. And for that money, they expect firefighters to be fighting fires. In this case, Forrest is no longer fighting fires, but instead running the union.

Perhaps theres some explanation.

Forrest told the Winnipeg Free Press that part of the reason for the arrangement is that hed been sitting on so many committees that the city was paying him anyway.

The faithful Free Press asked the city about those many committees.

Currently, Alex Forrest does not perform any work on behalf of the City of Winnipeg and does not represent the City of Winnipeg on any committee, civic or otherwise, said Michelle Finley, the citys communications officer.

Forrest speculated that there may be a misunderstanding about which committees created the need for this compensation. Its a nearly $70,000 misunderstanding every year.

Interestingly, this situation isnt new. Until 2014, taxpayers were on the hook for 100 per cent of compensation. So, in 2014, the city and firefighters apparently agreed that this was wrong, but only fixed 40 per cent of the problem.

That failure to fully fix the problem has left Forrest with two masters. And that raises an inevitable question: who does Alex Forrest work for?

Presumably Forrest is devoted to defending the interests of Winnipeg firefighters. But he gets more money from city management than from union members. That may weigh on the minds of union members.

Consider the converse: what if city officials negotiating contracts with the firefighters received 60 per cent of their paycheques from firefighters? Eyebrows would be raised to stratospheric heights.

This is obviously a bad situation that needs to be fixed. Unfortunately, an apparent epidemic of amnesia seems to have struck city hall and nobody remembers why this deal happened and nobody thought to mention it to council before it ratified the firefighters new contract just last year. What can be done?

I do understand that there are agreements that have been made prior to my time that are binding agreements, Coun. Scott Gillingham said. Once the terms of this agreement have ended, once Mr. Forrest is no longer the president, then certainly it would be my view that it be changed so that the city is compensated for the UFFWs president.

So the citys plan is to keep sending Forrest taxpayer money until he doesnt want it any more.

There is, of course, another option: Forrest and the United Fire Fighters could do the right thing.

No one can serve two masters  and for his own sake, for the sake of his members and for the sake of taxpayers, Forrest should follow the lead of other union leaders and make it clear who he works for by sending the bill for his services to those he serves.

Todd MacKay is prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The Australian government provoked a diplomatic row with China when one of Canberras ministers slammed Beijing over its aid programs in the Pacific in an interview featured on the front page of the Australian yesterday. China yesterday responded with a formal protest, labelling the criticisms as full of ignorance and prejudice.

The furore is the latest step in a vicious, xenophobic campaign over the past year by the media and political establishment against Chinese interference in Australian politics. The government last month tabled far-reaching legislation in parliament that will lay the basis for criminal charges against anyone who acts as an agent of foreign influence.

In her interview, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells delivered a broadside of unsubstantiated accusations, declaring that China was duchessing politicians in the Pacific, lending funds on unfavourable terms and financing worthless construction projects. Fierravanti-Wells, who is Minister for International Development and the Pacific, claimed that Chinas actions had led to growing resentment among some island communities.

Youve got the Pacific full of these useless buildings which nobody maintains, which are basically white elephants, the minister told the Australian. Ive gone to islands and youll be driving along on some back road and all of a sudden you see this Chinese road crew building a road to nowhere and you think hmm, whats all this about.

Fierravanti-Wells also attacked Chinese loans to the region. While the terms of loans made by the World Bank and Asian Development Banks were known, she said, we dont know what the consequences are when [nations] have to pay back some of these Chinese loans. The minister claimed that she had come across nations concerned about the use of foreign workers in aid projects.

These comments are utterly hypocritical and cynical. Australian imperialism has a long and sordid history of exploitation and plunder in what it regards as its sphere of influence in the South Pacific. Australian foreign aid and other interventions have always been used to prosecute its economic and security interests in the region.

Australia withdrew aid from Fiji, supposedly in protest over the armys 2006 coup. Earlier, it resorted to military force in East Timor in 1999 and 2006, and a de facto occupation of Solomon Islands for a decade from 2003. In 2012, the previous Labor government bullied and bribed Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru into re-establishing offshore detention centres to incarcerate refugees indefinitelya punitive policy continued under the present Liberal-National Coalition.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang yesterday branded Fierravanti-Wellss criticisms as irresponsible, adding we have already made representations to the Australian government. Lu declared that China respected the will of the Pacific islands governments and their people and said Chinese aid had brought real benefits to local people.

A comment on the state-owned Xinhuanet yesterday was less diplomatic in its tone, declaring that the Australian article, like many of its kind in the Australian media last year, is rich in allegations and speculations and short on hard evidence. After defending Chinas aid policies, it concluded: If Australia really cares about its Pacific neighbours, it should first learn from China to treat its much smaller neighbours as equals and refrain from behaving like an arrogant overlord.

Of course, China, like all other major powers, uses so-called aid to advance its interests. For years, it has engaged in rivalry with Taiwan, vying to use aid and loans as a means of buying votes in the United Nations. Currently eight Pacific nations have diplomatic relations with China, while six recognise Taiwan. The population of all these nations is tiny, with only PNG exceeding one million people.

The Australian governments attack on Chinese aid to the Pacific is bound up with the escalating US-led confrontation with China in Asia and globally, and the drive to war. Australia and New Zealand have long functioned as Washingtons deputies, protecting its vital economic and strategic interests in the South West Pacific.

The growth of the Chinese economy and its demands for resources and markets have brought it into conflict with the United States around the globe, including in the Pacific. The Obama administration launched its pivot to Asia to undermine China on all fronts throughout the region and prepare for war. Trump has deepened that stance, threatening Beijing with trade war and continuing the military build-up in the region.

In a rare moment of candour, Hillary Clinton, secretary of state under Obama and chief architect of the pivot, declared in 2011: Lets put aside the moral, humanitarian, do-good side of what we believe in and lets talk straight, realpolitik. We are in a competition with China. Take Papua New Guineahuge energy find. Exxon Mobil is producing it. China is in there every day in every way trying to figure out how its going to come in behind us, come in under us.

Theyre supporting the dictatorial regime that unfortunately is now in charge of Fiji. They have brought all of the leaders of these small Pacific nations to Beijing, wined them and dined them. I mean, if anyone thinks that our retreating on these issues is somehow going to be irrelevant to the maintenance of our leadership in a world where we are competing with China, that is a mistaken notion.

Fierravanti-Wellss remarks have placed squarely into the public arena what has been discussed within various think tanks and foreign policy circles for years. The Australian cited the figures produced by the Lowy Institute estimating Chinese aid to South Pacific nations as being at least $1.8 billion between 2006 and 2016. The think tank undertook a major project entitled Mapping Chinese Aid in the Pacific that resulted in an interactive map in 2015 of where Chinese funds were going.

Government documents have repeatedly emphasised the need for Australia to protect its interests in the Pacific by countering rising Chinese influence. The latest Foreign Policy White Paper published in November again emphasised the need to maintain strong ties with Pacific Island countries, declaring that their security and stability is a fundamental Australian strategic interest.

The deliberate stirring up of anti-China sentiment is a bipartisan policy. Labors foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong criticised Fierravanti-Wells, in particular, and the governments foreign policy, in general, for its clumsiness in dealing with a relationship that is of very great importance to Australia but she did not condemn the basic orientation.

Wong criticised the government for cutting the aid budget, and thereby, in effect, opening the door for China to play an increasing role in the Pacific. In a similar vein, Labors defence spokesman Richard Marles last year declared that Australia had not invested enough in its ties with Pacific nations, describing it as the biggest national security blindspot. In other words, Labor is advocating more aggressive measures to counter China in the Pacific.

By hitting out at China in the public arena, the Turnbull government is playing a critical political and ideological role on behalf of Washington in its preparations for war. US imperialism has long regarded the Pacific as an American lake and is determined to prevent China gaining a foothold in any of the small island states that proved crucial during World War II in the Pacific war against Japan.
The World Bank has pointed to an uptick in global economic growth for the coming year but warned that the small expansion is as good as it will get for the foreseeable future.

In its Global Economic Prospects report issued on Tuesday, the bank said world economic growth would reach 3.1 percent in 2018. This was after a better than expected outcome for last year, with a recovery in investment, manufacturing and trade, as well as increasing commodity prices.

Global growth is estimated to have been 3 percent in 2017, above last Junes forecast of 2.7 percent, with increases in more than half the worlds economies. A rise in global investment growtha result of favourable financing costs, rising profits and improved business sentimentaccounted for three quarters of the increase.

However, the report described this movement as largely a short-term upswing, with growth potential slowing over the longer term. It cited particularly worrying longer-term risks associated with subdued productivity and potential growth.

The slowdown in potential growth is the result of years of softening productivity growth, weak investment, and the ageing of the global labour force, the bank said in a press statement summarising the report. The deceleration is widespread, affecting economies that account for more than 65 percent of global GDP [gross domestic product].

The slowdown is expected to start in the advanced economies, with growth to moderate slightly from 2.3 percent last year to 2.2 percent in 2018, and slow to just 1.7 percent by 2020.

The main factor in global growth over the coming year will be expansion in the emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). Yet this will not be sustained.

Despite the projected firming of activity among EMDEs over the forecast horizon, their underlying potential growthwhich has fallen considerably over the past decadeappears likely to further decline over the next 10 years, reflecting a more subdued pace of capital accumulation, slowing productivity growth, and less favourable demographic trends, the report stated.

The bank cited important downside risks, warning that disorderly financial market movements, such as an abrupt tightening of financial conditions and a rapid rise in market volatility, could trigger turbulence and derail the expansion. Such conditions could be particularly acute for those countries with large external financial needs and fragile corporate balance sheets.

The report said the extraordinary monetary stimulus of recent years raised concerns that it may have encouraged excessive financial risk-taking. Central banks had to be very careful about how they normalised monetary policy because, despite measures to improve the financial system, there are still risks to financial stability, including possible asset price overvaluation, rising leverage, and a concentration of risks in the non-bank financial institutions.

The bank pointed to dangers in China, echoing the analysis by the International Monetary Fund that China continued to face vulnerabilities associated with high corporate indebtedness, particularly in sectors with overcapacity and deteriorating profitability. These could have significant adverse repercussions on activity, with negative impacts on other economies, especially commodity exporters.

The report indicated that the 4.3 percent increase in the volume of goods and services traded internationally last year had been an important factor in lifting global growth. But it warned that the threat of protectionism was still a major concern, highlighted by the failure of G20 economies to renew their long-standing commitment to free trade and to resist all forms of protectionism.

That commitment was deleted from statements by all major global economic bodies last year, due to the insistence of the US that it be removed in line with the Trump administrations America First policy.

This sea change was underscored by an article by Rebecca Harding, published in the Financial Times yesterday, in which she pointed to the the weaponisation of the language of trade.

Harding, the co-author of a recent book on global economic relations, wrote: We now talk of enemies and adversaries instead of partners; of national interest, instead of opportunities for all; and of protectionism and walls rather than open borders and the end of the nation state. Gone are the halcyon days of everyones a winner version of globalisation that we have become accustomed to over the past 30 years.

These trends would continue, Harding noted. Trump was expected to announce a trade crackdown on China in his State of the Union address at the end of this month, following the recent issuing of the US National Security Strategy that advanced a strident America First agenda.

Pointing to the drivers of the slowdown in potential growth outlined in the World Bank report, the banks senior director for development economics, Shantayanan Devarajan, called for reforms to promote education and health, as well as infrastructure spending, in order to bolster the economy. However, he warned that some of these reforms will be resisted by politically powerful groups.

In keeping with the diplomatese of major global institutions, Devarajan named no names but these forces are easily identified. They are the financial and corporate oligarchies that dominate and control the global economic agenda and determine policy in every country.

These forces are implacably opposed to any so-called reform measures aimed at public spending on social services such as health and education, or on vital infrastructure needs, because that represents a deduction from the wealth available for appropriation by finance capital.

The US is a standout case in point. After passing the Trump tax cut agenda, handing out trillion of dollars to the corporate and financial elites, the two parties of financial capital, the Democrats and Republicans, are preparing for a further onslaught on social services to pay for these measures. In the so-called developing countries, the cuts in social spending in Iran and Tunisia, that have sparked major protests in recent days, are part of the same agenda.

The increase in global growth over the past year has helped fuel the stock market boom and financial speculation more broadly. But there are warnings that there is too much focus on the present cyclical upturn and not enough on the long-term trends.

According to World Bank economist Franziska Ohnsorge: It is when growth fizzles out that there is a reassessment of growth prospects, which usually comes [with] a reassessment of debt sustainability, of any debts, public, private.

Jeremy Lawson, chief economist at the investment company Aberdeen Standard, said one of the dangers of the current economic environment is to mistake a cyclical upswing for a sign that potential growth is much higher. While the present cycle could be considered healthy, it had some really concerning long-term features.
Late Tuesday Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama era policy which covers undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children, must remain in limited effect nationwide pending the outcome of a separate court case challenging the Trump administrations decision to phase out the program entirely by March.

The ruling came just hours after a public White House meeting between Trump and Democrats to hash out a compromise over immigration policy. On Wednesday night, Republicans led by Robert Goodlatte unveiled a bill that would extend DACA in exchange for cutting legal immigration of family members by 250,000 per year, ending the diversity visa program, authorizing construction of a border wall, hiring 10,000 new border guards and ICE officials, plus several other reactionary measures. Goodlatte said the measure was an attempt to do DACA right.

Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted mass workplace raids on Wednesday, sweeping approximately 100 7-Eleven convenience stores in 17 states and the District of Colombia. Twenty-one people were detained in the largest workplace raids since Trump took office a year ago. Derek N. Benner, acting head of ICEs Homeland Security Investigations, ominously told the Associated Press that the raids are a harbinger of whats to come.

This is what were gearing up for this year and what youre going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters, Benner declared. From there, we will look at whether these cases warrant an administrative posture or criminal investigation.

Alsups ruling provides little more than a temporary reprieve for DACA recipients, however, and applies to those who already have DACA. The judges decision leaves it up to Department of Homeland Security to decide when current recipients could possibly apply for renewal of their status pending a likely successful appeal of the decision by the Justice Department.

The Justice Department made clear that it would appeal Alsups decision. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend this position, and looks forward to vindicating its position in further litigation, department spokesman Devin OMalley said in a statement.

President Donald Trump responded to Tuesdays decision in typical fashion by denouncing the judiciary as broken and unfair in an early morning outburst on Twitter.

It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts, Trump exclaimed. He followed these remarks up in the afternoon by insisting that any deal over DACA must include funding for the wall. Trump cited Israel as a country which has solved its problems by walling off Palestinian territory.

Wednesdays Tweet was not the first time that Trump has taunted the judiciary. When federal judges blocked the implementation of his revised anti-Muslim travel ban in March, the president claimed he had full, unfettered authority to suspend immigration and threatened to defy the decision. A revised version of the travel ban was allowed to go into effect by the Supreme Court in December.

We find this decision to be outrageous, especially in light of the presidents successful bipartisan meeting with House and Senate members at the White House on the same day, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Wednesday morning.

White House legislative director Marc Short dangled the prospect of an appeal to the Supreme Court which would unilaterally overturn DACA.

If we let this drag out, the risk would be that the Supreme Court would say yeah were overturning the decision and immediately DACA ends, Short told NPR. And so its better to give us some opportunity to find a legislative fix as opposed to risking status for all those individuals.

Despite the attacks on Alsups ruling, Trump has already made clear that he will extend protections for DACA recipients in exchange for a militarization of the US-Mexico border and right-wing limits on legal immigration including ending provisions that allow for the reunification of families.

The fate of the approximately 800,000 current DACA recipients is being cynically employed as a bargaining chip as Republicans and Democrats work together to enact a far-reaching crackdown on immigration. Leading members of the Democratic Party are eager to cut a right-wing deal with Trump which would save DACA in some form.

Senator Bernie Sanders made clear the Democrats willingness to support a further militarization of the border ahead of the talks on Sunday, stating, I dont think theres anybody who disagrees that we need strong border security. If the president wants to work with us to make sure we have strong border security, lets do that.

Congressional leaders from both parties indicated that they would not let Alsups decision sway them from reaching a comprehensive legislative compromise on immigration.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted Wednesday morning that the Democrats would continue to push for a legislative fix: Let me be VERY clear: this ruling last night in no way diminishes the urgency of resolving the DACA issue. On this, we agree with [the] WhiteHouse, who says the ruling doesnt do anything to reduce Congress obligation to address this problem now.

Schumer has demagogically opposed Trumps proposal for a border wall while pressing for billions to be spent on hiring thousands more border guards, drones to fly along the border and infrared cameras for surveillance.

The effort to strike a deal over DACA and the border wall comes amid a massive crackdown on immigrant workers by the Trump administration, which the Democratic Party has done nothing to oppose. Above all, the first year of the Trump administration starkly illustrates the fact that neither the courts nor the Democratic Party can be trusted to protect immigrants.

On Monday Trump ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 250,000 Salvadorans living in the United States. None of the Democrats who joined Trump in the White House Tuesday made any statements defending this group of immigrants who will be deported to a country they have not lived in for more than two decades.
Declaring that the conditions facing Julian Assange are untenable and unsustainable, the government of Ecuador has called for third-party mediation to allow the WikiLeaks founder to end his protracted detention without charges in the countrys embassy in London.

Assange has spent five and a half years as a prisoner in the embassy, confined to a small space without access to sunlight and fresh air, cut off from his family and friends and deprived of seeing his children grow up. There have been reports that his health, not surprisingly, has suffered, leading to heart problems and chronic pneumonia. Ecuadors foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, told reporters in Quito that Assanges physical and psychological integrity are at risk.

It was reported Wednesday by an Ecuadoran daily that Quito had granted Assange a passport and national ID card, prompting speculation that he could be offered citizenship and diplomatic status, allowing him to leave the country. Whether British authorities would respect such legal niceties is far from certain, however, and any measure taken by the Ecuadoran government to end Assanges de facto imprisonment would be meaningless without guaranteeing him safe passage.

The intentions of the Ecuadoran government, moreover, are far from clear. While Ecuadors President Lenin Moreno took office last May after defeating a more right-wing candidate who called openly for Assanges expulsion from the embassy, the new government itself has sought a rapprochement with big business, the political right and Washington. Moreno issued a public demand that Assange not interfere in the politics of nations that are our friends.

Declared by the United Nations in 2016 to be a victim of arbitrary detention in violation of international law, Assange has been publicly charged with no crime outside of violating his conditions of bail in the UK. This occurred in June of 2012, when he sought political asylum from Ecuador, entering its London embassy to escape the conspiracy of the US, British and Swedish governments to have him extradited to Sweden on fabricated sexual assault accusations and then sent on to the US to be tried for espionage and treason, crimes carrying a potential death penalty.

Swedish authorities last year formally closed their trumped-up investigation, merely confirming that there was never any case to investigate in the first place, only a dirty tricks operation aimed at discrediting and paralyzing WikiLeaks and putting Assange behind bars, or worse.

Nonetheless, the statute of limitations on the allegations made against Assange in Sweden does not expire until 2020, and prosecutors have made it plain that they are prepared to renew their vendetta at the drop of a hat, or, more precisely, a call from Washington.

The Conservative government of British Prime Minister Theresa May, meanwhile, made clear that it has no interest in any mediation and is determined to pursue its pound of flesh over Assanges bail violation. Were he to step one foot outside the embassy walls, he would find himself handcuffed and bundled away by the Metropolitan Police.

A British government spokesperson said on Wednesday, The Government of Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice, i.e., a British jail cell and a likely one-way ticket to federal prison in the US.

The US secret grand jury investigating Assange and WikiLeaks was impaneled under the Obama administration and remains in session under Trump.

Despite Trumps campaign rhetoric about his love for WikiLeaks after it released internal emails of the Democratic National Committee exposing its corrupt bid to rig the presidential nomination process to ensure the victory of Hillary Clinton, administration officials have since made clear that Assange remains Washingtons public enemy number one.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo has described WikiLeaks as a non-state hostile intelligence service, vowing that his agency is working to take down that threat to the United States.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said last April that Assanges arrest remains a priority, adding, Whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail.

And last May, former FBI director James Comey told a Senate panel that WikiLeaks is an important focus of our attention, while declining to answer why Assange had yet to be formally charged with a crime. I dont want to comment on the particular case, because I dont want to confirm whether or not there are charges pending, he said. He hasnt been apprehended because hes inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The renewed demands for Assanges head came in the wake of WikiLeaks release of nearly 8,000 web pages detailing an array of classified CIA hacking tools.

The US ruling establishment, its military and intelligence apparatus and its two major parties will not forgive Assange and WikiLeaks for having exposed its criminal activities that have killed and wounded millions in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world. This began with the release of the collateral murder video showing an Apache helicopters gun-sight view of the 2007 massacre of 12 Iraqi civilians, continuing with the Afghan war diary and the Iraq war logs, exposing multiple war crimes committed by the US military, and the posting of over 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables revealing Washingtons counterrevolutionary conspiracies across the planet.

They not only hounded Assange, but sentenced Private Chelsea Manning to 35 years in prison for aiding the enemy by providing WikiLeaks with the documents. Manning's sentence was subsequently commuted by Obama and she has been released, but not before being subjected to abuse tantamount to torture in military prison.

Meanwhile, Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who exposed the NSAs massive spying and collection of data on people in the US and around the globe has been turned into a man without a country, living in forced exile in Moscow.

Assanges legal team this week reiterated its demand that London abide by the UN ruling declaring him to be unlawfully and arbitrarily detained and calling for him to be freed and compensated. The UK should not permit itself to be intimidated by the Trump administrations public threats to take down Mr Assange, it said in a statement.

The intimidation, however, comes not merely from the Trump administration and the Republican right. A whole coterie of left liberals and pseudo-left organizations has provided political cover for the state vendetta against Assange, seeking to legitimize the phony sexual misconduct allegations against him, while tying him to claims of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. Through these two causes celebres of the so-called political left in the US, a whole layer of affluent ex-radicals, whose outlook and interests are reflected in publications such as the Nation, Socialist Worker, Jacobin and International Viewpoint, have consummated their turn to support for imperialism as well as social and political reaction.

The demand for an end to the state persecution of Julian Assange must be taken up by the international working class. The relentless attack on Assange and WikiLeaks was and remains a spearhead in the drive by the ruling elite and capitalist governments around the world to crack down on freedom of speech and impose strict control and censorship over the Internet.
The Salvadoran foreign minister, Hugo Martinez, held a celebratory press conference Monday with the US ambassador, Jean E. Manes, after the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the elimination of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of 262,000 Salvadoran recipients, who will have until September 2019 to leave or be deported.

We have attained 18 months more of TPS for our compatriots, Martinez boasted while smiling to Manes. The US Embassy then added insult to injury, giving out fliers advertising instructions online on how to move back to El Salvador.

For his part, the Salvadoran president, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, responded to the DHS announcement with a communique celebrating the 18-month extension. Ceren was a commanding general of the ruling Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), when it was a nationalist guerrilla movement fighting the US-backed military dictatorship and its anti-Communist death squads in a war that left about 80,000 killed, mostly civilians, and turned tens of thousands into refugees who fled mostly to the US.

The Salvadoran Government expresses its gratefulness to the Government of the United States for this announcement, which reaffirms the strong bonds of friendship and cooperation that they keep as historic partners, the president said.

In the 17 years between 1999 and 2016, the US deported over 244,000 Salvadorans, with the rate of expulsions doubling after the 2006 Secure Fence Act was approved as a bipartisan measure, and increased even further under the Obama administration. El Salvadors former guerrilla leaders, having transformed themselves into bourgeois politicians now in power, are celebrating the 18 months that a similar number of Salvadorans who have lived in the US in many cases for decades, having raised their children there, will be given before being uprooted from their homes and forcibly ejected.

Such an impervious response expresses the FMLN leaderships position as representatives of a national client elite, whose wealth (Oxfam reported in 2015 that 160 millionaires controlled a wealth equivalent to 87 percent of GDP) comes predominantly from the administration of foreign capital to exploit the country as a cheap-labor platform.

Workers and youth in El Salvador have reacted with alarm to the announcement from Washington, recalling previous mass deportations, particularly when leaders of maras, or gangs formed in the United States, were sent and eventually took over entire areas of the war-torn Northern TriangleEl Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. At the same time, given that more than 80 percent of Salvadoran TPS holders send money to El Salvador, many families fear losing a major source of income, and many others fear that unemployment will increase.

While the FMLN government promises job-placement and entrepreneurship programs for the TPS recipients once they arrive, the Foreign Ministry indicates that re-insertion programs have only reached 5,000 of the 39,000 Salvadorans that the US deported between 2016 and 2017.

El Salvador has one of the highest rates of official unemployment in the region. According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, 56.6 percent of employed workers suffer underemployment and job instability, and 70 percent have no access to social security benefits.

Moreover, a majority of workers report suffering restrictions due to violence. The number of murders last year was 3,954, making it the most violent country in the region, but signifying a reduction of 25 percent compared to 2016. While officials point to these figures to suggest that their iron-hand strategy and US-backed militarization are working, the monthly average of killings has returned since last September back to 2014-2015 levels, and the flashpoints have merely shifted, particularly toward the west of the country.

The murderous rampage of the state forces against presumed gang members was characterized in 2016 for having a dead-to-injured ratio of 3-to-1 in confrontations against the police. That year, the rate of state officials vs. targets killed was 1-to-59. With figures like that, concluded the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in September 2017, we are dealing with a few confrontations and lots of cases of executions.

In August, Factum exposed a large networkconsisting of police officers pertaining to the Special Forces of Reaction created by the FMLN government in 2016 and some civilian vigilantesthat organizes extrajudicial killings, offers services as hitmen, traffics weapons, carries out rapes in broad daylight and extorts gangs for bribes. As a whole, such reports and data show that the Salvadoran government constitutes a death-squad regime which uses brutal methods to suppress the countrys impoverished youth and intimidate the working class as a whole.

An editorial in the Salvadoran daily El Faro on Tuesday warns sharply of a need to catch a missile being launched and of a possible national emergency. However, like most of the Salvadoran and US press, it promotes illusions in the US politicians who have expressed some opposition to Trumps TPS decision and suggests that the period of grace of 18 months be used to try the natural path of appealing to the US Congress. The article claims that the only one responsible for this measure is the xenophobic administration that controls the executive power in the United States.

In other words, Trump is portrayed as an anomaly in comparison to previous administrations and the rest of the US political establishment. On the contrary, the militarization of the US-Mexico border, the use of Mexicos armed forces as an extension of the US border patrol, the militarization of the Northern Triangle itself and the criminalization of immigrants, have been bipartisan policies for decades in the United States. Moreover, the Democratic Party has shown no inclination to oppose the mass deportations, working instead to divert opposition against Trump behind its campaigns to attack democratic principles like the presumption of innocence, due process and free speech on the Internet as part of its promotion of sexual misconduct and fake news scandals.

A day after Trump announced his plans to deport hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Democratic Party leaders were joking with the US president and declaring it an honor to hold talks with him on immigration. Democratic Senator Richard Durbin stated, We want a safe border in America, period, both when it comes to the issues of illegal migration, but also when it comes to drugs and all these other areas. This bipartisan program will only make living conditions all the more desperate for TPS holders, the 88 percent of Salvadorans living in the US who are not part of this program, and those living in El Salvador.

Whether it is in the United States, Mexico or Central Americawhere its only a question of time for the 57,000 Honduran TPS recipients to hear the same announcementthe anti-immigrant offensive is being advanced by all factions of the ruling class.

Only a united struggle of the working class across the Americas can defeat the drive by the US and its Central American client states to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers and their families.
@alextdaugherty

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello intends to throw his political weight around in the 2018 elections, mobilizing Puerto Ricans who recently moved to the mainland to vote against lawmakers he says turned their back on the U.S. territory in its time of need.

Rossellos threats are ostensibly aimed at Republicans in Congress tasked with doling out billions in disaster aid and in charge of an overhaul of the nations tax system, where Puerto Ricos status as a U.S. territory creates rules that dont exist on the mainland. He called out Sen. Marco Rubio by name in December, saying he was disappointed in his tax bill vote, though Rossello stopped short of offering any specific political retribution against the Florida Republican.

Once its crunch time for the elections, thats when our organization is going to start saying, These are the folks who have been for Puerto Rico and these have been the folks that are against Puerto Rico, Rossello said this week in Washington.

But carrying out political advocacy in swing state Florida, where Puerto Ricans who are Democrats and Republicans hold elected office, is a tricky balancing act for Rossello, a Democrat.

Puerto Ricans in Florida could form a large enough voting bloc to affect statewide elections for governor and U.S. Senate in 2018. But Florida Republicans like Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott enjoy widespread support among many members of Rossellos pro-statehood New Progressive Party, in contrast to heavily Democratic states with many Puerto Ricans, like New York, Illinois and Connecticut.

You dont bite the hand that feeds you, said state Rep. Bob Cortes, one of two Puerto Rican Republicans in the state Legislature.

Read more here.
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal in two lawsuits against a Mississippi law that encourages discrimination by state employees and businesses against homosexuals, transgender individuals, and those who have sexual intercourse but are not married.

As a result, the ruling of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals remains in effect allowing and encouraging petty and stigmatizing discrimination against Mississippians who do not conform to conservative Judeo-Christian dogma. As the law stands, a county clerk in Mississippi can refuse to issue a marriage license to a gay couple. Likewise, a pharmacist can refuse to refill an unmarried womans prescription for birth control, and a restaurant owner could segregate transgender persons in his dining area, or ban them from eating there altogether.

The lower court justices have stated that they will allow plaintiffs to refile the case if they can prove actual instances of discrimination. (The initial challenge to the law in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi resulted in an injunction, barring the law from taking effect at all.)

The anti-democratic law, referred to as HB 1523, followed on the heels of the Supreme Courts 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legalizing same-sex marriages.

Titled the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Religious Discrimination Act, the law blatantly violates the Establishment Clause and Equal Protection Clauses of the U.S. Constitution and legalizes wide-ranging discrimination against LGBT people based on religious belief. The language of the bill and the legal arguments made by the state of Mississippi on its behalf are consistent with the strategy pursued by the extreme right in mobilizing religious bigotry and backwardness.

Essentially, these forces promote an inverted interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..., claiming that this language affords them the right to discriminate against those do not live according to a handful of passages in the Old Testament.

The pertinent section of HB 1523, which outlines its clear intent to codify discrimination against LGBT individuals, reads thus: The sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions protected by this act are the belief or conviction that: (a) Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman; (b) Sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage; and (c) Male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individuals immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.

The bill explicitly permits state officials to recuse themselves from granting marriage licenses of same-sex couples if they claim that it violates their religious beliefs. If a state employee is disciplined or fired for refusing to provide services, the bill provides the means for that employee to sue the state for discrimination.

For religious organizations, the law provides far-ranging protections to deny an array of services to LGBT people. This includes refusing to provide adoption and foster care services to same-sex couples, firing or otherwise disciplining employees who are LGBT, and refusing to rent or otherwise provide housing for LGBT people.

The law also explicitly describes instances in which a business or organization can discriminate against an individual based on gender identity. The state government shall not take any discriminatory action against a person wholly or partially on the basis that the person establishes sex-specific standards or policies concerning employee or student dress or grooming, or concerning access to restrooms, spas, baths, showers, dressing rooms, locker rooms, or other intimate facilities or settings, based upon or in a manner consistent with sincerely held religious belief.

HB 1523 also allows for broad discrimination by individuals and private companies as long as they cite their religious beliefs as their reason for refusing to provide services. This would include schools, landlords, doctors, non-profit organizations, and all manner of shops and other businesses. This would apply not only to LGBT Mississippians but also to unmarried couples and single parents.

The Mississippi law permitting discrimination is just the latest legal provocation in the aftermath of the Supreme Courts 2014 decision in the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case, which invented the right of a corporation to deny its employees access to contraception required under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

The court asserted in their decision that requiring Hobby Lobby to provide contraception is a violation of the corporations religious liberty. Since that decision, several state legislatures have codified discrimination against LGBT people using a tortured interpretation of the Establishment Clause as a legal fig leaf.

It is no coincidence that many of these laws emerge from the poorest region of the US, the deep south. Mississippi itself has the highest poverty rate in the nation, with 21.6 percent of the population living below the poverty line. It also has the second lowest per capita income of any state at $25,817, and the lowest median family income of any state at $39,319 per family. It is especially critical for the ruling class that workers in these states be politically blinded to the cause of their sufferingthe capitalist system and the parasitic ruling class who benefit from it.

The animus behind HB 1523 and its judicial enablers is to whip up reactionary religious zeal to divide and disorient the working class. In both method and motive, this dovetails Jim Crow-era segregation, which also employed a religious freedom argument to defend discrimination.

Under the Trump administration, such tactics have been employed in an effort to build a new far-right movement outside of the Republican Party.

The Supreme Courts refusal to hear the Bryant cases mirrors its treatment of the Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital case last year, and almost certainly derives from the same concern from the liberal bloc, namely, that swing vote Anthony Kennedy cannot be relied on where questions of ostensible religious freedom intersect with public accommodations (governmental agencies and private business open to the public).

Kennedy, a generally conservative jurist and an appointee of Ronald Reagan, did write the majority opinions in several landmark gay rights cases including Romer v. Evans (1996), Lawrence v. Texas (2003), United States v. Windsor (2013), and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). None of these cases concerned a purported religious freedom argument, however. Based on his comments in December during oral arguments in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, religious freedom, however discriminatory, antidemocratic it may be, may trump all other constitutional principles.
The body of a 19-year-old college student was found on Tuesday in California about a week after he disappeared  and police are investigating whether his death was a homicide, PEOPLE confirms.

Based off what they found at the scene they are considering it a homicide, Carrie Braun, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriffs Department, tells PEOPLE.

Braun would not say how the teen, Blaze Bernstein, was killed or what the condition of his body was when it was discovered in Borrego Park in Lake Forest. She says a search warrant in the case was served in Newport Beach on Wednesday: It is a very active investigation and investigators are following up on multiple leads.

Authorities are absolutely killing themselves to bring justice to this family, she says.

Bernstein, a University of Pennsylvania sophomore, was found dead on Tuesday around 2 p.m. in the brush along the perimeter of the park.

His family had reported him missing on Jan. 3 after he didnt make a dental appointment. He was home from college on winter break and was scheduled to return to school that coming Sunday.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

[His family] had seen him the evening before and they had dinner together and they all went their respective ways for the evening, Braun says. The parents shared in the morning they thought he was just sleeping in, and in the afternoon he missed his dental appointment and that is when they started to become concerned and they reached out to us shortly after that.

Braun says investigators learned that Bernstein was either picked up or met a friend at Borrego Park around 11 p.m. on Jan. 2 and they got separated somehow and the friend told our investigators that Blaze walked off and he didnt return, and that was the last time the friend said he saw him.

The friend told investigators Bernstein was heading in the direction of nearby Whiting Ranch Park when he was last seen, Braun says. The friend allegedly drove off at one point and came back to look for Bernstein but couldnt find him.

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It is still unclear if Bernstein had plans to meet someone in the park, Braun says.

There has kind of been some rumors about them meeting a third person, she says. I dont have specific information on that. At this point the best thing to say is our investigators are actively following up on every lead that they can that will lead to an arrest of a suspect in this case.

Among those who searched for Bernstein were approximately 25 members of the sheriffs search-and-rescue team, who swept through Borrego Park and Whiting Ranch Park for days. About 15 drone pilots entered the search on Sunday, looking for any clue as to the whereabouts of the teen, the Orange County Register reported.

Celebrities including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mayim Bialik and Kobe Bryant also posted about Bernsteins disappearance on Facebook and Twitter.

 For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard.

Bernsteins father, Gideon, told reporters on Friday that his son had just become the managing editor of Penn Appetit, a food magazine at the University of Pennsylvania.

He was very excited about that, Gideon said, according to the Register. He was working on that over the winter break and showed us the magazine they just published, which he significantly contributed to.

Gideon said his son intended to declare a major in psychology with a minor in chemistry, pursuing it with a pre-med focus.

An autopsy on his body is planned for Wednesday.

Nineteen years old, says Braun. It is just so sad.
Fox News reporter James Rosen was ousted last December after an investigation into his workplace behavior with women found multiple accusations of sexual harassment and assault, according to NPR.

The networks chief Washington correspondent, Rosen left the network in December, but no explanation was given for his departure at the time. NPRs David Folkenflik reported on Wednesday that it came after increased scrutiny of his behavior at the network, citing interviews with eight unnamed sources at Fox.

The accusations against Rosen include sending racy messages to his former co-workers, aggressively pursuing sexual relationships with colleagues, and groping or forcibly kissing female Fox News employees.

Also Read:Is Fox News Next for Steve Bannon? Network Says Noooope (Exclusive)

Folkenflik described three specific instances of inappropriate behavior by Rosen, citing employees who were told of the incidents by the victims. None of the women commented for the story  two declining and one who could not be reached  and all three remain unnamed in NPRs report.

In one instance, Rosen is accused of groping a colleague in a cab in 2001, and subsequently sabotaging her career after she rebuffed his overture. Rosen is also accused of harassing a former producer and foreign national, and Fox News gave her a deal extending her stay in the U.S. in exchange for not making her story public, according to the report.

The most recent alleged incident dates back to last Spring, when Rosen attempted to forcibly kiss a young female colleague in an elevator.

Fox News did not immediately respond to TheWraps request for comment.

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G-Eazy has followed The Weeknds lead and ended his partnership with H&M in response to the companys controversial ad featuring a young black model wearing a coolest monkey in the jungle hoodie.

Over the past months I was genuinely excited about launching my upcoming line and collaboration with H&M, wrote the rapper on social media, along with an image replacing the original message with coolest king of the world. Unfortunately, after seeing the disturbing image yesterday, my excitement over our global campaign quickly evaporated, and Ive decided at this time our partnership needs to end. Whether an oblivious oversight or not, its truly sad and disturbing that in 2018, something so racially and culturally insensitive could pass by the eyes of so many (stylist, photographer, creative and marketing teams) and be deemed acceptable.

The message from G-Eazy, whose H&M collection was announced last month and set for a March 1 release, concluded, I hope that this situation will serve as the wake up call that H&M and other companies need to get on track and become culturally and racially aware, as well as more diverse at every level.

We completely understand and agree with his reaction to the image, a spokesperson for H&M told EW. We have got this wrong and we are deeply sorry. We strongly believe that racism and bias in any shape or form, deliberate or accidental, are simply unacceptable. We completely understand the criticism and we agree with it. We have taken down the image and we have removed the garment from all stores globally. We are now investigating internally to avoid this from happening again. We will continue the discussion with G-Eazy and his team separately.

Story continues

woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. im deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore... pic.twitter.com/P3023iYzAb  The Weeknd (@theweeknd) January 8, 2018

G-Eazy joins The Weeknd, Diddy, LeBron James, and more in criticizing the Swedish clothing retailer for the disrespectful imagery.

We completely understand and agree with his reaction to the image, a spokesperson for H&M told EW on Monday about The Weeknds response. We are deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print. We have removed the image from all our channels and the sweater is no longer for sale in our stores. We will also look into our internal routines to avoid such situations in the future. We will continue the discussion with The Weeknd and his team separately.
After it emerged that Michelle Williams got paid $1000 compared to Mark Wahlbergs $1.5 million for the reshoots necessary for Ridley Scotts movie All The Money In The World, many zero-ed in on what appeared to be a pretty flagrant and shabby example of Hollywood sexism.

Jessica Chastain tweeted furiously about the situation, and it has been roundly denounced on social media.

Please go see Michelle's performance in All The Money in The World. She's a brilliant Oscar nominated Golden Globe winning actress. She has been in the industry for 20 yrs. She deserves more than 1% of her male costar' s salary. https://t.co/HIniew6lf7  Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) January 10, 2018

Judd Apatow weighed in too:

This is so messed up that it is almost hard to believe. Almost. This is how this business works. I wonder if the studio or Wahlberg will do something to make the situation less insane. https://t.co/RsunBlOeCk  Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) January 10, 2018

The Screen Actors Guild  SAG-AFTRA  has also broached the subject, telling Deadline that it is looking into it.

We are unambiguously in favor of pay equity between men and women in this industry and support every action to move in this direction, a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson said yesterday.

At the same time, performers at this level negotiate their above-scale rates through their agents. As it relates to this matter, you should talk to their representatives.

But is all quite as it seems?

It may be that its not quite cut and dried, with issues over contracts now emerging to explain why Williams only received her $80 per diem in payment for the reshoots.

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Ridley Scott made the decision to cut Kevin Spacey from his movie about the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III just weeks before its scheduled release, following the multiple accusations of sexual harassment and assault that had been levelled at the House of Cards star.

He quickly found a replacement in Christopher Plummer, who had, in fact, at one time been in line for Spaceys role of oil magnate J. Paul Getty.

But it would need rapidly organised reshoots to meet the slated release date, meaning that its other stars, including Williams and Wahlberg, would be needed back on set.

However, the crucial aspect of payment for the reshoots, which cost a reported $10 million in all, appear to be written into the actors contracts, which go some way to explaining the pay disparity.

According to The Wrap, the potential for reshoots was already factored into Williams contract, but crucially, not in Wahlbergs.

(Credit: KEVIN WINTER/AFP)

This meant that Wahlberg was entirely within his rights to re-negotiate his contract, and as it happens, his agent Ari Emanuel is known for striking hard bargains.

In fact, Emanuel is the agent Jeremy Pivens ruthless Ari Gold from the Wahlberg-produced TV series Entourage is based on, so that gives you some idea of his reputation.

The reshoots also required considerably more of Wahlbergs time, compared to fewer scenes between Plummer and Williams.

Plus Wahlberg had reportedly lowered his usual fee considerably in the first place prior to signing up, because he wanted the role.

Scott has previously said that the actors had come back to the set for free, but notably doesnt mention Wahlberg.

No, I wouldnt get paid, I refused to get paid, Scott said. No, they all came in free. Christopher had to get paid. But Michelle, no. Me, no.

Williams reiterated: I said Id be wherever they needed me, whenever they needed me. And they could have my salary, they could have my holiday, whatever they wanted. Because I appreciated so much that they were making this massive effort.

It even meant that Williams had to jet to London during Thanksgiving, spending the holiday without her 12-year-old daughter.

And while its utterly justified to demand equal pay based on gender in Hollywood, other factors  in this case contractual  can have a bearing too.

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Tucker Carlson got nasty Tuesday evening, slamming Donald Trump over his nearly hourlong immigration cabinet meeting.

Carlson accused Trump of giving away the farm on immigration and warned that the president was coming dangerously close to blowing the signature issue of his campaign.

The president held a televised meeting with the very swamp creatures he once denounced. He told them he trusted them to craft immigration policy without his input. Then he suggested hed be willing to accept any deal they produced, even a bad one, said Carlson. So what was the point of running for president?

Also Read: Tucker Carlson Turned Down White House Press Gig, New Book Says

Carlson was referring to a moment during the meeting in which Trump told the assembled lawmakers that he would sign any immigration compromise they gave him.

Im not going to say oh gee I want this or I want that I will be signing it, said Trump.

Trump says he will sign ANY immigration agreement Congress gives him "I'm not going to say 'oh gee I want this or I want that' I will be signing it" pic.twitter.com/M8NccfFYsx  Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) January 9, 2018

Youll remember the president also ran on his skills as a negotiator, Carlson said. The president signaled hed be happy to legalize hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants now, and then at some point in the future, tackle all that other stuff, like making sure they cant bring millions of their relatives from the third world along with them.

Thats not much of a negotiation, Carlson snapped, adding that supporting Trump often required dealing with embarrassing moments like this.

In the Trump presidency, the world series is this immigration bill. Its the big payoff. Its the whole point of the exercise, he concluded, warning that Team Trump better not screw it up.

Story continues

Watch above.

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Sure, it's been cold here in the United States  so cold in fact that iguanas are freezing and dropping out of trees in Florida  but our friends in Australia are experiencing the exact opposite issue.

In Sydney, temperatures are running so high that bats are boiling alive and falling from the sky.

According to Yahoo, the bats, many of which are babies, fell from the trees in Campbelltown, a western suburb of Sydney, after the temperatures exceeded 113 degrees Fahrenheit in the area.

They basically boil, Campbelltown colony manager Kate Ryan told the local Camden Advertiser. It affects their brain  their brain just fries and they become incoherent."

According to Ryan, the bats, known as flying foxes, not only lined the streets, but hundreds more were found dead dangling from the trees above.

It would be like standing in the middle of a sandpit with no shade," Ryan explained in a Facebook post. She added, I dont know how many times I bent down and got on my knees to pick up a dead baby. There were dead bodies everywhere.

However, it wasnt all bad news for the bats. WIRES, a local wildlife rescue group, was on hand to rescue any bats found alive. According to Al Jazeera, the volunteers were able to rescue and rehydrate more than 100 tiny bats and brought another 40 in for intensive care.

In extremely trying conditions they [volunteers] worked tirelessly to provide subcutaneous fluids to the pups that could be reached and many lives were saved. But sadly many lives were lost too, a spokesman for the charity Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown, explained to News.com.au.

And while the temperatures have been extreme enough, it appears Mother Nature isnt quite done with Australia. Following the excessive heat, Sydney was hit with a severe lightning storm. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the greater Sydney region was hit with more than 4,600 lightning strikes in just a three-hour period. More bad weather is expected to roll through Tuesday with the Central Coast expected to feel the brunt of it.

If you're in the area and run into a bat in distress, reach out to a local animal rescue or shelter for assistance. Of course, humans can be negatively affected by the extreme heat, too. Seek shelter from the heat when possible and drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated.
Meghan Markle Just Deleted All Her Social Media Accounts Meghan Markle just made a huge change to her social media accounts: She literally deleted them. Like, they straight-up don't exist anymore. What's happening?

Photos: Getty; Courtesy.

Meghan Markle's life has changed pretty drastically since getting engaged to Prince Harry. She gave up her Audi car lease in Toronto (allegedly), left Suits, and moved to England. Instead of running lines, Markle now spends her days making appearances at benefits and youth organizations, where she wears fabulous hats and poses for photos with her literal-prince fiance. It's a luxe life, to say the leastdifferent, sure, but luxe nonetheless.

Markle's made it clear these changes happened on own her terms, though. In a sit-down interview last November, Markle said she was actually quite ready to leave Suitsin her words, she had "ticked" that box.

So we're sure the change she just made to her social media accounts is autonomous, as well. The soon-to-be duchess has officially deleted her Instagram and Twitter profiles. Like, if you search for her profiles, they just straight-up won't be there. Want proof? Check out these screen-shots.

And here's what happens when you search for her Instagram:

What's happening? Why did Markle suddenly feel the urge to wipe her social media presence off the Internet? Well, Prince Harry and Prince William don't have social media profilesneither does Kate Middletonso it's plausible this is just royal protocol. After all, we learn about the royals' lives nowadays exclusively through the Kensington Palace social media channels. Perhaps Markle thought it was best to delete her profiles and streamline that information.

It's also likely that Kensington Palace asked Markle to do this. Royal protocol, ya know? Regardless, we're sure Markle was down for the change. She's about to be royalty, people; having a curated social media presence is kind of a requirement.

This story originally appeared on Glamour.

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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are apparently breaking tons of royal protocol for their wedding

If youre patiently counting down the days until May 19th, aka Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding date, we totally understand, and you are not alone in this. While Markle herself is a groundbreaking addition to the royals (shes the first American to marry into the family in over 80 years, and the first woman of color to marry in ever), it seems that the couple is breaking down outdated royal etiquette in a number of other ways while planning for their big day.

The royal wedding is set to take place on a Saturday, which is untraditional since most royal weddings occur during the week (people in Britain generally like this, since they can potentially get a bank holiday from a weekday wedding). This will also be Markles second wedding, which typically would mean a smaller, more low-key event (although not always, if you look at American royalty, or as you know them, the Kardashians). But experts agree that the couple will likely be celebrating to the max (as they should) and that Markle likely will be wearing white.

Lizzie Post, co-host of the Awesome Etiquette podcast, told E! News why she thinks Markle will absolutely don a white gown, explaining that in the past, couples almost tried to make a second wedding a very discrete situation. I think that so many people have come to find partners at different points in their lives who fit them so well and wonderfully, and [they] want to be able to celebrate that, and their family and friends want to be able to celebrate that.

Prince Harry Meghan Markle Engagement

And while gift registries are fine for a royal affair, experts think Markle and Prince Harry will probably ask guests to donate to charity like Prince William and Kate Middleton did for their 2011 wedding.

William Hanson, a royal etiquette expert, told E! News that the couples engagement photos were also more contemporary than those in the past. He said the photos are very lovely but much more intimate. [Theyre] not very royal, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. If you compare them to William and Catherines [engagement] portraits which were a little more formal and more traditional, these are pushing the royal boundaries, and probably for the better.

Prince Harry Meghan Markle Engagement 2

It definitely seems like the monarchy is evolving in exciting new ways. Traditional or not, were sure Harry and Meghans will be a stunning day filled with loveand one were trying to be patient for as we wait.
A transgender beauty pageant founder was reportedly killed by her husband this week, making her the first transgender person to be murdered in 2018. The grim statistic  the number of transgender people who are murdered  is tracked annually by LGBT groups.

Transgender beauty pageant founder Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien was reportedly killed by her husband, making her the first transgender murder victim of 2018. (Photo: Facebook/Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien)

The woman, Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, 42, founded both Miss Trans New England and Miss Trans America; her husband allegedly snapped before carrying out her brutal murder in their Massachusetts home and then confessing to local police.

The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights lobbying organization, is one of many queer organizations that keep count of transgender killings, and notes on its website: In 2017, advocates tracked at least 28 deaths of transgender people in the United States due to fatal violence, the most ever recorded. These victims were killed by acquaintances, partners and strangers, some of whom have been arrested and charged, while others have yet to be identified. Some of these cases involve clear anti-transgender bias. In others, the victims transgender status may have put them at risk in other ways, such as forcing them into homelessness.

The organization then named Steele-Knudslien as the years first victim: Sadly, 2018 has already seen at least one transgender person fatally shot or killed by other violent means. As HRC continues to work toward justice and equality for transgender people, we mourn those we have lost.

Other advocacy organizations and individual activists acknowledged Steele-Knudsliens death on social media, many sharing heartbreaking statistics:

From our Transgender Rights Project Director, Dru Levasseur: "I am deeply saddened to hear that my friend Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien was reportedly killed by her husband on Thursday night. Christa's is the first reported trans murder of 2018  Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) January 8, 2018

Transgender women are more likely to be the victims of domestic violence because of their lack of support networks, stigma around straight men dating them, and lack of access to DV shelters. And unfortunately it can be fatal: https://t.co/NP9zh3jLKQ  SocialistFeminists (@NycSocfem) January 8, 2018

Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien proudly stood at the frontlines of our Commonwealths march toward equality. Our nations transgender community lost a hero this week and my thoughts are with her family and friends. https://t.co/dULGE6PfuE  Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) January 10, 2018

Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien is the first known #transgender person murdered in 2018 in the United States https://t.co/OkVlgE526k via @PghLesbian24 pic.twitter.com/dwoBAlSP6t  Trans Equality (@TransEquality) January 8, 2018

8 days into January and the first trans murder of 2018 is now on record.

No one is free, unless trans people are free. RIP Christa. Age 42. Black trans women who have a life expectancy of 35 years of age. https://t.co/8snUacXw4r  George M Johnson (@IamGMJohnson) January 8, 2018

Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, who founded the Miss Trans America pageant, is the first trangender victim of deadly violence in 2018. We mourn her loss and we lift up her memory. Rest in peace, Christa. https://t.co/aqoKa7jv2M  AVP (@antiviolence) January 8, 2018

So why is it so important to keep track of transgender murders and speak out about them  something done regularly not only by HRC but by the Transgender Law Center, GLAAD, and the International Transgender Day of Remembrance organizers?

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As we found in the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, transgender people face disproportionately high levels of discrimination and violence. Unfortunately, that violence can sometimes be fatal, Jay Wu, spokesperson for the National Center for Transgender Equality, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Keeping track of transgender people who have been killed is a way to document one of the symptoms of the more widespread problem of discrimination, and to make it clear that it is indeed a problem.

According to those who keep track, 2017 was the most violent year on record for transgender people.

Transgender people have been killed this year in Chicago and in Waxahachie, Texas; in the Ozarks of Missouri and on the sidewalks of Manhattan, the New York Times reported in November. They have been shot, stabbed, burned and, in at least one case, pushed into a river. On average, one to two have been killed somewhere in the United States every week.

And experts say these numbers almost certainly understate the problem. Local officials are not required to report such killings to any central database, and because the police sometimes release incorrect names or genders, it can be difficult to know that a homicide victim was transgender. So advocacy groups are left to comb news reports and talk to victims friends or family.

Some of the findings regarding violence in the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, referenced above, included the following:

Ten percent of those who were out to their immediate family reported that a family member was violent toward them because they were transgender, and 8 percent were kicked out of the house because they were transgender.

The majority of respondents who were out or perceived as transgender while in school (K-12) experienced some form of mistreatment, including being verbally harassed (54 percent), physically attacked (24 percent), or sexually assaulted (13 percent) because they were transgender. Further, 17 percent experienced such severe mistreatment that they left a school as a result.

In the year prior to completing the survey, 30 percent of respondents who had a job reported being fired, denied a promotion, or experiencing some other form of mistreatment in the workplace due to their gender identity or expression, such as being verbally harassed or physically or sexually assaulted at work.

In the year prior to completing the survey, 46 percent of respondents were verbally harassed and 9 percent were physically attacked because of being transgender. During that same period, 10 percent of respondents were sexually assaulted, and 47 percent were sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime.

Regarding the effects of all this on mental health: 39 percent of respondents experienced serious psychological distress in the month prior to completing the survey, compared with only 5 percent of the U.S. population. And 40 percent of respondents have attempted suicide in their lifetime  nearly nine times the attempted suicide rate (4.6 percent) in the U.S. population.

Further, when it comes to domestic violence, the transgender community is victimized at higher rates than the general population, according to the Williams Institute. That report found that 30 to 50 percent of transgender people experience intimate partner violence at some point in their lifetime, as compared with 28 to 33 percent in the general population.

According to the New York Times story on transgender violence, Advocates say the violence is inseparable from the social climate: that anti-transgender violence and anti-transgender laws  like so-called bathroom bills, which aim to police who may use gender-specific public facilities  are outgrowths of the same prejudice.

For general observers, the facts about murder can be difficult to square, when considering what could indeed be the perception of a more tolerant, trans-visible culture, both in Hollywood and in the press.

But, explains Wu, while transgender people are becoming more visible and more widely accepted around the country, that visibility can come with a backlash. In addition, many states still dont have laws banning discrimination against transgender people. While societal attitudes are somewhat changing, there is a long way to go.

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The most devastating images from the Southern California mudslides

Another natural disaster has wreaked havoc in Southern California, specifically the Montecito area. Following last months wildfires, which forced tens of thousands to evacuate their homes, dangerous mudslides have now flooded the area. According to CNN, there are 15 reported fatalities, and others are missing.

BBC adds that around 163 people were taken to the hospital, at least 50 people were rescued, and approximately 300 residents of the Romero Canyon neighborhood are trapped in their homes.

Mudslides are caused by heavy rains. In this case, Southern California was experiencing its first rain in several months. As BBC explains, grounds were still scorched from last months wildfires, so when the rain came into contact with the burned ground, it caused a mudslide.

The BBC also notes that, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the risk of flooding is much higher in the five years following a wildfire. And, according to the the National Weather Service, Recent burn areas will be especially vulnerable where dangerous mud and debris flows are possible.

Oprah, whose property was affected by the mudslides, shared three short videos from her home. One of them shows how deep the mud is in her backyard.

Ellen DeGeneres shared an image of the flooded freeway that runs through her neighborhood in Montecito. This is not a river. This is the 101 freeway in my neighborhood right now, she tweeted. Montecito needs your love and support.

This is not a river. This is the 101 freeway in my neighborhood right now. Montecito needs your love and support. pic.twitter.com/jRNCBrp4b5  Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) January 9, 2018

NBC Nightly News shared a video of a crew rescuing a 14-year-old girl from the rubble. She was reportedly trapped for more than six hours.

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A mud-covered 14-year-old girl who had been trapped for hours is among those rescued from California's deadly mudslides. Read story: https://t.co/t2Wf6ZN0fh pic.twitter.com/TM6j5EErvg  AP West Region (@APWestRegion) January 9, 2018

Good Morning America sent a drone through an area that had a mandatory evacuation.

.@KaynaWhitworth is in a California street where cars are absolutely destroyed due to severe flooding and mudslides. https://t.co/koCa6gPRV9 pic.twitter.com/ny8wcpgrm6  Good Morning America (@GMA) January 10, 2018

And CNN shared a video of a dog helping firefighters search through the debris in Montecito.

A dog helps firefighters search through debris in Montecito, California. Mudslides caused by heavy rain have killed at least 13 people https://t.co/R0fpersJO6 pic.twitter.com/PEpNHk71AX  CNN International (@cnni) January 10, 2018

Many other images emerged of the devastating mudslides.

mudslides

We hope that everyone in Southern California stays safe, and well update readers on how to help victims of the mudslides.
Nike unveiled its official uniforms for the 2018 Olympics. But is the clothing made in America? (Photo: Nike)

Nike has unveiled the official outfits for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, but people are asking if theyre made in America.

On Tuesday, Nike introduced the Metal Stand Collection, to be worn by medalists in freezing February temperatures in PyeongChang: a Team USA Hypershield Summit Jacket (a removable bomber zip-up), waterproof pants with a cinched waist and ankle zippers, lace-free boots, and touchscreen-compatible gloves. The clothing will be available in stores Jan. 15.

Was this Nike gear made in USA? asked one Twitter user.

JUST IN: US athletes will wear this Nike gear on the medal stand for the 2018 Olympics. pic.twitter.com/T7JBYtW5xY  Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 9, 2018

Its a question with a loaded history. Nikes headquarters is in Beaverton, Ore., but the company has faced criticism since the 1970s for child labor practices in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian sweatshops. In the 1990s, Nike was blasted in the media  including a protest at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics  for providing deplorable working conditions, underpaying its employees, and taking jobs from American workers.

According to a timeline by Business Insider, Nike responded by creating a factory code of conduct and the nonprofit Fair Labor Association, and publicizing the factories with which it does business.

Phil Knight, the companys co-founder, pledged to improve Nikes production, but even in 2017 protests against Nikes contracted factories raged on. United Students Against Sweatshops organized demonstrations last August following reports of a manufacturing plant in Vietnam where workers were verbally abused and were kept in 90-plus environments, according to Quartz.

Although many companies produce merchandise overseas, there are strong feelings about outsourcing Olympic uniforms. One example is Ralph Lauren, which came under fire in 2012 when it was revealed its Opening Ceremony uniforms for the London Games were made in China.

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I am so upset, Sen. Harry Reid told reporters that year, according to The Hill. I think the [U.S.] Olympic Committee should be ashamed of themselves. I think they should be embarrassed. I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again.

Reid added, [If] all that they have to wear is nothing but a singlet with USA on it painted by hand, thats what they should wear. We have people in the textile industry who are desperate for jobs.

According to ESPN, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said at the time, They should be wearing uniforms that are made in America. Republican House Speaker John Boehner told reporters, Youd think theyd know better.

And Sen. Bernie Sanders said, There is no reason why U.S. Olympic uniforms are not being manufactured in the U.S. This action on the part of the U.S. Olympic Committee is symbolic of a disastrous trade policy which has cost us millions of decent-paying jobs and must be changed.

The outcry prompted Ralph Lauren to release a statement vowing to do better: Ralph Lauren promises to lead the conversation within our industry and our government addressing the issue of increasing manufacturing in the United States and has committed to producing the Opening and Closing ceremony Team USA uniforms in the United States that will be worn for the 2014 Olympic Games.

Six Democratic senators even passed the Team USA Made in America Act of 2012 requiring the U.S. Olympic Committee to make its uniforms domestically and make publicly available a detailed justification of the reasons the Committee obtained uniforms that do not meet that requirement.

At a time when too many Americans are looking for work and our manufacturers are closing factories, we need to do everything we can to keep jobs in America and not give the work of producing our iconic American uniforms for our Olympians to China, New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez said in a 2012 statement, according to Reuters.

Yahoo Lifestyle could not reach a representative from Nike or the U.S. Olympic Committee for comment regarding the 2018 uniforms.

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Tyra Banks is responding to H&Ms controversial ad with an opinion she fears shell get skewered for.

On Monday, the retail company apologized for a racist ad featuring a young, black boy wearing a sweatshirt that read, Coolest monkey in the jungle and pulled the item from stores, after major social media backlash.

We are deeply sorry that the picture was taken and we also regret the actual print, H&M said in a statement. Therefore, we have not only removed the image from our channels, but also the garment from our product offering globally.

But the public was outraged, demanding a store boycott on Twitter.

Cant be more confused and disgusted. H&M decided to put the black boy in a Coolest Monkey in the Jungle hoody and the white boy in a Survival Expert hoody. Cant believe its 2018 and this offensive sickening racism still exists. We all must boycott H&M till they apologize. pic.twitter.com/OdynDKupjS  BASH (@XIBash) January 8, 2018

@hm And then H&M UK got the bright idea to feature a black boy model with 'Coolest Monkey in the Jungle' hoodie on its website. How on earth can this be?

SHAME ON YOU ! pic.twitter.com/3FaKCqviLQ  Models Of Diversity (@ModsOfDiversity) January 8, 2018

If I felt that H&M was being malicious and intentional, Id be outraged. But I just think, as most white owned brands with low minority representation, they werent aware of the perception that ad could come with. The solution is bigger than a boycott. Hire black people.  Ash Money Records  (@LightsPlease___) January 8, 2018

Its no accident that the black boy had the monkey jacket. Not at all. H&M can kick rocks pic.twitter.com/8tWYcUjaxv  TheGrandeDame (@Itsonlyreal) January 8, 2018

On Tuesday, Banks weighed in on the ad during the panel discussion series Build Series, alongside model Ashley Graham and Drew Elliot, the creative director of Paper magazine.

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When asked by an audience member for her take on the controversial ad campaign, Banks said, One thing we have to remember  and I might get skewered for this  those choices are not necessarily those of the CEO of H&M. It can be eight people on a set or one buyer buying something and giving it to a person on set and people ruin a companys reputation.

Banks added, So we have to remember that and try to get to the root of, Who the hell put that sweatshirt on that beautiful black baby? Who put it on him? Not who made it  but who put it on him. Thats the person to really focus on. And then who printed that shit? Not necessarily the CEO, but who are these people who did that? And I would love for us to try to get deeper into the who, not the what.

Other celebrities, such as Jessie Williams, The Weeknd, Diddy, and LeBron James took to social media to publicly condemned H&M.

woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. im deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore pic.twitter.com/P3023iYzAb  The Weeknd (@theweeknd) January 8, 2018

Theres nothing fundamentally offensive about the term Monkey but context should be considered. If a group of diverse children wore the sweatshirt, this wouldnt be an issue, Anita Jones Thomas, dean of the College of Applied Behavior Sciences at the University of Indianapolis and a specialist in multicultural psychology, tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

Condemning the CEO for the ad is counterproductive because that person isnt making on-the-ground decisions like photo approval, she says. However, if theres a company culture without diversity, equality, and inclusion, thats a problem. Its 2018  we dont have time to wait for people to catch up.

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By Cierra Williams

In Wisconsin, a teacher at a private Lutheran school deeply offended parents as an assignment was sent home on Monday (Jan. 8) asking students to come up with three good reasons for slavery.

Trameka Brown-Berry, a parent of a student in the 4th-grade class asked to complete the assignment, told Fox 6 News she was shocked that a teacher would ask her 9-year-old to think of any plausible reasons why the enslavement of his ancestors was acceptable.

Its highly offensive and insensitive. I was in shock. I couldnt believe they sent something like that home. Not only was my son in an awful position, but the students who werent black  thats what keeps racism going. Brown-Berry said to the news station.

The principal at Our Redeemer Lutheran School, Jim Van Dellen, issued a formal apology and also noted that students should not have completed the assignment because there are no good reasons for slavery of any kind.

In a letter to parents, Van Dellen wrote: The purpose of the assignment was not, in any way, to have students argue that slavery is acceptable. According to him, the teacher did not assign the assignment with malice and that the main purpose of it was to spark debate in English class.

Van Dellen refused to comment on if the teacher would be disciplined or not.

This post Wisconsin Teacher Reportedly Asks Students To List 3 Good Reasons For Slavery first appeared on Vibe.
Skinny leather belt Meghan Markle wears Aritzias Babaton Amos dress belt to complete her monochromatic look on a Jan. 9 visit to a radio station in London with Prince Harry. (Photo: Twitter/ReprezentRadio; Courtesy of Aritzia)

Shop: Aritzia Babaton Amos dress belt, $45, aritzia.com

Since the announcement of Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys royal engagement, the fashion world has been laser-focused on Markles style.

Fortunately, theres still one fashion accessory worn by Markle  not once, but twice  thats still available: a skinny black leather belt from Aritzia.

Markle, on a Monday visit to Reprezent 107.3 FM in London, wore the belt as part of a monochromatic jet-black look, along with a Marks & Spencer bell-sleeve blouse and Burberry wide-legged trousers. And the accessory, affordably priced at just $45, is a steal compared with elements of some of her past sartorial looks.

It turns out that Aritzia is a favorite of Markles, who has worn the brand six times and counting. For the fashion crowd, Aritzia is the go-to retailer for women seeking timeless wardrobe staples. And it is clearly a staple in Markles style book, whether its a skinny leather belt, cocktail dress, tailored blazer, button-up linen shirt, wool sweater, or casual hoodie.

Markle has shown us that she is not into frivolous, fussy, or over-the-top looks when it comes to her fashion choices, instead opting for simple, classic, elegant pieces. Her aesthetic has already been compared to that of the late Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, whose signature minimalist style is revered to this day. And, similar to Kate Middleton, Markle has proved her powerful fashion selling power, which some have already dubbed the Meghan Markle effect.

The $750 Line the Label white coat Markle wore during the couples engagement photo call created such a high demand, for example, that the brands site crashed; founders of the label then decided to name the coat Meghan in her honor. And in December, during one of Markles first public outings with Prince Harry in Nottingham, she wore a $790 navy military-style coat by Mackage and carried a $675 burgundy top handle bag by Strathberry  causing both items to sell out almost immediately. On another occasion, Markle wore a lacy A-line dress by Self-Portrait that wound up the same way: Sold. Out.

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Avoid missing your chance this time by grabbing the belt before its gone. Then scroll through to see all the times Markle has worn Aritzia.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

 Meghan Markles messy bun gets mixed reviews

 Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys beautiful engagement photos show the love they have for each other

 This 25-year-old just won a Meghan Markle lookalike contest

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Bamako (AFP) - Flags flew at half-mast in Mali on Thursday as the government announced 48 of its citizens drowned in the Mediterranean on a single day over the weekend, all trying to reach Europe.

The west African nation accounted for the fifth largest contingent of arrivals to Italy by sea last year, according to the International Organization for Migration, fleeing poverty, unemployment and instability.

"Forty-eight of our compatriots lost their lives in the Mediterranean on Sunday, January 7," said a foreign ministry statement issued late Wednesday.

Sixty-nine people escaped with their lives, including four children, and were identified on Monday in Libya by an embassy delegation, the statement added.

They will be sent back to Mali "as quickly as possible", it said.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced 24 hours of national mourning and collective prayers on Friday for the victims, and ordered an investigation into the people smugglers responsible for transporting the migrants to Libya.

The foreign ministry urged parents to educate young people on the risks of irregular migration, a phenomenon across Africa that has taken the lives of thousands and pushed many more into modern-day slavery and long spells in detention centres in Libya.

"Despite all the campaigning to educate against irregular migration... and the efforts made to bring back our countrymen through voluntary return schemes, young people continue to risk this extremely dangerous course to go to Europe," the statement added.

Last year more than 117,000 migrants made the journey across the Mediterranean, while more than 3,000 lost their lives at sea.

For Italy, 2017 was a turning point: the country went from large-scale arrivals in the first six months to a sharp drop-off, thanks to controversial agreements in Libya.

Mali faces twin threats from warring armed factions in its north and a jihadist insurgency in the north and centre, along with the youth unemployment and a lack of opportunities that afflict many of its more peaceful neighbours.
Despite a robust upswing in the U.S. stock market, American workers continue to struggle with low retirement savings rates.

A 2016 study by GoBankingRates states that 56 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement and one-third of U.S. adults have no retirement savings at all.

A separate study from Vanguard notes that the average 401(k) fund only holds $101,650 (most investment experts suggest having at least $500,000 saved for retirement), and that 38 million U.S. adults have no retirement account assets at all.

[See: 12 Steps to a Stronger 401(k).]

Don't make those mistakes, especially when companies are making it easier than ever, with generous employee matching programs and automatic savings deductions, to benefit from 401(k) plans.

But if you feel you're 401(k) savings campaign is in a rut, and that you're not saving enough for retirement, don't ignore the problem in hopes that it will go away on its own. Instead, take direct action to spice up a stagnating 401(k) plan, using the following tips.

Be diligent about maxing out on the employer match. "The best thing anyone could do, if they are not already doing it, is to contribute the full amount up to the employer match," says Adam Straseske, a money manager at Red Oak Financial Asset Management, in Round Rock, Texas. "Even if the funds themselves don't perform, the matching from company funds to your 401(k) can already be a great return."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average employer 401(k) match stands at 3.5 percent and many go as high as 6 percent. That's free money, and it's your fastest path to more retirement savings. Ask your company's human resources about maxing out today.

Increase your 401(k) plan contribution rate today. "Increase your contribution rate as much as you can," advises Jon Graff, director of participant services at Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. Even a small amount can translate to bigger savings in retirement when you factor in compounding growth over the course of your career, Graff points out.

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"Ten percent is a good target to strive for, but contributing the maximum amount allowed is even better," he says.

If you get a raise or bonus, split 50 percent off and plow it into your 401(k) plan -- it's money you won't even miss. Or, ask your employer if an automatic 401(k) contribution hike is available -- it comes right out of your paycheck and will help boost your retirement savings.

Spend an hour reviewing your plan. Life changes as you grow older, and your retirement goals and needs change as well. That's why it's so important to spend some time reviewing your 401(k) plan and reallocating assets, if needed. One study from Aon Hewitt showed only 14 percent of employees surveyed actually rebalanced their 401(k) plans -- that's a big no-no, retirement planning expert say.

[See: 9 Things to Know About Robo Advisors.]

"You have to review your investment allocation strategy," Graff says. "Chances are you haven't looked at this in a while, and life events may warrant a more or less aggressive allocation. If your 401(k) plan offers an automatic rebalancing feature, consider the advantages of having this done for you periodically."

Fight high fees with robotics-based funds. "401(k) plan fees and expenses can have a big impact on long-term returns," says Scott Schneider, president of Zacks Advantage, in Chicago. "Reducing fees and expenses wherever you can help kick-start 401(k) plan returns."

Schneider advises asking your employer about lower-fee investment vehicles, including so-called robo funds, in your 401(k) plan rotation.

"More and more robo advisors are offering 401(k) solutions for employers," he says. "If your company doesn't have that option, ask if they can explore expanding their investment options to include a robo advisor or at a minimum, an all ETF/index fund, balanced portfolio option."

Invest in stocks. Since 1926, according to data compiled by Ibbotson Associates, the average annual return for large-capitalization common stocks is 10 percent. Government and corporate bonds return around 6 percent, while cash is in the neighborhood of 3 percent.

"Time is the greatest ally of the investor, as time allows for investment return compounding, and stocks compound at the fastest rate," says Robert R. Johnson, president and CEO of The American College of Financial Services. "None other than Nobel laureate Albert Einstein is rumored to have said that 'compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn't, pays it.'"

[See: 7 of the Best Stocks to Buy for 2018.]

All of the above 401(k) planning moves can be made in less than a day. So, spend some time spicing up your 401(k) as soon as possible. Years from now, you'll be thanking yourself in retirement for taking the time to do so.

Brian O'Connell is a contributing financial writer for U.S. News & World Report. A former Wall Street bond trader and the author of two best-selling books; "The 401k Millionaire" and "CNBC's Creating Wealth", he has 20 years experience covering business news and trends, particularly in the financial, technology, political and career management sectors. His byline has appeared in dozens of top-tier national business publications, including CBS News, Bloomberg, Time, MSN Money, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, TheStreet.com, Yahoo Finance, CBS Marketwatch, and many more. Visit his web site at: https://brianoco.contently.com/. Or, visit this Amazon.com link for a list/review of some of his book titles. Reach out to him on LinkedIn.
By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Bangladeshi man accused of attempting an Islamic State-inspired suicide bomb attack on a busy New York City commuter hub in December pleaded not guilty on Thursday to federal terrorism charges.

"At this moment, not guilty," said Akayed Ullah, 27, when U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan asked him for his plea at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan.

The charges against Ullah include supporting a foreign terrorist organization, using a weapon of mass destruction and carrying out a terrorist attack against a mass transit system. Ullah faces life in prison if convicted.

Ullah was arrested on Dec. 11 after trying to detonate a pipe bomb secured to his body in a pedestrian tunnel in New York City's subway system, according to federal prosecutors. The tunnel is in a busy subway station in Manhattan's Times Square that is connected to the busy Port Authority Bus Terminal, which is used by commuters from New York's suburbs as well as out-of-town travelers.

Ullah was hospitalized for injuries suffered after the bomb ignited but failed to detonate as intended, while three other people suffered minor injuries, according to prosecutors.

Ullah told police officers after the blast that he "did it for the Islamic State," according to a criminal complaint filed on Dec. 13.

Prosecutors said that Ullah, who has lived in the United States since 2011, began his self-radicalization in 2014 when he started viewing pro-Islamic State materials online. Inside Ullah's passport, which was recovered from his home, was a handwritten note that read, O AMERICA, DIE IN YOUR RAGE, according to the complaint.

Monirul Islam, head of the Bangladesh polices counterterrorism unit, told Reuters shortly after the attack in December that his country had found no evidence linking Ullah to militants in his home country.

Ullah's court-appointed lawyer, Amy Gallicchio, said at Thursday's hearing that Ullah, who is currently being held in Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center, had not been seen by a doctor in days and asked the judge to order that he receive medical attention.

Sullivan told Gallicchio to direct her request to prison authorities first.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Activists protest against Trumps immigration policies Hundreds of immigration activists, clergy members and others participate in a protest against President Donald Trumps immigration policies in front of the Federal Building on Jan. 11, 2018, in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Immigration activists, clergy members and others participate in protests against President Trumps immigration policies as the Trump administration continues to focus its attention on deportations and building a wall along the border of Mexico and the U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest numbers are up. From late January through August 2017, arrests by ICE were up more than 43 percent over the same period in 2016. (Getty Images)

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Santiago (AFP) - Almost 80 Roman Catholic clergy have been accused of sexually abusing children in Chile since 2000, a US-based monitoring group said Wednesday ahead of a visit to the country next week by Pope Francis.

Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, has spoken out against such abuse, which has rocked the church for years, but has faced calls to improve accountability and transparency.

BishopAccountability.org compiled its database of clergy publicly accused of sex abuse against minors using court and media records.

The group said the list represented a "fraction of the total number of accused clerics who would be known if Chile's church leaders were required to report to law enforcement, if its legal system allowed victims more time to bring criminal and civil charges, or if dioceses and religious orders were investigated by prosecutors or state commissions."

The list includes Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, accused of abusing children in 2010 and convicted by the Vatican, but not Chile.

Foreign-born clergy members on the list included Irishman Jeremiah Healy, American Jesuit H. Cornell Bradley, and Filipino Reverend Richard Joey Aguinaldo.

The group said it hoped the timing would push the pontiff to take action needed to stem the tide of abuse.

Protesters are expected along the pope's parade route during his visit next week to Chile, a largely Catholic and socially conservative country.

The pontiff will then travel on to Peru.
By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has ordered the Vatican takeover of an elite Catholic society in Peru whose founder is accused of sexually and physically abusing children and former members of the group. The move, announced by the Vatican on Wednesday, is the latest in a saga that has damaged the reputation of the Catholic Church in Peru and comes a week before Francis is set to make his first visit as pope to that country and Chile. Victims of sexual abuse say he has not done enough to put a stop to it. The credibility of a commission he formed in 2014 has been severely damaged by the defections of senior members who accused the Vatican of dragging its feet. The Vatican said the pope had appointed an administrator to run Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), whose founder, Luis Figari, a layman, is scheduled to go on trial in Peru later this year for the sexual abuse of minors. Figari has denied wrongdoing. An internal report by the group last year concluded that Figari, who founded the group in 1971 and headed it until 2010, and three other high-ranking former members had abused 19 minors and 10 adults. Most of the alleged cases took place between the 1970s and 2000. A statement on the group's website said it welcomed the pope's intervention and promised full cooperation with his administrator. "We once again reaffirm our absolute obedience to the Holy Father and Holy Mother Church," it said. The 2017 internal report described Figari as a charismatic, authoritarian and cult-like leader who publicly humiliated members as part of his strategy to control them. Peruvian authorities opened an investigation into Figari in 2015 following the publication of a book on the abuse allegations by Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Pao Ugaz. Salinas himself once belonged to the ultra-conservative Sodalitium, whose members include businessmen, writers and politicians from Peru's upper classes and which was founded as part of a backlash against "Liberation Theology", which took the side of the poor. Salinas said he was skeptical about whether the takeover would translate into real reform. "So far, we've seen gestures, damage control and maneuvers to protect the Church's reputation," Salinas said in a Reuters TV interview. 'GRAVITY OF INFORMATION' The Vatican statement said the pope had been following the group's situation "with worry" for years and had taken the action "after a detailed analysis of all the documentation". It said the pope was concerned about "the gravity of information regarding the internal system, (religious) formation (of members) and economic and financial management". A lawyer for victims said last month a public prosecutor was seeking pretrial detention for Figari and three other former leaders of the group. The Vatican, which officially recognized the group in 1997, last year prohibited Figari from having any contact with members. The takeover of the SCV is similar to action the Vatican took against another conservative group, the Legionaries of Christ. An administrator was appointed to run the Legionaries after its founder, the late Mexican priest Marcial Maciel Degollado, was discovered to have been a sexual abuser with a secret family. The Vatican said the SCV would be run by Colombian Bishop Noel Antonio Londono Buitrago. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Additional reporting by Reuters TV in Lima; Editing by John Stonestreet and Peter Cooney)
City councillors in Amsterdam have decided to reduce by half the number of nights Airbnb hosts can rent out their apartments in the city -- imposing a cap of 30 nights per year, down from the current 60 nights per years (via DutchNews.nl). The new limit will go into force in 2019.

It's just the latest squeeze on the short term rental platform in Europe. (Though, to be clear, the Amsterdam cap applies to use of any home sharing platform by residents, not just Airbnb.)

Paris -- Airbnb's biggest market in the region -- now requires hosts on platforms to register their apartments with the city so it can better track compliance. The French capital also caps the number of nights hosts can list their apartment, though at a rather more generous 120 per year.

Meanwhile Barcelona, another popular European tourist destination, has been cracking down on illegal tourist rentals for some years, applying a series of measures intended to limit the growth of tourist rental platforms such as Airbnb.

And in Germany, Berlin city officials have used a change to housing law to effectively block anyone from renting out an entire apartment to tourists on Airbnb without a permit -- also stating it intends to further reform housing law to protect local housing stock.

Though Airbnb welcomed a draft version of a new housing law in Berlin in December for recognizing home sharing, and expressed confidence that the city will end up letting residents rent out their apartment for 60 nights per year without the need for a permit.

Amsterdam cooling on Airbnb is significant as the company had previously trumpeted a 2016 agreement with the city council -- which the pair said at the time was aimed at promoting "responsible home sharing" and tackling "illegal hotels" -- with agreed measures including Airbnb applying automated limits on hosts to cap listings to 60 nights per year.

Airbnb also said it would promote a new neighbor tool that enables anyone in the city to share concerns they have about a listing -- such as noise complaints.

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It also committed to continue to share aggregated information with the city council on the impacts of home sharing, and to publish data about its enforcement actions yearly.

Evidently the package of measures has failed to assuage local concerns about anti-social behavior related to short term tourist rentals, nor provide adequate reassurance regarding longer term impacts of platforms like Airbnb on local communities.

"I recognize that reducing the length of time is not the solution to city congestion but it will reduce the problems caused by tourists in some areas and will make it less inviting to use your home as a way to earn money," Amsterdam housing alderman Laurens Ivens is quoted as saying about the decision to slash the cap to 30 nights.

Responding to the move in a statement, Bo de Koning, Airbnb's public policy manager for the Netherlands and Scandinavia, expressed disappointment and claimed that the typical Amsterdam landlord on Airbnb earns less than 4,000 per year, sharing their home for an average of less than 3 days per month.

She also said that half of the Airbnb landlords in the city are self-employed; one in four is under 30 and more than 40 per cent use the income to stay in their home.

In 2015 and 2016, Airbnb collected more than 11M in tourist tax for the city, she added.

"The Airbnb community -- consisting of 19,000 Amsterdam landlords -- is disappointed in your intention to have large hotels prevail over Amsterdam families who occasionally share their homes and punish them for the shortcomings of other platforms to promote responsible holiday rentals," she said. "Airbnb has been a proactive and supportive partner of Amsterdam since 2014."
By James Regan SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Port Hedland iron ore terminal expects to clear all remaining vessels from its harbor by 1030 GMT as a safety measure after a tropical cyclone intensified off the nation's western coast on Thursday, Pilbara Ports Authority said. The port's biggest user, global mining giant BHP, said it was monitoring the progress of Cyclone Joyce amid forecasts it will reach Category 3 strength by early Friday morning, packing wind gusts of 165-224 km per hour. "All vessels are expected to be cleared from the port by 6.30 p.m (1030 GMT) tonight, at which time the port will be officially closed," the authority said. The port accounts for over half of Australia's iron ore exports, handling more than a million tonnes a day from the Pilbara iron belt, the majority bound for Chinese steel mills. The Bureau of Meteorology said earlier a tropical low had reached cyclone strength and would intensify overnight, affecting the Pilbara region on Friday or early Saturday. The port is used by three of Australia's top four iron ore miners, BHP, Fortescue Metals Group and Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting. "The safety of our people is our highest priority and we are closely monitoring conditions relating to the cyclone," Fortescue Chief Executive Nev Power said in a statement emailed to Reuters. "We have detailed cyclone preparedness procedures in place at all our operations in the Pilbara," Power said. Australia's top iron ore miner, Rio Tinto, uses the port of Dampier, 420 kilometers (260 miles) south of Port Hedland. A Rio spokesman said the company was keeping an eye on the cyclone's path. Pilbara Ports Authority said it was also monitoring weather conditions at the Dampier port. Iron ore markets have been particularly sensitive to supply-side issues in recent months as China's steelmakers increasingly turns to imported ore to supplement low-grade ore at home. [IRONORE/] According to commodities traders, a prolonged disruption to shipping from the port could lead to a scramble for available cargoes and lift prices. Spot iron ore traded between $53 and $95 a ton in 2017 and currently stands at $78.31 a ton. The Pilbara region is home to many of the world's largest iron ore mines, with Port Hedland last month accounting for over 41 million tonnes of exports. On average, there are 10 to 13 tropical cyclones between November and April in the Australian region, four of which typically cross the coast, data from the bureau shows. (Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Tom Hogue)
A Crow tribal members legal battle, claiming 150-year-old treaty rights allowed him to kill a bull elk on national forest land in Wyoming in 2014, has made its way to the U.S. Solicitor Generals office.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco is the No. 3 official in the U.S. Department of Justice. As solicitor general he represents the United States before the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Monday, Francisco was invited by the Supreme Court justices to write a brief regarding Montana resident Clayvin Herreras request for a review of a lower courts decision. Herrera was found guilty in a 2016 jury trial of killing an elk outside the state hunting season on the Bighorn National Forest. His appeals of that judgment have been upheld or dismissed by subsequent state and federal courts.

"As gatekeeper for the Court, the Solicitor General plays a sometimes delicate and difficult role," wrote Stephen Wermiel on the SCOTUSblog. "The Court relies on the Solicitor General for an honest assessment of when a question of federal law or sometimes of constitutional rights really merits the Courts attention."

A review by the U.S. Supreme Court is Herreras last chance to argue that Crow tribal members right to hunt on unoccupied federal lands, guaranteed in an 1868 treaty with the federal government, are still valid. The high court accepts only about 100 to 150 of the more than 7,000 cases that it is asked to review each year, according to the United States Courts website.

Wyoming courts have argued those treaty rights were revoked when Wyoming became a state and when the Bighorn National Forest was created, thereby making the federal lands occupied. The trial court refused to allow Herrera to argue treaty rights as his defense, saying the issue had been settled in previous cases.

But Herreras defense team says the contradictory interpretation of treaty rights by different federal courts has raised inconsistencies that only the U.S. Supreme Court can reconcile. Montana and Wyoming law professors as well as Little Bighorn College history professor Timothy McCleary have filed briefs supporting Herreras contention.

Monte Mills, a University of Montana law professor who filed a brief supporting Herrera's case, said it could be springtime before Francisco files his brief with the high court. Mills said he's glad the petition wasn't rejected outright.

"This is precisely the type of matter the Supreme Court should be considering," he said.

A decision in Herreras favor by the court, if it should take up the case, could affect at least 19 other tribes that were guaranteed off-reservation treaty hunting rights.

Herreras counsel, which includes Billings attorney Kyle Gray, filed a brief with the Supreme Court in November requesting that it order the lower court to provide its case record for review. Wyoming has, in part, argued that there is no case to review since the ruling was a matter of law.

In the conclusion of its 13-page brief, Herreras attorneys argue, At bottom, there are no obstacles to deciding whether the rights of all Crow Tribe members should eternally be held hostage to legal reasoning that flunks every test of treaty interpretation, statutory interpretation, and common sense. But if these century-old federal treaty rights really are no longer the supreme Law of the land, and Tribe members can be criminally convicted for engaging in expressly protected activities, the Tribe deserves to receive that extraordinary judgment from this Court.

In the original judgment, Herrera was fined and ordered to pay costs of $8,080, received a suspended jail sentence and had his hunting privileges suspended for three years.

The case is Herrera v. Wyoming, case number 17-532.
(Reuters) - A Baltimore hospital has opened an investigation into why a patient was discharged on a freezing night this week and left outside wearing only a thin medical gown, after a video of the incident posted on Facebook attracted wide attention.

The video taken by a bystander shows what appear to be security guards, one with a wheelchair, walking away from a woman at a bus stop outside the University of Maryland Medical Center midtown hospital on Tuesday.

The woman is dressed in a gown and socks with a hospital mask around her neck, and her belongings are packed in bags placed at the bus stop. The woman appears disoriented and does not speak, waving her hands and screaming when asked if she needs help.

The bystander called an ambulance, which picked up the woman.

"We share the shock and disappointment of many who have viewed the video showing the discharge of a patient from the Emergency Department," the hospital said in a statement on Wednesday. "We are taking this matter very seriously, conducting a thorough review, and are evaluating the appropriate response, including the possibility of personnel action."

The hospital did not identify the woman, give her condition or say why she had been released.

The National Weather Service said the overnight temperature in Baltimore on Tuesday fell to the 20s Fahrenheit (minus 1 to minus 6 Celsius).

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Brussels (AFP) - Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Thursday he would seek EU help to settle a row over his country's deportation of Sudanese who were allegedly tortured on their return home.

Michel's coalition government has faced an uproar since his immigration minister Theo Francken invited officials from Khartoum in September to identify Sudanese migrants and then deported around a dozen of them.

"I will undertake initiatives at the European level to trigger debate on this subject. This appears fundamental for the future," Michel told the Belgian parliament.

Last month, his government suspended the expulsion of Sudanese without proper documents to allow officials to complete a probe into allegations several deportees were tortured.

Under international law, countries are required to grant asylum to people who can prove they risk persecution if they are sent back to their home countries.

The debate has surged across the European Union in the last three years as it has been gripped with the worst migration crisis since World War II.

Belgium's centre-right coalition government, which includes Flemish separatists like Francken, has faced accusations from the opposition and human rights groups of collaborating with a dictatorship, the government of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and war crimes related to the conflict. He denies the charges.

Fueling the outrage is testimony compiled by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, which alleged several Sudanese were tortured upon their return to Sudan.

The four parties making up the Belgian coalition have rallied behind Francken while the opposition has demanded his resignation and accused Michel of being hostage to the N-VA Flemish separatists.

Michel, a French-speaking Wallon from the liberal party, said he would like the EU to debate article three of the European Convention of Human Rights, which protects people from torture or degrading and inhumane treatment or punishment.

Lawyers have used the article to win Belgian court decisions against their expulsion.
Most presidents understand that making fun of themselves is endearing. Barack Obama has a sharp sense of humor and much-lauded comic timing, but he also knew how to ham it up when the situation called for it. Every Thanksgiving when he pardoned a turkey while his daughters stood alongside him, he told dad jokes as they visibly winced. In his final turkey-pardoning ceremony in 2016 (with his two young nephews standing in for teenaged Sasha and Malia), Obama promised a corny-copia of dad jokes, and he delivered. When somebody at your table tells you that youve been hogging all the side dishes, you cant have anymore, he said, I hope you respond with a creed that sums up the spirit of the hungry people: Yes we cran.

Ronald Reagan loved to make jokes. According to a classic Washington yarn, he wasnt even afraid to jest with the queen of England. In 1982, while he was on a horseback ride with the queen on the grounds of Windsor Castle, the queens horse is said to have had a bout of prolonged flatulence. The queen reportedly said, Oh dear, Mr. President, Im so sorry! and Reagan supposedly replied, Quite all right, Your Majesty. I thought it was the horse.

Jimmy Carter, after leaving office, continued to poke fun at himself: My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.

Calvin Coolidge, known as Silent Cal, was once seated next to a young woman at a dinner party, who told him that she had a bet she could extract at least three words of conversation from him. You lose, he replied.

Abraham Lincoln was renowned for his self-deprecating humor and elaborate story spinning, especially during long meetings with favor seekers. (Were it not for my little jokes, he once said, I could not bear the burdens of this office.) He had a favorite story about a time when he was splitting rails and a man carrying a rifle walked up to him and demanded that Lincoln look him directly in the eye. Lincoln stopped his work and obliged the man, who continued to stare silently at him for some minutes. Finally the man told Lincoln that he had promised himself years ago that if he ever met a man uglier than himself, he would shoot him. Lincoln looked at the mans rifle, pulled open his shirt, puffed out his chest, and allegedly exclaimed, If I am uglier than you are, I dont want to live. Go ahead and shoot.

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George W. Bush was often the target of comedians for his malapropisms. He was never bothered by it, though, because he understood the value of a good laugh. The ribbing he received was embraced with affection at the White House; the regular meeting of top national security officials in the Bush White House was even renamed The Strategery Meeting after Will Ferrell, as Bush, used the word on Saturday Night Live. Terms such as misunderestimate and Im the decider became part of the West Wing lexicon. He even beat comedians to the punch by telling many jokes at his own expense. He opened the 2005 Correspondents Dinner, for example, by saying, I look forward to these dinners where Im supposed to be funny . . . intentionally. He always understood that when you make fun of yourself, you take away the power of your detractors.

George W. Bush once used his self-deprecating humor to come to the aid of Leas daughter. Lea and her daughter were at a farewell dinner the Bushes threw her when she left the White House, and her daughter, Alice, then 14 years old, was seated next to the president. He asked her how school was going, and she whispered that she was failing algebra but hadnt worked up the nerve to tell Lea yet. When the president heard this, he interrupted the table conversation, turned to Lea, and said, Mom! Alice is flunking math, but you shouldnt worry about it because I didnt do very well in school either, and things turned out all right for me. And he raised his shoulders to indicate where we were seated, in the Yellow Oval Room with the Truman Balcony and the Washington Monument beyond. The table erupted in laughter  and no one laughed harder than Alice. Years later, when President Bush saw Alice again, he greeted her by saying, Havent you graduated yet?

Im in college now! she replied excitedly.

He smiled and patted her on the back. So we both made it through.

Excerpted from TREATING PEOPLE WELL: The Extraordinary Power of Civility at Work and in Life, by Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard. Copyright  2018 by Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard. Excerpted with permission by Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
By Alexandra Valencia and Mark Hosenball QUITO/LONDON (Reuters) - Ecuador has given citizenship to Julian Assange as part of its efforts to allow the WikiLeaks founder to leave the countrys London embassy where he has been holed up for more than five years. Ecuador made the move hours after the British government refused a request from the South American nation for Assange to be given diplomatic status, which could give him immunity from arrest should he try to leave the embassy. After a year in which Ecuador's president has spoken out against Assange, Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said she hoped to find a solution to his dilemma. Ecuador is currently exploring other solutions in dialogue with the UK, like good offices of renowned authorities, other states, or international organizations that could facilitate a just, final and dignified solution for all parties, Espinosa told a press conference in Quito. Britain saw only one resolution to the diplomatic standoff. Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice, said a British Foreign Office spokesman. Assange's U.S. lawyer Barry Pollack had no comment. "RISKS TO HIS LIFE" Assange has been living in the red-brick embassy in Knightsbridge, London since he was granted asylum there in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning in a sexual molestation case. Swedish prosecutors dropped their probe into the allegations but British police said Assange would be arrested for breaching bail conditions should he leave the building. Assange, who denies the allegations, believes Sweden would hand him over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks publication of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history. There are well-founded fears we have about possible risks to his life and integrity, not necessarily by the UK but by third party states, Espinosa said. She did not give details on how granting Assange citizenship might help him leave the embassy and avoid arrest. Ecuador's left-wing president Lenin Moreno, who took office in May, has been less friendly toward Assange than his predecessor Rafael Correa. Moreno last year said Assange could stay in the embassy but called him a "hacker" and warned him not to intervene in the politics of countries friendly to Ecuador. For some, Assange is a cyber hero for exposing government abuses of power and championing free speech but to others he is a criminal who has undermined the security of the West by exposing secrets. WikiLeaks disclosed emails that led to embarrassing media coverage for Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Russian military intelligence used WikiLeaks and other sites to release the emails it hacked from the Democratic National Committee and top Democrats. Assange said he does not know the source of the emails. Assange faces both criminal and congressional investigations in the United States. There is no evidence at this point that U.S. authorities have filed any charges against him, including secret charges, but CIA Director Mike Pompeo last year called WikiLeaks a hostile intelligence service. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, responding to a reporter's question in April about whether arresting Assange was a priority, said it was. Whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail, Sessions said at a press briefing. (This version of the story was refiled to correct bylines) (Reporting by Mark Hosenball in London and Alexandra Valencia in Quito; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Stephen Addison and Andrew Hay)
Rep. Darrell Issa of California announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election, opening up another battleground in the deep blue state as Republicans and Democrats spar for control of the House . His statement came two days after fellow Southern California Republican Rep. Ed Royce announced his retirement.Republicans hold a 239 to 193 seat advantage in the House. Three seats are empty after member resignations. At least 30 House Republicans will retire or seek a different office, while about 15 Democrats will do so rather than seek re-election in the midterm elections."While my service to California's 49th District will be coming to an end, I will continue advocating on behalf of the causes that are most important to me, advancing public policy where I believe I can make a true and lasting difference, and continuing the fight to make our incredible nation an even better place to call home," Issa said in the statement.The conservative Issa, who joined Congress in 2001, only narrowly got re-elected to his seat in 2016. In the presidential race, Hillary Clinton won his district by 7 percentage points.Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer seized on the news of Issa's retirement as another sign that Republicans could be in trouble in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. "It shows that the Republican effort is losing some of its critical members," he said Wednesday on CNBC. Earlier this week, Steyer launched a $30 million initiative to help Democrats flip seats and boost young-voter turnout in vulnerable districts for Republicans. Issa's district is one of the areas Steyer is targeting. Democrats see numerous chances to pick up seats and potentially gain control of the House, partly driven by President Donald Trump 's low approval ratings. Democrats have led Republicans by more than 10 points in an average of recent ballots that ask voters to choose between a generic member of both parties in 2018, according to RealClearPolitics . Issa, who was a businessman before he entered politics, consistently ranked as one of the wealthiest members of Congress.Issa gained notoriety as a thorn in the side of the Obama administration when he chaired the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.Royce, who has held his seat since 1993 and is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was term limited in his leadership of the panel. He won his 39th Congressional District by about 15 percentage points in 2016. Rep. Darrell Issa of California announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election, opening up another battleground in the deep blue state as Republicans and Democrats spar for control of the House . His statement came two days after fellow Southern California Republican Rep. Ed Royce announced his retirement. Republicans hold a 239 to 193 seat advantage in the House. Three seats are empty after member resignations. At least 30 House Republicans will retire or seek a different office, while about 15 Democrats will do so rather than seek re-election in the midterm elections. "While my service to California's 49th District will be coming to an end, I will continue advocating on behalf of the causes that are most important to me, advancing public policy where I believe I can make a true and lasting difference, and continuing the fight to make our incredible nation an even better place to call home," Issa said in the statement. The conservative Issa, who joined Congress in 2001, only narrowly got re-elected to his seat in 2016. In the presidential race, Hillary Clinton won his district by 7 percentage points. Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer seized on the news of Issa's retirement as another sign that Republicans could be in trouble in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. "It shows that the Republican effort is losing some of its critical members," he said Wednesday on CNBC. Earlier this week, Steyer launched a $30 million initiative to help Democrats flip seats and boost young-voter turnout in vulnerable districts for Republicans. Issa's district is one of the areas Steyer is targeting. Democrats see numerous chances to pick up seats and potentially gain control of the House, partly driven by President Donald Trump 's low approval ratings. Democrats have led Republicans by more than 10 points in an average of recent ballots that ask voters to choose between a generic member of both parties in 2018, according to RealClearPolitics . Issa, who was a businessman before he entered politics, consistently ranked as one of the wealthiest members of Congress. Issa gained notoriety as a thorn in the side of the Obama administration when he chaired the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Royce, who has held his seat since 1993 and is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was term limited in his leadership of the panel. He won his 39th Congressional District by about 15 percentage points in 2016.



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Ottawa (AFP) - Canada's foreign minister said Thursday she is hopeful for a breakthrough in the next round of continental free trade talks, despite a possible US withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Speaking to reporters, Chrystia Freeland said negotiators from Canada, the United States and Mexico are "close to closing a number of bread and butter really businessy trade chapters."

"And it would be great if we could make progress on those in Montreal," she said.

The trade representatives are scheduled to meet in Montreal from January 23-28.

The US, Canada and Mexico had given themselves a March deadline to finish talks.

But a Canadian government source told AFP that Ottawa is bracing for the United States to possibly announce sooner that it will pull out of the trade pact.

Addressing those concerns, Freeland said: "From the very beginning the US has been clear about the possibility that the US would invoke article 2205. That is no secret."

"And I think we need to take our neighbors at their word, take them seriously," she added.

"Our approach from the start has been to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. So Canada is prepared for every eventuality."

Article 2205 outlines a process requiring written notice of withdrawal to the other parties, which would trigger a six-month countdown to exit.

Freeland said Canadian negotiators are approaching the Montreal round of talks in a "spirit of goodwill," hoping for "a positive outcome."

She noted also that "when it comes to the more unconventional US proposals, we have been doing some creative thinking."

In a previous round of talks, US negotiators presented some contentious proposals including new stricter rules of origin for automobiles and parts, and the elimination of the NAFTA dispute resolution mechanism -- which Ottawa rejected.
By Anna Mehler Paperny TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada is sending a Spanish-speaking lawmaker to California to dissuade potential migrants from illegally crossing the border following Washingtons decision to end the temporary protected status of some 200,000 Salvadorans. The trip was planned in anticipation of Monday's decision by U.S. President Donald Trump and is part of a Canadian government attempt to prevent an influx of border-crossers like the one that occurred last year after the United States said it would end the temporary protected status granted to some 50,000 Haitians following a devastating earthquake in the Caribbean nation in 2010. Many Haitians sought asylum in Canada based on expectations that they would easily be granted refugee status, the government said, leading lawmakers to reach out to diaspora communities to dispel such misinformation. Like the Haitians, roughly 200,000 Salvadorans already living in the United States were granted protected status in 2001 following a major earthquake in El Salvador. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Monday said the protected status would end in September 2019. The Canadian government is "prepared" for a possible influx of border-crossing asylum seekers, but does not expect one, said Hursh Jaswal, spokesman for Immigration and Refugee Minister Ahmed Hussen. The ministry is sending Member of Parliament Pablo Rodriguez to California next week to talk to government officials and immigration groups about how Canada's immigration and refugee system works, Jaswal said. Rodriguez is at least the third official whom Canada has sent to the United States in recent months to dispel misinformation about winning asylum. Most recently, the immigration minister himself went to Minneapolis, which is home to the largest Somali population in the United States. More than 18,000 asylum seekers illegally crossed the U.S. border into Canada last year to file refugee claims, almost 17,000 of whom went to the primarily French-speaking province of Quebec. Asylum seekers cross illegally because under a U.S.-Canada agreement they will be turned back if they try to file refugee claims at formal land border crossings, because asylum seekers must file claims in the first country where they land, unless they meet certain exemptions. Refugee status requires a claimant to convince decision-makers of a well-founded fear of persecution in his or her country of origin. Angela Ventura, a representative of a Salvadoran-Canadian association in Windsor, Ontario, said she expects Salvadorans in the United States to move north following Monday's announcement. Many of them have reasonable grounds for claiming refugee status in Canada, said Toronto refugee lawyer Raoul Boulakia. "The situation in El Salvador is extremely dangerous," he said. Canada treats some claims for asylum differently than does the United States. More than 500 Salvadorans claimed refugee status in Canada in the first nine months of last year - more than double the total for 2016 and more than any year since at least 2013, according to Immigration and Refugee Board statistics. About two-thirds of the claimants whose cases were finalized were granted refugee status. (Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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The annual CES convention in Las Vegas has become a showcase for emerging car technologies, and many companies at the 2018 show focused on how to design cockpits for vehicles that are highly connected and leverage features found on cutting-edge smartphones.

In the near future, when you enter your car, it could be able to verify who you are, pay close attention to the way you drive, and potentially stop you from making dangerous mistakes.

"It's not just that vehicles are bristling with technology," says Jim Trainor, director of communications at Hyundai Motor America. "Electronics have changed consumers' mindset about everything, including their expectations about the cars that they drive."

Byton, a Chinese high-tech startup that aims to compete with Tesla in the electric-car market, showed off an SUV that its hoping to sell in 2019 that unlocks the door when its facial recognition software recognizes the driverstarting price, $45,000.

The Byton interior is dominated by a long tabletlike screen that spans the width of the dashboard. The knobs and buttons that a driver might expect have been replaced by a camera that reads five basic hand gestures.

When it comes to the basic controls of a vehicle, innovation can be a blessing or a curse. Consumer Reports has evaluated many new car interfaces at our test track to assess the balance of utility for drivers vs. the danger of distraction. For instance, in testing the hand-gesture controls found in recent BMW cars, weve found the technology to be balky and more distracting than traditional controls.

Byton promises that the cars software will recognize those people authorized to drive it and will automatically adjust the seats, mirrors, and climate control to their personal preferences. The car will sync with their phones or smartwatches and can be programmed to send messages to the people theyre meeting.

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AI On the Road

Byton says it has also integrated Amazons personal assistant, Alexa, into the car, allowing passengers to use voice commands to shop, look up restaurants, or change their destination, all in real time.

Other auto companies are also inviting Alexa into the cabin. German parts maker Continental is designing a voice-control interface that integrates Amazon's personal assistant, but its also promising to use artificial intelligence (AI) to limit the kinds of things that Alexa can do, depending on whats going on outside the car, so as not to distract the driver.

Its really important that we have a seamless transfer of information to the driver, says Tamara Snow, director of interior systems and technology at Continental. This helps have as few distractions as possible.

Connected Cars Pay Attention to You

Hyundai calls its concept in-car interface the Intelligent Personal Cockpit. The system employs voice-recognition thats enhanced by AI and can monitor the vital signs of passengers. Hyundai is one of several manufacturers promising to integrate things like Fitbits directly into car infotainment systems.

Samsung, a company best known for its phones, TVs, and appliances, worked through its Harmon subsidiary on a concept car cockpit that's ready for next-generation, super-fast 5G cellular data networks.

Samsung and Harmon hope to create a platform for software developers, envisioning the car as an electronics device with an operating system akin to a rolling smartphone. Samsung is also promising it will use AI to "create a self-learning virtual co-passenger" that will make driving both personalized and safe.

Many of these companies are also rethinking the visual interface inside the car cockpit. Swiss software developer WayRay demonstrated an augmented reality auto navigation system called Navion, which projects directions, trip details, and real-time warnings about road hazards, such as pedestrians, onto the windshield.

Some of the in-car tech shown at this year's CES can monitor drivers for potentially dangerous behavior. The Australian company Seeing Machines is already selling a system called Fovio, which is used in the 2018 Cadillac CT6. It watches a drivers eyes and face for signs of distraction. The company says the system will soon be used by auto technology companies Autoliv and Bosch.

And at least one new car interface plans to let cars communicate with their drivers through a buzz on the behind. The Clarion Infoseat can alert the driver to an urgent situation using vibrations, audible warning sounds, and lights.





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Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright  2018, Consumer Reports, Inc.
Import duties on Canadian newsprint got a preliminary OK from the U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday, over objections of many newspaper printers and publishers.

Commerce officials ruled that Canadian paper makers benefited from a 6.53 percent subsidy from their federal government through cheap access to public timber supplies and state tax breaks or financial support. A Longview, Washington, paper manufacturer that petitioned for the trade protection said it would bring back U.S. jobs.

What the U.S. uncoated groundwood papers industry wants is a level playing field, and this decision is an important step forward for American producers, workers and their families that have been the victims of unfair Canadian trade practices for too long, North Pacific Paper Co. CEO Craig Anneberg said in an email.

NORPAC has a world-class facility that can compete with anyone around the world, but we need to be able to compete on a level playing field. This decision will protect American jobs in Washington, Mississippi and Georgia, and may even serve to create jobs in the U.S. as idled paper machines restart," Anneberg's email said.

Anneberg claimed that unfair competition had forced at least 10 U.S. paper mills to close since 2012, reducing the nations newsprint production capacity by almost 70 percent. However, other paper producers have blamed their woes on the publishing worlds increasing shift toward paperless, digital delivery.

For example, a study of Maines once-booming pulp paper industry noted that its 15,000 jobs had fallen 66 percent between 1990 and 2013 even while production continued to rise.

Frenchtown had an active pulp mill until 2010, when Smurfit-Stone Container closed its plant as part of corporate consolidation. However, that facility produced liner board for packaging, not newsprint.

More than a thousand U.S. printers and publishers, along with the American Forest and Paper Association, asked the government to leave newsprint exports alone. They argued that falling paper demand had more to do with a changing business world than foreign paper prices.

(O)ther factors have affected newspapers as well, including: a loss of automobile dealerships during the Recession, a loss of department stores, a consolidation of banks and a general shrinkage of retail outlets as large discount houses have subsumed what was once a thriving Main Street, one group of 54 small publishers wrote. These businesses were big advertisers in newspapers even a decade ago. As they have disappeared from our environment, newspapers have lost revenue and have correspondingly made cuts in their paper consumption to stay afloat.

Anneberg disagreed.

While we understand the concerns recently surfaced by some newspaper publishers, we strongly disagree with the notion that their industry requires low-priced, government-subsidized, imported newsprint from Canada to sustain its business model, Anneberg wrote. High-quality journalism in communities across the country should not depend on unfairly traded inputs that cause material injury to a U.S. industry and American jobs.

"We estimate the impact this ruling would have on the cost to produce the average printed newspaper would be less than $.05 per newspaper  a small price to pay to preserve American manufacturing jobs.

The Department of Commerce will issue its preliminary determination in the companion anti-dumping investigation on March 7, 2018. The department is expected to make final anti-dumping and countervailing duty determinations in July 2018, and the International Trade Commission will make its final injury determination in August 2018.
Over the past two years, Charlize Theron has firmly established herself as American cinemas reigning action queen courtesy of standout performances in Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde. Nonetheless, she also continues to be one of Hollywoods most versatile actresses, and the Oscar winner will be getting back to more dramatic material  albeit with a definite comedic edge  this April, when she stars in Tully, a saga about motherhood thats just released its tantalizing first teaser.

From the people who brought you Juno and Young Adult, announces the above clip, and while that fact may not resonate as a positive for all moviegoers, it certainly suggests the sort of serious but sarcastic tone thatll define this latest film from director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody. Looking like a companion piece to Young Adult, which starred Theron as a woman with some serious maturation problems, Tully will focus on the ups and downs experienced by Marlo (Theron), a mom whose life is marked by an exhausting routine of caring for infants, using breast pumps, and maintaining a crowded household, all without much assistance from her husband (Ron Livingston). Help is on the way, however, in the form of Tully (Mackenzie Davis), a nanny who arrives on Marlos doorstep in the final scene of the promo like a gift from the gods, a modern-day Mary Poppins.

After two consecutive disappointments (Labor Day; Men, Women and Children), Tully  also co-starring Mark Duplass  seems like a return to more comfortable terrain for director Reitman. And for the always great Theron, it appears shell be adding another varied performance to her impressive resume.

Tully arrives in theaters on April 20.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
The Daily Beast

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyDonald Trumps 2024 announcement may have felt like a flop, but there was an interesting upside to it for him.Jose Pagliery, political investigations reporter at The Daily Beast, tells The New Abnormal host Andy Levy that one cant look at this announcement as anything other than an attempt to mar any prosecution as a political persecution of him.It could be viewed as him trying to seek further cover so that if he does get indicted fo
Phnom Penh (AFP) - Beijing has pledged billions of dollars to build new infrastructure in Cambodia, officials said Thursday, as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang ended a two-day charm offensive currying favour for its mega-dams across the Mekong.

The storied waterway, which twists through parts of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, is the world's largest inland fishery and helps feed around 60 million people across its basin.

Environmental groups fear the Chinese dams will destroy fish stocks and plunge some of the region's poorest people, who depend on the river, deeper into penury.

Beijing has already interrupted the Mekong's upper reaches with six dams, and is investing in more than half of the 11 dams planned further south, according to the non-profit group International Rivers.

Li travelled to Phnom Penh on Wednesday for the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation forum, a Chinese-backed meeting to press China's case for ambitious dam projects.

On Thursday, he met Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, a Beijing ally, and -- among a welter of projects for the poor Southeast Asian country -- offered to fund a new airport in Phnom Penh, a highway from the capital to the coastal city of Sihanoukville, and a hospital.

A joint statement after the state trip lauded the "important and fruitful outcomes of the visit", which includes continued medical checkups in China for Cambodia's king and queen mother.

Observers say China often uses cash and soft loans for high-profile infrastructure projects to butter up its poorer neighbours.

The expressway alone would cost $2 billion, Cambodia's transport minister Sun Chanthol told reporters later, without clarifying if it was newly-promised money.

The future of the Mekong river is a key strategic issue between the neighbours.

With control over the headwaters of the river -- known in China as the Lancang -- Beijing can dam its section while the impacts are felt downstream.

Communities in the lower Mekong countries have reported depleted fish stocks in recent years and are blaming the dams.

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Environmental groups warn the blockages pose a grave threat to fish habitats by disrupting migrations and the flow of key nutrients and sediment -- not to mention displacing tens of thousands of people with flooding.

Experts say it is too early to draw full conclusions about the impact given a lack of baseline data and the complex nature of the river's ecosystem.

Li sent a far more reassuring message to forum participants in his remarks on Wednesday.

"We want to properly address the relationship between up- and downstream countries and accommodate the interests of all countries along the river," he said.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday expressed firm opposition to a decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to pass two pieces of pro-Taiwan legislation, but Taipei welcomed them as helping to strengthen ties with Washington. China considers the self-ruled island of Taiwan a breakaway province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it back under mainland control, but Taiwan has shown no interest in being ruled by Beijing. The Foreign Affairs Committee passed two bills on Tuesday to "strengthen the critical U.S.-Taiwan partnership", the Taiwan Travel Act and a bill to support Taiwan's inclusion in the World Health Organization (WHO), according to an online statement. The travel bill aims to encourage visits between the United States and Taiwan, while the second bill aims to counter "harmful and unacceptable" efforts to undermine Taiwan's inclusion in the WHO, it added. In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China firmly opposed the two bills, which constitute a "severe violation" of the "one China" principle and an interference in China's internal affairs. "China urges the United States to scrupulously abide by the one China principle, cautiously handle the Taiwan issue, not have any official contact with Taiwan and not give any wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces," he told a regular briefing. Taiwan was not surprised by the reaction of mainland China and was glad to see the travel bill pass, the island's foreign ministry spokesman, Andrew H.C. Lee, said, adding that such a bill helps to strengthen two-way ties. "We won't stop making efforts because of any intervention or interruption by outside forces," he added. When still U.S. president-elect in December 2016, Donald Trump angered China by taking a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen and by questioning the United States' long-held "one China" policy. Trump later re-affirmed U.S. commitment to the policy in a telephone call with Chinese president Xi Jinping. (Reporting by Christian Shepherd in Beijing and Fabian Hamacher in Taipei; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
By Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA/QUITO (Reuters) - Colombia's Marxist ELN rebels resumed attacks on oil installations and the armed forces on Wednesday, threatening the future of peace talks just hours after the expiration of a ceasefire agreement with the government. The talks in Quito, Ecuador, had been scheduled to restart this week after a recess between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the government of center-right President Juan Manuel Santos. Santos ordered his chief negotiator back to Bogota after the attacks, however, to weigh the future of a process that began early last year in a bid to end more than 53 years of fighting. The rebels carried out three bomb attacks in the early hours against the Cano Limon oil pipeline, which takes crude from the Cano Limon oilfield, operated by Occidental Petroleum Corp, to the Caribbean port of Covenas. The bombings against the pipeline, which is Colombia's second-most important, forced the suspension of pumping operations, the government said. The ELN also staged a grenade attack on a naval base in Arauca province, injuring two soldiers. Later on Wednesday an ELN sniper killed a soldier, the defense ministry said, adding that troops are in the area and would launch offensives against the group. State oil company Ecopetrol reported an attack on one of its facilities in a rural area of Casanare province. "I deplore the decision by the ELN to reactivate its terrorist attacks," Santos said in a televised address. "The government was always willing to extend the ceasefire. Inexplicably, the ELN refused. Under the circumstances I have ordered the return of our chief negotiator to evaluate the future of talks." The group's first-ever ceasefire, which began in October, ended overnight. The ELN has said it will not extend the truce under the original terms and wants a new deal. Pablo Beltran, chief ELN negotiator in Quito, said the group had adhered to the conditions of the ceasefire and that the two sides had always agreed to evaluate new terms after the 101-day truce expired. He said Wednesday's attacks occurred in "complex situations" of war and that the group maintained its intention to negotiate a new ceasefire. "We're seeking a response from the government to see if it's interested in finding a way out of this incident. If there's a positive response, the ELN delegation will remain in Quito," Beltran said. "But if there's no positive response we will have to return to Colombia." During the ceasefire, reached on Sept. 4, the insurgent group promised to suspend hostage-taking, attacks on roads and oil installations, the use of landmines and the recruitment of minors. In turn, the government agreed to improve protection for community leaders and conditions for about 450 jailed rebels. The 2,000-strong ELN has hurt the oil industry with its regular bombings of infrastructure and has taken numerous oil workers hostage over the years. Santos, who leaves office this year, signed a peace deal with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in late 2016 after negotiations in Cuba that lasted four years. The FARC is now a political party with a candidate for president in May elections. The ELN, founded by radical Roman Catholic priests in 1964, has sought peace with the government before but made little progress. It is considered a terrorist group by the United States and European Union. (Reporting by Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta; Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito; Editing by Tom Brown and Matthew Lewis)
Shortly after 11 AM, the power went out in the central hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), bringing CES to a near standstill. The cavernous hall, measuring more than 632,000 square feet -- bigger than some aircraft hangars -- fell into silence, save for the backbeat of a few battery-powered speakers. A Tesla, parked with its doors open and headlights on, provided one of the few sources of light in an otherwise pitch-black hall.

Security acted quickly to move people out, forming a human wall across the entrances, preventing visitors from coming in. There was the odd scuffle, especially as international attendees and security guards failed to understand one another. The mood on the edges of the hall was tense as people struggled to understand what exactly was going on, but nobody had a clue.

Through its official CES Twitter account, the CTA announced that it was aware of the "isolated power outage" at the LVCC. It added that it was working hard to resolve the matter and that it appreciated attendees' patience, and the first tweeted response was shortly, "Honestly, don't rush."

As the hall began to empty out, only the booth attendees, security personnel and the executives that were manning each stage remained. An aura of calm settled across the hall as people realized that they would be waiting for a long while. Those employed to represent a brand, with little investment in its overall success, sat on the carpet and checked their phones. The people further up the chain prowled the floor, annoyed with the interruption.

While we work through this isolated power outage feel free to visit our exhibitors in South Hall and North Hall. Also get outside on this beautiful Las Vegas day and check out Central and South Plaza. #CES2018  CES (@CES) Jan. 10th, 2018

"It's 'cos they got too much shit plugged in, in there," said a security guard when asked about the ongoing crisis.

"I like it," said Tiffany Sawcznko, who was representing Polaroid at the show. "It's easier on the eye."

SONY DSC

"It's weird," said one Monster employee. "Some heads are gonna roll." Another added, "Are we gonna get our money back?"

The issue of money was a sore spot for one company executive, who asked not to be named, pointing out that the power cut would prove costly. "It's gonna cost thousands of dollars," they explained, "when you take into account booth space, employee time, all of the lost meetings." They jabbed at their smartphone. "You can literally see this shit running up on a clock."

Nicole Brandfon, a public relations executive, was initially nonplussed, saying that she was "shooting an interview video when the lights went out." She was expecting them to "come straight back on." Unfortunately, they did not.

Some booths remained running, and companies like Canon, Nikon, Samsung and Casio apparently had backup generators on-site. According to bystanders, Casio and Nikon apparently decided to shut their power down, since there were no prospective customers to entertain.

SONY DSC

"I've been here 27 years and I've never had this happen before," said Ed Hunter, who was working at the Samsung booth. He seemed unfazed by all the commotion.

One person, who declined to be named for this report, said he would be happy if the outage didn't last longer than an hour -- which it did. He said that it would cause "untold damage" to his business if he wasn't able to make his scheduled meetings.

At 12:38 PM PST, the CTA announced that power would soon be restored to the building but that public access would be restricted until further notice.

We've been informed by Nevada Power that the outage has been addressed and they are in the process of restoring power. We will continue to restrict access until full power has been restored. Thank you for your continued patience. We encourage you to visit other open show areas  CES (@CES) Jan. 10th, 2018

808 Audio managed to get some unintentional good press out of the outage, since its DJ booth, which used battery-powered Encore speakers, remained in operation. The company's Derek Jensen said that "going to CES is like going to the moon," and pointed out how many redundancies the company brings to ensure things run smoothly. He shrugged his shoulders and gestured around, the implication clear.

Outside the building, a thick fog of cigarette smoke loomed over the crowd still waiting to return inside as terse security guards shoved back anyone who got too close.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.
A Democrat on President Donald Trumps now-defunct voter fraud commission is asking a federal judge to step in and block officials from deleting any of the panels records or transferring voter data.

Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap wants the judge to force the panel to preserve all of its records, including those related to the end of the commission. He also wants to be included in any discussion about what the panel does with information and data it has collected and to block it from distributing any findings until he has had a chance to review and comment on them.

Mendacity and bad faith have characterized this commission from its inception. Now, the White House has shut it down rather than comply with a court order forcing it to release documents to one of its own members, said Austin Evers, the executive director of American Oversight, the watchdog group representing Dunlap in his suit. The law doesnt allow government officials to evade accountability so easily.

President Donald Trump dissolved his voter fraud commission, and one of the former commissioners wants to be sure its records aren't deleted. (Photo: Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports/Reuters)

Trump dissolved the commission, formally called the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, on Jan. 3, saying it was tied up in needless litigation and that the Department of Homeland Security would take up its work instead. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said last week that the panel would transfer its preliminary findings to DHS.

However, Its unclear what exactly those findings are. In the little under eight months it existed, the panel collected voter data and heard public presentations at a September meeting alleging the possibility of widespread voter fraud, which several studies and investigations have shown is not prevalent. Dunlap and other Democrats on the panel repeatedly said they had no idea what the panel was working on, let alone when it would meet, and say they were rebuffed when they asked for more information.

It also is unclear what the panel will do with the voter information it had collected from about 20 states as of October. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), the panels vice chairman, indicated it would be turned over to DHS and run against immigration databases to try to identify people illegally on the rolls. But in a letter to Dunlaps attorneys on Friday, Justice Department lawyers said the data wouldnt be transferred or used.

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Dunlap sued the commission in November and a federal judge sided with him in December, telling the panel it had to turn over certain records. But on Friday, Justice Department lawyers indicated they would ask the judge to reconsider that order, given that Trump dissolved the commission. They say now that Dunlap is not officially a commissioner, he is entitled to as much information as the general public. On Tuesday, Dunlaps lawyers asked the judge to force the commission to turn over those documents without further delay.

After Trump dissolved the commission and DOJ lawyers said they would ask the judge to consider reversing the order, Dunlap pledged to fight even harder for the commissions communications.

It is unthinkable, unconscionable, and un-American that the administration would engage in actions that demonstrate such a flagrant disregard for a court ruling and the rule of law, he said. I think my access  and the access to the information by the rest of the now-former members of the commission  is more critical than ever.

Related Coverage

Trump Suddenly Ends Voter Fraud Panel

Trump's Vote Fraud Panel Won't Give Voter Information To Homeland Security

Trump Administration To Fight Order To Give Documents To Democratic Voter Fraud Commissioner

Also on HuffPost

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Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of Puerto Rico residents affected by Hurricane Maria as he visits Calgary Chapel in San Juan on Oct. 3.

Trump reacts as he sits in a truck on March 23 while welcoming truckers and CEOs to attend a meeting at the White House regarding health care.

Trump registers his surprise as he realizes other leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, are crossing their arms for the traditional "ASEAN handshake" as he participates in the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Summit in Manila, Philippines, on Nov. 13.

Trump, along with first lady Melania Trump, Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, put their hands on an illuminated globe during the inauguration ceremony of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 21.

Trump looks up toward the solar eclipse while standing on the Truman Balcony at the White House on Aug. 21.

Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May are pictured ahead of a photo opportunity of leaders as they arrive for a NATO summit meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on May 25.

Trump boards Air Force One to depart for Vietnam from Beijing, China, on Nov. 10.

Trump holds up a pen after signing the HBCU executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 28.

Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel wait for reporters to enter the room before their meeting in the Oval Office on March 17.

Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7.

Trump welcomes 11-year-old Frank Giaccio to the White House on Sept. 15. Frank, who wrote a letter to Trump offering to mow the White House lawn, was invited to work for a day along the National Park Service staff.

Trump and Putin shake hands as they take part in a family photo at the APEC summit in Danang, Vietnam, on Nov. 10.

Trump jokes with French President Emmanuel Macron about their handshakes at the start of the NATO summit at their new headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on May 25.

Trump holds a mechanical tool as he attends a Made in America roundtable in the East Room of the White House on July 19.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
By Ian Simpson (Reuters) - Republicans took narrow control of the Virginia House of Delegates on Wednesday after a Democrat conceded in a race decided by a tie-breaker and a federal appeals court refused to keep the winner of another disputed contest from being seated. The concession by Shelly Simonds, who lost in a lottery-style drawing that drew national attention last week, and the judges' ruling cemented Republicans' 51-49 advantage hours before House lawmakers were sworn in and elected Republican Kirk Cox as speaker. Simonds said she would not seek a second recount in her race with Republican incumbent David Yancey but would run again in 2019. Yancey won the tied Newport News-area race when election officials drew his name from a bowl. "Weve had an amazing civics lesson in the power of every vote, and I hope the legacy of this campaign will be record high turnout in Newport News forever more," she said in a statement. Simonds said the race underscored the need for election reforms in Virginia. She urged making it easier to cast an absentee ballot and ending gerrymandering, in which a party in power redraws legislative districts to ensure its candidates a better chance of winning. The tie-breaking drawing was Virginia's first since 1971 but unprecedented in the state because of its impact on the House, election officials said. In another disputed Virginia House race, a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Wednesday rejected a bid by voters to keep Republican Robert Thomas from being seated because some ballots were cast in the wrong Fredericksburg-area district. Calling the election "irreparably tainted," Virginia Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Baker said in a statement that the party would weigh its legal options. A federal judge last week rejected voters' call for a new election, leading to the appeal. Democrats picked up 15 House seats in November, part of the party's first big wave of political victories since Republican President Donald Trump won the White House in 2016. Democrat Ralph Northam is to be sworn in as governor on Saturday. Republicans also still control the state Senate. (Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)
WHITEFISH  A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building in Whitefish was demolished overnight after a last-minute flurry of fundraising to save it failed to raise $1.7 million by a Jan. 10 deadline.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Lockridge Medical Clinic Building was designed by the famous architect the year before his death in 1959.

The 5,000-square-foot building was purchased by Mick Ruis in 2016. He had put the property on the market last year for $1.7 million.

Ruis, the developer of Columbia Falls Cedar Creek Lodge and Convention Center, tore down the building to build a three-story commercial development that will include retail space, professional offices and housing units.

The developer and horse trainer has said he didnt know the buildings historical significance when he purchased the property.

After Ruis didnt receive any viable offers over the past year, he decided to move forward with the project. When contractors began performing asbestos-abatement work on the building, the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy began working Jan. 3 to save the building.

Ruis set a deadline of Jan. 10 for the conservancy to find a buyer.

In a press release, the conservancy said Wednesday it made a full-price offer to Ruis Whitefish attorney, Ryan Purdy, on Jan. 8 that provided for a substantial refundable deposit paid directly to Ruis with 60 days to close on the full $1.7 million asking price. The conservancy also wanted to be able to inspect the property to determine the amount of interior demolition that had already occurred.

Through his attorney, Ruis replied to the offer with a demand for a 50 percent larger nonrefundable deposit that had to be paid by 5 p.m. Jan. 9. The terms included payment in full by Jan. 22.

The conservancy said that wouldnt allow it time to inspect the building, which is now surrounded by a fence. Crews have already chopped down surrounding trees.

The conservancys release said it was concerned that, without inspections, a potential buyer may not know how much of the interior had already been removed.

As negotiations continued under these increasingly unorthodox terms, FLWBC and its allies attempted to raise the full nonrefundable deposit within the near impossible time frame set, the release read.

With public support for preserving the building growing, evidenced by numerous phone calls and emails from concerned citizens, the conservancy offered a substantial portion of the nonrefundable deposit at the close of business on Jan. 10. It asked Ruis for one more week to allow the conservancy to launch a crowd-sourced funding campaign to raise the full deposit amount.

That offer was rejected at 4:15 p.m. Central Standard Time on Jan. 10. Ruis also rejected a subsequent request to salvage architectural elements of the building prior to its demolition.

The board of directors of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy agreed the owners proposals provided no realistic path to acquiring the building, short of an investor willing to put down $1.7 million cash without reasonable time to complete their own due diligence on the property, said Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. We certainly attempted to make that happen alongside many other options we explored in the incredibly brief window of time we were given to find a new solution.

Complex commercial real estate transactions dont happen overnight, and we believe a realistic offer was submitted to the owner by his deadline that would allow the organizations working to save this building to continue to fully finance its purchase, Gordon said. We in the preservation community are all incredibly disappointed by this outcome, to say the least.

Preservation organizations including the conservancy and the Montana Preservation Alliance have been working for a year to put a deal in place. A local businessman had found a buyer for the building, but that buyer needed to close on another deal to obtain the capital needed to complete the purchase.

It was communicated to all of us through our local contact working to broker the deal that the developer would not move to demolish the building until late 2018, by which time we expected the intended buyer to have their financing and complete the purchase, Gordon said. None of us are aware of why the owner changed his mind and moved up his demolition plans.

It left us all scrambling to find a new cash buyer at the last minute, she said. When none could be found, we made several appeals to the owner for more time to mobilize the many small donors from the public who contacted us wishing to contribute whatever they could toward saving the building, but he would not grant any more time.

Purdy did not return several phone calls Tuesday and Wednesday.

This story contains information from the Associated Press.
WASHINGTON  Immigrant rights advocates are urging undocumented young people to hold off from rushing to reapply for deportation relief  or celebrating too much  after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reopen much of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on Tuesday.

The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge William Alsup was a victory for immigration activists and officials who say President Donald Trump acted unlawfully by ending DACA, a program created in 2012 to provide two-year work permits and deportation relief to so-called Dreamers who came to the United States as children. Under Alsups order, young undocumented immigrants who held DACA status on Sept. 5, when Trump rescinded the program, should be allowed to apply to renew those protections.

But in some ways, it created more confusion. Adrian Reyna, a Dreamer and activist with United We Dream, said that he received a call after the ruling from his sister, who asked whether everything was fixed.

His answer was no.

The devil is in the details, Reyna said he told her, recounting the conversation on call with reporters on Wednesday. Of course not everything is fixed. 

Its not even clear when the decision will begin to help Dreamers  or if it will at all. As of Wednesday evening, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which administers DACA, couldnt provide any information as to when and how it would begin to accept renewal applications.

The Department of Justice, which is led by the adamantly anti-DACA Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said after the ruling that it would file an appeal, which could lead to the injunction being overturned.

This decision may not actually ever get implemented  we just dont know yet, Marielena Hincapie, executive director of National Immigration Law Center said on the same call with reporters.

Hincapie said that although the ruling was a positive sign, advocates are worried that Dreamers will send in applications, including a nearly $500 fee, and be rejected if USCIS has not yet implemented a process to accept renewals. She said Dreamers should also be wary of notarios, individuals who present themselves as immigration lawyers or legal experts to defraud immigrants.

Story continues

For now, Hincapie said, Dreamers should stay informed but wait on sending anything to the government. She and other advocates have urged Dreamers in the meantime to keep pushing for legislation that would grant them legal status, such as the Dream Act.

Advocates argued that Tuesdays court order only increased the urgency of passing legislation through Congress.

Trump met with lawmakers from both parties on Tuesday and told them he wants to couple protections for Dreamers with border security  including his signature wall  along with an end to the diversity lottery and limiting family-based visas, which he refers to as chain migration.

President Donald Trump met with a group of Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate on Tuesday to discuss immigration plans. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)

Lawmakers are working on negotiating a deal but remain far apart on many of the issues. Democrats have ruled out funding a border wall  although many say they are open to other measures, including some areas of fencing  and oppose efforts to cut legal immigration without getting something in return, such as temporary worker visas or legal status for a larger group of the undocumented population, like in previous comprehensive reform efforts. Democrats have argued against a deal with too many components, and say it would be better to combine DACA only with border security measures.

Some conservatives are pushing for a far more expansive approach with policies including a mandate that businesses check employees immigration statuses, cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities that dont fully cooperate with deportation efforts, and eliminating policies meant to protect asylum-seekers and children apprehended at the border.

Both the White House and members of Congress indicated after the court ruling that it didnt change their view that its important to find a legislative fix for Dreamers. While blasting the court decision, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that Trump will continue to work with Congress on a permanent solution.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said it doesnt change the need for us to act, according to Politico.

I dont think it relieves the anxiety of the DACA recipients that something is gonna happen, he said. It really just adds additional uncertainty, I think, into the mix. So were plowing ahead like we discussed yesterday at the White House.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor on Wednesday that Democrats still want DACA protections to be part of a funding deal that must pass by Feb. 19 to avert a government shutdown. He and other advocates believe getting Dreamer relief into a must-pass bill is the only way forward because of past Republican obstruction on legal status for undocumented immigrants.

We cannot wait. We cannot tolerate a delay, Schumer said. Delay is a tactic employed by those who do not wish to see a deal. Let me just say, promises that maybe in the future well do it, particularly on immigration, have vanished by the wayside.

Also on HuffPost

April 2015

At an event hosted by Texas Patriots PAC: Everythings coming across the border: the illegals, the cars, the whole thing. Its like a big mess. Blah. Its like vomit.

June 2015

At a speech announcing his campaign: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre not sending you. Theyre not sending you. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

August 2015

On NBC's "Meet the Press": Were going to keep the families together, we have to keep the families together, but they have to go."

September 2015

On CBS's "60 Minutes": Were rounding em up in a very humane way, in a very nice way. And theyre going to be happy because they want to be legalized. And, by the way, I know it doesnt sound nice. But not everything is nice.

November 2015

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe": You are going to have a deportation force, and you are going to do it humanely."

February 2016

At a GOP primary debate: We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally. They will go out. They will come back  some will come back, the best, through a process.

March 2016

At a press conference when asked if he would consider allowing undocumented immigrants to stay: "We either have a country or we dont. We either have a country or we dont. We have borders or we dont have borders. And at this moment, the answer is absolutely not.

April 2016

At an event hosted by NBC's "Today Show": Theyre going to go, and were going to create a path where we can get them into this country legally, OK? But it has to be done legally. ... Theyre going to go, and then come back and come back legally.

July 2016

At the Republican National Convention: "Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied  and every politician who has denied them  to listen very closely to the words I am about to say. On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced."

September 2016

At a rally: Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we dont have a country.

September 2016

On "The Dr. Oz Show": Well, under my plan the undocumented or, as you would say, illegal immigrant wouldnt be in the country. They only come in the country legally.

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Donald Trump's joint press conference with the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Wednesday should have been a straightforward affair, announcing new military and trade collaboration between their two nations.

But in the latest gaffe to befall the US President, Mr Trump managed to suggest the US was selling Norway a type of fighter aircraft that does not actually exist.

The President claimed Norway had started receiving the first American-made F-52s . In November, we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets, he said.

The F-52 is a fictional aircraft that features prominently in the successful Call of Duty video game series.

The former real estate mogul was supposed to be speaking at the White House to announce Norway's purchase of 52 F-35 jets from American aerospace firm Lockheed Martin.

Mr Trump's blunder prompted a flurry of jokes from his critics on social media.

F-52s? Oh boy. Bet the Marines are gonna want a STOVL version.  Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) January 10, 2018

The F-52s capabilities look really impressive pic.twitter.com/WI2DzIaQwt  Alexander Clarkson (@APHClarkson) January 10, 2018

Trump just blurted out the US had sold F-52s to Norway.



F-52s. An aircraft so secret, even the military hasnt heard of it.



I, however, was able to secure this highly classified image.



Dont share. Classified. #F52 pic.twitter.com/6VpFcMm03h  The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) January 10, 2018

First #Nambia



Today we were introduced to the Prime Minister of #Normay



Then we find out Trump sold them a bunch of #F52 fighters. Thats genius. Surely the work of the #StableGenius#TheKakistocracy #SorryWorld pic.twitter.com/sT1ZQKSOkT  Bryan Dawson (@BryanDawsonUSA) January 11, 2018

We have a total of 52 and theyve delivered a number of them already, a little ahead of schedule, Mr Trump said on Wednesday, adding its a $10 billion order.

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Norway received the first three F-35 fighter jets in November as part of efforts to increase the strength of its air force.

Norway's is the fourth military after the US itself, Israel and Italy to incorporate the planes.

These warplanes will improve the entire Norwegian defence, General Major Tonje Skinnarland, head of the Norwegian air force, told broadcaster TV2 at the time.
President Donald Trump has said that the US could "go back" into the Paris climate deal - having withdrawn America from the global accord last year.

"We could conceivably go back in ... I feel very strongly about the environment," said the President during a joint news conference with Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Mr Trump began the withdrawal process in June last year but it will not officially conclude per the terms of United Nations-brokered agreement until just before the 2020 US election.

The agreement was signed under former President Barack Obama's administration in December 2015 by nearly 200 countries to curb global carbon emissions and contain global warming to 2 C.

Mr Trump has called climate change a "hoax" in the past - one perpetrated by the Chinese.

The President said in his 1 June 2016 withdrawal announcement that the agreement put American workers - particularly in the coal industry - at an "economic disadvantage."

The Paris accord "as drawn and as we signed was very unfair to the US," he said today.

Mr Trump said the agreement "put penalties on us...and took away a lot of our asset values."

He noted that this is "rich in gas, and coal, and oil, and other things...there was a tremendous penalty to using it. According to some estimates we would have had to close businesses in order to qualify by 2025," but it was unclear to which "estimates" the President had been referring.

"Frankly, it's an agreement I had no problem with, but I had a problem with the agreement that was signed because as usual, [the Obama administration] made a bad deal," he said.

The crux of the President's message was that the deal "really would have taken away our competitive edge."

He added that though he feels "very strongly about the environment" and the Environmental Protection Agency along with its administrator Scott Pruitt "want clean water, clean air," American businesses needed to be able to "compete."

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The announcement that the US - one of the world's largest polluters - could withdraw its withdrawal from the Paris accord appears to be contradictory to Mr Trump's repeated comments about the "unfair" deal.

As Neil Bhatiya, a researcher at the DC-based think tank Center for a New American Security, told The Independent: the administration has not been able to articulate a criticism of the Paris agreement that reflects what the agreement actually says."

He explained that the US "has a lot of flexibility" in determining exactly how to reduce emissions to meet the agreed-upon targets in the Paris accord.

Also, ahead of the signing the Obama administration's team had been insistent on language which would make the agreement entirely voluntary and not make the Paris Agreement a treaty - which would have required Congressional approval and been legally binding.

In other words, the accord is entirely voluntary.

"It would not be too difficult to submit a new national climate change plan that addresses the competitiveness issues Trump cites," Mr Bhatiya said.

Sue Biniaz, the former US State Department Deputy Legal Adviser on climate, previously told The Independent "there's no legal reason why [the Paris accord] couldn't be amended, but I don't think it needs to be amended or "renegotiated" in order to address the concerns raised by the President."

Mr Trump and Mr Pruitt had indicated that the US was open to renegotiating the deal which took 21 years of global meetings to draft and sign.

However, any possibility of that was quickly dismissed when Germany, France, Italy issued a rare joint statement in the wake of June 2016 announcement and unequivocally said the deal "cannot be renegotiated since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies."

The carbon emissions targets and financial contributions to the various funds set up through the UN, the Green Climate Fund, and bilateral commitments can be changed based on each countries' prerogatives.

Todd Stern, Mr Obama's appointed Special Envoy on Climate Change in the US State Department, told The Independent last June that it was "extremely hard to imagine any country wanting to renegotiate [the agreement] because they felt the US got a bum deal."

The other issue is figuring out "what the President even means by" renegotiation, said Mr Stern.
Quito (AFP) - Ecuador said Thursday it had granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with diplomatic immunity and usher him out of its London embassy without the threat of arrest by Britain.

Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said the 46-year-old Australian, who has been holed up at the embassy for five years to avoid arrest, became an Ecuadoran citizen on December 12.

She told a press conference in Quito that Ecuador had asked London to recognize Assange as a diplomat -- which would give him safe passage out of the embassy without fear of arrest -- but Britain had refused.

"The Ecuadoran government is empowered to grant nationality to the protected person and thus facilitate... his inclusion in the host state," Espinosa told reporters.

She said the request to Britain to accept diplomatic status for Assange was made on December 20, and denied a day later.

The foreign minister said Quito would not press the issue because of the "good relations we have with the United Kingdom."

The British foreign ministry said in a statement that Ecuador had "recently requested diplomatic status for Mr Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter."

"Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," the British government added.

- 'Lack of seriousness' -

Ecuador's attempt to obtain diplomatic status for Assange comes as part of the country's broader efforts to resolve the case of their long-term lodger, who moved into the embassy in 2012 to avoid arrest over a Swedish probe into rape allegations.

Sweden dropped their investigation over the 2010 allegations last year, but British police have said they are still seeking to arrest him for failing to surrender to a court after violating bail terms.

Former Ecuadoran foreign minister Jose Ayala Lasso told AFP that Britain had obviously "immediately rejected" the move because "it considered it an artificial way to circumvent the provisions of international law."

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He accused the government in Quito of "a total lack of seriousness" in its handling of Assange.

He said the decision to grant him asylum in 2012 had "generated problems" in Ecuador and had only discredited the country abroad, particularly in the United States.

Assange has refused to step outside the embassy and claimed he fears being extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks' publication of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

The WikiLeaks founder has strained the patience of his hosts since taking up the offer of asylum made by then-president Rafael Correa in 2012.

He was publicly reprimanded for interfering in the 2016 US election after publishing hacked emails from the campaign team of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

More recently, he drew the ire of Correa's successor, President Lenin Moreno, when he used Twitter to pump out messages of support for Catalonia's independence drive.

Moreno was forced to respond to complaints from the Spanish government.

"We have reminded Mr Assange that he has no reason to interfere in Ecuadoran politics because his status does not allow it. Nor in that of nations that are our friends. He does not have the right to do so and he has committed himself to this," Moreno said in an interview with a Spanish newspaper.

Espinosa told the press conference that Quito would continue "to explore other ways of solving" Assange's situation.

Among these are "a possible mediation and good offices of renowned authorities, other states or international organizations that can facilitate a just, definitive and dignified solution for all parties."

She had said on Tuesday her government was looking at the possibility of a "third country or a personality" stepping in to resolve the stand-off.

"No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out," she said.
Paris Hilton and Chris Zylka attend a Golden Globes after-party. (Photo: FilmMagic/FilmMagic for HBO)

Paris Hiltons wedding  er, weddings  will be one (ones?) for the books.

The heiress-DJ-perfumer, who accepted a proposal from actor boyfriend Chris Zylka over a New Years weekend getaway to Aspen, Colo., spoke about her impending nuptials at Sundays Golden Globes.

For my 21st birthday I had five parties, so maybe for the wedding Ill have a European one, an American one, one for everyone around the world, Hilton told Extra.

It sounds excessive (and it is), but in 2002 Hilton actually did have birthday bashes in five cities: New York, L.A., Las Vegas, London, and Tokyo. And they were excessive! Hiltons family reportedly spent $75,000 for each guest who attended, including Sean Diddy Combs, Kris Jenner (long before Keeping Up With the Kardashians), and Donald Trump.

Just in case anyone forgot about the big to-do, burying the memory of it alongside stories of Hilton running around the club scene with an unknown Kim Kardashian as her assistant, she kindly reminded the world of it last year on her birthday in 2017. She shared an Instagram post of her younger self blowing out the candles on one of her 21 cakes. (She might have become lightheaded blowing out candles on all of them.)

Hilton and Zylka, who dated for more than a year before their engagement, have already set the bar high for their nuptials. He proposed with a 20-carat engagement ring valued at $2 million. Theyll be making plans together soon, Hilton said at a dinner with their parents.

Diamonds Are Forever  A post shared by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Jan 2, 2018 at 4:26pm PST

Apparently, the highly anticipated royal wedding of Britains Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has got nothing on theirs.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday he should stop Syrian attacks on its opposition in northern Syria if he wants peace negotiations to succeed, Turkish presidential sources said. Erdogan spoke to Putin on the phone, they said. Turkey has been fiercely opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during his country's six-year-old civil war but has recently been working with his allies Russia and Iran for a political resolution to the conflict. The three countries had agreed last year to establish a "de-escalation zone" in the opposition-held Idlib province and surrounding region, which borders Turkey. However, a government offensive helped by Iran-backed militia has gathered pace in Idlib in the last two weeks, according to rebels and a military media unit run by Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is fighting on the Syrian government side. Rebels launched a counter attack on Thursday. Turkey on Tuesday called the Russian and Iranian ambassadors to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask the envoys to urge the Syrian government in Damascus to end the border violations in the Idlib de-escalation zone. Russia's Defence Ministry had asked the Turkish military on Wednesday to tighten control over armed groups in Idlib after two groups of drones attacked Russian bases on Jan. 6. Syrian state media, citing a foreign ministry source, said on Thursday that regime forces were fighting to "liberate from the terrorism of the Nusra Front and the other terrorist organizations that belong to it". Turkey has accused the Syrian government of using the presence of the Nusra Front, which now fights under the banner of the Tahrir al-Sham alliance, as an excuse to attack civilians and moderate opposition groups. Humanitarian aid organizations, rescuers and activists allege the Syrian and Russian air forces have struck hospitals, schools and market places in congested residential areas in rebel-held towns. Both the Syrian army and Moscow deny hitting civilian areas and say intensive raids only strike at militants. (Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
By Robin Emmott and John Irish

BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - European powers will reaffirm on Thursday their support for the Iran nuclear deal that Donald Trump has rejected, EU diplomats said, on the eve of a deadline for the U.S. president to decide whether to reimpose oil sanctions lifted under the agreement.

At a meeting with Iran, Britain, France, and Germany, convened by the EU's top diplomat Federica Mogherini, the European powers that helped negotiate the 2015 accord in Vienna will reassure Tehran they remain committed to it.

They will also urge Iran to continue to comply with international inspectors, the diplomats said. Tehran has always denied seeking nuclear arms.

"The aim is to send a message to Washington that Iran is complying and that it is better to have the nuclear agreement than to isolate Tehran," one diplomat said.

A second diplomat said: "The date of the meeting is not a coincidence ... It's a campaign that we have carried on since October," referring to Trump's decision not to certify that Tehran is meeting the terms of a pact to stop it developing nuclear weapons.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is to raise Paris' concerns about the deal as well as its ballistic missile programme while also seeking to keep dialogue open with Iran, a spokesman told journalists.

"France is determined to keep in place the Vienna accord... Iran must vigorously apply its engagements," deputy foreign ministry spokesman Alexandre Giorgini said.

A spokesman for Iran's atomic energy agency said on Wednesday that a reimposition of sanctions by the United States would be a violation of the nuclear deal and added that the Islamic Republic had the capacity to greatly increase its enrichment of uranium.

The foreign ministers of Britain, Germany, France as well as Iran's Mohammad Javad Zarif, are expected to meet on Thursday morning with Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief.

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The Thursday meeting in Brussels is part of diplomacy on both sides of the Atlantic before deadlines related to the deal falling this month, including deciding whether to reimpose oil sanctions lifted under the deal.

Trump must decide by mid-January whether to continue waiving U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil exports under the terms of the pact. The State Department said on Tuesday the Trump administration was expected to decide on Friday.

The decision comes as Iran's government deals with protests over economic hardships and corruption that are linked to frustration among younger Iranians who hoped to see more benefits from the lifting of sanctions.

Retired U.S. military officers, members of the U.S. Congress and former U.S. ambassadors were among 52 U.S. national security experts who signed a letter released on Monday urging Trump not to jeopardise the deal with Iran.

European countries including France and Italy have benefited from renewed trade with Iran, whose proven natural gas reserves are as vast as Russia's, while Britain reopened its embassy in Tehran following the deal.

If Trump reimposes sanctions on Tehran, European powers fear the deal would fall apart. The EU is adamant the deal cannot be renegotiated.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott and John Irish; additional reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Toby Chopra)
Brussels (AFP) - European powers on Thursday insisted the 2015 deal to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions was working, as US President Donald Trump mulls reimposing sanctions on Tehran.

The European Union and the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France put on a united front to defend the accord after talks in Brussels with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Trump, who has repeatedly condemned the deal and in October refused to certify Iran was complying with it, is expected to decide on Friday whether or not to reimpose sanctions against Tehran that were suspended under the deal.

"The deal is working, it is delivering on its main goal which means keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check," Mogherini said, stressing the importance of preserving an agreement she said is "making the world safer and... preventing a potential nuclear arms race in the region".

Senior officials have told AFP they "expect" Trump to extend waivers on nuclear-related sanctions on Iran Friday to keep the US in line with the agreement, though he is also expected to impose fresh measures against Iran over human rights abuses and support for foreign extremist groups.

The EU and other world powers have repeatedly warned it would be a mistake for anyone to abandon the deal, thrashed out with Iran over 12 years by the US, Britain, France, China, Germany and Russia.

UN inspectors have certified Iran's compliance with the deal nine times, most recently in November, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said there was "no indication" Tehran was not keeping its side of the bargain.

"It is important now that all parties respect this joint commitment and that our American allies respect it as well," Le Drian said.

Iran has said that if the US walks away from the agreement, it is ready to give an "appropriate and heavy response".

Zarif took to Twitter after the Brussels meeting to warn that "Iran's continued compliance conditioned on full compliance by the US".

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The Iranian said there was a "strong consensus in Brussels today" that Iran was complying with the deal and that "any move that undermines (the agreement) is unacceptable."

- Regional conflicts -

One of the criticisms levelled at the nuclear deal is that it does nothing to address Iran's continuing ballistic missile programme and meddling in Middle East conflicts such as Yemen and Syria.

The Europeans say these issues should be kept separate from discussion of the nuclear deal, but in a nod to US concerns, Mogherini stressed they were raised with Zarif at Thursday's talks.

She said they had also brought up "internal recent events" in a reference to anti-government protests in Iran that left more than 20 people dead.

Johnson added that it was important for building global support for the nuclear deal that "Iran should be able to show that it is a good neighbour in the region" and show what it can do to help solve the Yemen crisis.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel even indicated that Iran had agreed to open talks about regional issues, starting with Yemen.

Mogherini, who played an important role in crafting the nuclear accord, has vowed to preserve the deal and has lobbied US lawmakers in Washington.

US Congress is working on a way to punish Iran for the ballistic missile programme and its interference in Middle East conflicts such as Yemen and Syria.

The 28-member EU has condemned the "unacceptable loss of human lives" in the protests and stressed that peaceful protest and freedom of expression are "fundamental rights".
Sofia (AFP) - EU chief Donald Tusk warned Thursday against a "game of thrones" in the Western Balkans, where Brussels is pushing for closer ties with countries that want to join the union.

The European Union is using Bulgaria's six-month presidency of the bloc to try to counter the influence of Russia, Turkey and other countries in an increasingly troubled backyard.

Speaking in Bulgarian at a presidency launch ceremony in Sofia, European Council President Tusk compared the history of the region to the fantasy swords-and-sex television drama Game of Thrones.

"The history of the Balkans is more dramatic and interesting than the screenplay of 'Game of Thrones', even if there are no dragons in it. We would all like it if the present and future of the Balkans were less like dramatic screenplays," Tusk said.

"Stability, security, prosperity -- this is what the people of the whole region deserve. And the EU's purpose is to help make this screenplay a reality," Tusk added.

Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia and Croatia have been the only countries from the region to have achieved EU accession to date.

Sofia hopes to use its EU presidency to reignite accession talks with Montenegro and Serbia, while helping Albania and Macedonia move closer to starting EU membership negotiations.

It will also host the first EU-Balkans summit in 15 years in May.

But the region, which also includes Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia, has increasingly become bogged down in local disputes and problems with graft and organised crime.

Russia meanwhile has stepped up efforts to reverse a series of setbacks in the region, including Montenegro joining NATO and Macedonia's government moving from a previous pro-Russian stance.

"A Europeanisation of the Balkans is necessary to prevent the Balkanisation of Europe," Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov warned recently.
Missoula County is closer to having a new elections administrator, with three finalists to be interviewed by the county commissioners next week.

Monday, the county announced the finalists, selected from 43 applicants. They are Dayna Causby, Michelle Denman and Bradley Seaman.

Seaman, a deputy under former administrator Rebecca Connors, is the countys Elections Supervisor. Hes worked for the countys elections office for almost a decade, according to a county news release, starting in 2008 as an elections judge and polling place manager.

Denman also lives in Missoula, working for software company Harris Govern. According to the release, Denmans work involves designing computer accounting software for public treasurers' and assessors' offices across the county. Before this, Denman spent 15 years as the tax service manager for the Clark County Treasurers Office in Washington.

Causby is the director of elections for Cleveland County, North Carolina. She was appointed in 2014 after serving as the deputy director, according to an article in the Shelby Star.

Former elections administrator Connors resigned in December 2017. The job, once part of the elected clerk and recorders duties, is appointed by the county commissioners and directly answers to the chief operating officer. The base pay is $36/hour, according to the job posting.

All candidates will be interviewed by the county commissioners on Jan. 17 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 206 of the countys administration building.
By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - A former Insys Therapeutics Inc employee accused of engaging in a scheme to pay medical practitioners kickbacks to prescribe a fentanyl-based treatment is seeking to bar U.S. prosecutors from referring to the "opioid crisis" at his trial.

Lawyers for Jeffrey Pearlman, a former district sales manager at the drugmaker, in a motion filed on Wednesday asked a federal judge in Connecticut to bar references at his trial to the crisis and evidence about the dangers opioids pose.

His lawyers cited the "rampant media attention" devoted to the epidemic in arguing in favor of the restriction, saying that jurors would likely have strong biases against someone like Pearlman whose company sold and marketed opioids.

"This prejudice would only be amplified if the government were to elicit testimony or make arguments regarding the opioid crisis or the over-prescription of opioids," Pearlman's lawyers wrote.

A spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Durham in Connecticut said prosecutors would respond in court.

Opioids were involved in over 42,000 overdose deaths in 2016, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The case against Pearlman stemmed from investigations related to Chandler, Arizona-based Insys' product Subsys, an under-the-tongue spray intended to treat pain in cancer patients that contains fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

Federal prosecutors in Boston have charged seven former executives and managers at Insys, including billionaire founder John Kapoor, accusing them of participating in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe Subsys. They have pleaded not guilty.

In Connecticut, prosecutors said Pearlman and sales representatives reporting to him induced medical practitioners to prescribe Subsys by paying them fees to participate in hundreds of speaker programs.

Those programs ostensibly were meant to educate healthcare professionals about Subsys, yet they tended to be gatherings at restaurants of friends and co-workers who could not prescribe the product, prosecutors said.

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Pearlman has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute. His trial is set for Feb. 7, though both sides recently requested to delay it by at least four months.

Insys has said it is in settlement talks with the U.S. Justice Department and has estimated the minimum amount it may have to pay is $150 million.

"We are committed to work with them very closely to put the investigations behind us and open a new chapter for the company," Insys Chief Executive Saeed Motahari said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco on Thursday.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; additional reporting by Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
The prison where Gonzalo Montoya Jimenez was being held - SOLARPIX.COM

The family of a Spanish prisoner who was pronounced dead by three doctors before waking up as he was being prepared for autopsy have demanded he immediately be released from jail.

Gonzalo Montoya Jimenez, 29, began snoring on an autopsy table in a morgue in Asturias four hours after his death was certified at a local prison on Sunday morning. The man - whose body had already been marked up for the procedure - was on Tuesday awake and recovering in hospital as authorities opened investigations into the mysterious case.

The prisoner was discovered in his cell by guards at around 8am on Sunday, seated in a chair, blue, and showing no signs of life, according to officials. His death was certified first by the doctor on the overnight shift, then a second on duty that morning, and finally by a forensic specialist before he was transported to the morgue.

Family members revealed yesterday that Montoya Jimenez had tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates, accusing prison authorities of failing to control access to medication. The prisoner had reportedly been taking anti-epileptic drugs, while relatives suggested he was also being treated for anxiety, though the specific substances involved have yet to be confirmed.

The pills are taken as they (the prisoners) want, said Luis Manuel Montoya, his uncle, according to local paper La Voz de Asturias. He and other family members gathered at the hospital in the town of Oviedo said they would be seeking Montoya Jimenezs immediate release as compensation for what they branded negligence. The 29-year-old has seven months left to serve of his sentence, for stealing scrap metal.

We dont want him to go back to jail. If he goes in, he will come out as a body, Mr Montoya said. Shocked by his nephews suicide attempt, he said he nevertheless understood it. He is young, he is 29 years old and has his whole life ahead of him. He has been in jail three years and he couldnt go on anymore.

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The prisoners father, Jose Carlos Montoya, said he had tried to hang himself in his cell seven months ago. Its clear that in the jail they do not supervise him nor treat him well, he told El Comercio, adding that his son was given "pills for his nerves, but it was not enough".

Relatives also cast doubt on whether Montoya Jimenez was properly examined by all three doctors who pronounced him dead, suggesting that instead the first certificate had simply been rubber-stamped by the second and third physicians.

It was initially suggested that Montoya Jimenez may have suffered a rare case of catalepsy, a nervous condition which induces an unresponsive state. Tests have since indicated the coma caused by the overdose, along with severe hypothermia, may have masked his vital signs.
Paris (AFP) - Feminists and one of the women who accused fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of rape turned on French actress Catherine Deneuve Wednesday after she signed an open letter attacking the #MeToo movement for leading a witch-hunt against men.

France's legendary star Deneuve and some 100 other women put their names to a declaration condemning the avalanche of "denunciations" that has followed claims that the Hollywood producer sexually assaulted women over decades.

But Italian actress Asia Argento, who was among the first to accuse Weinstein, led a backlash, tweeting: "Deneuve and other French women tell the world how their interiorised misogyny has lobotomised them to the point of no return."

A group of leading French feminists also excoriated Deneuve in a counterblast letter to French radio, branding her and the other signatories as "apologists for rape".

To say that #MeToo was puritanical and driven by a "hatred of men" was "contemptuous" of the victims of abuse and harassment, the feminists insisted, accusing the signatories of trying to "slam back the lid" blown off by the Weinstein scandal.

They claimed most of the women who signed the letter to Le Monde daily were "recidivists in defending child abusers", a reference to film director Roman Polanski, who Deneuve has supported in his long fight against extradition to the US on rape charges.

- 'Their world is disappearing' -

"Their letter is like a tired old uncle who doesn't understand what is happening," the feminists said.

"The (male chauvinist) pigs and their allies have reason to be worried. Their old world is fast disappearing," they added.

The Deneuve letter had complained that "men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone's knee or try to steal a kiss."

It was also signed by Catherine Millet, whose explicit 2002 memoir, "The Sexual Life of Catherine M.", was a defence of libertine lifestyles.

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The letter also complained that the "puritanical wave" set off by the #MeToo campaign played into the hands of reactionaries and religious extremists, and claimed most women were "clear-eyed enough not to confuse an awkward attempt to pick someone up with a sexual attack."

Australian novelist and broadcaster Van Badham, who wrote last year of her own ordeal at the hands of a prominent abuser, said women "who have exposed the damaged tissues of the shame inflicted on us by our predators are also quite 'clear-eyed' on the distinction.

- 'Being fondled a non-event' -

"That's why we are so angry - not because we are 'puritanical', as the letter claims, but because we are seeking joy from sexual contact on our own terms, not abuse or exploitation on someone else's," she wrote in The Guardian newspaper.

"It's the likes of (Woody) Allen, and Weinstein, and the other men accused of abuses with whom Deneuve and her friends are aligning themselves with their letter. Their actions are not those in defence of freedom, let alone sexual expression or female identity," she added.

Reaction on social media was equally vociferous, with Deneuve's take on #MeToo becoming a trending topic on Twitter in France, Britain and across much of Europe.

The letter's assertions that being "fondled on a metro... was a non-event" to some women, and a man's right to hit on a woman was fundamental to sexual freedom, sparked particular fury.

"Catherine Deneuve might have very different opinions about harassment if she weren't an extraordinarily beautiful, very rich white woman living in a bubble of heightened privilege. And had some empathy," tweeted New York Times cartoonist Colleen Doran.

America novelist Laila Lalami said such thinking was "the clearest explanation yet of how men like Woody Allen and Harvey Weinstein lasted."

"Would Catherine Deneuve be rushing to the defence of men who 'try to steal a kiss' if these men had been North African?" she added.

But not all were hostile. American academic Christina Sommers, author of "Who Stole Feminism?", said Deneuve was calling out "the excesses of the #MeToo crusade".

Deneuve's spokeswoman told AFP that actress "does not want to comment further" on the row.
Yaounde (AFP) - Four people were killed and two others kidnapped in separate overnight attacks in the far north of Cameroon, blamed on the Islamist group Boko Haram, sources told AFP on Thursday.

Three of the victims were "slaughtered" in Kolofata, a town which borders Nigeria and that has seen a spate of attacks blamed on the jihadists, said a source close to the security services.

A security officer in the region confirmed the information to AFP, and that two people were also abducted.

In a second overnight attack, Boko Haram fighters are believed to have killed one person and injured another in nearby Ashigashiya, also by the Nigerian border, said the security officer.

The jihadists also burned some 60 boxes of grain and motorcycles, he added.

The attacks come after Cameroon and three other west African states launched a major offensive against the jihadist group in Borno state, in north east Nigeria this week.

Cameroon soldiers, along with troops from Chad, Nigeria and Niger, are targeting a Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau in the Sambisa Forest, and another led by Mamman Nur, on and around Lake Chad.

According to the Nigerian military, scores of jihadists have been killed and hundreds of others have been forced to surrender in recent days.

Boko Haram began its bloody insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, seeking to install an extremist Islamic state in the country.

The militants began cross-border attacks in 2014, and have regularly carried out raids in Cameroon, killing, looting and kidnapping villagers.

Since 2014, Cameroon has been fighting a military campaign against the group, including cross-border operations with Nigerian troops.

But the group is estimated to have killed some 2,000 civilians and soldiers, and abducted more than a thousand people, in the last four years.

Across the region, violence committed by Boko Haram has killed at least 20,000 and displaced more than 2.6 million people.
Paris (AFP) - France said Thursday there has been a "major dysfunction" in a recall of baby milk, after stores sold potentially contaminated milk despite being told to take it off their shelves.

Lactalis, one of the world's largest producers of dairy products, in December issued a recall of all products made at its factory in Craon, northwest France, after discovering salmonella bacteria at the site.

But several retailers admitted this week that they had continued to sell the brand's milk even after the ban.

"This is a major dysfunction in the withdrawal and recall by the operators who carry the responsibility," French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told a news conference.

Supermarket chain Carrefour said Wednesday it had sold 434 boxes of Lactalis baby milk that should have been withdrawn after the ban and Systeme-U admitted to 384 boxes. Earlier Leclerc said it had sold 984 Lactalis products since the recall and Auchan 52.

Industrial leaders, intermediaries and retailers must now "shed all possible light on the failings that they discovered and assure us that none of the products concerned are still on the market or in stores," Travert said.

He said no date to lift the ban could be set "while we have not exactly and precisely identified the source of the contamination, and before it has not been clearly identified and removed," Travert said.

Last week, a report said that French food safety inspectors failed to detect salmonella contamination at the Lactalis three months before the company carried out the recall.

Officials from the food safety department carried out a routine inspection of the site in September and gave it a clean bill of health, the Canard Enchaine investigative weekly reported.

It was only in December, after around 30 infants fed Lactalis milk had fallen ill, that the health ministry sounded the alarm.

Officials from the national anti-fraud bureau swooped on the factory on December 2 and found the assembly line where milk is transformed into powder to be contaminated.

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Lactalis is blaming the contamination on renovation work and issued two major recalls covering all production from the site dating back to February 15, 2017.

The plant has been at a standstill since December 8 and said Thursday it put 250 of its 327 staff on short-time working hours until at least early next month.

Salmonella symptoms include severe diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vomiting. The illness, caused by intestinal bacteria from farm animals, is especially dangerous for the very young and elderly because it can cause severe dehydration.

At least 35 infants in France have now been diagnosed with salmonella poisoning.

The product recall, which included the Picot and Milumel brands, affected consumers in countries as far afield as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Britain and Sudan, underlining the company's global reach and the difficulty in tracing all the potentially at-risk powder.

Lactalis is under investigation over the affair.

It could face charges of causing involuntary injuries and endangering the lives of others.
Paris (AFP) - All of the jewels looted in a multi-million-euro robbery at the Ritz hotel in Paris have been recovered, a source close to the case said Thursday, as a police hunt for two of the robbers continued.

In the latest of a series of audacious heists in France, a gang armed with hatchets and handguns burst into the five-star hotel on the capital's glitzy Place Vendome on Wednesday evening and smashed the display windows of jewellery shops on the ground floor.

The robbers, wearing balaclavas and gloves, entered through a rear staff entrance and swiped gems and watches worth over four million euros ($4.8 million).

But the plot began to unravel as soon as they attempted to make their getaway, with three men arrested when they came up against locked doors as they tried to flee out the back of the building.

Some of the loot was recovered after being dropped during those arrests, a source told AFP.

The rest of the jewels and watches were found in a bag dropped by one of the two robbers who got away, another source said.

The three arrested men, all around 30 years old, are from the Seine-Saint-Denis area north of Paris, and are "well known to the police for armed robbery, violent crime and receiving stolen goods", a source close to the inquiry said. Police extended their custody for a further 24 hours on Thursday night.

The incident took place at about 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) as the streets of Paris were busy with people making their way home from work.

A police team in charge of patrolling the square -- home to some of Paris's top jewellers and watchmakers, as well as the justice ministry -- was quickly on the scene.

- Attractive target -

Several luxury brands display their jewels in the storied Ritz, famous as the lodging of choice for Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway as well as Britain's Princess Diana, who spent her final hours there before dying in a car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997.

The hotel, opened in 1898, has been owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed since 1979.

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Wednesday's robbery took place 18 months after the Ritz's palatial doors were re-opened to guests following nearly four years of renovations and a massive fire.

On finding their escape route blocked the thieves threw the loot out of a window to two accomplices waiting outside.

One of the two accomplices escaped in a car that was found abandoned north of Paris.

The other made a getaway on a motorbike, dropping a bag of jewels and knocking over a pedestrian while speeding the wrong way up a one-way street.

The hotel's management has declined to comment on the robbery.

Place Vendome has been the scene of several heists in recent years.

- Long list of heists -

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb praised officers for quickly apprehending three of the robbers, saying they had "done our police force credit".

But the audacious strike at one of Paris's most glamorous hotels could cast a cloud over the Ritz's image.

France has found itself repeatedly in the headlines for high-profile robberies, particularly in Paris and on the Riviera.

Security around Place Vendome was reinforced in 2014 after five high-end jewellery and watch stores were hit by armed robberies in less than seven months.

The losses in those attacks ranged from 420,000 euros to two million euros.

In October 2016, US reality TV star Kim Kardashian was the target of one of the biggest heists in recent years while attending Paris Fashion Week.

Five men held Kardashian at gunpoint in the luxury apartment where she was staying, making off with a diamond ring and other jewellery valued in total at nine million euros.
Lima (AFP) - Relatives of victims of Peru's military death-squads under Alberto Fujimori said Wednesday they would petition the pope when he visits next week for help in getting a pardon for the ex-president annulled.

A relatives' group has requested a meeting with Pope Francis during the second leg of his South American trip to Chile and Peru next week.

The December 24 pardon sparked a wave of protest in Peru. Fujimori was released after serving less than half of a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses.

"We are going to request an audience with the pope to share all this concern because the government's pardon is taking away the right to justice and reconciliation," organizer Gisela Ortiz told reporters.

"What we want is that the pope, in his speech, says that justice is needed here," said Ortiz, whose sister was among 25 supposed guerrillas and sympathizers killed in 1991 and 1992 by military death squads.

Fujimori was found responsible and jailed in 2009.

Ortiz said they were hopeful of a reception from the 81-year-old Argentine pontiff, as his own country suffered crimes against humanity during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

Victims' relatives are appealing the pardon to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which sits in Costa Rica and will hear their case on February 2.
If the stars wearing all black at the Golden Globes this week werent enough indication that the #TimesUp movement has taken over Hollywood, todays gender pay-gap news will affirm it. According to USA Today, Michelle Williams made 1,000 times less than her male co-star Mark Wahlberg.

The pay discrepancy was during the All the Money in the Worlds controversial reshoots late last year. Director Ridley Scott abruptly replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer in the film after Spacey was accused of sexual assault. Reshooting all the scenes with Plummer as J. Paul Getty took 10 days and reportedly cost $10 million.

The Washington Post reported in November that there was a major pay gap between Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg for the reshoot. Now, however, were learning the exact figures of the discrepancy. According to USA Today, Wahlberg was paid $1.5 million for the shoot, while Williams was paid less than $1,000.

Adding insult to injury, Scott told USA Today last month that no one, save for the crew and Plummer, were paid for the hasty shoot. Everyone did it for nothing, he said. They all came in free. The publication noted that Williams was not told Wahlberg, in reality, made $1.5 million.

The internet exploded in utter outrage.

Jesus H. Wahlberg Christ. This is so ridiculous I can't believe it's true. Do better, Hollywood. #PayMichelle https://t.co/DtulWJcvSy  Katie Snider (@katieinbold) January 10, 2018

Mark Wahlberg doesnt have even 1% of Michelle Williams acting ability  Jon (@prasejeebus) January 10, 2018

Celebrities also responded in support of Williams.

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UNACCEPTABLE. UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TO SAY THE LEAST. https://t.co/KS6hRmE4TA  Busy Philipps (@BusyPhilipps) January 10, 2018

I heard for the reshoot she got $80 a day compared to his MILLIONS. Would anyone like to clarify? I really hope that with everything coming to light, she was paid fairly. She's a brilliant actress and is wonderful in the film. https://t.co/VzGA2ucAjV  Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) January 9, 2018

Michelle Williams is one of the best actress working right now. It makes me furious that her talent is undervalued in this way. #EqualPay https://t.co/Tk5t9iDQd0  Jesse Tyler Ferguson (@jessetyler) January 10, 2018

Williams, Wahlberg, and Scott have not responded to the report.

In lighter news taking over the internet today, U.K. audiences have discovered the beloved sitcom Friends. While it may be hard to grasp that people whove never seen the iconic 90s show actually exist, Friends was made available on Netflix in that region only this past week. Fresh new eyes are viewing the series for the first time ever.

Needless to say, the reactions are just as hilarious as the show itself. The general consensus: Ross is the worst.

Watching Friends for the first time n all I can say is that Ross is an absolute turnip   Annie  (@justmagica_l) January 6, 2018

I'm watching Friends all the way through for the first time and Ross is an absolute ass. WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE HIM?  Becky (@Blupye) January 4, 2018

Watching through Friends for the first time. Ross is a monster. What is Rachel seeing in him  Bee Wakefield (@Bee_Wakefield) January 5, 2018

New fans also got a kick out of the shows 90s wardrobe.

watching #friends properly for the first time..I just want all the outfits minus the awful shoes pic.twitter.com/G0Ux0aX1Se  alisha (@alishajordanXO) January 9, 2018

So first things first my god the hair  Daniel Faulkner (@TheDanFaulkner) January 5, 2018

The funniest responses, however, came from poking holes in the shows various plots. Forget about how Monica could afford that giant apartment in Manhattan; we need to talk about the great Winegate of Season 2.

Theres an episode of Friends where a group of 26 year olds are shocked that they drank 5 bottles of wine between 7 people over an entire evening and honestly thats way more unrealistic than the massive apartment thing.  Rebecca Manning Reid (@RebeccaCNReid) January 9, 2018

Legit, five wine bottles and seven people seems pretty reasonable

Watch: Donald Trump mocked for forgetting words to the national anthem

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - The Haitian government and its international partners Thursday launched an appeal for $252 million in aid to respond to natural disasters in 2018.

In 2017, Haiti was spared the impact of natural disasters which devastated other Caribbean islands -- but is still struggling to recover from past catastrophes.

Eight years after an earthquake killed over 200,000 people and ravaged the metropolitan area of the capital Port-au-Prince, more than 38,000 people remain in makeshift camps.

A year after Hurricane Matthew hit southern Haiti, over one million citizens there are still in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the government's plan.

Meanwhile since July 2015, 230,000 Haitians -- 16 percent minors -- have had to leave the neighboring Dominican Republic following changes in immigration law, and aid is needed to help them resettle in Haiti.

The humanitarian response plan was created in partnership with UN agencies working in Haiti, but risks falling short of the needed funding, as it has in the past. In 2017, only 37 percent of the funds needed were raised.

"We are in a period of declining external aid. The government is now exploring how to achieve empowerment to finance recovery and make the transition to development," planning minister Aviol Fleurant told AFP.

On the topic of humanitarian aid, President Jovenel Moise has not hesitated to criticize the failure of aid programs to lift Haiti out of extreme poverty.

"Thirty years of assistance and several billion dollars spent by our international partners, mostly to finance small non-structural projects, have sadly demonstrated their limit," he said in a speech Monday.
From guns to fireplaces to vitamin pills, western Montana businesses are firing on all cylinders and looking to hire and train more workers. But training people in these fairly technical jobs is time-consuming and expensive for the companies, so a state agency has stepped in to help.

The Montana Department of Commerce announced on Wednesday that a total of $631,270 worth of Primary Sector Workforce Training Grant funding has been awarded to eight firms to create up to 147 new positions. Only businesses whose customers are out of state are qualified to receive the grants.

For example, a nutritional supplements manufacturing company that has production facilities in Missoula and Lolo has been awarded a state grant to train 19 new full-time jobs. A home manufacturing company in Hamilton also got a grant to train 17 new full-time jobs, and a stove and fireplace manufacturing firm in Hamilton also was awarded funds to train 21 new jobs.

A qualified workforce is critical to the success of Montanas growing economy, said Montana Department of Commerce Director Pam Haxby-Cote. These grants provide an incentive for Montana businesses to expand the size and quality of their workforce while adding good-paying jobs in communities across the state.

The funds come through the Department of Commerces Office of Tourism and Business Development.

Elite One Source Nutritional Services Inc., which has production facilities to make high-quality nutritional supplements, received $91,200 of the funds to train 19 new jobs. The company has a facility on Third Street in Missoula and a facility in Lolo.

Rocky Mountain Homes in Hamilton, which is a vertically integrated design-build and manufacturing company, was awarded $81,704 to train the 17 new positions.

Ironhaus Inc., a Hamilton business that fabricates high-performance wrought-iron fireplace inserts and stoves, received $105,000 to train 21 new full-time jobs.

Tru-Home Montana, a Missoula business aiming to design and manufacture pre-built homes in an indoor environment near the Bonner mill site, received $11,728 to train three new full- and part-time jobs. Representatives from all four western Montana companies were not able to return calls on Wednesday seeking comment, nor was a spokesperson from the Department of Commerce.

Other business that received funding were:

 Down Range Solutions Group LLC, doing business as U.S. Optics, received $80,528 of WTG funds to train 17 new full-time jobs. The Kalispell business manufactures and assembles firearm scopes.

 Foundant Technologies Inc. received $16,000 of WTG funds to train 20 new full-time jobs. The Bozeman business develops grant management software for the philanthropic community.

 Mesa Laboratories Inc. received $156,870 of WTG funds to train 32 new full-time jobs. The Bozeman business develops, manufactures and markets high-quality process validation and monitoring instruments.

 Synesis7 Corp. received $88,240 of WTG funds to train 18 new full-time jobs. The Butte business specializes in aerospace technology and data conversion.
President Trump in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Tuesday. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

Theres a bunch of ignominious ways in which the grand Trump experiment could come crashing down prematurely. The special counsels investigation could conceivably lead to the presidents indictment, or to some public revelation that isolates him and leaves him no choice but to slink away like Richard Nixon. Or I guess the president could lose Congress to the Democrats and find himself facing impeachment for obstruction of justice.

Personally, I think the more likely scenario has President Trump drawing a credible primary challenge in 2020 and finding out that hes actually a lot less popular than his choreographed rallies lead him to believe. I could see him standing down rather than risking humiliation, just as Lyndon Johnson did under similar circumstances.

Heres how Trumps presidency wont end, though: with his Cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment and declaring him mentally unfit to serve. Because the presidents most senior subordinates wont ever call him cognitively deficient, and near as I can tell, theres no compelling reason they should.

This whole topic surfaced after the publication of Michael Wolffs new insider account of the administration, Fire and Fury. I havent read the book, because life is short and too full of Trump already, but apparently Wolff suggests that some of those around the president worry openly about his aptitude and stability.

Coming just after Trumps latest boneheaded tweet to his North Korean counterpart, Wolffs account added a burst of oxygen to a fire thats been dimly burning in elite faculty lounges since Trump took office. A Yale medical school professor named Bandy X. Lee, a renowned expert in mental health, has been pushing this case for many months, even publishing a series of essays by 27 clinicians who have expertly diagnosed Trumps dangerous mental deficiencies by watching CNN.

Lee briefed Democratic senators on the presidents imminent unraveling just last month, and now Republican Never Trump types have joined in on the suggestion that the president may have some loose bulbs up in the penthouse.

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Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress have announced plans to introduce a couple of bills that could get some traction if Democrats manage to take back the House; one, proposed by Marylands Jamie Raskin, would charge a new congressional commission with evaluating the presidents fitness and advising the vice president on whether to invoke the magical 25th Amendment.

Thats the amendment, added in the wake of President Kennedys death, that establishes specific guidelines for the transfer of power when the president is incapacitated and for the appointment of a vice president when the post is left vacant. It also empowers the vice president and Cabinet to take the keys from the president, at least temporarily, if they decide hes in no shape to be steering the country.

Trump, as Im sure you heard, responded to all this by trying his damnedest to confirm everyones worst fears. In a now famous tweet, he referred to himself as a very stable genius, which immediately brought to mind those old Road Runner cartoons where Wile E. Coyote was always handing his super genius business cards through fake doors perched on cliffs.

Donald J. Trump, Stable Gen-i-us.

Anyway, whats the evidence that Trump is careening toward a breakdown? According to Lees research, and please note that this comes from a professional evaluation and cant be entirely comprehended by a layman, Trump has been spreading conspiracy theories, contradicting himself a lot and tweeting crazy stuff at all hours of the night.

In other words, its Thursday.

Of course Trump isnt right. Let me go out on a limb and say hes detached, irrational, childish, narcissistic, possibly delusional, and probably deeply scarred by parents who withheld affection and left him feeling eternally unlovable. Also, his hands are small.

But weve known all that since the early stages of Trumps campaign, and the voters elected him anyway, as was their right. And just by the way, if Trumps crippling insecurity and dark countenance set him apart from other occupants of the office, then its mostly a question of degree.

Lyndon Johnson sometimes wouldnt go to sleep without someone standing by, so haunted was he by loneliness. Bill Clinton raged arbitrarily and behaved in reckless, addictive ways. Richard Nixon prowled the White House mumbling about enemies and obsessing over the Kennedys. And that was just the last half-century.

Trump isnt a fraction of the president that any of those men were, Ill grant you. But thats not because hes emotionally damaged or chemically misfiring. Its because hes uninformed, uninterested and unserious.

Is Trump losing his mind? Rumors persist in Washington, more wishful than well sourced, that Trump is often forgetful and disoriented. Joe Scarborough, a onetime friend and current adversary of the president, aired what he said were whispers hed been hearing for months about the president possibly suffering from early stages of dementia.

But they said the same thing about Ronald Reagan in his second term, and while that period may well have marked the beginning of his eventual decline into Alzheimers, which he acknowledged five years after leaving office, it may also have simply been age and stress. That line can be hard to draw.

No ones shown me any evidence, to this point anyway, that Trump is anything other than a 71-year-old guy who never focused all that well to begin with. Or to put it another way: On the long list of reasons why America does not need another boomer president, loss of acuity and general crankiness do not rank near the top.

The larger point here is that the 25th Amendment, which has never been invoked, is a fallback reserved for cases where a president is truly incapacitated or impaired. It does not exist to negate bad decisions by the electorate. It is not there as a mechanism to remove an emotionally weak and impetuous president whom Americans elected because half of them decided they preferred emotionally weak and impetuous to the alternative.

Democracies  or republics, but lets not get into that here  get to make bad choices and suffer the consequences. They do not get bailed out by gaggles of PhDs who know better.

And the problem with appointing some commission to pursue such an extreme course of action is that its likely to become just one more weapon for partisans who reflexively seek to delegitimize every election and every president. Just like articles of impeachment and special prosecutors, a remedy once considered suitable for only the most unimaginable cases is bound to become another quadrennial drama, further eroding the presidency itself.

Thats a kind of crazy we could do without.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
San Pedro Sula (Honduras) (AFP) - A wave of violence in Honduras triggered by a contested presidential election in November has left dozens of people dead and hundreds in jail, officials and human rights activists say.

Incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez ultimately was declared the winner of the November 26 run-off election but only after a three week stretch of much-interrupted ballot counting that stoked tensions in the Central American country.

The left-wing opposition has spearheaded a protest campaign, insisting the elections were stolen from its candidate, former TV anchor Salvador Nasrallah.

The Honduran prosecutors' office has recorded 24 deaths in violence between the election date and December 28, including those of three police officers.

A spokesman, Yuri Mora, said "those that might have been committed by security forces are being investigated."

But Bertha Oliva, a rights activist, told AFP that up to December 31 there were 30 deaths. Since the beginning of this year, she said, "there have been more cases that we are documenting."

She added that one person was missing, and more than 1,000 people have been jailed for taking part in protests.

A military spokesman, Colonel Jorge Cerrato, told AFP his service had compiled no figures on the number of civilians killed in the protests.

He confirmed three police officers had died and said 114 police and soldiers were wounded by stones, sticks and at least one bullet.

Hernandez has warned that, while peaceful protests were permitted, violent outbreaks would be severely punished by security forces, the intelligence service and the courts.
In a dramatic crackdown, immigration agents arrived unannounced at nearly 100 7-Eleven stores across the country before dawn Wednesday, interviewing employees and managers, serving audit notices and arresting 21 workers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the sweep was meant to ensure that employers had not hired individuals without work authorizations.

The agency said the raids  the largest operation against an employer under the Trump administration  were meant to serve as a strong message to other businesses to follow the law by not hiring undocumented workers.

Todays actions send a strong message to U.S. businesses that hire and employ an illegal workforce: ICE will enforce the law, and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable, ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said in a statement. Businesses that hire illegal workers are a pull factor for illegal immigration and we are working hard to remove this magnet.

Immigration experts told HuffPost that such highly visible workplace enforcement  with agents showing up unannounced across the country early in the morning, questioning and arresting employees  appears to be a show of force meant not only to keep businesses in compliance but also to demonstrate the administrations zero tolerance policy toward undocumented individuals.

All 21 people ICE arrested were employees, the agency confirmed.

When we talk about targeting employers, thats auditing employers to see if they followed those rules. Its not necessary to show up with agents and interview people on site unannounced, Angela Banks, an immigration expert and professor of law at Arizona State, told HuffPost.

The actions are in line with the Trump administrations rhetoric and policies, which make all undocumented people  not just those with criminal histories  targets for deportation. ICE arrests increased by 40 percent during President Donald Trumps first eight months in office, compared to the same period the previous year.

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For the Trump administration, its all about PR: They want to create the feeling that theres a new enforcement regime in town, Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institutes offices at NYU School of Law, told HuffPost. Showing up at early hours across the country is showing enforcement muscle.

On Wednesday, ICE posted several news stories about the raids on its Twitter account.

Todays actions send a strong message to U.S. businesses that hire and employ an illegal workforce: ICE will enforce the law, and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable - ICE Acting Director Tom Homan

Read more: https://t.co/Xqtzrt9QsQ  ICE (@ICEgov) January 10, 2018

ICE said Wednesdays operations were a follow-up on a 2013 investigation into 7-Eleven franchises, according to a statement. Nine franchise owners and managers were arrested in 2013 for conspiring to commit wire fraud, stealing identities and concealing and harboring undocumented workers. All but one pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay more than $2.6 million.

ICE said Wednesdays sweeps in stores across 17 states and in Washington, D.C., were meant to ensure the company has taken the proper steps towards more responsible hiring and employment practices.

In a statement, 7-Eleven said: We are aware of ICE actions taken at certain franchise locations.  7-Eleven requires all franchise business owners to comply with all federal, state and local employment laws. ... 7-Eleven takes compliance with immigration laws seriously and has terminated the franchise agreements of franchisees convicted of violating these laws.

Workplace raids like the one ICE just conducted at 7-Elevens tend to spread fear in undocumented communities by sending a message that undocumented workers are at risk of being targeted by agents at any time and potentially deported.

Under the current administration, all workers encountered during these investigations who are unauthorized to remain in the U.S. are subject to administrative arrest and removal from the country, ICE said in its statement on the 7-Eleven operations.

For the undocumented community, such extensive and visible raids in workplaces can drive people underground, making them more vulnerable to abuse, including exploitation at work.

What it does when you have these raids  where agents can go to any place in the country, with no regard to criminal offense  no one will feel safe, Chishti said.

Under Obama, if you didnt have a criminal offense, you could leave in the morning and feel relatively confident that you would come home to see your kids, he added. That reality has changed under the Trump administration  and they say it themselves, that everyone should be looking over their shoulder. Youre seeing the results of that.

Also on HuffPost

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April 2015

At an event hosted by Texas Patriots PAC: Everythings coming across the border: the illegals, the cars, the whole thing. Its like a big mess. Blah. Its like vomit.

June 2015

At a speech announcing his campaign: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre not sending you. Theyre not sending you. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

August 2015

On NBC's "Meet the Press": Were going to keep the families together, we have to keep the families together, but they have to go."

September 2015

On CBS's "60 Minutes": Were rounding em up in a very humane way, in a very nice way. And theyre going to be happy because they want to be legalized. And, by the way, I know it doesnt sound nice. But not everything is nice.

November 2015

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe": You are going to have a deportation force, and you are going to do it humanely."

February 2016

At a GOP primary debate: We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally. They will go out. They will come back  some will come back, the best, through a process.

March 2016

At a press conference when asked if he would consider allowing undocumented immigrants to stay: "We either have a country or we dont. We either have a country or we dont. We have borders or we dont have borders. And at this moment, the answer is absolutely not.

April 2016

At an event hosted by NBC's "Today Show": Theyre going to go, and were going to create a path where we can get them into this country legally, OK? But it has to be done legally. ... Theyre going to go, and then come back and come back legally.

July 2016

At the Republican National Convention: "Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied  and every politician who has denied them  to listen very closely to the words I am about to say. On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced."

September 2016

At a rally: Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we dont have a country.

September 2016

On "The Dr. Oz Show": Well, under my plan the undocumented or, as you would say, illegal immigrant wouldnt be in the country. They only come in the country legally.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents serve an employment audit notice at a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles: AP Photo/Chris Carlson

Immigration agents targeted dozens of 7-Eleven convenience stores and arrested unauthorised workers, expanding Donald Trumps crackdown on illegal immigration.

In a coordinated series of dawn raids, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents demanded employment records at nearly 100 stores across 17 states and Washington, DC, a broad effort to punish businesses that hire immigrants who are not authorised to work legally that resulted in the arrests of 21 workers nationwide.

Today's actions send a strong message to US businesses that hire and employ an illegal workforce: ICE will enforce the law, and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable, ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said in a statement.

Businesses that hire illegal workers are a pull factor for illegal immigration and we are working hard to remove this magnet, he added. ICE will continue its efforts to protect jobs for American workers by eliminating unfair competitive advantages for companies that exploit illegal immigration.

Arrests of immigrants in the country illegally have risen sharply under the Trump administration. The increase followed the administration broadening the categories of immigrants who are targets, moving away from Barack Obama's more targeted approach and following through on Mr Trump's campaign vow of more stringent immigration policies.

But the ICE agents descending on 7-Eleven stores nationwide were participating in the largest business-focused action under the Trump administration, and ICE officials signalled that it marked a turn in the agencys tactics.

Derek Benner, acting head of ICEs Homeland Security Investigations, told the Associated Press it was a harbinger of whats to come.

What youre going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters, Mr Benner told the AP, adding that its not going to be limited to large companies or any particular industry.

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In a statement, 7-Eleven blamed any immigration law violations on individual store owners, noting that franchisees are solely responsible for their employees including deciding who to hire and verifying their eligibility to work in the United States.

7-Eleven takes compliance with immigration laws seriously and has terminated the franchise agreements of franchisees convicted of violating these laws, the statement said.
By Josephine Mason and Yuna Park BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - Rescue crews were forced to retreat from a stricken Iranian oil tanker in the East China Sea on Wednesday following an explosion on the ship as a fire raged for a fourth day after a dramatic collision. The blast happened on board the tanker in the afternoon after rescue crews were dousing the ship with foam in an attempt to put out the fire, China's Transport Ministry (MOT) said in a statement on Wednesday. The cause and damage to the tanker from the incident were not clear. The ship was carrying condensate, a highly flammable ultra-light crude, to deliver to South Korea when it collided with a Chinese freight ship on Saturday. Dozens of rescue boats from China and South Korea have been battling strong winds, high waves and poisonous fumes to comb a 900-square-nautical-mile (3,100-square-kilometre) area for 31 missing sailors and tame the fire, amid growing concerns the listing ship may explode or sink. Iran's Navy joined the effort on Wednesday, a government official said, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA). The lashing winds are expected to ease on Thursday, the MOT said. The tanker Sanchi (IMO:9356608), run by Iran's top oil shipping operator, National Iranian Tanker Co, collided on Saturday with the CF Crystal (IMO:9497050), carrying grain from the United States, about 160 nautical miles (300 km) off China's coast near Shanghai. The Sanchi was carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, equivalent to about 1 million barrels and worth some $60 million. (Graphic on ship collision: http://tmsnrt.rs/2CBgqai) The Chinese government said late on Tuesday it had not found a "large-scale" oil leak, and the condensate was burning off or evaporating so quickly that it would leave little residue - less than 1 percent - within five hours of a spill. That reduces the chances of a crude-style oil slick. Iranian officials said there was still a chance of finding survivors among the 31 remaining crew, who are all Iranian nationals except for two Bangladeshi citizens. The body of a crew member was found on Monday in the water near the tanker. "If the crew have been able to reach (...) some place like the engine room, then the chances of their rescue are high," said Hassan Qashqavi, a senior Iranian foreign ministry official, according to ISNA. "But if, God forbid, they have been caught up in explosions because of flames inside the ship, then the chance of their rescue is small." VULNERABLE TO BREAK-UP Authorities and environmentalists worry though the ship is increasingly vulnerable to breaking up and sinking the longer the blaze rages. Still, the ultra light crude is highly volatile when exposed to air and water. South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries warned on Wednesday the tanker could burn for up to one month, potentially expelling the tanker's bunker fuel, or the heavy fuel oil that powers a ship's engines and contaminating the waters. "We believe flames would last for two weeks or a month considering previous cases of oil tank accidents," said Park Sung-dong, an official at the ministry. Bunker fuel is the dirtiest kind of oil, extremely toxic when spilled, though much less explosive. Fuel oil is relatively easy to contain because volumes are lower and its viscosity means it's easier to extract from water, but even small volumes can hurt marine life. "The problem is the ship's heavy bunker fuel," said Chauncey Naylor, a U.S.-based director of emergency response and training at Tyco Corp's oil-fire specialists Williams Fire & Hazard Control, which is not involved in the clean-up. "It burns real slow and it's heavy and will lay on the ocean and on any twisted metal and create heavy smoke. It's the stuff that spills and gets on birds." The Zhoushan fishing ground where the collision occurred is known as one of the biggest in the East China Sea, particularly for mackerel and croaker, according to Greenpeace. In 2016, the catch from the East China Sea was 5.18 million tonnes, making it China's largest fishing ground. A Suezmax tanker can hold a maximum of 5,000 tonnes of bunker fuel to keep it running. The Sanchi may have been carrying about 1,000 tonnes by the time it hit the grain freighter, according to bunker fuel traders' estimates. Park said it's unlikely the oil will spread to South Korea at the moment because the tanker has moved 100 kilometres (62 miles) to the southeast. (Reporting by Yuna Park in SEOUL, Josephine Mason and Muyu Xu in BEIJING, Gary McWilliams in HOUSTON, Roslan Khasawneh and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE, Babak Dehghanpisheh in BEIRUT; Editing by Tom Hogue and Adrian Croft)
Praise is still pouring in for Oprah Winfreys address at the 75th Golden Globes, a rousing declaration that a new day is on the horizon for women and girls in light of recent public discourse about sexual misconduct. During the actresss acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Winfrey made a statement so powerful it elicited calls for her to run for president in 2020. But not all praise is created equal.

Ivanka Trump took to Twitter Monday to join the chorus, urging women and men to unite and say times up, referring to a Hollywood-led movement against harassment.

But the first daughters tweet drew instant scrutiny; her father, President Donald Trump, himself faces several accusations of sexual misconduct. Actor Alyssa Milano, comedian Rosie ODonnell and model Chrissy Teigen were among the first and fiercest responders. Many called on her to use her money and influence to help bring about justice for the women who have accused her father of abuse.

Great! You can make a lofty donation to the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund that is available to support your father's accusers.https://t.co/A8HCVa715v  Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) January 9, 2018

2/ If you mean it, @IvankaTrump, will you donate $19million to the @TIMESUPNOW legal defense fund? $1m for every woman who came forward about your father, and was silenced and demeaned.  Jessica Yellin (@JessicaYellin) January 9, 2018

Others claimed she was attempting to co-opt a social movement at the height of its popularity.

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Oprah: I am running for President.

Ivanka: So am I. In 2024. @maggieNYT https://t.co/iyfnk4zyV4  Ram (@ramprasad_c) January 9, 2018

More still found her intervention hypocritical.

This is the most hypocritical, clueless statement in her regrettable time in the WH. Your father has a trail of victims and supported Roy Moore, Ivanka. YOU are indeed part of the problem Ivanka. #complicit  Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) January 9, 2018

ew go away  christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) January 9, 2018

Michael Wolff, the author of an explosive new book about her fathers White House, called her out in a television interview.

.@MichaelWolffNYC reacts to Ivanka Trump's new tweet in support of #TIMESUP: "Who does she think her father is? What does she think this White House is about?" #LastWord pic.twitter.com/sIE1mh5DSd  The Last Word (@TheLastWord) January 9, 2018

But many were simply struck by the same question:

Who is going to tell her https://t.co/ptGRG5HiYH  Molly Knight (@molly_knight) January 9, 2018

Who is going to tell her? https://t.co/iiXjrcjR5D  Tyrone Gayle (@TyroneGayle) January 9, 2018
(PHOENIX)  Former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio has announced he plans to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Jeff Flake.

The 85-year-old Arpaio is a close ally of President Donald Trump and tweeted Tuesday he seeking the post to support the agenda and policies of President Donald Trump in his mission to Make America Great Again.

Arpaio was spared a possible jail sentence last year when Trump pardoned his conviction for disobeying a judges order in an immigration case.

He flirted with the idea running for Arizona governor five times but decided against doing so each time.

Arpaio says in a fundraising email that he filed paperwork Tuesday for the Senate run.

Flake has been critical of Trump and announced last year that he would not seek another term.
Ex-sheriff was pardoned by Donald Trump for racial profiling conviction

Republican, 85, to run as a big supporter of President Trump

Joe Arpaio likely to face a crowded Republican field to succeed Trump critic Senator Jeff Flake. Photograph: Angie Wang/AP

Controversial former sheriff Joe Arpaio announced on Tuesday that he would run for the United States Senate in Arizona.

Donald Trump pardoned Arpaio in 2017 after he was convicted of contempt of court for violating a federal court order to stop racial profiling against Hispanics.

Who is Joe Arpaio? A look at the controversial Arizona sheriff

While in office for 24 years, Joe Arpaio, 85, called himself Americas toughest sheriff.

He boasted that he fed his prisoners more cheaply than the sheriffs department dogs  just two meals a day for the humans, with stale bologna sandwiches a staple.

Anti-immigration voters loved his tactics of sweeping Latino-majority neighborhoods, rounding up anyone suspected of being in the US illegally or failing to show papers on demand.

Arpaio called his departments sprawling jail a concentration camp, where male inmates were forced to wear pink underwear and striped uniforms and live in tents under 140F (60C) desert sun.

The sheriff ran chain-gangs of male and female inmates, shackled by the ankle and marched out to collect trash from highways and desert, or to bury the destitute.

He lost his bid for a seventh term as sheriff in 2016, losing to a Democrat who benefited from a surge of Latino voters to the polls and later shut down the outdoor jail section known as Tent City.

After a five-year birtherism investigation, during which Arpaio sent investigators to Hawaii, he still claimed in 2016 that Barack Obamas birth certificate is fake, fake.

In July 2017, Arpaio was convicted on a federal charge of contempt of court after failing to heed numerous court orders to stop traffic patrols that targeted Latinos as part of his infamous anti-immigration crackdowns. He was facing up to six months in federal prison but before he could be sentenced, Donald Trump issued him with a presidential pardon.

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In an interview with the Washington Examiner, the 85-year-old said that he was running as a big supporter of President Trump. Arpaio had long been known for his draconian views on illegal immigration and his harsh treatment of prisoners and undocumented immigrants detained while awaiting deportation or transfer to other jurisdictions.

He was also an enthusiastic believer in so-called birtherism, the long-running campaign by some hardline conservatives, with Donald Trump as their cheerleader, to convince the public inaccurately that Barack Obama was not born in the USA and therefore was not eligible to be president.

Arpaio served six terms as sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, the states largest jurisdiction, near Phoenix and the Mexico border, before losing his re-election bid in 2016.

Self-anointed as Americas toughest sheriff, he gained notoriety during his 24-year tenure for detaining hundreds of undocumented immigrants in a sprawling jail known as Tent City and forcing them to wear pink underwear. The sheriff courted controversy and media attention  calling his own jail a concentration camp, serving inmates just two meals a day and selling replica pink underwear to the public  as he became a national figurehead for the virulent xenophobia Trump embraced in his presidential campaign.

Trumps decision to pardon the polarizing sheriff drew condemnation from both of the states Republican senators, as well as Democrats and Latino and immigrant advocacy groups. Arpaio is the only person so far to have received a presidential pardon from Trump.

The populist and polarizing former sheriff joins a crowded Republican field in the race to succeed vocal Trump critic Jeff Flake, who announced he would not seek re-election. The former sheriff has a complicated history with Flake. He is currently facing a malicious prosecution suit from Flakes son, who alleges Arpaio prosecuted him for animal cruelty in an attempt to embarrass the Republican senator.

Currently, Kelli Ward, a former state senator who has been vocally backed by former White House aide Steve Bannon, is running for Flakes seat and is expected to be joined by Martha McSally, a two-term congresswoman who was also the first woman to fly in combat. McSally is an establishment favorite who has won multiple tough races in her Tucson-based swing district.

The winner of the Republican primary is likely to face Democratic congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema in the November general election.

On Tuesday, Flake told reporters: I wont be supporting Joe Arpaio. Of the sheriffs bid, the Arizona senator joked: Write about it fast because it wont last long.

The Senate race is expected to be one of the most competitive in 2018 and a must-win for Democrats if they are to have any chance of winning control of the Senate in the midterms.

Tom Perez, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said:

Joe Arpaio is one of our nations most notorious agents of racism and bigotry, Perez said in a statement on Tuesday. He has spent his career tearing apart immigrant families and devastating Latino communities.

As head of the justice departments civil rights division, Perez sued Arpaio in 2012, alleging long-standing racial profiling of Latinos.

Asked about the criticism on Fox News Radio, Arpaio said it was an honor to know he is going after me.

He better worry about his own party and not target me, Arpaio said. Let him target me, thats okay, he has been doing it all along anyway.

Critics of Arpaio says his entry in the Senate race could animate Latino voters.



If Republicans rally behind this monster, they will turn out Latino voters like never before  in Arizona and across the country, Cristobal Alex, president of Latino Victory Fund, a progressive political action committee, told the Guardian.
Former Vice President Joe Biden didnt want the No. 2 job  and said so when Barack Obama offered him the position.

I didnt want to be vice president, I never aspired to the job, Biden said Tuesday evening at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco promoting his new memoir Promise Me, Dad, which chronicles the year his son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.

Biden, in a wide-ranging conversation moderated by former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, recalled his reluctance to join the Obama ticket.

Im flattered Barack, but I dont want to be vice president, Biden said he told Obama in 2008, when the then-candidate asked him to be his running mate. [Obama] said, How much time do you need? I said, I dont need any time.

Theres no power in the vice presidency  youre stand-by equipment, Biden added. I had a reputation as being a powerful senator, and I thought I could help Barack more by staying in the Senate.

Biden said last year he does not plan to run for president in 2020.

(Photo: Yuri Gripas / Reuters)

Back in 2008, then-candidate Obama suggested Biden talk to his family to consider the position, Biden said  and give him an answer in two days.

Biden gathered a family meeting, and it was apparently his late son Beau  an Iraq War veteran who served as Delawares attorney general for eight years  who ultimately convinced him to take the position.

Beau said I had an obligation to, Biden recalled.

It was the greatest honor of my life, he added of his role as vice president under Obama. My son Beau was right  to take the job.

And if anyone is still wondering whether the much-chronicled bromance between Biden and Obama was real, the former VP addressed that, too.

It became a deep personal friendship, Biden said of his relationship with Obama during the eight-year presidency. Most of those memes are true.

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Go Deep, Governor! No, Further! Keep Going! ... Heh-Heh.

Vice President Joe Biden throws a football from the top of the stairs before boarding Air Force Two at Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh, PA, July 1, 2009.

Joe Biden: His Thumbs-Up Are Actual Rainbows

When we landed at Southwest Florida International Airport aboard Air Force Two, it was still raining, but by the time we taxied to our parking spot the rain had let up and a rainbow was starting to form in the sky. I tried to get into position to capture the rainbow and the Vice President de-planing, and Air Force Two. As he walked to the cars, he gave me a thumbs-up  and that was the photo. September 28, 2012.

At Ease, Men. 'Breaking Bad' Is On And Papa Biden's In A Hurry

Vice President Joe Biden salutes as he approaches Marine Two after landing at Joint Base Andrews aboard Air Force Two. June 6, 2012.

You're Gonna Miss These VP Guns -- Pew Pew!

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden gestures after disembarking from a plane upon landing at Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel March 8, 2016.

Who Pulls Off A Bomber Jacket Anymore? Joe Biden, That's Who.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden disembarks from the plane as he arrives in Baghdad, November 29, 2011. U.S. Vice President Biden arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday in a visit to mark the end of the U.S. war in Iraq as troops complete withdrawal by year-end.

Who's Coming To The Hotel Room To Party? Plenty Of Room In Here!

US Vice President Joe Biden waves upon his arrival at the Tokyo International Airport on December 1, 2013 on the first leg of his Asian tour. Biden will meet with Japanese leaders, with Tokyo hoping for some fulsome backing in its vicious territorial spat with China.

S**t, I'm Late I'm Late I'm Late I'm Late...

Vice President Joe Biden walks down the stairs of Air Force Two at New Castle County Airport. Wilmington, Delaware, Aug. 23, 2013.

I Said, "Beyonce, This Is Jay-Z. Jay-Z, Beyonce.'" Rest Is History.

US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama and his running mate Joe Biden disembark from Obama's campaign plane at Detroit Metropolitan International airport in Detroit, Michigan, September 28, 2008.

Socks? Dammit, Man, I Don't Have Time For Socks.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Baghdad, August 30, 2010. Biden arrived in Iraq on Monday as U.S. troops prepared to end combat operations on Tuesday. Biden was expected to hold talks with Iraqi leaders during a period of political deadlock, almost six months after an inconclusive election in March, over forming the country's next government.

How's The Indian Food In New Delhi? Ahh, Just Messing With Ya.

Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden wave as they arrive at Indira Gandhi International Airport, in New Delhi, India. July 22, 2013.

Come On, Kid, You Just Got Off A Plane With Joe Biden, Try To Act Like It.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden waves as he walks out of the plane upon his arrival for the inauguration of Guatemala's President-elect Jimmy Morales, at Aurora international airport in Guatemala City, Guatemala, January 14, 2016.

Rain Or Shine, Motherf**kers! That's How Joe Rolls!

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden waves upon his arrival in Wilmington, Delaware November 7, 2012. Biden will spend the night at his home here before returning to Washington.

Jill, We Saluting Or Waving? Saluti--? ... Ugh, I Keep Falling For This.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (L) and his wife Jill gesture before boarding a plane at Ben Gurion International airport near Tel Aviv March 11, 2010. Biden called on Thursday for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to start without delay despite Palestinian insistence that Israel first cancel a settlement project condemned by Washington.

When He Gets On The Plane, You Pretend Like You Have To Show Him Something And Then I'll Jump Out And Scare Him

US Vice President Joe Biden (R) alights from the plane upon arrival at the Benito Juarez international airport in Mexico City, on September 19, 2013 for a one-day official visit.

No, I'm Serious, Jill. I've Got This Amazing Health Coverage But I'm Doing No Stunts At All. What A Waste!

Vice President of the United States Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden arrive at the BrasAlia Air Base on Air Force Two and visit the U.S. Embassy of Brazil on Thursday, May 30, 2013.

You Want A Little Biden Magic, Too? Pew Pew, Comin' Atcha!

US Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Ankara, Turkey on August 24, 2016.

While Delivering A Speech In The Mediterranean, Joe Biden Spots A Man In The Crowd Who "Sure As S**t" Owes Him Money

US Vice President Joe Biden delivers a speech after arriving on May 21,2014 at Larnaca airport in the Cypriot southern port city. Biden is on a visit to Cyprus for talks on the divided Mediterranean island's peace process and its ties with Moscow given Russia's role in Ukraine.

Alright, Joe, Time For "Operation: Charm The Pants Off 'Em"

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden gets ready to step out of a plane after landing in Sarajevo early May 19, 2009. Biden arrived in Bosnia on Tuesday hoping to bolster a country still plagued by instability and ethnic division 14 years after the end of Europe's worst conflict since World War Two.

Anyone Touches My Granddaughter, They'll Be On The Next Unmanned Mission To Mars

Vice President Joe Biden arrives on Airforce 2 with his grand daughter at Sydney Airport on July 18, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. Biden is visiting Australia on a four day trip which includes a visit to Melbourne at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre to promote US-Australia cancer research and will host a round-table discussion with business leaders in Sydney.

Listen, I Just Want To Swing One Of The Swords For A Bit, Maybe Stage A Fight.

US Vice President Joe Biden (C,R) walks next to Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean (C,L) after arriving at the 'Henry Coanda' international Airport in Bucharest on May 20, 2014. US Vice President Joe Biden blasted Russia's annexation of Crimea, saying borders should not be changed at gunpoint, as he began a visit to Romania days before a crucial vote in Ukraine.

One More Trip Back Down And I've Got My Steps In For The Day

Welcome aboard: Vice President Joe Biden jogs up the stairs to Air Force Two at Lambert St. Louis International Airport, in St. Louis, Missouri, August 20, 2010.

Biden Hopes You Have A Sweet Tooth, Because He's Got A Lot Of Sugar To Give

US Vice President Joe Biden gestures after his plane landed at Kiev's airport, Boryspil, on July 20, 2009. Biden is on a working visit in Ukraine and then in Georgia amid concern in both nations that their relations with the United States could suffer as US-Russian relations improve.

(I Put The Pope Mobile Keys Back In Your Bag) -- Have A Safe Flight!

US Vice President Joe Biden bids farewell to Pope Francis before he boards his plane in Philadelphia on September 27, 2015 at the end of his six-day visit to the US.

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Hillary Clinton, Kellyanne Conway, President Trump (Yahoo News photo illustration; photos: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images, Carolyn Kaster/AP, John Locher/AP, AP)

After claiming to CNN on Wednesday that nobody in the White House talks about Hillary Clinton, President Trumps special counselor Kellyanne Conway said on Fox Thursday that administration officials discuss Trumps vanquished 2016 election opponent because they are forced to.

I know people love to talk about how were so obsessed with Hillary Clinton here, Conway said on Fox & Friends. The fact is, we only have to talk about her because people wont let go of an election that she lost miserably.

In an interview with CNNs Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night, Conway insisted Clinton is never discussed in the West Wing.

We dont care about her. Nobody here talks about her, Conway said. Nobody here talks about Hillary Clinton, I promise you.

Conways claim came just hours after Trump brought up Clinton multiple times, unprompted, at the White House during a joint news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Kellyanne Conway claimed "nobody here talks about Hillary Clinton" despite the fact that President Trump mentioned her at least 3 times earlier today #CuomoPrimeTime https://t.co/sGNQfZyNRt  Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) January 11, 2018

Trump suggested that, despite the conclusion by American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to tip the contest in his favor, Russian President Vladimir Putin would have preferred a Clinton victory.

I am for massive oil and gas and everything else and a lot of energy, he said. Putin cant love that. I am for the strongest military that the United States ever had. Putin cant love that. Hillary was not for a strong military, and Hillary  my opponent  was for windmills.

Related: Trump calls interview with special counsel unlikely

The president brought up Clinton again when asked if he would agree to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller his investigation of Russias attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential elections  something Trump said seven months ago that he was willing to do. This time, Trump responded by criticizing the FBIs handling of its 2016 interview with Clinton in its probe of her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

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When you talk about interviews, Hillary Clinton had an interview where she wasnt sworn in, she wasnt given the oath, they didnt take notes, they didnt record and it was done on the Fourth of July weekend, Trump said. Thats, perhaps, ridiculous, and a lot of people looked upon that as being a very serious breach.

Kellyanne Conway (Yahoo News photo illustration; photos: Carolyn Kaster/AP, Twitter, Richard Drew/AP, Alex Brandon/AP)

Clinton is also a frequent topic of Trumps tweets. The Washington Post points out that since taking office, Trump has tweeted about Clinton or Crooked Hillary about 70 times.

He did so again on Thursday morning.

Disproven and paid for by Democrats Dossier used to spy on Trump Campaign. Did FBI use Intel tool to influence the Election? the president tweeted, quoting a Fox & Friends segment. Did Dems or Clinton also pay Russians? Where are hidden and smashed DNC servers? Where are Crooked Hillary Emails? What a mess!

Disproven and paid for by Democrats Dossier used to spy on Trump Campaign. Did FBI use Intel tool to influence the Election? @foxandfriends Did Dems or Clinton also pay Russians? Where are hidden and smashed DNC servers? Where are Crooked Hillary Emails? What a mess!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

Conway, for her part, tweeted a clip from her appearance on Trumps favorite morning show.

My full interview this morning on @foxandfriends, by far the highest-rated cable news morning show. #facts, she tweeted.

Read more from Yahoo News:
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway claimed Wednesday night that no one in Donald Trumps White House talks about Hillary Clinton. The interview came just hours after the president himself mentioned Clinton several times.

Nobody here talks about her, Conway told CNNs Chris Cuomo. Hey Chris, Nobody here talks about Hillary Clinton, I promise you.

The two were engaged in a heated discussion about the Russia investigation when Conway mentioned Clinton and the 2016 election.

So many people cant get over the election results, Conway said.

Says my friend who cant keep Hillary Clintons name out of her mouth, Cuomo shot back.

See the full exchange above.

That wasnt the only eyebrow-raising moment of the interview. Conway gave Cuomo an epic eye-roll that harkened back to the one Anderson Cooper threw at her last year:

The two sparred about the First Amendment, specifically Trump saying he wanted to change libel laws:

CUOMO: For a man who says as many things that are as demonstrably false on a pace that we have never seen any president even approach, it is odd that he wants to be in the fact-checking business. CONWAY: Oh thats nonsense. Hes demonstrably successful on a pace weve never seen.

They also shared an apples-and-bananas moment while talking about how drugs get across the border:

CUOMO: Putting up a wall isnt going to stop illegal drugs coming into this country and you know that. CONWAY: Oh thats ridiculous. CUOMO: They come by air and they come in tunnels. Ive been in them. Ive been in those tunnels. CONWAY: They come all different ways. Are you saying, Im sorry Christopher, are you telling the viewers that no drugs come through the southern border? Did you just say that? CUOMO: No, Im saying the idea that a wall... CONWAY: Facts first! Be an apple, dont be a banana! CUOMO: ...the wall is going to be a difference is a joke.

Conway was apparently referring to CNNs apples and bananas Facts First ad campaign.

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They even argued about the interview itself:

CUOMO: You cant just run through an explanation, trample the facts and then move on. You gotta give me a chance to get in here. CONWAY: Whoa, whoa, whoa, dont just do that just because itll make for a great viral moment or a promo, I see them in all your Cuomo promos. CUOMO: Theres only one promo and youre in it once but thats OK.

The exchange prompted sharp reaction on Twitter:

The definition of insanity is Chris Cuomo interviewing Kellyanne Conway and expecting a different result other than Kellyanne saying ridiculous things.  Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) January 11, 2018

Between Lavar Ball & Kellyanne Conway, Im surprised Chris Cuomo hasnt developed a drinking problem.  Jucci Mane & Im Bout to Put my Yeezys On (@juicekan) January 11, 2018

Nobody here talks about Hillary Clinton. Hillary is the default response to every GOP talking point!!! #ButWhatAboutHerEmails

Kellyanne Conway pic.twitter.com/E1WFtJdcHz  Tony (@ImKnotTheOne) January 11, 2018

Kellyanne Conway says they never talk about Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary at the Trump White House.  Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) January 11, 2018

Kellyanne Conway told CNN's @ChrisCuomo: "We don't care about her. Nobody here talks about Hillary Clinton."



... in case you were curious, Trump has tweeted Hillary Clinton's name at least 89 times since election day. Here are some of those tweets. pic.twitter.com/0lhtoe4thR  Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) January 11, 2018

Kellyanne Conway uses a Gish Gallop, a rhetorical tactic named for a man who originated it to defend creationism, which is basically on the same bullshit level as this presidency. Deployed almost exclusively by people with substance free arguments.  Chris schalz (@Chrisschalz1) January 11, 2018

"Nobody here talks about Hillary Clinton," Kellyanne Conway tells Chris Cuomo moments after bringing up Hillary Clinton, hours after Trump brought up Hillary Clinton before Norway's prime minister. #cuomoprimetime pic.twitter.com/1GrZmieAxd  Geoffrey Sorensen (@GSorensen) January 11, 2018

I feel exhausted. And I didnt interview @KellyannePolls. I just watched @ChrisCuomo do it.  Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) January 11, 2018

Who let Kellyanne Conway leave the sewers? pic.twitter.com/brxqu2UJgK  alpal (@OrangeLimonata) January 11, 2018

Chris Cuomo is unfairly attacking Kellyanne Conway with a weapon called truth.  Donald J Orwell (@DonaldJOrwell) January 11, 2018

opens twitter sees Kellyanne Conway trending... pic.twitter.com/EvqJoJLaRP  brulez le chateau (@brulezlechateau) January 11, 2018

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Rep. Darrell Issa and Rep. Ed Royce, Republican congressmen from California. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images, Getty Images (4))

LOS ANGELES  If youre wondering whether a Democratic wave could wash away the current GOP-controlled Congress in November, check out whats happened so far this week in the traditional Republican stronghold of Orange County, Calif.

Two short days ago, the situation was stable. Four congressional districts overlap with the O.C.; Republicans represent all four. Each of these Republicans (Ed Royce in CA-39, Darrell Issa in CA-49, Dana Rohrabacher in CA-48, Mimi Walters in CA-45) was considered vulnerable to some degree, in part because in 2016, Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in their districts  a first for a Democratic presidential candidate. But thanks to the power of incumbency and a few big war chests, the Washington consensus said that only Rohrabachers race was a tossup. The rest still leaned Republican.

What a difference 48 hours makes.

On Tuesday morning, Royce, the powerful chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, stunned the political world by announcing his retirement. In this final year of my Foreign Affairs Committee chairmanship, I want to focus fully on the urgent threats facing our nation, Royce said in a statement. With this in mind, and with the support of my wife, Marie, I have decided not to seek reelection in November.

Then, one day later, Issa followed Royce out the door. Throughout my service, I worked hard and never lost sight of the people our government is supposed to serve, Issa said in a statement. Yet with the support of my family, I have decided that I will not seek reelection in Californias 49th District.

In response, the authoritative handicappers at the Cook Political Report flipped both seats from Lean Republican to Lean Democrat, improving the Dems odds of picking up the 24 seats they need to take back the House.

Democrats, of course, rejoiced. The Republican agenda in Washington has been a direct attack on Californians, crowed Drew Godinich, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. California Republicans clearly see the writing on the wall and realize that their party and its priorities are toxic to their reelection chances in 2018.

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But beyond the predictable partisan messaging, what does this weeks sudden upending of some of the most important House contests in the country actually say about the looming 2018 midterms?

First, the DCCC may have a point. Toxic may be too strong a word, but there has been a real conflict between the priorities of the GOP leadership in Washington  both on Capitol Hill and in the White House  and the electoral interests of blue-state Republicans.

Take 2017s two defining legislative efforts: Obamacare repeal and tax cuts. The former, which never passed the Senate, was wildly unpopular in California, where residents have flocked to the state-run health insurance exchange. Yet both Royce and Issa felt compelled to vote for it, despite near-constant protests from activists in their districts.

Demonstrators protest against President Trump and Republican Rep. Darrell Issa outside Issas office in Vista, Calif. (Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters)

The Trump tax cuts, meanwhile, inspired even more Golden State outrage, largely because they slashed deductions for mortgage interest and for state and local taxes, which disproportionately benefit Californians. Both Royce and Issa publicly struggled to get to yes on the bill; eventually, Royce did, and Issa  gun-shy after securing reelection in 2016 by a mere 1,600 votes  did not. But their constituents know that what really matters is which party controls the House, and the national GOP agenda isnt working to the advantage of most Republicans in California  or high-tax states such as New York and New Jersey either.

This tension has, in turn, underscored the deeper Trump-era challenges facing Royce, Issa and their ilk. Clinton won Orange County  a place that had been the heart of the conservative movement, fueling the campaigns of Barry Goldwater and, later, Ronald Reagan  for two reasons (as Ive written in the past).

The first is that Orange County is changing. In 1980, roughly 285,000 Latinos lived in the O.C. (about 15 percent of the total population). As of 2014, that number had grown to more than 1 million (or 34 percent of the total population), and Latinos are expected to surpass non-Latino whites as the countys largest group by 2027.

In recent years, the local Asian population has surged as well. The result is a region thats much more diverse, and much more reliant on immigrants, than it was in Reagans day.

At the same time, the white voters who still make up a plurality of Orange Countys electorate are, for the most part, a particular breed: wealthier and more educated than average.

Which brings us to the second force at work here: Donald Trump. In 2016, the New York developer underperformed among white college graduates, and lost college women to Clinton by 7 percentage points. Combine that weakness with Trumps widespread unpopularity among Latinos and other minorities, and you start to see why Trump lost Orange County by 9 percentage points only four years after Mitt Romney won there by 6. He was a particularly bad fit for its evolving electorate  and now that hes president, his 39 percent approval rating and anti-blue-state policies probably arent helping matters. (The Trump administrations decision to allow oil companies to resume offshore drilling  and then to exempt Florida but not California  angered Californians who may still remember disastrous spills off their beaches.)

All of which has conspired to make reelection more of a slog for Issa, Royce and other suburban and/or blue-state Republicans nationwide  and to make retirement sound more appealing. The numbers tell the tale. As NPRs Jessica Taylor has noted, there are now 31 Republicans who will not seek reelection in November: 19 who are retiring outright and another 12 who are running for higher office.

The last time either party had nearly that many members vacate their seats during a midterm year was 1994. Twenty-eight Democrats departed that cycle  and the GOP eventually took control of Congress, gaining a staggering 54 House seats in what was billed at the time as a Republican Revolution.

So yes, the back-to-back retirements of Royce and Issa are symptomatic of something larger: an electoral landscape that is rapidly shifting in the Democrats favor.

This sort of momentum wouldnt matter much if the Dems werent prepared to capitalize on it. But so far, they seem to be.

Six Democratic candidates are already running for Royces seat, including Mai-Khanh Tran, a Vietnam-War-refugee-turned-pediatrician-turned-two-time-cancer-survivor; Andy Thorburn, a teacher-turned-union-leader-turned-millionaire-businessman; and Gil Cisneros, a Navy veteran and former shipping manager who became a philanthropist after winning a $266 million lottery prize in 2010.

And four Democrats are gunning for Issas job: environmental activist Mike Levin, whos raked in more than a million dollars since announcing his candidacy in March; Sara Jacobs, a former Obama administration official endorsed by EMILYs List; Paul Kerr, a real estate investor who outraised Issa last quarter; and Doug Applegate, a Marine veteran and attorney who nearly defeated Issa in 2016 in that cycles closest congressional contest.

Democratic candidate Doug Applegate speaks in Hollywood, Calif., in 2016. (Photo: Tara Ziemba/Getty Images)

In other words, these are not the gadflies, vanity candidates and sacrificial lambs that have tended to run against Royce & Co. in previous elections.

But before Democrats get too excited, a note of caution. This cycles unprecedented glut of Trump-resisting recruits could be a mixed blessing  particularly in California, and particularly in contests without a GOP incumbent on the ballot.

The Golden State, youll recall, has a nonpartisan primary system: Democrats, Republicans and independents all compete against each other in the primary, and the top two finishers proceed to the general election regardless of party affiliation.

Here, the risk is that splitting the Democratic vote four or six ways in a historically conservative area could allow two Republican candidates to come out on top  a result that becomes more likely when a GOP incumbent is no longer monopolizing the Republican vote and a couple of serious Republicans step in to replace him or her.

Which is probably what will happen now that Royce and Issa are gone. Though the California GOP has been decimated statewide, the partys infrastructure remains strong in Orange County. Well-known candidates are already volunteering to run in Royces place, including former assemblywoman and longtime former Royce aide Young Kim, whom Royce immediately endorsed. Also in the mix are former state Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff and Orange County supervisor Shawn Nelson.

New Republican candidates are expected to announce soon in Issas district, where top names include state assemblyman Bill Brough, who has said hes considering running; Diane Harkey, chair of the California Board of Equalization, which administers taxes and fees; and Scott Baugh, a former Orange County GOP chairman.

None of these Republicans will have incumbent-level name ID  or cash. But they also wont have congressional voting records, which means theyll be able to put more space between themselves and the national GOP (and Trump) than any incumbent.

The bottom line is that by announcing their retirements in quick succession, Royce and Issa have emphasized how everything is set to break the Democrats way in 2018. But riding a wave to victory next November will require skill and strategy and maybe a bit of luck  and now more than ever, Orange County is the place to watch to find out if the Democratic Party can pull it off.

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HELENA  Lawmakers are cautiously optimistic after a revenue report released Wednesday showed the state may bring in more money than estimates that triggered a special session in November.

I wouldnt want folks to get too excited too early, but it definitely shows that Montanas economy is kicking a little. Its a lot more positive than right before the special session,'' said Sen. Llew Jones, a Republican from Conrad.

General fund revenue through the end of December is $180.8 million, or 18.2 percent ahead of the last fiscal years collections to the same point.

On Wednesday, both Democrats and Republicans stressed that some of the improved picture is because of $63 million in fund transfers authorized by the Legislature.

The Legislative Fiscal Division, which produced the report, still projects collections to come in below the official estimate lawmakers adopted and used as the basis to build the budget.

But that's still an improvement over the financial picture during the special session.

The fiscal division now projects that revenues could come in anywhere from $52 million to $77 million less than projections adopted by lawmakers during the regular session. Thats much improved from the $137 million the governor's office predicted the state to be down when the special session started in November.

Lawmakers made $94 million in cuts and transfers during the special session in November to fill the revenue hole.

This still leaves us with a much better look than we had going into the special session, said Rep. Nancy Ballance, a Republican from Hamilton.

The Legislative Fiscal Division created a couple of different estimates to get a broad sense of the projections, said Amy Carlson, head of the division.

The division will produce reports monthly for the next six months. Carlson, like legislators, cautioned that until the final numbers are in, the reports are all estimates and projections.

The variability is substantial, she said. Timing can make a pretty substantial difference. There are pretty substantial things that will still occur.

For Ballance, the report had several bright spots.

Collections for individual income tax look better than they did going into the special session. Collections year-to-date are up 8.8 percent over last year, but still off from the 13.1 percent projected in the original revenue estimate from a year ago.

Ballance cautioned that some of the increase could be due to people paying income taxes before the end of the year to avoid changes in the federal tax bill that cap deductions for state income taxes.

The same is true of property tax collections. Wednesdays report says property tax collections are up by $40.5 million, or 53.7 percent over last year, though thats attributed to low December payments last year.

Ballance said while shes optimistic those payments will rebound to be closer to the estimate from which the budget is built, she wants more time to see.

Based on everything I was reading after the federal tax law passed, people were quickly understanding that they were not going to be able to deduct their property taxes if they waited and filed in 2018, so they were filing those taxes early. Because individual income tax was going to be the same, people could also be filing income tax early.

Corporate income tax is another bright spot, Ballance said.

The report shows that estimated payments are up through the first half of fiscal year 2018. Estimated payments typically make up 80 percent of corporate tax income collections, so if that growth continues, it means the final numbers could end up close to what lawmakers projected last year.

Corporate income tax is up 36 percent, or $24.3 million, though the report attributes that in part to a large one-time audit.

That could truly be a bright spot if that continues going forward, Ballance said.

Jones said that rumors of the need for a second special session caused by still-lagging state revenues should be quelled by the report.

I would be shocked if theres another special session, Jones said. Something would have to drastically change from what were seeing now.

Lawmakers were divided over the impacts of the federal tax changes, on which Wednesdays report was silent. The state Department of Revenue has predicted some negative effects of the bill, including a possible special session, but Republicans have questioned that.

For lawmakers there was consensus over one thing: Even very preliminary, very early indications that lean toward good are better than a bad report.

For me, it makes me feel really good it doesnt look worse, Ballance said. I would classify it as mildly optimistic with still not enough data to say for sure.
A Louisiana teacher was handcuffed and forcibly removed during a meeting for asking a question

On Monday, January 8th, a Louisiana teacher was handcuffed after questioning the superintendents pay raise at a Vermillion Parish board meeting. Deyshia Hargrave disagreed with the boards decision to give Superintendent Jerome Puyau a raise from $110,190 to $140,188, saying teachers and other employees had not received raises in several years.

I feel like its a slap in the face of all the teachers, cafeteria workers, and any other support staff, she told the board. We work very hard with very little to maintain the salaries that we have.

Despite speaking calmly, she was stopped by an Abbeville city marshal officer, who told her, Youre going to leave or Im going to remove you.

She complied, but in a video uploaded by KATC, the officer appears to push Hargrave to the ground and forcibly handcuff her outside of the room.

The footage shows the 32-year-old teacher struggling and screaming, What are you doing? He tells her to stop resisting, to which she replies, I am not. You just pushed me to the floor.

Board member Sara Duplechain, who also voted against the pay increase, said it isnt the first time a woman has been told to leave a meeting.

No reason for anyone to be treated this way. So far in 3 years, only women have been removed from board room meetings, she wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press.

No charges will be filed against Hargrave, but she believes her right to free speech was violated  and so do we.
As French President Emmanuel Macron wrapped up his first official visit to China , there are signs that Beijing's relationship with Europe is shifting. The French politician's first official visit to China is notable for coming as other leaders of the Western world struggle domestically. In fact, Macron appeared as "perhaps the leader of Europe at this very moment" said Philippe le Corre, a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. British Prime Minister Theresa May , who herself has a China trip set for the end of January, continues to face questions about Brexit and her own leadership; Germany's Angela Merkel is struggling to form a coalition; and the U.S. is facing political turmoil under Donald Trump's administration. For his part, Macron is "clearly eyeing" a "special strategic partnership" with China, said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at French bank Natixis, pointing to China's consumers grow hungrier for what France has to offer. During his campaign, the French leader took a "slightly negative" approach to China by pushing for a European-level investment protection agency, but that development seems to have lost ground, Garcia-Herrero said. Instead, Macron appears to be taking a different angle with China. "Macron seems to have come to the realization that he had better be on the right side of the table under China's divide and conquer strategy in Europe, i.e. a more accommodating stance towards China," she wrote. As much as Macron is wooing China, Beijing is also reaching out to Europe through its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative that aims to connect Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa with a vast logistics and transport network.

For China, France's pivot to closer ties could be beneficial for its overall standing in Europe: A "divide and conquer" strategy will help diversify its power, as sentiment toward the East Asian giant turns sour in Germany, Garcia-Herrero added. That shift comes as China is now producing more of its own machinery and automobiles instead of importing them from countries like Germany  and it's now even competing with the European powerhouse in third markets, she said.

Macron pursued business, downplayed deals Over his three-day visit, Macron pursued business interests with China, but he also pushed for a reciprocal trading relationship. That came as many in Europe are debating about the implications of Chinese investments in the continent, particularly in infrastructure and higher technology. "At the end of the day, Europe is very open. It's more open than the Chinese market itself. Reciprocity is the key word, really. That's what Emmanuel Macron was trying as a message to convey to [Chines President] Xi Jinping ," le Corre told CNBC. On Tuesday, Macron offered to open France to Chinese investment in exchange for greater access to China's markets for French companies, Reuters reported. "We have an access to markets which is unbalanced, unsatisfying," Macron told members of the French and Chinese business community at an event in Beijing, Reuters reported. "If we don't deal with this responsibly, the first, natural, reaction will be to close up on both sides," he said. "Let's open up both instead." On Wednesday, Macron said a contract with China for 184 Airbus A320s would be finalized soon, Reuters reported. The French leader downplayed the lack of other big deals during his visit, saying other countries had trumpeted big figures in the past that masked more modest realities. Reuters contributed to this report.



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By Michel Rose BEIJING (Reuters) - On a state visit to China this week, French President Emmanuel Macron got plaudits for giving his host a horse -- but also experienced the limits faced by Western leaders in dealing with the new superpower on the block. Macron was in Beijing to reset trade relations and address European fears that China's trillion dollar modern day Silk Route will be a one way road for Chinese commodities and goods. Discussions about China's human rights record? Not so much. China frequently says it does not believe the issue of human rights should be politicized. President Xi Jinping's administration has tightened control over civil society, citing a need for more security and stability and activists say a sweeping crackdown on dissent has left dozens jailed. Macron, despite pressure from campaign groups, decided not to be drawn into what he called "loud speaker diplomacy" and cautioned against the dangers of telling others how to behave. He was not totally silent, however, touring a contemporary art gallery in central Beijing, a late addition to itinerary and resisted, according to his entourage, by Chinese officials. Asked if the gallery visit was a subtle nod to those artists whose freedom of expression is curbed in China, Macron only said: "Coming here to see these artists is also a way to witness contemporary Chinese expression and sensibility expressing itself freely, openly, without ignoring what exists elsewhere." Like others from the West, the French president knows the limits of what one can do and say on a China visit. So, on to France's clout as a business partner with Beijing. There were no eye-catching trade deals, and China appeared only mildly interested in French industrial might. Macron toured a Beijing aerospace facility where China and France are co-developing an observation satellite that will help measure climate change. It was billed as the centre-piece of the final day for a leader whose country prides itself on its world-leading industries, including aerospace. But no sooner had Macron passed through a decontamination airlock and stepped into a giant hall, he was reminded of China's exploration ambitions, receiving an extensive overview of Beijing's plans to explore the Moon and Mars. "Is there any embedded technology from (French engineering firm) Thales in there?" Macron asked his hosts as he peered over an intricate diagram. A blunt answer came back: No. This was 100 percent Chinese technology. Finally, he was shown the Franco-Chinese satellite dubbed CFOSat before passing by a simulator for Chinas future manned space station, a smaller sister of the International Space Station. France will provide all the medical instruments for the Chinese space station program, the head of the French space agency, Jean-Yves Le Gall, told the president. "It allows us to keep a foot in the door," he whispered in Macron's ear. (Reporting by Michel Rose; Writing by Richard Lough Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
Beijing (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron pleaded on Wednesday for European unity in the face of China's growing economic power as he wrapped up a visit to Beijing with several business deals.

Macron, who has become the leading voice of the European Union, endorsed President Xi Jinping's massive $1 trillion programme to revive ancient Silk Road trading routes during his three-day trip.

But the French leader also warned Europeans to stay on guard to protect strategic sectors as China makes inroads through the project, known in Beijing as One Belt One Road, which seeks to build rail, maritime and road links from Asia to Europe and Africa.

"We must come up with a common position at the European level" regarding the Silk Road, Macron told a press conference.

"We can't disregard this initiative. It would mean dealing with its consequences and would be a profound strategic mistake," he said, while noting that Europeans are divided about the Silk Road revival.

"Some countries are much more open to Chinese interests, sometimes at the cost of a European interest. We can't blame them for that because we have forced very tough privatisations on them," Macron said.

Greece, for example, has sold the port of Piraeus to China and is a major recipient of Chinese largesse. In June, Athens blocked an EU declaration condemning Chinese human rights abuses.

But "China cannot respect a continent where some member states open every door, where it is easy to buy essential infrastructure. So when France or Europe defends its strategic sectors, it's good for us and for dialogue," Macron said.

The French leader has staked a claim as the EU's most prominent leader as Britain prepares to exit the bloc next year and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is embroiled in post-election coalition talks.

- Human rights brushed aside -

While he pressed France's concerns about its trade deficit with China, Macron came away with the last minute announcement of a Chinese commitment to buy 184 single-aisle A320 planes from European aviation giant Airbus.

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The value of the deal was not immediately disclosed, but at list prices for the single-aisle planes it could total at least $18 billion.

Airbus had already announced on Tuesday an agreement to increase production of the A320 in China.

Other business deals were made during the visit, including one for French state energy giant Areva to help build a nuclear spent fuel reprocessing plant in China.

In another breakthrough, China agreed to lift an embargo on French beef within six months.

Macron and Xi also saw eye-to-eye on the battle against climate change, with both voicing their commitment to the Paris accord in the face of US President Donald Trump's pledge to withdraw from the pact.

But the French leader defended his decision to avoid condemning China's human rights record in public, adding he and his Chinese counterpart had discussed the issue behind closed doors.

"I can entertain myself by giving China lessons while talking to the French media," he said.

"It has been done before. It doesn't produce any results."
Meghan Markle changed up her signature beauty look for her first official engagement of 2018 with fiance Prince Harry. Rather than wearing her brunette locks down, the American TV star swept her hair up for her visit to the youth-led radio station Reprezent 107.3FM on Tuesday, January 9, in Brixton. The 36-year-old showed off her laid-back California style by tying her tresses back into a messy bun with loose strands down to frame her face. Meghan completed her look with natural make-up; a flawless base and nude lip added the perfect finishing touches.

meghan-markle-bun

Meghan wore her hair up in a messy bun for an official outing on January 9 Photos: Getty Images

The relaxed hairstyle was a stark contrast to the elegant and polished updos worn by Meghan's future sister-in-law Kate Middleton  and for the royal bride-to-be herself! The Suits alum typically wears her long hair down. She was most recently seen with sleek, side-swept tresses for the royal family's outing to church on Christmas Day. Watch the video below to recreate Meghans messy bun at home.
Meryl Streep is dedicated to the Hollywood black dress code. (Photo: Getty Images)

Meryl Streep is taking the Hollywood dress code seriously  days after the actress wore black to the Golden Globes to support victims of sexual harassment and assault, Streep hit the red carpet in a black tuxedo.

Wearing an Alexander McQueen suit, Alexandre Birman stilettos, sparkly Lorraine Schwartz earrings, and her signature glasses, Streep stood out on the newspaper-adorned carpet to celebrate her new film, The Post, at a London premiere Wednesday.

The 68-year-old also wore a black-and-blue Oscar de la Renta sequin coat on Tuesday at the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala, where she accepted a Best Actress award from Robert De Niro, who praised her activism.

Meryl Streep kissed pal Robert De Niro while accepting an award for Best Actress. (Photo: Getty Images)

Meryl, thank you for speaking out on matters of conscience that affect us all, De Niro, 74, said. Thank you for being an actress who plays the most interesting characters with full commitment and without judgment.

He added, Meryl doesnt seem to have any imperfections. And I say that with the most love for you, Meryl. I love you so much. Streep accepted the award while planting a kiss on De Niros lips.

And of course, while wearing black at the Golden Globes, Streep made a powerful speech referencing President Trump without saying his name.

Meryl Streep at the Golden Globes. (Photo: Getty Images)

There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart, Streep said. Not because it was good. There was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still cant get it out of my head because it wasnt in a movie. It was real life.

Streep continued, And this instinct to humiliate when its modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybodys life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.

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Michelle Williams and boyfriend Andrew Youmans are apparently heating up! Shortly after news of the pairs coupling made headlines, photos surfaced of the pair spending New Years Eve together in the Bahamas.

Prior to Sundays Golden Globe Awards, Williams, 37, was on vacation with Youmans and her 12-year-old daughter, Matilda Ledger. Matilda is the All the Money in the World stars only child with the late actor, Heath Ledger.

The four-time Oscar nominated actress looked happy and relaxed, lounging on the beach with her beau in a red one-piece swimsuit, white sunglasses, and floppy hat. So, who is the actresss new flame?

Youmans is an entrepreneur, investor, and financial consultant in New York. According to his profile for the Handel Group, he graduated Dartmouth College and received his MBA from Harvard.

Williams and Youmans were first spotted together on the streets of Rome in July 2017 as the actress filmed All the Money in the World. That film is now at the forefront of Hollywoods gender pay gap debate as outrage mounts regarding the actresss salary.

While it was first reported in November that Williams was receiving a fraction of Mark Wahlbergs payday for reshoots to replace Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer, outrage erupted online on Tuesday when the exact numbers were reported.

Per USA Today, Wahlberg received $1.5 million for around 10 days of work while Michelle Williams was paid an $80 per diem totaling less than $1,000. At the time, director Ridley Scott said he, Williams, and the other actors were essentially doing the work for free. The outlet alleges that Williams wasnt told of Wahlbergs hefty fee. Both stars are represented by WME.

Williamss BFF, Busy Philipps, was one of the many actors to tweet their disgust after learning the news.

This is shameful. And both Wahlberg and Williams are repped by the same agency: WME.Exclusive: Wahlberg paid $1.5M for All the Money reshoot, Williams got less than $1,000 https://t.co/Ig59pht7M8  Yashar Ali (@yashar) January 10, 2018

UNACCEPTABLE. UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TO SAY THE LEAST. https://t.co/KS6hRmE4TA  Busy Philipps (@BusyPhilipps) January 10, 2018

The actress has yet to comment on the report, but at least she got a relaxing vacation ahead of the drama.

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By Siegfried Modola BARDONECCHIA, Italy (Reuters) - It took Abdullhai almost three years to get from his home in Guinea to a rocky, snow-covered Alpine mountain pass in the dead of winter, for what he hopes will be the final stage of his journey into France. The terrain is steep and dangerous and he and a group of five other migrants face risks ranging from losing their footing on steep drops, being struck by falling rocks or succumbing to the -9C (15F) temperatures in clothing ill-suited to the terrain. Abdullhai, 38, is one of hundreds of migrants who over the last year have attempted to cross from Italy into France through high mountain passes, in a bid to evade increased border security put in place at easier crossing points. His group crossed into France in December. In Guinea, he left behind his wife and three children, including a two-year old son whom he has never seen. "Our life in Guinea is not good," said Abdullhai, 38, who like his friends asked that his last name not be published in this story. "There is no work there and no future for my children. Here in Europe we can have a future. We can find work and live a life with some dignity. This is worth a try for me." The number of migrants making perilous journeys has fallen since over one million arrived in Europe from the Middle East and Africa in 2015. There were 171,635 arrivals by boat officially recorded in 2017, down from 363,504 in 2016. As the group huddled around a fire in a cave during a rest on their journey, others told stories of being jailed and tortured, or of being orphaned and looking at uncertain futures in their home country. The crossings have become more perilous with heavy snowfall. On Jan. 10, Reuters spoke with three migrants, a 24-year-old Senegalese man, a 31-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a 37-year-old from Pakistan who were attempting to cross into France. They managed to cross the border, but abandoned their trek, exhausted and despondent, and were returned to Italy. But they are at least alive. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that 20,000 people have died in the Mediterranean itself while trying to reach Italy. Nor does it compare to the hardships that some of those making the journey have already endured to get as far as they have. "I was imprisoned and tortured in Libya for many months. I was forced to work for free. Just look at my scars," said Kamarra, 28, from Guinea, lifting his shirt and pulling down his trousers at the side to show marks on his body and hip. "After all that, crossing the Alps is not a big deal for me." For a photo essay about the migrant crossings, click here:http://reut.rs/2EyeDmR (Additional reporting by Eleanor Biles; Writing by Mark Hanrahan in London; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Yet another uncomfortable revelation about Uber's legacy business and attitude to legal oversight: Between spring 2015 until late 2016 the ride-hailing giant routinely used a system designed to thwart police raids in foreign countries, according to Bloomberg, citing three people with knowledge of the system.

It reports that Uber's San Francisco office used the protocol -- which apparently came to be referred to internally as 'Ripley' -- at least two dozen times. The system enabled staff to remotely change passwords and "otherwise lock up data on company-owned smartphones, laptops, and desktops as well as shut down the devices", it reports.

We've also been told -- via our own sources -- about multiple programs at Uber intended to prevent company data from being accessed by oversight authorities.

The existence of the Ripley program has been alleged previously, in December 2016, when an ex-Uber security employee, Ward Spangenberg, made a sworn statement saying he was part of an "incident response team" that helped remotely erase data when Revenu Quebec raided the company's Montreal offices in 2015. (Allegations that Uber denied at the time.)

But according to Bloomberg Uber created the system in response to raids on its offices in Europe: Specifically following a March 2015 raid on its Brussel's office in which police gained access to its payments system and financial documents as well as driver and employee information; and after a raid on its Paris office in the same week.

It says the idea came -- at least in part -- from a suggestion made by Uber's general counsel Sally Yoo (who resigned from the company in September). While the system was reportedly built by Uber's IT department, before being taken over by the security team in 2016.

Last month allegations that the company had systematic processes in place to put potential evidence beyond the reach of any investigating authorities -- including using encryption, secret servers and ephemeral messaging apps -- emerged via allegations made in a 37-page letter written by the attorney of Uber's former manager of global intelligence, Richard Jacobs (which was made public as a result of the ongoing Waymo vs Uber IP theft lawsuit).

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In the letter, Jacobs' attorney writes that his client's suggestion, early on during his employment, to create a secure and encrypted centralized database for ensuring "recordkeeping and confidentiality" was rejected by Uber managers "because they objected to preserving any intelligence that would make preservation and legal discovery a simple process for future litigants".

From the letter:

Jacobs then became aware that Uber, primarily through [in-house counsel Craig] Clark and [head of global threat operations, Mat] Henley, had implemented a sophisticated strategy to destroy, conceal, cover up, and falsify records or documents with the intent to impede or obstruct government investigations as well as discovery obligations in pending and future litigation. Besides violating U.S.C. 1519, this conduct constitutes an ethical violation.

Uber said last month that it has not substantiated all the claims in the letter -- some of which were also withdrawn by Jacobs (who previously reached a financial settlement with Uber).

Clark is no longer employed by Uber, having been fired by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi late last year following the revelations the company concealed a massive data breach for the best part of a year. Head of security, Joe Sullivan, was also sacked at the same time. While Henley was last month reported to be beginning a three-month medical leave.

Bloomberg reports that the Ripley program was a closely guarded secret at Uber -- claiming that many staff in offices being raided were unaware of its existence.

It adds that later versions of the system gave the company the ability to selectively provide information to government agencies that searched its foreign offices, with Uber's lawyers directing security engineers to selective disclose information to officials who had warrants to access its systems.

Bloomberg also names another obfuscation system, it says was called uLocker, which it says was contemplated for times when Uber wanted to be "less transparent".

A prototype version of the software could apparently present a dummy version of a typical login screen to police or other unwanted eyes. Though it says this was never implemented or used by Uber. According to the report, Uber's security team began working on the uLocker software in 2016, with the project overseen by John Flynn, Uber's still sitting CISO.

In a response statement to Bloomberg's story, Uber told us: Like every company with offices around the world, we have security procedures in place to protect corporate and customer data. When it comes to government investigations, its our policy to cooperate with all valid searches and requests for data.

uLocker

We've also heard of the existence of a program at Uber called uLocker, although one source with knowledge of the program told us that the intention was to utilize a ransomware cryptolocker exploit and randomize the tokens -- with the idea being that if Uber got raided it would cryptolocker its own devices in order to render data inaccessible to oversight authorities.

The source said uLocker was being written in-house by Uber's eng-sec and Marketplace Analytics divisions (the latter being the unit previously reported to be focused on gathering intelligence from competitors).

The same source told us that Uber had another program intended to orchestrate the physical destruction of end-point workstations in the event of a raid by law enforcement -- again as a strategy to render company data inaccessible to external investigators.

A different source with knowledge of Uber's processes, and who was taking legal advice at the time we spoke, declined to comment on those two programs but told us that Uber had a program in place, led by Clark, in which Uber staff in the US trained others on how to avoid discovery on a legal due process.

Such controversial programs did not sit easily with every Uber employee who was aware of them, according to our discussions with sources, and appear to have contributed to some individual departure decisions -- above and beyond staff directly fired by Khosrowshahi as he seeks to clean house.

An Uber spokeswoman confirmed the Ripley program's existence to us in a phone call but said its use was discontinued in 2016. She also said that it was the same software Uber had used when employees left the company to ensure they no longer had access to company systems.

She told us she was not aware of any specific programs to train staff to avoid due legal process, noting that Jacobs "walked back a lot of those statements under oath".

Regarding uLocker she confirmed the software exists, and said it is still in use at Uber, but described it as being for Mobile Device Management (saying it replaced a prior off-the-shelf MDM system that Uber had been using, called Prey) -- so used for locking devices and encrypting files such as in the event of a corporate device being stolen.

The uLocker encryption process takes "about a day, so it's not an immediate thing", she added.

Regarding Uber considering using uLocker to power a system of dummy logins, she said that was a feature proposed for the system but never implemented.

"I know of two people who proposed that as an idea -- they are no longer at the company and that feature was never built or implemented in uLocker," she told us, declining to name the individuals but specifying they weren't senior executives but front-line engineers.

On the cryptolocker allegation, the spokeswoman reiterated "that is not how uLocker works", adding: "uLocker is designed so we can unencrypt it."

"There's only ever been one version of uLocker. There were earlier conversations about what it should include -- but there's only ever been one version of it. And all it does is the locking and encryption."

The spokeswoman also told us she was not aware of any programs set up for physically destroying workstations in the event of a raid on an Uber office.

She sent us Uber's current protocol for handling regulatory visits to its offices -- in which the company instructions employees to "cooperate with the investigation". It also explicitly warns staff: "Do NOT delete, destroy, conceal any document or data".

So what might be the legal implications for companies that put programs in place intended to deliberately destroy or otherwise render information inaccessible at the point it's being sought by investigators or regulators?

"If they have knowledge of a specific investigation and a specific... search warrant... and they encrypt while that raid's going on to stop the agents from accessing the computers that they have a court order to access that could be considered obstruction of justice," says Josh Robbins, partner at litigation law firm Greenberg Gross LLP, discussing the risks of companies trying to thwart regulatory oversight.

"If they were encrypting computers without knowledge of a specific investigation but encrypting computers as a security measure, just generally, I think it would be hard to make the allegation of obstruction of justice because they'd need to have knowledge of a specific investigation. It's just a general security measure.

"But it shouldn't matter because if they receive a subpoena, say, or a court order to produce records then they have the obligation to use their decryption key and unlock the computers and access the information and provide it to the government -- and if they refuse to do that then they would be subject to sanctions, contempt of court and so on."

In a civil case, a court could penalize a company for engaging in what's known as "spoliation of evidence", he notes, suggesting the penalty could be anything from "allowing the other side to tell a jury about the conduct (which could be very harmful to the trial) -- all the way up to just ruling against them without even going to trial".

"On the criminal side it could be -- again if they know about an existing investigation and they put this into place for the purpose of preventing information from ever being disclosed to the investigators that could be viewed as obstruction of justice, which is a criminal violation of a US law," he adds.

While Robbins confirms there is no general obligation on technology companies to keep their records in an accessible format, and firms are rather given flexibility in terms of how they manage their data security, there can still be legal risks given that companies can often have multiple litigation investigations ongoing at any given time (as Uber certainly now does, and has done for several years).

"If any of the information at issue is relevant to any of those then they would have a problem doing that because they are effectively going to obstruct or impede that investigation or litigation so it would be legally risky to do that unless they know that it's not related to those things," Robbins continues. "Their policy can't override their general legal obligations to preserve and make available evidence."

He also points out that having systematic policies in place to render data inaccessible could have other negative impacts for companies -- citing the decision by London's transport regulator to withdraw Uber's operator license last year, with TfL explicitly mentioning the Greyball program (another piece of in-house software, developed to help Uber avoid regulatory scrutiny by monitoring oversight activity) in its list of concerns.

"As a prosecutor or a regulator recidivism is a huge issue in terms of how you approach a case and how aggressively you approach a case," he says. "And if somebody is seen to be a bad, repeat actor there is that much more of a need to deter their conduct by being very aggressive in enforcement, or take them out entirely.

"In London... Uber is not welcome there anymore because of the Greyball incident. And probably not just Greyball but they're well aware of some of the other things that Uber has been involved in and you can see that attitude being taken probably by regulators state, local, federal, in various jurisdictions when they see an actor that seems like it is very consistent in its flouting of the law."
LAS VEGAS  The Nevada rancher who led a 2014 armed standoff with government agents spoke Wednesday saying that it's up to people in states, not the federal officials, to manage vast expanses of rangeland in the U.S. West.

To conservative followers, the plainspoken 71-year-old Cliven Bundy is an icon. He told them he's angry after spending nearly 23 months in jail before and during a trial that ended in mistrial three weeks ago. He was freed Monday.

But conservation advocates characterized Bundy as an outlaw who escaped justice, and called for federal land managers to again round up and remove Bundy cattle from what is now Gold Butte National Monument.

"The Trump administration is coddling violent zealots and preventing the public from feeling safe to enjoy our new national monument," said Patrick Donnelly, Center for Biological Diversity director in Nevada.

Leaders of a coalition of public lands supporters said separately that they believe people are afraid to visit the national monument near the Bundy homestead outside Bunkerville.
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military said its soldiers had murdered 10 captured Muslim "terrorists" during insurgent attacks at the beginning of September, after Buddhist villagers had forced the captured men into a grave they had dug. "Villagers and members of the security forces have confessed that they committed murder," the military said in a statement on Wednesday. It was a rare admission of wrongdoing by the Myanmar military during its operations in the western state of Rakhine. The army launched a sweeping counteroffensive in the north of the state in response to Rohingya militant attacks on Aug. 25, triggering an exodus of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslim villagers. The United Nations has condemned the army's campaign as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar denies that, saying its forces were carrying out legitimate counterinsurgency operations. The military announced on Dec. 18 that a mass grave containing 10 bodies had been found at the coastal village of Inn Din, about 50 km (30 miles) north of the state capital Sittwe. The army appointed a senior officer to investigate. The military said on Wednesday its investigation had found that members of the security forces had killed the 10 and that action would be taken against them. Security forces had been conducting a "clearance operation" in the area on Sept. 1 when "200 Bengali terrorists attacked using sticks and swords", the military said in a statement posted on the Facebook page of its commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The military refers to members of the Rohingya Muslim minority as "Bengalis", a term the Rohingya reject as implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. 'ACTION WILL BE TAKEN' Ten of the attackers were captured after the security forces drove the rest off by firing into the air, according to the statement on Facebook, which the military often uses to make announcements. The captives should have been handed over to the police, in line with procedure, but the militants were attacking "continuously" and had destroyed two military vehicles with explosives, it said. "It was found that there were no conditions to transfer the 10 Bengali terrorists to the police station and so it was decided to kill them," the military said, referring to the findings of the investigating team. Angry ethnic Rakhine Buddhist villagers, who had lost relatives in militant attacks, wanted to kill the captives, and stabbed them after forcing them into a grave on the outskirts of the village. Then members of the security forces shot them dead, the military said. "Action will be taken against the villagers ... and the security force members who violated the rules of engagement according to the law," the statement said. Action would also be taken against those who had failed to report the incident to their seniors, and those responsible for supervising the operation, it added. The military investigation was led by Lieutenant General Aye Win. The same officer had been in charge of a wider probe into the conduct of troops in the conflict that concluded in a report in November that no atrocities had taken place. The rights group Amnesty International said the statement from the military was "a sharp departure from the armys policy of blanket denial of any wrongdoing". "However, it is only the tip of the iceberg and warrants serious independent investigation into what other atrocities were committed amid the ethnic cleansing campaign that has forced out more than 655,000 Rohingya," the rights group said in a statement. (Reportig by Shoon Naing and Thu Thu Aung; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Alex Richardson and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
In a rare admission of guilt, Myanmars military said that its soldiers were responsible for the deaths of 10 Rohingya Muslims found in a mass grave in the countrys western Rakhine state.

The results of an internal military investigation found that soldiers, along with local villagers, were culpable for the deaths of the Rohingya, who the military labeled terrorists, according to a statement posted to the Facebook page of Myanmars Commander-in-Chief.

James Gomez, Amnesty Internationals Southeast Asia and Pacific director, said the acknowledgement marked a sharp departure from the armys policy of blanket denial of any wrongdoing.

However, it is only the tip of the iceberg and warrants serious independent investigation into what other atrocities were committed, he said in a statement.

The mass grave was discovered last month in cemetery in Inn Din village, about 30 miles north of the state capital Sittwe, prompting the military to open an investigation. Previous internal inquiries have cleared the military of wrongdoing in Rakhine state, where an extensive campaign of violence has driven more than 650,000 Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein said the campaign amounts to ethnic cleansing that could include elements of genocide.

Myanmar contends that the operations are legitimate counterinsurgency measures in response to attacks by Rohingya militants on border guard posts in August.

Read more: Rohingya Refugees: Myanmars Crisis Is Bangladeshs Burden

According to the inquiry, the 10 Rohingya were arrested as part of a clearance operation after security forces were reportedly attacked by a group of about 200 on Sept. 1. In a statement, the military said that due to the fighting they could not transport the men so the detainees were executed by soldiers and local villagers instead of being handed over to police.

Villagers and members of the security forces have confessed that they committed murder, the military said in the statement, promising that those responsible would be dealt according with the law.

Amnestys Gomez called the explanation for the killings appalling and reiterated calls for a U.N. fact finding mission to be granted access to northern Rakhine to investigate the alleged atrocities. Members of the body, formed in March last year, have been repeatedly denied visas to enter Myanmar.

Two Reuters journalists who were also investigating the incident were arrested last month for allegedly acquiring important secret papers from two police officers. On Wednesday, the reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were charged with violating Myanmars Official Secrets Act, which carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison.
Yangon (AFP) - Myanmar's media has long been on the rack. On Wednesday the situation worsened markedly when police formally charged two Reuters reporters with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

The case against Myanmar nationals Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, follows their work on the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Hopes of a new dawn for free speech under the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi have been dashed.

At least 11 journalists were arrested in 2017 and dozens of non-media workers have been charged with online defamation since she took office the year before.

At the same time, rights groups say the Rohingya crisis has created a toxic atmosphere of self-censorship among the media.

Here are some of the other prominent legal cases involving the media and freedom of expression in recent months in Myanmar, which ranked 131st out of 180 countries in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index.

- Jailed for flying drone -

In October three journalists and their driver were arrested for flying a drone near parliament while working for Turkish broadcaster TRT.

The reporters, Myanmar national Aung Naing Soe, Malaysian journalist Mok Choy Lin and Singaporean cameraman Lau Hon Meng, were later jailed for two months along with their driver Hla Tin for violating a colonial-era aircraft act.

They were released in December shortly before finishing the sentence.

Observers linked the case to antipathy towards Turkey after its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

- Facebook status -

Investigative journalist Swe Win was arrested at Yangon's airport in July and charged under the notorious 66(d) statute, which covers online defamation.

His case stemmed from Facebook comments in which he criticised a nationalist monk. Swe Win was released on bail but the case is continuing in the city of Mandalay.

Scores of writers, poets, journalists and civilians have been subject to 66(d) complaints, which have soared under Suu Kyi's administration.

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Complaints have been filed against critics of both Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing.

- Drugs coverage -

Three Myanmar journalists from the Irrawaddy and the Democratic Voice of Burma were arrested in June after reporting on a drug-burning ceremony.

The event took place in territory controlled by the rebel group the Ta'ang National Liberation Army.

The reporters were charged with unlawful association, a law used against supporters of Myanmar's many ethnic armed organisations fighting for autonomy in border areas.

The case was eventually withdrawn but the reporters spent more than two months in jail, in what was seen as a warning against giving publicity to rebel groups.

- Self-censorship? -

Pre-publication censorship was abolished in 2012. But articles critical of the security forces and senior officials still give editors reasons to be afraid.

Sometimes this reaches absurd heights: a satirist from the Voice newspaper was arrested in June along with his editor for publishing an essay gently mocking Myanmar's failed efforts to make peace with ethnic armed groups.

Charges were eventually dropped against both of them.

Allegations of atrocities by security forces in Rakhine state also pose acute problems for Myanmar-based media.

They fear a backlash from the government and the Buddhist-majority public, who consider condemnation over the Rohingya crisis unfair and one-sided.

Several staff members at the Myanmar Times quit in protest at the firing of a colleague who had raised allegations of sexual assault against security forces in Rakhine.
DUBAI (Reuters) - A nephew of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh has called for an end to the Yemen war, in his first public appearance since his uncle was killed by his former Houthi allies last month. Brigadier-General Tareq Mohammed Saleh, who led a brigade of an elite Yemeni army unit before his uncle was forced to step down in 2012, had been expected to help lead Saleh's supporters in a fresh fight against the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. Addressing supporters in the southern Shabwa province where he had traveled to offer condolences to the family of Aref al-Zouka, who was killed along with Saleh in the attack on Saleh's residence in Sanaa, Tareq said he remained committed to his uncle's quest for peace in Yemen. "We are with what the leader had willed, especially his demand to stop the war, lifting the siege from our people," said Tareq, who survived the attack by Houthi forces. "We also extend our hands to our brothers, particularly the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to work to end the war and to restore stability and security to Yemen," he added. Initial reports said Tareq was killed in the fighting that erupted after Saleh called on the Saudi-led coalition to end the war, a move interpreted by the Houthis as a betrayal. But it later emerged that he had survived and had made his way to a safe location. Zouka was the secretary-general of Saleh's General People's Congress party. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemen war in March 2015 to try to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power after the Houthis, backed by Saleh's supporters, forced him into exile. The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people and ruined the economy and pushed the country to the verge of famine. (Writing by Sami Aboudi Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with Nato countries' ambassadors to Israel in Jerusalem - REUTERS

Israeli intelligence has helped stop terrorists from using civilian aeroplanes in Europe to carry out major attacks of the worst kind, Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

The Israeli prime minister told a group of ambassadors from Nato countries that his nations intelligence agencies had helped save many European lives by passing on warnings of jihadist plots.

He did not give details of the thwarted attacks but said they involve civil aviation.

We have, through our intelligence services, provided information that has stopped several dozen major terrorist attacks, many of them in European countries. Some of these could have been mass attacks, of the worst kind that you have experienced on the soil of Europe and even worse, because they involve civil aviation, Mr Netanyahu said.

Israel has a formidable intelligence apparatus and Mr Netanyahu often uses his countrys intelligence gathering capabilities as a calling card as he tries to improve Israels diplomatic standing around the world.

He speaks often about how countries that were once hostile to the Jewish state now seek out its help in the fields of both intelligence and technology.

Jihadist groups remain determined to try to smuggle bombs aboard civilian aircraft, according to assessments by both Western and Israeli intelligence agencies.

Perhaps the most dangerous bomb makers are Al-Qaedas Yemeni affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The group was behind a failed plot to smuggle bombs into printer cartridges and get them aboard cargo planes in 2010. One bomb was discovered at East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire and another in Dubai.

The plot was foiled after Saudi Arabia intelligence chief tipped off the US.

A forensic officer removes a package from a UPS container at East Midlands Airport in Castle Donington in 2010 Credit: REUTERS/Darren Staples

AQAP was also behind the failed underpants bombing, when a young Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab nearly blew up a flight to Detroit on Christmast Day 2009.

Mr Netanyahu said that Israel was helping Europe by preventing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) from setting up an alternative territorial base in the Egyptian Sinai desert following their battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria.

The jihadist group has a presence in the Sinai and has carried out deadly attacks against both Egyptian civilians and security forces. Israel has carried out strikes against the group in Sinai and shared intelligence with Egyptian forces as they battle the jihadists.

He told ambassadors that Israel was also working to prevent Iran consolidating its position in Syria. This is dangerous for you too because the conquest of the Middle East by Iran would eventually effect all of your interests, he said.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take 130 businessmen with him to India next week for trade talks which will also cover defence sales, a senior Israeli official said Wednesday.

Foreign ministry deputy director general for Asia, Gilad Cohen, said the six-day trip starting Sunday was meant to further deepen political, trade and cultural ties.

India last month voted for a resolution at the UN General Assembly opposing US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Israel has lobbied hard for support from countries such as India at the UN, but Netanyahu said Wednesday he did not envision any setback in relations over the vote.

"I would have preferred another vote, to be frank," Netanyahu told journalists.

"But I don't think it materially changes the tremendous flowering of relations between India and Israel."

India's defence ministry announced last week that it would buy 131 surface-to-air missiles from Israel.

The Barak missiles made by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems are to be used for India's first aircraft carrier which is under construction.

But at the same time, Rafael said India had cancelled a separate $500-million deal to purchase Spike anti-tank guided missiles.

"Rafael has received an official statement from the Indian ministry of defence on the cancellation of the Spike missile deal," the company told the Jerusalem Post newspaper last week.

The Post said Rafael executives would be in the trade delegation accompanying Netanyahu.

Cohen declined to answer questions on the subject in his briefing to journalists in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

"The prime minister will be talking (to his hosts) on the whole range of issues which make up relations between Israel and India: water, agriculture, energy, culture, innovation, also defence," he said.

"I do not want to elaborate on defence issues."

Israel is a major weapons supplier to India, selling it an average of $1 billion of military equipment each year.

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In April last year the two countries signed a military deal worth nearly $2 billion which includes the supply over several years of medium-range surface-to-air missiles, launchers and communications technology.

Netanyahu's India trip comes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in July, the first ever by an Indian premier.

A media highlight of that visit was a barefoot stroll though the surf together at an Israeli beach, where Modi got a demonstration of a mobile water desalination unit mounted on a dune buggy.

Cohen said Netanyahu would present one to Modi during his visit next week.

- Hooray for Bollywood -

One of Netanyahu's stops on the trip, the first by an Israeli premier since Ariel Sharon in 2003, will be in Mumbai where he will meet on January 18 with stars and executives of India's mammoth film industry.

Bollywood "mega-celebs wield tremendous influence around the world," Cohen said.

Israel wants the Indian movie industry to shoot a film in the Jewish state, he added.

"You can imagine the effect that would have on our tourism, on Israel's exposure."

The visit begins in New Delhi where Netanyahu will have dinner with Modi and meet Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.

The following day he will call on President Ram Nath Kovind then have more talks with Modi.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu will visit the Taj Mahal and then attend India's annual "Raisina Dialogue" geo-political conference.

January 17 sees him joining Modi on a visit to the Indian leader's home state of Gujarat.

"It's no secret that the two leaders enjoy very clear chemistry, good and intimate relations," Cohen said.

In addition to the Bollywood event, January 18 sees Netanyahu hosting a business seminar then attending a memorial ceremony for Jewish victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

In one of several incidents, Islamic militants stormed a Jewish hostel and cultural centre in the city, killing a rabbi and his pregnant wife and four others.

They were among at least 195 dead and 295 wounded in a 60-hour siege of multiple targets, including luxury hotels and a railway station.
Thursday, Jan. 11 marks the beginning of a two-months-long candidate filing period for the 2018 election cycle. This November, Montanans will need to make some important decisions about who will represent them at every level. It all starts with the candidates who make the huge personal decision to represent their communities.

Montana voters have continued to support Republicans to control the states Legislature, to be their voice in a capital city with an executive administration dominated by a liberal tax-and-spend way of thinking.

For far too long, policies of over-regulation and over-taxation by the Obama and Bullock administrations have been a negative drain on Montanas economy. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The status quo is changing at the national level, bringing renewed optimism across the country and here in Montana.

Small businesses and employers feel that they can now invest in infrastructure and employees without fear of constant, crippling regulations. Nationally, small business confidence is at a record high.

This optimism can be largely attributed to pro-business policies of a Republican White House and a Republican Congress working together.

Republicans across Montana in 2018 will continue to run on ideas that promote business growth, job creation, and support individual freedoms. A Republican-controlled Legislature is a crucial check on the tax-and-spend policies in Helena. We ask for your vote and continued support for Republican candidates across Montana.
Oprah showed off three totally different hair looks for the February 2018 cover of O Magazine. (Photo: Oprah Magazine)

People were so blown away after Oprah delivered an empowering speech at the 2018 Golden Globes  and became the first black woman to receive the Cecil B. DeMille award  that many began to cheer her on to run for president of the United States. Hence, the hashtag #Oprah2020 was born. Just a few days later, shes still capturing everyones attention with not one, but three amazing magazine cover hair looks that are hard to miss.

On Instagram, O Magazine shared a radiant photo of Oprah wearing a dazzling gold dress along with voluminous Diana Ross-inspired hair. The accompanying caption read, Oprah is a woman of many moods  and hairdos. For each of Februarys three covers, stylist @nicolemangrumhair created a transformative look using wigs and hairpieces. First up: A curly mane that unleashed her inner Diana Ross. The following two covers showed Oprah wearing a tricolored spiraled ponytail with a mix of purple and peach hues, and a piecey bob-length hairstyle featuring full bangs.

Fans of the brand and Oprah were swept off their feet and left comments such as, Own it girl, loving what I see, and If my hair could do this, I would unapologetically do it every single day. So magnificent.

A post shared by O, The Oprah Magazine (@oprahmagazine) on Jan 9, 2018 at 7:37pm PST

While we dont all have Oprahs hairstylist Nicole Mangrum on demand, Mangrum did lend her tips for getting a glorious full head of curls on Instagram. In the post, she suggests starting by applying curl cream to wet hair and diffusing it to dry and add body. Then it reads, Create curls or accentuate existing ones by wrapping sections around a small 3/8-inch curling iron. Next, let the curls cool and set. To achieve 70s-style volume, brush out hair with a boar-bristle paddle brush and add hairspray for hold.

On Wednesday, the magazine shared a video of Oprah getting dolled up with her powerful pink ponytail look, and during the short clip she shares, I never thought I was the kind of woman to do pink hair, but Im kind of liking it. How many hairdos can I get? I dont know, I think its a lot. The fact that I am now turning to pink hair means, oh, the world is changing. Let me just say that. The worlds changing big. A change is going to come. It has already come.

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A post shared by O, The Oprah Magazine (@oprahmagazine) on Jan 10, 2018 at 9:39am PST

With the quick change of three dramatically different looks, hair extensions and wigs likely played a major part. But faux or not, the latest reveal of all of the new covers is keeping lots of fans excited about the 63-year-old media mogul and her stunning strands.

A potential president with awesome hair? Double win! What are your thoughts on Lady Os big beautiful hair looks? Sound off below.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.




Oprah Winfreys public image could not be more different from Donald Trumps.

While the longtime talk show host is famous for getting her guests to open up emotionally, Trumps signature move on The Apprentice was firing contestants, who often left the boardroom crying.

But beneath their vastly different images, Winfrey and Trump share the same populist theology. Both preach a gospel of American prosperity, the popular cultural movement that helped put Trump in the White House in 2016.

If Oprah Winfrey runs for president in 2020  as some are clamoring for her to do after a powerful speech at the Golden Globes Sunday  she may test how followers of that movement will respond to a different manifestation of it.

Winfrey and Trump both preach a gospel of wealth, health, and self-determination, following in the relatively recent prosperity gospel tradition, which broadly speaking says that God wants people to be wealthy and healthy and that followers are responsible for their own destiny here on Earth.

In fact, some argue there is perhaps no one better than Winfrey to represent its influence in American life right now. Oprah is no longer a word that just means a person, says Kathryn Lofton, a Yale religious studies professor who wrote Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon in 2011. It also represents an idea, an idea about the world, an idea about what it is to be a person in the world and create a good life.

Winfrey sees herself as both both a Christian and a critic of Christianity, says Lofton. She was raised in the Baptist church, describes herself as a consistent reader of the Bible, and through her television show, basically built the church that she wanted.

She has found deep and sustaining power in the New Testament, in the Bible, and in the theological interpretation that the good that you receive is a representation of the good you bring into the world, Lofton says.

Winfrey has also promoted ideas that are influenced by a range of religious thought. On her talk show, she pushed The Secret, a best-selling New Age self help book that argued that if you put out the energy you want to receive, you can create the life you want. She is this polyglot consumer of religious thought ideas, Lofton explains, citing how Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism and more all come together in Winfrey.

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Trump also raised up a brand of the self-help gospel that tracked with his ideas of winning and success. He billed himself as the very definition of the American success story in his bestselling autobiography The Art of the Deal. Its no surprise, then, that Trump even mentioned wanting Winfrey to be his running mate in both 1999 and 2015.

Many of Trumps early religious supporters were evangelical outsiders and prosperity-minded preachers, including his longtime personal pastor, televangelist Paula White of New Destiny Christian Center in Florida. White brought dozens of prominent preachers in this broader movement to pray for Trump early in the campaign, including Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Trinity Broadcasting Network founder Jan Crouch, Preachers of LA reality star Clarence McClendon, and others.

Read More: Meet the Pastor Who Prays With Donald Trump

Trump himself, though not particularly religious, was a longtime disciple of the great Norman Vincent Peale, as he has called the famous 20th century evangelist who preached positive thinking and reached millions through his television and radio programs. Trumps family attended Peales Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan growing up, and Trump hosted a 90th birthday party for Peale at the Waldorf Astoria in 1988.

Duke University professor Kate Bowler, historian of the prosperity gospel, says that both Winfrey and Trump are people who believe everything happens for a reason, and they rely on themselves to push forward to matter what. She points to Winfreys quote, I dont believe in luck. For me luck is preparation meeting the moment of opportunity.

America is famous for this language of intoxicating self-determination, Bowler says. There are no setbacks, just set-ups. Todays underdogs are tomorrows victors. There are no accidents in this divinely ordered world where tragedies are simply tests of character.

While Winfrey and Trump share a similar theology, they come from different places. Trump was born to wealthy parents; Winfrey to almost impossible circumstances. Winfreys rise to wealth and fame inspires her fans, while critics often question Trumps portrayal of his own success in business and his image as a self-made man.

The two also have far different audiences. As a black woman who supported President Obama twice, Winfrey is part of the growing multicultural demographic that worries some Trump supporters. He was voted for by people who didnt want that multicultural incorporation that Oprah incarnates, Lofton explains. He represents himself as a simple Christian man who reconciled faith and money  Oprah knows that tradition but is concerned that it is filled with hucksters.

Like many other things in America, the prosperity gospel community is divided along racial lines. While Trump had the support of a handful of African-American pastors who follow this thinking, his support among black voters was weak and many black pastors turned out to support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Instead, Trump drew strong support among white evangelicals, 80% of whom voted for him. Since taking office, Trump has also tended to this base, nominating Neil Gorsuch for a Supreme Court seat and moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. It remains to be seen how that audience would respond to a very different candidate preaching a similar gospel.

I dont imagine that their perfect presidential candidate is a black woman who hopes for a pluralist America, Bowler says.
Last year, organs were recovered from 10,281 deceased donorsmore than a 3% increase from 2016 and a 27% increase over the last 10 years.

Those organs contributed to the 34,768 transplants performed in 2017 using organs from both deceased and living donorsa new record for organ transplants in the United States. The reasons why are both hopeful and concerning.

The new data comes from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a non-profit organization that manages the United Statess organ transplant system through a contract with the federal government. The number of transplant performed in 2017 marks the fifth consecutive record-setting year for transplants.

The number of transplants is directly related to the number of donors, says Dr. David Klassen, the chief medical officer of UNOS. I think who can be a donor has really evolved over the years. The transplant community as a whole has done a really good job looking beyond the usual places of who can be a donor.

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Researchers are now finding ways to recover and use organs that would normally be discarded. At Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, there are ongoing clinical trials where people are given organs from donors who are infected with hepatitis C. After the transplant, recipients take a drug that will clear them of the disease. So far, the trial is having positive results.

UNOS also reported that there were a record number of organs recovered for the four most common transplants: kidney, liver, heart and lung transplants.

Another reason for the increase is the rise in drug overdose deaths across the U.S. These can become organ donors quite successfully, says Klassen. Those that are dying from overdose tend to be otherwise fairly healthy and younger. I think it turns an in awful situation into some good.

UNOS also saw increases in recovered organs from people age 50 and older and organs from donors after circulatory death (the irreversible loss of function of the heart and lungs).

Despite the record number of transplants, the number of people on the organ donation waiting list still far exceeds the number of suitable donors. Currently, more than 115,398 people are waiting for a transplant; UNOS estimates that every ten minutes, someone new is added.

Still, Klassen also notes that most Americans are now registered as organ donors. There is generally broad support in the U.S. for the concept of organ donation and transplantation, he says. Its a voluntary system, which I think speaks to the generosity of society as a whole. We want to maintain that.
Isabelle Kun, 20, had a new set of eyelash extensions applied on Tuesday. By Thursday, her eyes were swollen almost completely shut. (Credit: Isabelle Kun via Facebook)

An Ottawa woman is warning about the potential dangers of eyelash extensions after she developed a severe allergic reaction from the beauty treatment.

On Tuesday, Isabelle Kun, 20, had a new set of eyelash extensions applied by an aesthetician. By Thursday, her eyes were swollen almost completely shut.

Kun told CTV News that her girlfriend had slept over and she could barely see her.

I was having a hard time swallowing and even breathing, Kun said.

Her friend ended up calling an Uber to transport her to the hospital. Kun said they admitted her within seconds after they saw her face. Her eyes were apparently swollen above and under and her tonsils were inflamed.

ALSO SEE: Ottawa woman warns of eye tattoos after botched one leaves her partially blind

At $100 or more per procedure, the esthetician applies the lashes one at a time using eyelash glue. (Photo: Getty)

Kun says shes been getting eyelash extensions every few weeks for the last year. At $100 or more per procedure, the aesthetician applies the lashes one at a time using eyelash glue. Last month, Kun noticed her eyes became swollen after the procedure  she believed she was having a reaction to the glue.

She took note of the name of the adhesive and, on Tuesday, asked the aesthetician whether or not she was using that same brand  she explained that she believed she was allergic to that specific adhesive.

Kun said that the aesthetician didnt know the name of the glue, but told her not to worry and that she should be good.

So Kun went through with the treatment, although she admits she shouldnt have since she didnt know what glue was being used. Hours later, her eyes started swelling up  more severely than before.

ALSO SEE: 7 body parts you should never touch

They sent her home with antihistamine pills. (Photo: Getty)

When she was admitted to the hospital two days later, doctors gave her an antihistamine and administered a steroid intravenously. They then sent her home with antihistamine pills. As of Thursday, the swelling still hasnt improved, and Kun is worried because she wasnt able to remove the glue due to her swollen eyes.

My eyes are actually even worse now, she said. Theres like a sac of fluid under my eye now. Its so gross.

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Kun hopes she can get eyelash extensions again, but she is warning women to ask for an allergy test before they get them done.

 I mean, this morning I woke up and I wondered if I would ever be able to see again, she said.

Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA!

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Kelly Clarksons controversial comments about spanking her daughter have ignited social media and drawn strong opinions in the parenting world.

Im not above a spanking, which people arent necessarily into, Clarkson, mother of daughter River Rose, 3, and son Remington, 1, told a Rochester, N.Y., radio station last week. And I dont mean like hitting her hard, I just mean a spanking.

The American Idol alum further explained her viewpoint: My parents spanked me, and I did fine in life, and I feel fine about it.  So thats a tricky thing when youre out in public, cause then people are like, you know, they think thats wrong or something. But I find nothing wrong with a spanking.  I warn her. Im like, Hi, Im gonna spank you on your bottom if you dont stop right now. Like, this is ridiculous.

Clarkson added, Im from the South, yall, so we get spankings. My mom would call the principal, if I ever ended up in the principals office, and give permission for her to spank me.  Im a well-rounded individual with a lot of character, so I think its fine.

According to a 2016 Gallup poll, 64 percent of parents approve of spanking. But what does science say about physical punishment, defined by the American Psychological Association as spanking, hitting, and other means of causing pain?

Research conducted by the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan, which analyzed 75 different studies, found that spanking was associated with 13 out of 17 negative child behaviors, including poor self-esteem, increased aggression, and reduced cognitive ability.

A November study published in the journal Psychological Science found that kids who are spanked by age 5 have more behavioral problems at ages 6 and 8, compared with their peers who have never been spanked. Our findings suggest that spanking is not an effective technique and actually makes childrens behavior worse, not better, study author Elizabeth T. Gershoff of the University of Texas at Austin said in a press release.

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A 2009 study conducted by the University of New Hampshire found that spanked kids scored five points lower on IQ tests than kids who werent hit, and 2.8 points lower when tested four years later. How often parents spanked made a difference. The more spanking, the slower the development of the childs mental ability. But even small amounts of spanking made a difference, co-author professor Murray Straus said in a press release.

And the effects of spanking can last throughout life. A University of Michigan study of more than 83,000 people determined that spanking a child can cause depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and attempted suicide in adulthood.

Spanking is a really, really well-studied area, Alan Kazdin, a professor of child psychiatry at Yale University, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. We know that continued spanking  whether its moderate or severe  puts kids at risk for criminal behavior, mental disorders, and physical dysfunction.

He adds, Continued stress on the body can also change a childs immune system, and thats true for kids who grow up in domestic abusive homes, even if they themselves are not hit.

Whats more, spanking may startle a kid into submission in the moment but on a daily or weekly basis does nothing to improve childs so-called bad behavior.

Spanking erodes a childs trust for a parent and sends the message that home is not a safe space, Sharon Silver, creator of Proactive Parenting, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Parents often say, Why should I put up with this behavior? but children shouldnt be judged for how they behave at home  thats where they test behavior they dont understand. If you remove that safe space, where do they turn?

She adds, Many parents call spanking a teachable moment, but all it does is task a child to stop a tantrum without coping skills and insist that he or she behave better than the parent.

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Washington (AFP) - Vice President Mike Pence will head the US delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month, a White House official told AFP Wednesday.

The Pyeongchang "peace" games have taken on extra political meaning with the participation of North Korean athletes amid tensions on the peninsula.

On the trip the US vice president will also "review ICBM defense systems" in Alaska, and visit allies in Japan.

Pence "is attending to reinforce the strong US presence on the Korean Peninsula and send a clear signal to the North Korean regime," a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The full US delegation has yet to be announced.

North and South Korea held their first official dialogue in more than two years on Tuesday.

In a modest diplomatic breakthrough Pyongyang -- which boycotted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul -- plans to send a large delegation to the February 9-25 Games.

North Korea and the Trump administration are in a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un indicated that he wants to marry those two deadly technologies, producing a nuclear warhead capable of reaching almost anywhere in the continental United States.

This will be Pence's second trip to South Korea and Japan since becoming vice president one year ago.
President Donald Trumps morning penchant for firing off controversial messages on Twitter potentially derailed his administrations policy Thursday, after he came out against a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act renewal his own Administration is pushing.

The tweet came just hours before the House was preparing a much-anticipated vote on a six-year extension of Section 702 of the FISA program, which allows U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor foreign communications.

U.S. intelligence officials insist the program is a vital source of intercepting warning signs of potential attacks and information on terror suspects. Critics of the program say it enables warrantless collection of U.S. citizens communications.

This morning, Fox News ran a segment on the renewal that included criticism of the law, leading some critics to blame the presidents reported habit of watching cable TV. Trumps tweet also referenced his claim, since refuted by the Department of Justice, that the Obama Administration wiretapped his phone during the 2016 campaign.

This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others? Trump tweeted.

House votes on controversial FISA ACT today. This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

The remark was curious considering the Trump Administration had vehemently backed the reauthorization of the program. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement Wednesday night, saying the administration urges the House  to preserve the useful role FISAs Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives.

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About 90 minutes after his initial tweet, Trump followed up with another one that seemingly reversed his opinion of the program, which is set to expire January 19.

With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart! he said

With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, seized on the two tweets by moving to postpone the vote in light of the irresponsible and inherently contradictory messages coming out of the White House today. NBC News reported that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked for a delay as well.

I recommend we withdraw consideration of the bill today to give us more time to address privacy questions that have been raised, as well as to get a clear statement from the administration about their position on the bill, Schiff said on the House floor.
An Israeli insurer invested $30 million in the Kushner family real estate firm shortly before White House senior adviser Jared Kushner traveled to Israel on a diplomatic mission in May 2017, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The funds have raised conflict-of-interest concerns about President Donald Trumps son-in-law, who still has a stake in the real estate project that benefited from the insurance money, according to the Times.

In fact, the Kushner family firm benefits from several investments from Israeli financial institutions, including for other projects that provide income to Kushner, the Times notes. Kushner Companies has also taken out several loans from Bank Hapoalim in Israel. The bank is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice over accusations that it helped Americans evade taxes, the Times reported.

And Israel is not the only case of Kushner Companies benefiting from investments from foreign countries while Kushner himself, a key stakeholder, is dealing with those same nations as a federal official.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission and Brooklyn federal prosecutors are investigating the Kushner companys participation in the EB-5 visa program. The program provides green cards to well-heeled foreigners who invest a minimum of $500,000 in certain businesses. At least two Kushner real estate projects in New Jersey have benefited from the program. Kushner retains an investment in one of them, and has collected millions of dollars from the other, according to his financial disclosure information, the Journal reported.

When Kushners sister was making a pitch last year to potential Chinese investors in Shanghai and Beijing, she invoked Kushners White House status and presented a slideshow that included a photo of Trump.

In the Israeli case, insurer Menora Mivtachim invested $30 million into 10 Maryland apartment complexes controlled by Kushner Companies, according to the Times. Kushner still holds an investment in the Baltimore-area properties. Soon after, Kushner traveled with Trump to Israel in May as part of Kushners mission to negotiate Mideast peace. According to federal ethics laws, he is only required to recuse himself from government negotiations that could have a direct impact on his financial holdings.

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Critics, however, question how impartial Kushner can be in any Mideast negotiations when hes profiting from investments from companies in one of the countries involved.

I think its reasonable for people to ask whether his business interests are somehow affecting his judgment, Matthew Sanderson, a lawyer at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, D.C., who specializes in government ethics, told the Times.

The Kushner foundation has previously contributed to Israeli settlements. Kushner himself was co-director of the foundation when it funded an Israeli settlement considered to be illegal under international law, which he failed to reveal on his financial disclosure forms with the Office of Government Ethics, Newsweek reported. During the presidential transition, Kushner attempted to help block a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories. Special counsel Robert Mueller has been examining Kushners actions as part of his ongoing probe, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah told The Jerusalem Post that the Trump administration has tremendous confidence in the job Jared is doing leading our peace efforts. He takes the ethics rules very seriously and would never compromise himself or the administration.

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At the Yalta conference in 1945 it was decided that Russia would accept the Japanese surrender north of the 38 parallel in Korea and the U.S. would accept it to the south. The 38 parallel was an administrative convenience suggested by Col. Dean Rusk. Stalin thought the country would emerge whole from the trusteeship within five years.

On Nov. 18, 1952, President-elect Eisenhower met with President Truman and his advisors regarding Ikes forthcoming trip to Korea. Secretary of State Dean Acheson found Eisenhower "wary, withdrawn, and taciturn to the point of surliness." Truman worried what would happen if Ike didnt come back.

Eisenhower spent three days bundled up in the cold talking to troops and field commanders and observing an artillery duel. He never allowed Gen. Mark Clark, commander of the U.N. forces, to present his plan for an offensive across the 38th parallel. The North Koreans were forced back to the armistice negotiations by Eisenhowers stated option of the atomic bomb and his bringing of A-bombs to Guam, though not to the loading pits on Okinawa. The North Koreans never forgot it.

Eisenhower said nuclear war would "destroy civilization," but used the threat effectively to bring about the Korean armistice. Russia and China were by that time receptive to a cease-fire. The biggest opponent of peace was Syngman Rhee, the brutal president of South Korea, who pressed for the use of atomic bombs against the communists. Truman and Eisenhower both showed great strength of character as commanders-in-chief by rejecting the use of atomic weaponry against North Korea, China and Russia. Truman actually authorized the transfer of nine nuclear capsules to the Ninth Bomb Group on Guam, at MacArthurs request.

Sen. Robert Taft, Sen. Paul Douglas, Rep. Al Gore, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Admiral Radford, Air Force Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, Generals MacArthur, Ridgway, Mark Clark and many others pressured the administrations to resort to atomic bombs, but never had the support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Constitution worked  we are all here today because civil authority showed the best judgment and the strength to back it up.

The Missoulian reported on Nov. 20, 2017 that the current head of Strategic Command, Gen. John Hyten said that he would refuse a launch order from a president if he believed that order to be illegal; thereby introducing discretion and common sense into the chain of command. This discretion has saved us before, famously by "the man who saved the world," Vasili Arkhipov, who refused to concur in firing the 10-15 kiloton nuclear torpedo when being depth-charged by American destroyers during the Cuban missile crisis.

One good thing about the impasse we are facing with North Korea is that the armistice has held up since July 27, 1953, when it was signed without a word in the Peace Pavilion in Panmunjom, built in five days by North Koreans, then torn down. Despite several violations over the years, the war has not re-ignited. That means our negotiations are not burdened with a 64-year history of revenge, retaliation and reprisal.
The Democrats need to win 25 seats to take control of the House of Representatives in 2018 and there are now 31 open seats held by Republicans

Darrell Issa had the closest race of any member of Congress in 2016, beating his Democratic challenger in Californias 49th district by just 1,600. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters

The announcement by Congressman Darrell Issa on Wednesday that he is retiring brings to 31 the number of open seats held by Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections.

Democrats need to win 25 seats to take control of the House of Representatives.

The unprecedented number of Republican retirements, which includes the sitting chairmen of eight different congressional committees, is a bad omen for the speaker, Paul Ryan, as he seeks to keep control of the lower chamber.

So far, five Republicans representing districts where Hillary Clinton won in 2016 are not seeking re-election this year. Four of them, including Issa, are retiring. The fifth, Martha McSally of Arizona, is seeking the states open Senate seat in a competitive primary against Tea Partier Kelli Ward and controversial former sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Issa had the closest race of any member of Congress in 2016. He beat his Democratic opponent Doug Applegate by 1,600 votes in a district that swung heavily against Republicans in the presidential race. Clinton won by seven points in a district that Republican Mitt Romney won by a similar margin in 2012.

Issas retirement is a major blow to House Republicans in a district that analysts had considered a toss-up. Not only was Issa a nine-term incumbent but as one of the richest members of Congress, he was able to self-fund his campaign.

His decision not to seek another term makes him the second swing-district California Republican to retire in the past week. On Monday, Ed Royce, the chairman of the House foreign relations committee, announced he too would retire. Royce, a 13-term incumbent, represents a district where Clinton won by nearly 10 points in 2016.

Both California Republicans are victims of the changing political demographics of the state. They both represent parts of Orange County, the once deep-red bastion of suburban conservatism that has undergone a transformation in recent years. In 2016, Clinton became the first Democrat to win there since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.

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However, Republicans see a silver lining in the sheer number of Democratic challengers in some of these races. As the Washington Post reported earlier in January, there are more Republican-held districts with eight Democratic hopefuls than with only one. Republicans hope to take advantage of Democratic infighting to win.

In a statement following Issas retirement, Steve Stivers, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said: In the 49th district, Democrats are locked in what is fast becoming one of the bloodiest primaries in America. While Democrats fight with each other, Republicans will focus on fighting Democrats  and thats how we plan to win. We look forward to facing whoever limps out of the Democrats battle royale: black and blue, and broke.

In contrast, Democrats saw opportunity in the Golden States changing politics. California Republicans clearly see the writing on the wall and realize that their party and its priorities are toxic to their re-election chances in 2018, said Drew Godinich, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in a statement.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) speaks at a Capitol celebration of the tax bill's passage. (Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  Republicans in the U.S. Senate dont seem to be paying close attention to what could happen to their new tax law as states begin to respond to it.

Democrats in states such as California and New York are considering legislation that would subvert a new limit on the amount individuals can deduct from their federal tax liability for what theyve paid in state and local taxes.

If the state legislation works as intended, it could cost the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars that Republicans had counted on to offset the revenue loss from the corporate and individual tax cuts in the bill they passed last month. But Republicans dont seem to be sweating it, or even thinking about it.

I dont know much about what their conditions are, so I hesitate to comment, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senates lead author of the new tax law, told HuffPost on Tuesday.

Other senators whod been closely involved in writing the tax bill, including Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), were similarly unprepared to comment on developments in the coastal states, which have been the subject of national news stories since last week.

Im not really familiar with what theyre doing, Collins said.

What theyre doing is this: Legislation by California Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) would allow Californians to donate to a state fund in the amount they would have paid in state taxes, receive a credit for their state taxes for that donation and then, because the federal tax law still allows households to deduct charitable donations from their adjusted gross income, they could write off the amount theyd charitably given to the state.

Essentially, de Leons bill would let state residents dodge a new $10,000 limit on the state-and-local tax deduction, thus allowing the state to continue collecting revenue from its relatively high taxes rates. His office said roughly 6 million California households claim the deduction, reducing their federal taxable income by an average of about $18,000.

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What were doing as leaders of blue states, de Leon said in an interview, is being creative and as innovative as possible to provide tax relief to Californians who are going to refuse to foot the bill for these wealthy corporations that are going to benefit from this tax boondoggle.

De Leons measure is the kind of reaction Republicans might have forestalled if theyd spent more than a few weeks writing their bill. Experts warned in December that states could hack the law through a scheme like the one de Leon has proposed, but Republicans had already completed the final bill after unveiling it the previous month.

Policymakers in New York and Connecticut are considering a different sort of end-around that experts had also suggested might work: shifting state income taxes onto business payrolls, which are still fully deductible under the new federal law.

I think this is something [Republicans in Congress] should have seen coming, Larry Zelenak, a tax professor at Duke University School of Law, said in an interview.

But Zelenak said de Leons plan would not necessarily succeed. Though the Internal Revenue Service has previously said its OK for states to trade tax credits for donations to state funds, Zelenak said theres nothing to stop the IRS from reversing that decision if states start exploiting it.

Its just an administrative interpretation, and a new administration is entitled to try a new interpretation, Zelenak said. I am not at all sure it would win in the end.

Several Republicans told HuffPost the same thing.

If there is an intent to get around it in that respect, I think theyre going to find it more difficult than they might imagine, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said.

I think theyre going to have a hard time doing it, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said.

Nevertheless, Johnson suggested it was regrettable that the situation had come to pass, saying he would have written the bill differently, particularly its provisions on business taxation.

This was not my approach to how we should have dealt with things, he said.

Initially, GOP leaders wanted to eliminate the local tax deduction altogether but preserved it in order to win support from Republicans in high-tax states. Capping the deduction will increase revenue by $668 billion over 10 years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and lead author of the tax bill on the House side of the Capitol, said state lawmakers should simply allow their constituents to benefit from increased economic growth brought about by the tax law rather than interfering with its implementation.

They need to understand the era of tax-to-the-max is over because weve pulled the curtain back and now families and workers in those states now clearly see just how high a tax burden and how much their paychecks are being taken, Brady said.

When HuffPost asked Brady what would happen if states didnt take his advice, he repeated the advice.

De Leon, for his part, isnt exactly going out on a limb with his proposal. His office pointed out that California already provides tax credits for donations to state education funds and that 17 other states have similar schemes essentially creating government subsidies for private education. He scoffed at the suggestion, which several Republicans have offered, that states should simply lower taxes in response to the federal change.

Where would the money come from to pay for our schools, to pay for higher education to invest in human capital? Money doesnt just materialize off the sky, de Leon said. Its an absolutely ludicrous and irresponsible statement.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed Mike Rounds quote to Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).

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Robert De Niro, once again, made his feelings about Donald Trump very clear Tuesday night.

The actor attended the National Board of Review Awards in New York City, where he presented Meryl Streep the Best Actress prize for her work in The Post. The film, which tells the story of the Washington Posts pursuit to publish the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s, provided ample opportunity for De Niro to take a few swipes at the current presidential administration.

The events of The Post took place nearly 50 years ago, but there are many parallels today, obviously, De Niro said during his speech. At the time of the story, Donald Trump was suffering from bone spurs. Today, the world is suffering from the real Donald Trump.

This [expletive] idiot is the president, De Niro added. Its the Emperors New Clothes  the guy is a [expletive] fool.

The two-time Oscar winner didnt stop there, riffing more on the present-day relationship between Trump and the media, while calling the president the baby-in-chief.

Just like in 1971, the press is distinguishing itself with brave, exacting journalism, De Niro said. The movie gave us glimpses of President Nixon as delusional, narcissistic, petty, vindictive, nasty and [expletive] crazy. Ah, the good old days.

De Niro has spoken out against Trump several times in the past. Perhaps most famously, he appeared in a 2016 video urging people to vote, saying hed like to punch Trump in the face.
A Tuesday dinner with Triple H has people wondering about Ronda Rouseys WWE plans. (Getty)

Wrestling fans are stoked about the prospect of MMA star Ronda Rousey stepping into a WWE ring.

They saw more fuel added to that fire Tuesday when Rousey was spotted having dinner in Los Angeles with Paul Levesque, better known as wrestling legend Triple H, who has taken his talents from the ring to the WWE executive office.

While Triple H wouldnt detail what the two combat icons discussed at dinner, he spoke with the Associated Press on Wednesday about the dinner meeting.

We have nothing to announce at this time, Triple H told AP. But shes a huge fan of what we do and shes incredibly interested in what we do and the opportunities that lie there. Were fans of hers and incredibly interested in what those opportunities could be with us. But theres a lot of things to walk through. Were talking. Were having conversations.

Rousey, when approached by TMZ Tuesday, was a bit more tight-lipped.

I really enjoy fine dining, Rousey told TMZ, while brushing off questions from a reporter pressing her for the scoop.

Rousey has remained largely out of the spotlight since her last UFC fight, a December 2016 loss to Amanda Nunes. It was her second straight loss after Holly Holm delivered a stunning knockout with her left foot that handed Rousey her first UFC loss and crumbled her aura of invincibility in November 2015.

While Rousey hasnt officially retired from MMA fighting, its largely assumed that she wont return to the Octagon, sentiments echoed by UFC president Dana White in November.

Shes achieved everything shes wanted to do, shes made a [expletive]-load of money, and now she actually wants to have a life, White told reporters when asked about his knowledge of Rouseys plans.

Many signs point to her having a life in the wrestling ring, which seems a no-brainer for both parties, assuming that Rousey wants to keep up with the physical rigors of professional wrestling.

It seems clear the WWE would be happy to have her on board.

We are talking to Ronda, as weve been for a while, Triple H told AP. She has a lot of things going on. We have a lot of things going on. But we have a great relationship with her, a very friendly standpoint for a long period of time now.

Now we just appear to be waiting on whether Rousey is serious about giving wrestling fans what they want.
WASHINGTON  Coastal Democrats from California to New York are blasting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke for what they view as a political and arbitrary decision to take Florida waters off the table for future offshore oil drilling.

Some wonder if the sudden reversal was nothing more than a stunt to help get Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) elected to the Senate in 2018, while Californias top prosecutor pointed out that tourism and beauty are not unique to the Republican-led Sunshine State.

California is also unique & our coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver. Our local and state voice is firmly opposed to any and all offshore drilling, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra tweeted, referencing Zinkes own statement.

If thats your standard, we, too, should be removed from your list. Immediately, he added.

.@SecretaryZinke: California is also "unique" & our "coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver." Our local and state voice is firmly opposed to any and all offshore drilling.



If that's your standard, we, too, should be removed from your list. Immediately. https://t.co/T6W6JaPCPh  Xavier Becerra (@AGBecerra) January 10, 2018

The Trump administration released a sweeping new proposal last week to open nearly all U.S. waters, including huge swaths of the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, to oil exploration  a move that drew outrage from both Democrats and Republicans.

Zinke flew to Tallahassee on Tuesday to meet in person with Scott  a staunch Trump ally who pushed back against the administrations offshore proposal even before an official announcement.

In one Twitter post, Zinke wrote that local voices matter. And in a statement announcing his decision for Floridas coastal waters, Zinke said: President Trump has directed me to rebuild our offshore oil and gas program in a manner that supports our national energy policy and also takes into consideration the local and state voice. I support the governors position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.

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The move left Democratic governors wondering how that logic would impact their states.

New York doesnt want drilling off our coast either, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) wrote. Where do we sign up for a waiver [Secretary Zinke]?

New York doesn't want drilling off our coast either. Where do we sign up for a waiver @SecretaryZinke? https://t.co/dt1rJAEna1  Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 10, 2018

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) also wondered if Zinke planned to listen to voices in her state.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) suggested if Trumps beloved Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida  sometimes dubbed the Winter White House  might have factored into Zinkes decision.

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Local voices in Virginia have also spoken up. This would hurt our coastal economies and threaten our naval operations in Norfolk. If its truly about local voicenot just protecting President Trumps Mar-a-Lagothen make this same commitment for Virginia. https://t.co/7n8ZyNDy0D  Tim Kaine (@timkaine) January 10, 2018

For now, Zinke appears to have tuned out pleas from leaders in blue states. But his handling of the situation has already become fuel for potential legal challenges.

Taking #Florida off the table for offshore drilling but not #California violates the legal standard of arbitrary and capricious agency action, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), an attorney, tweeted. California and other coastal states also rely on our beautiful coasts for tourism and our economy. I believe courts will strike this down.

Taking #Florida off the table for offshore drilling but not #California violates the legal standard of arbitrary and capricious agency action. California and other coastal states also rely on our beautiful coasts for tourism and our economy. I believe courts will strike this down https://t.co/xWyB69F7Gg  Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 10, 2018

Rationale by Secretary Zinke that the Florida Governor can be "trusted" does not justify discriminatory agency action in favor of Florida over other states. No evidence other Governors can't be trusted. I am thankful that Zinke put his arbitrary and capricious views in writing. https://t.co/rNLgXP5MYJ  Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 10, 2018

Scott  who continues to deny the science behind climate change and has long supported drilling in and around Florida  is expected to make a run for Senate this year, challenging Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a longtime opponent of offshore drilling.

Nelson dismissed Zinkes decision Tuesday as a political stunt.

I have spent my entire life fighting to keep oil rigs away from our coasts, Nelson tweeted on Tuesday. This is a political stunt orchestrated by the Trump administration to help Rick Scott who has wanted to drill off Floridas coast his entire career. We shouldnt be playing politics with the future of FL.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Virginia Gov.-elect Ralph Northam also protested the Trump administrations exception for Florida but not other states.

Secretary Zinke must also abandon his efforts to drill along California's beautiful coastline  protection of our ocean shouldn't depend on the D, R, or I after the governor's name. https://t.co/SJjb5CbVMC  Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 10, 2018

Dear Secretary Zinke, California like Florida, has hundreds of miles of beautiful coastline and a governor who wants to keep it that way. Or is that not enough for blue states? https://t.co/vQ5Qtl8Xik  Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 10, 2018

We'd like a word in Virginia. https://t.co/hKumvPMcV4  Ralph Northam (@RalphNortham) January 10, 2018

Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, did not mince words, accusing Zinke of making the United States a banana republic.

SO YOU ARE EXEMPTING THE STATE THAT IS HOME TO THE FESTERING CANKEROUS CONFLICT OF INTEREST THAT THE ADMINISTRATION LIKES TO CALL THE "WINTER WHITE HOUSE" AND NONE OF THE OTHER AFFECTED STATES??????? GO LOOK UP "BANANA REPUBLIC" THEN GO FLY A ZINKE FLAG TO CELEBRATE MAKING US ONE  Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 10, 2018

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Riyadh (AFP) - A Saudi-led coalition has warned Yemen's rebels threaten ships in the Red Sea through their control of a key port, days after rebel warnings over a coalition blockade.

"The port of Hodeida is a launching pad for terrorist operations threatening navigation in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait," coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said late Wednesday.

The Red Sea is a key shipping route for world trade that connects the Middle East to Europe via the Suez Canal. The Bab al-Mandab Strait is the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

The Shiite Huthi rebels control the main port of Hodeida among a string of Red Sea ports on Yemen's western coast that are vital entry points for food imports and aid.

Maliki spoke after the rebels on Monday threatened to cut off Red Sea traffic unless Saudi Arabia and its allies lifted a blockade on Yemen's ports and main international airport.

In November, the coalition tightened the blockade after the Huthis fired a missile into Saudi Arabia that was intercepted near Riyadh's international airport.

The blockade has massively reduced the amount of food and relief reaching the country, international aid groups say, even though the coalition has since allowed certain aid deliveries in.

More than 9,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-led coalition joined the Yemeni government in its fight against the Huthis in March 2015.

The coalition, which has warships positioned in the Red Sea, accuses Iran of backing the Huthis.

Yemen was highly dependent on food imports even before 2015, and the United Nations has warned the country now stands on the brink of famine.
The Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico recorded highly polarized signals from the fast radio burst source FRB 121102, twisted by an extreme region of magnetized plasma.

Scientists are closer to pinning down the source of mysterious cosmic radio bursts  and now have a hint as to what might be causing these strange Fast Radio Bursts.

Based on telescope showing how the radio signals are twisted, researchers now believe that the bursts may come from a dead star near a black hole.

Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) have puzzled scientists since 2007  incredibly short, high-energy pulses which last for a few milliseconds and erupt with the energy the sun releases in a day.

Scientists have been genuinely baffled by the signals  and one Harvard expert suggested that the signals could come from alien spacecraft.

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

New research using data from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and the Green Bank Telescope in

West Virginia suggests that the source might be near a huge black hole  or embedded within the remains of a dead star.

The researchers found that radio bursts from an object known as FRB121102 have a property known as polarization, and are twisted through a process called Faraday rotation.

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Faraday rotation occurs when polarized light travels through a strongly magnetized, hot gas known as plasma.

Faraday rotation this strong has not been found anywhere else in the universe, though the conditions near the black hole that lies at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy come close.

The home galaxy of FRB 121102 is located 3 billion light-years from Earth; at this distance, the bursts must be nearly 100 million times more powerful than the Sun to be seen from Earth.

FRB 121102 was already unique because it repeats, which hasnt yet been observed in any other FRBs; now the huge Faraday rotation we have detected singles it out yet again. Were curious as to whether these two unique aspects are linked, says Daniele Michilli, a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam and ASTRON.

The astronomers hope to distinguish between the two leading hypotheses  either a neutron star near a black hole or one embedded in a powerful nebula  or other, more exotic interpretations, by monitoring how the Faraday rotation and other properties of the bursts change with time.
To judge from the cornucopia of connected household devices on display at CES 2018, there is no product that manufacturers deem unworthy of being graced with a processor, a cloud service, and a companion app.

Whether these Internet-of-Things gadgets are worth your money is another matter. They may not deliver sufficient convenience, they may be too tricky to set up and use, and they may open your personal data or even your home up to hackers.

That last part should be the most important aspect of any IoT purchase decision. But as I found out when walking past the connected-home exhibits with a cybersecurity professional, it may also be the hardest bit to investigate.

To sleep, perchance is to get hacked

My first stop was at the Sleepace exhibit. This Shenzhen, China-based firm aims to optimize your shut-eye by tracking both your sleep patterns and your nighttime environment with various sensors that include a smart mattress pad.

The resulting data may not make an attractive target for a hacker, but Bryson Bort, co-founder of Arlington, Va., cybersecurity firms Grimm and Scythe, pointed out a risk that became reality last year, when millions of connected cameras were remotely taken over and used to launch denial-of-service attacks.

The challenge with embedded systems, as we saw with the Mirai attacks, is that we have all this computational power that can be misused, said Bort, who spoke on a CES 2018 panel about security.

But when we asked what sort of security testing Sleepace ran, sales manager Emily He said That is a good question.

Sleepaces privacy-policy page only says we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. It may not be fair to expect an IoT startup to provide the same wealth of detail about its security measures as Apple (AAPL) or Google (GOOG, GOOGL), but this level of vagueness isnt a good sign.

Neighborly security

Our next visit on the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center was a corner booth for Vivint. The Provo, Utah smart-home firms exhibit featured an upcoming, free app called Streety that lets neighbors share video from their security cameras.

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The idea here is to enable the same kind of information sharing that already happens on neighborhood mailing lists  if a package vanishes from your front porch, you would use Streety to see if any neighbors cameras caught the thief.

We got some detail about such workings of the app such as its encryption of shared video streams to prevent snooping. But the Streety developers we talked to couldnt answer more in-depth queries like whether the company self-professed adoption of industry best practices extended to things like hiring red-team hackers to break into its app.

We got the security brush-off again, summed up Bort. The most common reason this happens at marketing-oriented events like CES: The people who do know the answers dont attend the event. They dont bring the security team.

(Hopefully, the security team actually exists.)

Made in the shade

Our third stop was ShadeCraft, developer of a solar-powered umbrella called Sunflower, which tracks the sun and doubles as a smart-home hub. The umbrella includes a security camera, a Wi-Fi hotspot, a Bluetooth speaker, and an array of environmental sensors.

Adding all those functions doesnt make the Sunflower cheap (its available for pre-order Jan. 15 for $5,220, after which the price jumps to $8,700) but does give this Pasadena, Calif.-based firm more things to secure.

This is an over-engineered solution, said Bort, noting the vast amount of data a Sunflower could wind up collecting.

But ShadeCraft Chief Operating Officer Sarahgrace Kelly couldnt provide any details on the companys approach to security beyond noting that its cloud services run on Zively, an IoT-optimized platform run by LogMeIn (LOGM).

ShadeCrafts site was no more informative: A search for security yielded only a link to a third-party blog post.

Down the toilet

We wrapped up this IoT tour with a visit to Kohlers exhibit and the assortment of connected bathroom hardware that included a smart toilet, the $7,500 Numi.

Setting aside the real-world utility of a toilet with a touchscreen remote, this thing appears well secured out of the box simply because it doesnt connect to the internet. Without that, its attack surface  the components that could in theory be attacked remotely  is limited to the Bluetooth connection used to stream music from nearby devices.

But other items in the new Kohler Konnect lineup, such as a $999 smart mirror that incorporates Amazons (AMZN) Alexa personal assistant, do connect to the internet. And once again, the company didnt have much to say about its approach to security beyond noting that its cloud services run on Microsofts (MSFT) platform.

Thats a good start, Bort said, but not a guarantee of protection.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon, those folks are really good at what they do, he said. But the security of an app on those cloud services depends on choices made by the company running an app  and the recent rash of databases getting left open on cloud storage platforms provides more than enough evidence that their choices arent always smart.

More from Rob:

Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro.
Whether lacing up the boots, saddling the horse or clicking into pedals, those of us living in Montana are looking for the same thing when we head out into our public lands: solitude, a respite from our hectic lives, maybe the chance to hear a wolf howl or stumbling upon an amazing vista of our unspoiled surroundings.

Until recently, I would find my escape at one of the half-hidden, always empty trailheads of the Sapphire or Blue Joint wilderness study areas (WSAs). For a certain breed of mountain biker, these rugged, primitive scratches in the dirt were our pathway to the backcountry of the Bitterroot. These trails were not meant for speed or jumps or all those things many people believe define mountain biking. Instead they offered solitude, challenge and a chance to explore.

Those opportunities for pedal-powered adventure are now lost despite U.S. Forest Service studies recommending against wilderness designation for the Sapphires and the southern half of Blue Joint; 178 miles of trail were closed as unofficial, unpublished Region 1 Forest Service philosophy that since bikes dont belong in wilderness they dont belong in WSAs or recommended wilderness intersected with the decades-long unresolved status of these same areas.

In response to the loss of our favorite haunts, the local mountain bike community has considered supporting various bills in Congress. One that would rescind the absolute ban on bikes in wilderness that was imposed in 1984 and allow local land managers flexibility to allow limited access. Another is U.S. Sen. Steve Daines bill that would release those portions of WSAs that did not receive wilderness recommendation when last studied over 35 years ago. Allegations that this bill is sabotaging or sacrificing our wild places seem hyperbolic considering that for the four decades these lands were managed with mountain bike and even motorized access and still managed to remain wild.

For those who fear bikes will diminish the wilderness experience or fear releasing the WSA will lead to uncontrolled exploitation, I can empathize with your concerns. However, nearly 40 years of unlimited bike access to these places prove that wild spaces and bicycles can coexist. Along with hunters, backpackers and other lovers of wilderness, we are responsible stewards of these pristine treasures, and when trails we love are closed and the suggested alternatives are to go ride roads or move somewhere else, backcountry-oriented cyclists such as myself arent left with many palatable alternatives.

The current status quo is not sustainable; eventually a decision needs to be made. Efforts in Bozeman to find community-based collaborative answers over the Porcupine-Hyalite-Buffalo-Horn WSA points to one way forward. Preservation and reasonable recreational access: this is how we honor Bitterroot native Sen. Lee Metcalf, who once said, Montanas forests and national parks are scenic areas that have become playgrounds for thousands of Americans. As your congressman I have sought to preserve these priceless assets for the people of Montana. I shall continue to make them available to the sportsmen and the tourists.
Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a sweeping report Wednesday outlining Russian President Vladimir Putins decades-long efforts to undermine democracy and issued stark warnings that the Kremlin will likely move to influence upcoming U.S. elections, including those this year and in 2020.

The report, commissioned by the committees ranking member, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), and written by Democratic staff, details the Putin governments relentless assault on the rule of law in Europe and the United States and urges President Donald Trump to acknowledge the threat posed by the Russians or risk a regime that will become further emboldened.

It is imperative that the American people better understand the true scope and scale of Putins pattern of undermining democracy in Russia and across Europe, Cardin said in a statement Wednesday. This threat existed long before President Trump took office, and unless he takes action now, it will continue long after his administration.

He continued: While President Trump stands practically idle, Mr. Putin continues to refine his asymmetric arsenal and look for future opportunities to disrupt governance and erode support for the democratic and international institutions that the United States and Europe have built over the last 70 years.

Aside from calls for Trump to address the ongoing influence campaign, the report also urges governments to hold social media companies accountable, to fix woeful vulnerabilities to cyberattacks and establish an international task force to counter such threats.

The White House has forged a cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Trump was elected. (Photo: Sputnik Photo Agency / Reuters)

Putins History Of Repression

Wednesdays report does not mention Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, citing ongoing investigations by the Senate intelligence and judiciary committees.

The authors do, however, delve into Putins aggregation of power beginning nearly 20 years ago and cite what they call a history of exploiting blackmail, fears of terrorism and war. They write that the Russian strongman has made it a priority of his regime to attack the democracies of Europe and the United States as such governments present an attractive alternative to his corrupt and criminal rule.

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Under Putins leadership, watchdog groups say, he and his oligarchs have pilfered an estimated $24 billion from state resources. At least 31 journalists have been killed inside Russia since he took power in 1999. And Russia has moved to attack countries including Georgia and Ukraine with military force and cyberwarfare.

Putin confirmed last month that he would seek a fourth six-year term as president in this March. He is expected to win.

Democrats note that many European countries have moved to deter such efforts at home. In advance of elections last year, Germany moved to test for computer vulnerabilities at its federal election authority, and local media outlets set up teams of fact-checkers to counter fake news, The New York Times reported at the time. And in the United Kingdom, top officials have issued public warnings meant to chastise Russian hacking attempts.

We know what you are doing, British Prime Minister Theresa May said in November. And you will not succeed.

Putin confirmed last month that he would run for a fourth term as president in March. (Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev/pool photo/Reuters)

Calls For Trump To Lead

In America, however, such efforts have been largely absent.

Following a meeting with Putin in Vietnam in November, Trump went so far as to say he believed his Russian counterpart when he said Russia did not meddle in the 2016 presidential election, despite assurances from U.S. intelligence agencies that the Kremlin did, in fact, interfere.

Every time he sees me, he says, I didnt do that, and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it, Trump said in November.

Senate Democrats voiced their displeasure with such opinions in Wednesdays report.

The U.S. president continues to deny that any such threat exists, creating a leadership vacuum in our own government, the paper reads.

Cardin called for the president to take a leading role in the protection of Americas democracy from Russian influence alongside the release of the report, and issued a rallying cry to mobilize our country.

President Trump must be clear-eyed about the Russian threat, take action to strengthen our governments response and our institutions, and  as have other presidents in times of crisis  mobilize our country and work with an international coalition to counter the threat and assert our values.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Luanda (AFP) - Angolan President Joao Lourenco removed the son of his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos from the top job at the oil-rich country's sovereign wealth fund, the presidency said on Wednesday.

Jose Filomeno dos Santos, who was implicated in the "Panama Papers" offshore scandal, will be replaced by former finance minister Carlos Alberto Lopes.

Last year's "Panama Papers" revelations showed how the world's wealthy used a discreet Panamanian legal firm to stash assets offshore.

The investment fund under Dos Santos Jr's control has been shown to have transferred tens of millions of dollars to businessman Jean-Claude "Zenu" Bastos de Morais to run the organisation.

Like many oil-rich nations, Angola created a sovereign wealth fund to invest the proceeds of the nation's petroleum riches.

The fund was launched in 2011 and has $5 billion (4.2 billion euros) under management.

A long-standing pillar of the regime, Angola's new president had promised to distance himself from the dos Santos clan during his successful campaign ahead of the August 23 poll.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos' daughter Isabel also held a key position at the top of the country's all-powerful industry but also fell foul of Lourenco.

Appointed head of Sonangol by her father in 2016, Isabel was replaced in November by Lourenco and subsequently investigated by an ongoing graft probe.

Isabel, who is reported by Forbes magazine to be the richest woman in Africa, has flatly denied any misconduct.

Lourenco on Monday denied "any tension" with his long-serving predecessor after his first 100 days in office in which he removed many Dos Santos relatives and friends from public office in an anti-corruption crusade.

Angola, along with Nigeria, is one of Africa's biggest oil producers, pumping out 1.7 million barrels per day. But the oil wealth has bypassed the overwhelming majority of citizens who live in grinding poverty.
While SpaceX successfully relanded the most recent Falcon 9 it launched -- Elon Musk even tweeted about it -- its top secret payload apparently met a different fate. According to The Wall Street Journal, Zuma failed to make it to orbit, and authorities believe it has plummeted back into the atmosphere. No government agency stepped forward to claim the satellite, but industry experts estimate its cost to be billions of dollars. WSJ says the satellite didn't separate from Falcon 9's upper stage as it should have, but Bloomberg reports that it was the rocket's second stage itself that had failed.

Harvard-Smithsonian astronomer Jonathan McDowell noted that space situational awareness service Space-Track catalogued Zuma. Space-Track adding something to its catalog means that object made it to orbit. However, Navy Captain Brook DeWalt told Bloomberg that the military division has "nothing to add to the satellite catalog at this time." It's all conflicting reports all around, and unfortunately, both SpaceX and Northrop Grumman, which built the satellite, refuse to talk. "We do not comment on missions of this nature; but as of right now reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally," the space corporation told Engadget.

If the payload truly crashed or disappeared, then this incident came at a bad time for SpaceX. The company is hoping to start ferrying astronauts to the ISS this year and to win more contracts from the Pentagon. Although what happened to Zuma remains shrouded in mystery, McDowell said Northrop Grumman provided its own adapter used to attach the payload to the rocket's final stage. If the adapter was the one that failed to pop off when it was time for Zuma to detach itself, then the incident might not be SpaceX's fault at all.

To recap: Normally when you buy a rocket launch, you've paid for "the payload adapter on the rocket final stage pops the satellite off at the end". But on this mission the customer provided its own payload adapter, so separation may be its problem and not SpaceX's problem  Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) January 9, 2018

Recap 2: Assume satellite catalog entry is not an error. Still doesn't mean USA 280 is still in orbit, or that it separated from stage 2. Suggests that payload/stage 2 remained attached and completed 1.5 orbits (winning it a catalog entry), then performed deorbit  Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) January 9, 2018

Recap 3: Stage 2 was going to deorbit after 1.5 orbits anyway. Probably it had no way of knowing that the payload was still attached!  Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) January 9, 2018

Zuma satellite from @northropgrumman may be dead in orbit after separation from @SpaceX Falcon 9, sources say. Info blackout renders any conclusion - launcher issue? Satellite-only issue? -- impossible to draw. pic.twitter.com/KggCGNC5Si  Peter B. de Selding (@pbdes) January 8, 2018

Update: SpaceX says its rocket absolutely didn't malfunction during Zuman's launch. Gwynne Shotwell, the company's President and COO, said in a statement:
Barcelona (AFP) - Spain's government will go to the country's Constitutional Court if Catalonia's former president Carles Puigdemont, in exile in Belgium, attempts to be re-elected into office from abroad, a government source said Thursday.

Separatist parties won an absolute parliamentary majority in December regional elections, and the two biggest groupings -- Together for Catalonia and ERC -- have agreed to pick Puigdemont as regional president again.

But he is in Belgium and risks arrest on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds for his role in the region's failed independence bid if he comes back to Spain.

To be elected president, he should in theory be present at the parliamentary session where the vote takes place, but his supporters want him to appear by videolink or write a speech and have it read by someone else.

This is contested by legal experts, anti-independence parties and the central government.

If Puigdemont decided to go down one of those routes, Madrid will go to the Constitutional Court, said the government source, just like it did when Catalan leaders called an independence referendum, which was banned by the same court.

Catalonia's Socialist party has asked judicial experts at the regional parliament whether appearing by videolink or via a written speech would be legal.

According to the Catalan daily La Vanguardia, "there is total unanimity" among the experts that his physical presence is required.

The Catalan parliament's rules stipulate that the candidate for the regional presidency must "present his or her government programme to parliament."

It does not detail however whether this must be done in person.

But for Xavier Arbos, a constitutional law professor, "you can't say that because it's not banned, it can go ahead."

"The rules of Catalonia's parliament establish a general norm which is that lawmakers must be present," he told AFP, adding that as such, the candidate for the regional presidency must also be present.

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Even ERC appears dubious and is looking into whether the options proposed to have him take office remotely are viable.

"ERC is waiting for a report that (parliament's) lawyers will publish," said Joan Tarda, spokesman for the party in the national congress in Madrid.

"We will have to reject options as they become unviable."
Rome (AFP) - Spain last year surpassed the United States to become the world's second most visited country after France, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said during a visit to Italy.

Rajoy, speaking late Wednesday, said 82 million people visited in 2017, a nine percent increase over the previous year that came despite terror attacks and the political crisis in tourism magnet Catalonia.

Tourism earnings rose 12 percent, totaling 87 billion euros ($104 billion), he said in Rome on the sidelines of a southern European summit on migration.

In 2016, Spain welcomed 75.3 million visitors, just behind the United States with 75.6 million, while France -- despite its own terror woes -- easily remained the world leader with 82.6 million visitors, according to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

International tourism to the United States shrank during the first five months of Donald Trump's presidency, according to the US International Trade Administration.

Arrivals fell five percent in the first quarter and three percent in the second quarter, official figures show.

Rajoy praised the Spanish tourism sector's "great effort" to become more competitive.

Arrivals in Spain beat records for the fifth consecutive year, despite jihadist attacks in the Catalonia capital Barcelona and nearby Cambrils last August that left 16 dead.

Catalonia also remains in the grip of a secession crisis.

Arrivals recovered after dropping off by five percent year-on-year in October as massive demonstrations were staged following a failed independence bid.

The Madrid-based UNWTO is set to release its figures for 2017 on Monday.

The French foreign ministry said in December it estimated 2017 arrivals at upwards of 89 million.
Balukhali (Bangladesh) (AFP) - Rohingya Muslims who fled a village where Myanmar has admitted its forces helped massacre 10 people said Thursday the victims were all civilians, not fighters as asserted by the army.

The Myanmar army chief's office confirmed Wednesday that security forces took part in killing "Bengali terrorists" on September 2 in the village of Inn Din in Rakhine state, using a pejorative term for Rohingya.

It was the first time Myanmar had admitted abuses during an army-led crackdown on Rohingya militants from late August that sparked a mass exodus of the Muslim minority.

But displaced Rohingya inside Bangladesh have angrily denied the army's account, with survivors who fled Inn Din insisting those killed were not militants but civilians murdered in cold blood.

Inn Din villager Wal Marjan, 30, said they were attacked by Buddhist mobs flanked by soldiers, who later "selected 10 to 15 men to attend a meeting".

They were never seen again, said Marjan, who was later told by another man that her husband and the others were slaughtered.

"He said his body was thrown into a mass grave with the other men," Marjan told AFP at a refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh, adding her husband had no connections with Rohingya rebels.

In its account of the massacre the army chief's office said security forces captured 10 Rohingya militants before killing them as violence engulfed the village and its surrounding area.

The post on Facebook also gave the first confirmation of a mass Rohingya grave inside Rakhine state.

But Inn Din villager Hossain Ahammad said the slain men were "fishermen, farmers, lumberjacks and clerics".

"They were not part of any movement. They are simply victims of the Burmese army's wrath," he told AFP.

Refugees who have fled in their hundreds of thousands to Bangladesh have given consistent accounts of massacres, rape and torture by Myanmar security forces flanked by ethnic Rakhine mobs.

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Those allegations, which have been cross-checked by media and rights groups, have seen Myanmar accused of ethnic cleansing by the US and UN and prompted questions over whether the crackdown may have amounted to genocide.

Until Wednesday, Myanmar army has vigorously denied any abuses, instead locking down access to Rakhine state and accusing critics -- including the UN -- of pro-Rohingya bias and spreading "fake news".

The army chief's office said "action" would be taken against villagers and security members involved in the violence at Inn Din.

Last month Doctors Without Borders said at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the army crackdown on rebels in Rakhine -- the highest estimated death toll yet of violence that erupted on August 25.
Geneva (AFP) - A group of Swiss campaigners launched a petition Wednesday aimed at keeping US President Donald Trump away from the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos later this month.

The petition headlined "Trump not welcome -- stay out of Davos" was launched on the campax.org website at 9:00 am (0800 GMT) and had gathered some 2,500 signatures by mid-afternoon.

"We would be happy to have 10,000 or 30,000" signatures, Campax chief Andreas Freimuller told AFP.

"If you are anti-racist or anti-sexist, you would dislike him," he said of Trump.

The campaign began after the White House made the surprise announcement Tuesday that Trump planned to become the first sitting US president to attend the annual meeting of the world's political and business elite at Davos in nearly 20 years.

Trump -- who is promoting an "America First" agenda -- will mingle at the annual Alpine festival of globalism in Switzerland, and perhaps offer a few views of his own, the White House said.

A string of US presidents have avoided attending the annual upscale event, fearing a sojourn to a European ski resort would make them look out of touch.

The last president to go was Bill Clinton, who attended in 2000.

- Put 'World First' -

"US President Donald Trump is on excellent terms with racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism, misogyny, bellicosity, climate change denial, human rights abuse and a policy that deepens poverty and inequality," Campax maintains in its petition.

"We must resist Trump's inhumane politics! We want to put the 'World First' -- not 'America First'," it added, especially taking issue with Washington's withdrawal from the Paris climate accords.

During a visit to Brussels Wednesday, US Under Secretary of the Treasury David Malpass told AFP that he expected Trump to stick to his "America First" message in Davos.

He said the US president was likely to "give strong remarks favouring US workers and explain how his presidency is characterised by putting American interests first in terms of our policies," he said, adding though that Trump would also likely stress "the importance of being engaged in world affairs as we continue to be."

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Swiss authorities meanwhile did not appear too concerned by Trump's decision to attend the World Economic Forum, which each year requires a massive police and military presence in Davos.

"I was a bit surprised that he will be coming," head of the regional Graubunden police force Walter Schlegel told the Swiss news agency ATS, adding that Trump's attendance would not require "major shifts" in the security detail in the resort town.

Last year, the forum was dominated by the appearance of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Schlegel said the security arrangements needed to protect a Chinese or an American head of state were basically the same.

He warned though that Trump's attendance increases the probability of demonstrations across all of Switzerland during the gathering.

Campax is aiming to organise a demonstration near the Zurich airport around the time of Trump's arrival, Freimuller said.
Beirut (AFP) - Syrian regime forces were locked in a fierce battle Wednesday for an airbase in Idlib province after breaching the defences of jihadists at the strategic military facility, a monitor said.

Regime forces backed by Russian warplanes launched an offensive on December 25 in Idlib province, the last in the country that remained fully outside the government's control. They have recaptured dozens of villages.

Idlib province is almost entirely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist outfit dominated by Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said regime forces were able to enter Abu Duhur airbase under air cover and were engaged in fierce fighting with the jihadists.

The airport, which straddles the border between the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, has been under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham since September 2015.

If it is recaptured, the airport will be "the first military base in the hands of the regime in Idlib province," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Since losing the airbase in 2015 following a two-year jihadist siege, the Syrian government has only had control of two villages in Idlib province: Fua and Kafraya.

The regime's goal is to retake the southeast of the province in order to secure a route between Damascus and second city Aleppo, both under its control, according to the Observatory.

More than 340,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Syrian war, which began in 2011 as the regime brutally crushed anti-government protests. Millions have been displaced.
By Jess Macy Yu and Greg Torode TAIPEI/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Taiwan's ruling party plans to use a long-term increase in defense spending to pursue advanced weapons systems, government officials say, in what is widely seen as growing determination to forge a stronger deterrent against a Chinese attack. The left-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), led by President Tsai Ing-wen, is working on detailed spending plans through 2025, two officials with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Tsai and her team have met repeatedly with military leaders in a push for new investment in training and equipment, one of the officials said. Immediate priorities include new missiles, drones and electronic warfare systems, fighter aircraft and ballistic missile defenses, according to a separate statement from the Ministry of National Defence sent to Reuters. Although some arms would be domestically produced, such as an existing plan to locally build eight submarines, they say a longer-term Taiwanese drive for improved capabilities could mean fresh U.S. deals. Those requests could deepen tensions between Beijing and Washington. China considers democratic Taiwan to be a wayward province and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. The United States, Taiwan's sole foreign supplier of arms, has for years called on Taipei to address a worsening military imbalance across the Taiwan Strait, which has recently seen heightened tensions amid military assertiveness by China. In the first week of 2018, China sailed an aircraft carrier and other military ships through the strait on a training mission. "If there are three weapons systems that China's high command really wants to keep out of Taiwan's hands, it is submarines, fighter jets and ballistic missile defenses. Taipei is smartly investing in all three," said Ian Easton, a U.S.-based research fellow at the Project 2049 Institute, which studies Asia security issues. In October, Tsai signaled that defense spending would increase by at least 2 percent each year, with more possible based on the need for significant purchases. By 2025, Taiwan's annual defense spending is projected to increase by at least 20 percent - or NT$62.4 billion ($2.08 billion) - to NT$381.7 billion, the officials said, if the legislature approves the future budgets. With economic growth "on track" for this year, Taiwan's defense spending will "likely" exceed the baseline that the president has announced, one of the officials said. "The Tsai administration is seeking to undo years of defense spending cuts," the two officials said in a separate written statement to Reuters. "The additional funds will target enhancements in asymmetrical defense strategies in the short-term, and advanced weapons and equipment either domestically produced or through defense procurements in the long-term," one of them added. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence confirmed to Reuters that electronic warfare, information security and improved drones were among the priorities for this year, along with existing programs, including upgrades of its Raytheon Co Patriot missile defenses, Lockheed Martin Corp F-16A/B jet fighters and indigenously built training planes. The ministry also confirmed plans to improve mobile missile launchers, but has yet to detail whether that would mean reviving an earlier ballistic missile program or improving the cruise missiles Taiwan already has. Both are likely to face intense Chinese scrutiny. The planned increases mark a change in commitment from the previous China-friendly Kuomintang government under President Ma Ying-jeou, under whom defense spending from 2009 to 2016 slid from 3 percent to 2.1 percent of GDP, according to government data. Regional diplomats are watching developments closely. Although few nations have formal diplomatic or military ties with the island, any boost in Taiwan's military could complicate China's strategic domain. "The military balance is rapidly shifting in China's favor, but the new Taiwanese government is more prepared to stand up to China's behavior," said Singapore-based security analyst Tim Huxley. "I think some countries, particularly Japan, will see that as a net benefit by making life more difficult for China." In recent months, China has ramped up its long-range air force drills, particularly around Taiwan. In March, it said its defense spending would increase 7 percent for 2017, or 1.044 trillion yuan ($158.70 billion). After taking office in 2016, Tsai has promoted Taiwan's domestic defense industry as one of several pillars under a so-called "5 plus 2" program that seeks to foster important business sectors in Taiwan. Analysts have said Taiwan would need to improve both asymmetric warfare and high-end capabilities like aircraft and missile defense after years of budgetary neglect. Asymmetric warfare means using limited resources to inflict unacceptable damage to a more powerful opponent. Taiwan is betting it can make an attack on it too painful for China to consider, according to Collin Koh, a research fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. "The Taiwanese may not be able to overturn the balance of power now, but they can improve their abilities to raise the costs on China," he said. (Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Gerry Doyle)
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump has responded to questions about a possible interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller by attacking his former campaign rival, Hillary Clinton and seemingly backing away from a pledge last year to speak under oath if asked.

Mr Mueller is said to have informed Mr Trump's lawyers that he is likely to seek to interview the President as part of his federal probe into Russian election meddling and the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia. No formal request has been sent, and no date has been set, but Mr Trumps lawyers are reportedly debating how best to handle the request if it comes.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, has responded to questions about the possible interview by pivoting to one of his favourite foils: Ms Clinton. Asked during a press conference with Norweigian Prime Minister Erna Solberg whether he would commit to an interview with Mr Mueller, the President quickly switched topics.

When you talk about interviews, Hillary Clinton had an interview where she wasnt sworn in, she wasnt given the oath, they didn't take notes, they didn't record, and it was done on the Fourth of July weekend, he said.

A lot of people looked on that as being a very serious breach, and it really was, he added.

The president appeared to be referring to a 2016 interview the FBI conducted with Ms Clinton regarding her private email server. FBI policy does not require interviews to be recorded unless the subject is in federal custody, which Ms Clinton was not.

Pressed on the topic, Mr Trump said it seems unlikely that the interview would occur, given the lack of evidence to support claims of collusion.

Well see that happens. When they have no collusion  and nobodys found any collusion at any level  it seems unlikely that youd even have an interview.

That stance is a marked change from June 2016, when Mr Trump said that he was 100 per cent willing to testify under oath about his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey - who had headed up the federal probe into Russia prior to Mr Mueller, before being fired by Mr Trump in May 2016.

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According to the New York Times, Mr Mueller appears most interested in asking the president about his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and the firing of Mr Comey, rather than a direct question of possible collusion. One of the lines Mr Mueller's investigative team is said to be looking at is whether there was any possible obstruction of justice over the firing of the former FBI director. Mr Comey testified to Congress last year that Mr Trump had asked him to end an investigation into Mr Flynn, accusations Mr Trump and the White House have denied.

Neither Mr Mueller, nor either of the Congressional committees investigating Russian interference, have concluded their investigations into the matter. Mr Flynn and three other former Trump campaign members have already been charged in connection with Mr Muellers probe, though none of the charges specifically mentioned collusion.

Mr Flynn has pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI over contact with former Russia Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, while former Trump campaign adviser has pleaded guilty to a similar charge over his contact with Russians. Former trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates, have been charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiracy to launder money, making false statements and other charges in connection with their work advising a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine. Both have denied all the charges against them.

Mr Trump has repeatedly dismissed the investigations of his campaign as a witch hunt". His lawyers have suggested the special counsel's investigation will end early this year.
BuzzFeed said they 'look forward to defending our First Amendment rights in court': Scott Olson/Getty Images

Donald Trump's lawyer is suing BuzzFeed News for publishing the so-called "Steele dossier", which alleges ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials ahead of the 2016 election.

Michael Cohen also filed a second lawsuit against Washington research firm Fusion GPS, the company that hired former spy Christopher Steele to investigate Mr Trump's business dealings with Russia.

The dossier includes a number of salacious claims about the Trump campaign's ties to Russian officials, including allegations about Mr Cohen that have not been verified.

Both Mr Cohen's lawsuits claim the dossier contained "false and defamatory" allegations about him that resulted in "harm to his personal and professional reputation, current business interests, and the impairment of business opportunities," ABC News reported.

"Enough is enough of the #fake #RussianDossier," Mr Cohen tweeted on Tuesday. "Just filed a defamation action against @BuzzFeedNews for publishing the lie filled document on @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and me!"

BuzzFeed responded with a Twitter post saying the dossier continues to be the subject of investigations by Congress and intelligence agencies, was shown to two US presidents and described in detail by news outlets worldwide.

"Its interest to the public is obvious. This is not the first time Trump's lawyer has attacked the free press, and we look forward to defending our First Amendment rights in court," BuzzFeed said.

The lawsuits were not immediately available on online court resources.

It comes amid reports that Glenn Simpson, who leads Fusion GPS, testified in August that the FBI received intelligence from a "voluntary source" in Mr Trump's circle in 2016.

That was before Mr Steele gave the FBI his own dossier of allegations about collusion. Fusion GPS then hired Mr Steele to investigate Mr Trump's connections with Russia.

Some Republicans have been critical of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, claiming the initial FBI probe was triggered by Mr Steele's dossier.

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They have raised questions about whether the FBI may have relied on the Steele document to improperly obtain surveillance warrants to spy on Mr Trump's campaign associates.

But Mr Simpson's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in August contradicted those claims.

"They had other intelligence about this matter from an internal Trump campaign source and ... they believed Chris' information might be credible," Mr Simpson testified. "I think it was a voluntary source, someone who was concerned about the same concerns we had."

Mr Simpson later said he was not sure if the FBI informant was from the Mr Trump's election campaign or the Trump Organisation, the president's real estate firm, which is now run by his two older sons.

Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate committee, released the testimony on Tuesday without Republican approval, in an apparent bid to neutralise Republican criticism of the Russia investigation.

Mr Trump has slammed the dossier as "bogus" and denies his campaign colluded with Russia.

Mr Trump and some Republicans have attacked both Mr Simpson's firm and Mr Steele in recent months and also questioned the impartiality of the FBI and the Justice Department in an apparent effort to discredit Mr Mueller's probe.

Mr Mueller's team has produced two indictments and two guilty pleas by former aides to Mr Trump's campaign.

Reuters contributed to this report
Police reports

Partner or family member assault

Police arrested Jack Evers, 37, of Butte at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on the 1000 block of Placer Street for a felony charge and misdemeanor charge of partner or family member assault with minor injury. Evers allegedly got into an argument with a female, pushed her, grabbed her by the throat, and threw her on the bed. Evers left the residence before police arrived, and they found him walking nearby on Dakota and Aluminum.

Possession of dangerous drugs

Police arrested Jill Fry, 42, of Butte and Adam Price, 22, of Idaho at about 7:40 a.m. Wednesday on the 200 block of West Silver Street. Police booked Fry for two misdemeanors  possession of dangerous drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia  and for a probation violation.

Police arrested Price for possession of dangerous drugs, a misdemeanor, and for an out-of-jurisdiction felony warrant.

Police were assisting probation and parole officers in a search of Frys residence, where they said syringes, a glass pipe, and a small amount of marijuana were found. Police found Price also at the residence and learned he had a warrant out of Idaho and allegedly found a small amount of marijuana on him.

Possession of drug paraphernalia

Police arrested Darian Brown, 24, of Butte at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday for a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia. During a parole and probation search on the 1000 block of Gaylord Street, police said they found a pipe and a bong.

Criminal mischief

Police arrested Joseph Reynolds, 26, homeless, at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Zip Trip at Park and Excelsior on a charge of criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, and for a felony probation violation. According to police, officers were looking for Reynolds because he had damaged the walls at the Western Montana Mental Health Center, 24 E. Copper St.

Shoplifting

Police arrested Leslie Erickson, 35, of Polson at 3 p.m. Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of shoplifting from Walmart, 3901 Harrison Ave., and for a probation violation. Erickson allegedly stole $45 worth of merchandise, which included shirts and socks, and left the store. Police found her at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, 3825 Harrison Ave.

Failure to disperse

 Police arrested Jewel Thomas, 27, of Butte at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday for failure to disperse, a misdemeanor. Police were called to the 600 block of West Granite Street because Thomas was standing outside yelling at people inside a building. Officers gave her a ride to the 500 block of North Excelsior, where she refused to get out of the police vehicle and refused to give the name of the resident inside the home.

 Police arrested Alex Osier, 21, homeless, at 12:20 a.m. Thursday outside Dottys Casino, 2000 Dewey Blvd., on a misdemeanor charge of failure to disperse. Police said they found Osier outside smoking a cigarette after being asked to leave the premises. When officers asked him to leave, he refused, according to police.

Criminal contempt

Police arrested Wade Link, 61, of Butte at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday for a misdemeanor criminal contempt warrant during a traffic stop at Continental and Irene.
Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump convened his top national security advisers Thursday to decide whether to re-impose sanctions on Iran at the risk of sinking the 2015 nuclear deal.

State Department officials said Trump was expected to make a decision at the meeting, but that it was not clear whether it would be announced later Thursday or on Friday.

"The president still strongly believes this is one of the worst deals of all time," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

"One of the single greatest flaws is its restrictions leave Iran free ... to openly develop their nuclear program and rapidly achieve a nuclear weapons breakout capability.

"Obviously, we see a big problem with that," she said. "The administration is continuing to work with Congress and with our allies to address those flaws."

Sanders did not say when an announcement would be made, but Assistant Secretary of State Steve Goldstein said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was at the White House and that a decision was imminent.

"The secretary has been at the White House almost every day. He was there yesterday for many, many hours. The decision meeting is this afternoon," he told reporters.

"From that, the decision will be made. I'm not sure when the announcement will be made, whether it will be made tonight or whether it will be tomorrow," he said.

A senior State Department official, speaking anonymously to give more detail, said the meeting was expected to end at 3:45 pm (1845 GMT) and an announcement then to be made within a few hours.

"I suppose there's always a possibility that it could go long and the timeframe could be tomorrow, but it is possible that the decision will come out tonight," the senior official said.

Trump has already declared that he think the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers in no longer in the United States' national interest.

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But he has continued to follow the example of his predecessor Barack Obama in regularly signing sanctions waivers so that US economic measures against Tehran do not "snap back."

The deadlines for a number of these waivers to be renewed will fall over the coming week, and Trump is obliged to decide whether or not to maintain sanctions relief.

If he does allow the sanctions to go back into effect, Iran will accuse the United States of breaking the deal, under which Tehran agreed to various controls on its nuclear program.

European capitals will also be dismayed, having pressed Washington to accept that the deal was an international agreement and that Iran has abided by its terms.
Donald Trump has called for a bill of love to keep thousands of young, undocumented immigrants from having to leave the country, while continuing to push for a wall along the US-Mexico border.

It should be a bill of love, Mr Trump said at the White House meeting, adding it also has to be a bill where were able to secure our border".

"Drugs are pouring into our country at a record pace," he said. "A lot of people coming in that we cant have.

Throughout Mr Trumps presidential election campaign, he called for a large, impenetrable wall to be constructed between the US and Mexico.

One year since Mr Trump took office, heres a round-up of what has happened to his project so far.

What did Trump promise for the Trump-Mexico border wall?

The presidents pledge to build a border wall dates back to the announcement of his candidacy in June 2015, in an incendiary speech he delivered at Trump Tower in New York.

When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best, he said. They're sending people that have lots of problems They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.

He promised to build a wall spanning the 2,000-mile border to keep migrants out.

I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and Ill build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.

How much will the Trump-Mexico border wall cost?

This week, the Trump administration said it wants $18bn (13bn) over the next decade, for the initial phase of the border wall. This is considerably more than Mr Trumps initial cost estimate of around $10bn.

The $18bn, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would go towards 316 miles of new fencing and reinforcing another 400 miles of existing barriers, according to cost estimates by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

If this work goes ahead, more than half of the border with Mexico will have a wall - or similar structure - by 2027.

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There are considerable extra costs, however. The CBP also requested $8bn for additional personnel and training, plus $5bn for new border technology and another $1bn to construct access roads. This puts the final spend at $33bn over the next ten years.

Who will pay for the Trump-Mexico border wall?

When President Trump first mentioned the wall, he claimed Mexico would foot the bill. The Mexican government has repeatedly said it will not pay for the border wall.

(REUTERS)

Last week, however, Mr Trump reiterated his plan during a news conference at Camp David, the presidential country retreat in Maryland.

I believe Mexico will pay for the wall, Mr Trump said. I have a very good relationship with Mexico. But yes, in some form, Mexico will pay for the wall.

A report from the US Department of Homeland Security in February 2017 revealed the border wall could cost American taxpayers a total of $21.6bn (17.3bn).

Will the Trump-Mexico border wall actually be built?

In September 2017, construction on eight wall prototypes - measuring between 18-30 feet high - was started in San Diego, the CBP announced.

Ronald Vitiello, acting deputy commissioner of the CBP, said: We are committed to securing our border and that includes constructing border walls. Our multi-pronged strategy to ensure the safety and security of the American people includes barriers, infrastructure, technology and people.

Moving forward with the prototypes enables us to continue to incorporate all the tools necessary to secure our border."

These eight prototypes are still in San Diego, however, and whether the the wall will ever actually be fully constructed is far from certain.

In February 2017, an internal Department of Homeland Security report obtained by Reuters estimated the wall will take three-and-a-half years to complete.

This is unlikely, critics say, because the funding still has to be approved by Congress.
White House officials believe Donald Trumps presidency would end if a probe into possible collusion with Russia even goes near his finances, the author of an expose on the President has claimed.

Michael Wolff  whose explosive book about the White House, Fire and Fury, provoked an outraged response from the president  said White House officials and others close to Mr Trump do not think he colluded with Moscow to win the 2016 election.

But, they do believe that if the probe explores his financial affairs it could unearth information that would fatally undermine his position.

People dont think in the White House  dont think that he colluded with Russia, Mr Wolff told CNBCs Squawk Box.

They do think that if the investigation goes near his finances, hes sunk. Everybody, again, to a man.

The comments come after it was reported in December that Deutsche Bank had provided the probe, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, with the bank records of affiliates of Mr Trump.

Deutsche Bank has known relationships with Russian oligarchs and other connections to Moscow, legal experts said.

The move suggests Mr Mueller and his team are indeed investigating the finances of people in Trumps inner circle.

When Mr Trump was asked by the The New York Times last year whether Mr Muellers probe would cross a red line if it expanded to look at his familys finances beyond any relationship to Russia, he said: I would say yes. I think thats a violation.

Mr Trump has maintained privacy around his familys business dealings and refuses to publish his tax returns, unlike other US leaders in recent history.

He has repeatedly denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians to help him win the 2016 Presidential election and has called the investigation a witch hunt.

On the day Fire and Fury was published, President took to Twitter to call Mr Wolff a total loser and accuse him of making up stories to sell this really boring and untruthful book.

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Mr Wolff defended his work in the Tuesday interview with CNBC, saying he had recordings to support his claims.

I am confident in everything that is in this book, he said.
In an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers on Thursday, President Donald Trump described Haiti and African nations as shithole countries and slammed the idea of restoring protections for immigrants from those regions.

Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? the president said, sources told The Washington Post. Trump reportedly followed up suggesting the U.S. should welcome more immigrants from countries like Norway.

The exchange was confirmed by NBC News, BuzzFeed and CNN.

Trump on Friday appeared to deny the reports, though he took several veiled shots at the countries that had been under discussion.

The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018

Under an immigration plan presented to Trump by a bipartisan group of lawmakers Thursday, the U.S. would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly, the president said in one of his Friday morning tweets.

Trumps Thursday remarks sparked immediate outrage from progressive organizations and Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.), Jim McGovern (Mass.) and Karen Bass (Calif.).

Haitis Ambassador to the U.S., Paul Altidor, has also formally summoned an American official to explain the presidents comments and said the government vehemently condemned them, NBC News contributor Yamiche Alcindor reported.

I just talked to Haitis Ambassador to the United States Paul Altidor who said he and the Haitian government vehemently condemn President Trumps comments which they believe are based on stereotypes. Either the president has been misinformed or he is miseducated.  Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) January 12, 2018

Either the president has been misinformed or he is miseducated, Altidor was quoted as saying.

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On Friday, the United Nations human rights office rejected Trumps racist remarks.

There is no other word one can use but racist, U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said, per Reuters. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as shitholes whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.

Despite the criticism, the White House did not walk back the presidents remarks. Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people, White House spokesperson Raj Shah said in a statement to CBS News.

President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation, Shah added. He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.

The statement did not directly address the reported shithole remark.

Trump is currently negotiating with congressional lawmakers over how to help so-called Dreamers, young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The president put many of them at risk of losing their protection from deportation when he ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In exchange for helping Dreamers now, Trump wants various border security measures  including his wall  and restrictions on legal immigration that would largely affect people of color.

During the negotiations, some lawmakers have proposed granting visas to individuals from Haiti, El Salvador and multiple African nations who are in the U.S. on temporary protected status. The Trump administration has already terminated that status for people from Haiti, El Salvador and Nicaragua, which means more than 200,000 people currently living in the U.S. have a matter of months to either leave or face deportation.

Trump reportedly scoffed at shithole countries in response to that proposal.

As our nation fights to move forward, our President falls deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of racism and xenophobia, the NAACP said in a statement. The United States position as a moral leader throughout the world has been thoroughly damaged by the continuous lowbrow, callous and unfiltered racism.

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Trumps comments were yet another confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views.

It also reinforces the concerns that we hear every day, that the Presidents slogan Make America Great Again is really code for Make America White Again, Richmond said in a statement.

Rep. Coleman echoed those calls, calling the president a cowardly racist who has no business being President of the United States.

Shame on him and those who dont hold him accountable, she tweeted.

Elisa Massimino, president and CEO of Human Rights First, called the presidents reported remark disgusting and disgraceful.

That the President of the United States would talk this way about people who are fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries is shameful, she said in a statement. Congress must not give in to this hateful, racist, and divisive narrative coming out of the White House. America is counting on you to defend human dignity by standing firm for our commitment to protect the persecuted.

This wouldnt be the presidents first racially charged remark. He spent years furthering the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama, the nations first black president, was not born in the U.S. He launched his presidential campaign with a speech that accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals across the border and proposed banning all Muslims from entering the country before settling for barring individuals from certain Muslim-majority nations. He has repeatedly referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as Pocahontas, including at an event to honor Native Americans who served in World War II.

Trump previously said in private meetings that Haitians all have AIDS and that people from Africa would never go back to their huts once they had seen the U.S., The New York Times reported in December. The White House has denied that he made either of those comments.

Jack Davidson, executive director of the American Haitian Foundation, said Trumps latest comment was ignorant [and] racist with a complete disregard for the human dignity of the Haitian people.

[Haiti] has been struggling with its democracy and extreme poverty for many years, Davidson told HuffPost. The people of the country of Haiti are hardworking but many have given up hope. I am embarrassed that he is the president of the United States.

The president has criticized black athletes for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality, calling for NFL owners to get that son of a bitch off the field.

He has been reticent at times to criticize white nationalists who support him. In August, the president said there were very fine people participating in a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counter-protester was killed.

Trump is demanding an end to the diversity visa lottery, which grants up to 50,000 green cards to people from countries that send comparatively few immigrants to the U.S., many of them in Africa. Those individuals are chosen by the U.S. and then vetted, and there is no indication that they pose a greater threat than other immigrants or native-born citizens. But Trump has nonetheless made the baseless claim that through the visa lottery, foreign governments give us their worst people  really the worst of the worst.

The president also wants to limit what he and many proponents of slashing legal immigration call chain migration, the process by which Americans and legal permanent residents can sponsor certain family members for green cards. That, too, could largely affect people of color, because recent immigrants are more likely to come from Asian or Latin American countries.

For Trumps own Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, however, his business has reportedly requested hundreds of visas to bring in foreign workers, including from Haiti.

Nick Wing and Nick Visser contributed reporting.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Trump encourages House to renew program to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad despite initial tweet saying it may have abused his campaign

Donald Trump on Thursday complained about the phony dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. Photograph: Sipa USA/Rex/Shutterstock

In a confusing series of tweets, Donald Trump on Thursday pushed the House to renew a critical national security program that allows spy agencies to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad, after having earlier attacked the legislation.

A White House official said staffers had consulted with Trump after his initial tweet opposing the administrations stance.

The House passed a bill this morning to reauthorize the key foreign intelligence collection program with an important tweak. It requires the FBI to get a warrant if it wants to view the contents of Americans communications swept up in the process.

The House passed what is known as Section 702 of a program that allows spy agencies to collect information on foreign targets abroad. The bill passed 256-164. The Senate must still pass the bill before it is sent to the White House for the presidents signature.

Earlier, the House rejected a measure to impose stiffer restrictions on the FBI. It would have required the FBI to get a warrant to continue even querying the database when Americans are involved.

This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land, Trump said in a morning tweet a few hours before the votes. We need it! Get smart!

But before that he had sent out a contradictory tweet suggesting that the programme was used to collect information that might have been used to taint his campaign.

House votes on controversial FISA ACT today, Trump wrote, citing a Fox News headline. This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?

Representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Trumps tweets were inaccurate, conflicting and confusing.

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He suggested that a vote on the bill should be delayed until the White Houses position can be ascertained. But Republicans said the vote should be held.

The program allows US spy agencies to collect information on foreign targets outside the United States. Americans communications are inadvertently swept up in the process and privacy advocates and some lawmakers want to require the FBI to get a warrant if it wants to query and view the content of Americans communications that are in the database to build domestic crime cases.

Trumps initial tweet linking the Fisa programme that his White House supports to the dossier that alleges his campaign had ties to Russia seemed to be in opposition to his administrations position, potentially putting the reauthorisation vote in doubt.

His tweets came shortly after a Fox & Friends segment that highlighted the Fisa programme, calling it controversial. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, A Republican who has also made the television rounds in recent days, has pushed for less invasive spying measures.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, struggled to explain the apparent about-face as she was repeatedly questioned during Thursdays press briefing.

Jim Acosta, CNNs chief White House correspondent, said: There seems to be a pattern  and correct me if Im wrong and there is no pattern  where the president watches something on Fox & Friends and then he tweets about it.

Pundit Andrew Napolitano had appeared on the show and criticised the Fisa programme, noted Acosta, who asked if there was a cause and effect at work. Sanders tried to deflect the question by saying: Im sure you are disappointed hes not watching CNN.

Acosta, often a thorn in the side of the administration, shot back: I think he watches a lot of CNN, if you dont mind me saying it.

Sanders replied tartly: I dont think thats true. Your numbers would be higher.

There were some disapproving howls in the press room. The spokeswoman continued: The president has a great deal of understanding. This is top of mind. He was talking about it last week. He has issued a presidential memo on it, so its not just something that happened this morning. Its been an ongoing discussion and something of great importance to the president.

In another testy exchange, Hallie Jackson, chief White House correspondent of NBC News, challenged Sanders: His tweet today was confusing. It was contradictory. It just was. She asked how anyone could trust that those who claim to represent the presidents position actually are.

The press secretary replied dismissively: I think that the premise of your question is completely ridiculous and shows the lack of knowledge that you have on this process. Ive tried several times  Ill do it for a 10th time here. Look, the president supports the 702 but he has some very strong concerns about the Fisa programme more generally  [The tweet] wasnt confusing for me; Im sorry if it was for you.

The presidents reversal was yet another example of him seemingly taking cues from television, particularly the morning Fox News show, while also personalising an issue, in this case the dossier, over a policy position.

There are no obvious links between the dossier and the reauthorization of the spying program, but Trump has repeatedly denounced the document in recent days. The dossier has been back in the news with the release of a transcript of a congressional interview with Glenn Simpson, one of the men behind it.

The document  compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele  makes an allegation that there was a conspiracy of cooperation between Russian agents and the Trump campaign, and the president has frequently scorned it since its publication last January.

In March last year, Trump drew fierce criticism when he suggested without evidence that Barack Obama had wire-tapped his offices in New York before the presidential election.
President Donald Trump fired off a series of tweets Thursday that appeared to undermine his own administrations position on surveillance legislation.

While live-tweeting during his preferred morning show, Fox & Friends, Trump railed against a 2008 amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act  even as his staffers were working to reauthorize it.

Disproven and paid for by Democrats Dossier used to spy on Trump Campaign. Did FBI use Intel tool to influence the Election? @foxandfriends Did Dems or Clinton also pay Russians? Where are hidden and smashed DNC servers? Where are Crooked Hillary Emails? What a mess!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

House votes on controversial FISA ACT today. This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, which was passed in 2008 and was set to expire Wednesday unless reauthorized, allows the government to spy on the electronic communications of non-U.S. citizens located outside the United States.

Critics of the Section 702 amendment argue that its language also intentionally enables the government to spy on Americans who communicate with non-U.S. citizens under surveillance. Libertarians and progressive lawmakers attempted to pass an amendment to Section 702, known as the USA Rights Act, on Thursday. The provision would require the government to obtain a warrant before collecting information about Americans.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that the Trump administration was against the USA Rights Act and that it supported the reauthorization of Section 702 as it was written.

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The Administration strongly opposes the USA Rights amendment to the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act, which the House will consider tomorrow, Sanders told reporters. This amendment would re-establish the walls between intelligence and law enforcement that our country knocked down following the attacks of 9/11 in order to increase information sharing and improve our national security. The Administration urges the House to reject this amendment and preserve the useful role FISAs Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives.

Nonetheless, Trump bashed Section 702 on Thursday morning and linked it to conspiracy theories that claim Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the 2016 presidential campaign, and Democratic lawmakers used it to influence the election. Hours later, the president appeared to recognize his mistake, telling his Twitter followers to get smart about Wednesdays vote on Section 702 and the USA Rights Act.

With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

Despite the presidents mixed messages, the House of Representatives voted against the USA Rights Act on Wednesday. It then voted for the reauthorization of Section 702.

During a news briefing Thursday afternoon, Sanders said Trump fully understands the FISA provisions and that she didnt believe his tweets were in conflict with his administrations stance on Section 702.

The president fully supports the 702 and was happy to see it passed the House today, Sanders said. But he does have some overall concern with the FISA program more generally. The president doesnt feel we should have to choose between protecting American citizens and protecting their civil liberties. He wants to do both. ... We dont see any contradiction or confusion in that.

This story has been updated with additional comments from Sanders.

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been a staunch defender of President Donald Trump, but that may have changed on Tuesday.

Carlson called it a weird scene when Trump met with lawmakers of both parties and indicated hed sign just about any deal they make on immigration.

Im not going to say, Oh, gee, I want this or I want that, Trump said. Ill be signing it, because I have a lot of confidence in the people in this room that youre going to come up with something really good.

Trump also indicated a willingness to protect young undocumented immigrants, known as the Dreamers.

Carlson said thats a completely different Donald Trump from the one that talked tough on immigration on the campaign trail.

Carlson said:

Congress is full of people from both parties who believe that the point of our immigration policy is to provide cheap labor to their donors and to atone for Americas imaginary sins against the world. They couldnt care less about immigrations effect on you or your family. Yet these are the same people the president now says he trusts to write the immigration bill, the one he will sign no matter what it says. So what was the point of running for president?

Carlson also noted that Trump boasts about his negotiating skills.

He clearly has skills as a negotiator, Carlson said. Where were they today?

The Fox News host also said Democrats are trying to import more Democratic voters.

Once they retake the Congress and the presidency  and if Trump betrays his base on immigration, thatll definitely happen  it is over, Carlson said. Say goodbye to borders. They are done.

See his full monologue on the Fox News website.

Also on HuffPost

Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher spoke out onstage as host of the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 29, 2017. His remarks came just two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States for three months.



"Everyone in airports that belong in my America! You are part of the fabric of who we are, and we we love you and we welcome you."

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Julia Louis-Dreyfus during the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards spoke out about how she was "horrified" by the immigrant ban, being the child of an immigrant herself.



"I am American patriot. I love this country and because I love this country, I am horrified by its blemishes. And this immigrant ban is a blemish and it is un-American."

Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano took to Twitter to support her friends.



"My best friend Alaa Mohammad Khaled is Muslim His parents were Palestinian refugees His brother is DJ Khaled RefugeesWelcome"

Taylor Schilling

Taylor Schilling with the cast of "Orange is the New Black" during the 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.



"We stand up here representing a diverse group of people, representing generations of families who have sought a better life here, We know that it's going to be up to us and all of you to keep telling stories. What united us is stronger than the forces that seek to divide us."

Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington wears a safety pin during the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.



"Ill be wearing one of these tonight. On my arm. To show solidarity. We will not stop fighting for our safety & the safety of our fellow citizens and human beings. Actors are activists, no matter what, because we embody the worth and humanity of all people."

George Takei

George Takei posted on Twitter, sharing an article that made people think about the immigration ban. He wrote, "I hope we're all paying attention."

Dev Patel

Dev Patel stopped on the red carpet to speak out during the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.



"I've just flown in from India and to fly into what was a nightmare, to realize that this is actually happening right now in the world, in a country where I live, it's heartbreaking. The first thought that came in my head was just thousands of children and mothers and young fathers that have turned up to these shores with hope, and they're being swatted away. It's just so divisive and negative and wrong. It's scary, it's really scary."

Seth Rogen

Seth Rogen took to Twitter sharing where a protest was being held.

Sophia Bush

Sophia Bush took to Twitter in support of human rights.



She later tweeted, Bravo to the courts. At least some folks in charge adhere to the Constitution. #NoHate #NoFear #RefugeesAreWelcomeHere.

Sarah Paulson

Sarah Paulson addressed the ban during the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.



I would like to make plea for everyone, if they can, any money they have to spare please donate to the ACLU to protect the rights and liberties of people across this country.

David Harbour

David Harbour addresses the ban while accepting an award for "Stranger Things" during the SAG Awards.



"Now, as we act in the continuing narrative of 'Stranger Things,' we 1983 Midwesterners will repel bullies, we will shelter freaks and outcasts, those who have no home. We will get past the lies, we will hunt monsters. And when we are at a loss amidst the hypocrisy and the casual violence of certain individuals and institutions. We will, as per Chief Jim Hopper, punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the weak, the disenfranchised and the marginalized!"

Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo shared on social media what he really thought about the immigration ban.

Mahershala Ali

Mahershala Ali during the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.



"When we get caught up in the minutiae and the details that make us all different, I think there's two ways of seeing that. There's the opportunity to see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique, and then there's an opportunity to go to war about it and say that this person is different from me, I don't like you, let's battle."

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus shared a multicolored image about standing alongside immigrants in the United States.

Michael Moore

Michael Moore took to Twitter in outrage.



"To our Muslim neighbors in the world: I & tens of millions of others are so very sorry. The majority of Americans did not vote 4 this man."

Emma Stone

Emma Stone also addressed the ban during the SAG Awards.



We have to speak up. Staying silent only helps the oppressor, not the victim. Right now I hope that people seeing things that are being done that are unconstitutional and inhumane would say something."

Lily Allen

Singer Lily Allen took to social media to express her opinion about the immigration ban, calling it "a heinous act."

Simon Helberg and Jocelyn Towne

Simon Helberg and Jocelyn Towne brought a sign to the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Mira Sorvino

In February 2017, an appeals court decided against Donald Trump's proposed travel ban.



Actress Mira Sorvino tweeted after court ruling, saying, Thank God!!And TY to all the judges, and lawyers and citizens who protested! This is our America! #nomuslimban #lovenothatemakesamericagreat.

Albert Brooks

After the appeals court ruling, Albert Brooks tweeted: Looks like the appeals court is not getting that Ivanka Trump gift basket.

Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington is seen backstage at the SAG Awards.



I think we as Americans better learn to unite, We need to put our elected officials feet to the fire and demand that they work together or they wont get back into office."

Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner took to Twitter after the Immigration Ban became public.

Kumail Nanjiani

"Silicon Valley's" Kumail Nanjiani tweeted: "As someone who was born in Pakistan I can tell you coming into America is VERY difficult. A #Muslimban accomplishes nothing but hate."

Emmy Rossum

Emmy Rossum shared on Twitter, "Refugees are FLEEING TERROR. They are not terrorists. #muslimban."

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
UPDATE: Patrick Niergarth has been located and is fine, the Helena Police Department reported Thursday morning.

No additional details were provided.

***

Helena police received an out-of-state call from someone reporting his adult brother as a missing person.

The missing man, 64-year-old Patrick Niergarth, was likely last seen in Butte on Dec. 6. Niergarth is 5 feet 9 inches tall and about 178 pounds, with white hair and hazel eyes.

He may be traveling in a red 2012 Ford Focus with Montana license plate No. BZK877.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call local law enforcement, or the Helena Police Department at 442-3233.
The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning Wednesday advising Americans to avoid five states in Mexico, putting the regions at the same level of danger as war-torn Syria, Yemen, and Somalia.

The level 4 do not travel risk is the highest warning and applies to the Pacific coast states of Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero, and Tamaulipas on the eastern Gulf.

Violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread, the advisory reads.

Guerrero has suffered from a long history of violence. In 2014, 43 students were abducted and killed in Guerrero state. Last week, a police shootout left 11 people dead. In the travel advisory, the State Department warns that, Armed groups operate independently of the government in many areas of Guerrero. Members of these groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence towards travelers.

Criminal organizations also operate heavily in the state of Sinaloa. In 2016, the infamous cartel boss Joaquin El Chapo Guzman was arrested and extradited, but violence remains in the power vacuum of his drug empire.

Last year, Mexicos homicide rate was the deadliest on record, according to the Guardian, with 23,101 murder investigations opened.



Mexico overall was given a level 2 warning, which means travelers should exercise increased caution. Eleven additional Mexican states received a level 3 warning, meaning reconsider travel.

The countrys main tourism destinations  Cancun, the Mayan Riviera, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit, and Mexico City  have no travel restrictions, Mexicos tourism secretariat said in a statement.
By Nick Carey DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co installed software that enabled its F-250 and F-350 Super Duty trucks to cheat at passing federal emissions tests, according to a lawsuit by truck owners filed on Wednesday, a claim the No. 2 U.S. automaker described as "baseless." Ford manipulated the emissions system in violation of federal requirements and the affected trucks released twice the legal limits of emissions during normal driving, the lawsuit claimed. An emission-cheating scandal that came to light in 2015 cost German automaker Volkswagen tens of billions of dollars in settlements and fines. Ford said in a statement that all of its vehicles comply with all U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board emissions regulations. "Ford vehicles do not have defeat devices," the company said. "We will defend ourselves against these baseless claims." The law firm representing the owners, Hagens Berman, has launched lawsuits in the last year against General Motors Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV as well as engine maker Cummins Inc, making similar allegations. In the tests Ford conducted on the F-250 and F-350 vehicles, "emissions are routinely as high as five times the standard," the lawsuit said, quipping that the trucks should bear the moniker "Super Dirty." Erik Gordon, an expert in entrepreneurship and technology at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, said that if true, the "allegations would expose Ford to the risk of billion-dollar liabilities and punch a hole in its attempts to position itself as a vehicle technology leader." The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, also named German auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH [ROBG.UL] as a defendant. In a statement Wednesday, Bosch said allegations against the company "remain the subject of investigations and civil litigation" and it takes allegations of diesel software manipulation "very seriously." Last year, Bosch agreed to pay $327.5 million to U.S. owners of Volkswagen AG vehicles for its part in installing illegal emissions-cheating software. More recently, German prosecutors investigating whether carmaker Daimler AG manipulated emission tests on its diesel cars have looked at whether Bosch was involved. Volkswagen has struggled to draw a line under its diesel emissions scandal, which broke in the United States in 2015 and has cost the German company as much as $30 billion. An EPA spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the lawsuit against Ford. Ford shares closed down 0.4 percent at $13.03. (Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Savio D'Souza and David Gregorio)
KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military in Afghanistan is investigating an incident in the eastern province of Nangarhar in which one of its forces was wounded in an apparent insider attack by members of a pro-government militia. Capt. Tom Gresback, public affairs director at the NATO-led Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul confirmed there had been an "active ground engagement" in Achin district in which he said one U.S. service member had been wounded but none killed. "We are looking into the details of engagement with our Afghan partners and will provide more information when appropriate," he said in an emailed statement. No comment was immediately available from provincial government officials. Details of the incident remain unclear but a local member of parliament, Obaidullah Shinwari, said members of a pro-government militia had opened fire on U.S. forces, killing two Americans and an interpreter. He said an air strike was then called in, killing 22 members of the militia force. If confirmed as an insider attack, it would be the latest in a series against U.S. forces, including an incident in Achin district in June in which an Afghan commando opened fire, killing three U.S. personnel and wounding another The incident occurred during a joint operation against fighters from Islamic State in Khorasan (IS-K), the local one Nangarhar province, on the border with Pakistan. "We continue to strategically push IS-K back from their fighting positions taking seven kilometers and clearing much of the Mohmand Valley, Nangarhar," Gresback said. U.S. Special Forces, cooperating with Afghan units, have been heavily engaged in Nangarhar, where Islamic State in Khorasan, the local affiliate of the radical movement, first appeared three years ago. In the months between June and November last year, U.S. Special Forces carried out at least 420 ground operations and 214 air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan, according to a Pentagon report in December. (Reporting by Ahmad Sultan and James Mackenzie Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
London (AFP) - Britain said Thursday it has denied a request by Ecuador to issue diplomatic status to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in the country's London embassy since 2012.

"The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Mr Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter," the British foreign ministry said in a statement.

Ecuador's attempt to obtain diplomatic status for the 46-year-old comes as part of the country's broader efforts to resolve the case of their long-term lodger, who moved into the embassy to avoid arrest over a Swedish probe into rape allegations.

Sweden dropped their investigation over the 2010 allegations last year, but British police have said they are still seeking to arrest him for failing to surrender to a court after violating bail terms.

"Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," Britain's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Assange has refused to step outside the embassy and claimed he fears being extradited to the United States, for WikiLeaks' publication of leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said on Tuesday her government is looking at the possibility of a "third country or a personality" stepping in to resolve the stand-off.

"No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out," Espinosa told foreign correspondents in Quito.

On Wednesday the Ecuadorian foreign ministry refused to comment on media reports that Assange, an Australian national, has been granted citizenship by the South American country.
The battery-related iPhone slowdown may turn out to be the biggest crisis in Apples history. Approximately 30 class action suits have been filed around the world against the iPhone maker, with some international regulators already investigating Apples decision to slow down older iPhones packing chemically aged batteries without telling customers.

It was only a matter of time before the US government made a move against Apple.

Don't Miss: Super NES Classic is in stock at a premium right now on Amazon  with Prime shipping

Senator John Thune (RS.D.) on Tuesday sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Thune, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, wants to know how Apple tracked customer complaints of reduced performance, and whether Apple explored offering rebates to customers who paid the full $79 price for battery replacements before the $50 price cut was announced late last month.

Apples proposed solutions have prompted additional criticism from some customers, particularly its decision not to provide free replacement batteries, Thune said. Apple hasnt yet addressed the letter, but the company has until January 23rd to respond.

The French government is also looking into Apples potential deception and programmed obsolescence, the Journal report said. That investigation is run by the consumer protection agency that reports to the finance ministry, according to a spokesman.

A few days ago, a report said that regulators in Brazil have also pressed Apple to inform local iPhone buyers about how they can replace faulty iPhone batteries for the reduced price. If you want to know whether or not your iPhone is being throttled by Apple, we have a guide right here that explains how you can easily tell.

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Government warns citizens to avoid Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero amid high levels of crime and cartel violence

The town of Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state, near the US-Mexico border. The state is included in the travel advisory. Photograph: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images

The US state department has warned Americans to completely avoid five Mexican states plagued by crime and drug cartel violence, putting the regions on the same level as war-zones such as Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.

In an advisory issued on Wednesday, the state department said do not travel to the border state of Tamaulipas, as well as the Pacific coast states of Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero.

Sinaloa has seen spiraling violence since the 2016 arrest  and subsequent extradition to the US  of the former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin El Chapo Guzman and battles over the spoils of his criminal empire.

Guerrero has long suffered lawlessness, but became notorious for the disappearance of 43 students in 2014. It has turned especially violent as dozens of criminal groups battle for control of heroin production, and the US government warns that armed groups operate independently of the government in many areas [and] maintain roadblocks and many use violence towards travellers.

While Michoacan has a long history of drug cartel activities, the tiny coastal state of Colima has claimed the dubious title of Mexicos murder capital as rival cartels are thought to be competing for control of the port of Manzanillo.



Why did Mexico launch its war on drugs?

On 10 December 2006, president Felipe Calderon, launched Mexicos war on drugs by sending 6,500 troops into his home state of Michoacan, where rival cartels were engaged in tit-for-tat massacres.

Calderon declared war eight days after taking power  a move widely seen as an attempt to boost his own legitimacy after a bitterly contested election victory. Within two months, around 20,000 troops were involved in operations across the country.

What has the war cost so far?

The US has donated at least $1.5bn through the Merida Initiative since 2008, while Mexico has spent at least $54bn on security and defence since 2007. Critics say that this influx of cash has helped create an opaque security industry open to corruption at every level.

Story continues

But the biggest costs have been human: since 2007, around 200,000 people have been murdered and more than 28,000 reported as disappeared. Human rights groups have also detailed a vast rise in human rights abuses by security forces.

As the cartels have fractured and diversified, other violent crimes such as kidnapping and extortion have also surged. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by violence.

What has been achieved?

Improved collaboration between the US and Mexico has resulted in numerous high-profile arrests and drug busts. Officials say 25 of the 37 drug traffickers on Calderons most-wanted list have been jailed, extradited to the US or killed, although not all of these actions have been independently corroborated.

The biggest victory  and most embarrassing blunder  under Pena Nietos leadership was the recapture, escape and another recapture of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

While the crackdown and capture of kingpins has won praise from the media and US, it has done little to reduce the violence.

How is the US involved?

Mexicos decade-long war on drugs would never have been possible without the huge injection of American cash and military cooperation under the Merida Initiative. The funds have continued to flow despite growing evidence of serious human rights violations.

Last year was Mexicos most murderous year in memory, with the violence spreading to tourist destinations including Los Cabos and Acapulco, and the countrys government has shown little sign that it is getting the upper hand, despite an 11-year militarized crackdown on organized crime.

The US state department gave Mexico as a whole a level-two rating and encourages travellers to exercise increased caution. At least half of Mexicos 31 states were assigned level 3 or 4 warnings, meaning visitors should reconsider travel or do not travel to those places.



Violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread, the advisory read.

US travel advisories are sensitive for Mexico, which attracted more than 35 million foreign visitors in 2016, according to the Mexican tourism board.

The tourism secretariat issued a statement Tuesday saying Mexicos five main destinations  Cancun, the Mayan Riviera, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta-Riviera Nayarit and Mexico City  were not subject to the US restrictions.

It added that the crime statistics and violence used for the evaluation are not related to incidents that directly affected foreign visitors.
Venom in the comics (Image: Marvel)

Weve had six (!) Spider-Man movies since 2002, and while one might expect such a glut of wall-crawler adventures to lead to audience fatigue, the success of last years Marvel Cinematic Universe entry Spider-Man: Homecoming ($334 million domestic; $880 million global) suggests otherwise. Thus, Sony is moving forward with its plans for a spinoff  Venom, about the web-slinging heros arch-nemesis. With Tom Hardy in the title role, expectations are slowly escalating for the upcoming film, which is due this October. And now, we have our first look at the headliner in character.

Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock in Venom (Photo: Frank Masi/Sony Pictures)

Since Sony is no doubt eager to reveal its black-tendrilled, giant-fanged symbiote creature via a later trailer, this initial glimpse is simply of Hardy as Eddie Brock, the man whos eventually taken over by the parasitic alien Venom. More revealing, instead, is a new video from Brazils Comic-Con 2017. In that clip (below), director Ruben Fleischer provides some inside information on the two comic-book storylines that are inspiring the films plot: Lethal Protector, which concerns Brock relocating to San Francisco and battling other Venom symbiotes, and Planet of the Symbiotes, which involves a planetary invasion by not-so-nice symbiotes. All of which, it seems, implies that in this incarnation, Venom will be less of a straightforward villain than a monster who finds himself battling even worse creatures in order to stave off apocalyptic disaster.

Tom Hardy and Director Ruben Fleischer welcome you to the set of #Venom. pic.twitter.com/gMzQZnFz8H  Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) January 11, 2018

Given that Hardy is one of international cinemas most intense, charismatic, and unpredictable stars, and that the films supporting cast includes Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, and Jenny Slate, the R-rated Venom is shaping up to be one of the falls most anticipated films, even if its not officially part of the MCU.

Venom debuts in theaters on Oct. 5.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
By Mi Nguyen

HANOI (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Vietnam were seeking long jail terms on Thursday for a former member of the country's ruling politburo and a high-profile former official over losses of hundreds of millions of dollars at a state oil firm, domestic media said.

Dinh La Thang, the former politburo official and one-time chairman of PetroVietnam, faces 14 to 15 years in jail for "deliberate violation of state regulations on economic management", media quoted prosecutors as saying in court in Hanoi.

Thang is the most senior politician to face trial in decades. Scores of former officials and bankers have been arrested in a sweeping crackdown on corruption in the communist state whose fast-growing economy is a lure for investors.

The Supreme People's Procuracy of Vietnam sought life in prison for Trinh Xuan Thanh, the former chairman of PetroVietnam Construction, whose case grabbed world headlines last year when Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping him from a Berlin park.

He is accused over losses of more than $150 million and prosecutors could potentially have sought a death sentence.

Thanh denied accusations by witnesses in court on Tuesday that he had handled bags of money sent to officials as bribes, the website VNexpress said.

The two are accused alongside 20 others who face charges of deliberate mismanagement, embezzlement, or both, in the most important trial of the widening crackdown on corruption.

The crackdown intensified last year after Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party, won a power struggle with former prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Thang testified on Tuesday that the previous prime minister took a key decision that led to PetroVietnam's losses.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
A bird's eye view of Livingston is shown in this map from 1883. The town was somewhat sparse at the time, but boasted two newspapers, one of which is still in circulation. A close look at the cluster of buildings near the river shows what appears to be a group of tepees, along with a tent camp. Also notable is the fact that the map shows Livingston as being part of Gallatin County, as Park County was not created until 1887.
In 2015, Sara Ortin Leon traveled from her home in Barcelona, Spain, to Zambia, Africa. Thats where she met Ginger the dog. The two quickly connected, but Leon had to return to Spain. She missed Ginger so much she decided to go back to Zambia and look for her. They reunited and Leon adopted the sweet pup. And thats just the beginning of their adventure. The happy family jumped in a car and spent the next year traveling around Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. Ginger and her owner went on hikes and made time for paddleboarding. Leon told the Dodo, We paddled for hours and hours, and her face  she was smiling. Its crazy. Besides enjoying the views, the confident pup also protected her mommy from the wild. The pair used their travels to educate people. In Africa, 99 percent of people hate dogs. You go into the street, and people try to kick them and try to throw rocks at them, Leon said. Shes planning to start a nonprofit organization to help local dogs.
Ronan Farrow is opening up about how his early family experience has galvanized him to take on abuse of power.

The journalist is featured on the latest cover of The Hollywood Reporter where he gives insight into his in-depth coverage of the Harvey Weinstein scandal for the New Yorker  and how having Woody Allen as his father has shaped his life.

You see early in life with that kind of a family background the way in which the most powerful men in America wield power for good and for ill, said Farrow, who is also actress Mia Farrows son. And probably, yes, the family background made me someone who understood the abuse of power from an early age.

Ronan Farrow and Woody Allen

Allen has come under fire again after the wake of sexual harassment and abuse scandals against several prominent figures has racked Hollywood due to daughter Dylan Farrows claim that Allen molested her when she was 7. The director has long denied the allegations, which first surfaced during Allens explosive 1992 split with Mia Farrow. Allen was not charged, though a Connecticut prosecutor said there was enough evidence for a criminal case. In 2014, Dylan detailed her allegations in a New York Times op-ed.

Farrow also addressed Allens continued prominence in Hollywood despite the allegation made by his sister and whether the director will be shunned like the other powerful men accused of sexual misconduct.

Its not for me to say what Hollywood will or wont do, Farrow said. I will say that in every industry there are still powerful men facing credible allegations of wrongdoing who continue to evade accountability. As empowering a moment as this moment is, theres still a long way to go.

Dylan spoke out publicly for the first time in 2014, prompting Allen to again adamantly deny the accusation. Farrow also penned a column for the Hollywood Reporter in 2016, which addressed the sexual abuse claims and condemned the media for not asking Allen about the allegations and stars for working with him. In response, Allen told The Guardian, I have no interest in all of that. I find that all tabloid stupidity.
The Lone Gunmen are back  well, kinda. Richard Langly, who was one of the three conspiracy theorists/hackers who assisted Mulder throughout the years, appeared on Wednesdays X-Files. The Lone Gunmen had died saving the world from bio-terrorists back in Season 9. So it was surprising when Langly contacted Mulder on his phone.

Although Langly wasnt really alive, he helped create a digital world where his mind survived. Mulder, its like I designed heaven, Langly said while communicating through Mulders phone, I eat hot dogs and donuts all day long. No one here ever dies of cancer or Alzheimers. And the Ramones are here, and they dont fight! Unfortunately, it wasnt all sunshine and rainbows for Langley, who wanted Mulder and Scully to shutdown the simulation. Langly told them, Were living a lie here. Its a work camp. Were digital slaves. They take our uploaded minds to develop science that only the elite will use to leave your world.

So Mulder and Scully snuck into a government building, shut down the servers, and ended the program. But this is The X-Files, so, of course, it wasnt going to end so easily. Langly reappeared on Mulders phone in a panic, telling them, They know that we know! Destroy the backup! Mulder, Im afraid, before disappearing. Well just have to wait to find out if Mulder and Scully can end the simulation for good.

The X-Files airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox. Watch clips and full episodes of The X-Files for free on Yahoo View.

See why X-Files fans freaked out on Twitter after the truth behind Scullys son was revealed:

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Mayor Bill de Blasio: Its up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient

Lower Manhattan was hit by a power cut during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Photograph: Afton Almaraz/Getty Images

New York City is seeking to lead the assault on climate change and the Trump administration with a plan to divest $5bn from fossil fuels and sue the worlds most powerful oil companies over their contribution to dangerous global warming.

City officials have set a goal of divesting New Yorks $189bn pension funds from fossil fuel companies within five years in what they say would be among the most significant divestment efforts in the world to date. Currently, New York Citys five pension funds have about $5bn in fossil fuel investments. New York state has already announced it is exploring how to divest from fossil fuels.

New York City is standing up for future generations by becoming the first major US city to divest our pension funds from fossil fuels, said Bill de Blasio, New Yorks mayor.

At the same time, were bringing the fight against climate change straight to the fossil fuel companies that knew about its effects and intentionally misled the public to protect their profits. As climate change continues to worsen, its up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient.

De Blasio said that the city is taking the five fossil fuel firms  BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell  to federal court due to their contribution to climate change.

Court documents state that New York has suffered from flooding and erosion due to climate change and because of looming future threats it is seeking to shift the costs of protecting the city from climate change impacts back on to the companies that have done nearly all they could to create this existential threat.

The court filing claims that just 100 fossil fuel producers are responsible for nearly two-thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution, with the five targeted companies the largest contributors.

Story continues

The case will also point to evidence that firms such as Exxon knew of the impact of climate change for decades, only to downplay and even deny this in public. New Yorks attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, is investigating Exxon over this alleged deception.

Divestment is the opposite of investment. It's the shifting of stocks, bonds or funds from certain businesses or sectors.

Individual people invest in various ways to generate money, but large institutions such as cities, universities and religious organizations do this on a huge scale. Traditionally, fund managers put together investment portfolios that will provide the best returns for these institutions, regardless of where the money is invested.

The divestment movement, primarily consisting of climate activists, is urging private and public institutions to rid their portfolios of all oil, gas and coal stocks to send a financial and ethical message that fossil fuels are harmful and shouldn't be tolerated. So far, it's estimated that around $6tn on fossil fuel wealth has been either divested or rejected for investment globally.

Activists hope this momentum will deprive fossil fuels of a social license, similar to tobacco, and help accelerate the deployment of cleaner energy, such as wind and solar.

New York was badly rattled by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and faces costs escalating into the tens of billions of dollars in order to protect low-lying areas such as lower Manhattan and the area around JFK airport from being inundated by further severe storms fueled by rising sea levels and atmospheric warming. De Blasios office said climate change is perhaps the toughest challenge New York City will face in the coming decades.

New Yorks lawsuit echoes a similar effort on the west coast, where two California counties and a city are suing 37 fossil fuel companies for knowingly emitting dangerous levels of greenhouse gases. One of those firms, Exxon, has complained that it has been targeted by a collection of special interests and opportunistic politicians as part of a conspiracy to force the company to comply with various political objectives.

The legal action and the divestment draw perhaps the starkest dividing line yet between New York and the Trump administration on climate change. Under Trump, the federal government has attempted the withdraw the US from the Paris climate accords, tear up Barack Obamas signature climate policies and open up vast areas of Americas land and waters to coal, oil and gas interests.

De Blasio and the city comptroller, Scott Stringer, have come under pressure for several years from activists to rid New Yorks pension funds of any link to fossil fuels, with some environmentalists claiming the city has been too slow to use its clout to tackle climate change.

Stringer admitted the divestment will be complex and will take some time but said the citys pension funds could promote sustainability while also protecting the retirement of teachers, police officers and other city workers.

New York City today becomes a capital of the fight against climate change on this planet, said Bill McKibben, co-founder of climate group 350.org.

With its communities exceptionally vulnerable to a rising sea, the city is showing the spirit for which its famous  its not pretending that working with the fossil fuel companies will somehow save the day, but instead standing up to them, in the financial markets and in court.

Christiana Figueres, former UN climate chief and architect of the Paris climate agreement, added: The exponential transition toward a fossil-fuel-free economy is unstoppable and local governments have a critical role to play. There is no time to lose.

Its therefore extremely encouraging to see NYC step up today.

New York joins cities such as Washington DC and Cape Town in divesting, along with universities such as Stanford in California and Oxford in the UK. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, notable for its links to the past oil wealth of John D Rockefeller, has also sought to divest.
Editor's note Saul Llamas Rios, suspected of randomly shooting and killing Tieton missionary student Trae Oyler more than a year ago faces trial on Jan. 22. Months prior to Oylers death on Oct. 26, 2016, Rios was arrested by Yakima County Sheriffs Office deputies for crashing into a mailbox, and concealing a gun without a permit. He posted bail two days later, and was released from the Yakima County jail on a promise to return to court. But two warrants seeking him in Butte County, Calif., for violent crimes went undetected until the night of Oylers death, county jail and sheriffs office officials say. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said he informed the Yakima County jail of the warrants, but was told Rios had been released on bail two days earlier. Who Honea spoke to in Yakima County about the warrants remains unclear, but there does seem to be a lack of policy governing what the county jail should do when it is notified of a serious warrant when someone is released on bail but expected back in court. We'll be following the case as it moves to trial, and we'll be looking for answers about how the warrant notification system broke down, and what can be done to fix it. Here is what we do know about the case:

YAKIMA, Wash. -- When Yakima County sheriffs deputies found Saul Llamas Rios behind the wheel of a minivan parked at a Naches church on a warm August evening a little more than a year ago, he was passed out and reeking of alcohol  with a loaded .38 revolver tucked into his waistband.

Just down the road was a damaged mailbox he reportedly struck while driving. Rios, 28, attempted to reach for his gun when ordered out of the minivan, but one deputy already had his weapon drawn, and Rios complied after being warned, according to Yakima County District Court records.

Rios was booked into the Yakima County jail on suspicion of hit-and-run property damage, driving with a suspended license and concealing a weapon without a permit, all misdemeanor charges. He was released two days later after posting $2,500 bail.

About 2  months later, Rios would be arrested again  on suspicion of murder. Deputies say Rios was the man behind an Oct. 26, 2016, random shooting outside Tieton that killed 20-year-old Tieton missionary student Trae Oyler.

Its unclear if Rios would have been released in August had careful attention been paid to his criminal past and an alias name he gave deputies in the church parking lot. And its also unknown if local law enforcement missed an opportunity to arrest him for outstanding warrants at a September court hearing.

But what is clear is an apparent breakdown in communication regarding Rios past  including a felony conviction in Butte County, Calif., where two felony arrest warrants seeking him were submitted to a federal database  may have resulted in Rios being out on the street that fateful October night.

This is an absolute tragic event  no doubt about it, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said. The system works a vast majority of the time, but no agency is perfect.

Now, Rios is charged with first-degree murder in Yakima County Superior Court in addition to several other felony charges and is back in county jail awaiting trial set to begin in early December.

Ken Oyler, Traes father, said his son is in Gods kingdom now. The family isnt requesting any specific sentencing for Rios, if convicted  they just want to honor Traes life, living their lives as he would have wanted.

What (Rios) did, he took something from us he could never replace, the courts could never replace, Ken Oyler said. I just left it there. Whatever they decide will be fine with us.

Honea says he contacted the Yakima County jail about the warrants four days after Rios was booked in August 2016. It was too late  Rios already had made his preliminary court appearance and after posting bail was freed Aug. 6.

But a Washington State Patrols criminal records office worker said warrant information about Rios was returned to the jail the night of his arrest  Aug. 4, 2016  after jailers submitted Rios fingerprints for verification.

Yakima County Department of Corrections Chief Scott Himes initially said the jail wasnt alerted of any warrants involving Rios until after he was arrested on suspicion of murder. But after being told in a subsequent interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic that Honea said the jail was in fact contacted, Himes said a warrant did come back from Washington state regarding Rios from Lewis County, but that it was only for misdemeanor crimes.

It wasnt extraditable so we wouldnt do anything with it, Himes said.

After reviewing that warrant late last week, Himes said he saw the name Jose Cabrera was listed on the document as an alias for Rios. But Himes contends that the jail received nothing back from state and federal databases regarding the Butte County warrants.

When we fingerprinted Rios on Aug. 4, we didnt get anything back until the 8th, Himes said. And on the 8th we only got a match that confirmed he was Rios.

Himes said he learned of the Butte County warrants from the Yakima County Sheriffs Office when Rios was booked the day after Oyler was killed.

Typically, deputies will run a criminal history on suspects using their name. Fingerprints are taken when a suspect is booked into jail, and the jail forwards those prints electronically to the Washington State Patrol, which also sends them to a national database to see if there are any warrants or prior convictions in other states.

Himes said he contacted Honea about the warrants after Rios was booked on suspicion of murder. It was during that conversation, Himes said, that he learned Honea actually contacted the sheriffs office in August about the warrants. Honea called the Yakima County Sheriffs Office dispatch number, he said.

Butte County said they called the 574-2500 number, Himes said. I dont know what YSO told them, to contact the jail or what.

In some states, such as California and Louisiana, the sheriffs office runs the county jail so its conceivable Honea could have called the sheriffs office thinking he reached the jail.

But Yakima County Sheriffs Office Sgt. Mike Russell said there is no record of anyone contacting his office about warrants involving Rios or the name he used  Jose Cabrera  in California.

I can find no information at all that the sheriffs office was contacted on Aug. 8 or any time around that regarding this, he said.

Honea, who was interviewed for this story on Thursday, wasnt available Friday to confirm whether he called the jail or sheriffs office.

When first interviewed by a Yakima Herald-Republic reporter, Russell said he had no way of determining just how his office became aware of the warrants and that there wasnt a tracking system to determine that. After several phone calls and repeated questions about the warrants and whether Honea contacted the jail or sheriffs office, late last week Russell said hed do more digging.

After taking a deeper look, Russell said he managed to contact the deputies who arrested Rios in August 2016 and a former dispatcher.

According to the deputies who arrested him in August, Rios identified himself under several names, including Jose Cabrera-Corea. The deputies, Russell said, ran that name through the state and federal databases and found nothing.

The complete picture of Rios became visible only after an alert former dispatcher working the night Oyler was killed found the warrants after linking Rios to the Cabrera name. Russell couldnt say exactly where the dispatcher found the warrants.

She didnt say how long it took for her to dig or where she dug to find it, Russell said.

Under the name Jose Cabrera, Rios was wanted in Butte County for two felony warrants  one for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and another for assault likely to produce great bodily harm.

Rios is accused of pulling a sawed-off shotgun on another man during a Nov. 8, 2012, fight in an Oroville, Calif., trailer park. The gun went off during a struggle but no one was hurt, according to Butte County Superior Court documents. A day earlier, Rios allegedly choked and kicked his girlfriend, leaving bruises on her back and legs. He also threatened to kill her, according to Butte County court documents.

Those warrants were entered on Oct. 30, 2015, into the National Crime Information Center, a database maintained by the FBI.

Prior to those incidents, Rios was convicted of a felony in Butte County for possession of an illegal weapon, a dagger.

Rios criminal history reaches back to Dec. 21, 2006, when at 17 he was arrested at a Moxee park on suspicion of being under the influence of marijuana and alcohol and being in possession of a stolen truck, according to records from the juvenile division of Yakima County Superior Court.

Himes, Russell and Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Brusic say Rios use of multiple names made it difficult to discover his criminal past in California.

Whether people want to believe it or not, theres a breakdown (in investigations) when theres multiple names, Brusic said. We followed all our procedures.

But the NCIC, a federal database used by California and Washington state, collects suspect information and can quickly link suspects who may be using multiple names to a single set of fingerprints.

And thats how Honea learned that Rios was incarcerated in Yakima. He said FBI agents connected the names Rios and Cabrera when the jail submitted fingerprints to the State Patrol, which forwarded them to the NCIC.

Honea said the FBI informed him on Aug. 8, 2016, and that he contacted the jail to extradite Rios but learned he had posted bail two days earlier.

Meanwhile, Rios was due back in Yakima County District Court for the pending misdemeanor charges.

In a plea agreement on Sept. 19, 2016, Rios was convicted of hit-and-run property damage and sentenced to 90 days in jail with 89 days suspended and charged a $43 conviction fee.

The driving and gun charges were dropped because Rios forfeited the .38, which had not been reported stolen, Brusic said.

The only record found of the gun was when it was initially purchased in 1972 by a man in Tacoma, Russell said.

The sheriffs office still has the gun.
The Chairwoman of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, and the Shaked's fill-in at the committee, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, announced Wednesday afternoon that they will be punishing members of the opposition by preventing them from discussing bills in the committee after they attempted to stifle a government-led bill in the Knesset using what were considered to be unethical tactics.

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The decision was made to sanction the opposition over their purportedly underhanded attempt to foil legislation that allowed MK Yaaokov Litzman to return to the Health Ministry as Deputy Health Minister with ministerial powers.

Ministers Shaked (L) and Levin (Photo: Avi Hai)

The opposition caught the coalition off guard Wednesday when they attempted to exploit the fact that many of its members were absent due to their attendance at the funeral of Tuesday's terror attack victim Rabbi Raziel Shevah.

Aware that Bayit Yehudi's Knesset members were at the funeral in Havat Gilad and and Shas MKs were an event celebrating the birth of party leader Aryeh Deri's granddaughter, the opposition pounced on the rare opportunity afforded by a governmental minority in the Knesset by withdrawing all reservations to the bill without warning and requested that the voting begin immediately.

The unpleasant surprise, which coalition members dubbed as insensitive and condemned as foul play, was initiated by head of the Zionist Union faction in the Knesset, MK Yoel Hasson, and Yesh Atid Knesset faction head MK Ofer Shelah.

But the opposition's plan was thwarted by independent MK Orly Levy-Abekasis who stalled for time, delaying the vote.

In a statement published by ministers Levin and Shaked entitled "The contemptible behavior of the opposition," it was noted that "the opposition committee's bills will not be included on the agenda of the ministerial committee, because of their conduct in recent votes and their leaders' cynical exploitation of the funeral of a terrorist victim."

MK Litzman (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Minister Levin said that "the conduct of the opposition (Wednesday) crossed all lines, when in a senseless and inhumane move they chose to take advantage of the participation of ministers and Knesset members attending the funeral of a man who died in a terrorist attack, in order to try to harm legislation in the Knesset plenum."

Minister Shaked supported Levin's assertion, adding that "the lack of humanity revealed (Wednesday) by the opposition is the straw that broke the camel's back. This followed their contempt of the Knesset for the past two weeks, during which members of the opposition wanted to appeal to the High Court against laws passed by the Knesset.

"I will not agree to a situation in which the opposition is doing its parliamentary role and carrying out filibusters of entire days just to run to the High Court immediately after losing. The opposition must decide whether it is sticking to the path of legislation or a path of bypassing the Knesset. It is impossible to accept a situation in which a party petitions against legislation in the Knesset on one hand, and on the other hand seeks to promote laws in the Knesset."

MK Yoel Hasson

MK Yoel Hasson recriminated against Levin and Shaked's statements, accusing them of "cynically exploiting a tragic terrorist incident for the political goals of the coalition.

"Minister Shaked already announced two weeks ago that she intends to prevent any discussion on opposition bills (in the committee)," Hasson said, claiming her statement is nothing but deception which used Shevah's death as a pretext to implement predetermined initiatives.

"This is just more proof that the coalition has lost its commitment to basic democratic rules. The government is trying to limit the actions of the opposition by non-democratic means," he added. "Today they are doing this to us; tomorrow they will do it to anyone else who opposes the Likud's rule.

"It is a shame that the coalition has long forgotten that their purpose is to serve the public. Not only does the committee not meet because of internal disagreements week after week, but now they are boycotting the opposition's bills and directly harming the entire Israeli public."
MOSCOW  Just weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in Syria, Russian military outposts in the country have come under rebel attacks that are challenging Moscow's gains.

Russian bases located in Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite heartland had been immune to rebel raids ever since Moscow launched its campaign in Syria in September 2015. But a series of drone attacks and mortar and rocket shelling in recent days has broken the calm.

The incursions have raised doubts both about the sustainability of the Assad government's recent victories and Moscow's ability to protect its assets in the country.
A little more than a week after backing out of its deal with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to purchase 8,000 Spike anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), India is now considering pushing ahead with the purchase through the government-to-government (G-to-G) route, according to a report in the Indian Express newspaper.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be traveling to India next week for a state visit, as part of which he will also be broaching the subject of strengthening security ties between Israel and the subcontinent.

PM Netanyahu (R) and Indian PM Modi during the latter's visit to Israel this past July (Photo: Kobi Gideon, GPO)

India planned on purchasing the missiles for its military at a cost of $500 million, the original proposal said, in a contract drafted between the Indian army and Rafael.

The Indian government, it was reported, was now examining the possibility of purchasing them from Israel through the G-to-G route, as it has done in a deal with the French government to procure fighters jets, official sources said.

Indian media outlets published the Indian Defense Ministry's intentions of backing out of the deal in November. The original framework was for India to procure 8,000 Spike ATGMs and 300 launchers.

The deal to purchase 8,000 Spike missiles was scrapped

Official sources told Indian media Rafael's bid faced an uphill battle after the company refused to commit to fully moving production technologies to India.

The Israeli defense company won the missile tender in 2015, with its missile beating out American and European offerings in trials held by the Indian army. After the deal's cancelation, however, the Defense Ministry contacted local laboratories and asked them to develop similar missiles using local technology.
A Petah Tikva resident has been indicted with his wife's murder and aggravated assault.

The State Attorney's Office said the man suspected his wife was cheating on him and decided to stab her to death last month.

The defendant's son was at home during the fracas and tried taking the knife away from his father, leading to him being stabbed as well.
Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney's new Canadian flag cufflinks say it all.

The accessories were a gift from Canada's consul general for Montana, who is working to strengthen ties with political and business leaders in the state amid Canada's growing concern that U.S. President Donald Trump will pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Based in Denver, Canadian Consul General Stephane Lessard works with Montana, Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming. He is in Helena this week for the Montana Chamber of Commerce Business Days at the Capitol, which brings together business leaders and government officials to learn from one another.

Consuls are like mini-embassies. The actual Canadian Embassy is in Washington, D.C., but there are multiple consuls scattered throughout the United States.

Its Lessards job to connect business leaders, politicians and citizens to promote trade and relationships with Canada. This week's trip to Montana includes meetings with Cooney, Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins, professors at Montana State University in Bozeman, and other political and business leaders in the state.

Lessard sees the United States and Canada as inextricably linked economically.

Since the 1980s, the United States and Canada have had a free trade agreement, Lessard said. NAFTA brought Mexico into the agreement. ... It supercharged economic activity.

More than 26,000 Montana jobs are linked directly to Canadian trade and investment, according to statistics from the Canadian government. More than $3.5 billion in trade goes between Montana and Canada annually, making Canada Montanas No. 1 customer.

We want a more integrated economy to out-compete the rest of the world, Lessard said. We want to make sure trade benefits not just the 1 percent. Its for all society, more jobs for the middle class. ... We think its the priority of the American government to make new jobs ... for the middle class.

NAFTA, the free-trade agreement that encompasses Canada, the United States and Mexico, is an important part of that growth, Lessard said.

We have data to prove (NAFTA)s been beneficial to America," not just the other partners, he said.

Lessard also understands NAFTA is a 24-year-old agreement that needs change, especially as digital trade has exploded in the past decade. But he said agreement comes from a shared understanding of economic ideas.

If someone believes trade is a zero-sum game, we miss an opportunity to bring NAFTA into the 21st century, Lessard said. We are stronger together.
Labor and Welfare Minister Haim Katz spoke with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon on the governmental bill to raise disability benefits and his ministry's needs, in anticipation of the passage of the country's 2019 budget.

The two agreed to meet before the cabinet meeting on approving the budget.

Katz's ministry said that after the minister's threat to resign over the benefits, it seems an understanding on the matter has been put together.
With the list of 25 nominees to the Supreme Court's bench published earlier this week, the heads of the three factions in the Judicial Selection CommitteeJustice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Chief Justice Esther Hayut and Israel Bar Association President Efi Navehave begun vying for their nominees to get the nod, and cutting the deals to achieve their goals.

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The committee will convene next month to decide on the two chosen nominees to replace retiring Justices Yoram Danziger and Uri Shoham.

Shaked has attached paramount importance to filling the two vacated seats with people of her own political ilk, and it has been her stated aim since assuming her position at the Justice Ministry to pack the court with "conservative"or right-wing religiousjustices.

Some of the nominees for the Supreme Court

The judiciary, meanwhile, is finding solace in the fact that all of the minister's appointments came from within the judiciary branch itself, and included no academics or private attorneys, an issue they believe helps preserve the branch's independence during a period when it is much maligned by politicians.

The deal making begins

While relations between Hayut and Shaked are considerably positive, thanks to the minister's efforts to allow Hayut a "soft landing" in her new position, they have come to figurative blows over the latter's request to appoint Yigal Mersel as director of the Courts Administration.

Shaked, a seasoned politician, has most likely be withholding her approval to later use it as leverage in her negotiations with Hayut on appointing the new nominees.

Justice Minister Shaked (L) and Israel Bar Association President Nave are close allies (Photo: Yariv Katz)

On the bar's side, Hayut is wary of Nave and his growing influence on the appointment process, whereas Shaked considers him a veritable ally.

Nave, who himself is no slouch in political wheeling-dealing, has often stated that under his tutelage the bar association will be a member of equal standing in the committee, rather than the judiciary's rubber stamp it has been in the past.

In the previous round of selection, Nave sponsored Judge Yosef Elron's candidacy to the bench. Elron was initially considered a long-shot due to adamant resistance from the Supreme Court members of the committee, who claimed he wasn't "made of the right stuff."

Nave, however, succeeded in appointing Elron to the court, and now boasts another hard-to-resist nominee in District Judge Khaled Kabub

Kabub, widely considered an exemplary jurist, is also on Hayut's shortlist, but Shaked may not back his appointment, as she'd be hard pressed to present the appointing of the first Arab Muslim justice to the Supreme Court to her electoral base as a victory.

Judge Kabub may be the first Arab Muslim judge receiving a permanent appointment to the Supreme Court (Photo: Ami Schuman)

Nave, who joined the committee on a six-year appointment, is determined to get his man appointed to the bench.

District Judge Ofer Grosskopf is also in contention with Kabub for his Supreme Court spot. While Hayut and Shaked agree he is a worthy candidate, the latter nevertheless conditioned her supporting his candidacy on Hayut supporting her own nominee for the other position.

Another nominee with potential is Judge Shaul Shohat, who is recognized for his talents as much as his Mizrahi background. Shohat has also attracted the support of committee member Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, and may end up being selected as a compromise candidate.

Shaked's leading nominee is Prof. Alex Stein, considered a trailblazer in his fields of expertise. Stein made Aliyah to Israel from the Soviet Union when he was 16, but has been residing and working in the United States for the past 14 years.

Prof. Alex Stein is Shaked's preferred candidate

Shaked does not consider the latter fact a drawback, insisting his appointment to the bench will be an achievement in reversing a "brain drain." Fellow academics have also welcomed Stein's candidacy.

The Supreme Court, however, is markedly less enthusiastic, with sources saying bringing him up made some jaws drop in the judiciary, which has always had trouble accepting outsiders into its ranks.

Since Shaked announced his candidacy, social networks have been abuzz with tales of a non-politically correct position Stein had taken in the early 2000s on a sexual harassment scandal. The affair will most likely be dredged up again when his candidacy is discussed by the committee.

In the next few weeks, Shaked, Hayut and Nave will attempt to brook an agreement. If they cannot, Hayutwho, also with the other two justices in the committee, serves as an obstructive bloc as appointments need a seven-member majoritymay seek to postpone the hearing for another time, and in the meantime preside over a shorthanded court.
The Haifa District Court sentenced a traffic police officer from the northern region to two years in prison, also levying a NIS 50,000 fine. The officer was convicted of receiving bribes and fraudulent benefits.

The court said the person who bribed the cop, a Krayot resident who sought assistance in closing cases and investigations, will serve one year in prison and be forced to pay a NIS 50,000 fine as well.
The widow of Rabbi Raziel Shevah, who was murdered in a drive-by shooting terror attack near the outpost of Havat Gilad Tuesday evening, said in a statement addressed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday that residents of the outpost dont want to feel like land thieves, because were not.

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Yael Shevahs comments come on the heels of calls by pro-settler movements and activists for the government the legalize the outpost in response to the attack, reasoning that to do so is not only a matter of principle, but is also the best deterrence against further attacks.

Yael Shevah crying at her husband's funeral (Photo: AFP)

During her statement delivered to the media, Mrs. Shevah addressed her remarks to the prime minister directly, telling him: We want to live here as proud Jews standing tall, to feel proud that we live in the Land of Israel. We dont want to fight for every piece of land.

Shevah also described the experiences she had endured for the past 24 hours as a widow with six children.

He was murdered when he was on the way back from a brit milah (circumcision), a mitzvah (commandment), to perform another commandment. No one asked him if he wanted to die. Neither did the murderer," she said as she wept.

"We chose to bury him here (in Havat Gilad) because we truly felt that that is the most befitting statement. This is his last mission on this earthto leave a stake that will be impossible to uproot again.

Yael Shevah during the mourning period (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

"Raziel took a vow of silence. He would speak to me in messages. He was an approachable father, he never minded a bit of rambling and being silly. Even during a brit milah he would tell jokes to the babys mother, Yael said as her statement was interspersed with pauses.

Rabbi Shevahs brother also addressed the calls for revenge during the funeral on Wednesday and the contempt shown for Education Minister and Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett during his eulogy.

We dont seek revenge. The revenge is to build more and have more children and bring more light to the world, he said. My brother was a happy man who brought hearts together. He was a huge sacrifice.

Yael with Rabbi Raziel Shevah

Speaking in an interview with Ynet, head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan said Yael was the spiritual community coordinator of Havat Gilad and described her husband as a character who was deeply loved by children, who did many things, especially for children here in Samaria.

The community, he continued, would now be called upon to support Yael and the Shevah family to overcome this terrible crisis, the accompany Yael and her wonderful children and see how they recover from this terrible thing.

Dagan also echoed Yaels statements, saying that the appropriate response was to ramp up construction projects in the area.

(Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

Havat Gilad and all of Judea and Samaria, just like the Negev, the Galilee and Jerusalem, need to see construction because we are Zionists and this is a Zionist country whose job is to build on the Land of Israel, Dagan said.

This is the answer to those murderers who may be sitting in Nablus or any other place drinking coffee and saying: Wow. We managed to murder Jews. Look at how they are suffering. No, were suffering, but we are strengthened by this, he stated defiantly.
BRUSSELS  European Union powers on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to endorse a key nuclear agreement with Iran saying the deal is essential for international security.

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany threw their weight behind the pact limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions and insisted that the Islamic Republic is respecting it.

"There is no indication today that could call into doubt Iranian respect of the agreement," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Brussels, after a meeting between the Europeans and their Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif.

Le Drian called on all parties to uphold the agreement, noting that "our American allies should respect it as well. There is no particular reason for any rupture."
CAIRO  Egypt's chief prosecutor has ordered an "urgent" investigation into a New York Times' report about recordings purportedly of an intelligence officer instructing TV talk show hosts and a famous actress to downplay President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Chief prosecutor Nabil Sadeq's statement says the report, published over the weekend, "undermines Egypt's security, public peace and hurts the public's interest."

The decision followed a flurry of condemnation of the Times by lawmakers, commentators and the State Information Service.

Michael Slackman, The Times' international editor, is quoted as saying in an article published Wednesday that the paper's "story was a deeply reported, consequential piece of journalism, and we stand fully behind it."
Disabled organizations once again blocked the entrance to the Jerusalem offices of the Finance Ministry Thursday, in retaliation to the plan presented last week to raise disability benefits and on the backdrop of the government commencing its discussions on the state's 2019 budget, in which the raise is included.

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The agreement was unveiled last week with much fanfare in a press conference attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Labor and Welfare Minister Haim Katz and Treasury Director-General Shai Babad, and was termed a "historic move" by the premier.

The various disabled organizations have been split on whether to support the original agreementachieved through Histadrut Labor Federation mediationbut as of today no organizations have come out in support of the plan as it was presented last week.





The campaign against Netanyahu, Kahlon and Katz is already underway

Even Welfare Minister Katz, however, who only last week welcomed the Treasury's agreements with the organizations regarding raising benefits, announced Wednesday he planned on voting against the budget since the Treasury's Budgets Department refused to approve the plan as it was presented, he claimed.

In anticipation of Thursday's cabinet meeting, the "Disabled, Not Half a Person" organization came out with a nationwide physical and social media campaign under the heading, "Abandoning the disabled  against half measures."

The organization claimed that the framework agreement presented last week only referred to half of the budget the government committed to invest in the matter as part of the September Histadrut negotiations, and even left some of the agreed articles out.

'Abandoning the disabled. Not half measures'

The first stage of the campaign will include billboards all across the country, showing Netanyahu under the heading "Not a man of his word", Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon under "Net not social" and Welfare Minister Katz under "Harms the disabled."

Chairman of the organization Alex Friedman said, "We won't abide by half an agreement, half a budget and half a benefit increase. Minister Katz, who held back the agreement for months and even stopped it from being enacted in December, is continuing his war over who gets the credit and announced he's objecting to his own deal.

"Netanyahu and Kahlon, meanwhile, have used every opportunity to abdicate their own responsibility for the agreement. In light of this, we have decided to return to protests en masse and with the backing of the public, who has had enough of the lies and liars."

"The Disabled Protest Headquarters," which supported the framework agreement originally, joined in on denouncing last week's agreement. The organization's chairperson Naomi Moravia said, "After speaking with the welfare minister personally our biggest fears were proven to have come true. Despite Minister Katz's insistence, the Treasury struck down and dwarfed nearly every agreement reached in the Histadrut."

Last year's protests. The organizations threatened to renew the demonstrations (: "  ")

"The blame can unequivocally be laid at the feet of two peoplethe prime minister and the Treasury's director-generalwho have balled their hand into a fist against one of Israel's society's weakest populations. Heroes on the backs of people with disabilities," she reproached the pair.

The welfare minister indeed announced he planned on voting against the budget due to his dispute with the Treasury. Katz claimed the ministry refused to approve the government bill to raise benefits since it included linking benefits with the average wage and since it anchored the third and fourth increments of the raise for the future. He added that due to the dispute, the bill may not be brought to the government for approval Thursday at all.

A message on behalf of Katz said, "Minister Katz is unwilling to take part in misleading the disabled, as they were promised linkage with the average wage and enacting future increments. Anything else is throwing dust in their eyes."

(Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch)

A source close to the minister added that Kahlon looked after the middle class, but completely forgot needy populations along the way. To support the argument, the source brought up Katz's demand for an increase of 60 agorot per day to dissipate senior citizens' loneliness, and NIS 5.48 per day for treating them, which were blocked by the Treasury.

It should be noted Katz and Kahlon discussed the government bill to raise benefits and the Welfare Ministry's overall needs vis-a-vis the 2019 budget, and have agreed to meet before the cabinet convenes to approve the budget.
Turkey will not extradite any suspects to the United States if Washington does not hand over the cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating a failed 2016 military coup, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

Ankara accuses US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the putsch and has repeatedly asked Washington for his extradition. US officials have said courts require sufficient evidence to extradite the elderly cleric who has denied any involvement in the coup.

"We have given the United States 12 terrorists so far, but they have not given us back the one we want. They made up excuses from thin air," Erdogan told local administrators at a conference in his presidential palace in Ankara.

"If you're not giving him (Gulen) to us, then excuse us, but from now on whenever you ask us for another terrorist, as long as I am in office, you will not get them," he said.
At a first glance, the recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital by US President Donald Trump looks like an empty gesture, if not an irrational and unwanted declaration, which fomented violence.

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Russia recognized west Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and east Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital, before Trumps announcement.

Trump did not move the US embassy in Tel Aviv, and in fact gave nothing to Israel, other than increased Palestinian rioting, after being warned not to go ahead with this announcement. Israels gains are nowhere to be seen.

This, at least is according to the Western utility-based view, which weighs all steps by their costs and gains.

Yet there are more successful ways of viewing such developments. The Russian strategic thinking, for example, does not focus on end state production logic, which dominates Western thinking. In the Western mindset, there is no room for emerging phenomena. Russian thinking, by contrast, is non-linear and non-predictive.

Western decision makers look at events that veer off course as accidents that need to be fixed and studied, much like engineers investigating why a rocket blew up at the launch stage. Yet rocket engineering takes place in a closed system, while strategy is an open systema fact that Trump understands, due to this business background. The economy is also an open system.

Strategy is based on the assumption of marching into the unknown.

Instead of setting a main purpose and then calculating all steps from start to finish in line with the goal of reaching it, the correct path is to realize that in strategy, one operates in a changing environment.

Planning every stage, step by step, leaves no ability to respond to changes.

Instead, taking a step and then stopping to see what has changed, before reassessing and moving again, is the correct approach. This is the Russian doctrine. It still rests on an end vision, but lacks a start-to-finish plan on how to get there. Action is designed to deliver shocks to the system, causing it to reorganize itself. On this basis, a new system is created, which is then studied. A chain of campaigns follows.

Russias approach is to create friction, to become a part of the eco system, and then influence the rearrangement of the system.

Trump's calculated jolt

Trump appears to be thinking in a similar way. He has abandoned the idea of pursuing the same dead end peace plans promoted by his predecessors, US Presidents Barack Obama, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. Instead, he sought to shake up the system in a highly calculated manner, and march into the unknown.

Yet Trump did not jump over a cliff. He left one stable leg on the ground. Trump did not explicitly abandon the two-state solution, nor did he recognize Israels presence in Judea and Samaria.

Trump, in essence, realized that the current situation is leading nowhere, and threw a rock into the water to muddy it and see how the system would rearrange itself.

He left himself an exit point, saying he was merely recognizing what de facto already exists in JerusalemIsraels parliament, high court, and the seat of government.

This delivered a shock to the system, which is currently responding. The way in which events unfold can form a basis for the next step.

President Trump and President Abbas (Photo: Reuters)

This is similar to a military tactic seeking to get an enemy to give up its position, by sending a forward reconnaissance unit, provoking enemy fire, and mapping out its position.

As a result of Trumps declaration, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a conference with Jordans King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to push back against Trumpyet Egypts President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi attempted to stop Abbas and Abdullah from attending, underlining a crack.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas are each responding to the declaration, and the Palestinian arena is united on this issue at least, that any scenario that does not include Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine is intolerable.

The Israeli interest

Ultimately, these events serve Israels interests of maintaining a united Jerusalema need that was recognized by former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who declared this in a speech to the Knesset in 1995 prior to his assassination. Rabins goal was to provide Israel with stability, which the Palestinian Authority was designed to provide.

Only later, from the time of the 2000 Barak - Clinton proposals onward, did the idea of splitting Jerusalem appear as an Israeli government position.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Baraks offer was repeated by the ex premier Ehud Olmert, and Abbas demanded that the next Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, use Olmerts offer as the starting point of future negotiations.

Netanyahu has rejected this demand.

President Trump and PM Netanyahu (Photo: Reuters)

Trump understood what his predecessors did not. After the mass terrorism of the second intifada, and the conversion of Gaza into an enemy Hamas territory after Israels withdrawal from it, Israeli society no longer believes in the idea of giving land for stability, or in the ability of the US to supervise and guard this stability.

Trump therefore proceeded with a recognition of Jerusalem, assisting Israels position, which holds that even if a Palestinian state is formed, it will not be based on the Barak - Olmert parameters of dividing Jerusalem.

By doing so, he closed the door to future blackmail and demands from the Palestinian side, which is welcome news indeed for Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed the Defense Ministry to connect the outpost of Havat Gilad in the northern West Bank to the electricity grid as a response to the terror attack which killed Raziel Shevach, a resident of the outpost.

Wednesday evening, head of the Shomron Regional Council Yossi Dagan spoke to the prime minister's chief of staff about the infrastructure problems facing the outpost.
Cleveland, OH - A second suspect has been arrested in Liberty County for indecent exposure.

Randy Earl Jones, Jr., 25, was taken into custody by the Cleveland Police Department and has been placed in Liberty County jail facing Class B misdemeanor charges for reportedly pleasuring himself in front of customers at the Walmart in Cleveland. Records show he is already on probation in San Jacinto County for the same offense.

"A repeat offender for indecent exposure in Texas must register as a sex offender," said Liberty County Attorney Matt Poston.

Poston said that would be a felony if his registration is not current.

Bond for Jones was set at $7,000.

Jones is already on the Texas State Sexual Offenders List for a charge in April of 2016 for an indecent exposure charge with a 48-year-old female victim. He received two years of probation and community supervision.

The case against Jones comes just days after another Liberty County man, Gilbert Charles Trahan III, of Liberty, appeared before Judge Tommy Chambers in the Liberty County Court at Law for the same charge.

"The judge set the bond for both of his indecent exposure cases at $250,000 and added a number of conditions to the bond," Poston said.

Some of the conditions for Jones were not to set foot on the premises of the Liberty Walmart or Stripes in Dayton, or go near any of the victims of his crimes, and the judge took a tough stance ordering him not to drive a motor vehicle and a few other items.

"The judge had some concerns about community safety following the reports of his reoffending," the county attorney said. There was also some testimony about his mental state. He will remain in the Liberty County jail until his trial.

"This is still a very young case, but we would want to try this case as soon as possible," Poston added. He didn't expect the trial to begin until late December at the earliest, but because of potential motions that might be coming from the defense, the trial could be delayed for a couple of months leaving Trahan behind bars the entire time.

Trahan was rearrested just before the Thanksgiving holidays after an Attorney General's warrant apprehension unit found Trahan hiding in a neighborhood near Reliant Center in Houston.

Since he missed the only day for bond hearings during the holiday week, he sat in jail until Monday after Thanksgiving when he went before Chambers.

He was rearrested after it was discovered Trahan had been out on bond with three trials pending when he was arrested for the second time in just a week for allegedly exposing himself, the last time at a Stripes gas station in Dayton.
Three Palestinian sisters (15,18,23) were arrested by the border police at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron after a knife was found on the body of one of them. Two more knifes were found a short distance away. The police say the three were planning a stabbing attack.
The 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center would never have occurred had it not been for Jews, according to one of the leading figures of a United States neo-Nazi movement.

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As the United States experiences a spike in anti-Semitic incidents, Israeli journalist and former politician Nitzan Horowitz paid a visit to the country where he conducted an interview with Matthew Heimbach, a far-right white nationalist who advocates a vehemently anti-Semitic agenda.

Matthew Heimbach, a neo-Nazi who wants US rid of Jews

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Leader of The Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), Heimbach told Horowitz in the interview that Jews are responsible for just about all of Americas ills and shortcomings.

Jews, who he and his cronies say should go home to Israel and are not American, can be blamed for working to enslave and displace all of our peoples through their alleged domination of Wall Street, are hostile to American communities and family and are responsible for the USs trillion-dollar financial deficit.

Matthew Heimbach

Moreover, Heimbach posits that the USs backing of Zionism led to the deadliest attack on American soil on 9/11 and therefore the loss of thousands of American soldiers in ensuing wars.

Arabs would not hate the US, and no wars would occur with Middle Eastern countries, Heimbach continues in his vitriolic diatribe, if it were not for American support of Israel.
Two Palestinians were killed and six others were wounded in clashes with IDF forces that broke out Thursday afternoon near the Gaza security barrier and in the West Bank.

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About 50 Palestinians demonstrated at two locations on the northern Gaza border, threw stones at the security fence and set tires on fire.

IDF soldiers, West Bank (Photo: AFP)

The IDF reported they opened fire against three main instigators. As a result of the shooting, one 16-year-old youth from the al-Bureij refugee camp was shot dead, while two others were wounded.

According to the Palestinians, the youth was killed by a gunshot to the chest.

Another Palestinian youth was shot dead in clashes between IDF forces and local residents of Palestinian villages in the Nablus Governorate.

The youth, a resident of the Palestinian village of Burin identified as Ali Kino, also 16, was killed after a riot broke out over an IDF search of a village west of Burin, as part of the hunt for the terrorists who murdered Rabbi Raziel Shevah in the nearby Havat Gilad outpost.

Rioters pelted IDF soldiers with rocks and blunt objects, while the soldiers responded with live fire at central instigators. Aside from Kino, four more were reportedly wounded by the shooting.

16-year-old Ali Kino

The incident near Nablus takes place a week after a Palestinian youth Musab Firas al-Tamimi, 17, was killed in clashes in the village of Deir Nizam, north of Ramallah.

According to the Palestinians, soldiers in Deir Nizam wrote curses on the mourning poster that was placed in honor of the dead Tamimi in the village.

Hanging posters in memory of "martyrs" killed by Israeli security forces is customary throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Tamimi's vandalized poster

Thwarted stabbing attack by three Palestinian sisters

Meanwhile, near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, three Palestinian women were caught carrying concealed knives while apparently on their way to carry out a stabbing attack.

Border Guard soldiers caught the three at one of the inspection posts.

The Border Police noted that "all three raised the suspicion of the soldiers in their behavior, which led to a search during which a knife was found on one of them.

The knives (Photo: Israel Police)

"A quick preliminary investigation revealed that the three of them had come to carry out a stabbing attack and that the two additional suspects had thrown the knives before they arrived at the checkpoint from what appeared to be last moment regret.

"A search conducted by the forces under the direction of the suspects revealed that one knife was indeed thrown away, while the third knife was apparently taken by local residents."

The women, three sisters aged 15, 18 and 23 from the Palestinian refugee camp of Al-Arroub, were arrested for further questioning.

'A failing territory'

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav (Poli) Mordechai, addressed the situation in Gaza at the Globes Israel Business Conference, blaming it on the Palestinians' financial mismanagement of the strip.

"The Gaza Strip is a failing territory. 90 percent of drinking water there is unfit for drinking, unemployment among young adults is at 60 percent, and I can give you even more data than that," he said. "This is mainly a problem for Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, but the State of Israel is very much affected by this."

According to Maj. Gen. Mordechai, the political outline, not just the security one, is that "if in Hamas demilitarizes, abandons its tunnels and arms smuggling, and reaches a compromise on the issue of POWs and MIAs, Gaza could be turned into a very large economic opportunity.

"It is possible to invest there in infrastructure and make it very successful. A failed economy can create terror and war. A stable economy can postpone and not require a war and confrontation, and this is another component of the IDF's concept of security."

COGAT Maj. Gen. Mordechai (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

The incident in the afternoon near the security fence in Gaza occurred during a period of great tension in the area.

A week ago, Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked a central terrorist infrastructure in Gaza in response to three mortar shells fired on Israeli territory the day before.

In contrast to previous cases, this time Israel did not specify the type of target that was attacked, but it is estimated that it was a terror tunnel.

Since US President Donald Trump announced his country's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, there have been more rocket attacks on communities in the Gaza vicinity.

The IDF sees Hamas as solely responsible for what is happening in its territory, and usually replies to attacks with retaliatory fire on Hamas targets.
State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan on Thursday evening addressed the ongoing criminal cases against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rejecting allegations of deliberate delays in the investigations as "baseless" and "false."

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"My hope is that the police will submit their recommendations in the coming weeks," he said at the Globes Israel Business Conference at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.

According to Nitzan, "the investigation will end once all the state's needs have been exhausted.

State Prosecutor Nitzan (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

"I read a piece by some journalist who said we had enough information. Apparently he has wonderful sources. I want to tell him, and in general, that if you imagine that the investigation of the prime minister is easy, then it is just that: your imagination," he said.

Nitzan added that "the State Prosecutor's Office and the judicial authority in Israel are completely independent. The State Prosecutor's Office examines every case without fear and with strict impartiality, as evidenced by the indictments and convictions of public officials and elected officials from all walks of life and the political spectrum in recent years.

"Extensive corruption is something we are not proud of, and we would prefer a society in which government corruption did not spread. But as long as, unfortunately, there is corruption in the government, including by senior officials in the central government and in local government, the fact that the police are investigating without fear, and the State Prosecutor's Office is serving indictments without trepidation, indicates the independence of the prosecution system."

Nitzan also addressed the recruitment of state witnesses, among them Netanyahu's former chief of staff Ari Harow, who is set to testify against him in the illicit gifts affair (also known as "Case 1,000"), which is looking into billionaire Arnon Milchan's gifts to Netanyahu and his wife, Sara.

"A state witness agreement is signed with a felon whose crimes are lesser in severity than those allegedly perpetrated by suspect against whom he is set to testify," he noted.

PM Netanyahu (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

"In the past, many agreements were signed in which the state's witness was promised total immunity. In recent years, we have tried to avoid agreements such as these, and to conclude agreements in which the state witness will also be convicted and sentenced. This is an essential step in the struggle against crime, and therefore this step has been taken both in the area of violent crime and in the fight against corruption."

"The signing of such agreements also sends an unequivocal message: Let everyone who is about to commit a crime know that you can never rely on any of your partners, assistants or close relatives to never betray you. In the moment of truth, every person who committed crimes with you, or who was aware of your actionsand there are always people like thatcan become a state witness against you, because in his eyes, his personal well-being and saving his skin takes precedence over your personal good."

Finally, Nitzan commented on recent corruption cases within local municipalities which created waves that have even reached the highest ranks within the Knesset.

"Some of the investigations have already resulted in the convictions of mayors and council heads, and in most cases, they were sentenced with actual prison time.

"Some of the investigations have resulted in indictments being filed and investigations are still being conducted against important municipality officials, including the large-scale investigation currently under way, in which the mayor of Rishon LeZion was interrogated along with other senior officials in the government

"We do not intend to let our foot off the gas pedal. I hope that the message will pass both to candidates who will submit their candidacy for the upcoming local government elections and to the general public: 'May the corrupt beware.'"

AG Mandelblit (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who also spoke at the conference, echoed Nitzan's assertions of impartiality and resolve and reiterated his notion that "Israel is not a corrupt country. Israel is a country fighting corruption."

"In my view, the State of Israel not only must meet world standards in the fight against corruption, but also aspire to stand in the forefront of countries that have exemplary norms of rule of law and transparency," he said.

"The defense mechanisms of the State of Israel are alive and well. There are independent and powerful law enforcement agencies here, and they are efficient.

"No one is immune to the law. There is no one above the law."
Egypt's chief prosecutor has ordered an "urgent" investigation into a New York Times' report about recordings purportedly of an intelligence officer instructing TV talk show hosts and a famous actress to downplay President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

A statement by chief prosecutor Nabil Sadeq's office, carried by the official MENA news agency, said the Times' report, published over the weekend, "undermines Egypt's security, public peace and hurts the public's interest."

Sadeq's decision followed a flurry of widely publicized condemnation this week of the Times by Egyptian lawmakers, commentators and the State Information Service.

Michael Slackman, The Times' international editor, was quoted as saying in an article published by the paper on Wednesday that its "story was a deeply reported, consequential piece of journalism."

"We stand fully behind it," Slackman said.

After the Times' article was published, Egypt's State Information Service denied allegations of government attempts to sway public opinion in Trump's favor and said that no officer under the name published in the report worked for the intelligence service.

The government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a close Trump ally, has denounced Trump's Jerusalem decision. Also, Egypt was a major force behind a non-binding, but hugely symbolic resolution adopted last month by the U.N. General Assembly declaring Trump's decision "null and void."

Since coming to power, el-Sissi has sought to turn most Egyptian media into mouthpieces for his program. Many dissenting television hosts have been pushed off the air, multiple independent news web sites have been blocked, and around 20 journalists have been imprisoned.

Thousands of Islamists and secular, pro-democracy activists have been arrested since the military's 2013 ouster of el-Sissi's predecessor, President Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist whose year in office proved divisive.
The US Justice Department has set up a team to investigate individuals and organizations providing support to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist group in Lebanon that the US has branded a terrorist organization, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Thursday.

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Republicans have criticized former President Barack Obama following a December Politico report that the Obama administration hindered a Drug Enforcement Administration program targeting Hezbollahs trafficking operations during its negotiation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal for fear of jeopardizing it.

US Attorney General Sessions (Photo: AP)

Politico reported the DEA program known as Project Cassandra had been targeting the terrorist groups trafficking of cocaine into the US and abroad but was stymied by Obama officials. The administration at the time was eager to improve relations with Iran and stall its nuclear weapons program

Republican President Donald Trump says Obama gave away too much to Iran to secure the agreement, which gives Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Sessions said the Justice Department will assemble leading investigators and prosecutors for the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team to ensure all investigations under the DEA program will be completed.

Sessions added that the review will evaluate "allegations that certain matters were not properly prosecuted" and ensure the investigations were correctly handled.

Former US President Obama (R), Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and Project Cassandra symbol (Photo: AP, AFP)

"Operations designed to investigate and prosecute terrorist organizations that are also fueling that drug crisis must be paramount in this administration," he said in a statement. "While I am hopeful that there were no barriers constructed by the last administration to allowing DEA agents to fully bring all appropriate cases under Project Cassandra, this is a significant issue for the protection of Americans.

"The Justice Department will leave no stone unturned in order to eliminate threats to our citizens from terrorist organizations and to stem the tide of the devastating drug crisis."
Many Ghanaian celebrities tend to be very careful with their everyday dealings. Others too would care less about what the public though about them and lived freely.

Click here for all the latest arts and entertainment news in Ghana

However, in this day and age, celebrities are learning a lot of things and are applying it to their everyday lives.

In order to remain relevant in the eyes of the public, a celebrity had to do things that appealed to his or her target market. In this respect, public relations is one of the areas that a celebrity needed to tread cautiously with in order to remain in the good books of his or her fans and followers.

This being said, some fans were not really bothered if their favorite celebrity was in the news for the right or wrong reasons. All that really mattered was that they were in the news.

READ ALSO: Mobile money fraudsters 'scam' popular Kumawood actors

Public opinion plays a very vital role in the showbiz industry now and every celebrity worth his or her salt has started taking public opinion and reactions seriously.

Any move made by a celebrity could have a myriad repercussions and even interpretations. If care is not taken, just one act can ruin the career of a celebrity.

Today, YEN.co.gh brings to you some celebrities who masterfully used PR stunts to their advantage.

1. Shatta Wale

Known in real life as Charles Nii Armah Mensah, Shatta Wale is best known for a lot of controversies. In a very recent happening, he reportedly slapped one of his bodyguards at a concert. He received a lot of backlash for the action.

Days afterwards, he was seen buying a motorbike for the slapped bodyguard; a move that many people applauded him for. His move made many angry Ghanaians forget about the hefty slap and focused their discussion on his philanthropic deed.

The PR move saw many people also hilariously trying to get the Ayoo hit maker to buy them motor bikes too.

2. Shatta Michy

Longtime girlfriend of Shatta Wale known in the showbiz industry as Shatta Michy also expertly employed a PR move to sell her new single titled cheating.

In the early days of the New Year, rumors were rife that Shatta Michy, born Diamond Michelle Gbagonah had been thrown out of Shatta Wales house over a cheating incidence.

A lot of noise was made on the matter with a lot of media houses reporting the incident. After getting all the attention she needed with her PR gimmick, Shatta Michy revealed that the rumors were untrue and unveiled the reason behind the rumors.

Her latest single, Cheating had garnered enough social media attention to go viral when it was released.

3. Berla Mundi

In December last year, Heels and Sneakers actress, Yvonne Nelson accused Berla Mundi of dating a married man and also accused her of gossiping about her (Yvonne). Later on, self-proclaiming queen of Ghana comedy, Afia Schwarzenegger also called out Berla Mundi and alleged that she was dating a married politician.

Berla Mundi however did not respond to any of these allegations even though her fans and followers wanted to hear her side of the story. In reaction, she started a social media campaign about being confident with no makeup as a lady.

The PR stunt caught on well and it managed to quell the raging allegations levelled against her by both Yvonne Nelson and Afia Schwarzenegger.

READ ALSO: 5 romantic ways to propose to your lady

4. Yvonne Nelson

The Heels and Sneakers actress made headlines when rumors started going round that she was pregnant. The actress was able to conceal her pregnancy from the public and left many of her fans and followers wondering if she was really pregnant or not.

On her birthday, she made a big reveal that she had been pregnant all along and that she was involved with a celebrity British photographer, Jamie Roberts.

There was a lot of media attention over her childbirth all in preparation for a reality series she shot while waiting to deliver her baby girl. The PR stunt worked magic for her.

5. Ebony Reigns

The Date your father hit maker not too long ago was at the receiving end of criticism for video of her that went viral. Many people accused the musician of indecent exposure and some people slammed her stagecraft.

The musician however managed to turn all the criticism around when she came out to say that the viral video was as a result of a wardrobe malfunction. In her next outings, she was seen properly dressed and it won her many lovers and praise as well.

While riding on the plaudits that were coming her way, she used it as an opportunity to release of domestic violence themed song titled Maame Hwe which has tacked up phenomenal views on YouTube.

READ ALSO: Outbreak of Influenza H1N1 at the Kumasi Academy is over - Health Ministry

YEN is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident?

Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition?

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YENs official Facebook page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
President Trump is nominating former Deputy Secretary and Eli Lilly President Alex Azar as new head of the Department of Health and Human Services, tweeting that he will be a "star for better healthcare and lower drug prices."

The key position has been open since late September, when former Secretary Tom Price resigned amid reports of frequent trips across the country in private planes paid for with taxpayer dollars.

Trump has stressed cracking down on rising drug costs, at one point accusing pharmaceutical companies of "getting away with murder." However, the choice of a man who helped lead the industry for a decade prompted Democrats and industry observers to wonder how effective -- or dedicated -- he will be to the President's agenda.

"We sincerely hope that Secretary-nominee Azar will follow through on the President's commitment to achieve lower drug prices for all Americans," the nonprofit Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing said in a statement.

"Given Alex Azar's professional background, there are concerns on whether he can fairly execute any significant effort to lower drug prices for patients & families," tweeted Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

A decade in Big Pharma

Azar, who left his position as president of Lilly USA in January after an internal shakeup, started with the pharmaceutical giant in 2007 as senior vice president of communications, moving up to vice president of Lilly's U.S. Managed Healthcare Services and Puerto Rico in 2009 before becoming president in 2012.

During his tenure at the pharmaceutical giant, Azar says, Lilly went off the "largest patent cliff in pharmaceutical history" in which it lost "$4 billion of revenue as it lost patent exclusivity, laid off a large percent of its organization and reorganized repeatedly," according to the description of one of his presentations for the Worldwide Speakers Group.

It's also an era of exorbitant price increases by Lilly and big pharmaceuticals. A report this year by Credit Suisse showed that the industry added $8.7 billion in 2016 from rocketing drug prices; Sean Williams, an investor at financial services company Motley Fool, listed Lilly as one of the practice's major benefactors.

"Eli Lilly has had little choice but to turn to price increases on some of its established therapies, as well as its specialty indications," Williams said.

Citing data from Bernstein Research, CNBC recently said that the prices of Lilly's insulin drugs Humalog and Humulin N rose 20.81% in 2014 and 16.96% in 2015, under Azar's watch.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, has accused Lilly -- along with Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, which also sell insulin products -- of collusion to drive up insulin prices.

'The cost of insulin more than tripled between 2002 and 2013, from $231 to $736 per year per patient," Sanders wrote on his website in a call-out to the public for their stories on how they cope with the rising cost of the drug. The pharmaceutical companies deny the allegations of collusion; Sanders is calling for a federal investigation.

In March, a class-action federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of 38 individuals against Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, citing violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, among others.

Staunch conservative

An economist and lawyer by training, Azar clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the early 1990s and later worked under Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel on the Clinton Whitewater investigation.

Azar also served from 2001 to 2007 as Health and Human Services general counsel and deputy secretary for President George W. Bush, writing on a Yale Law School alumni page that he "wrestled with the question" of taking the job because he had not focused on health care in his career. But, he said, he soon learned that he had found his calling: "to help people around the world live longer, healthier and happier lives."

If confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary, Azar would have broad authority over much of the Affordable Care Act, a reality he seemed to embrace during an interview with Bloomberg TV in June.

"I'm not one to say many good things about Obamacare, but one of the nice things in it is, it does give a tremendous amount authority to the secretary of HHS," Azar said. "There are still changes that can be made to make it work a little better than it has been."

Reaction to the nomination on Capitol Hill was predictably split along party lines.

"For too long, hardworking, middle-class families have been forced to bear the brunt of Obamacare's failures," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Republican chairman for the Senate Finance Committee, which will review Azar's nomination.

"The leader of HHS will be at the tip of the spear, working to not only right the wrongs of this deeply flawed law but also ensure the long-term sustainability of both Medicare and Medicaid," Hatch added in his statement. "Mr. Azar has the experience, knowledge and fortitude to take on these daunting challenges."

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, tweeted, "Health care is too personal to be driven by politics. I'll be asking tough questions. I will closely scrutinize Mr. Azar's record and ask for his commitment to faithfully implement the Affordable Care Act and take decisive, meaningful action to curtail the runaway train of prescription drug costs."

Murray agreed: "The next HHS Secretary must focus on strengthening health care for everyone, rather than carrying out President Trump's extreme, politically driven, & harmful agenda."
DES MOINES  The issue of banning automated traffic enforcement cameras is back in the legislative fast lane at the Iowa Statehouse.

Rep. Jake Highfill, R-Johnston, chairman of the House Local Government Committee, and Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said they plan to run bills calling for camera bans and believe they have their best shot of passage after years of legislative frustration.

One of our top priorities is to ban speed cameras, said Highfill, who noted the House previously passed a ban, but the issue has stalled en route to the governors desk in the past. I believe we have the votes all the way through. Hopefully we can it done.

Former Gov. Terry Branstad favored a ban, but his successor, Gov. Kim Reynolds, is monitoring the situation before committing.

The governor generally supports limitations on automated traffic enforcement cameras but has not seen any legislation on the matter, said spokeswoman Brenna Smith. The governor would wait to comment until she sees any bill to ban automated traffic enforcement cameras in its final form.

Zaun led an effort to ban traffic cameras last session. A bipartisan group of senators wanted instead to keep the devices in place but subject them to stricter regulations in hopes of curbing some of the concerns that have been associated with the 79 cameras that were then operating statewide in eight cities and one county. The effort to regulate rather than eliminate the cameras, however, failed to win House approval.

Now, Zaun said, developments during the interim in Cedar Rapids have caused several senators to rethink their positions. Zaun said legislators took note of a decision by the City Council last fall to authorize an enforcement crackdown in association with a collection agency.

If violators didnt pay, those tickets plus a 25 percent late penalty were to be turned over to the state offset program, which draws from gambling winnings, tax returns and other income funneled through state coffers to pay the debt.

Days before Christmas, Cedar Rapids mailed out 221,000 notices seeking payment for $17.3 million worth of unpaid tickets, some from 2010 when the speed and red light cameras were first activated.

Separately, a Gazette analysis of speed and crash data in October  six months after cameras were turned off from issuing tickets  revealed that while speeding increased by 15 percent, crashes did not, and may have declined.

Some drivers reported the travel on Interstate 380 felt safer because people werent slamming on their brakes when approaching the cameras.

Iowa Department of Transportation data showed a decline in crashes  from 27 to 14  and a drop of crash-related injuries from 10 to one from 2016 when the cameras were active to 2017 to when they werent. Cedar Rapids data conflicted, showing 18 crashes in 2016 and 17 to that point in 2017.

Personally, Ive changed my opinion, said Sen. Tim Kapucian, R-Keystone, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. I dont like what Ive been seeing with some of the moves to try and collect the fees. There was an effort to have the state try to collect the fees, which I think was above and beyond, and then an out-of-state firm has been hired to actually do the collection.

Kapucian said he also thought the crash data in Cedar Rapids undermined the citys public safety argument for keeping the cameras.

Sen. Dan Zumbach, R-Ryan, who helped craft compromise legislation (Senate File 220) to keep in place systems that promote safety and protect law officers in dangerous enforcement situations, said he is having open and fair discussions with Zaun about ways to keep the cameras operating in some form in high-risk traffic areas through more regulation, more regard for peoples rights and changes affecting the revenue flow. But he conceded it may be difficult to head off a ban.

Zumbach said he has safety concerns about I-380 in downtown Cedar Rapids because Ive traveled it; Ive driven trucks on it; Ive driven cars on it; Ive seen the accidents on it; and I really do believe that those cameras slowed folks down and created a safer environment.

He said the Cedar Rapids data covered such a short amount of time that its very difficult to use that as accurate information. But he agreed the state should not be the tax collector for localities seeking to recoup unpaid fines.

Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who will run the bill in a House Local Government subcommittee, said he has the support of both the sheriffs of Cedar and Muscatine counties in his district and has heard from many legislators and citizens who view the stepped-up collection as a clear overreach.

Rep. Gary Carlson, R-Muscatine, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, had S.F. 220 referred to subcommittee Wednesday to keep it eligible for consideration by his full committee. He also expects to deal with the topic as a member of the House Local Government Committee.

I would say that theres a high likelihood that the issue could come before lawmakers this session because theres energy on both sides of the debate, he said.
Muscatine schools and law enforcement are considering implementing a program to better support students experiencing trauma at home.

On Wednesday, Carlie Shannon, with Scott County Kids, met with school district officials and police officers to explain the Handle with Care program, which has been implemented in at least five Iowa districts so far. She said it sets up a system for police to notify schools when a child has experienced violence or another event that may affect behavior in the classroom.

"When you see the signs, when a kid doesn't turn in homework or is falling asleep, this could help provide some other kind of intervention rather than punishment," Shannon said.

Traumatic events, she said, can include emotional, mental, physical or sexual abuse. Shannon said children are often traumatized when they are bullied, witness a parent being treated violently or getting arrested, live with a parent who experienced combat, plus other situations.

"It's important to know because of the amount of kids exposed to violence and crime," she said. "And the more [traumatic events] someone experiences, the greater the likelihood a child will develop chronic illnesses or substance abuse."

Citing a recent national survey from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Shannon said 60 percent of American children have been exposed to violence, crime or abuse. And, on average, 40 percent of kids are direct victims of two or more violent acts.

If a violent or dangerous incident takes place at home and the police are called, children are often still sent to school the next day, where their school work and communication skills may suffer. Shannon said teachers and staff members unaware of a student's situation may punish the child for behavioral issues, leading to more distress.

Shannon said the notice will only include the child's name and date of birth, and would not provide a description of the incident.

"No details, just three simple words: handle with care," she said. "We don't want teachers to approach students and say, 'hey, what happened last night' and then cause them to relieve the trauma. That's not what's important."

The program would not require intervention, but only inform teachers to treat the student with care. Shannon, however, said when necessary, the student could meet with a school counselor, who could make referrals for outside support.

Muscatine School Resource Office Whitni Pena said she sees at-home trauma translate into children's behavior in the school district on a weekly basis. And she already works to inform teachers and staff when a child might be struggling at home.

"I might just say the police were involved or there was an incident last night, so I feel like we already kind of do that," Pena said. "Now to just have a better procedure ... I think it'll be better now having that short little email sent, just with kids' names."

Shannon said officials with the school district are open to implementing the program soon, and Police Officer Donyell Raisbeck said she believes the idea will receive support from the entire police department.

"No child deserves to be punished for something like that at home," Raisbeck said. "There's a reason why they're acting out. Some kids are just naughty; some kids just don't know how to express their feelings."

The next step in implementing the program, Shannon said, is to hold a stakeholder meeting with representatives from local agencies, and then a training session for law enforcement officers and school district officials. Then, the district would designate staff members who would be responsible for sending out the notices.

"It's a really simple process; it's just a matter of getting everyone on board," Shannon said.

And as a school resource officer, Pena said she is looking forward to developing a better relationship between the police and schools, to better support at-risk children.

"It's being able to pick up on those cues," she said. "You know when you deal with these kids that something's off. Now, you'll have that notice that you know something's off because something happened at home."
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
Dear Tom and Alan: I understand our new tax bill has some specific details for health insurance.

Im on Blue Shield individual, not through Covered California, age 53, with very few visits to the doctor.

Do I have some new (maybe better) options?

Ready to Save

Tom: There are definitely some new rules. In the recent past (like, last month), the rules governing creditable health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare) were very detailed.

All policies had to contain the 10 Essential Health Benefits and were categorized under four tiers: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

In California, you could go directly to the insurance company or to Covered California (the Marketplace) to apply for a plan.

Each plan, in or out of the Marketplace, would have exactly the same benefits.

You would have to apply during the open enrollment period unless there was some qualifying event like moving, losing group coverage, etc.

This part hasnt changed except that Covered California is accepting applications until Jan. 31, while the insurance companies stopped last month.

The main reason all of the above was so important to individuals is that the ACA contained increasingly larger penalties for those who did not get coverage.

Al: As Ive snidely remarked before, A government mandate enforced by the IRSwhat could possibly go wrong?

Anyway, in a previous column. we talked about temporary insurance that is available online. The problem is that this insurance doesnt even come close to complying with the ACA. So it seems an individual with this type of policy would be liable for penalties from the IRS for not having creditable coverage.

Tom: According to what I can find on the Internet, President Trumps executive order of Oct. 13, 2017 was intended to remove the individual mandate, and, consequently, the penalties.

However, on Oct. 20, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service said they would be enforcing the penalties.

At this point, Im not clear on when the new rules apply this year or what would happen to the old penalties.

The executive order was also intended to make plans available across state lines. Another part of the order specified that temporary, non-ACA compliant plans could go up to 12 months.

Al: For our readers question, I went on ehealth.com to see what was available.

Please note we cannot recommend any of these plans because they are not ACA-compliant and they have no track record weve seen as far as provider networks, claims payments or customer satisfaction.

For our 53 year-old male in Napa, I found a plan for $564.68 per month through a company called Independence American Insurance.

I printed out three pages but couldnt determine the deductible, maximum out-of-pocket per year, or maximum lifetime benefit.

It did specify that outpatient pharmacy is not covered. Also, there seems to be a membership requirement.
If you arent a Francophile already, you may become one after seeing Karen Eberweins photo exhibit in the Napa County Library this month.

The 25-piece show called French Life features the beautiful scenery of the Dordogne Valley along with traditional, charming images of everyday life there.

A reception for Eberweins exhibit is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 12, from 6-7:30 p.m. Wine and hors oeuvres will be served and Eberwein will give a slide show presentation of her year of living in small French village.

From the time she was 10 years old, Eberwein dreamed of becoming fluent in French. Later, in high school, she had hoped to be sent to France as an exchange student but, instead, was sent to New Zealand.

The desire to master the French language never left her. So, after her two daughters were grown and she had retired from the hospitality business, Eberwein followed her lifelong dream.

In 2013, she packed her bags and rented a rustic stone cottage and spent nearly a year in Cenac-et-Saint-Julien, France, a place that is seldom found by most tourists.

By immersing herself in French, not only did she become fluent in the language during her year in the small village, Eberwein also gained wonderful friendships, developed her love of photography and wrote a book.

Titled 24/7 French Lessons: My Quest to Learn French in a Dordogne Village, her book is like a love letter to the French and the French way of life.

Before arriving in France on Dec. 1, 2013, her knowledge of the French language was limited to a few verbs in the present tense. Eberwein promised herself she would have a conversation with people every day. She took her French dictionary with her everywhere and vowed not to speak English.

It was so exciting to face the language challenge every time I left my house because France was right outside my door, she said. 

During those first weeks, she realized that she couldnt go on automatic mode. Every task required her complete attention.

I enjoyed it, laughed at my mistakes, and studied, she said. As the months passed, things like the different driving style or cultural norms became familiar and comfortable for me. Very quickly, my French village felt like home.

The life she built for herself in the French village far exceeded her expectations in every way.

I expected people to be reserved, yet, people quickly accepted and warmly welcomed me, she said.

The people in the village were pleased that she wanted to learn their language so the amount of help she received was inspiring. Locals at first acknowledged her with a nod, then a handshake and eventually greeted her with warm kisses on both cheeks.

During her year in the village, Eberweins husband flew back and forth between France and California. When he was there, and they were out as a couple, fewer people approached her

The only expectation I had that was not accurate was I would become fluent in three months. My husband does not speak any French so while he was in France, our household spoke in English, she said. I noticed a big difference in the amount I learned during those months when I was only interacting with French friends.

Out of the many memorable experiences she had during her year in the village, the most unforgettable one centered on bread.

Visiting her neighbors as she walked down to the bakery every morning to buy the days bread was her favorite time of the day.

One morning, the baker asked me if I would like to see how the bread was made, she said. He said if I want to understand the French, I must understand bread.

Eberwein arrived at the bakery by 3 a.m. Inside the bakery, she received an eight-hour lesson about pastry, bread and life.

Though her photographic skills grew during her year in France, Eberwein said that her photographic style first emerged while she and her husband backpacked the Pacific Crest Trail, all 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada.

I like taking small details, but I still enjoy a continuous vista, she said. I dont believe in cropping or using color filters. I shoot it as I want the result to be.

Ill get up at 4 a.m. for the right light. When I was in France, it felt natural to keep my camera and French dictionary with me at all times, she said. As my year went on, my dictionary stayed at the bottom of my purse, but my camera was always in hand.

Eberwein and her husband visited other countries in Europe before her year in France ended. Over the Easter weeklong break, they rode bicycles in Holland through blooming tulips and other spring bulbs.

Another time, they drove down to the Porto region of Portugal to sample Port. They visited the Swiss Alps during the winter and the summer.

Watching little ones, barely old enough to walk, ski between their parents legs was charming, and the week in the Alpine summer offered amazing hiking, she said. In Croatia we sailed among the islands; each one had a different personality.

We accidentally discovered the Dolomites in northern Italy on the way to Venice, she said. Were so happy that we did. That region of the Alps was magnificent.

Eberwein stays in close contact with the friends she made in the French village and has gone back to visit them.

She and her husband split their time between their homes in Calistoga, where they grow grapes to sell and their home in Half Moon Bay.

Eberwein said it is ironic that she has grown to prefer small communities like Half Moon Bay, Calistoga and the village where she lived in France that has a population of 1,000 people.

Growing up in the small town of Patterson I always wanted to get out of itto move to a big city but Ive discovered that I feel most at home in a small community, she said, laughing.
Napa County is looking to the state for post-wildfire help and to itself to figure out how to better prepare for disasters, with an upgraded emergency warning system on the table.

The county is joining Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties in sending a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown and state Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci. Napa County during October wildfires lost more than 600 homes.

Requests range from cutting red tape for rebuilding to paying for road repairs and watershed protections to back filling lost property taxes. Napa County estimates the Atlas, Nuns and Tubbs fires could cost it $3 million in property taxes.

The more counties involved in the requests, the louder our voice will be heard in Sacramento, Napa County Executive Officer Minh Tran said.

But the county doesnt want to stop with a plea to the state. Supervisors Alfredo Pedroza and Diane Dillon said the Board of Supervisors needs at some point to look the county emergency response with the hindsight of the fire experience.

I think we also have to be prepared to do things locally, Pedroza said.

Dillon envisions a community debrief within a few months.

One issue is how to best warn people to evacuate in the chaotic, early stages of a fast-moving wildfire. Many rural residents in the Atlas Peak area said they learned of the Oct. 8, night-time Atlas Fire fire bearing down on them by smelling smoke or from phone calls from neighbors.

Napa County initially sounded the evacuation alarm using what Supervisor Belia Ramos has called boots on the ground. About 16 law enforcement officers knocked on doors and sounded their patrol car sirens.

The city of Napa sent out the first Nixle smartphone and email warning at 11 p.m., about an hour after the fire started. The county began sending Nixle warnings at 11:34 p.m. Only subscribers receive the free Nixle alerts.

Six people died in the Atlas Fire because they couldnt evacuate, though they apparently faced mobility issues. Fires throughout Northern California killed 44 people.

The letter from Napa, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties asks the state to set statewide standards for emergency alert systems and provide money to enact these standards.

Lawmakers including state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, recently introduced legislation to address this issue. It would require counties by July 1, 2019 to have the federal Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system to send out red alert evacuation warnings over smart phones and mobile devices.

The WEA system differs from Nixle in that alerts go out to virtually everyone with a smart phone within range of a cell tower. People have to opt out not to receive the alerts, as opposed to subscribe to receive them.

Also, the sound for a WEA message differs from that for a standard smartphone message. The state already uses the system for child abduction Amber Alerts.

The state would set standards for how and when county-level WEA emergency alerts should be used. Counties such as Lake County already use the WEA system.

Napa County Risk and Emergency Services Manager Kerry John Whitney noted the advantage of having a smartphone alert system that would reach tourists and visitors, as well as local subscribers. Tourists were staying in the Silverado area when the Atlas Fire swept through on Oct. 8.

But he wondered if technology will allow the pinpointing of WEA evacuation alerts to the emergency area. Otherwise, an evacuation notice for Silverado would also go out to such unaffected places as American Canyon and St. Helena.

Whatever happens, Whitney is open to make changes.

I personally believe that, regardless of state legislation, weve got to do everything we can to alert the community in times of disasters like this, Whitney said. I think at the end of the day, we have to enhance what weve done previously, prior to these fires.

Pedroza said some of his constituents have mentioned having a siren emergency warning system. His supervisorial district includes the Atlas Peak and Silverado areas hit hard by the Atlas Fire.

San Francisco has a system of 109 outdoor sirens mounted on buildings and poles. But such a system has a possible downside  San Francisco does a weekly test at noon on Tuesdays, with the sirens emitting a 15-second blast.

Pedroza mentioned the possibility of installing an evacuation siren with a special sound on patrol cars.

County Fire Chief Barry Biermann and Pedroza have both raised the possibility of PG&E reducing power in fire-prone rural areas during bouts of strong winds. Though Cal Fire has yet to finish investigating the cause of the October fires, some publications have speculated that downed power lines were the culprit.

Atlas Peak resident Chris Malan is asking the county to pursue another type of early warning system. She is concerned about floods resulting from heavy rainfall hitting slopes that had erosion-preventing vegetation burned away during the fire.

Malan would like to see automated gauges on more streams hooked up to a website that residents could access. Then residents along such creeks as Milliken and Capell could monitor water levels during storms and evacuate, if need be.

Were in double jeopardy  first the fires, then the flooding, Malan said.

Neighboring Solano County has long faced flooding along streams in the Fairfield and Vacaville areas, with high water during huge storms sometimes closing Interstate 80. The Solano County Water Agency has a website with flood forecasts and a map showing real-time water levels along various creeks.

A team of federal and state agencies did watershed reports in the wake of the Atlas, Nuns and Tubbs fires. These reports recommend making early warning systems available to homeowners who live in flood-prone parts of the burned areas.

Such a system should alert residents to incoming storms, allowing them enough time to safety vacate the hazard areas, the Atlas Fire watershed report said. It encouraged residents to sign up for Napa Countys Nixle alerts.

Go to https://www.countyofnapa.org/353/Emergency-Services to sign up for Nixle.
A measure to raise Bay Area bridge tolls to $9 on the Bay Bridge and $8 on others over several years took a major step forward Wednesday when a key transportation committee unanimously recommended putting it before voters in June.

The Bay Area Toll Authority Oversight Committee unanimously voted in favor of the regional measure, which would increase tolls over six years, with $1 hikes in 2019, 2022 and 2025, if voters in the nine Bay Area counties approve it. The money would go toward three-dozen much-needed regional public transportation and roadway improvements.

But to get before voters, the recommendation will need approval from the full Bay Area Toll Authority, which usually follows the committees lead. A vote is expect Jan. 24.

This is not an easy decision of this commission, said James Spering, a committee member representing Solano County. I think everybody knows that. Its going to be a campaign that has a lot of controversy. ... We have a responsibility to look at 5, 10, 15 years down the road. These are projects the public is demanding.

If the authority gives the measure the go-ahead, the Board of Supervisors in each of the nine affected counties will make the final vote to place it on each countys ballot for June 5 as Regional Measure 3. If it passes, the toll hikes will affect only drivers on the Bay Areas seven state-owned bridges. The Golden Gate Bridge would be excluded. Commuters who cross two bridges to get to their destination would receive a 50 percent discount on their second crossing if they have a FasTrak pass.

The measure already seems to have some headwind. In polling in November and December, a majority of the 4,151 likely voters surveyed said they favored the measure. The hybrid phone/Internet survey was conducted by EMC Research of Oakland.

To become law, the measure would require a simple region-wide majority of those who cast ballots. In all, the toll increase would raise about $4.5 billion over 30 years to pay for expanding public transportation, including BART extensions to Berryessa, San Jose and Santa Clara, and easing traffic choke points on key highways like the Novato Narrows and the Dumbarton Bridge corridor, among other things.

Youve got a tremendously eager public, said Michael Cunningham, senior vice president of policy for the Bay Area Council, a nine-county business organization. The polls show that. Every one of our lives confirms this point. The public is desperate for public transportation solutions.

Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, agreed.

The Bay Area is a jobs machine, he said. That comes with some congestion in the bridge corridors. We think people are interested in getting that solved.

For roadways, funding from the measure would be directed at expanding the Bay Areas express lane project, which converts carpool lanes into shared carpool-toll lanes for solo drivers who want to buy their way in. Interchanges at Interstate 690-Highway 4 in Martinez, I-680 and Highway 84 near Sunol and Highways 101 and 92 in San Mateo also would be upgraded.

The measure also includes a proposal to create an inspector general whose job would be to examine BART finances and operations.

Committeeman Alfredo Pedroza, who represents Napa County, said it was important to stress the $1-plus-$1-plus-$1 model to voters to avoid sticker shock.

It was interesting waking up in the morning for the past three days and seeing there would be a $3 increase in bridge tolls, he said. Its making sure we get the messaging right. Its phased over time, and this is a good step and investment in infrastructure.

Whether or not the measure turns out to be controversial, its important to move it forward, Spering said. He compared it to Regional Measure 2  which voters approved in 2004  raising bridge tolls by $1.

At the time, that took a lot of courage, and a lot of us took a lot of flak for supporting it, but it was the right thing to do, Spering said. Regional Measure 3 will be very similar. It really has an impact on the economy of the Bay Area and the social structure of the Bay Area.
Napa is home to two astrologers who are devoted to the ancient practice of studying celestial bodies for information useful in human affairs.

Ralph and Lahni DeAmicis have been the authors of the Planetary Calendar  the nations second oldest astrological calendar  for 16 years. But now, after obtaining the calendars publishing rights in 2017, theyre updating it, making it more accessible and appealing to new consumers.

Things have changed, planets have moved since the calendar was first published in 1949 by astrologer Louis Pigeon, Lahni DeAmicis said.

Why does astrology, generally considered a pseudoscience, remain popular? As astrologers, we know from our clients what they want to know about and it always comes down to two things  love and money, Ralph DeAmicis said.

The calendar is designed to give its users advance notice about the ups and downs coming their way.

People can use the calendar at a lot of different levels, Lahni said. Even if you just want to know the moons location, when the eclipses are or when the planets are in retrograde, the calendar will be useful to you.

Why would you want to know where the moon is? Lahni says that people feel more comfortable when the moon is in the same sign when they were born. It has to do with our emotional nature, she says.

Days that are good for starting new projects are circled while days that theres maybe too much going on to start something new are highlighted with a black box.

On a more personal level, users can also use the calendar to figure what days are best for them to ask for favors from supervisors, begin an experiment, start travelling and, of course, start a new romance.

Weve really worked on making the calendar more of a crossover where  you dont have to be an expert to get it, Ralph said.

Astrology can be used for more than just planning your Saturday night, though. The DeAmicis use it to predict things like presidential elections.

After last years election, people in the professional astrological community were talking about how they got the election wrong, Lahni said. Well, the DeAmicis got it wrong too.

The election with Hillary and Trump was the first one that we had gotten wrong, Ralph said. Although, since Trump won the Electoral College tally and Clinton won the popular vote, maybe they werent wrong.

If they had done the forecast for 2017 in addition to the forecast for 2016, he said, they would have seen that a period of chaos had begun.

Were basically in a withdraw stage  until about 2022, Ralph said. This is a natural long-term cycle.

2018 forecast

Forecasts are different for different locations, Ralph said.

For instance, this year Washington, D.C. is  its a mess ... Uranus is overhead, which is just chaos, he said.

For the people who think that it might clear up soon, no, added Lahni.

All the major planets are in the seventh house, the house of litigation, so its just a mess, Ralph continued. But the West Coast has a very different chart. In fact, we have a lovely chart.

With Venus and Neptune overhead and both in Pisces, California is going to have a good year, Ralph said.

Pisces relates to, among other things, drugs, Ralph said. Well, we just legalized pot and were having this green wave of investment thats going on.

Since Pisces is a water sign, its also going to be a very fertile year, Ralph said, with a late spring due to the late coming of the Chinese New Year.

With Jupiter overhead  the planet for expansion  Asia is booming while England and Spain  with Saturn overhead, the planet for compression  are withdrawing.

Based on the placement of the planets, this year, Ralph predicts, Washington, D.C., Cuba, Venezuela, China, Korea, and California are going to be in the news.

To naysayers, Ralph says that astrology is physics applied on a very personal level. Its a lot of calculating and its practical.

You can see the affect that the moon has on us, why would you think that a planet like Jupiter that is bigger than (the mass of all the other planets together), wouldnt affect us? added Lahni.

For the 2018 edition, the DeAmicis added a legend for each month as a convenience, and added a larger version. Typically the calendar has only been printed in 9-inch by 7- inch size and as a pocket size.

The DeAmicis reached out to North Bay independent bookstores this year, and next year they hope to get the calendars in esoteric stores in California.

Ralph and Lahni also run a wine tourism company and host programs on wine, health and astrology that air weekly on Napa Valley TV.

The Planetary Calendar is available at Napa Bookmine and Copperfields in Napa and Calistoga. Its also available online at spaceandtime.com.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for tougher libel laws, saying the current iteration is a "sham and a disgrace" as he addressed his Cabinet and reporters at the White House.

"Can't say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account," Trump said at his Cabinet meeting. "We are going to take a very, very strong look at that."

Conservatives and liberals have largely agreed that there should be a high bar for libel claims from public officials, requiring the officials to show actual malice - or that the news organization knew the claims were false before publishing them.

Trump's complaints about libel are not new; he has somewhat regularly called for tougher libel laws as he has smarted over news coverage, decried "fake" news and pointed out corrections from news outlets. Those calls have drawn sharp denunciations from legal scholars and news organizations.

The president has been particularly aggrieved after the publication of Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury," which depicts his White House as chaotic, beset by infighting and incompetent, at least in the early days of his administration. The president has also uttered a number of falsehoods about others, such as saying then-President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. According to The Washington Post, Trump has made about 2,000 false or misleading statements since taking office.

It is unlikely that Congress would take up a move to change libel laws.

The meeting was unlike past Cabinet meetings, which have been marked by officials praising the president. Trump recited a number of accomplishments from his administration, including the tax bill that passed last year, the rising economy and the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

The president said his position on the border wall will "never change," but on DACA, we "want to see something." Democrats are resistant to making a deal on immigration that includes money for a wall along the southern border.

Legislators have until early March to find a compromise for the immigration program that allows undocumented children to stay in the United States, and Trump has said the bill needs to have "love." He has not said exactly what he wants in return for keeping the program.

The president seemed buoyant after his lengthy immigration meeting Tuesday, in which he allowed reporters to watch 55 minutes of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats, with him leading the charge. He gave a remarkable glimpse into how he sees the presidency, offering little guidance on details but basking in showmanship and dealmaking.

"Welcome back to the studio," he told reporters entering the Cabinet Room, noting there had been "phenomenal" praise for his "performance."

He said, without providing evidence or details, that TV anchors had sent him letters thanking him for letting so much of the negotiations happen on camera. He said that coverage changed after a couple of hours but that he expected the media to eventually be more supportive of him.

"If Trump doesn't win in three years," he said, "they're all out of business. You're all out of business."
A new year brings renewal of hope, its said, but it also means renewed political and legal hostilities over the direction of Californias public school system.

For years, an Equity Coalition of civil rights and education reform groups has battled the states education establishment  state schools Supt. Tom Torlakson, the state Board of Education and the California Teachers Association, most notably  over how the achievement gap should be addressed.

Thats the wide differential in academic performance between poor Latino and black students and their more privileged white and Asian classmates.

The establishment says more money is the answer and Gov. Jerry Browns Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) provides money specifically to improve the standing of the high-riskstudents.

However, with Brown calling it subsidiarity, he and other state officials have been content to provide the extra money to local school districts with high numbers of targeted students with few strings.

In the same vein, the states new accountability dashboard minimizes academic improvement and specifically eschews direct intervention for schools that fail to improve.

The Equity Coalition, however, says the money is being allocated without needed oversight on how well its being spent and has pressed, so far with limited success, for more accountability for outcomes.

Their battle has been waged in the Legislature, in the state school board, in local school districts and often in the courts.

So far, theres little evidence that LCFF is, in fact, narrowing the achievement gap, but defenders of the status quo say it just needs more time and more money to show results.

One of the many fronts in the school war has been the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which requires states, as a condition of receiving federal school aid, to provide some of the direct oversight and accountability that the Equity Coalition seeks, especially in identifying failing schools.

Torlakson and the state school board have chosen to comply with the law minimally. But just before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Education politely told them, via a 12-page letter, that the plan they submitted was falling short of the ESSA laws requirements.

It was the gift that the Equity Coalition had been hoping to receive.

California leaders have made programming of these extra resources a mockery to disadvantaged students, Bill Lucia, executive director of EdVoice, said in a statement.

Some might dismiss the federal letter as just another in a long string of conflicts between California and President Trumps administration.

However, the law in question was signed by President Obama and his Department of Education often sparred with California over the accountability issue before and after the law was enacted.

The federal letter suggests that California rewrite its ESSA plan and resubmit it, thus tossing the ball back into Sacramentos court and giving EdVoice and others in the Equity Coalition a new opening to press their demands.

Noting that still another lawsuit has been recently filed against the state over accountability, EdVoices Lucia said, Filing parent lawsuits is not a constitutional system of accountability. California is systematically ignoring the academic failures of 60 percent of its school-aged children. There will be long-lasting consequences to the individual children, families, communities, economy and government budgets if Sacramento doesnt take this as a serious wakeup call.
Camping fees at the Kirby Cove and Bicentennial campgrounds in the Marin Headlands of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area are increasing on March 11.

Camping fees at Kirby Cove will increase from $25 to $30, while day use fees will increase from $35 to $45.

Camping at Bicentennial campground, which was free, will now cost $20. Access and senior lifetime interagency pass holders will still receive 50 percent off camping.

The increased fees will support the expansion of an online reservation system, new campground amenities and other projects that benefit visitors, Golden Gate National Recreation Area officials said.

The fees will pay for installation of charcoal grills and a vault toilet at the Bicentennial campground.

The National Park Service approved the fee increases in December.

The fee increase at Kirby Cove campground is the first since 1997.

The National Park Service's online reservation system, www.recreation.gov, will expand to include camping reservations at Bicentennial campground.

The fee increases are in line with fees charged at similar campgrounds throughout California, GGNRA officials said.
Michael Wolff's book has become the acid test for whether people believe in the truth or are simply interested in taking down President Donald Trump at whatever cost. And it has now proven that the same nihilistic attitude toward facts that infected Trump's 2016 campaign and presidency has spread to its most dug-in opponents.

It shouldn't be this way.

In any other political climate, a book like Wolff's that is rife with inexplicably basic factual mistakes and gossip-section-quality reportage would be dismissed out of hand. The fact that he has clearly gotten so many things wrong would set off alarm bells and render everything else in it too suspect for public consumption.

But Wolff was smart enough to write the book that a large segment of the American public and the political press were begging for. His real trick was applying his notoriously relaxed journalistic standards and self-assigned artistic license to the same topic White House reporters have been doggedly and much more carefully pursuing for months. He took the things those reporters have heard as rumors and were ostensibly unable to confirm and put them forward as fact.

For this, plenty have argued that he should be celebrated - warts and all. Who cares if it's totally accurate, the refrain goes, because it's telling an important story with hugely dire implications.

Here's GQ's Drew Magary a few days ago, summarizing the case for Wolff's book in the aptly titled "Michael Wolff Did What Every Other White House Reporter Is Too Cowardly to Do."

"He did not engage in some endless b--- access tango. No, Wolff actually USED his access, and extended zero courtesy to Trump on the process, and it's going to pay off for him not just from a book sales standpoint, but from a real journalistic impact. I am utterly sick to death of hearing anonymous reports about people inside the White House 'concerned' about the madman currently in charge of everything. These people don't deserve the courtesy of discretion. They don't deserve to dictate the terms of coverage to people. They deserve to be torched."

The basic argument put forward by Magary and many others is that too many reporters are too deferential to the White House - that Trump has forfeited the right to circumspect media coverage. When Trump does something controversial and extreme, it must be put forward as the work of an unhinged president. When he says something untrue, it must be put forward as a deliberate lie. Basically, there should be no benefit of the doubt anymore - no alternate explanations beside the ones that partisans and ideologues in their armchairs have settled upon. They see the truth with their own eyes, so why can't reporters just acknowledge it and join the fight?

But that's just not how it works. Reporters need to know that the things they are publishing about Trump are true, because when they turn out not to be, they forfeit the trust of their readers and further alienate their skeptics, who already think we're constantly peddling fake news. There's access journalism being practiced by some, of course, but there is also rigorous journalism that requires careful consideration of the facts as they are known. That filter may not be on a setting that everyone likes, but the arguments for Wolff's book often verge on saying that such filters are no longer necessary. Wolff, after all, sure doesn't seem to have much of one.

This tweet from the New York Times's Nick Confessore said it better than I could.

Confessore tweeted "Who cares if the Wolff book is factually accurate, you toadying journos who never call out Trump on his lies?"

Wolff's saving grace is that the White House appeared to give him a ridiculously stupid amount of access. When you combine that with existing reporting (you know, the same reporting that is suddenly the subject of so much derision), it makes the stories in his book seem, at the very least, plausible. The juiciest tidbits are almost universally difficult to totally dismiss or disprove. And they fit lots and lots of people's preconceived notions about the truth of what's going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

But given the sheer volume of sloppy mistakes we know about in Wolff's book, it's difficult to take anything in it at face value. If Wolff can't nail down basic facts before publishing, why should we have any faith that he's nailed down the accuracy of major events described within? Just because the book rings true for half of the country doesn't mean it is true.

True enough should not be good enough.
It's with a sad heart that I write this letter having been born and raised in Napa some 77 years ago, along with four other siblings. As a young child, I remember hearing people talk about friends or relatives they lost in the war or had returned wounded. In school, we learned to salute the American flag with our hand over our heart or when the national anthem was played. We learned early in life to respect and love our country.

Thinking back to all who have lost their lives or suffered wounds through the actions this country has been involved in, it is impressive that we have not had a war on our soil. Is there a group in our society that would promote turmoil, animosity, dissension, and all other forms of hate? Just look around at events that are happening every day. I think that if one does not believe in our country or choose not to honor those who have given their lives for us, you should leave.

Not long ago, I lost my uncle who was a veteran and wounded in World War II. He had suffered gunshot wounds and shrapnel wounds during a landing in the Pacific. In all the years I was near him, he never complained or had a negative thing to say about our country. Finally, late in life, a piece of shrapnel traveled from where it had been lodged, ending his life. God rest his soul.

On a current note, this brings me to the sports' teams showing their dishonor. They disrespect our national anthem and the many who have given their all so these players could make millions; they use multi excuses for their behavior. Why do people support them? I, for one, will not.

Henry Durbin

Napa
The proponents for the recall of St. Helena Mayor Alan Galbraith would like to thank Napa County Retired Superior Court Judge Scott Snowden for his efforts to successfully mediate a resolution to the recall.

The recall effort was not initiated on the spur of the moment, nor was it an enjoyable task. The proponents, however, felt it was a necessary process to bring awareness to the grievances and frustrations expressed by many city residents concerning the mayor's leadership, judgment, management and voting record.

We're grateful the mayor has agreed to participate in several town hall style meetings, moderated by Judge Snowden. We're also optimistic that taking this action will be far less divisive in our community and save our city the cost of a special election.

The past proponents of the recall are writing this letter to invite and encourage St. Helena residents to attend one or more of the public meetings, with Mayor Galbraith, that will be scheduled during January and February. Come and let your thoughts and interests be heard. Whether you agree with the recall efforts or not, this will be a chance for all of us to speak our minds, share our interests and discuss the direction we envision for our city's future.

The first of up to four moderated meetings will take place on Monday, Jan. 22 at the Native Sons Hall on Spring Street. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. and continue until everyone has had an opportunity to express their input, but not to exceed four hours. "Water" will be the main topic for discussion at the first meeting.

Dates for the remaining public meetings in January and February will be announced as soon as all parties confirm their attendance and venues are determined.

Please join us.

Tom Belt, one of the 26 recall proponents

St. Helena
Tuesday, Jan. 2

0712  The sounds of jackhammering were heard on McCorkle Avenue starting at 7 a.m.

0818  Report of a reckless driver swerving, passing over double yellows, and almost causing several collisions on Silverado Trail. The car was last seen turning onto Old Howell Mountain Road.

0907  A car jack was stolen from the passenger seat of an unlocked car parked on Mariposa Lane. Other items in the car appeared to have been shuffled around, and the trunk was left open.

1351  Police had previously sent a letter admonishing a Mitchell Drive resident whose barking dogs have caused complaints from neighbors. The resident said the barking dogs do not belong to him.

1702  A car was reported stolen from Hunt Avenue between midnight and 1 a.m.

1721  Medical aid for a person having a heart attack on Allison Avenue.

Wednesday, Jan. 3

1135  Someone reported fraudulent charges on their credit card.

1322  Items were reported stolen from an unlocked car on McCorkle Avenue.

1416  A man whod reported his car stolen said hed found it in a Hunt Avenue parking lot. Damage to the ignition system had left it undrivable.

1520  Report of a clothing donation bin overflowing at Elmhurst/Quail. An officer contacted the company that operates the bin.

1548  Report of a non-injury accident on Spring Mountain Road.

1628  A young man was seen flailing his arms in and out of traffic near Main/Vidovich. Police checked the area.

1630  Report of a possible drunk driver at Main/Adams. Police checked the area.

Thursday, Jan. 4

1239  Someone working at a St. Helena business had fraudulently been using a Social Security number belonging to an 8-year-old child in Glendale.

1333  Report of a white husky-type dog wandering around Tainter Street.

1545  Non-injury accident near Main/Sulphur Springs.

2132  Report of a possible trespasser on a Madrona Avenue property. Police made sure the property was secure.

Friday, Jan. 5

0536  A caller reported hearing a loud noise earlier this morning on Pratt Avenue. She wasnt sure what time it had occurred because shed gone back to sleep.

1000  Report of a reckless driver going over double yellow lines near Silverado/Pope.

1016  Medical aid for a woman feeling sick on Mountain View Avenue.

1233  A package was reported stolen from someones front porch on Spring Mountain Court.

1547  Medical aid for a man having a seizure on Railroad Avenue.

1602  The fire department responded for a lift assist after a man fell on Laguna Seca Court.

1722  A non-injury accident briefly blocked the Main/Madrona intersection.

2209  The windows of an SUV were smashed on Monte Vista.

2254  Following a traffic stop, police arrested a 24-year-old Napa woman for violation of probation.

2347  Report of people talking loudly outside a Park Street home, keeping a neighbor awake.

Saturday, Jan. 6

0459  Following a traffic stop at Main/Adams, police arrested a 23-year-old South Lake Tahoe man for an outstanding warrant.

1121  Report of a dead possum on Spring Street, near Hudson/Valley View.

1929  Report of a car unable to maintain its lane near Main/Grayson.

Sunday, Jan. 7

0307  Police responded to a report of four or five people yelling and screaming on Crinella Drive.

0333  Medical aid on San Juan Court.

1009  Police assisted with a 12-year-old girl who was stuck in a bathroom on Quail Court.

1027  A driver saw hazardous debris fall all over Oak Avenue from an untarped trailer being pulled by a Toyota pickup.

1255  Report of a leaf blower going for about half an hour on Stockton Street.

1357  Medical aid for an elderly woman feeling very dizzy on Pratt Avenue.

1412  A car parked on Crinella Drive was damaged in a hit-and-run.

1423  Two packages addressed to someone in Sacramento were found opened on Kearney Street.

Monday, Jan. 8

0012  Report of a suspicious man whod been watching a woman on Main Street.

0849  Report of a landscaper blocking an alleyway near St. Andrews Court.

0941  Medical aid on San Juan Court.

Tuesday, Jan. 9

0408  An officer went to Calistoga to help search for a man last seen jumping out of a window on Mora Avenue.

0437  A caller claimed to be hiding in a closet to avoid a violent brother.
Here are five wines, all less than $20, to help you through the winter chill. They include a rich Cotes-du-Rhone that tastes above its pedigree, a fun and juicy Sicilian red, and a philanthropic South African red that funnels extra profits back to the farmers who grow the grapes.

Clos du Mont-Olivet Vieille Vignes 2015

2.5 stars

Cotes-du-Rhone, France, $18

This savory, rich red evokes southern France with its scents and flavors of dark fruit, lavender and wild thyme. The winemaker deftly captured the warmth of a ripe vintage without letting the sugar levels in the grapesand the resulting alcohol in the wineget out of whack. Alcohol by volume: 14.5 percent.

Donnafugata Sedara 2015

2 stars

Sicily, Italy, $18

Sometimes a good wine just needs to get the job done, but with a little added flair. This juicy red blend based on Sicilys own nero davola is ideal for casual weeknight meals such as pizza, pasta, even grilled fish or meat. ABV: 13.5 percent.

Stillman St. Chardonnay 2016

2 stars

Sonoma County, California, $18

This is good, straightforward chardonnay, rich with stone fruit flavors, just a little bit of influence from older oak barrels, and a nicely balanced finish. ABV: 14.1 percent.

GREAT VALUE

Cape Venture Wine Co. Lubanzi 2015

2 stars

South Africa, $15

Lubanzi is the creation of Washington-based Charles Brain and Walker Brown, who trekked across part of South Africa a few years ago with a stray dog named Lubanzi. They describe their company as a sustainable enterprise; half of the profits go back to the farmers who grew the grapes. They launched last year with two wines: a 2016 chenin blanc and this deliciously zesty 2015 Rhone-style red, a blend of shiraz, cinsault, mourvedre and grenache. The wines are sealed with an innovative twist-off cork. ABV: 13.5 percent.

GREAT VALUE

Legado del Moncayo Dry Muscat 2016

2 stars

Campo de Borja, Spain, $14

Muscat tends to be sweet. Dry versions like this one retain the grapes flowery and citrus character. Think of standing in a lemon grove near the ocean on a breezy day. This is delicious by itself but would be a great partner for seafood salad or paella. ABV: 13 percent.
On May 19, 1966, less than two years before he would be fatally shot by an assassin, civil rights leader and American clergyman Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the University of Miami campus for a speech on The Churchs Involvement in the Civil Rights Program.

Gas was 32 cents a gallon, miniskirts were in style, the average price of a home hovered at $14,200, and more than 500,000 young soldiers were battling Viet Cong guerrillas in the treacherous jungles of Vietnam.

King, a Nobel Peace prize winner yet controversial in large part because of his call to end that war, was invited by the Universitys Department of Religion and UM President Henry King Stanford. Out of concern for his safety, King was ushered in through the back door of the Whitten Student Union, and was met in the kitchen by the University president, a visionary and activist in his own right.

Coming through the back door of a house, not the front, would have been the only place I could have met a black man when I was growing up in Atlanta, Stanford wrote, describing the meeting, in his book Campus Under Fire and Other Essays. The two leaders shared a laugh at the irony.

King was met by a standing ovation by the 1,200 students and faculty in attendance, according to a Miami Herald report. Civil rights is a moral issueit is not just a matter of economics and politics, King told the crowd, while challenging his fellow clergymen to take action in the struggle for equality.

Criminal responses are environmental and not racial, the civil rights icon said in remarks captured in We Were Pioneers: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1966), adding that poverty, ignorance, social isolation, and economic deprivation breed crime whatever the racial group might be.

On its website, The King Center describes the MLK holiday as a day that celebrates interracial and intercultural cooperation. No other day of the year brings so many peoples of different cultural backgrounds together in such a vibrant spirit of brother and sisterhoodthis is not a black holiday; it is a peoples holiday. And it is the young people of all races and religions who hold the keys to the fulfillment of his dream.

Five decades after his death, Dr. Kings great dream for America, a call not for national greatness but for a vibrant multiracial nation that lives by its noblest principles, has spawned a legacy that lives on in new generations of UM alumni and faculty. These voices and their commitment to promote respect, diversity, and tolerance help to advance the Universitys Roadmap to Our New Century.

Read the impact King has had on the lives of some members of the UM community:

Anthony Barthelemy, associate professor of English, speciality in African-American and Renaissance literature.

Most of my associations with Dr. King go back to when I was a teenager and just seeing the way my family understood the future, the possibility of a different Americaan America where there were not the gross inequities between the promise and the reality. | Read more

Renee Dickens Callan, director of UM Multicultural Student Affairs, primary advisor for United Black Students.

We need to be aware and to fight for those that dont have a voice, to be conscious that there are people on the fringes of society and marginalized, and that, if you are in a position and have the ability to advocate for or with them, you have the responsibility to do that. Thats part of our humanity. | Read more

Marvin Dawkins, professor of sociology, editorial board member Journal of Race and Policy and Negro Education Review.

Throughout my life, Ive always tried to directly follow the King modelpracticing non-violence, being a gentle person, having pride in excellence, and trying to lead and to help others think of themselves as being somebody. | Read more

Michael Stephen Gaines, biology professor and assistant provost of Undergraduate Research and Community Outreach.

This favorite quote of Dr. Kings has inspired me for years: Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane. I teach lots of courses related to health and medicine, have lots of pre-med students, and I often cite this quote to them. We want our physicians to be sensitive to issues of access. | Read more

Thelma V. A. Gibson, Emeriti member Board of Trustees, president emeritus Theodore R. Gibson Memorial Fund, Miami HistoryMaker.

We should never forget Dr. Kings fortitude, his act of wanting something for America that would make it a better place for all of Gods childrenhe truly believed that we are all Gods children. | Read more

Sherrill Hayes, professor emeritus and chair of the Department of Physical Therapy for 29 years; served on the The Vietnam War cont panel for The Sixties class offered biannually at the University.

Dr. Kings message and stress on non-violence was very important to me. The anti-war protests and draft lottery happened during my years in college from 1966-70, and I was very much involved. | Read more

H.T. Smith Jr., J.D. 73, vice chair of the UM Board of Trustees, a Miami Distinguished Native Son.

What made an especially big impact on me was Dr. Kings great Letter from the Birmingham Jail where he speaks to people of faith and of good will about the necessity that anytime is the right time to do whats right. | Read more

Anthony Barthelemy

Most of my associations with Dr. King go back to when I was a teenager and just seeing the way my family understood the future, the possibility of a different Americaan America where there were not the gross inequities between the promise and the reality. That was what Dr. King was always aboutthat you could believe that the promise was coming true, that the values of America were becoming real.

The night Dr. King was assassinated, I was a college freshman and attending a campaign rally for Eugene McCarthy. Tom Lehrer was there singing his famous parody, The Vatican Rag. We were all in a festive mood, enjoying the political activism of that particular time and hope that we going to move LBJ out of the Vietnam War. Somebody walked up to Laird on stage and told him about Dr. King and he announced it to us all.

I remember, too, watching the march on Washington and listening to him give that speech. I remember my family reacting, having a sense that we were witnessing a moment of greatness in America, a moment of profound calling in the check, that what America stood for and what it meant was being renewed and challenged at the same time.

When Dr. King expanded his message from the desire for civil rights to the push for peace and for jobsthe way that the message was expandedprovoked a lot of debate amongst a lot of people who had a lot of faith with him. Each push, each expansion, each enlargement of the goal was wise. There was always this kind of sense amongst us that the great leader is the man who will stand to be questioned.

One part of Kings message that resonates with me is that when you see injustice, you act. Its not like, well, well hold back a little and once you have the message then well do something. You have to be clear, and the clarity requires action.

Many years ago, a nephew of mine was looking at his fourth grade history book that stated that Dr. King worked for freedom. Thats a very nebulous notion. What Martin Luther King Jr. died for is that he was in Memphis trying to get a pay raise for garbage men. You look at the glamour of the recent Golden Globe Awards and Oprah Winfreys awards speech where she says that the #metoo movement has to include domestic workers, field workers, women who work in factories, in restaurants, in engineering, in art, in science, in military, in politics We need to remember that this call is in keeping with what Dr. King stood for. We have to see and remember him as someone on the ground, working for striking garbage workers who were looking for dignity.

Ive always thought that it was a great expression of the positive nature of MLK and very meaningful that we promote the day of servicethe way the Obamas promoted going out in the community. The U is very big on this, and its so pleasing to see hundreds of kids go out in the community to do a day of service.

Renee Dickens Callan

When I first watched his famous I Have a Dream speech, it was an opportunity to think about that time and what it was like in comparison with the stories you hear from parents, from relatives and your elders. His speech put all those things together with a face and a voice. Obviously, it takes a village to move these issues forward, but with Dr. King he was that someone who gave voice to the issues of that time.

In terms of Dr. Kings message, the aspect that most resonates with me is to be aware and to fight for those that dont have a voice, to be conscious that there are people who are on the fringes of society and marginalized, and that, if you are in a position and have the ability to advocate for or with them, you have the responsibility to do that. Thats part of our humanity.

This shows up for me in my work in education, in the diversity office where Im really trying to help students navigate the university system and to get educated. My career has been, in a small way, similar to Dr. King: trying to better the lives of students through education.

The piece of Dr. Kings effort that so many talk about is non-violence. While that is definitely accurate, its not only about simply addressing your detractors and those who oppose with love and turning the other cheek. For some of the ills of society there has to be some form of resistance, of fighting for. You cant always sit and wait for things to happen. You have to get out there and do the right things, you have to act, and bring something to the table that pushes the issues forward.

United Black Students usually puts on a community service project that sometimes takes place on the MLK holiday and Im focused completely on helping to coordinate their service event, where theyre doing somethingpainting, cleaning up, visiting the elderlyin the community. This year, Ill probably be doing something with my family. But for Dr. Kings legacy, its not all about service, because this holiday is just one day, its about what youre doing to sustain what he espoused and to have an ongoing impact in your communities.

Marvin Dawkins

I wanted to become a social activist because of everything that was going on, but was on the fence of the best course of study to get there. When I learned that Dr. King had majored in sociology as an undergrad at Morehouse College, I switched my major. If Martin Luther King was doing it, thats what I would do, too. I was particularly impacted by his principles that related religion to social action.

My life has been guided and inspired by Dr. Kings quote on service: Everybody can be greatbecause anybody can serve. You dont have to have a college degree to serve. You dont have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. Its always made me feel that serving is the most important role I can doits the reason Ive been a professor for so long.

I was 39 and tenured at a small school in Wisconsin, when my wife died. I was devastated and took a leave of absence, went to North Carolina with my young son to live with relatives. To get back on my feet, I started volunteering, first at a Boys and Girls club, then a summer Bible school, and then with Meals on Wheels. I loved that work but eventually got firedbecause I spent too much time staying to talk to the lonely people we delivered meals to and for reporting problems about the living conditions I saw. My sister pointed out that she knew that I loved the volunteer work but reminded me that Dr. King was a drum major for social justice and that God wasnt finished with me yet. I knew I could be of service through my teaching. I applied to UM and was accepted.

Ive been here since and have benefited so greatly and have been so gratified with my students, particularly grad and doctoral students, some who have gone on to become deans and chairs of departments themselves, and they call and look in on me as if they were family, share what theyre doing and ask for advice. You feel valuedand all from the [intention] to do service. Ive been blessed, largely because of things Ive done.

Throughout my life, Ive always tried to directly follow the King modelpracticing non-violence, being a gentle person, having pride in excellence, and trying to lead and to help others think of themselves as being somebody.

When remembering Dr. King, we should never forget his vision for the Beloved Community, all people joining before freedom. He said he wanted to see people walking together, treating each other as brothers and sistersthat was his vision for America.

Michael Stephen Gaines

This favorite quote of Dr. Kings has inspired me for years: Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane. I teach lots of courses related to health and medicine, have lots of pre-med students, and I often cite this quote to them. We want our physicians to be sensitive to issues of access.

At the time of Dr. Kings historic speech in Washington, I was attending Tulane University in New Orleans, and there was a lot of turmoil going on. You saw and heard about lots of violence all around. What stood out for me was Dr. Kings message about non-violence and his approach. Here was this peaceful man trying to make change in a society, trying to unify the country amidst it all.

It depends what part of the country youre from, but some felt Dr. King was in some ways a rabble-rouser, which he wasnt. Some thought he was socialist because of his viewpoints. A lot of that has to do with your views about what is fair in society. Today with all the stuff going on were living in a divisive country; MLK tried to bring us together, and that message escapes people in terms of what we need to do to be a stronger and better country. Were all the samehave the same heartbeats, have a certain tolerance for freezingwere all alike, and we should celebrate our differences. But that gets lost in a lot of circles.

On the MLK holiday especially, I often think about what impacted me, about the Civil Rights Movement, and three young men in Mississippi who were murdered for what they believed in. I think about being a student back then in New Orleans. I was pretty unhappylost and disconnectedand with my mother and father begging me to come back home to New York City. I stayed and suffered through itand Im glad I did. I believe it made me stronger and sensitive to the issues that Martin Luther King was all about.

Thelma V. A. Gibson

I so remember sitting at my television in Miami and watching Dr. Kings I Have a Dream Speech [Washington, August 1963] and coverage of walk in Selma [to Montgomery, March 1965]. It was so powerful to see how he was so determined, along with those who walked with him, to make a difference for all of us in this country, especially for those of us who were considered colored or Negro.

Ive spent all my life in Coconut Grove, and growing up I was pretty radical in my own way, trying to make change take place. I fell in line with some of his teachings that all of us should be there trying to make a difference and then for all of us to get along with each other, that we should all to be able to walk in freedom. He especially wanted his childreneverybodys childrento have everything that America has to offer.

We should never forget Dr. Kings fortitude, his act of wanting something for America that would make it a better place for all of Gods childrenhe truly believed that we are all Gods children.

For the holiday, I always make sure to go to the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project breakfast hosted by Congresswoman Frederica Wilson. The ceremony honors and awards children, especially boys, with scholarships to go to school. Like Dr. King, she wants them to be better people, to go to school, and to get an education. That makes me very proud.

Sherrill Hayes

I was just a freshman in high school when I heard Dr. Kings I Have a Dream speech [August 28, 1963] I remember watching itmesmerizedon television. It was so inspirational and motivational. The other memory I have is when he was killed. It was such a tragedy. I was also in high school when JFK [President John F. Kennedy] was killed. You think about what would have happened if both of them had lived.

Dr. Kings message and stress on non-violence was very important to me. The anti-war protests and draft lottery happened during my years in college from 1966-70, and I was very much involved. In my senior year, I was also a physical therapist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where I treated those 18- and 19-year-olds [wounded in Vietnam]. I was profoundly impacted by the war and their injuries.

Its interesting how things from the sixties overlap. We were young and forming our own values. The civil rights movement happened, the womens movement happened, the Vietnam War and the protestsso much of that was so impactful, and we thought we had made so much progress. Yet some things still havent changed and it even seems that were getting worse. Its really disappointing that equal work and equal pay still doesnt exist.

In remembering Dr. King, we should not forget the importance of working together to solve our problems, that people are goodand have the potential to be good. We should try to resist the anger that happens in so many things, that people get upset or feel that theyre mistreated or disrespected. I understand that, but sometimes the anger overcomes the serious thought and the willingness to work together.

H.T. Smith Jr.

My family owned and operated Polites Restaurant in Overtown and walking distance from the Mary Elizabeth Hotel, a popular hotel for black entertainers, athletes and celebrities visiting Miami in those days. After performing on Miami Beach, they had to leave because of the segregation law curfew for blacks. Theyd come back to Overtown where theyd stay up for parties [and at music clubs] until the sun came up. Theyd sleep in until noon or 1 p.m. then come by the restaurant. As a little boy, when Dr. King came in to eat and talk, I didnt know how great he was, just knew that he was a signature leader in the fight for justice. The beauty of him was that his person was the same as his persona.

What made an especially big impact on me was his great Letter from the Birmingham Jail where he speaks to people of faith and of good will about the necessity that anytime is the right time to do whats right. Hes saying that its the necessity of people of faith to take action, like Jesus did for the downtroddenand whos more downtrodden than the black community?

So I have dedicated myself to spending 90 percent of my time, talent, and treasure in the black community because thats where the need is greatest. The only exception is that I belong to the UM Board, and [that is because] when I came back from the Vietnam War suffering from PTSD, UM admitted me to law school before I even took the admission test. No other institution would have done that. It saved me mentally because law school is so demanding, and I was so involved in my books that it kept the distractions away. I was the first in my family, not just to go to college, but to set foot on a college campus.

To honor Dr. Kings legacy, we must never forget that we are all of the same familythe human family. Fifty years from nowas Rony Abovitz [fellow alumnus] talked about in his December commencement addresswell look back and say, Whats wrong with you guys, how is it that you were treating people like that because of the color of their skins? We need to focus on the universality of our humanness, that we are all one and from the same family.

For the MLK holiday, I go to the 5000 Role Models for Excellence Project breakfast just to remind myself what I should be doing. And I always have a random act of kindness, sometimes its a renovation project, painting or cleaning, or helping train people how to get their records sealed or expunged, or on their rights when stopped by police. This year well be working cleaning and planting at the NFLYET Center at Gwen Cherry Park.

- University Archives at University of Miami Libraries provided research and resources for this report.
Posted by Mark Williams | January 11, 2018

In a new high-priority Ford safety recall, the automaker is advising customers of certain 2006 Ford Rangers to stop driving their compact pickup and contact their dealer immediately for a free repair. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also issued a statement about the recall. Both Ford and NHTSA are reporting that the automaker will tow affected vehicles to a dealer for repair and provide a loaner.

According to Ford, more than 2,700 2006 Ford Rangers equipped with Takata airbag inflators have a higher risk of rupturing in the event of a crash than other Rangers under the same recall. The Rangers that should not be driven were built at the Twin Cities Assembly Plant in Minnesota between Aug. 10 and Dec. 15, 2005.

Ford issued this action following accidents that resulted in two separate fatalities, each involving a Ranger produced within those build dates. The 2004-06 Ranger is already part of the larger Takata airbag inflator recall, but as a result of these fatalities, Ford is advising owners of the 2,700 affected 2006 Rangers to stop driving them immediately and call a local dealership.

To find out if your Ranger is affected, check your vehicle identification number on the VIN checker at Ford's recall site. The Ford reference number for this recall is 18S02.

For a full list of all vehicles included in the Takata airbag inflator recall, click here.

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The Kosho Hajime new year lecture event, in which leading experts from the academic community deliver lectures to Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, was held at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Wednesday.

They were joined by other members of the Imperial family, including Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, as well as Prince Akishino and his wife, Princess Kiko.

It was the first time in 15 years for the Crown Princess, who has long struggled with depression, to attend the event.

Kazui Tashiro, a 71-year-old professor emeritus at Keio University, gave a lecture on historical trade between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, using written records from the Edo Period (1603 to 1868).
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Bharti Airtel of India, now supports voice over LTE (News - Alert) for Nokia 2, 6, and 8 devices.





VoLTE provides callers with an HD-quality experience. Their call connection times are reportedly three times faster than those delivered on standard calls. They provide subscribers with the ability to be on a call and the internet simultaneously. And it increases handset battery life by 40 percent as compared with VoIP.

Customers of Bharti Airtel (News - Alert) who are interested in this capability need to have 4G service or a 4G SIM. There are no extra charges for the VoLTE capability. Its offered as a feature of Bharti Airtels current plans.

In addition to the consumer benefits, VoLTE provides cellular network operators with better spectrum efficiency.

Since VoLTE also utilizes an all-IP IMS network its deployment lays the groundwork for advanced communications services such as VoWiFi, RCS and multiple device support, adds David OByrne, IP Communications Project Director at GSMA (News - Alert), in a 2016 blog.

Although VoLTE support for the Nokia handsets is new, Airtel has already been offering VoLTE to users of other endpoints. That includes smartphones from Apple, OnePlus, Samsung (News - Alert), and Xiaomi.

Airtel offers VoLTE service in select Airtel markets. That includes Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Chhattisgarth, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mumbai, and Telangana.

According to GSMA, VoLTE is now commercially available in more than 74 countries. And GSMA says there are 221 VoLTE handset models available.

VoLTE stands for voice over long term evolution. It employs digital packet and IMS technology to deliver voice over IP networks in a more efficient way.

Nokia Siemens (News - Alert) Networks and Samsung staged the first publicly executed call between different VoLTE clients at the CTIA show back in 2010. The demonstration ran over the 700MHz frequency band used in the U.S.

Edited by Mandi Nowitz
The Eric Omare-led Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, yesterday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to stop bloodshed by suspected herdsmen and cultists.

The spokesman, Mr. Henry Iyalla, in a statement said it was unacceptable for such killings to occur under a government that swore to protect life and property.

The statement said: We express our displeasure over mass killings of innocent Nigerians in Southern Kaduna, Taraba and Benue State on a continual basis by suspected herdsmen and killings in other parts of the country.

Iyalla said it was disheartening to see that while the killings continued, the Federal Government played politics with security.

He said: We note with dismay how the President Buhari-led Federal Government is quick to act, proscribe and deploy the military in the South, especially Niger Delta, when it comes to issues relating to agitations in the region by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Niger Delta militants.

But the Federal Government becomes speechless, deaf and confused when Fulani militants, a group, which according to the Global Terrorism Index, is the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world, goes on killing innocent Nigerians.

The Federal Government has failed in its primary duty of protecting the life and property of citizens as enshrined in the 1999 constitution, United Nations Charter and African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

Iyalla said the government should not be seen as applying double standard in addressing security.

He said the government should live up to its responsibility of protecting life and property, no matter the region and group involved.

Iyalla condemned the murder at Omoku in Ogba/Egbema Ndoni Local Government of Rivers State by suspected cultists.

He said the killers were not strangers to the government, adding that incessant killings in Andoni Local Government and at Abonnema in Akuku-Toru Council, including criminal acts, were indications that the government had failed in its primary duty of protecting life and property.
Prof. Wole Soyinka

How often must we warn against the enervating lure of appeasement in face of aggression and will to dominate! I do not hesitate to draw attention to Volume III of my INTERVENTION Series, and to the chapter on The Unappeasable Price of Appeasement. There is little to add, but it does appear that even the tragically fulfilled warnings of the past leave no impression on leadership, not even when identical signs of impending cardiac arrest loom over the nation. Boko Haram was still at that stage of putative probes when cries of alarm emerged. Then the fashion ideologues of society deployed their distancing turns of phrase to rationalise what were so obviously discernable as an agenda of ruthless fundamentalism and internal domination. Boko Haram was a product of social inequities, they preached  one even chortled: We stand for justice, so we are all Boko Haram! We warned that  yes indeed  the inequities of society were indeed part of the story, but why do you close your eyes against other, and more critical malfunctions of the human mind, such as theocratic lunacy? Now it is happening again. The nation is being smothered in Vaseline when the diagnosis is so clearly  cancer!

We have been here before  now, before is back with a vengeance. President Goodluck Jonathan refused to accept that marauders had carried off the nations daughters; President Muhammed Buhari and his government  including his Inspector-General of Police  in near identical denial, appear to believe that killer herdsmen who strike again and again at will from one corner of the nation to the other, are merely hot-tempered citizens whose scraps occasionally degenerate into communal clashes  I believe I have summarised him accurately. The marauders are naughty children who can be admonished, paternalistically, into good neighbourly conduct. Sometimes of course, the killers were also said be non-Nigerians after all. The contradictions are mind-boggling.

First the active policy of appeasement, then the language of endorsement. El Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, proudly announced that, on assuming office, he had raised a peace committee and successfully traced the herdsmen to locations outside Nigerian borders. He then made payments to them from state coffers to cure them of their homicidal urge which, according to these herdsmen, were reprisals for some ancient history and the loss of cattle through rustling. The public was up in arms against this astonishing revelation. I could only call to mind a statement by the same El Rufai after a prior election which led to a rampage in parts of the nation, and cost even the lives of National Youth Service corpers. They were hunted down by aggrieved mobs and even states had to organize rescue missions for their citizens. Countering protests that the nation owed a special duty of protection to her youth, especially those who are co-opted to serve the nation in any capacity, El Rufais comment then was: No life is more important than another. Today, that statement needs to be adjusted, to read perhaps  apologies to George Orwell: All lives are equal, but a cows is more equal than others.

This seems to be the government view, one that, overtly or by implication, is being amplified through act and pronouncement, through clamorous absence, by this administration. It appears to have infected even my good friend and highly capable Minister, Audu Ogbeh, however insidiously. What else does one make of his statements in an interview where he generously lays the blame for ongoing killings everywhere but at the feet of the actual perpetrators! His words, as carried by The Nation Newspapers:

The inability of the government to pay attention to herdsmen and cow farming, unlike other developed countries, contributed to the killings.

The Minister continued: Over the years, we have not done much to look seriously into the issue of livestock development in the country.we may have done enough for the rice farmer, the cassava farmer, the maize farmer, the cocoa farmer, but we havent done enough for herdsmen, and that inability and omission on our part is resulting in the crisis we are witnessing today.

No, no, not so, Audu! It is true that I called upon the government a week ago to stop passing the buck over the petroleum situation. I assure you however that I never intended that a reverse policy should lead to exonerating  or appearing to exonerate  mass killers, rapists and economic saboteurs  saboteurs, since their conduct subverts the efforts of others to economically secure their own existence, drives other producers off their land in fear and terror. This promises the same plague of starvation that afflicts zones of conflict all over this continent where liberally sown landmines prevent farmers from venturing near their prime source, the farm, often their only source of livelihood, and has created a whole population of amputees. At least, those victims in Angola, Mozambique and other former war theatres, mostly lived to tell the tale. These herdsmen, arrogant and unconscionable, have adopted a scorched-earth policy, so that those other producers  the cassava, cocoa, sorghum, rice etc farmers are brutally expelled from farm and dwelling.

Government neglect? You may not have intended it, but you made it sound like the full story. I applaud the plans of your ministry, I am in a position to know that much thought  and practical steps  have gone into long term plans for bringing about the creation of ranches, colonies  whatever the name  including the special cultivation of fodder for animal feed and so on and on. However, the present national outrage is over impunity. It rejects the right of any set of people, for whatever reason, to take arms against their fellow men and women, to acknowledge their exploits in boastful and justifying accents and, in effect, promise more of the same as long as their terms and demands are not met. In plain language, they have declared war against the nation, and their weapon is undiluted terror. Why have they been permitted to become a menace to the rest of us? That is the issue!

Permit me to remind you that, early in 2016, an even more hideous massacre was perpetrated by this same Murder Incorporated  that is, a numerical climax to what had been a series across a number of Middle Belt and neighbouring states, with Benue taking the brunt of the butchery. A peace meeting was called, attended by the state government and security agencies of the nation, including the Inspector General of Police. This group attended  according to reports  with AK47s and other weapons of mass intimidation visible under their garments. They were neither disarmed nor turned back. They freely admitted the killings but justified them by claims that they had lost their cattle to the host community. It is important to emphasize that none of their spokesmen referred to any government neglect, such as refusal to pay subsidy for their cows or failure to accord them the same facilities that had been extended to cassava or millet farmers. Such are the monstrous beginnings of the culture of impunity. We are reaping, yet again, the consequences of such tolerance of the intolerable. Yes, there indeed the government is culpable, definitely guilty of looking the other way. Indeed, it must be held complicit.

This question is now current, and justified: just when is terror? I am not aware that IPOB came anywhere close to this homicidal propensity and will to dominance before it was declared a terrorist organisation. The international community rightly refused to go along with such an absurdity. For the avoidance of doubt, let me state right here, and yet again, that IPOB leadership is its own worst enemy. It repels public empathy, indeed, I suspect that it deliberately cultivates an obnoxious image, especially among its internet mouthers who make rational discourse impossible. However, as we pointed out at the time, the conduct of that movement, even at its most extreme, could by no means be reckoned as terrorism. By contrast, how do we categorize Myeti? How do we assess a mental state that cannot distinguish between a stolen cow  which is always recoverable  and human life, which is not. Villages have been depopulated far wider than those outside their operational zones can conceive. They swoop on sleeping settlements, kill and strut. They glory in their seeming supremacy. Cocoa farmers do not kill when there is a cocoa blight. Rice farmers, cassava and tomato farmers do not burn. The herdsmen cynically dredge up decades-old affronts  they did at the 2016 Benue peace meeting to justify the killings of innocents in the present  These crimes are treated like the norm. Once again, the nation is being massaged by specious rationalisations while the rampage intensifies and the spread spirals out of control. When we open the dailies tomorrow morning, there is certain to have been a new body count, to be followed by the arrogant justification of the Myeti Allah.

The warnings pile up, the distress signals have turned into a prolonged howl of despair and rage. The answer is not to be found in pietistic appeals to victims to avoid hate language and divisive attributions. The sustained, killing monologue of the herdsmen is what is at issue. It must be curbed, decisively and without further evasiveness.

Yes, Jonathan only saw ghosts when Boko Haram was already excising swathes of territory from the nation space and abducting school pupils. The ghosts of Jonathan seem poised to haunt the tenure of Mohammed Buhari.
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Last week was tense for popular Benin based beauty expert, Lawrentta, the founder of Rettas Cosmetics when her tailor disappointed her by selling her wedding dress to popular Nollywood actress, Mercy Aigbe.



However, her sorrow turned into joy as she managed to secure another dress just in time for her reception.

Lawrentta married her long time lover, Sawyer Peter.

Here are some photos from their wedding.
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Some unknown assailants attacked Tuesday night a Jewish synagogue on the island of Djerba as the country grapples with protests denouncing austerity policies initiated by the Government.

There was a failed attempt to burn down the synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Djerba through the use of Molotov cocktails, but thank God, no one was hurt and security and civil protection are now doing their duty, Elie Trabelsi, the son of the synagogues president, Perez Trabelsi, wrote on Facebook.

The attack according to security authorities made no damage to the temple. The fire was contained within a small portion of the site, security sources said.

The Ghriba synagogue is believed to have been built in 586 BCE by Jews fleeing the destruction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, according to Times of Israel.

The temple has been a tourist destination for Jews with Tunisian roots but visits to the religious site has significantly dwindled since 2002 terror attacks masterminded by al-Qaeda, that killed 21 people.

Tunisia is one of Arab countries with an important Jewish population. Some 1,500 Jews live in the North African country today against an estimated 100,000 before Tunisia became independent in 1956.

The North African country is facing demonstrations nationwide over rising commodity price and new taxes imposed on January 1, as part austerity measure taken by the state as required by lenders.

Around 20 cities have been engulfed in the demonstrations, leading to the arrest of 200 people. According to the Interior Minister, 50 police agents have been wounded in clashes with protesters.

Last night criminals looted and burned security centers, 45 police cars were torched and some government offices were attacked, the interior minister told Reuters. They blocked roads and carried out robberies in many cities  Obviously, these are not protests, but theft and damage to public and private property, he said.

The protests however have not hit the resort island of Djerba.

Security authorities say the attackers took advantage of weak security presence at the prayer site.
The European Commission seems set to renew the fisheries agreement with Morocco, which will expire in July 2018.

The Commission has asked the European Council for a mandate to start negotiations with Morocco on the deal, which enabled, since 2013, 120 vessels from 11 EU countries to fish off Moroccan coasts.

In 2017, both EU Commissioner Karmenu Vella and the Moroccan Minister for Agriculture and Sea Fisheries Aziz Akhannouch expressed their intention to renew this instrument, which is essential for both parties.

The 2013 deal costs the EU some 40 million annually in terms of access, support to the Moroccan fishery sector, and shipowner fees.

In a response to Wathelets remarks, a spokesperson for Federica Mogherini, the current EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, describe Morocco as a key partner with whom the Union developed a rich and diversified partnership for several years.

It is our desire not only to preserve the privileged relationship that we share, but also to strengthen it further, Mogherinis spokesperson said.

A recent independent evaluation study, commissioned by the EU Commission, underlined the positive impact of the current fisheries protocol in terms of sustainable fishing and its contribution to the socioeconomic interests of the fisheries sectors both in the EU and in Morocco.

In particular the sectoral support foreseen by the protocol, as support to the national Halieutis Strategy for the development of the fisheries sector, has benefited all regions covered by the protocol. The evaluation also highlights the clauses supporting economic development and benefiting local population, such as landings in ports and embarkation of local seamen, with about 200 seamen employed on board EU vessels, the EU Commission stated.

But, in a sign of incoherence between EU institutions, a non-binding opinion by European Court of Justice (ECJ) advisor Melchior Wathelet invalidated the fisheries agreement, claiming that the deal violates the rights of people from Western Sahara.

Such a simplistic and superficial view, not only shows short sight but reveals ignorance of the political aspect as well as the ins and outs of the dispute over the Sahara. The European Commission and Morocco, bound by a strategic partnership, seem so far unconcerned by the opinion of the ECJ advisor.

The ECJ advisor has in fact come to portray the dangers of the EUs judiciary playing an active role in reviewing diplomatic and foreign policy issues. Such meddling of the judiciary in foreign policy issues involving the sovereignty of a state on its territories is doomed to lead to biased opinions that are detached from reality on the ground and are clearly politically motivated.

The case of the agricultural agreement illustrates the extent to which the EU needs to ensure coherence within its institutions. In November 2016, after an initial ruling declaring void the Moroccan-EU agricultural agreement, the ECJ issued a final verdict correcting its previous injustice regarding Morocco and putting the institution in line with other EU bodies in addition to asking the Polisario to pay the costs of the judicial proceedings, the foreign ministry had then said in a statement.

The court slammed the polisario as not concerned by the EU-Morocco trade deals and ineligible to plea at the court.

Prior to the court ruling on the agricultural agreement, ECJ Advisor Wathelet, himself deemed in an opinion piece that the Polisario is not entitled to defend the commercial interests of the population of the Sahara.

In December 2017, the audit report on the Morocco-EU fisheries accord, commissioned by the European Commission, concluded that the agreement has worked satisfactorily and that 75% of its socio-economic impacts benefit the Moroccan southern regions, and recommended the renewal of this agreement, which will expire in July 2018 as it stands as an instrument of in-depth cooperation with the North African Kingdom.

Since it retrieved the Sahara from Spain in 1975, Morocco has been leading tireless efforts to upgrade the cities of the region, which now boasts development index higher than the national average.

For every single dirham of revenue from the Sahara, Morocco invests 7 dirhams there which enabled to improve the human development indicators in the region.
Morocco and South Africa showed converging views on addressing migration challenges in Africa following an approach permeated by south-south cooperation and solidarity.

South Africas Foreign Minister Nkoana-Mashabane told the press, on the sidelines of her participation at the Ministerial Conference for an African Agenda on Migration held in Rabat on January 10, that her country and Morocco share the same vision regarding the need for African countries to take the lead in addressing migration challenges.

The South African Minister was seen walking side by side with her Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita towards the meeting hall. Following a meeting with Bourita, Nkoana-Mashabane said she is honored to convey a message of friendship to King Mohammed VI from South African President Jacob Zuma on the occasion of Moroccos holding of the Ministerial Conference for an African Agenda on Migration.

Morocco and South Africa have for more than a decade given each other the cold shoulder on the backdrop of Pretorias support for separatists in the Sahara. However, an ice breaking meeting between King Mohammed VI and President Jacob Zuma showed that a promising future awaits relations between the two countries. Following this meeting, held in Abidjan on the sidelines of EU-AU summit last November, the two leaders decided to upgrade their bilateral relations to an ambassadorial level.

For his part, Bourita said that his meeting with his South African peer is an opportunity to coordinate stands on a set of priority issues for the African continent, on top of which migration, security and development.

The goal of the meeting on migration is precisely to move forward in this direction, Bourita said, stressing that the talks he had with the south African minister were an opportunity to coordinate action by the two countries on migration in particular.

He said that cooperation between Morocco and South Africa would have a beneficial impact on spurring collective efforts in Africa as a whole.

King Mohammed VI, as the leader who, at the 28th AU Summit, was put in charge of the question of migration, has submitted a paper to the AUs presidency, laying out a common African Vision on migration and the related stakes and challenges.

The document, entitled Vision for an African Agenda for Migration, was presented to Guinean President, Alpha Conde, Chairman of the African Union, on July 3 by the Kings brother Prince Moulay Rachid who led the Moroccan delegation to the 29th African Union Summit, held in Addis Ababa under the theme Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through investments in Youth.

The preliminary paper will serve as a basis of a proposal that will be submitted by the King to the African heads of state at the next AU summit in order to chart a real African Agenda on migration.
Over Twenty African ministers and government officials met Tuesday in Rabat (Moroccos capital) to harmonize African countries stands and vision regarding the issues related to migration.

The African Union ministerial conference aimed to work out an African agenda on migration, based on an inclusive and participative approach. Participants agreed on the shared responsibility to tackle this issue, stressing the need to respect human rights, support socioeconomic development and fight against illegal migration.

They also called for the opening of legal migration routes and the facilitation of the movement of entrepreneurs, students, researchers and artists.

The ministerial conference on migration is a part of consultations with African partners to elaborate an African Agenda on migration to be submitted to the next AU Summit for approval.

Actually, King Mohammed VI has been named the leader in charge of the migration issue within the African Union, and is expected to submit proposals on charting a real African Agenda on migration to the next AU Summit to be held by the end of the current month.

Outlines of these proposals were submitted in a preliminary note to the AU presidency during the previous African summit in July 2017.

The preliminary note outlined the steps that should be taken to tackle migration notably through adopting national policies, improving sub-regional coordination, and harnessing continental and international efforts to ensure an adequate management of migration.

The Moroccan Monarch argues that African countries should speak with one voice, in accordance with their own work plan and their own Agenda that should involve four levels of action: national, regional, continental and international.

Morocco was picked to host the Tuesday conference owing to the Monarchs commitment to guarantee immigrants dignity and well-being and to Moroccos noteworthy experience in migration management, and its support and respect of migrants rights, especially those from sub-Saharan Africa.

Besides, the North African Kingdom co-chairs with Germany the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) aimed at contributing to the United Nations Global Compact on Migration. The Compact is intended to constitute a strong signal of the international community for an enhanced global migration policy.

Morocco will also host later this year the intergovernmental conference on international migration. The conference, due Dec.10-11, is expected to work out a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.

The global compact for migration will be the first, intergovernmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.

In the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, adopted in September 2016, the General Assembly decided to develop a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. The process to develop this global compact for migration started in April 2017.

In recent years, Morocco has become a country of destination rather than a transit country for refugees and migrants, aiming to reach Europe. In this connection, the North African Kingdom launched regularization plans for migrants and refugees, who wish to settle in the country.

Morocco has revised its national immigration and asylum strategy to make it in line with the countrys human rights commitment, guaranteeing migrants access to basic services including, education, social housing, and employment.
Is your unused I voted sticker an indication that you should perhaps be removed from the registration rolls? Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Its an issue embedded in the controversy before the Supreme Court today involving Ohios practice of purging the voter-registration rolls of anyone who doesnt vote in two consecutive elections and then doesnt answer a piece of mail asking for an address confirmation (or doesnt subsequently vote in two additional elections). A federal law clearly prohibits disqualifying voters solely for not voting. But is there a right not to vote strong enough that nonvoting shouldnt trigger any procedure leading to disenfranchisement?

That is certainly what Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested during questioning of Ohios state solicitor in oral arguments today in the case of Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute:

You can use the Post Office. You can use Certified Mail. You could use juror change of addresses. You can use driver license, motor vehicle change of addresses. There are dozens of other ways that you could verify a change of address, yet youre suggesting that using a failure to appear at an election or elections as evidence of moving when people have a right not to vote if they choose. Many have.

Paul Smith, who represents the challengers to Ohios voter purge system in this case, argued that the First Amendment implicitly includes a right not to vote. Chief Justice Roberts disagreed:

[T]here are many democracies that require you to vote, right? Australia, its  you get a fine if you dont vote. And other places. And I have certainly seen it proposed it would be a good idea, given the low voter turnouts in our country, that we adopt something like that as well. Now, you think that would be unconstitutional?

Smith did, though he didnt really get the opportunity to expound on that belief as the arguments drifted elsewhere. But it could be the key to cases like this, where the state deems keeping accurate registration rolls important enough to treat nonvoting as a signal that a voter may have moved.

Why might this right not to vote matter to those of us who are interested in the right to vote? Its pretty simple: The minority voters who have traditionally suffered from discrimination in exercising the right are also less likely than average to participate in non-presidential elections. So any procedure that makes missing a midterm or off-year election automatic grounds for an address-confirmation inquiry that must be not only received and understood but responded to on pain of being dropped from the rolls is going to disproportionately affect those same vulnerable voters.

Most news accounts of the oral arguments in the Husted case suggested that Justice Kennedys friendly questioning of Ohios attorney and Justice Breyers clearly expressed sympathy for the states interest in keeping voter rolls accurate were a sign the Supreme Court was likely to rule against the laws challengers. Thats actually hard to say, particularly since Paul Smith did a creditable job of answering Breyers concerns by showing evidence that most voters receiving notices like those mailed out by Ohio just toss them in the trash, making response or nonresponse irrelevant to the voters actual residence. Its also entirely possible that the case can be decided on narrow grounds of statutory interpretation involving the federal law directly in question.

But the Court could get to the heart of the matter simply by asserting that anyones decision not to vote alone shouldnt put ones right to vote on a short track to extinction. Otherwise state election officials, especially in Republican-governed states where the people in charge are hardly interested in maximizing voting opportunities for habitually Democratic groups in the electorate, will keep finding ways to make the right to vote a use-it-or-lose-it proposition.
Soon-to-be-former governor Chris Christie is leaving office as the unquestionably least popular chief executive in New Jersey history. Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

In an interview conducted during his final days as governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie made a very dubious claim about the 2016 presidential nominating contest:

Christie said he has no doubt he would have won if not for the blunt-talking Trumps decision to run.

Its incredibly frustrating to think to yourself, Wow, if this guy were not in the race, wed win this thing, Christie said, reflecting on some internal polling from the campaign. And I absolutely believe if Trump had not gotten into the race I think we would have won.

Well, whatever; its a counterfactual that can never been conclusively proven or disproven either way. But Christie made another claim, one about New Jersey voters, that is subject to verification: Theyre gonna miss me when Im gone.

Not right away, it would appear. A final grade public-opinion survey from the Rutgers Center for Public Interest Polling showed only 5 percent of New Jersey adults say they will miss their combative two-term governor. His final job approval ratio was an abysmal 19/74 (not dismissible as a function of partisanship, since it was 20/71 among self-identified independents). Asked to give Christie a letter grade in various policy areas, 72 percent gave him a C or worse on education and schools, as did 77 percent on jobs and the economy; 71 percent on crime and drugs; 71 percent on transportation and infrastructure; 75 percent on the state-pension-fund situation; 82 percent on the state budget; and 85 percent on taxes. Thats a well-rounded bad report card.

Every unpopular politician, of course, thinks she or he is suffering for brave acts that will look better as time passes by. Christie is no exception. But he also thinks his failed presidential campaign kept him from remaining popular at home:

You could decide not to run for president because you want to sit around and protect these (poll) numbers that you guys talk about all the time, he said. When a risk doesnt work, people perceive it as a failure, right? If I had won (the race) for president, we wouldnt have to worry about this.

Hes entitled to his opinion, of course, but Christies New Jersey approval ratio went underwater at the beginning of 2014 and steadily sank thereafter. His unpopularity at home was a lodestone in his presidential campaign, not a victim of that presidential campaigns failure.

And once national Republicans got a good look at Christie, they disliked him, too, as this assessment from May 2015 illustrated:

Christie stands out in every poll over Republican proto-candidates in almost any state where theres polling as someone GOP voters have considered and rejected. His favorable/unfavorable ratio in the most recent national poll of Republicans was at 31/52 (PPP, May 13). In an April poll for NBC asking if Republicans could envision themselves ever supporting various candidates, fully 50 percent said no to any support for Christie, far more than for any other name. In the latest Iowa survey (from Quinnipiac) hes running eighth at 3 percent, despite very high name ID, and has a favorable/unfavorable ratio of 32/56.

Chris Christie really shouldnt pretend his unpopularity is temporary. He worked hard to earn it, and it may be his most enduring legacy.
Donald Trump during a nonExecutive Time moment. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

During his morning Executive Time, President Trump took a well-deserved break from his long hours of document study to watch Fox News. The segment featured one of the talking heads urging Trump to oppose the House bill reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The president immediately tweeted out his alarmed confusion that the House was apparently on the verge of approving the very law the sinister Deep State had used to tapp his phones:

House votes on controversial FISA ACT today. This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

Why, yes, it is that bill. Ideally, Trump would be posing questions like this to his own advisers, rather than to the entire world. The presidents alarm was unfortunate, since the Trump administration strongly supports reauthorization of this law. It has sent its highest-ranking security officials to lobby Congress for reauthorization, and reiterated its endorsement of the law as recently as last night.

The source of Trumps confusion may be that he has taken seriously the Republican talking points about the Deep State, failing to realize that its disingenuous propaganda designed to cover up misdeeds by his campaign. Republicans dont actually object to the counterintelligence functions of the government as a whole. They merely want to discredit their specific application to the Trump campaigns collusion with Russia. They dont want the president blowing up the bill right before the vote they labored carefully to assemble.

How Trump's Speaking Style Has Changed Over the Years

Whats more, the Executive Time snafu comes at a delicate moment in his presidency. The news media has turned its attention to the question of Trumps mental capacity. Trump staged a meeting with Congress to discuss immigration policy. Other than an unfortunate moment where he endorsed a Democratic proposal thats totally at odds with his own putative stance and completely unacceptable to his party, Trump completed the occasion without further embarrassment. The conservative media proclaimed the event proof of the presidents absolute mastery.

It was a brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed rebuttal to this stupid Wolff book, concludes Rush Limbaugh. [Trump]s in total command of over 45 minutes of televised meeting on immigration. He is totally informed on the issues. Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger coos, Mr. Trump presided over this meeting like some previously undiscovered Buddha. He talked but didnt dominate. He methodically elicited views from Republicans (among them Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, David Perdue, and Carlos Curbelo ) and Democrats  a grudging consensus formed that Mr. Trump had confounded critics of his basic competence.

As impressive as it may have been for Trump to sit upright and participate in a discussion of public policy while only subverting his administrations position one time, an immediate Executive Time relapse has revealed that Trump does not understand his own administrations policy.

Update: Apparently somebody has explained the administrations position to the president, who has followed up his old tweet opposing the House bill with a new one supporting it:

With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

Get smart! is an especially apt coda.
President Trump cant repeal Obamacare, but he can still find ways to hurt the poor and sick. Photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Having proven itself completely unable to solve actual problems in the American health-care system, the Trump administration is setting out to solve imagined ones: Americans who are lured into sloth by free access to medical care. The administration is issuing guidance to states, allowing them to deny Medicaid to people who dont have jobs. The goal of this initiative is creating incentives for Medicaid beneficiaries to participate in work and community engagement activities.

A few facts help illuminate just what the Trump administration is seeking to accomplish. The number of able-bodied, working-age Americans who receive Medicaid and who could obtain employment but choose not to is extremely small. Imposing work requirements, which entail some kind of test to determine if a recipient is employed or seeking employment as a condition of enrollment, is costly. It creates more bureaucratic hurdles, diverting funds (the overall size of which are not being increased) from coverage, and creating enrollment denials and delays or [increasing] coverage interruptions that in turn endanger the health of people in need of medical care.

Anybody whos dealt with insurance knows how hassles can be draining and lead to gaps in treatment. Imagine if your insurance plan had to double as a social worker, making sure every customer was not slacking off.

Against these costs is the very slight benefit of protecting taxpayers against the scourge of lazy Medicaid beneficiaries. This is also tiny. Research on the effects of the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare has found no significant negative effect  on employment rates and other measures of employment and employee behavior (such as transitions from employment to non-employment, the rate of job switches, transitions from full- to part-time employment, labor force participation, and usual hours worked per week).

This is a fairly intuitive finding. You might know, or at least can imagine, somebody who would choose to stay home all day playing video games and collecting cash payments from the government. But is anybody going to stay home all day because of  free visits to the doctor?

Encouraging self-sufficiency is a perfectly valid policy objective. Attempting to apply this value to health insurance is pathological. Getting physically and mentally well is often a precondition for entering the workforce. People have trouble getting jobs because theyre unwell, not because theyre enjoying their insurance so much they dont want to work.

Yet the pathology of seeing medical care as a privilege, and the fear that it is being extended to the wrong kinds of people, is an embedded characteristic of American conservatism. Right-of-center parties in every major democracy other than the United States accept the principle of universal health insurance. Whatever incentives they might favor to reward success or punish failure, the denial of access to basic medical care would not number among them.

The failure of Obamacare repeal was a signal defeat for American conservatism. The cruel half-measure of urging states to deny Medicaid to the unemployed indicates that, despite the defeat of their ultimate goal, the fanatical ideology that inspired it remains in place.
Sometimes, we put up walls just to see who cares enough to knock them down. Other times, we do it to give reactionaries cover to pass humane immigration policies. Photo: Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump doesnt care about immigration policy. That claim may sound obscene to the 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants who just lost their right to live in the United States; or the 700,000 Dreamers who are on the cusp of losing theirs; or the tens of thousands of refugees who lost the chance to make a new life in the United States; or the undocumented 7-Eleven employees who cant go to work today; or the 13,600 noncriminal immigrants who were arrested by ICE agents last year  all as a direct result of Trump administration policies.

But sometimes, the truth is an obscenity.

The president certainly has an aversion to nonwhite immigrants  whom he associates with disease and criminality  and he is fond of displaying his toughness on such bad hombres. Which is to say: He is a racist who values the approval and affirmation of other racists. And this xenophobic worldview has shaped his immigration agenda.

But a genuine investment in the details of immigration law  and a deep-seated commitment to changing it in concrete ways  has not. Trump, like his fellow Fox News addicts, is far more invested in the symbolism of immigration restrictionism than its substance.

This offers Democrats an opportunity in the ongoing negotiations over a DACA replacement: If the party helps Trump deliver on his symbolic priorities, they can probably secure far more consequential reforms on substantive issues. In other words: They can probably win mercy for many of the most vulnerable people in the United States, if they just give Trump his stupid wall.

For this president, symbol trumps substance.

That the president does not actually care about immigration policy on a substantive level is apparent in his contortions on DACA. Over the past four months, the president has canceled the Obama-era program; implored Congressional Republicans to provide permanent legal status to its recipients; suggested that if they didnt, he would reinstate administrative protections for those 700,000 Dreamers unilaterally; reached a tentative agreement with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on a bill that would trade such protections for border-security funding; announced that he actually opposed giving legal status to Dreamers, unless such an amnesty were paired with drastic reductions to legal immigration and funding for his border wall; clarified that he would actually take modest changes to legal immigration and mere border security funds; voiced approval of a clean DACA bill with no border security measures whatsoever; decided that, actually, border wall funding was necessary; and then promised to sign any immigration bill that makes it to his desk, regardless of its content.

This incoherence is characteristic of the presidents broader views on immigration over the past decade. In 2012, the mogul derided Mitt Romneys mean-spirited policy of self-deportation (making life so miserable for undocumented immigrants they chose to exit the country voluntarily). In 2013, he voiced support for comprehensive immigration reform. Two years later, he decided that Mexican immigrants were mostly rapists and criminals who should be deported en masse  but, also, that you have to give a pathway to citizenship to most of the 30 million undocumented immigrants in the United States:

That Trump would trade substantive gains on immigration restriction for symbolic ones is explicit in his budget plans. To finance his border wall, the president has asked Congress to cut or delay funding for border surveillance, radar technology, patrol boats and customs agents in its upcoming spending plan to curb illegal immigration, the New York Times reported this week. There is no serious question that prioritizing a wall over these measures would make the border less secure, and increase the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States. But the wall is a more potent symbol than new funding for radar technology; so the wall is what Trump wants.

Democrats are struggling to deal.

Right now, the Democratic Party is tearing itself apart over what to offer the GOP in exchange for a DREAM Act. The partys leadership is reportedly closing in on a deal that would provide legal status to 700,000 Dreamers, but at the cost of new funds for border security, new restrictions on family-based migration, and the curtailment of the diversity visa lottery. The Democratic rank and file dont want to pay the GOPs ransom.

This recalcitrance is understandable. There is broad, bipartisan support  among both the general public and members of Congress  for giving legal status to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. Even Trump half the time sees DACA as a positive good. And the GOP leadership surely fears the political costs of inaction. There is no precedent for stripping legal status from a group of people this numerous, let alone one so deeply integrated into American society. Dreamers have allies in corporate America, churches, unions, colleges, and countless local and state governments. The backlash to their dispossession will be huge and unrelenting.

A clean DACA bill  one that simply provided Dreamers with legal status  could probably pass Congress with Democratic and moderate Republican votes. Add in an appropriation for border security and it definitely would. Negotiators arent attaching restrictions to legal immigration to the DACA bill because they cant pass it without such provisions  theyre doing so to keep House conservatives from pillorying the Republican leadership.

So, theres a case to be made for calling the GOPs bluff. But theres also a reasonable case against doing so. Getting Republicans to blink will likely require forcing a government shutdown  and while DACA polls well, forcing a shutdown in its defense does not. Ten Democratic senators will seek reelection in a state Trump won this fall; some, in ones that he won by double digits. Team Blue has an outside shot at taking back Senate control, but to do so theyll probably need their red-state incumbents to run the table. Taking back the Senate could prevent Trump from packing the federal judiciary (including the Supreme Court) with reactionaries wholl swat down progressive legislation for the next four decades. The stakes are high. If shutting down the government for a clean DACA bill would make it much harder for Claire McCaskill and Joe Donnelly to return to the upper chamber next year, itd be best to avoid doing so.

If you build it, they will come around on more important issues.

The best way out of this pickle is to give Trump his big, dumb wall. Yes, the wall is idiotic and a big waste of money  but it isnt that big of a waste of money. The president wants $18 billion over ten years; the Pentagon spends about $125 billion on needless bureaucracy every five years  according to the Pentagon. And Trumps No. 1 priority on immigration also happens to be his most harmless: A jobs program that pays underemployed, border-state construction workers to stack concrete in the desert will hurt far fewer people than restrictions on family-based immigration. And yet, Democrats appear more comfortable supporting the latter, even though the former would surely buy them bigger concessions.

Chuck Schumer should offer to fund Trumps wall, in full  if Trump agrees to give every immigrant whose Temporary Protected Status just got revoked permanent, legal status, and a pathway to citizenship to all Dreamers and their parents  or, heck, to all 11 million undocumented immigrants. That was Trumps position as of two years ago, after all. And would this president really want to turn down the opportunity to have his border wall  and the accolades from the mainstream media for his historic, bipartisan legislative achievement, too?

The GOP doesnt have the votes to give Trump what he truly wants on immigration. A coalition of Democrats, GOP moderates, and conservatives who care more about displaying loyalty to Trump than right-wing dogma on immigration, would.

Maybe Trump wouldnt bite on a wall for amnesty swap. But given the immense humanitarian upside of such a deal  and the modest fiscal downside  its certainly worth a try.
Black Friday 2017 at Walmart. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Walmart on Thursday announced plans to give some employees a one-time bonus and boost its minimum hourly wage to $11an indication that the lowest earners in the country are finally starting to see some benefit from the almost decade-long economic recovery.

In addition to the raise and bonuses, which will be given on a sliding scale based on seniority, Walmart says its revamping maternity and parental leave benefits and introducing an adoption credit for employees.

WalMart CEO Doug McMillon credited the recently passed tax bill for allowing the company to make the changes. Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S., he said in a statement.

Its unclear how much of that is spin. After boosting wages for some workers to $10-per-hour in 2016, Walmart was already on a path to paying $11-per-hour , especially after Target raised its minimum hourly wage to $11 last year.

In any case, Walmarts decision is a sign that employers are finally responding to the tight labor market by raising wages to compete for workers. Despite progressively lower unemployment rates and high corporate profits in recent years, wages have failed to grow much for most Americans. Among other things, economists blame the lack of bargaining power for lower-skill employees, such as retail workers, and the tendency for companies to reward executives and shareholders, rather than workers, when theyre flush with cash.

By tying the raises to the tax bill, Walmart is looking for a PR win. But the workers whose paychecks just got bigger, if only marginally, wont care about Walmarts PR ploy. Theyll just glad to finally be seeing a piece of the booming economy everyones talking about. And given Walmarts status as the countrys largest private employer, this move could benefit more than just its own workers if competitors respond with wage hikes of their own.
Sorry, Zinke just doesnt like the cut of your jib. Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Faced with outrage following last weeks announcement that the Trump administration will allow oil-and-gas drilling in most federal waters, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke denied on Wednesday that Florida received an exception because President Trump happens to have home on the states coastline. Rather, he just like the states Republican governor, Rick Scott. The Washington Post reports:

In a Wednesday interview with The Washington Post, Zinke said he first met Scott when his state and the federal government were preparing for Hurricane Irma, then a second time when the two worked on Everglades restoration. Zinke said he felt a personal connection with the governor, so when Scott contacted him in writing he felt an obligation to respond.

Quite frankly, Gov. Scott called me and [also] expressed in writing a desire to have a meeting, he said. That meeting was the first in what I believe will be a series of conversations with other governors, the secretary said.

This did little to calm the storm, as Zinkes initial statement suggested Florida was getting special treatment because Scott is straightforward leader that can be trusted. Florida was not among the states that requested exclusion from the drilling plan last year, including California, Oregon, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington. Apparently, Zinke was unmoved by these pleas; lawmakers from the states said they didnt hear back.

So Democratic lawmakers from coastal states tried again, publicly demanding an exemption. Some cited Zinkes claim that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver. Xavier Becerra, Californias attorney general said:

.@SecretaryZinke: California is also "unique" & our "coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver." Our local and state voice is firmly opposed to any and all offshore drilling.



If that's your standard, we, too, should be removed from your list. Immediately. https://t.co/T6W6JaPCPh  Archive - Attorney General Becerra (@AGBecerra) January 10, 2018

Governor Andrew Cuomo wrote: New York doesnt want drilling off our coast either. Where do we sign up for a waiver @SecretaryZinke?

Even Republican lawmakers joined in, with Representative Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor, suggesting the Florida exemption might be about Trumps Winter White House. I would also say this, it smacks of what we never want to see in politics which is: Is it self-serving? Sanford told CNN. I mean you cant say, I dont want to see an oil rig from Mar-a-Lago as you look out from the waters of Palm Beach, but its okay to look at an oil rig out from Hilton Head or Charleston, South Carolina.

Governor Chris Christies office released a statement on Wednesday saying he has been opposed to drilling off New Jerseys coast for years, and If exceptions are being made for other states, the governor will certainly pursue the same type of exception for New Jersey. He also will consult with the attorney general on additional steps to continue his policy of protecting New Jerseys coastline.

Et tu, Christie?

Legal experts said that Zinkes move might have put the entire effort at risk. The 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which sets procedures for deciding which areas will be opened to offshore drilling, has not be tested like this before. Its not clear what they did here, and its not clear that they understand that there is a legal process that they need to follow, Sierra Weaver, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, told the New York Times.

For now, Zinke assured the governors that the decision isnt final, and and hes willing to address their concerns regardless of their political affiliation.

I will no doubt talk to every governor, Zinke said. It doesnt matter to me whether youre Republican or Democrat. This is going to be a long process. This is going to be at least a year with public comment. We have to get it right, look at the geology, look at the science.
Danish PC researcher Anders Fogh was one of many researchers who circled in on the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities found on nearly every CPU chip, with Intel being hit especially hard. After reading his blog post about how so many people poked at the same problem for years, I called him one afternoon to learn more.

(Before we start, a brief refresher. Meltdown is a massive vulnerability on nearly every Intel chip made since 1995, but is largely being fixed with software patches. Spectre is more difficult to exploit, but will likely be with us for years  if not decades  because the only true way to fix it is by replacing your CPU. Both exploits allow a malicious user to access data, whether thats your password, credit-card number, or just your personal photos stored on a cloud server.)

Before we get started, could you just give me a broad idea of what CPU research is?

CPU research is a lot of documentation reading. We dig down in the documentation and what other people have found out, and then we make a theory about how something may work.

Then we start making hypotheses: What kind of effects would this have on a piece of software? And then we write the software and check if were right. If were right, we move on.

If were wrong, we try to figure out why this isnt happening the way its supposed to. Its a very tedious process, with reading a lot of stuff, getting an idea of how could this actually be working inside a CPU, what effects would this have on software, and writing a software that proves or disproves the theory and then repeat forever.

To me, a layman, its odd that CPUs require so much research, since the architecture is designed by humans. Why do they require so much outside research to sort of understand what theyre doing?

Because CPUs are remarkably complex. So to build a CPU, what you do is, you take a handful of sand, bit of epoxy, a tiny bit of metal, and a bit of pixie dust, and you stir it all together and you get this machine that basically runs our world today. You can imagine that that process has to be very, very complex. So down at the lowest level you have to deal with quantum phenomena; at the next level you have heat dissipation; on the next level you have to connect everything; and then the next level and next level all the way up, you actually have a piece of silicon that takes instructions, and that just turns out to be incredibly complex. For scale, a modern CPU, not even the newest and the biggest, has about 5 billion transistors in them. The Saturn V rocket that took man to the moon has about 3 million. So this is a really ridiculously complex machine, and they have been developed for longer than I have been alive.

One of the responses a lot of people had with Meltdown and Spectre is that every chip  with a few exceptions  made since 1995 was fundamentally broken, and yet it took 22 years for these vulnerabilities to become public. Whyd it take so long? Is it just that these are such complex machines that understanding every single part of whats going on is just too much for one person?

I dont believe anybody understands whats going on everywhere inside of a modern CPU. Theres just way too much information. In this specific case, I think a lot of it has to do with that research into CPUs is not a new phenomenon, but it has been picking up in recent years. People like to search for things where they know theres going to be a weakness, and where its easy to find, so you have this thing, that the CPUs are black boxes, but we can actually see whats going on in software  you can take a disassembler and look at whats inside. So that scared a lot of research people away from taking a look at processors.

So its sort of the idea that, for a while, software research into malware was relatively easy while CPU-level exploits were incredibly hard?

Yeah, in the beginning, back when I started playing with these things, it was a running joke that if you could find a specific kind of string operations that are abundant in programs, you had an exploit. It was just a matter of figuring out how it worked. Its not like that anymore, but thats how it was around the year 2000. So why would you bother doing all this black-box research into a CPU if you can just throw it into a disassembler and you have your exploit? But software has become progressive and more difficult, on the one hand, and the entire security sector has also grown immensely over the past couple of years.

So was it that as software security increased, suddenly the black box of CPU  which looked so difficult 20 years ago  is now worth exploiting if youre a bad actor within the space?

Surely. Theres a connection between software problems that are getting more and more difficult to pick and people looking elsewhere.

When it comes to CPU research, I understand part of it is tremendously difficult, but it also seems like its difficult to make money from doing it?

Monetizing this research is fairly difficult. Theres the official way to monetize this kind of research like bug bounties, but theres a lot of risk, and most bug bounties are about $1,000. You cant make a living off of $1,000, especially if youre not sure that youll find anything. This is something thats limited to people who have clients who pay for penetration testing and stuff like that, and then universities and hobbyists.

Taking a step back, Ive seen people writing that Spectre and Meltdown are a result of chip manufacturers favoring speed over security.

Im not sure because Im not really a CPU designer and the topic is ridiculously complex, but my guess is that they could have done something relatively easy. Im not trying to say that Intel can do something about it in a short time frame because thats an entirely different question, but I would guess they were taken by surprise by that.

Looking out to the future, chips are only going to get more complex. Can CPU research keep up?

Yeah, chips will get more complex, but our understanding of what security means in chips is growing as well. I think security in chips is going to be something thats going to stay with us for a very long time  if not forever  and I think some of the problems may also be intrinsic to how chips work.

So even if Spectre-infected chips are redesigned in a way that Spectre isnt an issue, there are basic side-channel security vulnerabilities that may always be with us.

The first side channel that I know of is from 1973 and it still works. Its a ridiculously simple side channel, and its not much of a security problem, but its still there.

In the near future, it seems like Meltdown is a problem that will slowly get patched up, but do you have any read on how long it takes for a problem like Spectre to go away or not be a potential vulnerability?

I think its going to be a very long time before Spectre is entirely dead, its already very difficult to use and thats going to get more difficult with time, and the things that you can do with it are going to gradually become less and less, but a total eradication of the problem is very far, a long time away I think.

As you said, theres a side channel from 1973 thats still in existence, so it doesnt fill you with a ton of optimism.

I mean, the point is that weve known about these software exploits for a long time now. Weve not been able to fix them, but the worlds still running. Yeah, even that is a really bad software exploit. I think the point is here that there is an amount of risk that is acceptable or at least workable. I have no problems with that, that we still have the side channel in our computers. And I think that is the direction that Spectre is going to go. Its just going to get less and less relevant as the big issues get fixed, but the more smaller and less important issues are probably going to remain with us.

So itll be like the common cold. Well never get rid of it, but very few people die from it.

I think its probably more like tuberculosis. There was a time where it was really, really bad, but now we have penicillin. But tuberculosis is still not something you want to catch.
Photo: Marcus McDonald

Falling asleep in an oversize, knee-length T-shirt or ratty college sweatshirt is one thing, but theres something more sophisticated about wearing a pajama set. Its the nighttime equivalent of a matching bra and briefs  it just feels right in an I have my life together way. To find the very best of the best sleepwear, we turned to opinionated pajama wearers  including photographers, models, and our very own Strategist staffers  to ask then about their favorites, and dug into our archives to surface the most worthwhile recommendations. Youll find a variety of pajama styles below, from author Ottessa Moshfeghs pair du jour to a silk number one writer compares to frosty blueberries. I even put a few to the test  sleeping my way through several to decide which should make the cut, like the astrology-themed set that doesnt make me overheat.

What were looking for Size range As we would with any other clothing story, we focused on finding pajamas that come in an inclusive selection of sizes. Material Think about the way you want to feel in bed  thats how you decide the textile to wear there. Sweaty sleepers, for example, probably dont need much between them and their sheets; their best bets are cotton, linen, or other fabrics of that ilk (including modal, which is what youll see in barely there underwear). If youre that always cold person, look for merino, flannel, or wool. Or pick polyester, which usually comes with a cheaper price tag. And those with opulent taste might consider silk. Design When youve been on the underwear and sleepwear beat, as I have, you become rather obsessive about details. As I learned from Cora Harrington, the author of In Intimate Detail: How to Choose, Wear, and Love Lingerie, the details  a French seam here, an Elizabethan ruffle there  are what make a pair of pajamas worth it. With that advice in mind, I made sure to note standout features such as trimming, piping, and pleating. Price Since these are (almost all) sets were talking about, were judging the recommendations below based on three price points: under $100, under $150, and over $150, denoted as $, $$, and $$$, respectively.

Best overall pajama set

Best (less expensive) pajama set

Stars Above Beautifully Soft Short-Sleeved Notch-Collar Top and Shorts Pajama Set $22 $22 Sizes: XS4X | Material: Modal, spandex | Design: Button front, notch collar, piping, chest pocket | Price: $ This set from Stars Above, a Target-exclusive (and Christmas-pajamas- enthusiast-approved) label, is the cheapest on our list, around four times less than the Giseles. You could even call them a dupe of sorts as they have a similar silhouette and piping along the hem, sleeves, and collar. For TikTok creator and curve model Remi Bader, pajamas have to check off two points: comfort and charm. These fulfill that first requirement with a supersoft modal that makes you feel nearly naked. (As the owner of Stars Aboves now sold-out cropped pajama pants, which are made from the same modal, I can attest to this.) And Bader points out that these go up to a size 4X, making them a standout among other brands with more limited size ranges (as a regular loungewear reviewer, she knows this all too well). $22 at Target Buy

Best overall long-sleeved pajama set

Cosabella Bella Relaxed Long Sleeve Top and Pant Pajama Set $130 $130 Sizes: XS3X | Material: Pima cotton, modal | Design: Button front, notched collar, satiny trim piping, patch pocket | Price: $$ The term buttery was thrown around quite a few times by our panelists, but former Strategist writer Chloe Anello says theres no better word to describe the Bellas (which, full disclosure, were gifted to her by the brand). The set is made from equal parts cotton and modal with a relaxed cut adding to their indulgent feel. Even though theyre long-sleeved, Anello says she doesnt get too warm wearing them. Writer Laura Lippman agrees  she discovered the Bellas during a trip to Miami in May, and despite the excruciatingly hot temperatures, she found they kept her comfortable. And as someone who would live in pajamas if she could, Lippman says these are the best for making her seem fairly put together for someone walking around the house in pajamas at 3 p.m., as she is wont to do. $130 at Amazon Buy From $130 at Cosabella Buy

Best (less expensive) long-sleeved pajama set

Best T-shirt-and-pants pajama set

Sizes: XSXL | Material: Modal, elastane | Design: High-low hem, scoop neck, deep pockets on pants | Price: $$

Strategist writer Arielle Avila turned us onto Hass, a loungewear line from Avocado, the maker of some of our favorite mattresses. Until she tried this set (full disclosure: They were a gift from the brand), Avila never wore PJ pants to bed because of how hot she would get. On top of being breathable, the coordinating tee and pants almost feel cool to the touch. And though theyre lightweight, neither the T-shirt nor the pants are see-through at all. Avila now considers the bottoms a work-from-home essential, though shell also wear them to grab the mail or go to the bodega.

Best cotton pajama set

Best printed pajama set

Best boxer pajamas

J.Crew End-on-End Cotton Boxer Shorts $20 $35 now 43% off $20 Sizes: XXS3X | Material: Cotton | Design: Side pockets and logo waistband | Price: $ This pair of boxers is a cousin of the End-on-End pajamas mentioned above. The shorts have appeared twice in our archives  earning a spot in our loungewear guide after Anello penned an ode to the shorts. Anello has even been inspired to wear them out of the house, taking after former J.Crew creative director Jenna Lyons, who popularized the trend of wearing pajama shirts as everyday tops. She explains that because these dont have an opening in the front and feature pockets (unlike traditional boxers), you can easily go out with them on. While they may not look like them, the shorts are exactly what you want from a boxer. They swing out from my hips in a way that my other shorts do not, allowing more airflow that keeps my legs cooler, Anello says. Her recommendation convinced me to buy them myself. I can happily report that these boxers feel like next to nothing. In the day, they resemble something youd see on a tennis court (especially with the right tube socks). At night, the shorts are ultracomfortable, letting your legs breathe underneath sheets and blankets. $20 at J.Crew Buy

Best nightgown

Best linen-pajama set

Magic Linen Linen Pajama Set $74 $74 Sizes: XSXL | Material: European-flax linen | Design: Stonewashed, crew-neck collar, tie-waist | Price: $ Strategist writer Kat Gillespie never saw herself as a linen-pajama person, but she eventually came around to this set from Magic Linen (which was gifted to her by the brand). Her change of heart comes down to the fact that the pair doesnt particularly look like pajamas, especially in this linen-obsessed, loose clothes era. That looseness can be attributed to the high-quality linen (made from top-tier European flax) that drapes in a supremely flattering way. In the winter, Gillespie considers them a savior, especially with the hit-or-miss heating in her prewar apartment. $74 at Magic Linen Buy

Best silk-pajama set

Best (less expensive) silk-pajama set

Italic Washable Silk Pajama Set $98 $98 Sizes: SXL | Material: Mulberry silk | Design: Scoop neckline, slits on shorts | Price: $ I plucked this set from the aforementioned silk-sleepwear guide to include here too. AAPI-owned Italic bills itself as luxury without the labels. Its been on our radar since Anello compared its sheets to Frettes, which makes linens youll see at the Ritz-Carlton or St. Regis. (Italic won out.) The company sent me the set to try out, and Ive been pleasantly surprised at how well the under-$100 combo has held up in the months since. The mulberry silk has kept the glossiness it had when it first arrived, even after a number of trips through the washing machine. The pajamas are more on the minimalist side, but they do feature a few details that make a difference. The neckline on the tank is cut a little higher so you dont have to worry about flashing anyone. And the shape of the shorts reminds me of bloomers without being too short. So I consider the set a top-tier bargain. [Editors note: Some sizes in this pajama set are out of stock, but you can subscribe by email to be notified when yours is available again.] $98 at Italic Buy

Best silk-pajama pant set

Sizes: XSXL | Material: Mulberry silk | Design: Button front, chest pocket, side slits on pants | Price: $$

Quince is another affordable-silk-pajama maker that Strategist senior writer Liza Corsillo introduced me to. She compares the texture of this set to blueberries or grapes early in the morning that have a little frostiness to their skin. Unlike other silk shes tried, the button-up shirt and pants simultaneously hold heat well on chiller nights and feel breathable on warmer ones (the tops cropped length and trousers side slits help too). And out of curiosity, I asked the company to send me the top (and matching shorts) to test out. Like Liza, I was impressed by the quality of the silk, which does have a more matte appearance than the glossier look of the Italic set above. The cheeky, cropped top does occasionally show a hint of skin when I raise my arms, but I dont mind that.

Best cooling pajamas

Recliner Classic PJ Set $120 $120 Sizes: XS3X | Material: Modal, spandex | Design: Button front, long side vents, tapered ankle | Price: $$ In her search for the ultimate cooling pajamas, former Strategist senior writer Karen Iorio Adelson crowned Recliners the best of the best. Although she was skeptical of the long-sleeved set, she didnt sweat a drop in them (or it was wicked away before I could notice). She compares their texture to a worn-in T-shirt: soft, stretchy, and grazing the body for a clean look without feeling at all tight, adding that lounging around in the button-down top and jogger pants felt more luxurious than schleppy. $120 at Recliner Buy

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Kasese in the aftermath of the November 2016 clashes

MPs have been shocked to discover that a year later, the Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs is still struggling to have a report on the deadly Kasese clashes to present to the House. The report was supposed to be presented within 45 days.

In November 2016, parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga tasked the committee, chaired by Mityana Woman MP Judith Nabakooba, to investigate the Kasese clashes between residents and the security forces of November 2016 in which about 150 people, including children, died.

Usually, committees are required to investigate and report to the House within one and half months and where the committee feels it cannot fulfill that requirement, the committee chairperson writes to the Speaker to request more time.

Following Busongora North MP William Nzoghus complaint to the House that the people in Kasese wanted to hold a memorial service but were blocked by security and have nowhere to complain, deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah asked for the committee report, which vice chairperson Kezekia Mbogo said was ready.

It was, however, after allocating time for presentation of the committee report that the House discovered that no report has ever been written, a year later.

Both Mbogo and Nabakooba were not available in the House and Oulanyahs attempts to find out from the committee clerk revealed that not even a draft was about to be ready.

Butambala MP and committee member Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi said Mbogo had earlier misinformed Parliament that the report was ready for presentation.

Kivumbi informed Parliament that there was nothing that his committee has ever written down on the Kasese clashes since the time the MPs met President Museveni as one of the witnesses. He wondered how Parliament could investigate a matter that was before the courts of law.

I attended the meeting at State House, Entebbe. The President in a tough tone wondered how Parliament would continue with investigations, fully aware of the case before court and said the matter was prejudicial and requested the Speaker to order the committee to stop work immediately and the meeting diverted to other issues, including MPs asking the President for favours, so there is not even a draft of that [Kasese killings] report, Kivumbi said.

Oulanyah asked committee chairpersons to take their duties seriously to avoid delaying parliament business.

So please lets take it as our responsibility to finish matters that are before the committees in time. Complete the task so that parliament can take a decision other than playing these kind of games, Oulanyah said.

namuloki16@gmail.com
Oscar Bartoli

About Me Avvocato, giornalista pubblicista, collabora con molti media italiani. Risiede negli Stati Uniti dal 1994 e vive tra Washington D.C., Veracruz e Bangalore (India). Consigliere comunale per il Partito Liberale a Palazzo Vecchio (Firenze) porta ancora addosso i segni delle percosse che i 'compagni' comunisti di allora gli hanno dato per essere andato a parlare nelle piazze dove comandava solo il PCI. Ha lavorato per molti anni nel gruppo SMI,leader europeo nel settore metalli non ferrosi, successivamente nell'IRI come responsabile dei contatti con i media e in seguito direttore IRI USA. Ha insegnato per dieci anni alla scuola di giornalismo della Luiss e per due anni alla Catholic University di Washington DC. Tiene un corso sulla comunicazione nel Master di Relazioni Internazionali dello IULM di Milano. Rotariano da decenni ha contribuito a creare due Club a Roma, e' stato presidente del Cassia Romana ed attualmente fa parte del Washington Rotary Club. Da giovane, per pagarsi gli studi ma, soprattutto, perche' gli piaceva, ha lavorato come chitarrista - cantante suonando nelle case del popolo, circoli cattolici, night clubs, radio e televisione.

Da non perdere - "Lei non sa chi sono io" Oscar Bartoli- Prefazione Romano Prodi- Editore Ciuffa

-"E anche questa e' America", prefazione di Walter Veltroni - Luiss University Press

- "Massoneria FAQ. Elogio della conoscenza (e dell'informazione)" di Oscar Bartoli e Stefano Bisi Betti Editrice

- "Mezzogiorno di Fuoco: duello all'ultimo spot" di Oscar Bartoli - Editore goWare

- "W.D.C (sotto traccia)" di Oscar Bartoli, Editore Luca Betti

- "DC Undercover"

(Scarith Books/New Academia Publishing 2013)

- "Borgo Pinti, storia di una famiglia fiorentina" by Oscar Bartoli editore Mauro Bonanno

Blog Archive
Welcome to 'OZ' - The 'Other' Side of the Rainbow!! Posting is at 10AM, Noon and 2PM CST daily. Up to 12 days of posts on the main page. The archives have more. You can forward posts by clicking on the envelope at the bottom of the post. Enjoy your stay! *** If you need to contact me, or have a copyright issue, please use the "Contact The Wizard" form on the left side of 'OZ'. Original source and author is cited and credited in each post where possible. ***
Riots erupted in Kasur after the murder of a 7-year-old Zainab 11 January, 2018



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Hand Wash and Toiletries in Pakistan And the Role of DUPAS in Reshaping the Industry

Woke Bingo Riots erupted in Kasur on Wednesday as residents agitated against perceived police inaction over the rape and murder of a 7-year-old resident of the city. The post-mortem report of the child confirmed suspicions that she was raped before being murdered.



The brutal murder of the girl, the 12th such case to occur within a two-kilometre radius of the city over the last year, ignited a wellspring of anger among the city's residents.



Two people were killed by gunshot wounds as enraged protesters armed with sticks and stones attempted to storm the deputy commissioner's office and clashed with police. At least two others sustained bullet injuries.



Television footage showed a policeman firing into the advancing mob before being told to fire into the air. It is not clear yet whether the policeman was responsible for the deaths or injuries.



Punjab government in the evening said six personnel, including four policemen and two civil defence personnel, who allegedly opened fire at the protesters have been arrested.



The minor girl was laid to rest in a graveyard in Kasur after her parents arrived from Saudi Arabia in the evening.



Zainab, 7, had gone to a religious tuition centre near her house in the Road Kot area last Thursday (Jan 4) from where she is believed to have been abducted. Her parents had been in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage), according to her family, and she had been living with a maternal aunt.



Soon after her abduction, her panicked family had received footage showing her walking with a stranger near Peerowala Road. On Tuesday, a police constable deputed to trace the girl recovered her body from a heap of trash near the Shahbaz Khan Road. Police said the girl seemed to have been killed four or five days earlier.



A first information report had been registered against the disappearance of the girl on Jan 5, with the victim's paternal uncle as the complainant in the case. Murder charges were added to the FIR on Jan 9, after the victim's body was recovered.



Zainab's parents returned from their pilgrimage on Wednesday but they were unable to attend their child's funeral prayers. As reporters surrounded them outside Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport, her grieving mother said: "I have nothing to say, I just want justice for my daughter.



Zainab's father claimed that police "did not cooperate" with them: "It is our friends who have stood by us," he regretted. "We will not bury her until we get justice," he asserted at the time. "We are now afraid of letting our children leave the home. How was our child kidnapped from a busy market?" he asked.



Police earlier told reporters that DNA samples from the victim's body have been dispatched for forensic testing. Police at the time dubbed the murder a serial killing, but said they were not ruling out rape.



Regional Police Officer (RPO) Kasur Zulfikar Muhammad confirmed that the girl was strangled to death. He told the media that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed the forensic lab to expedite the process for Zainab's autopsy.



"Naturally, there is also a certain amount of time that the processing will take; there is a certain amount of time that the lab takes," he said. It generally takes 24-48 hours for an autopsy to take place and a report to be issued.



The recovery of Zainab's body on Tuesday had ignited protests and a shutter-down strike in the city.



As word got around, traders shuttered their shops and staged a protest demonstration. Scores of other people also gathered at Steel Bagh Mor near the hospital and protested with the girl's body in the middle of the road. They also threw traffic out of gear by burning tyres on Ferozepur Road and chanted slogans against police and local parliamentarians for their alleged apathy.



People from other parts of the country took to social media to share their anger and outrage over the murder using the hashtag #JusticeForZainab.

Sana appeals for calm



Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah appealed for calm, saying the provincial government had "taken notice of the case".



"People need to keep their emotions in check and not aggravate the situation," he advised.



The law minister appeared optimistic that the perpetrators would be arrested within the next eight to 10 hours, and said that the culprit seemed to have been an acquaintance of the family. He added that "a child's safety is its parents' responsibility."



Pakistan Awami Tehreek leader Tahirul Qadri led the funeral prayers for the victim, with thousands of residents of the city gathered to lay the child to rest.



Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif and the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, taking notice of the incident earlier in the day, ordered the Punjab police to take swift action.



Sharif directed the inspector general of Punjab to bring the culprits to task as soon as possible and to submit an investigation report on the matter.



The Punjab chief minister later in the day made district police officer Kasur an officer on special duty (OSD), a Punjab government spokesman said. Sharif also constituted a joint investigation team (JIT) headed by Additional IG (Investigation) Abu Bakar Khuda Bux to investigate the incident and submit a report within 24 hours.



"I will not rest until justice has been provided to the affected family," Sharif was quoted as saying.



Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa condemned the "cold-blooded murder" and directed immediate support to the civil administration to arrest the criminals and bring them to justice, the army's media wing tweeted.



The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar, had taken notice of the incident and sought a report from the Inspector General of Police, Punjab, within 24 hours.



Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani suggested introducing appropriate legislation and stricter legal implementation in order to prevent such incidents in the future.



"All institutions must work together, and implementation of laws must be strengthened," he said.



Rabbani said that when the Kasur child abuse scandal surfaced in 2015, he had raised concerns that the outrage would die down within a few days, which is why it is necessary that the government take long-term measures to ensure the safety of children.



"Institutions and the government must work together on operational procedures for such incidents," he said, adding that laws and a permanent institution must be introduced to deal with these crimes.



Laws for the protection of children must be made in line with international laws, he said. Existing laws that deal with crimes against women could possibly be expanded to include crimes against children, he suggested.



Laws tackling crimes against children must tackle brutality, child smuggling and different kinds of abuse, including sexual abuse, he recommended, adding that stronger legal implementation and punishment of criminals is necessary to avoid such incidents from occurring.



Kasur had last attained local and international notoriety in 2015 when a gang of paedophiles running a child sex ring was busted in the city.
Sit-ins are no solution to the issues: Shahid Khaqan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Wednesday called upon all political parties to demonstrate their sincerity to Pakistan by adhering to the democratic system as holding of sit-ins and sowing seeds of unrest in the society would only undermine the country.



He was responding to various questions posed in a talk show at a private television channel hosted by Murtaza Solangi.



The prime minister said 2018 was the election year and all the parties joining hands in All Parties Conference (APC) of Pakistan Awami Tahreek (PAT) should concentrate on the next general election to be held in July.



Leadership in the political parties should demonstrate with their acts and character that they were sincere with the country as sit-ins were no solution to the issues.



But from their attitude, he said, it appeared that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was the sole political party striving to ensure holding of general election on time and regretted that other parties in the APC were not serious.



The prime minister said he was at a total loss what kind of objectives they wanted to achieve with such APC and holding of dharnas. Instead, they should go to public and tell them what they had delivered in the provinces where they were at the helm of affairs, he said.



He said it was his decision that ended the dharna as it was causing unbearable public sufferings.



About Model Town incident, he said PAT objectives were to create unrest and anarchy in the country while ignoring the basic facts. If they had any case, they should take them to courts which were all functional, he said, regretting unfortunately, facts over the issue were not accepted as the political parties wanted politics on the dead people.



Responding to a question about no trust move against former Balochistan chief minister, the prime minister said he expected the members of the provincial assembly that had tabled the motion not to create unrest in the province and play their role for strengthening of the democratic system.



He said that he had visited the province thrice in the past but no one had expressed their grievances against the former chief minister.



He said now it was members of provincial assemblys responsibility to take the democratic process forward, adding that he had directed the interior minister to probe the pressure that was exerted on the elected members after some members had raised their voices. However, he maintained that such moves were not good for the democratic system. Throughout his political career, the prime minister said he had witnessed such things which could only harm democracy.



He said the central leadership of the PML-N had not endorsed the no-trust move, but the former chief minister considered it appropriate to step down. About nomination of new member of Balochistan assembly to head the provincial government, he said it was up to the assembly members, whether they would work for democracy or create unrest. The prime categorically stated that the government would complete its term so that the democratic system could move forward.



There were speculations about conspiracies during the no confidence motion, but the issue of concern was whether it would serve the nation, country and democracy, he added. The prime minister said whenever the democratic system was suppressed; it had damaged the country and cited Musharrafs steps towards Balochistan.



He said the JUI-F was PML-Ns allied party in the parliament, but was on the opposition benches in the province.



He dismissed linking of JUI-F support to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) reforms issue by saying that the government wanted to resolve it with complete consensus by taking all the stakeholders on board. The prime minister said FATA being was run on the centuries-old administrative system which required to be replaced with consensus and informed that it would stand resolved soon. About Nawaz Sharifs visit to Saudi Arabia, the prime minister said it was his private visit and rejected speculations making rounds in the media. He said that he did not endorse such standard of politics as Nawaz Sharif had close ties with the Saudi Royal Family.



He said Nawaz Sharif is the PML-N leader and president of Pakistans largest party. They had been in the business of politics and struggling for the democratic system when others were sitting in the lap of martial law regime.
Originally published by STAT, September 27, 2022. The California State Legislature has sent a bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom that strengthens discipline for doctors who knowingly spread Covid-19 misinformation. Legislation like this is sorely needed across the country. More than two years into the pandemic, Covid-19 misinformation still runs rampant. Some comes from doctors spreading lies about unproven  []
This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
QUEENSBURY  A Scotia man pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony charge for illegally possessing prescription drugs and heroin last September in Glens Falls.

Nelson G. Salisbury, 51, pleaded guilty to fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance for an arrest after a traffic stop, during which police seized 200 Xanax tablets and an unspecified quantity of heroin.

Warren County Judge John Hall agreed to sentence him to 6 months in Warren County Jail and 5 years on probation.

Salisbury also agreed to forfeit $701 in cash that he had.
FORT EDWARD  A Fort Edward man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly having sex with a girl under the age of 17, police said.

Richard M. Alger, 53, of 48 Mechanic St., is accused of having sexual intercourse with the girl, with whom he was acquainted, on July 16, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

The incident is alleged to have happened during a boat ride on the Champlain Canal, according to a news release from the Sheriffs Office.

Alger was charged with third-degree rape, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

The states age of consent for sexual relations is 17. The rape count alleges he had sex with someone too young to legally consent.

Alger was sent to Washington County Jail for lack of $1,000 cash or $5,000 bond bail.

Sheriff's Investigator Michael McWhorter handled the case.
A January thaw accompanied by rain is not the weather forecast that the Warren County Office of Emergency Services wanted to hear.

The extreme cold of the last few weeks has created a massive amount of river ice so far this winter, and temperatures that could top 50 degrees combined with up to 2 inches of rain could cause significant ice jam problems on rivers like the Hudson and Schroon. Power outages from freezing rain, ice and heavy, wet snow are also possible.

Warren County Emergency Services Director Brian LaFlure said his staff has been working with the National Weather Service in recent days to watch the Hudson for problem spots, and there appeared to be potential ice jams around the usual problem spots near The Glen and River Road in Chester.

He said his offices emergency coordinator, Amy Hirsch, planned to tour the upper Hudson with National Weather Service staff on Thursday.

There is a lot of ice, he said. Well know more after they do a drive around to some areas later today (Thursday).

The weather service is saying we could get up to three inches of rain. Its going to depend on a lot of things, how much rain we get, how warm it gets whether the ice moves, LaFlure added.

The concern is that the ice moves and blocks the rivers channel in places, causing water to back up and the river to jump its banks. The Hudson between Warrensburg, Thurman and North Creek has seen a number of major ice jams over the past few decades, several of them during January thaws/rain storms.

One in March 2011 caused numerous evacuations in Johnsburg and Chester, while roads have been closed for weeks when huge chunks of ice flow out of the river.

Glen Gosnell, Washington Countys director of public safety, said his office has been monitoring the Mettawee River and Batten Kill, but hadnt heard of any potential problem spots. The Hoosic River sometimes has ice jam problems as well.

We havent heard of any concerns so far, he said.

He said he was in North River near the Hudson earlier this week, and saw a huge volume of ice, though.

That ice is 10 feet deep in places, Gosnell said.

Much of the region will see a wide variety of weather over the next couple of days as a major storm moves into the Northeast.

A flood watch is in effect for the region from Friday morning through Saturday morning, with possible ice jams on some rivers as temperatures rise into the 50s and one to three inches of rain falls.

Cold weather will move in for the tail end of the storm, and the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for Warren and northern Washington counties and a storm warning for Hamilton and Essex counties from 7 p.m. Friday to 7 p.m Saturday. Up to 10 inches of snow could fall in northern and western areas once the rain changes to snow.

The Glens Falls region should see two to five inches of snow by early Saturday as well as freezing rain as temperatures stay warmer than areas to the north. Colder temperatures will move in for Sunday, with teens likely as a high.
Our only possible conclusion is that Queensbury Supervisor John Strough and the rest of the Queensbury Town Board are suffering from a collective case of amnesia.

It was just a year ago that three members of the Queensbury Town Board with strong connections to the towns Republican Party railroaded a change in the towns law firm in which one of the principals also held a leadership position with the town Republicans.

Strough objected that those connections could lead to problems.

And they did.

The town attorney was caught last summer taking sides in an email exchange over a political matter that involved another member of the Town Board. The attorney appeared to be taking sides against Town Board member Tony Metivier, who later said it was payback because he did not vote for the law firm change.

That was inappropriate and unethical, and any chance that those events could repeat themselves should be avoided at all costs.

You would think the members of this Town Board would know that.

We said at the time that going forward, the town  and all municipalities, really  should stipulate it would only do business with law firms that do not allow their attorneys to hold those types of political committee positions.

The sad reality is that most law firms dont forbid these memberships. We suspect they believe these connections are more likely to get them business than lose it.

That needs to change.

Queensbury got half the job done in fixing its law firm problem last week.

The town hired its former law firm of Miller, Mannix, Schachner & Hafner, partly we hope, because their lawyers are forbidden from serving on political committees.

But the town also hired the law firm of Bartlett, Pontiff, Stewart and Rhodes to represent them on labor issues. But two lawyers at that firm  Malcolm OHara and John Wright  are members of the Queensbury Republican Committee.

We find that problematic considering the recent past, and so should the current members of the Town Board, who are partially there because voters objected to the political chicanery of their former lawyer.

Shockingly, Supervisor Strough did not see a problem this time around. He cited Bartlett, Pontiff, Stewart and Rhodes reputation as being one of the best firms on labor issues and that the two attorneys serving on the committee would not be involved in town business.

While that may be, we believe there is a bigger issue here.

The Town Board has an opportunity  based on its past experiences  to set an example around the region that it is not going to give taxpayer money for legal representation that might be tainted by politics.

We remind Town Board members Catherine Atherden, George Ferone, Tony Metivier and Jennifer Switzer that Queensburys voters sent a very clear message this past November that they objected to political dirty tricks.

We dont want to deprive Queensbury taxpayers of excellent representation, but we also are not convinced the events of last summer cannot repeat themselves.

The simple solution is for the lawyers at Bartlett, Pontiff, Stewart & Rhodes to resign from their positions with the local political party, and the Town Board to acknowledge they will not do business with law firms unless they have a policy against formal political participation.

Post-Star editorials represent the opinion of the Post-Star editorial board, which consists of Publisher Robert Forcey, Controller/Operations Director Brian Corcoran, Editor Ken Tingley, Projects Editor Will Doolittle and citizen representatives Patricia Crayford, Carol Merchant and Eric Mondschein.
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This could be the Year of the Feud.

With Orrin Hatch poised to end his 40 years in the Senate, Mitt Romney may not only be Utahs main choice to fill the seat, but also a salvation for the Republican Party mainstream as it was before Donald Trump. The former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP nominee for the presidency could become a force in the next run for the White House.

There is no love lost between Trump and Romney, and apparently now between Trump and his former chief political mastermind Steve Bannon.

Romney has also been highly critical of Trump, calling him unfit for the office during the campaign. Trump was equally disparaging, charging that Romney is a loser who blew his own presidential race by choking.

Trump responded in the harshest of terms to quotes attributed to Bannon in a book by columnist Michael Wolff.

Whether Romney would want to launch himself from the Senate into a primary fight with Trump would probably depend on his ability to keep from appearing petulant in disagreement with Trumps agenda  backing Trump when it was expedient but not doing so when he could make a good case against doing so. Unseating your own partys sitting president is a delicate and difficult process, even when your target is not terribly popular  as Sen. Edward Kennedy found out in his effort to oust Jimmy Carter, a factor in Carters ultimate defeat by Ronald Reagan in the general election.

But Trump is an entirely different chief executive, violating plenty of political tenets and supported by a base that may be dwindling but is still effective, forcing the traditional Republican leadership to constantly look over its shoulders.

Red state Utahs dislike of Trump could be seen as a factor in Hatchs decision to retire. After lending major support to win passage of Trumps controversial tax bill and issuing an over-the-top endorsement of the president, one survey showed 75 percent of the states voters opposed Hatch running again despite Trumps pleas for him to stay in office.

All of this probably will make Trumps second year in office more difficult than the first in his efforts to adopt an enormous domestic agenda, in his promises for strong foreign policy leadership and, of course, in keeping his congressional majority. The party in the White House usually loses seats in the legislature at midterm, and Trumps situation could become catastrophic with the Senate highly probable to return to the Democrats.

Such an eventuality would leave him fuming on his morning tweets. Also, his personal campaigning might be limited by Republican candidates who see him as a liability with low approval ratings. Much of his campaigning would have to be in the South, where the GOP has near one-party status once held by the Democrats, or in a few parts of the rust belt carried during the election.

Romneys role in all this could be crucial. His image as a moderate conservative leader and a one-time presidential nominee who still could be viable gives him an air of authority Republicans currently dont have. His more moderate, traditional views and exposure sets him apart from the hardliners like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Also, Romney has unique cachet in Utah as the savior of the 2002 Winter Olympics after a major scandal had threatened them for the state. And this time around his devotion to Mormonism is not expected to be the detriment it once seemed to be when he was the first of his religion to win the nomination. His influence on the party could be considerable, whether challenging Trump or not.

Trumps peril in the Year of the Feud is considerable, and its just beginning.
The exodus continues.

Illinois dropped from the fifth-largest state to the sixth according to recently released Internal Revenue Service data. Weve been edged out by Pennsylvania.

In 2017, the Land of Lincoln lost about 33,700 people.

Thats the equivalent of my hometown of Galesburg vanishing in one year. In fact, Illinois had the greatest numeric population drop of any state.

And this isnt some demographic blip.

Illinois has been hemorrhaging people for years. In fact, since 2013, the state has lost 88,000 people.

Why?

Since I began publishing this column more than 15 years ago, Ive received letters, emails and phone calls from that diaspora of former Illinoisans scattered across the nation.

They talk about the states high taxes and lack of job opportunities as the main reasons they left. Surprisingly, the weather is rarely mentioned.

But, hey, dont just take my word for it.

The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University conducted a study on the issue in 2016., It found that nearly half of the people living in Illinois want to leave the state. The most common reason cited was taxes.

The exodus of Illinoisans is a problem that compounds on itself.

When people leave they take their pocketbooks with them and that means less money is being spent and invested here. And that means fewer jobs.

And companies are also moving out of state because they, too, dont like the Prairie States taxation and regulatory policies. Illinois has high workers compensation rates.

But when Ive talked to some folks in the Illinois General Assembly, theyll argue taxes and regulations have nothing to do with Illinois population loss. They point to the weather.

Ill be the first to admit Illinois has crappy winters. But so do our neighbors and they are growing.

The same IRS study found that in 2017, Missouri gained 22,356 residents, Indiana gained 32,811, Michigan gained 28,866, Iowa gained 14,840, Wisconsin gained 22,566 and Kentucky held its own with a gain of 1,100.

Its worth noting that every one of Illinois neighbors are right-to-work states, where workers cannot be compelled to pay money to unions. (Kentucky, the neighbor with the most modest population gain, adopted a right-to-work law in 2017.)

Businesses often prefer to operate in a right-to-work environment so that puts Illinois at a competitive disadvantage when competing for jobs.

Lets face it, people follow jobs. And the job market isnt what it should be in the Land of Lincoln.

That wont change until Illinois lawmakers take action to lower taxes and workplace regulations.
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An East Moline man pleaded guilty Thursday to assaulting a Moline police officer in November.

Austin D. Clenney, 21, pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated battery of a peace officer and aggravated assault of a peace officer and was sentenced to two years in prison.

He will receive day-for-day credit, as well as credit for time already served in connection with the case, according to court records.

Clenney must serve a year of mandatory supervised release once he completes his prison sentence.

According to the Moline Police Department, officers were dispatched around 8:30 a.m. Nov. 3, to the 1800 block of 18th Avenue A for a report of a suspicious vehicle.

The first officer on scene located the car, a 2010 Honda Sedan, and began talking to the driver, Clenney, and his passenger, Mario Pena, 20, of East Moline.

Clenney and the officer began struggling and they both went to the ground. The officer was injured during the struggle and Clenney was able to break free and flee in the vehicle.

Pena fled the scene on foot but was arrested a short time later.

The officer was taken to Trinity Rock Island for treatment and later released, according to police.

Pena was wanted on a warrant for a charge of mob action out of Waukegan, Illinois, and was taken to the Rock Island County Jail to await transfer back to the Lake County Jail.

Clenney was arrested Nov. 12 in Eldridge.
A 26-year-old man suffered a non-life-threatening injury Thursday during a shooting at a Davenport barbershop.

Police responded at 12:47 p.m. to Devine Creations Barbershop, 717 W. Third St. The man was transported to a local hospital.

Preliminary information indicates that there was a dispute in the business between two people, which led to the shooting, police said in a news release.

The two people fled the business after the shooting, according to police.

Police say the injured man was not directly involved in the dispute. No other injuries were reported.

Officers and detectives are investigating the incident. No further information was released Thursday afternoon.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to call the Davenport Police Department at 563 326-6125 or submit an anonymous tip via the mobile app CityConnect Davenport, IA or CrimeReports by Motorola.
Billboard chart-hitting rapper Kevin Gates was released Wednesday on parole from the East Moline Correctional Center after serving nine months on a gun charge out of Chicago.

Gates  whose legal name is Kevin Jerome Gilyard  was sentenced in April to 30 months in prison on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in a 2013 case.

He was taken into custody on the charge in March.

The 31-year-old from Baton Rouge, Louisiana came to prominence in 2013, and his studio album "Isiah" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 in 2016.
Two Rock Island County men have started a political action committee to try to draft former Vice President Joe Biden to run for the presidency in 2020.

Matthew Graf, of Rock Island, and Collin West, of East Moline, filed organizational papers with the Federal Election Commission earlier this week to create a committee called Time for Biden. They also have put up a website, called timeforbiden.com.

Graf said Wednesday that he and West have volunteered in Democratic politics locally, and that they created the committee because they don't yet see a clear front runner for the party's 2020 nomination, or even a direction for the party yet. Besides, Graf says, Biden's experience would be welcome.

"He's abundantly qualified," he said.

Biden decided not to run for the presidency in 2016. But he is frequently mentioned, along with a a lot of other Democrats, as a possibility for 2020.

Last November, Biden told Oprah Winfrey (who also is now being mentioned as a possible candidate) that he didn't plan on running. But he also said he regretted not being president.

Graf, 23, says that he believes Biden is toying with the idea of running. And he said the draft committee, by building a volunteer network and engaging in fundraising, could be handed off to a campaign if it gets to that point.

Graf said the two formed the committee on their own and have not reached out to Biden, other than mentioning him on social media.

A committee to draft Biden also was formed before the 2016 presidential campaign, and it enlisted help in early nominating states, like Iowa and New Hampshire. The group even held events in Iowa, including on the riverfront in Davenport in 2015.

Biden ran for president in 1988 and 2008. He finished fifth in the 2008 caucuses.
It doesnt require the services of a nuclear scientist to know what the latest protests in Iran are all about. Like all people, Iranians want freedom, economic opportunity and a future for their children. Those aspirations peaked during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, culminating in the Green Revolution of 2009. Although brutally repressed by the regimes security apparatus  the all-powerful Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps  the protestors didnt disappear, they went underground.

There was always hope in the Obama Administration that the autocratic regime in Tehran would moderate its policies  both at home and abroad  if provided the right incentives and if reformers were supported from the sidelines. The recent popular uprising in Iran should be cause for reflection.

In 2009, President Obama chose to remain silent about the protests, preferring instead the path of quiet diplomacy. That policy resulted in the Iran nuclear deal  a temporary suspension of Irans nuclear weapons program in exchange for billions in sanctions relief and new business investments.

Leaving aside the many flaws of the deal itself, Iran policy under the Obama Administration did more harm than good, emboldening an oppressive regime and increasing its ability to fund terrorism and other illicit activities around the globe. On the domestic front, Irans record on human rights remains abysmal.

Iran continues to remain a world leader in executing its own citizens. The regimes ongoing and routine use of torture is well documented. Widespread arbitrary detentions, sharp limits on freedom of assembly, expression, and religious belief, and discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities are all common practices.

One of the main sales pitches by the Obama Administration for the nuclear deal was the expected benefit to the people of Iran. It was hoped that easing sanctions would open Irans isolated economy and improve the quality of life for all Iranians. In turn, reformers would be empowered to pursue a policy of peaceful change from within.

Sadly, the anticipated benefits never materialized.

Instead, the hundreds of billions of dollars that have flowed into Iran have been spent on Irans violent activities abroad and its ballistic missile development program  in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolutions. The regime has also used the deal to shield itself from international criticism. European states have signed lucrative business deals with Iran and, in turn, have responded with moral ambiguity to the unrest in Iran, calling on all sides to show restraint.

Beyond the obvious push back against a repressive dictatorship and economic hardships, the Iranian people have focused their attention on Irans funding of terrorist groups abroad. One slogan heard during the protests was, Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, I Give My Life for Iran. This is a reference to the large sums of money Iran pays to support its client terrorist organizations  Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In response to the recent protests, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, called an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council during which she said, The Iranian people are calling out, Think of us! The people of Iran are crying out for freedom. All freedom loving people must stand with their cause.

Ambassador Haleys statement is a welcome breath of fresh air and the Trump Administrations support for the protesters represents exactly the kind of renewed leadership we need on the international stage.

Leaders in the Middle East demand strength and persistence. Global American leadership demands that we support freedom from tyrannyespecially when people are dying in the streets opposing a tyrannical regime whose foreign policy is based almost exclusively on the twin pillars of DEATH TO AMERICA and DEATH TO ISRAEL.
America desperately wanted this book. America desperately needed it, too.

That's why "Fire and Fury," by journalist Michael Wolff, which purported to be a fly-on-the-wall, inside view of life in the Trump White House, shot to Number One on Amazon.com last week after Donald Trump's lawyers tried to suppress it. It's why bookstores had to back order.

Unfortunately, Wolff did not deliver the book he promised. Granted, "Fire and Fury" is juicy as a summer peach, filled with gossipy takedowns of pretty much every boldface name in Trump Land. Anthony Scaramucci emerges as "a shameless self-promoter," Kellyanne Conway, as an antagonistic drama queen addicted to cable news cameras.

Trump himself, we are told, has a volcanic temper, a toddler's restraint and likes to be in bed by 6:30, scarfing down cheeseburgers while monitoring cable news on three televisions and calling his billionaire friends to complain when CNN hurts his feelings.

And yes, Steve Bannon's all over everything. He's quoted on the record calling Ivanka Trump "dumb as a brick" and her brother, Donald Jr., "treasonous" (though he's tried to walk back the latter assessment).

The book is entertaining. Too bad it's not always true.

For example, Wolff reports a snub of the president by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell that a McConnell aide says never happened. Wolff has reporter Mark Berman breakfasting in a hotel restaurant Berman says he's never been to. He misidentifies a nominee to Trump's cabinet. There's more, but you get the point.

Look, everybody makes mistakes. But this many of them suggests a reportorial sloppiness that cannot be wished away or ignored.

The sad part is, whatever his fact-checking failures, the consensus among Washington reporters seems to be that Wolff gets it exactly right in his overarching portrait of a chaotic, dysfunctional White House where the inept and the inexperienced are led by the unqualified. But because his credibility is so banged up, that bit of accuracy will be easy for Trump defenders to dismiss.

Yours truly had hoped this book would answer a nagging question about Trump's White House: What should we make of these people? When they turn reality inside out like a sock, when they stand before calamity and assure us there is no calamity, when they insist Trump is a misunderstood genius whose only problem is our failure to see his greatness, are they lying to us -- or to themselves?

The former would make them fools. The latter would make them something worse.

The book America wanted and needed might have answered that question. The book America got gives a media-hating president a new cudgel with which to batter honest reporters seeking to unearth inconvenient truths.

Not that even a factually impeccable book would have told us much we don't already know. We already know that where Lincoln had a "team of rivals," Trump has a team of incompetents. We already know that the biggest incompetent is the self-described "stable genius" himself, who once said he had no idea being president would be so hard.

But a book organizes what you know in linear form. There's something about seeing it laid out in black and white, authoritatively analyzed and indexed, that affirms, confirms and makes it official.

That's the book we want. That's the book America needs. But that book has yet to be published.

Where have you gone, Bob Woodward? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
Local officials have a message for South Dakotas state senators and representatives as they get down to business in Pierre for the legislative session: West River needs more state-run mental health services.

Rapid City Legal and Finance Committee members unanimously supported a resolution Wednesday for additional mental health services in Western South Dakota following the approval of a similar resolution by the Pennington County Board of Commissioners at their Dec. 5 meeting.

Both resolutions came after former state representative Al Scovel made impassioned pleas to the governing bodies for additional mental health services in the area, including the possibility of a new state-run mental health facility in western South Dakota. Currently, the closest state-run facility to Rapid City is in Yankton, about 350 miles away.

I think its important to get the states attention, Council President Jason Salamun said at Wednesdays meeting.

Currently, people in need of mental health care or undergoing a mental health crisis are transported by bus two times a week by the Pennington County Sheriffs Office to Yanktons Human Services Center. If the person is deemed a risk to themselves or others on the bus, they are sometimes restrained during the five-hour trip, Rapid City Assistant Police Chief Don Hedrick said after the meeting.

According to the resolution, South Dakota is one of five states where state law allows for people experiencing a mental health crisis to be held in a correctional facility without committing any offense.

Treating folks with mental health problems like criminals is actually a terrible way to do business, Salamun said. We can spend money on prisons, but we can invest money in mental health care.

Alderman Steve Laurenti said the distance between Yankton and much of western South Dakota made it difficult for a persons relatives or friends to be there in support, which he called the most important part of a patients care.

Thats one of the biggest reasons that we need to push our legislators, our state and our federal legislators, to get a facility on the western side of South Dakota, he said. We need it.

At the end of discussion, an emotional Salamun made one final point.

If I had one wish for our entire culture, its to get rid of this stupid stigma regarding mental health care, he said. If you need help, get it. We want you to live well. We are only as good as the people we have.

Last February, Rapid City Regional Hospital stopped admitting behavioral health patients without acute medical needs to the main hospital when Behavioral Health Center is full. The hospital has also stopped admitting patients with neurodevelopmental/cognitive disorders such as dementia, Alzheimers disease, and autism spectrum disorder to the Behavioral Health Center if they exhibit violent behavior.

In other action, committee members recommended:

 Approving a resolution to write off about 6,200 parking tickets from 2014 worth more than $66,000. The unpaid tickets range from $5 to $110. In past years, the city has approved similar resolutions for old parking tickets as the citys finance office tries to clear from their books any tickets that have remained unpaid for more than three years per auditors recommendations. The council passed a resolution last year forgiving more than $67,000 in fines and forgave around 10,000 tickets worth about $106,000 in 2016 from tickets dating to 2011 and 2012.

 Acknowledging the citys sales tax collections for the month of November, which came in at $2,046,512, a 3.5 percent increase compared with collections in November 2016. For the first 11 months of 2017, collections were up 2.5 percent compared with 2016, at $23,126,990.

 Authorizing Mayor Steve Allender and Finance Department Director Pauline Sumption to accept about $45,000 in federal funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service for the citys Retired Senior Volunteer Program. RSVP+, which offers adults  specifically those ages 55 and older  the chance to volunteer for a variety of area nonprofits, was put on the chopping block as part of Allenders 2017 budget proposal but eventually restored by the Rapid City Council in September. In 2017, RSVP+ received about $47,000 in federal funding, $28,500 in federal funds and a $35,000 cash influx from the citys general fund. According to city documents, the $45,000 in federal funding expected for 2018 will represent about 40 percent of the programs total operational costs.

 Approving an ordinance to supplement the 2018 budget with $6.8 million for the citys planned landfill expansion project this spring and summer. Of the $6.8 million, about $4.7 million will come from the Solid Waste Departments undesignated cash fund and the remaining $2.1 million will come from the departments collection fund. In 2016, the landfill ended with a $345,457 surplus after it collected $6,708,840 against $6,363,383 in expenses, according to Sumption.

 Approving the second reading of an ordinance requiring local security companies to conspicuously display the word security on both sides and the rear of their vehicles to avoid confusion between the companys vehicles and local law enforcement vehicles. In particular, Black Hills Patrol vehicles have been identified as appearing overly similar to law enforcement vehicles and causing confusion amid the general public.
The Mammoth Site has been awarded another large grant from the David B. Jones Foundation, which gives the foundation naming rights to Theater 1 in the Mammoth Site Learning Center, which will now be known as the David B. Jones Theatre.

The foundation donated $170,000 to the Hot Springs attraction for the naming rights. The facility added the two theaters to its campus several years ago with the addition of the learning center; the second theater is named after longtime board member Eddie and Clara Clay. Nearly every visitor to the Mammoth Site goes through one of the two theaters to watch an 11-minute informational video prior to taking their guided tour, said Presston Gabel, the sites business manager.

The theaters also provide space for guest lectures and other educational presentations.

Through the continued support of the David B. Jones Foundation and other like-minded Foundations, The Mammoth Site has been able to continue to grow and keep at the forefront of Science Education and Research as it relates to The Mammoth Site and the Black Hills as a whole during the last Ice Age, said Gabel.

The David B. Jones Foundation, based out of Sioux Falls, has previously provided support for the Mammoth Site, according to Bethany Cook, the sites public relations director. The foundation was established in 1998 by David B. Jones to promote educational, research and charitable activities in the area of paleontology across the United States. The most recent grant brings their total gifts to the Mammoth Site to $237,000.

Jones was raised in California before finishing high school and college in Minnesota, where he owned and operated a farm management business for 32 years. He discovered a passion for paleontology when he returned to college at the age of 37. He became an amateur paleontologist who specialized in Mid-Tertiary mammals and late Cretaceous marine fossils, according to his foundations website. Jones died in 2013 while on a dig in Wyoming, but before his death he conducted field research in Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota.

Gabel said the $170,000 gift will help the Mammoth Site reduce some debt load, as well as continue its primary goal of education and worldwide research projects.

The grant will help continue the work that has been ongoing since 1974, when fossils of Columbian and woolly mammoths were discovered during excavation for a housing development. The fossils were discovered in a sinkhole and are believed to have perished more than 26,000 years ago. The Mammoth Site has become a respected research center for Pleistocene studies and is the largest Columbian mammoth exhibit in the world.

According to the Mammoth Sites website, 61 mammoths have been identified to date, and other animals, including a giant short-faced bear, camel, llama, prairie dog, wolf, fish and numerous plant and invertebrate fossils, have also been discovered in the sinkhole.

The site is currently preparing for its annual meeting, slated for Monday. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., with the business meeting expected to convene at 7 p.m. Dr. Chris Jass will be the keynote speaker, discussing the extensive remodel of the Royal Alberta Museum. Gabel said the Mammoth Site has future plans to increase the educational component of the site across the campus and to update exhibits, so Jass presentation will provide insight and ideas for the future.
PIERRE | Suicides rates set a record high during 2017 for South Dakota, state epidemiologist Josh Clayton told a panel of lawmakers Thursday.

Clayton didnt give the number to the House Health and Human Services Committee, however. Final data were still pending.

He confirmed the 2017 total exceeded the 161 of 2016 and the record 173 set in 2015. Suicide rates are increasing in South Dakota, Clayton said.

He presented statistics to the committee showing that South Dakota ranked 13th in the nation for the suicide rate during 2016, with 18.6 self-inflicted deaths per 100,000 people. The rate nationally was 13.9.

Native American suicide rates stood 1.8 times higher than rates for whites in South Dakota between 2004 and 2015. Veterans of the armed forces killed themselves at more than twice the rate for the general population in South Dakota from 2000 through 2016.

The five worst counties for suicides from 2004 through 2016 were Todd, Buffalo, Corson, Oglala Lakota and Dewey. All have significant tribal populations.

State Health Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon sat next to Clayton at the witness table. Any preventable death is a public health issue, she said. Suicide is a pressing public health issue.

State Social Services Secretary Lynne Valenti described the variety of state government efforts. They ranged from community tool kits and coalitions to prevention resource centers and locks for firearm-triggers.

Spreading the message, Valenti said, relies on lots of word of mouth.

She said theres been training for more than 5,000 people and, so far, 827 referrals of people in South Dakota considering suicide.

This is a serious health issue, said Rep. Wayne Steinhauer, R-Hartford, who is also committee chairman.

Steinhauer asked how lawmakers could help.

Theres not a way to legislate your way out of suicide, Malsam-Rysdon replied.

She acknowledged state governments prevention efforts dont include research at any of the higher education campuses.

I think thats a great suggestion, Malsam-Rysdon told Steinhauer.

South Dakota requires schools to provide suicide awareness training. The state Department of Education reportedly tracks those numbers.

I dont know that weve been able to connect that data to whats going on with the schools, Malsam-Rysdon said.
As Gov. Daugaard prepared to deliver his eighth and final State of the State address Tuesday, it was widely reported that his agenda for the 2018 legislative session would include a focus on workforce development, a critical issue for workers and employers.

In recent years, he has proposed and succeeded with bold proposals like raising the sales tax to increase teacher pay in 2016 and creating the Bridge Improvement Grant and infrastructure program in 2015. But unlike those programs, he offered no funding or funding sources to bolster a workforce that is unable to fill open jobs throughout the state, especially in construction and manufacturing.

Instead, the governor asked high schools to step up by encouraging more job shadow programs and internships. He also said he would seek a new law that creates a professional licensure reciprocity compact with other states provided they are willing. He also touted the states Career Launch program, which offers an average of $500 per trainee to businesses that participate, according to the Governors Office of Economic Development website.

In addition to the lack of a funding plan to improve workforce development, the governor made no proposals to cap or reduce tuition costs for students at a time when college enrollment is flat lining in the state. The rising costs at the states technical schools are also a barrier for high school students from low-income families or for those in search of a better-paying job.

Fortunately, theres still an entire legislative session ahead where lawmakers, particularly leadership in the Senate and House, can pursue workforce development with more vigor and find the funding needed to make an appropriate investment in the state's economy and future.

Gov. Daugaards desire to get high schools more involved has merit. Lawmakers can improve upon that by requiring technical training in fields designated as important by the state. Apprenticeship programs could be made part of the high school curriculum where students earn credits toward graduation just like when they are taking a history or math class.

If tuition and fees at universities and colleges are going to continue to rise nearly every year, it is especially imperative that students begin to develop workforce skills before they graduate from high school. Otherwise, they may never get beyond the menial labor stage and won't be capable of making the contributions South Dakota needs to be competitive with other states. If the workforce continues to lag, it becomes difficult for the state to retain and recruit quality employers that also can help keep more of the best, brightest and most motivated students here where their families would like them to live.

As Gov. Daugaard winds down in his final year as governor, it is time for the Legislature to take the lead role in passing legislation that creates opportunities for state residents and meets the needs of employers that provide these important jobs.
Montanans are entering an era when big game hunting may never be quite the same.

This fall, chronic wasting disease was detected in hunter-killed deer in two areas of Montana  south-central Montanas Carbon County and north of Chester along the Hi-Line. Its likely that many other deer, and possibly elk or moose, are also carrying the disease. They just havent been tested.

As the states wildlife managers scramble to determine the extent and prevalence of the illness through regional testing of hunter-killed deer and targeted hunts, its a good time to learn more about the diseases infectious agent, how CWD has affected our Wyoming neighbor to the south and Montanas future prospects.

It will be interesting to see how things play out in Montana, said Bryan Richards, emerging disease coordinator at the U.S. Geological Surveys National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

If you dont get on it real early and real hard, youll have it for a while.

Only New York, where CWD infections in two deer were identified and steps were taken to halt the diseases spread, can wildlife managers say they have successfully eradicated chronic wasting disease.

With Montana surrounded on three sides by CWD  Wyoming to the south, North Dakota to the east, and Saskatchewan and Alberta to the north  the chances that a sick animal could migrate into the state make eradication a challenge. One thing in Montanas favor, though, is that it does not have any game farms, many of which have seen outbreaks of CWD.

Wyoming hunter

For 46 years Jeff Muratore has been hunting deer in the foothills, mountains and prairies near his home in Casper, Wyoming. Since the mid-1990s that region has been known to contain deer infected with chronic wasting disease, one of the longest-known infections in the United States.

Although the disease is now prevalent in the Casper region, and has spread north to many other areas of the state, Muratore said he has noticed no decline in the number of hunters.

Just the opposite, he said. There are as many or more (people) hunting as before CWD was detected here.

Two special hunts offered in Montana this winter to gauge CWD prevalence were surprisingly popular, with licenses selling out quickly and hunters traveling from as far away as Minnesota and Washington to take part, in spite of the fact that their animal could test positive for CWD.

Thats all very encouraging, said John Vore, Game Management Bureau chief for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, since hunter participation was an unknown.

Muratore said hunter interest may remain high because theres never been a documented case of CWD infecting a human who consumed meat from a sick animal.

Once that happens, everything will change, he said.

New study

Muratore became more concerned about human contraction of CWD after news stories this summer reported a Canadian study that began in 2009 had documented that two out of five macaque monkeys contracted CWD after being fed deer meat from whitetails known to have the disease but that looked healthy. Another macaque got sick from eating brains from infected deer.

After more than five years all of the monkeys suffered from anxiety, movement problems and wasting, said Stefanie Czub, the studys lead researcher and a professor at the University of Calgarys School of Veterinary Medicine. When killed and examined, the three monkeys had lesions on their spinal cord, she said. The studys findings may be published by June.

It is the first documentation of the illness jumping to another species biologically similar to humans.

The macaque studies being done are not at all conclusive yet, said Byron Caughey, who specializes in CWD research at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, a National Institutes of Health lab.

A study at the Hamilton lab using macaques found that CWD wasnt transmissible, although squirrel monkeys were highly susceptible. That study was published in 2014. But Czub said her labs use of younger animals, longer incubation times and more sensitive tests that examined the spinal cord and not just the brain account for the different results.

The early results of the Canadian research were reported widely enough that it caught the attention of many hunters, especially since CWD has now been found in 21 states and two Canadian provinces.

I do know more people are concerned about having their animals tested now, Muratore said.

Whats a prion?

CWD is caused by a very tough customer, proteins called prions (pronounced pree on) that are capable of surviving in the soil for years, maybe decades. Once contracted by deer or elk, the animals shed and spread the proteins across the landscape through saliva, feces and urine for as long as they are alive. Prevalence rates in deer-rich southern Wisconsin are as high as 50 percent among whitetail bucks age 2  and older, Richards said. When they die, the infected animals carcasses leach prions into the soil, plants, and water and can also be spread through scavengers that feed on the sick animals flesh.

Its about the toughest pathogen known to man, Caughey said.

Caughey advised hunters who butcher their own meat to take precautions, like letting the parts of their grinder, cutting board and knives soak in a 5 to 10 percent solution of bleach for a half hour or more.

Theres really no hard and fast rules on it, Caughey said. If the meat is dried on it can take longer.

Putting infected game meat into a freezer after it has been cut up wont kill prions, nor will cooking the meat. Prions are that tough.

But why bother if, as Caughey noted, there has never been a documented case of CWD in humans who became sick from eating infected deer or elk meat, despite several investigations?

That doesnt mean it doesnt happen, he said. Theres just no compelling evidence yet. Its probably a low risk, or wed know about it loud and clear.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization think the risk is great enough to issue warnings, Richards noted.

Why take that chance? Caughey said. I dont think its worth the risk.

Butchering questions

Muratore has never had a deer hes shot test positive for CWD  although he hasnt had them all tested until this season. But if any animal does test positive hes throwing the meat away, even if hes spent hours cutting, grinding and wrapping the venison into neat white packets of steak and burger for the freezer. Hes not willing to take the risk.

Although Wyoming has had documented cases of CWD in wildlife for decades, there are no CWD-specific rules for wild game processors to segregate animals or for cleaning utensils and machines.

Cleaning everything up each time would get expensive, said Brad Wagler, a Cody, Wyoming, butcher.

Hanging animals for what may be two weeks, until test results come back, isnt reasonable during the busy hunting season when space is at a premium in his meat locker.

Wagler did process one animal this year before its test results came back positive for CWD.

The hunter decided to throw the meat away, but still had to pay the processing fee, which Wagler said he discounted out of pity. A normally processed deer costs $125. The one that was thrown away cost three times as much because the hunter had a large portion turned into snack sticks.

The disease issue also raises questions about the donation of wild game meat to food banks. Will they now take only deer that have been tested and proven CWD-free?

Most of those (processors), and rightfully so, wont take an animal thats tested positive or from an area that has animals that have tested positive, said FWPs Vore.

He said the decision is up to meat processors to decide how they work. We cant tell them what to do. Missoula's large food bank is waiting for FWP to advise them.

Similar sicknesses

Since theres never been a case of CWD in humans, hunters may have a hard time imagining how it would affect a person. But it turns out CWD has symptoms similar to other diseases that many people have had a personal experience with: Alzheimers and Parkinsons. In fact, the same Canadian lab thats studying prions in CWD is looking at the diseases similarities to Alzheimers  how the prions transform and attach themselves to healthy proteins causing neurological degeneration.

Prions are a strange class of infectious agents, Caughey said. They have no genes of their own. They are corrupted aggregated forms of what would otherwise be a normal part of our body.

Theres at least one incident where a prion-based disease has made a jump from animals to humans. In 1995 British cattle were fed rendered sheep that had scrapie  another prion-related neurodegenerative disease. The cattle contracted mad cow disease, which they transferred to humans who died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Thats why those who donate blood are always asked if they or a family member have ever been diagnosed with CJD.

It can be a very slow disease, an incubation period in excess of 40 years, Caughey said, meaning that people may die of old age or other diseases before CJD becomes obvious. But thats not always the case.

For his part, Muratore is not willing to take the risk, but he can understand why others arent so cautious.

I guess we go on the highway knowing we could get in an accident and die, he said.

Game management

Because CWD was first detected in Colorado and has spread to so many other states, wildlife managers have tried several ways to halt the diseases spread. In Wisconsin, hunts to reduce deer numbers did cut CWD prevalence, but hunters got angry because there were fewer deer.

Montana is considering hunts in geographically small areas where CWD infection rates are high  like a farm field where a center pivot is drawing deer  to reduce local wildlife populations, FWPs Vore said. The state also could work with landowners to move attractants like haystacks.

Such work wont be cheap. In Wisconsin, CWD surveillance and all that entails amounts to a financial hit of about $100 per animal tested, Richards said. In 2002 when CWD was first detected in Wisconsin more than 40,000 deer were tested to determine prevalence. By 2015 that number had dropped to just over 3,100.

Scientists have already created a vaccine, which required an intense inoculation regimen. They are also working to find a test that could be used on live animals, as well as studying different types of soil to see if some are less favorable to CWD. So far, it appears the disease cannot be contracted through the skin, but hunters are still urged to use latex gloves when gutting and processing their animals.

Some believe nature may solve the problem.

In the past four years Muratore has seen mule deer numbers rebound in his hunting area, making him think that maybe some animals are becoming more genetically resistant to CWD.

Possibly nature may find a way to get by this crisis, but no one knows for sure, he said.

Deer population levels havent declined from CWD in the short term, said Richards of the USGS, but in badly infected areas where CWD has been around for years theres a history of population level impacts.

Over time there could be genetic selection for resistance to chronic wasting disease, Caughey said.

Even resistant deer will die eventually, though, so during the course of their longer lives they would still be shedding prions into the environment.

Those most susceptible are dying really fast, Caughey said. And the disease is really spreading rapidly in North America, and now Europe and Korea.

Scientists are already successfully breeding sheep that resist certain strains of scrapie, but thats in a captive environment, not the wild.

So the issue may come down to how fast scientists can react.

Chronic wasting disease is so insidious and invasive, and it affects the population so dramatically, that theres fairly rapid selection, Caughey said.

Grim diagnosis

Wildlife populations tend to ebb and flow for many reasons: drought, harsh winters, loss of habitat, blue-tongue disease in whitetails and a 15-year cycle of high and low populations that mule deer follow.

Ive seen it all, Muratore said. From the glory years when you see hundreds of deer in one day to when youre lucky to see 10. Its disturbing.

For hunters in Montana, just now getting used to the idea of CWD spreading across the vast state, Muratore has this solemn warning.

Theres no way youre going to stop CWD in Montana, he said. The arguments been made to increase the harvest to slow down the spread, but it wont stop it.

Richards agreed.

Once it is established in a free-ranging population you will have it for a long, long time.
A proposal to conduct limited late-season elk hunting on the Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area will be replaced with more liberal general season hunting following public feedback, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks says.

FWP had proposed a drawing for winter shoulder season permits good for the 38,000-acre wildlife management area near Elliston. The walk-in hunt aimed to address an over-objective elk population in Hunting District 215.

Since we purchased Spotted Dog in 2010, elk populations have increased from 1,716 to 2,850, so theyve more than realized anybodys vision for growing elk, regional wildlife manager Mike Thompson said. Its so far above objective that we have to reduce this population or mathematically its going to get away from us.

FWP first conducted shoulder season pilot hunts in a few areas in 2015-2016 and expanded the hunts to more than 40 districts across the state in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. The hunts are designed to rapidly decrease over-objective districts through private land antlerless elk harvest before and after the archery and general seasons.

As FWP conducts meetings statewide about proposed hunting seasons, Thompson heard, particularly at a recent meeting in Deer Lodge, some concerns about the Spotted Dog shoulder hunt.

Nick Gevock, conservation director with the Montana Wildlife Federation, noted that opening a wildlife management area would be a major policy change from other shoulder hunts. Wildlife management areas have been excluded elsewhere in the state along with the National Forest, in part with the goal of reducing private land game damage by pushing animals onto public land.

It runs counter to what shoulder seasons are subject to do with wildlife on private ranches and farm lands, he said. WMAs are lands purchased specifically for wildlife, and Spotted Dog is prime winter ground.

Thompson also identified some concerns about access in reconsidering the proposal, and public feedback has skewed toward support for more liberal general season antlerless elk hunting, even if that means more hunters in the district. While still examining details Wednesday, Thompson said a new proposal would open the district to a general license for a brow tine bull or antlerless elk.

Public comment on all proposed seasons is due by Jan. 24. More information is available at http://fwp.mt.gov/.
Two men with a total of eight convictions for driving under the influence were arrested on new DUI charges Monday in separate instances.

Jeffery Richard Rogers, 56, of Florence allegedly was traveling southbound in the northbound lane of traffic on Old Highway 93 in front of the Florence School at 4 p.m. Monday, according to court documents.

When Ravalli County Sheriffs Deputy Nick Monaco pulled Rogers over, the deputy immediately observed an overwhelming odor of alcoholic beverage coming from Rogers, who also had bloodshot and watery eyes. Monaco said Rogers speech was slow and slurred, and his movements were slow and deliberate.

After failing most of the standard field sobriety tests, Rogers provided a breath sample, with a blood-alcohol content of .158, which is almost double the legal driving limit of .o8.

Since Rogers had five prior DUI convictions  in 2011, 2009, 2005 and two in 2007  he was charged with felony DUI, as well a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving.

About 2 1/2 hours later, Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Adam Gane was traveling southbound on Highway 93 near Hamilton when he observed a vehicle in front of him with an expired registration, driven by Kevin Cade Hakes.

Once he was pulled over, the 29-year-old Corvallis man allegedly acknowledged that he didnt have a drivers license or insurance, and wasnt able to provide correct registration. He also hadnt been wearing his seatbelt, and the trooper said he could smell alcohol on Hakes breath.

Hakes admitted to drinking a Twisted Tea about half an hour before driving, and later told the trooper he had a couple of Bud Lights earlier in the day, according to court documents.

While Hakes allegedly exhibited six out of six clues on the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, he performed well on the walk and stand, and on the one-leg turn test.

Trooper Gane asked defendant if he was a regular drinker based on his performance on the walk and turn and one-leg stand tests despite having six out of six clues con the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, Angela Wetzsteon, a deputy Ravalli County attorney, wrote in an affidavit. Defendant stated that he didnt drink as much as he used to but that hes comfortable after having several drinks on board.

His preliminary breath test show a .157 blood-alcohol content.

Since Hakes had three previous DUI convictions  in 2009, 2010, and 2010 he was charged with felony DUI. He also was hit with misdemeanor charges of driving while his license was suspended or revoked; no insurance; expired registration; and failure to wear a seatbelt.

Both men were taken to the Ravalli County Detention Center, where they will be held without bond until their initial appearance.
2270StrawberryFarms.jpg

Realtor Chad Sytsma says buyer interest traffic has been slow on is Belmont area listing despite the home's clean bill of health on water tests and a water filtration system.

(Courtesy photo)

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI - The four-bedroom house in northern Kent County seems to be the type of place many homebuyers are looking for.

"It's got a three-stall garage, an open floor plan, a master suite and a walkout deck," says Chad Sytsma, the Realtor who listed the property.

A year ago, the location at 2270 Strawberry Farms St. NE in the desirable Rockford School District would have also been a key selling point.

Now, the real estate market in the Belmont area has seemed to slow. Despite the overall Grand Rapids real estate market being one of the hottest in the nation, home sales in the Belmont area have been sluggish since news of drinking-water contamination first broke in August.

Compounds known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) have been found in some drinking water samples in this particular neighborhood and others in the area.

Classified as a probable carcinogen, PFAS has leached into the water table from a nearby dump on House Street where Wolverine World Wide once dumped sludge and other waste products associated with leather processing that contained PFAS.

"At this point, I would say because of the location of the property, it would tend to be a little stigmatized," Sytsma said.

The well water at the Strawberry Farms Street property has been tested and come back clean, showing no detectable levels of contamination, Sytsma said. Plus, Wolverine has installed a whole house water filtration system as a backup.

While that should be sufficient for any buyer, it's also casts a shadow over the property, Sytsma said. He doesn't know how many potential buyers have passed on looking at the home.

No offers have been made on the house and the showings have been rare even though the asking price has been cut by $15,000. The current asking price is $309,900.

A MLive/The Grand Rapids Press review of 14 Belmont-area houses that were for sale in October shows only four of the houses in the sample have been sold -- three of them below their asking price. Six of the homes remain on the market at reduced prices and four were taken off the market.

That's considerably slower than the overall Grand Rapids market, where the average residential listing stayed on the market less than six weeks, according to statistics kept by the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors.

The PFAS issue is a key parts for some listings in the Belmont area.

So far, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has confirmed that a total of 78 homes in Plainfield and Algoma townships have tested above 70 parts-per-trillion (ppt) for two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances called PFAS, or PFCs.

The listing for the house at 7370 Chandler Drive NE uses all-capital letters at the start of the description to highlight the property's water test results being "non-detected" for PFAS and the Wolverine-installed filtration system.

Realtor Kevin Yoder, who listed the property two weeks before Christmas, said it's too early to tell whether the PFAS issue will affect his ability to sell the house. The current asking price is $359,750.

While disclosure of the clean water tests raises an issue that most homebuyers don't consider, it's an issue that must be addressed in neighborhoods where maps show the possibility of contamination, he said.

"I think the first thing is to put it out there and share what's happening and tell them about that steps that have been taken to remedy the issue," Yoder said.

Meanwhile, the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors has told its members to "err on the side of disclosure" ever since news about the contamination surfaced this fall.

"I think ultimately we support disclosure over non-disclosure in cases where it's a possibility," said GRAR CEO Julie Rietberg. "Our advice is pretty basic."

Rietberg said they are advising sellers that disclosure could protect them legally if they are sued over contamination that may be discovered later.

Sludge containing PFAS also was dumped in nearby gravel pits, used as crop fertilizer. PFAS also can be found in Rogue River corridor from the former Wolverine tannery site in the city of Rockford.

Although the House Street and Algoma Township groundwater plumes have received substantial attention, many are also leery of Plainfield Township municipal water, which also contains PFAS but at levels well below the EPA's health advisory level of 70-ppt.

Township residents have packed board recent board meetings to voice concerns about low levels of unregulated contaminants like PFAS, hexavalent chromium and 1,4-Dioxane that federal testing found in the township supply. The township, which is defensive about it's water quality, counters that its water meets all state and federal standards.

Extending Plainfield water to areas with polluted wells is considered the long-term safe water solution and the township is moving forward with pricey treatment plant upgrades and water main extension projects this year.

-- Mlive.com/Grand Rapids Press Reporter Garret Ellison contributed to his article.
Guwahati: Death of a youth in police custody had triggered massive violent protests in Assam on Wednesday.





According to the reports, one protester was killed and several others including five police personnel were injured when local people engaged clashed with security personnel in Assam's Darrang district following a youth was allegedly died in police custody.





The incident took place at Dhula area in Darrang district, some 110 km north from Guwahati.





According to the reports, on January 9, the Dhula police had raided the house of Hasen Ali suspecting that he is involved in illegal arms trade and pick up him to police station.





Later Hasen Ali was shifted to Guwahati Medical College Hospital for his illness but he died at the hospital on Tuesday night.





While the local people hearing the incident, thousands of people had come out to the road and protested against police act.





The protesters also had blocked the NH 15 and demanding to take stern action against the accused police personnel as the youth died in police custody.





Hasen Ali was an innocent youth. But police had picked up him from the house for his alleged involvement with illegal arms trade. It is a baseless charge, a local resident of Hasen Alis native village said.





The situation turned violent after some protesters started attacking the Dhula police station by pelting stones.





In the protesters attack, at least five police personnel were injured and after police and CRPF personnel had resorted baton and used tear gas to control the situation.





Several protesters had received injuries in the police baton charge and tear gas shells firing.





While the situation turned more violent, police opened fire upon the protesters.





One protester identified as Moinul Hoque was killed in police firing incident and several others injured.





The injured protesters are shifted to nearest Dhula hospital.





Few police personnel also injured during the clash.





Meanwhile, the district administration has clamped indefinite curfew in the area fearing about fresh violence.





Following the incident, the Darrang district police had suspended Ranjit Hazarika, the OC of Dhula Police station Ranjit Hazarika and taken him into police custody





Meanwhile, Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal has directed Additional Chief Secretary MGVK Vanu to probe into the incident.





On the other, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), AIUDF had protested against the police firing incident and demanded a high level probe into the incident.








Guwahati, January 11 : One hardcore militant belonging to Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) was killed during a gun fight with security forces in Meghalayas East Garo Hills district on Thursday, officials said.





Based on intelligence input about presence of a militant group, the troops of East Garo Hills district and army had jointly launched operation at Kakwaduragre area in the district.





When the troops had reached the area, the militants had fired upon the troops and retaliated following militants act. One militant was killed on spot and other members of the group had managed to flee from the remote area, a top police official said.





The slain militant was identified as Matchalang M Sangma and he was a close associate of GNLA C-in-C Sohan D Shira.





Security personnel had recovered one AK-56 rifle, 97 rounds live ammunition and several warlike stores from the encounter spot.





GNLA is active in Meghalaya and some parts of lower Assam.








Guwahati, January 11 : Assam Police has sounded high alert for probable militants attack ahead of Republic Day celebration in the state.





Following the inputs of Intelligence Bureau (IB), Assam police has issued cautionary notice to all district police specially the bordering districts of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya border to take adequate measures in concerning districts.





The IB had recently alerted Assam police that, several militant groups including Paresh Baruah-led ULFA (I) are planning to attack on security forces and to create untoward situation ahead of Republic Day celebration in the state.





Assam DGP Mukesh Sahay said that, Assam police had already alerted all district police to prevent any untoward situation.





Several militant groups have planned to attack on security personnel. Apart from it, some militants of ULFA (I), NSCN (K) are also trying to enter into Assam from Arunachal Pradesh border. Following the intelligence input we have alerted the bordering districts with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya to take appropriate measures, Sahay said.





Recently two ULFA (I) militants were injured in gun fight with the troops of Assam police and Assam Rifles at Jagun area in Upper Assams Tinsukia district along with Arunachal Pradesh border.




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BBC News

The last Armenians of Myanmar

by Andrew Whitehead BBC World Service, Yangon

27 August 2014

Image copyright Yangon Heritage Trust

One of the oldest churches in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is struggling to keep going - its congregation only occasionally reaches double figures. But the opening up of the country to outside investment and tourism is offering new hope.

Reverend John Felix, priest at the Armenian church in Yangon, also known as Rangoon, cant speak Armenian - but then neither can his congregation. Not that there is much of a congregation these days - just seven, myself included, on a recent Sunday morning.

The 150-year-old church enjoys an imposing location, at a street corner in downtown Yangon. Its a beautiful building, a patch of calm in a bustling city. The Armenian Orthodox church of St John the Baptist - standing, suitably, on Merchant Street - is almost all thats left of what was one of the citys main trading communities.

"To judge from church records, there were once a few hundred Armenian families in Burma but the last full Armenian died last year. Across the country, there are no more than 10 or 20 families who are part Armenian - and just a handful still come to the church," says Felix.

Rachel Minus, in her mid-30s, can sing in Armenian - and does with reverence - but cant speak the language. She attends on Sundays with her father, who also tolls the church bells.

"My grandfather was full Armenian and our family name is derived from the Armenian surname of Minossian. Were part Armenian and this church and its services mean a lot to us," she says.

Image caption Percy Everard

On that Sunday, just one other worshipper was of Armenian descent. Percy Everard has been coming to the church for decades. His wedding, the priest believes, was the last to be conducted at the church - but its so distant no one is quite sure how long ago it took place.

In the early 17th Century, large numbers of Armenians fled the Ottoman Empire and settled in Isfahan in whats now Iran. From there, many travelled on in later years to form a commercial network which stretched from Amsterdam to Manila.

Their influence in the British Raj reached its peak in the late 19th Century, when census records suggest that about 1,300 Armenians were living principally in Calcutta, Dhaka and Rangoon.

Their closeness to the Burmese royal court gave them a particularly privileged status in Rangoons trading community. The land on which the church stands is said to have been presented to the Armenians by Burmas king.

The regions most prestigious hotels - including The Strand a short walk from the church in downtown Yangon and the even more famous Raffles in Singapore - were established by Armenians.

But bit-by-bit over the past century many in these small Armenian outposts, worried by political and economic instability, have looked for a new home - with Australia the most favoured destination.

John Felix - whose bishop is based thousands of miles away in Sydney - is a welcoming and enthusiastic clergyman, proud of his church and unbowed by the difficulties of keeping going as the congregation steadily shrinks.

Felix took over as priest of the Yangon church from his father, who died three years ago after more than 30 years as minister. Like his father, he was initially ordained into the Anglican communion and then re-ordained as an Orthodox priest.

He was born in Myanmar, speaks Burmese - but is of south Indian origin, and so has his roots in another of the migrant communities which once made Yangon such a thriving commercial hub.

A global church

Image copyright ALAMY

Image caption The Armenian church in Chennai

One of the earliest Christian civilisations, Armenias first churches were founded in the 4th Century

According to tradition, Armenia was evangelised by the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus

Now churches in many countries including India, Singapore, Uruguay, Argentina, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Swaziland, Australia, US, Sudan, UAE, Romania and Italy

He worries about the upkeep of the building. "There are three spots in the roof where the waters coming in, and we need to get them fixed."

But this is by any standards a neat, well-kept church, and an important part of Yangons rich colonial-era architectural heritage which is increasingly attracting tourists and international attention.

Sunday worship has all the hallmarks of an Orthodox church service - icons, incense and, in spite of the slender attendance, entrancing hymn singing. Felix doesnt wear the ornate priestly robes in which his father once conducted ceremonies, but he remains firmly part of the Orthodox tradition.

Image copyright Sharman Minus

Image caption Yangons Armenian church at the end of WW2

That Orthodox lineage could be key to the survival of the church - as a spiritual home to all the various forms of Orthodox Christianity as well as a last vestige of an almost-gone Armenian community.

Already diplomats, business visitors and tourists from a range of Orthodox countries and churches - Russian, Greek, Serbian - occasionally swell the numbers at St John the Baptist, the only Orthodox church in Myanmars biggest city.

A new worshipper here, Ramona Tarta, is Romanian, a globetrotting business woman, publisher and events organiser who has lived in Yangon for the last few months.

"My faith is very important to me. Wherever I am in the world, I seek out an Orthodox church. But I was about to give up on Yangon. I thought it was the only city Id ever lived in which had no Orthodox place of worship," she complains.

She chanced across the Armenian church when driving past, and believes that with a little promotion, this historic building - and the tradition to which it bears testimony - could have a more secure future.

If the church reached out more actively to all strands of Orthodoxy then, she argues, it could attract more worshippers and find a renewed purpose. Shes set up a Facebook page for the church as a first step towards getting more attention.

Myanmar has had more than its share of troubles and upheaval over the last century. The country was occupied by the Japanese during World War Two, and suffered greater privation and damage to its infrastructure than almost anywhere else in the region.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Japanese Field Artillery on the march in Burma circa 1940

Many Armenians were among those who embarked on the arduous wartime trek north through jungle and forest to the relative safety of British India - a memorial in the church lists the 13 members of one Armenian family who died during the journey.

Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948, several months after India and Pakistan. Within a few years, it had a military-backed government which made little effort to develop commercial links beyond the countrys borders. The armys violent suppression in 1988 of the democracy movement further heightened the countrys international isolation.

Over the past few years, Myanmar has been edging towards greater democracy, and has started to open its doors more widely to foreign business and investment. What was one of Asias most international cities is again starting to develop a more global aspect.

And a church which has its roots in an earlier era of international commerce may find fresh succour from a new bout of globalisation.
The New York Review of Books, January 18, 2018, Volume 65, Number 1

The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmaras Genocide by Azeem Ibrahim, with a foreword by Muhammad Yunus Hurst, revised and updated edition, 239 pp., A12.99 (paper)

Islam and the State in Myanmar: MuslimaBuddhist Relations and the Politics of Belonging edited by Melissa Crouch Oxford University Press, 345 pp., $55.00

The Rohingya are a community of Muslims concentrated in the northern parts of Myanmaras western state of Rakhine. There have been Muslims in Rakhine for a thousand years, but their numbers were substantially increased by migration from British India, particularly Bengal, during colonial rule. Before the recent forced exodus to Bangladesh, the Rohingya population in Myanmar was estimated at a little over a million, but that figure is contested. The last census did not count them because the government did not wish to recognize Rohingya as a legitimate identity. Including Rohingya refugees in nearby Bangladesh who fled during aclearancesa conducted by Myanmaras military rulers in 1978, the early 1990s, and 2012, their total number is likely larger.

There are other Muslim communities in Rakhine and Myanmar, but they are culturally and ethnically different from the Rohingya, who have been singled out for violent discrimination. Their distinct dialect and ethnic aotherness,a combined with their concentration in northern Rakhine, have made them seem to Myanmaras rulers unassimilable and a threat to the integrity of this avowedly Buddhist state.

In late August 2017, Rohingya militants attacked police stations in northern Rakhine using knives and homemade bombs. Twelve members of the security forces were killed. The Myanmar military retaliated by burning Rohingya villages, killing and raping civilians, and forcing more than half a million Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh.

The scale of this ethnic cleansing represents the most extreme triumph of majoritarian politics in South Asia. The persecution of the Rohingya has made Myanmar something of an inspiration to majoritarian parties in neighboring states. The Indian government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, announced in mid-August that the 40,000 Rohingyas in India (refugees from an earlier exodus) would be deported because they were illegal immigrants. Even in early September, after the ferocity of the Myanmar armyas aclearancesa was known and the extent of the exodus became apparent, no one in Narendra Modias administration voiced even the pro forma expressions of concern by which governments often acknowledge widespread human suffering.

Majoritarianismathe claim that a nationas political destiny should be determined by its religious or ethnic majorityais as old as the nation-state in South Asia; it was decolonizationas original sin. Postcolonial nations in South Asia began with varying degrees of commitment to the ideal of a pluralistic, broadly secular state, but after a decade or so of independence they were either taken over by military rulers or transformed into religious states by majoritarian politicians.

Pakistan was carved out of British India to create a Muslim-majority country, and although its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, seemed at times to support the idea of a secular state, the genocidal violence of the 1947 Partition more or less purged the country of its non-Muslim minorities. In its short-lived constitution of 1956, Pakistan formally defined itself as an Islamic republic, and it has remained one for over sixty years.

Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, was founded in 1948 as a secular nation, but by 1956 its Sinhala Buddhist politicians were pushing to redefine it as a Buddhist republic with Sinhala, the language of the Buddhist majority, as the sole national language. This majoritarian push was aimed at marginalizing Tamil speakers, a substantial non-Buddhist minority concentrated in the north and east of the country. Bangladesh, which won independence from Pakistan in 1971, was established as a secular Bengali-speaking nation, but after a coup in 1975, a military regime turned it into an Islamic republic. (The Supreme Court restored secularism in 2010, but Islam remains Bangladeshas official religion.)

Major General Aung San, who brought about Myanmaras independence from Britain after World War II and was assassinated in 1947, envisioned it as a secular republic. The constitution of 1948, however, which established Myanmar as an independent nation, conferred full citizenship on most ethnic minorities but withheld it from the Rohingya. Throughout the 1950s, the government of U Nu, the countryas first prime minister, accommodated the idea of a Rohingya community and held out the prospect of citizenship for Rohingyas. The census of 1961 even recognized aRohingyaa as a demographic category. The evolution of Myanmar into an explicitly Buddhist state began in 1962 when a military government seized power in a coup daAtat and enforced a Buddhist nationalist ideology. This process culminated in the 1982 Citizenship Law, which officially denied Rohingyas the possibility of full citizenship.

Ironically, it was during the transition to civilian rule between 2012 and 2017 that the country became a purely majoritarian polity through ethnic cleansing and by formally excluding Rohingyas in particular and Muslims generally from every democratic process and institution. The violence of 2012 (which prefigured the ethnic cleansing of 2017) resulted in 120,000 Rohingyas being expelled from towns in northern Rakhine and confined to camps for internally displaced persons. The 2014 census was designed to exclude aaliena minorities; nearly a third of Rakhineas population went uncounted because the Rohingya refused to identify as Bengali Muslim, which would have lent credibility to the claim that they were foreigners, not citizens. The census was used to compile the new electoral rolls for the countryas first democratic elections in 2015; it effectively disenfranchised the Rohingya and led to the total absence of Muslims from Myanmaras parliament for the first time since independence.

That year, the government confiscated the registration cards that had entitled Rohingyas to health and education services and, until recently, to the right to vote, which they had previously been granted at the whim of the regime. The cards were the only official documents of residence or identity that they possessed. These administrative actions successfully established Buddhist supremacy in Rakhine and in Myanmar as a whole.

The absence of an important minority from both the electoral process and parliament is the sort of total victory that majoritarians in South Asia have long dreamed of but never achieved. In 2014, a year before Myanmaras elections, Narendra Modi led the BJP to an absolute majority in the Indian general elections. His majority was historic because it did not include a single Muslim member of parliament from the BJP. But twenty-three Muslims of other parties were elected to the Lok Sabha, the Indian parliamentas lower house; the absence of any Muslims from Myanmaras legislature was a more comprehensive victory for majoritarianism. It is no surprise that a right-wing Hindu nationalist party in India would keep its distance from Muslims, but in Myanmar it was the liberal opposition, the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, that didnat field a single Muslim candidate.

The NLD may have excluded Muslim candidates for strategic reasonsato ride out the anti-Rohingya sentiment stirred up by extremist clergy, to defer to the militaryas prejudices during the sensitive transition to democracy, to avoid antagonizing Rakhineas Buddhist majorityaor because of the prejudices of its own members. The result was the political marginalization of an already threatened minority. Myanmar in 2017, with a parliament free of Muslims and 600,000 Rohingyas violently driven out, has proven that it is possible for a religious majority to achieve political domination.

The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmaras Genocide by Azeem Ibrahim doesnat pretend to be an objective history of the tragedy unfolding in Rakhine. It is a partisan book, and its claim on the readeras attention is not its grasp of history but its urgency and prescience. Completed in 2015, immediately after the long-awaited elections, it warned that the transition to democracy had, tragically, left the Rohingya more excluded, more vulnerable, and more likely to be expelled than ever before, unless the NLD and military acted to stop their persecution. In his epilogue to the updated paperback edition, written after the violence of September 2017, Ibrahim reflects on the vindication of that prediction and argues that awe are now seeing an unstable situation escalate into the ethnic cleansing of an entire community.a His prescience is reason enough to recommend his book, and particularly the sections that deal with the transition to democracy in 2015.

Majoritarianism insists on different tiers of citizenship. Members of the majority faith and culture are viewed as the nationas true citizens. The rest are courtesy citizens, guests of the majority, expected to behave well and deferentially. To be tolerated at the majorityas discretion is no substitute for full citizenship in modern democracies. It is a state of limbo, a chronically unstable condition. A polity that denies full citizenship to its minorities will, sooner or later, politically disenfranchise them or expel them on the grounds that, despite being residents, they arenat citizens at all and actually belong elsewhereain India or Pakistan or Tamil Nadu or, as with the Rohingya, in Bangladesh. Myanmar has three categories of citizenship: citizen, associate citizen, and naturalized citizen. The Rohingya are classed as foreigners.

The one South Asian state that had formally resisted the temptation of majoritarianism until the 1980s was India. Founded as a constitutional republic in 1950, it treated its substantial Muslim minority (it has the third-largest Muslim population in the world) as full and equal citizens. Despite its being 80 percent Hindu, there was no formal sense in which Indiaas religious minorities were expected to assimilate into Hindu culture. The only parties that demanded this assimilation, such as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the political ancestor of Modias BJP, were minor regional parties that had little power. For the first twenty-five years of the republic, under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru and then his daughter Indira Gandhi, India remained a constitutionally secular state.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the political balance shifted following the Emergency, Indira Gandhias experiment with authoritarian rule between 1975 and 1977. But the new politics was also shaped by pogroms. In 1983, two thousand Muslims of Bengali ancestry were slaughtered in a matter of hours in the town of Nellie, in Assam. (Unofficial estimates place the number of deaths at more than ten thousand.) The indigenous Assamese who perpetrated the massacre thought the Muslims were illegal migrants from Bangladesh whose names had been included on the electoral rolls. Bangladesh, then a relatively new nation, was seen by unsympathetic neighbors as a net exporter of people, and since these immigrants tended to be Bengali-speaking Muslims, they looked and sounded conspicuously alien.

The 1983 massacre in Assam was a landmark in Indian politics. The student organization whose anti-Muslim activism culminated in the pogrom established a political party that handily won the next provincial election. The incident demonstrated that illegal immigration was a serious problem, that Bengali Muslims were a political scapegoat, and, most significantly, that pogroms could be politically profitable.

In 1984, the assassination of Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards led to the systematic murder of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, won a large electoral victory after this pogrom, and the lesson of Nellie was reinforced, this time at the national level. Subsequent pogroms of Muslims in Bombay (1992a1993) and Gujarat (2002) were followed by electoral victories for parties like the Shiv Sena and the BJP that were complicit in the violence. There has been no formal disenfranchisement of minorities, but majoritarian parties in India have learned that encouraging violence against minorities pays off electorally.

Majoritarian violence had become a shortcut to power throughout South Asia. In Myanmar, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, insecure military rulers sought legitimacy by aligning the state with its religious majority, while in India and Sri Lanka, nativist parties won elections by promoting the idea that the nation was being subverted by predatory minorities. By the end of the twentieth century, majoritarian parties were either in power or the principal opposition in every South Asian nation.

In his essay for Islam and the State in Myanmar, a collection that addresses the relationship between Myanmaras Muslims and their government, Benjamin Schonthal demonstrates the extent to which Buddhist majoritarianism in Myanmar is akin to Sinhala nativism in Sri Lanka, noting recent meetings between the Sri Lankan Bodu Bala Sena (Army of Buddhist Power) and the explicitly anti-Muslim monk-led 969 movement in Myanmar. Ashin Wirathu, its most notoriously Islamophobic preacher, visited Colombo in late 2014 to sign a memorandum of understanding between the Bodu Bala Sena and 969. People in both countries, Schonthal suggests, aare beginning to see their own actions in a broader regional framework.a

In another essay in the collection, Nyi Nyi Kyaw compares 969as campaigns to those of Hindu chauvinist organizations in India like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP. The supposed fertility of Muslim men and their practice of polygamy are seen as threats to the future of Buddhists in Myanmar. The allegation is that Muslim men are waging a aLove Jihada ; as Kyaw notes, Ashin Wimalar Biwuntha, a 969 monk, has accused Muslim men of seducing Buddhist women afor their reproductive tactics. They produce a lot of children, they are snowballing.a

The terms aLove Jihada and aRomeo Jihada are lifted straight from the lexicon of Hindu bigotry. The BJP and its affiliates are committed to fighting so-called predatory Muslims practicing aLove Jihada with street vigilantes organized in aAnti-Romeo squads.a The chief minister of Indiaas most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu monk called Yogi Adityanath, has for years led a private militia, the Hindu Yuva Vahini (Hindu Youth Force), in the battle against this phantom enemy. In fact, his principal credential for the chief ministeras office in 2016 was his proven ability to mobilize the aHindu streeta against Muslims.

The imagined threat of demographic extinction at the hands of fast-breeding, evangelizing Muslims is central to majoritarian mobilization in India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. Several Indian provinces have passed laws that strictly regulate religious conversion. Their unstated goal is to prevent conversion to Islam or Christianity; conversion to Hinduism, on the other hand, is seen as reversion. It is referred to as ghar wapsi, or ahomecoming.a In the discourse of Hindu majoritarianism, all Muslims and Christians are ancestrally Hindu.

Myanmar remains at the vanguard of majoritarianism in South Asia, in its capacity to violently expel an ethnic minority, disenfranchise those who remain, and make the prejudices of Buddhist chauvinists into law. The Organization for the Protection of Race, Religion, and Belief, popularly known as Ma-Ba-Tha (the abbreviation of its Burmese name), began in 2013 as a campaign to pass what were collectively known as the Race and Religion Protection Laws. In a little over two years these laws were approved by the legislature and signed into law by the president.

Of all the laws governing monogamy, birth control, religious conversion, and interfaith marriage that implicitly target Muslims, the most flagrantly discriminatory is the Myanmar Buddhist Womenas Special Marriage Law. A Buddhist woman under twenty years of age needs parental consent to marry a non-Buddhist. Local registrars are empowered to post marriage applications. The couple can marry only if no one objects, but any citizen can contest the application, causing it to be challenged in court. In the event of a divorce, the woman automatically gets custody of the children. The purpose of the law is to make intermarriage between Buddhist women and non-Buddhist men as difficult as possible. Monks, priests, and majoritarians in every country in South Asia will have taken note that the government of Myanmar has been able to stand out as the defender of the faith by legally discriminating in favor of the countryas majority on the basis of religion.

Majoritarianism in South Asia isnat necessarily about targeting Muslims. Nor is it provoked by the need to discipline recalcitrant minorities in general. Majoritarian politics results from the patiently constructed self-image of an aggrieved, besieged majority that believes itself to be long-suffering and refuses to suffer in silence anymore. The cultivation of this sense of injury is the necessary precondition for the lynchings, pogroms, and ethnic cleansing that invariably follow.

Majoritarianism promotes equal-opportunity bigotry. In Sri Lanka the rout of the Tamil Tigers and the final destruction of the goal of a Tamil homeland did little to assuage radical nativists. For the Sinhala Ravaya (the Roar of the Sinhala Nation), the Ravana Balaya (Ravanaas Force, referring to a legendary king believed to have ruled over Sri Lanka), and the Bodu Bala Sena, Muslims have replaced the Tamils as the existential threat to Sri Lankaas integrity as a Sinhala Buddhist nation. The Muslim community was orphaned by the civil war: Muslims had long been distrusted by the Sri Lankan state since they speak Tamil, but they were also purged from Tiger strongholds because they were not Tamil enough. Now, Schonthal writes, the new Muslim threat is seen as demographic, financial (through their alleged control of trade and industry), and transnational, because local Muslims are viewed as part of a broader conspiracy to Islamicize the Buddhist world. But Sri Lankan majoritarians donat necessarily single out Muslims: a long-standing campaign by the Jathika Hela Urumaya (National Heritage Party) for a bill that would place strict limits on conversion to non-Buddhist faiths was spurred by a dislike of Christian missionaries.

Even Pakistan, whose population is almost entirely Muslim (97 percent), has targeted minority Muslim sects. Starting in 1974 it began a fifteen-year process of Islamicization, declaring members of the Ahmadi sect non-Muslims, passing blasphemy laws that were routinely used to persecute minorities, and patronizing fundamentalist Sunni organizations that were willing to commit acts of horrific violence against Shias. Bangladesh, another Muslim-majority nation, has seen a decline in its Hindu population. While the Bangladeshi state under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has become more secular, it remains a dangerous country for Hindus, tribal minorities, and atheists.

The recent expulsions of Rohingyas from Myanmar have provoked a storm of criticism, which has received defensive responses not just from State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmaras official spokespersons, but also from historians, policy experts, and foreign diplomats. If their arguments in defense of Myanmaras policies succeed in normalizing the largest forced exodus in peacetime since the mid-1990s, when two million Rwandans were forced to leave their country, minorities across South Asia will become even more vulnerable to persecution.

Indiaas first response to the violence in Rakhine was an implicit endorsement of the carnage. According to a joint statement issued on September 6 during the Indian prime ministeras state visit to Myanmar, aIndia condemned the recent terrorist attacks in northern Rakhine State, wherein several members of the Myanmar security forces lost their lives. Both sides agreed that terrorism violates human rights and there should, therefore, be no glorification of terrorists as martyrs.a The joint statement made no mention of the exodus of Rohingya refugees. Indiaas foreign secretary, speaking at a conference in New Delhi, was careful not to criticize Myanmar:

The fact that there is an exodus of a large number of people from the Rakhine state is clearly a matter of concern. Our objective will be to see how they can go back to their place of origin. That is not easy. We feel this situation is better addressed through practical measures and constructive conversation rather than doing very strong condemnations.

The largely Western condemnation of Myanmaras government and Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized as excessive, simplistic, and ill-informed. The argument made by majoritarians is that the narrative of Rohingya victimhood obscures and silences the trauma of Rakhine Buddhists because the latter havenat been as adept in lobbying human rights organizations in the West. This argument highlights efforts by militant Rohingyas to create an independent or autonomous Muslim zone in northern Rakhine since decolonization. It emphasizes the fact that the Muslim community in Rakhine greatly expanded after Britain annexed Burma in the early nineteenth century and allowed immigrants from Bengal to enter the region. It insists that the Rakhine Buddhist resentment of Bengali Muslim encroachment needs to be situated in this longer history if foreigners are to arrive at a more evenhanded treatment of two communities, both victims of rival ethnic nationalisms.

The trouble with this position is that evenhandedness by any historical reckoning is impossible. The only way the argument in favor of the brutal treatment of Muslims makes sense is if one accepts the Burmese Buddhist distinction between native and alien as the basis for citizenship and belonging. The reason the Rohingya demand recognition as an ethnic group is that full citizenship in Myanmar has always been contingent on membership in one of the anational races,a or taingyintha. The governmentas policy of excluding the Muslims of Rakhine from the taingyintha and then denying them citizenship, despite generations of residence, on the basis of that exclusion is Kafkaesque in its circularity. As Nick Cheesman, an Australian academic, points out in an article on taingyintha, aultimately Myanmaras problem is not a aRohingya problema but a national races problemathe idea of taingyintha itself is the problem.a

Once the news of this latest atrocity recedes, the Myanmar government will have reason to believe that its project of diminishing the presence of Rohingya in Rakhine is well underway. Sri Lankan nativists who believe that the countryas Buddhists are bhumiputras (sons of the soil) and non-Buddhists are mlecchas (inferior aliens) will take heart. The BJP government in Assam, where illegal Bangladeshi immigration sparked violence in the past, will learn new lessons about the latitude given to perpetrators of ethnic cleansing, as long as it is conducted by asons of the soil.a

The fact that the most vocal protests about the recent violence have come from European countries, foreign human rights groups, and United Nations organizations has encouraged the Myanmar government and its apologists to dismiss them as the handiwork of know-nothing outsiders and professional breast-beaters. But this murderous purge is not a quarrel between the West and the rest. The ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya is a particularly vicious chapter in a long history of majoritarian nationalism in South Asia. Unless that history is acknowledged and its legacy contested, more tragedies lie in store.

a December 20, 2017
London Review of Books, Vol. 39 No. 24 A 14 December 2017 pages 38-40

In October, soon after the seventieth anniversary of Indian independence and the partition of the subcontinent, the Pakistani painter Tassaduq Sohail died in Karachi. The anniversary was celebrated with dazzling military displays: the centrepieces in both Delhi and Islamabad were nuclear missiles. Partition is history now, tales grandparents tell, but for Sohail and others who experienced it first-hand, the memories have never lost their force.

aDreaminga (1984) by Tassaduq Sohail

In January 2000, after forty years in Britain, Sohail decided to return to Pakistan. A week or so before he left, I got a call. He spoke, as always, in Punjabi and by common agreement we avoided using any English words, a common practice (and not just in the diaspora) that enraged him. It was a test I sometimes failed. Sohail was 17 years older than the country he sometimes called home and sometimes hell. Usually when he rang, he would recite a few lines from the Sufi poets with gaiety in his voice, and occasionally he even laughed at my attempts at Punjabi double entendres. But this time his tone was sombre.

aIam going back.a

I was taken aback. There had been no hint of this in recent conversations. aWhy?a

aTo die.a

aWhy?a

aEveryone has to. I thought it best to be close to my final destination.a

I laughed. His laugh was forced. He didnat have too many plans or hopes. After forty years, he had no family and few real friends in Britain. The decision to return had been taken with very little consultation. Among the few people with whom he felt a sense of camaraderie were three Jewish elders in Golders Green (amy three fathersa) who had posed for him and become friends. They look quite jolly in his depiction. He hadnat discussed his decision with them because one of them was always thinking about moving to Israel, the other two were strongly opposed and it would have provoked a row between them. Suddenly he fell silent, then spoke in a very abrupt tone. aTell me something. Be honest. Do you think any of my paintings would encourage anybody to fight back? I mean anyone. Even a single person? You, for instance?a

It was a puzzling question from someone who had never shown any interest in politics. I said as much. It turned out that he had recently returned from Berlin where head heard some English people (awhite people from herea, as he put it) in the KAthe Kollwitz museum say that about her work. He was equally happy for people to dislike his work or like it very much. What he hated was eliciting no response at all. That was really why he was going back. Whatever else, in Pakistan there would be a reaction. I worried that the response might be fatal. His head might be blown off. I didnat say this because he knew it better than I did.

On a previous trip to Karachi, he had sold erotic paintings to what he described to me as arich begums left alone by their husbands during the daya. They bought his paintings in secret and a few of them commissioned new work, giving detailed and ashamelessa instructions on what they required him to paint. aFor the first time I realised the function of a eunuch in the harem,a he told me. I asked for names. He declined. aPity the poor eunuch caught revealing secrets.a

Head made a fair bit of money and thought that he could always repeat the process when he got back to Karachi. Iam not sure he did. The atmosphere had changed and the combination of philistinism and piety meant that Sohail was no longer received in polite society, not even in secret. His phone calls became less frequent, then stopped altogether. The last time I had a conversation with him was more than ten years ago, after head read the final novel in my Islam Quintet. The painter in it was loosely based on him.

He wasnat finding it easy in Karachi. Hell was lonely too, just like England. Too many of his friends were dead. The city had become a network of competing protection rackets. Culture was disintegrating. Nobody paid him much attention. aI feel a python has wrapped itself around my heart.a Depictions of his inner life werenat selling. Piety was so widespread that he had become very cautious: he stopped painting beards and penises. More and more animals began to appear in his work (including the odd unicorn) as well as mermaids in different shapes and sizes. Both safe. The colours became more vibrant: a lot of turquoise and sea green. It was obvious that he was painting to please. He admitted this, saying he was returning to his street artist years in London. I reminded him that was not the way he had begun. aWe are all driven by our destinies, friend. Mine is to spend the few remaining years sinking slowly in this wasteland.a

Of all my friends and acquaintances from the subcontinent, Sohail was the most traumatised by Partition and also the least political. His imagination was haunted by the horrors of 1947. The images grew misty, but he never got over it. One result was his aversion to all religions, to which he attributed the tragedy: several million refugees and well over a million dead bodies. On this he never softened. All my attempts to explain the 1947 divide as the result of global events, how they were refracted in India and used by politicians, were greeted with a snort.

I first met him in 1987. He had managed to raise the money to fund an exhibition in a small gallery on a tiny street on the fringes of Bloomsbury. A friend rang to insist I go and see it without telling me too much about it. Iad never heard of Tassaduq Sohail, which was an added inducement. Sohail rang too and suggested he could have the gallery opened for me on a Sunday if that made it easier. It did. A short, thin, prematurely bald, middle-aged Asian man in a light-blue supermarket security guardas uniform let me in. I suppressed a smile at the incongruity between his uniform and his stature. He switched on the awful neon lights. We were on the ground floor and I could now see that the walls were covered with miniatures painted in black ink. Each etching was crowded with strange figures, both male and female, each face agonised, almost paralysed by the brutalities being inflicted. The intensity was astonishing. What was disconcerting, as I inspected each of the sixty or seventy works in turn, was being followed by the security guard in his ghastly uniform. I was sorely tempted to ask him to wait outside, but it was raining. Just as well. It turned out he was the painter.

*

It was June 1947. He and his parents were leaving everything behind except for a few clothes and some heirlooms. All the Muslims in his village in the Punjab were waiting for a bus to take them to Jalandhar, from where they would be transported in larger buses and trucks to Lahore, now in Pakistan. A number of Sikh neighbours, he recalled, came to embrace them, but they didnat hang around, not wanting to be seen by their more fanatical brethren.

In Jalandhar, Sohail ran to the first vehicle in the convoy of buses and trucks, but his parents called him back and told him to let the elderly and those with very young children on first. Instead, they got on the second bus, which was already over-full, and then they were delayed waiting for stragglers. The first bus moved off. Their convoy caught up with it thirty miles later. Every single person had been dragged out and killed. He remembered the blood, the naked bodies of women of all ages, violated before their throats were slit. Dead babies beside dead mothers. The convoy came to a halt. People rushed out screaming as they recognised friends and relations. The drivers checked to see if anybody was alive. Nobody. The convoy now moved at great speed, the drivers ignoring all attempts to stop them. There was no time for burials. A few bullets were fired at them, but they reached Lahore safely. aEveryone went crazy,a Sohail muttered. aEach side massacred innocents. The whole of the Punjab was an inferno. We left one hell and arrived in another, but we were alive.a

His parents moved to Karachi in 1952, but he wasnat happy there, never found a partner. He wrote a few short stories. Nothing ever worked out. Witnessing the aftermath of massacre made him extremely pessimistic, apolitical and bitter. He remained alienated on every level. Two years after the 1958 military coup in Pakistan, he left for Britain. In those days no visas were needed for Commonwealth citizens and five years of permanent residency entitled them to UK citizenship.

He got a factory job in Ealing, and shared a room with other immigrants: shift work meant that the landlord (usually a fellow South Asian) could charge four lots of rent per room per day, a very primitive accumulation of capital that led in due course to many medium-sized fortunes and a few supermarket empires. It was the first time since 1947 that he had met, eaten and conversed with Sikhs, some of whom were from Jalandhar. The work itself he hated. One thing stuck in his mind. His fellow Asians got very agitated at the reluctance of the white shop stewards of the Transport and General Workersa Union to give them union cards. Sohail didnat care at all.

The high point of his social life, he told me, was to save up a few shillings, visit a strip-joint in Soho and then, while the memory was strong, indulge in some fist-fucking. I was never convinced by the stories he sometimes told me (usually when others were present) stressing his virility and his conquests. He told me more than once that he preferred living on his own. The women he sometimes turned up with were for the purpose of showing off. All the ones I met were his models, who were very fond of him because no sexual favours were demanded. Two of them, at least, were sex workers. They told him their stories and he painted them with a real anger at their circumstances.

He changed jobs frequently. After the West London factory, he moved to Golders Green, rented a room and got work in a newsagentas at the tube station. He started sketching in notebooks or on blank paper to pass the time. One day an Englishman who regularly bought the Times from him asked what he was drawing. He told him he should take up painting seriously and bought a few pages of the notebook. Soon after that he left his job, abandoned his black ink drawings and concentrated instead on pastels and acrylic and watercolours. He sold his work on the pavement outside Hyde Park. He said that the worse the painting was, the more likely it was to sell. He started putting in a few naked women and sales rocketed.

On the first floor of the Bloomsbury gallery the work was entirely different from the black ink drawings below: paintings in exuberant colours, full of humour. They were viciously satirical, with religion and its hypocritical clergy as the target. Sex had all of them in thrall. Here was a mullah walking with his wife but thinking of two naked women and watched by an all-knowing crow. Sohail regarded animals as more refined in many ways than men and they began to dominate his work. There is a watercolour of a Hindu or Buddhist monk having a wet dream, an arc of sperm rising from his penis and descending on the backside of a distant doe. Itas quite a sweet representation.

aPartition Ia (1984)

Partition had convinced him that the capacity of humans to do mischief to one another was limitless. My attempts to give him explanations for the violence were shrugged off. For a while his paintings became more and more vicious, with the penises of clergymen or the priests of ancient Egypt often depicted as oppressive weapons. I was worried someone might issue a fatwa. He was unconcerned. aAll the humans in my work are anonymous. They have no identity. What could be the content of such a fatwa? That Iam blaspheming against a particular penis? I donat think any mullah anywhere is going to self-identify to such an extent. And what you donat know is that more than a few religious-minded scholars buy these paintings.a

When I asked if head ever had any formal training his explanation was not out of kilter with the rest of his life. aWhen I was working as a bus driver I used to go past the art school on Charing Cross Road every day. It was a busy road and slow. It was summer. On the pavement, leaning against the fence or sitting on the steps, I would see very beautiful young men and women, joking and laughing. I wondered what happened inside that building. I didnat think they could be artists. They looked too happy. On one of my days off I went to investigate. There was a long queue. They told me they were painting nudes that day. I joined them and was given pastels and paper. I sketched a female nude in black, with two red dots as her nipples, very restrained work. A teacher standing behind me and looking over my shoulder, smiled and said: aYou have a good sense of colour.a Two red dots were enough for her! She had a good sense of humour, I thought, but she encouraged me to return. For the next six months, I went once every week, probably the most valuable days in my life as an artist.a That was the extent of his training.

*

I canat think of a single well-known Muslim writer, poet or film-maker who was in favour of Partition in the decades preceding 1947. No one really believed it would happen. The demand for a Muslim nation was a bargaining counter to get the best possible deal for the countryas largest minority (between 30 and 40 per cent of the population) in a federal India. Only recently, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs had fought together in the Indian National Army (INA) formed by Subhas Chandra Bose from Indian prisoners of war held by Germany and Japan. A year after the war, British India experienced its largest mutiny when naval ratings occupied destroyers and troop ships, refusing to surrender until leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League appealed to them to do so in the name of a afree Indiaa. Here too, all three religions, including middle and low-caste Hindus, fought together, as they had ninety years earlier in the 1857 uprising. aFree Indiaa never re-employed these amutineersa, though Pakistan allowed some of the Muslim participants to join its new navy.

Sohail once asked me whether Partition could have been avoided. To which my answer remains yes. Trotskyas view that history shares commonalities with biology, and that causality works through a anatural selection of accidentsa, is a pretty good description of what happened in India. The determining accident was the Second World War. Soon after September 1939, Gandhi visited the viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, assuring him that he and all right-minded people supported Britain, but that there was great hostility in the Congress, which he could not ignore. The British needed colonial cannon-fodder even more in this war than in the one before, and for that reason could not agree to grant India immediate independence. As a result, all the provincial Congress administrations submitted their resignation to the viceroy. Tame pro-British governments took their place.

The Muslim League leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, suited, booted and monocled, also went to call on the viceroy. His message was simple. The Muslim League, unlike the Congress scoundrels, was solidly behind the war effort. He wanted guarantees of minority rights (a strong federation with limited powers for the centre) or a separate state altogether. The advantage of the latter, he calmly explained to the viceroy, was that it would enable the British to retain a foothold in the subcontinent. Pakistan would be loyal. Churchill was delighted.

What a historical turnaround this was. The Muslims had been held responsible for the 1857 uprising since its titular leader was Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the Mughals, a mild-mannered man on an East India Company pension who lived in the Red Fort in old Delhi, where he spent his time writing poetry. His writ never extended beyond the Fort. The bulk of the fighting against the British in 1857 was actually carried out by Hindu and Muslim soldiers. It was this tradition to which Bose had appealed when creating the INA. Afterwards, many religiously unified divisions were separated to prevent a repeat performance. The Sikhs and Muslims who had remained loyal (mainly Punjabis) became the most trusted troops in imperial wars.

The favour shown by the British to the Muslim League became even more pronounced after the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in February 1942. INA units under Bose fought against the British Indian Army. For the first time ever, Gandhi lost his cool. Until now he had been playing cat and mouse with the Raj, knowing that only a negotiated settlement would enable what he considered a satisfactory transition to independence. The Japanese triumph in Singapore disoriented him. He now believed he might be forced into negotiating independence with Hideki Tojo, the Japanese prime minister, rather than Churchill and that the Japanese might install Bose as the leader of the new India. In March 1942, the British war cabinet, alerted to the danger by intelligence reports, despatched the Labour cabinet minister Stafford Cripps to plead with the Congress to return to the fold and help the war effort. aI have been authorised to offer you a blank cheque once the war is over,a Cripps told Gandhi.

aWhat is the point of a blank cheque,a Gandhi asked, afrom a bank that is obviously failing?a

A few months later, in August 1942, Congress launched the Quit India movement, demanding immediate independence. Millions took part in demonstrations: Gandhi and his colleagues had mobilised the peasantry on a scale comparable to the Chinese revolution. The British resorted to large-scale repression. There were hundreds of arrests and the independence leaders were sent back to prison. Had the Congress accepted the war cabinetas offer, they would have been given the whole of India on a platter.

The Muslim League and the Communist Party of India grew rapidly under British patronage. Pakistan was a thank you present to the Muslim League from the British, but it was handed over only after the Congress leaders had rejected all compromises. Nehruas obstinacy and arrogance trumped Gandhias more conciliatory posture: he had suggested a national government with Jinnah as prime minister only to be vetoed by Nehru and the right wing of the Congress. As late as 1946, Jinnah was prepared for compromise, but the situation was deteriorating rapidly. Anti-Muslim pogroms in Bihar resulted in thirty thousand deaths, but Nehru and Gandhi equated the massacre with a riot in Noakhali in Bengal in which fewer than fifty Hindus were killed. They refused to take Jinnah seriously, believing, wrongly, that the Muslims were tightly controlled by their religious leaders, some of the most prominent of whom were either in the Congress, like Abul Kalam Azad, or collaborated with it. The Jamaat-i-Islami, led by the formidable Maulana Maududi, opposed the very idea of Pakistan: Islam was either universal or it was nothing. The preachers of the most important seminary of orthodox Islam in Deoband also opposed Partition. But Nehru and Gandhi should have studied a bit of Muslim history. Muslims have never been united for long. They do not like tight control. Indiaas Muslims did not follow their religious leaders in late 1946 and 1947 but turned to Jinnah. Nehru too had an outdated view of the Muslim League. Like the Congress, it had been a party of notables before being taken over in the 1930s by liberal lawyers, journalists and mostly secular Muslim intellectuals under the leadership of Jinnah, a prickly but brilliant criminal lawyer, who was a committed constitutionalist. At that time the League was still a minority force within Indian Islam. The war and British patronage helped change that, and Hindu chauvinism did the rest.

aPartition in Technicoloura(1987)

By 1946 it was too late to stop Partition, but the complete failure of the colonial state to safeguard human lives was a sign that it had abdicated its responsibilities. Having encouraged religious divisions within the army, the colonial authorities were worried that Hindu troops would refuse to obey orders if asked, say, to fire on Hindu crowds. As a result, the army would look on while one religious group slaughtered another and the country disintegrated. And so two-thirds of Indiaas Muslims became part of Pakistan as the Punjab and Bengal were split off, separated from each other by a thousand miles of Indian territory. But Partition solved very little and the divisions it entrenched enabled the election of a semi-fascist government in India, where it is now open season on Muslims and other minorities. In Pakistan, Muslim slaughters Muslim: thereas nobody else left to kill.

Sohail once told me that he adored Ibsen and had seen all his plays. His favourite was Ghosts. He liked the portrayal of the severely disabled son, Oswald, a painter. Sohail underlined the passage in which Oswald wants his mother to help him die:
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Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg View columnist. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics. Readers may email him at jbernstein62@bloomberg.net.
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 BJS releases "Prisoners in 2016" reporting another drop in state and federal prison populations in 2016 | Main | A not-quite random collection of notable recent sentencing pieces 

The Wall Street Journal has this notable article today headlined "U.S. to Seek Death Penalty More Often for Violent Crimes; Attorney General Jeff Sessions authorizes federal prosecutors to seek capital punishment in two murder cases and is said to be weighing it in others, including Manhattan terror attack." Here are excerpts (with two particular lines emphasized):

The Justice Department has agreed to seek the federal death penalty in at least two murder cases, in what officials say is the first sign of a heightened effort under Attorney General Jeff Sessions to use capital punishment to further crack down on violent crime.

In a decision made public Monday, Mr. Sessions authorized federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Billy Arnold, who is charged with killing two rival gang members in Detroit. The decision followed the first death-penalty authorization under Mr. Sessions, made public Dec. 19, when he cleared prosecutors in Orlando to seek a death sentence against Jarvis Wayne Madison, who is charged with fatally shooting his estranged wife in 2016.

The Justice Department is also considering seeking death sentences against Sayfullo Saipov, accused of killing eight people in November by driving a truck onto a Manhattan bike lane, and against two defendants in the 2016 slaying of two teenage girls by MS-13 gang members on Long Island, outside of New York City, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

Mr. Sessions views the death penalty as a valuable tool in the tool belt, according to a senior Justice Department official. The official said the death penalty isnt only a deterrent, but also a punishment for the most heinous crimes prohibited under federal law. The Justice Department under President Donald Trump expects to authorize more death penalty cases than the previous administration did, the official said....

The last federal execution was in 2003. Since 1963, three federal defendants have been executed. The federal government has secured 25 death sentences since 2007, down from 45 death sentences between 1996 and 2006....

Only 2% of death-penalty cases are sentenced in federal court. Several types of murder cases fall under federal jurisdiction, including those involving drug trafficking, racketeering or  in Mr. Madisons case  interstate domestic violence and interstate stalking.

The Obama administration sought the federal death penalty in at least four dozen cases, fewer than the Bush administration, according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel, a federally funded program to assist death penalty lawyers. The cases authorized under the previous administration included ones involving terrorism, the killing of children or law-enforcement officers, and murders by prisoners already serving life sentences.

But in recent years, a Justice Department review of the drugs used to execute prisoners prompted an effective moratorium on federal executions.

Mr. Sessions appears to be seeking the death penalty against a broader set of violent crimes. Former Justice Department officials under President Barack Obama said they typically wouldnt have authorized capital punishment in a case like Mr. Arnolds, which involves gang-on-gang violence. Murder cases with victims who were themselves involved in criminal activity are the ones where death penalty decisions tend to fluctuate by administration, said David Bitkower, a former Justice Department official under Mr. Obama who prosecuted two death-penalty gang cases.

Eric Holder, who served as attorney general from 2009 to 2015, personally opposed the death penalty. Loretta Lynch, Mr. Holders successor, called capital punishment an effective penalty at her confirmation hearing.

Mr. Sessions has put combating violent crime at the center of his agenda, encouraging prosecutors to pursue longer prison sentences and approving the hiring of dozens of new violent-crimes prosecutors.

The moves come as the death penalty on the state and federal level has been in decline. State executions are hovering near 26-year lows, partly due to dwindling supplies of lethal drugs and growing legal scrutiny from courts....

Former prosecutors say an increase in death-penalty cases could be time-consuming and expensive for both government and defense lawyers. Appeals in death penalty cases can take decades.

There are 61 prisoners on federal death row, compared with more than 2,800 in the states.
SIOUX CITY | The alleged involvement of a physicians group and four of its doctors with the development of a South Sioux City riverfront outpatient surgery center clearly violate non-compete agreements the doctors had with Pierce Street Same Day Surgery, a lawyer for the Sioux City center told an Iowa judge Thursday.

A lawyer for Tri-State Specialists and six doctors being sued by Pierce Street contends that the physicians have not invested in the South Sioux City project and do not plan to have ownership, management or employment roles in it.

Pierce Street's non-competition agreements also do not contain many of the provisions that Pierce Street accuses the doctors of violating, said Stan Thompson, a Des Moines attorney representing Tri-State Specialists, its CEO and the six doctors.

"We view Pierce Street as trying to block fair competition within the market. I think the defendants have complied with the letter of the agreement," Thompson said Thursday during a hearing on Pierce Street's request for an injunction to enforce non-compete agreements with Drs. Adam Smith, William Samuelson, Kevin Liudahl and Joseph Morris and preventing them from owning, operating, investing in, managing, promoting or being employed by the Riverview Surgical Center, which is under construction along the Missouri River in South Sioux City.

The injunction also seeks to prevent Drs. Terry Monk and Duane Nelson, both former Pierce Street members, as well as Tri-State Specialists and its CEO Lee Hilka, from cooperating with those four physicians in the development and promotion of Riverview.

Iowa District Judge Duane Hoffmeyer said he would rule on the injunction as soon as possible once lawyers submit all final documents and responses by Wednesday afternoon.

"I will get out a decision as soon as I can," Hoffmeyer said.

Since plans for the two-story, 50,000-square-foot Riverview Surgical Center became public last year, Tri-State has promoted its ownership of the center and its involvement in the development, said Bridget Penick, the Des Moines attorney representing Pierce Street.

Smith, Samuelson, Liudahl and Morris all are members and owners of Tri-State, Penick said, and contentions that they haven't been involved in planning or designing the center are false. Smith has personally recruited other doctors to invest in the project, Penick said.

"Tri-State owners and physicians have been intimately involved in this project since day one," Penick said. "It's represented without exception as a Tri-State project."

Pierce Street claims in its lawsuit, filed last month in Woodbury County District Court, that the doctors' non-compete provisions in individual operating agreements they signed with Pierce Street prohibit them from being involved with a competing hospital or surgery center within 30 miles of Pierce Street while they hold an interest in Pierce Street and for one year after leaving the company.

Located at 2730 Pierce St., across the street from UnityPoint Health -- St. Luke's, Pierce Street is less than four miles from the Riverview site.

Ground was broken for the $37 million Riverview Surgical Center next to the Delta Hotels by Marriot at 385 E. Fourth St. in November. The center, expected to open in 2019, will contain operating rooms, medical offices and patient suites. Patients and families will have the option of staying in the adjacent Delta Hotels by Marriott. The center will offer many of the same surgical services as Pierce Street.

Pierce Street's lawsuit includes claims for breach of contract, intentional interference with a contract and with prospective business advantage, breach of duty of loyalty and conspiracy. It's asking that an injunction be in place for the duration of the litigation.

Thompson said the non-compete agreements apply only toward involvement in existing surgery centers. It does not prevent the doctors from being involved in the creation of a new one. Even so, Smith, Morris, Liudahl and Samuelson all provided sworn affidavits in which they said they do not and will not have direct or indirect ownership in Riverview Surgical Center, nor do they have arrangements in place to consult with or be hired by Riverview once it opens.

Pierce Street terminated their memberships on Dec. 20, Thompson said in court filings.

Former members of Pierce Street, both Nelson and Monk's non-compete agreements have expired. Hilka, who served as the Pierce Street CEO from March 2008-April 2015, also has no further obligations to Pierce Street, Thompson said in court filings. All three are members of Riverview's board.

Pierce Street contends that plans for Riverview were being discussed as early as 2015 by the six physicians, Hilka and Tri-State, which is located at 2730 Pierce St. in the same building as Pierce Street Same Day Surgery. Those discussions would have taken place when all six physicians named in the lawsuit had signed operating agreements containing the non-compete provisions in place with Pierce Street.

In the lawsuit, Pierce Street said it could lose 60 percent of its patient volume referred to it by Tri-State physicians, many of whom could begin sending patients to the new Riverview facility.
SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City man was taken into custody Wednesday after barricading himself inside a house, threatening to kill himself and set fire to the house.

Michael Counterman, 32, surrendered without incident at approximately 3 p.m. after officers fired a non-lethal munition containing a chemical to daze and disorient him.

After being treated at UnityPoint -- St. Luke's, he was booked into the Woodbury County Jail on charges of second-degree burglary, second-degree arson, aggravated domestic assault and violation of a no contact order.

Police responded to the home in the 2600 block of George Street at 1:57 p.m. after Counterman had broken into his mother's house in violation of a no contact order. McClure said Counterman's mother called 911 as her son was attempting to enter the home, then fled after he gained entry.

Officers were already seeking Counterman after an earlier incident in which he violated a no contact order and held a knife to his mother's throat.

McClure said officers set up a perimeter around the house upon arrival and made contact with Counterman, who had barricaded himself inside the house. Counterman threatened to kill himself and lit some curtains fire. Officers put out the fire with fire extinguishers. Officers attempted to negotiate with him, but those talks were unsuccessful when Counterman once again began to threaten to kill himself and also set the house on fire.

An officer approached a door to the house and fired the non-lethal round at Counterman, who, after being struck, retreated to a bathroom and barricaded himself inside, McClure said. Officers then entered the home with a K9 unit, and Counterman surrendered after being notified of the police dog's presence.
NORTH SIOUX CITY | A Florida-based investor with ties to Siouxland paid $5.75 million for the former Gateway campus in North Sioux City.

Gerald Keating, who announced last month he had struck a deal to buy the iconic black-and-white spotted buildings from Taiwan-based Acer Inc., finalized the sale Wednesday. Upon the closing, Keating said he sold the 225,000-square-foot Argentina building to an unidentified local investor. The building covers 11 acres on the south end of the campus.

In a news release, Keating said he also has a pending long-term lease for 101,000-square-feet of former tech space to an unidentified tenant. That would raise to 61 percent the occupancy in the remaining 521,000 square feet of space.

Covering a total of 750,000 square feet, the interconnected structures are considered the largest building in South Dakota, Keating declared in the release.

The price he paid for the property, which includes 77 acres, is just a fraction of its original value. Built in phases from 1989 to 1997, the machine shed-like buildings cost an estimated $70 million.

Gateway, founded by Ted Waitt and the late Mike Hammond on the Waitt family cattle farm in Sioux City in 1985, moved across the Big Sioux River to North Sioux City in 1990. The quirky startup, which grew into one of the world's largest makers of personal computers, employed nearly 6,000 in North Sioux City at its peak in the late 1990s. After falling on hard times, the publicly-traded company was sold to Acer in 2007.

Keating said the North Sioux City buildings, which once housed Gateway's headquarters, sales offices and production facilities, will be repainted this summer with the iconic spots of a Holstein cow. The campus will be branded Gateway Business Center, located within the Gateway Business Park, developed by Berkshire Hathaway-owned MidAmerican Energy.

Keating said he will leave Ted Waitts executive office vacant with the hope Waitt or one of his companies "may return to perform magic one more time."

A total of 200,000 square feet is available for lease, in increments of 20,000 square feet, he said. The new owners also could construct an additional 500,000 square feet on 28 adjacent acres.

Keating is CEO of Keating Resources, which has offices in Naples, Florida, and Atkinson, Nebraska, where Keating grew up and maintains family ties. Keating Resources invests in commercial and industrial properties throughout the United State.

In a release, Keating said his decision to purchase the former Gateway property was made easier based on the outstanding work ethic of residents of the Sioux City metro, along with the entrepreneurial pro-growth tax policies of South Dakota.

Keating has scheduled a news conference at noon Thursday to further discuss the former Gateway campus.
SIOUX CITY | An anticipated five-month closure of the bridge on Military Road crossing from Riverside into North Sioux City may not happen until 2019.

The exact timing of the bridge re-decking project, which the city had originally slotted to begin this year, is uncertain due to a languishing permit process through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Sioux City is awaiting approval of a permit application it submitted to the Corps in February of last year. The permit is a requirement for the project.

Senior civil engineer Brittney Anderson said the Corps ran into funding issues that hampered its ability to approve and review the permits, leaving the city's permit application backlogged among several other project permits from other cities and entities.

Sioux City has contacted the Corps to request an agreement that would allow the city to submit its own funding to speed up the process but has yet to hear back on that offer, Anderson said.

Public Works Director Dave Carney told the Sioux City Council on Monday he has received indication that the permit may not be approved until around April. Everything else is ready to move forward and go out for bid, he said.

Anderson said even if the permit is approved in March or April, it's hard to know at the moment what the project's timeline might be.

"We're going to have to look at when the permit comes in, when the project comes out for bid and when it comes out for the schedule," she said.

The bridge re-decking is one of two stages in a 10-month, $5 million project along Military Road. The second stage includes a full reconstruction of the road from the bridge to Riverside Boulevard. Funding for the bridge project, an estimate of $3 million total, will come from Sioux City and the Iowa and South Dakota departments of transportation.

The permit is delaying the entirety of the project, Anderson said.

The Sioux City Council in April had decided to fully close the Military Road bridge for the re-decking project rather than keep one lane open at a time, which engineers said would drive up the cost of the project. The decision came despite push-back from several nearby North Sioux City business owners who believe the bridge closure will prove detrimental to their sales by blocking incoming traffic.

During Monday's council meeting, the council granted 4-0 approval to a request for $11,375 more in funding for design services related to the street project. That amount will allow the city to design electrical outlets into street lights, at the request of the Riverside Neighborhood PAC, to allow for the hanging of lights holiday decorations.

The approved added cost will cover the design services only, and the city expects an additional $31,500 will be needed to cover the additional construction costs related to adding the outlets to the poles.
DAKOTA CITY, Neb. | The cause of the Thursday-morning house fire that destroyed a home south of Dakota City is under investigation this afternoon, though the fire is believed to be accidental in nature.

Clint Rasmussen, the Dakota City Fire Department Chief, said the house, located at Highway 77 and 190th Street, was "definitely a total loss." Most or all of the home's interior is gone, as well as its roof.

No one was home at the time of the fire, but the owner has been notified of what happened. The fire was first reported by a passerby on Highway 77 around 8:45 a.m.

"It was going pretty good by the time we got there" with flames already penetrating the roof, Rasmussen said.

Weather conditions proved a significant challenge for firefighters -- the bitter cold winds were "the biggest challenge of today," causing the flames to quickly engulf the home.

Fire trucks were still on scene as of 12:30 p.m.

The Dakota City Fire Department was assisted through mutual aid by the South Sioux City and Homer fire departments.

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DAKOTA CITY, Neb. | A house south of Dakota City appeared to be a complete loss after a Thursday morning house fire.

The house, located at Highway 77 and 190th Street, was on fire before 9 a.m. Thursday. Much of the house's roof and internal structure appeared to be gone by 10 a.m., and flames could be seen raging inside through a window opening.

South Sioux City fire chief Clint Merithew said his department sent an engine and four firefighters to the scene.

"We were requested out of mutual aid," he said.

Merithew was unable to comment on the fire itself, including whether the house was occupied at the time. The Dakota City Fire Rescue could not be reached for comment.

Check siouxcityjournal.com for updates later today.
President Donald Trump is about to come face-to-face with his next quarterly brush with Armageddon. Should he, or shouldn't he, scrap the Iran nuclear accord?

Any decision by him to "decertify" Iran's compliance, will have only a cataclysmic impact on the key issues he has cited for ending the pact and snapping back a range of tough sanctions that would accompany any such action.

The President would not be helping American or Western security. He certainly would not be helping hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who have taken to the streets across Iran.

What such a decision will do is seriously compromise American relations with all its major European allies, as foreign ministers of most European countries suggested on Thursday morning in a tense Brussels meeting.

At the same time, withdrawal would give new strength to Russia and China in global affairs -- united against the US in upholding what, to much of the world, appears to be the only real means of restraining Iran from developing nuclear arms. At the same time, America would be left even further isolated as a global pariah.

But such an action by Trump would have other consequences even closer to home. As I suggested here last fall, such a withdrawal by the United States would likely scuttle any number of contracts that could lead to more jobs in America.

While Western European companies might prove to be not unwilling beneficiaries, Iran has also begun to look to even more eager partners. Last November, during a visit to Moscow, President Hasan Rouhani and President Putin signed agreements to collaborate on energy deals worth as much as $30 billion, while some $20 billion more in deals could be en route this year with some western firms, but especially with Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom and Zarubezhneft -- all Russian oil and gas companies.

China, another signatory of the Iran nuclear pact, along with Russia, France, Germany, Britain, and the EU, is also well-poised to take advantage of any Trump action withdrawing from the pact. "Reactivation of sanctions may cause Iran to export oil using the Chinese Yuan denominated contract, which launches on 18 January," Bjarne Schieldrop, Chief Commodities Analyst at SEB told OilPrice.com. "This may spark a move away from the present long-established US Dollar denominated oil trading regime."

Such a development could have far greater consequences than any single Chinese contract. China has long sought to break the stranglehold of the dollar as the dominant currency for the world oil trade. This could be just the opening the Chinese leadership has been seeking for so long.

At a minimum, however, with oil prices again already well above $60 a barrel, any new restraints on the sale of 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian crude that have just begun to hit world markets, has been estimated by Citigroup's global commodities unit as likely to raise the price of crude by at least $5 a barrel.

But perhaps the most critical immediate impact of any American withdrawal, or even imposition of broader sanctions by Trump, would be to give new ammunition to the already powerful mullahs in Iran. They have laid the blame for recent demonstrations across the country directly at the feet of Western, Israeli and especially American intervention, with the clear need to be suppressed at all costs.

Their powerful Revolutionary Guard forces managed to suppress the first round of protests that spread to more than 80 cities and towns across the country, leaving nearly two dozen dead and at least a thousand arrested and jailed.

Any move by President Trump to re-impose sanctions could deal a mortal blow to further efforts to revive a groundswell of support for a return to some semblance of democracy in Iran.

There remain strong, dark forces within Iran anxious to bring a quick end to the nuclear pact at any economic cost and begin a full-tilt scramble toward an atomic arsenal. So, the willingness of Iran and moderate forces, led by Rouhani, to remain in the accord, could be tested by any sanctions the US might reinstate now as a price for certifying and retaining the full agreement.

Individuals and companies that may suddenly find themselves on an expanded blacklist that had been thinned out under the original agreement could only add their voices to the anti-agreement forces -- new pressure for Iran itself to certify that these new sanctions effectively render the agreement null and void.

In short, the only viable choice for Trump is simply to choose the high road again this time around, with the sad certainty that we'll simply revisit the question again three months from now.

CNN's Sebastian Shukla, Katie Polglase, Nada Bashir and Richard A. Greene contributed to this report.
Informing Iran, "The U.S. is watching what you do," Ambassador Nikki Haley called an emergency meeting last Friday of the Security Council regarding the riots in Iran. The session left her and us looking ridiculous.

France's ambassador tutored Haley that how nations deal with internal disorders is not the council's concern. Russia's ambassador suggested the United Nations should have looked into our Occupy Wall Street clashes and how the Missouri cops handled Ferguson.

Fifty years ago, 100 U.S. cities erupted in flames after Martin Luther King's assassination. Federal troops were called in. In 1992, Los Angeles suffered the worst U.S. riot of the 20th century, after the LA cops who pummeled Rodney King were acquitted in Simi Valley.

Was our handling of these riots any business of the U.N.?

Conservatives have demanded that the U.N. keep its nose out of our sovereign affairs since its birth in 1946. Do we now accept that the U.N. has authority to oversee internal disturbances inside member countries?

Friday's session fizzled out after Iran's ambassador suggested the Security Council might take up the Israeli-Palestinian question or the humanitarian crisis produced by the U.S.-backed Saudi war on Yemen.

The episode exposes a malady of American foreign policy. It lacks consistency, coherence and moral clarity, treats friends and adversaries by separate standards, and is reflexively interventionist.

Thus has America lost much of the near-universal admiration and respect she enjoyed at the close of the Cold War.

This hubristic generation has kicked it all away.

Consider. Is Iran's handling of these disorders more damnable than the thousands of extrajudicial killings of drug dealers attributed to our Filipino ally Rodrigo Duterte, whom the president says is doing an "unbelievable job"?

And how does it compare with Gen. Abdel el-Sissi's 2012 violent overthrow of the elected president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, and Sissi's imprisonment of scores of thousands of followers of the Muslim Brotherhood?

Is Iran really the worst situation in the Middle East today?

Hassan Rouhani is president after winning an election with 57 percent of the vote. Who elected Mohammed bin Salman crown prince and future king of Saudi Arabia?

Vladimir Putin, too, is denounced for crimes against democracy for which our allies get a pass.

In Russia, Christianity is flourishing and candidates are declaring against Putin. Some in the Russian press regularly criticize him.

How is Christianity faring in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan?

It is alleged that Putin's regime is responsible for the death of several journalists. But there are more journalists behind bars in the jails of our NATO ally Turkey than in any other country in the world.

When does the Magnitsky Act get applied to Turkey?

What the world too often sees is an America that berates its adversaries for sins against our "values," while giving allies a general absolution if they follow our lead.

A day has not gone by in 18 months that we have not read or heard of elite outrage over the Kremlin attack on "our democracy," with the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails.

How many even recall the revelation in 2015 that China hacked the personnel files of millions of U.S. government employees, past, present and prospective?

While China persecutes Christians, Russia supports a restoration of Christianity after 70 years of Leninist rule.

In Putin's Russia, the Communist Party is running a candidate against him. In China, the Communist Party exercises an absolute monopoly of political power and nobody runs against Xi Jinping.

China's annexation of the Paracel and Spratly Islands and the entire South China Sea is meekly protested, while Russia is endlessly castigated for its bloodless retrieval of a Crimean peninsula that was recognized as Russian territory under the Romanovs.

China, with several times Russia's economy and 10 times her population, is far the greater challenger to America's standing as lone superpower. Why, then, this tilt toward China?

Among the reasons U.S. foreign policy lacks consistency and moral clarity is that we Americans no longer agree on what our vital interests are, who our real adversaries are, what our values are, or what a good and Godly country looks like.

Was JFK's America a better country than Obama's America?

World War II and the Cold War gave us moral clarity. If you stood against Hitler, even if you were a moral monster like Joseph Stalin, we partnered with you.

From Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech in 1946 to the end of the Cold War, if you stood with us against the "Evil Empire" of Reagan's depiction, even if you were a dictator like Gen. Pinochet or the Shah, you were welcome in the camp of the saints.

But now that a worldwide conversion to democracy is no longer America's mission in the world, what exactly is our mission?

"Great Britain has lost an empire," said Dean Acheson in 1962, "but not yet found a role."

Something of the same may fairly be said of us today.
It's amazing what happens when a woman drags you to the city to go shopping.

We were leaving the Southern Hills Mall to get back on the interstate. The turn light was green as I hit the intersection. A blink of an eye later it was yellow as I started through, then red. That's when that d----d camera caught me. A week later, I got a ticket in the mail.

It was bad enough to have to go to one store after another and one mall after another, then this happened. I don't think that's fair. The law should state an officer must observe the infraction and issue the ticket. There was no officer there.

I'm surprised that no one has sued the city to get cameras taken out. - Fran Johnson, Yankton, South Dakota
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
Charles Ray McElhaney, age 33, of Tall Timbers Derrick Clifton Marshall, age 39, of Lexington Park James Allen Winters, age 38, of Great Mills Katina Marie Knott, age 31, with no fixed address Keith Alvin Raymond Robinson, age 24 Michael Kelly Fitzpatrick, age 27, of Mechanicsville Molly Brooke Evans, age 27, of Piney Point Rico Kinta Keys, age 22, of Lexington Park Robert Gary Lyon, Jr., age 35, of Clements Shatara Shanille Bowen, age 23, of Lexington Park Terence Llewelyn Mason, age 53, from Morganza Wayne Tyrome Estep, Jr., age 25, of Mechanicsville William Alexander Sledge, age 60, of Lexington Park Previous Next

LEONARDTOWN, Md.

Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at so.md/expungeme.

(January 10, 2018)The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office today released the following incident and arrest reports.ASSAULT: On December 30, 2017, Cpl. Kirkner responded to the St. Mary's County Detention and Rehabilitation Center, in Leonardtown, for a reported assault between inmates. Investigation revealed Suspect, assaulted the victim by throwing a cup of cold tea on the victim during an argument. Bowen was charged with Assault 2nd Degree. CASE# 69496-17ASSAULT: On December 31, 2017, Dep. Molitor responded to the 19000 block of Oak Court in Lexington Park, for a reported disturbance. Upon arrival it was determined Suspect, had assaulted two victims inside of the residence. Both victims had visible injury from the incident; while on scene the suspect threatened one of the victims by brandishing a rifle and yelling threats towards the victim. The suspect was disarmed and it was then discovered Barrett had brandished a BB gun. Barrett was charged with one count of Assault 1st Degree and two counts of Assault 2nd Degree. CASE# 69576-17 (No Photograph Available)CDS VIOLATION: On December 31, 2017, Cpl. Potter conducted a traffic stop in the 21000 block Great Mills Road in Lexington Park. A probable cause search was conducted on the vehicle operated by. The search revealed numerous individual bags of synthetic marijuana inside the vehicle. Keys was arrested and charged with CDS Possession-Not Marijuana. CASE# 69655-17.CDS VIOLATION: On December 31, 2017, Dep. Edwards observed a parked vehicle in the 30000 block of Three Notch Road, in Charlotte Hall, with the occupants slumped over inside the vehicle. While Dep. Edwards was checking their welfare, she observed a glass jar containing suspected marijuana under the operator, Marlee Lynn Stokes' left leg. A passenger in the vehicle,, was observed to have a syringe cap on his person, as well as three syringes under the seat where he was sitting. Stokes was removed from the car at which time it was discovered she had numerous prescription pills on her person in a plastic container, and a metal tin. Also discovered in the vehicle were cut up drinking straws containing a white powdery residue., was charged with CDS: Possession Not Marijuana and CDS: Possession Paraphernalia. Lyon Jr. was charged with CDS: Possession. CASE# 69665-17. (No Photograph Available of Stokes)ASSAULT: On January 1, 2018, Dep. Muschette responded to the 22000 block of Three Notch Road in California for a reported assault. Upon arrival contact was made with the victim who stated, was on the premises making noise and disturbing others while awaiting transportation. While Dep. Muschette was conducting the investigation, Estep Jr. struck the victim in the face with a cellphone. Estep Jr. was arrested and charged with Assault 2nd Degree. CASE# 0002-18.CDS VIOLATION: On January 1, 2018, DFC. Steinbach was checking on the status of a vehicle on the side of the road that was reported to have possibly been involved in an accident in the 23000 block of Colton's Point Road in Clements. Contact was made with the vehicle operator. While contacting Mason, DFC. Steinbach observed a CDS smoking device in plain view inside the vehicle. Further search of the vehicle revealed suspected cocaine in the vehicle and on Mason's person. Mason was arrested and charged with CDS: Possession Not Marijuana and CDS: Possession Paraphernalia. CASE# 167-18.ASSAULT: On January 2, 2018, DFC. Lawrence responded to the 45000 block of Foxchase Drive in Great Mills for the report of an assault. Upon arrival contact was made with the victim who advised the suspect, had assaulted the victim, injuring the victim's wrist. Winters was arrested and charged with Assault 2nd Degree. CASE# 255-18.ASSAULT: On January 2, 2018, DFC. Schultz responded to the 20000 block of Daisy Lane in Lexington Park, for a report of an assault. Upon arrival contact was made with the victim who advised Suspect, had assaulted the victim. The victim displayed visible signs of injury and Berger Jr. was arrested and charged with Assault 2nd Degree. CASE# 273-18. (No Photograph Available)ALCOHOL VIOLATION: On January 2, 2018, DFC. Beishline observed the suspect,, to have an open container of alcohol at a retail establishment. Sledge was issued a criminal citation for Alcoholic Beverage Open Container/Retail Establishment. A few hours later DFC. Beishline responded to the area again for the citizen report of a man acting suspicious inside the business. The same suspect was again observed inside the establishment with an open container of alcohol. Sledge was issued an additional criminal citation for Alcoholic Beverage Open Container/ Retail Establishment by DFC. Beishline. CASE# 287-18, 304-18.12/31/17:, was arrested on an outstanding Calvert County warrant for Theft by Dep. M. Beyer# 319. CASE# 69616-17.12/31/17:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for FTA/Child Support by Cpl. Connelly# 151. CASE# 69708-17.01/02/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for Violation of Probation/CDS Possession by DFC. Tirpak# 270. CASE# 0268-18.01/02/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for Violation of Probation/Assault 2nd Degree by DFC. Tirpak# 270. CASE# 0264-18.01/02/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for FTA/Assault 2nd Degree by DFC. D. Smith# 297 CASE# 370-18.01/02/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for FTA/Driving W/Out a License by DFC. D. Smith#297. CASE# 328-18.01/01/2018:, was charged with Driving Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol by Cpl. Kirkner# 133. CASE# 0020-18. (No Photograph Available)01/01/2018:, was charged with Driving While Impaired by Alcohol by Dep. Bowie# 317. CASE# 0109-18.
SOLOMONS, Md.

(January 11, 2018)The Calvert County Department of Economic Development announced the Solomons Visitor Information Center has opened a unique retail store offering local and regional gift items, including Taste of the Beaches cookbooks, handmade blue crab pottery, Calvert crab artistic renderings and much, much more."We are very excited to offer visitors and our neighbors, one-of-kind gifts and keepsakes that highlight our area's heritage and pride," said Tourism Specialist Katie Brittain. "And while you're shopping, we hope you take some time to talk with our knowledgeable staff to learn information about the county's many local attractions, hotels, restaurants and events."The Solomons Visitor Information Center is currently open for its fall/winter hours, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is located at 14175 Solomons Island Road South in Solomons across from the Calvert Marine Museum.For more information about the Department of Economic Development, county sites and local attractions, call 410-535-4583 or 301-855-1880; send an email to info@ecalvert.com; or visit online at www.choosecalvert.com.
West Palm Beach is bracing for an influx of artists and art lovers. Art Palm Beach is Palm Beach Countys answer to Art Basel. Its the countys biggest contemporary art fair  it runs January 17-21.

More than 85 international galleries will exhibit paintings, sculpture, photography and emerging art in a variety of exhibits.

Art Palm Beach is expected to attract serious art collectors, casual art fans and everyone in between. Art Palm Beach takes place right after Palm Modern + Contemporary (Jan. 11-15) with both happening at the Palm Beach County Conventional Center at 650 Okeechobee Boulevard near the citys downtown area.

Nearby at The Box Gallery, Art Palm Beach kicks off early with two exhibitions starting on January 13, running through February 8. One is a 40-foot mural by artist Marzia Ellero Ransom titled Ars Musae. Ransom, who was born in Italy, earned her first degree in graphic design and photography then received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art from the University of West Florida(UWF). After earning a masters degree in painting and photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she moved back to Pensacola and is now an instructor at UWF.

The second presentation traces the life and work of the late artist/actor/musician Tomata du Plenty. Born David Xavier Harrigan, (May 28, 1948  August 21, 2000) du Plenty was an artist who lived in South Florida for part of his career  painted people he admired, from historical figures to entertainers.

The traveling national exhibition is accompanied by panel discussions and video screenings that trace the life and work of the late artist who died in 2000.

Its a very exciting time, says Rolando Chang Barrero, Curator of The Box Gallery. The Box Gallery is located at 811 Belvedere Road, West Palm Beach. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here. (www.eventbrite.com/e/ars-musae-the-odyssey-frieze-marzia-ellero-ransom-tickets-39811743998)

Chang Barrero is also the president of Art Synergy, a countywide movement of artists, businesses and civic leaders committed to unifying and promoting the diverse culture of Palm Beach Countys and South Floridas vibrant arts community.

In this role, I have the privilege of introducing 12 superb works by South Floridas best artists selected by jurors Jo Luria and Cynthia Gibbons including Laurent Dareau, Lee Andre, Brian Cattelle, Jacklyn Coyne, Nate Ditzler, Diane Lublinski, Lenore Robins, Barry Seidman, Chad Steve, Melissa Vlahos, Marilyn Walter and Tanya Witzel, he said. As added surprise, Ive joined to talented emerging artists, Brian Cattelle and Chad Periman in an outdoor installation The Solar Lawn Art Show at the entrance to Old School Squares Cornell Museum for the Art Synergy Gala Fundraiser on January 20.

For more information about visiting Art Palm Beach go to NextLevelFairs.com/ArtPalmBeach.
Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme  La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.



Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.




Astronaut Joe Acaba works on wire connections and other maintenance tasks inside Combustion Integrated Rack gear. Credit: NASA. NASA

The Expedition 54 crew aboard the International Space Station is training for this weekends departure of the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft. The crew is also exploring regenerative life support systems and how microgravity affects breathing.

NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Scott Tingle began their day training and reviewing for Saturdays remotely controlled release of the Dragon resupply ship at 5 a.m. The duo took onboard computer training and discussed this weekends activities with engineers at Mission Control.

This is the first time robotics controllers will command the release of Dragon from the ground while Acaba and Tingle monitor from the cupola as backups. NASA TV will broadcast live the resupply ships departure starting Saturday at 4:30 a.m. Splashdown off the coast of California is expected at 10:36 a.m. and will not be televised.

Experimental work also took place today on the orbital laboratory to help NASA learn how to support astronauts on longer missions farther out into space.

Acaba checked bacteria cultures that could be used for carbon dioxide removal and oxygen production supporting future regenerative life support systems. Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai joined NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and measured their breathing rates today, specifically Nitric Oxide turnover in the lungs. Doctors want to minimize the risk of airway inflammation to keep astronauts healthier farther from Earth.

On-Orbit Status Report

Airway Monitoring Measurement Operations: Using the Portable Pulmonary Function System (PPFS) for guidance, today two crewmembers performed two different measurement protocols; the low Nitric Oxide (NO) protocol which determines how much NO is exhaled with the respiration, and the high NO protocol, which determines how much NO is diffused into the blood. The protocols were initially performed in the Airlock at an ambient pressure and then repeated at a low pressure (10.2 psi). At the low pressure, oxygen concentration in the Airlock is increased to 27.5%. The primary goal of the Airway Monitoring experiment is to determine how gravity and microgravity influences the turnover of Nitric Oxide in the lungs. During future manned missions to the Moon and to Mars, airway inflammation due to toxic dust inhalation is a risk factor. Since dust may cause airway inflammation and since such inflammation can be monitored by exhaled Nitric Oxide analysis, the present study is highly relevant for astronaut health in future space programs. The US Airlock, for this experiment is used as a hypobaric facility for performing science. Utilizing the US Airlock will allow unique opportunities for the study of gravity, ambient pressure interactions, and their effect on the human body.

Arthrospira-B (Batch Culture) Assembly: The crew removed four Arthrospira experiment containers from the Biolab Incubator to exchange the reservoirs inside the Biolab. Following the exchange of the reservoirs, the ECs were reinstalled back onto Biolab Incubator. The Arthrospira B experiment is an important step in making improvements in the area of closed regenerative life support systems in space which will help in making future human exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit become a reality.

Human Research Program (HRP) Collections (Biochemical Profile, Repository): Today a 53S subject concluded his Flight Day (FD) 30 urine sample collection that began yesterday to support the Biochemical Profile and Repository experiments. The samples were placed in the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI).

Spaceflight-induced Hypoxic/ROS Signaling (APEX-05) Operations: The crew inserted two APEX-05 RNAlater Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Fixation Tubes (KFT)s into the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) prior to return on SpaceX-13 (SpX-13). The APEX-05 experiment grows different wild and mutant varieties of Arabidopsis thaliana, in order to understand how their genetic and molecular stress response systems work in space. The plants grow from seeds in the Veggie plant growth facility aboard the ISS, are frozen, and returned to Earth for detailed laboratory analysis.

Rodent Research 6 (RR-6) Transporter Setup: To prepare for the return of two of the four animal transporters on SpaceX-13, the crew reviewed reference material and participated in a conference about live animal return operations. The crew also set up and conducted checkout activities on the live animal transporter. The Rodent Research-6 (RR-6) mission uses mice flown aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and maintained on Earth to test drug delivery systems for combatting muscular breakdown in space or during disuse conditions. RR-6 includes several groups of mice selectively treated with a placebo or implanted with a nanochannel drug delivery chip that administers compounds meant to maintain muscle in low gravity/disuse conditions.

NanoRacks External Platform (NREP) Operations: Ground teams maneuvered the Japanese Experiment Module) Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS) to transfer NREP from the Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) slide table to the Exposed Facility Unit (EFU)-4. After transfer operations were complete, the JEMRMS was maneuvered back to a stowed position and NREP was activated via ground command. NREP represents the first external commercial research capability for testing in support of scientific investigations, sensors, and electronic components in space.

Dragon Release On Board Training (OBT): This morning, the crew performed onboard training for this weekends upcoming release of the SpaceX-13 Dragon capsule. The training included the use of the Robotics On-Board Trainer (ROBoT) and a private conference with ground-based trainers.

Todays Planned Activities

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

HRF Generic Urine Collection Male  Subject

Hematocrit Test

HRF Generic Sample MELFI Insertion Operations

Hematocrit Hardware Stowage

Regeneration of ??? ?2 Micropurification Cartridge (start)

ISS CREW/SSIPC CONFERENCE

AIRMON Power On

On-Board Training (OBT) Dragon Release Review

Verification of ??-1 Flow Sensor Position

Onboard Training (OBT) Dragon Release Conference

Manufacturing Device ABS Print Removal, Clean and Stow

??? maintenance

Replacement of SS?2 and RSE-1 laptop network cable connectors.

LIOH and PFA Setup

On-board Training (OBT) Dragon Robotics Onboard Trainer (ROBoT) Release

24-hour ECG Recording (termination)

AIRMON preparation and First Low NO measurement

24-hour BP recording (terminate)

Prep for FGB ????? ???-3 Smoke Detector needle cleaning (r/g review, equipment gathering).

Photo T/V (P/TV) Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Exercise Video Setup

AIRMON Calibrations, Low NO and High NO measurements

Arthrospira EC Reservoir Exchange

Dust collectors ?C1, ??2 filter cleaning by vacuum cleaner in FGB

24-hour ECG Recording (start)

Photo/TV Camcorder Setup Verification

AIRMON High NO measurement

Rodent Research Live Animal Return Review

Rodent Research Crew Conference

Polar Transfer To Dragon Overview Review

Preparations for and depressurization- Airway Monitoring

Polar Sample Transfer From MELFI

Comm Subsystem [????] routine maintenance ops (LF path and VHF receiver test). Headset Audit.

AIRMON Low NO measurement at low pressure

TangoLab-2 Card Cube Remove

HRF Generic Urine Collection Stow

USB Jumpdrive Return and PPS Reconfiguration

AIRMON Low & High measurements at reduced pressure

Rodent Research Transporter Setup

Crew Wait for other crew

AIRMON High NO measurement at reduced pressure

Countermeasures System (CMS) VELO Exercise session Day 1

Airlock repressurization

Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD)  JEM

Dragon Cable Prep

VHF2d test from SM using primary ???? sets

Power cycle LAB AVN443 HD Encoder

???? Camcorder setup and configuring in MRM2 (for mpeg2 TV coverage of High Gain Antenna boom translation)

TangoLab-1 Card Cube Remove

CONTENT. Experiment Ops

Acoustic Monitor Data Transfer and Stow

APEX-05 MELFI Sample Insertion #2

AIRMON Power Off

Micropurification Unit (???) ?2 Absorption Cartridge (end)

Completed Task List Activities

EVA Procedure Review

Ground Activities

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

NREP transfer.

Standard commanding and payload support.

Three-Day Look Ahead:

Thursday, 01/11: Airways Monitoring, RR-6, Spheres Zero Robotics, POLAR Transfer, Petri Plate, Dragon cargo ops, Manufacturing Device Stow, Double Coldbag Pack Review

Friday, 01/12: Double Coldbag Pack, Dragon cargo ops, Dragon Unberth (Egress, N2 vestibule ops, depress, unberth), Lighting Effects, LMM Petri Plate, HRF fluid collections.

Saturday, 01/13: Dragon release, CUCU deact.

QUICK ISS Status  Environmental Control Group:

Component  Status

Elektron  On

Vozdukh  Manual

[???] 1  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV1)  On

[???] 2  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV2)  Off

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab  Operate

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3  Standby

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab  Idle

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3  Operate

Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA)  Process

Urine Processing Assembly (UPA)  Standby

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab  Full Up

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3  Off
At this pit on Mars, the steep slope at the northern edge (toward the top of the image) exposes a cross-section of a thick sheet of underground water ice. The image is from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with an enhanced-color central swath between grayscale on each side NASA

Researchers using NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found eight sites where thick deposits of ice beneath Mars surface are exposed in faces of eroding slopes.

These eight scarps, with slopes as steep as 55 degrees, reveal new information about the internal layered structure of previously detected underground ice sheets in Mars middle latitudes.

The ice was likely deposited as snow long ago. The deposits are exposed in cross section as relatively pure water ice, capped by a layer one to two yards (or meters) thick of ice-cemented rock and dust. They hold clues about Mars climate history. They also may make frozen water more accessible than previously thought to future robotic or human exploration missions.

Researchers who located and studied the scarp sites with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on MRO reported the findings today in the journal Science. The sites are in both northern and southern hemispheres of Mars, at latitudes from about 55 to 58 degrees, equivalent on Earth to Scotland or the tip of South America.

There is shallow ground ice under roughly a third of the Martian surface, which records the recent history of Mars, said the studys lead author, Colin Dundas of the U.S. Geological Surveys Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. What weve seen here are cross-sections through the ice that give us a 3-D view with more detail than ever before.

Windows into underground ice

The scarps directly expose bright glimpses into vast underground ice previously detected with spectrometers on NASAs Mars Odyssey (MRO) orbiter, with ground-penetrating radar instruments on MRO and on the European Space Agencys Mars Express orbiter, and with observations of fresh impact craters that uncover subsurface ice. NASA sent the Phoenix lander to Mars in response to the Odyssey findings; in 2008, the Phoenix mission confirmed and analyzed the buried water ice at 68 degrees north latitude, about one-third of the way to the pole from the northernmost of the eight scarp sites.

The discovery reported today gives us surprising windows where we can see right into these thick underground sheets of ice, said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, a co-author on todays report. Its like having one of those ant farms where you can see through the glass on the side to learn about whats usually hidden beneath the ground.

Scientists have not determined how these particular scarps initially form. However, once the buried ice becomes exposed to Mars atmosphere, a scarp likely grows wider and taller as it retreats, due to sublimation of the ice directly from solid form into water vapor. At some of them, the exposed deposit of water ice is more than 100 yards, or meter, thick. Examination of some of the scarps with MROs Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) confirmed that the bright material is frozen water. A check of the surface temperature using Odysseys Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera helped researchers determine theyre not seeing just thin frost covering the ground.

Researchers previously used MROs Shallow Radar (SHARAD) to map extensive underground water-ice sheets in middle latitudes of Mars and estimate that the top of the ice is less than about 10 yards beneath the ground surface. How much less? The radar method did not have sufficient resolution to say. The new ice-scarp studies confirm indications from fresh-crater and neutron-spectrometer observations that a layer rich in water ice begins within just one or two yards of the surface in some areas.

Astronauts access to Martian water

The new study not only suggests that underground water ice lies under a thin covering over wide areas, it also identifies eight sites where ice is directly accessible, at latitudes with less hostile conditions than at Mars polar ice caps. Astronauts could essentially just go there with a bucket and a shovel and get all the water they need, Byrne said.

The exposed ice has scientific value apart from its potential resource value because it preserves evidence about long-term patterns in Mars climate. The tilt of Mars axis of rotation varies much more than Earths, over rhythms of millions of years. Today the two planets tilts are about the same. When Mars tilts more, climate conditions may favor buildup of middle-latitude ice. Dundas and co-authors say that banding and color variations apparent in some of the scarps suggest layers possibly deposited with changes in the proportion of ice and dust under varying climate conditions.

This research benefited from coordinated use of multiple instruments on Mars orbiters, plus the longevities at Mars now exceeding 11 years for MRO and 16 years for Odyssey. Orbital observations will continue, but future missions to the surface could seek additional information.

If you had a mission at one of these sites, sampling the layers going down the scarp, you could get a detailed climate history of Mars, suggested MRO Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Its part of the whole story of what happens to water on Mars over time: Where does it go? When does ice accumulate? When does it recede?

The University of Arizona operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, leads MROs CRISM investigation. The Italian Space Agency provided MROs SHARAD instrument, Sapienza University of Rome leads SHARAD operations, and the Planetary Science Institute, based in Tucson, Arizona, leads U.S. involvement in SHARAD. Arizona State University, Tempe, leads the Odyssey missions THEMIS investigation. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the MRO and Odyssey projects for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, built both orbiters and supports their operation.
On Friday, January 12th at Charlottes Latin American Contemporary Art (LaCa) Projects, Charlotte Coffee Collective will host an intersectionality panel led by Summit Coffees Colea Henderson. The panels mission is to elevate marginalized voices within the Charlotte, North Carolina coffee community, providing an opportunity for coffee pros to listen and learn from the experience of their non-white and/or LGBTQ+ peers, who experience a unique set of overlapping challenges both in and out of the workplace. The event is free to attend; all that organizers ask is that attendees bring a writing utensil and an open mind.

This event happens Friday (tomorrow) as we go to press here at Sprudgethe event is all ages and requires no RSVP, with more information available via the events Facebook page. Participating panelists include Lane Wilson of Summit Coffee, Maura Raymond of Amelies French Bakery, Kenya Augerson of Not Just Coffee, Lara Americo of Comic Girl Coffee, and the aforementioned event leader, Colea Henderson. To learn more in advance of the event I spoke to Henderson digitally from Charlotte.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Hi Colea. Before we talk about the event, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Im the Operations Manager at Summit Coffee-Huntersville. Ive been in coffee for three years, and I enjoy my coffee with a few spoonfuls of education, a generous pour of intersectionality and inclusivity, and some steamed almond milk. When Im not making coffee, Im probably napping or practicing yoga.

How did you end up getting involved with Charlotte Coffee Collective?

My long-time friend, Diana Mnatsakanyan-Sapp, asked me to be one of the organizers of the Charlotte Coffee Collective and I realized that this was my chance to truly diversify the Charlotte specialty coffee scene. I wanted to create safe and welcoming spaces for people who exist in the sameand differentmarginalized intersections I do, and for them to know that we have every right to take up as much space as we want in the community.

Can you tell me about the event?

The event is for the Charlottes specialty coffee community leaders, which tends to be a pretty homogeneous group of white cis/het men. While, obviously, there are Charlotte baristas who dont fit this mold, it can often be challenging to see their presence in the sea of monotony. The coffee professionals I invited to be on the panel, along with myself, are people who are members of the trans/queer community and/or are people of color who all have some sort of leadership role within the local specialty coffee community. We are a shift lead, a director of operations and education, a director of beverages, an operations manager, and an owner.

What does the term intersectionality meanand what does it mean to you?

Intersectionality means making sure that literally everyones voices are not just heard but are regarded as valid and as part of the human experience. Equally.

There are many, many different kinds of intersectional exclusionsnot just black women, but other women of color. Not just people of color, but people with disabilities. Immigrants. LGBTQ people. Indigenous people. The way we imagine discrimination or disempowerment often is more complicated for people who are subjected to multiple forms of exclusionThe good news is that intersectionality provides us a way to see it.Kimberle Crenshaw

What specific topics do you plan to discuss relating to intersectionality?

Primarily, well be discussing how to ensure that your employees and customers are safe from the everyday challenges they regularly face as part of a marginalized group of people. Well also be focusing on what we can tangibly do as people in power who are the employers and managers of what is hopefully a diverse staff of people.

Will there be any informational resources presented outside of the panel?

This discussion will take place after we front load attendees with definitions of terms that they may encounter during the rest of the panel. Well also finish the night out with a Q&A to make sure we didnt miss anything.

What inspired you to host this event?

The overwhelming homogeneity of the Charlotte specialty coffee community can be exhausting to exist in, since Im constantly surrounded by it and expected to function highly in it, yet almost never feel the honest reciprocity of the community trying to understand lives other than theirs. That is what inspired me to create it.

Why is this event so important, especially in the Charlotte coffee community?

Charlotte coffee needs diversity because marginalized people are actually the majority of the world.

Are there any sponsors or people you want to shout out to?

The panelists who are willing to put their existence on display for the betterment of the community: Maura, Kenya, Lara, and Lane.

Thank you.

The Charlotte Coffee Collective Intersectionality Panel takes place January 12th at LaCa Projects 1429 Bryant St ) in Charlotte, NC. Free to attend, all ages, 7:30 pm. More info via the events official Facebook page.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

Event poster image by Diana Mnatsakanyan-Sapp. Photo of Colea Henderson used by permission.
New Movement Challenges Men: It's Time to RISE

Contact: Kevin Wandra 404-788-1276PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 11, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- As male secular icons are falling almost daily, a group of Catholic men are issuing a 30-day challenge to all men to rise up and embrace an authentic masculinity. RISE: A 30-Day Challenge is co-authored by Chris Stefanick, host of EWTN's "Real Life Catholic," and Bill Donaghy, a curriculum specialist at the Theology of the Body Institute."There's never been a more important time than now for men to step up, lead their families and communities, and live an authentic masculinity rooted in understanding their identity as sons of God," said Stefanick, co-author and video presenter."RISE is a unique 30-day series of videos and challenges that walks men through a battle plan for life. It's simple, but the results are extraordinary. Whether they're faithful or just seeking, RISE will profoundly impact their lives for the better," said Stefanick.RISE is an individual journey for each man with practical challenges based on their life situation. Men are encouraged to walk with a "brother," and to hold each other accountable through the 30 days, and there are resources provided for parish and group settings."RISE is all about stepping up and claiming your true identity as a son of God, embracing your natural and profound gifts as a man. That changes everything," said Stefanick. "Imagine if a million men in the Church were living intentionally as disciples of Christ. Families, parishes and communities would be transformed. That's our goal."Men can choose to begin RISE at different start-dates throughout the year. Many are starting with Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Parishes may review RISE at no cost."This isn't just a program, it's a movement," said Donaghy, co-author. "RISE meets men where they are, and gives them practical tools to live their faith out every day. With men all around the world stepping up, RISE will be revolutionary."RISE is published by Cardinal Studios LLC, in collaboration with Real Life Catholic and in association with Ecce! Films.To learn more about RISE, visit www.menriseup.org/ . RISE is also available in Spanish.For more information, or to schedule an interview with Chris Stefanick or Bill Donaghy, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com ) of Carmel Communications.
Florida's minimum wage increased to $8.25 per hour on January 1, 2018. Florida's 2018 minimum wage also increased for tipped employees to $5.23 per hour.

In 2004, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment which created Florida's minimum wage. The minimum wage applies to all employees in the state who are covered by the federal minimum wage.

Florida law requires the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to calculate a minimum wage rate each year. The annual calculation is based on the percentage increase in the federal Consumer

Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in the South Region for the 12-month

period prior to September 1, 2017.

Employers must pay their employees the hourly state minimum wage for all hours worked in Florida. The definitions of employer, employee, and wage for state purposes are the same as those established under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Employees who are not paid the minimum wage may bring a civil action against the employer or

any person violating Florida's minimum wage law. The state attorney general may also bring an

enforcement action to enforce the minimum wage.

Florida Statutes also require employers who must pay their employees the Florida minimum wage to

post a minimum wage notice in a conspicuous and accessible place in each establishment

where these employees work. This poster requirement is in addition to the federal requirement

to post a notice of the federal minimum wage.
Mira Costa became the first team this season to win a set against Cathedral Catholic, but the Mustangs eventually fell in four sets in the CIF SoCal Regional final Tuesday night.
Timothy Haag, who received a mandatory life sentence for murdering his 7-year-old Longview neighbor in 1994, will be re-sentenced Friday under a mandate from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Theres at least a possibility that Haag, now 39, could be sentenced to time served and be released with a few months.

Haag admitted in 1995 to choking and drowning Rachel Dillard, saying he was taking revenge on her family for treating the girls teenager half brother, Alex Anderson, like dirt. Haag told psychologists in 2015 that he had been in love with Anderson.

Haag, then 17, was tried as an adult under Washington States 1994 Youth Violence Reduction Act. But the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 ruled that mandatory life without parole sentences for juvenile homicide offenders are unconstitutional. A subsequent 2016 ruling made that ruling retroactive, requiring re-sentences for offenders like Haag.

Anderson, the victims brother, plans to attend the resentencing, which will take place in Cowlitz County Superior Court. He will argue against Haag receiving a lighter sentence. Anderson said that news of the re-sentencing made him furious.

I flew into a fit of rage immediately, said Anderson, now a resident of Eugene, Ore. There was thoughts of revenge. I cant go that route. Im a father and I have to be there for my daughter.

According to court records filed by his public defender, Simmie Baer, Haag has led an exemplary life in prison. Last April, Baer recommended a 25-year sentence for Haag, who had already served 22 years of his sentence at the time. It is unclear whether Haag would be released if given a 25-year sentence based on his good behavior in prison.

Anderson, however, disputes that Haag is reformed.

This was not some accident, not some Oh, it just happened (situation), Anderson said. He murdered Rachel in the most vicious manner possible. I cant believe the caseworkers are looking at it as one bad mistake. This is one ... hell of a mistake.

Friday sentencing hearing will be the first time Anderson will have seen his parents in 22 years, he said. Anderson said he left his family after years of abuse in his childhood.

The two Supreme Court rulings affect approximately 2,100 offenders nationwide, according to research by the Juvenile Law Center. According to the 2016 retroactivity ruling, states may resolve those cases by extending parole eligibility to juvenile offenders. Fridays trial will likely determine whether that eligibility is extended to Haag.

Jeremy Barclay, the communications director at the Washington State Department of Corrections, said the number of these cases that end with offenders going free is a mixed bag.

There has not been a set pattern, Barclay said. Typically, however, once offenders serve 20 to 25 years, judges more often than not agree to release the offenders, he said.

Its a little more rare, but not unheard of, that they say you have more time (to serve).

Barclay added that even if a judge agrees to release an offender, the inmate is not usually freed immediately and must go through a pre-release process.

It is more the case that it is not an immediate release, Barclay said. Its a checklist of making sure that residence is established (and) that they have a pro-social support system waiting for them.

Anderson is seeking community support for the trial and created a public event shared to his personal Facebook page and several Cowlitz area groups to encourage people to attend the trial. Anderson said he needs community voices to tell the court to not release Haag.

When this trial occurred, I was promised he would never see the light of day again, Anderson said. I have a two-year old daughter; I cant just move away. Im very uncomfortable knowing Im a state away from (Haag).
The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for the period from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday for coastal areas of Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington. Winds of up to 35 mph with gusts as high as 60 mph are forecast for coastal and headland areas, including Ocean Park, Astoria and Cannon Beach.

The Longview-Kelso area is not within the hazard zone, although the weather service does predict winds up to 22 mph with gusts as high as 34 mph Thursday morning.

Forecasters warned that the strongest winds will occur during mid-day and may be strong enough to cause power interruptions or damage to trees and property.
The Rainier School District is still looking for six more families to host visiting Chinese students from Jan. 26 through Feb. 2.

Superintendent Michael Carter said at Monday's school board meeting that host families simply need to give the students a place to sleep and two meals a day. The school district will provide all transportation to and from the school and other events the students will attend.

Carter added that families don't have to live in Rainier to host a Chinese student, but they should live less than 30 minutes away from the high school.

Although the students won't speak much English, Carter said when he hosted a Chinese student in the past, he and his wife used Google Translate to communicate, which was successful.

For more information, contact Rainier High School at 1-503-556-4215 and ask for Principal Melissa Sandven.
Vodafone has announced its partnership with Trend Micro to launch Vodafone Super Shield, a cutting edge end point security suite for businesses.

Vodafone Super Shield is a complete end-point security suite that protects critical business data from a multitude of threats including malware attacks, ransom ware, spyware, phishing websites and data thefts etc. Super Shield is equipped with advanced enterprise grade features including USB port blocking, URL filtering and full disk encryption on Windows. Backed by Trend Micros Cloud based Global Smart Protection Network, it proactively identifies and blocks new and existing threats before they impact the devices.

Users of Vodafone Super Shield can receive updates real-time on the cloud platform, thus eliminating the need for servers or complex IT infrastructure to manage the deployment. Its admin management feature is accessible anytime, anywhere from the URL-based admin console.

Super Shield is designed to protect devices across platforms and devices including Windows PCs, MacBooks, Windows Servers as well as Android and iOS mobile platforms. It lets customers manage their users and licenses online, grant and revoke access, and generate reports and dashboards.

Anil Philip, Senior Vice President, Vodafone Business Services said, With businesses getting exponentially digital and online, data and information security is of critical importance. Vodafone Super Shield is designed to make enterprise grade data security in a simple, affordable and worry free way.

Nilesh Jain, Country Manager India & SAARC, Trend Micro commented on the partnership,With ever-growing security risks and a complex IT environment, it is important to find a flexible, customizable, easy-to-manage solution suitable for businesses. We are glad to partner and collaborate with Vodafone in helping secure Enterprises and SMB customers that are looking for flexible security deployment options. Our endpoint security offering will greatly help achieve that. It would offer a multi-dimensional advanced threat protection, and consolidated view across all layers of security and all deployment models.

Vodafone Super Shield is available on its completely online automated marketplace Vodafone CloudStore (www.cloud.vodafone.in) at an affordable price of Rs. 99 per user per month or Rs. 999 per user for 12 months. Customers can buy it online and opt for simple, flexible payment options and manage their users and licenses online. Vodafone also extends dedicated Account management, Relationship management and Cloud Support infrastructure that helps with onboarding and in-life support.
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Kriti Sanon and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari have a chatty outing

Kriti Sanon and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari had a Bareilly Ki Barfi reunion recently as the actor-director duo caught up for a lunch outing.

Touted as the tastiest film of 2017, Bareilly Ki Barfi brought together the duo Kriti Sanon and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari for the first time.

Kriti Sanon and director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwary developed a very warm bond on the sets of the film, which was visible through the social media posts of the duo. The ladies had yet another outing months after the film's release and the bond is strong as ever. Kriti Sanon took to her social media to share details of the same saying, "Time flies when we are chatting!! I Love you @ashwinyiyertiwari ???? we should meet more often you, me , yummy food and gappe! ???? mmuuuahhhh??".


BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia appeared before the special court on two corruption cases filed by Anti-Corruption Commission on Bakshibazar Alia Madrasha premises in the city on Thursday.
US wants wider trade with BD

The United States is giving a serious look at Bangladesh to expand its trade and investment ties with a special focus on oil, gas and energy sector as Bangladesh offers huge potentials in this area, says a US official.

The US companies, however, find some issues of concerns, including business registration, regulations and infrastructure that they hope the government will address.

"Right now, the biggest sector is oil, gas and energy. This is going to be very important for US companies. US companies have lot of experience," the US Embassy official in Dhaka told UNB mentioning that they view Bangladesh as a huge market.

Wishing to remain unnamed, the official said he knows many companies in the US which are interested in helping Bangladesh develop its energy generation gap.

Explaining US's interest to expand trade and investment ties, he said there are huge opportunities in Bangladesh having 160 million people with a growing middle class, and the government of Bangladesh is making lots of efforts to improve infrastructure and other required facilities.

"We care about Bangladesh. From US companies' perspective, Bangladesh is a huge potential market. But it's not easy. You need to have patience when you look at Bangladesh," the US official said while sharing the concerns of US companies.

He said, the airport infrastructure is not in that shape what they find in other places and sometimes it takes longer time than it should take in terms of business approval.

"We've seen progress in streamlining approval for business that will be helpful. Anything that goes towards streamlining processes whether it is customs or business registration - we say improvement is critical," said another official who is dealing with trade issues.

Responding to a question on market diversification, the US official said there is a market for Bangladeshi products in the US market if Bangladesh produces products efficiently and export those to the US market timely.

The US officials think Bangladesh's pharmaceuticals have made a lot of progress and information technology services are "really potential".

India, according to officials, is now a hub for IT services and some of the services are becoming more expensive, and Bangladesh could take advantage of it to produce those services in Bangladesh and export to the global market, including the US one.
SC stays HC order

Staff Reporter :

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a High Court (HC) order that stayed the effectiveness of the notification of the BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) inviting the proposals for granting license for '4G/LTE Cellular Mobile Phone Services' in Bangladesh.

The Chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order within two and half hours of the HC order considering a petition filed by the government and sent the case to the full bench of the Appellate Division for further hearing. The Chamber Judge fixed next Sunday for holding the hearing on the case.

According to the notification, next Sunday is the last date for submitting the proposals for granting license for 4G/LTE cellular mobile phone services.

The concerned lawyer said, now there is no legal bar to submit the proposals for 4G license.

Earlier, the High Court on Thursday morning stayed the effectiveness of the notification of the BTRC inviting the proposals for granting license for '4G/LTE Cellular Mobile Phone Services' in Bangladesh.

The HC bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Zafar Ahmed passed the order and also issued a rule after primary hearing of a writ petition.

The BTRC issued a notification on December 4 in 2017 inviting proposals for granting license for 4G/LTE cellular mobile phone services. January 14 in 2018 is the last date for submitting the proposals, according to the notification. But Banglalion Communications Limited, a private telecommunication operator in Bangladesh, filed a writ petition with the HC challenging the legality of the notification on January 10 in 2018. The HC passed the order after hearing the petition.

Dr. Kamal Hossain appeared for Banglalion in the HC. Advocate Ramjan Ali Sikder and Advocate Saiful Alam Chowdhury were also present in the court on behalf of Banglalion while Deputy Attorney General Samarendra Nath Biswas stood for the State.

Advocate Ramjan Ali said, "The issued notification was contrary to the two sections of a BTRC policy of 2008, known as the 'Wireless and Broadband Policy'. Not more than three persons can get this license, as per section 4.2 of the policy of 2008. Besides this, the government may get a license. And mobile phone operators are not eligible to get this license, according to 4.6(iii) of the policy."

"The BTRC issued the notification for granting 4G license violating the two sections of the policy. That is why we filed the writ petition," said Advocate Ramjan Ali.

The HC wanted to know in the rule as to why the issued notification should not be declared illegal as it was contrary to the two sections of the policy. Respondents including the Secretary of Posts and Telecommunications Ministry and the BTRC Chairman have to comply with the rule.
Jamaat man out on campaign before BNP's nomination

Although BNP is yet to announce its candidate for the by-polls to Dhaka North City corporation mayoral post, its key alliance partner Jamaat leader Selim Uddin has already started mass contact as an aspirant to vie for the post.

BNP senior leaders said their party may announce Taibth Awal as its candidate on Saturday night after a meeting of the party policymakers.

However, Selim Uddin, Jamaat Dhaka north city unit president, said his party has already given him nomination to contest the polls.

Talking to UNB over phone, he said, "I'll collect nomination paper on Sunday from the returning officer's office. The voters of the Dhaka North City Corporation think the alliance leader (Khaleda) will finally nominate me as the 20-party alliance candidate."

Asked whether he will be there in the race if he is not given the nomination by the alliance, the Jamaat leader said he is hopeful about getting nomination. "I'll accept whatever decision my party takes."

He said he has already carried out campaigns in Uttara, Gulshan, Banani, Badda and Mohammapur areas. "Our leaders and activists are also working for us."

Earlier on Monday night, the BNP chief had a meeting with top leaders of her party-led 20-party alliance.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the alliance leaders at the meeting assured Khaleda Zia of extending their support to the BNP candidate she will nominate to contest the by-election.He also said their party standing committee member will finalise the candidate for the by-polls on Saturday night. A faction of Labour Party, an alliance partner of the 20-party alliance, also nominated its candidate for the by-election. Mostafizur Rahman Iran, president of the faction of the Labour Party, said their party's Dhaka north unit president SM Yusuf Ali will collect nomination paper to contest the by-polls.

Contacted, Taibth Awal said he has all-out preparation to contest the polls if BNP nominates him.


SC upholds BB decision to remove NRBC Bank's MD

Staff Reporter :

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Bangladesh Bank's decision to remove the Managing Director of NRB Commercial Bank, Dewan Mujibur Rahman.

The apex court said that its earlier stay order on the High Court order freezing the Bangladesh Bank's decision to remove Dewan Mujibur Rahman from the post of Managing Director of NRB Commercial Bank will continue.

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Acting Chief Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah passed the order, after disposing a petition filed by the Chairman of NRB Commercial Bank challenging the HC order.

NRB Commercial Bank's lawyer Barrister Mehedi Hasan Chowdhury told the journalists that the apex court's stay order on the HC directive regarding removal of Dewan Mujibur Rahman will continue following the SC order.

Following a writ petition filed by Rahman, the HC on December 7 last year stayed the BB decision to remove him from the post. The HC also issued a rule asking the BB and the government to explain as to why the central bank's decision to remove Rahman should not be declared illegal.

Later on January 7, the Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain stayed the High Court order that halted the Bangladesh Bank's decision to remove Mujibur Rahman.

The Chamber Judge passed the order following a petition filed by NRBC Bank's Chairman seeking a stay on the HC order.

The chamber judge also sent the petition of the NRBC Bank's Chairman to the full bench of the Appellate Division for its hearing on January 11 in 2018.

The Bangladesh Bank on December 6 removed Dewan Mujibur Rahman from the bank for his alleged involvement in a number of loan scandals involving around Tk 700 crore.
Moulana Saad won't join Biswa Ijtema: Asad

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Thursday said top scholar of Indian Tabligh Jamaat Maulana Saad Kandhalvi will not join the 53rd Biswa Ijtema, beginning on Friday.

He disclosed the decision while talking to reporters after a meeting with the Sura members of Bangladesh Tabligh Jamaat and five members of 'Alem Advisory Committee' at his ministry.

Asaduzzaman said the first phase of Biswa Ijtema will begin on Friday as usual in a peaceful manner. "The two feuding groups reached an understanding that Saad Kandhalvi won't attend the Ijtema. He'll go back to India at his convenient time. He'll stay at Kakrail Mosque until his departure," he said.

Bangladesh Tabligh Jamaat will decide who will conduct the concluding munajat of the Ijtema, the minister said while responding to a query from reporters.

Earlier on Wednesday, a large number of Tabligh Jamaat men put barricade on Airport Road intersection from 12 noon to 4:30 pm protesting the arrival of the Indian Tabligh Jamaat scholar to take part in the Biswa Ijtema following his controversial comments about religious issues, creating huge tailbacks in the area.

He was scheduled to join the first phase of the 53rd Biswa Ijtema, the second largest congregation of the Muslim community after holy hajj, to be held on January 12-14 on the bank of the Turag River in Tongi.
Biswa Ijtema begins today

BSS, GAZIPUR :

The 53rd Biswa Ijtema, the second largest congregation of the Muslims, will begin today morning on the bank of the Turag River at Tongi on the outskirts of the city amid tight security.

The first phase of the three-day Ijtema will begin with 'Aam Bayan' (general sermons) by noted scholars after Fazr prayers that will end with Akheri Munajat (final prayers) on January 14.

Thousands of devotees from home and abroad started to throng the Ijtema ground on the bank of the Turag since Wednesday night to take part in the religious event seeking divine blessings of the Almighty Allah.

The second phase of the Tongi Ijtema will begin on January 19 at the same venue and it is scheduled to end with Akheri Munajat (final prayers) on January 21.

Tablig Jamaat has been organizing the Ijtema at this venue since 1967. However, the Ijtema is held in two phases since 2011 to ease the accommodation problem.

President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday issued separate messages greeting the Muslim devotees all over the world on the occasion of the Bishwa Ijtema.

In the messages, the President and the Prime Minister wished all success of the three-day congregation.

Tablig Jamaat's senior leader Md Gias Uddin yesterday said devotees from 32 districts of the country will take part in the two phases of Ijtema while devotees from 16 districts of the country and abroad will join the first phase.

All preparations for the Ijtema, including setting up pendal, stage, floating bridge over Turag river, toilets, have been completed, he said, adding that gas, electricity and water connections were given to the Ijtema ground.

Gazipur City Corporation Mayor Professor MA Manna said the City Corporation, district administration, police, RAB and Ansar and VDP have set up five separate control rooms to monitor the overall activities of the Tongi Ijtema.

The City Corporation erected 13 gates at the entrances of the Ijtema ground to welcome the foreign devotees, he added.

The mayor also said 3.54 lakh gallons of fresh water will be supplied everyday through 18.50 kilometer pipelines from 13 deep tube-wells and 21 trucks will be engaged in removing garbage from the Ijtema ground.

Fire Service and Civil Defense Director (operation and maintenance) Major AKM Shakil Newaz said senior officials of the service were directed to ensure all kinds of fire safety at the Ijtema venue.

An eight-tier security measure will be taken with deployment of 7,000 policemen and about 250 RAB members to avert any untoward incident during the Ijtema, law enforcement agency sources said.

According to the sources, 15 watch towers and 41 close circuit camera televisions have been set up in and around the Ijtema ground alongside deployment of bomb disposal units and dog squads to ensure foolproof security of the Biswa Ijtema.

Fifty medical teams and 14 ambulances will provide health care services to the devotees during the three-day congregation.
'No bar for recruitment tests in 3 banks'

Staff Reporter :

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed for six weeks the High Court order that halted the recruitment examinations for Senior Officers, Officers and Cash Officers in the three state-run banks-Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank and Janata Bank-scheduled to be held today (January 12 in 2018).

The Chamber judge of the Appellate Division, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, passed the order considering a petition filed by Bangladesh Bank seeking a stay on the High Court order.

Md. Mosharraf Hossain Khan, Member Secretary of Bankers Selection Committee of Bangladesh Bank and also General Manager of the bank, told the journalists that there was no legal bar to take recruitment tests of those banks now and they would take the tests as per pre-scheduled time.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam appeared for the central bank in the court. The High Court on January 7 in 2018 stayed the recruitment examination for Senior Officers, Officers and Cash Officers in the three state-run banks-Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank and Janata Bank-scheduled to be held today (January 12).

In response to a writ petition, the court also stayed the process for recruitment to these posts on the basis of circulars issued by Bangladesh Bank in 2017.

The High Court also issued a rule asking the respondents to explain as to why they should not be directed to hold the examinations for the recruitments on the basis of the circulars issued in 2016 before holding the examinations for the recruitments on the basis of the circulars issued in 2017.

The bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice J B M Hassan passed the order and issued the rule after hearing a writ petition filed by 28 candidates who had applied for the recruitments on the basis of the circulars in 2016.

Advocate Rashedul Haque Khokan and Advocate Tanzim Al Islam appeared for the writ petitioners.

Citing from the writ petition, Advocate Tanzim told the journalists that Bangladesh Bank had issued three separate circulars in 2016 for recruiting Senior Officers, Officers and Cash Officers in these three state-run banks.

Without holding the recruitment examinations on the basis of the 2016 circular, the central bank issued a combined circular on December 26 in 2017 for recruitments to these posts of eight state-run banks and financial institutions, including Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank and Janata Bank, which is illegal, he said, adding that his clients have not applied for the posts on the basis of 2017 circulars.

Finance Secretary, Governor of Bangladesh Bank and Chairman and Secretary of Bank Recruitment Selection Committee have been made respondents to the rule.

The exam was scheduled to be held to recruit employees for 527 posts in Sonali Bank Limited, 161 in Janata Bank Limited, 283 in Rupali Bank Limited, 39 in Bangladesh Development Bank Limited, 351 in Bangladesh Krishi Bank, 231 in Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, 70 in Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) and one post in Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation, according to official sources.


Journalists are charged in Myanmar

The Reuters journalists U Wa Lone, center front, and U Kyaw Soe Oo, center back, were escorted by the police in Yangon after being charged with obtaining state secrets on Wednesday.

The New York Times , BANGKOK :

Two journalists for the Reuters news agency were formally charged in Myanmar with obtaining state secrets, prosecutors said Wednesday, in a case seen as a key test of the country's nascent political freedoms.

The reporters, U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo, have been accused of violating the Official Secrets Act, a law dating to the British colonial period that carries a maximum punishment of 14 years in prison.

The journalists were brought to court in Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital, where they were arrested on Dec. 12, almost immediately after being given unidentified documents by members of the police.

Before their arrest, the journalists had been investigating the existence of a mass grave in Rakhine State, where a military campaign against Rohingya Muslims has sent more than 655,000 members of the persecuted minority fleeing to Bangladesh over the past four and a half months.

While the United States and the United Nations have called the campaign against the Rohingya ethnic cleansing, the Myanmar government has blocked independent investigators and journalists from the epicenter of violence, making it difficult to gather proof of atrocities. On Wednesday evening, the military released the results of its investigation into the mass grave in the village of Inn Din, which the Reuters journalists had been investigating. A statement on the Facebook page of the military's commander in chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said that the 10 bodies there were of Muslims who had been taken to the cemetery and killed by villagers and security forces "because they were terrorists."

The army crackdown on the Rohingya began after Rohingya insurgents attacked security posts in late August.

Rohingya in Bangladesh refugee camps have given consistent accounts of rape and murder at the hands of the Myanmar military and Buddhist vigilantes. Satellite images collected by human rights groups document the destruction by fire of hundreds of Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine.

Negotiating a scrum of journalists gathered in front of the Insein courthouse in Yangon on Wednesday morning, Mr. Wa Lone struck a defiant pose, raising his cuffed hands and later flashing a thumbs-up sign.

"We are not doing anything wrong," Mr. Kyaw Soe Oo told journalists after the hearing. "Please help us by uncovering the truth." A lawyer for both journalists, U Than Zaw Aung, said that Mr. Wa Lone is suffering from a hernia and back pain but has received no medical treatment while in detention. The next court appearance for his clients will be on Jan. 23, he said.

"The situation is very unclear," said Ma Pan Ei Mon, Mr. Wa Lone's wife. "I'm hoping all the time that he will be released soon." In a statement, Stephen J. Adler, the president and editor in chief of Reuters, called the move to prosecute the reporters "a wholly unwarranted, blatant attack on press freedom," adding, "We believe time is of the essence and we continue to call for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo's prompt release."

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The United States and the European Union both called for the men's release on Wednesday. "For democracy to succeed and flourish, journalists must be able to do their jobs," the embassy said in a statement.

Although Myanmar now has a civilian government, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the military that ruled the country for nearly half a century still controls the most important levers of power. The Tatmadaw, as the military is known, runs the Home Ministry, which administers Myanmar's internal affairs, including its prisons and police. Human rights groups have accused the police of entrapping the two Reuters journalists by giving them documents that were then deemed state secrets. Ms. Pan Ei Mon said her husband never had a chance to look at the papers before he was arrested.

Myanmar's elected civilian government has been accused of acquiescing to a crackdown on the media that belies the commitment to democratic values once espoused by Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi's governing party, the National League for Democracy. Since the party took power in 2016, at least 32 journalists have been charged with various crimes, according to We Support Journalists, a local media watchdog.

Many of the journalists have been imprisoned after reporting on abuses taking place in Myanmar's ethnic frontier lands, where the military has been fighting various ethnic guerrilla groups for decades.

U Swe Win, a veteran journalist and former political prisoner who is himself facing defamation charges that could return him to jail, noted that the news media, which had been muzzled during military rule, enjoyed a renaissance during a period of transitional governance from 2011-15, when U Thein Sein, a former junta general, led the country.

Dozens of new publications emerged from the shadow of censorship in those years. But today, local reporters are uncertain whether their investigations, particularly into military malfeasance, might land them in jail.

"Now we don't have transparency, and we don't know what's happening inside the government," Mr. Swe Win said. "All we know is that we journalists are always facing problems with the military, which means the civilian government has no power."
38 cops are being punished everyday

Transparency in appointment, transfer a must: Experts

Anisul Islam Noor :



A section of police personnel have allegedly involved themselves in different crimes and breaking the law almost everyday, though they are supposed to work honestly to ensure law and order in the country.

In the latest incident, DMP Additional Commissioner Mizanur Rahman, who allegedly married a woman forcibly and tortured her, has been withdrawn from Dhaka Metropolitan Police recently.

Mizan, who holds the rank of deputy inspector general, was attached to the police headquarters.

Earlier talking to the media, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said an enquiry has been launched into the allegations against Mizan.

Mizan has been withdrawn from the DMP and attached to the police headquarters for the sake of a proper investigation, he said.

Mizan allegedly picked up 25-year-old Moriam Akter Eko from in front of her Panthapath house on July 15 last year and then forcibly married her, according to a statement of Moriam's mother Queen Talukdar

Latest data of police headquarters showed that in last six years on an average at least 13,000 police have to face punishment for various crimes every year. It means an average of 1150 police members are being punished every month and at least 38 policemen are punished daily for committing crimes and breaking law.

Since 2012 to November 2017, 511 policemen were deported and 42 were sent to force retirement for involving in crimes and breaking law. Despite punishing them the crime of policemen were not reduced, sources said.

Asked about the polices crime, Police Headquarters DIG (Media) Abdul Alim Mahmud told The New Nation that after getting complaint against any member of the police force that is investigated immediately and then punishment confirmed on the basis of his offence.

According to the type of crime, there is a sectional case against police member even criminal cases are also being given, he said.

The police official said that no member would take responsibility for personal crimes. There is no chance of getting off on crime - it is understood only by seeing the punishment statistics.

Despite strong warning from police headquarters to prevent crime, some police members are involving in crime like phensidyl, Yaba trading and breaks laws. Corrupt police personnel are also being punished. Still crime does not stop. Field level officials and police constables are being involved in a serious crime like bribery, corruption and drug trading outside, it was alleged.

However, an official who is responsible for the discipline department of the police headquarters preferring anonymity said that after a long investigation, they took action against the accused police. The accused is terminated if he is found guilty of serious crimes. But at least 90 percent of those accused get their job back in court. It is normal that if the culprit gets the job back, the others crime will likely to be increased.

Law and crime experts say that police know the passage in the crime. Thats why it can do so easily. The senior officials will have to be tough to stop it. It cannot be stopped by administrative punishment only, the police will have to stop the appointment and transfer business in desire post.

There should be transparency in these cases; if the harsh punishment is confirmed then the crime of the police force will be reduced.

Eminent lawyer Shahedin Malik said, If a common people commits an offense, the punishment should be curtained by the police. Police should also face the similar punishment even they commit crime.

The crime of police members could not be stopped only administrative punishment, he said.

He said, since the police are responsibility for protecting the law, why they are breaking the law.

In the lower posts of police, the appointment and transfer business should be stopped. Because if a person was appointed giving bribe, he would commit crime in professional life. He will demand additional money out of wages to fulfill that demand and will be involved in crime. Shahedin Malik said

Omar Faroque, Associate Professor of Criminology and Police Science Department of Moulana Bhashani Science and Technology University, said that crime prevention and crime cannot go simultaneously. To prevent crime in the police, there will be more transparency in the recruitment process.

If a member is to make an illegal payment or to make an appointment or a replacement, then the member will be charged for withdrawing the money, he said.

Former IGP Nurul Huda said police involvement in crime is not possible to stop fully. But it is possible to minimize.




Obama reports no gifts from Putin in 2016 - sad!

AP, Washington :

Throughout 2016, foreign officials showered then-President Barack Obama with gifts seemingly meant for a post-presidential "man cave" - including bottles of Italian wine, an Australian billiards cue, a Jordanian chessboard, a cured ham leg from Spain, and a complete set of William Shakespeare's works, courtesy of Great Britain.

The gifts appear on a legally required list compiled and released each year by the State Department. The gifts aren't bribes, and Obama probably won't even get to enjoy most of them. They may go on display at his future presidential library, but U.S. officials must pay the Treasury fair market value of any presents they want to keep for personal use.

While this happens relatively rarely, the list released on Wednesday shows that former Secretary of State John Kerry bought a $2,200 bronze sculpture of a Mongolian on horseback (gift of Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj). And Kerry also acquired, at a price that could not be immediately determined, a brass-inlaid wooden chest from Kuwait's foreign affairs minister.

The most expensive package Obama received came from King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, which has been one of the most lavish benefactors of American presidents. Here's how the State Department describes it:

"Sculpture of a Bedouin group, entitled 'The Small Caravan,' including two men and three camels, painted in gold and silver and decorated with precious stones, mounted on green granite. Silver tone letter opener with golden Falcon handle and silver tone Chopard pen."

At the other end of the spectrum, the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't appear at all. There were no gifts to report in 2015, either, from the Russian leader, who has been accused by the U.S. intelligence community of meddling in the 2016 election. Federal rules require the disclosure of only those gifts valued above roughly $335, so Putin could conceivably have given Obama something inexpensive. But in a year marked by tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine and support for Syria's Bashar Assad, it seems more likely that the American president was just left off Putin's list.




Mahfujur joins as DG of BWDB

Business Desk :

Engr. Md. Mahfujur Rahman on Thursday joined as the Director General of Bangladesh Water Development Board for 2nd time, said a press release.

Earlier, he served as Director General from 22 June, 2017 to 23 November, 2017 in the same organization. He obtained his graduation in Civil Engineering from BUET in 1982 and MS in Civil Engineering (Hydrolic) in 1989 from IHE Delft, Netherlands. Mahfujur joined in BWDB as an Assistant Engineer (Civil) in 1983. During his service period he worked successfully in Planning, Design, CDSP and other projects. He attended different meeting, seminar and training in Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Thailand and India.


Japans Coming of Age Day

Japanese women attend their Coming of Age Day celebration ceremony at an amusement park in Tokyo, Japan on January 8, 2018. Dazzling in colourful kimonos

and wafting clouds of hairspray in their wake, thousands of young Japanese women marked their entry into official adulthood.


Tower Hamlets Council Speaker meets PM

UNB, Dhaka :

Visiting Speaker of UK Tower Hamlets Council Sabina Akhtar on Thursday evening paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the latter's Jatiya Sangsad office in the city.

The Prime Minister appreciated her for being first Bangladeshi-origin female Speaker of Tower Hamlets as well as her contribution to the wellbeing of Bangladeshi diaspora community in London as a whole and particularly in

Tower Hamlets, said Prime Minister's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim while briefing the reporters after the meeting. Sabina said she is impressed with the development of Bangladesh in various sectors under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She lauded the Prime Minister for particularly development of the education sector. In response, Sheikh Hasina said her government is promoting the education in all levels and provides stipend to 1.30 crore mothers of primary school students through mobile phone and local people are coming forward to arrange school feeding. The Bangladeshi-origin Speaker said she witnessed the proceedings of the Jatiya Sangsad on Wednesday and impressed with the performance of Prime Minister.
SoBs want bailout fund

Rupali Bank seeks Tk 932 cr

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :

State-owned Rupali Bank has sought for Tk 932.72 crore bailout fund from the government to replenish its capital shortfall following the suit of two other state lenders.

It came up with the move in a letter to the Senior Secretary of the Bank and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) under the Finance Ministry on Tuesday.

Last week, Sonali and BASIC Bank sought for fresh government funds in a similar manner for exclusively replenishing their waning capital.

Sonali Bank sought Tk 6,000 crore as fresh fund, while scam-hit BASIC Bank Tk 2,500 crore. Both the banks earlier suffered from huge loan scandals crippling their financial health consistently.

Officials of the banks said they needed immediate recapitalisation by the huge amount to boost their capital base, restore depositors' confidence and maintain minimum capital in line with Basel-III norms.

"We sought the recapitalisation fund to address the bank's capital shortfall as well as maintain capital adequacy ratio (CAR) in line with BASEL-III guideline," a Senior Rupali Bank official told The New Nation, asking not to be named.

He said, BASEL-III guideline is a global standard on the regulatory capital requirements for banks. The central bank has adopted the norm making it mandatory for all commercial banks in Bangladesh, including state-owned lenders.

As of September last year, BASIC Bank reported Tk 3,279 crore capital shortfall, Sonali Bank Tk 3,140 crore and Rupali Bank Tk 689.89 crore capital shortfall.

"Poor performance of the public banks over the years have led to significant capital erosion requiring for further capital injection both for replenishment of their capital shortfall and strengthening core activities," a Senior BFID official told The New Nation yesterday, preferring not to be named.

He said state-owed banks (SoBs) are now surviving on the huge bailout fund of the government. It has provided Tk 9,639 crore recapitalization fund to them over the last four years.

"The government has also set aside Tk 2,000 crore in this purpose in the budget for current fiscal," he added

The BFID official further said the government is planning to inject fresh funds to cash-strapped state-owned banks that are badly hit by bad loans and financial irregularities.

"The funds may be provided to them on stringent conditions and reforms in their governance system," he added.

When asked, the BFID official said, "We will prepare a summary for the Finance Minister seeking his consent in this regard."


PM to address nation today

UNB, Dhaka :

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will address the nation on Friday, marking the completion of her government's four years in office after the January-5, 2014 national election.

The PM's speech will simultaneously be broadcast by Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar as well as private TV channels and radio stations in the evening, said an official at the Prime Minister's Press Wing on Thursday.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Cultural Affairs

Minister Asaduzzaman Noor said the Prime Minister will address the national anytime from 7pm to 7:30pm. While addressing a press briefing at his ministry, the minister said a cultural event will also be arranged at the Army Stadium in the evening on the occasion where Prime Minister's address will be projected on big screen. On January 12, 2014, the Awami League government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, took office for the 2nd consecutive term with an overwhelming victory in the last general election held on January 5, 2014.
World cannot let down humanity for genocide in Myanmar

Myanmar military's Commander in Chief Min Aung Hlaing in a Facebook post on Wednesday admitted the security forces took part in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslims in September, whose bodies were found in a mass grave of Inn Din village in the violence-torn Rakhine State. 'Some villagers from Inn Din village and security members confessed they killed 10 Bengali terrorists,' the post said using a pejorative term for Rohingya.







Damn their admission. Myanmar Army Generals are brute Nazis believing in mass killing. After August 25 violence, around 800,000 Rohingyas have fled into Bangladesh raising the total number of refugees to 1.2 million.





The United Nations in September last had termed Myanmar's treatment to its Muslim Rohingya minority as a 'textbook example' of ethnic cleansing. But Myanmar did not respond to it. It also did not pay any heed to the appeals of media, human rights and voluntary organizations to stop the 'genocide'. Myanmar military's denial also continued about torching villages and raping women. The refugees in the meantime have given accounts of massacres by Myanmar military.







Now, two Reuters journalists, engaged in investigating evidence of a mass grave at Inn Din, are facing trial. They could be awarded a maximum sentence of 14 years. It was worth mentioning that the grave, as described by military on Wednesday's statement, was the same being investigated by the Reuters journalists. Even, the Amnesty International showing satellite images had made it clear that Rohingya homes in the Inn Din area were burned down in a coordinated campaign, whereas non-Rohingya buildings very nearby have been completely untouched.





What is most important now is to take care of the refugees. Unless the Generals responsible are threatened with trial for genocide there will be no assurance for taking the refugees back. The world cannot let down the humanity.







Our simple minded Foreign Minister is now agreeing that experience with Myanmar government over Rohingya refugees is bitter.







Our government has weakened international efforts by telling the world it can solve the issue bilaterally with Myanmar. We see incompetence everywhere. Yet, sycophants are succeeding in creating a feeling of success in the men in power.


The Undead Archives

I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.
If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs.
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Linkedin Retno LP Marsudi (Foreign Minister) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 03:21 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0afce1 2 Opinion Foreign-Affairs-Ministry,Retno-Marsudi Free

Good morning and may peace be upon us all, On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year.

It is my hope that in 2018 we can continue to work hard together for a better Indonesia and for a better world.

Indonesia a true partner for world peace, security and prosperity. Indonesias diplomacy has been in full speed since the very first day of 2018.

I have just returned from Davao City, Philippines. Symbolically, on Jan. 3, I handed over 300 Indonesian passports to persons of Indonesian descent, who have been living for decades in the Philippines without a defined legal citizenship. The Indonesian Consulate General in Davao City, in cooperation with the Government of the Philippines and the UNHCR, have successfully listed 8,745 Persons of Indonesian Descent in 8 provinces in Southern Philippines. Among them, 2,425 people have been given the Certificate of Indonesian Citizenship (SPKI). The process of collecting and validating data is not an easy task. This long process needs to be undertaken because the state wishes to provide maximum protection for its citizens who live abroad.

During my visit to Davao, Indonesia and the Philippines agreed to enhance cooperation in education, particularly to improve education in Islamic schools in Indonesia and the Southern Philippines. Indonesia stands ready to provide 100 scholarships every year.

On Jan. 5, I inaugurated the groundbreaking event for the construction of the new ASEAN Secretariat building. The construction of this building is a manifestation of Indonesias contribution so that the ASEAN Secretariat will be able to perform its tasks well in the next 50 years. This building will also affirm Jakarta as the diplomatic capital of ASEAN.

On Jan. 5, I also received the visit of the Indian Foreign Minister in Jakarta. India is an important strategic partner for Indonesia. Indonesia and India agreed to strengthen and deepen the two countries strategic partnership and contribute to the ecosystem of peace, stability, and prosperity in the region, including in the Indo-Pacific, by strengthening cooperation within the IORA, ASEAN-India, and EAS framework.

2017 just left us.

The support for humanitarian issues and efforts to create world peace are two prominent elements of Indonesias diplomacy throughout 2017.

Approaching the end of the year, the world was shocked by an attempt to alter the international status quo on Jerusalem. The world rightfully responded. The majority of countries still view the issue of Jerusalem clearly, as reflected in the result of the United Nations General Assemblys voting in New York on Dec. 21, 2017. Democracy must be honored and implemented at the global level. The position that most members of the UN took should become the worlds benchmark to resolve the issue of Jerusalem.

Indonesias position on Palestine, including on the status of Jerusalem, is very clear, firm, and consistent in accordance with our Constitutional mandate. This consistent position was also reaffirmed at the OIC Extraordinary Summit in Istanbul, Dec. 13, 2017. Prior to the Summit, I met with the Jordanian and Palestinian Foreign Ministers, and following the Summit, I also met with HRVP Mogherini in Brussels.

Indonesias diplomacy shall continue to strive for Palestine for humanity and for justice. Indonesias support for Palestine is not only in the form of political support but also economic support and technical cooperation. Specifically, in the field of economy, Indonesia has applied zero tariff for various Palestinian products entering the Indonesian market. This year, Indonesia will also strengthen cooperation in water desalination and health.

Once again, Palestine is at the heart of Indonesias foreign policy, and in every breath of Indonesian diplomacy, there you will find our struggle for Palestine. On this august occasion, Indonesia once again calls upon the international community to continue providing its support for Palestine.

Indonesias contribution to world peace is also carried out in Afghanistan. Both countries will intensify capacity building cooperation through scholarships, police training, infrastructure, ulama exchange programs, and women empowerment.

Last November, I conducted a working visit to Kabul. The first bilateral visit by an Indonesian Foreign Minister after more than 50 years. With the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, I signed a grant agreement on the establishment of a health polyclinic. The polyclinic will be built in the Indonesia Islamic Center complex, where an Indonesian mosque now stands.

Indonesia also had the honor to receive the visit by the President of Afghanistan, High Peace Council, and the First Lady of Afghanistan in 2017. It is an honor for Indonesia to work with our brothers in Afghanistan in building peace.

The convening of an International Conference for World Ulama is planned to be held in Indonesia to reinforce peaceful Islamic values and peace itself.

Still on the subject of humanitarian issues, in 2017 we also witnessed with concern the humanitarian crisis unraveling in Rakhine State, Myanmar, resulting in thousands of refugees fleeing to Bangladesh. Indonesia was one of the first countries to arrive in Myanmar and Bangladesh in the aftermath of the new cycle of violence in August 2017.

Indonesia calls for:

 the end of all forms of violence;

 the restoration of security and stability;

 protection of all persons;

 the opening of humanitarian access; and

 the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Kofi Annan Report.

As a reflection of our solidarity, we delivered humanitarian aid both to Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The second phase of development for the Indonesian Hospital in Mrauk U, Rakhine State, was also commenced last month. Indonesia has been the driving force behind the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Centre in Rakhine State.

Indonesia welcomes the Arrangement on Repatriation between Myanmar and Bangladesh, and looks forward to its full implementation.

Indonesia stands ready to contribute in carrying out the repatriation process as well as in the implementation of the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Report. Instability in one country might as well induce regional instability. Indonesia does not want this to happen.

We also followed closely with concern the occupation of Marawi by terrorist groups. Indonesia and the international community condemn such occupation.

Indonesia initiated a Trilateral Meeting in Manila on June 22, 2017 to strengthen cooperation in the fields of defense, countering radicalism and terrorism, through hardpower as well as softpower approaches.

My visit to Davao, as I have mentioned in the beginning of my speech, was also a follow-up to the Trilateral Cooperation in countering radicalism and terrorism through education.

2017 was an important year for ASEAN. It marked the 50th anniversary of ASEANs establishment. In the course of 50 years, ASEAN has significantly contributed to the creation of an ecosystem of peace, stability, and prosperity in Southeast Asia. For the next 50 years, in addition to contributing to the region, ASEAN must also be able to enhance its contribution to world peace and prosperity. The challenges that will be faced in the next 50 years will not lessen. All ASEAN member countries must have a strong commitment to maintain ASEANs relevance.

Collective leadership and concerted action are needed to preserve ASEAN as the prominent player in the region.

For Indonesia, ASEAN unity and centrality is key.

Without unity and centrality, it will be difficult for ASEAN to preserve its role and relevance. The ability of ASEAN member countries to synergize national and regional roles is inevitable. National and regional interest must be able to go hand in hand.

Indonesia will continue to safeguard ASEANs unity and centrality.

Some of ASEANs achievements in 2017 include, among others:

 First, the agreement on the Framework of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea between China and ASEAN, and the agreement on the commencement of negotiations of a Code of Conduct. Indonesia hopes that these negotiations can be concluded as soon as possible.

 Second, the signing of the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the rights of Migrant Workers. The signing was realized after undergoing a very long process. Indonesias championing of migrant worker protection shall remain unchanged, and ASEANs commitment to the protection of migrant workers shall test ASEANs ability to create a caring and sharing community.

 Third, Indonesia has pushed for the operationalization of the AIPR (ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation) as a means to contribute to the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Indonesias diplomacy was fortified not only in the Pacific Ocean but also in the Indian Ocean. Strengthening cooperation among the countries in the Indian Ocean Rim was a priority during Indonesias chairmanship of IORA. During Indonesias chairmanship, no less than 30 meetings, programs, and projects within the framework of IORA were held in Indonesia.

After 20 years of its establishment, an IORA Summit was held for the first time in Jakarta in March 2017. The Summit produced:

 The Jakarta Concord, which reinforced the commitment of IORA member countries to uphold the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as the main norm in maintaining peace and stability in the Indian Ocean region, and;

 The IORA Action Plan, which serves as a guideline for IORAs future direction. Indonesia continues to bolster the Indian Ocean as a zone of peace and the growth of a sense of regionalism in the Indian Ocean region. Indonesia handed over its chairmanship to South Africa in November last year.

On a wider scope, Indonesia continues to benefit from, and will continue to strengthen, intra- and inter-regional cooperation frameworks, such as APEC, ASEM, and FEALAC.

Indonesias membership in various International Organizations has yielded welcoming results. Indonesia has been elected in 14 candidacies to several international organizations.

Indonesia also intensified is diplomacy in 2017 through its candidacy as a Non Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council for the period of 2019-2020. Indonesias commitment to contribute in the maintenance of global peace and stability has been positively recorded. Indonesia ranks 9th out of 125 peacekeeping troop contributing countries. The issue of membership in the UN Security Council is not an issue of how big or small a country is, because all nations have the same right. Rather, a countrys track record and commitment to contribute to world peace needs to be assured.

Indonesia highly appreciates the support given, and hopes that other countries can follow suit in supporting Indonesias candidacy.

In 2017, Indonesia submitted a report for the third cycle of the UN Human Rights Councils Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

For the first time, two Indonesian ministers participated in a UPR submission: the Minister for Law and Human Rights and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The preparation process and follow-up of the report were completed with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders of human rights issues. Indonesia appreciates the positive response concerning the UPR report from the international community.

At the regional level, Indonesia continues to encourage human rights mainstreaming effort across all pillars of the ASEAN Community such as through the strengthening of the AICHR, advancing the issue of migrant rights protection as well as human rights-based approach in dealing with victims of human trafficking.

In the midst of growing skepticism towards values, and in the face of democracy and human rights setbacks all over the world, democracy and human rights will continue to be an asset for Indonesias diplomacy.

Democracy is a tool to achieve our goal, namely peace and prosperity. The values of democracy need to be diffused through democratic ways as well.

For the past decade, Indonesias effort in advancing democracy has been carried out through the convening of the Bali Democracy Forum (BDF). Now BDF is referred by others as an international forum that discusses democracy without fear and without a finger pointing exercise.

Another breakthrough was also achieved by BDF, namely the convening of the BDF Chapter Tunis. Together with the Foreign Minister of Tunisia, I attended the Forum.

This years BDF also included the participation of university students who are the future of the world. The Bali Democracy Student Conference was held in parallel with BDF.

Indonesias commitment to strengthen the South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) was also fortified in 2017 by continuously advocating good governance, accountability, and transparency.

At least 31 countries in Asia, Africa, and South Pacific, including Palestine, have become Indonesias partners for this cooperation, including in the fields of food security, fisheries, agriculture, as well as SMEs and micro-finance.

In particular, as a good friend, Indonesia has strengthened its engagement in the Pacific through capacity building trainings and humanitarian assistance, especially during times when the countries in this region were hit by natural disasters, as a form of our solidarity as a part of the international community and the Pacific nation.

The commitment to enhance South-South and other technical cooperation shall be gradually strengthened with the establishment of a single agency that is responsible for the delivery of Indonesias international assistance.

With a single agency, the delivery of Indonesian Aid will be carried out through a single door, with an initial budget of Rp1 trillion. The establishment of a single agency will strengthen Indonesias diplomacy including humanitarian diplomacy.

Indonesia also continues to strengthen its economic diplomacy. As I have mentioned before in last years Annual Ministerial Press Statement, Indonesia prioritizes enhancing relations with Africa, South and Central Asia, as well as Latin America, including in the field of economy. These regions remain to be uncharted territories for Indonesias products and businesspeople.

The value of trade between Indonesia and countries in Africa, and South and Central Asia has drastically increased by more than 100%. Opportunities for cooperation for Indonesian companies are abundant, particularly in the fields of infrastructure and energy, as well as strategic industry.

In 2017, the Vice Minister and I conducted 3 visits to Africa as Indonesia Incorporated. A number of Indonesias private sector and SOEs have successfully penetrated Africa.

In the same year, we have also intensified cooperation through Bilateral Consultations and Joint Commission Meetings with 6 (six) Latin American countries, namely Mexico, Jamaica, Peru, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Ecuador.

The materialization of new purchasing contracts for some of our strategic industry products was also carried out in 2017, such as

 250 railway carriages from PT INKA by Bangladesh;

 radioisotope from PT Inuki by Mexico; and

 aircrafts from PT DI by Mexico and Senegal.

We take note of the increase in our interaction with some countries that are geographically distant. Costa Rica has inaugurated its Embassy in Jakarta in 2017. Some countries such as Uruguay has indicated its plan to follow suit.

In the same time, intensive effort to strengthen, expand, and deepen traditional markets such as the European Union, North America, and Asia, is always ongoing. The value of trade with European countries, such as Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, also increased to an average of more than 50%.

Meanwhile, investments by European countries, such as Switzerland and Germany, is recorded to have drastically increased to 100%. It even reached more than 500% in the case of Sweden and Denmark.

With the conduct of economic diplomacy by all Indonesian missions, Trade Expo Indonesia 2017 successfully brought in 5,045 businesspeople and foreign visitors from 116 countries, and yielded a total transaction of USD 1,4 billion or a 37,36 % increase compared to last years transaction.

The Foreign Ministry also optimized TEI activities to support the local economies, including through visits and meetings between foreign businesspeople and local stakeholders.

This effort to strengthen traditional market is not without challenges. One of the main and strategic products for Indonesias economic development, namely palm oil, faces negative campaign and discrimination in Europe and the United States.

Indonesia shall not stand by idly.

Together with relevant stakeholders, including with the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC), Indonesia continuously intensifies its efforts to counter the black campaign and promote sustainable palm oil as well as the attainment of SDGs.

President Joko Widodo specifically raised this issue during the ASEAN-EU Summit in Manila in 2017.

Efforts to intensify trade and economic cooperation were undertaken.

In 2017, 27 rounds of negotiation were carried out for, among others, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), Indonesia-Chile EFTA, and ASEAN-Hong Kong FTA.

The ASEAN-Hong Kong FTA negotiation was concluded and signed in November 2017, while the Indonesia-Chile CEPA was signed in December 2017.

Progress in various trade negotiations continues to be made, including:

 CEPA with Australia and EFTA is at its final stage and is expected to be concluded in 2018;

 Indonesia-European Union CEPA concluded its third round of negotiation with an optimistic view that the negotiation will continue to make significant progress;

 The negotiations with Turkey and Peru have commenced;

 The feasibility study on developing cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union has been completed.

Economic Diplomacy is also supported by the strengthening of promotion and cultural cooperation. Indonesia was honored to be the Guest Country in the 2017 Europalia Festival, from October 2017 to January 2018. This festival is one of the biggest in Europe with more than 250 performances in 7 (seven) European countries.

With regard to investment, the new generation of the Bilateral Investment Treaty has been concluded with the United Arab Emirates.

All in all, the Indonesian government has signed 78 international agreements in the field of economy in 2017, which included trade, investment, finance, technical cooperation and double taxation avoidance.

As its new innovation, the Foreign Ministry has launched the Treaty Room site which can be accessed online. Through this site, people can access every single international agreement that have been agreed upon since Indonesias independence.

In this dynamic and turbulent world, protection for Indonesian citizens abroad has its own challenges.

In the past three years, the government has exerted tremendous efforts to ensure the presence of the state for all its citizens, wherever they may be.

Protection, care, and commitment to side with the citizens is implemented based on the principle beyond protection.

Throughout 2017, our citizen protection diplomacy has:

 resolved 9,894 legal cases;

 saved 14 Indonesian citizens from death penalty;

 repatriated almost 50,000 Indonesians abroad;

 recovered the financial rights of Indonesian citizens valued over Rp120 billion; and

 released two hostages from Southern Philippines.

We are aware that the better our performance in protecting Indonesian citizens, the higher public expectation will be. Therefore, the Foreign Ministry will continue to innovate towards a better citizen protection system.

Throughout 2017, some innovations included:

 Overseas Indonesians database, which for the first time is fully integrated with all other national database;

 Overseas Indonesians service and protection system and standard based on a Single Identity Number;

 A full version of the SafeTravel application to be a travel partner for all Indonesian citizens traveling abroad.

Today, I officially launch the Overseas Indonesians Service and Protection Portal, which can be accessed online.

By launching this, then:

 There will only be one overseas Indonesian citizens database;

 A single system, a single data, and a single standard consular service;

 Gradually, all population and civil registry service can be done in Indonesian missions.

As part of the preparation for 2019 elections, the Foreign Ministry has signed an MoU with the National Elections Commission on Dec. 6, 2017 to assert its readiness in supporting the 2019 elections.

Another priority is to protect and safeguard Indonesias sovereignty by, among others, concluding boundary demarcation negotiations.

Throughout 2017, we have conducted 35 boundary demarcation negotiations:

 11 maritime boundary settlement meetings;

 5 meetings between the Special Envoys of the Indonesian President and the Malaysian Prime Minister;

 19 land boundary settlement meetings.

Some significant progress in 2017:

 The ratification, exchange of ratification instruments, and Joint Registration of maritime boundary agreement between Indonesia and Singapore at the UN.

 The ratification of Exclusive Economic Zone boundary agreement between Indonesia and the Philippines by Indonesia. We are currently waiting for the Philippines to ratify.

 The signing of an MoU on Survey and Demarcation of the International Boundary No. 20 between Indonesia and Malaysia.

 The final ratification process of the Basic Agreement on Border Arrangements 2013 for the land boundary between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

That was an illustration of Indonesias diplomacy in 2017.

Now, we are in a new year, 2018.

The world in 2018 will still be faced with various challenges. There is an optimism surrounding world economic growth. In 2017, it was estimated to be 3.6%, whereas in 2018, 3.7%.

However, uncertainties remain.

Political security instability at the global level will still be the biggest risk in 2018. The potential of proxy conflicts in many parts of the world still exists. Many countries are backtracking from their international commitments, which leaves behind a big question mark.

Therefore we need to keep on developing partnership to respect international law and multilateralism that partnership should be strengthened in order to avoid the mighty takes all.

Democracy and global governance must always be upheld. We have high expectations of the UNs role in maintaining world peace. The spirit of co-opetition, co-operative competition, or the spirit of cooperation in a world of competitions to yield optimum results needs to be encouraged.

Building partnership is key to restore and enhance the essence of regional and global cooperation.

In the midst of regional and global geopolitical changes, Indonesia, along with Southeast Asian countries, which are located at the crossroads of the Indian and Pacific Oceans MUST continue to be the prominent player in the creation of a regional architecture.

With regard to the future regional architecture, I would like to offer my views. Indonesia wants the ecosystem of peace, stability, prosperity to be established not only in ASEAN, but also in the Indian and Pacific Oceans Rims or the Indo-Pacific.

Therefore, together with ASEAN, Indonesia will continue to contribute in advancing a strong positive cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. INSTEAD of a cooperation that is based on suspicion or worse, a perception of threat.

In this regard, Indonesia will work together with countries in the region, to develop an Indo-Pacific cooperation umbrella aimed at:

 Supporting confidence-building measures and a mutually-beneficial cooperation.

 Enhance a habit of dialogue within the regional cooperation architecture.This regional architecture will be built through a building blocks approach, namely:

 In a bilateral and pluri-lateral manner, intensifying cooperation among the countries in the Indo-Pacific in various strategic fields, especially security, maritime, trade, and investment;

 At the regional level, encourage the strengthening of IORA cooperation, in accordance with the Jakarta Concord and Plan of Action 2017  2021, to create new growth centers that support the ecosystem of peace, stability and prosperity in the Indian Ocean;

 Create a linkage among numerous bilateral and pluri-lateral cooperation, as well as cooperation architecture in the Indian Ocean, with ASEAN-led mechanisms.

The aim is to create an umbrella for cooperation that is

 free, open, inclusive, and comprehensive;

 beneficial for the long-term interest of all countries in the region;

 based on a joint commitment by the countries in the Indo-Pacific to uphold peace, stability, and prosperity.

Some strategic steps and focuses of Indonesias foreign policy in 2018 include, among others:

First strengthening ASEAN unity and centrality, Indonesia will fully support the chairmanship of Singapore in ASEAN.

Indonesia shall actively strive so that ASEAN and China could produce a practical and effective COC for the sake of stability and security of the South China Sea.

Indonesia will encourage the establishment of a Plan of Action to implement ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

The increasing frequency of transnational crimes in the region requires enhanced legal cooperation among ASEAN member countries. Therefore, Indonesia will push for the establishment of an ASEAN Extradition Treaty.

Further develop regional cooperation on e-commerce to assist MSMEs in increasing their trade in goods and services.

Strengthen the ASEAN Secretariat, so that it becomes more modern and effective by enhancing its human resources infrastructure facilities, starting from the groundbreaking of the new building of the ASEAN Secretariat 4 days ago.

Democracy and respect for human rights are two important elements that must continue to be developed by ASEAN. ASEANs benefit should be felt by its people.

As I have said before, Indonesia will encourage ASEAN to be active in the discussion of bolstering regional architecture in the Indo-Pacific region. Once again, ASEAN centrality has to be maintained.

Second, Indonesia will enhance its peace and humanitarian diplomacy for a more peaceful and stable world. In this context, Indonesia shall enhance partnership with like-minded countries, which will be a tangible contribution for world peace and prosperity.

The enhancement of humanitarian diplomacy, particularly concrete humanitarian aid, will be conducted among others through the management of Indonesian Aid.

Third, Indonesia will ensure the successful hosting of a number of important events in 2018.

 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang (18 August  2 September 2018);

 Our Ocean Conference, October 29-30, 2018;

 The annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group (IMF-WB) in Bali, October 8-14, 2018;

 The 2018 World Conference on Creative Economy, in Bali, May 5-7, 2018.

As coordinator of MIKTA (Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey, Australia) in 2018,

Indonesia will continue to encourage creative economy, as a pillar of global economic growth and in order to contribute to world peace.

For the first time, Indonesia will host the Indonesia-Africa Forum, in April 2018.

Fourth, Indonesia will intensify its campaign for candidacy to be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2019-2020 period.

Fifth, we shall continue to safeguard our borders and sovereignty through the intensification of boundary delimitation negotiations.

Indonesia expects our negotiating partners to be flexible so that the negotiations could significantly progress.

Sixth, to strengthen a beyond protection protection, the Foreign Ministry will complete and launch safe travel as a means to enhance the protection of overseas Indonesian citizens.

Seventh, to use the momentum of global economic recovery, Indonesia will intensify trade and economic cooperation negotiations in the forms of CEPA, FTA, or PTA.

We will prioritize the conclusions of the RCEP, Indonesia-EFTA CEPA, Indonesia European Union CEPA, Indonesia-Turkey CEPA dan Indonesia -Australia CEPA negotiations. We will also expedite the commencement of the Indonesia  Eurasia Economic Union (I-EEU) free trade negotiation.

A new generation of Bilateral Investment Agreement negotiation with partner countries, such as Switzerland, will also be intensified.

Eighth, Indonesias diplomacy will be further strengthened in combatting transnational crimes, including human trafficking, IUU fishing, illegal drugs, and countering radicalism and terrorism.

Before concluding, I wish to convey my appreciation to all the diplomats and staff, both at the headquarters and in our missions abroad, especially those serving in difficult and hardship posts, for your unwavering dedication and hard work.

I would also like to thank the Peoples Representative Council, especially Committee

One, for the excellent cooperation.

To all members of the media, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the solid partnership in the coverage of our diplomatic activities.

I wish to re-convey my highest appreciation to the many elements of the society as well as partner agencies of the government that have supported our humanitarian diplomacy.

Today is also a special day for the Foreign Ministry. Alhamdulillah, today we are able to inaugurate the new canteen of the Foreign Ministry.

After this event, I will inaugurate the Foreign Ministrys new canteen. I invite all guests to have lunch at our new Diplomacy Canteen.

Moreover, the Ministry is in the process to acquire 10 new buildings that will serve as Indonesian missions. All the high-level officials in the Foreign Ministry are committed to keep improving the welfare of the Foreign Ministry.

Finally, I wish to reiterate the commitment of all the staff at the Foreign Ministry in 2018 to stay focused on working hard and working thoroughly.
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By AM Thursday, January 11, 2018 Share Tweet Share Share Email

Against all Hope,

Some years ago I read a bookby Hermann Langbein, an Austrian who had fought in the Spanish civil war against the fascists. It was the story of resistance in the Nazi concentration camps by one who had been prisoner, including in Dachau and Auschwitz. I had anticipated being inspired by stories of this resistance but was instead humbled by the most common of all resistance activities  the struggle to survive. So when I went on holiday to Germany I wanted to visit a concentration camp and did so by going on a guided tour to Dachau, just a short trip outside Munich.There it was driven home that such was the indescribable oppression, for some survival was not the form of resistance taken. Instead a number of prisoners ran onto the grass at the perimeter of the camp and were literally cut to pieces by heavy machine guns from the guard towers. As our guide explained, this was not so much suicide as the one and only act of self-affirmation some prisoners felt they could take. In every other respect they were crushed; ripped of dignity and of control of every aspect of their lives. Every part of existence conspired against all hope. For survivors this choice of their fellow captives was not an act of cowardice but an assertion of the only freedom they felt that they had left.Our guide was a young Irishman who was serious and perceptive and through the numerous answers to our questions demonstrated a deep knowledge of not only the Dachau camp but the associated history, including that after liberation. His intelligence was demonstrated not only in the questions he answered but those he did not.He pointed out that the pictures on display were taken by the SS guards. In these the viewer looks down on the prisoners who are in regular rows with adequate clothing. We cannot see their eyes which are in shadow. We see shaven heads. As he later explained; when prisoners first arrived they took their clothes off, were doused in often searing pesticide, had their hair cut by blunt shears so ineffective the prisoners doing the cutting often simply ripped the hair off. Then they were shaved. If they did not work quickly enough their hands would be tied behind their back and they would be hung from beams in the shower room. Only the location of the beams insertion into the wall is now still visible. In this position their shoulders, elbows, wrists and arms would often break. In a camp dedicated to work or death this, I imagine, could only have one outcome.The new prisoners would then have to rush to grab clothing and clogs before leaving this area. Our guide gave the example of one young prisoner who grabbed a jacket so small only one button could be closed, trousers too short by a distance and two clogs, one which was half the size of the correctly fitting one. This prisoner described his clothing as continued torture throughout his captivity. Worse, such circumstances increased the danger. Anyone that stood out in any way; who attracted the notice of an SS man for any reason  an unfastened button or a new high number  risked the danger of deadly attention. This could, for example, mean an SS guard throwing a prisoners cap onto the grass and being ordered to retrieve it. Stepping onto the grass meant machine-gunning from the guard tower while refusal to follow an order meant death.He explained that we could not go into the guard towers because the survivors of the camp, responsible for its existence today, require that visitors cannot go anywhere prisoners could not go. It would not be possible to view the camp from the viewpoint of the guards, not because the experience of prisoners in some way was to be recreated, but because no facility that would allow neo-Nazis to seek some sick thrill would be provided.He told the story of the three hundred Luxembourg policemen who refused to swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler and who were sent to Dachau as punishment. When they arrived they were ordered to do so again in the main square. When they again refused seventeen were selected at random and executed. The same ritual was held every year.He told the story of Hans Beimler, the Communist Party member, who became a special prisoner held in the Bunker, one of the few remaining original buildings in the camp. He escaped by killing his SA guard, putting on his uniform and walking out of the camp. A few years later he died in the battle for Madrid during the Spanish Civil War.He told the story Johann Georg Elser, a religious worker who was a keen defender of workers rights who had voted for the Communist Party until 1933. In 1939 he planted a bomb in a Munich beer hall where Hitler was due to speak. Hitler was due to fly back to Berlin that night but because of fog it was thought he should take the train so he left earlier than planned. The bomb missed Hitler by 13 minutes. Elser was caught, severely tortured by the Gestapo, and incarcerated in Dachau. Hitler planned that when the war was won he would be put in front of a show trial and executed. Just a few short weeks before the end of the war Hitler ordered the killing of Elser and he was shot in the bunker at Dachau.Our guide did not sentimentalise the camp or its prisoners. He pointed out the hierarchy within the camp and the persistent policy of dividing the prisoners. What was most new, to me at least, was the history of the camp since the end of the war.This was symbolised by an art work in the camp showing the different symbols  pink , red or green triangles or two different coloured triangles overlapping each other so that they looked like the star of David, used to identify and mark the different categories of prisoner. Our guide cautioned us not to regard the prisoners in this way or to take the view that this was in many ways an accurate categorisation, even in its own degenerate terms. Unfortunately this art work has some missing coloured triangles because of current objections to their inclusion in the memorial. I cant claim to have a confident recollection of what these were but they may have included the black and green triangles of asocial and criminal prisoners.Our guide pointed out that the concentration camp was only a relatively small part of the whole and the much larger part was the SS training camp. Today it is a training camp for the German police. In 1972, for the Munich Olympic Games and because of the widespread media attention this would bring, the authorities knocked down parts of the site and built a mound between this training camp and the concentration camp. In this way it would not be possible to view the training camp and it would perhaps not arouse questions. This is now covered in grass and trees today. A campaign involving survivors succeeded in getting part of this removed so that today you can see, but not enter, this camp, and see one of the original but otherwise unremarkable buildings still in existence.At the far end of the concentration camp lie three churches as memorials to the victims. Due to cold war politics the thousands of Soviet Union soldiers possibly murdered at the camp are represented by a Russian Orthodox church outside the perimeter. The Jewish religious site is smallest and situated in the farthest corner from the entrance. The Protestant one is in the other corner to the left, larger but low level and of a similar grey concrete colour as the foundations of the barracks in their two rows, which are all that is left of the original buildings. The Catholic church is by far the largest, siting in the middle of the other two in a grass site with trees. Our guide pointed out that plans were afoot at one time to cover the rest of the site with grass and trees but again campaigners stopped this. While not explicitly expressing this, the contempt for this attempted simultaneous appropriation and erasure was clear.The final part of the visit was to the new crematorium which contained a gas chamber. Our guide stated that historians disagreed whether this chamber was actually used but that survivors affirm that is was used on a number of prisoners. What is not in doubt is that so many were murdered in Dachau that the original policy of carrying many of the dead in trucks into Munich for burning could not be continued and new crematoria needed to be built to destroy the thousands killed.Beside the gas chamber and crematoria was a memorial in three languages vowing never again. As our guide thanked everyone for coming to visit Dachau he noted that in Bosnia it happened again. For me the danger of it happening again is an inescapable potential within capitalism.Holidays are a time to recharge the batteries. There is more than one way of renewing the energy to continue the struggle for socialism and forever making never again a reality.Sraid Marx blogs here.
JONESBORO  Anyone who finds themselves being stalked should be sure to document the perceived stalking  whether that be by taking a screen shot of threatening messages or saving emails and texts or social media posts, some experts said at a Union County news conference Wednesday morning.

The presenters defined stalking as "a course of conduct directed at a person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear."

In Illinois, stalking is a Class 4 felony that includes assault, threats, vandalism, burglary or animal abuse, as well as unwanted cards, calls, gifts or visits to the person's home or job.

In a year, about 7.5 million people are reportedly stalked in the United States; about 15 percent of women and 6 percent of men report having experienced stalking, according to the Stalking Resource Center.

One in four victims of stalking report that the stalker used technology, such as computers, global positioning system devices or hidden cameras, to track the victim's daily activities, the presenters said.

The presenters encourage people who suspect they are being stalked to:

 1). Trust your instincts. If you feel unsafe, trust your instincts. Don't let others pressure you to downplay the stalker's behavior.

 2). Call the police. Report stalking to the public.

 3). Keep a log. Keep a written log or record of the stalking behaviors including the date, time and location.

 4). Save emails, texts and social media posts. Save any written communication from the stalker to provide to police.

 5). Call for help. Help is available 24 hours a day from many resources, including National Domestic Violence Hotline @ 1-800-799-SAFE; The Women's Center @ 1-800-334-2094, thewomensctr.org; and Stalking Resource Center @ victimsofcrime.org.

The Southern on Friday will publish a longer story about local efforts to raise stalking awareness.
Hundreds of rescuers are combing wreckage in Southern California for more than a dozen people missing after mudslides that have killed 17 people.





Another 28 injuries have been reported in Santa Barbara County following the deluge that overwhelmed an area scorched by wildfires last month.





More than 100 homes were destroyed, and another 300 have been damaged.





One rescue worker tearfully described plucking a "muddy doll" of a toddler from under several feet of debris.





Berkeley Johnson said the two-year-old girl was taken to hospital and suffered an injury to her hip.





"I don't know how the baby survived,"

He said of his own home in the community of Montecito: "This was an hour of rain, and the house was gone."





The upmarket neighbourhood of Montecito is home to celebrities such as actor Rob Lowe, chat show host Ellen DeGeneres and media mogul Oprah Winfrey.




A Mount Vernon man was indicted Thursday by a Jackson County grand jury for an Oct. 21 shooting in Carbondale, according to Jackson County states attorney Michael Carr.

Romondo Bootchee, 21, was indicted on charges of aggravated battery with a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.

The indictment alleges that on or about Oct. 21, Bootchee caused injury to a victim by discharging a firearm. Bootchee was also indicted on the weapons charge because he had a previous conviction and was in possession of a firearm.

At about 3:18 a.m. Oct. 21, Carbondale police arrived to the 500 block of South Ash Street due to a report of gunshot victim. The individual suffered a life-threatening gunshot wound and was taken to a St. Louis-area hospital.

Aggravated battery with a firearm is a Class X felony, which is punishable by six to 30 years in Illinois Department of Corrections. Unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon is Class 3 felony, which is publishable by two to 10 years in IDOC.

Bootchee is already serving a 25-year prison sentence on an armed robbery charge in Jefferson County. According to the Mount Vernon Register-News, Bootchee admitted to robbing a person at gunpoint on Oct. 16. According to the Register-News, the Jefferson County states attorney said the robbery happened during an attempted drug deal.

Also on Oct. 21 in Carbondale, there was an officer-involved shooting in downtown Carbondale, but Carbondale Police have confirmed there is no connection between the two incidents.
MARION  A new candidate has emerged for mayor of Marion. Dennis Ball announced his candidacy for mayor in 2019 on Wednesday afternoon at Mackies Pizza.

Ball, who has made several unsuccessful runs for president, decided to run for mayor because he believes he can help bring well-paying jobs to the community.

The people are saying they need more money. They are having problems paying their bills, Ball said.

Ball plans to host an economic summit on his first day as mayor. He wants to get all parties in a room, including the governor, to start the conversation about bringing jobs to the area and growing the economy.

Marion Mayor Bob Butler says he will retire Jan. 31 MARION  Mayor Robert Butler announced today that he plans to retire Jan. 31. He will advise the corporate authorities of the city of his deci

The City Councils lack of action has opened doors for new ideas, Ball said.

Ball believes resources in Southern Illinois are underutilized, such as training available at John A. Logan College, Southeastern Illinois College and SIU. The other economic component that needs to be fixed is at the state level. He added that the debt structure, revenue streams and taxes all need to be reformed.

He has a few specific ideas for the city.

First, he believes every child who wants a bicycle should have one. He plans to host a community family day once a month to give residents the opportunity to hear from the city and have some fun. He pledged to read to children once a month at Marion Carnegie Library.

Angelo Hightower to run for mayor of Marion in 2019 Editor's Note: Marion Commissioner Anthony Rinella indicated Friday to WSIL that he would also run for mayor. He could not be reached for comm

Ball describes himself as a radical centrist. He founded the American Party of America, and last ran for president in 2016. Ball also has written eight books, including The Ball Doctrine and All Serve to Serve!

His grandfather was Oscar Greathouse, and he says is a related to George Washington, through Washingtons mother, Mary Ball Washington.

Ball describes himself as very traditional.

Im a mom, dad and kids kind of family guy. Gays can come into the party if they support that family structure, Ball said.

He said his platform will be in the best interest of the family.

Ball was joined by supporters Richard Hagan and Richard Sanders.

Hagan likes candidates who can focus on multiple issues. We need a centrist element. We need something that forces people to converse on issues and debate issues, Hagan said.

Rinella to become new Marion mayor MARION  Mayor Robert Butler announced his retirement on Friday, which means, according to Illinois Code, the city finance commissioner will f

Sanders said he supports the family and constitution, so Ball is a good fit for him.
CAIRO  With cars lining the block and a busy showroom Wednesday, it is easy to say attendance for the Alexander County Housing Authoritys Alexander County Career and Resource Fair exceeded expectations.

When we first started this, we was only planning for a handful, hoping that we could reach somebody, said Warren Riley, manager for mobility services for Quadel Consulting and Training.

He said the more than 100 people who came through the doors of Mighty Rivers Church in Cairo far exceeded his wildest imagination.

Jill VanZandt, southern regional manager for the Illinois Department of Employment Security, was talking to people almost the moment the doors opened. She said she and her team were excited to work with individuals to find paths to gainful employment, and said the people who stopped by to chat and set up an appointment for IDES career services all were positive and enthusiastic.

Shelly Mallory was one of those people. The 57-year-old was born in Cairo and recently moved back. She said she hasnt had steady employment in some time and has been doing odds and ends to get by. She said she came Wednesday to find some way to work.

Im not picky, Mallory said. Im determined to work.

She said she would even relocate if she could find a job  she wasnt sentimental about staying in her hometown.

I would move in a heartbeat, she said.

She said she has always taught her children to not be dependent on others and she wants to live that example. I dont like to be depending on the government, Mallory said.

The event was organized by the ACHA and partners like Man-Tra-Con, a regional employment solutions organization. Towanda Macon, the ACHAs executive director, said Wednesdays career fair was a way to live out the Department of Housing and Urban Developments belief that housing authorities are more than just about helping community members find shelter.

We want to provide people the opportunity to change their lives, Macon said.

Riley has helped coordinate the relocation process for housing residents  it was announced in April that residents of the Elmwood and McBride housing developments would be forced to relocate after conditions in the apartment buildings were deemed unsafe. He said it soon became clear that residents needed more than help finding a roof over their heads.

People were being relocated to different parts of the state, or even to different states, and when moving them, we realized that people were moving places but didnt have a lot of resources and a lot of funds they needed to start a new way of life, Riley said.

This is when MTC and other similar organizations got involved. Out of this involvement grew Wednesdays career fair.

The event was open to anyone in the surrounding area, not just housing residents. Representatives from a variety of employers and employment resource centers were there to talk with eager applicants.

Tairus Purchase said hes been working off and on, some of it construction with his brother, since he was laid off by the city in 2015  a job he had worked for 18 years. He, like Mallory, said he wasnt picky. He was looking for just about anything.

He said while he didnt want to have to relocate, he recognized the prospect of finding a job close to Cairo was a tough one.

You gotta leave Cairo," Purchase said. "There aint no jobs here."

He said for many in town and the surrounding area, Wednesdays job fair was probably one of the best things thats happened in a while.

Tyrell Harris, 19, may have found his career Wednesday. After talking with a recruiter, he planned to sign on the dotted line Thursday over lunch, enlisting with the Marines. He said he has been out of high school for two years and found work at a chicken processing plant in Kentucky. However, because of transportation problems, he was recently let go.

He said he found the Marines so appealing because it gets me out of here.

Cairo is a good place, but it dont have many opportunities for young people, Harris admitted.

He said his eye was caught by several job opportunities Wednesday but couldnt pass up all that he saw the military could offer him.

Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti made an appearance at the start of the event and said it was an important step for the deep Southern Illinois community.

This sort of event does provide hope and it also provides education, she said, adding that many dont realize the resources available to them from state and federal agencies.

While the job fair was not exclusively about housing residents, Macon did say that she was hopeful it would make a difference to those still in the relocation process. Of the 185 families HUD is helping relocate, Macon said about half have made the transition.

Macon said her office wants to make sure those who are relocating have exhausted all of their resources and make decisions using all the tools and information available to them, and she said Wednesday was part of that process.
Alee Quick Local news editor Alee Quick is the local news editor for The Southern. Follow Alee Quick Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Say what you will about Illinois, and the seemingly dire state of our state, but at least travel guides arent telling people to stay outside our borders.

Missouri made Illinois headlines this week when news broke that Fodors Travel Guide in November had put the state on its list of places to avoid traveling to in 2018  among Myanmar, because of human rights violations, and Mount Everest, steadily gaining a reputation as the worlds tallest trash can.

Cuba, Myanmar  and Missouri? State makes no-go travel list from Fodor's Missouri is in the company of Myanmar and Cuba on a travel guides list of places to not visit in 2018.

So, why is my home state among these no-go destinations? Its not about St. Louis controversial style of pizza.

Among Fodors reasons for discouraging travel to our western neighbor is the passage of SB 43, which critics say makes it harder to sue an employer for discrimination. The NAACP also issued a travel warning back in June in response to that same bills passage. In its statement about the travel advisory, the NAACP warned of looming danger in the state after the passage of the bill, and also mentioned several incidents of violence and discrimination against people of color in the state of Missouri.

Many of those same incidents made their way into Fodors explanation of its travel advisory: A Missouri state representative argued last year that homosexuals arent human, a tourist who ran out of gas in Missouri was later found murdered in his jail cell without ever having actually been arrested, and two men were shot outside of Kansas City on suspicion of being Muslim (although, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article points out, that happened on the Kansas side).

Im a (formerly, somewhat) proud Missourian. I grew up in the shadow of the arch, in a bellwether swing state where when I voted for the first time at 18, my vote counted. When I was growing up, it felt like my city was growing, too. I remember riding the Metrolink train on the first day it opened, because my dad was excited public transportation was expanding in our city. (OK, our train did get stuck in a tunnel for hours on that first ride, but hey, growing pains!) At my high school, I was one of the students who participated in a school-wide walkout to encourage the continuation of the desegregation program that bused African-American kids from the city of St. Louis to our school in the county seat. Most summers, I floated the spring-fed, crystal-clear, always-cool-even-in-the-dead-heat-of-the-summertime waters of the Current River in the Missouri Ozarks.

I've biked and camped along the KT Trail, the bicycle trail that spans the width of the state, and cozied up with small-town locals on stops along the way.

I still dream about the No. 19 vermicelli on the menu at Me Kong Deli, one of the Vietnamese restaurants on South Grand, a St. Louis street known for its diverse offerings of restaurants and bars. St. Louis is home to interesting pockets of counter-culture, like the Lemp Arts Center, where I spent my teenage years moshing at punk shows, and the Grove, a gentrified, gay-friendly, hip strip of bars, world cuisine restaurants and cute vintage clothing boutiques. And, St. Louis-style pizza is delicious. I dont care what anyone says.

On a vacation in Canada this past summer, I met a couple of Australians who were traveling to St. Louis the next week, and spent time with them making lists of places they should go for great craft beer and fun touristy activities. I hate to think people would miss out on some of the shining spots of my  I admit, troubled at times  Midwestern home.

But, I also lived in Missouri inside a white body. Many of the reasons Fodors discouraged travel to the state stem from a pattern of racial discrimination, which also put Missouri in national headlines during protests following the 2014 killing of a black teen at the hands of a white Ferguson police officer, and in 2015 during protests after several racist incidents at the University of Missouri, my alma mater.

Quick: Yes, that's my alma mater When I heard a swastika was drawn in a University of Missouri residence hall bathroom with human feces, I wasnt surprised. When I heard the M

In the same neighborhood in suburban St. Louis where I felt safe enough to run around barefoot all hours of the day and night as a child, my brothers had a very different experience.

I was invisible to the police in my parents neighborhood. My biracial half-brothers were anything but. They were stopped often, accused and questioned and searched and manhandled  from the time they were little kids, to teenagers, to young men.

Along with the list of places to avoid, Fodors offered this: ...sometimes you have to say no to the ones you love in hopes that they can recover, reconsider, or reform.

As much as it breaks my heart to see would-be visitors avoid a place where Ive known so much joy, I hope its a wake-up call to the Show-Me State.
To the Editor:

If the old saying, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" is an accurate statement, it might be a good time to take a closer look at Republican tax philosophy. Simply stated, since Reagan, Republicans have argued and legislated that the lower the taxes on the richest Americans the more all Americans benefit. Let's see.

When Ronald Reagan took office, America was a creditor nation, the lives of working Americans had steadily improved since the end of World War II, the rich paid their fair share of taxes, and there were 13 billionaires in America.

Now, meet "Supply Side Economics," also known as "Trickle Down." Reagan drastically cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The move created millions of jobs on what turned out to be a credit card. So, when Reagan left office America was a debtor nation, and workers had entered what was to become a 30 plus year stretch of losses of purchasing power. But there was growth, we now had 99 billionaires. Strike 1!

George H. W. was Reagan lite, but his administration created the second fewest jobs of all presidents from Carter to Trump.

Clinton came in, raised taxes on the rich, reduced the billionaires to 42, created more jobs than Reagan, paid for them, eliminated the yearly deficit and handed George W. a surplus. George W. acted quickly to slash taxes on what he called his base. Over eight years he raised the number of billionaires to 469, led us into the worst recession since the great depression and handed the mess over to Obama. Strike 2!

Obama managed to cut the yearly deficit in half, save the auto industry, created more jobs than either Bush and raised the stock market from the 6,700 he inherited to almost 20,000, a momentum he gave to Trump who, of course, claims the credit.

With the economy recovering from the last Republican president, America decided it could risk another Republican president in the Oval Office. And, with our government virtually sold to the billionaire class, thanks to Citizens United, the buyers expected a return on their investment. Trump and the Republicans delivered to the Koch class and corporations the worst tax "con job" in American history, Robin Hood in reverse. Strike 3!

Next year we will see Paul (Ayn Rand) Ryan try to pay for the donor payback tax bill by attacking Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, harming millions who vote Republican.

It's time for middle class and working poor Republicans to stop voting against themselves. They can begin in 2018. I'm not holding my breath.

Gary L. Allen

Carterville
AIKEN - The Lower Savannah Council of Governments has recently entered into collaborative relationships with Denmark Technical College, Aiken Technical College and OrangeburgCalhoun Technical College to expand funding availability for Registered Apprenticeships throughout the Lower Savannah Workforce Development Area. All interested employers are encouraged to inquire into these apprenticeship opportunities.

The one thing we hear from businesses on a regular basis is that they cannot find the technical expertise needed for their organizations to grow, said Andre Anderson, Workforce Development administrator of the LSCOG. These apprenticeship initiatives provide an excellent opportunity to increase that technical expertise from within their own ranks."

It is part of the long-range plan of the LSCOG in support of employers and employment training for the Lower Savannah region.

Dr. Christopher Hall, Denmark Technical College president, said, This type of collaboration between the technical colleges and the LSCOG is exactly the forward-thinking this community needs. Initiatives like this one will create pathways for people in our community to a better quality of life."

"Denmark Technical College looks forward to creating and developing more Workforce Development opportunities with local industry and organizations like the LSCOG, he said.
Dr. Tim Newman, superintendent of Orangeburg Consolidated School District 4, has been named one of three finalists for superintendent of the York II-Clover School District.

He was recently approached about applying for the position, Newman said Wednesday.

Based on the potential opportunity for my family and my career advancement, I applied, interviewed, and have been named one of three finalists, he said.

Newman, however, added that he is greatly appreciative to have had the opportunity to serve District 4 for the past seven years - four as assistant superintendent for Human Resources and Public and the past three as superintendent.

He said he believes that his selection as a finalist for the York II superintendent's job sheds a positive light on what District 4 is accomplishing.

"Great things are happening in OCSD4 schools with (the district's) focus on the community, understanding our students and technology," Newman said.

Newman is seeking the new position in the face of the consolidation of Orangeburgs three school districts, but he says the issue was only part of the reason for his decision to seek a different position.

It only made me more aware of other things going on around the state, he said.

York II is one of the premiere districts in the state, and thats important when considering his career, Newman said.

Whether or not he gets the job, he remains committed to the consolidation process, he said. Theres a lot to be done between now and July when the new job begins, Newman said.

He said his Christian faith assures him that where he spends the next school year will be the place where he is the most needed to promote the best opportunities for students.

The state legislature voted on Tuesday to override Gov. Henry McMasters veto of a consolidation bill passed during the last legislative session. McMaster said he had concerns about the constitutionality of the bill, which gave the Orangeburg County legislative delegation control over the transition process.
Orangeburg

Department

of Public Safety

A Pinebrook Street residence is missing electronics, family documents, gaming systems and shoes after a burglary on Tuesday.

A resident reported that someone forced their way into the home and stole a 32-inch Samsung television, a 42-inch flatscreen television, a 19-inch television, a fire-resistant safe containing family documents, a Sony PlayStation4, two pairs of size 9 Nike Air Jordan sneakers and one pair of size 9.5 Nike Air Jordan sneakers.

The value of the stolen items is $1,664.

Orangeburg

County

Sheriffs Office

Deputies said they responded to the Regional Medical Center at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday after a victim of an assault and armed robbery arrived for treatment.

A witness told deputies that the victim was robbed while selling drugs to two suspects.

In other reports:

 A woman called deputies at 9:26 p.m. Tuesday to report that someone stole her vehicle from Bruin Parkway.

 Deputies responded to a vehicle accident involving a state trooper on Old State Road in Santee at 2 a.m. Wednesday.

 The front glass door of the Corner Pantry at 3599 St. Matthews Road was shattered. Deputies responded to an alarm call at 2:50 a.m. Wednesday.

The tobacco items were the only items that appeared to be disturbed.
A manufacturer of wood pallets, skids and specialty crating is locating operations in Holly Hill.

Charlotte-based Tree Brand Packaging Inc. announced Wednesday it is investing $1.3 million and creating 28 new jobs.

Many of the jobs are expected to be above the county's average manufacturing wage of $15 an hour.

The company is locating on about 12 acres at the intersection of Old State Road and Bunch Ford Road. Operations are expected to begin as soon as possible.

The 18,400-square-foot facility once housed utility pole manufacturer Pennington Crossarm Company.

Tree Brand acquired the property from Pennington for about $750,000, according to Orangeburg County property records.

"Being closer to our customers in South Carolina is an important part of our strategic growth," Tree Brand Packaging President Chris Helms said in a press release.

"In addition to customers, South Carolina offers a healthy and robust forest sector that is an important part of our growth strategy. We are excited to be manufacturing in South Carolina, a great place to live and work, he said.

Orangeburg County has provided the company with the multi-county industrial park and fee-in-lieu of taxes incentives.

A multi-county industrial park is a mechanism designed to provide an industry with additional incentives. There is no physical park.

Tree Brand Packaging is a family-owned manufacturer and custom services provider operating in the southeastern U.S.

The company has more than 20 years of packaging experience, providing a variety of custom pallets, skids, crates and packaging.

"Orangeburg County welcomes Tree Brand Packaging to eastern Orangeburg as another solid employer to our community," Orangeburg County Council Chairman Johnnie Wright said. "We are grateful of their investment in our growing community and our residents."

Holly Hill Mayor William Johnson praised the announcement. Johnson is a member of the Orangeburg County Development Commission's executive committee.

"We are strengthened by the capital investment and increase in opportunities for quality new jobs that a project like this brings to the greater Holly Hill area," Johnson said. "We look forward to working with the company in the years to come."

The company's arrival received praise statewide.

"Tree Brand Packaging's expansion into the Palmetto State reflects its confidence in our state's healthy, abundant and resilient forest resource," S.C. State Forester Scott Phillips said. "The company is joining a very strong network of more than 700 secondary forest product manufacturers in South Carolina, each one strengthening the supply chain that supports our state's $20 billion forest products industry."

Gov. Henry McMaster said, "South Carolina is full of talented people, and that's why we know a company like Tree Brand Packaging can succeed here.

"This is the beginning of what we know will be a long partnership between our state and this fantastic company."

"South Carolina continues to see its manufacturing and forestry sectors grow and create jobs," Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt said. "Tree Brand Packaging's new investment builds on our state's success in those sectors and strengthens our global reputation."

Tree Brand Packaging was founded in the Charlotte area in 1990 by Al Helms, a retired plant manager for a steel company.

In March 2003, Tree Brand established a second manufacturing and service location in Chattanooga, Tenn. and has most recently expanded in the Atlanta area.

For more information on Tree Brand Packaging, visit the company's website at www.treebrand.com.
I never thought I'd see it, but Al Franken has finally gotten around to calling a moving van.

While it is true that Franken was given virtually no chance to defend himself against multiple groping allegations (your side made those rules, not us), remember, it was never his practice to give that chance to anyone else.

On CNN and MSNBC, they were thunderstruck by Franken's magnanimous response to the charges: Unlike Roy Moore, he admitted it and apologized!

Yeah -- there's a photo. So the part they had him dead to rights on he apologized for. What a guy.

Everything else he denied. Specifically, Franken said of his accusers: "Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember very differently."

Which reminds me: That's exactly what Newt Gingrich said about the charge -- repeated by Franken ceaselessly, endlessly, relentlessly and ubiquitously -- that he'd served divorce papers on his wife when she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery.

This claim came from Gingrich's ex-wife. It was denied by Gingrich. Now I don't know who's telling the truth, but I note the expression: "As reliable as testimony given by parties in a bitter divorce dispute!"

Franken didn't care. He flogged the nasty story about Gingrich in books, on radio and in speeches, saying at the National Press Club, "And the thing about this story that you should know is that it's true -- every part of it."

In addition to mining divorce records for sleazy, unprovable allegations against people he disagrees with politically, Franken spent years taunting Bill O'Reilly for claiming to have grown up in modest Levittown, New York, rather than -- according to Franken -- glamorous, ultra-posh Westbury, New York, apparently the Malibu of Levittown-adjacent areas.

It doesn't seem like a big deal to me, but this was Franken's case that O'Reilly was a LYING LIAR. He offered a million dollars to O'Reilly to prove he grew up in Levittown.

Disregarding the lawyer's rule about never asking a witness a question you don't know the answer to, Franken invited a Levittown historian onto a live broadcast of his Air America radio show to dramatically ask her if O'Reilly grew up in Levittown.

(Drumroll) Franken: "I consider you the world's foremost authority on Levittown. ... What's the answer here?"

Hofstra professor Barbara Kelly: "Yes ... (O'Reilly) is right. It is Levittown. There is no doubt about that."

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that O'Reilly never got his million dollars. There was no apology, no retraction, no "I guess I got this one wrong." It was just onto the next one.

The pinnacle of Franken's reckless cruelty came when he used his Senate office to champion the cause of delusional nutcase Jamie Leigh Jones when she accused completely innocent men of gang rape while she was working in Iraq.

Jones had been a civilian employee of KBR, then a subsidiary of media bete noire Halliburton. She went on a major media tour in 2007 with claims that on her fourth day in Iraq, she'd been drugged, gang-raped, anally penetrated and roughed up so badly that her breast implants ruptured -- whereupon, to keep her from talking, evil KBR had her locked in a shipping container guarded by machine gun-toting men.

Think for a second. What part of that story could possibly have been true? KBR, knowing that the entire American media wanted its scalp, punished a woman for being gang-raped by its employees by holding her hostage in a shipping container surrounded by armed men? Did KBR think she'd never get home and tell anyone?

Any normal person: I'm calling B.S. on this story.

American media and Al Franken: OMG!!! The part about the shipping container gave me goosebumps!

The female doctor who examined Jones the day after her alleged attack found no evidence of gang rape, no evidence of anal rape, no evidence of a date rape drug and no evidence that her breast implants had ruptured. In fact, there was no evidence of any kind of rape: Semen samples showed she'd recently had sex with one man. (Also, KBR employees don't carry guns.)

Before arriving in Baghdad -- at age 20 -- Jones had already falsely accused four men of rape in four separate incidents.

A federal grand jury refused to indict KBR or any of its employees for the alleged rape.

Jones lost her civil lawsuit demanding more than $100 million from KBR and the one man she'd had (consensual) sex with. Instead, she was ordered to pay KBR $145,000 in legal costs. She blew off the judgment by declaring bankruptcy while pocketing $175,000 from her workers' compensation claim. (Thanks, taxpayers!)

This was the woman Franken championed, using Jones' fantastical story to push legislation regulating employment contracts with Defense Department contractors -- a gigantic taxpayer-funded boon to trial lawyers. Because of this woman's hoax, the law was changed in a way that materially hurt our country: Either taxes had to be raised or the defense budget trimmed to make up for the trial lawyers' slice.

GOP senators who declined to support Franken's nakedly pro-trial-lawyer amendment were taunted as "Republicans for rape."

Franken didn't care that he had gone on national TV and the Senate floor loudly accusing innocent KBR employees of rape. When it turned out he was once again spectacularly wrong, he simply never mentioned it again. No apology, no retraction, nothing. It was just on to the next one.

So, yes, Franken was not given a full opportunity to defend himself -- as per leftist rules -- against the multiple charges that he'd groped women, backed by photographic evidence, before his party booted him from the Senate. But consider that no one has been more unfair to the entire rest of the planet than Al Franken.
Can you shed a tear for a corporation that messes up? I can.

It was known, after its logo, as The Flying Bar W. It was the emblematic can do company: creative and confident in its engineering, sagacious in its marketing, aggressive politically and not afraid of a scrap.

It was Westinghouse, and it traced its linage to George Westinghouse, the man who invented the air brake that, with modifications, still stops railway trains and big trucks. He also warred with Thomas Edison and proved to be right in backing Nicola Tesla's alternating current over Edisons direct current.

Now, after an ignominious bankruptcy, the company has been sold by its last owner, Toshiba, to a Canadian asset management firm, Brookfield Business Partners.

Westinghouse has had its ups and downs. I was lucky enough to know its executives and to cover the company when it was on a winning streak under the chairmanship of Robert Kirby.

Westinghouse was a sluggish but still prosperous operation when Kirby took over in 1975. He sold off unprofitable divisions and concentrated on its core power generation business, especially nuclear. I have had to sell businesses that would have made an individual rich, Kirby told me.

The world nuclear industry owes much to Westinghouse and technology, which came out its former Monroeville, Pa., headquarters near Pittsburgh. It was a technology driver. Nearly every light water reactor design was influenced by Westinghouse. The envied French nuclear electric system relies partly on Westinghouse designs.

Poor management  including an excursion into television  hurt the power business, as did the long hiatus in domestic plant ordering.

The proximate cause of the economic collapse of Westinghouse are two ambitious reactor projects: V.C. Summer and Vogtle nuclear plants in South Carolina and Georgia. There were multiple mistakes suggesting a lack of managerial depth, both at Westinghouse and Toshiba, which bought the battered Westinghouse power business from BNFL for $5.4 billion in 2006, and probably overpaid.

Then there was a new reactor design that was yet to be deployed in the United States (Westinghouse 1000) and the deteriorated nuclear supply chain  no reactor had been built here in 20 years. But, sources tell me, the critical mistake was fixed-price contracting. This had been a no-no from the early days of nuclear power: too much can go wrong and often has. It did again.

Maybe its new owners will let Westinghouse lead again.
Qatars Public Works Authority Ashghal has completed the tunnelling works in the Western branch of the main trunk sewer of its Doha South Sewage infrastructure project.



The project site witnessed the breakthrough of the tunnel-boring machine into the wall of the tunnel shaft, in the presence of Abdulla Hamad Al Attiyah, Ashghal president assistant and Khalid Saif Al Khayareen, drainage networks projects department manager, along with a number of officials and engineers from the projects consulting and contracting companies.



This major milestone represents the completion of one of the three main branches forming the main trunk sewer of Doha South Sewage infrastructure project, which will convey the sewage flows through pumping stations to the existing Doha South Treatment Works.



Al Attiyah said that the tunnel extends five kilometres underground reaching several areas including Al Sadd, Al Maamoura, and Salwa Road, up to the Doha South Sewage Treatment Works.



He noted that the achievement shows that Ashghal is still making progress in all its roads, expressways, buildings projects as well as the infrastructure and drainage projects that are being carried out deep underground. He added that these achievements prove that the State of Qatar is able to move ahead and deliver projects with the required quality and as scheduled.



Al Khayareen said that the Western branch that was completed today is one of the three parts of the Main Trunk Sewer which will serve Al Sadd, Al Maamoura, Umm Ghuwailina, and Al Matar areas. He pointed out that the main tunnel will withdraw the drainage water in a smoother way via gravitational factors to get it to the treatment plants, which will contribute to eliminate around 20 old pumping stations.



The western branch of the main trunk sewer, which was completed on January 7, stretches from Al Thumama Area to Salwa Road through Abu Hamour Area, with a length of about 5 km, representing about 30 per cent of the total length of the main tunnel. The tunnelling works, which started in the beginning of January 2017, took a period of 12 months at an average rate of 13.7 m per day.  TradeArabia News Service
Union Properties, a leading real estate developer in the UAE, said one of its units has acquired a strategic 5.68 per cent stake in top Egyptian real estate developer Palm Hills Developments as part of its regional expansion plan.



A major player in the region, Palm Hills Developments focuses mainly on developing residential and integrated commercial developments, small cities and urban communities, hotels and luxury resorts besides land reclamation and cultivation.



The stake was acquired through Union Properties' investment arm, UPP Capital Investment, which was created last year to carry out direct and indirect real estate investments, said the company in a statement to Dubai Financial Market.



The acquisition is part of the company's strategic plan to boost its investments in and out of the UAE, besides diversifying its revenue sources and expanding its business and entering new markets and sectors, it stated.



Established in 2005, Palm Hills Developments now owns one of the largest land banks in Egypt with a total area of 41 million sq m and currently has a portfolio of 26 real estate projects.



On the stake buy, group CEO Ahmed Yousef Khouri said: "Acquiring this strategic stake in the top Egyptian real estate developer marks another step in our ambitious expansion plan."



"As Union Properties enters a new growth phase, we are strengthening our expanding investment portfolio by acquiring significant assets that are diverse, dynamic and successful. Palm Hills has the ability to continue its steady growth as an important player in the regional real estate sector," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Senior officials from the UAE and Turkmenistan recently met and discussed ways of promoting investment and cooperation in multiple areas, particularly renewable energy and infrastructure, between the two countries.



The meeting was held between Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAEs Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Berdyniyaz Myatiyev, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, said a statement.



The two sides discussed an array of regional and international issues of common interest and affirmed their two countries' keenness to advance cooperation to the higher good of both peoples, it said.



The Turkmen Deputy Minister commended the comprehensive renaissance achieved by the UAE and the eminent stature boasted by the country over the regional and international levels under the wise leadership of President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.



Attending the meeting was Mohamed Sharaf Al Hashmi, assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Economic and Trade affairs, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
The Middle East Paper Co (Mepco), a leading vertically-integrated paper manufacturer in the region, revealed that it was recently honoured as the winner of the King Khaled Award for Responsible Competitiveness.



HH King Salman bin Abdulaziz presented Eng Sami Safran, chief executive officer, of Mepco, with the award.



The accolade is held under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and is known for honouring companies that have built competitive advantage through a commitment to sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR), said a statement.



Mepco is one of the largest vertically-integrated paper manufacturer in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region offering a diverse range of paper products to customers around the world.



The companys innovative approach to doing business enables it to deliver significant environmental and economic benefit to its home market, it said.



Mepco exports its products from Saudi Arabia to the GCC and wider MEA region, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Whirlpool Corporation has revealed latest features for its connected appliances, and will soon be allowing users to remotely communicate with ovens, washers and dryers via Apple Watch.



The collaboration marks the first time an appliance maker has connected its products with Apple Watch and its capabilities, said a statement.



Compatibility with Apple Watch will begin with a roll out to more than 20 Whirlpool brand connected appliances in 2018, it said.



Consumers will be able to remotely communicate with their appliances through the Whirlpool app on Apple Watch in a variety of ways which include:

* Oven: Consumers will be able to see the current oven status and control commands during an active cycle.

* Washer: Alongside status updates, users can control the wash options of an active cycle. Whether it be a normal wash, delicates, or brights, consumers can adjust an active cycle on the fly via their Apple Watch.

* Dryer: Consumers can control and detect if a cycle has started, understanding how much time remains before the cycle is complete.



Brett Dibkey, vice president - brand and strategy in North America, Whirlpool Corporation, said: Bringing intuitive technology and functionality to the appliance category that helps take the friction out of household chores is chief among our goals as we innovate for the smart home.



Our consumers are sophisticated and expect their appliances to work smarter, not harder. Through the new collaboration with Apple, were increasing a consumers capability to interact with their appliances in new and more convenient ways, he added.



This collaboration with Apple Watch is another demonstration of Whirlpool Corporations commitment to innovation that serves a purpose. By expanding remote connectivity to home appliances, consumers can continue to personalize their appliance interactions and care for their families smarter, faster, and better, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Travellers expectations have changed drastically during the pandemic and the travel industry needs to better understand the behaviours and expectations of the new traveller in order to respond to them, says Roshan Mendis of Sabre.
All signs point to Asia leading the gas demand and continuing this upward trajectory for at least the next decade, Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum, the Middle Easts oldest private oil and gas company.

Natural gas is still showing strong signs of becoming the worlds second most important source of energy over the next decade, according to Jafar.

Examples of this trend are seen in both India and South Korea. Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose medium-term goal for gas is a rise from 6.5 percent to 15 percent, has consulted industry CEOs on how to increase the role of gas in India. In a break from previous administrations, South Koreas new policy of phasing out coal and nuclear power in favour of more costly natural gas means it could see gas rise from 18 percent to 37 percent of the power mix by 2030.

Jafar said: Not only is the Middle East the source of 42.5 per cent of the worlds proven gas reserves, but it is also becoming a key consumer with the fastest growth in the region in both oil (3.4 percent CAGR) and gas (5.6 percent CAGR) demand over the last 10 years.

Jafar, who is also managing director of the board of Dana Gas, a leading publicly listed natural gas company in the Middle East, added: Prosperity of the region depends on managing geopolitical risks, efficiently delivering the energy needs of the region, and maximising recovery of resources, all of which require good policy and a thriving private sector.

When asked about oil, Jafar said: Oil markets are showing signs of recovery as 2018 has already seen prices of $68. The drastic cut in upstream investment over the last three years has sowed the seed for a potentially significant price spike.

Jafar is one of the featured speakers at the second Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi, a premier international gathering of government, industry, and thought leaders to set the global energy agenda for the year and anticipate and respond to the dramatic changes in the world of energy.

The Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi is scheduled for two days, beginning on January 12 and will be attended by energy ministers from across the region including from UAE, Iraq, Bahrain, Sudan. The Secretary-General of Opec and the Director-General of Irena will also be there.

During the panel discussion, 2018 Energy Market Trajectories  A View from the Top, CEOs from major global energy firms, including Jafar, will shed light on the year in energy to come, offering insight into major market developments to follow, and guidance on how to interpret them.

In addition to Jafar other panel participants are: Ayman Asfari, Chief Executive Officer, Petrofac; Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Officer, Eni; Meg Gentle, Chief Executive Officer, Tellurian; Hunter L. Hunt, Chairman and CEO, Hunt Consolidated Energy; and Younghoon David Kim, Chairman and CEO, Daesung Group and chair, World Energy Council.  TradeArabia News Service
In the presence of visiting French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Airbus has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC) on the further development of industrial cooperation in Tianjin.



The agreement was signed by He Lifeng, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China and Fabrice Bregier, Airbus COO and president Commercial Aircraft in Beijing. Both sides agree to further enhance their industrial partnership in Tianjin and strengthen the cooperation with regards to technical innovation, engineering capabilities and supply chain expansion.



On the same day, Airbus and its Chinese partners have also signed a framework agreement on ramping up its A320 production rate at its Final Assembly Line in Tianjin to six aircraft per month.



This industrial ramp-up targets five aircraft per month by early 2019 and six per month by early 2020. Since its inauguration in 2008, the Final Assembly Line in Tianjin has assembled a total of 354 A320 Family aircraft (by December 31, 2017). Deliveries to Chinese customers and to operators throughout the Asia-Pacific region included the first A320neo in the second half of 2017.



The industrial cooperation between Airbus and China and its continued success are a true role model of a winning partnership between China and Europe. Together with our Chinese partners we are proud to lift our cooperation to new heights, said Bregier.



Airbus industrial footprint in China dates back to 1985, when the first product subcontracting agreement was signed with Xian Aircraft Company. The total value of industrial cooperation between Airbus and the Chinese aviation industry in 2017 amounts to nearly 600 million dollars. - TradeArabia News Service
Turkish Airlines and Airbus today signed an MoU to acquire 20 A350-900 aircraft, with the option of purchasing an additional five.



The agreement was signed at the Elysee Palace, Paris, during Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogans official visit to France with French president Emmanuel Macron.



With Turkish Airlines serving more destinations than any other airline around the world, we will be delighted to rely on our new A350 XWB to further develop our major international routes from Turkey. said M. Ilker Ayc, chairman of the board and the executive committee, Turkish Airlines.



Ayc added: With this agreement today, we have signed our good will to carry on and finalise the acquisition with Airbus. Our agreement is a significant step forward in enhancing our passengers flight experience. This order is set to play a key role in our growing business in the years to come. As we will be strictly evaluating during the talks to finalise the order, furthermore the increased business volume for the local Turkish supplier industry by Airbus will be a great gain for the sector."



Turkey is an integral part of the Airbus supply chain for almost 20 years, being a partner in all Airbus aircraft programmes, including the prestigious A350 XWB. While Airbus focusses on the continued development of long-term cooperation projects with Turkey, the Turkish aeronautical industries progressively have embarked and built-up a remarkable portfolio of high capabilities and skills over the last 10 years.



The A350 XWB is an all new family of mid-size wide-body long-haul airliners shaping the future of air travel. The A350 XWB features the latest aerodynamic design, carbon fiber fuselage and wings, plus new fuel-efficient Rolls-Royce engines. Together, these latest technologies translate into unrivalled levels of operational efficiency, with a 25 per cent reduction in fuel burn and emissions, and significantly lower maintenance costs. The A350 XWB features an Airspace cabin which, on top of the aircraft spaciousness and quietness, provides better ambience, design and services, contributing to superior levels of comfort and well-being, and setting new standards in terms of flight experience for all passengers. - TradeArabia News Service


George Trojan and a friend were walking home from school in their hometown of Lwow, Poland, when the Gestapo blocked the main street and asked Trojan, then 15, and his friend for their papers. The pair complied, but they werent sent on their way.

Instead, the men barked orders: Get on the truck!

It was Sept. 9, 1943, and their city had already been bombed and fallen first to Russia, then Germany.

And that was the last time I saw Poland for many, many years, Trojan said.

More than 70 years later and thousands of miles away, Trojans friends at the Casper Country Club convinced Trojan that he had to write a book about his experiences in World War II.

So about a year ago the 91-year-old began writing his memoir, Too Young for the Times. Seven months later, the book was done. Trojan will give a talk and sign copies Jan. 16 at the Natrona County Library.

Its not about me, Trojan said. Im the witness, and I think that story needed to be told.

Trojan and his schoolmate, terrified, obeyed the command to board the truck and ended up in a German Luftwaffe camp. They found themselves welcomed, like volunteers, Trojan recalled with a laugh. The German army was collecting young men for forced labor. Trojans job was to climb up the telephone poles and attach the lines.

It was hard labor all the way, you work your tail off, he said. But he also was lucky enough to be an interpreter explaining tasks to workers because he spoke five languages, he said.

One day he was sitting on a post making ties and saw two American P-40 fighter aircraft overhead, he said. One approached, firing its machine guns, and Trojan slid down the pole.

He and his friend made a decision after that incident: Weve got to get the hell out of here, Trojan recalled.

So they hoarded food as they planned their escape. Then the simply walked away one Saturday night in 1944.

We headed for Salzburg, because that was only 72 miles away, Trojan said.

Still wearing their uniforms, they only walked by night and slept during the day.

If youd get caught on the highway by the German MPs, no documentation, youre swinging from the first tree, Trojan said.

They received food, shelter and clothing at farms along the way. Once in civilian clothes, they could walk in daylight since they spoke fluent German, he said.

He cant say exactly how long they walked. But one morning, he awoke to kicks from what turned out to be a U.S. soldier from Poland, who took him to the company headquarters.

I thought we were in heaven, Trojan recalled.

That September, he left on a ship bound for the U.S. and landed in New York City.

I got off the ship, I kneeled down, I kissed the ground, I looked up, and I said, OK Lord, Ill take it from here, Trojan said.

He spent six years in the U.S. Army followed by time in the reserves.

It was the best thing I ever did, he said. Because I didnt want to be Polish-American, I wanted to be American with Polish heritage.

He graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in foreign relations and spent a successful career in the mining and construction industries, working in the eastern U.S. and a stint in Saudi Arabia for a few years.

It took 16 years from the day he was captured to track down his family. Trojan finally returned in 1962 to visit his home country and reunite with his mother, brothers and other family. Theyd moved to a town about 86 miles from Lwow, which had become part of Ukraine, he said.

My two brothers met me at Warsaw airport and we got absolutely smashed, he said.

His career eventually took him to Casper, where he worked for 12 years before retiring.

Trojan worked on his memoir at the Wednesday Writers group at the Natrona County Library. The groups leader, Melanie Tibbetts said the book, and the fast pace with which he finished it, wowed the group.

He had a goal, he set a date and he just cranked it out, said Tibbetts, an an adult services specialist at the library. Hes been touring his book around town and in Colorado, and audiences are bound to enjoy his talk at the library, she added. The group still loves to hear his stories from his experiences during World War II, even if theyve read the memoir, she said.

He can really tell a story, she said. Hes like living history, hearing the stories from someone who actually lived it.

One reason hes glad to tell his story is for young people to understand more about the history and the experiences of his time during war.

I didnt have any teen years, as they say, he said. He spent them simply trying to survive.

But hes grateful for the life hes lived, Trojan said, as he looked out at the cul-de-sac from his east Casper home last week. He commented on the mild, sunny day. The neighbors take care of his snow-shoveling and other maintenance, he said. He cant do anything by himself anymore, he joked.

I lead a charmed life, he said. Somebody is looking out for me.
Anyone interested in city politics will soon be able to watch how Casper City Council meetings are planned. While the agendas have historically been set in private between the city manager, mayor and vice mayor, they will now be tacked onto the end of the Councils work sessions.

There is a lot going on and being discussed there that never comes to the rest of us, said Councilman Chris Walsh during Tuesdays work session.

It blindsides us, and its human reaction to get annoyed at it, he added.

Although the councilman said he does not believe there is any intention to leave others out of the loop, Walsh said some information inevitably ends up being overlooked.

Walsh then suggested that the agenda could be planned out at the end of the Councils work sessions so all members could be involved with the process.

Councilman Dallas Laird quickly voiced support for the idea.

I dont think any councilman should have the opportunity to be more informed than other councilmen, he explained.

Adding that he had dropped by one of these planning sessions, Laird said he also had concerns that they were not open to the press and public.

Moving the meetings will be a big change, said Vice Mayor Charlie Powell. There is a long-standing tradition of the Councils mayor and vice mayor meeting with the city manager to set the agenda.

However, Powell and Mayor Ray Pacheco said they were open to testing out the idea.

City Manager Carter Napier said Wednesday that is common practice throughout Wyoming for city council leaders to meet with the city manager to plan out the next meetings agenda because it tends to be the most time-efficient method.

Sometimes it is difficult to get nine people to settle on a direction, he said.

But if its important to the Council to include everyone, then Napier said he is fully on board.

Powell was concerned that planning the agenda after a three-to four-hour work session could extend the meeting too late. But he then reiterated there was no harm in trying.

Well see how it works ... Im always willing to try things that other Council members suggest, he said.
Observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Wyoming Equality Day on Monday in Casper with a march, a national civil rights speaker, lunch and an opportunity to participate in several grassroots service projects.

We really want to emphasize its a day on, not a day off, said Nureigh Glasgow of ServeWyoming, which sponsors the day along with many partners.

A march begins at 11 a.m. at City Park on Seventh and Center streets and ends at First United Methodist Church. Folks who cannot or prefer not to march may ride a CATC bus along the march route or meet at the church for a proclamation, speech and music.

Hamid Kahn, who was raised in Sheridan and is now an attorney, civil rights advocate and adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina, is the keynote speaker.

Were excited to have him because hes done so much work with advocacy at the national level, Glasgow said. He has an amazing background. I asked him to talk about why its important for communities to remember Martin Luther King Day.

Kahns message will be: Were stronger together. Theres not an easy, simple definition of what it means to be an American, because theres no set path, just a shared set of values that are not easily expressed, Glasgow said.

Kahn attended school in Sheridan with ServeWyomings executive director Shelly McAlpin. Part of his history is helping start a mosque in Wyoming, Glasgow said.

Music during the program will be provided by the United Church of Christ.

Participants are then invited to lunch at Food for Thought Project, 900 St. John St.

After lunch, from 12:30 to 3 p.m., Jamie Purcell and her staff will guide volunteers through several different service projects.

Many hands make light work, so we have to have enough for everyone to do, Purcell said.

The first project is to make 650 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which is enough for one weekend of food backpacks provided by the project to Caspers food insecure students. The food bags contain enough food to tide the child over on the weekend when school meals are not available. They are delivered by volunteers to schools each Friday.

Project two will be making plant pots out of newspaper and filling them with dirt, so they can be distributed in the food bags.

Then our kids can grow their own food at home, Purcell said.

And project three is painting a mural inside the entryway and down to the food packing room in the former church. That project will be led by Michele Heaphy, who has painted several murals on the Food for Thought campus already.

The mural is already sketched out, so volunteers of all ages and abilities will be painting by numbers.

People can pick whatever theyd like and just do one, or do as many projects as they want to try. We are always happy to have folks here and participating, Purcell said.

Glasgow said when the local NAACP chapter dissolved, ServeWyoming was asked to lead the days planning, specifically for the march.

Other partners have stepped up to help, including the Casper NAACP, First United Methodist Church, AmeriCorps, United Church of Christ, Food for Thought Project, Casper College, the City of Casper, ROTC and many volunteers.

Both Glasgow and Purcell stressed that Mondays entire day is family oriented and invited those planning to attend to find another person to bring along.

For more information, call Glasgow at 234-3428 or Purcell at 337-1703.
The Casper City Council wants more information before deciding whether to hire full-time judges at the municipal court  a move spurred on by conflict of interest concerns.

City Council members on Tuesday asked City Manager Carter Napier to bring back more details about the court including:

the total cost of hiring two full-time judges and a part-timer instead of the three part-time judges and a substitute the court currently employs;

whether a change to the judges employment status would impact alcohol court;

what criteria judges use to recuse themselves from cases;

how the court might be restructured to allow judges more oversight of court employees;

and how much revenue the court collects.

Napier, who presented preliminary information on the court after researching a potential change to full-time judges with court manager Fleur Tremel, did not specify when he would return with the requested information.

The meeting comes after some prominent attorneys have said the existing system creates the appearance of a conflict of interest. Thats because municipal judges are permitted to work as local attorneys, meaning they could represent the city as a judge and then cross-examine a city police officer in another court.

District Attorney Michael Blonigen and local criminal-defense lawyer Ian Sandefer both wrote letters in November to the city manager and the City Council expressing concern with the current system.

Especially if a private criminal practice is retained, Blonigen wrote in his Nov. 20 letter. It creates an impression that outcomes may be based on considerations other than the law and facts.

Tuesday evening, Dallas Laird was the only City Council member who came down strongly on the issue, calling for the court to hire up to two full-time judges. He also called for the Casper Police Department to send all misdemeanor charges to the citys court, which would presumably increase revenue generated by the city.

Napiers presentation included a comparison to Cheyennes system, which currently employs a full-time judge, a part-time judge and another part-timer who handles juvenile matters. The juvenile judge is not a lawyer and Wyoming state law does not require municipal judges to have legal training.

Cheyenne pays its judges just under $158,000, Napier said, while Casper spends about $161,000 on its judges. Cheyenne is currently looking to hire a second full-time judge, which would increase the capital citys cost to $273,000.

If the city changed its municipal court system but not its budget, it could pay a full-time judge $73,000 annually, provide $32,000 for his or her benefits, and pay a part-time judge at roughly the same rate they currently earn, Napier said. Napier noted that Caspers benefits package would be significantly more expensive than Cheyennes, deflating the baseline salary for a full-time judge.

Napier said a full-time judge would more effectively avoid conflicts of interest by not practicing law privately. However, such a system could lead to other problems. The city manager cited the risk of burnout by having a judge who is effectively on call year-round.

Having one judge, in my estimation, doesnt work, Napier said.

The city manager also said that alcohol court might not function effectively within the full-time model.

Laird expressed skepticism about the risk of burnout to a full-time judge, citing the 20-hour workweek in the current system. He also said the city should weigh the amount of revenue brought in by the court when considering limiting judges salaries to $160,000 total.

I think to strap it all to that budget is not fair to our citizens, Laird said.

Laird said he thinks the court brings in upwards of a million dollars a year. He did not offer details about how he calculated that number.

If the police department were to file all misdemeanors in municipal court, the increased caseload would necessitate two full-time judges, Laird said.

Casper Municipal Court Judge Rob Hand spoke briefly, saying that judges are on-call around the clock to handle warrants. He said doing so year-round would greatly increase the risk of burnout. Hand also said he could not recall the last time he was asked to recuse himself, but if he were asked to do so, he would.

Councilman Shawn Johnson said he did not come down strongly on either side of the issue, but that he wanted to ensure citizens rights and the constitution are protected.
In an extraordinary Oval Office exchange, President Donald Trump questioned Thursday why the U.S. should permit immigrants from "shithole countries" as he rejected a plan by a bipartisan group of senators that would have changed rules affecting entrants from Africa and Haiti, according to three people briefed on the conversation.

The White House did not deny the comment.

Trump made the remark in a meeting as Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was explaining the outlines of an agreement that six senators had reached to protect hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation and bolster border security, the people said.

Durbin explained that as part of that deal, a lottery for visas that has benefited people from African and other diverse nations would be ended. In exchange, Durbin said people would be allowed to stay in the U.S. who fled here after disasters hit their homes in places including El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti.

Trump specifically questioned why the U.S. would want to admit more people from Haiti. He also mentioned Africa and asked why more people from "shithole countries" should be allowed into the U.S., the sources said.

Asked about the remarks, White House spokesman Raj Shad defended the president but did not directly deny his remarks.

"Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," Shad said.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly describe the conversation.
Wyoming Congressman Liz Cheney wants the FBI investigated over an alleged bias against President Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election.

Cheney, a Republican, referred to what she called real abuses seen by the FBI during the campaign in an interview with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle last week.

I think there are serious questions that have been raised about the nations law enforcement, Cheney said in the interview. I support the idea weve got to have an investigation to understand what kind of investigation the FBI was conducting.

Looking back on 2017, Cheney praises tax plan and attacks FBI CHEYENNE  Wyomings lone U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney said she is proud of her the first year in Congress.

Cheney has joined a chorus of Republican politicians, including Trump himself, who have sought to undermine the credibility of the FBI as the agencys investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election drags on.

Trump unleashed a blistering attack on the bureaus leadership in December, denouncing the organization for its handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, calling it really disgraceful.

Its a shame whats happened with the FBI, the president said. Were going to rebuild the FBI, itll be bigger and better than ever, but it is very sad when you look at those documents, and how theyve done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it.

The presidents broadside appeared to reflect his anger over revelations that senior FBI officials exchanged anti-Trump and pro-Hillary Clinton text messages while working on last years Clinton probe and during special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into whether Trump associates colluded with Russian officials in the 2016 election.

Cheney spokeswoman Maddy Weast cited those text messages as well as recent revelations that the bureau sought to corroborate a dossier of memos written by former British spy Christopher Steele during the 2016 campaign that contained allegations of connections between Trump and Russia, including that Trump had been compromised by the Kremlin.

Weast cited the possibility that the bureau used campaign propaganda funded by the Clinton campaign to secure a warrant for surveillance on the Trump campaign.

Several Republican lawmakers have suggested in recent months that the FBI used the Steele dossier to secure a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on Trump campaign officials.

However, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has dismissed that theory, declining in November to appoint a special counsel to investigate the issue.

Weast also specifically referred to text messages sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok to bureau lawyer Lisa Page in which the duo used words like idiot and loathsome human to describe Trump during the campaign.

The dossier was initially funded by a conservative news website during the presidential primary but payment was taken over by Democrats once Trump became the presumptive nominee.

Though the vast majority of FBI officials are honorable professionals, in the last several months we have learned about troubling examples of misconduct by senior FBI officials during the 2016 presidential campaign, Weast wrote in the email. These are serious allegations that must be investigated.

Weast did not respond to a question about how Cheney would like the FBI to be investigated or whether the congressman was concerned about undermining the nations top law enforcement agency.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
More Wyomingites than ever appear to be using online platforms to rent their homes to travelers looking for somewhere to stay other than a hotel.

Airbnb, the largest online hospitality company, experienced 132 percent year-over-year growth in Wyoming last year, with 56,000 guests using the website to find homes to rent during the first year that the company turned tax revenue over to the state.

Eclipse a bust? Report says just 100k traveled to Wyoming for spectacle The numbers are in on one of the most anticipated tourism events ever to take place in Wyomi

That growth was greater than some neighboring states including Montana, where guest arrivals were up 91 percent in 2017 compared to the year prior, according to the company.

Wyomings numbers were helped in no small part by the total solar eclipse in August, which contributed to a 754 percent spike in travelers  3,900 in all  using Airbnb on the night before the eclipse compared to the prior year.

Company spokeswoman Jasmine Mora said that 83 percent of the people who rented their homes on Airbnb during the eclipse signed up specifically to do so.

Airbnb reached a deal with the Wyoming Department of Revenue just weeks before the eclipse to automatically collect lodging taxes from guests using the service and remitting those funds to the state.

Prior to that agreement, individual hosts were expected to keep track of how much lodging tax guests owed to the state, collect that amount from them and send it to the state. But officials say that rarely happened.

Kim Lovett, who oversees excise tax collection for the revenue department, said that while the total amount of lodging tax collected by Airbnb since August was confidential, the process had been relatively smooth.

Theres always kind of a conversation back and forth trying to get the agreement you want, but once we agreed to all the terms it was pretty seamless, Lovett said.

Airbnb said in a press release that Wyoming hosts using the website earned nearly $8.9 million in 2017. It is unclear what portion of that was collected following the tax-collection deal in August, and it is difficult to calculate the total amount of revenue that Airbnb collected because the company applies several service charges on top of what hosts earn directly.

But assuming that the average revenue collected by Airbnb was consistent throughout the year, and that it charged a service fee of roughly 10 percent on top of the money earned by hosts, the state likely collected around $200,000 in lodging taxes from Airbnb during 2017.

Mora said she did not know exactly how much tax revenue Airbnb had sent to the state last year.

Wyoming collected roughly $1.25 million more in lodging tax between August and December 2017 than it did the year prior, before the Airbnb tax collection arrangement was in place, though that increase also corresponds with an overall improvement in the states economy.

The most popular destination for Airbnb travelers was the Jackson Hole area, with 16,200 visitors staying in Jackson, Wilson and Teton Village last year and hosts in those towns earning $4.9 million. Jackson had the highest per-capita earnings per visitor at about $300.

Cody and Powell recorded a combined 11,100 visitors. Afton, in the Star Valley south of Jackson, saw1,200 visitors.

Afton had the lowest per-capita earnings of the towns on which Airbnb provided data, with hosts earning an average of $59 per visitor.

Wyomings major population centers of Cheyenne, Casper and Rock Springs saw far fewer Airbnb travelers. Cheyenne had 3,800 visitors, Casper had 2,900 and Rock Springs 1,300.
A Montana judge has temporarily restricted wolf hunting and trapping near Yellowstone and Glacier national parks and imposed tighter statewide limits on killing the predators. Wildlife advocates sued last month claiming that looser hunting rules adopted in the Republican-controlled state could harm wolf populations. State District Court Judge Christopher Abbott on Tuesday ordered officials to reimpose rules from 2020 that allow the killing of only five wolves per person, instead of 20, and forbid the use of snares for trapping. Abbott also limited hunting and trapping near the national parks. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte criticized the ruling, saying he thinks the judge overstepped his bounds. But state wildlife officials have pledged to comply with the order.
JACKSON  Its not every day an owl is brought to the podium at a county planning meeting.

But its also not every day that a Teton County Planning Commission meeting is packed beyond capacity, requiring extra chairs and standing room.

That was the case Monday night, when 24 people stepped up to opine on the Teton Raptor Centers proposal to redevelop the historic Hardeman Barns site in Wilson.

Over the course of a three-hour meeting, supporters and detractors made their cases, almost evenly split on either side of the issue.

Planning department staff have recommended approval of the Raptor Center plan. It proposes the removal and relocation of some historic structures like the south part of the main barn, revamping others like the north barn, and new construction including bird mews, employee housing, administrative space and a flight chamber.

The proposal adds 2,837 square feet of building space, increasing the total square footage in the sites 2.5-acre building envelope to 19,524.

Critics, many of them neighbors, cited potential harm to Wilsons rural character  such as traffic, scenic impacts and overuse of the site  and decried the removal of historic structures.

Raptor Center Director Amy McCarthy said the nonprofit, which focuses on education, research and bird rehabilitation, is committed to stewardship of the Hardeman site. She said the revamp will allow it to accomplish its mission more effectively and efficiently.

We understand our plan represents change to this property, McCarthy said. We are approaching this effort with great appreciation and respect for the past, along with a commitment to the future, where we can bring together the best of raptor conservation in our special home.

The 27-acre site is home to the Hardeman barns, the earliest of which was built in 1943. When a developer proposed a 70-unit subdivision on the parcel in 1989 the Jackson Hole Land Trust launched a $1.7 million fundraising effort to purchase the property and protect it with conservation easements. Teton County government contributed $500,000.

Land Trust Director Laurie Andrews said the vision at the time was to preserve the iconic open space of the adjacent 137-acre Hardeman Meadows, as well as to allow a local nonprofit to take up residence in the barns.

We have always been stewards of this land, Andrews said.

The Land Trust has supported the plans of the Raptor Center, the latest in a string of nonprofit tenants that have occupied the space. In April the Land Trust sold the property to the Raptor Center for about $1 million. Before selling, Andrews said, the Land Trust added restrictions on the land, including requirements about building height and preservation of the largest and most visible structure, the north barn.

There had never been a requirement around the buildings, ever, until in this last year, Andrews said. That was part of the condition of the sale. When people ask, Wheres the Land Trust? the Land Trust is right here, stewarding this land.

While acknowledging the nonprofits good work, opponents of the project worried about the removal of some historic structures and complained that the scale of the expansion exceeds what should be permitted on a rurally zoned Wilson site. Some said the nonprofit was not being held to the same standards of predictability as other development under land regulations.

Predictability should be built into property ownership here, Reynolds Pomeroy said.

Attorney Robbin Levy objected to allowing the Raptor Center to remove several historic structures and divert floor area toward new buildings. She said the countys decision should be focused on the legally allowed use on the site per the land regulations and conditioned prior approvals.

Supporters also stepped up to the mic, many lauding the nonprofits contributions to conservation and the community. One was Becky Collier, the centers education director.

We want the meadows to remain open and free for wildlife, said Collier, who made her comments with one of the centers avian ambassadors, Owly the great horned owl, perched on her arm. We want the public to have access to the iconic north barn so they can learn about changes to the Hardeman Ranch over the past century. And we need the birds to have room to rehabilitate, grow strong and get their second chance at life.

Wilson resident Ann Harvey said that the Raptor Center has been a good neighbor, and that flexibility is needed to conserve the important property.

The most important buildings will be preserved, and the new buildings will all be small, sited within the building envelope and out of sight of the highway, Harvey said.

Given the contentiousness of the application and the legal nature of arguments by some opponents to the plan, its likely the proposal could see an appeal if approved.

The Planning Commission is set to take up the proposal again Jan. 22 and give its recommendation to the Teton County Board of County Commissioners. Commissioners will see it Feb. 6.

Commissioners must find that the application is compatible with the neighborhoods character, minimizes visual and environmental harm, handles nuisances to neighbors and complies with the land regulations and Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan.
Customers of Tucson Electric Power Co. and other state-regulated utilities may be in line for a break on their bills, thanks to the federal tax overhaul.

But exactly how, and how much, are up in the air as companies and regulators grapple with the effects of the far-reaching legislation.

Prompted by regulators, TEP and other utilities are filing or preparing proposals to return to ratepayers potentially millions of dollars the companies will save because of a cut in the U.S. corporate tax rate to 21 percent, from 34 percent.

TEP plans to file proposals to pass through its tax savings, though details are not yet available, in response to a request by a Corporation Commission member.

Arizona Public Service Co., the largest state-regulated utility, already has filed a proposal to pass through the tax benefit by reducing the energy charges customers pay per kilowatt-hour of power, a move that would save the average APS home customer using 1,100 kWh per month about $4.70 monthly.

TEP is exploring options including a rate cut or spending its tax savings on system improvements that would benefit customers in the long run.

The benefits of the tax reduction could be passed along through lower rates or by offsetting the cost of improvements, like infrastructure improvements, which would delay or reduce future rate increases, spokesman Joe Barrios said. There are opportunities for both short- and long-term benefits to customers, and thats what were analyzing now.

TEP and other utilities are expected to file their own proposals by Jan. 20 in response to a letter filed by Commissioner Justin Olson after passage of the tax law in December.

The effect of this reduction in tax liability should be passed onto every applicable utility ratepayer in an efficient and expeditious manner, Olson wrote, requesting comments and proposals and a workshop for stakeholders as part of new proceedings to examine the issue.

Olson noted that the commission had discussed potential impacts as the tax-reform push gathered momentum during at least three recent rate cases.

The Corporation Commission is thoroughly reviewing APSs proposal, an official said.

We will work swiftly to thoroughly conduct this review to ensure APS customers receive all rate reductions they are entitled to under the new federal tax laws, commission spokeswoman Holly Ward said.

The tax-cut issue could affect any of the for-profit water, gas and electric utilities regulated by the Corporation Commission that pay income taxes. The panel regulates 15 electric utilities, six natural-gas providers, about 350 water companies and dozens of telecommunications providers.

But it doesnt affect tax-exempt rural electric cooperatives, as the head of Marana-based Trico Electric Cooperative noted in a response to the Corporation Commission this week.

As a nonprofit electric cooperative, Trico does not pay federal income taxes, and the rates approved in Tricos most recent rate case do not include recovery of federal income taxes, Trico CEO and General Manager Vincent Nitido said in a letter to the commission.

A list of other filings in response to Olsons letter was not available Wednesday because of technical issues with the Corporation Commissions online database.

Geoff Oldfather, a spokesman for the Benson-based Arizona Generation and Transmission Cooperatives, also said that issue doesnt affect the tax-exempt generating and transmission co-op, which operates the Apache Generating Station through the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative.

The head of a group that represents Arizona utility investors said the full effect of the new tax on utilities remains to be seen.

Theres a lot of provisions in the tax law, and I think it is going to take some time before the companies and the commission understand the impacts, said Gary Yaquinto, president and CEO of the Arizona Investment Council and a former Corporation Commission utilities director.
The film this month is Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter  And Spring about a small Buddhist monastery floating on a lake, the monk who lives there and the boy he raises. Although the movie night is free to attend, the center requests participants bring food to share and a donation.
The Arizona Supreme Court will decide whether lawmakers can make criminals of legal medical marijuana users who possess the drug on college and university campuses.

In a brief order, the justices agreed to hear arguments by Attorney General Mark Brnovich that the Court of Appeals erred last year when it voided a 2012 law which made possession of the drug on campuses a crime.

In that ruling, the appellate judges said that law is directly contrary to the 2010 initiative which legalized marijuana for medical use. More to the point, the judges said the Voter Protection Act, part of the Arizona Constitution, bars lawmakers from altering the voter-approved law.

But Brnovich points out the constitution does allow lawmakers to amend initiatives to further the purpose of what voters originally approved. And he contends the 2012 law fits that exception  an argument specifically rejected by the Court of Appeals.

What the justices ultimately decide most immediately affects Andre Maestas, arrested and convicted in trial court after police found about 0.4 grams of the drug  less than 0.02 ounces  in his dorm room at Arizona State University.

But it ultimately will govern whether future university and college students who are legally entitled to possess and use medical marijuana can face felony charges.

Central to the issue is that 2010 law. It allows those with certain medical conditions to obtain up to 2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks.

That law does have places where medical marijuana users cannot have the drug, like public schools and prisons.

In 2012 lawmakers extended that to college and university campuses at the behest of those schools who argued they fear losing both direct federal aid and federally backed student loans if they allow faculty and students to possess the drug, which remains illegal under federal law.

Last year, however, the Court of Appeals voided the law. Judge Peter Swann, writing for the court, rejected the argument that the change furthers the purpose of what voters approved in 2010.

To the contrary, it eliminates some of its protections, he wrote.

Brnovich wants the Supreme Court to take a narrower approach to what the legislature can and cannot do to voter-approved laws.

He said its not like the 2010 law explicitly required that medical marijuana be allowed on college campuses. Brnovich contends the fact that the original law listed places where medical marijuana is not allowed effectively permits lawmakers to add to the list.

Adding public colleges and universities to the list does not somehow deprive the voter initiative of force and meaning, he argued.

While declaring it illegal to prosecute medical marijuana users for having the drug on campus, the appellate judges spelled out that does not prohibit state lawmakers or the universities themselves, as the owners of the buildings, from enacting regulations against marijuana possession on campus.

To the extent a person violates such rules or prohibitions, the state can have the offending party removed or charged with trespassing, Swann wrote. The Arizona Medical Marijuana Act does not stop it from creating such policies.

What lawmakers may not do, he said, is make criminals out of medical marijuana users just because they bring their drugs onto campuses.

The Supreme Court set Feb. 22 to hear arguments.
Business is booming in the land of sunshine and saguaros for those who rent to tourists through a popular online booking platform.

Tucson property owners collectively took in more than $8 million from Airbnb rentals last year and demand continues to soar in the run-up to the citys annual gem show.

About 53,000 visitors stayed at local Airbnb properties in 2017, a 73 percent increase from the year prior when about 30,500 did so, said Laura Rillos, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based company.

Total rental income for participating Tucson property owners jumped from $5.1 million in 2016 to $8.4 million last year, Rillos said.

The short-term rental trend has been good for the local economy because it serves those who otherwise might not come, said Dan Gibson, a spokesman for Visit Tucson, the citys tourism bureau.

Thats especially true during peak periods when local hotels tend to sell out, such as during the gem show or homecoming weekend at the University of Arizona, he said.

In general, having more places for people to stay is a positive. There are people who travel who might not have traveled if they didnt have the option, of using Airbnb or similar online entities such as HomeAway, he said.

Hoteliers are less than enthusiastic, concerned that short-term lodging services have morphed into a multimillion-dollar industry with few restrictions.

While we support new entrants to the sharing economy and the competition it brings, we must be aware and very cautious of the negative impacts and repercussions, said David Drennon of the Phoenix-based Arizona Lodging & Tourism Association, which lobbies on behalf of trade groups including the Southern Arizona Lodging & Resort Association.

Drennon said his organization has no quarrel with a homeowner who occasionally rents out a guest house or spare room for extra cash. The problem is that there are no limits on how many short-term rentals a single property owner can operate, he said.

In some Arizona cities, Drennon said, bad actors are buying and converting entire apartment buildings into Airbnb rentals, effectively creating hotels in residential areas and depleting local supplies of rental housing.

By contrast, traditional hotels typically operate in commercial areas that have much higher property tax rates.

Many cities around the world  from Paris to New York City and even Airbnbs home city of San Francisco  have laws that limit short-term rentals to protect the hotel industry and residential neighborhoods. But in Arizona, such restrictions arent likely any time soon.

Gov. Doug Ducey is a fan of the sharing economy, which also includes ride-hailing platforms such Uber and Lyft that are upending the taxi industry. In 2016, Ducey signed a new law that prevents municipalities from restricting short-term tourist rentals and also ensures that renters pay applicable taxes.

Rillos, the Airbnb spokeswoman, said 1,900 Tucson properties are listed on the platform, though not all are actively renting. She said most are private households that host tourists an average of five nights a month for average annual rental income of $5,500 a year.

Celia Webb, who became an Airbnb host in December, said demand has been nonstop since she listed the fourplex she bought last summer near North Stone Avenue and West Glenn Street.

Within three hours I got bookings for the gem show. I was amazed at how well it works, said Webb, whose rental rates range from $99 to $225 a night.

During peak season, Airbnb hosts tend to raise their rates much like hotels do.

Lupita Johnston, whos been hosting since 2014, charges $300 a night during the gem show  more than double her usual $120 rate  but her guests dont mind, she said.

For roughly the cost of two queen beds at a four-star hotel during the gem show, Johnstons guests get a 2,000-square-foot west-side house filled with art and antiques, with mountain views and sleeping space for nine people.

Visitors come from around the globe, she said, rhyming off a list: Panama, Holland, Germany, India, Japan, Finland, Denmark and all over the United States.

They dont just come for the gem show. They come for funerals and weddings, for conventions, for Cyclovia and El Tour and Dia de los Muertos, said Johnston, who holds the status of an Airbnb superhost  one who has nothing but five-star reviews from customers.

Johnston said she strives to include special touches  local history books on the coffee table, pinatas on the patio, cowboy boots on a shelf  to give visitors a sense of what Tucson is all about.

For the time they are here I try to make them feel like they are part of the community. And they really seem to appreciate it.
Tucson police detectives are investigating a shooting involving a federal agent that happened Wednesday afternoon near the Tucson airport, authorities said.

No one was injured during the shooting, which involved a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, said Sgt. Pete Dugan, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.

A man was taken into custody and a woman is outstanding, said Dugan.

At about 2 p.m., members of the DEA Task Force were conducting an investigation in the area of East Valencia Road and South Country Club Road with the assistance of the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

During the investigation, a DEA agent tried to stop a vehicle. The vehicle was headed west on Valencia and the driver stopped in the middle of Valencia at South Bay Colony Drive, said Dugan.

A man and woman jumped out of the vehicle and ran, and a DEA agent chased the man on foot south on Bay Colony Drive. During the chase, the suspect pulled out a handgun and attempted to carjack a vehicle. The driver of the vehicle drove off before the suspect could get into the car, said Dugan.

He said in the car was a mother, her daughter and the daughter's three children.

Shortly after the attempted carjacking, the DEA agent and the suspect were involved in an altercation, said Dugan. The federal agent fired his weapon, and the suspect ran.

Federal agents, deputies and officers saturated the area in search of the suspect and he was found in a desert area and taken into custody without incident, Dugan said.
PHOENIX  The question of whether those with hearing impairments get tax relief could depend on whether lawmakers are willing to consider eliminating other tax breaks.

Several members of the Senate Finance Committee indicated during a hearing Wednesday they are sympathetic to pleas by the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to exempt the batteries used in hearing aids from the states 5.6 percent sales tax.

Prices vary widely, with retailers charging anywhere from less than $3 for a six pack to more than $10. But the number of batteries bought clearly adds up: The Department of Revenue figures the state collects an estimated $1 million a year from battery taxes.

Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, said the exemption may make sense.

He said, though, the state cant afford the loss. So Farley wants to make the legislation contingent on ending two other tax breaks, both of which benefit those who dont even live in Arizona.

But his proposal could end up scrapped, not because of its merits but because of politics: The Republican sponsor of the legislation is not interested in giving a victory to someone hoping to oust incumbent Gov. Doug Ducey in this years election.

In general, Arizona law exempts medical devices from sales taxes. That includes hearing aids themselves and any parts like ear molds.

Batteries, however, are in a different category. SB 1049 would end the difference.

Thats fine with Farley  as long as the state finds a way of making up that $1 million.

One fairly complex break he proposes to eliminate deals with taxing the cost of processing things like natural gas, sand and gravel. He said it costs the state $836,000.

Farley also is taking aim at a much simpler  and more recent  exemption pushed into law two years ago at the behest of dealers of expensive art hoping to boost sales to tourists.

In essence, the law says if youre an Arizona resident who buys art at a gallery, you pay the state tax. But if you live somewhere else and have it shipped out of state, theres no tax.

That exemption reduces state taxes by $211,000 a year.

Whenever we put forward another exemption from the sales tax, another loophole, no matter how worthy, we need to discuss which other ones were going to get rid of so were at least revenue neutral, Farley said.

The Department of Revenue says if Arizona taxed every transaction, the state would collect another $13.5 billion a year. That dwarfs the $4.5 billion actually collected last year in sales taxes.

Farley said lawmakers should not just keep adding to that list, even with just a $1 million price tag.

We cant keep digging the hole that weve found ourselves in, he said. Farley said SB 1049 gives lawmakers a chance to decide if some of the existing tax breaks make sense.

Sen. Karen Fann, R-Prescott, said she appreciates what Farley is trying to address.

We know we dont have enough money for our highways, she said.

We know we dont have enough money for our schools, Fann continued. All schools need better funding.

I think his concept is logical, said Sen. David Farnsworth, R-Mesa, who is both the sponsor of the measure and chairman of the Finance Committee. I dont disagree with his theory.

But Farnsworth said hes not interested in linking the tax break on hearing aid batteries to a discussion of the other exemptions.

I think we ought to stick to the subject, he said. It kind of complicates our bill.

And theres something else: Farley hopes to be the Democrat nominee for governor and go up against Republican incumbent Ducey in November. I dont want to give him any support against a governor I prefer, Farnsworth said.

The measure is set for a committee vote next week.
President Donald Trump is about to come face-to-face with his next quarterly brush with Armageddon. Should he, or shouldn't he, scrap the Iran nuclear accord?

Any decision by him to "decertify" Iran's compliance, will have only a cataclysmic impact on the key issues he has cited for ending the pact and snapping back a range of tough sanctions that would accompany any such action.

The President would not be helping American or Western security. He certainly would not be helping hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who have taken to the streets across Iran.

What such a decision will do is seriously compromise American relations with all its major European allies, as foreign ministers of most European countries suggested on Thursday morning in a tense Brussels meeting.

At the same time, withdrawal would give new strength to Russia and China in global affairs -- united against the US in upholding what, to much of the world, appears to be the only real means of restraining Iran from developing nuclear arms. At the same time, America would be left even further isolated as a global pariah.

But such an action by Trump would have other consequences even closer to home. As I suggested here last fall, such a withdrawal by the United States would likely scuttle any number of contracts that could lead to more jobs in America.

While Western European companies might prove to be not unwilling beneficiaries, Iran has also begun to look to even more eager partners. Last November, during a visit to Moscow, President Hasan Rouhani and President Putin signed agreements to collaborate on energy deals worth as much as $30 billion, while some $20 billion more in deals could be en route this year with some western firms, but especially with Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom and Zarubezhneft -- all Russian oil and gas companies.

China, another signatory of the Iran nuclear pact, along with Russia, France, Germany, Britain, and the EU, is also well-poised to take advantage of any Trump action withdrawing from the pact. "Reactivation of sanctions may cause Iran to export oil using the Chinese Yuan denominated contract, which launches on 18 January," Bjarne Schieldrop, Chief Commodities Analyst at SEB told OilPrice.com. "This may spark a move away from the present long-established US Dollar denominated oil trading regime."

Such a development could have far greater consequences than any single Chinese contract. China has long sought to break the stranglehold of the dollar as the dominant currency for the world oil trade. This could be just the opening the Chinese leadership has been seeking for so long.

At a minimum, however, with oil prices again already well above $60 a barrel, any new restraints on the sale of 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian crude that have just begun to hit world markets, has been estimated by Citigroup's global commodities unit as likely to raise the price of crude by at least $5 a barrel.

But perhaps the most critical immediate impact of any American withdrawal, or even imposition of broader sanctions by Trump, would be to give new ammunition to the already powerful mullahs in Iran. They have laid the blame for recent demonstrations across the country directly at the feet of Western, Israeli and especially American intervention, with the clear need to be suppressed at all costs.

Their powerful Revolutionary Guard forces managed to suppress the first round of protests that spread to more than 80 cities and towns across the country, leaving nearly two dozen dead and at least a thousand arrested and jailed.

Any move by President Trump to re-impose sanctions could deal a mortal blow to further efforts to revive a groundswell of support for a return to some semblance of democracy in Iran.

There remain strong, dark forces within Iran anxious to bring a quick end to the nuclear pact at any economic cost and begin a full-tilt scramble toward an atomic arsenal. So, the willingness of Iran and moderate forces, led by Rouhani, to remain in the accord, could be tested by any sanctions the US might reinstate now as a price for certifying and retaining the full agreement.

Individuals and companies that may suddenly find themselves on an expanded blacklist that had been thinned out under the original agreement could only add their voices to the anti-agreement forces -- new pressure for Iran itself to certify that these new sanctions effectively render the agreement null and void.

In short, the only viable choice for Trump is simply to choose the high road again this time around, with the sad certainty that we'll simply revisit the question again three months from now.
A gang of thieves armed with axes burst into the Ritz Hotel in central Paris, smashed their way into a set of jewelery display cases and stole at least 4 million euros ($4.8 million) worth of gems, police said.

Hooded men entered the lobby of the landmark building from the rear entrance at around 6.30 p.m. local time (12.30 p.m. ET) Wednesday and made straight for the jewelery cases on the ground floor.

Terrified guests were forced to take cover as shots rang out, witnesses said. Police arrived swiftly and the building was placed on lockdown. Three of the thieves were arrested at the scene but two others escaped with at least some of the gems and remain at large.

It was an audacious heist: France's Ministry of Justice is located next door to the opulent five-star hotel on the Place Vendome and a handful of high-end boutiques can be found nearby.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb praised the police respsone. "Armed robbery at the Ritz: Three suspects already arrested by officers from the 2nd arrondissement. Their calm, their professionalism and their swift response is a credit to the Police," he posted on Twitter.

Gang trapped after alarm triggered

Niki Lazar, a 21-year-old woman from Chicago, told CNN that she was having a drink with her parents in the Ritz's Hemingway Bar when she saw a man wearing a ski mask run into the hotel.

"(He) ran right from the back door of the bar to the front, right past my father. He had an ax in his hand," she said. "Immediately the bartender closed and locked the door and (corralled) everyone to the back kitchen area of the bar."

Along with shouts and screams from outside the room, Lazar claimed they heard "at least 10 rounds of gunfire" before taking cover behind the bar, where they remained hidden for several minutes. Lazar added that she later saw one of the bartenders "being tended to by a paramedic."

The Ritz Hotel is situated in the Place Vendome in the first arrondissement (or district) of Paris, site of several popular city landmarks, including the Louvre and the Jardin des Tuileries. The hotel has an on-site shopping gallery of five-high end boutiques near the back entrance, right next to the Bar Hemingway. The gallery also features 95 showcases, located from the front lobby all the way back to the gallery, displaying luxury goods.

'Well-organized gang'

Hotel security managed to trigger an automatic locking system during the heist, locking three of the robbers inside, Jean-Francois Legaret, the mayor of Paris' 1st district, told CNN on Thursday.

"I would say that this was a very violent, armed attack by a large well-organized and professional gang. They are people who are already known by the police services," Legaret said.

Police officers then entered the hotel from the back and were able to arrest the three men before they left the building. A Paris Prefecture spokesperson saying that they fired at the suspects with "Taser-type guns." The three suspects were in their twenties.

The two other men escaped with the jewels, French police told CNN. Authorities couldn't confirm if they got away with everything that they attempted to steal.

The Prefecture said one man appeared to be waiting for them at an exit, and that he and another suspect escaped on scooter via rue Cambon. The scooter hit a passerby, who was not hospitalized.

Wine merchant Edouard Margain posted a photo of the crime scene that he took from his office on social media.

"Just saw a guy arrested while trying to take the street on the wrong way on a scooter, then dozens of cops in the street and medicals in just a few minutes after," Margain told CNN.

It was the second major jewel heist in a major European city in a week.

Last week thieves made a daytime heist of valuable jewels from the Qatari royal collection at an exhibition in Venice, Italy. Local officials said the jewels were of "indisputably elevated value."

That robbery occurred at the Doge's Palace, a popular tourist spot in Venice, where the selection of Indian jewelry was on display to the public. One suspect may have acted as a lookout while the other grabbed the jewels from a display case, police said.

The stolen items included a pair of earrings and a brooch made of diamonds, gold and platinum.

In October 2016, Kim Kardashian West was robbed at gunpoint inside her room at a luxury private mansion in Paris, by a gang of men disguised as police officers. They made off with an estimated $10 million in cash and jewelry.
Years ago, one of my former professors outed himself to me when he opined that universities should hire more Republican professors. I was aghast, and still am, since no university hires are made based on the candidates political viewpoint.

I have been involved in most hiring processes in my department over the last three decades, and politics have always been strictly excluded. It would be absurd and totally detrimental to everything we do at the university.

It is true that a majority of professors today leans left, demonstrating a social consciousness, a care for the environment and the well being of our world, obviously because they are learned, have studied the issues carefully, and have reached their understanding by meticulously evaluating all sides to an issue.

We simply call this scholarship/science, aiming for objectivity based on critical approaches to the aspect under investigation. True research has contributed essentially to the growth of our society and to the building of a better world, whether we work on medieval heroic epics or on black holes.

In a letter to the editor that appeared Jan. 1, a writer charged virtually all major news outlets of spreading fake news, apparently Fox News excepted. Since many journalists are millennials and have received their education at a university, so the argument goes, they are basically brain-washed and extreme liberals, a danger to our world. If the news media spread only lies, then the professors are to be blamed who have educated the new generation of reporters.

Such syllogistic thinking is astounding and cannot be supported by any facts. For instance, when a future science journalist takes a college class on environmental issues, then there is no question that the issue of global warming has to be addressed since 99 percent of all scientists agree on this dire observation. Studying evolution at the university is a basic requirement for all biology majors or minors, and would have no bearing on any religious thinking.

Freedom of the press means, first and foremost, that we receive the best and most reliable information based on objective investigations. We educate the present generation to acquire the fundamental skills in doing research and to formulate their findings in an objective and scientific manner.

I cannot speak for the many different news media, but the constant barrage of public tirades over allegedly fake news is ultimately an attempt to silence the very news sources that inform our worldview, both past and present. Uncomfortable or difficult truths must be formulated and brought to the public attention since we live in a complex and often contradictory reality.

Teaching foreign languages and cultures, for instance, provides our students with the necessary skills to read widely and also outside of the U.S. comfort zone, gaining new insights essential for the effective handling of problems.

The letter writer, like many other critics of the university, claims that professors indoctrinate their students, when they only urge them to become objective, critical researchers.

Racism, for example, continues to be a sad fact of our lives today, and it does not matter whether a professor is a Republican or a Democrat when s/he is teaching about this issue in medieval, early modern, or contemporary literature because we approach it in a scholarly fashion.

Cut out those charges of fake news and accept the challenges all humanity is facing. Higher education is not a pampering industry, and if subsequently producers of news report about disconcerting aspects in our society, lets face them resolutely and courageously, and not by demonizing the messengers.
Help India!

Hyderabad, (IANS): Union Minister of State Ramdas Athawale on Thursday said Dalits were replying to attacks on them.

You attack, we reply. You attack, we reply, Athawale, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, said at a seminar at Osmania University here.

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He was referring to the recent attack on Dalits in Pune who were celebrating 200 years of the victory of British troops over Peshwa Bajirao IIs Army in Koregaon Bhima. Dalits were part of the British troops.

Some people attacked our community. We also replied. Sometimes, they are attacking but we are also replying, he said but clarified that Dalits were not attacking anyone.

The Minister was addressing a seminar on Ambedkar and Constitutionalism at Osmania University.

Athawale said Ambedkarites were not against any caste.

We dont want to quarrel with anybody. If you want to fight, go to the border and fight against Pakistan. Why do you want to fight your own countrymen? he asked.

The RPI leader admitted that atrocities on Dalits were taking place but claimed this was not happening everywhere.

He said his party was supporting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) because the Modi government believes, respects and follows the Indian Constitution and Ambedkars philosophy.

Athawale said that Modi told the Parliament that the Constitution is the dharmagranth (sacred book) for him and he became the Prime Minister because of the Constitution.

BJP may have different philosophy but Modi, who is an Other Backward Class (OBC) leader from Gujarat, believes in and follows the Constitution, he said.

He said that those who do not believe in the Indian Constitution should leave India.
Help India!

By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net

With 2019 general elections just a year away, the Bharatiya Janata Party has already started preparations and the foundation for the same is being laid in Prime Minister Narendra Modis constituency Varanasi. And what it seems that at least to begin with, the BJP is focusing on the first-time voters. The party is organising a rally titles Yuva Udghosh on January 20, in Varanasi, which is supposed to be one of the biggest political rallies of BJP since the 2017 state assembly elections.

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The rally, which will be held on the grounds of Inter College of Diesel Locomotive Works, has a target audience between the age of 17 and 35. To make the rally successful, the party has managed to get around 13,000 participants till now through digital means. According to party sources, the rally is meant to attract the young voters about the various schemes of the state as well as the central government, both of which are led by BJP.

Sanjay Bhardwaj, the speaker of BJPs Varanasis wing, informed the media that BJPs national president Amit Shah will be present in the rally. Moreover, the rally is expecting the presence of partys senior leaders along with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also scheduled to visit his constituency in the third week of the January, but according to the sources, party is also pursuing the PM to visit the rally held on January 20. According to the party sources, BJP will observe the Varanasi chapter of Yuva Udghosh, and if it registers a success, the party shall held the same rally in other parts of the country. The party is also seeking towards erecting as much as ten young volunteers at every polling station in 2019 general elections.

To make the rally successful, a payment of Rs 20 is being taken from young participants and they are being issued an identity card. The identity card will be used to allow admission at the rally place. Moreover, the rally will be used to create an index of the young voters so that they can be pursued at the time of election, said one BJP leader on the condition of anonymity.

The leader further said, The party feels the rage among the middle aged and the elder people due to its various decisions like demonetisation and implementation of GST. So we have planned to focus on the young voters first, who havent faced any sort of problem because of governments decisions. We will further move to other sections very soon.

Partys speaker Sanjay Bhardwaj further said, The party is looking towards young voters as they are the one who will take country forward in coming times. We are thinking to link up young voters with the idea of Swami Vivekanand through digital means.

Uttar Pradesh, with the 80 Lok Sabha seats, is one of the biggest battle zone when it comes to forming a government in the Centre. In 2014 elections, BJP won total 71 seats in the state, completely eclipsing other parties in the state.
Help India!

TCN News

Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has appealed its expelled student, Mannan Bashir Wani to return back to normal societal life from the anti-national outfit, he has allegedly joined.

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The universitys Department of Geology conducted a meeting of faculty members, non-teaching staff and research scholars today before making the appeal.



The Department of Geology and the university stand by the nation and makes sincere appeal to Mannan Wani for his return to normal life as AMU always imparts feeling and sense of nationalism in its students and stakeholders. The university has always taken pride in being one of the premier institutions of the country actively involved in nation building, stated a resolution passed by the department.

Meanwhile, the AMU Vice Chancellor, Professor Tariq Mansoor has asked the authorities of various halls-of-residences in the university to not allow entry of non-students and un-authorized persons.

If an unauthorized person is found in a hostel accommodation, students residing in those rooms, wardens and provosts will be held accountable and stern actions will follow, stated a university notice adding that residents of various halls-of-residences have to inform their wardens and provosts about the places they will be visiting and the reasons for travelling before leaving their halls to avoid disciplinary action.

This is to ensure the safety and security of students, further stated the notice.

The Vice Chancellor has also asked the wardens and provosts to make frequent rounds of their respective halls even in late hours. Any activity that is unbecoming of a student and is against the laws of country will be dealt with severely. It is the joint responsibility of all, that a congenial and healthy environment is created and maintained in the campus, said the AMU notice.
Help India!

By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net

Waseem Rizvis controversial remarks against madrasas in the country have now landed him in potential trouble. Rizvi, who is the chairman of Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board, had said that the countrys madrasas produced more terrorists than civil servants in a letter addressed to the Indian Prime Minister and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on January 8.

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Incensed at the accusations made by Rizvi, Mustaqeem Ahsan Azmi, president, Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra, has sent a defamation notice to Rizvi. You have issued a statement which is not only completely false and incorrect but also disparages all the madrasas in the Country, says the legal notice sent by the appellants lawyer Shahid Nadeem, a Malegaon-based lawyer practising in the Bombay High Court.

The notice further reads, The said statement is nothing but a malicious attempt to cause damage to the reputation of the Madrasas being run by the Sunni Community in the Country, which would in turn fuel the ideological differences between the Shia and Sunni Community.

In the letter, Rizvi made an arbitrary claim that the students studying in madrasas in the country cannot become anything but a terrorist. Rizvi said that the Madrasas produce more terrorists than civil servants. He further stated that Our madrasa education system has failed to produce doctors, engineers and civil servants but some Madrasas have certainly produced terrorists.

The statement made by you adversely affects the reputation of the innocent children who study in Madrasas all over the country, by branding Madrasas as a place where terrorists are bred Keeping aside the children, these statements made by you also adversely affect the reputation of the teachers who teach in Madrasas all over the country, said the notice further. The bald allegations made by you cast serious aspersions on the character of the teachers who teach in such Madrasas and slanders their professional integrity and honour.

Leading media outlets of the country gave voice to the statement made by Rizvi, who recently rose to fame after Shia Central Waqf Board came into the action soon Yogi Adityanath took charge as the UPs chief minister. Rizvi is famous for projecting Shia Waqf Board as one of the parties in Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi demolition case, and alleging the Sunni Waqf Board holds no rights to the disputed land in Ayodhya.

The notice further said, Many of the Madrasas being run in this country cater to the poorest members of the Muslim community and many of them operate as orphanages, providing shelter, food and education to the orphans. However, ever since the letter sent by you has been published, these Madrasas have been harangued by messages, calls and communications, expressing disgust, contempt and questioning their working and such Madrasas, which are tirelessly working for the downtrodden in the community, have for no fault of their own become victims of ridicule and contempt.

Apart from the Rs 20 crore defamation suit, the notice also demanded Rizvi to submit an unconditional apology. Rizvis comment has caused an outrage among Muslims. The statement also must be seen in the light of various attempts on the part of the UP government, which Rizvi supports, to interfere in the matters of the state madrasas. Recently, the UP government slashed Eid and Muharram holidays from the madrasa school boards and added Hindu festivals like Diwali. Earlier, it had mandated the state madrasas to record Independence Day celebrations.
Cape Town city will run out of water by 22 April 2018. I would formally like to invite all naysayers around global warming to spend a week there except I would hate to waste good water on you.

Water is a constitutional right in South Africa

Yet the ANC lead government of South Africa has not done enough to assist the City of Cape Town. In any other nation, this crisis would have been considered a national disaster well over 18 months ago and the state would be stepping in to ensure water delivery via rail, road and sea. The ANC government has only indicated a willingness to try and build another dam but so far citizens have heard a lot of rhetoric and seen no evidence of any real-time, practical deliverance.

Undoubtedly the ANC is well aware that the problem may be used to wrangle votes away from the Democratic Alliance, their official opposition, who hold the majority of council seats in Cape Town. It seems that the constitutional rights of Cape Town's South Africans are being largely ignored by the South African government.

https://t.co/tGBsXDXGO8 Scary stuff on the water crises in Cape Town.  Tristan Pringle (@TristanPringle1) October 31, 2017

Global warming is now!

With a former average rainfall between 600mm up to 1400mm a year, the Cape Mediterranean climate has historically proven ideal for the production of wine, fruit and wheat. It's natural beauty and stunning beaches, whale spotting and great white shark diving, along with fishing and fine dining, makes it a popular tourist destination.

However, all these industries are currently crippled owing to the water crises. The estimated loss to the city is already pegged around R1.6 billion.

</ifram

The last reasonable rains the city had, fell in the winter of 2014 but over the last 12 years, rainfall has consistently been at 30% less than normal. Dams are currently standing at 29% capacity and dropping daily.

Citizens are strictly limited to 86 litres per day and encouraged to shower over buckets in order to use the water collected to flush their toilets when necessary.

According to a study commissioned by the Western Cape government some time ago, the authors Mark Tadross and Peter Johnston establish that the average temperature has increased quite significantly as well, exacerbating evaporation and extending farming water requirements.

City has 300kms of coastline and global warming is affecting it

Cape Town city has over 300kms of coastline. The impact of Global warming is already being noted in rising sea levels which threaten sewerage processing plants and low-level housing projects. The change of climate is pressuring agriculture to the point of impacting severely on employment. Every city in the world should be studying what is going on in Cape Town today as it is a pattern that is inevitably going to threaten other cities, especially coastal ones.

Global warming is alive and well in Cape Town!
Since the Conservatives formed a minority government with DUP support last year, the effect the 2017 General Election has had on this country is profound. For the first time, Britain now has a government with MPs from all the four nations that make up the United Kingdom. In an ideal world, though, the Tories should not have to depend on unionist votes. Instead, it should be the Conservative Party representing unionists in Northern Ireland, not the DUP and the UUP.

"The only way Northern Irish people can move on is by removing religion from politics altogether"

When the Obamas visited Ulster, Michelle Obama made a speech to a young audience who have no recollection of the Troubles. She stressed that they have an opportunity to make Ulster's future better for successive generations. Yet how can they take advantage of it when their nation is plagued with sectarianism? The only way Northern Ireland's citizens can move on is by removing religion from politics altogether.

Ulster deserves better from its representatives. Sinn Fein does not have this nation's best interests at heart. They may have persuaded the IRA to abandon violence, but Barry McElduff's timid suspension over his Kingsmill comment on Social media proves many of its MPs are not interested in peace.

The same problem applies to their councillors. Michael McIvor's taunts towards unionists on Facebook are typical of Nationalists who do not believe Protestants' concerns should be taken seriously. How can they claim to speak for the whole of Northern Ireland when they disrespect the majority of its population?

Something needs to change in Northern Irish politics, and fast.

Republic of Ireland party Fianna Fail has established branches in Northern Ireland, yet they have struggled to end Sinn Fein's stranglehold.

Mainstream British political parties are also failing to make a breakthrough. In 2008-10, David Cameron tried to win votes in Ulster by merging the Ulster Unionists and the Conservative Party under one banner.

Except the DUP played on that by claiming the UUP would support cuts to Stormont's funding. Not one Tory-UUP MP was elected.

The only way change can come is if there is an appetite for it. Northern Ireland must gradually abandon sectarianism. If they do not, they will never progress as a nation.
Was it public pressure or a moral compass that finally caused Sinn Fein to suspend their West Tyrone MP Barry McElduff? Considering this party's past, it is doubtful the latter caused Michelle O'Neill to punish him. Except his suspension is not a punishment. He will still receive three months' pay. Considering Mr. McElduff, like the rest of his colleagues, does not take his seat in Westminster, Ms O'Neill's decision will make no difference to his work routine. This was nothing more than a publicity stunt to try and silence the Nationalists' critics.

Sinn Fein is proud of its violent past. Supporting the Northern Ireland Peace Process was nothing more than a pragmatic move to steal the Social and Democratic Labour Party's votes in a bid for power. After the Cold War finished, their argument that the British use Northern Ireland as a base was destroyed by then Northern Ireland secretary Peter Brooke. With the Northern Irish people refusing to support the IRA's cause, the Nationalists had no choice but to officially abandon the terrorist group.

However, there are Nationalists who still support violence, as demonstrated by Councillor Michael McIvor's equally disgusting Kingsmill remark on Facebook. He also had the audacity to later abuse unionists on Social media.

The Nationalists have abandoned violence in name only. They have learnt nothing from the pain and misery they have inflicted on Protestant families. They should be ashamed of their past, not proud of it.

Mr. McElduff's suspension was just a cynical, crowd-pleasing move. Sinn Fein lacks substance, as shown over the last week.

Why aren't councillors like Michael McIvor also facing similar punishments? It seems to be one rule for the party's MPs and a different one for its councillors. They are synonymous with the culture that presides over many left-wing parties today. They do not believe morals apply to them, but they can judge everyone else by their standards.
Sinn Fein have refused to suspend a councillor who taunted victims of the Kingsmill attack on Social media.

According to Cookstown District Council's website, Councillor Michael McIvor has not been punished by his party and remains the district councillor for Ballinderry.

"Councillor McIvor said on Facebook he tried to 'break bread' with the unionists"

The Unionist Voice reported that Councillor McIvor said on Facebook he tried to "break bread" with the unionists, but they were not interested. He concluded his comment by saying "here is a loaf they are interested in."

The remark was in reference to the Kingsmill massacre, which happened on 5th January 1976 in the Kingsmill village.

IRA fighter Colm Murphy, who also participated in the 1998 Omagh Bombing, and other men murdered ten Protestants.

The Ballinderry branch of Sinn Fein ignored Blasting News' request to specify whether Councillor McIvor will be suspended. However, his comment has caused uproar among many Northern Irish Conservatives.

"Nothing regarding Sinn Fein should surprise"

East Belfast Conservative Association provided Blasting News with the following statement: "Nothing regarding Sinn Fein should surprise, and Councillor McIvor in particular if you look at his record. Tribal belligerence and trawling over the past is a speciality of the legacy of the Northern Irish parties.

"They should be focused on re-establishing the Northern Ireland Executive, making critical social and economic decisions, and delivering better public services."

After commenting on the Kingsmill massacre, the Ballingderry councillor abused unionists on social media.

He mocked one unionist account on Facebook by saying: "You banging on about me on Twitter kid- the lisp in the real world- hard typing on social media."

The unionist replied by asking him to confirm he is still a member of Sinn Fein, to which he replied: "Aye- so what are you still a member of- nothing."

"They are not a normal political party and probably never will be"

Northern Irish Conservative Gary Hynds said: "To me, it just once again exposes the type of people Sinn Fein have within their ranks.

They are not a normal political party and probably never will be. They have many high profile members who are responsible for some disgusting acts.

"They continue to not only glorify in their blood-filled past, but now mock those who are killed also. They portray an image of fighting for equality and respect when in reality, deep down, they are a nasty bunch who are proud of blowing innocent people to bits and torturing the people of Northern Ireland for years.

In some ways, it is handy for their masks to slip, it reminds people who they really are."

Councillor McIvor was asked to provide a statement, but refused to do so.

Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff was suspended on full pay for three months after the West Tyrone MP posted a video on social media with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre.

He attended a meeting of the senior Sinn Fein leadership on Monday morning.

Sinn Fein Stormont Leader Michelle O'Neill apologised to the Kingsmill families, saying Mr. McElduff's actions were not intended to cause pain or hurt. She said he did the right thing in apologising and accepting the period of suspension from the party.

The Belfast Telegraph reported that Bea Worton, the 89-year-old mother of murdered Kingsmill worker Kenneth Worton, said she was 'hurt to the backbone' by Mr. McElduff's comments.

She also revealed she received prank phone calls mocking the atrocity.

Victims campaigner Willie Frazer said he and the Family Research & Policy Unit had received a total of forty to fifty prank calls demanding 10 slices of Kingsmill bread for the past six months.

Kenneth Worton was only 24 when he lost his life during one of the bloodiest events of the Troubles. He left behind two children.

DUP Leader Arlene Foster has been asked by families to report the phone calls to the police.
A massive mudslide swept across Southern California leaving 17 dead and more than a dozen still missing. It destroyed more than 100 homes and in its wake took cars and debris before ending on the beach. Reports by CNN and Abc News provided much of the information used in this article. The mudslide streamed down a mountain with trees and boulders and crashed into Montecito, Santa Barbara County, a peaceful coastal town early on Tuesday (Jan. 9).

17 dead and others left stranded

A team of 14 firefighters and six dogs followed by Anthony Buzzerio, Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief, went into thick debris.

They rescued three people on Wednesday (Jan. 10) but sadly they also found two bodies, which raised the death total to 17. According to ABC News, Buzzerio described the mud as being hard but soft underneath, therefore, utmost care was taken in searching for bodies. Rescuers, therefore, used long-handled tools in the search for survivors and bodies. Hundreds were rescued by aircraft, their bodies lifted from the mud. It's been reported that 13 are still missing from Santa Barbara County Sheriff, Bill Brown said on Wednesday.

Many rescued, but with injuries

People who were rescued with injuries were rushed to Santa Barbara Cottage hospital and four were in critical condition, according to Dr. Brett Wilson.

"Most injuries we saw were related to fast-moving debris," Dr. Wilson told ABC News. 50 people were rescued by helicopter and taken to safety on rooftops because blocked roads had left them stranded, due to debris or they were trying to escape the crushing mud.

Families and friends distraught

Families are anxiously awaiting any news on loved ones.

Reported on CNN, Diane Brewer has faith her missing friend, Josie Gower, 69, will be found. Gower was at home with her boyfriend when disaster struck early Tuesday morning. Brewer told CNN, Gower opened her front door and was swept away. Gower's boyfriend was rescued between boulders.

Mudslides and flooding

Heavy rainfall fell in Montecito in a short period of time, with a third of the rain fallen in 24 hours in the space of five minutes, according to the National Weather Service.The water had nowhere to go and that's why it flooded leaving 100 homes destroyed and 300 damaged, according to County officials.

Social media pays respect

The public is tweeting their condolences and prayers for survivors and loved ones who have lost someone due to this destruction.

I am heartbroken for the people of California caught up in the mud slides in Montecido. Prayers for those who are suffering.  Heather Stockton (@heathfthrlynn68) January 11, 2018

My heart is breaking for the people in California who are missing loved ones and trying to put their lives back together from the mud slides.   HoneyBadger (@Rebelyogi) January 11, 2018

California is in our prayers.
During the eight years that Barack Obama was in office, one of the leading voices pushing the debunked conspiracy theory of "birtherism" was former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. After Arpaio was given a pardon last year by Donald Trump for being in criminal contempt of court, he announced his campaign for the United State Senate but was forced to acknowledge his controversial past during a recent interview.

Arpaio on CNN

Not long after Barack Obama was elected as the first African-American President of the United States back in 2008, the right-wing Tea Party grew around the country.

The movement consisted of mostly angry white conservatives who expressed frustration with the growing size of the government, with some not being shy about their racial prejudice against the newly elected president. During that time, the conspiracy that Obama had faked his birth certificate gained traction, with Donald Trump being the highest profile name to give it legs. Another name that jumped on board the conspiracy, which has since be proven false, was Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff in Arizona. While Arpaio's efforts to prove Obama wrong never came true, he was found guilty of racial profiling and lost his re-election bid to a Democrat. As seen during a January 10 interview on CNN, the former sheriff is still standing by his birtherism.

Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an Arizona Senate candidate, says he still believes former President Obama's birth certificate is a phony -- "No doubt about it" https://t.co/vI1M4jeCJZ https://t.co/iDh9UBLIa9  CNN (@CNN) January 11, 2018

Joining Chris Cuomo on CNN, Joe Arpaio was asked why he decided to run for office after all the controversy that has following him, and eventually elaborated on his current stance about Barack Obama's origin of birth.

"Oh, you're bringing that up?" Arpaio asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Chris Cuomo replied, accusing the sheriff of attempting to "delegitimize" Barack Obama. "Let me tell yous something. I started this because of a fake document," Arpaio said, adding, "I didn't care where the president came from. I didn't care at all." "We have the evidence.

Nobody will talk about it," he continued.

Doubling down

Chris Cuomo went on to push further, asking Joe Arpaio directly if he thinks Obama's birth certificate was a phony. "No doubt about it," Arpaio answered, accusing former Attorney General Eric Holder of taking part in a "fix" to fool the public. While it's unknown what alleged proof Arpaio has, he doesn't look to be backing off his claims.

Moving forward

The issue of Barack Obama's birth certificate quickly became a non-issue for the majority of credible mainstream news outlets, as it was relegated to fringe far-right conspiracy blogs, with the exception of Fox News. Donald Trump has stayed quiet on the topic since being elected, dismissing it as a non-issue that he no longer likes to speak out.
Ryan Edwards admitted that heroin was his Drug Of Choice during last night's new episode (Dec. 11) of "Teen Mom OG." According to a new report from Us Weekly magazine, Edwards' struggles with drugs were spotlighted last night as he and his former girlfriend, Maci Bookout, attempted to get their way in their ongoing battle over the custody of their nine-year-old son Bentley.

Its a little tough sometimes," Ryan Edwards admitted about getting clean, "just trying to get through the withdrawals and stuff. Edwards was seen nearly falling asleep behind the wheel during last season's show as he drove himself and his now-wife, Mackenzie Standifer, to their quicky wedding in Tennessee.

Then, days later, after being questioned about his use of Xanax, Edwards entered a treatment program to address his struggles with addiction.

Maci Bookout wants Ryan Edwards to pass a drug test before seeing their son

During the show, Maci Bookout announced that she was sending a letter to Ryan Edwards through her attorney that would explain the stipulations needed to allow him to visit with their son, Bentley. Ill need you to pass a drug screening, hair and urine, at my expense immediately prior to you taking [Bentley] for a visit, read a portion of Bookout's letter to her troubled ex-boyfriend.

Ryan Edwards' parents, Larry and Jen Edwards, also spoke of their son's struggles on the show, admitting that while they knew that something was going on with Edwards, they were unable to get to the bottom of his issues because he would always leave if they started to argue.

Ryan Edwards preferred heroin over other drugs

While Mackenzie Standifer only asked Ryan Edwards about his use of Xanax, he told his lawyer on Monday night that his drug of choice wasn't Xanax, but rather heroin. Edwards then told his lawyer that despite Bookout's suggestion that he was ignoring her, it was actually she who was ignoring him.

[Maci Bookout] wont even return my phone calls or text messages, he claimed. However, as the lawyer explained to the longtime reality star, Edwards will likely be unable to see his son until he is able to pass a drug test.

To see more of Ryan Edwards, Mackenzie Standifer, and their co-stars, including Maci Bookout, Catelynn Lowell, Tyler Baltierra, Farrah Abraham, Amber Portwood, Andrew Glennon, and Gary Shirley, tune into new episodes of "Teen Mom OG" Season 7 on Monday nights at 9 PM on MTV.
Following the release of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" by author Michael Wolff, Steven Bannon quickly came under fire from the president and eventually lost his job at the right-wing Breitbart News. In response, Wolff is taking full credit for appearing to end his career as a member of the administration and with Breitbart.

Wolff on Bannon

To kick off 2018, Donald Trump was forced to deal with the fallout from "Fire and Fury" as Michael Wolff's book about the first year of the new administration instantly became a bestseller. As expected, the president quickly dismissed the book, referring to it as "pure fiction" and nothing but "lies," while labeling Wolff a "loser." One of Wolff's main sources, however, was Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign CEO and later Chief Strategist at the White House.

After reports of in-fighting between Bannon and members of the administration, he was let go over the summer and returned back to Breitbart News where he continued to push the Trump agenda. Since the release of the book, where Bannon took hard shots at Trump and his team, the president was quick to fire back, labeling him as "Sloppy Steve." The push back from the White House resulted in Bannon being fired by Breitbart, which led into an interview with Wolff during the January 10 edition of "The View" on ABC.

"I am the reason he's out." #FireAndFury author @MichaelWolffNYC says he was "the recipient" of Steven Bannon's "enormous frustration" and is the reason Bannon is no longer with the administration. https://t.co/f8u2wc159S pic.twitter.com/Ah1lQn1z5t  The View (@TheView) January 10, 2018

Joining the hosts of "The View" on Wednesday, Michael Wolff opened up about his experience in the White House in regards to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, and others.

"Literally, I just sort of slipped in through the cracks," Wolff said about being able to gain access into the White House over the last year.

#FireAndFury author @MichaelWolffNYC tells the co-hosts "100% of the senior staff of this White House" say this presidency is "not just unstable  [it's] unpredictable, erratic." https://t.co/f8u2wc159S pic.twitter.com/KT123SDyfN  The View (@TheView) January 10, 2018

Michael Wolff went on to say that much of his access came from Steve Bannon.

"I don't agree with anything, probably, 100 percent of what Steve says, but I came to appreciate his insights," he said, before explaining Bannon's "enormous frustration" during his time in the White House. "I was the recipient of Steve Bannon's enormous frustration," Wolff said, claiming that "I am the reason he's out" of the White House and eventually his exit from Breitbart News.

Wolff on Trump

When the conversation shifted to Donald Trump's mental fitness, Michael Wolff insisted that everyone he spoke to on staff expressed some sort of concern for the president's well-being. "100 percent of the senior staff of this White House, the people dealing with him on a daily basis" say this presidency is "not just unstable" but also "unpredictable" and "erratic."
scheana marie is "delusional" about her relationship with Robert Parks-Valletta -- at least according to a source. Following last night's episode of "Vanderpump Rules" season six, which included cheating allegations being made against the actor, an insider claims that he is using the reality star and that she's refusing to accept it.

"Every single time [Robert Parks-Valletta] is in town, [Scheana Marie] invites him to an event with her," the source revealed to Radar Online on January 9. The SUR Restaurant server is delusional, the insider continued, and still feels that her ex-boyfriend could be The One.

She would even marry him if given a chance. However, as the source explained, the actor has allegedly informed her that he doesn't want to be tied down to anything in particular.

[Scheana Marie] keeps telling [Robert Parks-Valletta] that he will regret it, the insider added. That said, Parks-Valletta doesn't appear to have any regrets about his breakup with the reality star quite yet, and, since their October split, he has been traveling and spending time with friends.

Robert Parks-Valletta was accused of cheating on Scheana Marie in 2017

Prior to their October 2017 breakup, Scheana Marie and her former boyfriend faced allegations of cheating after Parks-Valletta allegedly kissed another woman during a nightclub outing in Los Angeles.

As fans saw during last night's "Vanderpump Rules," Kristen Doute delivered the report to her co-star, who quickly shot down the allegations against her then-boyfriend. As she explained to Doute, the actor simply isn't someone who likes to kiss. She also said that the timing of the cheating allegations was suspicious, considering the recent claims against her co-stars, Jax Taylor and Tom Schwartz.

Scheana Marie and Robert Parks-Valletta secretly split last summer?

While the ex-couple never confirmed any such thing, Radar Online claimed the "Vanderpump Rules" star and her actor boyfriend broke up in August because she was moving too quickly for him. As fans have seen, Scheana has been discussing a potential marriage for months and has continued to speak of the idea even after their split.

To see more of Scheana Marie, her ex-boyfriend Robert-Parks-Valletta, and her co-stars, including Stassi Schroeder, Lala Kent, Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Sandoval, Katie Maloney, Jax Taylor, Kristen Doute, Brittany Cartwright, James Kennedy, and Tom Schwartz, don't miss new episodes of "Vanderpump Rules" Season 6 on Monday nights on Bravo TV at 9 p.m.
On Wednesday, January 10, 2018, the U.S. State Department released the highest-level alert of Do not travel warnings to American citizens. They listed five Mexican states which have the highest crime levels dealing with the ruthless drug cartels which would put visitors in the highest possible danger.

The level of the State Department travel advisory alert, a danger level-4 risk, matches the same level travel advisory given for war-torn countries such as Yemen, Syria, and Somalia, Fox News reported.

Mexican States at Level-4 status

The five Mexican states, out of thirty-one States In Mexico, are Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan, and Guerrero on the Pacific Ocean coast and the state of Tamaulipas, which borders the United States and the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

While the US has designated the entire country as a level-2 alert rating, meaning to exercise caution, having a level-4 is the highest in terms of potential danger. The State Dept. added an additional eleven Mexican states with a level-3 warning that includes most suburbs of Mexico City, Jalisco, Puerto Vallarta resorts, and lakeside communities of Ajijic and Chapala. The alert is alerting citizens to reexamine their travel plans. However, the travel advisory does not limit U.S. government staff from lodging in Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, Ajijic or in Chapala.

Rounding out the remaining states with a level-3 travel advisory warning includes the states of San Luis Potosi, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Durango, and Zacatecas.

Mexican governments response

Mexicos governmental tourism department was not available for comments about the travel advisory alerts by the U.S. State Department. However, the government's Mexico Tourism Board did say said that the tourism destinations have been expressly recorded as having no travel limitations, in relation to key resorts such as Huatulco, Cancun, and Puerto Vallarta.

Nevertheless, two resorts that prohibit U.S. government personnel to visit are both Acapulco and Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.

Due to the travel restrictions, several of those Mexican states have been hit hard financially due to the on-going drug turf wars and the rise of murder rates. The Jalisco New Generation Mexican Drug Cartel, for example, in Colima has increased that states murder rate and now has the highest murder rate at 83.3 murders per 100k inhabitants from Jan.

to Nov. 2017.

Rodrigo Esponda, director of the tourism board in Los Cabos, Mexico stated that although crime has not increased there, tourism has risen by sixteen percent and hotel occupancy by eighteen percent last year. At the same time, he stated that local government officials are working to increase security and want to do whatever they need to do to keep Los Cabos, Mexico, safe for tourists and hopefully, no serious travel advisory's will be needed. Enrique De la Madrid, Mexicos Tourism Secretary stated that what they are being challenged by, is witnessing criminal activity in areas such as La Paz and Cancun, which they didnt have to worry about before.

On New Years Eve (Dec. 2017), Fox News reported an Imperial Beach, California city official was murdered while he was vacationing in Mexicos resort town of Zihuatanejo area and witnesses say he was chased and shot by gunmen during an attempted robbery, most likely by members of a Mexican drug cartel.
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HA NOI  Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue asked ministries and sectors to work harder to officially connect Viet Nam with the ASEAN Single Window mechanism in 2018.

He made the request at the third meeting of the National Steering Committee for the ASEAN Single Window, National Single Window and trade facilitation in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

The committees standing agency reported that as of December 15, 2017, 11 ministries and sectors had implemented 47 procedures of the National Single Window mechanism, up eight procedures from 2016, and handled more than 790,700 dossiers submitted by some 19,980 businesses. From January 1 to December 15, 2017, over 554,500 dossiers were handled, up 272 per cent year on year.

According to a report of the World Bank in 2017, the time for direct customs clearance for export goods at ports of entry in Viet Nam reduced by three hours, while that for import goods was cut down by six hours. Costs for direct customs clearance at ports of entry for one batch of exports or import goods declined US$19.

Data as of December 15, 2017, showed that businesses saved more than $205 million on customs clearance procedures, over 15 million hours of storage for exports and over 33 million hours of storage for imports.

The Ministry of Finance said by December 2017, ministries and sectors had amended and supplemented 74 out of 87 documents on specialised management and examination. Some documents were revised to facilitate businesses and reduce time for customs clearances, which were applauded by the business community.

In 2017, the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) conducted a survey to find out how companies felt about customs activities. Accordingly, 25 per cent of the 1,000 respondents said it was difficult and very difficult to carry out specialised examination procedures, while only 8 per cent shared the view that it was easy and very easy to undertake the procedures.

Some 39 per cent of the surveyed enterprises said there were too many regulations on specialised examination, making it difficult for them to comply with. Meanwhile, 98 per cent perceived that many regulations did not match the reality, and 81 per cent said it took a long time for examination.

Addressing the meeting, Hue said it is necessary to simultaneously facilitate trade and fight trade fraud, while preventing red tape caused in the name of trade fraud prevention.

He asked ministries and sectors to carry out all 130 new administrative procedures in 2018 as registered in the master plan for implementing the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window for 2016-2020.

The Deputy PM also told them to remove at least 50 per cent of goods from the list of items subject to specialised examination. They also have to reduce the rate of goods batches subject to specialised examination during customs clearance from 30-35 per cent of the total batches, at present, to 15 per cent in the second quarter of 2018.

A competitive and transparent environment is also needed for many organisations to engage in testing, verifying and certifying goods, he added.  VNS
Viet Nams fruit and vegetable exports reached a record $3.5 billion for year-on-year growth of 43.02 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  Viet Nams fruit and vegetable exports reached a record $3.5 billion for year-on-year growth of 43.02 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The top 10 markets were China (75.6 per cent), Japan (3.64 per cent), the United States (2.94 per cent), South Korea (2.59 per cent), the Netherlands (1.81 per cent), Malaysia (1.43 per cent), Taiwan (1.33 per cent), Thailand (1.03 per cent), the United Arab Emirates (1.01 per cent) and Russia (0.85 per cent). Other markets accounted for 7.77 per cent, according to news site vneconomy.vn.

In addition to the traditional markets, Vietnamese fruits also managed to enter demanding markets like the United States, European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

According to Nguyen Huu at, general secretary of the Viet Nam Vegetables and Fruits Association, export continued its strong growth last year, exceeding the export value of some key export products such as rice, oil and gas.

He said in 2018 and beyond, besides improving the quality of vegetables and fruits, enterprises should focus on processing to add value and extend exports throughout the whole year, and not just during specific seasons.

inh Cao Khue, general director of the ong Dao Food Export Joint Stock Company, said processed fruit products cost 10-20 times higher than fresh fruits.

He said enterprises can only select 40-50 per cent of harvested vegetables and fruits for export on quality considerations, so the remaining quantity should be processed to get higher value from them.

at said to have sustainability in vegetable and fruit export, the agriculture sector must have large-scale production, and individual households must join cooperatives. He emphasised that it was easy to improve quality and have uniformity of products with large scale of cooperatives, ensuring food safety and competitiveness of Vietnamese vegetables and fruit products in the global market.

He further said the agriculture sector must develop associations in the production chain ranging from supply of seeds, cultivation, purchasing and processing to export. Especially fruit products that are exported to demanding markets must ensure standards of food safety to have export stability, at said.

Deputy Minister of agriculture and rural development Nguyen Thanh Nam also said the agriculture sector should promote cooperation in production between enterprises and cooperatives, wherein the cooperatives would take up land and partner with enterprises to ensure stable supply of raw material for businesses.

He said the region needs mechanisms and policies to ensure the quality and safety of raw material for export as well as domestic consumption.

Viet Nam has favourable climate and land to grow different kinds of fruits, so localities having these advantages must have development plans in place and support enterprises in developing raw material for the export of fruits, Nam said.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nams pharmaceutical retail industry is forecast to see significant competition in 2018, with the entry of new players with strong financial capacity and experience in distribution.

In the final days of 2017, Mobile World Investment Group (MWG) announced its acquisition of HCM City-based Phuc An Khang pharmacy for an undisclosed sum. However, the annual shareholders meeting in April approved a budget of VN2.5 trillion (US$110 million) for merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, of which VN500 billion will be pumped into pharmaceutical retail.

Also in early December, chairwoman of FPT Digital Retail JSC Nguyen Bach iep bought Long Chau pharmacy, HCM Citys biggest drugstore chain. Though saying it was just ieps private investment, the deal is speculated as an initial step for FPT Retail to enter the pharmaceutical distribution sector.

Another big electronics retailer, Nguyen Kim Group, in November made a public bid for Lam ong Pharmaceutical JSCs shares, following which it is ready to spend about $3 million to raise its ownership from 24 per cent to over 51.14 per cent. Apart from Lam ong Pharmaceutical, Nguyen Kim Group is also investing in FT Pharma.

Earlier in August, Digiworld Corp signed up with Vinamedic to distribute food supplements for men.

A $5 billion market

Viet Nams pharmaceutical retail sector is considered fertile ground for big distributors, with total revenues of up to US$4.7 billion in 2017, up 13 per cent year-on-year, according to Business Monitor International (BMI), and is expected to swell to $7.7 billion in 2021 and $16.1 billion in 2026.

Demand for drugs in the country is also rising stably in line with improved income per capita. The drug spending per capita in Viet Nam rose from $9.9 in 2005 to $37.97 in 2015. With a rapidly ageing population, average spending on drugs is forecast to climb to $85 in 2020 and $163 in 2025.

The market holds big potential for retailers to establish their dominance, in the context that drug distribution in Viet Nam is still in the hands of private pharmacies with no one seizing a market share of up to 20 per cent.

FPT Retails chairwoman iep in a FPT Retail roadshow in December said the company would make a pilot investment in a new retail sector before making an official decision in 2018. She highly valued the pharmaceutical industry with its positive market growth potential.

Meanwhile, Mobile Worlds chairman Nguyen uc Tai has targeted 500 stores nationwide through the acquisition of pharmaceutical brands, especially those with 10-15 stores. However, he said this is a specific industry which needs careful contemplation.

Long-term race

According to Phan Van Hieu, chairman of CVI Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics JSC, this year would not see any big change in the drug distribution market as now is still a period of exploration and evaluating market approach for new players.

I think the pharmaceutical retail market is not an easy sector for even big distributors such as MWG or FPT. The pharmaceutical market has a lot of barriers and is different from other markets, Hieu was quoted as saying to the au tu chung khoan (Securities Investment) newspaper.

Mai Hai Ninh, a founder of thuocvasuckhoe.com drugstore chain, said the biggest risk for drug retailers is the lack of medical expertise as drug sales depend on prescriptions or just a patients declaration on their health status.

The pharmaceutical industry is a specific industry, so from managers and salespeople need to have strong medical knowledge, Ninh said, adding that training of medical staff requires 2-3 years.

The participation of retail giants with strong financial strength and modern technology and management is expected to create a big push for the drug distribution market but actual changes are expected to take place over the next 5-10 years.  VNS
HA NOI  The International Trade Administration, under the US Department of Commerce (DOC), has rescinded an administrative review of the anti-dumping duty order on certain steel nails from Viet Nam.

The review was meant for nails manufactured in Viet Nam between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017.

On September 13 last year, DOC published in the Federal Register a notice of initiation of an administrative review covering each of the 19 producers or exporters named by Mid Continent Steel and Wire, Inc. in its July 31 review request.

However, on September 28, the petitioner withdrew its review request for each of the 19 companies. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(1), DOC will rescind an administrative review, in whole or in part, if the party, or parties, that requested a review withdraws the request within 90 days of the publication of the notice of initiation of the requested review.

As MidContinent Steel and Wire, Inc. withdrew its request for review by the 90-day deadline, and no other party had requested an administrative review of this order, the department has decided to rescind the review.

DOC will instruct US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess the countervailing duties on all appropriate entries at rates equal to the cash deposit of estimated anti-dumping duties required at the time of entry, or withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption, during the period.

DOC plans to issue guidelines to calculate duties for CBP within 15 days of publication in the Federal Register.  VNS
BORDEAUX  Even in France, the self-styled land of the gastronome, locating a super-hot curry can be a challenge.

But when those pre-prandial pangs hit, fear not.

Theres a plane for that. And it helps if youre a pilot, which is where James Emery comes in.

"Its not the kind of thing you do every day," says Emery, a 31-year-old British amateur pilot and aeronautical trainer based in the southwestern French region of Gironde.

Emery has spent seven years in France but found curry fare on offer in La Grande Nation too bland for his taste buds.

Cue a novel plan to fuse his love of food with his aviation abilities to offer like-minded local fans a fly-it-in service.

On Saturday, Emery will fly over an Indian takeaway from one of his favourite restaurants in the south of England where he has previously taken French pilots to eat.

"We often go to an Indian restaurant in Portsmouth which I frequented when I was a student. When I told the owner I was disappointed with Indian food in France  not very spicy to adapt to the French palate  he suggested delivery by car," Emery said.

"As Im a pilot in my free time we said, why not by plane?"

Pilot training firm Iroise Aero Formation, based in the western French city of Brest, has made available a single engine six-seater for Saturdays delivery.

The aircraft will head for Lee-On-the-Solent in southern England and pick up around two dozen curries from Akash in Portsmouth, each costing 36 euros (US$43)  delivery included.

"The owner will also make the trip with me," said Emery.

After a brief stop for customs formalities in Cherbourg, the plane will fly its spicy cargo to Bordeaux-Saucats aerodrome where it will be served up piping hot at a hangar to around 20 spice-loving customers, both British and French, in an "inter-cultural event," Emery said.  AFP
oan Ngoc Hai.  Photo vietnambiz.vn

Hoang Anh

On Monday, Deputy Chairman of the District 1 Peoples Committee oan Ngoc Hai in HCM City handed in his papers, admitting failure in his efforts to clear pavements of unauthorized vendors and other forms of illegal encroachment.

Hais action was remarkable and admirable. Hed promised the public in February last year that he would regain the pavement for pedestrians or resign from his post by the end of the year. The man kept his promise. A public official staking is reputation and career on a promise and then keeping it is virtually unheard of in this country.

Unfortunately, its not a resignation that we wanted. But, while we bemoan the loss of a sincere official, there must be a recognition that Hais failure was not just one of implementing the law, but a failure to place the problem in its proper context and to plan a long-term, feasible solution.

It shouldnt have come as a surprise. Hais campaign to retake the pavement from illegal street vendors, parking lots and unauthorised constructions wasnt the first of its kind.

Once in every while, local authorities, in response to a Government resolution or decree, would start campaigns to clear the pavement, but these were typically as ineffective as they were counter-productive.

A week, ten days after the campaign, the street vendors would return to their old spots, restaurants would put their plastic tables out and parking lots would sprout up from nowhere again. The word on the street was that one has to wait it out and return to business as usual.

Hais zealousness was also impressive. He took to the street on a daily basis to personally handle vendors, parking violators and illegal constructions. It was a rare sight to behold  a district level deputy head doing what he did. There were positive signs as people listened to him, some even voluntarily modified their drive-ins that had encroached pavement space for years.

Hais campaign became a model, starting a nation-wide pavement reclamation effort. Authorities in other cities jumped on the pavement clearance bandwagon, wanting to make an impression that they, too, were doing their job.

But we all know that in this country, the pavement has a life of its own. There are millions of migrants from the countryside who are trying to make a living on the pavements of big cities, and many of them are street vendors. They are terrified of having their carts taken away or of paying huge fines, which most of them cant afford, but what other livelihood choice do they have?

Rapid urbanisation and overpopulation in recent decades have overwhelmed the citys infrastructure. Parking lots sprout up on the pavement because people simply do not have anywhere else to park their personal vehicles. With public transportation underdeveloped, the people have no choice. Scaring people off the pavement with fines isnt going to work when they have no other alternative. These moves are just bad treatment of a symptom, not the root cause of the disease.

When the pavements were cleared for the first time in many years, people started to compare District 1 to Singapore, famous for its tidiness. But Singapore took decades to get where they are today, and there is very important difference. The island state has no rural area or agriculture sector to speak of. And if there is one thing we should indeed learn from Singapore, it is planning.

Singapore carried out many studies on street vendors and based policies and implementation on their findings. The intent was to make sure street vendors would be able to make a living after being moved off the pavement. There was no such prior activity before Hai started his campaign.

Things turned sour quickly when street vendors refused to comply with the rules. A video clip of a fish ball vendor struggling with law enforcement forces to hold onto his stall went viral on the Internet.

Hai said he was threatened, insulted and intimidated. By October last year, he was effectively stripped of his ability to freely patrol the street. Instead, he was only allowed to do so when it was approved by a superior. By the time he handed in his resignation, the pavements had been reoccupied by the same street vendors, restaurants and businesses for months, as if nothing had happened.

To repeat, several aspects of Hais actions are commendable: his conviction and dedication; as also his willingness to risk his career and not play it safe.

But what did it earn him? Many said that he was a modern-day Don Quixote, the old Spanish knight who charged at windmills, mistaking it for giant foes. There is some merit in this description.

Restoring order to the citys pavement is a task that will require the involvement and commitment of the entire political apparatus as well as the support of society, Hai said in his resignation letter.

True, but it was his failure to present a convincing plan that showed he had done his homework well, placed the problem in the context of rural-urban migration and its causes and identified alternative solutions.

But Hais actions were not totally in vain. A project has been launched to identify suitable areas to relocate street vendors so that they can continue doing business.

As the cliche goes, failures are stepping stones to success, but only if the right lessons are learnt from them.

Our aim should not be to look like Singapore, but apply their methods to polish our own Pearl of the Orient.  VNS
NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan speaks at a meeting of the National Assemblys Standing Committee (NASC) yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Phuong Hoa

HA NOI  The National Assemblys Standing Committee (NASC) yesterday rejected a draft resolution on administrative penalties for violations in State auditing, saying it lacked jurisdiction over the issue.

The committee was holding its 20th session, the first for 2018, which will weigh in today on controversial issues related to laws on national defence, cyber security and special economic-administrative units.

Preparations for the 26th annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26) are also on the agenda.

Highlighting difficulties faced by the national auditing agency, Auditor General Ho uc Phoc told the NASC: In 2017 alone, there were 121 cases where necessary documents were not provided, making audit work impossible.

Phoc also said that a high percentage of recommendations made by the State Audit Office for State organisations and agencies were never implemented.

He said the failed recommendations accounted for 35.7 per cent of the total proposed in 2015, involving more than VN8.1 trillion (US$360 million). In 2016, this was slightly lower at 24.4 per cent, at VN5 trillion.

Such failure (to act) caused losses to State revenue and affects the efficiency of auditing work, he said.

Phoc blamed a lack of robust administrative levies for wrongdoings regarding auditing, and asked the NASC to issue a resolution to address the issue.

National Assembly (NA) Deputy Chairman Uong Chu Luu responded that it was not the NASC, but the NA that had the jurisdiction to determine and approve regulations on administrative punishment regarding any given sector. Other lawmakers agreed, and rejected the proposal.

Extra resettlement funds

The lawmakers also discussed an extra VN170 billion proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to compensate and resettle residents dislocated by the Ta Pao irrigation system project in central Binh Thuan province; and the upper Kroong Pach reservoir project in the Central Highlands province of ak Lak.

Agriculture Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that the original VN470 billion planned for resettlement in the two projects was no longer sufficient due to changes in resettlement policies.

NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan disagreed with the proposal, saying that the adjustment could slow the projects.

The NASC asked the Government to review the two projects and assess needed financial adjustments, as also other irrigation projects currently in need of capital for compensation and resettlement. The review reports are expected to be submitted to the NASC at its next meeting session.

Cyber security law

Later the same day, the lawmakers discussed the draft Law on Cyber Security.

Most deputies agreed on the need to set up an important information system related to national security and for clear regulations on different kinds of information systems.

They also agreed with the regulation requiring foreign businesses who provide networking and other Internet-based services in Viet Nam with more than 10,000 local users to set up representative offices and install servers managing data on Vietnamese users in Viet Nam. They said it was necessary to facilitate State management of security, preventing the use of such networks and the internet to violate the nations laws.

The committee also agreed with providers being also required to follow the Governments orders to prevent and remove any information that threatens national security, social order and the legal interests of Vietnamese organisations or individuals.

Chairwoman Ngan stressed that the draft law should abide by the Constitution and be in sync with the legal system.

The drafting board should continue reviewing the laow to prevent overlapping and prevent any limitation of human rights, including the rights to access information as enshrined in the Constitution required under the nations international commitments, she said.

The lawmakers also discussed draft revisions to the Law on National Defence.  VNS
HCM City Peoples Council Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam (R) recevies Bounpone Sisoulath, chairman of the Lao National Assemblys Economic, Technology and Environment Committee, on Thursday in HCM City.  Photo hcmcpv.org.vn

HCM CITY  HCM City Peoples Council Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam and Bounpone Sisoulath, chairman of the Lao National Assemblys Economic, Technology and Environment Committee, met on Thursday in HCM City to share experiences in land management.

Tam praised Laos for establishing local Peoples Councils and strengthening the role of the people in the countrys development.

The city Peoples Council will work with the local Lao Peoples Councils to share experiences of the two countries elected bodies, contributing to Viet Nam-Laos relations, she said.

During the ongoing visit of the Lao delegation, members are working with the General Department of Land Administration under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment to share experiences in land management, ownership and land-use rights issues as well as land laws.

Tam said proper land management ensures the countrys socio-economic development and the interests of the people, of which the National Assembly in Viet Nam plays an important role.

Bounpone Sisoulath said,The land administration law in Laos is in the process of being drafted. The problem of land management is very complex, especially in the period of population growth and economic development, and land resources are limited.

Laos also lacked experience in operating local Peoples Councils because the country only recently established such councils, he said.

The Lao parliament also hopes the HCM City Peoples Council will visit Laos soon to share experiences with other localities in Laos.  VNS
HCM CITY  HCM City authorities have proposed increasing capitalisation for the citys first two metro lines as the projects continue to face a capital shortage.

The city Peoples Committee has sent a report to the Government on the details of cost overruns.

The metro line No 1 from Ben Thanh in District 1 to Suoi Tien Theme Park in District 9 was approved by the city in April 2007 with an investment of VN17.4 trillion (US$766.4 million). At that time, approval by the National Assembly (NA) was not needed.

After investment costs were re-calculated by consulting agencies, costs increased to more than VN47.300 trillion ($2.08 billion).

The city government attributed the surging costs to price changes of materials, minimum wage hikes in the 2006-2009 period, and the depreciation of the Vietnamese ong and Japanese yen, among others.

The PM agreed with the city Government to approve the project adjustments in August 2011. With investments reaching more than VN47.3 trillion, the NA then had to approve the amount.

As proposed by the city government, the PM assigns an agency to report to the NA on investment adjustments and assists the city in advancing capital to continue work on metro line No 1.

According to the city Peoples Committee, the city has signed three loan agreements worth VN31.208 trillion, of which VN11.929 trillion has been disbursed.

The project has implemented four bidding packages and has completed around 48 per cent of the work.

As for metro line No 2, which connects Ben Thanh with Tham Luong in District 12, the city Peoples Committee approved a design by a local consulting firm in 2010 with a total investment of $1.37 billion.

In 2012, the IC, a consortium from Germany chosen as the international consulting firm two years later, revised the detailed design of the project with a total investment of $2.1 billion.

In 2015, the city government petitioned the PM to adjust the investment cost of the metro line No 2 project.

The city government has asked the PM to approve the projects investment and implementation adjustments and allow the city to assess and approve project adjustments.

According to the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Planning and Investment and the State Bank of Viet Nam, metro line No 2 can be approved by the city authority but comments from the PM are needed before implementation.

According to the Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Finance, the project needs to be reported to the PM before it is submitted to the NA for approval.  VNS
Phuoc Buu

THUA THIEN- HUE  During wet, cold weather, bathing is a rare treat for Tran Quang, a boat resident in central Thua Thien- Hue Province. Quang, who is 35, is one of more than 100 boat people living on a floating village in Thuy Phu Commune. It is a tough, inconvenient life.

In 2007, the province started resettling boat residents on land, but the scheme has yet to reach Quangs community. About 7,000 boat people have already been resettled on land, but officials refuse to say why Quang and 24 other boat families in his community are still waiting after 11 years.

Of course we want a plot of land to settle down. Its been a life dream of mine, Quang said. Life on the water is extremely tough, but we have to accept it.

Five members of Quangs family, including three children, crowd into the small living space on their home, its top covered by bamboo lattice and plastic sheeting. The space for the living area is one metre wide and six metres long.

The children are afraid of winter as they have no warm space to shelter and not enough clean, winter clothes.

We have no water supply. Water taken from nearby land houses is just enough for cooking, he said. We rarely bathe during winter. Bathing in the river is dangerous in the cold."

Winter in the province is among the toughest in the country due to rains and repeated cold spells. In bad years, there are only about 10 days in three months of winter that are not chilling.

The dream of moving ashore is a dream not only for Quang. Tran Bi, 58, said all 24 boat families hoped for the same escape.

Life here is so hard and we have no base for growth, thus we all want to live on land, Bi said.

My brother, my sister and my brother-in-law lived in hope of having a home ashore, but they died of strokes in three successive years.

According to Bi, commune authorities pledged to settle them on land in 2007, but since then, little has been done.

Most of the boat residents have no access to healthcare, except two families recognised as living close to poverty.

Le Huan, one of the two, said the community nominated his family as one approaching poverty, aiming to help the three youngest children go to school.

Many of us are illiterate and health checks are not in our minds, except for emergencies, said Bi. He said only four of his nine children got a chance to go to primary schools. Bi is the second generation of his family to live on water.

We earn some money in the sunny months, thanks to fishing and sand mining. Shortage of money is the main reason for our reluctances to use healthcare services.

Younger people like Quang can earn better incomes year-round by doing hard manual work. But he has his own reason for ignoring healthcare.

We are subject to discrimination when we go. People look down on us, saying we are dusty, smelly and illiterate. They use words like "floating residents" to address us, making us reluctant to attend, he said.

A commune official said the commune had land for settlement of the families, but was short of capital for infrastructure development. He said the land plots were uncultivated due to the poor soil and even had to be upgraded for housing.

Since 2007, the province has built three resettlement zones and five apartment blocks to house 7,000 people from more than 1,000 floating families in Hue City and nearby districts. The funds came from Luxembourg official development assistance and government and local budgets.

Provincial authorities claim resettlement has been fulfilled for the floating community in the province, but decline to say why Quangs community just five kilometers from the city has been forgotten.

Quang and his floating neighbours insist that they do not require infrastructure, they desire land where they can build houses by themselves if they have to.  VNS
HCM CITY  HCM City plans to improve its administrative procedures by using smartphone apps for tracking citizens submissions and forming working groups, according to Tran Vinh Tuyen, deputy chairman of HCM City Peoples Committee.

In a meeting on improving administrative procedures held on Tuesday (Jan 9), Tuyen said the city should focus on developing apps that could help people and businesses keep track of procedures more easily, as opposed to relying on the government website and other traditional means.

In a related matter, the city has formed interdisciplinary working groups to deal with investment proposals and projects more efficiently.

The meeting reviewed administrative reform in 2017 and its accomplishments, such as speeding up procedures for services like business registration and building certificates in addition to the use of more electronic documents rather than paper, which has saved the city billions of ong.

Several outstanding administrative units received awards at the meeting.

However, Tuyen noted that in 2017 around eight per cent of the citys administrative units still did not have plans to improve administrative procedures.

He said that such units need to improve their services this year, including dealing with applications more thoroughly by keeping applicants informed and processing applications more quickly, and listening to peoples feedback.

As for administrative reform, the city targets reaching a satisfactory level of 90 per cent, and completing more than 90 per cent of submitted applications on time.  VNS
QUANG NGAI  A strange skin disease has claimed the life of a student in Ba To District, central province of Quang Ngai, according to the provincial Health Department.

Nguyen Tan uc, the departments director, on Tuesday confirmed the death of the 13-year-old student from Ba Ngac Secondary School in Ba Ngac Commune.

The health centre in Ba To District came across the student earlier this year. He was believed to be suffering from an unidentified skin disease, but was later diagnosed with dermatitis, a condition that causes peoples skin to peel off their feet and palms.

He also showed symptoms of high liver enzyme and septicemia (a blood infection), and was admitted to a Nang General Hospital for treatment. However, he died after a week.

The disease has resurfaced in Ba To District after three years.

Ten cases have been reported from the end of 2017 till date.

The first case was reported in 2011; since then, 26 deaths have been reported, according to the Vietnam Television (VTV).

Tran ac Phu, head of the Ministry of Healths Preventive Medicine Department, said that the disease was more common in the age group between 15 and 29.

Earlier, after gathering evidence and consulting experts, the ministry concluded the disease was caused by mold, mainly aflatoxins, and by eating old rice, he said.

Aflatoxins are poisonous carcinogens that are produced by certain molds (Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus), which grow in soil, decaying vegetation, hay and grains.

The ministry has recommended to people not to eat old rice, to clean the environment and their bodies.

The patient, who is confirmed to be suffering from this disease, must be treated according to the method defined by the ministry," Phu said.

Currently, the health sector is conducting disinfection in the area where the disease has resurfaced and is continuously working towards finding its cause.  VNS
A young doctor works at Bac Giang general Hospital.  Photo vietnamplus.vn

HA NOI  Sixty two poor districts across the country lack a total of almost 600 doctors with specialisations in 15 different areas, including obstetrics, paediatrics, emergencies and infectious diseases.

This was revealed by Pham Van Tac, director of the Personnel Department under the Ministry of Health at a conference on Tuesday. The conference was held at the Ha Noi Medical University to present a group of seven young doctors who will work in those districts.

They are the second group of graduates to have done post graduate studies and been sent to rural areas.

The doctors activities are part of a project to send young medicos to work in poor districts and island areas. The project was approved by the ministry in 2013.

Under the project, young doctors who perform well at medical universities are asked to volunteer.

After being trained for two years in a medical speciality, the men practice in hospitals in poor areas for three years. Female doctors are asked to do two years..

The project, running since February 2013, aims to improve the number and quality of medical staff in disadvantaged areas. Volunteers are provided with priority conditions in terms of salary, allowance and working conditions during their missions - and acfter they complete them.

This time, the seven doctors will go to poor districts in Cao Bang, Lai Chau, Ha Giang and ien Bien provinces.

It is expected that by 2020, about 300-500 doctors will have helped out in poor remote areas.

At present, a total of 154 young doctors with a 10 different specialities are being trained.

In June last year, the ministry in troduced the first seven young doctors to Bac Kan, Lao Cai, ien Bien and Son La provinces.

Director Tac highly said he greatly appreciated their work so far. The graduates conducted difficult techniques and surgeries well, including endoscopies, appendectomies, ovary tumours, and ectopic pregnancy, said Tac.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien told the conference that the project was a great initiative by the health sector.

It was creating better health opportunities for poor people to access good quality health services, decrease overloading at central hospitals and prevent waste for patients, the community and society, she said.  VNS
HA NOI  Ha Noi has decided to ban Uber and Grab cars on 13 streets during rush hours in an effort to tackle increasing traffic jams.

The citys Department of Transport has, so far, installed signs prohibiting taxis and nine-seater commercial cars and smaller ones, including those of popular transportation networks Uber and Grab, on nine out of 13 streets.

The ban is due to go into effect from Thursday.

Accordingly, commercial cars will not be allowed to run between 6 and 9am and from 4.30 to 7.30pm.

The streets on which the cars are banned are Hoang Hoa Tham, Mai Xuan Thuong, Giang Vo and Lang Ha, as well as Le Van Luong, Truong Chinh, Kham Thien and Hang Bai, in addition to Phu Doan, Xuan Thuy, Cau Giay, Giai Phong and the Chuong Duong Bridge on the lane from Long Bien District to the city centre.

Department director Vu Van Vien said the ban was aimed at reducing the number of personal vehicles going into the centre during rush hours, helping to alleviate the ever-worsening traffic.

Vien added that the traffic police would be able to recognise Uber and Grab cars violating the ban via specific logos stamped on them.

The Ministry of Transport is set to issue regulations forcing Uber and Grab cars to put the logos on the car bodies or doors.

Vien also said the ban will not be permanent, and is due to be lifted once traffic on a particular street improves. If it doesnt improve, more bans against cars will be applied to resolve congestion.  VNS
PARI  Armed robbers launched a spectacular raid on the world-famous Ritz hotel in Paris on Wednesday, making off with an estimated four million euros worth of jewels, the latest in a string of high-profile heists in the French capital.

The gang of five men armed with hatchets smashed display windows on the ground floor of the hotel in Paris luxurious Place Vendome around 6:30pm (1730 GMT), making off with the jewels.

Three of the gang were detained while fleeing the scene and an AFP journalist said some roads around the hotel were sealed off by security forces following the incident. Two people were still being sought by authorities on Wednesday evening.

"We heard a loud noise and lots of racket in the street," one hotel employee said. "Passers-by took refuge in the hotel. We didnt know what was going on until someone told us there had been a robbery."

Another employee said he saw a motorbike speed along a road at the back of the hotel after the break-in.

Several luxury brands display their jewels in the street-front windows of the Ritz.

A judicial source put the value of the jewels seized at "more than four million euros" (US$4.75 million).

Interior minister Gerard Collomb praised officers "professionalism", saying they had "done our police force credit".

Paris prosecutors have opened a probe into the robbery, according to a judicial source.

Riches and robbers

Place Vendome, with its opulent window displays of jewellers and high-end watchmakers, has been the scene of several audacious daytime raids.

Security had been boosted in the area, which also houses Frances justice ministry, in 2014 after several daring armed raids on Place Vendome in which jewels worth between 420,000 and two million euros were seized.

But thieves struck again in March 2016, when an estimated six million euros worth of jewels were stolen from luxury fashion brand Chopard by robbers who threatened employees with a gun and grenade. Three men were charged in connection with that heist.

The French capitals most high-profile recent jewellery theft was carried out in October 2016 against US reality television star Kim Kardashian.

Five men, some wearing jackets with police insignia, held Kardashian at gunpoint, making off with several pieces of gold and diamond jewellery as well as a ring -- a total estimated worth of nine million euros.

One of the robbers, fleeing the scene on a bicycle, dropped a diamond-encrusted cross worth 30,000 euros, which was found by a passer-by a few hours later.

It remains the only piece to be recovered from the heist.

The landmark Paris Ritz hotel re-opened its palatial doors to guests in 2016 after nearly four years of renovations and a major fire.

The hotel founded by Swiss entrepreneur Cesar Ritz in 1898 is storied as the lodging of choice of Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, who has a small bar named after him.

In more recent history however, the Ritz has become known as the place where Britains Princess Diana spent her last hours before a car accident in a tunnel in the French capital while being pursued by paparazzi.  AFP
ROME  The heads of seven southern European states pledged on Wednesday to up their efforts to tackle one of the most stubborn thorns in the EUs side: flows of migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries.

The leaders of Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain, meeting in Rome for a working dinner, released a statement saying they were "firmly committed to a common European policy on migration".

The "Southern Seven" tackled issues such as the future of the eurozone and efforts to propel growth, but from crowded reception centres in Greece to boats heading for Spain, the top topic was migrants.

Those on the frontline for arrivals despair of the reluctance of some European countries -- such as Poland or the Czech Republic -- to share the reception burden.

"We must fight together to put in place a migration policy that shows solidarity with the countries that receive these significant flows," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the press.

Frances President Emmanuel Macron also slammed the "inconsistencies" in Europes Dublin asylum rules which force those countries which serve as points of arrival in Europe to shoulder the crisis.

The call for a "determined effort" to improve the system however steered clear of mentioning the EU bid to relocate migrants -- a bid that has angered some countries or been flatly ignored.

For Italy, 2017 was a turning point: the country went from large-scale arrivals in the first six months to a sharp drop-off, thanks to controversial agreements in Libya.

Some 119,000 people landed in Italy last year, down 35 percent on 2016.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni boasted of the "encouraging results in the control of (migrant) flows and the fight against human trafficking" and urged Europe to make sure the results would "now be consolidated".

For its part, Spain saw a notable increase in Algerians and Moroccans sailing in, from 6,000 attempting the crossing in 2016 to nearly 23,000 picked up last year.

In Greece, an accord struck between the EU and Turkey limited the number of arrivals to 28,800 -- six times fewer than in 2016 -- but it did not solve the problem of caring for those who had already made the journey.

Under pressure

The toll of dead or missing in the Mediterranean dropped from nearly 5,000 during crossings in 2016 to 3,116 in 2017, mostly off the coast of Libya.

But the start of 2018 has seen some grim statistics.

Between 90 and 100 migrants were missing after their makeshift boat sank off Libya, the countrys navy said late Tuesday. Ten migrants also died last weekend and dozens more are missing after their boat sank.

But apart from rescues at sea, asylum applications -- and the inevitable delays and lengthy appeals -- have placed great strain on some countries.

Greece is struggling to deal with more than 50,000 migrants and refugees, 14,000 of whom are crammed into tents or centres on overcrowded Aegean islands.

In Italy, the authorities have stopped providing details on the number of asylum seekers housed in its reception centres, with the last available figures showing there were nearly 200,000 last spring.

Spain has faced a backlash over the state of the detention centres where migrants are held before being expelled.

Humanitarian corridors

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti -- the man behind the Brussels-backed deal with Libya to block migrants from setting out for Europe -- has urged the EU to follow Romes lead on humanitarian corridors.

Three days before Christmas, Italy welcomed a group of 162 Ethiopian, Somali and Yemeni refugees who flew directly in from crisis-hit Libya.

Some 10,000 refugees are expected to follow in 2018, Minniti said -- provided they are spread across the EU.

With France also facing a record increase in asylum applications, the migration issue is expected to figure at a bilateral meeting on Thursday between Macron and Gentiloni.  AFP
We at WarbirdsNews feel it is important to preserve vintage military aircraft and the stories of those who built, flew and maintained them for the future. We are certain that our readers feel the same. The one essential requirement towards this end though, is to encourage younger generations to get involved and learn about the history and beauty of these aircraft which we all hold dear. That is why we love this piece about the legend of Curtissaurus Rex by sixteen year old Job Savage. We are keen to feature more such stories by young people, and are thinking of ways to best accomplish this. so please feel free to use the comment section from this article if you have a positive suggestion, or know a youngster who would be interested in contributing something similar. In the meantime, please give a warm welcome to Job and his story!

Curtissaurus Rex  The Birth Of A Legend

by Job Savage

In the summer of 2015, metal dinosaur artist Chris Arnold was visiting his friend Tom Husband in Ferndale, Montana. Tom took Chris Arnold up to Crystal Lakes Resort, Montana, to see the private aircraft collection of Jim Smith at Stonehenge Air Museum, which has a unique Supermarine Seafire 47, a Curtiss Jenny and P-40E Kittyhawk, a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, and many more aircraft. They received a guided tour from Sam Winefordner, telling the histories of each aircraft in the collection. When the tour came to the Curtiss P-40E, Sam told the story of a farmer in Lethbridge, Alberta who bought this aircraft after World War Two for fifty dollars to harvest its hardware. During the war, hardware was virtually unavailable to civilians, as it all went to the war effort. The farmer took what he needed, but in 1952, he used the eighty percent complete airframe to help fill a dry pond to give him more land for wheat. This is where the rumors of a buried P-40 began. The Kittyhawk had been thirteen feet underground for over twenty-three years by the time John Paul of the Warhawk Air Museum began researching famers who had purchased surplus P-40s following WWII. After meeting a man who remembered it being buried as a boy, John Paul was able to locate the farmer who agreed to sell the buried aircraft as long as Paul refilled the dirt hole. Carefully excavating the dry pond, they slowly exposed the plane. The first thing they revealed were the dirt-filled exhaust stacks sticking out of the soil, which looked like the vertebra of a dinosaur. Quickly, they renamed the P-40 Curtissaurus Rex. After a thirteen-year, restoration started by Steve Seghetti in California and finished by Col Pay in Scone, Australia, Jim Smith purchased the airworthy fighter for his Stonehenge Air Museum. After hearing this story, Chris Arnold began to build a part P-40, part Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur out of metal as a tribute to the P-40 and all the warriors who flew the aircraft. In 2016, the legendary dinosaur sculpture was born, and purchased soon after by the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California. Today he can be seen in the museum, guarding the museums collection of over two hundred, American-made aircraft with his Browning .50 caliber machine gun. To see more pictures of the Curtissaurus Rex, you can find Chris Arnold on Instagram at @chrisarnoldmetaldinosaurs or on Facebook at Chris Arnold Metal Dinosaurs.

WarbirdsNews wishes to thank Job Savage for his story and Chris Arnold for the photos of his marvelous creation.
WATERLOO  If youve ever dreamed about jamming on blues harp  if you actually knew how to play harmonica  your big break may be here at last.

Texas blues-soul-rock guitarist and harmonica player Hamilton Loomis will teach a Beginner Blues Harmonica workshop on Monday and Tuesday at Bryans on Fourth, 320 E. Fourth St.

And you dont need a lick of musical talent to participate.

Its a very user-friendly instrument. I can get people playing in the first 15 minutes, and people of all ages have done my workshops. Its something different, quirky and fun, said Loomis, who lives in Houston.

His band has performed in the metro area numerous times over the past 20 or so years and filmed their live DVD at the Hub in Cedar Falls. On Wednesday, hell perform at Spicolis in Waterloo, beginning at 7 p.m.

Loomis was a protege of R&B and rock legend Bo Diddley and was mentored by the likes of bluesmen Albert Collins and Clarence Gatemouth Brown. He taught himself to play drums, piano, guitar and harmonica.

Teaching other people to play harmonica, however, was initially a challenge.

I was asked by a Houston company, Leisure Learning, to teach a class. Id never taught before, so it was like tossing the baby bird out of the nest. You learn real quick how to fly, he recalled, laughing.

That was 20 or so years ago. Since then hes taught hundreds of people how to play the mouth harp.

Harmonica is an improvisational instrument, he pointed out, and admittedly, its hard to teach improv. With experience, Loomis has distilled his knowledge into easy-to-master techniques that work in a six-hour workshop setting.

Its like learning a new language. In the first session, I teach the vocabulary  heres how to hold it, where to put your mouth. Its the practical stuff. Then I insert blues into my big Bluetooth speaker and pretty soon, everyone is jamming with the music.

On the second day, Loomis teaches participants advance techniques on how to trill, bend notes for soul and feeling, pitch down (to a lower pitch) and use their hands to create effects.

He laughs. It really gives me a charge when I see those light bulbs go off over peoples heads as the workshop progresses. I can see peoples confidence getting higher, and they get louder and louder, and I start jumping around and getting into it. I love that stuff!

Loomis also offers advice on how and what harmonicas to buy. A new, good-quality 10-hole harmonica comes along with the registration fee, but some players might want to step up to an even better instrument.

Over the last 20 years, Ive wasted a lot of damn money on harmonicas. Some look good, but arent, and you cant return harmonicas. Its worthwhile to know which ones are best, he said.

Loomis debut album, Hamilton, received a Grammy nomination for best contemporary blues album in the late 1990s. Subsequently he has recorded and released nine or so albums, including the newest, Basics.

His band regularly tours through the U.S. and recently returned from the United Kingdom. Blues Blast magazine describes Loomis live performance as a non-stop turbo of power, one minute moving from side to side on the side of the stage to taking on his horn player in a head-cutting contest ...

P.S. To workshop attendees planning to see Loomis perform live  leave your harmonicas at home.
CEDAR FALLS  A Cedar Falls woman accused of medicating her 7-year-old daughter with marijuana has been sentenced to probation.

Samara Anne Houston, 35, pleaded guilty to delivery of marijuana, and on Thursday Judge Stephen Clarke formalized the plea agreement that sentenced her to five years in prison, but suspended it and gave her two to five years of probation. She also is expected to plead guilty to a misdemeanor child endangerment charge in connection with the same investigation.

Clarke noted corrections officials also recommended probation.

Fines were suspended, but Houston will face a 180-day drivers license suspension.

Houston had admitted to providing marijuana to her daughter  apparently without consulting a doctor  but a hair test was negative for marijuana, said Assistant County Attorney Jeremy Westendorf.

The test, however, was positive for methamphetamine, he said. He said it was unclear how meth had entered the girls system.

Clarke noted the child has been removed from Houstons care, and there is a restraining order that allows the mother to see the child with visits supervised by the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Defense attorney Brian Johnson told the court Houston has mental health issues and has been obtaining treatment.

According to court records, school officials contacted DHS in January 2017 over concerns Houston had been smoking marijuana with her daughter.

When approached by DHS workers, Houston initially denied providing marijuana to the child but then said the child smoked marijuana about once a month.

The defendant also stated that she did not see anything wrong with what she was doing because she believed the marijuana helps her daughter, who she stated is special needs, police wrote in court records seeking charges against Houston.

Police seized marijuana from the home, record state.

Houston was arrested for child endangerment in January, and authorities filed the felony charge in May. In October, while awaiting the outcome of the charges, Waterloo police arrested Houston during a traffic stop where officers found a glass pipe containing meth, according to court records.
SHELL ROCK  Union members, working families and Democrats plan to picket the home of Iowa Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix in Shell Rock on Saturday.

Bus loads from several unions organized by Teamsters Local 238 will meet at 1 p.m. across the street from 317 Walnut St. in Shell Rock to protest what they perceive as Dixs attack during the last legislative season on working families, veterans, education, health care and seniors.

Kirsten Anderson will speak about how Dix ignored her complaints of sexual harassment and toxic work environment in his Senate office where she was communications director. Anderson ultimately was awarded a judgment of $1.75 million which must be paid by Iowa taxpayers from the general fund.

Butler County Democrats will serve a free-will offering chili lunch from noon noon to 4 p.m. at the Boyd Building in downtown Shell Rock. Serving coffee and hot chocolate will be Tracy Freese, Democratic candidate against Dix for Senate District 25 which covers Grundy, Hardin and portions of Butler and Story counties.
CEDAR FALLS  Two proposed commercial projects near an increasingly busy southern Cedar Falls intersection received the blessing of the Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday night. But commissioners and citizens emphasized traffic issues there must be addressed.

Commission members recommended City Council approval of site plans for a proposed Kwik Star convenience store and a new Fareway grocery store at Greenhill Road and Coneflower Parkway.

Both projects are southeast of the intersection of Greenhill Road and South Main Street. And several commissioners and residents, including those in the nearby El Dorado Heights residential areas, said attention is needed to traffic safety improvements at Greenhill and South Main.

City staff acknowledged the need in a staff report on the Fareway project.

The report cited the expansion of the Western Home campus, residential development and commercial projects in the Viking Road corridor in recent years.

The city realizes that this intersection at Greenhill and South Main will need to be upgraded in the future, David Sturch of the city planning staff wrote. Construction is set to begin in 2021.

In the short term, Sturch noted, the city will determine near- and long-term improvements. Staff could make a recommendation to the City Council next month.

Garrett Picklapp, general counsel for Boone-based Fareway, said he hoped any improvements could be made yet this year, concurrent with the construction of the companys proposed store.

Several residents said short-term improvements will not be sufficient and 2021 is too long to wait for long-term improvements, particularly with the Highway 58/Viking Road interchange set to be constructed soon just a mile to the south, and the ongoing reconstruction of University Avenue about a mile to the north with that work moving toward the Highway 58 interchange this year.

Thats going to impact our area, resident Jill Fisher said after the meeting. We already know the roundabouts on University Avenue have impacted our area. We know that, with more traffic moving on to Greenhill and South Main during Universitys reconstruction.

And theyre also going to be closing what they call the dog bones on 58? referring to a double roundabout proposed at the University/58 interchange. Thats all going to happen at the same time. And how are they going to re-direct the traffic?  Fisher asked. It doesnt matter how they say theyre going to detour. People will find their own detours.

She also cited heavy daily traffic on Iowa Highway 58, also known as Iowa Highway 27, the official route of the Avenue of the Saints, at least a portion of which could shift onto local streets.

I dont think the people object specifically to those two entities coming in, those two businesses, Fisher said. I think what theyre objecting to is the fact that the city has not done their due diligence in providing an infrastructure that would alleviate traffic problems.

Improvements to the South Main/Greenhill intersection has been listed as an unmet need in the citys capital improvements plan for several years, El Dorado Heights resident Penny Popp said.

Fisher also expressed concern about delivery trucks for both businesses getting in and out of the area, as well as ambulances and fire trucks when a new public safety building is built at the existing south fire station site.

Both the Kwik Star and Fareway projects may come before the City Council later this month or in early February. The council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the citys proposed five year capital improvements plan at its meeting 7 p.m. Monday.
DES MOINES  Challenges at home and abroad are forcing the Iowa National Guard to adapt and change its mission to fight Americas wars, secure the homeland and build lasting partnerships around the world, according to Iowa Adjutant Gen. Timothy Orr.

As we look around the globe, the international situation today is the most complex and demanding that I have seen in my 39 years of service, Orr said in delivering his Condition of the Guard address to Gov. Kim Reynolds, top state officials and a joint session of the Iowa General Assembly on Thursday.

Orr said natural disasters in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, coupled with major cyber-attacks, and the smallest military since before World War II tested the ability of the Iowa guard and nation to fulfill global commitments during an era of uncertainty and persistent conflict.

Currently, about 800 Iowa guard soldiers and airmen are mobilized for combat operations around the globe, he said. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 19,000 Iowa National Guard members served on active duty to support the nation, he noted.

With the level of global uncertainty today, the velocity of instability, and potential for significant conflict around the world, we are now at a point where current and projected demands for our assets around the globe to support the warfare will remain at a high operations tempo, Orr said.

For the most part, he said, 2017 was a relatively quiet year for emergency response operations in Iowa, but the guard deployed helicopters, aircrews and security forces as part of emergency management assistance compacts when hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria inflicted damage in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, he said.

Another important response was in the area of counter-drug programs and training, especially to combat the nations opioid epidemic, he said. Orr noted the guard trained 340 law enforcement officers across Iowa on how to properly administer the antidote for opioid overdoses, and counter-drug specialists seized more than $43 million in drugs and $3 million in cash and assets from drug dealers in Iowa.

Orr also touted the guards economic benefits for the state, noting military, law enforcement and civilian visitors to the Camp Dodge training installation near Johnston pumped more than $100 million of discretionary spending into central Iowa last year.

As a volunteer organization, Orr said recruitment efforts remain a priority, with a growing concern that a large percentage of U.S. military members who come from the same families are effectively creating a class in our society that is carrying the burden for the remainder of our citizens.

With only three out of 10 17- to 24-year-olds eligible today for military service due to various reasons, he said, theres significant concern among civilian and military leaders about the future of our military and the readiness of our force to defend this nation in years ahead.

One change that has helped in that regard, he said, was a Department of Defense revision in 2016 that opened all military positions  including more than 1,700 in the Iowa National Guard  to women for the first time in U.S. history.
WATERLOO  A city zoning panel endorsed a new vehicle salvage yard in the Broadway Street corridor.

Members of the Waterloo Planning, Programming and Zoning Commission voted 5-2 Tuesday to recommend approval for Can-Am Towing and Automotive to operate the salvage yard near the intersection of Broadway and Grandview Avenue.

A majority of the commission members supported the special permit despite a petition of opposition from nearby homeowners.

The citys Board of Adjustment is expected to render a final decision on the permit Jan. 23. The business also needs two exceptions to the zoning ordinance because its just under the 5-acre minimum size requirement and also sits within 600 feet of homes.

John Dornoff, of the planning office, said staff supported the request because the property was surrounded on the north by other auto salvage operations while the Canadian National Railway and Broadway Street served as a buffer to homes within the 600-foot radius to the south.

Business owner Craig Lindsay said hes been trying to get a salvage permit for the former Pauline Co. site since he bought it four years ago. He vowed to meet all of the city zoning requirements including a solid fence and landscaping.

Im here in hopes of getting a permit so I can fence it off correctly, make it look good for the neighborhood, Lindsay said. Its pretty much the same use as everything else around there.

Ward 3 Councilman Pat Morrissey led the opposition to the special permit, and presented signatures he gathered in opposition from owners of half the 35 homes within the 600-foot area.

Im here to tell you having walked around that neighborhood  there was not one person that was in favor of another salvage yard in their neighborhood, Morrissey said.

As the councilperson for Ward 3, I do not want another salvage yard in Ward 3, he added. We have 18 or 19 salvage yards already in the city of Waterloo. When is enough enough?

Several commission members questioned why residents who signed Morrisseys petition failed to attend the meeting Tuesday.

Larry Westendorf was the only property owner near the yard to speak against it. He also complained city code enforcement officials had allowed Can-Am to park more than 300 cars on the unfenced lot already without having proper permits.

The city has issued a citation for those vehicles that has yet to be addressed in court.

Commission members Craig Holdiman, Matt Miehe, Jamie Castle, Virginia Wilber and Sue Flynn supported the special permit, while Eric Donat and Marcia Buttgen voted against it.
A roundup of legislative and state government news items of interest for Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018:

Sen. Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said Wednesday she hopes to have a bill moving in committee next week that sets the level of state aid to schools for fiscal 2019. Gov. Kim Reynolds made a budget proposal this week that sought an extra $54 million, or 1.5 percent, for K-12 school districts. The governors plan also sought to give schools more flexibility to use as they see fit another $35 million in categorical funding earmarked for reducing class sizes. Sinclair said the education funding decision will be made in the sessions first 30 days, but the money is dependent on legislative action to first deal with a projected $34.7 million shortfall in the current budget year that ends June 30. Rep. Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls, chairman of the House Education Committee, said he does not sense support for the governors proposal to move back the timetable for paying back $111 million borrowed from reserves to balance last years budget, which would mean paying the final $55 million installment in fiscal 2020. I think there are a lot of people in this body who would like to pay back those dollars quicker, so we might not have the available dollars to get to the $54 million, he said. I think it will be tough to get to that number, but we shall see.

Rep. Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said it would be premature to say that anything has been finalized, but House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, during a taping of Iowa Public Televisions Iowa Press show, said it would be the goal of House Republicans to fund the governors education proposals. I think were sure going to find a way to do that, absolutely, the House Speaker said.

Fuel prices up

The price of retail fuel in Iowa rose four cents this week to $2.45 per gallon, according to survey data issued Wednesday by the state Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Retail diesel prices in Iowa rose two cents to $2.89 per gallon. According to AAA, Iowas price for unleaded gasoline was nine cents a gallon higher than one year ago but was lower than the national average Tuesday of $2.49 per gallon. Retail diesel prices in Iowa one year ago averaged $2.50. The current average diesel price nationally is $2.91 per gallon. Propane prices are a penny higher than last weeks price for a statewide average of $1.50 per gallon. Home heating oil prices rose two cents from last weeks figures, ending with a statewide average of $2.43, while natural gas prices fell 11 cents and ended the week at $2.90/MMbtu.

Master matrix

Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement on Wednesday called upon county boards of supervisors to re-adopt the Construction Evaluation Resolution by Jan. 31 in order to use the state Department of Revenues Master Matrix for 2018. CCI officials say the Master Matrix is one of the few ways counties and citizens can weigh in on the construction of large-scale commercial animal feeding operations in their communities. Supervisors are required to re-adopt the Master Matrix every year, otherwise they will be unable to recommend siting denial of CAFOs that raise objections within their county. As of Jan. 9, 29 counties had passed it, according to DNR records. Sen. David Johnson, an Ocheyedan independent, has filed a bill this session (Senate File 2009) that would establish a master matrix advisory committee to evaluate the use and value of the DNRs master matrix and the process of evaluating and approving or disapproving applications to establish or expand large-scale confinement feeding operations for livestock.

Quote of the day

The state budget is in crisis largely due to a revenue problem, and I hope that we can tackle that.

 Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, speaking as ranking member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee during Wednesday committee meeting.
Fake news

THEODORE LEDERMAN

WATERLOO -- Fake news, as coined by President Trump, means distorted news-giving in an attempt to de-legitimize him with the ultimate aim of removing him from office.

Look at CNN, The Courier and USA Today, we see unremitting hatred shown toward this president. A Dec. 12 editorial in USA Today stated President Trump "is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barrack Obama presidential library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush." The editorial board of USA Today has never shown this level of revulsion toward any other president.

It is interesting to note that after 17 months of FBI investigation, along with three concurrent Congressional committees and seven months of the Mueller probe, no collusion has been shown between Russia and the Trump administration.

At no cost to U.S. taxpayers and uncontested by the Democratic National Committee, WikiLeaks revealed CNN's own Donna Brazile gave debate questions to Hillary Clinton before a town meeting and CNN worked with the DNC about questions to be asked by Wolf Blitzer to Ted Cruz and Trump.

Let's have one more Congressional committee -- How the News Media is Working to distort the News to Topple President Trump.
Under the new rules the booking process must be designed that customers must order paid additional services actively and not opt out (so called opt-in "solution). The common Internet booking practice to only display credit card fees at the last second, is in the future only still be legal, if alternative number of ways. Many airlines ignore the new requirements of the European legislator. In Germany, many airlines have adjusted their advertising and in particular their Internet offerings not to current legal regulations. This has increased Federal Association on the occasion the Consumer Council and has operating in Germany airlines TUIfly (Airline Hapag-Lloyd Express GmbH), Condor (airline Condor Flugdienst GmbH), EasyJet (airline EasyJet airline company Ltd.), Germanwings (airline Germanwings GmbH), Ryanair (airline Ryanair Ltd., Air Malta (Air Malta plc. airline), Air Berlin (airline Air Berlin PLC & co. Luftverkehrs KG), Intersky Aviation (airline InterSky Luftfahrt GmbH) and the online travel portal eDreams (holidays eDreams S.L..) requested to change their offerings and to apply in accordance with the statutory provisions. The Hanseatic Higher Regional Court has already determined that the carriage of baggage and luggage is still industry standard, and passengers can expect free baggage allowance (OLG Hamburg, decision of September 20, 2007, ref.



3 U 30/07). The Court ruled about flights, which the Irish carrier Ryanair in the press and on the Internet with "off" prices applied, without explicitly specifying the fees invoiced by Ryanair and fees for checked baggage. The OLG Hamburg considered misleading advertising of Ryanair and decided that the advertising was not the price transparency. This applies even more after the introduction of Regulation (EC) no 1008/2008 and the standardized there standards. It is recommended you themselves as before, magical messages of the airlines in the small print to check and sometimes irreverent and illegal business practice of some "cheap" to oppose flyers and flag carrier. Because what as gift ' or free ' advertised is, turns out to often as a flight booking to a multiple of the taxi price ' to the airport. Lawyer Jan Bartholl contacts in the travel, flight and air traffic law contact: lawyer Jan Bartholl - contact in the right to travel, flight and air traffic rights and current information at currently bath str.



17 48149 Munster E-Mail: info (at) ra-janbartholl.de email: info (at) ra-janbartholl.de telephone: 01803/505415-365249 the law firm Bartholl advises consumers, travellers, and passengers to legal questions about the entire jurisdiction of the travel, flight and air traffic rights. See the website of the law firm reports and information on topics can be found as: passenger rights in Europe, case off-what do I do?, such as I'm perfectly entitled my claims against tour operators?, loss of luggage, luggage loss, flight delay, flight cancellation and the legal consequences. The address is. Lawyer Jan Bartholl serves clients on legal details, discusses the possibilities in any particular case with each customer together and examines how. The firm Bartholl in Munster's work is based on trust, confidentiality and liability.
By WestKyStar & MSU Staff Jan. 10, 2018 | 10:07 PM | MURRAY, KY





Each year, the Hutson School of Agriculture Alumni Association selects two alumni from among many outstanding alumni to receive our most prestigious awards, said Dr. Tony Brannon, dean of the Hutson School of Agriculture. This years award winners, Kirby and Jimmy, continue a long line of successful alumni who have received this award. Both are truly outstanding in the field of agriculture and have  and will continue to do so  put Murray State agriculture on the map.The Outstanding Young Alumnus Award is given each year to someone who has made significant contributions to the agriculture industry, the Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray State and Murray States Agriculture Alumni Association.Kirby Green, originally from Westview, was raised on a tobacco and beef cattle farm and served as the president of the Kentucky FFA Association from 2007 to 2008. She received her bachelors degree in agriculture with an area in agricultural education from Murray State in 2011. During her time at the University, she was a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority and served as president of the Student Government Association in addition to being named Homecoming Queen and Ms. Murray State University. As an undergraduate student, Green also studied abroad in Greece, Hungary and Puerto Rico before beginning her career as an agriculture educator and FFA advisor at Lone Oak High School in Paducah. She later earned her masters degree in agriculture from the University in 2012.In January of 2013, Green pursued a career pathway change and accepted a job with Monsanto as a district sales manager. Since that time, Green has managed a territory budget of 20,000 units of corn and 75,000 units of soybeans. She is also responsible for creating and managing her Monsanto teams social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, during her professional career, Green has created and provided leadership for the Next Gen program, which targets young, progressive farmers who are community leaders.Since graduating from Murray State, Green has remained a consistent supporter of the University by speaking at various functions and coordinating the Monsanto funding for Ag Appreciation Week 2017. She has received Monsantos Presidential Volunteer Service Award for four straight years and was the keynote speaker for the 2017 Murray State FFA All-Region Stars Banquet. She is also a member of the Kentucky FFA Foundation, the Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board and the Kentucky Farm Bureau Young Farmers. In her spare time, Green hosts and produces a podcast for young professionals, called Sharpen, along with managing a tie-in blog.[Green] has exemplified the combination of energy, talent, integrity, productivity, dedication, vision and excellence that has led to her being named the recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Young Agriculture Alumnus of Murray State, said Dr. Brian Parr, head of the department of agricultural science, upon presenting her award.The Outstanding Agriculture Alumnus Award is given to a Murray State alumnus who graduated a minimum of 10 years before the time of selection. Like the young alumnus award, the recipient of the Outstanding Agriculture Alumnus Award is an individual who has contributed to the agriculture industry, the Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray State and Murray States Agricultural Alumni Association.The recipient of the 2017 award, Jimmy Wray, is a 1994 graduate of Murray State with a bachelors degree in agricultural business. Wray is from Ballard County and began his agricultural business career in the summer of 1994 as an intern with BASF. He then moved to Muncie, Indiana, after graduation to take over a sales territory for Ciba Geigy Chemical. Then, in 1997, he moved back home as a sales representative in the Purchase Area for Monsanto to introduce Roundup Ready and BT crops to the region. As Monsanto purchased seed companies like Asgrow and Dekalb, Wray discovered a passion for the seed business and began to focus on hybrid and variety development for the region. In 2002, Wray was promoted to manager of Monsantos seed and trait business for Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and the bootheel of Missouri.Later, in 2007, Wray left Monsanto to start JWray Seeds, which focused on selecting corn, wheat and bean genetics to fit the specific needs of Kentucky and Tennessee farmers through the Armor Seed Brand. In 2010, JWray Seeds and Cullum Seeds merged to form Armor Seed Company, which then grew to approximately 1 million bags of soybeans, 200,000 bags of wheat and 500,000 bags of corn sold throughout the Mid-south and Delta regions. In September 2017, Armor Seed was acquired by Land OLakes Inc., based out of Minnesota. Wray is currently managing the Armor Seed business for Land OLakes and oversees the Kentucky American Seeds processing plant in Hopkinsville, which was acquired in 2012. He still takes time to farm a few hundred acres, enjoying running the excavator and dozer on farm-land improvement projects.Over the years, Wray has supported the Hutson School of Agriculture in a number of ways, such as by providing seed for the Hutson Farm plots that allowed for the selling of $75,000 worth of corn in the newly-donated farms first year of production. Additionally, Wray donated equipment to establish the hemp trials on the Eagle Rest Plantation in Ballard County.In summary, [Wray] has set the bar high for himself and for Murray State agriculture, Parr said. Today we recognize him for clearing the bar and present him with the award of 2017 Outstanding Agriculture Alumnus.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 11, 2018 | 03:11 AM | MARSHALL COUNTY, KY

Kentucky State Police are requesting the public's assistance locating a man who fled from troopers on foot.On Wednesday night, troopers stopped a vehicle on Highway 68 in Draffenville for a traffic violation. During the stop, the driver was identified as 38-year-old Ian D. Hunter. A search of the vehicle led to the discovery of drug paraphernalia consistent with drug trafficking as well as a significant amount of methamphetamine.

While Hunter was being arrested, he resisted and fled on foot. A search of the immediate area was conducted, with the assistance of the Marshall County Sheriff's Department, Benton Police Department, and Calvert City Police Department. Hunter was not located during the search.

Hunter has recently used addresses in McCracken and Livingston counties. He is a white male, 6' 0", 215 lbs., bald, with green eyes.

KSP urges anyone who knows the whereabouts of Hunter to contact them at 270-856-3721.
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Well that means I am safe!

I could only dream of being bankrolled by some entity to write this blog. Except one issue, I write what I see as the truth and no one, but no one will change those coffee thoughts with money. You might change my mind with facts, data and truth. But money does not buy a spot to lie on my blog

MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Bloggers receiving funds from foreign governments may be recognized as foreign agent media outlets, Russian Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, Pyotr Tolstoy said. These are individuals who act as mass media, including bloggers, if there is evidence of funding from abroad and signs equating them to foreign agent media outlets, Tolstoy said. This refers to bloggers bankrolled by foreign governments through a foundation based in the United States and who receive funds to disseminate information from their sources, he said. So, they receive money from a foreign state, not from a private person. More: http://tass.com/politics/984447

I realize that there are blogs that are being paid to write squalid text about Russia. Just as there are sites that call themselves news sites of Russia in English, that are funded heavily with western money. But they are easy to spot, it is obvious when someone is bankrolled

Seriously though:

The dream is after all these years of daily posting and persistence in the subject matter within its pages. Is a dream that WtR would have made a living for me. But it seems that is alas. I never picked up the pen, never strike the keys on the computer to speak what everyone else wants me to say and you to hear. I do not follow anything and or anyone, but my heart

But Alas:

If I was paid to do this (other than some donations through readers,) I would be obligated to say things that did not mean anything to me. A paycheck has the advantage of buying a form of loyalty to the employer. Good or bad, obligation is merited when they pay you to write for them. No one has a thumb on my ass and tells me what to write, though many have tried and WtR has paid the price dearly

To put it mildly, You do not get rich writing how you feel, money comes from writing how they feel!

WtR
Local officials are debating whether to name a stretch of road after Boris Y. Nemtsov, a democratic activist gunned down near the Kremlin.

Source: Street Outside Russian Embassy in Washington May Be Renamed for a Dissident

The realization that your country is screwed in more ways than one

America destroys her actual landmarks of history and then names a road after an ex western paid agitator. My how the saintly have fallen ~sarc~

There are medical terms for people who are self-defeatist against themselves and others and like to practice tying hangman knots in a rope

But a simpler easy to understand term, Stupid.

WtR
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Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.
Kelly Servick in Science:

Drug-resistant bacteria are thwarting the worlds last-resort antibiotics, leading scientists to seek new compounds from poisonous frogs, backyard soil bacteria, and other wildlife. Now, scientists have found the makings of an exceptional microbe killer inside us: By tweaking a naturally occurring peptidea short chain of amino acidsfound in the human body, researchers have designed a drug that could wipe out obstinate microbes resistant to all available treatments. The candidate, now headed to human trials for skin infections, adds an important piece  to the puzzle of creating a perfect antibiotic, says Kim Lewis, a microbiologist at Northeastern University in Boston who was not involved in the work. When a small subset of bacteria survives antibiotic treatment, an infection can get out of control fast. As these resilient microbes thrive, they can group together on a surfacelike a wound or a medical deviceand encase themselves in a slimy protective layer known as a biofilm. Such colonies are hard for drugs to penetrate, and they harbor dormant cells called persisters that can quietly weather an antibiotic assault only to come roaring back later. Such infections are the really nasty things for patients, says immunologist Peter Nibbering at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Nibbering and a team of Dutch collaborators are trying to combat these biofilm-associated infections by improving on a human peptide called LL-37, which helps regulate the bodys immune response. LL-37 already has some natural bacteria-killing abilities, and the researchers previously shortened the peptide to make a more powerful variant, consisting of 24 of the 37 original amino acids. In the new work, they optimized this peptide by making a series of random replacements to its building blocks without disrupting its overall structure. One variation, dubbed SAAP-148, proved a powerful little weapon, the team reports online today in Science Translational Medicine . Whereas most traditional antibiotics target specific groups of bacteria and kill by disrupting key mechanisms of those microbes, SAAP-148 is more of a generalist. It kills by damaging most any bacteriums plasma membrane, causing it to spill its contents and deflate.

More here.
Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times:

Two political scientists specializing in how democracies decay and die have compiled four warning signs to determine if a political leader is a dangerous authoritarian:

1. The leader shows only a weak commitment to democratic rules. 2. He or she denies the legitimacy of opponents. 3. He or she tolerates violence. 4. He or she shows some willingness to curb civil liberties or the media.

A politician who meets even one of these criteria is cause for concern, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, both professors at Harvard, write in their important new book, How Democracies Die, which will be released next week.

With the exception of Richard Nixon, no major-party presidential candidate met even one of these four criteria over the last century, they say, which sounds reassuring. Unfortunately, they have one update: Donald Trump met them all.

We tend to assume that the threat to democracies comes from coups or violent revolutions, but the authors say that in modern times, democracies are more likely to wither at the hands of insiders who gain power initially through elections. Thats what happened, to one degree or another, in Russia, the Philippines, Turkey, Venezuela, Ecuador, Hungary, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Poland and Peru.

More here.
We recently offered up an in-depth look at the arty and tasty going-on in downtown L.A. Now, we're rounding the corner for a look at the neighboring Arts District, where a bustling lot of galleries, boutiques, creative spaces and loft homes are breathing new life into the area's old industrial buildings and warehouses.



If you are planning a trip to Los Angeles and want to see the hottest emerging art, this is the place to be.

All the Art in the Arts District

Denk Gallery

Old, new, and avant garde creative endeavors are brewing in this area.

Although gentrification is sowing its seeds in the area, the community of artists who live here are fighting to keep the creative energy alivewith murals. Walking around you'll notice work from notable graffiti artists like Brooklyn-based artists Adam Dare; LA-based painter Kim West; our very own, Fnnch; and LA local Wrdsmth. To take in all of the pieces and learn about the artists behind them, book an intimate walking expedition with LA Art Toursand learn about the street art world. These are usually guided by a notable graffiti artist or writer like Shanduonewho began his career as LA graphic artists in the 70s. // The esteemed Hauser & Wirth (901 East 3rd Street), with locations in London, New York, Somerset, Gstaad and soon in Hong Kong, now has an LA location. Built inside of an old flour mill, the gallery has two art spaces, a public courtyard, bookshop, gift shop and restaurant. On view (until the end of January) are two exhibitionsMike Kelley: Kandors 19992011, a mixed media show with a Superman theme, and local painter Ellen Gallagher with her first solo show in LA. // New pop up museum, Happy Place (1242 Palmeto Street), revels in happy momentssee a giant birthday cake and a neon XO installation celebrating love and marriage; and dance under a dome swathed in flowers and confetti. // Venus Over Manhattan (601 South Anderson Street), is the second gallery in the arts district founded by private investor and influential contemporary art and design collector, Adam Lindemann. The 14,500 square foot exhibition space primarily showcases work from young and emerging artists including sculptor Elaine Cameron-Weir and painter Dan McCarthy, and painter Nolan Hendrickson. // Maccarone Gallery (300 South Mission Road) is another space opened by a New YorkerMichele Maccarone. In a sprawling 35,000 square feet of indoor space and another 10,000 square feet of outdoor area, Maccarone transformed the warehouse into an urban-chic gallery focused on sculpture and pop and conceptual art. On show now conceptual artist David Lamelas in The Other Side until January 27th. // Museum as Retails Space aka Mars (649 S. Anderson Street) is a 6,000 square foot commercial, contemporary art space and shop founded by first-time gallery owner Robert Zin Stark. The program is pretty diverse ranging from contemporary art to mixed media and photography. On January 13th Mars will open Reintentions by queer photographer, Josh Paul Thomas, in an exhibition focused on the portrayal of the nude male a the past ten years and the taboos and objectification of the body. // Opened by artist, Davida Nemeroff, and gallery dealer, Mieke Marple, Night Gallery (2276 East 16th Street) was named after its opening times: 10pm to 2am. The two wanted to create a space that includes a post-studio scene where artists can chill after work. Now, the gallery not only has daytime hours, but has become a landmark for artists and art collectors alike in search of emerging talent. Upcoming exhibitions include works from painter Mira Dance with High Hell and photographer Barak Zemer with Transit (both from January 20th through February 24th). // The new Denk Gallery (749 East Temple Street)owned by husband and wife duo, Belgian endocrinologist Dr. Katja Van Herle and British yacht captain David Hoeyopened with an emphasis on conceptual artists. The roster of names includes Belgian artist Arne Quinze, well-known in the Burning Man community; LA-based photographer Augusta Wood; and abstract painter Matthew Anthony Stokes. They will be participating at Untitled SFJanuary 15th in San Francisco, where they'll feature a sculptural program by artists Jeff Colson, Tim Hawkinson, and Pontus Willfors.


Kurnalpi nickel-cobalt exploration update

Adelaide, Jan 11, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Mithril Resources Ltd ( ASX:MTH ) is pleased to advise that follow-up exploration activities at its 100%-owned high-grade nickel-cobalt Kurnalpi target (located approximately 70 kms east of Kalgoorlie, WA - see Figure 1 in link below) will commence next week.



- EM geophysical surveying of the high-grade nickel-cobalt target to commence next week with drilling to follow.



EM geophysical surveying will be undertaken initially with drilling (for which statutory approvals have been received) to follow once all geophysical results have been received.



At Kurnalpi, historic drilling has intersected strong nickel-cobalt intercepts over an area 250 metres wide by 600 metres strike within weathered ultramafic rocks, including (ASX Announcement dated 12/12/17 and Figures 2 - 3 in link below);



- 42m @ 1.25% nickel, 0.07% cobalt from 24 metres in KURC22 including 6m @ 1.78% nickel, 0.20% cobalt from 28 metres,



- 10m @ 0.70% nickel, 0.11% cobalt from 30 metres in KURA38 including 3m @ 0.92% nickel, 0.21% cobalt from 34 metres,



- 8m @ 0.58% nickel, 0.20% cobalt from 24 metres in KURA400,



- 12m @ 0.76% nickel, 0.10% cobalt from 36 metres in KURA406, and



- 19m @ 1.08% nickel, 0.07% cobalt from 33 metres in KURA42 including 6m @ 1.17% nickel, 0.11% cobalt from 35 metres.



Maximum values from any one single sample are 2.04% nickel (2 metre composite sample in KURC22), 0.33% cobalt (4 metre composite sample in KURA400) and 0.28% copper (2 metre composite sample in KURC42).



The presence of elevated copper may be indicative of nickel sulphide mineralisation within the target area.



Mithril looks forward to providing further updates as the work progresses.



To view figures, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/PVTXY47U





About Mithril Resources Limited





Mithril Resources Limited (ASX:MTH) is an Australian resources company whose objective is the creation of shareholder wealth through the discovery of mineral deposits.

The Company and its exploration partners are actively exploring throughout the Kalgoorlie, West Kimberley and Murchison Districts of Western Australia for economic nickel, copper, zinc, and vanadium deposits.

In the Kalgoorlie District, Mithril is exploring for nickel on the Kurnalpi, Lignum Dam and North Scotia Projects which lie along strike from, or adjacent to previously mined high-grade nickel at the Silver Swan and Scotia Nickel Deposits.

In the West Kimberley, Mithril is exploring for zinc on the Billy Hills Project which lies adjacent to the previously mined Pillara Zinc Deposit.

In the Murchison, Mithril is exploring for copper, nickel and zinc mineralisation on the Nanadie Well Project and for copper, silver, zinc and lead on the Bangemall Base Metal Project. Mithril's exploration partner  Monax Mining Ltd is also exploring for vanadium on the Limestone Well tenements.
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Acquisition by NEWSCYCLE

Bloomington MN, Jan 11, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - NEWSCYCLE Solutions ("Newscycle"), a leading provider of software technologies for the global media industry, today announced the acquisition of Acquire Media, a Roseland, NJ company that provides content services to the financial services, Fortune 500, news media and digital publishing industries.



Acquire Media delivers high quality content from 18,500 sources to some of the world's most respected businesses and financial services communities. Sources include top press release agencies, major newswires, financial wires and media companies. Through the company's solutions, news and other time-sensitive content is aggregated, tagged and distributed with near-zero latency and pinpoint filtering. Founded in 2001 and based in Roseland, NJ with offices in Burlington (MA), Salt Lake City (UT) and London (UK), the Acquire Media development, editorial and business operations teams will work collaboratively with the Newscycle teams in Bloomington, MN and its regional offices to further expand the suite of software products and digital content services offered by the combined organization.



Acquire Media's customers will continue to receive the same levels of reliability and 24/7 service for all products while also gaining the benefits of Newscycle's global resources and experience.



"Newscycle is committed to expanding and supporting the Acquire Media product suite," said Brad Scher, Acquire Media CEO. "This acquisition will allow Newscycle and Acquire Media to develop synergies between the content services that Acquire provides and the Newscycle software platforms that manage transformative digital workflows -online, on mobile, through OTT and via IoT devices."



Acquire Media's digital software suite is notable for its quality, credibility, wide variety of news sources and its rich metadata tagging. "Acquire Media provides a source of trusted 'real news' content," said Scott Roessler, Newscycle President. "The metadata tagging possible through its software is a valuable addition to our digital product portfolio and a compelling offering that our customers will now have the opportunity to integrate into their editorial operations."



The transaction closed on December 29, 2017. Financial terms have not been disclosed.



About Acquire Media



Acquire Media is an advanced technology company devoted to delivering news and multimedia with guaranteed reliability in formats that make content instantly usable and searchable. The company provides syndication and content services to enterprise business customers in the news media, digital publishing, financial services and corporate communities delivering over 650,000 news articles daily.



Note: ABN Newswire is a content provider to Acquire Media for financial news from publicly listed companies around the world.





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Shareholder Update

Brisbane, Jan 11, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Sayona Mining Limited ( ASX:SYA ) ( DMNXF:OTCMKTS ) ("Sayona" or the "Company") is pleased to provide shareholders an update of activities planned for 2018.



In 2017, the Company made substantial progress advancing Authier to the Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") stage. This included completing two resource and reserve upgrades, optimisation of the process flow sheet, completion of environmental field studies, advancing mining lease permitting, and completion of an Optimised Pre- Feasibility Study ("PFS"). The PFS demonstrated the opportunity to create substantial long-term sustainable shareholder value at a low capital cost - a pre-tax NPV8 of C$221m (AUD$227m) based on a capital expenditure of C$65 million.



In Western Australia, the Company has built a substantial portfolio of lithium prospective tenements totalling 2,000 km2, in the spodumene-rich, Pilgangoora district. A new pegmatite field containing spodumene was discovered at Mallina and will be the primary focus of exploration activities during 2018.



The lithium market ended 2017 very strongly, with demand driving robust spot and contract pricing. Galaxy Lithium announced extensions to contracts with Chinese buyers for the next five years at pricing for 2018 at similar pricing to the 2017 contracts (between US$840 to US$905/t for 6% Li20 concentrate).



Authier lithium project, Canada



The Company's primary objective in early 2018 is to complete the studies required to commence the development of the project. Authier is a near-term development project and cash-flow generation opportunity. The Company believes it will create significant share value-uplift potential for shareholders as the project is advanced towards development.



The Phase 3 drilling program will re-commence in the second week of January. The objective of the drilling is to expand and optimise, the resource and reserve position for incorporation into the DFS. The program will target extending Authier mineralisation in the east and west at shallow levels, and at Authier North where a small JORC Mineral Resources was defined as part of the Optimised Pre-Feasibility Study.



A pilot metallurgy program will commence in January utilising more than five tonnes of diamond drill core. Data from the pilot program will be incorporated into the engineering and design of the process plant, and concentrate produced will be used for marketing and downstream testing purposes.



BBA is making excellent progress on the DFS which is expected to be completed in the second quarter 2018. BBA have extensive experience in the Canadian mining industry and have been actively involved in Feasibility Studies for Quebec lithium projects including, Nemaska and the North American Lithium project.



All of the base-line environmental field studies have been completed. Permitting activities including social and first nation consultation are underway. On completion of the DFS, the Company will lodge the final documentation required to secure a Mining Lease. Subject to the outcomes of the permitting and financing, the Company envisages commencing construction in the second half of 2018 and first production late in 2019.



The Company is actively engaged with a number of potential off-takers and financiers whilst also receiving strong interest from Chinese concentrate converters interested in purchasing Authier concentrates or value-adding in country. The Company recently announced a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with Huan Changuan Lico Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Fortune 500 Company, Minmetals Group. The MOU paves the way for advancing discussions to facilitate a development alliance exploring marketing, technical and financial opportunities for the Authier project, including, purchasing up to 100,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate per annum. In addition, the Company is focused on financing Authier in way that minimises dilution to shareholders.



Western Australian Lithium



The Company has built a large portfolio of lithium tenements in Western Australia and is excited by the prospectivity of the Mallina project where new spodumene bearing pegmatites have been recently identified. Further exploration and drilling is required to better understand the mineralisation within the complex rare metal pegmatites. Mallina is a very prospective province in close proximity to other major spodumene deposits including Pilgangoora and Wodgina.



Growth Opportunities



The Company is examining a number of new growth opportunities in the lithium sector which it believes have the potential to enhance the value of the Company. These include new projects and value-adding of existing projects including the Authier downstream project which has demonstrated very robust economics.



We believe 2018 will be a transformative year for Sayona as is evolves from the exploration-stage to the development-stage at Authier. The Company will also continue to develop a pipeline of new opportunities by leveraging its lithium exploration and development experience, and expertise.





About Sayona Mining Limited





Sayona Mining Limited (ASX:SYA) (OTCMKTS:SYAXF) is an Australian, ASX-listed (SYA) company focused on sourcing and developing the raw materials required to construct lithium-ion batteries for use in the rapidly growing new and green technology sectors. The Company has lithium projects in Quebec, Canada and in Western Australia.

Please visit us as at www.sayonamining.com.au
London Stansted Airport recorded its busiest ever year as it welcomed 25.9 million passengers in 2017, an increase of 1.57 million passengers and 6.5% over the previous 12 months.





The record-breaking performance was achieved with the addition of 11 new routes across the year with Stansted now serving over 190 destinations across 38 countries, and more scheduled connections to Europe than any other airport in the world apart from Munich.



The year ended on a high with the announcement that leading international airline Emirates will open a new direct service to Dubai in June 2018, and onward access to a wide range of destinations right across the world, including Shanghai, Sydney, and Hong Kong.

Above: An Emirates Boeing 777-300ER.



During 2017, the top five destination countries reporting the strongest growth by passenger volumes verses 2016 were Spain (+478,000), France (+382,000), Denmark (+281,000), Turkey (+222,000) and Bulgaria (+134,000).



The top five destination airports recording the largest increase in passenger numbers during the year were Copenhagen (+263,000), Oslo (+240,000), Hamburg (+180,000), Toulouse (+153,000) and Sofia (+137,000).



The number of passengers passing through the airport in December 2017 was slightly down (-1.2%) on the same month in 2016, largely due to the cancellation of over 300 flights during the period due to adverse weather conditions in the UK and across Europe. However, it was still the second busiest December on record with over 1.8 million passengers flying during the month.



Tony Pick Photography



London Stansted Airport CEO, Ken OToole (above) said: The last year has been a very busy and exciting time at London Stansted with passenger numbers and the range of destinations directly available from the airport both reaching all-time highs.



"The positive passenger growth was driven by increased choice from many of our airline partners, particularly Ryanair who experienced another strong year, and the very successful opening of Jet2.coms first base in the south of England back in March.



"In 2018, our aim is to continue growing our passenger numbers and provide even more choice, so we were absolutely delighted to announce just before Christmas that Emirates will begin operating a new service to Dubai from Stansted in June. This excellent addition to our route network comes on top of the very exciting news that Primera Air will also launch direct flights to New York, Boston and Toronto from April and May this year.



"These great successes are just the start, not the end, of our long-haul ambitions with more routes to the USA and new services to China and India key targets for us.



"As we are now serving more passengers than at any time in the airports history, its imperative that we plan how we can keep pace with demand and invest in developing quality, good value facilities to ensure we do all we can to enhance the passenger experience.



"Work is now underway on phase one of our 500 million airport transformation project which will add more check-in desks, extra seating and more car park spaces, and we will shortly submit a planning application to make best use of our existing runway capacity within current environmental limits to improve UK connectivity and support national and regional economic growth."
Justice (Retired) Shiv Narayan Dhingra will head the new committee that will re-investigate 186 closed cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Retired IAS officer Rajdeep Singh and IPS officer Avishek Dullar will be other two members of the committee that will re-investigate the cases.

The committee will file an interim report within two months in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a re-investigation of 186 cases that were closed earlier by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The court will hear the matter next on March 19.
Where does the line between patriotic and anti-national lie now after the Supreme Court has made it optional for national anthem to play in cinema halls? Shiv Sena has shot the latest question at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters.

In light of the onrush of patriotic values in the last one to three years, Shiv Sena in its mouthpiece Saamana asked what role does the Rashtriya Svamsewak Sangh (RSS) and other national organisations play in giving a guarantee value of the ever-changing value of patriotism.

No other country in the world has such a pitiable condition in relation to their national anthem, the Saamana editorial remarked at length.

The definition and idea of patriotism is continuously changing, Shiv Sena observed saying, On one hand, loud nationalistic cries are heard against triple talaq, and at the same time, the government has shown laxity in concern of the national anthem.

In support of its argument, the editorial also took on those who link beef-eating with anti-nationalism, Cows protectors are patriots while those who eat its skin, that is, beef are anti-national, it was emphatically said during this time. But the Chief Minister of BJP-ruled Goa boldly said that beef was not banned in the state. That is why cows like our national anthem are also in a pitiable condition.

Alleging that the seminaries of Uttar Pradesh are to compulsorily hang a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi now while the national anthem has been freed of nationalistic bonds, Shiv Sena added, What views do BJP supporters hold on it?

In 2013, the Supreme Court passed the order to play national anthem in cinema halls and for the people to stand for it and the order was welcomed by the Centre, the editorial informed, and added, Now the same court is saying that those who do not sing the national anthem cannot be called anti-national. That it is not compulsory to sing national anthem in order to show ones patriotism.

Shiv Sena also alleged that the top court has been voicing the choices of Centre, given that the court modified its earlier verdict after the central government submitted a proposal for the same.

On Tuesday, the top court modified its earlier order and pronounced that the National Anthem is not mandatory in the cinema halls anymore.
Bilal Ahmad Kawa, a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist, wanted for his alleged role in 2000 Red Fort terror attack, on Thursday was sent to a 10-day police remand by a Delhi Court.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police and Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), in a joint operation, apprehended Bilal at the Delhi airport on Wednesday night.

The 37-year-old Bilal was apprehended after the Gujarat ATS got a tip-off regarding his movement from Srinagar to Delhi.

On December 22, 2000, LeT men sneaked into the Red Fort and opened indiscriminate fire on the guards of the 7th battalion of Rajputana Rifles, killing three persons, including a civilian.

The terrorists had managed to flee through the Forts rear wall.

Earlier, terrorist Mohammad Arif alias Ashfaq, who was convicted in the case, had been awarded death sentence.








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US dictatorial President Trump is increasingly becoming insane as Pakistani ties with China are growing stronger day by day with new agreements between. Donald is bursting into angry rhetoric against Pakistan and Palestine, threatening to stop and end the US aid, being used as powerful bribes to woo the weak nations concerned to obey USA and support US imperialism.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain and expressed solidarity with Pakistan in the wake of allegations levelled by Donald Trump. The Turkish president assured his Pakistani counterpart of full support and cooperation "in any situation", a press release issued by the presidency said. "Trump's conduct in spite of Pakistan's great sacrifices is undesirable," Erdogan was quoted as saying. He said Pakistan had rendered historic sacrifices in the war against terrorism.

US-Pakistani relations have been worsening since Trump assumed power at White House. Entire world, including the international community is scared that a fat monkey has been given the US presidential garland and what all he would do to bring disgrace to USA in the days to come.

Americans were disillusioned with Hillary Clinton and Democratic party for their continued terror wars killing millions of humanity for fun and their inability to support the cause of Palestinians for the just cause for Palestine and her support for Zionist genocides of even Palestinians children in Gaza Strip and voted for Trump thinking he would behave. But alas, he, as speculated has proven to be the worse monster than Hillary.

President Hussain said Pakistan is a responsible country and would give an "appropriate response" to the US allegations. He said Pakistan believes in a policy of engagement and cooperation and regretted that its sentiments had not been respected. Thanking the Turkish president for expressing solidarity with Pakistan, Hussain said, "This love-filled message has made us feel proud." Both the presidents reiterated that Pakistan and Turkey are brotherly countries and always stood beside each other in all circumstances.

China acknowledges Pakistan's sacrifices

In his first tweet of the New Year, Trump, annoyed with increasing Sino-Pakistan relations against US Asia pivot, deliberately and blatantly accused Pakistan - a South Asia nation that has been destabilized by USA and Nato after using it to attack Afghanistan and misusing its military facilities to work against Islamic world and killing Muslims, of basing its relationship with the USA on nothing but lies and deceit. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more! he said like an old fashioned Hollywood villain.

China, the real target of Trumpish USA, threw its weight behind Pakistan. A day earlier, China said that its key regional ally has made outstanding contributions to the international anti-terrorism cause and its key regional ally has "made outstanding contributions to the international anti-terrorism cause," countering the heavy criticism that Islamabad had copped a day earlier from the top US fanatic Trump.

In a clear disagreement with the American president's scathing assessment  that Pakistan has given Washington "nothing but lies and deceit"  Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said: "Pakistan has made and sacrifices in combating terrorism and made outstanding contributions to the international anti-terrorism cause. The international community should fully acknowledge it."

With Pak-US relations teetering on the verge of a catastrophe, China assured that at least its own alliance with Pakistan will only keep on growing. "China and Pakistan maintain an all-weather strategic partnership," the spokesperson said. "China is willing to further deepen its cooperation with Pakistan in all fields and further benefit the two peoples."

China's newly appointed Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing met National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua this morning in Islamabad. Acknowledging Pakistan's "matchless sacrifices in the war against terror", the ambassador said China stands firmly with Pakistan in all situations, a Foreign Office (FO) release said.

Reiterating Chinas strong commitment to the security and stability of Pakistan, Ambassador Yao said that China considers Pakistan a close friend and a reliable partner for peace and stability in a turbulent region. The diplomat stressed on "the need for political reconciliation in Afghanistan and an early closure of the Afghan conflict" . Ambassador Yao expressed support for the regional and multilateral initiatives for political reconciliation in Afghanistan, including the trilateral process involving China-Afghanistan and Pakistan. While warmly welcoming Ambassador Yao to his second home Pakistan, NSA Janjua expressed disappointment and concern "over the anti-Pakistan tweet emanating from the highest level in Washington".

It was not clear if that remark was a counter-proposal to the American president's regret for having "foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years", which has given rise to speculation that aid and reimbursements from the US may not be as forthcoming in the future.

Over the years, Pakistan and China have collaborated on a number of projects, including the much-touted China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. In response to Trump's tirade against Pakistan, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif through a series of tweets reminded the USA of the services Pakistan had rendered during the past several years, particularly in the war against terrorism.

he foreign minister said, "The history teaches us not to blindly trust the US You have asked what we did. A dictator surrendered before the USA on a single phone call, our country witnessed the worse bloodbath, you carried out 57,800 attacks on Afghanistan from our bases, your forces were supplied arms and explosives through our soil, thousands of our civilians and soldiers became victims of the war initiated by you," he said.

The minister also highlighted the sacrifices rendered by Pakistanis in the war against terrorism. He also talked about the cost Pakistan paid for its participation in the said war. "We considered your enemy as our own, we filled the Guantanamo Bay, we served you with such an enthusiasm that we left our country with load shedding and gas shortage. We tried to please you on the cost of our economy, we provided tens of thousands of visas as a result of which the networks of Black Water spread across our country," he wrote in another tweet. "For the past four years, we have been clearing the debris. Our forces are fighting in an exemplary manner; there is an unending saga of sacrifices. The past teaches us not to blindly trust the US. We are feeling sorry as you are not happy but we will not compromise on our prestige anymore," he concluded.

The US president's tweet had come in the aftermath of an increasingly terse back-and-forth between Washington and Islamabad since Trump announced his latest national security strategy. During the announcement, Trump had been quick to remind Pakistan of its 'obligation' to help America because it receives massive payments" as bribes from Washington every year.

Trump said: "We have made clear to Pakistan that while we desire continued partnership, we must see decisive action against Muslims - terrorist groups -operating on their territory. And we make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help," the Trump said.

In fact, Pakistan and Afghanistan are infested with US state terror gangs with heavy doses of terror ammunitions that keep targeting Muslims while their media lords and intelligence wings report that the terrorists are still there.

So the terrorists, like ISIS, etc, belong to USA. But unfortunately nothing can be done to US super power.

Most of the wreath America has today belongs to Arab world from which the Pentagon led NATO forces possibly with the help of Israel squandered their resources directly and indirectly and pumped into USA by force.

That is basics of modern US democracy!
Jonah's Assyrian King

Saba'a Stele. Istanbul Archaeology Museum. ( Marc Madrigal) Adad-Nirari III was king of the Assyrian Empire and reigning roughly from 805-782 BCE. The Saba'a Stele of Adad-Nirari III recording some of Adad-Nirari's campaigns was discovered in 1905 in the Sinjar Mountains of Syria.

The Stele dates from around 800 BCE and provides one of the earliest archaeological records of the name Palestine (Pa-la-as-tu). The inscription mentions an Assyrian raid against the king of Aram and the details of the eventual tribute received. The translation of the stele is as follows:

In (my) fifth year of reign, when I took my seat on the royal throne in might, I mobilized (the forces of my) land. (To) the wide spreading armies of Assyria I gave the order to advance against Palashtu (Palestine). I crossed the Euphrates at its flood. The wide-spreading, hostile kings, who in the time of Shamshi-Adad, my father, had rebelled and withheld their tribute. At the command of the gods Assur, Sin, Shamash, Adad, and Ishtar my allies [terror] overwhelmed them and they laid hold of my feet and I received tribute . I gave the command [to march against Aram] to Mari' [Ishutup] in Damascus,[his royal city]. I received 100 talents of gold and 1,000 talents of silver talents.

The date and content of this Stele contains some interesting parallels with 2 Kings 13. The events recorded in this stele coincide with the reign Jehoahaz of Israel. William F. Albright dates his reign to 815801 BCE. E. R. Thiele suggests 814798 BCE.

In 2 Kings 13:1-5 we read, In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu became king over Israel at Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel sin; he did not turn from them. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He gave them continually into the hand of Hazael king of Aram, and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael. Then Jehoahaz entreated the favor of the Lord, and the Lord listened to him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Aram oppressed them. The Lord gave Israel a deliverer, so that they escaped from under the hand of the Arameans; and the sons of Israel lived in their tents as formerly. (NASB)

It is possible that the unnamed deliverer who saved the kingdom of Israel from the oppression and threat of the Arameans is none other than Adad-Nirari III himself.

The parallelisms between the Biblical text and the reign of Adad-Nirari III do not end here. In 2 Kings 14 we have the first mention of the prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai. The story of Jonah is considered by some scholars as an allegory. Some even reject the historical figure of Jonah himself. Certainly it seems from the text of 2 Kings 14 that Jonah was understood to be a historical figure. Furthermore Jesus' frequent quotes from Jonah seem to suggest that for Jesus, Jonah was a real historical figure also.

In Luke 11:30 Jesus contrasts his generation with the generation that lived in the time of Jonah, For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. (ESV)

2 Kings 14 tells us that Jonah lived during the reign of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. William F. Albright dates his reign to 786746 BC, E. R. Thiele suggests that he was co-regent with Jehoash 793782 BC and sole ruler 782753 BCE.

Both of these dates fall within the reign of Adad-Nirari III (805-782 BCE). Although, other candidates for Jonah's king of Nineveh do exist, Adad-Nirari III seems to be an interesting fit due to his little-known monotheistic revolution. For reasons unknown Adad-Nirari III chose Nabu, the Assyrian god of literacy, scribes and wisdom, as the sole god to be worshipped.

In his book titled The Ancient World From c. 1400 to 586 B.C., Francis Nicole makes the following observation: A strange religious revolution took place in the time of Adad-nirari III, which can be compared with that of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ikhnaton. For an unknown reason Nabu (Nebo), the god of Borsippa, seems to have been proclaimed sole god, or at least the principal god, of the empire. A Nabu temple was erected in 787 B.C. at Calah, and on a Nabu statue one of the governors dedicated to the king appear the significant words, 'Trust in Nabu, do not trust in any other god'.

Nicole continues: The favorite place accorded Nabu in the religious life of Assyria is revealed by the fact that no other god appears so often in personal names. This monotheistic revolution had as short a life as the Aton revolution in Egypt. The worshipers of the Assyrian national deities quickly recovered from their impotence, reoccupied their privileged places, and suppressed Nabu. This is the reason that so little is known concerning the events during the time of the monotheistic revolution. Biblical chronology places Jonah's ministry in the time of Jeroboam II, of Israel, who reigned from 793 to 753 B.C. Hence, Jonah's mission to Nineveh may have occurred in the reign of Adad-Nirari III, and may have had something to do with his decision to abandon the old gods and serve only one deity. This explanation can, however, be given only as a possibility, because source material for that period is so scanty and fragmentary that a complete reconstruction of the political and religious history of Assyria during the time under consideration is not yet possible.

Under this scenario, if indeed Adad-Nirari III is the king of Nineveh, it would seem reasonable to conclude that by sending Jonah, the God of Israel was extending a hand of mercy to the very king that had earlier delivered Israel from the oppression of the Arameans.

Jonah's message led the population to repentance and in their turn to monotheism perhaps they identified Jonah's god with Nabu. Although it is difficult to say with precise certainty if this is indeed the nature of the events that unfolded, it nonetheless makes for a compelling possibility!
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Two A-10s depart to continue a mission after receiving fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 447th Air Expeditionary Group over Syria, Dec. 1, 2017. Air Force photo by SSgt. Paul Labbe.

More than 300 airmen and A-10s from the 74th Fighter Squadron are returning to Moody AFB, Ga, after a deployment that saw the Warthogs provide close air support for US-backed fighters in an intense urban fight against ISIS.

The A-10s and airmen deployed to Incirlik AB, Turkey, in July and immediately began flying air support missions in Iraq and Syria. For about three months of the deployment, the A-10s were focused on fighting in ISISs self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa, Syria, where they faced a new challenge of flying close air support to help friendly forces in an urban center with large buildings.

It was a difficult location to work in and we faced some situations that we have not dealt with before we arrived here, Maj. Matthew Cichowski, 74th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron director of operations, said in an Air Force release.

A-10 pilots had to get creative to figure out ways to strike targets at the bottom of these five story buildings, 74th EFS Commander Lt. Col. Craig Morash said in the release.

In an interview with Air Force Magazine, Morash said that while A-10 pilots generally train for two-hour sorties, the squadron averaged 7.4 hour missions when they first arrived in theater.

As A-10 guys, we train to non-linear battles as well as linear battles, but urban conflict, at least in this form, was kind of the first time anybody had ever seen it before, he said.

The squadrons A-10s dropped about 44 percent of the weapons in the Raqqa area for the first two and a half months of the battle, Morash said. During the deployment, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces liberated the city with the help of thousands of US and coalition airstrikes.
Alabama Muslim leaders say they have sent a letter of congratulations to U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, who took office this month, asking for a meeting to discuss issues of concern to them.

"We're hoping that he'll come and meet with the Muslim community, sit down and talk, find out about his Muslim constituency," Khaula Hadeed, CAIR-Alabama executive director, told AL.com.

A spokesman for Jones' office said he had not yet received the letter. Jones is a member of Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook.

A coalition of 21 Alabama Muslim organizations invited Jones to visit a mosque to meet with members of the Muslim community and better understand that part of his constituency.

"The Muslim community in Alabama enters the new year with great hope and optimism," said Hadeed, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We expect a return to the politics of dignity, fairness, respect, and mutual understanding."

Hadeed noted that Republican candidate Roy Moore, who lost the Dec. 12 election to Jones, had called Islam a "false religion" and made other disparaging remarks about Muslims and their faith. Muslims invited Moore to visit a mosque last year but did not receive a response, she said.

"During this special election, Muslims weathered a relentless onslaught of political attacks, with one candidate claiming Islam was not a real religion and that Muslims should be banned from serving in the military or Congress," said Ali Massoud, CAIR-Alabama government affairs coordinator. "It is our hope that Senator Jones does not forget this vulnerable part of his constituency and that he will work with Muslims to promote policies of inclusivity and justice for all marginalized groups."

In the joint letter, the coalition groups said:

"We, the undersigned community and community-based civil society leaders, congratulate you on being our newly elected Senator. We further wish to invite you to meet with your Muslim constituents. American Muslims are the most racially and ethnically diverse religious group in the nation. Approximately half of Alabama Muslims are African-American. In the state, the largest Muslim populations reside in Jefferson, Madison, Montgomery, and Mobile counties.

"Thousands of Alabama's Muslims contribute to our state's economy as doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs and other business people, and give back to society every single day as public school teachers, law enforcement officials, active duty military personnel, U.S. military veterans, nurses, pharmacists, and in many other roles building our nation's vibrant economy. These upstanding American Muslims exemplify the best of the United States.

"As citizens of the state, Alabama Muslims were particularly concerned and fearful on December 12th, 2017. These past two years have been especially hard on Muslim families, with parents struggling to find and instill a sense of belonging in their children amidst growing animosity from many quarters towards our faith and our community.

"Anti-Muslim rhetoric has been adopted by many misguided candidates aspiring for political office in our state. A prime example was your opponent, Roy Moore, who represented the depths to which religious-based bigotry can sink. He was unabashed in his defamation of everyday Islamic practices, which inspire thousands of the state's Muslims to be good citizens and contribute to our local communities as volunteers in fire departments, PTAs, food banks and many other organizations. As just one example, inspired by Islamic teachings of serving God by serving humanity, Muslim doctors in Alabama are running free clinics to assist those most affected by lack, or loss, of health insurance.

"Alabama Muslim voters share our country's strong family values. They are dedicated to raising and educating their children to be good neighbors and productive citizens. They will support candidates who act on the belief that Muslim Americans deserve the same opportunities as all Americans to build better futures for our families and children and deserve to be treated with the dignity, fairness, and respect we all expect. The government cannot be permitted to make new rules banning one religion or singling out one group for discrimination based on how they pray.

"In light of all this, we are sure you understand that our community views your election with much optimism.

"A great step in vindicating that optimism would be for your constituents to meet and build relationships with you, learn about you and your work, share their views as American Muslims, discuss issues that impact their lives every day, and get your commitment to actively and vocally affirm American values of inclusiveness and religious freedom."

Letter co-signers include the following mosques, civil rights and professional organizations, student associations, and Islamic groups.

* Alabama Islamic Education Center, Huntsville

* Anniston Islamic Center

* Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America, Alabama Chapter

* Auburn Islamic Center

* Birmingham Interfaith Human Rights Committee

* Birmingham Islamic Society

* Birmingham Muslim Youth Group

* Birmingham Southern College Muslim Student Association

* CAIR-Alabama

* East Montgomery Islamic Society

* Gadsden Islamic Center

* Huntsville Islamic Center

* Iqra Math and Science Academy

* Islamic Academy of Huntsville

* Islamic Center of Decatur

* Islamic Foundation of Selma Alabama

* Muslim Girls of Birmingham

* North Alabama Islamic Society

* Salam Free Clinic

* University of Alabama at Birmingham Muslim Student Association

* University of South Alabama Muslim Student Association
The young friend of a 14-year-old Birmingham boy killed outside a convenience store just days before Christmas has been arrested in the slaying.

Jordan Johnson, 16, is charged with murder, Birmingham police announced. Authorities on Thursday said Johnson and the slain teen - 14-year-old Reynold "Ray Ray" Bonner III - were robbing the man who ultimately shot and killed Reynold.

Jordan is charged with murder under the state's felony murder law which allows a person to be charged with murder if they are participating in a felony crime that results in death, whether or not that person actually pulled the trigger.

Just last week, another Birmingham teen was charged with murder in the death of his twin brother under the same law after police said the pair was trying to steal a car when the car owner shot and killed 18-year-old Elie Miller.

Reynold, a freshman at Jackson-Olin High School, died Saturday, Dec. 23, when multiple shots were fired outside KM Food Mart, also known as "Lambs," on 12th Street West, not far from Rickwood Field. The shooting happened about 1:48 p.m.

Multiple shots were fired, and Reynold was struck in the chest. A bystander performed CPR on the young teen, while police demanded a rush on the medics, according to video shot at the scene. At least one gun was recovered from the parking lot.

Reynold was taken to Children's of Alabama, where he died a short time later.

Preliminary investigation suggested two possible motives for the shooting, police said at the time. The first suggest the victim was engaged in a drug transaction with some other males and was shot in the process. A second suggest the victim was attempting to rob another man. The second motive came to light after a male claiming to be the shooter showed up at police headquarters. on his own to speak to investigators.

"Further investigation revealed Johnson was with the victim," Sgt. Bryan Shelton said Thursday, "and they were attempting to rob the man who shot and killed Bonner."

Johnson is currently being held at the Jefferson County Jail on $100,000 bond.
Birmingham didn't land the coveted $1.6 billion Toyota-Mazda plant, but that doesn't mean Alabama's largest city is missing out, experts say.

"We are going to benefit because we are right in the middle of a diamond," Jefferson County Commissioner David Carrington said. Toyota-Mazda will be located to the north, Mercedes to the west, Honda to the east and Hyundai to the south, he said.

Birmingham and Jefferson County couldn't land a project like Toyota-Mazda because developable land simply isn't available, experts said. The area, though, is a prime spot for auto suppliers to locate.

Gov. Kay Ivey along with Toyota, Mazda and other state and local officials officially announced Wednesday afternoon that the Toyota-Mazda plant will be built on a 1,252-acre tract of farmland in Limestone County's Greenbrier community which is part of Huntsville.

The plant is expected to bring 4,000 jobs.

Rick Davis, senior vice president for economic development at the Birmingham Business Alliance, said every city in Alabama benefits from Toyota-Mazda in terms of attention, tax dollars and opportunity for more industry.

"In 1996, we didn't build a single car in the state of Alabama," he said. "Now we are the No. 4 or No. 5 (depending on the source) for automotive production states in the country, and we have done that in 22 years.

"Companies like Toyota, Mazda, Mercedes, Honda and Airbus they are coming here because we give them the one thing that is most important to them -- access to a motivated skilled workforce," Davis said. "After the incentives are gone, they need quality workers who can be trained to do the job. That is what they find here."

Disadvantages to Birmingham metro

The Birmingham metro area largely doesn't have the thousands of acres needed to land a large-scale auto manufacturer.

"If you are looking at Birmingham, there isn't a 1,200-acre piece of land that is as flat as a tabletop in the Birmingham area," Davis said.

Carrington said the largest industrial sites in Jefferson County are 150 and 300 acres.

Warren Matthews, a partner at Burr & Furman, who represents manufacturers, said the only site in the metro that could have accommodated Toyota-Mazda is a 1,540-acre megasite in Calera in Shelby County.

The farm land has rail and Interstate access, but it isn't flat.

Matthews said one thing that could hurt business deals with the city of Birmingham is a "fairly high" business license tax. He said the tax is based on gross receipts and not on actual profit.

"If you sell a lot of something, you pay a lot of business license tax," he said. "You could be losing money but be paying a significant amount of business license tax. There is no cap. It is a pretty tough tax."

Big projects

Davis said the Birmingham metro isn't missing out on big projects. It's attracting big projects.

In September, Autocar announced a $120 million facility encompassing more than 1 million square feet on property in both Birmingham and Center Point in the currently vacant Meadowcraft Complex at the intersection of Carson Road and Highway 79.

The facility will bring 746 jobs with an average salary of $58,000 plus benefits.

Autocar makes concrete trucks, waste management trucks, and garbage trucks.

Kamtek, which makes aluminum structural castings for vehicles made by Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Nissan, has invested more than a $1 billion in Birmingham and Jefferson County over the past eight years and created 500 to 600 jobs, Davis said.

Mercedes is building what it calls a Global Logistics Center and an after-sales North American hub in the Birmingham metro area in Bibb County.

Even though Birmingham didn't land the project, the metro still gains, experts said.

"(Birmingham) gains a lot in terms of suppliers," said Samuel Addy, senior research economist, associate Dean for Economic Development Outreach at University of Alabama. "Birmingham has a lot going for it. It is basically our economic hub in the state. It may be missing the project directly, but it is not missing out."

He said there's research that shows many people will commute from the Birmingham metro to executive positions in other parts of the state. Addy said executives at Mercedes in Tuscaloosa County and Honda in Talladega County are commuting from the Birmingham metro.

Davis said the Birmingham metro can't attract new industry if it doesn't have available sites. He said that's an "intense focus" for the Birmingham Business Alliance.

These sites must be equipped with electricity, sewer, water, natural gas, fiber and other resources.

He declined to speak about specific sites, but said the project could bring more attention to Port Birmingham along the Warrior River.

"The leadership of this community, the entire MSA, understands the value of being prepared," Davis said. "Those communities that are prepared for the growth to come are those that are going to succeed."
A two-month investigation in Cullman County led to the arrest of a 32-year-old undocumented immigrant after lawmen seized pounds of methamphetamine.

Juan Carlos Jimenez-Alcarez, 32, one week ago, Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry announced Thursday. The arrest culminated months of investigation during which the suspect sold large amounts of drugs to the Cullman County Narcotics Enforcement Team and DEA agents.

The arrest marked the second time Jimenez-Alcarez entered the U.S. illegally, and charged with methamphetamine trafficking, authorities said.

The sheriff said Jimenez-Alcarez was taken into custody near Hanceville off U.S. 91. At that time, lawmen seized 1.5 pounds of meth, about $3,000 in cash and a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado.

Drug investigators then went to the suspect's home where they confiscated two more pounds of meth, about $35,000 in cash, a 2016 Chevrolet Tahoe, a Bersa .40-caliber gun, a Mossbert 12-gauge shotgun, and a Century Arms semi-automatic gun.

Jimenez-Alcarez is being held without bond in the Cullman County Detention Center. He is on a hold by the Department of Homeland Security.

"We are a very proactive sheriff's office and we are always trying to prevent these drug dealers from coming into our community to sell their drugs,'' Gentry said. "I'm grateful that we intercepted this large amount of drugs before it was able to make it into our county."

"I also believe we are continuing to send the message if you come to Cullman County to sell your drugs,'' he said, "you will be arrested, and you will be held accountable for your crime."
Derrick Hampton

Authorities have announced an arrested in the Saturday shooting death of a man gunned down in broad daylight in east Birmingham.

Derrick Hampton, 38, is charged with capital murder, Birmingham police Sgt. Bryan Shelton said Thursday. He is charged in the death of 25-year-old De'Quinton Danner.

Investigators have not released a motive in the slaying and efforts to reach police for additional comment weren't immediately successful.

East Precinct officers responded about 10:15 a.m. Saturday to a call of shots fired in the 300 block of Robison Drive. At the same time, said Sgt. Bryan Shelton, a woman called 911 saying she was on the phone with her boyfriend who told her he had been shot.

Once on the scene, officers found Danner in the driver's seat of his girlfriend's burgundy sedan. He had been shot in the chest and was pronounced dead on the scene.

The vehicle was stopped in the right lane of the roadway. Police blocked of both lanes of traffic and placed at least three evidence markers in the street.

"It is a brazen act,'' Shelton said that day. "It's quite reckless."

Danner left behind a 4-year-old daughter. "The sad part about it is he wasn't raised this way at all. He comes from a loving family,'' said Danner's stepfather, asking that his name not be used. ""He had a very All-American upbringing."

"He loved his daughter,'' he said. "He spent a lot of time with her. We were all together at Christmas, the whole family, exchanging presents, playing games, doing Christmas things."
A Sheffield man was sentenced Wednesday to federal prison for having more than 13,000 images of child pornography on his computer.

Christopher Joseph Boerckel pleaded guilty in August 2017 to one count of possessing child pornography. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David Proctor to 11 years and three months in federal prison.

Following his release from prison, 27-year-old Boerckel will serve 20 years of supervised release, and must also pay $1,000 in restitution. While Boerckel is currently free on bond, he must report to prison on February 7.

The charge stems from an incident in March 2015, when Florence police searched Boerckel's home in Sheffield looking for child pornography. According to his plea agreement, Boerckel told police he did have pictures of a 16-year-old girl on his cell phone, but that "16 was the age of consent and that [Boerckel] had researched it."

Boerckel's plea agreement said authorities from the FBI, Colbert County, and Lauderdale County later discovered 13,183 photos of child pornography on his computer and several hard drives. There were also over 170 videos of child pornography found on those devices.

Some of the images included infants, while others depicted girls as young as 4-years-old. There were at least four images involving bestiality, nine involving bondage, and 51 involving "humiliation," the plea agreement states.

Court records graphically detail several incidents shown in the photos.

Records show many of the images and videos were stored in a dropbox, and since they were saved to the cloud, authorities could not determine which county they were accessed in.

Boerckel also has a pending case in Lauderdale County, where he was arrested and charged in June 2015 for producing and possessing child pornography. The judge ruled in yesterday's hearing the federal sentence will be served concurrently with any sentence Boerckel receives in Lauderdale County.
A hearing in the case of a 44-year-old Huntsville woman's strangling death was continued this week.

Otis Nelson (Madison County Jail photo)

Police have charged Otis Terrial Nelson with murder in the killing of Mary Washington. The victim's body was found in her Sullivan Road home Nov. 10. Four days later, Nelson was in the Madison County Jail with bail set at $75,000.

Nelson, a 34-year-old from Huntsville, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Madison County District Court on Wednesday. The hearing was continued because a witness was unavailable to testify, said Defense Attorney Patrick Tuten.

Few details of the case have been released. Officials have said police found Washington's body when they went to investigate a call about an unresponsive person. Authorities haven't identified a motive or relationship between Nelson and Washington.

Madison County Deputy Coroner Tyler Berryhill told AL.com Washington died in a homicide by strangulation with blunt force injuries.

Nelson's "reckless" conduct "manifested extreme indifference to human life and created a grave risk of death" to Washington, court records state. Investigator Michael DeNoon wrote in an arrest affidavit that the killing happened Nov. 9, the day before Washington's body was found.

Further details haven't been released. It's unclear when the hearing will be reset.

This story was corrected at 12:40 p.m. to show the hearing was continued, not waived. If the hearing had been waived, the case would be sent to a grand jury.
Alabama Senate Republicans are proposing a bill that would allow more taxpayers to take the maximum standard deduction on their state income taxes.

That would effectively reduce taxes for some, although no official estimate was immediately available on the scope of the proposed change.

The bill part of the Republican caucus agenda for the 2018 session, the caucus announced today.

Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said Alabama's economy is growing and said fiscal discipline under GOP leadership in the Legislature has put state budgets on sounder footing, providing an opportunity for a tax break.

Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, is sponsoring the bill, which was introduced on Tuesday. Marsh said it would be targeted for the middle class by allowing more people to claim the maximum standard deduction.

There is not yet a fiscal note attached to the bill to estimate how much it would reduce income tax collections.

The GOP caucus included three other priorities in the short agenda.

Providing incentives to companies to develop broadband access in rural Alabama.

Making child sex trafficking a capital offense.

Saving money in Medicaid, partly by encouraging the state to seek federal waivers, such as a work requirement for able-bodied recipients.

Today was the second day of the legislative session. The Senate met for only about a half-hour before adjourning until Tuesday, which will be the first day lawmakers can vote on bills.
Residents say nearly two years after it was liberated, the Yemeni government has failed to help rebuild the city.

Burned-out cars, rusted bullet casings and debris from levelled buildings line the narrow, winding streets of Mukalla, a jarring reminder of the intense fighting that ravaged the seaport nearly three years ago.

In a blitzkrieg similar to when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) surged across Syria and Iraq, hundreds of fighters from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) overran Yemens coastal city of Mukalla in April 2015, exploiting chaos unleashed by the Saudi-led coalitions war with Houthi rebels in the north.

The ensuing turmoil, which has killed and wounded more than 60,000 people since March 2015, presented AQAP with an opportunity to make huge territorial gains, thanks partly to the acerbic, sectarian tone espoused by the coalition.

The Houthis, a group of rebels who emerged from Yemens northern highlands where Zaidi Shia Muslims are concentrated, allied with troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in early 2015, capturing large expanses of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Sunni Arab states intervened in the conflict in March of that year, launching a massive aerial campaign to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadis internationally recognised government which was forced into exile.

Air strikes decimated areas held by the Houthis, dislodging them from most of the south. However, until today, the rebels control a section of land larger than England, ruling a population of around 18 million people.

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AQAP exploited this chaotic milieu to attack Mukalla on April 2, 2015, a city of more than 300,000 people, pounding military installations with mortars and RPGs they had seized in previous battles.

The Yemeni military spectacularly crumbled.

Troops were unable to repel AQAPs advance and dumped their weapons and even their uniforms, fleeing through arid valleys and deserts to government-controlled areas to the west of Hadramout province.

With military bases left undefended, AQAP came to acquire some of the worlds most fearsome weapons  seizing tanks, American-made Humvee vehicles and copious heavy weaponry as spoils of war.

But mighty war machines were not the only things AQAP got their hands on. The group also looted around $100m from local banks, and would later use these funds to launch a cynical public relations campaign to shore up support for their so-called Islamic Emirate.

Raking in around $2m a day by extorting national companies and taxing goods coming into the lucrative port, AQAP used its growing economic power to provide residents with drinking water, electricity, healthcare and other basic services.

The group abolished taxes on local residents, paid civil servants their salaries on time and went about making slick propaganda videos in which they boasted about their state-building project as a liberation movement.





But exactly a year later, they gave it all up, in a sudden, bloodless withdrawal.

Yemeni soldiers, backed by Emirati special forces, entered the city on April 24, 2016 after AQAP withdrew, following secret negotiations, to the rugged mountains of Shabwa, al-Bayda and Marib provinces.

The group, which has long boasted about preparing its soldiers for martyrdom, said it fled to protect civilians from advancing forces.

Only a handful of its fighters remained, blending into the local population.

Now, nearly two years on, residents have told Al Jazeera that the Yemeni government and their Emirati handlers failed to provide them with the most basic of services, with their lives having been better under the armed group.

Life under AQAP

Al-Qaeda paved roads, built hospitals. It was far from perfect, but they were better than the current administration, said Abdur Rahman Khaled, a 30-year-old fisherman from Mukallas Khalaf district.

When they set up their administrative council, it was headed by prominent tribal elders who didnt ascribe to their ideology. So they werent this group of power-hungry jihadists that the media portrays.

They were forced to fill a void left by the cowardly army and government when they fled, Khaled said.

In a view echoed by several other residents, Khaled added: Life was better under al-Qaeda, compared with now. Now its just a mess.

Many of AQAPs leaders hailed from established Hadrami families, and the group even rebranded themselves as the Sons of Hadramout to sidestep local and international stigma.

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Despite employing a deadly campaign of suicide bombings against state authorities since the late 1990s, AQAP in Mukalla was less cruel than the image touted in the media, Khaled said.

While they resorted to the stoning of at least one man and woman accused of adultery, as well as the crucifixions of two men suspected of being Saudi spies, such incidents were rare.

Glimpses of life under AQAP are still evident on the streets, Khaled added, with the groups slogans still hanging on buildings and graffitied on walls.

Under AQAP, Hisbah (religious police) walked the citys streets, supervising the implementation of their interpretation of the Shariah, where free-mixing between the sexes was forbidden and music was banned.

Women of faith: Protect your pure bodies from prying eyes, one poster hanging at a busy junction reads.

Sewage and debris-caked roads

Charred buildings and crumpled cars are also a frequent sight, but with electricity still not fully restored after a coalition air strike flattened a power plant in 2016, most of the city is shrouded in darkness at night.

Residents complained to Al Jazeera of the nauseating stench of sewage fermenting in the hot climate, saying it could be smelled from hundreds of metres away.

The city is drowning in sewage and darkness, Afkar Alshanbati, a local resident and human rights activist, told Al Jazeera.

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Water treatment and distribution facilities are constantly disrupted by power shortages, she said, with the government always avoiding blame with lame excuses.

The situation is unacceptable and reflects the ignominious failure of the local authority, Alshanbati said.

Mukalla was liberated nearly two years ago, yet nothing has been done to repair buildings.

Fingers have been pointed at both AQAP and the Saudi-led coalition for the devastation, but, wherever the blame lies, entire areas are unlikely to be repaired anytime soon, she said.

We understand that there is a war, but the government should pay employees their salaries, especially in liberated areas. But its one excuse after the next, under the pretext of the war, Alshanbati added.

Residents also told Al Jazeera that the governments refusal to allocate funds to repair destroyed pipes was heightening tensions in some neighbourhoods, where raw sewage would flow through the streets into peoples homes.

Last year, a wave of cholera cases further devastated the population, infecting more than a million Yemenis and killing at least 2,200.

The rapid spread of the disease was largely due to the collapse of sanitation infrastructure, the WHO said, after rubbish collection services ceased and sewage pipes were ruptured by air strikes.

President Hadis government refused to comment to Al Jazeera on the issue.

Absent government

While some residents blamed Yemeni authorities for the slow rebuilding effort, a local official said there had been little financial support from the UN and international charities.

The president is in exile, and members of his government are based in Aden, thats why weve had difficulties in repairing the city, said Riyadh al-Jareeri, director of Mukallas health office.

Hadi and much of his inner circle  his sons, aides and military officials  have been based in Riyadh since 2015 and made only sporadic visits to Aden.

The government has reduced its operational budget by 70 percent since March 2015, and international donors are concerned about the security situation when it comes to repairing destroyed buildings  they dont want to risk their money going to waste.

Donors are wary that if they repair buildings, they may be targeted again, al-Jareeri added.

Mukalla airport has been shut to commercial flights since AQAPs takeover, with only sporadic aid deliveries arriving since then.

Since the closure of Mukalla airport, international journeys have become exhausting, said Salim Saeed, a Mukalla resident.

First we have to travel 360km north to Seiyoun, then wait and hope our flights are confirmed.

Its a more arduous trip than flying from Seiyoun to Amman, he added.

The economic situation for Yemenis has also worsened since Hadis government relocated the Central Bank from Houthi-held Sanaa to Aden, a move aimed at dealing the rebels an economic blow.

The repercussions, however, have affected all public sector workers, with medical personnel and teachers rarely getting paid their salaries, leaving more than a million state employees and their families without a regular income.

Abu Mohammed, a 31-year-old bus driver, said a shortage of fuel, caused by a recent Saudi-led blockade, meant he had to queue for days to fill his bus, often sleeping in his car as crime had surged since police refused to patrol the streets.

I dont go home, I spend days at the gas station. I sleep at the gas station. I cant sleep at home because its not safe for my bus to be left alone, he told Al Jazeera.

This is the worst fuel crisis weve ever witnessed. Life under AQAP was so much easier in terms of receiving fuel supplies.

Life of misery

The UAEs role in rebuilding the Yemeni army has also deepened resentment in the city.

While Saudi Arabia has expressed it wants out of Yemen, the UAE has become more involved in the conflict, indicating a divide in the two countries agendas.

The oil-rich Emirates has been at the heart of a series of dramatic events and shifting alliances over the past two years, including Hadis inability to return to Aden, and the UAEs unabashed support for the southern secessionist movement.

But it was the UAEs decision to fund and direct a Security Belt  a force created in 2016 that has been responsible for arbitrarily detaining and abducting people, that has caused the most outrage.

Human Rights Watch has accused Abu Dhabi of carrying out grave human rights violations during security operations against AQAP and the local ISIL affiliate.

Scores of people have forcibly disappeared, subject to heavy beatings, sexual assaults and threats to their family members, in secret prisons it administers, it said.

While Yemeni forces backed by the UAE have prevented any major AQAP advances, the image of nervous Yemeni soldiers manning checkpoints highlights the daunting task ahead.

Just like across much of Yemen, where the nearly three years of war has caused widespread misery, Abu Mohammed says he knows hes among the relatively fortunate.

I used to have a good life, but now I, like most Yemenis, barely earn enough to make ends meet, he said.

While his rent has almost doubled, and his family struggles to cook regular meals, he knows hes not among the more than eight million people who are a step away from famine.

The countrys already inflated food and fuel prices have skyrocketed, further hurting already impoverished families.

With his doting wife and two children bringing him some semblance of peace and comfort, the prospect of having a third child is what keeps him awake most nights, he says.

Two children are enough for me. My wife knows this and is taking drugs to avoid pregnancy.

With the civil war showing no signs of ending, the legacy of the fighting will be felt for generations, he says.

Life was once good, now  its only misery well know.

Faisal Edroos reported from Doha, Saleh Al-Batati reported from Mukalla. Follow them on Twitter: @FaisalEdroos, @SalehAlBatati1








A new dam project, a dictatorship struggling to survive and a GCC crisis are flaring up tensions in the Nile basin.

Ongoing tensions in the Red Sea region came to the fore in late December, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Sudan as part of his Africa tour. During the visit, Erdogan and his Sudanese counterpart, Omar al-Bashir, signed more than a dozen agreements to boost the economic partnership between the two nations.

Among these agreements was a deal to temporarily hand over the Red Sea island of Suakin to Turkey. Ankara and Khartoum said Turkish investors would rebuild the ruined, sparsely populated island to increase tourism and create a transit point for Muslim pilgrims crossing the Red Sea to reach the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

The agreement over Suakin has triggered a heated debate in the region, as many saw Erdogans move as an attempt to establish a third military base  after the ones in Qatar and Somalia  outside Turkeys borders.

Egyptian and Saudi media have harshly criticised the agreement, categorising Erdogans move as yet another attempt by what they call the Turkey-Iran-Qatar axis to undermine the stability and security of the so-called Sunni moderate alliance, which includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE.

In a joint press conference with his Sudanese counterpart in Khartoum, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu strongly denied the existence of such an axis, but he was unable to ease the tensions and convince the Egyptian leadership that the agreement over Suakin does not pose a threat for Cairo.

But Erdogans visit to Sudan was in no way the beginning of the dispute between Sudan and Egypt. Relations between Cairo and Khartoum have long been strained, with ongoing disagreements over issues such as the Halaib Triangle border dispute and the Renaissance Dam project in Ethiopia.

Halaib Triangle border dispute

The Halaib Triangle is an area of land of just under 20,500 square kilometres on the Egyptian-Sudanese border, which both countries have claim over since Sudan gained independence from Britain in 1956. In the 1990s, Egypt deployed its military in the territory, but, in the following two decades, the dispute was somewhat frozen.

In 2016, it flared up again. That year, Cairo signed a controversial agreement with Riyadh to hand over two strategically important Red Sea islands  Tiran and Sanafir  to Saudi Arabia. The agreement, which redrew the maritime border between the two countries, also unilaterally recognised Egypts sovereignty over the Halaib Triangle.

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In December last year, Sudan sent a letter to the UN declaring its total rejection of the deal. Egyptian officials swiftly condemned the letter and reiterated that the triangle is Egyptian territory.

In response, Sudan recalled its ambassador from Cairo for consultations on January 4.

Meanwhile, in what may have been a response to Sudans renewed claims over the Halaib Triangle, as well as fears that Turkey is expanding its influence in the region, Egypt sent hundreds of its troops to a UAE base in Eritrea, on the border with Sudan.

Egypt denied any military presence in Eritrea, but the damage was done. Days later, Sudan shut its border with Eritrea and deployed thousands of troops there.

There are indications that Khartoum is actually trying to escalate the ongoing confrontation with Egypt, in order to exploit the nationalist sentiments of the Sudanese people and divert attention from the countrys grave internal problems  particularly the current protests over the new austerity budget and the increase of the price of bread and other basic goods. However, Egypt may be inclined to de-escalate until after its presidential elections later this year.

The Renaissance Dam project

Another reason behind the current tensions between Egypt and Sudan is the ongoing construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The dam, which will be the seventh-largest hydroelectric power plant in the world when completed, is located in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia, only 40km east of the countrys border with Sudan.

Cairo fears the dam may affect its access to water from the Nile River basin. The Egyptian government believes Sudan to be on Ethiopias side regarding the future of the dam, and recently proposed excluding it from contentious negotiations over the future of the project, angering the Sudanese government.

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Sudan argues that its responsibility is to protect its own interests in the dispute, and not Egypts. Khartoum wants to stay part of the negotiations on an issue which will undoubtedly affect the lives of the Sudanese people, and the future of the country.

Sudan stands to benefit a lot from the project. Ethiopia will be selling electricity to its northern neighbour; a planned transmission line will connect the Ethiopian electrical grid to Khartoum.

The dam project will also limit flooding of the Blue Nile in Sudan, allowing farmers to have to crop cycles per year.

The Muslim Brotherhood factor

But even the disputes over the Halaib Triangle and the Renaissance Dam project cannot be seen as the root causes of the current confrontation between Egypt and Sudan. The conflict between the two countries is deeper and more complicated, with historical, political and, most importantly, ideological dimensions.

Cairo accuses Khartoum of supporting Muslim Brotherhood plans to overthrow the regime of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Sudan views Sisi and his government as putschists, who illegally overthrew Egypts first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Bashir himself came to power in a military coup in 1989; he allied himself with Hassan al-Turabi, the leader of a Sudanese offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. About a decade later, the two fell out and al-Turabi was subsequently imprisoned.

The GCC crisis

When the GCC crisis erupted in June 2017, Sudan was in an uncomfortable situation. For the previous few years, it had tried to stay neutral during intra-GCC disputes, maintaining a close relationship with Qatar, but also sending troops to back the UAE and Saudi war effort in Yemen.

Last year, Khartoum refused to cut relations with Doha and was pushed out of the UAE-Saudi camp. Bashirs overarching objective out of this game of alliances is to survive in power and secure his chance to run in the 2020 elections.

He realised that even though the US removed sanctions against Sudan, it is not interested in pushing for the International Criminal Court to drop the charges against him, nor does it support him to run in the 2020 elections. Hence, Bashir shifted towards Russia and Turkey.

Sudans neighbours, Eritrea and Ethiopia, have also become party to the GCC crisis.

Ethiopia, just like Sudan, has become closer to Qatar in its struggle to navigate the ongoing tensions in the Gulf. The Ethiopian government, which previously accused Egypt of supporting separatist movements on Ethiopian territory, understandably chose to place itself against Egypt in this conflict.

Meanwhile, Eritrea, which is in the midst of a long-standing conflict with Ethiopia, has taken the side of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and UAE, the latter having a military base on Eritrean territory.

If Turkey actually establishes a military base on Sudans Suakin Island in the near future, it is reasonable to expect Eritrea to play a pivotal role on behalf of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in counter-balancing Turkish military presence in the region. President Isaias Afwerki may exploit Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAEs dependence on Eritrea on this issue to carry out hostile actions against both Ethiopia and Sudan.

Whatever happens between Egypt and Sudan in the coming days, it is evident that the GCC crisis has already spread to the Nile basin and the Horn of Africa. Consequently, the region may be pushed into new proxy conflicts in the near future. Regional and sub-regional organisations such as the African Union and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) should intervene to de-escalate these tensions and negative developments.

Editors note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Sudan gained independence from Egypt in 1956. Sudan became independent from Britain that year.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Author and activist Alan Paton showed life in pre-Apartheid South Africa to the world.

Author and activist Alan Paton wrote about life in South Africa during apartheid, and fearlessly spoke out against racial segregation, in person and through his books.

On January 11, he would have been 115 years old. In his honour, Google changed its logo to a doodle portraying the novelist.

This is his story:

South African novelist

Born in the Natal province, Paton suffered violence inside his house from an early age. His father used corporal punishment to control his sons, which lead the author to oppose any form of authoritarianism and physical punishment at an early age .

His father also introduced Paton to literature. He enjoyed Charles Dickens and Rupert Brooke, as well as the Bible. His familys religious convictions influenced his work, and the way he looked at society.

Paton studied at the University of Natal, and, in 1928, married Doris Francis Lusted. Later they moved to Pietermaritzburg, where he continued teaching.

In 1935, after travelling to Sweden, Norway and North America to study prisons, he was appointed at the Diepkloof Reformatory for young, black deliquents.

As administrator of the Diepkloof Reformatory for young, black, African offenders, he developed a different reform system that included open dormitories, work outside prison walls and home visitations.

During his term, the reformatory became a model of penal reform.

To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man. by Alan Paton





Cry, The Beloved Country

Paton volunteered for service during World War II , but was refused. He toured Scandinavia, England, Canada, and the US.

During his tours in the correctional reform facilities across the world, he started to write Cry, the Beloved Country.

The book was published in 1948, the same year apartheid was institutionalised.

The book sold more than 15 million copies in 20 languages. It is a tale of racial injustice and a social protest against the structures of the society that would later give rise to apartheid.

In an interview with the New York Times, Paton said: I had an eye on my fellow white South Africans and white Americans when I wrote the book. It wasnt a book written for the right or the middle or the left. I hoped to influence my fellow whites.

Paton was considered the enemy of the ruling party. His passport was withdrawn in 1960 , with no reason given.

In 1970 his passport was restored, and he continued speaking through his books, essays and publications.

Paton retired to Bothas Hill, where he lived until his death. He is honoured at the Hall of Freedom of the Liberal International Organisation.
Indian activists have raised concerns at the illegal detention of hundreds of Dalits.

Activists in India say hundreds of Dalits have been illegally detained and many others are in hiding, as police in Maharashtra state moved to arrest members of the community who took part in mass protests.

Last week, Dalits from across the state took to the streets to protest against a January 1 attack on the community, during the 200th-anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Bhima-Koregaon.

In that battle, in 1818, lower-caste Dalits sided with British colonial forces to defeat upper-caste rulers.

On Wednesday, Indian media reports quoted police as saying they had arrested 43 people, including three minors, in connection with the violence in Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district and ensuing protests across the state.

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But Dalit organisations and activists told Al Jazeera the number of those who had been arrested exceeded 100, with 16 children among those detained.

Prakash Ambedkar, an activist and grand-son of Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian constitution and a Dalit icon, said he fears thousands of Dalits are being illegally detained in Maharashtra.

The combing operation that is being done now by the state police is not allowed under the law. A combing operation of this kind can only be done when you have declared the region as a disturbed area. Thats not the case in Mumbai. So this is an illegal act, Ambedkar told Al Jazeera.

The masses will have to decide whether they want this kind of lawlessness in the country or they want rule of law, he added.

We were forced to flee our homes

On January 3 and 4, police said members of the Dalit community stopped buses, blocked rail lines and shut shops in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra state during protests against the Bhima-Koregaon attack by right-wing groups.

Police have filed a case against two right-wing leaders, Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide, for their role in the violence. Bhide is close to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a former member of the Hindu supremacist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Many Dalits, members of other less-privileged castes and Buddhists gather at the war memorial in the Bhima-Koregaon village to celebrate the defeat of the Hindu upper caste Peshwas, in an annual event.

A 28-year-old man was killed during the violence, according to the state government.

Santosh Gaikwad and his family  including his sisters and their children  are in hiding. They say the police are after them, following a complaint by leaders of the RSS, the ideological parent body of the BJP.

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We are forced to flee our homes and stay with relatives. If we return home, the police might arrest us, Gaikwad, a businessman in Mumbais Vikhroli area, told Al Jazeera.

My nieces [aged 20 and 22] have also been charged, along with the rest of my family, under Section 307 of the Indian penal code [which deals with] attempt to murder.

We are unable to get to work; our lives are disrupted. We are filing for anticipatory bail now, he said, while still in hiding.

Al Jazeera reached out to the Joint Commissioner (Law & Order) of Mumbai Police Deven Bharti, to confirm the numbers of those arrested. He asked us to send a written query instead, there had been no response by time of publication.

Arrested, beaten and deprived of work

India is home to about 200 million Dalits, many of whom complain about continued social discrimination despite the outlawing of caste-based discrimination by parliament in 1955. Despite the protective measures, lower-caste groups, including Dalits, remain among the most marginalised communities.

This week, many lawyers from the Dalit community have stepped in to offer pro-bono legal aid to Dalits who were arrested during the protests.

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Around 125 people, including many kids, have been arrested. We are trying our best to ensure bail and to counter this injustice, Kishor Walunje, a lawyer at Bombay High Court, told Al Jazeera.

The main problem is the state: the police and the government have failed to protect vulnerable Dalits. Why have [they] arrested the peaceful protesters? This is a planned attack by RSS and Brahminical [upper-caste] forces, he added.

Prashant Manohar Chandanay, another Dalit lawyer in the city of Pune, said he would fight for those innocent Dalits wrongly incarcerated. Its the least I can do as a lawyer and a Dalit.





Right-wing leaders Ekbote and Bhide are yet to be arrested, despite cases filed against them for the January 1 attack on Dalits  under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, legislation which is specifically about crimes against Dalits.

Ashok Kamble, chief of the Maharashtra unit of the Dalit outfit, Bhim Army, says the state government is sending a message by not arresting these upper-caste men.

These right-wing leaders who instigated the violence have got police protection. Even the state chief minister [Devendra Fadnavis] is a disciple of these people. How can you expect them to be punished? Kamble, who was present at the Bhima-Koregaon event on January 1, told Al Jazeera.

On that day at Bhima-Koregaon, I was injured when the police used batons and sticks to beat us mercilessly. Even women and children were not spared. Later, the police arrested Dalits under false charges, but not the perpetrators of the violence. I was also arrested on January 7, Kamble, who is now out on bail, said.





The Maharashtra state Chief Minister Fadnavis has ordered a judicial probe into the violence.

Data from Indias National Crime Records Bureau shows that the rate of crime against Dalits has risen in recent years. At least 40,801 atrocities against Dalits were reported in 2016, up from 38,670 in 2015.

In 2016, the state of Gujarat and other parts of India were rocked by protests after four Dalit men in the city of Una were tied to a car, stripped and flogged by Hindu vigilantes, who accused them of skinning a cow, a revered animal for Hindus.

Many Dalits, previously branded untouchables, are still forced to do menial jobs such as manual scavenging  clearing faeces from dry toilets and open drains by hand, rag picking and the disposal of animal carcasses.








The Iranian oil tanker that caught fire after colliding with a Hong Kong cargo ship on Saturday in the East China Sea, could burn for as long as one month. That warning of a potential environmental disaster has come for South Koreas Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

South Korea is one of several nations that have sent rescue teams to help put out the fire.

The tanker, Sanchi, is carrying 136,000 tonnes of light crude oil.

Al Jazeeras Adrian Brown reports from Eastern China.
Habib el-Adly, feared interior minister from 1997-2011, was convicted last year of corruption then disappeared.

Egypts feared former interior minister was acquitted on corruption charges on Thursday and will be released from detention pending a retrial.

Habib el-Adly was sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzling $110m of public funds after being convicted in April 2017.

After his conviction, he disappeared and Egypts interior ministry declared him a fugitive. He was arrested in December after turning himself over to authorities.

Egypts Court of Cassation  the countrys highest appeals court  overturned the corruption verdict because of procedural errors and ordered a retrial. He did not attend Thursdays hearing, Ahram Online reported.

Adly and two other interior ministry officials had been ordered to refund $110m and were fined the same amount, Reuters news agency reported.

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Adly was Egypts top security official under former President Hosni Mubarak, from 1997 until the regimes fall during the Arab Spring in 2011.

He developed a notorious reputation for torture, forced disappearances, and other human rights abuses.

Adly has also faced a string of criminal cases against him since the 2011 uprising that removed Mubarak, but had been cleared.

He was accused of ordering security forces to open fire on protesters demanding the regimes overthrow as the Arab Spring erupted in January 2011.

Mubarak and Adly were acquitted, in 2014, of charges that they were responsible for killing hundreds of protesters during the 18-day uprising.
Canada, US, and UK groups take action after arrest of British Sikh in Punjab and amid interference in their affairs.

Sikh religious organisations in Canada, the US, and the UK have banned Indian officials from making formal visits to temples in response to the arrest of a Sikh activist in India and what they call interference in their affairs.

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The ban started in Canada and spread to temples in the US and the UK, with more than 100 places of worship now involved.

Davinder Singh of the Sikh Federation UK, one of the organisations supporting the campaign, said that the ban would apply to official visits but not personal trips to temples.

The November arrest of British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal by Indian authorities and interference in Sikh affairs by Indian officials had led to the move, he told Al Jazeera.

Johal was detained in the northern state of Punjab and accused of involvement in the killings of prominent Hindu figures.

His family has rejected the allegations against him, explaining that he was in India to get married.

Sikh activists say his arrest was politically motivated.

People are really upset, said Davinder Singh. If someone goes to India to get married, the last thing they expect is to be picked up and abducted, not to be charged, to be subject to third-degree torture.

I think its cases like this that got a reaction from the Sikh community.

1984 massacre

While Johals arrest triggered the latest dispute between the Indian government and some members of the Sikh diaspora, tensions between the two sides date back decades.

In the summer of 1984, Indian troops battling Sikh fighters stormed Sikhisms holiest Gurdwara, the Golden Temple, leaving hundreds dead.

Later that year, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards, who held her responsible for the bloodshed.

In the aftermath of Gandhis death, thousands of Sikhs were killed as sectarian mobs targeted Sikhs in Punjab, and the Indian capital New Delhi.

Sikhs have described the killings as a genocide.

Anger persists, particularly among the Sikh diaspora, for the Indian governments refusal to apologise.

Much of this unease goes back to the events of June and November 1984, said Jasjit Singh, a research fellow focused on British South Asians at the University of Leeds.

Before this time, many Sikhs in the diaspora generally supported the Indian government, regularly raising funds for India, he told Al Jazeera.





The events of Operation Bluestar (Storming of the Golden Temple) in June 1984 and the anti-Sikh violence of November 1984 remain unresolved issues for many Sikhs in the diaspora particularly those whose families were directly affected by these events.

Sikh activists see that Indian politicians are taking advantage of Gurdwaras for political gain while refusing to acknowledge the legacy of 1984 and the anger over Johals arrest.

According to Davinder Singh, official visits to temples increased after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power and were motivated by the politicisation of Gurdwaras, as opposed to the well-being of the Sikh community.

Increasingly in the last couple of years they have targeted some of the larger Gurdwaras  when you start going to a religious institution, and a key one, you create friction in the community, he said.

People think here are the people whove carried out this genocide, theyve never even apologised for it, now theyre arresting people  why are they going into our religious institutions?

Gurdwaras are institutions where we discuss day-to-day issues that affect our lives ... We don't want to be preached at by Indian diplomats about what we do or don't do in our institutions by Davinder Singh, Sikh Federation UK

These purported attempts to shore up support among diaspora Sikhs come amid efforts to split Sikhs from their own causes, Davinder Singh said.

In a recent debate with an Indian official, broadcast on the BBC, Davinder Singhs Sikh Federation UK organisation was accused of politicising Gurdwaras by supporting the visiting restrictions.

Gurdwaras are institutions where we discuss day-to-day issues that affect our lives, whether they be human rights issues or about our identity, he said. We dont want to be preached at by Indian diplomats about what we do or dont do in our institutions.

Sikhs make up a fraction of the Indian diaspora with around 500,000 in Canada, the US, and the UK respectively.

Nonetheless, their support carries importance for Indias political class.

I think this is more of a symbolic move, said Professor Gurharpal Singh of the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London, further describing the tetchy relationship between some members of the Sikh diaspora and the Indian government.

Overall I dont think the engagement of government officials overseas with Sikh places of worship has been very intense and very overwhelming [but] the symbolism is important, he told Al Jazeera.

Modi, who is trying to build alliances with non-resident Indians overseas; in that respect, it is a big deal.

Follow Shafik Mandhai on Twitter: @ShafikFM
President Trump often complained about the deal and has said that Iran is failing to live up to the spirit of the bargain, but has provided no evidence of Iranian violations.

The US president has until Friday to pledge continued support for a landmark international deal with Iran over its nuclear programme.

Donald Trump has described the agreement, brokered under his predecessor Barack Obama, as an embarrassment to the US.

Hes threatened to pull out of the deal altogether unless changes are made.

Trumps refusing to recertify the deal unless Congress amends it.

But as Congress didnt draw up the deal  its not down to them to change it.

Any alterations it makes with the president would be in breach of the international agreement.

Al Jazeeras Neave Barker reports.
Soldiers open fire on stone-throwing demonstrators in Gaza and the West Bank, killing two teens and wounding others.

Two Palestinian teenagers were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on Thursday as violence continues in the occupied territories.

A Palestinian teen from the Gaza Strip was killed east of the Burij refugee camp after a live round was fired into his chest, the Wafa news agency quoted medical sources as saying.

Three other Palestinians were wounded, one critically, it said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said violent riots involving rock-throwing youth erupted at two locations along the Gaza border, and some 50 Palestinians were involved. Soldiers opened fire because the Palestinians posed a threat.

Denny Cormier, a pro-Palestinian activist who lived in Gaza during the 2014 war, wrote on Twitter that it was likely the Israeli perpetrators knew the children did not pose a serious threat.

In the West Bank village of Iraq Burin, south of Nablus, a 16-year-old boy died in hospital after he was shot by Israeli troops as Palestinians pelted them with stones.

Soldiers manning a checkpoint outside the village opened fire without warning, said Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors illegal Israeli settlement activities in the northern West Bank.

Strict measures have been imposed on tens of thousands of Palestinians following the killing of an Israeli rabbi in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank this week.

Main roads have been closed, villages sealed off, and inspections of Palestinians increased.

The killing of the Israeli settler happened on Tuesday near the illegal Israeli settlement of Havat Gilad, where the 35-year-old rabbi resided.

Israeli settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that an occupying power cannot transfer its population into the territory it occupies.

Tensions in the region had increased since December when US President Donald Trump announced that Washington recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The status of Jerusalem has ignited tensions between Israelis and Palestinians for decades.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem at the end of the 1967 war with Syria, Egypt and Jordan; the western half of the holy city had been captured in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Israels occupation of East Jerusalem effectively put the entire city under de facto Israeli control. Israeli jurisdiction and ownership of Jerusalem, however, is not recognised by the international community.

Palestinian leaders want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Qatars FM says probe into alleged hacking of state-run news agency website shows involvement of two blockading nations.

An investigation into the hacking of the state-run Qatar News Agency (QNA) website has revealed the involvement of two nations blockading Doha, Qatars foreign minister has said, as he vowed legal action.

In an interview on Qatar TV on Wednesday, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said a probe that began in May provided evidence that two countries were involved in the hacking of the countrys state news agency website and its social media accounts, but did not specify any names.

On May 23, 2017, alleged hackers reportedly posted fake remarks on Qatars official media platform criticising US foreign policy and attributing the statement to the countrys emir.

Following the publication of the stories, Saudi Arabia and the UAE blocked the Qatar-based websites including Al Jazeera, and later led a group of Arab countries including Bahrain and Egypt in cutting diplomatic and trade ties with Doha.

In the articles, Qatars Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was quoted as cautioning against confrontation with Iran, as well as defending the Palestinian group Hamas and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia movement allied with Tehran.

Qatars government has categorically denied posting the comments.





The state of Qatar does not rely on leaks or news stories that do not bear evidence about the state that committed the crime of hacking and the investigation proved that the two states were involved in the crime, said Al Thani.

Qatars government has previously said that that there was proof the QNA hacking was linked to the blockading nations.

Doha also accused the UAE of violating international law after reports suggested that Abu Dhabi orchestrated the hacking.

Qatar sought the help of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the source of the cyberattack.

UAE dispute

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic relations and cut off land, air and sea links with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorism and advancing the agenda of their regional rival, Iran. Doha strongly denies the charges.

Kuwait has led the mediation efforts with Turkey and the US also visiting the region to try to resolve the dispute.

In his interview with Qatar TV, Qatars deputy prime minister said that there was a point of disgareement with the UAE two months prior to the blockade

While addressing some media attacks from the UAE, Qatar was asked to hand over the Doha-based wife of an Emirati dissident who left Abu Dhabi five or six years ago and moved to Britain, Al Thani said.

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UAE envoys had made a similar request with Qatars emir in 2015, but Shekih Tamim refused.

It is in our morals and traditions as Arabs that we cannot hand over women, and the issue of refugee culture is rooted in our history, the foreign minister told Qatar TV.

He added: We assumed then the UAEs understanding of this step. The emir told them that we will not allow anyone to use Doha as a platform to attack the UAE or any Gulf country.

We have fulfilled this promise before the matter was reopened in light of the attacks that were observed when we raised this issue, and they asked us to hand over the woman in return for ending the media attacks.

Qatar has begun seeking international arbitration in an attempt to end the blockade imposed on it.
Amnesty International has reiterated a call for an independent investigation into rights abuses in Myanmars Rakhine state after the countrys army admitted its soldiers were involved in the murder of 10 Rohingya.

The remains of the victims were found in December in a mass grave outside Inn Din, a village in the Maungdaw township.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Min Aung Hlaing, the militarys commander in chief, said soldiers and villagers had confessed to killing 10 suspected Rohingya fighters on September 2.

James Gomez, Amnestys regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, called the admission a positive development, but said it was only the tip of the iceberg.

It warrants serious independent investigation into what other atrocities were committed amid the ethnic cleansing campaign that has forced out more than 655,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State since last August, he said on Thursday.

The armys unprecedented acknowledgement came after months of denial of any wrongdoing towards the persecuted Rohingya minority.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August, when the army launched a bloody crackdown in response to attacks on border posts by the armed group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

Refugees who crossed the border reported mass killings, gang rapes and arson, prompting the UN and rights groups to accuse Myanmars army of possible crimes against humanity.

Beyond comprehension

Inn Din, the site of the mass grave, was one of the hundreds of villages that was engulfed by violence during the August crackdown.

The military, in its account of the killings, said 200 Bengali terrorists armed with sticks and swords attacked soldiers in the area on September 1. Myanmar officials refer to the Rohingya as Bengalis, a pejorative term used to imply they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Ten of the assailants were captured, but it was found that there were no conditions to transfer the 10 Bengali terrorists to the police station and so it was decided to kill them, the military said, and vowed to take action against those involved in the killing.

Amnestys Gomez condemned the military account as an appalling attempt to justify extrajudicial executions.

Such behaviour shows a contempt for human life which is simply beyond comprehension.

Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, said he did not believe the armys account of the incident.

The army is saying the ten are connected to the insurgency group. But this is false, he told Al Jazeera.

I have spoken to many eye witnesses. The villagers were arrested from Inn Din beach on August 31, 2017. They were on the run because the Inn Dinn village was under siege by the Myanmar government, he said.

10 #Rohingya villagers killed by #Myanmar military & #Rakhine villagers were arrested from this place on August 31, 2017. https://t.co/xC1MdDboFL  Ro Nay San Lwin (@nslwin) January 10, 2018

Lwin attributed the militarys rare admission to the arrest of two Reuters journalists in December.

The pair  Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo  were taken into custody after being invited to dine with police officers on the outskirts of Myanmars largest city, Yangon.

There are many mass graves. But they [army] have released this one because the Reuters journalists got the evidence, Lwin told Al Jazeera.
US leader to announce whether or not to reimpose sanctions on Iran putting into jeopardy the survival of 2015 agreement.

US President Donald Trump is set to decide whether or not to reimpose wide-ranging sanctions on Iran, the latest action that puts into question the survival of the 2015 nuclear agreement between world powers and the Islamic Republic.

Trump, who has repeatedly vowed to rip up the deal signed by his predecessor Barack Obama, is expected to announce his decision to renew the waiver on US sanctions against Iran as early as Friday.

Analysts said Trumps persistent unpredictability has already cast a cloud of doubt over world capitals, warning that his actions could force Tehran to abandon the deal in the long run and return to all-out hostilities with Washington, DC.





As part of the implementation of the nuclear deal in 2015, US sanctions against Iran were waived. But the US president is required to renew that waiver every 120 days.

If Trump fails to do so, several US sanctions on Iran are automatically reimposed, including those against Iranian businesses and foreign companies that deal with Iran. The last time Trump issued a waiver was in September 2017, and the renewal is due on Friday.

The waiver renewal is separate from the certification of the nuclear deal every 90 days, which was imposed by the US Congress on the president. In October 2017, Trump refused to recertify that Iran was in compliance with the agreement. While the US certification process is not part of the nuclear deal, Trumps decision sparked outrage in Iran and other countries supporting it

On Thursday, ahead of Trumps decision on the sanctions, European foreign ministers met Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister, in Brussels to reiterate their support for the nuclear deal, warning a decision to reimpose sanctions could scuttle the landmark agreement altogether.

The deal is working. It is delivering on its main goal, which is keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check and under close surveillance, Federica Mogherini, the European Unions foreign affairs representative, said as she stood sternly next to her counterparts from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

The unity of the international community is essential to preserve a deal that is working, that is making the world safer, and that is preventing a potential nuclear arms race in the region, she said.

We expect all parties to continue to fully implement this agreement, Mogherini added without mentioning the United States.

For his part, Zarif posted on social media, Any move that undermines JCPOA is unacceptable, using the acronym for the official name of the nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Iranian people have every right to all its [nuclear deals] dividends, he wrote.

No better alternative

Boris Johnson, foreign secretary of the UK, the closest ally of the US, also said no country has come up with a better idea in place of the agreement.





I dont think that anybody has so far produced a better alternative to the JCPOA as a way of preventing the Iranians from going ahead with the acquisition of military nuclear capability, he said.

But he also said the nuclear deal should also benefit the Iranian people, who in recent weeks have come out in droves to protest against the government.

On Tuesday, Ali Akbar Salehi, Irans nuclear chief, was quoted as telling Yukiya Amano, head of the UN nuclear watchdog, that his country is unlikely to continue cooperating with the international community if the deal falls apart.

Ellie Geranmayeh, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said there is an expectation in Europe that Trump will stay with the deal and renew the sanctions waiver.

There is by no means certainty on that point, given what we have seen of President Trump, particularly the way he makes last-minute decisions on this issue of the nuclear deal, she said.

Geranmayeh added there is also concern the US administration and particularly the president will be heavily influenced by the recent protests in Iran.

European foreign ministers on Thursday insisted discussions on human rights and the deadly protests across Iran should be separate from the nuclear agreement.

Narrative of war

Hamed Mousavi, a University of Tehran professor, said it is likely the US could impose new non-nuclear related sanctions against Iran while appearing to stay with the nuclear deal.

In that case, it will only hurt the people economically who have been protesting against the government in recent weeks, Mousavi told Al Jazeera.

If the Trump administration continues to do that, I think it will lead down to a path that maybe Iran will withdraw in the long run because the benefits that Iran was supposed to receive out of the deal  have been very slim, he said.





Rouzbeh Parsi, an Iran expert and senior lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, said the latest Trump move could be just another step to justify a military confrontation with Iran.

If the unilateral withdrawal of the US seriously undermines the Iranian ability to trade with the world, it will weaken the Iranian government considerably and put it under pressure domestically to also leave the JCPOA, Parsi told Al Jazeera.

At that point, the hawks in the US will argue that Irans nuclear programme is no longer curtailed and, therefore, poses an imminent threat, and so the narrative of war can be spun  yet again, he warned.

Under the 2015 deal signed in Vienna by the US, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, China, and the EU, Iran scaled back its uranium enrichment programme. According to nine reports by UN nuclear inspectors, Iran has continued to be in compliance with that condition.

In exchange, sanctions on Irans economy were lifted, and Tehran was allowed to resume trading oil and gas on the international market. A total of $100bn in frozen Iranian assets was also released. Since then, Iran has gradually opened its country to foreign investment and welcomed more foreign visitors, injecting billions of dollars into its ailing economy.

But since Trump took office in January 2017, a cloud of uncertainty has returned on Iran with his repeated statements calling the deal an embarrassment and the worst deal the US ever entered into.
101 East meets the Chinese men seeking to find a bride anyway they can in a country with a severe lack of women.

In China, women are in short supply. Thanks to an ancestral preference for boys, and the implementation of the one-child policy, there are now millions more men than women.

Its predicted that one in five single men will never find a woman to marry. This striking gender imbalance is causing not just personal devastation but a potential national crisis.

To avoid becoming a bare branch, many single men are resorting to extreme methods to find a bride  kidnapping or buying women from overseas; anything to help them fulfil their responsibility to secure the future of their family.
Prosecutors in France want to know why Apple slows down its older iPhones.

For many customers, Apple and its iPhones are the best in the business.

That was until last month, when the company admitted to slowing down older models.

It said it was done to protect battery life, but users hadnt been told.

Some suspect there was another motive  that the company was trying to persuade customers to upgrade to a new phone.

A French prosecutor has launched an investigation. Legal cases are also under way in the United States. And a US senator has demanded answers from Apple CEO Tim Cook.

So, how will all this impact on consumers trust in Apple products?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Glyn Mood, a technology writer and blogger.

Wang Boyuan , writer for Technode, an English language publication that covers Chinas tech industry

Dean Crutchfield, a branding expert.
Houthi rebels in Yemen say they have developed a locally built surface-to-air missile.

It is a new year but the same old story in Yemen.

Nearly three years on since a Saudi-led coalition began its military campaign, Yemenis continue to die. At least 11 people were killed in a Saudi air raid on Wednesday that targeted a market in northern Saada province.

That region is a stronghold of Houthi rebels who have been in control of much of the country since 2015. The fighting has killed at least 10,000 people and displaced millions more.

Just this week, Houthi rebels announced they had built a new locally designed missile to fight against the Saudi-led alliance. And now the rebels are threatening to block the Red Sea shipping lane if the coalition keeps pushing towards the western port city of Hudaida  which the Houthis control.

The UN has called Yemen the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, with eight million people on the brink of famine. Thousands of others are suffering from malnutrition and disease, including cholera.

So, whats the solution to the conflict in Yemen?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Hakim Al Masmari  Editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post

Nabeel Khoury  Former deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Yemen

Andreas Krieg  Regional defence and security specialist and assistant professor at Kings College London
Tattooed local Leda Balch traced a dragon flash-tattoo design and painted it a vibrant red and yellow Wednesday evening at the Alachua County Public Library's Headquarters Branch.

"Balch, a 27-year-old UF creative photography alumna, was one of about 50 who attended a lecture on tattoo history and free flash painting workshop hosted by Death or Glory Tattoo Parlour artist Kristyn Lopez. Despite being a tattooist, Lopez said her painting business typically does not crossover with the tattoo-industry, but for this one lesson, she chose to teach some of its history and use flash-designs as art templates.

I love that the library has given the community this opportunity to take these classes outside of the university, Balch said. Its the kind of opportunity thats hard to find anywhere else.

Attendees at Kristyn "Bat" Lopezs Thursday night flash-tattoo workshop at the Alachua County Public Library Headquarter Branch trace over tattoo designs to watercolor later.

The talk, which brought out tattoo lovers and the curious alike, demonstrated the history of tattooing not as part of a counter-culture but a human culture, Lopez said.

At the end of the lecture, participants were encouraged to trace tattoo designs and transfer them to paper for watercoloring.

Lopez began her career in Hollywood, Florida, in 2009 but didnt fully realize her potential until moving to Gainesville four years later.

She has worked for Death or Glory Tattoo Parlor since 2013. Under the name of her start-up company, Wayfaring Painter, she has given four free courses on different topics at the library so far and intends to do more in the future.

I know that the community is hungry for more experience and engaging, quality instruction in the fine arts, the 33-year-old said. Gainesville is a city of learning and culture, and I'm glad to be part of the growing arts community here.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Lopez's business name is Wayfaring Painter and not Wayfarer Painter as previously reported. This story has also been updated to reflect that previous library workshops taught by Lopez have been on a variety of topics, not strictly tattooing. It has also been updated to reflect Lopez does not use "Bat" as a nickname.

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that Lopezs tattooing business and art business are separate, and she does not teach students how to physically tattoo. It also has been updated to clarify that the students outline flash tattoo designs did not mimic an actual tattoo job.

Standing to the left, Kristyn "Bat" Lopez, a tattooist for Death or Glory Tattoo, directs her Thursday night flash-tattoo workshop class at Alachua County Public Library's Headquarters Branch to drawing supplies.

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President Trump has until January 12 to decide whether to terminate or "fix" the Iran nuclear deal (aka the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). Iran has proven to be eminently untrustworthy and unfaithful to the expectations of this deal. Canceling the JCPOA would mitigate serious risks to the future national security of the USA and the international community, while "fixing" it allows Iran to clandestinely move forward with research and development on its nuclear weapons program with the extra funds it enjoys free of sanctions. It is essential for President Trump to cancel this disastrous deal, effective immediately.

Influential voices in the White House, including secretary of state Rex Tillerson, defense secretary James Mattis, and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, have recommended that President Trump "fix" the Iran nuclear deal rather than cancel it. However, one option to "fix" the deal "is removing the requirement that Trump certify Iranian compliance" or, alternatively, "changing the law so certification occurs far less often." This is meant as a "face-saving fix" for President Trump, who "loathes having to give a thumbs-up to Iran every three months."

Tillerson told the AP that "the president said he is either going to fix it or cancel it," adding, "[W]e are in the process of trying to deliver on the promise he made to fix it." According to the AP, "while the talks involving the White House, the State Department[,] and Congress wouldn't increase restrictions on Iran's nuclear activity, as Trump also wants, they could strengthen the way the U.S. enforces the agreement, perhaps persuading Trump that it's worthwhile for the U.S. to stay in it." In effect, the touted "fix" is a misnomer that does nothing practical to change JCPOA substantively, but simply limits President Trump's authority to review the deal and so far offers no specifics on how to strengthen enforcement.

In his speech on October 13, 2017, President Trump refused to certify the Iran nuclear deal, saying, "[I]n the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated." A true fix to the Iran nuclear deal cannot be achieved due to serious Iranian violations. The Iranian regime is inherently and consistently untrustworthy, as proven from the history of work on Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program, blocking access to all military sites suspected of being part of the program, and far-reaching and enduring support of terrorism.

In addition to Iran's support for terrorism and advancement of its ballistic missile program, much evidence exists that Iran is using the JCPOA as a cover for its nuclear weapons program rather than its supposed purpose as a hindrance to nuclear weapons capability.

The following constitute some of Iran's nuclear related violations and probable violations.

Iranian military nuclear sites free of inspection

On June 24, 2015, Ayatollah Khamenei stated that "no inspection of military sites can ever be done." Reaffirming this sentiment in August 2017, Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht stated that "Iran's military sites are off limits," noting that "all information about these sites [is] classified. Iran will never allow such visits."

Notwithstanding serious concerns about nuclear weapons work done at a number of Iranian military sites, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sees no need to visit Iranian military sites. According to a report in Haaretz, Israeli officials stated that the IAEA was provided intelligence from a Western entity "regarding sites the Islamic republic did not report as part of its nuclear program and where, according to suspicions, forbidden nuclear military research and development activity was being conducted." The officials noted that close to none of the suspected nuclear sites have been visited by the IAEA.

In September 2017, the IAEA admitted that it doesn't have oversight over Section T of the JCPOA. Section T is titled "Activities Which Could Contribute to the Design and Development of a Nuclear Explosive Device." The IAEA therefore could not verify that Iran was "fully implementing the agreement."

In addition, according to an October 2017 report released by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), there is a high degree of confidence that four new military sites "involved in various aspects of the nuclear weapons program" along with two headquarters are operating in Iran free of inspection. These six sites operate in violation of the JCPOA and remain off-limits to IAEA inspection.

Illegal nuclear procurement

In 2016, Iran made at least 32 attempts to procure illegal nuclear technology in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, according to a German intelligence report. According to the report, the attempted procurements "definitely or with high likelihood were undertaken for the benefit of proliferation program." This follows a previous report alleging Iran's "clandestine" efforts to seek equipment and technology, "especially goods that can be used in the field of nuclear technology" from German companies "at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level." The report adds that "it is safe to expect that Iran will continue its intensive procurement activities in Germany using clandestine methods to achieve its objectives."

The implementation of the JCPOA does not seem to have affected this pursuit. According to Hamburg's intelligence agency, "there is no evidence of a complete about-face in Iran's atomic policies in 2016." And an intelligence report from Germany's southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg notes that Iran sought "products and scientific knowhow for the field of developing weapons of mass destruction as well as missile technology."

Iran never committed to the JCPOA

The Iranian government never accepted the same nuclear deal that the P5+1 accepted in the JCPOA.

Iran may already have nuclear weapons

In a 2015 article, Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, an expert in national security matters, provides evidence from an IAEA report that strongly indicates that Iran already has nuclear weapons.

Iran procured equipment necessary for nuclear weapon development[;] ... conducted hydrodynamic experiments that, according to the IAEA report[,] "are strong indicators of possible weapon development[;]" ... cast and shaped uranium metal into hemispheres for a nuclear implosion device (a sophisticated nuclear weapon design)[;] ... [and] verified the design of a nuclear weapon with non-fissile explosive testing in a containment chamber[.] ... During the WWII Manhattan Project, at this stage the U.S. was 16 months from the bomb[.] ... Iran developed and tested exploding bridgewire detonators, necessary to an implosion nuclear weapon. During the WWII Manhattan Project, at this stage the U.S. was 6 months from the bomb[.] ... Iran manufactured neutron initiators which are used to start a fission chain-reaction in a nuclear weapon[.] ... Iran drafted 14 different workable designs for a nuclear weapon to fit inside the re-entry vehicle for the high-explosive [H.E.] warhead of Iran's Shahab-3 medium-range missile[.] ... Iran developed fusing systems for a nuclear missile warhead to perform a ground-burst or high-altitude burst above 3,000 meters.

The Iran nuclear deal cannot be rehabilitated. The Iranian regime has repeatedly proven itself untrustworthy and consistently seeks to use subterfuge to bypass the nuclear deal while moving forward on its dangerous nuclear weapons program. Illegal procurement of components for the nuclear program, nuclear sites that are off-limits, lack of commitment to the JCPOA, and substantial advancements in the nuclear program all demonstrate that the Iran nuclear deal provides sanctions relief and much needed capital and cover for Iran's nuclear advances.

The so-called "fix" appears to be mainly an attempt to lull President Trump out of his inclination, and even authority, to oppose the Iran nuclear deal. The deal must be scrapped  the sooner, the better.
While many consider Jerusalem the center of the world, the Red Sea might easily claim the title for second place, as countries from around the world are stumbling over each other to gain (or regain) a foothold on the historic waterway. As we look at recent developments, the question becomes, "are the super-rich going to have one hell of a time partying up and down the sun-baked Red Sea coastline and bathing in the turquoise sea, or will they instead have a front row seat to a treacherous waterway that seems to be bubbling and building up enough pressure to facilitate WWIII?"

Let us review the players in this play  a play whose ending has yet to be written.

The United States has increased its presence there after an onslaught of attacks on U.S. warships in October 2016. Coming from the Yemeni coastline, the attacks on the warships as well as other shipping vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb strait (which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea as part of the strategic Suez Canal shipping route) exposed a need for greater security in the area.

Earlier in 2016, both Saudi Arabia and China cut deals with the Republic of Djibouti to establish military bases in that region, Djibouti being strategic to controlling access to both the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir recently met with Russian president Putin to discuss Russia setting up a military base on the Red Sea and supplying Sudan with military weapons. Further, Bashir "appealed to Putin" for "protection from aggressive U.S. actions" and offered to make Sudan "Russia's key to Africa" in developing ties on the continent.

Iran's presence in the Red Sea country of Yemen has been a little harder to piece together  at least from the mangled weaponry they're leaving behind. In an unprecedented act, the Pentagon put parts of recovered weaponry on display last month as part of President Trump's "harder line toward[] Tehran." Iran has apparently been supplying weapons to the Houthi militia in Yemen, violating U.N. resolutions. (Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were responsible for retrieving the pieces of weaponry, which included "an Iranian-made short-range ballistic missile fired from Yemen on Nov. 4 at King Khaled International Airport outside Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh.")

And although the words "Saudi Arabia" and "Crack Down" appeared in numerous headlines throughout 2017 (They reportedly "cracked down" on expats working jobs reserved for nationals, the crown prince's perceived opponents, Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated clerics, religious hate speech, and corruption)  it's frolicking, sunshine, and tourist dollars the Saudis seek on the Red Sea.

Billionaire Richard Branson toured Saudi attractions last September and told the Saudis they could count on him for investment in the kingdom's largest Red Sea tourism project to date. Reportedly, "The Red Sea project consists of 100 miles of sandy coastline and a lagoon with 50 islands[.]" Only time will tell if pandemonium or paradise will greet the moneyed traveler.

Perhaps the most important Red Sea development comes from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey  who's staking his claim in the Red Sea tourism industry with a bloodless recapture of Suakin. He wants to brush the dust off its crumbled relics and make it habitable once again as the old Umrah  or pilgrimage route  for Turkish citizens. (Umrah is a pilgrimage to Mecca that does not coincide with the Hajj.) Al-Monitor reports that Turks will be able to "fly to Sudan to visit historical sites and then go to Jeddah by boat, thus reanimating an Ottoman base and the ancient Umrah route."

Of course, there's the larger implication that Erdogan is reclaiming Suakin, the old Ottoman outpost, as a military base...though Erdogan initially denied those reports.

While many people in the world were feasting on holiday meals and unwrapping Christmas presents, President Erdogan was giving a defiant speech at Khartoum University in Sudan, where he railed against Western countries turning Suakin into a "ghost island" and ranting that they had "razed it to the ground" because it's "in their nature." His vow to rebuild it included a metaphor about "reincarnation" and an analogy to a shaved beard growing back more abundantly. All in all, the Sudanese "gate to Africa" seemed to stir Erdogan's passions deeply.

According to some, the word Suakin  meaning "dwellers," "stillness," or "inhabited land"  refers to the islands' spiritual inhabitants. It is widely considered a haunted island, where any roaming cat might embody the jinn banished there by King Solomon centuries ago.

In reality, it was flesh-and-blood Sudanese slaves who often passed through Suakin, as they provided financial gain to the Ottomans and Egyptians.

Most notably, Americans first heard of Suakin in 1888, when glaring newspaper headlines read "Battle at Suakin / Arabs Utterly Routed by the Anglo-Egyptian Forces / The Insurgent Dervishes Retreat Leaving Over 400 Dead." This was a complicated tale involving a man who had proclaimed himself the Mahdi in Sudan  Muhammad Ahmad  in an open revolt against the Egyptians and a slave trader named Osman Digna, who eventually became his devout follower. It's a story best recounted by a British army officer who participated in the "Mahdi War"  Winston Churchill. His work, The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (1899), is online.

It's a history that may seem lost to the rest of the world, but it certainly is not lost in the mind of the current Turkish president. At the same time he was crafting the Sudanese Suakin deal, Erdogan was sending more soldiers to his country's military base in Qatar. Not long before that, he'd orchestrated the opening of a $50-million military training base in Somalia.

Egyptian journalist Imadeddin Adib summed up the regions concerns best when he wrote:

Bashir [al-Assad] is playing with fire in return for dollars. Sudan  with its Turkey madness, with Iranian plots and the Ethiopian scheme to deny water to Egypt, and Qatar's financial gimmicks  is violating geographic and historic realities against Egypt. Sudan is offering its ports and borders for dispatching of guns and terrorists to Egypt and serving the goals of the Qatar-Turkey alliance to restore the Muslim Brotherhood to power.

Meanwhile, Israel is accusing Turkey of "developing a military and intelligence infrastructure on the Red Sea" as it worries about a "Russian-Turkish-Iranian alliance."

In other words, the situation is a mess.

The Red Sea is mentioned a few times in the Bible. Both Jews and Christians believe that God literally parted the Red Sea to save the Israelites from mass slaughter by the Egyptian pharaoh and his army. The book of Isaiah asks:

Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? (Isaiah 51:10)

Only the most hardened atheists could deny the irony that after thousands of years, the Red Sea still manages to hold the attention of the world. The affairs of men and nations, even the climate, could have made its importance obsolete by now. Instead, as in ancient times, there seems to be a race on to reach its trampled shores. Whether there is any divine providence in that I leave up to the reader.
Have you noticed the alarming incidence of female teachers sexually molesting students? There have been an increasing number of stories on these disturbing crimes for years. Staring at the mug shots of otherwise normal-looking women, I ask myself, what would cause them to engage in such hideous behavior, and from such a trusted position?

Just to be sure I am not being deceived by Hollywood media sensationalizing a few events, I clicked on the "Crime" link at foxnews.com and paged through many dozens of related stories, most of them involving men. However, in just a few minutes, I had collected links to 55 stories involving female teachers. From the dates shown in the links, that's only about five months' reporting!

The female perps range in age from early twenties to early fifties. These are college-educated women, not a batch of street-raised prostitutes. They taught everything from gym to mathematics, earned a salary, and paid taxes, many with husbands and children of their own.

Why wouldn't these women hit on their students? After all, that's what they did when they were in public school. They hopped from bed to bed, boyfriend to boyfriend, with little thought of the consequences. And with California morals. That is, zero moral character.

Each of these women had extensive sexual experience with teen boys when she herself was a teen. There was no moral barrier to this behavior then, and apparently not now. This is their normal, sexually. Surely, they know, mentally and legally, that the kids are hands-off, but when hormones take over, rationality loses.

These women likely never paused their sexploits after high school, continuing their romps through college, and likely with multiple partners in the workplace and beyond before being apprehended by law enforcement.

I'm a little older than the oldest accused molester. When I was in junior high school (at the front end of the sexual revolution), there was one 30-something teacher who acted and dressed a bit slutty, and all the ninth-grade boys noticed. In fact, rumor had it that she was dating a tenth-grader at the high school. We heard of wild parties that she and another female teacher threw at their apartment complex near my home. We all knew what was in that woman's heart, and just talking to her in class gave me a creepy feeling.

That was one isolated incident from eleven years of public education (I forced my way out early) with perhaps a hundred teachers. Is this now happening all across our country? Or is it just being more completely reported? Is there a predator skank in every school? When my wife and I put our children in public school, we worried about male predators, but we were apparently ignoring another threat entirely.

We trust women, and their maternal instincts, to protect, nurture, and encourage. It's that instinct that drives many of them to teach. Now that some small fraction are acting out sexual predator roles, how do we tell which is which, especially when some predators are also mothers and wives? Perhaps there is a kind of Jekyll and Hyde thing going on here. Protection and predation in one pretty package?

Conservatives would use a Bible verse to explain this neatly: Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." By ignoring or attempting to negate the principle of sowing and reaping through the sexual revolution, we have obviously been deceived. We have been told that viewing porn is a private activity and does not affect public behavior, discounting its connection to rape and other sex crimes, whose perpetrators fill our prisons. We have been told that the aborted baby is just a fetus, just a tissue mass, ignoring the desensitization of our mothers to personally harming a child. We have been told that lies (especially about sex) are therapeutic and even cathartic, and we have set up a whole internet industry catering to adulterers. We have been told that we control the consequences in every situation, independent of our actions.

And now our revolutionary attitude, "it's just sex," has turned the old Van Halen tune, "Hot for Teacher," inside-out.

Christians tell us that in the absence of God, there can be no morality, and whatever poses as morality is actually relativism in drag. We become our own moral reference, which changes with the time of day and cultural wind. Our whole society has deceived itself, has attempted to mock God by denying the law of sowing and reaping, and now some of our female schoolteachers are having sex with our sons.

Liberalism is not just a flawed political and economic philosophy. It is evil to the core. Look at 59,000,000 (that's fifty-nine million) dead babies. Hollywood is not a moviemaking venture that has a few sexual predators in the back office. No, it is evil to the core. Rapist Harvey Weinstein equals Hollywood, through and through, plus a million just like him. In Hollywood, you are a sexual predator, a sexual victim, or an enabler. Winfrey and Streep are just as much leaders of the rape culture as Weinstein and Clinton. There is no silver lining.

Washington, D.C. will not be fixed by "electing the right people." No, it is evil to the core. Rapist Bill Clinton equals Washington, D.C., through and through, plus a million just like him.

Teacher-student sex romps  now in Wisconsin! If this perversion were confined to the coasts, at least we could relocate. But now it's affecting flyover country. This is serious.

And what is the word from California? "Nope, nothing wrong with our morality. Nope. Not a thing. Nothing to see here. Move along."

When my first daughter was born, a friend told me, "If you have a son, you only have to worry about one penis. If you have a daughter, you have to worry about a thousand." I suppose the "thousand" part now applies to male and female anatomy equally. Thank you, California.
Not to worry, all you lovers of racial venom. YouTube still has plenty of material to satisfy even your most vitriolic yearnings.

Want to use the world's largest video platform to watch a Nobel Peace Prize-winner sing about killing white people? No, it's not Barack Obama, but Nelson Mandela, leading a group of black people in a solemn vow to kill the whiteys. You can find it here on YouTube.

Ditto for Oprah telling us old white people have to die before white racism disappears.

Or how about step-by-step instruction on how black people can rob Asian people in their homes? (First you ring the doorbell to see if they are home, and make sure you choose the right fellas, who, if things go south, are ready to "do what it do.") That's easy to find too on YouTube, too, or, better still, on my new channel at minds.com.

These and thousands of other videos make YouTube a favorite place to spread black hostility, hate, and violence  you know, the same kind that is easy to find every day on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, and whatever else we are calling the conglomeration of reporters and public officials hopelessly devoted to spreading the greatest lie of our generation: the hoax of black victimization.

But what YouTube will not be spreading around anymore are videos that apparently are way worse than that. Videos by me, good ol' Colin, refuting that lie.

I do not know why Nelson Mandela and lots and lots of rappers preaching black-on-white racial violence have such a hard time getting kicked off YouTube. It's easy. I've done it four times for way less.

The first time YouTube sent me a one-way ticket to ride was right after I saw a video in Pittsburgh of a large group of large "teenagers" surrounding and beating a smaller "teenager." But everything was blurred out  faces and voices.

I called the victim's mom in Pittsburgh and asked if I could get a copy of the original video, unblurred. Soon I was watching a totally different, far more sinister scene: a large group of black people were surrounding a smaller white kid, harassing, threatening, taunting, and ultimately beating him.

That's what I do in my books, articles, videos, and podcasts: I expose the enormous level of black violence and how reporters and public officials are in denial, deceit, and delusion about it. This was just another example, one of many thousands that we document, wildly out of proportion.

Soon after the video went up, good ol' Colin was going down: YouTube said the video encouraged violence against children. I told YouTube I was exposing violence against children. People who removed that video were complicit in that violence.

YouTube did not care, and off I went.

The next time was about a year ago. A high school teacher was telling her school board in Green Bay how classrooms had degenerated into one constant episode of mayhem, violence, and chaos  including students roaming the hallways, simulating sex activity.

Other parents and teachers said that was a black thing.

When I reproduced the teacher's comments, YouTube took down good ol' Colin once again, this time for encouraging sexuality among children.

But my favorite was the final time just a few days ago. The venerable Atlantic magazine published a story about white people moving into black neighborhoods in New York and how that was somehow causing black people to commit more crime.

White people were criminalizing black people by the former's mere presence.

The magazine quoted the usual con men, saying the unusual things that are now very usual. It cited Paul Butler, a professor of law at Georgetown University. He's just one of the black teachers and lawyers around the country who say black juries should not vote to convict black defendants because of white racism. That is what he wrote in the Washington Post on several occasions.

The Atlantic article was funded by the MacArthur Foundation  you know, the group that gives out "genius grants" to people who write fairy tales about how black people are relentless victims of relentless white racism, all the time, everywhere, and how that explains everything. People like Ta-Nehisi Coates.

So I posted a video on YouTube calling BS on every word in the story  including "if," "and," and "but."

As with all my videos, there is no racism, no rancor, no apologies. Neither is there obscenity or vulgarity of any kind. No matter: that video came down. And, once again, YouTube dropped me like a pile of hot rocks.

Over the last few years, my videos have become "a thing," garnering more than 100 million views, mostly from people who are as skeptical as you and me. No one has time to watch videos that are not true.

And if they are not true, it should be the easiest thing in the world to show. Instead, the dominant reaction from the trolls is 1) that is not happening; 2) white people do it, too; 3) white people deserve it; and 4) let's hammer YouTube until Colin is removed.

Not for lying. But for telling the truth.

YouTube might be the biggest game in town, but it is not the only place to put videos. Good ol' Colin found a new home at minds.com, where my videos are now easy to find. And still impossible to refute.

Colin Flaherty is the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Don't Make the Black Kids Angry, which would be banned if it were on YouTube. He's easy to find over at https://www.minds.com/ColinFlaherty.
It's a shocking claim made by a political insider: the Deep State is so opposed to draining the swamp that it will, if necessary, kill President Trump to prevent it.

Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser and confidant, certainly knows his way around Washington, having worked as a senior campaign aide to Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Senator Bob Dole as well as having held many other political positions. This proximity to the Deep State is what makes his claim, expressed in a recent wide-ranging interview with The New American magazine's Alex Newman, that much more eyebrow-raising. Stone outlined three plans the Deep State has for eliminating the president, as Newman relates:

The Deep State's "Plan A," Stone said, is the imploding "investigation" into alleged "Russian collusion" by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. If and when that fails, which Stone suggested was likely, the establishment would move to "Plan B." In essence, that plot would involve trying to get a majority of Trump's [C]abinet to declare him unfit for office. This would allow Trump to be removed under the U.S. Constitution's 25th Amendment  another scheme Stone said would probably flop. Last but not least, though, if all else fails, Stone warned of "Plan C": [k]illing the president.

Interesting here is that Newman's piece was published January 1, just before talk of President Trump's alleged mental instability became the month's big news story. In fact, released just four days later was journalist Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury, which makes the case that Trump is psychologically unfit to hold office. Note, too, that Wolff has boasted that his book will bring down the president.

This bold claim will more likely just bring up book sales. It's not only that Wolff has said he can't be sure everything in his book is true; that it contains factual errors; and that he is, as ex-Trump strategist Sebastian Gorka put it, "a partisan self-promoter with credibility issues[.]" It's that removing a president for inability to discharge his duties isn't easy.

Per the 25th Amendment's Section IV, Vice President Mike Pence would have to declare Trump unfit, 13 of the 24 Cabinet members would have to agree, and then two thirds of both houses of Congress would ultimately have to vote to uphold the decision. Unless Trump starts fainting right and left and throwing behind-the-scenes temper fits like Hillary Clinton, Stone is correct in saying this is unlikely.

This leaves the alleged "Plan C." But is such a Deep State course of action really in the cards? Calling Trump "a shock to the system," Stone explained his thinking to The New American: "It's easy to forget that the shocking upset that Donald Trump pulled off has never been forgotten or acknowledged by the globalist cabal that has really infected both of our major parties." And with the economy flourishing and public confidence up, "it's easy to misread the deep enmity and hatred that the globalists and the [i]nsiders have for this president, and to underestimate their resolve to remove him."

"If all else fails," writes Newman, "Stone believes [that] the Deep State would, in fact, attempt to murder the president."

Stone emphasized that if "Mueller should fail in his illegitimate coup d'etat to take down the president," he thinks "you will see an uptick in the 'Trump-is-crazy' talk," reported Newman. Again, we've already witnessed this.

Newman further relates:

Stone warned that even some of Trump's most senior officials would throw him under the bus if given the opportunity. "I can tell you, there are members of Trump's [C]abinet that would stick a dagger in his heart,["] he warned, echoing other warnings that he has offered publicly in recent weeks. ["]There are globalist insiders who, for one reason or another[,] got into this [C]abinet, who do not share the president's vision of reform, and are not loyal to him as I am and so many Americans are."

Explaining the presence of these dangerous establishment figures within the administration, Stone said, "Unfortunately, I think that the president misunderstood early in the process that personnel is policy." Stone also believes that Trump's lawyers are doing him a disservice, saying they're currently "walking him into the blades."

Stone, a colorful political operative known among other things as a "dirty trickster," further explained the Deep State's enmity for Trump. As Newman reports, "'Trump is a real American, a patriot, he's a real believer in Americana, and also in American superiority  American exceptionalism, if you will  and a believer in American sovereignty,' Stone said. 'He's always been deeply suspicious of the international types that he was happy to sell condominiums to at inflated prices, but he never shared their politics.'" Stone also emphasized that, unbeknownst to most, Trump comes from "a long line of anti-communists."

Moreover, because of Trump's wealth, Stone says he's "unbought and unbossed[.] ... Anybody who has tried to boss Donald Trump around knows that that won't work. He's very much his own man."

So a patriot and a believer in Americana, sovereignty, and American exceptionalism who can't be bought or bullied  that certainly is the Deep State's worst nightmare. The question is: Would it resort to murder to end it? Is Stone's warning risible or realistic?

All I can say is that it's a striking claim, and it certainly warrants more media exposure than a questionable book written by an attention-seeking journalist

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter, or log on to SelwynDuke.com.
A recent trend in many states is to outlaw "conversion therapy," where people who are unhappy with homosexual inclinations go through therapy to dispense with those inclinations. Even though the process is voluntary, liberal states cannot tolerate the idea of someone with same-sex attractions wanting help to get rid of them.

In the U.S., state governments are beginning to outlaw conversion therapy in growing numbers. California became the first to do so in 2012. Eight other states have banned it in some form since. In 2017 alone, Nevada, New Mexico, and Connecticut have signed their own bans into law.

Now New Hampshire, by a single vote, has failed to pass a bill that would have prevented teenagers with homosexual tendencies from getting therapy to get rid of those tendencies.

The bills sought to prohibit counselors from proposing or engaging in treatments to change a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity [sic]. The House bill was defeated by one vote, 166-165, after House [s]peaker Gene Chandler, a Republican, broke a tie. The Senate version of the bill, which the House was voting on as well, was also narrowly defeated, 170-169, with Mr. Chandler's vote. Opponents said the bill could have prevented minors from discussing "unwanted" same-sex attraction with a qualified counselor. "Now, I would be against coercive therapy, but what about those who want help from a professional?" Representative Mark Pearson, a Republican, said while addressing lawmakers on Tuesday ahead of the vote. The bill is "unnecessary at best," he added, "and quite possibly harmful to youngsters [who] want an honest conversation."

It's interesting that liberals want children to be able to take dangerous hormones and to mutilate their bodies if they "feel" they are a different sex, but if children with homosexual inclinations "feel" the desire to develop attractions for members of the opposite sex, liberals want to close off all avenues of help for them.

Liberals claim that sexuality is immutable, but that is obviously false when you have actresses like Ann Heche who date Steve Martin for years, then Ellen DeGeneres, then change back to dating men. If dating Steve Martin can make you into a lesbian, then obviously, sexual orientation is a choice.

This is part of a trend of state-sponsored coercion to push homosexuality and self-mutilation while discouraging heterosexuality. If it can almost happen in New Hampshire, a "purple" state currently run by a Republican legislature, it can happen almost anywhere.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.
The American left's Oprah-mania about her running for president in 2020 is truly absurd. What on Earth qualifies Oprah to run our country? I do not consider myself White House material. But if Oprah qualifies, I am a far superior candidate.

Years ago, when Oprah became a national phenomenon, I coined the phrase "the Oprah-izaton of America." It seemed as though Oprah had seduced many Americans into placing feelings above facts and logic.

Fake news media and most politicians have become Oprah-ized, behaving as though feelings trump everything. For example, rather than honestly dealing with the negative consequences of illegals invading our country, leftists and politicians are most concerned with the emotional side of the issue. God forbid we hurt the feelings or harm the self-esteem of illegals who do not give a rat's derriere about our country or assimilating.

So now the American left is giddy over the thought of Oprah becoming our first queen. We've seen this horror movie before, titled Eight Years of Obama. Fake news media and wimpy Republicans would allow Oprah to behave as queen, free to overrule the Constitution, given free rein to cram extreme liberalism down our throats. Opposing or disagreeing with Oprah would be deemed racist and sexist.

In 2008, over 90% of my fellow black voters were hypnotized by Obama's skin color. I tried to warn black family and friends that Obama was not black in terms of being one of us. Obama was first and foremost a liberal Trojan Horse disguised in black skin, totally focused on furthering the liberal agenda rather than dealing with issues plaguing black Americans.

Consequently, blacks moved economically and culturally backward during Obama's reign. Yes, Trump has been economically "mo' better" for us blacks than Obama.

Oprah's presidency would be a continuation of Obama's, with more touchy-feely, mindless, emotion-driven, stupid punish-America policies. Our ultra-Oprah-ized America would give away everything to everybody, confiscating the earnings of achievers to spread to deadbeats.

In 1976, I worked with Oprah at WJZ-TV in Baltimore. As a graphic designer in the art department, I provided graphics for our morning talk show, People Are Talking, which Oprah co-hosted with Richard Sher.

Psychic Jeanne Dixon was a guest on People Are Talking. After the show, Oprah and Ms. Dixon, along with other staffers and me, were gathered, chatting. Ms. Dixon took Oprah's hand and enthusiastically predicted that Oprah would achieve huge success. I am not saying I believe in psychics. I am simply reporting what happened.

Oprah's rise to fame was truly remarkable  evidence of the good heart of the American people. From her early days of co-hosting People Are Talking, I thought Oprah's gift was an ability to be herself on camera. In those days, blacks on TV seemed overly concerned with convincing white America that they were intelligent. Oprah was simply herself, and viewers related to her, an average-looking, overweight, dark-skinned black woman.

Blacks are only 12% of the U.S. population. Therefore, it is obvious that white America made Oprah a billionaire. And yet, on several occasions, Oprah has passionately helped her fellow America-hating leftists sell their lie that America is a hell-hole for blacks.

While promoting her movie, Selma, Oprah despicably claimed that blacks are still suffering the same persecution today as they did in the 1950s.

Clearly, selling movie tickets and furthering the leftist America-sucks narrative trumped the truth about how truly far we have come regarding race and being fair to the country that has practically worshiped her.

Oprah no more belongs in our Oval Office than Donald Duck. The idea is totally absurd. We all know how fake news media would treat Democrat presidential candidate Oprah Winfrey. Every word out of her mouth would be deemed the height of brilliance, wisdom, fairness, and compassion. Fake news media would brand the Republican presidential nominee the secret head of the KKK, a white supremacist, and a sexual predator.

Make no mistake about this, folks. Along with changing America by flooding it with a tsunami of illegals, leftists are obsessed with furthering their sexual revolution, making deviancy normal. Oprah would surely champion her fellow leftists' government-mandated sexual transformation of America.

A lot of American voters would once again be hypnotized, this time by Oprah's skin color and fake news media hype, ignoring Oprah's instincts to punish America. I pray that a majority of American voters would learn from their mistake of electing extreme leftist Obama solely because of his skin color.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

Help Lloyd spread the Truth

http://LloydMarcus.com
At first glance, it would seem that things at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency are going swimmingly. ICE just raided ninety-eight 7-11 stores around the country and arrested a bunch of illegal aliens. ICE's arrests for the 2017 fiscal year are nearly 37% higher than the year before.

So what is there to complain about?

The actual number of yearly removals ICE is making in the interior of the country, not counting the border, is still a tiny figure: about 81,000 illegal aliens in the most recent fiscal year. Given that there are more than ten million illegal aliens in the country, removing even a fraction of them will take a long time.

The problem is that ICE doesn't have the manpower to deport millions of aliens. Donald Trump wants to expand their manpower, but so far Congress has not cooperated.

This is not ICE's fault.

What is ICE's fault, however, is how it uses the existing manpower it has. The raid on the ninety-eight 7-11 stores must have involved hundreds of ICE agents, but it netted only 21 illegal aliens. It's great that businesses like 7-11 are given notice that employing illegals is no longer acceptable, but raids like this show that ICE is using its limited manpower terribly inefficiently.

Part of the problem is the leadership. ICE is led by an Obama-era holdover named Thomas Homan. Incredibly, nearly a year after taking office, President Trump still had not appointed his own nominee to run the most important agency related to his most important campaign issue. He finally relented in November...deciding to nominate Homan, the acting director, to take the job on an official basis.

Debbie Schlussel has done some interesting reporting on Homan:

Homan has been running ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which oversees deportation of illegal aliens, for several years during the Obama [a]dministration. And he's run it into the ground. Maybe that's why the Obama White House honored the guy with an award.

And more:

Earlier this year, I told you about ICE's new, quiet policy of "reverse escorting," in which ICE flies deportation agents from places like Michigan to the Southern border to pick up and fly illegal alien youths back ... to places like Grand Rapids and Detroit and give them sanctuary with pro-illegal alien non-profits, while the aliens await immigration amnesty and/or while the non-profits train them on what to say and help them fraudulently obtain asylum. My article was cited by U.S. [c]ongressman Kerry Bentivolio (R-[Mich.]) in a U.S. House hearing on border security, and Homan was asked about it. Homan predictably lied and claimed that what I wrote wasn't true. In fact, it's all true...in spades. Your money is being spent to escort illegal aliens into the American interior where they are sheltered until they can stay here permanently.

Schlussel also accuses Homan of quite a large number of sexual improprieties, which are unproved allegations but disturbing if true.

Given Homan's involvement in the Obama era, when ICE was turned into babysitters for illegal aliens, it is inexplicable that Trump has nominated him to continue in the job.

What Homan is doing now is a few high-profile "trophy" raids to get press attention but actually yield few results, such as the 21 arrests from the ninety-eight 7-11 raids.

This isn't rocket science. Most illegals live in big urban areas like New York, Los Angeles, and Miami (you can find a map here). The neighborhoods they live in are equally obvious because most people don't speak English in them.

All ICE would have to do is go to these neighborhoods and check for IDs outside shopping centers, supermarkets, drug stores, and other places with high traffic. Just camping out outside of the Department of Motor Vehicles in San Jose would yield more arrests in an hour than the raid of ninety-eight 7-11s did in a day. ICE should camp outside select DMV offices, welfare offices, and other government offices where illegals go for benefits.

They should also check IDs at public schools. The Supreme Court created out of thin air the "right" of illegals to a taxpayer-funded education, but it did not create a right for them to go to school without being apprehended along the way for being in the country illegally. It would be easy to target schools in the neighborhoods of illegals and have ICE checkpoints there. ICE has a policy of not making arrests at schools, but that is just what it is  a self-imposed policy.

Such strategies would result in many more arrests in a shorter period of time. Also, by making their presence known in public facilities, ICE would encourage many more illegals to self-deport.

Under the leadership of an Obama holdover, this is unlikely to happen. Instead, expect more self-congratulatory press releases where 21 illegal immigrants are arrested in a day.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.
After decades of undermining the institution of marriage, have Democratic politicians finally found something they can like about it?

The idea springs to mind in the wake of the odd divorce of Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin, which was called off just as it appeared that Huma might be facing the long arm of the law for her role in transmitting classified information onto the computer of her pervy husband. Sure, they say it's about the chilllllldren, but the marriage doesn't seem to be about love or anything  just keeping Huma out of the slammer.

According to the New York Post:

"He easily could be called in by a grand jury to testify against her so by dropping the lawsuit he can exercise the marital privilege," matrimonial lawyer Suzanne Bracker told The Post. "When you're married to someone you cannot be compelled to testify against [him]." A third attorney, Bonnie Rabin, said the "spousal privilege issue is out there considering the investigations."

Pretty interesting that they found three attorneys saying the exact same thing, and New York is not a city famous for its rock-ribbed Republicans.

The case is interesting because the same accusation has been leveled against Bill and Hillary Clinton, whose marriage seems to be a legal convenience as well. In that case, both spouses were also facing legal sanction on corruption allegations, just as Abedin and Weiner have been. And it's likely they share the same lawyers.

Now they're all together: Hillary, Bill, the mistresses, and maybe Huma. Weiner and Abedin are together, too: Huma, Anthony, the sexting partners, and who knows? Maybe Hillary.

What a splendid picture of family values these two pairs of Democratic beacons make for themselves. They like marriage for the reason that it keeps them from testifying against each other in courts of law, keeping them out of jail. The only thing left for them now is to sell it to the public, which must be laughing at the idea of these people either having to live with each other or else convince us that there's anything recognizably romantic in their marriages kept intact as legal hedges.
(ANSA) - Rome, January 11 - Premier Paolo Gentiloni said relations with France will be stronger thanks to a new treaty Rome and Paris are working on after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday. "I think it is very important that we have decided to give a more stable, more ambitious framework to the historic relations between Italy and France," Gentiloni told a news conference, "with the idea, which had emerged at the (recent) Lyon summit, to put a group of people at work for a Italo-French bilateral treaty. "We have always cooperated in an extraordinary way, but we are convinced that this can make our relations even stronger and more systematic". French President Emmanuel Macron echoed those sentiments about thee new 'Quirinal Treaty', named after the resident of the Italian president. "There is a structural Franco-German relationship and it is at the origin of Europe," Macron told a press conference. "When France and Germany are unable to agree, Europe cannot move forward. "But that relationship is not exclusive. The tie with Italy has another history - cultural ties, a special, specific relationship.

"And it is not in competition, nor inferior, but perfectly complementary to the Franco-German relationship.

"The relationship is strong at all levels and we wanted to give it a new form with the Quirinal Treaty".


TUNIS - Submarines have been found in Tunisian territorial waters between Tabarka and Cap Negro, according to a Belgian scuba diver. The amateur scuba diver, Jean-Pierre Misson, 78, said he has seen six Royal Navy submarines and probably an Italian Navy submarine dating back to the Second World War.



Misson examined the seabed in that area with a sonar. The Belgian engineer, who has a passion for relics, told British newspaper The Times that the submarines were on the sea bed where, during WWII, a naval dam was located in this part of the Mediterranean. He said there might be more in the area but he was unable to explore correctly the entire region. He added that a different type of equipment would be necessary to identify all submarines with precision.



The scuba diver said his age prevented him from reaching such depth and staying underwater for long periods of time.



According to Jean-Pierre Misson, the relics are the submarines HMS Talisman, Tigris, Turbulent, Utmost, Usurper, P48 and P222, Royal Navy vessels hit by mines during the war. Misson said he has presented a report to Tunisian, British and Italian authorities. WWII historians say many battles were fought in this part of the sea and believe up to 250 vessels lie on the seabed.



Misson lives in Brussels but has worked in North Africa. As a telecommunications engineer, he worked in Libya in the 1960s, where he returned in 2012 at the invite of the Libyan department for antiquitie to help train local personnel in underwater archaeological research with new technologies.



After discovering many relics of submarines, including Italian ones, he moved to Tabarka, Tunisia. (ANSAmed)
'Israel OKs 1,222 new housing units in West Bank', NGO Peace Now says objective is to destroy two-State solution

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, JANUARY 11 - Israel's national construction committee has approved the construction of 1,122 new housing units in 20 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the NGO Peace Now said on Thursday. The organization said that calls for tenders have been published on Thursday morning for 651 other units.



Out of the 1,122 settlement homes, 770 have been reportedly approved as ''down payment'' and 352 others for ''validation'', said the organization.



The NGO said in a statement that, although the number of units and the different process is confused, the aim is clear - ''the government is attempting to destroy the possibility of a two-state solution and the prospects of peace by building more and more in the settlements'', according to Peace Now.




Macron pays tribute to Italian work on migrants Reduced destabilization last year, says French president

(ANSAmed) - Rome, January 11 - French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday paid tribute to Italy's efforts to address the Mediterranean migrant crisis after meeting Premier Paolo Gentiloni in Rome.



"Italy did an excellent job in 2017, which we pay homage to, to reduce the destabilization caused by the migratory phenomenon," Macron told a news conference.



"It has all my respect for the work done".



Italy's reached a deal with Libya for its navy to support the Libyan coast guard to combat human traffickers.



The flow of asylum seekers embarking from Libya trying to reach Europe has fallen significantly since. (ANSAmed).




CAIRO - Algeria's vote on the UN Security Council against America's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has "pushed" President Donald Trump into "suspending" military and humanitarian aid and aid to civil society to the tune of 17 million dollars a year, Algerian daily "Echorouk El Yawmi" writes in an editorial published on its website on Thursday. "The United States' position towards Algeria after voting on the UN Security Council against the decision of Donald Trump has put an end to security cooperation between the two countries," echoroukonline.com writes. This cooperation "has always been among the most important and notable dossiers open between Algeria and Washington since the 1990s," the paper adds. "The United States always gave an estimated 1.4 million dollars of aid to Algeria within the framework of security cooperation.



However, Algeria's vote against Trump's decision has pushed the number 1 at the White House into suspending this financial aid," it continues. Echorouk reports that support to "other sectors including 12 million dollars in humanitarian aid and 4 million" in support to civil society has also been suspended.


In 2015, the RJAF placed an order for nine PC-9M aircraft with Pilatus Aircraft in Stans, Switzerland.

The PC-9M was to replace the Casa 101CC that had been in service since 1987.

The order was amended when, in April 2016, it was decided to buy eight PC-21 aircraft instead of nine PC-9Ms.

An option for two additional aircraft was converted into an order in October 2016 and, in January 2017, Pilatus announced that another two PC-21s had also been ordered.

The role of the PC-21 will be basic and advanced training, used before the students join the fighter squadrons.

The RJAF has 43 F-16MLU fighter aircraft in its inventory, divided over three squadrons at Al Azraq Air Base. It will soon receive another 15 former Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16MLUs that are upgraded to the M6.5 standard.

At the time of writing, four instructor pilots had been converted to the PC-21 and, by October 3, it was expected that all 11 Squadron instructors would have changed over.

The initial instructor conversions took place in Stans, where two weeks of ground school were followed by 20 hours of actual PC-21flying. Training also included five simulator flight sessions.

All PC-21s will be delivered to 11 Squadron as part of the King Hussein College based at Mafraq Air Base.

The first delivery flight took six stretches divided over three days. Pilatus ferry pilots flew the two aircraft to Mafraq on August 23. The companys production test pilot, Reto Amstutz, said: The ferry flight was smooth. That third day we flew from Aqaba to Mafraq in 40 minutes.

Amstutz is a former Swiss Air Force fighter pilot and has flown the F-18 Hornet. He was also a member of the famous Swiss Air Force aerobatic team, Patrouille Suisse. As well as his job at Pilatus, he is still a Swiss Air Force reserve pilot flying the F-5E Tiger II.

At Mafraq, 40-minute acceptance flights for both aircraft were completed on the day of delivery. The flights consisted of an extract from the production flight-test programme.

During the whole process of production and delivery, the aircraft had a Swiss civil aircraft registration. Only after customer acceptance were they deregistered. At that point, emergency locator transmitter (ELT) and transponder 24bit codes were changed to customer settings.

The ferry flight included stretches over water. Therefore, the ejection seat personal survival package (PSP) had a dinghy installed, including associated survival equipment. After the ferry flight, the packages were replaced by desert PSPs to accord with RJAF requirements.

The RJAF PC-21 aircraft have the new Saab mission computer installed, along with a new pilot memory module (PMM).

In the old days we did the flight data recording through a separate recorder. Now the recording goes through the mission computer, explained Amstutz.

You can store several missions on this PPM. You can upload approach plates, for example, or load different maps in different scales and bring them up in the multi-function displays (MFDs). You can define different mission loadouts and alternate parameters, like tactical parameters. Mission loadout can be air-to-air or air-to-ground weapons, or what you like for your specific missions or intelligence line.

Amstutz continued: We have the hardware installed for TERPORM, which is basically a tactical terrain avoidance system. It will work in visual flight rules (VFR) conditions in any situation, also in inverted flight. It will not only warn you for terrain but also for obstacles. Right now we have started the engineering phase, so its not certified yet. Actual testing will start in a few weeks time in Switzerland. When certification is complete, the RJAF will get the new software installed.

Pilatus made a ground-breaking move in the turboprop trainer aircraft class with the installation of a dual flight management system (FMS) in the PC-21.

The RJAF has Esterline CMC CMA-9000 FMS, which can be coupled to the autopilot. Esterline CMC has been awarded the contract to supply the cockpit avionics for the RJAF aircraft.

The early PC-21 models had one global navigation system sensor unit (GNSSU) installed. The current aircraft being delivered to the RJAF contains two CMA-5024 GNS landing system sensor units (GLSSUs).

With the GLSSU, regional navigation (RNAV) approaches with lateral guidance can be flown. Now the PC-21 can achieve GPS-based precision approaches on a spaced-based augmentation system with vertical guidance.

Both cockpits are equipped with new state-of-the-art 6in x 8in active matrix LCD displays. Both front and rear cockpits have a centre smart MFD-2068 that functions as a primary flight display. Two CHDD-268 side displays can show additional information, such as radar images or system pages.

The front cockpit has a CMC-4000 Sparrowhawk head-up display (HUD) installed, including an up-front control panel. The rear cockpit is equipped with a repeater screen, which shows the camera picture of the outside world and the HUD symbology, as seen by the pilot in the front.

The HUD has various modes, such as flight mode, target mode or approach mode, where it gives instrument landing system (ILS) symbology and glide path guidance.

A benefit for the students is that the system is adapted to the RJAF F-16MLU symbology.

To further assist the student with preparing to fly an F-16MLU, the hands-on-throttle-and- stick (HOTAS) system has several buttons reassigned through software to operate the mission systems on the PC-21 in the same way as an F-16.

The PC-21 is fully night-vision goggles (NVG) compatible for the latest generation systems. Students do not use NVG yet but, in the future, operational F-16 pilots will be able to use the PC-21 for recurrent NVG training as an alternative to using the (more expensive) F-16.

A huge step forward in training is the mission briefing and debriefing suit that comes with the PC-21.

A student can plan the mission to be flown and load it on to the PMM via the mission planning and debriefing system. Once connected to the aircraft, PMM data can be loaded into the mission computer.

Every system page is continuously recorded and cockpit images, filmed trough the HUD camera, are also stored on the PMM. During debriefing, all this stored data can be retrieved and the student can replay the flight in 3D, even showing screens that werent looked at while flying.

Simulated air-to-air radar training can be accomplished by linking automatic dependent surveillance  broadcast (ADS-B) signals from joining PC-21 aircraft. These signals are computed and presented in realistic radar contacts for students on the mission system displays.

Air-to-ground training can be performed retrieving ground data from a database and presenting it to the student in the cockpit. A training area as large as 100 by 100 miles can be stored in the database.

The PC-21 is powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-68B turboprop engine with electronic engine control (EEC). The engine delivers a maximum of 1.600shp. The power output is speed-rated and controlled by the EEC to give the aircraft a jet-like handling.

The engine is mounted on the aircraft bulkhead with a four degree offset to the right to minimize torque effect and prop wash. It drives a Hartzell E8991KX graphite/titanium composite scimitar five-blade propeller.

Two Martin-Baker CH-16C ejection seats with zero-zero capabilities are installed, which can be used at up to 400kts for ejection. Both seats are slightly tilted for crew comfort.

The engine drives an air-conditioning pump for the updated environmental and pressurisation system. Also, crew oxygen is supplied when the engine is in operation.

A two-piece canopy gives the crew ample view outside the aircraft. The front piece is reinforced with an insert against bird-strikes and has a detonation cord for when the ejection seat used.

The swept low wing structure has wet-wing fuel tanks. The leading edges are filled with foam to minimize the impact of foreign objects like bird-strikes. Hydraulic-operated spoilers are added to reduce the stick force and to increase roll rate. Also, an auto rudder trim is installed. Both features add to the fighter-like flying characteristics of the PC-21.

The RJAF aircraft are equipped with the latest generation LED exterior lighting. Furthermore, four fluorescent stripes are installed on each side of the aircraft for night formation flying training.

All in all, the RJAF now has a sophisticated aircraft that has the capabilities to train its students up to the level where they can transfer directly to the F-16 squadrons. There they only have to get accustomed to fast-jet flying and higher G-load handling.

As proven by other PC-21 customers, the graduation rate also significantly improves by using this next generation trainer aircraft.

Major General Yousef Al-Hunaiti is the current RJAF commander and is head of the committee that sets the configuration and the scope of operation for the future training of RJAF pilots.

The RJAF sees a benefit in having the PC-21 over the Casa 101CC by transition from analogue to glass cockpit and by mimicking advanced aircraft systems. The plan is to have the first students start training on the PC-21 between January and February 2018.






The national airline of the United Arab Emirates was acknowledged for its hospitality and service in both its Premium and Economy cabins during the 2017 awards ceremony attended by the travel industry and diplomats in New Delhi.



Divia Thani, Editor of Conde Nast Traveller India, said: The Conde Nast Traveller India awards are a barometer of what the discerning, affluent Indian traveller looks for, and appreciates, when he or she travels. They recognise excellence in all aspects of travel, and on behalf of Conde Nast and the readers of our esteemed publication, I congratulate Etihad Airways once again for winning the Favourite International Airline of the Year award. This is testament to Etihads focus on delivering service of the highest standards that todays travellers so look forward to.



Mohammad Al Bulooki, Etihad Airways Executive Vice President Commercial said: This award is of utmost importance to Etihad Airways as it echoes the sentiment of guests and is a reflection of the airlines commitment to provide guests with the best travel experience at every touch point of their journey. The award is a perfect end to 2017, and a great start to 2018 as Etihad Airways prepares for yet another exciting year of Indian operations.

Neerja Bhatia, Etihad Airways Vice President Indian Subcontinent, pictured centre, with Divia Thani, Editor of Conde Nast Traveller India (left), and Sunaina Talwar-Khiani, Publisher of Conde Nast Traveller India, after being presented with the Favourite International Airline award in New Delhi.
The record breaking achievement was acknowledged at the recent Dubai Air show, where Oman Airs EVP Engineering & Maintenance, Eng. Ali Redha Mohammed Al Lawatiya, was presented with a commendation. This recognised the outstanding capability and competency of Oman Airs engineering team which allowed them to perform the task in such a short time frame.

The achievement was accomplished in line with Oman Airs Engineering and Maintenance objectives, which aim to maintain, safe and efficient operation.

Ali Redha Al Lawatiya, Executive Vice President Engineering and Maintenance, said: I am delighted to accept this commemoration on behalf of Oman Airs hardworking Engineering & Maintenance team. We are a dedicated unit, Our goal is to respond to engineering issues in the quickest and most efficient way possible. This recent recognition from GE Aviation is further acknowledgement of Oman Airs strong position in the airline industry; we are fully committed to delivering the best possible service to guests and a critical part of this is to ensure the highest quality of engineering & maintenance services to our aircraft.
The agreement was signed at the Elysee Palace, Paris, during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans official visit to France with French President Emmanuel Macron.

With Turkish Airlines serving more destinations than any other airline around the world, we will be delighted to rely on our new A350 XWB to further develop our major international routes from Turkey. said M. Ilker Ayc, Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, Turkish Airlines. Ayc went on to say; With this agreement today, we have signed our good will to carry on and finalize the acquisition with Airbus. Our agreement is a significant step forward in enhancing our passengers flight experience. This order is set to play a key role in our growing business in the years to come. As we will be strictly evaluating during the talks to finalize the order, furthermore the increased business volume for the local Turkish supplier industry by Airbus will be a great gain for the sector."

The A350 XWB is an all new family of mid-size wide-body long-haul airliners shaping the future of air travel. The A350 XWB features the latest aerodynamic design, carbon fiber fuselage and wings, plus new fuel-efficient Rolls-Royce engines. Together, these latest technologies translate into unrivalled levels of operational efficiency, with a 25 per cent reduction in fuel burn and emissions, and significantly lower maintenance costs. The A350 XWB features an Airspace cabin which, on top of the aircraft spaciousness and quietness, provides better ambience, design and services, contributing to superior levels of comfort and well-being, and setting new standards in terms of flight experience for all passengers.
Trai is also expected to give its inputs for the new telecom policy by the end of this month.

Government is keen and the telecom minister and secretary have also put a timeline on consideration of Trai recommendation issued up to December 31, 2017.

New Delhi: The Department of Telecom (DoT) will seek to move quickly and take a view on most of sector regulator Trai's recommendations pending with it, including on net neutrality and internet telephony, by March 31, a senior government official said today.

Some of the major recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which are with the DoT include proposed measures on ease of doing business, keeping internet open and free (net neutrality), creation of telecom ombudsman for complaint redressal, and internet telephony.

Speaking at a Broadband India Forum event, DoT Special Secretary N Sivasailam said: "The government is keen and the telecom minister and secretary have also put a timeline on consideration of Trai recommendation issued up to December 31, 2017 and we hope to address most or all of them by March." Trai proposals would be processed and placed before

"competent authorities for consideration" within the stipulated timeline, he asserted.

Moreover, Trai is also expected to give its inputs for the new telecom policy by the end of this month. The telecom department is crafting the new policy in consultation with stakeholders and expecting to finalise it by March.

"We are examining all the representations. Trai itself has made a presentation on what they consider to be their first list, and they have also asked us to wait till the end of the month for their formal consultation paper (on NTP) to conclude," Sivasailam said.

Broadband India Forum today also released a report highlighting the challenges faced by the mobile handset manufacturing sector.

The report highlighted three significant issues impacting India's indigenous mobile telephony and telecom equipment sector growth. It noted that mobile telephony growth in the country is largely being driven and dependent upon imports.

The report also highlighted that value added by Indian manufacturers is relatively small mainly due to high dependence on imported components.
Nilekani was very confident of Supreme Court upholding Aadhaar under fundamental right of privacy.

Bengaluru: Former Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani said there was an "orchestrated campaign" to malign Aadhaar.

He was reacting to filing of an FIR on The Tribune newspaper report relating to Aadhaar data breach.

"There is hundred per cent an orchestrated campaign to see how Aadhaar gets maligned, yes absolutely," Nilekani told ET Now on the sidelines of the Infosys Science Foundation Award in Bengaluru.

Delhi Police had on Monday registered the FIR on a complaint by an UIDAI official following the newspaper report on data breach of more than 1 billion Aadhaar cards, naming the journalist behind the story.

The police was informed by the official that the correspondent, posing as a buyer, had purchased a service being offered by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provided unrestricted access to details of Aadhaar numbers.

Nilekani said the issue has been blown out of proportion as Aadhaar have built far too many security layers and it is not possible to randomly pore it.

Further referring to FIR filed in the Tribune case, he said negative views on Aadhaar will have negative reactions and hence, it would be better for people to have a constructive view on it.

"If you are just taking a negative view, and not a constructive view, then you also have other (negative) reactions. I think, everybody has to accept Aadhaar is here to stay," The former UIDAI chief said.

The Aadhaar is here to stay because as many as 119 crore people have it, 550 million have linked the numbers to their bank accounts and Rs 95,000 crore transferred into DBT accounts, he added.

Nilekani said he was very confident of the Supreme Court upholding Aadhaar under the fundamental right of privacy because it meets the test of the law being proportionate and reasonable.

Replying to a query, he welcomed putting in place a two- layer security to reinforce privacy protection for Aadhaar ID number holders by the UIDAI.

"I think this is a very significant announcement by UIDAI and in some sense it really makes the case against it go away," he said.

The former UIDAI chief said it has introduced a virtual identification for ID holders so that the actual number need not be shared by the people to authenticate their identity.

Simultaneously, it has further regulated the storage of the Aadhaar number within various databases, he added.
Galib had scored 95 per cent marks in the Class 10 examinations and secured 'A1' grade in all five subjects.

Congratulatory messages poured in for the 17-year-old on social media, and friends and family visited his house in Sopore town of Baramulla district. (Photo: Instagram | Galib Guru)

Srinagar: Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's son Galib Guru has passed the higher secondary school examination with a distinction. Afzal Guru was executed in 2013 for his role in the 2001 Parliament attack. His son secured 88 per cent in the examination, the results for which were announced on Thursday.

According to Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (BOSE) officials, 33,893 of the 55,163 candidates qualified the examination held in November last. While the overall pass percentage stood at 61.44, more girls (64.31 per cent) passed the examination compared to boys (58.92 per cent), they said.

He had scored 95 per cent marks in the Class 10 examinations and secured 'A1' grade in all five subjects. Congratulatory messages poured in for the 17-year-old on social media, and friends and family visited his house in Sopore town of Baramulla district.

"A big shout-out to Ghalib Afzal Guroo on clearing his 12th class exams with flying colours- 441 marks. Ghalib has definitely proven 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going'. All the best for the future endeavours! Rise and shine!," Sarah Hayat, spokesperson of opposition National Conference, said in a tweet.
The deceased, Bonu Janaki and the murderer Anand alias Ananthappa were working at a supermarket D-Mart in KPHB colony.

Anand (R) reportedly went to Janaki's (L) house on Tuesday night and after an argument he allegedly stabbed her three times with a kitchen knife. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: A 24-year-old woman in Hyderabad was brutally stabbed to death by a stalker at her house in Moosapet in Kukatpally on Tuesday night after she denied his marriage proposal.

The deceased, Bonu Janaki and the murderer Anand alias Ananthappa were working at a supermarket D-Mart in KPHB colony, police said.

According to reports, Anand was harassing Janaki for the last six months and was cajoling her to marry him. However, she had been repeatedly refusing his proposal.

According to reports, Anand reportedly went to Janaki's house on Tuesday night and after an argument he allegedly stabbed her three times with a kitchen knife. Police sources say he had also throttled her.

Janaki's body was found by her roommate Roopa when she returned home from work.

Roopa found Janaki unconscious and took her to a hospital but by then it was too late.

A complaint was received from her roommate, B Roopa, also a salesgirl at the same store, stating that when she came back after her shift, she saw Janaki with stab injuries on her stomach, said V Prasanna Kumar, inspector of Kukatpally, and added that she was immediately rushed to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.

Police have arrested Anand and charged him with murder. A case was booked under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.

Roopa told police that Janaki complained about Anand, who also threatened her with dire consequences if she fails to accept his proposal.

Roopa told police that Janaki had been looking forward to go home for Sankranti or harvest festival. Janaki, who is from Srikakulam district, had come to Hyderabad for work three years ago; she was the only earning member in the family.

The incident comes days after 24-year-old Sandhya Rania was set on fire by her former colleague who was allegedly 'obsessed with her and stalking her'.

On December 22, Sandhya Raina who worked as receptionist in Secunderabad was on her way home from work when Sai Kartik followed her on a motorbike and stopped to speak to her.

When he asked her to marry him she refused; Kartik allegedly demanded to know why she wouldn't marry him.

There was an argument when Kartik suddenly pulled out a bottle hidden under his shirt and poured kerosene on Sandhya. He then lit a match and set her on fire and fled before passersby could do anything, the police said.
Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of MEA said, 'India and Pakistan have a dialogue process and we have said terror and talks cannot go together.'

The meeting between the two NSAs took place in Thailand nearly three weeks ago. (Photo: Representational image)

New Delhi: India on Thursday said National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (retd) in December 2017 in Thailand, noting that "talks on terror" can go ahead.

Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters that the focus of the "operational-level talks" was "cross-border terror" and ways to ensure the elimination of terrorism from the region.

"India and Pakistan have a dialogue process and we have said terror and talks cannot go together. However, there are other dialogue mechanisms like at the DGMO level or between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers. Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of operational-level talks. We have said terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead," Kumar said.

The meeting between the two NSAs took place in Thailand nearly three weeks ago.
'Lifting the law will encourage more people to come out; but it may also mean more people will need support,' the prince said.

The 52-yr-old prince is building a centre for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT) on the grounds of his ancestral palace. (Photo: Facebook)

Mumbai: The only openly gay prince in India is throwing open his palace doors to lesbians, gays, transgender and other Indians shunned for their sexuality.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, heir apparent to the throne of Rajpipla in Gujarat, said it was particularly hard to come out in small-town India, where traditional values hold sway and heterosexual relations are the norm.

"People still face a lot of pressure from their families when they come out, being forced to marry, or thrown out of their homes. They often have nowhere to go, no means to support themselves," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

So the prince, 52, is building a centre for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT) on the grounds of his ancestral palace.

"I am not going to have children, so I thought, why not use this space for a good purpose?" Gohil said, adding that he will offer rooms, a medical facility and training in English and vocational skills to help people find jobs.

Gohil came out to his family more than a decade ago, prompting his mother to take out a newspaper advertisement disowning him.

After coming out, Gohil set up the Lakshya Trust, a charity for LGBT people in his conservative home state, and became a champion for gay rights. He has made numerous international appearances, including The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Read: People speak out on SC decision reconsidering Section 377

He is a vocal critic of the colonial-era law that criminalises consensual sexual relations between same sex adults. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court said it would reconsider its 2013 decision to uphold the law.

"Lifting the law will encourage more people to come out and live their lives freely. But it may also mean more people in need of support," Gohil said.

Gohil said he is renovating and extending his palace, built in 1927, on the 15-acre site, installing solar panels for power, and reserving some land for organic farming.

An online crowdfunding campaign and donations are financing the centre, which will be managed by his charity, he said.

Also read: SC to reconsider 'constitutional validity' of criminalising homosexuality

Gohil's high profile has helped the LGBT community in India enormously, said Harish Iyer, a gay rights activist who hosts a radio show dedicated to LGBT issues.

"For him to be one of us, the stakes are even higher, so providing this space is a great gesture," he said.

"We are lucky to have many LGBT-friendly spaces in cities like Mumbai and Delhi. But in smaller towns, there are not so many places, and that is where they are most needed."
The officers are part of the Navika Sagar Parikrama expedition, the 1st attempt by an all-women crew from India to sail around the globe.

The team led by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi had left India from Goa for their historic journey in September, 2017. (Photo: Twitter | @indiannavy)

Mumbai: Six women naval officers trained at the Ocean Sailing Node, were seen braving a storm in the Pacific Ocean as they made their way to the Falkland Islands, in a video shared by the Navy.

The all-women crew sailing on INSV Tarini, can be seen navigating choppy ocean waters amid a raging storm. As the vessel tipped and dipped, the crew members struggled to keep their balance. They firmly steered the 55-feet sloop and one of the officers flashed a thumbs-up sign to show that all is well.

#WATCH: 6 women naval officers on INSV Tarini, trained at Ocean Sailing Node, brave their way through a storm in the Pacific Ocean while on the way to Falkland Islands (08.01.2018) (Source: Indian Navy) pic.twitter.com/j3uAm7b8bS  ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018

According to the Navy, they showed exceptionally daring skills to navigate their way through the turbulent waters and rain.

The officers are part of the Navika Sagar Parikrama expedition, the first ever attempt by an all-women crew from India to sail around the globe.

The team led by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi had left India from Goa for their historic journey in September, 2017.

The team has already made stops in Australia and New Zealand, and will next make stops at Falkland Islands and South Africa before their scheduled return in March.

The other officers are Lieutenant Commanders Pratibha Jamwal and P Swathi, and Lieutenants Payal Gupta, Vijaya Devi and Aishwarya Boddapati.

The women had told the Indian media during the flag-off ceremony that they wish to inspire other women to achieve their dreams even if it seemed impossible.

They also said they want to instil a spirit of adventure in every Indian through their epic journey.
Sinha alleges that after coming to power, the BJP accepted all policies which it had opposed while being in the opposition.

Referring to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP veteran LK Advani, Sinha said 'today's BJP is not like the one in the days of Atalji and Advaniji.' (Photo: File)

Jabalpur: Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday said that since he could not get an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he has now decided that he will not meet anyone in the government and instead express his views in the public.

Referring to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP veteran LK Advani, Sinha said "today's BJP is not like the one in the days of Atalji and Advaniji."

He said that in those days, even a "small-time worker could go to Delhi and meet party president Advani without appointment, who has targeted the government on many occasions recently".

"Now even senior and important leaders don't get appointment with the party president. So, I was not surprised when I did not get appointment for 13 months," he told reporters in Jabalpur.

"I sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi 13 months ago to discuss various issues, but I haven't got it so far. Since I haven't got time, I have decided now I will not meet anyone in the government. Whatever I have to say, I will say openly in public," Sinha said.

Referring to a photograph of BJP president Amit Shah offering a laddoo to the prime minister, Sinha said, "In that photo, Rajnath Singh, Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and others are visible. But Advani is not seen even at the back. Now he has become an 'aam' (ordinary) worker from 'khaas' (important one)."

The former finance minister is slated to take part in a farmers' agitation at Gadarwara in Narsinghpur district on Friday.

He alleged that after coming to power, the BJP accepted all policies which it had opposed while being in the opposition.

"I have decided that now I will not talk with the government. Farmers are being neglected in the country. Their condition is not good in Madhya Pradesh too," he said.

Referring to awards that the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh has received for its performance in agriculture, he said, "They are given on the basis of mere figures. I have played with them a lot in my life."

Sinha termed the Madhya Pradesh government's 'Bhavantar' scheme, under which farmers are paid the difference between the minimum support price and the low market price, and crop insurance scheme as an "empty gimmick".
Experts warn that dangers include missiles being launched incorrectly since most of them have been built before advent of cyber warfare.

Report, recently released, goes on to add that cyber vulnerabilities within nuclear weapons systems and structures present a whole set of dangers and risks. (Representational Image/ Pixabay)

A leading think tank has recently warned that Britains nuclear arsenal is actually vulnerable to a cataclysmic cyber attack.

The study, conducted by academics at Chatham House revealed that nukes, including UKs Trident warheads, were at risk because they were developed before the advent of cyber warfare.

The study went on to add that at present, rogue states and terror groups have acquired abilities to pose a new threat to historys ultimate weapon.

The report, recently released, went on to add that cyber vulnerabilities within nuclear weapons systems and structures present a whole set of dangers and risks.

According to a story published in The Sun, it further said, At best, cyber insecurity in nuclear weapons systems is likely to undermine trust and confidence in military capabilities and in the nuclear weapons infrastructure. At worst, cyberattacks could lead to deliberate misinformation and the inadvertent launch of nuclear weapons.

Researchers Dr Beyza Unal and Dr Patricia Lewis outlined a number of doomsday scenarios that could hit any nuclear arsenal in the world including neutralising communications  sowing doubt in the minds of world leaders and commanders ahead of a strike.

Experts have repeatedly warned cyberattacks could manipulate data, scramble communications and dupe commanders in a myriad of ways either by hacking systems or planting malware.

The paper urged a new approach to the threat including wide ranging risk assessments to stay ahead of the threat.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy is building a new fleet of Dreadnought submarines to replace the ageing Vanguard nuclear boats.
According to the forest department, total encroachment in the forest area of Thane is 16,159 hutments on a land area of 63.06 hectares (ha).

Mumbai: In an attempt to curb encroachments in forest areas of Thane, the forest department has proposed the construction of an eight feet high compound wall along a 4.5 km stretch of forestland. Initially the compound wall had been proposed at the forest stretch of Kalwa and Mumbra that are the most vulnerable areas. The Asian Age had yesterday reported that encroachment cases were found to be higher in Thane forest in the period of 2016-17.

According to the forest department, total encroachment in the forest area of Thane is 16,159 hutments on a land area of 63.06 hectares (ha). Out of which, 1,201 hutments were removed from forest area during various encroachment removal drives in 2017 reclaiming 2.165 hectares of area. Total forest area in Mumbra and Kalwa is 260.297 ha.

We have escalated the proposal of construction wall to higher authorities. The wall will help protect the forestland from huge pressure of encroachment from slums that have come up adjoining forest areas. The estimated cost is around Rs 4.5 crore, said Jitendra Ramgaonkar, chief conservator of forest, Thane.

Thane district has a forest cover of around 2,907,54 ha and 3,3570 ha of wildlife cover apart from the land under revenue department and forest development corporation of Maharashtra.

While there was demolition of only 7% of the illegal hutments, the forest department asserted that legal cases and state policy for regularisation of slum has contributed to the delay in demolition of illegal structures.

Many hutments claim that they have been established before the year 2000. So, they move the court stating that their hutments are legal as per the state slum regularisation policy. It has delayed the demolition process. However, we immediately demolish fresh encroachments that are observed by the forest officials, added Mr Ramgaonkar.
The 2008 Mumbai terror attacks had left 166 dead and hundreds other injured.

Mumbai: The prosecution in 2008 Mumbai terror attacks case on Wednesday examined the owner of the hotel where Pakistani-American LeT terrorist David Coleman Headley had stayed during his stay in Pune as witness.

According to special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, the hotel owner Paras Bumb gave details about Headleys stay in his hotel in Pune. The witness also produced records of his hotel to show Headleys halt at his place.

The court is conducting trial against Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal in the 26/11 case. Jundal has been charged for conspiracy. According to prosecution, Jundal was present in temporary headquarter made by terrorists in Karachi which was used to issue directions to the attackers in Mumbai and that Jundal was one of the alleged handlers present in that headquarter. Jundal was taken into custody after he was deported to India from UAE.

Headley had deposed as witness via video conferencing in this case. During his deposition, he had told the court that on instructions of ISI he had visited Pune in 2009.

The 2008 Mumbai terror attacks had left 166 dead and hundreds other injured.

One of the terrorists, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, was caught alive during the attacks and was executed after charges of attacks were proved against him.
The owners had not even paid property tax under the capital value-based system since 2010.

According to the report, a defective electric circuit was the reason behind the fire at Bhanu Farsan Shop. It said, After examining circumstantial evidence and statements of eye-witnesses, the suspected cause of fire seems to be of electrical origin.

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations preliminary report on the Sakinaka fire incident has slammed civic officials for turning a blind eye at irregularities at site of the mishap. So much so that a senior health officer from L ward has been suspended, and four ward officials are facing threat of departmental inquiry for inaction against irregularities.

On December 18, a fire had broken out early morning at Bhanu Farsan Shop in which 12 workers who were sleeping died due to suffocation. Soon after, BMC chief Ajoy Mehta directed conducting an inquiry into the mishap.

The BMC report has found that Bhanu Farsan Shop was running without any license from the health department and without a no-objection certificate (NoC) from the fire brigade. Further, the farsan shop had an illegal wooden mezzanine floor and unauthorised water connections.

The owners had not even paid property tax under the capital value-based system since 2010.

The report states that Jagdish Sawant, senior health inspector, L ward, be suspended from municipal service until further inquiry and that a departmental inquiry be carried out against Pravin Vasave, assistant engineer (buildings and factories), Rahul Marekar, junior engineer (factories), Amol Patil, junior engineer (buildings), and building supervisor Vishwanath Pawar.

The BMC report said, Although the shop had a valid license from the Shops and Establishments Department, it was running without any license from the Health Department and without a NoC from the fire brigade. The L ward officials were supposed to find out such establishments and take action against such violations. However, Mr Sawant has been found responsible for not doing the needful.

The shop had an illegal wooden mezzanine floor, which needed to be demolished. But the building supervisor was found to be lacking in taking action against the structure. The shop had water connections in the bathroom and toilet, despite having no legal water connection from the BMC, the report said.

A senior civic official said, The irregularities have been found to be administrative in nature coming from the concerned civic staff and officials. Hence, it has been recommended that action be taken against them for dereliction of duty.
The remark was made at a public event in Mumbai in the presence of Western Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Girish Luthra.

Gadkari said he chairs a committee for stalled infrastructure projects, adding that projects are cleared 'as soon as they come on the agenda'. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said "not an inch" of land would be given for Navy housing in south Mumbai, wondering why all their personnel here want to stay in this posh area when they should be at Pakistan border.

Gadkari, who is the minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, made the remark while voicing his disappointment at the Navy's objection to a floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai, where a floating hotel and seaplane service are planned.

The remark was made at a public event in Mumbai in the presence of Western Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Girish Luthra.

"Actually, Navy is needed at the borders from where terrorists sneak in. Why does everyone (in the Navy) want to stay in South Mumbai? They (Navy) had come to me, asking for a plot (of land). I will not give even an inch of land. Please don't come to me again," Gadkari said.

"Everyone wants to build quarters and flats on south Mumbai's prime land. We do respect you (Navy), but you should go to the Pakistan border and do patrolling."

A few important and senior officials can stay in Mumbai, Gadkari said, adding that land on the eastern seafront being jointly developed by the state-run Mumbai Port Trust and the Maharashtra government, would be utilised only for the benefit of local citizens.

South Mumbai is home to a sizeable presence of the Navy and houses the headquarters of the Western Naval Command, as well as the naval residential quarters at Navy Nagar in Colaba.

Berths for naval ships are close to the Port Trust assets used by merchant ships. Over a period time, a lot of cargo handling has moved out of the Mumbai Port, one of the oldest ports in the country.

"I heard that you (Navy) gave a stay to the floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill, despite it getting the high court's nod," Gadkari said.

Claiming that stopping such developmental work has become a habit, Gadkari wondered what has the Navy got to do with the Malabar Hill area which is primarily a private residential zone also having official residences of Maharashtra governor and chief minister. "Where is the Navy at Malabar Hill? There is no Navy at Malabar Hill and the Navy has nothing to do in the area,"

Gadkari said and invited the Navy for talks to resolve the issue.

Gadkari said he chairs a committee for stalled infrastructure projects, adding that projects are cleared "as soon as they come on the agenda".

"We are the government. The Navy and the Defence Ministry are not the government," he added.
The arrested accused was part of the mob that went berserk in Chemburs Ghatla village area, which was one of the worst hit places.

Mumbai: The Chembur police has arrested 15 persons for allegedly molesting several women police personnel during the rioting last Wednesday, when a state-wide bandh was observed by dalit outfits. The groups were protesting caste violence in Pune during the bicentennial of the Battle of Bhima-Koregaon.

The police had registered a case of molestation the day after the incidents took place. The arrests were made with the help of CCTV footage procured from multiple spots where protesters clashed with police personnel.

The arrested persons are from various backgrounds and some of them are educated too, the police said. The Chembur police had registered one case of rioting with several other sections, including attempt to murder and molestation.

The arrested accused was part of the mob that went berserk in Chemburs Ghatla village area, which was one of the worst hit places.

We have arrested the accused for targeting women constables. The rioters did not bother to keep a check on the acts, said Shahaji Umap, deputy commissioner of police (zone VI).

The police had deployed substantial number of women personnel during the riots, as the rioters comprised a large number of women and children protesters.

Most of the accused were apprehended by the riot police and other reinforcements, and the rest were identified with the help of CCTV footage of these places and nabbed later, said an officer posted at Chembur police station.

All the accused have been remanded in police custody for further investigation. The police is in the process of ascertaining identities of other violent protesters.

The probe also led to the arrests of 16 juveniles earlier, who allegedly created a ruckus and indulged in rioting and arson. The rioting was the backlash of attack on the centenary celebrations at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune on January 1. Many of the protesters were allegedly those who were beaten up at Pune.
The BMC chief has to now finalise norms for the policy as early as possible, to be able to regulate these restaurants.

Mumbai: Despite the Kamala Mills Compound fire tragedy, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is thinking of implementing the Rooftop Restaurant policy, albeit with stringent norms as chief minister Devendra Fadnavis wants to encourage hotel business in Mumbai. Pressure from hoteliers and state government has compelled the BMC to go ahead with the rooftop policy. However, to avoid criticism, the government is likely to regulate it. The BMC had earlier approved the rooftop policy after receiving instructions from the CM.

National Hotel Restaurant Association of India President Riaz Amalani had met Mr Fadnavis along with MP Poonam Mahajan and requested him to resolve the various issues faced by the hoteliers. While Yuva Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray was also pushing for rooftop restaurants, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have been opposing it. However, after the Kamala Mills tragedy, there was an all party demand to strike down the controversial policy. Most city hotels have been found to be flouting rules and fire safety norms. In fact, even hookah has been found to being illegally served in many restaurants along with pyrotechnics. Yet, due to pressure from the hoteliers, the state government wants to implement the rooftop policy. Space constraints in the city is the argument being offered by those canvassing for these rooftop restaurants, said sources.

The BMC chief has to now finalise norms for the policy as early as possible, to be able to regulate these restaurants.

There are a total of 14 restaurants which have applied for the sanction so far and the BMC is expecting more to follow.

At present, all rooftop restaurants are illegal. A permanent structure or shed of any kind and preparation of food is not permitted. Only prepared food can be served. Even though the policy is good, the hoteliers can misuse these facilities. However, that is not going to prevent it from being implemented, said sources.
Actress decried movement saying it unfairly punishes men for flirting insistently or clumsily with members of the opposite sex.

Deneuve denounced the #MeToo movement and its French equivalent, #Balancetonporc (Call out your pig), in a letter. (Photo: AP)

Iconic French actress Catherine Deneuve, along with 100 other French actors, has attacked the 'puritanism' sparked by recent sexual harassment scandals, declaring that men should be 'free to hit on' women.

The actress decried the MeToo movement saying that it unfairly punishes men for flirting insistently or clumsily with members of the opposite sex.

Notably, the MeToo movement started as a result of sexual harassment scandal in Hollywood.

Deneuve denounced the #MeToo movement and its French equivalent, #Balancetonporc (Call out your pig), in a letter, signed by over 100 French actors, and said the movements have created a totalitarian climate by publicly prosecuting private experiences.

The women claimed that the 'witch-hunt' that has followed the accusations now threatens sexual freedom.

The letter, which was published in the French daily Le Monde, said, Rape is a crime, but trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cack-handedly, is not - nor is men being gentlemanly a macho attack,' explained the letter, which was published in the daily Le Monde. Men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone's knee or try to steal a kiss.

The letter further denounced a new puritanism and the array of denunciations that have brought down men following the sex-scandal that rocked Hollwood this past year.

The letter was also signed by Catherine Millet, author of the hugely explicit 2002 bestseller 'The Sexual Life of Catherine M'.

However, a group of around 30 activists, led by prominent feminist Caroline De Haas, responded on Wednesday with a scathing critique, published on France Info.

They accused the signatories of deliberately mixing "seduction, based on respect and pleasure, with violence."

The feminists lead by De Haas wrote that sexual violence is not 'intensified flirting,'

They went on to write, One means treating the other as your equal, respecting their desires, whatever they may be. The other is treating them as an object at your disposal, paying no attention to their own desires, or their consent.

The activists also criticized the letter's claim that the movement risks going "too far," and the suggestion that it's the responsibility of women to protect themselves from intimidation of any kind.
It is alleged that the nonagenarian asked nurses for oral sex in the shower and to be pleasured in the bedroom.

Comics creator has denied the false and despicable claims and suggested that the allegations were part of a shakedown. (Photo: AP)

The legendary Marvels comics creator, Stan Lee, at 95, has been accused of groping and sexually harassing nurses who cared for him in his home.

It is alleged that the nonagenarian asked nurses for oral sex in the shower and to be pleasured in the bedroom according to a story published by the Daily Mail.

An unnamed source, who spoke to the publication said that Lee walks around naked and is vulgar towards women. The source further added that he uses several slang in their presence. The source further called Lee as an old man who has lost his way.

Speaking to Daily Mail, the source also added that the owner at the nursing company has openly said to people that Lee has sexually harassed every single nurse that has been to the house.

Daily Mail further reported that a rep for the nursing company confirmed that its owner has received several complaints from nurses about Lees behaviour and that the company parted ways with the comics creator at the end of last year.

No police complaints or lawsuits have been filed, but the nursing company is now in a legal dispute with Lee.

However, Lees lawyer, Tom Lallas, said the comics creator has denied the false and despicable claims and suggested that the allegations were part of a shakedown.

Lallas statement to the Daily Mail read that Lee has received demands to pay money and threats that if he does not do so, the accuser will go to the media.

Lallas statement however, added that the Marvel creator will not be extorted or blackmailed and will not pay money to anyone.

Lee - whose wife of 69 years, Joan, passed away last July, aged 93 - is credited with creating such iconic characters as Spider-Man, Iron Man and the X-Men.

These accusations follow last year's sex-scandal that rocked Hollywood.
Sikhs were not too impressed with the NDAs decision to constitute the SIT.

The Supreme Courts decision to entrust 186 anti-Sikh pogrom cases to a new Special Investigation Team demonstrates the superficiality of the NDA governments promise to ensure delivery of justice for the victims and survivors of the 1984 carnage. The courts directive proves that almost every political party has been complicit in ensuring that no justice is provided and the guilty are not punished under the law. While it has been convenient to target the Congress Party for the unmistakable role of several of its leaders in targeting the Sikhs in the aftermath of Indira Gandhis assassination, the role of the Narendra Modi government has not come under adequate scrutiny. It must be pointed out that of the 33 years since the carnage, non-Congress governments have been in power for well over a decade.

Political parties and governments have been able to get away with this mainly due to the issue fading from public glare and not evoking the indignation that it did in the past. Barring Sikh organisations and the odd human rights and civil society groups, few even organise or participate in commemorative functions that now have ritual status every October-November. The BJPs institutional absence from these events, much like the Congress, must be read alongside its decision to mark October 31 as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patels birth anniversary while underplaying Indira Gandhis death anniversary. Over the past decade and a half, especially after charges of being complicit in the 2002 Gujarat riots were levelled against the party and some of its leaders, the BJP raked up the Congress involvement in the 1984 pogrom more aggressively than in the past. A perverse argument was inlaid in this campaign  that the 1984 carnage was more heinous than the events in 2002 and till justice was delivered in the former, raising the BJPs, specifically Narendra Modis involvement, was indicative that he and the party were being specifically targeted. However, after it assumed office, the Modi government has been deficient in pursuing punishments for the perpetrators of the pogrom. The Modi governments insufficiency on this count is not limited to seeking avenues of providing political justice but also ensuring that criminal prosecutions are swiftly concluded.

It is pertinent to recall that the NDA government appointed a three-member SIT in February 2015 just 48 hours after the most humiliating electoral defeat of Mr Modis career. Two months prior to this it enhanced compensation for Sikhs. In retrospect, the AAP government in its first 49-day stint in 2013 may have accomplished little except earning the moniker of fugitives, but its recommendation to form an SIT to probe the anti-Sikh riots built public pressure. But law and order was outside the state governments mandate and the declaration was restricted to political posturing. Sikhs were not too impressed with the NDAs decision to constitute the SIT. But it was expected that considerable headway towards justice would be made given that state politics was dominated by two parties bitterly opposed to the Congress, possibly the only party with reasons to prevent prosecutions.

However, the SITs promptness and transparency came into question within weeks of the teams formation, and yet the government took no corrective action. Eventually fears of it being nothing but an eyewash came true when it closed 241 cases. The Supreme Court, after being petitioned, formed a supervisory committee comprising some of its former judges to examine whether the step was justified. The court has now recorded that the SIT has not done further investigation in respect of 186 cases, consequent to which it asked a fresh SIT should be constituted for carrying on the further investigation. While this development warrants a welcome, political pressure must be mounted to ask the government why the SIT it had appointed closed cases without even investigating these.

Quite often, the issue of justice for the 1984 victims is viewed exclusively from the point of view of likely political and electoral inconvenience for the Congress. But it would be foolhardy to view the Supreme Courts directive solely from this perspective. In any case, the history of court-appointed SITs are not very encouraging as there is no knowing whose turn it would be this time to wave a clean chit. The primary problem is that investigations in almost all 1984 cases were bungled at the onset, and after more than three decades not much can be expected by going over these once again. Moreover, fresh investigations are unlikely to yield much except hazy memories because of demographic and topographic changes in the areas most affected by the violence. But this does not mean that procedures to secure criminal justice should be abandoned. However, its pursuit must be undertaken with understanding that eventually political justice backed by enabling victims and survivors to regain personal, social and professional proficiency is what will eventually settle this matter.

A beginning must be made by realising that our political institutions have failed. The remarkable decision of the Canadian Parliament in 2016 to apologise for the Komagata Maru incident more than a century ago provides an apt template for both the government and political parties. In that episode in 1914, a shipload comprising hundreds of Sikh, Muslim and Hindu passengers were denied entry to Canada. They were forced to return to British India, only to meet uncertainty and a violent fate. If no action is taken at this juncture, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus words in that extraordinary session will come back to haunt Indias future politicians: Regrettably, the passage of time means that none are alive to hear our apology today. It is time for the Indian Parliament to act, and for this all parties must discuss convening a joint session. They must be guided by the realisation that India needs to demonstrate collective shame and express repentance. This ballgame between warring political parties with SITs and inquiry commissions as instruments must end. That is the least respect that the victims and survivors of 1984 can be given by the nations political system.
Perhaps Trumps next tweet will not be about aid, but to Imran Khan, celebrating the triumph of hope over experience.

Some marriages are made to last. The marriage between Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, for example, despite the marital squalls that a naval officer and his working wife had to endure, has lasted 70 years. That is longer than the marriage of convenience between Pakistan and the United Sates.

Since 1947, Pakistan has espoused more US Presidents than Elizabeth Taylor did husbands. Each betrothal brought to the fore its own character, its own intensity, its own protestations of fidelity, its own satanic suspicions. Some US Presidents like Lyndon B. Johnson had visited Pakistan. He was so enamoured that he hosted a Karachi camel driver named Bashir in Washington DC. President Richard M. Nixon came when vice-president and again as President to solicit Pakistans help in opening a back channel with the Peoples Republic of China. John F. Kennedy sent his wife Jacqueline as his proxy, a trend followed by Hillary Clinton. Her husband Bill Clinton came later to castigate the new, insecure Chief Executive Gen. Musharraf.

President Barack Obama, despite his early friendship with Pakistani fellow students (from whom he learned how to make daal) never found the time to visit Pakistan. President Donald Trump has no intention of doing so. For him, Pakistan has all the stale allure of a spent spouse. He cannot wait to extricate himself from an unwanted relationship. That would explain why suddenly, on New Years morning this year, he awoke from a hamburger hangover and tweeted that the cost of the relationship with Pakistan  $33 billion over 16 years  was unbearably high. He wants out. Trump is used to divorces. What matters to him is not the length of a marriage; it is the quantum of the exit settlement.

One does not need to be a divorce attorney to dissect the validity (or otherwise) of Trumps accusations. One need only access the Congressional Research Service report on Pakistan prepared in November 2017 and disseminated amongst multiple congressional offices. An annexure to that report tabulates Direct Overt US Aid and Appropriations for and Military Reimbursements to Pakistan, FY 2002  FY 2018. There, in the final column, is the tell-tale total: $33.927 billion.

Had someone in the White House staff with an axe to grind against Pakistan (might it be his ambassador to the UN the Pakistan-phobe Nikki Haley?) shown Trump that statement, and the morning 2018 dawned all he could remember was the glaring total, not its confusing detail.

Devils though, as divorce attorneys know to their clients cost, lurk in the detail. Out of the total of $33.9 billion, Economic Related Aid comprises $11.1 billion, of which $8.7 billion was disbursed as Economic Support between 2002 and 2011. That leaves $8.2 billion of Security Related Aid. Again the bulk of this  $4.1 billion was applied towards Foreign Military Financing. Another $2.3 billion was taken up by the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Fund/ Counterinsurgency Capability Fund overseen by the Pentagon and the state department respectively.

The Economic Related Aid and the Security Related Aid are dwarfed by the Coalition Support Fund reimbursements (CSF). These reimbursements are against claims prepared by the Pakistan armed forces for supplies, services and logistics provided to the US-led coalition in its war in Afghanistan. These claims are verified by the US government auditors and then (depending on the whim of the administration) approved for reimbursement to the Pakistan government, usually with a six-month time lag. Since 2002, these have ballooned to $14.5 billion, of which $8.8 billion was disbursed before 2011, seven years ago.

The Pakistani public sees only the Economic Related Aid of $11 billion, which is less than one third of $33 billion. The other $22 billion is the cost of toys for the boys. It is obvious who will need to take Trumps threats to cut off security aid seriously.

There was a time when Pakistan chose to be monogamous, loyal to only one superpower. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto changed that. Taking a cue from his hero Napoleon Bonaparte, who described China as a sleeping giant, Bhutto helped a groggy China totter to its feet diplomatically. Every successive government has benefited from Bhuttos initiative, even though few have given him due credit.

If any superpower understands Pakistan, it is not the United States but China. It has seen Pakistan survive earthquakes, floods, social traumas, the murder of its leadership and the massacre of its schoolchildren, political upheavals, dismissal of elected Prime Ministers, self-satisfied pontification by ousted leaders, and now the souffle aspirations of a sportsman-turned-politician who might soon announce his third marriage.

Perhaps Trumps next tweet will not be about aid, but to Imran Khan, celebrating the triumph of hope over experience.

By arrangement with Dawn
Trump for America is arguing that tens of thousands of emails should not have been delivered to Robert Muellers investigators.

The vast cache of emails should never have been delivered to the Russia election meddling investigators without Trump for America's authorization. (Photo: File)

Washington: A group representing President Donald Trump's transition team is pressing the General Services Administration to turn over a memo purportedly sent by an agency official to special counsel Robert Mueller's team that would offer proof that tens of thousands of emails should not have been delivered to investigators.

The transition group, Trump for America, claims in a letter sent on Monday to GSA officials that an agency memo supposedly sent last June to Mueller's team provides evidence that the emails later handed over to Mueller's investigators were legally owned by the transition.

The vast cache of emails should never have been delivered to the Russia election meddling investigators without Trump for America's authorization, a lawyer for the transition group wrote in the letter obtained on Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The transition lawyer, Kory Langhofer, did not explain how the group was made aware that the GSA memo exists but said "it is our understanding" that the document was sent in June by the GSA's top lawyer, Richard Beckler, to Mueller's team. Beckler has since died, Langhofer's letter to the GSA requested the memo under the Freedom of Information Act.

"The GSA had no right to access or control the records but was simply serving as Trump for America's records custodian," Langhofer wrote. He added that the GSA "unlawfully" handed over "thousands of private and privileged (presidential transition team) emails to the Special Counsel's office, and failed to notify (Trump for America) of the production."

GSA spokeswoman Pamela Dixon declined on Wednesday to comment on the transition group's letter. Peter Carr, spokesman for the special counsel, also declined to comment, citing an earlier statement that when the counsel's office obtains emails during its investigations "we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process."

Ken Nahigian, Trump for America's executive director, said the transition made the records request to the GSA to respond to the agency's role in the "unlawful seizure of Transition documents by Mueller."

Nahigian said the agency's cooperation with the special counsel without the knowledge of the transition "will irreversibly chill the operations of future presidential transition teams."

The GSA has typically provided office space, phones and computers to presidential transition teams in recent years After Trump's presidential election victory in November 2016, his transition officials relied on the federal agency's site to host and archive its electronic communications.

The transition's emails were slated for deletion after Trump's inauguration, but the transition asked the GSA to retain the records after receiving document requests from Congress last spring.

Some criminal law experts have expressed skepticism about the transition's claims to legal ownership of the emails, but Langhofer and other transition officials insist that Beckler had agreed with Trump for America both in phone conversations and in the sought-after memo that the emails belonged to the transition.

Langhofer said that Beckler "acknowledged unequivocally" that the transition team "owned and controlled" the emails and that "the GSA had no right to access or control the records but was simply serving as TFA's records custodian." In Beckler's absence last August, his deputy, Lenny Loewentritt, made the decision to turn over the trove of transition emails to Mueller's team - without notifying Trump for America, Langhofer said.

Langhofer said that the memo purportedly sent by Beckler would show that the GSA "covered up" Loewentritt's "unlawfulness" in giving the transition emails to the special counsel. Loewentritt told Buzzfeed last month that Beckler had made no commitment to transition officials that requests from law enforcement for materials would be routed through Trump for America. He also said there was no expectation of privacy for the transition emails.

In September, investigators for Mueller obtained tens of thousands of emails that related to 13 senior Trump transition officials. Among them was former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to FBI agents in January and is now cooperating with Mueller's investigation. Flynn was fired by Trump in February for misleading senior administration officials about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the US.

Mueller so far has indicted two other Trump campaign officials and a fourth has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
From Pak to Tanzania to Hungary, projects under Xi Jinping's 'Belt and Road Initiative' are being cancelled, renegotiated or delayed.

'Belt and Road,' announced by Xi in 2013, is a loosely defined umbrella for Chinese-built or -financed projects across 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and Europe. (Photo: AP)

Beijing: Chinas plan for a modern Silk Road of railways, ports and other facilities linking Asia with Europe hit a USD 14 billion pothole in Pakistan.

Pakistans relations with Beijing are so close that officials call China their Iron Brother. Despite that, plans for the Diamer-Bhasha Dam were thrown into turmoil in November when the chairman of Pakistans water authority said Beijing wanted an ownership stake in the hydropower project. He rejected that as against Pakistani interests.

China issued a denial but the official withdrew the dam from among dozens of projects being jointly developed by the two countries.

From Pakistan to Tanzania to Hungary, projects under President Xi Jinpings signature Belt and Road Initiative are being cancelled, renegotiated or delayed due to disputes about costs or complaints host countries get too little out of projects built by Chinese companies and financed by loans from Beijing that must be repaid.

In some areas, Beijing is suffering a political backlash due to fears of domination by Asias biggest economy.

Pakistan is one of the countries that is in Chinas hip pocket, and for Pakistan to stand up and say, Im not going to do this with you, shows its not as win-win as China says it is, said Robert Koepp, an analyst in Hong Kong for the Economist Corporate Network, a research firm.

Belt and Road, announced by Xi in 2013, is a loosely defined umbrella for Chinese-built or -financed projects across 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and Europe.

Other governments welcomed the initiative in a region the Asian Development Bank says needs more than USD 26 trillion of infrastructure investment by 2030 to keep economies growing. Nations including Japan have given or lent billions of dollars for development, but Chinas venture is bigger and the only source of money for many projects.

Governments from Washington to Moscow to New Delhi are uneasy Beijing is trying to use its Belt and Road to develop a China-centered political structure that will erode their influence.

Among projects that have been derailed or disrupted, authorities in Nepal cancelled plans in November for Chinese companies to build a USD 2.5 billion dam after they concluded contracts for the Budhi Gandaki Hydro Electric Project violated rules requiring multiple bidders.

Consulting firm BMI Research has compiled a database of USD 1.8 trillion of infrastructure investments across Asia, Africa and the Middle East that include Chinese money or other involvement.

Its probably too early to say at this point how much of the overall initiative will actually be implemented, said Christian Zhang, a BMI analyst.

The US and Japanese governments express interest in building contracts or other potential opportunities. But they also are trying to develop alternative initiatives.

The stumbles for one of the worlds most ambitious infrastructure ventures could help temper concerns Beijing will increase its strategic influence.

Even Pakistan, one of Chinas friendliest neighbours, has failed to agree on key projects.

The two governments are developing facilities with a total cost of USD 60 billion including power plants and railways to link Chinas far west with the Chinese-built port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean.

A visit by a Chinese assistant foreign minister in November produced no agreement on railway projects in the southern city of Karachi valued at USD 10 billion and a USD 260 million airport for Gwadar.

The same month, the chairman of the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority announced the Diamer-Bhasha Dam would be withdrawn from joint development.

Chinese conditions for financing the Diamer-Bhasha Dam were not doable and against our interests, the official, Muzammil Hussain, told legislators, according to Pakistani news reports.

The Chinese Cabinet agency overseeing Belt and Road, the National Development and Reform Commission, denied in a written statement that it asked for an ownership stake.

Belt and Road is interwoven with official efforts to export Chinese rail, hydropower and other technology and steel, aluminium and other industrial goods.

In Thailand, work on a USD 15 billion high-speed railway was suspended in 2016 following complaints too little business went to Thai companies. A new plan announced in July gives local contractors a bigger role.
The Indian Prime Minister will be hosting a private dinner for Netanyahu on January 14 after his arrival in New Delhi.

Several MoUs, including in the field of oil and gas, renewable energy, amended protocol for airports, cyber security, co-production of films and documentaries will be signed between the two sides. (Photo: PTI)

Jerusalem: Israel will invest USD 68.6 million to boost cooperation with India in areas like tourism, technology, agriculture and innovation over a period of four years, a senior official in Jerusalem has said ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus high-profile India visit next week.

The commitment is in addition to the India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund of USD 40 million over five years with equal contribution from both sides that has already been agreed between the two sides, deputy Director General of Israels Foreign Ministry, Gilad Cohen, told PTI.

Netanyahu will be leading a high-profile delegation comprising 130 businessmen from 102 Israeli companies drawn from areas like agriculture, water, cyber security, health care and security on his four day trip to India starting January 14.

It will be the second visit by an Israeli Prime Minister to India after a gap of 15 years since Ariel Sharon visited New Delhi in 2003. The visit comes merely six months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Jewish state, becoming the first Indian premier to do so.

Several MoUs, including in the field of oil and gas, renewable energy, amended protocol for airports, cyber security, co-production of films and documentaries will be signed between the two sides.

Israels Saare Tzedek hospital would be signing an agreement with Indias Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well.

Informed sources in Jerusalem said that this relates to sharing of knowledge in the field of homoeopathy and ayurveda that have been gaining popularity in Israel over the last few years. Technion-Israel Institute of Technology would also be signing an agreement with Ministry of Science and Technology, sources in Jerusalem said.

Reciprocating the warm reception extended to him by Netanyahu, Modi is likely to spend a lot of time with his Israeli counterpart during the trip.

Netanyahu accompanied Modi almost throughout his three day trip in July 2017, an honour generally reserved for Presidents of Israels close ally the United States.

The Indian Prime Minister will be hosting a private dinner for Netanyahu on January 14 after his arrival in New Delhi. The Israeli leader would be meeting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also the same day.

The Israeli Prime Minister would be formally welcomed the next day at the Rashtrapari Bhawan following which he would lay wreath at Rajghat.

He would be then participating in a dialogue at Hyderabad house which will also include a one-on-one discussion with Modi. Meetings with President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu are also scheduled for Monday.

Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara, would be travelling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal on Tuesday and return to Delhi to participate in the Raisina Dialogue.

Modi would be accompanying Netanyahu to Gujarat on Wednesday where he will be welcomed in the same fashion as Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was with a road show in Ahmedabad.

The road show is said to be an 8-kilometer drive from the airport to the Sabarmati Ashram. The two leaders will also be witnessing several innovative technologies in the field of water, agriculture and health at iCreate and visit a Centre of Excellence.

Netanyahu would be arriving in Mumbai on Wednesday in the evening where he would be meeting with the Indian Jewish community.

A packed schedule on Thursday for the Israeli Prime Minister in Mumbai would include a power breakfast with Indian business leaders, a business seminar, attending two memorial services for the victims of Mumbai terror attacks at the Taj hotel and Nariman House and finally a gala event with Bollywood actors, directors and producers.
Photo courtesy of Italgas

Italgas, the third largest natural gas distributor in Europe, began renovation of its entire fleet with the first delivery of methane-powered FCA vehicles in Turin, Italy. Deliveries in Rome and Naples are planned to follow.

The deliveries are part of the Italgas 2017-2023 Industrial Plan to reduce emissions and improve air quality in cities where it operates, according to a release from the company. The plan also includes the construction of over 120 gas stations in 40 areas.

Italy is the leading European market for natural gas-fuelled cars, according a report from Reuters.

Italgas Group's fleet is made up of about 2,500 vehicles and will be replaced over 12 months with Fiat Chrysler Panda, Panda Van, Fiorino, 500L, Doblo, Qubo, and Ducato models.

The conversion makes the company's fleet the first completely methane fleet in Italy, according to the company.
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Spectrum News produced a one-hour live town hall event on Jan. 10 entitled "Silent No More -- Harassment in the Workplace," which focused on the recent movement regarding sexual harassment in the workplace.

Panelists said sexual harassment not a new problem in workplace

Issue highlighted by recent scandals involving celebrities, politicians

Town Hall will air again Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018 at 7 p.m.

Hosted by anchor Veronica Cintron, four panelists participated in the event: Evangeline Hawthorne, director of the Tampa Field Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; Jennifer Green, President of Owner of Liberty Partners of Tallahassee; James Moten Thompson, Thompson Legal Center; and Sierra Bender, a women's empowerment advocate.

The panelists said sexual harassment is a problem in today's workplace, but not necessarily a new one.

"This has been going on for years, and why all of the sudden are we starting to pay attention? Why are we listening now?" Bender asked early in the program.

The panelists said it's because the issue is getting a lot of attention from celebrities in Hollywood and politicians both in Washington, D.C. and Tallahassee.

"I think for the most part it's been pretty positive," Green said. "I mean, we've joked a little bit about how this is a really odd situation to be in. We're in the South and people hug here as a welcome gesture and you're wondering whether or not you should continue to do that."



They said both women and men seem to be becoming less afraid to report sexual harassment.

"Now that individuals and employees can feel empowered to actually do something, they don't have to suffer in silence, they can actually feel encouraged and respected that if they complain there is recourse," said Hawthorne.

They also stressed the importance of "due process" and thorough investigations to weed out false complaints.

"The key is whether it's a welcome type of flirting or a welcome type of action or whether it's unwelcome," said Thompson.

"Silent No More -- Harassment in the Workplace" will re-air Saturday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. on both Spectrum Bay News 9 and Spectrum News 13.
Immigration raids took place at 7-Eleven stores across the country Wednesday, including at locations in Florida.

Raids at 7-Eleven stores in Florida part of nationwide immigration crackdown

ICE officials raided 98 stores, arresting 21 people

4 stores raided in Orlando; 4 stores in Ft. Myers

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided 98 stores and arrested 21 people on a crackdown of undocumented workers.

Tampa Bay stores were not part of the crackdown but stores in Orlando and Ft. Myers were.

And the raids are not over.

ICE officials made it clear Wednesday that this was the first of many operations targeting employers.

The visits involved officers entering stores and questioning employees about their immigration status. In Florida, four stores in Orlando were forced to turn over employment records. Another four stores were visited in the Ft. Myers area.

The sweep sparked a backlash from some parts of the country.

David Campos, the Deputy County Executive of Santa Clara County California, said the raids are part of a pattern under President Trump.

"This is just part of the same tactic to intimidate the immigrant community," Campos said.

ICE Deputy Director Thomas Human said in a statement the action sends a strong message to businesses that hire and employ an illegal workforce. He added the enforcement leads to better employment practices that are in line with immigration laws.

The 7-Eleven raids stem from an investigation that is now five years old.

The investigation uncovered nine store managers and franchises in New York and Virginia using fake identities to employ illegal immigrants.
The Central Florida community paid tribute to the legacy of one the most decorated astronauts in NASA history and one of its own Thursday.

John Young, an Orlando native, died Friday at his Houston home at the age of 87. He was NASA's longest serving astronaut with a career that spanned more than four decades.

The Naval aviator became a Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle astronaut. He piloted Gemini 3, the first manned mission of that program, and walked on the moon. In 1981, he commanded Columbia on the space shuttle program's maiden voyage to orbit.

Young was recognized with 80 major honors during his career, including the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. He also served as chief of the astronaut office.

"I called him Mr. Astronaut," fellow astronaut Jon McBride said. "... He was the spirit of the astronaut office."



Young was the first person to fly to space six times and made his hometown proud. A marker stands in front of his childhood home in the College Park area.

"An American hero," said Robert Cabana, a four-time shuttle crew member and current Kennedy Space Center director. "I learned so much from John."

He said Young was the "ultimate astronaut" who always had his colleagues' safety in mind.

"He would write these short, technical papers when there was an issue that needed addressing, or was a concern," Cabana said.

McBride got to work with Young during the early days of the shuttle program.

"He was inspirational to us, not only to myself, but just about everybody that ever met John Young," McBride said. "Every adjective you could think of that was positive, you could apply to John Young, because thats the kind of guy he was."

The ceremony took place at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, right outside the Heroes and Legends attraction where Young and dozens of other fellow astronauts are enshrined. Inside, Young's plaque is highlighted, and a display showcases his distinguished career.

In 2005, Young spoke to Spectrum News 13 after the Historical Society of Central Florida established the John Young History Maker Award in his honor.

"I'm just lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time to grow up in Orlando, I guess," Young said then.

Kim Berner, visiting from Calgary, Alberta, drove down John Young Parkway in Orlando on her way to the KSC Visitor Complex to learn more about the legend.

"What I was most interested in is that he was the one everybody looked up to," Berner said.



Astronaut John Young spent more time with NASA than any other astronaut and has been a member of many of NASA's most famous missions. (NASA)
Biggest Oregon Coast News Stories of 2017: Eclipse, Oddities, Hidden Shipwreck

Published 01/10/2018 at 5:40 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Oregon Coast)  In many ways, this year on the Oregon coast was not that eventful. Not like 2016, when a storm ripped through a condo in Rockaway Beach, a tornado hit two coastal towns and some odd mysteries in the way of beach finds really lingered.

2017 had its share of wild occurrences, however, and certainly the great eclipse towered over just about all news stories about the beaches.

That topped the headlines at Oregon Coast Beach Connection as well, with numerous predictions of traffic insanity and chaos on the coast that never materialized. The worst traffic turned out to be in eastern Oregon. In fact, the deluge of dire road condition warnings seemed to scare people away from the beaches, and most businesses in the region complained of the event being an abnormally dead few days.

The sheer number of articles Oregon Coast Beach Connection posted on the subject are too numerous to display here, but one of the largest was the recap of the eclipse, complete with video: Eclipse Impressions from Oregon, the Coast in Pics, Video, Words.

Indeed, the year started off with the two biggest stories of the year, in terms of reader interest and page hits.





January kicked off with some extremely ancient sights reemerging: Ghost Forests and Agate Beds Abound on Oregon Coast. The central Oregon coast is seeing a lot of old, old faces pop up: older than 2,000 years old. That and a ton of agate-hunting possibilities.

The biggest: so-called ghost forests, stumps from trees anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 years old that were popping up like daisies in areas around Cannon Beach, Newport, Seal Rock and more.



Photo courtesy Rachel Sip

In February came Rare, Ghostly Shipwreck Emerges Again on Oregon Coast. Rockaway Beach had some unusually destructive waves earlier this winter, which knocked around cars and even broke into a condo unit. So it's no surprise an old and ghostly sight returned to this north Oregon coast town: the rarely-seen wreck of the Emily G. Reed.

Some minor earthquakes rattled off the coast a few times, and each one of these stories scored high with page hits.

Weird nature finds also topped the headlines, and there were quite a few this year.



Photo courtesy Seaside Aquarium



In May there was Almost-Exploding Minke Whale Washes Up Near N. Oregon Coast Border, where a particularly bloated and disgusting-smelling corpse of a whale made landfall.

October saw a nice but brief rush of dragonflies along with wacky little jellyfish: Oregon Coast Weather Brings Curiosities: Dragonflies, Bubble-like Jellyfish. If you were walking the beaches that weekend, you may have noticed small bubbles in the sand. These are a type of jellyfish known as the gooseberry  or comb jelly (Pleurobrachia bachei).

Photo courtesy Seaside Aquarium

Another enormous story with huge reader intrest was Bizarre Finds on Oregon Coast: Pyrosomes, Dolphin, Deformed Velella, Freaky Jellies back in November. It was insanely early to find velella velella and pyrosomes, but even more notable were the strangely misshapen velella. Mutations are one possibility, but just as likely is the fact velella are colonial hydrozoids and this is a facet of their early development.

Oregon Coast Hotels in these areas - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

A slightly comical big hit: in June came Central Oregon Coast's Seal Rock Has a Bear Feeding Problem. ODFW had to send out a warning that locals should watch their garbage cans and make them inaccessible to any Yogi Bear-types.

The rather new development in recent years of pyrosomes has been a true mystery for scientists, but one researcher may have a clearer answer: Gobs of Pyrosomes Hit Oregon Coast - Scientists Mystified, But There's a Theory.



Other extremely popular articles this year included a few on historical aspects of the beach towns (see the History section for all of these). Some of the general travel guides also snagged sizable interest. Still among the most popular even now is the Cape Kiwanda, Oregon Coast: Complete Travel Guide, Info.





More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging.....

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Texas real estate is known for its sprawling luxury ranches. For good reason: On the market now is a large collection of high-acreage parcels with elaborate homes, barns and fishing holes.

Here are some of the properties that stand out:
Eight Beaumont residents were indicted for their alleged involvement in selling and distributing cocaine in the North End over the last five years, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"I cannot remember a more violent group of criminals that we've ever encountered in this city," Beaumont Police Chief Jimmy Singletary said.
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The Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries announced Thursday the first wave of grants for Texas school libraries that were decimated by Hurricane Harvey's winds and floodwaters.

Seventeen schools along the Texas coast - including several in Southeast Texas - will receive grants of between $1,500 and $70,000, totaling a combined $850,000.

The foundation and the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation said in September they would commit a combined $2 million to school libraries impacted by 2017's punishing hurricanes and wildfires.

> > PHOTOS: Flood damage at Vidor Middle School

In an interview. Laura Bush said the grants awarded to Texas school districts were modeled after those her foundation gave to schools in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

"I drove through Houston right after Hurricane Harvey and saw it in the fronts of the houses - soppy carpets and draperies and furniture ruined in front of house. It's what New Orleans looked like after Katrina," Bush said. "You should imagine a library with thousands of books wet, moldy. You can imagine what the paper would be like."

> > RELATED: Schools face Harvey claims while digging for Ike receipts

She said the 17 schools applied for the grants through her foundation's "Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative." In Southeast Texas, first-round grants will be given to:

Hull-Daisetta Elementary School

Mauriceville Elementary

Little Cypress Elementary School

Orangefield Elementary School

Henderson Middle School, Sour Lake

Vidor Middle School

Oak Forest Elementary School, Vidor

Bush encouraged school districts across Harvey-affected areas to apply for her foundations grants.

A restricted grant from the Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief Fund of The Dallas Foundation enabled Bush's foundation to award $135,000 to two elementary schools in Orange.

> > PHOTOS: Damage to Adams Elementary in Port Arthur

Bush said it's especially important for students in storm-torn areas to have access to books, especially after their families' and schools' collections may have been ruined.

"I know from experience that books and money for school libraries are short, and in nearly every case school districts have to be careful about how they spend money, and often times school libraries are shorted and don't get money for new books," Bush said.
Indian police said Thursday they were questioning a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist for his role in an attack in Delhi more than 17 years ago.

Bilal Ahmed Kawa, 37, was arrested at the New Delhi airport on Wednesday, police said, adding that he was wanted in connection with an assault on the national capitals Red Fort, a 17th century Mughal heritage monument, in December 2000. The attack killed three Indian security personnel.

A court on Thursday granted police 10 days to interrogate Kawa, a Kashmir native.

Police sources said about 3 million rupees ($47,100) were wired to Kawas bank account to fund the attack by Mohammad Arif (alias Ashfaq Ahmed), who was handed the death penalty in 2005.

We have arrested him and the court has granted us 10 days remand. As per our investigation, he was involved in certain financial transactions that were carried out to fund the Red Fort attack, Deputy Commissioner of Police P.S. Kushwah told BenarNews.

Right now, the focus of our investigation is the manner in which he helped with the attack and if anyone else, whom we have not yet identified, is part of his network, he said.

The police said they were also trying to determine how the suspect managed to evade arrest all these years.

If a person wanted in connection with such a huge terror case manages to roam free all these years, it only goes to show how lax our security forces are, N.P. Singh, president of the Confederation of All Resident Welfare Associations (CARWA), an umbrella body of country-wide resident welfare groups, told BenarNews.

Who knows? All these years he could have planned or carried out an attack anywhere, Singh said.

Kawa had been hiding in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir since the Dec. 22, 2000, attack when an unknown number of attackers opened indiscriminate fire inside the heavily guarded Red Fort, police said.

Eleven people, including Arif, a Pakistani national, have been convicted for the attack.
A Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency agent arrests six suspects during a raid in the northern city of Dagupan, Dec. 19, 2017.

Philippine authorities said Thursday they killed five suspects and arrested 95 others in the first anti-narcotics raids of 2018, a month after President Rodrigo Duterte put police back on the frontline of his governments much-criticized drug war.

The suspects were killed during more than 50 sting operations spread across 12 hours in Bulacan, a suburban area north of the capital Manila, ending before midnight Wednesday, local police chief Senior Supt. Romeo Caramat said.

Twenty-three police stations in Bulacan participated in the operations, which included intelligence operatives and quick-response mobile units, Caramat said in a police report.

The arrested suspects and confiscated pieces of evidence were brought to Bulacan crime laboratory office for appropriate examination, a statement issued by Caramats office said, adding that appropriate criminal complaints were being read in court against those taken into custody.

Despite the number of arrests and deaths, the drug haul yielded about 171 grams (6 ounces) of methamphetamine and 21 grams (three-quarter ounce) of marijuana. Also seized were nine weapons, including a grenade.

Philippine media reported two suspects were killed in San Jose del Monte city and one each in Malolos city and the towns of Calumpit and Santa Maria.

In August 2017, Bulacan police carried out what was called then a one time, big time anti-drug operation resulting in the deaths of nearly 100 suspects.

Among those killed was 17-year-old student Kian Loyd delos Santos. Two other teenagers died in later round-ups, triggering massive street protests and criticism from local and international rights groups, and eventually forcing Duterte to remove police from the lead role in drug operations.

In December, Duterte announced that he was reviving an active role for police, arguing he had promised the electorate that he would rid the country of the drug menace by the time his six-year term ended.

Police place the number of alleged drug dealers and addicts killed since Duterte took power in 2016 to about 4,000, a number far less than estimates by Filipino rights groups, who claim that as many as 12,000 people have died.

Crackdown

The roundup came the same week that Interior Undersecretary Martin Dino, a close Duterte appointee, ordered the countrys nearly 50,000 village chiefs to submit a list of drug dealers and addicts in their respective areas or resign.

Rights groups slammed the order, arguing it was dangerous because any village chief could put the names of anyone, including political enemies, on a list without proper vetting.

A village chief is the highest elected public official at the grassroots level. While they control the countrys smallest administrative political and administration divisions in the country, village chiefs traditionally are courted by higher public officials for their ability to deliver votes during elections.

Earlier, Dino was removed as head of a freeport zone north of Manila, amid reports of alleged abuse of powers. Despite that, Duterte recently named him as an undersecretary at the Interior Department, giving him direct control over the national police force.

On Tuesday, Dino vowed to make sure that all barangays (local term for villages) all over the Philippines will be fighting against illegal drugs. He said those who failed to submit a list faced being sacked from their posts.

Previously, Duterte said that nearly half of all village chiefs in the country were involved in the illegal drug trade and actively lobbied to have elections for new village officials canceled last year.

On Thursday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque did not directly answer whether Dinos directive was backed by Duterte, a former long-time mayor in the south supported by many village chiefs.

Those that are being asked are only required to submit names. I am sure there would be investigations to follow, Roque told a local television station, based on a transcript of an interview his office had released.

He downplayed fears by rights groups that the lists could lead to another round of killings, noting that the names Dino was asking for would be verified by the authorities.

First, there needs to be an investigation. And if there was truth to the allegation, there are ways to remove a local official from office. Secondly, if there really is evidence they are involved in drugs, a case can be filed in courts, Roque said.

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report.
Police Gen. Thammasak Witcharaya, (center), chief of Thailands Internet Crimes Against Children task force oversees members during a press conference in Bangkok, Jan. 11, 2018.

Authorities have uncovered so-called dark websites while smashing an international child-porn ring and arresting dozens of suspects over the last two years, the chief of Thailands Internet Crimes Against Children (TICAC) task force said Thursday.

Online child-sex abuse has increased, leading investigators to bring charges against 73 people and seize assets of more than 800 million baht (U.S. $25 million) from the suspects during a two-year period dating to December 2015, police Gen. Thammasak Witcharaya, the task forces chief, told reporters.

Thammasak said investigators had filed charges in 21 human trafficking cases, 13 child-sex abuse cases and 31 child pornography cases along with six deportations. During the last two years, 38 Thai nationals and 35 foreigners including 13 American, six British and five Australian citizens have been convicted, he said.

There were many factors to allow such crimes to occur, Thammasak told BenarNews, adding, children can access the internet very easily.

In October 2017, the chief of the U.N.s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) global cybercrime program, called Thailand the webcam center for child pornography. Neil Walsh said the proliferation of smart phones in Thailand allowed easy access to illicit websites even in rural areas.

Child pornography online is a growing concern, Thammasak said.

We have to approach this with an offensive strategy because people are interested in this are addicted to social media and will always look for it, he said. Arresting them will decrease demand, which is our goal.

Whoever possesses child pornography likely will be involved with human trafficking eventually.

Going after predators

Thammasak said task force members take steps to help protect children, including enforcing strong monitoring measures, delivering suggestions to school students to keep them safe, forming cyber patrols, and, in some cases, disguising their online identities to get information in closed chat rooms to break up child-sex rings.

TICAC officials told of a young teen boy who was tricked into pleasuring himself on a live chat, not realizing that the activity was being recorded and later posted on social media. When his school friends found the clip, he became a laughingstock. Suffering from depression, his grades fell, leading his parents to file a police complaint.

Police arrested a predator who took advantage of at least 300 victims. He was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

In a separate case, a TICAC investigator got into a closed chat room, where members arranged live sex acts. Police arrested one member whose act involved a 3-year-old.

This is depressing and concerning because this trend is increasing, Thammasak said.

Weve found similar cases that challenge our ability to integrate our work with other agencies to prevent this crime, he said, adding that the task force was proposing a full-time department to battle child-sex crimes along with the cyber patrol and digital evidence verification units already in place.

To establish the full-time department, TICAC is working with the immigration police bureau and Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD).

On Thursday, ATPD chief Police Maj. Gen. Kornchai Klayklueng told reporters that a geographic information system, ArcGIS, had been created to follow and arrest people suspected of being involved in human trafficking. He said police would adapt the program to chase cyber criminals.

In one case, an ATPD officer used ArcGIS to track a woman who was reported missing for seven days and discovered that she had provided sex services in Bangkok.

In another case involving sex abuse, local police spent 15 days without making any progress in their investigation. ATPD interviewed a victim and learned that the suspect rode a motorcycle after midnight.

Officials used ArcGIS to limit a search area to 50 km (31 miles), which resulted in identifying a dozen suspects. Limiting the search area to 10 km (six miles) cut the suspect list to four.

Officials showed those images to a victim to verify and arrested a suspect within 12 hours.

The Philippines and Indonesia have expressed interest in the task force and U.S. Homeland Security partners with TICAC, Thammasak said.

Along with Homeland Security, TICAC cooperates with the FBI in the United States and Interpol internationally to combat online child-sex abuse. Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. to allow TICAC to access information, pictures and video clips to strengthen investigations into these crimes.
The Bible has been under attack in the western world for over 200 years but never more intensely than today. These attacks have taken different forms and have come from many different corners of the academic world, from philosophers, to scientists, to textual critics. In the specialized world of archaeology the attacks have increased dramatically in the past 50 years. Once a specialization filled with Bible believing individuals, the field of archaeology is now overrun with atheists and skeptics, agnostics and those committed to the destruction of the Bible as a source of true historical information.

These attacks on the Bible are a part of a sweeping movement in western culture. Spearheaded by academic elitists in the university and the public educational system, the news and popular media, and the entertainment industry, these revisionists cloak themselves with supposed objectivity, purity of motives, and the superiority of science over the "uninformed", "unscientific", religious community.

They regularly mock those who question their world-view and their conclusions by name-calling and the worst forms of anti-Bible and anti-Christian propaganda. They have powerfully infected the church by turning Bible believing Christians against the very Scripture which is the foundation of truth and life in this world. Instead of contending for the Bible, Christian academics, pastors, and lay-persons are making egregious accommodations to these destroyers of faith and truth.

In these days of intense spiritual battle, God has called ABR to step into the gap to contend for the truth and to assist the church in this critical hour. ABR is a non-profit ministry dedicated to demonstrating the historical reliability of the Bible and to give answers to questions being asked by believers and non-believers alike. We do this by using original archaeological fieldwork and research along with studies in other apologetic disciplines. We take on the bold claims of skeptics and critics. We challenge the bizarre anti-biblical propaganda that is purveyed upon the public as gospel through television and print media. We uphold the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is God's message for the salvation of all mankind!
While authorities are examining whether to bring criminal charges against him ... |

Von: By Antje Schippmann, Bjorn Stritzel, Eberhard Wedler, Thomas Knoop

While authorities are still reviewing whether top Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi (69), should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, the cleric has left Germany!

BILD has learned that, on Thursday morning, the Ayatollah left the clinic where he was supposed to be receiving treatment for a brain tumour.

Shahroudi and his entourage wen to Hamburg airport to fly to Tehran at 1.25 pm with the state-owned airline Iran Air.

Shahroudi served as Irans judiciary chief from 1999  2009. He still is one of the most powerful and richest men in Iran.

 During his time as head of Irans Justice Ministry, he oversaw an estimated 2,000 executions, among them minors, rape victims, members of religious minorities and homosexuals.

At that time, prisoners in Irans jails were systematically tortured and raped. According to human rights activists at least ten people were stoned to death and 100 minors were sentenced to death.

Lesen Sie auch

Shahroudi has been treated at a private hospital in Lower Saxony since December 21. This was confirmed by the German government. Since then, several charges have been filed against Shahroudi for crimes against humanity. Among them are victims of torture and relatives of executed prisoners.

 Only an arrest warrant could have prevented Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi from a sudden departure. The Attorney Generals office would have to press charges and a warrant would have to be granted by a judge. The federal prosecutor said to BILD: We are going to continue examining whether Mr Shahroudi is guilty of crimes against humanity, regardless of his whereabouts.
For Immediate Release, January 11, 2018 Contact: J.P. Rose, Center for Biological Diversity, (408) 497-7675, jrose@biologicaldiversity.org

Pam Nelson, Sierra Club, (951) 767-2324, pamela05n@yahoo.com

Lynn Cullens, Mountain Lion Foundation, (916) 606-1610, lcullens@mountainlion.org

Vicki Long, Cougar Connection, (951) 698-9366, vickiglong@aol.com Lawsuit Challenges Development That Could Doom California's Santa Ana Mountain Lions TEMECULA, Calif. Conservation organizations sued the city of Temecula today for approving the Altair housing development, which would endanger the local mountain lion population by disrupting critical wildlife corridors. The groups include the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Mountain Lion Foundation and Cougar Connection. Todays suit, filed in Riverside County Superior Court, notes that the Altair project would urbanize approximately 200 acres of open space for a mixed-use development and a multi-lane highway in the hills above Old Town Temecula. Part of the development sits on the 55-acre South Parcel  the only passage left for wildlife to move between coastal and inland mountains through the Santa Margarita River, Temecula Creek and the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, which are adjacent to the project. The city councils Altair approval ignored scientists warnings that developing the South Parcel will severely limit mountain lion movement in Southern California, said J.P. Rose, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Its deeply disturbing that the city refused to make reasonable modifications to the development to avoid damaging a critical corridor for these iconic predators. As few as 20 adult Santa Ana mountain lions survive, and they suffer from severe genetic restriction because overdevelopment already curtails their movements. The projects poor design will put mountain lions directly into residential areas, creating conflicts between lions and people, said Lynn Cullens of the Mountain Lion Foundation. These lions already suffer from high mortality rates, vehicle collisions, and a lack of genetic diversity due to urban sprawl and highways. Altair could be the final nail in the coffin for this crucial population of magnificent animals. Scientists have documented consistent use of the South Parcel by mountain lions, said Vicki Long of Cougar Connection. The city should be strengthening this critical corridor instead of literally putting up barriers to mountain lion movement. Altair also does not do its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. Even though the city has a duty to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the project, the city did not even require common sense measures like rooftop solar, said Pam Nelson of the Sierra Clubs Santa Margarita Group, which has spent over a year coordinating with the city and other agencies in an effort to ensure the development complies with the law. The project would install homes within a few feet of the proposed western bypass highway in the hills above Old Town Temecula. The western bypass would not only scar these scenic hills, but would expose Altair residents to significant automotive pollution that can lead to higher rates of asthma, lung cancer and premature death. The conservation organizations repeatedly raised these concerns in comment letters, public hearings and meetings with the city. The citys approval of the project violates the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires that when environmental impacts are significant, the approving agency must adopt all feasible mitigation measures and alternatives to reduce those impacts. The citys approval of the project also violates the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.
LAS VEGAS - The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the world's biggest tech show, currently being held in Las Vegas, with over 170,000 expected visitors for 2018. Africa Tech Now , the first Africa-dedicated event at CES aims to showcase the African innovation ecosystem, positioning Africa as a major actor in digital transformation.
Budgets are tight, with rising electricity and petrol prices driving many households to tighten their purse strings. In response, the retail industry is becoming increasingly competitive.

Having explored ways to attract and retain consumers, retailers are ready to test the market with all the digital toolsets available to them, enhancing customer touch points at every turn. The result is an exciting, innovative time for retail - with customers reaping the rewards of increased choice, competitive pricing and attentive retailers.

All about the customer

The customer has been driving the retail digital evolution for some time, however, most retailers are now in the full swing of providing enhanced customer experience - both in store and online. 2018 will see consumers receiving the benefit of this, inundated with an array of choices and services to enhance their shopping experience.

Retailers are taking advantage of digital tools to offer unique and targeted solutions, or packages, that are tailored to the individual rather than the market as a whole.

The in-store customer

Loyalty programmes, direct social media and SMS marketing campaigns, artificial intelligence (AI)-backed retail applications and customised special offers are likely to continue with increased prevalence in 2018. They are driving customers to choose and use preferred retailers, whether online or in-store.

As retailers leverage social media, loyalty programmes and special offers to attract customers to their stores, they are challenged to provide an extraordinary in-store experience. We are also seeing more retailers creatively explore ways to keep customers interested and in their stores for longer once they arrive, a trend that is likely to extend to more industries than purely grocery stores in 2018.

The likes of appealing cafes, interactive digital labelling and free in-store Wi-Fi  with immediate links to the retailers current or targeted promotions  will be used effectively to create inviting, relaxing environments for shoppers to linger longer. Retailers are also looking for ways to reduce queuing time and streamline the transaction process, and 2018 should see more retailers equipping staff with iPads and mobile card readers, moving away from traditional checkout points.

Price is a top driver of shopping habits and shoppers are taking to online platforms to research brands before entering their chosen store.

The online customer

Retailers are focusing strongly on adding value and rewarding customers by enticing them with in-store only offers advertised online, either via mobile or online platforms. Free beverages or meals for certain spend, digital coupons that can be used in store and one-day-in-store-only type promotions are directing consumer brand choices and will bring more feet through the doors in 2018.

Online shopping continues to be a growing trend, despite connectivity challenges in South Africa. Whether as a standalone or tied into enhancing the in-store experience, online shopping is also shifting to become a more personal and user-friendly experience.

With a large rural and lower-income market in Africa, the local industry is ready for game changers to enter and cater to this space. An easily accessible, low-bandwidth demanding application or site that can answer the needs of the lower income consumer could disrupt the online shopping space entirely.

Continuing in the vein of catering to the African consumer, we are seeing a large focus on africanising retail. There is a growing trend of investing in African talent and leveraging corporate responsibility as a promotional tool.

Creating employment opportunities in rural communities to offer the likes of support services for online platforms, or proving locally produced only product ranges backed by social responsibility initiatives are just some of the many ways that African retailers will be showing that they are invested in Africa in the coming year.
Debonairs Pizza has launched the 'Awesome Foursome' - a super pizza comprising four large pizza squares, each measuring 17cm by 17cm, topped with the consumer's choice of four of six different popular Debonairs Pizza flavour combinations.

The Famous Brands 25-year-old quick service restaurant used a 30-second television commercial from FCB Joburg celebrating the diversity of the South African nation to introduce the Awesome Foursome to the country.

Marketing executive Toni Joubert had briefed the agency team late last year (2017) to create a campaign that acknowledges the diversity of South African society and culture.

This, she said, often results in multi-faceted families and groups of friends within Debonairs Pizzas broad target market of male and females between 25 and 49 years of age.

Debonairs Pizza, as one of South Africas most loved brands and one that is entrenched in the hearts and souls  not to mention stomachs  of many of its citizens, wanted to pay respect to the differences that make our country the interesting, dynamic, vibrant and loveable place that it is, she said.

FCB Joburgs strategic team responded with "Celebrate Different", a concept it believes can live well beyond this first campaign, which goes by the name, "Someones coming over".

Celebrate Difference is our Never Finished idea for the Awesome Foursome, said Creative Director, Greg Cameron.

South Africa is an incredibly heterogeneous country with different people, different upbringings, different ideas and different tastes  often existing in one family or group of friends. With six different flavours to choose from, the Awesome Foursome is the ideal meal to satisfy diverse tastes. It makes it so easy to celebrate our differences and enjoy a meal together the way we like it, he said.

Conceived by art director Jonathan Wolberg and copywriter Paul Frade under the creative direction of Cameron, the TVC broke this week (9 January 2018) on SABC, e.tv and DStv channels and will be followed within a few weeks by a 20-second cut-down.

The commercial tells the story of a young lady who had invited several very interesting characters to dinner at her parents' place over the years. Her somewhat old-fashioned dad, in particular, had found it difficult to relate to these guests, especially the different ways they had chosen to express their personalities. However, when a beautiful, professional woman accompanies her, in spite of his surprise that she is a woman, he is finally able to relate to the fact that she is a doctor.

The ad was shot over two days by Darling Films (characters and storyline) and Hungry Films (food scenes) by Mzi Kumalo and Ian Difford respectively. You can view the TVC here: https://youtu.be/NPcGpM6-Jws.
Last year's winner of the Caesarstone Student Designer Competition, Marli de Wet, will this year be taking up her prize by accompanying her lecturer Anel Joubert from Design Time school of interior design at an international design fair of their choice.

Marli de Wet

Conceptualised by Mphethi Morojele, director of MMA Design Studio, the competition brief was Boosting Africas economy through creativity, which explored how architecture can empower the cultural and creative industries.

What I loved most about this brief, was that it created awareness among the students who participated (the architects and interior designers of tomorrow) of the problems we are faced with and that we can help, just by doing what we love, to empower others and make a real difference, said De Wet.

Here, she tells us about her project, what she thinks made it stand out, and why shes leaning towards Dutch Design Week as her international design fair of choice

Congratulations on winning the competition. What does this recognition and opportunity mean to you?

Thank you. I am still in shock that I won! I am so grateful to Caesarstone, the judges, my lecturer Anel and Design Time. What a wonderful feeling to be recognised, being rewarded for something I put an enormous amount of effort into and knowing that industry professionals saw value in my work. It has been such an enriching experience from day one when we were briefed on the competition, and this dream trip is just the cherry on top (a very big, juicy cherry).

What I am driven by most, when working on a project, is the belief that the work I have done is not good enough and that I have to go back and reconsider all the decisions I have made. I think that self-doubt forms part of any creative process and that it's healthy to question everything. But winning this competition has given me a new drive that is more positive and enjoyable.

Have you decided on the international design fair youd like to attend as your prize?

Deciding where to go is tough since I have not seen much of the world outside of SA and there are so many design fairs to choose from. I am leaning towards the Netherlands at this point, partly because heritage played such a big role in my project and I have Dutch blood running through my veins. I am 100% South African and try not to involve western culture in my work, but exploring my own heritage seems appropriate. I also looked online at the work showcased at design fairs this year and found Dutch Design Week the most intriguing.

Comment on this years brief and how you believe creativity or architecture/interior design can empower our cultural and creative industries and Africas economy as a whole?

We were asked to produce an architectural interpretation of our South African and African contemporary creative and cultural industries, with the main goal being to boost our economy through creativity. This establishment would be the headquarters for the Arterial Network, a pan-African civil society network of creative practitioners who believe that the creative sector can make a significant contribution to shifting our economy, ultimately eradicating poverty and that we have the talent to make that happen.

In order for our creative sector to grow, a number of things need to happen. The exporting of creative goods and services has to increase and importing has to stop. Part of the problem is that we don't have a strong presence in the global market of ideas and aesthetics. A stronger presence will increase the value of and demand for our cultural and creative goods and services, resulting in a stronger economy and the improvement of living and working conditions in Africa.

I believe that by providing South Africans (and all Africans) with education and resources and by reconnecting with our culture and heritage, we can develop a new, more authentic contemporary African aesthetic, which we need for the creative sector to grow and for people to benefit from it.

Tell us about the work you submitted, and what you think made it stand out from the rest.

The search for the perfect location and developing a concept was a lengthy process. After extensive research, I toured the country on Google Earth  you can easily spot informal settlements and I was looking for a big one, since that is where help is needed the most. At some point I found myself in the Drakensberg mountains, a world heritage site and my favourite place in SA. This part of our country is particularly rich in culture and history  elements that should inform and be represented in South African goods/services.

Phuthaditjhaba is situated at the foothills of the Drakensberg and although there are many tourist destinations in this area, they do not attract enough tourists and do not provide enough jobs. In addition, there is also no middle class to provide employment, so the unemployment rate remains extremely high. I wanted the landscape to form the backdrop for the building and in terms of design and construction, for it to be respectful of the mountain and not detract from its beauty.

I was particularly inspired by the sandstone and basalt rock formations, as well as the traditional Zulu and Basotho villages. Every part of the design, including the materials, layout and shape of the structures, relates back to the mountains and local culture in some way. Under a microscope, sandstone has a very similar appearance to Caesarstone's quartz surfaces, so I selected the colours in their range that resembled that texture the most and then combined it with cor-ten steel (the colours of the rusted surface can also be found in the sandstone), as well as reclaimed wood.

The final result was a cluster of cor-ten steel structures shaped like the boulders that are scattered across the surrounding grassy slopes. Each 'boulder' serves a different purpose, facilitating each link in the value chain: education, creation, production, distribution and consumption.

The Arterial Network headquarters I designed is a place for social, cultural and creative interaction, where underprivileged people are provided with the necessary resources and facilities to develop new skills and also practice local cultural traditions in their true form. Visitors to the headquarters can enjoy live performances, including traditional and contemporary forms of dance, as well as a gallery/shop showcasing products created onsite. Perhaps what made my project stand out was the relationship between the landscape and my design as well as the strong emphasis on heritage and cultural context.

Why did you decide to study interior design, and at Design Time specifically?

I had explored a couple of creative fields before I applied to study interior design. I studied fine art at Michaelis School of Fine Art (UCT) where I fell in love with metalwork, which led me to silversmithing, but with a desire to explore other fields and an increasingly keen interest in architecture. With the encouragement of my father, who is an architect, I decided to enrol at Design Time School of Interior Design. It was my first choice because of the quality of the work their students produce.

Tell us about your lecturer Anel Joubert, and the most notable thing shes taught you.

I have known Anel for a very long time. We attended the same school and our parents are friends. I have come to know her better and what I enjoy most about her is her sense of humour. What I appreciate immensely is that she was supportive of my slightly unusual approach to interior design and she has taught me to persevere and to keep my obsessive tendencies from hindering my process.

Do you have a job lined up?

Thanks to Caesarstone, I am proud to say I will be working as a designer in the Interior Architecture Department at ARRCC, which I am immensely excited about.

What are you most looking forward to?

Apart from working at ARRCC, I look forward to applying the skills I have acquired, develop new skills and take part in the transformation of our built environment into a more sustainable one, as well as contribute to the empowerment of underprivileged people.

What advice would you give to aspiring students in the creative industry?

I would advise them to do research, constantly, to embrace every opportunity to learn, and also to consider the impact we have on the environment.
A critical part of reaching the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals in 13 years' time is to ensure that everyone can access equitable and affordable healthcare - more commonly known as universal health coverage.

A nurse weighs a baby at a clinic in Accra, Ghana. Photo: Kate Holt/MCSP

The idea of Health for All was first put on the global agenda in 1978 at the International Conference on Primary Health Care at Alma Ata. It called for primary health care to be introduced as the first step to making sure that everyone has access to health care.

Since then, primary healthcare has been a feature of health systems across the world. But 40 years later, universal health coverage remains a challenge. About 400 million people do not have access to one or more essential health services. This is because they are too far, too expensive, of low quality or non-responsive to patient needs.

The big question is: how can countries strengthen their health systems to deliver accessible, affordable and equitable care when they are often under-financed and governed in complex ways?

One answer lies in governments developing policies and programmes that are informed by evidence of what works or doesnt. This should include what we would call traditional data, but should also include a broader definition of evidence. This would mean including, for example, information from citizens and stakeholders as well as programme evaluations. In this way, policies can be made more relevant for the people they affect.

Globally there is an increasing appreciation for this sort of policymaking that relies of a broader definition of evidence. Countries such as South Africa, Ghana and Thailand provide good examples.

What is evidence?

Using evidence to inform the development of health care has grown out of the use of science to choose the best decisions. It is based on data being collected in a methodical way. This approach is useful but it cant always be neatly applied to policymaking. There are several reasons for this.

The first is that there are many different types of evidence. Evidence is more than data, even though the terms are often used to mean the same thing. For example, there is statistical and administrative data, research evidence, citizen and stakeholder information as well as programme evaluations.

The challenge is that some of these are valued more than others. More often than not, statistical data is more valued in policymaking. But both researchers and policymakers must acknowledge that for policies to be sound and comprehensive, different phases of policymaking process would require different types of evidence.

Secondly, data-as-evidence is only one input into policymaking. Policymakers face a long list of pressures they must respond to, including time, resources, political obligations and unplanned events.

Researchers may push technically excellent solutions designed in research environments. But policymakers may have other priorities in mind: are the solutions being put to them practical and affordable? Policymakers also face the limitations of having to balance various constituents while straddling the constraints of the bureaucracies they work in.

Researchers must recognise that policymakers themselves are a source of evidence of what works or doesnt. They are able to draw on their own experiences, those of their constituents, history and their contextual knowledge of the terrain.

What this boils down to is that for policies that are based on evidence to be effective, fewer push/pull models of evidence need to be used. Instead the models where evidence is jointly fashioned should be employed.

This means that policymakers, researchers and other key actors (like health managers or communities) must come together as soon as a problem is identified. They must first understand each others ideas of evidence and come to a joint conclusion of what evidence would be appropriate for the solution.

In South Africa, for example, the Department of Environmental Affairs has developed a four-phase process to policymaking. In the first phase, researchers and policymakers come together to set the agenda and agree on the needed solution. Their joint decision is then reviewed before research is undertaken and interpreted together.

Joint efforts

Integrating research into government policies and programmes can result in meaningful engagement between policymakers, researchers and other actors.

Increasingly, governments and researchers are partnering in various ways to ensure that research can feed into the policymaking process as results emerge. In this way, policymakers are part of the research design as well as the actual research and its interpretation,  known as embedded research.

Ghanas community-based Health Planning and Services is a good example. By embedding the research in the Ghana Health Service, what started as a pilot in one part of Northern Ghana became national policy in 2005 to improve primary health care.

As part of scale-up efforts, policymakers, health managers and academic researchers worked hand-in-hand to design studies and analyse routine data to improve the programme.

Today the service is a key part of Ghanas universal health coverage strategy. And importantly the primarily rural model is being adapted for urban areas.

The journey to accessible health care

As the Ghana example shows, when there is collaboration between governments and researchers, good results are achievable. This means focusing on long-term engagement and building a comprehensive view of evidence.

When evidence is better sourced and better understood, it can be deployed more effectively. This means that there should be investment in people who are at the front line of finding solutions and implementing change.

Policymakers, researchers, practitioners and communities need to come together to share their understanding of what evidence means, and how it can be used to strengthen health systems. This will help us chart a course to achieving universal health coverage.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A leading South African retailer is sporting a huge green feather in its cap from US researchers studying one of its environmental initiatives. Woolworths' Farming for the Future programme is succeeding in encouraging farmers to use more environmentally friendly management practices than their counterparts that do not supply the grocery chain, say a team from Stanford University.

Carlos Edgar Soares Neto via 123RF

Writing in the journal Global Environmental Change, the scientists said farming was key to the planet's health because it contributed 30% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Co-author Eric Lambin said the scientists wanted to evaluate a retailer's programme because "if these policies are effective and able to transform their entire supply chains, then they can potentially transform land-use practices worldwide and have a very positive impact on the environment". Several US retailers refused to give the Stanford team access to their data. Study lead author Tannis Thorlakson said: "It's really hard to evaluate a company's sustainability programme because you need to know exactly who their suppliers are and how the programme works.

"Woolworths provided a unique opportunity because they agreed to total academic freedom to evaluate their programme and publish results."

Thorlakson spent three months working in Woolworths' sustainability team at its Cape Town head office and interviewed more than 90 farmers and "auditors" - the agronomists, soil scientists and environmental scientists the retailer employs to advise farmers.

Helping farmers improve practices

The study said: "Farming for the Future combines annual auditor feedback with the individual needs of the farmers, rather than imposing definitive rules.

"Farms are evaluated on sustainability criteria each year, including soil management, water use, biodiversity, waste disposal, pest management, carbon footprint and environmental laws."

Thorlakson explained how the auditors operated. "According to one farmer, other auditors will drive into the farm and say, 'Nice trees you've got there'. But the Farming for the Future auditor will say, 'Tell me about those trees - those are an invasive species and they're probably affecting your water table. Why aren't we working on a management plan to deal with those?'

"The auditors are building relationships and helping farmers improve their practices.

"For example, conventional farmers are now using cover crops, which is a really hard practice to get farmers to take up but which creates long-term environmental benefits."

Sustainable farming starts with water

Fourth-generation Ceres farmer Peter Wolfaardt said Farming for the Future had been an immense help. "We have water meters in the pump houses to measure how much water we're using. On pest control, we try to be as least intrusive as we can, trying to use natural mulches because we want to produce the best-quality fruit."

Clanwilliam farmers Ross and John Bergh said sustainable farming started with water. "We take great care in looking after our water sources. One way we do this is by making use of probes to make sure we're not over-irrigating crops and to ensure the nutrients in the water aren't leeching away through our soil," said Ross.

John added: "We apply a whole lot of compost and ameliorants to the soil to build up its carbon content to improve its water-holding capacity."

Source: BDpro
South African bread brand, Sasko, has brought back its once-retired mascot Sasko Sam in response to requests from the public.

He returns to grocery store shelves this month with the new Sasko Sam Yummy Premium Slices and Sasko Sam Yummy More Slices brown and white loaves.

Lungie Mnyamana, marketing executive Essential Foods, Sasko, says: If you didnt meet him when you were growing up, you would definitely have heard of this endearing personality, Sasko Sam.

"For several years, weve been receiving requests and calls to our customer care centre wanting to know where Sam went. We can now confirm that he took a little break to work on a new recipe for these amazing Sasko Yummy loaves.
Obtala Limited, the Africa-focused agriculture and forestry group, announces a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with FundInvest SA, a private company established in 2017 and wholly owned by Mozambique's Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER), to combat illegal logging by facilitating the processing and export of sustainable, legal timber.

matuska via pixabay

The MOU is an agreement to set up a joint venture company which will own and operate a timber harvesting, purchasing, processing, export and distribution business. The joint venture will be 51% owned by FundInvest, 48% by Argento and 1% by Obtala and is expected to rapidly advance to higher value-added processing such as MDF, HDF, and veneer.

The new entity will have the mandate to source sustainable timber from thousands of hectares operated by regional smallholders across northern Mozambique, to be processed at sawmills, then exported. Obtala will make its new sawmill in Nampula available for processing JV timber for a competitive processing fee. Timber produce will set the benchmark for quality, with the guarantee of sustainability and legality, while enriching the community through its support of local producers and helping to eradicate the harm wreaked by illegal loggers.

FundInvests primary responsibilities will be to assist with purchasing timber harvested by concession holders, managing the transport of wood to sawmills, arranging export processes, and obtaining government and regulatory approvals, permits and licenses.

Obtala does not plan to invest directly into the joint venture company but will be responsible for arranging preferential rate financing from socially impactful funders and government entities. Obtala and FundInvest will work together to sell the joint ventures processed timber.

We are honoured to take this important step alongside FundInvest towards establishing an impactful joint venture for the northern regions of Mozambique. It demonstrates our commitment to a thriving, sustainable timber market for the country and our unwavering support of the local community, said Paul Dolan, CEO, Obtala Limited.
Clothing and food retailer Woolworths is looking to bolster sales in the struggling Australian unit by adding the Balmain brand to its offerings.

This week, the edgy French brand announced it had partnered with Woolworths-owned department store David Jones to bring its women's wear range to shoppers in Melbourne and Sydney - without mentioning how much the partnership deal was worth. Shoes and bags would also be introduced over the coming months.

Balmain, a high-end fashion house, has previously partnered with Swedish retailer H&M to house some of its products for a limited period.

The Woolworths brand has struggled to woo customers in the Australian market and has subsequently seen poor financial results coming from that territory. Although it reported that the David Jones stores contributed about 22% to revenue, in rand terms, the division declined 1% to R15bn.

Since then the company has been on a mission to advance and develop its market share in the highly competitive Australian market. The management continues to invest in David Jones stores. An equity analyst at Vele Asset Managers, Matthew Zunckel, viewed the move as a net positive given the respect commanded by the Balmain brand. He said the agreement could also help to stimulate sales growth, which he said was sorely needed in the declining department store industry.

"Management appear to be taking an all-or-nothing approach and are determined to turn the business around," Zunckel said.

"Whether the facts support the potential for David Jones to succeed long-term or [whether] management just refuse to admit they were wrong in the acquisition, is another question entirely," he said.

However, an equity analyst at Gryphon Asset Management, Casparus Treurnicht, said Woolworths was tugging on strings.

"They are acting like a wounded animal and making desperate moves to turn the business around," he said.

The worst strategy in retail was to bring in foreign brands that the retailer had had no previous experience with and that would require spending in order to market and attract sales, he said. Treurnicht said that those foreign brands would more likely than not compete with existing brands and cannibalise them, so a back-to-basics approach was necessary.

Like many other local retailers, the Woolworths share price has not performed well. In 2017, it declined 8.04% to end the year at R65.31 at the close. The share price dropped 1.98% on Wednesday to R64.36.

"Only time will tell whether the price tag, margin and sales will contribute positively to David Jones. I am sceptical," Treurnicht said.

Source: Business Day
YAOUNDE - Forty-three gold diggers died in abandoned mines in Cameroon in the first 10 months of last year, a watchdog group said...

"The toll of people who died in mining holes... reached 43 in the first 10 months" of 2017, said Foder, a local NGO whose full name in English means Forest and Rural Development.

The group said much of the blame lay with corporations, many of them Chinese, which abandon open-cast gold mines after profitable seams run out.

When the companies leave, individual gold hunters move in, digging holes into a site that in some cases have already been excavated to a depth of 200 metres (650 feet).

Nine died last year after the walls of their hole collapsed on top of them, Foder said. In September, a 12-year-old boy drowned in a lake that had formed in an abandoned pit.

Foder said the problem is worst in eastern Cameroon, where from 2012 to 2014, 250 mines were opened and then abandoned by their operators. It is campaigning for mining companies to cover over open-cast operations with earth when they pull out.
Port Elizabeth Harbour tenants are fighting mad about a new wave of air pollution from Transnet's two manganese ore facilities which is damaging property and business opportunities. It is also a health threat.

Port Elizabeth Deep Sea Angling Club (Pedsac) chairman Richard Donaldson said the situation was intolerable. "Nowhere else in the world would a similar operation be allowed in the middle of a city, especially near major tourist attractions and residential areas.

"The health issues caused by manganese ore dust are enormous," he said. "It is a disgrace that this eyesore and health hazard has been allowed to continue to operate in its present location."

Transnet was asked for comment on Monday monring, 8 January, but had not responded by Tuesday night.

Donaldson said the oily grime left by the manganese dust had harbour businesses, and especially the angling club and yacht club restaurants, at their wits' end. "We fight a never-ending battle trying to keep the buildings, tables and benches clean for patrons," he said. The severe damage to sailing yachts and powerboats in the harbour had resulted in many of the owners relocating their vessels to other ports.

"The manganese dust stains very expensive sails and glass fibre gel coats, and results in a chemical reaction with stainless steel fittings," Donaldson said. "Negative publicity is posted on worldwide forums by crews and families sailing on visiting yachts, who declare our port the dirtiest they have ever seen.

"Many vow never to return, thereby causing financial losses in money that would have been spent on refuelling, restocking of provisions, repairs and visits to local attractions."

Club members with homes in South End were left with filthy walls, curtains and carpets after easterly winds blew the manganese dust up from the harbour.

Donaldson said manganese handling regulations, including on the crucial damping down of the product, were clearly not being followed. "We often see huge plumes of ore dust rising from the conveyors and ship loaders while they are busy loading ships."

He said various factors from bureaucracy to costs appeared to be delaying the long-promised transfer of the manganese facilities to the Port of Ngqura. "This should, however, no longer be tolerated, and Transnet, the National Port Authority and all the stakeholders should spearhead the fast-tracking of the long-overdue relocation of this menacing eyesore," he said.

According to the US state Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, excessive inhalation of manganese dust could be toxic, resulting in illnesses from "inflammation of the respiratory system to impaired lung function and a neurological disorder called manganism that includes tremors, difficulty walking and facial muscle spasms".

National Sea Rescue Institute Port Elizabeth station commander Ian Gray said the institute had an excellent relationship with Transnet, but the manganese pollution was a problem. "There is a constant covering of fine oily residue over the station, which requires ongoing cleaning," he said. "The station deck is a continuous mess."

The NSRI had built a boathouse to protect its vessels, but even with the boats moored inside, manganese dust was still blowing onto them through the grid door and a shield had to be erected to prevent this happening.

Algoa Bay Yacht Club commodore Alan Stratton said the manganese pollution required constant attention, adding a lot to the cleaning bill. He said the situation usually got worse over the festive season as the management of the stockpiles was left to skeleton staff and the regime of damping down the product faltered.

Algoa Bay Sailing Marina's Les Donaldson said the grime that collected on the boats was thick enough to scrape off with a putty knife.

The manganese is transported to Port Elizabeth by train after being mined in the Northern Cape and is ferried to the main facility at the end of the harbour's southeast pier. From this stockpile it is scooped up by reclaimers, deposited on a conveyor belt, shuttled across to the ship moored alongside and guided by booms into the hull. There were various points when dust could billow out unless the produce was properly damped down, Donaldson said.

Both the client and the ship's captain, on the other hand, would be calling for dry produce to eliminate surplus weight and avoid the mess created by wet manganese - and the big clean-out necessary before their return trip with food produce.

To make matters worse, a secondary manganese facility had been established across the harbour basin on the old fresh- produce pier to receive ore trucked in from a transit yard in Swartkops, he said. "So, now, whatever kind of easterly wind is blowing, we're hit by these manganese dust plumes."

The marina's John Tudehope said while Transnet had years ago installed monitoring stations, it had failed to take meaningful action on the data collected. "We're the tenants in this harbour," he said. "We're calling on Transnet as our landlord to please respond, urgently, to our legitimate grievances."

Last month, a Transnet environmental officer was shown evidence of the damage being caused, "but once again nothing has happened", Tudehope said.

MyPE's recent survey on what Port Elizabeth residents thought of the manganese facility attracted a flood of comments. A third of the replies were from affected residents in South End, Richmond Hill, Humewood and Summerstrand, and the rest came from powerboat and yacht owners, according to the survey.

One person wrote: "We can no longer be a cheap dumping ground for Transnet's monstrous mountain of muck.

"Let them make profits elsewhere - PE needs tourism and jobs."

Port manager Rajesh Dana said in September that the facility was due to be transferred to Ngqura in 2023-24. While the dump at the Port Elizabeth Harbour comprised some 5.1-million tonnes of ore, the eventual capacity of the one at Ngqura would be 24-million tonnes, he said.

African penguin experts have warned that Transnet's plan to build an open facility similar to the one at the PE Harbour could be bad news for the endangered species which nests on islands in the area.

Source: Herald
South Africa's employment rate is currently sitting at 27% , which is at its highest level since September 2003. A quarter of South Africa's citizens remain jobless and we are at a critical time in our economy where food prices continue to rise and jobs are scarce. Can community projects possibly help both of these needs for 2018?

I think they can, albeit on a small scale. Based purely on the success of the mamas under the Clover Mama Afrika wing, we have witnessed the positive impact of community projects. I started Clover Mama Afrika in 2004 with a passion to implement change and set up a corporate social investment initiative of which both Clover and I could be proud. During the last thirteen years, Ive watched as our efforts to help communities have developed into successful small businesses, creating jobs and sustaining communities at the same time.

Supporting communities, providing employment opportunities

To date, weve appointed 43 women as part of the project - we call them mamas due to the nurturing role they fill in their communities. These mamas serve as examples of how community projects can both support a community and provide employment opportunities.

Take Mama Selestien Moses for example. She became a Clover Mama in April 2007. Mama Sella runs the Khayalethu Care Centre in Ashbury in the Western Cape. As part of our commitment to her, Clover Mama Afrika provided her with the skills, equipment and training that she needed to further develop her community project. Shes since grown her centres capacity, caring for more than 300 children and over 80 elderly. She now supports her community with a variety of additional skills, from bread baking, catering and flower arranging to sewing. Mama Sella currently employs 17 people and has transferred skills to over 400 others in her community.

Another prime example is Mama Shirley Merime of Ennerdale, Gauteng. Mama Shirley joined Clover Mama Afrika in 2006 to upskill herself and others at her Ebenezer Hannah Home - a home that looks after both the elderly and orphaned and abandoned children. Through the training received from our team shes helped to further upskill another 137 people and now employs 11 permanent staff at the home.

While employment can be difficult to find, these mamas provide opportunities at grassroots level. This means employees dont need to have degrees or to travel far in search of work. Community projects give people with little skill the chance to grow and thrive.

Expanding positive impact

Virginie Merime, daughter-in-law of Mama Shirley, is one of the many people positively impacted by Clover Mama Afrikas involvement. Virginie helped her mom-in-law with the day-to-day needs at the centre, where she was able to take part in courses and skills workshops we helped to provide. We saw her keen interest in cooking and through our friends at MLK Chef School and the financial assistance of Clover Mama Afrika, Virginie won a fantastic Chefs course to help her follow her dreams.

These women show us that community projects or small businesses that are run with passion, by owners who are committed to the development of their communities can certainly make a difference. The 28 employees between Mama Sella and Mama Shirley alone are testament to this. Small businesses can help communities at grassroots level, providing necessities in the area while offering work opportunities for its people.

I urge you to support small community businesses not only in 2018 but continuously - youve no idea how much of an impact you can make and how many lives youre touching.
Just seven months after the high-profile resignation of its CEO, Liberty Holdings has announced the departure of the group's finance director, Casper Troskie.

Image source: Business Day/ Freddy Mavunda

Troskie is going to Old Mutual where he will take up the financial director position at soon-to-be listed Old Mutual Emerging Markets (OMEM).

On the first day of 2018 trading, Liberty issued a Sens announcement informing shareholders of Troskie's departure. The statement said the financial director was leaving to "pursue a new opportunity at a competitor of Liberty" but did not name the company.

Although his resignation is with immediate effect, it is subject to a contractual three-month notice period during which Troskie will remain available to Liberty.

Troskie, who was appointed as Liberty financial director in 2010 and has 30 years' experience in financial services, will be joining former colleague Bruce Hemphill at the Old Mutual group.

Troskie will be taking over from Mike Ilsley, who was appointed to the Old Mutual position in August 2017.

Ilsley, who resigned in November 2017 due to health reasons, was also a director at Liberty but resigned from that board when he took up the Old Mutual appointment in August.

Asief Mohamed, chief investment officer at Aeon Investment Management, said it was disappointing that after more than 23 years of democracy, OMEM had been unable to recruit a capable female or black person for the position.

Troskie will be reporting to Peter Moyo, who was appointed CEO of OMEM in June 2017. Moyo said Troskie was joining the group during a critical time. "He brings a wealth of experience in senior leadership roles in listed financial services companies and will be a valuable member of our team," Moyo said.

Troskie's resignation is the second high-profile departure from the insurance group in less than a year. In May 2017, Liberty CEO Thabo Dloti resigned, stating differences of opinion with the board on the company's immediate focus. The high-profile controversial move came at a difficult time for Liberty, which was facing tough operational and environmental challenges.

At the time, Standard Bank, which owns 55% of Liberty, said the priority was to enable Liberty to achieve its growth by focusing on a short-term recovery plan and a longer-term strategy to reinforce its competitiveness. "Liberty remains a fundamentally sound business and Standard Bank is confident of Liberty's long-term profitability, competitiveness and sustainability," said Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala in May. Dave Munro, who was CEO of Standard Bank Group's corporate and investment banking division, was immediately slotted into the role of Liberty CEO.

"The Standard Bank group generally has a big talent pool so it should be able to appoint a well-qualified person relatively easily," Mohamed said.

Meanwhile, OMEM welcomed the Competition Commission's decision to recommend conditional approval for the newly incorporated Old Mutual Ltd's acquisition of Old Mutual plc. The conditions relate to agreements reached between Old Mutual and the Economic Development Department regarding BEE ownership, employment, and enterprise and supplier development. The corporate restructuring could result in Old Mutual's BEE ownership score dropping slightly below the regulatory target of 25%.

"To the extent that Old Mutual Ltd's BEE ownership is less than 25%, Old Mutual Emerging Markets has committed to Old Mutual attaining at least 25% within three years of its primary listing on the JSE and then to that of the peer group 'best of class' within five years starting from the date of listing," the group said on Wednesday.

Old Mutual Ltd is due to be listed in 2018.

Source: Business Day
The relationship between employees and employers is strained. People want to feel a sense of purpose and belonging at work, but many companies are still struggling to deliver. Instead, they cling to the illusion that their heritage carries enough weight on the job market and stick to old ways of working that make staff feel like an afterthought.

People have responded by flocking to businesses that make their people a priority and offer an engaging employee experience, or by taking on contract and gig work to gain more control over their career path.

HR leaders, in 2018, will continue to face a major challenge in helping their organisation attract, retain and inspire the best people in 2018. Five major trends will shape talent in the year ahead, and the way businesses respond to these will make or break their fortunes.

Trend 1: HR enters the post-engagement age

Employee engagement has been the HR buzzword of the past five years, but while some companies have put a greater focus on their talent and are rethinking their work culture, few are seeing major improvements. Productivity levels around the world continue to stagnate, suggesting more must be done to engage employees.

The issue is that businesses still focus most of their efforts on serving the individual, when in reality 'engagement' is just one element of the wider employee experience. They must also focus on equally important factors like team dynamics and the emotional climate across their organisation.

This will be the focus for managers next year, who will need HRs support in developing a complete view of their people and offering them a more rounded employee experience that makes them feel valued. Their aim will be to provide employees with an environment that is mentally and emotionally beneficial, while also enabling them to perform at their best.

In South Africa, we have not experienced the same level of focus on Employee Engagement due to the fact that the employment market appears relatively stable. This is mainly due to the declining economic environment, resulting in the fact that it is difficult getting a job and the priority for most is to hold onto their job rather than exploring new opportunities.

And its not just employees who have grown complacent; its businesses too. HR practices in the region still tend to be very transactional and traditional. Talent management as a concept isnt really seen as essential yet, and a large number of businesses in South Africa still arent really making the most of the full strategic value that can be delivered by a modern, talent-focused approach to HR.

Trend 2: Hiring for competence over confidence

With a skills gap that shows no signs of narrowing and companies still starved for skilled workers, the time has come to rethink recruitment.

This begins with the way companies source candidates, which often reflects unconscious biases that must be uncovered and rooted out.

The interview process itself is also flawed. Too often, it results in people being hired for their confidence instead of their competence. Consider how pointless it is to ask someone apply for an accounts clerk position to do a presentation as part of their evaluation, or to judge them on their interview skills considering the relative autonomy of their role.

HR teams are seeing the cracks in their recruitment processes and will increasingly use a wider pool of data and insight to inform their hiring decisions. This will help them develop new recruitment approaches and strategies so they can ultimately find the right people for the job.

Trend 3: Balancing man and machine

Software and robots are taking on a growing number of repetitive tasks, allowing people to apply their brainpower to more cerebral challenges. For instance, auto manufacturers have automated their production lines, and have now turned their employees attention to developing the electronic brain behind new self-driving vehicles.

In South Africa, the Financial Services industry seems to be leading the way with chatbot technology increasing to provide both customers and employees with more effective and efficient service delivery.

Companies must prepare for change that is coming faster than ever by mapping out a path to automation that not only serves the business financial goals but also allows workers to thrive alongside new technologies.

As the voice of employees in the boardroom, HR leaders will play an integral role in balancing human skills with machine-based efficiency.

The role of ethics cannot be ignored either. Businesses will ensure the way they use new technologies reflects their values as an organisation, rather than just automating processes because they can.

Trend 4: Gigging hard

Contract work and the gig economy are only gaining steam, even if the latter has run into some regulatory speedbumps. As of February 2017, 43% of adult Americans spent at least some of their time working remotely.

Whilst the gig economy is starting to gain traction in South Africa, many are looking at entrepreneurship as an alternative work option with the scarcity of jobs.

The more fluid their workforce, the more important it will be for companies to have robust processes in place to support this level of agility. Greater flexibility for people results in greater strain on HR systems and a higher likelihood of things falling through the cracks. Even today, it is not uncommon to hear of contractors with a 13-week deal staying on the payroll for months after the fact.

The underlying HR systems themselves must also be more dynamic and integrated. Managing contractors affects everything from core HR, to payroll, expenses, and labour, to financials and procurement. The list goes on, and sclerotic legacy HR systems simply cannot keep up.

Trend 5: Rethinking reward

Pay will always be important, but above a certain threshold people now place less value on financial reward and put more stock in an employee experience that combines emotional and mental satisfaction with a fair salary.

Job hunters view a companys approach to reward as a reflection of its values. They want to work collaboratively, be surrounded by motivating people and inspirational managers, and they want to feel the company is personally invested in their well-being. All of these factors directly affect their productivity and performance.

Unlike pay, which is purely transactional, these less tangible forms of reward require continuous curation and tailoring to employees needs. This has always been HRs domain, but never before has getting this right been so crucial to hiring and retaining the best people.

It will take the combined efforts of business leaders and managers to drive these cultural and technological changes in the business, but HR teams will play a major role in facilitating their progress. By complementing their unique insight into human behaviours with a growing range of employee data, HR leaders can help their organisation to develop new programmes and management approaches that genuinely put people first and make 2018 the year of the employee.
Inventory, wages, premises and cash flow are just a few of the concerns shouldered by the modern-day entrepreneur. While these are very real concerns, there is a potentially bigger challenge awaiting many start-up business owners who simply are not getting the necessary legal foundation to underpin their future success.

There are a number of reasons why small businesses are not seeking out legal advice. Andrew Allison, company secretary for opinion mining start-up BrandsEye, believes that entrepreneurs are not always aware of what he calls the unknown unknowns. He says: These are the things that if you are not legally trained, you are not going to spot. In addition, Allison says many entrepreneurs believe the cost of legal assistance is prohibitive and, finally, many small businesses just do not know how to go about finding a suitable law firm.

Although seeking legal advice is not always a start-ups first priority, a legal mistake early on can prove to be costly, if not fatal to a business. Aalia Manie, senior associate at law firm Webber Wentzel, says: There are several avoidable mistakes that, if a firm seeks legal advice right from the start, can be avoided or inexpensive to fix.

A good legal foundation will not only reduce a businesss risks and save it from potentially costly mistakes going forward, it will also improve a companys sustainability and make it a far more attractive to potential investors, agrees investment partner at Knife Capital, Andrea Bohmert.

Where to start

Getting the legal bases covered should not be an onerous undertaking. Allison believes the first step for any firm is to ensure that all paperwork is in good order. My advice is that all entrepreneurs should focus on documentation and ensure all their record keeping is in place. I urge small businesses to keep copies of their signed contracts with their employees, suppliers, clients and landlords. These should be signed by both parties and be easily accessible by multiple people. If a company can start by having those, any lawyer is going to have a much easier time getting their heads around the state of the business.

Bohmert then urges entrepreneurs not to download templates from the internet. She says often these templates are not South African, but from countries like the USA so they do not apply locally, which can ultimately be very damaging to a start-up in the long run. Manie agrees and cautions against the use of generic templates that have not been tailored by professionals who have a thorough understanding of the nuances and specific risks faced by that business.

As an investor, Bohmert believes passionately that there are three key contracts that every start-up business needs to have in place from the start. These are the initial shareholder agreement, employment agreements with a special focus on the executive team, and intellectual property assignments. When it comes to those key agreements, it is critical to go to a reputable law firm and get sound legal advice, stresses Bohmert.

Manie adds that start-ups also need to ensure that business have valid legal rights to use their trademarks and technology, because having to rebrand or find replacement technology can be a costly affair - more costly than the initial legal advice - and can cause reputational harm or business interruption.

Finding the right legal practice for your business

The challenge facing most businesses is where to even start looking for a suitable legal firm to represent their interests.

What is generally agreed is that small businesses need to find a law firm that specialises in the full spectrum of commercial law and related legal fields. But Bohmert goes one step further and says: Find a reputable law firm, and then find out if they have dealt with entrepreneurs." She explains that the legal needs of large corporate companies are very different to the needs of entrepreneurs and start-up businesses.

Manie says a businesss choice of law firm is also dependent on their legal needs. At every stage of your business, your legal requirements are going to be different and if you want to limit risk and leverage opportunity, you need to find a law firm that will take into account your particular life stage, your cash flow and how they will deliver their advice. The law firm should also ideally have as many experts under one roof as possible. So, for example, if you're a HealthTech startup looking to expand globally, your firm should ideally provide access to specialists in health regulatory, intellectual property, tax, exchange control, and data protection  and links to reputable foreign law firms who can also advise on those aspects.

The general agreement is that small businesses need to forge relationships with a legal firm and grow the relationship. Initial legal fees should not cost you that much if you build a good relationship with a law firm from the start, says Bohmert. When things become more complicated, that is when the law firm will start making their money.

Allison agrees and says that entrepreneurs need to explain their financial situation to their lawyers and say: We hope in time we will become a lucrative client for you, so would it be okay to bump the occasional query past you or send you the occasional contract to review? And then build the relationship from there.

With this long-term relationship in mind, Manie encourages entrepreneurs not to discount the services of premium full-service law firms. She notes that Webber Wentzel has historically worked with and lobbied for many entrepreneurs, and has recently launched a programme especially to service this niche sector. Webber Wentzels initiative, Ignite, offers a legal incubation programme for entrepreneurs.

With a range of legal options available to entrepreneurs, getting the right legal advice should not be daunting. Manie concludes by saying: Businesses really need to be open to the fact that a legal foundation is important and neednt be as expensive as people think. There are many entrepreneurial and practical lawyers out there, and we're hoping that more large firms who offer a wide range of specialist services will become more entrepreneur-friendly.

For more information on Webber Wentzel Ignite, visit www.webberwentzel.com.
The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will be implemented on 25 May 2018, is raising the bar for data protection globally, and setting a new gold standard in a digitally transforming world.

While policymakers and legal systems attempt to get to grips with the imminent changing landscape of data protection laws across the globe, there is much that business can and should do in the meantime to get itself ready.

African businesses may find themselves squarely within the GDPR's wide territorial reach if they have a presence in the EU, or offer goods and services or monitor individuals in the EU. Moreover, transfers of personal information outside of the EU will only be permitted subject to strict requirements. The GDPR therefore brings data protection laws around the world into sharp focus, and Africa is no exception.

Alexia Christie

In Africa, data protection laws are largely in a state of flux, and many African nations are a long way from meeting any 'adequacy' requirement. If Africa wants to participate in the global market come 2018, it will have to move quickly. On the African continent, we are likely to see a proliferation of data protection legislation, much of which may seek to align with the requirements of the GDPR. It makes business sense to achieve an 'adequate level' of data protection as this will facilitate the free flow of data into and out of the EU, and may serve as a competitive advantage for business in Africa. However, relying solely on law and policy makers may be too little, too late for business. What then can African businesses do in the interim, whilst law-makers and regulators get their affairs in order? The answer may lie with an often-overlooked principle espoused in the GDPR: Privacy by Design.

Privacy by Design and the related principle of Privacy by Default are embodied in Article 25 of the GDPR. Privacy must be integral to the organisational priorities, design processes and planning operations of every business. Practically, this means that privacy must be considered at every organisational level, from buy-in at board level, to development and implementation of systems and processes. It means that business should build systems and technologies with data protection at the core. This will ensure that the right systems are built from the outset, and will avoid the costly and time-consuming exercise of remedying mistakes.

Practical next steps for business in Africa

Rubeena Parker

Drawing on the key principles of Privacy by Design as articulated by the former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada, Ann Cavoukian, we anticipate some steps shrewd African businesses might take towards getting GDPR-ready:

be pro-active, and develop a culture of "continuous improvement";



use privacy as the default setting;



embed privacy into the design and architecture of all systems;



balance privacy and security: do not sacrifice functionality at the altar of data protection;



ensure "cradle to the grave" protection: protect data across its entire life-cycle, from collection to destruction;



keep systems and practices visible and transparent; and



maintain focus on the user and the need to respect user privacy.

Visible commitment to the principle of Privacy by Design will show that your business is working towards full compliance with the GDPR, and may create a competitive advantage. This may be more effective and more expedient than waiting for 'adequate' legislation to do the work alone.
#BizTrends2018: The authentic travel experience with a twist

Airbnb has been gaining momentum across the globe with investments fast-tracking their influence in the travel market through authentic experiences. With inclusive tourism on the rise, everyone who is able to travel has become a part of the travel story and by combining local businesses with their authentic travel offering, Airbnb has created a platform that lets all who interact with it be a part of a destination's culture and its people.



Velma Corcoran Airbnb's Velma Corcoran, local representative for South Africa lets us in on her travel and influencer trend predictions for 2018, including major disruptions - from climate change to automation and the gig economy - as well as what she hopes to see more of in the new year... What, in your opinion, are the biggest trends in the business of tourism and travel? Increasingly we are seeing a response to over-tourism. There is a trend away from a fast food type tourism where people flock to destinations and ensure that they get a selfie in front of the big attractions to a slower, deeper, more meaningful way of travelling. As a reaction, we see travellers adopting a less is more stance in which the quality of an experience is valued over seeing as much as possible in as short a space of time. It will come as no surprise that I believe Airbnb is perfectly positioned to cater to some of these trends. Our Not yet trending campaign, for example, uses Airbnb travel data to highlight destinations that might not be on everyones radar yet - which is a great way to avoid the places that everyone is going to. Why not visit the Azores instead of Barcelona? Many of our bookable experiences allow visitors to see and experience iconic sights at their destination - but through the eyes of a local and with an Airbnb twist. Instead of just driving to Boulders Beach you could book Hanks experience that allows you to join him on a paddleboarding excursion and picnic - you will see the penguins, sure, but will actually experience so much more. And social impact experiences, where 100% of the proceeds go to a non-for-profit that hosts them allows travellers to give back while on vacation, to really make an impact while immersing themselves in a new place or city. The democratisation of travel through technology: The ability for ordinary people to participate in tourism. Previously tourism was in the hands of the few. Now, through technology, anyone with a room to share or a passion can participate in tourism. They have access to so much more information, i.e. every coffee shop, every restaurant and every local event has the possibility to attract travellers. What is the game changing trend? What is the game changing trend?

Millennials are redefining travel. Not just because they are increasingly the segment that is travelling; they do it so differently to their parents and they are the leaders of the startups that are redefining travel. They are also increasingly tech-savvy and are very comfortable with the notion of micro-jobbing   of millennials value experiences over material things.

The change in demographics is staggering: by 2030 there will be more people travelling from emerging markets and by 2025 millennials and Gen Z will comprise 76% of the key demographics of consumers from 18-49-year-olds. This is a very different picture to who was travelling 10 years ago.

Do you expect major disruptions in terms of new technology, new ideas, new business models, etc? Do you expect major disruptions in terms of new technology, new ideas, new business models, etc?

Climate change: If we look at the hurricanes of earlier this year and the potential disaster that the drought may wreak in Cape Town, climate change is something very real and unpredictable that many destinations are unprepared for. The water crisis in Cape Town has shown us that saving water is everyones responsibility. Every local and every guest. With an increased awareness that there is a new normal that requires us to tread lightly and act responsibly wherever we travel. For example, Airbnb is distributing water saving shower heads to all of our top hosts in Cape Town as that can reduce water consumption in the household by 70%.

Automation and the gig economy. One recent estimate covered by The Economist has artificial intelligence and machine learning potentially replacing up to 47% of US jobs within the next 20 years. Estimates for the UK and Japan range from one-third of jobs to nearly half, respectively. As policymakers in many countries in which we operate confront the loss of jobs to automation, Airbnb is all about people. The act of home sharing is a people-to-people exchange, as is the act of helping travellers immerse themselves in the communities they are visiting. Even as technology begins replacing people in many workplaces, Airbnb empowers our hosts to do more for their guests and for themselves.



What are some traveller trends that the industry should be aware of?

This takes us back to the trends we have already mentioned.

Slow travel which means that increasingly travellers are looking for unique and authentic experiences that are off the beaten track.

which means that increasingly travellers are looking for unique and authentic experiences that are off the beaten track. A change in traveller demographics - more millennials and more travellers from emerging markets

Coupled with the democratisation of travel which means that technology is making it easier to distribute the benefits of travel and for ordinary people to participate in tourism.

How will these trends influence your companys strategy for the year ahead? How will these trends influence your companys strategy for the year ahead?

We have committed $1m to building inclusive tourism initiatives in Africa. So we want to see how we can use technology to accelerate inclusive travel in emerging markets using platforms like Airbnb as a vehicle for empowerment. Ultimately, we want to see more guests exploring areas of the well-trodden tourist paths and more communities that have not previously benefitted from tourism, benefitting.

What do you hope to see more of in 2018? What do you hope to see more of in 2018?

Responsible travel being at the core of travel, built into all travel rather than bolted on.

Travellers really embracing community travel.

Platforms like Airbnb accelerating inclusive travel in emerging markets, resulting in more authentic travel experiences.

Any advice you would like to share with the industry in planning for 2018? Any advice you would like to share with the industry in planning for 2018?

Be on the watch out for new ideas, be open to understanding them, learn from them to see how you can take advantage of them in order to deliver a better experience to your customers. Originally people almost discounted Airbnb as a bad idea, but now we have had more than 200 million guest travel to more than four million homes in 191 countries. Change is inevitable, if you ignore it or try to just protect what you have, you risk being left behind.

As interviewed by Robin Fredericks.
The trend is still leaning to eating light and healthily, diners want to know the source of their food (farm to table is still very popular) and they are also considering eat-in options where they enjoy the best of both worlds by ordering their favourite dishes from their preferred restaurants.

Chef Janine Fourie discusses her top six food trends for 2018 below:

International cuisine

Culinary influences from Asian islands such as Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia will gain momentum. The sour, bitter and aromatic flavour profiles from these countries take their influence from Europe and Asia making them both familiar and exotic. There will also be an increase in Indian street food. This will be more paired down food but it will not compromise the flavour that Indian food is known for.

Creative food combinations

Ever-evolving scientific analysis and laboratory testing is creating new flavours and foods through intense tasting, research and development. Chefs are even creating hybrid foods using creative combinations. Think Turducken for when you're craving turkey, duck and chicken all at one time or a waffogato, a breakfast-themed take on the Italian dessert of ice cream topped with espresso.

Restaurants will accommodate consumer demand

For those individuals who want a variety of options supplied to them, restaurants will accommodate this demand by providing travel-friendly fare. Apps such as UberEats allows an individual to scroll through a feed of hundreds of restaurants. Diners can look for a particular cuisine or restaurant and once they have found something that satisfies their cravings, they simply tap and add it to their cart and the meal is ready for delivery.

Food and technology

2018 will see more technology and fun being brought into food. An example of this is having a screen projector on a diners plate. This projector plays a small video that demonstrates how the chef prepares the food before the diner actually receives the dish, making the dining experience more interactive as diners discuss the dish with each other.

Meal replacements

As peoples workload demands increase, they will rely more heavily on a protein shake to help get them through the day. In 2018, healthy food companies will release user-friendly, high protein and fibre drinks that will target people on the go.

The power of purple

Vibrant colour is the order of the day for 2018 and purple food is on the up! This goes beyond purple sweet potato or acai; purple will trend in ice cream, cupcakes and edible flowers.

Changing trends, driven by the economy, consumer behaviour and demands, keeps restaurateurs on their toes to be creative and on top of their game. Socialising and celebrating with food is always a treat and it is up to the hospitality industry to provide diners with various and imaginative options that keeps them coming back for more.
The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is continuously advancing its brands and product offerings to align with the mindset of travellers and current travel trends.

Simone Kuhn, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group's business development manager for Africa and Indian Ocean

Millennial travellers

As a result of millennials being one of the most important demographics in travel today and still expected to grow, Carlson Rezidor introduced its Radisson Red brand in 2015 and now has four Radisson RED hotels open worldwide in locations such as Minneapolis, Brussels, Campinas and Cape Town.

The Radisson Red in Cape Town opened on 12 September 2017 and fully encapsulates this new lifestyle select brand inspired by art, music, and fashion, a new hotel philosophy that connects with an ageless millennial looking to connect through mobile experiences or face-to-face. Ultimately this trend wants options and flexibility for their hotel experience which is what this brand delivers.

Bleisure

Following on from this is the widely recognised phenomenon of business leisure  otherwise known as bleisure. Albeit being around since early 2015, it seems this trend is still very much on the rise. As one needs to travel more and more from a corporate point of view nowadays, modern travel behaviour has evolved and more travellers fit in leisure at the end of their business trip.

I dipped my toe into bleisure travel earlier this year, and have since then promised myself to do this whenever Im in a new country or city. Not only does this positively impact the tourism industry on many levels, but it allows an often tired, corporate businessman or woman to rejuvenate and almost subconsciously have a different understanding of the city which, in turn, when you are in business development for a hotel operator, has its benefits.

Sustainable tourism

Thirdly, sustainable tourism has taken centre stage this year. Going forward, travellers will be more and more interested in the environmental, economic and social impact they have on the destinations they visit and want to support companies that embody these values.

Ahead of World Tourism Day in September 2017, the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, along with other leading global hotel groups in the International Tourism Partnership (ITP), reached a consensus on the goals for a sustainable hotel industry.

The ITP announced these four agreed 2030 focus goals, which are in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals focused on carbon, water, youth employment, and human rights and we are very proud to support the first ever industry-wide global commitment to sustainability. Since we launched our responsible business programme over 15 years ago, Carlson Rezidor has made enormous progress in its commitment to sustainability  this has led to us being named one of the worlds most ethical companies every year since 2010.

Serviced apartment products

Last but not least, over the last seven years, the global supply of serviced apartments has significantly increased and with this a trend that is now becoming more and more prominent. Booking a serviced apartment allows the traveller to have the best of both worlds  hotel and residential where one would have access to a full self-catering kitchen plus hotel services as well. It provides more space and flexibility at either a similar or lesser rate than what a guest or family would normally pay at a similar standard hotel.

Rezidor currently operates 14 serviced apartment/extended stay properties across EMEA with many further properties under development in South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria. Our serviced apartments portfolio will represent 30 properties in operation in 2022. We feel that this sector of our product offering will become more and more popular with investors and allows us to exceed the needs of guests of comfort and practicality.
InterContinental Hotels Group's (IHG) has made its debut in Algeria with the opening of Holiday Inn Algiers - Cheraga Tower - the tallest building in Algiers, offering a unique, panoramic view of the city - bringing the group's portfolio to 25 operational hotels across nine countries in Africa.

Image Supplied

Featuring 242 well-equipped rooms, the hotel is strategically located west of Algiers and is in close proximity to international business centres and embassies and is situated 30 minutes from the international airport. Additionally, guests staying at the hotel will have easy access to popular tourist spots such as Downtown, Hydra District, the Opera and Sidi Fredj Marina. Set in front of the beautiful Dounia Park and overlooking the city and the ocean, the hotel can be conveniently accessed from all major motorways.

Catering to every kind of traveller

Holiday Inn Algiers offers a selection of family-friendly dining options with two restaurants including Le 101, which is located at the top of the hotel and provides a scenic view of the city and an all-day dining restaurant  Ikosium. Additionally, guests can enjoy an array of beverages and snacks at LLB (lobby lounge bar) and La Terrasse. The hotel also offers Holiday Inn brands signature Kids Stay and Eat Free programme, where kids under the age of 12 can stay and dine for free.

Guests will also have access to a wellness floor consisting of a fitness centre, an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, Hammam, sauna and a treatment and massage centre. Catering to MICE and corporate guests, the hotel also has four meeting rooms, a large banquet hall and an expansive indoor parking on three levels.

Image Supplied

A strategic move

Commenting on the announcement, Pascal Gauvin, MD, IMEA, IHG: We are thrilled to establish a footprint in Algeria in collaboration with our eminent partner, S.A.R.L Modern Towers and expand our presence in Africa.

The opening of Holiday Inn Algiers  Cheraga Tower is a strategic move for us as Algerias proximity to Europe, airline connectivity, strong culture and heritage along with substantial business links creates a strong demand for international branded accommodation and a need for world-class hospitality.

Omar Ramdane, co-manager, S.A.R.L Modern Towers said: It is a privilege for Modern Towers to partner with IHG for its first hotel in Algeria, the beginning of a relationship of mutual trust and professionalism. I am confident that Holiday Inn Algiers - Cheraga Tower is the first step. We hope to develop similar projects in the future that will meet both IHG's expectations and the ambitions of Modern Towers.''

Algeria is Africa's largest country, and the world's 10th largest. The capital and largest city in Algeria, Algiers is a cosmopolitan city and hosts a substantial business community including industries such as healthcare, energy and agriculture, making it an attractive destination for business travellers.
The move towards digital has become a prominent feature on the corporate agenda. And while it will assist in ensuring future competitiveness, it will not be achieved overnight. A critical success factor will be the ability of the company to embrace several data management and new analytic capabilities in the near future.

Yolanda Smit, regional director (Gauteng) PBT Group

Much of the corporate success will be dependent on how effective the digital business will be in leveraging accurate and timely data. Just consider how the number of data channels has grown thanks to the increasing connectedness and mobility of customers.

Companies are already starting to reconsider how they address the fundamentals of data management, especially given the changing regulatory environment.

With the likes of King IV and the Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPI), concerted efforts will be made to formalise and streamline data governance. This will also see renewed interest in enabling data management practices like data quality, master data management, and data architecture disciplines.

Driving artificial intelligence (AI)

Transforming into a data-rich business will be a priority because of the competitive benefits this will bring. But to really evolve the processes and systems capable of analysis, the digital organisation will need to move analytics to its core.

The tools required to do so will revolve around robust and fast-paced data acquisition capabilities and then advanced analysis capabilities such as machine learning. Companies must be analytics-driven to make sense of the data at their disposal. This has already benefited information-rich industries like financial services, but these industries will have to start to focus on migrating analysis from quantitative pockets like actuarial teams through to all levels of decision-makers in the organisation.

In more industrial pockets in the economy (mining, engineering, and even retail), the internet of things is the main catalyst for driving analytics investments, as the volumes and richness of data originating from sensors and devices open significant new opportunities for insights.

And by embedding machine learning insights in all operational processes through the likes of cognitive computing models, the business will have the foundation required to be a truly data-driven environment.

Augmenting workforces

Building from this environment, organisations will position themselves to capitalise on the growth of augmented technology. Essentially, this enables smart operations through cognitive computing embedded in operational workflow and devices.

And while the thought of working alongside bots and robots within the next few years might sound like Back to the Future science fiction, we are already seeing how chatbots are growing in popularity with many being indistinguishable from real people.

This is inevitably raising more questions about how reliant we have become on personal data, how it is used, and the ethics of relying on these augmented workforces.

Cloud growth

In the rush to embrace new technologies, care should be taken to not overlook the role of cloud computing and big data in the digital revolution. With the spotlight falling firmly on advanced analytics and getting valuable insight from the available data, organisations will require a more considered approach to virtualisation solutions.

With the influx of more cloud providers investing in local data centres, barriers to adoption are falling away so the expectation is that 2018 will see a significant increase in cloud and big data transformation.

These are exciting times for South African businesses. So many opportunities are being presented to capitalise on digital transformation. There just needs to be a willingness to adapt and adopt a new way of thinking.

View more ICT trends in the BizTrends2018 special section.
From 1940 to 1944, Vichy France denaturalized roughly fifteen thousand men, women, and children. A disproportionate number of them, over seven thousand, were Jewish. The broad outlines of this story have been known for some time. Robert Paxton devoted a few pages to the subject in his landmark Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order (1972). Principally concerned with showing that French policy was not imposed unilaterally by the Germans and calling attention to a homegrown French xenophobia, Paxton stressed the anti-Semitic character of the measures. Paxtons subsequent work as well as research by Bernard Laguerre, Patrick Weil, and others have deepened his treatment of Vichys denaturalizations, with an emphasis on the novelty of racial anti-Semitism in French policy. [1] Claire Zalc follows in their footsteps. She accepts with some minor qualifications the numbers earlier scholars produced, and she devotes a great deal of attention to the role of anti-Semitism. But she largely takes the existence of anti-Semitism as a given, as a point of departure. Zalc explores how French xenophobia and anti-Semitism interacted and fueled one another, how they functioned; above all she shows how they were put into practice.

The research for this book is a tour de force. The denaturalization commission (Comite de revision de naturalisations), the magistrates who oversaw the process, left no archives. As a result, Zalc has pieced her story together from a wide range of archival collections, making particular use of naturalization files kept by the ministry of justice. Nationality law was sufficiently complex that Vichy chose the same jurists who had naturalized foreigners on behalf of the Third Republic in the generation before the Strange Defeat to denaturalize them during the war, and their working methods can be followed in those files. Without rich deliberations to rely on, Zalc infers intent from action. She compiled a sample of a thousand of the roughly fifteen thousand denaturalizations and explored them in depth, teasing out official intent and showing how local realities shaped its application in different settings around the country.

A law against the Anti-France

Less than two weeks after the French Chamber of Deputies voted to ratify the armistice with Germany and granted sweeping, authoritarian powers (pleins pouvoirs) to Marshall Petain, the Vichy government passed a law on July 22, 1940 to overturn naturalizations granted by its predecessor, the liberal Third Republic. Stripping citizens of their nationality was not new. High crimes and treason, for example, had long been grounds to deprive (dechoir) citizens of citizenship. After 1848, those who remained active participants in the slave trade, buying and selling, could be stripped of their nationality. During World War I, the French government targeted naturalized citizens who fought for or whose origins tied them to enemy powers. By 1920, the Republic stripped roughly 250 people of their French nationality, mostly Germans and Austrians. The major reform of French nationality law in 1927, primarily open and progressive, included provisions to strip the nationality of those deemed to commit acts incompatible with the virtues

qualite

of a French citizen and against French interests (p. 33). Vichy thus built on existing tradition when it came to stripping citizens of their nationality. But the scope of the effort and, above all, the centrality of the exclusionary measures to the regimes identity set Vichy effort apart. It was among the very first major legislative initiatives undertaken.

The first article of the law of July 22, 1940 explicitly singled out people naturalized since the landmark reform of 1927. Vichy set out to uproot the anti-France, the supposedly dubious, cosmopolitan characters that the Third Republic had too generously welcomed and had sapped the strength of the nation. There was, to be sure, a considerable racist component to the effort to denaturalize people, but it is important to note that it went into effect before Vichy drafted specifically anti-Semitic legislation in October 1940 and June 1941. The effort to roll back the inclusiveness of the Third Republic figured prominently in Vichys effort to define itself.

The question immediately posed itself: how to find the suspect citizens? Who posed the greatest risk? Where and how could they be found? There was no registry to monitor the naturalized. The legal distinctions that applied to them  not all French citizens were entirely equal, for example, in terms of voting rights or standing for office  no government bureau kept track of them all. The law, which was quite short, just ten lines altogether, concerned many thousands, an overwhelming number given the administrative and logistical realities of the day. It provided no guidance, no criteria to decide who among the naturalized should lose the status. The great merit of this book is to show how the government proceeded, carefully to weigh the tension between a starkly racist, authoritarian state of exception and a punctilious legalism, between ideological principle, happenstance, and brute practicality.

Bureaucracy at work

Vichy immediately targeted the work of the Popular Front. The commission began its work in the summer of 1940, starting with naturalizations from 1936. By their actions, the commission showed that undoing the work of the Popular Front was the top priority. Next came those of 1939-1940, targeting the newly naturalized and supposedly least French; then 1937-1938; before tacking back to earlier acts of naturalization. The Journal official published its first acts of denaturalization in November, just after the first of the anti-Semitic laws was passed.

While the committee relied on local authorities around the country to bring problematic cases to their attention, it also improvised criteria of its own. Among those naturalized by the Popular Front, the committee prioritized those whose files contained letters of support from Republican luminaries. They took aim at the Republic of favors, so often denounced in the 1930s. Moreover it was easy: naturalization dossiers were stamped with a capital R when they contained at least one letter of recommendation and RR when the administration deemed the letters particularly important. Beyond letters of support, the commission used its discretion, looking broadly at the work, family, and connections of the naturalized to distinguish the worthy from the unworthy, effectively reversing the procedures followed to naturalize them in the first place. The first months of work were particularly intense, the rate of denaturalization high.

Even before the anti-Semitic measures of October 1940 that defined Jewish status and ordered a census in the Occupied Zone, before the Germans or Vichys Jewish Affairs Office (Commissariat General aux Questions Juives) began to apply pressure, the commission began to denaturalize Jews. Working through the thousands upon thousands of files, with no central list to work from and no legal criteria for Jewishness, members paid particular attention to Jewish-sounding names. For all that the magistrates looked at supporting evidence, education, family ties, profession, all too often they returned to Jewish sounding names to make a determination, to make the decision on an otherwise ambivalent case. People who had applied to change their names  naturalization and name changes were both treated by the same branch of the ministry of justice  received particularly skeptical attention from the magistrates.

After the initial rush of political decisions in the first few months of 1940, bureaucratic routine set in. Nearly one million French citizens were potentially concerned. The commissions work did not follow the logic of state collaboration, which grew more intense with Admiral Francois Darlans rise to power in February 1941 and especially Pierre Lavals return to power in April 1942. The commissions work, on the contrary, was most intense at the outset, from September to December 1940 and then moderating afterwards, as increasingly lengthy and formalized verifications were carried out by different branches of the French government. There were certain constants. All magistrates weighed marital and family status; national origins, with a preference for those deemed most assimilable in racial terms; and profession, with tailors and doctors at a special disadvantage. But they did not do so equally. Nicolas Moussard, born in Bone (Annaba), in eastern Algeria, and having spent most of his career in Algeria, distinguished himself with his severity, tracking down elements that pointed to Jewish origins. Others, like Albert Vieilledent, refused. They used their legal expertise to slow down investigations and supported the conservation of French nationality in a disproportionate number of cases. The single most important variable in any individual case was the magistrate in charge of the dossier.

The politics of exclusion

Those people Vichy denaturalized became foreigners subject to all the laws and exclusions that entailed. Invited to the nearest city hall, they had to turn in their identity papers and register as immigrants or, more likely, stay away and brave the consequences of illegality. Their right to remain in France and the terms were determined by a complex legal framework that varied depending on origins. For Jews, the stakes were vastly higher than for others. French nationality provided an important, if incomplete, protection against anti-Semitic measures. To be registered as a foreign or stateless Jew substantially increased the danger of arrest and deportation. Three quarters of the Jews deported to their death by Vichy were foreigners. In that context, the commission effectively notified the anti-Semitic Jewish Affairs Office (Commissariat General aux Questions Juives) and the police  which had pledged to round up quotas of Jews for the Nazis  of their existence and location. German authorities exerted no direct influence over the investigations, though in 1942 and 1943 they increasingly complained about the laxity of Vichys efforts.

By focusing on a precise historical problem, denaturalization, Claire Zalc sheds fresh light on big questions about causality, responsibility, the relationship between deep structures and the role of chance. She shows how abstract, often unarticulated ideas about honor, virtue, and authenticity took concrete, material form, how they shaped the boundaries of the national community and influenced peoples opportunities and life chancesand, all too often, sent them to their death. Denaturalises is a model for the social history of politics (socio-histoire) as a genre and makes a fundamental contribution to the study of anti-Semitism, exclusion, state collaboration, and the very nature of the Vichy regime.

Reviewed: Claire Zalc, Denaturalises. Les retraits de nationalite sous Vichy, LUnivers historique, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 2016, 388 p.
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ISRO's PSLV-C40 rocket ahead of its launch on Jan 12, 2018. An ISRO photo/Twitter

CHENNAI (PTI): The 28-hour countdown for the launch of ISRO's 100th satellite along with 30 others in a single mission, from the space port of Sriharikota, about 110 kms from Chennai, began on Thursday.



On its 42nd mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) trusted workhorse 'PSLV-C40' will carry the weather observation 'Cartosat-2' series satellite and 30 co-passengers (together weighing about 613 kg) at lift-off at 9.28 am on Friday.



As the Mission Readiness Review committee and Launch Authorisation Board cleared the countdown, the space body said Thursday, "The 28-hour countdown activity of PSLV-C40/Cartosat2 Series Satellite Mission has started at 05.29 hours IST today".



At present, the scientists are involved in propellant filling operation to carry out various stages of the flight, it said.



The 44.4 metre tall rocket is all set to lift off from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.



The co-passenger satellites comprise one micro and nano satellite each from India as well as three micro and 25 nanosatellites from six countries -- Canada, Finland, France, Korea, the United Kingdom and United States of America.



The total weight of all the 31 satellites carried on-board PSLV-C40 is about 1,323 kgs.



The 28 international customer satellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between ISRO and its commercial arm 'Antrix Corporation Ltd'.



Of the total number of satellites carried by PSLV-C40, 30 satellites will be launched into a 505 kms polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).



Scientists would bring down the height by twice restarting the fourth stage of the PSLV-C40 for launch of Microsat satellite, which will be placed in a 359 kms polar SSO, ISRO said.



The entire launch of satellites is expected to happen over a period of 2 hours and 21 seconds, it said.



According to ISRO, the Cartosat-2 series satellite launch is a follow-on mission with the primary objective of providing high resolution scene specific spot imageries.



It carries panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras operating in Time Delay Integration mode and is capable of delivering high resolution data.



It will be the third satellite in the Cartosat-2 series.



ISRO had successfully launched Cartosat-2 Series satellite on June 22, 2016.



It is similar to the earlier Cartosat-2, 2A and 2B.



The images sent by Cartosat-2 series satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps and change detection to bring out geographical Land Information Systems and Geographical Information System applications.



ISRO Satellite Centre Director M Annadurai had recently said the launch of 28 satellites from abroad and three Indian satellites during the mission would mark the roll out of the 100th satellite by the space agency.



Friday's launch also marks the first launch for ISRO in 2018 following the unsuccessful mission of navigation satellite IRNSS-1H last year.



On August 31, 2017 India's mission to launch its backup navigation satellite IRNSS-1H on board PSLV-C39 failed after the heat shield did not separate in the final leg of the launch sequence and as a result, the satellite IRNSS-1H got stuck in the fourth stage of the rocket.



Ahmedabad, Jan 10 (PTI) Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa today urged the IAF personnel to upgrade professional knowledge and expertise so as to maintain cutting edge in optimal utilisation of sophisticated combat systems.



He lauded the efforts put in by personnel at the Air Force Station, Jamnagar, in maintaining systems and equipment in a high state of combat readiness.



Dhanoa was addressing a ceremonial parade at the Air Force Station, around 270km from here.



The Chief of Air Staff gave an overview of the planned acquisitions and urged personnel to put in efforts to upgrade professional knowledge and expertise so as to maintain cutting edge by optimum utilisation of sophisticated combat systems, a defence release stated.



He was addressing the ceremonial parade on the second day of his two-day visit to the Air Force Station.



Dhanoa and his wife, Kamal Preet Dhanoa, who is also president of the Air Force Wives Welfare Association (Central), arrived at the Air Force Station yesterday for a two-day inspection visit, the release stated.



"A ceremonial Guard of Honour was presented to the Chief of The Air Staff (CAS) on his arrival. He was briefed on the present progress of operational, maintenance and administrative activities at the base.



"The CAS visited various combat units and squadrons of the station and interacted with the air warriors," the release stated.




The Spike anti-tank guided missile. Photo: Rafael Advanced Defence Systems

NEW DELHI (PTI): India is considering purchase of Spike anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) from Israel through the government-to-government (G-to-G) route, months after it decided to cancel a deal to procure the weapons from an Israeli firm.



According to the original proposal, India had planned to acquire the ATGMs for the Army at a cost of US$ 500 million.



The government is now examining the possibility of purchasing the missiles from Israel through the G-to-G route like it did in sealing the deal for procuring 36 Rafale jets from France, official sources said.



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit India next week and ways to further deepen the already close defence ties between the two countries may figure during his talks with Indian leaders here.



In November, the defence ministry had decided to retract the process to acquire a batch of Spike missiles from Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.



Subsequently, the ministry had asked premier defence research laboratory DRDO to develop similar missiles with indigenous technology.



Official sources had said the proposal to acquire the missile system from the Israeli firm faced hurdles when it apparently expressed reservations in ensuring full transfer of technology as per the provisions of the 'Make in India' initiative.



They said the decision to retract the RFP was taken after the DRDO expressed confidence of producing the ATGMs.



India's Kalyani group and Israel's state-run Rafael Advanced Defence Systems had commissioned a Rs 70 crore production facility near Hyderabad in August last year, anticipating that the Israeli firm would bag the contract.



Last week, the Israeli firm said it received an official notification from India's Ministry of Defence about cancellation of the deal.



In September 2016, India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore.


With less than two weeks to go before Roger Waters resumes his Us + Them tour, which enjoyed an extremely well received jaunt around North America last year, we are getting ourselves ready for the fun to start again. Roger's Us + Them tour brings a well thought out balance of old and new, with an incredible stage show. Visually, Roger has again pulled out all the stops for a show that has a strong message at its core. The tour resumes in Auckland, New Zealand for a pair of shows there, before heading to Dunedin for the final New Zealand concert - then it is off to Australia for a bunch of shows in February. As it stands, then there is a break before the European concerts start in mid-April. As before though, we are extremely keen to find out what you think. If you are going to the show, we hope that you will get in touch after with your thoughts and feelings about the concert. If you wish to share your views with the wider Brain Damage community, we will be delighted to add them to the show page we've set up for each gig; these pages will also include things like pictures, and official videos, so if you have anything you'd like to contribute, we'd be very grateful. As ever, you can get in touch - sending anything you think suitable - via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
The EU is still scrutinising a competition ruling which may lead to it insisting the Government retrieve as much as 25m from potentially hundreds of business people who benefited from the countrys leading tax incentive business scheme which was designed to help SMEs.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, late last year, was forced to rush through legislative amendments after taking the advice of the attorney general that parts of the Employment and Investment Incentive (EII) scheme had likely fallen foul of EU State aid rules.

According to some estimates, Revenue may have to retrieve as much as 25m, equivalent to the tax incentives investors had injected into SMEs over the last three years, if the EUs competition division, led by Margrethe Vestager, rules the Governments scheme has broken European rules.

Her directorate previously ruled Ireland should retrieve at least 13bn in back taxes from Apple, and referred the Government to the European court for failing to recover the illegal State aid.

A source said any adverse ruling over the EII scheme would create a headache for the Government over the ways to retrieve the money.

A European Commission spokeswoman said: We are in close contact with the Irish authorities. The assessment is ongoing and we cannot prejudge its outcome nor when it will be finalised.

The EU will likely examine the changes applied to the incentive approximately three years ago, which may have opened up the scheme to individuals who were connected to the SME.

A connected person could include an individual who owns shares, loan capital, or voting rights of the company involved, or any individual who might have a claim over assets on the winding-up of the company.

A spokesman for the Department of Finance said: The commission is still looking at the situation and has not made any findings yet in relation to EII. We would not preempt any commission conclusions in the matter and so cannot speculate on the finding and any possible recovery amount.

In November, the department had estimated the value of questionable incentives under the scheme cost the exchequer between 6m and 10m in 2016. That accounts for about 30% of the 32.5m total tax cost of the overall scheme in 2016.

The overall cost of the investments could rise as much as 25m when the cases from 2015 through this year are assessed.

In 2016, there were 1,768 qualifying investors involving 261 companies under the scheme, but not all these investors or companies will likely fall foul of the potential error.
One of Corks best-known businessmen has blasted the lack of progress on the long-mooted events centre, saying it is missing out on hosting events like the Pendulum Summit in Dublin.

Publican Benny McCabe, who owns a range of heritage bars in Cork and Dublin such as The Bodega super pub, said the ability of the Convention Centre Dublin to host 7,000 Pendulum Summit delegates highlighted the glaring opportunities being missed as the Cork events centre saga rumbled on.

A long tendering process overseen by Cork City Council saw BAM Construction win the project, being granted 20m in state aid to assist its 50m, 6,000-seat centre on the former Beamish and Crawford brewery site on Corks South Main Street.

Despite former taoiseach Enda Kenny turning the sod on the project before the general election in February 2016, there has been little progress, with redesigns and budget constraints stalling the project. A further 10m in state aid has been requested.

Mr McCabe said: Cork is slipping behind  Kerry has one, Limerick will probably have one before Cork. People are going to look back and say this was one of the great acts of stupidity and missed opportunities. Turning the sod prior to an election will be remembered in Cork for a long time for all the wrong reasons. He added 80 jobs could be created if there was an events centre to attract visitors to Cork.

Wed be hopping up and down in excitement if we had an event like the Pendulum Summit in January. There is no excuse  the money argument doesnt stand up for me. We are on the cusp of huge things in Cork, this would be the jewel in the crown but we are being stymied, he said.

Mayor of Cork County, Cllr Declan Hurley said the Pendulum Summit showed the need for the Cork region to have its own events centre.

After attending the Pendulum Summit and seeing Dublins convention centre for the first time, I can really see the benefits of what a convention centre in Cork city could do, he said.
Tesco Ireland has reported a rise in sales over the Christmas period.

The supermarket group revealed that sales over the festive period grew 4% when compared to the same period in 2016.

However, despite recording the highest rate of market share growth in Ireland for five years, the retailer missed overall group forecasts for trading in the festive period.

They saw their strong fresh food sales over the 19-week period up to January 6 undermined by a drop in demand for general goods such as DVDs and computer games.

The group said today its overall results were hit by weak general merchandise and a loss of a key tobacco supplier.

"We have continued to outperform the market throughout this period, particularly in fresh food, thanks to our most competitive offer for many years," chief executive Dave Lewis said.

However, he added that the collapse of the Palmer & Harvey tobacco supplier had taken "the shine off an otherwise outstanding performance for the period as a whole".

The company said it remained confident in its outlook for the full year and was firmly on track to deliver its medium-term ambitions.

The group also reported data for the third quarter, with Irish like-for-like sales rising by 3.3%.

Like-for-like sales in the UK went up 2.3%, having increased 2.1% in the second quarter.
Ardal OHanlon has revealed he had to wear a special wig for the second series of Father Ted after getting a spur-of-the-moment haircut for his wedding, writes Linda McGrory.

The Irish actor (52) said the shows producers had a look of horror on their faces when he returned from his nuptials to wife Melanie looking unrecognisable as Fr Dougal McGuire.

The gormless cleric was famed, among other characteristics, for his mop of dark blonde hair.

The producers subsequently had to scramble to have a bespoke wig made to order, resulting in a hair-raising hit to the shows budget, said OHanlon.

The second series of the iconic sitcom was screened in 1996 with famed storylines including The Lovely Girls Competition and a Christmas special set in the lingerie section of a department store.

We had shot the video inserts, so all the location stuff for the second series of Father Ted, just before Christmas. And then just after Christmas I got married, he said.

I was feeling pretty rough on the day of my wedding - a very special day and my best man had taken me out the night before so I went to a barbers and I got a close shave and I got my hair cut.

I went back into the studios  this is two weeks after wed already done quite a bit of filming, went back into studio to shoot the whole series but Id no hair, added the father-of-three.

It was really short, unrecognisable. I remember just the look of horror when I went back into the studio and they had to film for eight weeks and it didnt match, it just didnt match at all, it couldnt have been more different, OHanlon told the BBCs The One Show, saying they were getting a scoop on the wig story, a major revelation and a first.

So, they had to manufacture a wig at very short notice. I think it cost pretty much the budget for the second series to make this wig. So, during the entire second series, thats a wig to match my own hair.

The Monaghan-born actor currently stars as detective Jack Mooney in the new series of BBC drama Death in Paradise.
A woman from Blanchardstown has appealed for the return of her late mothers jewellery after it was stolen from her fathers home last night.

Sinead Quinn called Liveline on RTE Radio 1 this afternoon to appeal for the sentimental jewellery to be returned.

Her mother passed away last March and jewellery belonging to her late brother-in-law who passed away the year before was also taken.

These are photos of some of the jewellery that was stolen from Sinead's home #Liveline pic.twitter.com/GYI3A11OkA  Liveline (@rteliveline) January 11, 2018

Sinead, her fiance and her sister are currently living in her fathers house in Blanchardstown and they had gone out for dinner to a local restaurant.

According to Sinead, they left at about 5pm and when they returned at 9pm everything appeared to be normal.

It wasnt until her sister Aoife went to her room to put away her own jewellery that she noticed her late husbands watch, wedding ring, her own engagement, wedding and eternity ring were missing.

Aoife immediately alerted the family and told her dad to check if their mothers jewellery was there but they found it had all been taken.

According to Sinead, all that was taken from the house was gold jewellery with laptops, car keys and other valuable items being left behind.

"Patricia and Desmond", Sinead's late mother her late brother-in-law. Their jewellery was stolen last night from the family home in Blanchardstown. She's appealing for people to keep an eye out. #Liveline pic.twitter.com/yeSn0s6X2i  Liveline (@rteliveline) January 11, 2018

"My mom worked hard all her life, she brought us all up and she was very dedicated to the family so she always said I dont have much money to give you but I have all these rings," Sinead told Joe Duffy.

"She would always say to us youre getting that ring and youre getting that ring...she was always so proud of her jewellery collection.

"She said it was always the one thing that she could pass down through the family. It could be her legacy, so to speak."

Although they knew who each item of jewellery had been left to, they felt it was too soon to begin dividing the collection between them.

"The Christmas before she passed away - a couple of months before she passed away - I got her in a Kris Kindle and she said Sinead, what would you like? and I said just something thoughtful from you," Sinead said.

"She had this locket that she had years ago. It was a gold heart locket with a picture of her and my dad in it and on the back of it is inscribed Patti.

"It was put on a brand new gold chain and that was the last Christmas present I received from my mom."

The locket was among the items taken from her dads home.

You can listen to Sineads full story below.

Digital desk
Eagle Rock EntertainmentRobert Plant's performance with his current band The Sensational Space Shifters was one of the highlights of Twin Peaks director David Lynch's inaugural Festival of Disruption, a multimedia cultural event held in October 2016 at the Ace Hotel Theatre in Los Angeles. Now, a new concert film documenting the show will be released on DVD and as a digital video on February 9.

Plant's set featured reworked renditions of several Led Zeppelin tunes, including "Black Dog," "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" and "Going to California," while also showcasing four songs from his then-latest solo album, 2014's Lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar. The legendary rocker and his group also played a medley that brought together the Zeppelin classic "Whole Lotta Love" with Muddy Waters' "Hoochie Coochie Man" and Bo Diddley's "Mona."

The Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters Live at David Lynch's Festival of Disruption video also features some bonus content, footage capturing Lynch discussing creativity, music and meditation. You can pre-order the DVD now at EagleRockLinks.com.

The Lynch-curated Festival of Disruption featured musical and dance performances, DJ sets, discussions, art exhibits, virtual reality displays, film screenings, meditation sessions and more. The event raised money for the David Lynch Foundation, which provides Transcendental Meditation education programs to domestic-violence victims, veterans suffering from PTSD, at-risk young people and others. Sales of the DVD also will benefit the foundation.

Here is the full track list of the performance portion of the DVD:

"Poor Howard"

"Turn It Up"

"Black Dog"

Medley: "The Enchanter"/"Rainbow"

"Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You"

"Little Maggie"

Medley: "Hoochie Coochie Man"/"Whole Lotta Love"/"Mona"

"Going to California"

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Cork City Council's dog fouling committee has been accused of wasting its 38,000 budget.

Councillor Ken O'Flynn said it is spending its money on children's art competitions while there is just one dog warden for the entire county.

It has been revealed that only four fines have been handed out over the last 21 years to dog owners who failed to pick up after their pets.

Councillor O'Flynn wants the dog committee disbanded and the budget redistributed.

"Spending 38,000 on media campaigns and drawing competitions is one thing. I think we need far more staff, we need far more inspectors," he said.

"We need to be looking at what's working in the UK," he added.
By Tom Tuite

An 18-year-old youth charged with the murder of a Japanese man in a stabbing in Dundalk last week was not fit to attend a court hearing today.

Mohamed Morei, who was remanded in custody last week after he was charged with the murder of 24-year-old Yosuke Sasaki, is undergoing treatment in the Central Mental Hospital (CMH), Judge Victor Blake was told.

Mr Sasaki was fatally stabbed on Avenue Road shortly before 9am on January 3.

Mr Sasaki from Ebina, west of Tokyo, worked at National Pen, a call centre in Dundalk, Co. Louth and had lived in Ireland for the past year.

Following his death, an Irish man was injured when he was stabbed a short time later on Coes Road in Dundalk.

At 9.40am, gardai received a report that another local man was injured in an attack with a fence pole at Seatown Place.

Yosuke Sasaki

Mr Morei, whose nationality has yet to be confirmed, was remanded in custody by Dundalk District Court on January 4 after he was charged with the murder of Mr Sasaki.

Garda Inspector Martin Beggy had said at the hearing that there was an issue with the defendants nationality which was undetermined at present.

A bail application will have to be made in the High Court because he is facing a murder charge.

About 1,500 people crowded into Dundalk town centre earlier this week for a candlelit vigil to remember Mr Sasaki.

A fund-raising drive in Ireland has also begun to cover the costs of his repatriation.

Mr Morei was due to face his second hearing at Cloverhill District Court on Thursday, however, when the case was called Judge Victor Blake was informed that he was not able to attend the hearing.

Defence counsel Aoife OHalloran told the court that it was her understanding that Mr Morei was not fit to attend.

Judge Blake said he had been furnished with a letter from a forensic psychiatrist at the CMH where the accused was undergoing medical treatment and he was unfit to attend the court hearing.

It was the doctors opinion that Mr Morei would also be unfit to come to court in two weeks time, Judge Blake said.

He further remanded the accused in custody in his absence and adjourned the case until January 25 next when the case will be listed for mention.

He also asked for an updated letter from the doctor and his team.
A High Court judge has dismissed a second legal challenge to the planned 138-kilometre north-south electricity interconnector, writes Ann OLoughlin.

Mr Justice Max Barrett also refused leave to appeal his rejection of an earlier separate challenge to the project.

Eirgrids interconnector project comprises a 400kV overhead line circuit linking an existing substation in Woodland, Co Meath, with a planned substation in Turleenan, Co Tyrone. The project is planned to provide a second high-capacity all-Ireland interconnector alongside the existing 275kV double circuit overhead line between Co Louth and Co Armagh.

Last August, Mr Justice Barrett rejected a challenge to An Bord Pleanalas grant of permission brought by the North East Pylon Pressure Campaign Ltd (NEPPC) and a local resident, Maura Sheehy.

The applicants then sought the necessary certificates to appeal that decision but, on Thursday, Mr Justice Barrett ruled no substantial grounds of appeal had been raised.

He also, in a separate judgement, dismissed the second challenge to the project, brought by Val Martin, a farmer and environmental campaigner.

The judge held Mr Martin, representing himself, was not entitled to be granted leave for judicial review of the Boards December 2016 permission for the project. Even if he was entitled to leave, the court would have rejected his case on all grounds, he added.

There were, he said, "significant" deficiencies in Mr Martins pleadings and they did not meet the criteria required by the relevant court rules.

The Board, for example, had no function to review government policy on renewable energy. Nor was it the Boards function to review decisions of the European Commission and European Parliament relating to projects of common interest. (PCI)

Despite Mr Martins arguments to the contrary, there was clearly material before the Board to support the conclusions it reached in granting permission, he said.

In his judgement refusing leave to the NEPPC and Ms Sheehy for an appeal against his earlier rejection of their case, the judge reiterated his concern that applications for leave to appeal are made to the same judge who dismissed the cases. However, none of the parties had objected to his hearing the applications, he said.

He said the relevant provision of the Planning and Development Act 2000 requires, for an appeal to be taken, the applicants must show the judgement at issue involves a point of law of exceptional public importance and that it is desirable in the public interest an appeal should be taken.

Those criteria had not been met in either case, he held.

The NEPPC and Ms Sheehy had raised issues arising from his finding the Board was a competent authority to hear the appeal against approval but the points they sought to have determined were "abstract" and had "no real-world consequence". Other points concerning the Habitats Directive and other measures were "utterly unclear" in their terms and intended consequences.

The public interest in having the interconnector proceed outweighs any possible element of public interest claimed by the applicants in respect of an appeal, he also held.
By Jessica Magee

A man who promised his on-off girlfriend that they would build a house together on a non-existent site before gambling away over 22,000 of her money has been jailed for nine months.

Michael Williams (45) with an address at Newtown Abbott, Devon, England pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to falsely misrepresenting lands available for sale at Rathnew, County Wicklow to Ms Eibhlin Butler, on or about February 27, 2008.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Williams to two and a half years in prison with 21 months suspended, telling him what he had done was extremely reprehensible.

Judge Nolan said that he would not have suspended any of the sentence but for the fact that Williams sister had offered to gift him 10,000 by way of compensation for Ms Butler for the losses she had suffered.

But for the generosity of your sister, youd be going to prison for a very long time, said Judge Nolan.

The judge said Williams had decided during the course of his relationship with Ms Butler that he would obtain money from her by false pretences.

He convinced her he was going to buy land and she re-mortgaged her property and gave him 22,500. The land was fictional and the agreement to buy it was fictional. He gambled the money, said Judge Nolan.

He said Ms Butler, with good reason, had lost faith in humanity and suffered illness and severe financial loss which she was still paying for.

She lost confidence and suffered significant mental distress. She was totally taken in. He meant her to be totally taken in. He deceived her; he was extremely duplicitous, said Judge Nolan, adding that it was a huge breach of trust.

Garda Richard Redmond told Tony McGillicuddy BL, prosecuting, that Ms Butler had become acquainted with Michael Williams when they were both involved in the horse industry.

The pair were in a casual relationship for two years from April 2007. The court heard that Williams suggested to Ms Butler that they would have a child, build a house together on land in Rathnew and run livery stables and kennels.

Ms Butler had at the time begun re-mortgaging her own properties as she wanted to clear a number of loans and only have one lump sum repayment a month.

Williams told her a man had offered him four acres for sale in Rathnew for 50,000 but had offered to drop the price by 5,000 if they moved quickly.

Ms Butlers re-mortgage came through in February 2008 and she withdrew money and gave Williams 22,000 in cash.

When Ms Butler asked Williams where he was getting his share of the money to pay for the site, he said a friend of his, a dog man from Kerry, was giving him the cash, and that another friend would push through the planning with Wicklow County Council.

Ms Butler told gardai later that after she gave Williams the money, he went quiet about the land and said it would be planted with trees for the next few years and not to hassle his friend who was helping them with planning as he was doing them a huge favour.

Ms Butler asked Williams for a map of where the site was, but he gave her a hand-drawn map which she said she was unable to follow. In January 2010, she texted Williams seeking something in writing to show that she owned two acres of land.

He replied that he was not willing to do so and she replied, Why not Mick? What have you got to hide? He texted back that he had already told her three times that the land would be in her name.

They subsequently met and Ms Butler found out that the land in question had never even been sold.

Gardai met with Williams by appointment at Dun Laoghaire Garda Station and asked him if the site in question had ever existed, to which he replied that it had not.

He told gardai that he had gambled the money, believing at the time that he would pay it back as he thought he was going to win a fortune in the betting.

Looking back now, I would have done anything to get a bet, he said.

In a Victim Impact Report read out on her behalf, Ms Butler said Williams had promised that they would have a future together, but that it was only lies and that he never had any intention of them being together.

She said she took out a mortgage of 50,000 for home improvements and gave 22,000 to Williams to buy land which she now knew didnt exist.

She said she began to suffer from stress and became extremely unwell with stomach problems at the end of 2010 and during 2011. Ms Butler said she was now only in receipt of a disability pension and still had her mortgage to repay.

She said she had been left with serious trust issues and low self-esteem, that she had no confidence and that it had impacted on her relationship with her daughter.

The court heard that Ms Butler had had to rely on help from St Vincent de Paul for paying ESB bills and with food vouchers at Christmas.

Vincent Heneghan SC, defending, accepted that his client had committed a mean-minded crime and an absolute breach of trust.

He said Williams was one of seven children whose mother had died in childbirth and that there had been domestic violence in his background.

The court heard that Williams had a job driving wood chip to various stud farms, through which he got to know stable lads who gave him tips of horses.

He started gambling and thought he was good at it but became quickly indebted. Williams is now living and working as a delivery man in the UK, where is an involved father to two young children and supports his partner financially.

He earns about 400 a week and brought what his counsel described as a paltry sum of 500 to court. He has no previous convictions.

- CCC.nuacht
By Natasha Reid

A 24-year-old Dublin man has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a student, who was saving the life of his friend. Charles Cleary was given a concurrent 15-year jail term for that friends attempted murder.

Cleary, of no fixed abode but from the Rathfarnham area, had been motivated by robbery, when his surviving victim arrived at the deceased mans flat with 14,000 he had just withdrawn from a bank.

Cleary pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Leo Carolan (25) at the flat on the South Circular Road on October 4, 2016 and to the attempted murder of Swiss student Ludovic Thomas (now 26) on the same occasion.

Detective Inspector David Harrington explained that Mr Carolan was a student of creative music at IADT, Dun Laoghaire. He told Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, that his mother was French and that he used to speak French to his Swiss friend, Mr Thomas. The accused, who was also a student at the time, was described as a passing acquaintance.

D Insp Harrington explained that Mr Thomas had arranged to visit Mr Carolan on the day of the murder, and that Mr Cleary was there when he arrived.

Mr Thomas had 14,000 in cash that he had withdrawn from a bank. He asked Mr Carolan for an envelope for the money and the deceased left the room to get one.

Cleary decided to steal the cash. He picked up a butterfly knife and stabbed Mr Thomas around his abdomen and mouth.

Mr Carolan returned, alerted by the commotion, and his killer turned his attention to him. This gave Mr Thomas time to escape. He ran out onto the South Circular Road, covered in blood and holding the knife with which hed been attacked.

However, Cleary armed himself with another knife and stabbed Mr Carolan to death. The student suffered 12 stab wounds, which severed his jugular vein and went through his heart and both lungs.

Mr Thomas was taken to hospital with multiple knife wounds, including a laceration to his liver.

Meanwhile, the defendant took the money and made his way to Camden Street in his socks and in a bloody condition. He got shoes and clothes there before going to Dundrum, where he did some shopping.

He socialised with friends that evening and paid off his credit union loan the next morning, before taking the ferry to Holyhead. Most of the money was taken from him at Holyhead and he returned to Dublin a few days later.

He was arrested and eventually admitted his crimes. He said he was governed by a sudden impulse to take the money.

Mr Carolans mother, Catherine, delivered an emotional victim impact statement to the court. She recalled the moment Leo, her first child, was born. She had almost died and their bond became even more intimate.

My son and I would fight life together, she said.

She said he was a gentle soul and that all her memories of him as a baby were of joy.

He and I entered into a world of our own, she explained.

She said that when his brother, Alex, and his sister, Ava, came, he became the protector.

She said that she was able to discuss everything with her son and that he turned into a caring man. She said he was clearly very talented and would get lost in the beauty of the music he played on his guitar.

She said that he was the most non-judgmental person one could meet, used to volunteer with the homeless and worried about the suffering of people less fortunate that he was.

He was an exceptional human being. He always hoped for a better world for mankind, she said.

She said he was one of the most non-violent people she knew, but life was taken from him in such a brutal and traumatic manner,

His life was only beginning, she said, adding that she did not know where to begin in explaining the impact his death had on the family.

My life stopped on the 4th of October, she said. Our lives have been shattered.

She said that people tell her that things will get better, but she feels that the pain is getting worse.

She said that not only had Leos life been destroyed but the future lives of his siblings.

There are so many songs we cant listen to anymore, movies we cant watch, she noted.

He was such an inspiration to us all. I want it to be known that Leo died saving his friends life, she said.

When I heard the news of his murder, I screamed, she said. 15 months later, Im still screaming.

Mrs Carolan embraced her other son, Alex, as she left the witness box and he entered.

He said that both his physical and psychological health had gone downhill since his brothers murder.

The world stopped that day, he said, explaining that his brothers murder was the first thought that now comes into his head every morning.

He said he had spent the last 15 months mostly locked into his room, and that every plan hed ever had had been cancelled.

Mr Gageby read out a statement on behalf of Mr Thomas, who said he had developed trust issues, paranoia and depression as a result of the attack.

He had been in his final year of college when he was attacked but left Dublin afterwards. He tried to transfer his credit home to a Swiss university, but it wasnt recognised and he said he had therefore lost four years of his life.

He said he still had liver pain and that his mother had to give up work as a result of the attack.

He said he has nightmares of his attacker coming out of jail and murdering everyone.

He said that he had thought about suicide and is always looking at doors and peoples hands.

He said he is now the opposite to the social person he was before the attack.

He concluded that his birthday, which he had celebrated two days before the murder, would forever be associated with Leos death.

Justice Patrick McCarthy imposed the mandatory life sentence for the murder and 15 years for the attempted murder. He took the robbery into account.

Mr Thomas later thanked the people who had assisted him on the South Circular Road that day. He said they had pretty much saved my life. He also thanked the Carolan family, who left the court without comment.
By Ruaidhri Giblin

A mother-of-two, who stole over 460,000 from a financial services firm to keep her ill husbands struggling business afloat, has had her 18 month jail term cut to 12 on appeal.

Lisa Lynch (33), a former director of AGL Logistics, whose home at Southfield, Ballinatubbert, Athy, Co Kildare, is due to be repossessed by the banks in April, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing the money from Bibby Financial Services over a three-month period in 2013.

She was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment by Judge Martin Nolan on December 12 last. However, Judge Nolan deferred sentencing until the new year with the result that she appeared before the Court of Appeal on bail, having not been in custody at any stage.

The Court of Appeal suspended the final six months of an 18 month term today following a successful appeal and Lynch was lead away to begin serving her sentence this evening.

Giving judgment in the three-judge court, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the circumstances in which Lynch found herself to be in charge of AGL Logistics, a Co Kildare based company involved in the transport business, were unusual.

Two days after the birth of her son, her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of mouth cancer. He had previously been the mainstay of the company he inherited from his father and, due to his illness, he became seriously depressed and withdrew from operations.

Lynch took over the business. It was accepted that she was ill-equipped for the task and really out of her depth. AGL was a struggling company and, with a view to keeping it afloat, Lynch issued 93 false invoices on foot of which payments were made by Bibby Financial Services which resulted in a loss to it of 460,660.

The Circuit Court heard that AGL and multinational Bibby had a deal whereby the larger company would purchase AGLs debt by offering short-term loans at high interest. When AGL was owed money by a customer, Bibby would give AGL 80 per cent of that debt, on the agreement that the money would be repaid whether or not AGLs customer paid their invoice.

Lycnh, a mother-of-two young children, was 33 at the time of the sentence. Mr Justice Birmingham said she was likely to remain the breadwinner in the family due to her husbands difficulties. Her husband is on a back-to-work scheme, the family have substantial debts and the family home is due to be repossessed in April, the judge said.

When asked by Bibby what was happening, Lynch talked them through what had occurred. When the matter was investigated by gardai, she made immediate admissions and entered an early guilty plea.

In the four years between the matter coming to light and coming to court, Lynch had secured work with her brother-in-law and although the salary was relatively modest, she had on a weekly basis put 50 aside with a view to assembling a compensation fund.

Lynchs barrister, Lorcan Staines BL, pressed for non-custodial disposal. However, the Circuit Court judge felt the offence was of such seriousness that he couldnt accede to this request.

The sentencing judge commented that he could not detect the presence of personal greed. Her motive was to secure the survival of the company in a situation where she felt she had an obligation towards its 70 employees. He noted the mitigating factors as Lynchs co-operation, her admissions, early guilty plea and her lack of previous convictions.

In addition to those mitigating factors referred to by the sentencing judge, Mr Staines said there was also Lynchs efforts at recompense, the loss of reputation, the delay of four years in the matter coming to court and the extraordinary damage that would be caused to Lynchs family by imprisoning her for 18 months.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the Court of Appeal would have liked to have seen a headline figure nominated by the sentencing judge before applying a discount for mitigation. It was particularly desirable in cases where there were significant mitigating factors present.

He said the Court of Appeal agreed with Mr Staines that having a pending prosecution hanging over ones head was a matter of some substance. For someone who had not previously come before the court, the fact a prosecution was pending was likely to be a source of anxiety.

Furthermore, he said the 8,000 that had been saved by Lynch for compensation, while small, was a significant sum for a family in straightened circumstances and her efforts over a four year period indicated genuine remorse.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the failure to identify a headline sentence coupled with the fact there was no mention of Lynchs efforts to assemble a compensation fund, persuaded the Court of Appeal, not without hesitation, that it should intervene.

He said the court agreed with the Circuit Court judge that it was a serious case involving a course of wrongdoing, duplicity and criminality. It could not be forgotten, Mr Justice Birmingham said, that the case involved the theft of almost half a million euro over a significant period in a systemic fashion.

Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice John Edwards and Mr Justice John Hedigan, said the court would sentence Lynch to 18 months imprisonment but would suspend the final six months.

Lynch was lead away to begin serving her sentence that evening. The court heard that she wanted to begin serving her sentence immediately, rather than having to go home again before being sent to jail.
By Ann O'Loughlin

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear next month the State's appeal against a significant finding the word unborn in the Constitution means a child with constitutional protection beyond the Eighth Amendment.

Lawyers for the State told the Chief Justice today they wanted an "extremely early" hearing date because, while no date for a referendum on the Eighth Amendment had yet been set, the prospect of a referendum in late May had been raised.

Mary O'Toole SC said her side are very anxious the appeal is heard and decided as soon as possible.

The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, said the appeal raised issues concerning the Eighth Amendment and related matters and the courts, as was the case with the State, would not be anxious to have the appeal heard in the middle of a referendum campaign.

In the circumstances, the court would facilitate the State's request for the earliest possible hearing and would hear the appeal in February, probably around February 22/23. The court would set the exact date once the necessary legal documents had been set.

Michael Conlon SC, for the respondents to the appeal, agreed with Ms O'Toole the appeal would probably run for two or three days.

The case was before the Chief Justice today for urgent case management after the Supreme Court last month agreed to hear the appeal, which concerns the extent of the rights of the unborn and of non-marital parents, because of the systemic importance of the issues raised.

While the High Court decision concerned an immigration case, the findings had wider significance, the Supreme Court noted.

The appeal is against a July 2016 judgment in which Mr Justice Richard Humphreys held the unborn is an unborn child with effective rights, including as a result of the Childrens referendum, extending beyond the protection provided in the Eighth Amendment - Article 40.3.3 - which obliges the State to defend and vindicate the right to life of the unborn "with due regard" to the equal right to life of the mother.

The State has expressed concern, if the High Court findings are upheld, they will have serious repercussions for the duties of the State, particularly entities such as the Child and Family Agency.

The High Court judgment was delivered in proceedings aimed at preventing the deportation of a Nigerian man.

The case was brought by the man, his Irish female partner and their now two-year-old child, who was not born when the case was initiated.

The High Court said the unborn child, including of a parent facing deportation, enjoys significant rights under the Constitution going well beyond the right to life alone, many of which are actually effective and must be considered.

The Minister must consider the constitutional and EU rights of the man, his partner and the child, including their family rights and rights as non-marital parents, he ruled.

He stressed his findings did not mean a person such as a man, unlawfully in the State since 2007, was automatically entitled to remain here.

The grounds of appeal include the Ministers insistence the High Court was wrong to find the unborn is a child for the purposes of Article 42A, inserted as a result of the 2012 Childrens Referendum, and that Article 42A affords protection for the rights of all children "both before and after birth".

It is also argued the High Court erred in finding the Eighth Amendment does not state the legal position of the unborn on an exclusive basis.

Other grounds include arguments the High Court erred in finding the combined effect of Article 42A, constitutional recognition for same-sex marriage, European law and societal changes is that unmarried parents now have wider inherent constitutional rights in relation to their children and each other.

Today, Mr Conlon, instructed by solicitor Brian Burns, agreed with the Chief Justice his side had no legal interest in the case because matters had moved on for his clients. However, having agreed costs issues with the State, they were prepared to act as respondents in this important appeal and had no difficulty with an expedited hearing.
by Tom Tuite

A judge has asked forensic psychiatrist Prof Harry Kennedy to attend the next hearing of a 15-year-old Dublin schoolboy accused of a serious knife attack on a woman he allegedly met through a social media website.

The boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, had been refused bail on December 26 after a garda testified that he feared the teen would be likely to commit murder if released. The boy faced his third hearing when he appeared before Judge John OConnor at the Dublin Childrens Court today.

The boy was further remanded in custody to appear again in two weeks.

He is charged with assault causing harm to the woman and production of a knife during the alleged assault at the baths, Queens Road, Dun Laoghaire on December 23 last. He has not yet indicated how he will plead and the court has heard that further charges will be brought.

The woman, who is 25 and of Irish-Malaysian descent, was found near the baths at around 3.20pm on the date of the incident. She was hospitalised with serious injuries including a horizontal lacerations to her neck.

The court had ordered that the boy was to receive Assessment Consultation Therapy Service (ACTS) while in custody at the Oberstown detention centre. ACTS provides multidisciplinary consultation, assessment and interventions to young people.

Today, the case resumed and Judge OConnor clarified the reporting restrictions of the Children Act.

He assured the teens parents the restrictions remained in place and nothing could be published that could identify their son. The teen told the judge he was not the usual type of person in the Oberstown detention centre.

Judge OConnor asked that Prof Harry Kennedy would attend the next hearing to see if there was a suitable alternative facility.

Prof Kennedy is a forensic psychiatrist and a director of the Central Mental Hospital.

Detective Garda Daniel Treacy had informed the court earlier that so far the only directions were in relation to the charges already before the court. He has said further directions were not yet available but he added that we expect there will be further charges judge.

Following a lengthy bail hearing on December 26, Judge Brian OShea noted the evidence of Det Garda Treacy who had told a special sitting of the court he believed the youth would be likely to commit murder if released.

Refusing bail, the judge had said it was alleged the boy engaged the complainant through the Whisper social media app and lured her to various abandoned locations.

The boy allegedly used a knife to inflict a lengthy transverse laceration to her neck, the bail hearing was told. The teen has no previous convictions and no history of drug addiction or abuse, the court also heard.
Two Cork men who pleaded guilty to firearms offences after a garda investigation into the "New IRA" will be sentenced at the non-jury Special Criminal Court next month.

Joseph Walsh (36) of Glengarriff Road, Fair Hill, Co Cork and Michael Gilmartin (47), with an address at Chestnut Drive, Cluain Ard, Newtown, Cobh, Co Cork both pleaded guilty to possession of firearms including a magazine suitable for a 9mm parabellum pistol, a 9mm parabellum pistol and a double-barrel sawn-off shotgun at Chestnut Drive, Cluain Ard, Newtown, Cobh, County Cork on September 14th last year.

They also admitted the possession of 14 rounds of 9mm ammunition and eight shotgun cartridges at the same place on the same date.

At a sentence hearing today Detective Sergeant Patrick Murphy told Ronan Kennedy BL for the State that in late 2016 a garda operation to monitor subversives in the Cork area intensified. A new group, calling itself the New IRA, had come to the attention of gardai and had been under surveillance since April 2016.

As a result of their operations gardai became aware that Mr Gilmartin was to come into possession of firearms on December 14.

Three detective units and members of the armed support unit went to Cobh on December 14 to try to detect Mr Gilmartin. At 7.30pm Mr Gilmartin was seen in the vicinity of a petrol station in Newtown in Cobh carrying a black Umbro backpack with an FAI logo on it.

Two other men, including the co-accused Joseph Walsh, arrived in a gold-coloured Toyota Avensis and engaged in conversation with Mr Gilmartin. They then drove to Mr Gilmartins nearby home. Mr Gilmartin had moved to the address three weeks earlier.

Gardai saw Mr Walsh enter the house carrying the black Umbro bag. At 7.53pm the armed support unit entered the premises. The two accused were in a childs bedroom and Mr Gilmartin was now holding the bag. The bag contained a dismantled 12-gauge, sawn-off shotgun in fair condition and a smaller bag with a Walther pistol and magazine in good condition. They found 22 rounds of ammunition in total and a holster for the pistol which contained DNA matching Mr Gilmartin.

Both men were arrested and detained. During interviews Mr Walsh initially took a "no comment attitude" but when gardai asked if he thought the bag contained something illegal he replied: "I had a fair idea."

Mr Walsh has a previous conviction for assault causing harm in 2013 and was given a two-year suspended sentence in 2010 for striking a 21-year-old man, knocking him unconscious. In 2009 he was convicted under the Public Order Act for fighting in the street and in 2008 he was convicted of an assault at Cork Circuit Court.

He was unemployed at the time of this offence and had previously worked as a bar manager and as a doorman for a security company.

Mr Gilmartin also initially took a "no comment attitude" but in the fourth interview he told gardai that he feared for his life. Det Sgt Murphy said Mr Gilmartin had a legitimate interest in firearms, having been a member of a gun club for some years. His only previous convictions were under the Road Traffic Act. Originally from Cobh, Mr Gilmartin had worked as a civilian operator for the Department of Defence but is currently suspended.

Mr Kennedy said that the Director of Public Prosecutions takes the view that the offences fall in the middle range in terms of their seriousness.

Mr Walshs defence asked the three-judge court to take into account that he pleaded guilty and admitted during interviews with gardai that he had a fair idea something illegal was in the bag. A "glowing reference" written by one of Mr Walshs former employers was also handed to the Court.

Blaise OCarroll SC for Mr Gilmartin said his clients sister had written to the court saying that the family had lost two members, leaving a huge void in their lives. She described Mr Gilmartin as a family man and a "tower of support" who worked hard all his life.

Mr Gilmartins partner of four years Emma Devlin said that he had "supported us in so many ways" and that since his arrest she has lost her home and become "officially homeless". Mr OCarroll said his client suffers from gout, insomnia and an anxiety disorder. He comes from a "very good family" and is of "outstanding good character" with no previous criminal convictions against him. He said he had been "put upon" because he had knowledge of firearms. He was put into a difficult position, Mr OCarroll said, and provided logistical support but was not a "prime mover".

Justice Tony Hunt, sitting with Judge Patricia Ryan and Judge Ann Ryan, said they have a "fair bit to think about" and adjourned sentencing until February 5.

- IINA
Two Dublin men found last year with an "arsenal" of firearms and ammunition in a Dublin business park will be sentenced later this month at the non-jury Special Criminal Court, writes Daniel Hickey

The court heard during today's sentence hearing that gardai recovered over a thousand rounds of ammunition and four loaded revolvers which were "primed, armed and ready to be used".

Jonathan Harding (45) of McNeill Court, Sallins, Co Kildare, and James Walsh (33), with an address at Neilstown Drive, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 both pleaded guilty last year to the possession of nine revolvers, four pistols, a sub-machinegun, an assault rifle and various ammunition magazines.

The men were found with the cache on January 24th last year at a unit in Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole, Co Dublin.

At today's sentence hearing, Detective Inspector Noel Browne, of the National Drugs and Organized Crime Bureau, summarized the facts of the case.

He told prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane SC that after receiving information on January 23, 2017, gardai put in place a surveillance operation on individuals in the Rathcoole area.

On the morning of January 24, Harding and another man were observed driving a Ford transit van to Greenogue Business Park.

The court heard that Harding "took a circuitous route" to the business park before parking outside block 507.

The detective said that a Passat, to which Walsh had access, was also parked outside.

The premises continued to be observed, the court heard

Harding and the other man were seen leaving the unit in the same van before stopping at a Texaco service station.

The detective said that because of the "urgent and pressing nature" of the investigation he gave instructions that the van be stopped.

Gardai approached the van and arrested Harding and the other man.

Meanwhile, in the business park, other officers went into the unit and found an arsenal of firearms and ammunition, the detective said.

The court heard that the unit was purporting to be the premises of a logisitics company, giving the impression it was a legitimate freight business based in the UK.

Det Insp Browne said that in an upstairs loft area, a number of loaded firearms were laid out on cardboard on the floor.

There were four loaded revolvers, "ready to be used", and an AK47 assault weapon.

Gardai also found more guns and ammunition in two cardboard boxes. A number of the firearms were sealed inside bags also containing suitable ammunition.

The court heard that Harding has two previous convictions. In 2004 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court he was jailed for six years for possession of more than 700,000 worth of drugs for sale or supply.

Walsh has a number of previous convictions for public order offences.

Det Insp Browne agreed with Sean Guerin SC, for Harding, that his client's early plea had prevented a lengthy trial.

He also said that Harding was not in a leadership role.

"He was a willing participant but not a person who had the acumen to devise such an operation," the inspector said.

The inspector told Micheal Bowman SC, for Walsh, that his client was a "trusted lieutenant in the operation" but not a prime mover.

Walsh was not forensically connected with any of the weapons, the court heard.

Mr Gillane said the DPP's position is that the case is at the higher end of the scale in terms of sentencing, because of the nature of the firearms and the "sheer volume of them".

Four revolvers on the cardboard were "primed, armed and ready to be used", the barrister said.

He also noted the context in which the arsenal was found, in a "well-constructed ruse" to run premises which was a legitimate enterprise.

Mr Guerin asked the court to take into mitigation that his client was not in a leadership role and that he was offering a "wholehearted apology" to the court.

Mr Bowman said that Walsh's brother who had a drug addiction had got into "spiralling debts" and as a consequence, his client had got involved in the offences in question.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Patricia Ryan and Judge Ann Ryan, remanded the men in custody until January 30, when they will be sentenced.
A 72-year-old Japanese fugitive who was recognised when his full-body tattoos were circulated online has been arrested by police in Thailand.

A police statement said Shigeharu Shirai was arrested on Wednesday in a province north of Bangkok, where he has been hiding for more than 10 years to evade murder charges in Japan in connection with the death of a rival gang member.
The company which supplied lingerie to the British queen has lost its royal warrant after the firm's director wrote a book revealing details of her work with the royal family.

Rigby & Peller had held the royal warrant since 1960, but confirmed it was "deeply saddened" by the Royal Household Warrants Committee's decision to cancel it.

June Kenton, director of the London-based firm, published Storm In A D Cup in March last year.

It is not clear if the two events are linked.

Mrs Kenton regularly visited Buckingham Palace and served members of the British royal family, including the queen, the queen mother and princess Margaret, and her autobiography provided some detail about her working relationship with them.

Rigby & Peller said in a statement: "The Royal Household Warrants Committee has decided to cancel the royal warrant granted to Rigby & Peller and Mrs June Kenton.

"Rigby & Peller is deeply saddened by this decision and is not able to elaborate further on the cancellation out of respect for Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Warrant Holders Association.

"However, the company will continue to provide an exemplary and discreet service to its clients."

Buckingham Palace said it did not "comment on individual companies".

Mrs Kenton, from Bushey in Hertfordshire, bought Rigby & Peller with her husband in 1982 for 20,000 before selling a majority stake in 2011 for 8 million - although she remains on the board.
A German federal court has overturned the acquittal of seven men who posed as a self-styled "Sharia police," ordering a retrial on charges that they violated rules on wearing uniforms.

The group took to the streets of Wuppertal in September 2014 dressed in orange vests bearing the words "Sharia police".

They handed out leaflets declaring the area a "Sharia-controlled zone" where alcohol, music and pornography were banned. Five of the defendants were allegedly part of the self-styled patrol and the other two alleged accessories.

Their behaviour prompted an outcry in German media.

A state court found in 2016 that the vests could not be classified as a uniform and were not intimidating, and ruled that the men could not be convicted under any law.

The Federal Court of Justice sent the case back to Wuppertal, in western Germany, for a new trial by a different panel of judges.

It said the lower court gave insufficient consideration to possible violations of the law and also did not take into account the effect of the stunt on the people it was aimed at.

"The state court gave no consideration at all to how the action was understood by Muslims," presiding judge Joerg-Peter Becker said in delivering the federal court's ruling.

The self-appointed "Sharia Police" sparked public outrage in September 2014, when they distributed yellow leaflets which established a "Sharia-controlled zone" in the Elberfeld district of Wuppertal. prostitution. pic.twitter.com/NOvoegkC2f  1 (@ElenaforAmerica) December 28, 2017

"So, the case has to be retried completely."

The alleged initiator of the "Sharia police," prominent German Islamic radical Sven Lau, was convicted in a separate trial last year of supporting a foreign terrorist organisation - the Army of Emigrants and Partisans, known as JAMWA.

He was sentenced to a five-and-a-half years in prison.

A court in Dusseldorf found that Lau acted as a contact for extremists wanting to fight for the group in Syria and, in 2013, helped two men from Germany join it there.

- AP and Digital desk
A no-deal hard Brexit could cost the UK half a million jobs and 50bn less investment, according to a study.

Research for the mayor of London Sadiq Khan warned of a "lost decade" of significantly lower growth.

The country could have 500,000 fewer jobs in the worst-case scenario and nearly 50bn less investment by 2030.

In London alone, there could be 87,000 fewer jobs and the capital's economic output could be 2% lower by 2030 than predicted under the status quo, it was warned.

The findings were in an analysis of the potential impact of five different Brexit outcomes on London and the UK, commissioned by the mayor last year from economic analysts Cambridge Econometrics.

Mr Khan said: "This independent analysis reveals the potential economic risks - and human costs - at stake in the negotiations.

"If the Government continue to mishandle the negotiations we could be heading for a lost decade of lower growth and lower employment.

"The analysis concludes that the harder the Brexit we end up with, the bigger the potential impact on jobs, growth and living standards.

"Ministers are fast running out of time to turn the negotiations around.

"A "no-deal" hard Brexit is still a very real risk - the worst possible scenario.

"I've released these impact assessments because the British people and our businesses have a right to know the likely impact of the various options the Government are considering on their lives and personal finances.

"This new analysis shows why the Government should now change its approach and negotiate a deal that enables us to remain in both the single market and the customs union.

"It's astonishing that the Government has failed to do any proper impact assessments on what Brexit could mean for our economy.

"Their complete lack of preparation is irresponsible, leading to fears that they are putting party politics ahead of the national interest."

PA
What are they talking about in Middletown Township? The ADA-accessible playground at Cobalt Ridge Park, home-improvement projects, climate change or the towns female police officer? Actually, all those topics -- and more on the townships own podcast, Middletown Township Talks. It recently celebrated its first anniversary and is doing quite well, say show organizers. Middletown Township Talks provides residents the...
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October 31, 2022

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In November, there are hundreds of new and returning TV showsit can be overwhelming to try and choose what to watch. That's why we've selected some of the best options...
The UKs fastest growing builders merchant has opened its first branch of 2018  taking its total to 59 in the UK.

Selco Builders Warehouse has unveiled a new branch in Solihull as the companys fast paced growth continues.

The new branch further strengthens Selcos presence in its West Midlands heartland, with the region now host to eight branches and the companys support centre in Wythall.

Solihull features the full Selco offering, including Selco Hire and a comprehensive kitchen design service.

Howard Luft, Selcos new Chief Executive, said: We are delighted to have strengthened our presence in the West Midlands by cutting the ribbon on our new branch in Solihull.

We pride ourselves on being able to provide comprehensive coverage across the region, and with branches in Tyseley, Tyburn, Perry Barr, Stirchley, Dudley, Coventry and Wolverhampton, we are bringing Selcos unique offering to as many tradespeople as possible.

We are a one-stop shop for the trade and always put our customers first. As a genuine multi-channel builders merchant we want to give them the chance to get their building materials in the most convenient way possible to them.

Selco will soon be opening a new branch in York as the builders merchant continues to seek new locations for branches.

The launch of the Solihull branch has also seen Selco continue its support to the community by giving away 3,000 to charities in each area.
Ibstock Brick has been recognised for its marketing support at the Jewson annual supplier awards.

The UK brick manufacturer picked up the Juice Award for Best Marketing Support at the event which took place as part of the Jewson annual conference and customer show in December. The award recognises Ibstocks commitment, engagement and support to in helping Jewson to improve its brick offering for customers. The Ibstock Brick team, in particular, National Account Manager Sue Foster; Market Manager Sarah Holey; and the samples department at the Leicestershire head office were praised for their support.

As part of the strategy, Jewson required 1,000 brick panels for its branches in the South West and London regions. However, some of the complications in producing a high volume of panels had not been anticipated and threatened to hold up the roll-out. Through consultation with all parties involved, Ibstock Brick suggested altering the specification of the panels to reduce the time needed to produce them so the project could remain on track.

The award, which is decided by an executive panel, also recognised a number of other factors, such as Ibstock Bricks execution of sales training, commitment to grow sales through a long-term partnership and engagement across Jewson business activities, including support of the Tour de Jewson in aid of Barnardos in 2016.

Simon Taylor, Director of Sales (Builders Merchants) at Ibstock Brick, said: It is fantastic to be recognised for the marketing support we provide to Jewson and its branches. It is the result of the combined efforts of our marketing, sales and samples teams at all levels of the Jewson business, from Regional Directors and their teams to the branch staff.

As well as providing on-going marketing support, the teams went above and beyond what was required, coming up with an alternative solution to ensure the roll out of Jewsons display project remained on track. It is this commitment that helps our customers grow and creates long-term business relationships.
Film: "Paddington 2"; Director: Paul King; Cast: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Hugh Grant, Brandan Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gambon, Simon Farnaby, Tom Conti and Noah Taylor; Rating: ***

Based on the long-running children's book series from renowned author Michael Bond, which was first published in 1957, director Paul King's "Paddington 2" is a charming and narratively more satisfying sequel to the 2014 released "Paddington".

Just like the original film made an impassioned case for accepting and welcoming immigrants, this edition makes a plea for kindness, civility and looking for the good in people. It is every bit as perfectly tuned, cruelty-free funny and kind-hearted film as its earlier edition.

Like its first edition, this chapter of adventures begins by plunging through the cloudy Peruvian jungle giving an insight to Paddington's pre-London days, before settling to the present-day narrative where its predecessor left off with Paddington in the Notting Hill abode of the Brown family, adorably headed by Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville.

Here we see, Paddington, once again voiced impeccably by Ben Whishaw, leading a happy life. Outgoing, adorable and childlike in his directness, he retains his ursine instincts, suddenly slurping at the marmalade-smeared head of a barbershop customer, for example.

He takes up odd jobs at the barbers and cleaning windows in the neighbourhood, in order to collect money for a "popping book" of London, which he intends to buy from the immigrant antique dealer Mr. Gruber (Jim Broadbent). He wants this book to send it as a gift to his Anglophile Aunt Lucy in Peru for her 100th birthday.

But unfortunately, unbeknownst to Paddington, there is someone else who has been eyeing the book. When that person breaks into the shop to steal the volume, Paddington gives a chase astride a trusty Irish wolfhound only to somehow wrongfully land in prison as the suspected thief.

The real thief, the man-of-many disguises, is the Brown's neighbour, the waning West End star Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant). Buchanan pinches the book for clues to a hidden fortune. How Paddington clears his name alongside the Brown family's amateur detective work and the help from his rough but soft-hearted friends from the prison, forms the witty, albeit slender narrative thread.

What is remarkable is the compact and ingenious plotting in director Paul King and his co-screenwriter Simon Farnaby's script. With retro mechanism of coincidences, mysteries and mini-puzzles the plot is a delight. It is further supported by the seamless digital integration of a talking bear into a live-action London jam-packed with even stranger diversions.

The scrambling action scenes are lively, complicated and enjoyable, making it feel that its cinematic universe is a caper.

On the performance front, the actors slip into their roles with apt precision. Apart from Hugh Grant, who plays the self-centred Phoenix Buchanan with elan, it is Brendan Gleeson as the violent cook Knuckles who leaves an impact on screen.

Ben Whishaw's lissome voice-work makes Paddington an utterly engaging character. Equally convincing are Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon as Paddington's Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pastuzo.

Visually, every frame is like an intricate-scaled diorama, a work of art built up from thousands of tiny, thoughtful details that would enthral you over several viewings.

Overall, this film would appeal to children and adults alike.
Three hundred per cent returns in the past one year? Yes, this is the wealth Gurgaon-headquartered auto component maker Minda Industries created for its shareholders. The surge, higher than almost every peer, has also made the company's promoter a billionaire with shares worth $1.22 billion (Rs 78 billion).
Though has said Sebi has taken an inordinately long time to hand out its order in the Satyam case, commentators have attributed part of the delay to the firms challenge of the regulators ambit in the Supreme Court.
Last month, has enhanced the cap, limit to iron ore mines in Karnataka, by five million tonnes to 35 million tonnes. However, industry representatives have said that the cap not increased, which resulted in loss of around Rs 6.5 billion to the Karnataka Government and for the industry.
The Delhi High Court has emerged as the latest battleground between warring joint venture partners McDonald's India Pvt Ltd (MIPL) and Vikram Bakshi. At least two matters are currently on in the Delhi High Court involving the two parties. One of them pertains to the use of the McDonald's trademark by Connaught Plaza Restaurants Ltd (CPRL), the 50:50 joint venture between MIPL and Bakshi
The Indian development centre of Renault and Nissan, near Chennai, is abuzz with activity. A 'secret' team, codenamed 2ASDU, is working on two car models for Renault and one for Datsun, a sub-brand of Nissan.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) late on Wednesday barred Price Waterhouse from auditing listed in the country for two years, after a probe into a nearly decade-old accounting fraud case in a software services company that became India's biggest corporate scandal.
The hit on Price Waterhouse (PW) has opened up new business opportunities worth over Rs 1 billion for other auditing firms in the country. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had on Wednesday banned PW from auditing listed for two years.

PW was the statutory auditor for 85 listed in 2016-17, and these spent Rs 1 billion on audit expenses during the year. This financial year, PW has around 75 listed firms on its roster.

Experts say auditing assignments with large companies also open opportunities for big accounting firms in the areas of tax advisory, management and business consultancy services, which can generate much higher revenue than the audit business.

The analysis is based on the audited expenses of all listed companies, and includes the PW network of accounting firms Price Waterhouse, Lovelock & Lewes, and Dalal & Shah.





ALSO READ: Sebi order against Price Waterhouse has audit profession in a tizzy

Once the ban period is over, many of these firms may go back to PW, as the law requires listed companies to rotate their auditors every 10 years.

But some may decide not to go back to PW for the reputational risk that the name now carries with auditors. Loss of auditing clients may also impact PWs supplementary businesses in India, said a senior corporate executive on condition of anonymity.

PW added marquee clients such as Tata Steel, Hindalco, and Ashok Leyland this financial year.

Last year, it audited the accounts of leading listed firms such as IndusInd Bank, Bajaj group firms such as Bajaj Auto and Bajaj Finance, Glaxo, Motherson Sumi, and Marico.





ALSO READ: Price Waterhouse clients to work on looking for alternative after Sebi ban

After the Sebi order, these companies will have to look out for new auditors. Experts, however, say they should wait for the outcome of likely appeals by PW against the Sebi order at the Securities Appellate Tribunal.

In all, PW clients during FY17 accounted for nearly 8 per cent of the combined market capitalisation of all listed companies and 6 per cent and 4.5 per cent of the universe combined net profits and net sales in FY17.

Auditors are also a worried lot as they would have to increase the scrutiny on accounts, leading to an increase in their efforts.








A day after the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) introduced a mechanism to protect the Aadhaar data of 1.2 billion residents in the country, experts and government officials were divided over the effectiveness of the new system.
Former US president had received gifts worth about $3,000 during his visit to India in 2015 as Chief Guest at the Republic Day Parade, according to the State Department.

Obama was the first US head of state who attended the parade in 2015.

According to the Department of State's Protocol Office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented Obama telegram facsimile from the US to India's Constituent Assembly in 1946 and reproduction of the cover page of a report on India's Constitutional Debates.

Modi also presented him a framed photograph of Marian Anderson's radio interview in India and a hand-carved wooden Jali box with a small wooden latch and photo of Marian Anderson's radio interview in India on the lid.

Among other gifts from Modi were a CD set, title: All India Radio Interview with Marian Anderson, November 18 1957, New Delhi.

Obama also received a hand-carved black wooden Jali box with painting on the lid; blue Shahmina shawl, red Shahmina shawl and beige and cream coloured shahmina shawl. The State Department Protocol Office have estimated their value at USD 1,231.

The Rajghat Samadhi Committee presented him a model spinning wheel with white tread looped around the wheel and a cloth scroll listing the Seven Social Sins as articulated by Mahatma Gandhi.

He also received a book on Mahatma Gandhi titled "An AutobiographyThe Story of my Experiments with the Truth" and a bronze-coloured bust of Mohandas Karamchard Gandhi on a wood base. The gifts were estimated to be a value of USD 929.01.

The then president Pranab Mukherjee presented Obama a book titled "Thoughts and Reflections", "Winged Wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan RB Series 20122014" along with a Photobook, titled "State Visit of His Excellency Barack H Obama, President of the United States of America and Michelle Obama to India on January 25 to 27 January 2015".

The gifts were estimated to be USD 825.

The First Lady Michelle Obama received gifts worth over USD 1500, according to the list. All the gifts have been handed over to the Archive.

Michelle was given by Modi a hand-embroidered Shahmina shawl, hand-carved wooden Jali box, and assorted Indian tea of an estimated value of USD 662. While rest of the items were given to the Archives, the tea box was handled pursuant to United States Secret Service policy, the Office of Protocol said.

And finally, President Mukherjee presented to Michelle pashmina Shawl with hand-embroidery and specially commissioned tea set, including pot, six cups, six saucers, milk pitcher, and sugar jar, at an estimated value of USD 900.
Budget passenger carrier IndiGo's Mumbai-Bengaluru flight had to return here soon after it had taken off late on Tuesday, the airline said on Wednesday.

According to the airline, its flight 6E 565 faced a "technical issue" while it was airborne.

"Following all Standard Operating Procedures, the pilot immediately took the precautionary measure to return to Mumbai for necessary checks," the airline said in a statement on Wednesday.

"An alternate aircraft was provided for completion of the flight. The matter has been already brought to the notice of the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) and is being investigated by the IndiGo Flight Safety Department."
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday issued fresh summons to Karti Chidambaram, the son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, after he skipped his appearance before it in connection with the INX Media money laundering case probe.

Official sources said he has now been called by the agency on January 16.

The investigating officer (IO) of the case had earlier this month summoned him for appearance today, which he skipped.

The sources said an authorised representative of Karti Chidambaram today met officials probing the case and handed over some documents.

The central probe agency had registered a case against him and others in May this year.

It had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED's equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

The ECIR was lodged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The sources said that the ED will probe the alleged "proceeds of crime" generated in this case.

It was the ED which had provided information about the alleged illegal payments made by INX Media, based on which the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed its FIR.

The CBI had also carried out searches at the homes and offices of Karti Chidambaram across four cities for allegedly receiving money from the media firm owned by the Mukerjeas to scuttle a tax probe.

The Chidambarams have denied all the charges made against them.

The CBI had filed the FIR against Karti Chidambaram and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

The agency has alleged that Karti Chidambaram received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

The CBI has said it has also recovered vouchers of Rs 1 million which were allegedly paid for the services.

These vouchers were issued in favour of Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti Chidambaram, the CBI had alleged.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram, after the CBI searches on May 16, had issued a strong statement in response to the raids, saying the government was using the CBI and other agencies to target his son.

The FIPB approval was granted in "hundreds of cases", the senior Congress leader had said.

The CBI FIR was made out against Karti Chidambaram, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas (currently in jail on charges of murder of their daughter Sheena Bora), INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its director Padma Vishwanathan.
In the run up to the state visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to India from January 14 to 19, Israel on Thursday said it will invest $68.6 million to boost cooperation with India in areas like tourism, technology, agriculture and innovation over a period of four years.
India on Thursday said Security Advisor met his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (retd) last month in Thailand, noting that "talks on terror" can go ahead.

Raveesh Kumar, the spoksperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters that the focus of the "operational-level talks" was "cross-border terror" and ways to ensure the elimination of terrorism from the region.

"India and Pakistan have a dialogue process and we have said terror and talks cannot go together. However, there are other dialogue mechanisms like at the DGMO level or between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers.

"Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of operational-level talks. We have said terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead," Kumar said.

The meeting between the two NSAs took place in Thailand nearly three weeks ago.
The US on Wednesday issued a new travel advisory for countries including India, which its officials said is "user friendly" as it is based on ready-to-understand level of advice ranging from one to four.

India has been ranked Level 2 (exercise increased caution) while Pakistan has been places in Level 3 (reconsider travel).

Level 1 advises travllers to exercise normal precaution, while Level 4, which has countries like Afghanistan, recommends "Do Not Travel".

Now every country has a travel advisory based on this system, which has replaced all the previous such advisories.

"These improvements will provide US citizens with clear, timely, and reliable safety and security information worldwide," the State Department said.

Placing India on Level 2, the State Department identified "crime and terrorism" for Americans to exercise increased caution. However, it asks Americans not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir, except for eastern Ladakh and Leh and not to venture within 10 miles of the India-Pakistan border due to the "potential for armed conflict".

The State Department explained that while it will issue an overall travel advisory level for every country, levels of advice may vary for specific locations or areas within a country.

"Indian authorities report rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India.Violent crime, such as sexual assault, has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations," the new India travel advisory said.

Terrorists or armed groups are active in east-central India, primarily in rural areas, it added.

"Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities," it said.

Ranking Pakistan on Level 3, the State Department asked Americans to reconsider travel to this country due to terrorism.

It advises Americans not to travel to travel to Balochistan province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) due to terrorism.

Americans are also advised not to travel to Pak-Occupied Kashmir due to terrorism and the potential for armed conflict.

"Over the past six months, there have been at least 40 significant terrorist attacks across Pakistan, resulting in over 225 deaths and 475 wounded, most of which occurred in Balochistan, KPK, and the FATA. In the past, there have been large-scale terrorist attacks resulting in hundreds of casualties," it said.
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Prime Minister receives Dr. Mohamed Asim, Minister of Foreign Affairs & Special Envoy of the President of the Republic of Maldives Dr. Mohamed Asim, Minister of Foreign Affairs & Special Envoy of the President of Maldives called on Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today afternoon.

They discussed the ties between India and Maldives as close neighbours bound by shared history, culture and maritime interests in the Indian Ocean. Special Envoy Asim reiterated the commitment of Maldives to maintain close relations with India under Maldives India First" policy.

Prime Minister affirmed that India would always be a reliable and close neighbour of Maldives supporting it in its progress and security.

Special Envoy Asim also reiterated President Yameens invitation to Prime Minister to visit Maldives. Prime Minister conveyed his gratitude for the invitation and agreed to the visit at a suitable time.

Special Envoy conveyed the greetings of President Abdulla Yameen to Prime Minister, which was warmly reciprocated by Prime Minister.
Vice President offers prayers to Venkateswara Swami in Tirupati

The Vice President of India, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu has said that Indian heritage and culture are very rich and teach the world about peace.

Vice President along with his family visited Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam and offered prayers to Lord Venkateswara Swami in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh today.

The Vice President said that our ancestors have always taught us to be helpful to everyone around and not discriminate on the basis of caste, creed or religion.

We believe in Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhawantu; we must respect everyone and live peacefully," he said.

The Vice President spoke to the media after offering prayers and said that all should perform their duty with discipline and dedication.

He also wished the people ahead of the auspicious festival of Sankranti.
The newest smartphone from Huawei was meant to show Americans what China can do with technology. Instead, Huaweis push to sell the phone in the US has suddenly lost a powerful backer  and the push has attracted some unwanted scrutiny from Washington.
Canada has filed a sweeping trade case against the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO), lobbing a diplomatic grenade at the Trump administrations America First approach amid an increasingly embattled trade relationship between the longstanding North American allies.
said on Thursday it had invested in Singapore-based ride-hailing firm Grab, in the South Korean automaker's first foray into the rapidly growing sector as it tries to diversify following a sales slump in China.

Grab has expanded to eight Southeast Asian countries and has said it is the biggest operator in the region's third-party taxi hailing and private-vehicle hailing sector.

The will jointly develop services in Southeast Asia, including one utilising Hyundai's eco-friendly models such as the IONIQ Electric, the two firms said in a statement.

They did not disclose the value of Hyundai's investment and a spokeswoman for the automaker declined to comment further.

Grab's latest fundraising round, which Hyundai has joined, already includes investors such as China's Didi Chuxing, Japan's SoftBank and Toyota Tsusho, the firms added.

Hyundai said on Wednesday it is considering building a car plant in Southeast Asia, possibly in Indonesia or Vietnam.

The company's interest in the region has grown since a diplomatic row between Beijing and Seoul last year hurt South Korean firms that are highly reliant on the Chinese market.

The automaker also announced for the first time a self-driving technology partnership with Silicon Valley start-up Aurora earlier this month, a shift from its usual preference for developing technology itself.
Nepal will receive internet bandwidth from China today, ending the Himalayn nation's sole dependence on India for connecting to the cyber space.

State-owned telecom company Nepal Telecom (NT) said that all the groundwork has been completed to formally connect Nepal with Chinese bandwidth from January 12.

"The process of acquiring internet bandwidth from China has been completed. The commercial operation of the Nepal- China optical fibre link will begin from Friday, said Prativa Baidhya, spokesperson for NT.

However, NT did not disclose the actual volume of Chinese internet bandwidth that Nepal will receive.

The details will be made public after a formal inauguration tomorrow, she added.

In December 2016, NT had reached an agreement with China Telecom to acquire internet bandwidth. NT had begun the test transmission of the project from the first week of September last year.

With successful test transmission, Nepal will now be commercially connected with Chinese bandwidth, according to the official.

Chinese internet will be supplied via Rasuwagadhi gateway, according to sources at NT.

As the use of Internet has been increasing rapidly in the country, Chinese internet bandwidth is taken as an alternative source for Nepal to meet the ever-increasing bandwidth demand, she said.

The commercial operation of the Chinese bandwidth project will end Nepals sole dependence on India for internet bandwidth.

Nepal is currently linked to the global internet connectivity through Indian telecom operators via different optical fibre connections in Biratnagar, Bhairahawa and Birgunj, among others, the Himalayn Times reported.

Besides ending the monopoly of bandwidth supply, the Chinese Internet gateway is also expected to facilitate service providers in Nepal to establish bandwidth connection with other countries via China.

Though NT is purchasing limited volume of Internet from China in the first phase, the company will increase the volume of Chinese internet gradually in the coming days.

(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.)
Britain could lose almost 500,000 jobs and 50 billion pounds ($67.41 billion) investment over the next 12 years if it fails to agree on a trade deal with the European Union, according to a report commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Cambridge Econometrics, an economics consultancy, looked at five different scenarios, from the hardest to the softest form of Brexit, and broke down the economic impact on nine industries, from construction to finance.

The study said that in a no-deal scenario, the industry that fares the worst will be financial and professional services, with as many as 119,000 fewer jobs nationwide.

"If the Government continue to mishandle the negotiations we could be heading for a lost decade of lower growth and lower employment," Khan said. "Ministers are fast running out of time to turn the negotiations around."

Britain and the EU will soon begin the much harder task of defining their future trading relationship, after settling the broad terms of their divorce settlement last month.

A stand-off between Britain and the EU over the future access to single market for London's vast financial services industry is shaping up to be one of the key battlegrounds before Britain is due to leave the bloc in March 2019.
Printer manufacturer Xerox Corp is in talks to do a deal with Japanese camera maker Fujifilm Holdings Corp that could include a change in control of Xerox, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

However, a full takeover of Xerox is not on the table, the newspaper said, citing one of the people.

Xerox declined to comment, while Fujifilm said it would not comment on speculative reports.

Xerox "desperately" needed new leadership as it was slow to launch new products and increase revenue, activist investor Carl Icahn wrote in an open letter to shareholders in December, a day after nominating four members to the board.

Xerox spun off its business process outsourcing unit in 2016 and separated into two independent, publicly traded .

Last August, Fujifilm said it aimed to spend 500 billion yen ($4.49 billion) in strategic acquisitions over three years as it seeks growth outside its shrinking photographic film business.

Xerox and Fujifilm created a joint venture, Fuji Xerox, in 1962. The company is now 75 per cent owned by Fujifilm and 25 per cent by Xerox.

($1 = 111.4800 yen)
US Republican lawmakers on Thursday unveiled an immigration package that would tighten border security, end chain migration, and fund President Donald Trump's border wall, while shielding nearly a million so-called "Dreamers" from deportation.

The legislation was introduced just minutes after Trump said that any legislation that protects such undocumented immigrants would need to fund a wall along the US-Mexico border -- one of the primary pledges of his 2016 presidential campaign.

"Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all doesn't work," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"We need the wall for security. We need the wall for safety."



Congress is grappling with how to break an impasse over the "Dreamers" -- immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children but were permitted to stay under Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.

Trump scrapped DACA last September but left a six-month window for Congress to craft a solution by March, when thousands of immigrants would face deportation.

He met with two dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday at the White House, urging them to craft a compromise that would accommodate the Dreamers but also achieve some immigration reforms.

"The President indicated that our Bill, the Securing America's Future Act, is the starting point to correct the flaws in our immigration system," House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte told reporters.

"This Bill funds the border wall and secures ports of entry along the southern border. It also increases boots on the ground, limits immigrants from bringing family members into the country in the future, and ends the green card lottery system," he added.

But it also includes conservative priorities like cracking down on sanctuary cities and provides no special pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.

As lawmakers race against time to find a fix, a US judge late on Wednesday blocked Trump from scrapping DACA and ordered it maintained "on a nationwide basis", as legal challenges against it proceed.

But the White House and Democrats agreed that the ruling does not diminish the urgent need to resolve the issue.
A US judge in San Francisco temporarily barred President Donald Trumps administration on Tuesday from ending a program shielding young people brought to the US illegally by their parents from deportation.
Bitcoin slumped as South Koreas justice minister reiterated his proposal to ban local cryptocurrency exchanges, fueling concern that a government crackdown will erode one of the worlds biggest sources of demand for digital currencies.
Plc made a slew of hires from rivals including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, as the bank revamps its equities business in the Asia-Pacific region and expands a nascent majority-owned securities venture in China, people familiar with the matter said.
surged 10% to Rs 1,200 on BSE in early morning trade after the company said that its board will consider stock split and interim dividend.
Four major retailers are expected to post an average of 15.4 per cent annual growth in net sales for the quarter ended December, besides a 41.6 per cent rise in Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation).
Kenyan police on Monday arrested ten Pakistanis after raids at their residents within Kizingo for their alleged involvement in terror finding, money laundering and drug trafficking.

Kenya's The Star newspaper quoted Mombasa police Commander Johnstone Ipara who confirmed the suspects were carrying out illegal commercial activities.

"We suspect they were carrying out illegal commercial activities," Ipara said.

Among those seized is the father of a terror suspect arrested in Pakistan. He was identified as Mohammed Tasleem. The 50-year-old owns company that imports rice from Pakistan.

Mombasa CID boss Washington Njiru said they were working with different agencies to investigate the suspects.

The Star quoted sources that Tasleem could be deported to Pakistan to assist with investigations. It is suspected that the proceeds of his business is used to fund terrorism activities in Pakistan.

Kenya has recently worked with different foreign agencies including the FBI and the Scotland Yard in fighting terrorism and drug trafficking.

Documents indicate the ten suspects have been in Kenya for the last four years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 40 civilians were killed over the last two days as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad led forces intensified their attacks by launching airstrikes in the war-ravaged Eastern Ghouta region.

In a statement by the White Helmets civil defence agency, as reported by Anadolu news agency, around 161 civilians were killed in airstrikes over the last two weeks.

Eastern Ghouta, a suburb located in the Syrian capital, Damascus, has been repeatedly targeted by the Assad regime forces since November 14 last year.

In May last year, Russia, Iran and Turkey signed an agreement to set up de-escalation centres in Syria. De-escalation zones include the Idlib province, some parts of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo provinces, Homs, Eastern Ghouta, Daraa and al-Quneitra provinces in southern Syria.

Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011.

Protestors have for long been demanding the resignation of Assad over his autocratic rule.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Newly-detected bursts of radio waves indicate the presence of an environment near a massively huge black hole or inside a nebula of exceptionally extraordinary power. The unprecedentedly potent magnetic field in the source's environment could be the reason, researchers speculate.

Researchers Victoria Kaspi and Shriharsh Tendulkar carried out the study for a year. They named the fast radio burst as FRB 121102 and pinpointed the location of this enigmatic source of such power field.

They reported that it is located in a dwarf galaxy in its star-forming region, more than 3 billion light-years away from Earth. The huge distance implied the unparalleled amount of energy in each burst which is roughly around as much energy in a single millisecond as the Sun releases in an entire day.

Now, with the help of data provided by Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the researchers determined that the radio bursts are highly polarized. This new information led to some new revelations.

The physics professor and director of McGill Space Institute, Kapsi tells about his wonder at the results. "I could not believe my eyes when my colleagues emailed the results around. This sort of enormous Faraday rotation is extremely rare. Once we digested it, we realised it was a huge clue about where this bizarre source resides".

The phenomenon known as Faraday rotation could be the reason. The effect happens when polarized radio waves pass through a region with a magnetic field, the polarization gets ''twisted''. The results are the stronger the magnetic field, the greater the twisting. The research also specified that the radio burst of FRB 121102 is one of the largest ever measured amounts of twisting. It led to conclusions that the bursts are passing through an extraordinarily strong magnetic field in the dense plasma.

One of the possible explanations for such hugely magnetized field is that FRB 121102 is located in the proximity of a black hole. Another such black hole is only been found in the centre of Milky Way Galaxy. Another possible explanation is FRB 121102 is located amidst a dead star or in a powerful nebula which is an interstellar cloud of gas and dust.

Shiriharsh Tendulkar said, "The CHIME telescope in Penticton, British Columbia, should be an excellent instrument for detecting fast radio bursts and studying their polarization properties". He insists that new telescopes could provide answers to more fundamental questions about FRBs.

He added, "When it comes online in 2018, it should be capable of detecting between a few and a few dozen FRBs every day".

The research was conducted by McGill University. Other supporters were the Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics & Cosmology, the Canada Research Chairs program, the Natural Sciences and Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and the FRQNT Centre de Recherche en Astrophysique du Quebec.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday applauded the Janmabhoomi programme on its last day, calling it "a unique programme and a role model for other states".

In a teleconference with the officials, Chief Minister Naidu also asked the officials to document every minute detail of the programme for future generation's reference.

He added, "Earlier people used to think negatively about the officials and public representatives. But now there is a positive change in people's attitude. This is a revolutionary change. This spirit should be continued".

As many as 60 lakh people took part in the Gram Sabhas conducted during the 10-day long Janmabhoomi.

About 1,71,447 new ration cards and 1,00,635 new pensions were issued in the programme, while 12 lakh persons were given medical aid through 15,725 medical camps and 13.72 lakh animals were treated in 23,991 veterinary camps.

In the nine days of the programme, as many as 9.92 lakh applications were received, out of which 8.51 lakh of them have been uploaded, while 3.06 lakh grievances were received.

The officials informed that they received about 2.60 lakh applications for housing, 1.98 lakh applications for civil supplies, 1.45 lakh applications for revenue and 145,350 applications for pensions. Cheif Minister Naidu ordered to resolve all the grievances and applications quickly.

He also inquired about the public opinion on day nine of the Janmabhoomi. The officials informed that health camps received 60% satisfaction, veterinary camps received 56% satisfaction, 71% people expressed satisfaction over officials' response to public grievances, 68% opined that Janmabhoomi is useful for rural development. 71% people expressed satisfaction with Chandranna insurance scheme and 68% with the pensions.

"As part of that, two lakh assets are being distributed today. Of them, 174,400 are banking loans and 37,694 non-banking loans. Beneficiaries should generate self-employment from these loans, and should repay the debts in time", said the Cheif Minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force started its combat training on Thursday.

According to Xinhua news agency, the air force employed J-20 stealth fighter and Y-20 military transport aircraft for the training.

The J-20 is China's fourth generation aircraft commissioned into service in September 2017.

According to a military statement, China included several new fighter jets such as J-16, J-10C and H-6K bombers for the training.

The training is for improving the capability of the force to win future battles.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A special court of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has allowed AgustaWestland chopper scam accused, Shivani Saxena, to travel abroad.

An ''active'' director of Dubai-based UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings, Saxena is in judicial custody in connection with a money-laundering case arising out of the Rs. 3,600 crore VVIP chopper scam.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Saxena under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in July last year.

Her repeated bail pleas were rejected by various courts last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday confirmed that National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan held bilateral talks last month.

The statement comes days after media reports stated that NSAs Ajit Doval and retired Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua held a "secret" meeting in Thailand on December 27.

"I am agreeing that talks took place and our issue was eliminating terrorism from the region, we of course raised the issue of cross-border terrorism in those talks," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, in a media briefing.

The spokesperson stated that Doval and Janjua also dwelled upon on how terrorism should not affect "this region" in their "operational-level talks."

"India and Pakistan had a dialogue process. There are other dialogue mechanisms like at the DGMO level or between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers," Kumar added, "Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of operational-level talks. We have said terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead."

Kumar also stated that these operational-level mechanisms do take place. "but we don't announce these meetings."

Several media reports had stated that the two NSAs met in Bangkok on December 26, a day after the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav met him in Islamabad and were subjected to humiliation by Pakistani authorities and a section of the local press.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mumbai Police on Thursday said one of Mojo Bistro's owners Yug Tuli was seen in Hyderabad, while his Jeep got seized from his grandfather's place.

"Yug Tuli 's jeep has been seized from his grandfather's residence in Hyderabad and his grandfather is being questioned for his whereabouts. Yug Tuli had booked a ticket to Delhi from Hyderabad but cancelled that ticket and went to their grandfather's residence," Mumbai Police confirmed this here.

They added that the jeep was seized by Hyderabad police from Jubilee hill residence and the vehicle was challaned for over speeding.

The vehicle was a rented car, while the challan was made in the name of Tuli's mother Navjot Kaur Tuli.

"We have got information about one of Mojo Bistro's owners Yug Tuli 's presence in Hyderabad and are searching for him with help of local police," said Mumbai DCP Virendra Mishra here.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Government appointed Advocate Prakash Shetty as Special Public Prosecutor for Kamala Mills fire case trial.

Earlier in the day, Mumbai police arrested the owner of '1 Above' resto bar, Abhijeet Mankar, in connection with the massive fire in Mumbai's Kamala Mills that claimed the lives of 14 people last month.

Mankar had been absconding since the incident.

On Wednesday, two other absconding owners of the restaurant, brothers Jigar Sanghvi and Kripesh Sanghvi were arrested on the information provided by a Juhu-based hotelier Vishal Kariya, who was arrested the same day for sheltering the duo along with Mankar.

The police had also recovered a high-end car of accused Mankar from the Juhu residence of Kariya (42), who was then picked up for questioning.

During the interrogation, the hotelier revealed that he sheltered the trio at his residence.

Kariya had been booked under Section 216 of the Indian Penal Code.

On January 6, '1 Above' was found to have flouted the fire safety measures issued by the Mumbai Fire Brigade, which led to the fire on December 29.

Yug Pathak, one of the owners of Mojo's Bistro and the son of former Pune police commissioner K K Pathak, has also been arrested in the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Kerala government on Thursday permitted prisoners in the state jails to donate organs to their close relatives.

The decision was taken at the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

They have to take sanction from the concerned court and medical board that convicted the prisoner for the nod for any such organ donation.

It is also decided to make necessary amendments in the Kerala prisons correctional services act 2014.

The period admitted in the hospital will be considered as parole period and the hospital expenses will be met by the jail authorities.

The statement also made it clear of there being 'no relaxation in prison term' for the prisoner following the organ donation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mallya appeared imperturbable as ever in the dock. He was accompanied by his wife Pinky Lalwani and son Siddharth.

Today's short afternoon proceedings were related to the admissibility of documentary evidence submitted by the Indian government as part of the prosecution case.

After hearing the argument, the court has extended Mallya's bail to April 2.

In a long and technical submission filled with legalese, Mallya's defence counsel Clare Montgomery questioned the admissibility, reliability and evidentiary value of documentation submitted by the government of India, in particular, the witness statements submitted by a wide array of witnesses such as banking officials.

Section 84 of the United Kingdom's Extradition Act provides strict regulations that pertain to the reliability and quality of documentary evidence.

Montgomery requested judge Emma Arbuthnot to check the documents submitted by the Government of India for admissibility.

Montgomery produced a large stack of papers with detailed annotations, which she said were statements made against Mallya and the Kingfisher Airlines and compiled by the Indian government that are demonstrably unreliable and as such did not meet admissibility standards under the UK law.

"Many of the documents that the Indian government relies on are unsubstantiated assertions which have been proven to be unreliable or false while others are hearsay or narrative accounts or statements made ex-post facto", Montgomery said.

Mallya's counsel also protested the fact that the Indian government's documents and statements included submissions that had no relevance to the IDBI Bank case - which is the central axis on which the extradition trial hinges.

She also pointed to numerous glaring anomalies in the prosecutions documents and witness statements, including some which she said had been "cut and pasted" and submitted as being from different witnesses.

"Some of these statements not only had the same words by the same typos. For example, there are similar anomalies in witness statements made by different individuals weeks apart", Montgomery said, prompting laughter in the court, much to the discomfiture of representatives of the Indian government.

Montgomery also pointed to numerous instances of statements obtained by witnesses where no recordings or any other evidence existed of an investigator questioning a witness. In other instances, witnesses appear to have been given "pro-forma" statements that were signed off by those witnesses.

"Much evidence suggests that officers, in this case, have not behaved in a reliable manner. For instance, they have completely failed to reveal to the court the background of how the lending was approved by various banks, have submitted misleading statements, pro-forma statements and statements that were false", Montgomery said.

She also pointed to a number of Indian law commission reports that have "unanimously" agreed that investigators often "project" their biases on to witnesses.

By Poonam Joshi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
For the United States to come up with a win-win strategy in Afghanistan, it will have to close the wide gap between theory and practice, and marshal all of its resources to compel Pakistan to stop supporting the Taliban and other terror outfits.

In an article written for and published by the website theglobalist.com, U.S. Army Colonel (Retired) Robert M. Cassidy says, "The current U.S. Afghanistan strategy acknowledges that Pakistan's support and sanctuary for the Taliban is a major obstacle to success. Until the U.S.-led Coalition has a strategy that shuts down the sanctuary and factories for the Taliban in Pakistan, operational forces will continue to capture and kill Taliban and the Taliban will continue to regenerate and multiply, with a flow of Islamist militants into Afghanistan from the incubator-madrassas in Pakistan."

Col. (Retired) Cassidy, who now teaches at Wesleyan University, further says that it is essential for Pakistan to also change what he calls "its malicious strategic behavior", if the overall strategy for Afghanistan must not remain an illusion. If it does, he warns and cautions that the war in Afghanistan will continue and there will be no end in sight.

A veteran of wars fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, Col. (Retired) Cassidy maintains that Pakistan's machinations and America's past delusions pose major obstacles to a successful strategic outcome for the war In Afghanistan, which is now in its 17th year, i.e. six years longer than the Soviets were at war in that country.

"The Pakistani Army and its Inter Services Intelligence Directorate continue to collude with the Taliban, preventing their defeat. After the 9/11 attacks, it should have become absolutely clear (to Washington) that Pakistan's sponsorship of foreign terrorist organisations made it an enemy. The relations between the US and Pakistan constitute a saga of false promises, mismanaged expectations and disastrous betrayals," he says.

As 2018 begins, Pakistan has not stopped its support of terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, in any fundamental way.

Like most other analysts, he cities five commonly accepted reasons for this protracted stalemate. These are namely:

. The delusion that portrays Pakistan as a friend, which has impaired clear-eyed thinking about a strategy

. Support and sanctuary provided to enemies of Afghans, Americans and coalition partners by the Pakistani security establishment

. Pakistan continues to receive all benefits as a U.S. major non-NATO ally

. The Pakistan Army and the ISI continue to collude with the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, thus prolonging the stalemate

. Pakistan's continued perfidy and America's naive neglect allows the former's senior leadership to deny and lie with shameless impunity its support of terror elements

Col. (Retired) Cassidy says that relations between the United States and Pakistan constitute a saga of false promises, mismanaged expectations and disastrous betrayals, and maintains that Islamabad's purpose for the relationship has always related to its geo-political competition with India.

On the other hand, Washington's reasons for having a relationship with Islamabad is linked to the Cold War competition with the Soviets and then to the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

"Pakistan is the second largest Muslim country, the worst nuclear weapons technology proliferator, the single largest enclave for Islamist militants and the only country in the with its capital named for Islam," he adds.

The United States has helped make Pakistan fecund ground for growing Islamist movements by pursuing short-term interests and actions like supporting the most virulent strains of Islamists among the Mujihadeen and helping empower the ISI during the Soviet-Afghan War.

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Pakistan has suspended intelligence and military cooperation with the United States after Washington froze military assistance to Pakistan.

"Pakistan Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir says intelligence and military cooperation with the United States has been suspended after its froze military assistance to Pakistan. #Pakistan has fulfilled its responsibilities in war against terror and will continue efforts to maintain peace," Pakistan Government said on Twitter.

The development comes after the United States on Tuesday made its stand clear that the aid to Pakistan has only been suspended not cut-off, as it wanted the country to take an aggressive approach in eliminating terrorism.

"The US would like Pakistan to come to the table and assist us in this effort. The military aid is a suspension and not a cutoff for Pakistan. No funds have been reprogrammed. We're hopeful for future cooperation from Pakistan," Steve Goldstein, US Under Secretary of State said in a statement.

The U.S. had earlier this month announced that they were stopping the military aid to Pakistan, as it was not taking "necessary steps" to curb terrorism

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said the embargo would remain in place until Pakistan takes action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network.

Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had made a scathing remark against Pakistan and accused it of lying and deceiving while receiving billions in aid.

"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!", Trump said in a tweet.

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Dawn News quoted police officials as saying that riots erupted after the postmortem report of the seven-year-old girl confirmed that she was raped before being murdered.

Two people died of gunshot injury when the protesters "armed with sticks and stones attempted to storm the deputy commissioner's office and clashed with police", it said, adding that two others sustained bullet injuries.

The Punjab administration said that six personnel, including four policemen and two civil defence personnel, were arrested for allegedly opening fire at the mob.

Zainab, 7, was abducted on January 4 when she had gone to a religious centre in Road Kot area.

Later, her body was recovered from a heap of trash near the Shahbaz Khan Road.

Her parents, who were in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, arrived here yesterday and laid her body to rest in a graveyard.

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Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Aijaz Ahmad Mir on Thursday described Kashmiri militants killed by Indian security forces as martyrs and added that their deaths should not be celebrated.

"Militants who are from Kashmir and get killed are martyrs, they are our brothers, and some of them are minors who don't even know what they are doing," Mir told media here.

"We should not celebrate the killings of militants, it is our collective failure, we feel sad when our security forces are martyred as well, we should sympathise with parents of jawans and with parents of militants as well," he added.

Mir, who represents Wachi constituency, said Centre's Interlocutor for Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma should talk to everyone in the state including, Hurriyat and militants.

He said the Kashmir issue is a political issue and should be resolved politically.

On Wednesday, Mir had described militants from Kashmir as his brothers and called for talks with the Hurriyat, militants and other stakeholders to resolve the Kashmir issue permanently.

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The Embassy of Russia has criticized the United States (US) government for pursuing "unacceptable practices of pressure on the Russian media."

"Russia has always been against any restrictions on the freedom of the mass media, including in the work of foreign media and journalists," TASS quoted the Russian Embassy here, as saying.

"However, we cannot say that about the United States and a number of its allies that continue unacceptable practices of pressure on Russian mass media, instead of mutually beneficial cooperation. It has come to visa cancelation, expulsion of Russian journalists, frequent attempts of foreign security services to co-opt them," the embassy added.

Branding these actions as "inadmissible," the embassy said this is yet another blow to the US-Russian bilateral relations.

The embassy came out with this statement after RIA Global, a company that generates content for the Sputnik [news agency] was told that it would be able to continue its operations only after it registers itself as a foreign agent.

"Such steps disrupt normal work of journalists as they act as grounds for various sorts of restrictions.We have witnessed when RT [television channel] was stripped of accreditation at the Congress," the embassy added.

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Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has compared his ousting from office as being almost similar to what happened to assassinated former Bangladesh President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Addressing lawyers at Punjab House in Islamabad earlier this week, Sharif claimed that he had been "persecuted" over the years and was "pushed towards revolt" and compared his situation to that of Mujibur Rahman more than four decades ago.

"Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was not a rebel, but was made into one", Sharif said.

He recalled that when the Bangladesh Awami League, led by Mujibur Rahman won all seats in then East Pakistan in the 1970 general elections, his party was not allowed to form the government by Pakistan's then martial law administrator Yahya Khan and this led to unrest across the country.

The subsequent Indo-Pakistan war in 1971 led to the secession of East Pakistan from Pakistan to form the independent state of Bangladesh.

The former three-time Pakistan Prime Minister credited Bangladesh for the creation of Pakistan, but regretted the events that followed thereafter.

"The Bengalis had a central role in the effort to create Pakistan, but we did not treat them well and separated them from us", the Dawn quoted Sharif, as saying.

Sharif also acknowledged the fact that the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan was not a smooth affair.

"The Justice Hamoodur Rehman Commission had published a very truthful and clear report on the creation of Bangladesh after a detailed analysis, but we did not even read it," said Sharif.

"Had we acted on it, today's Pakistan would have been different and the kinds of games that are being played would not have been played", Sharif said.

"I want to forget all these wounds. I don't want to take them to a point where my emotions get out of my control", Sharif added.

He said: "What has been done to me and to all the elected prime ministers in this country's history, is not correct. What kind of return for service to the nation is this?"

The former prime minister also criticised the country's judiciary for colluding with vested interests.

"They (the dictators) were told that had you not arrived, the country would have been destroyed. They were told that 'This is Pakistan's Constitution, and it is your property'. They were given the authority to amend the Constitution, an authority that the judges themselves did not have," said Sharif.

Sharif said: "No court that can try a dictator has ever come into existence in Pakistan.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on Central Bureau of Investgation's (CBI) plea challenging his discharge in SNC-Lavalin corruption case.

Vijayan is accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy while he was serving as the electricity minister from May 1996 to October 1998.

He, along with others named in the case, was accused of awarding the contract for the renovation and modernisation of few hydroelectric projects to a Canada-based company SNC-Lavalin at exorbitant rates, thereby causing a loss of Rs. 374.50 crore to the state. Besides

Vijayan, six others discharged in the case were senior executives of the Kerala State Electricity Board.

The Kerala High Court gave a clean chit to the Chief Minister over lack of evidence against him, which was followed by the CBI moving the

apex court to challenge his discharge.

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Turns out, it is not just Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is going to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s 48th Annual Meeting in Davos later this month. Shah Rukh Khan will be there too.

The Bollywood superstar is all set to be awarded at the 24th Annual Crystal Awards for showing an exemplary commitment to uphold human dignity through his non-profit Meer Foundation.

Meer Foundation provides support to female victims of acid attacks and major burn injuries through medical treatment, legal aid, vocational training, rehabilitation and livelihood support.

He has also been responsible for the creation of specialised children's hospital wards and has supported childcare centres with free boarding for children undergoing cancer treatment.

Director Cate Blanchett and musician Sir Elton John are among the other awardees, said the official website of the World Economic Forum.

The 52-year-old actor took to his Twitter handle to say, "Thank u for this honour. I consider my work with these heroic & beautiful women a great privilege as it imparts dignity & purpose to my life. I hope to spread awareness of the unparalleled heroism of these ladies & reach out to others in order to carry this work to its conclusion".

The Annual Crystal Awards celebrate the achievements of outstanding artists who have shown exemplary commitment to improving the state of the world.

The awards ceremony will take place on January 22, launching the Annual Meeting.

It will serve as a marker of the intention of the Meeting and as a reminder to us all of our responsibility to act with respect, generosity and compassion.

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The United States has advised its citizens to reconsider travelling to Pakistan citing terrorism in the country as the reason.

The U.S. State Department has launched its new travel advisory system that will provide U.S. citizens with clear, timely, and reliable safety and security information worldwide.

Under the new system, every country will have a travel advisory, providing levels of advice ranging from 1 to 4.

The U.S. Department has placed Pakistan under level 3 category.

The citizens have also been asked to not travel to Pakistan's Balochistan province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) due to terrorism.

The advisory also warns citizens from travelling to the Azad Kashmir area due to terrorism and the potential for armed conflict.

"Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Pakistan. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, military and government installations, airports, universities, tourist locations, schools, hospitals, places of worship, and local government facilities," the State Department said in its new Pakistan travel advisory.

"Over the past six months, there have been at least 40 significant terrorist attacks across Pakistan, resulting in over 225 deaths and 475 wounded, most of which occurred in Balochistan, KPK, and the FATA. In the past, there have been large-scale terrorist attacks resulting in hundreds of casualties," it added.

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Hollywood actress Gal Gadot, who has been a strong advocate of feminism, has urged everyone to define themselves as feminist.

According to Contactmusic.com, the 32-year-old actress has claimed that who don't class themselves as feminist should be labelled as "sexist", because the movement is simply designed to promote "freedom of choice" for all genders.

She noted, "There's a big misinterpretation about the way that people view the term of feminism. I have friends - girlfriends - who have careers and they're mothers and they do it all, and they are afraid to say that they're a feminist."

The actress also defined what 'Feminism' means to her.

"Feminism is not about hating men or burning bras or fighting anyone. It's about, first of all, equality, and it's about freedom of choice and I think that in this world we should all be feminists and whoever is not is a sexist," explained Gadot.

The actress, who recently was revealed as the new brand ambassador for Revlon, believes that anything which makes women feel "confident" should be classed as feminism.

"Anything that makes you feel more confident more beautiful and better about yourself has to do with [feminism]," shared Gadot.

It should be noted that Gadot will be honoured with #SeeHer Award at 2018 Critics Choice Awards.

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Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh here and presented him with the suggestions for a solution to the seven-decade-old Naga issue.

On the other hand, Home Minister Singh told Zeliang that the negotiations of various Naga groups with the interlocutor will continue.

The home minister also told the Nagaland Chief Minister that announcing the dates for assembly elections is the prerogative of the Election Commission and the elections have to be held on schedule. Any reports to the contrary are incorrect.

Zeliang statement came a day after the Naga Hoho, an apex Naga tribal body, sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's help in postponing the Assembly polls, saying that the Naga insurgency problem should be resolved first.

The insurgency had begun in Nagaland soon after the country's independence.

The Centre and the Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) had signed a framework agreement in 2015 following peace talks that started in 1997.

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Cochin Shipyard gained 4.11% to Rs 556.80 at 14:15 IST on BSE after the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Mumbai Port Trust for management and operation of the shiprepair facilities at Mumbai Port trust.

The announcement was made during market hours today, 11 January 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 110.99 points or 0.32% at 34,544.06. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 56.31 points or 0.31% at 18,174.55, underperforming the Sensex.

High volumes were witnessed on the counter. On the BSE, 1.45 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far, compared with average daily volumes of 60,290 shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 569.75 and a low of Rs 536.50 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 598.90 on 24 November 2017. The stock had hit a record low of Rs 435 on 11 August 2017.

The mid-cap company has equity capital of Rs 135.94 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

As per the terms of the memorandum of understanding (MOU), Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and Cochin Shipyard (CSL) are to associate with each other for utilizing the Indira Dock facility at Mumbai Port to set up a professional ship repair eco system, that would be beneficial for the commercial as well as defence ship repair industry in India.

The MOU also provides for expansion of the ship repair capacity within the Indira Dock, that may include setting up of a floating drydock (FDD) and upgrading existing facility at Hughes Dry Dock (HDD) thereby enhancing the existing ship repair capacity in Mumbai area. This would serve the increasing ship repair demands in Mumbai area, being one of the key port of India that connect internationally.

HDD at Mumbai Port Trust of approx. size 305 x 30 metres, built in 1914 is one of the largest graving dry dock on the western coast of India. The objective of the MOU is to develop a world class integrated ship repair facility at Mumbai. HDD is an active area were Mumbai Port Trust gives the dock on lease to owners. With this MOU, CSL is expected to provide end to end shiprepair solution to ship owners.

The new initiative of signing the MOU with MbPT is in line with the company's objective to have a pan India presence and the Ministry of Shipping initiatives to create viable Shiprepair hubs all over India.

Cochin Shipyard's net profit fell 8.1% to Rs 100.21 crore on 7.6% rise in net sales to Rs 583.24 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016.

Cochin Shipyard which commenced shiprepair operations in the year 1982, is the leading shiprepair yard in the country. It has vast experience in repairing varied type of vessels including defence vessels, tankers, oil rigs, passenger vessels and port crafts.

The government of India holds 75% stake in the firm as on 30 September 2017.

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For management and operation of ship repair facilities at Mumbai Port Trust

Cochin Shipyard (CSL) signed an MOU today with Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) for management and operation of the Shiprepair Facilities at Mumbai Port trust.

As per the terms of the MOU, MbPT and CSL are to to associate with each other for utilizing the Indira Dock facility at Mumbai Port to set up a Professional Ship Repair Eco system, that would be beneficial for the commercial as well as Defence Ship Repair Industry in India.

The MOU also provides for expansion of the Ship repair capacity within the Indira Dock, that may include setting up of a Floating Drydock (FDD) and upgrading existing facility at HDD thereby enhancing the existing Ship repair Capacity in Mumbai Area. This would serve the increasing Ship Repair demands in Mumbai area, being one of the key port of India that connect internationally.

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Sales decline 0.05% to Rs 230.16 crore

Net profit of Hindustan Media Ventures declined 10.79% to Rs 39.09 crore in the quarter ended December 2017 as against Rs 43.82 crore during the previous quarter ended December 2016. Sales declined 0.05% to Rs 230.16 crore in the quarter ended December 2017 as against Rs 230.28 crore during the previous quarter ended December 2016.230.16230.2825.3317.7763.7558.5659.0053.5739.0943.82

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IndusInd Bank and TCS are scheduled to announce their Q3 December 2017 results today, 11 January 2018.

Maruti Suzuki India announced a price increase ranging from Rs 1700 and Rs 17000 (ex-showroom- Delhi) across models owing to increase in commodity and other administrative and distribution costs. The new prices are effective 10 January 2018. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 10 January 2018.

Welspun Enterprises said that Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation (MPSIDC) and Dewas Waterprojects Works (a wholly owned subsidiary of the company) have entered into the concession agreement on 9 January 2018 for restructuring the Dewas Industrial Water Supply Project under the Madhya Pradesh Infrastructure Development (Swiss Challenge) Guidelines 2014. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 10 January 2018.

India Nippon Electricals said that its board will meet on 29 January 2018 to consider the proposal of sub-division of equity shares of the company. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 10 January 2018.

Alok Industries announced that National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Ahmedabad Bench, has granted an extension of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) for a further period of 90 days beyond the period of the first 180 days. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 10 January 2018.

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On 29 January 2018

Maharashtra Scooters will hold a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company on 29 January 2018, to consider unaudited financial results for the quarter and nine months ended 31 December 2017.

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MEP SANJOSE Nagpur Ring Road 2 achieves Milestone One for the project

MEP Infrastructure Developers announced that MEP SANJOSE Nagpur Ring Road 2 Private Limited - Subsidiary of the Company, has achieved the Milestone One for the project of Four Lane Stand Alone Ring Road/ Bypasses for Nagpur City, Package-II from km 34+500 to km 62+035. (Total Length - 28+035 km) in the State of Maharashtra on BOT (Hybrid Annuity) basis as per the Concession Agreement. The Authority has paid the first Milestone payment of 20% of the physical progress for the project on 11 January, 2018

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The 22nd Refining and Petrochemicals Technology Meet will be organised by the Centre for High Technology in association with Indian Oil Corporation at Bhubaneswar from January 13 to 15.

Around 900 oil industry professionals from India and abroad are expected to participate in the 3-day meet, out of which about 100 numbers are foreign delegates from 44 global companies, said U. Deka, Additional Director, Centre for High Technology.

The theme of the meet is 'Emerging trends in downstream hydrocarbon sector'.

The meet shall facilitate invaluable exchange of global benchmark practices on technological advancements in the hydrocarbon sector, petrochemicals, electric vehicles and impact on refining business, energy conservation, obtaining bio-oil from biomass, bio-refinery from bamboo feedstock.

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will inaugurate the event. Prestigious energy performance awards will also be given away during the meet.

In the meet, leaders of the oil companies and domain experts will be sharing their thoughts on various important aspects of hydrocarbon sector, said Deka.

Leading global consultants/technology providers/catalyst manufacturers like Shell, Honeywell UOP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Haldor Topsoe, Axens, DuPont, KBR, GTC, ICIS, Invista, Bechtel, Fluor Daniel, Linde, Dow, JNC Japan, Petronas, GC Russia, KNT Russia, TCC China, Albemarle will be participating in the meet.

For the first time ever, delegates from countries like Russia, Japan, China, Malaysia, UAE, are going to be part of the event among the delegates of around 50 countries, who have confirmed their participation, said Deka.

On the sidelines of the event, Dharmendra Pradhan will be holding a meeting with the CEOs of various companies participating in the meet for initiation of Skill Development Centres at different technical institutes at Bhubaneswar.

A Report on "Enhancing Refinery Capacity by 2040" will also be released during the meet.

--IANS

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The streets of Montecito in Santa Barbara country in California resemble a battlefield, choked with mud, downed trees, snapped utility poles, crumpled cars and crushed houses.

People moved wearily on Wednesday through the cement-like slurry, picking through the rubble of their homes, looking for missing loved ones, some just staring into space, reports Xinhua news agency.

Nearly 3,400 residents in Montecito are without water or power and over 300 are trapped in their homes as first responders scrambled to conduct rescue work in the wake of the devastating flash floods and deadly mudslides which left at least 15 dead, 25 injured and dozens missing, said County spokeswoman Yaneris Muniz.

This affluent, upscale community near the famed San Ysidro Ranch with its sprawling, multimillion dollar homes and lush rolling lawns was previously best known as site of former US President John F. Kennedy's honeymoon with his bride, Jackie Bouvier, in 1953, and for its current celebrity residents.

Local resident Kristin Denault was jerked awake in the middle of the night when Santa Barbara's emergency bulletin alarm system blared from her cellphone. She told Xinhua: "It was scary. We are all reeling. It's hard to believe tragedy has struck again so soon after the fires."

Well before dawn on Tuesday, a thundering juggernaut of unstoppable mud and debris swept down upon the sleeping community from the Santa Ynez Mountains above them, crushing everything in its path.

It swept entire homes off their foundations and carried them away in a tumult of mud, boulders and debris -- along with the unsuspecting residents.

Residents lucky enough to be spared reported hearing rumblings just before the onslaught that sounded like an earthquake but were actually the sound of a deadly, roaring curtain of mud and debris descending upon them powerful enough to propel massive boulders the size of trucks along with it.

A resident said: "It looked like a World War I battlefield."

Ellen Degeneres posted a photo of the flooded 101 highway near her home, with the caption: "This is not a river. This is the 101 Freeway in my neighbourhood right now. Montecito needs your love and support."

Rob Lowe added: "Mourning the dead in our little town tonight. Praying for the survivors and preparing for whatever may come."

The hills below which the luxury homes nestled had been stripped of the stabilizing groundcover by the massive brushfires that roared virtually unchecked through the same upscale neighborhood just four weeks ago.

The charred and compromised hillsides could not withstand the relentless, pounding rain that turned the rootless soil to slush. They finally eroded into deadly mudslides that struck the community unawares.

But there is some cause for hope.

Nearly 450 first responders and government officials and 14 rescue choppers flooded into the area to help bring order to the chaos.

They coordinated widespread efforts on several fronts to rescue survivors, protect the population from downed electrical lines, put out raging gas fires from ruptured gas lines and clear debris from roads, and funnel evacuees into the Red Cross Evacuation Centre.

The Coast Guard saved a family of five trapped in the debris of their ruined home in Carpenteria by an eight-foot sea of sludge that blocked their escape by land. A mother, her newborn baby and other children were pulled out of the collapsing house via the roof and airlifted to safety.

But resident Robert Riskin was not so lucky as he doggedly slogged through the knee-deep sludge and wreckage, desperately searching for his missing mother, whose home was one of those that had been carried away in the dead of night.

--IANS

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Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday urged Mayors of three city municipal corporations to save traders from a sealing drive, by issuing a pending notification which would bring 351 city roads under the commercial/mixed use category.

In separate letters to the three Mayors, Jain said that this notification was to be issued and the Urban Development Department had met with the Commissioners of the three municipal corporations in this regard, but even after the meeting and even after sending five letters, they did not reply.

"I request you to take personal interest in the matter and ask the municipal commissioner to send the report in top priority so that traders can be saved from the sealing drive," he said in his letters.

A Delhi government official told IANS that the minister has also called a meeting of the three commissioners on Friday.

--IANS

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Undeterred by the tragedies that struck their families, Afzal Guru's son and Burhan Wani's brother have brought laurels to their respective families as they scored high and passed the 12th class exam with flying colours.

Ghalib, son of Afzal Guru -- who was hanged after being convicted for attacking the Indian parliament, has passed the 12th class examination with distinction securing over 88 per cent marks.

The boy had also passed his 10th class examination securing over 95 per cent marks.

Naveed Wani, brother of then Hizbul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani -- who was killed in a gunfight with security forces, has passed the class 12th exam securing distinction.

The Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education declared the result for the class 12th exam on Wednesday.

Burhan's sister had also in 2016 secured distinction when she passed her 12th class exam securing 449 marks.

Ghalib told media persons that he misses his father Afzal Guru the most on occasions when he would have rejoiced on the success of his son.

The boy said he would now prepare for the NEET (National Eligibility Entrance Test) as it had been the dream of his father to see Ghalib as a doctor.

Incidently, Afzal Guru had also pursued medical education before giving it up midway. Guru was hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail in 2013 for his role in the December 13 attack on the Indian Parliament.

Burhan was killed in a gunfight with the security forces in Kokernag area of south Kashmir on July 8, 2016.

His death was followed by a massive civil unrest in the Valley in which nearly 100 people were killed and around 200 others suffered either total or partial loss of vision due to pellet gunshots used by the security forces against protestors.

--IANS

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President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday stressed the need to understand different religions and their different traditions, as they all are one and the same, leading to the path of truth.

Inaugurating the 4th International Dharma-Dhamma Conference on "State and Social Order in Dharma-Dhamma Traditions" in Rajgir of Nalanda district in Bihar, the President said the meet reflected India's friendship with ASEAN countries, "which share our rich spiritual heritage and age-old knowledge of the Indian sub-continent and south-eastern Asian countries".

"This conference is being held at a time when we are celebrating 25 years of ASEAN-India dialogue partnership. This year on the Republic Day, representatives of all the 10 countries of ASEAN will be our honourable guests."

He said the Nalanda University was itself an example of result of close cooperation between India and ASEANA countries.

Nalanda University Vice Chancellor Sunaina Singh said the varsity, in collaboration with the Centre for Study of Religion and Society, India Foundation, Ministry of External Affairs and the Vietnam Buddhist University, was organising the event.

The three-day conference started on Thursday (January 11) at Rajgir International Convention Centre, Rajgir -- about 100km from here.

The event was part of a series of commemorative events to celebrate the Silver Jubilee year of ASEAN-India Dialogue Partnership, with active support from the Ministry of External Affairs, Singh added.

Besides President Kovind, Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Assignments Tilak Marapana and Kingdom of Thailand's Minister for Culture Vira Rojpojchanarat, among others, are attending the conference.

The overall theme of the Conference -- State and Social Order in Dharma-Dhamma Tradition -- aims to facilitate cross-pollination of ideas and foster harmony at the global level and also seeks to explore the shared values of the dharmic traditions that could provide the guiding light to the world and a sense of inter-connectedness.

As one of the defining principles of the human civilization, Dharma-Dhamma provided the structure upon which a broad array of human existence and cosmic life was built across the globe.

The notion of Dharma-Dhamma, in its manifold manifestations, including truth and non-violence, peace and harmony, humaneness and spiritual linkages and universal fraternity and peaceful co-existence, served as a moral compass that guided people in the Indian sub-continent through ages and continues to shape and sustain the Indian cultural ethos.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US State Department has warned Americans to exercise increased caution in India due to crime and and to avoid going to Jammu and Kashmir except the Buddhist-dominated region of Ladakh.

The State Department on Wednesday launched improvements on sharing information with US travellers to provide clear, timely and reliable safety and security information.

"Exercise increased caution in India due to crime and . Some areas have increased risk," the advisory said.

It asked Americans not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir (except Ladakh region and its capital Leh) due to and civil unrest.

It also warned of potential for armed conflict within 10 km of the India-Pakistan border in the state.

"Indian authorities report rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. Violent crime, such as sexual assault, has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations," it said.

"Terrorist or armed groups are active in East Central India, primarily in rural areas," the advisory said, referring to Maoists.

"Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets and shopping malls and local government facilities.

"The US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens in rural areas from eastern Maharashtra and northern Telangana through western West Bengal as US government employees must obtain special authorization to travel to these areas."

The advisory said that Americans deciding to visit India must not travel alone, particularly if they were women.

"US citizens who travel abroad should always have a contingency plan for emergency situations.

"Due to the fluid nature of the threat, all US government travellers to states with Naxalite activity must receive special authorization from the US consulate responsible for the area to be visited.

"US officials travelling only to the capital cities in these states do not need prior authorization," it added.

--IANS

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Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court decision to order fresh probe by a new Special Investigation Team (SIT) into 186 cases of anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

Amarinder hoped that justice would finally be meted out to the innocent victims.

"More than 30 years have passed since the gory violence, which claimed many lives and left many others homeless, and while various Commissions were set up to investigate the cases, justice continued to elude the victims.

"Several names had cropped up in connection with the riots, and it is now up to the SIT to verify the allegations and bring the investigation to its logical conclusion," Amarinder said.

"It is high time that justice be provided in these cases," Amarinder, who himself had quit as MP in 1984 in protest against the violence, said.

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and other places across the country in anti-Sikh violence sparked off by the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards.

Referring to the ban announced by certain elements on entry of Indian officials in gurdwaras in Canada and the United States, the Chief Minister said anyone, be it Sikh or non-Sikh, could enter the "guru ghar" (abode of the Guru) to pay his respects or partake the "langar prasad".

"It is against the 'Sikhi' (tenets of Sikhism) to stop anyone from entering the gurdwaras," he said, condemning the ban as totally wrong.

"It is for the management committees of the gurdwaras, as well as the Sikh community in these countries to put a stop on such acts," he said, pointing out that never in history had any person been barred from entering a gurdwara.

--IANS

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Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on Thursday mooted 25 per cent reservation to economically backward among upper castes, saying the move will bring social unity.

The Minister told reporters here that as people from various castes were demanding reservation, there was a need to provide them 25 per cent quota by putting all such castes in one category, without touching the 49.9 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (27 per cent), Scheduled Castes (15 per cent) and Scheduled Tribes (7.5 per cent).

He said the creamy layer among these castes should be excluded from reservation.

He said that during a recent meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), he on behalf of his Republican Party of India (RPI) had placed this demand before Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"I told him that one of the many reasons for the atrocities on Dalits is reservation. Some castes hold a grouse that the Dalits get reservation while they don't," he said.

Athawale said Jats, Patidars and Marathas and others were demanding reservation in government jobs and educational institutions.

He said the economically backward among the Brahmins and also sections of Muslims not covered under OBCs could also be brought under this category.

"The problem is that reservation is given on the basis of social backwardness. It is difficult to give reservation to the upper castes. But if a legislation is passed to amend these guidelines, the economically backward among these castes can get reservation and this will be a good decision for the country," the RPI leader said.

On the demand from some SC sub-castes for categorisation of reservation, he said it would not be possible to give separate reservation to each and every sub-caste. He pointed out that there are 1,264 sub-castes among SCs across the country.

The RPI leader said he wanted the National Democratic Alliance government to pass a bill in Parliament to provide reservation in government job promotions to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. He said the demand for the same was coming from many quarters.

He said SC/ST employees' interests were affected after the Supreme Court struck down reservation in promotions.

--IANS

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Beijing on Thursday expressed concerns over restrictions on Chinese investment placed by the US citing national security concerns.

Washington has rejected a merger by China's Ant Financial with US money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc. over national security concerns last week, Xinhua news agency reported.

"As far as the Ant Financial case is concerned, we feel sorry to see that normal business investment and merger made by a Chinese enterprise in the US was once again blocked due to the so-called national security reasons," said Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng.

"We do not oppose normal security review by relevant countries over foreign investment, but we are concerned about the acts of setting up glass door and swing door to restrict foreign investment citing national security," Gao said.

--IANS

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Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday lashed out at the BJP government in the state and accused them of misleading the people with false hopes and dividing them along caste and religious lines.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Yadav said there was an atmosphere of lawlessness and fear under the watch of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and listed several cases where the police and the members of ruling party had allegedly committed excesses on the common people.

"The BJP has mastered the art of misleading people and I am sure that having seen their reality, the people will throw them out in the 2019 General Elections," the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said.

Many atrocities were being perpetrated on women and girls and their honour and lives were not safe under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, he said.

The party also paraded the father of a minor girl who was hacked to death while returning from school.

The bereaved father alleged that he was getting threatening calls from the perpetrators and members of the BJP asking him not to rake up the matter further.

Coming from Nishad community, the man told media persons that his family had been living in perpetual fear, after which Yadav assured him that the matter would be taken up with Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik.

"I will write to him and petition him on your behalf, seeking safety and security of your family," Yadav told the man.

The former Chief Minister also called the BJP "the biggest casteist force" and said: "When they (BJP) do it, the media says it is social engineering, demographic understanding and booth management, but when we advocate the rights of people from different castes, we are dubbed casteists."

"Now we will also fight iron with iron -- lohe se loha katenge," he said suggesting that the party would emulate the formula of caste combinations mastered by the BJP.

Asked to comment on the future of his party's alliance with the Congress, as was the case in 2017 assembly polls, he responded ambiguously, saying that as of now the party was busy with sprucing up its own machinery and added that the SP would cross the bridge when it came.

"When the elections are announced, we will discuss a host of issues like this," Yadav said, adding that personally he was a friend of friends -- "yaaron ka yaar!"

Clearly irked when a reporter asked him the future of the "UP ke dono ladke" -- the catchline of their alliance's campaign in the state assembly polls, he retorted by saying that he would be happy if the reporter dared to call the present Chief Minister a "ladke" (boy) as he was also of their age.

Many leaders from other parties, including the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, joined the SP in presence of Yadav, state SP president Naresh Uttam and other senior leaders.

Those who joined the party include former BSP legislator Tahir Hussain Siddiqui, former BJP legislator Bhim Prasad Nishad and hundreds of other activists.

--IANS

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The Congress here on Thursday questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party whether it agrees with the Peoples Democratic Party lawmaker who said that Kashmiri militants killed in encounters are "martyrs".

"It is the PDP MLA Aijaz Ahmad Mir who has said this. The PDP is in alliance with the BJP (in Jammu and Kashmir). The BJP will have to explain and tell whether it agrees with what its alliance partner has said," Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said.

"Whether the BJP believes that the militants are their brothers and sisters? If they believe so, then why do they liquidate them (militants). These are questions the BJP and PDP need to answer. People are waiting for the answer," he added.

Mir on Thursday said that Kashmiri militants, who are killed in encounters are "martyrs".

--IANS

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The leaders of West Bengal BJP's youth wing (Yuba Morcha) on Thursday accused the state police of resorting to "administrative terrorism" and trying to forcibly stop their motorcycle procession at various places in spite of the Calcutta High Court's nod to the event.

The High Court on Wednesday gave conditional permission to the Bharatiya Janata Party Yuba Morcha's (BJYM) "Protirodh Sankalp Abhiyan", a week-long bike rally from East Midnapore district's coastal town Digha to north Bengal's Cooch Behar, starting Thursday.

"Administrative terrorism is going on in the state. Our activists participating in the rally are being stopped, harassed and even beaten up at several crossings by the police. One of our activist had to be hospitalised as his leg has got fractured in police beating," state BYJM chief Debjit Sarkar told IANS.

"The are stopping bikers in the name of checking documents to hinder the rally. Many of our activists have been detained. Earlier the state police said they do not have enough personnel in place to secure the rally as the Gangasagar Mela is going on. But now we can see there are enough police to hamper our rally," he alleged.

In all, 400 BJYM activists are participating in the rally with 200 motorcycles to protest against the alleged deterioration in law and order in Bengal.

Welcoming the High Court's verdict on the matter, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the state government's ploy to stop the rally would not succeed as its attempt was unethical.

"We moved the High Court as the state government wrongfully tried to stop our rally. The court has given us permission. They can go to the Supreme Court if they want but they will not be able to win anywhere because what they are trying to do is unethical," Ghosh said.

The state government appealed before the division bench on Thursday challenging the High Court's order.

The police said the checking process was done to ensure all the bikers were travelling with valid papers and adhering to the road safety regulations, but refused to comment any further as the case is pending in the court.

"The case on this matter is going on in the court. Let us first see the verdict and then we will decide," Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma said.

State Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said people of the state would keep an eye on the BJP to see if they were maintaining peace and harmony while holding the rally.

"I appeal to everyone to maintain peace and communal harmony. People would keep a watch on whether they (BJP) are maintaining that," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid controversy over its decision to award honorary D.Litt. to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Calcutta University on Thursday honoured her for contribution to social services.

A public interest litigation was filed at the Calcutta High Court, challenging the university's decision but remained inconclusive.

Overwhelmed with the honour, Banerjee said: "I had faced disrespect from some parts since my early days and faced lot of difficulties throughout my life. I have struggled a lot to be here but I was wondering whether I should be attending the convocation."

"All my life, I have suffered humiliation and (been) disregard," she said.

The 63-year-old Chief Minister also said she was humbled to get the recognition from the institution which gifted many successful personalities not only to Bengal but also to India and the world.

Vice Chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee said that the award has been given for Banerjee's contribution to social work and bringing in a paradigm shift in government administration.

Banerjee, who was an alumna of the university, said: "I can assure you that I am never going to use the degree in my life for professional reasons and will keep this honour on a high pedestal till my last days."

State Governor and University Chancellor Keshari Nath Tripathi, who conferred the D. Litt on Banerjee, said the university was honouring personalities for their contributions in various fields.

Banerjee also promised Rs 100 crore aid for creating an innovation centre at the 160-year-old University.

Left Front Chairman Biman Bose said the university's decision to confer D. Litt on Chief Minister raised several questions and accused the institution of losing its independence.

"Calcutta University was known for its autonomy. Earlier, the members of senate and syndicate of the university were elected, now they are nominated by the government. The same senate has taken the decision and it has raised several questions," he added.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The CPI-M, leading the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala, on Thursday welcomed the decision of the Janata Dal-United state unit to part ways with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and return to the LDF fold.

The development shows that the UDF is "crumbling" and that the Left parties in Kerala will be strengthened, Communist Party of India-Marxist State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told media persons here.

Balakrishnan's statement came after a day-long meeting of the JD-U state unit discussed the proposal to part with the UDF, of which the party was a part since 2009.

Close aides of media baron M.P. Veerendra Kumar, who had till now helmed the JD-U in the southern state, later called on the Left leader here.

"Ever since the JD-U left us (LDF), we had been asking them to reconsider the decision. We welcome their decision. They have now decided to return to the LDF without conditions," the Left leader said.

Earlier in the day, JD-U leaders and workers met under the leadership of M.P. Veerendra Kumar, 80, and entrusted him to take an appropriate decision after all 14 district chief of the party approved of Kumar's decision to return to the Left fold.

"All decisions taken today (Thursday) were unanimous and Kumar will announce the same on Friday at the party's State Council meeting," JD-U state unit Secretary General Varghese George told the media.

Kumar lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election in Palakkad by a massive margin to sitting CPI-M MP M.B. Rajesh.

It was Kumar who decided to leave the LDF in 2009 after he was denied ticket for the seat he was representing.

The UDF have given Kumar a Rajya Sabha seat last year, but the situation changed after Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U national President Nitish Kumar joined hands with Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. Kumar ended political ties with Nitish Kumar and quit the Rajya Sabha last month.

--IANS

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Curfew was relaxed for three hours in Dhula town in Assam's Darrang district on Thursday where one person was killed and several others including policemen injured after clashes on Wednesday after a custodial death case, officials said.

The district administration relaxed the curfew for three hours but then re-imposed it fearing deterioration of law and order. Although there was no incident of violence or protests on Thursday, simmering tension seemed to have continued in and around the areas under Dhula police station.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal sent two senior ministers - Excise Minister Parimal Shuklabaidya and PHE Minister Rihan Daimary, who had visited the houses of the victim Hasen Ali and those injured during the violence.

Sonowal had already announced a high level probe into the incident.

"We have visited the house of the victim and other injured and interacted with local people. It is an unfortunate incident. The government will do whatever is needed to ensure that the justice prevails," Shuklabaidya told media persons at Dhula.

"The situation is under control now. However, curfew has been on particularly during the night time to ensure that there is no deterioration of law and order. Senior police officials are camping in Dhula to monitor the situation," said Assam Director General of Police Mukesh Sahai.

He said that the officer-in-charge of Dhula police station, Ranjit Hazarika had already been arrested and sent to judicial custody. "Law is equal for all and there will be action against him if the allegations against him are proved to be true," said Sahai.

Meanwhile, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee also sent a delegation of legislators and leaders including former Minister Rockybul Hussain and Siddeque Ahmed to visit the spot.

While the Assam government has announced a high-level probe into the incident, the Congress has been demanding a judicial probe.

--IANS

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A European Union delegation in Myanmar on Thursday urged the government to launch a thorough and credible investigation into violence against Rohingyas in the western Rakhine State.

The call from the EU came a day after the Myanmar army acknowledged it carried out extrajudicial killings of Rohingyas in the state.

"The Myanmar military admitted for the first time the extrajudicial killings of 10 Muslim villagers whose bodies had been discovered in a mass grave near Inn Din village, Maungdaw district," read the statement issued by the EU delegation, the Heads of Mission of EU member states accredited to Myanmar and the Head of Mission of Norway, Efe reported.

"These brutal killings confirm the urgent need for a thorough and credible investigation into all violent incidents in northern Rakhine State to ensure the accountability of those found responsible for committing atrocities," it added.

"Impunity of perpetrators of such serious human rights violations must end," concluded the statement, which also called for full cooperation from the government led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The military commission tasked with investigating the mass grave near Inn Din determined that soldiers and local residents from the majority Buddhist community killed 10 members of the Rohingya minority, who are mostly Muslims, believing them to be members of the rebel group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

On August 25, hundreds of ARSA militants had attacked some 30 security posts in Rakhine leading to a violent response from the army.

Reporters Without Borders calculated that at least 6,700 Rohingyas were killed in the violence between August 25 and September 24.

Around 650,000 Rohingyas subsequently crossed the border and sought refuge in Bangladesh.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein went on to say that the army's crackdown on the Rohingyas appeared to be a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar does not consider the Rohingyas to be citizens, treating them mostly as Bangladeshi immigrants and imposing many restrictions on them, including on freedom of movement.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, considers them to be citizens of Myanmar.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a homecoming of sorts, former Maharashtra BJP MP Nana F. Patole has rejoined the Congress, a month after quitting his Lok Sabha membership from Bhandara-Gondiya, it was announced on Thursday.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi formally welcomed Patole into the party in the presence of stare Maharashtra Congress President Ashok Chavan and Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil among others.

A party leader here said he is likely to contest the next Lok Sabha elections from the same constituency in Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra as a Congress candidate.

Elected on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket in the 2014 parliament elections, Patole had given a shock defeat to Nationalist Congress Party strongman and former union minister Praful Patel.

While Patole rode on the wave of farmers' angst against the erstwhile UPA government to win the Lok Sabha elections, he later rebelled and became a bitter critic of the ruling BJP-led NDA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for ignoring the cause of the farmers and going back on their pre-poll promises.

Finally, on the eve of the recent Gujarat assembly elections, he quit the BJP and his Lok Sabha membership on December 8, and bided his time amidst speculation he would return to the Congress.

Since the past one month he spent his time touring his parliamentary constituency, meeting his activists and supporters before joining the Congress, the formal announcement of which was made on Thursday.

Born in a farmer's family, the 54-year old Patole was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative assembly for three consecutive terms since 1999 and was elevated as a deputy party leader in the legislature before he suddenly defected to the BJP before the 2014 elections.

--IANS

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Flamengo are in the running to sign Paraguay international centre-back Gustavo Gomez from AC Milan, according to the Italian club's sporting director Massimiliano Mirabelli.

Milan's Serie A rivals Udinese and Argentine giants Boca Juniors are also interested in the 24-year-old, who could leave the San Siro this month, reports Xinhua news agency.

Mirabelli said Udinese and Flamengo were the favourites to secure Gomez due to Boca's reluctance to secure him on a permanent deal.

"We are still deciding but I think it will be impossible for him to go to Boca because the club will only take him on a loan and we want to sell him," Mirabelli was quoted as saying by Argentine newspaper Ole on Wednesday.

"He will probably go to either Udinese or Flamengo. We still need to decide what the conditions of the sale will be," he added.

Gomez has made 27 appearances for Paraguay's national team since his debut in 2013.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After German automaker Volkswagen's Dieselgate scandal, it is now the US auto giant Ford Motor that was accused of emissions cheating in a bid to promote its diesel engine trucks.

A class action lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in Detroit in the state of Michigan, claiming Ford and German auto supplier Bosch of knowingly installing emissions-cheating software devices in 2011-2017 Ford 250 and 350 Super Duty diesel pickup trucks.

According to Hagens Berman law firm, affected pickups which drivers paid $8,400 more than the gasoline edition for higher fuel efficiency, could pollute the air with NOx (nitrogen oxide) at levels up to 50 times of legal limits, Xinhua reported.

However, the law firm said that Ford marketed and sold these trucks as the "cleanest Super Diesel ever," and said it used "proven technology and innovative Ford strategies to meet the latest federal emissions standards."

Hagens Berman hit Ford and Bosch with a total 58 counts of violations of state consumer laws, false advertising laws, deceptive trade laws as well as violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

It adding that "Ford did not act alone," but colluded with Bosch in an organised scheme to evade emissions requirements, for sake of profit.

Neither Ford nor Bosch have reacted to the accusations.

--IANS

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Direct-broadcast satellite service provider DISH has announced it is working on integrating Google Home and Google Assistant into its TV service.

"We're pleased to be working with the Google Assistant to offer our customers the ability to control Hopper's video experiences through the Assistant on speakers and phones," Niraj Desai, Vice President of Product Management, DISH, wrote in a blog post late on Wednesday.

The feature will arrive on the company's all generations of Hopper Digital Video Recorder (DVR), Joey client and Wally single-tuner HD receiver at an unspecified time in the first half of 2018.

The integration will work in multiple languages including English and Spanish.

This will also enable users to control their HD receivers with voice controls, after the device is paired with an Assistant-enabled device such as Google Home speakers and Android handsets.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected a plea seeking a ban on issue of coins with religious symbols embossed on them, saying it does not hamper the "secular fabric" of the country.

Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar, while dismissing a petition questioning the issue of Rs 5 denomination coins with the embossed image of Mata Vaishno Devi, said the government had the power to issue such coins under the Coinage Act.

Issuing coins with the image of Mata Vaishno Devi to commemorate the occasion of the silver jubilee of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board was "not a dent on secular fabric" of the country, said the bench.

After the advocate appearing for the petitioner Nafis Qazi said secular democratic credentials of the governance were damaged when the government issues currency with religious symbols, the court said: "Secularism doesn't say you will never issue coins to commemorate for any event.

"Secularism is not that they (government and RBI) will not commemorate event of any religion. Tomorrow, they may want to commemorate Muslim or Sikh events... They have the power," said the bench.

The court also said there was "no act of favouritism and discrimination" by the government in directing minting of coins to commemorate an event.

The order came on a PIL filed by Qazi against the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India saying the government, by bringing out coins at regular intervals with religious symbols such as figures of a deity or temple embossed on them, was indulging in anti-secular actions.

"These symbols undermine the secular character, a basic feature of the Constitution," the advocate said.

The plea said the government came out with similar coins in 2010 and 2013 and these should be withdrawn.

--IANS

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A high-level Polish delegation will participate in the upcoming Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) and representatives of Silesia, an economically robust region of the east European country, and West Bengal will sign an MoU on bilateral cooperation, an official statement said on Thursday.

The head of the delegation Marek Magierowski, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for the relations with Asia and economic cooperation, will be accompanied by Grzegorz Tobiszowski, First Deputy Minister of Energy, Ambassador of Poland to India, Adam Burakowski, as well as by representatives of Silesia.

The delegation comprises of a group of over a dozen prosperous Polish companies, representing mostly the energy sector, including coal mining and coking coal production. Poland and India rely heavily on coal, the statement said.

"Our mutual goal is to increase energy efficiency which could be done by development of energy saving, clean technologies and modernisation of the energy units," it said.

Polish companies that will be present at the BGBS to be held on January 16-17 in the metropolis, will be offering innovative products, technologies and services in this field and their representatives are hoping to find new business opportunities and partnerships in the state, it added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An Indian Air Force (IAF) team that scaled Antarctica's highest peak Mt Vinson was flagged in by IAF chief Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa here on Thursday.

With its team scaling the peak, the IAF became the first air force in the world to have planted its flag atop the tallest peaks in all continents.

The five-member IAF team, lead by Group Captain R.C. Tripathi, was flagged off by the IAF chief on December 8 last. The team scaled Mt Vinson on December 25.

Other team members are Wing Commander S.S. Malik, Squadron Leader Rajesh Mukhi, Sergeant Rakesh Kaale and Corporal Pawan Kumar.

Dhanoa congratulated the team and said the expedition's message was about the "spirit of adventure".

He said he was happy that the team completed its mission safely.

"When you conquer all six peaks and you have the last one left, you tend to do mistakes. My only worry was your safety," the Air Force chief told the mountaineers.

"It is about the spirit of adventure. When you assess a situation and take calculated risks and not just chance, it is adventure," Dhanoa said.

After an IAF team scaled Mt Everest in 2005, the force launched a series of mountaineering expeditions under the 'Mission Seven Summits' in 2008 which was aimed to hoist the Tricolour atop the highest mountains in all seven continents.

Subsequently, different IAF teams scaled Mt Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia (Asia), Mount Kosciuszko in Australia (Australia), Mt Elbrus in Russia (Europe), Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (Africa), Mt Aconcagua in Argentina (South America) and Mt McKinley/Denali in Alaska (North America).

--IANS

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India for the first time confirmed on Thursday that National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart Nasir Khan Janjua in Bangkok last month with a focus on how to fight terror and end cross-border terrorism.

"Yes, I agree talks took place. I also agree that the issue is of terrorism. Talks were held on how to rid this region of the scourge of terrorism, how to ensure that terrorism doesn't affect this region. I think we raised the issue of cross-border terrorism (with Pakistan) in those talks," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He was answering queries about media reports on the meeting between Doval and Janjua in Bangkok on December 26 -- a day after the mother and wife of retired Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav met him in Islamabad and were subjected to humiliation by Pakistani authorities and a section of the press.

The spokesperson de-linked the meeting between the NSAs from the stalled India-Pakistan dialogue process and said it was a part of operational level engagement between the two countries.

"The dialogue process between India and Pakistan... We have said talks and terror cannot go together. But apart from that, there are other dialogue mechanisms that take place between India and Pakistan like talks at DGMO level, talks between BSF and Pakistan Rangers, there is a regular mechanism. Likewise, talks between NSAs is a part of operational level talks."

He said while India believed that "terror and talks cannot go together but talks on terror can definitely go ahead".

Asked if more such meetings between the NSAs were scheduled, Kumar said "these operational-level mechanisms do take place... but we don't announce these meeting. As and when these meetings take place, you will get to know."

--IANS

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Israeli Prime Minister Prime Benjamin Netanyahu will arrive here on Monday on a six-day trip to India that will also take him to Gujarat and Mumbai, the Israeli Embassy announced on Thursday.

Netanyahu will hold meetings in New Delhi with President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the embassy said in a statement.

Netanyahu will also attend the annual "Raisina Dialogue", a geo-political conference, and address an India-Israeli CEO forum in New Delhi.

"The Prime Minister's visit to India is the grand finale to the celebrations of 25 years of Growing Partnership between India and Israel. The visit will focus on the progress made between India and Israel since Prime Minister Modi's visit to Israel last summer, and on shaping the next 25 years of relations between our countries and our peoples," Israeli Ambassador Daniel Carmon said in the statement.

Netanyahu will arrive in New Delhi on January 14 and depart from Mumbai on January 19.

In Gujarat, Modi and Netanyahu will visit the Centre of Excellence in Vadrad and inaugurate a Centre of Excellence for date palms in Bhuj via video conference. They will also visit the iCreate innovation campus and centre.

In Mumbai, Netanyahu will meet Jewish community leaders and select members of the Indian business community. He will reach out to Bollywood in an exclusive "Shalom Bollywood" event.

--IANS

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Israeli Prime Minister Prime Benjamin Netanyahu will arrive here on Sunday to give a fillip to 25 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries during a six-day trip that will also take him to Ahmedabad for a roadshow with "friend" Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Netanyahu is also likely to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra and will be in Mumbai for a business meet before he flies home next Friday.

The visit come months after Modi's trip to Israel in July last year -- a first by an Indian Prime Minister since the two countries established diplomatic ties only in 1992 even as India had recognized the Jewish state soon after it was founded.

During Modi's trip, the two leaders were seen hugging each other and addressing each other repeatedly as "friend".

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani told reporters on Thursday that Modi and Netanyahu would first visit the Sabarmati Ashram -- the abode of Mahatma Gandhi -- after they arrive in Ahmedabad on January 17. "(They) will be accorded a grand welcome."

After his arrival in New Delhi on Sunday afternoon, Netanyahu will hold meetings with President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the Israeli Embassy said in a statement.

He will have a bilateral meeting with Modi and also attend the annual "Raisina Dialogue", a geo-political conference, and address an India-Israeli CEO forum in the capital, said Joint Secretary in External Affairs Ministry B. Bala Bhaskar.

Bhaskar said the ties between the two countries have been expanding in the areas of agriculture, water, innovation, entrepreneurship development, space, education, culture, homeland security and defence.

"We have uprgaded our relationship to strategic level with special focus on agriculture and water," he said.

He said the bilateral commerce between the two countries stood at $5 billion in 2016-17 which did not include defence trade.

He refused to give defence trade figures saying "they are not exactly measured like that and as such (there are) no exact figures".

Bhaskar parried a directly reply when asked about the reported revival of talks on India's purchase of 8,000 Spike anti-tank missiles from Israel that was cancelled last week.

"These issues have set mechanism. India has a long and wide ranging defence cooperation with Israel. This covers defence equipment as well as defence industry and technology cooperation which are developing very well.

"New areas of cooperation are actively being explored. I am sure you will be updated on that."

Asked to specify business or defence deals the two countries were likely to sign during Netanyahu's visit, Bhaskar said: "This is a very very special relationship and the visit is to celebrate 25 years of diplomatic ties. It was decided that both Prime Ministers should exchange visits. This visit is actually visit accomplishment of 25 years of ties."

He said Modi and Netanyahu would hold talks on a wide range of matters and "I am sure (the Palestine issue) is also going to come up".

Israeli Ambassador Daniel Carmon called Netanyagu's visit to India as the "grand finale to the celebrations of 25 years of growing partnership".

"The visit will focus on the progress made between India and Israel since Prime Minister Modi's visit to Israel last summer, and on shaping the next 25 years of relations between our countries and our peoples," Carmon said in a statement.

In Gujarat, Modi and Netanyahu will also visit the Centre of Excellence in Vadrad and inaugurate a Centre of Excellence for date palms in Bhuj via video conference. They will also visit the iCreate innovation campus and centre.

In Mumbai, Netanyahu will meet Jewish community leaders and select members of the Indian business community. He will reach out to Bollywood in an exclusive "Shalom Bollywood" event.

--IANS

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Lebanese fashion brand Elie Saab faced backlash for sharing a photograph of Israeli actress Gal Gadot wearing a dress from its collection.

The "Wonder Woman" wore a blue sash dress by the designer for the National Board of Review Awards Gala here earlier this week.

Elie Saab's Instagram page then posted an image of Gadot, with a description of the "flawless" actress in the brand's Ready-to-Wear Spring Summer 2018.

Since there are tensions between Israel and Lebanon, the post immediately sparked a backlash online before being removed altogether, reports dailymail.co.uk.

A Lebanese journalist Heba Bitar commented on social media: "I love and respect Elie Saab, but is he really happy an Israeli actress wore a dress he designed?'

Another social media user wrote: "I'm not gonna ask why would she wear Elie Saab... but I'm asking why would his team post it? Unacceptable!"

Last year, Gadot's superhero film "Wonder Woman" was banned from Lebanese cinemas.

Gadot had served for two years in the Israeli army as a combat trainer, and Lebanon's Ministry of Economy issued the ban just before the film was scheduled to premiere.

It was reportedly blocked by the government because of the star's nationality and her support for Israel's army.

--IANS

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Japan lodged a formal protest with China on Thursday after detecting a Chinese frigate and an unidentified foreign submarine in waters close to the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

The Japan Self-Defence Forces -- the country's military -- spotted the Jiangkai II-class frigate at around 11 a.m., close to the Senkaku islands, a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan, although it did not enter Japanese territorial waters, Efe news agency reported.

Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama summoned Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua on Thursday to express his grave concern regarding the issue and protest the frigate's entry into the area, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

A foreign submarine was also detected in the contiguous waters near Japanese territory on Wednesday and Thursday, said the country's Defence Ministry, which believes that the submarine is also from China, as reported by local news agency Kyodo.

The last time a foreign submarine was spotted in Japanese contiguous waters was in February 2016.

Tokyo has been in a territorial dispute with Beijing over the sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands -- known as Diaoyu Islands in China -- which has intensified since the former in 2012 nationalised three of the islets.

Located around 150 km northeast of Taiwan, the uninhabited Senkaku Islands have an area of about 7 sq km and are said to possibly be rich in marine and energy resources.

--IANS

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Giving a cinema analogy, actor Kamal Haasan, who has announced his entry into politics, said on Thursday that like in cinema, in also there is a fear that a rival can run away with your script and produce a film before he can do it -- in what is seen as a veiled reference to his longtime friend and superstar Rajinikanth.

In a write-up in the Tamil weekly 'Ananda Vikatan', he said he was often being asked about the progress of his plans to launch a political party. This was like asking what is the story plot on the first day a film's production starts.

"But in cinema there is a fear that a rival may complete a film and release it before we are able to do it. In also there is such a fear," he said in an apparent reference to Rajinikanth, who has also announced his entry into .

"That is why one has to be careful. What has to be said has to be said carefully and correctly. One has to guard against taking back what has been uttered. I am involved in that only," he said.

Kamal Haasan also said he was being asked by several people on 'how I am going to tackle the problem of friends turning rivals", again a veiled reference to Rajinikanth with whom he has about four decades of friendship.

He said he would take such things in his stride but he would not stoop to the "usual low levels" of politics and his followers would also not like it.

--IANS

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Thirteen days after the Mumbai pub blaze, the city police made a breakthrough and arrested three owners of the 1Above restaurant from Bandra late Wednesday, an official said on Thursday.

They would be produced before a court here on Thursday afternoon, the official said.

The three absconding owners -- Kripesh Sanghavi, Jigar Sanghavi and Abhijit Mankar -- carried a reward of Rs 100,000 announced by Mumbai Police. They have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

They were nabbed while on their way to meet a lawyer late Wednesday night on Linking Road in Bandra west.

This takes the total number of arrests in the December 29, 2017 pub fire that killed 14 and injured another 55, to six.

Besides three others nabbed for shielding the accused, including a co-owner of The Mojo's Bistro, Yug Pathak, son of a former DGP-rank IPS officer K.K. Pathak.

Another partner of Pathak, Yug Tuli was still absconding and was spotted in Hyderabad two days ago but managed to give the police a slip.

On Wednesday, a friend Vishal Kariya was nabbed for helping the absconding trio after blaze in The Mojo's Bistro, 1Above and other establishments in the sprawling Kamala Mills Compound in Lower Parel.

A probe by the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) has said that the fire first erupted in rooftop pub The Mojo's Bistro, spread to the adjoining 1Above and other premises that fateful night.

--IANS

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Hundreds of people blocked roads and shut down markets for a second day on Thursday to protest the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in the city of Kasur in Pakistan's Punjab province.

The protests against police inaction erupted on Wednesday with two demonstrators killed in clashes with the police.

"The situation is tense, but under control," Kasur police spokesperson Mohamed Usman told Efe news agency.

The protests started a day after the body of the girl, who had gone missing last week, was found in a garbage dump.

The minor was being looked after by her uncle while her parents were away on 'Umrah' pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Preliminary examination of her body revealed she was sexually abused before she was killed, and led to widespread outrage in Kasur, a city that has witnessed several incidents of child abuse in recent years, including seven recent cases.

As reports of the rape and murder hit the headlines, some of the protestors went on a rampage and clashed with the police demanding public execution of the killer of the seven-year-old.

Another police spokesperson, Khalid Iqbal, said complaints have been registered against three policemen over the death of the protestors on Wednesday.

The demonstrators were among a group that allegedly tried to attack the offices of the city's Deputy Commissioner, to which the police had responded by opening fire.

Iqbal said that the search for the girl's killer was underway although so far they have had no credible lead.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited the parents of the girl on Thursday and promised them that the guilty will be brought to justice.

In August 2015, it was discovered that 19 minors were recorded on video and photographed by a network of 17 people in Ganda Singh Wala, which falls in Kasur area.

In April 2016, an anti-terrorism court had sentenced the two accused to life imprisonment.

In March 2016, Pakistan passed a law against sexual abuse of minors and child pornography, making it punishable by up to seven years in prison.

--IANS

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Pakistan has not done enough to eliminate safe havens for terrorists on its soil, new US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster said on Thursday even as he described India as "a leading power in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond".

"I don't think we can have civilian security in Afghanistan and Pakistan if Pakistan does not contribute positively to that," Juster said in response to a question after delivering his first policy address on "India-US Relations: Building a Durable Relationship for the 21st Century" organised by the US Embassy and the Carnegie India think tank.

He said the major reason behind the suspension of US security assistance to Pakistan "is because we feel they have not done all that they could to try and eliminate terror sanctuaries in Pakistan that are contributing to the unrest in Afghanistan".

"We have made it clear we will not tolerate terrorism, cross-border terrorism or any form of terrorism or safe havens of any type."

Juster said that the US works closely with India in various ways, including information sharing, that are related to terrorism beyond just what is happening in Afghanistan.

He also lauded India for its role in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan and said both India and the US have a shared interest in the stability and security in Afghanistan and its long-term growth both and also to prevent it from being a haven for terrorist organisations.

Stating that both India and the US bring different capabilities to this process, he said: "We feel India has made a substantial investment in economic development of Afghnaistan, be it a hydroielctric plant, be it training in India of Afghan military personnel and students. And we would like to see India continue that economic development assistance."

In his address, the Ambassador shared values and common interests inform the vision of both India and the US for the Indo-Pacific region, encompasses the world's largest and fastest-growing economies and its most populous nations.

"As the U.S. National Security Strategy recognizes, India is a leading power in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond," he stated. "For India and the United States, the Indo-Pacific is vital to the security and prosperity of our people as well as others."

Juster said that both India and the US want to together ensure a free and open region, where the rule of law and democratic principles are reflected in a rules-based order; promote respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; guarantee freedom of navigation, overflight, and commerce, and other lawful uses of the sea; ensure that territorial and maritime disputes are resolved peacefully, consistent with international law; promote economic connectivity through private sector-led growth, free and fair trade, the use of responsible debt-financing practices, and the transparent development of infrastructure; and together, want to preserve regional stability and security, prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and eliminate the scourge of terrorism.

"The US-India strategic partnership is designed to strengthen both countries and to have a beneficial impact on this region," he emphasised.

Juster, an old India hand who played a key role in the India-US civil nuclear agreement, said that "it is now time to make sure that the strategic partnership is a durable partnership".

"The longstanding commitment of the United States to a free, secure, and open Indo-Pacific has underpinned the stability and remarkable economic rise of this region -- to the benefit of all of us," he stateed.

"The United States will remain committed to this region -- as we are to the rules-based international order -- because our future is inextricably linked to it.

"We welcome India's leadership with us in this venture -- as partners bolstered by conviction and working with like-minded nations on a regional architecture to ensure that the Indo-Pacific -- in the words of Secretary of State Tillerson -- is increasingly a place of peace, stability, and growing prosperity, rather than one of disorder, conflict, and predatory economic policy."

In his address, Juster also touched upon the five pillars that can provide the framework for durable partnership between New Delhi and Washington: defence and counter-terrorism; economic and commercial relations; energy and environment; science, technology and health; and regional cooperation.

--IANS

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The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Thursday slammed a new Israeli settlement project south of West Bank's Nablus city.

The new settlement project will erase the Green Line and disconnect the West Bank to prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, the ministry said in a statement, Xinhua reported.

The statement said that Israeli call of settlers to build more units in the Nablus area "unravels the premeditated colonial expansionist settlement scheme".

The ministry also accused the Israeli government of "using the biased US policies to speed up its settlement expansion and steal more lands".

Meanwhile, the ministry issued another statement accusing the US envoy to Israel David Friedman of adopting the policies of Israeli occupation through his attack on the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

Friedman said on Twitter: "An Israeli father of six was killed last night in cold blood by Palestinian terrorists."

His remarks came after a settler shot dead on Tuesday night, Raziel Shevah, 35, who was the first Israeli killed since US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on December 6.

"Friedman's accusations reflect his prejudiced and selective attitude towards the occupation, settlement activity and the just and legitimate Palestinian rights," the ministry said.

The statement also said Trump's move is the "main reason for the disruption of American efforts to resume peace negotiations".

--IANS

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Vice President Mike Pence will lead the US delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics Games which is to be held in PyeongChang, South Korea, next month, the White House said.

US President Donald Trump informed his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-In of the decision during their phone call earlier in the day, according to a White House statement on Wednesday.

On a phone call with Moon in late November, Trump promised to send a high-level US delegation to the Winter Games, Xinhua reports.

The PyeongChang games, slated from February 9 to 25, gained extra spotlight as North Korea, after its talks with South Korea over the past two years, agreed to send a team to participate in the events.

--IANS

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Rare documents like The Treaty of Lahore (March 1846), The Treaty of Amritsar (March 1846), the Instrument of Accession (October 1947), Standstill Agreement between India and Pakistan and the Princely states of British India are being showcased in an exhibition.

Titled "India@70: The Jammu and Kashmir Saga", the exhibition has been curated by National Archives of India to mark the occasion of 70 years of accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India.

The History Division of the Ministry of Defence has contributed by providing valuable inputs and rare operational records including war diaries and dispatches of Jammu and Kashmir Operations (1947-48) in public domain for the first time.

The exhibition, inaugurated by Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma on Thursday, gives a chance to take a peep into the 1947-48 period with original letters, telegrams and rare documents.

Accompanying these are rare vintage photographs, documentaries maps, soldiers' maps, newspapers reports and a large number of books on Kashmir.

The exhibition, being showcased at the National Archives of India, will end on February 10.

--IANS

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The US administration has renamed the street the Russian embassy sits on after a murdered Russian opposition politician prompting criticism from Moscow with one its leaders labelling it a "dirty trick".

The Washington DC city council voted to rename the street outside Russia's embassy complex after Boris Nemtsov, who was shot outside the Kremlin in 2015, the BBC reported.

A statement from the city council said the decision to honour the "slain democracy activist" was passed unanimously.

The decision was specifically targeted at "the portion of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the Russian Embassy", according to the Washington council's statement.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted the leader of the nationalist LDPR party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as saying US authorities "specifically want to play dirty tricks in front of the Russian Embassy".

Another politician from the Communist Party Dmitry Novikov said: "The US authorities have long been absorbed in their own game of interfering in Russian internal affairs."

Nemtsov, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was shot in February 2015 while walking home from a restaurant in Moscow.

A small memorial near where he was killed has frequently been vandalised, or cleared away by street cleaners late at night, the BBC report said.

His daughter, Zhanna, travelled to Washington DC in early December to advocate for the name change.

She said: "The current Russian political regime wants to eradicate the memory of my father, since it believes - correctly - that symbols are important and that they can potentially facilitate and inspire change."

She said her father was "an open-minded patriot of Russia" who deserved to be commemorated.

"For now, we cannot do it in Russia because of unprecedented resistance on the part of the Russian authorities. But we have a chance to do it here - and here, it will be very difficult to dismantle," the BBC quoted her as saying.

In 2017, five Chechen men were convicted for Nemtsov's killing, but family and supporters of the slain politician believe the person who ordered the murder remains at large.

The Washington DC decision comes a day after Turkey similarly renamed the street the UAE embassy sits upon in Ankara, naming it after a military commander at the centre of a diplomatic spat.

--IANS

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Sri Lanka has lifted a ban on selling alcohol to women and prohibiting women from working in places where alcohol is manufactured or sold, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Mass Media and Finance said on Thursday.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera signed an excise notification gazette extraordinary under the Excise Ordinance revoking the ban, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to a Sri Lankan law passed in the early 1950s, any alcoholic drink could not be sold to women and they were not allowed to work in any alcoholic manufacturing outlets or retail stores.

Under the new law, women will no longer require the approval of the Excise Commissioner in order to work or drink "in licensed premises", including restaurants.

--IANS

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The CPI-M has urged the government to stop making Aadhaar linkages mandatory to avail basic services and also criticized the Supreme Court for delaying a ruling on the contentious issue.

"The only way out of the impasse is to stop making Aadhaar mandatory for all basic services," an editorial in the CPI-M organ "People's Democracy" said. "The government must reverse its order to link all bank accounts and mobile telephones to Aadhaar."

The Communist Party of India-Marxist also pointed out that petitions against Aadhaar had been pending before the Supreme Court for the past five years.

"The Court has been lackadaisical in addressing this vital issue in time. During this period, the government has gone ahead with making Aadhaar a totalitarian and compulsory system.

"A five-member Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, set up in November 2017, is now hearing the petitions. The court should give its verdict at the earliest in this matter as it is of vital concern for the people and democratic liberties in the country."

The editorial followed an expose in The Tribune newspaper as to how one of its reporters could get access to details of more than one billion Aadhaar numbers -- for just Rs 500. The report debunked the stand of UIDAI and the government that its database cannot be breached.

The CPI-M said it had opposed the Aadhaar project even when it was begun by the UPA government due to the involvement of two American companies in preparing the software design for the UID system.

Thus, already the database of Aadhaar card holders has been available to these American companies which are linked to US security agencies, the editorial said.

Making Aadhaar mandatory for receiving PDS rations and social security benefits had also caused misery to the poor, it said.

"The government is now insisting on the Aadhaar identification for all spheres of life, including registration of birth and deaths. Things have gone to such an extent that some government hospitals are demanding an Aadhaar card identification before admitting a patient. Without Aadhar identification, one will cease to be a citizen.

"The attitude of the government and the UIDAI is evident from the fact that a case has been registered against The Tribune and its reporter for breach of security of Aadhaar.

"Instead of acknowledging that the Aadhaar is a faulty and imperfect system, the government is seeking to shoot the messenger and attack the freedom of the press."

--IANS

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Tibetan "Prime Minister-in-exile" Lobsang Sangay on Thursday cautioned New Delhi against China's deceptive policies, warning that what happened to Tibet could happen to India as well.

"The Doklam stand-off and the repeated cross-border incursion of Chinese soldiers into Indian territories is a sign of China's expansionist mindset," he told reporters here.

He said India should be wary of China's belligerent attitude.

Taking about developing airfields and road networks by China along the border with India, he asked India to be cautious.

"To understand the Doklam face-off, you have to look at China's 'right hand palm and five fingers' strategy.

"Chinese leader Mao Zedong described Tibet as the right hand palm while Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal and Arunachal Pradesh as five fingers.

"Because the Chinese were not stopped when they were occupying Tibet in 1959, they have now got emboldened to move towards five fingers. Had Tibet's capture been prevented, incidents like Doklam would never took place," Sangay told IANS.

Sangay, who is also the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) President, said India was now progressing towards becoming "a number one country" under the leadership Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Stressing upon the need to develop a Buddhist religious tourist circuit, he said India was the land of Buddha and there were 600-700 million Buddhists in the world.

"Even if only .01 per cent Buddhists come to India to visit Buddhist monasteries and spend am average $1,000, India can earn $6 billion per year," said Sangay.

The Central Tibetan Administration is based in this Himachal Pradesh town where the spiritual leader the Dalai Lama also resides.

Sangay highlighted the Dalai Lama's commitment to the revival of ancient Indian values, particularly the Nalanda school of thought.

The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing China in 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule over Tibet. The government-in-exile is based in Dharamsala but is not recognized by any country.

--IANS

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A top commander of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) was killed on Thursday when security forces raided his hideout in Meghalaya, police said.

Matchallang Sangma alias Vietnam, the deputy commander-in-chief of the GNLA, was killed in a gun battle when police burst into the makeshift jungle camp outside Bawe Duragre village, on the southern Bank of the Simsang river, 20 km from Williamnagar, the district headquarters of East Garo Hills.

"We launched an operation in the area based on a tip-off that some members of the group were taking shelter there," said district police officer Ringrang Momin.

Sangma was wanted in several cases of extortion, kidnappings and murders in Garo Hills and parts of West Khasi Hills.

The Special Weapons and Tactics and SF-10 commandos are conducting a combing operation to flush out the militants.

An AK rifle along with ammunition, Chinese-made hand grenades, Bangladeshi currency notes and incriminating documents were recovered from the site, the officer said.

--IANS

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The US House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill to extend by six years a key spying programme allowing the government to collect communications concerning foreign intelligence targets without a warrant.

The vote for the expiring Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was 256-164.

The legislation is now headed to the Senate, where the majority of lawmakers reportedly could vote in favour, too, Xinhua reported.

The US government has been highly criticised for secretly collecting phone and online data on US and foreign citizens, following the 2013 leaks by the intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

In 2015, US Congress voted to end a controversial surveillance program under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the US National Security Agency's secret phone metadata collection on Americans.

Under Section 702, the US government is supposed to target foreigners overseas, but Americans' communications -- even those in the United States -- reportedly can be snared if they are part of conversations that the targets are having.

"Actually, today's vote was about retaining the power to spy on Americans without a warrant," the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted.

It gives "the Trump administration greater authority to spy on Americans, immigrants, journalists, dissidents, and everyone else," it added.

"Many representatives who have expressed concern about this administration's abuses still voted for this bill. Today, their concern rings more hollow."

Before approving the extension of the law, the House voted 233 to 183 to reject an amendment to require a warrant before intelligence officials spy on US persons.

--IANS

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An Uttar Pradesh police constable has been arrested on charges of raping a seven-year-old girl at his one-room flat here, police said on Thursday.

The crime came to light after an angry mob of villagers caught Subhash Singh, 45, posted in the Sales Tax Department in Gautam Budh Nagar, near his accommodation in Surajpur, thrashed him, and handed him over to police around 8.30 a.m. on Thursday.

"Subhash took the girl, playing alone outside her home, to his flat around 3 p.m. on Wednesday and sexually assaulted her," Superintendent of Police (Rural) Suniti told IANS.

A native of Uttar Pradesh's Kaithi village, he escaped after neighbours gathered on hearing the girl's cries for help.

Subhash returned to his room early on Thursday and allegedly attacked two women neighbours when they tried to catch hold of him. Later, villagers caught and beat him up.

Police have lodged an FIR under Sections 342 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code dealing with rape, and punishment for wrongful confinement and Sections 5/6 of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act.

Police said it was awaiting the medical report of the girl from the district hospital in Noida's Sector 30.

The girl's mother works as a factory labourer and hails from Bihar. The child's father died a few years ago.

--IANS

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Over five months after he was arrested for stalking and attempt to abduct the daughter of a senior IAS officer, Vikas Barala, the son of Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala, was on Thursday granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court here.

A single judge bench of Justice Lisa Gill granted him and his friend and co-accused Ashish Kumar bail.

The bail plea of the duo was rejected four times earlier by the trial court. Both were arrested on August 9.

Both were booked under non-bailable offences, including Section 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent to confine person) and Section 511 (attempt to commit offence punishable with life imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code.

Varnika Kundu, 29, daughter of Haryana Additional Chief Secretary V.S. Kundu, had complained to police that the two accused, who were drunk, had stalked and intimidated her and tried to abduct her on August 4-5 night.

They had chased Varnika, who was in her car and driving back from Chandigarh to adjoining town of Panchkula around midnight, in their SUV.

Varnika, a professional DJ, had told the police that the youth had tried to stop her car and harassed her. She called up the Police Control Room (PCR) after which the youth were apprehended.

Vikas and Ashish, who have both studied law, have denied the charges.

--IANS

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A team of German cryptographers has discovered flaws in WhatsApp's Group chats despite its end-to-end encryption, that makes it possible to infiltrate private group chats without admin permission.

According to a report in Wired.com, the cryptographers from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany announced this at the "Real World Crypto Security Conference in Zurich, Switzerland, on Wednesday.

"Anyone who controls the app's servers could insert new people into private group chats without needing admin permission," the report said, citing cryptographers.

"The confidentiality of the group is broken as soon as the uninvited member can obtain all the new messages and read them," Paul Rosler, one of the Ruhr University researchers, was quoted as saying.

The WhatsApp attack on group chats takes advantage of a bug.

"Only an administrator of a WhatsApp group can invite new members, but WhatsApp doesn't use any authentication mechanism for that invitation that its own servers can't spoof," the report said.

So the server can simply add a new member to a group with no interaction on the part of the administrator.

"The phone of every participant in the group then automatically shares secret keys with that new member, giving him or her full access to any future messages," the report added.

With over 1.2 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp is available in more than 50 different languages around the world and in 10 Indian languages.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp added end-to-end encryption to every conversation two years ago.

According to the researchers, once an attacker with control of the WhatsApp server had access to the conversation, he or she could also use the server to selectively block any messages in the group.

"He can cache all the message and then decide which get sent to whom and which not," Rosler said.

A WhatsApp spokesperson confirmed the findings to Wired, however adding that "no one can secretly add a new member to a group and a notification does go through that a new, unknown member has joined the group".

"We've looked at this issue carefully," the spokesperson added.

WhatsApp is likely to give group administrators more powers where they will be able to restrict all other members from sending text messages, photographs, videos, GIFs, documents or voice messages in case the admin thinks so.

According to WABetaInfo, a fan site that tests new WhatsApp features early, the popular mobile messaging platform has submitted the "Restricted Groups" setting via Google Play Beta Programme in the version 2.17.430.

Once restricted, other members will simply have to read their messages and will not be able to respond. They will have to use the "Message Admin" button to post a message or share media to the group.

--IANS

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If the union government is serious about a uniform civil code (UCC), why doesn't it initiate a discussion on it, prominent Muslim body Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) said on Thursday.

"If the government is actually serious about bringing uniform civil code, why doesn't it come out with a draft of such a legislation and put it in the public domain for open discussion and suggestions," JIH President Maulana Jalaluddin Umari said in response to a media query on whether triple talaq bill was a step towards a common civil code.

"They keep using it to frighten the minorities, but in reality can they bring a uniform code for such a diverse population with numerous ethnicites, tribes, religions and belief systems and cultures and traditions," Umari said.

The JIH also slammed the triple talaq legislation as meaningless, because such a legislation, apart from not being capable of safeguarding women's rights, would also encroach upon men's rights.

The Jamaat President also expressed concern over the process of erollment in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, saying a large number of genuine citizens, who are impoverished and could not maintain proper papers, were being targeted.

The number of those declared as "foreigners" had in fact increased after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in Assam.

"If a person is accused of being a foreigner, then the onus of proof lies on the accused. But genuine citizens who are impoverished and could not maintain proper records are now facing the threat of being branded as foreigners. Many such people have been declared foreigners due to minor inaccuracies in their documents," he said.

"The number of those declared as foreigners has increased dramatically after the BJP government came to power in Assam. Jamaat expects that the government agencies entrusted with the task of preparing the list of legal citizens shall discharge their duty without bias," he added.

According to the Assam Accord signed in 1985, anyone who entered the state after March 24, 1971 is considered an illegal resident.

In its first list issued on December 31 last year, the NRC has held only 1.9 crore persons of the 3.3 crore applicants to be bona fide citizens of India. The second list is expected by July this year.

The JIH has formed a three-member committee to look into the entire NRC issue and help the economically and educationally backward people to comply with the necessary documentary requirements for citizenship, Umari said.

--IANS

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On December 20, during the winter session of Parliament, Janata Dal (United) Kerala state unit chief MP Veerendra Kumar quit his Rajya Sabha seat to protest his party chief, Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar's decision to align with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front has a comfortable majority in the Kerala Assembly, and speculation is rife on who might be picked to fill the vacancy. Recently, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, good humouredly, suggested to some in the CPI (M) if they would be willing to support a common candidate. Intrigued, the CPI (M) members wondered who would that common candidate be. Azad left them speechless by suggesting the name of CPI (M) chief . It is little secret how a section within the CPI (M) had nixed a Congress proposal to send Yechury to the Rajya Sabha for a third term from West Bengal. But sources in both, the Congress and CPI (M), said Azad's suggestion was more tongue-in-cheek than with any serious intent.
Prime Minister on Thursday hosted (BJP) chief and his team of office bearers and election in-charges of states for a brainstorming session over dinner to plan for the battles ahead - the big one being the polls, and the smaller battles in eight states in the run up to the 2019 General Election.
A man, arrested in connection with the 2000 Red Fort attack case, was today sent to 10-day police custody by a Delhi court.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat allowed the plea of Delhi Police seeking 10 days custody of Bilal Ahmed Kawa, who arrested yesterday from Delhi airport in a joint operation of the Delhi Police and Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

Three people, including two Army jawans, were killed in the December 22, 2000 Red Fort attack.

According to the police, the Gujarat ATS informed it that Kawa, who had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case, was travelling from Srinagar to Delhi.

Kawa, who was suspected to be linked with Lashkar-e- Toiba, was arrested last evening from the T-3 terminal of the Delhi Airport, the police said, adding that money to the tune of Rs 29.50 lakh was transferred through hawala in various bank accounts, including those of Kawa, to fund the attack.

Kawa was on the run since 2000 and hiding in Kashmir, it claimed.

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For publishers in India, 2017 was a great year an amazing range of books, new imprints, rewards and recognitions and prized acquisitions.

The year saw numerous autobiographies and biographies, and books related to business, commercial and mass market fiction, besides literary fiction, sports, self help, chik-lit and culinary works. There were a number of works by new and little-known authors too.

Penguin celebrated its 30th anniversary in India and HarperCollins India its 25th year. Bloomsbury India marked five years of its launch and the quarterly The Equator Line magazine completed five years.

"We had a great year at HarperCollins. It was our 25th anniversary year and was really special. We celebrated the occasion with newly designed special editions of our 25 most iconic titles, launched an imprint for business books Harper Business," says HarperCollins India CEO Ananth Padmanabhan.

"We also launched a brand new children's publishing program in November and a range of educational toys called FLAP (Fun a Learning and Play), the first by any publisher in India," he told PTI.

"We also won many awards; the best business book for Y V Reddy's 'Advice and Dissent', one of the first books in the new list, Anuk Ardupragasam's 'The Story of A Brief Marriage' won both the Shakti Bhatt Prize and the DSC South Asia Prize. Our books were on every shortlist in 2017. In short it has been a spectacular and rewarding year of books and awards," he adds.

"At Palimpsest, we look back on 2017 with satisfaction particularly for three books we put on our list: Sophie Judah's 'Victory Tea Estate', Balraj Khanna's iconic Partition narrative 'Line of Blood', and 'Demonetization in the Detail', a collection of essays edited by veteran journalist H K Dua," says Bhaskar Roy, CEO of Palimpsest Publishers.

Hemali Sodhi, senior vice president (marketing) and publisher (childrens) at Penguin Random House India, terms 2017 as an extraordinary year.

"We celebrated Penguin's 30th anniversary in India. To mark the occasion, we published special collector's editions across both the adult and children's divisions. Beautifully designed, the 30 books in the adult list and 10 books in the children's list featured some of our most beloved and popular titles published over the last 30 years. We also celebrated the 30th anniversary through the year with some very innovative and fun initiatives and campaigns," she says.

"It was also a wonderful year for our local publishing program - our range of books and authors consistently won awards, garnered acclaim and hit the bestseller charts. We were awarded the publisher of the year at the Tata Literature Live, and also won all the industry awards for book production," she adds.

According to Bloomsbury Publishing India Vice President (Sales & Marketing) Yogesh Sharma, 2017 was the best since Bloomsbury was launched five years ago in India.

"Our local publishing expanded significantly on the back of critically acclaimed books such as 'The Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta' by Kushanava Choudhury, The Windfall' by Diksha Basu, 'Who Me, Poor?: How India's Youth are Living in Urban Poverty to Make it Big' by Gayatri Jayaraman, and 'Purveyors of Destiny: A Cultural Biography of the Indian Railways' by Arup K Chatterjee, among others," he says.

"Both our trade and academic businesses including the digital collections grew as we strengthened our presence in sales and marketing. We grew by a record 32 per cent outstripping the industry average by far," Sharma says.

According to Oxford University Press-India Managing Director Sivaramakrishnan V, the focus of OUP in 2017 was achieving learning outcomes, technology adopted quickly and content rewritten and redesigned to adapt to a variety of emerging media.

"Virtual and Augmented Reality was probably the most talked about trend of 2017. AR/VR technologies help learners experience and interact with digital learning objects to support their learning. Educators, who earlier had print or digital images/animations for teaching support, now can leverage these high-fidelity educational experiences to achieve better learning outcomes," he says.

Among the highlights of Pan Macmillan India's publishing list in 2017 were the 10th anniversary edition of Ramachandra Guha's "India After Gandhi"; "Awaken", the first book of Ashok Banker's Shakti trilogy; "The Demon of Cawnpore" by Jules Verne; "The Party Worker" by Omar Shahid Hamid; Chhimi Tenduf-La's "Loyal Stalkers"; "Mrs C Remembers" by Himanjali Sankar; and "Boy of Fire and Earth" by Sami Shah.

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Nearly 40 per cent of the 5,179 people, who had signed up with the health ministry's national tobacco cessation helpline 'Quitline', quit smoking and chewing tobacco, according to official data.

A total of 2,010 registered callers have quit tobacco use after counseling since the toll-free helpline number -- 1800- 11-2356 -- was launched in May last year.

The tobacco cessation programme was launched by Health Minister J P Nadda on May 30 last year.

The project is financially supported by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and runs under the aegis of Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi.

The data, gathered from May 30, 2016 to May 30, 2017, also revealed that majority of the registered callers were educated adults of age 25-64 years, which points to the fact that they were well aware of harmful effects of tobacco use but still chose to indulge in such habits, an official said.

Experts said that majority of adults and youths are using tobacco under peer pressure, work pressure, stress, imitation, family conflicts, relationship issues, anxiety and social conformity.

Interestingly, 46.45 per cent of the registered callers were from Uttar Pradesh, followed by Delhi.

"The toll-free service is a good way to reach out to people who are reluctant to come forward with their problem of addiction due to the fear of being judged or being embarrassed or shy," said Prof. Raj Kumar, Head, Department of National Center of Respiratory Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute.

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For quick and easy printing of tickets booked by suburban train commuters through mobile app, the Railways has installed 44 Optical Character Recognition (OCR) kiosk machines at different stations in Mumbai, officials said today.

While the CR has installed 24 OCR kiosks, the WR has put in place 20 such kiosks at different stations, they said.

"With a view to reduce the queues at the booking counters and ATVMs (Automatic Ticket Vending Machines) and to provide an alternative to get the suburban train tickets, the Central Railway as well as the Western Railway have installed 44 OCR kiosks at different suburban stations in Mumbai," a senior railway official said.

According to chief public relations officer of Central Railway, Sunil Udasi, this is an enhanced feature of mobile ticketing, which will facilitate the passengers to print tickets through 24 OCR kiosks at suburban stations.

"This facility will help commuters save time and get tickets on the move easily avoiding queue at stations," he added.

"The CR has installed four OCR kiosks at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and five each at Ghatkopar, Thane, Dombivli and Kalyan stations," Udasi said.

The WR has installed one OCR at Churchgate, six at Dadar, three at Bandra, five each at Andheri and Borivali stations and process to install another five such points at Churchgate is on.

"These OCRs will facilitate the passengers get the printout of tickets booked through UTS mobile app and will also reduce the queues at booking counters/ATVM machines, thereby promoting transactions through UTS mobile app," chief PRO of WR, Ravinder Bhakar, said.

"Presently, passengers have to feed their mobile number and booking ID received on their mobiles, in the ATVMs to get their tickets printed or get it through UTS counter. This new facility will also reduce the time of printing of tickets as the machine will simply read the SMS and print tickets immediately.

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A 60-year-old woman was today arrested for the murder of her husband in 2006 along with two persons to whom she had given a contract to kill her husband, police said.

Manojkumar Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone I said the incident dated back to May 2006 when body parts of an unidentified male were found in a polythene bag at Mastan Talao in central Mumbai's Nagpada area.

Sharma said MRA Marg police today arrested Bansiben Kisan Kharwa (60), Firasat Ali Allarakha Shah (48)and Irshad Ali Allarakha Shah (43)for murdering Kisan Kharwa.

"The body was chopped in order to make identification difficult. A case of murder was registered at the time at Nagpada police station against unidentified persons. However the case remained undetected till now because the body could not be identified," said Sharma.

The case came back to life a few days ago after the senior police inspector of MRA Marg police station received a tip-off about the murder, an official said.

Three teams were formed to work on the tip-off and Firasat Ali Shah and Irshad Ali Shah were picked up from Chindhi Galli, Maulana Shaukat Ali Road, he said.

The two revealed the details of the crime as well as the name of the main accused during interrogation, he said.

"The contract to kill Kharwa was given by his wife to the two accused for a sum of Rs 2 lakh. The victim and the two accused knew each other as all of them were in the business of selling old clothes in exchange for utensils," he said.

The official said that on the day of murder, Firasat Ali and Irshad Ali took Kharwa to their room and spiked his drink, rendering him unconscious.

"The two then killed him with a sharp weapon. After six months of the murder, Bansiben approached the police and lodged a missing complaint," he said.

Police said that the two have been remanded to police custody till January 15 and further investigations were currently underway to trace the victim's torso as well as the murder weapon.

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President Ramnath Kovind today said that India's Act East Policy was much more than a "diplomatic initiative", aimed at not merely sharing economic opportunities but also integration of dreams and hopes of people of this country and South East Asia.

The president was addressing a function after inaugurating the fourth International Dharma-Dhamma Conference organised jointly by the Nalanda International University, Centre for Study of Religion and Society, India Foundation and the Ministry of External Affairs here in Nalanda district.

"India's Act East Policy was much more than a diplomatic initiative, aimed at sharing not merely economic opportunities, but an integration of dreams and hopes of the hundreds of millions who live in India and the South East Asia," Kovind said.

He said that India, South East Asia and "other parts of Asia that are covered by the Dharma-Dhamma footprint shared a past with a common source and inevitably, our destiny too is linked".

The inaugural function of the three-day conference, based on the theme 'State and Social Order in Dharma Dhamma Traditions', was attended by Bihar Governor Satyapal Mallik, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, among others.

Kovind also stressed that the "timing of this conference is very appropriate. We are marking the 25th anniversary of the ASEAN-India Dialogue Partnership. The month of January is a celebration of the India-ASEAN relations.

New Delhi will host a commemorative summit on January 25 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Dialogue Partnership between India and the ASEAN in which all the leaders of the grouping are expected to participate.

"Along with several India scholars, I am told this conference will hear the wise words of eminent international delegates. They have come from far-off continents, including both North and South America. But most of all, they represent the breadth and diversity of Asia-from Central Asia to South East Asia," the president said.

"Each of the countries and societies represented at this conference is unique.....Yet, all of them are recipients, in some manner, of the Dharma-Dhamma tradition. All of them have received the message of Lord Buddha -- a message that has travelled across Asia and beyond," he added.

Kovind also observed that the "journey of Buddhism as a pan-Asian creed and later a worldwide, began 2,500 years ago right here in Bihar. As such, the conference is a commemoration of a great phenomenon that has its origin right here in this region".

Speaking about the Nalanda University, he recalled that "the ancient university that stood here was a marvel of knowledge and wisdom. It was located in this very region of India but had an international character...Similarly, today's Nalanda University represents the ever-lasting Dharma-Dhamma identity. And it too is a cosmopolitan enterprise".

"The university's conceptualisation, founding and growth are the result of the cherished efforts by India and a host of partner countries, particularly from the ASEAN family," Kovind noted.

Earlier, welcoming the delegates, Chief Minister Kumar expressed the wish that an International Centre for Conflict Resolution be set up at the Nalanda International University for which his government will provide land.

He also said that a piece of land has been earmarked for providing accommodation to heads of state who may visit the Centre once it starts functioning.

Kumar also fondly recalled Kovind's tenure as the Bihar governor and pointed out that he was the first person to get elected to the top constitutional post while holding a gubernatorial office.

Participants from 11 countries are attending the three- day conference in which 60 papers on its theme are likely to be presented and discussed.

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Veteran BJP leader LK Advani, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda are among the political personalities scheduled to attend a programme to release a pictorial biography of former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.

Former President Pranab Mukherjee would release the book here on January 27, BJD vice-president and senior minister S N Patro said here today.

"The Biju Patnaik Birth Centenary Committee, a non-political organisation has invited Advani, Yechury and Deve Gowada," Patro said.

Rejecting allegation that it was a political move by Patnaik to unite national leaders, BJD MP and party spokesman PK Deb said senior leaders of various political parties across the country have been invited to attend the event.

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Director Vivek Agnihotri's next film will be based on the mystery surrounding the death of India's second prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

The investigative thriller, titled "The Tashkent Files", will star veteran actors Naseeruddin Shah and Mithun Chakraborty in pivotal roles.

However, the director is yet to cast the actor who will play the role of Shastri in the film.

Asked about the roles of Chakraborty and Shah in the film, Agnihotri told PTI, "They are playing two power centres. Two points of views."



Yesterday, the director had tweeted, "On this day, 10th Jan 1966, in Tashkent a tiny man called Lal Bahadur Shashtri, who won a war with Pakistan, soon after a humiliating defeat with China, signed the Tashkent treaty.

"Hours later he died. A death mystery unsolved till date. Why? On this day, our second PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri died mysteriously in Tashkent. Was it heart attack or poison? Even after 52 yrs, the truth of the biggest cover-up of free India has been denied to his family, followers, citizens. After years of research, I present 'The Tashkent Files'.

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The Delhi High Court today junked the bail application of a middleman, arrested in the Election Commission (EC) bribery case allegedly involving AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran and others.

Justice Mukta Gupta held that there was every apprehension of accused Sukesh Chandrashekar "tampering with the evidence if released on bail" and hence the court found no ground to grant him the relief.

The case pertains to an alleged attempt by Dhinakaran to bribe the EC for securing AIADMK's 'two leaves' symbol for the party faction led by his aunt VK Sasikala.

"Though Chandrashekar is required to be released on bail on parity (alleged main accused TTV Dinakaran, who was given bail on June 1, 2017, by the trial court) but for his conduct post arrest in custody which shows that he can influence the witnesses as during the pendency of investigation and trial, three FIRs have been registered against him," the court said.

It, however, granted anticipatory bail to one Narendra Kumar Jain, on the ground that the role assigned to him in the case was that on receiving Rs two 2 crore from one Danial, he handed over the same to one Jai Vikram Haran.

"Jain is not concerned with the offences which relates to Chandrashekar. As per the investigation, Jain has not retained money but only acted as a carrier of the amount.

"The main accused TTV Dinakaran has since been released on bail and statement of Danial has since been recorded. Since no recovery is required to be made from him, this court deems it fit to grant him anticipatory bail," the court said, but restrained Jain from leaving the country and join the probe when required.

Chandrashekar was arrested on April 16 last year and was denied bail once by the high court and thrice by the trial court.

The court also noted in its order that Chandrashekar had tried to influence the sitting judge of a trial court and the police escorting team.

Chandrashekar was arrested for allegedly taking money from Dhinakaran to bribe EC officials to get the AIADMK 'two leaves' symbol for the Sasikala faction in a by-election to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu.

Dhinakaran, also charge-sheeted by the police, was arrested here on April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe EC officials for the symbol. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, who represented the assembly segment.

In November, the EC ruled that the party's faction led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palanisamy and his deputy, O Panneerselvam (EPS-OPS) would be entitled to use the name of the party and its reserved symbol 'two leaves'.

Dhinakaran had moved the Delhi High Court challenging the Election Commission's order.

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant Rs 11,000 crore for construction of government offices and residential complexes in the state's new capital Amaravati.

The Prime Minister finally granted an appointment to the CM after a gap of 10 months and their meeting is scheduled to take place around 11 am in New Delhi tomorrow, a senior official said.

Naidu held a meeting with senior bureaucrats tonight in which it was decided to seek Central financial assistance to the tune of Rs 11,000 crore for developing essential infrastructure in the new capital, the official said.

The AP Capital Region Development Authority has estimated that Rs 6,705 crore would be required to build a permanent Secretariat, High Court and Legislature complex, another Rs 2163 crore would be required for constructing residential towers for legislators, bureaucrats and other junior officers and Rs 760 crore for bungalows for ministers.

Officials said that the Centre had already granted Rs 1,500 crore for the construction of the High Court, Legislature, Secretariat and some other government buildings.

The state government has submitted utilisation certificates for a sum of Rs 1,583 crore claiming to have spent the money for the "specified purpose" though no such structures, barring the Interim Government Complex, were built.

In this backdrop, the Chief Minister is set to place a fresh demand for funds, the official pointed out.

Naidu is also expected to discuss other issues related to the implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 with Modi.

It wants the Centre to fund Rs 16,725 crore through NABARD for six major projects in the ratio of 90:10 between the Centre and the state.

Chandrababu had written a letter to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in this regard, officials said.

Other issues like delimitation of Assembly constituencies to increase the number of seats in the AP Assembly from 175 to 225, bridging the revenue deficit caused by the state's bifurcation, division of assets listed under Schedules IX and X of the AP Reorganisation Act among others are also expected to be taken up with the Prime Minister, official sources said.

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Famous wrestler and double bronze medalist in 1974 Tehran Asian Games Sukhchain Singh Cheema was killed in a road accident near Patiala bypass yesterday evening.

The 67-year old wrestler was returning home from his farm in Bhanri village yesterday evening when the accident occurred, police said. The accident took place near Shermajra chowk here.

A car coming from Rajpura side rammed into Cheema's vehicle, which turned turtle. He succumbed to his injuries in the local hospital.

Cheema, a Dronacharya awardee, is survived by his wife and two sons.

Cheema was the son of 'Rustum-e-Hind' wrestler Kesar Singh Cheema. Sukhchain, who was running a Rustem-e-Hind Akhara in Patiala, had bagged double bronze medals during Tehran Asian Games in 1974. He won medals in both freestyle and Greco-Roman style category.

Cheema's son Palwinder Singh Cheema who is a DSP in Punjab police, was also 'Rustum-e-Hind'.

Meanwhile, the local government, cultural affairs & tourism minister, Punjab Navjot Singh Sidhu has expressed profound grief at the demise of Cheema.

Condoling the demise, the minister said that Cheema belonged to a family of illustrious sportsmen and his father Rustum-E-Hind Kesar Singh Cheema was an Olympian and son Arjuna Awardee Olympian Palwinder Singh Cheema is a 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the 120 kg category.

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Union minister Ramdas Athawale today favoured providing reservations to other castes without disturbing the existing SC and ST quotas.

"We say that, without touching the reservation of SC, ST, BC, if you give 25 per cent for others, a good decision would go in whole of India," the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment told reporters here.

Creamy layer method can be applied when quotas are given to other communities, he said.

Observing that reservations, as per existing guidelines, are provided on the basis of social backwardness, the Dalit leader said changes in existing laws can be considered to accommodate communities on the basis of economic backwardness.

Referring to the agitations of Patidars in Gujarat, Jats in northern states and others, he said such demands are coming up in various states.

He recalled that he had supported quotas for Marathas.

Athawale, who heads the Republican Party of India (A) in Maharashtra, said he had expressed his views in the NDA meeting.

Ruling out repealing the legislation on prevention of atrocities on SCs and STs, Athawale, however, said changes in the law could be considered to prevent its misuse.

"....in Maharashtra, on Atrocities Act, that it should be abrogated, changes should be made in it, but, as minister of the concerned, what I say is that, my department handles atrocities act; whatever one may demand, atrocities act will not be cancelled. If there is a demand for changes in it, it can be considered. It can be tried to see that there is no misuse in it," he said.

Athawale, who attended a seminar in Osmania University here on 'Ambedkar and Constitutionalism' referred to the recent incidents at Koregaon Bhima in Maharashtra and said the "reply" was given to attacks on Dalits.

"I said, we don't attack anybody. We are in minority. Do we continue to take the attacks? I said, if there are attacks on us, enlightenment has come in Babasaheb Ambedkar's movement. We were taught that you (Dalits) don't commit any atrocity ('atyachar') on anybody. However, if somebody commits atrocity on you, you have to reply.

"We said, reply. Reply means, do we sit taking the attacks? But, that conflict is not needed. What I meant to say was that conflict is not needed in both (sections)," he told reporters later.

He said both sections need to come together.

In the context of Koregaon-Bhima caste clashes in which one person was killed in Pune district on January 1, he said all sections need to work for avoiding conflicts.

The Indian Army in Pune offers salute on January 1 every year to the martyrs of the Koregaon Bhima battle that took place 200 years ago.

"This year, 200 years were completed. About three-four lakh people came there. Some Maratha organisations planned and attacked people coming there. Vehicles were smashed. Dalit community came on streets and there was a bandh in Maharashtra on January 2 and 3...All should see that there is no conflict," he said.

Replying to a query, Athawale said the present Constitution should not be changed and that amendments can be made if necessary.

"Somebody is demanding changing the Constitution. But, Constitution must not be changed. Because, Preamble of the Constitution, anybody cannot change the Constitution. But, you want to change the law...near about 120 amendments are there in the Constitution.If you want to amend any law, there is a provision. But, there is no necessity to change the whole Constitution," he said.

In his address to the seminar earlier, he hailed the Constitution and recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also praised it.

"Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution is supporting the 125 crore people. This Constitution is revolutionary. Indian democracy is the best democracy. Narendra Modi said that had there not been the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar I couldn't have become the Prime Minister," he said.

The NDA government follows the philosophy of Babasaheb Ambedkar, he said.

"Those who want to run the government, they must back the Indian Constitution. Those peoples who don't like Indian Constitution, they cannot live in India, they want to go out from India...," he said.

Athawale, who held a meeting with government officials on issues related to his ministry, said his party favoured giving reservations in promotions in government in the wake of a court judgement against such promotions.

The issue was raised in the meeting of ruling NDA, he added.

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David Littleproud has announced that he is likely to visit India soon to negotiate a better deal for the country's farmer after New Delhi imposed higher tariff on imported chickpeas and lentils.

Last month, India had imposed 30 per cent import duty on chickpeas (chana) and lentils (masoor) to protect domestic farmers from falling local rates in view of higher output.

Littleproud said that an estimated 2 lakh tonnes of Australian chickpeas and lentils were on transit when the India announced the tariff.

First, the Australian government wants to take a strategic approach to resolve the long-term trade issue with India besides looking at alternative to dispose of its pulses, he was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation news.

"I intend to make a trip to India in the coming 10 days to go and engage with my counterparts over there, as well as industry...," he said.

The efforts will be made to ensure the tariff issue gets resolved and at the same time make sure that "we reinforce the need for a long-term sustainable free-trade agreement with India," Littleproud said.

Noting that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India was a high priority for Australia's farm sector, the Minister said the government was acting in a "sensible and responsible way" to ensure the issue does not become an "impediment" in the long term of progress of an FTA with India.

"What we have to understand is we have a $ 2.7 billion trade surplus in the agriculture sector with India, so we have to be sensible about how we negotiate with India and we are doing that in a sensible way behind doors," he said.

Since a billion-dollar industry of Australian producers has been affected, the Minister said that the Australian government was working hard behind the scenes to negotiate a better deal for its farmers.

The Australian government is also looking at other such as Nepal, Iran and the UAE for its pulses sale. It is trying to make representation in those nations where the cargo is in transit now, he said.

Stating that the 'Megaphone diplomacy' doesn't always work, Littleproud said, "We have to be sensible about this. We have to play a long game about what will get us the long-term benefit that our producers want."



Last month, Australian Trade Minister Steven Ciobo had made representations to the Indian government on the pulses issue. Ciobo is likely to raise the issue with Indian trade minister Suresh Prabhu at the World Economic Forum in Davos this month.

During 2016-17, chickpea exports to India were valued at $1.14 billion and lentils were worth $ 196 million.
A Bangladeshi immigrant has been indicted on terrorism charges in the US for last month's botched bombing in a New York City subway station.

Akayed Ullah, 27, would face life in prison if convicted of the attack in a passageway near the Port Authority bus terminal on December 11 that left three persons injured.

Ullah, 27, who was also injured in the explosion, has been in federal custody since his arrest.

He will be arraigned before Judge Sullivan.

The federal grand jury indicted Ullah yesterday with one count of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), and one count of using and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

He has also been charged with one count each of bombing and attempting to bomb a place of public use and a public transportation system; destruction and attempted destruction of property by means of fire or explosives; conducting and attempting to conduct a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system.

"As alleged in the indictment Akayed Ullah constructed a pipe bomb and detonated it in a mass transit hub in the heart of New York City to terrorise as many people as possible and to bring ISIS-inspired violence to American soil," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente.

Ullah migrated from Bangladesh some six years ago on a family visa.

He was sponsored by his uncle, who came to the US through diversity lottery visa.

Since then US President Donald Trump has been pushing for end to chain migration and diversity lottery visa.

He began to self-radicalise three years ago, authorities said, but law enforcement said he was not on their radar before the subway attack.

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A legislation backed by the Trump administration pushing for merit-based immigration and increasing the allotment of by a hefty 45 per cent annually has been introduced in the House of Representatives, a move that could benefit Indian techies if signed into law.

The legislation 'Securing America's Future Act' if passed by Congress and signed into law by US President Donald Trump will end the diversity visa programme and reduce the overall immigration levels from currently averaging 1.05 million to 260,000 a year.

It seeks to increase the allotment of by an impressive 45 per cent from the current 120,000 to 175,000 per annum.

Indian-American technology professionals, who come to the US mainly on H-1B visas and opt for or legal permanent residence status, are expected to be a major beneficiary of the 'Securing America's Futures Act'.

As per unofficial estimate, there are nearly 500,000 Indians waiting in the queue for Green Cards and have to seek annual extensions of their H-1B visas. Many wait for decades to get their Green Cards.

The H-1B programme offers temporary US visas that allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign professionals working in areas with shortages of qualified American workers.

The increase in the number of Green Cards per annum is likely to reduce their wait period drastically.

Having a Green Card, officially known as a Permanent Resident Card, allows a person to live and work permanently in the United States.

However, the elimination of chain migration is likely to badly affect those Indian Americans who are planning to bring their other family members to the US.

Securing America's Future Act eliminates Green Card programmes for relatives, other than spouses and minor children.

A merit-based immigration system, the Trump administration feels would admit the best and the brightest around the world while making it harder for people to come to the country illegally.

Observers say this could benefit technically-qualified people from countries like India and China.

The legislation was introduced by House Homeland Security Committee Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee Chairwoman Martha McSally, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Judiciary Committee Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee Chairman Raul Labrador.

"This bill offers common-sense solutions that will finally secure our borders, better support our frontline defenders, strengthen interior enforcement, and get tough on those who break our immigration laws. With this the president at the helm, we have the opportunity to provide the security and rule of law our founding fathers intended," said McCaul.

At the same time, it creates a renewable temporary visa for parents of citizens to unite families at no cost to taxpayers.

The legislation creates a workable agricultural guest worker programme to grow the US economy, authors of the legislation said.

Labrador said the bill will modernise America's immigration system for the next generation, enacting conservative reforms that will make the nation strong.

"This carefully crafted legislation, which is aligned with the White Houses immigration priorities, combines enforcement measures and increased border security to enhance public safety, ensure the door remains open to law-abiding immigrants, and restore the rule of law," said Goodlatte.

In a late-night statement, the White House said the legislation "would accomplish the President's core priorities for the American people".
Keeping up his attack on the BJP and the RSS, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today called them "Hindu extremists" but the saffron party hit back saying it was the Congress which supported separatists.

The BJP also dared Siddaramaiah to arrest its as well as RSS leaders.

Siddaramaiah, who came under intense attack from the BJP yesterday for saying that the party and its fountainhead RSS had "terrorists", today called them "Hindutva extremists".

"I had said Hindutva extremists," he told reporters in Chamarajanagara when asked about his remarks yesterday, which had stirred a hornet's nest in the poll-bound state.

But, later speaking to reporters in Mysuru, Siddaramaiah said, "I had said they are Hindutva terrorists.

I am also a Hindu, but I'm a Hindu with humanity, they are Hindus without humanity. That is the difference between me and... (them)," hesaid.

He quoted a Kannada proverb to say that "it is like one touching his shoulder to check when called a pumpkin thief," implying that one with a guilty conscience needs no accuser.

Calling Siddaramaiah "irresponsible" for linking the party built by Atal Bihari Vajpayee with terrorists, BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje today alleged that "if there is terrorism in this country today, Congress is the main reason for it, also for the situation in Kashmir.

Accusing the Congress of having supported and encouraging the Khalistan movement, she said, "we have lost several officers, soldiers, leaders and also prime minister because of it."



Karandlaje also alleged that the Congress had "sheltered, financed and trained" LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran.

Siddaramaiah had yesterday alleged that the BJP, the RSS and the Bajrang Dal have terrorists within their organisations, a charge rubbished by the saffron party.

"They are themselves like terrorists in a way. The BJP, the RSS and the Bajarang Dal also have terrorists within," he had saidtaking his attack on the ruling Congress' principal rival to anew level ahead of the assembly polls due early this year.

Reacting strongly to the remarks, the state BJP had accused Siddaramaiah of desperately trying to polarise elections on communal lines "by calling BJP-RSS terror organisations".

Senior state BJP leader and MLA Suresh Kumar asked when he would get arrested as he was from the RSS.

"When will I get arrested? Chief Minister has named me as a terrorist, because I'm RSS," Kumar said in a tweet in Kannada.

"I'm also RSS, arrest me too," he said in another tweet.

Citing a spate of killings of Hindu activists in the state, particularly in the coastal Dakshina Kannada district, the BJP has been demanding a ban on Islamist outfit PFI and its political wing Social Democratic Part of India (SDPI) holding them responsible for it.

On the other hand, the PFI has blamed the Sangh Parivar for the killing of those from Muslim community in the region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An anthology of 28 Telugu short stories written by stalwarts of yesteryears as also new authors making waves in the realm of Telugu literature is now available in English.

"Moisture Trapped in Stone: An Anthology of Modern Telugu Short Stories" translated by K N Rao has stories about everyday lives and ordinary people, highlighting the issues confronting the society covering a wide spectrum of topics.

A total of 17 writers are featured in the volume, nine of them being women writers.

Feudalistic prejudices to present-day problems and realities find a place in the stories, which range from the serious to the satirical, from light hearted humour to grave discursive.

Some of the authors whose stories feature in the anthology, published by Niyogi Books, are B Geetika, D Kameswari, Jalandhara, Kalipatnam Rama Rao, Madhurantakam Rajaram and Popuri Lalita Kumari.

According to Rao, Telugu short story, as a genre of literary writing, celebrated its centenary year in 2011.

"The air was astir all over the Telugu-speaking areas of the country. Print medium helped its growth; magazines



weeklies and monthlies in particular. But it must be said that the Telugu short story does not enjoy a degree of acceptance, same as its counterpart from other languages of the country, possibly because of non-availability in translated version," he says.

"However, as far back as 1952, when Palagummi Padmaraju's "Galivana" was adjudged the second best short story in a world short story competition conducted by the New York Herald Tribune, the Telugus went agog. This was 65 years ago. I wonder if something like this happened again," he says.

That memory surfaced in Rao's mind as he read about the festivities around the centenary of the Telugu short story in 2011.

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The UK government today announced the doubling of its national credit support for UK businesses exporting to India, during the visit of Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu.

Prabhu held talks with Britain's international trade minister, Liam Fox, in London as part of the 12thmeeting of the UK-India Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) to discuss greater cooperation between the two countries and identify barriers to trade and investment.

As part of the deliberations, Foxannounced that the UK's national export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), has more than doubled its financial support to enable UK businesses to trade with India.

This means 4.5 billion pounds will now be available for UK companies exporting to India as well as Indian buyers of UK goods and services.

The minister said the UK government would work closely with India to break down barriers to boosting trade, which includes the latest doubling of trade finance support for UK exporters and Indian buyers of British goods and services.

UKEF support is made available in Indian rupees, allowing Indian buyers to access finance in their own currency and making sourcing from the UK even more competitive.

He said, "India is the world's seventh-largest economy and the fourth largest investor into the UK, while UK investment in India grew by 8.8 per cent in the year to 2016.

"For the first time in 40 years, the UK is preparing for its own independent trade policy, and expanding our bilateral trade and investment with India will be central to that task. It's in our shared interest to boost prosperity, generate jobs, develop skills, and enhance the competitiveness of both our countries," he said.

According to the UK's Department for International Trade (DIT), the India-UK trading relationship was worth 15.7 billion pounds in 2016, with UK exports to India amounting to 5.8 billion pounds.

Indian foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK was worth 1.5 billion pounds in 2016, while UK investment into India rose to 13.2 billion pounds in 2016.

"There is huge potential to expand bilateral trade and investment as the UK prepares to leave the European Union (EU)," DIT said.

UK and Indian businesses, including UK engineering consultancy Arup and Indian infrastructure firm Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), also met alongside the JETCO to discuss ways of boosting cooperation in growing sectors such asadvanced manufacturing and smart cities.

While the UK cannot strike any new bilateral pacts until the official Brexit process in complete, the two countries had agreedto set up a new joint working group on trade at the last meeting of JETCO in New Delhi in November 2016 to work towards removing barriers to trade.

The meeting in London was aimed at building on progress made by the UK-India trade working group.

"A lot of interest and positivity has been generated in London today by the Joint Trade Review. Initiated in mid-2016 by the Indian and UK governments and aimed at establishing immediate areas of improving trade, it is still at its early stages.

"Nonetheless, there are already really positive signs and, hence, anticipation for a renewed and ever deepening India-UK economic partnership," said UK India Business Council CEO Richard Heald, who was present at the discussions here.

The UKIBC welcomed a focus on food and drink, pharma, healthcare and Medtech, and IT and ITES as the three core sectors for closer India-UK cooperation.

"There are huge opportunities in these three areas. These are areas where we can leverage our individual strengths and at the same time build on those collaborations which already exist," he said.

The JETCO forms a precursor to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), to be hosted by the UK in April and expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Heald highlighted that such ministerial visits on both sides are an opportunity to reflect on the changing dynamics of the 52-member bloc and "to make a step change in the multilateral/bilateral relationship that underpin the Commonwealth".

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The Calcutta University today conferred an honorary D Litt on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in recognition of her social service, even as hearing of a PIL against it remained inconclusive and would resume tomorrow.

"The Calcutta University is conferring D Litt on Banerjee, an alumna of the university, in recognition of her social service," Vice Chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee said.

In an obvious reference to the PIL filed in the Calcutta High Court, Mamata said in her address, "I had faced disrespect from some quarters since my early days and was wondering whether I should be attending the convocation.

"I would have made a mistake had I not attended this function at Nazrul Manch. I feel humbled to be honoured by an institution such as the Calcutta University, which has gifted many luminaries to Bengal and the country over the years," The 63-year-old chief minister said.

She said she was persuaded by Higher Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and the university authorities to attend the function. "You have honoured me and I feel deeply humbled."



Banerjee said, "I can assure you that I will keep this honour on a high pedestal till my last days...I will never use this D Litt for professional reasons."



The chief minister said she had got offers from several institutions recently to accept such honours but declined. She said she could not turn down the offer from CU Senate and Syndicate and the VC.

Calling upon the university to work for innovation and research, the chief minister said the state government will provide Rs 100 crore to the university.

Maintaining that India's pride was inherent in its unity in diversity, she said, "Let us ensure that the history of our nation is not distorted.... I had expressed similar concern at the Indian History Congress held in the city and the participants concurred with me."



In his speech, state Governor and the university Chancellor K N Tripathi, who conferred the D Litt on Banerjee, said, the university was honouring personalities for their contributions in various fields.

Former West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan was conferred the Asutosh Mukherjee Memorial Award, while several other luminaries were also given special medals and citations. Ten teachers of the university were also awarded.

As the function was in progress, the university's counsel Saktinath Mukherjee said the senate is the final authority in deciding a D Litt awardee and anybody else is an outsider having no authority to challenge the decision.

Petitioner Ranjugopal Mukherjee, a former professor of the university, has moved the high court, claiming the decision to confer the award on the chief minister was "arbitrary and opaque".

His counsel, Bikas Bhattacharya had yesterday submitted that the issues relating to the university and education itself were of public interest and as such the petition should be treated a PIL.

State Advocate General Kishore Dutta had told a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee that the decision to confer the honorary degree was taken by the syndicate and senate of the university and there was no sufferance of public interest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Calcutta University today conferred an honorary D Litt on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in recognition of her social service, amid a public interest litigation in the high court challenging the varsity's decision.

The hearing on the PIL remained inconclusive today and the plea would be taken up by the court tomorrow.

"The Calcutta University is conferring D Litt on Banerjee, an alumnus of the university, in recognition of her social service," Vice-Chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee said.

In an obvious reference to the PIL filed in the Calcutta High Court, she said, in her convocation address, "I had faced disrespect from some quarters since my early days and was wondering whether I should be attending the convocation."



The 63-year-old chief minister said, "I would have made a mistake had I not attended this function at Nazrul Manch. I feel humbled to be honoured by an institution such as the Calcutta University, which has gifted many luminaries to Bengal and the country over the years."



She said, "I was persuaded by Higher Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and the university authorities. You have honoured me and I feel deeply humbled."



Banerjee said, "I can assure you that I will keep this honour on a high pedestal till my last days...I will never use this D Litt for professional reasons." she



In his speech, state Governor and university Chancellor K N Tripathi, who conferred the D Litt on Banerjee, said, "The university is honouring personalities for their contributions in various fields."



Petitioner Ranjugopal Mukherjee, a former professor of the university, has claimed that the decision to confer the award on the chief minister was arbitrary and opaque.

His counsel, Bikas Bhattacharya had yesterday submitted that the issues relating to the university and education itself were of public interest and as such the petition was justified to be a PIL.

State Advocate General Kishore Dutta had told a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee that the decision to confer the honorary degree was taken by the syndicate and senate of the university and there was no sufferance of public interest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Canada is bracing for a possible US withdrawal from the tripartite North American Free Trade Agreement, a source said today, ahead of the next round of negotiations due to start in Montreal later this month.

"The Canadian government is aware of the possibility that President Trump may announce the United States's withdrawal from NAFTA," a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We're prepared for that possibility."



In the meantime, the official said, the government is moving ahead with plans to host US and Mexican trade negotiators in Montreal January 23-28.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland was in Washington to meet with senior US lawmakers and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Tuesday. Her office was not immediately available for comment.

Reports of NAFTA's possible demise, meanwhile, sent the Canadian and Mexican currencies tumbling, and the US dollar rising from Can$1.2432 at 1200 GMT to Can$1.2554 at around 2030 GMT.

In keeping with his campaign promise, Trump forced Canada and Mexico to sit down and renegotiate the 1994 trade pact, and said if a deal could not be reached he would withdraw the United States from NAFTA.

Since coming to office, the Trump administration has taken an increasingly protectionist stance in dealings with Canada and Mexico, for example, applying anti-dumping duties on imports of Canadian aircraft, softwood lumber and most recently newsprint.

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A CBI court today granted bail to M Natarajan, the husband of jailed AIADMK leader V K Sasikala, in a 23-year-old duty evasion case connected to the import of a luxury car from the UK, after he appeared before it on the direction of the Supreme Court.

Natarajan's nephew V Bhaskaran had secured bail in the case on January 3.

The matter relates to the import of a Toyota Lexus car in 1994. Natarajan had declared it as a used vehicle and thereby allegedly evaded tax to the tune of Rs 1.06 crore.

The apex court had granted bail to the two in December last and asked them to deposit Rs 25 lakh each in its Registry. It had also asked them to approach the trial court to decide their bail conditions.

A special leave petition was moved before the apex court, challenging a Madras High Court order which upheld a trial court verdict sentencing Natarajan, along with three others-- his nephew Bhaskaran, Yogesh Balakrishnan and Sujaritha Sundararajan, in the duty evasion case.

They were convicted for conspiracy, forgery, cheating and tax evasion and sentenced to two years in jail in the case by a CBI court in 2010.

Based on the Supreme Court's direction, they deposited the amount and Bhaskaran appeared before the principal special court for CBI cases here and obtained bail.

When the matter came up today, Natarajan appeared before special judge A Thiruneelaprasad and submitted documents.

Natarajan, who underwent liver and kidney transplantation in October last, came to the the court hall located in the high court premises, with his face partially covered with a white cloth, in the morning.

He remained in the court till 1 pm.

On perusing documents and sureties submitted by him, Thiruneelaprasad granted him bail.

Later, he left the hall along with his supporters and battery of lawyers.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate had registered separate cases against Natarajan and the three others after it was found that the documents presented by them were fabricated.

According to the CBI, Natarajan, along with the others, had substituted the original sale invoice with a photocopy of an invoice fabricated by changing the vehicle's manufacturing date to July 1993.

The apex court had rejected the appeal of Sasikala in a disproportionate assets case in February last. She is serving a four-year prison term at the Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru.

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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti welcomed the Rs 80,313 crore annual budget 2018-19 presented in both Houses of the state legislature today, terming it development-focused and people-oriented.

Based on the feedback from her public outreach programme, Rs 200 crore was earmarked for drinkingwater supply in the state, and Rs 50 crore for completionof around 1000 ongoing schemes, Mufti said here.

This, the chief minister said, depicted the developmental intervention the government has thought of for changing the socio economic profile of the State.

Mufti said the budget, by focusing on panchayats, displayed the commitment of her government to strengthen the local self governments at political, administrative and financial levels.

Lauding the budget presented by state Finance Minister Haseeb A Drabu in the Legislative Assembly, the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) called it a big sigh of relief for the marginalised and unrepresented class of the state.

PDP's Srinagar district president and member of Legislative Council Mohammad Khurshid Alam said the budget was a much needed one as it had all the contents to benefit the common masses across the state.

"From industrialists to houseboat owners, and from daily wagers to state government employees, the budget has adopted the most humane approach in addressing the woes of the common man living in the state," Alam said.

The PDP MLC said covering the transgender community of the state under the BPL category was a landmark decision.

"The implementation of the 7th Pay Commission will be a major achievement of the government as unlike the previous governments, this regime didn't compel its employees to hit the streets for their demands," he added.

Terming it a budget with a 'conscience and a heart' to reach out to every section of the society, Minister for Public Works Naeem Akhtar lauded Finance Minister Drabu for taking into consideration the interests and aspirations of common masses, employees, businessmen, traders, youth, poor and marginalised.

It had been prepared keeping in mind both the people's interests, and the short and long-term economic objectives of the state, Akhtar added.

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Latching onto a PDP MLA's "Kashmiri militants are martyrs" comment, the Congress today questioned the BJP whether it agrees with what the legislator belonging to its alliance partner in Jammu and Kashmir has said and asked it to come clean on the issue.

"It is the PDP MLA who has said this. The PDP is in alliance with the BJP (in Jammu and Kashmir). The BJP will have to tell whether it agrees with what its alliance partner has said," Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said, while speaking to reporters.

"Whether the BJP believes that the militants are their brothers and sisters? These are questions the BJP needs to answer. People are awaiting answer," he said.

Ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Aijaz Ahmed courted controversy today by calling Kashmiri militants "martyrs" and "brothers", batting for talks with separatists, and cautioning against glorifying killing of terrorists.

"Terrorists, who are from Kashmir are martyrs. Yes, they are our brothers. They are our children," Ahmed, an MLA from South Kashmir's Wachi, said in Jammu.

He noted that some of the militants were minors who don't even know what they are doing.

"They are children who have gone down the wrong track and should be counselled and brought back," Ahmed said.
A city court today extended by two weeks the judicial custody of a female flight attendant of Jet Airways and an agent, arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for allegedly trying to smuggle out foreign currency worth over Rs three crore.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat extended the custody of 25-year-old Deveshi Kulshreshtha and Amit Malhotra, 39, identified as an alleged hawala operator by the DRI, after they were produced before the court on expiry of their 2-day judicial custody.

The agency told the court that the offence committed by them was cognisable and non-bailable and added that the probe was pending.

According to DRI, Kulshreshtha, part of a major global hawala syndicate, was intercepted by the agency officials when she was boarding a flight at Delhi's IGI Airport for Hong Kong on January 8.

"During examination of her checked-in and hand baggage, USD 4,80,200 wrapped in aluminium foil, having a market value of Rs 3.25 crore, has been recovered," the agency said.

"In her voluntary statement, she admitted the aforesaid recovery, seizure and other incriminating facts. She also inter-alia named No. 2 (Malhotra), hereinabove to be concerned with the smuggling of the recovered and seized foreign currency," the DRI said.

It said the woman had carried foreign currency several times in the past at the behest of Malhotra, a Delhi-based hawala operator based in Vivek Vihar area here.

It alleged that Malhotra was following a modus operandi of using crew members for smuggling of forex and had befriended the Jet Airways crew member six months ago during a flight to India.

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Opposing a PIL challenging its decision to award an honorary D Litt degree to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Calcutta University today claimed in the high court that its senate is the final authority in deciding an awardee and anybody else is an outsider having no authority to challenge it.

The counsel for the varsity, Saktinath Mukherjee submitted before the court that the achievements and eminence of a person itself are reasons for being chosen for the award.

The credentials of a person to be given the award are already established and it is not the duty of the syndicate or senate to look for his or her credentials, he told a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee.

Naming some of the past awardees of the D Litt degree such as S Radhakrishnan, Prasanta Chandra Mohalanabis and B C Roy, he contended that the credentials of these personalities were already established and the university senate did not need to check those before deciding to confer the award.

They are offered the award and not selected as suggested by the petitioner, Ranjugopal Mukherjee, a former professor of the university, he said.

The petitioner has contended that the syndicate or senate decision did not attribute any reason for conferring the award on Banerjee and that it was arbitrary and opaque.

On the issue of injury to public interest in conferring of the award to Banerjee, raised in the petition, the counsel submitted that all members of the syndicate had recommended the name of the West Bengal chief minister for the award to the senate, which approved it.

State Advocate General Kishore Dutta had opposed the PIL yesterday and claimed that it was a politically motivated petition.

Hearing in the case would continue tomorrow.

Banerjee was today conferred the D.Litt degree by the university at its convocation.

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Delhi Police has appointed a chief technology officer (CTO) to help them in combating crime with the use of high-tech methods.

A 'Technology Cell' has been created in Delhi Police to provide guidance on all technology-related matters.

It will be under the special cell and will be looked after by a CTO.

With the induction of a CTO, Delhi Police has claimed to be the first force in the country to have such an officer.

According to Delhi Police, the Technology Cell will scan latest technology developments which will have implications for the police and can be utilised by it to combat crime and criminals.

A K Mohapatra, who was heading the department of Information Technology at the Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women, was appointed on January 1 as the CTO.

"I am currently on deputation to the Delhi Police. My primary focus will be to ensure how technology can help Delhi Police in better policing and having a proactive approach towards curbing crime," Mohapatra told PTI.

He said that he will gain more clarity on his profile by next week.

Mohapatra's areas of specialisation include cybercrime, cryptography, network security, among others.

According to another official, the CTO will also have the job to liaison with different units of Delhi Police to understand any technology-related issues faced by them.

He will also be in touch with academia and private sector firms to scout for new technologies and solutions.

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A new report by Senate Democrats warns of deepening Russian interference throughout Europe and concludes that even as some Western democracies have responded with aggressive countermeasures, President Donald Trump has offered no strategic plan to bolster their efforts or safeguard the US from again falling victim to the Kremlin's systematic meddling.

The report commissioned by the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is the first from Congress to comprehensively detail Russian efforts to undermine democracies since the 2016 presidential election.

It wastes no time in calling out Trump personally for what it describes as a failure to respond to Russia's mounting destabilization activities in the US and worldwide. The report was obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its public release yesterday.

"Never before has a US president so clearly ignored such a grave and growing threat to US national security," the report warns.

No Republicans on the committee signed on to the 200-plus page report released by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland. But even without GOP backing, the report's recounting of Russian operations in 19 European nations foreshadows the still- unpublished Senate Intelligence Committee's bipartisan inquiry into Russia's role during the 2016 US presidential election.

Cardin said in a statement that he commissioned the report so Americans can see the "true scope and scale" of Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to undermine democracy.

"While President Trump stands practically idle, Putin continues to refine his asymmetric arsenal and look for future opportunities to disrupt governance and erode support for the democratic and international institutions that the United States and Europe have built over the last 70 years," Cardin said.

Cardin's inquiry lays blame directly on Putin for a "relentless assault to undermine democracy and the rule of law in Europe and the United States." Concerned that Trump has failed to identify Russian aggression as a national rallying point, the report urges a "stronger congressional voice" in pro-democracy efforts and funding.

The report calls for committee hearings and other bipartisan efforts to aid European nations in countering Russian aggression.

Some policy changes suggested by the report have garnered GOP interest, including the aggressive use of financial sanctions aimed at Russia and pressuring social media companies to be more transparent about Russian political messaging.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The government needs to increase the basic customs duty on medical devices in the range of 5-15 per cent to promote domestic manufacturing, Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) said today.

The current slab is 0-7.5 per cent, it said.

"The government has rightly revised custom duty on Electronics to up to 20 per cent recently to maintain the investment climate, and same is sought for Medical Electronics where import dependency is 90 per cent," AiMeD Forum Coordinator Rajiv Nath told PTI.

He said nominal import duty on critical items is not protectionism but sound 'Make in India' economics.

The industry body urged the government to introspect as to why, even after three years of the 'Make in India' campaign, the medical device manufacturing is still floundering.

On its expectations from the Union Budget (2018-19), AiMeD said the medical devices sector expects, "extension of inverted duty tariff rationalisation to medical electronics & diagnostics".

It also urged the government to expedite buy Indian policy drafted by Department of Pharmaceuticals which is pending with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

AiMeD also asked the Department of Pharmaceuticals to accelerate trade margin capping proposal in the range of 50- 100 per cent, depending on the cost of the devices.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court today rejected the bail bail plea of a middleman, arrested in the Election Commission bribery case allegedly involving AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran and others.

Justice Mukta Gupta dismissed the bail application of middleman, Sukesh Chandrashekar, who was arrested on April 16 last year and was denied bail once by the high court and thrice by the trial court.

The Delhi Police had opposed his bail plea saying his conduct, even while in custody, had shown scant respect for the law and therefore, he should not be granted the relief.

Additional Public Prosecutor Hirein Sharma had told the court that three more cases were registered against Chandrashekar while he was in custody and there were a total of 24 FIRs lodged against him.

Referring to the new FIRs lodged against him while he was in custody, the prosecutor had said while Chandrashekar was supposed to be taken by train, he was going by air along with nine policemen, all of whom were dismissed from service.

The lawyer had also claimed that the accused had made a call to the trial court judge hearing the case, impersonating a person from a Supreme Court judge's office and asked her to release him on bail.

The call was traced to a constable's phone while Chandrashekar was in custody, the prosecutor alleged.

Senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog and advocate Anand Pandey, appearing for Chandrashekar, had contended that the alleged main beneficiary, Dhinakaran, was already out on bail and the same relief was granted to the policemen.

They said the other accused in the case, including Dhinakaran's close aide Mallikarjuna, as well as suspected hawala operators Nathu Singh and Lalit Kumar were on bail.

The high court had on June 15 last year rejected his bail plea on the ground that the police had seized a fake Rajya Sabha member ID card from his possession.

A charge sheet was filed by the police before the trial court in the case on July 14 last year, alleging that Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar had conspired to bribe Election Commission (EC) officials to get the 'two leaves' symbol for their party.

The police has also included in the charge sheet allegations of forgery for purpose of cheating, using forged document as genuine, possessing a forged document, intending to use it as genuine and criminal conspiracy.

Chandrashekar has also moved a separate plea in the high court alleging he was tortured despite an order not to subject him to violence inside the Tihar Jail where he is in custody.

The claim was denied by the jail authorities, who said it was an "afterthought of the shrewd mind of the accused".

Chandrashekar was arrested for allegedly taking money from Dhinakaran to bribe EC officials to get the AIADMK 'two leaves' symbol for the Sasikala faction in a by-election to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu.

Dhinakaran, also charge-sheeted by the police, was arrested here on April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe EC officials for the symbol. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, who represented the assembly segment.

The EC had frozen the AIADMK's symbol after the two factions--one led by Dhinakaran's aunt Sasikala and the other by former chief minister O Panneerselvam--staked a claim to it.

Mallikarjuna was arrested for allegedly facilitating a Rs 50 crore deal between Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar.

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The Bombay High Court today directed the Maharashtra government to ensure that private vehicles, plying as school buses, comply with the state's prescribed safety rules.

A bench of Justices Naresh Patil and N W Sambre said that the transport department must ensure that all registered school buses and private vehicles, ferrying children to and from schools, have valid permits, and that they adhere to the security norms prescribed by the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles (Regulations for School Buses) Rules 2011.

The bench directed the state's counsel, Abhinandan Vagyani, to file an affidavit within three weeks, detailing the number of vehicles being used in the state to ferry children to and from schools, the minimum and maximum number of children that such vehicles are permitted to seat, and the safety arrangements that such vehicles have.

"Often, we have seen autorickshaws and tempos being used by school children. While they have a capacity to seat four to five passengers, such autos pack so many children that there is no visible space left," the bench said.

"What if some accident takes place. What steps do you take to prevent such instances?" the bench asked.

"Ensure school children travel safely in school buses. Let parents feel that their child will come back home safely," it said.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by an association of parents of school-going children seeking that private vehicles that do not meet the state's safety guidelines are not permitted to ply as school buses.

As per the state's 2011 rules, all such vehicles that are used as school buses should have a fixed seating capacity.

There must be one male and one female attendant on all such vehicles which should also have functional GPS, grills on the windows etc.

As per an affidavit submitted by Vagyani today, around 11,922 vehicles are currently registered as school buses in the state.

Of these, around 8,200 vehicles have a registered agreement with the respective schools that use their services. The rest are hired as private vehicles by parents.

"Do you check whether all these vehicles, including those that are registered with the schools, comply with the state's safety rules?" the bench asked.

"Do you conduct any surprise checks? Why don't you make such rules that if vehicles that fail to comply with your norms, they will lose their permits to ply?" the bench said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
European Union powers today urged US President Donald Trump to endorse a key nuclear agreement with Iran insisting that the deal is essential for international security.

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany threw their weight behind the pact limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions and insisted that the Islamic Republic is respecting it.

"There is no indication today that could call into doubt Iranian respect of the agreement," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Brussels, after a meeting between the Europeans and their Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif.

Le Drian called on all parties to uphold the agreement, noting that "our American allies should respect it as well. There is no particular reason for any rupture."



Under the accord, Iran slowed its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of international economic sanctions. Trump is expected to decide by Friday whether to extend the sanctions relief or re-impose the restrictions his predecessor, President Barack Obama, suspended two years ago.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also noted that no one has put forward a plan that might be as effective in curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"It's incumbent on those who oppose the (deal) really to come up with that better solution, because we haven't seen it so far," he said.

However, Johnson said it is "legitimate and right" to focus in parallel on what Iran should do to ease the crises in Yemen and Syria.

Officials from major world powers and Iran meet roughly every three to four months to assess implementation of the deal, which is monitored by the world's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The 2015 pact is underpinned on the US side by a presidential waiver of nuclear-related sanctions on Iran's central bank.

US officials and others familiar with the administration's deliberations told The Associated Press that Trump is likely to back the accord for now but that he may pair his decision with new, targeted sanctions on Iranian businesses and people.

The restrictions could hit some firms and individuals whose sanctions were previously scrapped. This might test Tehran's willingness to abide by its side of the bargain.

The agreement does not stop countries from imposing non- nuclear related sanctions on Iran.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who hosted Thursday's meeting, said that unity "is essential to preserve a deal that is working, that is making the world safer, and preventing a potential nuclear arms race in the region.

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The execution date of the first death-row Indian-American prisoner convicted of killing a baby and her Indian grandmother has been set for next month.

Raghunandan Yandamuri, 32, in 2014 was given death penalty for kidnapping and killing a 61-year-old elderly Indian woman and her 10-month grand-daughter. It was seen as part of a botched kidnapping-for-ransom plot.

Yandamuri's execution date has been set for February 23 by local correctional authorities.

However, he is likely to get a reprieve because of a 2015 moratorium on death penalty by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf.

Yandamuri is the first Indian-American to face death penalty.

Federal authorities alleged that killings were part of a botched kidnapping-for-ransom plot



A native of Andhra Pradesh, Yandamuri had come to the US on a H-1B visa. He holds an advanced degree in electrical and computer science engineering. Following his conviction, he asked that death penalty be imposed upon him. Later he appealed his sentence, but lost his appeal last April.

The local Times Herald yesterday reported that even though his execution by lethal injection is set for February 23, he might get a reprieve because a death penalty moratorium previously was put in place by Governor Tom Wolf.

"The law provides that when the governor does not sign a warrant of execution within the specified time period, the secretary of corrections has 30 days within which to issue a notice of execution," Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said in a news release.

According to the report, Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2015. State officials are awaiting the results of a study conducted by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment, before moving forward with any executions.

Pennsylvania has not seen any executions in the last nearly 20 years. Since 1976, three persons have been executed in the States between 1995 and 1999.
The distraught father of a 7-year- old girl who was brutally raped and murdered in Pakistan has blamed the "callous attitude" of police as the government roped in military intelligence and the ISI to probe the horrific incident that shocked the country.

The girl in Kasur district of Punjab province was abducted last week outside her home. Her body was found in a rubbish dump on Tuesday.

She had gone to a religious tuition centre near her house in Kasur city, some 50 km from Lahore, on January 5 from where a man said to be a 'serial killer' abducted her, police said.

"A serial killer seems to be behind this incident. That serial killer may have been involved in other eight such cases in Kasur," senior police officer Zulfiqar Hameed said.

Her parents were in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah and she had been living with a maternal aunt.

According to a preliminary post-mortem report, the girl was raped multiple times before being strangled to death.

There were visible marks of torture on her face, congestion in her muscles.

The horrific incident triggered public outage throughout the country with people demanding justice for the child. The protests continued for the second day.

The protesters attacked the out house of a ruling PMLN legislator in Kasur and set ablaze his two cars. They also ransacked a district hospital in Kasur.

In Lahore, angry demonstrators blocked Ferozpur Road suspending the metro bus service. In Rawalpindi, traffic remained suspended for several hours as protesters demanded justice for her.

Police opened fire at the protesters that left two people dead.

"My daughter could have been saved had police acted when she was abducted on January 5," Muhammad Amin told reporters.

He said he had no faith in Punjab police to trace the killers of his daughter.

"Police was quick to open fire on the people seeking justice for my daughter but showed it's routine callous attitude to trace her when she had gone missing," he said.

"I have appealed to the army chief and the chief justice of Pakistan to give me justice as I have no faith in Punjab government and police," he said.

The chief justice has taken suo motu notice of the incident while the army chief ordered the ISI and military intelligence to help police trace the girl's killers.

Kiran Naz, a TV anchor, brought her daughter to a programme and blamed the government's inefficiency for the incident as she called the incident a murder of humanity.

Geo published the last poem written by her on January 4 before she was kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Punjab government announced 10 million Pakistani rupees reward for providing information of the killers.

"We have registered a murder case against four policemen involved in the killing of two protesters," the police said.

According to a NGO Sahil, every day more than 11 children under the age of 18 fall prey to sexual abuse in Punjab province of Pakistan.

Last year 4,139 incidents of child abuse took place in the province where 43 per cent of victims knew the perpetrators.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US Federal Bureau of Investigations today released age-progressed photographs of four alleged hijackers charged with the 1986 hijack of Pan Am Flight 73 that killed 20 people, including Indian flight attendant Neerja Bhanot.

The hijackers are Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar- Rahayyal, and Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar.

These images were created by the FBI laboratory using age-progression technology and original photographs obtained by the FBI in the year 2000, a media release said.

The September 5, 1986 storming of Pan Am Flight 73 which had landed in Karachi from Mumbai resulted in the killing of 20 passengers and crew, including two Americans, the attempted murder of 379 passengers and crew, and the wounding of more than 100 persons on board.

The Department of State Rewards for Justice Programme offers a reward of up to USD 5 million each for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the alleged hijackers.

Each of these individuals are believed to have been members of the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), previously on the U S State Department's list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Each of them currently are on the list of FBI's most wanted terrorists.

Bhanot, who headed the attendants on the flight, lost her life in protecting the passengers.

She was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra for her bravery.

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Veteran BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today termed the latest round of Foreign Direct Investment reforms as a deviation from the party's stand, and said 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail will hit small traders.

Sinha, who has been critical of the Narendra Modi government for its handling of economy among other issues, was here to take part in a farmers' protest against an upcoming power project in Gadarwara town of Narsinghpur district.

Talking to the reporters here, Sinha said, "As an opposition party, the BJP opposed 100 per cent FDI in retail. But after coming to power, the union government headed by the BJP decided to implement it. This is not good for the country. 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail would create problems for small traders.

He said the coming budget would be the last regular budget of the BJP-led government at the Centre but even after four budgets were passed nobody could predict the country's future. Sinha said the state of country's economy was a cause of major concern. he said.

"We (government and the BJP) are praising the economic achievements for the past four years saying that we kept the prices stable and controlled the deficit besides registering growth. There is only one secret behind all this -- crude oil prices came down when we came to power in 2014, and gradually reached 30-35 dollars per barrel from Rs 110 dollars.

"When the prices of crude oil were controlled and were lower, the Centre did not extend the benefit to consumers. Government earned several lakh crores. But the country didn't see the benefit of several lakh crores," Sinha said.

The former Union finance minister accused the government of not fulfilling the promises made to farmers in the BJP manifesto in 2014.

"I was also part of the manifesto committee. We drafted the manifesto, which was also seen by Narendra Modi and he made some corrections. I also feel guilty as the promises made by us are not fulfilled," he said.

Sinha targeted the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh over its 'Bhavantar Yojana'.

"The Centre is considering incorporating the Bhavantar Yojana in the next budget. I was shocked when I got the information about this scheme. This scheme is for the exploitation of farmers," he claimed.

Bhavantar scheme entails paying farmers the difference between the Minimum Support Price and the 'model rate' of a crop (calculated from prices data from the Centre and local markets) if the model rate is lower.

Sinha also alleged that farmers are being paid as little as Rs 20 under the crop insurance scheme. "This is a mockery of farmers," he said.

Yesterday, speaking to reporters in Jabalpur, Sinha had said as he could not get an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite seeking time some 13 months ago, he decided he would not meet anyone in the government, and instead express his views in the public.

Today's BJP was far different from the one when Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani were at the helm, he had said.

Sinha participated in an agitation launched by farmers whose lands have been acquired for the NTPC's coal-fired project at Gadarwara today evening.

The NTPC had promised them jobs while acquiring their lands, the farmers have claimed, demanding that the promise be kept.

Sinha assured the agitators that he will come back to support them if the NTPC did not concede their demands.

The protest was peaceful, said Narsinghpur Superintendent of Police Monika Shukla.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Around 30 members of the VCK were arrested today for staging a rail roko here in support of the ongoing stir launched by the fireworks units demanding exemption of their produce from the ambit of the Environment Protection Act.

The activists of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) blocked the Madurai-Shencottah train for more than half an hour, police said.

The agitators sought the state government to help the fireworks manufacturing units in and around this town, national hub for fireworks, resume work.

A large posse of police personnel has been deployed after the VCK announced its support for the nearly 860 units, which had remained indefinitely closed since December 26 over their charter of demands.

The fast launched by nearly 4,000 workers engaged in the fireworks units in and around this town continued for the second day today.

Their other demands include early hearing of a case in the Supreme Court related to nationwide ban on sale, possession and bursting of crackers to prevent air pollution.

The striking workers had urged the central government to make a small amendment to the Act, just as they did to allow jallikattu (bull-taming sport).

Meanwhile, sources in the industry said business worth Rs 250 crore has been affected due to the 13-day-long strike.

Local traders and autorickshaw operators have also extended their support for the fireworks industry.

The apex court had on October 9 last year, said no firecrackers would be sold in the Delhi-NCR during Diwali that year while banning its sale till November 1.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the highlights from the Southern region at 2120 hours.

MDS8 KA-YEDDYURAPPA



Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa asserts that he would become chief minister after the coming assembly polls; warns police officials working as "puppets" of the ruling Congress that the consequences "will not be right" for them.

MDS9 TN-ISRO-SIVAN



Kanyakumari/Chennai (TN): A humble son of a farmer who studied in local government schools in Tamil medium at Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu is now all set to helm India's premier Space agency ISRO.

MDS12 KL-EXPLOSIVES



Malappuram: Bullets and some otherexplosive materials, stored in gunny bags under water, recovered near the Kuttipuram railway overbridge in the district, days after five anti-personnel mines were seized near the spot, the police said.

LGM3 TN-COURT-NATARAJAN



Chennai: A CBI court grants bail to M Natarajan, the husband of jailed AIADMK leader V K Sasikala, in a 23-year-old duty evasion case connected to the import of a luxury car from the UK, after he appeared before it on the direction of the Supreme Court.

BES24 TL-ATHAWALE



Hyderabad: Union minister Ramdas Athawale favours providing reservations to other castes without disturbing the existing SC and ST quotas.

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Former BJP MP Nana Patole, who quit the ruling party following differences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on agrarian issues, today said he has rejoined the Congress.

Patole, who resigned from the Lok Sabha last month over the Centre's alleged poor handling of agrarian issues, had left the Congress to join the BJP ahead of the 2014 elections.

He won the Bhandara-Gondiya parliamentary seat in Maharashtra.

"Yes, I have joined the Congress. I will take whatever responsibility the party gives me, either at the national or the state level," Patole told PTI over phone from Yavatmal.

He said he would continue to work on farmers' issues and strengthen the party.

Patole resigned from the BJP on December 8, a day before the first phase of the Gujarat elections. He attended a poll rally along with Congress president Rahul Gandhi, indicating that his return to the party was only a matter of time.

According to Mohan Prakash, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge for Maharashtra, Patole joined the Congress on January 3.

"His return will strengthen the party among farmers he has been leading," Prakash told PTI.

Patole, when still in BJP, echoed issues being raised by Rahul Gandhi even when he was in the BJP, he said.

Party sources added that the former MP has joined the Congress "unconditionally".

"Patole is back home. He has returned unconditionally, without seeking any post," a party insider said.

The Congress posted a photograph of Gandhi and Patole on Twitter with a message welcoming him to the party.

"Congress President Rahul Gandhi warmly welcomes Mr Nana Patole, Ex-MP from BJP, to the Congress family," the caption along with the photo read.

Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan, Opposition leader in Maharashtra assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and the party's Mumbai unit head Sanjay Nirupam can also be seen in the photo, besides Mohan Prakash and Patole.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
State-owned GAIL plans to extend the ambitious Urja Ganga natural gas pipeline project to Guwahati to connect the north-eastern region with grid, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

GAIL is laying a pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal and onwards to Bokaro in Jharkhand and Dhamra in Odisha by 2022 at a cost of Rs 12,940 crore.

Speaking at a seminar organised by industry body Ficci, Pradhan said GAIL has "proposed to extend the Jagdishpur Haldia and BokaroDhamra pipeline to Guwahati".

The company has done a feasibility study on laying a spur line to Guwahati in Assam within the approved Rs 12,940 crore project cost, he said.

GAIL has approached the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for the permission to lay the spur line, which would connect the north eastern states to the national gas grid.

Also, five state-owned firms including GAIL, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Oil India Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) have decided to join hands to lay a gas grid connecting the seven north-eastern states.

"There are gas reserves in Tripura, Manipur, Silchar and Arunachal Pradesh which so far have not been exploited as there is no pipelines to evacuate the gas and take it to users," he said.

The North-Eastern Gas Grid is currently at conception stage and the five companies are in the process of forming a special purpose vehicle which will approach PNGRB for permission to lay the pipeline, he said.

Eastern India has so far been untouched by the gas revolution with pipelines transporting the environment friendly fuel mostly concentrated in west and north India. Some lines are being laid in the south but east was totally unconnected.

The Urja Ganga project will take the gas to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, Varanasi.

Pradhan said the government has taken the decision to integrate the hitherto neglected eastern part of the country into the emerging gas economy.

Work on the 2,655 km Urja Ganga project has begun. It will connect Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal.

The Central government has sanctioned Rs 5,176 crore, or 40 per cent of the project cost, as budgetary support for the pipeline. "This is the first time a gas pipeline is being funded from the Budget," he said.

The pipeline connecting Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh, Bokaro in Jharkhand, Dhamra in Odisha and Haldia in West Bengal, will be used to supply natural gas to three fertiliser companies to be revived as per a plan approved earlier by the Cabinet.

Fertiliser units at Sindri in Jharkhand, Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and Barauni in Bihar, the main gas customers of the pipeline project, will benefit from the clean fuel which will be used to produce urea, the most commonly used plant nutrient in the country.

The pipeline would also feed steel plants and help produce quality steel, he added.

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A top militant of Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) was killed in an encounter with police today.

The incident took place at about 6:30 AM this morning and was led by the EGH police team along with STF 10.

Senior cadre, Matchallang M Sangma was killed in an early morning encounter with East Garo Hills (EGH) police near the village of Bawe Duragre, about 20 kms from the town of Williamnagar, Superintendent of Police of EGH, Ringrang TG Momin said.

The dreaded militant has been involved in a huge number of cases, including the killing of surrendered cadres of the outfit.

According to police sources, a group of around 13 heavily armed militants had been holed up in the village in a makeshift camp just outside Bawe Duragre village when police commandos launched an early morning raid.

The village is located on the southern bank of the Simsang river.

A search through the camp of the outfit led to the recovery of the body of the GNLA deputy commander and action commander, Matchallang.

An AK 56 rifle, Chinese hand grenades and Bangladesh currency notes and seals other documents of the rebel group.

Matchallang was a close confidante of the elusive commander in chief of the outfit, Sohan D Shira and hailed from the village of Nengmandalgre in EGH.

The militant had been involved in the killing of large number of people including an elderly villager and the abduction of two Nokmas. He had also led the group of rebels to the house of surrendered GNLA finance Secretary Rakkam Shira and shot him dead, last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Goa GovernorMridula Sinha discussed "important" issues concerning the state during her meetings with President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi last week.

"The governor appraised the president and the prime minister about the good governance of the state. The leaders appreciated efforts of Sinha for her intervention in important areas of governance as well as in the social field," a state government release said today.

It said president Kovind has agreed to attend the convocation of the Goa University on request of the governor.

The schedule of the convocation ceremony is yet to be announced.

The prime minister was happy to know about the plans of the Governor to introduce 'charkha' (spinning wheel), pottery and bee keeping in Goa, especially in tribal areas, jail, Raj Bhavan and other areas.

"The prime minister suggested the governor to call the Minister for Khadi, Giriraj Singh to Goa as he has invented so many useful devices in these fields," the release stated.

The governor also presented the copies of reports relating to her recent visits to the Central Jail of Colvale; the Dhangar community in Sanguem; and the Chand Ke Sath Sath programme at Raj Bhavan.

She also presented another two books penned by her, namely "Sahajata ki Bhavyata" and "Ahilya Uvach".

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The golden jubilee of the state getting rechristened as Tamil Nadu will be celebrated by the government, Chief Minister K Palaniswami told the Assembly today.

Recalling that the State was rechristened Tamil Nadu on January 14, 1969 known till then as "Madras State", Palaniswami said, "on January 14 this year, our historic State is stepping into its fiftieth year with the name of Tamil Nadu."



It has hence been decided to observe its golden jubilee through events to mark the eminence of Tamil language and Tamil people, he said adding young Tamil research scholars will be honoured at the valedictory.

Events including those involving art and games apart from essay, poetry and elocution competitions will be held across the State, he said.

The Chief Minister recalled that Thyagi Sankaralinganar had made an appeal to the then Congress government for renaming Madras State as Tamil Nadu in 1956.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Assam government announced Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the families of two men who died allegedly in police custody and firing at Dhula in Darrang district, even as the curfew imposed yesterday was relaxed for four hours today.

Darrang Deputy Commissioner Ashok Barman said the curfew was relaxed from 3 pm to 7 pm in the Dhula area and the situation was under control.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC was promulgated in the area after a mob, which gheraoed the police station over alleged death of a person in police custody, turned violent. One person was killed when police opened fire to control the situation.

If the situation remains normal, the curfew may be lifted tomorrow, he said.

The district administration has ordered a probe into the incident by Additional Deputy Commissioner N N Nath who will submit a report within 15 days, the DC said.

Senior Cabinet ministers Parimal Sukla Baidya and Rihon Daimari today attended the last rites of Hasan Ali and Moidul Islam at Atakata, about 15 km from district headquarters Mangaldoi, and announced the compensation on behalf of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

Baidya said Rs 5 lakh each would be given to the families and that the inquiry ordered by Sonowal yesterday into the incident would start immediately.

Ali (37), survived by his wife and five children, allegedly died in custody at the police station on January 9 night after he was picked up from his home for allegedly possessing illegal arms.

Islam (25), hailing from Atakata village, died allegedly during police firing at Dhula yesterday.

The CM has also ordered a probe into the death of Ali by Additional Chief Secretary MGVK Bhanu.

Officer-in-Charge of Dhula police station Ranjit Hazarika was arrested last night and a case was registered at the Dispur police station against him under IPC sections including 302 (murder), police sources said.

Meanwhile, Congress MLA and former minister Rockybul Hussain along with Basanta Das, ex-MLA Mangaldoi, and other party leaders visited Ali and Islam's houses.

They submitted a memorandum to the chief minister through the Deputy Commissioner Darrang demanding justice to the bereaved families and security for people.

Hussain said, "We demand judicial inquiry into the matter of custodial death and another person killed yesterday in police firing.

"Moidul Islam was not part of the mob and a teenaged girl, Gule Rehena, was seriously injured when she was moving in the area at that time," he claimed.

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Attacking the Centre over China's reported attempt to build a road in the Tuting area of Arunachal Pradesh, the Congress today said it happened due to "intelligence failure" and asked if New Delhi had granted a "franchise" to Beijing to construct roads.

Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan wondered what Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Home Minister Rajnath Singh were doing when China "reportedly built 1.3-km-long road in the Indian territory".

"It was an attempt by China to foster Dokalam 2.0," he said.

On a sarcastic note, he asked if the government had granted a franchise to China to construct road in India.

"My simple question to the Government of India is have they granted a franchise to the Chinese government to build roads in India, in our territory? Why is this happening?



"What was our intelligence doing? What were our defence minister, home minister doing? It's total intelligence failure," he told reporters.

Vadakkan suggested relaxing a Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) criteria that a village with a population of at least 100 can have a government-built road.

"Bishing, the village where China reportedly constructed the road, has 16 households and a population of 54, which is why there is no road there," he said.

"The Congress wants to give a positive suggestion to the government. Taking in account national security, PMGSY norms for remote areas should be relaxed and roads must be built to prevent such cases in the future," he added.

Vadakkan alleged that "false bravado, chest thumping and TV studio warfare" were the tools the Modi government employed to manage headlines when it came to critical issues of national security.

"The Modi government has displayed a heedless, incautious and short-sighted attitude, when it comes to such issues of national security...National security is being ignored," he alleged.

Vadakkan cited the alleged rise in the number of Chinese transgressions into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control, scrapping of a Rs 32,000-crore project to build 12 advanced minesweepers and nuclear submarine INS Arihant reportedly suffering major damage due to "human error" to drive his point home.

"The defence minister should clarify the factual matrix on INS Arihant and when will it be operational again. Shockingly, its absence from operations came to the Modi government's attention during the Dokalam standoff.

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The Calcutta High Court today allowed the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) to hold a motorbike rally in the state, rejecting an appeal of the West Bengal government that pleaded for its postponement citing lack of security arrangements.

The BJYM, the youth wing of the BJP, has embarked on an eight-day rally today from Contai in the southern end of the state. The rally is scheduled to culminate at Coochbehar in the north on January 18.

The state government today moved the appeal against a single judge's order that had yesterday allowed the rally and claimed that adequate security arrangements for the BJYM programme was not possible as a large number of police personnel have been deployed for the Gangasagar Mela.

Dismissing the appeal, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee appointed a special officer to monitor the rally and said that any violation of law and order or deviation from route may lead to its cancellation.

The court directed the police to provide adequate assistance to the special officer.

The bench also asked that the judges of every district, through which the rally would pass, to accompany it when it goes through its territorial jurisdiction.

The police authorities will have to depute a responsible officer not below the rank of additional commissioner or superintendent of police to accompany the rally, the court said.

The bench also said that a detailed route map will have to be provided by the organisers to the special officer and police at least one day in advance.

Appearing for the state, Advocate General Kishore Datta proposed that the rally be held after January 26.

He said that around 20,000 bikes will be taking part, according to the estimate given by the organisers, and making security arrangements would be a problem for them since police personnel from all districts have been deployed for the Gangasagar Mela, where lakhs of pilgrims have congregated from all over the country.

Saptangshu Mitra, the counsel for the BJYM, submitted that the rally has already commenced and all necessary arrangements have been made for it and postponing the programme was not a possibility anymore.

He also said there would not be any public meeting enroute and that the rally would mostly be travelling through national highways.

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The Delhi High Court today upheld the validity of a money laundering law provision while rejecting 19 pleas, including that of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh, challenging its constitutional validity.

The clause empowers the ED to provisionally attach the properties bought from proceeds of crime.

Besides Virbhadra's wife, others who had challenged the PMLA provision include their daughter Aprajita Singh, sand mining baron and former Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams (TTD) Board member J Sekar Reddy and his business associates S Ramachandran and K Rethinam.

While upholding the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) provision, the court however said the agency will have to communicate the 'reasons to believe' at every stage to the person to whom an attachment notice was being issued under it.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta also said that if there was any violation of the legal requirements, the order of provisional attachment of assets would be rendered "illegal".

The verdict came in 19 petitions in two separate money laundering cases allegedly involving Virbhadra Singh's wife, daughter and Reddy respectively.

The accused had challenged the constitutional validity of section 5(1) second proviso, which deals with the power of an officer not below the rank of deputy director in the ED to provisionally attach a person's property suspected to be brought from proceeds of crime, if he has "reasons to believe" that not doing so could frustrate the PMLA proceedings.

The court, in a 48-page judgement, said "the second proviso to Section 5(1) PMLA is not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and the challenge in that regard in these petitions is hereby negatived."



It also said the noticee is entitled access to materials on record that constitutes the basis for 'reasons to believe', subject to redaction, for reasons to be recorded in writing.

The court said the maintainability of the petitions will be decided by a single judge of the high court.

The various accused in two separate cases have challenged the ED's FIR against them and provisional attachment orders regarding their assets.

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Lt Governor Anil Baijal today wondered why Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was questioning the decision of hiring retired personnel to fill up vacant posts in government hospitals in Delhi, contending the latter had directed Health department to put forward the proposal.

The CM yesterday wrote a letter to the LG, questioning the rationale behind "hiring only retired personnel to fill up vacancies in government hospitals".

Baijal in a statement said the proposal to hire retired personnel was put forward by the Health department on the chief minister's directions at a meeting on August 16.

"The minutes of that meeting were also issued by the CM office. Therefore, it is surprising that now the CM has raised questions" regarding retired personnel filling up vacant posts, the statement read.

The engagement of retired personnel was purely an interim measure to meet the shortages, the LG said.

The Health department had already sent requisitions to the DSSSB and the UPSC to fill up the vacancies, he said.

"As far as vacancies of promotional posts are concerned, the department has been directed to hold all requisite Departmental Promotional Committee Meetings by the end of March," Baijal said.

The Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary (Health) have been instructed to personally monitor on a fortnightly basis the filling up of vacancies.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal urged the LG to approve two schemes -- Doorstep Delivery and Quality Health for All -- saying the people of Delhi would benefit a lot with their implementation.

The AAP government had earlier alleged the LG had objected to a proposal for free medical surgeries and tests at private hospitals in case of delay at government facilities.

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HealthAssure, a health-tech platform, today said it will invest USD 15 million (over Rs 95 crore) over the next three years to strengthen its primary care network in the country.

Started in 2011, HealthAssure provides access to 3,100 primary care centres across 1,000 cities and connects insurers and corporates through its platform.

"We plan to invest USD 15 million over the next three years. This will go towards network enrichment, creation of more products, strengthening IT infrastructure and distribution," HealthAssure founder and CEO Varun Gera told PTI.

He added that by 2020, it expects to reach 2.5-3 million customers.

The company currently has serviced one million customers through their B2B model. It works with companies like Apollo Munich, Max Bupa, Cigna, ICICI Prudential, Royal Sundram, Loreal, FedEx, Deloitte, Max Life, among others.

Gera said the company, which has already hit profits, is also looking at exploring international markets.

"We are looking at entering the Middle East market within the next six months. We are also exploring markets like Hong Kong and Singapore," he added.

Gera said international business is expected to account for almost half of its business in the next 2-3 years.

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Students of IIT Kharagpur have won gold in the Inter IIT Tech Meet 2018 which saw the highest ever participation of 19 IITs in any Inter IIT event.

The students from IITKGP scored 832.1052632 points, followed by IIT Roorkee (668.4210526) and IIT Madras (650), an IITKGP statement said quoting the students newspaper at the premier institution.

The focus of the 2018 Inter IIT Tech Meet was to offer quick solutions to common problems faced by the people.

The competition had 10 events including Engineer's Conclave, Exoplanet Detection and Automatic Toilet Cleaning.

A hackathon was held on developing an orbital simulator while a case study focussed on issues related to agriculture, health care, defence services, energy efficient technologies, the statement said.

These included solutions for safety device for fishing vessels, technology for upgrading gear of soldiers, warehouse inventory check through an unmanned aerial vehicle and countering ransomware which could delete inventory data.

Some of the projects showcased by IITKGP students are bomb retriever and universal terrain explorer, low-cost blind E-book reader and stick, technology for reusable polymeric pellets replacing the heavy use of water and detergent in the laundry, the statement said.

Some other projects included a device for harvesting ocean wave for energy use, microneedles for painless drug administration, waterless toilet etc.

The event was held from January 5-7 2018 at IIT Madras with challenges hosted by various research institutions and industrial houses such BARC, TCS, Cochin Shipyard, DRDO, the statement said.

Prof. William Mohanty, President of Technology Students Gymkhana, the nerve centre of students activities at IITKGP said, "IIT Kharagpur Tech contingent attempted some of the challenging issues and excelled in solving them against the best brains of the nation."



IIT KGP team leader Rishabh Kumar Shrivastava said, "We won by huge margins in the real-life problem statements that were put forward by various industries.

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The increase in work of the International Court of Justice shows that various countries are reposing much greater confidence in the world court's functioning, Indian ICJ Justice Dalveer Bhandari has said.

A reception in honour of Judge Bhandari -- who was re- elected as ICJ judge recently for a fresh term from 2018-2026 -- was hosted by Venu Rajamony, India's Ambassador to the Netherlands yesterday at the iconic Peace Palace here, according to an official statement issued today.

Bhandari was re-elected in November to the International Court of Justice with more than two-thirds of the UN members backing him, forcing Britain to withdraw its candidate, in the hard-fought race to the world court.

During his address at the event, Judge Bhandari conveyed gratitude for the wholehearted support received in the election and emphasised on the need for greater mutual cooperation and goodwill with increased global interdependence.

He said the work of the court is increasing day by day which shows that member states are now reposing much greater confidence and faith in the functioning of the court than ever before, the statement by the Indian Embassy said.

Bhandari urged all countries to make serious efforts in ensuring that peace is not disturbed in any part of the world and appealed to UN member nations to accelerate its efforts in ensuring peace and amity worldwide.

Rajamony on behalf of the government of India thanked everybody for the overwhelming support extended to the candidature of Bhandari.

"The Ambassador described this as reflection of the worldwide respect and affection for the Indian people and acknowledgement of India as the largest democracy in the world with a sound Constitution and robust legal system which ensures justice for its 1.3 billion people in every nook and corner of the country," it said.

He said the personal credentials of Judge Bhandari and his qualities of head and heart also played a major role in his re-election.

Around 150 members of the diplomatic community in the Netherlands including Rabin Baldewsingh, Acting Mayor of the City of The Hague, Marten Van den Berg, Director General, Foreign Economic Relations of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassadors of various countries stationed in The Hague and prominent members of the Indian community attended the reception.

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India has emerged as a top borrower from the China-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with USD 1.5 billion worth of loans last year and USD three billion more in the pipeline.

India's Ambassador Gautam Bambawale today met AIIB President Jin Liqun in Beijing and held in-depth talks on deepening India's engagements with the bank.

They also exchanged views on the preparations for the next annual meet of AIIB which will be held in Mumbai in June this year, the Indian Embassy said in a statement.

The vice president and chief investment officer of the bank, DJ Pandian also took part in the meeting.

Bambawale's meeting with Jin, a former Vice Finance Minister of China assumed significance as the China-sponsored bank has granted USD 1.5 billion worth of loans for various infrastructure projects last year the highest compared to all the countries, officials told PTI here.

Next to India, Indonesia has emerged as the second largest borrower with about USD 600 million loans.

Significantly in the pipeline for lending for India by the 84-member bank this year included USD 3.5 billion worth of projects including Mumbai Metro, Andhra Pradesh new capital Amaravatis development and irrigation network in West Bengal.

India is the second largest shared holder in the bank which has an authorised capital of USD 100 billion.

China is the largest shareholder with 26.06 per cent voting shares in the bank. India is the second largest shareholder with 7.5 per cent followed by Russia 5.93 per cent and Germany with 4.5 per cent.

Borrowing from AIIB is preferred by a number of countries as it charges about one to 1.5 per cent interest with long term repayment including five-year grace period.

The AIIB board viewed Indian projects favourably due to Indias economic credentials as well as well-prepared project reports, officials said.

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India can seize the opportunity to provide "alternative investment hub" for the American companies which are downgrading their operations in China, US Ambassador said on Thursday.

Observing that 'America First' and 'Make in India' are not incompatible, he said rather investing in each other's markets will be mutually beneficial.

It will increase economic interactions and volume of trade, lead to collaboration on emerging technologies and create jobs in both countries, Juster said in his first policy speech since taking over as Ambassador to India.

"But let me go further and suggest that it is time to put a strategic lens on our economic relationship, just as we have done with our defence relationship," he said.

The Washington's envoy to New Delhi added that a number of US companies have reported increasing difficulties in conducting business in the largest market in the region, China.

"Accordingly, some companies are downgrading their operations there, while others are looking with great interest at alternative markets. India can seize the strategic opportunity through trade and investment to become an alternative hub for US business in the Indo-Pacific region," he said.

He noted that accelerating the economic and regulatory reform process already begun by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will help ensure that India is seen as an increasingly efficient, transparent and well-regulated market.

"This will further promote growth and development. Continued reforms and trade liberalisation will also enable Indian products to more readily become part of the global supply chain, thereby accelerating job creation," Juster said.

Bilateral trade has increased from approximately $20 billion in 2001 to $115 billion in 2016.

"Of course, given the size of our respective markets, there is still a plenty of room to expand the flow of goods and services in both directions and, in the process, for trade to become more reciprocal," he said.

He, however, expressed concerns about persistent trade deficits, including the one the US has with India. He said the US want to work with India to expeditiously resolve trade and investment disputes.

"In our view, fully free and fair trade will support and accelerate Prime Minister Modi's effort to improve India's long-term growth rate in a sustained way," he said, adding that Modi's determination to move India further up on the World Bank's ease of doing business index is inspiring.

Juster further said that greater US trade and investment, combined with a strong environment protecting intellectual property, will lead to increased flows of capital and further sharing of intellectual know-how.

"Technological transformation needs a constant upgrade, which occurs when countries are involved in unimpeded international economic and data flows," he said.

Juster also said that a strategic view of the bilateral economic relationship could eventually lead to a road map for a US-India free trade agreement.

"To be sure, we are a long way right now from that aspiration, and there are many intermediate steps to be taken. But we should find creative ways to use our trade policy forum and our commercial dialogue to enhance understanding, build confidence and solve problems," he said.

Referring to energy and Environment, the Ambassador said that the US-India Strategic Energy Partnership will convene early this year at the ministerial level.
India should export six to seven per cent of its total steel production from the existing 1.5 per cent, Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said today.

"There is no reason to be happy with 1.5 per cent of export. In the next few years, Indian steel exports should increase to 6-7 per cent of total production," Singh said at an interactive session with members of Bharat Chamber of Commerce here.

The minister was speaking on the improving fortunes of steel makers, following protective measures by the government like the minimum import price and anti-dumping duty.

Singh said with these steps, India has become a net exporter of steel, and imports had come down by 40-45 per cent.

India was lagging behind in research and innovation technology with regard to steel production, he said, adding, a Cabinet note will be moved next week for the proposed Steel Research and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI).

The steel ministry is planning to merge all its research bodies under the SRTMI. The government has said the initial corpus for setting up of this umbrella institute is Rs 200 crore.

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The government takes no cognisance of fringe elements spreading hate and communal disharmony, the external affairs ministry today said.

The ministry was reacting to a reported move to ban the entry of Indian officials in some Gurdwaras in Canada and the United States.

"We have seen several reports regarding such notifications," ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said while replying to a question on the issue.

He said the vast majority of the Sikh community in Canada and other parts of the world shared a very warm emotional bond with India and had worked for improving ties between India and the country where they lived.

"We take no cognisance of fringe elements which spread hate and communal disharmony," Kumar said.

There were reports in a section of the media that some Gurdwaras in the US and Canada had decided not to allow the entry of Indian officials and diplomats. The reports said the move was in protest against the June 1984 Army action in the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

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India and the United States are working together to develop vaccines against diseases such as tuberculosis and dengue, Washington's envoy to New Delhi Kenneth Juster said today, describing issues related to health as an "important shared" responsibility.

In his first policy speech after taking over as the ambassador to India, Juster said the two nations were also engaged in the "Global Health Security Agenda", which included acting to combat anti-microbial resistance and strengthening the detection and prevention of epidemics.

The agenda is a partnership of nations, international bodies and non-governmental stakeholders on health.

"Issues related to health, in particular, are an important shared responsibility, not just because of their direct impact on the safety and well-being of our people, but because of their indirect impact on economic productivity and overall social welfare," he said.

Juster said India and the US were looking at novel ways to manage disease.

"We jointly developed the first indigenous Indian vaccine for rotavirus, and are now cooperating to develop vaccines to combat tuberculosis, dengue and other emerging global threats," he added.

The health agenda of the two countries addressed the complex problem of HIV as well as the growing burden of non- communicable diseases, the envoy said.

"We are also engaged in the Global Health Security Agenda, which includes acting to combat antimicrobial resistance and strengthen detection, prevention (of) and response to epidemics," he said.

Juster said a fourth pillar of the India-US partnership was the focus on sustainable and inclusive development with regard to the welfare of the people. This included critical work in science, technology and health, he pointed out.

"Our US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund has supported a range of innovative projects, including those to advance health care, improve the environment and modernise agriculture.

"And beyond earth and into space, NASA and ISRO scientists frequently collaborate demonstrating that there truly are no boundaries to our partnership," he said.

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Two attempts by some villagers of Myanmar to erect fences along the Manipur border were thwarted by security forces, a top official said today.

Director General of Manipur Police L M Khaute said additional guards were deployed at the 'no man's land' near the Moreh border post in Manipur after the incidents.

Khaute said the villagers first came a few days back and tried to erect fences but alert security personnel foiled their attempt.

"They came again this morning and we stopped them again. We have heightened the vigil and deployed additional forces. Assam Rifles personnel are also keeping strict vigil," Khaute told PTI.

Sources said the matter came to light after locals living in the border town of Moreh noticed that some Myanmarese on the other side of the frontier were trying to raise bamboo fences on the 'no man's land', located 100 metres south of Moreh police station.

The Myanmarese authorities were informed and they cooperated with the Indian security forces, the sources said.

Manipur shares a 398 km border with Myanmar, most of which is porous. The total length of the Indo-Mynamar border is 1,643 km.

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Linear infrastructure developments were conflicting with the objectives of wildlife conservation in many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in India, an expert said here today.

As many as 72 of the documented 88 elephant corridors have national highways or other major roads passing through them and seven have railway lines, V B Mathur, Director of Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India, said.

More than 200 elephants had been killed in the country since 1987 by trains passing through forests, he said while speaking at a two-day workshop on elephant conservation in south Indian states jointly organised by the Union Ministry of and Forest and Kerala Forest Department.

Of the 50 Protected Areas (PAs), declared as Tiger Reserves in the country, major roads pass through 26 of them, he said.

"In many of India's National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Tiger Reserves, linear infrastructure developments in the form of roads, railway lines, power lines and canals are conflicting with the objectives of wildlife conservation," Mathur said.

As many as 30-50 cases of poaching of tuskers for ivory, 40-70 cases of electrocution and 20-30 cases of poisoning of elephants are reported across the country every year, he said.

Detailing the reasons leading to human-elephant conflicts, he said loss, degradation and fragmentation of jumbo habitat, blockage of corridors, illegal harvesting, enclaves within forests, labour colonies on corridors within tea/coffee estates, trespass, movement of pilgrims and so on would contribute to the menace.

Stressing the need to initiate research on 'reproductive control' of elephant population, the official said emphasis of elephant conservation programmes in future should be to improve the quality of life of the animal rather than on increasing their numbers.

"Smart and green infrastructure promotes both smart growth and smart conservation," he added.

M S Negi, additional Director General of Forests, Ministry of and Forests, said the increasing population of animals in forests might be one of the reasons for the frequent human-animal conflicts.

Demarcating elephant corridors by the state governments is one of the effective ways to contain human-animal conflicts in forest-fringe areas. So that, the developmental activities in these corridors could be redesigned in such a manner that these conflicts can be minimised or reduced, he said.

Quoting figures, he said at least 100 elephants and 400 human beings are dying every year in the country due to the human-animal conflict.

Inaugurating the workshop, Kerala Forest Minister K Raju said the state, which has four identified jumbo corridors and reserves, is doing the elephant population estimation in regular intervals.

Stating that the elephants, be wild or captive, were facing multi-dimensional issues across the country, he said human-animal conflicts was one of the most serious concerns among them to be addressed especially in southern states.

"Wildlife-human interface is a serious obstacle in wildlife conservation," he said.

Increasing population, development initiatives and climate change were leading to the direct competition between humans and wildlife for shrinking resources.

To address the human-elephant interface, Kerala had been following traditional measures like trenches, solar-powered fencing, jumbo-proof walls, bio-fencing and so on, the minister said.

The state also started using 'early warning SMS alert' system with active involvement of local people to tackle the issue, he said.

Detailing various steps taken for the protection and rehabilitation of captive elephants, he said, the state government has initiated steps to set up a world class captive elephant management centre near here, the work of which is already in progress.

Forest officials from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Padesh and Karnataka besides Kerala are taking part in the workshop, which would conclude tomorrow.

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A new report today highlights that international students from countries like India add 22.6- billion-pounds to the UK economy annually, indicating an overall benefit to the country 10 times greater than costs.

The Higher Policy Institute (HEPI) and Kaplan International Pathways released 'The costs and benefits of international students by parliamentary constituency' research in an attempt to push the government to introduce more welcoming policies for international students to stem falling numbers in recent years.

The analysis concentrated on the cohort of international first-year students attending UK universities in 2015-16,when Indian students comprised the third-largest group of overseas students in the UK at 9,095, after China's 62,105 and 10,545 from the US.

According to Home Office data released late last year, a trend of falling student numbers from India was reversed with a 27 per cent hike in 2017 over 2016.

The HEPI now hopes that its research would add further impetus to demands for international student numbers to be removed from the overall annual immigration figures set by the Theresa May led Conservative party government.

"Trying to persuade the Home Office that international students nearly always benefit the UK can feel like banging one's head against a brick wall.

Our work includes all the potential costs and conclusively proves these are small compared to the huge benefits," said Nick Hillman, director of HEPI.

The institute submitted its report to the UK's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which has been directed by the UK Home Office to conduct its own assessment on the impact of international students on the economy.

The HEPI wants MAC to use its data and report earlier than the planned deadline of September this year.

Linda Cowan, managing director of Kaplan International Pathways, warned that the UK was showing signs of losing ground to countries like Australia in recruiting international students.

"The challenge now is to ensure the UK provides a compelling and attractive offer as the best place to study. To be successful, we need a bold commitment from government as it considers the Immigration Bill to show the UK welcomes international students more than ever. A key step would be to stop counting students as immigrants in net migration statistics," she said.

The analysis highlights that on top of tuition fees, spending by students from European and non-European countries has become a major factor in supporting local economies.

London alone gains 4.6 billion pounds a year, with Sheffield the biggest beneficiary in proportion to its economy.

The latest data collated by London Economics for the report calculated the financial contribution of overseas students, such as spending on tuition and living expenses, and balanced that against costs, including the extra pressure on local services and non-repayment of loans.

The report seeks to provide comprehensive evidence that overseas students are a significant benefit and that students from outside the European Union (EU), who pay higher fees, are worth 102,000 pounds each to the UK economy.

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Israel will invest $68.6 million to boost cooperation with India in areas like tourism, technology, agriculture and innovation over a period of four years, a senior official here has said ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's high-profile India visit next week.

The commitment is in addition to theIndia-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund of $40 million over five years with equal contribution from both sides that has already been agreed between the two sides, deputy Director General of Israel's Foreign Ministry, Gilad Cohen, told PTI.

Netanyahu will be leading a high-profile delegation comprising 130 businessmen from 102 Israeli companies drawn from areas like agriculture, water, cyber security, health care and security on his four day trip to India starting January 14.

It will be the second visit by an Israeli Prime Minister to India after a gap of 15 years since Ariel Sharon visited New Delhi in 2003. The visit comes merely six months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Jewish state, becoming the first Indian premier to do so.

Several MoUs, including in the field of oil and gas, renewable energy, amended protocol for airports, cyber security, co-production of films and documentaries will be signed between the two sides.

Israel's Saare Tzedek hospital would be signing an agreement with India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well.

Informed sources here said that this relates to sharing of knowledge in the field of homoeopathy and ayurveda that have been gaining popularity in Israel over the last few years.

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology would also be signing an agreement with Ministry of Science and Technology, sources here said.

Reciprocating the warm reception extended to him by Netanyahu, Modi is likely to spend a lot of time with his Israeli counterpart during the trip.

Netanyahu accompanied Modi almost throughout his three day trip in July of last year, an honour generally reserved for Presidents of Israel's close ally the United States.

The Indian Prime Minister will be hosting a private dinner for Netanyahu on January 14 after his arrival in New Delhi. The Israeli leader would be meeting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also the same day.

The Israeli Prime Minister would be formally welcomed the next day at the Rashtrapari Bhawan following which he would lay wreath at Rajghat.

He would be then participating in a dialogue at Hyderabad house which will also include a one-on-one discussion with Modi. Meetings with President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu are also scheduled for Monday.

Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara, would be travelling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal on Tuesday and return to Delhi to participate in the Raisina Dialogue.

Modi would be accompanying Netanyahu to Gujarat on Wednesday where he will be welcomed in the same fashion as Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was with a road show in Ahmadabad.

The "road show" is said to be an 8-kilometer drive from the airport to the Sabarmati Ashram. The two leaders will also be witnessing several innovative technologies in the field of water, agriculture and health at iCreate and visit a Centre of Excellence.

Netanyahu would be arriving in Mumbai on Wednesday in the evening where he would be meeting with the Indian Jewish community.

A packed schedule on Thursday for the Israeli Prime Minister in Mumbai would include a "power breakfast" with Indian business leaders, a business seminar, attending two memorial services for the victims of Mumbai terror attacks at the Taj hotel and Nariman House and finally a gala event with Bollywood actors, directors and producers.
Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today as Opposition NC and Congress staged walkouts to protest what they claimed was the state government's failure to make several administrative units functional and over the strike at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) in Srinagar.

As the House met for the day, National Conference (NC) MLA Devender Rana raised the issue of "non-functional" administrative units in J&K particularly his Nagrota constituency and sought a reply from the state government.

Rana said that the administrative unit of Jandhra in Nagrota was non-functional as no officials were posted there. He was supported by NC and Congress members, who accused the government of failing to make administrative units functional.

As the Speaker turned down their request for a reply, the NC and Congress members rushed into the Well of the House.

They waved banners with messages - 'make administrative units functional' and raised slogans creating ruckus.

"The way government is working you won't see us here inside the House," Devender Rana told the House and after half-an-hour long protest NC and Congress staged a walkout.

The previous Omar Abdullah government had set up 659 administrative units in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014.

Speaking to reporters outside, Rana said the functional administrative units were a tool of governance and the government had failed to make them functional.

"The delay raises many questions regarding the political motivation of the BJP as the issue is hanging decision despite assurances held out in the Legislative Assembly and in various forums," Rana said.

He alleged that the government was delaying the functioning of 'Tehsil' (administrative units), as it was created by the Omar Abdullah led Government.

"If urgency can be shown by the PDP in posting Assistant Commissioner in Bhaderwah despite non-availability of any such post what is the problem in making duly created Jindrah Tehsil functional, he asked.

Opposition NC and Congress also raked up the issue of the strike in the state's most premier institute SKIMS for last few days resulting in shut down medical services causing difficulties to the patients.

They walked into the Well of the House and staged a walkout alleging unsatisfactory reply by the Minister for Health Bali Bhagat.

The minister said that OPD was functioning at the hospital and efforts were being made to end the strike.

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Reaching out to youth of Jammu and Kashmir, the Mehbooba Mufti government today announced educational loan facility from banks with interest subvention on repayments till completion of course.

Also, the state government will set up a corpus fund of Rs 12,000 crore that will be used for making timely GPF (General Provident Fund) payments to the government employees in future.

For the youth, the government has decided that education loans will be made available from banks with interest subvention facility till course completion, state Finance Minister Haseeb A Drabu said while presenting Rs 80,000 crore Budget for the fiscal 2018-19 in the state assembly.

"A good number of students from our state aspire for higher intellectual pursuits in top universities of the world but are not able to realise their dreams due to financial constraints," he said.

The minister said that students belonging to weaker sections and children of single mothers, who qualify top examinations to secure admissions in different universities, shall be provided interest subvention on the education loans till the completion of the course, he said.

In order to widen the platform of vocational training opportunities to the lesser educated youth, the minister proposed introducing more trades having entry qualification as 8th pass.

"This will be backed by required additional funding," he added.

"To address the career counselling gaps in our employment sector, I have decided to institutionally intervene by putting in place a proper career counselling framework in the state at different levels. I, accordingly, propose to make an initial provision of Rs 5 crore for the purpose," he added.

"A vast majority of our population has not stepped beyond Lakhanpur to see not only our country's recent economic development, but also its great cultural diversity.

"It's my firm belief that if our youth are exposed to the mainland, this will have positive impact on the situation in the state as well," he added.

The finance minister said that each MLA, MLC can nominate 50 boys and 50 girls from his or her constituency for such educational, learning tours.

This year, around 13,000 students shall be sent on such tours to different cities of our country.

"I, accordingly, propose an initial sum of Rs 10 crore for the purpose," he added.

For the poor and marginalised, the government had decided that the minimum wages of unskilled workers were raised from Rs 150 to Rs 225, while those of skilled labour to Rs 350 from Rs 225.

A new category of highly skilled worker was introduced and Rs 400 was fixed as the minimum wage.

"We have insured the lives of construction workers, protected them against disability, disease and death, provided for their children's education and given them access to small credit. I am sure this will make life simpler and more secure for 3 lakh families; i.e. 15 lakh people," he added.

Free life and medical insurance cover and a monthly sustenance pension on the pattern of old age pension scheme for all transgender people above the age of 60 who are registered with the social welfare department, he added.

The government proposes to set up a Disaster Mitigation Fund with an initial corpus of Rs 10 crore and also Propose toframe a uniform Employment Code for the state, containing allthe labour laws in force in the State.

The proposed Employment Code shall set out the framework for terms of employment and service of all the workers except domestic workers and agricultural labour and a strong, independent and separate labour judiciary, he added.

J-K's Accredited journalists have also been covered undermediclaim group insurance scheme, he said.

The government proposes to set up a Disaster Mitigation Fund with an initial corpus of Rs 10 crore.

The government is required to constitute a State Finance Commission in terms of the Jammu and Kashmir State Finance Commission for Panchayats and Municipalities Act, 2011, he added.

A committee of officers and professionals in the area of taxation and industry has been constituted to work out the framework for bringing real estate, electricity, alcohol and Petroleum under a J-K GST, he added.

"Good finance is not an end in itself; it is a means to a social and humanitarian end.

This is especially so in J&K which has gone through unimaginable troubled times", he added.

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Bath fittings and sanitary ware major Jaquar Group today said it will invest Rs 300 crore for expanding its manufacturing facilities in Rajasthan and Haryana in the current fiscal.

"A sum of Rs 150 crore will be spent on raising the capacity of faucets manufacturing facility located in Bhiwadi in Rajasthan," Jaquar Group's Promoter and Director Rajesh Mehra said here.

The company looks to expand the manufacturing capacity of faucets from 80,000 to 100,000 per day, he said. "It will be commissioned in next six months," he added.

Jaquar Group would also invest Rs 150 crore on its LED manufacturing facility in Manesar in Gurgaon district of Haryana, Mehra said.

The company is also aiming to clock total turnover of Rs 3,300 crore by the end of this fiscal at a growth rate of 18 per cent.

The size of the sanitary ware industry is pegged at about Rs 8,000 crore and it is growing between 8 to 10 per cent per annum, he said.

Mehra said Punjab is one of the largest markets for the Jaquar Group and has maintained a sustained growth year on year. From Chandigarh alone, the company is expecting 22 per cent growth over the previous fiscal.

"Punjab has always been a key market for Jaquar Group with a high demand for Jaquar products coming from within this region.

"Our major focus now is to strengthen our India business alongside our vision to become a global player in the 'complete bathroom and lighting solutions' industry," he said.

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JNU Teachers Association today announced its decision to boycott administration's order making attendance compulsory for students, saying it was a "unproductive" and "meaningless" form of bureaucratic work for teachers.

The decision was taken at the General Body Meeting(GBM) of the teachers body held yesterday.

JNUTA President Ayesha Kidwai in a statement said to expect research scholars to report everyday, even when their work can require them to be in different parts of the city, was ridiculous.

"It was an unproductive and meaningless form of bureaucratic work for teachers," she said.

"They can be on fieldwork or in conferences/seminars etc, and expecting them to drop in everyday is ridiculous, especially when every month Research Supervisors and Chairpersons sign on fellowship forms certifying their presence and satisfactory progress," Kidwai said.

Early this month, JNU Students Union had too announced its decision to boycott the administration's move.

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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition to the US, was today denied diplomatic status by the UK government.

The anti-secrecy group's chief has been based at the Ecuador embassy in central London since 2012 after he lost appeals against sexual assault charges in Sweden.

The request for diplomatic status was made on behalf of the 46-year-old campaigner by the Ecuadorean government, which has reportedly issued a passport to the Australian national after he had sought political asylum from the South American country five and a half years ago.

"The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter, said a spokesperson for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

"Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," the spokesperson added.

According to media reports from Ecuador earlier this week, Assange has been registered to the province of Pichincha, which covers the capital Quito.

The public database of the country's internal revenue service indicates that the travel document was delivered to Assange on December 21, indicating that the country is preparing for the campaigners exit from his London hideout.

Ecuador foreign minister Mara Fernanda Espinosa has said that the country is seeking a neutral third-party nations mediation to revolve what she described as an "untenable" situation.

While the grant of a passport has not been officially confirmed, it is seen as part of a process to get Assange out of the UK by giving him a role at the embassy that confers diplomatic immunity.

The rape allegation against the computer programmer had followed a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm in 2010.

Assange has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the sex was consensual and that the case was politically motivated to get him extradited to the US over massive Wikileaks dumps of secret US military reports that year.

Swedish prosecutors have since dropped their investigation into the allegations but Assange still faces arrest by Scotland Yard for breaching bail conditions if he steps outside the embassy.

Assange also fears he will be extradited to the US if he leaves the building over a sealed indictment ordering his arrest.

A United Nations panel had concluded in 2016 that Assange was under arbitrary detention. But the British government has maintained he must face justice in UK courts over his breach of bail conditions.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organisation that publishes secret information, leaks and classified media from anonymous sources.

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The police today registered two cases after junior doctors of the SCB Medical College and Hospital allegedly beat up two persons accompanying a patient.

No arrests have been made in connection with the incident that took place late last night, police said.

It occurred in the casualty department of the Hospital following an altercation over the allegation that the doctors did not attend to the patient the victims had brought.

The cases were registered on the basis of FIRs lodged by both the sides.

Police said they rescued two attacked persons from the hospital and released them this evening after treatment.

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A Mumbai sessions court today reserved its order till tomorrow on the anticipatory bail application filed by Yug Tulli, an absconding co-owner of the Mojo's Bistro pub in the Kamala Mills compound.

Tulli's advocate Shyam Divani told the court that the fire started from another adjoining '1 Above' pub and spread to Mojo's Bistro hence Tulli cannot be blamed.

Divani also said that Tulli was innocent and that there was an attempt made to incriminate him and make Mojo's a scapegoat in the incident.

He added that there was a social media campaign against Mojo's to prejudice the people against it.

However, the prosecution said that the report prepared by the fire brigade, and as per eyewitness accounts, the fire started at Mojo's and hence Tuli should not be granted pre- arrest bail.

In its preliminary probe report, the Mumbai Fire Brigade had said that the blaze had possibly started at Mojo's Bistro due to the flying embers of a hookah.

The fire had spread to adjacent '1 Above', a swish terrace resto-pub located in a building in the Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai.

The husband of deceased Parul Lakdawala, who filed an intervention application, opposed the anticipatory bail stating that Tulli was responsible for the death of his wife and others and should not be granted anticipatory bail.

Meanwhile, the government has appointed advocate Prakash Shetty as the special public prosecutor in the case.

He is also the special public prosecutor in some NIA cases, including the 2006 Malegaon blasts case.

The police had earlier arrested Yug Pathak, another co- owner of Mojo's Bistro, in connection with the incident.

Pathak, the son of a retired IPS officer, and Tulli, a Nagpur-based businessman, were booked under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life and personal safety of others) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

The names of Pathak and Tulli were added to the FIR, lodged on December 29 against the owners of '1 Above' pub -- Kripesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar.

The three have already been arrested and remanded to police custody.

On December 29, fire had swept through the '1 Above' and adjacent Mojo's Bistro resto pub in the Kamala Mills compound, resulting in the death of 14 people.

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Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal will address a rally at the birthplace of Jijabai, mother of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji, in Maharashtra tomorrow.

Kejriwal will address the rally at Sindkhed Raja in Buldhana district, and pay tributes on her birth anniversary, party sources said.

Every year, lakhs of people, mostly from the politically dominant Maratha community, gather at the place to pay their respects to Rajmata (King's mother) Jijabai.

Police had initially denied permission for the rally citing law and order issues, but the rally, slated tomorrow morning, will be held as planned after AAP leaders took up this issue with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and senior police officials, the sources said.

Afer the permission was granted, Kejriwal had tweeted in Marathi, saying "On the occasion of Rajmata Jijau Jayanti on January 12, I am coming to Sindkhed Raja to have a dialogue with the people of Maharashtra."



Marathas, who comprise of approximately 32 per cent of the state's population, had taken to the streets last year, demanding reservations in education and job sectors.

The choice of the venue also underlines the agenda of the party, particularly in the backdrop of the recent turmoil in Maharashtra, where Marathas were pitted against Dalits after the Bhima-Koregaon violence.

Kejriwal is expected to induct Brigadier (retd.) Sudhir Sawant, a former Congress MP from Konkan region, into the AAP, at the rally tomorrow, AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said.

Sawant is a Maratha.

However, the AAP spokesperson said her party does not believe in wooing the Maratha community or any other community. "We do not believe in the politics of caste," she added.

"We chose this venue because we believe in the values of Jijabai which she imbibed in Shivaji Maharaj," she said.

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The Kerala government today decided to permit prisoners in state jails to donate their organs to close relatives, but with certain conditions.

The decision was taken at the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

"The prisoners can henceforth donate their organs to close relatives and the government has decided to make necessary amendments in the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services (Management) Act 2014," a government press release read.

However, the prisoner needs to meet certain conditions for the process to take place. Like, the organ donation can be made by prisoners to their close relatives only.

Also, they have to take sanction from the concerned court, the same which convicted them, besides the medical board nod for any such organ donation.

"It was also resolved that the period the prisoner is hospitalised post donation, will be considered as parole and the hospital expenses will be met by the jail department,"the release added.

The release also made it clear of there being 'no relaxation in prison term' for the prisoner following the organ donation.

Notably, the government took the decision on hearing about the experience of P Sukumaran, a convict serving life sentence in Kannur central jail, who had sought permission to donate one of his kidneys.

However, before a decision could have been taken, the patient in question had passed away.

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The Kerala High Court today ordered a CBI probe into the mysterious death of a bar owner here in 2006.

Mithila Mohan was found dead on April 5, 2006 at his residence and the crime branch, which investigated the matter, had said that hired killers from Tamil Nadu were behind the murder.

Allowing a plea filed by Mohan's son, Justice A Hariprasad directed the Crime Branch wing of the Kerala Police to hand over the case to the central agency forthwith.

According to the crime branch, business rivalry was the motive for murdering the owner.

The crime branch had earlier informed the court that some accused were in Sri Lanka.

Considering the 'inter-state' ramifications involved in the case, the court ordered CBI probe.

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The state-run Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) and Zone Startups India have jointly launched a first-of-its-kind initiative in the southern state to accelerate startups in the revenue stage.

Titled the Kerala Accelerator Programme, it will help the startups to achieve the right product-market fit through a curated customer validation process, a statement said here today.

The structured three-month virtual accelerator programme, commencing on February 5, comprises a mix of live and virtual mentoring sessions, including visits by mentors to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi to interact with the participants.

There will be weekly reviews, customer interactions and an end-of-program demo day with investors, it said.

Selected startups will also be provided a week-long residential programme travel and accommodation included in Bangalore and Mumbai from February 12 to 16.

The programme fee is Rs 1,00,000 and Kerala-based founders can get 90 per cent scholarship from the KSUM, an official said.

"Exposure is a key challenge for startups from Kerala. We hope this accelerator programme to bridge this challenge and ensure that startups attain product market fit and growth faster," Saji Gopinath, CEO, KSUM, said.

"Programmes like these will help the founders to keep pace with the startup ecosystems in Bangalore and Mumbai, he said.

Zone Startups is the global brand of early stage tech accelerators and venture funds operated by Toronto-based Ryerson Futures Inc.

Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director, Zone Startups India, said it was their first direct engagement with a state government in India.

"A lot of promising hardware and software startups emerge from Kerala. So, the ecosystem of entrepreneurs has been in place for a while now."



"Startups in such markets lack the exposure to the ecosystems of potential customers, investors and peer entrepreneurs that larger hubs of Mumbai and Bangalore offer, he said.

The KSUM is the apex organization of the Kerala Government for supporting startups.

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Over 100 business leaders from 74 Israeli companies are expected to be a part of the delegation of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu here this month.

The delegates will be from sectors like agriculture, cyber security and defence.

Top government officials will also accompany the business delegates from various ministries.

Barak Granot, Head of the Israeli Economic and Trade Mission here said in a statement that alongside the event, more than ten business collaborations/ MOUs will be signed between companies of the two nations.

During the two-day event, CII, Ficci and Assocham will jointly host the India Israel Business Summit where both the prime ministers are expected to address.

The bilateral trade between the countries stood at USD 5 billion in 2016-17.

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An alleged LeT terrorist and a suspect in the 2000 Red Fort attack case, Bilal Ahmed Kawa, was today sent to 10-day police custody by a Delhi court.

The court took note of the allegation that Kawa had received Rs 29.5 lakh from Pakistan to fund the terror attack on the historic Red Fort on December 22, 2000.

Kawa was arrested yesterday in the national capital in a a joint operation by the Delhi Police and Gujarat Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS).

He was produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat, who said there were "sufficient grounds" to grant his custody for interrogation.

The judge took on record the submission of the police that Kawa, suspected to have links with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), was a key conspirator in the terror strike.

"Accused has (played) the main role and participated in the offence by receiving money from Pakistan and other countries through hawala operators, which was used in the attack and other terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir conducted by LeT," the judge noted.

The police told the trial court that Kawa, one of the conspirators in the attack, had been absconding for 17 years and was declared a proclaimed offender by the court.

"He is needed for thorough interrogation and details of his associates need to be extracted from him, which requires lot of time," the police said.

It also said that the accused needed to be taken to Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and other places for investigation and apprehension of his associates.

Three people, including two Army jawans, were killed in the December 22, 2000 Red Fort attack.

While Kawa was on run, a trial court in October 2005, had awarded death sentence to Pakistan-based LeT terrorist Mohammad Arif alias Ashfaq, while two key conspirators -- Nazir Ahmed Qasid and his son Farooq Ahmed Qasid -- were awarded life imprisonment.

Additional Sessions Judge O P Saini had also awarded seven-year jail term to Ashfaq's Indian wife Rehmana Yousuf Farooqui for harbouring the main accused.

Other convicts -- Bagar Mohsin Baghwala, Sadaqat Ali and Matloob Alam -- were also awarded seven-year rigorous imprisonment.

In September 2007, the Delhi High Court upheld the death sentence to Ashfaq, saying terrorists who have no value for human lives deserved capital punishment.

The high court, however, acquitted six others including Ashfaq's wife Farooqui, citing lack of sufficient evidence against them.

The Supreme Court in August 2011 upheld Ashfaq's death sentence, saying the "arrogant" assault was a "brazen attempt" by Pakistan "to overawe" India and wage war against it.

Later, it also dismissed the review as well as the curative petition of Ashfaq in the case.

However, the Pakistani terrorist moved again the apex court seeking reconsideration of his review plea on the ground that a constitution bench had held that the review plea of a death row convict has to be heard in an open court by a three-judge bench.

Agreeing with the contention, the top court stayed his conviction and decided on January 19, 2016 that his review plea would be heard in open court. The plea is pending since then.

According to the police, on a tip off from the Gujarat ATS that Kawa was travelling from Srinagar to Delhi, he was arrested last evening from Terminal-3 of the Delhi airport.

The police submitted that the accused played the main role and participated in the offence by receiving money from Pakistan and other countries through hawala operators which was used in the attack and other terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir conducted by the LeT.

The police claimed that money to the tune of Rs 29.50 lakh was transferred through hawala channels to various bank accounts, including those of Kawa, to fund the attack.

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Pro-Kannada outfits have given a call for 'Karnataka Bandh' on January 25 to press for the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Mahadayi river water sharing row between the state and neighbouring Goa.

Vatal Nagaraj, leader of Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha (KCVP), a pro-Kannada outfit, claimed that about 2,000 pro-Kannada outfits had backed the bandh call.

He said the organisations had decided to speak to government officers and employees, lorry owners, fuel service stations, education institutions and appeal to them to cooperate in ensuring that the Bandh is a success.

The Kannada film industry has already agreed to support the bandh, Nagaraj said.

The Kannada organisations have also decided to show black flag to Modi when he visits Karnataka on January 28 for the concluding ceremony of BJP's Nava Karnataka Parivarthana Yatra,a state-wide programme against the Congress government.

Karnataka has locked horns with Goa over the Mahadayi river sharing issue to supply water for Hubballi and Dharwad towns for drinking water through Kalasa-Banduri canal.

Recently, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said he would go by the decision taken by the Mahadayi river water sharing tribunal.

Earlier he had written to state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa lending his support to resolve the Mahadayi river water sharing issue.

Karnataka is seeking release of 7.56 tmcft water by Goa from the Mahadayi river for the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project, being undertaken to improve the drinking water supply to Hubballi-Dharwad and districts of Belagavi and Gadag in the northern region.

The Kalasa-Banduri Nala (diversion) project involves building barrages across Kalasa and Banduri, tributaries of Mahadayi River, to divert 7.56 tmcft to the Malaprabha river which supplies drinking water needs of the region.

On December 27 last year, a bandh was observed in five north Karnataka districts over the same issue following a call by farmer groups.

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Maldives today assured Indian leadership of its 'India first policy' - an affirmation which comes amid chill in bilateral ties over a host of issues, including the signing of an FTA between Maldives and China.

The assurance was made by Maldivian Foreign Minister Mohamed Asim during talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj.

Asim, also special envoy of the President of Maldives Abdulla Yameen, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and reiterated "the commitment of his government to maintain close relations with India under Maldives' 'India first' policy", an external affairs ministry release said.

Modi affirmed that India would always be a reliable and close neighbour of Maldives supporting it in its progress and security.

Swaraj also conveyed India's commitment in achieving the full potential of bilateral relationship in line with the government's 'neighbourhood first policy'.

The visit by the Maldivian leader is seen as an effort by Male to assuage concerns of New Delhi following a free trade pact with China after which India had made it clear that it expected that as a close and friendly neighbour, the island nation would be sensitive to its concerns in keeping with its 'India first' policy.

The MEA release said discussions centred around strengthening of the development partnership between the two countries, and enhancing defence and security cooperation.

Asim also reiterated Yameen's invitation to the prime minister to visit Maldives. Modi conveyed his gratitude for the invitation and agreed to the visit at a suitable time, the release said.

During his call on, the special envoy also emphasised that Maldives attached the highest priority to its ties as close neighbours bound by shared history, culture and maritime interests in the Indian Ocean.

Asim conveyed the greetings of Yameen to the prime minister, which was warmly reciprocated by Modi.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today extended her best wishes to the pilgrims visiting the Sagar Island for the Ganga Sagar fair beginning today.

Lakhs of pilgrims from far corners of India and countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal have already arrived in the city to participate in the annual fair held in South 24 Parganas district.

"My best wishes to all the pilgrims who have congregated at Sagar Islands for the annual Ganga Sagar Mela. We have made all arrangements for the smooth management of this grand assembly of humanity," Banerjee wrote on her Twitter handle this morning.

The pilgrims assemble at the Sagar Island to take a dip on the occasion of Makar Sankranti on January 14-15 and offer prayers at the Kapil Muni Ashram.

"My heartiest welcome to all pilgrims to Ganga Sagar Mela. To make your entire journey to, and stay at, Ganga Sagar Mela successful and safe, the Bengal Government has taken a lot of measures," Banerjee said in another special message meant for the pilgrims.

The West Bengal government has announced that it would be providing an insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh to those visiting this year's Ganga Sagar Mela.

"Adequate drinking water, toilet, residence and other facilities have been arranged for all pilgrims. Life insurance has also been taken on all pilgrims by the State Government.

"Security arrangements have been taken at all places



be it at the fairground or along the way. We wish for all of you a successful, safe and blessed stay," Banerjee added.

The state administration has deployed huge number of police personnel equipped with satellite phones at crucial points, besides putting up CCTVs, Wi-Fi zone, a special website, to make the annual event a grand success.

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A 24-year-old man was killed when the police opened fire at a mob which allegedly attacked them when an Uttar Pradesh police team detained an elderly person in connection with a buffalo theft case, the police said today.

A police team from Agra in Uttar Pradesh had gone to Dholpur's Sar Mathura police station area around 12.30 am. When they detained an elderly man in connection with the buffalo theft case, the villagers resisted.

When the mob attacked, UP police team resorted to firing in which Rameshwar Gurjar was killed, Dholpur Additional SP Rajendra Vera said.

In the clash, Uttar Pradesh Police inspector Vivek Sharma, a constable and six other police personnel were injured, he said.

The deceased's brother lodged a case of murder against UP Police Inspector Vivek Sharma. A cross-FIR was registered by the UP Police, the officer said.

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Over a fortnight after their meeting, the government on Thursday confirmed that Security Advisor Ajit Doval held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (retd) in Thailand, noting that "talks on terror" can definitely go ahead.

Raveesh Kumar, the spoksperson of the Ministry of External Afairs, told reporters that the focus of the "operational-level talks" was "cross-border terror" and ways to ensure the elimination of terrorism from the region.

He said India has been maintaining that terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead.

"India and Pakistan have a dialogue process and we have said terror and talks cannot go togther. Besides that, there are several other dialogue mechanisms between India and Pakistan. Talks take place at the DGMO level. There have been meetings between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers as part of a regular mechanism



"Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of the operational-level talks. We have said that terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead," Kumar said.

He said the issue of cross-border terrorism was raised in the meeting.

Asked whether Doval raised the issue of humiliation of the family of Kulbhshan Jadhav as the talks between the two NSAs took place a day after the meeting between the Indian death row prisoner and his family in Islamabad on January 25, the MEA spokesperson said the focus of the engagement was on containing cross-border terrorism.

"Some of these meetings are pre-determined. Dates are decided well in advance. It is not to do with anything which is happening at that point of time," Kumar said.

On December 31, a newspaper had reported that the two NSAs met in Thailand on December 26. A day later, a Pakistani daily, quoting an unnamed Pakistani official, also reported about the meeting.

On whether the NSAs will meet again, Kumar said the information will be shared as and when such operational meetings take place.

Jadhav's mother Avanti and wife Chetna had met him in Islamabad on December 25.

It was not the first meeting between the two NSAs in a third country.

In December 2015 also, the two NSAs, along with the two foreign secretaries, had met in Bangkok, which was not revealed by both the countries till after the meeting.

The Jadhav-family meeting became the latest flashpoint in already strained Indo-Pak relations, with Pakistan terming its decision to allow Jadhav's family to travel to Pakistan to meet him as a humanitarian gesture and India accusing it of violating mutual understandings.

The Pakistani authorities had forced both the women to remove their mangalsutra, bindi, bangles and footwear, and even made to change their attire on the pretext of security.
Union minister and RPI (A) president Ramdas Athawale today blasted Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, saying the latter was putting Dalits in "danger" and that he should stop taking the "support of Maoism people".

The minister also adviced Mevani, who is championing himself as the new age Dalit leader, to stop making "provocative speeches" and instead work for bringing people together.

"Jignesh Mevani is a youth from our Dalit community. He has become an MLA. That is good. But, if he is a true Amedkarite, he should not take the support of people of Maoism, Naxalism, and Marxism. I feel Dalit protection would not happen by giving provocative speeches. Mevani is doing the work of putting Dalits in danger," the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment told reporters here in reply to a query.

Athawale said he had already given a statement that the recent violence in Koregaon Bhima in Maharashtra had nothing to do with Mevani's speech when an allegation was levelled against the latter.

"It would not help if Mevani gives provocative speeches. He should talk about bringing the society together. He should not speak nonsense. He should speak sense," he said.

One person was killed in the caste violence between two groups near Koregaon Bhima village in Pune district on January 1 during the bicentennial event to commemorate the victory of the British forces, comprising Dalits, on the army of Peshwa Bajirao II.

Dalits view the battle as the defeat of "casteism" as Peshwas, who represented 'Chhatrapti' (Maratha king), were Brahmins.

The mobs had damaged and torched several vehicles and shops on New Year's day. Besides, houses of local residents were also ransacked.

Preceding the Koregaon Bhima incident, an "Elgaar" parishad (conference) was held at historic Shaniwarwada, the erstwhile headquarters of Peshwas, in Pune on December 31.

A string of speakers including Mevani, JNU student leader Umar Khalid, late Rohit Vemula's mother Radhika Vemula, Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh president Prakash Ambedkar, and members of radical cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) had attended that conference.

The police had booked Mevani, Khalid, and KKM members for making "provocative" speeches and creating a rift between two communities during the Shaniwarwada event.

At the Yuva Hunkar' rally held in Delhi on January 9, Mevani had called the Narendra Modi government a "threat" to democracy and the Constitution.

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A 26-year-old PhD student of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) here, who had gone missing from the JNU campus a few days ago, returned to his Ghaziabad home today after a trip to Patna, the police said.

Mukul Jain, enrolled in IGNOU's Life Sciences course, had been missing since January 8.

Jain returned today and told police that he had gone to Patna to take a holy dip in the Ganga river.

A senior police officer said that Jain was depressed after a break-up with his girlfriend. He left for Patna from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, leaving behind his mobile phone and ATM card in the JNU lab, the officer added.

Jain had gone to meet his research adviser on the JNU campus, police said.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos is the reflection of India's ambition at the global stage, a former top US diplomat said.

This is for the first time in about 18 years that an Indian Prime Minister is attending the prestigious World Economic Forum meeting.

This week, the White House also announced that President Donald Trump too would be attending the meeting of world economic leaders.

"To me this speaks to India's ambitions on the global stage. India has at previous World Economic Forum's taken large delegations headed by cabinet ministers, but this year is going to be a little bit different," Alyssa Ayres, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow and author of the forthcoming book 'Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place' told a New York audience.

Participating in a panel discussion 'Asia Briefing: India 2018', Ayres said her guess is that last year's appearance by Chinese President Xi Jinping probably made something of a "splash" and probably factored into the decision for India to send its head of government to that forum this year.

Noting that she is saying this as an anecdote to illustrate what she thinks one is seeing happening with India now on the global stage, Ayres said: "What you see happening on the world stage is now in India that is stepping up in a more active way".

The Indian government has defined a new term for the type of global leader it would like to be, she said at the event organised by Asia Society ahead of the launch of her book.

"There's a new term that to my mind has not been used in this way before. Leading power not a global power not a great power...what does this mean," she said and referred to the remarks made in this regard by top Indian diplomats wherein they have talked about not reacting but "shaping the global events" as they unfold.

"That's what you're seeing happening now with India," Ayres said.

Adding that some of the issues that India's stepping up on the world stage are economic in focus. Some of them are also about rising military power and the way India is thinking about its role militarily, she said.

The Indian navy has a declared ambition for primacy across the Indian Ocean, said Ayres. India thinks of its space in the region increasingly describing its role across the Indian Ocean as a net provider of regional security.

One hears that echoed in the way US secretaries of defence and secretaries of state talk about India and its role a net provider of regional security.

"This starts to paint a portrait of a country that's now playing a little bit different role than it was 15 years ago and one which it's playing the more active role; playing a more participatory role with other countries in the process of thinking about global challenges and what the solutions should be," she said.

But she quickly pointed out that this is not true in every case like global coalition against the Islamic State which India has decided not to join.

"But I think you are starting to see more instances in which India is ready to stand up and say this is our position, this is what we'd like to be debating with the global community and our view is our voice should be heard," Ayres said.

Ayres served in the Obama administration in a senior leadership role as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia from 2010 to 2013, covering all issues across the region.

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2018 will take place later this month in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, under the theme 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.

Modi will travel to Switzerland on January 22 on a two- day visit during which he will deliver the keynote address at the plenary session of the WEF.

This would be the first time since 1997 that an Indian prime minister will attend the Davos summit.

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The Shiv Sena, which has been opposing the likely induction of former Congress leader Narayan Rane into the Maharashtra cabinet, today said he is an "insignificant" figure for the party.

"Narayan Rane left the party (Sena) in 2005 and since then, he has twice been defeated by the Shiv Sena candidates. Thus, he is an insignificant figure for the party," party spokesperson Neelam Gorhe told reporters in Solapur.

The Sena has time and again voiced its opposition over Rane's imminent into the state cabinet.

Sena's Minister of State for Home Deepak Kesarkar had recently termed Rane "corrupt" and had advised the BJP against inducting the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP) leader who has a "criminal nature".

Downplaying the move of its estranged ally BJP, Gorhe claimed that it was because of the perseverance of Shiv Sena that issues like Goods and Services Tax (GST) and loan waiver for farmers were implemented.

"Shiv Sena MPs raised the issue in the Parliament and spoken to Jaitley and he had assured that our demands would be met. Thereafter, the CM also followed the issue up," she said.

The Sena had earlier made the issue of Rane's entry into the state cabinet as a precondition for its support to the candidature of BJP candidate Prasad Lad to the Legislative Council last month.

Rane, a former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, had tendered his resignation from the Congress and also the post of MLC in September last year.

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The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has sought the reply of a private hospital in Kolkata and one of its doctors to a plea alleging medical negligence over a botch-up cancer diagnosis.

The apex consumer commission has issued notice to Sri Aurobindo Seva Kendra in Kolkata and a medicine specialist from the hospital on a plea seeking a compensation of over Rs 2.3 crore.

The commission has posted the matter for further hearing on April 11.

The NCDRC was hearing a petition filed by Sarbani Das who alleged that the hospital and the doctor, instead of noticing a 'large opacity' in the right lung of her husband in the X- ray, treated him for reactive arthritis for almost 10 months.

She alleged that in January, 2017, by the time they were informed that the opacity in the lung seen in the X-ray report was cancerous, her husband had reached the fourth stage of the disease.

The plea also alleged that the doctor had fabricated a bed head ticket, which is also known as the treatment advice report, in which the hospital claims that Das was informed about the tumor.

However, she submitted before the commission that she had no knowledge about the same until almost 10 months from the initial medical examination.

The petition alleged that by the time it was diagnosed in January, 2017 the lung cancer has already grown enormously and metastasized to other organs without any intervention or treatment for cancer.

"Although the cancer treatment was started then, but it was too little and too late as the patient eventually died on April 11, 2017 after spending almost Rs 20 lakh in the futile cancer and other therapy putting the mother and daughter in complete devastation," the plea said.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will arrive here on Sunday on a six-day visit during which both the strategic partners will aim to further expand ties on a range of key areas including defence and trade besides deliberating on Israel-Palestine relationship.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Netanyahu will hold talks on Monday covering entire expanse of the ties and explore new areas of cooperation to further deepen the "very very special relationship", the external affairs ministry said.

Joint Secretary (West Asia-North Africa division) in the ministry B Bala Bhaskar said the Palestinian issue is likely to figure in the talks between the two prime ministers besides other key issues of mutual importance.

India last month had joined 127 other countries to vote in the United Nations General Assembly in favour of a resolution opposing the recent decision of US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

"Our policy is not influenced by any third country... our policy is independent," he said when asked about India's position on the sensitive issue.

The Israeli prime minister will travel to Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Agra also.

"This is a very very special relationship... We want to take it to higher level," said Bhaskar.

Modi had visited the Jewish state in July last year, becoming the first Indian premier to do so.

Asked whether purchase of Spike anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) from Israel through the government-to-government (G- to-G) route will be discussed during Netanyahu's visit, Bhaskar refused to give a direct reply.

In November, the defence ministry had decided to retract the process to acquire a batch of Spike missiles from Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defence Systems. Now, it is learnt that the government is considering buying the missiles through G- to-G route.

Bhaskar said both the countries have long-standing defence ties and new areas of cooperation are being explored.

He said aim will be to further boost cooperation in a range of sectors including water, agriculture, scientific research and education.

Ahead of the visit, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Carmon said, "The Prime Minister's visit to India is the grand finale to the celebrations of 25 years of growing partnership between India and Israel."



He said the visit will focus on the progress made between India and Israel since Modi's visit to Israel last summer, and on shaping the next 25 years of relations between the two countries.

On January 15, Netanyahu will meet with the Indo-Israeli CEO forum here and address a separate business event. He will deliver a speech at the Raisina Dialogue on January 16.

Netanyahu will also meet President Ram Nath Kovind.

He will leave for Ahmedabad on the morning of January 17. In Ahmedabad, he will visit Sabarmati Ashram. Modi and he will also visit the Center of Excellence in Vadrad and inaugurate a Center of Excellence for date palms in Bhuj via video conference.

The Israeli prime minister will have a number of engagements in Mumbai on January 18.

The Israeli embassy here said Netanyahu will meet with Jewish community leaders and select members of the Indian business community in Mumbai.

It said he will reach out to Bollywood in an exclusive "Shalom Bollywood" event.

Asked whether Baby Moshe, the Israeli child who lost his parents in the 2008 terror attack on a Jewish centre in Mumbai, will be part of Netanyahu's delegation or whether Moshe will attend Jewish community event, Bhaskar said finer details of the Israeli PM's visit were still being worked out.

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Not disheartened by India's vote against Israel at the UN General Assembly on the issue of Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed hope that bilateral ties would receive a further boost during his milestone visit to the country.

India in December voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the US for its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Netanyahu, who would be leaving for India on January 14, said: "Well I would have preferred a different vote to be frank but I dont think it materially changes the tremendous flowering of relations between India and Israel".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also visited the Jewish state in July,becoming the first Indian premier to do so.

"I think everybody can see that. Prime Minister Modi's visit was a very important milestone in that. My visit to India is the other one," Netanyahu said addressing the Government Press Office's annual end-of-year reception for the foreign press corps yesterday.

When asked about the impact of Indias recent decision to cancel a half a billion dollars defence deal related to development of spike antitank guided missiles, the Israeli leader said, "I think you are going to see an expansion of economic and other ties regardless of this or that deal".

Pointing towards the tremendous strengthening of ties on all fronts, Netanyahu expressed optimism saying, "overtime I hope I will see a reflection of that more often in the voting of India in international forums.

"It does not nullify the fact that with India, with other countries in Latin America and Africa there is a tremendous increase of relations on all fronts," the Israeli Prime Minister noted.

"It just takes longer on the international front," he stressed.

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In a relief to public sector oil companies, the National Green Tribunal has allowed registration of new diesel vehicles conforming to BS-IV norms to be used for transporting petrol or petroleum products.

A bench headed by acting Chairperson Justice U D Salvi directed the Commissioner of Transport Department of Delhi government to register the vehicles, subject to certain conditions.

The order came after the oil companies told the tribunal that they do not possess any diesel vehicle which are more than 10 years old for transporting petroleum products.

"The new vehicles that are sought to be registered now should be BS-IV compliant. The applicants shall file an affidavit before the tribunal as well as before RTO that they do not possess or engage any diesel vehicle/truck which is more than 10-year-old for the purpose of transporting fuel granted by oil companies.

"It is also directed to furnish details of the other vehicles owned by this applicant in the form of affidavit. The said vehicle should be duly maintained and used only for exclusive purpose of carrying petroleum products and no other use," the bench said.

The green panel directed the department to "dismantle" old vehicles which are over 10 years of age and ordered that new vehicles should be fitted with Global Positioning Systems.

The direction came on a plea filed by oil companies contending that the NGT had banned the registration of new diesel vehicles as well as re-registration of such vehicles after 10 years.

Later, the Supreme Court had also banned the registration of diesel-run SUVs and cars with engine capacity beyond 2000cc in Delhi and National Capital Region.

Due to this, the transport department was not registering newly-procured vehicles, which conform to BS-IV norms, and not re-registering old vehicles, the plea had said.

In September last year, the tribunal had declined to lift its ban on decade old diesel vehicles in Delhi-NCR noting that emissions from diesel vehicles were carcinogenic.

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Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh today said NHPC has paid Rs 51.94 crore to State Power Development Corporation as the value of1 per cent free power since 2008.

"Since 2008 NHPC has paid Rs 51.94 crore to State Power Development Corporation as the value of one per cent free power(110.50 MUs) it owes from its various power projects in thestate," Singh said while replying to a question of legislator Jeevan Lal in the Legislative Assembly today.

The deputy chief minister said that it includes Rs 19 crore for Uri-II, Rs 16.33 crore for Sewa-II, Rs 8.85 crore for Nimo-Bazgo and Rs 7.76 crore for Chutak.

He said that the funds received are used for local area development.

Singh further said that as a mandatory requirement, the Power Development Department is in the process of framing a roadmap for effecting implementation of scheme in affected of Basholi Tehsil.

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A delegation of the Delhi Congress today met the Chief Election Commissioner and demanded immediate disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs in an office of profit case.

The delegation was led by Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken.

"By appointing 20 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries, the AAP government virtually appointed 20 additional ministers, with hefty perks and benefits," Maken alleged.

The chief election commissioner assured the delegation a "quick final decision" in the matter, he said.

After assuming office in Delhi, the AAP government in March 2015 appointed 20 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries to its ministers.

When the appointments were opposed by the BJP and the Congress, the government excluded the post of parliamentary secretary from the office of profit category.

The Delhi High Court had in September 2015 struck down the appointments.

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The director of a private orphanage in Dhemaji district of Assam was arrested today on the charge of molesting a minor inmate there, the police said.

The girl also alleged that rape and molestation of inmates have been going on in the orphanage at Silapathar for long, but a section of the local people said the director is being framed.

The 13-year-old girl lodged a complaint with the police that the director forcefully took her out of her room and molested her in another room on the night of January 7.

After the FIR was lodged on January 8, the director was arrested and forwarded to judicial custody, district Superintendent of Police Nilesh Sawakare said.

The girl said in the FIR that she had managed to escape from the orphanage and took shelter in a neighbour's house.

Official sources said the orphanage sheltering around 100 orphans and destitute is funded by the Assam Social Welfare and Social Justice department.

"Rape and molestation of the inmates are going on for a long time and she somehow managed to escape to expose it," the girl alleged before the media.

Some local organisations have also filed a separate FIR alleging illegal activities in the orphanage.

A group of women also demonstrated before Silapathar police station yesterday demanding arrest of its director.

However, a section of the local people claimed he is being framed by certain quarters as the orphanage has been operating successfully.

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Over 8,000 kgs of drugs were seized by the Delhi Police last year with poppy head forming a major chunk of the seizure.

As many as 362 cases were registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) last year as opposed to 289 cases in 2016.

According to the Delhi Police's annual report, 491 persons were arrested in 2017 under the NDPS Act in comparison to 370 in 2016.

The police seized 5,550.400 kgs of poppy head in 2017 as opposed to 600 kgs in 2016. The year 2017 also saw 51.581 kgs of heroin and 2,415 kgs of ganja being seized.

A senior official said the efforts of the Special Cell helped in identification and interception of various trans- national drug cartels and recoveries of narcotic substances in huge quantities.

The unit arrested 44 Indian nationals, six Nigerian nationals and a Myanmar national in connection with their alleged involvement in drug trafficking.

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More than five rape cases were reported on an average every day in the national capital last year, and in most incidents the accused was known to the victim, according to Delhi Police data.

In 2017, 2,049 rape cases were reported as opposed to 2,064 in 2016.

As many as 3,273 molestation cases were reported last year in comparison to 4,035 in 2016, according to the statistics shared by Delhi Police.

The cases of eve-teasing declined from 894 in 2016 to 621 last year, it said.

Almost 92 per cent of the rape cases were solved as opposed to 86 per cent in 2016, the statistics said.

Eighty three per cent of the molestation cases were worked out in 2017 as compared to 72 per cent in 2016.

Delhi Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik said that a host of initiatives were taken for women's safety as it was a priority focus area for them.

"Under the banner of 'Sashakti', extensive self-defence training was imparted by our trainers and around 2 lakh girls were covered in 2017," he said.

Some of the other initiatives included ensuring high- visibility of police personnel in vulnerable areas, introduction of women patrols and making 'Himmat' app bilingual and more user-friendly, the police chief said.

He attributed the decrease in the crimes against women to these initiatives.

The police also kept a constant liaison with civic authorities apprising them of the dark and lonely stretches in the city.

The district police took strict action against drinking in public places, which often acts as a precursor to crime against women, with as many as 23,094 people being arrested for the offence, the police said.

The police claimed that in 96.63 per cent of the rape cases the accused was known to the victim, with friends or family friends being the perpetrators in 38.99 per cent of the cases.

Neighbours were the accused in 19.08 per cent of the cases and relatives were involved in 14.20 per cent of the cases.

Employers or co-workers were the perpetrators in 3.86 per cent of the cases, the statistics said.

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Pakistan today kept mum over what action it will take against Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, but said it takes its "international obligations" very seriously.

Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal while replying to a question during his weekly briefing said Pakistan is serious to implement UN sanctions against listed individuals and groups including Saeed.

"As far as Hafiz Saeed is concerned, Pakistan takes its international obligations very seriously. We have been implementing the UN Security Council sanctions related to assets freeze, arms embargo and travel ban on all listed individuals and entities, he said.

The Foreign Office spokesman was asked about action being taken against the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba after a BBC report that he toured the UK in the 1990s to incite Muslims to become jihadis.

A BBC investigation has said that Saeed, one of the world's most wanted terror suspects, who now heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) group in Pakistan, had toured British mosques in 1995 and his visit was recorded in a magazine published by the LeT at the time.

Pakistan has banned the collection of donations by the JuD, the front organisation of banned outfit Lashkar- e-Taiba, as well as several other such organisations named in a list of banned outfits by the UN Security Council.

The decision was taken on January 1 when Trump accused Pakistan of giving nothing to the US but "lies and deceit" in return for USD 33 billion aid and said Islamabad has provided "safe haven" to terrorists.

Faisal also said that Pakistan is ready to talk on all outstanding issues with India, including Jammu and Kashmir but "nothing much can be done" as India is not ready for talks.

"Pakistan has consistently maintained that the only way forward is through a comprehensive, result-oriented, uninterrupted, uninterruptible dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues. We are also ready to talk about the issue of terrorism, which is a global phenomenon, and calls for global and concerted action, he said



To a question about India launching remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2 series along with 31 small satellites, he said all space technologies were inherently dual use and can be employed for both civilian and military purposes.

All states have a legitimate right to pursue peaceful uses of space technologies. However, given the dual-use nature of such technologies, it is essential that such pursuits are not directed towards a buildup of destabilising military capabilities, which can negatively impact the regional strategic stability, he said.

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"I shall not be silenced," said a prominent Pakistani journalist and a vocal critic of Pakistan's powerful military who was assaulted and threatened with death by armed men who tried to abduct him.

Taha Siddiqui, the Pakistani bureau chief of Indian television channel WION, said he was attacked by 10-12 men while he was going to the airport in Rawalpindi but managed to escape before being kidnapped, suffering minor injuries during the struggle, the DawnNews reported.

"It is a miracle that I am still alive...But I am in deep shock," he told reporters late last night.

He said the taxi-driver was an eyewitness to the entire scene and police should trace him to verify the account.

Siddiqui said the attackers were well informed about his travel plans as they knew that "I was going to the airport".

He said he feared for his safety and asked the Islamabad police chief to provide security to him and his family.

Siddiqui recounted the details of the kidnapping attempt in a series of tweets.

"I was on my way to (the) airport today at 8:20 am when 10-12 armed men stopped my cab (and) forcibly tried to abduct me," Siddiqui, the winner of France's highest journalism award - The Albert Londres Prize, said in a tweet.

"Saale ko goli maaro (shoot him)," shouted the men, who Siddiqui said were armed with Kalashnikovs and pistols.

In his post, Siddiqui further said that he had managed to escape the kidnapping attempt and that he was "safe and with the police now".

"Looking for support in any way possible," Siddiqui added, ending his tweet with the hashtag #StopEnforcedDisappearances.

"Finally reconnected on social media & got new phone. Thank u all for support. I shall not be silenced," he later tweeted.

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has asked Islamabad police to brief him about the incident and the investigation, according to an official of his ministry.

Superintendent of Police Mustafa Tanveer confirmed that Siddiqui, who is the Pakistan bureau chief at World Is One (WION) approached police soon after the incident.

Tanveer said that Siddiqui was in a private taxi when he was stopped by armed men.

He said the investigation has been launched and police are trying to get the footage of the security cameras.

"Initial probe showed that registration number of one the vehicles was fake," he said.

The attack on Siddiqui came just months after investigative journalist Ahmed Noorani was badly thrashed in a car in Islamabad by unidentified armed men.

Reacting to the incident, 'World Is One News's Editor- in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhury said, "Despite the shocking attack on WION's Pakistan Bureau Chief, Taha Siddiqui, WION remains committed to pursuing fearless journalism from the soil of Pakistan. We will continue to report, expose and comment on events in that country."



Recently, Siddiqui criticised the Pakistani media's treatment of Indian death-row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother and wife who were visiting him.

"Somedays we do a story that disgusts us. Today was one such day. But it was not because of what I covered. Rather it was because of how my fellow journalists behaved with the mother and wife of #KulbushanJadhav when they left FO (Foreign Office) building. They shouted taunts. It was very shameful," Siddiqui tweeted on December 25 after Jadhav met his family in Islamabad.

"Many of these journalists are familiar faces at Foreign Office briefings and have a number of years of experience before being allotted such an important beat to cover. And yet on Monday, when they were covering the meet-up, they seemed to have lost all sense of ethics when it comes to reporting," Siddiqui had written in an article in 'World Is One News'.

When Jadhav's family visited Pakistan to meet him, Siddiqui was the only media professional to criticise the ill behaviour given to his family and got trolled on social media by fellow Pakistani journalists, WION said in the statement.

In May last year, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had issued a notice to Siddiqui, known for posting comments on social media against the military, and asked him to appear before its counterterrorism wing.

The Pakistani military has so far denied playing a role in any enforced disappearances, as has the civilian government. Militants have also targeted journalists in the past.

In November 2017, World Press Freedom Index placed Pakistan among the most dangerous countries for journalists. Pakistan was ranked 139th out of 180 countries.

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Observing that a balance has to be maintained between the rights of an accused and those of the family of the victim, the Bombay High Court today continued the stay on trial against two accused in the activist Govind Pansare killing case.

Justice Revati Mohite Dere made the observation while hearing an application filed by Maharashtra government's CID, which is probing the killing, seeking stay on the trial as investigations were still on to see if there was any link with the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

The court had in 2016 granted an interim stay on the trial after the Crime Investigation Department (CID) informed it that the CBI, which was investigating the Dabholkar case, was awaiting forensic reports on the bullets recovered from the scene of the both the killings.

CID counsel Ashok Mundargi told the court today that reports received from the forensic labs in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka point at some links.

"Further investigation is still on. The shooters and the main conspirators in both the cases are still at large. Hence, it would be appropriate for the court to extend the stay on trial," Mundargi said.

Advocate Sanjeev Punalekar, appearing for one of the arrested accused in the case Virendra Tawde, opposed it and said his client was lodged in jail since 2016 and his rights need to be protected.

To this, Justice Dere said, "We also have to keep in mind the rights of the victim's family members. There has to be a balance between the rights of the accused and rights of the victim's families."



"I will hear this application on February 23. Till then the interim stay will continue," the court said.

Justice Dere also observed that there appears to be lack of coordination between the two agencies.

"When you (CID) are saying there is some link between the two cases, would it not be better that one agency probes both the cases. The state government has powers to transfer the case to CBI," Justice Dere said.

Mundargi then said both the agencies have now had joint meetings and are sharing information.

Dabholkar was killed in Pune on August 20, 2013 and Pansare was shot on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur. He died on February 20 in a hospital here.

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Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask IOCL to set up an integrated Naptha Cracker unit under the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR), Paradip.

"An integrated Naptha Cracker Unit needs to be set up urgently if the objectives of setting up the PCPIR are to be realised," Patnaik wrote to the Prime Minister.

He said that Naptha Cracker unit will provide possibility of maximising production of Ethylene, Propylene, Butadiene and Aromatic cuts.

Patnaik further said these will work as feedstock for a variety of industries that could serve the increasing demands of petrochemical products in the country across sectors such as textiles, polymersm pharmaceuticals, speciality chemicals and others.

Patnaik mentioned that in the meeting held on January 30, 2014 under the chairmanship of Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, the establishment of Naptha Cracker unit was planned and IOCL was advised to evolve a time bound plan for producing power from gas instead of naptha.

Subsequently, Odisha Chief secretary in a letter to the Cabinet Secretary on May 2, 2015 had requested to intervene in the matter to impress upon IOCL to establish a Naptha Carcker unit, Patnaik said.

Therefore, Patnaik said: "It is requested that IOCL may be asked to take up development of Naptha Cracker and downstream units on priority. It is also important that development of common infrastracture and utilities at the PCPIR, is taken up concurrently and necessary financial support from the Govenrment of India is extended for the success of the project."



Patnaik said this would help spurring industsrial as well as overall socio-economic development of the eastern region.

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Ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Aijaz Ahmed courted controversy today by calling "Kashmiri militants" "martyrs" and "brothers", batting for talks with separatists, and cautioning against glorifying killing of terrorists.

"Terrorists, who are from Kashmir are martyrs. Yes, they are our brothers. They are our children," Aijaz, an MLA from from South Kashmir's Wachi, said here, adding, "some of them are minors of the age of 14 who don't even know what they are doing. We should not glorify the killing of terrorists. It is our collective failure."



He said they are children, who have gone down the wrong track, and should be counselled and brought back.

"We should desist from glorifying the killings of 200 militants. Nearly one lakh people have been killed due to militancy in all these years. Let us bat for talks," Aijaz said outside the assembly here.

He urged the Centre's special representative for Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma to talk to everybody in the state. "He should talk to separatists and militants in Kashmir too," he said.

Aijaz sympathised with the security personnel killed in the state, saying, "We feel sad when our security forces are martyred as well. We should sympathise with the parents of jawans and with the parents of terrorists as well. We want to stop this bloodshed."



Asked about the recent incident when militants hurled a grenade on his residence, the PDP MLA said, "we believe in India and they believe in something else that is why I was attacked. It is a difference of ideology.

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An MLA of Jammu and Kashmir's ruling PDP today stoked a controversy when he described Kashmiri militants shot dead in encounters with security forces as "martyrs" and "brothers" and also cautioned against glorifying their killings.

Aijaz Ahmed Mir's remarks came as an embarrassment for the party as its alliance partner BJP decried the comments saying these were "absolutely intolerable"and demanded an FIR against him.

"Those (terrorists) who are from Kashmir, killed in any situation, are martyrs. They are our brothers. Militants are also our brothers. They are our children. If any child is 11 years to 14 years old, who does not know what he was doing..., Mir told reporters in reply to a question whether he consider as martyrs those terrorists who were killed.

In reply to another question whether he considered militants his brothers, the MLA from from South Kashmir's Wachi said, "Of course yes, they (militants) are Kashmiris. They are brothers. Militants are brothers."



"I feel how long should it continue? We have killed 200 and 200 have left us. This vicious circle will continue like this. Somewhere it is to be stopped. Somebody has to take the front. Kashmir issue is a political issue. It should be resolved politically. What will we get if the people keep getting killed with bullets and pellets," he asked.

Mir also cautioned against glorifying the killing of militants.

"Some people are glorifying the killings of militants. I feel the militants are residents of Jammu and Kashmir. They are our children. Their death should not be celebrated happily. This is our collective failure," he said.

He said that they are children and have gone on a wrong track.

It is time to counsel and bring them back, Mir said outside the assembly here.

He urged the Centre's special representative on J&K Dineshwar Sharma to talk to all in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mir also sympathised with the security personnel killed in the state, saying, "We feel sad when our security forces are martyred as well. We should sympathise with the parents of jawans and with the parents of terrorists as well. We want to stop this bloodshed."



Asked about a recent incident when militants hurled a grenade at his residence, the PDP legislator said, "We believe in India and they believe in something else that is why I was attacked. It is a difference of ideology."



The BJP condemned Mir's statement with its state spokesman Suni Sethi saying, "It seems that said legislator has lost mental balance to talk in the language of militants and separatists while under oath of constitution as legislator."



In a statement, Sethi said such "utterances by the PDP MLA are absolutely intolerable and nobody in the political mainstream can be given liberty to cross line of nationalism".

He also demanded immediate lodging of an FIR against Mir and his detention under public safety act.

In Delhi, the Congress asked the BJP to come clean on the issue.

"It is the PDP MLA who has said this. The PDP is in alliance with the BJP (in Jammu and Kashmir). The BJP will have to tell whether it agrees with what its alliance partner has said," Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said.

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The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) today arrested the director of one of the six shell companies formed by Kolkata-based Pincon Spirits Limited, a senior police official said.

The group had formed six shell companies, including LRN Universe Producers, to allegedly dupe Rs 1,000 crore of 4 lakh investors, Additional Director General of Police (ATS-SOG) Umesh Mishra said.

Director, LRN Producers, Deepak Pundhir was arrested today and produced before a court from where he was sent in five-day police custody, he said.

In November, a SOG team had arrested five people, including the CMD of Pincon Ltd, Manoranjan Roy, and director Vinay Singh from Kolkata, the officer said.

The accounts head of the company, Raghu Shetty, his assistant and director Hari Singh were arrested from Varanasi and Agra respectively, Mishra said.

He said that investigation into the case revealed that Pincon Ltd had spread its network to 10 states and in London as well.

In May 2017, the company had released foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) worth for Rs 30 million dollar capax at the London Stock Exchange, Mishra said.

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Poland would send a high-profile delegation to the upcoming Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) in the metropolis.

The eastern European nation will be a partner country at the BGBS, to held on January 16-17, for the second consecutive year.

The delegation would be headed by Marek Magierowski, deputy minister of foreign affairs, who is responsible for relations with Asia and economic cooperation, according to a release by Emami Ltd.

Emami Director Mohan Goenka, who is also the honorary consul general of Poland in Kolkata, would attend the summit.

The delegation would include Grzegorz Tobiszowski, first deputy minister of energy, Ambassador of Poland to India, Adam Burakowski, as well as representatives of Silesia, one of the most economically robust regions of Poland, the release said.

During the summit, representatives of Silesia and West Bengal will sign a memorandum of understanding on bilateral cooperation, which will "surely bring a new impetus into the development of mutually beneficial relationship between these two regions", it said.

The Polish team would comprise over a dozen companies, representing mostly the energy sector, including coal mining and coking coal production.

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Tamil Nadu government today proposed to revert to direct election of heads of civic bodies such as Mayors and moved a Bill in the Assembly in this regard.

Minister for Municipal Administration and Rural Development, S P Velumani, moved the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Third Amendment) Act, 2018, seeking to revert to direct election of Corporation Mayors, Municipal Chairmen.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly had in 2016 adopted a bill to pave the way for indirect election of the heads of Municipal Corporations, Municipalities and Town Panchayats, allowing councillors to elect the Mayors and Chairmen.

However, the government said it received "large number of representations" from public, elected representatives and various forums that direct election of these heads will be the "best system for smooth functioning" of urban local bodies.

Velumani said in the bill that various heads of departments had also informed that in view of the indirect election, most Mayors and chairmen have to "necessarily" pay more attention in development of the division/ward from where they are elected, instead of entire areas of such Municipal Corporations, Municipalities and Town Panchayats.

Further, they have to "depend" upon the strength of the councillors and members of such local bodies and they will not be in a position to act independently and take independent decision for the uniform development in the area, he said.

"After careful consideration, the Government has decided to change the method of election of Mayors of Municipal Corporations, Chairmen of Municipalities and Town Panchayats, from indirect to direct election (be people), which will facilitate better administration," he said.

The government has therefore decided to amend the laws in this regard, he added.

The government proposed amendments to Acts governing the Corporations of Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore and district Municipalities for this purpose.

Earlier, when the AIADMK government had moved a bill in 2016 seeking to make indirect election of Mayors and others, i.e. by Councillors, DMK and its allies--Congress and IUML, had opposed it.

The government had then reasoned that elections to municipal corporations were being conducted on party basis.

While the mayor was elected directly by the people, councils in certain bodies were not functioning properly "since the mayor does not enjoy the support of councillors", it had then said, while backing indirect election.

Meanwhile, the government moved another Bill, to extend the term of Special Officers appointed to local bodies, elections to which are pending.

They were appointed following court cases against the proposed local body polls in 2016.

Velumani, in the statement of Objects and Reasons in the Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Amendment) Act, 2018,said the elections could not be held till date due to pending cases in the Supreme Court as well as Madras High Court against the proposed polls.

Further, the term of Special Officers ended on December 31, 2017, he pointed out.

"The Government, therefore, decided to amend the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994 so as to enable the Government to extend the term of office of the Special Officers for a further period of six months upto June 30, 2018," he said.

An ordinance had been earlier promulgated for this purpose and published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette, and the said Bill seeks to replace that ordinance, he added.

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Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today issued formal orders to the power department to bear the Rs 748 crore power subsidy for the industry for 2017 -18, with variable cost to be fixed at Rs 5 per unit.

Following the orders, the Deputy Secretary, Power, has written to Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC), intimating the government's decision to bear the said subsidy, said an official release.

As per the letter, the state government shall bear 50 per cent financial implication of the increased tariff retrospectively, from April to October 2017, for Medium Supply (MS) and Large Supply (LS) industrial category.

This amounts to Rs 300 crore and the balance will be borne by the industry, which will deposit the arrears in 12 equal interest-free monthly instalments.

Further, the letter points out that while the two-part tariff system introduced by PSERC is applicable from January 1, 2018, the same shall be subject to Maximum Overall Rate (MOR) for MS and LS category from January 1 to March 31, 2018, as per single part tariff rates fixed by PSERC for the year 2017-18, subject to applicable MMC.

The state government will bear the Rs 50 crore financial implication of the same.

The chief minister had also accepted the recommendation of the power ministry for the government to pay subsidy to medium and large supply industrial power users, with variable cost at the rate of Rs 5/KVAH (excluding FCA).

The chief minister also approved the recommendation for no change in fixed cost as announced by PSERC with effect from January 1, 2018, and not for the full year, said the release. The total subsidy on this account for SP, MS and LS works out to Rs 398 crore.

The decision to share the industrial power tariff burden followed detailed submissions by representatives of the industry to power and water resources minister Rana Gurjit on December 19.

The decisions taken at the meeting were ratified by the Council of Ministers the next day, said release.

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The Maharashtra government is conducting a sample survey of the Maratha community members in over 700 villages of the state, ahead of the deadline set by the Maratha Kranti Morcha over its demand of reservation.

According to Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission Chairman, Justice (retired) M G Gaikwad, the sample survey has been undertaken for data collection to ascertain the economic backwardness within the community to justify its demand for quota in public service and educational institutions.

The Maratha organisations in Maharashtra last month gave an ultimatum to the state government that it should address their demands chief among them being reservations for the community by February 10.

They plan to revive the agitation after February 19, the birth anniversary of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Gaikwad said the survey will focus on three main bases the financial, educational and employment status of the Maratha community members.

"The result of the survey would be assessed by the commission once it is completed," Gaikwad said.

Two villages from each of the 356 tehsils in Maharashtra and some municipal councils will be covered under the sample survey, he said.

The selection of villages has been done by the regional members of the commission, he added.

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue.

The Bombay High Court had in 2014 disallowed 16 per cent reservation for them in government services and educational institutions.

In 2003-04, National Commission for Backward Classes rejected the demand for including the Maratha community in the category of Other Backward Class (OBC) category.

The Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission had held in 2008 that "Marathas are both economically and politically a forward caste. They never faced social stigma to invite the backward class status."



Various Maratha organisations held massive 'silent marches' last year at 58 places across the state, demanding reservations in jobs and education, among other things.
Rahul Bajaj fired four birdies in his last five holes to card a six-under 65 and grab a share of the lead after the first round of the Asian Tour Qualifying School Final Stage here.

Bajaj, who was one-under at the turn, found five birdies on the back-nine, including four in a row from the 14th to 17th hole, shares the lead with American Dino A Giacomazzi.

Thailand's Atthaphon Sriboonkaew ignited his Tour card quest with a flawless five-under 66 and was tied third alongside Australian Steven Jefferess, who matched his efforts.

The 2010 Asian Games team silver-medallist as an amateur, Bajaj is making his second attempt at the Qualifying School. He nailed four straight birdies in his closing five holes on a day disrupted by a lengthy suspension due to inclement weather.

There are 14 Indians in the final stage of the Asian Tour Q-School. The Final Stage features 243 players from over 30 different countries and will be played over five rounds (90 holes) across two courses.

All Final Stage entrants will play two rounds before the field is cut to the leading 140 players and ties, who will then play another two rounds.

After 72 holes, the field will be cut to the leading 70 players and ties who will then proceed to the fifth and final round held only at the Rayong Green Valley Country Club.

At the conclusion of 90 holes, the top 35 players and ties will be ranked accordingly for the 2018 season.

Indian scores:



1. Rahul Bajaj (65); T-45. M Dharma (70); T-69 Himmat Rai (71); T-98 Honey Baisoya, Manu Gandas and Karandeep Kochar (72 each); T-120. Deepinder Kullar, Angad Cheema, Viraj Madappa and Divyanshu Bajaj (73 each); T-154 Samarth Dwivedi and Udayan Mane (74); T-188 Veer Ahlawat and Gaurav Pratap Singh (75 each).

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Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju today thanked the UK government for its cooperation in the ongoing extradition case of liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya.

The minister, who is on a tour of Britain this week, held talks with the country's minister of state for security at the UK Home Office, Ben Wallace,on broad security issues.

"As part of the discussions, the minister thanked the UK government for all its cooperation in the Vijay Mallya extradition case," a senior official present at the meeting said.

Mallya is set to return to Westminster Magistrates' Court in London today for one the final hearings in the case.

The 62-year-old is wanted in India to stand trialon charges of fraud and money laundering allegedly amounting to around Rs 9,000 crores.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot is set to rule on the"admissibility" of some of the evidence presented by the Indian government in the caseand is also expected to set a timetable for her verdict on whether the UK-based businessman can be extradited to India to face the allegations involving his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Besides the extradition case, issues such as the rise of fundamentalism and Sikh extremism were discussed during Rijiju's meeting with the UK minister.

"The minister invited Wallace to visit India to continue discussions on security issues," the official said.

The UK government has reportedly expressed an interest in learning from India's experiences on Islamist terrorism as a country with one of the largest Muslim populations in the world but the smallest number of radicalised elements in the Islamic State (ISIS).

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Royal Enfield today launched a new version of its adventure touring model Himalayan, at an introductory price of Rs 2,12,666 (on-road Chennai).

The first 500 units of the new product, Himalayan Sleet will come pre-fitted with Explorer Kit, an assortment of Royal Enfield genuine motorcycle accessories, the company said in a statement.

These fully-kitted motorcycles will be exclusively available online for a limited period from January 12-30, it added.

Interested buyers will have to register through the company's website and sales will go live on January 30 on a first-come-first-serve basis, Royal Enfield said.

"The new Himalayan Sleet is inspired by the terrain of Royal Enfield's spiritual home - the Himalayas, its craggy land, the gorges, edgy peaks all brought together in the colours of the sleet," Royal Enfield President Rudratej Singh said.

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SAG-AFTRA has stepped in to explore the pay disparity between "All the Money in the World" actors Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg on the re-shoots of the Ridley Scott film.

The development comes after a report, originally published by The Washington Post, and later by USA Today, claims Wahlberg earned USD 1.5 million, while Williams made less than USD 1,000.

According to Variety, a spokesperson for SAG-AFTRA, which is the union representing both the actors, said that the organisation is looking at the circumstances of the pay disparity.

"We are unambiguously in favor of pay equity between men and women in this industry and support every action to move in this direction.

"At the same time, performers at this level negotiate their above-scale rates through their agents," a SAG-AFTRA representative said.

The film made the headlines last year when Scott decided to reshoot Kevin Spacey's scenes following allegations of sexual harassment against the actor.

Christopher Plummer was roped in to replace Spacey and the veteran actor reshot the scenes barely six weeks before the film's scheduled release.

Scott told USA Today in December that "everyone did it for nothing".

The report about the glaring pay disparity has gone viral on social media and invited criticism by many celebrities, such as Jessica Chastain, Mia Farrow and Judd Apatow.

"All the Money..." is based on the real-life kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and his mother Gail (Williams) attempt to convince his billionaire grandfather (Plummer) to pay the ransom.

Getty Sr famously negotiated the ransom.

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The Puducherry government has said families belonging to the Scheduled Caste community and those living below poverty line here would receive cash instead of garments for the Pongal harvest festival this year.

Each male and female member in the Scheduled caste families would be granted Rs 500 for Pongal instead of 'dhotis' and sarees and the amount would be credited under Direct Benefit Transfer scheme in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, Welfare Minister M Kandasamy said in a press release yesterday.

He also said the Department of Women and Child Development would also credit Rs 750 in the bank account of each of the differently abled persons instead of garments that were provided along to them ahead of Pongal.

Besides, those holding red colour ration cards (BPL category) would also be granted Rs 750 and the amount would be deposited in their bank accounts, the release said.

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A dramatic scene was witnessed today in the Supreme Court when a group of wailing women brought the proceedings to a halt for about half an hour and made Justice J Chelameswar recuse from the case.

The women, mostly middle-aged, stormed the Court number 2 and started crying and speaking loudly before a bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul.

Just before their entry, the bench, while hearing a contempt petition, had ordered vacating of flats in the Modern Co-operative Group Housing Society at Sector-15 of Rohini in northwest Delhi.

The bench had ordered that the counsel for the alleged contemnors have undertaken to hand over possession of the within a week to purge themselves of the contempt.

It had categorically directed that the society flats which were in dispute have to be vacated within a week and no further time will be given to them and had listed the matter for hearing after a week.

Minutes after the order was passed, several women entered the court room, crying and wailing and saying that they do not have anywhere else to go and have been staying in the society for decades.

Some women also said they had taken loan from banks and will be financially burdened if they were forced to move out.

As chaos prevailed in the court room, the two judges talked among themselves and left the dais at 12.05 pm for nearly 30 minutes, as security personnel asked the women to leave.

After the court resumed proceedings at 12.35 pm, the bench put the developments on record and said that Justice Chelameswar will recuse from the matter in further proceedings.

"After the order is passed and S D Singh, counsel for the petitioner and Colin Gonsalves and Vikas Singh, senior counsel for the alleged contemnors, left the Court. Some of the alleged contemnors mostly ladies rushed to the Court wailing loudly and saying something in Hindi which one of us (Justice J. Chelameswar) could not understand.

"In the circumstances, one of us (Justice J Chelameswar) recuses from this matter. This matter be listed before a Bench of which one of us (Justice J Chelameswar) is not a member," the bench said.

After coming out of the court, some women said that 14 families will be ruined if they were thrown out of the housing society.

"Many are old, aged couples who will lose their homes. We will urge the court not to direct vacating of the flats," they said.

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The Supreme Court today wondered how the accused, who were in prison during trial in a gangrape case involving a student of a private university in Haryana, were released from jail after they were convicted in the case.

The apex court had earlier stayed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order suspending the sentence awarded to three convicts by the trial court in the case.

"Law makes us learn new things. This is one of those rare cases where these people (accused) were in custody during the trial and it was only after they were convicted, they were released (from jail)," a bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said.

"Prima facie, it is enough for us to look into it," the bench observed.

The bench made these observations while hearing a plea filed by one of the accused, who was awarded seven-year jail term by the trial court after being convicted in the case.

The trial court had awarded 20-year imprisonment to two other accused after convicting them for various offences under the IPC, including gangrape and criminal conspiracy, and under provisions of the Information Technology Act.

However, the high court had suspended their sentences on the basis of the pleas filed by them and granted them bail.

The victim then approached the apex court challenging the high court's order of September 13 last year.

During the hearing, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, who appeared for the accused who was awarded 7-year jail term, told the bench that his client's case was different from the other two persons as they were awarded 20-year imprisonment.

Luthra said non-bailable warrant (NBW) has been issued against his client pursuant to the apex court's direction staying the high court order.

"Why don't you (accused) apply for cancellation of NBW before the trial court? You can appear before the trial court," the bench asked.

To this, Luthra said as the high court's order has been stayed, the accused could be taken into custody. He also clarified that the accused were released from jail before the stay order was passed by the top court.

The counsel appearing for the woman alleged that as per reports, the accused were absconding after the apex court had stayed the high court's order.

Luthra countered these submission and said his client was not absconding. The counsel representing other accused also rebutted the claims of the woman's lawyer.

The top court stayed the execution of NBW issued by the lower court against one of the accused, who has been awarded seven year jail term, till further orders.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 18.

The woman, who has also challenged the grant of bail to the accused by the high court, had claimed in the FIR that she had taken admission in the private university at Sonepat in August 2013 and got acquainted with one of the accused.

She had alleged that the accused, who became a good friend, had raped and forced her to send her obscene pictures and blackmailed her. The woman claimed that the two other accused also raped her at the university campus after which she lodged an FIR in April 2015.

After the trial court judgement, the accused had moved the high court seeking bail in the matter during pendency of the appeal.

The high court, in its order, had said, "the entire crass sequence actually is reflective of a degenerative mindset of the youth breeding denigrating relationships mired in drugs, alcohol, casual sexual escapades and a promiscuous and voyeuristic world.

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President Donald Trump today said it "seems unlikely" that he would have an interview with special Consul Robert Mueller who is investigating the potential links between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 US presidential election.

Mueller, a former highly decorated FBI director, has already interviewed several of the close aides and family members of Trump over the issue.

In the last one week, reports have appeared in the US media that Mueller was seeking an interview with Trump as part of his investigation.

Trump's attorneys were said to have asked whether it could be in the written format.

At a joint conference with Prime Minister, Norway, Erna Solberg, Trump hinted that the interview was unlikely to happen.

"We'll see what happens. I mean, certainly I'll see what happens. But when they have no collusion and nobody's found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview," Trump said.

He termed the allegations as a "Democratic hoax brought up as an excuse for losing an election".

"The Democrats should have won, because they have such a tremendous advantage in the Electoral College," the US president said.

He denied any coordination between the Trump Campaign and Russia during the presidential election.

"It has been determined that there's been no collusion," Trump said.

The US president said he will speak to his attorneys regarding the issue.

He ridiculed Hillary Clinton, her opponent in the elections, for being interviewed by the FBI in the email case in 2016.

"And when you talk about interviews, Hillary Clinton had an interview where she wasn't sworn in. She wasn't given the oath. They didn't take notes. They didn't record. It was done on the 4th of July weekend. That is perhaps ridiculous, and a lot of people looked upon that as being a very serious breach. And it really was," Trump said.

"There is collusion, but it's really with the Democrats and the Russians far more than it is with the Republicans and the Russians. So the witch hunt continues," he said.

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Bollywood megastar Shahrukh Khan will get the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos later this month, along with Hollywood star Cate Blanchett and legendary musician Sir Elton John.

Khan will get the award for "his leadership in championing children's and women's rights in India," the World Economic Forum (WEF) said.

The past awardees from India include Amitabh Bachchan, Mallika Sarabhai, A R Rahman, Shabana Azmi, Ravi Shankar and Amjad Ali Khan.

Sir Elton John has been selected for the 2018 award for his leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS and Blanchett for her leadership in raising awareness about the refugee crisis.

The Annual Crystal Awards ceremony, which opens the WEF summit in the Swiss ski resort, celebrates the achievements of outstanding artists who have shown exemplary commitment to improving the state of the world.

Announcing the names of the three awardees for this year, the WEF said "each of them in their own way has taken action to uphold human dignity". The award ceremony will take place on January 22, the first day of the five-day annual meeting of Geneva-based WEF, which describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation committed to improving the state of the world.

The three awardees will be among 40 art and culture leaders taking part in this year's annual WEF summit, which will have a theme of 'creating a shared future in a fractured world'.

Last year's awardees were Anne-Sophie Mutter, Forest Whitaker and Shakira, while Yao Chen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Olafur Eliasson and will.i.am were awarded in 2016. The past awardees include Matt Damon, Bono and Charlize Theron.

About Shahrukh Khan, the WEF said he is one of Bollywood's most prominent actors who has been at the forefront of the Indian film and television industry for over 30 years.

He is also the founder of the non-profit Meer Foundation, which provides support to female victims of acid attacks and major burn injuries through medical treatment, legal aid, vocational training, rehabilitation and livelihood support.

He has also been responsible for the creation of specialised children's hospital wards and has supported childcare centres with free boarding for children undergoing cancer treatment.

"With victims of acid attacks I have had the privilege to witness the unparalleled courage and compassion that women are capable of. I have seen the transformative strength of goodness and the healing power of gentleness," Khan said.

About Blanchett, the WEF said she is an internationally acclaimed award-winning actor and director of both stage and screen.

She was appointed a UNHCR Global Goodwill Ambassador in 2016 in recognition of her commitment to refugees and has lent her voice and influence to raising awareness, advocating and fundraising for the UNHCR.

Having met refugees in countries including Lebanon, Jordan and her home country Australia, she advocates for increased solidarity and responsibility sharing for the 65 million-plus displaced people across the world. She has brought her creative skills to bear in sharpening focus on the individual human stories that lie behind the vast numbers.

"As a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, my job is simple: to help connect people to the human stories of those forced to flee, and to state the case for all of us to stand with refugees," she said.

Sir Elton John, one of the world's most successful musical solo artists of all time with a career spanning more than five decades, said that AIDS is the leading cause of death for women of childbearing age, yet the medicine and know-how exists to prevent this.

"If we want to give the next generation a better future, we could solve this problem. What it takes is our collective passion and compassion," he said.

With 35 Gold and 25 Platinum albums, he has sold more than 250 million records worldwide. In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF), which today is one of the leading non-profit HIV/AIDS organisations.

EJAF has raised more than USD 400 million to date to support hundreds of HIV/AIDS prevention, service and advocacy programmes around the globe. In 1998, Queen Elizabeth knighted him Sir Elton John, Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music and charitable causes.

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The Congress today appeared to be defending Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah after he called the BJP and the RSS as "Hindutva extremists" triggering a war of words, and said he would not have made such a statement without "intelligence" inputs.

"He (Siddaramaiah) is the chief minister of a state...It is possible that the chief minister has inputs which we don't have. In this situation, you will have to pose this question to the chief minister and seek clarification. Because he won't speak anything of this kind if he has no intelligence input," Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan told reporters here.

He also hit back at BJP president Amit Shah for his remarks that the Karnataka government was "anti-Hindu".

Addressing a rally in Karnataka yesterday, Shah charged the state government with perpetrating atrocities against BJP and RSS workers, claiming 20 of them were killed in the state over the last three years.

Siddaramaiah, while speaking to reporters yesterday in Chamarajanagara district, alleged that the BJP, RSS and the Bajrang Dal had terrorists in their organisations, a charge rubbished by the saffron party.

It was not clear whether the chief minister made the comment in retaliation to Shah's remark.

Siddaramaiah, who came under intense attack from the BJP yesterday for saying that the party and its fountainhead RSS had "terrorists", today called them "Hindutva extremists".

Speaking to reporters today, Siddaramaiah said, "I had said they are Hindutva terrorists. I am also a Hindu, but I'm a Hindu with humanity, they are Hindus without humanity. That is the difference between me and... (them)."



Referring to Shah's jibe, Vadakkan also said the BJP chief made the comment with the sole intention of winning the upcoming assembly election in Karnataka.

Hitting out at Shah, Vadakkan said it was "strange" that Shah called the state government as "anti-Hindu".

"Shah's intention is to win. How he does that is his angle. It is strange to say that anti-Hindu. Only Amit Shah ji can do this," he said, adding only people of the state can decide whose government will be formed (in the state).

The BJP also dared Siddaramaiah to arrest its as well as RSS leaders.

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The Supreme Court today asked Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to respond to the CBI's plea against his discharge in the SNC-Lavalin graft case.

The apex court, while staying the trial in the matter, admitted CBI's appeal and issued notices to two others who were discharged in the case along with Vijayan by the Kerala High Court.

The high court on August 23 last year had upheld the discharge of Vijayan and two others in the matter, saying the CBI had "wrongly picked" Vijayan, as prima facie there was no case against him.

The high court's order had come on CBI's plea challenging their discharge by a special court in Thiruvananthapuram.

The special court in Thiruvananthapuram, had in November 2013, discharged Vijayan and others of the charge of alleged corruption in awarding a contract to Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin when Vijayan was the power minister in 1996 that had allegedly caused a loss to the state exchequer.

A bench comprising Justices N V Ramana and S Abdul Nazeer also issued notice to CBI seeking its response on the pleas filed by three others who have sought discharge from the case on grounds of parity.

"Let notice be issued in all the matters," the bench said, adding "in the meantime, there shall be stay of trial until further orders".

The agency, in its plea before the top court, has claimed that there was ample material to prima facie show conspiracy in the case and these evidence could be appreciated at the trial stage.

CBI had earlier argued before the high court that there was sufficient evidence to prove the charges against accused.

The trial court, while discharging Vijayan and others, had observed that the agency had failed to prove the charges of conspiracy and corruption against them.

CBI had earlier alleged that there was a conspiracy in awarding the contract to revamp the power projects to the Canadian firm in 1996.

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The son of a former Jharkhand MLA died early today after his car crashed into a divider in southwest Delhi's Vasant Kunj, the police said.

The accident took place around 1 am when Sawarnim Shankar was driving from Andheria More to Mahipalpur. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead, they said.

He was the son of former Jharkhand legislator Mani Shankar.

It is suspected that the car was being driven at a high speed and the driver lost control of the vehicle, the police said.

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A total of 110 hardened criminals carrying monetary rewards on information leading to their arrest, including Sonu Daryapur who carried a bounty of Rs 5.5 lakh, fell in the Delhi Police net last year, a senior officer said today.

The special cell of Delhi Police captured the then most wanted criminal of the city, Satyawan Sehrawat alias Sonu Dariyapur, in September 2017, said R P Upadhyay, Special Commissioner (Crime), Delhi Police.

He was wanted in several cases including a triple murder. He had also killed his arch-rival Monu Daryapur in April last year. Delhi Police announced its highest reward for information leading to his arrest.

Among other hardened criminals arrested last year are Sahun Bishambhara and Ajay Dabas.

Bishambhara, wanted by six state police forces, was arrested from south Delhi in November last year. A reward of Rs 4 lakh had been announced on information leading to his arrest.

Dabas carried a bounty of Rs 1.5 lakh on his arrest.

Twelve criminals having reward of Rs 1 lakh each on their arrest and 15 others who carried a reward of Rs 50,000 too fell in the Delhi Police net in 2017.

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Spain last year surpassed the United States to become the world's second most visited country after France, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said during a visit to Italy.

Rajoy, speaking late last night, said 82 million people visited in 2017, a nine percent increase over the previous year that came despite terror attacks and the political crisis in tourism magnet Catalonia.

Tourism earnings rose 12 percent, totaling 87 billion euros ($104 billion), he said in Rome on the sidelines of a southern European summit on migration.

In 2016, Spain welcomed 75.3 million visitors, just behind the United States with 75.6 million, while France -- despite its own terror woes -- easily remained the world leader with 82.6 million visitors, according to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

International tourism to the United States shrank during the first five months of Donald Trump's presidency, according to the US International Trade administration.

Arrivals fell five percent in the first quarter and three percent in the second quarter, official figures show.

Rajoy praised the Spanish tourism sector's "great effort" to become more competitive.

Arrivals in Spain beat records for the fifth consecutive year, despite jihadist attacks in the Catalonia capital Barcelona and nearby Cambrils last August that left 16 dead.

Catalonia also remains in the grip of a secession crisis.

Arrivals recovered after dropping off by five percent year-on-year in October as massive demonstrations were staged following a failed independence bid.

The Madrid-based UNWTO is set to release its figures for 2017 on Monday.

The French foreign ministry said in December it estimated 2017 arrivals at upwards of 89 million.

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A Special Officer has been appointed to look into the impact of a proposed port at Kovalam in Kanyakumari district, which has run into opposition from a section of locals, the Tamil Nadu Assembly was informed today.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami said the 'bhoomi pooja' for the commercial port proposed by the Centre at Kovalam slated for December 20 last year was halted following opposition from local fishermen who apprehended that the project would affect their livelihood.

He was responding to DMK member S Austin who referred to the opposition to the port initiatives by the locals.

An earlier move to locate the port at Enayam in the district also met with opposition from the local people.

The Chief Minister said a meeting held by anti-nuclear activist S Udayakumar in Kovalam on December 23 decided to oppose the project.

However, another section of locals held a meeting in nearby Kovilvilai two days later and decided to stage counter-protests in support of the project.

Noting that the project will be useful for the state's economic growth, Palaniswami said a special officer (an IAS official) has been appointed to look into the matter.

"Appropriate action will be taken by Amma's (late chief minister Jayalalithaa's) government by sympathetically considering the representations of all sections of people," he said.

Union Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Kanyakumari, has been batting for the Enayam Port project and has accused 'vested interests' behind the opposition to it.

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The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday granted bail to Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala's son Vikas Barala, who has been booked on charges of stalking and attempting to abduct a 29-year-old woman.

Barala, 23, had been lodged in jail since August last year.

"The bail of Vikas Barala has been approved by Justice Lisa Gill," Barala's counsel Vinod Ghai said here.

He said that the defence told the court that the accused would not influence anybody in the case.

"No application was moved by the prosecution in the court on whether the alleged accused has so far tried to influence anybody in the matter," he said.

Ghai claimed that no case of attempting to abduct Varnika Kundu, the daughter of a senior IAS officer, was made out against his client.

He alleged that at the time of registeration of the FIR, the woman's father and her counsel were present at the police station and there were chances that the entire story was manipulated.

Her cross-examination was held in the district court on January 9 and yesterday.

The high court had last month directed the district court to complete the cross-examination of Kundu before January 11 when it had listed the bail plea for consideration.

The lower court in Chandigarh had rejected the bail application of Barala four times.

On December 7, the high court had granted bail to him to appear in an examination on December 18 under police custody.

Vikas Barala, who has been lodged in Burail jail here, is pursuing a law degree from the Kurukshetra University.

His counsel had sought a regular bail last month from the high court, submitting his client had been behind bars for four months.

The woman had accused Barala and Kumar of stalking and attempting to abduct her.

Charges were framed against Vikas Barala and his 27- year-old friend, Ashish Kumar, in connection with the case, which had triggered widespread outrage and a spate of protests across the country.

The two men were arrested on the intervening night of August 4-5 last year following the complaint, but were released on bail as they were booked under bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Motor Vehicles Act.

They were arrested again on August 9 after they joined the investigation and were charged with attempted abduction under sections 365 and 511 of the IPC.
Pakistan today said it was "engaged" with the US on the issue of security cooperation, days after Washingtion suspended military aid worth nearly USD two billion to Islamabad for failing to rein-in terror groups operating from its soil.

US President Donald Trump has accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network.

On January 1, he tweeted that the US had "foolishly" given Pakistan more than USD 33 billion in aid in the last 15 years and had gotten nothing in return but "lies & deceit."



Since then, Washington confirmed it will withhold USD 255 million in US military aid to Pakistan.

Commenting on US-Pakistan ties and their cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Pakistan Foriegn Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said it required mutual respect and trust alongwith perseverance.

Emergence of new and more deadly groups such as the Islamic State in Afghanistan, require enhancement and strengthening of international cooperation.

"Arbitrary deadlines, unilateral pronouncements and shifting goalposts are counterproductive in addressing common threats," Faisal, said, repeating his statement made earlier.

"We are engaged with the US Administration on the issue of security cooperation and await further details," he told reporters at a briefing.

"It must be appreciated that Pakistan has fought the war against terrorism largely from its own resources, which has cost over USD 123 billion in 15 years," he said.

He said Pakistan was "determined" to continue to do all that is necessary to secure the lives of its citizens and ensure broader stability in the region.

"We believe that our efforts have helped decimate Al- Qaeda and other terrorist groups who took advantage of ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan and posed a common threat to peace and stability," he said.

On the question of the presence of Taliban leadership in Pakistan, Faisal said the government completely denies this allegation.

"We have repeatedly said that Pakistan will take action on the basis of any actionable intelligence/ information provided to us," he said.

He said Pakistan has conveyed to the US that "actionable intelligence sharing" can help in advancing the shared goal of defeating terrorism from the region.

He said Pakistan has been facilitating the US led mission in Afghanistan through its Ground and Air lines of communication for the last 16 years.

"Pakistan's support to the US has been critical in dealing with the challenges of terrorism in the region. Both sides understand the importance of the lines of communication," he said.

Asked to comment on the critical remarks of Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif against the US, the spokesman said it need to be seen in the proper perspective.

"The Foreign Minister was expressing his frustration at the unwarranted US accusations against Pakistan and the unilateral decision to suspend the security assistance, despite Pakistan's extra-ordinary sacrifices and contribution in the war against terrorism," he said.

The "provocative" statements by the US leadership notwithstanding, Pakistan's response has been "measured", as we believe that continued Pak-US cooperation is important for the stability of the region, especially Afghanistan, he added.

Commenting on the US decision to suspend Pakistan's security assistance, he said it was a "unilateral step", which would have its negative implications for the stability of the region.

"On our part, we have stated that we do not seek US assistance. Pakistan's commitment to continue its counter- terrorism and law enforcement actions throughout the country will continue in our national interest, irrespective of any suspension of foreign assistance," he said.

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Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan today said diaspora linkages between India and Seychelles are among the strongest and the presence of the Indian Ocean has actually connected them.

Mahajan, who is leading an Indian parliamentary delegation to the island nation, attended the 'Pravasi Bharatiya' celebrations here in Victoria, the capital city of the Seychelles.

Relations between the two nations are characterised by historical ties, cultural linkages, friendship, and understanding with a view to moving forward together, Mahajan was quoted as saying in an official statement issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

She said "Seychelles enjoys the unbound love, affection and unconditional support of India".

Appreciating the role of Indians in development of Seychelles, she said Indian nationals have been among the earliest inhabitants of the islands and have evolved over the decades to constitute the heart and soul of the Seychelles.

Indians have not only enriched Seychellois culture and imbibed it, but have also proved their mettle in diverse fields thereby contributing to the country's industrial and economic development, she added.

"Diaspora linkages between India and Seychelles are among the strongest and the presence of the Indian Ocean has actually connected them," she said.

The goodwill generated by the diaspora has contributed profoundly to the strong and vibrant relationship between India and Seychelles, she added.

Mahajan attended various sessions of the 24th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) held in Victoria from January 8-11 and also delivered the keynote address.

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Subtle corruption in India has increased the chances that roads meant to connect isolated areas to the rest of the country would never be built, even though the government had paid for them, a study has found.

Researchers at Princeton University in the US and the Paris School of Economics in France used an innovative technique to examine the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) - a major road-building programme in India.

The study, published in the Journal of Development Economics, found that almost 500 all-weather roads listed in the road programme's monitoring data as having been completed and paid for were never built.

The researchers connected these "missing roads" to "political corruption" - specifically, to local politicians steering road contracts to favoured businesses in their own social networks.

"Our results indicate that corruption in this programme directly harmed the 857,000 villagers whom the missing roads were meant to serve," said study lead author Jacob N Shapiro, professor at Princeton.

PMGSY is a vast public works programme started in 2000, when the Indian government estimated that more than 300,000 villages across the country were not connected to the outside world by all-weather roads.

The results were surprising because PMGSY had been designed with strong controls to prevent political corruption, the researchers said.

The proposed new roads built under this programme were intended to provide village residents with previously unavailable economic opportunities, and facilitate their access to government services such as education and health care, they said.

However, if contractors took the money but failed to build the roads, those benefits would never materialise, they said.

To seek evidence of corruption, Shapiro and his colleagues looked at thousands of elections for members of the legislative assembly, or MLAs.

After such selections, they analysed the degree to which road-building contracts shifted to contractors who shared the new MLA's surname.

Since Indian surnames are closely linked to caste, religion and geographic provenance, surnames serve as a proxy for the politicians' social networks, researchers said.

They found that after a close election, the share of contractors whose surname matched that of the political winner rose more than 75 per cent, from about four per cent to about seven per cent.

Next, examining data for almost 90,000 roads contracted by PMGSY, Shapiro and his colleagues sought roads that had been paid for but apparently did not exist.

"We found that road contracts allocated to politically connected contractors were significantly more likely never to be constructed," Shapiro said.

"While the programme as a whole appears to have been extremely efficient, political influence clearly led to lower-quality execution," he said.

Researchers said in PMGSY contractors were to submit separate technical and monetary bids; only if they could meet the technical specifications were their monetary bids opened, and the lowest bidder was to receive the contract.

Local politicians were given no role either in selecting contractors or in choosing where roads were to be built - decisions that were made by bureaucrats at the regional level.

One possibility is that the winning politicians' social networks also include connections within the regional bureaucracy that awards the road contracts, and that they ask those connections to put a thumb on the scale to favour one contractor over another, researchers said.

They found when the highest-ranking district official overseeing PMGSY also shared the winning politician's surname, favouritism in the awarding of contracts was more likely.

On the other hand, when bureaucrats were up for promotion and thus facing heightened scrutiny, corruption was less likely, researchers said.

These patterns were exactly what the researchers expected to see if MLAs were influencing contracts through informal bureaucratic connections.

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Two couples, whose babies were accidentally swapped soon after birth over two years ago, have decided to keep the child they have been raising, and moved a local court to settle the matter.

The issue came to public notice last week after the court fixed a hearing date in the case.

The two sets of parents - one Hindu and the other Muslim -- had doubts within days that the boy they had taken home was not theirs. But it was the Muslim couple that first raised the issue more than two years after the children were born.

"My wife had started saying that the baby we took home was not ours a week after his birth. She said his features resembled those of tribal people," high school teacher Sahabuddin Ahmed said.

Ahmed claimed that he was forced to file an RTI query on the matter after the Civil Hospital and Health Department authorities refused to help him.

"After encountering several hurdles, I was finally given access to hospital records. The records showed that a Hindu tribal woman had also given birth to a boy in the same ward in a gap of a few minutes," Ahmed said.

The anxious father then approached the tribal family, who agreed to conduct a DNA test on the two boys.

"Anil Boro, who lives in a nearby village, invited us to his house. He said he and wife had doubts about their child too," Ahmed said.

The two families belong to different villages in Assam's Mangaldoi district.

The DNA test last month confirmed that the boys had been swapped after their birth, Boro said, adding that a police case was filed by both sets of parents alleging negligence on the part of the hospital staff.

The families have, however, decided to keep the babies they had taken home two years ago instead of their biological sons.

"We are attached to the boy we have raised," said Sewali Boro, a sentiment that was echoed by Salima Ahmed.

The court has fixed January 24 as the date of hearing in the case when the two sets of parents will have to submit affidavits on their decision.

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Tata Steel Bhubaneswar Literary Meet (TSBLM) opened here today with literary giants asking budding authors to draw strength from adversities and learn to deal with challenges.

The three-day festival was inaugurated by renowned children's author Ruskin Bond and Odia literary exponent Manoj Das.

Bond, whose much-anticipated presence was evident with the large number of young students in attendance, spoke about his journey of being "an unknown author to a reasonably well-known author".

Das talked about how young authors should draw inspiration from the adversities they face while writing.

Voicing concern over how creative imagination was being challenged by the evolution of technology, he said the young generation should learn how to face the challenge.

Bond later joined veteran journalist Mark Tully for a session, where they shared their views on nationalism and patriotism, drawing upon their rich experience of chronicling India.

A veritable icon for children, Bond responded to a volley of questions from students of the city's schools with his inimitable charm.

The students were also captivated by Tully's reflections on how the country he calls home had changed over the years he has spent documenting it.

The third edition of the TSBLM promises to be an enriching experience with the participation of eminent personalities across an array of genres and expertise, a Tata Steel release said.

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Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and four more wounded within 24 hours in the country's war- torn east, Kiev said today.

"Unfortunately, there are losses among our troops again," military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told journalists.

One soldier was killed in shelling near Novoluganske village, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Donetsk, the main stronghold of Russian-backed rebels.

He was the first Ukrainian serviceman killed by shelling in 2018.

During what Kiev said was an "aggravation" of the situation in the conflict zone over the past 24 hours, two other soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an unidentified explosive device.

According to the army, insurgents attacked Ukrainian positions seven times, using grenade launchers, machine guns and mortars of various calibres.

A agency based in the rebel area said two civilians were wounded in shelling in Donetsk region.

The war in the former Soviet republic broke out in April 2014 and has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

More than 2,750 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed since the beginning of the fighting, according to the President Petro Poroshenko.

Ukrainian media estimates that Kiev lost over 190 troops in 2017.

Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of plotting and backing the insurgency in retaliation for the February 2014 ouster of Kiev's Kremlin-backed regime.

Moscow denies playing any role in the war and accuses the West of plotting an illegal "coup" in 2014 that saw Russia lose control of its western neighbour.

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The government today said Indian and Chinese troops have resolved through established mechanism the issue related to China's attempt to build a road in the Tuting area of Arunachal Pradesh.

The issue has been resolved through established mechanism, spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said.

On December 28, Indian troops foiled attempts by Chinese road building teams to construct a track around 1km inside the Indian territory in Tuting, government sources had said.

They had said the civilian teams went back when confronted by the Indian troops, but left behind two excavators and some other equipment.

The issue was amicably resolved at a Border Personnel Meeting between the two sides in Arunachal on January 6.

Replying to a question on whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month, Kumar said details of the PM's engagement will be known only two-three days before the visit.

It will not be proper to comment on the issue, he said.

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Two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in clashes with Israel's military today, Palestinian officials said, amid tensions over US President Donald Trump's recent Jerusalem declaration and a deadly gun attack.

Amir Abu Musaid, 16, was shot in the chest near the border fence east of Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza, the health ministry in the strip announced, following protests against Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Israeli army said dozens of Palestinians were involved in "riots" along the border, throwing stones and burning tyres. The statement said two other Palestinians were injured in the clashes.

It said it shot at three who "put our forces in danger".

Later another teenager was shot in the head in clashes near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Family members identified him as Ali Omar Qino, 16. Israel's army has not yet commented on the second incident.

It occurred as Israeli forces continue to search the area around Nablus after Israeli rabbi Raziel Shevah was shot dead near the city on Tuesday by unknown assailants.

Sixteen Palestinians and an Israeli have been killed since Trump's December 6 decision, which angered Palestinians who see Jerusalem as their capital.

Fourteen of the Palestinians were killed in clashes, while two were killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza in response to rocket fire.

It was unclear whether the gun attack on the Israeli or Thursday's shooting death of the Palestinian near Nablus were related to Trump's declaration.

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Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering allegedly amounting to around Rs 90 billion, today appeared in court here for his extradition trial but the hearing was inconclusive as the defence is yet to complete its arguments.

The 62-year-old was back in the dock at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London as his defence team sought to argue against the admissibility of much of the evidence presented by the Indian government.

Today's hearing was expected to be one of the final hearings in the case but it remained inconclusive as the defence is yet to complete its arguments, which seek to demolish the Indian government's case.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian government, is then set to respond and argue in favour of the evidence and against the defence's claim of "absence of a strong prima facie case on grounds of iniquity".

Due to prior diary commitments, no date has been set for the next hearing on the matter and Mallya has been bailed until April 2. Both sides will determine a date to return to court to complete their representations on the admissibility of evidence in the case within the next three weeks.

During today's hearing, Mallya's barrister, Clare Montgomery, argued that evidence that was claimed as a "blueprint of dishonesty" by the CPS was in fact a privileged conversation between Mallya and his lawyer about "legal advice in clear contemplation of litigation" and hence should be inadmissible.

On a separate category of evidence presented by the Indian government, Montgomery questioned the reliability of investigating officers in the case.

She pointed to over 150 pages of "near identical material" purporting to be statement of witnesses taken under Section 161 of the Indian CrPC.

Dismissing the nature and source of these witness statements, Mallya's legal team claimed they do not meet "obligations" under the India-UK extradition treaty to provide "proper" statements.

"They do not appear to be in any way an account of things that witnesses would have said but rather seem to be somebody else's analysis put into the mouths of the witnesses, down to the spelling mistakes," Montgomery said, adding that the documents were "identically reproduced" with not only the same words but also the same typing errors.

Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot will rule on the evidence, following which she is expected to set a timetable for closing arguments and her verdict on whether the UK-based businessman can be extradited to India to face the fraud and money laundering allegations involving his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Judge Arbuthnot had also sought further clarifications related to availability of natural light and medical assistance at Barrack 12 of Mumbai Central Prison on Arthur Road, where Mallya is to be held if he is extradited from Britain.

The extradition trial, which opened at the London court on December 4, is aimed at laying out a prima facie case of fraud against the tycoon, who has been based in the UK since he fled India in March, 2016.

It will also seek to prove that there are no "bars to extradition" and that Mallya is assured a fair trial in India over his erstwhile airline's alleged default of over Rs 90 billion in loans from a consortium of Indian banks.

Mallya was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant in April, 2017 and has been out on bail on a bond worth 650,000 pounds.

If the judge rules in favour of the Indian government, the UK home secretary will have two months to sign Mallya's extradition order.

However, both sides will have the chance to appeal in higher courts in the UK against the chief magistrate's verdict.
The US military says one of its soldiers was wounded when insurgents launched an attack in eastern Afghanistan's remote Achin district of Nangarhar province.

Capt. Tom Gresback, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, told the Associated Press one US service member was wounded and in stable condition in what he would describe only as "active ground engagement." He refused to give further details including whether it involved a local militia.

In Afghanistan, local militias are often paid by the US and are partnered with them in operations in remote regions.

The Taliban claimed the attack Thursday was carried out by two insurgent disguised as local militiamen. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press the attackers had infiltrated the local force months earlier.

Gresback said they were investigating the incident.

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The US today called for "immediate release" of all political prisoners in Iran, saying it was "deeply concerned" over imprisonment of thousands of people by the Iranian regime for engaging in peaceful protests.

"Iran's regime claims to support democracy, but when its own people express their aspirations for better lives and an end to injustice, it once again shows its true brutal nature," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

She said the US demands "immediate release" of all political prisoners in Iran, including the victims of the most recent crackdown.

The Trump administration, Sanders said, was "deeply concerned" by reports that the Iranian regime has imprisoned thousands of its citizens in the last week for protesting against the government.

"Further reports that the regime has tortured or killed some of these demonstrators while in detention are even more disturbing.

"We will not remain silent as the Iranian dictatorship represses the basic rights of its citizens and will hold Iran's leaders accountable for any violations," she warned.

Sanders said the protesters in Iran are expressing legitimate grievances, including demanding an end to their government's oppression, corruption, and "waste of national resources on "military adventurism".

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India has contributed a great deal in terms of developmental aid to Afghanistan, the Pentagon said today, adding that the US wants to work with India in the region.

"We're excited about the opportunities for India to participate in the South Asia strategy, and how we secure that region. They're an important player and in 2018 we look forward to doing more with them," Pentagon chief spokesperson Dana White said at a conference.

"India has contributed a great deal in terms of developmental aid in Afghanistan," White said.

He also said Pakistan has the ability to address terrorist threats inside the country.

The US reaction comes days after Pakistan's defence minister said his country had suspended military and intelligence co-operation with the US in retaliation for the latter's decision to freeze all security assistance.

"We believe that Pakistan has the ability to address this threat," White said.

"This is an opportunity for them to take decisive action, and we look forward to working with them to encourage them to do so," he said in response to a question on recent developments in US-Pak relations.

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The United States sees India as a "leading power" in the Indo-Pacific region, Washington's envoy to New Delhi Kenneth Juster said today, describing the country as a potential regional trade hub for American businesses.

In his first policy speech since taking over as ambassador, Juster laid out the Trump administration's agenda for India and emphasised that the US will not tolerate "cross-border terrorism" or terror safe havens.

However, Juster made no reference to Pakistan in his speech. The US recently suspended military aid to Islamabad, accusing it of "lies and deceit".

Juster acknowledged that the US and India initially had "strained" exchanges on topics related to the transfer of sensitive US technology with both military and conventional applications.

"Now, India is celebrating its membership in two of the four multilateral export control regimes the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use items, which India just joined, and the Missile Technology Control Regime.

"We also expect in the very near future for India to join the Australia Group on chemical and biological weapons. And we are working closely with India and our international partners to secure Indias membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group," he said.

Juster said shared values and "common interests" inform the vision of New Delhi and Washington for the strategically significant Indo-Pacific region, in which the US considers India to be a "leading power".

On defence and counter-terrorism, Juster observed that both India and the US have suffered "horrific terrorist attacks" and continue to be targeted.

"We have a strong mutual interest in eliminating this threat to our societies. President Trump and other US leaders have been clear that we will not tolerate cross-border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere," he said.

A major part of Juster's speech was on ways to enhance economic and commercial relations. He also underlined that the US is concerned about persistent trade deficits with India.

He stated that a number of US companies have reported "increasing difficulties" in conducting business in China. Accordingly, some companies are downgrading their operations there, while others are looking with great interest at alternative markets.

"India can seize the strategic opportunity through trade and investment to become an alternative hub for US business in the Indo-Pacific region," he said, adding that Trump's poll slogan 'America First' and the Centre's flagship initiative 'Make in India' are not incompatible.

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The US will not tolerate cross- border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere, its newly- appointed Ambassador Kenneth Juster said today, asserting that USD 2 billion military aid to Pakistan was suspended as America felt "they have not done as much as they could in eliminating terror sanctuaries" there.

In his first public speech after taking over as the ambassador in November, Juster talked about robust Indo-US partnership in key areas of defence and counter-terrorism and pitched for enhanced trade ties while describing India as a "net provider" of security in the Indo-Pacific region.

He said President Donald Trump and other US leaders have been clear that they will not "tolerate cross-border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere".

"As part of this effort, last month we launched the first-ever US-India Counterterrorism Designations Dialogue. We need to continue to enhance the sharing of information, designations of terrorists, combating of financial crimes and networks, and disruption and dismantling of terrorist camps and operations both regionally and globally," Juster said.

However, he made no reference to Pakistan in his speech.

The US recently suspended USD 2 billion military aid to Islamabad for failing to clamp down on the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network terror groups and dismantle their safe havens.

When asked why the terror groups which were active against India were not named while suspension of the aid, Juster said, "Pakistan is important too for the situation in Afghanistan."



"Don't think we will get stability in Afghanistan if Pakistan does not positively contribute. That was the major factor behind the suspension as we feel they have not done as much as they could in eliminating terror sanctuaries in Pakistan that are contributing to instability in Afghanistan," he added.

Emphasising that it was time to make sure that the Indo- US strategic partnership is a durable one, Juster stressed on the need to view the Indo-US ties strategically and not from the "signature initiatives".

He also noted that a combination of India's interest in technology and engaging in the co-development and co- production of military equipment and the US's interest in safeguarding information and technology underpins the future success of initiatives in defence sector.

"These interests will never be perfectly aligned, and the burdens cannot fall only on one party or another. The two sides need to patiently make step-by-step progress on these defence initiatives rather than expect to resolve all issues at once," he said.

"With that in mind, perhaps in the next year we can announce major agreements enabling cooperation in areas such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms; fighter aircraft production; and the co-development of next generation systems, including a Future Vertical Lift platform or Advanced Technology Ground Combat Vehicles," he added.

Talking about various facets of Indo-US ties, which have evolved in last 17 years, Juster said some of the landmark steps along the way include the expansion of defence cooperation and combined military exercises, the work of the High Technology Cooperation Group, the historic civil nuclear deal, the nearly six-fold increase in bilateral trade, and the designation of India as a "major defence partner".

He also acknowledged that the US and India had initial "strained" exchanges on topics related to the transfer of sensitive US technology with both military and conventional applications.

"Now, India is celebrating its membership in two of the four multilateral export control regimes the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use items, which India just joined, and the Missile Technology Control Regime. We also expect in the very near future India to join the Australia Group on chemical and biological weapons," he said and added that the US was "working closely" with the international partners to secure India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Juster also talked about shared values and "common interests" of India, which was a "leading power in the region and beyond", and the US for the strategically significant Indo-Pacific region, sea lanes of which contain many of the vital choke points for global trade.

He said both India and the US want "a free and open region, where the rule of law and democratic principles are reflected in a rules-based order; promote respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; guarantee freedom of navigation, overflight, and commerce, and other lawful uses of the sea".

The remarks come in the backdrop of increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region.

On defence and counter-terrorism, Juster observed that both India and the US have suffered "horrific terrorist attacks" and continue to be targeted.

"We have a strong mutual interest in eliminating this threat to our societies."



A major part of Juster's speech was on ways to enhance economic and commercial relations and underlined that the US is concerned about persistent trade deficits with India.

Importantly, he stated that a number of US companies have reported "increasing difficulties" conducting business in China and accordingly some companies are downgrading their operations there, while others are looking with great interest at alternative markets.

"India can seize the strategic opportunity through trade and investment to become an alternative hub for US business in the Indo-Pacific region," he said, adding that Trump's poll slogan 'America First' and the Centre's flagship initiative 'Make in India' are not incompatible.

Asked about the US ties with China, he said his country wants to have a constructive relationship with every country in the region.

"We want to have a constructive relationship with the Chinese as well. But we also want to make it clear that if they are going to be engaged in certain predatory economic behaviour or other activities than there's an alternative set of principles that other countries of the region are going to follow," he said.

He also added that "we can have more points of convergence than divergence but the only way to try to make that happen is to constructively build something on our part that China sees benefit to be a part of.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US is working "very closely" with international partners to secure India's Nuclear Suppliers Group membership, its envoy Kenneth Juster said on Thursday and hoped that New Delhi would join the Australia Group on chemical and biological weapons in the "very near future".

India has been seeking entry into the 48-member elite nuclear club, which controls nuclear trade, but China has repeatedly stonewalled its bid.

Juster acknowledged that the US and India faced challenging and complicated issues related to the transfer of sensitive US technology with both military and conventional applications.

"India sought increased access to this technology, while the US wanted to ensure that any transfers would be used solely by the designated recipients for the agreed-upon purposes.

"This required a sophisticated system of export controls, which India, candidly, did not have at the time," Juster said in his first policy speech since taking over as the US ambassador to India.

The initial interactions on the subject were "quite formal and somewhat strained due to the wide gulf" in the positions of the two nations, Juster acknowledged.

He said the US had moved from a restrictive policy on the export of dual-use items to India to a much more "liberal one".

"Look how far we have come," he said, citing India's membership in two of the four multilateral export control regimes - the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use items, and the Missile Technology Control Regime.

"We also expect India to join the Australia Group on chemical and biological weapons in the very near future. And, we are working closely with India and our international partners to secure India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group," he said.

Under the Indo-US nuclear deal, Washington had assured support to India's candidature in the NSG and the MTCR.

India entered the MTCR and the Wassenaar Agreement in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu offered prayers at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala near here at the crack of dawn today.

Naidu arrived here by an Indian Air Force aircraft last evening and stayed at a heavily-guarded Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) guest house on the hills.

His family members too came here separately from Nellore and accompanied the vice president to the shrine on the hills.

On his maiden visit after assuming office as vice president on August 11 last year, Naidu was accorded a warm welcome with full temple honours and conducted to the sanctum sanctorum by priests amid Vedic hymns, temple sources told PTI.

He was in the shrine for about half an hour, they said.

After offering prayers at the Sri Ranganayaka Mandapam inside the temple, Naidu was honoured with sacred silk cloth and holy prasadams while a group of priests bestowed divine blessings upon the him.

Later, speaking to reporters outside the temple, he said all countries were keenly watching ancient Hindu practices, culture and spirituality that taught how to lead a meaningful life.

Quoting Swami Vivekananda and other Hindu personalities, Naidu said Hinduism should not be treated as a religion or a way of worship but as a way of great kind of living that harms none.

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A warm welcome awaits Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu when the two visit the former's home state likely on January 17, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said today.

The two leaders, who hit it off during Modi's visit to Israel in July last year, the first by an Indian prime minister since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1992, would visit two centres of excellence and inaugurate another such facility.

They are also likely to visit the Sabarmati Ashram, the abode of Mahatma Gandhi for a long time, here, Rupani said.

According to an Ahmedabad civic body official, a joint roadshow on an 8 km stretch from the city airport to the Sabarmati Ashram is also on the cards.

Modi and Japanese premier Shinzo Abe had held a joint roadshow during the latter's visit here in September last year. The Indian premier had played a guide as he showed Abe and his wife around the Sabarmati Ashram.

They had also spent some time at the Sabarmati Riverfront, developed during Modi's tenure as Gujarat chief minister. Modi had also accompanied Chinese President Xi Jinping and his spouse to the riverfront during the latter's India visit in 2014.

"According to the tentative schedule, Modi and Netanyahu would first visit the Sabarmati Ashram on their arrival here on January 17. Both the dignitaries will be accorded a grand welcome," Rupani told reporters.

From the ashram, Modi and Netanyahu would go to 'iCreate', an autonomous centre of excellence near Bavla town close to the city, Rupani said.

'iCreate' was formally launched in 2011 by Modi when he was the chief minister. The institution mentors budding entrepreneurs and guides them to set up start-ups, according to an official.

The two would then proceed for a Sabarkantha-based centre of excellence for agriculture. They will inaugurate a research facility for cultivation of dates in Kutch by remote control from Sabarkantha, the chief minister said.

At the start of Modi's visit to Israel, the two leaders had repeatedly hugged each other and addressed each other as "friend" several times.

Netanyahu had personally received Modi at Tel Avivs Ben Gurion airport, an honour previously accorded only to the Pope and the US President.

India and Israel have deep defence and security ties, and Netanyahu's four-day visit beginning January 14 is likely to further strengthen them. The two sides are also likely to discuss ways to further enhance cooperation in high technology, agriculture, water management and trade.

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The West Bengal government today asked all its departments to plan early for timely execution of various projects.

In a directive, the West Bengal Finance Department said it has been observed that more than 50 per cent of the total expenditure is incurred during the last quarter of a fiscal year.

This happens in spite of 33 per cent and 75 per cent of the Plan Budget being released on April 1 and September 1, respectively, the notification issued yesterday said.

The cause for this "lopsided expenditure is that the main working season of the FY ie; April-June (first quarter) is utilised for planning, identification of schemes, according administrative sanctions, preparations of Detailed Project Reports and completing tender formalities," it said.

By the time these formalities are completed, the monsoon sets in, the directive said, making it "difficult to start the work till September/October leading to actual expenditure only in the last two quarters" even though funds were made available earlier.

To ensure timely execution of the different projects, advance planning by the departments is essential, it said.

"The departments more or less have a fair idea of their possible allocation in next FY. Therefore, the last quarter of a FY can be utilised for preparatory works including floating of tenders, so that work orders can be issued in the first week of April of the next FY.

"Therefore, the departments should complete advance planning of works to be executed in next FY, including administrative approval and financial sanctions (except release of funds), DPR, tender formalities, etc," the directive said.

The state government has in the recent past expressed its discontent over the manner in which funds allocated to the different departments for development works remained "not spent".

Senior officials of the state secretariat said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was unhappy with the way departments like Agricultural Marketing, among others, failed to utilise funds alloted to them.

As per the directive, all the departments "should further ensure that the cost involved in the projects/schemes put to tender is within their expected budgetary allocation of the next FY.

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A middle-aged woman was killed when she was hit by a speeding bus near Manicktala area of the city this morning, police said.

The incident happened at around 9.55 am when the woman was trying to cross the road and was knocked down by a bus which was trying to overtake another bus of the same route at Khanna more near Manicktala crossing, a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.

The injured woman was rushed to a nearby hospital which declared her brought dead, the officer said.

Though the drivers of both the buses were absconding, the police has seized both the vehicles, the officer added.

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Having featured in over half a dozen films and being considered one of the most sought on-screen pair, Kajol says working alongside Shah Rukh Khan is always a pleaure as the superstar makes the experience easier.

Kajol and Shah Rukh shot for a special sequence for Aanand L Rai's next, "Zero".

While Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma will be seen in lead roles alongside Shah Rukh, Kajol and Rani Mukerji shot for a special sequence. Rani had called the experience as "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai part two".

Kajol, who last worked with Shah Rukh on "Dilwale", praised the actor for his dedication to cinema.

"We actually shot for half-an-hour but it was great. It's always fabulous to work with him. He is a really amazing man to work with because he is 300 per cent involved in whatever he is doing.

"It's great fun because he is such a fine actor that it comes very naturally to work with him and alongside him," says Kajol in an interview to PTI.

The actor may have been around for close to three decades in the industry but says her dedication to give it all for work hasn't reduced.

"I've come from a time when we used to work from 7 in the morning till 9 in the night on a daily basis without the comforts of sitting in an AC room. Somewhere down the line, you realise that work is God. You have to take it seriously everyday, it's the most important thing," she says.

Much of the discipline, Kajol says, comes from her mother who taught her early in childhood that no work is lesser or bigger.

"As a kid my mother made me sweep the house and clean the bathroom. She said if at any point you don't have servants in your house, you should be able to look after the house. I did it.

"Somewhere it gives you amazing work ethics. Nobody's job is less, one should respect all. I've even made my kids broom the house so that they learn not to litter," she says.

The actor launched Hindustan Unilever Limited's new campaign 'A Playing Billion' to promote healthy hygiene habits among children as part of their 'Swachh Aadat, Swachh Bharat' initiative. She's the advocacy ambassador of the same.

When asked if is it sad that even in the 21st century one has to preach people over the importance of basic hygiene, Kajol says the country is finally ready to listen.

"I think it's the right time to give a message... With the Prime Minister's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan', I'm sure when he said it people would've said 'are you really talking about India here? There are 100 other problems, why are you concentrating here.'



"I'm sure that was a question flung at him as well. But he insisted on it. That's what I think as well. Finally India is ready to listen," she says.

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LONDON, Ontario (Reuters) - The United States must be taken seriously when it says it might walk away from NAFTA, Canada's foreign minister said on Thursday, a day after government sources said Ottawa was increasingly convinced U.S. President Donald Trump would pull the plug.

Chrystia Freeland also told reporters that Canada had come up with some creative ideas in a bid to solve the toughest challenges facing negotiators when they meet for the sixth and penultimate round of talks to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement later this month.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to walk away from the 1994 pact between the United States, Canada and Mexico unless major changes are made.

"The United States has been very clear since before the talks started that ... (this) was a possibility and I think we need to take our neighbors at their word, take them seriously, and so Canada is prepared for every eventuality," Freeland told reporters on her way to a two-day cabinet meeting.

Freeland also said it was "absolutely possible to have a positive outcome" at the Jan. 23-28 talks in Montreal if all three sides showed good will.

The Canadian and Mexican currencies, as well as stocks of firms that rely heavily on North America's integrated economy, fell on Wednesday after government sources told they saw an increased likelihood of a U.S. withdrawal.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci)

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(Reuters) - Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), India's biggest software services exporter, on Thursday reported lower third-quarter profit, hit by weakness in the banking and financial services sector.

TCS is the first of India's listed software services exporters to report earnings for October-December and its numbers set the tone for the results season for the $154 billion outsourcing industry.

Net profit fell 3.6 percent to 65.31 billion rupees ($1.03 billion) in the three months to Dec. 31, the company said in a statement. That compared with the 65.18 billion rupees average analysts' estimates, according to Thomson data. http://bit.ly/2EwdNXS

TCS, part of salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group, said revenue growth from all segments was above 9.5 percent, barring retail and the banking, financial services and insurance sector (BFSI), its largest.

Indian IT firms have been facing sluggish growth in the BFSI sector as clients hold back on discretionary tech spends. Weakness in the December quarter is also seasonal because of holidays.

Employee benefit expenses rose, weighing on profitability.

Indian outsourcers are anticipating major challenges from visa restrictions on movement of personnel to the United States, their biggest market, under President Donald Trump's administration.

($1 = 63.6550 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman/Keith Weir and Jane Merriman)

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Ever since Berkshire Hathaway chairman and one of richest men on earth, Warren Buffett, named Ajit Jain, 66, and Gregory Abel, 55, as the vice-chairs of over $620.8 billion conglomerate, there's speculation that India-born star executive could be the billionaire's favourite choice for the chief executive officer (CEO) position in the coveted company. There are strong reasons to believe: Warren Buffett thinks the company's future CEOs should have at least worked for over 10 years in Berkshire Hathaway - Ajit Jain has been working with Berkshire for past three decades and has taken it to impregnable heights - and Buffett speaks very highly of Jain; he once told his employees they could even "swap me for Jain".

Though it's almost sure Warren Buffett's son Howard Buffett will succeed him as Berkshire Hathaway chairman, there is a tough competition between Abel and Jain for the number two position. Both have worked exceptionally well in their domains, but Jain, many believe, outweighs Abel in his 31-year experience with the 'Oracle of Omaha' as compared to Gregory's 25 years. Abel and Jain were both named as vice-chairs of noninsurance and insurance operations, respectively, on Wednesday.

So who's Ajit Jain?



Odisha-born Ajit Jain is an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur. He did his MBA from Harvard University in 1978. In his professional life, he has worked with giants like IBM, McKinsey & Co, apart from Berkshire Hathaway with which he's been working since 1986. Warren Buffett's star executive handles several reinsurance businesses in the billion dollar company. Former Co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, Anshu Jain, is Ajit Jain's cousin.



Warren Buffett's favourite

There's little doubt that Warren Buffett trusts Jain the most. Buffett, on several occasions, has openly praised Ajit Jain for his ability to handle critical operations with "capacity, speed and decisiveness", and credited him for creating several billion dollar value for the Berkshire shareholders. In his annual letter to the company in 2017, Warren Buffett had said: "Ajit has created tens of billions of value for Berkshire shareholders. If there were ever to be another Ajit and you could swap me for him, don't hesitate. Make the trade!" According to ET, Buffett, who was very impressed with Jain's work, had once even written to his parents asking whether they have one more Ajit, praising Jain for "unique brain for insurance business".

"From a standing start in 1985, Ajit has created an insurance business with float of $37 billion and a large cumulative underwriting profit, a feat no other insurance CEO has come close to matching. Ajit's mind is an idea factory that is always looking for more lines of business he can add to his current assortment," Buffett had said in 2014.

What makes Jain fit for CEO position?



In 2014, Buffett said he and his 94-year-old partner Charlie Munger had a name in mind. He said "our future CEOs should come from internal candidates whom the Berkshire board has grown to know well". Buffett think Berkshire Hathaway would "operate best if its CEOs average well over ten years at the helm". He said these factors were important for Berkshire's business acquisitions and investment moves. "Both the board and I believe we now have the right person to succeed me as CEO - a successor ready to assume the job the day after I die or step down. In certain important respects, this person will do a better job than I am doing," he said in his annual company letter.

One thing is obvious that Buffett wants his future CEO to be motivated by passion, not money. According to CNBC, his successor would be "somebody that's ... already very rich" and would be working with Berkshire Hathaway for quite a long time. His statement also makes it clear that Buffett is not looking for someone outside the company but within his multi-billion empire. So if the billionaire's statements are anything to go by, he seems to have made up his mind about Jain, though it remains to be seen what the board of company directors decides in future.
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UIDAI brings Virtual IDs, Limited KYC to protect cardholders

The Unique Identification Authority of India, still reeling from damaging news reports about a massive data breach, is busy taking steps to avoid such crisis in future. The body has reportedly introduced a new two-layer security system to protect Aadhaar cardholders. The UIDAI has introduced the Virtual ID concept. This is a temporary 16-digit, randomly-generated number that an Aadhaar holder can use for authentication along with his/her fingerprint instead of disclosing the Aadhaar number. UIDAI will start accepting Virtual IDs from March 1. In addition to this, UIDAI has introduced the concept of 'limited KYC' under which it will only provide need-based or limited details of a user to authorised agencies.

Modi meets economists to discuss road ahead



Prime minister Modi held an over-four hour meet with ministers and bureaucrats yesterday in a meeting on 'Economic Policy - The Road Ahead'. The 42 experts suggested various measures including the need for labour reforms to give the economy a boost. The economists were unanimous that the government needed to focus on agriculture and maintain the macroeconomic balance. The meeting has come just a few days before the last budget of the NDA government.

PWC banned for 2 years

India's capital market regulator SEBI has banned global auditing firm Price Waterhouse (PW) from auditing listed companies in India for two years for its alleged role in the Satyam Computer Services scandal.



Doors open for 100 percent FDI in single-brand retail

In a move that could lift the slowing economy, the government has allowed 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail and construction development. This means foreign single-brand players can set up shop in India without the long wait for approvals. At least 30 multinational firms have been waiting for easing of norms. This could facilitate their easy entry into the country.



Gold loan market to grow to Rs 3.1 lakh crore by 2020: KPMG

A recent KPMG report predicts that value of organised gold loan market in India will grow to Rs 3,10,100 crore by 2020 at a three-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.7 per cent. In 2015-16, the gold loan market in the country had recorded a 10.82 percent growth with a value of Rs 1,96,600 crore.



Cabinet allows foreign investors to own up to 49 percent of Air India

India cleared a proposal to allow foreign investors to own up to a 49 percent stake in state-run carrier Air India, paving the way for global airlines to bid for the loss-making flagship carrier. It brings Air India, which previously had to be fully locally owned, in line with the country's other local airlines in which foreign investment is allowed. India allows 100 percent foreign investment in its other local airlines, but caps foreign airlines' stake at 49 percent.

Khadi to enter shopping malls

In a tie-up with retail chains, Khadi has entered shopping malls where it had not ventured earlier as it did not have the financial muscle to spend on leasing space. But it has come up with a solution by introducing a shopin-shop concept. It will now have a revenue share arrangement with retailers. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) would soon be present in 200 major stores in malls in India

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In a major move to attract more FDI into the country, the government on Wednesday permitted foreign airlines to invest up to 49 per cent in disinvestment-bound Air India and liberalised rules for foreign investment in single brand retail, construction and power exchanges.

The foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for medical devices and audit firms associated with companies receiving overseas funds were also eased to facilitate capital inflows.

The decisions taken by the Union Cabinet come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos where he will hold discussions with CEOs of top multinational companies on the investment opportunities being thrown open in India.

US President Donald Trump is among the other world leaders who will be attending the WEF meet. The move to allow foreign investment in Air India comes at a time when the government is working on the modalities for strategic disinvestment of the loss- making Air India and is expected to attract more bidders for the airline.

It will now become easier for ventures such as Tata-Singapore Airlines and other domestic carriers to rope in foreign partners to bring in more funds for bidding.

While foreign airlines were allowed to invest up to 49 per cent in the paid-up capital of Indian private airlines under the government approval route, this provision was not applicable to Air India.

It has now been decided to do away with this restriction and allow foreign airlines to invest up to 49 per cent under the automatic approval route in Air India as well, the government said in a statement. This brings Air India, which previously had to be fully locally owned, in line with the country's other local airlines in which foreign investment is allowed.

However, the government has also made it clear that the substantial ownership and effective control of Air India would have to remain with Indian nationals. A group of ministers is in the process of finalising the contours for the proposed strategic stake sale in the national carrier and expression of interest is likely to be invited from bidders soon.

The Union Cabinet has given its approval to a number of amendments in the FDI Policy. These are intended to liberalise and simplify the FDI policy so as to provide ease of doing business in the country.

In turn, it will lead to larger FDI inflows contributing to growth of investment, income and employment, the government said in a statement. Overseas investment policy has also been liberalised in case of power exchanges.

Currently, the policy provides for 49 percent FDI under automatic route in power exchanges. However, foreign investors' purchases were restricted to the secondary market only. It has now been decided to do away with this provision, thereby allowing FIIs/FPIs to invest in power exchanges through primary market as well, the release said.

Regarding the liberalisation in the construction development segment, the government has decided to clarify that real estate broking service does not amount to real estate business and is therefore, eligible for 100 per cent FDI under automatic route.

In the case of medical devices, the government has permitted a wide range of items that can attract up to 100 per cent FDI via the automatic route.

These include any instrument, apparatus, appliance, implant, material or other articles, whether used alone or in combination, plus any software tool, intended by its manufacturer to be used especially for human beings or animals for diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation of any disease or disorder.

Cheer for Shoppers

The government on Wednesday allowed 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail via automatic route and eased a rule on 30 per cent mandatory local sourcing of products for five financial years after opening the first Indian store.

The existing policy on Single Brand Retail Trading (SBRT) allows 49 per cent FDI under automatic route, and FDI up to 100 per cent through government approval route. The amendment is likely to benefit companies such as Swedish furniture maker Ikea, which is planning to set up stores across the country.

The SBRT entity will be required to meet the 30 per cent sourcing norms directly towards its India operation, on an annual basis, after the five-year period, a government release said. "It is a progressive step towards attracting foreign investment and ease of doing business in India. This should also generate employment and give the Indian consumers access to several international brands," said Pinakiranjan Mishra, partner and national leader, consumer products and retail, EY.

However, he said, it was expected that the government's liberalisation of FDI norms for multi-brand retail would enable large international retail chains to invest in the country and bring latest technologies and retail formats into India. "This remains an unfinished agenda." "We believe the decision to allow 100 per cent FDI through automatic route will ease the process for foreign as well domestic brands," Retailers Association said.
In a match not really made in heaven - as one is a global MNC, while the other's model is not to work with MNCs - Louis Vuitton wants to buy stakes in Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved. Louis Vuitton or LMVH is what French group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE is popularly known as.

According to a report in Economic Times, Ravi Thakran, managing partner of L Catterton Asia said that they would love to work with Baba Ramdev if they could figure out a model. "I know his model is not to work with multinationals and with foreign money," he added. L Catterton is a private equity fund co-owned by LMVH. They are ready to put USD 500 million, which is half of its remaining Asia fund into Patanjali that has emerged as one of the fastest growing FMCG companies in India in recent years.



The phenomenal growth of Patanjali has made its competitors revamp their ayurvedic products. Thakran told ET that Patanjali has been a disruptor in its categories and that it has taken Indian-ness and celebrated it. Thakran believes that Patanjali Ayurved could take its products to Eurpoe, US, Japan, China and South Korea and that L Catterton could help in that endeavour.

Getting a stake in the company might be a challenging prospect as Baba Ramdev has always projected his company as shudh desi and as anti-MNCs. The company's 'swadeshi' label has also been highly instrumental in shooting the company to success.



Acharya Balakrishna, MD of Patanjali Ayurved, said that the company will not give stake to anyone but they are ready to talk to L Catterton. According to the report in ET, Balakrishna and co. are however, looking for Rs 5,000 crore in loans in Indian currency and rates that are lower than what banks are offering.

"We won't accept any money in equity or shares but when the country is using foreign technology for progress and if foreign money comes and gives us on our conditions we will accept," Balakrishna said to ET.

The loans they are seeking are to set up plants in Greater Noida, Assam, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Nagpur, Haryana and Rajasthan. They are also planning to cultivate aromatic and herbal plants in Arunachal Pradesh.
The passing of Brigadier Kapil Mohan, chairman, Mohan Meakin Limited, did bring an era to an end, but the obituaries made one critical error. He was not the creator of Old Monk -the iconic rum brand, in fact, saw a relentless decline in numbers over the past decade under his watch.

It was his brother, Colonel Ved Ratan Mohan, who gave birth to it. The Colonel wore many hats -he was a Rajya Sabha MP, Lucknow's mayor for two terms and even the chairman, Central Board for Film Certification, and a bon vivant, whose home would come alive with soirees attended by politicians and film stars.

Col Mohan, who took over the reins of the company from his father, Narendra Nath Mohan, in 1969, launched Old Monk in 1954 after a visit to Europe, where he was very much impressed by the Benedictine monks and the liqueurs they produced.

The name Old Monk was his tribute to them, though the jolly face of a tubby man that you see on the bottle is believed to be that of HG Meakin, who took over the brewery and distillery business of Edward Abraham Dyer in 1887 and eventually got it listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Matured in oak vats for seven years and infused with spices, Old Monk was a rum in a league of its own. Initially, it came in long bottles but Col Mohan was so impressed by the crinkled, short-necked bottle of Old Parr whisky that he decided to adopt it, although it was a technological challenge.

The makers of Old Parr meanwhile took Mohan Meakin to court over the bottle and eventually the two companies agreed to let Old Parr keep its dark-hued bottle, whereas Old Monk moved to the transparent one that is still in use.

When Col Mohan was busy doing all this, his younger brother, Brigadier Kapil Mohan, was heading Trade Links - it was the marketing and distribution arm of Mohan Meakin. The Brigadier, who was in the Territorial Army, took over the company in 1973, when his elder bother met with an untimely death.
NIGERIA :: Nigeria: Prince Nico Mbarga's Children Marks Father's Anniversary With A Concert

Popular Africa/Nigeria highlife musician, late Prince Nico Mbargas foot print were at the weekend written in the sand of time as his children decided to remember his good works and organise a concert to immortalise him at the 20th anniversary in his home town, Ikom Local Government Area of Cross River State.

The concert tagged Nico Mbarga 20th Anniversary was held at Jandged Resort in Ikom to mark the legends unfortunate demise.

Apart from the platform, the concert provided upcoming musicians to perform archival songs he recorded while on earth. It also attempted to reunite members of the Rocafil Jazz musical group, but only Francis Mbu, one of Mbargas lead backup vocalist among the five still living could make it to the concert.

Mbarga would be a fulfilled man if he were alive to see his kids performed on stage. His children who were happy that their fathers still remains an iconic and respected musician in Nigeria, believes the only way to keep his legacy alive is to do something like a musical jamboree, which stands to immortalise his good works.

Late Prince Nico Mbarga, leader of the Rocafil Jazz music group is an indigene of Ikom, a border town with the Cameroun and founder of the Panco system of music. He remains a celebrated African music icon known for his timeless popular Sweet Mother song which sweep across the airwaves in Africa and beyond.

In the 70s Mbargas popular hit track Sweet Mother invaded bedrooms of almost everyone who owns a transistor radio. Mbargas hit track sweet mother was among the top twenty bestselling songs in history of the time and voted as Africas favourite song by BCC readers and listeners in 2004, years after the music legends death.

Prince Nico Mbarga born in January 1, 1950 got himself entangled with active music career from 1970 until untimely death caught him up in Calabar the state capital of Cross River State on June 24, 1997 while heading to catch up visa collection for a tour of 50 states in the U.S.

Mbargas statue is situated along border road of Ikom. Louisiana Tilda is said to have since moved to Paris while the location of the other three members of the popular Rocafil group is not clearly known.

Mbu performed alongside Nico Mbarga Jr, Slimphilz Barga and Estelle Mbarga who attempted to mimic the exact style and voice of the late legend.

However, the executive director for NMSMF Mbarga Jnr, in a release to the press disclosed that he and his siblings are planning a full rebirth of their late fathers Rocafil Band with particular interest in promoting the late icons Panco genre of music.

The demise of Nico Mbarga in 1997 made life unbearable to his 10 surviving kids. Pauline, one of his children died in 2011 following a brief illness. Among the nine Mbargas surviving kids, four (Nico, Descrow, Estelle and Slimphilz) are actively involved in promoting their late fathers panco style of music while the other five (Joan, Lillian, Lucy, Lionel, and Nicoline) are engaged in business and the Nigerian civil service.
| BY Ricki Green |

The One Club for Creativity, the worlds foremost non-profit organisation celebrating creative excellence in advertising and design, has today announced the full juries for Typography, Illustration and Photography in the prestigious ADC 97th Annual Awards.

The Photography jury includes Juliet Taylor (left), photographer, director, from Darlinghurst, Australia.

In accordance with the 50/50 Initiative, launched by ADC in 2013 to promote equal participation for women and men on award show juries, boards of directors, event panels and speaker lineups, this years Typography, Illustration and Photography juries are gender balanced with 16 women and 14 men representing 14 countries.

They will judge work from around the world based on the shows historic focus of honoring the best in craft, design and innovation. Entries can be submitted via http://www.adcawards.org, deadline is January 31, 2018.

The juries are as follows:

Photography

Fumihito Katamura, photographer, Fumihito Katamura Photograph Office, Tokyo, Japan (jury chair)

Nazik Armenakyan, documentary photographer, cofounder, 4Plus Documentary Photography Centre, Yerevan, Armenia

Geoff Green, photographer, Geoff Green Photography, New York, NY, USA

Karolis Janulis, artist, Vilnius, Lithuania

Osborne Macharia, commercial photographer, Afrofuturism artist, Nairobi, Kenya

Cait Oppermann, photographer, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Christine Reilly, photo director, WWE Digital Media, New York, NY, USA

Jane Samuels, photographer, artist, Manchester, UK

Tim Tadder, photographer, director, Tim Tadder Photography, Encinitas, CA, USA

Juliet Taylor, photographer, director, Darlinghurst, Australia

Typography

Jean Francois Porchez, founder, Typofonderie, type director, ZeCraft, Clamart, France (jury chair)

Nadine Chahine, UK type director, legibility expert, Monotype, Ltd., London, UK

Becca Clason, lettering artist, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Martina Flor, founder, creative director, Studio Martina Flor, Berlin, Germany

Tobias Frere-Jones, founder, design director, Frere-Jones Type, New York, NY, USA

Tolga Girgin, calligraphy artist, electrical engineer, Eskisehir, Turkey

Sabeena Karnik, paper typographer, illustrator, Mumbai, India

Mitch Paone, founder, creative director, DIA, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Alex Trochut, creative director, typographer, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Liron Lavi Turkenich, typeface designer, researcher, Haifa, Israel

Illustration

Anita Kunz, illustrator, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (jury chair)

Marion Deuchars, illustrator, author, Marion Deuchars Ltd., London, UK

Lisk Feng, illustrator, Rego Park, NY, USA

Emily Flake, cartoonist, illustrator, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Tatsuro Kiuchi, illustrator, painter, Tokyo, Japan

Tea Leigh, tattoo artist, Welcome Home Studio, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Emiliano Ponzi, illustrator, Milan, Italy

Brian Rea, illustrator, artist, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Yuko Shimizu, illustrator, New York, NY, USA

Zipeng Zhu, creative director, Dazzle, New York, NY, USA

Says Michael ORourke, executive director, ADC, part of The One Club for Creativity: Typography, Illustration and Photography have always played an important role in the ADC Annual Awards. This years group of jurors are talented creative leaders who are highly qualified to judge work in their respective fields through the lens of excellence in craft, design and innovation.

Full ADC 97th Annual Awards juries for Advertising, Brand/Communication Design, Experiential Design, Interactive, Packaging/Product Design, Publication Design and Motion/Film Craft will be announced shortly.

New tiered pricing structure

A significant change to this years awards program is a tiered pricing structure designed to make it easier for smaller agencies, studios and freelancers to participate. Companies with 21 or more employees pay the standard entry fee; smaller shops with from 2 to 20 employees get a discount on entries (amount varies by discipline) and freelance creatives and one-person shops are eligible for an even greater reduction in their entry fee.

The new tiered pricing structure helps level the playing field and makes it easier for smaller studios and independent designers, photographers, illustrators and typographers to get their work judged by an all-star creative jury and elevated on a global stage. It also reflects The One Clubs mission to support and celebrate the success of the entire global creative community regardless of company size or location.

ADC Annual Awards juries focus on craft, design and innovation, while juries for The One Club for Creativitys One Show Awards judge work based on creativity of ideas and quality of execution.

Judging takes place in March, with finalists announced in April in lead up to the ADC 97th Annual Awards Ceremony on May 7, 2018 as part of Creative Week in New York.
They stepped in to raise their grandkids. Now they're under financial stress.

Grandparents raising grandkids have higher rates of food insecurity than other households, but few of the benefits available to foster families.
Mr Mulgan, who accurately predicted the recently-completed Senate inquiry into the need for a federal watchdog would be inconclusive, was on the money when he said: "In the states, anti-corruption bodies have unearthed significant corruption and there is no reason to believe that federal politicians or public servants are more ethical than their state counterparts."
As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.
Daniil Kvyat may have been kicked out of the Red Bull family, but his career in Formula One may not be over yet. At least, not entirely.



According to Autosport, the Russian driver has been picked up by Ferrari  not for a race seat, mind you, but as a development driver.

Once a promising prospect, Kvyat proved his worth on his way up the ladder, winning titles in Formula Renault 2.0 and GP3. He debuted as a test driver at the final grands prix of 2013 with Toro Rosso and got the race seat the next season, where he showed form impressive enough to get promoted to the front-running Red Bull team to replace Sebastian Vettel in 2015.

A second-place finish that season in Hungary and another podium in China early the next werent enough to keep his seat, though, so he was bumped back down to Toro Rosso mid-season, switching seats with Max Verstappen. His performance has continued to drop off ever since, to the point that he was replaced mid-season again, losing out to Pierre Gasly and Brandon Hartley for a seat next season.

Kvyat reportedly approached Williams about the last vacancy on the grid, but thats now believed to go to his less experienced countryman Sergey Sirotkin. The deal that Kvyat has hammered out with Ferrari instead will likely see him working the simulator in Maranello, but could put him behind the wheel on an actual track at official test sessions or Friday practices  or even, potentially, stepping in for Vettel or Raikkonen should the need arise (as it did following Felipe Massas injury in 2009).
Smash and grab robberies arent too uncommon but one is Russia is getting a lot of attention because the driver used an armored personnel carrier.



While APCs arent exactly a dime a dozen, Reuters is reporting the vehicle was stolen from a motorsports training facility by a drunk man in his late 20s. After stealing the armored personnel carrier, the man reportedly drove the vehicle through a forest before arriving in the town of Apatity which isnt too far from the Finnish border.

Despite its remote location, the town is home to around 60,000 residents and has narrow streets which apparently proved pretty challenging for drunk in an APC. As a result, the man ended up crushing a Daewoo and slamming into the window of a convenience store.

Reports say the man then exited the vehicle and briefly looked at the damage. He then walked into the store, through the broken window, and apparently stole a bottle of wine.

The man was eventually arrested without incident and locals reportedly didnt seem too shocked by the events that occurred earlier today.

Video
Renowned Ford specialist Steeda has added the Mustang GT on its tuning list in the European market.



Upgrades include revised engine mapping, increased stabilized flow of cool air, and the addition of a custom exhaust system, which helps the 5.0-liter V8 unit make 480PS (473hp) and 752Nm(555lb-ft) of torque.

Significant changes have been made to the cars chassis and suspension setup as well, as the range-topping V8 model, baptized Q500 by Steeda, now has thicker adjustable anti-roll bars on both ends, with solid billet ends and mounts. It also gets progressive rate springs, strut tower brace, and upgraded bushes for the independent rear suspension.

The result of all of this is a lowered stance, and improved cornering abilities, without sacrificing the comfort level.

Elsewhere, the pony car features subtle exterior styling thats said to tighten its iconic lines, and it includes a discrete front splitter and ducktail spoiler, both of them playing a major role in the Mustangs improved aerodynamics. These can be complemented by 20-inch rims, wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, or Cup derivative for the track-focused variants.

The entire bundle of upgrades costs 8,998 ($12,167) in Britain, is available to order at Ford dealer Haynes of Maindstone, in Kent, and can be specified during build or retrofitted at a later stage.

Steeda offers a range of options as well, such as the coilover kit, heavy-duty Tremec Magnum XL six-speed manual gearbox, upgraded twin-plate clutch, heavy-duty aluminum driveshafts, ventilated discs, and custom paint finishes for the calipers and engine compartment.

Moving forward, the tuner will be focusing its attention on the 2018 Ford Mustang, which arrives in Europe later this year.

PHOTO GALLERY
UKs Business Minister Greg Clark is meeting with PSA boss Carlos Tavares in Paris to discuss the recently announced job cuts at Vauxhalls Ellesmere Port factory.



PSA said that around 250 more jobs will be cut from Vauxhalls factory in northwest England, on top of the 400 cuts announced last year, reducing the plants output to a single shift.

The company explained that although the initial voluntary separation program at its Ellesmere Port plant announced in October has been successful, it needs to initiate a further voluntary program for eligible employees of a further 250, PSA said in a statement.

So far PSA hasnt clarified if it considers closing down Vauxhalls factory which currently produces the Astra model for both Opel and Vauxhall.

Reuters reports that Clark and Tavares will discuss a number of issues and that their meeting has been planned for some time.

PSA is expected to decide this year whether to build new models at Vauxhalls factory, with the final decision to showcase UKs ability to attract new investments as the country leaves the EU.

PHOTO GALLERY
Paddington is a bipedal bear who walks upright along with the live-action actors. That aspect of his character, of course, informed how Framestore designed the anatomy. We had to make his pelvis a cross between something quadrupedal and something bipedal, said Grillo. Its impersonating a quadruped, but the legs stick out the bottom. For the length of the legs, we wanted to make them feel short through the groom, but give them enough length underneath that they keep up in a walk.

For the first film, Framestore carried out animation tests early on with a rough version of their initial model, but, says Grillo, continued to find the character as production continued. Animators would take key moments from the script, for example, and run through the tests to check that the geometry of their model worked.

There was a scene where Paddington was eating spaghetti, recalled Grillo. It didnt make it into the film, but wed play with that and just sort of try and get a feeling for whether his arms worked, and at the same time get a sense of the humor and how he could feel as a comic actor.

Other tests were carried out for walk cycles or for Paddington going up and down stairs. There was a key aha moment where the animators filmed an early live-action test  it was one that got many on the production excited about Paddington as a character, says Grillo.

We got a camera out in Wells Mews, which is here in London, around the back of Framestore. And I walked down the street, and we animated a little scene of Paddington holding my hand, just to see how he felt in the live-action space. And that was the thing that got everyones juices going. It was the first insight into who he was or how it could feel as a film.

That test, and the final animation for Paddington, in general, followed a minimalist style. That does not mean that the character does not get involved in a number of a action scenes, or even slapstick scenes, but Grillo says Paddingtons design and behaviors lent themselves to a more gentle approach.

Hes very symmetrical by design, said Grillo. He doesnt kind of lean his facial expressions to one side or the other. He doesnt go for the asymmetries and things that I guess normally youd say, Oh, you do those things to add interest. Hes also very much plunked in the space and will often just stand there and look around.

And I think theres also a degree of inscrutability, because hes such a thoughtful character, added Grillo. Hes a thinking character. So everything is revealed through very specific actions  the results of those thought beats. Its very underplayed; it doesnt show his emotions. I think he reveals them through the course of action that he takes off the back of having thought about it first. Theres a real economy there.

In terms of facial animation, one of the biggest challenges for Framestore was finding a line between a photorealistic hairy bear and one that still had to play like a storybook character. Its so easy to wade into the grotesque or the ugly and lose the charm, noted Grillo. So it was trying to maintain simplicity in the forms, but at the same time complexity, that gives you realism.

Framestore manages a database of previous animated performances and film reference for the animators to look to. For Paddington, some Charlie Chaplin footage was often referred to for the right tone of the character. Other reference even included close-up videos of eye blinks and eyeball movements for the final character detail.

When it comes to that final layer, said Grillo, we say to the animators, Okay, watch these videos and make sure you do your blinks like this. Look at each eye dart and what the lids do here, because this is the key to making good looking darts. And thats just an old video of my eyeball that I shot for a film way back, but its still a great thing to point at and go, You know what, thats how an eye flickers.

Whishaws voice performance is certainly something Framestore used as reference, too, but not necessarily in any kind of performance capture way (interestingly, the first film initially featured Colin Firth as the voice of Paddington, before Whishaw came on board).

On this film Paul [King, director] did many, many passes of recording with Ben to find the right intonation for a scene, said Grillo. And on top of that, theres all the grunts and sounds that he meticulously edits into place, which all help with sculpting Paddingtons character. Thats something we didnt have in the first film. Ben came very much at the end of the process, and we were still finding the bear and working out who he was.

During filming for Paddington 2, several methods were employed to shoot empty plates that would later require the incorporation of a cg character. Eye-line markers were some of the most common techniques used to help the actors and camera operators, with some even set up with moving light diodes if the character was to be walking in a scene. Actress Lauren Barrand also stood in for Paddington in other instances. Finally, the production relied on stuffies and a furry Paddington head for lighting reference.

Once things got into post-production, the next challenge for Framestore was ensuring that all the animators  mostly in Montreal and London  were on board with how to craft Paddington as a character  it was the culmination of lessons learned on the first film and a continued exploration of who Paddington should be.

It takes people time to get into the flow, said Grillo. At the beginning, its incredibly slow. Your first scenes that are turned over take a lot of iterating, they take a lot of time to finish. By the time youre at the end, youre running a huge bandwidth of shots going through at the same time. But at that point, youve hit your pace and people are in the zone and they know how Paddington works.

Warner Bros. will release Paddington 2 in U.S. theaters tomorrow, January 12.
Photo: Facebook Connor Neurauter

A Kamloops man convicted of sexual interference with a 13-year-old girl won't begin serving his 90-day jail sentence until May  so he can finish his winter semester at the University of Calgary.

Connor Neurauter, 21, pleaded guilty to the charge on Jan. 4 in Kamloops provincial court, but the judge ruled he wouldn't begin his sentence until May 4.

Neurauter was 18 when he began a relationship with the 13-year-old girl. He was charged in 2016.

The delayed sentence has caused outrage online. A petition urging the University of Calgary to expel Neurauter has quickly garnered more than 18,000 signatures.

"It's time we stood behind the victims and cared less about how 'inconvenienced' sexual predators are, wrote Nicole Radusin.

The University of Calgary has to choose what is right, wrote Caroline Kaufman. Support the victim, make the campus a safe place for students, and make it known that this community wont take issues like this lightly.

On Wednesday, the university said it is reviewing the situation.

We can confirm that Neurauter is not on the university campus this week, the university wrote in a statement.

"The University of Calgary is committed to providing a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment."
Photo: Dave Ogilvie

A two vehicle collision caused traffic delays in West Kelowna on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Highway 97 and Ross Road at about 2:45 p.m.

Traffic was stalled for 30 minutes.

It appears no one was seriously injured in the collision.

Police and paramedics attended the scene where the car and pickup truck collided.
Photo: File photo Curtis Wayne Sagmoen

The man who has become the focal point for violence against women groups in the Okanagan will be in a Vernon court room today.

Curtis Wayne Sagmoen is facing a variety of charges stemming from an incident in August, 2017 where he allegedly threatened a sex trade worker.

Charges against Sagmoen include intentionally discharging a firearm and uttering threats.

At today's appearance, Sagmoen is expected to either enter a plea, or choose his trial by judge or by jury.

Sagmoen has been held in custody since his arrest in early October, 2017 and each time he has appeared in court, a group of mostly First Nation's women have held a rally in front of the court house to protest violence against women.

Megan Louis, of the local Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women group, has organized past rallies and said the protests are a way to keep violence against women in the public eye and to keep pressure on authorities in regards to murdered and missing women.

Sagmoen is also connected to a farm where the remains of Traci Genereaux, 18, were located in October, 2017.

The farm, on Salmon River Road near Silver Creek, was the subject of an intense, month-long search by special RCMP forensic units.

The farm is owned by Sagmoen's parents.

Sagmoen has not been connected to the death of Genereaux which police are calling suspicious.

There is still no sign of four other women - Caitlin Potts, Ashley Simpson, Deanna Wertz and Nicole Bell - all whom have gone missing from the same area between Enderby and Sicamous.
Photo: money.cnn.com/

I was asked recently what I thought would be one the most pressing political issues in 2018.

Although my list of possible answers is a lengthy one, ultimately I believe that the future of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, may well be Canadas most pressing concerns.

Even the Prime Minister is quoted as suggesting that the unpredictability of NAFTA keeps him awake at night.

The concern is an understandable one.

NAFTA represents some big numbers. Canada-U.S. trade in goods and services in 2015 reached close to $881 billion. The United States is the No. 1 destination for Canadian merchandise exports. Close to 80 per cent of all Canadian exports end up in the U.S.

Between 1993 and 2015, Canadian merchandise exports to the U.S. increased annually at a rate of almost 4.6 per cent. I could continue citing many significant numbers, but more importantly, we have to look beyond the numbers.

Ultimately, these numbers relate to jobs. As part of my work as a member of Parliament, I often visit many small, medium and even large-scale private employers. It is increasingly common to find goods-and-service providers that have found lucrative markets in the United States.

I mention private-sector employers because we must never forget it is the private sector that pays for the public sector.

Recently, at a public forum in Sackville, N.S., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the United States an unruly neighbour.

Also this week Canada initiated a WTO (World Trade Organization) complaint against the United States on the eve of the next round of NAFTA negotiations.

In response, the United States has called this WTO complaint a broad and ill-advised attack.

These actions have led to significant amounts of speculation on the future of the NAFTA agreement.

One of the additional challenges has been the Prime Ministers insistence that trade deals should be based on progressive trade and include language around topics such as labour, gender and environmental rights.

This poses the question: would Canadians accept societal values from another country demanded upon us in order to accept a trade deal?

So far the U.S., China and other TransPacific Partnership (TPP) member nations have either rejected outright or raised concerns about this approach to trade.

With Canada being unable to advance further trade relations in other markets, there is now greater pressure for success in the NAFTA negotiations.

My question this week:

do you believe the Prime Minister should abandon the demand to include progressive trade language in trade negotiations or do you view this as something that Canada should be steadfast on?

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Josh Winquist

The latest Interior Health Authority monthly overdose surveillance report has been released.

The data, collected and reported by staff in the region's emergency rooms, shows Kelowna General Hospital and Vernon Jubilee Hospital reported the most overdoses from June 1, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2017.

Hospital Overdoses Reported:

Kelowna General Hospital  371

Vernon Jubilee Hospital  316

Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops  191

Penticton Regional Hospital  178

Kootenay Lake Hospital  70

Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital  36

Nicola Valey Hospital and Health Centre  28

Boundary District Hospital  25

South Okanagan General Hospital  21

100 Mile House District Hospital  20

Shuswap Lake General Hospital  16

Cariboo Memorial Hospital  15

Princeton General Hospital  10

East Kootenay Regional Hospital  8

Dr.Helmcken Memorial Hospital  5

In the region, 1,331 overdoses were reported.

The numbers are not exact, as they only represent opioid overdoses that have been reported to the Medical Health Officer.

Vernon Jubilee Hospital was one of the hospitals involved in the surveillance report pilot project.
Photo: File photo

It washed out during heavy rains last spring and 10 months later, what is locally known as the Heywood-Armstrong Bridge, is still not repaired.

However, there is some good news on the horizon with officials telling Castanet the work will be complete some time next week.

A section of the bridge was washed away in early May, forcing residents to take an alternate route to get to town.

Work in the bridge was supposed to be complete by Dec. 22, but unforeseen challenges has delayed the re-opening.

According to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, Construction is nearing completion at the Morgan Bridge near Armstrong. Site conditions encountered during construction forced changes to the engineered design for the bridge repairs. Unexpected soil conditions also required additional piles to be driven to safely support the bridge.

Crews are adding an extra span on the bridge, which will improve water and debris passage, and we have reinforced the river banks. Work is underway to install the new bridge deck and complete the stringers on the new span.

Once this work is finished, the approach to the bridge and other completion works will be carried out. The ministrys maintenance contractor, JPW, is working hard to complete the project and we anticipate the bridge will reopen sometime next week.
Photo: Nicole Kidman Facebook page.

Two world renowned celebrities are getting their share of snow this winter.

It looks like country star Keith Urban and actress Nicole Kidman are back in Vernon and possibly hitting the slopes up at Silver Star Mountain Resort.

The couple has recently been spotted buying groceries at Lord Aberdeen Market & Liquor Store and one star-struck employee was lucky enough to meet them.

"It was pretty cool seeing two big name celebrities," said Mason Cooper, employee at Lord Aberdeen Market. "I didn't say anything to Nicole, but I said a few words to Keith."

"Keith was very polite, they seemed friendly."

The pair were buying a few items to snack on, added Cooper.

Cooper said he did hear them talking about their day on the slopes.

Cooper said it's one memory he won't soon forget.

"One point that stood out to me was the fact that they were just going about their day, like everyone else. They weren't getting bombarded," he said, adding it was neat how everyone was respecting their privacy.

It's rumoured the famous couple owns a home at the Star and visit often during the winter months.

Urban and Kidman have been spotted in the Vernon area before, including the time they were spotted cheering on the Vipers in 2012.
Photo: Contributed

The daughter of a married couple from Winnipeg found dead in Jamaica believes her parents were murdered.

Debbie Olfert said she can't believe they are gone.

"It is surreal. I don't want to catch myself living what they must have felt, what they must have gone through," she said Wednesday. "How frightened they must have been. How terrifying."

The Jamaica Constabulary Force has identified the couple as 81-year-old Melbourne Flake and 70-year-old Etta Flake.

Jamaican police say on Monday and Tuesday construction workers attempted to contact the couple in a home in the community of Morant Bay, but were not successful.

Police officers then entered the house and found two bodies.

Family members said the Flakes, who both had Canadian and Jamaican citizenship, were killed in a home burglary.

"Melbourne and Etta Flake had just celebrated Christmas in Jamaica with 19 children and grandchildren," the family said in a statement.

"The murders are still being investigated by Interpol."

Global Affairs Canada said consular officials are in contact with Jamaican authorities to gather additional information.
Photo: The Canadian Press North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

China is taking aim at an international summit on North Korea in Vancouver next week, saying the event co-hosted by Canada and the United States is likely to do more harm than good.

The Canadian government is keeping a tight lid on which countries have been invited and plan to attend Tuesday's meeting, which Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is organizing with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

But a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry revealed Wednesday that his country will not be at the table, even as he criticized the meeting and suggested it will set back  rather than advance  peace efforts.

"It will only create divisions within the international community and harm joint efforts to appropriately resolve the Korean peninsula nuclear issue," spokesman Lu Kang was quoted as telling reporters in Beijing.

Russia is also expected to be absent along with China, meaning two of North Korea's most important and influential neighbours will be missing when Freeland and Tillerson sit down with other foreign ministers.

A Japanese foreign ministry official, meanwhile, was quoted by Bloomberg News on Wednesday raising questions about the involvement of countries such as Colombia and Greece.

Global Affairs spokeswoman Amy Mills said Canada recognizes the essential role that China has to play in any diplomatic efforts involving North Korea, and has "repeatedly engaged" with it about the Vancouver meeting.

But Mills would not say whether China had been invited to the Vancouver meeting and declined to provide a list of countries that had received invitations, saying a list of participating states "will be released in due time."

Freeland and Tillerson announced plans to hold the Jan. 16 meeting during Tillerson's visit to Ottawa last month. The decision followed growing concerns over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic-missile capabilities.
Photo: Remai Modern Museum

The New York Times has published an interactive feature listing the top 52 places in the world to visit in 2018, and the lone Canadian destination to make the list is Saskatoon.

The feature selected the Saskatchewan city primarily because of the new Remai Modern Museum and its 8,000-work collection.

Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and other heavyweight 20th-century artists now have a home in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, thanks to the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan," reads the article.

It calls the museum "a centerpiece of Saskatoon's redeveloping riverfront" sporting world-class modernist architecture.

The article adds that art fans flying to the city will arrive at the "recently expanded and refurbished (and award-winning) airport and can soon stay in style near the museum at the 15-story Alt Hotel."

Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark trumpeted the article on his Twitter feed, writing "Welcome World! Come for the art, stay for the people."

The article's top five places to visit in 2018 are New Orleans; Colombia; Basilicata, Italy; the Caribbean; and Vierwaldstattersee, Switzerland.
Photo: Twitter

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a woman heckling him about Omar Khadr during a town hall Wednesday in Hamilton that he, too, is angry about the $10.5 million his government paid last summer to the former Guantanamo Bay inmate.

"The anger that some people feel, and that a lot of people feel about the payment the government made to Omar Khadr is real and quite frankly  this might surprise you  but I share that anger and frustration," he said.

That money, which was paid to settle a lawsuit alleging the government violated Khadr's Charter rights, could have been put toward programs to help people, Trudeau said, but it is a "bit of a consolation" that if the government hadn't settled, the lawsuit could have cost between $30 and $40 million.

"That settlement had nothing to do with what Omar Khadr might have or might not have done," he said. "It had to do with what the Canadian government did or did not do and when a Canadian government wilfully turns its back on defending a Canadian's rights and allows a Canadian to be tortured and mistreated, we all end up paying."

The prime minister addressed another heckler at the end of the event, pleading with the man to listen, saying, "I listened to you  sort of."

The crowd was a largely friendly one, lobbing few tough questions his way and attempting to silence the hecklers with booing.

"Sometimes in the bubble in Ottawa, we get wrapped up in things that aren't resonating, and aren't really top of mind for a lot of Canadians," Trudeau said in a radio interview Tuesday before kicking off the tour at a high school in Lower Sackville, N.S.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Toronto's iconic Sam the Record Man sign is shining again a month after crews installed it at its new home above a busy downtown hub.

The sign, featuring two enormous spinning discs on a red background, was re-lit Wednesday evening atop a Toronto Public Health building, overlooking Yonge and Dundas Square.

Mayor John Tory, Ryerson University president Mohamed Lachemi and family members of former owner Sam Sniderman attended the lighting ceremony.

The sign used to adorn the Yonge Street business owned by Sniderman, who was a major promoter of Canadian music.

It opened in 1959 and became a go-to spot for music lovers in Toronto and across the country before it closed its doors in 2007.

Ryerson University, which is located nearby, purchased the store property one year later and initially planned to showcase the sign on a new building planned for the site.

It later decided it would place the sign two blocks away and began restoring it in June.
U.S. Department of State launched improvements to how we share information with U.S. travelers. Under the new system, every country will have a Travel Advisory, providing levels of advice ranging from one to four.

January 11, 2018, 09:54 State Department lists Armenia among safe countries for American travelers
Photo: The Canadian Press Rona Ambrose

It was 2007 and Lauren Dobson-Hughes was a young, ambitious NDP staffer on Parliament Hill when a much older MP suddenly kissed her in front of at least 20 people  and no one seemed to bat an eye.

The MP, himself a New Democrat, grabbed her around the waist and dug his fingers into her body before planting his lips on hers.

"He pulled in my head right to him and he gave me this giant wet kiss," said Dobson-Hughes, who was 25 at the time and shaken by the encounter. "I went to the washroom to wash his spit that was dribbling down my cheek."

Male politicians wield enormous power on the Hill, and yet MPs and staff members alike continue to be little more than bystanders who do nothing to help create a safe workplace for female counterparts, said Dobson-Hughes, now a prominent advocate for women's rights.

"Nobody else thought it was weird," she recalled.

"You take your cues from people around you who are in positions of power, and if they don't think that's weird, if that didn't even momentarily give them a second glance, then (you think), 'Maybe the problem is me then ... OK, that's just normal.'"

Sexual misconduct is nothing short of "rampant" on Parliament Hill, a place that runs on a steady supply of cheap young labour, usually female, she added.

In a voluntary survey of female MPs last month, The Canadian Press found more than half of respondents  58 per cent  had personally been the target of one or more forms of sexual misconduct while in office, including inappropriate or unwanted remarks, gestures or text messages of a sexual nature.

Thirty-eight of 89 female MPs took part in the voluntary, anonymous survey.

Former interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose and Green party Leader Elizabeth May say they worry the most for vulnerable young staffers and interns on the Hill who might resist speaking up about misconduct for fear of losing what little job security they might already have.

"I think of staffers  where do they go?" Ambrose said in an interview.

"My appeal to them was, 'Come to me ... please know you can come to me.' But the truth is, would they? I don't know."
Photo: The Canadian Press

Twelve jurors convened in the Lac-Megantic railway disaster trial are set to begin their first day of deliberations in a Sherbrooke, Quebec courthouse.

Tom Harding, Richard Labrie and Jean Demaitre are charged with criminal negligence in the tragedy that killed 47 people in July 2013 when a runaway train carrying crude derailed in Lac-Megantic and exploded.

They have pleaded not guilty.

Harding was the train's engineer, Labrie the traffic controller and Demaitre the manager of train operations.

The Crown contends Harding failed to perform a proper brake test and didn't apply enough handbrakes after he parked the 73-wagon convoy on July 5, 2013.

Labrie and Demaitre are accused of failing to ask enough questions to ensure the train was properly secure after a fire broke out on the locomotive and firefighters shut off its engine, compromising the braking system.

The trial began Oct. 2.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A Kamloops man is back among the living after twice being declared dead by the federal government in a bureaucratic mix-up that began when his social insurance number was incorrectly placed on his mother's death certificate.

Bryan Kupiak learned of the confusion in October, a month after the death of his mother, when he received an old age security statement addressed to his estate.

The switch in social insurance numbers temporarily cut him off from all his benefits, including his pension, but Kupiak says he was "revived" a week later with the help of his member of Parliament, Cathy McLeod.

The matter appeared to have been settled until Kupiak's wife received a notice last Sunday from Canada Revenue Agency, describing her as a widow.

Another appeal to McLeod's office produced results and Kupiak says the matter has now been resolved.

However, he says the confusion has been difficult to handle, especially when it happened the second time, because he is still grieving the death of his mother.
Photo: The Canadian Press Minister of International Trade Francois-Philippe Champagne

The Trudeau government appears to have adopted a good-cop, bad-cop strategy for saving NAFTA  coming up with some "creative" new proposals in response to unpalatable U.S. demands while simultaneously signalling its willingness to aggressively attack what it considers unfair American trade practices.

But while the government is hoping for the best from negotiations to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland reiterated Thursday that it's also prepared for the worst: a U.S. withdrawal from the continental trade pact.

"The U.S. has been very clear since before the talks started that invoking Article 2205 (to withdraw) was a possibility, and I think we need to take our neighbours at their word, take them seriously," Freeland said before the first of two days of meetings at a cabinet retreat in London, Ont.

"And so Canada is prepared for every eventuality."

Canada will host the sixth and potentially make-or-break round of NAFTA talks later this month in Montreal.

Canada and Mexico have categorically rejected a number of U.S. demands, including American calls to scrap the independent dispute settlement process, end Canada's system of supply management for dairy and poultry, hike American and North American content requirements for automobiles and add a sunset clause that would automatically terminate the agreement after five years unless all three member countries agree to extend it.

With tensions over those proposals already high, some trade experts were mystified Wednesday when the Trudeau government revealed that it has launched a wide-ranging challenge at the World Trade Organization to the U.S.'s use of punitive trade sanctions.

The move sparked an angry response from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who called it a "broad and ill-advised attack on the U.S. trade remedies system."

And it sparked concern among trade experts that it will only antagonize U.S. President Donald Trump and increase the already high likelihood that he'll pull the plug on NAFTA.

But taking a tough stand is an approach the Americans can appreciate, International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne argued Thursday.

"I think the American colleagues understand when you stand strong in sending a message that said, 'We will stand up for the forestry industry, we will stand up for aerospace industry, we'll stand up for Canadian workers'," Champagne said.

"When people see that you're firm, you get respect."
Photo: The Canadian Press

As NAFTA talks enter their most sensitive phase, a fever of speculation has broken out about whether Donald Trump might soon announce his intention to withdraw from NAFTA  and it's likely to last a while.

With only couple of months left in the currently scheduled rounds of talks, Canada will be keeping an ever-closer eye on the U.S. president, who has repeatedly said it might be necessary to start the withdrawal process in order to gain leverage and win concessions.

Here's a brief guide to what such a pullout announcement would likely mean.
The military insurance fund has issued compensations to 37 families of servicemen in 2017.

January 11, 2018, 10:17 37 families receive compensations from military insurance fund

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 11, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS:10 servicemen who have been handicapped during combat duty, and families of 27 fallen servicemen received compensations.

Families of fallen soldiers received a lump sum of 10 million drams, and will further receive 200- 300 thousand drams monthly.

Servicemen who were handicapped and are classified as 1st degree disabled will also receive 10 million and monthly 200-250 thousand, while 2nd degree disabled servicemen will receive 5 million and monthly 100-150 thousand.

Overall, the fund had collected 5 billion 827 million 982 thousand 595 drams in 2017, while compensations totaled 388 million 500 thousand drams.

In addition to the 1000 drams which are collected from every employed citizen, donations have also been made to the fund.

Majority of donations were made from Armenia  70 million 913 thousand drams, from France  7 million 279 thousand, Cyprus  4 million 810 thousand, Russia  2 million 850 thousand, Canada  2 million 514 thousand, Romania  1 million 83 thousand, Switzerland  518 thousand, Qatar  298 thousand etc.

Donations were made from other countries as well, for example the US, Germany, Denmark, Korea, Great Britain, Slovakia, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Oman.

12 million drams was donated by the Presidential Staff of Armenia, 3 million 168 thousand by Haypost CJSC, and 3 million drams from an anonymous person.

MP Karen Karapetyan donated 5 million 557 thousand 360 drams, and Rosgostrakh Armenia and Ingo Armenia Insurance Companies donated 1 million drams for five times.
Its cocoa and copra plantations were extremely productive prior to 'the troubles'. Tourist potential would appear significant if law and order issues are contained. Its waters would link into fishing revenues under the Nauru Agreement .

Bougainville's agricultural prospects are reasonably strong. It has some of the best agriculture land in Papua New Guinea.

Separate to the BCL versus RTG issue there is a more fundamental assumption. Why is a mine essential for independence?

CANBERRA - Are we sure, as Axel Sturm asserts in PNG Attitude , that "one thing is for sure: Without revenues from the Panguna mine under the leadership of BCL that is owned by the Autonomous Bougainville Government, the independence of the island will remain a sweet dream."

Bougainvilles estimated population of around 300,000 is larger than many other Pacific island nations - about half Solomon Islands, slightly larger than Vanuatu, New Caledonia and French Polynesia, and significantly larger than Samoa.

These countries get by with a form of independence without a mine.

Experience also is that mining can lead to resource curse issues that may manifest greatly in Bougainville as Panguna could represent a major share of measured GDP.

Im not saying there shouldn't be a mine, just asking why it is "essential"?

This is an assumption that needs to be examined closely. Using the figures quoted by Mr Sturm, even if 320 of 367 customary heads are in favour of a particular course of development, that still leaves 47 with issues. And the issues may not come only from the customary heads.

The Panguna mine riches are not going to disappear. Is it better that they are left in the ground for another generation until there is an absolutely unambiguous consensus that they should be developed?

This would simply be banking the resource at this stage.

And it may allow the people of Bougainville to consider more inclusive forms of development and governance as it considers the June 2019 referendum on its political future.
Two New York representatives are speaking out against the Commerce Department's preliminary decision to impose tariffs on Canadian paper used by book publishers and newspapers across the state.

U.S. Reps. Brian Higgins and Elise Stefanik oppose the Commerce Department's proposed action to impose tariffs of up to 10 percent on uncoated groundwood paper imports from Canada.

The Commerce Department's decision follows a petition filed by the North Pacific Paper Company last summer. The company, which is based in the state of Washington, claimed Canadian-made paper was harming its business.

But Stefanik, R-Willsboro, said the possible tariffs would harm businesses, including newspapers, that rely on the uncoated groundwood paper from Canada.

"My district is home to a thriving local press corps that would be unfairly burdened by these costs, harming local journalism and the families across my district that rely on these important organizations," she said.

The newspapers in Stefanik's district that would be affected by the decision include The Post-Star in Glens Falls. The Post-Star and The Citizen are owned by Lee Enterprises, an Iowa-based media company.

More than 1,100 U.S. newspapers, including The Citizen and The Post-Star, signed a letter that was sent by the News Media Alliance to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in December. The organizations warned that imposing tariffs on Canadian paper could result in the closure of many small newspapers.

"To survive, some newspapers may resort to increasing print subscription prices, which would only exacerbate the severe challenges facing print newspapers," the letter reads.

There are other opponents of the Commerce Department's preliminary decision. The American Forest and Paper Association, a leading group representing the U.S. paper industry, opposes the tariffs.

Higgins, D-Buffalo, said local newspapers shouldn't be harmed by North Pacific Paper Company's claims.

"The proposed duties would cause undue burden, destabilizing the industry, forcing increases in subscription rates for consumers and reducing jobs in an area already stretched thin," he said.

The Commerce Department's decision isn't final. The agency could reverse course and not impose tariffs on uncoated groundwood paper. A final determination will be made in May.
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Regional snowmobilers can find a guide to central New York and Southern Tier trails at the Cayuga County Office of Tourism.

The 2017-2018 Snowmobile Trail Map features trails in Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego counties in a full-color foldout map. It also features information on snowmobile rental and repair locations, as well as dining and lodging spots on the trails.

The office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays at 131 Genesee St., Auburn. Maps are $5.

For more information, call the office at (800) 499-9615 or visit tourcayuga.com.

The Cayuga County Sheriff's Office will hold snowmobile safety courses from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, at the Ira Fire Department, 12591 Route 176, Cato, and the same time Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Moravia Fire Department, 38 Keeler Ave., Moravia.

The courses are free, but bringing a bag lunch is required. They are open to ages 10 and older.

For more information, or to register, call (315) 253-4905 or email gdudley@cayugacounty.us.
Influenza activity is on the rise throughout the state and local health officials say it's no different in Cayuga County.

According to the Cayuga County Health Department, since Oct. 1, there have been 250 lab-confirmed cases in the county  that's up from only 20 cases reported for the same time period last season. And since the flu typically peaks in February, the department said cases could continue to climb.

Deanna Ryan, the senior public health educator for the county health department, said statistics show the flu has become much more prevalent in the past few years. In fact, she said, there are likely even more cases that have gone unreported, as there could be infected people that did not seek treatment or testing.

"To us, we know that the flu is probably more widespread than what the lab cases show because it's based on the number of people who actually go in for testing," Ryan said.

This year, Auburn Community Hospital spokesperson Matthew Chadderdon said, there have been more patients presenting with flu-like symptoms, which include a fever, cough and sore throat. He said the hospital has noticed a pattern over the past few years  a spike of about 20 percent each season.

"Our health care professionals are saying that this is a statewide problem and they're seeing those kinds of increases across the state," Chadderdon said.

But this season, that increase was met by a new challenge, as there has been a shortage of IV fluids nationwide.

The shortage came after hurricanes struck Puerto Rico, which supplies much of the country with fluid-filled bags. The storms cut power to many of the island's manufacturing plants, including Baxter International  the main supplier for ACH.

That has forced the hospital to seek sterile IV bags and fluids from other suppliers, Chadderdon said, and at a time when there are more dehydrated patients with the flu.

"It was really the perfect storm, and every hospital across the country and the state has been affected in one way or another," he said. "Patients at our hospital are fine, but it's certainly something that we have to monitor very closely. ... It's a matter of working with other suppliers that are smaller ... but as time goes by, we are optimistic that they will begin to produce more (bags and fluid)."

Meanwhile, Ryan said the health department is encouraging residents to get vaccinated as flu season typically runs through late spring.

"Sometimes it's a guessing game as to what strains get made up into the flu vaccine, but it's still important because it reduces the risk and symptoms," she said. "Sometimes from year to year the strains change, so that's why it's encouraged to get it every year."
ALBANY  An ex-staffer says state Sen. Jeff Klein forcibly kissed her outside an Albany bar two years ago, claims the powerful Democratic lawmaker from the Bronx called "completely false" on Wednesday.

The woman's allegations were laid out in a story published Wednesday evening by The Huffington Post . She said several legislative staffers were out celebrating the passage of the state budget in the early morning hours of April 1. Klein and Democratic Sen. Diane Savino were among them, she said.

The now 30-year-old woman said Klein tried to kiss her while the two smoked cigarettes outside the bar. After the incident, she left the bar. She never filed a formal complaint, she said, because she felt ashamed. She resigned her position about a month later.

"The fact that there was an environment that could make me doubt the self-confidence that I worked so hard to have ? that I got from the strong women in my life ? made me feel like it wasn't the place for me," Vladimer told The Huffington Post.

Klein held a hastily called conference call with reporters to discuss the allegations shortly before the story was published. He said he went out to smoke with the woman but nothing inappropriate occurred. He said he welcomes an investigation into the incident and already has hired a lawyer to question witnesses.

Klein said he didn't know the staffer well and recalled an exchange that night in which she repeatedly invited him to spend Passover with her family, a request he found oddly personal. He said the following day another staffer mentioned a "rumor" about the alleged incident.

"I have nothing to hide and welcome any investigation," he said.

Klein leads the Independent Democratic Conference, a faction of Democratic Senate members who broke ranks with mainline Democrats to give Republicans control of the Senate. He is considered one of the most powerful legislators in New York and one of the small number of top officials who negotiate the state budget behind closed doors each year.

Savino, who at the time was dating Klein, joined him on the conference call to say she saw nothing unusual the night in question.

The Huffington Post story identified the woman; the AP generally does not identify alleged sexual assault victims. Attempts to reach her Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Creative Discovery Museum will be the first stop on a national tour of the Childrens Museum of Manhattan's America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far, which showcases the cultural expressions of various Muslim communities around the world through age-appropriate experiences with art, architecture, travel, trade, design and more.



Following its run in Manhattan, where officials said it has been seen by more than half a million visitors, making it one of CMOMs most popular exhibits ever, the exhibit will be on display at Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga Feb. 3 through May 13.



At Creative Discovery Museum, we provide experiences that expand a childs world, said Henry Schulson, Creative Discovery Museums executive director. America to Zanzibar will contribute to our goal of fostering global awareness and welcoming visitors of all cultures and backgrounds to the Museum. We are delighted to be the first venue outside of New York to host this important and wonderful exhibit.



The exhibit is specifically designed for ages two-10, but contains elements that will appeal to all ages. The exhibit consists of five major sections: a Global Marketplace, a Trade Routes area, an Architecture area, a Courtyard and an American Home area.



The Global Marketplace features stalls from around the world brimming with sounds, smells and goods, where children can pretend to buy and sell spices from Egypt, ceramics from Turkey and rugs from Morocco. They can also weigh their fresh catch at the Zanzibar fish market, smell Indonesian fruits, serve Tajik tea and design outfits inspired by West African tailors in Harlem.



Guests learn about the exchange of culture across continents and centuries in the Trade Routes area. Children can climb aboard a replica of a multi-level Indian Ocean dhow (boat) and experiment with navigation techniques, travel to various ports, learn to bargain and unload goods from around the world. Below deck, they can experience a multi-sensory exploration of the dhows cargo. Children can also decorate a Pakistani truck, then hop in the cab and embark on a pretend trip through the Western Himalayas. They can also climb on top of a life-size camel and journey across the desert.



The Architecture area virtually transports visitors into a series of magnificent mosques from around the world. Breathtaking panoramic images are projected onto a 21-foot curved screen and explore the wide range of architectural styles from Asia to Africa and America. Families can also try their hand at drafting their own structures, complete with domes and arches, while gaining insight into Muslim architectural traditions.



In the Courtyard families can explore key elements of design, water and geometric patterns that are central to a traditional Muslim courtyard. Children are also encouraged to make music with digital instruments.



The American Home area is a contemporary living room filled with objects donated by American Muslims. Guests explore the wide variety of American Muslims stories through their unique objects, clothing, art and books. Several display cases will represent members of Chattanoogas local Muslim community. Guests can also learn to write My name is in 21 languages.



Most people do not realize the tremendous diversity of Muslim cultures, said Mr. Schulson. In Chattanooga alone, there are three mosques and the Annoor Academy, a local Islamic school, is comprised of approximately 80 students representing 40 different nationalities.



With funding provided by ArtsBuild, Creative Discovery Museum hosted a photography workshop for fourth through eighth grade students at Annoor Academy, Chattanoogas Islamic school. Students were asked to photograph their environments and the results of their work will be on display in the first floor Student Art Gallery.



The Museum has planned four events throughout the exhibits stay that will provide guests with hands-on, interactive experiences. The events will take place from noon-4 p.m. on Feb. 3, March 10, April 7 and May 12. During these events, guests will be able to sample pastries, foods and teas from Muslim countries, watch folkloric dance performances, discover how dress varies from country to country and more. In addition, Museum educators will present a variety of walk up activities on a regular basis. Guests will be able to touch, taste and smell plants and herbs from various Muslim countries. Guests will also explore the different types of currency used in countries throughout the Muslim world.



Funding to create this exhibition was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, MetLife Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Open Society Foundations, The Violet Jabara Charitable Trust, El-Hibri Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Goldman Sachs Gives, Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, National Endowment for the Arts, Maison de lArtisan in Morocco, the Childrens Museum of Manhattans Board of Directors and scores of individuals.



Local sponsorship for America to Zanzibar is provided by the Lyndhurst Foundation.






The district attorneys general of Tennessees Thirteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-Second and Thirty-First Judicial Districts have jointly filed a lawsuit against prescription opioid producer Purdue Pharma L.P. and its related companies, along with Mallinckrodt LLC, Endo Health Solutions, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.

Filed Wednesday in Cumberland County Circuit Court in Crossville, the lawsuit also includes additional defendants Montclair Health & Wellness LLC (doing business as Special Associates); North Alabama Pain Services, LLC; Mark Murphy, medical director of both pain clinics; David Florence, primary physician at several additional regional pain clinics; and Nathan Paul Haskins, a convicted drug dealer.

According to ProPublica, Murphy was the nations top prescriber of oxycodone hydrochloride and OxyContin to Medicare Part D patients in 2015.

Tennessee ranks second in the nation for per-capita opioid prescriptions, says Bryant C. Dunaway, district attorney general for Tennessees Thirteenth Judicial District. Tennessee doctors wrote more than 7.8 million opioid prescriptions in 2015. Thats more prescriptions than Tennessee has residents  men, women and children combined.

We have experienced a massive influx of opioids into the 19 counties named in this suit. Millions of pills have been overprescribed and diverted into vulnerable populations, resulting in a robust illegal trade, skyrocketing overdose rates, and a growing financial burden on our police, schools, hospitals, doctors, insurance companies and taxpayers. The defendants named chose to participate in this process for personal gain, and we intend to hold them accountable.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants knowingly participated in the illegal opioid market through the following actions:

The producer defendants directed their opioids to the 19 Tennessee counties of the states Thirteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-Second and Thirty-First Judicial Districts, while the criminal defendants participated in the illegal opioid drug market throughout the same judicial districts and surrounding areas;

The drug producers embarked on a fraudulent campaign to convince physicians that opioids carried a low risk of addiction and were therefore appropriate for non-acute problems such as chronic pain;

The drug producers misrepresentations regarding the addictive nature of opioids, as well as the aggressive marketing of their collective fraudulent message, contributed to a market for illegally prescribed opioids;

The criminal defendants actions of overprescribing opioids generated a significant regional influx of pills, resulting in a robust illegal drug trade;

The drug producers marketing campaign gave rise to a market for street heroin for addicts who can no longer obtain prescription opioids or afford diverted opioids; and

All defendants were aware of the extraordinary volume of prescriptions being written and took no steps to stop illegal prescriptions or diversions.

Unintentional overdose deaths now account for more early deaths in Tennessee than automobile accidents, suicides or homicides, and the vast majority of the states overdose deaths involve opioids  nearly 72 percent, as recorded in 2015. Among the 19 counties named, more than 1 million opioid prescriptions were filled in 2016. The same region recorded 550 opioid-related overdose deaths from 2012 to 2016.



The defendants named in this complaint have either knowingly participated in the illegal market for opioids by purposely misleading the medical community and general public through fraudulent marketing campaigns, or they have overprescribed or diverted pills, or failed to stop the diversion of pills, says J. Gerard Stranch, managing partner of Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, PLLC, the Nashville-based law firm that filed the lawsuit. The pill mills and dealers involved have written tens of thousands of opioid prescriptions and funneled millions of pills into our communities. The resulting illegal opioid trade has enriched the defendants at the expense of the citizens of Tennessee while causing immense suffering for those who become addicted.

The lawsuit demands judgment against the defendants for damages resulting from breaches of statutory and common law, seeks punitive damages against the defendants for their role in flooding Tennessee with illegal opioids, seeks to award restitution to the plaintiffs, and requests an injunction to stop the flood of opioids to the region.

The suit is the third such complaint filed in Tennessee in recent months. The first was filed in June 2017 in Sullivan County Circuit Court in Kingsport, and the second was filed in September 2017 in Campbell County Circuit Court in Jacksboro. Collectively, the three complaints represent 14 district attorneys general and 47 counties in Tennessee.

The filed complaint is available for download at http://tnbabydoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Suit3-Stamped-Complaint.pdf.

Background information, including contact information, related bios, complaint documents and media coverage of this issue, is available on www.tnbabydoe.com.
The outlook for economic development in the Scenic City is now a little sunnier. In December, the City of Chattanoogas Office of Sustainability was notified that the city is receiving a Bronze designation from the national SolSmart program for making it faster, easier, and more affordable for homes and businesses to go solar.

SolSmart is a U.S.

To the private sector, a SolSmart designation is a signal that Chattanooga is open for solar business, said Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. As solar power becomes cheaper and more prevalent, my administration has been working hard to make Chattanooga a leader among cities that want a more progressive energy economy to expand and grow here. This is both smart for the planet and great for economic development in our community. Were very proud to have earned this recognition from the U.S. Department of Energy and look forward to putting more solar companies to work here.

To earn SolSmart Bronze designation, the City of Chattanooga has:

Completed an exhaustive Planning, Zoning and Development review and presented the findings to the Planning Commission.

Established solar as a by-right and accessory building use in all major zones through an ordinance update completed in October of 2017.

Trained its permitting staff on best practices for permitting solar PV systems.

Provided an online permitting checklist for small-scale solar PV systems

Provided better safety to Chattanooga Fire Department staff responding to incidents by providing training on solar PV issues and sharing open-source permit data where PV systems are installed.

Encouraged the use of community solar projects on community facilities through the establishment of EPBs Solar Share project and a statement from Mayor Berke committing to supporting the development of additional solar assets in Chattanooga.

As a SolSmart designee, Chattanooga is helping solar companies greatly reduce the cost of installations and pass those savings on to consumers. This allows even more local homes and businesses to obtain affordable, clean, and reliable electricity through solar. The actions Chattanooga has taken will help encourage solar companies to do business in the area, driving economic development and creating local jobs.

To receive designation, cities and counties make changes to their local processes to reduce the time and money it takes to install a solar energy system. This includes evaluating local permitting processes as well as planning and zoning procedures. SolSmart designees also develop innovations in areas such as market development and finance.

In December, the City of Chattanooga also learned it will be included in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office - a no-cost training program for 50 cities and counties to help expand their use of solar photovoltaics (PV).

NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. NRELs mission is to advance the science and engineering of energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, and renewable power technologies and provides the knowledge to integrate and optimize energy systems.

Between joining the growing number of cities that have become SolSmart designated communities and the training we will receive from NREL, Chattanooga is making real progress toward implementing smarter, better energy policies, said Erik Schmidt, Chattanoogas director of Sustainability. These programs invite the participation of the private sector and will be a economic development engine for our local solar industry partners that want to grow in Chattanooga.
AUBURN  Edward F. Sobus Jr., 70, the husband of Denise McNabb Sobus, of Morris Street, Auburn died Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018.

A native of Auburn, Ed was a graduate of Central High School, class of 1965. He was a proud U.S. Air Force veteran, having served actively from 1966 to 1969 and during Desert Shield/Desert Storm from 1990 to 1991. After 25 years of service, Ed retired as a technical sergeant from the USAF National Guard, 174th Fighter Wing, Hancock Field, Syracuse.

He was an avid outdoorsman and loved hunting and fishing. Ed relished the time he spent teaching children how to fish and was an active volunteer and mentor in the annual Falcon Sportsmans Club fishing derby. He was a devout Catholic and an associate member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, JFK Div. 1 and also a member of the VFW Post 1975. Considered the "email king," Ed enjoyed his time on the computer, consistently sending jokes and political-themed correspondence to one and all.

In addition to his wife Denise, Ed is survived by two sons, Paul Sobus (Becky), of Ohio and Mark Sobus, of South Carolina; one brother, George Sobus (Cindy), of Cicero; two sisters, Beverly Beer (Tom) and Lori Lenhart (Tom), both of North Carolina; three stepchildren, Kristy, Casey and Corey Galbally; five grandchildren, Gianna, Zachary, Bryson, Kyle and Madeline; longtime friend, Kenny Kudla, whom Ed has known since grade school and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents Edward F. Sr. and Helen Fritz Sobus.

Friends are invited to join the family for a memorial Mass to be offered at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13 in St. Alphonsus Church. Calling hours will be conducted from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, with full military honors taking place at 7 p.m., in the Cheche Funeral Home Inc., 1778 Clark St. Road, Auburn.

Contributions may be made in memory of Ed to the Falcon Sportsmans Club, memo: Fishing Derby, 2947 Turnpike Road, Auburn, NY 13021. To offer condolences for the family, please visit www.chechefuneralhome.com.
Neutrons produced when a spin-aligned (polarized) proton collides with another proton come out with a slight rightward-skew preference. But when the polarized proton collides with a much larger gold nucleus, the neutrons' directional preference becomes larger and switches to the left. These surprising results imply that the mechanisms producing particles along the beam direction may be very different in these two types of collisions.

Brookhaven Lab physicist Alexander Bazilevsky and RIKEN physicist Itaru Nakagawa use billiards and a bowling ball to demonstrate surprising results observed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider's PHENIX detector when small particles collided with larger ones.

Imagine playing a game of billiards, putting a bit of counter-clockwise spin on the cue ball and watching it deflect to the right as it strikes its target ball. With luck, or skill, the target ball sinks into the corner pocket while the rightward-deflected cue ball narrowly misses a side-pocket scratch. Now imagine your counter-clockwise spinning cue ball striking a bowling ball instead, and deflecting even more strongly--but to the left--when it strikes the larger mass.

That's similar to the shocking situation scientists found themselves in when analyzing results of spinning protons striking different sized atomic nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)--a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory. Neutrons produced when a spinning proton collides with another proton come out with a slight rightward-skew preference. But when the spinning proton collides with a much larger gold nucleus, the neutrons' directional preference becomes larger and switches to the left.

"What we observed was totally amazing," said Brookhaven physicist Alexander Bazilevsky, a deputy spokesperson for the PHENIX collaboration at RHIC, which is reporting these results. "Our findings may mean that the mechanisms producing particles along the direction in which the spinning proton is traveling may be very different in proton-proton collisions compared with proton-nucleus collisions."

Understanding different particle production mechanisms could have big implications for interpreting other high-energy particle collisions, including the interactions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with particles in the Earth's atmosphere, Bazilevsky said.

Detecting particles' directional preferences

Spin physicists first observed the tendency of more neutrons to emerge slightly to the right in proton-proton interactions in 2001-2002, during RHIC's first polarized proton experiments. RHIC, which has been operating since 2000, is the only collider in the world with the ability to precisely control the polarization, or spin direction, of colliding protons, so this was new territory at the time. It took some time for theoretical physicists to explain the result. But the theory they developed, published in 2011, gave scientists no reason to expect such a strong directional preference when protons were colliding with larger nuclei, let alone a complete flip in the direction of that preference.

"We anticipated something similar to the proton-proton effect, because we couldn't think of any reasons why the asymmetry could be different," said Itaru Nakagawa, a physicist from Japan's RIKEN laboratory, who served as PHENIX's deputy run coordinator for spin measurements in 2015. "Can you imagine why a bowling ball would scatter a cue ball in the opposite direction compared with a target billiard ball?"

2015 was the year RHIC first collided polarized protons with gold nuclei at high energy, the first such collisions anywhere in the world. Minjung Kim--a graduate student at Seoul National University and the RIKEN-BNL Research Center at Brookhaven Lab--first noticed the surprisingly dramatic skew of the neutrons--and the fact that the directional preference was opposite to that seen in proton-proton collisions. Bazilevsky worked with her on data analysis and detector simulations to confirm the effect and make sure it was not an artifact from the detector or something to do with the adjustment of the beams. Then, Nakagawa worked closely with the accelerator physicists on a series of experiments to repeat the measurements under even more precisely controlled conditions.

"This was truly a collaborative effort between experimentalists and accelerator physicists who could tune such a huge and complicated accelerator facility on the fly to meet our experimental needs," Bazilevsky said, expressing gratitude for those efforts and admiration for the versatility and flexibility of RHIC.

The new measurements, which also included results from collisions of protons with intermediate-sized aluminum ions, showed the effect was real and that it changed with the size of the nucleus.

"So we have three sets of data--colliding polarized protons with protons, aluminum, and gold," Bazilevsky said. "The asymmetry gradually increases from negative in proton-proton--with more neutrons scattering to the right--to nearly zero asymmetry in proton-aluminum, to a large positive asymmetry in proton-gold collisions--with many more scatterings to the left."

Particle production mechanisms

To understand the findings, the scientists had to look more closely at the processes and forces affecting the scattering particles.

"In the particle world, things are much more complicated than the simple case of (spinning) billiard balls colliding," Bazilevsky said. "There are a number of different processes involved in particle scattering, and these processes themselves can interact or interfere with one another."

"The measured asymmetry is the sum of these interactions or interferences of different processes," said Kim.

Nakagawa, who led the theoretical interpretation of the experimental data, elaborated on the different mechanisms.

The basic idea is that, in the case of large nuclei such as gold, which have a very large positive electric charge, electromagnetic interactions play a much more important role in particle production than they do in the case when two small, equally charged protons collide.

"In the collisions of protons with protons, the effect of electric charge is negligibly small," Nakagawa said. In that case, the asymmetry is driven by interactions governed by the strong nuclear force--as the theory developed back in 2011 correctly described. But as the size, and therefore charge, of the nucleus increases, the electromagnetic force takes on a larger role and, at a certain point, flips the directional preference for neutron production.

The scientists will continue to analyze the 2015 data in different ways to see how the effect depends on other variables, such as the momentum of the particles in various directions. They'll also look at how preferences of particles other than neutrons are affected, and work with theorists to better understand their results.

Another idea would be to execute a new series of experiments colliding polarized protons with other kinds of nuclei not yet measured.

"If we observe exactly the asymmetry we predict based on the electromagnetic interaction, then this becomes very strong evidence to support our hypothesis," Nakagawa said.

In addition to providing a unique way to understand different particle production mechanisms, this new result adds to the puzzling story of what causes the transverse spin asymmetry in the first place--an open question for physicists since the 1970s. These and other results from RHIC's polarized proton collisions will eventually contribute to solving this question.
Hydrogenases are enzymes capable of making hydrogen gas (H2) using protons from water, a reaction with relevance to a potential future green energy economy based on H2.

Bacteria containing these enzymes often produce H2 as a waste product during sugar metabolism in the absence of oxygen. Meanwhile, other types of bacteria consume this H2 as an energy source. Hydrogenases, the key enzymes in both these processes, are only required under specific conditions, and so their synthesis inside the bacterium must be regulated in response to the amount of H2 present. This regulation is achieved using sensory hydrogenases capable of sensing and signaling the concentration of H2 to the bacterial protein synthesis machinery.

One particular class of sensory hydrogenases, the so-called sensory [FeFe] hydrogenases (HydS), have remained completely uncharacterized so far. Now, a team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mulheim an der Ruhr in Germany together with the Institute of Low Temperature Science at the University of Hokkaido in Japan, have produced and characterized a HydS enzyme from the thermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima. Using the recently developed technique of artificial maturation together with advanced spectroscopic methods, the researchers showed that the protein environment of the catalytic center is elegantly tuned to optimize this protein for its sensory function.

The researchers demonstrate that the catalytic center is very sensitive to low amounts of H2 allowing the enzyme to effectively signal the presence of H2 to the regulatory system of the bacterium. This research provides a key step forward for our understanding of how these sensory enzymes work. Furthermore, knowing which adaptations tailor the sensory enzymes for their function tells us about how the other [FeFe] hydrogenases that produce hydrogen work.

Ultimately, a complete picture of the enzyme mechanism may provide important clues for telling chemists how to build better catalysts for water electrolyzers and hydrogen fuel cells, allowing the dream of a future hydrogen energy economy to become a reality.
FLEMING  Joseph Hannig Jr., 86, of Fleming, passed away peacefully on Jan. 8, 2018 with his family by his side. Joseph was born on Dec. 8, 1931 to Josef and Hedwig Hannig, who were descendants of Germany. He married the love of his life, Rhonwynn Ann Moore, on Saturday, July 28, 1956.

Joseph graduated from Auburn East High School in June 1950. He entered into the U.S. Navy in March 1951 and was honorably discharged March 18, 1955. While serving our country he received the National Defense Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal. Upon his return to civilian life, he was employed at Columbian Rope, Bell Telephone/Verizon and GTE Sylvania. During his employment, he continued his education in the accounting and computer science fields, earning his degree from Syracuse University.

Together with his wife, Joseph served the Auburn community in many ways including youth clubs and Boy Scouts of America where he led many of his scouts to receive Eagle Scout status, an accomplishment he was extremely proud of. One of Joseph's greatest joys was performing for audiences in and around Cayuga County as a band member with the Cayugans and the Auburn Civic Band. He was an avid music enthusiast playing his clarinet whenever and wherever he could. He enjoyed the outdoors, camping, music, musicals and most of all spending time with his family.

Joseph is survived by his daughter, Traci Kowal (Keith); his grandchildren, Matthew Kidd, Michael Mahoney, Kaylee, Mitchell, Christian Hannig and Sara Wild (Richard); his great-grandchildren, Adriana, Evan and Ashton; and his sister, Betty Martellaro. He was predeceased by his wife fondly known as Ann; his sons, Michael and Christian; and his siblings, Walter, Helmet, William, Eric, Gary, Rose and Helen.

Per Joseph's wishes, there will be no calling hours. A memorial Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13 in The Episcopal Church of SS. Peter and John, 169 Genesee St., Auburn. Burial will be in Soule Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers or if you wish, donations may be made in Joseph's honor to the Fleming Ambulance #1 Inc, 6063 West Lake Rd, Auburn, NY 13021 or Hospice of Finger Lakes, 1130 Corporate Drive, Auburn, NY 13021.
LONDON  Arsene Wenger has revealed Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin is set to join Valencia.

Coquelin had been linked to the La Liga side before the January transfer window opened after making only one Premier League appearance for Arsenal this season.

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The 26-year-old Frenchman was also reported to have attracted interest from West Ham and Crystal Palace as Jack Wilshere's return to prominence with Arsenal blocked Coquelin's chances of a recall.

Having been left out of Arsenal's team for Wednesday's League Cup semi-final first leg draw at Chelsea, Wenger confirmed Coquelin will move to Spain.

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"He goes to Valencia. He didn't get enough games for us this season. He had an opportunity and I let him go," Wenger told reporters after the Chelsea match.
VERONA, Italy  Bologna's Croatian striker Bruno Petkovic has agreed a loan deal with Serie A rivals Verona, the club said Wednesday, a day after Brazilian Ryder Matos arrived from Udinese.

The 23-year-old Petkovic has played in Italy since joining Catania's youth academy in 2012, signing for Bologna in January 2017.

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Forward Matos arrived to play in Fiorentina as a 15-year-old, featuring in their youth team before returning to Brazil on loan in 2013.

The 24-year-old returned to Italy on a four-year deal with Udinese in 2016, making 35 appearances without scoring.

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Both players are on loan until June 30 next as promoted Verona battle for top flight survival.

They sit second last in the Italian league with 13 points from 20 games.
Previously homeless, Latesha Holmes owes the roof over her head to University of Illinois Hospital, among a handful of local hospitals starting to invest in permanent housing for chronically homeless patients in order to improve their health and reduce their costly emergency room visits. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

When Latesha Holman was homeless, she was a regular in Chicagos emergency rooms. Sometimes shed go four times in a single week, battling asthma and a raft of other health problems, though often she just sought refuge from the cold.

Not anymore. Holman, 45, has spent this nasty winter tucked in her cozy basement apartment, kept warm by a space heater, her morning mug of coffee and the joy of babysitting her infant granddaughter.

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Her symptoms have improved. Her depression has eased. Her hospital visits  and the high costs they incur  have plunged.

Since Ive been here I have never felt this good, really, Holman said as she sat in her tidy living room, still adorned with a white plastic Christmas tree she bought for the holidays.

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Holman owes the roof over her head to University of Illinois Hospital, among a handful of local hospitals starting to invest in permanent housing for chronically homeless patients in order to improve their health and reduce their costly emergency room visits.

The idea is that providing the homeless with stable housing in the long run costs less than leaving them to fend for themselves on the streets, where they are more vulnerable to illness, violence and desperation that ultimately drive up health care costs. U. of I. Hospital, in partnership with the nonprofit Center for Housing and Health, is leading an effort locally to get health care providers to put money toward getting the homeless housed.

The solution is cheaper than the problem, said Stephen Brown, director of preventive emergency medicine at the hospital and of its Better Health Through Housing initiative.

U. of I. Hospital, in the Illinois Medical District on the Near West Side, this week announced it will extend a pilot program it launched in 2015, committing an additional $250,000 to place 25 more chronically homeless patients into permanent homes.

While the housing itself, in scattered sites throughout the city and suburbs, is funded by grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the hospital pays $1,000 per month for each patient in the program to cover supportive services, including a case manager who helps participants get on their feet. Thats far less than the $3,000-per-day bill some chronically homeless patients ring up in the ER, the hospital said.

Results from the pilot suggest it is worth the investment. The average monthly health care cost per client in the pilot dropped 18 percent after they were provided with permanent housing, to $4,785 from $5,879, the hospital said.

The individual effort wont help the hospitals bottom line, Brown said. But he calculates that if every hospital in the area agrees to help house 10 chronically homeless patients, it could make a major dent in homelessness in the city and save money systemwide.

Cost reduction is not the only motivation for the investment. The core driver is health equity, Brown said, and the recognition that homelessness itself is a dangerous health condition that hospitals should help alleviate.

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If someone came in with cancer, we would do extraordinary things to keep them alive, Brown said. The irony is that if someone with a dangerous condition like homelessness comes in, we dismiss them.

Homeless people are at high risk of pulmonary disease, traumatic brain injury, HIV/AIDS and head and neck cancers, possibly because of higher rates of smoking and alcohol use. Their expected lifespans are 25 years shorter than average, according to some studies.

Most of the major hospital systems in the area, including Northwestern Memorial and University of Chicago Medicine, are at the table on the homeless housing issue, Brown said, and a handful have programs underway.

Swedish Covenant Hospital, in the Ravenswood neighborhood, recently agreed to invest $75,000 to provide 10 chronically homeless patients with permanent housing and support services for a year.

Rush University Medical Center, in the Illinois Medical District, plans to launch a pilot program this spring to provide housing and support services for up to five chronically homeless patients.

Both programs are modeled after the one at U. of I. Hospital and partner with the Center for Housing and Health, a subsidiary of the AIDS Foundation, to identify available apartments via 28 supportive housing providers with HUD grants. Presence Health plans to launch a similar pilot this year.

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Separately, the Cook County Health and Hospitals System in August partnered with the nonprofit Housing Forward to connect homeless patients with 33 permanent supportive housing units in west and south suburban Cook County. The system has committed to spending $400,000 for the first 12 months.

You have to spend money to ultimately save money, or better use the resources you have, said Mary Sajdak, senior director of integrated care at the county health system. Some homeless patients eager to get out of the cold have gotten good at describing a set of symptoms that they know will land them in a bed for a few days, she said.

Julie Dworkin, director of policy for the Chicago Coalition of the Homeless, said tapping local and private funding sources for housing the homeless is critical given uncertain federal funding.

There is really great evidence that if you get people into permanent housing and they have intensive support services, that can resolve homelessness for them permanently, she said.

There were about 5,657 homeless people living on Chicagos streets or in shelters on a given night last year, according to a city count, down 4 percent from 2016. But most homeless people stay with friends or family, and if you count them the citys homeless population is upward of 82,200, said Dworkin, whose estimate is based on Census data.

One lesson U. of I. Hospital learned from its pilot is that it sees far more homeless patients than it realized. It initially identified 48 homeless patients in the emergency room, based on staff observations, but as it scrutinized admissions data it found many more people list homeless shelters or hospitals as their home addresses, Brown said.

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The hospital now has 616 people in its system who are likely homeless and estimates it has seen more than 3,000 homeless patients since 2010. It reviewed the hospital usage of a sample of homeless patients and found 32 percent were in the highest cost classification, which means their care cost seven to 70 times more than the typical patient.

While many are sick, and their health problems are exacerbated by homelessness, those just seeking warmth are getting the priciest bed in town. It costs about $1,500 a night for a bed in the emergency room, Brown said.

If we got them a place in the Four Seasons, it would be cheaper, he said.

While most of the patients invited to participate in the housing program are superutilizers  meaning they visit the emergency room more than eight times are year  thats not the only criteria. A team that includes staff from the ER, social work, psychiatry, oncology and other departments convenes to discuss which patients health would be most helped by having housing, such as those with multiple diseases that require frequent outpatient visits.

All participants must meet HUDs definition of being chronically homeless, which means they have been homeless for at least a year or on four separate occasions over the last three years.

Picking the right people to thrive is a challenge. Of the 26 participants in U. of I. Hospitals initial pilot, just 11 remain in their housing units. Four people died, one entered hospice, two could not live independently and eight left the program for various reasons.

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Going forward, it may be better recruit patients who arent so severely ill, so that they can continue to improve, and put the sicker people in more appropriate environments like skilled nursing homes, said Peter Toepfer, executive director of the Center for Housing and Health.

The transition to housing isnt easy. Holman, who moved into her cozy basement apartment in Chicagos East Garfield Park neighborhood a year ago, said it was difficult to live by herself after being on the street, off and on, for 15 years, often sleeping in abandoned houses or in shelters surrounded by other homeless people. She didnt know how to go food shopping or stay on top of her medications or many doctors appointments: liver, heart, dentist, foot, psychiatrist. Alone in her apartment, she felt afraid.

She credits her improvement to the help of her case manager and her children, with whom she has reconnected since moving into her new home. Now, she said, its a piece of cake, though she still feels lonely.

Larry Haynes, Holmans case manager, said Holman was nervous at first about the program, and a key challenge was building trust and rapport to help her understand the importance of seeing doctors for preventive care. While some participants may be steered toward job training or education to become more independent, the priority for Holman is to stabilize her health, said Haynes, housing case manager at Christian Community Health Center, which subleases the apartment to Holman. He has been encouraging her to join a local church to make friends.

Holman said she feels better since gaining a stable home and regular medical care. She has an asthma pump for the first time. Her biggest goal for 2018 is to stop smoking.

The mother of four also has been able to sit down with her children  aged 17 through 26  and clarify misconceptions they had about her life. Earlier this month, she cooked up a feast in her spacious kitchen to surprise her youngest daughter on her birthday, an emotional moment for all.

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Her daughter later told her, Mom, I want to be like you when I grow up, have my own place, Holman recalled. Shed never heard that before.

aelejalderuiz@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @alexiaer
Intel Corp. CEO Brian Krzanich delivers a keynote address at CES 2018 at Park Theater at Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on January 8, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Intel Corp. CEO Brian Krzanich delivers a keynote address at CES 2018 at Park Theater at Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on January 8, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Two U.S. lawmakers are calling for an investigation into whether Intel's CEO, Brian Krzanich, improperly sold company stock after learning of a serious security flaw in the tech giants' microchips but before it was publicly disclosed.

Intel sent the technology industry scrambling earlier this month when it announced that the microchips powering nearly every computer and smartphone have for years carried fundamental flaws that can be exploited by hackers. The flaws, dubbed Meltdown and Spectre, flow from designs that allowed computers to operate more quickly and efficiently.

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"Security is job number one for Intel and our industry," Krzanich said during the CES tech industry trade show earlier this week.

Now some lawmakers are questioning a large stock sale by the company's chief executive late last year that was made before the news was made public, sending the company's stock price down.

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"This is exactly the type of report of suspicious trading that the SEC routinely investigates as well as the DOJ," said Brandon Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Intel learned of the security flaw in June and several months later, in late November, Krzanich exercised and sold nearly 900,000 company shares and stock options, making about $24 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The sale reduced Krzanich's holdings in company stock by 50 percent to the minimum number of shares he's required to own, according to Intel corporate policy.

Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and John Kennedy, R-La., have requested that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department investigate the stock sale. The stock sale raises "concerns of potential insider trading," they said in a letter this week to the agencies. "We request that you conduct a thorough examination of whether any insider trading laws were violated."

The SEC and Justice Department declined to comment.

Intel, which has said there was nothing improper in Krzanich's stock sale, said they were aware of the letter. "We will cooperate fully with any governmental inquiries or investigations," the company said in a statement.

Proving that the stock sale was improper could be tough, legal experts say. Federal prosecutors would have to show Krzanich's stock sale was motivated by his knowledge of nonpublic information and not a normal part of managing his financial portfolio, they said.

"Many such investigations . . . do not proceed to any kind of civil much less criminal penalty," said Garrett, the law professor. "A CEO would likely have received legal advice before making any trades of this type."

The company said Krzanich's stock sale was part of a predetermined plan that legal experts say are usually established to shield corporate executives from accusations of insider trading. "Brian's sale is unrelated" to discovery of the security flaw, Intel said in a statement. "It was made pursuant to a pre-arranged stock sale plan (10b5-1) with an automated sale schedule. He continues to hold shares in-line with corporate guidelines."

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But Krzanich's stock sale had already grabbed the attention of InsiderScore, which advises large investors about stock sales by corporate insiders. Since 2015, Krzanich had methodically sold a small amount of stock on a monthly or quarterly basis, said Ben Silverman, a researcher at the firm. But previous sales did not exceeded 80,000 shares - a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of shares of stock and options he sold in late November, Silverman said.

"Just for him, it was a big change in behavior. He is suddenly selling an enormous amount of stock," Silverman said. "It was already on our radar absent anything else."

It is also unusual for a chief executive to only hold the minimum of shares required, he said.

"At a company with that type of profile when you see the CEO have such an outlier type of sale it is going to raise some alarms," Silverman said.

Last year, several high-level Equifax executives faced similar scrutiny about their sale of nearly $2 million in stock shortly after the company learned of a major data breach but before it was made public. Equifax, a major consumer credit reporting agency, disclosed that hackers had obtained sensitive information, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth, for more than 140 million people.

The breach began in May and was discovered by the company on July 29. Shortly afterward, three company executives - Chief Financial Officer John Gamble; Joseph Loughran III, the president of U.S. information solutions; and Rodolfo Ploder, the president of workforce solutions - sold large amounts of their shares of Equifax stock. It did not announce the problem to the public for another month, sending its stock price plummeting.

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Equifax established a special committee to review the response to the hack, including the stock sales. The committee determined the executives had done nothing wrong. "None of the four executives had knowledge of the incident when their trades were made," according to the committee's report. The executives complied with Equifax policy and "none of the four executives engaged in insider trading."
Elgin Development Group representatives touted the organization's 2017 accomplishments, citing success in bringing a dozen companies to the city last year.

The group met or exceeded the guidelines it has in its contract, Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce Chairman-elect Mike Warren told the Elgin City Council during a presentation Wednesday night. On the scorecard are items such as retaining and drawing businesses to the city, Warren noted. Warren served on the City Council from 2009 - 2011 and currently is employed as a Workspace Culture Consultant at Rieke Office Interiors.

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The development group is an arm of the Chamber and is in the second year of a three-year contract for $275,000 a year to provide the city with economic development work. Warren said that, at the request of City Manager Rick Kozal, the group would be holding quarterly conversations at Elgin City Council meetings.

Tony Lucenko, economic development director for the organization, told the City Council there are 5,600 businesses in Elgin, and about half are service-related. The biggest employer is the J.P. Morgan Chase operations center on the west side, and the city has a good amount of advanced manufacturing operations involved in industries such as plastics and packaging, he said.

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"Elgin's economy is diverse and not over-reliant on any one sector," Lucenko said.

Lucenko mentioned three businesses in which the group played a role in getting to locate to Elgin locations: Vancouver-based SureWerx, a supplier of tools, safety products and services; Kabat American, which specials in replacement parts for farm equipment; and St. Charles Trading, a global supplier of food ingredients. The latter two will be opening their Elgin operations in 2018, according to Lucenko.

"In the last two years, we've assisted 25 companies who either expanded here or located in Elgin," Lucenko said.

Lucenko said the group works with the International Council of Shopping Centers to try to bring retailers to Elgin. The city has had losses, too, Lucenko said. Of the work itself, "It's not a lot of fancy stuff," he said.

Director Bob Malm told the City Council that Elgin's unemployment rate has been under 5 percent since May, and the lowest it's been in 10 years. Malm oversees the group's workforce development efforts, which include having a committee made up of representatives from the business community, School District U46 and Elgin Community College.

Council member Terry Gavin noted his involvement with the workforce development group and praised its professionalism. Of great interest, Gavin said, is tackling the challenge of preparing the workforce for the jobs that exist and will exist in the market.

Council member Rose Martinez noted that the group has always been approachable, and Chamber President and CEO Carol Gieske informed her that the development group has 100 volunteers from the business community "who believe in Elgin."

Gieske said the Chamber also provides value to institutions in Elgin's backyard, including offering office space for consultation sessions offered by Northern Illinois University's EIGERlab's Center for Product Development.

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Council member Rich Dunne noted the Chamber and the group are picking up slack left by the closing of the Small Business Center at ECC. Gieske mentioned the Chamber soon will be offering another session of its Small Business Academy for entrepreneurs looking to start their own companies, and which takes a realistic approach.

"We say, just because you like cookies, it doesn't mean you should open a bakery," Gieske said.

"I might have to steal that line," Dunne quipped.

mdanahey@tribpub.com
Daniel Gutierrez Sr., owner of Nuevo Leon, which was the oldest restaurant in Pilsen before it was destroyed in a fire, talks at Canton Regio, his son's restaurant, about how the neighborhood has changed over the years. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Months after two Pilsen restaurants were tagged with anti-gentrification graffiti  a flashpoint in a long-simmering problem  community organizers, activists and business owners are having tough conversations about how to move forward, but tension remains high.

What happened (to S.K.Y.), I never want that to happen again, said Stephen Gillanders, executive chef and co-owner of the contemporary American restaurant, one of the two businesses hit, but all the good that came from it, frankly, made it worth it.

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Late last October in Pilsen, anti-gentrification sentiments boiled over with racially charged slang graffiti spray-painted on S.K.Y. and high-end pub Duseks, both at 18th and Allport streets. In big black letters, both restaurants were tagged, with "YT PPL OUTTA PILSEN" on S.K.Y.s brick wall, and "Get Out" on Dusek's window. No one has claimed responsibility for the graffiti.

That night, community group ChiResists posted two meme-style photos on Facebook, one of the graffiti on Duseks and another of a family being evicted in Logan Square. The captions read, When ppl care more about graffiti, Than they care about the economic instability and displacement created by gentrification.

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The graffiti renewed conversations about Pilsen, its communities and increased development in recent years. Those discussions may ultimately provide a guide for other communities experiencing change in the midst of political, immigration and housing insecurities. Since the incident, activists have voiced concerns and fears about rising rents and taxes, displacement of long-term residents and more, while business owners  particularly restaurateurs  have grappled with how to gain acceptance within the existing community.

We do have real challenges: The displacement, the evictions, they are real. The frustrations are real, said Byron Sigcho, director of Pilsen Alliance, a social justice and anti-gentrification organization founded in 1998.

According to an oft-cited 2016 analysis of U.S. Census Bureau statistics since 2000, by University of Illinois at Chicago Urban Planning and Policy professor John J. Betancur and doctoral candidate Youngjun Kim, about 10,000 Latino residents have left Pilsen since 2000. In their stead, single, wealthier (often white) people have moved in  a point expressed by local community groups, such as ChiResists, in the wake of recent events.

In his accompanying analysis, Betancur stated that retail establishments are replacing Mexican-owned mom-and-pop stores with upscale restaurants, bars, and cafes owned by White individuals or chains. They have been joined most recently by brew pubs and bars selling craft beers, specialty coffee shops, and expensive restaurants catering to younger and wealthier populations.

Further, the report cited new large-scale developments and smaller infill projects or rehabs as deserving part of the blame for waves of property price increases, studentification, and speculation, with major displacing effects reflected in the decline of the population and an apparent weeding out of the most vulnerable households.

The community is searching for answers.

How do we get that pain and frustration into something like policy in a community benefits agreement (CBA)? said Sigcho. Pilsen Alliance has defined a CBA as an enforceable contract between developers and the community, usually without government involvement; the group is now also negotiating agreements with independent restaurant owners. We have people on both ends who are willing to do that, so what we need is leadership that glues things together.

Though gentrification reaches far beyond food and beverages, restaurants seem to be a primary target for anti-gentrification activists. Pilsen is home to chains like McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts and Giordanos. Yet some businesses that have been targeted by anti-gentrification sentiments in recent years  Canton Regio, Dia de Los Tamales, S.K.Y  are not owned by white people or corporations, but ethnically diverse proprietors.

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Unlike real estate developer offices or art galleries, coffee shops, cafes, restaurants and bars are publicly accessible and visible  theyre literally open-door businesses and, moreover, attract a clientele from outside the community. Anti-gentrification activists, in turn, blame these businesses for rent and property tax increases, home displacement and eviction. New restaurants have been targeted before last fall.

La Catrina Cafe, owned by wife-husband team Diana Galicia and Salvador Corona, was regularly hit with gang graffiti when it first opened in 2013; that is until 2014 when respected local artist Salvador Vega painted a mural on the cafe. In 2015, Bow Truss Coffee Roasters in Pilsen was papered with protest signs.

Jeni Wahl, co-owner of Dia de los Tamales, which opened in 2013, faced similar problems. When we first opened we got a lot of that same flak that the new businesses are receiving now. That was really difficult for me, especially being Latina myself but not from Pilsen.

In late October, a week before the graffiti incident, several Chicago community groups, including ChiResists, organized a free event, Boyle Heights to Pilsen: A Teach In on Resisting Gentrification, at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Event organizers invited Defend Boyle Heights, a Los Angeles-based anti-gentrification coalition, to share its strategies. Let's build a national front against displacement across the country! wrote the Boyle Heights coalition in a video of the event posted to its Facebook page.

The visiting and local group members also walked through Pilsen to see the neighborhoods gentrification and connect what was occurring with other global movements. Defend Boyle Heights captured the tour in a Facebook live video, captioned with the hashtags #GentrificaionIsViolence and #gentrificationiswhitesupremacy. Two blocks in, they approached the brightly lit, whitewashed brick walls of S.K.Y. restaurant. Some group members gestured obscenely through windows at workers preparing for a pre-opening test dinner; one wrote FU on breath-steamed glass. Restaurant general manager Charles Ford walked outside, then asked, Is there anything we can do to help? The person recording the video repeatedly replied, Get the f*** out! After three minutes, Ford reached for his phone. The group believed he was calling the police, derided him, then left. They walked across the street toward Thalia Hall, where Duseks is located; the video shows that one of the group members slapped the buildings stone and said, The No. 1 gentrifying f****** place in Pilsen right now!

A week later, ChiResists reacted to the incident by posting a lengthy statement on Facebook regarding S.K.Y. restaurant and gentrification. (Calling police) is gentrification in a nutshell: to claim to want to be a part of the community and then immediately act to get rid of us.  All we did was express our fears, rightful frustration and demanded an end to business practices that accelerate our displacement.

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S.K.Y and Duseks were tagged the following day.

I dont think vandalism and graffiti are productive in any circumstance, Bruce Finkelman, managing partner of 16 on Center, owner of Thalia Hall, Duseks, Punch House and Tack Room piano bar, wrote in a statement. All the businesses opened in 2013, except for Tack Room, which was added in 2015. Finkelman released his statement via a spokesperson after declining repeated interview requests. If theres a constructive and peaceful way to work through these issues together, please tell me when and where, and we will be there.

That opportunity seemed to present itself in November, a month after the graffiti incident. In an event called What Is the Role of New Businesses Coming Into Pilsen?, Pilsen Alliance and the group Illinois Humanities organized an evening for community members and business owners to converse about rising tensions in the community.

The organizations invited restaurant owners, but the event was 6-8 p.m. on a Thursday during peak dinner hours; no restaurant owners attended. The event yielded mixed results: Profanities were aimed at the restaurants, while other participants voiced concerns about further displacement of longtime Pilsen residents, and new businesses were encouraged to be proactive versus reactive when engaging with the community.

Im third generation of the Nuevo Leon family, founded by my fathers parents in 1962, said Daniel Gutierrez Jr., owner of Canton Regio restaurant across the street, which opened in 2016. Nuevo Leon was the oldest restaurant in Pilsen until a fire burned the building to the ground in 2015.

When we opened Canton Regio, I wanted to keep in mind the community, but it was still quite difficult, said Gutierrez. Any restaurant that comes to Pilsen has to keep in mind that money is tight, so you have to keep things affordable for locals.

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HaiSous restaurant and Ca Phe Da cafe opened in June and October 2017 respectively, after the owners spent two years developing a plan for working with the community.

Me and my family, we were refugees from Vietnam. Were mindful and respectful of everyone around because Im an immigrant, said chef Thai Dang. The first thing we talked about was how can we let the community know were here and incorporate our neighbors? He and wife Danielle, director of operations, co-own the businesses.

Now we have 19 people who live in the neighborhood working here; thats 19 families, he said. And we talked about not having a cappuccino machine, lattes and espressos at the cafe.

Go to our friends at La Catrina Cafe (for espresso drinks) instead, who are part of the fabric of the community, Danielle added.

Gillanders of S.K.Y. echoed the sentiment. We had a conversation with some of the other business owners, (who told us) when a new business comes in, we should let them know these are the people you should talk to, let them know who you are. Like when you move into a new house, you should go see your neighbor and be like, Heres a piece of banana bread.

ChiResists, founded in 2016, is an organizing platform originally focused on fighting the installation of the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, but we've been transitioning to help people in the neighborhood, said Amara Betty, artist, educator and organizer. In December, Betty organized a Winter Survival Give Back event at La Catrina, collecting food and clothing for local families and the homeless.

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People look at Pilsen and think its some mecca of fine dining or art, but it really is a community. I think genuine human interaction is going to be the most valuable thing for people starting a business or visiting, said Betty. Thalia Hall has a venue in Hyde Park, The Promontory, that caters very beautifully to the African-American community. Why cant we have the same consideration or respect?

Contributing to the community can be more than just a monetary commitment. We do kind of feel the tension, but we work hard to try to be accepted by the neighborhood, and we think it's working, said Shin Thompson, chef and partner of Furious Spoon, which opened a Pilsen location in May 2017. Every year for Thanksgiving at our Wicker Park location, we offered free bowls of ramen for anyone in need. We expanded that this year to Pilsen because I thought it would be appreciated.

Furious Spoon also pledged to donate proceeds from a Thanksgiving social media campaign to Pilsen Alliance, which netted $500. Next year we will do a bigger marketing campaign to get more people involved, said Thompson.

We're also trying to hire people who live in the community, said Thompson. We have a pretty small staff, but we're always looking to hire people who live in the area. Its a work in progress, for sure.

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

La Catrina Cafe owners Galicia and Corona open their business to community members. We make the space available mainly to up-and-coming artists, said Corona.

Both sides of the aisle  businesses and activists  agree on wanting the best for Pilsen.

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Its great to see a lot of millennials and families coming back, because in the 80s and 90s, people didn't really give Pilsen a chance, said Alex Esparza, executive director of Eighteenth Street Development Corp., founded in 1976. The organization is planning to launch a chamber of commerce with the community in early 2018, which will address not only gentrification but Pilsens viability. If we don't take advantage and really be a positive influence in the community now, we might not have that opportunity in the future.

For the owners of La Catrina, the only constant is change. Weve got to adapt to it and make the best of it, said Corona. I know theres a negative vibe about the gentrification, but its unavoidable. We like the change.

Said Galicia, Embrace whats happening, but lets not forget who we are, where we come from and continue our culture. Keep that alive, keep it going.

lchu@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @louisachu

[ Pilsen neighborhood guide: What to eat, drink and do ]

[ A beery evening stroll through the new breweries of old Pilsen ]

[ Gutierrezes tell the story of what happened after Nuevo Leon burnt down ]
Happily offering a good time to James Stewart in Its a Wonderful Life, driving Humphrey Bogart to murderous distraction in In a Lonely Place, the sullenly sensual Hollywood legend Gloria Grahame lived a turbulent life (four marriages, one to her stepson by onetime husband Nicholas Ray) that ended in 1981, at age 57.

Her final, cancer-ridden years were spent in the company of a Liverpool actor, Peter Turner. They met in a London boarding house. At the time Grahame was playing Somerset Maughams hotsy-totsy sinner Sadie Thompson in Rain for a local theater troupe. Turner was working in a furniture shop, looking for acting jobs. They fell together, and ended up traveling to California, New York and Las Vegas. Grahame liked Turners working-class family, and when she took seriously ill, she spent a lot of time in the council house flat of her lovers youth.

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Film Stars Dont Die in Liverpool, based on Turners 1986 memoir, is worth seeing for the way Annette Bening handles the role of a Hollywood icon on the fade. With delicacy as well as fire, Bening doesnt strive to re-create the physical or vocal specifics of Grahame, whom we see in film clips from Naked Alibi and glamour photos from throughout her younger years.

Rather, Bening creates her own version of events, working from the efficient, well-ordered script by Matt Greenhalgh. The movie, directed by Paul McGuigan, may be a bit tame and well-behaved for its subjects. But its a valentine, not a psychodrama.

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Bening energizes each scene with a voice that floats and a look that singes. Always played the tart, one character puts it in the movie. Big name in black and white films. Not doing so well in color, though. At her best, Bening gives Grahame the pride of a true star, right alongside the jagged edges and insecurities of a woman who has been through the Hollywood mill. As Turner, Jamie Bell matches Bening stride for stride, creating a quiet characterization of a young man with a secret or two. (At one point Turner and Grahame acknowledge their bisexual pasts.)

The family scenes open up what is essentially a two-hander. Julie Walters and Kenneth Cranham are seasoned delights as Turners parents. In the Southern California sequences, set in and around Grahames humble mobile home with the fabulous view of the Pacific, Vanessa Redgrave gets a juicy scene as Grahames British mother. As Grahames mean, gossipy sister, Frances Barber shares that scene, which introduces to Peter the dark family secret: Grahames long-ago marriage to her stepson, whom she allegedly slept with when he was 13.

The movie doesnt take the sisters side, or get into much beyond the May/December romance at hand. Film Stars Dont Die in Liverpool is best enjoyed as an acting showcase and, in particular, an excellent actress take on a very different sort of excellent actress.

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

[ RELATED: Annette Bening and Jamie Bell nominated for England's BAFTA film awards for 'Liverpool' ]

[ Interview, Jamie Bell and the real-life Peter Turner, author of 'Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool' ]

[ 'Phantom Thread' review: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Thomas Anderson team up for the last time? ]
In "The Commuter," Liam Neeson's just trying to get home to his wife and son. But it's January, and it's a Liam Neeson action movie, so ... (Jay Maidment / Lionsgate)

Theres a moment in The Commuter when the newly unemployed insurance salesman and former cop played by Liam Neeson is informed that his adversaries will be coming after his wife and son. Have these fools not seen the Taken movies? Dont they realize that such a threat is simply going to make Liam Neeson mad?

This is the fourth teaming of Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra, men who have made millions racing against the clock. The Commuter was preceded by Unknown (2011, Neeson vs. identity theft in Berlin), Non-Stop (2014, Neeson vs. murderous extortionists on a transatlantic flight) and Run All Night (2015, Neeson vs. the mob, and the pavement). You can dismiss these as implausible, overheated and daffy, but the person sitting next to you probably enjoyed them, to varying degrees, for those same qualities. I was that person sitting next to you.

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Downsized at age 60, saddled with debts, suburban New Yorker Michael MacCauley (Neeson) meets his old friend from the police force (Patrick Wilson) for beers on his final day at work. Then he does what he has done for 10 years, day in, day out. He boards his Metro-North out of Grand Central Station, this time steeling himself for sharing the bad news with his real estate seller wife (Elizabeth McGovern) and college-bound son (Dean-Charles Chapman).

A stranger on the train, played by Vera Farmiga, makes Michael an offer. If he can locate a specific passenger with a mysterious bag somewhere on the train and plant a GPS on her/him, for reasons she wont reveal but that surely involve murder, then he gets $100,000 for his finders fee. She mentions theres another bag, containing a $25,000 down payment, hidden in a restroom compartment on the train.

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The second Michael touches that money, hes in deep. The woman pops off the train but keeps in electronic touch, knows his every move and reminds him, constantly, testily, of his deadline. One passenger dies as a warning, then another, as Michael frantically searches for the mystery passenger.

After a half-hour of klutzing around with the exposition, The Commuter flings Neeson into full-on, CGI-assisted derring-do mode. The latter would be more effective if we gave a rip about the former. The conspiracy behind the absurdly complicated plan to frame Michael for the on-board carnage is so haphazardly laid out, by the time we come to the reveals and the train derailment climax the audience is still sorting through what the screenwriters shouldve taken care of in the early scenes.

The Commuter, then, is one of those movies with good things going in one direction, and cheesy things going in the other. The ever-valuable Farmiga is a faceless voice after her sole on-screen appearance, and director Collet-Serras frantic, hand-held technique ensures that every supporting player looks as guilty as possible. The cast includes some aces, though, notably Florence Pugh from Lady Macbeth and Jonathan Banks from Better Call Saul. The movie goes off the rails somewhat before the train does, but the star gives it the ol Liam Neeson, which Liam Neeson can do better than anybody.

Michael Phillips is the Chicago Tribune film critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

[ RELATED: Tribune review, 'Non-Stop': Neeson in the bleak midwinter is as much of a tradition as "Groundhog Day" ]

[ Review, 'Run All Night': Liam Neeson vs. the mob ]

[ Review: Blake Lively vs. a shark in 'The Shallows,' from 'Commuter' director Jaume Collet-Serra ]
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Art Design Chicago is a project that will include various events throughout the year and across the city and region meant to showcase Chicagos legacy as an inspiration for artists and designers. Elizabeth Glassman is president and CEO of Chicagos Terra Foundation for American Art, an organization that has developed the idea of Art Design Chicago and is its principal funder. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

As the millennium turned in Chicago, the Terra Museum of American Art was on many peoples lists of favorite little places, an oasis of culture on crass North Michigan Avenue roughly in the space the Harley-Davidson store now occupies.

But that compact gem, home to an inspiring permanent collection and compelling special exhibitions, closed in 2004 and suddenly the Terra Foundation for American Art, the museums backer, was largely out of the public eye. It still had a treasure trove of artworks and a big endowment to wield, but its focus shifted to, largely, backstage work.

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That is changing in a major way this year. Art Design Chicago, developed, guided and primarily funded by the Terra, aims to bring into sharper focus the contributions to visual culture made in this city in the past 125 years: rounding out the story of American art to include more from the middle, not just the coasts, as Jennifer Siegenthaler, Terras lead Chicago grantmaker, put it.

It is a first-of-its-kind, $7.9 million effort that will see more than two dozen exhibitions, 100 public programs, more than a dozen digital and media projects and academic programs, and untold paragraphs worth of new writing on the citys visual legacy in venues citywide and into some of the suburbs.

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Art Design Chicago is already underway, with three exhibitions on minority artists best known for their mural work, and the coming months will bring major new shows on painter Charles White, photographer Kenneth Josephson, the Hairy Who? art collective and Chicago mid-century design work. (The complete list is at artdesignchicago.org.)

In the fall University of Chicago Press will publish a history of Chicago art from 1871 to 2010, and WTTW-Ch. 11 will debut a documentary series exploring the same topic, backed by ADC funds, which also include contributions from the Driehaus Foundation and others.

And the Terra says it is holding back announcement of some other special events in order to be able to goose interest in the event as the year rolls along.

At the end of 2018 I would love for people to recognize how Chicagos art and design legacy inspires contemporary ideas, Elizabeth Glassman, president and CEO of the Terra, said in announcing the initiative at a Cultural Center event last spring.

It all took more than five years to plan: Five years of meetings with the more than three dozen cultural organizations that ended up being partners, of reviewing proposals for exhibitions and events to fund, of shaping the scope and the selling of this far-reaching event.

Its also a direct investment of $6.5 million in funding from the Terra, which typically gives away between $10 million and $15 million annually, Glassman said.

So to finally have the year arrive has been exciting in the usually reserved headquarters of the foundation, still located in that same building where Harley-Davidson and Tommy Bahama sell wares.

January came, and were like, OK, were ready!  Glassman said in an interview last week. Its thrilling, it really is. I cant wait for the year.

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I'm not sure if I've had any surprises, Glassman added. I think you have to ask me that at the end when I've seen the exhibitions. A lot of these artists I don't know. But there are some themes that have emerged that we can see: the importance of the South Side; the importance of the Institute of Design (at IIT, formerly the New Bauhaus); the importance of social action art, social justice  that is very much a thread in Chicago; the importance of the manufacturing and distribution that was here.

They thought, briefly, about calling the initiative Lake Effect, but although that has more poetry as a title, it would also prove inscrutable to those who dont know the term, the planners feared. A title based on the idea of central time might have worked, but that would have been too close to Pacific Standard Time, an ongoing initiative of Los Angeles Getty Foundation that has boosted the profile of that citys artwork  and was an inspiration for the Terra.

One of our curators  we never considered it seriously  but he said we should call it From the Fire to the Fridge, Glassman said. I thought it was hysterical.

And the foundations primary goal, Glassman and Siegenthaler said, has been to call attention to Chicagos legacy even as it stimulates cooperation and the exchange of knowledge among cultural institutions.

But if, along the way, people here become more aware of the Terra, that wont be a bad thing, either.

Daniel J. Terra, a Pennsylvania native who settled in Chicago as a young adult, was a chemist who made his money mostly in printing inks. As his Northbrook firm Lawter International grew, he became an avid collector  and booster  of American art.

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Terra (1911-1996) started the foundation in 1978 and opened the first Terra Museum in Evanston in 1980. It moved to Chicago in 1987. The foundation operated a second American art museum, in Giverny, France, from 1992 to 2009; that has become a French-owned museum of Impressionism.

There was family infighting that resulted in legal action around the turn of the millennium. But with the closing of the Michigan Avenue museum in 2004, the foundation emerged with a purpose, Glassman said: It decided it could be more effective as a museum without walls. Its motto: Bringing American Art to the World and the World to American Art.

There was a lot of trouble at the Terra, but now we've gone to being the terrific Terra, she said. Our mission hasn't changed. It's still to promote American art. The question is, Do you want to run two museums where the audiences that you can impact are limited to those people who visit? Or do you want to go out to the audiences?

At the time the foundations practice changed, about 10 to 15 percent of our grant requests were from non-US museums that wanted to do projects on American art, Glassman said. Now it is about 65 to 70 percent. There is a growing respect for American art, she said.

With an endowment of about $380 million, the foundation owns some 750 artworks (and continues to collect); about 30 percent of them are on loan at any one time, executives said, including a sizable collection on semi-permanent loan to the Art Institute. (Among the Terra works typically on display there is Walt Kuhns potent Clown with Drum, usually found in the same gallery as Edward Hoppers Nighthawks.)

In addition to loaning art and making grants not only for exhibitions but for publications and teaching fellowships, the foundation remains very much in the exhibition game. In 2018, it is a co-organizer with Oxfords Ashmolean Museum of Americas Cool Modernism: OKeeffe to Hopper, going up at the Ashmolean in March; Pathways to Modernism: American Art 18651945, organized in partnership with the Art Institute, begins in September at Chinas Shanghai Museum.

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We have a big profile outside of the United States, said Glassman. In fact, I laughed one night. I was at a reception. We had funded something at the National Gallery in London where we work with them quite regularly. And those trustees knew more about the foundation than people in Chicago do. So now well correct that.

I'd like people to know that we're here and that we're supporting Chicago institutions and that we are taking Chicago also around the world. We always said we're a Chicago-based organization.

But really, Ill be happy when people just go to the exhibitions. If they get a new curiosity about Chicago's art and design legacy, if they get a new understanding about the richness of what happened in the past and what's happening now, I'll be thrilled.

sajohnson@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @StevenKJohnson

[ RELATED: 40 institutions to team for Art Design Chicago ]

[ Art Design Chicago adds field trips, two exhibitions ]

[ Terra Museum fight reveals complex family story ]
On March 10, 1985, Tribune columnists Michael Sneed and Cheryl Lavin announced that an actress named Molly Regan had joined the ensemble of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Regans calling card had been Austin Pendletons famous 1984 production of Lanford Wilsons translation of Anton Chekhovs Three Sisters, featuring Joan Allen as Masha, Rondi Reed as Natasha, Moira Harris as Irina and Regan as Olga.

Regan, whose arrival at Steppenwolf came under Pendletons sponsorship, was an unusual choice for the era in that she was a New York actress. Although a graduate of Northwestern University, she never really lived in Chicago. Shed left town after college for New York. And she has remained on the Upper West Side, a Steppenwolf ensemble member who exists in the theaters most populous ensemble demographic and who has been discussed and dissected far less than most. Shes married to the esteemed opera critic, Conrad L. Osborne.

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But Regan  who stars in her own self-penned solo show at Steppenwolf this weekend  has made many distinguished excursions back to Chicago over the years, more than enough to gain a following, especially among longtime subscribers: the title role in Miss Julie in 1985, Big Mama in Pendletons Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1986, alongside Albert Finney in Another Time (1981). Most famous of all, perhaps, was her appearance as Aunt Dan in director Frank Galatis production of Wallace Shawns Aunt Dan and Lemon, a terrifying piece that, in 1987, matched Regan with a young actress, then named Martha Lavey Greene, who played her meek and malleable niece.

The assignment, Regan recalled from New York this week, gave the two women a profound bound. So when Lavey, who died last year, rose to the position of artistic director, shed call up Regan and ask what she was doing.

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I told Martha I like to write essays, Regan said. These essays told the history of Regans own Midwestern, Irish-Catholic family. There were perhaps atypically interesting stories, perhaps not: a relative who spent time in an asylum, a father who was part of the political history of Minnesota, even a murderer in the family. Regan had gone around the country researching these personal figures, taking down oral histories, shuffling through shoeboxes, listening to memories.

I dont have children myself, she said, but I did not want my nieces or nephews to just pick up an old photograph and not know who these people were, which is what usually happens in families. I wanted them to know their stories. I guess I had found myself in the position of archivist, the one who wanted to preserve what happened, the only one left who cared.

Its not an uncommon situation to stare at an old photograph, intuit that the generation that follows will know none of the stark figures therein, but still be unable to throw away the image. We fetishize these portraits, their destruction being an occasion for guilt. Yet the stories behind the faces, surely, are far more valuable. But, of course, less tangible.

Lavey, grasping that her friend was on to something widely relatable, encouraged Regan to turn the essays into a play, and so the actress took several of her essays that would, she felt, form some kind of viable narrative arc and workshopped the result in both Chicago and New York (the last workshop was just five weeks before Laveys death). I was just unbelievably flattered that Martha, who was so very smart, felt like I could even put two sentences together, Regan said. It was incredibly encouraging.

Lavey was also famously frank. She told Regan that Steppenwolf did not produce solo shows.

But that was in large part a function of the lack of a small space for such a performance, a deficit that has been rectified with the arrival of the 1700 Theatre, the new, studiolike theater behind the Bar at Steppenwolf and a venue that the new management has said it wants often to hand over to ensemble members with boutique personal projects of their own.

Ergo, Regans The Accidental Curator, at Steppenwolf for this weekend only. These will be the first public performances of what Regan thought would be only ever known as the things that crazy Great Aunt Molly once wrote down.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

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cjones5@chicagotribune.com

[ What to see in 2018? How about 'Ragtime,' Gorbachev and 'Love Never Dies' ]

[ Martha Lavey, longtime leader of Steppenwolf Theatre, is dead at 60 ]

[ From 2012: Steppenwolf builds raw, aggressive 'Good People' ]
"Matilda" star Mara Wilson learned early on that looking herself up online was a mistake. She wasn't yet a teenager the first time she searched for her name and found sites that falsely promised nude photos of her, not to mention people discussing her body in sickening detail. Later, she found images of her feet floating around cyberspace, alongside those of other young actors.

"I actually came to laugh it off," Wilson, now 30, said over the phone recently. "And it's really sad, when you're 14 or 15, that you're laughing off that you're on a foot fetish website."

Wilson made the journey from child star to stable adult with relative ease, but that path is littered with cautionary tales. Kids in Hollywood have always faced dangers, and they historically came from within the industry. Just think of Judy Garland's tales of being groped and harassed by a power player like Louis B. Mayer.

But the challenges for similar kids today are shifting and broadening with the rise of the internet and the popularity of social media. Suddenly child stars are being bombarded both with praise and criticism from the media, blogs and anonymous strangers.

There's no real consensus on how to talk about child actors. When it comes to a president's young son or daughter the expectations are clearer: The best rule of thumb is to say nothing at all -- or risk the consequences. When the Daily Caller posted a story poking fun at Barron Trump's wardrobe choices, the publication faced the wrath of Chelsea Clinton, whose tweet urging people to leave the 11-year-old alone was liked more than 72,000 times. And "Saturday Night Live's" Katie Rich was suspended after she posted a widely criticized joke about the first son on social media.

But child stars don't have those kinds of culturally accepted protections, so they're often treated like adults. The problem with that line of thinking is coming into focus with the kids from Netflix's hit series "Stranger Things." Thirteen-year-old Millie Bobby Brown's wardrobe choices, for example, were endlessly and sometimes uncomfortably scrutinized during the press tour for the show's second season. When a former NBCUniversal executive tweeted a red carpet photo of Brown in a leather dress with the caption, "Millie Bobby Brown just grew up in front of our eyes," Wilson, among others, hit back, accusing him of sexualizing a young girl.

"A 13-year-old's body is never your business unless you are that 13-year-old girl," Wilson said in an interview. "I don't understand why we don't see it as off limits. It would be creepy if you were to talk about a 13-year-old girl down the street."

It would, but there's a double-standard for youngsters in the public eye, and boys aren't immune. Just look at the 27-year-old model who suggested, via Instagram, that then-14-year-old "Stranger Things" star Finn Wolfhard "hit me up in four years." Meanwhile, fans have publicly pined for a romantic relationship between the actor and Brown, posting photoshopped art of the pair together. And Wolfhard, whose popularity has grown even more since he starred in "It" over the summer, was attacked on Twitter by people who called him "rude" because he didn't stop to greet fans and sign autographs when a crowd assembled outside of his hotel.

His "Stranger Things" co-star Shannon Purser came to his defense, as did "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner, who also came of age in the limelight. Those complaining, including grown adults, clearly believe that Wolfhard owed them something.

Before the internet was as big, it was easier to shield a child actor from everything. Wilson's parents and agent used to go through her fan mail and pick out the particularly weird stuff so she wouldn't have to read it, which worked -- for the most part.

"But that doesn't mean they can protect you from everything," she said. "And that's something that's even more true with the advent of social media, which has democratized everything in a wonderful way, but also in a dangerous way."

These days movie and television contracts might even stipulate social media activity as part of a publicity commitment, and studio teachers -- the people who protect and advocate for children on sets -- are worried about what that means. Sometimes, with the especially young, a parent or employee will do the posting. But not always.

"So they're doing that sometimes without supervision," said studio teacher Sharon Sacks. "I think that's the next big thing that has to be monitored."

Sacks has worked closely with Ariel Winter, along with the other child stars on "Modern Family," for the past nine years, which means she has had a front-row seat to the struggles that come with growing up both in the public eye and online. Winter told the Hollywood Reporter that before she was a teenager, strangers were posting that she was "a fat slut" and "a whore." For a while, she decided to change her appearance in the hopes it would shield her from criticism.

"I was like, 'Maybe I'm going to lose some weight, dye my hair, change how I dress. ... Maybe I'm doing something wrong.' But it didn't help," she said. "I actually got more hate by trying to change."

It's not just trolls on the internet who are using grown-up language to discuss young stars. It happens in the media and other more well-established forums. Brown routinely shows up on Tom + Lorenzo, the take-no-prisoners fashion site, where the writers skewer the likes of Gal Gadot, 32, and Jessica Chastain, 40. TMZ peppers Wolfhard with questions about kissing Brown for the camera. During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, comedian Patton Oswalt introduced Wolfhard as the "actor born with the greatest porn name ever."

Some will argue that any child actor -- unlike the president's son -- signed up for this. And they have a point: If a kid wants to be famous, then he has to take the bad with the good. But that's simplifying a situation that can often be murky.

Children in general don't have much agency, but child stars are especially strapped with expectations -- from parents and producers, from agents and fans.

"Children are not really seen as children in show business, they've always been seen as a commodity, a worker: 'We pay you all this money, we expect you to behave like an adult,'" said Julie Stevens, a director and former child actor who has worked as a studio teacher since the 1990s. Meanwhile, some parents "just close their eyes and their ears because they don't want to ruin an opportunity for their child. Or maybe their child's the breadwinner for the family -- who knows?"
When Fox News' chief Washington correspondent James Rosen left the network in December, the company did not give a reason.

But according to a report in NPR, Rosen left amid "scrutiny of his behavior at the network." The report, based on interviews with eight of Rosen's former colleagues at Fox News' Washington bureau, said that "he had an established pattern of flirting aggressively with many peers and had made sexual advances toward three female Fox News journalists, including two reporters and a producer."

Rosen's departure came during a period of increased scrutiny at companies around the country over the allegations of improper sexual behavior of men in positions of power. Fox News in particular has struggled to deal with the fallout from sexual misconduct scandals. Roger Ailes, the late Fox News chairman and chief executive, was ousted in July 2016 after sexual harassment allegations by former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson and more than two dozen women. Bill O'Reilly, one of the network's most famous hosts, left in spring 2017 after reports that millions of dollars in settlements were paid out to people complaining of sexual harassment by O'Reilly.

Rosen, too, was a high-profile figure who had been with the network for nearly 20 years. His reporting on U.S. intelligence about North Korea prompted the Justice Department to conduct an investigation into his sources during President Barack Obama's second term, a move that was widely denounced by First Amendment advocates.

Fox News did not announce Rosen's departure on air in December, NPR reported. The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Women going through menopause are especially vulnerable to symptoms of depression. A new study suggests hormone therapy might help. (Getty Images )

A year of hormone therapy cut the risk of depression symptoms in women going through menopause and early postmenopause, new research shows.

"Thirty-two percent of women randomized to treatment with a placebo experienced clinically significant depressive symptoms. But for women randomized to hormone therapy, the risk was cut nearly in half, to 17 percent," said co-principal investigator Susan Girdler, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Girdler added there were two main factors that predicted whether or not women would experience fewer depression symptoms while on hormone therapy. One factor was being in perimenopause (the transition to menopause) and the other was experiencing significant life stress, such as losing a loved one or divorce.

Surprisingly, for women with a past history of major depression  which is a known risk factor for future depression  hormone therapy didn't appear to lessen the risk of depressive symptoms.

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Girdler said normally women going through menopause have a twofold to fourfold higher risk of depression symptoms. There are a number of theories as to why that is, including recent life stress and the idea that some women may be more vulnerable to wildly fluctuating hormones, she explained.

To see if hormone therapy might have an effect on the risk of depression, the researchers recruited 172 women between the ages of 45 and 60. All of the women were either perimenopausal or recently postmenopausal at the start of the study.

Half of the women were aged 51 or older. Seventy-six percent of the women were white, and 19 percent were black. The mean household income was between $50,000 and $80,000.

The women were randomly selected to one of two groups. One group was given an inactive placebo patch to wear. The other group received skin patches that delivered 0.1 milligrams per day of estrogen.

Every three months, women in the estrogen patch group were also given 12 days of the hormone progesterone to ensure that women who still had a uterus shed their uterine lining (endometrium), which helped to offset a potential increase in the risk of endometrial cancer related to estrogen therapy. Hormone therapy was given for a year.

The researchers also asked the women to complete a depression symptom questionnaire. However, they didn't diagnose any of the women with depression, just "clinically significant depressive symptoms."

Girdler said that significant fluctuations in hormone variability, as well as stressful life events, can destabilize the cortisol stress axis.

Cortisol is a stress hormone that "helps mobilize the body to respond to stress and to release energy stores so we can prepare for the 'fight-or-flight' response. This worked beautifully in cave people, but the problem is we still respond to stress as if there's a tiger coming after us, but instead we're just sitting at a computer," she explained.

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Dr. Hadine Joffe, executive director of the Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, co-authored an editorial accompanying the new study. Joffe said factors such as hot flashes and sleep disturbances may also play a role in the increased risk of depressive symptoms.

"Those factors can be intervened with nondrug therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy," Joffe said. And, if you can improve sleep by reducing hot flashes and chronic insomnia, you may also reduce depressive symptoms.

If you can use a nondrug therapy, that's preferred if it helps, Joffe said.

The average time for the menopausal transition is about four years, according to Joffe. Girdler said it's not clear how long women would need to take hormone therapy, but she doesn't envision it would be needed for the entire transition time, particularly because the study found that hormones were most beneficial in women early in the menopause transition.

Joffe and obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Jill Rabin, from Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y., said the advice for premenopausal women remains the same. Recently, the nation's leading authority on preventive medicine, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, stood firm and said only postmenopausal women should avoid hormone replacement therapy.

"When the benefits of hormone therapy outweigh the risks, women should be on the lowest dose for the shortest time," Rabin said of women going through the early stages of menopause.

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Rabin noted that women in the study did have irregular bleeding, which was a bit concerning. Girdler added that one woman experienced a blood clot.

Rabin said the study raises some very interesting questions, but that it needs to be replicated in a larger, more diverse group of people.

Dr. Alan Manevitz, a clinical psychiatrist from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, agreed that the study finding raises questions and needs to be duplicated.

None of the experts recommended asking your doctor for hormone therapy to prevent depression, but Manevitz urged women going through menopause who are experiencing depressive symptoms to get a depression assessment.

The study was published online in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

[ Related: What can be done about hot flashes? ]

[ Estrogen patch may boost women's sex lives in menopause ]

[ Doctors still grapple with how to treat depression ]
When Sara Zaskes 7-year-old daughter came home from school asking for matches, Zaskes response was just what you would expect from an American parent: Why?

But Zaske wasnt living in America at the time  she was living in Germany, where children are taught from a young age that fire must be handled responsibly. Little Sophia had already learned the proper way to light a match in school, and now she was bringing home a note from her teacher, saying please let your child light candles and do a small fire experiment.

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In her new book, Achtung Baby: An American Mom on the German Art of Raising Self-Reliant Children, Zaske writes about a wide range of German parenting practices that would strike many Americans as risky or even dangerous: leaving a sleeping baby in a stroller outside a big-city restaurant, accepting candy offered to a small child by a kindly stranger, allowing 8-year-olds to bike to school by themselves in the city, letting preschoolers participate in popular fire-safety programs in which they light dozens of matches.

During her 6  years in Germany, Zaske came to appreciate this approach and to believe that American parents have a lot to learn from it. German parents are preparing their kids to face risks and dangers, she said, while American parents are prohibiting and protecting until some point in adolescence  often college  when restrictions are suddenly lifted.

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I think were starting to see that a lot of college-aged kids arent prepared for that kind of freedom, said Zaske, who now lives in Moscow, Idaho, with her husband and two children, ages 11 and 8.

Giving kids freedom at an earlier age isnt easy for German parents, she said: When Id be like, Oh my gosh, how can you let your kid do that? theyd say, I hate it too. I really dont want to do it. But I have to because they have to learn how to ride the subway, or navigate the neighborhood. They have to learn how to do these things.

Part of the picture is the German value of self-reliance, she said: German parents believe independence is good for kids and that learning to handle risk is vital. Shed like to see American parents embrace self-reliance, as well.

If we put a higher value in helping (our children) achieve their independence, it would be a healthier way for them to grow up, Zaske said. And actually, it might be a healthier way to have a long-term family relationship.

The Chicago Tribune asked Zaske about 10 of the seemingly risky German parenting practices that she describes in her book.

Achtung Baby: An American Mom on the German Art of Raising Self-Reliant Children (Picador)

Letting young children learn to light matches in school. When Zaskes daughter Sophia was 7, she allowed her to light candles, as requested by her school, and she was pleased to note that Sophia did a good job. It was a little shocking, Zaske said. But you know, when I saw her do it, I was like, Oh, yeah. Its not that hard for a kid to learn. She also notes that a kid who doesnt know how to light a match and does so anyway may burn her fingers and drop the match on the carpet. Teaching 5-year-olds to build fires. In the Berlin area, popular workshops teach kids as young as 5 how to build a happy fire: one that doesnt hurt anyone or destroy anything. Kids practice lighting matches  as many as 50  until they get a little bored with the process. They progress to making little bonfires outside on metal dishes or aluminum foil, and work together to cook sausages. The workshops arent as popular in the south of Germany, Zaske said, but the idea that children should be taught to light matches properly (so they dont experiment with fire in secret) is now culturewide. In Berlin, the workshops are backed by both firefighters and insurance companies: Theyre all on board with it. Biking to school at age 9 in a major city. While Zaske was still struggling with the idea of letting Sophia walk to school by herself in Berlin, one of Sophias friends was already biking solo. The little girl had to cross a very busy street, as did other kids who were biking. Zaske didnt let Sophia bike alone, but later, when they returned to the U.S., Sophia was allowed to bike to school alone at age 9, a practice that raised some eyebrows in their California neighborhood. The main fear among parents was stranger abduction, which Zaske has researched, and says is actually very rare: Statistically kids get in car accidents, and are injured and die, at a much higher rate than stranger abduction. She points out that prohibiting age-appropriate activities carries risk too: If you dont let your kid bike to school or whatever, you lose something. You rob them of something: You rob them of that opportunity to have a lot of pride. I see it in my kids, whenever they do something new or conquer a new task, they feel so great. I mean, talk about self-esteem: The best thing you can do for your kid is teach them to do something and let them do it. Taking candy from a stranger. Early on in her German odyssey, Zaske was on the subway with a very chatty Sophia, then 2 , when an elderly woman offered Sophia some candy. Zaske examined the candy as subtly as she could, and Sophia ate it without incident. Zaske said German parents, like Americans, make sure their kids know not to go anywhere with a stranger. But theyre less concerned about candy, for good reason: I dont know that theres been any documented case that anyone in America has been poisoned by candy. I looked it up. There was one guy who poisoned his own kid, but there were no cases of anybody being poisoned by Halloween candy. Letting little kids climb a 20-foot-high play structure. In a neighborhood playground in Berlin, preschoolers had access to a 20-foot high dragon play structure with slides. Sophia started playing on the structure when she was about 3, and Zaske said it was a great experience, even though she herself was scared when she first saw an older kid hanging from the dragons jaw. I think most kids will have their own fear brake: They wont do things that theyre afraid to do, she said. If you have a kid whos a super daredevil, then perhaps youll be more cautious, but my daughter took forever to climb on that dragon. It was like a year that she went up and down it, but she wouldnt go down the slide, she wouldnt sit in its mouth. And eventually she did it, but she did it when she was ready. Allowing an overnight preschool camping trip. Zaske was initially uncertain when Sophias preschool class went on an overnight camping trip, but Sophia wanted to go, and she had a great time. Letting kids play out of sight in a big-city park at age 3. Zaske was surprised when friends let their kids, ages 3 and 5, play out of their sight in a Berlin park. The kids were nearby in an enclosed playground, but behind a wall. Zaske let Sophia, then 3, join in the fun, but she followed along. Im a little more comfortable with 5 or 6 out of my sight, and it depends on the playground too, I suppose, she said. Leaving a sleeping baby in a stroller outside a restaurant. Zaske saw this in Berlin; the adults sat next to the window, so they could watch the baby. Zaske didnt follow the German example in this case. But she thinks that the main fear  that someone is going to steal the baby  is overblown. She writes in her book that the U.S. averages less fewer than 10 infant abductions a year; the odds of a baby being hit by lightning are actually greater than the odds of abduction. Learning where babies come from in school at age 7. Zaske has no problem with giving kids factual information about human reproduction: I thought it was great, actually. Im glad that it was not too much information. It wasnt overwhelming information; it was just like, This is what sex is. It was enough, and it opened up the subject for my kids to ask questions. Letting kids cut fruit with knives at age 4. The knives in preschool werent very sharp, but the knives in grade school were, Zaske said. She approved: Inviting your kids to cook with you and use the real implements is a great way to introduce them to learning to cook.

nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com

[ Banning soda and sugary foods for your kids may not be the best strategy ]

[ Staying sane when kids are home and city's on ice: 26 steps ]

[ The importance of a play group for dads ]
A commercial Frank Lloyd Wright building is demolished in Whitefish, Mont., on Jan. 10, 2018. The building's owner had set a Jan. 10 deadline to raise $1.7 million in cash to buy the building, but negotiations failed. (Matt Baldwin / Daily Inter Lake)

The owner of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building in Montana demolished the structure after negotiations over a possible sale fell apart Wednesday.

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Located in Whitefish, Mont., and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the low-slung building originally was a medical clinic. It later became a bank and professional offices. Wright designed it in 1958, a year before his death.

The owner, Ruis Holdings, set a Wednesday deadline for selling the building for $1.7 million in cash, according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, a Chicago-based group that tries to preserve Wrights legacy. When a deal could not be struck, the owner demolished the building overnight, according to the local newspaper, the Daily Inter Lake.

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We in the preservation community are all incredibly disappointed by this outcome, to say the least, Barbara Gordon, the conservancys executive director, said in a news release.

The building joins a handful of projects by the legendary architect that have been demolished in the last 15 years. They include a house in Grand Beach., Mich., that came down in 2004 and a Manhattan auto showroom that was destroyed in 2013.

Riverwalk, Chinatown library win national design awards

The downtown Riverwalk and the Chinatown branch of the Chicago Public Library on Friday will be named winners of national design honors from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Presented annually by the Washington, D.C.-based AIA, the Institute Honor Awards recognize excellence in architecture, interior architecture and urban design.

The Riverwalk achieved the rare distinction of being honored in both the architecture and urban design categories.

It transformed derelict spaces along the south bank of the Chicago Rivers main branch into a thriving chain of plazas, greenery, fountains, bars and restaurants. The final phase of its three-part revitalization opened in 2016.

What might have been unimaginable years ago has been achieved: an activated riverfront in the heart of a booming urban core, the AIA said in announcing the award.

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The AIA cited Chicagos Ross Barney Architects, led by principal Carol Ross Barney, which teamed on the projects second and third phases with Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Mass.

The AIA honored the Chinatown Public Library for interior architecture.

Designed by Brian Lee of the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and located at 2100 S. Wentworth Ave., the library was a bold break from the citys past practice of erecting look-alike public buildings.

Its light-filled interior, which revolves around a two-story skylit atrium, houses expansive reading areas with views of the downtown skyline and playful, custom-designed zones for children and teenagers.

The library serves as a civic, educational, and social hub for the citys Chinatown neighborhood, the AIA said.

There were 17 winners, chosen by juries of architects from about 500 submissions. Other honorees included The Broad art museum in Los Angeles, designed by New York architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

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2017 architecture biennial beat 2015 edition on attendance, city says

The just-completed Chicago Architecture Biennial drew more than 550,000 people, city officials said Wednesday. The figure represents a slight increase over the reported attendance of the first biennial, held in 2015.

Called Make New History and open from Sept. 16 to Jan. 7, the biennial exhibited work by 140 architects and designers from 20 countries.

According to the city, 290,834 people visited the exhibitions core sites at the Chicago Cultural Center and the City Gallery in the historic Water Tower, while an additional 264,032 people attended biennial sites throughout Chicago and the region.

There is no way to independently verify the accuracy of the attendance figures. In the past, Chicago officials have been known to inflate crowd totals for city-sponsored events. City officials reported that the first biennial drew 530,551 visitors.

The next biennial will run from Sept. 19, 2019, to Jan. 5, 2020.

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Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.

bkamin@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @BlairKamin

[ RELATED: The illusion of architectural permanence ]

[ Revised Obama center design seeks better fit with park and answer to critics ]

[ Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, archivist for Frank Lloyd Wright, dies at 87 ]
James Eric Degorski, 29, center, is led to a squad car for transport as he leaves the Palatine police station May 18, 2002, in Palatine. Degorski is one of two men charged with the Jan. 8, 1993, killing of seven people at a Brown's Chicken restaurant in Palatine. Also charged is Juan A. Luna, Jr., 28. They will be tried separately. (John Dziekan / Chicago Tribune)

A man convicted in the notorious 1993 Browns Chicken massacre was denied a court hearing into claims of errors during his 2009 trial, including allegations that a key prosecution witness may have lied on the stand to receive reward money.

After brief arguments Thursday  nearly 25 years to the day after the seven workers were slain in Palatine  Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan agreed with prosecutors that the attorney for James Degorski failed to prove his rights had been violated at trial. Gaughan presided over the trial.

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Degorskis attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, told the Tribune she plans to appeal the ruling.

Degorski, now 45, is serving a life sentence for his role in the slayings.

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Among other claims, Bonjean said prosecutors should have disclosed that Anne Lockett, a key prosecution witness, was expecting a substantial reward for her testimony against Degorski  a reward she likely lied to obtain, Bonjean argued.

Lockett ultimately split the $98,000 reward with another witness.

Lockett testified at trial that on the day of the slayings, Degorski called her at the hospital where she had been admitted after a suicide attempt and told her to watch the news because he had done something big. The lead story on the evening news that night was the Browns Chicken murders, she said.

But, Bonjean said, Lockett's roommate at that hospital has said patients on suicide watch were unable to receive phone calls from anyone other than family members and were also not allowed to watch television.

That information goes to the heart of the matter, Bonjean said in court Thursday. It suggests she just wasnt truthful when she said this occurred. The jury was deprived of this information.

But at the time of the trial, it was far from clear whether Lockett would be receiving any financial reward for her role in identifying the killers, said Assistant States Attorney Alan Spellberg.

Everyone knew about the possibility of the reward, but there was no proof she would be receiving it, he said.

Besides, the evidence against Degorski was so voluminous that Locketts contribution at trial was relatively insignificant, he said, noting that Degorski confessed multiple times to his role in the slayings.

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Ms. Locketts testimony could be excised from the trial, and the evidence would still be overwhelming, Spellberg said.

While no physical evidence tied Degorski to the scene, he made a detailed statement to police. In 2002, Lockett and her friend, Eileen Bakalla, broke the case that had stymied police for nearly a decade by alleging that Degorski had confessed to them in the days after the murders. Both women testified at Degorskis trial.

Degorskis co-defendant, Juan Luna, was linked to the murders through DNA evidence from a partially eaten chicken meal found at the restaurant, as well as a palm print and a video confession. He was convicted at a separate trial and is also serving a life sentence.

Five of the seven victims of the 1993 massacre at a Brown's Chicago restaurant in Palatine: Guadalupe Maldonado, 46, from left; Rico Solis, 17; Michael C. Castro, 16; Thomas Mennes, 32; and Marcus Nellsen, 31. (handouts )

The 1993 massacre in suburban Palatine remains one of the Chicago areas most infamous crimes. Restaurant owners Richard Ehlenfeldt and his wife, Lynn, and employees Thomas Mennes, Marcus Nellsen, Guadalupe Maldonado, Rico Solis and Michael Castro were killed at the fast-food restaurant. Their bodies were found piled in a walk-in cooler and freezer.

mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @crepeau

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RELATED

[ Man convicted in 1993 massacre at Brown's Chicken claims new evidence, seeks hearing ]

[ Degorski spared death sentence ]

[ Guilty verdict for Degorski in Brown's Chicken massacre ]
Acting Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson appointed a Chicago Board of Education member to a top district job Wednesday, a move that conflicts with a state law that prohibits board members from taking CPS posts for one year after leaving their board seat.

School board member Arnaldo Rivera, 37, a former aide to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, announced his resignation from the school board to become the districts chief operating officer. His resignation opens a second board vacancy for Emanuel to fill after the departure of the Rev. Michael Garanzini last year.

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The district said it will ask for a modification of the state law to allow Rivera to move over to a position that pays $180,000 annually. A public hearing on the matter is set for Jan. 24.

Riveras move to an influential role overseeing day-to-day CPS operations was one of several moves announced Wednesday as Jackson takes over from former CEO Forrest Claypool, who resigned in December after accusations that he lied to undermine an ethics investigation by the district inspector general. Jackson, the districts chief education officer, was named interim CEO, and the school board is expected to vote her in as full-time chief at its meeting later this month.

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Arnies contributions to the Board will be missed, but his sophisticated understanding of district operations and extensive experience leading key components of Chicago Public Schools makes him the right person to work alongside Dr. Jackson as the districts Chief Operating Officer, board President Frank Clark said in a statement.

Pedro Soto will continue as Jacksons chief of staff. Jackson named LaTanya McDade to take over as chief education officer. Heather Wendell will serve as the districts budget director.

The decision to bring Rivera back to CPS headquarters could invite controversy. Chicago's school board is appointed by Emanuel and is technically empowered to act in a supervisory role over one of the nations largest school systems. The board also acts as the ultimate employer of district workers.

Specific state education laws govern the behavior of school districts in cities of more than 500,000 residents  a category unique to Chicago. Those laws say former board members shall not be eligible for employment nor be employed by the board, nor can they serve on local school councils or any other CPS posts for one year after the expiration or termination of their terms.

The district will propose an application to change that legal provision for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, in order to allow former board members to be employed by the school system no sooner than 30 days after their terms end. The school board would also vote on amending its ethics policies to match with the proposal it would send to the state.

School districts can ask the Illinois State Board of Education for waivers and modifications to various legal requirements, with some exceptions. Thats a common practice; ISBE records show school districts issued more than 7,200 such requests from March 1995 through June 2017. Close to 90 percent of those requests were approved by ISBE or General Assembly members on a range of issues including holidays, physical education and drivers education.

Districts that make such requests must show the changes meet the intent of the mandate in a more effective, efficient, or economical matter; or to stimulate innovation; or to improve student performance.

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CPS has never previously asked the state for a break on the school board member hiring issue, a spokeswoman for the state board said.

Rivera has sat on the school board since 2016. He had just left a senior position at the school system to serve as an adviser to After School Matters, one of the city's most prominent education-related nonprofit organizations. Rivera also has served as an officer with the politically connected Chicago Public Education Fund.

Emanuels office has given him credit as the lead architect of the city's education policy agenda and noted Riveras role in high-stakes Chicago Teachers Union contract talks in 2012 and 2016.

Serving as a member of Chicagos Board of Education was a great honor, and I am eager to rejoin the district on a day-to-day basis as a member of Dr. Jacksons team, Rivera said in a statement.

jjperez@chicagotribune.com

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Dreamcatcher Foundation volunteers drive around Chicagos West Side and Cicero on Oct. 5, 2017, looking to help prostitutes. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)

More than 10 years have passed, but Margaret Gomezs family members still look for the man they believe strangled the 22-year-old and left her in a muddy lot in the shadow of the Stevenson Expressway.

They dont expect to find him but feel its something they must do. That and pray.

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Lately, I said a prayer to the Virgin Mary, the mother, who shares the same name as her daughter, told a reporter in a quiet voice. And then you called. Maybe its a sign?

Other families have waited even longer for an answer.

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Over the last 17 years, at least 75 women have been strangled or smothered in Chicago and their bodies dumped in vacant buildings, alleys, garbage cans, snow banks. Arrests have been made in only a third of the cases, according to a first-ever analysis by the Tribune.

While there are clusters of unsolved strangulations on the South and West sides, police say theyve uncovered no evidence of a serial killer at work. If they are right, 51 murderers have gotten away with their crime.

Fifty-one people who used belts, bras, ropes, packing tape or their bare hands to kill these women. Fifty-one families still looking for justice for a mother, a sister, a daughter.

It has mostly been a silent vigil. There have been few news stories and even fewer memorials or other public gestures that would have focused attention on these women and how they died.

The Tribune began reviewing their cases while following up on the largely ignored story of a woman strangled last summer, her body dumped along a curb on the West Side. We wanted to find out how many other women had been strangled and abandoned: Who were they and had their killers been caught?

Its a staggering number, said Kaethe Morris Hoffer, executive director of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation. It is odd how easy it is to disrupt peoples sense of comfort when a large number of people are all killed at once. It is likewise upsetting to realize how, if you spread out over a long period of time, how inured people are to the murdering of women, particularly marginalized women.

Loree Williams prays in front of a photo of his cousin Theresa Bunn in November 2007 during a vigil near Washington Park on Chicagos South Side  at the site where her strangled body was found that year. (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)

The Tribune searched through thousands of pages of medical examiner records and public crime reports to build a database. Here is what we found:

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 At least 75 women have been strangled or smothered in the city since 2001, the earliest year that crime reports on the slayings were publicly available. Many of them struggled with drugs or prostitution, making them particularly vulnerable to predators on the street. Some had no arrest records at all.

 Twenty-five of the cases have been closed with the arrests of 13 men, some of them charged with more than one murder. That leaves 67 percent still unsolved. The Police Department would not say if there are active suspects in those cases, but officials reviewed more than a dozen of them after they were contacted by the Tribune and have referred three to cold case detectives.

 There are clusters of strangulations around Washington Park on the South Side and Garfield Park on the West Side. Twenty-seven slayings happened in three police districts on the West, South and Far South sides long marked by violence and drug use. Of those, just two have been solved.

Around Washington Park, two women were strangled and left in burning trash bins over two days in November 2007. Theresa Bunn, 21 years old and eight months pregnant, was found south of the park. Hazel Lewis, 52, was found the next day north of the park behind an elementary school. Neither case has been solved.

 The women ranged in age from 18 to 58, and most of them were African-American. One of the victims was a grandmother of 20 and a great-grandmother of two. Others were nurses, waitresses or young women hoping to finally conquer their addictions and go back to school.

 At least 47 of the women had histories of prostitution. Based on the Tribunes analysis, along with interviews with women who worked in prostitution, strangulation is one of the main ways people in the sex trade have been killed in Chicago over the last two decades.

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Strangulations women The 75 victims and where they were found Click on a dot for more information Case closed Case open Slide to filter by year of death: Sources: Chicago Police Department, Cook County Medical Examiner Ryan Marx/Chicago Tribune

Its upfront and personal, said Brenda Myers-Powell, a former prostitute who co-founded The Dreamcatcher Foundation, an organization that provides outreach and mentoring for those in the sex trade. I have been (choked) so much, it became, like, you dont let guys get close to your neck.

Autopsy reports indicate some of the women were also raped and beaten. Some were gagged; some had plastic bags tightened around their head. One had a broken nose; others suffered severe head injuries and bruises over their bodies.

The brutal nature of these crimes is very disturbing, said Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples.

Staples, along with victim advocates, say the dangerous world some of these women frequent makes it more difficult to solve their slayings. The last person with the victim is often unknown. People use aliases. Witnesses dont trust cops. DNA evidence doesnt always lead to a suspect.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the bodies of dozens of women were found, the Police Department responded by forming a task force that solved the slayings of 40 women. The task force was eventually disbanded even as, the Tribune review shows, the attacks continued at a steady pace.

Staples is not certain the task force needs to be reinstated. But Cook Countys top prosecutor said it is worth considering to raise the level of urgency in clearing cases.

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If we knew there was someone picking off children on their way to school, I think the fierce urgency of trying to figure out who would require us to (have a task force), States Attorney Kim Foxx said in a recent interview. That is not the level of urgency we have with these women.

She wanted friends. And this is what happened

A dozen years ago, Margaret Gomez left home for the last time, chasing a heroin addiction that crushed the spirit of the slight, doe-eyed young woman.

Her mother, also named Margaret Gomez, had moved her daughter to the western suburbs when she was a child in search of streets safer than outside her Little Village home.

Gomez said her family was stable. She had high expectations for her daughters, who were close to one another. And she was a strict mother, she said, unafraid to ground her children for months if they broke rules.

Her daughter thrived for a time. She was on the cheerleading squad. She loved art and was featured, with a toothy smile, on the front page of the local paper after winning a contest.

But Gomez said her daughter was shy, had low self-esteem and, like most adolescents, longed for friends. She just wanted everyone to like her. She wanted friends. And this is what happened to her.

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Margaret Gomez was strangled and killed over 10 years ago in Chicago, and the case remains unsolved. (Family photo)

The family believes Margaret got addicted to drugs while hanging out at a park near the family home. She had a boyfriend who used drugs. She was crazy about him. Soon she went missing for days and would return home battered, her glasses often broken.

Through tears, family members recalled their desperate efforts over four years to help her. They found a spot at a rehab facility, but her boyfriend wouldnt go with her and she refused to go without him.

Friends of the family who worked in law enforcement would often track her down on the West Side and bring her home. Her mother would sometimes take harrowing drives in search of her wayward daughter.

There were patches of success. Margaret earned her GED and worked as a waitress, a job listed on her death certificate. Along with her sisters, she received First Communion and was confirmed as an adult, two rites of passage in their Catholic faith.

As with many of the women found strangled, addiction had a tight grip on Margaret. Heres how she described herself in a letter left on her mothers dining room table months before she was killed:

Momma, she wrote in pencil on lined paper her mother keeps neatly folded inside a plastic baggie. I wanted to let you know how thankful I am having such a forgiving, caring + determend mother.  I know how much stress + heart ach I put you through and I want to apologize and promise it wont happen again. I had hit a point where I had become real weak and I dont know how I let it get that bad. .. I only want improvements from this day on. I LOVE YOU + LOVE how your always on my side no matter what.

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A letter Margaret Gomez wrote to her mother shortly before she was killed. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

Margarets body was found in a gravel lot in the 4200 block of South Knox Avenue on the Southwest Side. She was partially clothed, lying on her back in mud, a brown rope around her neck.

On her upper back was a tattoo that read, Love Mom. She was 22.

The family says police pushed hard to gather evidence in the initial weeks. But in retrospect, family members think investigators focused on the wrong suspect. After about a month, the drive of the detectives seemed to ease, they said.

No arrest was made.

More than a decade later, altar candles remain lit on dressers and walls.

I just ask Jesus if he would find the killers, Gomez said of her nightly routine. And I tell her I love her.

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A lot of these women want out

Catherine Saterfield-Buchanans body was discovered under a street light not long after midnight on a June morning last year, the latest woman to be found strangled on Chicagos streets, according to the Tribune database.

Saterfield-Buchanan was lying on her back near a large tree, legs splayed over the curb. Police covered her with a white sheet as a few curious neighbors gathered in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. Her feet poked out the bottom amid empty bottles and shattered glass. Her face was badly beaten.

Her slaying also remains unsolved.

Saterfield-Buchanan was 58 and, like most of the victims, was older than Margaret. She had finally come for help to Breakthrough on West Carroll Avenue, a sunny, loftlike shelter and health center.

Cheron Massonburg, director of adult services at Breakthrough, said many of the women there have experienced traumatic childhoods or poverty and homelessness. They are often estranged from families. Saterfield-Buchanan struggled with learning disabilities and was arrested at least once for prostitution..

They have experienced some things most of us couldnt comprehend, she said. A lot of women want out, but they just dont know how.

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A report last year by the Cook County sheriff's office surveyed 172 women who worked in prostitution and found 44 percent of them had started working in the sex trade before the age of 18. More striking, 37 percent reported starting before they were 16. One said she began at 9. An alarming number of the women surveyed  88 percent  said they had experienced violence, such as a beating. And 35 reported being sexually assaulted as an adult.

Massonburg said she last saw Saterfield-Buchanan at the food pantry two weeks before she was found dead. Catherine was so timid, she said. I couldnt believe anyone would want to hurt her.

A close relative, who asked not to be named to protect her privacy, said Saterfield-Buchanan always made sure you had something to eat. Red was her favorite color, she said. Occasionally, you could find her listening to rhythm and blues, but she mostly stuck to jazz.

A Chicago police officer investigates where Catherine Saterfield-Buchanan was found dead with blunt force trauma to the face and defensive wounds on her body in the 3500 block of West Huron Street on June 22, 2017, in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

The night Saterfield-Buchanan was killed, the relative spoke with her on the phone about a Fourth of July barbecue.

I love you, Saterfield-Buchanan told her. Tell the kids I love them.

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Two hours later, she was killed.

The relative said detectives did not interview her or other immediate family members who knew about Saterfield-Buchanans whereabouts.

You tellin me they got away? the relative said. She was a nice, caring person.

Staples, the chief of detectives, said investigative notes show detectives did interview a relative, though the family says it was a cousin who was not close to Saterfield-Buchanan.

Massonburg said she doesnt recall talking to police about Saterfield-Buchanan, even though the shelter is known for helping women in the sex trade on the West Side.

Massonburg believes police should regularly visit her shelter  something they dont do now  and get to know the women, build trust and maybe collect leads to solve some of the cases.

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People know whats happening (on the street), Massonburg said. But they dont talk because they dont feel protected.

Where were you?

The same unease can grip neighborhoods where the women have been discovered.

In 2014, Velma Howard was found frozen in the snow in East Garfield Park. On the block where she was discovered, an elderly man recently answered his door, scrunched his face and jutted out his chin at the mention of the slaying.

Why are you here? he barked. Three years later? After all this time? Where were you?

He shook his head and slammed the door. His son, who lives in the apartment below him, came outside and talked to the reporters.

Yes, he said, they remember when the body was found, buried in a snowbank.

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Official reports tell the story in vivid detail:

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Howard wore two white socks on her left foot, one on her right foot, and a metal hoop earring hung from her left earlobe. Black leggings were under her jeans, and a cigarette lighter and napkin were tucked into the left front pocket of her pants. Her fingernails were painted blue, and her toenails were red.

With the temperature near freezing, she bundled herself in a blue sweatshirt and brown jacket.

It wasnt until the snow was shoveled that her body was discovered wrapped in a tan blanket, tied together with a red rope. A white electrical cord was wrapped around her neck so tightly, purple bruising was visible.

The son explained to a reporter why his dad was so upset: Neither he nor his dad was interviewed by police.

They just picked the body up and left, the son said. We (are) just looked over.

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Neither man wanted to be named.

The department would not allow the newspaper to see the files on Gomez, Saterfield-Buchanan, Howard or the other women because the cases are considered open and still active. But Staples said she personally reviewed 15 of the unsolved cases and referred three to cold case detectives.

Staples would not disclose which cases, saying she wanted to protect any new investigative work.

They deserve the same investigation as anyone else

Staples sits in her fourth-floor office at Chicago police headquarters on the South Side, a 4-inch stack of case files to her left.

She came up through the ranks of the detective division and has worked cases in neighborhoods where some of the women were found dead. They are tragic and tough cases to solve, she acknowledged.

Like other murder cases, they are assigned to the regular rotation of homicide detectives in the citys three major investigative divisions. There are teams of specialists for sex-related crimes. As in any homicide, detectives canvass for witnesses, talk to family members and draw on help from the departments vice unit and its human trafficking team when investigating the cases. DNA and other evidence are collected and sent to the Illinois state crime lab.

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If a DNA profile is obtained, it is entered into a national database called CODIS. It contains samples from arrested felons as well as unnamed samples from victims and crime scenes. In that way, cases can be matched even when a suspect is not known.

In the 51 unsolved cases found by the Tribune, no such case-to-case associations have been found, Staples said. And no cases have been linked by other investigative means.

In the 1990s, Chicago police were caught off-guard when DNA analysis detected at least four patterns of sexual assaults and slayings of prostitutes in several South Side neighborhoods.

The Tribune account in a 2000 story outlined the problem in terms strikingly similar to those of Gomez, Saterfield-Buchanan, Howard and the others: Most of the victims were strangled or suffered blunt force trauma. Many had arrests for drugs and prostitution and were engaged in what police at the time called a high-risk lifestyle.

A task force was created to investigate dozens of rapes and murders. It was staffed by about 10 detectives who could dedicate their time to tracking down witnesses and reviewing DNA results. Officials at the time pledged to stay vigilant and continue to use it when appropriate.

"Years ago, nobody cared about these girls, Sgt. Tony Kuta said at the time. Well, they're homicide victims. They're people, citizens of Chicago and they deserve the same investigation, the same integrity of investigation as anyone else.

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Staples and other department officials said they did not know what happened to the task force over the years. She doesnt think one is needed now, believing the nature of the crimes and the troubled backgrounds of the victims can be handled by detectives on regular duty.

Its all evidence and witnesses, she said.

Margaret Gomez's body was found in this industrial area near the Stevenson Expressway in the 4200 block of South Knox Avenue in Chicago. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

But some outside experts and law enforcement officials think a task force or other kind of stepped-up effort is needed, both to watch for serial killers and to clear up the backlog of strangulations at a time when detectives are burdened by a spike in gang killings.

There were 670 homicides in Chicago last year and 792 the year before, the most in nearly two decades, according to data kept by the Tribune. Many of those were fatal shootings involving gangs.

We are talking a lot about gun violence in the city of Chicago because we should, because we have a ridiculous amount of gun violence in this city, States Attorney Foxx told the Tribune.

Asked if a task force could help, Foxx said such collaboration between her office and police could increase clearance rates by focusing more attention on the cases and detecting possible patterns. She noted that her office already has staff that specializes in human trafficking.

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I think sometimes we forget that we can walk and chew gum at the same time, Foxx said. There has to be sustained advocacy around women who are losing their lives because they are vulnerable.

Jody Raphael, a researcher at DePaul University who has studied prostitution in Chicago for years, said the number of unsolved cases is a reminder how much time and resources these crimes demand.

Because of the fact that you could have a serial murderer out there, you have to investigate these cases, Raphael said. It could be weeks and weeks of pounding the pavement and very hard work.

I know you got some dreams

Researchers across the country are trying to better understand violence against people who work in prostitution and how to reduce it.

While serial killings are declining in this country, they are decreasing at a slower rate when the victims are prostitutes.

The likelihood of being a victim of serial murder has declined for everyone, said Kenna Quinet, an associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. But it hasnt as much for prostitutes. They are unable to protect themselves.  The nature of their work is they will go with a stranger. That it is illegal forces it into an underground and invisible economy.

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One study found that 65 percent of serial murder victims were female, and nearly 78 percent of them were prostitutes.

Morris Hoffer, from the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, said all this points to an obvious law enforcement approach: Make it riskier for men to prey on these women.

They should be aggressively going after men who buy sex, Morris Hoffer said. People think about the prostitution as a problem about her, but prostitution is a problem about him.  Culturally if we could flip the focus and stop saying the question is the choices or the behaviors that she is engaging in and think about the choices and behaviors of the buyers.  Most men dont buy sex. We have to move toward judging and condemning and penalizing the men whose disposable income fuels this entire thing.

While some have argued for more cameras in areas frequented by customers, others have pressed for more outreach and social services to keep the women off the streets.

We are the ones that are actually in the belly of the beast, said Stephanie Daniels-Wilson, who co-founded Dreamcatcher with Myers-Powell. And crisis doesnt make an appointment. We are in the street doing this.

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Brenda Stewart, executive assistant at The Dreamcatcher Foundation, visits friends at Hody's Grill in Cicero as she goes on her route helping prostitutes. Stewart and fellow Dreamcatcher worker Tracey Whitney, both former prostitutes, spent their night Oct. 5, 2017, driving all over the city of Chicago searching for prostitutes to hand out comforting words and toiletry kits. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

One night in early October, an eight-passenger van emblazoned with Dreamcatcher Foundation bounced along Marquette Road west, then north on Halsted Street as the clock edged toward midnight. The streets were empty.

The van cruised up 47th Street and then over to the area known as K-Town on the West Side.

Its definitely dangerous, said Brenda Stewart, gazing out the passenger seat window, a box of care packages on the seat behind her. A lot of vacant buildings. Its dark.

They paused at a weedy lot near Kilbourn Avenue and Wilcox Street, where a transgender woman had recently been killed. Stewart finished her thought.

These streets will chew you up and spit you out, she said.

Behind Stewart and across the street, a young woman walked out of a house and down the front steps and headed down the dimly lit block.

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Stewart, lead outreach worker at Dreamcatcher, and her co-worker that night, Tracey Whitney, got back in the van. It took just a block to catch up to the woman.

The woman, with a soft voice and a sweet face, told her story quickly, sparing details but for the key points. Her boyfriend had killed her son, she said. Nightmares followed. Heroin and cocaine were next.

And now here she stood at nearly 1 a.m., in patterned leggings and dark top, working to support her habit.

Stewart, who worked for 15 years in prostitution, listened. Then she ripped a piece of paper from a spiral notebook and wrote her name and phone number in a large scrawl. She held it up under her chin and stood back from the woman.

How bout you call me? she said. How bout you call me  24 hours  and I will answer the phone?

The young woman nodded.

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I aint gonna tell you to go rehab, Stewart assured her. You aint got to go nowhere. I aint trying to make you stop doing nothing that you doing. I just want you to call me cus I want you to talk to me. Cus I want you to know that there is somebody that care about you. ... You can call me and say, Ms. Brenda, Im OK. Just call me  I aint gonna be shocked. And Im not gonna judge you.

Stewart paused just a half-second.  Cus I know you got some dreams, she said, a smile in her voice.

The young woman smiled back.

Yes, she told them. Someday shed like to be a nurse.

Chicago Tribunes Jennifer Smith Richards, Elyssa Cherney, Madeline Buckley, Liam Ford and Peter Nickeas contributed.

asweeney@chicagotribune.com

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Twitter @Annie1221

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With her identity obscured, the mother of 15-year-old female sexual assault victim speaks out on March 22, 2017. The assault was captured on Facebook Live video. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune) (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

A Cook County judge sentenced two teenage boys Wednesday to five years of probation and ordered them to register as sex offenders for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl broadcast live on Facebook last March.

Judge Patricia Mendoza, assigned to the juvenile division, had signaled she would impose the probation sentences when the two pleaded guilty in November to a single count of child pornography.

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As the victim, now 16, and her mother looked on from the rear of the courtroom, a prosecutor read the girls victim-impact statement in which she said the sexual assault has very traumatically altered my life.

The teen said she lost longtime friends, with some even sending her threats through social media.

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The worst part of this is being able to Google my name and seeing everything that happened to me, she wrote.

After the assault, the victims mother had told the Tribune that people harassed the girls family, making threats. She said the taunts had been just as bad online, including people laughing at her daughter, the mother said then.

Prosecutors had sought sentences for both boys, now each 15, in prison facilities for juveniles.

In court Wednesday, the judge noted the serious nature of the crime and its impact on the victim but said a potential lifetime as registered sex offenders would have more repercussions for the teens than spending several more months in confinement.

Its time for you gentlemen to start adjusting to your new life, Mendoza told them.

Both had spent four months in custody before being released on electronic monitors.

As registered sex offenders, the two will have to follow all necessary treatment recommendations and must register even if they move outside Cook County.

Both, however, can petition the court to be taken off the sex offender registry after 10 years. Attorneys for both teens said their clients were remorseful for their roles in the gang rape.

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Shortly before the judge imposed sentence, both teens made brief apologies in open court.

Im sorry for what I did and I will never do it again, one said.

One of the boys attended the hearing with only his older brother and godmother because both his mother and grandmother were hospitalized.

Following the hearing, the victim and her mother were escorted from the courtroom by deputies and couldnt be reached for comment.

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The judge also ordered the end of electronic monitoring for both boys, but a restraining order still bars them from contacting the victim.

Additional charges faced by the two  including aggravated criminal sexual assault and the manufacture of child pornography  were dropped when they pleaded guilty in November as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

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The Facebook Live sex assault sent shock waves through the victim's West Side neighborhood. The girl, a high school freshman, went missing March 19 after she was dropped off at her Lawndale home by her uncle, according to her family. The next day, her family became aware of the video and took screenshots to the Ogden District police station, where the mother ran into police Superintendent Eddie Johnson.

At the time of the assault, authorities said as many as six males assaulted the victim. By April, the two teens were charged with the sexual assault.

Then in October, a third boy, also 15, was also charged. That case is still pending.

wlee@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MidNoirCowboy

[ 2 teens plead guilty in sex assault broadcast on Facebook Live ]

[ Prosecutors: Boys threatened Facebook Live sex assault victim with dog attack ]
A 17-year-old boy shot Tuesday afternoon on the Far South Side has died, according to authorities.

Deshawn James was killed after a shooting in the 13400 block of South Calumet Avenue in the Eden Green neighborhood about 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Cook County medical examiners office.

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James, who lives in the 12300 block of South Saint Lawrence Avenue in the Golden Gate neighborhood, was pronounced dead 3:03 a.m. on Wednesday at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the office.

On Tuesday, Chicago police officers responded to a call of a person shot and found the teen with a gunshot wound to the head. Officers learned James was walking when someone inside a gray vehicle fired shots.
Environmental groups are suing to force Illinois to adopt ethics rules for regulators involved in enforcing the Clean Air Act. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

For nearly four decades, Illinois failed to adopt federally mandated ethics rules intended to prevent states from appointing environmental regulators with conflicts of interest involving the Clean Air Act.

In July, the Illinois Pollution Control Board finally approved the standards, which require a majority of the five-member panel to represent the public interest and not derive any significant portion of their income from regulated industries. Board members also must disclose potential conflicts.

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But Gov. Bruce Rauners administration still hasnt ensured the ethics rules apply to top officials at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the states frontline enforcer of the landmark anti-pollution law.

Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday demanding the Trump administration take action against Illinois and two other states  Alabama and Mississippi  that missed a 2017 deadline to fully adopt the long-delayed rules.

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Since the three laggards havent acted on their own, the lawsuit urges the U.S. District Court in Washington to order the U.S. EPA to require conflict-of-interest standards in each states official plan to combat ground-level ozone, a hazy soup of pollution commonly known as smog.

Tougher ethical standards are needed now more than ever, the environmental groups said, citing the Trump administrations push to dramatically cut funding for the U.S. EPA and shift enforcement of clean air and water laws to the states.

With the federal government stepping back from its responsibilities, its important for states to step up, said Christine Nannicelli, Illinois representative for the Sierra Clubs Beyond Coal Campaign. Unfortunately, we arent seeing that from the Rauner administration.

Groups behind the legal challenge said their chief concern in Illinois is Alec Messina, who worked as a lobbyist for regulated industries before Rauner named him a top adviser in 2015 and appointed him a year later to lead the Illinois EPA.

In an interview, representatives from the environmental groups said the lawsuit was prompted in part by a Tribune story that documented how Messina has been working behind the scenes since at least November 2016 on proposals intended to benefit one of his former clients: Dynegy Inc., a Houston-based energy company that owns eight financially struggling coal plants in central and southern Illinois.

Kim Biggs, an Illinois EPA spokeswoman, said in an email that Messina is required to comply with two state laws that satisfy the federal requirements: the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act and the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act.

Any involvement by Director Messina related to any pending rule-making  is consistent with and in compliance with those authorities, Biggs wrote.

After reporters raised questions in 2016 about Messinas potential conflicts in water pollution issues, the Illinois EPAs ethics counsel drafted a memo prohibiting the director from being involved in permitting decisions for two years.

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The memo helped clear the way for Messina to win confirmation from the Illinois Senate. It appears no one asked at the time about whether the conflict-of-interest ruling should also apply to air pollution issues.

The same standard should apply to decisions that affect the air we breathe, said Jack Darin, the Sierra Clubs state director.

The Clean Water Act limits involvement in permitting only during the first two years after a state official leaves an industry job, but the Clean Air Act requires ethical standards to be followed during the entire tenure of a regulators government career.

Robert Ukeiley, a lawyer for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, one of the other groups behind the new lawsuit, said even if states have ethics laws on the books, including conflict-of-interest standards in federally required pollution plans gives citizens stronger tools to hold officials accountable.

Both major federal laws allow the public to sue for changes if federal or state officials fail to take action against a polluter.

Messina has said the goal of the states Dynegy proposal is to keep the coal plants open by giving the company more flexibility to operate individual generating units, several of which are not equipped with modern pollution controls.

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The proposal would scrap stringent limits on the rate of lung-damaging pollution from the companys fleet in favor of annual caps on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.

Drafted with extensive input from the company's Chicago-based attorneys, the proposed caps are significantly higher than the amount of pollution Dynegy's fleet emitted during 2015 or 2016, according to a Tribune analysis of federal pollution data.

Messina and company officials contend that air quality would continue to improve if the proposal is adopted. But environmental groups and Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the Rauner administrations effort runs counter to the basic goal of the Clean Air Act: assuring that the air we breathe throughout the nation is wholesome once again.

Opponents of the Dynegy proposal question why the new regulations are necessary unless the company plans to operate its dirtier coal plants more frequently and its cleaner plants less often. The proposed pollution caps are set so high that the state would end up encouraging Dynegy to pollute more, Madigan's office wrote in a legal brief filed last month.

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A hearing on the Dynegy proposal is scheduled next week in Peoria. Its fate will be decided by the Pollution Control Board, a state rule-making panel with four members appointed by Rauner and one holdover named by former Gov. Pat Quinn.

Brenda Carter, a board member appointed last year by Rauner, formerly worked with Messina at the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group, a trade group that represents Dynegy and other industries subject to state pollution regulations.

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The Pollution Control Boards top lawyer said in an email that Carter does not plan to recuse herself from involvement in the Dynegy case.

This case was filed  after Member Carter left her previous employment, Marie Tipsord, the boards general counsel, said in the email. Accordingly, there is no conflict to disclose.

mhawthorne@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @scribeguy

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People walk north on LaSalle Street during the Women's March on Chicago on Jan. 21, 2017. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Around this time last year, Rebecca Groble Hull was panicked about the nation's future. She feared women and immigrants would be marginalized and worried about health care and environmental protections under a new president.

Yet the Evanston woman's anxiety soon transformed to activism: She called her legislators about political issues, attended progressive leadership summits and volunteered more. She expects that activism to be on full display at the second Chicago Women's March later this month.

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"Our voices matter and our voices are being heard," Hull said. "I will keep pushing, as will all the other marchers."

An estimated 250,000 demonstrators filled downtown during last year's Women's March on Chicago, a groundswell of political backlash that shut down parts of the Loop one day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

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Now organizers are preparing for their second rally, March to the Polls, shifting the focus from resistance against a new administration to influencing future local, state and midterm elections. Cast members from the Broadway musical "Hamilton" and Second City are expected to give live performances. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is scheduled to speak, as well as officials from the Chicago Foundation for Women, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Emily's List and other organizations.

The Jan. 20 event at Grant Park  which includes a rally followed by a march  is aligned with more than 600 similar anniversary marches in Washington, D.C., and across the globe that weekend, projected to draw millions internationally. Last year, several million people participated in women's marches around the world.

"There is a tremendous amount of energy around this movement and this moment," said Women's March on Chicago organizer Jessica Scheller.

While she feared fervor might fade after the first march, Scheller said she's actually seen resurgence in momentum over the last year, galvanized in part by national cultural events. Powerful indicators include the recent #MeToo campaign against sexual misconduct as well as numerous celebrities at the Golden Globe Awards earlier this week dressed in black and bearing "Time's Up" pins in a show of support for victims of sexual harassment and abuse.

"We want to bring the concerns of the everyday Chicago woman to the forefront," Scheller said. "This event is for everyone who considers themselves aligned with raising the concerns and voices of women."

Massive crowd

Hull predicts this year's march will attract an even larger crowd.

"So many women I know have become activists," she said. "I, with so many others, (are) using our voice and our vote to affect change. This collective and positive activism gives me hope."

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Organizers initially estimated last year's Chicago march would attract a crowd of 22,000, and they were shocked when Grant Park overflowed with some quarter-million demonstrators. The pedestrian portion of the event had to be canceled due to safety concerns, but many participants marched anyway.

Hundreds of thousands of people march through the streets during the Women's March on Chicago on Jan. 21, 2017. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune) (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

"You can't say you're stopping the march," one demonstrator had told the Tribune. "It's too powerful."

Scheller noted the weather was unseasonably warm last year with a high temperature of 61 degrees; snow or freezing temperatures this year could affect the crowd.

She said organizers are not issuing projections for attendance this time.

"Based on our experience last year, I think it's safe to say we're going to keep ourselves out of the crowd estimating game," she said. "We are not good at it."

'Moment of change'

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Chanda Szczeblowski, of Berwyn, hopes the demonstrations ignite permanent change, but she does worry about "burnout."

She attended the Women's March on Washington last year with her adolescent daughters and plans to march in Chicago this year.

"I am very hopeful this is a moment of change for the women's movement, but I've seen fervor before," she said. "I worry that social media commoditizes this, and it becomes yet another hashtag fashion statement. I have also seen splintering within groups that is frustrating."

But to Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer, the marches have already spurred concrete change, including encouraging more women to run for political office.

In 2014, 19 women in Illinois ran for statewide or federal elected office; this year, 29 women are running for office at that same level, said Gainer, who founded the political organization Cause the Effect in 2014 to bring more women into civic activism and politics.

She believes the marches were a catalyst for the #MeToo movement and outcry against sexual harassment and abuse.

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"Women didn't speak up about sexual harassment and they didn't run for office because both are risky, and if you didn't have support, you paid the price," said Gainer, who will be a speaker at Chicago's march. "The women's marches showed women they would have the support and they were not alone. I think these protests were a living symbol that there was more of this support out there."

Inclusion and diversity

The famous pink cat-eared cap  dubbed the pussyhat  became a visceral symbol of the women's marches last year.

To many demonstrators, the knit hats represented unity and equality. Some thought the hats did not represent all women, particularly women of color and transgender women.

Scheller said local organizers strive to reach out to diverse groups, noting that speakers have included women of color and transgender activists.

"I think the criticism is always valid," she said. "If someone feels excluded from something, we have not succeeded in our core mission of inclusion. Can we always do more? Can we always do better? Yes, and we're striving for that."

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Local knitters make hats ahead of the Women's March on Chicago, which coincides with the National Women's March in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 2017. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

She added that the pink hats were a grassroots phenomenon and aren't pushed by event organizers; each participant can decide what to wear individually.

Despite some of the controversy, Dima Ali, of Oak Park, said she plans to wear her pink hat at the Chicago march.

"It has meaning to it," said Ali, an immigrant from Iraq who became a U.S. citizen in 2017. "You can't criticize these women who put their lives on hold. They did something."

While the demonstrations highlight women's rights, organizers say they also focus on a variety of social issues such as affordable health care, immigration, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, environmental protection, reproductive rights and access for people with disabilities.

Lynette Jackson, associate professor of Gender and Women's Studies and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, acknowledged that some groups complained about a lack of diversity.

Jackson marched in Washington, D.C., in 2017 and says she'll be marching in Chicago this month.

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"My attitude is this: If we, meaning black women, waited to be invited to everything, we'd still be waiting," she said. "Black women have always rather inserted ourselves where we need to be and gotten the job done. Black women, queer women, trans women, Muslim, Latina, Asian and First Nation women all need to be there, along with white women, early and often."

eleventis@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @angie_leventis

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Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here.

Topspin

Democratic governor candidate Chris Kennedy is continuing his war of words with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, accusing the mayor of "sitting on the sideline" over the property tax assessment system run by Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios.

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"For the mayor to be sitting on the sideline when Joe Berrios runs a system of assessments in Cook County that absolutely, absolutely punish people of color, whether it's in suburban Cook County or the African-American wards in the city itself, if I shouldn't criticize the mayor, are you saying the mayor shouldn't criticize Joe Berrios? Where is his voice now?" Kennedy said at a news conference on Wednesday in Pilsen.

Kennedy has called for Berrios' ouster after the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois published "The Tax Divide," an investigation that found Berrios' office's assessments were so riddled with errors that they created deep inequities favoring owners of expensive commercial properties and homes at the expense of owners of smaller business properties and less expensive homes.

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Emanuel has not criticized Berrios and has said little about the issue, other than acknowledging there needs to be an "look" at the system to "make sure there is fairness."

Kennedy's latest comments came after he last week accused Emanuel of leading a "strategic gentrification plan" aimed at forcing African-Americans and other minorities out of Chicago to make the city "whiter" and wealthier.

In response, Emanuel accused Kennedy of making a "hallucinatory" insult. The mayor also said the heir to the iconic Massachusetts political family had asked for Emanuel's endorsement.

Kennedy on Wednesday denied it.

"I did not. No," Kennedy told reporters. "I didn't do that, and frankly, I'm not sure his endorsement would be helpful with the voters."

Asked for a response, Emanuel's team did not address Kennedy's comments about Berrios. They did, however, address the issue of an endorsement request.

"Yes, he did ask," Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins said later. "Chris knows the truth." (Rick Pearson, Bill Ruthhart)

What's on tap

*Mayor Emanuel will announce nerve centers in two police districts.

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*Gov. Bruce Rauner has no public events scheduled.

*The State Board of Elections will meet and consider challenges to the ballot spots of more than two dozen candidates, including Democratic attorney general hopeful Scott Drury. What won't be decided at this meeting: Whether state Sen. Ira Silverstein will be on the March primary ballot. That case is handled by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and is ongoing.

*Two council committees meet, and one is scheduled to talk about "textalyzer" technology that purports to tell if a driver was using a phone before a wreck.

From the notebook

*Pritzker gets more teacher union backing: Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker now has the backing of the state's two major teachers' unions after the endorsement of the Illinois Education Association.

Pritzker got the support of the Illinois Federation of Teachers last month, and the IEA endorsement represents a further consolidation of organized labor money and resources behind the billionaire entrepreneur and investor.

IEA President Kathi Griffin cited "Pritzker's strong commitment to funding K-12 education, his promise to invest in higher education, his pledge to protect collective bargaining rights and his willingness to enact a progressive income tax that matched our goals for public education in Illinois" as the reason behind the endorsement.

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The IEA has more than 135,000 members and becomes one of 30 union and organized labor groups that have backed Pritzker's candidacy. (Rick Pearson)

*Hastings gets title on White's re-election campaign: State Sen. Michael Hastings of Tinley Park raised some eyebrows when he filed petitions appearing to challenge longtime Democratic Secretary of State Jesse White.

But Hastings has formally withdrawn from the March primary. And now White has named him as an "honorary co-chair" of the re-election campaign. White was first elected to the post in 1998.

Hastings filed petitions for secretary of state as a backup after he said he had heard from forces backing White that the 83-year-old secretary of state might drop out in favor of a political protege. That didn't happen. (Rick Pearson)

*Quick spins: "I'm not goin' away! All right!" is how former Gov. Pat Quinn responded when "when asked if it isn't time for him to let the next generation to run for attorney general," according to a tweet from WLS-AM radio reporter Bill Cameron. ... Weeks after congressional Republicans approved their tax overhaul, U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam has moved from head of the Ways and Means Committee's tax policy arm to the Subcommittee on Health. ... Jesus "Chuy" Garcia won the endorsement of the SEIU State Council in his bid to replace U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez in Congress. ... The Illinois AFL-CIO endorsed Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski of Western Springs in his primary bid for re-election against challenger Marie Newman.

What we're writing



*Rauner hits Pritzker with Blagojevich wiretap ad, Pritzker responds with veterans' deaths spot. Read the June Tribune scoop on the audio.

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*More than two years after bacteria outbreak, Rauner proposes task force to figure out veterans home fixes.

*City agrees to pay $9.3 million for wrongful conviction tied to Burge detectives.

*Racism, sexism persist at Chicago water department despite leadership change, workers allege.

*Appointment of Chicago school board member to top CPS post conflicts with law.

*Car booted in a private lot? Getting it back soon could cost $30 more.

*Chicago "Dreamers" study, save and plan for the worst while Congress debates immigration relief.



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*Admission fee hikes approved for Museum of Science and Industry and the Chicago History Museum.

*CTA extends 31st Street bus service through June.

*Wisconsin launches ad blitz to lure Chicago millennials. (Fact check: In the video, the sleepy-looking people on a CTA train aren't looking at their phones.)

What we're reading

*Chicago radio's Milt Rosenberg dies at 92.

*A good mechanic is hard to find, and even harder to lose.

*Lyft launching Chicago craft beer to offer ride discounts, push its brand.

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Follow the money

*Democratic candidate for attorney general Sharon Fairley reported giving her campaign $100,000.

*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.

Beyond Chicago

*Trump doesn't commit to Mueller interview.

*Congress considers bringing back earmarks.

*Trump calls libel law a sham.

*Death toll rises in California mudslides.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens delivers the annual State of the State address to a joint session of the House and Senate in Jefferson City, Mo., on Jan. 10, 2018. (Jeff Roberson / AP)

Republican Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauners campaign has stopped airing a TV ad that featured the Missouri governor who has admitted to an extra-marital affair, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

Rauner campaign spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said the spot featuring Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb came down after Wednesdays release of a new ad featuring audio of Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker talking to disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich about a possible job.

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The spot featuring the Republican governors showed them mockingly thanking Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan for improvements in their states.

The ad isnt running because we rotated it out for the Blago ad, Kukowski said of the commercial featuring Greitens.

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It first ran in October, the day after Rauner formally announced his bid to seek a second term. It gained a recent renewal in appearing on the states airwaves.

Greitens, Missouris Republican governor, issued a statement Wednesday night following his second State of the State Address admitting to an extra-marital affair in 2015, before he was governor.

KMOV-TV in St. Louis and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that in a recording of the unnamed woman, taped by her now ex-husband, she alleged Greitens took a photo and threatened her not to speak about the incident. Greitens has denied any blackmail threat, reports said.

In the Rauner ad, Greitens makes mention of Madigan blocking Rauners reforms without specifying the changes that Illinois Republican governor has unsuccessfully pushed.

Holcomb contends Hoosiers love you, Mike Madigan, while Walker adds, Cheeseheads love you, Madigan and Greitens says, Big fans here in Missouri. Big Time. Thank you, Mike. Then a logo reading Stop Mike Madigan appears onscreen.

Rauner has continuously tried to tie the states problems to Madigan, the nations longest-serving speaker of the House who has served in the role for all but two years since 1983. The governor has used his personal wealth and that of his allies to promote the theme, and he has helped fund GOP legislative candidates, seeking to link Democratic rank-and-file members to the House speaker, who also serves as state Democratic chairman.

Records show that in September 2016, Rauner gave $100,000 each to the campaigns of Greitens and Holcomb.

rap30@aol.com

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[ Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens acknowledges affair, denies photo blackmail allegations ]

[ Rauner hits Pritzker with Blagojevich wiretap ad, Pritzker responds with veterans' deaths spot ]
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker exchanged attack ads Wednesday, signaling a potentially expensive and negative campaign between the two wealthy men. (Chicago Tribune staff)

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday unveiled a TV attack ad featuring audio of Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker talking to disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich about a possible job, prompting Pritzker to go up with a commercial hitting Rauner for deaths and illnesses at a downstate veterans home.

The new advertising onslaught is unfolding well before either candidate has faced voters in the March 20 primary, foretelling how negative and expensive a potential general election contest would be between two wealthy men willing to use their money to promote their political careers. Rauner is a former private equity investor, while Pritzker is a billionaire entrepreneur and investor who has vowed to self-fund his campaign. Both already have spent millions.

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Rauners decision to focus on Pritzkers ties to the now-imprisoned Blagojevich reflected what one GOP campaign aide said privately was a need to point out the Democrats insider dealings amid the belief that the heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune will win the primary election. The ad also could drive up negative voter perceptions of Pritzker, perhaps providing a boost to other Democratic governor hopefuls including businessman Chris Kennedy and state Sen. Daniel Biss.

Rauners Pritzker-Blagojevich spot comes more than seven months after the Chicago Tribune first reported that federal law enforcement officials had captured the talks as they investigated Blagojevich and his administration for public corruption in fall 2008. The Tribune obtained the recordings, as well as transcripts of calls to others.

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The new one-minute attack ad features no narrator and uses sepia-toned photographs of Blagojevich and Pritzker with ominous-sounding music beneath their conversation, which authorities recorded on Nov. 6, 2008. Blagojevich opened the possibility of appointing Pritzker as attorney general if he selected Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan as U.S. senator to replace then-incoming President Barack Obama. Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan, the attorney generals father, had been feuding for years.

OK, so what if, and Im telling ya this could happen  because I know how Madigan is. He says, Ill give you health care. Ill give you a capital bill, OK? Ill balance the uh, well work with you to balance the budget the way you want to do it and Ill raise taxes on people. And, uh, you make Lisa the senator, OK? Blagojevich says as Pritzker responds, Uh-huh.

After Blagojevich calls such a choice a moral dilemma, Pritzker says, You should do it. Id take that in a heartbeat.

Blagojevich goes on to note that if Lisa Madigan gets the U.S. Senate appointment, Theres an AG that I appoint.

Oh, thats interesting, says Pritzker, a lawyer.

Blagojevich urges Pritzker, I mean, dont rule that one out.

OK, Pritzker responds as Blagojevich responds, I mean, Im not promising. Im just saying these are all scenarios.

The ad then shows the tagline: J.B. Pritzker. A corrupt deal for Illinois.

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At the time of the conversation, it was widely known that Blagojevich was the target of an intensifying, yearslong federal investigation.

Earlier in the call, Blagojevich and Pritzker discussed various scenarios about who the governor should appoint to the Senate to replace Obama, whod been elected president two days earlier. During the conversation, Pritzker has pitched the idea of Blagojevich appointing him state treasurer if that office should become open. Pritzker told Blagojevich, My interest in holding public office is, you know, always large.

The audio used in the Rauner ad picks up at the point where Blagojevich weighs the pros and cons of appointing Lisa Madigan to the Senate seat despite his feud with her father.

The Rauner ad leaves off the end of the phone call, in which Pritzker said hes got to head into an event and tells Blagojevich he doesnt want to seem like Im out here looking for a job. He then reminds Blagojevich about the office he wants. The treasurer thing seems totally logical to me and not harmful to you, Pritzker says.

Pritzker, who declined to be interviewed for the May 31 Tribune story, briefly took reporters questions at a political event shortly after the story published online.

Look, there was nothing inappropriate about my conversation with the governor, Pritzker said back then. It should be unsurprising to people that after 25 years of doing public service in a variety of ways that when an opportunity might have arisen for me to do public service that I would be willing to do that. And that was what the conversation was all about.

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Ultimately, Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to the Obama Senate vacancy. Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges little more than a month after the conversation with Pritzker.

On Wednesday, Pritzker spokesman Galia Slayen responded to Rauners ad by noting that J.B. was never accused of wrongdoing.

Putting selectively edited, 9-year-old tapes on air wont change that, she said.

As Rauners ad was being released, Pritzkers campaign offered two new TV ads  one in which Pritzker accuses the Republican governor of unleashing his attacks to play politics in the Democratic primary (rather) than to defend his own record. A second ad quotes newscasts from around the state questioning the Rauner administrations handling of incidents of Legionnaires disease at the Quincy Veterans Home, where 13 people have died since a 2015 outbreak.

Its no surprise Bruce Rauner is already on TV attacking me. Hed rather play politics in the Democratic primary than to defend his own record, Pritzker says into the camera, not specifying whats in Rauners latest ad.

Im running for governor to take Illinois down a different path, Pritzker says, noting support for a graduated income tax and a large-scale health care plan. Bruce Rauner can attack me all he wants, but Ill keep fighting to change Illinois.

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The second ad on the Quincy facilitys problems with Legionnaires largely uses narration from newscasts throughout the state. The spot also features U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who has endorsed Pritzker, saying in a newscast, I think our veterans deserve nothing but the absolute best and theyre not getting that at this time.

Bruce Rauner: Our veterans deserve better, reads a graphic that closes the ad.

Rauner left the veterans home Wednesday after a weeklong stay, pledging to start a task force to look at fixes for the water problems causing the Legionnaires.

rap30@aol.com

Twitter @rap30

RELATED

[ Rauner hits Pritzker on offshore assets but could have some of his own ]

[ Rauner lays out how second term will be different, blames Emanuel for first-term failures ]

[ Democratic governor candidate Pritzker wins major teacher union endorsement ]
The Louisiana teacher who was ejected from a school board meeting and handcuffed after speaking out about salaries  a video-recorded arrest that sparked outrage  said Wednesday her treatment was appalling and encouraged others to speak out.

The fallout from Deyshia Hargrave's arrest Monday night was wide-ranging, with school district officials receiving death threats and the governor saying it "cast a negative light" on the state. Video of the arrest was shared widely online.

"By taking away my voice they've taken away  or tried to take away  my First Amendment rights to speak," Hargrave said in a video posted on the Louisiana Association of Educators' Facebook page . "And I'm appalled at this, and you should be too."

She expressed gratitude for support from students and parents in Vermilion Parish  about 150 miles west of New Orleans. "Go to your local school board meetings," Hargrave said. "Speak out. Be vocal."

Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is married to a teacher and gets support from teacher unions, said he "didn't see anything that warranted that type of action."

Superintendent Jerome Puyau said the hate emails and phone calls began pouring in after videos spread.

"I've stopped reading them because they're just so bad and disgusting," Puyau said, at times struggling to compose himself in an interview with The Associated Press. He said the school system offices went into temporary lockdown, and his daughters had to delete threats on their social media.

The turmoil follows the board's 5-3 vote Monday night approving a new 3-year contract raising Puyau's salary by roughly $30,000, to about $140,000 annually, with incentive targets that could add 3 percent per year.

He said the raise matches what other school officials make in similar jobs.

Hargrave, a middle school English teacher, said she felt like she was representing all teachers in the parish by questioning the raise, at a time when teachers haven't received an increase in 10 years, despite growing class sizes and other demands.

Video of the meeting shows that Hargrave addressed the superintendent directly after she was asked by a board member to comment on the contract vote.

"How are you going to take that money, because it's basically taken out of the pockets of teachers?" she said, prompting School Board President Anthony Fontana to bang his gavel.

"Stop right now! That's not germane to what's on the agenda tonight," Fontana declared.

The crowd, now agitated, cried "Yes it is!" and the teacher pressed on, saying "this directly speaks to what you were just voting on."

At that point, according to school board member Kibbie Pillette, Fontana beckoned to a school resource officer hired by the board, who confronted Hargrave, ordering her to get her things and go.

"I'm going," she said, making her way out. Moments later  after briefly leaving the view of any cameras  she was on the hallway floor with her hands behind her back, being handcuffed and complaining that the officer was hurting her.

"Stop resisting," the marshal said, lifting Hargrave to her feet.

"I am not, you just pushed me to the floor," Hargrave said.

The officer arrested Hargrave on charges of "remaining after being forbidden" and resisting an officer, but she bonded out of the Abbeville jail once her mug shot was taken. Ike Funderburk, the prosecutor and city attorney in Abbeville, told KATC that she won't be prosecuted.

Puyau said that the school system would not press charges. He said he did not order Hargrave's removal or arrest, but repeatedly declined to say whether anyone else on the board was responsible for her treatment. While refusing to comment on details, Puyau made clear to that he was unhappy with how things played out.

"It was not good in any way," he said. "We are a good community. It took everybody by surprise. I'm having a hard time with this, but we care about our teachers and our support staff."

Fontana did not return phone messages Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union are investigating. The ACLU condemned the arrest as a violation of free speech.

McGill reported from New Orleans.
More than a week ago, one of YouTube's biggest stars uploaded a video containing extensive footage of an apparent suicide victim hanging from a tree in a Japanese forest. Now, the platform has announced that Logan Paul, whose channel has 15 million subscribers, will lose access to Google's premium ad program. His upcoming projects with YouTube Red - the platform's subscription service - are also on hold.

"In light of recent events, we have decided to remove Logan Paul's channels from Google Preferred," a YouTube spokesman said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

Google Preferred is a premium ad program that runs on the top 5 percent of channels on YouTube. Access to that preferred program is lucrative for creators, although Paul will still be able to monetize his content on YouTube without it.

There's more: Paul was supposed to star in the YouTube original movie "The Thinning: New World Order," slated to come out later this year. But Paul's original projects with YouTube Red are now "on hold," and Paul will no longer star in the next series of the YouTube Red comedy "Foursome."

If you followed the saga of PewDiePie last year, this punishment might sound familiar: it's pretty similar to how YouTube handled the fallout from a Wall Street Journal report that highlighted the YouTube superstar's Nazi jokes. But the reaction to the two situations, at least among YouTube's community of creators, has been very different. In PewDiePie's case, the decision caused outrage among many creators who felt the platform had acted too quickly and harshly. In the week since Paul's video was uploaded, however, creators have felt that YouTube's response was not nearly harsh or quick enough.

YouTube previously released a pair of statements about Paul's video. The first outlined YouTube's policy on graphic content, and noted that the platform partners with safety groups like theNational Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It wasn't in the on-the-record statement, but YouTube has since confirmed that it also issued a "strike" against Paul's channel for violating its community guidelines.

Paul removed the video from his channel himself, apologized, and put his daily vlogging schedule on pause.

YouTube's second statement, released Tuesday, was the first from the platform that fully condemned the content in Paul's video. That statement was tweeted from YouTube's main account, and was addressed directly to their community. YouTube promised to consider "further consequences" for Paul.

Those consequences, as they did for PewDiePie, amount YouTube deciding to disavow one of its biggest stars. But that doesn't mean Paul's career on the platform is over. He has 15 million subscribers and a dedicated young fan base who will still watch his videos and buy his merchandise. And according to Socialblade, Paul has gained tens of thousands of subscribers every day since this controversy began.
Peter Hoekstra, the newly minted U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, held his first conference with the Dutch media at his new residence in the Hague on Wednesday.

It did not go well.

Dutch journalists peppered Hoekstra, who became Trump's ambassador after serving 18 years as a Republican congressman from Michigan, with questions on unsubstantiated claims he made in 2015 about the chaos the "Islamic movement" had brought to the Netherlands.

"There are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned," he had said at a conference hosted by a conservative group. "And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands."

The comments have widely been described as inaccurate, and reflect certain conspiracies about sharia law that crop up in some circles of the far-right in the West. When pressed by the Dutch reporters, Hoekstra declined to retract the comments or give specific examples to back them up.

In fact, after saying that he would be "revisiting the issue," he simply refused to answer the question at all.

But the reporters were not done with the line of questioning yet. Instead of moving on, another reporter would simply ask a variation on the question again.

"Everybody there had one question: that crazy statement you made, are you going to withdraw it?" said Roel Geeraedts, a political reporter at the Dutch television station RTL Nieuws in a phone interview about the event. "We were not getting answers, so we all kept asking it."

Geeraedts published a segment with video of the remarkable exchange on social media.

After at least one person had asked the question, Geeraedts followed up to ask Hoekstra about a John Adams quote - Adams was the United States' first ambassador to Holland - that was mounted right behind the ambassador. Hoekstra said he had read the quote, which expresses Adams' hope that only "honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."

"If you're truly an honest and wise man, could you please take back the remark about burned politicians or name the politician that was burned in the Netherlands?" Geeraedts asked.

An uncomfortable silence followed the question.

"Thank you," Hoekstra said, before trying to call on someone else over the clamor of the reporters in the room.

"Excuse me, I asked you a question," Geeraedts said.

Another journalist jumped in.

"Mr. Ambassador, can you mention any example of a Dutch politician who was burned in recent years?"

Again, silence, as Hoekstra stared around the room.

"This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions," another reporter said.

Sherry Keneson-Hall, an embassy counselor who was helping run the news conference, pushed back, asserting that Hoekstra was answering the questions.

At least one more journalist fired the question off. Reporters had asked the question at least five times.

"We were all astonished that he didn't want to take back the comment. It was simply untrue, so why not take it back?" said Geeraedts. "It was awkward, to be honest."

Hoekstra has been in hot water in the Netherlands for the remarks since he was first confronted by a Dutch journalist, Wouter Zwart, in December. Hoekstra falsely claimed to Zwart that he had never made the remarks and called them "fake news." Moments later, he denied that he had called them fake news.

Video of the bizarre exchange, juxtaposed with his "no-go zone" remarks, went viral, and the episode drew a slew of critical headlines in the United States and the Netherlands.

Hoekstra's silence when faced with reporters' questions on Wednesday drew a similar response.

"Embarrassing performance from controversial ambassador," read a web headline at De Telegraaf, one of the country's largest newspapers. "Ambassador Hoekstra lost his way again in The Hague," read another. "Very uncomfortable meeting between ambassador and journalists," went RTL Nieuws.

Hoekstra pointed to the public regrets he had made for the exchange with Zwart on Wednesday. But he did not clarify whether the apology was meant to include the no-go zone comments when asked on Wednesday. At one point, he seemed to indicate that he was most concerned about the interview, not the statements.

"It is not about my personal views anymore. This is about the views on the policies of the United States of America as directed by this administration," he said. "One interview is not going to have an impact. The other thing I just want to reinforce, this relationship has been maintained by countless people over the last 400 years, this is not about me."

A CNN report published this week documented multiple times Hoekstra had referred to "no-go zones," in European cities during appearances on conservative media, including talk radio, and a print op-ed, and unearthed other instances where he had given fuel to conspiracy theories about Muslims.

He speculated that some 10-15 percent of the Muslim community in the world - 270 million people - were radical Islamist militants and appeared to imply that Huma Abedin had "egregious" ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a claim that The Washington Post's fact-checker Glenn Kessler, and other publications, have determined as "bogus." On another far-right show, Hoekstra said he had considered the possibly that President Barack Obama might be intentionally aiding the rise of Muslim extremists.

The State Department did not return a request for comment.

Geeraedts said he believed that Hoekstra's behavior confirmed some suspicions the Dutch have about the Trump administration.

"A lot of Dutch people have seen the press conferences of the White House and seen how some questions are not answered," he said. "Everybody knows about 'alternative facts.' And this fits that picture."

He said that the press corps' unwillingness to let the question go was a spontaneous response, and said he had seen a similar tactic employed on a smaller scale when Dutch politicians gave evasive answers to direct questions. But he said politics in the Netherlands differed a bit from the current situation in the United States.

"In the Netherlands you don't get a straight up answer, if you ask straight up questions," he said. "But you hardly get false answers."
U.S. citizen Benjamin Zepeda, 14, at podium, with his mother Lorena Zepeda, right, who benefits from Temporary Protected Status address a news conference in Los Angeles on Jan. 8, 2018. The Trump administration said it is ending special protections for Salvadoran immigrants. (Damian Dovarganes / AP)

In 2001, following massive earthquakes that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 1 million in El Salvador, the United States made room for people who had come here illegally fleeing the catastrophe. It was an act of generosity taken by President George W. Bush under a federal program known as temporary protected status. Some 200,000 people took advantage of the offer to live and work legally in this country.

On Monday, 17 years later, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen announced that the Salvadorans who were accommodated will be required to end their stays in the U.S. The original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes no longer exist, the Department of Homeland Security said. Thus, under the applicable statute, the current TPS designation must be terminated.

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Put simply, she understands that temporary is not a synonym for permanent. The change follows similar determinations on people who have come here from Haiti (after a 2010 earthquake) and Nicaragua (after a 1998 hurricane). In each case, the emergency that precipitated mass flight has abated, but the status has been repeatedly renewed.

Critics of the latest decision regard it as cruel. Kevin Appleby of the Center for Migration Studies said it will uproot families and children who have lived here for years. Adrian Reyna of United We Dream said these people will be forced from the place theyve called home for nearly two decades.

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These complaints confirm the proverb that no good deed goes unpunished. The United States had no obligation to take in these unfortunates, but it did so  on the understanding, made clear both to the people of El Salvador and the people of America, that they would eventually return home. Eventually, in this case, turns out to be far longer than anyone could have anticipated.

Panic is not in order. Under the terms announced by DHS, no one would have to leave until next year. And Mark Silverman, a lawyer for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco, told The New York Times that anyone arrested after losing TPS is entitled to a deportation hearing  which gives them at least seven to 10 years because immigration courts are so overloaded.

We dont blame anyone who would prefer to live in this country rather than the places they left. But TPS was not meant to be, and shouldnt be, a way to admit immigrants or refugees who are covered by other programs. It was meant to allow the rescue of foreigners in dire, immediate need until the emergency has passed. The nature of that trade-off is that people who have made homes here will be obligated to leave them in due course.

Those denouncing the decision have a point when they warn that many of the beneficiaries will not go home but will stay in the United States, becoming unauthorized immigrants. If thats the case, it will provide fuel to anti-immigration advocates who would rather scrap TPS entirely. But we expect that many if not most of those who lose their protected status will comply with the law.

Those who oppose the change have a point in saying that, even though these countries have largely overcome the original disasters that caused the U.S. to offer help, they remain poor, chaotic and dangerous. Thats not a reason to extend TPS forever, but its a reason for Congress to take a close look at whether these foreigners should be allowed to stay.

The controversy is a reminder that our elected leaders should be hard at work on a comprehensive measure to reform our laws to balance the American tradition of accepting immigrants with the need for reasonable controls on the volume and type. If Congress favors permanent legal status for the people affected by DHS decisions, it can pass legislation to accomplish that.

Stretching the TPS program far beyond its primary purpose has been a convenient alternative to hammering out a sound consensus on policy. But it has gone on long enough.
I have some bad news, folks: The fate of our country rests in the hands of a Fox News morning show called Fox & Friends.

Its President Donald Trumps favorite show  probably because the hosts share his aversion to facts  and he often spends his mornings watching it and tweeting out quotes from the program or responses to issues being discussed.

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Having the leader of the free world engage in daily stream-of-consciousness tweets based on low-bar cable television news chatter might seem like a good idea  its like improvisational jazz, only with a higher probability of starting a nuclear war  but sometimes it causes problems.

Like Thursday morning, when Trump heard someone on Fox & Friends raising questions about a government surveillance bill up for reauthorization, suggesting it was a bad idea. Logically, the president of the United States of America listened to the person on his TV and sent a tweet that contradicted the position his own White House and national security team have taken on the bill.

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The tweet read: House votes on controversial FISA ACT today. This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?

Aside from that being a bunch of unrelated and conspiratorial jibber-jabber, it also contradicted a statement the White House issued Wednesday night strongly supporting reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Trumps early morning tweet sowed chaos in Congress as Democrats who want greater privacy measures in the bill tried to get it pulled from consideration.

About an hour later, Trump sent another tweet, reversing course back to support for FISA: With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!

Yes, get smart, you people doing what the White House fully supported right up until a guy on Fox & Friends told the president not to support it!

(The House went on to pass the legislation Thursday morning, after the confusion subsided.)

What weve learned from this episode  one Im sure Republican lawmakers who have spent months working to pass the reauthorization really enjoyed  is that Fox & Friends can get President Trump to do whatever it wants.

If hosts Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Ainsley Earhardt did a segment on how trains cause cancer, the president would immediately tweet: TRAINS ARE KILLING HARDWORKING AMERICANS! I will fix this, and FAST. Amtrak is officially BANNED and Im closing all subway systems until further notice. #MAGA

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If they talked about the lack of chimpanzees on Broadway, Trump would tweet: The LOSERS on Broadway do not listen to Americans, who have a right to see more chimpanzees on stage. Why no chimps? We will be looking very closely at strengthening chimpanzee actor employment laws. CRAZY!

So Im calling on the Fox & Friends crew to recognize the awesome power it wields and use it for good.

For example: Consider a lengthy segment on how President Barack Obama never sent every American an envelope full of money, and explain how polling suggests that any president who sent every American an envelope full of money would be highly respected. Then stare into the camera and wink.

Or perhaps do a piece on self-impeachment, then turn to the camera and say: Mr. President, you could be the first-ever president to take this bold step. Imagine what an honor that would be.

The possibilities are endless, but so far you all seem to be focusing more on the crazy/loony stuff that makes it likely we wont live to see 2019.

So please, Fox & Friends  or, if I may, President Cable Morning Show  help make America great by sensibly guiding the president you control.

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Our fate is in your hands.

God help us all.

rhuppke@chicagotribune.com

RELATED

[ House passes legislation to renew NSA spying program after Trumps contradictory tweets ]

[ Trump attacks protections for immigrants from 'shithole' countries in Oval Office meeting ]
The Trump administration is shifting its war on immigration over to employers, as revealed in the Jan. 11 article Immigration agents raid dozens of 7-Eleven stores.Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is on the record saying the purpose was to put employers on notice that they need to comply with immigration laws. As an immigration attorney, I see employers every day, doing their best to recruit workers legally.

I spoke to one 7-Eleven owner from Chicago with four stores. He was audited five years ago under the Obama administration too. Contrary to the pieces implication, while this may have been the largest raid under President Donald Trump so far, this is nothing new, and the Obama administration conducted enforcement operations such as these on a regular basis. At that time, the owner says, he was fined because some of his I-9s (the documents where employers record information submitted by applicants) were incomplete or erroneous.

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Since then, he has tried hard to comply with the rules. But even though he says he offers $11 to $12 an hour, he cannot find employees willing to take the overnight shifts. Being unable to find workers is a problem that exists in industries like restaurants, agricultural jobs, meat-packing plants, etc. Despite decent wages and good benefits, American workers simply do not want to do these jobs.

The Trump administration must stop vilifying immigrant workers and their employers. Instead, they should work with Congress on sensible solutions that allow honest employers to hire the workforce needed to ensure our economy continues to thrive and our need for snacks, even at 2 a.m., is met at a local 7-Eleven.

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 Shannon M. Shepherd, Immigration Attorneys, LLP, Chicago
In her op-ed piece, a remarkably comprehensive and well-written essay from an assembly line worker, Tonya Exum recounts the failure of her union to support her claims of sexual harassment by coworkers because they are also union members. The more skeptical among us might view the publication of this article as one more cynical ploy by anti-labor organizations to worsen the reputation of labor unions in their attempt to make Illinois a right-to-work state.

Whether it is or not is irrelevant. The kind of treatment Exum has said she received is unacceptable and should not be tolerated by either management or labor. I can easily imagine that the union would like her to be quiet in the name of solidarity, but in this case the union should be insisting that their male members treat female members with respect in the name of solidarity. Of course, I can just as easily imagine management justifying its inaction in this instance by calling it another case of stubborn resistance on the part of the union.

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What the unions need to see  and have needed to see for some time  is that one of the most common arguments against their continued existence is that they protect poor workers from facing consequences they deserve. No doubt many of those complaints come from poor supervisors who would rather control workers than learn to manage them, but as they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Simply put, the unions can find themselves in a very difficult spot if they dont do whats right and insist that all their members, male and female, treat each other with respect, even if it means refusing to protect a member from disciplinary consequences. There are too many people eager to find any justification to eliminate labor unions. Union leaders should not give them this opening.

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 Larry Hunt, Chicago
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner was famously quoted recently saying, "I'm not in charge!" I am guessing the residents of the Quincy veterans home, where an epidemic of Legionnaires Disease went largely unnoticed for weeks, were wishing he wasn't so eager to prove it...
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- At CES 2018, Baidu officially unveiled Apollo 2.0, the latest version of the Apollo open autonomous driving platform, and announced its more than 90 partners. WM Motor Technology Co. (WM Motor), a Chinas electric vehicle startup, also joined the alliance to become one of China's pioneer new energy vehicle brands that utilizes Apollo's technologies.

China is accelerating the revolution of electrification, intelligence, automation in auto market. We are devoted to achieving the mass production of plentiful advanced technical applications, said Freeman Shen, the founder of WM Motor, Collaborating with Baidu means that we will further explore the mass-producible AI and autonomous driving technologies in which intelligent electric vehicles act as the core carrier."

Baidu Apollo values the cooperation with competitive auto enterprises with strong innovation abilities. We think highly of WM Motors product idea and development strategy. Baidu will energize China's outstanding vehicle startups like WM Motor with our advanced technologies and build an intelligent travelling ecosystem."said Lu Qi, president and COO of Baidu Group.

In December, 2017, WM Motor completed its new round of fund raising that was led by Baidu Capital and followed by Baidu Group. WM Motors announcement of joining Apollo 2.0 plan signifies that Baidu and WM Motor have started a strategic collaboration apart from capital investment.

On December 11, WM Motor launched its unique living logo that is inspired by aurora and emblems the always-on electric power and real-time interaction. Meanwhile, WM's revealed its first production SUV EX5 with a starting price of RMB 200,000.

According to WM Motor's 128 Strategy, it plans to build two vehicle platforms, STD and PL, and make at least 8 mainstream intelligent models on basis of German technologies in future. Besides, WM Motor owns a testing zone for autonomous vehicles in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on Thursday, China auto sales in 2017 rose to 28.879 million vehicles in 2017, an increase of 3 percent from a year earlier, which is lower than the expectation. China has been the largest auto market by sales for nine consecutive years.

In 2017, China auto market maintained steady growth in vehicle output and sales on the basis of the record-high volume of 2016. However, a growth rate of 1.4 percent in passenge vehicle market was lower than the average rate of the whole industry and the lowest in the past nine years.

The new energy vehicle (NEV) segment kept a good momentum in the annual sales. Last year, the sales of new energy vehicles soared 53.3 percent to 777,000 units. The ratio of NEV sales to the total vehicle sales were 2.6 percent in the past year.

Last year, a total of 10.847 million vehicles under self-owned brands were sold and accounted for 43.9 percent of the total sales volume. The percentage was higher than that of the previous year. In particular, the SUV sales under self-owned brands reached 6.217 million units, growing 18 percent year on year and accounting for 60.6 percent of the total SUV sales.

The association said that according to the data from automakers, the vehicle export volume rose 25.8 percent year on year to 891,000 units. This is the first annual sales growth after the export volume had fallen for four years. In the past year, our country imported 1.14 million vehicles from January to November last year.
The shooting and killing of a man in a Walmart parking by Flagstaff police last year was deemed justified by the Navajo County Attorneys Office on Wednesday.

The office stated that the actions of officers William Condon, Dustin Hemp and Ryan Sherf were justified when they shot and killed Sean Brady after he fired his weapon at them multiple times while the officers were responding to reports of Brady brandishing a weapon.

The 11-page document submitted by the county attorneys office states that while the actions of officers, Condon, Sherf and Hemp resulted in the death of Sean Brady, their actions were legally justified under Arizona law. Furthermore their actions were justified under Graham and Clary. Therefore no criminal violation was committed by any officer involved in this incident.

The case was delegated to Navajo County to avoid a conflict of interest in Coconino County.

Arizona Revised Statute states that an officer may use deadly force when circumstances create a reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury.

Flagstaff Police spokesman Sgt. Cory Runge said in October that the dispute stemmed from an argument about Brady playing loud music in the parking lot when people who were sleeping there asked him to turn down the volume. Brady refused and pulled out his gun.

When officers arrived, Brady was inside his truck. Officers asked Brady to show his hands and exit the truck. At that point, Brady pulled out a handgun and fired at one of the officers, missing him, Runge said.

Body camera footage from one of the officers shows the officer asking Brady to turn off his vehicle several times before Brady fires at officers.

The officer and two backup officers returned fire multiple times each, Runge said. The truck rolled forward and collided with a light pole, Runge said. Officers formed a perimeter around the truck until the SWAT team could arrive to approach the vehicle safely.

Brady was removed from the truck and pronounced dead on the scene.

In the vehicle, officers found two rifles, a handgun, boxes of ammunition and several used casings, Runge said.
The wayside horns at the railroad crossings at Fanning Drive and Steves Boulevard may sound a little different soon as city of Flagstaff officials test to find out if there is a horn noise that may be more palatable for residents on the east side of the city.

The city is taking up this issue after Matt Nichols, a resident in the Swiss Manor neighborhood, gathered signatures on a petition asking the city council to remove the wayside horns. The horns were installed around 2010, when the city and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway agreed to stop the trains from blaring their horns when they passed the five at-grade crossings in the city.

However, only Fanning Drive and Steves Boulevard received the wayside horns; the other at-grade crossings utilized other safety features, which the Federal Railroad Administration deems enough to merit eliminating the train and also wayside horns.

The crossings at Beaver and San Francisco streets intersect with one-way streets, which was identified as a supplemental safety measure. The crossing at Ponderosa Parkway has medians, which prevents cars from circumnavigating the gate when it is lowered for a train, City Engineer Rick Barrett said in a presentation to the council.

I dont think its been an improvement for a number of residents in the area, Nichols said. Depending on the weather, it can feel like the train is right outside your door or window, especially in the summer when we want to keep our windows open and enjoy the weather.

Nichols said he has lived in the Swiss Manor area for more than eight years and the wayside horns have always bothered him. Finally, he said, he had lost enough sleep to ask the council to do something about it.

Our quality of life has been diminished by the noise pollution of the wayside horns, he said.

Nichols estimates the horns blare between 10 and 11 times per train, and sometimes they can last 30 seconds.

If there are 100 trains a day with horns for 30 seconds each, we are closing in on almost an hour of horns per day, he said.

At the council meeting Barrett said the Federal Railroad Administration requires wayside horns to be between 92 and 110 decibels at 100 feet from the horn. The citys wayside horns are set at 95 decibels at 100 feet away.

By comparison, a standard train horn is between 110 and 120 decibels at the same distance.

With the train horns, they were much louder, but went for much less duration and fewer times, Nichols said.

Nichols said he enjoys the quiet zone downtown and wonders if outdoor dining and drinks on restaurant patios would be as popular or enjoyable if there were wayside horns downtown. Removing the horns on the east side is an issue of equity, he said.

At what point does the council value the residents on the east side as much as the residents and tourists downtown? he asked.

The city has five supplemental safety options for zones where train horns are removed, Barrett said in his presentation. The options are: wayside horns, one-way streets like on Beaver and San Francisco streets, a median like on Ponderosa Parkway, a four-quadrant gate system that lowers on both sides of the road when a train is passing on a two-way street or closing the crossing permanently.

Barrett said medians or four-quadrant gates could be possible solutions, but Fanning Drive and Steves Boulevard do not have enough space for the 100-foot median as required by the Federal Railroad Administration. The two crossings have 60 feet that could accommodate a median, but that mechanism would need to be researched before the city can be sure its feasible.

If a median were constructed, it would cost between $100,000 and $300,000 per crossing, he said.

A four-quadrant gate system would cost between $600,000 and $800,000 per crossing, Barrett said, but it would not have to meet the space requirement that the median would need.

At the meeting, the council directed the city staff to try lowering the volume on the horns to the minimum requirement of 92 decibels. They also asked staff to test whether another horn sound available in their system would be less offensive to neighbors or if it is possible to blare the horn for a shorter length of time. The council also asked that the horns be placed closer to the ground so the sound does not spread as far.

After the testing, city staff is to report back to the council whether the changes make a difference. If the changes are not enough, the council will consider other options, such as what it would take to construct a median or a four-quadrant gate.

One funding mechanism mentioned at the meeting was the citys transportation tax, which is scheduled to sunset in 2020, but the city has created a commission to recommend a ballot question to renew the tax this year.

Councilman Charlie Odegaard said during his campaign for city council he heard many east side residents complain about the horns, and he wanted to give the issue some serious attention.

If the changes we mentioned dont work, then I want to move on to other options, Odegaard said.

Councilwoman Celia Barotz said the council should take action if none of the immediate fixes work.

Its possible that this will cost a lot of money, but I dont see how we could not do it, she said.
Pueblo voters give big support to public safety tax to fund police

75% of votes are in favor of Pueblo Measure 2B, collecting millions of dollars a year to fund 20 Pueblo Police Department officers and four sergeants.
Foreign companies establishing a presence in China will encounter a host of considerations that do not exist in their home country. Of these, interpreting and understanding Chinas system of accounting standards can be an especially difficult challenge.

China only embraced a market-driven economy recently, so its accounting and bookkeeping systems are comparatively less mature than those found in developed economies. Until the mid-2000s, Chinas accounting standards were still based on a socialist economic model.

While China is making good progress in converging its accounting standards with international standards, understanding the financial statements prepared by China-based entities under Chinese accounting standards is still complicated.

Framework for Chinese Accounting Standards

According to the Company Law and other relevant regulations, it is compulsory for all types of foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) in China to comply with annual statutory auditing and other compliance processes.

Completing annual statutory audits and settling relevant tax liabilities are prerequisites for FIEs to distribute and repatriate their profits or dividends back to their home country. Failure to do so may result in extra expenses, penalties or even the revoking of business licences.

Accounting and bookkeeping in China are governed by the Chinese Accounting Standards (CAS), also known as the Chinese Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The CAS framework is based on two standards:

Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (ASBEs); and

Accounting Standards for Small Business Enterprises (ASSBEs).

Multinational corporate groups normally try and reconcile the CAS, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or the United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles when consolidating financial statements at the group level.

The current ASBEs were released in 2006 and came into force in January 2007. According to the IFRS Foundation, the 2006 the ASBEs substantially converged with the IFRS. After releasing a series of amendments in 2012, the merging of the ASBEs with the IFRS was achieved.

The ASSBEs entered into force on January 1, 2013, and provided unified standards for small-scale enterprises to enhance their internal controls to prevent tax and accounting fraud. The ASSBEs use the ASBEs as a point of reference but are similar to other tax laws, which simplifies the process of making any adjustments when following both accounting standards and tax rules. Small-scale enterprises can choose to adopt either the ASBEs or the ASSBEs.

Differences between Chinese and international standards

Although the CAS and the IFRS are generally considered to be quite similar to each other, they also slightly differ in some respects:

Valuation methods for fixed assets  Under the IFRS, one may choose the valuation method for certain types of fixed assets. The company can value these assets either by using the historical-cost method, or by re-evaluating their assets. The CAS, however, only allows for fixed assets to be valued according to their historical cost.

Under the IFRS, one may choose the valuation method for certain types of fixed assets. The company can value these assets either by using the historical-cost method, or by re-evaluating their assets. The CAS, however, only allows for fixed assets to be valued according to their historical cost. Detailed rules in the CAS  For certain items that are common in China, the CASs rules are more detailed than the IFRS. An example would be the merging of two companies controlled by the same entity and having similar interests. CAS require that the comparative figures be restated, whereas there is no specific rule for this in IFRS.

For certain items that are common in China, the CASs rules are more detailed than the IFRS. An example would be the merging of two companies controlled by the same entity and having similar interests. CAS require that the comparative figures be restated, whereas there is no specific rule for this in IFRS. Detailed rules in the IFRS  Conversely, the IFRS has rules for situations that are uncommon in China, such as for employee benefit plans. Apart from paying employees with company stock, the CAS does not address certain types of employee benefits that are offered by multinationals. Difficulties can arise when the parent company attempts to use the same benefits package with its Chinese subsidiary. In this case, the company may need to consult with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) as to how such transactions should be recorded.

Conversely, the IFRS has rules for situations that are uncommon in China, such as for employee benefit plans. Apart from paying employees with company stock, the CAS does not address certain types of employee benefits that are offered by multinationals. Difficulties can arise when the parent company attempts to use the same benefits package with its Chinese subsidiary. In this case, the company may need to consult with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) as to how such transactions should be recorded. Delayed implementation of the IFRS  When new updates to the IFRS are released, the MOF reviews them to determine if they are appropriate for China, and whether they will be incorporated into the CAS. As a result, the adoption of new IFRS standards is often delayed, or does not happen at all. This can lead to further complications if there are countries where corporations establish separate entities and adopt the new IFRS rules instead.

Navigating Chinese Accounting Standards

The problem with having different accounting standards becomes much more apparent when an overseas parent company requests financial information from its Chinese subsidiary. Since companies are required by law to follow these different standards, information from the Chinese subsidiary needs to be translated in order to be added to the overseas parents company books in a procedure known as mapping.

Larger multinationals tend to have specialized software for assisting the corporate group with this process, but as this software tends to be very expensive, small and medium-sized enterprises often need to do conversions manually. There are two major points a company needs to be aware of when mapping its books.

The first are the differences between Chinese and international accounting standards, as discussed previously. Whether performed in-house or outsourced to a trusted adviser, the companys accountant will need to take a detailed look at the differences between CAS and the target accounting system, as well as explore whether any of the firms activities are affected, often spending several days in the process.

When outsourcing accounting work, it is important to notify accounting of any need to translate the companys accounts as soon as possible. If accounting only learns of the request later on, this may significantly delay the process.

It is also important to note the differences in accounting entry codes. Conversion is a one-time procedure the outsourced accountant needs to complete when they are first contracted by a new company. Once the accountant determines which Chinese entry matches the foreign entry, these figures can be automatically converted.

As the CAS becomes increasingly similar to international standards, foreign investors must adapt to the changing environment. Although changes to accounting and bookkeeping rules can create challenges in the immediate term, in the long term, reforms should make the CAS reflect international best practices.

(This article was originally published in January 2018 and has been updated to include the latest developments.)
Businesses in Wenzhou are establishing operations in overseas economic and trade zones to serve the purpose of the nation's Belt and Road Initiative.





Some 53 newly established overseas projects invested by Wenzhou companies are situated in countries and regions related to the initiative, accounting for roughly one-third of all overseas investments made by the city in the past five years, according to data from the city's commerce bureau.





Enterprises poured in some $1.66 billion in three national-level economic zones in Russia, Vietnam and Uzbekistan, and one provincial-level park in Serbia. All those investments are supervised by the Wenzhou city government.





"In the 160,000-square-meter Pengsheng Industrial Park in the Syra Darya State of Uzbekistan, 10 Chinese companies producing ceramics, cellphones, shoes and pet food have altogether created 1,300 jobs for the locals," said the bureau's vice-chief Chen Jian.





Kangnai Group, a renowned shoemaker from Wenzhou, took part in building the Ussuriysk Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in Russia.





Thus far, 228 Chinese enterprises have established investments in these four zones, generating combined annual revenue of $2.2 billion and driving up $880 million worth of exports.





In the first nine month of 2017, Wenzhou exported 30.5 billion yuan ($470 million) of merchandise to Belt and Road-related economies, up 12.4 percent year-on-year, while imports more than doubled from the same period of 2016 to 4.3 billion yuan.





Chemicals maker Zhejiang Huafon New Materials Co Ltd also chose to set up its manufacturing base overseas and has now completed the site selection process for its plant in Pakistan.





Company chairman You Xiaoping said the firm is looking for investment opportunities through its overseas marketing network, with the hope of leveraging the reduced tariff and transportation efficiency to boost sales across Belt and Road economies.




Beijing banned 893 unlicensed kindergartens in 2017, according to a report released by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission.

The report, released Tuesday, also listed kindergartens that are under construction and planning to build or expand in the capital in 2017.

By the end of 2017, 22 kindergartens were going to be built or rebuilt and expanded in Beijing, which could supply over 12,000 positions.

Meanwhile, 41 kindergartens were under construction or overhauled, which are expected to receive more than 11,000 children. ( Six kindergartens were built or completely expanded by the end of 2017 in Beijing. The six schools can accommodate more than 2,700 children.
Beijing's semiconductor industry is on the rise thanks to the close collaboration of domestic companies and organizations along the whole industry chain as well as the supportive policies of the Chinese capital.

Semiconductor makes the essential components of smartphones and high-resolution TV sets. China sees the industry as one of its strategic industries, while Beijing intends to lend it support as one of the city's 10 high-end industries. The country currently imports semiconductors worth US$200 billion every year.

Beijing issued a guiding document in December 2017 on the development of the semiconductor industry, calling for "whole industry chain coordinated development rooted in advanced manufacturing."

Long-term investment

Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), the largest chipmaker on the Chinese mainland, set up a plant in Beijing's Economic-Technological Development Area (or E-Town) as early as 2004. The company opened another factory in Beijing in 2012, which has grown into a key semiconductor manufacturing base in China.

"Now I look back, that was a bold move," said Zhang Xin, general manager of the company's operations in northern China. He said the foundry was in the red back in 2012, but the company was encouraged by Beijing's supportive policies.

Whole industry chain collaboration

NAURA Technology Group, a semiconductor equipment maker, moved to E-Town partly because of the need to have closer collaboration with other enterprises in the industry, according to CEO Zhao Jinrong.

The company sells some of its equipment to SMIC, which now has several hundred types of domestically made equipment (whereas it used to depend heavily on imported equipment). Engineers at SMIC would check on and give feedback to equipment makers like NAURA, the company said.

Over time, E-Town has formed a complete semiconductor industry chain that includes supplying equipment, manufacturing, as well as design.

Policy support

Beijing issued a guideline on the development of the semiconductor industry on Dec. 26, 2017, which has encouraged the city's numerous chip makers.

"As it involves a huge investment, the semiconductor industry across the world requires the guidance and support of government policies," commented an executive at a chip startup. The company received financing worth 500 million yuan (about US$77 million) last year mainly due to the capital city's favorable policy and promising industry outlook.

Beijing aims at building an innovation base for semiconductor technology with global influence by 2020, according to the guiding document.




China's legendary scientist Shi Yigong recently handed in his resignation letter, asking to step down from his post as vice president of Tsinghua University, one of the country's most prestigious institutions of higher education and his alma mater.

Even though he can still remain as a professor in the university where his pedagogic tasks are reserved, the life science luminary is spending most of his time planning establishment of the West Lake University, a privately-funded university located at Cloud Town in suburban Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

In a speech a month ago in Hangzhou, Shi said that, by 2019, the West Lake University, still under construction, will have a faculty expected to outweigh Rockefeller University's prestigious line-up, which encompasses 24 Nobel laureates.

"After five years, the university will see its education level and research being ranked among Asia's most prominent schools, such as the University of Tokyo, Tsinghua University and Peking University," Shi said. "After 15 years, it can match every index of the California Institute of Technology and become one of the best universities in the world."

According to Shi, the construction of the campus is proceeding rapidly, enabling the university to be officially opened this year. The first phase of the 300,000-square-meter campus will be completed by 2020.

In addition to Shi Yigong, the plan to build a privately-funded university was proposed in 2015 by six other eminent scholars and technologists, such as, Chen Shiyi, president of Southern University of Science and Technology, Qian Yingyi, dean of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University and Wang Jian, Chief Technology Officer of Alibaba Group.

It has attracted considerable funds from China's business tycoons, such as Pony Ma, founder, chairman and CEO of Tencent (parent of the WeChat platform) and Wang Jianlin, the former wealthiest businessman in the country and the founder and chairman of Dalian Wanda Group.

In his interview with China Newsweek, Shi reckoned it would be very irresponsible for him to continue to be vice president of his alma mater while taking full charge of West Lake University. The ambiguous identity would have set a very bad example both against his tenet and his expectations of future colleagues.

Born in 1967 in Zhengzhou, capital of populous Henan Province, Shi received his bachelor's degree in biological science and technologies from Tsinghua University. In 1995, he entered Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and obtained his doctorate. In 2003, he became the youngest tenured professor of Princeton University.

However, in 2008, after living in the United States for 18 years, Shi decided to resign as a full professor and return to China where his alma mater welcomed him as one of its faculty.

"I decided to return for the purpose of education," he said. "We're supposed to be dedicated to education, heartfelt education, with science research one of its essentials."

"I hope, with my relentless efforts, there will be multitudes of talents growing up with grand aspirations and a practical attitude," he said.

In October 2017, when he was awarded his prestigious prize in life science, he tearfully choked in an acceptance speech, during which he showed his gratitude to Tsinghua University.

"Thanks for Tsinghua's absolute support in my most difficult times since my return to the homeland. They not only helped me build laboratories, sent me money, but also unconditionally backed me while I was at the center of controversy," the professor said.

Losing his father at an early age, Shi and his family lived on his mother's meager income until he was admitted to the Tsinghua University. After realizing his difficulties, his alma mater offered subsidies for him to finish his undergraduate education.
When Donald Trump was elected president, I tried to console myself with the idea that at least we were living in interesting times. Things might be discombobulating and, for some, downright terrifying, but they would hardly be boring, right?

The last year has proved me wrong. Weve never lived in less interesting times. In order for something to be interesting it has to be at least marginally graspable. Even if you cant see the big picture, you have to be able to back up and see past your nose. And trying to grasp the full scope of the political climate right now is a bit like trying to view a Hieronymus Bosch triptych thats been hung inside a small, dark closet. We have no idea what were really looking at. All we know is that its overwhelming and often grotesque.

Thats part of the reason I mostly kept my opinions to myself in 2017. My taste for counterintuitive rumination and occasional devils advocacy felt inappropriate to the occasion. I could have spent the year clucking about unhelpful hyperbole and tiresome performative wokeness, about the perils of labeling every political opponent a fascist, and all the ways in which the nasty woman trope was becoming, well, a little trop. But given the magnitude of the political earthquake and the justifiability of peoples outrage, it seemed better to step back and let more visceral responses set the tone.

Still, as we come up on the anniversary of Trumps inauguration, the awe-inspiring Womens March and the beginning of the mass nervous breakdown among liberals, I cant help but think weve also reached the end of a certain grace period, one in which we pretended that wokeness was an acceptable substitute for an actual personality, not to mention for actual activism.

During this period, virtue signaling has become blue states own sort of opioid addiction. Post something about toxic masculinity, white privilege or, of course, President Trump (whose name is shorthand for both) and the likes and affirmations will mete out just enough dopamine to keep you going until the next fix.

Better yet, if you want to promote your movie, your book, your economic theory or your crowdfunded business venture, wrap it in the cloak of Trump-resistance and you are suddenly part of a mighty and magically unassailable franchise. Approval will be freely bestowed and favors exchanged. Important people are likely to endorse you and important media to cover you. In fact, this might be the only way to get important media coverage because life in the age of Trump is pretty much the only story in the news cycle.

But if you start to feel less than sincere every time you join a #MeToo chorus, you do what humans have done for thousands of years: Get together and admit privately to feeling conflicted.

Such gatherings are now referred to as back channeling. And they dont just happen after a few too many drinks at media industry cocktail parties. They happen when college professors feel they have to whisper their support to colleagues embroiled in campus identity politics scandals. They take the form of direct messages on social media that start with I didnt want to say this in the comment thread, but   Theyre what we professional opinionators sometimes do after holding forth with righteous certainty: turn to our closest confidants and confess to a level of cognitive dissonance and confusion we fear would alienate our followers and possibly kill our careers if we tried to put it into words.

All this messiness makes back-channel conversations the most interesting ones going on right now. Its time they came out of the shadows.

Bit by bit, its starting to happen. The #MeToo movement is infused with obtuse rhetoric like zero tolerance, but it has also led to a handful of more nuanced analyses about the slippery nature of sexual consent and the dangers of failing (or refusing) to distinguish male clumsiness from dangerous aggression. Sure, some of the woke-iscenti dismissed these articles out of hand. I even saw someone refer to nuance as though it were a form of conservative trolling or rape apology. But I also noted rumblings of relief.

So with that, Im going to drag myself out of hibernation. I wont be on this page every week, but Im going to check in from time to time with a report from the trenches of a burgeoning movement: #ResistanceToGroupthink. Call me a cognitive dissident. Chances are, youre one, too.
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The number of trips abroad made by Chinese mainland residents in 2017 was estimated at more than 60 million, according to a senior Chinese diplomat in charge of consular affairs.





In addition, the Foreign Ministry and Chinese diplomatic missions overseas worked with various departments on about 70,000 cases regarding consular protection and assistance during the year, Guo Shaochun, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Consular Affairs, said at a news conference on Wednesday in Beijing.





Major cases included evacuating citizens from Hurricane Maria in Dominica, the floods in Nepal and volcano eruptions in Indonesia, Guo said.





The figures were unveiled at a time when China has become the world's second-largest source of overseas investment.





In 2017, about 1 million Chinese went abroad to work and about 1.37 million Chinese students studied abroad, Guo said.





More than 30,000 enterprises were established overseas by Chinese residents and businesses last year, Guo said.





Huang Rihan, a researcher at the Center for China and Globalization think tank, said it is more urgent than ever to reinforce protection for Chinese interests overseas to address the safety issue of Chinese citizens and Chinese companies investing abroad.





The Foreign Ministry hosts the 12308 hotline, which offers consular protections to Chinese citizens going abroad, Guo said. A smartphone app is being prepared to offer greater access in case critical situations arise overseas.





In addition to helping those whose lawful rights and interests have been infringed upon, China supports countries cracking down on criminal activities conducted by Chinese citizens overseas, such as cases of organized telephone fraud and cross-border internet gambling, Guo said.





"In 2018, we will further reinforce coordination with departments in charge and effectively conduct relevant prevention, control and management," Guo said.





Speaking on visa facilitation, the diplomat noted that Chinese citizens now can travel visa-free to 65 countries and regions.





China and the United Arab Emirates will reciprocally exempt visas for citizens starting Jan 16.





As the UAE is one of the favorite destinations of Chinese tourists as well as a major international transportation hub, the upcoming visa exemption measure will annually benefit about 1 million Chinese tourists heading to the country and another 3.5 million Chinese travelers stopping over there, Guo said.




You are here: World

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here Wednesday that China will maintain cooperation with Laos to bring more benefits to the two countries.

The China-Laos relations are progressing smoothly based on the spirit of good neighbors, good friends, good comrades and good partners, Li said while meeting with Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith on the sidelines of the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting held in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

The meeting drew leaders from six riparian countries -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Li said Chinese President Xi Jinping's successful visit to Laos in November last year injected new impetus to China-Laos comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

The two countries should focus on the Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Laos economic corridor, accelerate aligning their development strategies, ensure smooth implementation of the construction of China-Laos railway and enhance interconnectivity, Li said.

The Chinese premier added the two countries should maintain sound coordination in regional mechanisms such as the LMC and China-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) cooperation to better benefit the two countries and the people in the region.

For his part, Thongloun said Laos appreciates China's long-term support for its economic and social development.

Cooperation between the two countries is productive and the construction of China-Laos railway is progressing smoothly, he said.

Laos is willing to implement the consensus of bilateral cooperation and further pushing forward pragmatic cooperation in various fields, he said.

Thongloun added that Laos is willing to work with China to actively develop the Lancang-Mekong cooperation.
You are here: World

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-o-cha in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, and both sides vowed to further promote bilateral cooperation.

Hailing the sound momentum of China-Thailand relations, Li told Prayut on the sidelines of the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting that the inauguration of the construction of China-Thailand high-speed railway last month marks a new step forward in bilateral cooperation.

The 253-km first phase of the railway links Bangkok with northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima. China is responsible for design of the railway, supervision of construction and manufacturing of trains and signal systems among others.

Li called for joint efforts from both sides to facilitate the railway project and push forward cooperation in other areas.

China hopes to synergize its Belt and Road Initiative with Thailand's Eastern Economic Corridor construction, upgrade bilateral trade facilitation and enhance cooperation in such areas as trade, tourism and technology, Li said.

Prayut, for his part, said there is huge potential in Thailand-China cooperation, noting that the railway project is of historical significance.

Thailand pays close attention to China's innovation-driven development strategy and hopes to learn from China's experience, he said.

Prayut urged to combine the two countries' development strategies and boost cooperation in trade, technology, tourism and education.

The second LMC leaders' meeting was held in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, drawing leaders from six riparian countries -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
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China is willing to work with Vietnam to push bilateral cooperation to achieve more outcomes, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Wednesday.

Li made the remarks while meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, on Wednesday on the sidelines of the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting held in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

The meeting drew leaders from six riparian countries -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership is steadily advancing, Li said.

He said Chinese President Xi Jinping's successful visit to Vietnam in November last year opened a new chapter in the bilateral relations.

China is willing to meet Vietnam halfway, hold the general direction for the steady development of the bilateral ties, maintain high-level exchanges in order to push bilateral cooperation in all areas to score more pragmatic outcomes and promote the two countries' development, he added.

The Chinese premier said China will work with Vietnam to enhance cooperation within the LMC framework and jointly safeguard regional peace, stability and development.

For his part, Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the top leaders of the two countries and two ruling parties had a successful exchange of visit last year and reached important consensus on cooperation.

Vietnam values the friendly cooperation with China and is willing to keep high-level exchanges and enhance cooperation in such areas as economy and trade in order to further develop the bilateral ties.
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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here Wednesday that leaders of the Lancang-Mekong countries reached consensus relevant to their shared future at the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting.

Leaders of China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam agreed to deepen cooperation with the principle of equality, inclusiveness and real action, Li, one of the co-chairs of the meeting, said at a press conference held after the event.

The six countries also passed two major documents, namely the Five-year Action Plan (2018-2022) and the Phnom Penh Declaration at this year's meeting.

Discord often arises among countries on the upstream and downstream of a river, Li said, noting that China wants to effectively handle the relationship of such kind and accommodate interests of all countries to build a community with a shared future for the Lancang-Mekong nations.

"China needs a peaceful neighboring environment to facilitate its modernization drive and poverty reduction. We propose to build the LMC mechanism due to the high complementarity between China and the other five countries," he said.

Li reaffirmed China's support for ASEAN, short for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to build a community of shared future, with supplement of the LMC mechanism.

Nearly 200 project plans have been submitted for evaluation at this year's meeting, Li said, adding that all countries involved are obliged to take a lead.

"China is willing to work with all parties to make the Lancang-Mekong into a river of friendship, cooperation and prosperity," he added.

Initiated by China in 2014, the framework spans connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, and agriculture and poverty reduction, benefiting dozens of millions of people living on the waterway.

The first LMC leaders' meeting was held in Sanya of south China's Hainan Province in March 2016, at which the goal of building a community of shared future of peace and prosperity for the LMC countries was endorsed.

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwest China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.
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China and Laos have inaugurated a joint lab for study of renewable energy in Lao capital Vientiane, according to the Chinese Embassy in Laos on Wednesday.

The lab was jointly built by China's Yunnan Normal University and Lao Ministry of Science and Technology's Renewable Energy and New Material Research Institute with sponsorship of China's Ministry of Science and Technology in facility and talent training.

The inauguration ceremony was held Tuesday with the attendance of Chinese Ambassador to Laos Wang Wentian, Lao Minister of Science and Technology Boviengkham Vongdara, President of Yunnan Normal University Jiang Yongwen, among others.

After the ceremony, the Chinese ambassador to Laos and Lao minister of science and technology exchanged views on measures to further deepen bilateral cooperation in science and technology sector.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday that China has always supported the improvement of relations between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as their reconciliation and cooperation.



In a telephone conversation with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, Xi said China supports the two sides in promoting inter-Korean dialogue and exchanges to gradually advance the settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue.
By Pooi Koon Chong,Angus Whitley, Bloomberg News | Jan. 11, 2018

The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will resume after the government agreed to pay a U.S. exploration company as much as US$70 million if it solves modern aviation's biggest mystery.

The Boeing Co. 777 aircraft disappeared on March 8, 2014, on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board. The government signed a contract with Ocean Infinity on Wednesday, but said the company would only be paid if it locates the aircraft or flight recorders.

"It is my hope that we will find the answer that we seek for nearly four years and bring some closure to this unfortunate incident," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said at a press conference outside Kuala Lumpur.

After combined efforts by the governments of Australia, China and Malaysia failed to locate the vanished aircraft, the new search will be carried out in a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean west of Australia. Authorities have identified the 25,000 square kilometer area as the wreck's most likely resting place before they abandoned their attempts last year.

The vessel Seabed Constructor is on her way to the area with 65 crew on board, with the search due to begin in mid-January, Liow said. The government is pledging US$20 million if the aircraft or both flight recorders are found within 5,000 square kilometers of the primary search area, with the reward topping off at US$70 million if it's found in a search area exceeding 25,000 square kilometers.

Investigators believe MH370 headed south over the Indian Ocean for about six hours before plummeting into the water. While no bodies have ever been recovered, a few fragments of the jet have turned up on Africa's eastern seaboard. The previous search effort and the wreckage found have allowed researchers to revise their assessments on the search area, underpinning Ocean Infinity's confidence in finding the aircraft, CEO Oliver Plunkett said.
Los Angeles Times

There may have been a heartening glimmer out of the White House on Tuesday on a possible deal to protect the so-called Dreamers from deportation while moving Congress toward comprehensive immigration reform. But the glimmer could also have been a magicians trick. The devil, as they say, will be in the details  and unfortunately, these are many of the same details that have bitterly divided pro- and anti-immigration forces for so long and derailed prior efforts to address one of the countrys thorniest issues.

Heres something you wont read every day in this space: We wish President Donald Trump success here. Well, mostly. His proposed border wall with Mexico remains a silly, expensive, counterproductive and insulting idea, and maybe hell respond to reason during these discussions and scale back those ambitions. But to the extent that he wants to make accommodations for the Dreamers, undocumented residents who grew up in the U.S. after being brought here as children, were in full agreement. Trump said that was his goal at a White House meeting Tuesday with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.

The sticking point is what the cost of compromise might be. Trump has said he must have his wall if the Dreamers are to get a reprieve. Using the lives of some 700,000 people as political leverage is cold-hearted, and we strongly wish Congress and the president would work on a stand-alone bill that would address the imminent crisis facing the Dreamers. (Under current rules, several thousand have already lost their status, but the vast majority will lose it beginning in early March.) We note too that the crisis is of the presidents own making. He decided in September to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, under which the Dreamers were receiving protection.

But lets look forward. The deal parameters floated in the meeting Tuesday would resolve Dreamers status as a first step but would also include separate legislation beefing up border security, ending chain migration (in which people who have received legal status can sponsor members of their extended family for residency) and killing the diversity visa lottery program. Those are significant issues that, if passed, would upend decades of U.S. immigration policy. And there are wide gulfs between Democrats and Republicans on them. Although Trump mentioned the possibility of what he called comprehensive immigration reform, it was unclear whether he was talking about something that included a path to legalization or citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally.

A nation has the right to secure its borders and to determine who gets to visit, work and become a citizen. Even though illegal border crossings into the U.S. have been dropping in recent years, there are still plenty of people entering without permission, and the border with Mexico remains a transit point for contraband  mostly drugs in and guns out  that needs to be tightened. Extending or reinforcing existing walls and fences might help in some locations, but a big beautiful wall along the entire border (for which Trump has now requested $18 billion) is not the answer. Increased electronic surveillance and other approaches, such as remote video systems and drones, would work better, security experts say.

The president has said he wants to replace the current family-based approach to immigration with a merit-based system. That would be a profound change, and it ought to be discussed in depth and not added on as a pot sweetener for a rushed deal. And Trump should think harder about the diversity visa lottery, which does not work the way the president says it does. He has complained that foreign countries give us their worst people, and put them in a bin to have their names drawn for an entry visa. No. People with the requisite work or educational background in other countries apply to U.S. consulates for the lottery and, if drawn, go through the usual vetting process for any immigrant. The intent is to benefit the U.S. by helping expand the pool of cultures and countries from which our immigrants are drawn, and it helps counter the bias toward family members under the family-based system Trump wants to end.

And this gets at the core problem with the glimmer of hope from that White House meeting. These are tricky policy issues that will take time to work through. Thanks to Trump, the Dreamers dont have the luxury of time. Comprehensive immigration reform is way past overdue, but no one wants to settle for rushed reforms that cause their own cascading series of unforeseen consequences. Fixing DACA is the easy part. Congress and Trump should do that now without preconditions, and then turn to solving the tough issue.
Call him the businessman governor. Or maybe Governor Businessman.

Nebraskas CEO, Gov. Pete Ricketts, now in the last year of his first term, touted the state's accomplishments in growing the economy while shrinking its government during his State of the State address on Wednesday.

Heaping praise on both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Ricketts struck a conciliatory tone as he introduced his plans to push more state budget cuts and rework tax policy, which he says will spur growth while providing relief to farmers, ranchers and homeowners alike.

In the spirit of cooperation, we come together each year to accomplish the priorities that matter most to Nebraskans, Ricketts said during his fourth annual address.

Our work together is helping to grow our state and keep Nebraska the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family, he said while addressing the Legislature and state employees gathered in the George W. Norris Legislative Chamber.

Individuals and businesses from across the U.S. are taking note, Ricketts said. Last year, Nebraska recorded record levels of employment  1 million nonfarm jobs  while also the lowest unemployment rate  2.7 percent  since 1999.

Nebraskas population also inched higher in 2017, topping 1.92 million people for the first time ever, the governor added.

Ricketts attributed the growth to international trade partnerships, growing investments in Nebraskas workforce and transformations to state government in the form of slowed growth and greater efficiency to citizens  what he calls a more customer-focused approach.

He heralded Nebraska being awarded the Governors Cup, a top award from Site Selection magazine bestowed on the state with the most economic development projects per capita, and pointed to high rankings for Nebraskas business climate by Forbes and Chief Executive magazine.

Folks, this matters because when companies move here and invest, they create job opportunities for people, he said.

Ricketts credited those opportunities as the result of work done by lawmakers in crafting policies friendly to new businesses  cutting regulations, making licenses easier to obtain  and for the states ambassadors reaching beyond U.S. borders to open new trade possibilities.

Trade missions to Canada, China, Japan, Denmark and elsewhere have spurred growth on the Great Plains, Ricketts said.

A trip to Canada in August helped snag a small plant for Agri-Plastics in Sidney that has created 20 jobs, Ricketts said, while the Denmark-based Novozymes launched a new investment in Blair after state leaders visited.

Ricketts introduced Eric Jones, a production worker at Kawasaki who landed a spot in the plants new aerospace division in Lincoln  a move the governor said was supported by a 2015 trade mission to Japan.

Eric told me Kawasaki is great for Lincoln, Ricketts said. Besides the good-paying jobs and investment, Kawasaki supports local charities and uses local vendors.

From the ranchlands of western Nebraska, Ricketts said beef has found a new destination after a 14-year hiatus: China. Im excited to report that over half the American beef in China now comes from Nebraska, Ricketts said.

Other ag commodities are also finding new markets worldwide, Ricketts said, which are being opened by efforts from the Department of Agriculture and Department of Economic Development.

U.S. companies, too, have sought investments in Nebraska, the so-called Silicon Prairie. Ricketts pointed to a 970,000-square-foot facility under construction to serve as a data center for Facebook in Papillion, and a Costco chicken processing operation in Fremont.

Ricketts said his 2018 priorities will seek to create more opportunities for businesses to invest in Nebraska while also providing much-sought tax relief to Nebraska landowners and homeowners living in the state.

His threefold plan includes restructuring existing property tax credits into a new tax credit for Nebraskans and not absentee landowners, which the governor said would provide $4 billion in property tax relief over the next decade.

Next, Ricketts plan will reduce income and corporate tax rates incrementally if the states growth exceeds revenue projections by the states forecasting board. The plan uses existing tax credits to achieve a permanent reduction in the states individual and corporate tax rates.

Right now, 90 percent of individual income taxes paid by Nebraskans are at that top rate, and 90 percent of Nebraska businesses pay at the top individual rate, he said.

The third and final part of the plan, injecting $10 million into workforce development programs offered by the state over the next two years, would also be a boon to businesses looking to locate in the state, he said.

We have our work cut out for us, but I have no doubt we are up to the challenge, he said. Nebraskans expect results.

To help balance the budget with those proposed cuts, Ricketts proposed slowing state spending from a 0.6 percent increase this year to 0.2 percent next year.

His decrease calls for across-the-board spending cuts with the caveat they wont touch the state aid to K-12 schools, investments into the Department of Corrections, which include nearly $6 million to build 100 new prison beds, or aid to the states population of developmentally disabled individuals.

Receiving 33 votes to get those priorities onto his desk for signing is going to take a bipartisan effort, however. Ricketts praised lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle for their efforts last year to bring him many great things.

Ricketts urged the Legislature to once again roll up our sleeves and get the job done in cutting red tape, balancing the budget and delivering tax relief.

We have our work cut out for us, but I have no doubt were up to the challenge, he said.
Pingtan set to impress Asia ( chinadaily.com.cn ) Updated: 2018-01-10

A scene from Pingtan Impression, dancer-choreographer Yang Liping's latest work, which debuted in Fuzhou, Fujian province Tuesday night [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Pingtan Impression, a new dance drama by renowned Chinese dancer-choreographer Yang Liping, debuted in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian province Tuesday night.

The show shined a spotlight on Pingtan, an island city located off the coast of Fujian and also the closest place on the mainland to Taiwan.

Weaving together different strands from the city's traditional folk culture, such as snippets of local dialect, legends, puppet and marionette shows, dragon-lion dances, and recreations of the local ritual of paying homage to Matsu, goddesses of the sea, the 100-min-long show depicts the island city's beauty and originality.

"Everything in Pingtan is so fresh. Its beautiful natural scenery and the local culture has been well preserved," said Yang, 59, during a trip to the city last June.

The show will now begin an Asian tour at 150 venues.

Starting from 2020, it is likely to become a regular show in Pingtan, with a new theater to be built for it.

Yang is famed for appearing in the performance art show Dynamic Yunnan, which has toured all across China, selling out many large venues.
Top 50 Worst Countries for Christians: 3,066 Killed, 6 Women Sexually Attacked Every Day Christian Post Contributor | 11 January, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov

As many as 215 million followers of Christ around the world are being persecuted because of their faith, according to Open Doors USA's annual World Watch List, which was released Wednesday. The report identified the top 50 nations where Christians are most targeted.

"It's easy to move through life disconnected from what happens to believers in other parts of the world. But this report helps us close the gap between us," said David Curry, CEO of Open Doors, in the full report.

"After all, the World Watch List isn't about the numbers, but the people these numbers represent. I hope you see their stories of victory and resilience, andmore than anythingI hope you see the powerful Kingdom work God is accomplishing in some of the most difficult countries in the world."

In total, Open Doors found that 3,066 Christians were killed last year. Also, 1,252 Christians were abducted, 1,1020 were raped or sexually harassed, and 793 churches were attacked.

North Korea was ranked as the worst country for Christians for the 16th consecutive year, though Islamic oppression was the main source of persecution for eight of the top 10 on the World Watch List.

Life in North Korea remains extremely repressed by the Kim Jong Un government, with Christians arrested for something as simple as owning a Bible.

Read more about persecution of Christians on The Christian Post.
In 2001, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck El Salvador, killing nearly 1,000 people. In the wake of the humanitarian disaster triggered by the natural disaster, the United States welcomed nearly 200,000 Salvadorans to live and work legally. (Undocumented Salvadorans already in America could also apply for status.) For more than 15 years, this population has existed under temporary protected status. This week, the Trump administration announced that this program will end in fall 2019.

Were in 2018, 17 years on, and the country has in fact largely recovered from the earthquakes. The Trump administration at least on that point is absolutely correct, said Stephen Offutt, an associate professor of development studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. Whats not been taken into account is the fact that El Salvador is still a dangerous place.

While Salvadorian churches at times offer the only options for gang members hoping to leave that life behind, thats not the whole story, said Offutt. Instead, as CT reported last year, pastors and other religious leaders have been kidnapped or extorted by the gangs.

One of the reasons I respect pastors in these communities so much is because they stay there, he said.

Offutt joined associate digital media producer Morgan Lee and guest host, managing editor Andy Olsen, to discuss how US immigration policies may defund Salvadorean churches, the intensity of the violence in the country, and how pastors instruct their congregations to interact with gangs.

What is Quick to Listen? Read more

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Quick to Listen is produced by Morgan Lee, Richard Clark, and Cray Allred
I was sitting outside the library at the University of California at Santa Cruz when two other students walked by complaining about Christian faith in the crucifixion of Jesus. As a young Christian with an interest in working with my cohorts to evangelize the campus, I turned my head to hear more. I dont remember much of what they said except the exclamation of one of the women: Dying on a crossits just so disgusting.

To this day I think this young woman grasped better than many Christians the horrific nature of Jesus death. We sometimes try to drive this point home by comparing the cross to death by electrocution, wondering if wed wear necklaces or sport T-shirts with electric chair symbols. But as gruesome as electrocution is, crucifixion is far worsea long, drawn-out affair, sometimes preceded by bloody scourging, with hands and feet pierced with thick nails, the entire weight of the body suspended at three agonizing points. After hours of agony, you slowly suffocated when your legs could no longer support you and your lungs were smothered with the weight of your body. All this etched in blood dripping mercilessly from head and hands and feet.

This young woman had it right. A bloody and violent event stands at the very center of our faith. And its not just the event, but its meaning, especially as evangelical Christians see it, that prompts many to recoil in disgust. Evangelicals more than most are deeply moved by the notion that Christ died for us on a cross, that he was a substitute who suffered in our stead, that he endured a punishment we deserved.

This ideasummarily called the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonementhas fallen from grace in many circles. Its been under assault not just by agnostics but by Christians themselves, some of them identifying themselves as evangelical. To be sure, it has been framed sometimes in crude and even pathological ways. But it remains a way of looking at the atonement that deeply moves millions and draws them in grateful love to the one who hung on that cross.

Contemporary theologians have done the church a service in reminding us of the many models of atonement alluded to in Scripture. Like the ransom model: We are held in the power of the devil until Christ died and freed us from his grip. And Christus Victor: The malevolent principalities and rulers of this age have been defeated by Christ on the cross. And the moral model: Seeing the lengths to which Christ went to demonstrate his love by dying on the cross, we respond in love.

Still, evangelical Christians believe there are persuasive theological reasons for privileging penal substitution among these and other models of the atonement. Perhaps the best concise case is a paper delivered by J. I. Packer in 1973, at the Tyndale Biblical Theology Lecture, What Did the Cross Achieve? I wont repeat his good reasons, but instead I want simply to note how and why, despite the many valid criticisms of how the doctrine is misunderstood and abused, penal substitution remains central to so much evangelical preaching, teaching, and devotion.

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It Makes Intuitive Sense

The main reason is simply this: It makes intuitive sense to men and women of an evangelical disposition. Evangelicals wouldnt continue to believe it if it didnt also have biblical and theological justification. But they are not sophisticated theologians when they first find themselves astonished at hearing about what Christ has done for them on the cross. Nor do arguments for the doctrine explain why they fall to their knees weeping as grateful recipients of forgiveness and eternal life.

They are grateful because they have, as we have noted in earlier essays, an urgent sense of mans predicament  a mood so deep that it could never be completely articulated. The mood is despair, and the urgency comes from a foreboding: If the reason for this despair isnt addressed, one is doomed. The despair is grounded by guilt and shame for transgressions against divine law, which evangelicals recognize not as an impersonal and arbitrary law, but one that is a direct expression of the Personality behind the law. When we sin, we are keenly aware of the connection between the law of God and person of God. We have not merely violated a law but a person, and as such we are subject not just to punishment but also wrath, not merely just consequences but also rejection.

These are not notionsthe intimate connection between law and lawgiver, and between guilt and rejectionthat sit comfortably with us today. Many argue such notions are more akin to primitive religion that seeks to appease angry gods. No one, we tell ourselves, really thinks like this anymore. But a little more thought and we recognize that the basic dynamics are well understood even today.

For example, you make a vow to your spouse to be faithful. But when you have an affair, its clear that its not just an abstract vow that has been broken; the relationship has also been ruptured. Or when a teen steals from his mothers purse to buy and use drugs, the mother takes this personally, as well she should. Its not just moral infractions of stealing and lying, and shes not upset only because her teen is inflicting damage to himself. The biggest problem is the sabotaging of trust; the teen has failed to respect, honor, and love his mother.

Evangelicals Christians grasp this intimate connection between the law of God and person of God. They also intuitively recognize it is no small thing to transgress the law or the laws Creator. Its not just that they need pardonno, something graver is at stake. They need a lifeline. For they suspect inwardly what the Scripture says explicitly even before they hear the Scripture: The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).

Again the modern conscience balks. What type of universe is this in which every day and relatively harmless behaviorlying, greed, pride, lust, and so forthdeserves eternal and irreversible damnation? Evangelicals respond, This type of universe, and point to common experiences with very much the same dynamicrelatively insignificant actions that result in horrific and lasting consequences.

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A woodworker thoughtlessly moves his hand too close to the table saw blade, and in an instant, his hand is lost forever to him. A jogger glances at her cell phone and momentarily wanders onto a busy street; she is hit by a passing car, and after multiple operations, she is told shell never be able to run again. Why the world is built this waywhere small lapses in physical laws can have such devastating consequencesis hard to say, but evangelicals accept it for what it is, and even more when it comes to divine law.

As noted, evangelical Christians are also more comfortable than most in calling such consequences a form of punishment. To talk only about consequences drains the blood from the dynamic and moves us in the direction of deism, into a world where God sets up the moral and physical laws and steps away. The consequences of ignoring divine law are akin to the consequences of ignoring gravitynothing personal, just cosmic business.

The Bible reveals a much different God, one whose laws are a direct reflection of his very characterand that very character is, ultimately, love. So to disobey divine law is to reject not only the wise Lawgiver but also the Lover of humankind. And thus in Scripture, God reacts to sin less like a judge who impassively metes out justice, but more like a wounded lover who has been rejected. Its very personal.

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

But the more they were called, the more they went away from me.

They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms;

but they did not realize it was I who healed them.

I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.

To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek,

and I bent down to feed them. (Hos. 11:14)

This personal dynamic is what gives substitutionary atonement such homiletic force, and why it is a staple of evangelical preaching, teaching, and devotion. Of all the models of atonement, it best reflects the personal God of the Bible, in his loving creation of the world, to his anguished reaction to sin, to his sacrificial death on the cross to restore the broken relationship.

Just Punishment

The punishment that results is not an arbitrary expression of a rejected lovers wrath, but also an act that somehow balances the moral books. That is why forgiveness as a mere act of the will is not sufficient. Sins must be paid for, as a debt must be paid for. Why this is the case, why the moral universe operates in this way, is hard to say, another deep mystery of life.

We first understand the nature of just punishment as children. Your sister repeatedly changes the channel you are watching on TV to watch what she wants. She is rude and unbending until your father steps in. An apology from her is all well and good, but you are not satisfied until your father adds that your sister cant watch TV for a week. Punishment is part of the solution to this problem, and if there is no punishment, you feel like justice has been cheated.

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Or take the trope that Hollywood regularly relies on in revenge movies. The screenwriters are appealing to something deep and basic in the human heart: When a great injustice has been done, retribution is due. The villain rapes and murders a series of teenage girls; all through the movie, the viewer wants the villain not merely caught but punished, usually in some violent scene that leads to the villains death. In spite of the predictable fireworks and excessive violence, we keep coming to such movies precisely because we are deeply satisfied by the punishment of offenders.

Again, evangelicals see this dynamic at work at a spiritual level. Our sins cannot be swept away by the wave of a hand. They deserve death, and only by death can they be adequately paid for.

As self-righteous as evangelical Christians can become, in their better moments they recognize that they are sinners in the hands of a just God. And so when a preacher outlines the biblical teaching regarding sacrifice and substitution for sin, they not only recognize the darkness of their situation but also see a ray of light.

Also built into the very fabric of the universe is the notion that one death can be accepted in place of anothers, and that the one death can redeem an otherwise hopeless situation. Again were tempted to think weve regressed to primitive religion, but once more, we look around to see this phenomenon all around us. Its another regular trope of storytellers, who create Christ figures whose deaths liberate others.

This is a powerful motif not merely because it mimics the crucifixion but because we recognize a mysterious law of the universe in play: Sometimes the suffering and death of one key personwho is perceived as good and lovingtransforms the lives and situations of others for the good, as the deaths of activists like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. suggest.

There is no straight line from the deaths of men like these to the creation of more just laws for those for whom they lived and died, but there is clearly a positive relationship. There is a mysterious sense in which they endured the punishment for injustice that was deserved by others and that this event made a measure of healing possible.

Evangelical Christians simply believe that when the perfectly just and innocent God-man, Jesus Christ, died, he fully atoned for our sin; this results not only in our forgiveness but in the lifting of the consequence and punishment for our sin: Death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54).

A Long History

Some critics have tried to argue that the idea substitutionary atonement does not appear on the scene until a thousand years after the crucifixion, particularly in the theology of Anselm of Canterbury. To be sure, no such model was fully developed until then, but its clearly in the minds of many of the early church fathers, like Justin Martyr, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius, and Augustine. Take this very representative example from Eusebius of Caesarea. In commenting on John 1:29 (Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world), he writes:

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And the Lamb of God not only did this, but was chastised on our behalf, and suffered a penalty He did not owe, but which we owed because of the multitude of our sins; and so He became the cause of the forgiveness of our sins, because He received death for us, and transferred to Himself the scourging, the insults, and the dishonor, which were due to us, and drew down upon Himself the appointed curse, being made a curse for us.

It has been recently argued that, though substitutionary atonement was revived in the Reformation, it wasnt central to Luthers thought as we have believed. Perhaps, but he could still wax eloquent about it:

Therefore Christ was not only crucified and died, but by divine love sin was laid upon him. He has and bears all the sins of all men in His bodynot in the sense that He has committed them but in the sense that He took these sins, committed by us, upon His own body, in order to make satisfaction for them with His own blood.

While many contemporary theologians have distanced themselves from this model, some of the greatest theological minds of the 20th century gave it pride of place in their work. Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg would be two examples. As Pannenberg put it in his systematic theology:

As Paul saw it, God himself by means of the human judges not only made Jesus to be sin but also had him bear in our place  the penalty that is the proper penalty of sin because it follows from its inner nature, i.e. the penalty of death as the consequence of separation from God.

This is no primitive theology, unless you mean by it that it was part and parcel of the primitive church: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood (Rom. 3:25).

Such passagesand there are many moretake their cues especially from the prophet Isaiah:

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all. (53:56)

Evangelicals are mystified by theologianseven some of their ownwho argue that the idea of punishment is simply not found in the Bible.

Pride of Place

The reminder of other atonement models in the New Testament has been a good corrective for evangelical preachers who have limited their preaching to substitutionary atonement. Not everyone at every point in life will be moved by dynamics of guilt and shame, law and punishment, sin and substitution. A drug addict caught in the chains of addiction might better grasp the miracle of the crucifixion if the ransom model is expounded, for example.

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In one respect, however, evangelical preachers have proven themselves more open-minded and ecumenical than their liberal brothers and sisters. Whereas the latter insist on completely eliminating substitutionary atonementand especially penal substitutionas primitive and unworthy of the modern mind, evangelicals simply will not eliminate any of the other models, no matter their weaknesses (which each model has). If Scripture clearly shows that there are indeed different ways of grasping the deeper significance of the crucifixion, so be it.

To be sure, evangelicals give priority to substitutionary atonement; they see it as the one model that holds all the others together, making sense of each one. And many agree with Packer who, in the essay noted above, suggests that substitutionary atonement is not a theory as much as a model, not an ironclad explanation of the mysterious ways of God but a dramatic narrative of what took place on Calvary:

Surely the primary issue with which penal substitution is concerned is neither the morality nor the rationality of Gods ways, but the remission of my sins; and the primary function of the concept is to correlate my knowledge of being guilty before God with my knowledge that, on the one hand, no question of my ever being judged for my sins can now arise, and, on the other hand, that the risen Christ whom I am called to accept as Lord is none other than Jesus, who secured my immunity from judgment by bearing on the cross the penalty which was my due.

And a principal reason that evangelical preachers continue to rely on this model is precisely that it preaches. As Packer put it:

The effect of this correlation is not in any sense to solve or dissipate the mystery of the work of God (it is not that sort of mystery!); the effect is simply to define that work with precision, and thus to evoke faith, hope, praise and responsive love to Jesus Christ.

Yes, the model has been abused. Some have explained it as if Jesus appeased the wrath of an angry Father who gleefully watched his Son tortured to deathas if the Father and the Son had two different wills about what was going on. Not quite. Substitutionary atonement grounded in good Trinitarian theology insists on the unity of purpose of the Father and the Son, since God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:19, NASB). That is, God was enduring in his own self the divine wrath that we deservedthat I deserved.

The last point is one existential reason evangelical Christians remain deeply committed to this model of atonement. It is the one atonement model more than the others that reminds us of the personal investment of God in each one of us. Where Christus Victor, for example, is a wonderful model to describe cosmic redemption, substitutionary atonement is about my salvation: Christ died for me. It doesnt get any more personal than that. And evangelical religion is nothing if not personal.
Amid widespread concerns over the direction of Moody Bible Institute (MBI), the historic Chicago school announced today that President J. Paul Nyquist and Chief Operating Officer Steve Mogck have resigned, while Provost Junias Venugopal has retired.

Let there be no mistake that the Board of Trustees holds these three men in high regard for their ethical, moral, and spiritual leadership, stated Randy Fairfax, chair of the board of trustees. They are godly, honorable men to whom we entrust to the Lord and offer our deep gratitude for their years of faithful service to Christ and to Moody.

However, we are unanimous in our decision that it is time for a new season of leadership. I ask that you be in prayer for them and their families.

Nyquist took the helm of Moody in 2009, after serving as president and CEO of Avant Ministries, a church planting missions agency based in Kansas City, and pastoring churches in Iowa and Nebraska.

Mogck had served as COO and executive vice president since 2012. In recent years, he was involved in efforts to lease certain Moody properties and adjust zoning for campus buildings. Prior to Moody, he was an executive and attorney for Carlson Hotels.

The board has appointed Greg Thornton, senior vice president of media, as interim president, and board member Mark Wagner, former president of Walgreens, as interim COO. John Jelinek, vice president and seminary dean, is now interim provost.

The news was announced in an email sent to the Moody community Wednesday evening, following a special meeting of the board of trustees.

Understandably, there are many questions at this time, stated Fairfax. Please know that we are working diligently through everything, and will stay in regular contact with you first, our Moody family, and with our many partners and friends as well.

I ask for your prayers for the Board, our interim leadership team, and the entire Moody community during this next season. God has been faithful to Moody since 1886, and we continue to seek His favor as we move forward.

Yesterday, Moody Radio host Julie Royswho recently detailed allegations against the schools administration on her blogrevealed that she had been fired.

After hosting Moodys weekly program Up for Debate for more than a decade, Roys posted that:

I received an email from Greg Thornton, MBI senior vice president of media, informing me that after consulting with the Executive Committee of the Moody Board, leadership is terminating your employment. No reason was given and I was informed that my boss, Program Manager Dan Craig would be at my house in two-and-a-half hours to pick up my laptop.

An MBI spokesman confirmed that Roys was no longer employed with Moody Radio.

Last Thursday, the Christian speaker and author wrote on her blog that MBI was in unprecedented crisis due to ongoing tensions between administration and staff, as well as theological concerns she raised over certain faculty members.

Moody responded by calling the allegations misleading, though the issues in question were still being reviewed by its leadership.

While the blog post presents a limited perspective on the assertions raised, Moody is engaged in a comprehensive review of these matters to confirm that past events have been properly cared for and that any other matters are handled in an appropriate manner, the school replied in a statement.

The executive committee of Moodys board of trustees discussed the issues at length during a meeting last week, and the full board had gathered today for further consideration.

Much of the current tension at Moody stems from the Bible colleges announcement back in November that it would be shuttering its campus in Spokane, Washington; reducing programs like distance learning; and terminating faculty, including 10 percent of its Chicago campus professors, following recent drops in enrollment.

The school reported a total enrollment of 3,500 in fall 2017. Over the past seven years, numbers have dropped, including full-time freshmen at its main location in Chicago declining by nearly a quarter.

The cuts to programs and faculty resulted in backlash from the Moody communityparticularly an anonymous group of staff members, who blamed Nyquist and the administration for the drastic cuts and criticized them for not fostering better transparency and trust on campus.

If the rumors and distrust persist on this campus, it may very well be because these decisions, by being postured on some vague spiritual high ground, have actually engendered a culture of fear, they wrote in an open letter in the student newspaper, The Moody Standard.

After the resignations, the Moody Anonymous group told CT its members were grateful to see their leadership held accountable, but still had questions and craved transparency from the institution.

Some sort of systematic answer from the trustees to the allegations would go a long way, the group wrote by email. Trust has been broken within Moody, and it is not easily repaired. Every statement we've received from our administration seems to gloss over that point in favor of protecting Moodys reputation.

At this point, any attempt to save face without sharing information is still damaging to our trust. We need to see intentional authenticity and clarity from our remaining leaders, and we need to see the willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the truth.

Their initial letter called out the school for funding a portion of a new building being constructed in honor of alumnus Gary Chapman, as well as for freezing faculty pay yet not tightening salaries at the administrative level.

Roys has added several other concerns to the list, citing her own investigations, though not all are shared by the Moody Anonymous staff members.

Last month, she shared her findings directly with two members of Moodys board of trustees who found the evidence  convincing and assured me that the rest of the board would act swiftly to address issues and remove guilty parties.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Roys offered more detail on her claims of unethical behavior among Moodys leadership and board members, including Nyquists housing arrangement. She wrote:

I am glad board members are finally willing to investigate and address the very serious issues with the current administration. But what about the extremely serious issues with the board? I have followed the protocol of Matthew 18. I have talked to administrators and numerous trustees. I have confronted them with evidence of wrongdoing and urged them to own their sins and step down. But they have not. And now is the time for reckoning.

Statements from Moody have repeatedly said that Roys has mischaracterized the situation with information primarily based on anonymous and second-hand sources and include past events that have been resolved.

Regarding the staff cuts, an MBI spokesperson told CT:

Such changes often result in wide-ranging emotions, especially for those whose jobs may have been impacted. As people seek to understand such changes, some reflect on past events and attribute new meaning to them. For others, the stress of change may impact their sense of trust in the organization. This is true in Moodys case as it engages in necessary changes to adapt its ministries for the future. No organization, including Moody, is exempt from challenge and conflict in the pursuit to build and maintain trust, unity, and a renewed sense of spirit for the advancement of the gospel.

In response to complaints over Nyquists housing arrangement with MBI, a spokesperson told CT:

Many academic institutions have a residence on campus for their president. [MBI] does not. Our board of trustees wanted [Nyquist] to live in close proximity to campus; however, our campus is located in some of the most expensive real estate in Chicago, so the board made it possible for [him] to live across from [MBI] with an interest-only loan at the market rate of 4 percent. [Nyquist] is therefore able to host students and student groups, helping him foster positive relationships with the student body, and generally be available for [MBI] business, which was the boards desire. The terms of the loan are fully disclosed on [MBIs] federal disclosure forms.

Prior to his resignation, Nyquist penned a letter with Fairfax on Monday acknowledging the allegations before the board.

As we press forward, despite the challenges and hard conversations that are taking place at Moody, our executive team and the Board of Trustees are unified in our love for the Lord and this great institution, the pursuit of truth, and seeking reconciliation where possible, they wrote. With that, we have also come to recognize the need for, and are committed to, improving our culture and climate at Moody.

The spokesperson said last week that alumni and onlookers can be assured that as a Christ-centered organization, all personnel-related and other matters are dealt with in a timely, biblical, and professional manner.

Moody faces challenges, but we do so with hope and a renewed confidence in the Lords sovereignty as He guides and provides for Moody, which He has faithfully done for 132 years.
According to an African proverb, He who never travels thinks mom is the only cook. Thats not a putdown of moms cooking, just an acknowledgement that there are lots of things youll never know if you dont venture away from home.

Likewise, Christians who never listen to those from other parts of the world can assume the only way to practice the faith is the way you were taught and have gotten used to. Thats living on moms cooking.

Christians in the United States can learn a lot from believers from other parts of the world, including how unusual certain aspects of Americanized Christianity are. I interviewed pastors currently ministering in the United States who were raised and came to faith in another country. I wanted to learn what they saw and experienced of Christianity in the United States that was distinct from their country of origin. Through their eyes I saw many things about my homegrown Christian faith that Id never noticed ...

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We were driving home from preschool when my daughter Marileefour years old at the timeasked, Momma, are all Indians mean?

I paused the audiobook version of Laura Ingalls Wilders Little House on the Prairie and reminded myself that shes just a kid asking an honest question. After inquiring about her perspective, I replied, All people have kindness in their hearts, and all people have meanness in their hearts. But why do you ask if the Indians are mean?

Because they seem mean in the book, she said.

My seven-year-old son, William, chimed in with a short synopsis of American history and western expansion, then wrinkled his forehead, and said, Mom, its not fair if the government keeps making the Indians move. It seems really selfish.

I nodded my head. It was selfish, William.

Our conversation underscored an uncomfortable truth: I cannot defend the decisionby Pa Ingalls or anyone else, including our own distant relativesto settle the East and then push west at the cost of decimating native peoples. I also dont want to pretend that these stories we have grown to love portray a pure or unadulterated past.

When I first realized that these stories could perpetuate a myth of white American conquest, I considered leaving them behind. Instead, they have become a way to enter into our historythe glory and the shame of it, the complicated, messy, ugly, selfish, and sometimes beautiful humanity of it all.

For kids sake, adults often curate the details of the pastwhether its the history of white settlers and Native Americans, the facts about slavery and race relations, narratives from the Bible, or family histories that contain stories of heartache and pain. Curating is part of parenting. But how do we do it, exactly? How do we talk about human historyboth the evil and the goodas our kids come of age? When do we tell the unadorned truth, and when do we filter?

For our family, the Ingalls story has been a catalyst for asking these questions. In light of our childrens fascination with the Little House on the Prairie series, I was eager to understand the story behind the stories. Caroline Frasers new book, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder offers a carefully researched, accessibly written biography of Wilder and her social and historical context.

One of Frasers central questions is the veracity of Wilders books. In what ways were the books fictionalized versions of reality? How did Wilder editwhether to sanitize or sensationalizeher past? And what effect did that editing have, not only on the children who read the books, but, in light of their spectacular and enduring popularity, on the American people as a whole?

As unpublished manuscripts, letters, and documents have come to light, we have begun to apprehend the scope of [Wilders] life, a story that needs to be fully told, in its historical context, as she lived it, writes Fraser. That tale is different from the one she wrote. It is an adult story of poverty, struggle, and reinventiona great American drama in three acts.

In the biography, Fraser uses meticulous research of various historical records to point out the discrepancies, omissions, and inconsistencies in the Little House books. We learn that Wilder amended some details simply to serve a larger narrative purpose. But she also left out much of the hardship of her life. For instance, she never mentions the birth of her baby brother and his subsequent death, nor does she detail the discovery that her communitys beloved Reverend Alden was convicted of embezzling church funds.

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According to Fraser, Wilder fails to portray the brutal reality of her familys economic vulnerability. She paints a picture of an American Dreamone that was never actually realizedand overlooks the plight of the small farmer who could never succeed without the government policy, regulation, and assistance that Wilder disdained. Writes Fraser, Throughout the whole series, [Wilders] emphasis on her parents finest qualities built the illusionthe idealof the yeoman farmer, able to sustain a family on the homestead, raising something from nothing.

Frasers critique is compelling in many ways, and yet it fails to grapple with one important fact: that Wilder wrote her books both from the perspective of a child and for readers who are themselves children. While kids are sometimes forced to reckon with the brutal realities of a broken world, adults also have a role to play in introducing them to that brokenness.

As grownups entrusted with passing along stories about our nation, our faith, and our families, we need to employ wisdom and discernment in deciding how much to tell our children and when. Do we introduce them to human evil as evidenced by the horrors of the Holocaust or the Middle Passage? Do we tell them that Aunt Beatrice died of alcoholism or that Grandad had an affair? Do we explain what it means when our Advent reading describes Rahab, one of the women in Jesus family tree, as a prostitute? Do we fill in the blanks in books like Little House on the Prairie?

Although theres no perfect formula, nonetheless the writers of the Bible provide some models for how and when to expose our children to evil and hardship.

Take Peters preaching in Acts. In the early chapters of the book, when Peter is addressing his fellow Jews, he explains who Jesus is in the context of the history of Israel, and he does so in forceful and strident tones. But in Acts 10, when Peter tells Corneliusa non-Jewish Roman centurionabout Jesus, he tells the same story in different words. His tone is gentle and inviting. He does not quote the Hebrew Scriptures, which might have been unfamiliar to Cornelius. Instead, he simply tells him that Jesus is Lord and that Jesus, now raised from the dead, has invited Cornelius to follow him.

Similarly, the gospel writers demonstrate flexibility in storytelling based on the knowledge of their presumed audience. Matthew, who writes for a predominantly Jewish audience, tailors his message to people familiar with the scriptural prophecies about a coming Messiah. Luke, on the other hand, while writing to a Gentile audience, does not emphasize these same details because they would have been less familiar to his readers.

With these models in mind, we parents and teachers need to remember two things: First, that we should tailor stories (about faith or family or history) to our specific kids and their specific developmental stages. We need to answer the questions theyre askingnot the ones we want to ask. We need to discern how much darkness they can and should be exposed to, just as Wilder made choices about how much of her childhood poverty and insecurity to convey on the page.

Second, we need to tell these stories as part of an ongoing conversation that can be expanded over time. As adults, we sometimes want to believe the simpler, easier narrative of events, and the way we tell stories can lull us into a fictional version of the past.

For example, scholars and readers will continue to debate whether Wilder believed the idyllic vision depicted in her books. However, the problem lies not so much in her writing as in the ways adults have allowed her narratives, crafted for young readers, to inform a simplistic conception of the American Dream, the expansion of the western frontier, and the idea of a yeoman farmer.

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In other words, when we curate and distill adult stories for kids, we have to remember that were not offering the fullest version of the narrative. As our kids grow older, we arent contradicting what weve told them in the pastinstead, were expanding their understanding of the complexity of events.

My conversation in the car with my kids is only one example of how books (Wilders and others like it) can open up lines of inquiry, curiosity, and exploration that lead to a fuller story. American history in general, any family history, and most of the biblical narratives include the dark sides of human drama.

In the context of that drama, we need parents and teachers who can, over time, gently guide kids from simple to complex truth. Those truths will shape and form our children into grownups with a fuller understanding of human naturewith all of its glorious and sinful realities.



Amy Julia Becker is the author of A Good and Perfect Gift and Small Talk: Learning from my Children About What Matters Most. Some of the content from this essay was taken from White Picket Fences by Amy Julia Becker. Copyright  2018. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
American Legion Auxiliary

The American Legion Auxiliary met on Jan. 8, with President Loree Dienstbier presiding over the meeting. Chaplain Linda Sturgill gave the opening prayer and led the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem. Roll call revealed six officers present and three absent.

Marian Melcher presented the "National Good Deed Award" to Ethan Buss, who is 10 years old and in the fourth grade. He raised more than $5,500 for the Red Cross to help families in need.

There are 194 members paid to date for 2018. Seven memorial wreaths were given and three funeral luncheons were served. Christmas cards were sent to shut-in veterans in Beatrice. Donation to the Community Food Pantry totaled 20 items and $493 from members and the Auxiliary.

Letters of thanks were read for donations given last month. A letter from the department was shared with members. The mid-year conference will be held on Jan. 12-14 in North Platte.

The first chicken supper of the year will take place on Jan. 24, serving from 5 to 7 p.m. The public is invited. The American Legion's 99th birthday dinner is scheduled for March 11, with a social hour beginning at 5 p.m. and dinner at 6 p.m. Reservations are required by invited guests.

The next meeting will be held on Feb. 12. Members may meet at 6:30 p.m. for supper prior to the 7:30 p.m. meeting. Hostesses will be Faye Hagan and Carolyn Junker. Members are asked to wear red, white and/or blue in honor of Americanism/patriotism month. Dorothy Trauernicht will serve as chairman for the program.
10 things to know about Bill Brandt

A closer look at the life and work of the pioneering Anglo-German photographer

1

Brandt's lonely childhood shaped his later artistic vision

Bill Brandt was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1904 to an English father and a German mother. During the the First World War, Brandts dual heritage made him a social outcast and the victim of bullying.

He later disowned his German lineage, claiming to have been born in south London. His early work reflects this sense of isolation.

2

It was illness that motivated him to pick up a camera

In the 1920s Brandt contracted tuberculosis and was sent to recover at a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland. It was while confined to the hospital that he first took up photography. After being sent to Vienna for lung analysis in 1927 he met Dr Eugenie Schwarzwald (1872-1940), the Austrian writer and pioneer of female education, who found him a position working in a local portrait studio.

3

Brandt made early  and influential  connections with Ezra Pound and Man Ray

Dr Schwarzwald also introduced Brandt to the American poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972), who in turn introduced him to Man Ray (1890-1976), the American painter, photographer and pioneer of Surrealism and Dada. These encounters provided Brandt with his first connections to the art world. Inspired by Man Ray, Brandt criss-crossed Europe photographing cities by night.

4

Brandt first became famous for his images of London

In 1931, with his first wife Eva Horos, Brandt settled in London. There he published his first photobook, The English at Home (1936), which documented the wildly disparate social milieus of his adoptive city.

His early work was praised by the critic Raymond Mortimer (1895-1980) for its acute observation and freshness. American photographer Walker Evans (1903-1975) said of Brandts images of parlour maids, including Parlourmaid Preparing a Bath Before Dinner, This is Bill Brandt striking home in every sense.

5

Brandts work became part of the war effort

Brandts reputation for photographing people affected by poverty and distress made him an ideal candidate to document the effects of the Blitz on London.

The British Ministry of Information commissioned him to photograph Londons bomb shelters, and sent the images to Washington, D.C. as part of a campaign to enlist American support in the war effort. Brandt described the images as capturing the long alley of intermingled bodies, with the hot, smelly air and continual murmur of snores.

6

After the war, Brandts focus shifted to landscape and portrait photography

Inspired by Edward Westons sparse imagery of the American landscape, Brandt began shooting figureless outdoor scenes  famously waiting years for a chance to document Stonehenge under the snow.

He also photographed famous sitters in their homes, including the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), and the English novelist E.M. Forster (1879-1970).

7

He pioneered the use of new technologies

Brandts night-time scenes were made possible with the invention of the Vacublitz flashbulb and portable tungsten lamps  he famously claimed to carry enough lamp cable to run the length of Salisbury Cathedral. He also utilised new cinematography techniques, reworking negatives of images shot during the day so that they appeared to have been taken at night.

He used a Rolleiflex camera for portrait images, and a Hasselblad camera with a super-wide angle lens for his landscape works, such as his 1946 image of Giants Causeway in Ireland. In this he acknowledged a debt to the deep-focus style of Orson Welless film Citizen Kane (1941). He often used the same camera  a 1931 Kodak  employed by the police to document crime scenes, explaining that it allowed him to see like a mouse, a fish or a fly. Employing a range of techniques and surprisingly varied subject matter, Brandts images evoke mysterious and often dream-like realms. This distinct quality, which he himself once described as familiar and yet strange, probably best defines Brandts legacy, says Darius Himes, Christies International Head of Photography in New York.

8

He experimented with nudes

Later in life Brandt increasingly experimented with photographing nudes. His sitters often adopted contorted poses in images inspired by the work of British sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986). In 1961 he published the photobook Perspective of Nudes, which featured naked models in domestic interiors and on French and English beaches.

9

Brandt was widely exhibited throughout his lifetime

His work was first displayed at MoMA in New York in 1941 (when the photography department was less than a year old) as part of the group show Britain at War  although initially his images were unattributed. Over the next 20 years his work, from war reportage to nudes, featured in at least 12 more MoMA exhibitions. His first solo show at MoMA, Bill Brandt, was held in 1969, for which 42 of the works in Christies January 2018 sale were printed. His work featured in a further 18 exhibitions at MoMA from 1969, including two more solo shows: Bill Brandt 1905-1983 (1983-84), which marked the photographer's death, and Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light (2013), curated by Sarah Hermanson Meister.

A lot of [Brandts] work is relevant to a new generation of people, both because of evaluations of where photographys modernist traditions lie, and also because issues of class, issues of the feminine gaze or the masculine gaze on a feminine figure mean they feel very fresh and relevant even today, Meister said in a 2013 interview.

10

He worked tirelessly until the end
Garry Winogrand: The central photographer of his generation

A profile of the Bronx-born street photographer par excellence, whose best-known work documented turbulent times across the United States in the 1960s and 70s

1

A New York City kid, Winogrand was the child of immigrants

Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, Garry Winogrands (1928-84) parents were Jewish immigrants to the United States from Eastern Europe. After a brief spell in the Air Force in the late 1940s, he returned to live with them for a few years.

2

Winogrand studied painting before picking up the camera

His initial studies, at Columbia University, were in painting, though he soon realised his temperament and talents were better suited to photography. As his friend Tod Papageorge put it, Garry found painting a slow, deliberate process that demanded lots of patience. He preferred to work in a way [that] could convulsively seize what it described... Photography answered his agitated sense of self.

3

He had close links with MoMA throughout his life

Few artists have been quite so synonymous with a major institution as Winogrand was with New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. He showed at MoMA at pretty much every stage of his career, starting in 1955 with The Family of Man. Curated by Edward Steichen, this group exhibition is now regarded as one of the most successful photography shows of all time. It was Steichen who purchased the first Winogrand works for MoMAs collection: three prints for a total of $30. Ultimately, Winogrands work was featured in ten MoMA exhibitions during his lifetime.

In 1988, four years after his death, Winogrand was the subject of a posthumous MoMA retrospective called Garry Winogrand: Figments from the Real World. In the 1990s, the collector Barbara Schwartz made the museum a gift of 200 of the photographers prints, which would form the content of the 1998 exhibition Garry Winogrand: Selections from a Major Acquisition. Prints from this exhibition make up the bulk of an online sale of Winogrands work at Christies in January 2018.

4

MoMA curator John Szarkowski was Winogrand's greatest champion

Winogrands early work was mostly commercial  for magazines and advertising agencies. While his work had been shown at MoMA in 1955, his real breakthrough did not come until the museums 1963 group show, Five Unrelated Photographers, in which 45 of his shots appeared. That exhibition was curated by John Szarkowski, recently appointed MoMAs Director of Photography, a position hed hold for three decades. Winogrand's greatest champion, Szarkowski affected the course of his career like no other.

Szarkowskis ambition was to transform the very way we looked at photography: to wrest it from the pages of magazines and create a natural home for it in the museum. To do this, he rejected heavily styled, artfully composed photos for something more inclusive, encouraging photographers to roam, forage and discover, firm in the belief that a great photo could arise by chance. In such a pursuit, the two men were kindred spirits, Szarkowski going so far as to label Winogrand the central photographer of his generation.

5

He was a great admirer of Walker Evans and Robert Frank

Among Winogrands heroes was Walker Evans, the great documentarian of 1930s America.

He also admired Swiss photographer Robert Frank, whose 1958 book The Americans captured the country with an outsiders eyes, rejecting the romantic strain of imagery that then prevailed in magazines such as Life.

6

He was a master of the 'snapshot aesthetic'  even if he disavowed the concept

Winogrands approach to photography was swift and no-nonsense. For him, it was the act of taking pictures that gave most satisfaction, and he often delegated the editing and developing of his photographs to others. Though Winogrand himself disliked the phrase snapshot aesthetic, these two words perhaps best describe his contribution to photography. Winogrand brandished his unobtrusive Leica M4 like a revolver, catching people going about their everyday business. Above all, Winogrand was never one for straightforward narrative.

In 1967, Winogrand appeared in another landmark MoMA exhibition, New Documents, alongside fast-rising stars Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander. The show heralded a new dawn, with all three photographers exhibiting seemingly offhand street shots of random subjects  each nonetheless packing the immediacy and power of a news photograph.

7

Classically structured compositions werent his thing

Winogrand deployed a wide-angle lens to fit as many details as possible into a single image, often without a central focus. In Worlds Fair New York, for example, eight people occupy a park bench, engaged in a range of activities from yawning and gossiping to reading a newspaper. Winogrand also liked to tilt his viewfinder, with little care for a horizon.

I like to think of Winogrand as a visual novelist, and his work a sprawling human comedy, says Geoff Dyer, author of The Street Philosophy of Garry Winogrand (a book of 100 essays on 100 photos by Winogrand, out in March 2018). His photos have so much detail and so much going on, your eyes can never rest.

8

In his travels across the United States, Winogrand documented the upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s

Winogrand did arguably his best work from the turn of the 1960s to the early 70s, capturing the upheavals, convulsions and chaos of America in that period. Airports, rodeos and political demonstrations were a few of his favoured backdrops.

We all know Winogrand as the ultimate street photographer, Dyer says. But lets forget for a second his art-historical importance and think more about his historical importance  in the incredible resource his photos represent for anyone interested in American history of the late 20th century. Whether it was race relations, the role of women, political battles its all there in his photos.

9

Even as he aged, Winogrand maintained a curiosity and inquisitiveness about his surroundings

In 1980 Winogrand said, Sometimes I feel... the world is a place I bought a ticket to. Its a big show for me, as if it wouldnt happen if I wasnt there with a camera.

By this he really meant America, which he had criss-crossed on numerous occasions, including on three separate Guggenheim Fellowships.

10

New York remained Winogrand's greatest inspiration

Late in life, Winogrand took teaching jobs in Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, yet New York was the city that inspired  and defined  him most. According to Jeffrey Fraenkel, the gallerist and manager of Winogrands estate, New York was Garrys meat and potatoes. Manhattan was the only place with a consistent level of energy remotely comparable to his own; the citys visual freneticism allowed him to scatter several small but remarkable dramas through a single frame. These he kept dazzlingly in balance, much as a circus magician keeps seven plates simultaneously spinning atop their poles.
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A 16-year-old boy has been accused of stealing a woman's car with a 7-month-old baby and later abandoning the baby in freezing weather has been taken into custody, Harris County Precinct 4 announced at a news conference Thursday morning.

The 16-year-old has been charged with theft of a vehicle and child endangerment, according to authorities.

Deputies arrested the teen at Nimitz High School, where he was a student, on Wednesday just after 4 p.m., said Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman. He's no longer a student there, Herman said.

"In 32 years, you think you've seen it all in this business, but when you have someone who would take a kid and just set her in an alleyway, it's just mind-boggling to us," Herman said. "You think you've seen it all but you haven't."

Herman said his office received tips from people who had heard the 16-year-old "bragging" about the incident, and were able to find out where he went to school and arrest him there.

The incident unfolded on Jan. 1 at a Shell gas station in the 21500 block of Aldine Westfield Drive, in Humble, after a mother went inside the store and left her baby, Allison King, in the car.

According to police, the mother left the car running.

While the mother was gone, a male now believed to be the 16-year-old suspect went into the unlocked 2007 black Nissan Sentra and drove off with the baby in tow.

After deputies launched a search around the area. Herman said more than 120 patrol vehicles from partnering agencies were called help. They were able to find the baby six miles away in an alleyway near the Aldine Westfield and Beltway 8 intersection, Herman said.

Herman said the search lasted for two hours, involving helicopters from the Texas Department of Public Safety, units from the Harris County Sheriff's Office and local school districts.

Finally, he said, around 9:30 p.m., a deputy pulled into an alleyway near an apartment complex called Greenbriar Colony, and happened to find the baby barely noticeable in the bushes.

Herman noted the temperature that night in the Houston area was in the twenties and if they had not found the baby, he believes she would have died.

"It was the coldest day of the year," he said. "The good lord upstairs was looking out for this kid."

The suspect, whose identity was withheld due to his age, was interviewed by police but he would not cooperate or say anything, Herman said. His parents were also not cooperating, Herman said, but he would not go into more detail about why.

Herman said prosecutors will make a decision about whether to try him as an adult.

"I hope they certify him as an adult," Herman said. "I think this kid needs help and this may be the way to get it."

Herman said deputies believe he may be responsible for other crimes in the area, but declined to elaborate.
A Houston man has plead guilty to stealing the identities of others, including children, so that he could get cars, money and other luxury items, announced the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt accepted on Wednesday Amir Ali Bey's guilty plea for two counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He will be sentenced on March 19.

The 35-year-old began this fraudulent scheme in July 2016 and continued it until May 2017. He created fake identities, so that he could set up multiple lines of credit to collect cash, the release stated. The man would establish different credit profiles using his various false identities, including a name Daniel Isaiah Murray.

He also obtained false pay stubs, drivers' licenses and would rent mailboxes at UPS stores using false identities, according to the release.

The man would steal the Social Security numbers of children and then link them to himself and his other fraudulent identities, "by adding them as authorized users on existing credit card accounts in good standing," according to the release.

During a search of the man's apartment in May 2017, law enforcement found fake credit cards, bank statements, identification documents which helped him complete this months long scheme.

Bey could face up to 20 years for the wire fraud and 24 months in prison for the aggravated identity theft, the release stated.

He could also have to possibly pay a $250,000 fine for each conviction.

The man is currently out on bond until his next hearing.
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One of the most infamous prisons in America is currently embroiled in a seedy scandal involving drugs, inmates, and sex.

So far, three correctional officers at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana have resigned.

RELATED: Texas female prison population rises as male population decreases

According to the Times-Picayune in New Orleans two of them were caught smuggling contraband into the prison and the third came clean about having sex with an inmate.

The kicker here is that all the sergeants are female.

Louisiana Department of Corrections spokesman Ken Pastorick named Amber Sanders, 22, Keyshawnna Rogers, 24, and Diamond Nicholson, 23, in a release.

Now Playing: The 29-year-old woman accused of damaging at least $300,000 worth of artwork during an alleged drunken first date with a prominent Houston lawyer is disputing the allegations and saying there is more to the story, multiple outlets report Video: People

Nicholson was charged with felony sexual malfeasance after admitting to having sexual relations with an inmate. She admitted that they had numerous sexual encounters during her time at the prison.

RELATED: 10-day hunger strike ends at North Texas prison

Sanders was allegedly caught with synthetic weed, three cellphones and chargers for the phones during a routine shakedown. Rogers was allegedly found with over 100 ecstasy pills, six grams of cocaine, 1.1 ounces of THC and a small joint.

Introduction of contraband into a prison is considered a felony. These women had apparently been working at the prison for less than a year.

The facility in Angola officially opened as a state prison in 1901 and has been described as the "Alcatraz of the South" in some circles. It is well known for its twice-yearly prison rodeos, complete with a special stadium to allow for up to 10,000 fans.

One of the most famous current residents of Angola is Corey Miller, the rapper known as "C-Murder" who is serving a life sentence for a murder back in 2002.
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A Louisiana teacher who was arrested in November for allegedly sending a nude photo of herself to a student has been arrested again after a second student said he also received nude photos of the teacher.

Viridiana Figueroa-Ramos was arrested Monday and charged with indecent behavior with a juvenile, according to NOLA.com. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said a Fisher Middle-High School student told them that Figueroa-Ramos sent him nude photos through Snapchat in 2016. The boy was 14 at the time.
For those who think it's time for a change or a new adventure, Houston is full of commercial properties ready to be snapped up and transformed into your dream business.

Maybe you'd like your own antique mall. There's the perfect spot for one in the heart of Crosby.
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WASHINGTON - Canada has filed a sweeping trade case against the United States at the World Trade Organization, lobbing a diplomatic grenade at the Trump administration's "America First" approach amid an increasingly embattled trade relationship between the long-standing North American allies.

The trade case could exacerbate tensions between the two nations, which have frayed in recent months as the countries wrestle with trade disputes and attempts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canada's case challenges the United States' use of tariffs to punish unfair trade practices and protect its markets, saying those actions violate World Trade Organization rules.

The case could expand into a multinational trade dispute given that Canada, a champion of global agreements, filed it in a way that allows other countries to join. The 37-page document outlines numerous problematic trade actions that it says the U.S. has taken against China, South Korea, Japan and Germany.

The case, which was filed on Dec. 20 and made public Wednesday, centers on the punitive tariffs that the U.S. imposes when it finds other countries guilty of subsidizing their products or of selling them abroad at unfairly low prices, a practice known as dumping. The U.S. has lost cases in the World Trade Organization over this system, which differs substantially from that of many countries.

Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, called Canada's action "a broad and ill-advised attack" on the American trade system. "U.S. trade remedies ensure that trade is fair by counteracting dumping or subsidies that are injuring U.S. workers, farmers and manufacturers," he said in a statement Wednesday.

Canada has borne the brunt of several U.S. trade actions, including a decades-long dispute over lumber and recent cases against Bombardier airplanes and Canadian newsprint.

"There are now billions of dollars of Canadian exports to the U.S. that are potentially subject to these restrictions," said Chad P. Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "That's what this dispute is all about."

The case could take years to work its way through the World Trade Organization, Bown said, but could eventually help Canada combat the types of trade actions the U.S. is increasingly bringing.
Two senators on Wednesday proposed "massive and mandatory" fines for data breaches at Equifax and other credit reporting companies, starting at $100 for each consumer whose sensitive information is compromised.

The bill from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Mark Warner, D-Va., would add a $50 fine for each additional piece of compromised personally identifiable information for each consumer. The penalties would double in cases where the credit reporting firm did not comply with federal data security standards or failed to notify officials of the breach in a timely manner.

If the legislation had been in place when Equifax had a data breach last year that exposed the Social Security numbers and birth dates of as many as 145.5 million Americans, Equifax would have faced a fine of at least $1.5 billion, the senators said.

The bill, called the Data Breach and Compensation Act, would direct the Federal Trade Commission to funnel half of any fine to compensate affected consumers. The agency could levy fines of as much as 75 percent of the credit reporting company's gross revenue from the prior year.

"Our bill imposes massive and mandatory penalties for data breaches at companies like Equifax - and provides robust compensation for affected consumers - which will put money back into people's pockets and help stop these kinds of breaches from happening again," Warren said.

The Equifax data breach, made public in September, sparked bipartisan outrage, partly because the hack took place after the company failed for several months to fix a software flaw that federal officials had warned about in March.

Equifax also bungled the aftermath of the breach, waiting nearly six weeks to notify the public after learning of the hack and then initially making people give up their right to sue if they wanted free credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Equifax later backtracked on that requirement.

The company's CEO, Richard Smith, stepped down after the breach was disclosed, and lawmakers slammed him in congressional hearings last fall.

The bill from Warren and Warner is among several proposed in the wake of the Equifax breach, including one from a top House Republican that would stop credit reporting companies from using Social Security numbers to verify people's identities.

"In today's information economy, data is an enormous asset," Warner said Wednesday. "But if companies like Equifax can't properly safeguard the enormous amounts of highly sensitive data they are collecting and centralizing, then they shouldn't be collecting it in the first place."

Despite the outrage, none of the bills has been approved by either chamber of Congress.

A bipartisan financial regulatory bill that passed the Senate Banking Committee last month would allow people to freeze and unfreeze their files with credit reporting companies and would require free credit monitoring for active-duty members of the military.

The bill from Warren and Warner shows the lawmakers are still angry about the Equifax breach, said Jaret Seiberg, a Washington policy analyst with brokerage and investment bank Cowen & Co.

The legislation is unlikely to be enacted, but makes it more difficult for credit reporting companies to soften the credit freeze requirements in the bipartisan bill that passed the Senate Banking Committee, Seiberg said in a research report.

Consumer and privacy advocates praised the new legislation, which also would create a cybersecurity office at the Federal Trade Commission to conduct annual inspections of credit reporting companies.
Willadean (Spier) Kaufman

Willadean Idona Spier was born to Frank and Ella (Tegtmeier) Spier on Jan. 20, 1935 in Burchard. She graduated from Burchard High School, attended Peru State College and the University of Nebraska--earning her bachelor's degree in education. She worked as a teacher for several years and then retired from teaching to raise her family. Willadean later went back to Southeast Community College and received her LPN degree in nursing.

She was united in marriage to Paul E. Kaufman on Dec. 13, 1962. They made their home in Tecumseh, where they raised their children, Paula Yvonne and Matthew Paul. After Paul retired from Tecumseh Building and Loan, Willadean and Paul moved to Lincoln. Paul passed away on Jan. 30, 2008. Willadean later became a resident of Sumner Place in Lincoln and passed away there on Jan. 7, 2018 at the age of 82 years.

She is survived by her daughter, Paula Bell and husband, Tom, and their children, Tylan and Peyton of Bixby, Okla.; as well as her son, Matthew Kaufman and wife, Michelle, and their son, C.J., of Lincoln.

Willadean was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Paul; and her sister, Yvonne Spier.

Private family graveside services will be held at the Blue Springs Cemetery at a later date. Services were entrusted to Wherry Mortuary of Tecumseh, Neb.
Captain Ds

Captain D's seafood has opened in the former Church's Chicken at 5854 Texas 6 North in northwest Houston. The restaurant marks the chain's 14th location in Texas, and 5th in the Houston area.

The new restaurant represents the first of four locations planned by franchisee Michael Knobelock over the next several years. Knobelock owns 43 Church's Chicken and 20 Little Caesars franchises nationwide, and two Captain D's restaurants in Mississippi.
Luke Sharrett

The Chicago-based Lincoln Clean Energy announced Wednesday it has financed a wind farm project in Lynn County, south of Lubbock in West Texas.

GE Renewable Energy will provide 120 turbines for the 300 megawatt wind farm. (One megawatt is enough to power 200 homes on a hot Texas day.) Lincoln, which also has offices in Austin, has developed more than 1,800 megawatts of renewable energy projects in California, New Jersey and Texas
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SM Energy Co. has agreed to sell more than 100,000 acres in the Powder River Basin for $500 million in cash to a private equity-backed producer.

The Denver oil producer's sale of 112,200 acres in Wyoming amounts to the exit of all but 20 percent of its property in the region, as it turns its focus to more prolific acreage in the Midland Basin in West Texas and the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.
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Writer-actor Matt Ingebretson is easily having one of the most hectic weeks of his life. The Lake Jackson native and proud University of Texas graduate is currently preparing to see his first TV series premiere on Comedy Central.

The dark and absurdist Corporate officially premieres Jan. 17 on Comedy Central but the first four episodes are now streaming on the networks website for those that cant wait a week.

RELATED: H-town laughs: A timeline of notable events in Houston's comedy history

Ingebretson graduated from Brazoswood High School in 2006 and made his way to Austin for school and quickly fell into the capital citys flourishing comedy scene while also majoring in English and marketing.

I picked them at random, he laughs. He drew comics for a while at UT and eventually ran The Texas Travesty, the schools satirical newspaper. He was hosting comedy nights around town and dipping into improv classes when he could.

Courtesy: Matt Ingebretson

Once he graduated in 2010, he made his way to Los Angeles joining a cadre of other talented natives who made the trip west.

Ingebretson has been making the rounds on various comedy podcasts talking up Corporate. Both Paste Magazine and The Atlantic have put the show on shortlists of best new shows of 2018.

The show deals with the sad life of an office drone at the fictional tech corporation Hampton DeVille. The first episode deals with an insensitive tweet sent out by the company regarding a hurricane that threatens the fortunes of it. The guys are used as guinea pigs for flak jackets in another episode, with unusual results.

Ingebretson and co-star Jake Weisman navigate the confusing world of Hampton DeVille as junior executives-in-training dealing with its mercurial and strangely charismatic CEO, played by Lane Reddick from HBOs classic The Wire.

Imagine Mr. Robot mating with Office Space and you have a good taste of Corporate and its headspace.

That was what we were going for. We were interested in doing something rich and stylized, he says. "There is not always a goofy boss and sometimes its a soul-sucking experience.

Courtesy: Matt Ingebretson

Co-creators Ingebretson, Weisman, and director Pat Bishop got the green light for the show from Comedy Central in late 2015. The journey from script to pilot wasn't an easy one, Ingebretson is quick to remind.

It was when this crew started making attention-grabbing online videos that they got a meeting with the home of shows like "South Park" and "Workaholics". Everything came incrementally.

They've been able to cast some people in bit roles that they never imagined working with too.

Noted character actor and frequent Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator Phillip Baker Hall appears in the second episode of the series.

RELATED: The famous Texans who have appeared on 'The Simpsons' since its 1987 debut

You think of him as the guy from 'Seinfeld' or 'Magnolia' but you realize hes a lot older now, Ingebretson says. He was funny and amazing to work with.

So far, there are ten episodes of Corporate in the can and the production team is waiting on Comedy Central to order more for a second season.

They tend to do short runs but were hopeful that we can make more, he says.

Ingebretsons folks moved to Houstons northwest side not too long after he graduated so he doesnt make it to Lake Jackson very often. Most of his old buddies also left town after high school but he still has roots here.

When he does come back to town he sometimes books stand-up gigs, most notably at Rudyards in Montrose.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. He's an intolerable native Texan with too much ink in his skin and too much brisket stuck in his teeth.
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The Los Tios Mexican Restaurant in Meyerland has reopened after remodeling due to Harvey flooding, and the neighborhood is welcoming it back.

Wednesday was the restaurant's official opening celebration, but the neighborhood crowds, happy to see some return to normalcy, have been packing the restaurant since New Year's week. Even on weeknights, there has been a 30-minute wait.

"It's been crazy!" waiter Colin Flaherty said.

RELATED GALLERY: Houston Restaurants that were hit the hardest by Harvey

The reopening date had been a hot topic in Bellaire and on Facebook over the holidays. It's the neighborhood "Cheers," after all, where everybody knows your name, one restaurant goer offered.

On Tuesday night, groups of friends and family happily ordered queso, their favorite numbered dinners and margaritas.

Kathy Westmoreland met a group of eight friends at "LT." Like the restaurant, most of them had flooded. While they were there, they ran into other old friends who were returning to Los Tios.

"I love it that I always run into a couple of people I know," said Bellaire food stylist Carla Buerkle. That's what she has missed about Los Tios. "I'm a true extrovert and get my energy from seeing friends. And the margaritas aren't bad either."

Kathy Lopez missed the No. 6 dinner -- a beef taco, a cheese enchilada and Los Tios' famous puffy queso taco. Kenda Moritz ordered the Acapulco dinner. And a margarita.

On Tuesday, Westmoreland stuck with her old favorite, the No. 7, but tried Los Tios' new blood-orange margarita.

The restaurant has kept many of its old touches -- like the wooden doors hanging on the walls -- but it has added lots of Mexican tile and updated the bar area.

"Bye, bye, Harvey," the Adair Family Restaurants posted on their Facebook page.

Los Tios, 4840 Beechnut, is open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
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After 32 years as fire chief of the Community Volunteer Fire Department, Stephen R. Fowler starts 2018 with a new title - retired.

Bobby Clark, who joined the department in 2005 and has served as assistant chief since 2012, takes over as chief.

Recognizing the imprint Fowler left on the department, Clark on Dec. 30 dedicated the Stephen R. Fowler Fire Training Field at fire station No. 4 at 16005 Bellaire Blvd.

Calling it Fowler's legacy, Clark said the field recognizes how much Fowler has done for the department from the beginning. "And, is something we will continue to do," he added.

Fowler said he was quite surprised at the dedication. "I did not anticipate a decision on the part of emergency services district to name the fire field after anyone."

Voters approved in 1997 creating the Harris/Fort Bend County Emergency Services District 100 which provides the financial support for the department, which formerly depended upon voluntary contributions and ambulance fees for revenue.

Under Fowler's guidance, the department grew from serving a rural community to a suburban community. Its four stations cover 25 square miles along the Westpark Tollway in west Houston including the communities of Katy, Richmond, Alief and Houston.

"He was a forerunner for the great department we see now," said Clark, who added that the new fire field will help bring in more individuals who want to be firefighters and grow the department.

The department had about 9,500 calls last year, said Clark, who said the run volume has increased since he's been a member as the department's territory grew westward. About 85 percent of the calls involve emergency medical services.

By contrast, the department had about 1,000 or 1,500 calls in 1981, said Fowler.

The department earned an Insurance Service Office (ISO) Class 2 rating. Ratings range from 1 to 10 with 1 the best.

Looking to the future, Clark wants to help volunteers grow, perhaps build another fire station at the west end of the district and to continue "great relationships with the fire departments around us."

The 180-member department mans its stations during the day with paid staff and relies on volunteers on evenings and weekends.

"I plan on growing volunteers," said Clark, who also is a captain with the Houston Fire Department. "I'll continue what Chief Fowler has done. Volunteers in my eyes are the main reason Community Volunteer Fire Department excels," said Clark. "Volunteers have done an excellent job and will continue to do an excellent job."

Fowler singles out the department's competency as well as he talks of its accomplishments. The department has a solid source of firefighters from various area fire training schools as well as the department's own program. He speaks highly of the volunteers, using adjectives like reliable, responsible, dedicated and loyal.

"I'm going to miss not being in the fire department," he said. Noting that he'll be 75 in February, he said "it's time for me to go. This is a young person's business. It's time for me to step aside and hand the reins to someone who can take the department to the next level and beyond that."

Fowler said, "Clark's an energetic, bright individual who's a wonderful leader. He's got great people skills."

Clark brings some changes to the department. A 17-year department veteran, Capt. Johnny Mitchell is now assistant chief. The department created two battalion chief positions, which Clark explained serve as overall daily managers of their shifts. Those positions are held by Brian Gazaway and Randall Kenny, both promoted from captain.

Of Fowler, Clark said, "He's been a great friend and mentor. I'll miss spending hours talking about everything and anything."

Between 100 and 150 people attended the Dec. 30 retirement party, including old and former department members who Clark said he had heard their names but had never met.

"It was great to know that they had come to wish Fowler a great retirement. I'm happy for the chief and happy for them. It was a great reunion. There is no better man to come and celebrate with."

Fowler said he saw a lot of gray-haired guys at the reception who started when he did. "There's not much difference in the culture for guys in the 1980s vs 2018. They're young, enthusiastic and willing to take the risk associated with firefighting. We're a diverse department with a strong level of harmony. It's a really neat thing. We respect each other and support each other. It's a fun environment to be in."

Fowler's enjoyed the sense of teamwork and the people he's forged friendships and camaraderie with. He said he'll miss the edge of excitement wondering what the next 12 hours will hold in response activity for the department.

He started with the department in 1973 as a volunteer firefighter, then moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area because of a job transfer.

He transferred back to Houston in 1981, moved to the Mission Bend area and volunteered with the Alief Community Volunteer Fire Department, which became the Community Volunteer Fire Department in 1985. In 1986, he accepted the job as fire chief.

"It was all about excitement and adventure in the beginning," observed Fowler. As he and the department advanced, emphasis shifted more to management and meeting challenges that the department had. The department has a Class B foam truck to suppress gasoline and diesel fires, said Fowler, which is one of only three in Harris County. The others belong to the Houston Fire Department and Harris County Fire marshal, he said.

As to what's next, he said, "I didn't quit a great job to take another job." He'll spend more time with his wife and kids and become more active in volunteering.

"I look forward to the future and maintaining the good, enjoyable friendships I've developed over the last 40 years in Houston. I'll just take one day at a time."
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The Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries announced Thursday the first wave of grants for Texas school libraries that were decimated by Hurricane Harvey's winds and floodwaters.

Seventeen schools along the Texas coast - including five in the greater Houston area, five around Aransas Pass and five in the Beaumont area - will receive grants of between $1,500 and $70,000, totaling a combined $850,500.

The foundation and the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation said in September they would commit a combined $2 million to school libraries impacted by 2017's punishing hurricanes and wildfires.

In an interview. Laura Bush said the grants awarded to Texas school districts were modeled after those her foundation gave to schools in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

"I drove through Houston right after Hurricane Harvey and saw it in the fronts of the houses - soppy carpets and draperies and furniture ruined in front of house. It's what New Orleans looked like after Katrina," Bush said. "You should imagine a library with thousands of books wet, moldy. You can imagine what the paper would be like."

She said the 17 schools applied for the grants through her foundation's "2017 Disaster Relief Initiative." In the Houston area, three private schools and two traditional public schools will receive funds: Galena Park Elementary in Galena Parks ISD, Red Elementary in Houston ISD, True Cross Catholic School in Dickinson, Beth Yeshurun Day School in Houston and the Lutheran South Academy in Houston.

Bush encouraged school districts across Harvey-affected areas to apply for her foundations grants.

A restricted grant from the Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief Fund of The Dallas Foundation enabled Bush's foundation to award $135,000 to two elementary schools in Orange, Texas.

Bush said it's especially important for students in storm-torn areas to have access to books, especially after their families' and schools' collections may have been ruined.

"I know from experience that books and money for school libraries are short, and in nearly every case school districts have to be careful about how they spend money, and often times school libraries are shorted and don't get money for new books," Bush said.
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A Houston man is facing prison time after admitting he stole children's social security numbers to bolster a wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a Justice Department news release.

Amir Ali Bey, 35, pleaded guilty on Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt to two counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, according to the release from U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick.
A man who Houston police say shot at two plaintclothes officers before engaging in a stand-off with officers has been detained, police said.

Police were dispatched to the 13700 block of Regg Drive around 4:20 p.m.after the man apparently shot multiple times at the officers, who were driving an unmarked vehicle, police said. The officers, who were not injured, did not return fire, and instead called for backup, police said.
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This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Waco siege, a 50-day conflict between the Branch Davidians and U.S. and Texas law enforcement agents.

The Davidians, a splinter group of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, had attracted the attention of law enforcement following allegations of polygamy, sexual abuse and possession of illegal weapons.

THEN & NOW: Check back in with the ATF agents involved in the first raid on HoustonChronicle.com

Following the Waco Tribune-Herald's coverage, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sought and obtained search and arrest warrants for David Koresh and his followers at the Mount Carmel Center.

Now Playing: 6 Highly-Anticipated TV Series in 2018 Electric Dreams Jan. 12 (Amazon Video) A British-American science fiction anthology series. Black Lightning Jan. 16 (CW) A retired superhero becomes a vigilante for justice. American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace Jan. 17 (FX) The next installment of the anthology series centered on notorious crimes and criminals. Castle Rock (TBA) Intertwines themes and characters from Stephen King's universe. WACO Jan. 24 (Paramount Network) A six-part miniseries about the FBI siege of David Koresh's Branch Davidian compound. Good Girls Feb. 6 (NBC) Three suburban mothers find themselves in trouble after robbing a supermarket. Video: Wibbitz

On February 28, ATF agents assembled to raid the facility. What followed was a fierce gun battle that resulted in the deaths of four agents and five Branch Davidians.

From that day until April 19, federal and state law enforcement agents were engaged with the Branch Davidians in a tense standoff. Despite weeks of negotiations, Koresh and his followers refused to budge from their compound.

CURE-ALL? Houston cult says sodium chlorite is an elixir

Finally, on April 19, then-President Bill Clinton signed off on Attorney General Janet Reno and the FBI's recommendation to assault Mount Carmel.

The FBI bombarded the compound with numerous tear gas rounds in an attempt to flush the group out of the facility. During that time, there were reports of Branch Davidian members igniting fires around the building.

Eventually, those fires multiplied and engulfed the entire site. At the end of the day, 76 Branch Davidians died. Autopsy results showed some of the victims had been shot and stabbed, likely as a mercy killing or suicide attempt. FBI investigators said one of Koresh's aides shot and killed him.

SAD TOKENS: ATF agents get back their bullet-ridden gear

The assault and its aftermath became one of the most controversial moments in American history, and would later serve as the impetus of the far deadlier Oklahoma City Bombing.
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The Harris County Justice of the Peace Court Precinct 4, Place 1 expects to reopen to the public as early as mid-March this spring after floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey swamped the complex.

Judge Lincoln Goodwin said part of the staff has returned to the courthouse, located at 6831 Cypresswood Drive. The courthouse serves approximately 1 million residents in the Spring and northwest Harris County area with traffic dispute cases to small civil claims.

"We're hoping to get back in our courthouse in stages over the next 30, 60 and 90 days," Goodwin said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to be available to the public in the next 45 to 50 days."

Luz Hernandez, the assistant chief clerk, said 12 staff members have returned to the Spring courthouse while the remaining 22 staff are working at the Precinct 4, Place 2 court in Humble.

Approximately four feet of water entered the courthouse building when Hurricane Harvey struck in August.

Back in October, the Harris County Engineering Department stated it would take between three to four months for the courthouse repairs to be completed once construction began.

"The courtroom will be one of the last things, as far as the courts are concerned, that may be hopefully (open) in mid-March when we're done," Goodwin said.

The courthouse also shares space with the Pct. 4 Constable's Office and Sheriff's Office. Back in October, Constable Mark Herman returned to the courthouse with patrol deputies after temporarily relocating to Faithbridge.

The administration and dispatch divisions were divided into other offices.

Businesses and homes in the area surrounding the courthouse also suffered from flood damages. In the adjacent plaza, Gringo's Mexican Kitchen reopened in December, while Hasta La Pasta and Mellow Mushroom remain closed.
Montgomery County officials are considering their legal options in a two-decades-old allegation of sexual assault on a teen by a youth minister at a church in The Woodlands.

A blog post Friday by Jules Woodson about her abuse by Andy Savage in 1998 when she was 17 in the Houston suburb has added to the cascade of #MeToo stories and illuminates sexual abuse by religious leaders around the nation.

At the time, both were members of Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church, which is now called Stonebridge Church.

Savage, now a pastor in Memphis, on Sunday admitted to a "sexual incident" with a female high school senior 20 years ago in Texas and said he was "deeply sorry" to his congregation .

The admission by Savage, came several days after Woodson publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her in 1998 when she was 17 and he was the youth minister at the Woodlands church.

According to a blog post Woodson wrote detailing her story, Savage offered to drive her home from church but first took her to a wooded area off a dirt road and had her perform oral sex on him.

On Sunday, Savage did not tell the congregation at Highpoint Church in Tennessee what took place in 1998, but he said that he had sinned, had taken responsibility for his actions and never concealed the information from church leaders. He said that before Woodson took her story public, he believed that the episode had been "dealt with in Texas."

"Until now, I did not know there was unfinished business with Jules," Savage, 42, said during the service, which was streamed live online. "Jules, I am deeply sorry for my actions 20 years ago. I remain committed to cooperate with you toward forgiveness and healing."

The Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constable's Office issued a statement Wednesday saying Woodson had been interviewed by a detective.

In working with the Montgomery County District Attorney's office, the agencies determined that too much time has elapsed to file criminal charges under 1998 laws. "The statute of limitations has passed and no charges would be able to be filed," the statement said. However, officials are researching current statutes, which provide "possible options" that can be pursued.

"As a result, we are unable to investigate and seek justice to the full extent ... we normally would in such a case," the statement said.

Larry Cotton, the former pastor of what was Woodlands Parkway Baptist and recently a minister at The Austin Stone Community Church in the state's capital city, has been placed on leave pending the results of a third-party investigation, a church official wrote in an email.

Stonebridge officials indicated statements responding to the allegations would be forthcoming.
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Twelve elementary school students from across Houston ISD will compete Friday in the 22nd-annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition.

The event features fourth- and fifth-grade students giving memorized speeches influenced by the words of King. Each year's competition centers around a prompt, and this year's question: What is your dream for today's world?

The competition begins at 10 a.m. at the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, 500 Clay St., in downtown Houston.

Last year's winner, Nhedrick Jabier of Crespo Elementary School on the city's southeast side, returns to defend his title. Jernee Craig, who attends Wainwright Elementary School on the city's northwest side, will also compete for a second time.

The 10 first-time competitors are:

Kimahni Dew, Burrus Elementary

Jaida Gatlin, Foster Elementary

Natalie Greene, MacGregor Elementary

Armani Holmes, Thompson Elementary

Nyla Johnson, Lockhart Elementary

Maryam Khan, Sutton Elementary

Caleb Kiteka, Windsor Village Elementary

Tchanori Kone, Gregory-Lincoln Elementary

Shawn Ward, Pleasantville Elementary

Summer Whitaker, Cornelius Elementary

Students are judged on four areas: delivery, stage presence and decorum, content interpretation, and memorization. The first-place prize is $1,000, second-place prize is $500, third-place prize is $300 and all other competitors receive $100.

Twenty-two schools participated in the competition, each sending a student to the semi-finals. Twelve finalists were then chosen.

See the speech from last year's winner, Nhedrick Jabier:




Houston ISD investigators are reviewing whether students at Furr High School "were receiving grades for courses they didn't take" and "received schedules for courses that didn't exist," a lawyer representing the district said Thursday.

The statements, made by the district's outside counsel, Victoria Phipps, shed additional light on the ongoing investigation of Furr High School Principal Bertie Simmons, who has been on paid administrative leave since September.

Simmons, 83, has been under investigation for allegations involving numerous issues, including recording of student grades, attendance and discipline reporting, discrimination and harassment, master scheduling and expenditures.

Houston ISD officials have offered no other details about the allegations, citing the ongoing investigation. The district's lawyers didn't elaborate further Thursday.

Simmons came out of retirement in 2000 and received accolades for helping to turn around the east-side school. She has argued the investigation stems from age and racial discrimination. A cadre of loyal supporters, including some students, have rallied to her defense.

FURR: Principal faces allegations of improper conduct, court records show

But Superintendent Richard Carranza has previously described the allegations against Simmons as "pretty serious," and district investigators have already spent three and a half months digging into the case. Phipps said the allegations involve "a lot of students."

"(The investigation) is not something that can be done in a week," Phipps said.

Simmons and two other employees at Furr High School are suing the district for retaliation. A former grant administrator, Sharon Koonce, was told her services were no longer needed after the investigation into Simmons began. A Houston ISD police officer, Craig Davis, was reassigned to a job that he believes is less prestigious.

The trio's lawyer, Scott Newar, accused Houston ISD officials Thursday of dragging out the investigation. Newar asked Harris County District Judge Fredericka Phillips to force the district to hand over documents related to the ongoing investigation. Phillips didn't grant the request, telling both sides to continue working together on discovery matters.

"The district's 'investigation' is a sham. No good-faith investigation would have taken three and a half months," he said.

District officials have given no timeline for when the investigation is expected to finish.
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Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has issued a final deadline for those accused of misdemeanor possession of marijuana to attend a class to avoid being charged with a crime.

The call comes four months after Hurricane Harvey brought the criminal justice system to a standstill.

"There comes a time when everyone must be held accountable," Ogg said in a statement released Thursday. "That time is now, as the Houston region has largely recovered from a storm of historic proportions."

Now Playing: The number of Americans who are in favor of legalizing marijuana continues to increase. A new Pew Research Survey says 6 out of 10 Americans now support the measure. Video: Buzz 60

Suspects have until March 1 to complete a program, or warrants will be filed for their arrest, Ogg said.

The Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program, launched by Ogg in 2017, gives suspects caught with less than four ounces of marijuana up to 90 days to complete a four-hour class on decision-making.

Before the program, Ogg said, an average of 10,000 people a year were charged for misdemeanor marijuana possession.

"This exposed them to a criminal record limiting their job, housing and educational opportunities," Ogg said. "Our community is safer when we keep people in the work force."

Since the program began in March 2017, there have been 3,209 participants, according to the district attorney's office. Instead of being arrested, those participants signed a pledge to take the class. Their marijuana was confiscated to be used as evidence against them in case they did not take the class.

In the past year, 1,415 people have completed the program. There are 978 people who are pending completion of the program, but still within their 90-day period.

And there are 816 people who have failed to complete the class on time.

"People have an opportunity to complete this class and get on with their lives," Ogg said.

The district attorney's office has said the program saves the county approximately $27 million a year that can be redirected toward fighting violent crimes and other offenses.

Those who need to take the class should go to the website www.go2gov.net/go/mmdp to register and pay the required $150 cost of the class.
A year ago Saturday, one of Houston's most shocking child sexual assault cases came to an end.

Alexandria Vera, 25, was sentenced to a decade in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Montgomery County officials are weighing their legal options in a two-decades-old sexual assault on a teen by a youth minister at a church in The Woodlands that was reported last week.

A blog post Friday by Jules Woodson about her alleged abuse by Andy Savage in 1998 when she was 17 in the Houston suburb has added to the cascade of #MeToo stories and illuminates sexual abuse by religious leaders around the nation.

At the time, both were members of Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church, which is now called StoneBridge Church.

Savage, now a pastor in Memphis, on Sunday admitted to a "sexual incident" with a female high school senior 20 years ago in Texas and told the congregation that he was "deeply sorry."

The admission by Savage came several days after Woodson publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her.

According to a blog post Woodson wrote Jan. 5 detailing her story, Savage offered to drive her home from church one day in 1998, but detoured to a wooded area off a dirt road and had her perform oral sex on him. At the time, Woodson said, Savage was teaching teens in her youth group the "True Love Waits" curriculum, which advocates sexual abstinence before marriage.

On Sunday, Savage did not tell the congregation at Highpoint Church in Tennessee what took place in 1998, but he said that he had sinned, had taken responsibility for his actions and never concealed the information from church leaders. He said that he believed the episode had been "dealt with in Texas" before Woodson took her story public.

"Until now, I did not know there was unfinished business with Jules," Savage, 42, said during the service, which was streamed live online. "Jules, I am deeply sorry for my actions 20 years ago. I remain committed to cooperate with you toward forgiveness and healing."

Highpoint Church lead pastor Chris Conlee posted an online message calling Savage one of his "closest friends and partners" in ministry.

"This information is not new to me or to our leadership," Conlee wrote. "I can assure you that I have total confidence in the redemptive process Andy went through under his leadership in Texas. In addition, for more than 16 years, I have watched Andy strive to live a godly life and proactively share what he has learned to help others."

The Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constable's Office issued a statement Wednesday saying Woodson had been interviewed by a detective.

In working with the Montgomery County District Attorney's office, the agencies determined that too much time has elapsed to file criminal charges under 1998 laws. "The statute of limitations has passed and no charges would be able to be filed," the statement said. However, officials are researching current statutes, which provide "possible options" that can be pursued.

"As a result, we are unable to investigate and seek justice to the full extent ... we normally would in such a case," the statement said.

Woodson, now in her late 30s, emailed Savage on Dec. 1, asking him if he remembered the incident.

She ended the brief email this way: "Well, I REMEMBER. #metoo." The ongoing blog post reports that she received no response from Savage.

A friend who has been part of her circle of comfort and responded to a request for comment from Woodson said Wednesday that she went public to be an example of a survivor and potentially give freedom to others, particularly those who have abused by trusted authorities in religious spaces.

Larry Cotton is the former associate pastor of Woodlands Parkway Baptist and the person Woodson reported the incident to at the time, she said. Most recently, Cotton has been a minister at The Austin Stone Community Church in the state's capital city and has been placed on leave pending the results of an investigation.

In a statement, the Austin church expressed compassion for Woodson's pain and took responsibility for making a fair determination about Cotton.

"We grieve for what happened to Jules Woodson. It was wrong and unjust; we cannot overly express our sadness for what this woman experienced in God's church. No person should ever be subject to sexual sin from any church leader," the release said. "In order to remove our potential bias from the situation, we have placed Larry on a leave of absence while an investigation by a third-party organization is undertaken. We will provide a full report to the church after its completion."

Other repercussions from the revelation have included the canceling of Savage's forthcoming book on marriage by Bethany House, a Christian publisher. Conlee, Savage's current pastor, has been disinvited as a speaker from a religious conference convening next month in Memphis.
1.The National Flood Insurance Program that will be tapped to pay for many Harvey damages is riddled with flaws. But attempts to reform that program have been derailed repeatedly by special interests, political expediency and powerful lobbies that have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into congressional campaigns. Build, flood, rebuild: flood insurance's expensive cycle

2.The city of Houston tried and failed to block development even in the so-called "floodways" along major rivers and streams throughout the city  areas that are most exposed to flooding. What's in Houston's worst flood zones? Development worth $13.5 billion

3.The levee system used to protect suburban developments is virtually unregulated and put other homeowners at risk. Harvey overwhelmed some levee systems. Future storms could do worse

4.For decades, the Army Corps of engineers issued reports that showed that the government had not bought enough land around either Addicks or Barker dams west of Houston and that big floods would swamp thousands of properties up and downstream  just as they did in Harvey. Officials patched and prayed while pressure built on Houston's dams



5.Despite all those warnings, the city of Houston and Harris and Fort Bend County and Harris County kept approving subdivisions in vulnerable areas upstream of both reservoirs inside the reservoirs' so-called "flood pools."

6.Two engineers and a developer, all of whom were involved in flood pool development - - served on Houston Planning Commission and City Council and yet never brought up the risks of building thousands of homes and businesses inside reservoirs. For buyers within 'flood pools,' no warnings from developers, public officials

7.Most people who bought homes in the reservoir flood pools say they never saw warnings that were required only by Fort Bend County in areas upstream from Addicks and Barker reservoirs. Katy ISD officials say they didn't know they built an elementary school inside the reservoir until the Houston Chronicle showed them a note.

8.. The Municipal Utility Districts - or MUDS - set up to serve unincorporated areas - including all of the Barker flood pool - generate millions in fees for both engineering and law firms. But only one of the MUDs that serve subdivisions in Fort Bend county alerted investors to the fact that their MUD served subdivisions subject to flooding. MUDS were also used to promote development in other flood-prone areas damaged by Harvey. Why weren't bond investors told about a threat facing Cinco Ranch?

9. Houston's flood czar, Stephen Costello, an engineer who co-owned the engineering firm involved in developing the massive Grand Lakes subdivision in Barker Flood pool, says he also was unaware of the risks to that subdivision and others his firm helped develop that were damaged in Hurricane Harvey.

10. Even now, the federal government has not yet approved any flood relief package for Houston. Not one family has received a FEMA trailer inside city limits. Local government task forces are mostly discussing proposed solutions behind closed doors. The Dutch say we have a year to get our act together. In Harvey's wake, Dutch have much to teach Houston
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MOSCOW - Just weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in Syria, Russian military outposts in the country have come under rebel attacks that are challenging Moscow's gains.

Russian bases located in Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite heartland had been immune to rebel raids ever since Moscow launched its campaign in Syria in September 2015. But a series of drone attacks and mortar and rocket shelling in recent days has broken the calm.

The incursions have raised doubts both about the sustainability of the Assad government's recent victories and Moscow's ability to protect its assets in the country.

A drone raid on Saturday was unusually massive, involving 13 of the aircraft equipped with satellite navigation and launched from a distance of up to 60 miles away, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. It said seven of the drones were shot down by air defense systems and the remaining six were forced to land.

While the ministry said the attack caused no damage to the Hemeimeem air base in the province of Latakia and the naval outpost in the Syrian port of Tartus, it marked the first time the militants used drones against Russian assets on such a large scale.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Without directly blaming any specific country, the Russian military said the necessary data and capability for the attacks could only have been obtained "from one of the countries that possesses know-how in satellite navigation" - a statement that appeared to be directed at the United States.

Russian lawmakers skipped decorum, bluntly accusing the U.S. of sponsoring the drone attack.

Dmitry Sablin, a lawmaker who coordinates parliamentary links with Syria, told the Interfax news agency the attack was even bigger than the Russian military acknowledged, involving 31 drones.

The Pentagon strongly denied any involvement.

"Any suggestion that U.S. or coalition forces played a role in an attack on a Russian base is without any basis in fact and is utterly irresponsible," said Marine Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman.

The Russian and the U.S. militaries have maintained regular contacts to avoid conflict between their forces in Syria. In recent months, however, the Russian military brass has become increasingly critical of the U.S. role in Syria, accusing it of protecting militants - a claim the U.S. has angrily denied.

The drone attack on the Russian assets in Syria also raised tensions between Russia and Turkey. Moscow and Ankara have backed opposite sides in the conflict, but they struck a deal last year to set up de-escalation zones, which also involved Iran, another Assad backer. The agreement has contributed to warmer ties between Russia and Turkey.

The official military daily Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) cited the Defense Ministry as saying the drones targeting the Russian bases were launched from al-Mouazzara in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, where Turkey wields influence with some rebel groups.

The ministry said it has sent letters to Turkey's military leaders, asking them to prevent further attacks from Idlib.

Late last month, rebels in Idlib fired rockets at Hemeimeem, which were shot down by air defense systems protecting the base.

And on New Year's Eve, the air base came under mortar shelling for the first time since the start of the Russian campaign in Syria.
President Donald Trump is expected to agree this week to continue granting Iran a reprieve from sanctions over its nuclear program, while again signaling his displeasure with the international nuclear deal that lifted the penalties, U.S. and European officials, congressional aides and others said.

The president also is expected to announce new sanctions linked to human rights and other issues that would not directly affect the nuclear agreement but would underscore U.S. concerns about Iran's response to recent anti-government protests and other actions, officials and others said.

The decision, first reported by the Associated Press, keeps the United States in the Iran deal, at least for the time being, despite Trump's suggestion last year that he was inclined to walk away from it. Most of Trump's national security advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have urged him to waive the sanctions again.

Had Trump decided to reimpose nuclear sanctions that the Obama administration suspended almost two years ago to the day, the United States would have reneged on its commitment under the deal and isolated itself from allies that have insisted they will stick with it.

It also could have emboldened Iranian hard-liners a few weeks after the protests, which spread amid deep disappointment that sanctions relief provided by the nuclear deal has not trickled down economically to ordinary Iranians. The political unrest rocked the clerical and political establishment in Tehran, and some analysts have said that the reimposition of broad economic sanctions would be seen as the United States' turning its back on protesters and their economic demands.

Instead, any additional sanctions imposed now or in coming weeks would probably target the government or military elite, and not the wider Iranian economy, two officials said.

Changing the terms of the agreement itself would require approval from European co-signers as well as Russia, China and Iran.

Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, committing itself to never pursue nuclear weapons, but it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
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WASHINGTON  El Paso Congressman Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Democratic challenger to Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, tested his chops in conservative America Wednesday night in a testy interview with star Fox host Tucker Carlson.

It was a revealing outing for the three-term challenger, exposing potential attacks from the right as he seeks to make inroads in rural and small-town Texas, outside the traditional Democratic urban strongholds.

With polls showing O'Rourke still largely unknown outside of border city of El Paso, where he grew up, Republicans, least of all Cruz, have hardly begun to "define" him, as they say in politics.

READ ALSO: Ted Cruz begins 2018 Senate race with 18 point lead over Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke, GOP study says

Now Playing: Congressman Beto O'Rourke has represented Texas' 16th district since 2012. Now he is seeking out a new job in the Senate. He is running against Republican incumbent and former presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz, and he thinks that he can win. Congressman O'Rourke is on a mission to visit all 254 counties in Texas to listen to constituents who want to see change in Washington. His Senate campaign has already raised more the Senator Cruz's campaign, and he is not accepting money from any special interests groups or super PACs. The congressman says Ted Cruz's popularity is below that of embattled Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is an accused child molester. Representative O'Rourke is confident he will beat Ted Cruz come November 2018. He views the Tax Bill and other Republican-passed legislation as an opportunity for Democrats to empower voters to get off of the sidelines and get involved with politics. The congressman says his race in Texas is not just important for the state, but critically important for the country. Video: Cheddar TV

Carlson, whose interviewing style often resembles mocking cross-examination, bore down on two controversial O'Rourke legislative proposals: one providing undocumented immigrants with free legal assistance to fight deportation, and another providing them with free health care.

Combining those positions with Democrats' insistence that Dreamers  immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children  be granted full citizenship and voting rights, Carlson sought to corner O'Rourke at the top of the interview.

"Can you understand how some people watching that might conclude that Democrats are spending more time and energy worrying about people here illegally than American citizens?" Carlson said.

READ ALSO: Roy Moore today, Ted Cruz next?

"I guess I don't make the connection, Tucker," O'Rourke replied, adding that "most Texans," at least those he's talked to, want to see Dreamers "remain and thrive" in their communities. He began to recite the names of Texas Dreamers who are PhD candidates, storm heroes, and honor students...

"Stop your speech," Carlson said, cutting off his guest. He allowed that while there are good and bad Dreamers, "more Dreamers have been busted for gang membership than have joined the military.... They're not all valedictorians."

O'Rourke's response, one that he employs frequently on the stump, centered on El Paso's reputation as one of the safest cities in America, a status he attributes to its largely peaceful mix of Anglos and immigrants. It's an outlook that clashes with President Donald Trump's frequent characterization of Mexican immigrants as criminals, rapists and drug traffickers.

"We are a city of immigrants," O'Rourke said, "including Dreamers, who contribute to our success and our safety... It's very good for America, not just for Dreamers."

Carlson, demonstrating interview prep, noted that only 39 percent of graduating seniors in El Paso are ready to tackle college-level math or English."It seems like maybe that's a bigger crisis than whether people here illegally can bring their relatives from abroad," Carlson shot back  in a reference to family-centered immigration policies, known as "chain migration," that Trump wants to end.

"I don't think working on these things is mutually exclusive," O'Rourke answered, noting that he's also focused heavily on mental health care access for veterans, another important conservative constituency, particularly in Texas.

The two also debated the economic contributions of Dreamers, a central focus of the liberal argument for more open immigration policies. Carlson, snickering, termed the estimated economic benefits, which O'Rourke counted in the "tens of billions" of dollars, as "extrapolations and theoretical."

But Carlson's main attack point was about O'Rourke's support for taxpayer-paid legal representation and health care, issues that are likely to come up in any debate with Cruz, who ran for president in 2016 on an immigration platform not dissimilar to Trump's.

"How does that benefit Americans, exactly?" Carlson asked.

"It's keeping true to who we are," O'Rourke said, noting that many of those in need of help are families with children seeking refuge from "violent, brutal countries" like El Salvador. "I want to make sure that they have every opportunity to apply for asylum in this country."

But, Carlson noted, most come illegally, not through refugee programs.

Very often, O'Rourke countered, they come as asylum seekers who give themselves up at the border.

"So then taxpayers are paying for them to fight American law in court?" Carlson said.

"Not to fight American law," O'Rourke said. "Actually to get right with American law."

Pivoting to O'Rourke's health care proposal, Carlson asked why taxpayers should pay the doctors' bills for immigrants who entered the country illegally.

"It's good for people who are in our country, who are contributing to this country's success, to be safe, to be healthy, to be able to continue to contribute," O'Rourke said.

Carlson noted that O'Rourke's bill did not distinguish between those who are contributing and those who are not.

"I'm confused by why we should pay for the health care of someone who broke our laws to get here?" Carlson said.

"I think there's an interest in making sure that if someone is going to be sick, if someone needs help, that we deliver it in the most efficient, cost-effective way possible," O'Rourke replied.

"How about not paying for it at all?" Carlson shot back.

"Yeah," O'Rourke replied, "then you can watch people die."

Back to Carlson: "Oh, yeah, I must be a mean person for not being in favor of it."
Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News

AUSTIN  Gov. Greg Abbott will take his quest to unseat fellow Republican Rep. Sarah Davis a step further when he headlines a fundraiser for her challenger, Susanna Dokupil, Thursday night.

Abbott, who has recorded a video supporting Dokupil and Tweeted to his more than 200,000 followers that she would make for a solid conservative member in the Texas House, is listed as a "special guest" in a fundraiser for her at Balthazar Cellars in Upper Kirby.
Win McNamee/Staff

U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will be in Houston next month at a time when Democrats are increasingly optimistic that a political wave in their favor is developing that could put them back in power in Washington.

Pelosi is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a Harris County Democratic Party's annual fundraising dinner on February 18.
AUSTIN -- U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is confident Congress will reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by the end of next week.

In a conference call Wednesday with reporters, Cornyn called CHIP funding a "must-pass piece of legislation."

More than 400,000 Texas children get their health insurance through CHIP, but funding for the decades-long program expired in September. Texas has enough funding to cover its costs until the end of March, but the looming deadline has many families worried about their long-term health care needs.

"What we would like to do is pass at least a five-year reauthorization," Cornyn said. "I do believe it is highly likely to happen on or about the 19th."

Cornyn has previously promised funding for CHIP was imminent. In response to a news article about a one-month extension Texas received in early December, Cornyn sent a tweet saying, Congress will pass a long term CHIP bill next week."

That didn't happen.

A third of the states anticipate running out of funds by the end of January, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Some states, including Minnesota, are using state dollars to fund the program.

But Texas law bars officials from using state funds to pay for the program if there are no federal dollars in place. If the state runs out of money, it will send all CHIP recipients to the federal governments health care marketplace.

In early November, the U.S. House passed a bill to fund CHIP, but it would have required cuts to other programs, such as Medicaid. It passed without any Democratic support. The Senate has not passed a CHIP bill.

Alejandra Matos covers politics, education and immigration policy. Follow her on Twitter. Send tips to alejandra.matos@chron.com.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
From left, Jon Kettle and Madison King, both Lakehead University students ready for a snowshoeing hike with Richard Clark, student success advisor, during a Frost Week event at the Thunder Bay campus. Each year the university hosts a week of activities as a way to welcome students back after the winter break. The students are also reminded that it is only 12 weeks until final exams and are being offered time management, reading and note-taking tip sheets.
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Alejandro Aguilera Joins ITW EAE Mexico Operations as Sales Channel Manager Published: 11 January 2018 by Chelsey Drysdale by Chelsey Drysdale

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, January 11, 2018  ITW EAE, the Electronic Assembly Equipment division of Illinois Tool Works, announces that as of January 2nd, 2018, Alejandro Aguilera has joined the ITW EAE Mexico operations in the role of Sales Channel Manager.

Alejandro will report directly to Carlos Takahashi, Mexico Sales Manager. In this capacity, Alejandro will be responsible for day-to-day sales activities with a focus on working with ITW EAEs channel partner, PAC Global, Mexico. Alejandro will drive business development for MPM, Camalot and the Electrovert products through the channel and allow Carlos to focus on ITWs Corporate and large account penetration and support. Alejandro will be located in the new ITW EAE Guadalajara facility. Alejandro holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from the instituto: Centro de Ensenanza Tecnica Industrial  C.E.T.I.  GDL  Mexico.

Alejandro has an impressive background in project management and sales. He previously worked at Interlatin Mexico where he utilized his extensive experience for the daily operating efficiency of Program and Customer Service Management with a focus on inter-departmental dynamics & management of customer requirements. Alejandro has provided expertise in the telecommunications, consumables, industrial, home, energy and automotive markets. Alejandros core competencies will provide a jump start in his new position.

Prior to Interlatin, Alejandro worked with Jabil, Flex and Benchmark which will accelerate his introduction to these A customers as he has a solid reputation, a tireless work ethic and internal knowledge of the customers processes, said Carlos Takahashi, ITW EAE Mexico Sales Manager.
Fundatia de Binefacere Caritas Moldova solicita oferte de pret de la companii cu privire la dezvoltarea designului pentru Sala Events & Sufragerie
AKRON, Ohio -- Narcotics detectives and a SWAT team seized more than a kilogram of drugs and 14 guns during a raid on a home Wednesday in Akron, police said.

Detectives also arrested three residents, two men and a woman, at the home on Lake Street near Edison Avenue, police said in a news release.

Brandon L. Sheridan, 32, and Justin D. Martin, 31, are charged with possession of methamphetamine, aggravated trafficking in drugs, receiving stolen property and having weapons under disability, police said.

Starla M. Watkins, 28, is charged with possession of methamphetamine, aggravated trafficking in drugs and child endangerment, police said.

Detectives from the Akron Police Department's narcotics unit and a SWAT team forced their way into the house just after 9 a.m. They found crystal meth, marijuana, assorted pills, eight handguns, six rifles, ammunition, body armor and more than $7,000 in cash, police said.

Detectives have not released any information on the investigation that led to the raid.

Sheridan, Martin and Watkins were arrested and taken to the Summit County Jail. They are scheduled to appear at arraignments Thursday in Akron Municipal Court, police said.

The trio have never previously been charged with felonies in Summit County Common Pleas Court, but Martin and Watkins have been convicted of misdemeanor offenses in Akron Municipal Court, records show.

Martin has prior convictions for menacing in 2015 and possessing marijuana in 2014, while Watkins has convictions for endangering children, disorderly conduct and contempt of court in 2008, records show.

To comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments section.
AKRON, Ohio - An Akron man who handcuffed children and posed as a police officer while running a fake "scared-straight" program pleaded guilty Thursday to dozens of criminal charges, prosecutors said.

Christopher S. Hendon, 26, pleaded guilty to 31 charges related to the fake "scared-straight" program. The charges are related to incidents that took place March 29, 2017 to April 6, 2017 at two Akron schools and the Summit County Juvenile Justice Center, the Summit County Prosecutor's Office said in a news release.

Hendon pleaded guilty to seven counts of kidnapping, six counts of abduction, 15 counts of impersonating a police officer, and three counts of illegal conveyance of a weapon into a school, prosecutors said.

An additional 28 charges were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea.

Judge Christine Croce will sentence Hendon on March 7 in Summit County Common Pleas Court.

Hendon wore tactical gear and carried a gun while running the fake "scared-straight" program, but he is not a certified police officer, prosecutors said.

The investigation began when Hendon tried to bring a handcuffed child into the Summit County Courthouse on April 6, 2017, the Summit County Sheriff's Office said. Investigators later discovered Hendon tried to enter a courthouse with a handcuffed child at least four times.

Hendon once tried to bring a child into the Summit County Jail, and he twice handcuffed children while posing as a police officer at Akron schools, detectives and prosecutors said. Hendon handcuffed, threatened and assaulted several students at the schools, prosecutors said.

Investigators seized weapons, handcuffs, law enforcement equipment, and police insignias when they searched Hendon's home April 24, 2017.

To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.
FAIRLAWN, Ohio - City Barbeque will open its first Northeast Ohio location this May, at 2858 W. Market St., Fairlawn.

The restaurant is one of two set to open in a new 9,400-square-foot building located on the site of the former Wyant Buildings, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Originally a catering company that founder and CEO Rick Malir and his wife started out of their garage, City Barbeque got its official start in Columbus in 1999. The restaurant has 18 locations in the Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo areas, as well as restaurants in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina.

The restaurant is famous for its backyard hospitality and "low and slow" smoked meats, which are smoked at each restaurant for up to 18 hours.

On the menu are pulled pork, brisket, smoked turkey, St Louis-cut ribs, sausage, and smoked Amish farm chickens. Meats are hand-rubbed with spices and can be ordered "naked, bunned, or by the pound," according to the City Barbeque website.

Side dishes, such as potato salad and sweet vinegar slaw, are made from scratch in-store, as are hand-dipped hush puppies. For dessert, the banana pudding has received national recognition, according to company spokeswoman Elizabeth Grunewald.

"As a company, we are committed to community involvement, and are looking forward to partnering with organizations in Akron and really being part of the Fairlawn neighborhood," Grunewald said.

City Barbeque will be open 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

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AKRON, Ohio -- Akron police are searching for four men who carried out an armed robbery at a gas station in the city Tuesday night.

The robbery happened about 9:30 p.m. at the Sunoco gas station on Massillon Road near the Faye Road intersection.

No one was hurt in the robbery, Akron police Lt. Rick Edwards said.

The men walked into the store, pointed a gun at the clerk and demanded money from the register, police said. They stole cigars, cigarettes and cash before they ran away.

No arrests have been made.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments section.
AKRON, Ohio - Officials from Summit County Public Health say it's not too late to get a flu shot, as the flu is widespread across Ohio and 46 other states. Vaccinations are still available at many healthcare providers' offices and at retail pharmacies.

Vaccinations offer varying levels of effectiveness against the illness, but at least one study revealed vaccinating can significantly reduce a child's risk of dying from the flu. Check out interactive outpatient illness and viral surveillance data by state here.

Use the chart above to determine if you or a family member have the flu or a cold. Flu symptoms can include fever, cough, sore throat, aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Both illnesses affect the respiratory system so be sure you understand the difference.

When in doubt, officials recommend visiting your family physician. To avoid getting or spreading the flu:

Wash hands frequently

Use tissues to cover coughs and sneezes

Cough and sneeze into your inner elbow

Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth

Stay home until your fever stays down for an entire 24-hour period without using medicine

Do not visit hospitals or nursing homes if you have symptoms

According to the Center for Disease Control, this season influenza A (H3N2) viruses have been the most common and are associated with more severe illness, especially in children and adults 65 and older.

For more information go to Summit County Public Health or call 877-687-0002.

Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Young entrepreneurs from Case Western Reserve University are in Las Vegas this week to display their innovations at the international Consumer Electronics Show.

The university is showcasing inventions and business startups created by 10 current and former Case students.

Young entrepreneurs can get feedback on their innovations, find strategic partners, investors and suppliers, as well as check out competing startups, said Bob Sopko, director of the CWRU LaunchNet program.

"This gets you in front of thousands of people," Sopko said. CES, which attracts 170,000 participants from 150 countries, runs through Friday.

Case has the most prominent presence, with 10 booths, in the University Innovation section of Eureka park, an area devoted to startups. The university's footprint at CES is also a recruitment tool, attracting attention from high school students and their parents who are attending CES and are impressed by Case's entrepreneurial spirit, Sopko said.

The Case contingent includes students involved with LaunchNet, which helps students and alumni turn ideas into new businesses. Sopko invited LaunchNet entrepreneurs to apply to be part of the Case team at CES, and nearly all of the applicants were chosen to go.

Among the Case projects at CES are:

12LeadTrainer,

Apollo Medical Devices,

"Beauty and the Bolt,

CrystalE Sensors

Enabled Robotics,

Intwine Connect LLC

NE Ohio Immersive Technology

New Territory,

Reflexion Interactive Technologies

RVS Rubber Solutions

This is the fifth year that Case has had a presence at CES. The School of Engineering and LaunchNet share the cost of renting booths at the show, and students pay their own travel expenses, Sopko said. Some students drove from Cleveland to Las Vegas so they could bring their prototypes to display.

"These students will have had experience at one of the biggest trade shows in the world," Sopko said.
VALLEY VIEW, Ohio -- Armond Budish said Wednesday he will seek another four-year term as Cuyahoga County executive.

In an interview, Budish said he wants to continue to build on some of the initiatives he's undertaken since taking office in 2014 -- reducing infant mortality, increasing funding for pre-kindergarten education and promoting economic development.

"Just starting these efforts doesn't have the impact we could have if we don't see them through to the end," Budish said.

Budish, a Democrat, made his re-election campaign official in front of a crowd of roughly 200 supporters, a mix of suburban mayors, members of Cleveland City Council and Cuyahoga County Council, political operatives, pastors and union members. The event was held at a conference room at the Pipefitters Local 120 union hall in Valley View.

In a show of political strength, an array of Democratic elected officials -- Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, County Council President Dan Brady, County Councilwoman and county Democratic Party Chair Shontel Brown, Warrensville Heights Mayor Brad Sellers and Parma Mayor Tim DeGeeter -- served as introductory speakers. E.T. Caviness, the influential, longtime East Side Cleveland pastor, gave an opening prayer. The Budish campaign, which will be run by longtime Budish aide Chris Glassburn, boasts of endorsements from U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Marcia Fudge.

Budish, 64, is a Beachwood attorney, former state legislator and former Ohio House speaker. He would be the heavy favorite for the May primary were any opposition to materialize -- no candidates have pulled petitions or publicly indicated they plan to run -- as well as in the general election in November.

Budish campaign officials, and several plugged-in Cuyahoga County Republicans, said Wednesday they aren't aware of any major Republican candidates. County Republican Party Chair Rob Frost was not immediately available for an interview. But Frost said in a voicemail message that he expects one campaign issue will involve Budish's administration improperly paying salaried employees more than $1.7 million in overtime over three years.

The only Republican to pull petitions to run for county executive so far is Tanner Fischbach, a Berea resident who as a 19-year-old political novice said in 2013 that he would run for Cuyahoga County executive, then backed out.

Fischbach, now 23, said Wednesday he intends to follow through with his candidacy this time around. He said he has not yet connected with the county Republican Party. Asked what he's doing professionally, he said he is "working on the campaign at the moment.

"We need a huge change overhaul in Cuyahoga County, and especially from the Republican side, because Democrats have been running for years, and nothing has changed or progressed," Fischbach said.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office is investigating a county elections worker accused of using her work computer to promote a Cleveland City Council candidate's political fundraiser on county time.

A prosecutor's office spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that Ivelisse Roig, a bilingual coordinator for the county election's board, is under criminal investigation.

It's illegal under Ohio law for government employees to use public resources for political purposes.

County Elections Director Pat McDonald said prosecutors contacted Roig over the weekend, asking her to contact them to discuss the allegations. Roig, who has been on paid leave since Nov. 27, did not return messages seeking comment.

According to a disciplinary report prepared by elections officials, she admitted to elections officials that she used her work computer to publish two Facebook posts -- one on Oct. 17 and one on Oct. 23 -- promoting a fundraising event for now-Councilwoman Jasmin Santana. Roig was a "primary organizer" of the event, according to the disciplinary report.

"Ivelisse stated that she now understands that she should not have made the Facebook posts from her work computer during work hours," reads the disciplinary report, dated Nov. 14 and written by Deputy Elections Director Anthony Perlatti. "She expressed her dismay towards the individuals reporting her conduct that they would put forth the effort to monitor her Facebook posts."

Roig also said "other employees engage in unethical behavior and nothing happens to them," according to the report, but she declined to name the other employees.

The elections board began its investigation after Santana's opponent, then-Councilman Brian Cummins, filed a complaint on Oct. 27, days before losing the Nov. 7 election to Santana. The complaint included screenshots of the Facebook posts.

On Nov. 27, the four-member elections board reached an impasse on how to discipline Roig. Two Republicans, Rob Frost and Jeff Hastings, voted to demote her and cut her pay by $10,000, according to board records. Two Democrats, Inajo Davis Chappell and Dave Wondoloski, voted to fire her.

In a Nov. 30 letter to Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican who can break tie votes by elections boards, Frost and Hastings said they followed the recommendations of top administrators at the elections board when they voted to demote Roig.

In their own letter, Davis Chappell and Wondolowski said Roig deserved to be fired, and that doing so would make it clear that "campaigning and political activity in the board office on board time will not be tolerated." They also encouraged Husted to make a decision rather than "punting" it back to the county level.

Husted in a Dec. 21 letter, said he "strongly encouraged" county officials to deliberate further, giving them a Jan. 5 deadline.

"Personnel management decisions affect the internal operations of the board and involve county employment policies and disciplinary procedures," he wrote. "As such, they are best made at the county board of elections."

The county board since has been granted, an extension until Jan. 18, according to a Husted spokesman.

To comment on this story, please visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page.

Cleveland.com reporter Cory Shaffer contributed to this story
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Republicans in the state legislature are fine-tuning a plan they say would improve the way congressional districts are drawn in Ohio.



Democrats aren't convinced.



And leaders of a citizen-fueled petition drive aimed at allowing Ohioans to vote on their version of reform say the GOP plan is so bad that it could motivate petition collectors to work even harder.



How to judge?





Learn more about gerrymandering, what's wrong with it and potential fixes for Ohio from a cleveland.com series - Out of Line: Impact 2017 and Beyond.

Scroll below for answers to some key questions.

This plan could be on express. Sen. Matt Huffman of Lima said the plan he first outlined publicly on Wednesday could be formally introduced in the Senate early next week, with passage possible in time to place the proposal on the May ballot - ahead of the separate citizens petition effort that cannot go to the ballot until November.

His GOP colleague on a redistricting working group, Rep. Kirk Schuring of Canton, said he hopes feedback could lead to an agreement with their Democratic counterparts, Rep. Jack Cera of Bellaire and Sen. Vernon Sykes of Akron.

1. Would the plan remove political hands from the map drawing?



No.



Huffman said he believes the map-drawing should be the work of the legislature.

Excluding the Ohio legislature received no serious consideration, though other states such as Arizona, California and Iowa have removed elected leaders from the work. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 confirmed this as a legal option in upholding the use of an independent commission in Arizona.

People favoring independent commissions say they allow the voters to pick their representatives, instead of the politicians picking their voters.

2. Would the minority party have an increased voice under the proposal?



A little.

Currently, congressional maps in Ohio are approved by the Ohio House, Ohio Senate and governor. Each of the last two times the maps were drawn - in 2001 and 2011 - the Republicans controlled the entire process.



The plan Huffman outlined would require approval from one-third of the members of the minority party. Under the current makeup of the gerrymandered General Assembly, that would mean just three Democratic votes in the Senate and 12 in the House would be necessary, along with Republican support.

The Democrat Cera suggested that a 50 percent vote from each party should be required.

Richard Gunther, an Ohio State University political scientist, dismissed the idea that one-third approval by the minority party would pass the sniff test as truly bipartisan.

"You'll find one or two side deals for a few members," said Gunther, who helped design the proposal contained in the separate petition drive led by the Ohio League of Women Voters, Common Cause Ohio and other groups.

The petition plan would also keep the politicians involved. But unlike the GOP plan, the petition proposes creating a seven-member commission of elected officials and/or their appointees to create the maps, with yes votes needed from at least two commission members from each party.

3. Is the GOP plan worse than what exists today?

Yes, say critics.

Beth Taggart, interim executive director of the Ohio League of Women Voters, cited concerns with the GOP's proposal to kill two existing checks in the system:

The governor under the GOP proposal would be removed from the process. Instead, the legislature could approve the maps on its own. This increases the possibility that one party will hold control of the entire approval process. And, Cera noted, the governor's office represents the best chance for the Democrats to have a seat at the table in 2021, since the GOP holds wide majorities in the House and Senate.

Also, the current option of allowing for a voter referendum to reject bad maps would be eliminated, reducing the potential voice of the citizens.

The two Democrats, Sykes and Cera, issued a joint statement condemning these changes.

Huffman said the changes are being proposed for good reason.

Currently, the governor holds too much power to potentially demand that the maps be drawn a certain way, Huffman said.

And Huffman said the threat of a referendum would no longer be necessary with new safeguards to require approval of at least one-third of the members of the minority party.

4. Would counties be kept whole?

No guarantee.

Huffman said smaller counties could still be split once (there is no limitation now), but there would also be new restrictions for how the counties could be split.

Yet many of the new restrictions would not apply to the 10 largest counties, he said. These large counties account for about half of Ohio's population.

This exclusion drew sharp criticism from OSU's Gunther, who in addition to his work on the current petition language was involved in the earlier successful reform for how Statehouse districts will be drawn the next time, in 2021.

Since Democrats are largely concentrated in portions of the big counties, their influence could be reduced with careful map drawing under these rules, Gunther said.

5. Could cities be split?

Language has not yet been worked out on this, but limits will be included in the formal proposal, Huffman said. He said he considered keeping cities together a higher priority than keeping counties together.

6. What if the legislature fails to get the required minority support for new maps?

This gets a bit complicated, but Huffman outlined backup plans:

The first attempt involves General Assembly approval with with a three-fifths vote overall, including a one-third vote among members of the minority party. If the legislature fails to produce an approved map, a separate seven-member redistricting commission of elected officials or their appointees would get a crack at it. If at least two commission members of each party vote yes, the map would be used for the next 10 years, from 2022 through 2032. If the commission fails to get the required minority support, it would create maps for four years. The maps would then go back to the General Assembly and could be approved for 10 years with a simple majority vote, as long as at least one-fifth of the minority members also vote yes.

Michael Li, senior counsel the Brennan Center's Democracy Program at NYU, cautioned that a close look must be taken at the rules.

"It's possible to adopt rules that seem fair, but actually have an unfair impact," Li said.

The GOP now holds more than three-fifths of the seats, one of the requirements to pass maps under Step 1.

And Step 3 raises the possibility of maps being approved with very fewer minority votes than required under Step 1. Under the current makeup of the General Assembly, Step 3 would require just seven Democratic votes in the House and two in the Senate.

7. What happens if the GOP puts its plan on the May ballot and the petitioners take their plan to the voters in November?

That's an open question.

The Secretary of State's Office has declined to speculate.

Those most closely involved with the two efforts have declined to publicly predict what would become of the results if conflicting proposals are passed, or even if a change in the law in May could block the current petition drive from moving forward.

Huffman said he doesn't expect much opposition from the Republican caucus to the plan he outlined, but he believes Democratic support will be necessary to win voter approval in May.

There, work needs to be done.

Without a bipartisan agreement and support from groups like the Ohio League of Women Voters, the threat of a competing plan from the petition drive looms.

"We want any congressional redistricting plan to end partisan gerrymandering," Sykes and Cera said in a joint statement. "Unfortunately, the plan that Sen. Huffman and Rep. Schuring presented today doesn't achieve that."

Schuring offered: "We're still working on it. ... If we weren't close, we wouldn't be meeting, and we are meeting again. That should tell everyone we are getting close."

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner.
Mobility News

Partners: Kinlaw's Departure Was Inevitable Given Lenovo Channel Changes

Steven Burke

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Solution providers said Lenovo channel chief Sammy Kinlaw's decision to leave the company was inevitable in the wake of fallout from program changes that are negatively impacting partner profitability on enterprise contracts.

Partners said Kinlaw, a 10-year Lenovo veteran, was put in an untenable situation by channel changes rolled out October 1. The changes -- including the elimination of some backend rebates -- have cut partner profit margins by as much as 30 percent to 50 percent, solution providers said. In some cases, the changes are making some multi-year enterprise contract deals unprofitable, solution providers said.

"Sammy is a really straight shooter who was in a tough situation," said the top vendor management executive for a large national enterprise partner, who did not want to be identified. "Lenovo has negatively impacted the ability for channel partners to make money on enterprise-level accounts, which is a huge chunk of business. I am sure Sammy was looking at the impact of the cuts over time and how that was eroding his relationships. If you are a channel chief and your company is making those kinds of cuts why would you want to be the channel chief? This business is [built on] relationships, and this was clearly impacting his relationships with partners."

[Related: Lenovo Channel Chief Kinlaw Taking Global Position At Lexmark]

Kinlaw, who took the North American channel helm in April 2015, announced Wednesday that he is leaving his position as vice president of North America channels at Lenovo on January 19 to take a position as vice president worldwide channel and OEM sales at Lexmark. He will join Lexmark on February 1.

Kinlaw declined to comment on his decision to leave Lenovo and join Lexmark.

In a statement to CRN, Lenovo emphasized that the company is committed to the channel. "We have always considered our channel an integral part of our market value," said the statement. "Ninety percent of Lenovo's business is fulfilled through the channel. The success of our partners is our success. As a result, we will continue to put the channel first. We have aligned our business to better serve our mutual customers."

Partners said Lenovo has slashed back-end payments, spiffs and program discounts in its $30 billion PC business in a series of moves that is in some cases is causing them to look at shifting business to competitors like HP Inc. and Dell Technologies.

"Lenovo has pulled away backend rebates to distributors, and it is making some enterprise deals unprofitable," said the vendor management executive. "Backend funds are getting chopped, growth incentives are gone and resellers are being left holding the bag. Anyone playing in the enterprise space with Lenovo is going to look at making changes."

Kinlaw told CRN last October that he understood the pain partners were feeling as the company reduced rebate levels on some PC lines in order to offset increasing SSD memory and component costs.

"I understand the pain that a programmatic change can cause," he told CRN. "A partner looks at a manufacturer like Lenovo who is channel-friendly as a predictable, consistent and profitable program. When I make a change like this, it upsets the environment. I'm going to own it. I understand that we've made some changes, but [partners are] going to have to change with us because everything is moving at a pretty fast pace."

A top executive for a large national solution provider, who did not want to be identified, said Lenovo's changes have eroded channel trust in the vendor. "There are a lot of negative Lenovo deals out there with distribution. The big issue here in my opinion is how can you plan on a strategic long-term engagement with a company that blows everything up without any forewarning? The No. 1 thing that VARs want out of their manufacturers is profitability. You can't just change long-term contract pricing"

A top channel executive, who has worked closely with Kinlaw, said he believes the channel veteran was "burned out" by the Lenovo channel turmoil. "I think Sammy had had it and was doing what best for him and his family," he said.

Matt Brown contributed to this story.
Networking News

Huawei Loses U.S. Carrier Support, But Partners Can Still Resell The Latest Huawei Smartphone

Gina Narcisi

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Huawei didn't quite have the CES 2018 coming out party for the U.S. market that it may have wanted.

The company was poised to unveil partnerships with AT&T and Verizon Wireless this week, according to multiple media reports, that would allow the two largest carriers in the country to sell Huawei's latest smartphone, the Mate 10 Pro, in the U.S. Huawei has been trying to gain traction in the U.S. wireless market for years; its most recent device is thought to be a formidable competitor to Apple's iPhone.

The deals, however, were never announced. Media reports cited carrier security concerns regarding Huawei's ties to the Chinese government. Channel partners looking to add another option for customers will still be able to access the latest Huawei devices via retail channels  and Huawei could be a welcome addition to their line cards, one partner said.

[Related: CES 2018: Huawei Launches New U.S. Phone Through Retailers, Not Carriers]

More choice in the market for partners ultimately means more choice for customers, according to a channel partner that requested anonymity. "We have flexibility in who we support today, so adding Huawei, in addition to Apple and Android, would be nice," the channel partner said.

AT&T was said to have a deal lined up with Huawei to sell the Mate 10, but has since changed its plans, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Soon after, reports emerged that Verizon also was set to announce a similar partnership with Huawei at CES 2018, but also backed out.

Dallas-based AT&T has not commented on "rumors" reported over the past year regarding any potential alignment with Huawei, according to a spokesperson for the carrier. AT&T also declined to comment on the latest reports.

Verizon did not respond to CRN's request for comment.

U.S. lawmakers in December inked a letter to the Federal Communications Commission that outlined longstanding concerns that Huawei's products could be used to spy on the U.S. and the company's presumed ties to the Chinese government. The letter also cited apprehension regarding a pending deal between Huawei and an unnamed American telecommunications company.

Huawei has faced similar roadblocks before. The company, in fact, was banned in 2012 from bidding for U.S. government contracts for telecommunications equipment and networking infrastructure.

The mounting pressure from lawmakers was likely the most significant contributing factor to the deals falling through with the country's two largest carriers, according to one West Coast-based solution provider executive that asked not to be named. "Huawei has had that history, and that's been a challenge for them, and it's still a challenge for them now on the smartphone side," the executive said.

Privately-held Huawei has denied any accusations that the company is controlled by the Chinese government, and said it has cooperated with investigations from the U.S. government.

However, political maneuvering between countries over elections, technology products, access to information, and hacking is something to that should always be taken seriously, according to the anonymous channel partner.

"The security concerns are real, but it seems hard for legislators to keep up with technology changes. Sometimes thats good for consumers and business; sometimes it is not," the partner said.

During an emotional keynote at CES 2018 this week, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, said that its failed AT&T deal was "a big loss" for consumers and one less smartphone option for many users.

While Huawei does sell its smartphones in the U.S., it does so without the benefit of a partnership with any of the country's four major wireless carriers, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon Wireless. The four leading U.S. carriers have connections with several of the top mobile device manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung Electronics.

During his keynote on Tuesday, Yu still announced the launch of the Mate 10 in the U.S., but the smartphones will be sold through retailers, including Best Buy, Amazon, and Microsoft.

The West Coast-based solution provider executive's company does not resell Huawei devices  the organization works with Apple and Samsung on the device side. However, partners that do resell mobile devices could still access Huawei products without going through the carriers, the executive said.

"Two years ago, you couldn't get equipment outside of the carriers," the executive said. "Now, we can get just about anything."
CTA has recently interviewed Marissa Areli, Senior Data Officer at Women in Business Development Incorporated (WIBDI). WIBDI is dedicated to strengthening Samoan village economies and promote fair trade. Marissa Areli joined WIBDI in July 2015. Her work involves transferring farmer information, such as type of production, income status and village name into online reports, to help connect farmers to the market and tourists to the farmers.

Before digitally collecting the data, how did you do it?

Each field officer had a box of paperwork with specific files, which they would fill in manually and then enter the data on to the computer system. Then we introduced our tablet app, on which we have compiled all the different forms needed by the field officers to collect the data. Moving from a paper-based data collecting system to one that it electronic has had a really positive impact. We are getting accurate information, and at a faster rate. The data is stored in our Excel database and from there, is published online. It is open source data so we share the information with ministries or other organisations known to help small-scale farmers.

How many field officers are we talking about?

We have eight field officers and the workload is high because we have registered almost 2,000 farmers and 700 organically certified farmers. These farmers are visited every year, which is not easy because unlike in Europe and other places, there are no street names or house numbers to find the farms. With the paper-based system, we used to have to stop several times just to ask for the directions. Now, thanks to CTA, we have a GPS system that gives the desired farm location.

How did CTA help you to move from paper to digital data collection?

Our application was predominantly funded by CTA so without them, there would be no technology. To see the faces of our farmers when we bring the digital device out into the farms is overwhelming. They ask, Can we have a look at it? Can we touch it? Can we play around with it? All these small impacts are so big in reality for the farmers.

What services do WIBDI provide?

Our Farm-to-table app connects the farmers to the market, the market to the tourists and the tourists to the farmers. The main idea is to ensure farmers products actually reach the hotels and restaurants, as opposed to being used for home consumption. Therefore when tourists first arrive in Samoa, we introduce them to the app at their hotel or at the airport, and through it, they can chose where to dine or where to purchase organic products supplied by the local farmers. The tourists are told the background of the farmers providing the products to the restaurants, which delivers a very different experience.

Do you think WIBDI could replicate its model outside of the Samoa?

WIBDI works with 13 Regional partners in the Pacific and one of our main successful projects is with the Solomon Islands, where we work with an isolated island on the western province called Simbo. Our work with the community of Simbo started in 2012. WIBDI staff were introduced to the project and have travelled to Solomon Islands particularly to be in Simbo from year after year to train, to nurture, to build the village community's capacity in the production of virgin coconut oil, handicraft carving and printing of materials using their own designs, as well as sharing our expertise with the local community to empower women, men and children in their roles within the community. Following WIBDIs introduction and providing capacity building to Simbo, the whole community became empowered and took control of everything that matters in developing their small island, and being able to gain organic certification in 2017 after its first organic international audit conducted by the NASAA inspector from Australia. Simbo has become the first Island on Solomon islands to become organically certified through third party certification after WIBDI introduced Organic farming practices, production processing, marketing access capabilities and introduction to new range of products. The womens committee have established their own Organisation to manage the facilitation with markets and certifying agents and take control of the processes post project funds. This is a very important milestone for the whole community of Simbo.

CTA recently organised the Data4Ag week in The Hague in the Netherlands. What did you learn there?

The workshop was very interactive and everything we talked about related to the work I am doing back home. The data we are collecting has a voice, it is not just a bunch of numbers and words. And it is not just Samoa that needs data, but the whole world  everything we do is information-related. The workshop was also a learning experience for me because my background is not really data related!
Last year, Shirley Holleran Clark found herself on a path to a new business opportunity thanks to her aching feet. "I have plantar fasciitis," said Clark, the owner of Gold Coast Mobile Massage in Fairfield. "When I woke up in the morning, it felt like my feet were collapsing."

Clark had tried numerous exercises and treatments but was unable to find any long-term relief for her condition. Last spring, she was experimenting with formulas for a cannabinoid-infused massage cream, and she theorized her solution might help her painful feet. "It's made with cannabidiol (CBD) that's derived from industrial hemp," she explained. "This makes it legal in all 50 states without a prescription. Historically, CBD has been known for pain and inflammation."

Clark rubbed her cream on her feet for about a week, and then stopped after the discomfort from her plantar fasciitis abated. She was distracted by other pursuits and concerns and the problems with her plantar fasciitis faded from memory.

Clark believed that her formula could be bottled and marketed, but then found herself with a new task: she launched Gold Coast Mobile Massage in September 2016 after working for a decade as a licensed massage therapist for a number of chiropractic and physical therapy offices, and she initially felt she was not ready to create a second company to produce of her cream. For starters, she didn't know what to call her product.

"For a while, I was calling it 'Lotion Potion,'" she admitted, with a laugh. "I hate naming things with a passion. I called the new company Sholla Therapies LLC because Sholla was my nickname growing up and it is a combination of my first and original last name."

Clark eventually decided to call her cream Mago Green as a tribute to her heritage and family. "Mago is the Korean mythological goddess of hemp," she continued. "I'm half-Korean, and my mom is from South Korea. She grew up in a little hut on a mountain and she said her dad was the medicine man of the mountain. People would come to their hut and he would crush up herbs and give it to them."

Despite the cannabinoid presence in Mago Green, Clark noted that spreading it on the body will not induce a case of reefer madness because tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical compound in cannabis responsible for a euphoric high, is absent from the hemp used in her product. "I just can't put pot on people," she stated.

One obstacle Clark faced was finding a vendor who could provide her with the CBD quality she desired. "That is my secret ingredient," she said, declining to identify her eventual choice of supplier. "There are so many companies and they could be selling snake oil  you don't know what you're getting."

After using herself as a test case, Clark tried out her Mago Green formula on a friend's grandmother who was burdened with a rash and a friend of her father's who was dealing with arthritis in his hand and non-diabetic neuropathy in his foot. And while stressed that she cannot make medical curative claims with her formula, she noted there were positive pain relief results in both test cases.

Clark launched Sholla Therapies in September, one year after Gold Coast Mobile Massage began. She estimated her start-up costs were around $1,500, with the rather low expense level maintained due to donated assistance at several points, including a graphic artist massage client who created her labeling and a friend who laid the foundation of her website. She also maintained a soft launch for the product, which she creates at home and packages in four-ounce jars.

Mago Green has been sold via wholesale in one-dozen batches to massage therapists, spas and chiropractors across Connecticut and in Arizona, California, Rhode Island and Tennessee, while the product has been sold for $49 to individuals via postings on Facebook. While Clark is interested in expanding Mago Green into retail stores and has considered offering a larger sized jar, she prefers to roll out the product at her own speed and is in no hurry to move into mass production.

"My passion is in the product and doing the massage," she said. "All of the business stuff is new to me and it has been a learning experience.

Phi Hall is a reporter for the Fairfield County Business Journal. For more of his work and that of the journal, please visit westfaironline.com.
As he delivered a birds-eye view of the Connecticut fiscal crisis this week, James Loree, the Stanley Black & Decker CEO, talked a lot about state tax reform.

Were all going to hear a lot more  and argue a lot more  about that topic in 2018, and not only as part of the governors race. The state cant work its way out of this permanent fiscal crisis without resetting the way it collects revenue.

And the reforms on the table will include radical measures to counteract the anti-blue-state federal tax reform, according to Kevin B. Sullivan, the state tax commissioner. That means replacing at least part of the state income tax  by far the largest levy  with an employer tax or a scheme to turn the income tax into voluntary contributions from residents to the state.

With the legislative session starting in just four weeks, we can now start to see what the debate will look like, if not how it will end up. Spoiler alert: It probably will include broadening the base of the sales tax and further increases in user fees.

For now, there are no specifics. Loree gave his talk to fellow members of the new Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth, a panel of CEOs and other power brokers that will give lawmakers a road map on tax reform and other issues.

Hes been in Connecticut as a ranking Stanley executive since 1999, but only in the last month, as part of the commission, has he come around to seeing just how deeply were stuck in a quagmire. I never really put the entire picture together, he told me at the Yale conference center where the group gathered.

One revelation: Loree and four colleagues at Stanley looked closely at the tax systems of Connecticut and three states he called aspirational, which do well in national measures of business climate. They are North Carolina, Texas and Florida.

All three rely far more on the sales tax than Connecticut, and only North Carolina even has an income tax among the three.

I asked Loree whether hed like to see an increase in the sales tax, which I started pushing more than a year ago.

There can be some adjustments in the tax mix, he said, leaning toward the idea that there must be such adjustments. But it cant be piecemeal. Thats why, in an election year, Im hopeful we can get the dialogue going.

That point  it cant be piecemeal  is not new, but for obvious reasons, Connecticut hasnt done it since the era of transistor radios.

Now we have no choice. Connecticut is not competitive, or at least, its not as competitive as it can be, in part because we cant raise enough money to pay the bills.

But if that means tax reform is a dog-whistle word for higher taxes, Republicans will bite back. The guideword in the GOP is tax cuts, although the more enlightened Republican candidates  Mark Boughton, Dave Walker and Steve Obsitnik among them  are talking broadly abut reform as well.

We know that cutting expenses to the level of the revenues we now raise cant work. Democrats gave Republicans the keys to the the car in 2017 and they crashed and burned trying to cut expenses.

They crashed because the Big 5  Medicaid, retiree health care, pensions, general obligation debt and town aid  add up to about 75 percent of the state budget. So wed have to cut agency spending in half just to make it work. Thats silly talk.

We know that raising the taxes we have, especially the income tax, with its top rate of 6.99 percent, wont work. Thats all the more true now that federal law lets taxpayers deduct only $10,000 of state and local taxes.

Loree offered a stunning figure  357 families account for 12 percent of the income tax in Connecticut. Obviously, when those folks leave, and they do leave, we have an issue.

Sullivan is dead serious about those two ideas to replace the income tax with other forms of revenue that act like the income tax  an employer tax, in which companies would pay it and write it off, and presumably deduct pay from their workers; and a contribution scheme in which taxes are deductible.

Both have problems. But, Sullivan said, I think its worth looking at.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
BRIDGEPORT  For Bridgeport, it is the difference between a $17 million budget deficit and a $14 million shortfall.

The city is urging Gov. Dannel P. Malloys administration to correct what local officials argue is an error that short-changed Connecticuts largest city  along with smaller Torrington and Hamden  by a total of $5 million in state car tax reimbursements.

Malloys budget office recently said the matter had to wait until the Legislature addressed the current $200 million state deficit.

I am aware of the challenge that your communities face, wrote Secretary Ben Barnes, head of the state Office of Policy and Management, earlier this week. Unfortunately, I do not believe that OPM is in a position to approve the release of these funds until the Legislature takes up deficit mitigation. Bluntly said, I cannot make (state budget) matters worse without addressing the more than $200 million in deficit we face this year already.

That would either happen in a special session or in the next regular legislative session that begins Feb. 7.

On Thursday, Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, whose district includes Hamden, wrote to Malloy and Barnes, urging them to act sooner. Looney said Malloy and Barnes already have the legislative authorization and the money. Malloy recently announced a December-January tax collection windfall of more than $900 million.

The car tax issue, according to Av Harris, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganims legislative liaison, has to do with last years spike in Bridgeports tax rate from 42 mills to 54 mills, which Ganim has blamed in part on his predecessor Bill Finchs decision to delay a property revaluation.

State lawmakers in 2015 capped municipal car tax mill rates at 37 mills to address the higher bills city drivers paid versus suburban drivers. In return, the state was supposed to pay back places like Bridgeport that, with a 42.2 mill car tax, lost money due to the change.

The state this year allowed municipalities to increase their car tax mill rates to 39 mills to make up for other cuts in state aid, which Bridgeports City Council did in mid-December. But, Harris said, the state is still basing its car tax reimbursement to Bridgeport on 42 mills, rather than the citys current tax rate of 54 mills. He said Torrington and Hamden are in a similar situation.

The mayors of all three pleaded their case to Barnes in a Jan. 3 letter in which they agreed that the $5 million they say is owed would be divvied up by giving $3.4 million to Bridgeport, $966,311 to Hamden and $680,999 to Torrington.

Bridgeport is already trying to close a $14 million budget deficit City Hall has mostly blamed on state budget cuts.
TRUMBULL  Town Council member Ashley Gaudiano is running for a seat in the Connecticut General Assembly.

Gaudiano, a Democrat, filed paperwork with the State Elections Enforcement Commission to represent District 134 in the states House of Representatives, according to documents signed on Dec. 10.

I'm stepping up to run for this seat because the same ideas are not working anymore, Gaudiano said in a statement. This is a moment in our state and in our country, where honest, hardworking, and informed people need to lead the way. We need passionate, progressive candidates who will dedicate their time to advocating tirelessly for their constituents and propose smart, sensible solutions to our states problems.

She was elected in November to represent Trumbulls fourth district on the Town Council. Gaudiano is running for the seat currently held by Rep. Laura Devlin (R-Fairfield), who was first elected into the position in 2014. It wasnt immediately clear if Devlin is running for re-election.

Gaudiano, a licensed attorney, assisted with First Selectman Vicki Tesoros campaign and works in nonprofit communications.

The General Assemblys 134th district covers parts of Fairfield and Trumbull. The 2018 general election is Nov. 6.
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There are probably some odd things that people would do for a good discount, but this is a new one. In Sweden, furniture maker and meatball purveyor Ikea has released its first magazine advertisement of 2018, and the company has included some, lets say interesting, technology in the ad.

The advertisement is meant for expectant families, as it features a stylish black crib and reads peeing on this ad may change your life. Yep, if youre a pregnant lady and you pee on the paper, a reduced price for the crib will be revealed as part of the Ikea Family Discount.

Related: Ikea Designers Using Mars Simulator for Ideas Understand a Secret About Creativity

Now Playing: Swedish retailer IKEA is issuing pregnancy tests on magazine ads to promote a special offer on their furniture. The advert is running in Amelia, an influential womens magazine in Sweden, and it contains a strip on which readers can dab their urine. Should they be pregnant, the strip will reveal a 50 percent discount coupon on a new crib. The creative ad was dreamed-up by Swedish advertising firm ?kestam Hols in collaboration with Mercene Labs, a technology start-up. An Ikea representative in Italy told Euronews: "The advertisement is only related to Sweden and appeared in a limited edition magazine, not all copies contained it." Video: Euronews

The process was developed by Swedish advertising firm Akestam Holst and biotech startup Mercene Labs. And apparently, Ikea is not the first company to go for a first pee-oriented advertisement. Back in 2001, to promote a dog awards show, Animal Planet placed ads that had dog urine scent at the base of lamp posts to get a canines, and, by extension, a humans attention.

IKEA's pee ad isn't even the first pee ad.

I love this world. @Adweek pic.twitter.com/RExSZI3q5a  Bronwyn (@bronwynbails) January 9, 2018



Ostensibly you can then bring in the coupon to purchase a new crib. And so far, the response seems to be positive -- at least from fellow creatives in the ad world, who even think the pee ad is an innovative move. "With digital media prone to tying itself into knots of complexity, this traditional media print ad shows how to do interactivity powerfully," The Core Agency founder Jon Skinner told Adnews.com.

This ad seems to be the most recent in a long line of offbeat promotions -- like commissioning of a peregrine falcon statue made of Allen wrenches to open a store in Sheffield, England or the companys response to Balenciagas $2,145 leather version of its blue bag. Clearly Ikea isnt taking itself too seriously.

Still, we have some questions and concerns regarding...logistics.

Related: IKEA's 'Open Platform' Embraces Furniture Hacking

Chiefly, think of the poor cashiers and and sales personnel who might have to handle the coupon. Will there be plastic bags and latex gloves involved to get it to the store? Can you redeem it online? There has to be a better way to get a furniture discount. Were all for ingenuity and innovation, but mostly, our main question is, why?

Weve reached out to Ikea for clarification and will update with any additional information.

Related:

Ikea Is Asking Women to Pee on This Ad, and We've Got Questions

The 3-Step Formula for Successful Facebook Video Ads

What You Really Need to Know About Marketing's 80/20 Principle to Succeed

Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com
10 Ocak 2018 Carsamba, 14:41

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in the message he issued on the occasion of 10 January Working Journalists Day, Journalism is not just reporting the news but, at the same time, making interpretation; but, unfortunately, certain people who take advantage of our sensitivity over freedom of thought engage in disinformation and try to disrupt the fraternity of our people and the integrity of our state with manipulative news. Turkey suffered greatly in the past from the tutelage crowd and their efforts to pressurise democracy, the law and elected governments through their media.



The message that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued on the occasion of 10 January Working Journalists Day was as follows, Equipping society and the public with the right to obtain true and impartial news is the clearest marker of democratic countries. It is also a requirement of democracy to enable media outlets to bring to our people events in all corners of our country and all over the world without suffering any restriction. A society that is open to the world, able to follow its countrys and peoples affairs, able to speak, is participative and does not shun the truth is only possible with free, transparent and fair media outlets.



Today, Turkey numbers among the worlds leading countries in the matters of press freedom, the most advanced communications technologies, social media, the internet and journalism. Despite having from time to time suffered person harm from the media over my political life, I have fought to enable different voices and different cultures to express themselves and voice their ideas with ease, and will continue to do so. Journalism is not just reporting the news but, at the same time, making an interpretation; but, unfortunately, certain people who take advantage of our sensitivity over freedom of thought engage in disinformation and try to disrupt the fraternity of our people and the integrity of our state with manipulative news. Turkey suffered greatly in the past from the tutelage crowd and their efforts to pressurise democracy, the law and elected governments through their media.



I believe that, with a separation having been made between those whose goal is really to report the news and those who turn news reporting into an instrument, our media outlets will perform their basic functions just as in developed countries; they will contribute towards raising, developing and strengthening our countrys standards of democracy. My greatest wish is for working journalists to move into a press environment in which they have conducive working conditions and are able to get their just rewards and develop themselves. With these thoughts I congratulate our members of the media on Working Journalists Day and wish them success.



In 2017, one journalist per week was detained



It was stated in the Free Journalists' Initiatives 2017 Press Rights Violations Report that press outlets were closed and their assets were seized under state of emergency decrees with the force of law, with it noted that many journalists also lost their jobs under decrees with the force of law.



It is said in the report, Journalists have forever been present in the corridors of judicial complexes over the year. Some of the journalists prosecuted over the year were jailed, while some of them were fined.



The duress faced by journalists was set out item by item in the report:



* There are currently 165 journalists in detention in Turkey.



* Cases were filed against 189 journalists.



* 187 journalists were arrested, 58 journalists were detained and 15 journalists were released.



* The majority of journalists were arrested either while covering the news or in raids staged on their homes following tip-offs.



* 81 journalists were fined and jailed. The penalties come to a total of 183 years and four months in jail and 333,120 lira.



* 373 journalists appeared before a judge.



* One journalist was murdered, one journalist was threatened with death, while one was threatened with a gun. 18 journalists were attacked while covering the news.



* 35 press outlets were closed under decrees with the force of law. The assets of press and publishing outlets that had been closed the previous year were put up for sale by the Savings and Deposits Insurance Fund.



* Three stations were removed from TURKSAT and five stations had their licences cancelled. Access was blocked to the websites of 37 press and publishing outlets. (A further four sites had been censored at the time this report was issued.)



* Five journalists were deported and 25 were sacked. 100 journalists had their press cards revoked.
The determined effort by Theresa Mays Government to curb excessive pay in Britains boardrooms is being made a mockery of by the obscenely large sums dished out to executives at the countrys second-largest house-builder.

Persimmons chief executive Jeff Fairburn is due a pay and bonus package of 131 million, making him the fattest of fat cats in the FTSE 100 of Britains top companies.

Hes not alone. Other bosses at the firm  which has seen its stock market value soar as it has ruthlessly cashed in on the Governments controversial Help to Buy scheme  will be given shares worth a staggering 800 million.

Housebuilding boss Jeff Fairburn is due to receive a staggering 131 million bonus after his firm profited from the Help to Buy scheme

Indeed, all major house-builders have struck gold as a result of Help to Buy, which critics say acts as a giant taxpayer-funded subsidy for developers.

Greed

Tony Pidgley, of Berkeley Group, got an extra 29 million  but in sharp contrast to Fairburn, he is one of Britains most impressive entrepreneurs and is his firms founder-chairman. And Peter Redfern, boss of Taylor Wimpey, got 3.8 million last year, including long-term bonuses. But that was just a fraction of Fairburns outrageous payout.

The scale of greed at Persimmon has provoked a boardroom revolt, leading to Persimmons chairman, Nicholas Wrigley, and his pay committee sidekick Jonathan Davie (who signed off the extraordinary deal) stepping down before Christmas.

Wrigley admitted having failed to impose a cap on bonuses and left in recognition of this omission.

Investors, led by the insurer Royal London, implored Fairburn to return some of his bonus or hand it to a housing charity. But such noble efforts have, thus far, fallen on deaf ears, despite a simmering public backlash. What is a cause of particular anger to taxpayers is that, of the 3.42 billion worth of home sales just announced by Persimmon, half were bought with the assistance of the taxpayer-backed Help to Buy scheme.

The Governments well-intentioned policy was for interest-free loans to be given to first-time buyers moving into newly built houses.

The scheme has been successful in driving up the number of new homes built, with 217,000 completed in 2017. But that is still less than half the number built every year in the Sixties and Seventies.

Moreover, former Chancellor George Osbornes scheme was badly executed.

The subsidy (with more than 10 billion invested since the scheme was launched in 2013) has mostly ended up in the pockets of bosses and shareholders of big building firms.

As well as taxpayers having had to fund this bonus bonanza, house prices have increased  piling more misery on first-time buyers.

Investors, led by the insurer Royal London, implored Fairburn to return some of his bonus or hand it to a housing charity. But such noble efforts have, thus far, fallen on deaf ears, despite a simmering public backlash

The latest data from property website Zoopla shows that first-time buyers typically need an 80,000 deposit to get onto the housing ladder.

Another toxic issue is the fact one in six of the properties sold by Persimmon is leasehold. This is an arrangement that is being cynically exploited by many firms, who charge householders punitive ground rent.

In many cases, the leasehold is sold on to property investment funds, which further rack up the fees. Leasehold terms, often hidden in the small-print in sales contracts, make it almost impossible to sell the property and move on  causing a log-jam in the market that is deeply hurtful to the lives of thousands of people.

Thankfully, this pernicious exploitation of first-time buyers is to be banned under legislation to be introduced by housing and communities secretary Sajid Javid, an outspoken critic of the practice.

Perhaps Persimmon bosses think theyre justified in cashing in so shamelessly, convinced that it is their due for having survived the financial crisis when many house-builders came close to collapse a decade ago.

The latest data from property website Zoopla shows that first-time buyers typically need an 80,000 deposit to get onto the housing ladder

But the truth is that they survived only because of the enormous amounts of public money used to rescue the banks, and which thus helped prop up the mortgage market.

Moreover, the financial crisis meant many smaller, privately owned regional house-builders were wiped out, giving the bigger firms an even greater profit and bonus opportunity.

Disgracefully, they are repaying this gratitude with an egregious and grotesque binge of corporate looting  of the sort that gives capitalism a bad name and plays straight into the hands of Jeremy Corbyn.

House-builders have also been heavily criticised for so-called land banking  holding huge tracts of undeveloped land as a means of driving up prices. And they are accused of reneging on agreements to ensure that a proportion of their new building projects are used for social housing and public amenities.

Decency

No wonder major shareholders of Persimmon have called on chief executive Fairburn to forgo his bonus or make a sizeable donation to charity.

Indeed, if he and his fellow fat cats had an ounce of social conscience, they would give a proportion of their ill-gotten millions to housing charities.

Shamefully, Fairburn shows no sign of such decency, claiming that what he does with the money is a private matter.

He refused to talk to the Mail, but spoke of supply and demand to the Financial Times, admitting the demand has been created through the Help to Buy scheme. He added: We are working hard to provide more new housing.

The truth is that while Persimmon has built more houses each year since 2011, the rate of growth has been below that of many of its rivals.

It is not clear why Fairburn, a product of the local technical college in York, where Persimmon is based, developed such a sense of entitlement.

Another toxic issue is the fact one in six of the properties sold by Persimmon is leasehold. This is an arrangement that is being cynically exploited by many firms, who charge householders punitive ground rent

But as the chief executive of a FTSE 100 giant, he has a duty of openness and care to stakeholders  investors, suppliers, customers and taxpayers, whove all contributed to Persimmons growth.

The fact is that his greed undoubtedly has a hugely unhelpful knock-on effect on national housing policy.

Disrepute

For his intransigence has come to public attention at a time when ministers are relying on private-sector house-builders to help deliver on their target of building 300,000 new homes a year to tackle the countrys housing crisis.

Last year, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced an extra 10 billion boost for the Help to Buy scheme to stimulate the industry. He didnt intend it as a get-even-richer scheme for building company bosses.

Their fat cat culture is not just another case of corporate porcine greed that drags capitalism into deep disrepute. At a time when homelessness is a major issue for lobby groups, a 131 million pay deal for a chief executive simply reinforces a sense of social division.

It cocks a snook at the efforts of successive Tory- led governments to end the scandal of excess among Britains corporate chieftains.

Average boardroom pay is currently 120 times that of the median income of employees  making UK bosses the most overpaid in Europe.

Even for those of us who believe in the efficiency of free market capitalism, the controversy at Persimmon simply adds fuel to the fiercely burning fire about unfairness and inequality.
Who is smarter when it comes to depicting their opponents as misogynistic knuckle-draggers  Labour or Tories? Id say that the Corbynistas are, by a country mile.

And yet on any objective analysis, the Parliamentary Labour Party is more riddled with sexism and bigotry and general nastiness than the Conservatives. The truth is that Corbynistas are guilty of double standards on an epic scale.

This past week we have witnessed the hounding of the hitherto relatively obscure columnist Toby Young over a minor job on an education quango which most people had not heard of.

Various Left-ish journalists and Corbynista MPs depicted him as an odious, reach-me-down Tory toff though, in fact, his father was a distinguished Labour intellectual and Young attended a comprehensive.

Toby Young, pictured here with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, has been forced to stand down from the universities regulator over past comments

It is perfectly true that over the years he has tweeted puerile things about womens breasts and suchlike, for which he apologised unreservedly before being required by the Government to fall on his sword.

But however silly and ill-judged these tweets may have been, they were not, I would suggest, particularly extreme or notably sick-making. Nor did they threaten any living person. The same cannot be said of the worst Corbynista offenders.

They have said or tweeted things which make Youngs effusions look positively innocuous. And yet the same Labour frontbenchers who struck attitudes of horror and outrage over his alleged excesses cant bring themselves to say a word of reproach against far more egregious sinners on their own side.

Step forward Angela Rayner, shadow education secretary, and Emily Thornberry, shadow foreign secretary. Both women worked themselves up into a terrific lather over Toby Young.

Miss Thornberry fired off multiple angry tweets while Mrs Rayner despatched an excoriating letter to the Prime Minister in which the miscreant columnist was accused of a history of homophobia and misogyny and indifference to the rights of people with disabilities. Lets just say the evidence for these contentions is slight.

Yet the same Angela Rayner took a strikingly indulgent view of the far more offensive remarks made by Corbynista MP Jared OMara, some of which are too disgusting to repeat in a family newspaper.

Among the less revolting ones were references to sexy little slags and poofters. He is alleged to have called a woman a bitch in a nightclub, though he denies it. OMara (who has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth) also fantasised about orgies with the pop group Girls Aloud, and was rude about fat women.

All pretty unpleasant. Yet Mrs Rayner declared a few months ago that she was happy to sit alongside OMara in the Commons after he had said he was sorry. It is a pity that she could not be so generous-hearted towards Young when he apologised for far milder comments.

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party has faced its own accusations of anti-Semitism and sexism

Yesterday, Emily Thornberry demonstrated a similar inconsistency when asked on BBC Radio 5 Live about the infamous suggestion by shadow chancellor John McDonnell in 2014 that Esther McVey, then disabilities minister, be lynched. Around the same time he also called her a stain on humanity.

Surely what McDonnell said in both instances was far more inflammatory than anything Toby Young wrote. But Miss Thornberry would only respond: I aint gonna answer. Fellow Corbynista Diane Abbott was similarly uncommunicative over the issue on BBC1s Andrew Marr Show last October.

I realise, of course, that its human nature to be less critical of the moral lapses of members of ones own political tribe than those in other tribes.

But to ventilate over Youngs comparatively harmless tweets while disregarding McDonnells sinister ad hominem threats  well, that is a piece of shameless hypocrisy, as well as proof of political chicanery.

The point is that what John McDonnell said when he was still a backbench MP betrays real malevolence, as did his joke in 2010 that he would like to go back in time and assassinate Margaret Thatcher.

He repeated this so-called witticism at a meeting in 2014 without any apparent sign of contrition. Sitting alongside him on the platform was a woman who laughed out loud as he recollected his assassination fantasy. Who was this person? Angela Rayner.

Momentum, the pro-Corbyn campaign group headed by Jon Lansman (pictured) has shut down its youth wing over offensive messages on social media

There were, to be fair, some decent moderate Labour MPs who had the courage and independence of mind to condemn McDonnell over his comments about lynching Esther McVey.

One was Yvette Cooper. Another was Jess Phillips. But the Corbynistas habitually turn a blind eye to the incendiary language of their own kind while attempting to seize the moral high ground when a well-meaning chump such as Toby Young strays off-piste.

Why do we let them get away with it? Perhaps more to the point, why do the Tories let them get away with it? Watching Toby Young being pilloried by Labour over the past week, the general public will almost certainly have got the false impression that the Conservative Party is more at fault.

Even quite sensible commentators have used the case to argue that it shows how out-of-touch the Tories have become that they can try to impose an antediluvian toff on a reluctant public. That really is rubbish.

Perhaps he had to be sacrificed, but couldnt the Tories have been a bit more muscular? When Theresa May was asked about Young by Andrew Marr on Sunday, she was within her rights to say that she was not impressed by what he had tweeted.

But couldnt she have taken the fight back to Labours hypocrites by pointing out that his hysterical accusers have covered up or ignored comments and behaviour on their own side which are infinitely worse than anything he has said or done?

Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell has been criticised in the past for offensive comments. He once said a female Tory minister should be 'lynched'

Its true, of course, that in their demolition of Young, the Corbynistas were enormously helped by their mastery of the Twittersphere, which allowed them to blast him with insults and accusations, and to spirit up an online petition with more than 200,000 signatories calling for his sacking.

The sheer scope of Corbynista supremacy of social media is illustrated by the partys decision, reported in todays Mail, to shut down its hard-Left Momentum youth wing. Its more over-the-top activities included celebrating the Russian Revolution, extolling Marxism and defending anti-Semitism.

Such extreme positions are potentially embarrassing even to the Corbynistas. But we should not imagine for a moment that Labours toxic trollers and abusive tweeters are being put out to grass.

Somehow the Tories will have to learn how to cope with the destructive forces the Corbynistas have unleashed on social media.

How preposterous that they should have succeeded in portraying Toby Young as an unpleasant fanatic while being allowed to keep their squalid washing well out of sight.

Following the ministerial re-shuffle, and with a supposedly fresh leadership in charge of the party, it really shouldnt be beyond the ability of the Tories to expose the Corbynistas mind-boggling hypocrisy.

Truth to tell, arent many of these people appallingly low-grade? The idea that the likes of Angela Rayner and Emily Thornberry should be able to run rings around a child of two is pretty risible. And yet that is exactly what they are doing with the slow-witted Tories.
If you're struggling through Dry January desperately trying to force yourself to stay away from the corkscrew, a new book promises that it can help - by taking away the desire to drink completely.

This Naked Mind by Annie Grace from Colorado examines the influence that alcohol has on our culture and society and reveals how the unconscious mind has been subjected to a lifetime of conditioning about the benefits of alcohol.

It doesn't contain any rules, goals or scaremongering, but by exploring the reasons people drink and their fears that a life without alcohol will be boring or deprived, Jessica insists that you will want to drink less or give up altogether by the time you've finished reading.

And her claims are backed up by more than 600 five-star reviews on Amazon since the book was released a week ago, with people confirming that the programme has taken away their desire to drink completely, without any sense of deprivation.

Her programme is based on Annie's own experience of giving up alcohol after becoming the youngest vice president in a multinational corporation at the age of 26 led her to excessive drinking as she dealt with the pressures of the job.

Below are three of the steps you can take to bust myths surrounding alcohol and lose the desire to drink for good.

This Naked Mind by Annie Grace from Colorado examines the influence that alcohol has on our culture and society (stock image)

Myth: Alcohol is vital to your social life

Before you ever drank a drop you did not need alcohol to enjoy yourself socially, yet as you grew older, you observed everyone around you drinking in social situations.

In fact, you almost never observed social situations without alcohol. You assumed alcohol was a key ingredient for a good party.

Your began to drink socially and initially you probably still didn't find alcohol vital to socialising. Since alcohol is part of practically every social situation, soon you only experience social situations with alcohol.

Eventually you developed a small dependence and you missed alcohol if it wasn't available. Your experience confirmed your observations. You didn't have quite as much fun if you didn't drink. You concluded, yes, alcohol is vital to social life.

Annie's top tips for going booze-free Don't put it off: There will always be an excuse from an upcoming wedding to stress in your life. Don't fall for it. There's not need to wait and no need to be frightened.

It takes ten or more days for alcohol to fully leave your system. Since you have altered your dopamine levels you may experience cravings. You have to starve those cravings and allow them to die.

Feel free to think about the fact that you no longer drink, but think of it in terms of 'I don't have to drink' rather than ' I don't get to drink'.

Habits can linger, but if you pinpoint the reason why you actually wnat the drink, you'll soon find that your craving will disappear.

There's no need to avoid your drinking friends or places you used to go to drink. You are free to do whatever you want. But be kind to yourself and only go if you truly enjoy the activity and the company. Advertisement

Since you believe alcohol is helping you have fun, it does. Your mind is incredibly powerful. If you skip a drink you feel deprived. You believe you are not enjoying yourself as much as you would with a drink in your hand.

Reality

It's not drinking that makes activities fun, we enjoy them because we are with friends and doing something we like. We didn't need alcohol to enjoy them before, but now we have developed a habit of drinking.

Alcohol homogenises life, meaning you experience the same deadened sense of drunken reality as a jockey game as you feel at a fancy dinner. And you won't remember much of either. Instead of enjoying the wide variety of social activities available to us, drinking makes them all blend together.

You don't realise you are caught fast in your small life until you crawl out of it and re-enter the land of the living. Drinking ensures social occasions feel unmemorable and monotonous. After all, drunkenness feels the same no matter what you are doing.

When you stop believing you need to drink to have fun you won't need to. You'll realise that alcohol can actually hinder your fun.

School hallways are filled with laughter, shouts and jokes and there is no alcohol. The locker room after a winning game has a bouyant, joyful atmosphere, again with no drinking. Is it so hard to accept that what you enjoy about social activities are you friends and the experiences?

Annie Grace developed the programme after the stress of her job led her to drink excessively

Myth: I need to drink to fit in

You observe everyone drinking all the time. You experience all manner of conversations about alcohol at work, after work, at home, on the weekend and in the media.

You assume our culture is so intertwined with alcohol that a life without it will be impossible and you will find it too difficult and lonely to live without drinking.

Reality

Making friends, especially if you believed people who don't drink are boring, might be a real concern.

The best way to overcome this is through experience. First you need to know without a doubt that you are the same person without a drink in your hand. This will take time. You will need to experience many different events without alcohol for your anxiety to fully go away.

But each experience will bring you closer to knowing, without a doubt, that you are the same person - even better, than you were when you were drinking.

Myth: I enjoy drinking, it makes me happy

You have observed people enjoying alochol in every conceivable manner for as long as you can remember. Advertisements promise alcohol will make us happy as we develop relationships, have sex, ignite the party and enjoy our everyday actitivities.

Her book has been praised by readers who say they no longer want to drink after reading it

It's practically impossible in Western society not to form the assumption that alcohol makes people happy.

Reality

Each time you have a drink, can you honestly say you have been happy. Have you been uptight or argumentative when drinking? Have you ever been stressed out, felt depressed or cried during a drinking session? Have you become obnoxious or unreasonable?

In theory, if alcohol made you happy, every time you drank should be full of happiness.

But the effect of alcohol is to deaden all of your sense, to numb you, to inebriate you. If you are numd, how can you feel anything, happiness included?

You may argue that you see drinkers all the time who are happy. They're drinking, joking, giggling and enjoying themselves. But it's much more likely they are enjoying the situation, conversation and time with their friends rather than the booze.

You may argue that if the booze wasn't present they would become sombre. If the drinkers believed, as most drinkers do, that they can't enjoy themselves without alcohol it would. It's not that alcohol makes drinkers happy, it's that they are very unhappy without it.
So the saying goes, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

And one angry wife appeared to prove this theory as she took to auction site TradeMe to sell her wedding dress in what is far from your average listing.

In the item description the New-Zealander describes her husband as a 'compulsive liar' and pleads for buyers to help her remove the 'meaningless' item from her life.

The tongue-in-cheek listing describes the dress as 'worn once by mistake', and 'custom-made for a little girl who thought she deserved less than she was worth'.

Hoping to fetch $300 (160) for the gown, the seller explained that she would use the money towards a gym membership to lose the weight she had 'gained during the unhappy marriage'.

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An angry has put her wedding dress online, slamming her husband as a 'compulsive liar' and pleading for buyers to help her remove the 'meaningless' item from her life

Posting an array of snaps in the strapless chiffon piece, her husband was noticeably cropped out of the pictures.

'Wedding dress for sale - worn once by mistake!' she began the emotional advert.

'Please help remove this dress from my life, it no longer means anything to me. It is in excellent condition - unlike my marriage - Pretty much brand new and ready for a legit wedding after a practise run back in 2013,' she added.

Describing the dress, the woman continued: 'This stunning off white gown would fit a 12-16 as it has a lace up back so very versatile it comes with a certificate of authenticity and I have personally hand-washed the bad luck out of it!

'More than welcome to come try on and give it a twirl to make sure it fits and suits you.'

And in a heartbreaking confession she admitted her childhood dreams had been dashed, adding: 'Cannot provide measurements as this was custom made for a little girl who thought she deserved less than what she was worth and she is now a strong woman - cannot measure up.'

Describing the dress as 'worn once by mistake', the New Zealander went on to admit the dress was 'custom-made for a little girl who thought she deserved less than she was worth'

Revealing that she hoped to fetch $300 for the gown, she explained that she would use the money towards a gym membership to lose the weight she had 'gained during the unhappy marriage'

She continued by slamming her husband, describing him as compulsive liar and admitting her wedding had been a mistake.

'It looks stunning on, enough so that it will distract you and your guests from the fact that you are marrying a compulsive liar.

'Also great evening wear if you enjoy a night out and want people to buy you drinks or would be an excellent outfit choice for house cleaning and dishes (if Disney role play is your thing),' she joked.

'It is made from chiffon and is A-Line with side ruffles. It has an internal back strap (with being a strapless the added support to stay up alone is priceless) and has a beautiful belt added for a touch a sparkle. The back is lace tie so can be adjustable if you fluctuate in size which again is an added bonus!'

And revealing that the money gained from the dress would help her makeover her life by joining the gym, she encouraged buyers to make an offer.

'I would ideally like over $300 for this dress, as this would pay for a Years gym member ship for me to loose the kilos I put on from such a miserable marriage - either that or a decent night out on the wines, both are needed - so make an offer!

'Happy to also provide pictures of my shoes that I can chuck in for a good price, those aren't needed anymore either because I walked away with the feet I was born with and will keep moving forward with those (keeping the veil for the 'out of toilet paper' emergencies).'

Ending the advert on another witty note, she described her husband as 90kgs of baggage, writing: 'Apologies for the photos, I have since lost around 90kgs of baggage.'
This is the hilarious moment a naughty pooch was caught 'red-pawed' with its head stuck in a cheeseburger box after raiding its owner's trash can.

Jacob Allinson, 32, returned home from a gym session to find heaps of litter strewn across his living room floor.

In an amusing clip he films the chaotic scene and then rounds a corner to find the culprit, his eight-year-old rescue dog Kevin.

Caught: This is the hilarious moment a dog was caught by his owner with its head stuck in a cheeseburger box after raiding the trash can

Owner: Jacob Allinson returned home from the gym to find piles of garbage strewn across his living room floor due to his beagle mix Kevin

The guilty pup, which had tipped over the trash can in pursuit of food, is seen with his tail wagging in glee and its head firmly wedged inside a frozen hamburger box.

Jacob, of Los Angeles, California, who rescued beagle mix Kevin from a roadside three years ago, shared the clip on Facebook.

The filmmaker said, 'I knew as soon as I got back that Kevin had done something.

'I saw the trash all over the place then I walked around the corner and saw Kevin with the box on his head.

Bad boy: The 32-year-old from Los Angeles shared that he 'saw the trash all over the place then I walked around the corner and saw Kevin with the box on his head'

Normal: Jacob, who rescued beagle mix Kevin from a roadside three years ago, said the ordeal 'is typical of him but he was really caught this time'

Sweet dreams: 'It was probably his dream having that box stuck on his head and being able to smell cheeseburgers,' Jacob said about the adorable puppy

'I was just like, "Oh my gosh," when I saw it. It is typical of him but he was really caught this time.

'When I go out, I block the trash can off with a chair because I know he sometimes tries to get to it and he's pretty sneaky.

'He would have been trying to sniff out food and managed to push it out of the way.

'It was probably his dream having that box stuck on his head and being able to smell cheeseburgers.'
During a recent trip to Costco, a pair of little girls in Hawaii were delighted a man they were sure was actually one of their favorite Disney characters.

Rella Rivera of Oahu was approaching the cash registers at the store in Kapolei with her daughters Ryley, eight, and Rylyn, five, when the girls suddenly shouted excitedly: 'Thats Maui!'

Their sudden outburst was prompted by the sight of the worker manning the register, who the girls were positive was the Dwayne Johnson-voiced demigod from Disney Pixar's Moana.

New friends: Rella Rivera, 42, of Oahu, Hawaii, was shopping at Costco with her daughters Ryley, eight, and Rylyn, five, when they spotted cashier William Vaana (right)

Cashier William Vaana does indeed bear a striking resemblance to the character, right down to his long hair and armfuls of tattoos.

And it quickly became clear that this wasn't the first time William has had the young ones worked up over his appearance, as he seemed happy to play along.

Radio host Rella, 42, managed to whip out her phone in time to catch the girls' excitement.

'Who's that?' she asked the bouncing girls, who emphatically responded with 'that's Maui!'

Double-take: The girls were convinced that William was Maui (right) from Disney's Moana

Taking it on: Since going viral, William revealed on his Facebook page that he previously dressed as the character

All out: His photos shared on Facebook show him wearing the character's leafy skirt and toting a giant fish hook, and posing alongside a young girl dressed as Moana

Playing along: Luckily for the girls, the cashier was more than happy to play along

William then invites them around to his side of the register to join him for a big shout of 'chee-hoo!' - Maui's catchphrase.

'It brought so much joy to my face to see how excited the girls were. Before I could get my phone out to video, he had already let out a loud "chee-hoo." And the girls lit up even more,' Rella told People.

Now, Rella reveals, the kids look forward to their trips to Costco so they can visit their friend, who always is sure to great them with a big 'chee-hoo!'

When the mom shared the video online, she soon learned that her girls were far from the only ones around town to notice William and his resemblance to Maui.

Catching the moment: The girls' mom Rella, 42, managed to whip out her phone in time to film the girls and their new friend

Hitting the mark: William invited the girls to stand next to him as he let out a bit 'chee-hoo!'

All smiles: Rella claims that now the girls are always excited to go to Costco, and William always greets them with the character's catchphrase

Sharing the love: After posting the video online, she learned from other parents that hers were far from the first kids to point out William's resemblance to the character

'There were pictures posted in the comments of other kids who have pointed him out in Costco and he was nice enough to take pictures with them as well,' she said.

Rella's video of the sweet moment has already been seen more than 75,000 times on YouTube - and has led to calls for William to be given a raise for his kindness.

Since the video went viral, William has revealed that he even previously dressed up as the character, sharing a number of photos online showing him in the character's leafy skirt and a tank top bearing his tattoos.

It's unclear if the photos were taken before or after William gained viral fame, but they show him going so far as to tote around a massive fish hook and wearing a necklace made of teeth.
It should come as no surprise that beach-going and romance go hand-in-hand for most.

And now, for those looking for love, popular dating site, Elite Singles, have shared the most romantic beaches around the country.

Of the 300 people who took part in the questionnaire, 90 per cent revealed the beach and romance were a natural partnership.

Here, FEMAIL shares the list of the top ten beaches in Australia voted the most romantic, and reveals the ultimate spot to plan the perfect Valentine's Day surprise.

Most Australians wouldn't consider embarking on a new romance unless the other person also loved spending time by the sea (pictured: Whitehaven Beach)

1. Whitehaven Beach, Queensland

It should come as no surprise that a pristine stretch of white sand beach complete with glistening blue waters heads up the list of most romantic getaways.

Not only is the six-kilometre beach championed as one of Australia's most beautiful, it's breathtaking beauty is truly a sight to behold.

For those who love long meandering walks, the coastline stretches into infinity. Or there are an abundance of coves and inlets, perfect for exploring.

Whitehaven Beach, Queensland, tops the list of the most romantic beach in Australia (pictured)

The beach's crystal blue sea and glistening white sands couldn't make it a more perfect getaway spot (pictured)

2. Main Beach, Noosa, Queensland

With its stretch of pristine coastline, it's no wonder Queensland tops the list twice in a row.

This popular beach enjoys a year-round tropical climate, making it an ideal place to spend some time with your loved one, no matter what your schedule.

Though its probably the least remote beach on this list, its ample facilities and proximity to the town centre make it ideal for a first date, especially if you want to grab a bite after the sun's gone down.

Main Beach, Noosa: The beach enjoys a tropical year round climate so anytime is a great time to spend a few days by the sea (pictured)

3. Wineglass Bay, Freycinet, Tasmania

Among those surveyed by Elite Singles, almost 40 per cent revealed overcrowding at beaches was an issue.

Coming in at third position is Wineglass Bay, a secluded spot in Tasmania that involves a 200-kilometre drive from Hobart, followed by a short hike.

Of course, once you're there, you are well rewarded for your efforts with crystalline waters, bright white sand, and views guaranteed to take your breath away.

Make it a day to remember with a stop off at Freycinet Vineyard en route to pick up that perfect bottle of wine to complement a romantic beach picnic.

Wineglass Bay, Tasmania: A secluded hideaway that takes some effort to get to but is well worth it (pictured)

4. Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia

This 20-kilometre stretch of untouched beauty in Western Australia is what all romantic beach-side dreams are made of.

Spend time with your significant other drinking in the luscious views of the deep blue Indian Ocean set against a backdrop of red ochre cliffs.

And if the mood strikes, it's also possible to enjoy a camel ride - at dawn or dusk - along with the shoreline of this stretch of untamed natural wonder.

Cable Beach, Western Australia: This slice of untouched beauty offers sweeping views of the Indian Ocean (pictured)

5. Hyams Beach, Jervis Bay, NSW

For a special spot in the wilderness, Hyams Beach in New South Wales may well be the perfect place.

Surrounded by the Booderee National Park, the beach itself - famed for its still aquamarine waters - is part of the wider cove of Jervis Bay.

For romance seekers, Hyams Beach also offers a more off-beat getaway with shore-side fisherman's cottages available to rent.

Hyams Beach, NSW: With sunsets like these, romance can only but flourish (pictured)

6. Half Moon Bay, Black Rock, Victoria

If love is built on the simple pleasures, then it's no wonder nearly 50 per cent of those taking part in the survey said taking a stroll had the power to set hearts ablaze.

Half Moon Bay in Victoria is not only a stunning spot to enjoy a coastal walk, but if you're of a more adventurous mind, there's snorkelling on offer too.

The picturesque crescent-shaped beach which sits nestled alongside the cliffs of Red Bluff has been described by some as 'a little slice of heaven'.

Half Moon Bay, Victoria: Described by some as 'a slice of heaven' (pictured)

7. Lizard Island, Queensland

For romantics looking for the ultimate private beach-side getaway, Queensland's Lizard Island couldn't be more perfect.

Though it takes some planning to get there, you'll first need to travel to Cairns, then fly for an hour to the island, you'll be duly rewarded with the true majesty and scale of the reef.

Hailed as one of the great wonders of the world, Lizard Island visitors looking for love, won't leave disappointed.

Lizard Island, Queensland: Breathtaking views of the reef make this special spot one of the most treasured on the list (pictured)

8. Main Beach, Bryon Bay

With its chilled beachy vibe, Bryon Bay makes a great place for romance seekers looking for a relaxed way to spend their holidays.

The beach comes with stunning views of distant mountains and on a good day sightings of passing whales and dolphins.

While white sands and clear blue waters are a given, this is one of Byron Bay's most popular beaches, visited by people from all over the globe.

Main Beach, Byron Bay: This popular beach in Byron Bay is the perfect place for romance seekers looking for a chilled way to spend some time together (pictured)

9. Port Willunga, South Australia

Described as one of the most 'beautiful beaches in the world' by one Yelp visitor, this hidden gem is one worth making the effort to get to.

'Beautiful old cliffs wrap around a gorgeous bay and it makes you feel like you're totally hidden away from the world,' wrote the reviewer on the site.

As well as crystal clear waters, those seeking romance can take their time to explore caves hidden within nooks of the cliffs.

'These are dotted all along the beach and are the perfect place for a picnic or an afternoon snooze!'

Port Willunga, South Australia: A hidden gem that's been described as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world (pictured)

10. Squeaky Beach, Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria

This iconic beach, which sits among the bushland of Wilson's Promontory National Park, is famed for its turquoise waters, set on a stretch of stunning white sand.

Those wanting to take in the sights of Squeaky Beach will need to make their way through coastal scrub, before jumping a little stream en route to the beach.

Squeaky Beach, Victoria: The remote and rugged beach is famed for its turquoise waters and stunning white sand (pictured)

This remote beach offers stunning views of distant islands and the granite-studded headlands, or the more adventurous can explore caves nestled within huge boulders at the beach's more northern end.

Those looking for a picture perfect moment should consider a visit at dusk to watch the changing hues at sunset.
Have you been cheating on your partner without even realising it?

You could be a micro-cheater. A new word has made it into the dating lexicon to describe all the tiny ways by which you can be unfaithful.

Australian Psychologist and consultant, Melanie Schilling, explained to FEMAIL what exactly micro-cheating entails - and how to spot a cheater.

Australian Psychologist and consultant, Melanie Schilling (picutred) has explained to FEMAIL what micro-cheating entails

Melanie explained that micro-cheating is a series of seemingly small actions that indicate a person is emotionally or physically focused on someone outside of the relationship.

'You might be engaging in micro-cheating if you secretly connect with another person on social media, if you share private jokes, if you downplay the seriousness of your relationship to your partner or if you enter their name under a code in your phone,' she told FEMAIL.

'These are all signs that you are conducting a "covert flirtation" and keeping it from your partner. If you feel you have something to hide - ask yourself why.'

Melanie explained that micro-cheating is a series of seemingly small actions that indicate a person is emotionally or physically focused on someone outside the relationship (stock image)

The easiest way to tell if you or your partner are micro-cheating on someone is if they are keeping things a secret.

Melanie said that the act of micro-cheating is a subtle betrayal and it needs 'secrecy to fuel its fire'.

'Other things you should look out for are if your partner is having private conversations or online chats that he/she quickly shuts down when you enter the room or if they are reaching out to an ex to mark an anniversary or other significant shared, intimate event,' Melanie elaborated.

'Perhaps they are offering compliments to other guys/girls that they don't say to you, or maybe they meet up with someone of the opposite sex under the guise of a business meeting, when you discover no business was actually done.'

The easiest way to tell if you are micro-cheating on someone is if you are keeping things a secret (stock image)

Although the lines between micro-cheating and friendship may seem as if they blur, Melanie said there are ways that you can easily differentiate the two.

'It's the secrecy and deception that accompanies the communication that defines it as micro-cheating,' she said.

'Your partner may have a perfectly platonic relationship with a friend and they may be up-front and open about talking to them and seeing them. This should not ring alarm bells.

'However, if they start to conceal their relationship from you or lie to you about it, then start considering the appropriateness of their connection.'

'You have intuition for a reason and it tells you when things are not right. If things don't add up,' Melanie said (stock image)

Although the lines between micro-cheating and friendship may seem as if they blur, Melanie said there are ways that you can easily differentiate the two

It may be difficult to determine what crosses the line but Melanie recommends that you trust your gut.

'You have intuition for a reason and it tells you when things are not right. If things don't add up, if you catch your partner in a lie, if they are behaving in an uncharacteristic way, bring it up.

'They key here is to be objective and rational, rather than subjective and emotional. Slinging empty accusations and insults will get you nowhere.'

It may be difficult to determine what crosses the line but Melanie recommends that you trust your gut (stock image)

Melanie also told FEMAIL that you need to be specific about the behaviours that you have observed and explain how they made you feel.

'For example say: "When you spent an hour on the phone to your ex during our date-night dinner I felt left-out and pretty useless. Id prefer it if you focused on me during our special nights together".

'Or you could say: "When you add all the heart emojis in her/his post comments it makes me feel like she/he is your partner, rather than me.

Next time, it would be great if you could reserve the online love for me".'
A new BBC programme has revealed the little known world of the smallest cat on the planet, in footage captured while filming a documentary about its much larger relatives.

The rusty spotted cat, which weighs just over one kilogram and could fit in the palm of your hand when it is fully grown, and features in Big Cats - a new series celebrating all the different species of felines around the world.

The extremely rare minature cat is found only in the forests of Sri Lanka and India and is 200 times lighter than a lion - but is equally predatory when it comes to the search for food.

Although it looks very similar to a family pet, this one is different from domestic moggies and 'what it lacks in size it makes up for in daring', as it doesn't mind getting a little wet.

The miniature rusty spotted feline is the world's smallest cat and is native to the forests of Sri Lanka and India

What the kitty lacks in size it makes up for in its daring and curiosity. As it boldly dips its paws in a body of water as it navigates the landscape

The extremely rare cat weighs just one kilogram - which is 200 times smaller than a lion, yet it is just as predatory

The Big Cats team spent more than two years travelling to ed to 14 different countries and filmed 31 out of the 40 species, as well as giving an insight into the secret lives of the rarely-seen small cats.

Narrated by Doctor Foster's Bertie Carvel, the three-part documentary series looks at cats such as the ghostly Canada lynx in the frozen North, the bizarre Pallass cat in remote Mongolia, and the mysterious and elusive swamp tiger of the Sundarbans.

The Canada lynx which features in the first episode, lives further north than any cat, relying on snowshoe hares to survive the bitterly cold winters.

Until recently lynx were creatures of mystery, but now technology provides an insight into their secret lives.

It isn't afraid of getting a little wet as it's seen in the footage swimming through water in the forest

The Canada Lynx lives further north than any cat, relying on snowshoe hares to survive the bitterly cold winters

The worlds most lonesome cat is searching for a mate - a male snow leopard may just get one chance to mate in his whole life

Predators they may be, but cats are also tender, intelligent and emotional. Honey, an African leopard, has worn a radio collar for a decade that has allowed scientists to follow her lifes every twist and turn and in the worst drought in decades, shes battling to raise a cub.

In the Himalayas, the male snow leopard - perhaps the worlds most lonesome cat - is searching for a mate and may just get one chance to mate in his whole life.

The series also uncovers their social side, their complex communication, devoted parental care, courtship, and reveals how cats survive and thrive in all four corners of the globe.

From the frozen north to the oldest and driest deserts, the most remote, unexplored landscapes to the very heart of our modern world.

Big Cats starts tonight on BBC One at 8pm
If you're stuck in a rut at work, one woman believes that looking to the stars is the ultimate way to seek guidance.

Astrologer Mecca Woods believes that your star sign dictates how successful you'll be at work in 2018 and she's shared her ultimate guide to analysing your stars.

While Aquarians are certain to be promoted this year, unfortunately for Aries, it could be a testing time in the workplace.

Writing for Refinery 29, Mecca shared the ultimate guide to your horoscope and how it will affect your career.

Astrologer Mecca Woods reveals whether youll get promoted or made redundant this year based on your stars

CAPRICORN (December 22 - January 20): Mecca believes that Capricorns need to focus on relationships they've been building in the workplace to seek new opportunities. She maintains that new jobs or promotions within the workplace will come from your network of contacts. Despite this star sign usually being highly independent, she believes you'll need help from friends to get ahead this year.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): According to Mecca, Aquarians are certain to be promoted this year. She notes that this star sign will really shine in the office this year, either via a step-up or by receiving awards.

PISCES (February 19-March 2): It's good news for any Pisces who may have struggled with their finances this year. Mecca believes they'll be coming into a substantial amount of money. If you're looking for a change of career direction, Mecca advises looking into a job in advertising, writing or media.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Unfortunately for Aries, it could be a testing time in the workplace. To survive any redundancies, Mecca advises committing to any projects or commitments you began working on. 'This is a time for Aries to dig in, work hard and prove themselves,' she said.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus is the sign that tends to hold onto things that they don't need to. They could well be challenged at work and pushed into new challenges but they need to view this as time for a fresh start and a new challenge, even it means being forced into a new direction.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): This year is the time for Geminis to seek opportunities based on their emotions. Mecca says it's essential that they don't simply 'go through the motions' but instead seek a new job that fulfills them on a spiritual and emotional level. She also notes that they have a tendency to spread themselves too thinly so should remain focused if they want to reap the financial rewards.

AQUARIUS: THE LUCKY STAR SIGN OF 2018 According to Mecca, Aquarians are certain to be promoted this year. She notes that this star sign will really shine in the office this year, either via a step-up or awards. Advertisement

CANCER (June 21-July 22): This is a huge year for Cancer, reveals Mecca. Despite it being an unstable few years for this star sign, it's time to shake off old energy and embrace a new challenge. Mecca advises looking for a role that lets you explore your niche and leave any uncertainty behind.

LEO (July 23-August 22): An eclipse is landing in Leo, which means it's time for a change. Leos will become a leader in their field of choice and could well leave a stable job behind to launch their own business.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Mecca says that this is the year for Virgos to get in touch with their creative side. Whether it's music or writing, she says Virgos should really hone their talents and share it with the world.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): An upcoming eclipse means that Libras are in for a promotion or pay rise this year. If you've been working hard in the office, you'll finally get the recognition you've been seeking.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): Mecca says that 2018 will be a huge year for any Scorpios looking to take a risk. She believes you'll get plenty of attention in the workplace but you'll need to learn to embrace change if you want to get ahead.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Anyone with a Sagittarius star sign needs to be extra mindful of their finances, according to Mecca. It's also essential to curate a work schedule you can stick to and ensure you're being financially rewarded for your efforts.
After settling back into life in Northern Ireland, it seems Michaella McCollum is going steady with her new squeeze.

The former 'Peru Two' drugs mule, who enjoyed a summer of partying on the Cosa del Sol last year, was seen leaving the 180-a-night Merchant Hotel in Belfast with a mystery man - just weeks after the pair were spotted enjoying a cosy dinner date in the city.

McCollum, 24, looked chic in a red boucle blazer paired with faux leather skinny trousers and ankle boots as she left the five-star hotel.

She paired her jacket with crimson nails and matching lipstick, and could be seen flashing a smile as her male companion played the part of the gentleman and carried her suitcase down the hotel stairs for her.

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All smiles: McCollum was seen leaving the 180-a-night Merchant Hotel in Belfast with a mystery man - just weeks after the pair were spotted enjoying a cosy dinner date in the city

McCollum is believed to have returned to the Emerald Isle before Christmas after a whirlwind year of sun-kissed holidays as well as her first foray into TV since leaving jail in 2016.

According to her agent, she is currently working on a documentary about life in prison, and her first book is due for release this summer.

They declined to comment on Michaella's male companion.

The former convict, who was jailed in 2013 for attempting to internationally smuggle drugs, was last seen with her beau at local restaurant Bootleggers in December.

The former dancer, originally from County Tyrone, has also been spotted at Millfield College in the city where she is studying Humanities & Social Science.

Fashion forward: The convict, 24, looked chic in a red boucle blazer paired with faux leather skinny trousers and ankle boots as she left the five-star hotel with her companion

Home at last: McCollum is believed to have returned to the Emerald Isle before Christmas after a whirlwind year of sun-kissed holidays as well as her first foray into media work

Cleaning up her act: According to her agent, she is currently working on a documentary about life in prison, and her first book is due for release this summer

Going steady: The former convict, who was jailed in 2013 for attempting to internationally smuggle drugs, was last seen with her beau at local restaurant Bootleggers in December

Fresh start: Along with her accomplice Reid, McCollum was sentenced to spend six years and eight months inside a grim jail in Lima, after they were caught trying to smuggle cocaine

New Year, New me? The former dancer, originally from County Tyrone, has been spotted at Millfield College in the city where she is studying Humanities & Social Science

Before her return to Northern Ireland, Michaella appeared to be living it up in Ibiza and Marbella where she enjoyed a never-ending party of sun, sea and cocktails.

How the former drugs smuggler has funded her holidays is unclear, but she has been linked to a number of potentially lucrative opportunities and was recently spotted outside HMP Liverpool where her agent said she was filming the prison documentary.

She was also seen heading to meetings at the BBC back in September. Representatives for McCollum told the MailOnline that McCollum had visited the studios for 'meetings about upcoming projects'.

It has been reported that she has been offered 250,000 for a tell-all book deal detailing her criminal exploits and time behind bars in Lima.

Home at last: McCollum is believed to have returned to the Emerald Isle before Christmas after a whirlwind year of sun-kissed holidays and media work

Quite the contrast: Before her return to Northern Ireland, Michaella appeared to be living it up in Ibiza and Marbella where she enjoyed a never-ending party of sun, sea and cocktails

The jet-setter, who was jailed in Peru alongside Melissa Reid (right) in 2013 for trying to smuggle 1.5million's worth of cocaine into Europe, has since enjoyed a string of holidays

Her jet-setting lifestyle appears to be in stark contrast to former accomplice Melissa Reid, who has landed a charity job at Citizens Advice.

Reid applied for a job at the charity after she was released from the South American jail last June.

The two were sentenced to spend six years and eight months inside a grim jail in Lima, after they were caught trying to smuggle a huge quantity of cocaine out of the country.

The ex-convict was released on parole in March 2016 after serving less than half of her sentence but initially had to stay in Peru, where she carried out voluntary work until August when she flew back to Belfast.
The Duchess of Cambridge has delighted charity staff with an unannounced visit to the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families in London.

Kate, who is a patron for the AFNCCF, dropped in on Thursday morning for a conference on young peoples mental resilience and wellbeing where she spoke to staff and ambassadors.

The Duchess, who is expecting her third child in April, wrapped up in a charcoal Tory Burch 'Bettina' tweed coat, an old favourite that she first wore in New York in 2014.

With its clean lines and structured fabric, the now sold-out $545 (404) coat was the perfect flattering fit for Kate who was pregnant with Princess Charlotte at the time.

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Surprise visit: Kate, who is a patron for the AFNCCF, dropped in on Thursday morning for a conference on young peoples mental resilience and wellbeing (pictured here meeting Fran Turner from HeadStart Wolverhampton)

Deja vu: Pregnant Kate first wore the blazer in December 2014 during a visit to New York while she was expecting Charlotte (pictured here at the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Basketball game)

A Twitter account for the charity wrote today: 'We are delighted to welcome our Patron HRH the Duchess of Cambridge to the #HeadStartLearning Conference.

'HRH is a committed champion of children's mental health and wellbeing and it is fantastic to have her here!'

And a source told Royal Central that Kate is 'really keen to learn' as much as she can from the conference.

Kate, a keen champion of young people's mental health, officially returned to duties this week following the Royal family's annual Christmas break in Sandringham.

After celebrating her 36th birthday on Tuesday, she kicked off the working year with a visit to the Reach Academy Feltham, a west London school that works with the children's mental health charity Place2Be to help pupils, teachers and parents.

She wore a 65 blue and green floral print dress by maternity brand Seraphine, which she wore twice during her last pregnancy, for her first royal engagement of 2018.

Important cause: And a source told Royal Central that Kate is 'really keen to learn' as much as she can from the conference in London today

Popular choice: The now sold-out $545 (404) coat was the perfect flattering fit for Kate who was pregnant with Princess Charlotte at the time (pictured in 2014, left)

Busy week: Yesterday the Duchess visited the Reach Academy with Place2Be, her first royal engagement of the year after returning from the annual Christmas break in Sandringham

Today's conference is the first in a series of events presented by the Big Lottery Fund in collaboration with the ANCCF and HeadStart.

HeadStart is a National Lottery funded programme designed to give young people aged 10 to 16 the tools they need to overcome lifes challenges and prevent serious mental-health issues from developing.

Six local authority-led HeadStart partnerships are designing new approaches to providing support when and where it is needed, focusing on developing young peoples emotional resilience from an early age.

The conference aims to bridge research and practice by bringing cutting-edge researchers, commissioners, policy makers and service developers together to discuss key issues in the field.
With razor sharp cheekbones, perfect brows and plumped lips - Poland has now got its own answer to the 'Human Ken Doll'.

TV psychic medium, Michal Przybylowicz has been the talk of the Polish media for his startling likeliness to a plastic action figure.

But despite his incredible appearance, the star recently said in an interview with Polish magazine Se.pl that his looks are down to beauty treatments and not plastic surgery.

'I do not abuse the treatments of aesthetic medicine,' he said. 'It is more care with cosmetics.

The fortune-teller claims his look is purely down to the plumping and smoothing effects of hyaluronic acid.

Michal Przybylowicz (pictured) has been compared by Polish media to a Ken Doll

Michal has been likened to the country's 'Polish Barbie Doll', Anella An an architect from Poznan.

After spending around 30,000 on plastic surgery, she gained her nickname as well as nearly one million followers.

A fellow lover of selfies, nearly every photo on Michal's Instagram account is of himself, displaying an unbelievably smooth face and piecing eyes.

Michal goes under the pseudonym 'Wrozbita Michael' for his TV appearances where he conducts a wide range of mystic practices.

Michal's Instagram is full of selfies and snips from his various TV appearances and shoots

He claims to be able to read people's future using Tarot cards, crystal balls and the stars

He told Polish magazine Se.pl that he plans on having no further surgery and the treatments he has now are hyaluronic acid based

He works with Tarot cards, numerology, hypnosis, paranormal phenomena, magic and horoscopes.

One of the more remarkable sides to his career is his ability to speak to the dead.

He told Se.pl that he communicates with ghosts to find missing people.

He says he can speak to the dead and often uses his skill to locate missing people

His sharp cheekbones, exaggerated lips and chiseled jaw he admits are the work of surgery but has said that he has given it up now

He refuses, however, to predict death as it goes against his work ethos. As well as working with the deceased, he claims to predict political, economic and national forecasts.

As well as this, he told Gala.pl that he can also predict global phenomena. The part time model is also eager to advise on matters of love, health, career and finances.

Despite being in touch with supernatural abilities and claims to be able to see into the future, he puts emphasis on the fact that he doesn't have one hundred percent accuracy.He told Se.pl that he believes no one has the ability to be fully certain.
Riverdale star Lili Reinhart has opened up about the mental health struggles she has wrestled with since childhood.

The actress, 21, has in the past said she suffers from anxiety and depression, detailing how she went through debilitating panic attacks and how therapy ultimately gave her a new lease on life.

In a new interview with V Magazine, Lili further discussed how the conditions have impacted her throughout her life, and why she thinks it's essential for students to learn about them at school.

Candid: Riverdale star Lili Reinhart, 21, has opened up about the mental health struggles she has wrestled with since childhood, and how anxiety and depression have affected her

'It affected me in every way, ever,' Lili said of depression and anxiety, adding that the former has affected her since the seventh grade.

The actress, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, explained that her depression became 'extreme' after she moved to Los Angeles aged 18.

After struggling with a 'horrible roommate situation', she settled in the Hollywood Hills and lived in a house she shared with seven people.

'I didn't know anyone there. I didn't have any friends there,' she said. 'I didn't have any family there. So when I moved there, it was just me. And I wasn't going to school, so I didn't have any way to really meet people, necessarily, or be social. I was just kind of waiting around for my auditions.

'I spent most of my days literally doing nothing, sitting in my room watching Netflix and waiting for an audition to come in. And it was miserable.'

At that time, Lili didn't want to get a day job, because she didn't want to be in a position to have to quit on short notice if she booked a gig.

Role: The actress plays Betty Cooper in The CW's Riverdale, a teen drama inspired by the Archie Comics universe

Past: Lili, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, explained that her depression became 'extreme' after she moved to Los Angeles aged 18

She remained in LA for five months before moving back home to tend to her health issues.

'My health got so bad because of how depressed I was,' she recounted. 'I was throwing up every day, [having] panic attacks, night sweats, and I was just sad. There came a point when I called my mom, and I was like, "I need to come home. I'm not OK. I'm not good right now. My mental health isn't good."

'My mental health has always been such a priority to me that I knew when it was affecting my physical health.'

Once back at home, Lili saw a therapist for six months, saved up money, and 'build [her]self back up again'.

Eventually, she moved to LA again, and landed the part of Betty Cooper in The CW's Riverdale, which is inspired by the Archie Comics universe.

Now, she says she 'definitely' credits therapy with helping her cope with the conditions. Lili still sees a therapist in Canada, where Riverdale is filmed.

Education: The actress (pictured with her co-star Cole Sprouse) stressed how important it is for schools to tell their students about mental health issues

Healing: Now, Lili says she 'definitely' credits therapy with helping her cope with the conditions. She still sees a therapist in Canada, where Riverdale is filmed

'I've seen a therapist at different points in my life for different reasons. I'm not very good at stress management, and I have a very high-stress job, so it's definitely convenient for me to see a therapist right now at this point in my life,' she added. 'I am on medicationI've talked about that beforejust to help my anxiety, so I'm not depressed all the time.'

The actress stressed how important it is for schools to tell their students about mental health issues, because when her own struggles began, she was at a loss.

'I think it is important, and it's so f****d up to me that they don't talk about mental health in school,' she said. 'I didn't learn about depression or anxiety at school. So when I had to go to my parents to say "I need help, I need to go to therapy," I felt like this weird, messed up kid. And I wasn't, but I felt that way.'

Lili, who has said in a past Tumblr post an older man once tried to force himself on her whole on a date, leaving her feeling 'completely violated', said it's 'good' to see others coming forward and share their own stories.

'It's horrifying, because people that you looked up to or were a fan of are ruined now, which is unfortunate, but it's also like they got what's coming to them,' she said. 'I commend the women who came forward and were brave enough to point out the men and women who did that to them.

'I've dealt with sexual assault, but it never really affected my career too much. We all have in one way or another.'
While you might think a salad is innocent enough, not all choices are created equal.

In fact, many salads served at cafes around the world contain 'hidden nasties' like high sugar, salt, refined oils and poor quality, suspect meats.

With this in mind, FEMAIL spoke to the Head Nutritionist at popular salad chain, Sumo Salad, Ashleigh James, to find out what makes a healthy salad.

Here are her top five tips.

FEMAIL spoke to the Head Nutritionist at popular salad chain, Sumo Salad, Ashleigh James (pictured), to find out what makes a healthy salad

First things first, Ashleigh said you should base your salad on dark greens where possible like spinach, kale, watercress and rocket (stock image)

1. Base your choice on dark greens where possible

When many people picture a salad, they think of iceberg lettuce and tomato.

But, in fact, Ashleigh said it's all about dark green vegetables.

'Base your salad on dark greens like spinach, kale, watercress and rocket,' Ashleigh told FEMAIL.

'These are high in phytonutrients, antioxidants and fibre. They are also high in water content, which means you get bulk for low calories.'

Choose options which come with some kale or spinach or stir some dark leafy greens though your at-home version.

Dark leafy greens also have even more benefits, after research from late last year found that a daily portion of the super foods could help to ward off dementia in later life.

Research from late last year found that a daily portion of the super foods could help to ward off dementia in later life (stock image)

2. Look for salad that is high in protein and fibre

One of the qualms many people have around salad is that it's not a very filling option, and it won't necessarily keep you full all day.

'To keep you feeling fuller for longer, look for salads which are high in protein and fibre,' Ashleigh said.

'Think ingredients like tofu, salmon, eggs, beans and lean meat.'

The head nutritionist said that adding ingredients such as these are good because they are 'low GI and will keep you satisfied throughout the day'.

Try to include one serving of one of these in each salad you eat to prevent the 3pm munchies.

Include as many colours as possible in your salad, as a rainbow option packed full of ingredients is always going to be better for you than a single one (stock image)

3. Include as many colours as possible

It's an old tip, but a good one. A rainbow salad packed full of ingredients is always going to be better for you than one that is dominant in any one ingredient:

How to choose a healthy salad 1. Base your choice on dark greens where possible. 2. Look for salad that is high in protein and fibre. 3. Include as many colours of the rainbow as possible. 4. Get an even spread of macronutrients - protein, carbohydrates and fat. 5. Ask for your dressing on the side. Advertisement

'Spinach, carrot, beetroot, tomato, sweet potato, avocado, sprouts and purple cabbage are all great,' Ashleigh said.

'Don't be afraid to think outside the box either and include veggies that might traditionally be seen as cooked veggies like zucchini and mushroom.'

Mix them up and make your very own DIY salad bowl.

4. Get an even spread of macronutrients

Macronutrients - which constitute varying amounts of protein, fat and carbs - are all the rage right now in the health industry, and with good reason.

Eating the right amount of each one can help to keep you slim and healthy.

'Make sure your salad includes a serving of complex carbohydrates like brown rice, quinoa or root vegetables,' Ashleigh said.

'Then include a serving of protein and alternate meat days with veggie days.

'Finally, make sure to include some healthy fats like avocado and nuts.'

Extra virgin olive oil drizzled over a salad with some seeds is also a great option.

Make sure your salad has the correct macronutrients - so some protein like tofu or meat, some carbohydrates - ideally complex - and some good fat like olive oil (stock image)

5. Ask for your dressing on the side

Last but not least, if eating a salad on the go, Ashleigh recommends getting your dressing on the side of your meal:

'If you don't know what is in your dressing, get it on the side so you can control how much you consume,' she said.

'If you are making a dressing at home, a fail safe option is lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and a dash of olive oil.'

To find out more about Sumo Salad, please click here.
While his nuptials will be a more low-key affair than the 2011 Royal wedding extravaganza, it seems that hasn't stopped Prince Harry from copying his brother's choice of tipple.

The fifth-in-line to the throne is believed to have chosen the same wine supplier as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge when he ties the knot with Meghan Markle in May.

Unconfirmed local reports suggest the thrifty couple will order the booze for their private wedding reception from The Chapel Down winery in Tenterden, Kent, just as Kate and William did seven years ago.

The wine starts at just 13 a bottle for a white Bacchus and 24 a bottle for a classic sparkling Brut.

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Is this what Harry and Meghan's guests will sip on? Chapel Down's wine starts at just 13 a bottle for a white Bacchus and 24 a bottle for a classic sparkling Brut (pictured)

The countdown is on: Harry and Meghan's wedding will take place at St George's Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle on May 19 because it is a place 'close to the couple's hearts'

William and Kate's unusual choice to serve English white wine at their lavish wedding meal in April 2011 was in keeping with their desire to show off 'what Britain does best' in all aspects of the ceremony, from Kates dress down to the cake maker.

As with the 2011 wedding, the finer details of Harry and Meghan's nuptials have been kept closely under wraps and the winery is unlikely to make an announcement surrounding its role ahead of the big day.

Chapel Down and Kensington Palace declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.

The winery wouldn't confirm their involvement in Kate and William's 2011 nuptials either, but later hinted that it was 'fantastic to be associated with the royal family'.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding will take place at St George's Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle on May 19 because it is a place 'close to the couple's hearts'.

Royal seal of approval: The winery wouldn't confirm their involvement in Kate and William's 2011 nuptials either, but hinted that it was 'fantastic to be associated with the royal family'

Thrifty: William and Kate's unusual choice to serve English white wine at their lavish meal in April 2011 was in keeping with their desire to show off 'what Britain does best'

The couple chose the 'very special' venue because the prince and his fiancee spent time there together during their 16-month romance and Harry was previously based in the town with his Army regiment, the Blues and Royals.

The couple have shunned a larger wedding at Westminster Abbey or St Paul's for a more intimate church service at St George's, where his father Charles had a blessing after marrying Camilla in the nearby Guildhall in 2005.

Harry's communication's secretary Jason Knauf said that the couple, who were grateful for the warm wishes from the public, would be putting their stamp on their wedding day' and would make sure 'it reflects who they are as a couple'.
Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood could be reuniting to judge the Bake Off once again - but only Stateside.

In news bound to delight long-time fans of the hit baking show, a source claims that TV executives are hoping to recruit Mary for the Great American Baking Show.

She would join Paul Hollywood, who bosses at the ABC Network are still backing to return as a judge on the US show despite poor ratings.

Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry could reunite on the Great American Baking Show 'depending on schedule,' according to ABC

ABC Network President Channing Dungey told The Sun's Dan Wootton that Mary could be joining the programme 'depending on schedule'.

He said: 'The format is not that different from the British version but I think viewers respond to the hosts and the people we have here.

'We are excited about the way we are doing the show here in America.'

Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry have not been judges on the Bake Off together since the last series of GBBO on the BBC in 2016 (pictured on the show in 2016)

The news comes as channel bosses are expected to try and revive flagging ratings by replicating the winning formula of the Great British Bake Off, a source said.

A source told The Sun: 'The Mary and Paul combo is a winning formula and American bosses are well aware of that.'

Paul Hollywood was brought in as a judge on the third series of The Great American Baking Show to replace Mary Berry, who was on the show for the first two series.

But ABC was forced to pull the third series after just two episodes in December when Paul's co-judge Johnny Iuzzini was accused of sexual misconduct.

The third series averaged just 3.84 million viewers per episode, down on the second series' average ratings of 4.39 million per episode.
A 12-year-old girl has died from organ failure after doctors mistook her symptoms for the flu.

Doctors misdiagnosed a bacterial infection for the flu, assuming Alyssa Alcaraz was one of the thousands that has been infected with the virus this season.

After the original diagnosis, Alyssa stayed home from school for several days but her flu-like symptoms, including vomiting, continued.

It wasn't until she died on December 17 that it was discovered the young girl had developed septic shock from a strep infection that caused her organs to fail.

Alyssa Alcaraz, 12, died in December when septic shock caused her organs to shut down from a strep infection in her blood, originally thought to be the flu

Alyssa's older sister Mariah Alcaraz told KFSN: 'I remember she came home from school and she was throwing up and I thought ''oh she's probably got food poisoning she's going to be okay.'''

A trip to urgent care diagnosed her with the flu.

However, days passed without relief and the girl's mother took her back to urgent care.

That was when a doctor realized Alyssa's oxygen levels were dangerously low.

She was immediately rushed to Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, California, but within hours Alyssa's organs began shutting down and she coded six times, according to family.

Her death certificate indicates that she went into cardiac arrest and septic shock from a strep bacteria that infected her blood stream.

But some of her symptoms leading up to her death did coincide with the flu.

While a strep blood infection would cause similar symptoms such as fever, body aches, fatigue and poor appetite, you would not experience common cold symptoms such as nasal congestion and coughing.

Alyssa suffered from group A streptococcal infection. This bacteria is often found on the surface of the skin and inside the throat, leading to the common strep throat.

In rare cases, the strep A bacteria can penetrate deeper inside the tissues and organs of the body, becoming an invasive infection.

The bacteria can enter through sores or breaks in the skin if not treated with the proper medication, which may be what happened to Alyssa.

The infection typically begins to go away within 24 hours when treated with the proper antibiotics.

Strep can be spread by coming in contact with a cough or sneeze from someone infected which could be what caused Alyssa's devastating diagnosis.

According to her obituary: 'Alyssa had a passion for music, not a day went by that she wouldn't sing her little heart out.'
Oxford University academics gave African babies a new TB vaccine linked to the deaths of monkeys in tests.

Nearly 1,400 infants were given the experimental jab even though five of six primates involved in a trial died.

An information sheet given to the parents of the babies in 2009 said the vaccine had been tested on animals and was shown to be safe and effective. But it did not mention the failed monkey trial.

The details, published last night after an investigation by the British Medical Journal, prompted calls for a tightening of rules governing the way animal research is reported. Oxford researchers were accused of cherry picking their scientific evidence.

Oxford University academics gave the vaccine to almost 1,400 children despite it killing five of six primates involved in trials (pictured: a macaque monkey at Oxford University's animal testing lab from a 2006 documentary)

The babies, from South Africa, were not harmed by the jab  called MVA85A  but it did nothing to protect them against tuberculosis.

Oxford, which later dropped the vaccine, insists it provided the results of the monkey study to regulators in the UK, the US and South Africa before the infant trial began. It had shown no safety issues in four other animal studies  in mice, guinea pigs and other monkeys.

And it had also been tested in 14 studies on humans, involving 400 adults, teenagers and children in the UK, Gambia and South Africa before it was given to infants. The Oxford researchers say the monkeys died in one particular study because they had used a stronger version of TB.

The animals had become very unwell and had to be put down. But experts say that should not have stopped Oxford from making the results known to the South African parents  and accused scientists of using a pick and mix approach to their findings.

Professor Malcolm Macleod, of the University of Edinburgh, said: We need to develop better and more systematic ways to establish when a drug is ready for clinical trials in humans  and importantly, when it is not.

Until our institutions recognise that their core purpose is to produce research of value to society they risk a slow decline in their reputation, and possibly a faster and more serious erosion of public trust in science.

Jonathan Kimmelman, of McGill University in Canada, said the Oxford case was not an isolated one. Its widely recognised that animal studies intended to support drug development are often riddled with flaws in design and reporting, he said.

Unfortunately, there are other cases where new treatments were put into human testing on animal evidence that was foreseeably flawed, incomplete, or even negative.

Oxford said it would have actually been unethical not to proceed with the baby trial, given that the vaccine had proved promising in so many previous tests. A series of allegations are said to have been made about the trial by a former employee, Professor Peter Beverley, against the scientist who developed the vaccine, Professor Helen McShane.

The vaccine did not harm the South African children - but it didn't protect them against tuberculosis either

Three separate investigations by the university cleared her of any wrong-doing. Professor Ewan McKendrick, registrar of the university, said: The third panel in 2016 not only cleared Professor McShane of any academic misconduct, but went so far as to add that on the basis of the vaccines proven safety in humans and positive phase 1 and phase 2A trials, it would have been unethical not to have proceeded with the phase 2 trials in infants.

The time has come to stop the repeated repackaging of criticisms and allegations which independent expert analysis has demonstrated to be without foundation.

Professor Mike Turner of the Wellcome Trust, which funded the study, said clinical trials were carried out to the highest standard. The decision to test this candidate vaccine was correct and based on robust, positive data from smaller trials in humans that showed that the candidate vaccine was safe and that it might be effective, he added.

Human trials do not always generate the same results as animal testing, which is why results in animal models are typically only one of a set of considerations in determining whether to move research forward.
The NHS is struggling with its worst winter ever as A&E waiting times hit their highest on record, damning figures released today reveal.

New data from NHS England shows the health service is operating at a poorer level than at the same point in 2016, which was branded a 'humanitarian crisis' and saw the British Red Cross drafted in to help.

The alarming statistics show:

One in five patients at major casualty units waited longer than four hours - the safe limit set by the Government - to be seen in December

The statistics showed that for all A&E units, 85.1 per cent of patients were seen within the four-hour period - equaling last January's record low.

More than 300,000 patients were forced to wait for at least four hours in all A&E units - the highest amount since figures began in 2010.

Ambulance delays have also risen to record proportions, with more than 5,000 patients left stuck in the back of the vehicles waiting to be transferred to A&E.

While bed occupancy levels have hit their worst point yet this winter, with 24 trusts declaring they had no free beds at some point last week, the figures show.

The 'disappointing' figures have been escalating rapidly in the past few weeks, with the crisis now at the forefront of a political row over funding.

Prime Minister Theresa May and Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt have been forced to publically apologise amid the crisis, which has seen furious medics beg for extra funding to cope.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has attacked the Government for its handling of the crisis, warning Mrs May is ignoring the desperate calls of nurses for more money.



Officials have slammed the new figures, which come a week after an unprecedented move by health chiefs to cancel 55,000 operations.

Bosses have also warned the health service is in the midst of a 'watershed moment' because it cannot currently deliver required levels of care.

A&E staff have spoke of their grave concerns of the 'battlefield' conditions they have faced this winter, revealing they are 'ashamed' over the 'substandard care'.



The number of ambulance patients having to wait over 30 minutes to be taken into hospital has risen by over 6,000 a week since November

The data shows that over 5,000 extra beds were brought into service to cope with demand

The number of 111 calls was up by 200,000 in December compared with the 2016 figure

New data from NHS England shows the health service is operating at a poorer level than at the same point in 2016, which was branded a 'humanitarian crisis'

Officials have slammed the 'disappointing' statistics, released by NHS England, which come a week after an unprecedented move to cancel 55,000 operations

AMBULANCE DELAYS

Separate figures released by the NHS today also show the number of patients being forced to wait at least an hour in ambulances has risen.

More than 5,000 patients were forced to wait in the back of the emergency vehicles for at least an hour to be seen by over-stretched A&E staff.

Some 16,600 people were forced to wait for more than 30 minutes in ambulances to be seen by staff at A&E over the first week of January.

Usually, it should take up to 15 minutes to transfer patients from an ambulance into hospital. Delays can happen when there isn't enough A&E staff to take the patient.

BED OCCUPANCIES

The overall bed occupancy rate sits at 95 per cent - well above the recommended safe levels of 85 per cent, according to data from all 137 trusts in England.

This is a significant jump on the figure recorded for the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, when it sat at 91.7 per cent.

Figures showed 24 hospital trusts had no free beds on at least one day during the latest week, starting New Year's Day and ending January 7.

PM WARNED PATIENTS ARE 'DYING PREMATURELY' IN CORRIDORS, LEAKED LETTER REVEALS Furious A&E chiefs have warned Prime Minister Theresa May that patients are 'dying prematurely' in hospital corridors. A leaked letter, written by the bosses of 60 casualty units, reveals there are 'serious concerns' about patient safety amid the NHS' worst winter on record. Chiefs warned just 45 per cent of patients had been seen within four hours in some A&E units during last week - well below recommended levels. The strongly-worded letter also revealed how levels were 'never higher than 75 per cent'. The Government time-target is 95 per cent. Furious A&E chiefs have warned Prime Minister Theresa May that patients are 'dying prematurely' in hospital corridors Their revelation, seen by HSJ, mirrors figures released by NHS England today which showed waiting times have reached their worst on record. Fears have been raised that the problems will only worsen, amid the rapid spread of flu which some expect to be the worst outbreak in 50 years. Names on the scathing letter, dated yesterday, included some of the bosses of the biggest and busiest casualty units across the country. They included: Cambridge University Hospitals, Guys and St Thomas Hospital, Kings College Hospital and Central Manchester University Hospitals. They warned the NHS is 'chronically underfunded' and not prepared for the winter onslaught, now considered to be the worst recorded in recent history. Advertisement

Some 13 trusts scattered across the country were completely full on New Year's Day - roughly a tenth of hospitals across the NHS in England.

A&E WAITING TIMES

More than 300,000 patients were forced to wait for at least four hours in all A&E units - the highest amount since figures began in 2010.

This is a 35 per cent jump in the space of a week, the figures revealed.

Just 77.3 per cent of patients at major casualty units were seen in December within the four-hour time target - the safe limit set by the Government.

The statistics showed that for all A&E units, 85.1 per cent of patients were seen within the four-hour period - equaling last January's record low.

The target of seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours has not been met since July 2015.

NHS 111 CALLS

Calls to NHS 111, the non-emergency hotline, are also at high levels - with 360,000 recorded last week.

JEREMY CORBYN LEADS ATTACKS ON THE GOVERNMENT OVER NHS CRISIS... WHILE IN MEXICO Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has attacked the Government for its handling of the crisis, warning Mrs May is ignoring the desperate calls of nurses for more money His Twitter account has been churning out criticism of the Government over the NHS crisis. But as ministers have been active and Theresa May went to hear the problems of hospital staff yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn was relaxing in sunny Mexico. The Labour leader has attacked Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt for going missing, while he has been more than 5,000 miles away over Christmas and New Year. Yesterday he issued a message saying: 'It is not good enough for Theresa May to say NHS problems are 'frustrating' and 'disappointing' when the Tory Government has caused this crisis. Nurses, doctors and patients are pleading with her to properly fund our health service, but she is ignoring them.' The Prime Minister visited Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey last week and apologised for the cancelled operations. Advertisement

The Royal College of Surgeons said the figures were 'disappointing'.

A spokesman added: 'It further demonstrates why it has been necessary to cancel patients non-urgent procedures until the end of January.

'Despite the best efforts and dedication of NHS staff to treat patients quickly, waiting times for non-urgent care have also deteriorated again in the past year.

AUSSIE FLU DEATHS CONTINUE TO SOAR Flu deaths have soared by 77 per cent in just a week, Government figures reveal as fears of the worst outbreak in 50 years loom large. Public Health England data also shows the killer virus has left 1,938 in hospital since October - a quarter because of 'Aussie flu' and half from 'Japanese flu'. The latest figures state 85 people have lost their lives to the bug already this winter, compared to the 48 deaths recorded last week. This is adding extra pressure onto an already stretched NHS, which is considered to be in the midst of its worst winter on record. Health bosses have blamed the rapidly escalating cases of flu as the reason behind their controversial decision to cancel 55,000 operations last week - a move also made by French officials as the European country battles an epidemic. Experts fear the dreaded Aussie flu is more severe than the Swine flu pandemic of 2009 which killed nearly 300,000 people across the world. Advertisement

'Last week, NHS England advised that hospitals defer non-urgent inpatient planned care until the end of January and that day-case procedures and routine patient appointments should also be deferred where this will release clinical time for emergency care.

'Although this should help relieve some of the pressures on hospitals and avoid last-minute cancellations, it is a short-term solution and will cause huge disruption to those patients whose appointments and operations have been cancelled.'

Donna Kinnair, of the Royal College of Nurses, said: 'Todays figures demonstrate why NHS Providers are calling this a watershed moment for the Health Service.

'Fewer trusts than ever before were able to meet the A&E four hour target, almost 100 per cent of hospital beds were full every day last week, way above the 85 per cent safe limit recommended by experts, and almost 1,000 beds a day were lost to Norovirus outbreaks.

'We can no longer call this a winter crisis  without more staff and more funding for the NHS, this crisis risks continuing to run well into spring and summer.'

Responding to todays NHS England performance figures, Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the healthcare sector, said: 'These are some of the worst figures since we started recording this data.

'They reflect intolerable pressure on a system which is understaffed and underfunded. This is an outcome we feared and consistently warned was likely to occur.'

A letter written by the chief executive of NHS Providers - the trade body which represents NHS services - has called for the Government to commit to increasing the NHS budget to 153 billion by 2022/23.

Chris Hopson said investment on a long-term basis - and help with the immediate financial impact of 'exceptional winter pressures' - was needed to address the 'fragility of the wider NHS'.

Mr Hopson said: 'Despite planning for winter more thoroughly and extensively than before, it hasnt been sufficient. Rising numbers of flu cases and more respiratory illness have placed intolerable pressures on staff.

THE 'HUMANITARIAN CRISIS' OF 2016 ON THE NHS The NHS endured its worst ever winter crisis, with waiting times, cancelled operations and bed-blocking running at, or near, record levels last year. Official figures illustrated the scale of the scale of the turmoil to engulf the health service in the face of unprecedented pressures. Bed-blocking due to a lack of social care places was at a record high with more than 2,500 health patients prevented from leaving hospitals each day - specifically because there is nowhere for them to go. Statistics from NHS England report also revealed nearly 200,000 patients waited at least four hours in A&E between the winter months of December to February - a five-fold increase from just 41,000 five years previously. Supporters of the NHS reacted in fury after the Red Cross claimed hospitals were facing a 'humanitarian crisis' after its worst week in 15 years Extreme waiting times also reached record levels, as nearly 2,000 patients were forced to wait at least 12 hours in A&E over the same period. And cancer referral rates in February were at their second lowest level on record. Supporters of the NHS reacted in fury after the Red Cross claimed hospitals were facing a 'humanitarian crisis' after its worst winter in 15 years. The charity said it stepped in to help the NHS in England to deal with the increased demand during the winter, but have been hit with criticism accusing them of overstating the issue. It comes as it emerged that two patients died on trolleys in Worcestershire Royal Hospital's accident and emergency department in January. Advertisement

'The NHS is no longer able to deliver the constitutional standards to which it is committed. We need to be realistic about what we can provide on the funding available.

THE TRUSTS THAT RAN OUT OF SPACE Weston Area Health NHS Trust

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Isle Of Wight NHS Trust

University Hospitals Of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust

Tameside And Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

East Cheshire NHS Trust

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust

Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust

Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust

Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

East And North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust

The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust

Lewisham And Greenwich NHS Trust

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust Advertisement

'If we continue to run the NHS at close to 100 per cent capacity, day in, day out, permanently in the red zone, its not surprising that the service cant cope when we get a high, but entirely predictable, spike in demand.'

The new figures came after the unprecedented move to cancel up to 55,000 non-urgent operations to free up beds and frontline staff amid a rise in flu cases.

The decision prompted an apology from then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt last week, following pressure from his critics that he was 'running scared'.

Prime Minister Theresa May also apologised for the controversial decision to postpone some operations.

Families have been asked to look after elderly patients at home to free up beds as hospitals struggle to cope with the ever-increasing pressure.

The advice was issued at three hospitals, Northampton General Hospital, Bedford Hospital and Western Sussex.

The crisis, which has also been denied by Professor Keith Willett, NHS England's director for acute care, has been described as the worst since the 1990s.

The first week in January is normally very busy for hospitals, but this year many more patients are succumbing to severe chest infections and flu.

Experts are particularly worried about an aggressive flu strain, H3N2  responsible for Australia's worst flu epidemic in 50 years.

The main reason A&E units are overcrowded is because hospital wards are extremely full, so anyone arriving to A&E who needs to be admitted must wait for hours on a trolley until a bed is free.

Many of the patients occupying hospital beds are elderly and medically well enough to go home. But doctors cannot discharge them due to a lack of social care.
One in five people regularly use mints in a bid to freshen their breath, according to new research  but they're only making the problem worse.

That's according to a dentist who said the sugar not only rots teeth but causes odours.

Australia-based James Buchanan said: 'Mints are a popular way to expel bad breath.

'However, mouth bacteria turns sugar in mints to acid which wears down teeth and causes bad breath. It is best to use something like a sugar-free gum.'

Instead, he recommends eating yoghurt and fruit for breakfast to clean your mouth and freshen your breath.

Celery and apples will also help by increasing your saliva and washing away odour-causing particles.

The sugar in mints not only rots teeth but causes odours, according to a dentist (stock image)

BAD BREATH DOS AND DO NOT'S Don't have: Mints Do have: Yoghurt, fruit, celery and apples Advertisement

The Vital Statistics poll on behalf of White Glo surveyed 2,000 people about their dental hygiene habits.

Alarmingly, only 52 per cent reported brushing their teeth twice a day, which is the recommended amount.

The most common cause of bad breath is poor oral hygiene, although other reasons are food and drink, smoking and certain medications and medical conditions.

Mr Buchanan speaking to The Sun added: 'While trapped food particles can contribute to bad breath, the most common cause is plaque build-up on teeth.'

How does tooth decay occur?

This damage can lead to tooth decay which can cause bad breath. Tooth decay can occur when acid is produced from plaque, which builds up on your teeth.

When we consume food and drink high in carbohydrates  particularly sugary foods and drinks  the bacteria in plaque turn the carbohydrates into energy they need, producing acid at the same time.

If the plaque is allowed to build up, the acid can begin to break down the surface of your tooth, causing holes known as cavities.

The cavity begins to eat away at the second level of tooth material that lies beneath the enamel: the dentin.

Mr Buchanan suggested using a soft bristle toothbrush as hard brushes tend to damage the enamel.
Furious A&E chiefs have warned Prime Minister Theresa May that patients are 'dying prematurely' in hospital corridors.

A leaked letter, written by the bosses of 60 casualty units, reveals there are 'serious concerns' about patient safety amid the NHS' worst winter on record.

Chiefs warned just 45 per cent of patients had been seen within four hours in some A&E units during last week - well below recommended levels.

The strongly-worded letter also revealed how levels were 'never higher than 75 per cent'. The Government time-target is 95 per cent.

Their revelation, seen by HSJ, mirrors figures released by NHS England today which showed waiting times have reached their worst on record.

Fears have been raised that the problems will only worsen, amid the rapid spread of flu which some expect to be the worst outbreak in 50 years.

Names on the scathing letter, dated yesterday, included some of the bosses of the biggest and busiest casualty units across the country.

A leaked letter, written by the bosses of 60 casualty units, reveals there are 'serious concerns' about patient safety amid the NHS' worst winter on record (stock)

They included: Cambridge University Hospitals, Guys and St Thomas Hospital, Kings College Hospital and Central Manchester University Hospitals.

They warned the NHS is 'chronically underfunded' and not prepared for the winter onslaught, now considered to be the worst recorded in recent history.

The letter read: 'It has been stated that the NHS was better prepared for this winter than ever before.

'There is no question that a huge amount of effort and energy has been spent both locally and nationally on drawing up plans for coping with NHS winter pressures.

'Our experience at the frontline is that these plans have failed to deliver anywhere near what was needed.

'The fact remains however that the NHS is severely and chronically underfunded.

'We have insufficient hospital and community beds and staff of all disciplines especially at the front door to cope with our ageing populations health needs.'

It continued: 'We feel compelled to speak out in support of our hardworking and dedicated nursing, medical and allied health professional colleagues and for the very serious concerns we have for the safety of our patients.

'The current level of safety compromise is at times intolerable, despite the best efforts of staff.

Furious A&E chiefs have warned Prime Minister Theresa May that patients are 'dying prematurely' in hospital corridors

HOW BAD IS THE NHS CRISIS? AMBULANCE DELAYS Separate figures released by the NHS today also show the number of patients being forced to wait at least an hour in ambulances has risen. More than 5,000 patients were forced to wait in the back of the emergency vehicles for at least an hour to be seen by over-stretched A&E staff. Some 16,600 people were forced to wait for more than 30 minutes in ambulances to be seen by staff at A&E over the first week of January. Usually, it should take up to 15 minutes to transfer patients from an ambulance into hospital. Delays can happen when there isn't enough A&E staff to take the patient. BED OCCUPANCIES The overall bed occupancy rate sits at 95 per cent - well above the recommended safe levels of 85 per cent, according to data from all 137 trusts in England. This is a significant jump on the figure recorded for the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, when it sat at 91.7 per cent. Figures showed 24 hospital trusts had no free beds on at least one day during the latest week, starting New Year's Day and ending January 7. Some 13 trusts scattered across the country were completely full on New Year's Day - roughly a tenth of hospitals across the NHS in England. A&E WAITING TIMES More than 300,000 patients were forced to wait for at least four hours in all A&E units - the highest amount since figures began in 2010. This is a 35 per cent jump in the space of a week, the figures revealed. Just 77.3 per cent of patients at major casualty units were seen in December within the four-hour time target - the safe limit set by the Government. The statistics showed that for all A&E units, 85.1 per cent of patients were seen within the four-hour period - equaling last January's record low. The target of seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours has not been met since July 2015. Advertisement

'Last weeks four hour target was between 45 and 75 per cent. Thousands of patients are waiting in ambulances for hours as the hospitals lack adequate space.'

The letter comes as NHS England data today showed the health service is operating at a poorer level than last year - which was branded a 'humanitarian crisis'.

WHAT DID THE FULL LETTER SAY? It has been stated that the NHS was better prepared for this winter than ever before. There is no question that a huge amount of effort and energy has been spent both locally and nationally on drawing up plans for coping with NHS winter pressures. Our experience at the frontline is that these plans have failed to deliver anywhere near what was needed. The fact remains however that the NHS is severely and chronically underfunded. We have insufficient hospital and community beds and staff of all disciplines especially at the front door to cope with our ageing populations health needs. We feel compelled to speak out in support of our hardworking and dedicated nursing, medical and allied health professional colleagues and for the very serious concerns we have for the safety of our patients. The current level of safety compromise is at times intolerable, despite the best efforts of staff. Last weeks four hour target was between 45 and 75 per cent. Thousands of patients are waiting in ambulances for hours as the hospitals lack adequate space. Advertisement

Alarming statistics, collected from between New Year's Day and January 7, showed ambulance delays and bed occupancy levels had both risen.

More than 5,000 patients were left stuck in the back of ambulances waiting to be transferred to A&E - the highest total noted this winter.

The overall bed occupancy rate sits at 95 per cent - well above the recommended safe levels of 85 per cent, according to data from all 137 trusts in England

While more than 300,000 patients were forced to wait for at least four hours in all A&E units - the highest amount since figures began in 2010.

The 'disappointing' figures have been escalating rapidly in the past few weeks, with the crisis now at the forefront of a political row over funding.

Mrs May and Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt have apologised amid the crisis, which has seen furious medics beg for extra funding to cope.

NHS Providers - the trade body which represents NHS services - has called for the Government to commit to increasing the NHS budget to 153 billion by 2022/23.

Bosses have also warned the health service is in the midst of a 'watershed moment' because it cannot currently deliver required levels of care.

Officials slammed the latest figures, which came a week after an unprecedented move by health chiefs to cancel 55,000 operations.

A&E staff have spoke of their grave concerns of the 'battlefield' conditions they have faced this winter, revealing they are 'ashamed' over the 'substandard care'.
A teenager has become only the fifth person in the world to be cured of rabies, according to Brazilian health officials.

Mateus dos Santos da Silva, 14, was one of three children from the same family who contracted the disease in November last year.

The virus killed his two siblings  Lucas, 17, and Miria, 10, within weeks of each other after it took hold.

Mateus was bitten several times by vampire bats in Rio Unini, a rural community situated on the Rio Negro, a major river flowing through the Amazon jungle.

Now the youngster has made a remarkable recovery after pioneering treatment that saw him placed in an induced coma.

This is said to protect the brain and help patients survive long enough for their immune system to produce antibodies to fight off the virus.

He is the second person in Brazil to be cured of rabies, after Recife-based Marciano Menezes was saved in 2009.

Mateus dos Santos da Silva, 14, is the fifth person in the world to be cured of rabies

Levi Castro da Silva, Mateus' father, spoke at Brazil's Department of Health press conference about his son's recovery

Recife-based Marciano Menezes (pictured) was the first person in the country to be cured of the deadly disease in 2009

The boy's father, Levi Castro da Silva, 47, said: 'Mateus's survival is nothing short of a miracle. He is still recovering and very weak and he is unable to move certain parts of his body.

'The recovery process is full of risks, but we are full of hope as we know the worst is over. We are looking forward to having him home soon, to see him walking, talking and laughing again.'

Experimental procedure

Rabies is a rare but very serious infection of the brain and nerves and is almost always fatal once symptoms appear.

The virus infects the central nervous system, causing confusion or aggressive behaviour, hallucinations, frothing at the mouth and paralysis and ultimately death. The illness can take up to nine months to manifest.

Mateus was admitted to the Tropical Medical Foundation (FMT) in Manaus suffering from fever and tingling in the hands on the same day his sister died.

But the resilient youth survived after being treated with the Milwaukee protocol. The experimental procedure, created by American doctor Rodney Willoughby, involves administering antiviral drugs while putting the patient into a chemically induced coma to protect the brain from damage.

Bats with atypical characteristics are taken to the Zoonoses Control Centre in Belo Horizonte Center for investigation of possible infection with the rabies virus

Dr Antonio Magela from Tropical Medical Foundation (FMT) who coordinated the teenager's treatment said he was optimistic but cautious about the boy's recovery

Throughout the treatment, medical teams were in contact with Dr Willoughby who monitored and contributed his expertise to the case.

Mateus spent 40 days in intensive care (ICU) in an induced coma supported by mechanical ventilation.

According to Dr Antonio Magela, infectious disease specialist at FMT who coordinated the treatment, the young man's chances were boosted by an early diagnosis and his immediate hospitalisation.

Sadly, this was not the case for his siblings, who were already in the full throes of the illness.

During the a press conference he said: 'Mateus arrived just hours after his sister died suffering from tingling and numbness in the hands but he didn't have any neurological symptoms.

'He was immediately admitted and that same night, he had a seizure and had to be sedated and sent to ICU.

'He was treated from the start with the Milwaukee protocol, due to the history of bat attacks.'

WHAT IS MILWAUKEE PROTOCOL? A teenager from the US became the first patient known to have survived rabies without receiving the rabies vaccine. In 2004, student Jeanna Giese, then 15, was bitten by a bat she picked up while attending church in her hometown in Wisconsin. Thirty-seven days after the bite, she was admitted to hospital with double vision, slurred speech, and jerking in her left arm. Dr Rodney Willoughby successfully treated her with the Milwaukee protocol, sometimes referred to as the Wisconsin protocol. His goal was to put her into an induced coma to essentially protect her brain from the rabies virus with the hope she would survive long enough for her immune system to produce the antibodies to fight off the virus. The girl was brought out of the coma after six days and after 31 days in the hospital, she was declared virus-free and removed from isolation. Mr Menezes remains confined to a wheelchair but dreams of walking one day In Brazil, Recife-based Marciano Menezes made history after he became the first person in Brazil to be cured of rabies in 2009. He was bitten in the ankle by a vampire bat while he slept. After he left ICU, the man, who is now 24 years old, underwent orthopaedic surgery for his upper and lower limbs which had atrophied. He remains confined to a wheelchair but dreams of walking one day. Advertisement

Recovery promising

After more than a month of life-saving treatment, the patient was discharged this month from ICU and is already out of bed and in a chair.

He is expected to remain in hospital for at least four months to combat complications and to aid his rehabilitation.

He is being monitored by paediatricians, physiotherapists, nutritionists, neurologist and other professionals.

Dr Magela said: 'It is possible to celebrate his recovery, but we have to be cautious since the disease can leave complications.

'Mateus is already reacting to the presence of his family and rejecting food he doesn't like. This is all good news.

'Also, the fact that he is swallowing spontaneously and breathing independently makes us think that the key areas of his nervous system have been preserved or are recovering.

'The first patient to be cured of rabies in Brazil was hospitalised for nine months and still has outpatient follow-ups.

'We want to ensure this teenager has the best possible recovery. Therefore, he will continue to be accompanied by a multidisciplinary team.'

Sister 'drenched in blood from bites on her elbows'

His survival has been hailed a miracle by family and friends in the small close-knit jungle community as Mateus has become only the second person in the South American country to beat the deadly virus.

Mr Castro da Silva said that while he celebrated the prospect of his son's recovery he remained concerned that authorities had failed to protect the community with preventative vaccines and measures to control the blood-sucking creatures, prevalent in the forest area.

He said: 'My children were contaminated with the disease because of the lack of information.

'We have never received guidance on the prevention of human rabies. More than 88 people in our area were bitten by bats in 2017.

'We reported the incidents but never got help. If we had, maybe all my children would be alive today.

'Every day for over a year, my ten-year-old daughter Miria would get up drenched in blood from bites on her elbows, on her hands and to her toes.

The department of health in Brazil is carrying out a vaccination programme

'She suffered more than 20 lacerations during this period. But the symptoms of the disease took some time to appear. Miria became poorly in the same week my other son Lucas fell ill.'

Lucas, 17, died in hospital in November last year, from viral encephalitis inflammation on the brain.

He had been bitten more than ten times since 2016 by the nocturnal mammals. An autopsy found the adolescent was infected with the lyssavirus, which causes human rabies.

Miria was hospitalised for 16 days and underwent urgent treatment to combat the virus but died on 2 December.

A venom paste is applied to the bats to to cull and control the spread of them

Brazil's department of health has been carrying out a vaccination programme in the Rio Unini district including inoculating cats and dogs.

It is also capturing and applying a venom paste to the bats to cull and control the spread of them.

Health teams have supplied residents with mosquito nets impregnated with pesticide and insect repellents along with health education advice.
Joe Biden has acknowledged that toxic military burn pits could have been a 'significant' factor that drove his son to an early death from terminal brain cancer.

Beau Biden, who was 46 when he died in 2015, served in Iraq at two locations which commonly burned waste in open pits, using jet fuel to speed up the process.

Now, after years of studies suggesting links between cancer and burn pits, Beau's father Joe has made his first public comments on the matter, saying he was 'stunned' by a book which tracked his son's exposure to the carcinogenic fumes.

'[T]hat stunned me. I didn't know that,' Biden said in an interview with PBS News Hour on Wednesday.

Making links: Joe Biden has acknowledged that toxic military burn pits could have been a 'significant' factor that drove his son to an early death from terminal brain cancer

Beau Biden, who was 46 when he died in 2015, served in Iraq at two locations which commonly burned waste in open pits, using jet fuel to speed up the process. Pictured with his dad in 2009

Burn pits were a commonly-used method to get rid of waste in Afghanistan and Iraq, torching anything from paints and tires to electronics.

While the Department of Veterans Affairs does not yet acknowledge a link between the pits and long-term health risks, an increasing number of studies - including a book which Joe Biden cites called The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America's Soldiers - are suggesting otherwise.

The Burn Pits, by Joseph Hickman, featured an entire chapter on Beau Biden.

Beau, the former vice president's eldest son, served in Iraq from 2008 to 2009, at Camp Victory in Baghdad and the nearby Balad Air Force Base.

A year later, he was hospitalized with what appeared to be a mini stroke. In 2013, he was hospitalized once more, and diagnosed with the most common form of brain cancer, glioblastoma - the same cancer John McCain currently has.

Beau, pictured in February 2014, was diagnosed in 2013 with the most common form of brain cancer, glioblastoma - the same cancer John McCain currently has

While concrete links are thin, the burgeoning swell of evidence echoes research on 9/11-related diseases. More than 4,500 people have developed various types of cancers from exposure to jet fuel, asbestos and other pulverized materials that burned at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001.

The book suggests Biden suspected his cancer was tied to the pits, since he was treated at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center - America's top facility for military-related illnesses or injuries.

Joe Biden fell short of drawing concrete links, saying he has not heard of 'any direct scientific evidence' pairing the two.

But he added: 'Science has recognized there are certain carcinogens when people are exposed to them.

'Depending on the quantities and the amount in the water and the air, [they] can have a carcinogenic impact on the body.'
A mother has spoken of her heartache after her 18-year-old daughter died from one of the deadly flu bugs currently sweeping the UK.

Bethany Walker, of Applecross in Northern Scotland, passed away from pneumonia, which was triggered by the virus, last week.

Her devastated mother, Heather Teale, posted an emotional tribute on Facebook to say she was 'broken' and the 'bottom has fallen out of my world'.

Tributes have flooded in for the popular teenager on social media. Miss Walker was due to head to Aberdeen University to study midwifery later this year.

TV adventurer Monty Halls, who lived on the Applecross peninsula in 2008 for his Great Escapes series, described her as a 'total delight'.

Ms Teale wrote on Facebook: 'My beautiful Daughter Bethany Walker was taken from me yesterday (Jan 5).

Bethany Walker, from Applecross, died after taking ill at home - initially from flu symptoms which later developed into pneumonia

'She had been suffering from a flu virus, which became pneumonia.

'She was airlifted to Raigmore with me by her side yesterday morning (Jan 5), where she rapidly deteriorated.

'The staff in Intensive Care could not have done more, she was given the best possible treatment from a team of eight people for over two hours, they tried everything possible but sadly despite their best efforts she didn't make it.'

She added: 'I am broken, the bottom has fallen out of my world. I have my mum with me, and my wonderful son Danny Walker who are both feeling the same loss as I am.

'Life will never be the same again. Bethany, I love you to the moon and back, I always have and I always will, you were the best daughter I could have ever wished for and I will always be the proudest mum in the world.

'I have no more words. I'm truly devastated. Sleep tight my beautiful girl, your brother and I will love you forever, you will never be out of my thoughts as long as I live.'

Miss Walker was airlifted to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness but died later last Friday. Tributes have poured in on social media

HOW BAD IS THE FLU OUTBREAK THIS WINTER? Her death comes as flu deaths have soared by 77 per cent in just a week in England, Government figures reveal as fears of the worst outbreak in 50 years loom large. Public Health England data also shows the killer virus has left 1,938 in hospital since October - a quarter because of 'Aussie flu' and half from 'Japanese flu'. The latest update, released today, states 85 people have lost their lives to flu already this winter, compared to the previous total of 48 recorded last week. This is adding extra pressure onto an already stretched NHS, which is considered to be in the midst of its worst winter on record. Scotland has seen cases of flu more than double in the past week and is now the worst affected nation in the UK, figures from Health Protection Scotland show. It is unclear how many flu deaths have occurred in the country already this winter  but it has one of the highest number of excess deaths in Europe. The term excess deaths is used when more deaths have occurred than expected and the figure is calculated using data analysis from previous years. Scotland is considered to be the only country in the UK to be suffering from excess deaths. No data exists to pinpoint the exact number of deaths in either Wales or Northern Ireland. Figures show that for every 100,000 patients in Scotland, 107.3 have displayed influenza-like symptoms in their GP consultations. This is more than double the amount in Northern Ireland (52.6) and almost triple that of Wales (38.9). In contrast, Englands rate is 37.3. Advertisement

This map, based on figures from Public Health England, illustrates how often flu-like symptoms were reported to GPs last week. Orange represents the areas that have a very high amount of flu-like symptoms compared to green areas which have low numbers (no regional breakdown can be provided for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland)

Among those paying his respects was TV adventurer Monty Halls, who lived on the Applecross peninsula in 2008 for his Great Escapes series.

He wrote: 'Heather, I am so, so sorry to hear this news - it is beyond comprehension. Words seem so completely inadequate.

'Every member of the film crew for Great Escapes remembers her so fondly, a total delight.

'My deepest condolences to you, and your family. I know the entire team send their best wishes, their thoughts, and their love. Monty xxx'

The Applecross Inn Facebook also paid its own special tribute: 'Farewell to dear Bethany another fantastic member of our team who we sadly lost last Friday after a short illness, you were the 'belle of the ball' at Hogmanay......and indeed everywhere.

'Such a tragic loss of someone so perfect in every way, so polite, such beauty, humour, fun, music and studies.

'You were pure pleasure as an employee.....loved by every member of our team, so much devotion and dedication to all you did.'

Miss Walker wanted to study midwifery and was due to head for Aberdeen University later this year.

Tributes have flooded in for the popular teenager on social media. Miss Walker was due to head to Aberdeen University to study midwifery later this year
THE CHALK MAN by C. J. Tudor (Michael Joseph 12.99)

THE CHALK MAN

by C. J. Tudor (Michael Joseph 12.99)

Five 12-year-old school friends are the principal characters in this striking debut. The prose is punk, the pace fast and the plot sinewy.

A dreadful accident at a fairground in 1986 leaves one young woman terribly scarred, which is when Tudors male narrator, Eddie, first meets the Chalk Man. He suggests the group of friends leave secret messages for one another with stick figures drawn in different-coloured chalks.

This works, to start with  until one of Eddies enemies works out their plan and the messages lead them to the body of a young girl.

That was 30 years ago. Now, Eddie is a 42-year-old teacher when he gets a letter with only a piece of chalk and a drawing of a stick figure. There are shades of Stephen King when the reality bends into the sinister, and a deliciously creepy finale.

SHADOW MAN

SHADOW MAN by Alan Drew (Corvus 12.99)

by Alan Drew (Corvus 12.99)

This thriller from an English professor at an American university announces a remarkable new talent. Drews hero is former LAPD detective Ben Wade, who has moved out to the suburbs of Orange County in search of a quieter life and to try to save his faltering marriage.

Neither works. His marriage collapses, hurting his only child, daughter Emma.

He then realises that his little town of Rancho Santa Elena may just have a serial killer in its midst  someone who preys on women on their own.

The attacker is all the more difficult to track as the victims appear to be chosen at random. With the help of forensic scientist Natasha Betencourt, Wade struggles to unravel the mystery, but he does so with a clarity and wisdom reminiscent of Michael Connellys Harry Bosch  and there is no higher praise.

DUMP

DUMP by Bob Marshall-Andrews (Whitefox 8.99)

by Bob Marshall-Andrews (Whitefox 8.99)

This is the fourth novel from the former Labour MP and QC  and by far his most ambitious. It starts from his fascination with the behaviour of African chimpanzees, but rapidly turns into an allegory about the U.S. presidential election and the complacency that put Donald Trump in the White House.

Oxford professor Arthur Welbourne returns to Serole Lodge on the edge of Lake Tanganyika, famous for its study of local chimpanzees, only to discover that chimps have been brutally murdered.

The local guides believe they could be the victims of Dump, a psychotic and murderous ape who was once believed to be dead, but who may have returned to usurp the role of alpha male in the troupe.

Dump is fomenting a rebellion, but the guests at the lodge ignore the warnings . . .

Though not quite Jonathan Swift, this is a splendid satire on the modern political world.
The future of Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port factory hangs on whether the company can improve sales, its incoming boss has warned.

Stephen Norman has been parachuted in by Vauxhall's new French owners PSA, which also own Peugeot and Citroen, to take charge of the brand in Britain amid a slump in demand.

There are fears for the future of Ellesmere Port, in Cheshire, as the Vauxhall Astra it makes is due to end its run in 2021, and after that it will compete with other PSA plants in Europe to make the next model.

Sell more to survive: There are fears for the future of Ellesmore Port factory because the Vauxhall Astra it currently makes is due to end in 2021 and after that it will compete with other PSA plants to make the next model

A third of the 1,900-strong workforce is being axed to cut costs and make the plant more competitive with its European cousins, it was revealed earlier this week.

Vauxhall says manufacturing costs at Ellesmere Port are double that of PSA's best-performing plant in Sochaux, France.

Norman, 63, said: 'If we manage to make a radical improvement in... the UK and my future colleagues in Opel across the continent do the same in their markets, particularly in Germany, then there will be a requirement not only for every possible unit of production that we've got but maybe even more besides.'

He declined to say how much demand needs to increase to secure the future of Ellesmere.

But he added: 'The two issues are related from the demand side so if you create enough demand for the Vauxhall in Great Britain and Opel in continental Europe, there will obviously need to be a production from Opel Vauxhall factories, including Ellesmere Port.'

Demand for the Astra (pictured) has slumped as consumers favour chunkier SUVs instead of the five-door family car.

Despite hemorrhaging almost 11,500 sales compared to 2016, it was still the sixth most popular car in the UK last year, with 49,370 models registered.

A third of the 1,900-strong workforce at the plant in the North West of England is being axed to cut costs and make the plant more competitive with its European cousins

Figures showed that Vauxhall sold almost 11,500 fewer Astras in the UK last year

Vauxhall's sales in Britain fell 22 per cent in 2017, compared to a market decline of 5.7 per cent, as it sold 195,137 cars.

The most significant decline in demand was posted by the Vauxhall Corsa - the second most bought car of 2016.

Last year it dropped to the fifth most popular in the country, shedding some 25,000 sales compared to 12 months previous.

Norman declined to comment on what was said between Britain's business secretary Greg Clark and PSA boss Carlos Tavares at a meeting in Paris on Wednesday, when it is believed Ellesmere Port was discussed.

Norman takes full control next month, replacing Rory Harvey.

Carlos Tavares has masterminded the turnaround of the PSA Group's fortunes in recent years and aims to do the same with Vauxhall after purchasing the car maker from General Motors in 2017. Here he is seen shaking hands with Mary Barra, chairwoman and ceo of General Motors, ahead of the announcement that PSA would be acquiring the vehicle company

PSA is planning to make around 1.5billion savings and has pledged to keep production of the Astra based at Ellesmere Port until 2021 but has made no guarantees beyond then.

Asked last March whether the savings could be made without job cuts, Tavares, 59, said: 'As they are built today [the savings] are not based on job cuts, because that is consistent with what I have been trying to communicate, which is we give people a chance because people are good  they are talented, they are educated, they are creative.

'And what we are going to offer them is a European benchmark against which they can compare themselves in every different function of the company.'

Unite union boss Len McCluskey is due to meet Tavares today, and has pledged to warn him that closing Ellesmere would seriously harm UK sales.
Standing on the sidelines wishing Marks & Spencer would do better is like watching an aspirant top-six Premier League team sink toward relegation after spending big sums on players and facilities.

There is not a household in Britain that doesn't have some affection and nostalgia for the nation's favourite retailer.

But in spite of frequent changes of management and heavy investment, it continues to frustrate.

Current chief executive Steve Rowe stressed food, only to find that its reputation has been besmirched by a Twitter campaign against overpriced cauliflower steaks, and same-store sales slipped by 0.4 per cent.

Nation's favourite: There is not a household in Britain that doesn't have some affection and nostalgia for M&S

There are simply too many rivals. It is not just Waitrose, Whole Foods and Booths but also Lidl, Aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury's.

As for clothing and homeware, it is still excuses, excuses, with the wrong kind of weather in October and the decision to hold prices around Black Friday in November.

Frequent management changes and the support given by compliant non-executives for gold-plated, trendy investments are cases in point.

Take the current headquarters in Paddington Basin, a 20-minute journey from the group's flagship store on Oxford Street in London.

Now-forgotten chief executive Roger Holmes abandoned the headquarters on Baker Street for two funky glass and steel towers on a low introductory rent, which escalated to 44million a year.

Rowe is saving 17million by closing a tower but buyers and managers still cannot nip into the centre to see what the customers (and staff) are up to.

Earlier this week Rowe addressed another legacy, the failure of the group's 150million web revamp, organised by former retail director Laura Wade-Gery.

The quarterly online uplift in the 13 weeks to December 30 was just 3 per cent. No wonder it is to spend another 25million on trying to get it right.

A beef of Sir Stuart Rose, the last M&S boss to deliver 1billion profit, was the decision of his predecessors Luc Vandevelde and Holmes to retreat from Europe after decades of investment in going global.

Then Marc Bolland took his advice and sought to rebuild global presence. Rowe has moved rapidly in the opposite direction, most recently ceding control of Hong Kong to a Gulf franchise partner. Whatever happened to longer-term thinking?

PwC punished

India has an infamously bureaucratic economy, so we should not be surprised that it has taken nearly a decade for the country's financial enforcer, the Securities and Exchange Board, to conclude that audit firm PwC failed to spot 'glaring anomalies' at Satyam Computer Services.

The company collapsed after a 1.3billion fraud. PwC allegedly failed to spot 7,561 fake invoices which inflated revenues.

But, by golly, India doesn't mess around when it comes to disciplinary action. PwC has been banned from auditing listed firms for two years, but protests that there had been no 'intentional wrongdoing'.

This is a huge blow, since PwC audits 43 of the country's top 500 companies, including Tata Steel.

What a contrast with Britain's enforcer, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which had to be dragged kicking and screaming into a probe of KPMG's audit of HBOS, concluding the company couldn't see one of the biggest banking collapses of modern times coming.

Instituting audit bans in Britain could be tricky. Almost all the big firms, including Deloitte at Mitie, KPMG at Rolls-Royce and PwC at BHS, are being probed for missing the obvious. If banned, there would be financial bedlam.

But there is nothing to stop the FRC garnishing a chunk of turnover, ending fat cat audit partner payouts and banning the individuals responsible for life.

Trump's trickle-down

Walmart is doing its bit to share the endowment from the Trump corporate tax cut (35 per cent to 21 per cent) with its 1.5m US employees, the biggest private sector workforce in the country.

The minimum wage is to rise from $9 (6.64) an hour to $15 (11.07) by 2020. Workers with more than two years in the job will get a bonus of up to $1,000 (738).

The length of paid maternity leave is to be increased and staff adopting a child will receive up to $5,000 (3,700) to cover expenses.

How disappointing that George Osborne's corporate tax cuts have not trickled down in the same way.
Twitter rant: Former CBI director general Lord (Digby) Jones

Former CBI director general Lord (Digby) Jones took to Twitter to rage against Persimmon boss Jeff Fairburn's 110million payday, urging him to give it to charity: 'What do you want to be Jeff?

The richest guy in the graveyard? Sort it!' He then launched an attack on Jeremy Corbyn's refusal to condemn the recent behaviour of Iran's regime. A friend remarks: 'Digby's always at his best after a good lunch.'

Scraggly Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe's classical vocab is rubbished in this month's Oldie magazine after he claimed his company's name is from the Latin words 'Ineo', meaning 'new beginning' and 'Neos', meaning 'new and innovative'.

Classics professor Peter Olive remarks: 'Ineo does not mean new beginning at all but rather 'I enter'.

Neo certainly can mean 'new', but in Greek not Latin. In eos in Latin means 'against them'.' See me after school, Ratcliffe.

Burly Barclays boss Jes Staley, 61, pitched up at Downing Street yesterday to see Theresa May, sporting a black shearling-collared coat over his suit. Echoes of Michael Foot's famous donkey jacket.

My sartorial expert's verdict: 'Fine for Davos, but way, way too 'cazh' to wear for meeting the Prime Minister.'

Jean Paul Getty's meanness is pivotal to Sir Ridley Scott's new thriller, All The Money In The World. Getty kept a payphone for guests to use at his Surrey manor.

Other skinflints down the years include oil man HL Hunt (inspiration for Dallas baddie JR Ewing) who'd park several streets from his office to avoid a 50 cent fee, and Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, who never wore a coat out as he hated having to tip the cloakroom boy.

Former Anglo Irish Bank boss David Drumm, 51 who moved to Canada after its collapse in 2008, appeared in a Dublin court yesterday charged with conspiracy to defraud.

The jury lost seven members after the judge excused them from serving. Cheeky Nick Leeson, 50, who legged it from Singapore after his rogue trading sunk Barings in 1993, tweets: 'I'm available.'
Supermarket giant Tesco revealed it had its biggest ever sales week in the run-up to Christmas, as it released upbeat results today.

Britain's biggest supermarket chain said that its UK like-for-like sales were up 1.9 per cent, driven by a 3.7 per cent rise in fresh food sales as shoppers snapped up festive staples and treats.

But investors, who have seen Tesco's share price rise by a quarter since mid-summer, were not impressed and shares slipped back today on what City analysts said was likely to be a combination of a bout of profit taking and mild disappointment that the supermarket had not done even better.

Tesco said that shoppers snapping up festive food helped it to its biggest ever sales week in the run-up to Christmas

Tesco shares were down 4.5 per cent, or 9.5p, at 202.4p at 11.45am.

James Grzinic, analyst at Jefferies, said: 'Tesco's update confirmed a solid third quarter and Christmas, but not quite the dominant display expected by some.'

Overall like-for-like sales in Tesco's third quarter were up 2.3 per cent and it said that it had continued to outperform the UK market, particularly in fresh food.

Tesco is the latest of the big British supermarkets to release an upbeat trading statement, following Sainsbury's figures and Morrisons' update earlier this week.

Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis said: 'We have continued to outperform the market throughout this period, particularly in fresh food, thanks to our most competitive offer for many years.

'Our trading momentum accelerated across the third quarter and into December, with the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day delivering record sales and volumes in the UK.'

Tesco claimed to be working with suppliers to keep inflation down for customers and Mr Lewis said shoppers are 'cautious' about how they spend. A ray of light came from clothing sales, up 5 per cent and the chief executive said Christmas was the 'coming together' of over three years of work on a turnaround.

Tesco's sales performance was impressive as the period spanned the collapse of wholesaler Palmer & Harvey, which was a major supplier to UK stores.

Lewis said: 'Incorporating Palmer & Harvey volumes and complexity during this peak period was challenging, resulting in lost tobacco sales across December and putting further strain into our distribution network, particularly post-Christmas.

'Whilst I am pleased to say these challenges have now been resolved, they took the shine off an otherwise outstanding performance for the period as a whole.

'Our colleagues and supplier partners have done a fantastic job serving our customers better every day throughout this exceptionally busy time, and I want to thank them for everything they have done.

'We are confident in the outlook for the full year and are firmly on track to deliver our medium-term ambitions.'

What next for supermarket shares? Premium products: Sainsbury's enjoyed strong sales across its premium ranges Supermarket results have looked good on the surface over the past week, but they are helped by food inflation, which boosts like-for-like sales. Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said inflation was partly responsible for higher sales. 'As with all the supermarkets, while top line growth is seen, we have scant detail on margins and inflation. Inflation is undoubtedly helping to push up sales figures, but it is less clear where margins are. We have noted Sainsbury's struggles on that front. Both Tesco and Sainsbury's have not mentioned margins in their updates,' he said. 'The likelihood  as Tesco suggests in its update  is that it is better able to absorb inflation and pass less on to consumers than rivals, which ought to be positive for margins on a relative basis with competitors. 'As ever though the chances are that Tesco shares could slide after ramping ahead of the release in recent weeks  a trend we saw throughout 2017.' George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that sales momentum was building at Tesco and the return of a dividend will cheer investors. He said: 'When one considers the difficulties that have faced Dave Lewis since he took over in 2014, its hard not to be impressed by his achievements. The balance sheet looks better and hes brought the dividend back earlier than many had thought possible. Hitting the longer-term target of rebuilding margins to close to 4 per cent will be key to building the dividend back up to more meaningful levels. While conditions clearly remain tough, theres nothing in these numbers that says the group cant meet its goals. Ed Meier, manager of the Old Mutual UK Equity Income Fund, sees reason for optimism and continued increases in earnings. 'It is slightly unfortunate that the headline numbers have taken a little shine off what are good underlying results for Tesco over the Christmas season, he said. 'Headline like-for-like sales will probably disappoint the stock market but the core profit driver, food, still generated 3.4 per cent of sales on a same-store basis as the group continued to grow grocery volumes in spite of inflation.' 'This is bang in line with the strategy to take the business towards that 3.5 per cent -4 per cent margin where, we believe, approximately 20 pence earnings per share can be generated.'



Yesterday, Sainsbury's upped its annual profit forecast after enjoying strong sales over the crucial Christmas period.

The supermarket's like-for-like sales increased by 1.1 per cent in the 15 weeks to 6 January, with revenues up 2 per cent and grocery sales up 2.3 per cent. While remaining 'cautious' about the consumer environment, the company has boosted its full-year profit forecast to around 559million.

Half of the 185 new products the supermarket launched over Christmas were in its premium Taste the Difference range.

Sainsbury's also said it enjoyed strong sales across its premium ranges over the period, adding that customers were also snapping up its 25p vegetable products.

On Friday 22 December, the supermarket said it had its strongest day of store sales and delivered an online grocery order to a customer every second.

Morrisons kicked off the grocers' festive trading updates this week with a better-than-expected sales as it was boosted by demand for premium and party food.

Britain's third largest supermarket posted a 2.8 per cent rise in sales at stores open for more than a year in the ten weeks to 7 January, well above analysts' expectations of 1.7 per cent growth.

Morrisons said trading was 'especially strong' during the Christmas and New Year period, with group like-for-like sales up 3.7 per cent for the six weeks to the beginning of January.
Britain's oldest theme park has been saved from collapse after investors backed a 35million bid to transform its fortunes.

Dreamland in Margate, Kent, dates back to 1875 and had one of the UKs first rollercoasters but fell on hard times.

It suffered an arson attack and sold its ferris wheel to Mexico before being shut.

Jolly japes: Dreamland in Margate, Kent, dates back to 1875 and had the UK's first rollercoaster but fell on hard times

Reopened in 2015, it ran into difficulties and slipped into administration in 2016.

But hedge fund creditor Arrowgrass has now pumped in 35million to buy new rides, improve the parks look and take over neighbouring properties.

It will save more than 60 full-time jobs and 250 seasonal ones.

Hosting more concerts is a key part of the rescue  last year a show by the band Gorillaz sold out in 32 minutes.
House Of Fraser is set to axe failing stores or reduce the size of others as it battles falling sales.

The struggling department store chain, owned by Chinese billionaire Yuan Yafei, said it would cut its property bills after a sales slump during the crucial Christmas period.

It has 61 branches  58 of them in the UK  but chief executive Alex Williamson said all were being reviewed.

A source close to the firm told the Mail that its Hull store was one of those under threat, although Williamson said no decisions had yet been made.

Slump: House of Fraser is set to axe failing stores or reduce the size of others as it battles falling sales

The shake-up comes after the retailer admitted sales for the six weeks to December 23 were down 2.9 per cent on the previous year, a fresh blow after it reported a shock half-year loss in September.

It has also written to landlords seeking cheaper leases, a move that sparked fears about its finances.

Yesterday Williamson, 43, insisted House Of Fraser was focused on profits and would not resort to discounts to boost sales.

He added: 'What's important is to keep our discipline in selling those products that are loved by customers and profitable for House Of Fraser.'

And in an unusual step designed to ease concerns, the firm produced a statement from Yafei backing its turnaround plans.

The 54-year-old, whose company Sanpower bought House Of Fraser for 480million four years ago, said: 'Sanpower is fully committed to its long-term investment in the UK retail market, and to continuing to provide all the necessary support to ensure House Of Fraser's success as the leading UK premium department store chain.'

When Sanpower, chaired by Yafei, bought House Of Fraser, it declared plans to grow the business and expand into China.

However, by December 2016 only one outlet had opened, in Nanjing, and the company had to wait until last year to get its first cash injection of 25million.

Under Williamson it has launched a turnaround effort to overhaul its product range and stores while trimming costs.

The chief executive, brought in last May, said House Of Fraser wanted to cut property costs by 30 per cent within five to ten years. It has closed a store in Leicester and is due to shut another in Aylesbury.

He said further closures were not the first option.

He added: 'It will be based on store-by-store conversations, because there is a whole range of ways we can deliver against that objective. There are options in place and we will consider all of them  we do not have any firm plans yet because we are still talking to landlords.'

Yesterday a source close to the company said many stores needed a revamp to make them more 'experience-based'.

This approach, adopted by rival John Lewis, was taken by House Of Fraser when it opened its first store for a decade last year in Rushden Lakes in Northamptonshire. It included a champagne bar and Caffe Nero alongside womenswear and beauty brands.
Cheers: Unilevers Kevin Havelock is joining Fever-Tree

Tonic maker Fever-Tree has appointed Unilevers Kevin Havelock and Mast-Jaegermeisters Jeff Popkin as non-executive directors.

Havelock, 60, who holds an MA in economics from Cambridge, has worked for more than 25 years in the drinks industry and is Unilevers global president of refreshment.

He is married with two daughters.

Popkin, 53, has almost 25 years experience in top roles for brands including Red Bull. He is Mast-Jaegermeister current chief executive for North America.
Millions of people get state pension forecasts from the Department for Work and Pensions, and rely on their accuracy when planning their finances in retirement.

This week, a reader flags up a case where her husband's forecast was wrong, and calls on This is Money's pensions columnist Steve Webb to warn others their statements might be incorrect.

Read full details of David and Kim Deabill's case and what the DWP said about the accuracy of forecasts here.

State pension forecast: This is Money reader flags up case where a statement was wrong and asks for warnings to be added

My husband asked for a state pension statement last year and was advised he had a shortfall having contributed for only 28 out of the 35 years. We knew we wouldn't have the funds to make up the shortfall until this year.

Last week we called the Department for Work and Pensions to arrange to make up some of the contributions.

They told us we would have to have a revised statement, which arrived this morning and showed he would receive 127.64 a week (on a 28 years basis) but that if he started to contribute (Class 3 as he is not employed) he could increase this to 145.87.

We rang for the third time today to arrange this and to also make up past years as detailed on the state pension information website, but have been told that as he had contracted out during his employment history, the information in the forecast was incorrect and they would have to do a manual calculation which would take five to six weeks.

The gentleman said that on receipt of this revised forecast we should then ring again to see what we can do to make up any shortfall.

Steve Webb: Find out how to ask the former Pensions Minister a question about your retirement savings in the box below

He said they had raised the issue about the computer churning out 'incorrect forecasts' with HMRC, but there is no warning on the forecast to say the figures aren't or may not be correct.

Can you help bring this to your readers' attention please? We could mistakenly have believed that the forecast was correct only to find on retirement that it wasn't. Likewise we would have planned financially for an income that wouldn't be forthcoming.

An appropriate warning should be placed on all forecasts pending the system being rectified.

I would also suggest that anyone who has received a forecast is written to in effect to highlight that their forecast may be incorrect and to recheck their figures by telephoning the DWP.

They might need to man it with more staff - each call made in the last few weeks had meant a 20 minute-plus wait, which is clearly inconvenient. The staff I have spoken to are very patient but must meet with a lot of complaints.

SCROLL DOWN TO FIND OUT HOW TO ASK YOUR PENSION QUESTION

Steve Webb replies: Thank you for raising this issue. It is indeed a source of concern if people cannot rely on the information that they have been sent about their state pension to be accurate.

The problem arises, as you say, in the case of people who have been members of pension schemes that were contracted out of the state earnings-related pension scheme.

We have dealt with the issue of contracting out in previous columns, but in essence, this will mainly affect people who were members of salary-related company pension schemes.

In such cases, the pension scheme has made a promise to replace part of the state pension that the worker would otherwise have received, and in return for this the worker and the firm pay a lower rate of National Insurance Contributions.

When someone who has been contracted out reaches pension age a calculation is made to reduce their state pension to take account of the amount that the company pension scheme has promised to pay.

What is the Guaranteed Minimum Pension? Steve Webb explained how the GMP worked and how the rules changed for people retiring from spring 2016 in a previous column here.

You may see phrases like contracted out deduction, guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) or more recently contracted out pension equivalent (COPE) used to describe elements of this calculation.

The problem, as you have discovered, is that the data held by HM Revenue and Customs on these deductions does not always match up with the data held by the schemes.

Many occupational pension schemes are going through a process of reconciliation of their data with HMRC. When this process began it was estimated that around 3,000 pension schemes were affected, covering around 1.5 million workers

HMRC have set a deadline of December 2018 for this process to be complete, though there must be a risk that this deadline could slip.

This suggests that it will be another year or more before people can be confident that the information in their state pension statement is accurate if they were a member of this sort of pension scheme.

How do you get a state pension forecast? You can get an online forecast or request a paper version here. The Future Pension Centre is on 0800 731 0175.

When HMRC receive updated data they have to recalculate the amount of state pension to which you are entitled.

As you were told on the telephone, your experience is far from unique, and I quite agree with you that there should be proper health warnings so that people do not make decisions based on unreliable information.

It is unclear how many people might be receiving incorrect forecasts at this stage, but if you were contracted out during a period before 1997 you might be affected.

Although this data problem is gradually being sorted out, anyone needing to know exactly where they stand as a matter of urgency should contact the DWP to ensure that the information from their company pension scheme is now up to date.
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These stunning black-and-white images show the lengths British astronomers went to in efforts to broaden humanity's horizons more than 100 years ago.

Members of the British Astronomical Association (BAA) were pictured on an expedition stargazing into the sky to observe a solar eclipse, setting sail to Norway on July 25 and returning on August 24, 1896.

These restored images help to provide an insight into what life was like for these trailblazing scientists trying to learn more about the universe and the Earth's position in it.

It was the BAA's first trip to Norway, and although it proved unsuccessful it provided them with valuable experience which they were on later trips able to convert into success.

The group left Tilbury, Essex, at 3pm on July 25 to start their 1800-mile voyage to Vadso, 'a settlement of the Hyperboreans at the back of the north wind', according to an article in the NASA Astrophysics data system.

Many of the 165 amateur and professional astronomers on board were travelling independently although there were two official parties, including those of the Royal Society and Royal Astronnomical Society and the BAA.

As well as British astronomers, there were people from France, Italy, India, South Africa and Australia - all whom traveled weeks to watch an even which lasted a mere 106 seconds.

The BAA was established more than 125 years ago and is recognised as one of the world's leading amateur groups.

Walter Maunder was one of the first president's for the society, the discoverer of the seventeenth century scarcity in sunspots now known as the Maunder Minimum which he achieved by analysing historical observations.

Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin, who was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge with telescope and camera

Mr Brother and Mrs Sidebotham with apparatus in the tent during the expedition of British Astronomical Association. Other astronomers and tents are pictured in the background

Mr Evershed with spectrographic apparatus during the expedition to Norway. This photograph was taken on July 25, 1896

Mr Lunt amongst other men with spectrographic telecameras aimed towards the sky. The expedition was organised to observe the eclipse

Dr Ramabut (left) with a lady next to a polariscopic telescope. This was used to help the team of astronomers to examine the eclipse of the Sun

Mr Lunt amongst other men with a 3/4 inch equatorial telecamera. The men stayed on their expedition in Norway for nearly a month

Mr Waters with telephotographic apparatus (left) and Mrs Maunder with men next to a telescope (right) during their expedition

Laplanders in Northway with reindeer's, photographed by the expedition team. The laplanders are seen carrying reindeer antlers
When Sweden's main opposition party recently made a u-turn on immigration, many credited the new restrictive policies to the increasing influence of one particular backbench MP - and his very controversial Twitter account.

The centre-right Moderate Party now want migrant quotas, higher income thresholds for family-reunification, the right to refuse asylum seekers at the border, and Swedish language and citizenship tests.

These drastic changes had long been pushed for by Hanif Bali, a 30-year-old immigrant MP who has gone from unknown suburban backbencher to being compared to US President Donald Trump in little over a year.

Controversial: Backbench MP Hanif Bali has been credited with the Swedish opposition's u-turn on immigration, and he has gone from unknown to 'celebrity politician' in just over a year

Last June, he had 23,500 followers on Twitter, now it's over 75,000 - more than many party leaders - and no Swedish politician even comes close in terms of retweets, responses and mentions.

His 'fans' praise him for 'straight-talking' tweets on integration, immigration and attacks on political opponents, which have seen him compared to alt-right controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos.

Political commentators warn that he is to the Moderate Party what Trump is to the Republicans: A populist pandering to a baying anti-immigration online mob to win voters back from the extreme right-wing Sweden Democrats.

And Bali agrees with the latter - but he does not see this as a bad thing.

Controversial: Bali came to Sweden from Iran aged three and became an MP at 23

In fact, he brazenly admits to using the same tactics as Milo and Trump whose Twitter highlights include calling feminism cancer, re-posting fascist propaganda and making 'fake news' an all-caps phenomenon.

'Of course there is an immediate negative association with Milo and Trump but at the same time, you cannot deny the success of either - or of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK for that matter - in getting their message out.

'I look at their methods, not their opinions. Ive not changed my opinion, just my methods.'

Becoming an MP in 2010, aged just 23, Bali explains that he felt like the party could only watch from the sidelines as they lost voters to the Sweden Democrats.

'In 2006 the Moderates became the New Moderates and moved to the centre, and it opened up for the Sweden Democrats to take the right.

'The Moderates were scared of what the left and the media was going to think. We didnt talk about immigration, or talk about the issue with segregation, or how many new arrivals we can feasibly integrate into our society.

'I noticed that the left wasn't p****ed off with us anymore - they were busy with the Sweden Democrats - so I decided to take the fight with the left again. That's why I'm so popular.'

Professional troll: The Swedish MP's Twitter strategy has been compared to US President Donald Trump and alt-right posterboy Milo Yiannopoulos

Bali has been a fierce critic of Sweden's 'open your hearts' immigration policy, which saw 163,000 apply for asylum in 2015. But while his peers in politics argue their cases during parliamentary sessions, Bali prefers tweeting.

He credits his social media success with 'straight talking', something that rings a somewhat ominous bell to anyone who followed the 2016 US Presidential elections.

'People saw everything Hilary said as polished PR bureau talk. And while people thought what Trump said was crazy, no one doubted that what he said was genuinely his words.'

Bali's incendiary tweets often uses popular alt-right rhetoric, throwing around words such as 'soyboy', a derogatory term for an effeminate man, and 'SJW' - social justice warrior.

He himself is the son of members of the left-wing militant organisation People's Mujahedin of Iran. Fearing for his safety, his parents sent him to Sweden - alone - aged three, and he has grown up in foster families in Stockholm's suburbs, eventually joining the youth wing of the Moderates as a teenager.

Defending an accusation of racism, Bali tweets: 'No, it is not racism to point out that mass-migration from countries with strong antisemitic opinion currents will create more antisemitism. It is not because we don't think people can be cured of antisemitism, it is that we don't think the state is able to do it'.

Commenting on the European migration crisis, he writes: 'The sole reason for thousands of migrants selling all they own and heading to Libya and are now stuck there is because the EU has refused to close that route until now. Italy and the EU should have closed it sooner,' branding Save The Children and other aid organisations 'refugee smugglers'

Responding to accusations that he and his followers are racist, Bali tweets: 'So if I have understood this correctly: Sweden's collective racist hatearmy is led by an Iranian MP, a Kurdish scientist, a Jewish author hailing from central Europe and those who fight us are pure Swedish soyboys and upper middle-class feminists?'

When asked why he - an immigrant MP for a centrist liberal-conservative party - is using words almost exclusively found within the fascist alt-right movement, he explains that he has 'no problem stealing tactics from left or right, from alt-right populism or far left.'

'Soyboy is a term the alt-right has stolen from the fitness community. It's not theirs.

'Alt-right has made it their mission to steal popular internet phenomenons and make them theirs - everything from a cartoon frog to drinking milk - and my idea is to take them back.

'The alt-right dont want a metrosexual Iranian mainstream politician stealing their symbols. I want to challenge both the alt-right and the far left. Its a strategy.

Bali does not just 'claim back' viral language, he frequently makes up his own Twitter buzzwords.

He has called asylum seekers falsely claiming to be unaccompanied minors 'child role-players' and migrants forced to live on the streets 'professionally begging EU tourists'.

Reclaiming the right: Bali frequently offends and causes controversy with his Twitter account, but he relishes the way his 'straight-talking' posts reach the voters

But he does not see any issue in using controversial language to win votes.

There is a problem with the older generation of politicians who have been taught that there is a correct way to do politics, to use language that doesn't upset people.

'When politicians describe tackling the migration crisis, gang wars or segregated suburbs as 'a challenge', it makes it sound like they dont see how big the problem is and that they dont share the voters' burden, and there is a huge danger in that.'

Since the Moderate Party welcomed a new leader in October, their support is up from 18.1 per cent to 22.2 per cent in the latest national survey.

Sweden heads to the polls in September this year, and Bali seems confident his Twitter strategy will help them to victory.

'People ask me why I choose to be provocative, but its not important to me whether anyone thinks Im behaving correctly or not.

'What is important is that my politics gets through to the voters,' he adds, clarifying that an election result that puts his party back into power justifies any online means.
The Florida teen snatched at birth and raised under a false identity has issued an extraordinary plea for leniency as her kidnapper 'mom' prepares to stand trial next month - telling DailyMailTV: 'It's not like she tortured me.'

Last year, Kamiyah Mobley learned that she had been living a lie for 18 years, but she still refuses to label Gloria Williams a criminal for stealing her from her parents from the hospital when she was just eight hours old and posing as her biological mother.

And while she recognizes Williams could spend years behind bars, Kamiyah says she's already forgiven her for the astonishing deception - and will never turn her back on the impostor.

Kamiyah laid bare her tumultuous emotions in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV exactly one year after cops finally solved the riddle of her 1998 abduction and arrested Williams, 52, on kidnapping charges.

'Don't get me wrong, I do feel like it was wrong. But we talked about it and I can understand at the time what was going on,' said Kamiyah, now aged 19. 'I sympathize with her, I'm not mad at her - of course I forgive her.

One year later: Kamiyah Mobley, 19, has been adjusting to her new life with her real family a year after her kidnapper 'mother' was arrested

Mobley says she has formed an 'incredible bond' with her biological father Craig Aiken (pictured) 42, while staying weeks at a time at his home in Jacksonville, Florida. She says she enjoys having a dad she can 'call and talk to for hours'

'I am certain that she's going to get time but I'm hoping not very, very long. I think they should be lenient. It's not like she took me and tortured me my whole life. She took care of me very well.'

Kamiyah has spent the past year forging new ties with her biological parents, Shanara Mobley, 36, and Craig Aiken, 42, as well as getting to know the numerous siblings she never realized she had.

She's already formed an 'incredible bond' with Aiken, staying at his Jacksonville home for weeks at a time and celebrating Christmas with him, his wife Shannon, 42, and her eight half-siblings.

But her defense of Williams has made it harder for Kamiyah to rebuild her relationship with Mobley, who last year wrote on Facebook: 'The tears won't stop. I see my baby girl wanting this lady in her life and not me.'

Kamiyah told DailyMailTV: 'It's been harder for my mother to cope. We are working on our relationship. I don't like to define which one is my mother, I like to be respectful of both parties.

'I don't like to take away from either one of their duties or what they did. I don't want to pick sides.'

Mobley was just 16 years old when she gave birth to Kamiyah, her first child, at 6:55am on July 10, 1998.

Family: Kamiyah spent Christmas with her dad's wife and her eight half-siblings who she's been getting to know

Back to her roots: Kamiyah and her new siblings (L toR) Shadawn, 24, Caydhen 6, Kamiyah, Shuriah, 15, Shakaria, 18, her dad Craig, and Cameron, one

Soon after, a woman wearing blue scrubs and surgical gloves came into the room at University Medical Centre in Jacksonville before carrying the 8lb 2oz infant away.

Mobley assumed the kidnapper was a nurse but investigators say it was Williams impersonating a hospital employee.

'Please bring my baby back,' Mobley wept afterwards in a harrowing TV appeal. 'If you were faking a pregnancy or you just can't have no kids, how do you think I feel?'

Williams had indeed miscarried a child a week before but had kept it a secret from her parents and two sons Antoine and Andre, then aged 10 and 11.

When she returned home her family never had any reason to doubt that the adorable new arrival, Alexis Kelli, was their own flesh and blood.

Aiken was in jail at the time of the birth for sleeping with Mobley when he was 19 and she was 15.

But he told DailyMailTV he doesn't resent Kamiyah for refusing to sever ties with the woman who robbed him of the chance to cradle her as a baby or watch her growing up.

'She can't help what happened with Gloria or the feelings she's got for Gloria,' said Aiken, a radio DJ and property manager.

'She just wants her mama to understand that she's not trying to do anything to hurt her. The last thing she wants to do is hurt her mama.

'What I try and do is block out all the negativity and just focus on building that relationship with her. That helps me cope better too.

Reunited: Kamiyah reconciled with her biological parents Shanara Mobley, 36, and Craig Aiken, 42, in Jacksonville after Williams was arrested

Shanara Mobley was just 16 years old (pictured left) when she gave birth to Kamiyah. Her father Craig Aiken was in jail at the time of the birth for sleeping with Mobley when he was 19 and she was 15

'I'm proud that she turned out the way she did and that's why I can't criticize anybody. She was given every chance to make it in life and that's what I hope for all my kids.'

Growing up as Alexis Manigo, Kamiyah insists she had no reason to doubt that Williams was her mom or question her identity.

She was the 'princess' of the family and loved to fool around with her 'brothers' Antoine and Andre.

Williams worked at the medical records department at Joint Base Charleston and took her family to the local Methodist church on Sundays.

'As a mom, she was very smart, very loving, and generous. She was always giving everything she had to me and my friends,' Kamiyah said.

'She wasn't a parent who could say no. I was very spoiled. I know she loved me.

'She taught me the difference between right and wrong. We went to church. She may have had a few speeding tickets, but she was never in any trouble. She is a good person.'

Kamiyah grew up believing her father was a car dealership worker called Charles Manigo who had split with her mom before she was born.

She considered stepdad Wrenoskie Williams, a 55-year-old truck driver whom Williams married when Kamiyah was in middle school, more of a father figure.

According to charging documents, the deception began to unravel when Kamiyah applied for a restaurant job two years before Williams was arrested.

Gloria Williams (pictured) kidnapped Kamiyah from University Medical Center in Jacksonville while dressed in blue scrubs and surgical gloves on on July 10, 1998

When she demanded her social security number Williams broke down and confessed to the abduction, according to investigators.

Kamiyah confirms that the conversation took place but won't reveal the precise content for fear of further incriminating her 'mother' ahead of next month's trial.

Moreover, she says she quietly pieced together the majority of her backstory by herself from Google.

'In those two years I actually did try to contact my [biological] mother. I kept typing in her name, typing in about my abduction,' Kamiyah recalled.

'Her name linked me to a Jacksonville address book. I called the phone number but ended up hanging up in her face.

'It wasn't really an accident, I got nervous. Hearing her voice was weird but I just blocked it out.'

It wouldn't be until January 2017 when the estranged mom and daughter would finally speak, when Mobley and Aiken, who had separated after the abduction, raced to Walterboro to meet her in the wake of Williams' arrest.

The trio posed for a heart-melting selfie, tears streaming down Mobley's face as she finally laid eyes on the missing daughter whose birthday she had marked each year by leaving out a slice of cake.

On Kamiyah's 16th birthday Mobley wrote on Facebook: 'Happy Sweet 16th Birthday Kamiyah. Wherever you are you are truly missed & very much loved.'

Growing up as Alexis Manigo, Kamiyah insists she had no reason to doubt that Williams was her mom or question her identity

She says her 'mother' spoiled her and, despite the whole ordeal, is a 'good person'

Williams had miscarried a child a week before the abduction but had kept it a secret from her parents and two sons Antoine and Andre, then aged 10 and 11. Baby Kamiyah is pictured above in her abductor's arms

Recounting the emotionally-charged meeting, Kamiyah told DailyMailTV: 'We met at the hotel I was staying at. I couldn't go home because the news people were at my house.

'The first time we hugged was very exciting. She was shaking with joy, it was very nice, very heartwarming. I remember her saying "oh my God" all day long.

'Mom [Mobley] told me all these things about my dad so I was really excited way before I saw him.

'When I met him I realized he looks like me. We talk alike, we are very jokey, and laid back. I love having a dad who's there. A dad I can call and talk to for hours.'

According to court documents, investigators finally cracked the case based on two tip offs: one from somebody who said Williams had confessed to them, the other from an individual who claimed to have heard it from Kamiyah.

'They had called my phone and wanted me to come to the courthouse. I didn't pay attention to it. I ignored the phone calls,' the teenager said.

'Eventually I notified my mom [Williams] and we went up there together. They had a subpoena for my DNA and they swabbed my cheeks. Three days later they arrested her.'

Above is the composite created by police at the time Mobley was kidnapped by a woman (Williams) pretending to be a nurse (right)

As thrilled as she was to meet her biological parents, there was never any likelihood that Alexis Manigo would slip effortlessly into Kamiyah Moberly's shoes and leave her kidnapper languishing unloved and alone in a jail cell.

When Williams made her first court appearance on charges of first-degree kidnapping and third-degree custodial interference, Kamiyah was there, tearfully calling out to her before reaching through the metal bars to touch her fingers.

'I know her and she's not a criminal,' she told DailyMailTV. 'It was emotional seeing her behind bars and not being able to touch her and hug her, knowing she's not coming home and I'm probably not going to see her for a very long time after that.

'To the world I was a victim but I'm too headstrong to personally call myself a victim. I do feel a crime was done but I don't feel comfortable calling myself a victim.'

Kamiyah has not been able to visit Williams in jail because she still doesn't have an official ID. She has attended one court appearance but was warned not to cry out or make any gestures.

They regularly speak on the phone, including a call on Christmas Day.

'Me and her we talk every two or three days, for fifteen minutes and 36 seconds exactly. We talk about everything and everything. We have our moments but it's not always sad,' Kamiyah revealed.

'If she does end up going to prison for a long time I will never abandon her. We will always keep in touch.'

Kamiyah now splits her time between Aiken's household and the house where she was raised, with friends and loved ones in Walterboro, South Carolina still referring to her as Alexis.

After a year of wading through bureaucratic red tape, she has finally been able get a genuine social security number in the past week. The number Williams had provided to her school belonged to a dead man.

But just as a promising future beckons along with the chance to get a job and attend college, next month's court case looms large, with jury selection set for February 12.

Aiken says he's been assured that his daughter won't have to stand up and testify. Kamiyah just wishes it would go away.

'I really didn't want it to go to trial. I always felt like everything didn't need to be said,' she added. 'Maybe we could have just skipped that part. I do want to be there but I don't want to be forced to choose sides.

'I'm glad everything is out in the open. I've gotten to et a second family. I've been able to bond with my parents.

'Legally I'm Kamiyah. But there's still people in South Carolina who call me Alexis. I answer to anything. I'm not really particular or picky, I'm not really offended by the name thing. They are the same person.'

Aiken says he'll be there to support Kamiyah every step of the way.

Their relationship may be in its infancy but it's clear they are already inseparable. They both hope that, in time, her relationship with Mobley will be similarly close.

'We both believe in destiny. We were both going to meet each other one day. I think destiny figured out that we were ready now to meet each other,' said Aiken.

'It was meant for us to be together. That's why we bonded so good. It's like she never left. It's like she was gone for South Carolina for the weekend and came back to my house.'
Melinda Graham has one simple message for the online bullies who taunted 14-year-old Amy 'Dolly' Everett to the point she took her own life.

'Go to the funeral,' Mrs Graham said. 'They need to go to that funeral and they need to see the devastation they have caused.'

Mrs Graham, from Corrimal in Wollongong, south of Sydney, lost her own 14-year-old daughter, Jessica Tolhurst, to online bullying in 2015.

Amy Everett's parents have issued a challenge to their daughter's tormentors to attend her funeral on Friday: 'Please come to our service and witness the complete devastation you have created.'

That call was backed by Adelaide mother Crystal Bell, whose 13-year-old daughter Libby took her life in August last year after relentless bullying.

Libby Bell, 13, took her own life on August 28 last year after relentless online bullying

NSW girl Jessica Tolhurst, 14, had suffered relentless online bullying before her death in 2015

Amy 'Dolly' Everett as she appeared in a promotion for iconic hat manufacturer Akubra

Bullying victim Libby Bell (left) with her mum Crystal, pictured together on Mother's Day 2017

Melinda Graham pictured with her daughter Jessica Tolhurst, who took her own life in 2015

When Mrs Graham learnt Amy Everett had taken her own life on January 3 after being targeted by bullies she was devastated - and frustrated.

Mrs Graham and Ms Bell want changes to Australian laws so bullies can be prosecuted for the results of their actions.

'It's infuriating, three days into a new year and the government is allowing our children to die,' Mrs Graham told Daily Mail Australia.

'We've just lost another beautiful 14-year-old girl.

'It's devastating to know that another family is going through what we're going through.

'We'l be living this for the rest of our lives. Time doesn't heal. The pain doesn't lift. Nothing gets easy. You just learn to live with that pain.'

Mrs Graham's daughter Jessica died on December 7, 2016, only days after she got a boyfriend and was given a pup named Pepsi as an early Christmas present to help lift her spirits.

Amy Everett's parents have challenged her online bullies to attend their daughter's funeral

Amy Everett, known as Dolly, took her own life after becoming overwhelmed by online bullies

Wollongong girl Jessica Tolhurst, 13, lost her battle against online bullies in December 2015

Crystal Bell, whose daughter Libby died on August 28, told Daily Mail Australia her family had been devastated by the news of Amy's death.

She backed the Everett family and Mrs Graham in calling for those responsible for bullying Amy to face her parents at her funeral.

'I do back both families in saying the kids who used those nasty words without a second thought should most definitely attend the sacred day Dolly's heartbroken family have to lay their daughter to rest,' Ms Bell said.

'Having recently undergone similar circumstances, and being parents to three beautiful daughters, we, the Bell family are incredibly saddened by the death of Amy "Dolly" Everett.

'Our middle child, Libby Paige Bell, committed suicide last year at the age of 13 following years of relentless online and in-person bullying.

'We have been completely devastated as a family, and hope to help the wider community realise just how far-reaching and impacting bullying is and can be.

Melinda Graham lost her daughter, Jessica Tolhurst, (pictured) after years of online bullying

The family of Libby Bell, 13, says she took her life after physical abuse and online bullying

Crystal Bell in the last picture she had taken with Libby, eight weeks before she took her life

Libby's parents have been campaigning with their local MPs to introduce anti-bullying legislation to South Australia, dubbed 'Libbys Law'.

The proposed bill has passed through the state's Upper House, and the family hopes it will have been assented and in operation by the time school goes back later this month.

'It is time we stood up to bullies,' Ms Bell said. 'Whether they be at school, work or anywhere in between and help provide a legal framework of consequence, rehabilitation and education surrounding the matter.'

'We as a family hold the Everetts and their extended family and friends close to our hearts are they go through this gut-wrenching time, and offer our support as they start their journey to stand up to bullies.'

Another teenager to have taken his own life after suffering from bullies was Brisbane boy Tyrone Unsworth who died in November 2016.

The 13-year-old boy was targeted by homophobic schoolyard bullies for two years leading up to his death, his mother Amanda said.

'All of this because of bullies thinking they're tough heroes, now I don't have my son, never will I ever get to see my beautiful boy alive,' Mrs Unsworth wrote online at the time.

Brisbane boy Tyrone Unsworth, 13, took his own life after suffering relentless bullying

Tyrone Unsworth's father Blake (pictured in red and pink) helps carry his son's coffin in 2016

Tyrone Unsworth's parents Blake and Amanda at the Brisbane schoolboy's funeral in 2016

The Everett family - Amy is far right, pictured with her sister Meg, mother Kate and father Tick

Amy Everett also became overwhelmed by cyber bullies and took her own life.

Once the face of iconic Australian hat maker Akubra, her family from the Northern Territory has taken aim at the constant bullying she endured.

Amy's father Tick invited those who had tormented his daughter to attend her funeral in Katherine on Friday.

'Firstly if by some chance the people who thought this was a joke and made themselves feel superior by the constant bullying and harassment see this post, please come to our service and witness the complete devastation you have created,' Mr Everett wrote on social media.

Like Crystal Bell, Melinda Graham has urged state governments to make legislative changes so that online bullies face consequences for their actions.

'What my daughter went through and how she got bullied, if that was an adult they would have been in jail,' Mrs Graham said.

'Im not saying I want to see kids in jail but there need to be consequences. There need to be legal consequences.

'Thats the whole problem, you cannot touch these kids.

'Jessies main bully is still out there. I know a year ago she was still doing the same thing.

'Because theres no consequences she can still continue to do the same thing.'

The Everett family, who lost daughter Amy (left), wants to raise awareness of online bullying

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800
The archives of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller, which shed light on seven decades of his works, will be going on display at the University of Texas.

The Harry Ransom Center humanities library paid $2.7million for records beginning with 1936's No Villain, which Miller wrote while at the University of Michigan, to Finishing the Picture, produced months before his 2005 death, a university spokesman said Wednesday.

Also included are drafts of his two (arguably) most well-known plays: the Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman and The Crucible.

Documents from his four-year marriage to Hollywood starlet Marilyn Monroe will also be featured, including an unpublished letter he wrote detailing why he did not attend her funeral.

The University of Texas at Austin has paid $2.7million for the archives of Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Arthur Miller, who is pictured with his second wife, Marilyn Monroe, in an undated photo

The archives span his body of work from 1936's No Villain to Finishing the Picture, produced months before his 2005 death. Also on display will be unpublished essay and letters. Miller is pictured with Monroe in 1956, the year they married

On display will be a letter he wrote detailing why he did not attend Monroe's funeral. Monroe died of a suspected drug overdose in 1962, a year after the couple divorced

'Instead of jetting to the funeral to get my picture taken I decided to stay home and let the public mourners finish their mockery. Not that everyone there will be false, but enough. Most of them there destroyed her, ladies and gentlemen,' he said, per The London Times.

Miller donated early play manuscripts and working notebooks to the center in the 1960s.

The new archive contains multiple versions of his scripts and set designs, marketing materials, reviews and awards for productions of Miller's plays. There are also drafts of Miller's speeches and essays.

Miller's friend Christopher Bigsby told The London Times that Miller wanted his full archive collection to be displayed at the state school but said the author's heirs were tempted by a competing offer from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Miller's daughter, Rebecca, attended the Ivy League university.

'Arthur Miller is one of our country's finest playwrights, one who gave dramatic form to themes that are central to our still-evolving American story,' Ransom Center Director Stephen Enniss told KVUE.

In the letter (not pictured) he wrote: 'Instead of jetting to the funeral to get my picture taken I decided to stay home and let the public mourners finish their mockery. Not that everyone there will be false, but enough. Most of them there destroyed her, ladies and gentlemen'

Death of a Salesman, about a suicidal traveling salesman, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949. Miller was 33 years old

Miller's 1953 play, The Crucible, chronicles the Salem Witch Trials. Pictured are some of the research tools Miller used to write his play, which he later adapted into a film starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915 and went on to attend the University of Michigan, where he majored in English.

In 1949, He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama at age 33 for Death of a Salesman, a suicidal traveling salesman. The tragedy also won the Tony Award for Best Play.

The Crucible, which presents an account of the infamous Salem Witch Trials, came in 1953.

The play was later adapted by Miller himself into 1996 film starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder.

The award-winning playwright was married three times: to Mary Slattery, Marilyn Monroe, and Inge Morath.

His first two marriages ended in divorce. Morath died in 2002, three years before he died at the age of 89.

This photo taken by Miller's third wife, Inge Morath, shows Miller during a visit to the Capitol Theater in Beijing, China. Miller and Morath were married from 1962 until 2002, when she died. He died in 2005

Pictured are some of files that will be on display at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin

Pictured is the Tony Award for Best Play awarded to Miller for Death of a Salesman. The award is part of his archives

He had engaged in an affair with Monroe while married to Slattery and divorced the latter and married the former in the same year - 1956.

His marriage to the blonde bombshell, for whom he was her third husband, lasted for five years.

The pairing of a scandalous actress and an intellectual caused something of a stir in the media.

Variety, for example, summed up their marriage: 'Egghead Weds Hourglass.'

The couple divorced in 1961 and the following year Monroe, 36, died of a suspected drug overdose.

The Harry Ransom Center also holds collections from authors David Foster Wallace and Norman Mailer and playwrights Tennessee Williams and David Mamet.

The Center also has one of the few Gutenberg Bibles in existence today.
Kenneth White, 32, from Mt. Morris in October died after five teenagers threw rocks off an overpass in Michigan

Three of five Michigan teenagers aged between 15 to 17 have been found competent to stand trial after they were charged with second-degree murder in a deadly rock-throwing incident on Interstate 75.

A man died after the teenagers threw several rocks from the Dodge Road overpass that crashed through a van's windshield and fatally hit Kenneth White, 32, from Mt. Morris in October.

The evaluations show Kyle Anger, 18, Mark Sekelsky, 16, and Trevor Gray, 15, were mentally competent at the time of the incident and can understand their charges, David Leyton the Genesee County Prosecutor said.

Anger is said to be the one who threw the six pound rock that struck White's car.

From left to right, 18-year-old Kyle Anger, 16-year-old Mark Sekelsky and 15-year-old Trevor Grey, have all been found mentally competent to stand trial after they were charged with second-degree murder in a deadly rock-throwing incident on Interstate 75

Attorneys for Alexzander Miller, 15, and Mikadyn Payne, 16, did not request an examination to see whether they were mentally competent

White was immediately knocked unconscious. He was then rushed to the Hurley Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.

Anger's, Sekelsky's and Gray's lawyers requested the exam to test whether they were mature enough to participate in the legal proceedings against them.

Attorneys for Alexzander Miller, 15, and Mikadyn Payne, 16, did not. All five boys are charged as adults with second-degree murder and other charges.

Pictured here is Interstate 75 where the teenagers threw several rocks from the Dodge Road overpass

Prosecutor Leyton said: 'You want to make sure that person understands what they're charged with, what's gonna happen in court, what the role of the prosecutor is, what the role of the defense lawyer is, the role of the judges.'

KCRG reported that he added: 'You want to make sure the individual has the mental acuity, if you will, to follow through with the proceedings and to assist the defense lawyer. And me as the prosecutor, I want that too.'

Police said the five suspects took 20 rocks to the Dodge Road overpass and threw them at vehicles on I-75.

All five suspects are pictured here for their arraignment in front of Judge William Crawford on Tuesday, October 24, 2017, in Genesee County District Court in downtown Michigan

Trevor Gray (left) and Alexzander Miller (right) appear in court for their arraignment in October 2017

Mark Sekelsky (left) and Mikadyn Payne (right) appear in court for their arraignment in October 2017

Several vehicles got hit by the rocks, including the van White was driving on the way home from a work project north of Detroit.

'Man coming home from work, going home to see his family and his life is snuffed out just in an instant, in the snap of a finger by a very mindless act of a bunch of kids,' Leyton said.

'So he deserves justice, as does his family, and that's first and foremost in my mind,' he continued.

Pictured left is the damage done to White's car and on the right is the rock that was used

Kenneth White was rushed to the Hurley Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead. He's pictured with one of his children. He left behind four children and a fiancee

All five suspects could face life in prison for the second-degree murder charge. 'I don't think this was a deliberate attempt to take somebody's life. It was a willful and wanton act that resulted in somebody's death,' Leyton said regarding the charges.

Each is also charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and malicious destruction of property.

The suspects are due to appear in court with their attorneys on Thursday for a hearing, which marks their first appearance since November.

The three attorneys for Anger, Sekelsky and Grey said they are reviewing the competency exam results and could still ask for an independent evaluation during Thursday's hearing.

Payne and Miller's attorneys did not seek competency exams for their clients.

White left behind a fiancee and four children. Speaking to WBTV, his fiancee Aimee Cagle discussed the heartbreak of telling her five-year-old son what happened to his father. 'He was a good man and a good father.'

'For some senseless act, for it to be just a rock, just to take him so soon,' she said.

White is pictured here with his fiancee Aimee Cagle, they have four children together
Bella Thorne's mom has denied any knowledge of the shocking sexual abuse that the actress says devastated her childhood - and says she needs therapy herself to process the revelations.

Former Disney star Bella took to Instagram Sunday alleging that she had been repeatedly molested in her own bedroom but declining to say who the perpetrator was.

'I was sexually abused and physically growing up from the day I can remember till I was 14...when I finally had the courage to lock my door at night and sit by it,' she wrote.

'All damn night. Waiting for someone to take advantage of my life again. Over and over I waited for it to stop and finally it did.' The 20-year-old later added in a Tweet: 'I never knew what was right or wrong growing up..I didn't know the person sneaking into my bed room at night was a bad person,'

Speaking today from her Los Angeles home, Bella's mom Tamara Thorne said it was the first time she had ever heard about the shocking abuse that allegedly happened under her roof.

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Bella's mom Tamara Thorne told DailyMail.com she had no idea that her daughter had been abused under her own roof

A family friend confirmed to DailyMail.com that Tamara and Bella had discussed the Instagram post but added: 'I'm really sorry but she's not ready to address this yet.'

Bella took to Instagram on Monday to further detail how she was molested as a child

'Its a private family matter and I only just found out now,' Tamara, 47, exclusively told DailyMail.com. 'Im just talking to a therapist about it. Im processing it - its not something I knew about before.

'I hadnt heard about it before. I want to talk to my therapist first about it. Im actually going to see a therapist, a psychologist about it.'

A family friend confirmed that Tamara and Bella had discussed the Instagram post but added: 'I'm really sorry but she's not ready to address this yet.'

Bella grew up in the Pembroke Pines suburb of Miami and lost her Cuban father Delancey Thorne in a car accident when she was just nine years old.

Tamara relocated the family to LA, where she was raised with her three siblings, half-sister Kaili, Dani, and Remy. Dani, 24,and Kaili, 25, are also actresses while 22-year-old Remy is an MMA fighter.

Their household also included Stephan Muskus, 34, who was taken in by Tamara and Delancey as a young boy and was treated like a second son, according to family members.

Bella's maternal uncle James Beckett, 42, told DailyMail.com her father would be 'turning over in his grave' to hear that that one of his daughters had been abused, especially in her own home.

'Delancey would never stand for that. My sister would never have allowed it. We had never heard about any of this before now,' said Beckett, who previously ran a removals company for Delancey.

Bella and her sister Dani always slept in the same room. Dani would have to know about this too.

Bella, here with mom Tamara in a childhood picture, grew up in the Pembroke Pines suburb of Miami and lost herfather when she was just nine years old.

Bella's Cuban father, Delancey Thorne, who died in a car accident when she was just nine years old is here with Kaili, Dani, Bella, Remy

Tamara and Delancy Thorne with Stephan Muskus and their three children

Bella with her three siblings, half-sister Kaili, Dani, and Remy. Dani, 24,and Kaili, 25, are also actresses while 22-year-old Remy is an MMA fighter

Me and Delancey would joke that wed need an extensive gun collection to deal with the boyfriends when the girls started dating. He was very protective.

Bella began working as a child actress aged just six, using the money to help support her family as she blossomed into a major star with Disney.

She has spoken previously about her difficult childhood, saying she suffered from dyslexia and was bullied at school for speaking Spanish.

The 'Famous in Love actress first hinted at the sexual abuse in December when someone Tweeted her to say: 'What did Disney do to this girl?! I think she was molested?'

Bella replied with the cryptic message: 'Yeah I was. So it wasnt Disney.'

Her latest revelations came Sunday night ahead of the Golden Globes, where attendees dressed head to toe in black to show solidarity for the Times Up movement taking a stand against sexual harassment.

The Instagram message also called on other sex abuse victims to bravely share their own traumas, adding: 'Some of us aren't as lucky to get out alive. Please today stand up for every soul Mistreated. #timesup' Fans responded with an outpouring of support prompting Bella to post a tearful video in Twitter telling them to 'fucking stay strong - I love you guys.'

She added in an Instastory video Monday: 'I'm on Twitter reading about all the people sharing sexual abuse stories with me from mine and I just want to say I'm really proud of all you guys. Stay strong, peace, I love you guys.'

'I was sexually abused': Thorne has revealed she was molested throughout her childhood until the age of 14; she is pictured in October
A thief has been caught on camera nicking a large parcel from the front porch of a Perth home in a brazen daylight robbery.

Marisa Rees, from Bull Creek in the city's south, was shocked to find a woman skulking onto her property and leaving with her delivery when reviewing her CCTV footage Tuesday.

In a hopeful post shared online, the mother wrote, 'Does anyone know this delightful soul who stole my package today?,' along with a copy of the security video.

A woman has been caught nicking a large parcel from the front porch of a Perth home in a brazen daylight robbery

The 'red-haired' woman skulked onto her property before leaving with her delivery - remaining calm throughout the heist

Dressed in an outfit of dark blue denim jeans, burgundy Adidas sneakers and a white polo shirt, the red-haired woman performs a completely calm heist.

Mrs Rees' husband, Craig, was convinced the 'desperate soul' had been scoping out the entire street for goodies to collect.

'This delightful, upstanding, salt of the earth human being didn't just target us, we've got footage of her snooping around our street, so I'm sure she's just holding onto it until somebody's home. Bless her soul,' he wrote beneath the video.

Adding another layer of mystery to the case, Mrs Rees said someone was supposed to sign for the package before it was left by the courier.

In a hopeful post shared online Tuesday, Marisa Rees (centre) wrote, 'Does anyone know this delightful soul who stole my package today?,' along with a copy of security footage

Dressed in a near-new looking outfit of dark blue denim jeans, burgundy Adidas sneakers and a white polo shirt, the red-haired woman performs a completely calm heist

'Unfortunately on this occasion a signature was requested/required so that is also being followed up,' she wrote.

With the video shared more than 750 times and viewed by over 25,000 people, commenters were confident someone would recognise the 'low life scum'.

Other speculated she had donned a fake head of hair and a large pair of sunglasses in an attempt to disguise herself.

'She has a lovely suntan and dyed red hair....,' someone wrote.

Another adding, 'I know that red hair is fake.'

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Western Australia Police confirmed the matter had been reported and was under investigation.
Only one 'target' shark was caught in new nets deployed off the NSW North Coast in the first five weeks of their trial, while 53 other animals became entangled in the mesh.

Data released by the NSW government on Wednesday showed a single bull shark was caught in the nets off five beaches within the boundaries of Richmond Valley Council.

Meanwhile, 41 rays of different species were caught, with 16 of them dying, as well as four turtles, two of which died.

Trapped: 41 rays of different species were caught, with 16 of them dying, as well as four turtles (pictured), two of which died

In first five weeks of the trail 53 other animals became entangled in the mesh

The second shark meshing trial, which began in November 2017, is using different types of netting at different heights to an earlier trial in order to reduce 'by-catch', the Department of Primary Industries has previously said.

In the first trial, which ran from December 2016 to May 2017, 275 animals were caught in the netting, nine of which were target sharks - a strike rate of three per cent.

The government considers tiger, white and bull sharks as target species.

Five fewer animals were caught in the new nets over a four week period compared to a similar time frame in December last year during the first trial.

Greens MP Justin Field called on the government to scrap the 'ineffective' netting.

'This report is yet more evidence the shark netting program in NSW does little to keep people safe in the water but takes a terrible toll on local marine life,' Mr Field said.

Only one 'target' shark was caught in new nets deployed off the NSW North Coast in the first five weeks of their trial, while 53 other animals became entangled in the mesh (stingray pictured)

'A recent Senate report found people are 100 times more likely to drown at the beach than to be killed by a shark in Australia. The risk is infinitesimally small.'

Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair, accused the greens of using the 'regular, planned' release of a monthly report to run a scare campaign over summer.

He said claims the strategy isn't a science-based approach were inaccurate.

'Not only are we leading the world with our research and technology, we are also continually consulting with the community regarding all our approaches,' Mr Blair said in a statement.

The DPI has been contacted for comment.
A family has been left outraged after a funeral home allegedly swapped the expensive coffin of their grandmother to a cheap box.

The Queensland family farewelled 74-year-old Janice Valigura after she died from a stroke on New Year's Eve.

However, the $1700 oak casket lined with white silk is believed to have been switched for a $70 pine box moments before the cremation.

A family has been left outraged after a funeral home allegedly swapped the expensive coffin (pictured) of their grandmother to a cheap box

The $1700 oak casket lined with white silk is believed to have been switched for a $70 pine box (pictured) moments before the cremation of 74-year-old Janice Valigura

Ms Valigura's niece Kerry Rothery told The Daily Mercury when the coffin arrived 'an hour late' they knew something had happened.

Between the coffin being blessed by Ms Valigura's grandchildren at the church and being taken to the Rockhampton crematorium, something went wrong.

Ms Rothery told the publication the top of the casket had been screwed shut and her aunty was wrapped in plastic instead of the initial silk wrap.

'What she was put in was absolutely degrading to my aunty,' she said.

Ms Valigura's son Mick Valigura said the family were devastated but the undertaker told him it happened often, according to ABC News.

The funeral home, Harts Family Funerals, declined to comment when contacted by Australian Associated Press.

Ms Valigura's (pictured) niece Kerry Rothery told The Daily Mercury when the coffin arrived 'an hour late' they knew something had happened

The funeral home, Harts Family Funerals, (pictured) declined to comment when contacted by Australian Associated Press

Whitsunday Funerals and Crematorium director Jeff Doyle told the publication switching coffins was 'common practice around Australia' and called for 'serious regulation' in the industry.

'But unfortunately because at most crematoriums you're not allowed to go down and actually see the coffin go into the the cremator, it's easy for them to do it,' he said.

Queensland Police are investigating the matter.
It is one of the most infuriating driving habits, clogs up the roads  and is now a punishable offence.

But Britain remains a nation of middle lane hoggers according to a report.

Drivers who take up the middle lane of a motorway even when the inside lane is clear are flouting the Highway Code, as well as enraging many of their fellow road users by slowing up traffic.

But, unfortunately, this  as well as the threat of a 100 fine - does not appear to be a big enough deterrent.

According to a poll of drivers more than four in ten (43 per cent) admit to hogging the middle lane, with most committing this cardinal driving sin to avoid the need to overtake slower traffic such as lorries further down the road.

According to a poll of drivers more than four in ten (43 per cent) admit to hogging the middle lane, with most doing so to avoid the need to overtake slower traffic

Analysis of more than seventy hours of footage of motorway traffic found that an average of half (50 per cent) of all vehicles travel in the middle lane, and 27 per cent travel in the outside lane.

The footage shows that drivers are blatantly ignoring rule 264 of the Highway Code which clearly states you should always drive in the left hand lane when the road ahead is clear.

It also stipulates that if you are overtaking a number of slow-moving vehicles, you should return to the left-hand lane as soon as you are safely past.

The poll of just over 2000 drivers commissioned by insurer Direct Line also found that a third (33 per cent) of middle lane dawdlers say they do this to avoid changing lanes too much.

More than one in five (22 per cent) say they stay in the middle lane because it makes them feel safer, while one in nine (11 per cent) who avoid the inside lane do so because they claim they drive at the maximum speed limit so no one should be overtaking them.

While this behaviour is rife, just half (51 per cent) of drivers are aware they could be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention for remaining in the middle lane when the inside lane is free.

Analysis of more than seventy hours of footage of motorway traffic found that an average of 50 per cent of all vehicles travel in the middle lane, and 27 per cent travel in the outside lane

In 2013, hogging the middle lane on a motorway became a careless driving offence, punishable by a 100 on the spot fine by the police.

But in the most extreme cases drivers can be prosecuted for careless driving, which could see them hit with between three and nine points on their driving licence and fine of up to 175 per cent of their weekly income.

Admittedly these powers are very rarely used by police.

In September 2016, it emerged that just 135 on the spot fines of 100 had been issued in the three years since they were introduced.

But Rob Miles, director of car insurance at Direct Line, said: Our analysis of traffic flows shows that millions of drivers risk prosecution by travelling in the middle and outside lanes when the inside lanes are entirely clear.

Its important that we increase awareness of the rules and penalties, primarily because they exist to keep road users safe but also drivers face serious fines and endorsements that that will stay on their record for four years.

Londoners are the worst offenders with almost two thirds (65 per cent) likely to drive in the middle lane of a motorway when the inside lane is clear.

They are followed by Northern Ireland  where 62 per cent admit to being middle lane hoggers.

Drivers in the South East (32 per cent) are least likely to hog the middle lane, according to the poll.

Experts say this habit can also be extremely dangerous as middle lane drivers are often more prone to drifting into another lane and into the path of other traffic.
A Queensland woman has been forced to live through the heartache of losing her mother for a second time after thieves robbed her home while she was on holidays.

A foam box containing the ashes of Vicki Roberts' mother was taken from her Waterford West home, leaving her distraught and pleading for them to be returned.

An emotional Ms Roberts told Seven News the other stolen items could be replaced, but her mother - who died from cancer eight years ago - could not.

A foam box containing the ashes of Vicki Roberts' (pictured) mother was taken from her Waterford West home when she returned from Christmas holidays

'I'm just so upset that someone would be low enough to take my mum's ashes,' she said.

'I promised her that I would look after her and I haven't.

The ashes of grandmother and great-grandmother Phyllis were taken from a coffee table in the home, which the family believes thieves mistook for a money box.

Jewellery, cameras and two money tins were among the other items taken in the burglary, which Ms Roberts was shocked to arrive home to on Tuesday.

The ashes of grandmother and great-grandmother Phyllis (pictured) were taken from a coffee table in the home, which the family believes thieves mistook for a money box

She was holding out hope the crooks would 'have a heart' and return her mother's ashes to either a police station or drop them at her front door over night.

'I would love to be able to go to sleep and wake up and she's back here,' she said.

Her son, Robert, said his grandmother was 'everything' and would certainly not hold back on haunting her thieves.
Fox News' chief Washington correspondent James Rosen abruptly left the network late last month after a string of sexual-harassment claims were leveled against him.

The network confirmed that Rosen had left Fox News after 18 years just before Christmas but failed at the time to give a reason for his sudden departure.

Fox News also didn't announce the 49-year-old's departure on air.

Eight of his former colleagues told NPR on Wednesday that his resignation came after he allegedly made unwanted sexual advances towards female staffers that date back 16 years.

Fox News' chief Washington correspondent James Rosen abruptly left the network late last month after a string of sexual-harassment claims were leveled against him

The staffers claim Rosen, who is married with children, had been flirting and making sexual advances towards two reporters and a producer at the network.

Eight staffers claim Rosen, who is married with children, had been flirting and making sexual advances towards two reporters and a producer at the network

News of his alleged behavior came around the time when Rupert Murdoch publicly declared there had been no sexual misconduct allegations at the company since Fox News chairman Roger Ailes had been forced out in July 2016.

Several former and current female colleagues at the Washington bureau claim Rosen had sent racy notes through their internal messaging system.

Four colleagues claim a female reporter told them Rosen had groped her and grabbed her breast when they were sharing a taxi after a meal in September 2001.

A female producer also accused Rosen of sexual harassment around the same time. Being a foreign national, the woman accepted a deal with the company to extend her visa in exchange for not going public with her allegations.

Rosen then allegedly tried to a kiss a young female reporter in an elevator in the office when they were returning from lunch late last Spring.

The former top reporter would not comment on the allegations. He tweeted out this message to followers just after New Year's

Prior to his sudden departure, the Washington bureau chief (pictured above with Hillary Clinton) had been with Fox News for 18 years

He then allegedly asked her to remain quiet about the allegations and promised to help her get more airtime.

All three women declined to speak about the incidents involving Rosen.

The former top reporter also would not comment on the allegations.

Fox News has not made any comment regarding Rosen's departure from the network.

'I appreciate all the good wishes you have sent to me and I hope to bring you news about my future endeavors soon,' Rosen tweeted just after New Year's.
As parents continue to refuse to vaccinate their children a shocking number of deaths from diseases could have been prevented.

In NSW 54 children are believed to have died from illnesses for which a vaccine was available with 23 cases between 2005 and 2015 deemed 'potentially preventable' or 'preventable'.

Meningococcal - the most common vaccine-preventable illness claimed five lives and another 12 were due to influenza.

Deaths in NSW from diseases as parents to refuse to vaccinate (stock picture)

Expectant mums are being urged to get their jabs in the wake of the research, conducted for the NSW Ombudsman's Child Death Review Team.

'An additional 15 deaths would be potentially preventable as of August 2016 due to immunisation recommendation changes including maternal vaccination,' the researchers wrote.

The deaths of another nine babies 'may have been preventable through maternal vaccination during pregnancy' as they were too young to have been vaccinated.

Acting health spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk for Labor said the state government had allowed the 'radical anti-vaxxer movement a free run at influencing mothers'.

In NSW 54 children have died from illnesses for which a vaccine was available

She said more needs to be done by the government to counter the 'deadly spin of anti-vaxxers'.

Australian Medical Association NSW president Brad Frankum said anti-vaxxers needed to take some responsibility for the deaths.

'If they convince a single parent not to vaccinate their child due to their false information, they're culpable in my opinion,' he said.
President Donald Trump's exclamation that he's a 'very stable genius' did little to shore up voters' confidence in his fitness for office.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted over the weekend and released on Wednesday had 69 percent of the American public saying that Trump is not level-headed, including 71 percent of independents.

Just 28 percent voters who were surveyed nationwide said they believe Trump is calmly calling the shots.

Another 57 percent of voters told pollsters that Trump is not fit for office. Nearly two-thirds, 63 percent, said he is not honest.

On whether Trump is intelligent or not, more voters said he is, 53 percent, than not, 43 percent.

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President Donald Trump's exclamation that he's a 'very stable genius' did little to shore up voters' confidence in his fitness for office

Trump's mental acuity was called into question last week when the author of a tell-all book on his first year in office claimed that '100 percent' of the people close to the president question his intelligence and fitness for office.

'They all say he is like a child,' Michael Wolff, the author of 'Fire and Fury,' said last Friday, as pollsters opened up the survey, on 'Today.'

Wolff said that White House insiders believe that Trump is a 'moron' and an 'idiot' and revealed his penchant for repeating the same stories three times within 10 minutes.

Trump, 71, has his annual physical on Friday, but a mental health evaluation won't be part of the routine, spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters on Monday.

Gidley swatted away the question with a curt 'no' as he briefed reporters aboard Air Force One.

The White House spokesman also defended Trump's description of himself as a 'stable genius,' saying the choice of words was a direct response to how reporters were characterizing him.

'Most of the press calls him unstable and stupid,' Gidley said. 'But the record shows quite a difference, than what the media is trying to portray. He comes back with exactly what he is.'

Gidley, a deputy White House press secretary, said, 'He's brilliant, not just in the business world, but as a political tactician, as a president. The accomplishments speak for themselves.'

Journalists who speculate about the state of the president's mental health are 'ridiculous' and 'repugnant,' particularly those who devote stories and broadcast interviews to doctors who have no firsthand knowledge to share, he said.

It's an 'absolute dereliction of duty for journalists to report, as fact, psychiatrists who have never sat down with the president,' he rebutted.

'The people who are in with him consistently talk about how incredible he is,' Gidley added. 'He's sharp as a tack, he is a workhorse. He demands his staff to be the same way.'

In a series of Saturday morning tweets, Trump had played defense in his battle with Wolff.

'Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,' Trump tweeted.

The commander-in-chief added that although doubts about his mental capacity have been frequently raised by his critics, he proved them wrong with his 'successful' career in television and business and his stunning victory in the 2016 election.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, Trump called himself "really smart' and 'a very stable genius'

'I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!' he said

Questions surrounding Trump's competence for office intensified following the release of 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House' by Michael Wolff, which included shocking claims, including doubts among Trump's senior aides about his mental fitness in the role of 'leader of the free world.'

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders faced questions three days in a row about Trump's mental health and his ability to serve as commander-in-chief.

Sanders said that what 'is really mentally unstable is people that don't see the positive impact that this president is having on the country.'

Trump's father, Fred Trump, died in 1999 after a six-year battle with Alzheimer's Disease, a degenerative brain-wasting condition.

DailyMail.com asked Trump about it during an August 2015 campaign press conference in New Hampshire.

'He was 88 years when he developed it, and he died at 94,' Trump observed at the time.

The president is currently 71.

Asked if he had any concerns about his own mental health, he replied: 'No. Not whatsoever.'

Donald Trump, 17, said on August 19, 2015 that although his father died following a six-year battle with Alzheimer's Disease, he wasn't diagnosed until age 88

Joe Scarborough (right) said Monday that he's tried twice to write in his Washington Post column about claims that Donald Trump has dementia, but the newspaper censored him

The 'Morning Joe' host interviewed author Michael Wolff (shown) about his new book 'Fire and Fury'

'My mother was 88, 89, and she was in amazingly great health. And my father, too, was in great health. They lived long lives.'

'Morning Joe' co-host Joe Scarborough said Monday it's an open secret that Trump is losing his mind, and The Washington Post has steadfastly refused to let anyone write about it in its pages.

'I've written twice in my column a quote about one of the people closest to Donald Trump during the campaign saying he's got early stage of dementia,' Scarborough said.

'But twice The Washington Post hasn't  would not let me put that in my column,' he added.

Wolff wrote in his book that nearly everyone who is regularly around the president is aware of his declining mental state.

'Until your book came out, this was something we were not allowed to speak about,' Scarborough told him.

Wolff said most journalists who cover the White House daily are uncomfortable writing about such an explosive claim because it would shut off their access to the administration.

But a book's author, he argued, doesn't have that problem.

'You can't say what you know, or all that you know, because you have to go back the next day,' Wolff said, adding that 'I could say it because I'm not going back.'
Boris Johnson hit out yesterday at the decision by Virgin Trains to stop stocking the Daily Mail, describing it as an 'absurd' and 'pompous' ban that resembles censorship.

A spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn also spoke out on the issue and said that the paper would not be banned on the publicly-owned railway envisaged by Labour.

And a Downing Street source said Prime Minister Theresa May backed 'the importance of a free Press to our democracy'.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson described the decision to stop selling the Daily Mail as 'absurd' while a spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn said he is an enthusiastic support of a free Press

Mr Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, intervened after the train operator told West Coast line staff that the Mail is 'not at all compatible' with its brand.

In an internal memo, leaked to the train drivers' union Aslef, Virgin Trains also said staff had raised 'considerable concerns' about the Mail's 'editorial position on issues such as immigration, LGBT rights and unemployment'.

Mr Johnson tweeted: 'Absurd ban on Daily Mail by Virgin! Pompous, censorious and wrong #virginontheridiculous.'

A spokesman for Labour leader Mr Corbyn said: 'Jeremy is an enthusiastic supporter of a free Press and the pluralism of the Press. Obviously private companies will decide what they want to stock on their trains.

'There will be no bans on a publicly-owned railway.'

The Mail has said it was told by Virgin Trains that the only reason the paper would no longer be stocked was to 'save space', and that it only sold 70 copies a day.

The Daily Mail has said it was told by Virgin Trains that the only reason the paper would no longer be stocked was to 'save space'

A spokesman for the newspaper pointed out that the train operator would only be selling pro-Remain titles The Mirror, Financial Times and The Times, in line with owner Sir Richard Branson's views.

Yesterday a Downing Street source said Mrs May has been clear about the importance of having an independent Press but ultimately it was a decision for Virgin.

Asked if the Prime Minister shared her Foreign Secretary's opinion, the source said: 'She has always been clear on the importance of a free Press to our democracy and indeed to our society.'

The Society of Editors has also said it is concerned about the move by Virgin Trains, which it said 'smacks of censorship'.
The BBC has dominated the most-watched TV programmes chart for last year, despite losing its former ratings juggernaut The Great British Bake Off.

Audience figures for the whole of 2017 show the Corporation aired 19 of the top 20 programmes, thanks to bumper audiences for Strictly Come Dancing and Blue Planet II.

All seven episodes of Sir David Attenborough's underwater natural history series made the list, with the launch  featuring extraordinary scenes of a bird-eating fish - pulling in the highest audience of the year with 14million.

Yet, this figure was nearly 2million viewers down on the most popular TV programme of 2016, when 15.9million tuned in to watch Candice Brown crowned the winner of Bake Off.

All seven episodes of Sir David Attenborough's series Blue Planet II made the list, with the launch featuring a bird-eating fish pulling in the highest audience of the year with 14million

Despite occupying all but one of the top 11 slots in 2016, the baking show failed to make the top 20 programmes following its 75million move to Channel 4.

Meanwhile, ITV stopped it being a clean sweep for the BBC, with the launch of I' m A CelebrityGet Me Out of Here! Attracting the eighth-biggest TV audience of the year.

More than 12.2million people tuned in to watch Ant McPartlin's much-anticipated return to TV and the sight of Boris Johnson's dad Stanley entering the Australian jungle.

Record audiences for Strictly Come Dancing saw it feature ten times on the list, peaking with 13million viewers for last month's final, won by former Holby City actor Joe McFadden.

Despite occupying all but one of the top 11 slots in 2016, The Great British Bake Off failed to make the top 20 programmes following its 75million move to Channel 4

The success of the dancing show came despite early backlash from fans that they did not recognise several of the celebrity contestants, and is likely to have been helped by a decline in X Factor ratings.

Given the nation's love for baking, dancing and marine wildlife, dramas like Line of Duty and Poldark struggled to challenge for a spot in the chart, with only the New Year's Day instalment of Sherlock making the list with 11.3million.

And the only live event to feature was the One Love Manchester concert, held shortly after the Manchester Arena terror attack with a star-studded line-up including Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Take That, finished nineteenth. Around 11.6million viewers tuned in to watch the concert, which was spearheaded by Ariana Grande, on BBC1.

The figures include those who watched on catch-up in the seven days after each programme aired, but do not include ITV's +1 channel.

Sir David Attenborough and Brian Cox to discuss Darwin in new science show

Sir David Attenborough and Professor Brian Cox will unite on screen for the first time in a new show delving into the stories of history's most significant scientists.

The acclaimed naturalist and the physicist will discuss the legacy of Charles Darwin, from his 'absolutely mad obsession with collecting beetles' to extracts from his legendary 1859 scientific tome On The Origin Of Species.

Sir David explains his admiration for the famed explorer's book that shares 'argument and observation' rather than 'jargon'.

As the six-part BBC iPlayer series People Of Science continues, Cox will meet Royal Society Fellows Bill Bryson, Dame Uta Frith, Sir David Spiegelhalter, Dame Julia Higgins and Dame Sally Davies as they explore the organisation's archives and introduce viewers to their favourite historical figures in the field.

Sir David Attenborough and Professor Brian Cox will unite on screen for the first time in a new show delving into the stories of history's most significant scientists

Cox, who is professor for public engagement in science at the Royal Society, said: 'People Of Science opens up a treasure trove of archival riches and tales of scientists from the past.

'It's been a fascinating experience to work with Fellows of the Royal Society to tell these stories. For me, and I hope for the audience, these films deliver a rare insight into the people behind some of the world's greatest scientific discoveries.

'Some are household names, some less well known, but all have changed our lives. From Darwin's singular obsession with beetles to Alice Lee's use of statistics to refute the notion that men, with larger average skull size, are more intelligent than women, these stories illuminate the history of science in a novel and exciting way.'

Dame Uta takes on the legacy of Lee, an early mathematician who stormed into a conference of male anatomists in Dublin and took their head measurements to dispel the belief that men's larger skulls made them more intelligent than women.

The acclaimed naturalist and the physicist will discuss the legacy of Charles Darwin, from his 'mad obsession with collecting beetles' to extracts from On The Origin Of Species

Meanwhile, Bryson explores the legacy of Benjamin Franklin, Dame Julia revisits Michael Faraday's work with electricity, and chief medical officer Dame Sally investigates the impact of Alexander Fleming and Howard Florey's discovery of penicillin.

The Royal Society's head of library and centre for history Keith Moore said: 'We love to look behind the steel doors of the Royal Society's archives and what better way to do it than by having flesh-and-blood scientists tell the very human stories of their great predecessors.

'Eavesdropping on conversations between Brian Cox and a host of other leading scientists allows us all to discover the intimate and sometimes surprising connections between key researchers of the here-and-now and their scientific heritage. What could be more inspiring?'

The Royal Society's People Of Science series will be available on BBC iPlayer from Thursday.
Authorities said that 18-year-old Daniel Bennett (pictured) of Irvington is awaiting trial for allegedly molesting a horse

An Alabama teenager was brought before a judge for the first time on Tuesday after he was arrested for allegedly molesting a horse on multiple occasions.

Authorities said that 18-year-old Daniel Bennett of Irvington is awaiting trial following his Tuesday arraignment at the Mobile Merto Courthouse for the bestial act.

According to WPMI-TV, the owner of the 20-year-old steed found Bennett in her barn on Thursday.

Upon being discovered on the premises, Bennett allegedly told owner Francine Janes that 'he wanted to pet the horse.'

Janes told the local broadcaster that her husband held the suspected trespasser at gunpoint until police arrived.

He is accused a molesting a 20-year-old horse named Polly (pictured) in Irvington, Alabama

When authorities came to arrest Bennett, they allegedly found him wearing a trench coat and in possession of a 'burglar's tool.'

Janes said that she believes this isn't the first time Bennett had come to spend time with her horse, Polly, explaining that she had found evidence in the stall multiple times throughout the month of December.

Francine Janes (pictured) told the local broadcaster that her husband held the suspected trespasser at gunpoint until police arrived

'I would say seven maybe 10 times,' Janes told WPMI. 'Toilet paper had been left. The hay stacks had been removed. Items had been turned over. And that's as far as I want to go.'

A police warrant states that Bennett was arrested for the crime of bestiality, listed as a misdemeanor, alleging that he 'engaged in or submitted to any sexual contact with an animal, to-wit: a horse,' AL.com reported.

Bennett was also charged with possession of burglar's tools and second-degree criminal trespassing. Bennett is scheduled to appear in court on January 18.
Sick trolls have threatened to use a car to mow down women taking part in a glitter boobs march through Auckland city centre.

Madeline Anello-Kitzmiller and Jolene Guillum-Scott launched the 'glittery march for consent' this week after Madeline was groped while topless at a festival in NZ last month.

But within 24 hours of promoting the protest, due to take place later this month, aspiring writer Madeline, 20, and makeup artist Jolene, 22, began receiving abusive messages  which even left Jolene in tears.

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Madeline Anello-Kitzmiller and Jolene Guillum-Scott launched the 'glittery march for consent' this week after Madeline was groped while topless at a festival in NZ last month

Madeline Anello-Kitzmiller (pictured right) from Portland at the Rhythm & Vines festival in New Zealand on New Years Eve with her friend when a man touched her breast

Within 24 hours of promoting the protest, due to take place later this month, aspiring writer Madeline, 20, and makeup artist Jolene, 22, began receiving abusive messages (pictured)  which even left Jolene in tears

One troll even threatened to come to the event 'in a car' in an apparent reference to recent terrorist attacks where vehicles have been used to kill pedestrians in city centres worldwide.

The 'march for consent' was organised after Madeline, from Portland, US, was groped by a male reveller at Rhythm & Vines festival on New Year's Eve as she partied with 'glitter boob' decoration designed by Jolene's company GypsyFest covering her bare breasts.

Footage which captured a man running up to her and grabbing her cleavage before the 20-year-old aspiring writer chased after him and punched him four times went viral.

Madeline and Jolene have hit back to insist their march  the exact time and location of which has not yet been revealed  will still go ahead with more than 100 attendees set to take part.

On Tuesday, Jolene, from Auckland, took to social media to explain what the march was about but broke down crying when trolls harassed her while she spoke in a live video.

The 22-year-old said: 'I was really excited to talk about something which means so much to me, but I actually could not believe the comments I was getting.

'They actually made me cry a couple of times. I was honestly shocked. I couldn't even get a word out because I was just so overwhelmed.

'Trolls do not even believe you are human  they just do not give a s**t.'

Footage which captured a man running up to Madeline (pictured) and grabbing her cleavage before the 20-year-old aspiring writer chased after him and punched him four times went viral

On Tuesday, Jolene, from Auckland, took to social media to explain what the march was about but broke down crying when trolls harassed her while she spoke in a live video (pictured)

The 22-year-old said: 'I was really excited to talk about something which means so much to me, but I actually could not believe the comments (pictured) I was getting'

Madeline added: 'The amount of negativity sent to both Jolene and I is horrendous.

'Someone said they were going to be there in there in their car, implying they would run people over which has happened elsewhere in the world, and called me a 'f***ing sl*t' and told me to 'go back to my own f**ing country'.

'It shows us people care more about what women are 'allowed' to do with their bodies than about the countless victims whose numbers grow every day  regardless of whether people actually hear about them.

'Anyone who calls us a sl*t or says we are attention seeking really has not taken the time to see what we are standing for and is simultaneously outing themselves as someone who supports rape culture.'

Jolene and Madeline launched the 'march for consent' to stand in solidarity with victims of sexual assault and spark a debate around consent, victim blaming and sexual harassment.

On the day, Jolene's company GypsyFest will be decorating all attendees who want to go topless with 'glitter boob' makeup but both women have stressed there is no dress code.

Men are also welcome to attend the event, at which people will stand for 'body positivity, mutual respect, equality, empathy and above all else consent'.

Madeline said: 'The march is about raising awareness of what consent means and the lack of conversation that revolves around it.

'This is not about glittering breasts  it is about promoting body positivity and enforcing the idea that consent is everything.

'I am passionate about standing up for all genders and all ages because this happens to everyone and their voices have been muffled by oppression and ignorance for far too long.'

Madeline (right) added: 'The amount of negativity sent to both Jolene and I is horrendous

On the day, Jolene's company GypsyFest will be decorating all attendees who want to go topless with 'glitter boob' makeup but both women have stressed there is no dress code

Money raised at the march from donations for glitter will be given to a New Zealand charity which helps victims of sexual abuse and harassment.

In a joint statement, Madeline and Jolene added: 'No one has the right to touch you without your consent  it doesn't matter what the circumstance may be, your body is yours and nobody has the right to take that away from you.

'If you have ever been shamed for your attire, harassed or had what you're wearing taken as an invitation then we are marching for you and we want you to march with us.

'There is no dress code. Our freedom to express ourselves however we choose, modestly or not, does not equate an invitation to touch our bodies.'

The threat made regarding the event has not been reported to New Zealand Police.
An elder of a Kansas City church has been arrested in connection to the death of his wife, who was an associate pastor, police said.

Authorities in Johnson County, Kansas, on Wednesday charged 30-year-old Robert Lee Harris with first-degree murder in the death of his wife of 18 months, 38-year-old Tanisha Harris.

Police say officers on Monday responded to the couple's Overland Park, Kansas, apartment about a domestic disturbance and returned when Harris reported that his wife was missing.

He confessed to playing a role in her disappearance during questioning, police say, and her body was later found in Raymore, Missouri.

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Johnson County, Kansas, authorities on Wednesday charged 30-year-old Robert Lee Harris (left) with first-degree murder in the death of his wife of 18 months, 38-year-old Tanisha Harris (right)

Police say officers on Monday responded to the couple's Overland Park, Kansas, apartment about a domestic disturbance and returned when Harris reported that his wife was missing

Harris eventually admitted to police that he played a role in his wife's disappearance, it was reported

Tanisha Harris was an associate pastor at Repairers Kansas City, a nondenominational church, The Kansas City Star reports.

Pastor Carlton Funderburke described the newlyweds as 'loving' and said there were 'no signs at all' of trouble.

'Ive cried all that I can,' Funderburke said on Tuesday.

'They were a loving couple.  They were a wonderful newlywed couple.'

Funderburke said that he officiated the couple's wedding in July 2016.

Tanisha Harris was an associate pastor at Repairers Kansas City, a nondenominational church

Robert Harris is an elder at the same church, where congregants said they were shocked by the news of his arrest

Pastor Carlton Funderburke described the newlyweds as 'loving' and said there were 'no signs at all' of trouble. 'Ive cried all that I can,' Funderburke said on Tuesday

Harris is being held on a $1million bond and scheduled to appear in court Thursday. It's not clear if he has an attorney.

Law enforcement officials in Overland Park said on Tuesday that they were called to an apartment at 4pm the day before due to a reported domestic disturbance.

When they arrived, they encountered a man alone in his apartment.

Several hours later, the same man called police and reported that his wife was missing.

Police asked the man a number of questions, during which they grew more suspicious.

The man, later identified to be Harris, eventually admitted to police that he played a role in his wife's disappearance, it was reported.

At 2am on Tuesday, police officers from the neighboring towns of Raymore and Belton, Missouri met at the intersection of two streets and cordoned off the area, which became a crime scene.

Investigators from Overland Park and Johnson County converged on the area and found the body of Tanisha Harris.

Her husband, Robert Lee Harris, was then taken into custody.

Authorities declined to comment further on details of the investigation.
A top university has launched an investigation into a secretive conference on campus which featured speakers with controversial views about race and gender.

University College London said it was probing a potential breach of its booking policy over the London Conference on Intelligence (LCI).

The annual conference, which was first held in 2014, is alleged to have included speakers who have written about people in some countries having on average a higher IQ than those in others.

It was hosted by an honorary UCL senior lecturer, Professor James Thompson, who taught psychology for 32 years and for the last decade has worked as a consultant psychologist.

University College London (pictured) has launched an investigation into a secretive conference which featured speakers with controversial views about race and gender

UCL said it has suspended any further bookings by the conference organisers or their guests and will be seeking an explanation from Prof Thompson.

It added that it did not have prior notice of either the speakers or the content, because it had been booked as an external event, and thus was not officially endorsed by the university.

A university spokesman said: We are an institution that is committed to free speech but also to combatting racism and sexism in all forms.

We have suspended approval for any further conferences of this nature by the honorary lecturer and speakers pending our investigation into the case.

UCLs insignia has appeared on a number of LCI publications, and within the conferences logo on its official YouTube channel.

UCL professor David Colquhoun told the London Student that the LCI was engaged in pseudoscience and stated that the organiser, Prof Thompson, clearly doesnt understand genetics.

According to promotional material for the 2016 conference, it featured a talk by Richard Lynn, professor emeritus at the University of Ulster.

Prof Lynn has written controversial works highlighting what he said were differences in average intelligence between men and women, as well as different nations.

UCL said it has suspended any further bookings by the conference organisers or their guests and will be seeking an explanation from Professor James Thompson

In 1994, he was criticised for accepting 33,000 of research money from The Pioneer Fund, which has also funded a controversial lobby group called American Immigration Reform.

He said at the time that he was aware that the Pioneer Fund might fund things which some might find unacceptable, but I dont accept that this affects the credibility of my research.

He is president of the Ulster Institute for Social Research, which runs the journal Mankind Quarterly.

The journal admits on its website that it has earned a reputation for publishing articles in controversial areas, including behavioural race differences and the importance of mental ability for individual outcomes and group differences.

Another speaker at the LCI has been Emil Kirkegaard, who gave a talk in 2015 about how far genomic race is associated with cognitive ability.

Writer and geneticist Adam Rutherford told the London Student that, based on the titles and abstracts at the LCI, some of the views presented by speakers were a pseudoscientific front for bog-standard, old-school racism.

He added: As soon as you begin to speak about black people and IQ you have a problem, because genetically-speaking black people arent one homogenous group.

Any two people of recent African descent are likely to be more genetically distinct from each other than either of them is to anyone else in the world.
An incredible once in a lifetime lunar event will sweep our skies and Australians have the best view in the world.

Last seen 150 years ago, the super red blue moon is the astonishing trifecta worth staying awake for.

The event will include a supermoon, a red moon and a blue moon all taking place at the same time.

Southern Cross University geographer Professor Bill Boyd told Daily Mail Australia while every moon was special in its own way, the fact three were happening at once was what made it stand out.

An incredible once in a lifetime lunar event will sweep our skies and Australians have the best view in the world (pictured lunar eclipse)

Last seen 150 years ago, the super red blue moon is the astonishing trifecta worth staying awake for (red moon pictured)

Southern Cross University geographer Professor Bill Boyd told Daily Mail Australia while every moon was special its own way, the fact three were happening at once was what made it stand out

'It's a really unusual thing ... it's a really special thing all three things are happening on the same night,' Mr Boyd said.

'Records show it happening 150 years ago ... we won't see one in our lifetime again.'

'A supermoon is a really spectacular thing when the moon is as close as it'll ever get, it's much bigger and brighter,' Mr Boyd told Daily Mail Australia.

'We've got a blue moon ... but a really big event is a lunar eclipse (red moon).

'It happens when the sun, the Earth and the moon are completely aligned, so that the moon travels through the Earths shadow. It occurs two to four times a year, though not usually a full eclipse.'

With most places around the globe will get a view of the spectacle, the east coast of Australia will get the best vantage point.

With most places around the globe will get a view of the spectacle, the east coast of Australia will get the best vantage point (pictured is a supermoon in Sydney)

THE SPECTACULAR SUPER RED BLUE MOON WHAT IS IT? The lunar event is when a supermoon, a red moon and a blue moon happen at the same time. A supermoon is when the moon is the closest it will ever be to earth. A red moon is a lunar eclipse where the moon, sun and earth all align. A blue moon is used to describe a second full moon in a month. WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN? Once every 150 years. WHERE CAN IT BE SEEN? Australia, NSW north coast and Gold Coast - 10.48pm and ends at 2.11am Australia - anywhere with a clear view to the north New York - early in the morning India - early in evening WHEN WILL IT TAKE PLACE? January 31, 2018 Advertisement

Mr Boyd said while people in countries like New York and India would be able to see the moon, Australia would be treated to the full show with the moon sitting in the centre of the sky.

'We'll have the best view in the house on the east coast of Australia,' he said.

'It'll be a larger than usual moon, brighter than usual and travelling half way through the sky.

'We have some light scattered, red light scattered, a red glow for about an hour and 20 mins and an hour before that it gradually gets darker.'

Across the NSW north coast and Gold Coast, the super red blue moon starts at 10.48pm (NSW time), eclipsing fully from 11.51 pm to 1.07 am, ending at 2.11am, with a clear view to the north the best for viewing the super red blue moon on January 31.

Some of the best vantage points include the Gold Coast, Lismore and Coffs Harbour.

'It's a once in lifetime event, few of us will never see it again I should think, it's truly spectacular and worth staying up for,' Mr Boyd said.

'I hope that the skies are clear ... but if there's patchy clouds it may look more dramatic.'


Nuclear weapons are increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks that could have catastrophic consequences because of their reliance on new technology, a report warns today.

Online enemies could sabotage control systems and cause Britain or another nuclear-armed state to launch a strike against another country by mistake, the Chatham House think-tank said.

The likelihood of attempted cyber-attacks on nuclear weapons is high and increasing from advanced persistent threats from states and non-state groups, the report found.

The Chatham House report, which is published today, examines the threats facing the worlds most deadly weapons.

Nuclear weapons are increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks that could have catastrophic consequences because of their reliance on new technology, a report warns today

A national nuclear arsenal, such as the weapons carried by Britains Trident submarines, could be subject to interference, hacking, and sabotage through the use of malware or viruses, it warns.

This could infect digital components of a system at any time, which the think-tank said could lead to countries launching nuclear weapons by accident.

The report said: At times of heightened tension, cyber-attacks on nuclear weapons systems could cause an escalation, which results in their use.

Inadvertent nuclear launches could stem from an unwitting reliance on false information and data. It says a compromised system cannot be trusted in decision-making.

It added: With the potential for such catastrophic consequences from a nuclear weapons detonation attack it is crucial to have the most robust nuclear policies in place.

When nuclear weapons systems were first developed, computer capabilities were in their early stages and little consideration was given to potential malicious cyber-vulnerabilities.

As a result, current nuclear strategy often overlooks the widespread use of digital technology in nuclear systems, it was claimed.

A nuclear arsenal such as the weapons carried by Britains Trident submarines (pictured), could be subject to interference, hacking, and sabotage through the use of malware or viruses

The papers authors, Dr Beyza Unal and Dr Patricia Lewis, said that although such risks have existed for a long time, new technology has exacerbated the threat facing nuclear weapons systems.

They say that with each new digital component embedded in a system, new threat possibilities emerge.

The report adds: Cyber vulnerabilities within nuclear weapons systems and structures present a whole set of danger and risks.

It said the vulnerability of nuclear weapons systems to hacking would at best undermine trust.

But it added: At worst, cyber-attacks could lead to deliberate misinformation and the inadvertent launch of nuclear weapons.

The report also raised the prospect of cyber spoofing, which creates false information that seems to come from a legitimate source but affects a countrys decision-making process.

This could hijack decision-making with potentially devastating consequences, it found.

The research paper calls for nuclear weapons states to incorporate cyber risk reduction measures in nuclear command, control and communication systems.
The RSPCA have launched an investigation after a dead koala was found screwed to a pole at a park north of Brisbane.

Koala Rescue Queensland responded to a report of a koala climbing a wooden gazebo but on closer inspection, the koala was found dead and screwed in place at Brooloo Park Lookout, near Gympie on Wednesday.

RSPCA Queensland spokesman Michael Beatty said they are working to retrieve the body from Gympie Regional Council, whose officers took the animal down.

'Koalas are in enough danger from habitat destruction to dog attacks - who in their right mind would do this,' Mr Beatty said.

The RSPCA have launched an investigation after a dead koala was found screwed to a pole at a park north of Brisbane (pictured)

The act left wildlife rescuers feeling sick to the stomach.

'I feel sick, like throwing up,' Koala Rescue Queensland spokesman Murray Chambers told AAP on Thursday.

He said the attack on a 'vulnerable' and 'innocent' animal showed no respect for Australian wildlife.

The rescue team was headed to the park on Thursday to conduct tests and determine if the male koala was dead or alive when it was placed there.

Unfortunately, the incident is not a one-off with the team often faced with distressing acts such as koalas being shot or beheaded.

Fellow team member Ray Chambers said there was a need for stronger penalties for animal cruelty to stop this 'horrid' behaviour.

'The whole thing is just wrong,' he said.

'We want answers.'
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With its exquisite architecture and timeless ambience, this breathtaking sandstone home appears to be straight out of 19th century Britain.

But believe it or not, the three-storey heritage-listed masterpiece is on the market in rural Queensland.

'The Abbey' boasts 50 rooms - including chapel, a grand dining area as well as 14 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms.

This breathtaking sandstone home appears to be straight out of 19th century Britain, but it's actually up for sale in country Queensland

'The Abbey' boasts 50 rooms - including chapel, a grand dining area (pictured) as well as 14 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms

The breathtaking property in the Queensland town of Warwick sits on 10,000 square meters of land and includes this chapel

'The real surprise may just be how cozy and homely this home feels,' according to the property's online listing

Sitting on 10,000 square meters of land, the stunning property in the country town of Warwick goes up for auction later this month.

'It's got 127 years of history,' Ray White selling agent Josh Thomas told Daily Mail Australia.

'It's quite a special property and it's something that is rarely available in Australia, let alone Queensland. It's more conducive to European property.

'The first foundation stone was laid in 1891, so it has that sort of historical relevance. It's something quite unique.'

The stunning property goes up for auction later this month. The Queensland home last sold for $1.525 million in 2010

'It's got 127 years of history,' Ray White selling agent Josh Thomas told Daily Mail Australia, speaking of the property on Thursday

The first foundation stone was laid back in 1891. 'So it has that sort of historical relevance. It's something quite unique,' Mr Thomas said

'It's quite a special property and it's something that is rarely available in Australia, let alone Queensland,' the agent said

Mr Thomas said overseas and interstate buyers had already expressed a keen interest in the home.

The property's stain glass was prepared by the Munich Royal Bavarian Art Institute for Stained Glass - the same company which also did work for the Vatican.

It also features a statue by the designer of the Statue of Liberty.

'Whilst The Abbey can boast the hosting of numerous dignitaries, the real surprise may just be how cosy and homely this home feels,' the listing reads.

The home's stain glass was prepared by the Munich Royal Bavarian Art Institute for Stained Glass - the same company which made glass for the Vatican

The home's selling agent said overseas and interstate buyers had already expressed a keen interest. One of the 14 bedrooms is pictured

This bathroom, one of a dozen the property boasts, leads directly to one of the 14 bedrooms the stunning home includes

One of the bedrooms (pictured) in the Queensland property features high timber ceilings and dual chandeliers

'The Abbey really is an extraordinary opportunity for your future vision, whilst embracing a rich history.'

Current owners Sonia Hunt and Mark Cains told realestate.com.au they fell in love with the home as soon as they laid eyes on it.

'It's really surreal. You don't feel like you own it because it's not like a normal home,' Mrs Hunt said.

'We could sleep in a different bed every night and feel like we're on holiday for over a week.

The home's current owners said they fell in love with the home as soon as they laid eyes on it before making the purchase in 2010

'The Abbey really is an extraordinary opportunity for your future vision, whilst embracing a rich history,' the listing reads

'It's really surreal. You don't feel like you own it because it's not like a normal home,' said Mrs Hunt, the current home owner

'We could sleep in a different bed every night and feel like we're on holiday for over a week,' the current home owner said

'Fixing her up and feeling the love come back out of her - you just have this proud feeling you can't put into words.'

She said the couple had lived in the property for nearly eight years, but now wanted to relocate to be closer to family.

The home last sold for $1.525 million in 2010.

The owners have lived in the property for nearly eight years, but now want to relocate to be closer to family

'Fixing her up and feeling the love come back out of her - you just have this proud feeling you can't put into words,' Mrs Hunt said

A sitting area is pictured outside the exquisite property, which will go up for auction on January 28
Unelected peers eager to muzzle the media last night inflicted a painful blow on Government plans to protect Press freedoms.

Following a lengthy and bad-tempered debate, the House of Lords voted for a series of amendments which would curb the medias ability to investigate corruption and other scandals.

Peers voted by 211 votes to 200, a majority of only 11, to introduce a draconian law amounting to blackmail which would force the vast majority of newspapers, including the local press, to pay all legal costs in data protection cases even if they win.

It would mean criminals, corrupt businessmen and rogue politicians who feared they were under investigation could drag media companies through the courts in the knowledge it would not cost them a penny  threatening the survival of many struggling titles.

Unelected peers eager to muzzle the media last night inflicted a painful blow on Government plans to protect Press freedoms (file photo)

The new law would echo the notorious Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, which Theresa May pledged to scrap in her election manifesto. It would apply to any newspaper that refused to sign up to the state-approved regulator Impress.

The body is funded almost entirely by the ex-Formula 1 boss Max Mosley, a supporter of greater Press controls since being exposed by the News of the World for taking part in an S&M orgy with prostitutes.

Almost all national and local newspapers, including the Daily Mail, are members of the independent regulator Ipso, which is entirely free of state control.

The Lords also voted by 238 votes to 209  a majority of 29  for a new probe effectively mirroring the second part of the Leveson inquiry.

So-called Leveson 2 was intended to re-examine phone-hacking, looking into the relationship between the media, police and politicians.

But in a move described as cynical, the peers amendment means only the Press would come under the spotlight of a new inquiry  letting the police and politicians off the hook.

Critics warned it would have a chilling effect on free speech and investigative journalism.

Last night, new Culture Secretary Matt Hancock blasted the moves  and pledged to seek to overturn the controversial amendments in the Commons.

Culture Secretary Matt Hancock blasted the moves  and pledged to seek to overturn the controversial amendments in the Commons

He wrote on Twitter: House of Lords have just voted to restrict Press freedoms. This vote will undermine high quality journalism, fail to resolve challenges the media face and is a hammer blow to local Press. We support a free Press.

A senior Government source added: The Lords behaviour on this is outrageous. Voting against a manifesto commitment is unconstitutional.

Peers tabled the amendments to the Data Protection Bill, claiming they were needed to curb Press violations of personal data.

Crossbench peer Lord Pannick, a leading barrister, warned that the amendments would make it impossible for journalists to probe serious wrongdoing, such as the Daily Mails long-running campaign to convict the murderers of Stephen Lawrence.

He said: Do we really need another public inquiry on this subject? It would be so broad in nature it would impede the ability of editors and journalists to get on with the vital work of holding the Government and powerful private individuals and companies to account.

He urged the House of Lords to bear in mind the valuable, indeed, the essential, work done by the Press in exposing those who abuse public office or private power.

Tory peer Lord Black, an executive director of the Telegraph Media Group, said: The aim is to use the law... to blackmail publishers into a system of state-approved regulation. To punish newspapers for telling the truth as a ruse to impose such controls is both inimical to press freedom and alien to democracy.

He said peers who backed omitting the police and politicians from a second inquiry were happy to cynically sweep everything under the carpet.

Lady Hollins, among those who tabled the Leveson 2 amendment, said: If corporate misbehaviour on this scale had occurred in any other industry our newspapers would quite rightly have been calling for heads to roll.

She said lives had been changed irreversibly by hostile and misleading reports often following data breaches through the theft of medical records, bank account details, phone records and other private data.
'I have no money to spare,' says Christopher Plummer, starring as the billionaire J. Paul Getty in the new film, All The Money In The World.

'What would it take for you to feel secure?' he is asked.

'More,' he replies.

Oddly enough, I interviewed Mr Getty for my school magazine when I was 17.

Oil billionaire Jean Paul Getty was America's richest expatriate while living at his home at Guildford, Surrey

It was 1974, and J. Paul Getty, then aged 82, was reputedly the richest man in the world. 'If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars,' was one of his little sayings.

He was famously reclusive. His Tudor property was surrounded by guards with walkie-talkies and Alsatians. He hadn't given an interview for years, but, being naive, I couldn't see any reason not to ask.

My naivety paid off: by return of post, I received an invitation to Sutton Place, just outside Guildford in Surrey.

My mother drove me there, as we lived not far away. A security man approached us at the gates. He walkie-talkied through to the main house and then pressed an electric device. The gates opened, and we drove through. Along the drive, signs said: 'Warning. Guard dogs patrolling. Do not leave your vehicle.'

'I have no money to spare,' says Christopher Plummer, starring as the billionaire J. Paul Getty in the new film, All The Money In The World

When we arrived outside the vast house, there was no one around, so I got out of the car and walked to the front door. As no doorbell or knocker was visible, I just waited awkwardly, wondering what to do.

After a minute or two, I heard the sound of keys and bolts on the other side, Count Dracula-style. Eventually, the door opened, and a butler asked me to enter.

My mother had planned to wait outside while I conducted the interview. Bored with sitting in the car, she ventured outside to enjoy the sun.

Within seconds, Alsatians came bounding towards her and she jumped back in, slamming the car door.

Through the car window, security guards told her to remain inside, for her own safety, with the doors and windows closed.

Meanwhile, the butler introduced me to a secretary, who, in turn, conducted me to a large and impressive sitting room and asked me to wait. Just as I was saying 'One, two, one, two,' into my tape-recorder, J. Paul Getty entered, quite doddery, but with piercing eyes set in a dour mask of a face.

A former employee once remarked that he always looked as if he were attending his own funeral.

He spoke to me in a slow, husky drawl, not unlike Marlon Brando in the final stages of The Godfather. He certainly didn't waste words.

'Could I start by asking you how you amassed your fortune?' I asked, eagerly. He paused.

My naivety paid off: by return of post, I received an invitation to Sutton Place, just outside Guildford in Surrey

'Little . . . by . . . little.'

A very long silence followed, during which it became clear to me that he was not going to elaborate.

'Did you work for your father?'

'I worked for my father, yes.'

By now, I realised that he was going to be as thrifty with his words as he was with his money: it was also well-known that he kept a coin-operated telephone for the use of his weekend guests.

'Are you now in the position that you have always wanted to be?' I continued.

'I didn't always want to be 82 years old.' At this point, he emitted a hollow chuckle.

'You haven't got any further ambitions?'

'No. Not particularly.'

If there was ever a prize for the world's worst interview, I would clearly be in with a chance.

Just a year before our meeting, one of Getty's grandsons had been kidnapped.

The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of $17 million, but Getty refused to pay a penny. As a result, his grandson had his ear cut off with a razor.

Jean Paul Getty poses in 1959 before one of the windows of Sutton Place, the Duke of Sutherland's estate, before buying it

It had been one of that year's biggest stories. And yet, for some reason  presumably a mixture of tact and embarrassment  I completely failed to mention it during our interview.

Instead, I stumbled on. The tape of the event makes me blush, even now.

'So would you say that you had quite a large social conscience?' I asked.

'A what?' replied this most renowned of all penny-pinchers.

'Social . . . you have a . . . sort of . . . um . . . feeling for your fellow human beings?'

'Yes, I suppose so.'

Soon after that, I ran out of questions, so we said our goodbyes.
Iranian Rahim Mohammadi is accused of strangling elderly widow Lea Adri-Soejoko on an allotment

A man accused of strangling an elderly widow on an allotment had called her a 'bloody old witch' after she curbed his ambition to take over running the site, a court has heard.

Iranian Rahim Mohammadi wanted 80-year-old Lea Adri-Soejoko to retire from her job as secretary of the Colindale Allotment Association so he could manage it himself, it was claimed.

He allegedly launched into a heated 'monologue' at Mrs Adri-Soejoko at an annual general meeting in September 2016 after she said it was not up to him to decide who should be evicted from their plot.

In February last year, he allegedly beat her up at the allotment in north London and then strangled her with the starter cord of a lawnmower to stop her from reporting the attack, the Old Bailey heard.

Her body was found in a locked mower shed after her family became concerned that she had not turned up at a meeting.

Association chairman Clive Critchley told jurors how Mohammadi had sworn and walked out of the AGM when she said evictions should be decided by the whole committee and 'not by you Rahim'.

The defendant and a couple of others had previously suggested she retire so they could take over her role on the allotments, Mr Critchley said.

Describing the exchange, he said: 'He was standing and Lea was sitting and he seemed very sensitive to that remark and after about three or four minutes of exchanges he swore, turned on his heel and left the building.

Iranian Rahim Mohammadi wanted 80-year-old Lea Adri-Soejoko to retire from her job as secretary of the Colindale Allotment Association so he could manage it himself, it was claimed

'It was very heated, more like a monologue by Rahim. Something like 'bloody old witch'.

'I thought it was out of order and I remember thinking to myself we were all volunteers doing this job that was very demanding at times as a voluntary act.

'There should be some better way of resolving these things. I thought these things should be dealt with by the council.'

Later, Mr Critchley apologised to Mrs Adri-Soejoko for losing control of the meeting, and she reassured him by saying: 'I'm a tough old stick,' the court heard.

On whether she should retire or stand down, Mr Critchley said: 'I did not feel favourable towards the suggestion.

'I thought Lea was doing a relatively good job and it was useful and therapeutic to her. She liked to do the job.'

Deciding who should be evicted was an 'onerous burden' on the committee after Barnet Council gave up oversight of the allotments in 2012 in favour of self management, he said.

Mr Critchley told jurors he had met Mohammadi in 2006 when he was a patient of Freedom from Torture.

The organisation to help torture victims suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder through horticulture and psychotherapy had allocated plots on the allotment, he said.

On the day of Mrs Adri-Soejoko's death, Mohammadi had texted him twice, about meeting his psychotherapist and to report that another plot-holder had complained about his neighbour, the court heard.

Mrs Adri-Soejoko's body was found in a locked mower shed after her family became concerned that she had not turned up at a meeting

The defendant rang him the next day, saying he had heard that Mrs Adri-Soejoko had been found dead and had gone to the allotment with a friend, only to find it taped off by police.

Mr Critchley said: 'He sounded distressed. It sounded like he wanted more details and also to share. I think he said something like, 'What happened to Lea'.

'He did say, 'Shall I contact the police?' I said, 'I think the police will be contacting us'.'

Mrs Adri-Soejoko's daughter Tessa said her mother had been 'subdued' after the dispute with Mohammadi and not acted like her usual 'forthright' self.

She said: 'She did not argue with me when I scolded her about the confrontation. I said to her that she could not speak to Rahim in that way, that he's not family.'

The allotment was her mother's 'passion', she said, adding: 'She loved the work at the allotment and she spent a lot of time almost running the place. She really enjoyed it.'

Cross-examining, Tyrone Smith QC asked about her mother's relationship with the accused.

He said: 'Before the AGM meeting in September 2016, were you aware they were on friendly terms?'

Ms Adri-Soejoko agreed.

Mohammadi, 41, of Hackney, north-east London, denies murder and the Old Bailey trial continues.
A mother has shared a heartbreaking photo highlighting the devastating impact cancer has on families.

Ally Parker's five-year-old daughter is fighting a losing battle against an aggressive form of brain cancer, while her father is terminally-ill with a motor neuron disease.

The mother from Florida now faces the grim prospect of having to bury both her daughter and father within weeks of each other.

So she uploaded a gut-wrenching photo to Facebook on Sunday showing her father, Sean Peterson, wailing by his granddaughter's hospital bed.

The sheer expression of agony on his face conveys a pain the whole family is forced to endure.

A mother in Florida is trying to raise awareness for her terminally ill daughter by posting a photograph of her father wailing next to her hospital bed

Braylynn Lawhon was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma - the most deadly form of brain cancer - on December 6

On December 6, Braylynn Lawhon was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma - the most deadly form of brain cancer which has no cure and no survival rate, according to The Daily Advertiser.

Parker now faces the bleak reality of losing her both her daughter and her father in the coming weeks

And her condition has deteriorated as doctors battle to treat her illness.

Parker posted about the little girl's plight in a bid to raise awareness.

'We all thought that they would outlive the rest of us...and we certainly never thought that my precious little Braylynn would be the first to go,' Parker wrote in her Facebook post.

'Last year was hard for us, but I can't even begin to explain how difficult this year will be and has already been.

'In a few days I will have to bury this beautiful little girl. Months, maybe even weeks, later, I will have to bury my father.'

'Both of my heroes, gone, within the same year,' she continues. 'How could this happen to us? What did any of us do to deserve THIS?

'Why do they have to leave us? What are we supposed to do? I refuse to believe that there is a reason for this. This world is a terrible place.'

The Pensacola family was given a glimmer of hope after hearing about revolutionary experimental treatment in Mexico.

The family, from Pensacola, Florida, was given a glimmer of hope after hearing about revolutionary experimental treatment in Mexico

They are currently collecting donations via a GoFundMe page that seeks to raise $300,000 for the procedures

'These kids deserve so much more than that, someday soon someone needs to find out what that cure is,' Alley Parker wrote in a Facebook post this week

They are currently collecting donations via a GoFundMe page that seeks to raise $300,000 for the procedures.

The treatment, not covered by insurance, cost nearly $30,000 a round, and due to the aggressive nature of this cancer, several rounds are needed for success, The Advertiser reported.

The treatment, not covered by insurance, cost nearly $30,000 a round (Pictured: Sean (R) and Tracey (M) Peterson along with Bralynn Lawhon)

'Braylynn is still here. Pulse is still strong. Vitals are still normal,' Parker wrote on Monday.

'It may take a few days, because everything is going to be PERFECT for her big day. Until then, she is still with us, still fighting, still strong.'

Parker says she is now determined to raise awareness for and funding for DIPG, setting up a Facebook page called Braylynn's Battalion.

'My baby girl deserves to live a full, happy life, and so does every other child who has had to face DIPG,' Parker writes on the social media site.

'We have to put an end to this. No more kids can get this disease and be allowed to die from it. We HAVE to find a cure, not a damn band aid. These kids deserve so much more than that, someday soon someone needs to find out what that cure is.'

Parker says she hopes the photo can raise awareness about her daughter's condition
A minister was embroiled in an extraordinary public spat with Theresa May's former chief of staff today amid claims Justine Greening was axed from the Cabinet for blocking tuition fee cuts.

Jo Johnson lashed out at Nick Timothy after he suggested Ms Greening, who lost her job as Education Secretary in the reshuffle, was preventing reforms.

Mr Timothy - who quit as chief of staff after the disastrous election last year - hailed the departure as opening the door to real change and said Ms Greening's successor must be 'brave'.

But Mr Johnson, who was himself shifted sideways from the universities brief by the Prime Minister, shot back that the claim was 'so wrong'.

And the PM's official spokesman said: 'Nick Timothy left the Government seven months ago. He does not speak for the Prime Minister, he does not speak for the Government.'

Justine Greening, pictured out for a jog the morning after leaving the Cabinet because Theresa May wanted to shift her from her post as Education Secretary

Mrs May's former chief of staff Nick Timothy (pictured left) accused Ms Greening of blocking tuition fee cuts but Jo Johnson (picture right) said the claim was 'so wrong'

Jo Johnson lashed out at Nick Timothy after he suggested Ms Greening, who lost her job as Education Secretary in the reshuffle, was preventing reforms

Ms Greening was the highest profile casualty of the chaotic reshuffle after she resigned from cabinet instead of taking the offer of switching to the Department of Work and Pensions.

Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Timothy said he welcomed Ms Greening's removal from cabinet.

Ms Greening was replaced by Damian Hinds, the Oxford-educated MP for East Hampshire.

Mr Timothy wrote: 'Greening blocked proposals to reduce tuition fees and refused to hold a proper review of tertiary education... Hinds must be brave enough to do just that, to ensure universities are better, fees are lower, and young people get the technical or academic education that suits them.

Theresa May spent two-and-a-half hours in negotiations with Ms Greening in an bid to convince her to move to the Department of Work and Pensions from Education

Ms Greening was replaced by the Oxford-educated Damian Hinds, pictured

'He is already touted as a potential Prime Minister: if he gets this right, he will be a convincing candidate.'

But Mr Johnson responded on Twitter: 'So wrong, this stuff re Justine Greening - she supported me in every single reform we undertook of our universities, was a terrific colleague and faultlessly loyal.'

Despite his close relationship with Mrs May, Mr Timothy was less than impressed by the extent of the reshuffle.

He denied lobbying for Ms Greening's sacking but described Mr Hinds' promotion as 'the bright point in an otherwise limited set of changes.'

During PMQ's yesterday, Ms Greening reappeared on the Tory backbenches sitting next to anti-Brexit rebel Dominic Grieve.
Michael Gove has raised the prospects of a Tory leadership battle between two state-educated rising stars of Theresa May's Cabinet.

Damian Hinds, the new Education Secretary, and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson have been tipped to face-off in the future, potentially to become the country's Prime Minister.

Both were educated in northern state schools but longstanding Cabinet member and current Environment Secretary Gove described them as polar opposites in their make-up.

Damian Hinds, the new Education Secretary, and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (pictured) have been tipped to face-off in the future, potentially to become the country's Prime Minister

Andrew Gimson reported Gove said of the Damian Hinds' political stance: 'The Catholic Church has a part to play and authority is tempered with mercy'

Williamson is a 'tough and gritty' hardline conservative politician, according to Gove, who said Hinds represented a different side of conservatism.

Writing in Conservative Home, Andrew Gimson reported Gove said of the new man responsible for the Department for Education's political stance: 'The Catholic Church has a part to play and authority is tempered with mercy.'

Gove said he can 'see a day' when the two square off for the party's top job.

While Hinds landed his first major job in Cabinet having previously overseen the DWP, he appears to have the backing of his colleagues.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, according to Conservative Home, said of him: 'Hes one of my oldest friends. Hes a very decent, honest man.

'He doesnt seek the limelight, but I have thought since 2010 [when they both entered Parliament] he was bound to get into the Cabinet on the basis of ability.

Gove said he can 'see a day' when the two square off for the party's top job

'He doesnt make mistakes.'

Gove also described him as a 'dashing and accomplished speaker', which should be welcome news for Theresa May in the aftermath of her disastrous reshuffle.

But the extent of the Cabinet catastrophe means her leadership has been brought into question.

The PM embarked on her biggest reshuffle this week, but it got off to an embarrassing start after the Tory Twitter account wrongly announced Chris Grayling was being made party chairman.

The tweet was swiftly deleted after less than a minute and it later emerged Brandon Lewis had been given the top party job.

James Brokenshire resigned as Northern Ireland Secretary due to poor health while Justice Secretary David Lidington has been shifted to fill the gap left by the axing of deputy PM Damian Green.

However, although he will deputise for Mrs May at PMQs he has not been granted the same status as First Secretary of State.

Embarrassingly the image congratulating Mr Grayling had already been shared by MPs including Rebecca Pow and Sheryll Murray.

Earlier the official Tory website crashed after someone apparently forgot to renew a security certificate.

Hours later, as uncertainty swirled around Downing Street surrounding the position of Justine Greening, she spectacularly quit after failing to cling onto her job as Education Secretary.

In an extraordinary stand-off, Miss Greening remained in Downing Street for two-and-a-half hours as she refused a move to the Department for Work and Pensions.

Theresa May embarked on her biggest reshuffle this week, but it got off to an embarrassing start after the Tory Twitter account wrongly announced Chris Grayling was being made party chairman

As uncertainty swirled around Downing Street surrounding the position of Justine Greening, she spectacularly quit after failing to cling onto her job as Education Secretary

After Theresa May reiterated that this was the only Cabinet job on offer, she was forced to resign.

Miss Greening, 48, who was the first openly gay woman Cabinet minister, could now prove to be a thorn in the Prime Minister's side over Brexit and a third runway at Heathrow.

In her job at education, where she has been since Mrs May took office, Miss Greening annoyed allies of the Prime Minister with her lack of enthusiasm for grammar schools.

This position has now been filled by Damian Hinds, a man who has the initial backing of Tories to one day conduct his own reshuffle.
A shockingly emaciated horse has been rescued from the Australian outback after a group of animal lovers walked her back to safety overnight.

The horse named Sherrie was found on Sunday afternoon in temperatures up to 45C wandering along a stretch of road about 17 kilometres out of the Goldfields town of Kookynie, in Western Australia.

Kalgoorlie woman Kristine Woods, her husband and two children made the shocking discovery while on their way out of town for a camping trip.

The horse named Sherrie was found on Sunday afternoon in temperatures up 45C wandering along a stretch of road about 17 kilometres out of the Goldfields town of Kookynie

A shockingly emaciated horse has been rescued from the Australian outback after a group of animal lovers walked her back to safety overnight

Kalgoorlie woman Kristine Woods, her husband and two children made the shocking discovery while on their way out of town for a camping trip

We still don't know where this horse has come from, but she definitely wasn't a wild horse, she was definitely a station horse or something like that because she was so tame, Ms Woods told 7 News.

The Woods family drove to Kookynie's Grand Hotel and asked the owner Kevin Pusey for help.

When they returned to check on the horse, she had disappeared.

But three hours later the group found Sherrie hiding from the sun under a tree.

They gave her food and water before leading her back to the road where a group with a horse float were waiting.

But half way through the 12-kilometre trek back to the pub Sherrie got scared and fell off the float.

So Mr Pusey and the group decided they would walk the horse back to the pub- a trip that took them six hours overnight. Sherrie got her name on the journey home.

The horse is recovering well is being looked after by Mr Pusey, who has another rescue horse.
Yelling and screaming was often heard coming from inside a Melbourne home where a woman's body was found Thursday morning, according to a neighbour.

Emergency services were called to an Albert Street address in Brunswick, north of the city, after 43-year-old Antonia Tatchell was discovered dead about 6am, Nine News reports.

The homicide squad has since established a crime scene and police are investigating whether her death was suspicious.

Well-known and respected artist Antonia Tatchell, 43, (pictured) was discovered dead about 6am by a male relative

Emergency services were called to an Albert Street address in Brunswick after the body was found

The homicide squad has since established a crime scene and police are investigating whether her death was suspicious

'This could be a non suspicious death but we are just making sure we do things as thoroughly as we always do,' Detective Senior Sargent Mark Colbert said.

A nearby resident described the home to Herald Sun as 'hostile', explaining they frequently heard 'yelling and screaming'.

They also recalled seeing a man outside the home crying after emergency services arrived, and watched as a young man was interviewed by police.

Another neighbour said the Ms Tatchell's 17-year-old son told her he found his mother's body inside a bath.

'He was in shock. It's awful. I hope it was an accident,' she said.

'This could be a non suspicious death but we are just making sure we do things as thoroughly as we always do,' Detective Senior Sargent Mark Colbert said
The devastated family of 14-year-old 'Akubra girl' Amy 'Dolly Everett have pushed through their overwhelming grief and set up a trust to help stop other children from taking their own lives.

Dolly was 'overwhelmed' by social media bullies and, as a way to escape their cruel taunts, she took her own life on January 3 - leaving her mum Kate, dad, Tick and sister, Meg devastated.

The family have been working hard to get 'Dolly's Dream' ready before their daughter's funeral on Friday - and have asked mourners and supporters to donate.

Amy Everett, known as Dolly, took her own life - aged 14 after becoming overwhelmed by the vile taunts of online bullies - pictured here as a young girl when she was the face of Akubra

The family have been working hard to get ' Dolly's Dream ' ready before their daughter's funeral on Friday - and have asked mourners and supporters to donate

A Facebook Page launched by family and friends of the young teenager was lauched on Thursday - revealing bank details to support the cause

A Facebook Page launched by family and friends of the young teenager said Dolly's Dream aimed to bring about positive change.

'In remembrance to Dolly and to facilitate positive change for other young lives, the Dolly's Dream Foundation aims to provide support to charity groups through fundraising and promotion.'

'Together we can keep Dolly's dream for a better world alive,' the Dolly's Dream page said.

The page has been flooded with tributes to the popular teenager - and thanks to her parents for pushing through their grief to help others.

'This beautiful family has taken their tragedy & turned it into something that will have a positive change not only in this country but in cyber space as well!' said one supporter.

'Thank you Everett family for showing so much strength during this tragic circumstance and wanting to make a difference,' said another.

'Together we can keep Dolly's dream for a better world alive,' the Dolly's Dream page said

'This beautiful family has taken their tragedy & turned it into something that will have a positive change not only in this country but in cyber space as well!' said one supporter

Dolly drew this before her death - and it shares a dark message of strength - her family are sharing it hoping it will change lives

The Everett family in happier times - Dolly is far right, pictured with her sister Meg, mother Kate and father Tick

'Thank you for having the courage and initiative to use your own story to create a safer, kinder place for our teens. Such a heartbreaking situation,' another wrote.

The young girl from the outback south-west of Katherine in the Northern Territory has been described as the 'kindest, caring, beautiful soul' by her parents Tick and Kate, and her older sister Meg in a statement sent to Daily Mail Australia.

'She was always caring for animals, small children, other children at boarding school who were less fortunate than herself,' the statement said.

Dolly was known as an 'animal whisperer' from a young age - here she is with a newborn foal

Living on the land was second nature to the young woman - as was being alongside horses

Touching photographs of the young girl prove this to be true. From sharing her water with a foal to kissing one on the nose - she was the 'baby animal whisperer.'

'Out of all the sadness that the loss of our daughter has brought to our lives, we feel that through losing Dolly we would like to help other families by making an awareness of bullying and harassment that some people are sadly subject to,' the statement read.

'Our vision is to establish a trust called Dollys Dream through this trust we would hope to raise awareness around bullying, anxiety, depression and youth suicide.'

The family live on a station almost 500 kilometres south-west of Katherine, NT

Dolly with her mum - the family's message is 'Stop Bullying, Be Kind, Do It For Dolly.'

But for the moment they need some time to remember their sweet girl before laying her to rest on Friday.

'May we please ask for some time to celebrate the life of our much-loved daughter Dolly. This is all we are capable of at the moment and ask for your respect to give us time to grieve,' the family said.

In the meantime they said they are not worried about 'the who or the why' they just want to save other families from the same loss.

And their message is clear:

'Stop Bullying, Be Kind, Do It For Dolly.'

Amy Everett's grief-stricken parents posted an emotional tribute to their 'Dolly' inviting the vile social media trolls to her funeral to see the 'devastation they caused.

Mother Kate smiling with her two daughters in happier times

Dolly, back, was usually sporting the same broad smile in photographs

Tick Everett has promised his daughter's short life won't be a 'waste' and has decided to combat bullying

The family from Katherine in the Northern Territory have taken aim at keyboard warriors following the young girl's death and vow her life won't be a 'waste'.

Her father Tick Everett broke the family's silence just four days after Dolly's January 3 death, thanking loved ones for support and condemning bullying.

'This week has been an example of how social media should be used, it has also been an example of how it shouldn't be,' he said.

The family from Katherine in the Northern Territory have taken aim at keyboard warriors following the young girl's death and vow her life won't be a 'waste'

The young girl was always smiling in photographs when she was with her family

Here she is pictured striking a pose with her Akubra hat firmly in her hand

'There are so many kind words that I have not yet replied to, so instead of wearing out another screen or keyboard I would like to offer my thanks in one big message.'

But the brunt of his message was for those who had lead his young girl to take her own life.

'I know for some suicide is considered cowardly but I guarantee those people wouldn't have half the strength that my precious little angel had, Doll had the strength to do what she thought she had to do to escape the evil in this world.

The broad smile even shows in her family's candid photographs

Tick invited the young girl's bullies to her funeral on Friday so they can see the 'devastation' caused by Dolly's death

Akubra Hats posted a tribute to the young girl on their own Facebook Page - calling for an end to bullying

Her parents want to raise awareness about bullying after the young girl 'took her own life' to escape cruel taunts

'Firstly if by some chance the people who thought this was a joke and made themselves feel superior by the constant bullying and harassment see this post, please come to our service and witness the complete devastation you have created.'

The family have taken a catch phrase from their dear Dolly to help victims of harassment come forward.

'Speak now even if your voice shakes.

The family have come up with a catch phrase to help victims of harassment come forward: Speak now even if your voice shakes

Dolly took her life on January 3 - after becoming overwhelmed by the constant harassment

'There are so many kind words that I have not yet replied to, so instead of wearing out another screen or keyboard I would like to offer my thanks in one big message,' Tick said

Known as the 'baby animal whisperer' to friends the young girl is here rubbing noses with a horse

'Let's stop the bullies no matter where, but especially in our kids, as the old saying goes. You will never know what have until it's gone.'

Akubra hats also took time to fight for Dolly on their Facebook Page - calling for an end to bullying.

'The young girl many of you will recognise as the face of our past Christmas adverts. This beautiful photo was taken 8 years ago,' she said.

The tight-knit family have been left devastated by the blow of losing their youngest member

'Bullying of any type is unacceptable. It is up to us to stand up when we see any kind of bullying behaviour. Dolly could be anyone's daughter, sister, friend.'

'We need to make sure that anyone in crisis knows there is always someone to talk to.'

Dolly's funeral is to be held on Friday - her parents and sister have asked mourners and supporters to wear blue - the teenager's favourite colour

'Bullying of any type is unacceptable. It is up to us to stand up when we see any kind of bullying behaviour. Dolly could be anyone's daughter, sister, friend.

'We need to make sure that anyone in crisis knows there is always someone to talk to.'

Dolly's funeral is to be held on Friday - her parents and sister have asked mourners and supporters to wear blue - the teenager's favourite colour.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800
A Pennsylvania State University sophomore has been found dead in his dorm room, university officials say.

Fraternity brother William Denton, 19, was discovered lifeless in his room at Miller Hall, on the university's State College campus, on Monday night.

The Centre County Coroner told the Daily Collegian that Denton 'probably' died on Sunday and that he was the 'only person in the room'.

William Denton, 19, was found dead in his Pennsylvania State University dorm room on Monday night

The county coroner said 'probably' died on Sunday. His cause of death is not known. Pictured is the State College campus's Miller Hall, where he lived

The health policy and administration major was found by university police after his family, who is from North Carolina, had requested university officials to conduct a 'wellness check'.

The cause of death of Denton, who was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, will be determined in an autopsy.

The death coincided with an incident at the residence hall.

The Penn State Police crime log listed a 'request for assistance' with regard to 'possession of an unknown drug/possession of paraphernelia/health and safety'.

In an email to the Collegian, university spokeswoman Lisa Powers said: 'Our deepest sympathy is offered to William's family and friends during this time of great sadness and loss.'

Denton, 19, was a health policy and administration major and a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity

In a statement to student newspaper Onward State, Alpha Tau Omega National CEO said: 'Wills chapter-mates, all alumni of the Gamma Omega chapter and ATOs across the nation mourn his tragic loss. Will joined ATO in the fall of 2016.'

Denton's death comes less than a year after the death of Penn State student Timothy Piazza.

The 19-year-old engineering student from New Jersey died after consuming 18 alcoholic beverages in just under 90 minutes as part of a hazing ritual for Beta Theta Pi fraternity and then suffering injuries when he tumbled down flights of stairs on the night of February 2.

He fell unconscious at this point and multiple fraternity members, rather than calling medical help, physically attacked or ignored him.

Twelve hours after the incident, emergency medical assistance was called.

On the morning of February 4, he was pronounced dead.

At least 26 fraternity members now face charges related to his death including involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, hazing and furnishing alcoholic beverages to a minor.

Penn State fraternity pledge Tim Piazza, 19, died in February after a Beta Theta Pi hazing ritual

Frat member Braxton Becker (above in August) is accused of deleting video footage relating to Piazza's death
The last person to see a missing man who vanished on New Year's Eve says he isn't 'some heartless p**** that left him out there to die'.

Jayden Penno-Tompsett hasn't been seen since an argument with friend Lucas Tattersall as they were travelling from Newcastle to Cairns on December 31.

Police and Mr Penno-Tompsett's family fear the worst for the 22-year-old, who stormed off after the altercation and hasn't used his bank card since.

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Mr Penno-Tompsett is described as Caucasian in appearance, 175 centimetres tall and has mousey brown hair

Mr Tattersall has slammed what he claimed were suggestions he should have done more to help his friend.

'I'm sorry to tell you but if someone wants to just up and leave and f*** off then that's what they are gonna do,' he wrote on Facebook, according to news.com.au.

'[You] don't understand how hard I tried to help Jayden when I with him and calm him down so we can sort this out.

'He is my mate and I'm hurt too please stop making out I'm just some heartless p**** that left him out there to die.'

Mr Penno-Tompsett pulled over and exited the vehicle on December 31 before Mr Tattersall jumped behind the wheel and drove off, police have been told.

Mr Tattersall told investigators he later came back to the area but his friend was nowhere to be seen.

The 22-year-old was reported missing on January 3.

Mr Tattersall (pictured) has slammed what he claimed were suggestions he should have done more to help his friend.

'He is my mate and I'm hurt too please stop making out I'm just some heartless p**** that left him out there to die,' Mr Tattersall (pictured) said

Charters Towers Senior Sergeant Graham Lohmann told the publication Mr Tattersall had been 'more than helpful' with his assistance.

Police don't know where the exact location where Mr Penno-Tompsett disappeared and are calling for locals in Charter Towers to come forward if they recognise the area.

'The witness described the location as a rural property on an unsealed road with a red steel fence,' Queensland Police said.

There was a house visible several hundred metres from the unsealed road which ran off a bitumen road.

Mr Penno-Tompsett (pictured) was reported missing on January 3 but was last seen on December 31, 2017 after an argument between friends on Flinders Highway

Queensland Police believe Mr Penno-Tompsett (pictured) may have hitchhiked from Charters Towers area and returned to New South Wales

Police believe Mr Penno-Tompsett may have hitchhiked from Charters Towers area and returned to New South Wales.

Mr Penno-Tompsett's father Brendan Tompsett told Townsville Bulletin he wanted to know if his son was safe.

'As you can imagine the worst thing is the not knowing,' he said.

'We don't care what the issues were ... just let us know he's safe.'

Mr Penno-Tompsett is described as Caucasian in appearance, 175 centimetres tall and has mousey brown hair.

He was last seen wearing a black singlet, navy blue board shorts and black and red thongs and was travelling in a red Nissan Pulsar.

Mr Penno-Tompsett (pictured) was last seen wearing a black singlet, navy blue board shorts and black and red thongs and was travelling in a red Nissan Pulsar
An ice hotel in Canada was forced to evacuate its guests on Tuesday after a fire broke out in the building.

According to local authorities, a blaze started inside one of the 45 guest rooms at the Village Vacances Valcartier winter park in Quebec City.

'When I received the phone call they had to repeat twice that there was a fire in the ice hotel,' said manager Jacques Desbois.

A blaze broke out inside one of the 45 guest rooms at the Village Vacances Valcartier (pictured) winter park in Quebec, Canada on Tuesday

The manager of the hotel said he struggled to convince guests to evacuate the ice-complex after informing them of the fire

CBC News reported that the fire caused little damage to the structure itself. But smoke quickly seeped through the corridors of the hotel, leading staff to take cautionary measures to protect its customers.

An investigation into the fire is underway. Desbois told CBC News that an electrical problem has already been ruled out as a possibility.

'In a room made out of ice and snow there are few clues to look at,' he said.

A guest that spoke to Radio-Canada claims the fire started when a candle fell atop a sleeping bag in one of the rooms.

Desbois did not address the claim, but said that candles are provided in every room to help create ambiance. The hotel would be investigating the possibility, Desbois added.

At least 33 guests were staying at the Vacances Valcartier during the incident.

The couple staying in the room where the blaze began were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, said local authorities, and released shortly thereafter.

'Everyone responded the accurate way to make this was an event from which we can learn, and make sure this first time will be the last time in the hotel's life,' said Desbois.

Cleaning crews closed the hotel until Wednesday evening, preparing the ice-complex for guests and new arrivals.

'Hotel de Glace is like a giant igloo,' said Desbois. 'Air and dust settles on the snow. So we're already hard at work cleaning up.'

Desbois said he struggled somewhat to convince guests that 'there really was a fire in the igloo' before getting everyone to evacuate.
Up to 100 tonnes of pineapples are rotting in Queensland paddocks after a surplus in the market forced farmers to dump their produce.

Farmers have slammed Golden Circle for not opening its cannery in Brisbane early to help lighten the piles of decaying fruit, totalled at $300,000, despite an anticipated shortage of canned pineapple.

The brand, which was purchased by American corporation Kraft Hines 10 years ago, will instead import cheaper fruit from overseas, growers told The Courier Mail.

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Up to 100 tonnes of pineapples are rotting in Queensland paddocks after a surplus in the market forced farmers to dump their produce (pictured)

Christopher Berra (pictured), a pineapple Farmer, said he is devastated about the excess produce

'Golden Circle did not open the cannery even though the markets are bursting with over supply and mountains like this are going to waste because they are worth nothing...If you see any imported canned pineapple it is not because Aussie growers lack capacity to supply it is because Golden Circle does not support the Australian Pineapple industry,' NQ Paradise Pines posted on Facebook on Tuesday.

Christopher Berra, a pineapple Farmer, told 7News he is devastated about the excess produce.

'It's a lot of money, time and effort and to see at the end, end up like this  it's heart-breaking,' he said.

Farmers have slammed Golden Circle for not opening its cannery in Brisbane early to help lighten the piles of decaying fruit, totalled at $300,000, despite an anticipated shortage of canned pineapple (pictured)

The brand, which was purchased by American corporation Kraft Hines 10 years ago, will instead import cheaper fruit from overseas, growers claimed (pictured)

Mr Berrra said the surplus of fruit stems from multiples reasons, including farmers in the south also growing pines during the same time of year.

'And also with the cannery not open a lot of other farmers who supply the cannery therefore had to put their fresh food on the market,' he said.

NQ Paradise Pines manager Robert Richardson told the Courier Mail: 'Ever since Heinz took over we've seen a decline from 70,000 tonnes a year to 20,000 tonnes.'

'I believe they have deliberately kept the perception they are a Queensland company backing Queensland producers when they are simply not.'

'They don't care about our industry. They only care about the bottom line.'

Golden Circle has been contacted for comment.
A four-year-old boy and 19-year-old woman are fighting for life in hospital after a crash killed three other people in Western Australia's mid west.

Two cars collided head-on along the Brand Highway in Bonniefield, about 360km north of Perth, just after midday on Wednesday.

A 72-year-old man driving one vehicle and a 49-year-old woman driving the other died at the scene, while the man's 41-year-old female passenger died later at Geraldton Regional Hospital.

Two cars collided head-on in Bonniefield on Wednesday, killing three people and leaving two fighting for life in hospital - including a four-year-old boy

The collision between the two four wheeled drives occurred on the Brand Highway in Bonniefield, about 360km north of Perth, just after midday

The boy was travelling with the man, while the 19-year-old woman was travelling with the 49-year-old woman - both were flown to hospital by the Royal Flying doctor service.

Police are investigating whether a tyre blowout on the man's car caused it to veer into the path of the other vehicle.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers.
A funeral home that allegedly swapped a grandmother's $1700 oak casket lined with white silk for a $70 pine box is being investigated by police.

Janice Cecilia Valigura, 74, was farewelled on Monday after she died from a stroke on New Year's Eve, and cremated at a Rockhampton cemetery.

But her family claimed Harts Family Funerals removed her body from the casket, wrapped it in plastic and dumped it in a cheap box for her cremation.

A family has been left outraged after a funeral home allegedly swapped the expensive coffin (pictured) of their grandmother to a cheap box

The $1700 oak casket lined with white silk is believed to have been switched for a $70 pine box (pictured) moments before the cremation of 74-year-old Janice Valigura

They said letters written by her grandchildren and placed on her heart were also thrown away.

Detective Sergeant Craig Strohfeldt said Queensland police were now investigating the funeral home for fraud.

'It's been reported as a fraud and that's what's being investigated at this stage,' he said.

'It's only been alleged at this stage but if the investigations do prove that an offence has been committed then it is a shocking thing.'

Ms Valigura's (pictured) niece Kerry Rothery told The Daily Mercury when the coffin arrived 'an hour late' they knew something had happened

Harts Family Funerals declined to comment with owner Tony Hart only saying there were 'two families involved in the story'.

Queensland Funeral Directors Association president Anton Brown said changing coffins was not common practice in the funeral industry.

'When people choose a funeral director they put a lot of trust in that person,' he told ABC radio.

'This person who has done this to the family has broken their trust. It's like buying a Mercedes and getting a Toyota Corolla.'

Ms Valigura's niece Kerry Rothery told The Daily Mercury when the coffin arrived 'an hour late' they knew something had happened.

Between the coffin being blessed by Ms Valigura's grandchildren at the church and being taken to the crematorium, something went wrong.

The funeral home, Harts Family Funerals, (pictured) declined to comment when contacted by Australian Associated Press

Ms Rothery said the top of the casket had been screwed shut and her aunt was wrapped in plastic instead of the initial silk wrap.

'What she was put in was absolutely degrading to my aunty,' she said.

Ms Valigura's son Mick Valigura said the family were devastated but the undertaker told him it happened often, according to ABC News.

Whitsunday Funerals and Crematorium director Jeff Doyle said switching coffins was 'common practice around Australia' and called for 'serious regulation' in the industry.

'But unfortunately because at most crematoriums you're not allowed to go down and actually see the coffin go into the the cremator, it's easy for them to do it,' he said.
An SUV has been caught on camera swerving across lanes before smashing into a barrier - but another driver has been forced to pay for crashing into the car.

In the footage, posted to Dash Cam Owners Australia, a silver Honda CRV is seen driving in the middle lane before erratically crossing into the far right lane.

He then suddenly crosses all three lanes and crashes into the side barrier, giving the vehicle moving along the far left lane no time to stop on Victoria Road at Ryde, in Sydney's north.

This is the moment an SUV was filmed swerving all over the road before smashing into a barrier

The dashcam owner has been ordered to pay for running into the back of the crashed vehicle

The Honda CR-V swerved all over Victoria Road at Ryde in Sydney's north before crashing

The video is captioned: 'NRMA Insurance claims: dash cam driver did not maintain safe distance behind car without control and the insurance excess has to be paid.'

In just over one hour more than 740 people have reacted to the video online, and nearly 600 have shared their opinions in the comments.

'What? Hang on, they had no car in front of them! How are you supposed to maintain a safe distance from a car in another lane .....going sideways? Effing insurance companies,' one person wrote, with nearly 400 people agreeing with their comment.

'I'd like to see this one taken to court,' another person wrote.

Someone else agreed citing: 'LOL I'd have taken NRMA to court on that one. Insurance fraud is a 2 way street and they are very clearly trying to defraud their customer of their rights.'.

One other person hilariously said: 'If old mate in the dashcam car can't judge when to back off because Tokyo drift, Cr-v edition is about to wall slap then he should be up for any rear damage to the vehicle for sure.'

In the footage, posted to Dash Cam Owners Australia , a silver Honda CRV is seen driving in the middle lane before erratically crossing into the far right lane
Tracey Spicer revealed she has been the target of vicious death threats over her ongoing sexual misconduct investigation and crusade against 40 abusers in the media industry.

The Australian journalist spearheaded the expose which has already exposed alleged predators including Don Burke, 70, and more recently Craig McLachlan, 52.

She took to Twitter on Tuesday to warn people sending threats, she would not tolerate it.

'Feel free to express an opinion about our #metoo #timesup investigation. But be aware that death threats on social media can carry a strong penalty. And we are not afraid to take action. That is all,' she said.

Tracey Spicer revealed she has been the target of vicious death threats over her ongoing sexual misconduct investigation and crusade against 40 abusers in the media industry

The Australian journalist spearheaded the expose which has already exposed alleged predators including Don Burke

She took to Twitter on Tuesday to warn people sending threats, she would not tolerate it

Ms Spicer revealed her investigation in a tweet in October last year, vowing she would name and shame alleged perpetrators of sexual harassment in the industry.

The mother-of-two announced this week she, and her team, received death threats on social media.

'Unfortunately, the social media threats are becoming more aggressive as the investigation continues,' she told Nine.com.au.

Christie Whelan, the actress who has accused Craig McLachlan of sexually inappropriate behaviour, says she has been viciously trolled since coming forward with her story

Christie Whelan took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to share some of the most common attacks she has received

Christie Whelan, one of the actresses who has accused Craig McLachlan of sexually inappropriate behaviour says she also has been viciously trolled since coming forward with her story - including one person saying they 'hope she gets raped'.

Ms Whelan took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to share some of the most common attacks she has received.

'The people who have tweeted me to say they hope I get raped, hope I never work again and that they wish to spit in my face are incredibly hard to ignore,' she wrote on her Twitter page.

But the actress, who played Janet alongside McLachlan's Frank N Furter during the 2014 production of Rocky Horror Picture Show, says she has also received a lot of love.

While her trolls were 'hard to ignore', Ms Whelan said the amount of love she has received 'is drowning them out'.

'So thank you. Rising above is hard, but I'm trying.'
An Australian tour guide has pleaded guilty to getting behind the wheel with a group of backpackers on board after drinking half a bottle of Wild Turkey Bourbon.

Timothy Mark Heffernan, 36, was more than twice the legal alcohol limit when he was pulled over for a random breath tests on Fraser Island, Queensland, Hervey Bay Magistrates Court heard.

Mr Heffernan pleaded guilty to drink driving on Wednesday, Fraser Coast Chronicle reported.

Timothy Mark Heffernan, 36, was more than twice the legal alcohol limit when he was pulled over for a random breath tests on Fraser Island, Queensland (stock image)

The former tour guide said he had lost his home and his job since the incident on December 9.

'I made a very big mistake,' Heffernan said.

Heffernan had stayed up the night before drinking with backpackers from his tour group, the court heard.

Police prosecutor Sonia Edwards said Mr Heffernan was pulled over at 7.50am driving a four-wheel vehicle with a number of backpackers on board.

'He stated he consumed half a bottle of Wild Turkey Bourbon,' Senior Constable Edwards said.

Heffernan blew an alcohol level of .102. He was fined $750 and banned from driving for six months.
James Franco has addressed sexual allegations claims against him in another uncomfortable late night talk show appearance.

Franco, 39, appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to discuss his award-winning turn as Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist and the allegations against him.

Meyers got right to the point and immediately asked him about the tweets penned by two women accusing him of harassment and the tweets by Breakfast Club star Ally Sheedy implying misconduct, which have since been deleted.

The host also questioned why he hadn't contacted Sheedy about her social media posts.

'The ones I read were not accurate, but one of the things I've learned is that this is a conversation that obviously needs to be had,' Franco said addressing the tweets.

'There are people, women and others who have not been a part of this conversation,'he added.

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James Franco appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to discuss both his award-winning film The Disaster Artist and allegations of sexual harassment made against him. The appearance came a day after his appearance on Late Night with Stephen Colbert, on which he was also asked about the allegations

Franco said: 'If I have to take a knock because I'm not going to, you know, try and actively refute things, then I will. Because I believe in it that much'

He once again said that the allegations he had heard were 'not accurate'. Meyers made a joke about him while hosting Sunday night's Golden Globes. 'The Deuce is a show about Times Square in the early '70s, when New York was so seedy there were two James Francos,' the comedian said

Franco came under fire for wearing a Time's Up pin in solidarity with women demanding an end to assault and harassment and better working conditions while he was attending the Globes.

Meyers asked if he has reached out to Sheedy about her claims and the actor simply responded: 'She took the tweet down. I don't know.'

The host then countered that the actor is maybe 'not curious enough,' to which Franco states: 'I'm just letting it be.'

To conclude, Franco stated: 'If I have to take a knock because I'm not going to, you know, try and actively refute things, then I will. Because I believe in it that much.'

'It' presumably refers to the Time's Up movement.

Meyers, while hosting Sunday night's Golden Globes event, made a joke about Franco's HBO series The Deuce, which charts the rise of the pornographic film industry in and around Times Square, New York in the 1970s.

'I live in New York, so one of my favorite shows this year was The Deuce,' the host said. 'If you haven't seen it, The Deuce is a show about Times Square in the early '70s, when New York was so seedy there were two James Francos.'

Tense: James Franco appeared on the 'Late Show' with Stephen Colbert and denied allegations leveled against him during the Golden Globes Sunday by women who have worked with him

James Franco won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his portrayal of Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist

The Meyers-Franco interview came after The New York Times cancelled a talk by James Franco and after Franco denied the allegations on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert the previous night.

Franco was asked by Colbert about allegations of sexual misconduct being made by a number of woman on Twitter in the wake of his Best Actor win at Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards.

'The things I heard are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out because they didn't have a voice for so long. I don't want to shut them down in anyway. I think its a good thing and I support it,' Franco told the host.

He then added, however, that he had not read the actual accusations.

'There were some things on Twitter, I haven't read them. I've heard about them,' Franco added.

On Wednesday, the New York Times pulled the plug on a TimesTalk event with Franco and his younger brother Dave.

The two were due to discuss their award-winning movie The Disaster Artist.

'The event was intended to be a discussion of the making of the film, The Disaster Artist. Given the controversy surrounding recent allegations, we're no longer comfortable proceeding in that vein,' a Times representative said in a statement.

Bratpack star Ally Sheedy was the most notable name to call out Franco on Sunday, doing so in a series of tweets throughout the Golden Globes.

'Why is a man hosting? Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much. Nite love ya,' wrote Sheedy at the start of the telecast.

'Ok wait. Bye. Christian Slater and James Franco at a table on @goldenglobes #MeToo,' she continued.

And in her final tweet, posted right after Franco's victory in the Best Actor category, she said: 'James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business.'

Sheedy later deleted the tweets, but soon after she posted a number of women began to speak out against the actor.

James with brother Dave Franco (left) following Sunday night's Golden Globe win. Actress Ally Sheedy (right with Franco) lodged complaints against him during the show over Twitter

Franco admitted to reading Sheedy's tweets: 'I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy. I have total respect for her. She took the tweet down, I can't speak for her.'

'I can't live if there's restitution to be made. If I've done something wrong, I will fix it. I have to. I don't know what else to do. As far as the bigger issue of how we do it, I really don't have the answers. I think the point of this whole thing is that we listen. I'm here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it's off. I'm completely willing and want to.'

The under-fire actor also commented on the experience of being at the Globes this year, which focused largely on the issue of sexual assault and support for victims.

'Look, I was so excited to win but being in that room that night was incredible. It was powerful. I support change,' Franco said.

Several women took to Twitter after the Globes as well as Sheedy.

Many focused on his admission back in 2014 that he pursued a relationship with a 17-year-old student after he was exposed on Instagram.

But others had allegations of their own.

Allegation: 'Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis,' wrote actress Violet Paley (above)

Violet Paley, an actress, writer and director living in Los Angeles, tweeted: 'Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco. Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis & that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?'

She later clarified her tweet by writing: 'Just to be clear I wasn't 17, I was an adult.'

The age of consent in both New York and California is 17.

Paley also posted just before Franco's appearance on Tuesday, claiming the actotr had called her to apologize late last year.

'A couple weeks ago, James offered me & a few other girls an overdue, annoyed, convenient phone apology. I dont accept, but maybe some other peoples lives would be made easier if he donated all of his earnings from The Disaster Artist to @RAINN,' wrote Paley.

Accusation: Paley said: '& that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?'

James Franco along with brother Dave Franco, were supposed to hold a TimesTalk Wednesday- the event was cancelled as the New York Times cited 'recent allegations' against James (both pictured Tuesday at the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala in New York)

Talent: Tither-Kaplan (left) has been appearing in short films with Franco for over three years after enrolling at Studio 4, the actor's comedy and improv school

Allegation: Sarah Tither-Kaplan claimed that she was forced to do 'exploitative' scenes with 'full nudity' in two of Franco's films while being paid just $100 (tweets above)

Spot the fully clothed man: The film Tither-Kaplan seems to be referencing in these tweets is The Long Home (cast photo above), which is directed by Franco

Actress Sarah Tither-Kaplan was also among those who publicly denounced Franco's behavior, with the actress going after Franco for his alleged mistreatment of actresses on his sets.

'Hey James Franco, nice #timesup pin at the #GoldenGlobes, remember a few weeks ago when you told me the full nudity you had me do in two of your movies for $100/day wasn't exploitative because I signed a contract to do it? Times up on that!' wrote Tither-Kaplan.

The actress and comedian has been appearing in short films with Franco for over three years after enrolling at Studio 4, the actor's comedy and improv school.

Studio 4, which had outposts in New York and Los Angeles, closed its doors back in October without warning or explanation.

Tither-Kaplan expounded on her tweet about exploitative nudity by writing: 'Hey James Franco, now that you have a Golden Globe why don't you give speaking roles that don't require nudity in your upcoming films to the dozens of women who have done full nudity + sex scenes in your indie films and art projects?'

The film Tither-Kaplan seems to be referencing in these tweets is The Long Home, which is directed by Franco and stars an eclectic cast of actors including Ashton Kutcher, Courtney Love, Robin Lord Taylor, Annaleigh Tipton, Josh Hutcherson and Oscar-winner Timothy Hutton.

No more: Studio 4, which had outposts in New York and Los Angeles, closed its doors back in October without warning and with no explanation for the sudden decision

'It's ... rich of James Franco to be wearing a Time's Up pin,' tweeted writer Doree Shafrir.

'Still remember that time James Franco grossly tried to pick up a teenager off Instagram. #TimesUp' wrote Samantha Grasso.

Winner: Allegations against Franco gained notice in the wake of his Golden Globe win (above)

'Remember when James Franco tried to solicit a teenager on Instagram? But he was still honored at the Globes. LOL. But yes, Time Is Up, y'all,' read a tweet from the account #blackwomandirectors.

The incident these tweets apparently reference happened back in 2014 when the actor began corresponding with a Scottish teenager.

Lucy Clode, who was 17 at the time, had gone to see Franco on Broadway in Of Mice and Men, and posted a photo to Instagram of herself and the actor taken while he signed autographs that night.

Franco then reached out to Lucy and, after learning she was just 17, began to exchange a number of suggestive messages before asking her what hotel she was staying at in the city.

'Your single? What's the hotel? Should I rent a room?' wrote Franco to the teenager in one rapid-fire exchange.

And writer and comedian Miel Bredouw asked: 'When is the time up on James Franco.'

Boy's club: Franco hosted a dinner for the other male actors nominated in the film categories at Sunday night's Golden Globes earlier in the week (l to r: Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlberg, Richard Jenkins, Tom Hanks, Hugh Jackman, Gary Oldman, Ansel Elgort, James Franco, Daniel Kaluuya and Sam Rockwell)

Strong tweets: 'Why is a man hosting? Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much. Nite love ya,' wrote Sheedy, 55, at the start of the telecast (Sheedy's three tweets above)

When she then responded by saying she did not think he was the real James Franco, the actor took a photo of himself waving and sent it to the young tourist.

He then wrote: 'It's me. Yes or no? Tomorrow or Thursday?'

Franco's persistence was later revealed when Clode posted the exchange on her account, forcing the actor to address his pursuit of the teen.

He addressed the controversy during an appearance on Live With Kelly and Michael.

'It's the way that people meet each other today, but what I've learned- I guess because I'm new to it- is you don't know who's on the other end,' said Franco.

'You get a feel for them, you don't know who you're talking to.'

He then added: 'I used bad judgement and I learned my lesson.'

Franco did not at any point mention the fact that Clode was just 17 and a tourist.
North Korea has found good material to attack U.S. President Donald Trump: Michael Wolff's bombshell new book, 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.'

On Thursday, the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, run by its ruling Workers' Party, carried an article about the book's subject matter, how Trump reacted and why it is selling so well.

Its sales reflect 'rapidly surging anti-Trump sentiments in the international community,' the article said. 'The anti-Trump book is sweeping all over the world so Trump is being massively humiliated worldwide.'

The book's popularity 'foretells Trump's political demise,' the article said.

President Trump (left) who has nicknamed North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un (right) 'Rocket Man,' was said to have been 'massively humiliated worldwide' by the contents of the new book Fire & Fury, according to North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun

'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House' paints Trump as a leader who doesn't understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides

The book paints Trump as a leader who doesn't understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides.

Trump and other White House aides have blasted it as inaccurate trash. But it was the top-selling book in the U.S. last week, and its numbers are likely to grow far higher.

'Fire and Fury' received furious pushback from the Trump White House since it was released six days ago

Last summer, Trump threatened North Korea with 'fire and fury like the world has never seen' in an exchange of taunts with the North, which claimed it was examining plans to launch missiles toward the American territory of Guam.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have since traded threats of war and crude insults, as the North conducted nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Trump called Kim 'Rocket Man' on a 'suicide mission.' Kim called the 71-year-old American president 'the mentally deranged U.S. dotard.'

In his New Year's address last week, Kim said he has a 'nuclear button' that could fire weapons anywhere in the United States, and Trump responded that he has a much bigger and more powerful 'nuclear button.'

Recently, North Korea has taken steps toward improving ties with rival South Korea in what critics call a tactic to divide Seoul and Washington and weaken U.S.-led international pressure and sanctions on the country.

On Tuesday, it had its first formal talks with South Korea in about two years and agreed to send a delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in the South and hold military talks aimed at easing front-line animosity.

But North Korea hasn't stopped its rhetoric against Trump. Last week, the North's state media called Trump a 'war maniac' and 'madman.'

After Tuesday's inter-Korean talks, Trump said during a phone conversation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that the United States was open to talks with North Korea 'at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances,' according to a White House statement.

'Fire and Fury' was released last Friday and sold 29,000 copies through Saturday, NPD BookScan told The Associated Press.

Digital sales already top 250,000 and audio sales exceed 100,000, according to John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, the parent company of the book's publisher, Henry Holt and Co. It has raised an initial announced printing of 150,000 to more than 1 million.
A teenage is fighting for his life after being stabbed during a street brawl in London.

Armed police were called to Lordship Road in Stoke Newington, after witnesses reported hearing gunshots and seeing a group of men fighting.

A 19-year-old man was taken to hospital, where he remains in critical condition.

Armed police were called to Lordship Road in Stoke Newington, after witnesses reported hearing gunshots and seeing a group of men fighting

A 19-year-old man was taken to hospital, where he remains in critical condition

The Metropolitan Police said they had not found evidence of anyone suffering from gunshot injuries.

A spokesman for the force said: 'There have been no further reported injuries at present,' said the spokesman.

On social media, local residents said they heard 'two loud bangs'.

One man said: 'I didn't see anything but heard two loud bangs and [my] housemate saw a guy with a gun'.

The area remained cordoned off last night while officers from the Met's Trident and Area Crime Command began investigating the incident.

There have not been any arrests yet.
Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (shown with wife Sheena Greitens at an April event in NYC) admitted Wednesday to having an affair, but denied claims he blackmailed his also married mistress

Missouri Governor Eric Greitens has admitted having an affair with a married woman, but denied claims he tried to blackmail the mistress with an explicit photo.

The married father-of-two, 43, who assumed office in January 2017, said he engaged in a sexual relationship with the unidentified woman back in March 2015.

The Republican politician confirmed that he had the illicit affair after his former lover's now ex-husband revealed the story to St Louis TV station KMOV.

In an audio recording, a woman purported to be Gretiten's lover is heard telling her husband about a physical interaction she had with the lawmaker just days earlier.

The woman said she met Greitens, a client, at her hair salon roughly one year before - when she revealed she was 'instantly' attracted to him.

One Saturday morning in March of the following year, she went to his house, where the two had sex for the first time.

Then he allegedly threatened to expose naked images of her if she told anyone what happened.

The distraught woman can be heard weeping in the audio as he explains the disturbing parts of the encounter that went from fun to frightening.

'He used some sort of tape, I don't know what it was... and taped my hands to these rings and then put a blindfold on me,' she first explained.

In an audio recording which hears the conversation between the unidentified woman and her then-husband, she explains intimate details of the sexual affair

The distraught woman can be heard weeping in the audio as he explains the disturbing parts of the encounter that went from fun to frightening

Then, 'he stepped back, I saw a flash through the blindfold and he said: 'You're never going to mention my name, otherwise, there will be pictures of me everywhere',' she added, tearfully.

In the 2015 conversation with her husband, the woman said she partly blames herself for the interactions.

She felt angry, however, when Greitens - a man who described himself during his campaign as a 'Navy SEAL, native Missourian and most importantly, a proud husband and father' - snapped a nude picture of her without permission to later use as blackmail.

The woman also said Greitens since apologized over the aggressive encounter, and confirmed: 'I wanted to tell you, I erased it.'

Following the fallout, the woman revealed the two had one more 'physical interaction' later in the day - but did not include further information on what that entailed.

Greitens is shown with his wife Sheena and two young kids in St. Louis, Mo. November 2016. During his campaign, he described as a 'Navy SEAL, native Missourian and most importantly, a proud husband and father'

Greitens kisses his wife, Sheena, before giving his victory speech after winning the Missouri governor's race on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, at his election watch party. His attorney denied he blackmailed his former mistress

KMOV reported that in October 2015, the woman used the same gmail account formerly used to secretly talk to Greitens, and asked him to no longer see her at work.

The email read: 'Eric, I am asking you to please consider all who are involved and the circumstances around us. I need you to not book at the salon anymore.

'This isn't fair to me, nor anyone close to us. Please respect me and my wishes. I need to move forward in my life as I know you are doing as well. Take care.'

Her ex-husband said although she attempted to reconcile, he was ready to move forward. The couple sought divorce in March 2016.

Vice President Mike Pence and Missouri Gov. Greitens walk through the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, Mo. in Feb. 2017. Greitens admitted Wednesday to the affair

'I don't want to be apart of politics, I don't want to be apart of anything,' the man said, who spoke about matter to the news station.

He said he only opened up about it after being contacted by law enforcement and media members - who left a voicemail on his daughter's cell phone.

While the politician has come forward to admit to the affair, his attorney, James F. Bennett, has denied the blackmail claims.

'There was no blackmail, and that claim is false,' Bennett said in a public statement. 'This personal matter has been addressed by the Governor and Mrs. Greitens privately years ago when it happened.

'The outrageous claims of improper conduct regarding these almost three-year-ago events are false.'

The woman's ex-husband, however, still refuses to forgive Greitens for his 'inhuman' and 'evil' behavior.

'He took a picture of my wife naked as blackmail... there is no worse person,' the man told the news station.

'I think it's as bad as it gets when somebody takes advantage of somebody.'
A former MTA bus driver shot his ex-girlfriend and her daughter to death in the Bronx Wednesday in front of his ex's one-year-old granddaughter.

Cops say Jorge Vega, 52, fatally shot his ex, Susan Trivino, 52, in the head and chest. Trivino was also an MTA bus driver. He then turned the gun on her daughter, Suchari Guzman, 29, shooting her in the chest. She later died at Jacobi Medical Center. She was one-year-old Abbygail's mom.

Vega turned the gun on himself and is in critical condition.

The incident unfolded in what police are calling a domestic dispute in the family's apartment in the Soundview section of the Bronx at around 2:20pm.

Susan Trivino, 52 (left), and her daughter Suchari Guzman, 29 (right), were both killed by Jorge Vega according to police, in the afternoon tragedy in the Bronx Wednesday

Jorge Vega, 52, had resigned from his job as a bus driver with the MTA last week. The family of Trivino claimed he had a drinking problem- he turned the gun on himself but remains in critical

Police packed the hallway of the apartment building where the tragedy unfolded Wednesday

The little girl wasn't harmed in the incident but was taken to an area hospital for a check up.

Trivino's mother Blanca Pinto screamed outside of the apartment building: 'I have to go up to see my daughter's body!'

'He killed my daughter and my granddaughter!' the grief stricken family matriarch wailed, according to the Daily News.

'I warned her so many times about that evil man!' she said, of the man that was a police officer in Puerto Rico before joining the MTA in New York.

Trivano's youngest son Ricardo Caceres, who horrifically discovered his family members' bodies, told ABC7 he was stunned by Vegas's act of horrific violence.

'I have no idea what went on, this is something that was told to us suddenly,' he said. 'And we came over here and encountered this tragedy.'

Evette Trivino said her sister Susan and Vega dated but recently broke off their volatile relationship. 'He loved her and she left him,' she said to the Daily News.

However, a woman identifying herself as Vega's wife said he and Trivino were only colleagues.

'Oh, my God,' the woman who declined to give her name, told the DailyNews. 'I've been trying to call him.'

'I've seen her before when I drop my husband off at work,' she said of Trivino.

Police exit the building in the Soundview section of the Bronx following the horrific tragedy

Combing the scene for clues: Police recovered a 9-mm pistol from the scene

Medical Examiner's office came to the building with gurneys to remove the bodies from the scene

'They brought out the baby wrapped in a yellow blanket,' eye-witness Ronisha Roderick added. 'She had a little teddy bear and a pacifier.'

Cops recovered a 9-mm pistol at the scene.

Police originally thought Trivino's son was the shooter and briefly detained him before realizing he was the one to walk into the tragedy, as neighbors called 911.

'(Cicardo) was crying,' Roderick said. 'He was really upset.'

'Susan was a beautiful person. She was a hard worker her entire life,' a man who identified himself as Trivino's brother-in-law added to the Daily News.

Trivano's family said Vega had a drinking problem and had resigned from his job with the MTA a week prior.

The family was new to the building, and their neighbors called 911 after hearing pounding.
A cheeky DJ who slipped his business card to Prince Harry has made his pitch to play at his wedding - and vowed to get the Queen on the dancefloor.

Jevanni Letford briefly met the Prince and his fiancee, Meghan Markle, when they visited Reprezent radio station in Brixton, south London on Tuesday.

And the 28-year-old slipped the engaged royal a card with his contact details on it, telling him: 'I'll DJ at your wedding'. Prince Harry smiled as he put the DJ's card in his suit jacket pocket.

On Good Morning Britain today, Mr Letford mapped out his plans for how he would entertain the guests at the royal wedding and even has plans to get the Queen up dancing.

The ITV show host Susanna Reid said: 'You've got the experience and you know exactly what you'd do at every moment of the set. And to get the Queen on the dancefloor, what would you play?

Mr Letford replied: I'd probably do a remix of the national anthem and whoever sits down at the national anthem...' Ms Reid remarked: ...'guaranteed to get everyone on the dancefloor.'

Jevanni Letford briefly met the Prince and his fiancee, Meghan Markle, when they visited Reprezent radio station in Brixton, south London on Tuesday

And the 28-year-old slipped the engaged royal a card with his contact details on it, telling him: 'I'll DJ at your wedding'

Mr Letford mapped out his plans for how he would entertain the guests at the royal wedding and even has plans to get the Queen up dancing

Speaking about his plans for the whole event, Mr Letford said he would start with Beyonce and Luther Vandross' The Closer I Get To You for the first dance and end with Journey's Don't Stop Believing.

He said: 'I think with this wedding it's quite unique. There would have to be an element of tradition but I would throw in a few surprises as well.

'The first song is quite a romantic song and talks about two people getting together - two people from different sides of the world. That's quite a good song to cement their union.

'I'd probably play This Is How We Do It (to get the party started). I can image Her Royal Highness doing a two-step to it as well. The last song would be Don't Stop Believing.

'Some people say the first impression and last impression is what counts. Nobody really cares what's in the middle.

'I've had weddings where we have a mix and they've performed a dance routine. I've done a flashmob, where the groom had no idea what was happening and everyone did the Harlem Shake.

DJ Jevanni Letford handed Prince Harry his card yesterday and asked to play at the royal wedding. The stunt raised a smile from the royal, who tucked the card into his pocket

'I'd definitely play a bit of Ed Sheeran at the wedding and I'd get a bit of Stormzy in there as well. Prince Harry loves his grime. And maybe even Wiley because he got an MBE and that would be the second time he's in their presence.

'They haven't been in touch yet but my phone is on loud and I'm ready for the call. I've blocked out May 19.'

Ms Reid, said: 'Do you know what? If they don't hire you, they're crazy. It sounds like you've got it all planned.'

He hopes the stunt will pay off, and has already got some tracks in mind for the wedding

Mr Letford is a fully qualified lawyer who runs his own events firm, called Chicken and Beer.

He also DJs and presents for Reprezent radio station in Brixton. He insisted he didn't plan to give the Prince his business card as he didn't expect to get so close.

How the set list could look if Meghan and Harry snap up DJ for their royal wedding First dance: Beyonce and Luther Vandross - The Closer I Get To You

Montell Jordan - This Is How Do It

Stormzy

Ed Sheeran

God Save The Queen remix

Wiley

Last song: Journey - Don't Stop Believing Advertisement

He said: 'We live in an age where if you meet someone you just exchange your Instagram details. Last year I made the decision to print business cards and also make sure they stand out.

'When he held it, he was quite surprised and was like "What is that" and then I said it's if you need someone to DJ at your wedding.

'They were really down to earth. They were really humble individuals and they were very interested in what we were doing at Reprezent. They were just easy to talk to and very personable.

'I DJ and present on Reprezent so I knew they were coming but I didn't think that, one, I'd get close enough to Prince Harry to give him my business card, and two, that he would put it in his pocket.

'I didn't plan it. I always carry my cards with me but I thought they would have so much security between me and Prince Harry.'

Mr Letford said: 'I didn't plan it. I always carry my cards with me but I thought they would have so much security between me and Prince Harry'

Mr Letford, who previously studied at University of Essex, has supported Tinie Tempah

After first playing on a university radio station, he has since appeared on Reprezent

Speaking after handing his business card to Prince Harry on Tuesday, Mr Letford told MailOnline: 'Prince Harry took the card and said 'okay!' And put it in his pocket.'

He added: 'Prince Harry if you're reading this, getting me to dj at your wedding.

'It will be the second best decision you've ever made in your life - after asking Meghan to marry you.'

A video of Mr Letford handing his car over was later viewed around the world and he said he was inundated with offers to play other gigs.

He wrote on Instagram: 'Completely shocked and honoured by the global support I've received since handing my business card to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

'At the very least, this is a lesson to anyone... you'll always get a "No" if you don't ask.'

The royal couple were in Brixton yesterday at community radio station Reprezent

The couple drew crowds to the south London radio station, where they spoke to bystanders

A petition has since been set up to get Mr Letford the gig, with more than 100 people signing it in less than a day.

Mr Letford said he already has some songs in mind for a wedding reception playlist and would kick off the party with This Is How We Do It by Montel Jordan.

He also told BBC Newsbeat he would also play some songs from the West Coast of the US, in a nod to Meghan, who was born in Los Angeles.

The royal couple, who are due to marry on May 19 at Windsor Castle, went to the heart of London's Caribbean community for their first official visit in the capital on Tuesday.
Marks & Spencer's clothing sales have fallen again - just months after the retailer's director of clothing and beauty quit.

The British retail giant said like-for-like sales fell 2.8 per cent in its clothing arm over the 13 weeks to December 30 in a 'mixed' quarter for the group.

It comes after the director of clothing and beauty, Jo Jenkins, stepped down from her role to join White Stuff.

The retail giant said like-for-like sales fell 2.8 per cent in its clothing arm over the 13 weeks to December 30 in a 'mixed' quarter for the group

Steve Rowe, chief executive of M&S, said: 'M&S had a mixed quarter with better Christmas trading in both businesses going some way to offset a weak clothing market in October and ongoing under-performance in our food like-for-like sales.'

M&S said its food halls also saw 'ongoing under-performance' with like-for-like sales down 0.4 per cent in the quarter.

In October last year, Director of Womenswear, Lingerie & Beauty, Ms Jenkins, left her post 'disappointed' to have not been selected for the role of managing director for clothing, home & beauty.

The move was said to be a 'blow' for chief executive Steve Rowe, who was appointed to the role in 2016 and is being closely observed by new chairman and industry veteran Archie Norman.

In November, it was revealed that Marks & Spencer is to accelerate the closure of 100 stores or departments selling clothes and products for the home.

It comes after the director of clothing and beauty, Jo Jenkins, stepped down from her role to join White Stuff

The move came as part of a bid to cut costs, shut underperforming outlets and encourage a shift to shopping online.

M&S is also planning to slow down the opening of new Simply Food outlets and offer more value products amid evidence that families are struggling to pay premium prices.

Details emerged as M&S revealed that profits in the first half of the financial year fell 5.3 per cent to 219.1 million.

It hopes the crucial Christmas period, together with a marketing campaign and TV commercial featuring Paddington Bear, will lead to a rebound.

The company had previously announced that it would close around 100 underperforming clothing and home stores or departments as part of a turnaround plan.

Six stores have already closed. At least another 24 will close outright and 30 others will be relocated. Some 45 will be downsized  taking out clothing and home merchandise.

As expected Marks and Spencer suffered a bad fall in sales over the Christmas quarter - badly lagging competitors on all fronts - and as such there could be serious question marks over Steve Rowes turnaround strategy, said Neil Wilson, analyst at ETX Capital.

'Full year guidance is unchanged as the likelihood of poor results were pretty well flagged back in November. Consensus was actually for a slighter worse set of results so shares could creep higher with decent short interest in the stock.'

'Nevertheless there is no repackaging these figures as anything short of very disappointing,' Wilson continued. 'Food is the worry  its been the easy win for M&S for years but suffered a -0.4% decline.'

'Other grocers registered solid increases and crucially may be eating into M&Ss premium niche  we have seen strong performances for Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tescos premium ranges. And Waitrose  probably its closest apples-to-apples rival in food - saw sales up 1.5%.'

Retail sector experts at Investec have a 'Sell' recommendation on the shares.

'[The company's] valuation is not particularly demanding from a cash perspective, but not compelling enough, in our view, with near-term consumer spending uncertainty and poor earnings visibility given limited medium financial guidance on new strategy, said analyst Kate Calvert.

'We remain of the view that CEO Steve Rowes 5-year plan is no more than a profit stabilisation strategy and see better value elsewhere in the sector.'
A missing 19-year-old woman has been found dead in a Georgia mall, with her body in an 'advanced state of decomposition'.

Silling Man, who was a student at Georgia State University, had gone missing on October 10.

Her body was found in an empty food court area at Gwinnett Place Mall Duluth on December 21, Gwinnett County police said, and she was identified yesterday.

Silling Man (pictured), who was a student at Georgia State University, had gone missing on October 10. Cops said her death is still under investigation and has not been ruled a homicide

Cops said her death is still under investigation and has not been ruled a homicide, the Gwinnett Daily Post reported, but they have not yet revealed the cause.

A police report explained the Lawrenceville woman had been dead for about two weeks when she was found.

Man was found by a maintenance worker checking a vacant area of the mall.

She was previously reported missing on October 8 before returning home when an investigator took on the case.

Two days later - after the file was closed - she disappeared again.

But on November 20 she picked up her final paycheck from a different mall, Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, police revealed.

Her body was found in an empty food court area at Gwinnett Place Mall Duluth on December 21, Gwinnett County police said

Cops investigating the death have appealed for information about her activities and acquaintances from mid-October to mid-December.

Those who can help are asked to call 770 513-5300.
This is the terrifying moment CCTV cameras caught robbers shooting a security guard three times in a raid on a building society.

The two men dressed in dark clothing and motorcycle helmets threatened two guards refilling a cash machine at a Nationwide in Walthamstow, East London.

One of the suspects fired a silver self-loading pistol with a silencer after the guards refused to hand over the cash, shooting one of them in the leg three times.

The CCTV was released yesterday as Flying Squad detectives linked five robberies carried out at four commercial premises over a 12-month period from May 2016.

The robbery on Walthamstow High Street on May 18 last year at 3.25am left one of the guards with serious injuries that kept him in hospital for a week.

The suspects escaped from in a stolen Ford Fiesta. This has now been recovered and the robbery linked to four other offences in 2016 - three involving the use of a gun.

The first offence was committed at 03.57am on May 23, 2016 at Cyprofood, a 24-hour cash and carry, on Brantwood Road in Tottenham, North London.

An employee was pistol-whipped by two men who were both armed with guns. They used a silver Audi A4 with stolen number plates, but this has never been recovered.

The two men dressed in dark clothing and motorcycle helmets threatened two guards refilling a cash machine at a Nationwide in Walthamstow, East London

The second offence was committed at a Santander on Woodgrange Road in Forest Gate, East London, at 2.45am on June 28, 2016.

The two suspects ambushed two security guards who were refilling the cash machine. One of the suspects was armed with a revolver-style firearm.

Once inside the bank, the suspects stole a quantity of cash and drove off in a silver VW Scirocco, which has not been located.

The third offence relates to an armed robbery committed at a Santander on Mare Street in Hackney, East London, at 11.55pm on August 29, 2016.

The victims of the robbery, two security guards, were refilling a cash machine when they were ambushed by two men, described as large build.

One of the suspects fired a silver self-loading pistol with a silencer after the guards refused to hand over the cash, shooting one of them in the leg three times

One of the men had a silver self-loading pistol with a black silencer. The suspects obtained cash and drove off in a stolen Range Rover Sport which has since been recovered.

The fourth offence was committed at the same Santander on Mare Street at 1.47am on December 3, 2016. Two suspects again attacked two security guards as they were delivering cash to the bank.

Once inside, the suspects attempted to steal money but were prevented by the actions of the victims and a member of the public.

The suspects escaped in a white 4x4 Mitsubishi Outlander, which has been recovered by police.

Detectives from the Flying Squad are now seeking any information about the identity of the people pictured in the images and in the CCTV footage.

The robbery on Walthamstow High Street on May 18 last year at 3.25am left one of the guards with serious injuries that kept him in hospital for a week

Police would also like to speak to anyone with any information about the location of the guns or the outstanding stolen vehicles: a silver Audi A4 and silver VW Scirocco.

Crimestoppers is offering a reward of 5,000 for any information given that leads to the arrest and conviction of the people responsible for the armed robberies.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Blackburn, from the Flying Squad, said: 'An increasing amount of violence is being used during these offences and we need the public's help to identify the suspects, their firearms and the stolen cars they escaped in.

'In the latest offence, a guard was shot a number of times at close range. Fortunately, he has recovered from his physical injuries but has suffered a severe psychological impact from the incident.

'Any piece of information, no matter how small, could be what we need to identify the men responsible for these crimes.'

Anyone who knows where the men or firearms are can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via an non-traceable anonymous form here.
A London-based businessman has become Zimbabwe's first billionaire and has been named the 14th richest man in Africa.

Telecoms tycoon Strive Masiyiwa, 56, is now worth $1.7bn (1.26) according to Forbes.

Mr Masiyiwa was born in Zimbabwe, but moved to the UK as a child, attended secondary school in Scotland and has an engineering degree from the University of Wales.

Winning: Telecoms tycoon Strive Masiyiwa, 56, has become Zimbabwe's first billionaire - the 14th richest man in Africa - and is now worth $1.7bn (1.26) according to Forbes

Upon returning to Zimbabwe in 1984, Mr Masiyiwa began working in telecoms and set up Econet in 1993.

In 1998, despite opposition from the now-ousted dictator Robert Mugabe he launched a mobile phone network 'at a time when 70 per cent of the country inhabitants had never heard a ringtone', according to Forbes.

The Econet Wireless group now operates in Africa, Europe, South America and the East Asia Pacific Rim, with Mr Masiyiwa living in London as of 2010.

Mr Masiyiwa is also known as one of the most prolific African philantropists, focusing in particular on young people,

He founded the Higherlife Foundation together with his wife Tsitsi, which opays school fees for some 40,000 students in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Burundi and Lesotho who are either orphaned or from low-income families.

Caring: Mr Masiyiwa and his wife Tsitsi, pictured in 2016, are devoted philantropists and run several organisations supporting young people in Africa

Friends in high places: The 56-year-old businessman is pictured with former US President Barack Omaba in Washington DC in 2016

They also established the Ambassador Andrew Young Scholarship, which enables African students to attend the Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, US.

Recently, he has been trying to stem the huge tide of migration from Africa to Europe, urging young people not to risk their lives in crossing the Mediterranean.

'I understand we face the problem of corruption, bribery, bad policies, but it doesn't mean you should take to crossing the Sahara or the Mediterranean,' he told CNN last month,

'We see the drownings... in the Mediterranean, young people trying to get to Europe.

'So this is my own way, as well to try to respond to that crisis, which is to say to young people; "Listen, let's do something. We can create jobs. You can be entrepreneurs, or you can work for entrepreneurs. You don't have to take this incredible risk".'
An academic says university education isn't about training students to find jobs after a federal government survey found a quarter of graduates regarded their degree as useless.

Dr Michael Biercuk, a Professor in physics at the University of Sydney, argues it is more important for university education to focus on the generation and dissemination of knowledge than making graduates job ready.

'The aim of university is not to provide job training,' he told the ABC's The Drum program.

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University of Sydney academic Michael Biercuk says university isn't about 'job training'

The Department of Education and Training survey found 25 per cent of graduates unimpressed

'It's not to provide detailed skills education that allow you to perform a job.

'University is about the generation and dissemination of knowledge.'

The academic, who likely earns a $120,000 a year salary, made the declaration after a survey funded by the federal Department of Education and Training found a quarter of graduates regarded their degree as useless for their current employment.

The annual Employer Satisfaction Survey found 15.3 per cent of graduates regarded their degree as 'not that important' while 11.1 per cent of respondents said their qualification was 'not at all important'.

The Drum's Adam Spencer pointed out that taxpayers spend $17 billion a year on universities

The Drum host Adam Spencer, who is the University of Sydneys ambassador of Mathematics and Science, pointed out to Dr Biercuk that taxpayers spent $17 billion a year on universities.

However, the Professor insisted universities weren't vocational training institutions.

'Totally separate from that are technical institutes like TAFE, where they teach skills that already exist,' Dr Biercuk said, adding employers were to blame for neglecting on-the-job training.

The federally-funded Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching survey found information technology, creative arts and commerce graduates to be the least satisfied with their degrees.

Information technology, creative arts and commerce graduates were the least satisfied

More than half, or 55 per cent of IT graduates said their degree wasn't important for their job while 52 per cent of creative arts and commerce graduates expressed the same sentiment.

'Overall, graduates tended to view their qualification as less important for their current employment than their supervisor,' the survey said.

Dr Biercuk admitted there were probably too many students going to university when there weren't the jobs available to graduates, accusing universities of taking in more students to get federal funding so they could 'keep themselves afloat and grow'.

A quarter of graduates in the federally-funded survey said degrees were useless for their work
A western Sydney 'local legend' has emerged as an unlikely internet sensation following an enthusiastic performance of his lookalike Ed Sheeran's hit 'Thinking Out Loud'.

Affectionately known as 'Red Sheeran', the red-headed man called Ashley from Mount Druitt jokingly refers to himself as the British pop star's 'first cousin'.

Ashley is often seen on the streets singing Sheeran's hit songs a cappella, with his latest rendition of 'Thinking Out Loud' going viral on social media last week.

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A western Sydney 'local legend' called Ashley (pictured) has emerged as an unlikely internet sensation after performing his lookalike Ed Sheeran's hit 'Thinking Out Loud' on the streets of Mount Druitt

Affectionately known as 'Red Sheeran', the red-head jokingly refers to himself as the British pop star's 'first cousin'

In the video, Ashley can be seen introducing himself to the world outside a 7-Eleven store, wearing a print t-shirt and lime green boardshorts.

'I'm representing here in Mount Druitt - I'm Ed Sheeran's first cousin ... I'll sing one little song, ay?' he says.

He asks if he can singalong to the music, although no one is able to provide the tune for him.

But he remains undeterred, and proceeds to break into singing the song's opening verse.

Ashley then picks up his 1.25 litre bottle of berry-flavoured cider, before continuing to sing and provide a drumbeat by thumping his fist against his thigh.

His enthusiasm continues to build before reaching a climax, as he belts out the lyrics to the song's chorus.

In the video, Ashley can be seen introducing himself to the world outside a 7-Eleven store, wearing a print t-shirt and lime green boardshorts

Ashley then picks up his 1.25 litre bottle of berry-flavoured cider, before continuing to sing and provide a drumbeat by thumping his fist against his thigh

His enthusiasm continues to build before reaching a climax, as he belts out the lyrics to the song's chorus

The video sent fans on social media into a frenzy, with one viewer saying: 'He got real wild at the end there.'

'Get ya (sic) autograph now ... he won't be climbing Mount Druitt anymore when he goes viral,' another said.

The man who filmed the video Chris Leonard told Daily Mail Australia that he sees Ashley nearly every day.

He described the red-head as 'not really' a busker, but just a young man who is 'trying to get by'.

'He's a good bloke and a good old Mount Druitt battler,' Mr Leonard said.

He added that Ashley is also looking for a sponsorship with cider brand Little Fat Lamb.
A mother has released shocking images of her 18-year-old son who 'died four times' after he was stabbed as new figures show London's knife epidemic killed 80 people in 2017, a quarter of them teenagers.

Tyler Dawson, 18, from Dagenham, was pictured unconscious and with bloodied tubes inserted in his nose after he was knifed in the groin in the street one afternoon in a totally unprovoked attack.

The teenager was stabbed in the groin with a flick knife on the afternoon of June 23, leaving him with his right leg amputated at the groin and mild brain damage.

Tyler Dawson, 18, from Dagenham, was pictured in hospital unconscious and with bloodied tubes inserted in his nose after he was knifed in the groin in the street one afternoon

The Metropolitan Police has described the level of knife crime in the capital as 'truly unusual and extraordinary. In the UK as a whole, there were 36,998 knife crimes between June 2016 to June 2017, according to the most recent statistics.

Kerry Dawson, 43, addressed the cowards who targeted her son, saying: 'That's the outcome, look at him. Look at my boy.

'Do you want to be losing your limbs, if not your life? Stop being cowards. Stop hiding behind weapons and blades.'

Mrs Dawson, who was speaking to the Barking and Daghenham Post, vividly remembers the terrible day she got a call saying Tyler had been stabbed.

'It was a Friday afternoon, I'll never forget this in my life,' she said. 'I'd just come back with my little one from school.

'I was only here five or 10 minutes and then his mate phoned me and said 'Tyler's been stabbed'. I just threw everything and ran.

Kerry Dawson, 43,(seen with Tyler at home) addressed the cowards who targeted her son, saying: 'That's the outcome, look at him. Look at my boy'

'My blood just ran cold, I didn't know what to think or feel. It was just so automatic, just go to him.'

Tyler was walking with a friend from Dagenham Heathway shopping centre when two youths on bikes cycled up to him off Blackborne Road.

One took out a flick knife and casually stabbed Tyler in the groin. The blood-soaked teenager staggered to a nearby flat and collapsed in a bathtub.

His mother watched in horror as her son was stretchered away to an ambulance with his life hanging in the balance.

After dashing to hospital Mrs Dawson was asked if she wanted a priest to read the last rites as medics didn't know if Tyler would survive.

'He was in surgery for five-and-a-half hours. I couldn't think straight, I couldn't concentrate on anything,' she said.

'People are talking to me and it's going in and going straight back out again.

'Then they brought him out and took him into the intensive care unit and I took one look at them tubes, him lying there, and I ran back out. I couldn't deal with it.'

Attacks on under-25s in the Dagenham, where the Dawsons live, has rocketed by a staggering 178% in five years.

That means an average of one under-25 every week was the victim of a stabbing last year.

The teenager(pic in hospital) was stabbed in the groin with a flick knife on the afternoon of June 23, leaving him with his right leg amputated at the groin and mild brain damage

Tyler hoped to get an apprenticeship in bricklaying or painting and decorating and was due to sit his driving theory test before the attack.

He suffered mild brain damage that affects his short-term memory and has to use a wheelchair. Mrs Dawson still does not know how Tyler survived.

'Even the doctors and nurses, everyone in the intensive care unit called him a miracle,' she said.

'I ended up calling him my miracle boy, because you can't die that many times and come back.'

Tyler(seen in hospital) hoped to get an apprenticeship in bricklaying or painting and decorating and was due to sit his driving theory test before the attack

The mother-of-three has been forced to quit as a care home kitchen assistant to become Tyler's full-time carer.

She said her son's outgoing personality has completely changed and he is not able to leave the house without her or stay at home if she is not there.

Mrs Dawson said her two younger children had to 'practically live with my neighbour' during the long months she was visiting seriously ill Tyler in hospital every day.

'I was coming home, sleeping, getting up, getting dressed and going straight to hospital,' she said. 'And that was my life.

'It wasn't that I didn't care about my two kids, but Tyler needed me more.'

In November, just weeks after Tyler eventually went home from hospital, his attacker, 17-year-old Ce-jay Furzer, was due to stand trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

The thug can be named after the Post applied for reporting restrictions to be lifted.

Tyler was wheeled into court to watch as Furzer changed his plea to guilty just before the trial began. He admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The previous day CCTV footage gathered by police had been disclosed to his defence team showing Furzer's movements in the hours before and after the attack.

The Dawson family was in court again last month to see Furzer imprisoned for nine years 10 months.

Tyler(pic at home) was wheeled into court to watch as Furzer changed his plea to guilty just before the trial began. He admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm

But she is adamant that the courts and society generally is failing to send out a tough message on knife crime.

Ms Dawson has called for more powers for police and parents to discipline young people and the return of national service for teenagers who leave school without a job.

She is convinced that everyone has a part to play to stop knives being used as deadly weapons.

'I want to make people aware of knife crime and how it affects people, especially the youngsters who think its fine to carry a blade.

'They think they're hard and clever. Half of them don't realise the consequences.

Tyler(seen at home with Mrs Dawson, right) was walking with a friend from a shopping centre when two youths on bikes cycled up to him off Blackborne Road and one of them stabbed him

'Look at my boy,' she insisted. 'That's the outcome, look at him. And that's a lucky outcome to be honest.'

Tyler, who says he's never carried a knife, said: 'It's not good man. The end result is never good.'

Deputy Superintendent Jane Scotchbrook, head of neighbourhood policing across the Met Police's East Area Command, said: 'We want to reassure people that the likelihood of a knife crime happening is relatively low.

'But when it does happen it's a serious matter and we will do everything we can to reduce and eradicate knife crime.'
A senior NHS clinician has won a restraining order against her husband after she accused him of sleeping with escorts and controlling her with violence.

Dr Manju Luckson, 38, from Sale in Greater Manchester, claimed Luckson Francis-Augustine would arrange meetings with escorts online and then berate and assault her when she confronted him about it.

According to Mrs Luckson when she asked Mr Francis-Augustine, also 38, about a recent business trip, he repeatedly slapped her face saying: 'Who are you to ask me questions?

Dr Manju Luckson (left) claimed husband Luckson Francis-Augustine (right) would arrange meetings with escorts online and then assault her when she confronted him

'I am the man and I have the right to go and if a woman wants to sleep with me because I have a big c*** who are you to question that. You need a big slap to your face.'

The senior nurse also claimed she was 'forced' to take out loans to buy her husband a Land Rover and help set up his business.

Police attended the couple's 350,000 detached home last November after a 999 call from the eldest of the couple's three children.

Officers found Mrs Luckson in a 'distressed state' and she subsequently filed a 14 page statement outlining allegations against her husband.

Mr Francis-Augustine, who stood as an independent candidate in last year's general election, was due to stand trial accused of 'controlling or coercive' behaviour against his wife between 2015 and 2017, at Manchester Magistrates' Court.

But the charge was dropped after Mrs Luckson - who was at court - refused to enter the witness box to give evidence against him.

Luckson Francis-Augustine stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate for the Wythenshawe constituency in 2017

He denied wrong doing, but was banned from contacting his wife for a year and has since moved out of the family home.

The couple, originally from Kerala, India, wed under an arranged marriage in 2004 after arriving in the UK three years earlier.

According to his CV Mr Francis-Augustine worked in sales for British Gas, Tiscali and BT before setting up his own telecoms consultancy business.

He stood unsuccessfully as a Labour councillor in Trafford, then temporarily switched to the Tories where he was pictured with Sir Graham Brady chairman of the 1922 committee before standing unsuccessfully for MP in the Wythenshawe constituency in 2017.

His wife - a gifted artist with a Masters degree - was a made a PhD in 2015 in Research Culture and helped present medical conferences in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

She is also an Equality and Diversity Coordinator at Central Manchester University Hospital and worked as a research manager in acute medicine at Trafford General Hospital. She has also served as the Observational Clinical Examiner of Liverpool University.

Senior NHS clinician Manju Luckson, who won a restraining order against her husband

In an interview she gave to Asian newspaper Mrs Luckson said: With God's grace and my hard work, I am happy that I was able to achieve what I set out for.

Of course I had support from my family - but all I wanted to say to anyone who is struggling to achieve their dreams, is that with determination and perseverance, there is nothing you cannot accomplish in this world.'

But the couple's marriage crumbled when it was claimed Mr Francis-Augustine used his wife's 'religious beliefs' from the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in order to control her.

Prosecutor Miss Lynn Rogers said: 'The defendant is charged in relation to controlling and coercive behaviour towards his wife on two or more occasions. The pair have been married for a considerable number of years, 14 years as part of an arranged marriage.

'The pair had their first child in 2005 and this is when the relationship changed and the defendant was said to have become verbally abusive towards her.

They now have three children together and the relationship deteriorated to the extent where she believed he was going online chatting to women and arranging to meet with escorts.

'There has been both physical and mental abuse but she has never reported any of these incidents to the police. She is of Roman Catholic faith and works for the National Health Service as a manager.

'She says that on the 31st of August 2017 she and her husband were in bed when she asked him about a trip he was taking.

Mr Augustine-Luckson outside Manchester Magistrates' Court where he was banned from contacting his wife for a year

He replied: 'Who are you to ask me questions? I am the man and I have the right to go and if a woman wants to sleep with me because I have a big c*** who are you to question that?'

'He continued to say: ''You need a big slap to your face. Keep quiet.''

'The defendant then slapped her across the face causing her pain and discomfort. This argument continued and he threatened to contact her father to tell him what he was doing.

She placed both hands on his chest and said: 'no more,' and he looked at her aggressively and struck her to the face again and to her body.

'The noise woke up two of their children and they tried to get their father to stop beating her. The whole incident lasted about 45 minutes.

'Police were in fact called by their eldest daughter who is 12 years-old. The defendant had returned home in the early hours of the morning and he and his wife began arguing. The defendant ran downstairs and locked the doors, not letting his wife or children leave.

'Mrs Luckson asked her daughter to call the police and the defendant was arrested in relation to that and the earlier incident. The officer returned to their address later that day to collect a statement and the complainant provided a 14-page statement.

'The statement makes reference to the defendant forcing her to take out loans to start his own business and to buy a Land Rover and she felt she had no alternative but to take these out in her own name on his behalf and she was afraid of the consequences if she didn't.

'The complainant was clearly in a distressed state when police arrived and some time later when she attended Altrincham Police Station.'

In a statement read to the court, PC Philip Drummond said: 'On the 4th of November 2017 I attended an address in Sale where there had been an allegation of assault that needed further investigation.

'I spoke to the complainant and she was visibly upset and confirmed that she was happy to support a prosecution. She told me that she was very scared and because she had told police that he would hurt her.

'She wasn't just in fear for herself but for her children who are 12, five and three. I spoke to the two eldest children who said they had been woken up by their youngest sister who saw her father hitting her mother.'

Mr Francis-Augustine agreed to the terms of the restraining order which means he will have to liaise with a third party to see his children. He told the hearing: 'I don't want to see my wife ever again, I am filing for divorce.'
The San Francisco detective who led the unsuccessful investigation into the Zodiac serial killings - and inspired the Dirty Harry movie - has died.

Dave Toschi died on Saturday aged 86 after suffering from a long illness, his daughter Linda Toschi-Chambers said.

Toschi was famously put on the Zodiac case after a San Francisco taxi driver was shot to death in 1969.

Dave Toschi (pictured in 1976) died on Saturday aged 86 after suffering from a long illness, his daughter Linda Toschi-Chambers said

His original style - bow ties, sharp trench coats and a quick-draw holster for his .38-caliber pistol - inspired Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry character (pictured) from the 1971 movie

He was taken off it nine years later when he acknowledged writing and mailing anonymous fan letters to the San Francisco Chronicle lauding his own work.

But his original style - bow ties, sharp trench coats and a quick-draw holster for his .38-caliber pistol - inspired Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry character from the 1971 movie.

Toschi, however, was not impressed with Eastwards Harry Callahan and is said to have walked out of a screening of the 1971 film in disgust because it resembled his Zodiac investigation too closely.

The movie, directed by Don Siegel, follows a San Francisco detective trying to find a serial killer named Scorpio - and is loosely based on the Zodiac investigation.

Callahan is a tough cop who regularly crosses legal and ethical lines in his pursuit of justice.

But creators Harry and Rita Fink only partly based Callahan on Toschi - with fellow writer John Milius explaining that the character was also based on an unidentified cop from Long Beach.

ZODIAC KILLER WHO TERRORIZED SAN FRANCISCO IS STILL UNIDENTIFIED 50 YEARS ON During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a serial murderer terrorised Northern California. Evading capture, the killer taunted police by sending clues to local Bay Area press in the form of cryptograms, hence the name the Zodiac killer. Though police linked him to five murders, he boasted of at least 37 victims in his letters to the press. The inability of cops to solve the case so frustrated Dave Toschi, who was San Francisco's lead investigator on the murders from 1969 to 1978, that he revisited Zodiac murder sites long after he was taken off it. Below are the five confirmed cases linked to the Zodiac killer: On December 20, 1968, David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, were on their first date when they pulled over into a lovers' lane on Lake Herman Road in Benicia. There, they were forced from the car by a killer and Faraday was shot in the head. Jensen began to run away but was shot multiple times in the back. On July 4, 1969, Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, were in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo - 4 miles from the first crime scene - when they were shot 'to pieces', according to the investigator. But while Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival, Mageau survived being shot in the face, neck and chest. On September 27, 1969, Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, were having a picnic at Lake Berryessa in Napa County when they were approached by a hooded man who bound and stabbed them. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to his back, but Shepard died two days later. On October 11, 1969, cab driver Paul Lee Stine, 29, picked up a passenger and drove him to Presidio Heights - where he was shot in the back of the head and robbed. The killer also ripped part of Stine's shirt, which he later sent with a letter to a local newspaper. Four other victims and one other escapee have been connected to the Zodiac Killer, but none have been confirmed. Advertisement

Toschi, though, also inspired Steve McQueen's Lt. Frank Bullitt in the 1968 movie Bullitt.

Speaking 2014, Toschi said: 'Steve McQueen was a lovely guy.

'He came to homicide for inspiration while he was filming. He seemed to take to me.

'He liked the way I wore my holster upside down and put my raincoat over my shoulder.'

Five people were stabbed or shot to death in Northern California in 1968 and 1969, with their killer sending taunting letters and cryptograms to the police and newspapers.

Actor Mark Ruffalo (pictured) portrayed Toschi in the 2007 movie Zodiac

The murderer, dubbed the Zodiac killer because some of his cryptograms included astrological symbols and references, was never caught.

Duffy Jennings covered the grisly murders for the Chronicle and grew close to Toschi.

Jenning said Toschi visited the San Francisco murder scene on the anniversary of the killing for many years in a row to see if he overlooked any clues.

'The Zodiac case gnawed at him,' Jennings said. 'He said it gave him an ulcer.'

Actor Mark Ruffalo portrayed Toschi in the 2007 movie Zodiac.

Toschi was born in San Francisco and graduated from Galileo High School before serving in the Korean War with the US Army.

He returned to San Francisco in 1953 and was hired by the police department, where he worked until retiring in 1985.

Toschi's family said the retired inspector enjoyed music and books.

He 'could sing with the best of them,' said his daughter.

He also inspired Steve McQueen's Lt. Frank Bullitt (pictured) in the 1968 movie Bullitt, famous for its car chase scene in San Francisco

'His greatest pleasure was his loving family, and we will miss his keen sense of humor, his gentle guidance and his unconditional love.'

Toschi is survived by his wife, Carol Toschi of San Francisco; two daughters, Toschi-Chambers of San Francisco and Karen Leight of San Mateo County; and two granddaughters, Sarah Leight of Pacifica and Emma Leight of Los Angeles.

Private services were held yesterday.
North Korea has claimed Michael Wolff's bombshell new book about Donald Trump spells the end of the US president's political career.

Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House paints Trump as a leader who does not understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides.

The president and other White House aides have blasted it as 'inaccurate trash', but it was the top-selling book in the US last week and its numbers are likely to grow far higher.

Contents of the book were picked up in Pyongyang, where Kim Jong-un's mouthpiece newspaper said it had led to him being 'massively humiliated worldwide'.

Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House paints Trump as a leader who does not understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides

On Thursday, the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, run by its ruling Workers' Party, carried an article about the book's subject matter, how Mr Trump reacted and why it is selling so well.

Its sales reflect 'rapidly surging anti-Trump sentiments in the international community', the article said.

'The anti-Trump book is sweeping all over the world so Trump is being massively humiliated worldwide.'

The book's popularity 'foretells Trump's political demise', the article said.

Last summer, Mr Trump threatened North Korea with 'fire and fury like the world has never seen' in an exchange of taunts with the North, which claimed it was examining plans to launch missiles towards the American territory of Guam.

The president and other White House aides have blasted it as 'inaccurate trash', but it was the top-selling book in the US last week and its numbers are likely to grow far higher

Contents of the book were picked up in Pyongyang, where Kim Jong-un's mouthpiece newspaper said it had led to him being 'massively humiliated worldwide'

Mr Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have since traded threats of war and crude insults, as the North conducted nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Mr Trump called his rival 'Rocket Man' on a 'suicide mission'.

Mr Kim called the 71-year-old president 'the mentally deranged US dotard'.

In his new year address last week, Mr Kim said he had a 'nuclear button' that could target weapons at anywhere in the US, and Mr Trump responded that he had a much bigger and more powerful 'nuclear button'.

Fire And Fury was released last Friday and had sold 29,000 copies by the end of Saturday, NPD BookScan said.

Digital sales already top 250,000 and audio sales exceed 100,000, according to Macmillan, the parent company of the book's publisher, Henry Holt and Co.

It has raised an initial announced printing of 150,000 to more than a million.
Billionaires looking to buy an idyllic Hebreidean island off the coast of Scotland have been dealt a major blow after the Scottish government ruled the super rich out of the running.

The island of Ulva, with a population of just six, could be bought by a community group of locals on the neighbouring Isle of Mull after the Electoral Reform Society voted in favour of the purchase.

Yet Jamie Howard, the current owner of Ulva, expressed outrage that he has not been allowed to sell the island to a buyer he deems fit.

The 60-year-old, whose family have lived on the secluded island for 70 years, told the Times he had no idea the sale of the island would be blocked until Nicola Sturgeon announced the island would be bought in a community buyout at the SNP party conference in October last year.

The island of Ulva (pictured) could be bought by a community group of locals on the neighbouring Isle of Mull

Mr Howard said: 'The Scottish government has behaved shamefully over this issue. When I put the island up for sale, I was looking for a buyer who would have Ulva's interests at heart and the funds to run it.'

The Isle of Mull's buyout bid intends to boost Ulva's population to 30 within 20 years, but has raised just 21,000 through its crowdfunding appeal. It has just another eight months to raise 4.2 million.

The group hope it will be access to the Scottish Land Fund to raise a further 1 million and has boasted that it has received 'significant donations' from Australians after appealing to those whose ancestors had left the country in the 18th century. Some have even raised the possibility about moving back to Scotland.

There are six people who live on the island of Ulva, and there are concerns about the sale of the island

Ulva (pictured) is a Hebreidean island which once had a bustling population which 570 people used to call home

But on top of the substantial 4.2 million to buy the island, Mr Howard said it would cost another 4 million to set up on the island, and then annual costs would also add to spiraling costs.

Mr Howard, who lost his second wife to cancer a year ago, said: 'Even if they can raise the money to buy Ulva, I don't see how they can find the funds to run it properly.'

He added: 'I don't know where I will move to, at the moment I will be homeless.'

A director of the North West Mull Community Woodland Company, John Addy, said: 'This goes to the heart of the land reform process which is about who makes the decisions and has control over the destiny of communities - landlords or the communities themselves. We strongly believe it should be the latter.

The North West Mull Community Woodland Company put its bid in under the SNP's Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which allows community groups to buy private land.
Iraqi security officials have denied claims by local politicians that they freed a notorious ISIS henchman, nicknamed White Beard, after he paid a 5,455 bribe.

They released photographs of the fanatical cleric, with his infamous white facial hair shaved off and guarded by a uniformed officer, to prove he is still in custody.

The zealot was one of the terror group's most fearsome and easily identifiable henchmen. He was present when homosexuals were thrown from buildings and victims beheaded and stoned to death for minor offences.

The man in the official photos is wearing a coat almost identical to that worn by White Beard when he was picked up more than a week ago.

Officials also uploaded a picture of his ID papers.

A picture released by the Iraqi authorities shows the ISIS henchman without his beard and still in custody

The bearded cleric, named as Eiz Aldin Taha, is pictured being arrested by Iraqi forces when they entered Mosul

He also seems to have lost some weight since his arrest but appears to be the man known as White Beard.

Government officials named the cleric as Eiz Aldin Taha. Local sources said he was called Abu Omer when news of the arrest was revealed on 2 January.

The regime leader is said to have presided over dozens of killings in the terror group's former stronghold of Mosul in Iraq.

Anti-ISIS groups celebrated when it was revealed he'd been detained by members of the Iraq Security Forces.

However, it was then claimed that he was free in minutes after handing over $7,500 in $100 dollars to officials. The sum is equivalent to 5,455.

The human rights watch group the Clarion Project revealed on its website: 'In a remarkable failure of the Iraqi justice system, ISIS' religious leader was arrested and released just minutes later after paying a $7,500 bribe.'

The incident took place in a police station in Mosul, according to local official Zuheir Hazzen el-Jaburi.

When he had his distinctive white beard, the executioner presided over gruesome ISIS punishments

The fearsome ISIS henchman also presided over beheadings carried out by the terror group

'I was in Mosul when a force from police intelligence arrested a man. After questioning they were told he was the mufti for the right bank of the river in the city  an ISIS member,' el-Jaburi said.

'We asked people who he was, and they proved he really was ISIS' mufti.

'After he was arrested, he left a motorbike behind. An hour later we saw the motorbike was no longer there.

'We inquired about it. They said he was released 10 minutes earlier after he paid 75 notes [$7,500].'

The cleric reads out the charges against those about to be beheaded by the terror group's thugs

The evil terror boss is seen in several sick execution videos filmed before the group's self-proclaimed Caliphate in Syria and Iraq collapsed.

In one such clip from March 2015, three men accused of homosexuality and blasphemy are forced to their knees and publicly beheaded.

The blindfolded men are seen kneeling in the centre of what appears to be a roundabout in front of a crowd of people as a masked executioner stands by with a long, rusty blade.

An elderly man that appears to be the suspect addresses the crowd as the executioner positions his sword above the men's heads in the unnamed city in northern Iraq.

Other snaps seem to show him inspecting a pile of rocks ahead of a public stoning.
A man accused of breaking into a high-end fashion store in Sydney and stealing thousands of dollars worth of clothes has been charged, after his girlfriend allegedly tried selling the stolen goods to an undercover police officer.

Police arrested three men and a woman accused of stealing over $96,000 worth of Camilla and Marc clothing from the Rosebery store on December 29.

Three properties at Redfern, Marrickville and Surry Hills were searched on Wednesday and three men aged 21, 22 and 23, and a 19-year-old woman were arrested.

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Three men and a woman were arrested on Wednesday after allegedly breaking in to a designer clothing boutique and making off with thousands of dollars worth of stock

Police also allege the same group were involved in a break and enter at a mechanic garage in Matraville, where a car was stolen

A 23-year-old man and his 19-year-old girlfriend (pictured) were arrested and charged after the woman allegedly tried to sell the stolen goods to an undercover police officer

Pictured: CCTV footage allegedly showing the Sydney boutique being robbed on December 29

The men face multiple charges including aggravated break and enter, stealing, dealing with the proceeds of crime and other outstanding offences.

The 19-year-old woman, believed to be the girlfriend of the 23-year-old man, allegedly met with an undercover police officer to sell them the stolen clothes, 9 News reports.

She was charged with three counts of disposing of stolen property and dealing with proceeds of crime and was conditionally bailed to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on February 5.

The 21-year-old and 23-year-old men were refused bail and appeared at Central Local Court on Thursday.

The 23-year-old man appeared via video-link and told the judge 'get f***ed, you motherf*****' when his appeal for conditional freedom was rejected, Daily Telegraph reports.

The group were arrested during raids on three properties in Sydney on Wednesday in Redfern, Marrickville and Surry Hills

The men face multiple charges including aggravated break and enter, stealing, dealing with the proceeds of crime and other outstanding offences

The 22-year-old man was granted conditional bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on January 29.

The men are accused of raiding the shop in the Sydney suburb and escaping with 400 items of Camilla and Marc clothing in the early hours of December 29.

Police will allege in court that after the break-in, some of the clothing was being sold online through online marketplace, Gumtree, at low prices.

Police also allege the same offenders were involved in a break and enter at a mechanic workshop in Matraville before the incident, during which a car was stolen.

Some of the clothing has been recovered and police have appealed for anyone being offered Camilla and Marc items at suspiciously low prices to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

During the heist, it is alleged the group stole thousands of dollars worth of Camilla and Marc clothing

Pictured: The Melody Mini Dress, worth $1,000 and the Grazia Gown, worth $699. It is not known if these are the dresses which were stolen from the boutique
Waitrose has removed tins of coffee from its shelves after furious customers claimed they showed black slaves cultivating beans while a white plantation owner looks on.

The containers, from the Italian brand Saquella 1856, are said to bear historic images of black slaves harvesting beans in Guatemala, a former Spanish colony.

Shoppers at the upmarket chain's branch at the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury, London, complained to staff, who said they were 'shocked and appalled'.

Waitrose has withdrawn these tins of coffee(pictured this week) from sale after a customer complained they showed slaves

Patriic Gayle, 36, who spotted the tins with his friend, Annette Saunders, said: 'It looks like the kind of thing you see at Christmas but when I looked closer I was horrified.

'I have to take my hat off to Waitrose staff locally, who tried repeatedly to take the stock off the shelves.

'We found it had been replaced the next day but all in all I think it was a good result in a week.'

The pair went to the shop repeatedly to voice their concerns, and also sent emails to the CEO of Waitrose about the images.

'I asked them explicitly if they were going to take the stock off the shelves,' Patriic said.

'When the local councillors got involved it seemed to step up a notch.

'I'm a white, gay man, and Annette's daughter is mixed-race, so it was particularly poignant for Annette. It was a bit of a no brainer. Anybody would object.'

Mr Gayle, from Camden, praised staff at his local branch and said their response was 'terrific.'

He said: 'The staff were not the problem, the problem is higher up and an unwillingness to take stock off the shop floor.

'Waitrose have said the images show how the coffee was historically being harvested. This is part of the problem with multinationals and big companies.

Patriic described his 'disbelief' when he first set eyes on the images.

'A large part of it was disbelief, it was like we had to look at the picture again and again,' he said.

The containers, from the Italian brand Saquella 1856, are said to bear historic images of black slaves harvesting beans in Guatemala, a former Spanish colony

'There appears to be a white plantation manager in one picture, and a female plantation manager in the other. Somebody has designed this and thought it was OK. Did anybody stop to think what this picture was of?'

A spokesman for Waitrose said: 'We are sorry for any offence caused by the images that were shown on these products.

'We've spoken to the supplier who has explained that the images were intended to depict how coffee was historically harvested and traded.

'However, we fully understand how these could be interpreted and removed both products from sale in December until the supplier has had the opportunity to redesign the packaging.'

Shoppers at the upmarket chain's branch at the Brunswick Centre(file photo) in Bloomsbury, London , immediately complained to staff, who said they were 'shocked and appalled'

A statement from Saquella 1856 said: 'We apologise to anyone that was offended by the images.

'As a Fairtrade accredited and EFSIS ethical standard approved business, we were shocked to learn they had been interpreted in this way and the products were removed from sale in December.'
Sadiq Khan restarted Project Fear today by publishing a taxpayer-funded report into Brexit that claims a no-deal scenario could cost Britain 54billion and 500,000 jobs.

The London Mayor ordered an impact assessment after Brexit Secretary David Davis admitted he had not done so, claiming the forecasts would be inaccurate.

Mr Khan's survey tries to work out how five different Brexit scenarios ranging from staying in the single market and customs union to an immediate no deal exit will play out until 2030.

None of the scenarios consider Britain achieving its objective of a two year transition period followed by a bespoke trade deal.

Sadiq Khan (file image) restarted Project Fear today by publishing a taxpayer-funded report into Brexit that claims a no-deal scenario could cost Britain 54billion and 500,000 jobs

The Mayor said his report, prepared by analysis firm Cambridge Econometrics, showed the impact of quitting the EU was greater the harder the Brexit agreement.

Government sources questioned why Mr Khan was spending taxpayers' cash on Brexit reports while complaining about falling police numbers.

City Hall is responsible for 19 per cent of the Metropolitan Police budget this year.

Mr Khan said: 'If the Government continue to mishandle the negotiations we could be heading for a lost decade of lower growth and lower employment.

FIVE KINDS OF BREXIT: WHAT KHAN'S STUDY LOOKED AT Sadiq Khan's independent analysis of Brexit imagined how five scenarios could play out to 2030 - none of which match the Government's ambition. Ministers have said they want a bespoke trade deal, based on the EU's agreement with Canada but with additions to suit Britain, including on financial services. They were: Stay in the EU single market and customs union from March 2019 Two year transition from March 2019, followed by staying in the single market but leaving the customs union Two year transition from March 2019, following by staying in the customs union but leaving the single market Two year transition March 2019, followed by leaving without a trade deal and using WTO rules and tariffs Immediate exit in March 2019 using WTO rules and tariffs Advertisement

'The analysis concludes that the harder the Brexit we end up with, the bigger the potential impact on jobs, growth and living standards.

'Ministers are fast running out of time to turn the negotiations around.

'A 'no-deal' hard Brexit is still a very real risk - the worst possible scenario.'

Mr Khan said he had released the impact assessments to give people and businesses an insight into the 'likely impact' of the referendum results.

He added: This new analysis shows why the Government should now change its approach and negotiate a deal that enables us to remain in both the single market and the customs union.

'It's astonishing that the Government has failed to do any proper impact assessments on what Brexit could mean for our economy.

'Their complete lack of preparation is irresponsible, leading to fears that they are putting party politics ahead of the national interest.'

A Government source told MailOnline: 'The mayor is spending taxpayers' money on this report and commissioning consultants to do this kind of stuff.

'At the same time as police numbers are going down, Sadiq Khan's advertising budget is going up.'

The report shows steady economic growth in all scenarios but attempts to show the difference between a soft Brexit (the black and grey dashed lines) and a hard Brexit (blue and blue dashed lines). Economic growth is less under the hard Brexit scenario but would still leave the economy bigger than today.

The report makes similar finds on jobs growth under a soft Brexit (the black and grey dashed lines) and a hard Brexit (blue and blue dashed lines). The number of jobs grows under all scenarios but less in the hard Brexit

The report says that if there is a no deal exit in March 2019, there will be 482,000 fewer jobs across the UK and the economy will lose 54.5billion.

Financial and professional services would be hit hardest, with 119,000 fewer jobs.

The report uses a soft Brexit, that would leave Britain on similar terms to Norway, as a comparison.

It estimates 176,000 fewer jobs by 2030 and a loss of 18.6billion to the economy.

In all scenarios more people are in jobs and the economy is bigger by 2030. The losses are all smaller than the expected gains if there was no change to EU membership.

London also faces a smaller blow that the country as a whole in all five of the scenarios.

London does better than the UK as a whole under all of the Brexit scenarios considered in Mr Khan's report

Ben Gardiner, Director, Cambridge Econometrics, said: 'This is the first time that the various impacts of Brexit - trade , investment and migration - have been comprehensively assessed across a number of key indicators and sectors at sub-national level.

'Our analysis is particularly valuable to local leaders because it indicates the potential impact on employment and output of Brexit under a range of scenarios, which is necessary given the uncertainty surrounding the final outcome of negotiations.

'Rigorous analysis and robust evidence such as this could also be usefully applied to other parts of the UK helping political and business leaders plan for the future.'

Patrick Minford, Chairman of Economists for Free Trade, said: 'These ridiculously pessimistic studies are the latest attempts to use taxpayers' money to pump life into Project Fear.

'Our own assessments, using the correct economic model suited to free trade, show the clear benefits of Britain making a swift, clean break from the EU.'
A woman who went for cheap plastic surgery was horrified to see large lumps growing on her face.

Four lumps initially appeared around the woman's eyes, according to her, and they moved around her face and eventually formed a long 'worm-like' growth on her right cheek.

Ms Yu, from north-east China's Heilongjiang Province, told a Chinese TV station that the operation was performed by a self-proclaimed plastic surgeon in a hotel.

Ms Yu, from China, said she had four lumps growing around her eyes (right) after undergoing a cheap plastic surgery operation. Apparently the lumps moved around to form a long strip (left)

In an interview with Henan Urban Channel, Ms Yu claimed that she chose the operation because it was cheap.

She said she met the surgeon and underwent the operation in a hotel room because the surgeon said he was doing freelance jobs outside work hours. The surgeon was said to be working in a big hospital in the day time.

Ms Yu also said she 'felt very well' during the operation.

The lumps were said to be as big as beans at the beginning, but grow to the size of fingertips

Apparently the lumps began to appear in the days to follow.

The woman described the lumps to be 'swelling' and 'painful'. They were said to be as big as beans at the beginning, but gradually grow to the size of fingertips.

Eventually they moved towards each other to form a long lump measuring around 4cm (1.5 inches).

The woman didn't disclose what type of operation she had undergone.

Ms Yu also said that she had chosen to go for the cosmetic surgery because it was cheap

A doctor who examined Ms Yu's long lump told the reporter that he believed it had been caused by an infection.

The doctor said there was likely to be pus underneath.

The surgeon told Henan Urban Channel that he was willing to take Ms Yu to see the doctor and would pay for all the medical bills.

The surgeon didn't explain his qualifications or if he is qualified at all.
This is the moment an irate man slapped a Muslim woman in Malaysia when she told him it was her 'right' not to wear the hijab.

Footage shows the attacker berating a number of women sitting at a bus stop in the state of Penang, north west Malaysia and asking one about her faith and why she was not wearing a headscarf.

But when she explained that the hijab 'is our right' and a personal choice, he lashed out with the back of his hand, striking her across the face.

Footage captured the moment an irate man slapped a Muslim woman in Malaysia when she told him it was her 'right' not to wear the hijab

When the woman (right) explained that the hijab 'is our right' and a personal choice, he lashed out with the back of his hand, striking her across the face

The video has sparked fury online in Malaysia and has been viewed more than 700,000 times.

The man, who wears a jumper and a pair of jogging bottoms, had approached a group of women sitting at the bus stop.

He asked the women, who were wearing stylish, fashionable clothing, what religion they followed.

One of them told him she was a Muslim and he asked why she was not wearing a headscarf. Her response threw him into a rage and phone footage shows how he berated her as shocked onlookers watched on.

Footage shows the attacker berating a number of women sitting at a bus stop in the state of Penang, north west Malaysia and asking one about her faith before striking her

He then slapped the unidentified woman, who can be seen wearing a black dress and jewellery.

The woman, who appears to be using a mobile phone, then stands up as if to confront her attacker.

More than 60 per cent of Malaysia's population of over 30 million people are Muslim and social attitudes - particularly outside cities - can be conservative.

Religious conservatism has also been rising in Malaysia in recent years, chipping away at a one-time reputation for moderation and tolerance.
Children as young as ten are at risk of serious injury as they participate in growing numbers in an emerging daredevil craze.

The craze sees wannabe stuntmen riding their scooters at speed off the edge of jetties and into the ocean, while their friends watch from perilous positions below.

Authorities are enraged by the dangerous craze, which emerged in a video filmed at Adelaide's Glenelg Marina on Wednesday, 7 News reported.

Scroll down for video

A daredevil craze that sees wannabe stuntmen as young as ten riding their scooters at speed off the edge of jetties and into the ocean has emerged in Adelaide

The video shows a group of youngsters plummeting one by one into the marina while clinging onto their scooters.

Many attempt a few tricks on their descent to roaring cheers of approval by friends who watch from just centimetres away from their landing zone.

Others who are feeling anxious about the stunt are encouraged until they eventually agree to participate.

Despite being a rite of passage for many teenagers, jetty jumping was outlawed in Glenelg in 2013.

Authorities are enraged by the dangerous craze, which emerged in a video (pictured) filmed at Adelaide's Glenelg Marina on Wednesday

But beachgoers remain undeterred after it was revealed not one fine has been handed down in the five years since it came into effect, The Messenger reported.

The activity continues to concern authorities who have conceded there is little that can be done to stop it.

'I honestly don't know what more we can do,' Surf Life Saving SA's Sonya Williamson said.

'We ask that people please, please don't let a trend change your life for the worse.'
Its latest recruitment videos have been at pains to tell potential recruits that it is fine to cry, pray and show their emotions.

But soldiers were once attracted to the military by videos showing battle-hardened warriors dodging enemy fire and running in dangerous terrain.

Other videos from the past feature scenes of tanks driving through the mud  a stark contrast to the Army's controversial new 1.6million 'belonging campaign'.

The campaign's cost is 107 times the 14,931 annual salary of a soldier in the Army during training, and 85 times that of a 18,488-a-year private upon finishing training.

The new adverts have been made by an achingly trendy agency called Karmarama, which won the Army marketing account from J Walter Thompson in October 2015.

An Army clip in 2014 showed heavily armed soldiers on the frontline in war-ravaged countries

This recruitment video from 2014 focused on combat, with a huge explosion seen above

Karmarama is behind the series of adverts for car insurance website Confused.com featuring James Corden, one of which features him trying to pull off a parallel park.

Strong links between Karmarama's chief creative officer Nik Studzinski and top military marketing staff are said to have helped the agency win the Army contract.

Mr Studzinski, 47, who lives in a 1.6million terraced home in Hackney, East London, created award-winning work for the Army with Saatchi & Saatchi in the 1990s.

Karmarama, based in Farringdon, won Campaign of The Year at the Recruitment Marketing Awards last July for its 2017 'This is Belonging' adverts for the Army.

The firm, which is one of 20 agencies owned by 36billion-a-year consulting giant Accenture Interactive, claims to be 'the UK's most progressive creative agency'.

Karmarama, which has a team of 260 staff and was founded in 2000, has also produced adverts for the BBC, Confused, Halfords, Honda, Just Eat and Unilever.

In 2001, a Royal Marine Commando advert told potential recruits not to join unless they could survive gruelling physical exercises

The video showed muddy troops looking visibly exhausted and pained as they ran through woodland and waded through swamps before swimming through a tight gap underwater

The company's office entrance has a neon arrow with the sign 'good karma this way', and it claims on its website that the phrase 'guides the way we work and behave'.

Karmarama started off its Army adverts with the 2016 'Become a Better You' campaign, before creating its new series based on the 'desire to belong'.

It says in its blurb on the campaign: 'A decision to join The Army is a decision to change your life, so we had to look beyond traditional advertising to reach our goals.

'Qualitative interviews, quantitative research and data analysis revealed a key powerful emotional driver that attracted people to the Army beyond skills and adventure.

'The notion of belonging to a brotherhood and sisterhood, of experiencing powerful bonds that support you, give you purpose and encourage you to grow.'

The company also worked on transforming the Army website into a 'conversion-led, mobile-first digital hub where potential recruits could take bespoke paths'.

In 1992 the Army used the example of a soldier given the name 'Frank' who fought alongside his comrades and travelled the world

The white male was followed around as he fought on the battlefield, windsurfed, skied and abseiled down a cliff

Karmarama was previously in hot water over a Costa Coffee advertising campaign that 'seven out of ten' coffee lovers prefer its drinks, after a complaint by Starbucks.

Starbucks claimed the poll only applied to cappuccinos and not all products, but the Advertising Standards Authority cleared Costa and Karmarama of wrongdoing.

The trendy approach to Army recruitment videos is a major contrast to clips showing combat scenes released as recently as 2014.

These displayed heavily armed soldiers on the frontline in war-ravaged countries and hiding from the enemy in camouflage.

In 1992 the Army used the example of a soldier given the name 'Frank' who fought alongside his comrades and travelled the world.

The white male was followed around as he fought on the battlefield, windsurfed, skied and abseiled down a cliff.

Karmarama, whose chief creative officer Nik Studzinski (left) helped the agency win the Army contract, has offices in London (right) with a neon arrow and the sign 'good karma this way'

Nearly a decade later, in 2001, a Royal Marine Commando advert told potential recruits not to join unless they could survive gruelling physical exercises.

The video showed muddy troops looking exhausted as they ran through woodland and waded through swamps before swimming through a tight gap underwater.

As it showed different sequences the clip said 'what's your limit?' followed by 'don't even fill in the form'.

The recruitment video ended with the caption: '99.9 per cent need not apply.' Military sources said it did not work because many people did not apply as a result.

A century ago there was the unforgettable moustached face of Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War in 1914, his stern face and pointing finger above the words 'Your country needs YOU!'

Since 1993 Army adverts and its online presence were accompanied by the tagline Be the Best with crossed swords.

Karmarama is behind the series of adverts for Confused.com featuring James Corden (above)

The firm has worked with the car insurance website as well as many other well-known brands

A recent rebranding exercise to replace this because it was deemed 'elitist' was only ditched by new Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson after a furore.

An Army source said: 'While people may think they want aggressive macho adverts that look like the Call of Duty to attract them to the Army, it does not always work.'

Critics have warned that the new adverts produced by Karmarama could undermine Britain's fighting strength and demonstrate weakness.

The radio, TV and online adverts seek to address concerns potential recruits might have about revealing their anxieties, practising their religion or revealing their sexuality.

The adverts, all voiced by serving soldiers, are part of the Army's 'belonging campaign' which aims to diversify the service by widening its target base.

Five short clips  which were leaked online on Tuesday before their official launch  showed a crying soldier, troops comforting each other, and soldiers praying in-between training.

WHAT IF I GET EMOTIONAL? This 40-second video shows soldiers comforting each other on the front line and ends with a soldier crying. The voiceover of the serving soldier says: 'It feels like, as a man, you can never express your emotions. I thought joining the Army would be a thousand times worse. That any sign of emotion would be a sign of weakness. 'But once you are in, you realise no one is a machine. The Army is family.'

Troops who are gay, female and Muslim are the chosen voices for the campaign. Each video tells the story of someone who began believing the army was not the right place for them, but ends with them realising it was the ideal choice.

One video features a Muslim recruit saying he feared he wouldn't be given a chance to pray, before concluding: 'The army embraces the fact you have come from a different faith.'

Another features a gay medic describing wanting to join the Army after his brother served in Afghanistan, and revealing that 'within days' he was 'more than confident' about being himself.

In the video, he says: 'I'm not afraid to talk about having a boyfriend. I thought I'd have to hide it, but once you've done it you think: 'Why did I have to make it such a big thing for so long?'

Yesterday however, the head of the Army was forced to defend the adverts amid criticism from ex-troops who said they made the force look 'weak' and 'soft' because of 'PC madness'.

General Sir Nick Carter admitted the Army was not fully manned and that to boost numbers the military's recruitment campaign had to better reflect the demography of the UK.

CAN I PRACTISE MY FAITH? The 60-second video shows a Muslim soldier taking time out of an exercise to pray. The Muslim recruit says: 'The Army embraces the fact you have come from a different faith. Even on exercise, there's always a quiet moment to go into a cabin...and do your prayers there. 'My faith is such a part of me, that doesn't change when I put on a uniform.'

He said in Britain today there are 25 per cent fewer white 16 to 25-year-old males, who formed the force's traditional recruitment base. This had forced a rethink of how to address a personnel shortage.

Sir Nick told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Combat ethos and fighting power remain the British Army's highest priority post-Iraq and Afghanistan, and I can't remember a time in my career when we've had a more combat-hardened Army.

'But what this campaign is about, frankly, is a recognition that we don't have a fully manned Army at the moment, that the demography of our country has changed, and that we need to reach out to a broader community in order to man that Army with the right talent.'

Sources close to Mr Williamson said he believed that for the Armed Forces to be the best it needed to appeal to all backgrounds.

A source said: 'He believes our Armed Forces are the best in the world and that to be the best we need to appeal to and recruit people from all backgrounds across the UK who bravely want to serve their country.'

Army sources said the 'teaser adverts' were a product of market research and aimed at a specific target audience that they were struggling to recruit.

WILL I BE LISTENED TO? The 40-second clip shows a woman deciding to join the military after working a normal civilian job. It shows her on the battlefield and her leading a team of 30 after she is commissioned as an officer. She says: 'Men at work would often talk over me, I felt like I didn't have a voice. So I decided to go for it and I joined the Army. It feels good to finally have my voice heard.'

A serving soldier said: 'I have seen people kill people and cry at the same time. Some people see their friends chop their friends chopped in front of them some people cry.'

But others said the 'soft' adverts risked neglecting those recruits most likely to sign up and want to fight wars.

Former corporal Brian Wood, who was awarded the Military Cross for outstanding bravery during a bloody firefight in Iraq, said: 'We are showing weakness to the enemy.

'People who join the military do so to serve and protect, not worry about being gay, praying and being emotional. PC madness.'

Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded forces in Afghanistan, said: 'We should be projecting an image of rough, tough troops ready to fight, not people who are worried about if someone will listen to them or whether they can pray or not.

'They may be important but we also need to think about potential enemies.'

CAN I BE GAY? The 40-second video begins with two men chatting at a bar then jumps to uniformed men in a warzone. A soldier rests his hand on another's shoulder. A gay Army medic says: 'I was really worried about whether I would be accepted, but within days I was more than confident about being who I was. I'm not afraid to talk about having a boyfriend.'

He added: 'The Army has two priorities, to fight and to deter, and a series of moves within the army, imposed by political correctness by civil servants undermines the deterrence effect of the army.

'Soldiers have got to be tough, they have got to be rough and they have got to be prepared for action. If they are not they are not going to be effective soldiers.'

Retired army officer Major General Tim Cross said the army was 'really struggling' with recruitment and should not be trying to be 'jolly nice to people'.

He said he was in favour of recruiting from a broader base to boost the number of soldiers, but stressed they must be able to deliver high-intensity fighting power capable of 'duffing up the Queen's enemies'.

He said: 'The concern, I think, for a lot of people - and it's an understandable concern and to some degree I have some concern as well - is that you end up with an Army that's not capable of doing what you want to do and when you send it away on operations it's not able to deliver.

'So we must ensure that we reach out to people, we must ensure that everybody knows that they have an opportunity of joining the British armed forces and joining the Army in particular, but we are not going to be soft and we are not going to be nice to people.'

DO I HAVE TO BE A SUPERHERO? The video begins with a slim man working in a bar, then jumps to a scene of muscly men carrying weights and grunting. During the 30-second clip, the slim man wearing glasses gets progressively fitter and works in a team to get the job done. The former barman says: 'I kind of thought everyone was going to be a super-fit machine. 'I started off slow because obviously I was unfit, it was a struggle, but everyone in your troop helps out.'

But others disagreed and said it was right that the army appeal to potential recruits from other demographics and just because they cried did not make them a formidable soldier.

Former Army officer Johnny Mercer said: 'Change of tack in army recruiting is easy to knock, but (we) mustn't hammer the Army for not hitting targets and then criticise them for research-led recruitment efforts. Proof is in the pudding.'

A century ago there was the unforgettable moustached face of Lord Kitchener in 1914, his stern face and pointing finger above the words 'Your country needs YOU!'

The Conservative MP told Sky News: 'Is the army going soft? No of course it is not. We should get behind them and get on with it.'

The wider 'belonging' campaign was launched early last year and the army said it has helped recruit tens of thousands of soldiers so far.

But the military is still suffering from a recruitment crisis, with the Army running at more than 30 per cent short of its annual recruitment target according to a report last year.

The size of the regular Army has plummeted from 159,100 in 1980 to 83,561 in 2017, official figures show.

The campaign comes just weeks after plans to scrap the Army's 'be the best' slogan for being 'dated, elitist and non-inclusive' were halted by Mr Williamson.

Sir Nick said 'Be the best' remained the Army's 'institutional slogan' but the current advertising campaign focused on notions of 'belonging and team-building'.
A baby elephant has died after getting trapped in a termite nest at a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary.

The young animal fell into the hole in the forest in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, which is in Cambodia's eastern Mondulkiri province.

Local environment boss Keo Sopheak said the calf fell into the deep hole without any conservation workers realising its predicament in time to save it.

The young elephant fell into a hole in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province, Cambodia

The elephant's body has been preserved in ice and scientists will now study it in the capital Phnom Penh

Dem Buntoeun, the sanctuarys director, said at first suspected the hole was a trap set by hunters.

But upon inspection they realised that the elephant had in fact stepped into a termite nest which collapsed, trapping its two hind legs in a pit about one metre wide and a little over half a metre deep, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

Its body was taken to Cambodia's Environment Ministry in the capital Phnom Penh, packed in an ice-filled chest for the journey.

It was people living in a village nearby who reported the death, said Mr Sopheak. It appears that the elephant was unlucky enough to fall in a hole filled with termite nests.

The calf was one of just over a hundred Asian elephants in the wildlife sanctuary.

There are thought to be fewer than 500 in all of Cambodia and around 50,000 wild ones in Asia.

Tan Setha of the Wildlife Conservation Society said: 'We really regret that we could not save this young elephant, but the location was deep inside the forest and we did not receive information in time.'

Asian elephants are listed as Endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List.

Because the elephant became trapped deep in the forest, unfortunately local conservation workers were unaware of its plight
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With the 'slow death' of diesel lingering on, Britain's preparedness for the rise of electric cars has been revealed by a map showing exactly where the vehicles are being driven as well as all of the country's charging points.

As the market for dwindling diesel is expected to slump as much as 10 per cent this year, experts say more must be done to win Britons over the the electric revolution  and to sustain it.

But new data shows many areas could be woefully unprepared for an expected tidal wave of electric vehicles, despite a recent 'unprecedented demand' for them as consumers continue to forgo both diesel and petrol.

According to This Is Money, there is just one charging point per every eight electric vehicles that need to use them.

According to This Is Money, there is just one charging point per every eight electric vehicles that need to use them

WHERE IN THE COUNTRY HAS THE MOST AND LEAST ELECTRIC VEHICLES? Top 10 local authorities with most electric vehicles Least number of electric vehicles Top 10 with highest percentage of electric vehicles 1. Birmingham  10,747 1. Isles of Scilly  2 1. Peterborough  3.61% 2. Peterborough  8,249 2. Merthyr Tydfil  15 2. City of London  3.00% 3. Slough  3,953 3. Blaenau Gwent  15 3. Westminster  2.00% 4. Milton Keynes  3,501 4. Na h-Eileanan Siar  20 4. Gloucester  1.70% 5. Swindon  3,054 5. Shetland Islands  34 5. Slough  1.70% 6. Leeds  2,970 6. Barrow-in-Furness  36 6. Birmingham  1.46% 7. Bedford  1,608 7. Ceredigion  38 7. Kensington and Chelsea  1.40% 8. West Berkshire  1,338 8. West Somerset  40 8. Watford  1.34% 9. Solihull  1,318 9. Middlesborough  41 9. Bedford  1.27% 10. Gloucester  1,250 10. Eden  43 10. Cotswold  1.24%

And last year, a total of 3,178 public connectors of varying charge speeds were installed to a network already considered to be lagging behind where it should be.

Now a new interactive map, created by Esri UK, has revealed both the most and least-prepared areas across Britain, using data from the Department for Transport.

It places Milton Keynes on top for total number of charging points at 328, followed by Westminster with 253 and Northumberland with 189.

HOW DO THE NUMBER OF CHARGING POINTS COMPARE TO THE NUMBER OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES? Top 10 with most charging points per electric vehicle 1. Na h-Eileanan Siar  2.1 2. Newham  1.18 3. Shetland Islands  0.94 4. Argyll and Bute  0.68 5. Middlesborough  0.66 6. Newcastle upon Tyne  0.62 7. Highland  0.61 8. Eden  0.56 9. Stockton-on-Tees  0.55 10. Sunderland  0.45

The map also shows that four local authorities only have one charging point  Gloucester, East Lindsey, Newark and Sherwood, and Adur while a further 53 authority areas have no public charging points whatsoever.

But while Birmingham comes out on top for having the most electric vehicle drivers, just 70 charging points spread throughout the area equates to 0.01 public charging points per electric vehicle  ranking it 319th out of 380.

The map also revealed that Na h-Eileanan Siar in Scotland, has the most charging points per electric vehicle, with 2.1 - but that there are only 20 electric vehicles. Newham is ranked second with 1.18 points per vehicle, followed by Shetland Islands with 0.94.

At the beginning of 2017, there were 10,986 public charging points in 4,042 locations in the UK, which shot up to 14,093 individual chargers across 918 new locations.

But not all new installations are the same, with more than 40 different providers looking after the charging network up and down the country with varying costs associated.

According to Department for Transport stats, 113,000 low-emissions plug-in vehicles have been bought by Britons, excluding quadricycles such as the Renault Twizy and electric-powered cars and vans.

That figure is based on the vehicles sold that were eligible to apply for the government-funded plug-in car grant.

When the entire public charging infrastructure is factored in, there is just one plug-in post per eight vehicles that need to use them  even in Britain's major towns and cities many people do not live or work within walking distance of a charge point.

In November, chancellor Philip Hammond committed a 100 million investment for the continuation of the plug-in car grant and promised a further 400 million of government spending to go towards boosting the nation's charging infrastructure.

What do charging points offer?

Not all the existing plug-in points are the same and can be broken down into three different categories:

Slow chargers that use a traditional three-pin socket connection

Fast chargers that provide between 7 and 22 kilowatts of charging power

Rapid points with the shortest plug-in periods with 50kW or higher capacity

Teslas Supercharger network, which is only available to owners of the American brand's expensive vehicles, was omitted from the research.

North East England has the second most chargers per EVs in the region, but Scotland has more, according to research by Auto Express magazine

Auto Express said that Scotland was currently in the strongest position, mainly thanks to its investment through ChargePlace Scotland.

Around six per cent of all UK licensed plug-in cars belong to Scottish owners, however 15 per cent of all fast and rapid chargers are located north of the border.

It said the figures made 'grim reading for early adopter in Wales', which has just a tenth of the total number of the most powerful charge points compared to Scotland.

But it was the West Midlands that came out worst overall - the figures showed that there was just one public plug-in point per every 22 vehicles in the area.

Not all the connectors added are the same - some are free to use while others are pay-as-you-go or require a subscription

Chargmaster ceo David Martell said the figures were not entirely representative as they didn't include the number of charge points installed at places of work and at electric-car owners' homes

David Martell, chief executive of Chargemaster - the UK's largest public charging network provider - said the figures are not entirely representative of the current infrastructure, as it doesn't take into account the number of home charge points and plug-in installations at work places all over the country.

Councils not making the most of grants for public plug-in points Transport minister Jesse Norman confirmed that just five local authorities have applied for a government grant to pay for thousands of public plug-in points to be installed in UK streets. The On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme was set up in 2016 to allow councils to buy and install charge points for as little as 25 per cent of their total cost, but few are taking advantage of it. Norman said: 'We are in the early stages of an electric revolution in the UK transport sector, and connectivity is at its heart. 'Millions of homes in the UK do not have off-street parking, so this funding is important to help local councils ensure that all their residents can take advantage of this revolution. Advertisement

'There are well over 100,000 dedicated EV charging points in total when home and workplace units are taken into account,' Martell told Auto Express.

'By 2022, we expect there to be around 100,000 public charging points, with around 20 per cent of these being rapid chargers.'

Commenting on the Government's announcement last year that all new cars sold by 2040 would have to be part or fully electric, RAC roads policy spokesman Nicholas Lyes said: 'Right now public charging facilities are patchy, there is very little on-street charging in residential areas and, unlike filling up a car with petrol or diesel, drivers cannot recharge a vehicle in a matter of minutes.'

In November, Ubitricity confirmed it would be installing 50 new street lamp charge point conversions in London to boost the capital's infrastructure.

These 'SimpleSockets' swap the lamp bulbs for low-energy LED replacements and then tap into the unused power taken from the grid to provide an on-street charging solution for electric cars without the addition of new road furniture.

A DfT spokesperson told MailOnline: 'We are investing 1bn in ultra-low emission vehicles by 2020 and there are already more than 11,500 public chargepoints for plug-in vehicles.

'This country has one of the most comprehensive networks of rapid chargepoints in Europe and the UKs charging infrastructure continues to grow.

'Additional measures will be brought forward under the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill, which will make sure public chargepoints are convenient to access and work seamlessly right across the UK.'
An unlicensed teenager who crashed a stolen car and killed his best friend while he was high on cannabis wailed at the scene when paramedics arrived.

L-plate driver Steve Mason Mourish, 19, was under the influence of drugs and out on bail for when he sped away from police in Perth on April Fool's Day last year.

As reached speeds of up to 155km/h as he raced down Abernethy Road in inner-city Kewdale, in a 70km/h zone, running two red lights before smashing into a bus.

Steve Mason Mourish, 19, was under the influence of cannabis when he crashed into a bus

His best friend Jack Meier, who was 16, died in Royal Perth Hospital of severe crash injuries

His best friend Jack Meier, who was 16, was severely injured in the crash and later died in hospital.

Mourish pleaded guilty to manslaughter, dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm and driving without a licence during an appearance in the West Australian Supreme Court on Thursday.

His defence lawyer Simon Freitag, SC, said his client was 'traumatised' by 'the magnitude' of the tragedy and wailed at the scene.

At the crash scene, when asked by paramedics if he was hurt, replied: 'My heart hurts. I'm sorry I killed my brother', the ABC reported.

Steve Mourish's best friend Jack Meier (pictured) died at the scene of the crash last year

The barrister added that Mourish repeatedly told police he was sorry, with one officer allegedly telling him 'that's what happens when you steal a car', which he said was 'one of the coldest things' he had heard said at the scene of a crash.

The bus flipped on impact, trapping its driver, Shawn Jessep, who sustained three broken ribs and a fractured spine.

Jack was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital where he died of several serious head, abdomen and chest injuries.

Mourish's lawyer said the teenager had a difficult upbringing, describing his life of abuse and violence as a 'very desperate and sad one'.

Prosecutor David Davidson said the crash left the bus driver with 'extreme pain' and anxiety

Prosecutor David Davidson said Mourish's offending 'clearly falls into the worst category' of dangerous driving, adding he deserved a 'significant and substantial' jail term.

Reading from a victim impact, he said the crash had destroyed the lives of Jack's family and caused the bus driver 'extreme pain', anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mourish has also admitted robbing a home in December 2016, when he and another juvenile stole presents from underneath a Christmas tree.

He was on bail for this offence when he caused the fatal crash.

Justice Bruno Fiannaca described Mourish's offending as the 'most appalling driving one could imagine' and adjourned his sentencing to March 29.

He was remanded in custody.
A Swedish contraceptive app used by 125,000 British women has been reported to the government's medicines regulatory agency after dozens of unwanted pregnancies.

Natural Cycles tracks changes in body temperature over the course of a menstrual cycle to predict the days of the month when a woman is 'safe' to have unprotected sex.

Its effectiveness is now being questioned after a hospital in Sweden had dozens cases of unwanted pregnancies from Natural Cycles users in just a few months.

Questioned science: App Natural Cycles uses a woman's body temperature to predict when a woman is - or is not - fertile

Sodersjukhuset in Stockholm says 37 women using the app as a contraceptive had fallen pregnant in the last four months of 2017.

The hospital has now reported the app to the Medical Products Agency, the government agency responsible for regulation of drugs and medical devices, and is investigating further possible unwanted pregnancies.

'We have a duty to report all side effects, such as pregnancies, to the Medical Products Agency,' midwife Carina Montin told Siren news agency.

Natural Cycles was approved as a contraceptive by EU regulators last year, and following approval, the number of British users of the app soared from 5,000 in 2016 to 125,000 in 2017.

The creators of the app has long claimed it to be as effective as the contraceptive pill, which was backed up by a study released in September last year.

Unplanned: A hospital in Stockholm, Sweden says 37 women using the app as a contraceptive had fallen pregnant in the last four months of 2017, and has now reported it to the government

The findings, based on 22,785 women, showed that Natural Cycles was 93 per cent effective in preventing pregnancies.

In a statement to MailOnline, Natural Cycles said: 'No contraception is 100 per cent and unwanted pregnancies is an unfortunate risk with any contraception.

'To have 37 unwanted pregnancies out of the 668 mentioned in this study at Sodersjukhuset means that 5,5 per cent of women who stated they used Natural Cycles also had an unwanted pregnancy.

'This is in line with what we communicate as the risk of unwanted pregnancy with typical use, and which is comparable to other types of contraception.'
Fusilier Kevin Larkin, 28,(pictured while training in an undated image) was canoeing with a group of friends when he got into 'difficulty' on the waters of the River Dee

An Army reservist died from a suspected heart attack after falling into a freezing river from his canoe.

Fusilier Kevin Larkin, 28, from Rhyl, North Wales, was canoeing with a group of friends when he got into 'difficulty' on the waters.

The soldier was airlifted to hospital from the banks of the River Dee near Llangollen where he was pronounced dead.

Temperatures were as low as 2C in North Wales on Sunday when he fell into the freezing waters near the Horseshoe Falls weir.

Joiner Mr Larkin - who had served as a reservist for five years with the 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh - was not on duty at the time.

North Wales Police were said to be investigating his death.

A police spokesman said: 'Shortly after 11am on Sunday, January 7, emergency services were called to assist a canoeist who had suffered a suspected cardiac arrest on the River Dee close to the Horseshoe Falls near Llangollen.

'The canoeist was with a group of five people when he got into difficulty on the river.

The Joiner - who had served as a reservist for five years with the 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh - was not on active duty at the time he died. Pictured: An undated photo of Mr Larkin in a canoe

Temperatures were as low as 2C in North Wales on Sunday when he fell into the freezing waters near the Horseshoe Falls weir

'He was conveyed to hospital and his family have been informed.'

A spokesman for the Army said: 'We can confirm that a soldier who was serving as a Reservist with 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh has died following an incident.

'This is currently under investigation by North Wales Police and it would be inappropriate to comment further.

'Our thoughts remain with the family and friends at this difficult time.'
Pictured: Lenka Springthorpe, 43

A JP Morgan worker overtook an off-duty police officer and smashed her Audi into her great-grandmother's camper van while three times over the limit.

Lenka Springthorpe, 43, had been drinking two bottles of wine a day and copious amounts of brandy in the lead up to the crash to cope with a recent relationship break-up.

After a morning drinking session, she got into her Audi A3 and attempted to overtake an off-duty police officer on the A35 near Wareham, Dorset.

But she failed to notice a Volkswagen camper van coming in the other direction and clipped the side of it.

The van flipped over on its side off the road.

Luckily its driver Mary Flecchia, 70, escaped serious injury but she still suffers flashbacks of the terrifying crash.

Nicola Reece, prosecuting, told magistrates in Poole: 'The officer noticed the Audi veering across the central white lines.

'At one point, the vehicle crossed the double white lines in the centre of the road.

'It was his opinion that the driver of the Audi was looking for the opportunity to overtake.

'The [Audi] veered across the road into the opposite carriageway and hit the side of a van travelling in the opposite direction.'

The collision took place at about 2pm on Christmas Eve.

Describing her ordeal, Mrs Flecchia, from Bere Regis, said: 'I realised a white Audi was heading straight for me.

'I had to go off the road to avoid a serious crash and even then our wing mirrors hit each other, making a terrific bang.

Frightened: Great-grandmother Mary Flecchia, 70, escaped serious injury but she still suffers flashbacks of the terrifying crash

'My camper van ended up on its side. I keep thinking about what could have happened and I keep crying.

'The road was busy and this could have led to a massive pile-up.

'People who drink drive don't think about the consequences and the effect they are having on other people.

'I have five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren and this woman could have killed me by being three times over the limit at 2pm - it makes me so angry.'

Magistrates sentenced Springthorpe, from Poole, to a 12-month community order with 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 120 hours of unpaid work.

The product manager was also banned from the roads for 28 months and ordered to pay costs.
This is the hilarious moment a brazen seagull strolls into Greggs, picks up a packet of salt and vinegar crisps with its beak, and then sprints away to share it with his friend.

The cocky bird didn't have a care in the world as it carried out its daring theft at the branch of Greggs on Ayr High Street in Ayrshire, Scotland.

In another twist, it has emerged that the bird is a serial offender, having raided the same store three times.

The chain has previously been targeted by gulls with the bird in the footage being the most frequent offender.

Caitlin Hamilton, from Ayr, posted the video to Twitter after spotting the gull while she was on a break from work.

The 21-year-old said she had been having a bad day, but was immediately in stitches after capturing the bird snatch a packet of Walkers salt and vinegar crisps.

The seagull was pictured walking into Greggs on Ayr High Street, Ayrshire and walking over to the crisps section

The four second video has now had over 161,000 views since it was posted yesterday.

Ms Hamilton posted the video, which now has over 7,900 likes, with the caption: 'Ayr's got the hardest seagulls.'

The short clip begins with the brazen gull carefully inspecting the crisp selection inside the high street store.

The bird decides on a packet of salt and vinegar crisps, grabs it in his beak and, pausing to make sure the coast is clear, bolts out of the door.

Although it was not captured on video, another gull was waiting outside and the pair quickly devoured their ill-gotten gains.

After picking up a packet of salt and vinegar crisps from the rack, the seagull rushed out of the store

Speaking today, Ms Hamilton said: 'I was just sitting minding my own business when I looked at the door and the seagull just walked in, looked at the crisps then pinched them and ran out the store.

'He even shared them with his wee pal outside. It honestly had me in stitches, especially as I was having a bad day.'

She also added in comments: 'This is his third time doing it, you'd think they'd put the crisps up higher.'

Social media users went wild for the clip, which was shared widely across the internet.

Patrick McDonough joked: 'Did he come back for the rest of the meal deal?'

While Deyzah noted: 'Terrible choice of flavour though.'

John Spence added: 'Greggs getting robbed again.'

Chrispurs commented: 'Salt and vinegar, let's see how hard he is eating them.'

One notorious bird, dubbed Steven Seagull, has been terrorising a Greggs bakery in Arbroath, Angus, up to ten times a day.

The brazen bird swoops down on the Arbroath bakery up to ten times a day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

However, staff have vowed they will 'never call the police on him' as he is the stores 'most loyal regular'.

Another peckish seagull, in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, was captured on film stealing a packet of crisps in October 2017.

The bird successfully attempted the same heist three times last year.
Victoria's premier says a 'cowardly' driver who fled to India to escape sentencing over a fatal drunken 2008 crash should return and face justice.

Daniel Andrews will raise the case of Puneet Puneet with Indian officials when he travels to the country in January.

'The fact that he in a cowardly act, scarpered, ran away from facing the consequences of his actions, speaks volumes for his character,' Mr Andrews told reporters on Thursday.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews will seek to have Indian drunk driver Puneet Puneet (left) return to the country to face justice after he hit and killed nursing student Dean Hofstee (right), 19, in October 2008

Daniel Andrews (pictured) will raise the case of Puneet Puneet with Indian officials when he travels to the country in January

Puneet (pictured wearing a face mask) was a 19-year-old learner driver when he killed nursing student Mr Hofstee and seriously injured Clancy Coker, 20

'Everybody across Victoria would be pleased to see him sent back to do the jail time that he should do right here.'

Puneet was a 19-year-old learner driver when he hit and killed nursing student Dean Hofstee, 19, and seriously injured Clancy Coker, 20, in Melbourne in October 2008.

He was on bail and awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to culpable driving when he fled Australia in 2009 using a friend's passport and hid for more than four years until his capture.

He was on bail and awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to culpable driving when he fled Australia in 2009

Police estimate Puneet was drunk and driving at 148km/h - more than double the posted limit - when he crashed into Mr Hofstee and Mr Coker

At court appearances in Delhi, where he is fighting extradition, Puneet has pleaded for forgiveness from the families of Mr Hofstee and Mr Coker.

'He might be in a much stronger position asking for forgiveness if he fronted up here and do the time that he should,' Mr Andrews said.

Police estimate Puneet was drunk and driving at 148km/h - more than double the posted limit - when he crashed into Mr Hofstee and Mr Coker.

The Patiala District Court is deciding whether more witnesses should give evidence in Puneet's fight against extradition and the matter will resume on February 2.
A fisherman in Kenya has had both of his legs amputated after being attacked by a hippopotamus that also injured another man.

Enock Romano's legs were amputated under the knees after he suffered deep wounds when his legs were crushed by a hippo in Oserian, Kenya, over the weekend.

He was fishing with a friend on the beach of Lake Naivasha when the hippo attacked both of them.

Enock Romano's legs were amputated under the knees after he suffered deep wounds when his legs were crushed by a hippo in Oserian, Kenya, over the weekend

Naivasha Sub-County Hospital nurse Susan Kamau said Romano would receive artificial legs after he recovers

Romano was fishing with a friend on the beach of Lake Naivasha (pictured) when the hippo attacked both of them

Naivasha Sub-County Hospital nurse Susan Kamau told The Standard that Romano would receive artificial legs after he has recovered from his injuries.

'It was impossible to treat them. The victim had to be rushed to theatre as his legs were literally hanging from the skin. They had to be amputated as we did not have any other option,' she said.

The second man who was attacked had deep thigh injuries, but is in stable condition and will be discharged soon.

The weekend hippo attack comes amid concerns of rising cases of human-wildlife conflicts in the region.

The second man who was attacked had deep thigh injuries, but is in stable condition at the hospital

Naivasha Sub-County Hospital nurse Susan Kamau said the man with thigh injuries would be discharged soon

On the same day that Romano and his friend (pictured with his thigh wrapped in gauze) were injured, a man was killed in a hippo attack in nearby Kasarani

On the same day that Romano and his friend were injured, a man was killed in a hippo attack in nearby Kasarani.

Lake Naivasha is home to several animal sanctuaries and two national parks, and wild animals have been straying out of their natural habitats in search of water during the drought.

David Kilo, chairman Lake Naivasha boat owners association, blamed human encroachment into animal grazing areas.

'We have witnessed cases of farmers fencing riparian land locking the animals in the water. The animals attack people as they have to seek new routes,' he told The Star.

The weekend hippo attack comes amid concerns of rising cases of human-wildlife conflicts in the region. Pictured above, Roman's legs
Brianna Dee Knox, 28, was driving drunk with her two-year-old son in the car when she crashed into several vehicles on Interstate 4 in Florida on Tuesday

A 28-year-old woman was driving drunk with her two-year-old son in the car when she crashed into several vehicles on Interstate 4 in Florida on Tuesday.

Brianna Dee Knox crashed into four cars near Tampa on Tuesday afternoon, and then got out of her vehicle and started acting 'erratically and disturbed', police said.

She was driving recklessly and crashed her red 2001 Honda then broke down under an overpass around 5pm.

She faces charges of DUI, child neglect, leaving the scene of a crash and battery on a law enforcement officer.

The arrest report said Knox took the young boy from the car and let him wander toward traffic while she urinated on the side of the road.

Knox kicked one of the troopers in the chest while being handcuffed

She is now in Hillsborough County Jail being held on $15,000 bail. An attorney isn't listed on jail records.

A child protection officer with the Hillsborough Sheriffs Office took the young boy and the office is launching an investigation.
This is the moment a teenage MS-13 gangster admitted torturing and murdering a 15-year-old girl who she believed had killed her boyfriend.

Venus Romero Iraheta, 18, pleaded guilty to the murder in Fairfax County, Virginia on Monday, one year after brutally stabbing Damaris Reyes Rivas 13 times.

Now a video of her interrogation by police in February last year has been revealed, showing the gang member explaining why she killed Reyes Rivas after telling her: 'remember me until the day we see each other in hell.'

Fellow MS-13 gangsters recorded Rivas being tortured, having her tattoo cut off and stabbed to death by Iraheta, and then sent it to gang leaders in El Salvador.

It is another gruesome attack by the gang that President Trump has vowed to crack down on after a crime wave across the nation - notably in Long Island, Texas and Virginia.

Venus Romero Iraheta, 18, pleaded guilty to the murder in Fairfax County on Monday, one year after brutally stabbing Damaris Reyes Rivas 13 times. Pictured: Iraheta pointing to her neck to show cops where she stabbed her victim

A video of her interrogation by police in February last year has been revealed, showing the MS-13 gang member explaining why she killed Reyes Rivas

Iraheta (left) said she murdered Reyes Rivas (right) to avenge the death of her boyfriend, Christian Sosa Rivas, who she claimed Reyes Rivas had lured to his death

In the shocking footage first seen by Fox5, Iraheta, then 17, explains how she took Reyes Rivas to a wooded area at Lake Accotink Park with nine other people before torturing and murdering her.

She said she killed the girl to avenge the murder of her boyfriend, Christian Sosa Rivas. She blamed Reyes Rivas for luring Sosa Rivas, also an MS-13 member, to his death.

She told interrogators she said to the girl: 'Don't forget my name. And I told her my full name and I told her my nickname.

'And I told it to her and I told her to never forget who I was. I told her someday we're going to see each other again.'

When she is asked what she did next, she replies in English: 'I killed her.'

She then explains that she stabbed her 'something like' thirteen times with a knife.

In the interrogation video, Iraheta tells cops in Spanish that she told Reyes Rivas (pictured) she would 'remember me until the day we see each other in hell'

Pointing to her stomach, she said she stabbed Reyes Rivas '12 [times] here' before pointing to her neck and adding: 'The thirteenth was here.'

Iraheta told interrogators she had asked Reyes Rivas if she 'had something to do with' her boyfriend.

When she said yes, Iraheta replied: 'I'm not going to forgive you.'

She went on: 'I told her, 'I warned you not to mess with me. I told you not to mess with Christian. I told you to stay away from him or you would see what would happen. You don't play with me.'

'So I hit her. I kept hitting her. Until they stopped me.'

The disgusting murder was also recorded on video with a cellphone so it could be sent to gang leaders in El Salvador as a way of gaining promotion.

Iraheta told cops she cut off a tattoo on Reyes Rivas's hand that Sosa Rivas had given her before the murder.

But when she is asked if the murder bothers her, she simply shakes her head.

Fairfax County's attorney, Ray Morrogh, said on Monday that Iraheta was a 'prodigy at violence', NBC Washington reported.

Iraheta could get a maximum term of life in jail plus twenty years when she is sentenced on May 25.

MS-13 GANGSTER VENUS IRAHETA'S CONFESSION TO KILLING DAMARIS RIVAS Asked what she said to her victim, Iraheta told interrogators: 'You're going to remember me until the day we see each other in hell. Don't forget my name. And I told her my full name and I told her my nickname. And I told it to her and I told her to never forget who I was. I told her someday we were going to see each other again.' Interrogator: 'And then what did you do?' Iraheta: 'I killed her.' Interrogator: 'How did you kill her?' Iraheta: 'With a knife.' Interrogator: 'What did you do with the knife?' Iraheta: 'I don't remember how many times I stabbed her in the stomach.' Interrogator: 'Was it a lot?' Iraheta: 'Thirteen. Something like that.' Interrogator: 'Why 13?' Iraheta: 'I don't remember. No, I think it was 12 here [pointing to stomach] and the thirteenth was in here [pointing to neck].' Iraheta: 'I asked her if at any time she had something to do with Christian. She said yes. I said I'm not going to forgive you [] I told her, 'I warned you not to mess with me. I told you not to mess with Christian. I told you to stay away from him or you would see what would happen. You don't play with me.' So I hit her. I kept hitting her. Until they stopped me.' Iraheta: 'I left the knife in her neck. Interrogator: 'Who took it out?' Iraheta: 'I went back and took it out, and gave it to someone else.' Interrogator: 'Does [the killing] bother you?' Iraheta: [Shakes head] Interrogator: 'Why doesn't it bother you?' Iraheta: 'I don't know.'



So far, seven of the 10 people charged in connection with the murder have either been convicted or have pleaded guilty.

They will be sentenced on May 5.

MS-13, short for Mara Salvatrucha, consists chiefly of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Central America.

The gang is notorious for its links to cartels and organized crime, and for its ability to access high-powered weapons.

Iraheta lured Damaris to a wooded area near this park. Gruesome cell phone videos show the gang torturing the girl

The disgusting murder was also recorded on video with a cellphone so it could be sent to gang leaders in El Salvador as a way of gaining promotion. Left: Iraheta. Right: Reyes Rivas

TWO MS-13 MEMBERS CHARGED WITH RAPING AND KIDNAPPING TEENAGE GIRLS LAST YEAR Two members of MS-13 based in Houston were charged last year on suspicion of killing a teenager and kidnapping another in 2017. Gang leader Miguel Angel Alvarez-Flores, 22, who also goes by 'Diabolico,' and 18-year-old Diego Alexan Hernandez-Rivera, who had a Satanic shrine in their Houston apartment, laughed, smiled and waved in court as they faced charges of aggravated kidnapping and murder. Prosecutors said the two kidnapped a 14-year-old girl after she left school around February 2, holding her in an apartment where she was raped by a gang member. Miguel Alvarez-Flores (right) smiles and waves at news cameras in Houston court on Wednesday, as the gang leader known as 'Diabolico' and his partner 18-year-old Diego Hernandez-Rivera (left) faced charges of aggravated kidnapping and murder Another girl kept at the apartment, named only as Genesis, was found shot dead in the head and chest on February 16, and has not been identified. Authorities released the facial reconstruction image of one of the pair's alleged victims in a bid to identify her. The girl - aged between 15 and 25 - was found dead on the morning of February 16. She was also shot in the neck and torso. Police said Rivera had confessed to leading the woman to a remote area and shooting her. Advertisement

Because of civil wars and guerrilla insurgencies in Central America, many of the gang's founding members had paramilitary experience, making them more deadly than other criminal groups.

Its primary weapons, however, are baseball bats and machetes.

The Department of Justice classifies MS-13 as a 'transnational criminal organization' engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling, prostitution, murder and extortion.

President Donald Trump has referred to MS-13 as 'bad hombres.'

Because many MS-13 members are under the age of 18, the U.S. is unable to lawfully return them to their home countries.

The gang has a strong presence in Southern California, Washington and Northern Virginia, all areas with substantial Salvadoran populations.

There are at least 30,000 members in a range of countries, including at least 10,000 in the United States.

Its official motto is 'Kill, Rape, Control.'

Among the most high-profile killings attributed to MS-13 in Virginia was the 2003 slaying of a pregnant teenager who had become a police informant.

The Department of Justice classifies MS-13 as a 'transnational criminal organization' engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling, prostitution, murder and extortion. Pictured: Members of the gang in a San Salvador prison last year

Brenda Paz, 17, was stabbed to death and her body was left along the banks of the Shenandoah River.

Thirteen other MS-13 members, ten of whom are illegal immigrants, were arrested in connection to seven slayings on New York's Long Island in 2017.

Trump delivered his most explicit verdict on the gang in August last year, saying during a speech in New York that 'they kidnap, they extort, they rape and they rob. They stomp on their victims. They beat them with clubs, they slash them with machetes, and they stab them with knives.'

'They have transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into bloodstained killing fields. They're animals.'


An Italian woman has been banned from posting images of her teenage son on social media, and threatened with a 10,000 euro fine if she defies it.

The 16-year-old had made a court complaint about his mother's social media habits, which included posting pictures of him on Facebook without his consent.

A Rome family court dealing with the mother's divorce from the teen's father, ruled in the 16-year-old's favour.

Facebook fine: The Italian woman has been banned from posting about her son on Facebook, and must remove all old images and posts about him - or face a 10,000 euro fine

The teenager had grown tired of his mother's oversharing online and the issue was brought up during divorce proceedings.

The court ruled that as per Italian copyright law, the subject of the photographs owns the copyright and the mother was therefore in breach.

The unnamed woman was told she faces a 10,000 euro (8,875) fine unless she stops publishing information about her son online.

Teen angst: The 16-year-old had grown tired of his mother sharing information and photos of him on social media without his consent (stock image)

She must also remove any images, posts and videos of the teenager from her social media accounts, Euronews reports.

The website quoted lawyer Giuseppe Croari as saying that the mother had also effectively violated Facebooks terms and conditions by posting images to which she did not have the copyright.

Facebook's Terms of Service states that users agree to 'not post content or take any action on Facebook that infringes or violates someone else's rights or otherwise violates the law.'
A nine-year-old boy in east China was found dead after being beaten by his mother because he had lost her mobile phone.

The boy, whose nickname was Ming Ming, was strapped to a chair with bandages and violently beaten with a wooden rod from 6pm to 11pm on January 5, according to local reports.

Paramedics reportedly found serious wounds all over his body, including his head and face. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

CCTV footage shows Ming Ming taking a lift as he left home with his mother's phone in China

He can be seen using his mother's phone in the lift but the boy lost the handset shortly after

Chinese news site The Paper has posted surveillance camera footage from the neighbourhood in Huang Qiao district of Taizhou, where the boy lived with his mother.

Footage shows Ming Ming looking at a mobile phone when he took the lift down from his home on January 5.

At around 3pm, Ming Ming can be seen searching for the phone in a park. An hour later, he went to the security office and asked for help.

He is pictured looking for the missing phone in a park after losing it in the snow by accident

Mr Qian, the on-duty security guard, told a reporter: 'Ming Ming said he lost his phone when he was playing the snow. The phone has no SIM card, so it's not easy to find it if it's covered by snow.'

According to Jiangsu News, Ming Ming's mother, Chen, got angry after knowing he had lost her phone.

Chen strapped her son onto a chair by bandages and beat him with a wooden pole from 6pm to 11pm.

She argued that she did not beat him five hours consecutively but about five times throughout the time.

She only gave Ming Ming very few water but no food.

Chen put him to bedroom to sleep and around 5am next morning, she found Ming Ming lying on the floor.

The nine-year-old is beaten by his mother for five hours and found dead the next morning

Paramedics arrived and pronounced Ming Ming dead at the scene.

The medics found a number of wounds on his body including, head, face, legs and bottom.

Ming Ming's hands were swollen and full of purple-blue bruise marks.

Neighbours found Chen's phone on January 8 when the snow started to melt.

Yangtze Evening Post reported that Chen appeared to be unstable after being arrested by the police on January 11.

She told the police that her husband was not around at home and has not been sending money to home.
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A new book sheds light on the story of an RAF pioneer who went from humble beginnings on a sheep farm to become one of the most respected test pilots in the British aviation industry.

Duncan Menzies flew with the RAF, the Aeroplane and Armament Evaluation Establishment, and Fairey Aviation in a career spanning three decades.

He saw the aviation world develop from modest and basic open cockpits and few rules to a time when the jet age was well underway.

The book reveals photographs of Menzies sitting confidently in an aircraft about to take his first solo flight on February 9, 1928 as well as encounters with the future King Edward VIII.

Menzies set a speed record in Africa in the 1930s, survived an engine failure in a snowstorm and the terrifying breakup of a Fairey Fulmar in a terminal velocity dive - and helped developed the aircraft that would help win the Second World War.

When the youthful Menzies first took the controls of an aircraft, it was in a wooden-framed biplane built during the First World War. Pictured, Pilot Officer Duncan Menzies about to make his first solo flight on 9 February 1928. He can be seen in the cockpit, wearing a fur-lined flying helmet

The Prince of Wales - the future Edward VIII - climbing out of an RAF biplane upon his return to England. The Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) made his first flight in 1916. The Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) made his first flight in 1916. He resumed his flying in the 1920s and took delivery of Gipsy Moth G-AALG In 1929

Menzies with a Fairey Long Range Monoplane K1991 - a machine which secured a long distance record in a flight in 1933. Test flying was an essential activity which began during the First World War, between July 28, 1914, to November 11, 1918, at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in the UK

An encounter between Menzies and the Lord Mayor of Manchester in June 1938, during an unofficial opening of Manchester Ringway Airport

Test flying was an essential activity which began during the First World War, between July 28, 1914, to November 11, 1918, at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in the UK.

A preliminary flight was conducted at the Central Flying School. Throughout the 1920s, test flying was advanced by the RAE in the UK, and by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the US.

The biography also charts Menzies career flying the frontier in Egypt and Sudan, as well as encounters with adventurers Tom Campbell Black and Denys Finch Hatton, to his crucial role as a test pilot, developing the aircraft that would help win the Second World War.

Other photos show an encounter between Menzies and the Lord Mayor of Manchester in June 1938, during an unofficial opening of Manchester Ringway Airport and another shows the horrific aftermath of pilots flying in desert areas in Sudan, 1929, causing a dust storm.

Another picture shows the Prince of Wales - later King Edward VIII - climbing out of an RAF biplane that was returning to England.

The incredible images feature in the biography of Duncan Menzies, Flying to the Edge, by historian and writer Matthew Willis.

Menzies flying Old 89 above the desert near Helwan in 1929. He would become, over the course of a three-decade career, one of the most respected test pilots in the British aviation industry, making his mark during a period of dramatic change

The epic training flight from Egypt to Iraq, which Menzies led circa 1932. Throughout the 1920s, test flying was advanced by the RAE in the UK, and by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the US

Menzies' skill, and a measure of luck, brought him safely through an engine failure in a snowstorm, an aircraft breaking up around him in a high-speed dive and the constant dangers of testing new aircraft on a daily basis. He became, over the course of a three-decade career, one of the most respected test pilots in the British aviation industry, making his mark during a period of dramatic change

Menzies and instructor Flight Lt Greenslade before his second flight in February 1928. 'Menzies' first flight in the venerable Avro 504 was a 30-minute flight in aircraft F8709 on 30 January with instructor Flight Lieutenant Greenslade, which covered basic use of the controls, straight flying and gentle turns

Menzies - who became adept at aerobatics - with sergeants and airmen pose in Egypt in 1930. He flew with the RAF in the Middle East, the Aeroplane and Armament Evaluation Establishment, and finally Fairey Aviation in a career that lasted from the late 1920s to the 1950s

The test-flying team at Fairey's northern operation in 1944 - Menzie with his notepad strapped to his thigh for note-taking

Menzies (in white) and fellow pilots and airmen of No. 47 (B) Squadron with one of the unit's Fairey IIIF Mk IV aircraft

He said: 'If Menzies was nervous about his first solo, there is no evidence of it. A photograph survives that marks the occasion, showing Menzies in the cockpit, wearing a fur-lined flying helmet. He is looking confident, if unsmiling.

'Duncan Menzies would become, over the course of a three-decade career, one of the most respected test pilots in the British aviation industry, making his mark during a period of dramatic change.

'When the youthful Menzies first took the controls of an aircraft, it was in a wooden-framed biplane built during the First World War. When he retired from working in aviation, the jet age was well underway.

'In that time his skill, and a measure of luck, brought him safely through an engine failure in a snowstorm, an aircraft breaking up around him in a high-speed dive and the constant dangers of testing new aircraft on a daily basis.'

Duncan Menzies and Richard Sydney Ubee, a fellow student pilot, on leave in Cyprus in 1928

One of the hazards of flying in desert areas was the likelihood of dust storms like this one in Sudan around 1929

Menzies was responsible for liaison with the Royal Canadian Navy. He is seen here enjoying a cocktail party

Labelled 'a pupil's effort' in Menzies's photo album, this shows the remains of Avro 504N J8680 after a crash at Abu Sueir

The personnel of No. 45 (B) Squadron, RAF Helwan, in 1929, with one of the squadron's DH.9A aircraft

The incredible images feature in the biography of Duncan Menzies, Flying to the Edge, by historian and writer Matthew Willis

'There were two aspects of the RAF that helped ensure its survival in the early 1920s, and which had a direct impact on Duncan Menzies' career with the service,' Matthew said.

'Those were the development of the RAF into a force for colonial policing, and the introduction of the Short Service Commission.

'Menzies' first flight in the venerable Avro 504 was a 30-minute flight in aircraft F8709 on 30 January with instructor Flight Lieutenant Greenslade, which covered basic use of the controls, straight flying and gentle turns.

'Duncan was making one or two flights a day by now, usually of around a half-hour's duration first thing in the morning.'

Flying to the Edge by Matthew Willis is published by Amberley Publishing, available here
Angela Merkel has admitted there are 'large obstacles' to overcome as she faces a race against time to agree a coalition deal tonight - and avoid a political crisis for Germany.

The German Chancellor, who is battling to form a new government to salvage her political future, warned it would be a 'tough day' of talks, which were expected to stretch well into the night.

Heading in to final-day negotiations, Mrs Merkel said in Berlin that 'large obstacles in the path' remained but that she intended to push for new compromises.

September's inconclusive elections left Merkel without a majority and struggling to find partners to govern Europe's biggest economy.

Angela Merkel (pictured in Berlin today) has warned of 'big obstacles' to surmount as she embarks on a last-ditch round of negotiations to form a new coalition

The German Chancellor (pictured today), battling to form a new government to salvage her political future, warned it would be a 'tough day' of talks, which were expected to stretch well into the night

Merkel said her conservative Christian Democrats would 'work constructively to find the necessary compromises but we are also aware that we need to execute the right policies for our country'.

After her earlier attempt at forging a coalition with two smaller parties collapsed, she is now pinning her hopes on renewing an alliance with the Social Democrats (SPD).

SPD leader Martin Schulz also spoke of 'big obstacles' as he arrived for the final day of preliminary talks on whether there is enough common ground to move on to formal coalition negotiations.

He said his party wanted to ensure that the new government committed 'above all to working toward renewal of the European Union'.

However, he sounded a more upbeat note than Merkel, saying there was 'broad agreement on the fundamentals of European policy'.

The chancellor badly needs the talks to succeed, as do Schulz and the leader of her Bavarian allies, Horst Seehofer, said political analyst Karl-Rudolf Korte of Duisburg-Essen University.

She said her conservative Christian Democrats would 'work constructively to find the necessary compromises but we are also aware that we need to execute the right policies for our country'

September's inconclusive elections left Merkel without a majority and struggling to find partners to govern Europe's biggest economy

'The negotiations are not just about a coalition, but also their careers. It would be the end for all three if this coalition does not come about,' he told public broadcaster ZDF.

Late on Thursday the parties are due to declare if they will push on with efforts to forge a new government by around March or April.

Along the way, negotiators need to compromise on policy differences - the SPD is seeking welfare gains while the conservatives are pushing for tax cuts as Germany's public coffers bulge.

As the clock ticks into a fourth month of political paralysis in Germany, Berlin's biggest EU partner France waded in, with its Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Wednesday echoing the SPD's demand for greater investments from Berlin.

Beyond fiscal and spending issues, the parties are struggling to fend off the encroaching far-right, which has seized on anger over the influx of refugees and netted a record showing at the polls in September.

To halt a haemorrhage to the far-right, Merkel's alliance wants a tougher stance on immigration, something that is hard to sell to the centre-left SPD.

Even if negotiators find a deal, it can still be torpedoed when SPD delegates and later rank-and-file members get to vote on whether the traditional labour party should once again govern in Merkel's shadow.

After her earlier attempt at forging a coalition with two smaller parties collapsed, she is now pinning her hopes on renewing an alliance with the Social Democrats (SPD)

The chancellor badly needs the talks to succeed, as do Schulz and the leader of her Bavarian allies, Horst Seehofer, said political analyst Karl-Rudolf Korte of Duisburg-Essen University

SPD vice chairman Ralf Stegner underlined the great uncertainty about a possible deal, tweeting that 'scepticism was, is and remains justified'.

The SPD's youth wing chief Kevin Kuehnert is also energetically running a resistance campaign against any agreement with the conservatives.

'I am very optimistic for the party congress: we can still stop the grand coalition,' Kuehnert told Spiegel weekly.

The SPD's youth movement leader believes that governing for another four years under Merkel would deal a death blow to the Social Democrats, who were slapped with a historic low score in September's elections.

Instead, Kuehnert favours the option of a minority government led by Merkel, even though her conservatives have rejected that option as too unstable.

Latest opinion polls suggest that a potential new grand coalition enjoys little favour with Germans.

A survey published by Focus magazine found that 34 percent of Germans prefer new elections, while only 30 percent favoured a return of the conservative-SPD alliance.

Another poll published by public broadcaster ARD found that only 45 percent of Germans view a new grand coalition positively, while 52 percent considered it a bad option.

And a third survey, for business paper Handelsblatt, showed that a majority - 56 percent - believed Merkel would not see out her four-year term.
Dominic Chappell (pictured today) was put on trial by the Pensions Regulator over the collapse of BHS

The former owner of BHS was today found guilty of failing to provide vital documents to the pensions watchdog after he bought the chain from Sir Philip Green.

Dominic Chappell, 51, now faces a huge fine after he bought the high street chain from the billionaire for just 1 in March 2015.

But just days later The Pension Regulator demanded hundreds of documents in relation to the 571million pension blackhole at BHS.

The 88-year-old company crashed just 13 months later with the loss of around 11,000 jobs and 164 stores.

The Regulator, which has a responsibility to safeguard pensions, moved to protect the pensions of 19,000 members.

It agreed a deal with Sir Philip Green that he should pay 363million towards the pension deficit.

The Regulator charged Chappell with neglecting or refusing to respond to three Section 72 notices demanding he hand over vital documents and information to them relating to the purchase of the company.

In the first ever prosecution of its kind under these charges Chappell was hauled before the courts to answer the allegations.

He claimed he did 'everything and more' to help The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and provide information to investigators after the firm collapsed into administration.

But he was found to have had no reasonable excuse for not providing information requested by TPR, with the prosecution suggesting he had been 'making up the defence as he goes along'.

And Chappell, who confirmed ahead of the verdict that he would appeal any conviction, was today found guilty of three charges under the Pensions Act 2004.

Speaking outside court Chappell said his legal team would be lodging an immediate appeal against the verdict

Chappell bought the high street chain from Sir Philip Green for just 1 back in 2015

He face an unlimited fine for failing to comply with the notices.

Speaking outside court Chappell said his legal team would be lodging an immediate appeal against the verdict.

He said: 'We feel this case has not been treated fairly. We will look deeply at this.'

Nicola Parish of the Regulator said: 'Dominic Chappell failed to provide us with information we had requested in connection with our investigation into the sale and ultimate collapse of BHS, despite numerous requests.

'Anyone who fails to cooperate with our information notices risks getting a criminal record. Our separate anti-avoidance action against Dominic Chappell continues.'

Michael Levy, defending, told Brighton Magistrates Court that Chappell was a 'political scapegoat' for the failure of high street chain.

He claimed Chappell had been 'set up to fail' and the case against him was a 'sham' and a 'show trial'.

The court heard that shortly before Chappell bought the company staff had been seen putting 'bin bags' of documents into an 'industrial-sized' shredder located in the back of the BHS HQ in London.

Alex Stein, prosecuting, said the Regulator had used a 'stick and carrot' approach to try to get Chappell to comply with the notices but their actions were 'always reasonable' under the Parliamentary statute.

He said: 'This defendant has refused to provide, to the best of his abilities, responses to the Section 72s.

Chappell today said this case has not been 'treated fairly' and added that his legal team will be launching an appeal

The clothing chain went into administration in 2016 with a 571 million pension deficit

'When you look at all of the evidence as a whole you get a clear picture of obfuscation on behalf of the defendant.'

After six and a half hours of deliberation District Judge William Ashworth said some of the evidence given by Chappell was 'not credible' with some of his explanations 'making no sense.'

He said: 'All the requests made were valid and reasonable and all the time frames to fulfil these requests were also reasonable'.

The judge said some of the evidence was 'incomprehensible' and his excuses fo not providing the information was 'unreliable'.

The case is not the end of the line for Chappell as the Regulator is still seeking a huge amount of money to help plug BHS pension deficit.

It is understood to be seeking more than 10million from Chappell in relation to the pension deficit.

Chappell of Blandford Forum, Dorset, was adjourned and he will be sentenced at a later date. Chappell said he would appeal the conviction at a later date.
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Black-and-white photographs showing victory parades through the streets of London to mark the end of World War One have reemerged, 100 years since the horrific conflict came to an end.

Images taken during the course of several marches between the end of the war in 1918 and July 1919 show the streets of London filled with thousands of adoring spectators as British regiments parade past Buckingham Palace.

Soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Britain and South Africa also took part in the victory parade through the streets of the capital.

A British naval contingent shouldering arms marches in a parade in Ludgate Circus in 1918. The streets of London looks barely recognisable as thousands of people line the streets to commend soldier's war efforts

Another snapshot of armed forces band and artillery soldiers in a parade, probably the Lord Mayor's Procession, in Ludgate Circus

Marches were organised for returning troops following the armistice on November 11, 1918. Among those parades included on May 1919 and July of the same year. The London Victory Parade, Anzac Day and the inspection of dominion troops by the king were all included in this.

In other snapshots, members of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps march through Ludgate Circus, while others show some of the military equipment including guns and airplanes captured from the Germans being lauded through the streets for crowds of onlookers to observe.

Britain's dominions around the world played a vital role in the allies' victory in World War One, with troops from more than 80 countries sent to battlefields across the globe.

A general view looking down on a huge crowd of people filling Ludgate Circus in London. The dome of St Pauls appears prominently in the background. A large sign on the side of Ludgate Hill railway bridge reads To-day Buy War Bonds, 1918

Three tanks roll through the streets in Ludgate Circus, London, following the end of World War One. Officers and police officers help to keep order in the crowds

Captured German military equipment, including tanks and aircrafts, were paraded to civilians through Ludgate Circus in London. An Albatross plane leads the floats with other plane following. This part of the parade also includes aircraft bombs and armaments and two observation kite balloons, 1918

The Australian Imperial Forces Infantry Band taking the salute from officers standing on a dais at a parade in London in 1919 with Edward, Prince of Wales, saluting. Possibly at the Dominion troops victory march on 3 May 1919

Among those who helped to defeat the Germans included 400,000 troops from Australia, 60,000 of whom were killed, 100,000 from New Zealand, which constituted approximately 10 per cent of the country's entire population, and a staggering one and a half million men from India. Canada also contributed over 600,000 troops to the conflict, around 66,000 of whom were killed in action.

The Battle of the Somme, Galipoli and the battle of Vimy Ridge were some of the bloodiest conflicts which Dominion troops fought valiantly in.

They were offered revered as some of the bravest men in battle, with troops from India alone receiving 13,000 medals for valour and bravery, including 12 Victoria Crosses.

Historian Santanu Das, who has written about the dominion's role in World War one, said: 'While in popular memory, the perception of the First World War remains narrowly confined to the Western Front, First World War fighting took place in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, with brief excursions into Central Asia and the Far East.

'The litany of the names of different theatres of battle often becomes the marker for the 'world' nature of the First World War. The colonial homefront - the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and children in villages across Asia and Africa who lost their husbands, brothers or fathers, and faced different kinds of hardships - remains one of the most silent and under-researched areas in First World War history.'

Crowd scene at a military march past in London after World War I. Mainly New Zealand soldiers are sitting on a raised platform high above the ground. They are holding streamers. Beneath are civilians on the pavement including children. An American flag flies from a balcony of a building with the letters ARMO, 1919

Rear view of the battalion of New Zealand troops marching past the gates of Buckingham Palace in London after World War I (probably Dominion troops victory march). In the foreground a British army band plays. At the top left is a bronze statue of a female figure holding a scythe and standing by a lion, May 1919

The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps marching in a parade in Ludgate Circus, London, at the end of World War One. A 'driver, caution, slowly' sign is also erected on the street

A close up view of New Zealand Expeditionary Force troops marching past Buckingham Palace after World War I. King George and Queen Mary are opposite on the reviewing dais. Many other dignitaries stand or are seated nearby, 1919

Horse teams from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force tow captured German guns in a parade in Ludgate Circus, London, at the end of World War I. A sign on the gun carriages reads '77 mm Guns Captured by New Zealand Troops'

The Women's Royal Air Force at a parade, probably the Lord Mayor's Procession, in Ludgate Circus, London, at the end of World War I. The WRAFs have two floats. The first carrying several personnel has a sign 'The Work of the Women's Air Force'. Another sideways sign reads 'Dopers', Sailmakers, Carpenters'. The second float signed WRAF carries a plane, 1918

Australian troops approaching the dais at a military march past in London after World War I, probably the Dominion troops victory parade. The Prince of Wales and Sir Thomas MacKenzie are among the dignitaries, 1919

A battalion of New Zealand troops marches past the gates of Buckingham Palace, London, after World War I. The troops, although on foot, represent mounted units as they wear bandoliers, or pocketed belts across their chests. The crowd in the foreground comprises soldiers of various countries, 1919
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Ellen DeGeneres held back tears as she told her talk show audience how she and her wife were forced to flee their home ahead of the California mudslides that have claimed 17 lives.

Ellen revealed she and her wife Portia de Rossi were advised to leave their $40million Montecito estate, which appears to have escaped largely unscathed from the devastating floods.

Eight people are still missing, 100 homes have been destroyed and another 300 damaged after heavy rains on hills stripped of vegetation by the Thomas wildfire sent tons of soil and rocks barreling towards homes.

On Thursday, DeGeneres FaceTimed Oprah Winfrey, who remains at her $50million estate and cannot leave, and told how she and her wife fled on Monday night after being given an evacuation order.

'Usually, we're grateful for rain, especially in California, but not after the largest fire in the history of California.

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Ellen DeGeneres FaceTimed Oprah on her show on Thursday to discuss the devastation in Montecito where both talk show hosts have multi-million dollar homes. Oprah is still there and is now allowed to leave but DeGeneres fled on Monday night with her wife Portia De Rossi and their dogs

Ellen DeGeneres shared this image of her street in Montecito which was hit by mudslides before recounting how she and her wife were forced to flee their home

Aerial shots of the $40million property she shares with wife Portia de Rossi shows it has largely escaped damage

'So again, we evacuated because they feared mudslides. After everything we've been through, I think a lot of people thought they were just being overly cautious but exactly what they feared happened.

'The rain triggered massive mudslides. Massive.'

DeGeneres' home was in a mandatory evacuation zone. She and her wife fled on Monday night with their dogs.

Winfrey's home is in a voluntary evacuation zone. She remained there on the advice of firefighters who said she would be safe because it was on higher ground.

On Thursday, Winfrey told DeGeneres how she woke up at 3.40am on Tuesday, not long after returning from the Golden Globes, to see a fire on the hillside which was caused by a gas explosion.

At first, she said, she was unaware of the mudslides.

'The dogs were were barking, I wake up and I can't believe that the sky seems like it's on fire. It's 3.40 in the morning, I say, "Stedman, oh my God. Something's going on."

'We get up and he says,"Well, we can't do anything about that."

'I run to the front and I see it is actually, the mountain looks like it's on fire. I didn't know it at the time that there was some gas fire, something exploded so that explained what was going on and at the same time I didn't know that the mudslides were occurring.'

Once day broke, she went outside 'in her boots' and that is when she realized how grave the devastation was.

'The next day, everyone was saying to me how is your property? I'm looking out the front window and I'm like 'everythinG's fine, everything's fine. It wasn't until I put my boots on and went outside walking that I realized everything wasn't indeed fine.

'It wasn't fine at all.'

Ellen watched as Oprah, her neighbor, showed her and her studio audience the damage in the area where she is now stuck

Where fences and a walls once stood is now a sea of mud, the talk show host said. This was taken on ground near Oprah's estate which was also largely unharmed

Oprah has been allowed to remain in her home but she has no running water or gas, she said.

'I feel safe. I am blessed and I'm going to do whatever I can for the rest of the community. We've lost so many lives and it's such a tiny little community. Nobody would have expected, after we survived the fire and the rain came, we would have expected that we would have had this devastation with the mudslides and so soon,' she said.

Aerial images have captured the devastation caused to the neighborhood where the couple live alongside neighbors including Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth Paltrow.

She showed her audience a picture of the street in front of her home, showed fallen trees covered with mud.

On Twitter, she wrote alongside the image: 'I don't know anything about our house yet.

'I'm heartbroken for the community of Montecito. I'm devastated for the families who lost loved ones. I'm grateful to all the rescue workers. Please send love to Montecito.'

And as she continued to share her love for the town she considers home, she became emotional.

'If you've never been there, Montecito is a small town. It's less than 10,000 people, it has two public schools, family-owned businesses. It's a tight-knit community so everyone kind of knows everyone.

'I work in LA, but I consider Montecito my home.'

She added: 'It's not just a wealthy community, it's filled with a lot of different types of people from all backgrounds.

'And there are families missing, there are people who are missing family members.

'They're finding people and bodies and I mean, you hear the word mudslide and you have no idea the impact that it has, but after the largest fire in California history, it's catastrophic. It is beyond recognisable.'

The death toll from Tuesday's pre-dawn flash flood rose to 17 on Wednesday. An aerial shot shows the devastation to Montecito

Oprah was allowed to remain at her mansion (pictured above) in Montecito because it is located on a knoll, she said

Talent agent Scooter Braun, who represents the stars such as Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, has also been affected by the mudslides

Oprah shared a video to her Instagram to let her followers know she was safe and showed the damage to her property

Mudslides in Southern California on Tuesday destroyed over a 100 houses, swept cars to the beach and left at least 17 people dead

Talent agent Scooter Braun, who represents the stars such as Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, has also been affected by the mudslides. Braun, who also owns labels School Boy Records and Raymond-Braun Media Group, shared a photo of the rivers of mud and devastation in his neighborhood on Instagram today.

He revealed he still doesn't know what state his property is in, but said the situation in Montecito is 'heartbreaking.'

'4 years ago my wife and I bought our dream home in montecito and hoped to get married there,' he wrote. 'We spent over 2 years slowly restoring our home to what is now our favorite place on earth.

'To see what it is going through now is heartbreaking. We had just made it through the largest fire in California history and now this.

'We still dont know what has become of our home but honestly it is the last thing on our mind. Lives have been destroyed. Family members have been lost. I dont know what we can do yet but where we can help we will. In the meantime our prayers are with all those in Santa Barbara.'

Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for 7,000 people living above Montecito, while voluntary evacuations were ordered for 23,000 others further down where officials did not expect the mudslides to reach.

Hundreds of thousands of email warnings and social media posts were also put out, but up to 90 per cent of people remained in place in the belief that authorities were being over-cautious following the wildfires.

On Thursday, hundreds of searchers continued the grueling work of hunting for survivors and digging up bodies in the sea of mud and wreckage left by flash flooding.

There was panic when early in the morning, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department said 48 people were missing.

They later corrected the mistake to say only eight were still unaccounted for and blamed the mistake on a 'clerical error'.

Damage from mud, boulders, and debris destroyed homes that lined Montecito Creek near East Valley Road in Montecito

Rescue crews searched grimy debris and ruins for the missing after the mudslides

The death toll from Tuesday's pre-dawn flash flood rose to 17 on Wednesday as more bodies were found. Another eight were still reported missing.

Muck-spattered searchers from around the state slogged through knee-deep ooze, poking long poles into the mud to probe for victims in the wealthy enclave of 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles.

Search dogs clambered on shattered heaps of wood that used to be homes.

However, the flood left the town strewn with mud, boulders, wrecked cars, trashed buildings and tree limbs in a scene that Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown has compared to a World War I battlefield.

By Wednesday, some 500 searchers had covered about 75 percent of the inundated area, authorities said.

An aerial shot over downtown Montecito shows damage after mudslides hit on Tuesday

'We've gotten multiple reports of rescuers falling through manholes that were covered with mud, swimming pools that were covered up with mud,' said Anthony Buzzerio, a Los Angeles County fire battalion chief.

'The mud is acting like a candy shell on ice cream. It's crusty on top but soft underneath, so we're having to be very careful.'

A dozen people were hospitalized at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and four were in critical condition, Dr. Brett Wilson said.

People in Montecito had counted themselves lucky last month after the biggest wildfire in California history spared the town.

But it was the fire that led to the mudslide, by burning away vegetation.
A top student in China has been killed by a classmate in the classroom after refusing to help him with his homework, according to Chinese media.

The victim, 15-year-old Xiao Yi, was stabbed in the neck with a knife at the Jinshi High School in Fujian Province, southeast China, on January 9.

It's claimed that the boy, surnamed Yan, went to a farmers' market to buy a knife during the lunch break before attacking Xiao Yi.

Xiao Yi (left) was stabbed in the neck by a classmate when she was studying in class after lunch. The 15-year-old, a top student in China, had refused to help the male classmate do his homework. Xiao Yi's parents were devastated (right) after seeing the girl at the hospital

According to Haixia Metropolitan, Xiao Yi died shortly after being taken to the hospital.

The attacker, Yan, has been arrested by authorities of Putian on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm to the others.

The report said that Xiao Yi was an elite student in her class and has been preparing hard for the examinations by the end of the month.

Xiao Yi's mother, Ms Lin, learnt that Yan was sitting in front of her daughter in the class. He turned back and stabbed Xiao Yi in the neck with a flick knife suddenly.

'I was told Yan asked my daughter to do the homework for him, but she rejected. She told him that she hasn't finished her own homework,' said Ms Lin to Haixia Metropolitan.

She added: 'A woman in the farmers' market saw Yan buying a flick knife during the lunch hour.'

The incident took place at the Jinshi High School in Putian (file photo) in Fujian Province

An unnamed source told Haixia Metropolitan that Yan was a bully at school and he did not do well in school examinations.

It's claimed that Yan turned himself in at Licheng Police Station after the stabbing.

He has been arrested and detained by the police for intentional bodily harm.

Local education department has had meetings with staff at the Jinshi High School to discuss the matters. They were said to be looking for a solution to prevent similar incidents happening.

Notices have been sent to other schools for them to strengthen security checks and step up on the prevention of any possible violence among students.
Three men who forced a 14-year-old girl into prostitution and made her have sex with 30 'clients' after plying her with drugs and alcohol have been jailed for 18 years.

Jake Cairns, 21, Jack McNally, 21 and Brandon Sharples, 20, exploited the vulnerable victim after holding her captive and forced her to have sex with strangers.

A court heard the trio advertised her services online after making her pose naked for photos and pretended she was 18-years-old on adult escort site Viva Street.

Jake Cairns (left) and Brandon Sharples (right), who held the girl captive in Coventry, were both arrested and found guilty of facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child

Cairns had earlier struck up a friendship with the girl while he supplied her with drugs and offered her a place to stay when she ran away from home in June 2015.

He then encouraged her to work as a prostitute as 'repayment' for staying at the property in Radford, Coventry and made her have unprotected sex with '20 to 30' men over a four day period.

She was forced to welcome clients at the front door naked apart from just a dressing gown and was told to bang on the floor if she needed help.

The teenager was regularly taken out of the property for food and showers and on one occasion was made to go shopping to buy lingerie with the twisted trio.

She was found by police dressed only in her underwear and bra as officers rescued her on June 13, 2015 following a missing person appeal.

The court heard how the victim, who cannot be named, had to be treated for a sexual transmitted infection and money received was split between her and Cairns.

The defendants were all found guilty of facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child at Warwick Crown Court in November following a two-week trial.

Cairns, of Coventry, was additionally found guilty of arranging child sexual exploitation and distributing indecent images of a child.

On Thursday, he was handed an eight year prison sentence at Birmingham Crown Court.

Sharples, of Coventry, and McInally, of no fixed address, were jailed for five years each.

They were all given ten year sexual harm prevention orders and told to sign the sex offender's register for life.

Cairns was seen breaking down in tears in the dock, whilst the other defendants looked on emotionless with McInally waving to his family as he was led to the cells.

Jack McInally was also convicted and jailed for five years

Sentencing, Judge Murray Creed, said: 'The circumstances that give rise to these offences are that late on the night of 13 June 2015, police officers went to a property in Coventry.

'There they found the complainant, aged 14, who five days earlier ran away from home.

'They found her in her bra and underwear.

'They found her in that state because you three had sexually exploited her and she made to work as a prostitute.

'You were all friends. She had a drug dealer who was not able to supply her with drugs, and she was put in touch with you, Jake Cairns.

'AS a result, she met you, Brandon Sharples and Jack McInally.

'Jake Cairns, you supplied her with your telephone number. You were friendly towards her, and paid her compliments.

'She was invited to the property. Whether that was her own request or you proposed it is not known, but nonetheless she went.

'She was advertised by you Jake Cairns online as a prostitute and thereafter while she stayed at that property a number of strangers came to have with her.

'On June 8 2015, she ran away from her grandmother's home. It's likely that she did not have anywhere to go and she did not want to return to her mother.

'Police were anxious to find her.

'She told you that she was 16 when in fact she was 14. These offences took places when she under the influence of drink and drugs, and she was exploited.

'She was there for two days when she was told that she would have to repay you, Jake Cairns.

'The upshot is that you took photos of you were uploaded online and she was made to work as a prostitute.'

The judge described the girl as 'frightened' that she or her family would be hurt if she did not comply with the sickening abuse.

'She posed for some of the photos to be uploaded to Viva Street,' he said. 'The suggestion was that she was 18-years-old and was available for escort services.

'Although the complainants face was not shown, her body parts were and she could be identified by a necklace she was wearing.

'Between 20 and 30 men visited the property who were strangers.

'She would meet the client at the front door of the property naked other than a dressing gown.

'She would invite upstairs. What would happen there was already agreed and Cairns would discuss prices.

'They [she and the client] would then go upstairs and she would have to say goodbye to them afterwards.

'The arrangement for her protection was that she would knock on the floor to alert you if there any issues.

'Sharples and McInally, you were there to ensure that she remained at the house for the protection of the exercise.

'At one point, she was taken shopping to buy underwear. She was also taken to the YMCA to shower as there were no facilities for doing so at the property.

'She claims that she took drugs to numb the feeling.

'She described on one occasion not being ready to see a client, and being hit by you, Jake Cairns.

'She was kept at the property and was always escorted by one of you when she left to buy food or other items.

'This was undertaken for significant financial gain, with the money being split between Cairns and the girl.

'It was organised and it was only stopped because the complainant was found so quickly after she went missing that it ended.'

The court heard DNA discovered on a duvet in a room, where she was forced to entertain visitors, was traced to five separate people, including Cairns.

Andrew Smith QC, prosecuting, said the victim had been left with immediate and long lasting effects following her ordeal.

He said: 'She claims that her trust in others has been extinguished.

'She claims that the incident has effected 'every area of my life and myself'.

'Although her work as a prostitute was just a matter of days, that was because of the police efforts to rescue her, rather than a decision from the defendants that the prostitution would cease.'

Claire Davies, defending Cairns, of previous good character, said: 'There is no evidence that he had sex with the complainant.

'He was 18 at the time of the offending, and one looks at his background - the death of his father, the care of his mother for her mental health and physical health difficulties.

'There was significant financial gain, with money being shared with her.'

Graeme Simpson, defending Sharples, who has a previous conviction for burglary, said: 'He is still only 20 years of age - he is still a young offender.

'He has a shown a degree of remorse.'

Simon Hunka, defending McInally, who has past convictions for robbery, said: 'There is no suggestion that he received any money for what happened.

'His life was something of a sorry one. He was often intoxicated and at the time of the offending was homeless.'

Alex Warren, Senior Crown Prosecutor with the West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service's Complex Casework Unit, said: 'This case involved the most horrendous exploitation of a vulnerable young girl by the defendants.

'She was treated as little more than a commodity to be utilised for their financial gain.

'The prosecution was able to outline the role that each defendant played in her abuse and they must now face the consequences of their actions.

'I would like to pay tribute to the victim's courage and her support in helping to bring these three men to justice.'
President Donald Trump came out swinging on Thursday against an expiring spying provision that his White House had said was useful to protecting national security the night before.

Trump said that Section 702 of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act 'may have been used' to 'abuse and surveil' his presidential campaign by Barack Obama's administration.

He claimed in a tweet that a dossier of dirt put together by an ex-spy that has not been corroborated may have been used to obtain a warrant to surveil him.

Trump suggested that Congress vote down a bill extending the spying powers for six more years, only to back it in a second message later, saying the act helps the government to get 'bad guys' in foreign lands.

A bill reauthorizing Section 702 of FISA later passed the House.

President Donald Trump came out swinging on Thursday against an expiring spying provision that his White House had said was useful to protecting national security the night before

Trump said that Section 702 of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act 'may have been used' to 'abuse and surveil' his presidential campaign by Barack Obama 's administration

Trump suggested that Congress vote down a bill extending the spying powers for six more years, only to back it in a second message later, saying the act helps the government to get 'bad guys' in foreign lands

The president's first tweet was a direct affront to a Wednesday evening statement from his press secretary encouraging lawmakers to reauthorize the act.

A White House statement credited to Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders rejected a proposal in the House to limit law enforcement entities' access to data that's obtained by the intelligence community under Section 702.

Sanders said the administration 'strongly opposes' the USA Rights amendment that's being introduced in the House today by Republican Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian from Michigan.

'This amendment would re-establish the walls between intelligence and law enforcement that our country knocked down following the attacks of 9/11 in order to increase information sharing and improve our national security,' she said. 'The Administration urges the House to reject this amendment and preserve the useful role FISAs Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives.'

Less than 12 hours later Trump seemingly threw cold water on the position of his own White House, saying in a tweet that he believes the federal government may have used the spying powers authorized in the act to spy on his campaign.

'"House votes on controversial FISA ACT today. This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?' he said.

The president's first tweet was a direct affront to a Wednesday evening statement from his press secretary encouraging lawmakers to reauthorize the act

As the contradictory nature of his tweet and the White House's statement took center stage, Trump sent out a second message, nearly two hours into the coverage, explaining that he backs a bill in the House to renew the Section 702 with limitations on what is known as unmasking.

'With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!' he stated.

The president indicated that he was backing a bill that then passed in the House that Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes authored.

Trump appeared to be watching Fox & Friends when he sent out the tweets. Other messages he sent directly mentioned the Fox News program. A discussion had been taking place on the show about FISA abuse and the dirty dossier about half an hour before Trump started tweeting about foreign spying act.

Sanders insisted at her daily news conference that the president had not confused Section 702 with other spying powers that are not up for debate in the House in the first tweet he sent.

'We weren't confused but some of you guys were and we wanted to make sure you knew the White House position,' she said. 'I got several questions from people in the room as I'm sure all of you know because most of you were the ones sending them.'

Trump's spokeswoman said, 'The president has been clear about what his position is. We've issued several statements on this, put out one last night that had to do with this.'

Sanders said the president 'fully supports' Section 702 of FISA and was 'happy to see it passed' the House of Representatives this morning.

'The president doesn't feel that we should have to choose between protecting American citizens and protecting our civil liberties. He wants to do both. And that's exactly what he's going to do. We don't see any contradiction or confusion in that,' she said.

In between the first and second message, Trump reportedly spoke to House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Ryan said at a news conference after the vote that he talks to Trump on an 'almost daily basis.' The GOP leader said that Trump understands what today's vote authorized and put out a statement that 'clarified' his position.

'He just has concerns about other parts of FISA. And I think that everybody knows that, too,' Ryan asserted.

Pressed, Ryan told a reporter, 'I can't speak to what the tweet was.'

Sanders pointed to Ryan's rebuttal in her own press briefing, saying to take it from the House speaker himself that Trump understand the policy.

Trump's spokeswoman said, 'The president has been clear about what his position is. We've issued several statements on this, put out one last night that had to do with this'

Asked what Trump was referring to, though, when he said that his campaign 'may' have been surveiled or abused under the FISA act, she declined to get into specifics.

'There are a lot of things that indicate there was surveillance at Trump Tower,' Sanders said.

The Nunes bill that passed the House and awaits action in the Senate temporarily suspends federal officials' ability to monitor communications about a target that are not to or from that target, in addition to reauthorizing Section 702 spying.

It also requires probable cause for the FBI to view Section 702 data on U.S. citizens in criminal cases that do not have anything to do with national security.

The Nunes bill that passed the House and awaits action in the Senate temporarily suspends federal officials' ability to monitor communications about a target that are not to or from that target, USA Today reported, in addition to reauthorizing Section 702 spying.

Nunes is an ally of Trump who served on his on his transition team. He claimed last year that he had seen evidence in classified documents of broad abuse of unmasking by the Obama administration.

Originally, Nunes included a measure on unmasking in the FISA reauthorization bill. He stripped it out before the bill the House on Thursday.

Unmasking is a process by which authorized officials can ask for the identities of individuals whose names have been redacted in foreign surveillance they were swept up in.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats sent top-ranking intelligence committee lawmakers a letter in November alerting them to changes the administration would be making to its unmasking policy this month.

He signed the measures into effect this morning and gave agencies 90 days to comply.

Coats said in his Nov. letter that the new policy would 'make clear that IC (intelligence community) elements may not engage in political activity, including dissemination of U.S. person identities to the White House, for the purpose of affecting the political process of the United States.'

'In addition, this policy will require heightened levels of approval for requests made during a Presidential transition when those requests relate to known members of a President-elects transition team,' he stated.

Obama national security adviser Susan Rice admitted to unmasking the names of Trump associates who spoke to representatives of the United Arab Emirates in the transition.

She told House investigators in September that she asked for the information in order to determine why the crown prince of the UAE came to the U.S. without telling the federal government.

Trump in April said that he believed that Rice committed a crime when she ordered the identities of his associates to be revealed.

Yesterday, the administration said it 'strongly opposes' the USA Rights amendment that's being introduced in the House today by Republican Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian from Michigan (left). The president indicated that he was backing a bill in the House that Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is introducing today (right)

After listening to private, classified testimony from Rice, a GOP lawmaker helping to lead the House's investigation into election meddling said he disagreed. Rice also said in a defense interview with MSNBC that her actions were not politically motivated.

Prior to the allegations against Rice, Trump made an explosive charge last year that that Obama had his 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower.

'How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!' Trump said.

The administration never provided any information to back the claim up. The top White House spokesman at the time, Sean Spicer, eventually claimed that Trump wiretapped meant 'broadly surveillance' on him, which happened, 'no question,' in the 2016 election.

Former FBI Director James Comey said in March 20, 2017 testimony to the House Intelligence Community that he had looked carefully within the bureau and could not find any evidence to back up the wiretapping claim. NSA Director Mike Rogers batted down a Spicer suggestion that the Obama administration got the UK to do it.

To surveil Trump legally, federal officials would have had to have obtained a special warrant from a FISA court.

Trump associates who have been charged with crimes in connection to the government's Russia probe are known to have surveiled, though, including Paul Manafort. Its possible that Trump had communications of his recorded when speaking to those individuals.

Manafort was spied on after the FBI obtained a warrant through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to investigate him for work that he did for a Ukranian political party. A second warrant was issued, CNN reported last year, after he became a person of interest in the Russian collusion probe.

The dossier composed by ex-British spy Christopher Steele that Trump referred to in his tweet this morning could have been the source of a warrant for surveillance. If so, that's not something that his Department of Justice has disclosed, though.

Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday that Trump's claims were false, without going into detail.

'This is irresponsible, untrue, and frankly it endangers our national security. FISA is something the President should have known about long before he turned on Fox this morning,' Warner said.
Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning about Hillary Clinton, just hours after his top television surrogate insisted 'nobody' in the White House spends any time talking about his former 2016 election foe.

On Twitter, Trump blasted the FBI's reported use of a discredited anti-Trump opposition research 'dossier' to secure a warrant permitting the government to eavesdrop on Trump campaign officials.

'Disproven and paid for by Democrats "Dossier used to spy on Trump Campaign. Did FBI use Intel tool to influence the Election?" Trump asked, quoting his favorite morning TV fix 'Fox & Friends.'

'Did Dems or Clinton also pay Russians? Where are hidden and smashed DNC servers? Where are Crooked Hillary Emails? What a mess!'

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway insisted Wednesday night that no one in the White House spends time talking about Hillary Clinton

Thursday morning President Donald Trump tweeted about 'Crooked Hillary Emails' and mused about the Clintons' role in paying for a sketchy 'dossier' that almost sank his campaign

During a press conference on Wednesday, Trump raised Hillary Clinton's name twice, unprompted

Fox News contributor Sara Carter said Wednesday night on the 'Hannity' program that 'the dossier was absolutely used as part of the FBI's ability to gain a warrant to basically spy on members of the trump campaign.'

'Fox & Friends' replayed the clip Thursday morning.

While Carter was speaking to Sean Hannity, however, White House chief counselor Kellyanne Conway was on CNN insisting that the Trump administration doesn't have a Clinton obsession.

"We don't care about her,' Conway insisted to host Chris Cuomo. 'Nobody here talks about her! Hey Chris, nobody here talks about Hillary Clinton, I promise you.'

Trump, in fact, had injected Clinton  twice  into a joint press conference with the prime minister of Norway just hours earlier

'I am for massive oil and gas and everything else, and a lot of energy,' he said. 'Putin can't love that. I am for the strongest military that the United States ever had. Putin cant love that. Hillary was not for a strong military and Hillary  my opponent  was for windmills.'

'And she was for other types of energy that dont have the same capacities at this moment certainly,' he continued.

Minutes later Trump raised Clinton's name again, unprompted.

Conway tried to save face Thursday morning, tweeting that when she said no one in the White House talks about Hillary Clinton, she meant it in terms of political achievements

Reporter Sara Carter sparked a new round of anti-Clinton angst in the White House by reporting Wednesday night on Fox News that a sketchy anti-Trump dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party was used to obtain wiretap warrants to surveil Trump insiders

Hillary Clinton lost her chance to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but she's still living rent-free in Donald Trump's head

Asked if he expects to be interviewed by the special counsel investigating claims of Russian interference in the election that sent him to Washington, Trump instead pivoted to Hillary.

'When you talk about interviews, Hillary Clinton had an interview where she wasn't sworn in, she wasn't given the oath, they didn't take notes, they didn't record and it was done on the Fourth of July weekend,' he huffed.

'That's, perhaps, ridiculous, and a lot of people looked upon that as being a very serious breach.'

The president has tweeted about Hillary Clinton, her family and her foundation at least 70 times since taking office last year.

Conway saved face Thursday morning, tweeting that while it was 'so fun to see the predictable heads exploding' when she declared that the administration isn't fixated on the Clintons, she 'should've finished that sentence.'

'"Nobody in the White House talks about Hillary Clinton" when noting whose presidential leadership = historic tax cuts & economic boom, reg reform, put ISIS in retreat,' Conway explained.

An hour later she was on 'Fox & Friends' herself, complaining that the only reason the president and his aides keep bringing up Hillary Clinton is because they have no choice.

Conway said Thursday morning on 'Fox & Friends' that the only reason the White House keeps hammering Clinton is because 'we're forced to, and only with the requisite eye roll'

'Things happen here every single day. The bilateral with the prime minister of Norway,' she said, yet 'people are still stuck in last year's election, and about that woman who will never be president.'

'No one at the White House,' she reprised from Wednesday, 'I said last night no one at the White House talks about Hillary Clinton. Only when we're forced to, and only with the requisite eye roll.'

'I know people love to talk about how we're so obsessed with Hillary Clinton here,' she added. 'The fact is, we only have to talk about her because people won't let go of an election she lost miserably.'

'And she's going to be ungracious loser. And people continue to talk about the 2016 election in light of the dossier, in light of this ridiculous, concocted russia "collusion" delusion.'

Conway said Americans should be more focused on areas where Trump is making progress, citing a move to slow the flow of addictive fentanyl  a deadly synthetic opioid drug  into the United States.

'What is fentanyl? Look it up, everybody. F-E-T-A-N-Y-L. Educate yourselves,' she urged, failing the spelling-bee portion of her talking point.

Conway did spell the word correctly in a tweet Thursday morning, boasting about a bill Trump signed Wednesday as 'a big step toward getting big-killer fentanyl out of our country.'

After signing off with Fox from the White House's North Lawn, she went back to Twitter.

'"No one here talks about her," Conway repeated, 'when we ponder who the first female POTUS will be; applaud booming stock market, 401ks, jobs, manufacturing, business & consumer confidence; rebuild military, veterans' benefits, infrastructure, border security, trade policy.'
Campaigners have said the government has failed to acknowledge how the shipping and fishing industries are fuelling the plastic pollution crisis.

It comes as Theresa May unveiled the Government's 25-year plan for the environment, including extending the 5p carrier bag charge and encouraging plastic-free supermarket aisles.

The Prime Minister said plastic waste is causing 'immense suffering' to marine life, with one million birds and more than 100,000 sea mammals and turtles dying after eating or getting tangled up in plastic.

However wildlife conservationist Steve Trewhella said the government had failed to identify the shipping and fishing industries as two of the biggest culprits.

Mr Trewhella said marine wildlife will continue to suffer until the government tackled this overlooked issue.

Mr Trewhella said much of the plastic waste he finds has come from the shipping and fishing industries

A conservationist has said the government has failed to acknowledge how the shipping and fishing industries are fuelling the plastic pollution crisis

He shared photos of items such as lobster pots, fishing crates, nets and rubber gloves used in the industries that regularly wash up on Dorset's beaches having been thrown overboard.

Mr Trewhella, who regularly organises beach cleans on Dorset's Jurassic coast, said the majority of litter he picks up from the beach are items dumped in the sea from boats.

He said: 'We do regular beach cleans and most of the litter we find is from the shipping and fishing industry - things like netting, pallets, oil drums, grease tubes, fish boxes, ropes and plastic bottles.

'We've found hundreds of rubber gloves that are used in the fishing industry all over the world for handling things like lobster pots.

'The Marine Society say beach visitors' rubbish is the main source of litter but a lot of it is misidentified or unidentified because the people doing the surveys are just members of the public and might not realise a piece of plastic is a bit of broken fish box and the real issue is downplayed.

'We have worked tirelessly over the last 15 years to identify marine litter and along the south coast - Dorset, Cornwall and Devon - we get litter washing up on our beaches from all over the world.

'I've found lobster crates from Canada and buoys from Florida. After a particularly big storm the dominant litter on our beaches is transatlantic debris which has travelled 6,000 miles.

'I'm all for banning microbeads and things like that but even if the government brought in a plastic bottle exchange today we would still see thousands washing up.

Mr Trewhella, who regularly organises beach cleans on Dorset's Jurassic coast, said the majority of litter he picks up from the beach are items dumped in the sea from boats

'The majority we find are water bottles, lots of ships need to take bottled water with them. We found 2,000 on one beach clean at Kimmeridge in the depth of winter, that's not from people walking on the beach.

'There are hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic in the sea, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

'There's no strategy from the government or authorities to make sure that when a boat takes something to sea, it comes back with it.'

Mr Trewhella, from Wareham, in Dorset, added: 'I'm astonished that everybody on the planet is suddenly in shock that there's plastic in the sea after Blue Planet...we have been doing beach cleans for 30 or 40 years now.

'It's a huge problem and we're going to reach a point where we can't eat things from the sea anymore.

'The statistics are terrifying. Ninety per cent of the world's sea bird population have plastic in their stomachs.

'Plastic has only been around for 70 years and yet almost every single sea bird on the planet has plastic in their stomachs.'

The pile of plastic waste dumped on Kimmeridge Bay, in Dorset, will have far-reaching effects on marine life, as well as making its way into our food

His comments came as nature groups today welcomed the measures promised by the Prime Minister, with proposed policies including plastics-free aisles in supermarkets and a tax on takeaway containers.

But they warned more rapid and widespread action - particularly on climate change - was needed to protect the natural environment.

Tanya Steele, chief executive of WWF, said she hoped the 25-year plan marked a 'turning point where we start restoring our environment rather than destroying it'.

'Urgent action is needed on plastic pollution, dirty air, changes to our climate and protecting our precious natural heritage, here in the UK and around the world.

'But these commitments will only become a reality if they are backed by the force of law, money and a new environmental watchdog,' she warned.

Friends of the Earth's chief executive Craig Bennett said: 'A long-term vison for protecting our environment is essential, but the Government can't keep turning a blind eye to the urgent action needed now to protect our health and planet from toxic air and climate-wrecking pollution.

'It's time to stop tinkering at the margins and get to the heart of the problems - especially the nation's fossil fuels addiction.

'Ministers must pull the plug on coal, gas and oil, end its support for fracking and develop the UK's huge renewable power potential.'

Greenpeace UK's executive director John Sauven said the natural environment needed a '25-month emergency plan' more than it needed a 25-year vision, with urgent action from the Government.
Five women are accusing James Franco of sexual misconduct in a Los Angeles Times expose.

Violet Paley had a consensual relationship with the actor, but claims that he once forced her into performing oral sex on her while they sat in his car.

The other four women were students at Studio 4, Franco's now-closed acting school, and claim the 39-year-old Oscar nominee asked women both on set and in class to perform topless or even completely nude.

One of those women, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, claims that she was shooting a nude orgy scene with Franco and several other actresses on one of the actor's film projects when he took off the protective piece of plastic covering their genitals while simulating oral sex.

This is not the first time Paley and Tither-Kaplan are speaking out, with both women having shared parts of their story on Twitter this weekend following Franco's Golden Globe win for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical.

Franco, speaking through his lawyer, Michael Plonsker, denied the allegations being made by all five women.

He did however call and apologize to both Tither-Kaplan and Paley according to the two women.

Franco also painted himself as a martyr for the case while appearing of Seth Meyers' NBS show on Wednesday, stating: 'There are stories that need to get out. There are people that need to be heard.

'I have my own side of this story, but I believe in, you know, these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will, you know, hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much.

'And if I have to take a knock because I'm not going to, you know, try and, you know, actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in it that much.'

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Troiuble: Five women are accusing James Franco (above in his film The Long Home) of sexual misconduct in the Los Angeles Times, including four women who took acting classes with the Oscar nominee

Claims: Sarah Tither-Kaplan (left, Violet paley on right) claims a topless video of her made for Franco's class at Studio 4 was uploaded without her prior knowledge or consent

Set: She is also claiming that Franco removed the plastic genital guards that several actresses were wearing for a nude orgy scene in his film The Long Home (Tither-Kaplan circled in red on set)

Perplexing: Franco call and apologize to both Tither-Kaplan and Paley (above) according to the two women

Tither-Kaplan, 26, said that landing a role in Franco's upcoming film The Long Home was a huge break for her after working with the actor at Studio 4.

While at Studio 4 she had enrolled in Francos Sex Scenes master class, and in one short video that she filmed for the class she appeared topless.

That video was then uploaded to Vimeo without her knowledge she claims, and projecting an image she is not comfortable with while trying to move up in the industry.

And a still from the video ended up on at least one adult website according to Tither-Kaplan.

'Now, if you Google me, you can see me naked. Before Ive ever been on TV or before Ive ever had any real credits or before any of this - of course I regret that. I dont want that,' said the young woman.

Despite this, she was happy to take a role on The Long Home, which Franco is both directing and starring in alongside an eclectic cast of actors including Ashton Kutcher, Courtney Love, Robin Lord Taylor, Annaleigh Tipton, Josh Hutcherson and Oscar-winner Timothy Hutton.

While on set, Tither-Kaplan was asked if she would be willing to appear in a nude orgy scene, which she admittedly agreed to do because she saw her appearance in the film as a big break in her career.

Winner: Allegations against Franco gained notice in the wake of his Golden Globe win (above)

Tither-Kaplan appeared with several other women in the scene, and they each wore nothing but a piece of plastic known as a genital guard.

She claims that when it came time for Franco to simulate oral sex on the actresses, he removed the guard and continued to act out the scene with no barrier between his mouth and the women's vaginas.

Her willingness to appear in the nude orgy shoot got Tither-Kaplan asked back to film another scene.

This time it was an unscripted bit that required her to be topless while wearing an animal skull and dancing around in a circle with other women.

One of the actresses declined to appear topless in the scene and was not asked back on set by Franco according to Tither-Kaplan.

'I got it in my head pretty quickly that, OK, you dont say no to this guy,' she said of Franco.

An actress who appeared alongside her in those two scenes confirmed Tither-Kaplan's account, while Franco's lawyer said the allegations about the protective guards are not accurate.'

The casting director on the film, Cynthia Huffman, also commented on the claims by saying she 'personally checked on all the actresses' during the shoot.'

'James is all about giving up and comers, actors and actresses and young filmmakers a break in this business,' said Huffman.

'I feel horrible that anyone was made to feel uncomfortable but we went to great lengths to make sure all the actresses in the nude scenes felt comfortable and safe.'

Support system: Kathy Griffin jumped in the fray on Thursday to show support for Ally Sheedy (above)

No comment: Franco was speechless as he landed in NYC on Monday night with his brother Dave Franco by his side (above)

Allegation: Tither-Kaplan claimed on Sunday that she was forced to do 'exploitative' scenes with 'full nudity' in two of Franco's films while being paid just $100 (tweets above)

Paley, 23, said that Franco was a mentor who was helping her on a script she was working on back in 2016, which eventually led to a relationship between the two.

It was at the start of that relationship when she claims Franco forced her into performing a sex act.

'I was talking to him, all of a sudden his penis was out,' said Paley.

'I got really nervous, and I said, "Can we do this later?" He was kind of nudging my head down, and I just didnt want him to hate me, so I did it.'

She said that she was able to stop only when she claimed to see people approaching the car.

Hilary Dusome and Natalie Chmiel said they became disenfranchised with Franco and his acting classes back in 2012 when they were selected to appear in what they were led to believe was a short art film.

It was midway through the shoot, which took place at a strip club, when they claim Franco asked them if they would be willing to go topless.

When none of the women volunteered he allegedly stormed off the set.

'I felt like I was selected for something based on my hard work and my merit, and when I realized it was because I have nice [breasts], it was pretty clear that was not the case,' said Dusome.

'I don't think he started teaching with bad intentions, but he went down a bad path and damaged a lot of people in the process.'

Chmiel echoed this, stating: 'He just took advantage of our eagerness to work and be a part of something bigger. We were all these up-and-coming actors who were so hopeful.'

Franco's lawyer again denied these allegations, and urged people to loss at Franco's recent comments during an appearance on Later Night with Stephen Colbert.

His personal apologies meanwhile came after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke according to Tither-Kaplan and Paley.

'I want to give him credit for at least being open to communicating with me,' said Tither-Kaplan.

'I felt that he was still not really taking accountability for the environment on the sets.'

Paley said she emailed Franco personally after the Weinstein news broke and got a response from Franco over the phone.

She claims the actor called to tell her he was 'a changed man.'

JAMES FRANCO SAYS HE IS NOT DENYING SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS TO HELP WOMEN James Franco spoke about the allegations being amde against him on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Wednesday (above) Seth Meyers: I'm very glad you're here. I want to talk about The Disaster Artist, which I loved, and want to get to the Golden Globes, but one of the things that happened at the Golden Globes - and obviously, this happened in the last couple of days before we had you booked on the show and I'm glad you're still here. You were wearing a time's up button like a lot of guys at the show and some women during your time on stage said that was hypocritical, they went to Twitter and said that it was hypocritical based on their experiences that they have had with you. They made some allegations. I wonder if you have read those tweets, and if so, how you respond to them? James Franco: Yes. I was sent a couple of the tweets, so yeah, I did read them. I haven't responded. I think, well the ones I read were not accurate, but one of the things that I've learned is that this is a conversation that obviously needs to be had. There are people, women and others who have not been a part of this conversation and I truly believe and why I was wearing the pin is that they need to be a part of this conversation and so I support that. Seth: Ally Sheedy also had a tweet. She has since took it down. I heard you mention last night on Stephen Colbert's show that you had directed her in a play. You've had a good experience with her. Have you reached out to her as someone, and, are you not curious as to why she would do that if you had, from your perspective, a good relationship with her? James: Yes, I had a great relationship with her. She took the tweet down, I don't know. I really don't Seth: Not curious enough though to reach out to her as someone that you've had a good relationship with before and to try to understand why she would have done that? James: I don't know. I - it was so shocking. I don't know. I just - I guess I'm just letting it be. Seth: The last thing I'll say, or ask about this I should say, this moment, you know, I think this is an exciting time because it's allowing us all remember, especially as men, that there were other people in different perspectives for things that we experienced. Does this Times Up movement and this moment we're having right now, does it make you look back at all and question any of your behavior in the past based on this new perspective we're getting on how women have perceived things for so long? James: I think what I really learned and being here and this week and that show that we were you know ... I mean it was so powerful in there. Seth: That we heard some amazing things from some amazing women. James: Like I said, there are stories that need to get out. There are people that need to be heard. I have my own side of this story, but I believe in, you know, these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will, you know, hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much. And if I have to take a knock because I'm not going to, you know, try and, you know, actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in it that much. Source: Late Night With Seth Meyers Advertisement

Boy's club: Franco hosted a dinner for the other male actors nominated in the film categories at Sunday night's Golden Globes earlier in the week (l to r: Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlberg, Richard Jenkins, Tom Hanks, Hugh Jackman, Gary Oldman, Ansel Elgort, James Franco, Daniel Kaluuya and Sam Rockwell)

Strong tweets: 'Why is a man hosting? Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much. Nite love ya,' wrote Sheedy, 55, at the start of the telecast (Sheedy's three tweets above)

Meeting: Lucy Clode (above) shared this video on Instagram with James in the background following a March 2014 performance

Actress Ally Sheedy made waves when she called out Franco on Sunday, doing so in a series of tweets throughout the show.

'Why is a man hosting? Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much. Nite love ya,' wrote Sheedy at the start of the telecast.

'Ok wait. Bye. Christian Slater and James Franco at a table on @goldenglobes #MeToo,' said Sheedy an hour into the program.

And in her final tweet, posted right after Franco's victory in the Best Actor category, she said: 'James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business.'

Sheedy later deleted the tweets, but soon after she posted a number of women began to speak out against the actor for his admission back in 2014 that he pursued a relationship with a 17-year-old student.

The incident these tweets apparently reference happened back in 2014 when the actor began corresponding with a Scottish teenager.

Lucy Clode, who was 17 at the time, had gone to see Franco on Broadway in Of Mice and Men, and posted a photo to Instagram of herself and the actor taken while he signed autographs that night.

Franco then reached out to Lucy and, after learning she was just 17, began to exchange a number of suggestive messages before asking her what hotel she was staying at in the city.

Disaster: Ally Sheedy went after James Franco on Twitter following his Best Actor win at the Golden Globes on Sunday (pair above in 2014 at the opening night party for The Long Shrift)

'Your single? What's the hotel? Should I rent a room?' wrote Franco to the teenager in one rapid-fire exchange.

When she then responded by saying she did not think he was the real James Franco, the actor took a photo of himself waving and sent it to the young tourist.

He then wrote: 'It's me. Yes or no? Tomorrow or Thursday?'

Franco's persistence was later revealed when Clode posted the exchange on her account, forcing the actor to address his pursuit of the teen.

He addressed the controversy during an appearance on Live With Kelly and Michael.

'It's the way that people meet each other today, but what I've learned- I guess because I'm new to it- is you don't know who's on the other end,' said Franco.

'You get a feel for them, you don't know who you're talking to.'

He then added: 'I used bad judgement and I learned my lesson.'

Franco did not at any point mention the fact that Clode was just 17 and a tourist.

A 2014 New York Times profile of Sheedy reveals that it was around this same time that she first met the actor.

Sheedy said that she was volunteering at the famed LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan when Franco came in to speak with the students while he was appearing on Broadway.

She described the actor as 'a beautiful, generous man' at the time, and said that soon after they met he asked if she would star in an off-Broadway production of The Long Shrift he planned to direct.

It is unclear however what exactly happened between that first meeting and Sunday to upset Sheedy so much.

The actress also liked a few tweets on Sunday in response to her posts, including one that read: 'ALLY SHEEDY QUEEN OF NOT HAVING TIME FOR YOUR HYPOCRISY.'

Another tweet liked by Sheedy read: 'I don't know why this made me tear up, but it's been one of those nights.'

Sheedy shot to fame in the 80s as a member of the Brat Pack, earning her spot in the infamous eight-actor clique following her roles in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire.

She went on to star in more independent fare like the 1998 film High Art, and in recent years has appeared in just a handful of movies and television programs.

'First of all, I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy,' said Franco wjile appearing on Colbert earlier this week.

'I directed her in a play Off Broadway, I had nothing but a great time with her, total respect for her. I have no idea why she was upset.'

He went on to state: 'The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice.'
Two brothers from London who plotted with their teenage friends to fight with jihadists in Syria face jail after a school tipped off anti-terror police about their plans.

Ahmedeltigani Alsyed, now 20, and Yusef Alsyed, 18, took out a gym subscription to 'increase their fitness' and attended a paintball event to train for battle with ISIS.

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Mohammed Ali and a 17-year-old Deliveroo driver, who cannot be named, booked plane tickets and travel documents to the war torn country.

They had contacted a terrorist fixer, bought tickets to travel to Turkey and packed camping gear and two kitchen knives ready for the trip on Valentine's Day last year.

The four of them chatted on encrypted messaging app Telegram, under a group called 'Peace', about how to join the terrorist group throughout 2016.

Mohammed Ali and Ahmedeltigani Alsyed were among a group of teenage jihadis who wanted to fight in Syria before the plan was uncovered by a school

The 17-year-old planned to sell his Playstation games console and get his cousin to steal a mobile phone in order to raise some spending money.

Ali was jailed for four years and two months and the 17-year-old was detained for two years and eight months at the Old Bailey last November, but the case can only be reported today.

Prosecutor Annabell Darlow, QC, said Ali and the 17-year-old believed that in death they would 'achieve martyrdom.'

She said Yusuf came to the attention of police through the government anti-extremism strategy Prevent.

Yusef Alsyed came to the attention of police through the government's anti-extremism strategy Prevent

She said: 'Alsyeds' family went on holiday to Egypt between 25 June and 10 August 2016.

'Upon their return all subject to schedule seven searches and had their mobile phones seized.'

Analysis of the phones showed contact with a facilitator in Yemen about potential travel to Libya or Syria.

Ali was attracted by the 'brotherhood' aspect of Islamic extremism after a 'very sad and very traumatic childhood', according to the prosecution.

Social workers have been engaged with his family for 'many years' due to a 'serious conflict' between his parents.

He was said to have expressed suicidal thoughts when he was just eight years old.

Ali had been shopped to the authorities by a close friend as he prepared to leave the UK, the court heard.

His school mate of six years 'noted his increased interest in Islam in December 2016' when he asked about getting electronic visas to travel to Iran or Syria so he could 'practise his religion'.

Ali told his friend he thought Isis 'weren't really Muslims' and said he planned to join rebel forces fighting Bashar al-Assad's vicious regime.

The group of teenage jihadis from London plotted to go to Syria to fight for radical groups

During a series of encrypted Telegram chats Yusef Alsyed told Ali 'if you get martyrdom before me please tell Allah I love him'.

The Alsyed brothers today admitted preparing to commit acts of terrorism at Woolwich Crown Court.

The four plotted their move to the Middle East on encrypted messaging app Telegram

The pair, who embraced each other in the dock before the hearing started, also admitted disseminating a terrorist publication and possessing information likely to be useful to a person preparing acts of terrorism.

According to the charge, they shared a video called 'Crusades, Battles and Executions of Prisoners of Daesh' between each other.

Judge Andrew Lees remanded the brothers in custody ahead of sentence on 9 March.

Ali, of Morden, south London, and the 17-year-old previously admitted preparing acts of terrorism. They insist they did not plan to fight for ISIS but another radical group.

Ahmedeltigani Alsyed, and Yusuf Alsyed, of Feltham, Middlesex, admitted preparing acts of terrorism and disseminating terrorism publication.

Ahmedeltigani also admitted possessing information likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.
Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino (above) believes Woody Allen's adopted daughter's claims that the famed director sexually molested her when she was a child

Dylan Farrow thanked Mira Sorvino on Thursday after the Oscar-winning actress wrote an open letter in which she says she now believes Woody Allen's adopted daughter's claims that the famed director sexually molested her when she was a child.

Sorvino, 50, apologized to Farrow, 32, for 'not looking further' into her allegations that she first revealed to her mother in 1993.

Allen has denied the allegations, which first surfaced as part of a sensational custody dispute between him and Mia Farrow in the early 1990s.

'I am overwhelmed and my gratitude to you cannot be expressed sufficiently in words,' Farrow tweeted to Sorvino on Thursday.

'This letter is beautiful and I will carry your words with me.

'Your courage has been boundless and your activism an example for us all. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.'

Sorvino responded to Farrow with a tweet that read: 'I am so deeply happy that you felt good about it.'

Sorvino, 50, wrote an open letter of apology to Dylan Farrow (left), 32, for 'not looking further' into her allegations that she first revealed to her mother in 1993. Allen (right) has denied the allegations

In the letter which was published by Huffington Post, Sorvino writes that she chalked up Dylan Farrow's claims that Allen sexually abused her when she was a child to 'an outgrowth of a twisted custody battle between' the Annie Hall director and his former partner.

'I am writing to express my belief in and support of you,' Sorvino writes.

'I am so sorry, Dylan! I cannot begin to imagine how you have felt, all these years as you watched someone you called out as having hurt you as a child, a vulnerable little girl in his care, be lauded again and again, including by me and countless others in Hollywood who praised him and ignored you,' she writes.

'As a mother and a woman, this breaks my heart for you. I am so, so sorry!'

Sorvino writes that it was difficult to publicly renounce Allen, the director who cast her in the 1995 romantic comedy Mighty Aphrodite. Her work on the film earned her an Academy Award for best supporting actress. Sorvino and Allen are seen above in a scene from the film

Sorvino writes that it was difficult to publicly renounce Allen, the director who cast her in the 1995 romantic comedy Mighty Aphrodite.

Her work on the film earned her an Academy Award for best supporting actress.

Mighty Aphrodite was a film distributed by Miramax, a company founded by Harvey Weinstein and his brother, Bob Weinstein.

Sorvino was one of the first actresses to publicly come forward with accusations that Harvey Weinstein harassed her in Toronto in 1995.

After she refused his advances, Sorvino said Weinstein had her 'blacklisted' by telling other filmmakers that she was difficult to work with, likely costing her roles in Hollywood.

Weinstein has denied the allegations.

Describing herself at the time as a 'naive young actress,' Sorvino writes that she and Allen were 'friendly though not close' during the filming of the movie and that during their time together 'in no way did he ever overstep his bounds with me.'

'I never personally experienced [with Allen] what has now been described as inappropriate behavior toward young girls,' Sorvino writes.

'But this does not excuse my turning a blind eye to your story simply because I wanted desperately for it not to be so.

When Dylan Farrow's allegations first surfaced in the 1990s, Sorvino writes that she believed it was 'an outgrowth of a twisted custody battle' between the Annie Hall director and his former partner, Mia Farrow (seen far right with Allen, Dylan Farrow, and an unidentified child)

'It is difficult to sever ties and denounce your heroes, your benefactors, whom you fondly admired and felt a debt of gratitude toward for your entire career's existence,' she writes.

'To decide, although they may be fantastically talented and helped you enormously, that you believe they have done things for which there can be no excuse.

'But that is where we stand today.'

Sorvino reveals in the letter that her decision to come out in support of Dylan Farrow came as a result of her conversations with Dylan's brother, Ronan Farrow.

Mighty Aphrodite was distributed by Miramax, a company founded by Harvey Weinstein and his brother, Bob Weinstein. Sorvino (seen with Harvey Weinstein in 1995) was one of the first actresses to publicly come forward with accusations that Harvey Weinstein harassed her

Ronan Farrow is the journalist who was one of the first to report extensive details about rape allegations against Weinstein in the New Yorker.

Ronan Farrow's expose about Weinstein included on-the-record details about Sorvino's experiences in which she allegedly fell victim to the studio executive.

'I told [Ronan Farrow] I wanted to learn more about you and your situation,' Sorvino writes.

Sorvino reveals in the letter that her decision to come out in support of Dylan Farrow came as a result of her conversations with Dylan's brother, journalist Ronan Farrow (left). Ronan Farrow was one of the first to expose rape allegations against Harvey Weinstein (right)

'He pointed me toward publicly available details of the case I had ruefully never known of, which made me begin to feel the evidence strongly supported your story.

'That you have been telling the truth all along.'

'I send you love and inclusion and admiration for your courage all this time,' Sorvino writes.

'I believe you!!! I am grateful to you and admire your integrity and bravery, one woman who has had to stand virtually alone all these years speaking her painful truth.

'You are a true hero, and I stand with you.'

In February 2014, Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter in The New York Times in which she describes the alleged behavior by her adoptive father.

Allen, she writes, would 'stick his thumb in my mouth'.

He also allegedly made her climb into bed with him 'when he was in his underwear' and 'would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out.'

Allen denied the allegations. He wrote his own response to the Times saying that the authorities exonerated him of any wrongdoing.
Fears are mounting for the safety of a missing teenager girl who was last seen yesterday.

Police have appealed for any information regarding the whereabouts of Shanel Nelson, 15, from the Kensington and Chelsea borough, who was last seen at 4.45pm.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'She is described as black, around 5ft 3ins tall and of slim build.

Shanel Nelson, 15, from the Kensington and Chelsea borough, was last seen at 4.45pm (police handout)

'She has black hair which she usually has tied in a bun.

The spokesman added: 'It is not known what she might be wearing.

'Shanel is known to frequent the Shepherd's Bush, Haringey and Waltham Forest areas, and often travels on various bus routes.'

The youngster went missing on November 14 last year and was spotted in the Shepard's Bush area four days later.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, or tweet via @MetCC.
A North Texas woman has issued a warning after her wife died from a flesh-eating bacteria 21 days after consuming raw oysters.

'Don't eat raw oysters, period, ever,' Vicki Bergquist told CBS DFW, almost three months after her partner, Jeanette LeBlanc, died.

Because you can for sure die. And they should say that on menus.

LeBlanc became ill in September after going crabbing in Louisiana with Bergquist and some friends and then eating raw oysters they purchased at a seafood market.

Jeanette LeBlanc, 55 (pictured), died on October 15 after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria from consuming raw oysters

LeBlanc (right) was on a trip to Louisiana with her wife, Vicki Bergquist (left), and some friends when she became ill

LeBlanc was diagnosed with vibriosis, a flesh-eating bacteria that causes an infection in the body typically from consuming uncooked seafood

After being rushed to a Baton Rouge hospital for leg rashes, respiratory issues and wounds on her tongue, LeBlanc was diagnosed with vibriosis, a flesh-eating bacteria that causes an infection in the body typically from consuming uncooked seafood.

Bergquist said doctors worked for 36 hours straight to stabilize her wife. LeBlanc also underwent three surgeries to remove dead tissue.

But the bacteria is so aggressive it kills the kidneys. They had to start her on dialysis, she said.

It really worked on her liver and did a lot of damage. It really, really wracked her body.

The 55-year-old woman died on October 15, 21 days after she was diagnosed.

HOW DEADLY VIBRIO BACTERIA IN OYSTERS AFFECTS PEOPLE Vibrio is a strain of bacteria found in oysters and other seafood. It causes Vibriosis, which can be fatal. People are at risk when they eat raw or under-cooked seafood or exposing a wound to seawater. Vibriosis causes an estimated 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the United States every year. Most infections occur from May through October when water temperatures are warmer. Symptoms usually occur within 24 hours and can last about three days. People with a weakened immune system are most at risk for severe illness or death. Symptoms of vibriosis: Diarrhea

Abdominal cramping

Nausea and vomiting

Fever

Chills

LeBlanc had three surgeries to remove dead tissue, but died 21 days after her diagnosis

According to the CDC, the bacteria can be contracted in brackish water and from eating raw seafood. LeBlanc (pictured) had exposure to both the day she became ill

Bergquist is now warning people about the dangers of consuming raw oysters

According to the CDC, vibriosis can be contracted by exposure to brackish water or eating raw oysters.

Most infections occur from May through October when water temperatures are warmer. LeBlanc was exposed to both on the day she got sick.

The bacterial infection causes an estimated 80,000 illnesses every year in the United States.

For most people, symptoms are mild and include diarrhea, nausea, fever and chills.

But for those with weakened immune systems, it can be deadly. LeBlanc for example had gastric bypass, which affected her digestion, CBS reports.

Bergquist said she now wants to spread awareness about the dangers of consuming raw oysters.

Bergquist (left) said people should not eat raw oysters ever and restaurant menus should come with some type of warning. Bergquist is pictured above with LeBlanc (right)

Bergquist (left) said she knows of two other recent deaths from people who are raw oysters. She's pictured above with LeBlanc (right)

In the hospital we were in  I know of two other deaths this year from people who had oysters at brand name, big name restaurants, she said.

The couple's friend, Karen Bowers, is also urging people to pay attention and know the affects of consuming the uncooked food.

'If they really knew what could happen to them and they could literally die within 48, 36 hours of eating raw oysters, is it really worth it?' Bowers told KLFY.

'If we had known that the risk was so high, I think she would've stopped eating oysters,' Bergquist added.
Victims of John Worboys (pictured) have demanded that prosecutors reconsider 93 cases against him which never went to court

Victims of black cab rapist John Worboys have demanded that prosecutors reconsider 93 cases against him which never went to court.

Lawyers have written to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) asking for it to reassess dozens of rapes and sexual assaults allegedly carried out by Worboys but never prosecuted.

The former stripper Worboys, 60, was jailed indefinitely in 2009 for sex offences against 12 woman, with many believing he would die behind bars despite a minimum tariff of eight years.

However victims were left 'shocked and dismayed' after it was revealed last Thursday that the Parole Board had signed off on Worboy's release, which could happen in the next few weeks.

During the police investigation in 2008, files relating to 83 women were referred to the CPS, but they only took 14 cases forward as the others 'did not pass the evidential test'.

Victims have argued that should many of the other cases have been prosecuted, Worboys would not be illegible for parole just nine years after his imprisonment.

One of Worboys' victims, who wished to remain anonymous, said: 'It is only right that the CPS reassesses these 93 unprosecuted cases.

'These cases were not dropped at the time for lack of evidence, but rather because the CPS thought he would never be released from prison - and yet he's due to be released in just a couple of weeks.

'The evidence is there. It would be a total scandal if it is now not properly looked at. There are few things more difficult and upsetting than coming forward after being sexually assaulted or raped.

Scroll down for video

Police found a rape kit in the back of Worboys' taxi which including sleeping tablets, condoms and an ashtray he used to crush the drugs (top right)

'But when you do, then not to have your evidence taken into account, is much, much worse. What signal does that send? Unless these cases are reopened we can have no faith in the justice system.'

The letter, from Richard Scorer of Slater and Gordon and Harriet Wistrich of Birnberg Pierce, said: 'As you would expect, our clients were shocked and dismayed to learn of Worboys' imminent release.

'The decision of the Parole Board, the manner it was communicated to victims (most found out through the media), and the seeming failure to put in place proper measures to protect victims following his release are all matters of grave concern to our clients; we are raising these matters with the appropriate authorities.

'However the purpose of this letter is to formally request that the CPS undertake a thorough review of all available evidence against Worboys to determine whether he can be prosecuted in respect of further offences.'

The letter goes on to point out that: 'Worboys was only prosecuted in respect of a small fraction of the allegations against him: 12 complainants out of some 105 in total whom, we understand made complaints to the police.

Worboys is a former porn actor and stripper who called himself Terry the Minder (left). Shown right, the Hackney flat Worboys shared with his former wife Jean Clayton

'It is understood that the intention was that 'the indictment was not overloaded and that the case was as simple as it could be to present to a jury.

In the course of the trial, an additional four allegations emerged which were linked to Worboys.

'Furthermore, in the wake of media observations following the conviction an additional 45 incidents were reported of which 18 were linked to Worboys.'

The lawyers then added that victims were told Worboys would 'not be coming out for a long time' and, as a result, it was not necessary to prosecute the serial rapist with another trial.

The letter goes on: 'To the extent that this was the CPS's expectation at the time, this has clearly not happened and this justification for not bringing further prosecutions has fallen away.'

'We therefore formally request that the CPS make a public commitment to reconsidering the evidence in all Worboys cases with a view to further prosecution.'

He gave me vodka... I'm sure it was spiked: Worboys victim speaks out Carrie Symonds believes that Worboys spiked her drink in 2007 Carrie Symonds was waiting for a night bus after an evening out in Chelsea in 2007 when she was approached by Worboys, who offered to take her home in his cab. Tipsy after several drinks, the 19-year-old accepted his lift back to East Sheen in west London, six miles away. On the journey Worboys, who appeared 'friendly and very genuine', persuaded her to drink a glass of vodka. The next memory Miss Symonds had was waking up at 3pm the next day after being violently sick and passing out in the bath at home. She thought her drink must have been spiked but had so little recollection of what happened that she did not report the incident until February 2008, when police made a public appeal for victims. Miss Symonds, who waived her right to anonymity, said previously: 'I'll never be able to get in a black cab again  It is terrifying to think what might have happened to me. I think I would instinctively know if I had been sexually assaulted and I'm 99 per cent sure I was not, but that 1 per cent of doubt is always there.' Miss Symonds was one of 14 women who gave evidence against Worboys in court. She said: 'He offered me a cigarette which I accepted  he told me he'd won a lot of money and showed me stacks of cash. I thought the conversation was seedy but  I wasn't too worried. I just thought he was weird.' Worboys offered her champagne but she poured it on the floor. She downed the vodka only after he promised to pay her 50 and give her the lift home for free. She added: 'He puts you in a position where you feel indebted to him  He's a professional conman.' Advertisement

Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, which represented 11 of Worboys victims in a successful civil claim, said: 'It is crucial that the CPS reconsiders all of the cases Worboys was not prosecuted for to assess whether he should face further charges.

'Our clients were led to believe their attacker would not be walking free for many many years, so there was no point in prosecuting him for their allegations.

This clearly has not happened and we are left with dozens of women fearing for their safety and feeling sorely let down by the very system that is meant to protect them.

'It is of fundamental importance that the CPS agrees to this request to ensure Worboys' victims, and indeed the greater public, have their faith restored in the criminal justice system.'

Worboys, a former porn actor and stripper, attacked numerous women during a five-year period between 2002 and 2008.

Many of his victims were young women who had been drinking in trendy night spots in the West End and Chelsea.

On several occasions he offered to drive a woman home for a fraction of the normal cost, or even for free, claiming that he lived in their direction.

But once he had them secure in his taxi, the driver  who occasionally used the name Paul or Tony - would put his plan into action.

His constant theme was sex and often asked the women if they would perform sex acts for varying amounts of money, or exposed himself.

He took trophies from his victims, including a wristband from one and scribbled the names and addresses of several others in a notebook.

During the seven week trial, victim after victim told how they felt safe with the middle-aged driver because they were stepping into a registered black London taxi.

Most of the women were young professionals  lawyers, insurance brokers, office workers or journalists.

One victim was a new mother out celebrating for the first time with her friends.

He offered the women cheap lifts home after nights out, telling them he had just won thousands on a bet and wanted to celebrate.

The rapist's ex-wife Jean Clayton is pictured left, near her home in Yambol, Bulgaria. Right, Worboys arrives at Sutton Magistrates Court ahead of a preliminary hearing into his rape trial

To aid his pretence, Worboys kept as much as 4,000 in cash stashed in a plastic bag which he showed his victims as evidence of his win.

The rapist would convince the women to share a glass of wine or champagne with them, spiking the drinks with sleeping pills.

The drugs left the women insensible and unable to protect themselves as he pounced on them in the back of the vehicle.

Police also found a 'rape kit' in the back of his taxi which including sleeping tablets, condoms, gloves and an ashtray he used to crush the drugs.

Worboys, who called himself Terry the Minder, was jailed indefinitely in April 2009 with a minimum tariff of eight years.

A report published after his conviction found there was a 'mindset' among police that the driver of a black cab was unlikely to be responsible for a sex attack.

The paper by the Independent Police Complaints Commission discovered a catalogue of missed opportunities, errors of judgment and failures by Scotland Yard had left Worboys free to prey on women.
Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, who was jailed for a decade and sentenced to 1,000 lashes for promoting free speech, may be on a list of royal pardons, according to an Austrian MEP.

Mr Badawi, 34, received the first 50 of his lashes - which his wife says nearly killed him - in a public flogging in 2015 which was filmed and posted on social media, sparking international outrage.

His wife Ensaf Haidar, who tirelessly campaigns for his release, says MEP Josef Weidenholzer phoned her after visiting Riyadh in October and told her that a Royal Pardon is underway.

Hope: Ensaf Haidar, wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, was told by European lawmakers that her husband might be a candidate for a royal pardon

Ms Haidar, mother to the couple's three children and Mr Badawi's wife of 16 years, says she does not know if she dares believe in the promise but tells MailOnline she 'really hopes he will be free soon'.

Weidenholzer was part of a European Parliament delegation which included Members of the Subcommittee on Human Rights which visited Riyadh in October.

Neither he nor the head of the European delegation, former French defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie, has commented on the potential royal pardon.

However, according to a newsletter sent out by the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, which Mr Badawi was awarded in 2015, promises appear to have been made by the Saudis.

It states: 'Following several requests for information about Badawis health, the Saudi Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Society confirmed to the delegation that Badawi is in good health and that a procedure for a Royal Pardon is underway and that he will be pardoned whenever a decision is made in this respect.

Offer: The EU delegation had reportedly been assured of a potential royal pardon of Mr Badawi, pictured before his arrest in 2012, during a visit to Riyadh in October last year

Disgusting: Crowds can be heard cheering as Mr Badawi was publicly flogged 50 times in 2015, a punishment which nearly killed him

Torture: The father-of-three still has 950 lashes and seven years left of his sentence

Saudi Arabia is undergoing fast and unprecedented change since the emergence in June of 32-year-old Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince - and de facto leader - of the world's oil superpower.

He has promised to create a 'moderate' Muslim Saudi Arabia and battle fundamentalism, and the government has since issued highly symbolic decrees lifting bans on women driving and cinemas.

Among other domestic reforms, there have been moves to clip the power of the widely feared religious police and an anti-corruption drive that has led to the arrest of dozens of political and business figures.

'I have faith in Mohammed bin Salman because the prince is putting into practice Raif's ideas,' said Ms Haidar, who has set up the Raif Badawi Foundation to raise awareness of her husband's case.

'Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to modernise Saudi Arabia, Sharia law... that means that he wants to free prisoners of conscience and human rights campaigners too,' she said.

Head up high: Ms Haidar says she does not know if she dares believe in the promise but tells MailOnline she 'really hopes he will be free soon'

Better than nothing: The ascent of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has meant a slight modernization of Saudi Arabia

Other human rights groups are more cautious, however, pointing to continued arrests for dissent in the kingdom amid worries that the crown prince, known by his initials MBS, is an impulsive and authoritarian character.

There have been false hopes for Badawi before, notably in 2015 when a Swiss official said that he could be on a list of prisoners set to be pardoned by King Salman, who frees inmates every year during Ramadan.

A top official at the National Society for Human Rights in Riyadh told AFP that the group had visited Badawi in prison about a month ago.

'We hope that he is on a pardon list, and that he is freed soon,' the official said, but he explained that Badawi's father was a potential obstacle for his release.

Badawi senior has repeatedly supported punishing his son in TV interviews, and his blessing would be needed for him to be released early.

'This problem has to be fixed before he gets a royal pardon,' the official at the National Society for Human Rights said on condition of anonymity.

Haidar, who has been granted asylum by Canada and lives in the French-speaking province of Quebec, said she continued to speak to her husband two or three times a week when he calls on the public prison phone.

Fighter: Ms Haidar has been fighting tirelessly for her husband's release since his arrest and was eventually forced to flee to Canada with their three children

Conversations are short - around 15 minutes - and Badawi tells her little about the conditions of his detention.

'His spirits change,' she said. 'It's harder for Raif to keep believing. I believe because I see the world, social networks... governments that speak about Raif.'

While he remains behind bars more than five years after his arrest, Haidar is bringing up their children now aged 14, 13 and ten as a single mother, but keeps up a campaign internationally to free her husband.

He received the first 50 of his 1,000 lashes in January 2015, but there have been no more following criticism from a host of Western countries and the United Nations.

While in Paris, Haidar hopes to hold meetings with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa.

She has also contacted the cabinet of President Emmanuel Macron, who will welcome Prince Mohammed to Paris in February.

Softly spoken but determined, only once does her composure crack during a conversation with AFP in Paris.

When asked what message she would like to send to the Saudi leader, she chokes up as she recalls her children back in Canada who remember their father only from photographs and are growing up without him.

'I would like to say to Mohammed bin Salman that he should pardon my husband because his children need him,' she said.
Kerim Koroglu (pictured outside the Old Bailey) where he was jailed for 30 months for swindling 32,549

A judge has criticised the Home Office for failing to deport an illegal immigrant who entered the UK on the back of a lorry and illegally claimed 32,000 in benefits.

Kerim Koroglu pocketed handouts he was not entitled to collect for more than six years after he sneaked into the country in a lorry on 30 August 2002.

The 49-year-old used a fake 'leave to remain' letter to swindle 32,549 in housing and council tax benefits from Hackney Council.

The false document, described by prosecutor Will Martin as 'very convenient', purported to grant Koroglu asylum in 2004, enabling him to claim the welfare and bring his wife and two children over from Turkey.

The Alawi Kurd, representing himself, said he had no idea where the letter came from.

But he was convicted of benefit fraud by an Old Bailey jury and jailed for 30 months.

Koroglu now faces deportation after living illegally in the UK for more than 15 years.

Before sentencing the fraudster, judge Mr Recorder Oliver Sells QC, grilled immigration officer Heather Laing on how he was able to use an unsigned letter to dupe the authorities.

The judge said: 'It became clear during the trial that this defendant had, to use your words, exhausted his appeals by the end of 2002 and as you say in your statement he should have left voluntarily at that stage but where people do not do so  putting it bluntly  he should have been deported.'

Ms Laing said: 'Mr Keroglu came into the system when it was very reliant on paper and human investigation, his file became lost in the system and I think that is set out in the witness statement.

'What became of the file at the time I am not aware of but it did come back into light.'

Judge Mr Recorder Oliver Sells QC, grilled an immigration officer on how Koroglu was able to use an unsigned letter to dupe the authorities

HOW DID KERIM KOROGLU REMAIN IN THE UK FOR 16 YEARS? During the trial the judge said there were opportunities between 2002 and 2012 to pick up on Koroglu's crimes and deport him - but they were missed by the Home Office. 2002: Koroglu entered the UK in August 2002 and launched an appeal to remain in the country as a refugee By December 2012 he had exhausted his appeal rights. The Home Secretary at the time was David Blunkett, who held the position from June 2001 - December 2004. 2004: A false document purported to grant Koroglu asylum in 2004 2006: In 2006, he made an application to the London Borough of Hackney for council tax benefit and housing tax benefit. In Spring of that year he brought his wife and children over to the UK. The Home Secretary in until May 2006 was Charles Clarke, before John Reid took over the position, remaining in the role until June 2007. 2012: On May 29, 2012 Koroglu presented his false document to the investigating officer with the intention of misleading the London Borough of Hackney. However authorities became wary and refused his application. The Home Secretary during this time was Theresa May, who held the post May 12, 2010 until July 13, 2016. Advertisement

The judge said: 'None of what happened thereafter would have if the Home Office had carried out its function properly.

'That is the point of enquiry into this case, it is not simply an administrative failure.

'As we have seen in these courts only too frequently, the long term consequences and the substantial costs to the public that should never have been  and still public funds are being expended.

'It is also apparent that there were other opportunities between 2002 and 2012 when these matters finally came to light, which were missed by the Home Office.

'The document itself, I do not know if you have seen it  no, I would like you to see it, this is a letter purportedly dated 14 February 2004 to this defendant in a form with which I would expect you're familiar.

'This letter was for him a very important document indeed with enormous consequences for people in his family, but also for the public  but it is not sent by anybody with a name, there is no signature to refer to and no author to verify  why is that?

'It is opening the way for fraud isn't it? It is making life for dishonest people much easier.

'There were a number of opportunities to assess this letter but it wasn't in fact assessed for many years.'

Koroglu smuggled himself into the country on the back of a truck in 2002 and then used the help of criminals to obtain the false document, the court heard.

Prosecutor Will Martin said: 'Mr Koroglu came to this country seeking asylum in 2002, he made an application as a refugee in August 2002 which was refused.

'He took the matter to appeal, the appeal was not successful and by the end of 2002 Mr Koroglu had no appeal rights left - they were exhausted.

'It was at that point that Mr Keroglu had no basis to be in this country.

'In 2006, Mr Koroglu made an application to the London Borough of Hackney for council tax benefit and housing tax benefit.

The judge said he would be 'failing in his duty to the public' if he gave Koroglu a suspended sentence

Judge Oliver Sells QC Judge Oliver Sells QC specialises in complex criminal cases involving fraud, extradition, money laundering and confiscation. In 2013 he criticised bosses at the Royal Bank of Scotland for system failures which allowed a junior cashier access to customers' accounts as he tried to steal 2.5 million. He has hit the headlines again, this time for lashing out at the Home Office for their failure to detect Keroglu and allow him to slip under the radar and falsely claim tens of thousands of pounds. Advertisement

'These applications it became clear were made on the back of a false 'leave to remain' letter that letter was dated 2004, but it is likely it came into his possession in 2006 because it was in the spring of 2006 that Mr Keroglu started to bring his wife and two children over on the back of the same document with an application for visas made in Istanbul.

'Mr Koroglu maintains and still maintains that he did not know that the letter was false despite correspondence from the Home Office on multiple occasions.

'On 29 May 2012 Mr Koroglu presented the document to the investigating officer with the intention of misleading the London Borough of Hackney.

'In subsequent interviews under caution he sought to blame the Home Office and Home Office administration and that was the account which was maintained and disbelieved at the three day trial in November.'

Koroglu, a married painter and decorator, has three children living in the country, one of whom was born here.

He was convicted of swindling 27,289 in housing benefit and 5,100 in council tax benefit, as well as using false documentation after an Old Bailey trial.

Koroglu, from Shoreditch, denied the offences at the Old Bailey (pictured) but was sentenced to 30 months for obtaining property by deception and 24 months concurrent for obtaining the false documentation

The judge said: 'I have given anxious consideration as to whether it would be right in this case to suspend any sentence.

'I should be failing in my duty to the public if I took such a course, these are serious offences. They are coercive of public trust in the benefits system and they are very difficult to detect.

'The Home Office had both the power and the information which they should and could have used to remove you from this country  their failure to do so reflects upon their conduct at the time.

'But in the final analysis you and those who supported that document where the architects of these actions, while the Home Office could have prevented you by removing you, you have a responsibility to obey the law even if you were here illegally.'

Koroglu, from Shoreditch, denied the offences but was sentenced to 30 months for obtaining property by deception and 24 months concurrent for obtaining the false documentation.

The Home Office and Hackney Council have been approached for comment.
Lebanese fashion brand Elie Saab has been slammed for sharing a photo of Israeli actress Gal Gadot wearing a dress from its collection.

The Wonder Woman star was wearing a blue sash dress by the designer as she appeared at the National Board of Review Awards Gala in New York on Tuesday.

An image of Gadot, 32, then appeared on Elie Saab's Instagram page with a description of the 'flawless' actress in 'Ready-to-Wear Spring Summer 2018'.

Israel and its northern neighbour Lebanon have technically been at war since 1948 and the post immediately sparked a backlash online before being removed altogether.

Lebanese fashion brand Elie Saab has been slammed for sharing a photo of Israeli actress Gal Gadot wearing a blue sash dress from its collection. She is pictured wearing the dress in New York this week

An image of Gadot, 32, appeared on Elie Saab's Instagram page with a description of the 'flawless' actress in 'ELIE SAAB Ready-to-Wear Spring Summer 2018'

The Wonder Woman star was wearing a blue sash dress by designer Elie Saab (pictured) as she appeared at the National Board of Review Awards Gala in New York on Tuesday

Last year, Gadot's superhero film Wonder Woman was banned from Lebanese cinemas

Lebanese journalist Heba Bitar was among those to comment, writing on social media: 'I love and respect Elie Saab, but is he really happy an Israeli actress wore a dress he designed?'

Another social media user wrote: 'I'm not gonna ask why would she wear Elie Saab... but I'm asking why would his team post it? Unacceptable!'

Gadot, who served for two years in the Israeli army as a combat trainer, and director Patty Jenkins were handed the Spotlight Award for their work on the 2017 blockbuster Wonder Woman.

Gadot sparked anger in 2014 when she wrote a Facebook post backing Israeli troops during the Gaza War, which left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead.

More than 60 Israeli soldiers and six Israeli civilians were also killed in the conflict.

The posting of the photograph on Elie Saab's Instagram account sparked anger online

Gadot, who served for two years in the Israeli army as a combat trainer, and director Patty Jenkins were handed the Spotlight Award for their work on the 2017 blockbuster Wonder Woman

In the post she said she was sending prayers to Israeli soldiers 'who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas'.

Lebanon is officially at war with Israel and has a decades-old law that boycotts Israeli products and bars Lebanese citizens from travelling or having contacts with Israelis

Last year, Gadot's superhero film was banned from Lebanese cinemas.

The country's Ministry of Economy issued the ban just before the film was scheduled to premiere.

It was blocked by the government because of the star's nationality and her support for Israel's army, it was reported at the time.

The Israeli actress appeared in reprisals of the Fast and Furious, but none of them were banned in Lebanon.

Crowned Miss Israel, she then went on to serve the mandatory two-year military service in Israel. She then started her acting career and was cast in a series of Hollywood movies and shows, before landing the role of Wonder Woman in Batman Vs Superman.
Pictured: Ann Widdecombe said wolf whistles were 'complimentary'

Ann Widdecombe has insisted wolf whistling is complimentary.

The Celebrity Big Brother contestant said she enjoyed being cat-called by men in her younger years.

Her comments came after she was given a makeover by fellow housemates.

Delighting in the attention from the male contestants, she said their wolf whistles were goodnatured and not sexist.

Speaking in the diary room after her transformation, the former Conservative MP said: 'It's quite nice having men wolf whistling.

'It's supposed to be totally sexist to wolf whistle but it isn't you know. It's a compliment.'

When asked by Big Brother whether she got wolf whistled outside of the house, the 70-year-old quipped: 'I wish'.

She said: 'It's just a cheery expression of appreciation. We're starting to lose our cheerfulness about everything because we're so miserable about everything.

'I mean, a woman who's going along, maybe a bit down and all the rest of it and suddenly some building workers start wolf whistling - cheers her up no end!'

Viewers were divided by Widdecombe's comments with some calling her a hero and others saying her comments were out of touch.

One woman took to Twitter in support of the outspoken MP, writing: 'Ann Widdecombe is officially my new hero, what a woman! Of course its not offensive for men to whistle, any woman that claims it doesnt flatter them is lying. This PC nonsense is negativity in this world we dont need.'

Another however wrote: 'If Ann Widdecombe seriously thinks that being whistled at by builders is a compliment, shes clearly never been on the receiving end.

The former Conservative MP for Maidstone admitted she enjoyed the attention she received from male housemates after having a make-over

'I have never felt more uncomfortable and intimidated in my life than when a group of 20 plus men shout profanities as I walk by on my own.'

Widdecombe, who entered the famous North West London house on January 2, has already been in the news this week following her comments about Prince Harry's fiancee Meghan Markle.

Speaking to fellow contestant Rachel Johnson, the former Minister for State Pensions said she felt 'uneasy' about Miss Markle joining the monarchy because of her 'troubled' background.

The 70-year-old said: 'I think she's trouble', before Johnson asked her why. She replied: 'Background, attitude, I worry.'

Johnson said: 'She's older than him, she's been married before.' And Miss Widdecombe continued: 'Yes, I add it all up and I am uneasy, but there we go.'

Make-over: The Celebrity Big Brother contestant was given a haircut during her transformation

Prince Harry, 33, and Suits actress Meghan, 36, announced their engagement last November and are set to be married on May 19 at St George's Chapel in Windsor.

Some Twitter users were unimpressed with her remarks. One tweeted: 'A rather silly bigoted statement; makes one wonder what background she comes from anyways.'

Another posted on Twitter yesterday: 'Quite a controversial opinion Ann's got there.'

Other housemates this year include Love Island star Jonny Mitchell, Jess Impiazzi from Ex On The Beach and The Apprentice hopeful Andrew Brady.

Widdecombe's negative reaction to Meghan was in stark contrast to that of Brixton after her visit there left the London neighbourhood buzzing with excitement.

Harry and his bride-to-be visited the studios of community radio station Reprezent FM on Tuesday as hundreds of people lined the streets to welcome the couple.
Christopher Rooney, 30, was snared by paedophile hunters who tricked him into thinking he was chatting with a 14-year-old girl

A paedophile who arranged to meet a 14-year-old girl in a park was caught in a sting by online vigilantes.

Christopher Rooney, 30, was caught by paedophile hunters after sex chats with who he thought was a schoolgirl.

The group - called Protecting Children Online UK - compiled evidence including sex videos Rooney had made of himself and sent to the 'girl'.

Prosecutor John Warren said a woman from the vigilante group set up a fake profile pretending to be a schoolgirl when Rooney contacted her.

Mr Warren said: 'She told the defendant she was 14.

'The conversation turned sexual in nature. The defendant asked how she would feel about him kissing her and touching her body.'

Cardiff Crown Court heard Rooney sent the girl sexually explicit photos and videos of himself before arranging to meet in a park in Cardiff.

But Rooney failed to arrive for the meeting in November and the paedophile hunters handed their evidence over to police.

Rooney, from Cathays, Cardiff, admitted attempting to communicate sexually with a child and attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Rooney sent the girl sexually explicit photos and videos of himself before arranging to meet in a park in Cardiff. Rooney is pictured left in July last year and right in August 2016

Adam Sharp, defending, said Rooney suffered from depression and had trouble controlling his emotions.

'He accepts these offences are serious and distrubing,' Mr Sharp said.

Rooney was handed a 14 month suspended sentence and ordered to complete a course for sex offenders.

He was ordered to sign the sex offenders register and made subject to a five year sexual harm prevention order.
Austria's new far-right interior minister has sparked an outcry by saying that his government wants to 'concentrate' asylum-seekers, employing a word widely associated with Nazi camps.

The Freedom Party's Herbert Kickl said he wants 'basic services centres, suitable infrastructure that enables us to concentrate people in the asylum process in one place'.

His comments come as the party's leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who is also Austria's vice-chancellor, said migrants should be held in disused barracks and subjected to curfews in order to restore 'order'

The Freedom Party's Herbert Kickl has come under fire for his proposal to 'concentrate' asylum seekers in one place

Strache said that the plan should be introduced amongst a raft of drastic measures, such as taking money and mobile phones from new arrivals, to combat Europe's 'open' migration policy.

Alexander Pollak, head of migrants charity SOS Mitmensch, called Kickl's comments a 'deliberate provocation' and left-wing essayist Robert Misik said 'a Rubicon has been crossed'.

The opposition Green Party warned against the 'language of National Socialism creeping into our way of thinking and feeling', while the NEOS party said Kickl must apologise for his 'deliberate provocation'.

Heinz-Christian Strache, Austria's vice-chancellor, said he wants migrants housed in barracks

Kickl, who became interior minister last month when his Freedom Party formed a coalition with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's People's Party, later back-peddled, saying he did not 'intend to provoke anyone'.

He said the government would implement a 'very, very strict asylum policy' in response to what he said was a rise in crimes committed by foreigners last year.

The Freedom Party was formed by former Nazis in the 1950s and in the 1990s it was headed by Joerg Haider, whose many controversial comments included calling Hitler's employment methods 'orderly'.

On Wednesday, Austria's main Jewish Religious Community organisation said that it would continue to shun any contact with the party, including with government ministers from the party.
A 5ft 3in jiu jitsu expert who was taken to court after she clashed with a man at a petrol station has hit out at the justice system after the case against her was dropped.

Sydney Winder, 23, was prosecuted after she tackled teacher Greg Turner when he became aggressive over the amount of time it was taking her to pay for fuel.

More than six months later, the assault case against her was finally dropped after previously undisclosed evidence came to light.

Sydney Winder (pictured) was accused of assaulting a teacher in a row at a petrol station in Brighton

Brighton Magistrates court heard Mr Turner challenged Miss Winder at the petrol station last May, abusing her from his car and beeping his horn.

He then approached her making obscene gestures, the court was told, and the row turned violent.

Magistrates were told the martial arts expert punched Mr Turner in the face before she was bundled on to the bonnet of his car. He was then grabbed by another motorist.

When police arrived, Mr Turner was in tears and Ms Winder was arrested, the court heard.

Mr Turner told the court he was angry over the amount of time it took Miss Winder to pay. He said: 'If swearing and shouting is aggressive, then I was aggressive.'

The case against Miss Wider was suddenly dropped this week however when new evidence emerged and she walked free from court.

She hit out at the six months the charge was hanging over her for after new evidence came to light which meant the case was dropped this week

A disclosure error by the police meant witness details were not handed to Miss Winder's defence team.

Magistrate Peter Sutton told her: 'Your case has been dropped because of evidence which was available which the Crown has not disclosed.'

Speaking after the case, Miss Winder told the Brighton Argus: 'It should have been dealt with at the first hearing.

'It has been really stressful for me... I've had it dangling over my head, worrying my mum and my friends.'

She added: 'I didn't want to have anything on my record... This could have really affected my future career. I'm not a bad person.'
Jo Savage (pictured in 2016) was furious when Middlesbrough restaurant The Oven messaged her saying that they were almost refused service based in their appearance

A romantic meal ended in misery for a couple after being branded 'riff raff' by the restaurant.

Furious Jason and Jo Savage complained about the prawns at The Oven, Middlesbrough - only to get a Facebook message saying they were almost refused service 'based on their appearance'.

But the establishment has refused to apologise for the Facebook message.

'It has shocked me to my core - I felt degraded and disgusted,' Mrs Savage, 46.

'We lived in Dubai for five years - we are not riff raff.'

The Teesville pair visited the Middlesbrough restaurant for a 'date night' on Wednesday.

Mrs Savage, a mother-of-one, added: 'We liked the Darlington branch, so we thought we would give this one a go.'

Businessman Jason ordered a chicken parmo, but Jo was disappointed not to see a prawn main course.

'I'm a big prawn connoisseur and love seafood so I asked the waiter if anything could be done,' she added.

'Our salad never arrived and I thought the prawns were rubbery and my husband said he could see the grease on the parmo,' claimed Jo.

After complaining, staff refunded her.

But still upset after leaving, she complained via Facebook of their 'disaster date night'.

A spokesman for Middlesbrough-based The Oven (pictured) said, however, he would not be in a rush to invite the couple back

A manager said staff at the restaurant were simply fighting back to comments he feels 'nobody would accept' in the restaurant trade

It sparked a response from the restaurant's account stating: 'When you arrived at 9.15pm, the waiter didn't want to serve you based on your appearance, against our better judgement we did!

'You received eight prawns, ate six of them and then sent two back and complained they were disgusting after you've eaten the majority and some of your husbands parmo, no wonder you couldn't fit in the last two prawns!'

It ends: 'Lesson learned, always trust your better judgement, next time we will protect our customers from riff raff.'

A manager said staff at the restaurant were simply fighting back to comments he feels 'nobody would accept' in the restaurant trade.

But Jo feels the comments about their appearance overstepped the line.

'I had a peach jumper with pull-up sleeves, which was brand new and some shiny black leather pants and boots which were also brand new as they were my Christmas clothes,' said Jo.

Mother-of-one Mrs Savage said that she would be revisiting the eatery because she feels the comments regarding their appearance had overstepped the mark

'Jason had a Henry Lloyd top, which cost 70 and isn't cheap or scruffy - we were dressed smartly.

'We are in the home fragrance business, so we are very clean people.

'I've never ever been called riff raff in my life. For someone to say that, I can't put into words how sick I felt.'

A restaurant spokesman said, however, he would not be in a rush to invite the couple back.

'We took a meal off their bill but they still criticised us on Facebook - we bent over backwards for them,' he said.

'It is normal for people to make complaints in this industry, where we usually return that with a voucher or an apology.

'We are very happy about what we do, we work 14-hour-days to deliver a good product for the town.

'We respect everyone who comes to see us and usually they respect us back. Would I accept them back as customers - why should I?'

However, the couple said they will not return to the restaurant.

'We will stay away,' added Mrs Savage.
Dramatic audio has revealed how a passenger plane was forced to abort landing at a runway already occupied by a packed passenger jet.

Aeromexico Flight 668 from Mexico City had been cleared to land Tuesday and it was about a mile from the airport when controllers saw the aircraft was lined up for a runway occupied by a Virgin America Airbus A320 jet waiting to take off for Kona, Hawaii, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday.

The tower quickly ordered the Aeromexico Boeing 737 jet to circle around when they noticed the impending disaster.

'Aeromexico 668 go around!' an air traffic controller is heard saying on audio recordings, the newspaper reported.

Audio was also obtained by KRON-TV.

The mishap is the third at the San Francisco International Airport in just six months.

For the third time in the last six month, an airplane nearly landed on an occupied runway at San Francisco International Airport (seen above in the stock image)

An Aeromexico passenger jet was coming in for a landing on Runway 28R, seen on the right of this picture, when controllers asked for the crew to abort their landing

The pilot quickly acknowledges the request to abort the landing: 'Aeromexico 668 going around.'

The plane later safely landed, said Ian Gregor, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.

He said the FAA has opened an investigation.

An Air Canada flight crew landed in October on one of the airport's runways despite repeated warnings to abort because a controller believed another airplane had not left the area yet.

Aeromexico Flight 668 from Mexico City had been cleared to land Tuesday and it was about a mile from the airport. An Aeromexico plane is seen in the above stock image

Controllers saw the aircraft was lined up for a runway occupied by a Virgin America Airbus A320 jet waiting to take off for Kona, Hawaii. A Virgin American Airbus A320 is seen in the above stock image

Air Canada flight 781 from Montreal was given initial clearance to land but the air traffic controller then gave six orders to 'go around' and abort its landing because it believed another plane may still have been on the runway.

The pilot landed the plane anyway.

The Airbus A320 was initially cleared to land on Runway 28R.

The crew acknowledged their clearance as they were about six miles away from the airport.

Shortly afterwards, the Air Canada crew was told six times in 36 seconds to abort the landing and 'go-around' after concerns that another plane that had arrived just beforehand would still be on the runway.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said that the crew acknowledged the tower's initial clearance to land but did not respond to the subsequent orders.

In July, an Air Canada jet (like the one seen in the above stock image) with 140 people on board nearly landed on one of the airport's taxiways where four planes were waiting to take off, prompting the FAA to issue new rules for nighttime landings and control tower staffing at SFO

In July, an Air Canada jet with 140 people on board nearly landed on one of the airport's taxiways where four planes were waiting to take off, prompting the FAA to issue new rules for nighttime landings and control tower staffing at the airport.

Air Canada flight 759 from Toronto was descending toward a taxiway holding four other planes rather than the assigned runway and narrowly avoided disaster at SFO on July 7 at 11.56pm.

Data obtained by The Mercury News reveals that the Air Canada plane was at roughly 106 feet in the air when it flew over the second fully loaded Philippine Airlines jet that was in the second place on the runway waiting for take off.

The Air Canada plane was still continuing its descent when the pilot was told to abort the landing.

A flight crew member from a jet on the taxiway alerted both the Air Canada pilot and the air traffic controller over the radio about how close the Airbus 320 was to causing a disaster.

But once it passed the second plane, the Air Canada jet continued to drop as low as 81 feet above a United Airlines 787 plane - the third plane in line for takeoff - before it began to climb, The Mercury News reported.
A bouncer jailed for felling a drinker with a single punch has been sent back to prison for the same incident after his victim died four years later.

Neil Hotchkiss, 37, left father-of-three Scott Taylor lying unconscious on the pavement after knocking him out in 2012.

Hotchkiss, from Telford, Shropshire, was originally jailed for 16 months after he admitted causing grievous bodily harm in March 2014.

But grandfather Mr Taylor died following four years of agony and around the clock care and Hotchkiss was brought back before a judge to face a fresh charge of manslaughter.

And today he was told to serve a further two years behind bars after admitting the killing at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.

Neil Hotchkiss (left), 37, left father-of-three Scott Taylor (right) lying unconscious on the pavement after he knocked him out cold with one fatal blow

Mr Taylor had been enjoying a drink at the Bar Station in Wellington, Shropshire, when the doorman asked him to leave on August 17, 2012.

After an exchange of words outside, Hotchkiss floored his victim, who was rushed to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in a critical condition.

He suffered a skull fracture and extensive brain damage from the fall and was left wheelchair-bound and with a severely dented head.

Mr Taylor survived the attack but suffered a stroke, had epilepsy, was paralysed and relied on carers until his death, the court heard.

Hotchkiss, of Telford, Shropshire, was originally jailed for 16 months after he admitted causing grievous bodily harm in March 2014.

But sentencing Hotchkiss today, Judge Paul Glenn said: 'This is a tragic case.

Mr Taylor (pictured, in hospital and in his wheelchair) survived the attack but suffered a stroke, had epilepsy, was paralysed and relied on carers round the clock up until his death, a court heard

The injuries Mr Taylor suffered as a result of the attack were 'life changing' and 'devastating'

'The illness sustained by Mr Taylor was both life-changing and devastating and was so serious that he could not live independently.

'All that was a result of your actions.'

Robert Price, prosecuting, said on the night Mr Taylor was inside the bar and the defendant had been supervising the front door.

Mr Price added: 'Mr Taylor walked towards the front door with a pint which he wanted to take outside to drink. Mr Hotchkiss told him he wasn't allowed.

'As he went back inside, Mr Taylor started to swear. At that point Hotchkiss and a colleague decided to eject him.

'They told him he had a bad attitude and that he should go to another pub or go home.

Left, Mr Taylor after the devastating attack and right, Hotchkiss who was handed two years in prison for manslaughter

'Mr Taylor may have been upset but was not being aggressive.

'There comes a stage when Mr Taylor goes towards Hotchkiss. If contact was made it was only light.

'The defendant reacts by punching Mr Taylor. He falls backwards heavily and his head contacts heavily with the ground.

'Mr Taylor suffered grave and life-changing injuries and died from complications because of those injuries.'

Martin Lidyard, defending, said the defendant accepted that he was likely to return to jail.

He added: 'We would like to make it quite clear to the court and to perhaps to Mr Taylor's family that there was never any intention not to accept responsibility.'

Speaking outside her home tonight, Mr Taylor's daughter, Kirsty, 23, told MailOnline: 'The thing is, it's not a two year sentence, because he's only going to serve half, and he served half before, so he'll have done a year and half overall.

'I still don't think it's fair. Obviously I'm not happy with it [the sentence], but I can't change it, so I'll just have to deal with it.

'I was in court for the sentencing. He didn't really show any remorse.'

Speaking at the time Hotchkiss was originally jailed, Ms Taylor branded the 16 month sentence an 'utter disgrace'.

The incident unfolded after Mr Taylor was refused entry to the Station pub (pictured) in Wellington, Shropshire in March 2014

She said: 'It's just ridiculous. There's shoplifters that get longer than that.

'My dad's life is ruined, he can't get up, he can't get out of bed himself, he can't even sit up himself.

'I remember it like it was yesterday. The police knocked on the door at 4am and rushed me to hospital. He was in intensive care and they didn't think he was going to survive.

'He had blood clots and hemorrhages and was on life support for quite a long time.

'And since it happened he has been in hospital more than he has been out. He also had a stroke but they don't know if that is linked or not.

'I'm just so angry that it's such a short sentence. He will serve half of it so will be out in eight months and can carry on with everything as normal.

'He was using the sob story in court that he has got eight kids.

'Dad just says the same as me that it is ridiculous and he is angry too - it is an utter disgrace.'
Five Mexican states have been issued with new travel advisories by the State Department that puts them on a footing with war-torn Yemen and Syria.

US citizens are being told not to travel to Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, or Tamaulipas state due to widespread violent crime and gang activity.

The states were issued with a level 4 warning on Wednesday under new State Department guidance, the same level as Afghanistan, Somalia and North Korea.

Guerrero, one of the country's most violent states, is also home to Acapulco, a popular tourist resort on the Pacific coast.

These five Mexican states have been issued with a level 4 travel warning by the State Department, putting them on a par with Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan

Mexico as a whole is under a level 2 advisory, meaning tourists should 'exercise increased caution'.

'Violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread,' the State Department warns.

But another 11 states are under a level 3 warning, meaning travelers should 'reconsider' their plans.

Again crime and gang activity are the two most commonly listed causes, alongside travel restrictions on US government employees meaning they have a 'limited ability to provide emergency services'.

Colima was once considered Mexico's safest state but saw a three-fold increase in murders between 2015 and 2016.

Armed police patrol in Guerrero state which is torn between the Guerreros Unidos and Los Rojos cartels, and one of the states named on the list

In 2016 Colima had the most murders of any Mexican territory despite having the lowest population, due mostly to cartel violence.

The state is believed to be under the control of Jalisco New Generation, the former armed wing of El Chapo's Sinaloa cartel that splintered off when he was jailed, though the two gangs are fighting for control.

Guerrero is disputed territory between the Guerreros Unidos and Los Rojos cartels, according to Newsweek, with the State Department saying 'these groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence towards travelers'.

Michoacan, sandwiched between Colima and Guerrero states, is also disputed territory but in 2016 the New Family cartel announced its arrival in area, apparently a successor to the Michoacana Family gang which was wiped out in 2010.

Sinaloa state, further up the coast, is the sole territory of El Chapo's former gang which bears the state's name as its own.

Finally the border state of Tamaulipas, on the Gulf of Mexico, is also frequently fought over but is currently controlled by the Gulf Cartel, according to the BBC.

COLIMA - MEXICO'S MOST VIOLENT STATE

The Pacific coastal state of Colima has seen a dramatic rise in the number of murders in the last two years.

Once considered one of the safest states in the country, Colima's murder rate jumped three-fold between 2015 and 2016, according to the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute.

This is by far the largest increase in crime of any state in a country that has seen its overall murder rate more than double since 2007 - the year the government launched an offensive against the drug cartels.

Although Colima is Mexico's least populous state with just 700,000 people, in 2016 its murder rate was 71 homicides per 100,000 people.

Colima is symptomatic of what has been ailing parts of the country that were once considered free of cartel-linked violence.

The body of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez is put on a stretcher by forensic personnel and investigators after he was shot dead in Culiacan, Sinaloa, in May 2017

Since the Mexican government has teamed up with the United States in their war to defeat the cartels, the security forces have succeeded in killing or imprisoning the leaders of these criminal organizations.

The loss of leadership forced these criminal gangs to splinter off into smaller organizations and branch out into nontraditional areas to expand their turf.

Experts say the uptick in violence in Colima could be traced to El Chapo's escape from prison in 2015 and his subsequent recapture in January 2016.

It has been speculated that the demise of El Chapo led to a power struggle within the Sinaloa cartel, factions of which were said to be determined to keep him isolated from the organization's activities.

SINALOA - THE DRUG CAPITAL OF MEXICO

El Chapo's downfall triggered a fierce battle for succession among rivals in his notorious cartel.

The Sinaloa cartel is considered one of - if not, the most - powerful criminal organization in the country.

According to experts, the uptick in violence in Sinaloa can be explained by a three-sided turf war for El Chapo's criminal empire that has left a trail of dead bodies.

One group is led by Guzman's right-hand man, Damaso Lopez Nunez, who knows the cartel's operations inside-out and helped his extradited boss escape prison twice.

Another is led by two of the extradited kingpin's sons, Jesus Alfredo and Ivan Archivaldo, who say they are the rightful heirs to his drug-running empire.

The third is led by Guzman's brother Aureliano 'El Guano' Guzman, who controls the area around their hometown, Badiraguato.

Since Guzman's extradition in January 2016, a bloodbath has engulfed Sinaloa, the western state where the cartel is based.

Mexican government officials have long maintained that they do not have the resources necessary to curb the violence there.

Forensic personnel and members of the police inspect the bodies of twelve people who were found in El Chaco community, Sinaloa State, Mexico on June 9, 2014

MICHOACAN - THE BIRTHPLACE OF MEXICO'S DRUG WAR

Michoacan has been one of the bloodiest states in Mexico because of battles between rival gangs involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion of local businesses as well as mineral theft and illegal logging.

The situation had deteriorated to the point where in 2014 the federal government effectively took control of Michoacan for over a year in a bid to curb violence between drug gangs and community militias that had risen up to fight extortion and kidnappings.

Why is this region of western Mexico considered important?

That's because it is the home of one of the largest producers and exporters of methamphetamine to the United States, according to Vice.

Michoacan is also the state that has the country's most important port, Lazaro Cardenas, which has been used by drug traffickers as a strategic transfer point.

In 2006, a drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana begins to make its presence felt with gruesome displays of severed heads belonging to supposed rivals.

In December 2006, then-President Felipe Calderon decided enough was enough and sent 7,000 soldiers into his home state of Michoacan in hopes of crushing cartel-fueled violence.

The government-backed war leads to an escalation of violence, with cartels committing acts of murder against civilians.

The bloodshed only gets worse as the cartel organizations are wracked with in-fighting and internecine turf wars that claim more lives.

GUERRERO - 'KEY TO THE HEROIN TRADE'

This past November, it was reported in The Guardian that workers at the government-run morgues in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero walked off the job because there was simply no more room to store the dead bodies.

The violence in Guerrero, an impoverished state that boasts of the tourist-friendly beach resort Acapulco and a mountainous hinterland that is considered one of the country's poorest areas, led to entire towns being abandoned.

Schools have also been shut down and the violence has even led bus companies to no longer provide service in the area.

By the end of 2017, the number of homicides in Guerrero approached 2,000, an increase of over 100 compared to 2016.

Guerrero's surge in violent crime can be traced to its significance in the heroin trade.

The state produces more than half of Mexico's opium poppies, which is the base ingredient for heroin.

Drug cartels have taken advantage of the growing demand for heroin in the US.

According to The Washington Post, more than 90 percent of the heroin consumed by Americans originates in Mexico.

In order to meet the growing demand, poppy production has been ramped up by 800 percent in less than a decade.

In years past, there was one cartel in charge. It maintained its grip on the lucrative heroin trade by paying off police and state officials so that they could freely move their products north.

But in recent years splinter groups of criminal gangs have upended the traditional hierarchy.

This, in turn, has led to the rise of civilian-led militias. These turf wars have led to increased violence and bloodshed while the government struggles to exert control.

Four of nine corpses are seen hanging from a bridge in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas state, in May 2012

TAMAULIPAS - A BATTLEGROUND FOR THE CARTELS

Tamaulipas, the northeastern Mexican state that borders Texas, was once known as a quaint region that offered delicious beef and exportable vegetables.

But in recent years, that reputation has changed. It is known today as a region that has become part of a turf war between powerful cartels seeking control of the key trade route where drugs are transported to the US.

According to Splinter, Tamaulipas' importance to the drug trade has only grown since American demand for narcotics has surged exponentially.

Drugs that are shipped from Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela make their way to the Yucatan Peninsula. From there, they are transported to Tamaulipas before they reach their destination across the border.

The Mexican army is known to confiscate large quantities of drugs in Tamaulipas every day, though it is difficult to say exactly how much.

Tamaulipas is the birthplace of the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico's oldest and most notorious crime syndicates.

During Prohibition, the Gulf Cartel engaged in the lucrative business of smuggling whiskey into the US.

The cartel's business continued to flourish, only in recent decades its product of choice was cocaine.

But a factional split between the cartel and former Mexican military soldiers who worked as enforcers for the organization but then broke off and formed their own syndicate plunged the region into bloodshed.

Massacres and kidnappings have become all too commonplace since violence escalated dramatically beginning in 2010.
King of lap-dancing Peter Stringfellow today threatened to pull his support and money from the Tory Party unless they ditch Brexit.

The gentleman's club tycoon, who has donated more than 40,000 to the Conservatives since 2003, said he will walk away from the party unless Theresa May radically changes direction.

And he has waned that he could throw his support behind the Lib Dems - who want to reverse the referendum and stay in the EU - instead.

Mr Stringfellow, 77, said: 'I'm quitting the Tories unless they change their direction and lead us towards Remain.

'I can't live with the fact that I'm supporting a party that is totally against what I think is good for our country.'

The millionaire gentleman's club owner said he believes the 'price is too high' for the UK to quit the Brussels club.

Peter Stringfellow (pictured with Theresa May) who has donated more than 40,000 to the Conservatives since 2003, said he will walk away from the party unless the PM radically changes direction

And he tore into the Prime Minister's leadership saying he has 'never known our country so divided'.

He told the Evening Standard: 'We are heading for, if not disaster, certainly not something that is good for the future of Great Britain.'

He said he has 'respect' for Mrs May, but tore into her bungled cabinet reshuffle earlier this week as 'very weak'.

He added: 'She is a Remainer. I would like Mrs May to follow her heart, stand up and go into the history books as the Prime Minister who said enough is enough.'

But the three-times married businessman said that despite his opposition to Brexit he is not tempted to support hard-left Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He said: 'If they (the Tories) carry on with Brexit, I will stop supporting them immediately and would join Vince Cable and the Lib Dems.'

It comes as Nigel Farage today called for a second Brexit referendum saying another vote could be the only way to 'kill off' the issue amid relentless resistance from Europhiles like Nick Clegg and Tony Blair.

Peter Stringfellow (pictured with his wife Bella in 2012) has waned that he could throw his support behind the Lib Dems - who want to reverse the referendum and stay in the EU - instead

Speaking on Channel 5's Wright Stuff, Mr Farage said he thought the result this time would be more decisive, with a bigger victory for Leave.

'I think if you have a second referendum on EU membership you kill it off for a generation,' he said.

The intervention sent odds on another national poll tumbling, was hailed by Remainers, and shocked Mr Farage's allies.

But he was immediately condemned by Leave supporters from across parties - who jibed that he had either 'gone mad' or was 'chasing headlines'.

Tory MP Crispin Blunt told Mail Online: 'Has he gone mad? My instinctive view is that he appears to have become deranged.

'The people have taken the decision, they have taken the decision for the next 40 years if it's the parallel to the 1975 referendum.

'They are not taking a decision for next week that needs to be pored over and re-examined and for another opportunity for people to say it again.

'I just think if that's his position it's daft.'
Brian Martin (pictured outside court) where he was charged with sexual offences

A former chair of governors at a private school appeared before magistrates today accused of sexually assaulting boys and girls aged between 13-17.

Brian Martin is charged with the offences which are alleged to have taken place between 2005 and 2010.

The 68-year-old pleaded not guilty to seven sexual offences against children allegedly committed at Queen Ethelburga's College in North Yorkshire.

The charges include inciting a boy aged 14 or 15 to engage in sexual activity.

Martin appeared at Harrogate Magistrates Court in North Yorkshire and sat next to his solicitor as he denied all seven offences.

Addressing the court clerk, prosecutor Jane Chadwick said: 'It is my application that these matters be sent to the crown court.

'The defendant already faces trial in relation to other linked matters. My application is that these matters are heard at the same court.'

The 68-year-old pleaded not guilty to seven sexual offences against children allegedly committed at Queen Ethelburga's College in North Yorkshire (pictured)

A magistrate told Martin: 'The court refuses jurisdiction and will be sending these matters to the crown court.'

When the court clerk asked Martin's solicitor, Chris Saltrese, about the 'matters in issue' he replied: 'The offences did not happen.'

Martin, from Ferrensby in North Yorkhire, was told by the magistrate: 'Your case is being sent to York Crown Court on February 9.

'In the meantime you will have unconditional bail - you are free to go.'

Prosecutor Jane Chadwick told the court Martin would face trial for these and other linked offences at Leeds Crown Court on May 29.
A mother-of-three from Michigan who made up a fake story about a violent kidnapping and gang rape, and later tried to escape from custody, has been sentenced to prison.

Leiha Ann-Sue Artman appeared in Muskegon County Court on January 4, which coincided with her 27th birthday, and was handed a sentence of 13 months to four years after pleading guilty to a charge of resisting and obstructing police.

When given a chance to speak, Artman told the presiding judge that her substance abuse problem was to blame for her history of wrongdoings and admitted that she needs 'professional help' to stop her life from spiraling out of control.

'I don't want to die before I reach 30,' she said in court, as Mlive.com first reported.

Leiha Ann-Sue Artman, 27, has been sentenced to 13 months to four years in prison, nearly two years after she made up a kidnapping and rape story (right, a picture sent to her boyfriend during the ruse)

Artman has pleaded guilty to a charge of resisting and obstructing police after trying to escape from Mercy Health in Muskegon on October 10, 2017

To which Muskegon County Circuit Judge Annette Smedley replied: 'Ms. Artman, I sure hope this is the last time.'

In March 2016, Artman claimed she was abducted when a group of four black men stopped to ask her for directions while she stood in the driveway of her home in Montague.

The then-26-year-old woman said the men threw her in the trunk of their car, beat her up and sexually assaulted her at an unknown location.

During the two days she was missing, her boyfriend received photographs of her in which she appeared gagged, bound and bleeding from the head.

The kidnapping story turned out to have been fabricated, and in October 2016 Artman was sentenced to one year behind bars after admitting to one count of making a false report of a felony.

The mother of three is a former heroin addict. She's pictured above with one of her children

At first, Artman escaped having to spend any of her sentence in an actual prison, when she was immediately put into a 'swift and sure' intensive probation program, and then a residential jail alternative program.

But she violated the terms of her probation on October 1, 2017, when she went missing from her residential program.

A warrant was issued for her arrest, and she was caught on or before October 10, when jail corrections officers took her to Mercy Health Partners to be 'treated and examined.

Troubled: Artman told a judge that her substance abuse problem was to blame for her history of wrongdoings and admitted that she needs 'professional help'

'It's alleged that while at the hospital, she attempted to flee the custody of the deputies who transported her,' Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat told MLive.com.

Artman ran out onto the street, but she was pursued by deputies who quickly caught her.

Since her conviction, authorities said a warrant has been issued for Artman's arrest on three other occasions, when she violated the terms of her parole.

The first happened in June 20, 2017, after she used alcohol and cocaine on two separate occasions.

On July 18, another warrant was issued when she failed to submit to substance abuse testing.

And on September 7, she got a third strike for again using cocaine.
One Democratic lawmaker is already planning to boycott President Trump's first State of the Union address later this month, while the women of the party will don black clothes to show support for the #MeToo movement.

The Hill newspaper reported that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, and other female members of the party are taking a page from the women of Hollywood, who wore black dresses to Sunday's Golden Globes awards to show solidarity with victims of sexual harassment and assault.

Democratic lawmakers are also planning to invite victims of sexual misconduct and activists on the issue to be their guests in Washington for the evening, taking another cue from the actresses at the Globes.

President Trump (center), seen at his first address to Congress in 2017, will face protests and boycotts from Democrats as he gives his first official State of the Union address to lawmakers later this month

Democratic women are taking a cue from Hollywood by wearing black and inviting guests who are victims or advocates for victims of sexual harassment and assault. Here actresses Meryl Streep (left) and Michelle Williams (center right) pose with activists Ai-jen Poo (center left) and Tarana Burke (right)

Last year, on the heels of Hillary Clinton's loss, Democratic women wore white, the color of the suffragettes to President Trump's first joint address before Congress

Democratic women's white outfits worked as a visual protest during President Trump's first joint address before Congress. This year the Democratic women will wear black to show solidarity with the #MeToo movement and victims of harassment and sexual assault

Capitol Hill has been plagued with a number of its own scandals as of late, with lawmakers leaving Congress for doing everything from discussing surrogacy with female staffers to talking about an aide's nipples.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has committed to wearing black to this year's State of the Union address

While one of the most prominent Democrats in Congress, Sen. Al Franken, left the body last week over groping and kissing allegations, the party is likely trying to send a message about the most high-profile politician accused of sexual misconduct, the president himself.

Last year, on the heels of Hillary Clinton's defeat, members of the Democratic Womens Working Group wore white to Trump's first joint address before Congress, in honor of the suffragettes.

Clinton, herself, wore white during key moments of her 2016 presidential campaign.

This year the women settled on wearing black after watching the Golden Globes.

'What we want is to really continue the conversation about sexual harassment in the workplace, about disparity of salaries where people work in the same job and also getting paid for the value of your work,' Rep. Lois Frankel, a Florida Democrat, told the Hill.

She's the leader of the Democratic Women's Working Group.

She added that lawmakers' black ensembles won't likely be as fashion-forward as the women in Hollywood.

'I don't expect to see diamonds or a lot of flesh,' the congresswoman remarked.

So far only Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, has said he plans to skip the speech, but that number could increase.

'Rather than listening to another destructive, divisive speech by Trump, I will not attend this years annual address to Congress,' Blumenauer tweeted on January 5. 'Instead, like I did during his inauguration, I'll be working at home listening to Oregonians about what they think about the State of the Union.'

Last year, for Trump's joint address  the speech becomes the State of the Union after the president's first year in office  Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters of California and Al Green of Texas both sat out.

Green told the Hill Wednesday that he'll soon announce his plans for the January 30 speech.

Green is one of a handful of Democrats who's been calling for Trump's impeachment.

Two other Democratic lawmakers howling for impeachment, Reps. Ted Lieu of California and Steve Cohen of Tennessee told the Hill they do, however, plan to attend.

Beyond wearing black, there are other ways Democrats in attendance can make a scene.

Both the White House and members of Congress will be sending political messages through the guests they invite.

An aide of Frankel's told NBC News that some lawmakers will be bringing victims of sexual violence and activists on the issue to the speech.

However, several Democrats told the network that there had been no discussion of bringing any of the women who have accused the president of misdeeds.

If Democrats did such a thing, it would give Trump a dose of his own medicine, as he brought a handful of Bill Clinton's sexual misconduct accusers to be his guests at the second presidential debate against Hillary Clinton on the heels of the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape, which caught the candidate boasting about grabbing women by the 'p***y.'
Moira Donegan, 28, identified herself as the author of the 's****y media men' spreadsheet on Wednesday night

The journalist behind a viral spreadsheet which alleged sexual misconduct against 70 male media figures outed herself on Wednesday after losing her job and in fear that she was about to be exposed by a magazine.

Moira Donegan, 28, named herself as the author of the 'S***y media men 'Google document in an article for The Cut which was published on Wednesday night.

The New York-based journalist said the decision was prompted by an extraordinary Twitter firestorm on Tuesday night which saw countless people name themselves as the spreadsheet's author to protect her after it was claimed that Harper's Magazine planned to reveal her identity in a forthcoming article.

Harper's insists the claim was premature and inaccurate and that it had no intention of identifying Donegan unless she expressly agreed to being named.

In her article on Wednesday, Donegan did not reveal whether it was any experience of her own which kicked off the spreadsheet, or if she started it by posting the accounts of friends.

Within hours of her sending it to her own female friends in October, it went viral.

In her piece for The Cut, Donegan, who is a freelance writer with credits in The New Yorker, The Tab, RealClear Politics and The London Review of Books, said only that she created it to give female journalists who were not privy to an existing 'whisper network' of allegations access to warnings against men in the industry and a place for them to share their own claims.

'When I first shared the spreadsheet among my women friends and colleagues, it took on the intense sincerity of our most intimate conversations,' she said, giving no details of the first allegations that were listed.

Since creating it, Donegan said she has lost her job but did not reveal the circumstances which led to her departure from it.

Within 12 hours of making it, she took it offline but it had already fallen into the email inboxes of countless journalists. It spawned investigations which led to some of the men listed leaving their jobs or being fired, she said.

Within 12 hours of creating the spreadsheet (above), 70 different men were listed as alleged abusers. Some were accused of multiple, violent attacks

Among men named on the document who have since lost their jobs over sexual misconduct claims is former New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza.

Lizza, who won acclaim for his explosive reporting in the summer over White House comms director Anthony Scaramucci, was dismissed in December and complained at the time that he was let go 'hastily and without full investigation'.

'I was incredibly naive when I made the spreadsheet.

On the document, he was described as being 'creepy in the DMs.' The New Yorker has not revealed whether the spreadsheet prompted its investigation.

It is not known how many of the 70 named were investigated or how many remain in their jobs.

Donegan said only that her life had become 'frightening' since she made the document, a decision she now says was 'naive'.

She also claimed that 'some' of the men named were fired or left their jobs as a result of investigations prompted by the spreadsheet. She did not name them.

'In October, I created a Google spreadsheet called Sh***y Media Men that collected a range of rumors and allegations of sexual misconduct, much of it violent, by men in magazines and publishing.

Former New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza was among the names on the list. He was fired from in December over alleged sexual misconduct which he denies. The spreadsheet claimed he was 'creepy in the DM's', a reference to Twitter's private messaging service

'In the weeks after the spreadsheet was exposed, my life changed dramatically. I lost friends: some who thought I had been overzealous, others who thought I had not been zealous enough. I lost my job, too.

'The fear of being exposed, and of the harassment that will inevitably follow, has dominated my life since. Ive learned that protecting women is a position that comes with few protections itself,' Donegan wrote.

Within hours of creating the spreadsheet, Donegan said it sped out of her control.

She deleted it 12 hours after it was made but duplicated versions and screenshots of the original document are still circulating.

They include multiple allegations of rape and sexual assault alongside less severe accounts of crude remarks made my male media figures.

Donegan said the document was never meant to be taken as gospel and was intended only as a tool for female journalists to arm themselves with when navigating the industry.

'The value of the spreadsheet was that it had no enforcement mechanisms: Without legal authority or professional power, it offered an impartial, rather than adversarial, tool to those who used it.

'It was intended specifically not to inflict consequences, not to be a weapon,' she wrote.

The document included allegations against dozens of men including photographers, writers, editors and producers.

The allegations varied between inappropriate lunch invitations to repeated claims of rape and violence against some men. The worst alleged offenders' names were highlighted in red.

Recipients could add to it at free will, leaving it anonymous. At the top, a disclaimer read: 'This document is only a collection of misconduct allegations and rumors.

'Take everything with a grain of salt.'

On Wednesday, Donegan explained how she simply wanted to create a space for the allegations to be shared which but said it was naive to not predict the attention it received.

'I was incredibly naive when I made the spreadsheet. I was naive because I did not understand the forces that would make the document go viral.

Donegan, a freelance writer, received an email from a Harper's Magazine fact checker which said writer Katie Roiphe (right) had identified her in a piece due to be published in March. Roiphe has since insisted that she would not have identified Donegan without her consent but the email prompted a Twitter row and nass condemnation of Harper's

As rumors that Donegan would be identified spread, scores of female protectors named themselves as the spreadsheet creator to try to discredit any later report

Huffington Post report Yashar Ali, who delivers regular reports on the sexual harassment scandal, compared the scenario to the famous I Am Spartacus scene

Donegan named herself on Wednesday after the Twitter storm. She said she decided to speak out because her being identified seemed inevitable

'I was naive because I thought that the document would not be made public, and when it became clear that it would be, I was naive because I thought that the focus would be on the behavior described in the document, rather than on the document itself. It is hard to believe, in retrospect, that I really thought this. But I did,' she wrote.

Despite the row, she said she was empowered by how 'explosive' it had been.

Donegan is a freelance journalist who graduated from Bard College, a private liberal-arts college, in 2012

'The experience of making the spreadsheet has shown me that it is still explosive, radical, and productively dangerous for women to say what we mean.

'Among the most potent of these powers is the knowledge of our own experiences.

'The women who used the spreadsheet, and who spread it to others, used this power in a special way, and Im thankful to all of them,' she wrote.

On October 12, BuzzFeed writer Doree Shafrir wrote an article describing the spreadsheet but did not name its creator. The entire spreadsheet was later published in full, after being circulated among female journalists for weeks, on a Reddit page.

Dongon deleted the version she created 12 hours after she made it.

She claims in her article for The Cut that 'some men left their jobs or were fired' as a result of it.

Her article was the result of the an overnight Twitter storm on Tuesday which erupted when users shared unconfirmed rumors, which have since been refuted, that a Harper's article due to be published in its March issue was going to name her.

'The fear of being exposed, and of the harassment that will inevitably follow, has dominated my life since. Ive learned that protecting women is a position that comes with few protections itself

'I just heard about the forthcoming story outing the woman who created the S****y Media Men list.

'I'm struggling to see the journalistic value in doing such a thing, let alone the ethical argument for putting a target on a woman's back for merely trying to protect other women,' said one person.

As the unconfirmed claim that Donegan would be exposed spread, Twitter users who were familiar with the list - many of whom did not know her identity - named themselves en masse as its author to try to discredit any report that would later identify her.

They tagged Harper's, which had by now been identified as the magazine, and said they would sue it if they named Donegan as the author.

'I created and curated the list. I have a comfortable position outside the media glare, but maintain access to "insiders". Any other name you print will raise the possibility of a lawsuit,' said one of Donegan's protectors.

Donegan spoke again on Thursday to thank the people who had sent her 'solidarity and kindness' since she identified herself

The stunt was likened to the famous 'I Am Spartacus!' scene when a group of slaves leap up and take identify themselves as the hunted Kirk Douglas in order to save him from death.

Soon, writer Katie Roiphe was named as the journalist behind the piece.

Before Donegan's piece in The Cut was published, Roiphe denied that she ever planned to out the spreadsheet's author.

In an email to The New York Times on Tuesday, she said: 'I am looking forward to talking about what is actually in the piece when it actually comes out.

'I am not "outing" anyone. I have to say its a little disturbing that anyone besides Trump views Twitter as a reliable news source.'

Donegan, however, shared details of an email she had received from one of Harper's fact checkers which she interpreted as proof that she would be named whether she participated or not.

'In early December, Roiphe had emailed me to ask if I wanted to comment for a story she was writing on the feminist moment. She did not say that she knew I had created the spreadsheet.

Roiphe defended her emails to the write on Thursday, insisting that she was trying to bait her to identify herself willingly when she had her fact checker get involved

'I declined and heard nothing more from Roiphe or Harper's until I received an email from a fact checker with questions about Roiphes piece.

'Katie identifies you as a woman widely believed to be one of the creators of the Shitty Men in Media List, the fact checker wrote. Were you involved in creating the list? If not, how would you respond to this allegation?' she said.

Roiphe has since claimed that she was 'testing' whether or not Donegan would identify herself.

She suggested that the fact checker, who has not been named, was merely baiting her into identifying herself on the record and that they would not have published Donegan's name otherwise.

'I understand why people are confused about my intentions. Moira Donegan refused to speak to me so I involved a fact checker in the reporting process.

'It seemed to me, for various reasons, that Moira might want to claim responsibility for the list, and I was testing that premise.

'To keep perspective: the list itself is a very small part of long piece that has not yet closed. The question of who created the list was not in any way important to the piece.'

Harper's Magazine spokesman Giulia Melucci labeled Roiphe the victim of a 'feminist Twitter campaign' afterwards.

She told DailyMail.com on Thursday that the fact checker's email was merely part of the reporting process and that had Donegan replied to confirm her identity but ask that it be protected, the magazine would have complied.

'A number of people, some of whom are mentioned and some who aren't, were contacted as part of the reporting process.

'We have to talk to everyone. We were not going to name her unless it was confirmed. We were not going to put her in danger.'

She added that mention of the spreadsheet was a small component of a wider-ranging article on sexual harassment in the industry and that the row it has caused was premature.

'We're just hoping, wishing, that people would just wait for the article to come out,' she said.

Other journalists have since spoken out to defend Roiphe, stating that it is common practice for subjects to be contacted by fact checkers

Nonetheless, Donegan said her exchange with Roiphe and the rapidly growing interest and Twitter conversation about the spreadsheet made her feel that it was inevitable she would be named.

'The outrage made it seem inevitable that my identity would be exposed even before the Roiphe piece ran. All of this was terrifying.

'I still dont know what kind of future awaits me now that Ive stopped hiding,' she said.
A mother who killed herself and her two young children with fatal overdoses of methadone left a note saying 'no one is to separate me from my babies', an inquest heard today.

Dolce-Mai Dada, nine, and Rhys Dada, three, were found dead last January in their Greenwich home after ingesting a toxic mix of drugs, alongside their mother Sydnie-Blu Macfarlane, 28.

In the days before her death Ms Macfarlane told a friend she had 'nothing to live for' and her former partner Sean Dada was seeking full custody of their children.

She said she was facing eviction from her home, and had recently fallen pregnant and miscarried.

A letter found in Ms Macfarlane's home entitled 'to Mum and family' read: 'I guess no one will ever understand why I done what I done.'

The inquest at Southwark Coroner's Court heard how a handwritten note was found in the house stating: 'We are to be buried together. No one is to separate me from my babies.'

Sydnie-Blu Macfarlane (pictured) killed herself and her two young children with fatal overdoses of methadone left a note saying 'no one is to separate me from my babies', an inquest heard today

Dolce-Mai Dada smiling and holding her baby brother Rhys Dada in a picture taken in 2014

Dolce-Mai Dada, nine, and Rhys Dada, three, pictured together. In the days before her death Ms Macfarlane told a friend she had 'nothing to live for' and her former partner Sean Dada was seeking full custody of their children

Dolce-Mai Dada, nine, and Rhys Dada, three, (pictured) were found dead last January in their Greenwich home after ingesting a toxic mix of drugs, alongside their mother Sydnie-Blu Macfarlane, 28

In the days before her death Ms Macfarlane told a friend she had 'nothing to live for' and her former partner Sean Dada was seeking full custody of their children. Pictured is Dolce-Mai

The inquest at Southwark Coroner's Court heard how a handwritten note was found in the house stating: 'We are to be buried together. No one is to separate me from my babies.' Pictured is Sydnie-Blu Macfarlane

The inquest heard when emergency services were called on 30 January last year to the address in Greenwich, south-east London, an ambulance crew found an adult female and two children dead on a bed under a duvet, with an assortment of drugs nearby.

Paramedic Anna Williamson, from the London Ambulance Service, attended the home just after 6.30pm.

She said she was met by three people, including Ms Macfarlane's sister, at the door.

The paramedic said: 'The sister said she hadn't spoken to the female since January 22 and the two children had not attended school that day.

'A neighbour had managed to use a magnet to get the keys. The door was locked from the inside.'

The crew entered the property and in the lounge found notes on A4 paper laid on the floor.

What paramedics discovered in the house More than 30 sheets of paper, laid out individually with handwriting on them, were found in the house, the court heard. There was also writing on the living room walls, including the phrases: 'She fears for my children and with a mother like me I agree' and 'I'm taking them away from the toxic around them'. Advertisement

There was also writing on the living room walls, including the phrases: 'She fears for my children and with a mother like me I agree' and 'I'm taking them away from the toxic around them'.

Ms Williamson said: 'We went upstairs and opened the bedroom doors and found an adult female and her two children lying on a double bed under a duvet.

'The adult female was lying in her right side facing her two children both lying on their left side.'

All three were pronounced dead at 6.44pm, the inquest heard.

In the room the ambulance crew found a bottle of 'holy water', two religious cards, and a bottle of methadone - a powerful synthetic opiate normally prescribed to heroin addicts - on the floor, which was half full.

Forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Carey said traces of both methadone and diphenhydramine - a common sedative - were both found in the childrens's bloodstreams.

Ms Macfarlane's mother Angela Macfarlane told the inquest: 'She was a great mum, a great daughter and I never dreamed that anything like this would happen'

He added that the evidence suggest their bodies had lain in the bed 'for up to a few days prior to being found'.

'There were no injuries to suggest what is called assault or restraint', he added.

Detective Sergeant Dave Brooks told the inquest the notes indicated a 'feeling that she was in a desperate place and she felt she had no other option than to take her own life and [those] of her children'.

WHAT IS METHADONE? Methadone reduces withdrawal symptoms in people addicted to heroin without causing the high. Methadone is used as a pain reliever and as part of drug addiction detoxification and maintenance programs and is only available from certified pharmacies. Methadone can slow or stop breathing, especially when a patient start using it or if a dose is changed. Misuse can cause death and life-threatening heart rhythm disorder. Advertisement

The court heard that in the weeks leading up to her death Ms Macfarlane had been distressed about a number of issues, including the discovery of an infidelity.

In one Facebook messenger conversation, she said: 'I have been sent what I deserved...I am struggling with it all.

'Disgusting things have been said about me...I am tarnished for life.'

Detective Inspector Frances Ruocco, who read Ms Macfarlane's texts, WhatsApp and Facebook messages from January 15 to her death, said it seemed the mother felt 'hopeless'.

The father of the children, Sean Dada, 31, an engineer, said the last time he had seen them was Christmas Day 2016 and had called her on the January 26.

In that call he described her as 'calm' which 'looking back was a bit strange'.

Ms Macfarlane's friend Shauneen Langford-Bell said in the early hours of the Friday before her death, she had spoken to the mother, who sounded 'very upset'.

The inquest at Southwark Coroner's Court (pictured) heard how a handwritten note was found in the house stating: 'We are to be buried together. No one is to separate me from my babies'

'She said she had 28 days to get out of her house, and Sean was filing for full custody, and now she had lost me and she had nothing to live for,' Ms Langford-Bell told the court.

Ms Macfarlane's mother Angela Macfarlane told the inquest: 'She was a great mum, a great daughter and I never dreamed that anything like this would happen.'

Coroner Andrew Harris adjourned the inquest, which will continue on Friday.

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116 123, or visit a local Samaritans branch - see samaritans.org for details.
This is the incredible moment a man tearfully confesses on television to the murder of a teenager 25 years ago.

Brian Hawkins, 45, contacted KRCR-TV in Redding on Tuesday and told staffers there that he wanted to confess to his role in the killing of 19-year-old Frank McCalister.

Unable to bear the guilt, he said could no longer live with the knowledge that he had been involved in a homicide and that his faith in God commanded him to come forward.

After giving the stunning interview, Hawkins then walked next door and handed himself into police, before turning in two alleged accomplices - his ex-girlfriend and her brother.

Brian Hawkins, 45, of Shingletown, California, made a tearful confession to a Redding television station on Tuesday

Hawkins told KRCR-TV that he and two others were responsible for the murder of a 19-year-old man in 1993

Hawkins told reporters at the station that he could no longer live with the knowledge that he had been involved in a homicide and that his faith in God commanded him to come forward

The station told Hawkins that they would not air an interview with him until he spoke to law enforcement.

After appearing on camera for a tearful interview, Hawkins met with Redding police and gave a statement.

He told investigators that he, Curtis Culver, and Shanna Culver lured McCalister to an area near Hawkinss hometown of Shingletown and stabbed him to death.

The three then left McCalisters body in the wooded area and dumped his car at a local Costco, according to Hawkins.

Shanna Culver, 46; her brother, Curtis Culver, 45; and Hawkins were taken under arrest and placed in the Shasta County jail.

After appearing on camera for a tearful interview, Hawkins met with Redding police and gave a statement. He told investigators that he, Curtis Culver, and Shanna Culver (above) lured Frank McCalister to an area near Shingletown and stabbed him to death

According to investigators, one of the Culver siblings confessed to their part in the crime, though they declined to say which one. Curtis Culver is seen above

All three suspects were taken to jail by the Shasta County Sheriff's Office. They face charges of burglary and robbery

They face charges of burglary and robbery.

Investigators said that after they were taken into custody, one of the Culvers confessed to their part in the crime, though it was not revealed which one came forward.

God and Christ and these things that have happened over the course of 25 years have pushed me and pushed me to do the right thing, Hawkins told KRCR-TV on Tuesday before he turned himself in to law enforcement.

I know the wrong can't be changed but this is the closest I can come to doing the right thing.

During the interview with the TV station, Hawkins shed tears and appeared shaken. He hung his head and spoke about the years during which he was consumed with guilt.

Horrible, horrible, horrible, absolute horror, absolutely horrible since that day, he told KRCR-TV.

After stabbing McCalister to death, the three then left McCalisters body in the wooded area and dumped his car at a local Costco (above), according to Hawkins

Every minute of every day has been a nightmare,' he said.

'It's kind of weird, Frank never got to have a life, but we were teenagers and now I'm 44 and still haven't even had a life and now most likely won't anyway.

Hawkins said that he had lived his life blind before he found Christianity.

Now he wants redemption as a born-again.

"I've been through hell my whole life because of this," he said as he shed tears.

Hawkins said that there wasnt a moment in his life since that time that he hasnt been remorseful.

He said that last year he reached out to McCalisters family.

I talked to them several times and told them I was going to make it there so I could tell them what happened and I wanted their forgiveness, he said.

By the time I got there, his father had passed away.

Hawkins said he seeks forgiveness.

I'm not running, I just need someone that cares, he said.

I just hope the community can also forgive me.

After the interview was over, the TV station informed Reddings chief of police and the Shasta County Sheriffs Office that Hawkins was on his way to confess to a crime.

The station told law enforcement officials that they would not report the story until its journalists could corroborate what Hawkins told them.

Law enforcement officials said they called investigators who had since retired and asked for their help in deciphering the cold case.

Investigators said that Hawkins confession was their first big break in the case.
A Dragons' Den star who won a 60,000 investment from Duncan Bannatyne for his sparkling wines has died from a brain tumour at the age of 53.

Entrepreneur Geoff Bowen hit screens in 2011 when he sought backing for his Devon-based business Pebblebed Vineyards.

The father of two left viewers sympathising with him when he became overcome with nerves and froze during his pitch.

But his business acumen shone through his shaky presentation, leaving dragons Deborah Meaden and Duncan Bannatyne fighting over a stake in his business.

Tragic: Geoff Bowen has died at the age of 53 from an brain tumour. The entrepreneur leaves behind wife Anna and their daughters Martha, 19 and Jessie, 17 (pictured together in 2011)

Winner: Geoff Bowen secured 60,000 from Dragon Duncan Bannatyne after appearing on the programme in 2011

Geoff started the Pebblebed Vineyard in 1999 as a community project. He gathered together like-minded friends and planted a small vineyard on land owned by a friend

The environment consultant, from Exeter, Devon, was overjoyed to leave with 60,000 cash injection from Bannatyne.

Posting to Twitter earlier this week, the Scottish millionaire paid tribute to Mr Bowen and his family and described his passing as 'very, very sad'.

More than 30,000 viewers logged onto the Pebblebed Vineyard website soon after the show to buy Mr Bowen's sparkling wines.

His wife Anna and their daughters Martha, 19 and Jessie, 17, have now paid a heartfelt tribute to him after he passed away in the early hours of last Saturday morning, January 6, at Exeter Hospiscare.

They said: 'We are devastated that Geoff has left us years before he should have done.

'We will be forever thankful for his infectious love, generosity, passion, excitement, enthusiasm and joy of life and living, and also for the loving security he gave to us as a family.

'He is irreplaceable and we will miss and love him forever.'

Mr Bowen had very few symptoms before being diagnosed with aggressive grade four glioblastoma - the most common high grade brain tumour in adults, on October 6, 2017.

Geoff had a successful business, more than 30,000 viewers logged onto the Pebblebed Vineyard website soon after it was discussed on BBC Two's Dragon's Den

Saddened: The Scottish millionaire saw something special in Mr Bowen when he pitched for investment in his Devon-based wine company in 2011

'So very, very sad': Duncan Bannatyne tweeted his condolences after learning the news

Mr Bowen, who lived with his family in Topsham, Devon, was a huge part of the local community with 500 people helping bring in the grape harvest

Pictured: Wine grower Geoff Bowen with wife Anna in 2011 after receiving a 60,000 investment in Pebblebed Vineyard

Mr Bowen, who lived with his family in Topsham, Devon, was a huge part of the local community with 500 people helping bring in the grape harvest.

Pebblebed Vineyard was launched in 1999 as a community project. Geoff gathered together like-minded friends and planted a small vineyard on land owned by a friend at nearby Ebford.

He produced his first wine commercial wine called Dodo Bird in 2002.

By 2006, the entrepreneur was producing 10,000 units of wine, before more than doubling it to 25,000 units in 2010.

Entrepreneur Geoff Bowen hit screens in 2011 when he sought backing for his Devon-based business Pebblebed Vineyards

Pictured here with wife Anna, the father of two left viewers sympathising with him when he became overcome with nerves and froze during his pitch

Pebblebed makes still white, rose and red as well as fabulous white and rose sparkling wines produced by the classic method of secondary fermentation in the bottle.

The community vineyard, shared amongst a number of Topsham families, continues today, while the commercial Pebblebed vineyard, planted in 2003, has gone from strength to strength.

With 25 acres under plantation, it is now the largest commercial vineyard in the South West.

In a good year, Pebblebed can produce upwards of 40,000 bottles.
An artist has created a collection of animated goddess gifs that are equal parts powerful, mesmerizing and sexual in an attempt to inspire.

Illinois artist Nina Paley's goddesses has brought a series of fertility godesses to life for an upcoming film, Seder-Masochism, which is centered around the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Enjoy watching these beautiful animations sway from side to side, bob up and down and pulsate, as you learn a bit more about Seder and Paley's work in progress, which tells the story of Exodus from the point of view of the Goddess.

Scroll down for gifs...

Illinois artist Nina Paley has created a collection of animated goddess gifs, that are equal parts powerful, mesmerizing and sexual

Paley leads off a post explaining her creations with three busty figures, which includes 'the famous throned goddess of Catal Huyuk,' she says.

The characters, titled 'Goddesses of the Bodacious Ta-Tas,' throb and sway, with one clutching her own breasts.

Another pulses in such a way that it's difficult to tell whether the goddess is standing on her feet or her hands.

Regardless of her position, and maybe because of it, it's impossible to look away.

This still depicts 'the famous throned goddess of Catal Huyuk,' Paley says



Paley clearly has a good sense of humor about her animations, captioning one trio of her art, '3 limber stiff nudes.'

'These types of death goddess figures are called "stiff nudes." This trio have limbered up a bit,' she writes.

These goddesses are characterized by boxy bodices, with elongated necks and arms folded into the chest or across the waist.

Paley has a good sense of humor about her animations, captioning one trio of her art which included the piece shown here, '3 limber stiff nudes'

In another grouping of gifs, Paley acknowledges, yet again, that the people like boobs.

'Everyones demanding more boob animation, so I put some on the busty bird figure in the center,' she writes.

These depictions are decidedly more curvy, if not in figure, at least in motion.

'Everyones demanding more boob animation, so I put some on the busty bird figure (left),' Paley writes, in a trio of gifs featuring those pictured here

These fluid works of art are the tools through which Paley will tell at least part of her story, Seder-Masochism.

Seder is the Hebrew word for 'order' and the Passover Seder marks the beginning of the celebration of Passover, which is a Jewish high holiday that lasts for seven or eight days, depending on which version of Judaism is being practiced.

At a Seder celebration, rituals are performed in a specific order, as guests take turns telling the story of Exodus.

The story of Exodus explains the Israelites' new relationship to God, based on the law Moses received on Mount Sinai.

This law, according to Jewish tradition, was the Ten Commandments, and possibly the Torah, or 'Oral Law,' as well.

For Paley, she sees the usual construction of the story of Exodus as a victory of the patriarchy, or man, over nature, or female divinity.

These fluid works of art are the tools through which Paley will tell at least part of her story, Seder-Masochism, which is expected to be finished in February

'The Exodus is the story of going forth from the "narrow place," from cruel slavery to freedom,' Paley writes in her blog.

'But what were they exiting, really? According to them it was slavery, oppression, and, worst of all, the worship of false idols.'

Paley quotes from the book of Exodus, chapter 20, in which Yahweh, the god of the ancient Hebrews, commands:

'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.'

Her film will explore another side to this story.

'How does this story look from the point of view of [those] "other gods"?' Paley asks.

Specifically, she's talking about her goddesses.

'All humans conceived the divine as female, long before the invention of the male God,' Paley says; That's the inspiration for her goddesses

In Exodus, Paley says, Mother Nature was portrayed as an oppressor, and man escaped, rather than being expelled.

'[The Goddess] was in Egypt as Hathor, Hekket, Wadjet, Nut, Maat, Isis, and others portrayed already in Moses Goes Down [another of Paley's works]. She was elsewhere in Mesopotamia as Ishtar, Astarte, the "Queen of Heaven" and other mis-named or un-named "idols." She was in Europe. She was everywhere  all humans conceived the divine as female, long before the invention of the male God.'

In discussing how Man turned about from Mother Nature and female divinity, Paley cites how Exodus describes a switch to the demonizing of animalistic spirits, like the scared snake transforming into a demonic serpent, and the disgust and need for control directed at nature and fertility.

She wonders how mankind's desertion of Her must have felt to the Goddess.

'Watching Man walk out on Her, going forth from revering Nature to enslaving and killing it  would she even want Him back?' Paley writes.

That's the question she hopes to explore in Seder-Masochism.

These goddesses will help her do it.

And thanks to Paley, if you'd like to tell a story with her goddesses, you can, too. She has made the gifs available, free of charge, on her blog.

'Here are 24 individual goddess gifs to use for whatever,' she says.

'Free Culture. No permission needed. Go crazy. I love you.'

Check out the entire collection here.
This is the dramatic moment when at least half a dozen armed police officers arrested five men and recovered drugs along with a knife after stopping a car in Birmingham.

Unmarked cars were used by the officers to block in the Vauxhall Corsa at around 1.20pm on January 10.

The footage shows the armed police members dragging the passengers and driver away from the vehicle.

The officers can also be seen shouting at the suspects to 'drop down on the ground' before leading the men away.

The resident who captured the film told the Birmingham Mail that the stop continued for half an hour, with WashWood Heath Road, in Washwood Heath, Birmingham being closed as the scene unfolded.

The witness said: 'I was sitting at my desk working and was alerted by this shouting outside...It's a pretty eventful neighbourhood, but for the wrong reasons sadly.'

One of the suspects can be heard laughing maniacally whilst lying on the ground as sirens are heard in the distance.

This is the dramatic moment when at least half a dozen armed police officers arrested five men and recovered drugs along with a knife after stopping a car in Birmingham

Unmarked cars were used by the officers to block in the Vauxhall Corsa (pictured) at around 1.20pm on January 10

The five men in the car were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A drugs.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: 'Five men were arrested and a quantity of drugs recovered after armed police stopped a car in Birmingham today, 10 January.

'Officers stopped the Vauxhall Corsa on Washwood Heath Road at its junction with Thornton Road at around 1.20pm.

'A balaclava and a lock knife were recovered, and five men in the car were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and possession of an offensive weapon.

'The investigation continues.'
A 22-year-old Texas woman has shared horrific photos of her bruised and bloodied body after she was beaten, raped and held captive by her new boyfriend for two days.

Kaila Kutzik is now safe after making a dramatic escape on New Year's Eve, while her abusive boyfriend, 30-year-old Bishoy Elkhaliny, was sleeping.

A friend posted Kutzik's account on Facebook, since Elkhaliny took control of his girlfriend's social media accounts during the two days of torture.

In the post, Kutzik said she had only been dating Elkhaliny for three months, but that he has been abusive throughout their short relationship.

However, nothing compares to December 30, when she says that he 'nearly beat me to death'.

Kaila Kutzik, 22, says her boyfriend Bishoy Elkhaliny, 30, beat and raped her on December 30 - then threatened to chain her up to the bed so she wouldn't flee. She's pictured above revealing her injuries after making a daring New Year's Eve escape

During the brutal two day attack, Elkhaliny posted pictures of his bloodied girlfriend to Facebook

Kutzik doesn't stay what sparked the brutal confrontation, which happened around 1am, but she says he 'beat me worse that he ever did before'.

Elkhaliny was arrested on Monday after a tipster told police about his whereabouts. He's pictured above in an undated mugshot

'He broke my face, he broke my teeth, and left me with bruising all over my body. I begged to go to the hospital and he refused. He told me I deserved to look deformed for the rest of my life,' she said.

Kutzik told police that she lost consciousness after the first attack, and when she woke up, Elkhaliny raped her when she asked him not to have sex with her.

Elkhaliny then made sure she wouldn't leave the house, threatening to chain her to the bed if she tried to make a run for it.

During this period, Elkhaliny took over her social media accounts and then started posting messages to 'try and humiliate her,' according to friends.

In one post, published on his own account, Elkhaliny poses with Kutzik, who is bleeding heavily from the head.

The caption reads: 'This is what happens when your girlfriend decides to talk s***! bet you'll stay quiet now Kaila! lol.'

'I had no way out. He took all of my belongings and hid all of the cell phones. He threatened to chain me up to the bed so I couldn't go anywhere. He made me clean his house while I couldn't even see out of my eye,' Kaila continued to say in her account.

Around 11:30am on New Year's Eve, Kutzik says that a cop knocked on the door in connection to a theft investigation (pictured in the hospital after the attack)

Kutzik made a run for it when the cop knocked because her boyfriend was sleeping (pictured in the hospital after the attack)

Kutzik spent four days in the hospital after her escape as she was treated for her numerous injuries

'I was scared, and I was in pain. A lot of pain. I was losing hope. My abuser told me he was going to take me to Las Vegas and sex traffic me to make money off me because I was no other use to him. There was no way out and I was giving up,' she adds.

Kutzik got a bit of luck the following day, when a police officer knocked on Elkhaliny's door around 11:30am, in connection to a theft investigation.

Elkhaliny was asleep at the time but Kutzik heard the knock, so she looked out the window and saw the cop car.

While she was frightened about what her boyfriend might do if she tried to escape, she knew this might be her only chance.

Kutzik had only been dating Elkhaliny for three months, but she says he was abusive throughout

'I looked down the hallway to see if my abuser had waken up and he hadn't. I then decided I was going to make a run for it. I ran down the stairs out the door while the policeman was getting back in his car and begged him to take me far away. He let me in the car and called for back up and an ambulance,' she says.

Kutzik was rushed to the hospital where she was treated for her numerous injuries, including a broken orbital socket that has caused her to lose vision in one eye.

During her hospital stay, she says that Elkhaliny continued to harass her, calling up the hospital and pretending to be her father.

He was eventually arrested on Monday, after a tipster informed police about his whereabouts.

He is now facing charges for aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault.

At the end of her Facebook post, Kaila thanks everyone who has shown her support through this ordeal.
Steve Bannon, who has been cast out of President Trump's circle and lost his job running Breitbart news, has hired a lawyer as he prepares to face House Intelligence Committee investigators.

Bannon has hired Bill Burck of the law firm Quinn Emanuel, the Daily Beast reported.

Sources told the publication he plans to fully cooperate with the House Intelligence Committee, which has scheduled an interview with him next week.

The panel has fallen into partisan camps, as Republicans led by chairman Rep. Devin Nunes dig for information to muddy the FBI and the golden showers dossier, while Democrats push to call back witnesses to grill them on Russian election interference and ties between Trump associates and Russia.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon has hired an attorney in advance of a planned interview with the House Intelligence Committee

Bannon's lawyer, who participated in the Martha Stewart prosecution and is a former Special Counsel and Deputy Counsel to President George W. Bush, also represents ex-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and current White House counsel Don McGahn.

Both are considered key fact witnesses in any case special counsel Robert Mueller tries to muster on obstruction of justice grounds.

McGahn communicated with fired former acting attorney general Sally Yates, who came to him after concluding that former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn had not been truthful with the FBI and could be subject to blackmail.

Bannon is in the midst of a highly public falling out with the White House, after he trashed members of the president's family in the new book 'Fire and Fury.'

Former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell arrives at Federal Court with her attorney William Burck in Richmond, Va., Monday, Aug. 25, 2014. Bannon reportedly hired Burck as he prepared for the House Intelligence Committee

In this Nov. 9, 2017, file photo, Steve Bannon, speaks during an event in Manchester, N.H. Breitbart News Network announced Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, that Bannon is stepping down as chairman of the conservative news site

Bannon reportedly will appear next week before investigators for the House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Rep. Devin Nunes of California

Bannon called a Trump Tower meeting in 2016 that included a Russian lawyer, Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner 'treasonous.'

He later said he meant to refer only to Manafort, not to the president's eldest son.

The president tweeted that Bannon had 'lost his mind' following the release of a slew of critical statements by Bannon.

White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller in an appearance on CNN on Sunday, calling him an 'angry, vindictive person' whose 'grotesque comments are so out of touch with reality.'

Bannon apologized for his comments and was pushed out of his job running Breitbart News.
A man was tied up naked in a shed for two days and told to eat dog food after fleeing from a member of a traveller family he was working for, a court heard.

John Anderson said his alleged ordeal also had him screaming for his life after a young boy was ordered to light his petrol soaked body.

Jurors heard claims the 43 year-old had earlier escaped from James McPhee and left Scotland for Oxfordshire.

But, he was found and returned north where he was then allegedly battered and 'taught a lesson' by McPhee's father Robert.

A man was tied up naked in a shed for two days and told to eat dog food after fleeing from a member of a traveller family he was working for, the High Court in Glasgow heard

Mr Anderson said he was later dumped in the metal shed - where children also apparently came in and urinated on him.

He was giving evidence at the trial of James McPhee, 45, Robert McPhee, 65, Steven McPhee, 37 and 38-year-old John Miller.

The four face a total of 30 charges between them at the High Court in Glasgow.

The accusations - which span between 1992 and 2016 - include slavery and violence.

The four deny the allegations.

Mr Anderson had been homeless in 1998 when he was offered labouring work by James McPhee.

He stayed on a caravan site and carried out jobs such as mono-blocking driveways.

But, the alleged victim told how McPhee could be violent towards him 'whenever he was unhappy'.

The alleged assaults including being punched, kicked and hit with a pick axe handle.

Mr Anderson said he was 'scared' to leave - but went with another worker to a house in Paisley, Renfrewshire.

But, the trial heard James and his brother Steven McPhee found him despite trying to hide in a wardrobe.

He was taken to a site in Bathgate, West Lothian.

However, Mr Anderson later left again - this time with a fellow worker heading for England.

The men managed to 'skip' a train without paying to Berwick before they got a lift from a trucker to Banbury in Oxfordshire.

Mr Anderson initially got a barman's job - but then got a word that someone had come to the house he had been staying at.

He recalled: 'I left the pub because I was scared of getting found by James McPhee.

'I walked along the canal the whole day... the intention was just to get away. I was terrified.

'I found a yard that had a static caravan and slept there for the night.'

Mr Anderson briefly returned to Banbury to collect his wages before going to a homeless shelter in Cambridge.

He told how he met a fellow Scot there and he offered to buy him a pint at a local pub.

Mr Anderson said he was left in 'shock' when James McPhee walked in.

The witness told the jury: 'He knew that I was there because the boy (Mr Anderson was with) had taken a picture of me and sent it to him.'

Mr Anderson said he was 'scared' but left for Scotland in McPhee's Mercedes 4x4.

He recalled they ended up in Larkhall, Lanarkshire where McPhee lived.

Mr Anderson said it was there he was taken into his house and Robert McPhee - nicknamed the Tank Commander - was also inside.

The witness stated: 'James told me that it was time to meet his dad. I knew what he meant. I was to get a beating.'

Mr Anderson said he was to be 'taught a lesson' not to 'run away' again.

He described how he was allegedly attacked in the kitchen by Robert McPhee - known as Bobby - and ended up grounded.

The man said he was punched 'all over', hit with a broom and kicked.

Prosecutor Kath Harper asked: 'How strong was Bobby?'

He replied: 'A very, very strong man. He is a tank.'

Miss Harper: 'Did you say anything?'

Mr Anderson: 'I will never do it again... stop, please. I thought I was going to die.

'I thought that this was going to be the end.'

He added: 'I was curled up in a ball...I was not looking. In this situation, you block it out and wait for it to finish.'

Mr Anderson then told how he ended up being put in a metal shed where a dog slept.

He remembered it being winter - but he was told to strip, had his hands and feet tied with rope and left inside.

The court heard James McPhee came the next morning with a young child.

Mr Anderson recalled feeling 'cold, sore, tired and desperate'.

The court heard the man had no food or water.

Mr Anderson told jurors: 'James asked was I hungry. He said that if I was hungry enough, I could eat the dog food.

'I did not get any water. He said: 'drink my p***.'

The trial heard Mr Anderson also had petrol poured over him from 'head to toe'.

The witness went on: 'He told the boy to light the lighter and burn me.

'The boy lit it and came towards me. I was hysterical. I thought he was going to set fire to me.

'I pleaded 'don't do it'. I said: 'I won't do it again. I have learned my lesson'.'

Mr Anderson was not set alight before McPhee and the child left.

Miss Harper asked: 'What were you feeling at that stage?'

He replied: 'I wished he had lit it.'

Mr Anderson recalled two children also coming to the shed and urinating on him.

He remembered the youngsters 'being under 10'.

The advocate depute: 'How long in total were you in the shed?'

Mr Anderson: 'Two days. I was frightened and delirious.'

He told the court he was let out and 'trying to get myself together'.

The trial, before Lady Stacey, continues.
A Tory peer today became the first politician to purposely drop the C-bomb in Parliament as she used the swear word in a debate on social media abuse.

Baroness Jenkin warned her fellow peers that she was about to use 'unparliamentary language' before turning the air blue.

She used the word as she quoted the abuse one Conservative Party candidate received in the General Election campaign last year.

A source in Hansard - which has documented every single parliamentary debate since 1909 - said it is the first time the word was used in a speech by a peer or MP in the Chamber since records began over 100 years ago.

Scroll down for video:

Baroness Jenkin (pictured in the Lords today) warned her fellow peers that she was about to use 'parliamentary language' before turning the air blue

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, a Conservative peer, made history by using it in a debate about social media.

She said: Let me give you a real example  one of many.

During the election campaign in June the Ealing Central and Acton Conservative candidate was met daily outside her home by a large group of Momentum and Labour activists shouting at her.

And I quote  and please my lords forgive the unparliamentary language and block your ears if you are sensitive or easily offended  yelling You f***king Tory c***.

My lords, this young woman has a young child. How can this be acceptable and how does this not deter other mothers from stepping up?

A source in Hansard - which has documented every single parliamentary debate since 1909 - said it is the first time the word was used in a speech by a peer or MP in the Chamber since records began over 100 years ago (pictured of the Lords debate today)

Her activists and her volunteers were routinely spat at. They told an Asian activist that she deserved to have her throat slit and be in the ground for being a Conservative, and much, much more  especially on social media.

My lords, standing for election and public office , for whatever political party, should be recognised and celebrated as a noble, honourable and responsible action to take.

'This abusive behaviour if fuelled by the anonymity social media platforms provide.

There are strict rules about the use of unparliamentary language in the Chambers of the Lords and Commons.

And if a politician uses language which the Speaker rules to flout the rules then they can be ordered to withdraw it.

Many politicians complained that they received a torrent of abuse - both in person and on social media - during the General Election campaign last year.

Theresa May has urged social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to do more to crack down on abuse.
Brandon Hixon, the former Idaho Republican state lawmaker who committed suicide on Tuesday, molested two girls, including a female relative, his ex-wife has claimed.

The bombshell claims came from Danielle Eirvin Hixon, the 36-year-old statesman's ex-wife, who says he abused and raped the relative for more than a decade.

Danielle Hixon said on Wednesday that her ex-husband was being investigated for raping and inappropriately touching two young girls. She said one of the alleged victims was molested for about 11 years.

'Brandon made people believe that he was a stand-up, morally correct person,' she said. 'But behind the house walls, he would cheat on me and molested children.'

Brandon Hixon (pictured in 2013) was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head by a family member at his home in Caldwell, Idaho on January 9

Danielle Hixon (pictured) alleges alleges her ex-husband was being investigated for molesting two girls. She's pictured here with Lonnie Snow, who is believed to be her boyfriend

She said one of the alleged victims is a family member who was abused by Hixon for 11 years

Danielle Hixon, who was married to Hixon for 10 years before their divorce in 2016, said she had 'no idea' the abuse was happening because the girl 'kept it quiet for so long'.

She said she found out about the second victim, who is not related to the Caldwell politician, from the girl's mother.

The father-of-four died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on January 9, nearly three months after he abruptly resigned from his position in the Idaho House following reports that he was being investigated for sexual abuse.

He was found dead by a relative at his Caldwell home around 7am. His death was announced a few hours later by House speaker Scott Bedke.

'Former Rep. Brandon Hixon has tragically taken his own life. Our thoughts go first to family and friends who are suffering from this loss,' Bedke said.

He added: 'We should support those who are close to us when they are struggling. Please remember Brandon's family in your prayers.'

The 36-year-old stepped down from his position in the Idaho House in October 2017 when he came under investigation for sexual abuse

Danielle Hixon told the Associated Press that investigators told her not to go public with the allegations until her ex-husband was charged. She said the reason to keep the information confidential ended when he committed suicide.

'I say he was a coward by taking the easy way out,' she said, adding that her family was robbed of the chance to get justice or closure through the legal system.

According to the former spouse, she and two other people were scheduled to testify on Wednesday in front of a grand jury.

The attorney general's office, who took over the investigation from Caldwell police, declined say whether a grand jury had been scheduled prior to Hixon's death. They also would not provide further details on the case.

It remains unclear how old the alleged victims were when the abuse took place and how one of the girls was related to the former lawmaker.

Hixon's sister, Kayle Olson, said information surrounding the case should have remained private and slammed her former sister-in-law for 'running to the press' so soon after Hixon's death.

'Danielle has brought forth many allegations. She has put the minor children on the front line of this tragic battle when they should have not ever been,' Olson told the Idaho Statesman on Wednesday. 'This should have remained private and not exposed by her in the manner it has been.'

She added: 'This is a sealed case with minors involved and the children need to be thought of first, which she has completely failed to do.'

Danielle Hixon told the outlet that she asked one of the alleged victims, who is now a teenager, for her opinion before going public.

'Everything I have said I have okayed with her,' she said.

Hixon was first elected into the Idaho House in 2012, as a Republican representative for Caldwell.

He was re-elected to his seat in 2014, with 58.9 per cent of the vote.

He stepped down suddenly in October, when the sexual abuse investigation came to light.

'I hope that my efforts have helped improve the lives of my constituents in District 10, as well as all Idahoans. I will never forget all of my colleagues that I very much enjoyed working side-by-side with to make Idaho a better place for all,' Hixon said in his resignation letter.

Danielle Hixon said she had no idea the alleged abuse was happening. She's pictured with Lonnie Snow, who is believed to be her boyfriend

Hixon was arrested twice in December, one month before his death, for DUI. He's pictured here in a December 9, 2017 mugshot

The month before his suicide, Hixon was arrested twice on suspicion of driving under the influence.

During the first incident on December 9, he was also charged with resisting arrest when he refused to get out his car. Police later found that the former statesman and father-of-four had nearly twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

On the December 30 incident, he was not under the influence of alcohol but had a depressive drug in his system.

Records also show that in December 2014 he was investigated for inappropriately touching someone - possibly a child. He was never charged in that incident because the alleged victim could not provide police with enough details.

Hixon also ran into trouble during his 20s. Before the age of 21, he already had five convictions including two for alcohol possession, urinating in public, having an invalid driver's license and a curfew violation.

When he first ran for office, and during his re-election, Hixon brushed off his past convictions off as 'youthful indiscretions'.

He is survived by his four children, ages six to 17.
Mark Emlick, pictured, assaulted his friend Marcus Watson at a central London restaurant last October during a row

A wealthy Scottish businessman head butted a one-time colleague and friend in a Michelin-starred restaurant - leaving the victim spitting blood - after a deal left him 125,000 out of pocket.

Mark Emlick, 55, Chairman of Edinburgh based specialist real estate and asset management company Consensus Capital Group plc, based in Craigmillar Park reacted to being told: 'Jog on for your money,' the court was told today.

Emlick, who lives in a 3 million townhouse in Battersea, located across the Thames river from Chelsea Harbour was placed on a twelve-month community order and must complete 80 hours community service work.

He pleaded guilty that on October 17, last year he assaulted Marcus Watson at Nordic-themed Aquavit restaurant at St. James's Market, Carlton Street, near Piccadilly Circus.

Westminster Magistrates Court was told Emlick, who once appeared on Sky TV's 'Who'd Be A Billionaire?' show enjoying a 9,000-a day Botswana safari had downed four gin and tonics.

He had invested 250,000 in a business venture with neighbour Mr Watson, a friend of twenty years and professional associate for seven years, but lost half the money as a result of the deal.

His lawyer Andrew Copeland said CCTV captured the assault as the men chatted at the restaurant bar. 'You can see the head going to the face, the nose area.

'The explanation is his loss of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds and being told to: 'Jog on for your money,' is what provoked him.

'They are at the bar and there is a conversation for a minute and a half. Something must have been said by Mr Watson for the defendant to react the way he did, which was purely momentary.

'It is somebody he knows, a friend who he feels has exploited this situation and the company's been wound up and he knows he is not going to get the money.'

Magistrate Joanna Barley told Emlick: 'It was a short incident and it was a single blow. However it did happen in a public place and alcohol was involved.

'It was a headbutt, a very serious way of hurting someone,' she added also ordering him to pay 85 costs and an 85 victim surcharge.

Prosecutor Miss Aislin Rice said it was 9pm and the pair had been enjoying a polite conversation that turned ugly with insults from Emlick.

Emlick was ordered to complete 80 hours of community service work over the next 12 months as well as paying 85 costs and 85 victim surcharge at Westminster Magistrates Court

Emlick headbutted Mr Watson inside Aquavit restaurant near Piccadilly Circus

'He asked if he was a p**** and had a vagina. He head butted him to the left side of his face, causing a laceration to the inside of the mouth.'

Mr Watson, who had holidayed with Emlick and their partners, told police. 'He head butted me to the left side. Following the headbutt I had cuts and abrasions and bleeding from my teeth cutting the inside of my mouth.'

He was taken to the A&E department of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and added: 'I'm struggling to understand and I have been anxious about going out after the attack.

'He lives in the same road, we are near the same shops and I've lost my confidence.

'My family see that I am anxious and I'm concerned about bumping into him. He has meetings in the area and I'm embarrassed about being attacked and not being able to defend myself.'

Initially Emlick tried to lie his way out of trouble telling police: 'I turned my head to talk to Mark. I did not realise how close he was. It was not deliberate, it was accidental.

Mr Copeland told the court: 'One of these deals unfortunately went sour, this defendant had invested two-hundred and fifty thousand in Mr Watson's business.

'It did not turn out to be what he hoped it was an Mr Watson elevated his salary and bought himself a new Range Rover.

'He specifically moved to Battersea to be near his friend Mr Watson.'

Marcus Watson is the CEO and co-founder of Adoreum, a business development consultancy advising luxury, lifestyle and financial services companies.

He is currently a UK advisor with charity UNICEF and is a graduate of King's College London with an MSc in International Business Management.

In February, 2016 Emlick was fined 700 at Perth Sheriff's Court for hurling threats at his ex Jaime Duffin, 39, who he wanted to abort their daughter Gracie, born in May, that year.

Speaking outside court, Emlick apologised for the assault.

He said: 'I have known Marcus Watson as a friend and business partner for over 20 years.

'What started as a disagreement over my lost investment in Adoreum Partners has unfortunately escalated into an argument and a momentary loss of control on my part which I very much regret and for which I apologise completely.'
The House acted to reauthorize a controversial spy law on Thursday that allows the federal government to keep tabs on foreigners suspected of committing crimes.

Democrats had asked for the bill to be yanked from the floor just as a vote was about to take place after President Donald Trump sent out a pair of confusing tweets, only to have their effort blocked.

The bill extending Section 702 of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act passed 256-164 despite Trump's claim that the act may have been used to 'abuse and surveil' his presidential campaign.

He said later, before the bill came for a vote, that the section authorizing the 'foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land' is something that the U.S needs.

The House acted to reauthorize a controversial spy law on Thursday that allows the federal government to keep tabs on foreigners suspected of committing crimes

Democrats had asked for the bill to be yanked from the floor just as a vote was about to take place after President Donald Trump sent out a pair of confusing tweets, only to have their effort blocked

Trump came out swinging on Thursday against the expiring spying provision that his White House had said was useful to protecting national security the night before.

He claimed in a tweet that a dossier of dirt put together by an ex-spy that has not been corroborated may have been used to obtain a warrant to surveil him.

Trump suggested that Congress vote down a bill authored by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes extending the spying powers beyond Jan. 19, only to back it in a second message later, saying the act helps the government to get 'bad guys' in foreign lands.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, recommended after the tweets that the House withdraw the bill from consideration 'to give us more time to address privacy questions that have been raised as well as to get a clear statement from the Administration about their position on the bill.'

Before the vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan took to the floor to explain what Section 702 actually does in an attempt to quiet discontent.

'This is about foreign terrorists on foreign soil. Thats what this is about,' he said.

If spying authority under 702 lapses, Ryan said, 'We dont know what the terrorists are up to. We cant send that information to our authorities to prevent terrorist attacks. The consequences are really high.

'One of the most important things we are placed in charge to do is to make decisions not based on TV, not based on Internet, based on facts, based on reality. And were supposed to make those decisions to keep our country safe,' he said.

The debate over Section 702 and privacy violations has cut across party lines, with groups on the right and the left opposing Nunes' bill.

'Our right to privacy protects us when the government first makes its decision to search our private communications for information it might find useful,' said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. 'S. 139 falls well short of this basic guarantee. We therefore cannotwe must notsupport this bill.'

Before the vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan took to the floor to explain what Section 702 actually does in an attempt to quiet discontent. He's seen here at a presser after the vote

Nadler argued that the reauthorization bill does not have a 'meaningful warrant requirement' for most searches of the Section 702 database. It essentially allows the FBI 'unfettered access' to surveillance in 'purely domestic cases, without a warrant.'

'And what does that mean, in the era of Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump?' he said. 'It means that absolutely nothing stops the Department of Justice from trolling the database for evidence that you use marijuana, or failed to pay your taxes, or may be in the country unlawfully, or possess a firearm that you should not have.'

The American Civil Liberties Union similarly said the legislation would 'give President Trump and his administration more spying powers' and they would 'use this bill to continue warrantless intrusions into Americans private emails, text messages, and other communications.'

'No president should have this power,' Neema Singh Guliani, policy counsel, said. ' The Senate should reject this bill and rein in government surveillance powers to bring Section 702 in line with the Constitution.'

Nunes said in a statement after it passed the House that legislators had taken a 'big step to ensure the continuation of one of the Intelligence Communitys most vital tools for tracking foreign terrorists' as well as 'weapons proliferators, and other threats to Americans safety and security.'

The bill still has to pass in the U.S. Senate for the feds to retain the powers beyond Jan 19.

Sen. Rand Paul, the sponsor of a bill to restrict the government's spying powers under Section 702, warned Thursday that he would fillibuster the House-passed legislation if he had to.

Calling it a 'flawed bill that will continue the warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans,' Paul said, 'No American should have their right to privacy taken away.

'I will keep doing everything in my power, including filibuster, to oppose this legislation and to speak out and stand up for forcing the government to get a warrant based on probable cause, as required by the Constitution.'

Trump said that Section 702 of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act 'may have been used' to 'abuse and surveil' his presidential campaign by Barack Obama 's administration

Trump suggested that Congress vote down a bill extending the spying powers for six more years, only to back it in a second message later, saying the act helps the government to get 'bad guys' in foreign lands

The president's first tweet today claiming that he'd been a victim of Section 702 abuse was a direct affront to a Wednesday evening statement from his press secretary encouraging lawmakers to reauthorize a provision of act that allows for foreign spying.

A White House statement credited to Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders had rejected a proposal in the House to limit law enforcement entities' access to data that's obtained by the intelligence community under Section 702.

Sanders said the administration 'strongly opposes' the USA Rights amendment that was brought forward in the House today by Republican Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian from Michigan.

'This amendment would re-establish the walls between intelligence and law enforcement that our country knocked down following the attacks of 9/11 in order to increase information sharing and improve our national security,' she said. 'The Administration urges the House to reject this amendment and preserve the useful role FISAs Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives.'

Less than 12 hours later Trump seemingly threw cold water on the position of his own White House, saying in a tweet that he believes the federal government may have used the spying powers authorized in the act to spy on his campaign.

'House votes on controversial FISA ACT today. This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?' he said.

The president's first tweet was a direct affront to a Wednesday evening statement from his press secretary encouraging lawmakers to reauthorize the act. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intel Committee, said the tweet was otherwise untrue

As the contradictory nature of his tweet and the White House's statement took center stage, Trump sent out a second message, nearly two hours into the coverage, explaining that he backs a bill in the House to renew the Section 702 with limitations on what is known as unmasking.

'With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!' he stated.

The president indicated that he was backing the Nunes bill that later passed in the House.

In between the first and second tweet, reportedly spoke to Paul Ryan.

Ryan suggested the reports were true when he said at a news conference after the vote that he talks to Trump on an 'almost daily basis.' The GOP leader said that Trump understands what today's vote authorized and put out a statement that 'clarified' his position.

'He just has concerns about other parts of FISA. And I think that everybody knows that, too,' Ryan asserted.

Pressed, Ryan told a reporter, 'I cant speak to what the tweet was.'

Sen. Rand Paul, the sponsor of a bill to restrict the government's spying powers under Section 702, warned Thursday that he would fillibuster the House-passed legislation if he had to

The Nunes bill that passed the House and awaits action in the Senate temporarily suspends federal officials' ability to monitor communications about a target that are not to or from that target, in addition to reauthorizing Section 702 spying.

It also requires probable cause for the FBI to view Section 702 data on U.S. citizens in criminal cases that do not have anything to do with national security.

Nunes is an ally of Trump who served on his on his transition team. He claimed last year that he had seen evidence in classified documents of broad abuse of unmasking by the Obama administration.

Originally, Nunes included a measure on unmasking in the FISA reauthorization bill. He stripped it out before House vote on Thursday.

Unmasking is a process by which authorized officials can ask for the identities of individuals whose names have been redacted in foreign surveillance they were swept up in.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats sent top-ranking intelligence committee lawmakers a letter in November alerting them to changes the administration would be making to its unmasking policy this month. He signed the measures into effect this morning and gave agencies 90 days to comply.

Coats said in his Nov. letter that the new policy would 'make clear that IC (intelligence community) elements may not engage in political activity, including dissemination of U.S. person identities to the White House, for the purpose of affecting the political process of the United States.'

'In addition, this policy will require heightened levels of approval for requests made during a Presidential transition when those requests relate to known members of a President-elects transition team,' he stated.

Obama national security adviser Susan Rice admitted to unmasking the names of Trump associates who spoke to representatives of the United Arab Emirates in the transition.

She told House investigators in September that she asked for the information in order to determine why the crown prince of the UAE came to the U.S. without telling the federal government.

Trump in April said that he believed that Rice committed a crime when she ordered the identities of his associates to be revealed.

After listening to private, classified testimony from Rice, a GOP lawmaker helping to lead the House's investigation into election meddling said he disagreed. Rice also said in a defense interview with MSNBC that her actions were not politically motivated.

Yesterday, the administration said it 'strongly opposes' the USA Rights amendment that's being introduced in the House today by Republican Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian from Michigan (left). The president indicated that he was backing a bill in the House that Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is introducing today (right)

Prior to the allegations against Rice, Trump made an explosive charge last year that that Obama had his 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower.

'How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!' Trump said.

The administration never provided any information to back the claim up. The top White House spokesman at the time, Sean Spicer, eventually claimed that Trump wiretapped meant 'broadly surveillance' on him, which happened, 'no question,' in the 2016 election.

Former FBI Director James Comey said in March 20, 2017 testimony to the House Intelligence Community that he had looked carefully within the bureau and could not find any evidence to back up the wiretapping claim. NSA Director Mike Rogers batted down a Spicer suggestion that the Obama administration got the UK to do it.

The Justice Department admitted in a September court filing that it, too, had no evidence to back up Trump's claim.

To surveil Trump legally, federal officials would have had to have obtained a special warrant from a FISA court.

Trump associates who have been charged with crimes in connection to the government's Russia probe are known to have surveiled, though, including Paul Manafort. Its possible that Trump had communications of his recorded when speaking to those individuals.

Manafort was spied on after the FBI obtained a warrant through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to investigate him for work that he did for a Ukranian political party. A second warrant was issued, CNN reported last year, after he became a person of interest in the Russian collusion probe.

The dossier composed by ex-British spy Christopher Steele that Trump referred to in his tweet this morning could have been the source of a warrant for surveillance. If so, that's not something that his Department of Justice has disclosed, though.

Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday that Trump's claims were false, without going into detail.

'This is irresponsible, untrue, and frankly it endangers our national security. FISA is something the President should have known about long before he turned on Fox this morning,' Warner said.
A sniffer dog has stopped more than 1 million of cash that was being smuggled in through Heathrow airport.

Jessie, a two-year-old springer spaniel has only been working with the UK Border Force for five months but has had a 'unprecedented run of success'.

She is trained to detect the scent of ink on banknotes and has found large undeclared sums of cash being brought into the country in hand luggage from the Middle East as well as 350,000 in banknotes that was being sent abroad.

Jessie, pictured here with handler Cat Jurczenko has found more than 1 million in cash that was being smuggled through Heathrow airport

Border Force dogs have discovered more than 8 million of cash through Heathrow and Gatwick in the 12 months to the end of last March.

Another Border Force dog, a labrador named Buster, found 56,000 of undeclared cash in the hand luggage of a passenger flying from Gatwick to Tirana in Albania.

The man claimed he'd won the cash in the National Lottery but was unable to provide Border Force officers with proof.

The cash was seized as a result.

Other goods found by the sniffer dog team during the period include 6 million worth of drugs, including 30kg of heroin, 52kg of cocaine and five million cigarettes that were being smuggled to avoid customs.

However, Jessie's achievements have been highly praised as particularly exceptional.

Her handler Catherine Jurczenko said the puppy had 'exceeded all expectations'.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Ms Jurczenko said: 'I love working with Jessie. She's a wonder dog and a natural at what she does.

'I've no doubt that she will continue to prevent those looking to smuggle cash into and out of the country from succeeding.'

Newly appointed immigration minister Caroline Nokes said: 'Border Force detector dogs and their handlers have played an integral role in keeping the public safe over the past year.'
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Bulldozers have been called in to Bonneval-sur-Arc, in the south-eastern part of the French Alps, to remove 30 feet of snow from a road that was hit by an avalanche.

The avalanche buried and blocked the road between Bessans and Bonneval-sur-Arc on Monday night.

A combination of the avalanches along with record snow fall in the French Alps have buried several roads, leading to the creation of treacherous ice tunnels which drivers have to navigate on their way up or down the mountains.

A mechanical digger clearing up the streets from the snow due to an avalanche in Bonneval-sur-Arc, in the French Alps

The heavy snowfall has led to the creation of treacherous ice tunnels which drivers have to navigate on their way up or down the mountains

Many roads in the French Alps are unrecognizable because of huge amounts of snow

Av major snow clearing effort is now underway

Footage from Bonneval-sur-Arc, near the Val d'Isere ski resort, showed a front-end loader carving a path through packed snow that had swamped a local route.

The snow-clearing effort on Wednesday created a wall of ice on both sides of the road around 20 feet high and just wide enough for one vehicle at a time to pass through.

Up to six feet of snow fell in areas across the high-altitude Savoy region in just 36 hours this week, where a red alert for avalanches was lifted late Tuesday.

Elsewhere on Thursday, rescue workers were still looking for a 39-year-old British skier who went missing late Sunday at the Tignes resort after trying 'one last run,' a police official in Albertville said.

But access remains limited in many areas.

Train services resumed to the Zermatt resort in Switzerland on Wednesday after more than 1,000 stranded holidaymakers were airlifted out of the village in previous days.
The mother of the murdered South African model Reeva Steenkamp has told BBC Radio 5 that live she still wakes every night at the exact time her daughter was shot  nearly five years after it happened.

June Steenkamp was speaking to Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 5 live about the Foundation she has set up in memory of Reeva, who was murdered by her boyfriend, the South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, on Valentine's Day 2013.

He said he thought she was an intruder hiding in the toilet, and is now serving a prison sentence for the crime.

June Steenkamp, pictured here in court along with her husband Barry, spoke with Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 5 live about life since her daughter was murdered in February 2013

Oscar Pistorius claimed he believed an intruder was hiding in the bathroom of the house he shared with Ms Steenkamp when he opened fire and shot through the door

Reeva Steenkamp, pictured was gunned down by her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius

June Steenkamp said: 'We wake up every morning at 3 o'clock, which is when she died. I think it was about twenty past three. And then you think of her in that toilet and what she must have gone through. Nobody deserves that.'

When asked if she and Reeva's father talk when they wake up, she replied: 'No, we just wake up. Then the thoughts start. It's all in there, it's all contained in your mind. I still today get very upset.'

Even after the full horror of what had happened that night was revealed, she still gets criticised by people who feel that Oscar Pistorius has been treated too harshly by the South African courts.

Defending her actions to get his sentence increased, she said: 'If you get 15 years for killing a rhino, surely if you kill a person it must have a big sentence. It must have respect for the person that has lost their life.'

Pistorius shot dead Ms Steenkamp on Valentine's night in 2013 through a toilet door

She continued: 'We became victims of what had happened. There are still people today who blame us for what happened to Oscar. And it's crazy if you think of it. We did nothing wrong, what did we do wrong?'

Pistorius was initially sentenced to six years when he was first convicted. However this was criticised as 'shockingly lenient' by the South African Appeal Court and was increased to 13 years and five months.

Mrs Steenkamp has set up the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation in her daughter's memory to raise awareness of abuse against women and children in South Africa and around the world.
A teenage driver who killed a man planning to donate a kidney to his brother in a crash that happened seconds after she sent a text message has been detained for seven months.

Katie Foster was driving with her iPhone under her thigh and received a message only nine seconds before she swerved into the path of an oncoming car, killing tyre fitter Lee Cain, 36.

The judge described it as a tragic case, having heard that Mr Cain had been due to donate the vital organ to his seriously-ill brother Bradley.

Foster, Etherley Dene, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, was sentenced to seven months in a young offenders' institution after she admitted causing death by careless driving.

Katie Foster has been sentenced to seven months in a young offenders' institution after killing a man seconds after sending a text while driving

Lee Cain, 36, was killed when texting driver Katie Foster swerved into his car. He was due to donate a kidney to his seriously ill brother

Durham Crown Court heard she was driving on the nearby A688 in March 2016 when cars in front of her braked.

Then aged 18, and having passed her test just nine months earlier, she did not react in time and swerved her VW Polo into the path of Mr Cain's Peugeot 206, which then overturned.

He died despite the attentions of air ambulance paramedics.

As a new driver, her car was fitted with a black box and the exact time of the collision was recorded.

That allowed police to identify that she had texted her father 25 seconds before the collision and received a message nine seconds before impact.

The prosecution was not able to prove that she had read the response, and the defence said it was only read later by one of her three passengers after the crash.

Her basis of plea included that she was driving too close to the vehicle in front of her and she braked too late and with insufficient force.

Mr Cain's mother, Gail, wrote a moving victim impact statement which was read to the court by her best friend.

Katie Foster (pictured facing the camera) was sentenced to seven months in a young offenders' institution after she admitted causing death by careless driving

She proudly talked of a kind and loving son who cared deeply for his family.

She said: 'I was distraught, numb; in fact words cannot describe hearing his life had been ended at the age of only 36.'

She said her eldest son had wanted to donate a kidney needed by his brother, Bradley, but his untimely death prevented it.

That meant their father, Brian, at the age of 70, had to step in for the transplant.

'Lee was young and fit and happy to help his brother but because of this collision my husband has had to go through this surgery instead.'

The grieving mother added: 'Everybody misses his fun, laughter and antics. I doubt any Christmas or birthday will ever be the same again.'

The son ran his tyre business after their father retired, but he has gone back to work to fill the gap.

Judge Christopher Prince thanked the family for the statement, and hoped it would save lives.

He said: 'I cannot imagine there is a driver who on hearing that statement will not resolve 'I will drive carefully in the future because I now have an insight into how terrible and devastating is the loss that can be suffered by others if I don't do so'.'

Durham Police's Sergeant Mark Sheppard reads a statement to the media outside Durham Crown Court this evening after Foster was convicted

James Lake, defending, read extracts of Foster's letter to the judge.

She wrote how it was 'excruciating' at her age to be told a man had lost his life.

She said: 'I can remember screaming 'How am I going to live with myself after this?'

'Many times I felt I deserved to give up my own life.'

She added: 'I want to offer my deepest and sincere apologies to the friends and family of Lee as I cannot comprehend what grieving and sadness they must be going through.'

The judge said Foster, now aged 20, had allowed herself to be distracted.

He added: 'It is important that the court sends out a clear message to drivers that you must not drive carelessly, for if you do so, you may cause someone to lose their life.'

She was disqualified for more than 15 months and must pass an extended test.

She was originally charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
The is the alarming moment fireworks were set off and exploded across a road in Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, creating a dangerous wall of smoke across the street.

CCTV footage captured Norman Wood lighting a pile of fireworks which sparked across Broad Street in Kirkwall, Orkney.

The rockets burst and flashed barely feet away from people passing by - and at one point bounced off the wheel of a car.

No-one was injured in the incident, despite the area being busy at the time with numerous people being feet away on the pavement.

Orkney police dubbed the man's actions 'reckless' and said it was 'fortunate' that no-one was injured.

Wood, from Orkney, has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for 'misuses of fireworks' after he unleashed terror on December 30.

The minute-long clip begins on a crowded street, across from St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall on a busy Saturday afternoon.

The is the alarming moment fireworks were set off and exploded across a road in Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland

The rockets burst and flashed barely feet away from people passing by - and at one point bounced off the wheel of a car

Wood can be seen staggering in the corner of the footage, carrying what appears to be a paper bag.

A lighter can be seen flickering in Wood's hand as he tries to start the fireworks.

Within moments smoke can be seen billowing from the bag as Wood turns away from the camera.

As he walks towards members of the public further up the road, a bright red firework explodes to his left.

A barrage of fireworks bang across the street, with one bouncing off the front tyre of a car turning into the road.

Within moments smoke can be seen billowing from the bag as Wood turns away from the camera

In the corner of the screen, one firework can be seen barely missing a man crossing the road carrying his shopping.

The man has to duck and rush across the street to safety, while fireworks continue to spark around him.

Smoke fills the street and clouds the camera.

Despite the chaos going on around him, Wood appears unfazed and walks out into the street - even as one firework erupts underneath his legs.

Wood pleaded guilty to setting off fireworks in a culpable and reckless manner, and was sentenced to six months imprisonment at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Wednesday January 10.

Orkney area commander, Chief Inspector Matt Webb, said: 'Norman Wood's actions were entirely reckless and it is fortunate that nobody was injured as a result.

A barrage of fireworks bang across the street, with one bouncing off the front tyre of a car turning into the road

'I'm grateful for the support of the public, which helped lead to Norman Wood's conviction. It is a good example of officers working in partnership with the public to help keep Orkney safe.

'Fireworks can be incredibly dangerous when not used safely and the consequences of his behaviour could have been far more severe.

'We will not tolerate the misuse of fireworks and will take action against anyone who sets them off in a reckless manner.

'Do not set off fireworks under the influence of alcohol and do not set them off in a public place - this is an offence which we will deal with robustly.'
Three glamorous Ukrainian women including a model nicknamed Bambi face a lifetime of disability after an horrific car crash in Los Angeles.

Catwalk star Elizaveta Kuzmenko, 20, has been told she is paralysed below the neck and there are fears she will never be able to breathe unaided following the devastating New Year smash.

Stylist Inga Shevchenko, photographer Natalia Kordan, along with US-based producer Eugen Efuni, originally from Russia, have all suffered life-changing injuries.

Friends are desperately seeking to raise money for medical costs with a Gofundme appeal after their Uber taxi collided with a 'drunk driver' in a Mercedes SUV before ramming a building in Hollywood.

Catwalk star Elizaveta Kuzmenko, 20, has been told she is paralysed below the neck and there are fears she will never be able to breathe unaided following the devastating New Year smash

Nicknamed Bambi, she was travelling in an Uber with three others including photographer and producer Eugen Efuni (right) when the crash happened

Her distraught mother in Ukraine has applied for a passport so she can visit the model who styled herself Bambi because of her slender figure

Stylist Inga Shevchenko (pictured), photographer Natalia Kordan, along with US-based producer Eugen Efuni, originally from Russia, have all suffered life-changing injuries

Photographer Natalia Kordan suffered a massive swelling of her head and eye damage along with spinal injuries and broken ribs

Russian celebrity columnist Bozhena Rynska said of Kuzmenko: 'She will be paralysed below the neck, and it is not yet known whether she will be able to breathe herself.

'A successful model, poor baby.'

She went through an operation on her damaged liver and has a broken upper jaw.

Her distraught mother in Ukraine has applied for a passport so she can visit the model who styled herself Bambi because of her slender figure.

Photographer Natalia Kordan suffered a massive swelling of her head and eye damage along with spinal injuries and broken ribs.

She has a fractured hip and abdomen wounds.

Inga Shevchenko suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and her mother Galina said: 'She cannot understand where she is.

'And why she is there.

'Her friends come, she recognises everyone, remembers them, but says: 'Have you come to Vinnytsia (in Ukraine)?

'She really does not understand where she is.'

Efuni remains in a coma, according to reports in Russia.

Elizaveta is out of a coma now and close friend Kirill Dubrovnik urged her nearest and dearest to send her audio messages in a bid to lift her.

All four remain in hospital in Los Angeles and friends are desperately seeking to raise cash for their hefty medical bills.

All were insured but the money does not cover all their medical needs, say relatives.

Kuzmenko remains in hospital in Los Angeles and friends are desperately seeking to raise cash for her and the others' hefty medical bills

Inga Shevchenko suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and her mother Galina said: 'She cannot understand where she is. 'And why she is there'

US-based producer Eugen Efuni, originally from Russia, was travelling in the Uber with the three women

A Gofundme page reads: 'Three beautiful girls Natasha, Inga (pictured together) and Liz (right), all visiting from Ukraine, were hit by a drunk driver while taking an Uber on New Year's Eve in Los Angeles.

Inga Shevchenko (left) takes a photograph on her phone while photogapher Natalia Kordan (centre) snaps away at Elizaveta Kuzmenko (right) in a photo taken by Eugen Efuni

The Gofundme page reads: 'Three beautiful girls Natasha, Inga and Liz, all visiting from Ukraine, were hit by a drunk driver while taking an Uber on New Year's Eve in Los Angeles.

'As a result of the accident, all the girls suffered severe injuries too numerous to list but severe enough to put them into comas.

'All three are still in critical a condition.

'Their families are rushing to obtain visas so they can come to their bedside.

'They are in desperate need of financial help for transportation, accommodation and the girls' medical care.

'It is a family's worst nightmare to have loved ones injured when you cannot reach them.

'Please help these girls and their families reunite and heal together.'

The group had been driving between New Year parties when the accident happened.
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Making their way through deep snow yesterday, a group of migrants cross the Italian Alps in a bid to reach France amid perilous conditions.

Extremely heavy snowfall has left many migrants particularly ill-equipped for the journey  with some wearing thin canvas trainers in the freezing conditions.

Hundreds have attempted the route over the last year, using dangerous paths through the mountains in an attempt to evade border security. Rescuers in northern Italy last month said the situation had reached emergency levels and called for more security measures near the border.

Scroll down for video

A migrant in jeans and trainers walks in the snow after failing to cross from Italy to France due to too much snow on the mountain, in Bardonecchia, Turin, Northern Italy

Abdullhai, 38, from Guinea, is helped by a friend as they try to cross part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Bardonecchia

After the police reinforced the Frejus and and Ventimiglia borders, many migrants are trying to find other ways to reach the French border, risking their lives in freezing temperatures through snow-covered passes

Migrants walks in the snow with inappropriate shoes during another attempt to reach the French border through the Colle della Scala mountain pass in Bardonecchia

A migrant takes off shoes after failing to cross from Italy to France due to too much snow on the mountain. Hundreds have attempted the route in Bardonecchia over the past year

Rescuers in northern Italy last month said the situation had reached emergency levels and called for more security measures near the border

A migrant rests after crossing part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Nevache in southeastern France

A man washes himself in a cold river after spending the night under a highway bypass from where migrants prepare to attempt to cross the Italian border into France, in the Mediterranean coastal town of Ventimiglia, northern Italy

Migrants walk through snow after crossing part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Nevache

Snow covers the beginning of a mountain pass from where migrants try to cross from Italy into France, near the town of Bardonecchia

A sign that warns of avalanche dangers protrudes from the snow on a mountain pass where migrants try to cross from Italy into France, near the town of Bardonecchia

Abdullhai, 38, from Guinea, attempts to cross part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the French town of Nevache

Aid volunteers from the Italian Catholic relief organisation Caritas give hot tea and bread with jam to a group of migrants in the Mediterranean coastal town of Ventimiglia, northern Italy

Migrants walk through snow as they attempt to cross part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Bardonecchia in northern Italy

Easier routes between the two countries have been blocked to undocumented migrants, forcing some to higher altitudes to try to escape detection.

The journeys are made harder by what French forecasters have described as the kind of snowfall only seen once in every 30 years, with up to 6ft in 36 hours in parts of the Alps.

Many migrants making the journey this winter have endured the conditions without weatherproof clothing, having come from far hotter countries.

In Bardonecchia, Italy, three men were seen pausing after battling the treacherous terrain in temperatures as low as -9C (15F).

The group, attempting to cross into France, included a 24-year-old Senegalese man, a 31-year-old from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a 37-year-old from Pakistan. They had managed to cross the border but were too weak to continue and were returned to Italy.

Migrants began heading across the mountains last spring as the French authorities tightened up on attempts to cross in the coastal Ventimiglia area. The new route involves a seven-mile trek at altitudes of up to 5,500ft.

A helicopter belonging to the French police searches for migrants attempting to cross part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near Bardonecchia

A migrant walks in the snow after failing to cross from Italy to France wearing only a thin coat and thin shoes in Bardonecchia

Cars pass through a tunnel on the Italian-French border from where migrants have attempted to pass into France, near the Mediterranean coastal town of Ventimiglia in northern Italy

Migrants discuss their day having crossed part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, in the shelter centre of the organisation Tous Migrants (All Migrants) in the town of Briancon in southeastern France

Abdullhai, 38 (right) and Abu, 23 (front left), migrants from Guinea, talk and use their mobile phones in their room the day after crossing part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, in the shelter centre of the organisation Tous Migrants

Discarded clothes are seen by a mountain pass near the Italian-French border from where migrants have attempted to pass into France, near Ventimiglia

A man prays on a river bank after spending the night under a highway bypass from where migrants of mostly North African origins prepare to attempt to cross the Italian border into France, in Ventimiglia, northern Italy

Abdurahman, a migrant from Guinea, walks in snow after crossing part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Nevache in southeastern France

A migrant walks in the snow after failing to cross from Italy to France due to too much snow on the mountain, in Bardonecchia, Italy

A migrant takes off shoes after failing to cross from Italy to France due to too much snow on the mountain, in Bardonecchia

A migrant takes off shoes after failing to cross from Italy to France due to too much snow on the mountain

Rescuers have said they expect to find bodies of African migrants who died crossing the Alps when snows melt in spring.

They added that up to a dozen now reach France by crossing the mountain range each day. There are two mountain tunnels that can be used on the route but police often lie in wait at the French side to apprehend migrants and return them to Bardonecchia by bus.

In 2017, 171,635 migrants arrived in Europe by boat from the Middle East and Africa, down from 363,504 in 2016 and 1million in 2015.

The International Organisation for Migration estimates 20,000 have died in the Mediterranean sea while trying to reach Italy.

Abdullhai, 38, from Guinea, rests after crossing part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Nevache

Abdullhai, 38 (left), and Abdurahman, migrants from Guinea walk along with another group as they pass an Italian man during an attempt to cross part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France

Migrants, mostly from North Africa, climb mountains in order to cross part of the Alps range to reach France from Italy

French police bring back migrants they picked up at the railway station in Bardonecchia, Italy and bring them back into France

Migrants travel on a train as they attempt to reach the border with France, near Bardonecchia in northern Italy

A migrant stands in the snow after failing to cross from Italy to France due to too much snow on the mountain

Migrants mostly from the Darfur region of western Sudan warm up by a fire under a highway bypass where they have been sheltering from the weather

Migrants rest after having crossed part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Nevache in southeastern France

Kamarra, 28 (left), from Guinea and a group of other migrants rest and warm up by a fire in a cave after crossing part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Nevache
In Time Magazine's latest cover depicting President Donald Trump, he is literally going up in flames.

The caricature of the president shows an orange-faced man in a black suit that blends into the background and a red tie, with yellow hair that billows across the entire page as a huge flame.

To the right of the cartoon version of Trump with his mouth agape are the words, 'Year one.'

The artist behind the cover, Edel Rodriguez, told Time the flames in Trump's hair are a reference to author Michael Wolff's new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

Time's latest cover by Edel Rodriguez shows Donald Trump with his hair going up in flames

'I got a message from [TIME Creative Director] D.W. Pine that they wanted to do a cover referencing whats been going on with the Michael Wolff book, Fire and Fury, and also the anniversary of the inauguration, looking back to the past year,' Rodriguez said.

The title of Wolff's book, and the subsequent flamed hair by Rodriguez on this latest cover of Time, were inspired by Trump's threat that North Korea would be 'met with fire and fury like the world has never seen' if Kim Jong-un's rogue state kept up with threats against the US.

'We used to live where the United States was a pretty steady country, and now you wake up every day and try to figure out wheres the next fire, where do we have to go, what do we have to try to contain,' Rodriguez said

The artist behind the cover, Edel Rodriguez, told Time the flames in Trump's hair are a reference to author Michael Wolff's new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House

The title of Wolff's book, and the subsequent flamed hair by Rodriguez on this latest cover of Time, were inspired by Trump's threat that North Korea would be 'met with fire and fury like the world has never seen' if the east Asian country kept up with threats against the US; Trump is seen here in Washington, DC on Wednesday

'Its sort of this President that youre always trying to contain, like a wildfire thats moving from one place to the other at all times.'

Rodriguez had his own go at what a cover for Wolff's book might've looked like if designed by him, which he tweeted on Sunday.

That post quickly went viral, with over 8,000 retweets and nearly 40,000 favorites.

His version bore a strong resemblance to what ended up on Time, out on newsstands Thursday.

Rodriguez had his own go at what a cover for Wolff's book might've looked like if designed by him, which he tweeted on Sunday

This is the latest instance in which Time Magazine has featured Rodriguez's version of Trump; The first of which was just about a year and a half ago, on a cover depicting the artist's iteration of president's image dripping down the page like hot candle wax (left), with the word 'Meltdown;' Another design (right) showed Rodriguez's Trump character in a pool of itself on the metaphorical floor, heightened a bit with the text 'Total Meltdown' next to the drawing

Thursday's cover is the latest instance in which Time Magazine has featured Rodriguez's version of Trump.

The first of which was just about a year and a half ago, on a cover depicting the artist's iteration of president's image dripping down the page like hot candle wax, with the word 'Meltdown.'

Another similar designed showed Rodriguez's Trump character in a pool of itself on the metaphorical floor, heightened a bit with the text 'Total Meltdown' next to the drawing.

Though the image and tone may change, all of Rodriguez's Trump work has had one thing in common since that first 'Meltdown' cover, and it's very purposeful.

He's used the same color orange for his face, every time.

Rodriguez uses the same color orange for Trump's face, every time; Trump is seen here during a meeting on prison reform in the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday

'Part of what I was trying to do was establish this brand, that I can do anything to this image and you can see it anywhere and it just reminds you, "Oh wow, that guys making that again, I should pay attention,"' Rodriguez said.

'Its sort of like an anti-branding campaign, where youre branding something so that people recognize it and kind of critique it strongly.'

Pine has called Rodriguez's work 'an important part of Times visual language,' over the past few years.

'Its amazing how his bold, yet simple graphic strokes perfectly capture a likeness, but also start a conversation,' he said.

And this cover certainly did inspire conversation.

Many applauded Rodriguez's latest Time concept, calling it 'another outstanding cover'

Pine has called Rodriguez's work 'an important part of Times visual language,' over the past few years; Trump is seen here in the White House in Washington, DC on Wednesday

One Twitter user said Rodriguez's cover was 'pure genius' and that she 'can't wait to see [Trump's] tweets after this'

Many applauded the concept, calling it 'another outstanding cover.'

One Twitter user said it was 'pure genius' and that she 'can't wait to see [Trump's] tweets after this.'

Another woman called Rodriguez's work 'fantastic' and said he was 'talented.'

'Your Trump pieces perfectly capture the essence of his disordered soul and terror he imposes on the world,' she said.

Some Trump supporters quoted a headline calling Time a 'far-left magazine' and said it was an 'outrageous' cover.

As part of a separate conversation about Trump's plan to hand out 'Fake News Awards,' bassist and founder of music group Porno for Pyros Martyn LeNoble reminded people that Trump previously had a fake Time Magazine cover hung up on his wall at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Another woman called Rodriguez's work 'fantastic' and said he was 'talented'

Another user pointed out, as part of a separate conversation about Trump's plan to hand out 'Fake News Awards,' that Trump previously had a fake Time Magazine cover hung up on his wall at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida

Rodriguez's work on actual Time Magazine covers related to the President has won him notoriety and accolades, like an ASME award for cover of the year.

But his concentration on Trump is not to be confused with inspiration.

'Im not inspired by [Trump] at all,' he said.

'The opposite  I feel that Im in a position where I know how to make pictures that communicate well, and I dont really see that many people visually taking him on. Its a bit of a responsibility for me to do it.'

The artist is a Cuban-American who left his home in pursuit of freedom of speech.

'Anyone that leaves their homeland, its in their mind a lot, and they want to make it worthwhile,' Rodriguez said.

'Theres a reason you left, and the reason I left was to make my work and to speak freely, and so Ill keep on doing it.'
Mark Wahlberg reportedly held the production of All the Money in the World for ransom by refusing to sign-off on disgraced actor Kevin Spacey's replacement if he was not paid more than $1 million for the reshoots.

Wahlberg decided to exercise a co-star approval clause in his contract and hold up production of the Ridley Scott kidnapping drama if his demands were not met, according to USA Today on Thursday.

'What (Wahlberg) said was, "I will not approve Christopher Plummer unless you pay me.'" And that's how he (expletive) them,' says one person who spoke to the publication under the condition of anonymity.

Plummer was chosen to replace the former 'House of Cards' actor after Spacey became mired in a sexual harassment scandal that brought down some Hollywood's biggest stars.

But the Oscar winner would not be allowed to step into the role until Wahlberg got his way, with the latter's lawyer writing a letter to financiers demanding the payment for his work over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Pay gap debacle: Michelle Williams was paid around $800 to reshoot scene for All The Money In The World, reportedly unaware that her co-star Mark Wahlberg (above) had negotiated a $1.5million side deal

A representative for Walberg's nor his talent agency responded to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, details over the staggering pay disparity on the reshoot of of the film caused waves earlier in the day, when it was revealed that Wahlberg earned an additional $1.5million for the work after his representatives declared that he never works for free - while his co-star Michelle Williams was offered less than $1,000 for her troubles.

As TMZ first reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, when Spacey dropped out of the project after being accused by multiple men of sexual abuse, a producer on the film approached Williams, asking her to travel back to Rome over the Thanksgiving holiday to reshoot some scenes.

Williams answered the call and agreed to be compensated at the minimum SAG-AFTRA rate of $80 per day, earning her a total of $800 for the 10-day reshoot.

Around the same time, Scott flew to London to meet with Wahlberg about doing the reshoot. According to TMZ's report, the Transformers alum also agreed to redo the scenes with Williams and Spacey's replacement, Christopher Plummer, but he and Scott did not discuss his compensation at the time.

Allegedly unbeknownst to Scott, Wahlberg's representatives later met with the two main financial backers of the project and demanded that their client be paid for the extra work.

Williams and Wahlberg took part in the 10-day reshoot in Rome in late November so the film could be released on time on Christmas Day

Christopher Plummer (Left) with Ridley Scott for the 'All the Money in the World' film premiere, Los Angeles on December 18, 2017

When Ridley Scott said in an interview with USA Today in December that he and his cast - excluding Plummer who was paid - were working for free to reshoot the movie in the wake of the Spacey debacle, he was unaware of Wahlberg's side deal, and was reportedly left feeling betrayed and 'hung out to dry.'

Williams and Wahlberg are both represented by Williams Morris Endeavor, and some critics have accused the talent agency of failing to inform the Oscar-nominated actress of her co-start's lucrative arrangement.

But according to TMZ sources, the glaring disparity in Williams and Wahlberg's payouts came down to their individual contracts: Williams' contract reportedly required her to do reshoots, as needed, as part of her overall salary, whereas Wahlberg's did not have such a clause.

One person familiar with contract negotiations explained that it is not a common practice for agents within the same company to discuss or coordinate their clients' salaries, and doing so would be in violation of their duty of confidentiality.

The actors' union SAG-AFTRA, which represents both Williams and Wahlberg, said it is looking into the pay disparity on Scott's latest project, which was released on schedule on Christmas Day thanks to the $10million reshoot.

'We are unambiguously in favor of pay equity between men and women in this industry and support every action to move in this direction. At the same time, performers at this level negotiate their above-scale rates through their agents,' said a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson.

Despite being the film's top-billed star and receiving her fifth Golden Globe nomination for her work in the movie, Williams just $80 per day, according to fellow A-lister Jessica Chastain.

This means that the single mother traveled to Italy in late November for a last-second reshoot while being paid 0.05 per cent what her male co-star was making for his work.

Williams was reportedly unaware that Wahlberg was not working for free when the reshoot began, but her agents at William Morris Endeavour were well aware of his payday as they also represent both Wahlberg and Scott.

Reps for Williams, Wahlberg, Scott, WME and the production company which funded the reshoot did not respond to requests for comment.

Unreal: It is now being reported that Wahlberg was paid $1.5million for the 10-day shoot while Williams made just $80-a-day according to Jessica Chastain (tweet above)

Pay grade: That would add up to $800 at the end of the 10-day shoot, which is 0.05 % the salary her co-star made for his work on the film (Williams and Christopher Plummer in a scene that was reshot in November)

Women and Hollywood founder Melissa Silverstein was the first to point out the reported pay gap on Monday, tweeting: 'On the day after display of female power at the #goldenglobes , I learned that there was an egregious pay gap between Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg for the All the Money in the World reshoot. Did they think this wouldn't come out? Unacceptable #TimesUp.'

She later stated that her source is '100 percent reliable.'

Williams said in multiple interviews while promoting the film that she had agreed to work for free on the reshoot, claiming she felt invigorated to be taking a pro-active stance in the wake of the Spacey allegations while helping Scott save the film.

She also made a point of stressing the fact that giving up her holiday and working without pay were both sacrifices she was happy to make given the situation.

Scott himself seemed to be under the impression that the two stars were not being paid based on interviews he has given over the past four weeks, saying that he, Williams and Wahlberg all took no salary.

'Everyone did it for nothing,' he told USA Today. 'Christopher had to get paid. But Michelle, no. Me, no. I wouldn't do that...'

The $80 Williams took home daily represents the minimum amount a SAG/AFTRA actor must be paid for a day of work in Italy.

Plummer, who was brought in to replace Spacey, and the crew of the film were all fully compensated for their work on the reshoot.

Before: Kevin Spacey as J Paul Getty in the original All the Money in the World shoot (above)

After: Plummer (above) was called in to replace Spacey i November, having always been Scott's first choice in the role

Power: Top row from left: Tarana Burke Michelle Williams, America Ferrera, Jessica Chastain, Amy Poehler, Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington; Bottom row from left: Natalie Portman, Ai-jen Poo, and Saru Jayaraman

Williams, meanwhile, could be looking at her fifth Academy Award nod for her work in the film when the honorees are announced next week.

She lost out at the Golden Globes on Sunday to Frances McDormand, but proved to be the perfect date for her guest, #MeToo creator Tarana Burke.

Williams said she brought Burke as her date so she could listen to her talk.

'I'm so much more interested in what you have to say than what I have to say,' Williams told reporters about her date on the red carpet.

Burke, an activist from Harlem, launched the #MeToo movement a decade ago to aid underprivileged women of color affected by sexual abuse.

A young girl she bonded with during a youth camp hosted by Just Be Inc - a nonprofit Burke founded - revealed that her mother's boyfriend had been abusing her.

That's when Burke decided to take action by helping the communities where rape crisis centers and sexual assault workers were not present, and 'Me Too' was born.

Burke said the solidarity and the support behind Time's Up and #MeToo is something we've never seen before and that she's grateful to the actresses sharing their platforms to turn the spotlight back on survivors rather than perpetrators.

When asked about working with Plummer in the film after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct, Williams says she was 'not talking about that'.
A Florida man has been charged with the murder of his twin brother - whose name was nearly identical.

Prince Terrill Mitchell, 26, was arrested in Daytona Beach on Friday.

Police say he was on the run for four months after a shooting in Jacksonville left his twin Prince Tirrell Mitchell dead on September 5.

Prince Terrill Mitchell, 26 (left), has been charged with the murder of his twin brother, Prince Tirrell Mitchell (right). The men have the same first and last name but slightly different middle names

'The shooting stemmed from an argument between the twin brothers,' Lt. Craig Waldrup said to CBS 47.

'Prince Mitchell has been arrested for shooting and killing his twin brother Prince Mitchell (not a typo, they have the same name)', the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office announced on Twitter.

It is currently unknown what the brothers were arguing about.

Mitchell has had several convictions since 2009, including burglary and battery.

He has been charged with murder and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Mitchell is being held without bail in the Jacksonville jail. He is due back in court on January 31.
Hundreds of schoolchildren are expected to gather for the emotional funeral service of a 14-year-old girl who tragically ended her own life after she was tormented by online bullies.

Amy Jayne Everett, known as 'Dolly', will be farewelled in the Northern Territory on Friday following her death on January 3.

The service will be held at Casuarina St Primary School in Katherine, where family and friends have been asked to wear blue, Dolly's favourite colour.

Dolly's family said she would be remembered as 'kindest, caring, beautiful soul'.

Amy Jayne Everett, known as 'Dolly', will be farewelled in the Northern Territory on Friday following her death on January 3

Her father, Tick Everett, took to Facebook earlier this week to suggest the people who bullied and harassed his daughter should attend her memorial.

'Please come to our service and witness the complete devastation you have created,' Mr Everett wrote on Sunday.

The teenager had been the young, angelic face of Akubra hats.

In a statement on social media on Thursday, the company said: 'To think that anyone could feel so overwhelmed and that this was their only option is unfathomable'.

The teenager's death has become a battle cry against the horrors of bullying and the effects it has on mental health, particularly on young people.

A campaign to shut down Sarahah, an anonymous posting app used by bullies, is gaining rapid momentum.

The teenager had been the young, angelic face of Akubra hats. She will be farwelled on Friday

A Queensland mother whose young daughter was encouraged to kill herself by online trolls is leading the charge.

'I have been scared, broken and sick to my stomach ever since I read messages about my 13-year-old daughter including, ''I hope SHE KILLS HERSELF. Seriously nobody will care'',' the mother wrote in an online petition.

'No one, especially our youth, should have to read messages like this about them,' she said, describing Sarahah as an 'app breeding suicides and hate'.

'I read an article on 'Dolly', a 14 year old, who after so much bullying, took her life just after the New Year,' she wrote.

The service will be held at Casuarina St Primary School in Katherine, where family and friends have been asked to wear blue, Dolly's favourite colour

'Dolly felt that her only way out was suicide. I do not want my daughter or any other to become the next Dolly.'

As of Friday morning, the petition had amassed over 15,000 signatures. That figure is quickly growing.

Meanwhile, Dolly's family plan to establish a trust called 'Dolly's Dream' dedicated to raising awareness around bullying, anxiety, depression and youth suicide.

The family said they did not want another family to experience such 'sadness and tragedy'.

Dolly's family said she would be remembered as 'kindest, caring, beautiful soul'

'Before Dolly died, she completed a drawing and wrote the words ''Stand up, speak even if your voice shakes'',' they said.

'This powerful message tells the dark, scary place our beautiful angel had travelled to.'

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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A Saudi private company on Thursday opened the first car showroom for women only just five months before a decision allowing females to drive takes effect.

The showroom was opened in a shopping mall in the western Red Sea port city of Jeddah to allow women the freedom to choose their own cars before they hit the road.

In a historic decision late last year, King Salman gave Saudi women the right to drive, abolishing an almost three-decade ban based on religious reasons.

Saudi Arabia's first car show room for women has opened in the Red Sea port of Jeddah

Last September, King Salman announced he was reversing the ban on women driving

From June Saudi women will be entitled to take to the roads following the decision

The showroom offers a wide selection of vehicles from various makes and is staffed by women only.

It also provides women with solutions to finance their purchase provided by leading banks and financial companies.

The company plans to open more automobiles showrooms for women in the oil-rich kingdom.

Saudi Arabia announced in September that it would finally lift a ban on women driving , becoming the last country in the world to allow women to get behind the wheel.

Activists had been arrested for driving since 1990, when the first driving campaign was launched by women who drove cars in the capital, Riyadh.

In June, the kingdom plans to begin issuing licenses to women, even allowing them to drive motorcycles, according to local reports.

It will be a huge change for women who have had to rely on costly male drivers or male relatives to get to work or school or to run errands and visit friends.

Manal al-Sharif was one of the leading campaigners against the ban. She said she was an 'accidental activist' and now wants the Kingdom to abolish the system of male guardianship.

She told AFP: 'There is no time for us to be silent anymore.'

Ms al-Sharif has written a memoir, 'Daring to Drive' about her campaign.

She said: 'Speak up, that is the only way to bring awareness and change things in Saudi Arabia.'

In a country that adheres to strict gender segregation and an austere vision of Islam, the guardianship system requires Saudi women to get permission from a designated male family member on anything from travel to enrolling at university.

Like the driving ban, the male guardianship 'has stopped a lot of women from pursuing their dreams', said Sharif, who has drawn comparisons with the late US civil rights activist Rosa Parks.

To show how serious she is about her new campaign, Sharif rolls back her sleeve to reveal a plastic blue bracelet that reads 'I am my own guardian', alongside a picture of a car.

'We are not minors. We are capable of driving our own lives.'

In her book, Sharif charts her unexpected journey to rebellion, culminating in her arrest after she filmed herself driving and posted the video on YouTube as part of the 'Woman2Drive' campaign in 2011.

Charged with 'driving while female', she spent nine days in jail in a case that sparked global uproar.

With unflinching honesty, Sharif recounts the hardships she faced growing up in relative poverty in Saudi Arabia's holiest city Mecca and the struggles she encountered later on as a divorced single mother.

She credits her strict parents with pushing her to excel academically, but also expresses anger over the painful female genital mutilation she had to endure as a child and the domestic abuse she suffered at home, as well as at the hands of her first husband.

She admits to succumbing to radicalism in her youth, even burning her brother's Backstreet Boys cassettes in what she calls her 'extremist days', because she believed they were 'haram' or forbidden under Islam.

She said: 'In this book I was very open, I tried to break every single taboo that I could.'

Her top grades eventually led her to become the first female information security specialist at the Saudi national oil company Aramco, where women are allowed to drive within the firm's compound.

But trying to get around outside as a woman 'who had no man in her life' was a constant battle, forcing her to rely on her brother, colleagues or taxi drivers.

One day, after failing to find a ride after a doctor's appointment, she decided to walk home alone. But a car followed her along the way, leaving her terrified - and fed up.

Emboldened by the Arab Spring sweeping through the region at the time, she decided enough was enough. It was time to drive.

'So it was really a personal struggle,' Sharif said.

'It was really from the fear of being helpless in my own country.'
As President Donald Trump tries to lay down the law on immigration reform, Americans are increasingly skeptical of his central proposal.

Trump has advocated since early 2015 for a physical wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and is tying it to Democratic proposals to save the DACA program.

The president seems willing to sign off on a plan to rescue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program  which is otherwise scheduled to phase out in March  but only if his wall is funded.

But a poll released Thursday shows nearly 4 in 5 voters want to permanently protect so-called 'Dreamers' but disagree about building a border barrier at all.

President Donald Trump is demanding a border wall as a condition of grudgingly giving in on preserving the DACA program, but a new poll shows Americans' priorities are the opposite of his

Trump has been advocating for a border wall (prototypes shown) for two years, but a majority say it shouldn't be built

The Quinnipiac University Poll found 63 per cent of U.S. voters oppose building a wall where Trump wants it, along the nearly 2,000-mile border. Just 34 per cent disagree.

Just 34 per cent, nearly all of them Republicans, say the wall is worth erecting.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said Thursday on the Fox News Channel that any plan surviving Senate scrutiny 'has to include a physical barrier.'

And Trump has made it clear that without money to build it, DACA will die.

DACA, created by an Obama-era penstroke, guarantees that more than 800,000 illegaly immigrants brought to the U.S. as children won't be the subject of deportation efforts unless they are criminals.

Seventy-nine per cent of voters told pollsters that they want DACA recipients to be permitted to stay in the U.S.  and they believe the large population should have a legal pathway to full citizenship.

Another 7 per cent say Dreamers are entitled to stay in the U.S., but citizenship should be off the table.

Only 11 per cent want them kicked out of the United States.

Even among Republicans, 64 per cent favor embracing a Democratic aspiration to make Dreamers part of the voting public.

One of Trump's drug control priorities also got a thumbs-down, as a majority said marijuana should be legalized nationally, and disagree with the Justice Department's new focus on enforcing federal law

'Dreamers'  illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children  have massive support , with nearly 4 in 5 Americans saying they should be allowed to stay and pursue citizenship

The 'DACA' program is wildly popular, aligning most voters with the Democrats who are butting heads with the White House

'Looking at immigration, voters insist emphatically, "Don't dash the dream." Voters say that immigrants who were brought here as kids should be allowed to live out their adult lives here as citizens,' said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Separately, 58 per cent of voters say they think marijuana should be made legal for recreational use everywhere in the U.S.

The Trump administration's Justice Department signalde the opposite in recent days, directing officials to enforce federal laws without regard to state laws decriminalizing the drug.

Specifically, 70 per cent said that's a step they don't want Attorney General to take.

'The demographics say pot is here to stay, either for fun or to provide medical comfort,' Malloy added. 'And the message to Attorney General Jeff Sessions: Hands off.'

On the North Korean nuclear standoff, two-thirds of voters say they believe a war involving the U.S. is not 'likely.' But 26 per cent say military conflict will be a reality.
Almost $3billion of taxpayer funds were overpaid to welfare cheats last year because of error and fraud.

The Department of Human Services paid $2.84billion, but only prosecuted 709 people, despite investigating 13,595 fraud cases, The Daily Telegraph has reported.

Families with children received the largest chunk of change - $1.2billion.

Almost $3billion of Australian taxpayer funds were overpaid to welfare cheats last year through fraud or error (pictured is Centrelink in Craigieburn, Melbourne)

The Department of Human Services paid $2.84billion because of error and fraud, but only prosecuted 709 people, despite investigating 13,595 fraud cases (pictured is Centrelink in Craigieburn, Melbourne)

Newstart benefits for the unemployed were overpaid by $424million.

On average, 2.4million people received $1,174 each throughout the year, racking up a $1.6billion debt for taxpayers, the publication reported.

The names of more than 114,000 suspected welfare cheats were turned in to the department last year, identifying $40million in overpayments, according to Human Services Minister Michael Keenan.

'Some tip-offs may refer to an investigation that is already underway (and) it sometimes receives multiple tip-offs about the same subject,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

A DHS spokeswoman told the publication that the debts arose from 'changes in personal circumstances and people either inadvertently or deliberately providing incorrect information'.

'The recovery of a debt may not occur immediately in full or within the same financial year,' she said.Play
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had turned to Garrett Bradley, director of the critically acclaimed Netflix series about tennis prodigy Naomi Osaka - but they reportedly clashed over the direction of the show. A TV insider told the New York Post: 'Garrett wanted Harry and Meghan to film at home and they were not comfortable doing that. There were a few sticky moments between them, and Garrett left the project. Harry and Meghan's own production company captured as much footage as they could before Liz Garbus was hired.' Garbus, who was also due to work on the Duchess' series Pearl before it was scrapped by Netflix, is a left-leaning documentarian and filmmaker and also helmed the last season of The Handmaid's Tale, which earned her an Emmy nomination in 2021. Harry and Meghan Markle's Netflix documentary will air within weeks. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are reported to have tried to push it back to 2023 despite the streaming giant paying them a rumoured $100million (88million) for the fly-on-the-wall series. There have been mixed reports in the US, with Deadline insisting the show will be delayed until the new year citing bosses being 'rattled' and 'blinking first' because of the backlash over Season 5 of The Crown.
Vladimir Putin has claimed Kim Jong-un is a 'shrewd and mature' leader having outplayed his rivals in the West with his nuclear missile ambitions.

The Kremlin strongman congratulated the North Korean dictator, saying he had won the latest stand-off with the US and South Korea.

Tensions between the hermit nation and the rest of the world has been ratcheted up by Donald Trump's rhetoric, mainly on his Twitter account, and Moscow's stance will not have done anything to alleviate the ill-feeling.

Vladimir Putin has claimed Kim Jong-un is a 'shrewd and mature' leader having outplayed his rivals in the West with his nuclear missile ambitions

Talking about Pongyang's nuclear and missile programmes today, the Russian President said: 'I think that Mr Kim Jong-un (pictured) has obviously won this round'

Tensions between the hermit nation and the rest of the world has been ratcheted up by Donald Trump's rhetoric, mainly on his Twitter account, and Moscow's stance will not have done anything to alleviate the ill-feeling

Talking about Pongyang's nuclear and missile programmes today, the Russian President said: 'I think that Mr Kim Jong-un has obviously won this round.

'He has completed his strategic task - he has a nuclear weapon, he has missiles of global reach, up to 13,000km, which can reach almost any point of the globe.'

Meeting with top Russian media figures, Mr Putin said Kim 'is an absolutely competent and already mature politician' who has 'solved his strategic task - he has a nuclear warhead and a global-range missile'.

Now, in Putin's view, Kim is 'cleaning up the situation, smoothing it, calming it'.

Kim and Trump have engaged in an increasingly sharp war of words as North Korea's weapons programmes advance, each of them belittling the other.

Russia has voted at the United Nations in favour of international sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear programme, while urging the West to show restraint and calling for talks over the issue.

Putin reiterated that dialogue with North Korea was warranted, and said Kim now wanted to calm the situation.

'He is already a shrewd and mature politician,' Putin said.

North Korea and South Korea held talks on Tuesday after a prolonged period of tension on the Korean peninsula over the North's missile and nuclear programmes.
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Bill Cosby was back in the City of Brotherly Love on Wednesday, returning for the first time since August.

The disgraced actor, 80, looked to be of very sounds mind as he stopped by the Italian restaurant La Veranda, which is located right on the water in the Penn's Landing section of Philadelphia.

He was joined by his right-hand man and woman, spokesman Andrew Wyatt and publicist Ebonee Benson, as well as childhood friends Antoinette Gregorio and Ed Ford.

There were also a number of press people invited to the event, including a female reporter who found herself of the receiving end of a joke from Cosby at the end of the meal.

Cosby apparently shook the woman's hand and said: 'Please, dont put me on MeToo.'

The alleged serial rapist, who has been accused of drugging and then assaulting over 60 women, then added: 'I just shook your hand like a man.'

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Blessed: Bill Cosby dined at the Philadelphia restaurant La Veranda on Wednesday night (above with his childhood friend Ed Ford)

Cosby and his calavary: He was joined by spokesperson Andrew Wyatt (left) and publicist Ebonee Benson (third right), as well as childhood friends Antoinette Gregorio (second right) and Ed Ford (right)

That old Cosby charm: Upon meeting one young woman he said: 'Please, dont put me on MeToo. I just shook your hand like a man' (Cosby above on Wednesday)

The restaurant looked to be closed to the public as the 350-seat establishment was near empty when Cosby entered, save for a group of enthusiastic patron at a nearby table who all happened to be huge fans of Cosby.

The actor was greeted outside the restaurant by press and their camera crews along with an official camera crew as well as a member of his own party who filmed everything with her cell phone.

Cosby clutched onto Wyatt's arm as if he could not see or walk well, but then spent the entire trip from his car to the door of the eatery swiveling around to speak with reporters.

That did not once cause him to lose his balance, but with all the cameras on him a few minutes later he did walk into a closed door.

The actor's mental state seemed remarkably sharp too as he told joke after joke throughout the meal, and even fielded a question about the trial.

'We're ready,' he said of his defense team, who will start their arguments once gain on April 2 in nearby Montgomery County.

He later posted photos from the meal on his social media accounts, writing: 'Bill Cosby spends a night out with friends, fans and loyal supporters at La Veranda Downtown Philadelphia'

Cosby has been laying low these past few months despite claims that he would be on a national tour.

Those claims were made by Wyatt, who answered a question about why Cosby was in Philadelphia on Wednesday by saying: 'He had a taste for some Italian food, so we decided to fly down to Philadelphia.'

Wyatt appeared on Good Day Alabama days after a mistrial was declared and announced that the actor planned to host a series of town halls educating teenagers, young athletes and even married men about how to avoid being charged with a sex crime.

It was then revealed by Wyatt that one of those town halls would be taking place 'some time in July' in Birmingham.

Wyatt appeared on the show along with Benson in their first, and only, televised interview since the.

At one point, the host of the show, Janice Rogers, said of these proposed town halls: 'Is it sort of a do as I say not as I do thing?'

The reference to Cosby's infidelities with a number of other women and admission to giving some of those women Quaaludes caused both Wyatt and Benson to burst out in laughter.

'We're going to talk to young people because this is bigger than Bill Cosby,' explained Wyatt.

'This issue can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today, and they need to know what they're facing when they're hanging out and partying, when they're doing certain things that they shouldn't be doing.'

He then added: 'And it also affects married men.'

Make new friends: Cosby also invited members of the press to the dinner as well, three months before his second trial begins in Montgomery County on April 3, where he is again facing sexual assault charges

Crowded house: He later posted a photo of himself with a single fan and Ford, writing: 'Bill Cosby spends a night out with friends, fans and loyal supporters at La Veranda Downtown Philadelphia' (Cosby and fan above)

Benson then hopped in to explain the dangers facing young people when ti comes to the subject of sex crimes.

'The laws are changing, the statute of limitations for victims of sexual assault are being extended, so this is why people need to be educated on a brush against the shoulder,' said Benson.

'Because anything at this point can be considered sexual assault and it is a good thing to be educated about the laws.'

On the topic of law, Wyatt said early in the interview that he was not surprised at all with the verdict in the case.

'[Cosby] has always said, "I don't want people coming in deciding if I'm guilty or innocent. I don't want them to take that stance. I want them to hear the truth,"' said Wyatt.

'And I knew that once they heard the truth it was either going to be a mistrial or a verdict of not guilty.'

He claimed that there were 'so many inconsistencies in Ms. Constand's testimony.'

Wyatt added: 'She gave a different testimony to the Toronto police department and then to Montgomery County and then to the DA Castor at that time, which is why they decided not to press charges [in 2005].'

He also claimed the 52 hours that the jury tried to come to a verdict last week was the 'longest deliberation ever in the history of Montgomery County'

As for his client, Cosby is doing better than ever according to Wyatt.

'He's great, I talked to him this morning,' said the spokesperson.

'He was excited to go home - and his life was at stake, his freedom was at stake - to go home and spend time with Mrs. Cosby and the children and just celebrate Father's Day.'

Camille Cosby, the comedian's seldom-heard-from wife, also jumped into the fray with a statement of her own after the mistrial, which was read outside the courthouse by Benson and later posted on her husband's Twitter account.

In it , she called District Attorney Steele 'heinously and exploitevly ambitious,' Judge O'Neill 'overtly arrogant and collaborating with the district attorney,' the media as 'blatantly vicious entities that continually disseminated intentional omissions of truths for the primary purpose of greedily selling sensationalism at the expense of a human life.'

She did not attack the accusers, but did label their legal counsel as 'totally unethical.'

Different approached: Both Cosby and his accuser Andrea Constant referenced the #MeToo movement this week, albeit in very different ways (Constand's tweet above)

Moving in a new directon: Cosby has been laying low these past few months despite claims from his team that he would be on a national tour teaching young people about sexual assault (above with his new legal team and Wyatt in August for a pre-trial hearing)

Benson spoke about Camille's statement during the GMA interview.

'It was a very direct statement. It was a very truthful and pure statement,' said Benson.

'I think the feedback only came from those who did not come and listen for the evidence for themselves.'

Benson also said in the interview that Cosby's relationship with Constand, which she states was rape and he describes as a mutual affection, helped him in the case even though it revealed he had cheated on his wife.

'I think [the jury] definitely thought about it, because this case, this trial happened years before we made it into a courtroom,' said Benson.

'This trial sort of played out in the eyes of the media, so public opinion was definitely a factor.'

She went on to say: 'I think seeing Mrs Cosby in the courtroom the day that she did come, on closing arguments, and also hearing that statement from her afterwards, I think that resonated with the jury.

'It took away the celebrity aspect and made them more like regular people.'

Benson then closed out by explaining: 'Everyone has issues in a marriage, everyone has problems in a marriage.'

It is unclear how long Benson has been working with Cosby, with the actor posting a rare photo of himself and the young woman on Twitter back in May after an artist she represented made a portrait for the 'Cosby Show' creator.

Wyatt meanwhile has been by Cosby's side for the past few years.

Cosby wrote about the appearance of Benson and Wyatt on Twitter Wedhnesday afternoon, stating: 'Thank You #GoodDayAlabama #WBRC #FOX6 and the most watched news anchor #JaniceRogers @JANICEROGERS6.'

He followed that up with: '...for having my publicists #AndrewWyatt and #EboneeBenson on your show.'
The White House created chaos over immigration Thursday afternoon as Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed senators' claims they had a bipartisan deal on 'Dreamers.'

Six senators boasted they had a deal in place that would solve the issue of what to do with hundreds of thousands of people brought to the U.S. illegally as children and whose legal status granted under the Obama administration is about to expire.

When Huckabee Sanders was asked about the deal at the White House press briefing she told reporters, 'There has not been a deal reached yet.'

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that there was no deal yet to help the 'Dreamers,' immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, despite a handful of senators boasting that a deal had been made

Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, was one of six senators who signed on to a statement saying that a deal had been etched out between the two parties in the upper chamber

Even after Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the deal was a no-go, the senators involved were touting it on social media

President Trump told a bipartisan group of lawmakers to keep working on an immigration after a group of senators thought they had one done. He also made headlines by quipping in the meeting, 'Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?' a comment first reported by the Washington Post

But minutes after the briefing, Sens. Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, and Cory Gardner, Republican from Colorado, tweeted a statement saying there was indeed a deal.

'Several of my colleagues and I have reached an agreement that reflects the discussion we had this week with @realDonaldTrump on a solution for Dreamers and border security,' Gardner wrote, sharing a statement that was co-signed by five of his colleagues.

The group of senators working together included Gardner and Durbin, along with Republicans Sens. Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham, as well as Democrats Michael Bennet and Bob Menendez.

'We have been working for four months and have reached an agreement in principle that addresses border security, the diversity visa lottery, chain migration/family reunification, and the Dream Act  the areas outlined by the President. We are now working to build support for that deal in Congress,' the statement said.

However, a spokeswoman for President Trump told DailyMail.com that what Huckabee Sanders said from the podium stands.

CNN reported that Durbin and Graham had met POTUS at the White House, along with a handful of other senators on Thursday, and Trump told the lawmaker to keep working.

More shockingly, when those in the meeting breached restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of the deal, the president mocked those parts of the world.

'Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?' the president said, according to reporting from the Washington Post.

After news of the insult broke, White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah issued a long-winded statement on immigration, but not a denial.

'Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,' Shah said, according to CNN.

'The President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration - two programs that hurt our economy and allow terrorists into our country,' he continued. 'Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation.'

'He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway,' the spokesman added.

At the briefing, Huckabee Sanders warned that the Democrats best not play politics over immigration and risk a government shutdown.

'Democrats should stop making our brave troops and essential government functions political pawns in their swamp games,' she said. 'They should stop their obstruction and work with Republicans to fund the government.'

She also told reporters that she believed a deal would get done.

'We are confident and we feel we're going to get there,' the press secretary said as she exited the podium for the day.

The White House meeting was also attended by Republicans including Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue, along with Reps. Bob Goodlatte and Kevin McCarthy, according to Sen. John Cornyn.

Cornyn indicated to CNN that the gang of six's proposal wouldn't be enough to get an immigration bill over the finish line.

'I think the message has now been delivered that we need to get everybody at the table and we'll take the best of their ideas,' Cornyn said.

Goodlatte, who serves as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, unveiled an immigration bill Wednesday afternoon that would also deal with DACA or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the name of the policy that gave Dreamers legal status.

Huckabee Sanders was asked by a reporter about that plan too, questioning whether it would act as a 'poison pill' for being too conservative.

She said no.

'I think that's why it's called a negotiation,' the press secretary replied.

'Everybody puts everything on the table they want. You figure out what you're not willing to give up, which we've laid out. And you try to come out with everybody winning and that's what we're hoping to do,' she said.
A former Virginia high school sign language interpreter has been convicted of 18 felony charges of indecent liberties with a minor and computer solicitation of a minor.

Amanda Nasser, 32, will serve seven years in prison for having sex with a 15-year-old student in a van specially equipped with a full-sized bed. She worked at Louisa County High School.

In 2016 the mother sent hundreds of texts to a high school freshman, many of them sexually suggestive or sexually explicit, according to KTRE.

Amanda Nasser, 32, has been convicted of 18 felony charges of indecent liberties with a minor and computer solicitation of a minor

'While serving as an interpreter she made contact with numerous other students. As she became familiar with the students, she provided some of them with her cellular phone number and even friended them on Facebook,' a Louisa County Sheriff's Office official said in a press release.

Nasser also send nude pictures to the minor and used text messages to solicit the boy for sex.

'Ms. Nasser abandoned her duties at the school to prey on a young boy whom she met when she was employed as a sign language interpreter at the local high school.'

She worked at Louisa County High School in Virginia as a sign language interpreter

These convictions send a clear message that such predatory behavior will be met with swift and severe repercussions,' Louisa Commonwealth's Attorney, Rusty E. McGuire, said in a statement.

'The victim in this case will be forever scarred by Ms. Nasser's conduct,' Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joshua C. Loren said in a statement.

'His family has been victimized by her actions and Ms. Nasser's own children will spend the next seven years without a mother. This case is a tragedy of Ms. Nasser's making.'

'Ms. Nasser abandoned her duties at the school to prey on a young boy whom she met when she was employed as a sign language interpreter at the local high school,' said Louisa Commonwealth's Attorney, Rusty E. McGuire

Nasser originally denied any sexual relationship with the student, but then confessed to 'soliciting sex' from the freshman.

She was sentenced to 90 years in prison but had all except seven years suspended. Nasser originally faced up to 230 years in prison.

Loren described her as as 'dangerous predator who groomed and took advantage of a child'.

She was convicted of four counts of indecent liberties with a child and 14 counts of solicitation of a minor.
Donald Trump, pictured in Washington yesterday, has scrapped plans to visit Britain

Donald Trump has scrapped plans to visit Britain next month.

The US President was expected to make his first trip to the UK since entering office, but Government officials have been told he has gone cold on the idea.

No new date has been offered, raising the prospect of a major diplomatic snub.

One senior source suggested Mr Trump  who was expected to officially open the new US embassy in London  cancelled because he was unhappy about the arrangements and the scale of the visit.

But Mr Trump tweeted overnight that he thought the US embassy's move from Grosvenor Square in London's prestigious Mayfair district to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, was a 'bad deal'.

He said: 'Reason I cancelled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts', only to build a new one in an off location for $1.2billion. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon - NO!'

Despite Mr Trump publicly blaming predecessor Barack Obama, the US announced plans to move to the new site in October 2008 - when his fellow Republican George W Bush was in the White House.

The reversal comes despite Mr Trump telling Theresa May last month that he would come to Britain in the New Year.

Mr Trump tweeted overnight that he was 'not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts', only to build a new one in an off location for $1.2billion'

Preparations were advanced for a 'working' visit to officially open the embassy, but the Mail understands this role will now be performed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Mr Trump was also scheduled to hold talks with Mrs May in No 10, with February 26 and 27 marked in the diary. Downing Street had hoped to confirm the dates this week.

The President was not due to meet the Queen until a full state visit at a later date, and a second source said the lack of 'bells and whistles' and royal involvement next month visit may have discouraged him.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, an ally of the US President, suggested that concerns about protests may have been the real reason for the visit's cancellation.

Mr Trump had told Theresa May (pictured at the London Wetland Centre yesterday) last month that he would visit Britain this year

'It's disappointing - he has been to countries all over the world and yet he has not been to the one with whom he is closest,' Mr Farage said.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he accused London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of supporting protests.

'Maybe, just maybe, Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party planning mass protests, maybe those optics he didn't like the look of.'

Labour MP Chuka Umunna said it was 'very welcome he is not coming any more', adding: 'He runs counter to British values.'

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested that Mr Trump was more aware of opposition in the UK than in other countries he had visited because it was expressed in English.

'I think it's a great shame; the United States is very much one of our closest allies, but the alliance isn't based on who lives in the White House and who lives in Number 10, it's based on shared values, common interests and absolute commitment to the international rules-based system which we have both spent the best part of 70 years upholding through Nato, through the United Nations and through various other treaty organisations around the world,' he told Today.

'While I think it's a shame, I think - if I'm honest - it more reflects the fact that other people criticise in French, Italian, Korean and other languages and we criticise in English, and it's much easier for him to read English.'

Officials have already moved into the 750million US embassy near Battersea Power Station in South London. The new building will open for business on January 16

The former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square in London's Mayfair, which Mr Trump has described as 'perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London'

In reply to Mr Trump's tweet today, former Labour leader Ed Miliband posted: 'Nope it's because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message.'

Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson Jo Swinson said: 'News that Trump has thrown his toys out of the pram and cancelled his trip to the UK will be welcomed by all of us who reject his abhorrent views.

'But it's a disappointing sign of how weak May's leadership is that she wasn't brave enough to call the visit off herself.

'The Prime Minister should be ashamed that she was so keen to roll out the red carpet to a man who spreads hate and division at every turn, and goes out of his way to undermine British values.'

Labour MP Stephen Doughty said on Twitter: 'Reason Donald Trump cancelled trip to London is that we are not a big fan of his racist, sexist, unthinking behaviour.

'Big protests if he came to cut ribbon. He wanted the red carpet treatment and cheering crowds - NO!'

In reply to Mr Trump's tweet today, former Labour leader Ed Miliband posted: 'Nope it's because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message.'

Labour MP Stephen Doughty said on Twitter: 'Reason Donald Trump cancelled trip to London is that we are not a big fan of his racist, sexist, unthinking behaviour'

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage (left), an ally of Mr Trump, suggested concerns about protests may have been the real reason for the visit's cancellation, while Labour MP Chuka Umunna (right, both on BBC Radio 4 this morning) said it was 'very welcome he is not coming any more'

Mr Trump has previously expressed concern about the likelihood of mass protests. Last year he told Mrs May he did not want to go ahead with a visit until the British public supported it.

The Prime Minister and the President clashed in November when she criticised his decision to re-tweet anti-Muslim propaganda from a far-Right group, Britain First.

In a rare public rebuke, she said: 'I am very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.'

Mr Trump hit back on Twitter, saying: 'Don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom.' He added: 'We are doing just fine!'

They clashed again when Mrs May criticised his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, calling it 'unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region'.

However, following a phone call between the pair on December 19, officials were bullish about the visit taking place. Their conversation was described as 'genial'.

President Trump, pictured here with his wife Melania, may have cancelled the trip because he was unhappy about the arrangements and the scale of the visit

The prospect of mass protests were raised last month after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged his followers to turn out in force if Mr Trump visited the UK to send him a 'clear message'.

More than a million people signed a petition last year calling for the state visit to be cancelled.

Officials have already moved into the 750million US embassy near Battersea Power Station in South London. The new building will open for business on January 16.

In December Ambassador Woody Johnson said he was looking forward to welcoming the president when he visited, adding: 'I think he will be very impressed with this building and the people who occupy it.'

He said the new embassy was a 'signal to the world that this special relationship that we have is stronger and is going to grow and get better'.

On the embassy web page about the project, it said: 'The project has been funded entirely by the proceeds of the sale of other US Government properties in London, not through appropriated funds.'

Mr Trump was due to officially open the new US embassy in London (pictured). The Mail understands this role will now be performed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

An official opening involving the two leaders would have dispelled any concerns about the 'special relationship' between Britain and the US, and boosted hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal.

Last night, Downing Street refused to comment. A spokesman said: 'An invitation for a state visit has been extended and accepted.'

The US embassy said no firm date had been announced and suggested the President was still expected this year.

Last month, the White House said it would announce details 'soon' of Mr Trump's proposed visit to the UK.

On Tuesday, the White House confirmed Mr Trump will attend the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. The event, from January 23 to 26, brings together the world's economic and political elites.

Mr Trump has been battling the fallout from a highly critical book. He tried to ban Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff, but it soared to the top of the bestseller lists.

President Trump clashed with Mrs May in November when she criticised his decision to re-tweet anti-Muslim propaganda from a far-Right group, Britain First

The book claimed officials around the President questioned his 'intelligence and fitness for office'.

In the Commons this week, Labour frontbencher Liz McInnes urged the Government to withdraw the invitation for a state visit, calling it 'wretched'. She said it should be scrapped to 'save Her Majesty from that unpleasant-sounding ordeal'.

But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said: 'I think Her Majesty the Queen is well capable of taking this American President, or indeed any American President, in her stride.'

Yesterday alone, Mr Trump made several foreign policy blunders, as the Washington Post reported that he insulted immigrants coming into the US from Haiti, El Salvador and African nations.

'Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?' Mr Trump said.

He also gave an interview with the Wall Street Journal where he made confusing remarks about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The prospect of mass protests during any visit were raised last month after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged his followers to turn out in force if Mr Trump visited the UK

'I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un,' Mr Trump said, after months of taunting him with the nickname 'Little Rocket Man.'

The US president has had a number of foreign policy stumbles throughout his first year in office.

In May, Mr Trump memorably shoved aside the leader of Montenegro during a Nato summit, pushing his way to the front of a photo-op.

He has confused facts, suggesting Korea used to be part of China, when it was not, and has also conflated the identities of Napoleon Bonaparte and Napoleon III.

Members of Mr Trump's White House team have not made things better, misspelling Mrs May's first name three times  by dropping the 'H'  on the official schedule of her January 2017 visit.

This week, the White House erroneously spelled 'Norway' as 'Normay' while the country's prime minister was heading to Washington DC.

Saudi Arabia, Israel and many more: Countries Mr Trump HAS visited SAUDI ARABIA The President was welcomed with a bouquet of flowers at King Khalid International Airport in the capital Riyadh. As he arrived, he was flanked by horsemen carrying Saudi and American flags. He even held King Salman's hand as he was welcomed by the Saudi Royal Court. Mr and Mrs Trump, Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (second left) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (left) touch an illuminated globe at the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 21 last year ISRAEL Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara welcomed the President and First Lady Melania to their 'palace'. Mr Netanyahu said they had the house painted especially for the visit, and he gave the Trumps a 150-year-old bottle of wine as a gift. Mr Trump (left) and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) arrive to deliver a speech at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on May 23 last year FRANCE Mr Trump's 24-hour visit was topped off with a military parade on Bastille Day. Mr Trump, who was guest of honour at the celebrations, enthusiastically applauded the soldiers and tanks on the Champs Elysees. He later shared a 29-second handshake with French president Emmanuel Macron. French President Emmanuel Macron (second left), his wife Brigitte Macron (left), Mr and Mrs Trump pose ahead of a dinner at the Eiffel Tower in Paris on July 13 last year Mr Macron and Mr Trump at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on July 13 last year POLAND An enthusiastic reception as people were bussed in to Warsaw and chanted 'Donald Trump' throughout his speech. Mr and Mrs Trump stand with Polish President Andrzej Duda (second right) and Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda (right) before a speech in Warsaw on July 6 last year GERMANY The reception was not as warm, with protesters lining the streets as the President attended the G20 summit. Mr Trump shakes hands with Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7 last year JAPAN Mr Trump was welcomed with an elaborate palace ceremony and a round of golf with one of the country's champion players. Mr Trump (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) walk together ahead of their working lunch at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, on November 6 last year SOUTH KOREA President Moon Jae-in repeatedly invoked Mr Trump's campaign slogan by saying he was 'making America great again'. South Korean President Moon Jae-In (right) shakes hands with Mr Trump (left) at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, on November 7 last year CHINA President Xi Jinping personally showed Mr Trump around the Imperial Palace. China's President Xi Jinping (left) and Mr Trump review Chinese honour guards during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9 last year Advertisement

It's not that bad, Mr President! Inside the new 750million Fortress America on the banks of the Thames, featuring a security moat and gardens on every floor

The new US Embassy is a distinctive 12-storey, cube-shaped building, located between Vauxhall and Battersea in south-west London, and has been designed by Philadelphia architecture firm Kieran Timberlake.

The 750million crystalline structure, which won the 2013 New London Architecture Award, was designed to reflect the ideals of American democracy - transparency, openness and equality.

Panoramic views of the Thames can be enjoyed through gold-starred floor-to-ceiling windows, while a glimpse of Westminster provides a reassuring nod that the capital's political heart is just a stone's throw away.

The new US Embassy is a distinctive 12-storey, cube-shaped building, located between Vauxhall and Battersea in south-west London

The 12-storey building, right, had been expected to be inaugurated by President Donald Trump

Inside, gardens representing different American states wind around the stairs linking each floor, while a semi-circular pond, not dissimilar to a moat, fronts the building.

The embassy in South London expects to welcome 1,000 visitors a day and will employ 800 staff at the building.

Its location within the Nine Elms development places it within a 561-acre regeneration project set to transform one of the South Bank's last remaining industrial stretches.

It includes an extension of London Underground's Northern Line, with two new stations at Battersea and Nine Elms due to open in 2020.

The embassy boasts six interior as well as six exterior gardens. Some of the gardens were inspired by regions in America, including Potomac River Valley, Canyonlands, Gulf Coast and the Midwest

The building in the 4.9-acre development boasts 518,000 square feet of space, compared with the current embassy's 225,000

Developers hope the area will become a thriving business hub, with Penguin Random House UK and Apple set to open offices south of the river, while the Royal College of Arts has submitted a planning application for a 50 million state-of-the-art building.

They hope the project will bring to the area thousands of new homes, 25,000 new jobs, green spaces and visitor attractions.

Currently, much of the area resembles a large construction site, with the skyline changing constantly as the developments progress.

Donald Trump has claimed that he cancelled his planned visit to Britain over his dissatisfaction with the new embassy, which will open for business on January 16.

President Donald Trump had been expected to inaugurate the embassy in London

The crystalline structure, which won the 2013 New London Architecture Award, was designed to reflect the ideals of American democracy - transparency, openness and equality

The US President had been due to open the new embassy, located on the banks of the River Thames, during a trip to the capital next month.

However, in a tweet, Mr Trump hit out at the location of the $1.2billion project - and pointed the finger at Barack Obama over its sale.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Trump said he thought the embassy's move from Grosvenor Square in the prestigious Mayfair district of central London to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, was a 'bad deal'.

He wrote: 'Reason I cancelled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts', only to build a new one in an off location for $1.2billion. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon - NO!'

Panoramic views of the Thames can be enjoyed through gold-starred floor-to-ceiling windows

British government sources said they had never officially been informed of a date for Mr Trump to make a visit, but speculation had suggested he would formally open the embassy at a ceremony in February.

Despite Mr Trump publicly blaming predecessor Mr Obama, the US announced plans to move to the new site in October 2008 - when George W Bush was in the White House.

The sale of the iconic property in Mayfair, however, went through in 2009, when Mr Obama was in office.

The current embassy building in London's Grosvenor Square was bought by Qatari Diar  the property development arm of the Qatari royal family  for an undisclosed price.

The current embassy building in London's Grosvenor Square was bought by Qatari Diar  the property development arm of the Qatari royal family  for an undisclosed price

At the time of the sale, experts had valued the site to 500million, but it sold for 315million

At the time, experts had valued the site to 500million, but it sold for 315million.

Shortly before the sale it was made a Grade II listed building which may have reduced the value as this would restrict any development.

The property is one of the few US embassies not to stand on land owned by the US government, and following a failed attempt to buy it from the Duke of Westminster in the 1940s, it remains part of the Grosvenor Estate.

The old US embassy will become a five-star hotel in the Rosewood group with 137 bedrooms, costing the Qataris $1.4bn (1.08bn) to refurbish.

Despite Mr Trump publicly blaming predecessor Barack Obama (left), the US announced plans to move to the new site in October 2008 - when George W Bush (right) was in the White House

The President called the move and the cost of the new building a 'bad deal', and on the embassy web page about the project, it said: 'The project has been funded entirely by the proceeds of the sale of other US Government properties in London, not through appropriated funds.'

Speaking last month, US Ambassador Woody Johnson said the new embassy was a symbol of the growing UK-US special relationship, while reminiscing fondly over the Grade II-listed London Chancery Building that the team were leaving.

He added: 'We are looking forward to welcoming the president when he comes over here. I think he will be very impressed with this building and the people who occupy it.'
A Colorado funeral home that also sells human body parts has sparked an FBI probe after its owners were accused of removing gold teeth from dead bodies and selling them before using the money to go to Disneyland.

Keri Escher, an ex-employee of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, told Reuters that she found what Shirley Koch was doing extremely troubling.

Koch works at the funeral home embalming and dismembering bodies. She's the mother of Megan Hess, the owner.

A former employee of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Colorado said Shirley Koch made so much money selling gold teeth she removed from bodies that she took her family to Disneyland. In this photo, Koch (right) is pictured with her husband, Alan Koch

Megan Hess, who owns the funeral home, is being questioned by the FBI about how she runs her businesses

Hess operates a body broker business and crematory in the same facility as her funeral home

Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business run by Hess, said Koch would pull teeth from some of the corpses to extract the gold in crowns or fillings and then sell what she collected.

'She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day,' Escher told the outlet. 'She had sold a different batch a year prior, and they took the whole family to Disneyland in California on the gold that they cashed in.'

Following Escher's claims, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began interviewing former employees.

At least four ex-workers and Hess have been questioned about how she runs Sunset Mesa and the other businesses she operates in the same location of the funeral home.

Hess, who opened Sunset Mesa in 2006, is also the owner of Donor Services, a body broker operation, and has a crematory. Both are run from the same building as the funeral home, sparking questions of whether the practice is ethical.

Some former staff members at the funeral home told Reuters that they never heard Hess tell families that the donated cadavers would be sold for profit.

'The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems,' said Arizona funeral director Steve Palmer. 'There are no ethics there when you do that. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). You are looking at how to make money.'

Robert Fells, general counsel of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, said the multifaceted business is 'a new frontier' but noted that family members of donors need to be made aware.

A family affair. Hess (back right) works at the funeral home with her mother Shirley Koch (front left) and her father Alan Koch (front right). Pictured is also Koch's brother Alan (back left) and another family member

Hess opened the funeral home in 2006

Sunset Mesa is also under investigation for nine complaints filed against it. Details of the complaints were not revealed

'The fact that now the business is also making money from the sale of body parts - if that is not being told to the family, it is unethical and probably illegal, if only as deception,' he told Reuters.

Federal law does not prohibit the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in education and research. It's also legal in most states for funeral homes to sell items recovered from cadavers.

It's not a crime to run a body broker business from the same facility that houses a funeral home and crematory.

In addition to the FBI probe, Hess is being investigated about complaints filed against Sunset Mesa.

Colorado's Department of Regulatory Agencies told Reuters that it has nine open complaints about the business, which is 'higher than average'.

Spokesman Lee Rasizer declined to discuss what the complaints were for or if any action would be taken against Hess.

It also remains unclear what the FBI is focusing their probe on.
President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that he's been in contact with North Korea's reclusive dictator, and they've developed a better relationship than they're letting on.

Trump would not say in an Oval Office interview that he had talked to Kim, but he told the Wall Street Journal, 'I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.'

'I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised,' he stated.

Playing coy, the president said, 'I dont want to comment on it. Im not saying I have or havent. I just dont want to comment.'

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President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that he's been in contact with North Korea's reclusive dictator, and they've developed a better relationship than they're letting on

Trump would not say whether he'd ever talked to Kim on Thursday - but he said in November he'd like them to be friends

The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with North Korea. It's been nearly a decade since the nations have held high level talks.

The Trump administration in November categorized North Korea as a state sponsor of terror, putting it back on the United States' list of sworn enemies.

It has successfully pressed at the United Nations for strict sanctions that have almost totally isolated the rogue regime.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in October that the U.S. has back channel communications with North Korea. 'We have lines of communication to Pyongyangwere not in a dark situation, a blackout,' he stated.

Trump then harangued him for it publicly, saying that Tillerson was 'wasting his time trying to negotiate' with Kim.

South Korea was opening up high-level talks this week with North Korea ahead of the Winter Olympics, which will be held on the peninsula next month.

Addressing the thaw in tensions yesterday in his first Cabinet meeting of the new year, Trump said he'd just spoken to South Korean President Moon Jae-in and he's 'very thankful for what weve done.'

'He felt that the original  that the initial talk was extremely good. Had a lot of good comment,' Trump said. 'Well see where it goes. Hes very thankful for what weve done.'

Trump remarked, 'Who knows where it leads.' Adding, 'Hopefully, it will lead to success for the world  not just for our country, but for the world. And well be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens.'

Trump has repeatedly derided Kim as 'Little Rocket Man' and threatened him with the 'might' of the U.S. military.

In August, Trump angrily threatened North Korea with 'fire and fury' if Kim continued to threaten the United States and its allies. And just last week he claimed he had a 'much bigger & more powerful' nuclear button than the one Kim claims to have on his desk.

After Kim called him a 'dotard' in November, Trump, 71, sarcastically referred to the rogue leader who just celebrated his 34th birthday this week as 'short and fat.'

'Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!' Trump tweeted.

Asked about the tweet at a news conference that day in Vietnam, Trump said of a friendship with Kim: 'I think anything is a possibility. Strange things happen in life. That might be a strange thing to happen, but its certainly a possibility.

'If that did happen, it would be a good thing for  I can tell you  for North Korea. But it would also be good for lots of other places, and it would be good for the world.

'So, certainly, it is something that could happen. I dont know that it will, but it would be very, very nice if it did,' Trump said.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he's a 'flexible' person who often develops friendships with people he used to be on bad terms with.

'Youll see that a lot with me, and then all of the sudden somebodys my best friend,' he said. 'I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. Im a very flexible person.'

Just before the U.S. president's shocking claim Thursday that he 'probably' has a 'very good relationship' with Kim, North Korea claimed that author Michael Wolff's bombshell book about the White House 'foretells Trump's political demise'

Kim has slammed the U.S. president as a 'frightened dog' and a 'gangster fond of playing with fire' and called him 'mentally deranged.'

In a New Year's day address, he warned: 'The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat.

'This year, we should focus on mass-producing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles for operational deployment,' he said. 'These weapons will be used only if our society is threatened.'

Just before the U.S. president's shocking claim Thursday that he 'probably' has a 'very good relationship' with Kim, North Korea claimed that author Michael Wolff's bombshell book about the White House 'foretells Trump's political demise.'

Trump has repeatedly derided Kim as 'Little Rocket Man' and threatened him with the 'might' of the U.S. military

Kim has slammed the U.S. president as a 'frightened dog' and a 'gangster fond of playing with fire' and called him 'mentally deranged'

Salacious details inside the book, 'Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House,' about Trump's behavior and his aides' private views about his competency made for fresh fodder for critics of the president who've said he's mentally unstable.

The president and other White House aides have blasted it as 'inaccurate trash', but it was the top-selling book in the U.S. last week.

In Pyongyang, one of Kim's mouthpiece newspapers, Rodong Sinmun, said the book had led to Trump being 'massively humiliated worldwide' and its sales reflect 'rapidly surging anti-Trump sentiments in the international community.'

Fire And Fury was released last Friday and had sold 29,000 copies by the end of Saturday, NPD BookScan said.

Digital sales already top 250,000 and audio sales exceed 100,000, according to Macmillan, the parent company of the book's publisher, Henry Holt and Co.

It has raised an initial announced printing of 150,000 to more than a million.

The first excerpt of the book came out the morning after Trump's tweet boasting about the size of his nuclear button.

Asked in a news conference that day about Trump's 'mental fitness' as a result of the tweet, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, 'I think the President and the people of this country should be concerned about the mental fitness of the leader of North Korea.

'Hes made repeated threats. Hes tested missiles time and time again for years. And this is a President whos not going to cower down and hes not going to be weak, and is going to make sure that he does what hes promised to do, and thats stand up and protect the American people.'
Craig McLachlan's understudy Adam Rennie has opened up about his first performance as Frank N Furter in the Australian production of The Rocky Horror Picture show

Craig McLachlan's understudy Adam Rennie has opened up about his first performance as Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture show.

Adam performed the leading role on stage on Tuesday evening in Adelaide to 'rapturous applause', after McLachlan agreed to leave the show amid allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour.

'We were all on edge on Tuesday night before that first performance, but right from the beginning the crowd were so on side,' the 31-year-old told The Advertiser.

'It ended up being a very moving, positive experience for me and I think for all of us.'

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Adam performed the leading role on stage on Tuesday evening in Adelaide to 'rapturous applause' (pictured)

Rennie bows after his performance on Tuesday as the audience jumped to its feet

The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate told the publication he had only one three-hour rehearsal before opening night.

'In the very short amount of time we had to rehearse, I was soaking up as much of the show as I could and once I was put on the spot, I was ready to go,' he said.

Rennie will go on to perform as Frank N Furter in the Perth and Brisbane productions, the latter of which starts next week.

Rennie's elevation comes after three cast members from the 2014 production of the popular musical told a Fairfax Media/ABC investigation that 52-year-old McLachlan inappropriately touched them or exposed himself, allegations he denies.

It was announced on Monday that McLachlan, 52, withdrew after a mutual agreement between the star and producers.

The Gordon Frost Organistion said they spoke with the actor and agreed that it was not appropriate for him to continue in the production.

'We will be conducting a full internal investigation and will cooperate fully with authorities,' they said in a statement on Monday.

Craig (pictured) stepped down from the role after three women came forward accusing him of sexual misconduct

On Monday, it emerged that Craig, 52, had withdraw from the current production of the show in light of the allegations

Erika Heynatz, Angela Scundi and Christie Whelan Browne have accused Craig of sexual assault and bullying, allegations the actors says are 'entirely false.'

Scundi alleged that McLachlan kissed her passionately onstage even after she had asked that it not be done.

She said when she confronted him about the unwanted kiss, he abused and threatened her.

'I said: 'Don't you kiss me. Don't you do that ever again' and he turned. I haven't felt that terrified ever in my life, or ever again,' she told the ABC.

Whelan Browne appeared in The Wrong Girl alongside Craig in 2016 and 2017.

Erika Heynatz, Angela Scundi and Christie Whelan Browne (seen) have accused Craig of sexual assault and bullying, allegations the actors says are 'entirely false'

Scundi (pictured) said McLachlan kissed her passionately onstage even after she had asked that it not be done

She told the ABC she felt dismayed when she learned he had been cast for The Wrong Girl but felt she had to continue to have a civil relationship with him for the sake of her career.

She said his behavior towards her on that program was appropriate, but said during the Rocky Horror show, said he indecently assaulted her on stage during a sexual scene.

Heynatz meanwhile according to the Herald, alleges that she 'experienced unwanted sexual advances from the star.'

Among other claims, she said on one occasion he straddled her on a lounge in a green room and kissed her without permission.

Craig has vehemently denied the allegations put forward by the three women.

In response to the claims, the 52-year-old told The Sydney Morning Herald via e-mail: 'I have NEVER done anything like this.'
Trading standards were so pleased with their seizures of illegal tobacco, worth over 10,000, that they produced a YouTube video.

Sadly for them, the closing shot gave thieves the vital clue they needed to locate the haul, inside a shipping container - and steal it.

The video clearly shows two vehicles parked next to the container, in the distinctive red and yellow livery of Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service.

Clues: A shipping container on the Carlisle estate that thieves worked out contained 10,000 of illegal tobacco

That may have proved to be enough of a hint for thieves cut a 3ft by 2ft hole in the side of the container at Carlisle East Fire Station and make off with the entire haul.

At the time, Cumbria trading standards said the seizure had sent out a clear message that illegal tobacco would not be tolerated in the county.

Their video showed bags full of the cigarettes and tobacco in a shipping container awaiting destruction.

HOW THE ILLEGAL CIGARETTE TRADE COSTS UK AT LEAST 2BN How many illegal cigarettes are in the UK? Border officials in 2015 said that close to 50 million cigarettes are seized each month - but the overall figure is much higher What do they cost? Illegal packets of cigarettes can cost between 3 and 4 - less than half the price of legal packs How much revenue is lost? 2.1 billion was lost between 2014-2015 because of illegal tobacco trade Of the average pack of fags, how much of the price goes to the government in tax and duty? On a typical pack of 20 cigarettes the total tax burden is 6.17 on typical 7.98 pack Advertisement

It also illustrated how Mollie, a Border collie cross spaniel, could sniff out the illegal substances and was crucial to the success of the operation.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: 'A burglary occurred at Carlisle East Community Fire Station. A container was broken into and cigarettes were stolen. The value of the tobacco is estimated to be in excess of 10,000.'

A Cumbria County Council spokesman added: 'I can confirm the cigarettes that were stolen were the ones seized during the Trading Standards and police operation just before Christmas. The container is no longer in use for storage of seized goods.'

Operation Ash, a joint operation led by Cumbria County Council's Trading Standards officers alongside Cumbria Police, saw a trained sniffer dog hunt out more than 1,000 illegal cigarettes from one of four targeted premises in Botchergate.

Intelligence given to Trading Standards suggested some takeaways and shops in the Carlisle street were potentially selling illegally imported or counterfeit cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco.

In the last year more than 70,000 counterfeit cigarettes and 1,600 pouches of hand rolling tobacco have been seized from the streets of Cumbria (file picture)

The operation, on 14 December, was deemed to be a success but the haul was lifted sometime between 5.30pm on December 23 and 10.30am on Christmas Eve, sparking a police investigation.

Counterfeit cigarettes are illegally manufactured and sold by a party other than the original trademark or copyright holder.

Trading Standards regularly target illegal tobacco sales across the county. In the last year more than 70,000 counterfeit cigarettes and 1,600 pouches of hand rolling tobacco from the streets of Cumbria.




Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell issued a blunt warning to militants to give up now or face the consequences

A senior Pentagon soldier named John Wayne has warned ISIS to surrender or 'get shot in the face.'

Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell issued a blunt warning to militants to give up now or face the consequences.

'ISIS needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them,' he wrote in a post on Facebook.

'So they have two options, should they decide to come up against the United States, our allies and partners: surrender or die!'

Troxell said if they did give themselves up, the military coalition would provide them safety in the form of a detainee cell, food and 'due process'.

'However, if they choose not to surrender, then we will kill them with extreme prejudice, whether that be through security force assistance, by dropping bombs on them, shooting them in the face, or beating them to death with our entrenching tools.

'Regardless, they cannot win, so they need to choose how it's going to be.'

He finished the forceful post with hastags#DefeatDaesh and #ISIS_SurrenderOrDie.

The message was posted on Tuesday with a photo of a collapsible shovel, known asn an entrenching tool, used by the Army.

'ISIS needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them,' he wrote in a post on Facebook

The posts has been met with a mix of scorn and praise online.

Jonathan Scott, was among the many that denounced the aggressive speech, and commented: 'Am I the only one who finds this sort of chest-thumping, d**k-waving, I'll-kill-you-so-hard-your-grandparents-will-feel-it banter is childish?

'Everyone in the world understands that our might is preeminent. We don't need to go around acting like insecure macho men.

Chris Wyatt, who says he has 26 years of service in the military, did not serve 'to hear the highest-ranking enlisted man in my ENTIRE COUNTRY use this sort of crude and barbaric language with regards to anyone, not even our crudest and most barbaric enemies.'

'Shooting them in the face'? 'Beating them to death with our entrenching tools'? This is absolutely unbecoming of an NCO - ANY NCO - and least of all our nation's highest. You, of all people, should be setting the example for countless thousands of young men and women in uniform.'

Troxell said if ISIS militants (file picture) did give themselves up, the military coalition would provide them safety in the form of a detainee cell, food and 'due process'

He continued that a non-commissioned officer should simply tell the enemy: 'We welcome their surrender, but we will have no choice but to use deadly force if they do not. And leave it at that.

'You will have delivered your message and maintained your dignity as a soldier, a high leader, and a human being.'

But not everyone agreed, with some praising John Wayne Troxell for his plain talking.

Jason Boesen said: 'We've become a pretty soft Army. I for one love hearing leaders extend messages like this. Our job as the land component is to close with and destroy enemies of the United States.

'This isn't the Cub scouts, we are supposed to kill people and beat them in the face.'

Mike Nah added: 'If you find this offensive, don't worry, you'll never sack up and be the one doing it, so it's ok. Just know that there are plenty of rough men who stand ready to do violence on your behalf. And violence is a currency the entire world understands.'

The Facebook post is not the first time Troxell has threatened death for ISIS militants.

During a stop in Afghanistan on a United Services Organization holiday tour last month, Troxell he promised that ISIS will be 'annihilated, period!'

Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for Dunford and the Joint Staff, told the Washington Post that Troxell's speech showed the 'tenacity of the warrior ethos that, even when faced with the brutal and unforgiving nature of combat, will use every resource available to fight and win.'
A Melbourne man with a long history of assaulting police will likely be back walking the streets before one of the female officers he assaulted.

Shaun Mowbray, 37, from Craigieburn, was sentenced to just five months behind bars this week, in just one example of 'soft' penalties handed to cop bashers.

He had assaulted police eight times before punching a male officer several times and badly injuring a female senior constable's hand - forcing her out of work for months, Herald Sun reports.

Shaun Mowbray (pictured), 37, will likely be back walking the streets before one of the female officers he assaulted due to 'soft' sentencing handed to cop bashers

One of the female Craigieburn police officers shows an injury inflicted by Mowbray

The sentence follows state Government promises to crack down on people who treat Victoria's emergency workers like 'punching bags'.

Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court heard Mowbray injured the male and female as they tried to arrest him for threatening to burn down his mother's house on October 25.

On jailing him, magistrate Martin Grinberg said he had to be mindful of Mowbray being a low-functioning adult who had experienced developmental delays, possibly from teen drug use.

The Police Association has since slammed the sentence, calling the five month jail term too weak of a sentence to serve as an adequate example for other criminals.

A Craigieburn police officer sustained serious bruising to his eye in one of Mowbray's attacks

Mowbray punched a male officer several times and badly injured a female senior constable's hand (pictured) - forcing her out of work for months

Association secretary Wayne Gatt said offenders would 'run roughshod' over officers if courts didn't do something to stop them.

'The community has lost the service of a police officer for at least two months. The man who caused that to happen will probably be back walking the streets before that officer returns to duty. There's a massive inequity in that,' Mr Gatt said.

The separate charge of assaulting a police officer does not carry the same six-month minimum penalty as the mandatory prison term for the offence of assaulting an emergency worker.

Magistrate Martin Grinberg said he had to be mindful of Mowbray being a low-functioning adult who had experienced developmental delays, possibly from teen drug use




President Donald Trump, frustrated with America's continued responsibility for immigrants fleeing Third World natural disasters, asked members of Congress Thursday in vulgar terms why the United States had to shoulder such a burden.

'Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?' Trump said, according to two people who were briefed on the meeting and then leaked the comment to The Washington Post.

Trump was reportedly speaking about Haitians and citizens of various African nations.

'Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out,' he told people in the meeting, according to CNN.

The comments has caused outrage around the world, with the United Nations calling President Trump 'racist'.

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President Donald Trump reportedly told lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office that he was mystified about why the U.S. imports people from 's***hole countries' in the Third World

'S***HOLE COUNTRY': shows people walking past a street damaged by Hurricane Matthew, in Jeremie, in western Haiti. The country's perilous state had meant its citizens have temporary protected status in the U.S. - apparently one of the causes of Trump's extraordinary outburst - which is now being rescinded

NATO PARADISE: Trump told senators that instead of importing immigrants from the Third World, America should seek out people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister Erna Solberg he met Wednesday at the White House

ON THE RECEIVING END: Dick Durbin (right) was part of a bipartisan group of six senators who went to the Oval Office to seek Trump's approval for a deal which would have exchanged ending the visa lottery for resuming 'temporary protected status' for some arrivals from some countries

U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said 'racist' was the only world that could be used to describe Trump's comments

He added: 'You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 's***holes', whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.'

Trump also said that instead of accepting Africans and Haitians, the U.S. should seek to assimilate people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met with a day earlier.

Unlike Haiti and all the nations of Africa, Norway is both a NATO member and a stalwart U.S. ally.

CNN reported that the outburst came at the private Oval Office meeting as Democratic senator Dick Durbin outlined a bipartisan immigration deal put together by six senators which they took to Trump for backing.

Dick Durbin, the Democratic senator who is minority whip, was outlining his proposal in which the visa lottery system, of which Trump has been a fierce critic, would be ended in return for 'temporary protected status', known as TPS, resuming for El Salvador and Haiti.

Trump has moved to end it for immigrants from those countries but as Durbin went through a list of countries which would gain TPS under the deal, he reached Haiti and 'Trump asked why the US wants more people from Haiti and African countries', CNN reported.

Haiti's government came out late Thursday and said they 'vehemently condemn' Trump's comments in relation to their country.

The country's ambassador to the US told NBC that Trump's remarks were 'based on stereotypes' and the president was either 'misinformed' or 'miseducated.'

The White House issued a needle-threading statement on immigration policy Thursday afternoon, while not denying the story's accuracy.

'Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,' deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in the statement. 'The President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration  two programs that hurt our economy and allow terrorists into our country.'

Wreckage from natural disasters is endemic in nations like Haiti (pictured) and El Salvador, while African refugees from nations like Rwanda and Sudan flee oppressive governments and long-lasting civil wars between warring tribes and sects

TROUBLED: Members of the MS-13 gang, notorious for its brutality, detained in San Salvador, one of the many troubles the country is suffering from

'Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation,' Shah added.

'He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.'

Policy squabbles notwithstanding, Trump's comments shocked senators from both major parties, according to the Post.

Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois was in the Oval Office to argue that the Trump administration should scale back a proposal to eliminate a diversity visa lottery, which seeks to import people from places that would otherwise be 'underrepresented' among immigrants in the U.S.

Trump's comment about 's***hole countries' comes at a time when his White House is ending protections for people who sought shelter following natural disasters years, or sometimes decades, ago.

There are approximately 436,900 people with such 'Temporary Protected Status' living in the U.S. from 10 countries  South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria, Haiti, Nepal and Yemen.

Haitians and Nicaraguans have already been told their protection is ending.

The Trump administration said this week that it was also removing the protection for Salvadoran nationals who have been allowed to reside in the U.S. since a pair of earthquakes struck their country in 2001.

The Haitians were fleeing an equally devastating 2010 earthquake.

The astonishing comments came on an afternoon of chaos as Huckabee Sanders dismissed senators' claims they had a bipartisan deal on 'Dreamers.'

Six senators boasted they had a deal in place that would solve the issue of what to do with hundreds of thousands of people brought to the U.S. illegally as children and whose legal status granted under the Obama administration is about to expire.

When Huckabee Sanders was asked about the deal at the White House press briefing she told reporters, 'There has not been a deal reached yet.'

But minutes after the briefing, Sens. Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, and Cory Gardner, Republican from Colorado, tweeted a statement saying there was indeed a deal.

'Several of my colleagues and I have reached an agreement that reflects the discussion we had this week with @realDonaldTrump on a solution for Dreamers and border security,' Gardner wrote, sharing a statement that was co-signed by five of his colleagues.

The group of senators working together included Gardner and Durbin, along with Republicans Sens. Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham, as well as Democrats Michael Bennet and Bob Menendez.

'We have been working for four months and have reached an agreement in principle that addresses border security, the diversity visa lottery, chain migration/family reunification, and the Dream Act  the areas outlined by the President. We are now working to build support for that deal in Congress,' the statement said.

However, a spokeswoman for President Trump told DailyMail.com that what Huckabee Sanders said from the podium stands

At the briefing, Huckabee Sanders warned that the Democrats best not play politics over immigration and risk a government shutdown.

'Democrats should stop making our brave troops and essential government functions political pawns in their swamp games,' she said. 'They should stop their obstruction and work with Republicans to fund the government.'

She also told reporters that she believed a deal would get done.

'We are confident and we feel we're going to get there,' the press secretary said as she exited the podium for the day.

The White House meeting was also attended by Republicans including Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue, along with Reps. Bob Goodlatte and Kevin McCarthy, according to Sen. John Cornyn.

Cornyn indicated to CNN that the gang of six's proposal wouldn't be enough to get an immigration bill over the finish line.

'I think the message has now been delivered that we need to get everybody at the table and we'll take the best of their ideas,' Cornyn said.

Goodlatte, who serves as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, unveiled an immigration bill Wednesday afternoon that would also deal with DACA or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the name of the policy that gave Dreamers legal status.

Huckabee Sanders was asked by a reporter about that plan too, questioning whether it would act as a 'poison pill' for being too conservative.

She said no.

'I think that's why it's called a negotiation,' the press secretary replied.

'Everybody puts everything on the table they want. You figure out what you're not willing to give up, which we've laid out. And you try to come out with everybody winning and that's what we're hoping to do,' she said.
Hundreds of dead fish have mysteriously washed up on an Adelaide beach as authorities warn swimming is off limits.

Locals were shocked to find fish including mullet, trevally, bream and snapper washing up at West Lakes this week, 7 News reported.

One woman said she saw over 50 stranded on a concrete pillar.

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Hundreds of dead fish have mysteriously washed up on an Adelaide beach as authorities warn swimming is off limits

Locals were shocked to find fish including mullet, trevally, bream and snapper washing up at West Lakes this week

Another said: 'We have a lot of people that come down here to do local fishing and they might be poisoning their children if they take the fish home.'

The Charles Sturt Council's response team have been tasked with the clean-up.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia are testing the water, but believe the incident is due to natural circumstances.

PIRSA's Dr Shane Roberts said 'algal blooms' coupled with rising water temperatures may be to blame.

'If you've seen a fish kill the smart thing to do is don't go in the water, could be a very slight chance there's an algae bloom that might cause a rash,' Dr Roberts said.
An Oklahoma woman has been convicted of killing her 33-year-old daughter by forcing a crucifix and medallion down her throat because she believed she was possessed by the devil.

Juanita Gomez, 51, was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday in the gruesome 2016 death of her daughter Geneva Gomez.

Jurors recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Police were called to Gomez's home in Oklahoma City in August 2016 after the victim's boyfriend came across her bruised and bloodied body lying on the floor.

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Juanita Gomez, 51, was found guilty of first-degree murder in Oklahoma on Thursday in the gruesome 2016 death of her daughter Geneva Gomez

Geneva was found with her arms spread out as if she had been crucified and a large crucifix had been placed on her chest.

The boyfriend, Francisco Merlos, testified during the trial that when he asked Gomez why she did not seek medical help for Geneva, the woman 'kept mumbling about "devil and money",' and told him that her daughter was 'possessed'.

When Merlos tried to leave, he said Gomez put him in a headlock but he was able to free himself from her grasp and call police.

Court documents indicate that Gomez told police her daughter had been speaking in tongues in a demonic voice the night before her death, her eyes had rolled back in her head and that she had threatened to kill her mother.

Gomez also said the bruises on her arms and hands were from her daughter resisting her attempts to exorcise Satan from her body.

Juanita Gomez smiled as she was led into court on Thursday prior to being found guilty of murdering her 33-year-old daughter Geneva (right) in August 2016

Police were called to Gomez's home in Oklahoma City (above) in August 2016 after the victim's boyfriend came across her bruised and bloodied body lying on the floor

The mother told police she then forced a crucifix down her daughter's throat until blood came out of her mouth and watched her die.

Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Lavenue likened the crime scene inside the home to a 'horror film'.

During the trial, jurors were shown a crime scene photo of the victim lying on the floor with the crucifix on her chest.

She had pleaded not guilty to the murder charge against her.

Her lawyers had signaled their intent to present an insanity defense at trial but later scrapped that plan.

A court-appointed forensic psychologist found Gomez competent to stand trial and said she was feigning memory problems and mental illness to appear incompetent.

Geneva (pictured above) was found with her arms spread out as if she had been crucified and a large crucifix had been placed on her chest
Two African men have threatened a service station attendant with a machete and a 'large rock' before making off with $300 cash.

The terrifying armed robbery unfolded at a Quickstop petrol station in Melbourne's Narre Warren North in the early hours of Friday morning.

The worker told a colleague he feared for his life and begged the two men for mercy.

'The two guys came in... He said they were threatening me to ''give us money, give us money, give us money'',' the colleague told Nine News.

'He got scared and he opened the till for him and said ''take whatever you want, take everything but don't hurt me''.'

Two African men have threatened a service station attendant with a machete and a 'large rock' before making off with $300 cash

Victoria Police said the incident was being investigated.

'Investigators have been told two men, perceived to be of African appearance and armed with a machete and a large rock, attended the Heatherton road business just after 4am,' a police statement read.

'The men threatened the attendant before stealing the till and fleeing on foot. Both men were described as being tall, and had their faces covered by t-shirts.'

Anyone with information or who witnessed the event is urged to contact Crime Stoppers
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All of the jewels worth millions of Euros stolen from shops in Paris's landmark Ritz hotel have been recovered, a source close to the case said Thursday.

Some of the loot was recovered on Wednesday after the arrest of three of the bungling thieves as they tried to flee the hotel and the rest was in a 'bag seized yesterday by police,' the source said.

Witnesses to the robbery at the iconic hotel in the French capital, which saw a gang of axe-wielding thugs 'open fire' and steal up to 3.5 million of jewellery, feared they had been caught up in a terror attack.

Five hooded men smashed through reinforced glass cabinets at the hotel, near the chic Place Vendome in the French capital, as terrified guests watched on at about 6.30pm last night.

Some reported thieves were dressed as builders, adding to speculation renovation work at the rear of the hotel contributed to a lack of security which allowed the heist to take place.

Masked attackers raided the Ritz Hotel in Paris at 6.30pm local time on Wednesday, smashing their way into the luxury hotel

The raiders broke their way into the exclusive hotel using axes and sledgehammers. Pictures show broken windows at the scene

Manhunt: Police in Paris are still searching for two armed robbers this morning following last night's raid

The construction work was reported by Sky News, who said five men broke through a window at the hotel's trademan's entrance.

Hotel guests described 'total panic' breaking out and some reported hearing gunshots as the men raided display cases in the hotel's Reza jewellery shop.

Shoppers alerted police who descended on the scene and used Tasers as they arrested three of the robbers before they could flee. But two gang members were able to escape with the massive haul.

One left the scene on a moped, hitting and injuring a woman as he sped off, while the second drove off in a Renault Megane along nearby Rue Saint-Honore, according to local media.

The hotel is located beside the French Justice Ministry which is guarded by armed soldiers around the clock.

Shots were heard as at least five raiders rushed into the five-star 'palace' brandishing weapons, as frightened staff and guests were told to lie on the floor.

'The attackers then used axes to smash open reinforced glass cases containing jewellery, while filling bags,' said a source at the world famous hotel.

'As they tried to get away, police officers arrived, and three of the robbers were pulled to the ground and then arrested.

'Two others got out the back door of the hotel, and were seen running away, and then getting on mopeds.'

It was at around 6.30pm that guests drinking in the Hemingway Bar, at the back of the hotel, first heard the commotion.

'Bar staff told everybody to remain calm, and not to do anything stupid. Some clients were ushered down into the basement for safety. Shots from what sounded like a handgun were heard at one point.

'There were initial fears that a terrorist attack was going on, but it soon became clear that it was a robbery. Two others got out the back door of the hotel, and were seen running away, and then getting on mopeds.'

The three arrested men were all aged about 40, according to Le Parisien, which reported that they were known to police.

The raid took place at the Ritz hotel in Paris at 6.30pm local time on Wednesday and involved five raiders, two of whom escaped

Witnesses described 'total panic' breaking out and some reported hearing gunshots as the men raided the display cases in the hotel's Reza jewellery shop

One sped off on a moped, hitting and injuring a woman as he sped off, while the second drove off in a Renault Megane along nearby Rue Saint-Honore, according to local media

One woman who was in the hotel at the time of the attack went on Twitter to reassure her friends that she was unharmed

Award winning 9/11 French novelist caught up in the drama Award winning French author Frederic Beigbeder was among those who witnessed today's raid. Beigbeder, 52, who won international awards for his 9/11 novel Windows on the World was drinking in the Hemingway bar at the time of the raid. His novel, which focused on a father and his two children who were facing death in the World Trade Center during the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks, won an Independent Foreign Fiction award for his work. Advertisement

Police sources estimated the value of the robbers' haul as being worth 'at least' the equivalent of 4million.

The glass containers were all in a corridor leading towards the Hemingway bar.

Security at the Ritz was reinforced in 2014 after a series of daylight robberies on jewellery shops in the Place Vendome.

The hotel is next door to France's Justice Ministry, where soldiers stand guard 24 hours a day.

The Ritz, which re-opened in 2016 after a four-year refurbishment, is owned by the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Paris is notorious for high-end armed robberies, with many taking place around five-star palace hotels such as the Ritz.

A police source said: 'World-famous jewellers display their jewellery at the Ritz.'

Police swarmed the area surrounding the hotel following last night's dramatic raid which targeted the Ritz hotel in Paris

Two of the gang were spotted escaping from the scene. Police in Paris have launched a major investigation and are continuing their manhunt this morning

KIM KARDASHIAN AND CANNES DIAMONDS: FRANCE'S BIGGEST JEWELLERY HEISTS After four million euros (4.2million) worth of jewels were stolen from Paris's Ritz hotel, here is a recap of some of France's biggest jewellery heists in the past 10 years. A CUSTOMER IN CANNES Victim: Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in October 2016 by thieves who make off with jewellery worth 8m In January 2017 a man walks into a boutique in the French resort town and is greeted as a customer before pulling out a gun and making off with 15 million euros worth of jewellery. SWITCH A thief posing as a client switches two rough diamonds and two rings, worth around 5.5 million euros, with fakes at a Swiss jeweller's private showroom in Paris in December 2016. He is arrested in Romania the following month. FROM THE AIRPORT In November 2016 masked robbers hold up two Qatari women in their 60s who are in a chauffeur-driven Bentley having just landed at a Paris airport. Jewels and other items worth more than five million euros are stolen. KIM KARDASHIAN The US reality television star is tied up and robbed at gunpoint in October 2016 by thieves who make off with jewellery worth at least nine million euros. She is in Paris for Fashion Week and staying in a luxury residence. CANNES AGAIN Four robbers, one wearing the mask of an elderly person, steal 17.5 million euros in jewellery and watches from a boutique in May 2015 just days before the start of the city's international film festival. PARIS AIRPORT TAXI In April 2015 thieves make off with a handbag containing four million euros worth of Chanel jewels in a smash-and-grab attack on a taxi between Paris and Charles De Gaulle airport. The victim is a Taiwanese art collector. HIGHWAY HOLD-UP Around 15 robbers stop two vans at a toll booth on the A6 motorway in March 2015, near the central city of Auxerre, and make off with jewellery worth around nine million euros. CANNES DIAMOND DISPLAY In July 2013 a man armed with a semi-automatic pistol and his head covered with a cloth walks into the Carlton hotel and steals jewels that were part of an exhibition and worth 103 million euros. It is the largest jewellery heist in France. OTHERS - In February 2010 a thief steals a handbag with 4.5 million euros in jewels from the daughter of a mayor of Kiev being driven into Paris from an airport. - In May 2010 armed robbers walk off with seven million euros in gems after taking a jewel wholesaler and his family hostage in a town near Marseille. - In July 2009 three men take 15 millions euros worth of jewels in a hold-up of a Cartier store in Cannes. - In May 2009 a lone robber enters the exclusive Chopard jewellery store in Paris's upmarket central Place Vendome and leaves with 6.8 million euros of jewellery. - Three men steal around 900 pieces from the Harry Winston jewellery boutique on Paris's chic Avenue Montaigne in December 2008. Some are recovered but the loss is estimated at nearly 79 million euros. Fifteen men linked to the crime are eventually jailed. Advertisement

Interior minister Gerard Collomb praised officers' 'professionalism' saying they had 'done our police force credit'.

One hotel employee told AFP: 'We heard a loud noise and lots of racket in the street. Passers-by took refuge in the hotel. We didn't know what was going on until someone told us there had been a robbery.'

Another employee said he saw a motorbike speed along a road at the back of the hotel after the break-in.

Place Vendome, with its opulent window displays, has been the scene of several audacious daytime raids.

In March 2016, two robbers stole an estimated 4.5million worth of jewels from luxury fashion brand Chopard after threatening employees with a gun and grenade. Three men were charged in connection with that heist.

Paris Ritz hotel history The Ritz was founded by Swiss hotelier Cesar Ritz in 1898 and has been a focus of high society ever since. Diana, Princess of Wales, dined in the hotel's Imperial Suite shortly before her death in a car crash in August 1997. Its retail gallery boasts several jewellers' as well as designer goods shops. A superior room costs from 885 a night, while a 'grand deluxe' room starts at 1,240. Advertisement

The French capital's most high-profile recent jewellery theft was carried out in October 2016 against US reality television star Kim Kardashian.

Five men, some wearing jackets with police insignia, held Kardashian at gunpoint, making off with several pieces of gold and diamond jewellery as well as a ring - a total estimated worth of nine million euros.

One of the robbers, fleeing the scene on a bicycle, dropped a diamond-encrusted cross worth 25,000 which was found by a passer-by a few hours later.

More jewels and watches were found in a bag dropped by one of the two suspects still at large, the source added, without being able to give an estimate for the value of the goods retrieved.

The Ritz was founded by Swiss hotelier Cesar Ritz in 1898 and has been a focus of high society ever since.

Diana, Princess of Wales, dined in the hotel's Imperial Suite shortly before her death in a car crash in August 1997.

Its retail gallery boasts several jewellers' as well as designer goods shops.

A superior room costs from 885 a night, while a 'grand deluxe' room starts at 1,240.

The Paris prefecture launched an immediate investigation.

Among those caught up in the drama at the Ritz was the celebrated French writer Frederic Beigbeder, 52.

The author, who wrote the prize-winning Windows on the World, was enjoying a drink in the Hemingway Bar when he heard shots.

He was one of those who took refuge in the basement of the hotel, emerging when the gunfire had stopped.

The bar is named after the American writer Ernest Hemingway, who used to drink there with friends including Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald and the actor Gary Cooper.

Hemingway famously 'liberated' the bar after arriving in Paris on a tank at the end of the German Occupation in 1944.

Three members of the gang were captured inside the hotel, pictured, but two robbers were able to escape with their haul

Police quickly arrived at the scene and arrested three of the raiders before starting a search for the two who escaped

The raiders smashed their way into glass cases containing the jewels and tried to fill bags with the stolen merchandise

Security at the hotel had been increased in recent years following a string of high-profile raids targeting jewels in Paris
August 2010: An arrest warrant is issued for Julian Assange after his trip to Sweden.

Two allegations - rape and molestation - are made against him. Assange denies both.

February 2011: Judge rules WikiLeaks founder should be extradited to Sweden to face charges.

November 2011: Assange fails in his appeal to the High Court against the decision to extradite him .

June 19, 2012: Seeks political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

August 16, 2012: Ecuador grants Assange political asylum.

August 19, 2012: Assange makes his first public appearance in two months from the balcony of the Embassy.

He make a speech, calling for the government to 'drop the witch-hunt against WikiLeaks.

June 2013: After a year at the Embassy, Assange fears there are fresh moves being put in place to extradite him.

July 2014: Assange, 46, loses his appeal to have the Sweden arrest warrant thrown out.

December 2014: Appears on the balcony of the Embassy again to greet Noam Chomsky and John Cusack.

August 13, 2015: Swedish prosecutors drop some of the allegations against Julian Assange.

The rape allegations case remains open and active.

August 21, 2015: Civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson visits the Embassy.

October 12, 2015: Metropolitan Police end the 24-hour guard at the Embassy.

November 14, 2016: Assange is questioned again over the sex crime allegations.

January 17, 2017: Barack Obama, in one of his final acts as President of the US, decides to free whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

This sparks speculation that Assange is about to end his self-imposed exile.

March 9, 2017: Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage is spotted leaving the Embassy.

April 21, 2017: US Attorney General states that Assange's arrest is now a US 'priority'.

May 19, 2017: Swedish prosecutors announce the investigations have been discontinued.

June 19, 2017: Assange cancels a 'special announcement' he had planned for the fifth anniversary of his stay at the Embassy.

December 21, 2017: Ecuador allegedly issue Assange with a passport.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a serial murderer terrorised Northern California.

Evading capture, the killer taunted police by sending clues to local Bay Area press in the form of cryptograms, hence the name the Zodiac killer.

Though police linked him to five murders, he boasted of at least 37 victims in his letters to the press.

The inability of cops to solve the case so frustrated Dave Toschi, who was San Francisco's lead investigator on the murders from 1969 to 1978, that he revisited Zodiac murder sites long after he was taken off it.

Below are the five confirmed cases linked to the Zodiac killer:

On December 20, 1968, David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, were on their first date when they pulled over into a lovers' lane on Lake Herman Road in Benicia. There, they were forced from the car by a killer and Faraday was shot in the head. Jensen began to run away but was shot multiple times in the back.

On July 4, 1969, Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, were in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo - 4 miles from the first crime scene - when they were shot 'to pieces', according to the investigator. But while Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival, Mageau survived being shot in the face, neck and chest.

On September 27, 1969, Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, were having a picnic at Lake Berryessa in Napa County when they were approached by a hooded man who bound and stabbed them. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to his back, but Shepard died two days later.

On October 11, 1969, cab driver Paul Lee Stine, 29, picked up a passenger and drove him to Presidio Heights - where he was shot in the back of the head and robbed. The killer also ripped part of Stine's shirt, which he later sent with a letter to a local newspaper.

Four other victims and one other escapee have been connected to the Zodiac Killer, but none have been confirmed.
Zeffirelli is pictured right with his adopted sons Pippo (top) and Luciano (in a blue suit)

Franco Zeffirelli's son Pippo issued this statement to People, after actor Johnathan Schaech accused the director of sexual abuse on Thursday.

'It is alleged that 25 years ago an actor, who was then in his early twenties, was the victim of alleged verbal abuse and alleged attempted sexual abuse by my father during the filming of The Sparrow in Sicily, Italy. [He] would have been 70 at the time.

'It is also alleged that my father drank alcohol and may have been drunk on set. Mr. Zeffirelli and all our family were living in a villa, whilst actors, production and staff were staying in a hotel in Catania; all these allegations are not credible.

'At the time Johnathon suffered from a throat type of obstruction which made his speaking difficult. Directors have different styles and some time they could be much more demanding on inexperienced actors.

'My father is in poor health and not able to understand this attack and to respond to the allegations made by Jonathan Schaech.

'This would be an attack to a great director, an artist and to a man at the end of his life that he is not able, nor he will be in the future able to respond.

'This will be an incredible damage to his image and reputation on the basis of allegations which are not credible and cannot be proved,' the statement reads
Wildlife managers in Florida say they want to remove roaming monkeys from the state in light of a new study published Wednesday that finds some of the animals are excreting a virus that can be dangerous to humans.

Scientists studying a growing population of rhesus macaques in Silver Springs State Park say that rather than just carrying herpes B, which is common in the species, some of the monkeys have the virus in their saliva and other bodily fluids, posing a potential risk of spreading the disease.

Human cases of the virus have been rare, with about 50 documented worldwide, and there have been no known transmissions of it to people from wild rhesus macaques in Florida or elsewhere.

A rhesus macaques monkey observes kayakers as they navigate along the Silver River in Silver Springs, Fla. Wildlife managers in Florida say they want to remove the roaming monkeys from the state in light of a new study published Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, that finds some of the animals are excreting a virus that can be dangerous to humans.

THE 'TARZAN' ISLAND MACAQUES OF FLORIDA The animals' forebears were brought to an island in the Silver River early in the 1930s as a tourist attraction due to the popularity of the Tarzan movies. But there was human error in that plan - they didn't know monkeys could swim. Now there are believed to be about 175 in Silver Springs State Park. The macaques, native to Asia, are one of Florida's many nonnative wildlife species. Their contacts with the public, including last summer when the monkeys chased a family , have made them somewhat notorious critters and have caused two partial park closures since 2016. The monkeys also have roamed far outside the park: Dozens were photographed recently swarming a deer feeder outside a home in Ocala. They have been spotted in trees in the Sarasota and Tallahassee areas. Advertisement

However, the researchers say the issue has not been thoroughly studied.

The findings, published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, prompted the researchers from the universities of Florida and Washington to warn Florida's wildlife agency that the infected monkeys should be considered a public health concern.

State wildlife officials say they are taking the problem seriously.

'Without management action, the presence and continued expansion of non-native rhesus macaques in Florida can result in serious human health and safety risks including human injury and transmission of disease,' Thomas Eason, assistant executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said in a statement.

Eason would not elaborate on what specific management tactics the state may employ, but a spokeswoman said the commission supports ridding the state of the invasive creatures.

'The commission supports the removal of these monkeys from the environment to help reduce the threat they pose.

'This can be done in a variety of ways,' spokeswoman Carli Segelson said in an email.

The herpes B virus has been fatal to 21 of the 50 humans known to have contracted it from macaque bites and scratches while working with the animals in laboratories, according to the CDC.

The CDC said there is always concern about the threat that diseases like herpes B virus pose to people, especially in settings where there is frequent interaction between animals and humans where scratches or bites can occur.

'Herpes B virus infection is extremely rare in people, but when it does occur, it can result in severe brain damage or death if the patient is not treated immediately,' CDC spokesman Ian Branam said in a statement.

A rhesus macaques monkey and her offspring observe kayakers as they navigate along the Silver River in Silver Springs, Fla. Wildlife managers in Florida say they want to remove the roaming monkeys from the state in light of a new study published Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, that finds some of the animals are excreting a virus that can be dangerous to humans.

The researchers estimate that up to 30 percent of the scores of Florida's feral macaques may be actively excreting the virus.

The findings suggest a public health concern, said David Civitello, an Emory University biology professor who was not involved in the study.

Still, he said, while the research confirms the presence of the virus in the monkeys' bodily secretions, more work needs to be done to establish how much virus there is, and how easily transferable it is.

'It is interesting to see oral shedding at all,' Civitello said in an email after reviewing the paper.

'It will be important to figure out whether underreporting, low quantities, or low transmissibility would explain why infections in tourists have not been reported.'

In this Friday, Nov. 10, 2017 photo, a rhesus macaques monkey observes kayakers as they navigate along the Silver River in Silver Springs, Fla. Wildlife managers in Florida say they want to remove the roaming monkeys from the state in light of a new study published Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, that finds some of the animals are excreting a virus that can be dangerous to humans. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

The presence of the virus in the monkeys' feces and saliva presents issues for park workers and visitors, who could be endangered if bitten or scratched.

'Human visitors to the park are most likely to be exposed ... through contact with saliva from macaque bites and scratches or from contact with virus shed through urine and feces,' the paper's authors wrote.

The creatures draw nature lovers. On a chilly day in November, Capt. Tom O'Lenick, who has navigated the Silver River for 35 years, hollered from his charter boat into the dense surrounding forest. 'Monkey, monkey, monkey!' he cried.

More than two dozen monkeys eventually appeared in trees on the riverbank. Within minutes, curious kayakers and other boat tour operators pulled close to shore for a better look and to snap photos.

Minutes later another troop was running along the opposite riverbank.

Captain Tom O'Lenick keeps a lookout for monkeys and other wildlife as he navigates his boat on the Silver River, in Silver Springs, Fla. The animals' forebears were brought to an island on the Silver River early in the 1930s as a tourist attraction due to the popularity of the Tarzan movies. But there was human error in that plan.

The animals' forebears were brought to an island in the Silver River early in the 1930s as a tourist attraction due to the popularity of the Tarzan movies.

But there was human error in that plan.

'They didn't know monkeys could swim,' O'Lenick said. Now there are believed to be about 175 in Silver Springs State Park.

While there are no official statistics on monkey attacks on humans in the park, a state-sponsored study in the 1990s found 31 monkey-human incidents, with 23 resulting in human injury between 1977 and 1984.

Samantha Wisely, a University of Florida disease ecologist and one of the study's authors, said whether the monkeys pose a significant public health threat is still unknown.

The paper recommends that Florida wildlife managers consider the virus in future policy decisions.

'We don't have any silver bullet; that's the nature of science,' Wisely said.
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Wednesday marked the second official day of the Consumer Electronics Show - and with it brought an incredible look at the future of data, city life, and autonomous cars.

Firms including Nissan and Toyota displayed stunning concept cars, while visitors of Intel's exhibit were given a chance to walk through an interactive '5G tunnel.'

The day wasn't entirely without setbacks; around 11 a.m., the Las Vegas Convention Center's Central Hall experienced a major blackout, leaving big-name brands and thousands of attendees in total darkness.

After about two hours, however, the lights came back on and the show was up and running once again. Here, Dailymail.com rounds up some of the stunning technology on display.

Once exhibitors were able to get the lights back on, stunning displays were once again back in action. Pictured, attendees step inside the immersive LED tunnel that brings 5G to life

Toyota unveiled its latest concept vehicle, the e-Palette, on Monday, with plans to create a mobile platform for everything from e-commerce and ridesharing to medical services.

The auto giant's president Akio Toyoda unveiled the new initiative, promising: 'In the future, the store will come to you.'

The firm is already working with Amazon, Uber, Pizza Hut and China-based Didi.

The 'e-Palette' vehicle platform features a boxy electric-powered minibus, which can carry out deliveries, or act as a retail service on wheels.

Wednesday marked the second official day of the Consumer Electronics Show - and with it brought an incredible look at the future of data, city life, and autonomous cars. Toyota's concept-I car is shown at CES inside the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas

Nissan also showed off its IMx electric crossover concept, which it first unveiled back in October at the Tokyo Motor Show

It can also be used for ridesharing and other purposes, including medical applications.

'It is a flexible platform that can be adapted to a range of services,' Toyoda said.

Nissan also showed off its IMx electric crossover concept, which it first unveiled back in October at the Tokyo Motor Show.

The car aims to make driving safer and more enjoyable, and features a future version of the firm's ProPILOT autonomous operation.

With this, the steering wheel could be tucked away into the dashboard, and seats reclined for total relaxation.

But, drivers would still have the option to drive it themselves if they so wished, by returning the components to their original position.

Firms including Nissan and Toyota displayed stunning concept cars, while visitors of Intel's exhibit were given a chance to walk through an interactive '5G tunnel'

Attendees step inside Intel's immersive LED tunnel that brings 5G to life at CES inside the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nev., on Wednesday, January 10, 2018. Martin S. Fuentes for DailyMail.com

Intel's stunning acrylic trasparent vehicle responds to the presence of people around it. Above, attendees can be seen approaching the see-through vehicle at CES

Toyota unveiled its latest concept vehicle on Monday, with plans to create a mobile platform for everything from e-commerce and ridesharing to medical services

'The IMx zero-emission crossover concept vehicle embodies the future of Nissan Intelligent Mobility,' said Daniele Schillaci, executive vice president for global marketing and sales, zero-emission vehicles and the battery business, at the time of its unveiling.

'Through Nissan Intelligent Mobility, Nissan is committed to changing the way people and cars communicate, as well as how cars interact with society in the near future and beyond.'

Ford turned its exhibit this year into an entire mock-up of a city, revealing its plans for self-driving cars in a partnership with firms including Postmates.

And, Intel offered breathtaking immersive experiences, from a look at how its autonomous cars see the world, to a 5G tunnel.

Ford turned its exhibit this year into an entire mock-up of a city, revealing its plans for self-driving cars in a partnership with firms including Postmates
Apple shareholder and billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he's not interesting in replacing his flip phone with a smartphone - even though Apple CEO Tim Cook has personally tried to persuade him otherwise.

Buffett flashed a retro Samsung flip phone during his latest interview and said he is not interested in changing - despite annual Christmas reminders from Apple's CEO.

Around 510 million flip phones were shipped globally in 2016, showing Buffett is not the only one that prefers his retro device.

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Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he's not interesting in replacing his flip phone with a smartphone - even though Apple CEO Tim Cook has tried to persuade him to get one

THE RISE OF RETRO PHONES Warren Buffett is not the only consumer looking to keep things old-fashioned. In October last year Motorola revived its iconic RAZR phone, joining forces with British firm, Binatone, to create the Binatone Blade. Like the RAZR, the Binatone Blade features a flip-open screen, but costs just 50 ($66)  significantly cheaper than the RAZR, which cost 450 ($600). Speaking to CBS Philadelphia in November last year, Darren Zygadlo, creator of onecutreviews.com, suggests that 'dumbphones' are set for a comeback. While these 'dumbphones' only have basic features, he he predicts that they could soon be the next big trend - and buyers are already beginning to snap them up. Experts claim that one of the biggest draws of these basic phones is the nostalgia associated with them, as well as the significantly lower price tag than smartphones. People are also finding they don't need all the functionalities offered by more expensive smartphones, and would rather have the simplicity of a paired-back device. Advertisement

Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway is one of the top five Apple shareholders with share worth around $23 billion (17 billion).

However, in an interview with CNBC 'Squawk box' he said he's not interested in upgrading to an iPhone.

'When I actually buy it, it's all over, folks. The last person has bought it,' he said.

The investor says that despite his personal reticence in upgrading, 'the market is not yet saturated for iPhones.'

'Tim Cook sent me a Christmas card again this year saying he's going to sell me an iPhone this year,' Buffett said.

'He keeps sending me these reminders every Christmas.'

In the same interview the investor - known as the Sage of Omaha for his incredible moneymaking skills - warned Bitcoin backers face disaster.

'In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending', he said.

The Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway refused to take a short position on Bitcoin.

'We don't own any, we're not short any, we'll never have a position in them,' he said.

'I get into enough trouble with things I think I know something about', he said.

Buffett is not the only consumer looking to keep things old-fashioned.

In October last year Motorola revived its iconic RAZR phone, joining forces with British firm, Binatone, to create the Binatone Blade.

Like the RAZR, the Binatone Blade features a flip-open screen, but costs just 50 ($66)  significantly cheaper than the RAZR, which cost 450 ($600).

Warren Buffett flashed a retro Samsung flip phone (pictured is a GT E1150) during his latest interview and said he is not interested in changing - despite annual Christmas reminders from Apple's CEO. It is unknown which Samsung smartphone he owns

Speaking to CBS Philadelphia in November last year, Darren Zygadlo, creator of onecutreviews.com, suggests that 'dumbphones' are set for a comeback.

While these 'dumbphones' only have basic features, he he predicts that they could soon be the next big trend - and buyers are already beginning to snap them up.

Experts claim that one of the biggest draws of these basic phones is the nostalgia associated with them, as well as the significantly lower price tag than smartphones.

People are also finding they don't need all the functionalities offered by more expensive smartphones, and would rather have the simplicity of a paired-back device.

In October last year Motorola revived its iconic RAZR phone, joining forces with British firm, Binatone, to create the Binatone Blade

In February, Nokia released a new version of the 3310 phone, 17 years after the original version was launched

Mr Zygadlo said: 'I think there's a lot to be said for a product that makes you nostalgic.

'We've hit a point where we can pretty much do everything with these phones and I think some people are finding themselves saying, 'What do I need all that for?''

In February, Nokia released a new version of the 3310 phone, 17 years after the original version was launched.

The retro device features a month long standby, the much-loved game, Snake, and costs just 49.99 ($66).

French online shop Lekki, which sells a range of vintage, revamped mobile phones, claims simplicity is the way forward.
Newly-found fossils suggest moths and butterflies have been on Earth for at least 200 million years - at least 70 million years longer than previously thought.

Scales from the wings of at least seven species of 'Lepidoptera' - the group that includes moths and butterflies - were found in a sample of ancient rock in Germany.

As well as pushing back the date for the emergence of Lepidoptera, the discovery proves that butterflies did not evolve alongside flowers as previously thought.

Scientists hope the discovery could help them understand the early evolution of moths and butterflies, and aid researchers with their conservation.

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Newly-found fossils suggest moths and butterflies have been on Earth for at least 200 million years - at least 70 million years longer than previously thought. Shown here is primitive moth that has a proboscis that can suck up fluid. The scale bar is 1 centimeter (2.5 inches).

A team of researchers, led by Dr Timo van Eldijk from the University of Utrecht, looked at the wings of 70 different butterfly and moth fossils.

The tiny fossils weighed no more than 0.35 ounces (10 grams) and were about the same size as a speck of dust.

The ancient remnants were found in the rocks of northern Germany and researchers analysed and compared the fossilised wing scales to those of existing species.

The research team used acid to dissolve the rock and leave only the remains of the wings.

They were surprised to find the fossils were closely related to moths and butterflies that belong to a group still alive today.

These creatures have long tongues, known as a proboscis, that they use for sucking up nectar.

But the first flowers are believed to have sprouted on Earth 140 million years ago - long after the date these fossils appears.

Dr Russell Garwood of the University of Manchester, who is not connected with the study, told the BBC: 'This new evidence suggests that perhaps the coiled mouthparts had another role, before flowering plants evolved.'

Researchers analysed and compared the fossilised wing scales to those of existing species (pictured). They found that the fossils were closely related to animals of the modern-day Glossata sub- group which has a long proboscis =

The patterns and ridges of wing scales (pictured) were used to identify the fossils found. The tiny fossils are believed to be from around the Triassic-Jurassic boundary around 200 million years ago

One theory is that these small flying insects fed on gymnosperms.

Gymnosperms are flowerless, seed-producing plants such as conifers which dominated the Jurassic landscape and produce tiny drops of high-energy liquid.

Another is that the early Jurassic and late Triassic era was a very dry and arid time and the proboscis of the butterflies was an 'efficient technique to replenish lost moisture and survive desiccation stress,' the researchers said in the study.

The ancient fossils were discovered in a small place called Schandelah in the vicinity of Braunschweig in northern Germany by a team of researchers from the University of Utrecht

The wing sales of the fossils provide evidence that the early butterfly's had a long nose and they likely used this to feed off the gymnosperms of the time as well as using it to drink water
Alphabet, Google's parent company, has secretly acquired a UK start-up that specialises in technology to turn smartphone screens into speakers.

The system by Cambridge-based Redux could eliminate the need for small speakers to be used in mobile phones.

This would free up space for other components, such as larger batteries or a better cameras, in Google products such as Pixel phones.

It remains unclear when Alphabet bought the sound specialist, but the tech-giant confirmed that it obtained the shares on December 13.

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Google - based in California - has secretly acquired a tech start-up company based in Cambridge, UK that could turn any surface into a speaker. Google refused to comment on the price of the acquisition or any further details

ALPHABET TAKEOVER Alphabet Inc is the parent company of Google and owns numerous companies, and continues to acquire even more. On August 17, 2005 it acquired Android Inc for $50 million (37 million). In 2006 it acquired video-sharing platform behemoth Youtube for a deal exceeding $1.5 billion (1.2 billion). In 2009 it spent $750 million (550 million) on mobile advertising company AdMob. It spent nearly $1 billion (740 million) in 2013 on GPS tracking and navigation company Waze. Nest Labs was bought by Alphabet Inc in 2014 for $3.2 billion (2.4 billion). Artificial intelligence company Dark Blue Labs and Vision Factory was bought out in 2014 for a sum exceeding tens of millions of dollars. Advertisement

The acquisition of Redux was first reported by Bloomberg.

A spokesperson for Google refused to comment on the price of the acquisition or any further details. However, it is believed the deal went through in August.

According to its LinkedIn page the company 'developed breakthrough technology which transforms the user experience by bringing surfaces to life with Sound and Touch.'

The Verge tested startup's technology last year on a tablet.

It reported that Redux is able to turn screens into a speakers by vibrating the screen itself using small actuators.

At the time, it said the sound quality was 'decent.'

The company currently has 178 granted patents and more than 50 patents pending.

It also has technologies that add haptic feedback on mobile displays, which provides vibrations to imitate what it feels like to push physical buttons.

Last year, it received 3.7 million ($5 million) from an array of investors, including Arie Capital.

So far, Redux has only been able to use its technologies inside PCs and some car infotainment systems - but that could be about to change.

Alphabet has a range of potential uses for the technology.

The takeover of the sound specialists could see an influx of new engineering talent for Google that could help the company incorporate better sound systems into its handsets in the future.

Redux tech turns the screen into a speaker, and a haptic surface. Trying it out here. The sound is actually coming from the screen. pic.twitter.com/VPAi6TzKk9  Stan Schroeder (@franticnews) February 28, 2017

Redux specialised in transforming any surface into a speaker and Google purchased the company late last year. The details of the transaction were not disclosed

This appears to be the latest in a string of takeovers from the tech conglomerate.

One of the more recent purchases by Alphabet was obtaining HTC in 2017, for over $1 billion ($750 million).

At the CES consumer electronics conference in Las Vegas this week, Google is heavily promoting its voice-controlled speakers that compete with Amazon's Echo device.
Nasa's James Webb Telescope that could spot extra-terrestrial life has completed a critical series of tests in anticipation of its launch in early summer 2019.

The $8.8 billion (6.5bn) telescope has been successfully tested in a giant vacuum chamber at the Johnson Space Centre - proving it will function in deep space.

Engineers are now confident it will be able to capture starlight in focus and track astronomical targets describing the completion of tests as a 'significant milestone'.

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Nasa's James Webb Telescope that could spot extra-terrestrial life has completed a critical series of tests in anticipation of its launch in early summer 2019. Pictured is the optical system being tested inside thermal vacuum Chamber A

NASA'S JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE The James Webb telescope has been described as a 'time machine' that could help unravel the secrets of our universe. The telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets, and even the moons and planets of our solar system. When it is launched in 2019, it will be the world's biggest and most powerful telescope, capable of peering back 200 million years after the Big Bang. Advertisement

The telescope went through 100 days of cryogenic testing where temperatures dipped hundreds of degrees below the freezing point to ensure it functioned in extreme cold.

'The successful completion of this test represents a very significant milestone for JWST', said Bill Ochs, the telescope project manager.

'It verified the alignment of the telescope to the science instruments, the image quality of the telescope as well as confirming the thermal performance of the telescope', he said, writes CBS News.

'We now have verified that NASA and its partners have an outstanding telescope and a spectacular set of science instruments', he said.

To detect infrared light from faraway objects, the telescope must be kept very cold, according to Nasa.

The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of roughly 40 Kelvin  about minus 387 Fahrenheit (minus 233 Celsius).

But, the mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) must be kept even colder.

This instrument uses a cryocooler to keep it below 7 Kelvin, or minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 266 degrees Celsius).

The vault-like door was closed off on July 10, allowing researchers to assess the telescope in conditions simulating deep space

During additional tests last year, the 18 gold primary mirror segments were tested as well, to ensure they act as a single mirror.

The test even managed to continue as Hurricane Harvey battered the Texas coast.

Inside the chamber, the team monitored the telescope using thermal sensors and specialised cameras, to track the temperature and the physical position as each component moved.

After 15 years of planning, chamber refurbishment, hundreds of hours of risk-reduction testing, the dedication of more than 100 individuals through more than 90 days of testing, and surviving Hurricane Harvey, the OTIS cryogenic test has been an outstanding success, said Dr Ochs.

The engineers began cooling the chamber on July 20 after removing the air.

The process that took roughly 30 days; then the telescope remained in a cryo-stable state for another 30 days.

The massive golden mirror is made up of 18 hexagonal components which will work together as one structure. Each coffee table-sized mirror segment is made from beryllium and weighs roughly 46 pounds

The team unsealed the 40-ton door (pictured) of Chamber A in November. The telescope went through 100 days of cryogenic testing where temperatures dipped hundreds of degrees below the freezing point to ensure it functioned in extreme cold

The team began to warm the chamber back up on September 27, before pumping air back in.

Then, on November 18, they unsealed the door.

With an integrated team from all corners of the country, we were able to create deep space in our chamber and confirm that Webb can perform flawlessly as it observes the coldest corners of the universe, said Jonathan Homan, project manager for Webbs cryogenic testing at Johnson.

I expect [Webb] to be successful, as it journeys to Lagrange point 2 [after launch] and explores the origins of solar systems, galaxies, and has the chance to change our understanding of our universe.
It has three known chambers and was built as a

The mysterious 'huge void', at least 30 meters long, which was found inside the Great Pyramid of Giza could contain an 'iron throne' made using meteorites.

Archaeologists believe the throne is there to help a Pharaoh on his passage to the next life.

According to one ancient text researchers analysed, it is said that the Pharaoh, before reaching the stars of the north, will have to pass the 'gates of the sky' and sit on his 'throne of iron'.

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A 3D cutaway view of the Great Pyramid of Giza revealing its interior chambers. Experts believe it may contain an iron throne made from meteorites

THE 'GATES TO THE SKY' INSIDE GIZA'S GREAT PYRAMID Within the Pyramid there are four narrow shafts, the size of a handkerchief, directed to the stars. The pharaoh's afterlife was in fact, according to the Texts, in the sky, and in particular among the stars of the north, like the Big Dipper and Draco. Two of the four channels open onto the facades of the monument, while the other two run into small doors. One of the two doors, the south one, has been explored several times without results, while the north one is still sealed. The chambers inside the pyramid These doors are with all probabilities representative of the ' gates of the sky ' and the north one could well come into the newly discovered room. The room may contain, at its upper end and exactly under the apex of the great pyramid, an object needed by Cheops after crossing the doors: the 'iron throne' mentioned in the Pyramid Texts. Advertisement

The huge void was found i n early November 2017 as part of the Scan Pyramids project, led by Mehdi Tayoubi (Hip Institute, Paris) and Kunihiro Morishima (University of Nagoya, Japan).

However, archaeologists have been baffled by what the area was used for.

Now Giulio Magli, Director of the Department of Mathematics and Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the Politecnico di Milano, says he may have the answer.

'There is a possible interpretation, which is in good agreement with what we know about the Egyptian funerary religion as witnessed in the Pyramids Texts.

'In these texts it is said that the pharaoh, before reaching the stars of the north, will have to pass the 'gates of the sky' and sit on his 'throne of iron'.

Cheop's Pyramid, built around 2550 BC, is one of the largest and most complex monuments in the history of architecture.

Its internal rooms are accessible through narrow tunnels, one of which, before arriving at the funerary chamber, widens and rises suddenly forming the so-called Great Gallery.

'The newly discovered room is over this gallery, but does not have a practical function of 'relieving weight ' from it, because the roof of the gallery itself was already built with a corbelled technique for this very reason,' said Magli

He says that by looking at the throne of Cheop's mother, Queen Hetepheres, which has been found in pieces and reconstructed by Harvard University, we can get an idea of what the throne may look like.

It is a low chair of cedar wood covered with sheets of gold and faience.

Cheops' could be similar, but coated with thin iron sheets.

'Of course it would not be melted iron, but meteoritic iron, that is, fallen from the sky in the form of Iron meteorites (distinguishable due to the high percentage of Nickel) and again cited in the Texts,' the researchers say.

Archaeologists and physicists used subatomic particles known as muons to scan the Great Pyramid of Giza (pictured) in an attempt to image the chambers and tunnels hidden beneath its stone

The Egyptians used the 'meteorite iron' for special items designed for the Pharaohs - including the famous Tutankamon dagger.

Experts confirmed the existence of the mysterious cavities last year after scanning the millennia-old monument with radiography equipment.

At 146 metres (480 feet) tall, the Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, named after the son of Pharaoh Snefru, is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

It has three known chambers, and like other pyramids in Egypt was intended as a pharaoh's tomb.

Queen Elizabeth II examines the throne from Game of Thrones on day two on a visit to the set. Researchers say a throne may exist indside the Great Pyramid of Giza

'We are now able to confirm the existence of a 'void' hidden behind the north face, that could have the form of at least one corridor going inside the Great Pyramid,' scientists from Operation ScanPyramids said in a statement.

Another 'cavity' was discovered on the pyramid's northeast flank, said the researchers who are using radiography and 3D reconstruction for their study.

The project will begin south of Cairo with the scanning of the so-called Bent Pyramid at Dashour, followed by the nearby Red Pyramid. Later, the two largest pyramids on the Giza plateau will also be scanned. The structures are over 4,500 years old

'Such void is shaped like a corridor and could go up inside the pyramid,' Mehdi Tayoubi, founder of the Paris-based Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute, told Seeker.

He said that currently no link can be made between the two cavities.

An exquisitely decorated golden dagger found inside the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun has previously been found to have a blade made from iron that came from a meteorite. Researchers have discovered it has levels of cobalt, nickel and phosphorus that match the chemical composition of a meteorite found in Egypt in 2000

Operation ScanPyramids began in October last year to search for hidden rooms inside Khufu and its neighbour Khafre in Giza, as well as the Bent and Red pyramids in Dahshur, all south of Cairo.

The project applies a mix of infrared thermography, muon radiography imaging and 3D reconstruction - all of which the researchers say are non-invasive and non-destructive techniques.

Experts from the Operation ScanPyramids team investigate the inside of the ancient structure

The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur (pictured), is distinguished by the bent slope of its sides. It has two entrances, which opens onto two corridors leading to two burial chambers arranged one above the other

Muons are 'similar to X-rays which can penetrate the body and allow bone imaging' and 'can go through hundreds of metres of stone before being absorbed,' ScanPyramids explained in a statement.

'Judiciously placed detectors - for example inside a pyramid, below a potential, unknown chamber - can then record particle tracks and discern cavities from denser regions.'

Thermal 'anomalies' were detected on the Great Pyramid. the three stones with greater temperatures than the surrounding stones (shown in red) first raised hopes there may be a hidden chamber inside

In May, archaeologists revealed 3D scans taken using muons of the 4,500 year old Bent Pyramid at the royal necropolis of Dashur.

These scans revealed the pyramid's internal structure, clearly showing a second chamber around 60 feet above a lower chamber.

'For the first time ever, the internal structure of a pyramid was revealed with muon particles,' Mehdi Tayoubi, co-director of the ScanPyramids andpresident of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute told Discovery in May.

THE MYSTERY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA For more than 4,500 years, Egypt's pyramids have kept their secrets hidden deep within the labyrinth of passages and chambers that lie inside their towering stone structures. But the long-running row over whether the Great Pyramid of Giza is hiding a network of previously undiscovered tunnels behind its stone walls has now been answered. The researchers confirmed the find using cosmic particles known as muons to scan the Great Pyramid of Giza. They used the scans to create maps to reveal the internal structure of the 479 feet (146m) high pyramid. Last year thermal scanning identified a major anomaly in the Great Pyramid, the largest and oldest of the pyramids at Giza and one of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Those scans identified three adjacent stones at its base which registered higher temperatures than others. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo on Thursday began putting on display the country's oldest papyruses, which date back 4,500 years, detailing the daily life of the pyramid-builders. This led to theories that they may be hiding a secret chamber that had yet to be discovered. A team of experts then set up the ScanPyramid's project to use muons, tiny subatomic particle that are typically produced by cosmic rays smash into atoms on Earth, to peer through the Pyramid's huge stone blocks, some of which weight up to 15 tons. Dr Hawass has in the past been sceptical of the usefulness of conducting such scans. He recently clashed publicly with British Egyptologists over their theory that a secret burial chamber may be hidden behind the walls of Tutankhamun's tomb in his pyramid in the Valley of the Kings. Scientists have been using a muon detecting machine (pictured) to scan the internal structure of the Great Pyramid of Giza Advertisement

Some had suggested pharaoh Sneferu was buried inside the pyramid in a hidden chamber, but the latest scans have ruled out that possibility.

In late 2015, Egypt started radar scans of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in southern Egypt, after a British archaeologist theorised that Nefertiti was buried in a secret chamber there.

Nicholas Reeves suggested that Tutankhamun's tomb was in fact Nefertiti's, and when the boy king died unexpectedly at a young age, he was rushed into her tomb's outer chamber.
It is the favourite strategy of celebrities who want to show off about their fame and money while still appearing down to Earth.

But the humblebrag may not be as subtle as they had hoped.

A new study shows it makes people less likeable because it makes them look insincere when compared to outright boasting.

It is the favourite strategy of celebrities, such as Taylor Swift, who want to show off about their fame and money while still appearing down to Earth. But the humblebrag may not be as subtle as they had hoped. A new study shows it makes people less likeable

A humblebrag, most often seen on social media sites, is a boast which is disguised as a humble statement or complaint.

An often-cited example is Stephen Fry writing on Twitter: Oh dear. Dont know what to do at the airport. Huge crowd but Ill miss my plane if I stop and do photos.. oh dear, dont want to disappoint.

However the humblebrag is actually less popular than outright, unashamed boasting, a study led by the University of North Carolina found.

People faced by someone humblebragging were less likely to help them out by signing a petition, and also gave them less money.

Humblebraggers are disliked, the authors conclude, because they are seen as insincere.

Lead author Dr Ovul Sezer told New Scientist: Even though bragging is frowned upon, at least it comes across as sincere. Humblebragging, on the other hand, is a sneaky, strategic thing, and people see straight through it.

The US researchers took real-life tweets by celebrities and asked people how much they liked the person based on what they said.

Kylie Jenner's best friend and model Jordyn Woods put this image of her on Instagram positioned in front of her BMW with the caption: 'I really be in sweats everyday'. Scientists say humblebrags such as this are more irritating than outright boasts

These included a tweet by British television presenter Cat Deeley, who wrote online: So I have to go to both Emmy awards!!  Two dresses!!!?!?! This was turned into a straightforward brag when the academics changed it into: I am going to both Emmy awards.

WHAT IS A HUMBLEBRAG? A humblebrag, most often seen on social media sites, is a boast which is disguised as a humble statement or complaint. An often-cited example is Stephen Fry writing on Twitter: Oh dear. Dont know what to do at the airport. Huge crowd but Ill miss my plane if I stop and do photos.. oh dear, dont want to disappoint. Jared Leto recently stated: Just won GQ style award in Germany. Obviously they made a mistake. I wonder how long till they come take it back. Television presenter Cat Deeley, who also wrote online: So I have to go to both Emmy awards!!  Two dresses!!!?!?! This was turned into a straightforward brag when the academics changed it into: I am going to both Emmy awards. Another humblebrag by American band Counting Crows, stated: Seriously? 2 headlines in 1 day? Only me. I should enter a contest.

Humblebraggers are disliked because they are seen as insincere as those who outright boast about their achievements. Advertisement

The study also used a tweet by the American band Counting Crows, stating: Seriously? 2 headlines in 1 day? Only me. I should enter a contest. As a brag, this said: 2 headlines in 1 day. Only me.

The researchers asked 403 people to rate the comments, finding they liked the the humblebrag less than the boast.

When asked to give money to the authors of the statements, the brag got $1.05 (78 pence), compared to just 70 cents (52 pence) for the humblebrag.

Humblebragging, the authors state, comes from our need to be liked.

People naturally want to boast, to get respect for their competence, but they also want to be liked and worry showing off will not achieve that.

The solution is to disguise the boast as a complaint, which elicits sympathy, or as humility, which evidence shows makes people more likeable.

The example given by New Scientist, which reported the study results on its website, is Hollywood actor Jared Leto stating: Just won GQ style award in Germany. Obviously they made a mistake. I wonder how long till they come take it back.

The US research, which took in seven separate studies, asked 113 people to fill out a diary on humblebrags they heard in real life, and 45 per cent heard one over the course of a week.

The technique is used most to boast about peoples looks, followed by their money and wealth and then their performance at work.

Most people exposed to humblebrags said they came from their friends and co-workers.

The study also used a tweet by the American band Counting Crows, stating: Seriously? 2 headlines in 1 day? Only me'. The authors conclude: We show that people choose to deploy humblebrags, particularly when motivated to both elicit sympathy and impress others

The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found fewer than two-thirds of people were willing to sign the petition of someone who had humblebragged to them.

This was when faced by a woman who said: Thats cool! I got my dream internship and got funding to travel to Paris. Ugh, its so hard to decide which one to choose.

But when she left off the last sentence, making it a boast rather than a humblebrag, 85 per cent of people signed her petition.

The authors conclude: We show that people choose to deploy humblebrags, particularly when motivated to both elicit sympathy and impress others.

Despite the belief that combining bragging with complaining or humility confers the benefits of each strategy, we find that humblebragging confers the benefits of neither, instead backfiring because it is seen as insincere.
James Hemings' inventory list (pictured) first lists 19 copper stew pans and 19 covers for those pans. The list was written in 1796

James Hemings became the property of Thomas Jefferson in January of 1774 when he was just nine years old.

He grew up serving Jefferson as a house servant, messenger, driver, traveling attendant, and eventually became his chef.

He was one of twelve children of Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings. His younger sister was Sally Hemings, who had six children believed to have been fathered by Jefferson.

In 1784, when Jefferson was appointed minister plenipotentiary in Paris by Congress he wrote to his future secretary William Short that he wished to take his servant James with him to France 'for a particular purpose'.

That purpose was to have James trained in the art of French cookery.

When they arrived to Paris in 1784, James trained under Jefferson's female cook, and also a pastry chef, as well as with a chef of the Prince de Conde.

He learned quickly and in 1787 became the chef de cuisine at the Hotel de Langeac,which was Jefferson's private residence on the Champs-Elysees.

Technically free in France, James was paid a wage as he worked as the head of the kitchen at Jeffersons residence in Paris.

Hemings returned to slavery in America, bringing with him revolutionary changes to American cuisine.

The chef introduced meringues, creme brulee, and macaroni and cheese to US culture.

Hemings was freed by Jefferson in 1796 and died five years later, an apparent suicide. He leaves as his only material legacy an inventory of kitchen utensils and four cooking recipes.

His sister, Sally, was the mother of six of Jefferson's children while she was enslaved at the Monticello estate.

According to her son Madison Hemings, her father was Thomas Jefferson's father-in-law, John Wayles.

One of the few accounts of her by an enslaved blacksmith named Isaac Granger Jefferson said that Sally Hemings was 'mighty near white...very handsome, long straight hair down her back.'

James Hemings became the property of Thomas Jefferson in 1774. Hemings is the older brother of Sally Hemings (right, from a description), who had six children believed to have been fathered by Jefferson after the death of his wife Martha Jefferson

While this has been subject to debate, a 1998 DNA study genetically linked Hemings' male descendants with male descendants of the Jefferson family.

Sally Hemings became Thomas Jefferson's property as part of his inheritance from the Wayles estate in 1774 and came with her mother Elizabeth Hemings in 1776.

As a child, she was probably a nursemaid to Jefferson's daughter Maria, as enslaved girls from the age of six or eight were childminders and assistants to head nurses on southern plantations.

Sally served as an attendant to Maria Jefferson, as well as Martha Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's wife, accompanying them on various trips to Paris.

After her return to Virginia in 1789, Sally Hemings remained at Monticello and worked as a household servant.

Sally's son Madison recalled that one of her duties was 'to take care of [Jefferson's] chamber and wardrobe, look after us children, and do light work such as sewing.'

While Hemings was never technically a free woman, she was allowed to leave Monticello following Thomas Jefferson's death to live with sons Madison and Eston Hemings in Charlottesville.

Source: Monticello.org
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These incredible images show hundreds of lions being taught to perform tricks, pose for drawings and even sit down at dinner parties.

Gay's Lion Farm in El Monte, California, was opened in 1925 by former circus performers Charles and Muriel Gay.

Mr Gay had a long career working with the big cats and often trained the animals to work in the burgeoning movie industry.

A woman sits on an orange crate and poses next to one of the lions at the former Gay's Lion Farm in El Monte, California

The lions at Gay's Lion Farm were trained especially for the burgeoning movie industry that was expanding in Hollywood in the 1930s

A group of men sit at a dinner table and raise a toast to a lion called Numa. He was the inspiration behind the lion in the Tarzan films

A brave group of schoolgirls hold hands in a circle around another one of the lions, who lived at Gay's Lion Park between 1925 and 1942

His big-cat venture with his wife began in LA in 1914 with just three lions being trained at an attraction in MacArthur Park.

It proved very popular and the operation rapidly expanded.

Realising more space was needed the Gays found a large plot of land in El Monte, close to Los Angeles, to raise more lions.

At one point, Gay's Lion Farm housed 200 of the creatures, and it was dedicated to their breeding and training.

One lion there, Jackie, even became famous after being chosen to be the animal to introduce MGM films between 1928 and 1956.

The park then quickly became a massive tourist attraction as people flocked to see the lions in action.

Charles Gay, pictured, was the founder of Gay's Lion Park. He was a former circus performer, who had trained the animals for the movies

Mr Gay looks as though he is going head to head with one of his animals, who rises up on his back legs and jumps up at his trainer

His park was also responsible for the breeding of African lions. Here Mr Gay is pictured holding up two young cubs

Mr Gay teaches one of his young cubs to hold his own bottle of milk during feeding time at Gay's Lion Farm. The image on the right shows that the cub has clearly got the hang of things

Mr Gay had to close his lion farm in 1942 as war rations meant there was not enough meat to feed his big cats. After the war ended he fell ill and was unable to re-open his park

One of his big cats allows Mr Gay to take a ride on his back. One of his most famous lions was Jackie, who was the face of MGM films

And charming pictures from the time show people getting up close and personal with the animals, including, shockingly, a group of school girls, who held hands as they circled one of the lions.

Other images show Mr and Mrs Gay cradling young cubs and even announcing which youngster was the cutest baby lion.

However, in December 1942 Gay's Lion Farm was forced to close due to America entering the Second World War.

Mr and Mrs Gay along with veterinary staff check over some of the young cubs that were born at Gay's Lion Farm in the 1930s

Mr Gay ran his lion farm alongside his wife Muriel, pictured, who was also a former circus performer

Mrs Gay balances two very young cubs on her shoulders. At its peak Mrs Gay and her husband looked after 200 lions

Feline hungry: All of the young lion cubs gather around Mrs Gay as she holds out a bowl with food

War rationing meant it was impossible to get the right amount of meat required to feed the lions so many of the animals were loaned to zoos around the country.

By the time the war was over, Mr Gay was too ill to reclaim his cats and restart his lion farm.

He ended up retiring to Balboa Island in California and died in 1950.

The lions had many enclosures in the large park, including this one that contained a vintage car and two dummies

Several of the lions line up together on a large plank of wood inside their enclosure. During the Second World War, they had to be loaned out to other zoos across the US

Some of the lion cubs and older big cats gather together beside a tree trunk for a picture. The vintage images are now owned by the Los Angeles Public Library

Two young lions are perplexed when they see their own reflections in a mirror that was left inside their enclosure
Spain has beaten the United States to become the world's second most visited country after France, it has been revealed.

The Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy confirmed that his nation has seen a surge in tourism while speaking at an event during a visit to Italy.

He revealed how 82million people had visited Spain in 2017, a nine per cent increase from the previous year that came despite the Barcelona terror attacks and the political crisis in Catalonia.

Visitor numbers to Spain have increased for a fifth consecutive year making it the second most visited country in the world. Pictured are tourists in Barcelona

Tourism earnings rose also 12 per cent to 87 billion euros ($104 billion), the Prime Minister said in Rome while attending a summit on migration.

And Mr Rajoy praised the Spanish tourism sector's 'great effort' to become more competitive.

Arrivals in Spain beat records for the fifth consecutive year, despite the jihadist attacks in the Catalonia capital Barcelona and nearby Cambrils last August that left 16 dead.

Catalonia also remains in the grip of a secession crisis. Arrivals recovered after dropping off by five per cent year-on-year in October as massive demonstrations were staged following a failed independence bid.

A total of 82million people visited Spain in 2017, according to the Spanish Prime Minister. Pictured are tourists soaking up the sun on Barceloneta Beach

The Madrid-based UNWTO is set to release its figures for 2017 on Monday.

Tourism has also benefited from a boom in renting flats out to tourists via web platforms such as Airbnb.

However, this has prompted a backlash in popular destinations such as Barcelona, Palma de Majorca or San Sebastian as locals complain of a drop in long-term rentals and rising prices.

In 2016, Spain welcomed 75.3 million visitors, just behind the United States with 75.6 million, while France - despite its own terror woes - easily remained the world leader with 82.6 million visitors, according to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

However, international tourism to the United States shrank during the first five months of Donald Trump's presidency, according to the US International Trade Administration.

Arrivals fell five per cent in the first quarter and three per cent in the second quarter, official figures show.
Airline food is hardly a culinary highlight.

But passengers on commercial carrier Tunisair were left starving when turbulence hit just seconds after crew served the evening meal.

Images shared via Twitter on Thursday show how lunch trays were launched into the aisles after the friendly skies turned bumpy.

Bad timing: Images shared via Twitter on Thursday show moment lunch trays were launched into the aisles after the Tunisair plane was struck by turbulence

The chartered flight was travelling from Tunis International Airport, Tunisia, to Paris Orly Airport, France, when the incident happened.

Although it's believed no passengers were hurt during the episode, it was certainly powerful enough to overturn trays weighted with full meals, drinks and cutlery.

The photographs - taken by a quick-thinking passenger - show a number of edible items strewn across the walkway, including bread and packaged goods.

Meanwhile, trays littered the walkway and up-turned cups balanced precariously.

Clearly feeling hungry, one woman can be seen reaching out to retrieve her meal, while others hold the neighbouring seats to steady their journey.

MailOnline have approached Tunisair for comment, but are yet to receive a response.

What a mess! The photographs - taken by a quick-thinking passenger - shows a number of edible items strewn across the walkway, including breads and packaged goods

Dinner is destroyed: Trays litter the walkway and up-turned cups balance precariously

Not that the airline haven't previously made headlines, of course.

In March 2017 they stranded passengers for hours when a dispute over staff uniforms grounded their flights.

The carrier later announced a 'partial and progressive' resumption of flights after talks with trade union representatives.

Tunisair has 29 aircraft that usually operate an average of 47 flights a day to destinations mostly in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, according to its website.
He launched his business Jack's Flight Club from his rented London bedroom, last year.

And now, 12 months on, 'professional flight hacker' Jack Sheldon who scours the web looking for cheap holidays for Brits, is enjoying the fruits of his labour - after admitting he's on the cusp of making his first million.

Yet, despite his success - which has helped save UK holiday-makers an estimated 5million in air fares - he says his lifestyle remains almost exactly the same.

Savvy guy: Despite approaching millionaire status, Jack Sheldon, pictured, founder of Jack's Flight Club still wants cheap travel

Speaking to The Sun, where he admits he's 'not yet' a millionaire but financially 'comfortable', he said: ' I've never really had an urge for the finer things, that's why I'm into cheap travel.

'My lifestyle hasn't changed but getting freedom was the only thing I have really craved. I spent most of my 20s in London working. I was always wanting to see the world but flights was always the biggest barrier.

'I could rent a cheap hostel and find cheap food, but airfares were always the biggest barrier.'

Since then, the London-based American, from Texas, has visited more than 43 countries in three years by taking advantage of the lowest fares online.

The cheap deals that he finds he shares with his subscribers, with some paying 35 a year to sign up to the service, which has since netted him 750,000 in membership fees.

Last year, Mr Sheldon took to Reddit to share his advice, and it proved so popular it crashed the inbox of his subscription service and swelled its membership to 200,000 savvy bargain hunters.

Here we reveal some of the tips that caused the meltdown...

If you're flexible with stopovers you may find some serious bargains online

Set alerts for destinations and be flexible

If youre interested in a route, Jack advises that you set up a Google alert and be open to a number of dates you could potentially fly.

He advised: Put in particular dates and then you should see a button/switch that says "Track prices". Enter and track a few different dates for best results.

He added: 'Set an email alert for price changes on those dates. If you are flexible, I would enter ten different dates and set an alert for each one.

'Try a vague search by continent on Google flights. Change the month of travel and see if anything strikes you as interesting.'

Jack advises that you set up a Google alert for any routes you are interested in and said for the best deal you need to be open to a number of dates you could potentially fly on

Do your research

'Once you find a cheap fare on Google there are a number of other places to look to make sure its genuinely the best deal.

'Momondo picks up fares from the cheapest agents.

'Another option for those that are very flexible with the amount of stop-overs is lesser-known kiwi.com. They search a lot more options for each route than even Google and Skyscanner does.

'The deals I send out tend to be a max of one stop unless it's a vastly discounted fare on a two-stop long-haul.'

He said he also highly recommends the fare alerts on Skyscanner and has around a thousand of them set up.

Look for mistakes

Occasionally computer glitches can throw out shockingly cheap fares which some airlines choose to honour. However Jack recommends waiting a week before booking your accommodation as a carrier may be able to renege on the booking in this time.

Jack revealed: 'The best I've seen has been an 18 mistake fare to Belize. The best I've taken has been a 112 single stop round trip fare to Bali.

'It's a special feeling walking onto a flight knowing most everyone else paid five to eight times more than my fare.'

Jack's website finds mistakes and cheap tickets and sends them out to subscribers. One deal included Manchester to Boston for 200 and London to Tokyo for 272.

By taking advantage of airline mistakes flights such as an 18 fare to Bali can be enjoyed (file image)

Use local sites

Jack said: 'If you're booking with a foreign airline, always log into their local sites to see if you can get a cheaper price that way.

'They often will offer lower prices for locals, but it is perfectly legal to book using that method.'

He recommends a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection when looking at local sites such as TunnelBear, which has a chrome extension.

Book direct

Although Jack checks first if he can save money booking through an agent, he only opts to do so if the saving is more than 50.

'Depending on how often your travel plans change, it may make more sense to always book directly with an airline.'

Find the booking sweet spot

Jack says: 'Last-minute deals aren't going to be very common as airlines try their best to take advantage of business travellers and hike up their last-minute rates.

'Six to 12 weeks in advance is the sweet spot, but it varies greatly.
ABC/Image Group LA Chris Young, Lee Brice, Alabama, Travis Tritt and Sara Evans are joining the lineup for Volunteer Jam XX: A Tribute to Charlie. Tickets are on sale now for the star-studded show March 7 at Nashvilles Bridgestone Arena.

Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie Daniels -- the driving force behind the annual fundraiser -- anchors the show, along with the Charlie Daniels Band.

This year we get back to basics he says. Back to the freeform rocking traditions the Volunteer Jam was known for. Im planning a jam at the last part of the show that will blow the roof off Bridgestone. And weve got the pickers coming this year that can make that happen big time.

Alison Krauss, Chris Janson and Ricky Skaggs are no doubt some of the pickers Charlies referring to, with Justin Moore, Jamey Johnson, Montgomery Gentrys Eddie Montgomery, ZZ Tops Billy F. Gibbons, Bobby Bare and the Oak Ridge Boys also set to play. Expect more performers to be announced as the concert draws closer.

The show benefits Charlies The Journey Home Project, which helps veterans adjust to civilian life.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
UCROSS,Wyo.  Artist Sydney Pursel has been named the first recipient of the Ucross Foundation Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists.

Pursel, based in Columbia, Missouri, was selected through a juried national competitive selection process. The award includes a one-month residency at Ucross, a stipend of $1,000, and inclusion in an upcoming exhibition at the Ucross Foundation Art Gallery. Major support for the Fellowship has been provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Pursel specializes in socially engaged, activist and performance-based video and new media arts. As a member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska with strong Irish Catholic roots, she investigates personal identity and contemporary Indigenous issues through art.

Some of her projects are used to educate others about food politics, assimilation, language loss, appropriation and history, in addition to projects among her community focusing on language acquisition, culture and art.

Pursel's work has been shown at public parks, universities and alternative spaces in Columbia and Kansas City, Missouri; Lawrence, Kansas; San Francisco, California; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Pursel received her MFA in expanded media at the University of Kansas and her BFA in painting from the University of Missouri.

Initiated in 2017, the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists supports the work of contemporary Native American visual artists at all stages of their professional careers. It is open to disciplines that include, but are not limited to painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, video, performance art, installation, ceramics, and collaborative projects involving multiple disciplines.

Two fellowships will be awarded annually, one in the spring and another in the fall. The next application deadline for the fellowship is March 1. The application can be found at www.ucrossfoundation.org.
She spent the last few months in Los Angeles, focussing on her new fitness regime.

And Jess Wright had that Hollywood glow when she arrived for a Maybelline New York beauty launch on Wednesday night in London.

Joined by natural beauty Maya Jama, the former TOWIE star showcased her winter sun glow as she dressed for the chillier British climates.

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Leggy look: Jess Wright looked chic at the Maybelline Total Temptation event in London on Wednesday night

Leggy Jess covered up her newly-toned figure in a fluffy ice-white jacket and a matching jumper underneath.

She contrasted the chic top layer with skinny black trousers and a pair of patent heels.

Maya was more brave in the face of winter weather, dressed in a short shirt dress with bare legs and an unbuttoned neckline which she teamed with an Emm Kuo clutch.

Showing her shape: DJ Maya Jama was also a guest at the beauty event, looking cool in a shirt dress and trainers which she teamed with an Emm Kuo clutch

Cosy look: The outfit featured a cosy fluffy cover-up in white to offset her skintight trousers

Playful: The Maybelline New York event was held to launch the brand's newest mascara

She added an edge in trainers and tied a large, long belt around her waist to cinch in her petite figure.

The duo turned out for the launch of Maybelline New York's new Total Temptation mascara.

As part of the fun event, the famous beauties were seen posing in a ball pitt and trying their hand at the new beauty wands on a wall of lash installation.

Fashionista: She teamed the cool look with flat shoes, not needing the extra height

Maybe she's born with it? The beauty was in a playful mood and caught having fun in the ball pitt

Lashings of mascara: In honour of the new launch, Maya tried her hand at the beauty wand

Now that she's back in London, following a visit to brother and Extra host Mark in the US, Jess has been courting attention with her dating life.

According to new reports, the beauty has been dating Strictly Come Dancing professional Gorka Marquez for a number of weeks.

The model has recently been linked to Strictly Come Dancing star Giovanni Pernice, 27, after they were introduced through her younger brother Mark, who competed on the show in 2014.

The good-looking pair have reportedly been dating for a month and had been keeping a low-profile on their romance despite being spotted enjoying a drink together in November last year.

Posing up a storm: Her shirt dress was accessorised with a large, long belt and a silver clutch

True beauty: The former TOWIE star showcased her own natural beauty
She's rumoured to be dating Jarrod Woodgate, who she met while filming the upcoming series of Bachelor In Paradise.

And amid claims the pair are set to move in together, it seems things are heating up for Jarrod and former Bachelor star Keira Maguire.

The busty blonde took to her Instagram story on Wednesday to reveal she is reading a relationship manual for 'deep love and soulful sex.'

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So it's heating up then? Bachelor in Paradise star Keira Maguire reads a relationship manual for 'deep love and soulful sex'...amid claims she's moving in with 'boyfriend' Jarrod Woodgate

The reality TV star said she was studying the tome Open Wide, a book by Melissa Ambrosini.

The book is pitched as 'a radically real guide to deep love, rocking relationships and soulful sex.'

It comes after she revealed recently that she was reading Darker in the 50 Shades of Grey series, by E.L James.

Digging in: The reality TV star revealed she is reading Open Wide, a book by Melissa Ambrosini

Raunchy read: It comes after she revealed recently that she was reading Darker in the 50 Shades of Grey series, by E.L James

This week Keira and Jarrod were busted leaving Brisbane airport after spending a few days together.

The pair flew on different days back to their respective hometowns of Sydney and Melbourne.

Before heading to Brisbane - where Keira has family and friends - the pair spent New Year's together in Melbourne, where Jarrod is based.

Caught! This week Keira and Jarrod were busted leaving Brisbane airport after spending a few days together

The duo were first romantically linked when they were pictured kissing during a date on Bachelor in Paradise.

With filming for the show has already concluded, a source close to the pair told Daily Mail Australia that 'it's only a matter of time' before Keira moves from Sydney down to Melbourne with her alleged beau.

The source added that 'they've been inseparable ever since' meeting on the show.

Jarrod previously had his heart broken by Sophie Monk on The Bachelorette last year, while Keira failed to find love with Richie Strahan on The Bachelor.
Her return to Albert Square was welcomed by fans on Sunday night, as actress Tamzin Outhwaite returned to the soap after 15 years away.

And now Eastenders' Mel Owen is set to rumble Ben Mitchell, after it was revealed he is in possession of the money and jewellery stolen in the New Year's Day heist.

Teaser images from Thursday's episode show Mel meeting with Ben after her sensational return to Walford, and it seems the Mitchell is in hot water ahead of actor Harry Reid's impending exit.

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Busted? Eastenders' Ben Mitchell comes face to face with the returning Mel Owen on Thursday, with teaser images hinting at the real reason why she is back in Walford

It has been strongly implied that Mel was sent back to Albert Square by Ciara Maguire, whose money was stolen in the disastrous heist which saw Mick Carter suffer a nasty gunshot to the shoulder.

In Tuesday's dramatic cliffhanger, Mel was seen arriving at the garage to meet Ben, though he has no idea who she is.

Mel will originally claim she needs her car fixed, but it is clear there is much more to her return than that.

With Ben Mitchell set to depart the Square any day now, it is anybody's guess whether he will go on the run, or suffer a nastier fate.

All it seems? Ben has no idea who Mel is, but it has been strongly hinted she is investigating the money and jewelery stolen from gangster Ciara Maguire

'Good to be back': Fans welcomed the return of actress Tamzin Outhwaite on Tuesday after 15 years away

On the run? Actor Harry Reid is set to depart Eastenders any day now but whether Mel is involved in Ben's exit remains to be seen

Tamzin's return to the Square was previously teased in a clip which showed her taking a shine to Kathy Beale's new necklace, which viewers will know was amongst the jewelery stolen in the heist.

A first-look clip shown on Tuesday's This Morning shows Mel ask her former mother-in-law where she picked up the sparkling item.

Unbeknownst to her that the diamonds draped around her neck are very much real, Kathy responds: 'Just a bit of costume jewellery.'

Viewers were left shocked when it was revealed that Ben had stolen the loot from the heist last week.

Back with a bang! Mel's first scenes back in the soap were teased earlier this week, with her taking a shine to Kathy Beale's new necklace

Before her exit: Tamzin [pictured in March 2002] portrayed Mel between 1998 and 2002, before delighting viewers with news of her return last year

Eyebrow raiser! Viewers were left shocked when it was revealed that Ben had stolen the loot from the heist last week

The mechanic was filmed staring at a case filled with cash and a big of pricey jewels at the end of yet another dramatic episode.

The storyline comes after actor Harry Reid - who has played Phil Mitchell's son for the past three years - announced he was leaving the soap.

Meanwhile, returning cast-member Tamzin hinted her villainous on-screen husband may also make a surprise return to Albert Square.

Steve Owen played by Martin Kemp appeared to come to a perilous end back in 2002 when his car exploded with him trapped inside.

Why so curious? A first-look clip shown on Tuesday's This Morning shows Mel ask her former mother-in-law where she picked up the sparkling item

Bling bling: Unbeknownst to her that the diamonds draped around her neck are very much real, Kathy responds: 'Just a bit of costume jewellery'

'I'd love my ex-husband to return but he's dead,' the 47-year-old actress told The Sun Online.

'I do think he could have got out in that three seconds and rolled underneath the car.'

A pregnant Mel was forced to go run after Steve's tragic accident, learning of his betrayals - including his affair with Sam Mitchell and money laundering.

Speaking about how her character has developed over the past 15 years, she said: 'She's damaged, much more damaged and darker.'

Mel will return with her son Hunter, played by Charlie Winter, who is now a teenager.
From her dashing actor boyfriend, to her moviestar lifestyle and beautiful model features, Lily James certainly appears to live life through a filter.

But the actress has admitted that she can be a 'hypocrite' when it comes to social media, because it forces you to 'present your life' in an unrealistic way.

The 28-year-old actress - who has 910k Instagram followers - said she felt worried about 'obsession [with] perfection' and felt able to relate with the desire to delete all of her accounts.

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Life through a filter: Lily James has admitted to feeling hypocritical about her life on Instagram (pictured here on the social media site, during filming for Mama Mia 2)

She told the BBC: 'I do worry about obsession and about perfection and about always presenting your life in a certain way, which is very untrue to how you go about your day.

'We go through all sorts of different emotions and Instagram makes it look like everything's perfect, and that's rubbish.'

Lily reflected on her own activity on social networks in light of Daisy Ridley's decision to delete her accounts, and has confessed to experiencing a 'constant inner battle' about the issue.

Snap happy: She said she felt worried that there was an expectation to present life in a certain way

She lives the life: From her actor boyfriend Matt Smith, to her red carpet lifestyle (pictured last May), the star certainly has foder for a well-followed Instagram account

Appearances can be deceptive? Lily says that life is not perfect, that's 'rubbish'

Reflecting on Daisy's choice, Lily shared: 'I completely and utterly relate to that. I believe it to be true, and therefore I am a hypocrite. I am on [social media], and I have a constant inner battle about it.'

The beauty went on to say that she had chosen not to join micro-blogging site Twitter because '[you shouldn't] put something down in concrete that's going to come back and haunt you.'

Meanwhile, Lily - who is dating British actor Matt Smith - has praised the women in Hollywood who have recently shared their experience of sexual harassment and abuse.

Obsessed with perfection: Seen here again during summer filming, Lily said she felt like there was an obsession with perfection

Pampered: The photos that appear on Lily's page as the stuff of dreams

The British star is pleased that the sex scandal has sparked a debate about the movie industry's culture.

She said: 'I think the bravery of everyone that's come forward and spoken, the fact that they've shared their pain and their stories in order to make change is the most admirable brilliant thing.

'And I'm so hopeful that now there's going to be a huge shift in how that power balance has been and how people have been treated.'
She confirmed in November that she had gone under the knife to correct her 'uni-boob'.

And now Charlotte Crosby, 27, has put on an eye-popping display in a plunging cobalt blue one-piece in a new sizzling selfie which showcased her very ample cleavage on Wednesday.

Taking to Instagram to share the pulse-racing snap, the former Geordie Shore star left little the imagination as her choice of swimwear featured two slim pieces of fabric that managed to cover her modesty in the mirror snap.

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The breast of intentions: Charlotte Crosby, 27, has put on an eye-popping display in a plunging cobalt blue one-piece in a new sizzling selfie which showcased her very ample cleavage on Wednesday

Charlotte wasn't shy about flaunting plenty of sideboob as her cleavage poured out the sides of the beach attire which boasted daring cutout detail on either side of her taut stomach.

The Just Tattoo of Us star continued to command attention in the cutaway one-piece as it hugged her slender hips, highlighting her toned pins and intricate tattoo in the provocatively posed picture at Ramside spa in Durham.

Making sure attention was drawn firmly to her buxom chest, Charlotte pulled her brunette locks off her face in the selfie which forwent a caption.

The sultry snap was sure to get her 6.1 million followers talking with many questioning in the comments section where her ample cleavage came from.

Bikini babe: Charlotte pictured in 2016 while clad in a bikini

Eye-popping: Charlotte wasn't shy about flaunting plenty of sideboob in the plunging number

One pondered: 'Whoa...where did they come from', while another asked, 'What happen with your boobs?'

Meanwhile, others simply complimented her on her sultry appearance and told her to ignore the haters.

'Have you had a boob job? Boobs are unreal,' a fan asked. 'If you are confident and happy then sod the haters! They are only jealous.'

'Very nice,' a fan simply wrote. 'Damn she looks goooooooooooood' (sic).

MailOnline ha contacted Charlotte Crosby's rep for comment.

And her fans aren't the only ones to question her fuller bust after in her former CBB housemate Louie Spence boldly asked her if she had recently had a breast enhancement in December.

Commenting on a sultry Instagram post, the dancer playfully jibed about her eye-popping assets while others asked, 'Where did they come from?'

'You had your t**s done darling?' Louie inquired from his Official Instagram Account, amongst a flurry of interest from her followers.

Support: While others simply complimented her on her sultry appearance and told her to ignore the haters

Questions: And her fans aren't the only ones to question her fuller bust after in her former CBB housemate Louie Spence boldly asked her if she had recently had a breast enhancement in December

It comes after Charlotte revealed in November that she had undergone surgery to correct her 'uniboob'.

The Geordie beauty, who has been driving her Instagram followers wild recently with extremely busty snaps compared to usual, embarked on the procedure in October after she was bodyshamed by vicious online trolls.

Speaking to Heat Magazine, the reality sensation - who suffers from a medical condition called congenital symmastia - admitted that she would also compare herself to other girls, leading her to undergo the corrective surgery.

Charlotte confessed: 'My uni-boob made me feel under-confident. It (congenital symmastia) really limited what I could wear without people saying, "What the f***'s wrong with her boobs?"'

Comments: Commenting on a sultry Instagram post, the dancer playfully jibed about her eye-popping assets while others asked, 'Where did they come from?' 'You had your t**s done darling?' Louie inquired from his Official Instagram Account

And being in the public eye only meant that the Sunderland native was heavily targeted for her 'deformed' breasts on social media.

'Because I'm famous, if a picture of me is online, people say things like "What is wrong with her boobs? They're deformed! They're stuck together"' she revealed, before confessing she had the surgery because 'of the comments she got online.'

Charlotte, who has made no secret of the fact that she enjoys a night out, also lamented the lack of sexy clothing she could wear because of her condition.

Describing the situation, she revealed: 'I didn't want to always have to wear high necks so you couldn't see the middle of my boobs. Even when I wore a bikini on holiday I had to cover the middle bit.'

Then: It comes after Charlotte revealed in November that she had undergone surgery to correct her 'uniboob'

Trolls: The Geordie beauty, who has been driving her Instagram followers wild recently with extremely busty snaps compared to usual, embarked on the procedure in October after she was bodyshamed by vicious online trolls

The MTV star was joined by her then boyfriend Stephen Bear as she went under the knife.

The surgery involved her getting sutures (internal stitches) under her breasts so they would stick to the skin rather than causing the breast bone to stick out.

While Charlotte is now happy with cleavage, in January 2017 she admitted to an interview with NW magazine that she would prefer 'not to have' boobs.

'I'd rather not have any. Me mam hates her boobs too. I don't usually wear a bra but when I do my bra is a 12D and I rather they were smaller. I can deal with them though.'

Then: The MTV star was joined by her then boyfriend Stephen Bear as she went under the knife. The surgery involved her getting sutures (internal stitches) under her breasts so they would stick to the skin rather than causing the breast bone to stick out

After undergoing a nose job last February, the star previously insisted she would never have breast implant surgery.

Appearing on the breakfast television show This Morning in April, she said, 'I don't have any plans for anything else. I don't like boobs, I'd rather have none'.

She added: 'What else is there to get? I've lost weight! So no, no plans for anything.'

Despite her openness to discuss her cosmetic enhancements in the past, Charlotte acted extremely stand-offish in a recent interview with new! magazine, refusing to discuss plastic surgery in any great detail.

Weighing in: While Charlotte is now happy with cleavage, in January 2017 she admitted to an interview with NW magazine that she would prefer 'not to have' boobs

The chat - which features in the magazine's current fitness issue and discusses Charlotte's new book 30-Day Blitz - saw the interviewer trying to ask her about her lip fillers and boob job.

However they were met with one word replies, with the feature referring to her as 'prickly' and accusing her of being difficult during a previous interview.

When asked when she last had lip fillers - a procedure that she is notorious for having done - Charlotte replied: 'I've not had them done recently at all.

Details: Despite her openness to discuss her cosmetic enhancements in the past, Charlotte acted extremely stand-offish in a recent interview with new! magazine, refusing to discuss plastic surgery in any great detail

'I haven't had any lip comments for about six months, so I'm confused as to why that's even a question.'

Asked then about whether she has more surgery plans she curtly snapped back 'no'; and in response to being asked if she's happy with her boob job, she just replied 'yeah'.

In the article's intro, the magazine candidly 'outs' the her behaviour, revealing that the last time they interviewed she hung up on them when they asked about her ex-boyfriend Gaz Beadle.
He made his departure from Coronation Street after 16 years on the soap in 2016, having become a fan favourite as mechanic Jason Grimshaw.

But now Ryan Thomas has swapped rainy Manchester for sunny Melbourne, as the first look at his character in Aussie soap Neighbours has been revealed.

The 33-year-old can be briefly seen in a teaser for the show when it returns to Channel 5 in the UK, though fans will have to wait to hear his Australian accent.

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First look: Former Coronation Street star Ryan Thomas made his first appearance in the Channel 5 soap Neighbours, as his character briefly appeared in a teaser trailer

In the clip, Ryan's character, Rafael Humphreys, can be seen looking distressed and upset, breathing heavily in the 2-second snapshot.

Without any dialogue, the soap star's first speaking part has not yet been broadcast, making it impossible to determine whether he will play a travelling Brit or an Australian native.

Ryan was first spotted on the Ramsey Street set back in October, though details of his character have been kept a closely guarded secret.

The only thing fans know about Rafael is that he is a loner with 'dark secrets,' who travels to Erinsborough to confront a difficult chapter from his past.

Teaser: Ryan's brief snapshot in the trailer featured no dialogue, so fans will have to wait to hear his Australian accent!

Speaking about his role in the soap, Ryan, who is dating former TOWIE star Lucy Mecklenburgh, told The Sun: 'I grew up watching Neighbours so to get the chance to join the cast is amazing.

'I was on holiday with my daughter when I got a phone call from my agent asking if I'd like to play this part...

'I spoke to the producer and found out more - it was very different from anything I'd played before - it was quite a deep, dark story, that really interested me.'

The former Corrie star, who played Jason Grimshaw from 2000 to 2016, was rumoured to be joining the soap in September.

Exciting: Ryan's role in the soap was revealed back in September, and the actor was seen on set for the first time in October

Legend: Ryan previously played Jason Grimshaw on Coronation Street from 2000 to 2016

A source told tThe Mirror: 'Ryan's news may come as a bit of a surprise but people are confident he'll make a big splash on Neighbours.

'He'll bring his Corrie fans with him and earn a new legion of fans along the way.

'He is just waiting on his visa. Then he'll be moving to Australia to film the show.'
They tied the knot five years ago.

Yet Bernie Ecclestone, 87, and his glamorous wife Fabiana Flosi, 39, looked more loved up than ever as they attended a private viewing of JR: Giants - Body of Work at Lazinc in London on Wednesday.

Cosied up together as they posed for snaps, the pair seemed in high spirits as they beamed broadly on the outing.

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Cute couple: Bernie Ecclestone, 87, and his glamorous wife Fabiana Flosi, 39, looked loved up at a private viewing of JR: Giants - Body of Work at Lazinc in London on Wednesday

Dressed to impress, Fabiana showed off her enviably lean legs in sheer black tights that poked out beneath her tailored black coat.

She wore the garment over a little black dress that showed off her incredible figure, whilst she boosted her 5'8" frame with a pair of studded court heels.

Meanwhile, Bernie opted for a low-key look in a suede navy bomber jacket and grey skinny jeans.

Also at the event was the likes of Professor Green and Wissam Al Mana - who recently split from Janet Jackson.

Leggy lady! Dressed to impress, Fabiana showed off her enviably lean legs in sheer black tights that poked out beneath her tailored black coat

Fabiana met Bernie through the World Motor Sport Council where she regularly attended meetings.

They knew each other professionally for a few years  albeit at arms length  before a mutual friend invited her on a cruise around Croatia with Bernie and others in 2009.

Despite the near 50-year age gap, something about the billionaire Mr Ecclestone appealed to Fabiana, and a match was made.

Enjoying the view! Also at the event was the likes of Professor Green, who was joined by Jonathan Yeo and JR as they posed for pictures together at the event

Bark or bite? Beaming Professor Green donned a jumper emblazoned with a rottweiler

Fabiana is Bernie's third wife - as he previously married telephone operator Ivy Bamford in 1952, aged 21.

They had one daughter, Debbie, now 59, before they divorced in the Sixties.

He then had a 17-year relationship with Singapore-born Tuana Tan - before having an affair with Croatian model Slavica Malic in 1982.

She was 6ft 2in and 23, and he was 5ft 5in and 51 - and the couple went on to have socialites Tamara, 32, and Petra, 28.

Bernie divorced in 2009 and married Fabiana, with the pair now dividing their time between a mansion in Chelsea, West London and a luxury chalet in Gstaad where they married.

Stylish: Betty Bachz (L) looked chic in a sheer blouse that flashed her black bra whilst Heather Kerzner opted for a pair of navy lace trousers that peeked out beneath a yellow fur coat
He went shopping for his first pair of school shoes last week.

And on Thursday three-year-old Hunter Curtis took another big step, trying on his 'school' uniform for the first time.

The son of Roxy Jacenko looked cute-as-a-button in his new clothes as he went shopping for pre-school supplies with big sister Pixie.

He's growing up so fast! PR maven Roxy Jacenko's three-year-old son Hunter looks cute as a button in his new uniform as he goes 'school' shopping with sister Pixie

Hunter, who is enrolled in pre-school at an elite private Sydney school, appeared pleased-as-punch as he tried on his uniform.

Proud mother Roxy shared a photo of him on Instagram, captioning the cute snap 'OH MY' alongside a love heart eyes emoji.

Meanwhile big sister Pixie, who completed kindergarten last year, lent a hand as Hunter carried his new uniform home.

Proud sibling: Big sister Pixie, who completed kindergarten last year, lent a hand as Hunter carried his new uniform home

'Uniform pick up for @huntercurtis14 complete!' Roxy shared a photo to Pixie's Instagram account of the little girl giving a thumbs up as Hunter carted a hefty shopping bag

Roxy shared a photo to Pixie's Instagram account of the little girl giving a thumbs up as Hunter carted a hefty shopping bag.

'Uniform pick up for @huntercurtis14 complete! Wait till mum sees that I am wearing her @cartelandwillow skirt,' the photos were captioned.

On Wednesday, Roxy shared a photo of Hunter to the toddler's Instagram account outside his new school.

Excited? On Wednesday Roxy shared a photo of Hunter to the toddler's Instagram giving a thumbs out outside his new school

'I am off to proper school this month': Last week Roxy took Hunter and Pixie to get fitted out for their school shoes for the year

'Its official I am a big boy !! At my new school taking a look around before I start and getting my uniform,' the photo was captioned.

Last week Roxy took Hunter and Pixie to get fitted out for their school shoes for the year.

'I am off to proper school this month - getting my kit organised at @shoesandsoxau this arvo - measuring up,' the photo was captioned.
Kiri

Rating:

Miriam's Big American Adventure

Rating:

A fellow dog-walker in my local park regales me when we meet with graphic accounts of his Labradors digestive difficulties.

Its revolting . . . but I cant help liking the bloke and his pooch.

The masterstroke in Kiri (C4), the drama about a missing six-year-old girl, was to give her social worker Miriam (Sarah Lancashire) an ailing, smelly dog. Jesse is a mongrel with a shaggy coat, arthritis and abominable wind.

Miriam fusses over him constantly. She even takes him to work, parking him under a desk. She buttonholes strangers, of course, to deliver monologues on his various health problems. And because of Jesse, well forgive Miriam just about anything.

Whether she is to blame or not, Miriam, played by Sarah Lancashire (pictured), has played a central part in a violent tragedy. And she wasnt coping well

She certainly needs a lot of forgiving. Everyone  from the foster parents, Miriams bosses and the media  blames her for the childs abduction. The central question of this four-part drama is: was it the social workers fault?

Little Kiri (played with confident aplomb by Felicia Mukusa) was apparently taken by her birth father, a drug-dealer with a long criminal record, during an afternoon with her grandparents, Tobi and Rochelle. Miriam had pressed for the visit: she thought the child would experience cultural benefits  because Kiri and her grandparents were black. The foster family were white. Miriams bosses suspect she failed to carry out proper safety assessments, and reporters accuse her of being in thrall to political correctness.

Most damning of all, Kiris foster carers say Miriam manipulated them, by suggesting the visit would help their application to adopt the little girl. The storyline was set up in a deft 20 minutes, all beautifully controlled by Sarah Lancashire as a mouthy, cavalier renegade  very different to her indestructible police sergeant in Happy Valley.

Dodgy detox of the night The juniper berries in G&T are part of my five-a-day, declared Sue (Miranda Richardson) in Girlfriends (ITV). If gin counts as health food, from now on Im referring to my cheap panatellas as scented candles. Advertisement

And then it took a dramatic turn into darkness.

Just as we were prepared for a long search, Kiris body was found, dumped at the edge of woods.

That twist was a horrible jolt.

Writer Jack Thorne, who created last years sex abuse drama National Treasure with Robbie Coltrane, has set up three more episodes that will inevitably explore all the events leading up to Kiris murder.

Whether she is to blame or not, Miriam has played a central part in a violent tragedy. And she wasnt coping well  sloshing back spirits at the wheel of her car. If were to keep forgiving her, that dog has its work cut out.

Meeting inmates in a female prison  most of them drug-addicts  Miriam Margolyes (far left) listened attentively to their stories and offered kindly advice

Coincidentally, another Miriam was proving surprisingly likeable in Miriams Big American Adventure (BBC1), reining in her tendency to insult everyone within earshot, as she motored through the mid-west of the United States. Since theyve all got guns, that was probably wise. La Margolyes, Britains rudest export, was in surprisingly emollient mood. Its true that she started by driving the wrong way up a one-way street, but she sweet-talked the traffic cop like a professional, even lapsing into a redneck accent.

Meeting inmates in a female prison  most of them drug-addicts  she listened attentively to their stories and offered kindly advice, reducing two women to tears as she implored them: Youre young, youve got your whole lives to lead.

She could have been judgmental and snooty. After all, as she earnestly told the camera, she has never touched drugs and only ever once been drunk.

We were seeing the actress on best behaviour  far removed from the caricature harridan of The Real Marigold Hotel.

Still, shes no ambassador for Britain. I met the Queen, Miriam told three American youngsters. I didnt like her very much  she told me to be quiet.

Good for you, Maam.
She's used to stripping down to swimsuits for her role on Home and Away.

And on Thursday, soap star Pia Miller flaunted her incredible figure in a throwback snap from her trip to Hawaii.

The 34-year-old Chilean-born Australian model and actress showcased her pert derriere in a khaki two-piece, with the post instantly getting thousands of likes.

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Sun's out, buns out! Home and Away's Pia Miller flaunts her pert derriere and incredible figure in a tiny string bikini in Hawaii

Pia travelled to Hawaii with her two sons, fiance Tyson Mullane, and his family.

Pia showed off her deep holiday tan and has her long hair out in loose tousled curls in the postcard worthy image.

Wearing a brown hat, she stood in the ocean with Diamond Head State Monument seen in the background behind her.

Beach babe: Pia recently shared another shot of herself in the same bikini

Wedding bells: It's a been a big few months for Pia, who announced her engagement to entrepreneur Tyson in November

It's a been a big few months for Pia, who announced her engagement to entrepreneur Tyson in November.

And at the end of last year her character on Home and Away, Katarina Chapman, was killed off the show.

Meanwhile, Tyson sparked speculation that Pia was pregnant earlier this month, after sharing a cryptic social media post.

What's next? And at the end of last year, her character on Home and Away, Katarina Chapman, was killed off the show

'We got a few things in the pipeline,' he said, as they stood on the Pipeline North Shore in Hawaii.

Later in the day however, Tyson hosed down the rumours, commenting: 'No babies yet' and 'only step papa for now'.

Pia - who has two sons from previous relationships, Isaiah and Lennox - confirmed her separation from ex-husband Brad Miller in October 2015.

She revealed her relationship with Tyson on Valentine's Day the following year.
Melanie Griffith looked fabulous in black as she headed to lunch with a mystery man on Wednesday.

The Hollywood star, 60, showed off her slender figure in skintight leggings paired with knee-high boots.

The blonde actress who was make-up free, added a baggy long-sleeved sweater and wore her hair up in a messy ponytail.

Lunch date: Melanie Griffith looked fabulous in black as she headed to lunch with a mystery man on Wednesday in West Hollywood

Griffith carried a large black tote over one shoulder and a pair of sunglasses.

Her companion wore his hair in a man bun and strolled along in a navy sweater and dark blue jeans.

The pair headed to one of the Working Girl star's favorite haunts, the West Hollywood French eatery Petrossian Paris that's famous for its caviar.

Gorgeous: The Hollywood star, 60, showed off her slender figure in skintight leggings paired with knee-high boots and a baggy sweater

Mystery man: Her companion wore his hair in a man bun and strolled along in a navy sweater and dark blue jeans

Patio service: The two sat outside at the French eatery Petrossian Paris that is famous for its caviar

Focused: The blonde ctress was make-up free as she enjoyed an animated discussion while they ate

Griffith is back home in Los Angeles after spending the Christmas holiday with her family in Aspen, Colorado.

She was joined in the upscale ski resort by actress daughter Dakota Johnson, 28, who has found fame as Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades trilogy of movies.

Also therefor new year's were her two sons - Jesse, 35, her ex-husband Don Johnson's son with Patti D'Arbanville, and Alexander, 32, her son with former husband her son with Stephen Bauer.

She also has a daughter Stella, 21, with ex-husband Antonio Banderas.
She is a mother of three.

But when she was photographed out in Los Angeles this Wednesday, Kourtney Kardashian had her attention one just one child - her firstborn son Mason Disick.

The 38-year-old reality star showed off her legs in tiny shorts as she took her eight-year-old to the frozen yogurt shop Menchie's.

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Family outing: Kourtney Kardashian was photographed on Wednesday taking her firstborn son Mason Disick out to a Menchie's in Los Angeles

Letting her long black hair down, Kourtney spiced up her ensemble with a colorful pair of sneakers and carried a bottled beverage.

Her flowing, midnight blue sweatshirt had elaborate white text on the front that spelled out little Mason's name.

As it happens, her shoes were a pair of Yeezy Wave Runner 700 'OG's - Yeezy being a sobriquet for Kourtney's brother-in-law Kanye West.

Bright spirits: Mother and son both had smiles on their faces as they headed on their way

So sweet: Kourtney's flowing, midnight blue sweatshirt had elaborate white text on the front that spelled out little Mason's name

Family connections: As it happens, her shoes were a pair of Yeezy Wave Runner 700 'OG's - Yeezy being a sobriquet for Kourtney's brother-in-law Kanye West

Holding her black handbag by a chain in one hand, Kourtney was glimpsed in Menchie's trying a sample of the merchandise.

Kourtney has three children by her on-and-off paramour Scott Disick, Mason's 2009 birth having been immortalized on an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

The co-parents welcomed their now five-year-old daughter Penelope into the world in 2012, and Kourtney gave birth to her youngest child, a son called Reign, in 2014.

Trying it out: Holding her black handbag by a chain in one hand, Kourtney was glimpsed in Menchie's trying a sample of the merchandise

Keeping close: Her son was beside her as she ate from a tiny paper cup

Heading off: Mason walked a little bit ahead of Kourtney as they left Menchie's

Kourtney and Scott, who had been introduced in 2006 by Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis in Mexico, last ended their romantic relationship in July of 2015.

The Kardashian family is expanding, with Kourtney's younger sister Kim Kardashian and the latter's husband Kanye West expecting a baby via surrogacy.

Kim and Kanye - who is her third husband and who married her in 2014 - already have a four-year-old daughter called North and a two-year-old son called Saint.

Meanwhile, Kim and Kourtney's younger sister Khloe Kardashian is pregnant by her Cleveland Cavalier beau Tristan Thompson - who last year welcomed his first child, a son called Prince, with his ex-girlfriend Jordan Craig.

Out and about: Kourtney was also seen leaning against an open car door with Mason nearby

Mother-son outing: The 38-year-old reality star showed off her legs in a flowing print romper as she strolled along beside her smiling eight-year-old

The kicks: Kourtney let her long black hair down

The Kardashian sisters' rotund younger brother Rob has a one-year-old daughter named Dream by his ex-fiancee Blac Chyna.

There is also a swirl of speculation that the Kardashian siblings' half-sister Kylie Jenner is pregnant at 20 by her 25-year-old rapper boyfriend Travis Scott.

Before she was with Travis, Kylie used to date a now 27-year-old rapper called Tyga, who in a bizarre twist has a five-year-old son called King Cairo by Chyna.

Backdrop: Kourtney has three children by her on-and-off paramour Scott Disick, Mason's 2009 birth having been immortalized on an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians

One of three: The co-parents welcomed their now five-year-old daughter Penelope into the world in 2012, and Kourtney gave birth to her youngest child, a son called Reign, in 2014
When Chris Hemsworth was pictured next to Angelina Jolie at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, fans couldn't resist asking what Elsa Pataky thought about the seating arrangement.

But the Australian actor, 34, laughed off the public response to the photo on Wednesday, joking with Ellen that his wife Elsa, 41, is 'more threatened' by the other person in the picture, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi.

Chris said: 'His sense of humour and intellect and what he did with Thor 3 is bloody remarkable. And there's a definite love for one another.'

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Nothing to see here! Chris Hemsworth laughed off the public response to him being pictured with Angelina Jolie at the Golden Globes during an interview with Ellen DeGeneres this week

During the television interview, Chris bristled slightly when Ellen mentioned the headlines which followed his innocent photo with Angelina, 42.

She said: 'People were making a big to-do about you sitting next to Angelina Jolie. They were acting... just because your wife didn't make it, I guess she wasn't there. They sat you next to Angelina and acted like it was some kind of "thing".'

Chris replied: 'See, you've done what the internet has done, which is you've cropped out my real "date".'

'People were making a big to-do': During the interview on Wednesday, Chris bristled slightly when Ellen mentioned the headlines which followed his innocent photo with Angelina, 42

At the moment, the full photo - which showed Chris, Angelina and Taika seated at the same table in the Golden Globes audience - was displayed in the studio.

'There he is!' Chris continued. 'That's our Thor 3 director Taika Waititi.

'And, look, Angelina is incredible and wonderful. I'm a fan, my wife's a fan, but she may be more threatened by that guy!

Committed couple: The Australian actor joked his wife Elsa Pataky (left) is 'more threatened' by his other Golden Globes 'date', Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi

Three's company! Chris remarked that many people had 'cropped out (his) real date', referring to New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi (left) and focused on Angelina instead

'His sense of humour and intellect and what he did with Thor 3 is bloody remarkable. And there's a definite love for one another.'

Earlier this week, Elsa herself couldn't resist poking fun at the photo of Angelina and her husband-of-seven-years that had caused such a stir.

The Spanish actress, who stayed in Australia with the couple's children while Chris attended the Globes, commented on Instagram: 'What a great couple!'

In the crowd: Chris and Angelina are pictured in the Golden Globes audience on Sunday night

She then cheekily added, 'I mean you boys!', referring to Chris and Taika.

On Tuesday, Chris took to Instagram to thank his 'beautiful wife for hanging with the kids while (he) played dress ups and pretended to be cool.'

The Byron Bay-based couple married in 2010 and share three children together: India Rose, Sasha and Tristan.
She welcomed son Jack with long-time partner Jason Statham just six months ago.

And Rosie Huntington-Whiteley bounced right back to her supermodel physique as she posed for a photo shoot in the Bahamas on Wednesday.

The stunning 30-year-old showed off her slender post-baby body as she changed into a bevy of skimpy bathing suits.

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Stunner: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 30, posed for a sensational photo shoot in the Bahamas on Wednesday

Daring to impress, the Burberry spokesperson started the photo shoot off in a tropical flower black one piece.

Her trademark golden tresses were wrapped up in a soft pink scarf as she rocked retro shades.

For her next exercise in sultriness, Rosie threw on a white two-piece that had the same tropical floral design.

She wore a large flower pinned in her hair as she strutted around with a petite wooden parasol.

Daring: Daring to impress, the Burberry spokesperson started the photo shoot off in a tropical flower black one piece

Cover girl: She posed like a professional for the ocean side shoot

Touch up: As a production assistant applied makeup to her body, Rosie held her pose like a Roman statute

All hands on deck: The camera crew of entirely men made sure that Rosie was captured to perfection

As a production assistant applied makeup to her body, Rosie held her pose like a Roman statute.

Splashing around in the turquoise surf, the Mad Max: Fury Road starlet showed off a new bikini.

A bevy of production assistants set up the next shot for the photo shoot.

Backside: Her pert derriere was on center stage

New attire: Splashing around in the turquoise surf, the Mad Max: Fury Road starlet showed off a new bikini

Up next: For her next exercise in sultriness, Rosie threw on a white two-piece that had the same tropical floral design

Strut: She wore a large flower pinned in her hair as she strutted around with a petite wooden parasol

Later revealing her svelte bikini body in all its glory, the fashion favourite reclined on a sun lounger on what appeared to be a deserted strip of beach.

Playing up to the camera, Rosie seductively ran her fingers through her damp curled locks as she modelled a trendy black two-piece.

Marks & Spencer lingerie model and designer Rosie has been dating action star fiance Jason, 50, for seven years, but they have yet to tie-the-knot after getting engaged in January 2016.

Back in black: Rosie changed into a chic black two-piece

Head games: Her trademark golden tresses were wrapped up in a soft pink scarf as she rocked retro shades

Break time: Rosie checked her phone during a break

Being a new mum hasn't slowed the former Victoria Secret Angel down as she landed in fifth places on Forbes' annual list of the world's best-paid supermodels in November, with earnings of a staggering $9.5 million in just 12 months.

Despite her growing success, the star previously said being based in Los Angeles 'weighs heavily' on her because she misses her family.

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar magazine in 2016, the Devon native said: 'The one big downside is not having my family within reach.

'I would love to be able to invite them over for a roast dinner, or be able to say to my brother or sister, "Why don't you pop over for a glass of wine tonight?" but I can't and it weighs heavily on me.'

She introduced baby Jack into the world via her Instagram feed in December, which she appeared to jet off with the newborn in toe, captioning the darling snapshot with a simple: 'Happy Holidays' and a waving hand emoji to bid farewell.

Accessories: She paired the look with a gold necklace and earrings

Drop it low: She bent over to fix her wardrobe

Take five: Touch ups were needed between shoots

Set up: A bevy of production assistants set up the next shot for the photo shoot

Gams: Her pretty pins looked amazing in the bathing suit

Lounger: Later revealing her svelte bikini body in all its glory, the fashion favourite reclined on a sun lounger on what appeared to be a deserted strip of beach

Takes a village: The production team had many players

Yoga time: Rosie looked like she was in the downward dog position

Booty-ful: Rosie revealed why she was a top model
Sarah Silverman has turned the tables on a Twitter troll and in doing so, won his friendship.

The comedienne, 47, was called the 'c' word by @jeremy_jamrozy, a Twitter user in San Antonio, Texas.

Instead of shutting him down or blocking him, Silverman tweeted back with kind words and a message of support in late December.

Good deed: Sarah Silverman has turned the tables on a Twitter troll who called her the 'c' word and in doing so, won his friendship

Reached out: The comedienne, 47, responded to the troll with kind words and support after looking through his timeline and seeing he suffered from debilitating back pain

'I believe in you,' she tweeted back to Jeremy Jamrozy.

'I read ur timeline & I see what ur doing & your rage is thinly veiled pain. But u know that. I know this feeling. Ps My back  sux too. see what happens when u choose love. I see it in you.'

Jamrozy wrote back: 'I cant choose love. A man that resembles Kevin spacey took that away when I was 8. I cant find peace if I could find that guy who ripped my body who stripped my innocence Id kill him. He  me up and Im poor so its hard to get help.'

He then opened up to Silverman explaining how he lives in constant pain due to a bad back, When asked, he told her he takes medication and also smokes weed to try and alleviate it.

Change of heart: The troll turned out to be Jeremy Jamrozy, 32, who lives in San Antonio, Texas, and he responded positively to Silverman's empathy

Honest: Jamrozy opened up to Silverman, explaining how he lives in constant pain due to a bad back, When asked, he told her he takes medication and also smokes weed to try and alleviate it

Silverman expressed empathy and urged him to consult a specialist and also seek out a support group.

Jamrozy, 32, told MySanAntonio.com on January 3 that the star had offered to pay for his medical treatment and he had undergone a MRI that revealed he was suffering from five herniated discs in his back.

And while he described himself in his tweets as anti-social and not trusting of others, he agreed he wold try to seek out help and some therapy.

While he described himself in his tweets as anti-social and not trusting of others, Jamnrozy told Silverman he would take her advice and seek out more medical help and some therapy

As part of a new found determination to help himself, Jamrozy established a GoFundMe page seeking donations to help him pay for medical treatment.

His initial goal was to raise $150. As of Wednesday, he has raised $3,668

He told MySan Antonio.com: 'I was once a giving and nice person, but too many things destroyed that and I became bitter and hateful. Then Sarah showed me the way. Don't get me wrong, I still got a long way to go, but it's a start.'
When a long-awaited U.S. television series about the murder of Gianni Versace hits the small screen in a week's time, one key character will not be watching - the fashion designer's sister Donatella.

When a long-awaited U.S. television series about the murder of Gianni Versace hits the small screen in a week's time, one key character will not be watching - the fashion designer's sister Donatella

Now artistic director and vice-president of the Milan-based Versace fashion group, Donatella said in an interview published by Italian daily la Repubblica on Wednesday that the series and a book it draws on contain gossip and contradictions.

'I haven't seen (the series) nor will I see it, because after all this time it still hurts to see Gianni represented untruthfully,' Donatella told the paper.

Earlier in the week the Versace family distanced itself from an upcoming TV series about the fashion designer's 1997 murder.

In a statement Monday, his family said it has neither authorized nor been involved in the series - but the network is standing by it.

The family statement continued that because no one in the family authorized the book from which the series if partly drawn, or participated in the writing of the screenplay, the series should be considered 'a work of fiction.'

The new series, produced by FX, chronicles how Gianni Versace was fatally shot in front of his Miami Beach mansion in 1997.

FX released a response to Versace's family, defending the show by way of stadning by the author who wrote the book on which it is based: 'Like the original American Crime Story series The People vs. OJ Simpson, which was based on Jeffrey Toobin's nonfiction bestseller 'The Run of His Life,' FX's follow-up The Assassination Of Gianni Versace is based on Maureen Orth's heavily researched and authenticated nonfiction best-seller 'Vulgar Favors,' which examined the true life crime spree of Andrew Cunanan. We stand by the meticulous reporting of Ms. Orth.'

He was a victim of serial killer Andrew Cunanan, a 27-year-old gay man who had murdered at least four others in a three-month killing spree before turning up at the fashion designer's home.

Cunanan was found dead in a Miami houseboat eight days later, apparently shooting himself with the same gun that killed Versace.

The Versace family is distancing itself from an upcoming TV series about the fashion designer Gianni Versace's 1997 murder. Pictured is Versace's character, portrayed by Edgar Ramirez, in the series which comes out on January 17

In a statement Monday, his family said that because no one in the family authorized the book from which the series if partly drawn or participated in the writing of the screenplay, the series should be considered 'a work of fiction.' Versace is pictured at his home before his untimely death

This isn't the first time the family has expressed doubts about the American Crime Story, but it is the first time it has released an official statement

Twenty years on, it is not known whether the murder was planned or carried out at random, leading to much gossip and speculation, including a rumor that Versace may have been murdered by the mafia due to debts he owed to the criminal organisation.

There was also speculation that Versace may have met his killer years earlier, though family members and the designer's then-boyfriend Antonio D'Amico deny that.

This isn't the first time the family has expressed doubts about the American Crime Story, but it is the first time it has released an official statement.

Producer Ryan Murphy said Donatella Versace came to him last summer with concerns about the nine-part series.

She was particularly concerned about how her children Allegra and Daniel will be depicted, according to W Magazine. They were both very young when her designer brother was murdered.

Producer Ryan Murphy said Donatella Versace came to him last summer with concerns about the nine-part series. Penelope Cruz is pictured with Edgar Ramirez, portraying Gianni and Donatella Versace in the upcoming series

Penelope Cruz (left) will play Donatella (right), and said before filming that she met with her to 'try to capture the essence of who she is'

Antonio D'Amico, who will be portrayed by Ricky Martin, has also criticized the series, saying in an interview in June that it won't 'have a trace of reality'. Their two characters are pictured in the American Crime Story

D'Amico is pictured with Santo Versace, his lover's elder brother in 1998. D'Amico said in an interview in June that it won't 'have a trace of reality'

Penelope Cruz will play Donatella, and said before filming that she met with her to 'try to capture the essence of who she is.'

'I didn't want to do an imitation of Donatella, or a caricature,' she told Interview.

'I really hope that when she sees the show, she's going to be happy. I'm sure there are going to be scenes that are hard for her to watch, because it's a lot about the loss of her brother, which, of course, I have so much respect for.

'I did it with all my love. From that place of devastation, she had to keep this company going in his honor. I don't know if she ever said this, but it was a way of keeping him alive.'

In November Donatella confirmed that she'd spoken with Cruz, but said she has no intention to watch the show.

'She is a friend, she said she will treat me with respect - yes but I don't know what will be from a book that says incredible falsehoods,' she said, speaking about the book which the series was partially based on.

D'Amico, who will be portrayed by Ricky Martin, has also criticized the series, saying in an interview in June that it won't 'have a trace of reality.'

'There has been so much written and said about the murder, and thousands of suppositions, but not a trace of reality,' D'Amico told the Observer.

After seeing images of the scene after Versace, 50, was gunned down the Brindisi born D'Amico decided to speak out about its apparent 'poetic license.'

The 'American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace,' is also based in part on Maureen Orth's book 'Vulgar Favors.' It will debut on January 17

'The picture of Ricky Martin holding the body in his arms is ridiculous,' he said, adding that it was like looking at a mimic of Michelangelo's Pieta, which depicts the body of Jesus in the arms of his mother after the crucifixion..'Maybe it's the director's poetic licence, but that is not how I reacted.'

Instead, D'Amico says he was barely able to look at bloodied Versace's body after he was shot as he returned to Casa Casuarina on Ocean Drive after buying a newspaper at a nearby cafe on the 15 July 1997.

'I felt as if my blood had turned to ice,' he said. He and Versace's butler went outside to investigate.

'The house had stained glass windows so we couldn't see what had happened from inside, so we had to open the gate. I saw Gianni lying on the steps, with blood around him. At that point, everything went dark. I was pulled away, I didn't see any more.'

The 'American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace,' is also based in part on Maureen Orth's book 'Vulgar Favors.'

It stars Edgar Ramirez as Versace, Daren Criss as Cunanan, and Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace, and debuts on January 17.
She certainly knows how to dress to turn heads.

And Paula Patton was at it again during a promotional tour in Los Angeles on Wednesday, wowing in a flirty brown mini skirt with polka dots.

The star, 42, showcased her fabulous legs in her frilly frock that clung to her hips.

Spot on! Paula Patton was at it again during a promotional tour in Los Angeles on Wednesday, wowing in a flirty brown mini skirt with polka dots

Paula flashed a huge smile as she was interviewed by Extra's Mario Lopez at Universal Studios, looking absolutely gorgeous with her brown tresses styled into loose ringlets and partially pulled away from her stunning complexion.

Pink blush and a matching hue of lipstick brought out her naturally beautiful features to full effect.

She accessorized the effortlessly stylish look with a several trendy gold necklaces and an array of earrings, adding some glam to her trendy look.

And she stepped out in a pair of white ankle boots.

Having a blast: Paula flashed a huge smile as she was interviewed by Extra's Mario Lopez at Universal Studios, looking absolutely gorgeous with her brown tresses styled into loose ringlets and partially pulled away from her stunning complexion.

Coming soon: Patton stars opposite Omar Epps in Traffik as a couple whose romantic weekend getaway to the mountains is interrupted when they are accosted by a bike gang

Paula shared a quick clip of herself getting glammed up in front of the mirror in preparation for her interview.

'Getting those eyebrows ready to see @mariolopezextra!!! Tune in to @extratv tomorrow for the broadcast premiere of the @traffikmovie trailer,' she captioned the Instagram video.

Paula stars opposite Omar Epps in Traffik as a couple whose romantic weekend getaway to the mountains is interrupted when they are accosted by a bike gang.

Picture perfect! The photogenic starlet grinned from ear to ear as she took photos with a fan

Funny bone! Patton tossed her head back in laughter

Photo time! Patton smiled from ear to ear as she posed with a fan

Say cheese! The actress happily posed with multiple fans

Directed by Deon Taylor, the film is scheduled for release on April 27, 2018.

Paula has seven-year-old son Julian Fuego with her ex-husband, Robin Thicke.

Robin is now expecting a child with his girlfriend April Love Geary.

Lights, camera, action! Paula shared a quick clip of herself getting glammed up in front of the mirror in preparation for her interview
He works at the same TV station as older brother and veteran Today host Karl Stefanovic.

And younger sibling Peter Stefanovic has admitted he often asks Karl for guidance with his career progression.

The 36-year-old told Nine Honey: 'Im always calling him for advice on how to do things better.'

'Im always calling him for advice': Nine presenter Peter Stefanovic praises Today host brother Karl as a 'good man' and 'great mentor' as he prepares for Weekend Today host role

As of next weekend, the journalist will present Nine's Weekend Today, a move he says he previously discussed with Karl.

'Hes a great mentor for me, Karl, he tells me things to work on or things I can do better or things that might not be working or how to move to different levels. Hes a good brother and a good man,' Peter said.

The former foreign correspondent revealed some of the advice Karl had given him to better his on-air presence.

'He tells me things to work on or things I can do better': Peter says he discussed his recent move to Weekend Today with Karl and admits his brother has always been a 'great mentor' in terms of career advice

'Youve got to bring the energy': The former foreign correspondent revealed some of the advice Karl had given him to better his on-air presence, including being lively, bright, smart and witty

Peter said: 'Youve got to bring the energy - thats something Karl has taught me, no one wants to watch someone whos tired or slow in the morning youve got to be up, you gotta be bright, you gotta be smart, you gotta be witty!'

Meanwhile, Pete doesn't appear to be asking Karl for family-starting advice, revealing he and wife Sylvia aren't in a rush for children.

Peter and Sylvia tied the knot at an intimate ceremony in New South Wales' Kangaroo Valley in April last year.

Loved-up! Peter and Sylvia tied the knot at an intimate ceremony in New South Wales' Kangaroo Valley in April last year

While Peter is due to start his Weekend Today hosting roles on Saturday, January 20, his brother Karl will continue to co-host Today, which runs weekdays on the Nine Network.

Journalist Georgie Gardner is replacing Nine veteran Lisa Wilkinson on the Today show in 2018, after Karl's former co-host resigned in October.

Fans were treated to a sneak peek promo of the breakfast duo in action last week, with the new hosting duo due to start on January 22.
She rose to fame as a contestant on The Bachelor in 2015.

But on Thursday, Heather Maltman's fans jokingly suggested she should feature on the 2018 season of Hoarders after she shared a snap of her messy apartment.

The 31-year-old uploaded a picture of her sofa covered in clothing, admitting she was a 'shopaholic' and was attempting a 'spring clean'.

'I dont think I have a problem': The Bachelor's Heather Maltman is accused of being a hoarder by fans as she shares snap of her 'solid clothing collection'

The reality star turned radio personality made a perplexed face as mountains of clothes were piled up behind her.

She wrote: 'I don't think I have a problem... it's called a solid clothing collection... so what if I've managed to throw out an entire box of stunning clothing that I wear at some stage sometimes and still have too much for the wardrobe... actually... maybe let me see that box again?!?!'

One commenter wrote, 'Hmm, not ok... #callingyouout', while others wanted to know where she would be donating the goods.

'Hmm, not ok... #callingyouout': Some commenters were not impressed by the piles of clothes, while others wanted to know where the star would be donating her goods

Heather has kept a relatively low profile since her ill-fated hosting gig on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! last year.

But Heather returned to the spotlight by coming out as bisexual in light of Australia saying yes to same-sex marriage last year.

'It's hard being bi as so many people judge it or make fun,' she told Confidential in November.

'It's hard being bi': Heather Maltman, 31, has returned to the spotlight by coming out as bisexual in light of Australia saying yes to same-sex marriage

'To me, I see people I am attracted to and wonderful souls, not a gender.'

Heather also spilled on her previous lesbian relationship with TV scriptwriter Renee Broome- a romance to which she had alluded in an Instagram post earlier in the week.

'Together we became inseparable. Without knowing. I had fallen completely in love with her. I was over the hills for her,' she said, adding that the pair have remained good friends since calling it quits on their relationship.

'I had fallen completely in love with her': Heather also spilled on her previous lesbian relationship with TV scriptwriter Renee Broome- a romance to which she had alluded in an Instagram post last year

'I was such a lesbian for you': Heather made headlines last November when she revealed she had dated a woman

Another shot at love: In 2015 Heather made her debut on Channel 10's The Bachelor, vying against a gaggle of other romance hopefuls for a chance at winning personal trainer Sam Wood's heart

Heather made her debut on Channel 10's The Bachelor in 2015, vying against a gaggle of other romance hopefuls for a chance at winning personal trainer Sam Wood's heart.

After being evicted from the show, Heather enjoyed a brief romance with fellow aspiring actor Andrew Steel.

Her most recent flame is blond hunk Matt Baker, to whom she has previously referred as 'Derick' in a bid to conceal his identity.
The high-profile Australian couple have enjoyed a happy marriage for more than 21 years.

And Hugh Jackman showed his love for wife Deborra-Lee Furness was stronger than ever on Wednesday night.

The Hollywood couple were spotted holding hands as they arrived at the Freak Show premiere in New York for a date night.

Date night! Loved-up Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness holds hands as they arrive for Freak Show premiere in New York on Wednesday

In high spirits, the pair were inseparable as they attended the A-list event.

The Wolverine star led his wife towards the function, holding her hand tenderly, while dressed in cosy attire.

Hugh, 49, sported a slimmed-down look with an all-black ensemble.

This way, honey: The Wolverine star led his wife towards the function, holding her hand tenderly, while dressed in cosy attire

Suave style! The Australian acting legend wore black trousers, a black zipped-up hooded sweatshirt, leather jacket and dress shoes

Friendly faces! Hugh slicked his short locks back in a quiff, revealing his charismatic features as the couple happily waved, smiled and interacted with passersby

The Australian acting legend wore black trousers, a black zipped-up hooded sweatshirt, leather jacket and dress shoes.

Hugh slicked his short locks back in a quiff, revealing his charismatic features as he waves and smiled at passersby.

He couldn't hold back his infectious grin as he cuddled up to Deborra-Lee in a series of close snaps.

All smiles! The couple cuddled up and displayed large grins

Stunner! Deborra-Lee also wore all-black to the premiere, adding a touch of glamour with a faux fur shawl

Deborra-Lee also wore all-black to the premiere, adding a touch of glamour with a faux fur shawl.

Hugh and Deb share two adoptive children: Ava Eliot and Oscar Maximilian.

The couple tied the knot in 1996.
A Billings man charged with raping an 8-year-old last year said in court Wednesday that after he was accused, he visited the childs fathers home and offered for the man to either beat him up or press charges.

Tristan James Morales, 22, faces felony charges of sexual intercourse without consent and witness tampering. Prosecutors say he raped the child in April 2017.

Jury selection took all day Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday covered opening arguments and witness testimony. The trial is expected to conclude Thursday.

Morales maintains that he did not rape the child in April 2017, as prosecutors allege. He does admit to molesting the child in 2012, when she was roughly 3 years old.

I touched her in 2012 but these other allegations are false, he testified Wednesday.

Morales said that on the night of the alleged rape, he played with the 8-year-old, rough-housing for about 10 minutes, but that he had made no sexual contact with her that night.

Morales said that later he had researched some of the legal consequences for sexual assault convictions because he was college-bound at the time and worried about how the criminal charges would impact his future.

He had at one point expressed interest in becoming a school counselor, according to documents filed by the state.

Morales also wrote what prosecutor Michael Ellinghouse called a mass apology on his Facebook page in the days after the alleged rape. He testified that the apology was related to a fight he had had with a family member five years prior.

Morales went to the 8-year-olds fathers home one night, not long after the night the child said she was raped, to present the father with the option of either beating him or pressing charges.

Morales said that this was because I knew that I was in the wrong.

This took place in 2017, not long after the child said she was raped, her father testified. The visit was a surprise, he said.

It was something that I dont think any parent can be ready for, he said.

The Billings Gazette is not naming the father to avoid identifying a victim of sexual assault.

In an interview with detectives, the child said Morales had sexually assaulted her two other times, in addition to the April 2017 incident, according to documents filed by the prosecution.

Ellinghouse, one of the prosecutors, conducted the cross-examination of Morales.

And then you molested her? the prosecutor asked at one point, referring to the 8-year-old.

Not intentionally, sir, Morales replied.

One of the defense witnesses is being investigated by prosecutors for possible witness tampering. Advised of the risks, the man chose to testify anyway. He said the child liked to tell stories, and that they werent always accurate.

Another defense witness had told Morales during a recorded phone call while he was in jail that she was not cooperating with detectives investigating the case, according to the state's second prosecutor, Morgan Dake.

The woman also told Morales in that call that she would never, ever help anyone build a case against you, Dake said.

Morales was under court orders not to discuss the case with the woman, Dake said. The call was arranged by Morales girlfriend.

The woman had said at a previous court appearance for Morales that she had not spoken to him during the timeframe described, but the prosecutors records from the jail showed she had.

Defense attorney Gregory Paskell asked District Court Judge Rod Souza on Wednesday to consider a lesser included charge of felony sexual assault. It was not immediately clear when the judge would rule on that request.

On Tuesday, jurors heard testimony from the alleged victim, two detectives, a sexual assault nurse examiner and the alleged victims father, who finished testifying Wednesday.

Eight women and five men were selected for the jury. One was selected as an alternate.
She won her first Golden Globe on Sunday for her role in Lady Bird.

And three days later, Saoirse Ronan appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

The 23-year-old actress wowed in her black jumpsuit, which featured nude mesh paneling along one side and on her decolletage.

Flawless: Saoirse Ronan appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at Rockefeller Center in New York City

The Irish actress chose a long sleeved one-piece with flared bottoms; her upper torso, one sleeve and her right hip - all the way down to her shoes - featured a strip of nude mesh material.

Saoirse paired the high-neck look with chunky black patent heels with her short platinum locks swept back.

The blonde beauty kept her makeup to a minimum, opting for a swipe of neutral gloss with defined brows.

On Sunday, Saoirse won her first Golden Globe for her role as Lady Bird McPherson in the film, Lady Bird.

Looking gorgeous: The 23-year-old actress wowed in her black jumpsuit, which featured nude mesh paneling along the sides and on her decolletage

The star, who was born in New York City was previously nominated for a Golden Globe for Atonement in 2008 and Brooklyn in 2016.

Saoirse was seen earlier in the day heading to the studio in the Big Apple where The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon is taped.

She sported loose blush trousers, a hot pink scarf, black duster coat and Gucci sneakers.

Having a laugh: The Irish actress chose a long sleeved one-piece with flared bottoms

Natural beauty: Saoirse was seen earlier in the day heading to the studio in the Big Apple where The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon is taped

Also at the late show was artist and former Fifth Harmony band member, Camila Cabello, 20.

The songstress is busy promoting her first solo album, which she titled Camila; it is set to hit shelves on Friday.

For her performance, Camila donned a metallic jumpsuit with sparkling embellishments.

Belt it out: Also at the late show was artist and former Fifth Harmony band member, Camila Cabello, 20

Star power: The songstress is busy promoting her first solo album, which she titled Camila; it is set to hit shelves on Friday

Wow: For her performance, Camila donned a metallic jumpsuit with sparkling embellishments

Songstress: Camila added black boots to finish off her edgy ensemble
She has enjoyed more than a few life changes over the past year, having split from Bachelor star Richie Strahan and announcing her engagement to girlfriend Maegan Luxa.

And Alex Nation, 26, underwent another metamorphosis this week when she debuted a dramatic new hairstyle on social media.

Taking to her popular Instagram page this Thursday, the mother-of-one uploaded a selfie showcasing her newly-cropped hair while sitting in the driver's seat of her car.

'New hair, who dis?' Alex Nation, 26, underwent another metamorphosis this week when she debuted a dramatic new hairstyle on Instagram

'New hair, who dis? Thank you to my hair angels // Cut: @amberwhitehairstylist Colour: @hairbyjesslewis,' she wrote in the caption.

Her new look went down a treat with many of her fans, many of whom couldn't resist congratulating the blonde on her daring 'do.

'YESSSSSS! Looks so bloody good!' cooed one fan, while another added: 'Yassssss! Short hair dont care. It looks beautiful!'

Before and after! Her new look went down a treat with many of her fans, many of whom couldn't resist congratulating the blonde on her daring 'do

'Alex or Sia... not sure': Earlier in the day, Alex documented her trip to the hair salon by uploading an Instagram Story picturing her sitting in a hairdresser's chair as she waited for the bleach to set in her flaxen locks

Earlier in the day, Alex documented her trip to the hair salon by uploading an Instagram Story picturing her sitting in a hairdresser's chair as she waited for the bleach to set in her flaxen locks.

Referring to the dramatic-looking set of foil strips in her hair, Alex captioned the snap: 'Alex or Sia... not sure. #notyetswingingfromachandelier.'

Alex's makeover comes as she and Maegan prepare to tie the knot following their shock engagement last year.

A cut above the rest! Alex showcased her new 'do in a series of snaps shared on social media

New love: The blonde beauty, who first came to fame on The Bachelor, said yes to marrying her girlfriend Maegan Luxa, last year

Things have moved very quickly for the couple since they met in August, while playing for the same AFL Women's team, the Frankston Bombers.

Before her relationship with Maegan, Alex dated Richie who chose her on the grand finale episode of The Bachelor in 2016.

The reality star couple were last pictured together at the Logie Awards in April.
They were spotted holding hands at a Golden Globes after-party.

And Carmen Electra and Clifton Collins Jr. were once again out together, as they attended a special screening of Small Town Crime in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The stars looked in high spirits as they strolled the red carpet, where Carmen turned heads in her cleavage-baring look.

Second time out: Carmen Electra and Clifton Collins Jr. were once again out together, as they attended a special screening of Small Town Crime in Los Angeles on Wednesday

Carmen, 45, sizzled in a sheer and lacy black top that put her bra on display and plenty of cleavage.

She rocked a pair of tight blue jeans, knee-high peep toe boots, and a flashy silver jacket.

Carmen dazzled with her long gloss blonde ringlets worn down and ample amounts of mascara to make her piercing blue eyes pop.

Clifton, 47, cut a cool figure in a black jacket, jeans, and leather shoes.

Man of style: Clifton, 47, cut a cool figure in a black jacket, jeans, and leather shoes

Turning heads! Carmen, 45, sizzled in a sheer and lacy black top that put her bra on display and plenty of cleavage

Just days earlier Clifton and Carmen were seen attending the HBO Golden Globes after-party, holding hands on the red carpet.

Asked if they were dating by ET Online, Carmen said: 'I did't know [we were a couple] either. Did you know?', she asked Clifton.

When it was pointed out they were hand in hand, Clifton replied: 'Thats what they told us to do.'

Dazzling: Carmen dazzled with her long gloss blonde ringlets worn down and ample amounts of mascara to make her piercing blue eyes pop

Secretive: Asked if they were dating by ET Online at a Golden Globes after-party, Carmen said: 'I didnt know [we were a couple] either. Did you know?', she asked Clifton

'We're not going to say nothing,' he added.

'It's a secret,' Carmen explained.

'We met a while ago,' she later added. 'We started hanging out recently. Just kind of down-low, and boom we're here.'

DailyMail.com has reached out for comment from representatives for the Westworld actor and Francesca Eastwood, who married Clifton last year.
They're the high-profile couple that lead a relatively private life.

But on Tuesday, Jennifer Hawkins and husband Jake Wall, were spotted heading to a breakfast date in Byron Bay, on the New South Wales coast.

Both cutting casual figures, the 34-year-old blonde beauty highlighted her endlessly long and lean legs in a pair of distressed Daisy Dukes.

Model looks! Jennifer Hawkins, 34, flaunted her trim pins in distressed Daisy Dukes, on a breakfast date with husband Jake Wall, 34, in Byron Bay on Tuesday

Jennifer showed off her lithe arms in a black halterneck-style top, teamed with lightwash Daisy Dukes that revealed her toned legs.

The Myer ambassador ensured she was light on her feet, opting for a pair of navy and white Adidas slides.

A black quilted Chanel handbag slung one shoulder, Jennifer accessorised further with designer sunglasses.

Cool and casual: The Myer ambassador revealed her enviable figure in a black halterneck-style top, teamed with lightwash denim cut-offs and navy and white Adidas slides

Staying connected: Once inside the local eatery, Jennifer placed her black quilted Chanel handbag onto a wooden countertop and checked her gold-hued iPhone

Sweeping her blonde locks into a high ponytail, the tequila baron appeared to sport a minimal makeup palette, allowing her natural beauty to shine through.

Husband Jake drew attention to his bulging biceps in a black tank top, teamed with coordinating shorts.

The builder accessorised the look with black thongs, a statement watch, black cap and tinted sunglasses.

Appearing relaxed and at ease, Jake engaged in conversation with his stunning wife and was seen beaming broadly.

Husband and wife: Since tying the knot in 2013, Jennifer and Jake have led a relatively private life

Opening up: Jennifer revealed to The Daily Telegraph's Stellar in August last year, that her relationship with Jake hasn't always been smooth sailing: 'With Jake's mum passing away and a few things happening in my family...it hasn't always been perfect'

Once inside the local eatery, Jennifer placed her pricey handbag on a wooden countertop and checked her gold-hued iPhone.

Despite putting on a loved-up display, Jennifer revealed to The Daily Telegraph's Stellar in August last year, that her relationship with Jake hasn't always been picture-perfect.

The entrepreneur confessed: 'With Jake's mum passing away and a few things happening in my family...it hasn't always been perfect.'

Humble beginnings: The tequila baron also insisted that the couple are just like any other, saying: 'We met in a bar, just like anyone'

Jake's mother Lesslee sadly passed away in 2012, and Jennifer's mother Gail, was also diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2015.

Jennifer insisted that the couple are just like any other, saying: 'We met in a bar, just like anyone.

'It was one of those nights I didn't intend going out, and then I went out and I met this guy, and slowly, we started a relationship.'
She is the mother-of-four who never puts a foot wrong when it comes to fashion.

And Rebecca Judd was right on the mark again as she showed off her trim pins in tiny denim daisy dukes paired with a black and white striped top on Thursday.

The 34-year-old took to Instagram to share a candid snap from inside her lavish home, while looking after her one-year-old twin sons, Tom and Darcy.

Hot mama! Rebecca Judd was right on the mark again as she showed off her trim pins in tiny denim daisy dukes paired with a black and white striped top on Thursday. The 34-year-old took to Instagram to share a candid snap from inside her lavish home, while looking after her one-year-old twin sons, Tom and Darcy

She accessorised with classy studded earrings and a her huge diamond sparkler from her hubby Chris.

She posed cross legged on her pale pink sofa with one of her boys clambering around her as she cradled the other.

The Channel Nine personality made motherhood look effortless as she smiled at the camera while simultaneously tending to her kids.

How does she do it?! This comes after the glamorous mother-of-four shared a hilarious snap of herself fighting off her twins while sitting down to enjoy a glass of Milo

This comes after the glamorous mother-of-four shared a hilarious snap of herself fighting off her twins while sitting down to enjoy a glass of Milo.

The brunette beauty captioned the image: 'like seagulls with a chip', adding the hashtags #milo #notspon #justyum.

She has often taken to social media to show off her penchant for chocolates and other sugary treats.

Not an inch to pinch: The TV and radio presenter regularly takes to social media to flaunt her enviable figure

In November, she showed off a giant pack of the chocolate biscuits, accompanied by the caption: 'Yasss.'

She followed the photo of the Tim Tams with a giant raspberry and peach tart covered in powdered sugar.

In 2016, the brunette weather presenter told Mamamia that she indulges in dessert every night.

'I eat dessert every night,' she said. 'I also bake a lot, so I am quite partial to a piece of banana cake with cream-cheese frosting or a chocolate cupcake.'

The brunette beauty and her AFL-playing husband Chris Judd are known to be fitness fanatics, even launching their own active-wear brand, JAGGAD.

Queen WAG! Bec is often hailed for her stunning looks and impeccable style
He's the Australian rocker that achieved international notoriety with his 80s single, Jessie's Girl.

And having previously revealed his struggle with depression and suicide, Rick Springfield told SiriusXM just recently, that he considered ending his life last year.

'Last year I was close to it, really close to it,' the 68-year-old shared on radio.

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'I was really close to it': Rick Springfield, 68, spoke candidly on his lifelong struggle with depression, and admitted that he considered suicide last year, during a recent interview on SiriusXM

Promoting his upcoming album The Snake King, with one track detailing his lifelong battle with depression and suicide, Rick said: '[The track] Suicide Manifesto is stuff I think about. I've been close to it [suicide].'

'When Robin Williams and Chester [Bennington and Chris Cornell] and those guys [committed suicide] I didn't go "Oh, that's terrible". I went, "I get it". I get being that lost and dark...You're in so much pain that you just want it to end,' the musician explained.

Now managing the mental illness with medication and meditation, Rick said that he no longer puts on a facade and is open on how he's feeling.

Candid comments: Promoting his upcoming album The Snake King, with one track detailing his lifelong battle with depression and suicide, Rick said: '[The track] Suicide Manifesto is stuff I think about. I've been close to it [suicide]'

The award-winning artist continued: 'When Robin Williams and Chester [Bennington and Chris Cornell] and those guys [committed suicide] I didn't go "Oh, that's terrible". I went, "I get it". I get being that lost and dark...You're in so much pain that you just want it to end'

'We've all had the social front and it just makes me feel like such a liar when I go home and I look in the mirror and I go "Really? You said that to somebody? That everything's great and you're feeling awesome? That's bulls**t".'

The entertainer, full name Richard Lewis Springthorpe, went on to add: 'I'm at the point now in my life where I want to do what's truthful.'

This is not the first time Rick has spoken candidly of his struggle with depression and suicide.

Managing everyday life: Now managing the mental illness with medication and meditation, Rick said that he no longer puts on a facade and is open as to how he's feeling

Revelation: This is not the first time Rick has spoken candidly of his struggle with depression and suicide. During an interview with Kerri-Anne Kennerley for Sunday Night in September 2016, the lyricist revealed he tried to hang himself at age 16, with his parents in denial

During an interview with Kerri-Anne Kennerley for Sunday Night in September 2016, the lyricist revealed he tried to hang himself at age 16, with his parents in denial.

'I was depressed from the time I was 14. I was just the artistic, moody guy,' he explained, adding: 'I tried to hang myself at 16 and the rope broke.'

The Sydney-born entertainer said his parents initially 'didn't know' about his attempted suicide and that his 'mum still doesn't believe it.'

He shared on-air: 'I was depressed from the time I was 14. I was just the artistic, moody guy,' he explained, adding: 'I tried to hang myself at 16 and the rope broke'

Loved ones: Rick said his parents initially 'didn't know' about his attempted suicide and that his 'mum still doesn't believe it'

Later in the interview, Rick revealed that he once took money out of his piggy bank 'to go and buy a gun' in order to shoot himself.

Not going through with it, the award-winning performer confessed that music saved him from re-entering the dark days, because he 'can't not feel good' when he finishes a song.

If you are experiencing depressive or suicidal thoughts, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.

Power of music: The lyricist went on to confess that after buying a gun, he did not go through with suicide as music saved him from re-entering the dark days. Rick explained that he 'can't not feel good' when he finishes a song
Jeff Brazier has revealed the two sons he shared with Jade Goody - Bobby, 14, and Freddie, 13, will be his best men when he weds Katie Dwyer later this year.

The TV presenter, 38, claimed the ceremony will be 'the most emotional moment' for him as he admitted the pair are already working on their speeches.

Speaking to The Mirror, he added that boys' late mother would have been so proud of their youngest son Freddie for choosing to spend Christmas with his grandmother, so she would not be alone over the festive season.

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By his side: Jeff Brazier has revealed the two sons he shared with Jade Goody - Bobby, 14, and Freddie, 13, will be his best men when he weds Katie Dwyer later this year

Discussing his upcoming wedding with Katie, which will be a family affair with his sons, Jeff said: 'It will be a recognition of everything we've been through and how strong we are now.'

Jeff had his sons with Jade - whom he was with from 2002 until 2004. She sadly died in 2009 following a short battle with cervical cancer, aged just 27, and left Jeff full custody of their sons.

The presenter revealed the late Big Brother star would be 'immensely satisfied' to know her youngest son Freddie had spent Christmas with her mother, Jackiey Budden.

Proud: Jeff also revealed that Jade would be 'immensely satisfied' to know her son Freddie had spent Christmas with her mother Jackiey Budden (pictured together in 2006)

Despite admitting he missed his son on Christmas Day, Jeff explained he felt it was important to let Freddie voice and act upon his concerns regarding his loved ones.

He told the paper: 'Freddie asked me a week before Christmas and I gave him some time to decide. Freddie is very big-hearted.

'He didn't want his grandma to be on her own so it was the two of them together. What matters far more to me is that this young boy can express concern in such a way.'

He then added that Freddie's mother Jade, who sadly passed away when he was just five years old, would be delighted about his wish to keep Jackiey company during the undoubtedly difficult festive season.

Jeff revealed he would only be spending Christmas with his son Bobby in a sweet Instagram snap of himself and his eldest walking along the beach.

He captioned the snap: 'Just Bob and I this morning. Missing Fred today but his kindhearted desire to keep his Nan company so she wasn't on her own this Christmas isn't something I can stand in the way of so must encourage.

'Proud of him. ,' he concluded the moody beach snap.

Wedding bells: The TV presenter, 38, claimed his wedding to Katie Dwyer will be 'the most emotional moment' for him as he admitted his sons are already working on their speeches

Terrific trio: Discussing his upcoming wedding, which will be a family affair with his sons, Jeff said: 'It will be a recognition of everything we've been through and how strong we are now'

Family first: Jeff revealed Jade would be very proud of son Freddie (R) for choosing to spend Christmas with his grandmother Jackiey (also pictured with son Bobby)

Eight years after Jade lost her battle to cancer, Jeff has now focused on himself and found happiness with Kate, who he recently proposed to.

He recently told Mirror Online that his fiance has played a vital part in his children's grief: '[Marriage is] going to happen. I think we're working our way to it. What's going to be exciting to me is seeing the kids as older brothers, they'll be incredible.

'I'll get to experience parenting within a relationship and actually be married, because I haven't experienced that  not even as a child.'

He elaborated: 'It'll be like putting things on track, being a real human being who is married and has a child with someone that he loves and stays with.

'Not that I didn't love Jade, but to be with someone where the relationship blossoms and goes from strength to strength... it's what we all try to create.'

Good reason: Jeff revealed he would only be spending Christmas with Bobby, 14, in a sweet Instagram snap of himself and his eldest walking along the beach last month (above)

'Proud': The TV star shared a snap of him walking with his eldest on the beach and revealed in his caption that his youngest Freddie wanted 'to keep his nan company' over Christmas

Heartbreaking: Big Brother star Jade passed away in 2009 following a short battle with cervical cancer, aged just 27

Jeff admitted that he felt 'going solo' was more of a realistic way of bringing up sons Bobby and Freddie but that he feels he and Kate can now 'start getting all the rewards that we deserve.'

Speaking to MailOnline, Jeff revealed that his sons' favourite memory of their late mum Jade Goody is when she heroically helped put out a fire while they were on holiday.

Jade bravely threw buckets of water at a bushfire that ravaged their villa in Trinidad and Tobago back in 2007 and rescued their terrified toddlers Bobby and Freddie from inside.

Grief counsellor Jeff said that the boys, now teenagers, saw Jade as a 'lifesaver' afterwards - and plans to take them back there so they can feel a connection to their mum, who died of cervical cancer eight years ago aged 27.

Tight bond: In order to keep her memory alive, doting dad Jeff has proved that his young sons are still close to the reality star's mother, Jackiey Budden

Jeff also reflected on how the 'wonderful, heroic memory' left its mark on Freddie and Bobby.

'Their favourite memory is sadly one that I wasn't a part of, but irrespective it was a very wonderful, heroic memory for them,' he said.

'They were in Trinidad and Tobago and somehow she put out a fire. They recall it very fondly how Mummy was very quick to react to the fact that something was on fire and that she put it out.

'They were young and very impressionable at the time and just thought that was the most incredible thing. They thought 'Wow, my Mum's a lifesaver, she's a firefighter!'

'That's a wonderful memory. That's probably their most valued memory. I'm gonna take them there one day and it will feel special because it was a place that's very special to their Mum.'
She recently traded in her jet black locks for something a little lighter.

And Selma Blair proved she really can pull off any look as she stepped out in a pair of stylish shades in Los Angeles this Wednesday.

The 45-year-old actress was casually clad in denim jeans and a knitted jumper, styling her newly-lightened locks into a tight bun as she picked up a coffee.

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Coffee run: Selma Blair showed off her typically sleek style during a coffee run in LA this Wednesday

Keeping a firm grip on her coffee, the brunette beauty showed off her smart style in a pair denim skinny jeans and an off-white knitted asymmetric jumper.

She added a pop of color to the ensemble with a striped blue and white blouse that was just visible underneath the chunky knit.

The Cruel Intentions star accessorized with a blush pink handbag and a pair of quirky brogues, whilst a cluster of tiny silver bangles hung delicately from her wrist.

The gorgeous star wore minimal make-up for the solo outing, throwing on a pair of stylish gold shades.

Keeping it casual: The 45-year-old movie star looked chic in a casual ensemble as she made her way through the streets of LA after enjoying a much needed coffee break

The screen siren is mother to six-year-old Arthur Saint, whom she shares with former flame, fashion designer Jason Bleick.

The couple dated for two years but ended their relationship in September 2012.

Selma recently spoke about difficulties of being an older single mother, telling US weekly, 'I did not have a support system. I was an older, tired, single mom,' she told US Weekly in November 2017.

Sweater weather: The natural beauty showcased her youthful complexion as she made sure to wrap up warm in the uncharacteristically mild LA weather.

'As much as I loved my child, I was really lost... lost for for, like, four-and-a-half-years. I kind of hit rock bottom.

'I shut myself off from everyone and it wasn't until I accepted some help that I could flourish as a mom.'

Selma has been dating daytime Emmy-nominated producer and filmmaker, Ron Carlson since February 2015.

Carlson is also father to a seven-year-old daughter called Chloe, who enjoys playing with Selma's five-year-old son.

The couple share two rescue dogs, Buster and Cappy whom they regularly include in their adorable family snaps.
She was right by his side when he broke away from Police and launched his solo career back in 1985.

And music icon Sting proved he was just as supportive of his wife Trudie Styler's career ventures as he was among the stars who turned out for the premiere of her directorial debut, Freak Show, at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema in New York on Wednesday night.

Despite his global fame, the I'll Be Watching You hitmaker took a back seat and celebrated his wife's achievement.

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Doting husband: Music icon Sting supported his long-time wife Trudie Styler at the premiere of her directorial debut, Freak Show, in New York City on Wednesday

Proving true love really does stand the test of time, the couple - who have been together for 35 years and married for 25 - seemed as besotted as ever while cosying up for snaps on the red carpet.

The long-time loves even sported complementary outfits, with both rocking stylish all-black ensembles.

Trudie, 64, put on a chic display in a black midi-dress which was given some added pizzazz in the form of a frilled detailing across the collar and along the torso.

Still smitten! Proving true love really does stand the test of time, the couple - who have been together for 35 years - seemed as besotted as ever while cosying up for snaps on the red carpet

His and hers: The long-time loves even sported complementary outfits, with both rocking stylish all-black ensembles

She paired the look with black leather boots and injected a pop of colour into the look with a red leather handbag.

Sting, 66, made for an equally stylish companion in a black roll neck and tuxedo jacket.

Also noticeably present was Angel hitmaker Shaggy, who recently collaborated with Sting on new song Dont Make Me Wait.

The track is the result of studio sessions held late last year in which the two artists got together to jam and create music that reflects their mutual love of Jamaica.

Freak Show follows the story of teenager Billy Bloom (Alex Lawther) who, despite attending an ultra conservative high school, makes the decision to run for homecoming queen.

New music: Also noticeably present was Angel hitmaker Shaggy, who recently collaborated with Sting on new song Dont Make Me Wait

Inspiration: The track is the result of studio sessions held late last year in which the two artists got together to jam and create music that reflects their mutual love of Jamaica

Plot: Freak Show follows the story of teenager Billy Bloom (Alex Lawther) who, despite attending an ultra conservative high school, makes the decision to run for homecoming queen

The movie also features young stars of the screen Abigail Breslin, who plays Lynette, and AnnaSophia Robb, who portrays Blah Blah Blah.

Styler admitted she was attracted to the film because she was bullied in her youth, though she believes today's teenagers have a far worse ride.

She told Metro US: 'When we came home you would have someone with a listening ear. But now kids come home, log online, and thats where the punishment is. And you wouldnt have a clue.

Sprightly! Sting made a vivacious exit from the premiere after helping his wife celebrate her special evening

Star-studded flick: The couple posed with stars of the movie AnnaSophia Robb, who plays Blah Blah Blah, and Ian Nelson, who acts out the role of Flip Kelly

Close to her heart: Styler admitted she was attracted to the film because she was bullied in her youth, though she believes today's teenagers have a far worse ride

'Because kids dont want to complain about it. Or feel foolish. They want to stand on their own two feet.

'But when you have this troll culture, and all this aggression coming at you. Its just devastating. There is an increased in suicide rates because of cyber bullying. It is a very big problem.'

Trudie and Sting have four children, Mickey, 33, Jake, 32, Coco, 27, and Giacomo, 21, while Sting has daughter Kate, 35, and son Joe, 40, from his first marriage, to actress Frances Tomelty.

Let them eat cake! Trudie - who turned 64 last week - was also given a belated birthday cake during the bash
Coronation Street veteran Malcolm Hebden has falled victim to a death hoax, after a US website incorrectly reported he had passed away.

Concerned fans soon swarmed Twitter to share their grief and worry before his co-star Sally Ann Matthews, who plays Jenny Bradley in the soap, slammed the rumours as she penned: 'Thankfully not' in response to a worried fan.

The 78-year-old soap favourite, who plays Norris Cole in the show, was flooded with concern from fans who hit out at the false reports once it became apparent he was in fact alive and well, as confirmed by a Coronation Street spokesperson.

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Simply not true: Coronation Street veteran Malcolm Hebden has fallen victim to a death hoax, after a US website falsely reported he had passed away

Malcolm landed the role of Norris back in 1994, when open auditions were held for the busy-body character and after leaving the series in 1997, he returned to the show in 1999 and has remained on the show ever since.

Firmly holding a place as one of the soap's favourite characters, the reaction to the news was naturally started with devastation and led to widespread relief.

Users penned: 'Thankfully it's looking like the death of #MalcolmHebden is #FakeNews #NorrisCole #CoronationStreet... Malcolm Hebden aka Norris Cole from Corrie has NOT died. Just a fake article doing it's rounds. Sick people...

'So people are believing a fake news site why would a newspaper in Florida announce the death of a star he someones father grandad etc not nice for his family to be reading if malcolm had died Im sure corrie would make an official statement...

Health scare: Malcolm landed the role of Norris back in 1994, when open auditions were held for the busy-body character and after leaving the series in 1997, he returned to the show in 1999 and has remained on the show ever since

Fears: Firmly holding a place as one of the soap's favourite characters, the reaction to the news was naturally started with devastation and led to widespread relief

'To assure fans, I've just been told tonight by Corrie that the rumours that Malcolm Hebden has passed away are in fact untrue... I keep seeing tweets regarding 'news' that Malcolm has passed away, but not seen anything official, nor confirmed....

'All I can say is, until it's confirmed by ITV or someone official, he is still alive. Saw posts he's been hospitalised, but still alive'.

'@itvcorrie there's a Facebook page doing the rounds saying Malcolm Hebden has passed away. Can someone confirm that this is a sick hoax please? Thanks!...

'Can anyone confirm that Malcolm Hebden, aka Norris Cole from @itvcorrie has died???? @digitalspy so sad if true... Whats all this about Malcolm Hebden'.

Popular: In 2009 it was noted that the character of Norris has become one of the show's most recognisable characters

On the mend: In 2009, it was noted that the character of Norris has become one of the show's most recognisable characters

In 2009, it was noted that the character of Norris has become one of the show's most recognisable characters.

And over the two decades, Norris has had his fair share of drama. Back in 2010, he was held captive by admirer Mary Taylor and last year he was dropped with a paternity bombshell after discovering he could have a secret son in Weatherfield.

MailOnline has contacted a Corrie spokesperson for comment.
A man is in custody after police believe he shot and killed another man in Sheridan, Wyoming, late Wednesday night.

Christopher Macloughlin Labuy, 33, was arrested during the night and is being held as the sole suspect in the case, according to a press release from the Sheridan Police Department. Labuy is being held at the Sheridan County Detention Center.

Police received a call around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday that a homicide had occurred at an apartment building at 1410 N. Main St.

A man at the apartment told officers that his friend, Labuy, had knocked on his door and told him hed shot another man in the building.

Officers and medical responders found the victim, who was already dead.

Officers booked Labuy into jail on anticipated charges of murder in the first degree, the release states.

There is no danger to the community, the SPD said.

Labuy made his initial court appearance in Sheridan County Circuit Court at 2 p.m. Thursday.
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Sir Michael Caine has netted a healthy three and half million dollar profit from the sale of his luxurious Miami Beach home, despite knocking more than a million from the initial asking price.

The legendary actor, 84, listed the sprawling 4,154 square foot condo for rental or purchase with an $8.7 million mark-up in June 2017.

It has since been purchased for $7.45 million, giving Caine and wife Shakira a sizeable return on the $4 million they originally laid out for the property in 2008.

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Money spinner: Sir Michael Caine has netted a healthy three and half million dollar profit from the sale of his luxurious Miami Beach home, despite knocking more than a million from the initial asking price

Profit: It has since been purchased for $7.45 million, giving Caine and wife Shakira a sizeable return on the $4 million they originally laid out for the property in 2008

With stunning views across Miami Beach, the 800 South Pointe Drive home boasts four bedrooms, 3.5 bedrooms and its very own screening room.

An air conditioned double garage offers the new owner plenty of parking space, while its already spacious interior includes an additional 2,440 square feet of deck space around a tasteful summer kitchen.

The kitchen comes awash with mahogany and marble - a brushed marble kitchen island dominates the centre providing a focal point for cooking and entertaining.

Nice doing business with you: The 800 South Pointe Drive property, part of Apogee Condominium Associates Inc, has since been purchased for $7.45 million, giving Caine and wife Shakira a sizeable return on the $4 million they originally laid out in 2008

Lovely: Caine's former home boasts stunning views across Miami Beach and the surrounding area

Cooking up a storm: its already spacious interior includes an additional 2,440 square feet of deck space around a tasteful summer kitchen

That'll do: A generous balcony provides stunning views of the area's palm tree lined streets

An adjacent dining table cut into the side of the kitchen island offers asymmetrical interior styling with plush cushioned seats bringing a new meaning to the term comfort eating.

Floor to ceiling windows allows the light to pour in with views of Miami beach and the port of Miami.

In typical Miami fashion, there are palm trees aplenty adorning the nearby roads and boulevards which surround the multistory apartment block.

Stunning: Floor to ceiling windows allows the light to pour in with views of Miami beach and the port of Miami

And relax: In keeping with the dark wooden theme, the living room comes with thick cushioned sofas and a chic mahogany coffee table

Alternative view: The room offers plenty of space for rest and relaxation, while enormous windows once again provide incredible views of coastal Miami

Anyone seen Jaws: The Revenge? A comfortable screening room serves as a sanctuary from the rest of the four-bedroom condo

In keeping with the dark wooden theme, the living room comes with thick cushioned sofas and a chic mahogany coffee table.

A grandiose bathroom shower room combination offers luxury sanitary wear with a corner jacuzzi and rain shower heads.

Twin sinks come equipped as well as full body shower options within a floor to ceiling glass steam cubicle.

In the mood for an Italian (Job)? An adjacent dining table cut into the side of the kitchen island offers asymmetrical interior styling with plush cushioned seats bringing a new meaning to the term comfort eating

Clean living: A grandiose bathroom shower room combination offers luxury sanitary wear with a corner jacuzzi and rain shower heads

Wash and go: Twin sinks come equipped as well as full body shower options within a floor to ceiling glass steam cubicle

Caine originally purchased the property for 4 million in 2008 before putting it up for sale for more than $12.9 million in 2015.

It has been on and off the market ever since, with the legendary star reportedly keen to sell due to his infrequent visits to the Florida coastal city.

Based in South of Fifths Apogee tower, the condo has been sold by John Lennon realty, although the buyer's identity is unknown.

Fresh air: The balcony stretches around the circumference of the enormous Miami condo
He is known for his role as the suave 007 agent, James Bond.

And Daniel Craig took a break from his hectic work commitments as he hosted the screening and reception for the comedy crime flick Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in New York on Wednesday.

The British actor, 49, looked typically handsome in a trendy denim jacket and grey wash jeans as he mingled with the critically acclaimed flick's director, Martin McDonagh.

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Handsome: Daniel Craig, 49, hosted the screening and reception for the comedy crime flick Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri on Wednesday

Taking a break from the slick suits he usually dons during his red carpet appearances, Daniel looked casually cool in his denim outerwear.

The movie star completed the look with a collared shirt underneath and a fitted navy knit.

Daniel looked in great spirits as he enjoyed the company of Irish director Martin ahead of the screening the movie.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri focuses on devastated mother Mildred Hayes, who is forced to take extreme measures when months pass without a culprit in her daughter's murder.

Stylish: The British actor looked typically handsome in a trendy denim jacket and grey wash jeans as he mingled with the critically acclaimed flick's director, Martin McDonagh

Trendy: Taking a break from the slick suits he usually dons during his red carpet appearances, Daniel looked casually cool in his denim outerwear

Hunk: The movie star completed the look with a collared shirt underneath and a fitted navy knit

She makes a shock move by painting three signs leading into her town with a message aimed at William Willoughby, the well-respected chief of police in the town. When another policeman on the force - a violent mother's boy - becomes involved the battle worsens.

The movie is set to sweep up at next month's British EE British Academy Film Awards with eight nominations.

Meanwhile, despite telling Time Out that he's rather 'slash his wrists' than do another 007 movie, Daniel has signed up for Bond 25 - due for release November 8, 2019.

Daniel and Rachel Weisz, who have been friends since their 20s, tied the knot in a secret New York ceremony in June 2011 after only six months together.

Happy: Daniel looked in great spirits as he enjoyed the company of Irish director Martin ahead of the screening the movie

Looking good: Martin went for a suave all-black look for the screening

Acclaimed: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri focuses on devastated mother Mildred Hayes, who is forced to take extreme measures when months pass without a culprit in her daughter's murder

The service was attended by just four guests, including Craigs 22-year-old daughter Ella, from his first marriage to Scottish actress Fiona Loudon, and Rachels son Henry, who was five at the time.

Before she and Daniel got together, Rachel had lived with Neil Morrissey prior to her nine-year relationship with US film director Darren Aronofsky.

She and Aronofsky then split after she teamed up with old friend Daniel on 2011 horror film The Dream House.

At the time Daniel  who was married to first wife Fiona Loudon for just two years  was engaged to his girlfriend of seven years, US film producer Satsuki Mitchell.

But they also split, and Craig and Rachel went public with their romance shortly afterwards.
She is one of Hollywood's most stylish stars.

And Vanessa Hudgens continued her trendsetting ways as she headed to Nine Zero One Salon in West Hollywood on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old American actress looked sensational as she paired a denim jacket with a chunky white hoodie for the outing.

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Fashionista: Vanessa Hudgens, 29, continued her trendsetting ways as she headed to Nine Zero One Salon in West Hollywood on Wednesday drinking Icelandic Glacial water

All eyes were on Vanessa as she continued on about her day in the stylish ensemble keeping hydrated with a bottle of Icelandic Glacial water.

She wrapped up warm in the white hoodie and oversized light blue denim jacket - which complemented her marl grey leggings.

Adding an element of edge to her look, Vanessa strolled forth in a pair of comfortable grunge-inspired lace-up black boots.

The High School Musical star went for a simple slick of make-up and tamed her short brunette tresses in place with an eye-catching baby blue baker boy cap.

Trendy: The American actress, 29, looked sensational as she paired a denim jacket with a chunky white hoodie for the outing

Trend-setter: She wrapped up warm in the white hoodie and oversized light blue denim jacket - which complemented her marl grey leggings

Walk this way: Adding an element of edge to her look, Vanessa strolled forth in a pair of comfortable grunge-inspired lace-up black boots

Another denim jacket was tied around her waist for a further warmth, while all her essentials were toted in a shaggy black handbag.

Vanessa is currently in a relationship with Austin Butler. The pair have been dating since 2011.

Prior to her romance with the actor, Vanessa was in a high-profile relationship with her High School Musical co-star Zac Efron, 30, for five years from 2005 to 2010.

Since her Disney days, Vanessa has gone on to build quite an acting career for herself.

Beauty: The High School Musical star went for a simple slick of make-up and tamed her short brunette tresses in place with an eye-catching baby blue baker boy cap

Style star: Another denim jacket was tied around her waist for a further warmth, while all her essentials were toted in a shaggy black handbag

Movie star: The California native has two films premiering in 2018; Dogs Days and Second Act

She starred in the teenage crime drama Spring Breakers in 2013 with Selena Gomez and Ashley Benson, before going on to play Rizzo in FOXs Grease LIVE in 2016.

The Beastly actress was recently added as a judge to Season 14 of So You Think You Can Dance.

The California native has two films premiering in 2018; Dogs Days and Second Act.

In the forthcoming movie, Jennifer stars as Maya, an employee at a big-box store who reinvents her life and her lifestyle to show Madison Avenue that street smarts can be as valuable as a college degree.
Pat Phelan has caused chaos on the cobbles over the past year, killing a total of four people.

And it seems the Coronation Street super villian is finally be about to meet his comeuppance since Wednesday night's episode of the ITV soap saw the builder confess about his latest victim, Luke Britton, to Seb Franklin.

Connecting the dots about Luke's death, Seb tries to look in Phelan's toolbox for his gun - only to be caught in the act by the killer.

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Big reveal: Wednesday night's episode of Coronation Street saw Pat Phelan confess about his latest victim, Luke Britton, to a terrified Seb Franklin

'If you are lying to me Im liable to get very angry', Phelan said, as Seb tried to make excuses for what he was doing.

Creepy Pat warned Seb he could frame him for murder, saying, 'You were all over that gun - at least your fingerprints were, are.'

Seb declared: 'You did it - you killed Luke', to which the evil mastermind replied, 'Not according to the murder weapon - you did.'

Caught red-handed: Connecting the dots about Luke's death, Seb tries to look in Phelan's toolbox for his gun - only to be caught in the act by the killer

Shocked: Seb then warns Phelan's doting wife Eileen to be careful of her husband, revealing he has a gun in his toolbox and framed Anna Windass for GBH

A panicked Seb made plans to flee Weatherfield, telling Phelan's doting wife Eileen to be careful of her husband and revealing that has a gun in his toolbox and framed Anna Windass for GBH.

Eileen becomes increasingly suspicious of Phelan after he refuses to get his toolbox out when asks him to get his toolbox out and fix the door, and she starts making plans to visit Anna in prison.

Viewers were thrilled when Pat's true nature was exposed, taking to Twitter to joke whether it might finally mean the end of the long-running storyline.

Framed: Creepy Pat warned Seb he could frame him for murder, saying, 'You were all over that gun - at least your finger prints were, are'

On the run: A panicked Seb made plans to flee Weatherfield following the confrontation

Coming to an end: Viewers were thrilled when Pat's true nature was exposed, taking to Twitter to joke whether it might finally mean the end of the long-running storyline

One viewer joked: 'If Pat Phelan stays on the street any longer, there will be no one on the show left by next year. Just a huge #Corrie graveyard. Come on Eileen!'

Another posted, 'Time must be running out for Phelan surely, #coronationstreet' and a third wrote, 'When is Pat Phelan going to get killed, ergh hate him! #corrie'.

Social media was also awash with praise for Connor McIntyre's acting, enthusing about how 'terrifying' he is as Phelan.

One wrote: 'The fabulous @connor9mcintyre is the most chilling villain to grace a British Soap, I just love hating Phelan, testament to his fantastic acting.

I'll be absolutely gutted to see him go if Phelan gets caught! #WatchyourbackEileen #Corrie'

A second shared: 'Catching up on Corrie and is there a man more terrifying on this earth than Pat Phelan?! Hes absolutely mental #Corrie #CoronationStreet'.
She made a name for herself when she starred alongside Jamie Foxx and John Hamm in Baby Driver last year.

And Eiza Gonzalez proved to be the star of the show again as she dazzled in an ombre gown at the Phantom Thread fete at the Chateau Marmont on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old actress put on a sophisticated display at the star-studded bash where she was joined by fellow celebrities Liev Schreiber and John C. Reilly just hours after calling for more Latino representation in Hollywood.

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Couture queen: Eiza Gonzalez dazzled at the Phantom Thread fete at the Chateau Marmont on Wednesday

The beautiful brunette looked every inch the movie star as she oozed glamour in an ombre lilac couture gown that revealed her fit shape.

The intricately-designed dress featured layers of sequins which fell in an asymmetric pattern, held together tightly by a woven halterneck tie.

Eiza opted for minimal accessories, clutching a small black box bag while she highlighted her noticeable foot tattoo in a pair of suede grey pointed heels.

The Mexican-born beauty let her brunette tresses cascade over her shoulders as she flaunted her smooth complexion with minimal makeup.

Brunette beauty: The 27-year-old actress put on a show-stopping display in a gorgeous ombre couture gown that highlighted her tiny waist, just one day before calling for more Latino representation in Hollywood

Dazzling: The Mexican-born beauty let her brunette tresses cascade over her shoulders as she flaunted her smooth complexion with minimal makeup

Just hours before the bash, Eiza called for more Latino representation in Hollywood.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday, she wrote: 'Good morning. Just a reminder that Latinos and Latina Women specifically are under represented and always seen as the minority of the minority, when ironically we have been the majority of the minority.

'Last year was a year of a big wave of Latina women working. Being part of the biggest projects of the year, yet we are constantly ignored and struggle everyday to be considered, to only have a chance to get 1 role always against every other ethnicity or race.'

Happy occasion: The star looked happy and relaxed as she mingled with fellow guests as the event, which included A-listers Liev Schreiber and John C. Reilly.

A-Listers: Chicago star John C. Reilly was also at the bash putting on a slick display in a checked three-piece suit

Glam squad: A group in the party were dressed in traditional ensembles for the night of revelry

Taking a stand: The stunning Latino took to Instagram to this Thursday calling for more Latino representation in Hollywood.

The stunning Latino gained popularity for her debut role as "Lola" in the Mexican teen-oriented musical Telenovela before landing the role of bank Darling in Edgar Wright's Baby Driver.

She will next appear in the action-packed 'The Women of Marwen' alongside Steve Carell.

The film focuses on the victim of a brutal attack who finds a unique and therapeutic outlet to help him cope.
He's the Australian director who is known for his chilling horror franchise Wolf Creek.

And Greg McLean has revealed he's on the hunt for fresh Down Under talent to star in upcoming projects.

'I am a big fan of a lot of the Aussie actors, there are a lot of them I'd like to work with,' he told Confidential this Thursday.

''I am a big fan of a lot of the Aussie actors': Wolf Creek director Greg McLean has revealed he's on the hunt for fresh Down Under talent to star in upcoming projects

'I'd love to work with Chris Hemsworth and Russell Crowe is legendary, and I really love Cate Blanchett.'

The director added: 'I am basically clearing my slate out to find a new bunch of projects for the next couple of years. There are a few things circling but nothing locked in that I want to get into right now.'

Greg went on to reveal his plans to focus on the medium of TV, citing the rise of streaming services as prompting somewhat of a revolution in the media landscape.

Thor meets Wolf Creek? Greg cited Chris Hemworth as an Australian actor he would love to cast in an upcoming project

Indeed, he found great success with his 2016 Wolf Creek TV spin-off, which debuted as a six-part series on Stan.

The show was a hit with audiences, attracting more than 500,000 views in its first week.

With the show's second season now streaming, Greg is gearing up for a third installment in the Mick Taylor universe.

'I'd love to work with Chris Hemsworth and Russell Crowe is legendary, and I really love Cate Blanchett': Greg wasn't shy to reveal his desire to work with some of the nation's biggest names in show-business

'There is a story arc we are working on in the second series and so it all has to work together ... if the movie happens, it may be next year, that would be a good time to get it out,' he told The Daily Telegraph in October last year.

'The character of Mick is so fascinating, people are compelled to see this guy they love to hate,' he explained.

'We don't want to be beating a dead horse but he is such an evil man so there is a lot of different directions we can take that character without him getting too boring.'

TV hit: Indeed, Greg found great success with his 2016 Wolf Creek TV spin-off, which debuted as a six-part series on Stan
Gigi Hadid says it was a pleasure to work with Kate Moss on the new Stuart Weitzman campaign.

The 22-year-old model joined forces with the British icon to shoot promotional shots for the London-based shoe brand, and has been reflecting on the experience on her Instagram account.

The blonde beauty posted a picture of the world-famous duo on the shoot and captioned the black-and-white image: 'I had the great honor and pleasure of shooting the new @stuartweitzman campaign with the one and only Kate.'

Happy connection: Gigi Hadid says it was a pleasure to work with Kate Moss on the new Stuart Weitzman campaign

Hugs: The 22-year-old model joined forces with the British icon to shoot promotional shots for the London-based shoe brand, and has been reflecting on the experience on her Instagram account

She added: 'Kate, I had the greatest time with you, and am forever touched by your spirit and presence.

'I am beyond proud to be part of the SW family with you and our beloved @mariotestino @sarajanehoare @giovannimorelli8 @sduff20 ss18 campaign out soon ! #inourshoes (sic)"

Meanwhile, Gigi previously admitted that her jet-setting lifestyle has led her to lose lots of friends.

Two blondes: She added: 'Kate, I had the greatest time with you, and am forever touched by your spirit and presence'

The Los Angeles-born star confessed that because she spends so little time at home, her career has caused her to lose touch with some of her pals.

She shared: ;There are people who understand that I love them and who know that when I get back to town I'm going to call them, but sometimes I can't call every day because I'm in weird places.

'I've lost a lot of friends because I'll get busy for a short period of time, and they're not reaching out, but if I don't reach out, then it's like I've changed.'

New look: Here Hadid is seen walking in mules onto the set with the photographer watching

The vet and the newcomer: Here the young model is joined by the icon

However, one person she's always remained close to is her beloved sister and fellow model Bella Hadid.

Of their relationship, Gigi explained: 'She's so understanding of the demands of this job, and it's really great that I can talk to her about it.

'Because a lot of the time I feel suffocated by my own work ethic and by the expectations I put on myself. It's really nice when you have people who say, "It's okay to take time for yourself."'
She's enjoying a blossoming romance with her marketing consultant boyfriend Jake Meah.

And Lana Jeavons-Fellows showcased her svelte bikini body on a beach date with her British beau at Elizabeth beach, on Friday.

Posing on her side, the 29-year-old flaunted her physique in a leopard print two-piece. which accentuated her pert posterior, trim pins and ample cleavage.

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Not an inch to pinch! Lana Jeavons-Fellows showcased her svelte bikini body on a beach date with her British beau at Elizabeth beach, on Friday. The 29-year-old flaunted her physique in a leopard print two piece that accentuated her pert posterior, trim pins and ample cleavage

She accessorised the summer ensemble with a wide-brimmed straw hat and black sunglasses, keeping her sun safe.

Lana captioned her post: 'Endless beach days,' along with the hashtags #seeaustralia and #happy.

She also shared a more candid snap of herself in the same spot with her thumb up.

Loved up! Lana and her beau also enjoyed a romantic stroll along the sand as captured in a short clip

The lovebirds also enjoyed a romantic stroll along the sand as captured in a short clip.

Fans of the showered the brunette beauty with compliments, including one simply commented: 'Beautiful.'

Meanwhile, another wrote: 'Lana you look very beautiful in this photo.'

Back in 2016, the pair spoke about their relationship to NW magazine and revealed that they had already had dated a few times.

Beach date: Back in 2016, the pair spoke about their relationship to NW magazine and revealed that they had already had dated a few times

'We met before she went on The Bachelor, at Mrs Sippy bar in Sydney,' Jake told the publication adding that he had to return to London during her stint on The Bachelor.

Lana on the other hand said that she thought it was funny when she heard back from him after her time on the show considering other men she had dated in the past were coming forward.

'I was a little unsure at first, but now I know that he wouldnt be attracted to me for that reason. That would probably deter him more than anything!'

The couple are believed to have been together for just over two years.
She has been residing in sunny Los Angeles since hitting the big time as a presenter on So You Think You Can Dance in 2016.

But Cat Deeley was making the most of her extended break back in her native Britain as she was spotted out and about with a bouquet of flowers in London on Thursday.

The 41-year-old TV personality looked casually cool in a chunky grey scarf, chic black jacket and knee high boots.

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Natural beauty: Cat Deeley, 41, was making the most of her extended break back in her native Britain as she was spotted out and about with a bouquet of flowers in London on Thursday

All eyes were on Cat as she made her way down the street in her stylish look - which no doubt, makes a change from her usual Stateside sunny attire.

Cat's chunky scarf was effortlessly draped around her neck and boded well with her skinny blue jeans which were tucked into her stylish boots.

An elegant black coat pulled the look together, as did a pair of matching leather gloves.

Cat looked to be in great spirits as she enjoyed the low-key stroll with her mum Janet and one-year-old son, Milo.

Switching things up: All eyes were on Cat as she made her way down the street in her stylish look - which no doubt, makes a change from her usual Stateside sunny attire

Low-key: The TV personality looked casually cool in a chunky grey scarf, chic black jacket and knee high boots

Casually cool: Cat's chunky scarf was effortlessly draped around her neck and boded well with her skinny blue jeans which were tucked into her stylish boots

The blonde beauty has been married to comedian and TV personality Patrick Kielty since 2012.

Last year, Patrick opened up on ITV's Lorraine about family life in the couple's Los Angeles home: 'Milo basically runs the house... We call him the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air because he gets whatever he wants.

'You suddenly realise when you get married, you're number one. Then a kid [comes along] and you're number two, then a dog you're number three, and you spend your life going down the pecking order.'

Chic: An elegant black coat pulled the look together, as did a pair of matching leather gloves

Family time: Cat looked to be in great spirits as she enjoyed the low-key stroll with her mum Janet and one-year-old son, Milo

TV star: Cat has been residing in sunny Los Angeles since hitting the big time as a presenter on So You Think You Can Dance in 2016

She and Patrick were friends for 10 years before they married, although Patrick recently insisted there was 'always a spark' between them before their relationship became romantic.

'There was always a little bit of a spark between us but either she was with someone or I was with someone and by the time we were both single she was in America', he explained. 'It was always one of those things that never worked out.'

The pair met when they presented Fame Academy together in 2002 and remained friends for almost a decade before making their debut as a couple in March 2012 and they married six months later.

The couple tied the knot in a traditional Catholic ceremony in Rome, Italy, in September 2012, which was an intimate affair with just six family and friends each.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix castmates Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain dined with their director Simon Kinberg at La Dolce Vita Restaurant in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night.

The 27-year-old Oscar winner and the 40-year-old Golden Globe winner gave each other a warm hug around 11pm after their Northern Italian business dinner.

The California native was accompanied by her husband of six months, Italian count Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo.

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Date night! X-Men: Dark Phoenix castmates Jennifer Lawrence (2-L) and Jessica Chastain (L) dined with their director Simon Kinberg (2-R) at La Dolce Vita Restaurant in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night.

Off-set bonding: The 27-year-old Oscar winner (R) and the 40-year-old Golden Globe winner (L) gave each other a warm hug around 11pm after their Northern Italian business dinner

And the Kentucky-born blonde was said to have been single since her October split with her maligned Mother! director Darren Aronofsky.

The 44-year-old Englishman makes his directorial debut in Dark Phoenix, but he previously produced X-Men flicks Apocalypse, Days of Future Past, First Class, and The Last Stand.

Fans can catch the Time's Up activists as Raven/Mystique and new villain Smith in the Marvel Comics superhero movie, which hits US/UK theaters November 2.

On Thursday morning, Jessica thanked Kim Kardashian West for her make-up tutorial, which helped her prepare her role as gambling entrepreneur Molly Bloom in Molly's Game.

Newlyweds! The California native was accompanied by her husband of six months, Italian count Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo (R)

Top bun: And the Kentucky-born blonde was said to have been single since her October split with her maligned Mother! director Darren Aronofsky

At the helm: The 44-year-old Englishman makes his directorial debut in Dark Phoenix, but he previously produced Apocalypse, Days of Future Past, First Class, and The Last Stand

Goodnight! Chastain and the 34-year-old Italian count left in their own vehicle, while Lawrence drove off solo in her Tesla

'Yes @KimKardashian helped me with this transformation,' Chastain tweeted after the reality star acknowledged her W Magazine interview last week.

'I thought about what women have to become in order to find power in a society where men are making all of the rules. I was like, "Oh, my gosh - the Kardashians are an incredible example of women who have their own sense of entrepreneurial power,"' the two-time Oscar nominee explained.

'And in real life, Molly looked a lot like them. For research, I actually watched Kims tutorial on face shading and contouring. As the movie goes on, Molly transforms into this idea of what a woman has to be in order to be heard:

'The heels get higher, the necklines are lower, the hair is longer. It was quite a departure for me, physically. And the strange thing is, I dont look like myself at all in this film, and so many people have said to me that Ive never looked better.'

Hitting US/UK theaters November 2! Fans can catch the Time's Up activists as Raven/Mystique and new villain Smith in the Marvel Comics superhero movie

'Yes @KimKardashian helped me with this transformation!' On Thursday morning, Jessica thanked Kim Kardashian West for her make-up tutorial, which helped her prepare her role as gambling entrepreneur Molly Bloom in Molly's Game

'The Kardashians are an incredible example of women who have their own sense of entrepreneurial power': Coincidentally, the Juilliard grad will be competing for the best actress trophy at the Critics' Choice Awards, which air Thursday night on The CW

Coincidentally, the Juilliard grad will be competing for the best actress trophy at the Critics' Choice Awards, which air Thursday night on The CW.

Academy Award nominations will be announced on January 23.

Meanwhile, Jennifer next plays Russian ballerina-turned-spy Dominika Egorova in Francis Lawrence's thriller Red Sparrow, which hits US/UK theaters on March 2.
Nominations for YWCA Billings Salute honorees will be accepted through 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29.

According to a YWCA Billings news release, the Salute celebration has focused on the achievements of women for 34 years. For the past three years, YWCA Billings has also honored a man who goes above and beyond helping the YWCA end violence against women and children. It also honors an organization that demonstrates commitment to creating opportunities for and empowering women.

Winners will be honored during a ceremony from 5:30 p.m. through 8 p.m. April 13 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 27 N. 27th St.

YWCA is also accepting applications through 5 p.m. Feb. 15 for its Salute to Students scholarship awards program. Women students from the region enrolled in a degree program at an accredited two- or four-year college or university for fall 2018 who meet the criteria for the scholarship can apply. Finalists will be awarded either a $1,500 or $3,000 scholarship.

The criteria and application forms for the Salute honorees and Salute to Students scholarship awards are available by visiting www.ywcabillings.org/events and clicking on the application links.

More information, including ticketing information to the April 13 celebration, is available by emailing events@ywcabillings.org or by calling 406-252-6303.
Actors Matt Smith and Lily James put on a low-key appearance as they enjoyed some downtime in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The duo looked like a pair of tourists as they consulted their phones, looking up and down the street, seemingly trying to navigate around the city.

Lily, 28, dressed comforatbly in a floral sun dress, covering up a little in a cropped denim coat.

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Seeing the sights! Lily James and Matt Smith dressed down as they enjoyed some time off in Los Angeles... consulting their phones to navigate around the city

She wore flip-flops and shades, defying any hint that it is in fact January.

She swept her light brown locks atop her head, enjoying the freedom of having a casual day off.

Her beau Matt, 35, also wore shades. He sported a navy sweater and stone slacks, white trainers and a silver chain around his neck.

The pair were wither waiting for a lift or trying to navigate their way around the city via Google Maps, at one point looking somewhat lost.

Which way? The pair were wither waiting for a lift or trying to navigate their way around the city via Google Maps, at one point looking somewhat lost

Life through a filter: Lily James has admitted to feeling hypocritical about her life on Instagram (pictured here on the social media site, during filming for Mama Mia 2)

Earlier in the week, the actress has admitted that she can be a 'hypocrite' when it comes to social media, because it forces you to 'present your life' in an unrealistic way.

The starlet - who has 910k Instagram followers - said she felt worried about 'obsession [with] perfection' and felt able to relate with the desire to delete all of her accounts.

She told the BBC: 'I do worry about obsession and about perfection and about always presenting your life in a certain way, which is very untrue to how you go about your day.

'We go through all sorts of different emotions and Instagram makes it look like everything's perfect, and that's rubbish.'

Lily reflected on her own activity on social networks in light of Daisy Ridley's decision to delete her accounts, and has confessed to experiencing a 'constant inner battle' about the issue.

Snap happy: She said she felt worried that there was an expectation to present life in a certain way

Reflecting on Daisy's choice, Lily shared: 'I completely and utterly relate to that. I believe it to be true, and therefore I am a hypocrite. I am on [social media], and I have a constant inner battle about it.'

The beauty went on to say that she had chosen not to join micro-blogging site Twitter because '[you shouldn't] put something down in concrete that's going to come back and haunt you.'

Meanwhile, Lily - who is dating British actor Matt Smith - has praised the women in Hollywood who have recently shared their experience of sexual harassment and abuse.

Pampered: The photos that appear on Lily's page as the stuff of dreams

The British star is pleased that the sex scandal has sparked a debate about the movie industry's culture.

She said: 'I think the bravery of everyone that's come forward and spoken, the fact that they've shared their pain and their stories in order to make change is the most admirable brilliant thing.

'And I'm so hopeful that now there's going to be a huge shift in how that power balance has been and how people have been treated.'
He is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his first child, as his pregnant girlfriend Emma McVey's due date approaches.

But while he is only just beginning to learn about parenting, Gary 'Gaz' Beadle has proven he has already perfected the art of orchestrating a staged selfie.

The former Geordie Shore star, 29, joked that he had earned himself 'boyfriend points', as he shared a video of himself aiding his girlfriend Emma to take a photo while revealing the extreme measures she takes to perfect her social media uploads.

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'The s**t you do so the mrs can get a good picture!' Gaz Beadle reveals pregnant girlfriend Emma McVey makes him hold special lighting over her face whenever she takes a selfie

In the short video, posted to his official Instagram page, Gaz can be seen assisting Emma, as she positions herself on the bed to take a photo posing.

The Geordie is seen holding onto a ring light in one hand while picking up the couple's dog in the other, before positioning the light above Emma's head, as she configures the best angle for her post.

Patiently waiting for her to strike her best pose, Gary penned alongside the post: 'The s**t you do so the mrs can get a good picture,' before adding the hashtags: '#multitask #igotthis #bfpointsearned.'

Doting beau: The former Geordie Shore star, 29, joked that he had earned himself 'boyfriend points', as he shared a video of himself aiding his girlfriend Emma to take a selfie

Helping hand: In the short video, posted to his official Instagram page, Gaz can be seen assisting Emma, as she positioned herself on the bed to take a photo of herself posing alongside a number of products

His post prompted many of the star's female fans to comment, quizzing their partners on why they wouldn't do the same for them, while another teased that Gaz and Emma will only be going to such lengths until their new arrival comes along.

They commented: 'Till baby gets there.... U will bother be dreaming of switching lights off just to sleep for maybe an hour,' alongside a slew of crying with laughter emojis.

Gaz's post, however, drew some criticism from social media users, with one appearing to hit out at the TV personality and Emma, as they wrote: 'And these 2 are gonna be parents should have grown up first.'

Multi-tasking: The Geordie lad is seen holding onto a ring light in one hand while picking up the couple's dog in the other, before positioning the light above Emma's head

Down to a tee: Chuffed with his hard efforts, Gaz penned alongside his post: 'The s**t you do so the mrs can get a good picture,' before adding the hashtags: '#multitask #igotthis #bfpointsearned'

Their comment sparked a fiery response from Emma, who was quick to hit back: 'Pretty sure its for work honey, you know what people do to earn money and support their family. At least we can have fun with it.'

She is currently nine months pregnant with the pair's first child, a baby boy.

As she comes to the end of her pregnancy, it seems Emma is itching to meet her little one, as she penned on Twitter in the days after Christmas: 'I have never felt so drained in my life. Come on little baba.'

Hitting back: Gaz's post, however, drew some criticism from social media users, with one appearing to hit out at the TV personality - only for Emma to send back a fiery response

Mum-to-be: Clad in her lacy lingerie, Emma posed side on for a mirror selfie, making sure to draw attention to her neat baby bump by arching her back and popping her hip out, as she marked reaching the nine-month stage of her pregnancy

Last month, Emma spoke of her upcoming labour and revealed hospital staff were left shocked by the size of her baby bump. Speaking to OK! magazine, she said: 'The staff couldnt believe how small my bump was compared to the size of the baby.

'They were really shocked. But mainly they just told me hes growing well and everythings looking really healthy.'

Emma had previously revealed that she had been told by nurses her baby boy is actually growing bigger than he should be. Writing in her blog for the publication, Emma said: 'It's surprising because my bump is so small, but he's so far into my back which is why I've had a bit of sciatica and been so uncomfortable.

'I always like to know hes growing right and definitely hes a nice size, but it has made me a little bit nervous to give birth. Everyone says the smallest bumps are the biggest babies and it looks like hes going to come out huge so Im a bit nervous.'

Moving on: Gaz, meanwhile, has thrown himself full swing into preparing for the duo's new addition and has now quit Geordie Shore, after starring on the show for nearly seven years

Gaz, meanwhile, has thrown himself full swing into preparing for the duo's new addition and has now quit Geordie Shore, after starring on the show for nearly seven years.

He had been an original on the hit MTV reality series, making his debut when the show first premiered back in 2011, and one of the few castmembers to remain on the show since the very beginning.

Fans saw him bow out of Geordie Shore when it returned to MTV at the beginning of January, with Gaz's BFF Aaron Chalmers breaking the news to the rest of the house.

They then threw Gary a 'Parsnip' themed party in his honour (and in tribute to his manhood) while wearing masks of the star's face and in true Geordie Shore fashion attached one of the masks to a blow-up doll to bring with them on their night out.

End of an era: He had been an original on the hit MTV reality series, making his debut when the show first premiered back in 2011, and one of the few castmembers to remain on the show since the very beginning

Speaking about her beau's decision to quit the show, Emma explained that it wouldn't have looked 'responsible' for Gary to stay.

She said: 'If he had filmed the last Geordie Shore, it would have aired after the baby was born and some people dont realise when theyre filmed, and it wouldnt have looked very responsible, out drinking every night.'

Gaz and Emma first began dating in August 2016, but split in May this year - with the brunette claiming he had been unfaithful.

However, the pair patched up their romance in June, with Gaz revealing his lengthy stint filming in Australia had caused the tension between them.

The couple confirmed their pregnancy on their Instagram pages in August, just two months after their reconciliation.
She gave birth to her son Daye last summer - whom she shares with boyfriend and Geordie Shore star Greg Lake.

But seven months on and Jennifer Metcalfe showed that she's been able to retain her sensational physique, taking a dip in the pool on holiday.

Enjoying a post-festive break, the Hollyoaks actress, 35, stepped out of a pool in a black and white contrasting two-piece.

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Looking slick: Jennifer Metcalfe shows off her phenomenal physique in a tiny black and cream two-piece... just SEVEN months after giving birth to her son

Parading her honed figure, the British beauty showed off her bust in the cream top, with a teasing criss/cross drawstring design at the front.

Her bottoms were a contrasting black and featured cut-out strips at the hips.

She wore shades for her dip, stepping out of the clear blue waters, showing off her lengthy pins and her tiny waist.

She managed to keep her raven locks sleekly swept back from her face and smiled happily as she sauntered out of the pool.

Looking great: She gave birth to her son Daye last summer - whom she shares with boyfriend and Geordie Shore star Greg Lake

Phenomenal figure: Seven months on and Jennifer showed that she's been able to retain her sensational physique, taking a dip in the pool on holiday

Athletic: Enjoying a post-festive break, the Hollyoaks actress, 35, stepped out of a pool in a black and white contrasting two-piece

Working mum: Jennifer took to her Instagram the day before, teasing that she has various projects upcoming

Jennifer took to her Instagram the day before, teasing that she has various projects upcoming.

Uploading a snap of her having her make-up adjusted, she captioned it: 'Very fun, successful day with my @lighterlifefast family  #excitingthingstocome.'

Her appearance comes a few days after she commented on the reboot of Dancing On Ice - the show she appeared on in 2011 where she met and started a romance with pro skater Sylvain Longchambon.

Ex-skater: Her appearance comes a few days after she commented on the reboot of Dancing On Ice - the show she appeared on in 2011 where she met and started a romance with pro skater Sylvain Longchambon

Parading her honed figure: The British beauty showed off her bust in the cream top, with a teasing criss/cross drawstring design at the front

No hard feelings! Five years on from their bitter break-up, Jennifer Metcalfe insists she wishes nothing but the best for her ice-skater ex. The former couple are pictured together in September 2012

Shady: She wore shades for her dip, stepping out of the clear blue waters, showing off her lengthy pins and her tiny waist

Five years on from their bitter break-up, Jennifer insisted she wishes nothing but the best for her ice-skater ex, revealing she is backing the French hunk and his current dance partner Stephanie Waring to win the ITV show.

Jennifer and Sylvain's romance came to end over Christmas in 2012 - he began a relationship with Samia Ghadie soon after.

Samia and Sylvain are still going strong after their stint on the show in January 2013, tying the knot in August 2016 and raising son Yves together, while Jennifer quickly moved on with one-time Geordie Shore star Greg Lake, who she welcomed son Daye last year.

Proving there is no hard feelings between them, Jennifer praised Sylvain's abilities as a professional partner on the show.

Mix and match: Her bottoms were a contrasting black and featured cut-out strips at the hips

Yummy mummy: She managed to keep her raven locks sleekly swept back from her face and smiled happily as she sauntered out of the pool and headed for the bridge nearby

Five years on: Jennifer insisted she wishes nothing but the best for her ice-skater ex, revealing she is backing the French hunk and his current dance partner Stephanie Waring to win the ITV show

Soap star: Jennifer left her tot at home for her afternoon by the pool

She told The Sun Online of her former Hollyoaks co-star Stephanie Waring: 'I watched Dancing on Ice the other night and Steph is doing really well. I think she'll go really far.'

'She's got a good partner. I think they will go all the way.'

When suggested that Stephanie should trip Sylvain on the ice, he laughed: 'No, she doesn't need to do that. They are a good team.'

Jennifer was devastated when Sylvain ended their two-year relationship and later started dating Samia.

Speaking out about the situation, she told Fabulous magazine at the time: 'I don't wish them well, but I don't wish them ill. I guess it's nothing, really, I don't think anything about them. I'm focusing on my life.'

Split: Jennifer famously struck up a romance with Sylvain after being partnered on the show in early 2011, only for their romance to end over Christmas in 2012 when he revealed he had developped feelings for his subsequent dance partner Samia Ghadie (pictured in early 2013)
Authorities arrested Kieffer Delp from Teen Mom 2 on Wednesday for allegedly operating a meth lab in McKees Rocks, Pa., according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The 28-year-old ex-boyfriend of reality television star Jenelle Evans was charged with operating a methamphetamine laboratory in his basement apartment on the 1200 block of Vine Street.

Delp faces felony charges related to the manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamines and the improper disposal of chemicals, and was unable to post $50,000 bail from the Allegheny County Jail, according to the Gazette.

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Trouble: Authorities arrested Kieffer Delp from Teen Mom 2 on Wednesday for allegedly operating a meth lab, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; seen in 2011

Jenelle and Kieffer famously dated on the show from 2011-2013, which also documented his multiple run-ins with the law.

'A spokesman for the Allegheny County District Attorneys office said detectives were informed of Mr. Delps connection to the show before they entered the building,' the Gazette reported.

Authorities had reportedly received multiple complaints about the apartment which had been under investigation for a few weeks prior to the search.

Oh no: The 28-year-old ex-boyfriend of reality television star Jenelle Evans was charged with operating a methamphetamine laboratory in his basement apartment on the 1200 block of Vine Street; seen in 2011

Moving on: Jenelle and Kieffer famously dated on the show from 2011-2013, which also documented his multiple run-ins with the law; seen in January 2011

Residents of the apartment complex were evacuated while authorities searched the building, and allowed to return back to their units on Thursday morning.

'Obviously with all these chemicals together and during the process of making this, it could ultimately explode, which is why we evacuated the building while the product was being removed,' McKees Rocks Police Chief Richard Deliman said.

The publication reported that authorities discovered 'lithium, lighter fluid, propane, empty pseudo-ephedrine packaging and ammonium nitrate in the apartment.'

Moving on: Jenelle and Kieffer famously dated on the show from 2011-2013, which also documented his multiple run-ins with the law; seen in August

To further, 'glass smoking pipes, tourniquets, cooking tins and hypodermic needles' were recovered from the home, in addition to 'several One Pot cooks that appeared to be recently manufactured.'

Delp's preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23.

Jenelle married David Eason during a backyard ceremony at their North Carolina home in September, nearly nine months after having their daughter Ensley.

She was previously married to Courtland Rogers between 2012-2014, and has three-year-old son Kaiser with ex-fiance Nathan Griffith.

Andrew Lewis is the father of Evans' oldest son, Jace, 8, who's childhood has been documented on the show since January 2011.
She's made her life and her TV career in New Jersey.

But Teresa Giudice has shared that she would leave it all behind if husband Joe is deported back to his native Italy after serving a 41-month sentence for mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud that began in March 2016.

'Italys a beautiful place to live,' the Real Housewives Of New Jersey star said. 'I wouldnt mind, you know, Im just saying.

'I'd go': Teresa Giudice has shared that she would leave New Jersey behind if husband Joe is deported to his native Italy after serving 41-months for mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud

'Listen, whatever God has planned for me, thats whats going to happen. I will embrace it the best I can.'

Teresa, who served 11 months for the same crimes and was released in December 2015, made the revelation in a sneak peek at Part 1 of the reality show reunion, posted on Bravo's website on Thursday after Wednesday's season 8 finale.

Ready to move: Teresa made the revelation in a sneak peek at Part 1 of The Real Housewives Of New Jersey reunion that Bravo posted on its website on Thursday

She'd give it all up: Teresa with her RHONJ season 8 co-stars, from left, Margaret Josephs, Melissa Gorga, Dolores Catania and Siggy Flicker

The 45-year-old shares daughters Gia, 16, Gabriella, 13, Milania, 11 and eight-year-old Audriana with Joe.

And she also smacked down a question from a viewer read out by host Andy Cohen.

The viewer asked about rumors that Joe had been 'verbally abusive' to her in recent phone calls from prison and that she plans to filie for divorce before he gets out.

Uncertain future: Joe Giudice, 45, may be deported home to Italy after serving his 41-month term for mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud that began in March 2016

'Really? Was she on the phone with us?' Teresa fumed.

'These f****** people, I cant... Listen, I mean, you guys see me flip a table, you see me push, you can tell I dont take s***.

'So if my husband didnt treat me the right way, trust me, I would not take it. I always put my husband in his place, for real.'

Hanging with her girls: The 45-year-old shares daughters Audriana, eight, Milania, 11, Gabriella, 13, and Gia, 16, with Joe, here seen at a Bravo event in July 2016

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Three weeks after welcoming her second child, Nicky Hilton Rothschild took a stroll Thursday through Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood with her eldest Lily Grace.

It was a rare glimpse of the 34-year-old socialite's 18-month-old princess' face poking out of her sleeping bag-style winter pram.

The hotel heiress-turned-designer also bundled up in a leopard-print coat over her black athleisure ensemble, Adidas sneakers, and Chanel bag.

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Mother-of-two: Three weeks after welcoming her second child, Nicky Hilton Rothschild took a stroll Thursday through Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood with her eldest Lily Grace

Hilton's newborn daughter Teddy Marilyn must have been resting back home with a nanny or her second husband James Rothschild.

'It's going to be such a great year,' her mother Kathy gushed to People on Monday.

'I have a new grandbaby, my son is engaged, and now Paris!'

Little burrito: It was a rare glimpse of the 34-year-old socialite's 18-month-old princess' face poking out of her sleeping bag-style winter pram

What baby weight? The hotel heiress-turned-designer also bundled up in a leopard-print coat over her black athleisure ensemble, Adidas sneakers, and Chanel bag

Mother-daughter bonding: Hilton's newborn daughter Teddy Marilyn must have been resting back home with a nanny or her second husband James Rothschild

Indeed, Leftovers actor Chris Zylka proposed to the reality star-turned-DJ - turning 37 next month - on New Year's Eve in Aspen with a $2M 20-carat diamong ring.

Despite enlisting full-time security to protect her sparkler, the 58-year-old matriarch insisted the former sex tape star won't be a bridezilla.

Hilton (born Avanzino) said: 'She's easy. At Nicky's wedding, Nicky and Paris were the easiest ones there.'

Her mother Kathy (L) gushed to People on Monday: 'It's going to be such a great year. I have a new grandbaby, my son is engaged, and now Paris!'

Third time's a charm? Indeed, Leftovers actor Chris Zylka proposed to the reality star-turned-DJ - turning 37 next month - on New Year's Eve in Aspen with a $2M 20-carat diamong ring

'She's easy': Despite enlisting full-time security to protect her sparkler, the 58-year-old matriarch insisted the former sex tape star won't be a bridezilla

'Better than a fairytale!' And 28-year-old Barron 'can't wait to spend the rest of my life' with his fiancee Tessa Grafin von Walderdorff, whom he popped the question to on September 26

And 28-year-old Barron 'can't wait to spend the rest of my life' with his fiancee Tessa Grafin von Walderdorff, whom he popped the question to on September 26.

Nicky (born Nicholai) and her 32-year-old financier beau - who began their romance in 2011 - opted to name their child after her late grandmother Marilyn June Hawley.

The FIT drop-out's next baby will be her Mommy+Me fashion collaboration with the East-meets-West clothing company, Tolani, 'coming soon.'

Began their romance in 2011: Nicky (born Nicholai) and her 32-year-old financier beau (R) opted to name their child after her late grandmother Marilyn June Hawley
She's recently enjoyed a well-deserved getaway to Costa Rica before embarking on the second leg of her 59-date world tour promoting her latest album Joanne.

Now back straight to work, Lady Gaga arrived to Barcelona airport on Thursday ahead of her European Tour clad in a striking tailored pink suit which highlighted her sensational figure.

The 31-year-old Grammy winner highlighted her decolletage and cleavage as she opted to forgo a blouse under her statement blazer which featured a plunging neckline to her navel.

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Pretty in pink: Lady Gaga arrived to Barcelona on Thursday ahead of her European Tour clad in a striking tailored pink suit which highlighted her sensational figure

Her choice of wide lapel jacket drew attention to her narrow midriff with it's single button detail before falling over her slender hips to her thighs as she carried her leather tote out of the terminal.

The Pokerface hitmaker teamed her shoulder-padded blazer with a pair of matching suit trousers that highlighted her black platform heels.

Showcasing her signature style, Gaga was sure to create some style drama with her eye-catching accessories which included a chunky gold Versace necklace and a long chain which fell in the midst of her cleavage.

The blonde beauty worked her shoulder-length tresses into a side-sweeping look while she shielded her facial features with a pair of off-centre aviator shades.

Plunging: The 31-year-old Grammy winner highlighted her decolletage and cleavage as she opted to forgo a blouse under her statement blazer which featured a plunging neckline to her navel

She completed her look with a vibrant red lip and heavy dusting of bronzer across her cheeks as she made sure all eyes were on her while leaving the airport.

The six-time Grammy winner is kicking off the third leg of her 59-date Joanne World Tour on January 14 at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona.

Her year is already stacking up to be busy as she recently announced a residency at the MGM in Las Vegas, and will earn an estimated $14.4 million, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Work it: Her choice of wide lapel jacket drew attention to her narrow midriff with it's single button detail before falling over her slender hips to her thighs as she carried her leather tote out of the terminal

All in the details: Showcasing her signature style, Gaga was sure to create some style drama with her eye-catching accessories which included a chunky gold Versace necklace and a long chain which fell in the midst of her cleavage

She wrote: 'The rumors are true I will have my own residency in Las Vegas at MGMs Park Theater. I am SO HAPPY and excited beyond belief to make my own brand new show here with my new Vegas family.

'And I couldnt have done it without my amazing fans, little monsters and team. We love you so much. Meet me in Las Vegas!! This is just the beginning of a new era!'

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, she will earn an estimated $14.4 million, meaning Gaga will rake in around $400,000 per performance.

Relaxed: She recently enjoyed a well-deserved getaway to Costa Rica

A source familiar with her contract told the publication that claims she is in line for $100 million for 60 shows are 'way, way, way, off'.

The Beautiful Dirty Rich hitmaker will 'perform 36 shows at The Park Theater at Monte Carlo,' beginning next Autumn.

It was revealed earlier this month that Gaga and CAA talent agent Christain Carino, who have been dating since the beginning of the year, had become engaged over the summer after Carino first asked her father's permission.
Ricky Martin gave his castmate Penelope Cruz a good look at his wedding ring on the LA set of FX's controversial series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Wednesday.

It was hours after the 46-year-old newlywed revealed to E! News that he and his husband Jwan Yosef had exchanged vows and signed the certificate and the prenup.

The two-time Grammy winner and the 33-year-old Syrian-born Swede are now planning a 'heavy' three-day wedding reception for their friends and family.

Betrothed! Ricky Martin gave his castmate Penelope Cruz a good look at his wedding ring on the LA set of FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Wednesday

Wedding bling: It was hours after the 46-year-old newlywed revealed to E! News that he and his husband Jwan Yosef had exchanged vows and signed the certificate and the prenup

'It feels amazing!' Ricky (born Enrique Morales) gushed.

'I can't introduce him as my fiance. I can't. He's my husband. He's my man.'

Martin and the conceptual painter - who met in London 2016 - share a $13.5M seven-bedroom Beverly Hills mansion with his nine-year-old twins sons Matteo and Valentino.

'It feels amazing!' The two-time Grammy winner and the 33-year-old Syrian-born Swede are now planning a 'heavy' three-day wedding reception for their friends and family (pictured Monday)

'He's my husband. He's my man': Martin and the conceptual painter - who met in London 2016 - share a $13.5M seven-bedroom Beverly Hills mansion with his nine-year-old twins sons Matteo and Valentino

Meanwhile, the 43-year-old Oscar winner - who relies on stylist Cristina Ehrlich - looked chic in a camel coat over a black top, blue jeans, and lace-up booties.

It's surprising to see the Spanish mother-of-two and the Puerto Rican pop star still shooting the 10-episode second season, which premieres next Wednesday.

Perhaps creator Ryan Murphy needed to do last-minute reshoots following the Versace family's outraged response to the adaptation of Maureen Orth's 1999 non-fiction book Vulgar Favors.

The Menudo alum plays the late Italian designer's (Edgar Ramirez) partner Antonio D'Amico in the anthology, which the family blasted as 'a work of fiction.'

Sophisticated: Meanwhile, the 43-year-old Oscar winner - who relies on stylist Cristina Ehrlich - looked chic in a camel coat over a black top, blue jeans, and lace-up booties

Full make-up: It's surprising to see the Spanish mother-of-two and the Puerto Rican pop star still shooting the 10-episode second season, which premieres next Wednesday

Cruz admitted she was surprised by the vitriol since Versace's sister and protegee Donatella had just sent her flowers on Monday.

'I have seen her over the years and she has always been very nice to me,' the Murder on the Orient Express actress told E! News on Tuesday.

'She said to me, that if somebody was going to do it, that if somebody was going to play her, that she was happy it was me...What I have seen [of the show] is that it's treated with a lot of respect. Everybody else approached this from the same place of respect.'

With all the controversy, Ricky will be glad to resume the fourth leg of his 30-date, $6.3M-grossing All In residency at Monte Carlo's Park Theater in Las Vegas on March 15.

Unauthorized: The Menudo alum plays the late Italian designer's (Edgar Ramirez) partner Antonio D'Amico in the anthology, which the family blasted as 'a work of fiction'

'She has always been very nice to me': Cruz admitted she was surprised by the vitriol since Versace's sister and protegee Donatella had just sent her flowers on Monday.
They are the Western Australia-born international models who are also best friends.

And Jessica Gomes shared a sweet message to Nicole Trunfio's son Zion to Instagram on Friday, wishing him a happy third birthday.

The 33-year-old was pictured strumming a guitar as the adorable tot looked on, in a dimly-lit photograph snapped by Nicole.

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Doting: Jessica Gomes shared a sweet message to Nicole Trunfio's son Zion to Instagram on Friday, wishing him a happy third birthday

'Happy Birthday little man! Cant believe youre 3 today. Love you to the moon & beyond,' gushed Jessica in the image's caption.

Last month the Perth-born beauty attended her bestie Nicole's baby shower for the girl she is expecting any day now with husband Gary Clark Jr.

The ladies-only affair was held at the glitzy Beverly Hills Hotel attendees included Rosie Huntington-Whitely, Renee Bargh and stylist Monica Rose.

Family ties: Last month the Perth-born beauty attended her bestie Nicole's baby shower for the girl she is expecting any day now with husband Gary Clark Jr (pictured)

With the Australian knockouts vocal about social issues via their online platforms, Jessica and Nicole both feature in this year's The Heart Foundation calendar.

In an interview with Confidential, the models spoke about their mission with the non-profit to raise funds for research.

'It is nice to use my profile to create positive change and to raise awareness and to help good causes,' Jessica told the publication.

Big hearts: With the Australian knockouts vocal about social issues via their online platforms, Jessica and Nicole both feature in this year's The Heart Foundation calendar

'I am always invested in things that that will help something bigger than me so something that helps the Heart Foundation, the biggest killer in the world, it was important to do this for the cause,' Nicole added.

Jessica became an international star for Australia in the late 2000s, after appearing on the covers of overseas editions of Vogue and Glamour magazines.

Nicole rose to fame after starring in campaigns for some of the world's most luxurious brands including Chanel, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana.
He was left fighting for his life after crashing his motorcycle in a terrifying accident while filming a stunt for Maze Runner in 2016.

But Dylan O'Brien looked fighting fit as he attended the Seoul premiere of the sci-fi series' third installment Maze Runner: The Death Cure on Thursday.

The Teen Wolf actor, 26, appeared to be in great spirits as he hit the red carpet with his youthful co-star, Love Actually's Thomas Brodie-Sangster at the event in South Korea.

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He's back! Dylan O'Brien looked fighting fit as he attended the Seoul premiere of Maze Runner: The Death Cure on Thursday - 18 months after suffering a life-threatening motorcycle crash while filming a stunt onset

New York native Dylan, who suffered a facial fracture and lacerations in the crash, appeared to have fully recovered as he smiled for the cameras.

Cutting a dapper figure in a burgundy suit, the American Assassin actor went for a clean-shaven look.

The handsome actor was seriously hurt during filming in Vancouver, Canada back in March 2016 when he crashed a motorcycle while filming a scene for the sci-fi series.

According to a report from WorkSafeBC, he suffered a concussion, facial fracture and lacerations when his head hit the ground.

Good genes! Dylan was joined by youthful Love Actually star Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who looked remarkably fresh-faced

Fighting fit: New York native Dylan, who suffered a facial fracture and lacerations in the crash, appeared to have fully recovered as he smiled for the cameras

Then and now: Dylan sported longer locks and a distinguished hint of stubble compared to his appearance at the Maze Runner: The Scorcher Trials premiere in 2015 (right)

Gripping: The cast star as Gladers trapped once again in an industrial-style maze in the dystopian YA flick Maze Runner: The Death Cure, which hits cinemas on January 26

His co-star Giancarlo Esposito revealed afterwards that many who witnessed the accident had feared the worst.

O'Brien suffered a concussion, facial fracture, and lacerations last year on the set of Maze Runner: The Death Cure while shooting a stunt atop a moving car that was struck by another vehicle.

Shortly after, Maze Runner director Wes Ball delayed the three-quel's production and release, calling Dylan 'one tough cookie' in a tweet reassuring fans he was 'going to be just fine.'

Recovered: The handsome actor was seriously hurt during filming in Vancouver, Canada back in March 2016 when he crashed a motorcycle while filming a scene for the sci-fi series

Better than ever: He flashed a wide grin as he posed with co-stars Thomas and Ki Hong Le

Larking around: The trio appeared to be in great spirits as they waved to fans at the South Korea premiere

But first, let me take a selfie: Dylan pulled a shocked face as he posed for a snap with Ki

Meanwhile producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed Dylan 'came close to dying' in the petrifying crash.

He said: 'It was more than disconcerting. I never saw him in his worst form, but it was described to me. It was really scary.

'He came close to dying, I'm pretty sure. It was enough to shake your core.'

Dylan later revealed how combat training for his titular role in American Assassin was therapeutic for his recovery process.

Come here, you! The trio proved they had developed a strong bond as they shared a group hug during the press conference

Strong role: Thomas plays Newt in the science fiction sequel  the latest installment in the hugely popular Maze Runner film series

'I didn't really even want to leave my couch necessarily when I was allowed to, so yeah, it was a big step doing this,' the Deepwater Horizon star told ET last July.

'The state that you're in after something like that, you just want to run from all that stuff.'

The Manhattan-born, Manhattan Beach-raised actor continued: 'I ultimately decided that I wanted to try it and I didn't want to let it go. It ended up being really instrumental in the whole [recovery] process.'

O'Brien said playing CIA black ops recruit Mitch Rapp in Michael Cuesta's revenge thriller ultimately came at a great time for him and 'all the training was very good for my mind and very good for recovery.'

What's his secret? The 27-year-old still looked incredibly youthful - 15 years after melting millions of hearts with his turn in romantic comedy Love, Actually
Growing up at Australia Zoo, Robert Irwin is used to coming face to face with terrifying animals.

But this week, the young wildlife warrior had a scare of a different kind as he was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

Sharing a snap from his hospital bed on Friday, the 14-year-old revealed on Instagram he had his appendix removed following a health scare.

'Kicking off the new year with emergency surgery!' Posting to his Instagram on Friday, Robert Irwin (pictured) shared that he had been rushed to hospital to have his appendix removed

'Kicking off the new year with emergency surgery,' the blond teen captioned a image that featured him lying in a hospital bed.

Despite being hooked up to a drip with a number of medical machines surrounding him, the son of late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin seemed to be in good spirits.

Robert cheerfully explained: 'Im recovering well and feeling so much better without my pesky appendix!'

Australia Zoo told Daily Mail Australia on Friday that Robert was on the mend following the surgery.

'On New Years Day, Robert suffered appendicitis which resulted in the removal of his appendix,' a representative said.

'He has since been recovering well and will be participating in the daily Wildlife Warriors show at Australia Zoo as much as he can, from January 13th to 21st with Terri and Bindi. Thank you to everyone for their support and well wishes.'

'Im recovering well and feeling so much better without my pesky appendix!' Robert seemed to be in good spirits despite the surgery

It comes after the budding photographer revealed to The Courier Mail in November that he wanted to forge his own path rather than follow in his famous father's footsteps.

'I don't want be exactly like Dad, I don't want to be Dad, but I do want to continue his legacy,' he said.

'I am trying to make him proud. I would like him to be proud.'

'I don't want to be Dad, but I do want to continue his legacy': Robert previously told The Courier Mail in November that he wanted to forge his own path and not follow in the footsteps of his famous father, late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin (left)

Family ties: Robert and sister Bindi (right) was raised by mum Terri (centre) at Australia Zoo

Meanwhile, Robert's sister Bindi has been making headlines of her own lately, as rumours continue to swirl that she is engaged to her longtime beau Chandler Powell.

Over the festive break, Chandler and Bindi shared snaps enjoyed travelling around Europe, and have visited romantic destinations, including France and Italy while fans flocked to their posts to see if the American wakeboarder has popped the question.

However, Australia Zoo have hit back at the engagement reports, previously telling Daily Mail Australia the couple has no immediate plans to walk down the aisle.
He recently bulked up for his role as Dick Cheney in the biopic Backseat.

But it seems Christian Bale is on a new routine as he was spotted looking slimmer while leaving a breakfast meeting in Brentwood on Thursday morning.

The 43-year-old actor looked healthy and happy as he donned a pair of loose black shorts and a navy shirt while walking through a parking lot to his vehicle.

Walk it out: Christian Bale seems to be on a new routine as he was spotted looking slimmer while leaving a breakfast meeting in Brentwood on Thursday morning

The Batman Begins star hurried down a set of stairs wearing a loose pair of black shorts with a neon green Under Armour logo stitched onto the pant leg.

A tight navy blue T-shirt hugged his chest and revealed a somewhat slimmed down waistline.

Christian kept warm in the chilly winter weather with a long-sleeved dark blue Adidas jacket, with three classic white stripes running up his arms.

Activewear: The 43-year-old actor looked healthy and happy as he donned a pair of loose black shorts and a navy shirt while walking through a parking lot to his vehicle

Work out: The Batman Begins star hurried down a set of stairs wearing a loose pair of black shorts with a neon green Under Armour logo stitched onto the pant leg

The American Hustle actor sported a pair of comfortable black slip-on sneakers with a thick white sole.

Christian's short brown hair was shaved into a buzz cut and he showed off a scruffy beard and matching mustache.

He carried a large black portfolio in one hand and his car keys in the other.

Fitness: A navy blue T-shirt hugged his chest to reveal a somewhat slimmed down waistline

Christian gained a staggering 40 pounds to portray former US Vice President Dick Cheney in the upcoming biopic Backseat.

The movie directed by Adam Mckay, 49, wrapped filming last week, and also stars Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell and Steve Carell.

McKay also directed Christian in 2015's The Big Short, which was the first film he directed without comedy partner Will Ferrell in the cast.

The Machinist actor had to lose70 lbs. for his role as Trevor Reznik and then rapidly gain 100 lbs. to play Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins.

Bale also lost weight for his role as Dickie Eklund in The Fighter and then add 50 lbs. to play in the Oscar-nominated movie American Hustle.
Hailey Baldwin donned quite a leggy look for lunch at West Hollywood restaurant Zinque on Thursday.

The 21-year-old IMG Model - who relies on stylist Maeve Reilly - wore a white Balenciaga T-shirt tucked into a tiny denim skirt and black platform sneakers.

The pink-haired presenter later Insta-storied a selfie from the rear view mirror of the car she was riding in that day.

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Pin parade: Hailey Baldwin donned quite a leggy look for lunch at West Hollywood restaurant Zinque on Thursday, accessorizing with black Vera Wang shades

Hailey, who also donned a chic pair of Vera Wang shades for her outing, was celebrating her first cover of 2018 - the February edition of Marie Claire Italia - hitting newsstands next Tuesday.

The high-fashion magazine spready was shot by David Bellemere and styled by Elisabetta Massari.

Baldwin - who boasts 12.6M social media followers - gushed on Instagram: 'Great way to start off the new year!'

Lady who lunches: The 21-year-old IMG Model - who relies on stylist Maeve Reilly - wore a white Balenciaga T-shirt tucked into a tiny denim skirt and black platform sneakers

Mirror, mirror: The pink-haired presenter later Insta-storied a selfie from the rear view mirror of the car she was riding in that day

'Great way to start off the new year!' Hailey was celebrating her first cover of 2018 - the February edition of Marie Claire Italia - hitting newsstands next Tuesday

The Maxim Hot 100 champ co-hosts celebrity rap battle competition Drop The Mic - airing Tuesdays on TBS - which was already renewed for a second season.

But the Bible-quoting blonde is perhaps best known as the best friend of fellow model Kendall Jenner and ex-flame of Canadian pop star Justin Bieber.

However, Hailey's original claim to fame was being the nepotistically-privileged daughter of The Usual Suspect's Stephen Baldwin and niece of SNL's Alec Baldwin.

Airing Tuesdays on TBS! Baldwin co-hosts celebrity rap battle competition Drop The Mic with hip-hop star Method Man (R), which was already renewed for a second season

Nepotism: But the Bible-quoting blonde's original claim to fame was being the daughter of The Usual Suspect's Stephen Baldwin (L) and niece of SNL's Alec Baldwin

Meanwhile, Hailey showed off her long slender legs again on Thursday.

She was spotting wearing a white mini-dress under a green and black plaid jacket plus her black platform sneakers from the day before.

The model was returning to her car after stopping in Los Angeles at a Pressed Juicery to pick up something healthy to go.
Craig McLachlan's understudy has been confirmed to replace the embattled actor as the lead in the Brisbane and Perth productions of the Rocky Horror Show.

Rising star Adam Rennie is earning critical acclaim after McLachlan agreed to leave the show amid allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour and will take to the stage as Frank N Furter during the Brisbane season, which starts next week, Queensland Performing Arts Centre said.

Rennie's elevation comes after three cast members from the 2014 production of the popular musical told a Fairfax Media/ABC investigation that 52-year-old McLachlan inappropriately touched them or exposed himself, allegations he denies.
Police in northern NSW are urging locals to dob in any hoons they spot doing burnouts.

Grafton police have released mobile phone footage of a blue car with P-plates performing a burnout in a puddle of black oil, causing a plume of smoke.

"It's reckless and dangerous behaviour that not only risked the safety of the hoons, but also of innocent road users," Inspector Joanne Reid in a statement on Thursday.

Insp Reid said police have received numerous reports of car hoons doing burnouts in the area.
The iconic School of the Air has won a reprieve in Western Australia with the state's government reversing $23 million in education cuts which would have sounded the death knell for the correspondence program.

The decision late last year to scrap the school by a government dealing with record debt and deficit sparked an angry backlash from affected families in remote areas.

Premier Mark McGowan insisted at the time the same services would be provided by the existing Perth-based School of Isolated and Distance Education.

However on his first day back since Christmas, the premier and Education Minister Sue Ellery held a press conference to say they were wrong in axing the SOTA and various other cuts.

They had also included axing programs for gifted and talented students and a freeze on intakes for higher qualified level three teachers.

Mr McGowan apologised to affected families.

"Clearly ... we went a bit far and we caused stress and anxiety to some families and some students and for that we apologise," he told reporters on Thursday.

A petition to save School of the Air started by a Nationals MP Vince Catania attracted 32,000 signatures.

The $23 million hole in its planned budget savings would now have to come from other departments, Mr McGowan said.

Ms Ellery said the government had failed to get the balance right between budget savings and the value placed by the community on services.

"While budget repair is important ... we had got the balance wrong, we got the timing wrong and we failed to bring people with us," she said.

She said she accepted that parents valued the sense of community provided by the School of the Air.

The reversal has been welcomed but not before the government was accused by the Liberals, Nationals, Greens and One Nation of poor judgment in making the decision in the first place and for putting affected students and families through "an agonising month of pain and uncertainty".

"Two backflips, first we had Perth Modern and now we have School of the Air," Opposition Leader Mike Nahan said, referring to the government also dropping plans to relocate the academically selective Perth Modern School.

Community and Public Sector Union WA secretary Toni Walkington said the decision was evidence the government needed to find a new way to work with affected stakeholders.

"The anxiety and effort triggered by these cuts and their impact could easily have been avoided by engaging collaboratively with parents, staff and other stakeholders," she said.
A Porsche has been damaged and four people arrested after they tried to flee from South Australian police.

Officers spotted the stolen luxury car speeding at Mannum, east of Adelaide, just after 11am on Thursday.

The police helicopter tracked the vehicle to Mypolonga where attempts to stop it with road spikes failed as the driver swerved, struck a brick wall and sped off.

The car continued for some distance but eventually broke down with its four occupants arrested after attempting to run from the scene.

Police say they were unhurt and are being interviewed.
West Australians are being warned of a potential measles outbreak after a passenger infected with the disease journeyed from Thailand to Perth.

The person arrived on Thai Airways flight TG483 on January 2.

After visiting several locations in Perth's northern suburbs over the next few days, they were taken to Joondalup Health Campus and quarantined on Monday.

The Health Department is warning that people on the same flight or in the same area as the infected person may have been exposed to the disease.

The highly contagious viral illness is spread by tiny droplets released when infected people cough or sneeze.

A vaccine is currently given to children at 12 and 18 months of age and a person is considered immune if they have received two doses or were born before 1966.

People who think they are infected should call ahead before they arrive at a doctor's surgery or emergency department to minimise the spread of the disease.

The sites visited by the infected passenger include:

* January 2 (8-9am) - Perth Airport international terminal arrival area

* January 2 (10am-12pm) - Coles at Northlands Plaza Shopping Centre in Balcatta

* January 5 (approximately 12pm) - KFC at 232 Walter Rd W in Morley

* Morning of January 6 - Coles at Northlands Plaza and Woolworths at Stirling Central Shopping Centre on Wanneroo Rd, Westminster

* January 6 (7.3pm-8.30pm) - Pharmacy777 on Arnisdale Rd in Duncraig

* January 7 (2.45pm) - Joondalup Health Campus in/near the Emergency Department and in the Medical Assessment Unit from late that day until about midday on January 8.
A woman has been found dead inside a house in Melbourne's inner north with police treating the death as suspicious.

The 43-year-old woman was discovered at a house on Albert Street in Brunswick and police were called to the scene on Thursday morning.

"We are comfortable at this stage that whatever has happened doesn't pose any threat to the wider community," Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Colbert told reporters at the scene.

"We are speaking to neighbours, doorknocking the area, making a lot of inquiries to try to ascertain what in fact may have gone on if anything has gone on."

However her death is currently being treated as suspicious and police will await the results of a post mortem examination.
An American tourist has died while hiking the popular Larapinta Trail, west of Alice Springs.

The 33-year-old Californian was reported missing late on Wednesday after taking a wrong turn on the trail near Mount Sonder.

His body was located at the base of the mountain just after 5pm with the cause of death undisclosed.

Authorities would not confirm if he suffered from dehydration or had another medical emergency of some kind.

However police said his death was not believed to be suspicious.

They said the American embassy had been informed with a report to be prepared for the coroner.

"Investigations are ongoing, however, police do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death," Senior Sergeant Michael Potts said.

A US embassy spokesman said they were aware of reports of the death of a US citizen in the Northern Territory.

"We are closely monitoring local authorities' investigation into the cause of death," the spokesman said.

"We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance."

Media reports indicated the man's walking companion raised the alarm after making it back to the Redbank Gorge car park.

The Larapinta Trail is a bushwalking track that runs west for 223kms from Alice Springs to Mount Sonder along the West MacDonnell Ranges.

The trail's website warns that a reasonably good level of fitness is required to complete the walk and those taking it on should expect to encounter steep, rugged and broken terrain.

The website also warns of a number of points where the track is difficult to identify and says hikers can veer off the trail.

Temperatures in the area were also very hot on Wednesday with the mercury hitting 40C in Alice Springs.
We're looking forward. And we're going to learn, Daines said. There will be lessons learned certainly from this last cycle. You always learn a lot, and we'll take those lessons learned and apply them going forward.
England's Heather Watson has booked a Hobart International semi-final showdown with defending champion Elise Mertens after a straight-sets win that hit a slight blip.

Watson took 61 minutes to get past Croatian Donna Vekic 6-0 6-4 on Thursday but had to withstand a late surge.

World No.74 Watson claimed the first 11 games of the match against the higher-ranked Vekic and took a 5-0 lead in the second set.

She looked on track for an untroubled win until Vekic fired up her forehand and reeled off four straight games.

"I was pretty flawless, no mistakes and then at 5-0 Donna raised her level," Watson said.

"I knew she'd change something and swing freely because you've got nothing to lose at that point.

"I just had to stick with her."

Watson steadied though, as Vekic double faulted and then pushed a groundstroke long on the final two points of the match.

Watson, who won Hobart in 2015, was forced to qualify for this year's event but has made an impressive run to the final four, knocking out third seed Sorana Cirstea in the opening round.

She'll meet defending champion Elise Mertens in Friday's semi-finals.

Second seed Mertens advanced via a walkover after last year's runner-up Monica Niculescu withdrew due to a shoulder injury.

No player has won the Hobart title twice since it began in 1994 but Mertens or Watson could become the first.

In the third quarter-final, fifth seed Lesia Tsurenko abruptly ended big-hitting Romanian teenager Aryna Sabalenka's tournament 6-1 6-1.

Sabalenka had ousted top seed Shuai Zhang and former world No.5 Eugenie Bouchard en route to the quarter-finals.

"I just was playing relaxed ... I was quite confident that I could win the match and was really comfortable out there," Tsurenko, who reached a career-high No.29 in July, said.

She'll play Romania's Mihaela Buzarnescu who beat American Alison Riske 7-6 (7-5) 6-1.
Today's Birthday, January 12: Australian drug smuggler Andrew Chan (1984-2015).

The man known as the Bali Nine drug smuggling group's "godfather", Andrew Chan, wanted nothing more than to walk out of Kerobokan prison a free man, fellow convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby recently revealed.

Corby - who forged a close friendship with Chan during her nine years in jail - was released and returned to Australia in May 2017, more than two years after Chan and fellow Australian ringleader Myuran Sukumaran were executed by an Indonesian firing squad.

Their execution went ahead despite pleas for clemency and caused a political spat between the nations, with the Abbott government recalling its Indonesian ambassador.

Born the youngest child to Chinese migrants Ken and Helen Chan in Sydney in 1984, Chan grew up in the inner-western suburb of Enfield.

He attended Homebush Boys High School and gained a reputation as a class clown and bully.

After dropping out of school in Year 10, the teenager got a catering job but, lacking any discernible career ambition, started using drugs.

Despite going to the same high school, Chan only crossed paths with Sukumaran, three years his senior, at a mutual friend's house in 2002.

Indonesian prosecutors alleged that Chan successfully smuggled drugs into Australia in October 2004 by enlisting a number of teenagers, many participants of the Bali Nine drug ring.

After another operation was aborted in December, Chan returned to Bali with Sukumaran and seven others the following April to carry out a heroin trade.

But following a tip-off by Australian Federal Police, the group was arrested and charged with "conspiring to import more than eight kilograms of heroin from Bali into Australia".

Chan maintained his innocence throughout the trial but he and Sukumaran were both found guilty and sentenced to death in 2006, while all other members escaped with lengthy prison sentences.

On the inside, the death-row inmates were both described as model prisoners with Chan converting to Christianity and running church services.

Between 2010 and 2015, Chan and Sukumaran had several appeals, judicial reviews and clemency pleas rejected.

Chan married his fiancee Feby Herewila two days before the Bali Nine ringleaders were executed, along with six other drug offenders, on April 29, 2015.

All refused to be blindfolded and sang hymns, including Amazing Grace, before being shot in a jungle clearing on the island of Nusakambangan.
As thousands of young Australians find out if they made the grade for their preferred university courses, the federal education minister is urging them to carefully research their options.

Students in NSW and the ACT will begin receiving first-round offers from Friday with other states to follow in coming weeks.

The 2017 national report into graduate outcomes, released on Friday, shows almost 30 per cent of students struggle to land full-time work within four months of graduation.

The survey found the employment prospects of some university courses were much better than others.

Graduates of more vocationally-oriented courses had greater success getting a job immediately upon graduation, Education Minister Simon Birmingham said.

Last year, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, teaching and business management undergraduates had the strongest employment rates.

Whereas undergraduates with more generalist degrees often took longer to gain a foothold in the workforce.

Undergraduates with degrees in creative arts, science, psychology and communications had the lowest rates of full-time employment.

Students who graduated from regional universities had a stronger employment rate than those in the cities.

The survey also identified an increased trend of graduates securing part-time work.

Senator Birmingham said it's important students take time to consider their options before taking the plunge.

"Accepting an offer can be a life-changing decision," Senator Birmingham said.

He highlighted the government's quality indicators for learning and teaching (QILT) website as a one-stop shop for prospective students wanting to better understand university and course options, and what was most likely to help them land a job after graduation.
The results of a ballot on potential strike action by Sydney rail staff are expected on Friday afternoon following several chaotic days of delays and cancellations.

A meltdown on Tuesday, which left crowds stranded on packed train platforms across the city, was blamed on driver sickness and storm damage.

Unions claim staff should have been consulted about the new timetable before it was implemented last year and believe it leaves little room to recover from such incidents.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union on Thursday evening dismissed reports of a narrow "yes" result in a ballot on protected strike action as staff push for a six per cent pay rise.

A spokeswoman said the results were expected from the Australian Electoral Commission late Friday afternoon.

"It is important to note that the results of this ballot, if successful, will mean workers will have the option of taking protected industrial action," the spokeswoman said in a statement.

"But it's important to stress that at this stage, no action is being undertaken."

Rail bosses met with union heavyweights on Thursday to discuss the issues ahead of what's being called a "pressure day" on Monday when the new Hornsby junction begins operating.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance has demanded a review of the timetable within a fortnight but shut down suggestions passengers should be refunded for the mass inconvenience.
Victoria's new African-Australian community task force will meet on Friday for the first time to launch its mission to prevent youth crime and ease racial tensions.

The task force comprises leaders of the state's African community and it will support police by providing information on emerging issues and hot spots.

Established on Wednesday, the group will also create a more efficient communication channel on how to prevent crimes and report racial vilification.

It comes after series of recent high-profile crimes involving youths of African appearance, including assaults, brawls, armed robberies and home invasions, mostly in suburban Melbourne.

The issue of crime among African youths in Victoria arose when the Apex gang emerged in 2012 but debate intensified following the recent events.

Federal immigration minister Peter Dutton inflamed the commentary last week when he said some Melburnians were afraid to go out to dinner because of gang-related crime.

Others have said the concern is overblown, suggesting incidents involving African youths have become a political tool and draw more media coverage.
A 32-year-old man is expected to face court next month over allegations he was captured on video kicking a dog at a Gold Coast beach.

The man, believed to be the dog's owner, was charged by the RSPCA on Thursday with one count of animal cruelty after footage of the incident was uploaded by a bystander to Facebook on Monday.

He is due appear in the Southport Magistrates Court in February.

The dog was seized on Tuesday afternoon by the RSPCA and taken to its animal care centre at Wacol.
Western Australia's remote is bracing for Tropical Cyclone Joyce amid fears it will grow into an even more severe storm off the west Kimberley coast.

A red alert has been issued for areas south of Broome to the Aboriginal community of Bidyadanga in the Kimberley, with people urged to take shelter and stay away from doors and windows.

"There is a threat to lives and homes. You are in danger and need to act immediately," the alert from Emergency WA states.

There is a also yellow alert to prepare to take shelter for areas from Beagle Bay down to Broome, and for areas south of Bidyadanga to Wallal.

It is the region's second cyclone in a fortnight after Tropical Cyclone Hilda hit the Broome area.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned on Thursday that Joyce was expected to intensify considerably while moving southwest.

Joyce was declared a category one cyclone on Thursday morning with winds of 65kmh, but is set to grow to a far more dangerous category three by Friday with winds up to 180kmh.

Authorities are concerned that the longer the system remains offshore the more it will strengthen before potentially hitting populated areas such as Port Hedland in the Pilbara on Friday night or Saturday morning.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services regional head Glenn Hall on Thursday ordered the closure of the Great Northern Highway between Port Hedland and Broome for 36 to 48 hours.

Emergency crews have been sent to Broome from Perth while an evacuation centre set up is already providing shelter for almost 150 people.
A Queensland funeral home accused of swapping a grandmother's expensive coffin for a cheap pine box says it was only done so the pricey casket wouldn't crack.

Rockhampton funeral director Tony Hart told the Courier-Mail his company, Harts Family Funerals, only moved the woman's body to a crematorium in a cheaper box to protect the structural integrity of the $1700 casket her family paid for.

'The coffin she was cremated in was the same one that the family bought,' Mr Hart has told the newspaper, after police said they were investigating complaints from the family of 74-year-old Janice Cecilia Valigura.

A family has been left outraged after a funeral home allegedly swapped the expensive coffin (pictured) of their grandmother to a cheap box

The $1700 oak casket lined with white silk is believed to have been switched for a $70 pine box (pictured) moments before the cremation of 74-year-old Janice Valigura

Ms Valigura, 74, was farewelled on Monday after she died from a stroke on New Year's Eve, and cremated at a Rockhampton cemetery.

But her family claimed Harts Family Funerals removed her body from the casket, wrapped it in plastic and dumped it in a cheap box for her cremation after discovering the swap when they went to say goodbye at the crematorium.

They said letters written by her grandchildren and placed on her heart were also thrown away.

Harts Family Funerals declined to comment, with owner Tony Hart only saying there were 'two families involved in the story'.

Queensland Funeral Directors Association president Anton Brown said changing coffins was not common practice in the funeral industry.

'When people choose a funeral director they put a lot of trust in that person,' he told ABC radio.

Funeral director Tony Hart says the swap was only done so the pricey casket wouldn't crack

Ms Valigura's (pictured) niece Kerry Rothery told The Daily Mercury when the coffin arrived 'an hour late' they knew something had happened

Detective Sergeant Craig Strohfeldt said Queensland police were now investigating the funeral home for fraud.

'It's been reported as a fraud and that's what's being investigated at this stage,' he said.

'It's only been alleged at this stage but if the investigations do prove that an offence has been committed then it is a shocking thing.

'This person who has done this to the family has broken their trust. It's like buying a Mercedes and getting a Toyota Corolla.'

The funeral home, Harts Family Funerals (pictured)

Ms Valigura's niece Kerry Rothery told The Daily Mercury when the coffin arrived 'an hour late' they knew something had happened.

Between the coffin being blessed by Ms Valigura's grandchildren at the church and being taken to the crematorium, something went wrong.

Ms Rothery said the top of the casket had been screwed shut and her aunt was wrapped in plastic instead of the initial silk wrap.

'What she was put in was absolutely degrading to my aunty,' she said.

Ms Valigura's son Mick Valigura said the family were devastated but the undertaker told him it happened often, according to ABC News.

Whitsunday Funerals and Crematorium director Jeff Doyle said switching coffins was 'common practice around Australia' and called for 'serious regulation' in the industry.

'But unfortunately because at most crematoriums you're not allowed to go down and actually see the coffin go into the the cremator, it's easy for them to do it,' he said.
A 54-year-old Sydney mother who avoided the death penalty in Malaysia over drug trafficking charges has been released on bail.

Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto was found not guilty late last year of attempting to import more than a kilogram of crystal methamphetamine into Kuala Lumpur, en route from Shanghai to Melbourne, in 2014.

The mother of four was granted bail in a Malaysian court on Thursday, the ABC reports.

Her lawyer says her passport will be surrendered and will have to report to police each week until an appeal hearing in court in February.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has gone into damage control over a diplomatic row concerning China's aid to Pacific Island nations.

International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells criticised China's assistance to tiny Pacific island nations for building "white elephant" projects and "roads to nowhere".

She also expressed concerns about the sustainability of China's loan arrangements with the island nations.

Beijing has reacted angrily to the remarks lodging an official protest with Australia's embassy in Beijing.

Ms Bishop said the Australian government welcomes investment in developing nations in the Pacific that supports sustainable economic growth, and which does not impose onerous debt burdens on regional governments.

"Australia works with a wide range of development partners, including China, in pursuit of the goal of eliminating poverty in our region and globally," she said.

China media commentary from the Xinuhua newsagency warned Australia should "refrain from behaving like an arrogant overlord".

Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong has labelled as clumsy the government's approach to bilateral relations with China.

The Lowy Insitute estimates China has poured $2.3 billion in aid to the South Pacific since 2006.

The Institute's Pacific Islands program director Jonathan Pryke said the senator had made a legitimate point but the value of projects had to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
A California woman admitted on Thursday that she helped supply meth in a conspiracy to distribute the drug in the Bakken oil fields.

Claudia Norman, 57, of Grover Beach, California, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute meth during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Billings.

Prosecutor Bryan Dake said Norman was a source of meth for co-conspirators Timothy Swope, of Sidney, and Keith Coffin, of Santa Maria, California, who worked with another person to pay Norman in return for meth. The conspiracy ran for about a year, starting in about December 2015.

In one instance, Dake said, Swope and Coffin provided another person in Sidney more than $11,000 to go to California to buy about 3.5 pounds of meth from Norman. The meth was to be resold in the Bakken area by Swope, Coffin and others, he said.

Swope was sentenced to 13 years in prison and Coffin was sentenced to 10 years for their convictions in the case.

Norman faces a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison and a $10 million fine.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan said he will recommend that Normans plea be accepted by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters, who will sentence her. Cavan continued Normans release pending sentencing.
International superstar Cher will perform at Sydney's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in March, with the state government confirming one of the city's worst kept secrets.

The 71-year-old hinted she was coming Down Under in a cryptic emoji-laden tweet in December: "OK..... YOU BOYS KNOW WHERE I'LL IN MARCH... #PutSomeShrimpOmTheBar[bie]".

The NSW government on Friday announced Cher had been locked into performing at the Mardi Gras Party, when the city marks the annual parade's 40th anniversary. It will be the first since same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia.

"When it comes to international recording artists, they don't get much bigger than Cher and as one of the LGBTQI community's most vocal advocates, she is the perfect person to help celebrate Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras," Minister for the Arts Don Harwin said in a statement.
Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui said he was assaulted by armed men in Islamabad on January 10, 2018

A Pakistani journalist known for criticising the powerful military said he had escaped an abduction attempt after being assaulted by armed men in Islamabad Wednesday, in the latest case involving forced disappearances in the turbulent country.

Taha Siddiqui, who won France's highest journalism award the Albert Londres prize in 2014, said he was attacked by up to a dozen men en route to the airport in Rawalpindi but managed to escape before being kidnapped, suffering minor injuries during the scuffle.

"Safe and with police now. Looking for support in any way possible #StopEnforcedDisappearances," wrote Siddiqui in a tweet posted on a fellow journalist's account.

He later said the attempt bore similarities to previous abductions by authorities, suggesting that "agencies" may have been involved.

But he maintained he had no plans to leave Pakistan, and instead called on authorities for protection.

"I think the idea is to silence me," Siddiqui told a press conference.

"I'm here. I'm staying put," he added.

Siddiqui, the Pakistani bureau chief of Indian television channel WION and who has reported for France 24, had previously complained of being harassed by authorities for publishing bold critiques of the country's security establishment.

Human rights and media groups voiced concern over the incident, saying the use of violence against journalists was troubling while critising impunity for some attackers.

Amnesty International called the incident the "latest in a deeply worrying pattern of attacks on journalists in Pakistan".

"(T)here must be a clear and unequivocal commitment by the Pakistani authorities to end impunity for attacks on journalists," the rights group's deputy south asia director Omar Waraich said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch country representative Saroop Ijaz also told AFP it reinforced "the fear that human rights groups and media organisations have voiced for a while now that the Pakistan government views violence as an instrument of dealing with dissenting voices".

The Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists said it had contacted Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal "to direct the concerned officials to investigate the incident of attempted kidnapping of a senior journalist".

- Enforced disappearances -

Pakistan routinely ranks among the world's most dangerous countries for media workers, and reporting critical of the powerful military is considered a red flag

The attack comes months after prominent reporter Ahmed Noorani was also savagely beaten and stabbed in the head after being dragged out of his car in Islamabad by armed assailants.

Pakistan has a long history of enforced disappearances, particularly in conflict zones near the border with Afghanistan.

More than 1,500 people are still missing in disappearance cases, according to data compiled by Pakistan's commission of inquiry on enforced disappearances published this month.

Pakistan routinely ranks among the world's most dangerous countries for media workers, and coverage critical of the powerful military is considered a red flag, with reporters at times detained, beaten and even killed for running afoul of the security establishment.

The assault on the reporters followed a crackdown on social media activists earlier in 2017 when five bloggers, who had taken stands against religious intolerance and criticised Pakistan's military, were abducted within days of each other.

Four of the five were later freed but remained largely muted about the identity of their captors.

One of the activists, Waqass Goraya, later told the BBC he was repeatedly tortured while detained, saying officials with links to the military were behind the incident. Security sources have denied being involved.

In restive southwestern Balochistan province, several newspapers have also shuttered their presses for months after receiving myriad threats from militant groups, in a vivid display of the dangers journalists face from all sides.
El Chapo has promised that he will not kill any jurors in his upcoming federal court trial and feels it's unnecessary to keep them anonymous or under armed guard.

In a recently filed motion, defense attorney A Eduardo Balarezo, wrote that any special protections to the panel 'sends the message to each juror that he or she needs to be protected from Mr. Guzman,' according to the New York Post.

'From there, members of the jury could infer that Mr. Guzman is both dangerous and guilty,' Balarezo continued.

The notorious drug kingpin, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, is believed to have tried to kill past witnesses.

El Chapo (pictured January 2017) has promised that he will not kill any jurors in his upcoming federal court trial and feels it's unnecessary to keep them anonymous or under armed guard

For that very reason, prosecutors asked Brooklyn Federal Court Justice Brian Cogan to impanel an anonymous jury in El Chapo's trial, which will now be taking place in September.

Prosecutors have also requested that jurors be kept partially sequestered and subject to armed escort to and from a safe location during the three- to four-month trial, according to the Post.

Defense attorney A Eduardo Balarezo, wrote that any special protections to the panel 'sends the message to each juror that he or she needs to be protected from Mr. Guzman'

Balarezo claimed the government is basing its fears on allegations of El Chapo's violent behavior, based on 'untested and suspect statements from cooperators seeking to reduce their own sentences'.

He insisted that jurors names could just be kept from El Chapo and media could be barred from reporting their identities.

Cogan, who just two weeks ago postponed El Chapo's trial until September, has yet to rule on the motion.

The 60-year-old kingpin, accused of running one of the world's biggest drug empires and who twice escaped prison in Mexico, was originally expected to go on trial in April.

But Cogan ordered lawyers to clear their calendars for a September trial, saying summer vacation schedules could reduce the jury pool for an August date.

At the time, Cogan also delayed the latest pre-trial hearing from January 19 to February 15, after Guzman's lawyer demanded more time to review several hundred thousand pages of documents in the case.

El Chapo appeared in court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to charges that he ran the world's largest drug-trafficking organization during a decades-long criminal career.

He was accompanied by two court-appointed lawyers during the appearance in federal court in Brooklyn.

The notorious drug kingpin (pictured January 2017), whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, is believed to have tried to kill past witnesses

For that very reason, prosecutors asked Brooklyn Federal Court Justice Brian Cogan to impanel an anonymous jury in El Chapo's trial, which will take place in September. Prosecutors have requested that jurors be subject to armed escort to and from a safe location ahead of the trial

After US Magistrate Judge James Orenstein asked El Chapo if he understood the accusations against him, he responded through a Spanish interpreter: 'Well, I didn't know until now.'

Later, when asked again, he said he understood.

On Friday, El Chapo's public defender, Michael Schneider, told reporters outside the courthouse: 'I haven't seen any evidence that indicates to me that Mr. Guzman's done anything wrong.

'Most of you probably haven't seen any evidence like that either,' he added.

As leader of the notorious Sinaloa cartel, El Chapo oversaw perhaps the world's largest transnational cocaine, heroin and meth smuggling operation, playing a key role in Mexico's decade-long drug war that has killed more than 100,000 people.

El Chapo was captured a year ago after he had fled a high-security penitentiary in central Mexico through a mile-long tunnel, his second dramatic prison escape.

He has been held in solitary confinement in New York since being extradited to the US a year ago.

Accused of running the Sinaloa cartel, he is facing 17 charges, and if convicted, he is likely to spend the rest of his life in a maximum security US prison.
US President Donald Trump wants funding for a border wall attached to any legislation that shields young immigrants from deportation

US Republican lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled an immigration package that would tighten border security, end chain migration and fund President Donald Trump's border wall, while shielding nearly a million so-called "Dreamers" from deportation.

The legislation was introduced just minutes after Trump said that any legislation that protects such undocumented immigrants would need to fund a wall along the US-Mexico border -- one of the primary pledges of his 2016 presidential campaign.

"Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all doesn't work," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"We need the wall for security. We need the wall for safety."

Congress is grappling with how to break an impasse over the "Dreamers" -- immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children, but were permitted to stay under Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Trump scrapped DACA last September, but left a six-month window for Congress to craft a solution by March, when thousands of immigrants would face deportation.

He met with two dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers Tuesday at the White House, urging them to craft a compromise that would accommodate the Dreamers but also achieve some immigration reforms.

"The president indicated that our bill, the Securing America's Future Act, is the starting point to correct the flaws in our immigration system," House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte told reporters.

"This bill funds the border wall and secures ports of entry along the southern border. It also increases boots on the ground," limits immigrants from bringing family members into the country in the future, and ends the green card lottery system, he added.

But it also includes conservative priorities like cracking down on sanctuary cities, and provides no special pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.

As lawmakers race against time to find a fix, a US judge late Tuesday blocked Trump from scrapping DACA and ordered it maintained "on a nationwide basis," as legal challenges against it proceed.

But the White House and Democrats agreed that the ruling does not diminish the urgent need to resolve the issue.

The Republican legislation is certain to antagonize Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who wants a narrowly crafted DACA bill that includes border security enhancements but no wall funding.

Goodlatte's bill, even if it passes the House, would have a harder time clearing the Senate, where it would need support from at least nine Democrats.

Schumer expressed support for a bipartisan group of senators working on a deal, and said it was crucial that any DACA agreement be part of a spending bill needed before a January 19 deadline in order to avoid a government shutdown.
Bangkok's Wireless Road is festooned with electrical and telecom cables, a black web that hangs menacingly overhead like dystopian Christmas decorations.

Bangkok's Wireless Road may soon live up to its name.

Like many streets in the Thai capital, the thoroughfare is festooned with electrical and telecom cables, a black web that hangs menacingly overhead like dystopian Christmas decorations.

But Bangkok authorities are now untangling the cables and moving them underground as part of an urban renewal pushed by the Thai junta that seized power in 2014.

The aim is to make Bangkok not only safer, but easier on the eyes and less prone to blackouts.

Frayed cables -- often live -- dangle at head-height onto Bangkok's streets, making safe navigation of the already treacherous pavements even harder. Other wires are left to bunch up near pylons, creeping hazardously across the narrow walkways of the city centre.

Exposure to the elements has also meant the cables are easily damaged, which can cause problems for the city's electrical system.

Wireless Road, which got its name from hosting one of Thailand's first radio transmitting stations, is among dozens of streets targeted in the early phase of the de-cluttering campaign.

Thai authorities hope the plan to transfer overhead cables underground will make Bangkok not only safer, but easier on the eyes and less prone to blackouts

Large stretches of Sukhumvit Road, a central artery that cuts through high-end neighbourhoods and tourist hotspots, have already been cleared since November.

"This is a commercial road. We see hotels and foreigners living around here. When they see the beautiful road, they will spread the word," Prasonk Kumpradit, an official with Bangkok's Metropolitan Electricity Authority, told AFP.

The project has been planned for years, but many suspect it received an unexpected jolt after Microsoft founder Bill Gates visited Bangkok in 2016 and took a disapproving photo of one street's wiry web.

The billionaire later deleted the Facebook post, which blamed the cluster of wires on people illegally tapping into the grid.

- 'No more disorderly stuff' -

Netizens quibbled with his diagnosis of the cable bunches, which include both telecom connections and power supply wires, but less than a week later the government announced that cleanup was moving forward.

So far 1,184 utility poles have been removed from three of the city's biggest roads.

Over the next five years authorities plan to strip cables from 39 more streets totalling 127 kilometres, reinstalling the new connections under the road.

Wireless Road, which got its name from hosting one of Thailand's first radio transmitting stations, is among dozens of Bangkok streets targeted for de-cluttering

While there are no hard figures, Bangkok authorities say that is just a fraction of the city's cables but is still a mjor improvement on the status quo.

"The main advantage we get is the security of the electrical system," said Prasonk.

"When the cables are underground, the problem with disturbances that can cause blackouts will be gone."

Thailand's military rulers have launched a flurry of campaigns to impose some order on their chaotic capital in recent years, including clearing away many of Bangkok's famous street-food stalls.

But while that decision caused dismay in some quarters, few will shed a tear when the cable clusters disappear.

"Taking the wires away is really great. It makes the city clean, clear and pleasant to look at," Sukanya Phuangdech, a 45-year-old Bangkokian, told AFP from a newly-cleared Sukhumvit Road.

"No more disorderly stuff. I feel like people are happier."

The plan to remove overhead cables from Bangkok's streets has been planned for years, but many suspect it received an unexpected jolt after Bill Gates visited Bangkok in 2016 and shared a disapproving photo on social media

Martin Fletcher, a 30-year-old teacher from England, agreed.

"Bangkok's very famous for having all the electrical wires -- and it's a bit like spaghetti, and they've been cleared... it's a lot nicer now," he said.
Etan Kimmel is the architect who designed the the National Memorial Hall for Israel's Fallen next to the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, containing the names of every man and women who died during their service since 1860

A wide path gently curves underground revealing an undulating cavern, winning praise for both its unassuming architecture and its purpose, as Israel's new national monument to members of its security services killed in the line of duty.

The recently opened monument at the Mount Herzl national cemetery in Jerusalem aims to honour and educate, but it has also been included on a list of finalists for a top international architecture prize.

Its core is a curved, 250-metre (825-foot) wall composed of thousands of uniform bricks, all seamlessly arranged with the names of the fallen men and women.

At the memorial's entry, a video installation by Israeli artist Michal Rovner juxtaposes groups of soldiers from various periods in the history of Israel's wars, moving and running on one shared landscape before fading away.

"Stone, concrete and light are the only materials used here," said Etan Kimmel, the architect who designed the site.

"This place has a way of saying strong things -- but quietly."

The site is, at once, a means to alleviate the pain and burden of bereaved families and an educational facility for the general public, while reflecting in its design the shift in how Israeli society commemorates those in the security forces who were killed or died during or as a result of their duty.

The wall includes more than 23,000 names of every fallen service person -- from the army, police, Shin Bet internal security agency, Mossad spy agency and prison service -- and the date of each death inscribed on one of the small bricks.

A ramp of smooth concrete winds up and around a sculpture of larger bricks in a conical shape that leads to the ceiling opening to the natural light above, which is gently reflected on the bricks.

- 'Reverse journey in time' -

The names begin with the most recent fatality and at the end of the site is a brick with the name of the Jewish guard, who was killed in Jerusalem in May 1873 as part of a dispute with the Palestinians over water in the years before Israel became a nation.

The movement from recent to past creates a "reverse journey in time", said Yair Ben Shalom, director of the site for the defence ministry which was behind its creation.

It is the first time Israel has commemorated the memory of all its fallen service people in one site, said Ben Shalom, and is "an open history book of the Zionist settlement enterprise".

Israel, a small country with compulsory military service, has seen myriad wars and conflicts since its founding in 1948.

Cities commemorate their fallen, children learn the stories of those who sacrificed their lives for the state, and the annual memorial day has a unique status of reverence.

But, while in the past Israel focused on the collective memory, the personal aspect is becoming more central, with the inscription of the names a manifestation of that shift, those involved in the monument's development say.

The state's way of memorialising its fallen is moving "from the collective to personal", Ben Shalom said.

Kimmel, of the Kimmel Eshkolot architectural firm, said having the names on the bricks is "a gentle way to tell the stories" of those killed in the line of duty.

Planning and building the site took 10 years, and it was finally opened to the public in October last year.

The monument is also on the list of 62 projects contending for the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects' 2018 international prize.

"The Jews were never great architects. We were a nomadic nation and our building tradition was not glorious," Kimmel said. "We're not a nation of monuments."

- 'Peace of mind' -

A small lightbulb juxtaposed to each engraved brick enables it to be lit on the date of the person's death, as per the Jewish tradition to light a candle.

The names are inscribed in natural Galilee stone whose veins and cracks can be seen in places.

Near the site's upper exit, 12 pillars with screens display the pictures and details of the men and women who died on that day in history.

There is "deep concern among the bereaved families of who will remember their beloved one after our death", Ben Shalom said.

The inscription gives them the "peace of mind in knowing that there is a place where the state, society, will remember their beloved ones for ever".

Kimmel tells of one bereaved mother, who came to him after seeing the site and said: "I can die now. My fallen son has a place, and is being remembered."
One in seven Australian children are often subjected to cyber-bullying, according to the National Centre Against Bullying

The father of a teenager who starred in adverts for a well-known Australian hat brand and killed herself after being bullied online has vowed her life "will not be wasted" as a campaign against cyber-bullying gains traction.

A memorial for 14-year-old Amy Everett, known as Dolly, who was once the face of the wide-brimmed Akubra hat, is being held Friday following her suicide on January 3 after constant harassment.

Her family launched the #stopbullyingnow campaign, which has rapidly spread on social media, and plan to establish the "Dolly's Dream" trust to raise awareness around bullying, anxiety, depression and youth suicide.

"This week has been an example of how social media should be used, it has also been an example of how it shouldn't be," her father Tick Everett said in an emotional Facebook post.

"If we can help other precious lives from being lost and the suffering of so many, then Doll's life will not be wasted."

Tick invited his daughter's tormentors to her service to "witness the complete devastation you have created", while advocating that others stand up to cyber-bullying.

"You will never know what (you) have until it's gone," he added.

Amy featured in past Christmas adverts for hat-maker Akubra, whose headwear is synonymous with outback Australia.

The company, whose Australian origins date back to 1874, said it was "shocked and distressed" by her death.

"To think that anyone could feel so overwhelmed and that this was their only option is unfathomable," the company said. "Bullying of any type is unacceptable. It is up to us to stand up when we see any kind of bullying behaviour."

One in seven Australian children are often subjected to cyber-bullying, according to the National Centre Against Bullying, and youth suicide in the Northern Territory, where Everett was from, is among the highest in Australia.

Everett's family received an outpouring of support online.

"At nearly 60 years of age, I am bewildered by what is happening to our youth," posted Facebook user Mondo Pace. "My niece was subjected to the same issues as Dolly - now 20 years of age, she still carries the scars."

Another Facebook user Gav Morgan posted: "Words cannot describe the sadness I feel for the loss of your beautiful girl. The physical scars of bullying heal but the mental scars last much longer."
The landmark 2015 deal curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions in return for the relaxing of punishing sanctions

Europe and Iran are to put on a united front in support of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal at talks in Brussels Thursday as Washington mulls reimposing sanctions on Tehran.

The European Union and the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France will unite to defend the accord, which curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions in return for the relaxing of punishing sanctions but which US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised and threatened to leave.

While EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini wants to keep the nuclear issue separate from other contentious issues with Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will also face tough questions about recent anti-government protests which left 21 people dead.

Trump, who in October refused to certify Iran was complying with the deal but stopped short of withdrawing from it, is expected to decide on Friday whether to extend waivers on nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.

The EU and other world powers have repeatedly warned it would be a mistake to abandon the deal, thrashed out with Iran over 12 years by the US, Britain, France, China, Germany and Russia.

British foreign minister Boris Johnson called the deal "a crucial agreement that makes the world safer".

"It is vital that we continue to work with our European partners to preserve the Iran deal, and with it the security and prosperity it is bringing to the people of Iran and the world," he said.

- Iran warning -

According to two US sources, Trump had not made a decision by Wednesday, while Johnson told the British parliament on Tuesday that London was urging "our friends in the White House not to throw it away".

Iran, which on Monday warned the world to get ready for Washington abandoning the deal, has said if the US walks away from the agreement it is ready to give an "appropriate and heavy response".

Zarif, who travelled to Moscow on Wednesday to seek Russian support, criticised what he called Washington's "destructive policy".

EU ministers also want to quiz Iran's top diplomat over the recent wave of anti-government protests which left 21 people dead

"The United States must understand the unity of the international community over the nuclear deal and change their position as a result," Zarif said, urging world powers to "resist the hostile actions" of the Trump administration.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly said Iran is keeping up its side of the agreement, most recently in November.

after talks in Moscow on Wednesday Zarif tweeted a warning.

"Everyone agrees it is imperative that ALL live up to their obligations under JCPOA. IAEA has verified Iran's full compliance, but continuation will depend on full US compliance," he wrote. JCPOA is the official name for the deal.

- Punishing Tehran -

Mogherini, who played an important role in crafting the nuclear accord, has vowed to preserve the deal and has lobbied US lawmakers in Washington.

US Congress is working on a way to punish Iran for its continuing ballistic missile programme and meddling in Middle East conflicts such as Yemen and Syria.

Johnson said these issues would be "an important part of our conversation" in Brussels on Thursday -- along with the recent unrest in Iran.

"I will be making it clear to Foreign Minister Zarif, on the subject of the recent protests in Iran, that the right to peaceful demonstration within the law is central to any truly thriving society," Johnson said.

The 28-member EU has condemned the "unacceptable loss of human lives" in the protests and stressed that peaceful protest and freedom of expression are "fundamental rights".

burs-pdw/arp/hmw/klm
China claims indisputable sovereignty over Hong Kong, Macau, Tibet and Taiwan and bristles at any suggestion of independence

Authorities in Shanghai are investigating hotel giant Marriott after it triggered an online uproar with a customer questionnaire that listed Chinese-claimed regions such as Tibet and Hong Kong as separate countries.

City officials said in a notice dated late Wednesday that they were probing whether the gaffe in Marriott International's Mandarin-language questionnaire violated national cyber-security and advertising laws.

Marriott has issued an apology and amended the online questionnaire, which asked members of the chain's customer rewards programme to list their country of residence, giving Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as possible options.

China claims indisputable sovereignty over all four of the territories and bristles at any suggestion of independence.

Anger over Marriott's mistake snowballed after it was posted on the Communist Youth League's official account on Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like platform.

Thousands of outraged comments and reposts ensued, many urging a Marriott boycott.

"Boycott Marriott! Get out of China!" one Weibo user said.

Another said that while Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong are sometimes listed separately, "it is the first time to list Tibet as such. This is too much".

Tibet is officially an "autonomous region" but firmly under Chinese control. Hong Kong and Macau became British and Portuguese territories, respectively, in the age of European colonialism but are now "special administrative regions" under China.

Taiwan has been self-ruled since a 1949 civil war split from the mainland, but Beijing continues to claim sovereignty over the island.

Shanghai authorities said they met with Marriott's management earlier this week to demand that the offending materials be corrected and that the company do its best to rectify the "bad influence" from the affair.

Marriott has said it was "deeply sorry" and wished to "reiterate our usual stand in respecting Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity".

Marriott said it had fixed the errors and would "actively cooperate" with the government investigation.

China has meted out punishment for similar cases before.

Shanghai authorities said in November they had fined a local advertising agency one million yuan ($150,000) over a Chinese map that appeared in an advertisement it produced, saying the map was inaccurate and "damaged the country's dignity".

Authorities did not specify what was wrong with the map.
The Tokyo-administered isles, called Senkaku in Japan, are also claimed as the Diaoyu islands by China

Japan Thursday lodged an official protest with China, after it spotted a Chinese frigate in waters surrounding flashpoint islands in the East China Sea, the first such incursion in more than a year.

Japan's vice minister for foreign affairs Shinsuke Sugiyama summoned Chinese ambassador Cheng Yonghua to voice Tokyo's concerns, as the two Asian giants explore ways to ease bilateral tensions, complicated by North Korea's nuclear and missile drive.

Sugiyama "issued a protest by expressing serious concerns and strongly requested China not to interfere with the flow of improving Japan-China relations," the foreign ministry in Tokyo said in a statement.

Japanese navy ships spotted the 4,000-tonne Jiangkai II class frigate around 11:00 am (0200 GMT) in waters surrounding the Tokyo-administered isles, called Senkaku in Japan and also claimed as the Diaoyu islands by China.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular press briefing "the Chinese naval vessels conducted surveillance over the activities of the Japanese side" and repeated China's claim to the islands.

Japanese defence ministry spokesman Go Yamaguchi told AFP that a submarine of unknown nationality had also been spotted entering the contiguous waters off the disputed islands.

"We are monitoring the vessels and sending a message to them that they entered the contiguous waters near Japanese territory," said Yamaguchi.

Contiguous waters are a 12-nautical-mile band that extends beyond territorial waters.

Under international rules, they are not the preserve of any single country, although the resident power has certain limited rights.

The official told AFP it was the first such incursion since June 2016.

The warship and the submarine had left the waters by the afternoon, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Japan was monitoring the submarine, but would refrain from releasing details, including its identity, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular briefing.

"We are dealing with this firmly and calmly," he said, stressing that Japanese and Chinese leaders have pledged to improve bilateral ties.

Relations between Japan and China deteriorated in 2012 when Tokyo "nationalised" some of the islets.

Since then, the two top Asian economies have taken gradual steps to mend fences but relations remain tense.

Chinese coastguard vessels routinely travel around the disputed islands.

The incident came as Japan is pushing to host a trilateral summit with leaders from China and South Korea.

Japan has also urged China to play greater roles in easing tension related to North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes.
WASHINGTON  A little-noticed passage in the Trump administration's national-security strategy released last month previewed a new push to combat Chinese influence operations that affect American universities, think tanks, movie studios and news organizations.

The investigations by Congress and the FBI into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign won't be affected by the added focus on China, officials say. Instead, the aim is to highlight Chinese activities that often get a free pass but can have a toxic long-term effect because of China's growing wealth and power.

A National Security Council interagency group is coordinating the administration's study of Chinese activities that are "outside traditional espionage, in the gray area of covert influence operations," a senior administration official said. The rationale, noted in the 55-page strategy document, is that "America's competitors weaponize information to attack the values and institutions that underpin free societies, while shielding themselves from outside information."

In targeting Chinese operations, the administration is walking a delicate line between helping American academics, think-tank experts and journalists resist pressure and fomenting mass public anxiety about Beijing's activities. Officials say they want to avoid the hysteria of the 1950s  but also help American institutions push back against intimidation from a Chinese Communist Party that is rich, self-confident and seductive in a way that Russia has never been.

The administration official said in an interview Tuesday that the target "is not Chinese soft power  the legitimate exchange of people and ideas, which is something we welcome. What we're talking about are coercive and covert activities designed to influence elections, officials, policies, company decisions and public opinion."

Kurt Campbell, who oversaw Asia policy during the Obama administration and now runs an Asia consulting group, offered a measured endorsement: "The NSC-led inquiry about Chinese influence operations, if conducted dispassionately, could be useful. We focus mostly on Russian influence operations. But the Chinese have a much more subtle and complex agenda here."

A catalyst for the Trump administration's probe was an investigation in Australia, which revealed what that country's security chief called "unprecedented" foreign meddling that could damage Australia's sovereignty. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull proposed new controls in December.

The administration official offered examples of how American institutions can be pressured by China:

Universities host more than 350,000 Chinese, making up nearly a third of all foreign students here. Beijing encourages students to join local branches of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. Sometimes, students get squeezed. The senior official cites the case of a Chinese student from a dissident family who was warned by a friend not to share personal details  because she would report them to Chinese intelligence.

Students or universities who resist Beijing can pay a price. A Chinese graduating senior at the University of Maryland last year was shamed by social media into apologizing for a comment praising free speech. At the University of California, San Diego, an invitation to the Dalai Lama brought a protest from the local students' association and warnings that UCSD might not receive more Chinese students and that its graduates' degrees might not be recognized back home.

Think tanks are eager to study China, but often the money to support research comes from business executives with close relations with Beijing. That can lead to subtle pro-China bias. In conversations with think-tank leaders, the senior official said, he has stressed "the need for think tanks to cast a brighter light in this area. We think sunlight is the best disinfectant."

Hollywood studios face an especially delicate problem, because the Chinese box office is so important to their bottom line. Ticket sales in China rose from $1.5 billion in 2010 to $8.6 billion last year, second only to America. Inevitably, U.S. studios fear offending Chinese official sensibilities.

News organizations can face pressure, too. China can restrict visas for journalists or publications it sees as too aggressive. After Bloomberg News published revelations in 2012 about the family wealth of Chinese political leaders, Beijing temporarily blocked sales of Bloomberg's financial data terminals in China, a potentially crippling move.

China's glittering modern facade often convinces outsiders that it's a country just like the West. Not so, says Peter Mattis, a former CIA analyst who now studies Chinese influence activities for the Jamestown Foundation. When American thought leaders interact with Chinese representatives, it's not a free-flowing "conduit," he says, but a controlled circuit.

America has never faced a rival quite like China, which presents such a compelling, well-financed challenge to democratic values. America certainly doesn't want a new "Red Scare," but maybe a wake-up call.
Philippine and Japanese Coast Guard personnel conduct a drill during their annual anti-piracy exercise in 2016

Pirate attacks worldwide fell to their lowest level in over two decades last year, the International Maritime Bureau said, but more than doubled in the Philippines while African trouble spots remained dangerous.

A total of 180 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships were recorded last year, the lowest number since 1995 and down from 191 in 2016, the bureau said in its annual report.

Some countries such as Indonesia, the world's biggest archipelago nation, saw a drop in incidents, with 43 attacks in its waters last year, down more than half in the past two years.

However a handful of countries witnessed a steady climb in attacks.

Twenty-two incidents were recorded in the Philippines, a jump from 10 in 2016, with most of them low-level attacks on vessels anchored at Manila and Batangas, south of the capital, the country's two busiest ports.

There were also kidnappings of crew in the southern Philippines, the bureau said. Islamic militants have been increasingly targeting seafarers in the strife-torn region, abducting them and demanding ransoms for their release.

The number of attacks in Bangladesh jumped three-fold to 11 in 2017, with most in Chittagong, the country's busiest port.

The Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa remained an attack hotspot in 2017. Out of 16 incidents of vessels being fired on reported worldwide last year, seven occurred in the gulf.

There were 10 incidents of kidnapping involving 65 crew members in or around waters off Nigeria, which lies next to the Gulf of Guinea, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based IMB's report, which was released Wednesday.

Waters off Somalia remained dangerous, with nine incidents recorded last year, up from two in 2016.

A dramatic attack on a container ship far off the Somali coast saw pirates firing rockets at the vessel after a failed attempt to board it.

"This dramatic incident... demonstrates that Somali pirates retain the capability and intent to launch attacks against merchant vessels hundreds of miles from their coastline," said IMB director Pottengal Mukundan.
President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdown on drugs has stoked controversy in the Philippines and abroad

Five narcotics suspects have been killed in the Philippines, police said Thursday, as authorities again ramp up a drug war that has drawn warnings that President Rodrigo Duterte may be overseeing a crime against humanity.

Police killed almost 4,000 suspects in Duterte's first 17 months in office as he followed through on his election campaign promise to eliminate drugs from Philippine society.

The latest police killings occurred Wednesday in Bulacan province, a frontline in the crackdown, where they said five suspects were "neutralised" -- a term rights groups said was a euphemism for killings.

Ninety-five others were arrested in dozens of sting operations, according to a provincial police report.

The five deaths in Bulacan equal the number of drug-related killings in the previous five weeks, according to official data.

The crackdown has stoked controversy both in the Philippines and abroad.

Rights groups allege corrupt police are killing defenceless people, fabricating evidence, paying assassins to murder drug addicts and stealing from those they kill.

A Philippine lawyer filed a suit at the International Criminal Court last year accusing Duterte of crimes against humanity, which the president rejects.

Duterte conceded in January last year that the police force was "corrupt to the core".

He has suspended them from the counter-narcotics campaign briefly on two occasions to quieten mounting opposition to his drug war.

But the president, who has said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts, has on both occasions brought the police back to the drug war's frontlines without any major reforms to eradicate corruption.
Angolan President Joao Lourenco had promised to distance himself from his predecessor

Angolan President Joao Lourenco removed the son of his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos from the top job at the oil-rich country's sovereign wealth fund, the presidency said on Wednesday.

Jose Filomeno dos Santos, who was implicated in the "Panama Papers" offshore scandal, will be replaced by former finance minister Carlos Alberto Lopes.

Last year's "Panama Papers" revelations showed how the world's wealthy used a discreet Panamanian legal firm to stash assets offshore.

The investment fund under Dos Santos Jr's control has been shown to have transferred tens of millions of dollars to businessman Jean-Claude "Zenu" Bastos de Morais to run the organisation.

Like many oil-rich nations, Angola created a sovereign wealth fund to invest the proceeds of the nation's petroleum riches.

The fund was launched in 2011 and has $5 billion (4.2 billion euros) under management.

A long-standing pillar of the regime, Angola's new president had promised to distance himself from the dos Santos clan during his successful campaign ahead of the August 23 poll.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos' daughter Isabel also held a key position at the top of the country's all-powerful industry but also fell foul of Lourenco.

Appointed head of Sonangol by her father in 2016, Isabel was replaced in November by Lourenco and subsequently investigated by an ongoing graft probe.

Isabel, who is reported by Forbes magazine to be the richest woman in Africa, has flatly denied any misconduct.

Lourenco on Monday denied "any tension" with his long-serving predecessor after his first 100 days in office in which he removed many Dos Santos relatives and friends from public office in an anti-corruption crusade.

Angola, along with Nigeria, is one of Africa's biggest oil producers, pumping out 1.7 million barrels per day. But the oil wealth has bypassed the overwhelming majority of citizens who live in grinding poverty.
Switzerland's Roger Federer is chasing his sixth Australia Open crown

Roger Federer will open his title defence against Slovenia's Aljaz Bedene and has a potential quarter-final with David Goffin in the Australian Open.

In Thursday's draw, 36-year-old Federer, bidding for a record 20th Grand Slam title, has a first round encounter with the 51st-ranked Bedene.

The Swiss marvel, chasing a sixth Australian Open crown, could also face big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in the fourth round in the bottom half of the men's draw.

World number one and top seed Rafael Nadal starts his Australian campaign against the 83rd-ranked Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic in the top quarter of the draw.

Nadal withdrew from his first tour event of 2018, in Brisbane, with continuing knee problems, and has been getting in match practice in a Melbourne exhibition event this week ahead of Monday's start to the Open.

Nadal could face world number six Marin Cilic of Croatia in the quarter-finals.

Six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, seeded 14th for this year's tournament, has a couple of potential early obstacles with American Donald Young and potentially mercurial Frenchman Gael Monfils in the second round.

Twelve-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic has been sidelined since Wimbledon in July because of a right elbow injury, but beat world number five Dominic Thiem in straight sets in the Kooyong Classic this week.

Thiem is projected to face rising young German star Alexander Zverev in the quarters of Djokovic's section of the draw.

Former Australian winner Stan Wawrinka, who hasn't played since Wimbledon after knee surgery, is the same section of the draw and faces Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis first up.

World number three Grigor Dimitrov faces a qualifier first up and could face American Jack Sock in the quarters.

Tempestuous Australian 17th seed Nick Kyrgios, is in the same section of the draw and faces Brazil's 100th-ranked Rogerio Dutra Silva.
Yemenis inspect damage at the site of air strikes in the rebel stronghold of Saada on January 6, 2018

Saudi-led coalition air strikes on a marketplace and house in rebel-held northern Yemen have left at least 14 people dead, witnesses and a rebel-run news agency said Thursday.

An eyewitness in the northern province of Saada told AFP that 12 people had been killed in strikes on the marketplace on Wednesday evening, including women.

The rebel-run news agency Saba gave the same toll and accused the coalition of using cluster bombs in that attack in Kataf city.

In the Baqim district of Saada province, two people were killed in a Saudi-led air strike on a house, another witness said.

Saba gave the same toll and said that separate strikes on a house near the Saudi border had left another two people dead although there was no independent confirmation.

Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 with the stated aim of rolling back Huthi rebel gains and restoring the country's internationally recognised government to power.

More than 9,000 people have been killed in Yemen since then, according to the World Health Organization.

Saada is a stronghold of the Iran-backed Huthis who continue to hold large swathes of territory in the north including the capital Sanaa.

In early November, the coalition tightened a blockade on Yemeni ports and airports in response to a missile fired by the Shiite Huthis that was intercepted near Riyadh airport.

The country is facing what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Observers say China often uses cash and soft loans for high-profile projects to butter up its poorer neighbours

Beijing has pledged billions of dollars to build new infrastructure in Cambodia, officials said Thursday, as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang ended a two-day charm offensive currying favour for its mega-dams across the Mekong.

The storied waterway, which twists through parts of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, is the world's largest inland fishery and helps feed around 60 million people across its basin.

Environmental groups fear the Chinese dams will destroy fish stocks and plunge some of the region's poorest people, who depend on the river, deeper into penury.

Beijing has already interrupted the Mekong's upper reaches with six dams, and is investing in more than half of the 11 dams planned further south, according to the non-profit group International Rivers.

Li travelled to Phnom Penh on Wednesday for the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation forum, a Chinese-backed meeting to press China's case for ambitious dam projects.

On Thursday, he met Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, a Beijing ally, and -- among a welter of projects for the poor Southeast Asian country -- offered to fund a new airport in Phnom Penh, a highway from the capital to the coastal city of Sihanoukville, and a hospital.

A joint statement after the state trip lauded the "important and fruitful outcomes of the visit", which includes continued medical checkups in China for Cambodia's king and queen mother.

The Mekong is the world's largest inland fishery and helps feed around 60 million people across its basin

Observers say China often uses cash and soft loans for high-profile infrastructure projects to butter up its poorer neighbours.

The expressway alone would cost $2 billion, Cambodia's transport minister Sun Chanthol told reporters later, without clarifying if it was newly-promised money.

The future of the Mekong river is a key strategic issue between the neighbours.

With control over the headwaters of the river -- known in China as the Lancang -- Beijing can dam its section while the impacts are felt downstream.

Communities in the lower Mekong countries have reported depleted fish stocks in recent years and are blaming the dams.

Environmental groups warn the blockages pose a grave threat to fish habitats by disrupting migrations and the flow of key nutrients and sediment -- not to mention displacing tens of thousands of people with flooding.

Experts say it is too early to draw full conclusions about the impact given a lack of baseline data and the complex nature of the river's ecosystem.

Li sent a far more reassuring message to forum participants in his remarks on Wednesday.

"We want to properly address the relationship between up- and downstream countries and accommodate the interests of all countries along the river," he said.
A tyre is seen burning in the Ettadhamen neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Tunisian capital Tunis late on January 10, 2018

A third night of unrest has shaken parts of Tunisia where authorities said Thursday the number of arrests has risen above 500 as anger grows over austerity measures.

Police arrested 328 people on Wednesday for theft, looting, arson and blocking roads, the interior ministry said, after arresting 237 the previous day.

Ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani however said the "violence" was less intense than in previous days.

Twenty-one members of the security forces were injured, Chibani said. There was no immediate toll available for any casualties among the protesters.

Tunisia is often seen as having had a relatively smooth transition since an uprising seven years ago that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

But Tunisians have expressed frustration since the start of the year over austerity measures expected to further increase prices in a struggling economy.

The North African country introduced hikes in value-added tax and social contributions at the start of the year as part of a tough new budget.

The recent unrest started with peaceful protests against the measures last week, but escalated into clashes with police in the night of Monday to Tuesday.

In a third night of clashes, unrest hit several areas across the country including the central city of Kasserine, and the northern towns of Siliana, Tebourba and Thala.

In Siliana, youths threw stones and Molotov cocktails at security forces. Police responded with tear gas, an AFP correspondent said.

Scuffles also broke out in some Tunis neighbourhoods.

Youths in Kasserine tried to block roads with burning tyres and hurled stones at members of the police force, another AFP correspondent said.

Tunisian protesters clash with security forces in the town of Tebourba on January 9, 2018, following the funeral of a man who died the previous day in unrest

In Tebourba, where a man died during unrest in the night of Monday to Tuesday, police fired tear gas after dozens of protesters took to the streets, according to a resident.

The main police station in the northern town of Thala was set on fire, Chibani said.

Activists campaigning against the austerity measures have called for a massive protest on Friday.
Some 655,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown in Rakhine state

After months denying any wrongdoing, Myanmar has admitted its forces helped kill 10 Rohingya in custody in an apparent bid to blame a few rogue soldiers for what the global community alleges is part of an organised ethnic cleansing campaign.

Accounts of mass murder, rape and torture from the 655,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar's army to Bangladesh have horrified the world.

Since the August crackdown the army vigorously denied any abuses, instead locking down access to Rakhine state and accusing critics -- including the UN -- of pro-Rohingya bias and spreading "fake news".

Then late on Wednesday it suddenly changed tune: an internal probe found four members of the "security forces" helped kill 10 Rohingya militant suspects at Inn Din village on September 2, leaving their bodies in a hastily-dug pit.

"It was found that the incident was not submitted to superior levels," it said.

The unprecedented acknowledgment, relayed on the Facebook page of the office of army chief Min Aung Hlaing, rippled out across the rights community that has spent months piecing together allegations of numerous atrocities.

"This grisly admission is a sharp departure from the army's policy of blanket denial of any wrongdoing," said James Gomez, Amnesty International's regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

"However, it is only the tip of the iceberg," he added, urging independent investigation into other allegations.

Some observers say the army move is an attempt to retake control of the story after rumours of extra-judical killings at Inn Din and the surrounding area began to seep out.

The admission came the same day as two Reuters journalists were formally charged by police in court with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

The pair, Myanmar nationals Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, have widely covered the military campaign in Rakhine although Reuters has declined to comment on whether they were specifically reporting on the mass grave in Inn Din.

"The military's admission demonstrates the culpability of soldiers and commanders in mass atrocities," said Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights, suggesting the arrest of the journalists was a clumsy effort "to cover their tracks".

Khin Zaw Win, of Yangon-based think-tank the Tampadipa Institute, echoed that theory, speculating the army "had no option but to come clean with it".

In December the US hit General Maung Maung Soe, who led the Western Command in the Rakhine operations, with targeted sanctions.

That punishment may have rattled the upper army echelons, speculated Khin Zaw Win about an institution renowned for denials and secrecy.

Cover-ups "could go bad for them... there could be sanctions against other generals," he said.

- Swords and guns -

Until Wednesday the army said its operations had killed around 400 militants in a legitimate defence of the country from Muslim militants intent on taking over Rakhine.

Its stance helped curdle a siege mentality inside Myanmar where the Buddhist-majority public has little sympathy for the stateless Rohingya.

Inn Dinn, in Maungdaw district, was engulfed by violence in late August.

Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh have given accounts of mass murder, rape and torture

On September 1 the 10 "Bengali terrorists" were apprehended after clashes pitting Rohingya against security forces and Rakhine villagers enraged by the murder of a local man by militants, the army chief's office said in its post.

"Bengali" is loaded term for the Muslim minority who are widely reviled inside Myanmar.

The 10 suspects should have been taken to a police station.

Instead after a night of "interrogation" at a school they were killed the next day by Rakhine villagers armed with swords and "four members of security forces" who "shot them with the use of guns".

Their remains were found on December 20.

The account chimes with refugee testimony collected in Bangladesh on the Inn Din incident.

"We were told that the 10 people had been arrested," Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, told AFP. "They were never heard of again."

The army said it would take action against the villagers and security forces involved -- and any officers who failed to control their subordinates.

Rights groups have seized on the army's own account of Inn Din as validation of the reams of testimony of multiple massacres.

But with Rakhine locked off to media, most aid agencies and UN investigators, there are calls for more leverage to be used on Myanmar -- more so as the repatriation of a limited number of refugees is soon due to begin.

The European Union in Myanmar said the killings confirm the need for a thorough and credible investigation into all violence incidents in northern Rakhine state "to ensure the accountability of those found responsible for committing atrocities".

Myanmar should be reported to the International Criminal Court, said Matt Smith of Fortify.

"Impunity in Myanmar won't end on its own," he added.

burs-apj/mtp
Conservationists believe someone may have deliberately placed the tyre around the protected animal's neck in a failed attempt to trap it as a pet

Indonesian conservation officials are racing to locate and rescue a saltwater crocodile that has had a motorbike tyre wrapped around its neck for more than a year on the island of Sulawesi.

The stricken crocodile, measuring around 13-foot (4 metres) long, has been regularly spotted in a river running through Central Sulawesi's capital, Palu, since 2016.

But a recent video shot by a local showed the reptile gasping for air with officials fearing the tyre is slowly killing the beast.

Conservationists believe someone may have deliberately placed the tyre around the protected animal's neck in a failed attempt to trap it as a pet.

The animal has recently been spotted swimming under a bridge in Palu with excited locals trying to take selfies with the croc in the background.

"In the past year, we saw that there's still enough room for the crocodile's neck to move around," head of the local conservation agency Haruna, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP Thursday.

"But we are not going to wait until the tyre strangles the animal. We will rescue it."

Haruna said the agency lacked proper equipment to rescue the animal, adding that their attempts to locate the animal has so far proved fruitless.

Authorities are also opposed to using tranquiliser darts on the animal, fearing it might disappear back into the river that is home to more than 20 crocodiles before the drugs take effect.

Instead Haruna said his team has built an iron trap which will be placed inside the river when the water level is low.

"We will definitely save the crocodile but at the same time I also need to consider my men's safety," he said.

The huge Indonesian archipelago is home to a vast array of exotic wildlife, including several species of crocodile.
The rebel-held port of Hodeida is a key entry point for aid to war-torn Yemen

A Saudi-led coalition has warned Yemen's rebels threaten ships in the Red Sea through their control of a key port, days after rebel warnings over a coalition blockade.

"The port of Hodeida is a launching pad for terrorist operations threatening navigation in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait," coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said late Wednesday.

The Red Sea is a key shipping route for world trade that connects the Middle East to Europe via the Suez Canal. The Bab al-Mandab Strait is the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

The Shiite Huthi rebels control the main port of Hodeida among a string of Red Sea ports on Yemen's western coast that are vital entry points for food imports and aid.

Maliki spoke after the rebels on Monday threatened to cut off Red Sea traffic unless Saudi Arabia and its allies lifted a blockade on Yemen's ports and main international airport.

In November, the coalition tightened the blockade after the Huthis fired a missile into Saudi Arabia that was intercepted near Riyadh's international airport.

The blockade has massively reduced the amount of food and relief reaching the country, international aid groups say, even though the coalition has since allowed certain aid deliveries in.

More than 9,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-led coalition joined the Yemeni government in its fight against the Huthis in March 2015.

The coalition, which has warships positioned in the Red Sea, accuses Iran of backing the Huthis.

Yemen was highly dependent on food imports even before 2015, and the United Nations has warned the country now stands on the brink of famine.
Montana physicians play a vital role in the Montanans economy, Montana knows the value of its physicians.

However, doctors arent just there when you need them for medical attention. Physicians contribute to their neighbors well-being outside of the exam room too.

This year, the American Medical Association published a study that demonstrates the huge economic impact doctors have locally and nationally. In Montana, the local industry that doctors support produces 22,780 jobs and $167.7 million in state revenue. A strong Montana economy means a strong Montana community that can provide for its neighbors and ride out any harsh waves that may hit whether they be natural or financial.

The 2018 AMA Economic Impact Study found that Montana physicians generated $3.7 billion in direct and indirect economic activity for the state, with each physician supporting nearly $2 million on average. In total, physicians across the United States produced $2.3 trillion in economic activity for the country. For comparison, the gross domestic product for the entire country of Brazil is $2.14 trillion.

For every physician, there is a support system filled with Americans who have good-paying and secure jobs. According to the AMA study, Montana physicians supported a total of 22,780 jobs, including those in the medical field and across other industries. On average, thats 12.3 jobs per individual physician  jobs which produce a local economy that stays in the state and even attracts investment from outside the states borders.

These jobs supported by physicians are good paying, high-quality jobs. The AMA report shows that Montana physicians contributed nearly $1.9 billion in direct and indirect wages and benefits for all supported jobs, and each individual doctor supported nearly $1 million in total wages and benefits. For Montanas approximately 1,856 physicians, that is a huge contribution, and one that benefits a whole network of Montana residents.

As the AMA study demonstrates, physicians not only safeguard a healthy community, but also provide for their neighbors. The states doctors supported more than $167.7 million in local and state tax revenues, with each doctor supporting $90,352 in local and state tax revenues. Thats money that goes directly to Montana communities and infrastructure.

This reports findings show that Montana physicians go above and beyond for their communities, generating millions in state and local tax revenue and economic activity, while also creating more jobs that provide secure, good wages and benefits.

Despite the clear economic benefit Montana doctors provide their state, there are still barriers in place that prevent recruitment.

The distribution of physicians in Montana is extremely uneven with 71 percent of all physicians practicing in only five counties. Furthermore, there are nine counties without a single physician and 13 counties lack a primary care physician, and seven counties without any hospitals. For Montanans living in rural areas, access to primary care is much more limited than that of their counterparts in Montanas urban centers.

The AMA Economic Impact Study shows the tangible value physicians provide, and we hope more come to Montana to keep our states health and economy strong.
Sanofi's disclosure sparked protests, with some parents blaming the vaccine for their children's deaths

The Philippines said Thursday that some of the 14 children who died after receiving a controversial vaccine showed signs of "severe dengue", as investigators probe the drug whose use was suspended due to health concerns.

More than 830,000 Filipino schoolchildren were injected with Sanofi's Dengvaxia vaccine last year in the world's first public dengue immunisation programme.

But the country stopped the sale and distribution of Dengvaxia last month after Sanofi warned the vaccine could worsen symptoms for people who had not previously been infected with the virus.

Philippine authorities are also pursuing criminal and public health safety investigations into any links between the drug and the deaths of 14 schoolchildren who died months after being vaccinated.

"The findings of the forensic pathologists are consistent with severe dengue or dengue shock syndrome," Health Secretary Francisco Duque told ABS-CBN television, referring to the results of autopsies on some of the deceased children.

Duque also said he had asked Sanofi to refund around 1.5 billion pesos ($30 million) worth of unused vaccines.

Officials at the government's Public Attorney's Office (PAO), which has been conducting autopsies on some of the dead children, have been trying to build a criminal case by proving the deaths were linked to the vaccine.

The health department has also commissioned independent experts to pursue a separate inquiry in the interest of public health and safety, though the results of this study have not been disclosed.

"They may or may not be investigating the same cases or deaths and would be using different methods of investigation," Health Undersecretary Eric Tayag told AFP.

Sanofi said in a statement on Thursday that it was "saddened" to learn of the deaths of the children.

"Up to this date, there has been no death established to have been causally linked to the dengue vaccine, not even among the 40,000 people involved in the clinical trials conducted across 15 countries," the statement added.

In November last year, the French company released findings of a new study that showed Dengvaxia could lead to severe infections for vaccinated people who caught dengue for the first time.

The disclosure triggered a public furore, with some parents blaming the vaccine for their children's deaths and a number of legislators accusing the government of endangering public health.

Dengue, a mosquito-borne illness, is a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in some Asian and Latin American countries, according to the World Health Organization.
The landmark 2015 deal curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions in return for the relaxing of punishing sanctions

European powers on Thursday insisted the 2015 deal to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions was working, as US President Donald Trump mulls reimposing sanctions on Tehran.

The European Union and the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France put on a united front to defend the accord after talks in Brussels with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Trump, who has repeatedly condemned the deal and in October refused to certify Iran was complying with it, is expected to decide on Friday whether or not to reimpose sanctions against Tehran that were suspended under the deal.

"The deal is working, it is delivering on its main goal which means keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check," Mogherini said, stressing the importance of preserving an agreement she said is "making the world safer and... preventing a potential nuclear arms race in the region".

Senior officials have told AFP they "expect" Trump to extend waivers on nuclear-related sanctions on Iran Friday to keep the US in line with the agreement, though he is also expected to impose fresh measures against Iran over human rights abuses and support for foreign extremist groups.

The EU and other world powers have repeatedly warned it would be a mistake for anyone to abandon the deal, thrashed out with Iran over 12 years by the US, Britain, France, China, Germany and Russia.

UN inspectors have certified Iran's compliance with the deal nine times, most recently in November, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said there was "no indication" Tehran was not keeping its side of the bargain.

"It is important now that all parties respect this joint commitment and that our American allies respect it as well," Le Drian said.

Iran has said that if the US walks away from the agreement, it is ready to give an "appropriate and heavy response".

Zarif took to Twitter after the Brussels meeting to warn that "Iran's continued compliance conditioned on full compliance by the US".

The Iranian said there was a "strong consensus in Brussels today" that Iran was complying with the deal and that "any move that undermines (the agreement) is unacceptable."

- Regional conflicts -

One of the criticisms levelled at the nuclear deal is that it does nothing to address Iran's continuing ballistic missile programme and meddling in Middle East conflicts such as Yemen and Syria.

The Europeans say these issues should be kept separate from discussion of the nuclear deal, but in a nod to US concerns, Mogherini stressed they were raised with Zarif at Thursday's talks.

She said they had also brought up "internal recent events" in a reference to anti-government protests in Iran that left more than 20 people dead.

Johnson added that it was important for building global support for the nuclear deal that "Iran should be able to show that it is a good neighbour in the region" and show what it can do to help solve the Yemen crisis.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel even indicated that Iran had agreed to open talks about regional issues, starting with Yemen.

Mogherini, who played an important role in crafting the nuclear accord, has vowed to preserve the deal and has lobbied US lawmakers in Washington.

US Congress is working on a way to punish Iran for the ballistic missile programme and its interference in Middle East conflicts such as Yemen and Syria.

The 28-member EU has condemned the "unacceptable loss of human lives" in the protests and stressed that peaceful protest and freedom of expression are "fundamental rights".
A pro-regime fighter fires a machine gun in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib on November 11, 2017

Syrian regime forces faced fierce resistance from jihadists as they fought to capture a key airbase in the northwestern province of Idlib on Thursday, a monitor said.

Russia-backed government forces on Wednesday battled their way into the Abu Duhur military airport as they pressed a weeks-long battle in the last province beyond their control.

Idlib province is almost entirely held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist outfit dominated by Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.

Government fighters have seized a string of villages in the southeast of the province since launching their offensive on December 25.

But on Thursday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its Islamist allies led a counter-attack, retaking several villages from the regime, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Sixteen jihadists and rebels were killed in the counter-attack as they sought to cut off regime forces at the airport from their rear bases, the Britain-based war monitor said.

On Wednesday, 35 soldiers were killed at the airport, according to the Observatory.

The regime lost control of the Abu Duhur airbase in 2015 after a two-year siege by jihadists, with only the Shiite villages of Fuaa and Kafraya remaining under its control in the whole province.

Idlib's few rebel groups and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have set aside their differences to fight President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

The regime hopes to seize control of southeast parts of Idlib province to secure a main road between the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo.

Nearly 100,000 people have been displaced since early December by the fighting, the United Nations says.

More than 340,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Syrian war, which began in 2011 as the regime brutally crushed anti-government protests. Millions have been displaced.
Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel physics prize in 1921

Handwritten pages from Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, letters to his lovers and other parts of his archive stored in Jerusalem are to be exhibited for the first time in Taiwan, China and Japan.

Some 75 artifacts will go on display in Taipei beginning Friday as part of the exhibit "Albert Einstein: Life in Four Dimensions," Jerusalem's Hebrew University said Thursday.

They will remain on display at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall through April 8 before moving on to China and Japan.

The Jerusalem university is home to the world's largest Einstein collection.

The pieces on display will include "his 1921 Nobel Prize, handwritten pages from the theory of relativity, letters exchanged with Sigmund Freud, family members and lovers, and the physicist's own vinyl record collection," the university said.

A university spokeswoman told AFP that "nearly everything presented is original except for Einstein's century-old pipe, which is too fragile to send. We sent a copy."

Part of the journey for the historic and highly valuable material included an armoured truck, a police escort and a dummy car to "throw off potential thieves," the university said.

While certain artifacts have been exhibited in places including Washington and Los Angeles, the upcoming exhibits mark the first time such a large number of pieces have been sent abroad, the spokeswoman said.

A man visits an exhibition showcasing the original manuscript of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity in Jerusalem on March 7, 2010

Einstein served as a non-resident governor of Jerusalem's Hebrew University.

When the German-born physicist died in 1955, he left the institution his archives, making it the owner of the world's most extensive collection of his documents.

He also once turned down an offer to become Israel's president.

In October, a note that Einstein gave to a courier in Tokyo briefly describing his theory on happy living sold at auction in Jerusalem for $1.56 million.
More than 117,000 migrants made the journey across the Mediterranean last year, while more than 3,000 lost their lives at sea

Flags flew at half-mast in Mali on Thursday as the government announced 48 of its citizens drowned in the Mediterranean on a single day over the weekend, all trying to reach Europe.

The west African nation accounted for the fifth largest contingent of arrivals to Italy by sea last year, according to the International Organization for Migration, fleeing poverty, unemployment and instability.

"Forty-eight of our compatriots lost their lives in the Mediterranean on Sunday, January 7," said a foreign ministry statement issued late Wednesday.

Sixty-nine people escaped with their lives, including four children, and were identified on Monday in Libya by an embassy delegation, the statement added.

They will be sent back to Mali "as quickly as possible", it said.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced 24 hours of national mourning and collective prayers on Friday for the victims, and ordered an investigation into the people smugglers responsible for transporting the migrants to Libya.

The foreign ministry urged parents to educate young people on the risks of irregular migration, a phenomenon across Africa that has taken the lives of thousands and pushed many more into modern-day slavery and long spells in detention centres in Libya.

"Despite all the campaigning to educate against irregular migration... and the efforts made to bring back our countrymen through voluntary return schemes, young people continue to risk this extremely dangerous course to go to Europe," the statement added.

Last year more than 117,000 migrants made the journey across the Mediterranean, while more than 3,000 lost their lives at sea.

For Italy, 2017 was a turning point: the country went from large-scale arrivals in the first six months to a sharp drop-off, thanks to controversial agreements in Libya.

Mali faces twin threats from warring armed factions in its north and a jihadist insurgency in the north and centre, along with the youth unemployment and a lack of opportunities that afflict many of its more peaceful neighbours.
Chinese firefighters are struggling to extinguish the blaze on board a huge oil tanker off its eastern coast

Chinese firefighters spent Thursday struggling to extinguish a blaze on a stricken oil tanker as criticism mounted in Iran over whether enough was being done to locate dozens of its missing crew members.

The Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tonnes of light crude oil from Iran, has been in flames since colliding with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai on Saturday.

One body has been found but 31 sailors -- mainly Iranians -- remain missing with officials in Iran hoping they have found sanctuary on an unaffected part of the vessel.

Cleanup and rescue ships have faced toxic fumes, rain and windy conditions as they scrambled to find survivors and avoid a massive oil slick since Saturday's incident.

China's transport ministry said Thursday evening the Panamanian-flagged 274-metre (899-foot) tanker remained on fire, adding two ships had spent the day spraying the vessel with retardant foam.

But rescue efforts were still being hampered by "terrible" weather conditions and toxic gases from the burning oil which "pose a great danger to rescuers," the ministry said in a statement.

China says the rescue efforts have been hampered by poor weather and toxic smoke

Of the 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis on the Sanchi's crew, only one body has so far been found and there has been no word from them since the collision.

Operated by Iran's National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), the vessel was taking light crude oil condensate to South Korea.

On Thursday the Iranian Merchant Mariners Syndicate, an industry NGO, said it had written to Chinese authorities expressing frustration at the lack of progress in putting out the fire.

"It was clear that the Chinese are not cooperating enough," IMMS vice president Saman Rezaie, told AFP.

Iranian news website Khabar Online published video interviews with some of the relatives of those missing.

"I don't know what else to say but just beg them to rescue them as I am sure that they are alive inside," said one woman, who identified herself as the wife of the Sanchi's chief engineer.

Other relatives said they thought the fire should have been extinguished by now.

An NITC spokesperson had previously suggested China might be more concerned with stopping a major oil leak in waters important to their fishing industry than rushing to save crew members.

The 21 Chinese crew member of the Crystal, which did not burst into flames, were all rescued.
Hezbollah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah is pictured here during a recent television interview, is one of the dominant forces in Lebanese politics

The US Justice Department announced Thursday creation of a special task force to investigate what it called "narcoterrorism" by the powerful Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

The unit will comprise specialists on money-laundering, drug trafficking, terrorism and organized crime, targeting Iran ally Hezbollah's sprawling network, whose reach extends across Africa and into Central and South America, the department said.

"The Justice Department will leave no stone unturned in order to eliminate threats to our citizens from terrorist organizations and to stem the tide of the devastating drug crisis," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

"The team will initiate prosecutions that will restrict the flow of money to foreign terrorist organizations as well as disrupt violent international drug trafficking operations."

The move comes amid a stepped-up effort to battle Iran's growing influence in the Middle East and expanded military capabilities of Hezbollah, one of the dominant forces in Lebanese politics.

But Sessions said the creation of the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team was also a response to criticisms that former president Barack Obama held back from cracking down on Hezbollah's global networks, investigated under the previous Project Cassandra, in order to achieve the nuclear deal with Iran.

"The HFNT will begin by assessing the evidence in existing investigations, including cases stemming from Project Cassandra, a law enforcement initiative targeting Hezbollah's drug trafficking and related operations," the department said.

Officials in Washington and US allies Saudi Arabia and Israel, have increasingly raised the alarm over Hezbollah's growing power in Lebanon and around the world.

On Wednesday, former top Treasury Department sanctions official Juan Zarate told Congress that Hezbollah's drug smuggling and money laundering operations are global in scale.

"Recent actions by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Treasury to dismantle networks of Hezbollah's 'Business Affairs Component' have exposed financial and trade nodes that the Hezbollah operates and led to arrests and enforcement actions around the world," he told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Walmart will raise the minimum wage for its US employees to $11 an hour by February, pay $1,000 bonuses, and expand maternity leave, moves affecting more than a million workers that were made possible by the tax cuts approved last month

Walmart announced Thursday it will raise the minimum wage for US workers to $11 an hour and pay bonuses, but announced plans to close 63 Sam's Club stores in the US.

Owned by Walmart, Sam's Club is a chain of membership-only warehouse stores that offer discounted prices. Up to 12 of the shuttered Sam's Club stores would be converted into warehouses for e-commerce, the company said in a news release.

The wage increase starting in February elevates base starting pay from the current $9 an hour, and Walmart also said it would pay employees a one-time bonus of up to $1,000, expand parental and maternity leave programs and provide financial assistance to employees adopting children.

The new employee benefits will affect more than one million employees at Walmart US, Sam's Club, in e-commerce and other departments, Walmart said.

Walmart executives said they were able to boost employee benefits following the tax reform, which cut US corporate taxes from 35 to 21 percent.

The lowest starting pay for Walmart workers previously was $9 an hour, increasing to $10 after 90 days following completion of a training program. But a company spokesman told AFP the starting wage for all workers now will be at least $11.

American Airlines, AT&T and Wells Fargo have been among the companies that have given bonuses or awarded pay increases in recent weeks.

Skeptics have said these initiatives represent a pittance compared with the profit gains expected from lower tax rates, some of which is expected to go to higher executive pay, shareholder payouts and share buybacks.

Walmart announced the pay raise early Thursday and touted the announcement on its Twitter feed with a group of smiling employees giving a thumbs up.

Walmart's pay hike was also highlighted on Twitter by Ivanka Trump and touted by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during a White House briefing.

But the news was soon overshadowed by reports around the country about Sam's. In some cases, employees learned of the closures only Thursday when they showed up for work and found the store shut, according to local news reports in Texas and some other states.

The chain will close three stores in the Indianapolis, Indiana area on January 26, affecting a total of 419 workers, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Other states set to see closures included Arizona, Illinois and Tennessee, according to local news reports.

Sam's employees affected by the closures will receive the bonus announced by Walmart Thursday, 60 days of pay and potentially additional severance.

"We need great people to help lead us into the future and we hope that many of them will stay with the company at either a local store or club," said Sam's Club president John Furner.

"Change is never easy, but we're making these decisions as part of running a healthy business."
Refugees who have fled in their hundreds of thousands to Bangladesh have given consistent accounts of massacres, rape and torture by Myanmar security forces flanked by ethnic Rakhine mobs

Rohingya Muslims who fled a village where Myanmar has admitted its forces helped massacre 10 people said Thursday the victims were all civilians, not fighters as asserted by the army.

The Myanmar army chief's office confirmed Wednesday that security forces took part in killing "Bengali terrorists" on September 2 in the village of Inn Din in Rakhine state, using a pejorative term for Rohingya.

It was the first time Myanmar had admitted abuses during an army-led crackdown on Rohingya militants from late August that sparked a mass exodus of the Muslim minority.

But displaced Rohingya inside Bangladesh have angrily denied the army's account, with survivors who fled Inn Din insisting those killed were not militants but civilians murdered in cold blood.

Inn Din villager Wal Marjan, 30, said they were attacked by Buddhist mobs flanked by soldiers, who later "selected 10 to 15 men to attend a meeting".

They were never seen again, said Marjan, who was later told by another man that her husband and the others were slaughtered.

"He said his body was thrown into a mass grave with the other men," Marjan told AFP at a refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh, adding her husband had no connections with Rohingya rebels.

In its account of the massacre the army chief's office said security forces captured 10 Rohingya militants before killing them as violence engulfed the village and its surrounding area.

The post on Facebook also gave the first confirmation of a mass Rohingya grave inside Rakhine state.

But Inn Din villager Hossain Ahammad said the slain men were "fishermen, farmers, lumberjacks and clerics".

"They were not part of any movement. They are simply victims of the Burmese army's wrath," he told AFP.

Refugees who have fled in their hundreds of thousands to Bangladesh have given consistent accounts of massacres, rape and torture by Myanmar security forces flanked by ethnic Rakhine mobs.

Those allegations, which have been cross-checked by media and rights groups, have seen Myanmar accused of ethnic cleansing by the US and UN and prompted questions over whether the crackdown may have amounted to genocide.

Until Wednesday, Myanmar army has vigorously denied any abuses, instead locking down access to Rakhine state and accusing critics -- including the UN -- of pro-Rohingya bias and spreading "fake news".

The army chief's office said "action" would be taken against villagers and security members involved in the violence at Inn Din.

Last month Doctors Without Borders said at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the army crackdown on rebels in Rakhine -- the highest estimated death toll yet of violence that erupted on August 25.
After several years of complaints from neighbors in Dawson County, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality released a draft of proposed regulations for landfills licensed to hold low-level radioactive waste last August. The only such landfill licensed and operating in Montana or in North Dakota is located in Dawson County. It holds radioactive oilfield waste from Bakken drilling.

Four months later, Montana DEQ is still working on the regulations and is in the final steps of licensing a fourth landfill to accept radioactive waste from oilfield development. (Two previously licensed landfills havent been built.)

Small wonder that ranchers living and working near the Oaks Disposal site in Dawson County have been worried about the truckloads of waste passing by their property. They are concerned that nearby ground and surface water could become contaminated with radiation. The disposal site near Glendive has accepted hundreds of thousands of tons of oilfield waste since 2013.

DEQ officials point out that each licensed landfill operator is regulated. However, there isnt a set of rules written, publicized and applied to all of TENORM (technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material) disposal sites.

The DEQ is accepting public comment on licensing for a fourth TENORM disposal site till Jan. 29. The proposed Yellowstone Disposal landfill would be located on a 2,600-acre tract about 4-1/2 miles southeast of Sidney. The license application from IHD Environmental of Williston, North Dakota, indicates that 55 acres would be used for disposal of TENORM.

Meanwhile, the DEQ says final radioactive disposal rules may be out this fall.

Why is the Montana rule-making taking years? Why does the DEQ timeline have final rules coming out a full year after the draft rules?

Department spokeswoman Kristi Ponozzo summarized the departments process: It is currently DEQs intent that on or before Jan. 30, 2018, we will submit a request to the Secretary of the States Office to extend the rulemaking process for an additional 90 days. The purpose of this extension is to allow sufficient time to address the numerous comments we received during the regular and extended public comment periods. The notice of extended rulemaking should be published by the SOS no later than Feb. 9, 2018.

Based upon the public input we have already received, DEQ will be revising the proposed TENORM rules and noticing the revisions during the spring of 2018. Those revisions to the original proposed rules will undergo another public comment period and possibly another public hearing. When the revisions have been thoroughly vetted, the agency will provide a response to all substantive comments and submit the final rules to the SOS for adoption. We hope to have a final rule package complete by the fall of 2018.

Montana DEQ should be responsive to public comments. These rules are Montanas opportunity to get regulation right  for the public, the landfill operators and the oil industry.

But Montanans like Seth Newton whose ranch is near the Oaks Disposal landfill outside of Glendive are right to worry about the lack of rules. As Newton told The Gazette last week: Until Montana develops standards and protections, were going to continue to be North Dakotas dumping ground.

Its up to concerned Montanans to keep pushing for TENORM rules. The federal government doesnt regulate this low-level radioactive waste. North Dakota developed rules in 2016, but no such disposal sites have chosen to open there. Montana has no universal rules, and gets radioactive waste.

In this case, good, comprehensive rules will make better neighbors.
Calls for stronger cooperation to address migration followed the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, when countries were overwhelmed by the flow from Syria and Libya

Governments that crack down on migrants are only harming themselves, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday ahead of UN talks on a global response to migration boycotted by the United States.

Guterres presented a report to the General Assembly on ways to address the plight of the 258 million international migrants, some of whom are trapped in legal limbo.

"Authorities that erect major obstacles to migration - or place severe restrictions on migrants' work opportunities - inflict needless economic self-harm," Guterres said.

"They impose barriers to having their labor needs met in an orderly, legal fashion."

"Worse still, they unintentionally encourage illegal migration," he said.

President Donald Trump's administration is threatening to deport thousands of immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children and were allowed to stay under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which Trump has since scrapped.

UN member-states will next month open negotiations on a global compact for migration that would encourage governments to offer more legal venues for migrants, but the United States will not be at the table.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley cited concerns over sovereignty, saying "our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone", even though the document is non-binding.

Calls for stronger cooperation to address migration followed the 2015 refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, when countries were overwhelmed by the flow from Syria and Libya.

The total number of international migrants has grown by 49 percent since 2000 and now represents 3.4 percent of the world's population, according to the United Nations.

The majority of migrants move across borders legally, but Guterres warned in his report that climate change and demographic trends will lead to a further spike in migration in the future.

Describing migration as a "positive global phenomenon," Guterres called for greater international cooperation to protect vulnerable migrants.

The global compact will be adopted in December at a conference in Morocco.
This untitled painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for $110.5 million in 2017, a record at auction for any US artist

A Basquiat masterpiece, bought by a Japanese billionaire for a record $110.5 million, will make its museum debut this month, going on display in the artist's home borough of Brooklyn.

Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1982 "Untitled" has been virtually unseen in public and never previously been exhibited in a museum. It depicts a skull-like head in oil-stick, acrylic and spray paint, and was bought at Sotheby's last May by Yusaku Maezawa.

The $110.5 million price tag set a new auction record for Basquiat and a record for the work of any US artist at auction.

"My wish to share this masterpiece with as many people as possible begins in Basquiat's home town of Brooklyn," Maezawa wrote on his Instagram account Thursday.

Basquiat was born in Brooklyn to Haitian and Puerto Rican parents. He died 30 years ago, in 1988, of an overdose aged just 27 after a fleeting eight-year career.

He enjoys a stratospheric following, his work snapped up by celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Jay-Z, but experts say his legacy has been largely confined to popular culture while museums have been accused of downplaying his stature.

The subject of much of Basquiat's work, ordeals endured by blacks in America, has found renewed resonance in the wake of nationwide US protests since 2014 about the shootings of unarmed black men by police.

The Brooklyn Museum said "Untitled" would be on view from January 26 to March 11. It will then go on a world tour, before being housed eventually in a museum that Maezawa is building in his home town of Chiba, Japan, the museum added.

"I am thrilled to be sending Basquiat's masterpiece home to Brooklyn," said the 42-year-old Japanese entrepreneur in a statement released by the museum.

"It is my hope that through the exhibition and extensive programming accompanying it, the young people of the borough will be inspired by their local hero, just as he has inspired so many of us around the world."

An aspiring rock star as a teen, Maezawa founded Start Today in 1998, which operates Japan's largest online fashion mall, ZOZOTOWN. Today, he is the 14th richest person in Japan with a fortune of $3 billion, according to Forbes.

Leonardo da Vinci's reputed "Salvator Mundi" sold for $450.3 million at Christie's last November, becoming the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.
Mali's troops have been embroiled in a nearly six-year-old fight against jihadists

Mali's army is to deploy patrols in an operation to fight jihadists in the country's restive centre, according to documents and sources consulted by AFP, as the government expresses concern over extreme instability in the area.

Newly-appointed Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga said last week "urgent measures" were required to address Al-Qaeda-linked groups who control territory in the area.

The eventual deployment of around 1,000 soldiers is aimed at "assuring the security of people and goods as well as fighting the jihadists," a Malian defence ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A security plan will include foot and motorbike patrols in the community, copying the modus operandi of jihadist networks in the area, according to a document outlining the measures.

Meanwhile a "mobile government" would provide basic services to populations excluded from access by living in at-risk areas, notably in the education sector, the document seen by AFP said.

The defence ministry source said the inclusion of foreign forces operating in the country could not be ruled out, though the United Nations mission, French troops and soldiers from the G5 Sahel nations operating in Mali have not confirmed they would take part.

Long-simmering inter-ethnic tensions have been exploited by Islamists in central Mali as the state has retreated, propogating violence that was once limited to the north.

In March and April 2012, jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda seized control of the arid north of Mali, including celebrated ancient cities such as Gao and Timbuktu, centres of trans-Saharan trade and learning.

The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but large tracts of the country remain lawless.

The UN's Mali mission is the world's most dangerous active deployment, with more than 140 peacekeepers killed since its launch, 89 of them by enemy action.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters fire rockets as they battle government forces in Syria's Idlib province on January 11, 2018

Syrian regime forces faced fierce resistance from jihadists Thursday as they fought to capture a key airbase in Idlib, the last province beyond the government's control, a war monitor said.

Russia-backed government forces battled their way into the Abu Duhur military airport on Wednesday night as they pressed a weeks-long offensive in the northwestern province.

Idlib province is almost entirely held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist outfit dominated by Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.

Government fighters have seized a string of villages in the southeast of the province since launching their offensive on December 25.

After entering the Abu Duhur airbase, regime forces faced "fierce resistance", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

And on Thursday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its Islamist allies led a counter-attack, retaking several villages from the regime, said the Britain-based war monitor.

Later, they fired rockets at regime positions from farmland in the Al-Tamana area of southern Idlib, an AFP correspondent said.

Syria

The goal of the jihadists was to cut off regime forces at the airport from their rear bases and "relieve the pressure" on them at the airbase, said the Observatory.

Thursday's battle, which was punctuated by air strikes from Syria's regime and its ally Russia, claimed the lives of 26 jihadists and rebels and 15 pro-government fighters.

On Wednesday, 35 soldiers were killed at the airport, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground in the war-torn country.

The regime lost control of the Abu Duhur base in 2015 after a two-year siege by jihadists, with only the Shiite-populated villages of Fuaa and Kafraya remaining under its control in the whole province.

- Fear among displaced -

Idlib's few rebel groups and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have set aside their differences to fight President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

An opposition fighter fires a cannon from a village near Al-Tabanah during ongoing battles with government forces in Syria's Idlib province on January 11, 2018

The regime hopes to seize control of southeast parts of Idlib province to secure a main road between the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo.

The fighting in Idlib has forced nearly 100,000 people to flee since early December, the United Nations says.

The UN's humanitarian coordination office OCHA said on Wednesday that the situation in Idlib was "extremely chaotic", with newly displaced people reportedly scattered across open areas.

"Due to the large numbers of people moving, many are left with no shelter, which could expose them to various risks, especially as the winter temperatures continue to drop," it said in a statement.

The International Rescue Committee said it had received hundreds of people newly displaced from the latest fighting in Idlib, many of them housed in makeshift tents.

One, a mother of twins, said she had initially left one of her children behind in the panic to escape the air strikes.

"We couldn't think properly. The fear affected our brains," said the mother, quoted by the IRC.

Ninety-six civilians, including 27 children, have been killed since December 25 in Syrian or Russian air strikes on Idlib, according to the Observatory.

UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock speaking to reporters in Damascus on January 11, 2018

The violence comes as UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock wraps up a visit to Syria during which he met with authorities.

Lowcock said he was "deeply worried about civilians affected by the upsurge in violence in Idlib".

Idlib, which borders Turkey, is one of four "de-escalation" zones in Syria covered by a deal meant to reduce violence that was struck last year by Turkey, Russia and government-backer Iran.

The regime's Russian-backed offensive has angered Ankara, which on Wednesday called on Moscow and Tehran to "fulfil their responsibility" and halt the operation.

Turkey on Tuesday summoned the Russian and Iranian ambassadors to Ankara in order to convey its "uneasiness" about their actions in Idlib.

"Regime forces are striking moderate opposition with the pretext of fighting against Al-Nusra (Front)," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, referring to the former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

In a statement from the Syrian presidency Thursday, Assad said the "major victories of the army in cooperation with Russia and its other allies... have strengthened efforts for a peaceful solution" to the conflict.

A picture taken on January 7, 2018 shows displaced Syrians who fled the fighting in Idlib province's southeastern town of Sinjar driving near the city of Saraqib

More than 340,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Syrian war, which began in 2011 as the regime brutally crushed anti-government protests. Millions have been displaced.
Over 100 major US companies joined forces to urge Congress to protect immigrants brought to the country as children, signing a letter published in full-page ads in major newspapers Thursday.

The companies called for immediate action to help workers who will lose the protection of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in March.

Chief executives of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple  together known as GAFA  were joined by those from IBM, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, General Motors, AT&T, Marriott, Hilton and dozens of others signing the letter calling for protection for the 'Dreamers.'

President Trump has said he'll let the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program expire in March, but he's dangling a renewal in front of Congress, saying he'll sign it if they also include funding for his border wall

A US judge this week ordered the federal government to reinstate DACA pending final judgment on the justification for overturning it

President Donald Trump announced in September he was scrapping the program, but with a six-month lag  meaning those covered by DACA would be subject to deportation starting March.

'We write to urge Congress to act immediately and pass a permanent bipartisan legislative solution to enable Dreamers who are currently living, working, and contributing to our communities to continue doing so,' they said in the letter published in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

'The imminent termination of the DACA program is creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country.'

The letter echoes concerns of analysts and businesses who say the economy could lose $215 billion in GDP if the 800,000 Dreamers leave the labor pool, at a time when many firms are finding it hard to fill open positions.

'In addition to causing a tremendous upheaval in the lives of DACA employees, failure to act in time will lead to businesses losing valuable talent, cause disruptions in the workforce, and will result in significant costs,' the letter said.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was among the CEOs who signed the letter

Apple's Tim Cook also signed the letter demanding Congress take action

'It is critical that Congress act to pass legislation before January 19th. This window of action leaves only 45 days for implementation prior to March 5th.'

A US judge this week ordered the federal government to reinstate DACA pending final judgment on the justification for overturning it.

That would allow Dreamers to apply to renew their status under the program implemented by President Barack Obama in 2012, unless overturned by a higher court.

Immigration advocacy groups note that Dreamers meet strict requirements and background checks, and are not eligible for any needs-based government financial support, but pay taxes since their status allows them to work legally.

Democrats are digging in on their demand that Congress find a legislative solution for DACA after President Trump said he would do away with it.

The president reiterated his demand that an immigration agreement include a border wall, his campaign promise that is anathema to Democrats and now comes with an $18 billion price tag for U.S. taxpayers.

'The imminent termination of the DACA program is creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country,' the published open letter read

After an earlier punt by Congress, government funding is set to expire on Jan. 19. Democrats are lining up to demand a DACA fix be included in any funding package, although there is a split in the party on how hard to push and whether to accept border security and other concessions to Republicans.

Trump seems amenable to reauthorizing DACA, under the right conditions.

'I really believe theyre going to come up with a solution to the DACA problem, which has been going on for a long time, and maybe beyond that immigration as a whole,' Trump said of Congress on Tuesday.

'But any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it doesn't work.'

In a poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University, 79 per cent of American voters said they want 'Dreamers' to be able to stay in the U.S. and apply for citizenship.
Trump will be the first sitting US president to attend the Davos meet since Bill Clinton in 2000

Swiss authorities on Thursday warned about unauthorised and potentially violent protests targeting this year's World Economic Forum in Davos and its star attraction, US President Donald Trump.

The annual meeting of the world's political and business elite at the luxury Swiss ski resort often draws small protests against its famous participants and the global trade agenda.

But with the surprise announcement this week that Trump is attending this year's January 22-26 meet, Swiss authorities expect demonstrations across the country.

"In connection with the upcoming WEF in Davos and the announced visit of US President Donald Trump, an unauthorised demonstration was called" on January 13, Bern said, warning that "a high potential for violence must be assumed."

A group called RJG has called a demonstration in the Swiss capital starting at 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) Saturday, but authorities said they expected protests could begin on Friday evening.

Authorities expect "several hundred demonstrators" to turn up, the statement said, adding that "damage to federal objects must be expected."

"It cannot be ruled out that demonstrations will be called again for the following weekend," it said.

- 'Welcome to Hell' -

It remains unclear when Trump will be at Davos, but RJG has called a demonstration on January 23 titled: "Trump: Welcome to Hell" in Zurich, a 2.5-hour drive or train ride from Davos and the closest airport.

Trump's 'America First' agenda is in stark contrast with the globalisation and regulatory integration popular among the Davos crowd

Another group, Campax, which has gathered more than 8,100 signatures since Wednesday on a petition aimed at keeping Trump away from Davos, has also vowed to organise a demonstration near the Zurich airport around the time of his arrival.

A previously planned rally in Geneva on January 21 to mark the anniversary of the massive Women's March in Washington and around the world after Trump was sworn in is also now expected to draw a far bigger crowd, Le Temps daily reported.

Trump, whose "America First" agenda stands in stark contrast with the globalisation and regulatory integration popular among the Davos crowd, will be the first sitting US president to attend the meeting since Bill Clinton in 2000.

Ensuring security during WEF requires a massive police and military presence but Swiss authorities did not appear too rattled.

The head of the regional Graubunden police force Walter Schlegel told Swiss news agency ATS that Trump's attendance would not require "major shifts" in the security detail in the resort town of around 11,000 inhabitants.

The airspace over the region will remain closed for the duration of the forum, and like every year, the military will pitch in by sending up to 5,000 troops to Davos.
The National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland

The US House of Representatives passed a crucial surveillance law Thursday that reinforced the ability of the country's spy agencies to intercept and make use of Americans' private communications.

The national security establishment saw the reauthorization of the expiring Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as essential, warning that they would not be able to detect terror plots without it.

But rights groups and libertarian-leaning politicians of both the Democratic and Republican parties saw the bill's passage as a blow, especially since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that the NSA was using it to vacuum up massive amounts of data on Americans.

Many had hoped the renewal would strengthen protections against invasive electronic wiretapping and social media monitoring of Americans by the NSA, the country's powerful electronic espionage body, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

- Trump tweets stir confusion -

The House's vote for the bill came after President Trump himself sent mixed messages of his own views, tweeting Thursday morning his opposition only to make an abrupt U-turn.

In an initial tweet he said the section 702 provision had been used by the Obama administration to "so badly surveil and abuse the Trump campaign," suggesting he was opposed to the bill.

More than an hour later, he reversed himself, saying "today's vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it!"

While nearly all lawmakers agree that 702 is an essential tool for US intelligence to safeguard national security, the bill passed the House by 256-164, showing the level of opposition to the powers it gives US spies and law enforcement. The no votes included 45 Republicans.

"The House-passed bill does absolutely nothing to defend the vast majority of law-abiding Americans from warrantless searches, and in many ways it expands the federal government's ability to spy on Americans. A concerted campaign of fear-mongering and misinformation pushed this flawed bill over the line," said Senator Ron Wyden, one of the most vocal critics of the law.

- Post-9/11 law -

Section 702 of the FISA law was passed in 2008 after the Bush administration was shown to have allowed the then-illegal surveillance of telephone and online communications of US citizens and residents in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Amid concerns it gave the government too much power to spy on citizens, the statute was given a five-year limit, and was renewed in 2012.

It allows the NSA and FBI, in their surveillance on foreign targets outside of the country for national security purposes, to also collect and hold communications by US citizens, so-called incidental collection.

It also permits the CIA and FBI to search that material, which includes social media postings, in the course of criminal investigations.

The NSA and FBI have downplayed their collection and use of the materials on Americans.

But leaks and statements by officials have suggested that the amount of material collected is massive, and that the FBI routinely searches it for information on Americans.

Opponents had hoped the new bill would require agencies to obtain specific warrants to scan and make use of the communications of Americans scooped up in the process of spying on foreigners.

But a slight change that says the FBI needs a warrant to make use of the material in court does not hinder their ability to freely examine NSA files, critics said.

The bill "fails to meaningfully restrict the use of Section 702 to spy on Americans without a warrant," the American Civil Liberties Union said.

The bill could face stronger opposition in the Senate, where Senator Rand Paul has threatened a filibuster. But analysts expect that will only slow its eventual passage.
OPCW chief Ahmet Uzumcu hailed the destruction as a 'historic occasion for disarmament and security'

Libya marked the destruction of its last toxic arms Thursday, hailed by the world's chemical weapons watchdog as a "historic occasion" to make the world a safer place.

The final destruction of some 500 metric tonnes of chemical products at a facility based in Munster in western Germany, was a "historic occasion for disarmament and security," the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said.

"It heralds the end of Libya's chemical demilitarisation process and another step towards fulfilling the core goal of the Chemical Weapons Convention -- the complete and permanent eradication of all chemical weapons," director-general Ahmet Uzumcu said in a statement.

The stocks, including 23 tanks of chemicals, were shipped out on a Danish vessel on August 30, 2016, from the Libyan port of Misrata, under the supervision of the United Nations.

The chemical weapons reached the highly specialised facility operated by GEKA, Germany's state-owned company for disposing of chemical weapons, in September 2016.

The OPCW verified the complete destruction of the materials at GEKA on November 23 last year, the OPCW said Thursday at a ceremony held in Munster.

The removal of the dangerous weapons precursors greatly eased fears that extremists like so-called Islamic State jihadists could gain access to the weapons in Libya, which has been wracked by upheaval since the 2011 overthrow of its longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi.

Uzumcu said the "extraordinary" operation to destroy the chemicals "necessitated agility, creativity and above all, close international cooperation."

Libya joined the UN convention banning chemical weapons in 2004 as part of Kadhafi's ultimately abortive efforts to shake off the country's pariah status and mend ties with the West.

At the time Libya joined the convention, it declared 24.7 tonnes of sulphur mustard, 1,390 tonnes of precursor chemicals and more than 3,500 aerial bombs containing chemical weapons.

"The destruction of Libya's remaining Category 2 chemical weapons in the GEKA facility brought the total amount of the Libyan category 2 chemical weapons destroyed to 100 percent," the OPCW said.

"Libya had previously destroyed all of its category 1 and 3 chemical weapons," it added.

More than 96 percent of the world's declared chemical stockpiles have now been destroyed under verification by the OPCW -- which received the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize for its work.

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Yamaha's 'Motoroid' concept electric motorcycle reaches speeds topping 200 kilometers per hour but is blind, relying on pre-programmed routes

With a wave, Kinji Asamura summoned a riderless motorcycle to his side in the Yamaha booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

The concept electric motorcycle, called 'Motoroid,' then balanced in position, holding its place even when Asamura tried gently to push it over.

Nearby, a robot that might seem suited for a futuristic action film was astride a production model Yamaha super-bike that it had ridden at speeds topping 200 kilometers per hour on a test track.

"The motor bike is the recent past, and the Motoroid is the future," Yamaha spokesman John Boreland told AFP as he glanced from one two-wheeled creation to the other.

"The object is to see what lessons can be learned to connect machine to human more effectively."

The robot-ridden Yamaha motorcycle, called 'Motobot,' is fast but blind, relying on pre-programmed routes, according to Yamaha.

Lessons learned so far from the research model include that "human beings react a hell of a lot quicker," according to Boreland,

Flesh-and-blood riders have also proven better at grasping the courter-intuitive notion of counter-steering and leaning through turns, he added.

The Motoroid model boasted autonomous features such as balancing on its own, recognizing riders, and being summoned with a wave.

Wings on the back of the seat were designed with the help of a psychologist to gently squeeze a rider's lower back in a sort of reassuring caress at potentially perilous high speeds, Boreland said.

"Somewhere along the line, this will all meld together so you'll be part of the bike and it will figure things out for you," Boreland said of insights and advances resulting from the concept motorcycles, which are not for sale.
James Franco at the presentation of the film The Disaster Artist in Hollywood in November 2017

Five women have publicly accused Hollywood star James Franco of sexually inappropriate behavior, The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday, just days after the actor triumphed at the Golden Globes.

The paper published allegations by four former students at the film school Franco founded who accused him of exploitative behavior including during nude scenes. A fifth woman accused Franco of pressuring her into performing fellatio while the pair were in a relationship two years ago.

The 39-year-old actor and his lawyers have denied the accusations.

Sarah Tither-Kaplan, a former student at Franco's Studio 4 school in North Hollywood, was one of a number of women who took to Twitter in anger after he accepted a Best Actor award for "The Disaster Artist" Sunday night, wearing a "Time's Up" pin in solidarity with victims of sexual harassment.

It "was like a slap in my face," she told the paper.

Tither-Kaplan, whom Franco cast as a prostitute in 2015 in an unreleased film, described to the Times taking part in a nude orgy "bonus" scene in which Franco simulated oral sex on several other actresses, and said he had removed a clear plastic guard that covered their vaginas.

She also claims she and her female co-stars were asked to appear topless and dance around Franco in an unscripted scene.

Franco's attorney told The Times the account of Franco removing the protective guards was "not accurate," and pointed to Tither-Kaplan's positive social media comments about her experience on the set.

Another Franco attorney said she had received no complaints during the movie filming.

Tither-Kaplan, who went on to appear in several Franco productions, acknowledged the positive remarks -- and said Franco later apologized for making her feel uncomfortable.

But she said the negative experiences were "red flags."

Katie Ryan, another former student, said Franco "would always make everybody think there were possible roles on the table if we were to perform sexual acts or take off our shirts."

Two other former students told the paper about a strip club scene that both considered unprofessional.

Hilary Dusome, 33, said Franco approached the group of actresses and asked, "So, who wants to take your shirt off?"

When no one volunteered, Franco stormed off, according to fellow student Natalie Chmiel, 33.

Franco's attorney denied any such request was made.

Aspiring screenwriter Violet Paley, 23, told The Times she saw Franco as a mentor when they began a romantic relationship in 2016.

On Sunday she called Franco out on social media after the Globes ceremony, publicly recounting an incident in which she says he pressured her to perform oral sex inside a car.

"I just didn't want him to hate me, so I did it," she told the Times. "The power dynamic was really off."

Franco's attorney described the allegations as "not accurate."

On Wednesday the actor denied engaging in sexual misconduct after several accusations surfaced on social media, while voicing his support for the many women coming forward with allegations of wrongdoing following the downfall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Steve Bakken will run against incumbent Mike Seminary for Bismarck mayor.

Bismarck needs a change, Bakken said of his decision to run.

He says he is making his official announcement this afternoon on KFYR 550 AM Radio with Todd Mitchell and will gather the necessary signatures over the coming week.

Bakken, a former Bismarck radio show host and the business development manager for Larson Engineering, is a Grand Forks native who has lived in Bismarck for about seven years.

Bakken said his platform will be clarity and transparency in city government.

(Government) needs to move in a different direction and be accountable to the taxpayers, he said.

Bakken points to recent items, such as changes to utility fees opposed by area homebuilders and the handling of shelter for Bismarcks homeless.

These conversations should have been had a long time ago, he said of the utility fee changes.

And he criticized the $10,000 of special projects funding going toward helping shelter the homeless during the cold winter months as not well utilized and not solving the issue for the long term.

Its not taxpayer money well spent, he said.

Taking action

Bakken moved around a lot working in radio but decided he wanted to get back home to North Dakota, starting in Fargo then moving to Bismarck.

I love Bismarck, Bakken said, with its combination of a political atmosphere and the outdoors. Its the best of all worlds  Bismarck is just a good place; its home.

In college, he followed politics quite a bit but couldnt put roots down to get into the race himself.

Its something I put on the back burner, Bakken said.

Bakken first started talking of a mayoral bid when Mayor Mike Seminary was in the midst of a recall attempt that ultimately failed due to a lack of approved signatures.

Problem solving, his willingness to listen and his ability to see the bigger picture are some of the qualities Bakken thinks will make him a good mayor.

One thing were lacking is seeing how the pieces connect, he said in May, who points to governmental entities, including county, schools, parks and local state legislators, operating in silos.

Everybody does their own thing. Theres no bigger plan or path to get there  To be successful, everybody needs to be on the same page, he said. Theres too much going on for that not to happen  Were a vibrant economic city. Were not going to stop growing.

Bakken points to Dickinson, where local state legislators meet regularly with local government officials and know exactly what the community needs before going into legislative session.

What caused Bismarcks need for infrastructure funding was a lack of planning when choosing where to build schools, according to Bakken, who said school location is the No. 1 driver of development and a lack of communication between governmental entities led to an expansion of infrastructure that the city must now find a way to pay to maintain.

Cities grow, but you need to plan the growth, he said.

Bakken said Bismarck is more than whats within the city limits and wants the city to work more closely with Mandan and Lincoln, similarly to relationships between Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo and Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.

Its the culture thats got to change, he said of the need for a leader who will listen to taxpayers and provide more direction for city employees and government operations.

Among other goals if he were to be elected mayor, Bakken said he would like to get rid of or shrink Bismarcks extra-territorial area. As for a bypass north of town to divert truck traffic off of Bismarcks State Street, he says the city needs it and he would like to see it happen.
A Saudi woman drives her car along a street in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, on September 27, 2017

A Saudi private company on Thursday opened the first car showroom for women only just five months before a decision allowing females to drive takes effect.

The showroom was opened in a shopping mall in the western Red Sea port city of Jeddah to allow women the freedom to choose their own cars before they hit the road.

In a historic decision late last year, King Salman gave Saudi women the right to drive, abolishing an almost three-decade ban based on religious reasons.

The showroom offers a wide selection of vehicles from various makes and is staffed by women only.

It also provides women with solutions to finance their purchase provided by leading banks and financial companies.

The company plans to open more automobiles showrooms for women in the oil-rich kingdom.
In early January Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released his first first video message in months amid a surge in violence

Four people were killed and two others kidnapped in separate overnight attacks in the far north of Cameroon, blamed on the Islamist group Boko Haram, sources told AFP on Thursday.

Three of the victims were "slaughtered" in Kolofata, a town which borders Nigeria and that has seen a spate of attacks blamed on the jihadists, said a source close to the security services.

A security officer in the region confirmed the information to AFP, and that two people were also abducted.

In a second overnight attack, Boko Haram fighters are believed to have killed one person and injured another in nearby Ashigashiya, also by the Nigerian border, said the security officer.

The jihadists also burned some 60 boxes of grain and motorcycles, he added.

The attacks come after Cameroon and three other west African states launched a major offensive against the jihadist group in Borno state, in north east Nigeria this week.

Cameroon soldiers, along with troops from Chad, Nigeria and Niger, are targeting a Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau in the Sambisa Forest, and another led by Mamman Nur, on and around Lake Chad.

According to the Nigerian military, scores of jihadists have been killed and hundreds of others have been forced to surrender in recent days.

Boko Haram began its bloody insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, seeking to install an extremist Islamic state in the country.

The militants began cross-border attacks in 2014, and have regularly carried out raids in Cameroon, killing, looting and kidnapping villagers.

Since 2014, Cameroon has been fighting a military campaign against the group, including cross-border operations with Nigerian troops.

But the group is estimated to have killed some 2,000 civilians and soldiers, and abducted more than a thousand people, in the last four years.

Across the region, violence committed by Boko Haram has killed at least 20,000 and displaced more than 2.6 million people.
"We think it's important for Security Council members to get the update of the situation from the ground (in Afghanistan)," said Kazakh Ambassador Kairat Umarov, the council's president for this month

The UN Security Council is considering a visit to Afghanistan to get an up-close view of the conflict-ridden country and help develop a new strategy, Kazakhstan's UN ambassador said Thursday.

US national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Tuesday briefed ambassadors of the 15-member council in New York following a series of high-profile US visits to Afghanistan, including that of Vice President Mike Pence last month.

"We think it's important for Security Council members to get the update of the situation from the ground," said Kazakh Ambassador Kairat Umarov, the council's president for this month.

"We would like them to feel the situation there and work with the Afghan government on what the needs are."

No date was announced for the visit, which would be the first by the full council to Afghanistan in seven years.

US President Donald Trump in August unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan, vowing to deploy more troops, on top of the 11,000 already in the country, to train and advise Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan is expected to top the agenda when Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev meets Trump next week at the White House before heading to New York to chair a council debate on the conflict on January 19.

The Kazakh ambassador called for "a more comprehensive approach" to Afghanistan that puts a stronger focus on development, and is not limited to boosting security.

Backed by US forces, Afghanistan has been struggling to beat back the resurgent Taliban since the withdrawal of NATO combat forces at the end of 2014.
A woman bursts into tears as the casket of her father is brought into Ibrahim Babangida Square during a funeral service for people killed during clashes between cattle herders and farmers

Huge crowds turned out in central Nigeria on Thursday at a funeral service for scores of people killed during clashes between cattle herders and farming communities.

Tens of thousands of people, many of them dressed in black, gathered in Ibrahim Babangida Square in the Benue state capital, Makurdi, for the ceremony before a mass burial on the outskirts of the city.

Emergency officials told AFP on Tuesday that 80 people had been killed and some 80,000 forced from their homes since the start of the year, in violence that has seen mounting calls for President Muhammadu Buhari to act.

Pall bearers carry coffins during a mass funeral for the scores of people killed during clashes between cattle herders and farmers

Benue state governor Samuel Ortom said 73 of the victims, who included pregnant women, children and the elderly, would be buried on Thursday.

He told mourners there was "no doubt as to the motive of the wanton killing of our people and (the) destruction of our farms, property and our crops".

"This is all about land," he said.

The crowds began wailing as the simple, polished darkwood caskets were brought to the square on flat-bed trucks, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

- Security tightened -

Violence between the mainly Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Christian farmers has claimed thousands of lives across Nigeria's central states over the past few decades.

The conflict is being driven by an increasing need for resources -- primarily land and water -- and is often exacerbated by ethnic and sectarian grievances.

But the scale of the recent killings, and similar tit-for-tat attacks in the neighbouring state of Taraba last weekend, has put Buhari's government and its response under the scanner.

The attacks in Benue against ethnic Tiv farmers have been seen as a response by the mainly nomadic herders to the introduction of a law banning open grazing

The presidency said on Wednesday that the Nigerian Army had deployed special forces to Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa "to secure vulnerable communities and prevent further attacks".

Police have also sent reinforcements into the affected areas while in Benue, civilian militia groups have been set up.

The attacks in Benue against ethnic Tiv farmers have been seen as a response by the mainly nomadic herders to the introduction of a law banning open grazing in the state.

But Ortom refused to back down.

"If these killings by our enemies are to deter us from operating the anti-open grazing law in Benue state that was legally accessed, they have failed," he said.

Buhari -- himself a Hausa-speaking Fulani -- has been criticised for failing to take stronger action against his kinsmen but has rejected being soft on the issue.

His government has proposed the creation of cattle colonies across the country to provide grass and water for herds, plus education and healthcare for herders.

So-called "agro-rangers" will provide security, it added.

- 'In denial' -

With tensions running high, the issue is taking on greater political significance as elections approach in February next year at which Buhari is expected to stand.

Banners seen in the crowd in Makurdi on Thursday included direct appeals to the head of state.

One read: "Ranching is the only option to end Benue killing." Another said: "Mr President, wake up."

The presidency said eight suspected Fulani herdsmen were in custody and being questioned in connection with the attack.

The paramount ruler of the Tiv tribe, James Ayatse, urged Buhari to act to prevent a repeat, with impunity for those responsible seen as fuelling the violence.

The perceived failure of Buhari's predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, to act against Boko Haram jihadists in northeast Nigeria was seen as a key factor in his election defeat in 2015.

Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said Buhari, his government and the police appeared to be "in near-identical denial" about the herders' threat to security.

"The ghosts of Jonathan seem poised to haunt the tenure of Muhammadu Buhari," he said in comments reported by Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
UN political chief Jeffrey Feltman met with the head of Libya's parliament as analysts expressed scepticism that elections will help end bitter divisions in the country

The United Nations' political chief held talks on Thursday with the head of Libya's parliament about elections to be held under a UN plan to stabilise the strife-ridden country.

Jeffrey Feltman, who is on a tour of Libya and Tunisia, travelled to the eastern town of Al-Qobba where the parliament is based for the meeting with speaker Aguila Saleh.

"The meeting, attended by the UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame, focused on the elections scheduled for this year," said parliament spokesman Abdallah Bleheq.

The elections "should meet the expectations of the people and appease the various political actors", he told AFP.

A 2015 UN-brokered deal that saw the establishment of a Government of National Accord was meant to calm years of chaos that followed the ouster of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

But Libya has remained mired in violent turmoil as the country is riven by divisions between the GNA in Tripoli and a rival administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east.

On Wednesday in the capital, Feltman met Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the internationally recognised GNA.

It is struggling to assert its authority across the country, especially because of the presence of a parallel administration in the east.

In September, the UN presented the plan to hold legislative and presidential elections by the end of 2018 as the GNA's mandate neared the end of its two-year lifespan with no solution to the crisis in sight.

Analysts have expressed scepticism that elections will help end the bitter divisions, and say they could in fact increase tensions between Libya's rival camps.

Feltman acknowledged on Wednesday that "credible elections will require an understanding in terms of political agreements" as well as new legislation and the necessary security conditions.

But he insisted the UN wants "to do our part in promoting the political, the security, the technical and the legislative condition to see that the Libyan people's desire for these elections can be realised this year."

In December, Haftar said he would support elections but also implied he would seize power if the polls did not occur.

Haftar -- who never recognised the GNA's authority -- has insisted the unity government has lost all legitimacy after the expiry of the 2015 agreement at the end of last year.
US President Donald Trump was meeting with his top security advisors on Iran sanctions relief

US President Donald Trump convened his top national security advisers Thursday to decide whether to re-impose sanctions on Iran at the risk of sinking the 2015 nuclear deal.

State Department officials said Trump was expected to make a decision at the meeting, but that it was not clear whether it would be announced later Thursday or on Friday.

"The president still strongly believes this is one of the worst deals of all time," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

"One of the single greatest flaws is its restrictions leave Iran free ... to openly develop their nuclear program and rapidly achieve a nuclear weapons breakout capability.

"Obviously, we see a big problem with that," she said. "The administration is continuing to work with Congress and with our allies to address those flaws."

Sanders did not say when an announcement would be made, but Assistant Secretary of State Steve Goldstein said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was at the White House and that a decision was imminent.

"The secretary has been at the White House almost every day. He was there yesterday for many, many hours. The decision meeting is this afternoon," he told reporters.

"From that, the decision will be made. I'm not sure when the announcement will be made, whether it will be made tonight or whether it will be tomorrow," he said.

A senior State Department official, speaking anonymously to give more detail, said the meeting was expected to end at 3:45 pm (1845 GMT) and an announcement then to be made within a few hours.

"I suppose there's always a possibility that it could go long and the timeframe could be tomorrow, but it is possible that the decision will come out tonight," the senior official said.

Trump has already declared that he think the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers in no longer in the United States' national interest.

But he has continued to follow the example of his predecessor Barack Obama in regularly signing sanctions waivers so that US economic measures against Tehran do not "snap back."

The deadlines for a number of these waivers to be renewed will fall over the coming week, and Trump is obliged to decide whether or not to maintain sanctions relief.

If he does allow the sanctions to go back into effect, Iran will accuse the United States of breaking the deal, under which Tehran agreed to various controls on its nuclear program.

European capitals will also be dismayed, having pressed Washington to accept that the deal was an international agreement and that Iran has abided by its terms.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will head to Canada next week for a major international meeting on North Korea

The United States will use a major meeting of allies next week to discuss the idea of stopping and inspecting suspect ships bound for North Korea, a senior official said Thursday.

The United States and Canada are to host a meeting on the nuclear standoff with North Korea on Tuesday in Vancouver, bringing together friendly powers from around the world.

State Department director of policy planning Brian Hook said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would be looking for help developing "practical mechanisms" to pressure Pyongyang.

"We will be discussing maritime interdiction," Hook said, raising the idea of an naval embargo to help enforce the already draconian UN sanctions on Kim Jong-Un's regime.

Some countries, even friends of the United States, may be concerned that such methods could increase military tensions or be interpreted as an act of war by Kim's isolated regime.

But he said the idea was one of many being explored, and that the allies invited to Vancouver would be consulted.

"We will be discussing with our partners and allies the kind of steps that we can take on maritime interdiction and also to be cutting, disrupting funding and disrupting resources," Hook said.

"And maritime interdiction helps us to disrupt resources."

The countries invited to send representatives to Vancouver are the so-called "Sending Powers," those that contributed troops or aid to the UN war effort in 1950s Korea.

As such, North Korea's neighbors China and Russia are not invited, and many have questioned the utility of a conference where such influential regional players are absent.

But Hook said Washington remained in contact with China about enforcing the sanctions and pressuring Kim, and that both Beijing and Moscow would be briefed after the talks.

"China is working with us," he said. "This is not an alternative to everything that we are doing. This ministerial will enhance and strengthen all of the efforts under way.

"China has the same policy goal, in terms of ensuring that North Korea does not become a nuclear weapon state and acquire the means to deliver a nuclear warhead."
A home is surrounded by mud and debris caused by a massive mudslide in Montecito, California

Authorities in southern California said Thursday that dozens of residents were still unaccounted for after powerful mudslides that have killed 17 people, including four children, and destroyed homes in a region already pummeled by massive wildfires.

Heavy rain on Tuesday, which followed 10 months of drought, sent sticky mud and debris flowing from the hills into Montecito and other towns in Santa Barbara County, northwest of Los Angeles.

"There are 43 people we're now looking into and investigating to see if they actually are missing," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said, while adding: "It's a constantly moving number."

Brown explained that those unaccounted for could yet be located, but warned that the death toll could rise.

Authorities emphasized that the situation was still fluid. Earlier in the day, officials put the number of missing at just eight.

"There are mothers, fathers, grandfathers, siblings, and the list goes on and on," Brown said.

Terrifying wildfires forced people to evacuate in December -- with the mudslides striking just two weeks after they returned.

The fires burned most vegetation, leaving perfect conditions for the latest tragedy to unfold.

With clean-up operations underway, workers were battling the viscous mud on the streets of Montecito Thursday -- while in other areas, efforts continued to restore power.

"It was a scary night," local resident Jane Barret told AFP. One of her doctors, the leader of her children's scout group and a former neighbor were among the dead.

Barret added it would "take a lot of time" to get over the natural disasters that have struck the area over the past two months.

- Heavy rain, destroyed homes -

The highest rainfall was recorded at five inches (13 centimeters) in Ventura County, according to the National Weather Service -- but forecasts for the next week do not predict rain.

Residents were rescued by helicopter from the roofs of their homes -- with some later returning to recover valuable belongings and pets.

Shocked by the damage, they took photos of their now-destroyed houses, with many describing the storm as similar to a stampede or an out-of-control train.

Greg Duimovich told AFP his house had "never" shaken so much from a rainstorm.

More than 50 kilometers (35 miles) of the 101 Freeway, which connects northern California to the south, remained blocked by mud.

Billionaire talk show queen Oprah Winfrey -- whose rousing speech at Sunday's Golden Globes sparked speculation about a possible White House run -- was among those affected.

She took to social media to post a video which showed mud rising up to her knees at her Montecito mansion, where fellow talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and actor Jeff Bridges also own homes.

"Our home has been severely damaged, but we are safe," Bridges said on Twitter.
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un have traded barbs for months; now, the US president has indicated that he might be able to have a good relationship with the North Korean leader

US President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he could have a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, but refused to say if the two had spoken.

"I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-Un," Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.

"I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised."

The paper reported that Trump would not say whether contacts had already been initiated between the two foes.

Washington and Pyongyang are in a standoff over North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, which could be used to target the United States and her allies.

Trump has repeatedly insulted the North Korean leader, describing him as mad and a "rocket man."

Asked if he had spoken to Kim, Trump said "I don't want to comment on it. I'm not saying I have or haven't. I just don't want to comment."

Trump suggested his variable position on individuals was part of a broader strategy.

But it was not clear how his remarks fit with his self-described policy of "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang.

- US, Canada host talks next week -

Next week, the United States and Canada are to host a meeting on the nuclear standoff with North Korea in Vancouver, bringing together friendly powers from around the world.

Washington plans to use Tuesday's meeting to discuss the idea of stopping and inspecting suspect ships bound for North Korea, a senior official said.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will head to Canada next week for a major international meeting on North Korea

State Department director of policy planning Brian Hook said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would be looking for help developing "practical mechanisms" to pressure Pyongyang.

"We will be discussing maritime interdiction," Hook said, raising the idea of an naval embargo to help enforce the already draconian UN sanctions on Kim's regime.

Some countries, even friends of the United States, may be concerned that such methods could increase military tensions or be interpreted as an act of war by the isolated North.

But Hook said the idea was one of many being explored, and that the allies invited to Vancouver would be consulted.

"We will be discussing with our partners and allies the kind of steps that we can take on maritime interdiction and also to be cutting, disrupting funding and disrupting resources," he said.

"And maritime interdiction helps us to disrupt resources."

- China, Russia not invited -

The countries invited to send representatives to Vancouver are the so-called "Sending Powers," those that contributed troops or aid to the UN war effort in 1950s Korea.

As such, North Korea's neighbors China and Russia are not invited, and many have questioned the utility of a conference where such influential regional players are absent.

But Hook said Washington remained in contact with China about enforcing the sanctions and pressuring Kim, and that both Beijing and Moscow would be briefed after the talks.

"China is working with us," he said. "This is not an alternative to everything that we are doing. This ministerial will enhance and strengthen all of the efforts under way.

"China has the same policy goal, in terms of ensuring that North Korea does not become a nuclear weapon state and acquire the means to deliver a nuclear warhead."
Ford said it made the decision to recall the vehicles following two incidents involving cars built on the same day

Car manufacturer Ford on Thursday recalled 2,900 vehicles following a second fatal accident involving the explosion of a faulty Takata airbag.

The recall concerns 2006 model year Ford Ranger pick-up trucks sold in North America.

"We take this matter very seriously and are advising owners of these specific 2006 Ford Rangers to stop driving their vehicles so dealers can make repairs immediately," Ford said in a statement.

The manufacturer said it made the decision to recall the vehicles following two incidents involving cars built on the same day.

The most recent occurred in July 2017, with Ford notified on December 22. A subsequent inspection indicated that the airbag's inflator ruptured, killing the driver. The first accident happened in January 2016, also killing one person.

"Ford is saddened by these tragic losses and offers its sincere condolences to the drivers' families," the company said.

Most of the vehicles were sold in the United States, with 190 others sold in Canada.

US authorities brought the issue of defective Takata airbags to light in 2014, sparking the biggest-ever auto safety recall.

In total, at least 100 million units across all car manufacturers have been affected worldwide -- while 20 people have died in related accidents, and scores more have been injured.

In the United States alone, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said 34 million vehicles with a total of 46 million airbags have been impacted.

Takata, a Japanese group, has since gone bankrupt.
Three speakers will be featured at the 2018 Main Street ND Summit, which will be held Feb. 12-13 at the Bismarck Event Center.

The Main Street ND Summit is intended to bring together local and national community development experts and advocates to share best practices and engage community leaders, entrepreneurs, students and interested citizens in envisioning North Dakotas future.

North Dakota has roughly 13,000 job openings, and we are competing with every other state for 21st century talent, Gov. Doug Burgum said. The way we will win that competition is by building smart, vibrant, healthy communities where people want to live, raise families or retire.

The Main Street ND Summit, hosted by Burgum and the North Dakota Department of Commerce, is open to the public. Cost for the two-day event is $100 and interested persons can register at www.MainStreetND.com.

Here is a listing of the featured speakers:

 Charles Marohn is the president and founder of StrongTowns.org and lead author of "Thoughts on Strong Towns." Hell be providing thoughts on incremental development and showcase how so many American cities found themselves in decline after decades of growth. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of communities across North America and in 2017 was named one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time by Planetizen.

 Robert Gibbs is considered one of the foremost urban retail planners in America and will bring his insights into essential planning and design management concepts. Profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Urban Land, Gibbs has, writes The Atlantic Monthly, a commercial sensibility unlike anything possessed by the urban planners who usually design downtown-renewal efforts. Gibbs is a professional urban planner and author who has contributed to more than 300 master plans across the United States.

 Roger Brooks is one of the one of the most recognized and frequently quoted experts in destination management. He will bring his thoughts on creating differentiated communities to attract a 21st century workforce to North Dakota. He has assisted more than 1,500 communities and travel industry organizations around the world with their branding, product development and marketing efforts and has appeared on every major television network and in dozens of other media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
US officials expect Trump to grudgingly sign the sanction waivers once again

US President Donald Trump was set Friday to decide whether to jeopardize the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by re-imposing American sanctions, against the wishes of European leaders who say the agreement is working just fine.

Washington agreed to sanctions relief under the terms of the landmark accord reached between Tehran and six world powers -- which Trump has denounced as one of the worst deals of all time.

US officials expect the White House to issue a statement later Friday to confirm that Trump has grudgingly signed the sanction waivers once again before they start to expire this weekend -- though he is also expected to impose new sanctions on Tehran over non-nuclear issues.

But the angst in Berlin, Brussels, London and Paris underlined what is at stake: the mercurial US president is quite capable of sabotaging the agreement.

America's allies see the accord as the best way of thwarting Iran's quest for nuclear arms and a victory for multilateral diplomacy. Tehran categorically denies it is seeking to develop atomic weapons.

But Trump argues that his predecessor Barack Obama gave away too much to Iran in sanctions relief, without forcing the Islamic republic to end its ballistic missile program and aggressive support for militant groups.

"The president still strongly believes this is one of the worst deals of all time," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Thursday as Trump met with his top national security aides on Iran.

"One of the single greatest flaws is its restrictions leave Iran free... to openly develop their nuclear program and rapidly achieve a nuclear weapons breakout capability."

- Sanctions relief -

Trump has already declared that he thinks the Iran nuclear deal is no longer in the United States' national interest.

The landmark 2015 deal curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions in return for the relaxing of punishing sanctions

By thus "decertifying" the arrangement, he opened a window for Congress to reimpose sanctions, but to date, it has not done so -- leaving the issue of the waivers.

So far, Trump has continued to follow Obama's lead in regularly signing sanctions waivers so that US economic measures against Tehran do not "snap back."

The deadlines for a number of these waivers to be renewed will fall over the coming week, and Trump now is obliged to decide whether to maintain sanctions relief.

If he does allow the punitive measures to go back into effect, Iran will accuse the United States of breaking the deal, under which Tehran accepted restrictions on its nuclear program.

European capitals will also be dismayed, having pressed Washington to accept that the deal was an international agreement and that Iran has abided by its terms.

Russia spoke out strongly Friday in favor of the accord, ahead of the announcement of Trump's decision, calling it "the result of a consensus among many parties," in the words of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The accord, he added, can be considered "either good or bad, but it is the only one that reflects this consensus," Peskov added at a press conference.

French President Emmanuel Macron called Trump on Thursday and stressed France's determination to see "the strict application of the deal and the importance of all the signatories to respect it."

The White House said Trump had "underscored that Iran must stop its destabilizing activity in the region."

In any event, the US is likely to impose new sanctions on Iran over human right abuses and support for foreign extremist groups rather than nuclear back-sliding.

"I think you can expect there will be more sanctions coming up," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters on Thursday.

- Arms race -

In Brussels on Thursday, the European Union and the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France presented a united front after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

"The deal is working, it is delivering on its main goal which means keeping the Iranian nuclear program in check," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.

The agreement, she said, is "making the world safer and... preventing a potential nuclear arms race in the region."

The Iranian nuclear agreement

UN inspectors have certified Iran's compliance with the deal nine times, most recently in November.

Iran has said that if the US walks away from the agreement, it is ready to give an "appropriate and heavy response".

Zarif took to Twitter after the Brussels meeting to warn that "Iran's continued compliance (is) conditioned on full compliance by the US."

One of the criticisms levelled at the nuclear deal is that it does nothing to address Iran's continuing ballistic missile program and involvement in conflicts such as Yemen and Syria.

Europeans say these issues should be kept separate from discussion of the deal, but in a nod to US concerns, Mogherini stressed they were raised with Zarif on Thursday.

burs-dc/sst
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) - A mob angered over the recent rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl attacked a police station and a nearby government building in eastern Punjab province on Wednesday, triggering clashes that left at least two people dead and several injured, the police said.

The violence erupted in the city of Kasur hours before the funeral of Zainab Ansari, whose case has drawn wide public outrage.

The girl went missing last week while going to a nearby home for Quranic studies. Her parents, who were away at a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia at the time, returned on Wednesday, landing at the Islamabad airport.

People attend a funeral of a Pakistani girl who was raped and killed, in Kasur, Pakistan, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. Pakistani police said a mob angered over the recent rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl has attacked a police station in eastern Punjab province, triggering clashes that left at least two people dead and several injured. (AP Photo/Qazi Mehmood)

"We will not bury our daughter until her killers are arrested," said the father, Ameen Ansari, as his wife sobbed.

Zainab's body was found on Tuesday in a garbage bin, senior police officer Imran Nawaz Khan said. Police say she was abducted, raped and murdered. Officer Maqsood Ahmed said six girls were sexually assaulted in recent months in Kasur and that police were probing whether there was a connection in the cases.

Activists on social media have condemned the government for failing to arrest those involved in the crime.

As the attack on the police station and the subsequent clashes unfolded Wednesday, local TVs broadcast footage showing police firing shots in the air and toward the stone-pelting mob, trying to disperse it. In one segment, an officer asks another to hold direct fire, after which the second officer is seen continuing to shoot at the protesters.

Also Wednesday, the Lahore High Court's chief justice ordered a probe into Zainab's killing.

Zulfiqar Hameed, the police chief in Kasur, refused to say whether the two people killed in Wednesday's clashes had died from police gunshots. Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the police were trying to contain the violence and find and arrest those involved in the girl's murder.

Kasur shop owners shut their businesses Wednesday to express their anger over Zainab's slaying.

Firebrand cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri who took part in Ansari's funeral service demanded the local government be replaced, saying it has "no right to remain in power after the killing of Zainab Ansari."

In a speech to thousands of mourners, he blamed the Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, for failing to "protect lives and honor of innocent girls" in the province.

Qadri also issued an ultimatum to Sharif and Sanaullah to step down by Jan. 17 to avoid street protest.

Qadri is a staunch political rival of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party and he has led violent rallies in the capital, Islamabad, since 2014 after eight of his supporters were killed in anti-government rallies in Lahore, Punjab provincial capital.

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Associated Press Writers Zarar Khan and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.
PARIS (AP) - An open letter signed by movie star Catherine Deneuve and dozens of other French women about men being unfairly targeted by sexual misconduct allegations has prompted a backlash in the French press and on social media.

In the letter, published in Le Monde newspaper, Deneuve and about 100 actresses, writers, scholars and artists argued that the "legitimate protest against sexual violence" stemming from the Harvey Weinstein scandal has gone too far and threatens hard-won sexual freedoms. They said men should be free to hit on women and advocated against "puritanism."

On Wednesday, French women's rights activists denounced the letter as "a bit like the awkward work colleague or annoying uncle who doesn't understand what's happening."

FILE- In this Nov. 30, 2017, file photo, Catherine Deneuve attends the Lincoln Center Corporate Fund Gala honoring Louis Vuitton artistic director of women's collections Nicolas Ghesquiere, at Alice Tully Hall in New York. Deneuve was among about 100 performers, scholars and others who signed an open letter published Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, by the newspaper Le Monde saying the "legitimate protest against sexual violence" stemming from the Harvey Weinstein scandal has gone too far and threatens hard-won sexual freedoms. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

The activists, including feminist Caroline De Haas, wrote on the Franceinfotv website that Deneuve and other signatories are making sexual violence appear "normal."

Marlene Schiappa, France's junior minister for women's rights, told France Culture radio: "There are in this open letter some things that are deeply offensive and false."

The letter signed by Deneuve said some women may see being rubbed against by a man in the metro as an expression of "sexual deprivation" or a "non-event."

Schiappa countered that "it's dangerous to say such things," and insisted that such an act constituted sexual assault punishable with up to 3 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros ($90,100).

Writer Abnousse Shalmani, one of those who signed the open letter, said she was surprised by the "extremely violent reactions" it prompted.

"I consider myself to be a grown up. I am capable of receiving a sexual proposition and even more capable of saying no", she said on Europe 1 radio.

Italian filmmaker and actress Asia Argento, one of the dozens of women who have alleged Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them, called the letter "deplorable" in a tweet.
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) - Rep. Darrell Issa of California announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election, the latest sign that Republicans could face another grim year at the ballot box in the nation's most populous state.

With his decision to step aside after nine terms, Issa joins a string of GOP lawmakers who are retiring rather than take on what would be difficult re-election battles.

The risks for Republicans are especially acute in California, where the party has been fading away for years. Democrats hold every statewide office and control both chambers of the Legislature by hefty margins. In the 2016 presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton crushed Republican Donald Trump in the state by more than 4 million votes.

FILE - In this Dec. 9, 2014 file photo, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Issa says he will not seek re-election after serving out his ninth term in Congress. Issa's decision continues a string of GOP lawmakers who have decided to retire rather than take on what would be a difficult re-election battle. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)

Democrats with plans to retake control of the House hope to oust a handful of California Republicans whose districts Clinton carried. Issa's seat, the coastal 49th District north of San Diego, is among them.

In San Clemente, a hillside city overlooking the Pacific Ocean that was home to Richard Nixon's Western White House, voters greeted Issa's announcement with sadness or relief, reflecting the closely divided politics of the district.

"That's like a Christmas present," said Donna Martin, a retired community college teacher and registered Democrat.

But Tanya Johnson, also a retired teacher, said she would be disappointed to see Issa leave, crediting him with keeping an open door for constituents. She recalled sending Issa an email expressing her concerns about the recent federal tax overhaul, and Issa responded. He voted against the proposal, saying residents in his district could see higher taxes.

"I really believe he ... cared," said Johnson, a Republican.

The GOP's troubles in California reflect the party's broader challenges in holding control of the House, as Republican retirements pile up. Issa's announcement followed that of Rep. Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who said Tuesday that he would not seek a 14th term.

Democrats had made defeating Issa one of their top priorities for 2018.

The risks were obvious for the incumbent. Issa survived by about 1,600 votes in his last election and Democratic challengers have lined up to take him on in a midterm election that generally favors the party not in control of the White House.

Moreover, his ties to Trump in a state where the president is unpopular would almost certainly increase his vulnerability.

Issa would have been defending a district where demographics have shifted during his time in office, mirroring California's Democratic tilt.

About a decade ago, Republicans held a 20-point registration advantage over Democrats in the 49th Congressional District, which includes wealthy seaside enclaves north of San Diego but also densely packed, diverse suburban communities. That double-digit margin has dwindled to single digits, while the number of independents who tend to vote Democratic has soared.

The last Republican presidential candidate to carry the state was George H.W. Bush, in 1988. Statewide, Republicans account for only 1 in 4 voters, while Democrats count a 3.7 million edge in voter registrations.

California was once known as a launching pad for national Republican candidates like Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But a surge in immigrants transformed the state and its voting patterns. The number of Hispanics, blacks and Asians combined has outnumbered whites since 1998. Meanwhile, the state's new voters, largely Latinos and Asians, lean Democratic.

In Congress, Issa oversaw the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee from 2011 to January 2015. Going into his tenure as chairman, Issa said the Obama administration was perhaps one of the most corrupt in history.

He dogged President Barack Obama with probes into the 2012 killings of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and the IRS treatment of conservative groups. He also took the lead in investigating the so-called Fast and Furious operation, in which federal agents allowed criminals to buy guns with the intention of tracking them to criminal organizations. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost most of the guns, including two that were found at the scene of the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Issa and fellow Republicans slammed Attorney General Eric Holder for years over the scandal.

Obama did not forget Issa's slights in 2016 during a campaign swing through California as he raised money for Democratic candidates. "This guy has spent all his time simply trying to obstruct, to feed the same sentiments that resulted in Donald Trump becoming their nominee," Obama said, then noting that somebody told him "Darrell Issa was Trump before Trump."

A central battleground in the fight for the House will be Orange County, a one-time Republican fortress where Democrats have made inroads. Democrats think they can flip control of as many as four House seats that are all or partly within the county, including the seats held by Royce and Issa.

Republican state Assemblyman Rocky Chavez of Oceanside, a retired Marine officer, announced he'll seek Issa's seat. Chavez last year worked with Democrats on climate change legislation, irking the party's base, and has pushed back against Republicans looking to take a hard line on immigration.

National Republicans said they weren't giving up on retaining the two California seats. GOP officials said the party has solid recruits in both races. They're also holding out hope that so many Democrats are running in each race that it will divide the party's voters and enhance the GOP's prospects.

Under California's election rules, known as the "jungle primary," the two candidates who advance to a November runoff are the top vote-getters regardless of party.

"With the jungle primary, they will cannibalize each other's votes and make it easier for a Republican to get to the general election," said Rep. Steve Stivers, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. "Then we just have to win the general election."

But Democrats were gleeful over the retirements and what it could mean in reaching the 24 GOP-held seats they need to win in order to take control of the House.

"We'll keep a watchful eye on both of these congressional districts to see which Republicans come forward, but in the end, these retirements do not bode well for our Republican colleagues" said Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and chairman of the campaign arm of the Democrats in the House.

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Freking reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Sacramento contributed.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) - A man whose wife was accused of killing their 5-year-old daughter in a fit of anger has been sentenced to 12 years in an Ohio prison.

The Repository in Canton reports 35-year-old Liang Zhao (Lee-AHNG' zow) was sentenced Wednesday in Canton. He pleaded guilty last year to charges including obstructing justice and corpse abuse.

Zhao's wife, Ming Ming Chen, was sentenced last year to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges in a plea deal. Authorities say Chen repeatedly hit Ashley Zhao in a fit of anger and that her husband helped hide the body.

The body was found hidden in the family's North Canton restaurant after Ashley was reported missing last January.

A message was left Wednesday at the office of Zhao's attorney.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - China has protested an Australian minister's criticisms that Chinese aid programs in poor Pacific island countries were creating "white elephants" that threatened economic stability without delivering benefits.

Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, minister for international development and the Pacific, told The Australian newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday that China was lending to Pacific nations on unfavorable terms to construct "useless buildings" and "roads to nowhere."

"You've got the Pacific full of these useless buildings which no body maintains, which are basically white elephants," she told the newspaper.

Fierravanti-Wells later said sustaining debt was a significant threat to economic stability of countries in the Pacific.

"We work cooperatively with China and we encourage China to utilize its development assistance in a productive and effective manner," she told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"We just don't want to build something for the heck of building it. We just don't want to build a road that doesn't go anywhere," she added.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang later said Fierravanti-Wells' published comments "show scant regard for the facts and are nothing but irresponsible," adding that China had made an official complaint to the Australian government.

"For a long time, on the basis of fully respecting the will of the Pacific island countries' governments and people and taking into full account their development needs, China has offered a great deal of assistance to them," Lu told reporters.

Chinese aid had "significantly fueled the economic and social development of these countries and delivered tangible benefits to the local people," assistance that has been warmly welcomed by those countries, Lu said.

"We hope that certain people in Australia should engage in self-refection instead of pointing fingers at and making irresponsible remarks about other countries," Lu added.

The diplomatic row follows a Chinese protest last month at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's announcement that Australia will ban foreign interference in its politics - either through espionage or financial donations. The move was motivated largely by Russia's alleged involvement in last year's U.S. election and China's growing influence on the global political landscape.

The Chinese foreign ministry said then that Turnbull's remarks were prejudiced against China and had poisoned the atmosphere of China-Australia relations.

Australia's opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said on Wednesday that Fierravanti-Wells' comments demonstrated the Australian government's clumsy approach to foreign policy.

China is Australia's largest trading partner, and the close bilateral relationship has affected Australia's relations with the United States, its closest defense ally.

China transferred at least $1.8 billion in aid and loans to South Pacific countries in a decade through 2016, the Sydney-based Lowy Institute international policy think tank found.

Jonathan Pryke, director of the Lowy Institute's Pacific islands program, said Fierravanti-Wells' concerns about the terms of the Chinese loans were "quite legitimate."

"One of the big problems about Chinese aid in the Pacific is that a lot of it comes in the form of loans and a lot of those loans, we don't actually know what the conditions are," Pryke said.

Pacific countries including Tonga, Vanuatu and Samoa were "already experiencing significant debt stress as a result of taking out these major loans," he said.

"It does raise significant questions about: will China forgive these loans, what are the actual terms?" he added.

Fierravanti-Wells called on international development agencies including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to increase their presence in the Pacific.

"The expansion of the World Bank and ADB's loan book to the Pacific is very important because it will afford the opportunities for the banks to have visibility of the existing loan books of the countries and to assess the viability and the sustainability of repaying those loans," she said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration has proposed a vast expansion of offshore drilling that would open 90 percent of the nation's offshore reserves to development by private companies. The plan affects at least 22 coastal states and has drawn bipartisan opposition from 15 governors, support from six governors and one who is undecided.

Most Democrats oppose the plan. Two Republican governors, Florida's Rick Scott and South Carolina's Henry McMaster, have formally requested that their states be withdrawn from the plan.

Following is a list of coastal states and the positions of their governors, with party affiliations included:

FILE- This May 16, 2015, file photo shows oil drillings offshore of a service pier in the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of Southern California near Carpinteria. Opposition to the Trump administration's plan to expand offshore drilling mounted Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. The plan could open up federal waters off the California coast for the first time in more than three decades. The Channel is one of those areas that could open up. (AP Photo/John Antczak, File)

Maine, Republican, supports drilling.

New Hampshire, Republican, opposes drilling.

Massachusetts, Republican, opposes.

Rhode Island, Democrat, opposes.

Connecticut, Democrat, opposes.

New York, Democrat, opposes.

New Jersey (Governor-elect), Democrat, opposes.

Delaware, Democrat, opposes.

Maryland, Republican, opposes.

Virginia (Governor-elect), Democrat, opposes.

North Carolina, Democrat, opposes.

South Carolina, Republican, opposes.

Georgia, Republican, undecided. A spokeswoman says Gov. Nathan Deal generally supports drilling but "has some concerns regarding opening up Georgia's pristine coast."

Florida, Republican, opposes.

Alabama, Republican, supports.

Mississippi, Republican, supports.

Louisiana, Democrat, supports offshore drilling but has not spoken publicly on Trump's plan.

Texas, Republican, supports.

California, Democrat, opposes.

Oregon, Democrat, opposes.

Washington, Democrat, opposes.

Alaska, Independent, supports.

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Sources: Interior Department, Associated Press reporting
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Wednesday committed to joining a bipartisan coalition of states to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

The U.S. Climate Alliance was formed in June after President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.

In a letter Wednesday, the Republican governor wrote that he opposed the president's decision then, and he opposes it now. Maryland's clean air standards were already significantly stronger than the Paris climate accord and still are, Hogan wrote in a letter to the coalition's executive director, Julie Cerqueira.

"Most importantly, the importance of aggressive but balanced action in states, communities, and businesses and the need for multi-state collaboration and international leadership on climate change grows stronger every day," Hogan wrote.

Maryland is joining 14 states in the coalition. Two other Republican governors have joined, including Vermont Gov. Phil Scott and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker.

"In closing, as long as the U.S. Climate Alliance adds value, shows true bipartisanship, and avoids Washington D.C.'s politics-as-usual, corrosive tactics and distractions, we will gladly invest our time and energy with state colleagues for this cause," Hogan wrote.

Maryland Democrats at the state and federal level have criticized the governor's delay. Legislation in Annapolis directs Hogan to join the group and block the state from leaving it without the General Assembly's OK.

In his letter, Hogan noted that Maryland is on track to meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 under the state's greenhouse gas reduction law, which he signed in 2016. He also writes that the state is working on meeting a comprehensive plan to meet a more ambitious goal of 40 percent by 2030.

Separately, the Hogan administration wrote to U.S. Environmental Protection Administrator Scott Pruitt this week expressing opposition to the potential repeal of the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era plan to ratchet down planet-warming carbon emissions. Secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment Ben Grumbles expressed his opposition to repealing the plan, unless it is replaced with a policy that is as "effective and enforceable as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative."

"The Clean Power Plan is not perfect, and it creates some winners and losers," Grumbles wrote. "Nonetheless, Maryland and other RGGI participating states have demonstrated that carefully designed carbon dioxide (CO2) emission limits on electricity generation can make states winners both environmentally and economically."

The Clean Power Plan sought to reduce use of the dirtiest fossil fuel but has yet to take effect because of lawsuits filed by coal companies and conservative-leaning states.
For almost two years, the Arizona Coyotes tried to trade Anthony Duclair.

Now, the Chicago Blackhawks hope he's the right fit for them.

The Blackhawks acquired the talented but inconsistent 22-year-old winger from the Coyotes in a four-player trade Wednesday. Chicago also got them defenseman Adam Clendening and sent winger Richard Panik and minor league forward Laurent Dauphin to Arizona.

FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2017, file photo, Arizona Coyotes left wing Anthony Duclair (10) moves the puck during the first period during the team's NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Glendale, Ariz. The Chicago Blackhawks have acquired Duclair from the Coyotes in a four-player trade. The teams announced the deal Wednesday night, Jan. 10, that sends winger Richard Panik and minor leaguer Laurent Dauphin to Arizona. Chicago also gets defenseman Adam Clendening along with Duclair in a move that seeks to shake up a perennial contender fighting to maintain a playoff position. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File)

Duclair has nine goals and six assists in 33 games this season, scoring in each of his last two games after reports surfaced that he had asked for a trade.

"It's gone back for a few years now where the team wasn't particularly happy with the player and the player wasn't particularly happy with the team and we worked through some things, tried a lot of different approaches in a lot of different ways," Coyotes general manager John Chayka said on a conference call. "I hope he has success in Chicago and does good things."

Acquiring Duclair is another step for Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman to try to shake up a perennial contender fighting to maintain a playoff position. They put defenseman Cody Franson on waivers Monday and sent him to the minors and have shuffled around their roster in recent weeks.

"We're trying to get faster and really add youth to our team as well," Bowman said. "We've got a lot of young players. I think he's going to fit into that group. You can't just have a group of 23 young players. You've got the veteran guys, too, that are some of our best players. It's sort of that combination. I really don't look at this as a deadline move as much as just trying to get better."

Chicago is the third NHL organization for Duclair, whom the Coyotes acquired from New York in 2015 in the deal that sent Keith Yandle to the Rangers. Duclair had 20 goals and 24 assists in 81 games in 2015-16, then had only five goals and 10 assists in 58 games last season.

"There's a lot of things that go into a trade," Chayka said. "Some of them are readily apparent. You see Anthony play and his speed and skill is obvious to everyone. There's some things that I think should stay behind closed doors. It was a long process. We went through a lot of different approaches and a lot of different things through two different (coaching) staffs here and at the end of the day just felt that for both sides it was best to move on."

Duclair's agent, Kent Hughes, said: "I think we are on the same page in terms of a trade being best for both sides. John was great to deal with and Anthony hopes the trade ends up working out for both sides."

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville announced before his team's game against the Minnesota Wild that Panik was out of the lineup and had been traded for Duclair.

Panik, 26, has six goals and 10 assists in 37 games after signing a $5.6 million, two-year contract.

"I guess they weren't happy with my performance," Panik said.

His goal Tuesday night in an 8-2 victory at Ottawa was his first since Oct. 21, ending a 27-game drought.

"When you look at goal-scorers, sometimes there's a variation in how they're scoring," Chayka said. "We feel like some of it this year has just been some unluckiness. We still think he's playing a well-rounded game, still think he's doing a lot of good things that he was doing in the past. His shooting percentage from areas he's scored in the past is just slightly down this year. We expect that to bounce back."

By trading Panik and his $2.8 million hit for Duclair's $1.2 million and pending restricted free agency, the Blackhawks clear valuable salary-cap space this season and next.

"That was a nice added bonus," Bowman said. "It wasn't the motivation for the trade. We like Anthony's game, but sure, that's a nice side effect."

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AP freelance reporter Matt Carlson in Chicago contributed to this report.

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More NHL hockey: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey

Arizona Coyotes left wing Anthony Duclair (10) celebrates after scoring a goal against the Nashville Predators during the second period during an NHL hockey game Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Alabama offered an incentive package of more than $370 million the Toyota-Mazda plant to build in the state. According to the Alabama Department of Commerce, the state's offer included:

- $210 million investment credit: Toyota Mazda will be able to claim a tax credit of up to 1.5 percent of the qualified capital investment expenses over the next 10 years.

- $90.6 million payroll credit: The companies will get an annual cash rebate of up to 3 percent of the previous year's gross pay roll for eligible employees for up to 10 years.

- $20 million capital reimbursement: The companies will get a reimbursement for eligible capital costs.

- $39.3 million sales and property tax abatement: The companies will get a reduction in sales and property taxes. That includes a $14.3 million property tax abatement over 20 years.

- $20 million training center: The state has committed up to $20 million for the construction and operation of a training center.

The state has offered some road and bridge improvements around the new plan, Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said. He added that he was uncertain of the final cost but said the improvements should total less than $20 million.
Accumulated snow totaled 5.7 inches in Bismarck, following what a local meteorologist called a "good old-fashioned winter storm" that pushed through the area beginning Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service in Bismarck.

While most of the snow fell early Thursday morning, .40 of an inch was measured for Wednesday, setting a record for Jan. 10. The Weather Underground reported that only about .02 of an inch of snow on average falls on that day.

While blizzard conditions lingered Thursday in eastern North Dakota, the western side of the state was wrapped in frigid temperatures with wind chills as low as minus 25 to minus 40 degrees.

High temperatures are expected to remain below zero degrees through Monday.
BANGKOK (AP) - After spending more than three decades cooking in an unassuming outdoor kitchen, a wok-wielding, goggles-wearing Thai chef has been propelled to international culinary stardom by having her restaurant awarded a Michelin star.

Supinya Jansuta, better known as "Jay Fai," is among 17 Bangkok-based chefs whose venues received the coveted honor from Michelin in a guidebook released last month - its first foray into the country.

Jay Fai, as her restaurant is also known, is often featured in foreign travel guides but is mostly shunned by Thais for its high prices of what is generally considered cheap local food.

In this Dec. 20, 2017, photo, Thai cook Supinya Jansuta, 72, better known as "Jay Fai," wearing goggles, cooks with two flaming woks at her eatery in Bangkok, Thailand. After spending more than three decades cooking in an unassuming outdoor kitchen, Jay Fay has been propelled to international culinary stardom by having her restaurant awarded a Michelin star.(AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

But a closer examination of the 72-year-old chef's dishes reveals an abundance of fresh seafood and prime ingredients.

"The No. 1 thing with Jay Fai is people say it's too expensive," said Oliver Irvine, editor of the English-language weekly BK Magazine, which regularly critiques Bangkok's food scene. "This is an old classic hole-in-the wall place which charges 800-1,000 baht ($24-31) for its famous crab omelet, which is nowhere near street-food prices. But when you cut that thing open, it's literally bursting with the freshest crab in the whole city."

Jay Fai is the only restaurant in the Bangkok guide listed under the "street food" classification to receive a star.

"Jay Fai is a place that both taxi drivers and foodies wax lyrical about and it's easy to see why," the Michelin guidebook says of the restaurant.

Bangkok is renowned for its street food, with cart-wielding vendors selling everything from Thailand's signature noodles to spicy tom yum goong soup.

The stalls, with their metal folding tables and rickety plastic stools, serve as a gastronomic go-to for budget-conscious locals and adventurous tourists alike.

In recent months, however, officials in the military-ruled country who see street food as an illegal nuisance have warned hawkers to clear out of some of the city's neighborhoods.

While Jay Fai is one of 14 Bangkok restaurants to receive a single star, none got three stars, the highest Michelin honor. Three were awarded two stars - the Indian restaurant Gaggan, French venue Le Normandie and European establishment Mezzaluna.

Following the lead of several other Asian nations, Thailand's government earmarked $4.1 million last year to commission five years of Michelin Guides dedicated to the country.

Michelin says the Bangkok guide was "solely, independently and anonymously" produced by its team of critics.

Jay Fai said she was happy about receiving the Michelin honor, but questioned why it came so late in her career.

"I've been cooking for 30 to 40 years, so I don't know why I've only just got it," she said. "I'm happy that they're starting to recognize Thailand and Thai chefs."

"I hope more Thai people will win the award next year, and they don't just give it to Jay Fai again," she said as she expertly flipped and tossed vegetables in a flaming wok.

Since receiving the accolade, Jay Fai's once relatively quiet restaurant has been busier than ever. Her shop is open from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m., but many people start queueing up well before opening time. By afternoon on most days, a "full house" sign is hung up, indicating that no further customers can be accommodated.

After waiting in line for over two hours, David Goldman, a tourist from Los Angeles, left the restaurant satisfied.

"The food was really fresh. It was probably the best Thai food I've ever had," Goldman said. "The only advice I have for anyone coming here is bring a book" given the long wait, he added.

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Associated Press videojournalist Tassanee Vejpongsa contributed to this report.

In this Dec. 20, 2017, photo, Thai cook Supinya Jansuta, 72, better known as "Jay Fai," wearing goggles, cooks with two flaming woks at her eatery in Bangkok, Thailand. After spending more than three decades cooking in an unassuming outdoor kitchen, Jay Fay has been propelled to international culinary stardom by having her restaurant awarded a Michelin star.(AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

In this Dec. 20, 2017, photo, a customer takes photos of food cooked by Thai cook Supinya Jansuta, 72, better known as "Jay Fai," at her eatery in Bangkok, Thailand. After spending more than three decades cooking in an unassuming outdoor kitchen, Jay Fay has been propelled to international culinary stardom by having her restaurant awarded a Michelin star. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

In this Dec. 20, 2017, photo, Thai cook Supinya Jansuta, left, better known as "Jay Fai," cooks at her eatery in Bangkok, Thailand. After spending more than three decades cooking in an unassuming outdoor kitchen, Jay Fay has been propelled to international culinary stardom by having her restaurant awarded a Michelin star. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

In this Dec. 20, 2017, photo, customers wait for a table as Thai cook Supinya Jansuta, center, better known as "Jay Fai," wearing goggles, cooks with two flaming woks at her eatery in Bangkok, Thailand. After spending more than three decades cooking in an unassuming outdoor kitchen, Jay Fay has been propelled to international culinary stardom by having her restaurant awarded a Michelin star. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

In this Dec 20, 2017, photo, customers write their names on a waiting list to get a table at the restaurant of 72-year-old Thai cook Supinya Jansuta, better known as "Jay Fai," in Bangkok, Thailand. Jay Fai's once relatively quiet restaurant is now busier than ever. The restaurant serves renditions of ordinary Thai dishes, like crab omelet or stir-fried noodles, all packed with fresh crab meat and super-size shrimps. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) - Canada has no plans to remove diplomats from Cuba though at least eight people connected to its embassy appear to have had symptoms of a potential illness at the center of a rift in U.S.-Cuba relations, a senior government official said Wednesday.

The official said the eight were among 27 people screened following U.S. reports that two dozen American officials and family members in Havana had a range of unexplained symptoms that included nausea, dizziness, headaches and nosebleeds.

The official, who briefed reporters on condition of not being quoted by name, said the eight required follow-up treatment but no hospitalization and there was no reason to close the embassy in Havana. Canadian investigators have not come up with an explanation for the illnesses.

There are 20 Canadian families with connections to the embassy and people from half of them came forward to be tested after the U.S. reported that some of its personnel and family members had experienced a range of ailments, some after hearing an unusual sound. For most, the symptoms occurred around May 2017.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is leading an investigation into the situation but so far hasn't found any evidence that anything was done intentionally to the people who reported symptoms, the official said.

Washington says 24 U.S. government officials and spouses fell ill in Havana in their homes and some hotels starting in 2016. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the symptoms are the result of an attack, but the FBI has found no evidence of one. Neither has Canada.

A different senior Canadian official said that the government had not found any evidence that anyone was attacked. The official agreed to talk about the case only if not quoted by name, because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Tillerson has said he is "convinced these were targeted attacks," but the U.S. doesn't know who's behind them. The U.S. has withdrawn most of its diplomats from Havana, citing a health risk, and forced many Cuban diplomats to leave Washington.

Cuba has repeatedly and adamantly denied involvement or knowledge of any attacks and has decried the reductions as an unjustified blow to U.S.-Cuban relations that were restored under President Barack Obama.

The lack of answers more than a year after the incidents started has emboldened Cuba's defenders to argue the U.S. can't be certain anyone was harmed intentionally since no proof has been publicly presented. But top State Department officials testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week said they were sure it was an attack of some kind.

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Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) - The father of an 8-year-old Pakistani girl whose rape and killing shocked the nation accused the police on Thursday of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing in eastern Punjab province.

The father, Anees Ansari, who was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife at the time of his daughter's disappearance, spoke after meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Sharif travelled to the city of Kasur to visit the family hours after Ansari returned home from Saudi Arabia to attend his daughter's funeral Wednesday.

A Pakistani girl holds a picture of Zainab Ansari, an 8-year-old girl who was raped and kidnapped in Kasur, during a protest in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Anees Ansari, Zainab's father, accused the police of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing in the eastern Punjab province. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in clashes between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

The girl, Zainab Ansari, disappeared last week while going to a nearby home for Quranic studies and her body was found in a Kasur waste-yard on Tuesday.

Her murder sparked clashes Wednesday between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in the clashes.

Sharif, who had assured Zainab's father that justice would be done, also fired Kasur's police chief over negligence in the case, according to a Punjab government statement Thursday. Three police officers were arrested for opening fire at the mob instead of into the air during Wednesday's clashes.

Zainab's killing, which has drawn wide public outcry, prompted dozens of civil society activists to rally on Thursday in the city of Lahore. A similar rally took place Wednesday in the port city of Karachi.

Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and champion for female education, tweeted Wednesday she was "heartbroken" about Zainab's tragic fate and demanded action against the killer.

Pakistani students light candles during a protest rally to condemn the rape and killing of Zainab Ansari, an 8-year-old girl, last week in Kasur, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, in Lahore, Pakistan. Anees Ansari, Zainab's father, accused the police of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in clashes between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Pakistani students protest during a rally to condemn the rape and killing of Zainab Ansari, an 8-year-old girl last week in Kasur, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, in Lahore, Pakistan. Anees Ansari, Zainab's father, accused the police of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in clashes between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

People protest during a rally to condemn the rape and killing of Zainab Ansari, an 8-year-old girl last week in Kasur, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, in Karachi, Pakistan. Anees Ansari, Zainab's father, accused the police of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in clashes between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

A Pakistani student protests during a rally to condemn the rape and killing of Zainab Ansari, an 8-year-old girl last week in Kasur, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, in Lahore, Pakistan. Anees Ansari, Zainab's father, accused the police of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in clashes between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

A Pakistani girl lights a candle during a memorial for Zainab Ansari, an 8-year-old girl who was kidnapped, raped and killed last week in Kasur, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, in Islamabad, Pakistan. Anees Ansari, Zainab's father accused the police of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing in the eastern Punjab province. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in clashes between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
FREEPORT, Maine (AP) - Retailer L.L. Bean is giving $2 million to charity with a renewed focus on groups that help get kids outdoors.

The company says its Board of Directors last month approved gifts ranging from $5,000 to $412,000 to a variety of organizations engaged in conservation, outdoor recreation, health and human services, education and the arts.

Chairman Shawn Gorman says the Freeport-based company's goal is to support organizations that strengthen communities and protect the outdoors.

Recipients of 2017 grants geared toward helping get kids outdoors include Appalachian Mountain Club, American Hiking Society, Maine Audubon, Teens to Trails, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and the Student Conservation Association.

The largest contribution, nearly $600,000, went to the United Way. The company also provided $100,000 to recovery efforts following hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
BEIJING (AP) - Regulators have ordered the Marriott hotel chain to close its China-based website and app for one week after criticizing the company for referring to Tibet and self-ruled Taiwan as countries in a customer survey.

The Shanghai Cyberspace Authority said Friday that Marriott was ordered to "to conduct a comprehensive self-examination and rectification to completely clean up illegal content."

The CEO of Marriott International Inc., Arne Sorenson, said in a statement the company "respects and supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China."

Chinese and American flags fly outside of a JW Marriott hotel in Beijing, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. The Marriot hotel chain apologized Thursday to China's government for referring to Tibet and self-ruled Taiwan as countries in a customer survey that news reports said Chinese police investigated as a possible crime. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The survey sent to customers asked in which country they lived and gave options including Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Beijing is intensely sensitive about the status of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that communist-ruled China claims as part of its territory, and of Tibet.
BEIJING (AP) - China's government has criticized the United States for using "so-called national security" as a reason to block a Chinese billionaire's acquisition of money transfer service MoneyGram.

A Commerce Ministry spokesman said Thursday e-commerce tycoon Jack Ma's proposed purchase was a "normal commercial investment." The deal was called off last week after failing to win approval from a U.S. government security panel.

The spokesman, Gao Feng, said, "we regret to note that normal commercial investment and mergers and acquisitions conducted by Chinese enterprises in the United States are once again hindered by so-called 'national security'."

Gao said Beijing has no objection to a "normal security review" but worries other governments use them as an excuse to set up barriers to unfairly stop unwanted activity.
PARIS (AP) - Paris authorities recovered all the jewels stolen from the Ritz Hotel in a dramatic heist, but were still searching for two thieves who got away, officials said Thursday.

Though ultimately unsuccessful, the robbery on Wednesday evening raised questions about security in one of the world's most prestigious neighborhoods, the Place Vendome. Its well-guarded buildings include the Justice Ministry, high-end boutiques and the 19th-century Ritz.

Workers cleaned up shattered glass Thursday and started to repair damage from the robbery. Otherwise business appeared to be returning to normal at the Ritz, with no significant increase in security.

A police car drives past the Ritz hotel in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Paris police have recovered some jewels stolen from the Ritz Hotel in a multimillion-euro robbery attempt, but are still searching Thursday for two thieves and the rest of the missing luxury merchandise. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Three perpetrators "entered by the service entrance, smashed the jewelry stands, grabbed jewels that were clearly expensive with the help of axes," said Jean-Michel Huguet of police union Alliance Police Nationale.

They seized watches from display cases holding wares from Rolex and Piaget, and then targeted the Alexandre Reza jewelry boutique inside the hotel.

The suspects inside threw bags of goods out of a window to at least two accomplices outside, according to a police official. The three inside were then blocked when they tried to flee through another door, and quickly arrested, the official said.

The accomplices outside fled, one on a motorcycle and another in a car. The motorcyclist dropped a bag with jewels and hatchets when his motorcycle hit a pedestrian during his escape. The pedestrian was slightly injured, said the official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation.

Other jewels were found scattered amid the debris of the shattered display cases during overnight cleanup efforts, the official told The Associated Press.

The overall value of the jewels on display was estimated at about 4.5 million euros ($5.4 million).

An official close to the investigation said Thursday night that all the stolen jewels have been recovered, after authorities and jewelers carefully examined the contents of the bag and debris and found everything had been accounted for.

Another police official said some of the thieves apparently had guns. Two people inside the hotel hid from the thieves and alerted police, the official said.

Patrons at the hotel's renowned Hemingway Bar described panic as the thieves entered the hushed environment of the Ritz, where rooms start at 1,000 euros ($1,200) a night.

Several high-end Paris jewelry stores have been targets of dramatic robberies in recent years, including Cartier, Harry Winston and Chopard. Kim Kardashian West said she lost millions of dollars' worth of jewelry when she was robbed at gunpoint in a Paris apartment in October 2016.

The Ritz was an especially luxurious target. The hotel has housed such famous names as Ernest Hemingway and Coco Chanel. It was the last place Princess Diana stayed before her fatal car crash in a Paris tunnel, and hosts elite guests from around the world drawn to the refined neighborhood.

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Jeffrey Schaeffer contributed to this report.

A valet waits outside the Ritz hotel in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Paris police have recovered some jewels stolen from the Ritz Hotel in a multimillion-euro robbery attempt, but are still searching Thursday for two thieves and the rest of the missing luxury merchandise. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

In this image made from video, French police attend the scene outside the Ritz Hotel in Paris, France, after a robbery Wednesday evening Jan. 10, 2018. Police said Wednesday that five people, at least some armed, entered the luxury Ritz Hotel and made off with goods, likely to be jewels, worth "an important" sum, and reported that three robbers were arrested and two escaped capture.(Clement Lanot via AP)

In this image made from video, French police attend the scene outside the Ritz Hotel in Paris, France, after a robbery Wednesday evening Jan. 10, 2018. Police said Wednesday that five people, at least some armed, entered the luxury Ritz Hotel and made off with goods, likely to be jewels, worth "an important" sum, and reported that three robbers were arrested and two escaped capture.(Clement Lanot via AP)
BEIJING (AP) - China warned Washington on Thursday it will "resolutely safeguard" its interests ahead of a possible decision in an investigation into whether Beijing improperly pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.

The United States is disrupting the international trading order by carrying out the "Section 301" investigation under its own laws instead of through the World Trade Organization, said Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng.

Trump ordered U.S. trade officials in August to investigate whether Beijing uses market access restrictions or other tools to compel foreign companies to hand over technology. A decision is expected as early as this month, though American officials have set no date.

"If the United States insists on unilateral and protectionist practices that will undermine the interests of China, we will take all necessary measures and resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of China," Gao said at a regular briefing.

If the investigation concludes Beijing acted improperly, Washington could seek remedies either through the WTO or outside of it.

Gao gave no indication of how Beijing might respond but Chinese law gives regulators broad discretion over what foreign companies can do in China.

Gao also criticized the United States for using "so-called national security" as a reason to block a Chinese billionaire's acquisition of money transfer service MoneyGram.

The proposed purchase by e-commerce tycoon Jack Ma's Ant Financial Group was a "normal commercial investment," said Gao.

The deal was called off last week after failing to win approval from a U.S. government panel that reviews proposed acquisitions of American companies for possible threats to national security.

"We regret to note that normal commercial investment and mergers and acquisitions conducted by Chinese enterprises in the United States are once again hindered by so-called 'national security'," said Gao.

Gao said Beijing has no objection to a "normal security review" but worries other governments use them as an excuse to set up barriers to unfairly stop unwanted activity.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A group of sanitation workers whose strike 50 years ago brought civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis, Tennessee, is being honored.

The NAACP and the National Civil Rights Museum say the surviving sanitation workers are recipients of this year's NAACP Vanguard Award. A group of workers attended a news conference where they were honored at the museum Tuesday.

Some workers are scheduled to attend the NAACP Image Awards on Monday, the holiday that marks King's birthday.

King came to Memphis to support the workers, who were pushing for better working conditions and higher pay.

On April 3, 1968, King delivered his final speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop."

The next day he was assassinated on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel, now the National Civil Rights Museum.
BRUSSELS (AP) - European Union powers on Thursday urged U.S. President Donald Trump to endorse a key nuclear agreement with Iran insisting that the deal is essential for international security.

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany threw their weight behind the pact limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions and insisted that the Islamic Republic is respecting it.

"There is no indication today that could call into doubt Iranian respect of the agreement," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Brussels, after a meeting between the Europeans and their Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, center, speaks during a media conference after a meeting of the EU3 and Iran at EEAS headquarters in Brussels on Thursday Jan. 11, 2018. European Union foreign ministers held talks with their Iranian counterpart in Brussels on Thursday amid doubts over the future of an international agreement curbing the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Le Drian called on all parties to uphold the agreement, noting that "our American allies should respect it as well. There is no particular reason for any rupture."

Under the accord, Iran slowed its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of international economic sanctions. Trump is expected to decide by Friday whether to extend the sanctions relief or re-impose the restrictions his predecessor, President Barack Obama, suspended two years ago.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also noted that no one has put forward a plan that might be as effective in curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"It's incumbent on those who oppose the (deal) really to come up with that better solution, because we haven't seen it so far," he said.

However, Johnson said it is "legitimate and right" to focus in parallel on what Iran should do to ease the crises in Yemen and Syria.

Officials from major world powers and Iran meet roughly every three to four months to assess implementation of the deal, which is monitored by the world's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The 2015 pact is underpinned on the U.S. side by a presidential waiver of nuclear-related sanctions on Iran's central bank.

U.S. officials and others familiar with the administration's deliberations told The Associated Press that Trump is likely to back the accord for now but that he may pair his decision with new, targeted sanctions on Iranian businesses and people.

The restrictions could hit some firms and individuals whose sanctions were previously scrapped. This might test Tehran's willingness to abide by its side of the bargain.

The agreement does not stop countries from imposing non-nuclear related sanctions on Iran.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who hosted Thursday's meeting, said that unity "is essential to preserve a deal that is working, that is making the world safer, and preventing a potential nuclear arms race in the region."

Zarif noted in a tweet the "strong consensus in Brussels" that Tehran is respecting its obligations and that "Iran's continued compliance (is) conditioned on full compliance by the U.S."

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel also underlined the importance of upholding the deal with nuclear tensions high in the Korean Peninsula.

"It's absolutely necessary to have the signal that it's possible by diplomatic approaches to prevent the development of nuclear weapons in a time where other parts of the world are discussing how to get nuclear weapons into force," he said.

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Waleed Marzouk in Tehran contributed.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, center, and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, right, attend a EU3-Iran meeting at EEAS headquarters in Brussels on Thursday Jan. 11, 2018. European Union foreign ministers held talks with their Iranian counterpart in Brussels on Thursday amid doubts over the future of an international agreement curbing the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions.(John Thys, Pool Photo via AP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif, left, attends a EU3-Iran meeting at EEAS headquarters in Brussels on Thursday Jan. 11, 2018. European Union foreign ministers held talks with their Iranian counterpart in Brussels on Thursday amid doubts over the future of an international agreement curbing the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions.(John Thys, Pool Photo via AP)

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU3-Iran meeting at EEAS headquarters in Brussels on Thursday Jan. 11, 2018. European Union foreign ministers hold talks with their Iranian counterpart in Brussels on Thursday amid doubts over the future of an international agreement curbing the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian arrives for an EU3-Iran meeting at EEAS headquarters in Brussels on Thursday Jan. 11, 2018. European Union foreign ministers hold talks with their Iranian counterpart in Brussels on Thursday amid doubts over the future of an international agreement curbing the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks during a media conference after a meeting of the EU3 and Iran at EEAS headquarters in Brussels on Thursday Jan. 11, 2018. European Union foreign ministers held talks with their Iranian counterpart in Brussels on Thursday amid doubts over the future of an international agreement curbing the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
GRAND FORKS  The owners of an apartment complex where two UND students were raped at gunpoint in 2013 are not responsible for what happened to the victims, their attorney said in court documents.

CGV, a Grand Forks company that owns the multi-family complex at 3499 13th Ave. N., has been sued by Nadia Campbell and Breanne Squire, who both lived in a ground-level apartment unit when they were sexually assaulted by Antonio Raheem Matthews, 24, in September 2013. Matthews is serving a life sentence, but Squire and Campbell filed a lawsuit against CGV in December, claiming the landlord did not provide adequate security.

The victims said they locked the door, but Matthews opened the sliding glass patio door from the outside, according to court documents.

The women signed a lease saying the apartment was fit for use as a residential premises, but the company did not provide a brace bar for the patio door to backup the lock, attorneys for Campbell and Squire said in court filings. The lawsuit alleges negligence, breach of express warranties and breach of implied warranties against CGV.

Kraig Wilson, a Grand Forks attorney representing CGV, said the landlord is not at fault, but instead claimed damages, if any, are a direct result of (the) plaintiff's own reckless, careless, negligent, willful or intentional acts, according to the defendants answer to the lawsuit filed last week. The company denied it knew the apartment lock was defective but insisted the lock was fit for its intended purpose.

(CGV) alleges  it acted with reasonable and prudent care and was not negligent and that its conduct did not fall below the appropriate standard of care, the company said in court documents, adding there was no breach of contract, whether expressed or implied.

The plaintiffs have asked for compensation of at least $50,000 each for medical damages. CGV is calling for the case to be dismissed.

Forum News Service typically does not name victims in sexual assault cases unless they make their names public.
MOSCOW (AP) - A court in Siberia has opened hearings in the trial of a former policeman who is charged with the murder of 60 people.

Mikhail Popkov, from the eastern Siberian city of Angarsk, was first arrested in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 22 women. While in custody, Popkov confessed to 20 more.

Local police have for years been investigating murders in the Irkutsk region where dozens of women were raped and killed in secluded spots.

The latest charges against Popkov include 60 counts of murder, which could make him Russia's biggest serial killer in at least the last 100 years. Prosecutors began reading out the charges on Wednesday and adjourned the hearing until Monday.

Psychiatric tests run on Popkov have shown that he is sane.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A women's group asked the Philippine president on Thursday to oppose any request by Japan to remove a newly erected statue honoring women who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II.

The Gabriela women's group said President Rodrigo Duterte should instead demand an official apology and compensation for Filipino women who were "conscripted by the Japanese Imperial Army to serve as wartime sex slaves."

Japanese minister for internal affairs and communications Seiko Noda expressed regret over the construction of the monument in a meeting Tuesday with Duterte in Manila, a Japanese diplomat said, adding that she did not mention any specific request. The diplomat didn't have authority to brief reporters on the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A horse-drawn cart, catering to tourists, passes by a statue of a "Comfort Woman" or Filipino sex slaves during WWII, which was erected along a scenic Baywalk in Manila, Philippines Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. The statue, which symbolizes Filipino women forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels and inaugurated on Dec. 9, 2017, has created a controversy after Japanese Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Seiko Noda reportedly voiced "displeasure" in her meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

The monument on Manila Bay, unveiled last month, features a bronze statue of a blindfolded Filipina wearing a traditional gown.

A National Historical Commission marker says the monument memorializes Filipinas who suffered abuses during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines from 1942 to 1945. It was built with donations from Chinese-Filipino groups and individuals.

"If Japan really wants this issue to be settled and help us all move on and forward, it should officially recognize the horrors of state-sponsored sexual slavery and apologize to the victims," Gabriela secretary-general Joms Salvador said. "Raising petty issues about statues won't make this issue go away."

Duterte has nurtured blossoming relations with Japan and its leader, Shinzo Abe. The emotional issue provides a dilemma for the government's ties with Tokyo, a major provider of aid and financing to the Philippines.

Historians say 20,000 to 200,000 women from across Asia, many of them Koreans, were forced to provide sex to Japan's front-line soldiers. Japanese nationalists contend that the so-called "comfort women" in wartime brothels were voluntary prostitutes, not sex slaves, and that Japan has been unfairly criticized for a practice they say is common in any country at war.

In 1995, Japan provided through a private fund 2 million yen ($18,000) each to about 280 women in the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea, and funded nursing homes and medical assistance for Indonesian and former Dutch sex slaves.

Many women in South Korea and the Philippines have demanded a full apology accompanied by official government compensation.
PRAGUE (AP) - The Czech Republic's controversy-courting president is seeking re-election this month in what will be the country's second election in which voters, instead of lawmakers, pick the person to fill the office.

Milos Zeman was elected to the largely ceremonial post in 2013 during the country's first direct presidential vote, a victory that returned the former left-leaning prime minister to power. In office, he's become known for strong anti-migrant rhetoric that united him with the populist right, and he has divided the nation with his pro-Russian stance and support for closer ties with China.

He was one of the few European leaders to endorse Donald Trump's bid for the White House, and has voiced support for Trump's plan to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman holds a speech during a Parliament session in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. Czech Republic's Parliament gathered for a confidence vote for a newly appointed government led by Prime Minister Andrej Babis. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Zeman, 73, is a favorite to win the election's first round vote on Friday and Saturday.

If no candidate achieves a majority during the vote, the top two finishers will face each other in a runoff in two weeks' time.

The previous two presidents, Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus, were elected by lawmakers.

Here's a look at the vote:

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WHAT'S AT STAKE

Under the Czech constitution, the president has the power to pick the prime minister, and to appoint members of the Central Bank board. The president also selects Constitutional Court judges with the approval of Parliament's upper house.

Otherwise, the president has little executive power and the country is run by the government chosen and led by the prime minister, currently populist billionaire Andrej Babis, a Zeman ally who faces fraud charges.

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THE FAVORITE

Zeman's politics have been controversial. Unlike his Euro-skeptic predecessor Klaus, he flew the European Union flag at Prague Castle and used to be considered pro-Europe. But in recent years has used every opportunity to attack the EU, and has proposed a referendum on the country's membership in the bloc after Britain decided to leave.

He is considered a major pro-Russian voice in EU politics, and his views on the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the migrant crisis, divert sharply from that of the European mainstream.

Zeman rejected EU sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis and called Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula irreversible.

He also shares Trump's views of migration, and has linked attacks in Europe to the ongoing influx of migrants. He has called the immigration wave an "organized invasion."

The media has been another target for him. Zeman attacked them on his first day in office, saying some of them "brainwash" and "manipulate public opinion." He told Vladimir Putin during their meeting in China that there were too many journalists and some should be "liquidated." Putin countered that it could be enough to "reduce" their numbers.

Most recently, he made derogatory comments about the #MeToo movement.

Nonetheless, he remains popular and the latest poll predicts he could get over 42 percent of the vote in the first round. A chain smoker with a soft spot for a drink, he constantly tours the country to meet with citizens.

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MAIN CHALLENGERS

Two main challengers see the country's future firmly linked to EU and NATO memberships.

Jiri Drahos, 68, the former president of the Czech Academy of Sciences, is considered the most serious contender to unseat Zeman. Drahos isn't affiliated with a political party. The professor of chemistry says he is worried about the rise of extremism and populism and warned against Russia's possible interference in the ballot.

He is predicted to get some 27 percent and challenge Zeman in the runoffs.

Michal Horacek, 65, a popular pop music songwriter is distant third with 12 percent. A former co-owner of a betting agency, he is also not affiliated with any political group and finances his campaign by himself. In the 1989 Velvet Revolution, Horacek helped organize talks between the communist regime and anti-communist dissidents led by playwright Vaclav Havel.

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BLACK HORSE

The remaining candidates with a chance to advance are not political newcomers: Mirek Topolanek, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009, and Pavel Fischer, a former diplomat.

Topolanek, an outspoken politician, was the head of the conservative, euro-skeptic Civic Democratic Party. He was a staunch supporter of a U.S. missile defense plan President Barack Obama ultimately abandoned. Topolanek often made headlines, such as when he called Obama's economic recovery plan a "road to hell." He left politics for business in 2010.

Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman holds a speech during a Parliament session in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. Czech Republic's Parliament gathered for a confidence vote for a newly appointed government led by Prime Minister Andrej Babis. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
ZERMATT, Switzerland (AP) - Access to a Swiss village near the famed Matterhorn peak has reopened after unusually heavy snowfall blanketed roads and railways, stranding thousands of tourists.

Work crews with shovels, plows and helicopters located and bored through the cumbersome snow mass to end a near two-day suspension of train and vehicle traffic to the Alpine resort of Zermatt.

Train service resumed late Wednesday, and road access restarted Thursday.

A digger at work where an avalanche has blocked the road between Taesch and Zermatt, Wednesday Jan. 10, 2018. Swiss authorities have closed ski slopes, hiking trails, cable cars, roads into the town of Zermatt amid a heightened risk of avalanches, stranding some 13,000 tourists in the town. A train packed with tourists has begun the descent from a snowbound town near Switzerland's Matterhorn as railway service resumed following a nearly two-day suspension due to avalanche risks. (Dominic Steinmann/Keystone via AP)

Some 13,000 tourists had gotten stuck, with sporadic helicopter flights the only way out.

Texan Mike Donovan expressed relief he could make his flight back home: "It wasn't bad to stay here, and the ski conditions were really good."

Switzerland's avalanche research institute said the region has gotten three to four meters (10-13 feet) of snowfall this year.

The first passenger train is leaving the train station towards Taesch, in Zermatt, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. Due to heavy snowfall and rain showers, Zermatt was only reachable by air. In the meantime the train track reopened this evening. (Dominic Steinmann/Keystone via AP)

A snow cloud of an artificial avalanche disperses near the town of Zermatt, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. Town officials near Switzerland's famed Matterhorn were resuming helicopter flights to ferry out stranded tourists amid efforts to open roads and rail service that were closed due to heavy snowfall and an elevated avalanche risk. (Dominic Steinmann/Keystone via AP)
CAIRO (AP) - More than 500 of Egypt's 596 lawmakers have signed "recommendations" for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to run for a second, four-year term in this year's elections.

El-Sissi has not announced his candidacy, but he is virtually certain to contest, and win, the March vote.

Under the constitution, at least 20 elected members of parliament must formally recommend a presidential hopeful to allow him or her to qualify as a candidate. Alternatively, 25,000 recommendations from voters must be collected, with a minimum of 1,000 in 15 of Egypt's 29 provinces.

El-Sissi has said he will announce his candidacy after receiving feedback on his track record since taking office, without elaborating. His office this week invited Egyptians to submit questions online for him to answer on live television.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Bulgaria says it will use its six months at the helm of the European Union to soothe tempers between EU headquarters and Poland.

The EU's executive Commission has started proceedings against Warsaw which may eventually lead to a scrapping of its voting rights - if all other EU nations agree.

But Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said Thursday such a vote would be bad for all.

"We should not get to this," Borissov told reporters, adding that "if we get to vote then we will have to have sleepless nights."

Poland last month completed a sweeping overhaul of its justice system, ignoring EU warnings it breached democratic principles and could lead to unprecedented sanctions.
CAIRO (AP) - Egypt's highest appeals court has overturned the conviction on corruption charges of former President Hosni Mubarak's longtime security chief.

Habib el-Adly, who served as interior minister in charge of police under Mubarak, was sentenced last April to seven years in prison. He went into hiding following his conviction and only turned himself in to authorities last month.

Thursday's ruling by the Court of Cassation accepted the appeal against his conviction and ordered a retrial. He did not attend Thursday's hearing.

Mubarak stepped down following a 2011 popular uprising. He and el-Adly were acquitted in 2014 of charges they were responsible for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the 18-day uprising.
MONTECITO, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on the California mudslide disaster (all times local):

6:30 p.m.

A surgeon has been identified as one of the 17 people killed when flash floods and mudslides tore through a Southern California neighborhood.

In this Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018 still image from video, cars and debris that washed to the coast from storms and flooding are shown on a beach in Montecito, Calif. Rescue workers slogged through knee-deep ooze and used long poles to probe for bodies Thursday as the search dragged on for victims of the mudslides that slammed this wealthy coastal town. (AP Photo/Aron Ranen)

Dr. Mark Montgomery was a member of the Santa Barbara College Hospital medical staff.

Hospital spokeswoman Maria Zarte says Montgomery was an orthopedic surgeon with a subspecialty in hand surgery.

The 54-year-old Montgomery graduated from Princeton University and Columbia University Medical School.

His daughter, Caroline Montgomery, was also killed.

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5:45 p.m.

Fourteen beaches in Santa Barbara County are closed to swimmers because of contamination from deadly floods in the coastal foothills.

County health officials announced Thursday that ocean bacterial levels are above standard levels along dozens of miles of coast, from Gaviota state beach to Carpinteria state beach.

Until further notice, visitors can walk the sands but they're urged to stay out of the water because storm and mudslide runoff may have brought raw sewage and chemicals to the sea.

Even wrecked cars have been swept onto beaches.

Meanwhile, a mandatory evacuation zone was expanded Thursday to keep the public out of the way of rescue and relief efforts in mudslide-stricken Montecito.

County Sheriff Bill Brown says residents can expect to be out of their homes for a week or more.

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5 p.m.

There's been another significant adjustment in the number of people reported missing in the deadly mudslides along the California coast.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a Thursday news conference that 43 people now are reported missing.

Earlier in the day, the number was 48, then authorities said that was a clerical error and the real figure was eight.

Brown said the latest number includes active missing-persons cases being worked by detectives. But it also encompasses those who have been named in calls to the operations center and family assistance center.

Brown says those people may simply have left the area before or after the mudslides or may just be out of touch with the family and friends looking for them.

At least 17 people were killed and hundreds of homes damaged or destroyed when mudslides tore through Montecito early Tuesday.

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2:30 p.m.

Authorities have released the names of 17 people killed by mudslides in California.

The Santa Barbara County coroner's office says the victims range in age from 3 to 89 and all are residents of Montecito.

The mudslides roared through the coastal city early Tuesday as heavy rain fell on a huge area of hills and mountains burned by a December wildfire.

The search for additional possible victims is continuing.

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10:40 a.m.

The company that employs the mother of a 14-year-old girl who was dramatically pulled from a California home that collapsed in a mudslide says the girl's father and 16-year-old brother are still missing.

NeoTract, a maker of devices used in the medical field of urology, has launched a fundraising page asking for financial support for the family of Kim Cantin.

Cantin's 14-year-old daughter, Lauren, was rescued by firefighters this week after being trapped for hours. The house was flattened hours earlier by the deadly storm-triggered mudslide that ravaged the Montecito area.

"I thought I was dead for a minute," the dazed girl, covered in mud, told firefighters before she was taken away in an ambulance.

NeoTract's GoFundMe post says her father and brother are still missing.

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8:45 a.m.

A well-known local real estate agent has been identified as one of the 17 people killed after flash floods and mudslides tore through a Southern California neighborhood.

Rebecca Riskin, the founder of Riskin Partners, was killed when mudslides ripped through Montecito. Her company confirms her death in a statement posted Wednesday night on Facebook.

The statement says Riskin was an "exceptional woman" who had exuded strength, grace and elegance.

Officials said Thursday morning that eight people remained missing after Tuesday's storm.

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8:05 a.m.

Southern California authorities have corrected the number of people missing since the Montecito mudslides to eight.

The correction follows an early Thursday update that raised the number to 48, but the incident management team then issued retraction saying there had been a clerical error.

The number of confirmed fatalities remains at 17.

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7:10 a.m.

The number of people missing after the deadly mudslides in Montecito, California, has surged to 48.

Santa Barbara County spokeswoman Amber Anderson says the new number tallied Thursday follows sheriff's investigations of missing-persons reports.

The number of missing persons has fluctuated since the disaster hit early Tuesday morning and had been as low as 16 on Wednesday evening.

Anderson says the number of confirmed fatalities remains at 17.

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6:26 a.m.

The deadly mudslides that hit Montecito, California, were already occurring when Santa Barbara County officials first sent emergency alerts to cellphones in the area.

County emergency manager Jeff Gater tells the Los Angeles Times that the alert issued around 3:50 a.m. Tuesday was sent because of deteriorating conditions and followed one issued by the National Weather Service.

For days beforehand, the county had issued repeated warnings through social media, news media and community information emails about the potential for mudflows from the huge wildfire scar in the hills above neighborhoods.

Gater tells the Times more than 200,000 emails and other warnings were issued, but the county decided not to use the push alert system to cellphones out of concern that it might not be taken seriously.

Authorities also say only a small percentage of residents heeded mandatory and voluntary evacuation warnings.

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11:42 p.m.

Hundreds of searchers are still hunting for survivors of the flash flooding and mudslides near Santa Barbara, California.

They slogged through ooze and poked long holes into the mud on Wednesday as they searched for victims a day after the massive debris flow passed through.

The death toll from Tuesday's pre-dawn flash flood rose to 17 as more bodies were found. Another 17 were still reported missing.

Authorities are hoped to find them alive.

By Wednesday, some 500 searchers had covered about 75 percent of the inundated area in the search for victims.

Emergency workers search areas damaged from storms in Montecito, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Rescue workers slogged through knee-deep ooze and used long poles to probe for bodies Thursday as the search dragged on for victims of the mudslides that slammed this wealthy coastal town. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Alex Broumand of the Montecito Fire Department walks in mud in front of homes damaged from storms in Montecito, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Rescue workers slogged through knee-deep ooze and used long poles to probe for bodies Thursday as the search dragged on for victims of the mudslides that slammed this wealthy coastal town. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

An emergency crew works near a home after storm damage in Montecito, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Rescue workers slogged through knee-deep ooze and used long poles to probe for bodies Thursday as the search dragged on for victims of the mudslides that slammed this wealthy coastal town. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
BERLIN (AP) - A German federal court on Thursday overturned the acquittal of seven men who posed as a self-styled "Sharia police," ordering a retrial on charges that they violated rules on wearing uniforms.

The group took to the streets of Wuppertal in September 2014, dressed in orange vests bearing the words "Sharia police" and handing out leaflets declaring the area a "Sharia-controlled zone" where alcohol, music and pornography were banned. Five of the defendants were allegedly part of the self-styled patrol and the other two alleged accessories.

Their behavior prompted an outcry in German media.

FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2016 file photo defendants wait for the start of the hearing in the district court in Wuppertal, Germany. A German federal court on Thursday Jan. 11, 2018 overturned the acquittal of seven men who posed as a self-styled "Sharia police," ordering a retrial on charges that they violated rules on wearing uniforms. The group took to the streets of Wuppertal in September 2014, dressed in orange vests bearing the words "Sharia police" and handing out leaflets declaring the area a "Sharia-controlled zone". (Bernd Thissen/dpa via AP,file)

A state court found in 2016 that the vests couldn't be classified as a uniform and weren't intimidating, and ruled that the men couldn't be convicted under any law.

The Federal Court of Justice sent the case back to Wuppertal, in western Germany, for a new trial by a different panel of judges. It said the lower court gave insufficient consideration to possible violations of the law, and also didn't take into account the effect of the stunt on the people it was aimed at.

"The state court gave no consideration at all to how the action was understood by Muslims," presiding judge Joerg-Peter Becker said in delivering the federal court's ruling. "So the case has to be retried completely."

The alleged initiator of the "Sharia police," prominent German Islamic radical Sven Lau, was convicted in a separate trial last year of supporting a foreign terrorist organization - the Army of Emigrants and Partisans, known as JAMWA. He was sentenced to 5  years in prison.

A court in Duesseldorf found that Lau acted as a contact for extremists wanting to fight for the group in Syria and, in 2013, helped two men from Germany join it there.
CAIRO (AP) - The nephew of Yemen's late President Ali Abdullah Saleh has surfaced in the country's south, weeks after he disappeared amid violence in the capital, Sanaa.

Brig. Gen. Tareq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh disappeared from Sanaa following the death of his uncle amid intense fighting between forces loyal to the ousted president and Iranian-backed Shiite rebels known as the Houthis.

The younger Saleh commanded his uncle's personal security force until late 2011, when the older Saleh stepped down under pressure from a popular uprising.

He surfaced Thursday in the southern Shabwa province, where he offered his condolences to the family of a top aide of his uncle's killed in the Sanaa fighting.

The Houthis have been searching for him weeks, storming scores of homes in Sanaa to find him.
WILLISTON -- After deliberating for slightly less than two hours Wednesday, a jury found a former Tioga police officer not guilty of theft.

Monique Lopez, 30, was acquitted after a three day trial in Northwest District Court where prosecutors contented she stole more than $5,000 from a police department evidence account. Tom Slorby, Lopezs defense attorney, argued that multiple people could have made the transfer in an effort to frame Lopez.

Slorby praised the jurys decision after the trial Wednesday.

Its the right verdict, he said.

Lopez and her fiance, Tioga Police Chief Corey Murphy, declined to comment after the trial ended. Divide County States Attorney Seymour Jordan, who served as a special prosecutor in the case, also declined to comment.

Two jurors, who asked that their names not be used, said the prosecution hadnt brought enough evidence showing Lopez had actually made the transfer that moved $5,300 from a city-owned account into her own account.

Its like I told (other jurors), I wouldnt bet my life that shes innocent, but I wouldnt bet her life that she was guilty, one said.

The defenses argument came down to the fact that multiple people had access to laptops used by patrol officers in the Tioga police department.

On Tuesday, Ron Bolinske, who owns a computer business in Minot, testified for the defense that there were multiple accounts on the laptop issued to Lopez and that other people in the department had the ability to remotely access the machine.

Bolinske testified that Sean Duisen, who was at the time a Tioga police lieutenant, remotely accessed the computer about 20 minutes after the money was transfered into Lopezs bank account.

In his closing argument, Slorby said the defense didnt question that a transfer had taken place. Lopez had returned the money as soon as she could after she found out about the transfer, he said.

The issue, Slorby said, was who had made the transfer.

In all likelihood, somebody else caused that transfer from Moniques computer by remote access, he said. If Im prosecuting, I could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any of these people did it. Just like I couldnt prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Monique did it.

Slorby told the jury he was confident the defense has shown there was reasonable doubt about Lopezs guilt.

If theres not reasonable doubt here, then I dont know what reasonable doubt is, he said.

Jordan, however, said Lopez had only returned the money because shed been caught.

The idea that she was being framed didnt add up, he said.

The state submits to you if you were looking to frame someone, why would you login as yourself? Jordan asked the jury.

He said the logins by other users might have been Lopez trying to cover her tracks.

Jordan also argued that while other people in the Tioga department might have had information about the police account and even had Lopezs account number, they wouldnt have had the information needed to login to her online banking account, which is where the transfer happened.

Jordan urged the jury to convict.

Despite the fact it might not be easy, I request that you do the right thing, he said.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man has been charged in the fatal shooting of his twin brother, whose name was nearly identical.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office announced on Twitter that Prince Terrill Mitchell was arrested Wednesday. He's accused in the Sept. 5 death of Prince Tirrell Mitchell.

Lt. Craig Waldrup told news outlets that the shooting stemmed from an argument between the 26-year-old twins.

The surviving twin also is charged with possessing a weapon as a convicted felon.

He's being held without bond in the Jacksonville jail. Jail records don't list an attorney.
BERLIN (AP) - A regional official in the German state of Saxony has condemned an attack against an Ethiopian woman but insists there aren't any "no-go areas" for migrants there.

Police say the 19-year-old victim was insulted Monday in Dresden by several unknown persons, one of whom then set a large dog onto her. She suffered bites and shock.

Saxony's integration minister, Petra Koepping, said Thursday that "the attack needs to be condemned, like the attack on any person."

She noted that a recent survey showed xenophobia is commonplace in Saxony but added: "Nevertheless there aren't any no-go areas in Saxony for people with a migrant background."

Saxony is a stronghold of the anti-migrant Alternative for Germany party and home to the group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, PEGIDA.
SAN DIEGO (AP) - The highest-ranking member of a Mexican cartel to ever surrender to U.S. authorities has pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges, acknowledging he orchestrated the shipments of thousands of pounds (kilograms) of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin to the United States.

Damaso Lopez Serrano, 29, entered his plea Wednesday in federal court in San Diego, nearly six months after turning himself over to U.S. authorities at California's border with Mexico, the highest-ranking Mexican cartel leader to do so, the U.S. attorney's office said.

His father, Damaso Lopez Nunez, was arrested in Mexico City in May and had been battling for control of the Sinaloa cartel following the 2016 arrest of billionaire kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Mexican officials have blamed Lopez Nunez for instigating violence in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa and the peninsula of Baja California, including a string of killings around Cabo San Lucas.

U.S. authorities are seeking Lopez Nunez's extradition. Guzman was sent to the United States last year to face drug charges.

Lopez Serrano, who has been described as violent and flashy by Mexican experts, acknowledged in federal court that he held a leadership role in the cartel. He also said he was armed while trafficking drugs and pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges out of a separate case in Virginia that also names his father.

He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and has agreed to forfeit $1 million in cash.

Lopez Serrano's conviction "strikes a serious blow to the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel and its violent drug trafficking activities," acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the U.S. Justice Department's criminal division said in a statement.

The case is part of a five-year investigation that has resulted in charges against more than 125 people, the seizure of thousands of tons of drugs and more than $27 million in drug proceeds. U.S. officials said the probe has shed light on the inner workings of one of the world's most powerful drug cartels.

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This story has been corrected to remove hyphen in name in final reference to Lopez Serrano.
DETROIT (AP) - Ford is telling owners of about 2,900 Ranger small pickup trucks not to drive them after finding out that an exploding Takata air bag inflator killed a driver in West Virginia.

The death occurred July 1, and Ford said it was notified in December. After some investigation, the company determined that the truck's inflator was made on the same day as one that exploded and killed a South Carolina man driving a Ranger in 2015. Ford is now issuing an urgent new recall in the U.S. and Canada for Rangers with inflators made on that day because of the immediate danger from this lot of inflators.

"We take this matter very seriously and are advising owners of these specific 2006 Ford Rangers to stop driving their vehicles so dealers can make repairs immediately," Ford said in a statement Thursday.

FILE - This Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015, file photo, shows the Ford badge in the grill of a pickup truck. Ford is telling owners of about 2,900 2006 Ranger pickup trucks not to drive them after discovering that a man was killed in a wreck involving an exploding Takata air bag inflator. The death occurred July 1, 2017, in West Virginia. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

Ford dealers will repair the trucks at owners' homes or tow them in for work, spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said. The company also will offer loaner vehicles.

"It's critical that this message reaches all affected owners," the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement. "It is extremely important that all high-risk air bags are tracked down and replaced immediately."

Ford said it was notified of the West Virginia death Dec. 22, and the company inspected the vehicle Dec. 27. The West Virginia death is the second involving a Ranger and the 21st worldwide caused by Takata inflators.

The inflators, which use ammonium nitrate as a propellant, can explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister and spewing shrapnel. The problem touched off the largest string of auto recalls in U.S. history and forced Takata into bankruptcy. More than 180 people have been injured.

Weigandt said she didn't know if there was a manufacturing problem on the day the inflators were made.

But Sean Kane, president of Safety Research and Strategies Inc., a Massachusetts firm that does auto testing for plaintiffs' lawyers and other clients, said a manufacturing problem is likely. "My suspicion is they found something very specific to that day that exacerbated an already bad situation," he said.

In January of 2016, Ford recalled about 391,000 Rangers in the U.S. and Canada from the 2004 to 2006 model years to replace the driver's inflators. The recall came after the government announced the December 2015 death of Joel Knight, 52, of Kershaw, South Carolina, that was caused by a Takata air bag in his 2006 Ranger.

As of July 28, 2017, the most recent quarterly report from Ford available on the NHTSA website, only 3.7 percent of the recalled 2004 to 2006 Rangers in the U.S. had been repaired, removed from service or the owners were unreachable. That's an extremely low completion rate. On average, recalls have a 75 percent completion rate within 18 months of when they began, NHTSA has said.

Weigandt said Ford has sent letters and text messages, made phone calls and posted warnings on Facebook and Twitter urging owners to get their trucks repaired. "We've tried to reach them through multiple channels," she said. "We want them to take it seriously and act."

The first recall in 2016 was an interim repair until replacement inflators that don't use ammonium nitrate could be manufactured, she said. Some owners may have ignored the first recall notice in anticipation of the final repair announced in December, she said.

Several other automakers also have low completion rates. A November report from an independent Takata recall monitor showed that automakers have fixed only 43 percent of the faulty inflators.

U.S. recalls involving 19 automakers are being phased in over the next few years and are expected to reach 42 million vehicles and 69 million inflators.

When asked about the low Ford completion rate, a NHTSA spokeswoman pointed to a November statement that said it's working with the monitor "to develop and expand the use of the best practices to help the manufacturers achieve their individual repair goals."

But U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, whose state has seen three deaths caused by the inflators, said NHTSA has known the Ranger inflators were deadly since the Knight's death in December of 2015. "This is the very definition of a failed recall," he said. "In July 2017 there was another death in West Virginia - and they wait until now to make this a priority? Plain and simple this is akin to malpractice."

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Auto Writer Dee-Ann Durbin contributed to this report.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico is hosting another season of AMC's "Better Call Saul."

Production work on the television series is underway in Albuquerque. The network had initially announced last year that the "Breaking Bad" spinoff would return in 2018 for a 10-episode fourth season.

Starring Bob Odenkirk, the series follows Jimmy McGill, who eventually becomes Walter White's lawyer Saul Goodman on "Breaking Bad."

Officials with the state film office say about 150 crew members and several dozen principal actors from New Mexico are a part of the production.

"Better Call Saul" season three was among the more than 60 film and television productions shot in New Mexico during the past fiscal year. Others included "The Night Shift," ''Longmire," and Netflix's "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs."
BOSTON (AP) - The $10 million reward offered by a Boston museum for information that leads to the return of more than a half-billion dollars' worth of stolen art isn't expiring after all.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum announced Thursday that it's extending the reward for the largest art heist in U.S. history that had expired at midnight Dec. 31.

Museum trustees President Steve Kidder says the reward demonstrates the museum and trustees remain committed to recovering the stolen works.

Two men disguised as Boston police officers entered the museum on March 18, 1990, tied up two security guards and made off with 13 pieces, including works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet.

The reward was bumped to $10 million last May and led to promising leads that continue to be pursued.
MILWAUKEE (AP) - A Wisconsin private school that asked fourth graders to list three good reasons for slavery and three bad ones apologized to parents after the mother of a black student shared the assignment on Facebook, calling it offensive.

In a letter to parents Tuesday, Our Redeemer Lutheran School in Wauwatosa agreed the homework was offensive and said it "showed a lack of sensitivity." It also thanked the student's mother for bringing the issue to their attention.

"Our Redeemer regrets deeply an unjustifiable assignment on slavery earlier this week," Principal Jim Van Dellen said in a statement to The Associated Press on Thursday. The statement went on to say that the church and school "work hard to promote the human dignity of all people, and this assignment did not reflect our core values or practices."

Trameka Brown-Berry, the parent who shared the assignment online, said the school explained the assignment as a way to have students think about why white people once thought it OK to own slaves. She said it's good for students to learn about slavery but that the assignment's question was shocking.

"You wouldn't ask someone to list three good reasons for rape or three good reasons for the Holocaust," she said.

She posted a picture of the assignment Monday evening after seeing her 9-year-old son, Jerome, struggling with his homework and "looking real confused." She saw he'd already listed bad reasons for slavery - "making them do your chores," splitting up families and "punishing them." He made sure to mention he is proud to be black.

But his mother said he couldn't think of any good reasons for slavery. She said she suggested he just write how he felt so he wrote: "I feel there is no good reason for slavery that's why I did not write."

Brown-Berry said the school responded quickly to her concerns and agreed to her suggestions for addressing the matter, including written and verbal apologies to students and parents and cultural diversity training for staff. She said the teacher has also apologized to students.

Van Dellen said in his statement to the AP that they "are working with the African-American community to guide our educational goals and create important dialogues in our church and school."
CARTERET, N.J. (AP) - Officials stripped a New Jersey resident of his citizenship because they said he used a false name when he entered the United States more than 25 years ago.

Baljinder Singh became the first person to be denaturalized under Operation Janus, a Homeland Security Department initiative that revokes citizenship of those who circumvented background checks during the naturalization process. A judge revoked his citizenship Friday, according to the U.S. Justice Department, which announced the ruling Tuesday.

Assistant Attorney General Chad Readler said Singh "exploited" the U.S. immigration system, "which undermines both the nation's security and our lawful immigration system."

Federal authorities accused the Carteret resident of using an alias to avoid deportation. Prosecutors said Singh, who was born in India, arrived in the U.S. in 1991 with no proof of identity, and gave authorities the name Davinder Singh.

A judge ordered him to be deported in January 1992 after he failed to appear in immigration court. Singh filed an application for asylum under the name Baljinder the following month, and he married a U.S. citizen, according to prosecutors.

Singh's application for permanent residency was approved in 1996, and he became a naturalized citizen in 2006. He didn't include his former deportation order in the application, according to prosecutors.

The Justice Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services filed the civil denaturalization complaint against Singh in September.

An additional 1,600 cases similar to Singh's will be recommended for prosecution, according to the Justice Department.

Singh is now characterized as a lawful permanent resident, a change the means he could face deportation.
ABBEVILLE, La. (AP) - Waving signs heralding free speech and chanting "Stand by Deyshia," about 100 people gathered in a light rain Thursday to rally to support Deyshia Hargrave - the Louisiana teacher ejected from a school board meeting and roughly handcuffed in a video-recorded arrest after she questioned her superintendent's pay raise.

Hargrave, near tears at times, thanked supporters who stood by her after the arrest and emphasized the need to speak out on important issues.

"I hope and pray my experience will empower you - my students, young women everywhere - to know that you have a voice," Hargrave told the crowd. "Use it. Many, many women suffered tremendously and sacrificed greatly for us to have this voice. ... And this is for the boys, too. You matter."

People hold signs at a rally for school teacher Deyshia Hargrave, who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week, in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

She was backed by fellow teachers wearing black T-shirts that read: "#standbydeyshia." Signs held by members of the crowd included one reading, "We will not be silenced."

Earlier, Hargrave told The Associated Press she believes Vermilion Parish School Board President Anthony Fontana should resign. She declined to suggest any discipline for Reggie Hilts, the deputy city marshal who handcuffed her on the hallway floor after she left the meeting and marched her out of the building.

"He needs training," the middle school English teacher said. "Whether he needs to lose his job, I don't know."

She declined, at first, to say with certainty whether she would file a lawsuit in the matter. "We'll see how it goes," she said when asked again. "But I clearly feel my First Amendment rights were violated, and I feel like, yeah, there will be a lawsuit filed for that."

The American Civil Liberties Union and her teachers union are investigating the case.

The turmoil followed the board's 5-3 vote Monday night approving a new three-year contract raising Vermilion Schools Superintendent Jerome Puyau's salary by roughly $30,000, to about $140,000 annually, with incentive targets that could add 3 percent a year.

Video of the meeting shows that Hargrave addressed the superintendent directly after raising her hand to speak and being recognized.

She questioned Puyau's raise, given that teachers haven't received an increase in 10 years, despite growing class sizes and other demands.

Fontana then declared that her comment wasn't "germane" to the vote on the contract, and banged his gavel in an attempt to silence her. According to school board member Kibbie Pillette, Fontana then beckoned off-camera to the officer, who interrupted Hargrave while she was speaking and ordered her out.

"I'm going," she said, making her way out. The officer followed her into the hallway, where moments later, a camera recorded her on the floor with her hands behind her back, being handcuffed and complaining that the officer had pushed her down.

Asked by the AP on Thursday who's directly to blame for the incident, Hargrave said "Anthony Fontana."

Fontana has not returned calls for an interview with the AP, but has defended his actions and that of the officer.

Hilts was accused along with another officer of slamming an ailing 62-year-old man's head onto a concrete slab in 2011. He left the city of Scott's police force later that year, for unrelated reasons the police chief said. Scott denied using excessive force, and the man's federal suit was settled in 2016.

Now a local pastor and a resource officer at J.H. Williams Middle School in Vermilion Parish, Hilts hasn't spoken publicly about Hargrave's arrest.

"He's a very good guy, he's a pastor, respectable citizen here, and is well-respected in the community," Puyau told the AP. "Students and teachers love him."

A teacher who attended Thursday's rally agreed.

Alicia LaSalle is a second-year teacher at the school where Hilts works as a resource officer. LaSalle said Hilts is on hand to stop altercations or other problems among students in. She adds that Hilts has a good relationship with students and teachers. "Honestly, he is very well liked at our school," she said.

"I agree she should not have been arrested," LaSalle said. "Personally, I don't think he would have arrested her if it was up to him."

Puyau, who said he began receiving hate mail and threatening phone calls as the video spread on the internet, wouldn't comment on who ordered the teacher's removal, but said he's not happy with how things played out.

"It was not good in any way," he said. "We are a good community. It took everybody by surprise. I'm having a hard time with this, but we care about our teachers and our support staff."

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Associated Press reporter Kevin McGill contributed to this story from New Orleans.

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This story has been corrected to show that Fontana's first name is Anthony and that he is the Vermilion Parish School Board president.

School employees and their supporters hold rally to protest the silencing and forceful arrest of teacher Deyshia Hargrave at Vermilion Parish School Board meeting. Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP)

People hold signs at a rally for school teacher Deyshia Hargrave, who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week, in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Deyshia Hargrave, the Vermilion Parish school teacher who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week, holds her daughter Rynn LeBouef at a rally in her support, in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, image made from a video provided by KATC-TV middle-school English teacher Deyshia Hargrave is handcuffed by a city marshal after complying with a marshal's orders to leave a Vermilion Parish School Board meeting in Abbeville, La., west of New Orleans. Hargrave was removed from the school board meeting, forcibly handcuffed and jailed after questioning pay policies during a public comment period. (KATC-TV via AP)

Deyshia Hargrave speaks to supporters at rally to protest her silencing and forceful arrest at Vermilion Parish School Board meeting Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018 in Abbeville, La. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP)

People hold signs at a rally for school teacher Deyshia Hargrave, who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week, in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Deyshia Hargrave, a Vermilion Parish school teacher who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week, speaks at a rally in her support in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Jennifer Meaux holds a sign at a rally for school teacher Deyshia Hargrave, who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week, in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Deyshia Hargrave, facing left, the Vermilion Parish school teacher who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week, hugs her friend Marcella Manuel before she walks to a rally in her support, in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Sydney Brown, 6, and Josiah Brevis, 8, hold a sign at a rally for school teacher Deyshia Hargrave, who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week, in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Alicia LaSalle, a Vermilion Parish school teacher, holds a sign in solidarity at a rally in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, for school teacher Deyshia Hargrave, who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Sydney Brown, 6, holds a sign at a rally for school teacher Deyshia Hargrave, who was arrested while speaking against the superintendent's pay raise at an education board meeting earlier this week, in Abbeville, La., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
FARGO  Officials with North Dakota State University are investigating the death of a student after a body was found on campus for the second time this school year.

A university spokesperson said Wednesday that NDSU police reported that the body of a student was found in a private room in Matthew Living Learning Center West, an on-campus student apartment near the NDSU Wellness Center.

The spokesperson wouldnt say what time the body was discovered, and the identity of the student was being withheld on Wednesday. Staff and students were notified of the incident Wednesday, the spokesperson added, but no further details were available.

Its the second time this school year that the NDSU community has been alerted of a death on campus and subsequent investigation.

In September, a 17-year-old boy died of natural causes in a dorm room.

Devin Delaney, a senior at Burnsville High School, was staying with a friend in NDSU's Sevrinson Hall on Sept. 17 when an abnormal heart rhythm brought on by inflammation, possibly from a virus, killed the teenager.

Freshman Emily Omvig said she was in Sevrinson Hall when the Cass County Coroner's office arrived last semester.

I didnt know how to react, she said.

She first heard of the most recent death on campus when her mother called from Bismarck around 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Im questioning if its a common occurrence, but I dont think it is, she said.

She said the news isnt a good start to the second semester as students just returned from winter break on Monday, Jan. 8.

Junior Sam Karschnia, of Chaska, Minn., said he was kind of surprised to read the email from campus officials notifying them of the incident.

Two years [at NDSU] and no one had passed away and this year two passed away on campus, he said.

NDSU Student Body President Mason Wenzel said in an email that the passing of any student is always painful to the entire community and we can only hope that the family (of the student) will be strong after this loss.

University officials say there is no indication of foul play or threat to public safety.
WASHINGTON (AP) - In bluntly vulgar language, President Donald Trump questioned Thursday why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa rather than places like Norway, as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal, according to people briefed on the extraordinary Oval Office conversation.

Trump's contemptuous description of an entire continent startled lawmakers in the meeting and immediately revived charges that the president is racist. The White House did not deny his remark but issued a statement saying Trump supports immigration policies that welcome "those who can contribute to our society."

Trump's comments came as two senators presented details of a bipartisan compromise that would extend protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants - and also strengthen border protections, as Trump has insisted.

FILE- In this Jan. 9, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with lawmakers on immigration policy in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. Trump used profane language as he questioned Thursday, Jan. 11, why the U.S. should permit immigrants from certain countries as he rejected a plan by a bipartisan group of senators that would have changed rules affecting entrants from Africa and Haiti, according to three people briefed on the conversation. The White House did not deny the comment. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

The lawmakers had hoped Trump would back their accord, an agreement among six senators evenly split among Republicans and Democrats, ending a months-long, bitter dispute over protecting the "Dreamers." But the White House later rejected it, plunging the issue back into uncertainty just eight days before a deadline that threatens a government shutdown.

Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate' s No. 2 Democrat, explained that as part of that deal, a lottery for visas that has benefited people from Africa and other nations would be ended, the sources said, though there could be another way for them to apply. Durbin said people would be allowed to stay in the U.S. who fled here after disasters hit their homes in places including El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti.

Trump specifically questioned why the U.S. would want to admit more people from Haiti. As for Africa, he asked why more people from "shithole countries" should be allowed into the U.S., the sources said.

The president suggested that instead, the U.S. should allow more entrants from countries like Norway. Trump met this week with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Late Thursday, Trump was pushing for "a Great Wall" and criticizing Democrats' stance on immigration, highlighting the difficulties for any negotiations.

"The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process. It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans," he said in a late-night tweet. "We must build a Great Wall ..."

Asked about the earlier remarks insulting other countries, White House spokesman Raj Shah did not deny them.

"Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," he said.

Trump's remarks were remarkable even by the standards of a president who has been accused by his foes of racist attitudes and has routinely smashed through public decorum that his modern predecessors have generally embraced.

Trump has claimed without evidence that Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, wasn't born in the United States, has said Mexican immigrants were "bringing crime" and were "rapists" and said there were "very fine people on both sides" after violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, left one counter-protester dead.

"Racist," tweeted Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., after Thursday's story broke. But it wasn't just Democrats objecting.

Republican Rep. Mia Love of Utah, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, said Trump's comments were "unkind, divisive, elitist and fly in the face of our nation's values." She said, "This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation" and Trump must apologize to the American people "and the nations he so wantonly maligned."

Trump has called himself the "least racist person that you've ever met." On Friday he plans to sign a proclamation honoring Martin Luther King Day.

Critics also have questioned his mental fitness to serve as president, citing his inability to muster some policy details and his tweets asserting his "nuclear button" is bigger than North Korea's. He responded to such criticism with a recent tweet calling himself "a very stable genius" who is "like, really smart."

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly describe the conversation. One said lawmakers in the room were taken aback by Trump's remarks.

The Trump administration announced late last year that it would end a temporary residency permit program that allowed nearly 60,000 citizens from Haiti to live and work in the United States following a devastating 2010 earthquake.

Trump has spoken positively about Haitians in public. During a 2016 campaign event in Miami, he said "the Haitian people deserve better" and told the audience of Haitian-Americans he wanted to "be your greatest champion, and I will be your champion."

The agreement that Durbin and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., described to Trump also includes his $1.6 billion request for a first installment on his long-sought border wall, aides familiar with the agreement said. They required anonymity because the agreement is not yet public.

Trump's request covers 74 miles of border wall as part of a 10-year, $18 billion proposal.

Democrats had long vowed they wouldn't fund the wall but are accepting the opening request as part of a broader plan that protects from deportation about 800,000 younger immigrants brought to the country as children and now here illegally.

The deal also would include restrictions on a program allowing immigrants to bring some relatives to the U.S.

In an afternoon of drama and confusing developments, four other GOP lawmakers - including hardliners on immigration - were also in Trump's office for Thursday's meeting, a development sources said Durbin and Graham did not expect. It was unclear why the four Republicans were there, and the session did not produce the results the two senators were hoping for.

"There has not been a deal reached yet," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. But she added, "We feel like we're close."

Underscoring the hurdles facing the effort, other Republicans also undercut the significance of the deal the half-dozen senators hoped to sell to Trump.

"How do six people bind the other 94 in the Senate? I don't get that," said No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas.

Cornyn said the six lawmakers were hoping for a deal and "everyone would fall in line. The president made it clear to me on the phone less than an hour ago that he wasn't going to do that."

The six senators have been meeting for months to find a way to revive protections for young immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children and are here illegally. Trump ended the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program last year but has given Congress until March 5 to find a way to keep it alive.

Federal agencies will run out of money and have to shut down if lawmakers don't pass legislation extending their financing by Jan. 19. Some Democrats are threatening to withhold their votes - which Republicans will need to push that legislation through Congress - unless an immigration accord is reached.

Cornyn said the real work for a bipartisan immigration deal will be achieved by a group of four leading lawmakers - the No. 2 Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate. That group met for the first time this week.

The immigration effort seemed to receive a boost Tuesday when Trump met with two dozen lawmakers and agreed to seek a bipartisan way to resuscitate the program. The group agreed to also include provisions strengthening security - which for Trump means building parts of a wall along the border with Mexico - curbing immigrants' relatives from coming here and restricting the visa lottery.

Also in Thursday's Oval Office meeting were House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia. Aides to lawmakers who attended declined to provide comment on Trump's remarks.

Any immigration deal would face hurdles winning congressional approval.

Many Democrats would oppose providing substantial sums for Trump's campaign promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico. Many Hispanic and liberal members of the party oppose steps toward curtailing immigration such as ending the visa lottery and restricting the relatives that legal immigrants could bring to the U.S.

Among Republicans, some conservatives are insisting on going further than the steps that Trump has suggested. They want to reduce legal immigration, require employers to verify workers' citizenship and block federal grants to so-called sanctuary cities that hinder federal anti-immigrant efforts.

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Andrew Taylor, Kevin Freking and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., left, walks with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the minority whip, as lawmakers continue negotiating on a deal that would include a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders concludes her daily press briefing in the Brady press briefing room at the White House, in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

In this Jan. 9, 2017, photo, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., left, and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with lawmakers on immigration policy in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. Bargainers seeking a bipartisan immigration accord planned talks as soon as Wednesday as President Donald Trump and leading lawmakers sought to parlay an extraordinary White House meeting into momentum for resolving a politically blistering issue.(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., joined at right by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., gives her support to "dreamers," people brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and supporters of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., left, listens as House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference on their immigration bill, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The president of the U.N. Security Council says members are considering a visit to Afghanistan to show solidarity with the Afghan people, meet government officials and see firsthand the situation in the war-torn country.

Kazakhstan Ambassador Kairat Umarov says the council hasn't been to Afghanistan for seven years and a trip would give members the opportunity to get an understanding of the country's needs and prospects.

He told reporters Thursday that he hopes to lead a council mission but wouldn't discuss the timing.

Umarov called a Tuesday briefing on Afghanistan by U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster "a very good and timely event."

He says the council's members agree on the need for a "more comprehensive approach" to Afghanistan that links security and development.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An Indiana congressman who has made repeated calls to "drain the swamp" in Washington collected more than $160,000 in campaign contributions from gambling interest groups that stand to benefit from legislation he is sponsoring, an Associated Press review found.

Republican Rep. Todd Rokita's collection of such contributions has surged since 2015, when he first sponsored legislation that would end employee protections for tribal casino workers under the National Labor Relations Act. While not illegal, Rokita's acceptance of the donations gives the appearance of the pay-to-play Washington politics that he has frequently inveighed against during his Indiana GOP Senate primary campaign.

The measure, dubbed the Tribal Sovereignty Act, was previously approved by the House but did not advance through the Senate. On Wednesday, the House included it in a larger bill that passed on a 239-173 vote.

Rokita is seeking to challenge Democratic Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, and has repeatedly attacked him and Rokita's chief GOP primary rival, fellow Rep. Luke Messer, as elite insiders who have stacked the deck against ordinary people for their own benefit.

"Lobbyists, bureaucrats, politicians and the media. They've rigged the system. They look out for themselves and look down on us," a narrator ominously intones in one of his campaign ads.

Rokita staffers say he's helping Native American workers stand up against union bosses and that he has a long history of supporting legislation to benefit Native Americans.

Rokita does not have any recognized Native American tribes within his western Indiana district and collected scant contributions from tribal gambling interests before sponsorship of the Tribal Sovereignty Act in 2015. But since then, he has received at least $163,250 from roughly two dozen tribes or tribal gambling affiliated groups, according AP analysis of FEC data. About $8,100 of that comes from a Michigan tribe with a presence in northern Indiana.

In 2017, he was the top recipient of tribal gambling dollars in the House, according to Federal Election Commission data reviewed by the website OpenSecrets.org.

Purdue University political science professor James A. McCann has studied perceptions of political corruption among the electorate and says that research shows marginalized people often view "deal making and special interest politics" like the kind Rokita engaged in as "corrupt." Rokita is counting on that demographic, including those who embraced President Donald Trump's anti-establishment message, to also support his campaign.

"People who are maybe having to work two jobs, or are lower on the economic totem pole, tend to see everyday politics as more corrupt," said McCann. "If Todd Rokita is seeking to differentiate himself based on sticking up for the little guy, or draining the swamp, that undercuts his messaging."

Rokita has promoted the legislation as an anti-union law, though its effect is far broader.

"Native Americans in Indiana and elsewhere, support Todd because they know he fights for them including taking on union bosses hell-bent on exploiting poor Native American workers who historically haven't had a voice before Congress," Rokita's chief of staff Mark Cruz said in a statement.

Cruz, a member of the Klamath Tribes, contrasted that with Rokita's opponents, who "take orders from union bosses and Wall Street bankers."

Tribes are generally treated as sovereign nations. But in 2004 the National Labor Relations Board ruled that employees at tribal businesses that are operated primarily for commercial purposes, like casinos, are subject to the National Labor Relations Act.

The ruling allowed employees to unionize regardless of tribal law and file unfair labor practice complaints with the NRLB, among other worker protections, according to policy documents.

Rokita's legislation, if signed into law, would exempt all tribal businesses from the NLRA.

Jefferson Keel, lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation, testified in favor of the bill, saying the law, as is, "is incompatible with the very nature of sovereignty and self-government."

The Chickasaw Nation since 2015 has donated $15,600 to Rokita, as well as a leadership PAC he runs called The Fund for American Exceptionalism.

Rodney Butler, of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation, similarly criticized the current law for suggesting "that Indian tribes are incapable of developing laws and institutions to protect the rights of employees who work on our reservations." His tribe has donated $8,100 to Rokita.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump has promoted a tough-on-crime agenda at the White House. But he says the nation needs to find ways to help inmates eventually re-enter society.

Searching for conservative solutions on criminal justice, Trump convened a group of governors, faith-based leaders and experts on Thursday to "break this vicious cycle" and find ways of bringing job training, mentoring and drug addiction treatment to the nation's prison population.

"We have a great interest in helping them turn their lives around, get a second chance and make our communities safe," Trump said at the White House. He added, "We will be very tough on crime but we will provide a ladder of opportunity for the future."

President Donald Trump, right, and Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, left, talk during a prison reform roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The round-table discussion, which included Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Republican Govs. Matt Bevin of Kentucky and Sam Brownback of Kansas and others, focused on finding ways to help non-violent prisoners learn new skills to help them transition from incarceration.

Bevin pointed out that 95 percent of the nation's prison population will eventually be released. "What are we doing as a society, at the federal level, at the state level, at the local levels, what are we doing to ensure that they have been rehabilitated and they can be re-assimilated?" Bevin asked. "We're good at removing but we need to do more than simply remove people from society."

The steps are aimed at reducing the rate of recidivism. As Trump noted, the Justice Department has reported that approximately two-thirds of the more than 650,000 ex-offenders released from prison every year are rearrested within three years.

While the president has put forward a tough-on-crime message during his first year in office, the White House views changes to the prison system as a conservative issue that could potentially gain bipartisan support in a divided Congress.

Trump discussed potential changes to the prison system with lawmakers and Cabinet members at Camp David earlier in the month. Wednesday's White House event built on similar listening sessions held by senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, who discussed the issue at a dinner with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at Kushner and Ivanka Trump's Washington home last year.

Sessions has directed the nation's federal prosecutors to pursue the toughest charges possible against suspects in most cases, a move that is expected to drive up the federal prison population at a time when it had been falling. One of Sessions' first orders was to reverse an Obama-era directive phasing out the use of private prisons, an acknowledgement that they may be needed given his aggressive enforcement of drug and immigration laws.

But facing a narrow majority in the Senate, the White House views the issue - along with plans for a sweeping infrastructure bill - as among a handful of areas where Trump could work with Democrats in Congress.

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Associated Press writer Sadie Gurman contributed to this report.

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On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at @KThomasDC.

President Donald Trump speaks during a prison reform roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
BISMARCK, North Dakota (AP) - Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota got a hard sell last week from President Donald Trump, who gave Cramer and his wife a personal tour of the West Wing and used the gilded luster of the newly renovated Oval Office to entreat Cramer to challenge popular Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

It didn't work: Cramer turned down Trump, who had also called him about the race last fall.

It's the latest in a string of complications for Senate Republicans, who are clinging to a paper-thin majority and entering a midterm election year saddled with Trump's low approval ratings and a history of losses for the party in power.

FILE - In this May 26, 2016, file photo, North Dakota state Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, speaks in Bismarck, N.D. Cramer said Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, he won't run for U.S. Senate, depriving Republicans of the candidate many saw as the party's best chance to unseat vulnerable Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast File)

"The president made a very patriotic case for me to run for the Senate seat, and told me he would be behind me 100 percent and campaign for me and with me," Cramer told The Associated Press.

But Cramer couldn't resist the pull of his family and of his position in Congress. "I don't want to be away every weekend, around the country and raising money when I have a 10-year-old at home and four grandchildren."

His decision came as Republicans in Ohio scrambled to find a replacement on the ballot for Josh Mandel, the favorite in the GOP Senate race who left the race Friday out of concern for his wife's health. Now the possibility looms of a primary race between four-term Rep. Jim Renacci and investor and author J. D. Vance, a contest that could leave the nominee hobbled.

Ohio and North Dakota are among the 10 states that Trump won in 2016 that have Democrats running for re-election. Republicans hold a 51-to-49 edge in the Senate, a margin narrowed last month by Alabama Democrat Doug Jones' surprise win over Republican Roy Moore a special election.

"I think everybody's eyes are wide open about the midterm," said Josh Holmes, a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "It is going to be extremely difficult to hold the House and the Senate, but we are doing everything we possibly can do to that."

Cramer's decision was the second time in recent weeks when Trump had been rebuffed in trying to woo a candidate to run for Senate.

The president urged Orrin Hatch of Utah to run for re-election, and the White House even scheduled a trip to Utah last year largely intended to woo the veteran senator, making sure that the 83-year-old had time alone with the president.

Yet Hatch recently announced plans to retire, paving the way for frequent Trump critic Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, to run for the seat.

In the meantime, Republicans, handed an opportunity to pick up a seat in Minnesota, were waiting for word from former Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The former governor, the most recent Republican to be elected statewide in Minnesota, is considered a top candidate for the seat Democrat Al Franken said he would give up last month amid allegations of sexual harassment.

Former Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, appointed to fill the seat until a special election in November, was sworn in last week.

In North Dakota, Cramer had been viewed as the lone Republican capable of mounting a strong challenge to Heitkamp, a former state attorney general and gas company executive seeking a second term.

Yet Cramer, 56, had put off a decision while the House pursued the tax overhaul, even as Heitkamp had more than $4 million for her re-election campaign.

Though Cramer never committed to running, White House officials and some McConnell advisers had believed he was leaning toward a bid.

Despite the complications, McConnell allies say Republicans' path to holding the majority is made less thorny by the fall of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon.

Bannon, whose political stock was damaged after backing Moore in Alabama, was sharply rebuked by Trump last week after being quoted in a tell-all book.

"It's still too early to cast judgment on the general election map," said Chris Pack, with the McConnell-affiliated super-PAC Senate Leadership Fund. "But the threat of Republican primaries from fringe candidates who can't win in November took a big blow with Steve Bannon imploding over the past couple of weeks."

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Jonathan Lemire and Kevin Freking contributed from Washington.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is defending President Donald Trump's decision to attend this year's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Mnuchin told reporters Thursday that administration officials attending the gathering of many of the world's most influential leaders will be promoting Trump's "America First" agenda and ways to bring jobs and economic investment to the U.S.

"I don't think it's a hangout for globalists," said Mnuchin, who will be leading the presidential delegation later this month. The delegation will include several Cabinet secretaries, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, along with White House adviser Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaks to reporters during a White House daily press briefing in the Brady press briefing room at the White House, in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The White House said Trump is expected to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron along the sidelines of the meeting.

Trump ran on a populist platform, criticizing global elites. But Mnuchin said attending is not contradictory to that mission.

He said he and other administration officials have no interest in "rubbing elbows" with the other attendees.

"This trip is all business," Mnuchin said.
WHEATON, Ill. (AP) - A Wisconsin man who was found mentally unfit to stand trial for the May shooting of an Amtrak conductor outside Chicago will be released to a secure senior living facility.

The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports that an Illinois judge on Wednesday said he doubted 80-year-old Edward Klein would be restored to fitness.

Klein will be sent to a facility in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, that specializes in care for patients with dementia. Klein is prohibited from leaving the facility except for an emergency.

This undated photo provided by the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office shows Edward Klein. Klein, who was found mentally unfit to stand trial for the May shooting of an Amtrak conductor outside Chicago will be released to a secure senior living facility. An Illinois judge on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, said he doubted Klein would be restored to fitness. Klein will go to a Wauwatosa, Wis., facility that specializes in care for patients with dementia. He is prohibited from leaving except for an emergency. (DuPage County State's Attorney's Office via AP)

Klein has been held on $1.5 million bail since the shooting in Naperville. Conductor Michael Case testified that Klein was disoriented and frustrated during the trip. Case was shot in the abdomen.

Doctors have diagnosed Klein with an impaired cognition disorder, dementia and neuro-cognitive disorder. He's from West Allis, Wisconsin.

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Information from: Daily Herald, http://www.dailyherald.com
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on the TV critics meeting in Pasadena, California (all times local):

1:50 p.m.

Is four and a half hours of Garry Shandling too much? Not to filmmaker Judd Apatow, who produced an upcoming HBO documentary on him.

Judd Apatow producer and director of the HBO documentary "The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling" pose for a portrait during the 2018 Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour at the Langham Hotel on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

Apatow describes Shandling as a mentor. He wrote for Shandling, produced episodes of "The Larry Sanders Show" and even interviewed the comic when he was a 16-year-old high school student doing a radio show on Long Island.

The documentary, presented in two parts premiering March 26 and 27, was an outgrowth of mini-documentaries that Apatow made for Shandling's funeral. The comic died of a heart attack at age 66 on March 24, 2016.

Apatow's film delves into a series of hand-written journals that Shandling kept for 30 years that outlined thinking about his life and career.

"I think he's one of the most important comedy minds of all time," Apatow said.

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1:05 p.m.

Journalist Ronan Farrow, who has written extensively about sexual misconduct charges against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein for the New Yorker magazine, has signed a three-year television deal with HBO.

Farrow will develop and star in a series of documentary specials focused on the abuse of power by individuals and institutions, the network says.

Farrow says he believes there's a new generation seeking out substantive reporting that takes on powerful interests and attacks systemic unfairness.

Farrow's Weinstein investigation was published on the heels of one by The New York Times, and ignited the current focus on bad behaving men. The story became an embarrassment for NBC News, Farrow's former employer, which decided his work about Weinstein wasn't ready to air and authorized him to take it elsewhere.

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12:15 p.m.

Actress Mira Sorvino says she hopes the Me Too movement keeps its focus on sexual harassment and doesn't turn into a general women's rights movement.

Sorvino spoke before television critics on Thursday, a day after she penned a public apology to Dylan Farrow. In a letter published on HuffPost, Sorvino says she was sorry for "turning a blind eye" to the accusations Woody Allen's daughter made against him. The former "Mighty Aphrodite" actress vowed never to work with Allen again.

Farrow has maintained her father sexually abused her when she was 7 years old, a charge the filmmaker has denied.

Sorvino is one of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's accusers, saying her career was hurt when she spurned his advances in 1995.
DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) - A former Alabama pastor who pleaded guilty in the rape of a 15-year-old female church member has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The Dothan Eagle reports a circuit court judge sentenced 31-year-old Camerius Mills, of Edison, Georgia, on charges of rape, sodomy and traveling to meet a child for the purpose of unlawful sex.

Mills was sentenced on Friday. He pleaded guilty in November.

Investigators believe Mills met the victim in November 2014 when she started attending St. Paul Baptist Church in Abbeville, Alabama, where Mills had served as pastor for about three years. They say the offenses took place in February 2015.

Henry County Sheriff's investigator Keith Cauthen told the newspaper that Mills befriended the victim under the pretense of teaching her piano.

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Information from: The Dothan Eagle, http://www.dothaneagle.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump's decision to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (all times local):

4:25 p.m.

The White House says President Donald Trump plans to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') along the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaks to reporters during a White House daily press briefing in the Brady press briefing room at the White House, in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Trump spoke with Macron by phone Thursday. The White House says the two leaders discussed Macron's recent trip to China and discussed efforts to pressure North Korea toward a path of denuclearization. The leaders also spoke about Iran.

Trump will be attending the annual influential gathering in Switzerland later this month.

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3:15 p.m.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (mih-NOO'-shin) is defending President Donald Trump's decision to attend this year's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Mnuchin tells reporters that administration officials attending the gathering of many of the world's most influential leaders will be promoting Trump's "America First" agenda and ways to bring jobs and economic investment to the U.S.

Mnuchin says, "I don't think it's a hangout for globalists." He'll be leading the presidential delegation later this month.

Trump ran on a populist platform, criticizing global elites. But Mnuchin says attending is not contradictory to that mission.

He says he and other administration officials have no interest in "rubbing elbows" with the other attendees.

Mnuchin says, "This trip is all business."
Its not as easy to judge a congressional members voting record as it seems. As Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D, gears up for her re-election campaign, shes touting her independent voting record as a reason to give her a second term.

Heitkamp ranked second for voting against her party last year during the 115th Congress, according to the watchdog website ProPublica. She voted against her party 22.5 percent of the time, topped only by Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., at 26.5 percent. Heitkamp and Manchin have often worked together in the Senate on legislation.

At the same time, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., ranked first in the Senate for voting most consistently with his party. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., voted against the Republicans about 3 percent of the time. He ranked ranked 371st out of 433 members of the House.

Heitkamp argues her voting record demonstrates her willingness to do whats best for North Dakotans. She says shell buck Democratic leadership if legislation isnt favorable to the state. Hoeven says his record reflects the fact that the Republican agenda benefits North Dakotans and state residents support the agenda. Theres no doubt North Dakota is a Republican state. The GOP holds all state offices, dominates the Legislature and has two of the three congressional seats. The state also voted for Donald Trump for president.

Heitkamp won her seat after a tight race with then-Rep. Rick Berg. Shes expected to have a close contest this year no matter who challenges her. Sen. Tom Campbell, R-Grafton, a farmer and businessman, has been running hard for the Republican nomination. Many expect Cramer to enter the race in the next few weeks. Trump has publicly encouraged Cramer to challenge Heitkamp.

So what do our delegations voting records mean? While Hoeven and Cramer, to a lesser degree, follow the party line, Heitkamp has been more independent. She cant go 100 percent Democrat when voting if she wanted to. Its doubtful most North Dakotans would find that acceptable. She obviously weighs her votes -- she split her votes when it came to Trumps Cabinet nominees. She also sided with the Democrats on some major issues. She voted against the tax bill and fought to save the Affordable Care Act, though she argued the ACA needed to be reworked.

She drew a lot of criticism last summer when she voted against repealing the BLM Waste Prevention rule. The Senate vote was 51-49 and her opponents described her as casting the deciding vote. The rule is intended to require oil and gas companies to avoid wasting methane that is flared on federal and tribal land.

Heitkamp has been a moderate, some Democrats would say conservative, when voting in the Senate. Whether North Dakotans like her willingness to vary her votes could be a deciding factor in the election.

Its a lot easier for Hoeven and Cramer to defend following the GOP agenda than it is for Heitkamp to explain her varying votes.

Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., who ranked second for voting against his party, said, "You probably have about 90 percent of the House that votes party-line. You might as well send a robot out here."

If it becomes a Heitkamp-Cramer race for the Senate, North Dakotans will have to decide whether their voting records reflect independence based on judging issues or following a Republican program thats beneficial to North Dakota. The same would hold true for a Heitkamp-Campbell race since Campbell promises to follow Trumps agenda.

Whatever happens should be interesting.
PRAGUE (AP) - Czech news agency CTK has reported that an American who was convicted of killing four of his Czech relatives has killed himself in prison.

The agency says Kevin Dahlgren killed himself Thursday in the Valdice prison northeast of Prague where he was serving a life sentence.

Prison service spokeswoman Petra Kucerova confirmed a prisoner died but gave no details, citing an ongoing investigation.

In 2016, a Czech court convicted Dahlgren of killing the father, mother and their two sons in their home during his visit to the Czech city of Brno on May 22, 2013.

An appeals court upheld the life sentence last year.

Dahlgren, of Palo Alto, California, was detained at Washington Dulles International Airport following the killings and was extradited to the Czech Republic in 2015.
MCKEES ROCKS, Pa. (AP) - A man who once appeared in the MTV reality show "Teen Mom 2" has been charged with running a meth lab in Pennsylvania.

Police say officers arrested 28-year-old Kieffer Delp on Wednesday in a McKees Rocks apartment following complaints that there was a meth lab in the building. Authorities say they found chemicals, containers and other items used to make the drug in the apartment near Pittsburgh.

Delp was jailed, unable to post bail on charges including operating a meth lab. Court documents don't list a defense attorney.

Delp was the boyfriend of one woman followed on the show. Mike Manko of the Allegheny County District Attorney's office told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that detectives were informed of the suspect's probable connection to the show before they entered.

McKees Rocks is about 5 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Latest on consolidated lawsuits against drugmakers over the opioid epidemic (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

A federal judge who's overseeing lawsuits from around the country against the pharmaceutical industry has invited state attorneys general to participate in the case.

Judge Dan Polster poses in his office, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, in Cleveland. Polster has invited Ohio's attorney general Mike DeWine to brief him on the impact of the opioid epidemic. Polster is overseeing a consolidated case involving dozens of lawsuits filed by communities around the country against drugmakers and drug distributors. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland is overseeing a consolidated case involving dozens of suits filed by local communities against drugmakers and drug distributors.

Polster told The Associated Press on Thursday that he invited representatives from two groups of attorneys general to attend a hearing later this month.

One group, represented by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, has filed its own lawsuits over fallout from the opioid epidemic.

A second group has joined a multistate investigation of the industry.

Polster says it's clear any settlement with drugmakers must be "a global one" and include the states.

___

12:15 p.m.

A federal judge who's overseeing lawsuits from around the country against the pharmaceutical industry has invited Ohio's attorney general to brief him on the impact of the opioid epidemic in the state.

Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland is overseeing a consolidated case involving dozens of suits filed by communities against drugmakers and drug distributors.

Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine said Thursday that Polster invited him to appear on Jan. 31 to discuss fallout from the epidemic in Ohio.

The state reported a record 4,050 overdose deaths last year.

DeWine, a candidate for Ohio governor, said he'll focus his remarks on Ohio.

A message was left with Polster seeking comment.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump suggested in an interview Thursday that he has developed a positive relationship with the North Korean leader, but declined to say whether they have spoken.

No sitting U.S. president is known to have spoken with a North Korean leader. The two nations have remained in a state of war and without diplomatic relations since the Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.

"I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un," Trump told The Wall Street Journal. "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised."

President Donald Trump speaks during a prison reform roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Asked if he had spoken with Kim, Trump was evasive: "I'm not saying I have or haven't. I just don't want to comment."

The president's remarks come after North and South Korea this week held their first talks in two years, and the North agreed to participate in the Winter Olympics in the South next month.

Trump claimed credit Wednesday for the inter-Korean dialogue, saying North Korea was feeling the pressure of a U.S.-led campaign of sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile development. He said the U.S. was open to talks with North Korea under the right circumstances.

Trump and Kim have traded bellicose rhetoric and crude insults over the last year, as North Korea has accelerated weapons tests and appears on the cusp of having a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the U.S. mainland.

Trump has called Kim "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission." Kim called the 71-year-old American president "the mentally deranged U.S. dotard." In his New Year's address last week, Kim said he has a "nuclear button" that could fire weapons anywhere in the United States, and Trump responded that he has a much bigger and more powerful "nuclear button."

The U.S. has not had formal negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear program since 2012. It has, however, retained back-channel communications through the North's diplomatic mission at the United Nations in New York.

Trump discussed North Korea in a call Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron of France.

A White House statement said the two leaders discussed Macron's recent visit to China and committed to continue to apply pressure on North Korea.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Thousands of Mormons are paying respects to their deceased president and prophet during a public viewing in Salt Lake City that comes a day before the funeral.

Church officials said 10,000 people had come to the viewing by mid-afternoon Thursday to honor Thomas S. Monson, who died Jan. 2 at age 90. He was president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly 10 years.

Monson spent more than five decades serving in top church leadership councils - making him a well-known face and personality to multiple generations of Mormons.

Mourners cross North Temple after paying their last respects to Thomas S. Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, during a public viewing at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Monson spent more than five decades serving in top church leadership councils, making him a well-known face and personality to multiple generations of Mormons. He died on Jan. 2 at the age of 90. (Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP)

As president of the nearly 16 million-member faith, Monson was considered a prophet who led the church through revelation from God.

Danielle Cahoon says she came with her family to say goodbye and experience a "special spirit" that she gets during the viewings when church presidents die.

People leave the the LDS Conference Center after a public viewing of Thomas S. Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Monson spent more than five decades serving in top church leadership councils, making him a well-known face and personality to multiple generations of Mormons. He died on Jan. 2 at the age of 90. (Kristin Murphy/Deseret News via AP)

John Muaina carries a wreath made from pandana leaves and Logoitino Apelu carries its stand for LDS President Thomas S. Monson's viewing outside of the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. The wreath was made by Siliana Aina from the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. (Kristin Murphy/Deseret News via AP)

Mourners leave the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City after paying their last respects to Thomas S. Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, during a public viewing, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Monson spent more than five decades serving in top church leadership councils, making him a well-known face and personality to multiple generations of Mormons. He died on Jan. 2 at the age of 90. (Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Voters on Thursday were a big step closer to getting an opportunity to decide whether to oust a California judge who was severely criticized for his handling of a sexual assault case involving a Stanford University swimmer.

The campaign to remove Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky submitted nearly 100,000 signatures to the county registrar of voters to get the recall on the June 2018 ballot, said Stanford University law professor Michele Dauber, a campaign leader.

The registrar of voters must verify the signatures, but Dauber said the campaign needs just under 59,000 signatures and has plenty to qualify.

This photo released by John Shallman, shows boxes of petitions with signatures that call for the recall of Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky, a California judge who came under fire for his handling of a sexual assault case involving Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner, at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters office in San Jose, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Stanford University law professor Michele Dauber said the campaign to remove submitted nearly 100,000 signatures on Thursday to get the recall on the June 2018 ballot. (John Shallman via AP)

"We're here doing this because of the thousands of supporters and volunteers who have donated their time and passion and commitment to the belief that we can make a change to how violence against women is handled in the justice system," Dauber said.

Persky drew criticism after he sentenced former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner in 2016 to six months in jail for sexually assaulting a woman who had passed out behind a trash bin. The judge has said it's his job to consider lighter sentences for first offenders and that he cannot allow public opinion to factor in his decisions.

His attorney, Elizabeth Pipkin, said in a statement that the recall campaign did not comply with the California Constitution, and she looked forward to defending "the independence and discretion of superior court judges in the interest of protecting the rights of all citizens."

Persky had filed a lawsuit arguing that superior court judges are state officers and that any effort to recall them should be filed with state elections officials. A judge ruled against him last year and said the recall campaign could resume.

California's lower court judges serve six-year terms and are elected by county voters. Vacancies are filled by the governor, and recalls of those judges are extremely rare.

Three Los Angeles judges accused of ethics violations were recalled in 1932, according to a history of judicial discipline in the state in Loyola Law School's Law Review.

There have also been 27 attempts to recall California Supreme Court justices, but none qualified for the ballot, according to the secretary of state's office.

Dauber said the county has 30 days to verify the signatures.
Shares in Ted Baker have soared after the fashion chain joined Superdry and Quiz in unwrapping strong festive sales.

Ted Baker finished 9% higher on the London Stock Exchange after retail sales jumped 9% in the eight weeks to January 6 compared to the year before.

Online sales proved a bright spot for the retailer, jumping 35% over the period and counting for nearly a third of total sales.

But founder and chief executive Ray Kelvin said he expected the difficult trading environment to persist in the coming year.

Ted Baker share price graph (PA)

He said: The Ted Baker brand has continued to perform in line with expectations over the Christmas period, delivering a good retail performance driven by particularly strong growth from e-commerce, which is an increasingly important part of our retail business.

Superdry also enjoyed a healthy Christmas performance, with like-for-like retail sales climbing 4.7% for the 10 weeks to January 6.

The fashion firm booked a 13% rise in group revenue to 215.6 million during the period, as online and wholesale revenues expanded by 31% and 20% respectively.

But the update came as the retailer unveiled a 28% fall in half year pre-tax profits to 9.1 million, sending shares 9% lower on the second tier of the London market.

Group sales lifted by a fifth to 402 million for the six-month period, thanks to a 12 million boost from a favourable currency translation and the launch of 15 new stores worldwide.

Superdry chief executive Euan Sutherland said: We have delivered another strong performance demonstrating the unique advantages and attractiveness of Superdry and its relevance to customers around the globe.

Womens fast fashion brand Quiz saw sales sparkle during the crucial festive trading period, booking a 32% rise in revenues for the seven weeks to January 6.

The AIM-listed firm saw international sales lift 51% compared to last year, driven by hefty revenue growth from its Irish stores and the roll-out of three new shops in Spain.

UK sales were 12% higher, while online revenues soared by 119%.

Quiz chief executive Tarak Ramzan said: This growth reflects the strength of our brand and the appeal of our products to customers who want the latest looks at fantastic value.

We are continuing to execute our growth plans in each area of the business, underpinned by continued investment in our marketing, people and infrastructure.

Shares were up close to 1% following the trading update.
The public spending watchdog will examine the estimated 39 billion Brexit divorce bill.

The National Audit Office (NAO) confirmed it will scrutinise the financial settlement with Brussels after Treasury Select Committee chairwoman Nicky Morgan asked it to consider the reasonableness of this payment and assess how the figure was arrived at.

NAO chief Sir Amyas Morse said the watchdog had already begun discussions with the Treasury and intended to report in March.

Nicky Morgan (Ian West/PA)

Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs in December that the financial settlement as part of the Brexit process would be between 35 billion and 39 billion  as long as a deal on a future trading relationship was agreed.

Former Cabinet minister Mrs Morgan, who was a passionate campaigner for Remain during the referendum, said: Various wide-ranging sums for the UKs withdrawal payment to the EU have been bandied about.

Last month, the Prime Minister told Parliament that the so-called Brexit divorce bill will be 35 billion-39 billion.

Parliament must be able to scrutinise the reasonableness of this bill.

Accordingly, I have written to Sir Amyas to request that the NAO examines the withdrawal payment, including the assumptions and methodologies used.

Sir Amyas said: I can confirm that we intend to report on the main elements of the financial settlement with the EU.

We are already in discussions with HM Treasury aimed at planning our work.

I expect our report to be published in late March.
French feminists have denounced an open letter signed by film star Catherine Deneuve that said men are being unfairly targeted by sexual misconduct allegations and should be free to hit on women.

In a text published on the Franceinfotv website on Wednesday, feminist Caroline De Haas and over 30 activists strongly criticised the letter.

This letter, its a bit like the awkward work colleague or annoying uncle who doesnt understand whats happening, they said.

'It's all very well for Catherine Deneuve to say this - she's a powerful woman - #MeToo is about women in unequal positions who feel they have to go along with [sexual advances] or they'll lose out in their jobs.'



'Men have a right to hit on women' >> https://t.co/LwtKNQwYTT pic.twitter.com/GcF1Lzd1w8  Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) January 10, 2018

They said Deneuve and other signatories are using media exposure to make sexual violence appear normal.

Deneuve was among about 100 performers, scholars and others who signed an open letter on Tuesday published by the newspaper Le Monde.

It said the legitimate protest against sexual violence stemming from the Harvey Weinstein scandal has gone too far and threatens hard-won sexual freedoms.

The letter reflects Frances mixed feelings about widespread accusations of systematic sexual misconduct by powerful men in multiple countries in recent months.

France is home to famous feminists and its own me too movement, and the Deneuve-signed letter drew much criticism.

Asia Argento

However many people echo her concerns of a new puritanism that goes against French traditions of seduction.

Marlene Schiappa, Frances junior minister for womens rights, told France Culture radio: There are in this open letter some things that are deeply offensive and false.

The letter signed by Deneuve said some women may see being rubbed against by a man in the metro as an expression of sexual deprivation or a non-event.

Ms Schiappa countered that its dangerous to say such things, and insisted such an act constituted sexual assault punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euro (66,500).

Writer Abnousse Shalmani, one of those who signed the open letter, said she was surprised by the extremely violent reactions it prompted.

I consider myself to be a grown up. I am capable of receiving a sexual proposition and even more capable of saying no, she said on Europe 1 radio.

Italian filmmaker and actress Asia Argento, one of the dozens of women who have alleged Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them, called the letter deplorable in a tweet
Almost one in ten people have been affected by severe winter pressures in the NHS, new polling shows.

A survey of more than 1,600 adults in England found 9% said they personally had been recently affected by cancelled operations, cancelled appointments or long waiting times.

Campaigning website 38 Degrees, which commissioned the poll, said that when the figure was extrapolated across the country, nearly four million adults have already been affected by winter pressures in the NHS.

Please remember A&E is for emergencies - if you have cold or #flu like symptoms or if you are unsure please go to your community pharmacist or call @NHS111. Our A&E depts @ #TROH #NMGH #FGH and our Urgent Care Centre at #RI are still under pressure so #ChooseWell pic.twitter.com/NMQ87VHTze  Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) (@NCAlliance_NHS) January 10, 2018

The survey also found strong support for an emergency cash boost for the NHS in England.

Almost three-quarters (73%) of respondents were in favour of an emergency injection of cash to help support struggling hospitals while only 4% opposed the notion.

In the autumn Budget, the Government pledged an additional 335 million to help the health service in England to increase capacity over the winter.

Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of respondents (65%) said the Government was managing the current pressures on the NHS badly, 38 Degrees said.

A total of 44% said the Government was to blame for the situation in the nations hospitals.

9% of people have been affected by the NHS winter crisis, 38 Degrees said (PA)

Last week, health officials estimated that as many as 55,000 routine operations could be deferred during January as the NHS in England focused on patients with the most pressing needs.

NHS England urged hospitals to defer pre-planned operations and routine outpatient appointments until the end of the month.

Trish Murray, campaign manager at 38 Degrees, said: Most people support an emergency cash injection for the NHS this winter and thats no surprise.

Cancelled operations and A&Es in crisis are leaving people waiting in pain or scared for their families.

Theresa May needs to get a grip on this crisis and give the NHS the emergency funds it needs.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: The Government is supporting the NHS this winter with an additional 437 million as well as 1 billion extra social care funding this year.

These figures are a vast exaggeration of the number of operations that are likely to be affected by the clinical recommendations of the expert panel last week  the true figure is likely to be a small fraction.
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones has committed to providing further substantial investment to kick-start the worlds first tidal lagoon energy scheme.

The First Minister has called on the UK Government to give the go-ahead to the 1.3 billion clean power project in Swansea Bay, which he said would create thousands of jobs and make Britain a world leader in a new industry.

The move comes a year after a review for the Government said lagoons to use the power of the tides to generate electricity could play a cost-effective role in the energy mix, help with security of supply, cut carbon emissions and bring opportunities for the UK supply chain.

Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones is calling on the UK Government to green light to Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon (Tidal Lagoon Power/PA)

Conducting the review, former energy minister Charles Hendry called on the Government to move ahead with a pathfinder lagoon project, to build on work already done for a scheme in Swansea Bay whose bid for subsidies prompted the review.

But the Government has failed to give the green light for the tidal lagoon, amid concerns about the costs of backing the renewable energy project.

Today Ive committed to providing further investment to kick-start the @TidalLagoon I call on @GOVUK to stop stalling & give the project the green light.  Mark Drakeford (@PrifWeinidog) January 10, 2018

In a recent letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, Mr Jones said the planned lagoon had cross-party support from Welsh MPs and Assembly members.

He offered a substantial equity or loan investment to reduce the cost of capital for the project.

He said: This would be the worlds first tidal lagoon power plant, which would create thousands of high quality jobs, open the prospect of meeting a significant proportion of the UKs energy needs from the tides and position Britain as a world leader in a new global industry.

And yet the UK has been dragging its heels for over a year.

This is leading to a growing sense of frustration among the Welsh business community and an increasing risk that the lack of a decision will turn into a decision not to proceed.

He urged the Government to stop stalling and get on with agreeing a guaranteed price for electricity generated by the lagoon so that it could go ahead.

Mark Shorrock, chief executive at Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) Plc, the company behind the scheme, described the First Ministers commitment as the breakthrough our project has needed.

He said: We look forward to working alongside the Welsh Government to now close the deal for Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon with the UK Government.

Welsh Conservatives called for more details on the commitment by Carwyn Jones, but backed his calls for the tidal lagoon to get the go-ahead.

A UK Government spokesman said: We want to ensure that the UK has a diverse, secure and affordable energy mix but it must provide value for consumers.

Thats why we are looking carefully at the potential to harness the UKs natural resources to make our energy mix cleaner, more sustainable, and value for money for all UK taxpayers and consumers.
Boris Johnson has raised the plight of imprisoned British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with his Iranian counterpart on the margins of an international summit.

The Foreign Secretary highlighted the case as he attended talks in Brussels focused on the Iran nuclear deal amid concerns about US President Donald Trumps opposition to the agreement.

Mr Johnson used the meeting to discuss Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, as well as other dual-national consular cases and the treatment of the BBC Persian service, with Tehrans foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Mother-of-one Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 during a holiday visit to show her baby daughter Gabriella to her parents.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella (Family handout/PA)

The 39-year-old, from Hampstead, north London, is serving a five-year sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

Mr Johnson tweeted: Raised all our Iranian dual-national consular cases and the treatment of BBC Persian with @JZarif  UK continues to press for the observation of human rights and press freedom in Iran.

Spoke to @JZarif. UK committed to Iran nuclear deal & I underlined serious concern for dual national detainees inc Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) October 10, 2017

The main focus of the talks, attended by French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel and EU high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini, was the nuclear deal.

The US has said it would consider scrapping the 2015 deal, in which Iran restricted its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, but the EU parties remain committed to the agreement.

Mr Johnson tweeted: The Iran nuclear deal makes the world safer. European partners were unanimous today in our determination to preserve the deal and tackle Irans disruptive behaviour.

The director of Amnesty International UK, Kate Allen, said: Its encouraging that Boris Johnson continues to raise Nazanins case with the Iranian authorities.

After expectations were raised ahead of Christmas that Nazanin might be released on humanitarian grounds, were faced yet again with the prospect of more campaigning to get her released and out of Iran.

As weve said over and over again, Nazanin is a charity worker serving a gruelling five-year sentence after having endured solitary confinement and a deeply unfair trial.

Worryingly, the Iranian authorities have a record of toying with the fate of prisoners held for political reasons, so were by no means confident that her release is imminent.
A no-deal hard Brexit could cost the UK half a million jobs and 50 billion less investment, according to a study.

Research for the mayor of London Sadiq Khan warned of a lost decade of significantly lower growth.

The country could have 500,000 fewer jobs in the worst-case scenario and nearly 50 billion less investment by 2030.

Sadiq Khan warned that 500,000 UK jobs could be lost in the event of a hard Brexit (Yui Mok/PA)

Brexit will have an impact on the lives and personal finances of everyone in the UK. Londoners, and people across the UK, deserve to know what that impact will be. https://t.co/y2BXDroZYB #BrexitAnalysis pic.twitter.com/Zv7OTSaYRc  Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) January 11, 2018

In London alone, there could be 87,000 fewer jobs and the capitals economic output could be 2% lower by 2030 than predicted under the status quo, it was warned.

The findings were in an analysis of the potential impact of five different Brexit outcomes on London and the UK, commissioned by the mayor last year from economic analysts Cambridge Econometrics.

Mr Khan said: "This independent analysis reveals the potential economic risks - and human costs - at stake in the negotiations.

"If the Government continue to mishandle the negotiations we could be heading for a lost decade of lower growth and lower employment.

"The analysis concludes that the harder the Brexit we end up with, the bigger the potential impact on jobs, growth and living standards.

"Ministers are fast running out of time to turn the negotiations around.

Mayor of London @SadiqKhan says if the UK leaves the Customs Union and single market with no transitional deal "no sector" will escape a "negative impact". He says it's already happening in some areas #r4today  BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) January 11, 2018

A no-deal hard Brexit is still a very real risk - the worst possible scenario.

"Ive released these impact assessments because the British people and our businesses have a right to know the likely impact of the various options the Government are considering on their lives and personal finances.

This new analysis shows why the Government should now change its approach and negotiate a deal that enables us to remain in both the single market and the customs union.

"Its astonishing that the Government has failed to do any proper impact assessments on what Brexit could mean for our economy.

Their complete lack of preparation is irresponsible, leading to fears that they are putting party politics ahead of the national interest."

The analysis showed that Londons economy would suffer significantly less from Brexit than the rest of the UK.

Economic output across the rest of the UK could be 3% to 3.3% lower by 2030 than it would be if Britain were to remain in the single market and customs union, compared with between 1.9% and 2.1% down in London, which would widen geographic inequalities.

The worst-affected key sector in a no-deal hard Brexit would be financial and professional services, which could have up to 119,000 fewer jobs nationally, said the report.

There could be 92,000 fewer jobs in science and technology, 43,000 in construction and 27,000 across the creative sector, according to the study.

Even a softer Brexit, such as the UK remaining in the single market, but leaving the customs union after a transition period - the so-called Norway option  could result in 176,000 fewer jobs, the report added.

Ben Gardiner, director of Cambridge Econometrics, said: This is the first time that the various impacts of Brexit  trade, investment and migration  have been comprehensively assessed across a number of key indicators and sectors at sub-national level.

Our analysis is particularly valuable to local leaders because it indicates the potential impact on employment and output of Brexit under a range of scenarios, which is necessary given the uncertainty surrounding the final outcome of negotiations.

Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of business group London First, said: The economy is stuck between a rock and a hard Brexit.

Leaving the EU will come at a cost and, with many businesses about to make decisions about where they will invest and grow, its time the Government stopped its ministerial reshuffling and internal politicking and instead set out a coherent plan for continued market access and tariff-free trade with Europe.
Police in Thailand have arrested a 74-year-old fugitive Japanese gang member who was recognised when photos of his full-body tattoos were circulated online.

A police statement said Shigeharu Shirai was arrested on Wednesday in a province north of Bangkok where he has been hiding for more than 10 years to evade murder charges in Japan in connection with the death of a rival gang member.

His arrest apparently came after photos of him sitting around a checkers table were posted on Facebook in August last year by a Thai who was impressed by the mans tattoos.

The post was shared more than 10,000 times and some users identified the former gang member.

Japanese gang member Shigeharu Shirai (AP)

Police General Wirachai Songmetta said Japanese associates paid visits to Shirai two to three times a year, each time bearing cash gifts. He is married to a Thai woman and kept a low profile over the past decade.

Shirai will face illegal entry charges before he is handed over to Japanese authorities, the police statement said.

Police said Shirai was implicated, along with seven others, in the killing of Kazuhiko Otobe. Japans Kyodo News service said police in Mie prefecture had obtained an arrest warrant in the 15-year-old case.

Shirai and Otobe were members of small rival factions affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japans largest yakuza, or underworld, syndicate.

Tattoos on the back, upper arms and a missing tip of a little finger are trademarks of Japanese yakuza. Tattooed guests are often refused entry to public baths and swimming pools.

According to the National Police Agency, 22 organisations were designated as organised crime groups in 2017, with membership totalling more than 20,000.

Almost three-quarters of the gangsters belong to the Yamaguchi-gumi and two other groups, Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai, which together dominate Japans underworld.

In addition to illegal drug sales and gambling, which are their traditional ways of earning money, gangsters also have entered construction, finance and security businesses.
The Attorney General is to challenge the sentence of a mother who was spared jail after posting Islamic State propaganda on a Facebook group.

In November at the Old Bailey, Judge Christopher Moss gave 40-year-old Farhana Ahmed a two-year suspended sentence after she pleaded guilty to encouraging terrorism and three counts of disseminating documents.

The judge said he was was moved by the suffering of her five children and told Ahmed that in her exceptional case, the sooner she was returned to them, the better for all concerned.

On Thursday January 18, Attorney General Jeremy Wright will argue that the suspended sentence was unduly lenient.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright will argue that the sentence was unduly lenient. (PA/Jonathan Brady)

The scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme was extended last year to include a broader range of terror offences, including the offences Ahmed was convicted of, and this will be the first case heard at the Court of Appeal for those offences.

Last year, the court heard how Ahmed, from north-west London, had been a prolific contributor to the Facebook group called Power Strangers.

The closed section, which had 1,406 members, described itself as a pro-IS group, the purpose of it is to connect mawhideen brothers from different parts of the world and to help each other.

Ahmed used the fake name Kay Adams to encourage terrorism on the site between September and November 2015.

Her postings included a speech by an IS spokesman and a link to an extensive online library of terrorist publications, said counsel Ben Lloyd.

Ahmeds posts, in which she expressed approval of the Paris terror attacks, attracted a large number of followers.

The court heard that her behaviour was borne from a difficult period of her life, and she had now rejected extremism.
Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle will celebrate Waless heritage during a visit to its capital.

Their first stop next Thursday will be at Cardiffs historic castle, which is to host a Welsh Culture Festival.

During a tour of the 2,000-year-old building, the couple will hear performances from musicians and poets, meet leading athletes and learn how organisations are promoting the Welsh language and cultural identity.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (Joe Giddens/PA)

Prince Harry and Ms. Markle will visit Cardiff on 18th January, for a day showcasing some of the rich culture and heritage of Wales at @cardiff_castle and to see an example of how organisations are working in communities across the country with @StreetGames pic.twitter.com/RACCMlSYmJ  The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) January 11, 2018

The Prince and Ms Markle will then visit Star Hub, a community and leisure centre in the north-east of the city, to see how sport is being used to engage young people.

They will also see how StreetGames, an organisation with which Harry has previously worked, is helping bring sport to young people of all social backgrounds.

Earlier this week, the couple turned heads during a visit to the heart of Londons Caribbean community.

Crowds gathered outside the studios of not-for-profit broadcaster Reprezent FM in Brixton, south London, and cheered and screamed when they were acknowledged by the hand-holding pair.
Defender Rob Holding is optimistic Arsenal can progress to the Carabao Cup final after the Gunners responded from their FA Cup exit with a resilient performance at Chelsea.

Nottingham Forest inflicted the first FA Cup third-round loss in Arsene Wengers 21 years as Arsenal boss last Sunday, ending the Gunners trophy defence.

And that result placed additional significance on Wednesday nights League Cup semi-final first leg at Stamford Bridge, when Arsenal dug in to draw 0-0 ahead of the January 24 return at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal defender Rob Holding is confident the Gunners can progress to the Carabao Cup final at Chelseas expense (Adam Davy/PA Wire)

I think its a good result for us to take back to the Emirates in the second leg, where we can hopefully nick a goal and get the win and into the final, Holding told Arsenal Player.

Big defensive performance from the boys tonight! Good result to take into the 2nd leg, first class support from the fans as well! #COYG pic.twitter.com/nQRRx8Juoj  Rob Holding (@RobHolding95) January 10, 2018

We had a point to prove here. We came under some scrutiny with our defensive display in the (Forest) game, so it was big for me to just get a clean sheet and have a solid game really.

We knew we couldnt (afford to) lose. A draw is a great result to take back in front of our home fans and hopefully we can get the win there.

Wenger will hope midfielder Jack Wilshere is available for the second leg, having returned to form.

The England midfielder is a doubt for Sundays Premier League clash with Bournemouth, where he spent last season on loan, after spraining an ankle blocking the ball.

Alexis Sanchez started on the substitutes bench, prompting further speculation over his future, with his contract expiring this summer and Manchester City apparently interested in recruiting him.

Sitting alongside the Chile forward was Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos, the 20-year-old signed last week from PAS Giannina.

Wengers initial intention had been to loan out Mavropanos, but he has changed his mind.

I personally want to keep him until May, to know him better, to assess his level, the Frenchman said.

The first signs he has shown in training are so encouraging that I decided to keep him until May.
Tributes have been paid to a passionate and popular 15-year-old girl who died after a car ploughed into pedestrians at a bus stop.

West Yorkshire Police said three other people were injured in the incident involving a BMW 5 Series car in Wakefield Road, Huddersfield, on Wednesday morning.

Katelyn Dawson was taken to Leeds General Infirmary by air ambulance but she died later.

(PA)

Rest in peace Katelyn, aged 15, a pupil at @ShelleyCollege who lost her life this morning on her way to school 



Huddersfield is thinking of you and your friends & family 



 OneLove  pic.twitter.com/lMLJvecbF5  Huddersfield Change Project (@HCPKenno) January 10, 2018

John McNally, principal of Shelley College, where the teenager was a student, said: We were devastated to hear the news that Katelyn passed away yesterday and our hearts go out to her family, who have suffered such a tragic and sudden loss.

Katelyn was a passionate, popular student, who was just starting to realise how much potential she had.

She loved life and lived it to the full. She loved to dance and was starting to plan her options for when she left school this year. Her loss, at a time when she had everything to look forward to in life, is sad beyond words.

Mr McNally added: We will be supporting students and staff alike over the next few days. They are understandably very upset and we will do all we can to help them come to terms with this loss.

We will also try to celebrate Katelyns life, which was sadly cut so short, and the many happy memories we have of her.

As a mark of respect, we will be cancelling the parents consultation planned for this evening and a book of condolences has been opened for students to record their thoughts.

.@ShelleyCollege in Huddersfield have described 15 year old student Katelyn Dawson who died after being hit by a car yesterday as a 'passionate, popular student' #HeartNews pic.twitter.com/25ShpTwSjt  Heart Yorkshire News (@HeartYorkNews) January 11, 2018

The principal confirmed that a 17-year-old girl who was injured in the crash was a sixth-former at the college.

He said: Our thoughts are also with one of our sixth-form students, Georgia, who was also injured in the collision. We wish her a speedy recovery and will offer her all the support we can.

A police spokeswoman said a 47-year-old woman was taken to Leeds General Infirmary with life-threatening injuries and is described as being in stable condition.

The 17-year-old was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary with serious injuries but they are not believed to be life-threatening.

Flowers for 15 yr old Katelyn Dawson, who died yesterday after car ploughed into school bus stop in #Huddersfield pic.twitter.com/KjEc9yBdMZ  Heidi Tomlinson (@HeidiLTomlinson) January 11, 2018

The driver of the BMW, a 51-year-old man, was also taken to Huddersfield Royal with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening.

A message posted on Facebook by All Hallows Church, Kirkburton, near Huddersfield, said: So sad to hear of the sudden, tragic death of 15-year-old Katelyn Dawson, a pupil at Shelley College.

Katelyns family and friends are in our prayers.

Police said the crash happened at about 8.15am near the junction with Broad Lane. Witnesses said the bus stop was completely demolished by the car.

The spokesman said: Officers are appealing for anyone who may have been in the area around the time of the incident and who may have seen the grey BMW travelling before the collision, or who witnessed the collision itself, to come forward with any information.
Two pensioners have been arrested by detectives investigating the disappearance of a woman more than 30 years ago.

West Yorkshire Police said a 75-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Harbans Kaur Lally, who was last seen in Leeds in 1985.

Officers from the forces Homicide and Major Enquiry Team also arrested a 74-year-old woman on suspicion of conspiracy to murder when they searched an address in Gravesend, Kent, on Monday.

Harbans Kaur Lally was last seen in Leeds in 1985 (West Yorkshire Police)

Both have been released on bail pending further inquiries.

Detectives investigating the disappearance & suspected murder of a Sikh woman in 1985, want to hear from people who knew her. Did you know Harbans Kaur Lally (maiden name Ranu), also known as Susan, in Leeds or in Rugby (Warwickshire) where she grew up? https://t.co/j0Tscxeef0 pic.twitter.com/hV6STzCwho  West Yorkshire Police (@WestYorksPolice) January 11, 2018

A force spokesman said a 53-year-old man was also arrested on the same day from an address in the Hay Mills area of Birmingham on suspicion of perjury.

He has been released under investigation.

Mrs Lally, who was also known as Susan and had the maiden name Ranu, was 19 years old when she went missing.

She worked at the head office of the Burton Group in Harehills, Leeds, until April 1985 and gave birth to a daughter in July that year at St Jamess Hospital in Leeds when she was living at an address in the Meanwood area of the city, the spokesman said.

Officers said she was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, and grew up and went to school there. She married there in February 1984 and moved to Leeds some time later.

Police believe Mrs Lally, who was Sikh, returned to Rugby in 1985 and disappeared after that, possibly after travelling to India. As part of the investigation, detectives have also conducted house-to-house enquiries in Bennett Street, Rugby, where she and her family lived.

Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Bryar, of West Yorkshire Police, said: We have recently received information that raises concerns about Harbanss apparent disappearance, which we are now treating as a murder investigation.

We are currently trying to build up a picture of her life at the time she disappeared and we are very keen to hear from anyone with any information that could assist us.

We would like to speak to anyone who knew Harbans, who was also known as Susan, when she lived and worked in Leeds in 1984 to 1985, and also anyone who knew her when she was growing up in Rugby, either through school or in the area she lived. We are particularly interested to speak to anyone who knew her when she returned there in 1985.

We would like to reassure people that we will treat all information in the strictest confidence and would urge anyone who does know something that could assist the investigation to contact us.

:: Anyone with information is asked to contact West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team via 101 quoting Operation Parryton or call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
AmazonFresh is undercutting UK supermarket prices by up to 20%, raising further pressure on grocers as the online giant grows its dominance in Britains retail market.

A study by consultancy Oliver Wyman used a price-checked basket of 50 different items to compare the cost of a shop from AmazonFresh versus the cost of online products at major grocers.

Accounting for both own-label and branded products in the first week of January, AmazonFresh was found to be selling at an 11% discount to Tesco, and a 12% discount to Ocado, with that price gap growing to 15% compared to Morrisons and 19% versus Sainsburys.

But when stripped of promotions including multi-buy offers, that gap widened to anywhere between 15% to 25% against UK competitors, who are already dealing with tough competition and thin margins.

Oliver Wyman retail partner Nick Harrison told the Press Association it proves Amazon has long-term and very serious ambitions in the grocery sector, though UK supermarkets are failing to pay close enough attention.

Sainsburys online fare had one of the largest price gaps compared to AmazonFresh (PA)

I dont think the supermarkets are as aware as they might be, because AmazonFresh is still relatively small and its only available in a smallish number of locations, Mr Harrison said, though Amazon is currently available to 302 postcodes in London, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Hampshire and Bedfordshire.

Everyones very interested strategically in what Amazon is doing, he added but in terms of detail price checks theyre not as firmly on the radar screens.

AmazonFresh had the greatest advantage in branded products, which it consistently offered at a cheaper price compared to British supermarkets.

For example, the selling price of a 350 gram block of Cathedral Mild Cheddar was 2 on AmazonFresh, compared to 2.50 at Sainsburys, 3 by Morrisons, and 3.50 by Tesco and Ocado.

Mr Harrison said Amazon has the benefit of taking a long-term perspective in drawing new customers and is happy not to make money for quite a while when growing a new business.

Customers currently have to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to use AmazonFresh, meaning the company is able to take a holistic view of profit per customers, as products may be competitively priced in one area, but the company may charge a higher margin in another, he explained.

While the rise of AmazonFresh is expected to result in UK supermarkets reviewing their online prices and delivery charges, Mr Harrison said competition from Amazon is unlikely to kill the high street chains.

I dont believe in the end of store-based food retail, certainly not in the next 10 or 20 years, and thats one of the reasons Amazon has bought Whole Foods and is branching out into having a physical presence, he added, referring to the 13.7 billion US dollars takeover announced last summer.

There is also a prospect of partnerships, with AmazonFresh already offering groceries from Morrisons and north of England-based supermarket chain Booths on its site.

But there is a chance that UK competitors could end up acquisition targets.

Mr Harrison said: Its obviously not beyond the bounds of possibility that they would start buying grocers in other parts of the world to do the same.
For the sixteenth consecutive year, North Korea is ranked as the most oppressive place in the world for Christians, according to the international non-profit ministry Open Doors.

Every year Open Doors publishes the World Watch List to highlight the plight of persecuted Christians around the world. The list represents believers who are arrested, harassed, torturedeven killedfor their faith. The list measures the degree of freedom a Christian has to live out their faith in five spheres of life (private, family, community, national, and church) plus a sixth sphere measuring the degree of violence.

Here are the top five countries listed by Open Doors as being the most dangerous for Christians:

1. North Korea

Leader: Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un

Government: Communist Dictatorship

Population: 25,405,000 (300,000 Christians)

Main Religion: Atheism, Traditional Beliefs

Persecution Level: Extreme

Source of Persecution: Communist Oppression, Dictatorial Paranoia

Comment: If Christians are discovered, no matter if they are heirs of the Christian communities from before the Korean War or found the Christian faith in other ways  e.g. during the great famine in the 1990s (which caused tens of thousands of citizens to seek help in China)  not only are they deported to labor camps as political criminals or even killed on the spot, their families will share their fate as well.

2. Afghanistan

Leader: President Ashraf Ghani

Government: Republic

Population: 34,169,000 (thousands of Christians)

Main Religion: Islam

Persecution Level: Extreme

Source of Persecution: Islamic Oppression, Organized Corruption and Crime

Comment: Because all Christians in Afghanistan are essentially converts, they are unable to express their faith, even in private. In many cases, upon being discovered, these converts are considered insane for leaving Islam. If they cannot be convinced to return to their former faith, they are sometimes committed to psychiatric institutions. 

3. Somalia

Leader: President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed

Government: Federal Parliamentary Republic

Population: 14,320,000 (a few hundred Christians)

Main Religion: Islam

Persecution Level: Extreme

Source of Persecution: Islamic Extremism, Ethical Antagonism

Comment: Upon discovery, Christians are often killed on the spot. Al-Shabaab holds to the strict Islamic doctrine of Wahhabism and advocates for Sharia law in every facet of life for Somalis. While al-Shabaab poses a severe threat to Christians in Somalia, believers are also persecuted by their families and the community at large.

4. Sudan

Leader: President Omar al-Bashir

Government: Presidential Republic

Population: 42,166,000 (1,996,000 Christians)

Main Religion: Islam

Persecution Level: Extreme

Source of Persecution: Islamic Oppression, Dictatorial paranoia

Comment: The government regularly arrests and intimidates Christian leaders and has demanded on at least one occasion that leadership be handed over to a government-supported committee. When interacting with Sudanese Muslims, Christians must be extremely cautious, as any mention of their faith can be construed as an act that encourages apostasy against Islam.

5. Pakistan

Leader: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

Government: Republic

Population: 196,744,000 (3,938,000 Christians)

Main Religion: Islam

Persecution Level: Extreme

Source of Persecution: Islamic Oppression, Organized Corruption and Crime

Comment: Churches that are engaged in outreach and youth work face the worst of the persecution, although all Christians suffer from institutionalized discrimination. Occupations deemed as dirty and shameful are reserved for Christians, and many believers are victims of bonded labor.
The company which supplied lingerie to the Queen has lost its royal warrant after the firms director wrote a book revealing details of her work with the royal family.

Rigby & Peller had held the royal warrant since 1960, but confirmed it was deeply saddened by the Royal Household Warrants Committees decision to cancel it.

June Kenton, director of the London-based firm, published Storm In A D Cup in March last year.

(Alastair Grant/AP)

It is not clear if the two events are linked.

Mrs Kenton regularly visited Buckingham Palace and served members of the royal family, including the Queen, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, and her autobiography provided some detail about her working relationship with them.

Rigby & Peller said in a statement: The Royal Household Warrants Committee has decided to cancel the royal warrant granted to Rigby & Peller and Mrs June Kenton.

Rigby & Peller is deeply saddened by this decision and is not able to elaborate further on the cancellation out of respect for Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Warrant Holders Association.

However, the company will continue to provide an exemplary and discreet service to its clients.

Buckingham Palace said it did not comment on individual companies.

Mrs Kenton, from Bushey in Hertfordshire, bought Rigby & Peller with her husband in 1982 for 20,000 before selling a majority stake in 2011 for 8 million  although she remains on the board.
A coroner is seeking to trace relatives of serial killer Robert Black to establish if they want to participate in his inquest.

Scottish-born Black, who was convicted of four child murders but suspected of many more, died of heart disease in a Northern Ireland prison in 2016 aged 68.

The loner paedophile from Grangemouth near Falkirk was a delivery driver who stalked the roads of the UK searching for victims.

Robert Black is led away after being found guilty at Newcastle Crown Court of murdering schoolgirls Caroline Hogg, Sarah Harper and Susan Maxwell (John Giles/PA)

At a preliminary hearing in Belfast ahead of his inquest later this year, Coroner Patrick McGurgan said relatives should be offered the chance to give evidence.

I think all efforts need to be made to trace the next of kin, he said.

A lawyer for the Coroners Service said he believed some relations may live in Northern Ireland.

Mr McGurgan suggested lawyers who represented Black in trials prior to his death might be able to help trace relatives.

I think its important that the family are given every opportunity to participate fully in this inquest, he said.

Black was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea after prison authorities in Northern Ireland revealed no one wanted his remains.

A preliminary inquest hearing for serial killer Robert Black was held at Laganside Courts in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA)

The killers long reign of terror was ended in 1990 when he was caught red-handed by police with a barely alive six-year-old girl hooded, bound, gagged and stuffed in a sleeping bag in the back of his van in the Scottish village of Stow.

He had sexually assaulted her moments earlier.

Once in custody, the predator was linked to a series of unsolved crimes in the previous decade.

In 1994, Black was found guilty of three child murders in the 1980s  those of 11-year-old Susan Maxwell, from the Scottish Borders, five-year-old Caroline Hogg, from Edinburgh, and Sarah Harper, 10, from Morley, near Leeds  as well as a failed abduction bid in Nottingham in 1988.

In 2011, he was found guilty of the 1981 murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, from Ballinderry, Co Antrim.

Black, who lived out his last days in Maghaberry high security prison in Co Antrim, was also suspected of involvement in other killings and unexplained disappearances and had long been the prime suspect in the case of missing 13-year-old Genette Tate, who was last seen in a rural lane in Aylesbeare, Devon, in 1978.

Devon schoolgirl Genette Tate was last seen in 1978 (PA)

The killer was put up to be fostered within weeks of his birth in 1947.

A couple from Kinlochleven in the West Highlands who took him in both died within 11 years and Black spent the rest of his childhood in residential homes in Falkirk and Edinburgh.
Ecuador has confirmed it has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Foreign affairs minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa confirmed the government of Ecuador granted naturalisation to Mr Assange last December after he made a request in September.

Mr Assange, 46, has been living in the London embassy of the South American country for five-and-a-half years after being granted political asylum as he fought sex-related claims in Sweden.

The Ecuadorian government said earlier this week that it was seeking mediation to resolve the impasse  while Mr Assange posted a picture of himself on Twitter wearing an Ecuadorian football shirt on Wednesday.

The foreign minister said: Everything is being done in accordance with the law. We regret the distortion of the facts, we are working to protect the country and the interests of Ecuador, adding that action has been taken in defence of the guarantee of human rights and in strict adherence to the law, the constitution and international instruments.

An official said the South American country maintains with the United Kingdom the best bilateral relations and co-operation.

The minister said other ways of solving the impasse are being explored, in dialogue with the UK, as a possible mediation that can facilitate a just, definitive and dignified solution for all the parties involved, within the framework of international law.

The Foreign Office said on Wednesday it turned down a request from the Ecuadorian government to grant Mr Assange diplomatic status.

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa (Dolores Ochoa/AP)

An FCO spokesman said: The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Mr Assange here in the UK.

The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter.

Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice.

Swedish prosecutors have dropped their investigation into allegations against Mr Assange, but he fears he will be extradited to the United States if he leaves the building and that there is a sealed indictment ordering his arrest.

A United Nations panel concluded in 2016 that Mr Assange was under arbitrary detention.

A statement by Mr Assanges legal team said: The UN ruling, issued almost two years ago, is crystal clear in its language. Mr Assange is unlawfully and arbitrarily detained by the UK authorities and must be released.

The UK should not permit itself to be intimidated by the Trump administrations public threats to take down Mr Assange.

Renata Avila of campaign group the Courage Foundation said: Ecuadors decision to grant nationality to Julian Assange is a welcome step, but were still a long way from resolving this situation.

In the first year of Donald Trumps presidency, weve seen the US rhetoric against First Amendment activity, and the threats of prosecution, reach new, dangerous heights.

When the director of the CIA uses his inaugural speech to declare a publishers arrest a priority, we should all take seriously the threat posed to press freedoms in America.

With alleged NSA whistleblower Reality Winners espionage case coming to trial in March and dozens of leak investigations under way, it is clear that the Trump administration will only intensify the war on whistleblowers and the journalism they make possible.
Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone and her billionaire ex-husband James Stunt have appeared at court for the latest round in a legal battle following their split.

The pair have been embroiled in acrimonious court hearings since the break-up of their marriage and are believed to have reached a divorce settlement in October last year.

Press reports at the time estimated there was a 5.5 billion fortune at stake in the proceedings.

Ms Ecclestone arrived for the hearing on Thursday at the Central Family Court in London with her sister Tamara and father Bernie, flanked by security guards.

Her family members were not allowed into the private hearing, but Formula One tycoon Bernie stayed with Petra until it was over and the pair kissed goodbye outside the court before leaving in separate cars.

Bernie Ecclestone kisses his daughter Petra, as they leave Londons Central Family Court (Nick Ansell/PA)

Mr Stunt left court before the hearing had finished.

Miss Ecclestones legal team includes Fiona Shackleton, who represented Sir Paul McCartney in his divorce from Heather Mills.

Judge Gillian Brasse, presiding over the hearing, allowed members of the press to attend but ordered that nothing could be reported of the proceedings.

Tamara Ecclestone leaving Londons Central Family Court (Nick Ansell/PA)

Miss Ecclestone and Mr Stunt are believed to have reached an agreement over their 158 million mansion in Los Angeles and a Grade II-listed home in Londons Chelsea, worth up to 100 million.

At a hearing in June last year the family court was told Mr Stunt signed a prenuptial agreement worth 16 million.

The couple married in 2011 at a multimillion-pound ceremony at Odescalchi Castle, Rome, when they and 350 guests were entertained by an array of pop stars.

They were previously urged to reach a compromise by Judge Martin ODwyer, who said it was a very sad state of affairs that the question of whether a relationship, which was essentially a private relationship, had broken down or not could not be determined between the parties.
Prime Minister Theresa May has urged banking chiefs to emphasise the benefits of preserving the UKs status as Europes key financial centre when meeting with rival EU hubs.

It comes after Mrs May and Chancellor Philip Hammond hosted a roundtable of investment banks, insurers and infrastructure firms on Thursday to discuss the opportunities and challenges posed by Brexit.

Downing Street said the Prime Minister gave an overview of the UKs position in Brexit negotiations, including Britains aim to agree to an implementation period by the end of March.

Goldman Sachs International chief executive Richard Gnodde, Aviva boss Mark Wilson and insurance market Lloyds of London chief executive Inga Beale were among the City heavyweights who took part in the meeting, alongside Barclays chief executive Jes Staley and others from the likes of HSBC and Prudential, the Press Association understands.

The business leaders were united in emphasising the need for as much certainty as possible, Downing Street said.

The conclusion of phase one talks were deemed to have provided reassurance and the business leaders gave their views on how to maximise the benefits of an implementation period.

Mrs May also stressed the importance of extolling the UKs virtues when meeting with rival EU hubs.

The Prime Minister asked that in their conversations in European capitals, the attendees emphasise the benefits for Europe as a whole of the UKs financial centre, Downing Street said.

City sources said that finance bosses were encouraged by the meeting, which was touted as one of the most positive theyd been to in recent years.

Mrs May was understood to have shown a good understanding of the issues facing the financial services industry at the moment, including the importance of clinching the all-important transition deal.

But Conservative MP John Glen  who was handed the role of Economic Secretary to the Treasury and city minister this week as part of the Prime Ministers reshuffle  did not take part in the roundtable.

While his portfolio includes Brexits impact on financial services, Mr Glen had already scheduled in a parliamentary debate on the role of banks in communities, which covered the recent spate of branch closures.

The meeting comes during a crunch time for UK-based financial services, as many foreign banks are expected to start moving key operations and staff to the EU in the coming months if negotiators fail to agree to a Brexit transition period that would allow financial services to conduct business across the bloc beyond 2019.

It would result in businesses fleeing to rival financial hubs including Dublin, Paris, Frankfurt and Luxembourg, where they can continue to benefit from passporting rights  though there are fears that thousands of jobs could leave the UK.

Financial services firms are expected to start executing Brexit contingency plans by the end of the first quarter (PA)

Among them is Lloyds of London, which confirmed last year that it had chosen Brussels for its post-Brexit hub, in a move that is believed to involve moving about 100 jobs, while Barclays Dublin office is set to serve as its EU hub in a move that could potentially double its local employee base by 150 staff.

Others like JP Morgan, which currently has 16,000 staff in the UK, will ramp up operations at a number of its EU sites with plans to move up to 1,000 London front and back office roles.

Goldman Sachs, which employs 6,500 UK staff, is taking a similar approach.

The Wall Street giant is set to at least double its Frankfurt office to 400 staff through a mix of relocations and local hires while Paris will serve as a dual hub.

Additional moves will be made to offices including Milan, Madrid, Stockholm and Dublin.
BEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Nickel prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) climbed as much as 1 percent to their highest in almost two months on Thursday, tracking a rise in London a day earlier, as concerns over production outages lent support to the market. FUNDAMENTALS * SHFE NICKEL: The most traded Shanghai nickel was up 0.8 percent at 101,110 yuan ($15,529) a tonne at 0212 GMT, having earlier touched 102,380 yuan a tonne, its highest since Nov. 9. * LME NICKEL: Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.9 percent at $12,820 a tonne, partly reversing Wednesday's gains, when it touched $13,200 a tonne, its highest since June 2015. * MADAGASCAR: Japan's Sumitomo Corp on Thursday said it and partners Sherritt International Corp and Korea Resources Corp halted output at the Ambatovy nickel mine in Madagascar on Jan. 4, the day before Cyclone Ava hit the area. * COPPER: Three-month copper on the LME was up 0.2 percent at $7,164 a tonne, building on its 0.7 percent gain in the previous session. The most-traded SHFE copper contract was up 0.3 percent at 55,030 yuan a tonne. * CHINA: Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group, one of China's top copper smelters, will suspend production at its Jinguan Copper unit for three days from Friday for repairs, a source familiar with the matter said. * PERU: The government of Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is evaluating a $2.4 billion railway project to transport mineral concentrates from a copper-rich Andean region to the Pacific coast for export. * ALUMINIUM: Liberty House, the industrial arm of British steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance, has made a binding offer for miner Rio Tinto's <RIO.AX<, aluminium smelter in Dunkirk, France, the largest in Europe. * CANADA: Unionized workers at Alcoa Corp's aluminium smelter in Becancour, Quebec rejected the company's latest contract offer. * COBALT: Democratic Republic of Congo is considering more than doubling royalties on cobalt, a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, under a new mining code nearing parliamentary approval, the mines minister said on Wednesday. * For the top stories in metals and other news, click or MARKETS NEWS * The New Year rally in Asian shares ran out of steam on Thursday as concerns about the U.S. administration's protectionist stance hit Wall Street while U.S. bonds were dented by speculation China may curtail buying. DATA AHEAD (GMT) 0900 Germany Full Year GDP 2017 1000 Euro Zone Industrial Production Nov PRICES BASE METALS PRICES 0212 GMT Three month LME copper 7164 Most active ShFE copper 55030 Three month LME aluminium 2194.5 Most active ShFE aluminium 15170 Three month LME zinc 3350.5 Most active ShFE zinc 26130 Three month LME lead 2554.5 Most active ShFE lead 19375 Three month LME nickel 12825 Most active ShFE nickel 101110 Three month LME tin 20025 Most active ShFE tin 145370 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc3 591.34 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc3 -1456.49 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc3 319.79 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc3 -660.78 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc3 1783.2 ($1 = 6.5110 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Tom Daly; editing by Richard Pullin)
SOFIA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

-- Several protests will be held in Sofia as the Balkan country hosts an official ceremony for its six-month EU rotating presidency. (Standart, Trud, Sega, 24 Chasa)

TRUD - The World Bank has increased its economic growth forecast for Bulgaria to 3.9 percent for 2018 and 4.0 percent in 2019. (Trud, Capital)

-- The Union of Publishers in Bulgaria warned about deteriorating media freedom and increasing pressure on independent journalists following media concentration carried out by Delyan Peevski, media mogul and member of parliament. Peevski called the members of the Union oligarchs and accused them in propaganda. Bulgaria has dropped to 109th position, lower than any other EU member, in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders. (Sega, Capital, Standart, Monitor)
HANOI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Vietnam were seeking jail terms on Thursday for a former member of the country's ruling politburo and a high-profile former official of an oil firm, domestic media said.

Dinh La Thang, the most senior politician on trial in decades, faced 14 to 15 years in jail for "deliberate violation of state regulations on economic management", media quoted prosecutors as saying at a court in Hanoi.

The Supreme People's Procuracy of Vietnam also sought life imprisonment for Trinh Xuan Thanh, the former chairman of PetroVietnam Construction, for economic misconduct and embezzlement of assets, media said.

Thanh's case grabbed world headlines last year when Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping him from a Berlin park. (Reporting by Mi Nguyen; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
PARIS, Jan 11 (Reuters) - France's biggest supermarket chains said they sold some Lactalis baby food products after a recall by the dairy giant over concerns they could be contaminated with salmonella.

Retailers Carrefour, Leclerc, Auchan and Systeme U independently said products including infant formula remained on their shelves after the recall last December.

The product recall affected goods destined for French and overseas markets carrying the Picot, Milumel and Taranis brands and France's consumer protection agency DGCCRF has begun an investigation and carried out more than 2,000 checks so far.

"We made mistakes, as did all the big distribution companies," Systeme U spokesman Thierry Desouches told BFM TV, adding that the recall had been complex and it had done all it could to carry it out quickly.

"We're speaking about a volume of products that perhaps earned us a total margin of 300 euros. Would we risk our image for such a derisory amount?" Desouches said on Thursday.

The DGCCRF issued a first recall on Dec. 10 after Lactalis discovered salmonella contamination at its Craon factory, halting the sale of several baby food products made there.

Products from the Craon plant are suspected by consumer protection authorities of being linked to cases of salmonella infection among infants in France.

Lactalis announced an extension to the recall less than two weeks later, confirming that contamination occurred at Craon during work in the first half of the year.

In a statement on Thursday, Carrefour said it had sold 434 products at risk of contamination since the Dec. 21 recall, but that another 95,000 had been successfully removed from shelves.

Leclerc, France's biggest food retailer, said it had sold 984 products involved in the recall.

The recall included products for export, including to China, Taiwan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Lebanon, Sudan, Romania, Serbia, Georgia, Greece, Haiti, Colombia and Peru.

Some were also destined for regional markets, including Africa and Asia.

Privately-held Lactalis is one of the world's largest dairy companies, with annual sales of around 17 billion euros ($20 billion), and has been expanding its infant nutrition activity although its biggest categories are cheese and liquid milk. ($1 = 0.8378 euros) (Reporting by Richard Lough and Simon Carraud; editing by Dominique Vidalon and Alexander Smith)
By Mi Nguyen

HANOI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Vietnam were seeking long jail terms on Thursday for a former member of the country's ruling politburo and a high-profile former official over losses of hundreds of millions of dollars at a state oil firm, domestic media said.

Dinh La Thang, the former politburo official and one-time chairman of PetroVietnam, faces 14 to 15 years in jail for "deliberate violation of state regulations on economic management", media quoted prosecutors as saying in court in Hanoi.

Thang is the most senior politician to face trial in decades. Scores of former officials and bankers have been arrested in a sweeping crackdown on corruption in the communist state whose fast-growing economy is a lure for investors.

The Supreme People's Procuracy of Vietnam sought life in prison for Trinh Xuan Thanh, the former chairman of PetroVietnam Construction, whose case grabbed world headlines last year when Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping him from a Berlin park.

He is accused over losses of more than $150 million and prosecutors could potentially have sought a death sentence.

Thanh denied accusations by witnesses in court on Tuesday that he had handled bags of money sent to officials as bribes, the website VNexpress said.

The two are accused alongside 20 others who face charges of deliberate mismanagement, embezzlement, or both, in the most important trial of the widening crackdown on corruption.

The crackdown intensified last year after Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party, won a power struggle with former prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Thang testified on Tuesday that the previous prime minister took a key decision that led to PetroVietnam's losses. (Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
 The Palestinian Authority Paid Terrorists $347 Million in 2017 | Main | In English, Haaretz Misleads on Ibrahim Abu Thuraya 

January 11, 2018

Wheres the Coverage? Israel Prevented Several Dozen Terror Attacks in Europe



The nation of Israel prevented mass terror attacks on the continent of Europe, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Jan. 9, 2018. This admissionmade at a meeting of Israel-based Ambassadors to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)was widely ignored by major U.S. news outlets.

According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu told the foreign diplomats:

We have, through our intelligence services, provided information that has stopped several dozen major terrorist attacks, many of them in European countries. Some of these could have been mass attacks, of the worst kind that you have experienced on the soil of Europe and even worse, because they involve civil aviation. Israel has prevented that, and thereby helped save many European lives (Netanyahu hints Israel has stopped hijacked planes crashing into European cities,? Jan. 9, 2018).?

The Israeli leader declined to provide specific examples, but noted that the Jewish state has contributed to the safety of Europe, both by preventing attacks in European cities and by thwarting attempts by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to set up a base in Egypt. He also highlighted Israels efforts to pushback against Iranian attempts to establish a military base in Syria,? noting that battles between the Shiite theocracy and Sunni Muslims would result in a spillover? of refugees fleeing to Europe.

Times of Israel correspondent Raphael Aren pointed out that Israel and NATO have cooperated on security matters for decades but recently upgraded their ties significantly,? with Jerusalem opening its first office in NATO headquarters in 2017.

Israels prime minister telling foreign diplomats that his nation prevented mass terror attacks on European cities is newsworthy. Yet, most U.S. and U.K. news outlets failed to cover it. The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, USA Today, and others didnt provide readers with any original reporting on Netanyahus comments.

By contrast, The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel thwarted major terror attacks in Europe involving planes?), The Telegraph (Netanyahu:Israel helped stop terror attacks on plans in Europe?), and Business Insider( Israel claims it has prevented several dozen major terrorist attacks?) all highlighted the prime ministers remarks.

Instead of reporting on Israel foiling several dozen major terrorist attacks? on European cities, The Washington Post chose to attack Israels leader. The Posts World Views columnist Ishaan Tharoor offered a skewed Jan. 10, 2018 analysis,? entitled Trump and Netanyahu are playing the same game.? That report claimed that the Israeli prime minister and the U.S. president have echoed each others illiberal agendas.?

Tharoor asserted: In a year when much of the international community has held Trump at arms length, Netanyahu went in for a full embrace.? Yet, much of the international community,? including the European Union (EU), and its leading member states of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, among others, have failed to fully condemn Irans violent repression of its citizens, who, since late-December 2017, have been protesting in the streets. Tharoor omitted this fact, instead he argued that by celebrating their nationalism and defiance? of political opponents, Netanayahu and Trump were promoting illiberal? agendas.

Those who promote the illiberal agendas of Islamic terrorismsuch as the Islamic Republic of Iran and ISISwere not mentioned in The Posts analysis.

Posted by SD at January 11, 2018 02:05 PM

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By Gergely Szakacs

BUDAPEST, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Hungary will hold a parliamentary election on April 8, President Janos Ader announced on Thursday, a contest likely to give Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party a third successive term in power.

Orban has used the past eight years in office to rewrite the constitution and centralise power, filling posts at the central bank, the State Audit Office and the prosecution with party loyalists.

His reforms, such as hefty sectoral levies and measures affecting the judiciary and the media, have triggered conflicts with the European Union. Budapest and Brussels have also tussled over migration, which Orban strongly opposes.

But Orban's reforms have put the economy on track for growth of about four percent this year, the budget deficit has remained under the EU's three percent of gross domestic product threshold and Hungary's large debt pile has also declined in past years.

Ruling Fidesz party lawmaker Gergely Gulyas told a news conference that Fidesz, which is well ahead of the main opposition nationalist Jobbik party in the latest opinion polls, might not publish an election manifesto.

"In case of a ruling party, no information about how we plan to govern the country is more credible than the eight years we have left behind," Gulyas told a news conference.

Orban's re-election could bring about further clashes with the EU, as Budapest has already signalled it would veto any sanctions against regional neighbour Poland over its reforms affecting the judiciary.

Orban has also ruled out taking part in any EU-wide mechanism to settle migrants from the Middle East in Hungary, saying the Christian country, which has no history of large-scale immigration, should preserve its "ethnic homogeneity."

With the Socialists slipping to a distant third in the polls since the resignation of their candidate for prime minister last year, the nationalist Jobbik has emerged as Orban's main challenger in the April vote.

Months before the election, Jobbik, which is projecting a moderate image to lure supporters from other mainstream parties, was slapped with a punitive fine over a political billboard campaign backed by a one-time Orban ally.

Gulyas said there was no link between the timing of the fine and the election campaign, saying any fines should be paid only after the vote.

Critics and opposition parties have also accused Fidesz of cronyism, pointing to the rise of businessmen close to the government, such as Orban's childhood friend, Lorinc Meszaros, who has built a sprawling business empire. (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs and Sandor Peto, editing by Larry King, William Maclean)
LONDON, Jan 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - British supermarket Waitrose has pulled a brand of Italian coffee off its shelves after shoppers noticed the packaging featured images of 19th-century slaves working on plantations.

Waitrose removed the tins of Saquella 1856 coffee from sale last month after complaints from customers in London about the images of slaves harvesting beans in Guatemala, Central America.

"We are sorry for any offence caused by the images that were shown on these products," a Waitrose spokeswoman said by email.

"We've spoken to the supplier, who has explained that the images were intended to depict how coffee was historically harvested and traded," she added.

Saquella 1856 did not respond to a request for comment.

Rishi Madlani, a politician and councillor for Bloomsbury in London, where shoppers raised alarm about the coffee, said the images were "absolutely shocking and utterly unacceptable".

"Hopefully people will think more carefully in advance next time," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email, saying he had also written to Waitrose to condemn the tins.

The upmarket grocer last year removed from sale one of its corned beef brands after a newspaper investigation found it might contain meat linked to slave labour on farms in Brazil.

The imagery associated with slavery - and the issues it raises over history and identity - stirs increasing debate, with deep division over the fate of slavery-era statues and Confederate flags in the United States and beyond. (Writing By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
By Paul Carsten

ABUJA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - More than 15,000 Cameroonian refugees have fled to Nigeria amid a crackdown on Anglophone separatists, the United Nations (UN) refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said on Thursday.

The once-fringe English-speaking movement in majority French-speaking Cameroon has gathered pace in the last few months after a military crackdown on protests, leading it to declare independence in October for a breakaway "Ambazonia" state it wants to create.

The move poses the biggest challenge yet to the 35-year rule of President Paul Biya, who will seek re-election this year, and the violent repression he has unleashed has driven thousands of people from English-speaking regions across the border into Nigeria.

More than 8,000 refugees have been registered in the southeastern state of Cross River alone, said Antonio Jose Canhandula, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) representative in Nigeria, at a briefing in Abuja.

A further 6,700 or so Cameroonian refugees have crossed into neighbouring Benue state, said Sadiya Umar Farouq, the head of Nigeria's National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, citing Benue officials.

There are also at least 350 refugees in the states of Taraba and Akwa Ibom, said Tamuno Dienye Jaja, deputy comptroller general of the Nigeria Immigration Service.

The refugees are mostly children, women and the elderly, with very few young men, the officials said.

"Certainly there are more, how many more we are not able to state," said the UNHCR's Canhandula.

"They are still coming, and they are coming daily," he said. "It is a crisis."

More food assistance, education and social services are needed, particularly as a number of the women are pregnant at a young age, Canhandula said.

Nigeria's Farouq pledged the government's support.

"We are going to do all that we can to bring some kind of relief," she said.

Nigerian and Cameroonian officials have met to discuss the refugees and those talks are ongoing, she said, although she declined to give details.

The separatist movement, including armed radical elements, has strained bilateral relations between the two countries.

Last week, Nigerian authorities took 12 leaders of the separatists, including the chairman of the self-declared Governing Council of Ambazonia, into custody after they gathered for a meeting in a hotel in the Nigerian capital Abuja, people familiar with the matter said.

Cameroonian troops last month crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of rebels without seeking Nigerian authorization, leading to diplomatic wrangling behind the scenes.

The unrest in Cameroon began in November, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon that neighbour Nigeria, frustrated with having to work in French, took to the streets calling for reforms and greater autonomy. French is the official language for most of Cameroon, but English is spoken in the two regions.

(Reporting by Paul Carsten; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
VATICAN CITY, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Pope Francis will meet victims of the dictatorship of the late Augusto Pinochet when he visits Chile next week, the Vatican said on Thursday.

Spokesman Greg Burke said the pope would meet "two victims of the 1970s repression" next Thursday on his last day in Chile before leaving for Peru on the second leg of his trip.

Burke said he did not yet have details of the two people who would meet Francis after a Mass in the Chilean city of Iquique. The meeting was not on the original schedule of the trip.

Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende in September 1973 and his dictatorship lasted until 1990. He died in 2006.

His secret police collaborated with dictatorships in neighbouring Argentina and in Brazil amid a wider crackdown called "Operation Condor."

During Pinochets rule, some 3,000 people died or disappeared in Chile, and thousands more - including current President Michelle Bachelet - were tortured or went into exile.

Last year, a Chilean judge ordered jail sentences for more than 100 former secret police from Pinochet's dictatorship, the biggest mass sentence to date for human rights abuses from the period.

Chile long grappled with the task of bringing to justice the perpetrators of crimes committed in that era but crusading judges and more sympathetic authorities have led to an increase in convictions in recent years.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By Alexandra Valencia and Mark Hosenball

QUITO/LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Ecuador has given citizenship to Julian Assange as part of its efforts to allow the WikiLeaks founder to leave the countrys London embassy where he has been holed up for more than five years.

Ecuador made the move hours after the British government refused a request from the South American nation for Assange to be given diplomatic status, which could give him immunity from arrest should he try to leave the embassy.

After a year in which Ecuador's president has spoken out against Assange, Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said she hoped to find a solution to his dilemma.

"Ecuador is currently exploring other solutions in dialogue with the UK, like good offices of renowned authorities, other states, or international organizations that could facilitate a just, final and dignified solution for all parties," Espinosa told a press conference in Quito.

Britain saw only one resolution to the diplomatic standoff.

"Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," said a British Foreign Office spokesman.

Assange's U.S. lawyer Barry Pollack had no comment.

"RISKS TO HIS LIFE"

Assange has been living in the red-brick embassy in Knightsbridge, London since he was granted asylum there in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning in a sexual molestation case.

Swedish prosecutors dropped their probe into the allegations but British police said Assange would be arrested for breaching bail conditions should he leave the building.

Assange, who denies the allegations, believes Sweden would hand him over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks publication of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history.

"There are well-founded fears we have about possible risks to his life and integrity, not necessarily by the UK but by third party states," Espinosa said.

She did not give details on how granting Assange citizenship might help him leave the embassy and avoid arrest.

Ecuador's left-wing president Lenin Moreno, who took office in May, has been less friendly toward Assange than his predecessor Rafael Correa.

Moreno last year said Assange could stay in the embassy but called him a "hacker" and warned him not to intervene in the politics of countries friendly to Ecuador.

For some, Assange is a cyber hero for exposing government abuses of power and championing free speech but to others he is a criminal who has undermined the security of the West by exposing secrets.

WikiLeaks disclosed emails that led to embarrassing media coverage for Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Russian military intelligence used WikiLeaks and other sites to release the emails it hacked from the Democratic National Committee and top Democrats. Assange said he does not know the source of the emails.

Assange faces both criminal and congressional investigations in the United States.

There is no evidence at this point that U.S. authorities have filed any charges against him, including secret charges, but CIA Director Mike Pompeo last year called WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service."

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, responding to a reporter's question in April about whether arresting Assange was a priority, said it was.

"Whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail," Sessions said at a press briefing. (Reporting by Mark Hosenball in London and Alexandra Valencia in Quito; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Stephen Addison and Andrew Hay)
By Richard Lough and Dominique Vidalon

PARIS, Jan 11 (Reuters) - France, seeking to limit reputational damage to its agri-business industry, threatened on Thursday to impose sanctions after the country's big supermarkets said recalled baby foods made by Lactalis had still found their way onto shop shelves.

The admissions by Carrefour, Leclerc, Auchan and Systeme U deepened a salmonella health scare that began in early December when France's consumer protection agency ordered the halt to sales and a global recall of products from a factory in northwest France. Three dozen children have fallen ill.

The botched recall is particularly embarrassing for the government after President Emmanuel Macron pushed food exports during a state visit to China this week.

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire laid the blame squarely on Lactalis, one of the world's largest dairy groups, and the retailers as he tried to stem the fallout from the scandal.

"There has been unacceptable behaviour, which should be punished," he told a news conference.

In a sign of how seriously France is taking the issue, Macron weighed in from Italy, also promising punishment for those responsible.

Salmonella infections can be life-threatening, particularly for young children, and the recall risks damaging Lactalis in China, a fast-growing market for baby food and dairy products where consumers are highly sensitive after melamine-tainted baby milk led to the deaths of six children in 2008.

That health scare caused distrust in locally produced infant formula and benefited foreign suppliers such as Nestle, Danone and Lactalis.

Privately-held Lactalis, which has annual sales of around 17 billion euros ($20 billion), addressed the salmonella contamination by halting operations at the factory where it started, and on Thursday announced the temporary layoff of 250 workers.

The recall affected goods carrying the Picot, Milumel and Taranis brands destined for French and overseas markets and France's consumer protection agency DGCCRF has begun an investigation and carried out 2,500 checks so far. A further 2,500 checks will be carried out from next week.

GLOBAL RECALL

Le Maire said initial checks showed recalled products had remained on sale at 91 sites in France, but there were no indications so far that potentially contaminated products had been exported.

Just back from a three-day official visit to China with Macron, Le Maire said he had discussed the recall with his counterparts in Beijing, adding: "The best response is transparency".

Le Maire said the DGCCRF was forced to issue a Dec. 10 recall because Lactalis was too slow to take action.

"The state took over from a company which failed in its actions," he said.

Lactalis rejected criticism of its response, saying it had collaborated closely with the authorities.

"Our group has since the beginning behaved like a responsible company and of course it will continue to do so," Michel Nalet, Lactalis' head of communication, told reporters.

Le Maire has summoned Lactalis for talks on Friday.

The DGCCRF issued a first recall on Dec. 10 after Lactalis discovered salmonella contamination at its Craon factory, halting the sale of several baby food products made there.

Lactalis announced an extension to the recall less than two weeks later, confirming that contamination occurred at Craon during work in the first half of the year.

The recall included products aimed for export to some 30 countries, including to China, and overall represented more than 12 million baby food tins in what Nalet said was the biggest recall Lactalis had ever experienced.

In a statement on Thursday, Carrefour said it had sold 434 products at risk of contamination since the Dec. 21 recall, but that another 95,000 had been successfully removed from shelves.

Leclerc, France's biggest food retailer, said this week it had sold 984 products involved in the recall.

"We made mistakes, as did all the big distribution companies," Systeme U spokesman Thierry Desouches told BFM TV, adding the recall had been complex.

A French judicial investigation was launched in December and consumer protection association UFC-Que Choisir said it had filed a lawsuit against Lactalis for alleged fraud. ($1 = 0.8378 euros) (Reporting by Richard Lough and Dominique Vidalon; Additional reporting by Sybille de la Hamaide, Gus Trompiz and Myriam Rivet; Editing by Alexander Smith, Hugh Lawson and Mark Potter)
By Brian Grow

MONTROSE, Colorado, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation is interviewing former employees of a funeral home whose owner runs a side business on the same premises selling human body parts.

An agent with the FBI has interviewed at least four former employees who worked for funeral director and body broker Megan Hess, seeking information about how she operates her businesses, the former workers told Reuters.

The federal inquiry began several months ago, shortly after Reuters interviewed a half-dozen workers who formerly worked for Hess.

One ex-employee, Kari Escher, said she was especially troubled by the practices of Hesss mother, Shirley Koch, who works at the facility. Escher said Koch, who embalmed and dismembered bodies, pulled teeth from some of the corpses to extract the gold in crowns or fillings.

"She showed me her collection of gold teeth one day," said Escher, who helped manage a former cremation-marketing business owned by Hess.

Koch said "she had sold a different batch a year prior, and they took the whole family to Disneyland in California on the gold that they cashed in," Escher said.

Reached by phone at Sunset Mesa, Koch said she did not wish to talk with a Reuters reporter. "Im not interested. Thank you," she said before ending the call.

The news agency had also sent written questions to Hess and her attorney about Kochs alleged handling of gold teeth. Neither addressed the issue about the teeth.

No federal law prohibits the buying and selling of human body parts to be used in research and education.

In Colorado and most other states, it also is legal for funeral homes to sell items recovered from dead bodies, such as gold dental work. And it is not against the law to operate a so-called body broker firm from the same facility that houses a funeral home and crematory.

But the business arrangement is highly unusual. Reuters could find no other operation active in the United States that houses a funeral home, crematory and body broker in the same facility and under the same ownership.

Such multipurpose operations raise ethical concerns, several funeral industry veterans said. A funeral director who also works as a body broker could have a financial incentive to sell a body for its valuable parts rather than provide an inexpensive burial, for instance.

"The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems," said Steve Palmer, a funeral director in Cottonwood, Arizona, and former member of the policy board at the National Funeral Directors Association. "There are no ethics there when you do that. You are not looking at the full disposition (of a body). You are looking at how to make money."

Hess runs Sunset Mesa, a funeral home, and Donor Services, a body broker operation from the same building in Montrose. Some former staff members of Sunset Mesa said they never heard Hess disclose to donors that the bodies would be sold for profit.

"The fact that now the business is also making money from the sale of body parts - if that is not being told to the family, it is unethical and probably illegal, if only as deception," said Robert Fells, general counsel of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, an industry trade group. Fells called running such a multifaceted operation "a new frontier."

Through the attorney, Hess declined to comment for this story and didnt address questions about the FBI probe, her business practices, and the allegations by former employees. The attorney, Carol Viner, asked Reuters to "refrain from contacting" Hess employees "for any reason."

The focus and extent of the federal probe into the Hess operation is unclear, and the FBI also declined to comment.

Separate from the FBI inquiry, Reuters has learned that Colorado state funeral regulators are investigating Hesss funeral home, Sunset Mesa. The states Department of Regulatory Agencies said it has nine open complaints about Sunset Mesa - "higher than average" for funeral homes in the state, said spokesman Lee Rasizer. He would not discuss the nature of those complaints or any action it may be taking.

Reuters began examining the Hess companies more than a year ago as part of the news agencys exploration of the human body trade, a virtually unregulated industry that largely operates in the shadows.

"ADD TO CART"

Before referring questions to a lawyer, Hess spoke extensively with Reuters about her body broker company. In an interview in 2016, she described Donor Services as a small, family business. She took orders for body parts via Hotmail, email records show. She said she and her mother, Koch, handled about 10 cadavers a month in the back room. Her father, Alan Koch, ran the crematory, Hess said.

Hess made donating a body online easy. On her cremation marketing website, a donor could simply select from a drop-down menu, fill out a few forms, click "Add to Cart," and enter a credit card number. Her funeral home site listed her credentials, including a PhD in mortuary science.

After a reporter asked questions about the website and her background, Hess removed the "Add to Cart" donation pages from her cremation website and cut the mention of the mortuary science degree from her online biography. No such degree exists in the United States for morticians, veteran funeral directors say. Her revised online biography cited her high school degree and "a love of veterinary medicine."

When Reuters visited her facility in 2016, Hess said Donor Services represented just 15 percent or so of her total business. But it provided an important public service, she said.

"Its for the good of the world, and I like to help people," Hess said.

Body brokers like Donor Services are also known as non-transplant tissue banks. They are distinct from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. Suppliers of transplant tissue must obtain federal recognition and operate as charities. It is illegal to buy or sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant.

But no federal law governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education. Few state laws provide any oversight. That means almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human remains.

Reuters identified 34 body brokers that have been active across the United States during the past five years. Twenty-five of the brokers were for-profit corporations. The other nine were structured as nonprofits, including Donor Services - the only broker Reuters could find that still doubles as a funeral home.

Colorado does not regulate body brokers. It is also the only state that doesnt license funeral directors. Funeral homes are required to register with the state, but spokesman Rasizer said the regulatory affairs department is not authorized to inspect mortuaries. It only investigates a funeral home if a complaint is filed, he said.

At Sunset Mesa, Hess charged $1,995 for a simple burial and $695 for a basic cremation, according to price lists reviewed by Reuters. Extra charges are assessed if a body is embalmed or a funeral director is involved.

At Donor Services, her body parts business, Hess can generate a greater return on the dead, a different price list reviewed by Reuters showed.

Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donors body for free. Hess, however, charged families to donate their bodies - $195, plus $300 more if relatives want cremated remains returned. The charges defray the cost of picking up the deceased, she said in the 2016 interview.

There is even more money to be made in dissecting those bodies and selling the parts. A price quote Hess sent to an Arizona medical training lab in 2016 offered torsos for $1,000 each. A pelvis with upper legs went for $1,200, heads for $500, a knee for $250, and a foot for $125, according to a 2013 Donor Services price list reviewed by Reuters.

None of the former employees or associates Reuters interviewed worked directly for the body broker business. They were affiliated with her funeral business. But two said Hess sometimes bragged about how lucrative it was to sell bodies and body parts.

"She mentioned on several occasions about how much money she would be getting per month, which blew my mind," said Jennifer Henderson, a former floral designer for Sunset Mesa. "She said that one month she got about $40,000" from selling donated bodies.

Reuters could not independently verify this figure.

"HERES LOOKING AT YOU"

One of Hesss donors was Rex Dunlap, a frugal Coloradan battling brain cancer. Before he died in 2016, the 78-year-old retired contractor saved $200 on cremation by agreeing to pledge parts of his body to Donor Services. Instead of paying the standard $695 cremation fee to Colorado Cremation, Hesss former cremation marketing business, Dunlap paid Hess $495 to take his body.

Dunlap left one specific instruction: The glass eye that hed worn since a childhood accident should be removed and sent to his best friend. The friend would then place the glass eye in an urn containing half of Dunlaps ashes and bury the urn atop the grave of Dunlaps father in Telluride, Colorado. Along with it would be a note reading: "Heres looking at you." The rest of his ashes would be buried with Dunlaps mother in Denver.

The plan went awry.

Meme Eberspacher, Dunlaps niece, was at his bedside the night that Dunlap died. She says Shirley Koch came to pick up his body. At the nursing home, Eberspacher said she reminded Koch that the glass eye was supposed to be returned and suggested it be popped out there.

"She said, `No, no, well take care of that first thing in the morning," recalled Eberspacher.

The eye was never returned, said Eberspacher and Dunlaps friend, Ron Mabry.

When Mabry and Eberspacher went to Sunset Mesa the morning after Dunlap died, Hess and Koch said they could not locate the eye, Eberspacher said.

Though Koch dissected bodies in the back room at Sunset Mesa, "they claimed that the body had to be sent out for harvesting," Eberspacher said.

Mabry said Koch told him the glass eye couldnt be removed after Dunlaps head was severed, embalmed and shipped to researchers.

Weeks passed before Hess told him that Donor Services couldnt retrieve the glass eye because the company couldnt locate the researcher who received Dunlaps head, Mabry said. Why Donor Services was unable to trace Dunlaps head remains unclear.

"I told them it didnt make sense," Mabry said. "I just had the impression that something wasnt right all along." He said neither Hess nor Koch told him that his friends body parts would be sold.

After Mabry threatened to sue Hess for losing the eye, he said Hess wrote him a check: $500, a refund of the money Dunlap had paid to donate - plus $5.

"BE A HERO"

Body brokers sometimes market their services using language that could mislead prospective donors into believing the broker handles organ donations.

Donor Services has circulated a brochure that reads: "Be a hero. Be an organ donor," a slogan often used by organ transplant advocates. The back of the brochure featured the logo Donate Life, the national brand that promotes organ donation and is managed by Donate Life America, a nonprofit group.

The brochure, provided to Reuters by Hess during the 2016 interview, continued this way: "Every year, organ, eye and tissue transplants provide hope to tens of thousands of people suffering from disease, injury, trauma or blindness. ... Thousands more patients could benefit from life saving and healing eye and tissue donations."

The Donor Services brochure was criticized as deceptive by two major U.S. organ donation groups after Reuters shared it with them.

A spokeswoman for Donate Life America said in an email that Hesss firm "is not a federally designated organ procurement organization" and has no permission to use the Donate Life brand.

In Colorado, the states organ donation program, Donor Alliance, said Hesss marketing language "could be confusing to people."

"We did not provide our messaging to be repurposed in this brochure, and are following up," said spokeswoman Erin Dolin.

After contacting Hess in December about the content of the brochure, Dolin said Hess told the organ transplant group that "the brochure in question was old and has not been used for some time."

Hess continues running a dual operation. In mid-November, she wrote an email to a surgical training company saying that she could supply a human torso, according to messages reviewed by Reuters.

"Torsos are a popular specimen these days," she wrote. "Thank you for thinking of me."

(Reporting By Brian Grow. Edited by Blake Morrison.)
By Aleksandar Vasovic

BELGRADE, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Serbia expects an increase of nearly 17 percent in revenues from tourism this year, its trade and tourism minister said on Thursday, helped partly by the capital Belgrade's growing reputation as a city that loves to party.

Landlocked Serbia lags far behind other ex-Yugoslav republics like Croatia and Montenegro as a tourist destination, but hopes its geographic location in the heart of the Balkans, the Danube cruises and historic monuments, hard-earned political stability and low prices will entice more foreign visitors.

"We offer good partying, hospitality, fun and history - and all that at bargain prices," the minister, Rasim Ljajic, told Reuters in an interview.

But he said Serbia had to improve its infrastructure and revamp more than a dozen spas and other sites of historic interest to increase its appeal to holidaymakers.

Serbia is a relatively popular destination for Russians and Chinese, mainly due to good political ties with those countries, maintained during and after the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Belgrade, which aspires to join the European Union, is also keen now to draw more Western visitors.

Ljajic said tourism revenues for the first 10 months of 2017 stood at 971 million euros ($1.17 billion), adding: "There's no doubt that will reach a total of 1.2 billion euros (for all-2017), which is a record."

Serbia expects tourism revenues to reach 1.4 billion euros in 2018, equivalent to about 3 percent of gross domestic product, he said.

According to Lonely Planet, a leading travel book publisher, Belgrade now rivals Berlin as a party destination. The northern city of Novi Sad hosts the Exit summer music festival and the town of Guca has the world's biggest brass band contest.

Danube cruises that stop at Belgrade and Novi Sad are also popular, and Serbia is renovating forts along the Danube.

Belgrade accounts for more than half of overnight stays by foreign visitors to Serbia, with Novi Sad and the mountain resorts of Kopaonik and Zlatibor covering most of the rest.

In the first 11 months of 2017, Serbia registered nearly 3 million overnight stays by foreigners - its method of measuring tourism. But for comparison Croatia, which has a long Adriatic coast, drew 15 million foreign visitors in all-2016, netting around 10 billion euros in tourism revenues. ($1 = 0.8303 euros) (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Gareth Jones)
ROME, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Three Italian unions representing cabin crews, pilots and ground crews called for its members to strike on February 10 to protest against Ryanair's plans to negotiate labour issues exclusively with one union.

Ryanair has said it would negotiate with Anpac, the main pilots' association in Italy, but not other unions representing cabin crews, ground crews and pilots who are not members of Anpac.

"There must be an immediate discussion about salaries and safeguards for all of the workers, and not just a portion of them," the Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl and Uiltrasporti unions said in a statement sent by email.

"It is unacceptable that the company is choosing which unions it speaks with, in total disregard of the most elementary principle that is part of our legal system that says workers can choose freely who they want to represent them," the statement said.

A Ryanair spokeswoman said the company met with the Italian unions in Rome on Tuesday and the discussions would continue.

"We will not comment further on these discussions," she said.

One of the union leaders backing the strike, Claudio Tarlazzi of Uiltrasporti, said he had not met with the company this week and Ryanair's response was "a distortion of reality".

"Until we are recognised, we will fight to safeguard the Ryanair workers, and to defend one's freedom to join a union," Tarlazzi said in a statement on Thursday.

The Irish budget airline in December said it would recognise pilot unions for the first time in its 32-year history.

Ryanair pilots in several countries mobilised after the company announced in September the cancellation of around 20,000 flights, which it blamed on a lack of standby pilots.

It blamed rostering problems following a rule change by Irish regulators.

Pilot groups have complained of a toxic work atmosphere and said Ryanair is facing a major staffing shortage. Management has repeatedly denied this and says it offers some of the best pay and conditions in the sector. (Reporting by Alberto Sisto, additional reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; writing by Steve Scherer; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
COTONOU, BENIN, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Beninois marked National Voodoo Day, celebrating the once-banned religion on Wednesday with a series of ceremonies across the country.

Voodoo is an ancient belief system practiced by more than 65 percent Benin's 7 million people and by millions in neighbouring Nigeria, Togo and Ghana.

In Benin's capital Cotonou, photographer Charles Placide Tossou marked the day with an exhibition of his latest work, featuring photographs of voodoo followers taking part in ceremonies where they dance, play drums and animals are slaughtered as a sacrifice to the gods.

"When we talk about voodoo, everyone sees the negative side of this local culture. But I rejected that, there is something more artistic about it that most people are not seeing because not everyone participates and gets the chance to see it up close," he said.

Voodoo is estimated to be more than 500 years old and centered on the worship of a range of gods and spirits.

It is now the official religion of Benin despite the criticism and stigma attached to it. Voodoo was banned by Mathieu Kerekou after he came to power in 1972 via a military coup, but his elected successor Nicephore Soglo lifted the ban in the early 1990s.

Central to Voodoo is the belief in sacrifice and traditional medicines as a way to heal ailments and help worshippers get closer to sprits and the afterworld. (Reporting and writing by Reuters TV; Editing by Mark Hanrahan and Hugh Lawson in London)
By Karen Freifeld and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon will be interviewed next week by a U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The interview behind closed doors on Tuesday with the House Intelligence Committee will focus on Bannon's time on the campaign, not the transition or his time in the White House, the source said.

Bannon's appearance comes as many Democrats worry that Trump's fellow Republicans are seeking to stall or shut down congressional probes of Russia and the 2016 election. It gives investigators a chance to talk to someone who spent months as one of Trump's closest advisers.

Although Bannon was fired from his White House position by Trump in August, he had been a close Trump associate since he joined the Trump campaign and helped the political novice defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

The two men had a public falling out this month after Bannon was quoted in author Michael Wolff's controversial book on the Trump White House, "Fire and Fury," as calling a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign by the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., "treasonous" and "unpatriotic."

Bannon's comments in the book helped fuel calls for him to testify in Congress about the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that included a Russian lawyer and Trump associates, which has been a focus for investigators looking into Russia and the election.

Aides to the committee's leaders declined comment. The intelligence panel's practice is not to discuss specific witnesses or its schedule except for public hearings.

Separately, Representative Adam Schiff, the panel's top Democrat, told reporters on Thursday he would like "dozens" more witnesses, including Bannon, to appear before the committee, making clear he does not view the panel's investigation of Russia and the election as near its end.

Some Republicans in Congress have been saying they expect the House Intelligence probe and other congressional investigations to wrap up quickly. Democrats have been disputing this, saying there is much work remaining to determine whether Russia attempted to influence the election on Trump's behalf or whether Trump colluded.

Moscow denies trying to meddle, and Trump dismisses talk of collusion.

"There are still dozens of witnesses that we could bring in," Schiff told reporters. "At a minimum we should set out all the facts for the public, and we can't do that if we're leaving a lot of investigative pathways uninvestigated," he added.

Besides Bannon, Schiff said those witnesses would include Trump's daughter Ivanka. He also said he would like Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to appear again before the committee.

Schiff noted that the choice of witnesses is determined by panel Republicans - who control the committee - some of whom he accused of trying to stall, or possibly shut down, the investigation, possibly to distract from the investigation of Trump.

Republicans deny this.

(Editing by Yara Bayoumy, Mary Milliken and Leslie Adler)
Some appreciated the work of the PCoI and the stand taken by President Sirisena against corruption

Forty years with a free market economy, the urban middle class think corruption can be wiped clean. They dont understand the role of the State has completely changed

Corrupt State officials even use political pressure to avoid themselves being investigated into. They did say it with a veiled threat to President Sirisena at the very outset.

The Bond Scam Report isnt out in the public domain yet. It is supposed to be only in English too.The call for a parliamentary debate on it turned out a big farce. For now what is interpreted and played around is what media picked from President Sirisenas pre-recorded Sinhala statement aired on TV channels. A carefully written Sinhala statement that tried to position him as a decent, non partisan national leader, yet tactfully noting PM Wickremesinghes responsibility and former Finance Minister Karunanayakes complicity.



Interpretations in urban society on what was thus revealed are of two minds. Some applauded and appreciated the work of the PCoI and the stand taken by President Sirisena against corruption. Some agreed with sarcasm throwing a jibe or two at President Sirisena. Those were few pundits who landed on the post January anti Rajapaksa dinning table and are comfortable with Wickremesinghes hectic liberalising of the economy.



None were real indicators of the dilemma the President was in, after his nuanced statement. In less than 24 hours ,the website Economy Next said on 04 January afternoon, President Maithripala Sirisenas office has put out several versions of his bond commission statement in an apparent attempt to soften the blow to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his party.

It then added,The Presidents website carried the first translation and later swapped it with the new version which was once again amended bringing back references to Ravi Karunanayake but without including Wickremesinghes name. The next day, Minister Faizer Musthapha in a media intervention took pains in clearing PM Wickremesinghe of any wrong doing.

Appointment of Arjuna Mahendran as Governor CB was thus the cementing of that political deal.



The Bond scam is not just about the UNP and its elite leadership. The lame excuse that President Sirisena opposed the appointment of Arjuna Mahendran as Governor CB has no validity after he appointed Mahendran as Governor. Appointing Mahendran was more or less a political deal with PM Wickremesinghe to have a government the accepted and accommodated him. It is for that single reason he had Leader of the UNP and then leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe, sworn in as PM an hour after he was sworn in as President on January \09, 2015.



After the presidential election, D.M. Jayaratne should have constitutionally continued as PM with no change of government. Wickremesinghe was not qualified to be sworn in as PM with only 47 MPs. The Constitution requires the President ensure he appoints as PM one who commands a majority in parliament which means a minimum of 113 MPs. The SLFP/UPFA government that was, would not have accommodated President Sirisena for betraying them. He therefore fished out the most rustic in the Rajapaksa government to provide the majority for Wickremesinghes UNP led government. Appointment of Arjuna Mahendran as Governor CB was thus the cementing of that political deal. President Sirisena cannot pretend he is innocent thereafter.

It means, it is not only politicians who are in tow with the politically powerful new rich



With this unprincipled coalition in government during the past 03 years, this single Bond scam is not just the one and only. There is yet another in April 2016. There is also the unoccupied multi storey building leased for the Agriculture Ministry at 21 million rupees per month on a Cabinet paper by the PM. There are more by many high profile UNP Ministers that should be investigated. They are all about political deals no less corrupt than the Rajapaksas.The Russian warship deal and the Spectrum deal are two stinking deals that hold President Sirisena responsible. A warship was no priority when the Navy had 02 brand new warships provided by China and India.Yet President Sirisenas Cabinet paper as Defence Minister to purchase this Russian warship on a re-negotiated Russian credit line that had lapsed was approved by the Cabinet including the PM. The Spectrum deal, the sale of a frequency bundle was no different. Frequencies are public property. They can only be rented or leased for short terms, through public bidding. Why the UNP is mum on this deal said to be worth over Rs.03 billion and comes directly under the President, is also due to their political compromises to be in power.



These sordid deals dont get washed clean if Bond scams under Rajapaksa from 2008 are investigated as demanded by PM. That would only say, Rajapaksas were also corrupt like us. End of the day free market economies dont allow Commission Reports to topple their apple cart however accurate and complete the investigations could be. In free market economies, State Departments are not left independent. Run through this short, selected list for proof. AG who was summoned to parliament by the Speaker ruled that all hurried Amendments to the LG Elections Act at the third reading need only a 2/3 majority. According to the PMs statement on the present Bond Scam Report, the AG had been provided with the COPE Report one year ago. He is now given the Bond Scam Report by the President. Will he proceed on it as required? Lets keep counting days this 2018 too.

Corrupt State officials even use political pressure to avoid themselves being investigated into. They did say it with a veiled threat to President Sirisena at the very outset. Bureaucrats have and they create big enough gaps to wriggle through in this very corrupt system. The prosecuting agency filed charges against top administrators Weeratunge, former Secretary to the President and TRC Chairman Pelpola, under Section 386 of the Penal Code avoiding the Public Property Act for misappropriation or misusing of public funds. Under the Public Property Act, misuse of public money is a non-bailable offence, but not under the Penal Code. The two were out on bail all through their case. State prosecuting agencies can opt to prosecute partners of the filthy rich with minimum or no damage, if they so wish.

Frequencies are public property. They can only be rented or leased for short terms, through public bidding



There was speculation that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, former Secretary to Ministry of Defence, would be arrested on misappropriation of public funds. The corrupt have many social allies in free market economies. Buddhist monks met with President Sirisena to request he should not be arrested. The Appeal Court allowed his anticipatory bail application and prevents the FCID from taking any legal action against him. The temporary stay order was extended for the third time on 15 December. That perhaps is an independent judiciary in a free market economy.



Yet, forty years with a free market economy, the urban middle class think corruption can be wiped clean. They dont understand the role of the State has completely changed. The State is no more the regulator and monitor of economic activities. In a free market economy, the State is turned into a facilitator, promoter and also into a custodian of private investment. In Sri Lanka,investment as in all developing countries is about uncultured, high flying dealers. The top bureaucracy thus sits with governments (politicians) to formulate policy and draft legislation that can encourage, promote, facilitate and safeguard shady investments with as much incentives as possible.



With the State re-positioned as facilitator, promoter and custodian of the new filthy rich, the theoretical definitions of the State and the Government are no more valid. They are now seen as one and the same. It means, it is not only politicians who are in tow with the politically powerful new rich. The State at policy and decision making level including of course, investigators, prosecutors and judicial officials are also tied to the powerful new rich.

It is therefore amending few laws and punishing a culprit or two that is now demanded as serious remedies by anti corruption groups in Colombo, including the JVP.



In short, in a free market economy that allows free growth of a new filthy rich, corruption becomes inherent at every level of governance and across State and Society too. That in turn creates a new urban lifestyle on heavy consumption. The urban middle class that plays the big consumer is allowed unquestioned economic space to chase after a luxury life. Such freedom does not allow the urban middle class a need to think in terms of a cleaner, more cultured and amall inclusive national development model. That discussion instead is substituted with talks on Reforms to clean up the mess. Reforms that would not upset the status quo of their expensive living.



There thus is a serious absence of a discourse for alternatives in national terms on ever deepening crises that we live with. Instead we are left with very narrow, short term options for quick washing and drying of dirty politics. It is therefore amending few laws and punishing a culprit or two that is now demanded as serious remedies by anti corruption groups in Colombo, including the JVP. But, no one is questioning the competency and credibility of the present politicians. This politically illegitimate parliament is also not competent and is also not serious in legislating better laws. There is also the unavoidable question, will the investigating, prosecuting authorities including the AGs Department and the judiciary be efficiently independent than what they are,if they are provided with new laws?

Parliamentary debates on the Bond scam report will only be verbal duels and the call for indictment of the culprits, will be nothing more than what the old Sinhala idiom asking the rogues mother to read the fate (fydrdf. wiuf.ka fmak wykjd) plainly say. Bond Scam Commissions, PRECIFACs, FCIDs and the rest are all about moving with Laundromats with different brand names. What we need is a paradigm shift that can provide a new and an alternate system to keep the house permanently clean without continuous visits to different Laundromats expecting better washing and drying. The discourse for a new development model with better systems needs to be kick started, before this society falls apart.
Following President Maithripala Sirisenas announcement that he would appoint a Commission to investigate into allegations against SriLankan and Mihin Airlines, employees of the national carrier are now geared to testify before an impartial commission. Chairman Ajith Dias, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Suren Ratwatte and few members of the Director Board are also facing allegation similar to former Chairman Nishantha Wickremasinghe, who is said to have taken adverse decisions and made the national carrier a debt ridden institution.



Promotions and salary increments approved by management despite alleged irregularities

Ill-thought-out A350 aircraft cancellation reversed efforts to improve fuel efficiency

Recommendations of Weliamuna report not implemented while Board given free hand

Rs.28billion incurred in losses in one financial year

Lease period of questionable old aircrafts extended without Board approval

Sources accuse govt. of appointing board members sans experience in airline operations

A group of high level officials at SriLankan Airlines (SLA), who claim that they never expected this situation under the good governance administration, told the Dailymirror that ninety percent of the airlines employees are now in the process of safeguarding all important data related to controversial deals the present top management has entered into. The data is to be given to a future Presidential Commission. These officials said that the losses incurred starting from 2015 too would be exposed using documentary evidence. The expose will show how the company was run by the former regime. Documentary evidence with this regard is to be presented to the Board of Inquiry (BoI) which is headed by eminent Senior Lawyer J.C. Weliamuna.

We want a Commission appointed similar to that of the Bond Commission and bring the corrupt to book. We understand that the Chairman and Board of Directors are to be replaced and a new Board is to be formed in order to restructure the airline. But we still want a future Commission or a new Board to hold the top management responsible for the losses incurred from 2015 to date. The old guard that aided and abetted the then-Chairman and the then CEO Kapila Chandrasena are still holding high positions or have even been promoted to higher grades at the national carrier without having had to face any inquiry despite being found to be at fault in the Weliamuna report. This has left frustration, discontent and loss of faith on the good governance administration in general, the sources said on condition of anonymity.



Meanwhile the sources accused the Government of appointing members to the Board who do not have experience in airline operations. They point out that this is what had led to Mihin Lanka ceasing its operations and also bringing Sri Lankan Airlines to the verge of collapsing.

We still want a future Commission or a new Board to hold the top management responsible for the losses incurred from 2015 to date.



Politicians in the past and present Governments should think that this airline is not their private property, but a national asset. Had the present regime appointed at least three knowledgeable directors to the board, they could have helped out even to minimize the losses we inherited from the previous management, the sources further claimed.



According to these sources, although many requests had been made to Ajith Dias, after he took over office in February 2015, no action had been taken so far. Dias had taken over office to allow the airlines own accounts department to handle the salaries of the senior management that had been outsourced to conceal details of remunerations from rest of the staff. It is alleged that several millions of rupees are still being spent each month to the outsourced payroll operator.



Making of salaries outsourced

They are merely following in the footsteps of their predecessors. Although the Weliamuna Report revealed that the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kapila Chandrasenas remuneration was over Rs. 1.5 million in addition to other allowances and that he had also obtained a salary from Mihin Lanaka as its CEO till he vacated that post, the situation has worsened. The salary and other allowances the present CEO Suren Ratwatte is drawing is nearly three times more than what Chandrasena drew. The present Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Ramachandra too is enjoying a high monthly remuneration. There should be transparency and that was why we wanted the Chairman to allow our own accounts department to handle the salaries of all its employees irrespective of their positions. This could have saved the cash strapped airline millions of rupees. During the time of Emirates, making the salaries of a few expatriate officials was outsourced, but not the salaries of locals. But now the salaries of those at the top to the senior managerial level officers are handled by this private company, sources claimed.

Instead of appointing a qualified team to negotiate with the supplier in order to get the cancellation charges minimized- the officials who are professional got involved and saw to it that the agreement was cancelled



They also pointed out as to how the Chairman promised the then Aviation Minister Reginald Cooray to probe into why Director Promotion (Europe) Manoj Gunawardena was posted to London when the European market he had to handle was much smaller than that of his predecessors time. His predecessors handled a much larger European market, but they operated it from Sri Lanka. Why was Gunawardena allowed to station in London with higher expenses which is an advantage to him but a loss to the airline? Why couldnt the Chairman bring Gunawardena back to the country and allow him to operate from Colombo, sources queried? According to the Weliamuna Report, the decision to send Manoj Gunawardena, who held post of CEO till July 30, 2011, to London was a move intended to make way for a planned succession  to appoint Kapila Chandrasena as CEO. He had been sent on a five year contract with a salary of Rs.1.5 million (equivalent in Great Britan Pound) while GBP 1800 had been approved as a posting allowance which was later increased to GBP 2000 because the wife is with him. GBP 2600 was allocated for housing/ electricity/ utilities, apart from a company maintained car and fuel. The report further states that it was the SLA that had borne the income taxes including council taxes.

Later, on Gunawardena had made a request to the Company Secretary to make an arrangement so that his pay will be handled by an independent operator in London working outside the operational ambit of the SLA London office and not by the M/S Management Services Limited in Colombo, which handles the payroll of SLAs top management. According to the letter of the contract the salary should remain Rs.1.5 million and his GBP payments on this component should have now reduced progressively in line with the depreciation of the rupee against the GBP which had never happened. SLA has also reimbursed the National Insurance Contribution and Gunawardenas UK Tax Contribution as well as the Council Taxes due in respect of his accommodation. Although Council Taxes are paid by the land owner and not by the tenant the airline had still reimbursed the council taxes to Gunawardenas account.

Meanwhile eyebrows have been raised as to how Ajith Dias had not implemented the recommendations given in the Weliamuna Report regarding former CEO Chandrasena.



Appointment questionable

The Board of Inquiry had observed that the appointment of Chandrasena as the CEO was questionable on many grounds. His only airline experience was his short stint at Mihin Lanka. His appointment as CEO was void of any competitive interview process, which questions further his suitability for the job. According to the Weliamuna Report, Chandrasenas appointment was not motivated in the best interest of the airline, but was for a clear collateral purpose.

The salaries of those at the top to the senior managerial level officers are handled by a private company



However, the sources expressed their sincere gratitude to the former Aviation Minister Arjuna Ranatunga for appointing a Board of Inquiry (BoI) headed by eminent Senior Lawyer J.C. Weliamuna, to unearth the malpractices and misappropriation of the airlines funds during the previous regime.

Even Reginald Cooray, who became the subject minister after Ranatunga, was adamant that these recommendations should be implemented forthwith and gave few months to the Board to study the recommendations to which Dias agreed. Unfortunately Minister Kabir Hashim took over the ministry after the 2015 general elections and the present board was given a freehand to manage the airline to their whims and fancies that pushed the institute from pillar to post, sources said. According to these sources, the last financial year, commenced on April 1, 2016 and concluded on March 31, 2017 during which a loss of Rs.28 billion was made. These sources added that the reason for such a huge loss could be attributed to many factors.

When this Government assumed power it said that the order given to purchase five A350 airbuses would be cancelled to avert massive losses. Instead of appointing a qualified team to negotiate with the supplier in order to get the cancellation charges minimized- the officials who are professional got involved and saw to it that the agreement was cancelled. The massive cancellation charge imposed by the supplier made the airline incur further losses, sources alleged.



Cancellation

However, sources from the aviation industry said that the cancellation of the A350 was a loss to the airline as this had never happened in the past. We have never paid so much even to buy an aircraft. When the Chandrika Kumaratunge Government that came into power in 1994 cancelled two aircraft out of the five that were ordered by the UNP Government in 1992, the airline did not pay such a penalty. The decision to purchase these aircraft was taken after a careful assessment. After the war concluded, there was a necessity to re-fleet the airline as Sri Lanka became a vital tourist destination. At that time we had only 12 aircraft, but by 2012 we got this number increased up to 22. When the aviation fuel prices went over US $ 110 per barrel, all airlines in the world switched on to cost effect aircraft. The fuel consumption of A350 aircraft guarantees of a 15% fuel savings, sources added.

We are expecting the airline to submit the details we requested by February 6 as it wouldnt be good for the airline to release this information after an order is given by the RTI Commission, sources warned



According to the sources, by having the A350 for long haul destinations like London and Melbourne, could have saved the airline a few millions of rupees because with this arrangement the airline could have carried more passengers and cargo.



Comparing to A340, the A350 has a passenger capacity which is 10% more while its cargo capacity is more than 100%. Isnt this a viable option to follow?, aviation sources queried.



Meanwhile questions have been raised as to why SriLankan Airlines is reluctant to reveal information sought under the Right to Information Act (RTI), by the Airline Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka



Although the request made by the Pilots Guild from the Information Officer of SriLankan Airlines to obtain information pertaining to the alleged misuse of public funds, the multitude of irregular practices, the losses incurred by the airline since the new management took office in 2015, the remuneration of CEO Cap. Suren Ratwatte and the Head of Human Resources (HHR) Pradeep Kekulawela it was turned down. The Guild had made an appeal to the RTI in September last year, regarding this.

Our request was turned down by the Information Officer claiming that the institution does not give consent to disclose any of the requested information claiming such information is exempted by Section 5(1) (a) and Section 5(1) (g). This is untrue. We then made an appeal against the Information Officer to Lalith Vithana, the Designated Officer SriLankan Airlines. Upholding the Information Officers stance, by letter dated August 23, 2017, Vithana too declined to provide the information requested. How can they make such a claim when the RTI Act No. 12 of 2016, has vested absolute powers with the organizations to provide requested information and does not interfere with the proceedings. Having known the regulations of the RTI Act, the Information Officer, who is also the Group Legal Affairs Manager, had requested RTI Commission to advice on the matter to which the Information Officer had been advised to take their own decisions which the Commission will not interfere with unless an appeal is made to them (Commission) by the requested party, sources added.



According to confirmed reports the RTI Commission on January 8 (Monday) had requested SLA to release the necessary details to the Pilots Guild by February 6 failing which an order would be given to the airline. We are expecting the airline to submit the details we requested by February 6 as it wouldnt be good for the airline to release this information after an order is given by the RTI Commission, sources warned. The sources meanwhile revealed how the management had given promotions and salary increments to the HHR Pradeep Kekulawela despite he being identified in the Weliamuna Report with regard to irregularities allegedly propelled by him where certain promotions and key appointments had affected the morale and productivity of the airline.



Secretary Ministry of Public Enterprise Development Ravindra Hewavitharana meanwhile confirmed that Suren Ratwatte had entered into an agreement to extend the 19-year-old aircraft lease agreement by a further six years without obtaining Board approval. Hewavitharana further said that though he had raised his concerns and called for explanation from CEO Ratwatte to clarify why he entered into an agreement to extend the lease period of the questionable old aircraft without the Board approval, Ratwatte had sent his clarification which was not relevant to the subject matter.



The Board has approved to extend the lease period of these aircraft if the Pakistan International Airline (PIA) agrees to take two of these aircraft on lease. When approval was given subjected to this condition, ignoring the boards decision, Ratwatte went ahead and entered into the agreement to extend the lease period knowing well that PIA has refused to take these aircraft from SLA. This has burdened the airline. When explanation was called, Ratwatte did not send in his clarifications in keeping with the manner in which the Ministry wanted him to provide answers, the Ministry Secretary said.



Although an e-mail was forwarded to the Manager Media Development SLA seeking the airlines comments against the allegations levelled by the employees, there was no response till the paper went for publication.
Madeleine Albright, one of several scholarstatespersons the unique American spoils system used to produce as Secretary of State, characterised the United States as the indispensable power. In relation to East Asia today, that description seems no longer salient. In this vein, perhaps 30 years from now, we will look back on US President Donald Trumps first official visit to East Asia as the moment when the United States abandoned a superpower role in Asia and grudgingly accepted that hegemonic power in the region would be shared with China.



In his obsession with dismantling the legacy of his predecessor, Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) days after taking office. The TPP was the economic pillar of the US pivot to Asia announced by former President Barack Obama in 2009. It marked a continuity in the US Asia policy back to 1945 in that it constituted the economic element of a threefold approach. The other two pillars were hard security (reflected in Obamas pledge to move 60 percent of US naval assets to the Pacific) as well as public diplomacy or soft power in promoting international public goods (such as democracy and human rights). It also meant providing an intellectually formidable State Department with adequate resources.



Trumps trip to Asia in November 2017 demonstrated that his administration has largely abandoned or at best severely weakened, two of the three pillars of this bipartisan foreign policy edifice. While in relation to North Korea there was a bellicose reaffirmation of the US commitment to playing sheriff, the multilateral economic and soft power dimensions were significantly downgraded. US proposals for bilateral trade deals were greeted with polite silence. Given the Trump administrations drive to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and the USKorea Free Trade Agreement as part of its America first agenda, the US credibility as a trustworthy trading partner has been sorely compromised.



As for US soft power, Trumps bromance with his Philippine counterpart President Rodrigo Duterte  shown through the formers previous praise for the latters war on drugs, which has resulted in some 12,000 extra-judicial killings  has demonstrated a downgrading of human rights concerns. Secretary of State Rex Tillersons call in Naypidaw for an independent inquiry into what the UN has categorised as the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya seemed an effort of diplomatic tokenism. Only under pressure from the US Congress did he later invoke the term ethnic cleansing and the possibility of sanctions against the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw).



By contrast, China potentially has the economic clout and political influence to impose a solution on the top ranks of the Tatmadaw. Tillersons Chinese counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi has proposed a three-phase plan for resolving the Rohingya crisis  a proposal that received support from both Bangladeshs and Myanmars governments, with Aung San Suu Kyi visiting Beijing on November 30.



In Manila there was the striking juxtaposition of the weakened US President vehemently defending a curious mix of bilateralism and isolationism against recently emboldened Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has been positioning his country as the champion of multilateralism and defender of the existing international order.



Rhetorically, for Trump, the term Asia Pacific has been replaced by Indo-Pacific: a revival of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abes idea of a quadrilateral security arrangement involving Australia, India, Japan and the United States. If the United States cannot be a leader in a multilateralised East Asia, then perhaps it can consolidate three existing bilateral relations to be the first amongst equals.



But if we examine the practice of Trumps administration, does the United States have the capacity to fulfil even this limited goal? Even further, does it have the desire to?

The breakdown of its Asia foreign policy status quo involves a combination of wilful negligence and discreet sabotage. Abandoning the TPP fell into the first category, while the hollowing out of the US State Department is a combination of both. Ten months after Trumps inauguration, many senior positions in the State Department still have not been filled. Some 100 senior diplomats have left and the threat of a one-third budget cut remains. The Trump administrations gratuitous assault on multilateral institutions and agreements such as the WTO, UNESCO and the Paris Climate Change Agreement is being conducted in the same vein.



Yet, while the United States has been seeking to weaken the international institutions it helped establish, China has been creating new international institutions to further its aims. An October 2014 China Monitor suggests some 14 parallel and alternative multilateral structures with the potential to supplant the existing ones. The most visible in Asia is the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. At what point a parallel institution supplants an existing one  if that is the objective of the Chinese leadership  is debatable. Still, in terms of articulating a long-term vision, Chinas Belt and Road dwarfs anything that Trump seems capable of offering.



The question is whether this new emerging order will involve multilateralism with Chinese characteristics. Much will depend on whether other powers, notably the European Union, can compensate for the US vacuum to preserve and promote a liberal multipolar international environment.



(David Camroux is Senior Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies (CERI), Sciences Po, Paris and Professorial Fellow at the Vietnam National University (USSH), Hanoi)
At a special and controversial session at Parliament on Wednesday, the behaviour of some MPs was disgraceful if not disgusting. The turmoil erupted after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made a special statement on the lengthy report of the Presidential Commission which probed the Central Bank bond issues from February 2015 to 2016.



The special session was held at the request of some opposition and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members who wanted to debate the report, annexures and recommendations running into some 1,400 pages. But Speaker Karu Jayasuriya told Parliament that the Presidential Media Unit had informed him that copies of the report could be made available to parliamentarians only by January 17. Therefore, the Speaker said he had given approval for the Prime Minister to make a statement on the issue. This led to a shouting match in Parliament with both sides exchanging not only strong words and slang but also throwing books or paper balls.



As the Prime Minister continued his speech the shouting intensified and the Speaker suspended sittings for about ten minutes. When the sittings were resumed, the Prime Minister continued his speech explaining the action he had taken to check whether the then Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran had acted ethically during the bond transactions in February 2015 and 2016. The Prime Minister said according to the Commissions Report more than Rs.11.1 billion had been defrauded and he had taken action to freeze Rs.12 billion which was in the account of Perpetual Treasuries Limited, alleged to be the main culprit in the bond scam.



There were further disturbances while the Prime Minister continued to speak but the pandemonium started after he finished and sittings were adjourned. Fortunately, in the galleries there were no schoolchildren to take the wrong lessons on how their elected representatives behaved. Parliaments CCTV cameras had also been switched off when sitting were adjourned but some MPs, apparently with various personal agendas filmed the tumultuous scenes with their smart phone cameras and gave them to private TV channels which gave wide publicity on their night news telecast. Viewers saw four or five MPs physically attacking each other in the Well of the House while others were yelling, playing havoc with some shouting Mahinda Hora and others Ranil Hora. Yesterday Parliamentary sources said it was likely that two or three MPs maybe suspended.



Wednesdays parliamentary mayhem again shows the need for MPs to be given extensive training in parliamentary discipline or ethics and leadership. President Maithripala Sirisena, in a 90-minute interview on State television Rupavahini on Wednesday night, said political leaders including the President, the Premier, Ministers and MPs need to lead by example, maintain ethics and discipline and avoid the temptation to indulge in fraud, corruption or bribery. The President said he hoped that at the February 10 elections to 341 local councils, the people would elect representatives who had a clean record, would lead by example and vow not to get involved in business, fraud or corruption. The President lamented that in his home district of Polonnaruwa, corruption was rampant in the local councils and four chairmen had been produced in court and found guilty of corruption or other criminal offences. Therefore, they could not contest at the February 10 elections.



The President also repeated his complain that during the Rajapaksa regime, when he was Secretary of the SLFP he had complained to President Rajapaksa that local council leaders were involved in a multitude of crimes including corruption, rape and heroin smuggling. Mr. Sirisena said the then President had agreed to call a meeting of the local council leaders and asked him to tell them of the serious crimes that were being committed. He did so comprehensively outlining case by case. After he finished Mr. Sirisena said the then President Rajapaksa had spoken to the local council leaders and told them do whatever you want to do, without getting caught.



President Sirisena vowed that such criminality would not tolerated again, tough legal actions would be taken against any public representative found guilty of bribery, corruption, frauds or other crimes. He said that the National Government this year would focus on sustainable, eco friendly and all inclusive development and he hoped political leaders at all levels would make a sincere and sacrificial commitment to this mission.
Devotees trek through the jungle

Clad in black they walked as if they had little to do with this world. Their beards and nails had grown, but there was no indication that they were unclean. When this writer saw these men in black they were getting ready for the pilgrimage which would take them to Sabarimale in Kerala, India which is the abode of Lord Ayyappan.



In fact a large batch of Lord Ayyapan devotees left the shoes of Sri Lanka on January 8 for India to make the 60km trek through the jungles of the Periyar Tiger Reserve in the Western Ghat Mountain Range in the Pathanamthitta District in Kerala. The trek through the jungles is challenging, but devotees say that Lord Ayyapan provides them with the strength needed to complete the journey. The less affluent have received or raised the needed money quite effortlessly once they did make up their minds about going on this pilgrimage. Devotees believe that this God works in miraculous ways.

The main season to go on this pilgrimage begins on November 15 and concludes on December 26. The temple is also open to receive devotees on January 14 and April 14.

The Sabarimale Temple



Strict vows

Devotees have to prepare for the journey by undergoing a 41-day fast during which strict vows are practised. This fast helps devotees transcend earthly limitations and change for the better. Those who wish to obtain the blessings of Lord Ayyapan have to cleanse themselves, both outside and within. For this they need to obtain the blessings of a seasoned traveller to Sabarimale who is known as a Guru Swami, someone who becomes their teacher. Devotees shun all social activities and immerse themselves in prayers and religious activities after taking up vows. They abstain from consuming meat, indulging in unnecessary talk and harming others in any possible way. They also become celibate during this fast. The wearing of a mala (Necklace made of beads) indicates that the devotee has committed himself to renounce material temptations. The devotee who makes his maiden pilgrimage is known as Kanni Ayyapa.

The travel bag which contains offerings for the Lord

There are also confirmed stories of miracles happening on the way to Sabarimale. The jungle path to the temple is grown with herbs, hence certain ills of those walking on them are permanently cured



The temple of Lord Ayyapan is one of many temples in India open to all faiths. The authorities there by conducting religious activities have promoted secularism and communal harmony. Vijekanthan Guru Swami who made the trip last year told this writer that all are equal before Lord Ayyapan.

Popular folklore states that references to the Lord date back to the time of King Rajashankara. The king didnt have children. Later he was presented with a child. The child one day fired an arrow and told his father to go and build a temple where the object he fired had fallen. This is the temple to which pilgrims have been arriving in large numbers, a practice which began before 12th Century AD.



Herbs and miracles

Devotees who make the journey do it for the sheer love of the Lord. Obtaining blessings is all what most pilgrims wish for. But there are others who speak about having become able to upgrade their lives financially after the trip to Sabarimale. There are also confirmed stories of miracles happening on the way to Sabarimale. The jungle path to the temple is grown with herbs, hence certain ills of those walking on them are permanently cured. Those who make the pilgrimage to the temple also go with the belief that one such trip eradicates sins accumulated during 64 human births.

A replica of the flight of steps that lead to the temple,which is seen in many kovils in Sri Lanka



The trek to Sabarimale is considered to be one of the largest pilgrimages in the world. As many as 45-50 million devotees visit the temple annually. For the record Sri Lankans belonging to many faiths make the trip to Sabarimale each year. The number of Sri Lankan devotees travelling annually to India on this pilgrimage has been calculated as being around 5000.



The transformation

All the mental discipline thats maintained transforms the devotee. Close associates of these devotees say that the trip transforms the latter. Hindus believe that the fast they undergo to qualify for the pilgrimage helps prepare themselves for further spiritual progress. Hindus also believe that when the need to satisfy desires is removed, a person then experiences supreme bliss.



However, women of menstrual age arent permitted to make the trip to Sabarimale. In 1991 the Kerala High Court restricted women who were of menstrual age from offering worship at the temple. However, the Supreme Court of India has taken a petition to review this judgment made by the High Court and allow women of all ages to go on the pilgrimage. The Supreme Court has hence referred the case to a constitutional bench to make a decision on this.

Devotees carrying offerings for the Lord



In a few days time those who left the shoes of Sri Lanka will return, blessed. They will be received by their loved ones with Godly love. Those who went on the pilgrimage will bless those who remained at home. Its amazing how the teacher-disciple chain used in educating pilgrims who wish to make the trip to Sabarimale has continued for centuries!
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) frontliner Basil Rajapaksa today said there was no moral basis for President Maithripala Sirisena to extend his term for six years as he committed himself to reduce the term in the run up to the elections .

Mr. Rajapaksa told a news conference President Sirisena had claimed during his presidential election campaign that he would reduce the term of presidency to four years and would not seek to stay for six years.

It is necessary to keep in mind that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also only served for four years as the President in his second term of office. In the fourth year former President Rajapaksa went for a presidential election, he said.

He said even President Sirisena could have gone for an election after four years and added that however President Sirisena extended the term to five years after the enactment of the 19th Amendment.

He said now President Sirisena was in an attempt extend his term for six years. He also said irrespective of the legal background, it was not morally appropriate for President Sirisena to do so considering his pre-election promises.

The legal background of this situation will be decided by the Courts and we have complete faith in it. However it is certain that the legislation will not allow it, he said.

Meanwhile, he said the appointment of someone from the United National Party(UNP) as the Prime Minister was the gravest humiliation inflicted on the Sri Lanka Freedom Partys (SLFP) founder leader S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe could never become the Prime Minister through a popular vote. Yet, he was appointed as the Prime Minister. The UNP is a blood-stained party over the assassination of Mr. Bandaranaike, he alleged.

He also said the UNP deprived SLFP leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike of civic rights and the appointment of someone from that party as the Prime Minister was the most heinous crime perpetrated on Mr. Bandaranaike.(Kelum Bandara and Kalathma Jayawardhane)
It is no secret that the United States, still smarting over a series of setbacks the 1979 Iranian revolution has delivered, has a state-funded programme to destabilize Iran. It is also no secret that the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and other pro-US Arab nations are part of this covert programme.



However, so far, the Iranian government has somehow weathered the threats. When the popular revolution led by the Shiite clergy ousted the pro-American regime of the Shah in 1979, many in the West believed the change was only a passing cloud. But the Islamic republic has been surviving for 38 years, despite in the 1980s a devastating nine-year war against Iraq which was backed by the West and the Arab Gulf states, sabotage by terrorist groups such as Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEQ) and Jundallah, tough economic sanctions, cyber warfare, assassinations of its nuclear scientists, and intermittent uprising, the latest of which was only last week.

That Iran has seen during its post-revolution existence only two large-scale public protests, which lost steam no sooner they hit the streets, vouches for the relative stability of the countrys political system. Yet, Irans leaders cannot afford to dismiss last weeks protests, which began in Irans second largest city, Mashhad, on December 28, as part of a western conspiracy, though they could very well be. The protests were widespread, though, crowd wise, they were smaller, compared to the 2009 post-election protests in the capital, Teheran. They even spread to the religious city of Qom, a stronghold of the revolution. The protests are a reminder that Irans problems require sweeping socioeconomic and political reforms to meet the aspirations of Irans youth, who have not lived through the repressive rule of the Shah or seen the sacrifices their parents made for the revolution. The social media savvy generation clamors for well-paying jobs, high standard of life, and more political and economic freedom. Iran has been adopting reforms and relaxing some strict rules regarding social behavior such as the Islamic dress code, but the discontent appears to grow much faster than the speed at which reforms are introduced.

Trump, a fanatical Iran hater who wants to scrap the Iran nuclear deal, took to Twitter to back anti-government demonstrators



The protests were also a public outcry against the prolonged sluggishness of the economy which had not picked up much, despite some sanctions being lifted following Irans 2015 nuclear agreement with six world powers.



Yet Iran is not a basket case. Despite 38 years of economic sanctions in one form or another, the country has emerged as a regional power, strong enough to prop up the Syrian regime, help neighbouring Iraq to defeat the ISIS terrorists, fiancne the Hezbollah militias in Lebanon, develop nuclear technology, make its own medium range missiles, anti-tank missiles, drones, aircraft and motor vehicles and take strides in heavy industry.



Iran has in recent years improved ties with China, Russia, Turkey and Qatar and expressed willingness to join Chinas Belt-and-Road Initiative to attract investments aimed at giving the much needed fillip to the economy. But the problem is that the economy which derives much of its revenue from oil and gas production is largely state controlled. The private sector remains largely marginalized. During President Hashemi Rafsanjanis economic reforms in the early 1990s, the private sector thrived, but the momentum died out, with the conservatives or hardliners taking the upper hand, while reform-minded popular presidents such as Mohamed Khatami and Hassan Rouhani looked on powerless.

The protests were also a public outcry against the prolonged sluggishness of the economy which had not picked up much



Socioeconomic and political factors give only one side of the story. The governments lenient approach to the protests at the initial stages indicated that it recognized the causes for the public protests. Irans spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also acknowledged legitimate demonstrations against economic conditions. The government began to crack the whip only after it feared that the people could be misled and that the protests could be hijacked by a few subversives backed by foreign governments. With government supporters staging massive counter-demonstrations, the anti-government protests, where for the first time slogans were raised publicly against the spiritual leader, gradually withered away.



It is widely known that the MEQ -- listed as a terrorist group by the United States -- maintains close relationship with the CIA and Israels secret service Mossad. The Israeli intelligence outfit is also the handler of the Sunni Jundallah group in Irans Sistan and Baluchestan Province



The US has a long history of meddling in Irans internal affairs. Last year, the CIA released documents confirming that it engineered the coup that overthrew Irans democratically elected government in 1953. Operation Merlin and Operation Olympic Games were some of the other failed CIA covert programmes aimed at destabilizing Iran after the 1979 revolution.



Undeterred, the axis comprising the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia, among others, continues its efforts to subjugate Iran, which has a long history of resisting foreign invasions. Obsessive Iranophobia has pushed some Arab nations to embrace Israel and even US President Donald Trumps outrageous plan to hand over the whole of Jerusalem to Israel, with no regard for the Palestinians insistence that East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.



As the Iranian protests drew wide coverage in the Western media, Trump, a fanatical Iran hater who wants to scrap the Iran nuclear deal, took to Twitter to back anti-government demonstrators. Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations! Trumps said in his tweet.



In response, Irans spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei also took to Twitter, slamming Trump as unstable and having extreme and psychotic episodes.



The twitter war apart, the US backing for Iran protests exposes the double standards with which the US approaches world politics. Trump did not tweet when food riots erupted across Egypt in March last year. There were no Trump tweets to urge Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade on Yemen, so that humanitarian assistance could reach the starving Yemeni people. There were no tweets in support of protesters who demonstrate for democracy and human rights in Bahrain which hosts the US Navys Fifth Fleet. He would definitely not tweet calling on Israel to release 16-year-old Ahed al-Tamimi who has become the symbol of Palestinian resistance.



Iran -- with 80 million people in a 1.64 million square kilometre land area  is no pushover. It is capable of countering attacks from the US, Israel or any other hostile power. Its people are united in the face of foreign aggression. This is why the US or Israel has not dared to attack Iran. Its enemies think their best bet is dividing the Iranians by pointing out that the country is spending its hard earned money to prop up Syria and the Hezbollah at the expense of the Iranians: Perhaps, a case of tweeting Trump bearing gifts! The Iranians might do well to keep in mind that the success of the US formula for invasion is the divisions within the target country. This has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The United States revamped its warnings about the risks of traveling to other countries and Sri Lanka is listed among countries that the lowest advisory level for safety and security risks in the new four-point safety ranking system.

Accordingly, Sri Lanka is listed as a Level-1 country which means Exercise normal precautions when traveling to Sri Lanka.

However, neighbouring India and Maldives were listed as Level-2, Exercise increased caution.

For India, it states, Exercise increased caution in India due to crime and terrorism. Some areas have increased risk, while for Maldivesits, Exercise increased caution in Maldives due to terrorism.

Among the other countries in Level-1: Exercise normal precautions are Australia, Singapore, Brunei, Sweden and Switzerland.Level-1 is the lowest advisory level.

The United States unveiled the new system on Wednesday (Jan 10), along with an interactive world map to warn its citizens about the dangers of foreign travel.

AFP reports that some countries have complained in the past that the travel warnings exaggerate dangers and damage tourism, or suspect they have been subjected to a US diplomatic rebuke.

Ten war zones and failed states are ranked Level Four, "Do Not Travel": Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

North Korea is also Level Four, with the additional restriction that US law prohibits American travelers from using their passports there, effectively banning visits.

However, each warning is accompanied by a country page on the travel.state.gov website, explaining what specific threats have been identified and why the advice has been given.

Major European allies like Britain, France and Germany are Level Two, "exercise increased caution," while authoritarian Uzbekistan gets Level One, "exercise usual precautions."

But Cuba is ranked only Level-3, "Reconsider Travel."

The United States itself is not rated in the new system.

Four-point safety ranking system

Level 1 -Exercise Normal Precautions: This is the lowest advisory level for safety and security risk. There is some risk in any international travel. Conditions in other countries may differ from those in the United States and may change at any time.

Level 2 -Exercise Increased Caution: Be aware of heightened risks to safety and security. The Department of State provides additional advice for travelers in these areas in the Travel Advisory. Conditions in any country may change at any time.

Level 3 - Reconsider Travel: Avoid travel due to serious risks to safety and security. The Department of State provides additional advice for travelers in these areas in the Travel Advisory. Conditions in any country may change at any time.

Level 4 -Do Not Travel: This is the highest advisory level due to greater likelihood of life-threatening risks. During an emergency, the U.S. government may have very limited ability to provide assistance. The Department of State advises that U.S. citizens not travel to the country or leave as soon as it is safe to do so. The Department of State provides additional advice for travelers in these areas in the Travel Advisory. Conditions in any country may change at any time.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Around 9,000 students in Jackson County are benefiting from thousands of dollars worth of donations inside of their classrooms in technology thanks to Chevron's Fuel Your School program.

In October and November 2017, the program helped to fund 70 classroom projects, including 33 focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), to help connect real world experiences to classroom learning for students at 33 Jackson County public schools.

While STEM related fields are important, Chevron also fostered the students interest in art education by providing a ceramic kiln, ventilation kit and other ceramics supplies to East Central High School.

"I am beyond words in how much I appreciate the opportunity this creates for our students," said teacher Tonya Saksa. "This project will open up not one, but TWO ceramics classes. Chevron has always placed value on education, and the company's continuing support of the education of our students never ceases to amaze me."

Through the Fuel Your School program, Chevron contributed $1 when consumers purchased eight or more gallons of fuel at participating Chevron and Texaco stations in Jackson County during the month of October, generating $50,000 to help fund eligible classroom projects at local public schools.

"At Chevron, we're committed to supporting education and are proud to help provide Jackson County teachers with technology and other classroom supplies they need," said Amy Brandenstein, Chevron's Community Affairs Representative. "With help from the Fuel Your School program, teachers can facilitate hands-on learning activities that are fun, engaging and will help foster bright young talent for the future workforce in Jackson County and beyond."

Chevron has invested more than $250 million since 2013, supporting programs that focus on STEM education initiatives designed to arm students and teachers with the critical skills and resources needed to succeed in jobs of the future.
GAUTIER, Mississippi -- Although they won't elaborate on the details, police investigators in Gautier say a fourth and as yet unnamed person provided the "common thread" between three men in a New Year's shooting which left one man dead and another wounded.

Gautier police received a call of a shooting at a residence on Westpark Drive in Gautier just after 9 a.m. on New Year's Day. Officers responding to the call found two male victims in the front yard of the home, both suffering from gunshot wounds. Investigators learned the two victims had arrived at the residence and an argument with the homeowner ensued, leading to the shooting.

The two victims -- 30-year-old Harold Edwards of Mobile, Ala., and 22-year-old Al Jerome Jackson of Biloxi -- were transported to Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula where Edwards ultimately died from his injuries. Jackson was taken into surgery and later listed in stable condition.

The resident, identified as 40-year-old Willie Campbell Jr., was taken into custody at his home. He has been charged with aggravated assault and manslaughter. Gautier Municipal Court Judge Jason Thornton set bond at $40,000 -- $10,000 on the aggravated assault charge and $30,000 for manslaughter.

Initial reports indicated the three men were not acquainted with each other, but Thursday Gautier Police Capt. Casey Baxter said there was a fourth person who connected the men involved in the shooting.

"There's not much I can tell you about that," Baxter said, "but there is another party that knew Mr. Jackson and also knew Mr. Campbell and brought those two together. Mr. Edwards was a friend of Mr. Jackson's and arrived with him."

Baxter also said the manslaughter charge -- rather than murder -- was determined by the Jackson County District Attorney's Office after conferring with investigators and examining the available evidence.

"That's what they felt the charge needed to be," he said.

The case remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the Gautier Police Department at 228-497-2486 or Crime Stoppers at 877-787-5898.
Recently, I began reading the bookReal Food Fake Foodby Larry Olmsted. I was totally shocked by what he wrote after only reading the first chapter of the book. He revealed a lot of dark secrets in the US food industry.

The most typical example is Parmesan cheese. We can buy these kinds of cheese in many stores. I used to buy Kraft Grated parmesan cheese from Costco. In factParmesan cheese is not a real cheese, it is an imitation of the Parmigiano Reggiano, a truly real cheese made exclusively in Italy.

Parmigiano Reggiano is "The King of cheeses"  it is famous worldwide and has a high reputation. 100% without preservatives and 100% pure milk from Italian cows. By law, the pastures that feed these cows cannot be chemically fertilized. The cows can only eat with natural grass. And also, by law, Parmigiano-Reggiano can contain three ingredients: milk, salt, and rennet(a natural enzyme).

If Parmigiano Reggiano can only be made in Italy, then Parmesan cheese can be made anywhere else, because the word Parmesan usually refers to Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Cheesemakers around the world often abuse the word Parmesan to make lower quality cheese, even fake cheese and mislead customers.

For example, the Kraft Grated Parmesan cheese I bought before contained some ingredients that are absolutely not allowed in real Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. They include cellulose, potassium sorbate and cheese culture and so on. In a sense, the Kraft Grated Parmesan cheese that many Americans are consuming is a fake cheese.

In order to taste a real cheese, several days ago I went to Costco and bought one piece of cheese which I believed was more real than Kraft's. From the photos I took below, the ingredients of the two kinds of cheese are obvious and totally different. You can easily tell which one is more like the real cheese.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has greenlighted Minnesota and West Virginias plans for implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act. They are the first two states that submitted plans in the fall to win federal approval.

Minnesota is planning to use attendance as its indicator of school quality and student success. And the state is planning to identify successful schools as well as those in need of help. When Minnesota turned in its plan this fall, it said it planned to create a dashboard at some point down the road, which would incorporate a variety of school performance factors. In the meantime, the state said it was still working out how to rate its schools. That didnt appear to raise any eyebrows at the Department of Education, according to the states feedback letter. But the feds told Minnesota officials they needed to better explain how the state would ensure that poor children have access to their fair share of effective teachers.

West Virginia says it wants to cut in half the number of students scoring below the proficient level by 2030. When the department critiqued West Virginias plan , federal officials raised questions about whether the state was following ESSAs requirements for incorporating English-language proficiency into its accountability system. It is not clear if the state made changes to that part of its plan before winning approval.

Where do ESSA plans stand? So far, the department has given the thumbs-up to plans submitted by 17 states, plus the District of Columbia. Colorado is the only state that submitted its plan in the spring thats still waiting for answer. The department has also sent responses to 33 of the 34 states that submitted plans this fall. South Carolina is the only state waiting for feedback.

Want more on ESSA plans? We have a guide right here.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
The School Improvement Grant program may be toast, thanks to the Every Student Succeeds Act, which scrapped dozens of education programs. But that doesnt mean the money is gone. Some states still have SIG dollars, which last went out in fiscal year 2016, available to spend.

So what can they do with that money?

States and districts essentially have two options, according to a letter sent to states this week from Jason Botel, the acting assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education.

They can either a) use the money under the SIG rules, which call for states to use one of a host of dramatic interventions spelled out by the Obama administration, or b) go with ESSAs rules for spending money for low-performing schools. That means that states would need to share at least 95 percent of the funding with districts, which would in turn use the money to help schools that are struggling. Under ESSA, the money could flow to districts through formula or through a competition.

Read Botels full email, sent to state chiefs and others Wednesday, below:

Dear Colleague:

I am writing regarding the implementation of the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), to follow up on the Dear Colleague letter (available at //www2.ed.gov/programs/sif/sigdirapplicationltr3292016.pdf ) sent on March 29, 2016, regarding the use of remaining SIG funds and to update you on SIG reporting requirements.

Use of remaining SIG funds

In the letter dated March 29, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) explained that a State must continue to comply with the SIG final requirements throughout the period of availability of any remaining SIG funds, including any extended period of availability pursuant to waivers of the period of availability of SIG funds. The letter also explained that a State could, but was not required to, use funds that it reserved in fiscal year 2017 and future years under section 1003(a) of the ESEA, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), to support full implementation of SIG awards initially made with prior-year funds.

Many States have contacted the Department to request additional flexibility regarding the use of remaining SIG funds. States have cited as reasons for their request waning interest from local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools in applying for or implementing SIG in light of the new requirements in ESSA, the large amount of remaining SIG funds and the States focus on fully transitioning to ESSA. Given these reasons, the Department supports States interest in increased flexibility for the use of SIG funds.

Accordingly, pursuant to the authority to ensure an orderly transition authority to the ESSA, a State may, at its discretion, use any remaining SIG funds either: (1) consistent with the SIG final requirements; or (2) consistent with the requirements of section 1003 of the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA. A State that decides to use some or all of its remaining SIG funds consistent with section 1003 of the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, may, at its discretion, permit an LEA that is currently implementing SIG to transition to the requirements of section 1003 of the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, with its remaining SIG funds.

SIG reporting requirements

The SIG final requirements require each State to submit a number of SIG-specific data and reporting elements for SIG schools to the Department on an annual basis. Because the SIG program is eliminated under the ESSA, it is no longer necessary for States to continue to meet those SIG-specific reporting requirements. Thus, consistent with the provisions of the ESSA that authorize the Secretary to ensure an orderly transition to the new law, the Department will no longer require a State to report SIG-specific data to the Department (see EDFacts C167 at //www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts/eden/non-xml/c167-12-0.doc ).

Should you need further clarification or have any questions, please contact your State program officer in the Office of State Support.

Sincerely,

Jason Botel

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Delegated the Authority to Perform the Functions and Duties of the Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
New Delhi: NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday said the government will now focus on raising the incomes of farmers.

"Many experts on Wednesday said that we should shift from focus on agricultural production to raising farmers income, by improving productivity, lowering costs, greater efficiency, greater market access, making producers of products rather than commodities," Kumar told media here after a session with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior officials.

Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with experts and secretaries ahead of the Union Budget.

"Economic Policy - The Road Ahead" was the theme of the event.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was also present. Several cabinet ministers also attended the meeting.

The bureaucrats shared their views on various economic themes such as macro-economy, agriculture and rural development, employment, health and education, manufacturing and exports, urban development, infrastructure and connectivity.

The Budget Session of Parliament is scheduled to be held from January 29 to February 9, while the second session will be held from March 5 to April 6.

The Budget will be presented on February 1.
Jigar and Kripesh Sanghvi were arrested on the information provided by Juhu-based hotelier Vishal Kariya, who was arrested on Wednesday for sheltering the duo and another owner of the pub, Abhijeet Mankar. (Photo: ANI)

Mumbai: All the three owners of 1 Above pub, who had been absconding for nearly two weeks since 14 people were killed in a fire at Kamala Mills compound in Mumbai, were arrested by Mumbai police.

Acting on a tip-off, Mumbai police arrested two owners Jigar Sanghvi and Kripesh Sanghvi late on Wednesday night while Abhijeet Mankar, who was on the run, was arrested on Thursday morning. A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been registered against them.

The Sanghvi brothers, who were on the run since the incident, were arrested from the Andheri area in Mumbai, additional commissioner of police S Jaikumar told PTI.

Mumbai police spokesperson said they would be produced before the Bhoiwada court on Thursday.

Jigar and Kripesh were arrested on the information provided by Juhu-based hotelier Vishal Kariya, who was arrested on Wednesday for sheltering the duo and another owner of the pub, Abhijeet Mankar.

The police had, earlier, announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for the whereabouts of the 1 Above owners.

The police have recovered a high-end car of accused Mankar, from the Juhu residence of Kariya (42), who was then picked up for questioning.

During the interrogation, the hotelier revealed that he sheltered the trio at his residence.

Kariya had been booked under Section 216 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Sanghvi brothers were absconding since December 29 when the fire swept through 1 Above and adjacent Mojo's Bistro resto-pub in Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai.

Yug Pathak, one of the owners of Mojo's Bistro and the son of former Pune police commissioner KK Pathak, was arrested on January 6 in the case.

Earlier, the owners of 1 Above had written to the President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Mumbai Police Commissioner and the chief of the city's civic body, demanding that the matter be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Alleging there was a conspiracy against them, they accused the police of destroying the evidence on site and making false reports.

The report said flying embers from the charcoal used for hookahs touched the curtains at the upscale pub. The restaurant did not have clearance to serve sheesha. According to the fire department, both 1 Above and Mojos Bistro had illegal structures and flouted fire safety norms.

Most of the people who died were patrons of 1 Above. Their bodies were found piled up inside the toilet. They had gone there to escape the blaze, but died of suffocation.
Speaking in the state Assembly, J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti once again appealed to India and Pakistan to resume dialogue so that the ongoing bloodshed in Jammu and Kashmir comes to an end. (Photo: ANI)

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, on Wednesday said that the people of the restive state will "gain" only from India and not from anywhere else, an obvious reference to Pakistan.

"If we are not agreeing with the J&K Constitution and Indian Constitution, then what do we believe in? What would you gain from such a stance?", she asked while speaking in the state Assembly currently in its budget session in winter capital Jammu.

She said, Today, I would like to bring on record that the people of the state would gain from only India and not from anywhere else.

She urged the youth of Kashmir to shun the path of violence and respect the Indian Constitution and that of the state. She also said that the state Assembly is the most empowered one in the country.

"Ours is the most empowered assembly in the country. Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented in entire country at once except Jammu and Kashmir where it was implemented only after proper debate in this Assembly," she said.

She said that utmost care has to be taken so that Kashmir issue is not highlighted as a religious one more particularly because the religious diversity is the strength of the people of the State.

She, once again, appealed to India and Pakistan to resume dialogue so that the ongoing bloodshed in Jammu and Kashmir comes to an end.

"Resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan is the only way forward to end the bloodshed in Kashmir," she said.

Referring to the growing trend among the Kashmiri youth to join the militants ranks, she said the same was the offshoot of previous governments policies and actions and said that care has to be taken so that the youth taking violent path does not become a challenge for the governments in future.

Mufti said Kashmiri for which Kashmir is known is visible in Kashmir and missing in Jammu and alleged that opposition parties are talking different languages in Srinagar and Jammu.

She hoped that Mannan Bashir Wani, the AMU scholar who has joined Hizb-ul-Mujahedin, will pay heed to the calls of return being made by his family, friends and fellow students.
Erode: A private old age home, which was constructed by encroaching lands of railway and public works department near Erode, was demolished on Wednesday. The old age home Anbu Illam was functioning at Chinniampalayam in Modakurichi area in Erode district on encroached land for the last 25 years and 78 inmates were accommodated in the home recently.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday a team of officials led by highways assistant engineer Natarajan and social welfare officer Ambika began demolishing the building in the presence of police.

Before beginning the demolition, inmates we-re shifted to Erode government hospital by ambulance and they were sent to various nearby homes after medical test. The officials had conducted a surprise check following complaints about ill treatment of in mates and harassment. Following an inquiry, officials ordered for closure of home immediately. However, the issue was brought to court by the proprietor of home Sheik Amanulla.

However, officials got a court order for closure following legal process and the building was demolished by engaging earth-movers.
Nandan Nilekani said, negative views on Aadhaar will have negative reactions and hence, it would be better for people to have a constructive view on it. (Photo: PTI)

Bengaluru: Former Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani said there was an "orchestrated campaign" to malign Aadhaar.

He was reacting to the filing of an FIR on The Tribune newspaper report relating to the Aadhaar data breach.

"There is hundred per cent an orchestrated campaign to see how Aadhaar gets maligned, yes absolutely," Nilekani told ET Now on the sidelines of the Infosys Science Foundation Award.

Delhi Police had on Monday registered the FIR on a complaint by an UIDAI official following the newspaper report on data breach of more than 1 billion Aadhaar cards, naming the journalist behind the story.

The police was informed by the official that the correspondent, posing as a buyer, had purchased a service being offered by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provided unrestricted access to details of Aadhaar numbers.

Nandan Nilekani said the issue has been blown out of proportion as Aadhaar has built far too many security layers and it is not possible to randomly pore it.

Further referring to the FIR filed in the Tribune case, he said negative views on Aadhaar will have negative reactions and hence, it would be better for people to have a constructive view on it.

"If you are just taking a negative view, and not a constructive view, then you also have other (negative) reactions. I think, everybody has to accept Aadhaar is here to stay," the former UIDAI chief said.

The Aadhaar is here to stay because as many as 119 crore people have it, 550 million have linked the numbers to their bank accounts and Rs 95,000 crore was transferred into DBT accounts, he added.

Nilekani said he was very confident of the Supreme Court upholding Aadhaar under the fundamental right of privacy because it meets the test of the law being proportionate and reasonable.

Replying to a query, he welcomed putting in place a two layer security to reinforce privacy protection for Aadhaar ID number holders by the UIDAI.

"I think this is a very significant announcement by UIDAI and in some sense it really makes the case against it go away," he said.

Also Read: Just revealed tip of iceberg, more to come: Journalist on Aadhaar breach

The former UIDAI chief said it has introduced a virtual identification for ID holders so that the actual number need not be shared by the people to authenticate their identity.

Simultaneously, it has further regulated the storage of Aadhaar numbers within various databases, he added.
This time last year, school choice advocates were deeply divided over how the Trump administrations vocal support for charter schools and vouchers would affect their popularity and prospects for expansion.



Some saw the appointment of Betsy DeVosa longtime advocate and philanthropic supporter of school choiceas Trumps education secretary as a rare opportunity to raise the profile of school choice policies and push them at the federal level.

Others fretted that Trumps deep unpopularity among many African-Americans, Latinos, and education reform-minded Democrats would cleave those important constituencies from the school choice movement.

Whats actually played out since then is somewhere in between, according to prominent school choice advocacy and lobbying groups.

Of the folks that were trying to learn more about [private school choice] but were generally skeptical of the programs, I dont think its done much to help those folks, said Michael Chartier, the senior director of state relations at EdChoice. Of the people who had learned about what educational choice is and were open to the idea, it provided a little bit of reassurance that the federal government isnt going to be breathing down our neck and try to hurt us with this. But overall, really, its been sort of a wash.

That sentiment was echoed by Todd Ziebarth, the senior vice president for state advocacy at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

At this point, theyve had almost no impact on legislative activity, he said of the Trump administration. But well see if that continues to be the case, particularly as part of the elections this fall.

Ziebarth says his organization is still bracing for anti-charter school blowback as the 2018 midterm elections gear up, especially as teachers unions seem poised to leverage DeVos unpopularityin particular among educators against Republicans and school choice initiatives.

Our big concern, obviously, is that its going to make it harder for Democrats to support us, Ziebarth said. We havent seen that yet, but were doubling down to make sure that our Democratic friends stand with us on these issues.

From Charter Schools to Vouchers: What to Watch for in Statehouses This Year

Irrespective of DeVos and Trump, Ziebarth expects the looming midterm elections to dampen interest in proposing and supporting charter school-related legislation. Thats because lawmakers tend to play it safe leading up to elections, he said.

Ziebarth doesnt expect any of the six remaining states without a charter school law on the booksMontana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginiawill flip this year, although he predicts there will be attempts to lift caps on charter schools in Maine and Missouri.

Legislation proposed in Indiana would layer more regulations on authorizers , which are the various groups that oversee charter schools.

Otherwise, Ziebarth foresees charter supporters playing defense this spring. New Jerseys Democratic governor-elect, Phil Murphy, is not as charter-friendly as outgoing Republican Gov. Chris Christie who acted as a backstop to proposals passed out of the statehouse that advocates saw as anti-charter. And there may be attempts to roll back gains charter advocates made last year in Colorado and Florida to increase funding and access to facilities.

I think its important to note that were coming off a year in 2017 when we had really a banner year in achieving several legislative victories across the country, Ziebarth said.

On the private school choice front, Chartier is watching Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and West Virginia, where he says proposals are currently being formulated to drastically expand private school choice, mostly via education savings accounts, rather than traditional vouchers.

Ed Week Explains: What are School Vouchers and How do They Work?

These states have a few important things in common, said Chartier.

They all have high-quality bills either introduced, in the case of New Hampshire, or being discussed and talked about in most of the other cases, he said. Theyve got a good local coalition on the groundpeople who are willing to help educate folks about what school choice is ... and how it can work in their state. And those states do have a good likelihood of success in terms of the constitutional nature. Taking a look at their past precedents, we believe theres a good possibility the programs will survive legal challenges and flourish.

Other proposals worth watching are in Florida. One would allow students bullied in their public schools to use a tax-credit scholarship to attend a private school.

At the same time, another lawmaker in Florida is looking to impose more regulations on private school choice programs .

Related stories:

Photo: President Donald Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos hold cards received from the children in a 4th-grade class during a tour of St. Andrew Catholic School on March 3, in Orlando, Fla. Trumps daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, are at rear. Alex Brandon/AP
Expelled AIADMK general secretary Sasikala's husband, M Natarajan surrendered before a CBI court, in connection with a 1994 duty evasion case. (Photo: File)

Chennai: Expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary VK Sasikala's husband, M Natarajan surrendered before a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Thursday, in connection with a 1994 duty evasion case regarding import of a luxury car from the United Kingdom.

Natarajan remained absent in the past hearings of the case, citing health reasons.

In July 2010, a CBI special court had sentenced Natarajan and three others, including his nephew, to two years of imprisonment.

In November 2017, the Madras High Court upheld the verdict.

In 1994, Natarajan had allegedly imported a Lexus luxury car from UK and forged documents to show it was a used car in a bid to evade import duty.
SC made clear that issues relating to safety and life span of the dam would continue to be dealt with by an existing panel, which was set up following the five-judge Constitution bench verdict in 2014. (Photo:File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre and the Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments to set up three separate committees to exclusively deal with any "unpredictable" disaster that may occur at the site of the over 180-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, however, clarified that the proposed panels would only deal with the disaster aspect of the dam situated in Kerala.

It made clear that the issues relating to safety and life span of the historic dam would continue to be dealt with by an existing panel, which was set up following the five-judge Constitution bench verdict in 2014.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by Kerala-based Russel Joy, seeking a direction to authorities concerned that a study be conducted by international experts on the issue of safety and life span of the dam.

He has also sought decommissioning of the dam on the ground that it has become too old and the right to life of persons residing in the downstream area has been infringed.

Over three million residents who live near the dam are in constant fear that any disaster may hit them in the near future.

The bench considered the plea and disposed it after directing the three governments to set up separate panels to deal with any impending disaster.
KOZHIKODE: The transgenders in the state have appealed to the government to take steps to end the harassment faced by them, especially from the police. They alleged that though the Human Rights Commission and other agencies take suo motu cases on their behalf, the cases were not pursued.

Their collective, Sexual and Gender Minority Federation of Kerala (SGMFK), is planning to hold a hunger strike in front of the secretariat seeking justice. In most of the cases, we face humiliation and assault from the police. Even if we approach them to file a complaint, they do not consider us as human beings. If questioned, fake charges like pickpocketing are slapped on us, said SGMFK treasurer Devu Shaji.

The investigation and chargesheeting are also delayed, said Shaji, quoting the recent incident at Kozhikode. A woman IPS officer is supervising the investigation, but there is no progress in the case. Where should we go for justice? asked Shaji.

Another transgender, Plinku Sangeeth from Panampilly Nagar, listed the atrocities they faced from 2016 onward on Facebook. Transpeople have more visibility in cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode, and the atrocities are also more in these cities, said Plinku, a performer with a dance troupe in Kochi.
Chepauk  Triplicane constituency has only 27 transgender voters among total voters of 2,26,227.

Chennai: Sixteen Assembly constituencies in Chennai districts have 38,01,919 voters, according to the special summary revision of electoral rolls released on Wednesday.

Of over 38 lakh voters in Chennai districts, 19,24,366 voters are women and 18,76,652 are men apart from 901 transgender voters, district electoral officer and Chennai corporation commissioner D. Karthikeyan said.

Following the draft rolls released in October 2017, 41,485 applications were received requesting inclusion of names, of which 879 applications haud been rejected. Furthermore, 2,252 applications sought removal of names from the list.

We have deleted 3,12,390 names from the list on the grounds of disqualification. Of the total 2,71,784 names have been deleted from the draft electoral list, Karthikeyan said.

According to the Chennai corporation press release, among the 16 constituencies, Perambur constituency has the highest number voters of 3,00,844, whereas Harbour constituency has the least number of voters.

Among 1,65,610 voters in Harbour constituency, 78,921 are women.

R.K. Nagar, which was in the spotlight for nearly a year, has 2,25,566 votes with 94 transgender voters, highest among the 16 constituencies. Chepauk  Triplicane constituency has only 27 transgender voters among total voters of 2,26,227.

Photo identity cards to 35,194 new voters (who completed 18 years on January 1) and other new voters will be distributed at in the polling booths on January 25, on the occasion of the national voters day Karthikeyan said.
South Mumbai is home to a sizeable presence of the Navy and houses the headquarters of the Western Naval Command, as well as the naval residential quarters at Navy Nagar in Colaba. (Photo: File)

Mumbai: Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said "not an inch" of land would be given for Navy housing in south Mumbai, wondering why all their personnel here want to stay in this posh area when they should be at Pakistan border.

Gadkari, who is the minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, made the remark while voicing his disappointment at the Navy's objection to a floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai, where a

floating hotel and seaplane service are planned.

The remark was made at a public event in Mumbai in the presence of Western Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Girish Luthra.

"Actually, Navy is needed at the borders from where terrorists sneak in. Why does everyone (in the Navy) want to stay in South Mumbai? They (Navy) had come to me, asking for a plot (of land). I will not give even an inch of land. Please

don't come to me again," Gadkari said.

"Everyone wants to build quarters and flats on south Mumbai's prime land. We do respect you (Navy), but you should go to the Pakistan border and do patrolling."

A few important and senior officials can stay in Mumbai, Gadkari said, adding that land on the eastern seafront being jointly developed by the state-run Mumbai Port Trust and the Maharashtra government, would be utilised only for the benefit

of local citizens.

South Mumbai is home to a sizeable presence of the Navy and houses the headquarters of the Western Naval Command, as well as the naval residential quarters at Navy Nagar in Colaba.

Berths for naval ships are close to the Port Trust assets used by merchant ships. Over a period time, a lot of cargo handling has moved out of the Mumbai Port, one of the oldest ports in the country.

"I heard that you (Navy) gave a stay to the floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill, despite it getting the high court's nod," Gadkari said.

Claiming that stopping such developmental work has become a habit, Gadkari wondered what has the Navy got to do with the Malabar Hill area which is primarily a private residential zone also having official residences of Maharashtra governor and chief minister.

"Where is the Navy at Malabar Hill? There is no Navy at Malabar Hill and the Navy has nothing to do in the area," Gadkari said and invited the Navy for talks to resolve the issue.

Gadkari said he chairs a committee for stalled infrastructure projects, adding that projects are cleared "as soon as they come on the agenda".

"We are the government. The Navy and the Defence Ministry are not the government," he added.
In his first policy speech since taking over as ambassador, Juster laid out the Trump administration's agenda for India and emphasised that the US will not tolerate 'cross-border terrorism' or terror safe havens. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: The United States sees India as a "leading power" in the Indo-Pacific region, Washington's envoy to New Delhi Kenneth Juster said on Thursday, describing the country as a potential regional trade hub for American businesses.

In his first policy speech since taking over as ambassador, Juster laid out the Trump administration's agenda for India and emphasised that the US will not tolerate "cross-border terrorism" or terror safe havens.

However, Juster made no reference to Pakistan in his speech. The US recently suspended military aid to Islamabad, accusing it of "lies and deceit".

Juster acknowledged that the US and India initially had "strained" exchanges on topics related to the transfer of sensitive US technology with both military and conventional applications.

"Now, India is celebrating its membership in two of the four multilateral export control regimes -- the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use items, which India just joined, and the Missile Technology Control Regime."

"We also expect in the very near future for India to join the Australia Group on chemical and biological weapons. And we are working closely with India and our international partners to secure India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group," he said.

Juster said shared values and "common interests" inform the vision of New Delhi and Washington for the strategically significant Indo-Pacific region, in which the US considers India to be a "leading power".

On defence and counter-terrorism, Juster observed that both India and the US have suffered "horrific terrorist attacks" and continue to be targeted.

"We have a strong mutual interest in eliminating this threat to our societies. President Trump and other US leaders have been clear that we will not tolerate cross-border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere," he said.

A major part of Juster's speech was on ways to enhance economic and commercial relations. He also underlined that the US is concerned about persistent trade deficits with India. He stated that a number of US companies have reported "increasing difficulties" in conducting business in China.

Accordingly, some companies are downgrading their operations there, while others are looking with great interest at alternative markets.

"India can seize the strategic opportunity through trade and investment to become an alternative hub for US business in the Indo-Pacific region," he said, adding that Trump's poll slogan 'America First' and the Centre's flagship initiative 'Make in India' are not incompatible.
With the evolvement of digital media, by some means, we have accepted the concept of invasion with our personal space. We have now transformed into a lifestyle where personal space is just an illusion.

Right to privacy is still a much-hyped debate in India and even as per Section 21 Privacy comes under the fundamental right of every Indian. With the advent of social media, the meaning of privacy has been moulded as per our comfort and choices. But this compromise with our personal space has raised many eyebrows over our autonomies. This has mainly raised the concern about secrecy with ones personal choice of living.

With the evolvement of digital media, by some means, we have accepted the concept of invasion with our personal space. We have now transformed into a lifestyle where personal space is just an illusion. At present, the term right to privacy highlights some serious concern on the digitization of our lifestyle. Earlier ones privacy and safety were more likely considered as being alone but nowadays the digital network challenges all concepts of privacy and enters the most proximate space of ones life.

The current focus on the right to privacy is based on some new realities of the digital age. Personal spaces and safeties that were previously granted simply by physical separation are no longer protected. The digital network enters the most proximate spaces and challenges the normally accepted notions of privacy. This highlights the new means of socializing in the digital age by reducing ones autonomies.

In the contemporary world, the personal and public must be considered as two different entities and should be separated even in the digital realm. By separating these two different entities we are halting lots of crimes. These crimes are the result of digital data breaching in our personal lives and in result we end up paying a bigger price.

The growth rate of cybercrimes has been growing recklessly and it has transformed itself as one of the major contributors in annual crime rates. Cybercriminals have been intruding our privacy through social media and other digital platforms to harm us in numerous ways.

The loophole in our privacy measures has been a burgeoning opportunity for such criminals. We have been living in a delusional belief that everything we do online is safe. We do not realize that these criminals are silently trying to find a way to breach in our privacy. As per the survey conducted by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, 27,482 cases were registered in first 6 months of 2017. Such reports warn us about the higher risk of cyber-crimes in India.

Its very important for us to find out those loopholes in our privacy settings in order to deal with such offenders. Cybercrooks use hacking techniques to break into our social media accounts and devices, they steal our confidential data and then ask for a ransom for not leaking that publicly. This is the most ordinary form of cybercrime and over the decade they have improved their hacking skills and now they steal money by hacking ones bank account details. These crimes have been increasing ever since the evolution of the digital industry, putting an end to such crime is not an easy job but we can surely keep ourselves safe by following some basic safety measures.

These fraudsters approach us in the disguise of some random friend on our social media accounts and sometimes in the form of fake websites. They form fake websites to allure users to get the access to their devices. Like many other genuine websites, they will ask for automatic access to our device. They use such technique to hack our devices in order to steal money from our bank accounts, steal our confidential data. To keep yourself safe from such frauds always make sure that you do not give your devices auto access to any new website or application as it can be a trap.

Always choose your friends wisely, people we meet on social media platforms are not always as good as they pretend they are. Sometimes they turn out to be a cybercriminal trying to harm you.

Never share any confidential information with an online friend as it can land you in bigger trouble. That person might pose as your friend to win your confidence and will later plan against you. Sometimes habit of checking in also help them to track you down and cause serious harm to you.

In simple words always maintain a distance between your personal space and digital space, these two things are best when kept separate otherwise they turn out to be a troublesome invite.

 Ashish Bahukhandi, Founder and CEO, Apps Discover

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Donald Trump has a love-hate relationship with the media ever since he started his presidential election campaign. (Photo: AP/File)

Washington: US President Donald Trump claimed the news media will ultimately support him, as otherwise their ratings and businesses would be impacted.

President Trump said this a day after he opened to the press almost his entire meeting with the Congressional leadership on immigration. For this they got great ratings and reviews.

President Trump told his cabinet colleagues that he received letter of congratulations from news anchors.

"Then, after that, they were called by their bosses for saying, 'Oh, wait a minute'. And, unfortunately, a lot of those anchors sent us letters saying that was one of the greatest meetings they've ever witnessed. And they were great. For about two hours, they were phenomenal. And then they went a little bit south on us, but not that bad. It was fine," Donald Trump told his cabinet colleagues.

"They probably wish they didn't send us those letters of congratulations. But it was good. I'm sure their ratings were fantastic; they always are -- which is why I think the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because they're going to say, if Trump doesn't win in three years, they're all out of business," the US President said amid laughter from his cabinet members.

"You guys will be out of business. But the boom holders are still going to be there, so that's good. Those are the people I like," President Trump said referring to the media present in the room.

Donald Trump has a love-hate relationship with the media ever since he started his presidential election campaign.

He often attacks the mainstream media and has branded some of them as "fake news" including CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Next week, he is planning a Fake News Award for the media outlet he dislikes the most.
Quito: Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in asylum at the nations embassy in London for more than five years.

The nations foreign minister announced on Thursday that officials had decided to permit Assanges naturalization while they look for ways to resolve his situation. Foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa told a press conference that Assange became an Ecuadoran citizen on December 12.

As a result, she said Ecuador had asked London to recognise Assange as a diplomat, which would give him immunity from arrest. Ecuador gave Assange political asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for investigation of sex-related claims.

Sweden dropped the case, though Assange has remained in the embassy because he is still subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail. Earlier, Britains Foreign Office said on Thursday it had rejected Ecuadors request to grant diplomatic status to Assange, who was born in Australia.
All-weather roads listed in the road programmes monitoring data as having been completed and paid for were never built.

Washington: Subtle corruption in India has increased the chances that roads meant to connect isolated areas to the rest of the country would never be built, even though the government had paid for them, a study has found. Researchers at Princeton University in the US and the Paris School of Economics in France used an innovative technique to examine the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

The study, published in the Journal of Development Economics, found that almost 500 all-weather roads listed in the road programmes monitoring data as having been completed and paid for were never built.

The researchers connected these missing roads to political corruption  specifically, to local politicians steering road contracts to favoured businesses in their own social networks. Our results indicate that corruption in this programme directly harmed the 8,57,000 villagers whom the missing roads were meant to serve, said study lead author Jacob N. Shapiro, professor at Princeton.

To seek evidence of corruption, Shapiro and his colleagues looked at thousands of elections for members of the legislative assembly, or MLAs.

They analysed the degree to which road-building contracts shifted to contractors who shared the new MLAs surname.

Since Indian surnames are closely linked to caste, religion and geographic provenance, surnames serve as a proxy for the politicians social networks, researchers said.

They found that after a close election, the share of contractors whose surname matched that of the political winner rose more than 75 per cent, from about four per cent to about seven per cent.

Next, examining data for 90,000 roads contracted by PMGSY, Shapiro and his colleagues sought roads that had been paid for but apparently did not exist.

kWe found that road contracts allocated to politically connected contractors were significantly more likely never to be constructed, Shapiro said.
Programs to train young people for middle-skill jobs must avoid tracking, and should carefully balance industry-specific preparation with more generalizable skills to equip students for a changing workplace, according to a report issued this week.

The study, issued by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee , explores a part of the jobs-and-education landscape thats risen sharply on the publics radar in the last few years: the vast array of jobs that require more than a high school diploma and less than a bachelors degree. Those middle-skill jobs account for 48 percent of U.S. employment , according to researchers.

The report is aimed at programs that play roles in students journey from high school student to skilled employee: dual-enrollment programs or early-college high schools that give students a leg up in college; career academies that help them focus their thinking on certain occupational fields; and career-technical-education programs, work-based learning, apprenticeships, and programs that confer post-secondary certificates or associate degrees.

Policymakers and researchers are increasingly calling attention to the promise of jobs that require less than a bachelors degree. They note that there are millions of jobs that pay a middle-class wage or better, and dont require the time and debt of four years of college. Key sectors of the job market are growing quickly, and require only sub-baccalaureate credentials.

Job Preparation, Envisioned

The committee created a set of guidelines that it believes should shape programs that train students in middle-skill jobs. It also offers a state-by-state breakdown showing the portion of each states job market thats made up of middle-skill jobs, and how many registered apprenticeships exist in each state.

Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the committee, urged Congress to support programs that train students for middle-skill jobs.

A dynamic workforce is a key component of any strong economy, he said in a statement. Apprenticeships and other middle-skills pathways can enhance the skills of Americas workforce, boost U.S. competitiveness, and prepare a new generation of American workers for labor market success.

Among the principles outlined in the committees report, one in particular seeks to address a difficult part of the history of career-readiness training: tracking.

For years, schools funneled low-income and minority students into career-prep programs, many of which resulted in low-wage jobs, while their more affluent peers were placed in college-prep courses. Concern about those practices still haunts the world of career and technical education, even as the field makes conscious strides to offer moreand more-equalopportunities for all students.

The committee placed that concern at the top of its list. It said training programs for middle-skill jobs should:

Expand career opportunities without limiting future options. Well designed middle-skills programs should serve as a way for students to expand their postsecondary options rather than narrowing them, the report says. High schools must ensure that students get high-quality education that will support their moves into the workforce and also into higher education, the report says.



Well designed middle-skills programs should serve as a way for students to expand their postsecondary options rather than narrowing them, the report says. High schools must ensure that students get high-quality education that will support their moves into the workforce and also into higher education, the report says. Teach skills that are in demand by local and regional employers. To avoid leaving students in occupational dead ends, programs must keep up with changing labor market demands.



by local and regional employers. To avoid leaving students in occupational dead ends, programs must keep up with changing labor market demands. Teach specific skill sets in addition to general skills . A program thats too job-specific risks putting students in a situation where there is waning demand for their skills. Programs should offer a structured sequence of courses and training that leads clearly to credentials or degrees. The focus should be on the nature of the work within the industry, not the technical requirements of a specific job.



. A program thats too job-specific risks putting students in a situation where there is waning demand for their skills. Programs should offer a structured sequence of courses and training that leads clearly to credentials or degrees. The focus should be on the nature of the work within the industry, not the technical requirements of a specific job. Offer portable and stackable credentials. Credentials that are independently verified, or accredited, can be recognized by workplaces and training programs as students blend jobs and education. Credentials should be structured so students can use them in meaningful ways as they enter and exit the workplace while pursuing education and training.



Credentials that are independently verified, or accredited, can be recognized by workplaces and training programs as students blend jobs and education. Credentials should be structured so students can use them in meaningful ways as they enter and exit the workplace while pursuing education and training. Improve access to information and guidance. Students have too little access to information about routes to middle-skill jobs. They need information on program quality, and a skilled professional to help them design a good plan.

Anthony P. Carnevale, who studies labor market trends as the director of Georgetown Universitys Center on Education and the Workforce, said the committees report is part of an evolving national conversation about career preparation. After the landmark A Nation at Risk study of 1983, U.S. K-12 schools began eliminating vocational education because of concerns about tracking, and aimed instead to provide academic study for all students, he said.

That shift pushed career preparation largely out of high schools and into postsecondary settings, Carnevale said. Now, as many policymakers downplay the need for bachelors degrees and step up demand for career readiness, K-12 schools must figure out what part theyll play in preparing students for future occupations.

Theyre not going back to voc ed, because it was a sexist, racist, and class-based system, Carnevale said. Career and technical education can offer valuable exposure to job ideas, he said, but it shouldnt be mistaken for job training. Most jobs require significant training after high school, studies show.

The Role of Apprenticeships

Echoing a policy priority of President Donald Trump , the committees report makes a case for expanding apprenticeships. It says that the job-placement rate for apprentices is 91 percent, and that those who complete apprenticeships that are registered through the U.S. Department of Labor earn about $240,000 more during their lifetimes than their peers. Since apprenticeships are driven by employer demand, there is better match between the skills companies want and the skills students learn, the report says.

The committees data on registered apprenticeships illustrates wide variations from state to state. Little Connecticut has 5,800 people in 1,540 registered apprenticeship programs. California has only 229 registered programs, but has 48,700 apprentices in those programs. In the state of Louisiana, there are only 50 registered apprenticeship programs. (Many apprenticeship programs are not registered with the federal agency.)

States also vary by the proportion of middle-skill jobs in their labor markets and the average wages of those jobs. In many states, about 30 percent of the jobs are considered middle-skill. The District of Columbia came in at the bottom, with 17 percent, and three states topped the list with 38 percent: Indiana, Kentucky, and Wyoming. Average wages for middle-skill jobs ranged state to state, from $38,800 to $58,400.

For a three-part series on program quality, career advising, and equity in career and technical education, see:

Career and Technical Education at a Crossroads
The commitment is in addition to the India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund of USD 40 million over five years. (Photo: PTI/File)

Jerusalem: Israel will invest USD 68.6 million to boost cooperation with India in areas like tourism, technology, agriculture and innovation over a period of four years, a senior official in Jerusalem has said ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus high-profile India visit next week.

The commitment is in addition to the India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund of USD 40 million over five years with equal contribution from both sides that has already been agreed between the two sides, deputy Director General of Israels Foreign Ministry, Gilad Cohen said.

Netanyahu will be leading a high-profile delegation comprising 130 businessmen from 102 Israeli companies drawn from areas like agriculture, water, cyber security, health care and security on his four day trip to India starting January 14.

It will be the second visit by an Israeli Prime Minister to India after a gap of 15 years since Ariel Sharon visited New Delhi in 2003. The visit comes merely six months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Jewish state, becoming the first Indian premier to do so.

Several MoUs, including in the field of oil and gas, renewable energy, amended protocol for airports, cyber security, co-production of films and documentaries will be signed between the two sides.

Israels Saare Tzedek hospital would be signing an agreement with Indias Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well.

Informed sources in Jerusalem said that this relates to sharing of knowledge in the field of homoeopathy and ayurveda that have been gaining popularity in Israel over the last few years. Technion-Israel Institute of Technology would also be signing an agreement with Ministry of Science and Technology, sources here said.

Reciprocating the warm reception extended to him by Netanyahu, Modi is likely to spend a lot of time with his Israeli counterpart during the trip.

Netanyahu accompanied Modi almost throughout his three day trip in July of last year, an honour generally reserved for Presidents of Israels close ally the United States.

The Indian Prime Minister will be hosting a private dinner for Netanyahu on January 14 after his arrival in New Delhi. The Israeli leader would be meeting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also the same day.

The Israeli Prime Minister would be formally welcomed the next day at the Rashtrapari Bhawan following which he would lay wreath at Rajghat.

He would be then participating in a dialogue at Hyderabad house which will also include a one-on-one discussion with Modi. Meetings with President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu are also scheduled for Monday.

Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara, would be travelling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal on Tuesday and return to Delhi to participate in the Raisina Dialogue.

Modi would be accompanying Netanyahu to Gujarat on Wednesday where he will be welcomed in the same fashion as Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was with a road show in Ahmadabad.

The road show is said to be an 8-kilometer drive from the airport to the Sabarmati Ashram. The two leaders will also be witnessing several innovative technologies in the field of water, agriculture and health at iCreate and visit a Centre of Excellence.

Netanyahu would be arriving in Mumbai on Wednesday in the evening where he would be meeting with the Indian Jewish community.

A packed schedule on Thursday for the Israeli Prime Minister in Mumbai would include a power breakfast with Indian business leaders, a business seminar, attending two memorial services for the victims of Mumbai terror attacks at the Taj hotel and Nariman House and finally a gala event with Bollywood actors, directors and producers.
The state BJP will launch a 'jail bharo' agitation on Friday if Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC Working President Dinesh Gundu Rao do not apologise for comparing RSS and BJP to terrorists.



BJP State General Secretary Shobha Karnadlaje told reporters that party workers will hit the streets with the slogan "nanu BJP nanu RSS".

"If the government considers us terrorists then let them arrest us", she challenged.

Karandlaje said Congress was fueling terrorism in Karnataka for its survival by supporting organisations like Popular Front of India (PFI).
Today is the death anniversary of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of Independent India.



To commemorate the man that was the face behind India's White Revolution, let us revisit a short account of his life.



Birth and the advent of Shastri's part in the freedom struggle



The boy who would become the staunch, hardy freedom fighter inspired by the Mahatma was born on October 2, 1904. The entirety of India was already clamouring for release from the British Raj when he was born.



Following his family tradition of getting an education in Urdu, Shastri found an inspiration in one of his teachers at the Harish Chandra Singh High School, which coupled with a rousing speech from the Mahatma, urging students to enter the non-cooperation movement, resulted in the young man entering the rising freedom struggle.



Like so many who preceded him, Shastri was jailed countless times for his actions and did a total of 9 years behind bars, which he spent reading works of Western philosophers, social reformers and revolutionaries.



Political career



Eventually, India won its independence and with it, began Shastri's political career. He began by becoming Parliamentary Secretary in Uttar Pradesh in 1951 and went on to handle various positions including Minister of Police and Transport in UP, where he introduced women conductors and issued orders to the police to use water jets as opposed to lathi charge to disperse crowds. It was under his watch that the early communal riots were brought under control.



His political career only went up from there as he was soon made the general secretary of the Congress under the Premiership of Jawaharlal Nehru and the post of Railways minister in 1952.



After Nehru's death in '64, Shastri entered the fray to fill the void left behind. With the help of K. Kamaraj and his own appeal to the people, Shastri became the second Prime Minister, beating the right-wing conservative Maoraji Desai to the post of Premier.



It was during his time that the government, attempting to establish Hindi as the sole national language, saw anti-Hindi agitation in many of the non-Hindi speaking states, especially Madras. Shastri's assurance that the non-Hindi states may continue using English helped tide the agitation over.



White and Green Revolution



The White and Green Revolutions, commonly accepted to be Shastri's biggest contributions to the Indian economy, came soon after. Amul, found under the tutelage of Verghese Kurien, found significant support by Shastri, who appealed to him to replicate the Amul model across the country and founded the National Dairy Development Board to that effect.



A believer in the ideology that one must first attempt something before asking others to do the same, Shastri decided that his family would skip a meal per week and then appealed to the country to do the same, that those less fortunate could be fed. This resulted in the eponymous 'Shastri Vrat', which involved even eateries closing their shutters one day per week.



Indo-Pak war, 1965



The 22-day long Indo-Pak war of 1965 saw Shastri's still-renowned slogan 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan' come to the fore. As Pakistan bore down upon India, Shastri refused to bow, saying that it would be fine with living in poverty for a little longer, but freedom cannot be subverted.



During the course of the War, even China stepped in to try and strong-arm Shastri by alleging that India set up equipment in Chinese territory and threatened military action, which did not deter him in any way.



On September 17, 1965, the United Nations stepped in and mandated a ceasefire, ending the war before it became any worse for both young nations.



Death



Lal Bahadur Shastri's death remains to this day, an unsolved phenomenon. Shortly after the UN ceasefire, the leaders of India and Pakistan met Soviet leaders to sign the Tashkent Declaration to end the conflict for good. The Declaration preceded multiple high-profile incidents: the downfall of Ayub Khan, the birth of Pakistan People's Party and the death of Shastri in a foreign land, the first such incident of its kind.



Shastri was reported to have died in his hotel room at 0200 hours, reportedly of a heart attack, just hours after signing the Declaration. Despite many probes into how a man who had no prior heart ailments and was in generally good health died of a heart attack fueled conspiracy theories that he was poisoned by the CIA. To this day, all RTI applications filed for the disclosure of the circumstances and exact details surrounding Shastri's death have been declined for various reasons.
The Delhi High Court today rejected the bail plea of a middleman, arrested in the Election Commission bribery case allegedly involving AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran and others.



Justice Mukta Gupta dismissed the bail application of middleman, Sukesh Chandrashekar, who was arrested on April 16 last year and was denied bail once by the high court and thrice by the trial court.

The Delhi Police had opposed his bail plea saying his conduct, even while in custody, had shown scant respect for the law and therefore, he should not be granted the relief.

Additional Public Prosecutor Hirein Sharma had told the court that three more cases were registered against Chandrashekar while he was in custody and there were a total of 24 FIRs lodged against him.

Referring to the new FIRs lodged against him while he was in custody, the prosecutor had said while Chandrashekar was supposed to be taken by train, he was going by air along with nine policemen, all of whom were dismissed from service.

The lawyer had also claimed that the accused had made a call to the trial court judge hearing the case, impersonating a person from a Supreme Court judge's office and asked her to release him on bail.

The call was traced to a constable's phone while Chandrashekar was in custody, the prosecutor alleged.

Senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog and advocate Anand Pandey, appearing for Chandrashekar, had contended that the alleged main beneficiary, Dhinakaran, was already out on bail and the same relief was granted to the policemen.

They said the other accused in the case, including Dhinakaran's close aide Mallikarjuna, as well as suspected hawala operators Nathu Singh and Lalit Kumar were on bail.

The high court had on June 15 last year rejected his bail plea on the ground that the police had seized a fake Rajya Sabha member ID card from his possession.

A charge sheet was filed by the police before the trial court in the case on July 14 last year, alleging that Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar had conspired to bribe Election Commission (EC) officials to get the 'two leaves' symbol for their party.

The police has also included in the charge sheet allegations of forgery for purpose of cheating, using a forged document as genuine, possessing a forged document, intending to use it as genuine and criminal conspiracy.

Chandrashekar has also moved a separate plea in the high court alleging he was tortured despite an order not to subject him to violence inside the Tihar Jail where he is in custody.

The claim was denied by the jail authorities, who said it was an "afterthought of the shrewd mind of the accused".

Chandrashekar was arrested for allegedly taking money from Dhinakaran to bribe EC officials to get the AIADMK 'two leaves' symbol for the Sasikala faction in a by-election to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu.

Dhinakaran, also charge-sheeted by the police, was arrested here on April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe EC officials for the symbol. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, who represented the assembly segment.

The EC had frozen the AIADMK's symbol after the two factions--one led by Dhinakaran's aunt Sasikala and the other by former chief minister O Panneerselvam--staked a claim to it.

Mallikarjuna was arrested for allegedly facilitating a Rs 50 crore deal between Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar.
It is not often that I describe a book I have read as a treasure, but David Driscolls Commitment and Common Sense: Leading Education Reform in Massachusetts is exactly that. The book, written in the form of a memoir, is mainly the story of the implementation of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act , a comprehensive redesign of the Massachusetts education system that enabled the state, alone among all the states in the United States, to enter the ranks of the worlds top-performing education systems.

The book tells it like it is. It is an authentic, at times funny, always compelling account of how this landmark comprehensive policy reform was shaped and implemented. It wont surprise you that I strongly recommend that you buy this book and read it.

But, at the same time, I would urge some caution. I have known David Driscoll for many years and, like so many others, come to love him. He is such a decent, caring human being, overflowing with that most uncommon quality: common sense as well as a vast horde of carefully considered experience. The very antithesis of an ideologue, he can see merit in each of two opposing views. He can hold his own, but he does not seem to hold a grudge. Politician seems now to be a swear word, but Driscoll is an education politician of the highest order, if by politician you mean a person who has the personal gifts needed to bring people from every station in life and point of view and narrow interest together to forge a new way of doing things at scale. He was exactly the right person to lead the implementation of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act.

It is also true, as Driscoll points out in his book, that Massachusetts was extremely lucky in its leadership when it most needed it. Driscoll was not alone. Were it not for an extraordinary business leader, a gifted advisor to that business leader, several governors in succession of both parties, key legislative leaders and Driscolls predecessor as Commissioner of Education, all of whom were deeply committed to what became their common agenda, the Massachusetts Miracle would almost certainly have died aborning. If just one of those people had opposed the effort or simply dragged his or her feet, the whole thing might easily have come apart.

Commitment and Common Sense, more than anything else, reads like a study in leadership. And that is the problem. Yes, it is unquestionably true that the stars lined up for Massachusetts, enabling the state to create a comprehensive agenda for education that not only gained enough support for passage as legislation, but went on to be deeply and widely implemented over a period of many years. And, yes, it took courage, commitment and persistence of a kind rarely seen in American politics at either the state or national levels.

So it is not surprising that most of the reaction to Driscolls book has come in the form of praise for Driscoll and the other people who can reasonably share the credit for leading Massachusetts to a level of success at a scale that no other state in the United States has managed to come close to. The praise is well deserved and the qualities of leadership and commitment that were displayed are justly celebrated.

But that very fact can make it seem that it was the remarkable alignment among an unusual constellation of leaders, and not the agenda they embraced, that accounted for their success. What this account of the Massachusetts Miracle leaves in the background are the specific policies and practices that the state implemented to achieve the student performance it now enjoys. Those policies and practices are very important. It is highly likely that if another set of policies and practices had been pursued with the same persistence and courage, the results would have been nowhere near as impressive.

How do I know that? Because our organization, NCEE, has been studying the countries with the most successful education systems for almost 30 years and has been able to identify nine common components of those high-performance education systems. The program of reform that Massachusetts enacted, it turns out, is largely addressed to those components. This is not to say that Massachusetts was influenced by the other countries. I have no evidence that they did any such thing. But it is evidence that these components need to be present in any design for an education system to produce high performance at scale. Further, as Driscoll points out in the book, you need them all. This is not a collection of separate policies. They collectively constitute a new system.

Our organization has distilled what we have learned about what it takes to create high performance education systems into a document titled 9 Building Blocks for a World-Class Education System. What follows is the heading for each building block, with a very brief commentary on the way in which Massachusetts has addressed each of them:

1. Provide strong supports for children and their families before students come to school

Here we refer to high-quality early childhood education, quality affordable day care, child allowances, health care, paid family leave, wrap around social services and other services for families with young children. This is the one building block for highly successful education systems that Massachusetts did not address. As Driscoll put it to me in a conversation, We punted on this one. Paul Reville, one of the key figures involved in designing the Massachusetts Education Reform Act, after later serving as Secretary of Education in the state, stepped down to devote himself to addressing this oversight by leading a wide-ranging research program at Harvard University designed to help the state identify and implement the policies needed, especially by low-income and racial and ethnic minorities, to send their children to school with the health, confidence, vocabularies, cultural experiences, levels of cognitive development and social skills they would need to succeed in school. I am of the view, a view I think is shared by Reville, that if Massachusetts were to create a powerful set of well-designed and well-aligned programs in this area, it could substantially close the gaps in performance between low-income and minority children in the state and the high flyers.

2. Provide more resources for at-risk students than for others

The Massachusetts education reform act had been preceded by a school finance case charging that the state had failed to provide adequate funds to districts serving mainly poor children. This set the stage for a bill that would include revising the school finance formulas to provide more equity in school finance. But Governor Weld had come to office pledging no new taxes. He was widely viewed as a classic budget hawk and it was widely assumed that he would be opposed to any large increase in school funding, without which an increase for schools serving low-income and minority students would have been very difficult. But he was totally on board with the reform program and offered to increase the education budget by two billion dollars if the educators agreed to raise the standards for student performance and agreed to be held accountable for getting their students to the standards. And he followed through, while keeping his promise not to raise taxes. The formula for distributing the funds was much more equitable than the one it replaced.

3. Develop world-class, highly coherent instructional systems

This is one of the great success stories of the Massachusetts design. Massachusetts still leads the nation in the quality and integrity of its state instructional system, which continues to have important features not yet adoptedto my knowledgeby any other state. By instructional system I mean a highly-aligned system of standards for student performance, curriculum frameworks and assessments, with course requirements well enough specified so that the observer can be sure that expectations for all students are everywhere the same. Further, that teachers colleges are expected to teach prospective teachers how to teach the courses that students are expected to take. And, finally, that the questions asked in state examinations are released along with an explanation of how each question relates to the standards. This last piece costs real money, because test items have to be developed and field tested to replace the ones released. But Driscoll evidently understood that the purpose of a good assessment system is not just to measure but to help improve student performance, in this case by giving both teachers and students a clear idea of what kinds of work students need to do to reach the published standards. Without that, teachers and students are shooting in the dark. The United States as a whole continues to be way behind the international leaders in this crucial arena, but, while Massachusetts could still take some lessons from some of the global top performers, it is way ahead of the U.S. pack.

4. Create clear gateways for students through the system, set to global standards, with no dead ends

Here again, Massachusetts is way out front in the United States. As Driscoll tells the tale, there was a battle royal over where the cut points would be set for the new state exams. Many wanted to do what Texas had done and set them low and then try to inch them up. In the shootout, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Board Chair lined up against the then-Commissioner of Education, who lost his job over the issue. The decision was made to set the standards for graduation at a level comparable to the Proficient level on NAEP. Many predicted that a large proportion would fail to graduate and chaos would ensue. But, when the educators, parents and students stopped resisting, they buckled down to work, and student performance ended up much higher than most had predicted.

5. Assure an abundant supply of highly qualified teachers

The nations in the worlds top ranks put a lot of emphasis on this strategy and most do it mainly by limiting the right to offer teacher education to top universities with tough entrance standards, thereby assuring the country of a steady supply of teachers who did very well in high school. But it is very, very hard to do this in the United States. So, Massachusetts did the next best thing. It greatly raised its standards for licensing teachers, and created a new set of licensing exams for this purpose, abandoning the very weak PRAXIS tests used by most states.

6. Redesign schools to be places in which teachers will be treated as professionals, with incentives and support to continuously improve their professional practice and the performance of their students

One of the least understood (in the United States) but most important factors in the success of the countries with the highest-performing education systems is their approach to school organization and management. It is a fundamental change from an early 20th century form of industrial organization in which teachers are treated like blue collar workers to a modern form of professional work organization in which teachers are treated as real professionals. More and more in these countries, one finds that teachers are teaching only 40 or 45 percent of their time. The rest of their time, they are working in teams to create highly effective lessons which they then all use, combing the worlds research literature to find ways to improve their collective practice, sharing their findings with their colleagues, assembling all the teachers of a student who is falling behind to pool their knowledge of what is going on with that student and agreeing on what is to be done to get the student back on track. It feels much more like a modern law firm or engineering firm than like an old assembly line. It turns out that Massachusetts set out to move their schools toward these new forms of work organization, too. They do not seem to be as far along this track as some high performers, but they appear to be well ahead of any other state I know of.

7. Create an effective system of career and technical education and training

Most states have been talking for years about getting their students college and career ready, but have been doing very little about the career part. When they have addressed the career part, it has often come in the context of assuming that career and technical education is for the kids who are not very good at academics. That is not what the top performers have done. They assume that, whether a student is going on to college or to a career after high school, that student needs to meet high academic standards. That is what Massachusetts did. Because it did that, it could build a career and technical education system on the assumption that the students coming into that system had a solid command of the basic skills. Their regional vocational high school system is among the most admired in the country. While I think it has a way to go to match the achievements of Singapore or Switzerland in this arena, its recognition that a good high school vocational program has to be built on the assumption that the students entering that program have a strong mastery of the basic skills coming in enabled the state to create a strong base on which they can now build to create a world-class career and technical education program.

8. Create a leadership development system that develops leaders at all levels to manage such systems effectively

It is with some pride that I can say that, when Driscoll and his colleagues went looking for a highly effective, highly efficient way to give their principals the leadership training they would need to implement the new reforms with energy, commitment and understanding, they came to our National Institute for School Leadership s Executive Development program. Over a period of many years, we ended up training almost all of Massachusetts principals and many of their successors. One of the things that distinguish the top-performing nations from most American states is that they put as much energy and capital into implementing their reforms as they do into the design of their reforms and the passage of the enabling legislation. Many of them have said to me, in so many words, Implementation is policy. That is, the only policy that matters is the policy that is implemented. Training is the key to good implementation and a good part of that training is providing a compelling rationale for the reforms as well as the skills needed to carry them out effectively. Driscoll makes it clear over and over again that, in the last analysis, reforms do not succeed because practitioners are made to do them but because they think they are the right thing to do. That is how the top performers do it and it is how we approach our training.

9. Institute a governance system that has the authority and legitimacy to develop coherent, powerful policies and is capable of implementing them at scale

Effective systems reform requires the kind of coordinated actions that are needed to build highly aligned systems. That function is typically provided by a ministry of education. But the states in the United States usually have highly fragmented systems of governance that make it almost impossible to create coherent, powerful education systems. Massachusetts has worked hard to fix this over the years, at the school level, the district level and the state level. At the school level, for instance, it made it clear that the principal chooses his or her subordinates. At the district level, it removed the authority of school boards to play any role whatsoever in personnel decisions except for the hiring and firing of the superintendent. At the state level, it created a new cabinet level position of Secretary of Education reporting to the Governor, responsible for coordinating all of the previously separate entities in the education arena at all levels. These actions have not yet given the state the equivalent of a ministry of education, but, step by step, the fragmentation of education governance in Massachusetts has been reduced and the coherence of its education policy has been increased.

The Massachusetts Miracle owes its success to great leadership, sound design and good implementation. The design is not perfect. There are other countries, provinces and states elsewhere in the world that do parts of this design better than Massachusetts, just as there are parts that Massachusetts does better than some of them. If your state is interested in going down this path, give us a call. If you have the leadership, we will help you come up with the design and we will help you implement it. Thats what we do.
The aftermath of a Louisiana teachers arrest at a school board meeting this week continues to play out after video footage capturing the incident went viral. Deyshia Hargrave, an English teacher at Rene A. Rost Middle School in Abbeville, La., was handcuffed and arrested after publicly challenging the Vermilion district school boards 5-3 decision to give the superintendent a roughly $30,000 raise , according to the Sacramento Bee. Hargrave pointed out that teachers have not gotten raises despite their class sizes having increased over the years.



Since Monday night, the video has pulled in more than 2.5 million views and spurred an online petition of support for Hargrave with more than 20,000 signatures. On Tuesday, the school boards office went into lockdown mode after receiving death threats from the United States and abroad, CBS News reported. Louisianas governor called the incident regrettable, and two of the districts board members have voiced their general concerns about how the board treats women who speak up at meetings.

The school board has since stated they did not want to press any charges against Hargrave, with the superintendent saying he called police after the meeting to make the boards wishes clear. However, Anthony Fontana, the boards president, told a local TV station that the officer who arrested Hargrave did nothing wrong. This is not about the board, its about the teacher and everybody wants to side on the poor little woman who got thrown out, Fontana said to WAFB-TV. She could have walked out and nothing would have happened. (Hargrave did walk out of the meeting when asked. By the time the videographer made it to the hallway, she was already on the ground being handcuffed.)



I was always taught that whats right is right and whats wrong is wrong and when you see something, you should say its wrong, even though it doesnt involve you, Hargrave said in a video response posted by the Louisiana Association of Educators. This particular issue directly involved me, directly involved my students, my fellow educators, support staff ... so I chose to speak out. ... Please dont let the conversation end with me.

The Fallout of Speaking Out

This latest incident and its wave of public outcry is not an isolated one, bringing up larger questions around the complexities of disagreements between school boards and public meeting attendees, such as educators and parents. While its not common for dialogue at school board meetings to result in arrest, the Student Press Law Center reports, there is an increasing track record of school districts restricting public comments during board meetingsan action that, in most cases, goes against the First Amendment. But situations arent always black and white.

Heres a look at other times school boards clashed with the public over free speech:

In some cases, districts want to keep personalized criticisms quiet.

At least two school districts in Kansas employ policies that limit direct public complaints about district employees. In Topeka, Kan., negative comments about the superintendent and employees are not allowed at board meetings, while Wichita Public Schools rules out maligning the integrity, character, or competency of any district employee or student. Comments may be made in writing or private meetings.

Boards have restricted meeting access around claims of individuals threatening public safety.

In Vermont, a federal court overturned a no-trespassing order for a parent who was not allowed at school board meetings. The school supervisory union said they had received a tip that the parent might be dangerous to school employees, but would not give further details.

And a court ruled in favor of a Pennsylvania man over his right to free speech after the Panther Valley School District banned him from coming to school meetings and events. The school board said that in one exchange over a district contract, the man mentioned some of his friends have guns, and in another exchange, he said, Dont laugh. I may have to come after all of yous.

Whether its a parent or a school board candidate, input is sometimes heated.

A parent in New Hampshire faced charges of disorderly conduct in 2014 after a terse exchange with school board members over a dispute about a book with graphic sexual content. The man was protesting the districts reading requirement of Jodi Picoults Nineteen Minutes, and a police officer asked him to leave.

You are going to arrest me because I violated the [meetings] two-minute [speaking] rule? the man says in captured video footage. I guess you are going to have to arrest me.

And in 2016, a Brevard County, Fla., school board candidate made what the boards chairman called inappropriate remarks at a meeting concerning a non-discrimination policy for LGBTQ people, according to Florida Today . The candidate was arrested for resisting an officer who asked him to leave after the school board chairman requested he step away from the microphone.

What about when recording is involved?

In 2014, a Wisconsin reporter who was asked by the Gibraltar, Wisc., school boards attorney to turn off her recorder at a board meeting continued to tape the session, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

The board can make a decision down the road if the board would like to tape sessions and that may be something that youd like to have the board consider, but this is a reporter, and at this point Im just going to ask that she please remove that from the table, the attorney said.

Others in the audience backed up the reporters right to record.

And in Huntsville, Ala., in 2016, a security official asked a woman livestreaming the districts school board meeting on Facebook to first sit down and, when she refused, to leave. The schools spokesperson told AL.com that he was asking the woman to sit down, not to stop recording. This followed a similar incident in 2012 where a school security officer prevented a parent from recording a video.

In a response earlier this week, Education Week Teacher opinion blogger Christina Torres added her two cents about Hargraves arrest: The real purpose of education is not about making any [of] us comfortable, compliant, or silent, she wrote. If administrators and policymakers want educators to teach critical thinking skills to our students, shouldnt we, as teachers, also be able to critically think and question the system as well?

Librarian Holly Peele contributed to this story.

Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash
NC Congressional Map Unconstitutionally Gerrymandered, Circuit Rules

Last month, researchers from the Electoral Integrity Project scored North Carolina's overall electoral integrity at 58/100, placing it alongside the likes of Cuba, Indonesia, and Sierra Leone in terms of fostering free and fair and democratic elections. Not exactly the best of company. So bad, in fact, that those in charge of the study didn't consider our twelfth state a democracy.

While North Carolina was lacking in terms of legal framework and voter registration, the main points of contention were its voting district boundaries. "North Carolina is not only the worst state in the USA for unfair districting," according to the EIP, "but the worst entity in the world."

It seems a federal court in North Carolina agreed, ordering the state to redraw its congressional map. It marks the first time a federal court has blocked a state's congressional map because of partisan gerrymandering.

Discriminatory Intent and Effect

According to the court, the state's General Assembly "was motivated by invidious partisan intent in drawing" up the 2016 Congressional Redistricting Plan, and "intended to discriminate against voters who supported or were likely to support non-Republican candidates."

Not only was the Plan intended to discriminate against certain voters, the court ruled that it had its intended effect: "When viewed in totality, we find Plaintiffs' evidence more than sufficient to prove that the 2016 Plan has discriminated, and will continue to discriminate, against voters who support non-Republican candidates."

Redrawing the Legal Lines

Perhaps even more importantly, the panel of judges noted an "absence of authority" when it comes to a plaintiff proving that a districting plan "discriminates against voters who are likely to support a disfavored candidate or party." So it decided to construct one of its own:

Drawing on the Supreme Court's definition of "partisan gerrymandering," we

conclude that to meet the discriminatory effects requirement, the Equal Protection Clause demands that a partisan gerrymandering plaintiff show that a challenged districting plan "subordinate[s the interests] of one political party and entrench[es] a rival party in power." ... A plaintiff proves a districting plan "subordinates" the interests of supporters of a disfavored candidate party by demonstrating that the redistricting plan is biased against such individuals. The bias requirement reflects the Equal Protection Clause's animating dictate that states must govern "impartially" -- that "the State should treat its voters as standing in the same position, regardless of their political beliefs or party affiliation."

What that means for the future of North Carolina's congressional map remains to be seen. Republicans could appeal the ruling or set about redrawing the map; one that would hopefully score a bit better on the EIP test.

Related Resources:
A biker died and his pillion rider sustained injuries when their motorcycle was knocked down by a speeding car on Thursday morning.



The deceased has been identified as Sahadeva Reddy (21), a native of Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, the police said. He was a contract employee with the IAF and was on his way to work with his colleague Sunil (26) when the accident took place. It happened on the service road near the Indian Air Force campus near Yelahanka.

The car was driven by an airport customs official, Ezhil Venu, who was arrested by the Yelahanka police. Venu was driving back home from the Kempegowda International Airport after a night shift.

According to the police, Venu was driving in a rash and negligent manner. He was sleepy and lost control of the car before it collided with the bike, they said.

The handle of the two-wheeler got lodged in the rear of the car. The bike was dragged for some distance before the car slipped into a drain.

Passers-by rushed to rescue the bikers. Reddy was shifted to a nearby hospital, but was declared brought dead.

The police have registered a case of accidental death due to rash and negligent driving against Venu.
China Sees New Landing Ship Useful in Island Dispute



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SEATTLE (AP)  A Seattle contractor has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of an employee who was killed when a sewer trench collapsed in 2016.

The Seattle Times reports Philip Numrich allegedly violated and ignored safety regulations, leading to the collapse of the trench at a West Seattle home in January 2016 that killed 36-year-old Harold Felton.





. . .
110118 NAKIN ACKNOWLEDGES MUSIC FOR CONTRIBUTING TO PEACE

By Aloysius Laukai



The National member for North Bougainville, WILLIAM NAKIN says this years YUMI WAN FESTIVAL is appropriately themed UNITY IN DIVERSITY as in realily we may be different yet we are one.

Speaking at the official Opening ceremony of the Festival yesterday, MR. NAKIN commended the festival committee for initiating the festival as an activity by various Bougainville artists to promote a serious sense of unity in what used to be a very disunited Bougainville.

A Bougainville full of fear, mistrust and hatred for one another as a result of the TEN YEAR Bloody Bougainville Conflict.

He said your songs, your music has had a powerful effect in the way the people behave, especially towards the unification process on Bougainville.

He also mentioned past such initiatives and collective efforts by many that has paid peace dividend over the years.

Meanwhile, One Bougainville ex-combatant, ISHMAEL TOROAMA performed some unity songs with his group yesterday whilst many continued today and will continue to Saturday.

Groups came as far as Central Bougainville, Kunua/Kereaka and Buka island.

New Dawn FM will continue to promote the festival until the closing ceremony on Saturday.



Ends


Fresh search for MH370 as Malaysia offers US firm up to 70 mn

The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will resume as Malaysia signed a deal on Wednesday to pay a US seabed exploration firm up to $70 million if it finds the missing aircraft within 90 days of embarking on a new search in the southern Indian Ocean.

The disappearance of the Boeing 777 aircraft en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014 with 239 people aboard is considered modern aviation's biggest mystery.

Australia, China and Malaysia ended a fruitless A$200 million ($157 million) search of a 120,000 sq km area in January last year, despite investigators urging the search be extended to a 25,000 sq km area further to the north.

Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said a Houston-based private firm, Ocean Infinity, would search for MH370 in that 25,000-sq-km priority area on a "no-cure, no-fee" basis, meaning it will only get paid if it finds the plane.

''It is my hope that we will find the answer that we seek for nearly four years and bring some closure to this unfortunate incident,'' Liow said at a press conference outside Kuala Lumpur.

The government signed a contract with Ocean Infinity on Wednesday, but said the company would only be paid if it locates the aircraft or flight recorders.

"As we speak, the vessel, Seabed Constructor, is on her way to the search area, taking advantage of favourable weather conditions in the South Indian ocean," Liow said.

The search will begin on 17 January, said Ocean Infinity chief executive Oliver Plunkett, who attended the signing event.

Ocean Infinity will be paid $20 million if the plane is found within 5,000 sq km, $30 million if it is found within 10,000 square km and $50 million if it is found within an area of 25,000 square km. Beyond that area, Ocean Infinity will receive $70 million, Liow said.

Its priority is to locate the wreckage or the flight and cockpit recorders, and present credible evidence to confirm their location within 90 days, Liow added. "They cannot take forever or drag it on for another six months or a year."

Ocean Infinity's vessel carries eight autonomous underwater vehicles that will scour the seabed with scanning equipment for information to be sent back for analysis.

It has 65 crew, including two government representatives drawn from the Malaysian navy.

The ship could complete the search within three or four weeks, and cover up to 60,000 square km in 90 days, or four times faster than earlier efforts, Plunkett told Reuters.

"It was a unique problem that required a unique solution ... we looked at it and said, 'Let's do something different than what other people would do,' and that's the essence of our business."

Ocean Infinity's core business is in the oil and gas industry, as well as subsea exploration services for tasks such as underwater cabling and seabed mapping, he said.

The company's shareholders would bear the upfront costs of the search, Plunkett added.

Investigators believe MH370 headed south over the Indian Ocean for about six hours before plummeting into the water. While no bodies have ever been recovered, a few fragments of the jet have turned up on Africa's eastern seaboard.

At least three pieces of debris collected from sites on Indian Ocean islands and along Africa's east coast have been confirmed as being from the missing plane.

The previous search effort and the wreckage found have allowed researchers to revise their assessments on the search area, underpinning Ocean Infinity's confidence in finding the aircraft, Plunkett said.

Debris from MH370 could provide clues to events on board before the crash. There have been competing theories that the aircraft suffered mechanical failure or was intentionally flown off course.

Investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off the plane's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles out over the Indian Ocean.
Pak scribe working for Indian channel attacked, alleges kidnap bid

A prominent Pakistani journalist known for being critical of Pakistan's powerful military today said he was beaten and threatened with death by nearly a dozen unidentified armed men who tried to abduct him.

Taha Siddiqui

Taha Siddiqui, the Pakistani bureau chief of Indian television channel World Is One News (WION), was attacked as he was on his way to the Islamabad airport to board a flight for London. He received minor injuries as he resisted, and his phone was snatched away.

Siddiqui said he was attacked by 10-12 men but managed to escape kidnapping. In a series of tweets, he said, "I was on my way to [the] airport today at 8:20 am when 10-12 armed men stopped my cab [and] forcibly tried to abduct me.

"Saale ko goli maaro (shoot him)," the men, who Taha said were armed with Kalashnikov atomatic rifles and pistols, shouted.

The assailants were accompanied by a Toyota Vigo without a number plate. They grabbed him and tried to take him away, but he resisted and ran away during the scuffle and sought help.

In a further post, Siddiqui said that he had managed to escape the ''kidnapping attempt'' and that he was "safe and with the police now".

"Looking for support in any way possible," Siddiqui added, ending his tweet with the hashtag #StopEnforcedDisappearances.

Siddiqui is a winner of France's highest journalism award, The Albert Londres Prize.

Superintendent of Police Mustafa Tanveer confirmed that Siddiqui approached police soon after the incident. Tanveer said that Siddiqui was in a Uber taxi when he was stopped by armed men.

Hamid Mir, who was attacked in Karachi in 2014, tweeted in support of Taha, ''They tried their best to kill me followed me many kilometers I received last bullet close to hospital but they were not powerful than Allah.''

Taha's friends and colleagues tweeted his pictures of torn shirt with blood stains.

Taha later came to the National Press Club in Islamabad where journalists took out a protest to condemn the kidnap bid.

In May last year, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had issued a notice to Siddiqui, known for posting comments on social media against the military, and asked him to appear before its counterterrorism wing.

Siddiqui had filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court alleging that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had harassed him over the phone.

In his petition, Siddiqui had alleged that a man named Noman Bodla, who identified himself as a member of the Counter Terrorism Department of the FIA, had called him and attempted to pressure him into appearing for an interrogation at the FIA headquarters.

He added in his petition that he "was reluctant to go to the FIA Headquarters on the basis that there have been several reports in the press where such phone calls are made and once the person who is to be interrogated sets out to the FIA Headquarters, he is either picked up and disappeared or detained illegally."

The Pakistani military has denied any role in any enforced disappearances, as has the civilian government. Militants have also targeted journalists in the past.

On 24 May, the Indian High Commission had asked the FIA to stop harassing the journalist.

While Pakistan is known to have a surprisingly free press for a country that has been a dictatorship for most of its existence, freedom definitely does not spell safety. In November, the 2017 World Press Freedom Index placed Pakistan among the most dangerous countries for journalists  it was ranked 139th out of 180 countries.
A Florida man was arrested Tuesday in Enterprise after allegedly throwing meth out of his vehicle during a traffic stop.

According to a news release from the Coffee County Sheriffs Office, Kevin Larrubia, 33, of Cottondale, Florida, was being pulled over by county investigators for a traffic violation at about 1:30 p.m. at Boll Weevil Circle and Highway 167. The release said Larrubia threw a bag containing meth, or ice, out of the vehicle while coming to a stop in the parking lot of Lowes.

Larrubia was charged with drug trafficking and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The release also said a citizen was thanked by investigators for helping in the apprehension. The citizens name was not released and no further details were made available.
A suspicious burglary call Wednesday sent Houston County deputies and Jackson County (Florida) deputies on a mission to stop a motor vehicle.

A call came in to the Houston County Sheriffs Office Wednesday about a burglary in progress. When investigators approached the residence near Eddins Road, a suspect fled with a refrigerator in the back of his pickup truck, said Houston County Maj. Bill Rafferty.

The suspect basically traveled through the countryside in that area, Rafferty said. The suspect continued to travel across Houston County at a high rate of speed before crossing over into Florida. Jackson County Sheriff deputies also joined the pursuit. The suspect tried to hit one of our patrol units head-on trying to escape.

Deputies decided to use the pit maneuver to stop the suspects vehicle. Once the suspect came to a complete stop, it was determined the refrigerator in the back of his pickup truck was stolen.

The suspect was arrested and faces several traffic violations in Jackson County and one charge of first-degree attempted assault and one count of fleeing and eluding law enforcement in Houston County.

The suspect is an Alabama resident, but has not been named by officers.
Alabama Gov. Kay Iveys plan to boost pre-K spending by $23 million in the upcoming legislative session would help the program reach the critical mass needed for more rapid expansion.

Iveys proposal would represent the largest single-year increase since the program was created. For the past five years, early education advocates have successfully lobbied the Legislature for more funds for pre-K programs. As a result, the state has increased the number of four-year-olds enrolled in its program  regarded as one of the best in the nation  from 6 percent of eligible children to 28 percent.

Allison Muhlendorf, executive director of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance, said that if the Legislature approves the additional funding, that figure could go up to 34 percent.

This would add 200 classrooms and serve 3,600 children, she said.

More importantly, it will create sufficient momentum for schools, churches, and daycares offering state-funded pre-k classrooms to expand their programs at a lower cost. Alabamas pre-k program is delivered by a quilt of public schools and other organizations receiving grants from the state.

Muhlendorf said the existing investments in pre-K classrooms will allow organizations to capitalize on economies of scale to expand their programs. As a result, theyll be able to add more programs at a lower cost to the state, allowing for more rapid expansion.

Early childhood education advocates hope to have 70 percent of eligible four-year-olds in the state covered in the program by the 2022-2023 school year.

Alabamas pre-k program is ranked as the top state-funded pre-K program in the country by the National Institute for Early Education Research. Studies indicate that students who participate in the program are more likely to be proficient in reading and math throughout their school years.
The Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) has called for the Federal Government to improve the financial outlook of SMEs by introducing a loan guarantee scheme and legislating maximum payment times for business-to-business transactions.

In its 2018 pre-Budget submission, the IPA  a professional accounting body representing 35,000 accountants, business advisers, academics and students  made recommendations to assist small businesses and SMEs, noting that three quarters of its members either work in or service these sectors.

In the submissions introduction, IPA CEO Andrew Conway said he was disappointed that the Government did not go further in its response to recommendations contained in the Payment times and practices report of the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO).

Released in April, the ASBFEO report highlighted the ramifications, for small businesses, arising from the practice of late and extended payment times, including restricted growth and solvency issues. It called out a practice, amongst large organisations, of using small businesses in their supply chain as a cheap form of finance by extending payment times.

Conway commended the Government for mandating that by July 2019 all non-corporate Commonwealth entities are to pay all invoices up to $1 million within 20 calendar days (equivalent to 15 business days) on receipt of a correctly rendered invoice. However, he said more action was necessary to improve payment times for small businesses.

The consequences of late payments on small businesses across the economy and across all industry sectors cannot be over stated, he said,

The ASBFEO report cites, Payment times matter or more poignantly, How I started using small businesses to finance my multinational conglomerate. Sadly, this is not frivolous hyperbole; its a statement of fact.

We urge the Government to reconsider its response to the report and to adopt all of the recommendations, especially recommendation 9 to legislate maximum payment times for business to business transactions.

In the meantime, the situation is worsening despite payment codes. The impact on cash flow for small businesses is critical. Even though the unfair contract terms legislation will have a positive impact, we believe that it will not be enough to change payment culture in Australia.

Conway said the IPA also recommended the Federal Government introduced a state-backed loan guarantee scheme to help increase the availability of finance to the small business sector.

Australia is one of the only countries in the developed world without such a scheme, which would provide a limited state-backed guarantee to encourage banks and other commercial lenders to increase loan finance available to small business, he said.

We refer to the IPA Deakin White Paper [which] identifies a number of specific problems that smaller firms have in accessing finance from commercial banks, particularly smaller and younger start-up firms. Our evidence suggests that, by international standards, the cost of debt for Australian small businesses is high and risk-adjusted lending is not the norm in Australia.

There is, hence, a strong case for designing and implementing a loan guarantee program in Australia to help remedy the specific problems of smaller and younger start-up firms being unable to finance new investment opportunities through normal commercial channels. When appropriately designed and administered, loan guarantee programs can deliver value for taxpayers through their support of employment growth, productivity, innovation and exporting.

Other recommendations included in the IPAs pre-Budget submission include:

Consideration, by the Government, of a range of integrated strategies and tools to bridge the capability and confidence gap small business employers (micro businesses less than 5 employees) face moving into a digital Single Touch Payroll (STP) regime.

The introduction, by the Government, of a publicly supported venture capital (VC) fund to address funding problems faced by innovative firms with high commercial potential that are unattractive to bank lenders because they operate in uncertain technological or new knowledge environments.

The provision of strong support, by the government, for research and development (R&D) activity that promotes SMEs in Australia.

See also: Small Business Ombudsman calls for Govt to consider UK approach to boosting SME finance
Some advice for the angry mob Sometimes, I get embarrassed for people who show up to speak at city council or township board meetings. Im talking...

Preparing teens for their futures with soft skills Businesses of every size and industry continue to identify labor shortages as a top challenge  across the country and...
By Alexander Popov[1]

This article shows that German savings banks appear to increase their holdings of bonds issued by their respective Bundesland (federal state) government if as a result of an election, the local governments at Bundesland and at Kreis (county) level are no longer dominated by the same party. This behaviour is not consistent with other known reasons why banks hold government debt, such as compliance with regulation, the tendency to accumulate risky assets when close to bankruptcy, or political pressure. Instead, we argue that in the wake of a post-election loss of political connections along party lines, local government-owned banks use purchases of sub-sovereign bonds to keep communication channels with state politicians open, a mechanism akin to lobbying.

Why political connections matter to banks

Political connections are valuable to firms. Research shows such connections can increase firms stock returns, improve their access to credit, strengthen their ability to influence legislation, and lead to more favourable regulatory treatment and to more generous government support when in distress.[2] At the same time, while beneficial to the individual firms, close relationships with politicians can generate substantial economic distortions, such as a gain in market power and a reduction in the provision of public goods.[3] This applies particularly to banks, because the government both regulates them and provides them with a financial backstop. Therefore it is important to document how firms in general  and banks in particular  build political connections, so we can understand both the private benefits and the social costs of such connections.

There is already plenty of evidence that banks invest extensively in building political connections, but such evidence is restricted to campaign contributions, lobbying, and direct lending.[4] This article[5] presents new evidence that banks also can  and do  adjust their securities portfolios in an attempt to bridge political distance. We demonstrate a robust new fact: after a loss of political connections along party lines due to regional elections, local government-owned banks in Germany increase substantially their holdings of bonds issued by their home state government.

Setting of the empirical test

To identify the political incentives to buy regional government debt, we exploited the unique dual institutional setting of the German electoral system and of the German banking system.

First, it is important to understand how regional governments are elected. Germany is a federation that consists of 16 federal states and 438 counties. Federal states and counties hold regular elections for state parliaments and county councils, respectively. These elections take place every four to six years, but typically elections at the different levels are held at different points in time. This leads to staggered changes in the composition of ruling coalitions in the federal states and in the counties within these states. There are two major parties in Germany, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD). Both are active at all levels of regional politics and elections at state or county level nearly always result in one of these two parties leading a ruling coalition.

Second, it is necessary to understand the German banking system. It comprises private banks, cooperatives, and government-owned banks. There are two types of government-owned banks: Sparkassen (local savings banks)  typically one per county  and Landesbanken or regional umbrella institutions operating at state level, but in some cases covering several states. Taken together, government-owned banks account for around a third of the German banking market, in terms of assets, so they are a key part of Germanys banking system. What is unique about local savings banks is that they are the only segment of the German banking system that is under the direct influence of political parties. In practice, the city mayor or county administrator typically sits on the bank's supervisory board. Such a position involves considerable control over the bank. Importantly, the local politician acquires this position as a direct result of winning the local election, and loses it once his or her party is no longer in power locally. As the elections at federal state and county level are always held at different times, there is frequently potential for "political misalignment", i.e. different parties dominating at different levels of local and regional government.

Finally, States in Germany have independent fiscal authority, and all 16 German States issue their own government bonds. Local savings banks collectively hold around 25 bln euro worth of German State bonds, which is ten times more than their holdings of German federal bonds. Because sub-sovereign debt is typically placed privately, contractual prices are often not publicly observed. It is plausible that in such private placements, and as a political favour, banks offer to purchase bonds at better-than-market prices. And even in the absence of that, bond-purchasing operations can simply be an initiation of a repeated interaction between local politicians and state politicians, which makes it akin to the "face time" or "front-row access" that lobbying buys.

The impact of elections on banks sub-sovereign holdings

Using this set-up, we studied the home-state bond-buying behaviour of 455 government-owned banks, taking advantage of a total of 32 state parliament elections and 600 county council elections between 2005 and 2013. Our main finding is that political misalignment is positively and significantly associated with the propensity of local government-owned banks to hold sovereign bonds issued by their state. Numerically, an election that breaks a local government-owned bank connection to the state government along political party lines results in an increase in that bank's holdings of debt issued by the respective state government of on average 42% of the sample mean exposure, relative to a similar savings bank in a politically aligned county. Figure 1 describes this development graphically. "Event time" on the horizontal axis refers to the timing in quarters before and after an election that brings about political misalignment (for "Misaligned" banks) or not (for "Aligned" banks), with "0" indicating the election quarter.[6] Furthermore, local government-owned banks in politically misaligned counties are not more likely to increase their holdings of alternative but similar assets, such as German federal bonds (Bunds) and bonds issued by other German States.

Figure 1: Holdings of home-state bonds by local savings banks: politically misaligned versus aligned banks

Notes: Average holdings of home-state sub-sovereign bonds as a percentage of total assets, for politically aligned versus misaligned banks, during quarters around election events. The sample period is 2005  2013.

Our empirical strategy allows us to rule out other explanations for banks increasing their sub-sovereign bond holdings, either because they are unlikely or because they would have the opposite effect. In particular, neither regulation nor the need for highly liquid assets explain our finding. This is because these would lead banks to stockpile Bunds which are virtually risk-free, perfectly liquid, and widely available. They cannot be driven by asset substitution either (i.e. acquiring a riskier portfolio), as bonds issued by German federal states are typically highly rated. Finally, our results show it is unlikely that politicians from the home-state government are pressuring local savings banks to buy their bonds ("moral suasion"). If that was the case, we would see politically aligned banks increasing their holdings of home-state bonds. Finally, we find that the main effect is mostly a result of political misalignment following elections at state level. This strongly suggests that incumbent politicians on the supervisory boards of local government-owned banks prompt the banks in question to buy more bonds issued by their home state in reaction to losing political proximity to the state government. Overall our results suggest that we have discovered a genuine link between election outcomes and local government-owned banks' propensity to purchase bonds issued by their home state.

Conclusion

There are at least three macroeconomic implications of our finding that should worry policy-makers. First, if banks hold more government debt this increases the vicious circle of interdependence between banks and government in times of sovereign stress[7], and this argument is just as valid for sub-sovereign debt as it is for sovereign debt. Second, research has shown that increased investment in public debt can crowd out investment in the private sector.[8] Third, close political relationships that benefit private parties are often associated with substantial costs to society.[9] For all these reasons, it may be advisable for supervisors to pay attention to politically-motivated actions by banks, even when these are not in breach of regulatory rules.

References

Becker, B. and Ivashina, V. (2018), "Financial repression in the European sovereign debt crisis", Review of Finance, forthcoming.

Braun, M. and Raddatz, C. (2010), "Banking on politics: When former high-ranking politicians become bank directors", World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 24, pp. 234-279.

Cingano, F. and Pinotti, P. (2013), "Politicians at work: The private returns and social costs of political connections", Journal of the European Economic Association, Vol. 11, pp. 433-465.

Claessens, S., Feijen, E. and Laeven, L. (2008), "Political connections and preferential access to finance: The role of campaign contributions", Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 88, pp. 554-580.

Cooper, R. and Nikolov. K. (2018), "Sovereign debt and banking fragility: The spreading of strategic uncertainty", International Economic Review, forthcoming.

Duchin, R. and Sosyura, D. (2012), "The politics of government investment", Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 106, pp. 24-48.

Faccio, M. (2006), "Politically connected firms", American Economic Review, Vol. 96, pp. 369-386.

Gao, H., Ru, H. and Tang, D. (2016), "Subnational debt of China: The politics-finance nexus", NYU mimeo.

Goldman, E., Rocholl, J. and So, J. (2009), "Do politically connected boards affect firm value?", Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 22, pp. 2331-2360.

Khwaja, A. and Mian, A. (2005), "Do lenders favour politically connected firms? Rent provision in an emerging financial market", Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 120, pp. 1371-1411.

Koetter, M., and Popov, A. (2018), "Politics, banks, and sub-sovereign debt: Unholy trinity or divine coincidence?", ECB Working Paper, forthcoming.

Kroszner, R. and Strahan, P. (1999), "What drives deregulation? Economics and politics of the relaxation of bank branching restrictions", Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 114, pp. 1437-1467.

Lambert, T. (2018), "Lobbying on regulatory enforcement actions: Evidence from banking", Management Science, forthcoming.

Mian, A., Sufi, A. and Trebbi, F. (2010), "The political economy of the US mortgage default crisis", American Economic Review, Vol. 100, pp. 1967-1998.

Popov, A. and van Horen, N. (2015), "Exporting sovereign stress: Evidence from syndicated bank lending during the euro area sovereign debt crisis", Review of Finance, Vol. 19, pp. 1825-1866.

Shleifer, A. and Vishny, R. (1994), "Politicians and firms", Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 109, pp. 995-1025.
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Norway seafood export value reaches record high in 2017

Norway exported 2.6 million tonnes of seafood in 2017, up 7% from 2016, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC). These exports were worth a record-high NOK94.5 billion (US$11.73 billion), up 3% or NOK3 billion.

The NSC said that of the total value of Norwegian seafood exports last year, 72% (NOK 67.7 billion or $8.4 billion) came from aquaculture, while seafood from the fisheries was responsible for 28%. Value increased by NOK2.3 billion or 3.6% from 2016.

In terms of volume, the distribution was 40% from aquaculture (1 million tonnes of fish) and 60% from fishing. Exported volume of aquaculture fish was at the same level as 2016.

Norway exported 1.6 million tonnes of seafood from fishing, up 12% or by 170,600 tonnes from 2016. They were worth NOK26.8 billion in 2017, or an increase of NOK628 million or 2.4%.

Dampened demand for salmon in EU

Demand for salmon among European consumers was dampened after its price increased. Since Europe is the dominant market for Norwegian salmon, a reduction in salmon sales largely effected the export price. This has contributed to lower salmon prices in the last six months of the year, said Renate Larsen, NSC managing director.

Salmon is the most important species for Norwegian seafood exports with over 68% of the total export value and 38% of the volume.

Norway exported 1.6 million tonnes of seafood to the EU, the top market, in 2017, up 2%. The total value of these exports was NOK61 billion, the same level as 2016.

Norway exported 539,000 tonnes of seafood to Asia, the second-largest market, in 2017, up 12% or 59,000 tonnes from 2016. Value was NOK18.7 billion, up 8% or NOK1.3 billion.

The seafood industry is one of Norway's most important export industries. This year's record exports strengthen the industry's position, the NSC said.--Rick Alberto




Vietnam seafood exports up 19% in first 11 months of 2017

Vietnam's seafood exports in the first 11 months of 2017 reached over US$7.6 billion, up 19% compared with the same period in 2016, according to preliminary statistics released by the General Department of Vietnamese Customs.

The US, Japan and China were the top three importers of Vietnamese seafood. Exports to the US reached over US$1.3 billion, accounting for 17% of total seafood exports. Shipments to the US, however, dropped 1.74% during the 11-month period.

Vietnamese seafood exports to Japan from January to November were estimated at nearly $1.2 billion, accounting for 20%, while those to China reached $1 billion, accounting for 13.3% and increasing by 64.4%.

Most of the main importing markets recorded positive growths during the period, with Denmark registering the strongest growth rate of 88.7%. Export value reached $61.52 million.

Vietnam's seafood exports also rose in several markets including Israel, up 63%; Brazil, up 72.5%; the Philippines, up 60.6%; and China, up 64.4%.

Vietnam's shrimp exports in the first 11 months in 2017 was estimated at nearly $3.5 billion, an increase of 22% compared with the same period in the previous year. It is forecast that shrimp export value in 2017 will reach $3.8 billion, or an increase of 20% from 2016.

Meanwhile, tra fish export value in the first 11 months reached $1.627 billion, or an increase of 5.3% compared with the same period in 2016. In 2017, tra fish export value is expected to reach $1.79 or $1.8 billion, which is mainly attributed to increase in China's purchase.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC) has been awarded a federal grant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by bucket trucks used at four Massachusetts municipal utilities. The Diesel Emissions Reductions Act (DERA) grant, administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is worth $262,500.



The MMWEC grant is the only DERA grant awarded in Massachusetts under the competitive national grant competition.



Under the grant award, Shrewsbury Electric Light & Cable Operations and the Boylston Municipal Light Department each will use the funds to purchase one new bucket truck with advanced control emissions. In addition, the Ipswich Municipal Light Department and Hull Municipal Light Plant each will be able to purchase one new battery/diesel hybrid truck. MMWEC will disperse the funds to the light departments.



The replacement of these four vehicles will make an impact on the reduced emission of greenhouse gases in these communities. In total, it is projected that nitrous oxide emissions will be reduced by nearly 6,000 pounds annually, and particulate matter will be reduced by nearly 250 pounds annually, by the replacement of less efficient trucks with the newer, more efficient vehicles.



Emissions standards for medium and heavy-duty diesel equipment have changed markedly over the past ten years. The emissions limits for nitrous oxide and particulate matter have been slashed to just ten percent of the allowable limits in 2006. This grant funding will allow the four municipal utilities to serve as a model to others in the state by doing their part to help reduce diesel emissions in Massachusetts.



These truck replacements will improve the air quality for employees and customers in the municipal utility communities, while helping the Commonwealth of Massachusetts meet the requirements of the Global Warming Solutions Act.



"This award recognizes the initiative of four Massachusetts municipal utilities to reduce diesel emissions within their communities," said MMWEC Chief Executive Officer Ronald C. DeCurzio. "This is just one component of a diversified portfolio of activities employed by municipal utilities to advance the clean energy goals of Massachusetts, including implementation of renewable energy, emerging technologies and other initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions."



MMWEC is the joint action agency for public power in Massachusetts, providing a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities.
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas. Melik Ralah SMITH, Appellant v. The STATE of Texas NO. PD019917 Decided: January 10, 2018

Riann C. Moore, Assistant Public Defender, Dallas County Public Defenders Office, Dallas, TX, for Appellant. Russell Anderson, Jr., Assistant District Attorney, Dallas, TX, Stacey Soule, Austin, TX, for The State.

Petition for discretionary review refused.

DISSENTING OPINION

Appellant Melik Ralah Smith was convicted of murder and sentenced to ninety-nine years imprisonment. At trial, he sought to have three doctors give testimony about his mental illness, which was excluded by the trial court. The court of appeals affirmed, holding that the trial court's exclusion was not an abuse of discretion. Appellant now seeks discretionary review with this Court. Because I would grant Appellant's petition for discretionary review, I respectfully dissent from the Court's decision today to refuse the petition.

Background

Appellant lived in an apartment together with his mother, Onkuli Morris, who is the decedent in this case. The night of Sunday, September 14, 2014, Dana Morris, who is Appellant's sister, telephoned Onkuli, but there was no answer. Dana called again the following day, September 15, but there was still no answer. On Tuesday, September 16, Dana called Jennifer Smith, a friend of Onkuli, and asked Jennifer to check on Onkuli. Jennifer was met by Appellant, who did not let her into the apartment. Appellant also told Jennifer that Onkuli was not at home. On the next morning, September 17, Dana called the police.

The responding officers knocked, to no response, and entered the apartment after finding that the front door was unlocked. Inside, they found blood splattered throughout the apartment, a wooden rod with blood and hair on it, and, in the master bedroom, Onkuli's body wrapped in a blanket. A crime scene detective later found Appellant hiding in a closet, and Appellant was arrested after refusing to come out of the closet.

At trial, Dana testified that Appellant had suffered from mental illness since the age of nineteen or twenty and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Dana also testified that Appellant had been committed to mental hospitals multiple times. She added that when Appellant failed to take his medications, he would hear voices which he would speak to. He would also act out violently toward her and their mother, Onkuli. Regarding Onkuli's murder, Dana believed that Appellant was not on his medication at the time. However, Dana believed that Appellant did not intend to kill his mother.

The defense brought forth three doctors as expert witnesses to also testify about Appellant's mental illness. Outside the presence of the jury, the trial court heard testimony from the doctors but ultimately decided to exclude them from testifying to the jury. The jury eventually convicted Appellant of murder, and he was sentenced to ninety-nine years imprisonment. On appeal, Appellant raised four issues claiming abuse of discretion by the trial court. The first three issues related to the trial court's exclusion of Appellant's mental illness evidence. The fourth issue claimed error in failing to give a lesser-included offense instruction. The court of appeals held that there was no abuse of discretion and affirmed the conviction. Appellant now petitions this Court for discretionary review.

The Court of Appeals's Opinion Below

Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, [i]n all prosecutions for murder, the state or the defendant shall be permitted to offer testimony as to all relevant facts and circumstances surrounding the killing  together with all relevant facts and circumstances going to show the condition of the mind of the accused at the time of the offense. Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 38.36(a) (West 2005 & Supp. 2016). Expert testimony concerning mental illness may be relevant, reliable, and admissible to rebut proof of a defendant's mens rea. Ruffin v. State, 270 S.W.3d 586, 595 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008). However, that mental illness evidence may be excluded if it does not truly negate the required mens rea of the offense. Ruffin, 270 S.W.3d at 596.

The court of appeals found and held that the evidence Appellant sought to introduce through the doctors did not truly negate the mens rea of murder, because none of the evidence established Appellant's mental state at the time of the offense. However, a plain reading of the court of appeals's opinion below reveals not only that two of the doctors provided evidence of Appellant's mental state at the time of the offense, but also that the court of appeals recognized it from the record. Specifically, the FACTUAL BACKGROUND section of the court of appeals's opinion states:

Dr. Mitchell Dunn examined appellant on November 17, 2015, approximately fifteen months after Onkuli's death, and concluded appellant suffered from schizophrenia. Dunn testified appellant was mentally ill at the time of the incident, but he could not affirmatively state appellant was insane. He also stated a person who is mentally ill can differentiate between right and wrong. Dunn did not know whether, at the time of the offense, appellant intended to cause the death of his mother or did so knowingly or intentionally. The third witness, Dr. Antoinette McGarahan, evaluated appellant on December 11, 2015. She reviewed the police report and believed that appellant hiding in the closet after the incident showed he was experiencing symptoms of mental illness and not functioning normally at the time of the offense. After examining the interrogation video, she concluded that at the time of the interrogation, appellant was mentally ill, psychotic, experiencing delusions and hallucinations, and had lost touch with reality. McGarahan stated that although appellant could have been insane at the time of the incident, she was not providing testimony about whether he was inane or whether he intentionally or knowingly caused his mother's death.

Smith v. State, No. 051600102CR, 2017 WL 462349, at *2 (Tex.App.Dallas, Feb. 1, 2017, mem. op., not designated for publication) (emphasis added).

Yet the court of appeals, in the LAW & ANALYSIS section of its opinion, seems oblivious to what it had just described in the FACTUAL BACKGROUND section. In the LAW & ANALYSIS section, the court of appeals's opinion reads:

Appellant asserts he sought to admit the excluded evidence because it shows his state of mind at the time of the offense, which would have rebutted the required mental state for murder. The mens rea for murder is intentionally or knowingly. See Tex. Penal Code  19.02(b). The excluded evidence shows appellant suffered from mental illness, was found incompetent to stand trial, and was admitted to Vernon State Hospital after his arrest. None of the excluded evidence established appellant's mental condition at the time of the murder. Appellant's experts could not state that appellant did not know right from wrong and did not knowingly or intentionally kill his mother. To the contrary, Dunn and McGarahan, who examined appellant more than one year after the murder, testified that a person who is mentally ill can differentiate between right and wrong, can intend to perform an act, and is capable of understanding the results of his actions. Pittman, who examined appellant approximately one week after Onkuli's death, only testified about appellant's competency to stand trial. While the experts state appellant could have been insane at the time of the incident, they could not affirmatively testify that he was.

The trial court could have reasonably concluded that none of the excluded evidence was related to appellant's mental state at the time of the murder. Appellant did not raise an insanity defense, nor did the excluded evidence show he was insane. Further, all of the evidence reflected his mental state in the days, weeks, and months after the offense occurred and did not show appellant was unable to form the intent to intentionally or knowingly kill his mother at the time of her death. See Palmer [v. State ], 2015 WL 6859783, at *3 (citing Mays v. State, 318 S.W.3d 368, 38182 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010)). Because the excluded evidence does not negate the mens rea element of murder, we conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion by excluding it. See Ruffin, 270 S.W.3d [at] 596; Jackson, 160 S.W.3d at 572; Palmer, 2015 WL 6859783, at *3.

The trial court also could have excluded the evidence under evidentiary rule 403 having concluded the evidence was overly confusing or misleading to the jury. See Tex. R. Evid. 403. The excluded evidence was not tied to appellant's actions at the time of the offense and no testimony was offered to explain how evidence of appellant's mental illness in the days, weeks, or months after the murder reflected his ability to form the requisite intent at the time of the murder. Additional facts related to appellant's mental illness, but not related to his ability to form the requisite intent at the time of the murder, could confuse or mislead the jury. See id.; Jackson, 160 S.W.3d at 574.

Smith, 2017 WL 462349, at *3. The court of appeals's statement that [n]one of the excluded evidence established appellant's mental condition at the time of the murder is plainly not true. As the court of appeals itself recognized, Dr. Mitchell Dunn testified appellant was mentally ill at the time of the incident. Smith, 2017 WL 462349, at *2. The court of appeals also noted that [t]he third witness, Dr. Antoinette McGarahan  reviewed the police report and believed that appellant hiding in the closet after the incident showed he was experiencing symptoms of mental illness and not functioning normally at the time of the offense. Id. Additionally, the court of appeals said: McGarahan stated that although appellant could have been insane at the time of the incident  Id.

Nevertheless, the court of appeals explained, despite the testimony of both doctors, that [t]he trial court could have reasonably concluded that none of the excluded evidence was related to appellant's mental state at the time of the murder all of the evidence reflected his mental state in the days, weeks, and months after the offense occurred  The excluded evidence was not tied to appellant's actions at the time of the offense. Id.

Further muddying the waters, the court of appeals states [w]hile the experts state appellant could have been insane at the time of the incident, they could not affirmatively testify that he was. Id. On top of briefly recognizing that the witnesses did provide testimony about Appellant's mental state at the time of the offense, the court of appeals seems to require that the doctors must affirmatively testify that a defendant is insane before those same doctors can provide testimony about that defendant's mental illness. If so, the court of appeals appears to be circumventing rules that provide that doctors' testimony on mental illness is admissible, even if the defendant is not relying upon an insanity defense. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 38.36(a) (West 2005 & Supp. 2016) (the defendant shall be permitted to offer testimony as to  all relevant facts and circumstances going to show the condition of the mind of the accused at the time of the offense.); see also Jackson v. State, 160 S.W.3d 568, 574 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005) (recognizing diminished capacity as a failure-of-proof defense in which a defendant claims the State failed to prove that the defendant had the required mental state); Ruffin, 270 S.W.3d at 59395 (reaffirming the availability of diminished capacity defense and the admissibility of mental illness evidence to rebut or disprove mens rea ).

The court of appeals's own opinion is clearly contradictory. The evidence that was excluded did relate to Appellant's mental condition at the time of the offense. The court of appeals, in finding that the excluded evidence was not related to Appellant's mental state at the time of the murder, plainly ignored the doctors' testimony, which the court of appeals itself had recognized in the first part of its opinion. Both Dr. Dunn and Dr. McGarahan provided testimony about Appellant's mental condition at the time of the offense. Nevertheless, it appears that the court of appeals decided Appellant's case as if the doctors said no such thing. Accordingly, I believe the court of appeals's decision is at odds with itself and is so far a departure from the accepted and usual course of judicial proceedings as to call for an exercise of our power of supervision. Tex. R. App. P. 66.3(f). This Court should grant Appellant's petition for discretionary review. Because the Court chooses to refuse Appellant's petition, I respectfully dissent.

FOOTNOTES

. Appellant's first point of error related to lay testimony, and the third point of error related to a video recording of Appellant's interrogation following arrest. Appellant's second point of error related to the expert witness testimony.

. Another reason to grant review of the court of appeals's decision is to determine what it means for mental illness evidence to truly negate the mens rea of an offense in order for it to be admissible.

. Outside the presence of the jury, Dunn testified:Q. [By Defense Counsel] We'll go ahead and cut this a bit short.But at the time that he caused his mother's death, do you think he was mentally ill at that time?A. [By Dunn] Yes, I do.Rep. R. vol. 4, 16.

. McGarahan testified:Q. [By Defense Counsel] Did you see significance to the factafter reading the police report, of the fact that the defendant stayed around that apartment for three days and was hiding in a closet?A. [By McGarahan] Yes. I think that was related to his mental illness. He clearly was still experiencing the symptoms of the mental illness at that time and was not functioning normally at the time of the offense.Rep. R. vol. 4, 28.Q. [By Defense Counsel] Could he have been insane at the very moment that it occurred?A. He could have been. I'm not here to provide the testimony that he was or was not insane.Id. at 29.
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United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. Mon Jur HOSSAIN, aka Rassel Bhuiyan, Petitioner, v. Jefferson B. SESSIONS, III, United States Attorney General, Respondent. 16-4094 Decided: January 10, 2018

PRESENT: GUIDO CALABRESI, JOSE A. CABRANES, GERARD E. LYNCH, Circuit Judges. FOR PETITIONER: Khagendra Gharti-Chhetry, New York, NY. FOR RESPONDENT: Chad A. Readler, Acting Assistant Attorney General; Carl McIntyre, Assistant Director; Brooke M. Maurer, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC.

SUMMARY ORDER

Petitioner Mon Jur Hossain, a native and citizen of Bangladesh, seeks review of a November 10, 2016, decision of the BIA denying Hossains motion to reopen his removal proceedings. In re Mon Jur Hossain, No. A200 815 894 (B.I.A. Nov. 10, 2016). We assume the parties familiarity with the underlying facts and procedural history of this case.

We review the BIAs denial of a motion to reopen for abuse of discretion. Ali v. Gonzales, 448 F.3d 515, 517 (2d Cir. 2006). We review the BIAs factual findings regarding country conditions under the substantial evidence standard. See Jian Hui Shao v. Mukasey, 546 F.3d 138, 169 (2d Cir. 2008). Hossain concedes that his motion to reopen, filed almost two years after the BIAs decision affirming his removal, is untimely under the 90-day deadline for such motions. See 8 U.S.C.  1229a(c)(7)(A)(C)(i).

However, he argues that the time limitation does not apply because he sought reopening to re-apply for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) based on new events in Bangladesh. Specifically, he alleged that the Bangladeshi government (led by the Awami League) filed false charges against him because it perceives him to be affiliated with an Islamist political party (the Jamaat Party). A motion to reopen to apply for asylum is exempt from the time limitation if it is filed to apply for asylum based on changed country conditions arising in the country of nationality or the country to which removal has been ordered, if such evidence is material and was not available and would not have been discovered or presented at the previous proceedings. 8 U.S.C.  1229a(c)(7)(C)(ii). In addition to establishing a change in conditions, reopening is warranted only if a movant establishes his prima facie eligibility for asylum, i.e., a realistic chance that he will be able to establish eligibility. Poradisova v. Gonzales, 420 F.3d 70, 78 (2d Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted). The BIA did not err in finding that Hossain failed to establish his prima facie eligibility.

To establish eligibility for relief based on future harm, an applicant must show that his fear is objectively reasonable. Ramsameachire v. Ashcroft, 357 F.3d 169, 178 (2d Cir. 2004). The BIA reasonably concluded that Hossain did not produce reliable evidence as needed to meet his burden. Hossain offered documents purportedly showing that the Bangladeshi government falsely charged him for participating in riots. The BIA reasonably concluded that the reliability of the documents was undermined by the fact that Hossain was found not credible in the underlying proceedings. See Qin Wen Zheng v. Gonzales, 500 F.3d 143, 147 (2d Cir. 2007). Hossain argues that his motion was based on a claim independent of the grounds on which he was found not credible. Hossains reliance on Paul v. Gonzales is misplaced because there the agency had made only a partial adverse credibility ruling. 444 F.3d 148, 150 (2d Cir. 2006). Here, in contrast, the agency did not find Hossain credible in any respect and the underlying adverse credibility determination supports the BIAs refusal to credit documents on a motion to reopen, particularly when, as here, the reliability of those documents rests on the aliens credibility. See Qin Wen Zheng, 500 F.3d at 147.

In addition, the reliability of the documents was further undermined by Hossains failure to authenticate them by any means and by inconsistencies within the documents. Hossain offered no evidence that the documents actually came from Bangladesh. Although the documents are notarized, Hossain did not explain who obtained the documents, who had the documents notarized, or how he received the documents in the United States. Id. at 149 (upholding BIA decision not to credit document questionable on its face and supported only by family members affidavit). The documents were also internally inconsistent: some charged Hossain with participating in a riot on November 23, others said November 26, and others contained additional dates that went unexplained. Because Hossain offered no explanation of the documents or how they related to one another, the BIAs inference that documents were contradictory was reasonable. See Siewe v. Gonzales, 480 F.3d 160, 167 (2d Cir. 2007) (Where there are two permissible views of the evidence, the factfinders choice between them cannot be clearly erroneous. Rather, a reviewing court must defer to that choice so long as the deductions are not illogical or implausible. (internal citations and quotation marks omitted)).

Given that the BIA reasonably declined to credit these documents, it did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Hossain failed to show his prima facie eligibility for asylum, i.e., that he had an objectively reasonable fear of future persecution. See Ramsameachire, 357 F.3d at 178; Poradisova, 420 F.3d at 78. This failure to meet the standard for asylum necessarily means he did not show his prima facie eligibility for withholding of removal and CAT relief. See Lecaj v. Holder, 616 F.3d 111, 119-20 (2d Cir. 2010).

For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is DENIED.
United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. Johanns Cuadros ALMANZA, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES of America, Respondent No. 17-1854 Decided: January 10, 2018

Before: CHAGARES, VANASKIE, and FUENTES, Circuit Judges Mikhail Usher, Esq., Usher Law Group, Brooklyn, NY, for Petitioner Jennifer Parker Levings, Esq., OIL, Jeff Sessions, Esq., Jennifer A. Singer, Esq., Julia J. Tyler, Esq., United States Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondent

OPINION *

Johanns Cuadros Almanza challenges the Board of Immigration Appeals (the Board) dismissal of his appeal from an Immigration Judge's decision: (1) that he did not derive United States citizenship from his father's naturalization, (2) that he was removable, and (3) that he was not eligible for cancellation of removal. For the following reasons, we will deny the petition with respect to Almanza's derivative citizenship claim and dismiss the remainder of the petition for lack of jurisdiction.

I.

Because the facts are well-known to the parties, we discuss only those facts necessary to our disposition.

Almanza, a native and citizen of Peru, has lived in the United States as a lawful permanent resident since 1991. In 1999, Almanza was convicted on two counts of criminal sexual contact in violation of N.J. Stat. Ann.  2C:14-3b. In his guilty plea colloquy, Almanza specifically pled guilty to subpart (4) of N.J. Stat. Ann.  2C:14-2c which, in relevant part, criminalizes sexual contact where [t]he victim is at least 13 but less than 16 years old and the actor is at least four years older than the victim. Almanza was sentenced to 364 days imprisonment, five years probation, registration as a sex offender, counseling, and no contact with the victim.

In 2016, the Department of Homeland Security commenced removal proceedings against Almanza on three grounds: (1) as a lawful permanent resident convicted of an aggravated felonyspecifically, sexual abuse of a minor; (2) as a lawful permanent resident convicted of a crime of violence, stalking, or child abuse, child neglect or child abandonment; and (3) as a lawful permanent resident convicted of two crimes of moral turpitude.

Almanza offered two arguments in the proceedings before the Immigration Judge. First, Almanza maintained that he derived United States citizenship from his father's naturalization. Second, Almanza argued that his convictions did not render him removable. The Immigration Judge ruled against Almanza on each issue. Moreover, because the Immigration Judge found that he was convicted of an aggravated felony, Almanza could not apply for cancellation of removal.

Almanza appealed to the Board, which rejected his arguments and dismissed the appeal. Almanza filed a timely petition for review.

II.

Almanza makes two arguments on appeal. First, Almanza contends that the Supreme Court's recent decision in Sessions v. Morales-Santana,  U.S. , 137 S.Ct. 1678, 198 L.Ed.2d 150 (2017), renders former 8 U.S.C.  1432(a)which precludes his derivative citizenship claimunconstitutional. Second, Almanza asserts that the Board erred in finding that his conviction under  2C:14-3b qualified as the aggravated felony of sexual abuse of a minor. We will address each argument in turn.

A.

In support of his derivative citizenship claim in his immigration proceedings, Almanza relied on former 8 U.S.C.  1432(a)(3), which provides that a minor derives United States citizenship upon, inter alia, [t]he naturalization of the parent having legal custody of the child when there has been a legal separation of the parents. To that end, Almanza established that his father was naturalized and had legal custody of him. Nevertheless, Almanza's argument below failed because his parents were never married, and thus could not have met the provision's legal separation requirement.

Seemingly recognizing his ineligibility for derivative citizenship under that statute, Almanza maintains that Morales-Santana renders former 8 U.S.C.  1432(a) unconstitutional on equal protection grounds. However, Morales-Santana is inapposite as it involved a different statute regarding the acquisition of citizenship at birth. In contrast, former 8 U.S.C.  1432(a) addresses the acquisition of derivative citizenship on the naturalization of one or both parents.

Additionally, even assuming arguendo that former 8 U.S.C.  1432(a) violated equal protection rights, Morales-Santana emphasized that its decision was prospective only. Here, Almanza's claim is governed by former 8 U.S.C.  1432(a), the statute in place when he turned 18 years old. Because Almanza did not meet former 8 U.S.C.  1432(a)s requirements, his derivative citizenship claim fails.

B.

Almanza next argues that the Board erred in finding that his conviction under  2C:14-3b was an aggravated felony that rendered him removable and ineligible for cancellation of removal. We disagree.

[S]exual abuse of a minor is an aggravated felony. In determining whether the Board properly found that Almanza was convicted of the aggravated felony of sexual abuse of a minor, we initially apply the categorical approach, analyzing whether the state statute defining the crime of conviction categorically fits within the generic federal definition of a corresponding aggravated felony.

We have previously held that sexual abuse of a minor is defined by 18 U.S.C.  3509(a)(8), which provides that sexual abuse covers the employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of a child to engage in, or assist another person to engage in, sexually explicit conduct or the rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children. In turn, 18 U.S.C.  3509(a)(9) defines sexually explicit conduct to include sexual contact[,] which refers to the intentional touching, either directly or through clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify sexual desire of any person.

Accordingly, we first ask whether a conviction under  2C:14-3b necessarily satisfies the above definition. It does not. Because a defendant can be convicted under  2C:14-3b for sexual contact with an adult, a conviction under that statute does not categorically qualify as sexual abuse of a minor.

However, where, as here, a statute has multiple alternative elements, we may employ the modified categorical approach, in which we look[ ] to a limited class of documents (for example, the indictment, jury instructions, or plea agreement and colloquy) to determine what crime, with what elements, a defendant was convicted of. Based on the plea colloquy transcript, we find that Almanza was convicted under  2C:14-3b for committing an act of sexual contact under  2C:14-2c(4).

The provision under which Almanza was convicted falls squarely within the definition set forth in  3509(a)(8) and (9). Section 2C:14-2c(4) criminalizes sexual contact with a minor between the ages of 13 and 16 years old, satisfying the federal requirement that the sexual abuse target a minor under the age of 16. Additionally, similar to its federal counterpart, New Jersey law defines sexual contact as an intentional touching by the victim or actor, either directly or through clothing, of the victim's or actor's intimate parts for the purpose of degrading or humiliating the victim or sexually arousing or sexually gratifying the actor.

On the whole, Almanza's statute of conviction is not broader than the federal definition of sexual abuse of a minor. Quite the contrary, the conduct that meets the federal definition of sexual abuse of a minor is necessary for a conviction under  2C:14-2c(4). Accordingly, because Almanza's conviction categorically qualifies as sexual abuse of a minor, the Board correctly determined that Almanza was convicted of an aggravated felony and ineligible for cancellation of removal.

III.

For the foregoing reasons, we will deny the petition for review with respect to the derivative citizenship claim and dismiss the remainder of the petition for lack of jurisdiction.

FOOTNOTES

. The Board exercised jurisdiction to review the Immigration Judge's final order of removal under 8 C.F.R.  1003.1(b)(3). We generally have jurisdiction to review a final order of removal under 8 U.S.C.  1252(1). However, because [Almanza] is subject to removal based on an aggravated-felony conviction, the statute constrains our jurisdiction to constitutional claims or questions of law, which we review de novo. Myrie v. Att'y Gen., 855 F.3d 509, 515 (3d Cir. 2017) (internal quotations and citation omitted).

. Almanza has never challenged the Immigration Judge's determination that his offenses constituted crimes of child abuse and crimes of moral turpitude. Thus, those aspects of this case are not before us.

. Former 8 U.S.C.  1432(a) was repealed and superseded by the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, which took effect on February 27, 2001. Nevertheless, the Child Citizenship Act does not apply to Almanza because he turned 18 years old before the effective date.

. See Catwell v. Att'y Gen., 623 F.3d 199, 210 (3d Cir. 2010) (While his father was naturalized before Petitioner's eighteenth birthday, his parents were never married, and therefore could not be legally separated.).

. See 8 U.S.C.  1401(a)(7), 1409(c).

. Morales-Santana, 137 S.Ct. at 1701 (noting that  1401(a)(7)s five-year requirement would apply prospectively to children born to unwed U.S.-citizen mothers).

. 8 U.S.C.  1101(a)(43)(A).

. Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions,  U.S. , 137 S.Ct. 1562, 1568, 198 L.Ed.2d 22 (2017) (quoting Moncrieffe v. Holder, 569 U.S. 184, 190, 133 S.Ct. 1678, 185 L.Ed.2d 727 (2013)) (internal quotation marks omitted).

. Restrepo v. Att'y Gen., 617 F.3d 787, 796 (3d Cir. 2010) (quoting  3509(a)(8)).

. See N.J. Stat. Ann.  2C:14-3c(1)-(2).

. Mathis v. United States,  U.S. , 136 S.Ct. 2243, 2249, 195 L.Ed.2d 604 (2016).

. See Esquivel-Quintana, 137 S.Ct. at 1568 ([T]he generic federal definition of sexual abuse of a minor requires that the victim be younger than 16.).

. N.J. Stat. Ann.  2C:14-1d.

. Restrepo, 617 F.3d at 792 (emphasis in original).

FUENTES, Circuit Judge.
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Sylvester R. BOOKER, a/k/a Sylvester Reginald Booker, a/k/a Ves, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-4816 Decided: January 10, 2018

Before NIEMEYER, AGEE, and THACKER, Circuit Judges. Alan H. Yamamoto, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney, Peter S. Duffey, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee.

Sylvester R. Booker appeals his conviction and 324-month sentence following his guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C.  846 (2012). Counsel initially filed a brief pursuant to Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), stating that there were no meritorious grounds for appeal but questioning whether: (1) the district court erred in concluding that Booker was responsible for 10 to 30 kilograms of heroin; (2) the district court erred in imposing sentencing enhancements for Booker's leadership role in the offense and for obstruction of justice; (3) Booker received ineffective assistance of counsel; (4) the district court violated Fed. R. Crim. P. 32(i); and (5) there was a substantial connection between Booker's criminal activities and the property subject to forfeiture. After conducting our review pursuant to Anders, we directed the parties to file supplemental briefs on the question of whether, in light of United States v. Hughes, 401 F.3d 540 (4th Cir. 2005), the district court plainly erred in imposing a sentencing enhancement for obstruction of justice when the conduct involved also was part of the underlying conspiracy conviction. We affirm.

Booker first challenges the drug quantity attributed to him. Booker stipulated in a signed statement of facts that he was responsible for 10 to 30 kilograms of heroin and, at the plea hearing, confirmed that the statement accurately detailed the facts of his crime. Although Booker contends on appeal that he was coerced into signing that statement, his admissions during the plea hearing undercut any such assertion. We therefore conclude that the district court did not clearly err in establishing the drug quantity attributable to Booker. See United States v. Crawford, 734 F.3d 339, 342 (4th Cir. 2013) (stating standard of review).

Next, Booker contends that the district court erred in applying sentencing enhancements for his role in the offense and obstruction of justice. Because Booker failed to object at sentencing, we review the district court's application of those enhancements only for plain error. United States v. Mills, 850 F.3d 693, 696 (4th Cir.) (stating standard of review), cert. denied,  U.S. , 138 S.Ct. 178, 199 L.Ed.2d 105 (2017). As an initial matter, we conclude that the district court did not err in determining that Booker played a significant role in a conspiracy to distribute heroin, as the record adequately demonstrates that Booker was a high-level member of the conspiracy who consistently directed others on the distribution of heroin.

With regard to the obstruction-of-justice enhancement, Booker claims that he did not engage in obstructive conduct. We disagree. See U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual  3C1.1 & cmt. n.4(D) (2015). On February 4, 2016, after his arrest and while in custody, Booker directed other coconspirators to retrieve 20 ounces of heroin that police had not discovered during searches of Booker's property and to dispose of the heroin by selling it. Approximately two weeks later, Booker had another conversation regarding the distribution of that heroin. Although Booker argues that he merely directed another coconspirator to continue with the conspiracy and, therefore, did not attempt to frustrate law enforcement's investigation, we have previously rejected such an argument. See United States v. Prosise, 367 Fed.Appx. 423, 431 (4th Cir. 2010) (argued but unpublished). Although [Prosise] was unpublished and therefore not precedential, it suggests that even if the district court erred, such error was not plain. United States v. Garcia-Lagunas, 835 F.3d 479, 496 (4th Cir. 2016), cert. denied,  U.S. , 137 S.Ct. 713, 196 L.Ed.2d 573 (2017).

We also reject Booker's assertion that the district court's application of the obstruction-of-justice enhancement constituted impermissible double counting. We have held that [a]n enhancement for obstruction of justice constitutes impermissible double-counting  when the conduct giving rise to the enhancement is identical to the conduct giving rise to the underlying conviction. Hughes, 401 F.3d at 558. Here, Booker was indicted for, and pled guilty to, conspiracy to distribute heroin from January 2012 until February 16, 2016. The February 4 telephone call that Booker placed from prison directing his coconspirators to sell heroin occurred within the time frame of the conspiracy. Although that conduct is similar to one other overt act Booker took in furtherance of the conspiracy, we conclude that the February 4 call is not identical to the conduct that formed the basis of the conspiracy conviction. Specifically, the conspiracy occurred over a span of nearly four years and involved numerous transactions, including the purchase and transportation of multiple kilograms of heroin from New York to Virginia. Booker's obstructive conduct constituted only a small part of the overall conspiracydirecting others to small amounts of heroin hidden in stash houses for the purpose of relatively low-level distributionand, therefore, was not identical to the conduct of conviction. See United States v. Evans, 272 F.3d 1069, 1088 (8th Cir. 2001) (concluding that it [i]s not incorrect for the District Court to enhance [defendant's] sentence for obstruction of justice simply because that act also served as an overt act of the conspiracy.). Given the unsettled nature of this claim, at the very least it cannot be said that any alleged error is plain. See United States v. Davis, 855 F.3d 587, 595-96 (4th Cir.) (setting forth circumstances under which error is considered plain), cert. denied,  U.S. , 138 S.Ct. 268, 199 L.Ed.2d 172 (2017).

The remaining claims on appeal need not detain us long. Our review of the sentencing transcript reveals that the district court fulfilled its obligations under Rule 32(i). Next, because Booker fails to demonstrate that it conclusively appears from the record that  counsel did not provide effective assistance, United States v. Galloway, 749 F.3d 238, 241 (4th Cir. 2014) (emphasis omitted), his claim should be raised, if at all, in a 28 U.S.C.  2255 (2012) motion to permit sufficient development of the record. See United States v. Baptiste, 596 F.3d 214, 216 n.1 (4th Cir. 2010). Finally, contrary to Booker's argument that there was an insufficient nexus between the property subject to forfeiture and his criminal activity, we conclude that Booker's signed consent order of forfeiture, as well as the facts provided during his allocution, sufficiently connect the forfeited property to his criminal activity, and we therefore discern no impropriety in the district court's forfeiture order. See Libretti v. United States, 516 U.S. 29, 42, 116 S.Ct. 356, 133 L.Ed.2d 271 (1995).

Accordingly, we affirm the district court's judgment. In accordance with Anders, we have reviewed the record and found no other meritorious grounds for appeal. This court requires that counsel inform Booker, in writing, of the right to petition the Supreme Court of the United States for further review. If Booker requests that a petition be filed, but counsel believes that such a petition would be frivolous, then counsel may move in this court for leave to withdraw from representation. Counsel's motion must state that a copy thereof was served on Booker.

We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

PER CURIAM:

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
Erdogan speaks on local administrators meeting

President Erdogan made a historical statement at local administrators meeting.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a speech at the 43rd local administrators (mukhtars) meeting at Presidential Complex in Ankara.

In his remarks at the meeting, Erdogan, addressing European countries, said, "We are such a country that had survived from picking carrion crows for 200 years.

I am speaking up now, we are not the sick man of Europe, the disciple republic or the weak country in the '90s anymore. Henceforth, we are such a country that stayed focused on its 2023 targets, from its President to its local administrator."
Social media network YouTube has issued statements regarding its most popular vlogger Logan Paul. Paul faced backlash when he uploaded a controversial video.

Paul's Controversial Video

YouTube vlogger Logan Paul and his friends were in Japan to film adventures for Paul's YouTube channel. The social media superstar would be sharing his experiences with his 15 million YouTube subscribers. However, Paul's Japan adventure came to a massive halt when the social media sensation put up a disturbing video on New Year's Eve 2017. The footage featured Paul and his friends traveling to the Aokigahara region in Japan. According to Japanese folklore, the Aokigahara is known as Japan's Suicide Forest. The video, which initially had 6 million views before Paul's team took it down, featured Paul and his friends encounter apparently a dead body of a suicide victim.

Paul's Backlash And Apology

Paul received a massive backlash for his actions. While the "Logang", Paul's devoted fanbase, did their best to defend their role model, they could not protect Paul from tweets condemning his actions. Actors Aaron Paul and Sophie Turner, along with several YouTube vloggers condemned Paul's decision to post the disturbing video.

On Jan. 1, Paul made an apology statement on Twitter that stated how sorry he was regarding the incident. The vlogger also reported in a lengthy post that he did not weigh the consequences when he posted the controversial video. Two days later, Paul took to Twitter and issued a short statement that he would be taking a hiatus from vlogging to ponder his next move. Paul's Tweet received over 148,000 likes and was retweeted over 17,000 times.

YouTube Speaks Out

About 11 days after Paul posted the video, a YouTube spokesperson took to Twitter to reveal a statement regarding Paul's controversy. The spokesperson addressed the concerns on why the company stayed so silent regarding the situation and added that they were appalled with the video.

"We expect more of the creators who build their community on YouTube, as we're sure you do too. The channel violated our community guidelines, we acted accordingly, and we are looking at further consequences," said a YouTube spokesperson in a tweet.

The company apologized for the late response and added that it is taking steps to make sure that a video would not be seen on YouTube in the future.

Other Rogue Vloggers

YouTube has not revealed the potential consequences that Paul would be facing, but it could mean that Paul could be the similar situation facing vloggers who violated the company's standards. PewDiePie is still rebuilding his brand after he said numerous anti-Semitic phrases, which cost his valuable partnerships. Meanwhile, vlogger Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales, lost his life after he insulted a crime lord on YouTube.

As of this story's publication, Paul has not released any new content.
In December 2017, former E! News and Daily Pop host, Catt Sadler, announced that she was leaving the E! Network.

Sadler's reason for leaving the pop culture shows was due to a massive pay disparity. As previously reported, the former anchor stated that she was told the network hoped to keep her on board for both shows under a new contract. Shortly after, Sadler learned that her former co-host, Jason Kennedy, was being paid twice as much as she was for several years.

In an interview with PEOPLE Magazine, Sadler stated that she was shocked, but she took action and demanded that she be paid the same amount as Kennedy. E!'s decision to not pay Sadler as much as Kennedy caused her to walk away from the network.

E! Comes Forward

After a month of making her decision to part ways with the network, E! has decided to share their thoughts on Sadler's decision.

On Tuesday, during a Television Critics Association panel, E! Chief Frances Berwick stated that the company bases off salary on their employee's experience, not their gender.

"Catt was focused on daytime, Jason Kennedy is on primetime evening news, plus red carpet. Our employees' salaries are based on their roles and expertise, regardless of gender. We wish Catt well, but I hope that sets the record straight on that," Berwick continued.

Berwick's defense reiterates the company's statement made to USA TODAY after Sadler decided to leave the network in December.

Sadler's Response To E!

While E! has denied paying their employees based on gender, Sadler stated that she does not agree with their claims.

"My experience, frustration and disparity was based on Jason Kennedy and myself being apples to apples," she said. "We came to the network at the same time and did similar jobs... The only story I can tell is my truth and the truth speaks for itself."

Celebrities VS. E! Networks

On Sunday, during the 2018 Golden Globe Awards celebrities such as Julianne Moore, Debra Messing, and Eva Longoria stated that they were shocked to hear that E! doesn't believe in paying males and females the same.

After hearing about the multiple women that spoke out against E!'s pay gap, Sadler took to Twitter to thank them.
Fans of New Orleans rapper Kevin Gates are determined to declare, Jan.10, as "Kevin Gates Day." The rapper has officially been released from prison on Wednesday.

Kevin Jerome Gilyard, better known by his stage name, Kevin Gates, was released from an Illinois state prison after serving nine months out of a 30-month sentence.

Gates is probably most known for his continuous videos on Instagram that featured his children and always delivered a different message to his fans. The entrepreneur's videos later led to a compilation of "I Don't Get Tired" videos. The theme eventually led to a single titled, "I Don't Get Tired" that featured August Alsina. The single was also Gates' first song to make the US Billboard Hot 100 and was also his first song to be certified Gold.

Gates has also worked with other artists such as 2 Chainz, Jamie Foxx, Trey Songz, and Ty Dolla $ign.

Kevin Gates Day

The rapper released several mixtapes such as Stranger Than Fiction, By Any Means, and Luca Brasi 2. Although Gates is most known for his mixtapes, he released his debut studio album in January 2016. The album was titled Islah and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200 Charts.

Fans of the rapper immediately took to Twitter to express their excitement about his release from prison. In 2015, Gates was charged with battery for allegedly kicking a female fan at a concert in Lakeland, Florida. On Oct. 26, 2016, the recording artist was convicted of the charge and was later sentenced to six months in prison.

On March 24, 2017, it was reported that he was going to be released from prison, but as soon as he was being processed out of jail, he was re-arrested for an outstanding weapons-related warrant.

Gates' Good Deed

Sources say Gates wants to reach out to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and share his story with teenagers in hopes to inspire them to not make the same mistakes that he has made.

According to Gates' lawyer, Herschel Rush, the rapper will also donate his own resources to "various organizations."

On Wednesday, a tweet was released under the rapper's official Twitter account that read, "I'M HIM." Fans began to speculate that "I'M HIM" could mean that Gates has new music on the way or that he will be running his social media networks again.
Eight years after making her first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Black Widow will finally be getting her own standalone film.

Marvel is moving ahead with the highly anticipated solo Black Widow movie starring Scarlett Johansson and already has a writer on board for the project.

Jac Schaeffer To Pen The Script

According to multiple reports, screenwriter Jac Schaeffer has been tapped to author the script for the upcoming project, which is still in the early stages of development.

Schaeffer's credits include penning the script for the upcoming female-led Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remake Nasty Women, which stars Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson. Hathaway and Schaeffer are also working together on the writer's Black List alien invasion comedy script, The Shower.

Schaeffer has also written and directed the 2009 sci-fi rom-com, TiMER, most recently wrote the script for the Disney short film Olaf's Frozen Adventure, which played before screenings of Pixar's Coco.

Standalone Black Widow Movie

In the past, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and Johansson have been very vocal about wanting to make a solo film based on the Marvel character.

Johansson first featured as the Russian spy-turned-superhero Black Widow aka Natasha Romanoff, in 2010's Iron Man 2 and has since become an important character in the MCU, having starred in six Marvel films, including the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War.

The Black Widow film will be Marvel's second female-led superhero flick, following Brie Larson-starrer Captain Marvel, which is slated for release in 2019.

Will The Film Be R-Rated?

There has been a lot of speculation about whether Marvel will be wandering into R-rated territory anytime soon, particularly after Sony's Tom Hardy-led Venom project and the Deadpool franchise.

If Marvel wants its own offering of R-rated films, a solo Black Widow project would be the perfect way to do it.

Mark Waid and Chris Samnee's Black Widow comic book series has been a huge hit with fans because it strikes a perfect balance between Romonaff's spy missions and hints of flashbacks from her past. Given how Marvel has explored the character's "Red Room" narrative in the past, a new approach to the storyline without being restricted by a PG-13 rating would be right way to go about it.

Marvel could also take inspiration from films like Atomic Blonde and the upcoming Jennifer Lawrence-starrer Red Sparrow. The Charlize Theron film resonated with audiences and although her character, Lorraine Broughton, is different from Romanoff's, "there definitely is a similar sort of energy in terms of how they could be told onscreen."

Fans will have to wait and see which direction Marvel takes with the Black Widow film, and if it ends up being R-rated. But, there a number of reasons why it could happen.
Mira Sorvino is joining the list of celebrity women who have openly regretted working with famed movie director Woody Allen.

Sorvino also publicly apologized in a letter to Allen's daughter, Dylan Farrow, who for years claimed her father sexually abused her yet no one did anything about it.

Prior to Sorvino's statement, actress-turned-director Greta Gerwig had also announced that she would no longer work with Allen. Gerwig, who starred in Allen's 2015 film To Rome with Love, said that after "much considered" thought and further learning about Dylan's story, any future projects with Allen would not happen. The Lady Bird director also stated that she was "hurt" for also adding to Dylan's pain.

Sorvino's Remorse

Sorvino, who starred in the 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite for which she won Best Supporting Actress, has now also decided to professionally cut ties with Allen. In an open letter to Allen's daughter, Sorvino elaborated that she regrets not looking further into the allegations against Allen and believing the media's portrayal of the situation among him, Dylan, and her mother, Mia Farrow.

"I am so sorry, Dylan! I cannot begin to imagine how you have felt, all these years as you watched someone you called out as having hurt you as a child, a vulnerable little girl in his care, be lauded again and again, including by me and countless others in Hollywood who praised him and ignored you. As a mother and a woman, this breaks my heart for you. I am so, so sorry!" Sorvino wrote.

Dylan had revealed that her father abused her when she was eight years old. Allen has denied the allegations for decades after it was brought to light during his divorce from Mia. Allen was also under scrutiny for marrying his adoptive daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.

In addition to Sorvino and Gerwig, actress Ellen Page and actor David Krumholtz have also publicly regretted working with Allen.

Sorvino The Survivor

Sorvino herself has dealt with sexual abuse in the past. The actress claimed that she was harassed at the 1995 Toronto Film Festival by disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Sorvino claimed Weinstein chased her around a hotel room after he became too aggressive with her.

Following this, Sorvino was blacklisted in Hollywood and found it difficult to obtain roles. Sorvino claimed she was not aware of the reason why, until director Peter Jackson confirmed that Weinstein specifically told him not to hire Sorvino.
It has been almost 20 years since historian Gyan Prakash drew attention to a renewed interest in exploring city life on behalf of scholars of India, something he described then as an urban turn. This was a turn away, in part, from earlier nationalist preoccupations with India as a nation of villages, one in which cities were either places of corruption and evil in a Gandhian idiom, or abstract endpoints in a linear process of modernisation (which the village, too, might one day attain) as Nehru would have it. A postcolonial erosion of faith in nationalist mythologies coupled with the emergence of new, anti-elite, often violent, urban-based politics in post-liberalisation India, Prakash (2002) argued, brought questions of urban experience sharply into focus by the start of the new millennium.

The urban turn, if we can call it that, produced numerous scholarly, literary, and cinematic works over the last two decades that collectively transformed older assumptions about urban India and the roles cities have played in Indias modern economy, culture, and imagination. These works have proffered a partial view, no doubt, one dominated by experience in Indias most populous megacitiesor the metros, especially Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Hyderabadwhich is also where most urban scholars, not coincidentally, lived and wrote from. And while concerns are occasionally raised about unwarranted projections of metro urban experience onto urban experience in general, the richness of discovery in this dynamic multidisciplinary field often made such concerns seem ungenerous, parochial even.
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, PlaintiffAppellee v. $579,475.00 IN U.S. CURRENCY, Defendant LNG Express, Inc., ClaimantAppellant No. 16-3646 Decided: January 10, 2018

Before COLLOTON, BENTON, and KELLY, Circuit Judges. Cameron C. McCree, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, Eastern District of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR, for PlaintiffAppellee. William Scott Murphy, MURPHY & PELUSO, West New York, NJ, for Defendant, ClaimantAppellant.

LNG Express, Inc. (LNG) appeals the district court's order striking its verified claim in this civil forfeiture proceeding. We conclude that LNG's verified claim is materially indistinguishable from the claim a panel of our court found inadequate in United States v. $154,853.00 in U.S. Currency, 744 F.3d 559 (8th Cir. 2014). We therefore affirm.

In September 2014, an Arkansas State Police officer initiated a traffic stop of a tractor trailer in Faulkner County, Arkansas. After the driver consented to a search of the truck, the officer found and seized two boxes containing a total of $579,475.00 in U.S. currency. The truck's drivers both disclaimed any knowledge of or interest in the currency.

Believing the currency to be drug money, the government filed a verified complaint in the district court, seeking forfeiture of the currency under 21 U.S.C.  881(a)(6). LNG filed a timely verified claim, averring in relevant part:

1. [LNG] has a claim to, interest in, and right to the property seized herein, specifically the defendant-in-rem, $579,475.00 in United States Currency, and demands its restitution and return.

2. The interest of [LNG] in the defendant-in-rem by virtue of which [LNG] demands its restitution, its return, and the right to defend the action is all of the right, title, and interest in said defendant-in-rem as the owner thereof.

The government moved to strike LNG's verified claim, presenting its motion as a motion for judgment on the pleadings. The government argued that it was entitled to judgment on the pleadings because LNG's verified claim failed to meet the threshold pleading requirement set forth in Rule G(5) of the Supplemental Rules for Admiralty or Maritime Claims and Asset Forfeiture Actions. According to the government, the verified claim did not identify LNG's interest in the currency with sufficient specificity. The district court granted the government's motion over LNG's opposition, and struck LNG's verified claim, finding it insufficient to meet Supplemental Rule G(5)'s threshold pleading requirement. In the absence of any other claims, the district court thereafter entered a decree of forfeiture, vesting title to the currency in the government.

After the government initiates a civil forfeiture proceeding, a person who asserts an interest in the defendant property may contest the forfeiture by filing a claim in the court where the action is pending. Fed. R. Civ. P. Supp. R. G(5)(a)(i). The claim must: (A) identify the specific property claimed; (B) identify the claimant and state the claimant's interest in the property; (C) be signed by the claimant under penalty of perjury; and (D) be served on the government attorney  Id. At any time before trial, the government may move to strike a claim  for failing to comply with Rule G(5)  Fed. R. Civ. P. Supp. R. G(8)(c)(i).

We review the district court's striking of a claim in a civil forfeiture proceeding for an abuse of discretion. $154,853.00, 744 F.3d at 562. An abuse of discretion occurs when the district court rests its conclusions on clearly erroneous factual findings or erroneous legal conclusions. Id. (quoting Lankford v. Sherman, 451 F.3d 496, 50304 (8th Cir. 2006)). When ruling on a motion for judgment on the pleadings, the district court must accept the claimant's factual allegations as true and construe all reasonable inferences in the claimant's favor. Saterdalen v. Spencer, 725 F.3d 838, 841 (8th Cir. 2013). The district court generally may not consider materials outside the pleadings, but it may consider some public records, materials that do not contradict the complaint, or materials that are necessarily embraced by the pleadings. Id. (quoting Noble Sys. Corp. v. Alorica Cent., LLC, 543 F.3d 978, 982 (8th Cir. 2008)).

The government argues that our previous panel opinion in United States v. $154,853.00 in U.S. Currency is dispositive in this appeal. In $154,853.00, the claimant initially filed a verified claim claim[ing] the seized U.S. Currency in the amount of $154,853, more or less, and attesting that he ha[d] an ownership and possessory interest in the seized U.S. currency. 744 F.3d at 561. The government moved to strike the claimant's initial verified claim for failure to sufficiently state his interest in the currency as required by Supplemental Rule G(5). Id. The district court granted the government's first motion to strike, but granted the claimant leave to file an amended verified claim. Id. at 562. In his amended verified claim, the claimant averred, in relevant part, that he ha[d] an ownership and possessory interest in the seized U.S. Currency. $4,500 more or less of the U.S. Currency was found on Claimant's person and earned by Claimant through his employment. Id. The district court also struck the amended verified claim. Id.

In $154,853.00, we concluded that the district court had not abused its discretion by striking the claimant's first verified claim, reiterating this court's requirement that [t]he claimant's interest in the property must be stated with some level of specificity. Id. (citing United States v. Three Parcels of Real Prop., 43 F.3d 388, 39193 (8th Cir. 1994) and United States v. $104,674.00, 17 F.3d 267, 26869 (8th Cir. 1994)). More particularly, we described the claimant's assertion of an ownership and possessory interest in the seized U.S. currency as only a general assertion of his interest in the funds, which provided no level of specificity and did not sufficiently identify his interest. Id. at 563. We then held that the claimant's amended verified complaint had sufficiently stated a colorable ownership interest in $4,500 of the seized funds, in light of its additional attestation that the claimant had earned that portion of the funds through his employment. Id. at 564. This was because the claimant would certainly have an ownership interest in earned income. Id. In light of the additional averment that $4,500 represented employment income, we held that the district court had abused its discretion by striking the claimant's amended verified claim to the extent he sought to contest the forfeiture of that portion of the seized funds. Id.

LNG attempts to distinguish the claim to ownership in its verified claim from the ownership claim we found inadequate in $154,853.00. More specifically, LNG contends that its verified claim satisfies the requirements of Rule G(5) because it includes a claim by LNG to all the right, title, and interest in the seized currency as the owner thereof. In LNG's view, this statement remedies the deficiency our court identified in the verified claim in $154,853.00, which alleged only an ownership interest in the seized currency. LNG argues that, in $154,853.00, we found the claimant's ownership claim insufficient because it did not claim a full and complete ownership interest in the currency to the exclusion of all others. We disagree. A careful reading of our decision in $154,853.00 demonstrates that we found the ownership claim faulty not because of the scope of the claimed interest. Instead, we determined that the claimed interest was not described with sufficient specificity. Notably, the only difference between the ownership interest alleged in the claimant's initial verified claim (the striking of which we affirmed) and the one claimed in the amended verified claim (the striking of which we reversed as to the claimant's alleged interest in $4,500) was the claimant's additional averment that he had earned $4,500 of the seized currency from his employment. In short, we did not find the claimant's initial verified claim insufficient because it did not allege exclusive ownership of the currency; we deemed it inadequate because it did not identify the ownership interest with specificity.

LNG correctly notes that some of our sister circuits have declined to impose the same requirement of specificity that we require of verified forfeiture claims under Supplemental Rule G(5). In United States v. $196,969 U.S. Currency, the Seventh Circuit held that a bald assertion of ownership would strictly comply with Supplemental Rule G(5)'s requirement that the claimant state what interest he has in the property. 719 F.3d 644, 64647 (7th Cir. 2013). The Seventh Circuit explained that no additional requirements can be extracted from the [rule's] terse and crystalline language, and expressly rejected that, to comply with Supplemental Rule G(5), a claimant must state how he obtained possession of the currency, including, inter alia, a description of the transaction generating the currency. Id. at 646; see also United States v. Funds in the Amount of $239,400, 795 F.3d 639, 644 (7th Cir. 2015) ([S]atisfying procedural requirementsnot establishing legitimate ownershipis all that Rule G asks of claimants aside from showing constitutional standing.). Similarly, the Sixth Circuit recently held that [a]t the pleading stage, a verified claim of ownership is sufficient to satisfy Article III and the procedural requirements of Rule G. United States v. $31,000.00 in U.S. Currency, 872 F.3d 342, 34854 (6th Cir. 2017); cf. United States v. $133,420.00 in U.S. Currency, 672 F.3d 629, 638 (9th Cir. 2012) (At the motion to dismiss stage, a claimant's unequivocal assertion of an ownership interest in the property is sufficient by itself to establish [Article III] standing.). But cf. United States v. $38,570 U.S. Currency, 950 F.2d 1108, 111213 (5th Cir. 1992) (a bare assertion of an ownership interest in seized property, without more, is inadequate to show Article III standing). But [i]t is a cardinal rule in our circuit that one panel is bound by the decision of a prior panel. Mader v. United States, 654 F.3d 794, 800 (8th Cir. 2011) (en banc) (quoting Owsley v. Luebbers, 281 F.3d 687, 690 (8th Cir. 2002)). However persuasive these cases may be, we are bound by this court's panel opinion in $154,853.00.

LNG's claim to an ownership interest in the seized currency is materially indistinguishable from the claim this court deemed inadequate in $154,853.00, and we are therefore bound by Eighth Circuit precedent, which only the en banc court can overrule. The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

. The Honorable Susan Webber Wright, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

. The government alternatively presented its motion to strike as a motion for summary judgment. It is clear from the record, however, that the district court resolved the motion as one for judgment on the pleadings.

KELLY, Circuit Judge.
Written by ACM





*Brussels/EU Summit/Angelo Marcopolo/- Replying to our Question on "Eurofora"s project for Debates between EU Citizens and MEPs before Important Decisions, during his Press Conference, just after speaking at the EU Summit in Brussels, where Heads of State/Government are due to examine also Europe's and particularly uroArea's foreseable Future, the experienced EU Parliament's President, former Twice EU Commissioner, Top MEP and f. Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, stressed that MEPs' "Dialogue with EU Citizens" is an "On-Going" Issue, particularly in the run up to the forthcoming May 2019 European Elections.

---------------









- "Mr. President, You are very Kean, as you said also earlier in this Press Conference, about what EU Citizens feel as Important Issues. Don't you think that Now, that Preparations for the 2019 Elections have Started, it would be Interesting to have, in Parallel with the Debates - and probably also in order to Help in/Add to those Debates - that you'll organize with the (EU) Heads of States, also other Debates, - if possible, in a quite shoft and easy (simple) way - with the (EU) Citizens and MEPs, about the Most Important Issues that you have in (EU) Parliament'"s Agenda ?, "Eurofora" asked Antonio Tajani.

-------------------------





- "On the (EU) Citizens : As You know, in (EU) Parliament, this Dialogue with Citizens is On-Going !", President Tajani stressed from the outset, in his Reply to "Eurofora"s Question, as a matter of General Principle.



- Because, already, "the European Parliament organizes a lot of Meetings with Citizens", at Various occasions :



- F.ex., inter alia, "in All my Visits to (EU) Member Countries together with the Conference of Presidents (of MEPs' Political Groups), we organize Meetings with the Citizens".



- Thus, "during my Recent Visit to Cyprus, I organized a Meeting with the Students, in the "House of Europe", in Cyprus, in Nicosia", he reminded.



+ "And, during our Visit to Bulgaria, for Paving the Way to the New EU Bulgarian Presidency (for the period of 1 - 6/2018), the European Parliament organized a meeting at the University, for Exhanges of Views, between the Conference of the Presidents (of MEPs' Groups) and the Citizens", he added.

- On this occasion, there were Direct "Questions and Answers, withOut any (Intermediary) Network".



- It was, indeed, "a real Debate : Free Questions - Free Answers. This is a New System for Better Communication", President Tajani observed, smiling, apparently Satisfied by such a Formula, (i.e. recognizing and appreciatiing the Value of Direct Debates between EU Decision-Makers and EU Citizens on Important Topical Issues, Before chosing one or another Solution).



+ Moreover, "the (EU Parliament's) Communication System is Also Organizing a New System of Communication" : In particular "Meetings with the most Important European "You-Tubers", (at the Web) for a Better Communication with (EU) Citizens".



++ And, in fact, "We are using the Parliament's Election Campaign (preparing the Horizon 2019) to explain our work, in order to Reduce the Distance between (EU) Citizens and the European Institutions", he concluded, as a matter of overall Principle.



+ In Addition, spontaneously reacting to an "Eurofora"s suggestion for EU Citizens-MEPs Debates "Before the Plenary Sessions", on the most Important Decisions affecting their Lives and/or Society at large, President Tajani appeared Ready to Advance even Further Ahead :

- Even if it's (naturally) impossible to invite all EU Citizens during the Plenary sessions", nevertheless, "we Invite the Most Important People, and we are Using the Plenary for Meetings with the Citizens, (f.ex.) on Tourism, on Africa, etc. There are a lot" of such Topical Issues open for Dialogue during the Plenaries, he concluded, leaving room for more eventual adequate moves on this key point for "Eurofora"s project, (See also Infra).





-------------------------------------------



+ In this regard, the Fact that "Eurofora"s 1997-2017+ Project for Regular Public Debates between EU Citizens and MEPs before EU Parliament's Plenary Sessions' Final Decisions on the most Important Issues which affect their Lives and/or Society at large, is meant (already from its inception : almost at the "Birth" of the Web in the 1990ies) to be realized, in practice, mainly via Internet Forums easily connecting the concerned people by Digital means, withOut Need of "Invitations", physical "Meetings", etc., i.e. in the Simplest possible way, (as we Evoked also in our Question at Today's Press Conference : Comp. Supra), is due to be Discussed with President Tajani also by EU Parliament's experienced Long-Time Press/Media Head and New Director of Communication, Jaume Duch from Spain, as he told us.

--------------------------------------





++ Meanwhile, concerning Technical Aspects of "Eurofora"s Project about Web Forums at the eve of the most Important EU Decisions, (Comp. Supra), EU Parliament's Secretary General, the experienced Klaus Welle from Germany, who was Present at Today's Press Conference, made to "Eurofora" an Interesting Suggestion to Use a Practical "Ap." recently prepared by EU Parliament's Scientific Research section, which precisely, helps to Highlight the main Issues due to be Discussed and Decided at Each Forthcoming Plenary Session.



Welle has already presented, some Years ago, as well as more recently, an Interesting General Strategy on the development of Internet's various Actors' Potential for MEPs' outreach to EU Citizens, and has already Discussed such Issues Previously with "Eurofora" (See, f.ex., among others, also : http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/euparliamentsecretarygeneralonmayelection.html + http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/euparliamentsecretarygeneraloncitizendebatesbeforedecisions.html , etc) also (working closely Together with President Tajani from January 2017) in view of the forthcming European Elections of 2019.



------------------



+++ Earlier in Strasbourg, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's special Advisor, and Experienced former Chairman of the Biggest, ChristianDemocrat/EPP Group in the 47 Member Countries-strong PanEuropean CoE's Parliamentary Assembly, as well as f. Minister-President of the Flamish Region in Belgium, Luc Van den Brande, speaking to "Eurofora" during a meeting organized by the University of Strasbourg on Practical ways to Enhance "Horizontal" EU Democracy, did not exclude, but, on the contrary, found possible and interesting to eventually put in real practice a method as that which is suggested by "Eurofora"s project, certainly about Parliamentarian Decision-Making, but, perhaps, even on at least some among EU Commission's most important Decisions : - "Why not ? May be. We shall See", Van der Brande, carefully but positively, Replied in substance, after making sure about the main elements of the proposed schema in practice, (See : ...).





Van den Brande naturally spoke, on those occasions, also about his relevant Report on "a New Opportunity" for "Reaching out to EU Citizens", (that he has shown to "Eurofora"), which was written on October and Published on November 2017 by EU Commission in Brussels, but Discussed also in Strasbourg, including certain very Interesting Key Points able to Usefully Interact with "Eurofora"s project, largely Facilitating eachother, while both serving one and same General European Interest and Democratic, Topical Aim, (Comp. : ...).



**** Meanwhile, "Eurofora" had an occasion to Highlight the Topical Importance of developing EU Politicians - Citizens' Debates on main Decisions also with the President of EU Commission, Experienced former Long-Time Prime Minister of Luxembourg and f. uroGroup's Head, Jean-Claude Juncker himself, during a Meeting at Offenburg, in Germany, Together with Chancellor Angie Merkel, for the 75th Anniversary of Long-Time Finance Minister and Now Parliament's President in Berlin, Wolfgang Schauble, (See : http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/schaublejunckerandmerkel.html), just after an interesting mention on such issues made by Juncker at his "State of the Union" Speech on September 2017 in EU Parliament in Strasbourg, almost in Synchrony with new French President Macron's landmark relevant speech for forthcoming Debates on Europe's Future with EU Citizens, symbolically made at the Historic Birthplace of Democracy,on Athen's Acropolis' hill at the Pnyx, (Comp.: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/macronatthehistoricsourcesofdemocracy.html +...)

(../..)





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Nacional

La Audiencia de La Rioja se acoge a una disposicion del Codigo Penal para no modificar las condenas del 'solo si es si'
BMW SA Open hosted by the City of Ekurhuleni

Glendower GC, City of Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa
This thread is dedicated for information exchange regarding sub class 190 visa submission. :couch2:



I know there's already for 189, just want to create a specific thread for 190 people. Atleast to keep us updated with the trend for our visa type.



Please state your State, Lodged Date, Code and other important information to help others.



(Not sure if there's already an existing thread. In case have, let me know. I'll delete this).
Hello members,



I am in a process of filling ACS application where I have questions on education details to fill-up as below:



1. I did MCA from IGNOU. Would it be considered as part-time or full-time?

2. They need completion date. While I have completion year & month only. So what should I enter in dd field?

3. Attachment section : it's mentioned that PDF file name must match attachment type but I don't see attachment type anywhere.

4. Also, I have marksheet and degree certificate. So do I need to combine these 2 in a single PDF or upload as a separate docs?



Please guide me on these questions.



Thanks,
I wouldn't call the OFII at this point. They say "3 months" because that's what it can take. Depends on how many folks they have arriving at any given time and how long it takes them to pull together a session for the folks they have waiting. (It's not an individual appointment - usually done in a group.)But, when you do get your appointment, you should be able to get by in English. The OFII is pretty well geared to foreigners - more so than probably any other administration agency - and you should be able to manage on your own there.Unfortunately, ALFAP is the only organization I know of like this - and it happens to be in the area where I live. Our local AVF refers lots of newly arrived foreigners to them because it's handy and seems to get good results. I took intensive French lessons when I first arrived (though not at a beginner level) and used to recommend the school in Paris where I went - unfortunately, they seem to have vanished (after only 20 years and a couple changes in ownership!).If you hunt around online, you may actually find some French classes - for free or pretty cheap - that will get you started until the OFII winds up contacting you. I see that the Paris mairie (town hall) even runs some free French classes for new arrivals. https://cma.paris.fr/#displayElement(3826) or just google for "learn French in Paris" and see what you get.Cheers,Bev
Tamad.Buko said: Thanks Asian Spirit. The SS online application in the States doesn't list the Philippines as an IDD country. A case worker from the consulate will contact me for a phone interview. Hopefully we can iron out all the misleading items. The case worker said she can conduct a phone application. Never heard of that before. I thought the only application is the one listed in SSA.Gov under Retirement. Is the phone application different from the online application?

Cheers Click to expand...

Yep, they make it real easy for us here in the islands. The phone interview/application takes about 5 minutes. That's what I did and they even sent me (by email) an initial deposit slip for the bank that I told her I had chosen. Went to the bank the next day and opened the dollar SS account and when my first deposit was due it was there waiting.Important note.. Each Year Social Security in the States, usually in June. will mail you a letter that must be returned to them IN THE STATES. If they do not receive it your SS payments will be suspended until you call the embassy and fill one out with their help and get it sent back to the embassy.The Philippine Postal Service is notably unreliable. For that reason, the very best thing to do before opening your SS acct etc is to go to the FVW Post there in Angeles and in the Mail Room, rent a PO Box. Then give THAT PO BOX # to SS the embassy as your mailing address.That way you are pretty much guaranteed to get the letter AND that it gets where it's going when you send it back each year. It's a very necessary pain in the tail.
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San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Wednesday that it was understood that San Antonio was low on the list for a $1.6 billion plant by Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda, which chose Alabama this week for their new joint venture.

The local connection  Tundra pickups are assembled exclusively at Toyotas San Antonio factory, while Tacoma pickups are made here and in Baja California, Mexico  wasnt enough to put San Antonio into contention.

We understood after the announcement that a joint plant was in the works that the facility in San Antonio was on the outside lap, Nirenberg said in a phone interview. But we have a strong commitment with Toyota and we know that it will expand, so we wanted to make sure that we didnt waste an opportunity to demonstrate the potential of that plant expansion.

In August, Toyota and Mazda announced plans for a joint-venture plant in the U.S. that would build Toyota Corolla sedans and Mazda cross-over vehicles and provide up to 4,000 jobs.

At the time, both Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said they would try to bring the plant to San Antonio.

But in talks with Toyota after the joint venture was announced, Wolff said he didnt get good vibes about San Antonio being in the running for the facility.

I got the opinion that that wasnt going to be in the cards, there were other things they had to consider with that because Mazdas a different operation, Wolff said.

Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, the president and CEO of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, said she remains bullish on growth at Toyotas San Antonio plant, and that her top priority is to make the site as competitive as possible.

One issue Toyota discussed during the meetings Wolff attended is improving access into the facility on San Antonios South Side.

Mario Lozoya, spokesman for Toyotas San Antonio plant, said there are no plans to expand production facilities to build more Tundra and Tacoma pickup trucks here, but increased production of Tacomas in Mexico could drive growth among automotive suppliers based in San Antonio. A new Tacoma plant is being built in Guanajuato, Mexico and Toyota recently completed a $150 million investment in the Baja California plant that will boost production there.

Some of our current truck suppliers are going to start having some business there, Lozoya said. In terms of growth, theyre going to have to grow  at what rate, I dont know, but their production is going to have to increase a little bit so they can support the Mexico (plants).

Rye Druzin is a San Antonio Express-News energy reporter. Read more of his stories here. | rdruzin@express-news.net | @druz_journo
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Andrew Wayne HULEN, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-30160 Decided: January 10, 2018

Before: Kim McLane Wardlaw, Richard R. Clifton, and John B. Owens, Circuit Judges. David A. Merchant II (argued) and Joslyn Hunt, Assistant Federal Defenders; Anthony R. Gallagher, Federal Defender; Federal Defenders of Montana, Billings, Montana; for Defendant-Appellant. John David Sullivan (argued), Assistant United States Attorney; Leif M. Johnson, Acting United States Attorney; United States Attorney's Office, Billings, Montana; for Plaintiff-Appellee.

OPINION

The issue in this case is whether admissions made during mandatory sex-offender treatment may be used against a defendant to revoke supervised release. Answering that question requires us to consider whether a proceeding to revoke supervised release is a criminal case for purposes of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

While on supervised release, Andrew Hulen violated various conditions of his release. He admitted those violations during sex-offender treatment, in which he was required to participate as a condition of his release. Based on those admissions, he was terminated from treatment, and the district court revoked his supervised release. Hulen argues that the use of his statements against him in the revocation proceeding by the district court violated his right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment. We hold that the district court did not violate Hulen's right against self-incrimination because that right extends only to prohibit the use of an admission in a criminal case. A proceeding to revoke supervised release is not a criminal case for purposes of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the district court.

I. Background

At the time of the events alleged in this case, Hulen was serving a five-year term of supervised release that followed twelve months of imprisonment for failure to register as a sex offender in violation of 18 U.S.C.  2250(a). As a condition of his supervised release, Hulen was required to participate in sex-offender treatment.

Two months into his supervised release, Hulen informed his treatment provider that he was not doing all he could to progress in treatment. Hulen's provider told him to write down everything he had done in violation of his treatment program, which he did. Hulen's violations included using marijuana; spending nights with a woman; receiving nude photos and video from two different women; sending nude photos and video; sexting; having contact with an individual with whom he was not permitted to have contact; attending a party where alcohol was present; entering a bar; being in the company of minors; contacting people on Craigslist; going to an adult bookstore; lying to his probation officer and treatment provider about what he had done; failing to notify his probation officer about being terminated from his employment because of not showing up; failing to provide to his treatment provider all of the email addresses he was using; utilizing social media sites to meet people and using an alias to hide his status as a sex offender; going to a mall; deleting photos and videos he had taken and lying about his actions; having contact with two individuals who were on probation; and failing to make payments toward his $100 special assessment.

Hulen's treatment provider sent a letter to Hulen's probation officer, informing her that Hulen would be terminated from treatment. The treatment provider included the list of violations in his letter. Hulen's probation officer then filed a petition to revoke Hulen's supervised release based on Hulen's admissions. Shortly thereafter, Hulen was officially terminated from the treatment program. Because treatment was itself a condition of Hulen's supervised release, the probation officer filed an amended petition adding Hulen's termination from the program to the list of violations.

Hulen filed a motion to strike twenty of the twenty-three alleged violations listed in the amended petition. In response, his probation officer removed the challenged violations and filed a second amended petition containing only three purported violations. The remaining allegations were: (1) accepting employment without permission; (2) failing to make payments toward his special assessment; and (3) being terminated from the treatment program. The government later acknowledged that the first two alleged violations were not that significant but described the third as the most egregious offense.

Hulen admitted to the three violations. The district court revoked Hulen's supervised release and sentenced him to another six months of imprisonment followed by a new fifty-four-month term of supervised release. Hulen now appeals his sentence, arguing that the district court violated his right against self-incrimination by relying on his admissions to revoke his supervised release.

II. Discussion

A. Mootness

As a threshold matter, the government argues that Hulen's appeal is moot because he has already served his term of imprisonment and is once again on supervised release. We review questions of mootness de novo. Foster v. Carson, 347 F.3d 742, 745 (9th Cir. 2003).

A claim is moot when the issues presented are no longer live or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome.  Alvarez v. Hill, 667 F.3d 1061, 1064 (9th Cir. 2012) (quoting U.S. Parole Comm'n v. Geraghty, 445 U.S. 388, 396, 100 S.Ct. 1202, 63 L.Ed.2d 479 (1980)). Although Hulen has already served his term of imprisonment, he remains on supervised release. An appeal of a sentence is not moot where success on the appeal could alter the length or conditions of the supervised release portion of the defendant's sentence. United States v. Verdin, 243 F.3d 1174, 1178 (9th Cir. 2001). Because that is the case here, this appeal is not moot.

B. Fifth Amendment

Hulen argues that the district court violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. We review potential violations of the Fifth Amendment de novo. In re Grand Jury Subpoena, 75 F.3d 446, 447 (9th Cir. 1996).

The Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. Thus, the Fifth Amendment provides a right against compelled self-incrimination, but that right only applies when a compelled statement is used against a defendant in a criminal case. Chavez v. Martinez, 538 U.S. 760, 76667, 123 S.Ct. 1994, 155 L.Ed.2d 984 (2003) (plurality opinion); Stoot v. City of Everett, 582 F.3d 910, 92223 (9th Cir. 2009).

A compelled statement is used in a criminal case when it is relied upon to file formal charges against the declarant, to determine judicially that the prosecution may proceed, and to determine pretrial custody status. Stoot, 582 F.3d at 925. Thus, in cases where police coerce a statement but do not rely on that statement to file formal charges or oppose bail, the Fifth Amendment would not be implicated. Id. at 925 n.15.

The Fifth Amendment may be implicated when a probation officer coerces an individual into making an incriminating statement, if the statement is used against the probationer in a criminal case. For example, we have held that there was a Fifth Amendment violation when a probationer was compelled to make incriminating admissions that were later used to charge the probationer with a new crime. United States v. Saechao, 418 F.3d 1073, 107576 (9th Cir. 2005). Here, however, Hulen was not charged with a new crime. Instead, his supervised release was revoked. That is not the same thing.

It is well established that parole revocation is not part of a criminal prosecution. Standlee v. Rhay, 557 F.2d 1303, 1306 (9th Cir. 1977) (citing Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 480, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972)). [T]hus the full panoply of rights due a defendant in such a proceeding does not apply to parole revocations. Morrissey, 408 U.S. at 480, 92 S.Ct. 2593. Revocation proceedings implicate fewer rights because revocation is not new punishment for a new crime. It is part of the whole matrix of punishment which arises out of a defendant's original crime, of which the defendant has already been convicted after a trial subject to the full panoply of constitutional guarantees. United States v. Soto-Olivas, 44 F.3d 788, 792 (9th Cir. 1995) (alteration incorporated) (internal quotation marks omitted)). Thus, [r]evocation deprives an individual, not of the absolute liberty to which every citizen is entitled, but only of the conditional liberty properly dependent on observance of special parole restrictions. Morrissey, 408 U.S. at 480, 92 S.Ct. 2593.

The Supreme Court articulated these principles in Morrissey, holding that revocation proceedings require only basic due process rather than the full protection of the Sixth Amendment. Id. at 48189, 92 S.Ct. 2593; cf. Middendorf v. Henry, 425 U.S. 25, 37, 96 S.Ct. 1281, 47 L.Ed.2d 556 (1976) ([T]he fact that a proceeding will result in loss of liberty does not ipso facto mean that the proceeding is a criminal prosecution for purposes of the Sixth Amendment.). Based on Morrissey, we have repeatedly recognized that revocation proceedings are not criminal cases that would confer various rights due to defendants in criminal proceedings. For example, we held that the Sixth Amendment right to self-representation does not apply to revocation proceedings in United States v. Spangle, 626 F.3d 488, 494 (9th Cir. 2010). We held that the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation does not extend to revocations in United States v. Hall, 419 F.3d 980, 98586 (9th Cir. 2005). We held that supervised release may be revoked without corroborating a confession, even though corroboration is required to convict a defendant at trial, in United States v. Hilger, 728 F.3d 947, 94951 (9th Cir. 2013). And, we held that collateral estoppel does not bar a subsequent revocation after a criminal acquittal in Standlee, 557 F.2d at 1307.

While Morrissey was decided in the context of the Sixth Amendment, the principles underlying Morrissey apply with equal force to the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Indeed, the Supreme Court indicated as much in Minnesota v. Murphy, 465 U.S. 420, 104 S.Ct. 1136, 79 L.Ed.2d 409 (1984). The issue in Murphy was whether the Fifth Amendment right is self-executing, but in a footnote the Court explained that a revocation proceeding  is not a criminal proceeding. Just as there is no right to a jury trial before probation may be revoked, neither is the privilege against compelled self-incrimination available to a probationer. Id. at 435 n.7, 104 S.Ct. 1136 (internal citations omitted). Based partly on Murphy, we later held that an insanity acquittee could not invoke the right against self-incrimination in the context of a release hearing. United States v. Phelps, 955 F.2d 1258, 1263 (9th Cir. 1992). The right did not apply to statements made for purposes of the release hearing, even though such statements could prolong the insanity acquittee's loss of liberty. Id. Instead, the right would only apply to future criminal prosecutions. Id.

The same reasoning applies here. A revocation proceeding is not a new criminal proceeding, but is instead part of the matrix of punishment arising out of the original crime. Soto-Olivas, 44 F.3d at 792. Thus, the full panoply of rights due a defendant in a criminal proceeding does not apply to revocations. See Morrissey, 408 U.S. at 480, 92 S.Ct. 2593. Revocation deprives a probationer only of the conditional liberty properly dependent on observance of special restrictions. See id. The Fifth Amendment does not provide a right to avoid the consequences of violating those special restrictions. Accordingly, a revocation proceeding is not a criminal case for purposes of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Hulen cites a number of cases to support his position, but none of them address whether a revocation proceeding is itself a criminal proceeding for purposes of the right against self-incrimination. In Saechao, the question presented was whether the right against self-incrimination was self-executing under the particular facts of the case. Saechao, 418 F.3d at 1075. The probationer in Saechao was compelled to provide evidence that was used to charge him with a new crime. Id. at 107576. The later criminal proceeding was the criminal case for purposes of the Fifth Amendment. Similarly, in United States v. Bahr, a statement made during a period of post-prison supervision was used to determine a sentence in a later, unrelated criminal proceeding. 730 F.3d 963, 96566 (9th Cir. 2013). Finally, in United States v. Antelope, a probationer refused to detail his sexual history out of fear that he would be charged with new crimes for past actions. 395 F.3d 1128, 1135 (9th Cir. 2005). We noted that we had no doubt, based on the facts of the case, that any admissions of past crimes would likely make their way into the hands of prosecutors. Id. We therefore upheld the probationer's right to refuse to detail his sexual history because the answers would incriminate him in a pending or later criminal prosecution. Id. (quoting Murphy, 465 U.S. at 435, 104 S.Ct. 1136). Thus, our analysis was driven by the threat of a new prosecution. We did not address the question of whether the Fifth Amendment would be implicated by an admission leading to the revocation of supervised release.

If an effort had been made to charge and convict Hulen for a new crime based on his admissions, he would presumably be able to claim the benefit of the Fifth Amendment. That is not the case before us, however. The right against self-incrimination did not prevent the use of his admissions to revoke his supervised release.

III. Conclusion

There was no violation of Hulen's right against self-incrimination because a proceeding to revoke supervised release is not a criminal case for the purposes of the Fifth Amendment.

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. Parole, probation, and supervised release revocation hearings are constitutionally indistinguishable and are analyzed in the same manner. United States v. Hall, 419 F.3d 980, 985 n.4 (9th Cir. 2005) (citing United States v. Comito, 177 F.3d 1166, 1170 (9th Cir. 1999)).

CLIFTON, Circuit Judge:
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LOS ANGELES  U.S. immigration agents descended on dozens of 7-Eleven stores before dawn Wednesday to open employment audits and interview workers in what officials described as the largest operation against an employer under Donald Trumps presidency.

Agents targeted about 100 stores nationwide, broadening an investigation that began with a 4-year-old case against a franchisee on New Yorks Long Island. The audits could lead to criminal charges or fines over the stores hiring practices.

The action appears to open a new front in Trumps sharp expansion of immigration enforcement, which has already brought a 40 percent increase in deportation arrests and plans to spend billions of dollars on a border wall with Mexico. Hardliners have been pressing for a tougher stance on employers.

Derek Benner, a top official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Wednesdays operation was the first of many and a harbinger of whats to come for employers. He said there would be more employment audits and investigations, though there is no numerical goal.

This is what were gearing up for this year and what youre going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters. From there, we will look at whether these cases warrant an administrative posture or criminal investigation, said Benner, acting head of ICEs Homeland Security Investigations, which oversees cases against employers.

Its not going to be limited to large companies or any particular industry, big medium and small, he said. Its going to be inclusive of everything that we see out there.

7-Eleven Stores Inc., based in Irving, with more than 8,600 stores in the U.S., didnt immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Though agents arrested 21 people suspected of being in the country illegally during Wednesdays sweep, the action was aimed squarely at management.

Illegal hiring is rarely prosecuted, partly because investigations are time-consuming and convictions are difficult to achieve because employers can claim they were duped by fraudulent documents or intermediaries. Administrative fines are discounted by some as a business cost.

George W. Bushs administration aggressively pursued criminal investigations against employers in its final years with dramatic pre-dawn shows of force and large numbers of worker arrests. In 2008, agents arrived by helicopter at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and detained nearly 400 workers. Last month, Trump commuted the 27-year prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, former chief executive of what was the nations largest kosher meatpacking operation.

Barack Obamas administration more than doubled employer audits to more than 3,100 a year in 2013, shunning Bushs flashier approach. John Sandweg, an acting ICE director under Obama, said significant fines instilled fear in employers and draining resources from other enforcement priorities.

Trump is pursuing its own kind of unique strategy tied to its broader emphasis on fighting illegal immigration, including enforcement on the border, Benner said. Some workers may get arrested in the operations but authorities are targeting employers because they are job magnets for people to come to the country illegally.

We need to make sure that employers are on notice that we are going to come out and ensure that theyre being compliant, Benner said For those that dont, were going to take some very aggressive steps in terms of criminal investigations to make sure that we address them and hold them accountable.

Wednesdays operation resulted from a 2013 investigation that resulted in charges against nine 7-Eleven franchisees and managers in New York and Virginia. Eight have pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay more than $2.6 million in back wages, and the ninth was arrested in November.

In the 2013 investigations, managers used more than 25 stolen identities to employ at least 115 people in the country illegally, knowing they could pay below minimum wage, according to court documents. The documents say 7-Eleven corporate office does automated payroll, requiring franchisees provide employee names and Social Security numbers to pay workers through direct deposit or check.

The 7-Eleven stores served on Wednesday will be required to produce documents showing they required work authorization, which Benner said will become more common. Audits may lead to criminal charges or administrative penalties.

In Los Angeles Koreatown, seven agents arriving in three unmarked cars closed a store for 20 minutes to explain the audit to the only employee there, a clerk with a valid green card. Agents, wearing blue jackets marked ICE, told arriving customers that the store was closed briefly for a federal inspection. A driver delivering cases of beer was told to wait in the parking lot.

The manager was in Bangladesh and the owner, reached by phone, told the clerk to accept whatever documents were served. Agents said they would return Tuesday for employment records they requested.

Neither 7-Eleven nor was its parent company, Seven & i Holding Co. based in Tokyo, charged in that case.

Just as the IRS performs audits of people all the time of their tax returns, the same purpose here is to ensure a culture of compliance in this area, he said.
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SUTHERLAND SPRINGS  The bloody and bullet-scarred First Baptist Church here was deathly quiet when Rusty Duncan, a firefighter with the Stockdale Volunteer Fire Department, became one of the first rescuers inside.

People  some dead, some wounded, some too terrified to speak  were hiding under and between the pews.

I was just checking for survivors, and I felt a little tug on my pant leg, Duncan said of that Sunday, Nov. 5, when gunman Devin Patrick Kelley shot and killed 26 people and wounded 20 others. I had no idea what it was. I looked down and a little hand was coming from under somebody.

Ryland Ward had been shot five times and was beneath his stepmother, Joann Ward, who died protecting him. An ambulance rushed Ryland, a survivor of the worst mass shooting in modern Texas history, to the intensive care unit at San Antonios University Hospital.

On Thursday, after more than two months of surgeries and medical procedures, 6-year-old Ryland got a ride home and was met by about 50 people, news media included, who knew he had come to symbolize recovery and hope, strength and faith in the still-traumatized community.

Some held signs welcoming him, others waved Texas flags or hoisted balloons at a highway intersection near the crime scene and roadside memorial.

Local resident Terrie Smith was overcome with tears of joy as sirens and horn blasts signaled the arrival of the long procession of fire trucks and police vehicles.

I was his mamas best friend and hes like a grandson to me, said Smith, 55. Its just a beautiful blessing from God to have him home and well.

This little boy is proof that Texans stand strong for each other, said Shannon Demski, 45, of nearby LaVernia, who used her smartphone to track the convoys progress from San Antonio.

Another LaVernia resident, Terri Adams, 52, saw providence at work.

He suffered a great injury but he remained strong and has recovered beyond what anyone expected, she said. I believe our prayers have been answered.

Cheers erupted as Ryland waved from the front seat of the lead fire truck slowly turning from U.S. 87 south to FM 539. It stopped momentarily, then entered the last leg of his journey home. At the wheel was Duncan, the man who saved his life.

Rylands biological mother and father declined interviews. His great-uncle, Earl McMahan, said news that the boy would be out of the hospital and able to get his life back to as normal as possible gave him really an overwhelming feeling of joy.

Ryland became something of a sensation in the hospital. Through social media, his family asked for donations to buy a go-kart  and raised enough and then some within weeks. When Ryland asked for Christmas cards, his family spread the word and more than 1,000 poured in from the world over.

Photos his family members posted on Facebook of the blonde-haired boy, reading a book or giggling at the camera from his hospital bed, were shared thousands of times.

He couldnt wait to get out the hospital. People at the hospital were nice and everything, but he turned 6 years old and had Christmas in there, and he just wanted to get out and get back to being a kid, McMahan said.

The hospital released a statement noting it had treated nine victims of the attack  one of them, a child, died there  while Brooke Army Medical Center had treated eight. Ryland was the last patient released.

Many of us at University Health System who have been touched by the strength and spirit of Ryland and the other Sutherland Springs patients celebrate this milestone with them and their families, said a system spokeswoman, Leni Kirkman.

The convoy  which expanded as more participants joined at locations along the route  topped 100 vehicles and included fire trucks and other emergency vehicles from agencies in Wilson and Bexar counties, including some from San Antonio.

Local resident Melissa Salinas said the return was an emotional boost to the community.

After the two months that weve been through, with all of the depression and trying to cope with what happened, this is a big deal for us, she said. Its an opening for a new beginning.

Her daughter, Vivian Salinas, 6, recalled past antics of a goofy Ry Ry, while brandishing a large sign that said, Good To See You.

Hes one happy little boy right now. He got to ride in a fire truck and talk on the radio and he was a captain for the day, Edwin Baker, chief of the Stockdale VFD and Wilson Countys fire marshal, said afterward.

He was a little bit overwhelmed by the enormity of it, but hes very ecstatic to be home, Baker said.

The Wards used to live in a five-bedroom, three-bath house, said Sandy Ward, Rylands grandmother. But she said Chris Ward, Rylands father, doesnt want to go back there. They were once a family of six. Now they are three: Ryland, Chris and Rihanna Garcia, who survived after a bullet glanced off her glasses.

Sandy Ward and her husband, Raymond Ward, have been scrambling to get a small rental trailer just outside La Vernia ready.

I cant even express it. Im so happy I just cant wait for it, Sandy Ward said minutes before Rylands release from the hospital. Its going to make him and Chris so happy, so that makes me happy.

An extraordinary bond has formed between Ryland and Duncan.

When Duncan first saw the boy after the massacre, he was in a red wagon the hospital had provided for him, with monitors hooked up to the end of it.

I asked if he knew who I was, Duncan said.

And for the second time in his life, Ryland reached his hand out to Duncan.

We just left it at that, and just kind of stared at each other, he said.

They stared at each other for what seemed like eternity, though it was probably a few minutes, McMahan said. I dont think there was a dry eye in the lobby.

On Nov. 5, ambulances had wailed in the distance as Duncan carried Rylands limp form out of the church. None had yet arrived and Duncan remembers staring into the boys eyes during that walk, willing him not to close them.

The whole time I was with him, he was conscious and staring up at me. The whole time, Duncan said. He had real glassy eyes.

He placed Ryland on the ground and began cutting off his clothes. An arriving ambulance crew tossed him a medical bag so he could apply a tourniquet. They lifted him into the ambulance.

Duncan prayed. Then he turned back to the church.

He helped other people that day, but there was something about Ryland and his eyes.

He was just the first one, Duncan said. Hes the one I remember the most.

Silvia Foster-Frau is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | sfosterfrau@express-news.net | @SilviaElenaFF
The man who helped lead the planning for the special operations mission that killed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in Pakistan had a simple message Wednesday for troops in San Antonio: Character and leadership are one.

You cant separate the two, retired Adm. William McRaven told close to 1,100 soldiers, airmen and at least one Coast Guardsman at a speech at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. There really cant be a great leader, I think, without great character. Those attributes of duty, honor, country, integrity  these are important to a good leader, and if you have those qualities, you will probably be a good leader.

McRaven, former head of the U.S. Special Operations Command who recently announced he will step down this year as chancellor of the University of Texas System, kicked off the Airman Heritage Museum and Enlisted Character Development Centers quarterly Profiles in Leadership lecture series at Lacklands Pfingston Reception Center.

It was a bit of a homecoming for McRaven, a San Antonio native and son of an Air Force officer who grew up on the bases Medina Annex. The 1973 Roosevelt High School graduates interests included track, drama and the Chess Club before he studied journalism at UT-Austin.

McRaven traced lessons that began from the very start of his 37-year military career, recalling the exacting standards in basic SEAL training in California, which ran six months and saw a class of 150 whittled down to fewer than three dozen. He didnt expect it to include uniform and bunk inspections, with boots polished and beds made to precise instructions.

Everything had to be perfect, and I was surprised by that, he said. I came to SEAL training, frankly, because what I wanted to do was be a battle-hardened SEAL. I wanted to go to war. I wanted to be part of this camaraderie of being a Navy SEAL and here Ive got these Vietnam vets telling me Ive got to make my bed.

But the veterans had a point, he said: The little things matter.  I had one of the instructors say, If you cant even make your bed, how am I ever going to trust you to run a complex SEAL mission?

Attention to detail is part of a skill set that includes teamwork, communicating with others, the capacity to inspire and a willingness to assume risk and own failure, McRaven said.

He recounted the time he was dismissed from a SEAL team job, a potentially career-ending action. Instead he stuck it out and examined what went wrong. He pointed to the 2010 BP oil drilling rig explosion as an example of why owning failure was important, recalling the companys CEO, Anthony Bryan Tony Hayward, saying, Theres no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, Id like my life back.

So here you had billions of dollars in damage, lives that had been affected up and down the Gulf coast, and this guy says, I just want to get back to my life, McRaven said. Needless to say, he was (replaced).

As for teamwork, he and other SEAL trainees often lugged a small rubber boat into the Pacific, each with a specific and critical job. Once in the water, each rower had to match the other stroke for stroke.

You learn very, very quickly that if everybody doesnt follow the stroke count, if one persons had a bad day and is a little tired and doesnt want to stroke as hard as everybody else is, then that boat slowly begins to turn, he said.

Hell Week is a six-day physical and psychological endurance test marked by constant movement and harassment  and no sleep  put on by Basic Underwater Demolitions and SEAL instructors. On the third day, mired in a cold, wet mud flat, McRaven and his fellow students eyed their instructors as they huddled around a campfire.

Standing, he and other members of the class linked arms in solidarity. One of the instructors invited the students to quit, telling them a warm fire and hot coffee awaited those who did.

And, of course, as the instructor walked around the edge of the mud flats, the sun was starting to come down and you could begin to see that there were some guys going, I think Ive had it. That fire looks mighty good.

A trainee beside him began to move, prompting McRaven to tighten his grip on the mans arm.

And all of a sudden, somebody on the end of the row I was in starts singing. And the instructor immediately comes over and yells at him, Stop singing! You cant be singing! Youre going to be here all night if you keep singing! And then another guy starts singing, and then another, and another, and before long the entire class is singing, he said.

The songs lyrics arent for newspaper readers but the tune offered lessons on leadership. The student who started the singing was among the most junior of enlisted men in the class, which included officers.

Rank didnt matter. The spirit of one individual did.

And this was leadership, McRaven said. This guy knew that this was the time to lift our spirits. This was the time to bring us together as a class.

sigc@express-news.net
An ex-U.S. contractor who once owned a 60-acre ranch worth $3 million in Spring Branch and had a ritzy condo on San Antonios River Walk was sentenced Wednesday to a year in a halfway house for hiding millions of dollars in income from the taxman.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez also ordered Michael J. Badgett, 47, to pay the Internal Revenue Service $5.3 million in taxes and more than $1 million in accrued interest over the more than $16 million in income he did not report to the tax agency.

Badgett is one of several people investigated by a federal agency that tracks and investigates U.S. spending in Afghanistan, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. SIGARs agents were helped by the IRS Criminal Investigation division, whose agents also investigated Badgett after he returned here from Afghanistan several years ago.

Badgett pleaded guilty in January 2017 to three counts of willfully failing to file tax returns for income he received from running Green Village, a secure housing development in Kabul that served a number of U.S. government contractors, according to court records and statements made in court during his sentencing Wednesday.

I certainly made a mistake in not filing tax returns in 2010, 2011 and 2012, Badgett said, adding that he did not do so maliciously or willfully.

But Daniel P. Butler, a trial attorney with the Justice Departments Fraud Section, told the judge that Badgett ignored his own accountant and a relative, both of whom told him to get current on his taxes.

At one point between 2010 and 2012, Badgett bought the ranch on Cattle Drive in Spring Branch, the River Walk condo and a Corvette, among other items.

He was living a lavish lifestyle, Butler said. He also had a responsibility to file his tax returns.

But his lawyer, assistant federal public defender Marina Thais Douenat, told the judge that the lifestyle was short-lived.

Badgett has a high school education but went to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2002 and earned a living as a salesman in its rich oil-field industry. A few years later, Badgett met an associate, and that man hired Badgett to run Green Village and help him obtain U.S. contracts.

Badgett was paid handsomely in 2010 and 2011 but then had a fallout with the associate, Douenat said. Badgett left Afghanistan, returned to the United States and became a day trader. Badgett also was shorted millions in a promised payout by the associate, Douenat said.

He lost a ton of money on Ameritrade, Douenat said. He lost the ranch. He lost the condo and the Corvette.  He lost his wife. Hes lost everything.

Guillermo Contreras is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | gcontreras@express-news.net | @gmaninfedland
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WASHINGTON  As activists fanned out across the Capitol, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and other top Republicans unveiled legislation Wednesday that they held out as the starting point for negotiations to protect Dreamers  immigrants brought into the country illegally as children.

But the $30 billion GOP plan, coming a day after President Donald Trump called for a bill of love, hewed closely to Republican priorities that Democrats have rejected, including construction of border wall.

For the 800,000 Dreamers, or beneficiaries of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, it would offer three-year renewable legal status allowing them to work, travel and study in the U.S. and abroad.

The bill would not provide Dreamers any special pathways to legal status or citizenship other than those available to other immigrants.

I see a unique opportunity with DACA to finally get the border secure once and for all, said McCaul, a Houston-area Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee.

For McCaul, once a skeptic about the usefulness of a border wall, the bill represents a doubling-down on a $15 billion border security bill he introduced last year.

The new bill was introduced with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and other GOP leaders as top Democrats and Republicans scrambled to come to terms on a broader 2018 funding bill before government money dries up Jan. 20.

Though Republicans have the votes to pass the legislation in the House, theyd need the votes of at least nine Senate Democrats to overcome a filibuster in the upper chamber.

The bill doesnt include some of the elements reached in a bipartisan plan released earlier this week by Republican Rep. Will Hurd of San Antonio and Democrat Pete Aguilar of California.

The Hurd-Aguilar legislation, which hasnt been filed, would provide a permanent legislative fix for DACA and enables individuals who qualify to get in line for a green card and eventual citizenship after a conditional residency.

Hurd has said requirements would include two years of post-secondary school or completion of military enlistment, employment 80 percent of the time and no criminal record.

Despite an extraordinary on-camera negotiating session Tuesday at the White House, Democrats and Hispanic activists appeared unwilling Wednesday to back away from their demand for a clean legislative fix to the DACA program, which Trump is terminating in March.

As Republicans outlined their bill, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland appeared outside the Capitol with dozens of Dreamers, calling for no-strings-attached legislation granting them a pathway to citizenship.

They are just people who don't have any papers, in every other sense they are Americans, Hoyer said. They put their hands on their hearts and pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

The bill includes a long wish-list of GOP priorities on immigration enforcement, including construction of a border wall and other border security measures. It would crack down on so-called sanctuary cities - communities Republicans say fail to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

It also would add another 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 5,000 customs officers, as well as authorize the National Guard to provide aviation and intelligence support to border security operations.

San Antonio Republican Lamar Smith made a pitch to include a mandatory E-Verify system in the immigration deal,. As it stands, employers can voluntarily check a government database to check workers eligibility.

Speaking on the House floor, Smith called E-Verify the most effective deterrent to illegal immigration because it shuts off the jobs magnet and saves jobs for hardworking Americans.

Though not billed as a comprehensive immigration reform effort, the GOP bill also would curtail legal immigration. It would eliminate the controversial visa lottery for green cards and limit a sponsorship program for extended family members, which Republicans call chain migration.

The bill's overall goal, sponsors said, is to reduce legal immigration levels by about 260,000 a year, or roughly 25 percent of the current annual average of a more than 1 million. The new system also would emphasize skilled workers and an agricultural guest worker program.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the top Republican in Tuesday's freewheeling encounter with Trump, called the House bill a good place to start, saying it will prompt discussions on DACA and other immigration issues in the House and Senate.

That is a lot of work in a short period of time, Cornyn said.

In the wake of Tuesday's negotiating session with the president, Republicans faced continuing pressure not to cave to Democratic calls for DACA legislation without linking it to border security, particularly Trump's signature campaign promise for a wall.

But Democrats also face pressure from their base, particularly immigrant advocates who argue that Dreamers who came into the country through no fault of their own should not have to pay a political price to be allowed to stay.

This bill should be viewed for what it is, said Lorella Praeli, director of immigration policy and campaigns at the American Civil Liberties Union. An obvious attempt by longtime anti-Dreamer lawmaker Rep. Bob Goodlatte and his allies to derail a legislative solution for Dreamers.

Alejandra Matos contributed to this report from Austin.
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The operator of a new carriage service in Bandera was killed Tuesday afternoon when an SUV crashed into her horse-drawn vehicle just outside of town, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Tuesday.

It was a horrible, horrible accident, Mayor Suzanne Schauman said Wednesday of the crash that claimed the life of Fonda Freeman and her horse, Eli, and injured Freemans sister, who also was in the wagon.

Freeman, 52, a resident of Bandera, was issued city permits around October to operate the Cowboy Capital Carriage Service, Schauman said.

The passenger, Felicia Schoeneweis, 45, of Bandera, is being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center. A family member said her injuries were not serious.

DPS Sgt. Orlando Moreno said the wagon was eastbound on FM 3240 at 12:14 p.m. Tuesday when, for reasons unknown, it was struck from behind by a 2012 Chevrolet Traverse driven by Judith Bishop, 69, of Bandera.

Bishop was not injured in the crash, which occurred near the intersection with Texas 173, Moreno said, adding, The investigation is ongoing and all contributing factors are not yet known.

Bandera Fire Marshal John Stith said he was the first emergency responder at the scene and saw a woman lying in the road and the cars driver standing beside her vehicle. He found the carriage operator deceased in the overturned carriage.

I called AirLife when I got there due to the injuries I saw on the lady lying in the road, he said.

They ultimately had to put the horse down, he added.

Justice of the Peace Lynn Holt, who was reported to have pronounced Freeman dead, could not be reached Wednesday.

Cowboy Capital Carriage Service was advertised at the Bandera County Convention and Visitors Bureau. The bureaus director, Patricia Moore, said shed not taken a ride yet.

It was a one-horse carriage similar to what you see around Alamo Plaza, Moore said.

Freeman was described as a sweetheart by Art Crawford, president of the Bandera Economic Improvement Corp., which helped underwrite her new business.

She had driven carriages in Fredericksburg for years and wanted to open a business here in her hometown, he said Wednesday. Thanksgiving Day was her very first ride. It looked like she was going to have a very successful business. Its a huge loss for our town.

Zeke MacCormack is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | zeke@express-news.net | @zekemac
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Police Chief William McManus was defiant Thursday as he faced an investigation into whether he violated the states anti-sanctuary cities law in his handling of a human-smuggling investigation.

Speaking during a news conference about Human Trafficking Awareness Month, McManus said he stood by his decision to use state charges against a suspect in a human-smuggling case, a move that resulted in the release of 12 immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally.

I broke no protocols, I did exactly what my chiefly prerogatives allowed me to do, he said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was on the scene, and  they had every opportunity to do their job and it didnt get done. And that is all Im going to say about it from this point on, and the reason is because its under investigation.

ICE disputed the chiefs version of events.

In a written statement, the agency said it did offer up its assistance, and San Antonio Police Department declined to take our assistance, instead the chief elected to take the case.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg stood behind McManus, whos been buffeted by criticism of his handling of the human smuggling investigation. On Wednesday, the Texas attorney generals office began an investigation after it received complaints about the incident.

Let me also start by saying that we have, considering all of the urban issues around the country, specifically in Texas, we have the very best police chief in the United States, Nirenberg said.

The attacks on Police Chief McManus are nothing more than political theater based on a fictitious narrative, and the political operatives that are selling this theatrical production may excel in stagecraft, but their story is fiction, Nirenberg said later. There are facts that are important to this case, and our police chief is upholding the law.

The sanctuary cities law, Senate Bill 4, creates penalties for local officials who put into place policies that restrict the enforcement of immigration laws.

Portions of the law have been struck down by the courts, but penalties remain for officials who prevent police from asking about immigration status and prohibit the enforcement of immigration laws.

City Attorney Andy Segovia wouldnt say after Thursdays news conference whether McManus actions during the Dec. 23 smuggling incident violated SB 4, but attorneys involved in the legal challenges to the law have said the state would need to show a policy exists or a pattern of interfering with immigration laws.

McManus has said hell make decisions about applying the state smuggling of persons law on a case-by-case basis.

McManus also received a boost Thursday from Texas Democratic Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa.

Lets be clear about what happened here: a suspected human smuggler was arrested. Twelve human-trafficking victims, who went through hell, were placed in the safety and security of Catholic Charities, Hinojosa said in a statement. Public safety was strengthened because our local law enforcement followed best practices and valued building trust with their community. Now, Texas Republicans want to lock up Chief McManus for doing his job.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and members of the City Council, including District 6 Councilman Greg Brockhouse, have criticized McManus. Patrick asked the attorney general to investigate, while Brockhouse made the same request to the U.S. attorneys office.

In my opinion, the individuals found at the scene should have been held until their identities were discovered and the federal immigration laws upheld to protect the citizens of San Antonio, Brockhouse wrote. The reason this is so very important is on July 22, 2017, a similar case of human smuggling led to multiple deaths of undocumented persons. Some of those found dead were later identified as known MS-13 gang members, indicating this smuggling route may be utilized for organized criminal activities.

Only one of the 10 killed in the July incident was connected to the gang, ICE officials said Thursday.

Of the 10 individuals who died being smuggled into the United States in a tractor-trailer in San Antonio on July 23, 2017, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations identified one as an MS-13 gang member, the agency said in a statement.

The gang connection of Frank G. Fuentes, a 19-year-old Guatemalan who previously benefited from the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program before getting deported then died in the trailer as he was smuggled back into Texas, was widely reported after he and nine others died in July.

The controversy overshadowed Thursdays news conference bringing awareness to human trafficking. McManus told reporters his department had received training in recent years to combat the issue, which is different from human smuggling because it requires coercion. In 2017, the number of trafficking cases nearly doubled to 81 investigations with 92 victims, he said.

San Antonio is uniquely positioned to impact human trafficking at a national level given our intersection of (Interstates 10 and 35), which are the two main corridors traffickers use to move their survivors around the country, said Deana Franks, deputy director of programs at the Rape Crisis Center. Twenty percent of all trafficking happens right here in our state. One in five survivors remembers coming through Texas at some point while theyre being trafficked.

District 3 Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran urged those who see signs of smuggling or trafficking to call police, something McManus repeated when asked what could be done to address the issue.

Exactly what they did on the 23rd, he said. Call the police. We went out, we handled it after a few hours on the scene. Our officers stood around for quite some time before I instructed them, Lets prosecute it at the state level. Lets get them downtown and get the interviews done. They should call the police if they see any evidence of trafficking or smuggling.

jbuch@express-news.net
San Antonio may become the first city in Texas Thursday to pass a law prohibiting retailers from selling any tobacco products to customers under 21 years old.

State law already forbids the sale of such products to anyone 17 years old or younger. The state measure also prohibits anyone that young from purchasing or possessing those goods. But City Council is expected to vote Thursday morning on a proposed ordinance that goes further  and puts the onus on business owners to comply.

Supporters say the measure is necessary to protect public health. Critics say its heavy-handed government regulation and penalizes businesses, particularly smaller retailers who they fear could be harmed economically.

The proposal, if approved, would take effect Aug. 1, said San Antonio Metropolitan Health District Director Colleen Bridger. Retailers who violate the rules could face a fine of up to $500.

The drafted ordinance going before council does not seek any penalties or enforcement measures against 18-, 19- or 20-year-olds who purchase, use or possess tobacco products. It only targets retailers.

I see one of the major roles of government as keeping people safe, Bridger said in an interview Wednesday. Weve got Big Tobacco investing billions of dollars every year, trying to get people to use a product that nobody says is anything but dangerous. So we need to intervene.

City Councilman Greg Brockhouse blasted the policy change as government overreach.

To hold a business owner accountable for somebody elses personal choice is just ridiculous, said Brockhouse, who represents District 6.

Theres absolutely no personal accountability in the ordinance at all for the user. So your goal is to prevent it, but you dont hold them accountable.

More than 270 cities nationwide have already raised the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21, including Chicago; New York City; Boston; Washington D.C.; Kansas City, Mo.; and Columbus, Ohio, a City Council memorandum shows. Five states have also passed such laws  California, Oregon, Hawaii, New Jersey and Maine.

Most of those Tobacco 21 initiatives have been passed since 2014, Bridger said.

If San Antonio enacts such a law, Bridger predicts other cities in Texas will follow suit.

The proposed ordinance says tobacco products include, but are not limited to, cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, snuff, a powder tobacco known as snus, electronic smoking devices and liquids designed for electronic smoking devices.

I brought this recommendation to council because we know that if people dont start smoking before 21, they are unlikely to ever start smoking, Bridger said. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death and disability in the United States.

Science has shown if the brain is exposed to an addictive substance while it is still forming  basically, until someone reaches 25 years old  it is trained to continue seeking that substance or chemical, Bridger said.

So when you start younger, its much harder to quit later, she said of smoking.

The Metro Health director dismissed claims that retailers havent been included in discussions surrounding the proposed policy.

Bridger said she first raised the Tobacco 21 issue with the citys Community Health and Equity Council Committee in August. The city also mailed letters in early November to all businesses licensed to sell tobacco products in its jurisdiction  more than 1,600 merchants in all  notifying them of the proposal and inviting them to a Nov. 16 town hall to discuss the issue.

That town hall meeting drew at least 37 people who were opposed to the measure, according to the sign-in sheet.

Metro Health also conducted an online survey of city residents in September and October to gauge support for the policy. More than 5,400 people responded. A 3-to-1 majority  77.5 percent  supported raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco to 21.

Council also discussed the proposed law at a meeting in December.

In addition to Brockhouse, City Councilman Clayton Perry has signaled his opposition, noting such a change needs to be made at a state level and not by a city government. He expressed concerns the move will harm small businesses already complying with state law.

City Councilwoman Ana Sandoval said she will vote to approve the measure, noting it will improve health and save lives.

Bexar County has some of the worst health outcomes in the state of Texas, she said. This is an opportunity for us to combat that  We have some serious health problems. We have to do something about it.

Two groups representing merchants  The Texas Food and Fuel Association and the Association of Convenience Store Retailers  have expressed opposition to the proposal. They said the policy change could erode smaller merchants profits by 3 to 5 percent because it will dissuade young adults from shopping at San Antonio stores where they are not able to buy tobacco products. Those customers typically purchase other products as well, they said.

Data has shown that customers 18 to 20 years old account for 2 to 4 percent of tobacco sales, Bridger said.

Peggy O'Hare is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | pohare@express-news.net | @Peggy_OHare
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The Texas attorney generals office is investigating the San Antonio police response to a smuggling incident last month that resulted in 12 undocumented immigrants being released.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Mayor Ron Nirenberg, Police Chief William McManus, City Attorney Andy Segovia and City Manager Sheryl Sculley, Assistant Attorney General Cleve Doty warned the city to preserve all relevant materials related to the incident.

Several citizens have filed complaints with the Texas attorney generals office regarding an incident on Dec. 23 involving the release of numerous suspected illegal aliens, Doty wrote. The Texas attorney generals office will investigate these complaints, and the procedure in Senate Bill 4 (indicates) litigation.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also asked the attorney general to investigate the incident.

I am very troubled by the recent news reports of the San Antonio police chief releasing suspected illegal immigrants in a case of human trafficking or human smuggling without proper investigation, identification of witnesses, or cooperation with federal authorities, Patrick, who pushed for SB 4 in last years legislative session, said in a letter to the AG Wednesday night. Such action could be in direct violation of the recently passed Senate Bill 4 and threatens the safety of citizens and law enforcement.

Under SB 4, parts of which have been blocked by courts, local officials can face fines for restricting the enforcement of immigration law by local police. Several provisions have been left in place, including one that punishes local officials who wont let police ask about immigration status.

McManus didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. Nirenberg said, This is more frivolous political theater from Austin, where some would rather punish cities than fund schools.

Police found 12 immigrants who apparently had been smuggled to San Antonio in a tractor-trailer Dec. 23 on the East Side. Rather than turn the immigrants over to federal immigration authorities, McManus decided to charge the trucks driver under a state smuggling law. Police interviewed the 12 immigrants as witnesses and released them.

In a similar incident in July that left 10 people dead in a sweltering semitrailer, San Antonio police turned over the surviving immigrants to federal authorities.

McManus has taken heat from council members and the union representing police officials over the December incident. Councilman Greg Brockhouse sent a letter Wednesday to the U.S. attorneys office asking it to investigate a possible lapse in protocol.

McManus has said police didnt have the authority to hold the immigrants because they werent being charged criminally, which immigration attorneys have said is accurate.

However, hes still faced questions about why he used the state charges and why the immigrants werent turned over to U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement.

McManus has responded that ICE was notified and agents werent prevented from interviewing the immigrants or detaining them.

San Antonio is one of several cities and counties challenging SB 4, which is under appeal with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Lawyers involved in the citys case have said it doesnt appear he violated the law because it only prohibits blanket policies that interfere with immigration enforcement, and McManus has been careful to say hell make decisions about when to arrest smugglers under state law and when to refer them to federal authorities on a case-by-case basis.

This call was situational, based on a fairly fluid situation on the scene, he told reporters last week. So this is not necessarily the way every case is going to be handled going forward.

jbuch@express-news.net

Austin Bureau Chief Peggy Fikac contributed to this report.
The Chattanooga Parking Authority has announced downtown parking meters will not be enforced (and need not be paid) on Monday, Jan. 15 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. DayParking in an unlawful area or manner (bus or loading zones, yellow curb, no parking, handicap space, Fort Wood Residential District, etc.) is enforceable 24 hours / 7 days a week.For More Information, contact: Chattanooga Parking Authority 423-648-4031, or visit www.chattanoogaparking.org
A former Mexican state officials wife, who last year became the first person in a string of Texas money laundering prosecutions to go to trial, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison on a fraud charge.

The sentence by a Corpus Christi judge is a mixed bag for the at least nine former Mexican officials and businessmen who face criminal charges as the result of federal investigations in Corpus Christi and San Antonio on allegations they laundered tens of millions of dollars of bribes and stolen money in Texas.

A jury in October acquitted Silvia Beatriz Perez Ceballos, whose husband was the finance minister for the state of Tabasco from 2007 to 2012, on a money laundering charge, but found her guilty of bank fraud.

Perez initially faced up to 6.5 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, but U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos rejected prosecutors arguments that she take into account the money laundering and bribery allegations presented at trial, defense attorney Andino Reynal said. Ramos also gave Perez, 49, credit for time served since her arrest in May.

The judges decision brought absolute relief by the family, by Silvia, whos spent eight months in jail already, and also a sense of vindication in the fact that the judge announced from the bench that she agreed with the jurys verdict, that the money laundering and the foreign corruption hadnt been proven, and she wasnt going to give it any weight in the sentencing for this bank fraud, Reynal said.

The conviction could impact Perezs pending asylum claim, but will be appealed, he said.

The Houston-based U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas wouldnt comment Thursday.

At trial, prosecutors showed that Perez and her husband, Jose Manuel Saiz Pineda, used a complicated network of trusts and companies to purchase real estate and luxury cars across the U.S., including in the Houston area.

One state contractor testified that he had given Saiz gifts, including more than $500,000 in 2008, but denied they were bribes. In order to convict Perez of money laundering, prosecutors needed to prove that bribery happened in Mexico, that she was involved in financial transactions designed to hide the moneys criminal origins and that she knew the money was dirty. Jurors found that prosecutors hadnt met their burden of proof on the money laundering charge, but did find her guilty of fraud for altering bank records.

Saiz is in jail in Mexico, where he faces corruption charges. Reynal said the prosecutions there are a form of political score settling by the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, which took control of the state in 2013. Saiz was appointed by former Gov. Andres Granier Melo, a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party whos been accused of corruption as well.

I think that the new government in Tabasco over promised to the U.S. government, Reynal said. They promised a quality of proof that ultimately they were not able to deliver.

A half-dozen businessmen and former officials from other Mexican states have pleaded guilty and avoided trial or turned over millions of dollars in property to avoid prosecution. As a result of those cases, the U.S. government has seized bank accounts in Texas and Bermuda and real estate in San Antonio, Austin, Kyle, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley. Perez was the first to make prosecutors present evidence before a jury.

This was in a lot of ways a test case for the government, Reynal said. This is the first person to have gone to trial on one of these foreign corruption type theories. I think it was a serious reversal and shows the pitfalls overzealous prosecutors can fall into when they fail to conduct their own sort of independent investigation on what happens in other countries.

Andres Sanchez, a Houston lawyer who has represented Mexican businessmen and politicians facing criminal charges in the U.S., cautioned against reading too much into Perezs case.

I think people who feel like they played a small role might be emboldened to go to trial, but thats going to depend on each individual case, Sanchez said. Somebody played a role similar to what her husbands accused of probably wouldnt be expecting that same type of sentence.

This case kind of shows you how easy it is in some situations for the government to convict people, he added. They had a very sympathetic client that played a small role, and still she walked away with a conviction. It shows you how much power and how much strength the federal government has if they want to target someone even if they played a smaller role.

Reynal acknowledged that his client, a child psychologist who took the stand in her own defense, cut a more sympathetic figure than a politician accused of taking bribes.

Most of the other people who have been charged were all border governors, and I think based on what Ive read in the press is that theres many times allegations of connection to narcotics, and this has none of that, he said. This is a state far in the south of Mexico and theres no allegations of narcotics or organized crime or anything like that.

In October, the jury denied the governments request to seize property Perez and Saiz own in the U.S. On Friday, prosecutors filed a civil asset forfeiture lawsuit against a home where Perez was living in Sugar Land. Because its a civil proceeding, the government faces a lower burden of proof to take possession of the property.

The family is studying its options, but plans on mounting a vigorous defense, Reynal said.

jbuch@express-news.net | Twitter: @jlbuch
Edgar Gardner Tobin, a pilot, businessman and philanthropist who started the Tobin Aerial Surveys firm, died Jan. 10, 1954, near Shreveport in a plane crash that also killed 11 other prominent businessmen who were returning from a duck hunting trip, according to a front page story in the San Antonio Express on Jan. 11, 1954. Also killed in the private plane crash was Thomas E. Braniff, president of Braniff Airlines.

The story called Tobin San Antonios first World War I ace, flying with the famed Hat in the Ring squadron of Capt. Eddie Rickenbacher. Tobin was also called a leader in the citys development and aviation center.

After his military service, he worked in the automobile business and then started building his Tobin Aerial Surveys firm that was planning to map the entire United States during the early days of World War II for the federal government.

The newspaper said, Ironically, Tobin had postponed a similar hunting trip last week because of the illness of his wife, Margaret Batts Tobin, following a trip to New York. They had used his own private plane for numerous hunting excursions like the one that took his life.

He was the son of Margaret Batts Tobin and William G. Tobin. His uncle was John Tobin, one-time mayor of San Antonio. His wife was voted one of 10 women of the year in San Antonio, selected by ballots in the San Antonio Express. Margaret Batts Tobin was a regent at the University of Texas for seven years.

His aerial survey company mapped more than 500,000 square miles of the United States at the beginning of World War II after establishing a reputation in mapping operations for oil firms. He had first worked in the commercial mapping field for Humble Oil Company, which became Exxon Company, according to the Texas State Handbook Online. Tobin Aerial Surveys was considered the largest aerial mapping firm in the world, opeating its own fleet of planes out of San Antonio, and was valued at more than $10 million.

Tobin had kept up with acquaintance Rickenbacker from his military service. He won his rating of ace by shooting down five German planes and a balloon.

Tobin was survived by his wife and his son, Robert Batts Tobin, who was a student at the University of Texas at the time, as well as a daughter and two sisters.

The Edgar Tobin Foundation was established in San Antonio.

Son Robert Lynn Batts Tobin became a patron of the arts and renowned art collector. Robert donated 60.6 acres of land along Salado Creek to the city of San Antonio for a linear park between Austin Highway and Look 410 before his death in 2000. He also was a benefactor of many nationally renowned cultural institutions, and was particularly involved with the McNay Art Museum.

The heir to the aerial mapping company founded by his father set up the Tobin Endowment in his will to provide about $5 million annually in charitable grants to support medical research, religious, scientific, literary and educational causes, according to the Express-News. The Tobin Foundation for Theater Arts took control of the artwork from his homes in New York, Santa Fe and San Antonio and stage designs from the Tobin Estate.

The newspaper called Tobin a generous contributor to the local symphony and other civic and charitable groups in the story about his 1954 death. Due to the familys long-time support of the symphony, opera and other arts endeavors, the new performing arts center that opened in recent years was named the Tobin Center for Performaning Arts.
ezhejiang.gov.cn

A delegation of over 30 teachers and students from Harvard University visit Wuzhen, Zhejiang province on Jan 7 and hold discussions with local designers and architects at an exchange activity. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

A dialogue on architectural development was staged between Wuzhen, the serene water town in the region south of the Yangtze River and a delegation from Harvard University on Jan 7.

Focusing on the relationship between rural and urban areas, cultural preservation and inheritance, and the revitalization of traditional architecture, Chen Xianghong, a landscape designer who turned the 1,300 year-old Wuzhen into a tourism hot spot, gave a speech to over 30 teachers and students from Harvard University.

Chen explained his understanding of architectural design based on Wuzhen's development and expressed his views on how to protect and inherit the time-honored culture. As the chief planner of the water town, he also told stories between him, architecture and people in Wuzhen.

Following Chen's speech, the professor from Harvard's Graduate School of Design Clayton Strange discussed the balance between urban design and city environment with attendees.

Students from Harvard and architects from home and abroad shared their insights on urban design, architectural development and cultural preservation.

Harvard University's trip in Wuzhen was part of Harvard College China Forum, North America's leading and longest-running student-run conference on China, which is scheduled to take place in spring of this year.

Considering that the exchange activity was an important chance to show the development achievements of Wuzhen, the water town established a long-term cooperative relationship with Harvard's Graduate School of Design. In the future, the two sides will hold more discussions on a variety of topics including architecture, design and rural protection.
The organization also purchases conventional crops

By Farms.com

Organic producers looking to sell their crops to an organization with worldwide appeal can consider Field Farms Marketing (FFM).

The companys headquarters is in Petrolia, Ont. but it has locations throughout Canada, Ukraine, Switzerland, India and the Netherlands. So, theres no shortage of opportunities for growers to sell their corn, soybean wheat or other crop.

Canadian facilities associated with FFM handle milling, flaking, crushing, refining, co- packing and storing. International facilities also handle crushing, refining and storing.

The integrity of organic status is a priority for us and thats achieved by having a paper trail for every movement, Rita Felder, CEO of FFM, told Farms.com. Were a proudly Canadian workforce, yet culturally diverse with the ability to conduct business in twelve languages. We embrace the diversity of our workforce, which permits us to comfortably conduct our global trading activities.

The success of the organic industry has also afforded FFM the opportunity to expand. FFM recently opened an office in Torontos commercial district.

Having an office in Canadas business capital allows FFM to properly assist and represent growers.

It makes sense for a Canadian-based company which is doing business on a global basis to have a presence in Toronto, Felder said. We bring a premium to the farm gate, which contributes to the development of better agricultural practices through produce and process development, and organizational stability encouraged by helping families continue to farm.

Representatives from FFM will be at the Guelph Organic Conference to discuss marketing options with producers and to answer other questions.
Many of us are forward thinkers. Were planning our next vacation, deciding how to remodel the house, anticipating the next pay raise or promotion, evaluating the next big purchase, or simply looking forward to the weekend. Our minds are inclined to drift toward the future. But theres a danger in being so concerned about then that we forget to enjoy now.

If theres a benefit to having had major surgery, or recovering from being chronically ill, its that it helps us have greater appreciation for the moment were in. Each days a gift for every one of us  were not guaranteed tomorrow  but when ones life has hung in the balance, it becomes easier to enjoy the beauty of the present.



The Bible speaks much about the future, especially the life that will follow this one, but it says a lot about today as well. The phrase, this day, appears several times to underscore our need to focus as much on the now and now as we do the sweet by and by. For instance, Jesus told His followers to pray, Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11). He didnt suggest dwelling on what we might need next week, or two months from now.



Later in the same passage He spoke about the pointlessness of fretting over the future, giving His hearers assurance that God would not fail to provide for them. Then Jesus added, Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34).



The psalmist wrote about the importance of embracing the present, stating, This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24). I try to remember that admonition every morning upon awakening, being thankful for another day of life and whatever opportunities God will send. Theres nothing wrong with gazing toward the horizon from time to time, but too much of that may cause us to miss out on whats right in front of us.



I have several friends battling serious illnesses. For them, each day is truly a gift, a blessing. They dont know how many more days they have left. Then there are those whose days have ended. My younger sister passed away just over a year ago, and I recently had a cousin not much older than me who also bid farewell to this life. Poignant reminders that each day, indeed, is precious.



But theres one more element important for fully appreciating this day. As were living it out, we should consider who were living it for. Because that makes a world of difference in what we do, how we do it, and why.



It was Joshua, after leading the impulsive Israelites into the Promised Land, who issued them an immediate challenge. After recounting all God had done for the people of Israel, he told them to, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).



While rejoicing in knowing this is the day the Lord has made, its always a good idea to reaffirm whom we will choose to serve during it. Then we can do it again tomorrow  after it has morphed into this day.



----



Robert J. Tamasy is a veteran journalist, former newspaper editor and magazine editor. Bob has written hundreds of magazine articles, and authored, co-authored and edited more than 15 books. These include the newly re-published, Business At Its Best, Tufting Legacies, The Heart of Mentoring, and Pursuing Life With a Shepherds Heart. He edits a weekly business meditation, Monday Manna, which is translated into more than 20 languages and distributed via email around the world by CBMC International. To read more of Bob Tamasys writings, you can visit his blog, www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com, or his website (now being completed), www.bobtamasy-readywriterink.com. He can be emailed at btamasy@comcast.net.
Last month, US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced the updated energy resource assessment for the Cretaceous, Nanushuk and Torok Formations found in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), the Western Beaufort Sea and State and Native lands and waters. The reports indicate Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Resources (UTRR) of 17.6 billion barrels of oil and 52.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas.

The assessment was a collaboration of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Geological Survey (USGS), all under the Department of the Interior, along with information provided by state and industry partners.

BOEMs assessment of the Nanushuk and Torok plays estimated a mean of 1.2 million barrels and 0.892 Tcf of UTTR oil and gas respectively. Combined with the resources found in other surrounding plays in the Beaufort Sea Outer Continental Shelf Planning Area, estimates total 8.9 billion barrels of oil and 27.7 Tcf of gas in this area were announced.

USGS assessments of the NPR-A region, covering over 22 million acres, estimated 8.7 billion barrels of oil and 25 Tcf of natural gas resources. The reassessment was prompted after several industry announcements of oil discoveries in the area.

Undiscovered resources are those that are estimated to exist based on geologic knowledge and theory, thus the assessments provide a range of potential for the new estimates of oil and gas resources. Until further wells are drilled and begin to produce, it is difficult to be certain about the resource potential. Nevertheless, sufficient data is available to confirm that the potential size of oil pools in the Nanushuk and Torok Formations is six times larger than initially thought.

"BOEM is pleased to participate in this partnership with USGS to use shared science and new technology to produce these increased estimates of oil and gas potential in northern Alaska," said Walter Cruickshank, acting director of BOEM.

Regarding the updated assessment, Secretary Zinke stated, Thanks to the incredible work of scientists at the USGS and BOEM, we know whats available and what our potential is. Thats important because with the scientific knowledge, industry partners are more willing to explore the area. New discoveries have changed our geologic knowledge of the area - and these assessments show that the North Slope will remain an important energy hub for decades to come in order to meet the energy needs of our nation."

The USGS and BOEM fact sheets and websites can provide additional information on the assessments.
But turning off the USO tap will have most impact on rural and remote residents with patchy or no mobile coverage, who rely on voice based communications, and live outside the footprint of fixed line connections to the NBN.
The top Charolais that earlier had won the Charolais competition from AS & M Campbell, Cooara stud, Keysbrook, then sold at 300c/kg and $1249, with the next six calves weighing 378kg making 324c/kg and $1227, both going to LSS.
CBH officials were also happy with the trial, saying it laid the way for further work in space of digital titles, but added it would take time until the technology could be rolled out over its whole business.
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Writing from 2018, it seems rather unnecessary to keep opening academic articles on corruption by introducing the reader to its social, political, and economic significancethe phenomenon is today so ingrained in popular scholarly thought that there is hardly an individual who needs to be convinced about the position of society at large in regards to public and private malfeasance.

And yet, it is the case that the general study of corruption goes on in such an inconsistent and, in many respects, underdeveloped way that we still find it necessary to address basic elements as if it were for the first time.

Jonathan Rose, for example, published in 2017 a paper entitled The Meaning of Corruption: Testing the Coherence and Adequacy of Corruption Definitions, which reminds us of past work on the subject such as John Gardiners Defining Corruption published in 1993, which in turn was based on James C. Scotts overture to his 1972 book Comparative Political Corruption.

Regardless of the innovation that Roses work may introduce, it forces the anti-corruption community at large to ask an embarrassing question: how much progress have we really made?

The situation of academic inquiry seems to stand sharply at odds with the state of global practice, specially when we look at the international anti-corruption movement (or regime). This movement may be defined as the variety of international, domestic, public and private actors engaged in the development, adoption and implementation of the body of conventions, review mechanisms, policy recommendations, country rankings, scholarly production, measurement tools, indicators, statistics, training courses, and advocacy practices, all with the goal of controlling and reducing corruption.

The global effort thus understood has seen a tremendous expansion of its activities and budget since the 1990s, exemplified by the rise of OECD assistance in this area from $36.3 million in 2002 to $292.7 million in 2012. Yet, its level of success remains unclear, as corruption keeps emerging as a major source of economic and political instability in many developing and developed countries alike, partly due to the impressive ability of the phenomenon to mutate and metastasize, but mostly because of the way human and financial resources have been invested.

In many ways, the international anti-corruption movement put the cart before the horse, trying to implement solutions before even understanding the problem. As a consequence, its approach to corruption was described by Florencia Guerzovich as following three distinct phases or stages that seem almost to suggest a final awakening: standard setting in the 1990s, developing diagnostics in the 2000s, and policy-making in the 2010s.

Following this counterintuitive evolution, we might even see the emergence of a fourth stage soon, represented by an emphasis on integrity in organizational ethics management and the focus on individual and social values, which would fully integrate the role of agency in anti-corruption reform efforts.

The State of Affairs. To consider the real case for anti-corruption work in 2018 and forward, we should ask ourselves if we have been witnessing an actual evolution in academia and application, or if the field has just been spinning off-axis since the measurement revolution of the mid 1990s brought about by Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index and others after it.

Take moral relativism and policy localization. In 1988, Robert Klitgaards seminal work Controlling Corruption largely subscribed to the idea that corruption is universally condemned, provided earlier in John T. Noonans Bribes in 1984. Yet Noonan himself, and James C. Scott before him, had also offered that corruption is best understood as a by-product of the formal norms of modern state administration, and the conflict between these and informal public values, thus suggesting that condemnation of corruption depends on local context, something that is profusely demonstrated by Rasma Karklins in The System Made me Do It: Corruption in Post-Communist Societies (2005).

Are we seeing here a reversal in academic positions, or evidence of deeper analytic elements that need to be explored? A similar situation exists with the concurrent popularity of both policy adaptation and the development of country-specific approaches to implement the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, on one hand, and the emergence of an international standard for anti-bribery management systems in the form of ISO 37001.

The convergence of these two apparently contradictory positions is highlighted, for example, by Paul M. Heywood and Elizabeth Johnsons 2017 paper Cultural Specificity versus Institutional Universalism: A Critique of the National Integrity System (NIS) Methodology.

* * *

A sharp reader will hopefully induce that the issue boils down to two separate dimensions of corruption and control, one basic and universal, another local and specific. Yet, very few scholars have been willing to consistently adopt such level of precision in research, and so the result is that the single, most important problem that continues haunting the literature on corruption to this day is the fact that most researchers keep sampling specific behavioral forms but endorsing their results to the entire concept of corruption. No wonder we still find it open for discussion.

Important exceptions do exist, of course. Monika Bauhrs Need or Greed? Conditions for Collective Action against Corruption, published in 2016 and building on another remarkable paper co-authored with Naghmeh Nasiritousi, makes an important contribution towards analytic precision in corruption studies, and so does Jennifer Bussells argument in Typologies of Corruption: A Pragmatic Approach (2015).

However, these efforts are not enough to bring balance to the relation between theory and data; major lines of classic inquiry that were pushed aside with the development of measurement strategies and the unceasing preference for quick and shallow empirical studies have yet to be appropriately resolved. Noonans concern for the corruption-inducing role of reciprocity and gift-giving; John G. Peters and Susan Welchs suggestion of corruption tolerance as a function of the size of the beneficiary; Scotts association of grand and petty corruption with input and output stages of the policy cycle, respectively; and W. Michael Reismans adoption of the ideas of myth systems and operational codes, to give but a few examples, need to be fully studied in light of new developments.

But, more importantly, there is big potential for the integration of these ideas with those presented in The Logic of Political Survival (2003) by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and his team; Social Traps and the Problem of Trust (2005) by Bo Rothstein; and/or Private Corruption and its Actors: Insights into the Subjective Decision Making Processes (2008) by Tanja Rabl, to mention but a few promising approaches introduced more recently.

I also have tried to take a step forward in this direction by exploring the application of David Eastons work to the study of anti-corruption reforms, in my 2017 paper A Systems Model of Corruption and Anti-Corruption Reform: International and Domestic Pressure, and Government Strategies to Preserve the Status Quo.

* * *

The (Possible) Future. The range of possibilities for interaction and synergies between different approaches forces us to look beyond the safety of our traditional research and embrace the diversity of disciplines that inform the study of corruption, in hope of someday developing a unified theory of corruption that may actually stand a chance against the biggest policy challenge to global development of the current era.

Economists, anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists have an obvious wealth of expertise to provide, but we can even look beyond and apply System Dynamics if we feel adventurous enough. The key is to begin crossing disciplinary boundaries with more ease and frequency, and to do so driven entirely by the analytic requirements of the specific subject.

How would a unified theory of corruption look like? To provide a precise answer would be to take credibility away from the potential of such effort to make a real difference in the way we engage with our subject of study. But if I had to venture a general outline, I believe it would need to describe the phenomenon of corruption starting from concrete information regarding human moral development, recognizing the role of both agency and socialization.

From there, it could build up by considering the roles of bureaucratization, professionalism, the division between public and private spheres, and similar historical processes to analyze the rise of divergence and of integrity in office. Cultural anthropology, and then organizational studies, would be the core disciplines from which to draw crucial perspectives, supported by appropriate input from historical jurisprudence and legal history.

Once the precise stimuli had been identified, approaches from social psychology such as the theory of planned behavior could pick up the lead and formulate appropriate models to describe the interaction between incentives previously identified. Parallel to this progress, the specific behavior of elites and individual leaders could be modelled from a political psychology approach, recognizing the role of political agency in crucial decision-making processes.

Finally, the above knowledge could inform, and be integrated into, a political model that takes account of economic considerations such as utility maximizations, rational choice, and other key concepts. With enough data, the cherry on top could potentially be the development and running of a computer simulation model to assist policy makers and practitioners in general.

A unified theory of corruption needs to become the goal of our field if we have any hope to ever provide the answers needed to curb corruption in a consistent and long-lasting way. Hopefully the international anti-corruption movement in general, and research centers in particular, will take notice of both the need and the potential for such a massive endeavor, and begin drawing plans to fulfill the scientific and social call of this century.

_____

Joseph Pozsgai-Alvarez, pictured above, is International Associate at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He has served as external consultant to the Office of the Prime Minister of Peru on matters of ethics, transparency, and access to information, and is currently engaged in the development of the Daily Corruption: News Feed & Database project with NGOs in Latin America and Africa. His topics of research include corruption tolerance, the politics of anti-corruption, and integrity management. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Tsukuba. He can be contacted here.


Eric Clapton has admitted he "sabotaged" every musical pursuit he ever started.

Eric Clapton

The 72-year-old music legend teamed up with filmmaker and long-time friend Lili Fini Zanuck for new movie 'Eric Clapton: Life In 12 Bar Blues', which documents the rocker's spiralling addiction to drugs and alcohol, finding out the woman he believed was his mother was actually his sister, being rejected by his real parent, and the tragic loss of his four-year-old son Connor, who fell to his death after falling out of a window in a New York City apartment.

A continuous theme to the 'Layla' hitmaker's personality, which director Zanuck chose to pinpoint, was how Clapton would just start getting onto a good thing with each of his groups, including The Yardbirds, Cream and Derek And The Dominos, and then he'd move on to the next thing.

The 'Tears in Heaven' songwriter - who has a net worth of around $250 million - has also admitted to never being concerned with how much he'd earned or spent over the years, despite the movie showing a young Clapton making his first ever purchase, his impressive Hurtwood Edge mansion in Surrey, England.

Speaking at a Q&A conducted by former Squeeze star Jools Holland at the UK premiere of the movie held at London's BFI Southbank on Wednesday (10.01.18), the 'Wonderful Tonight' star explained: "About the time [Derek And] The Dominos broke up [1971]. That thing of calling my band The Dominos was me trying to back out of everything. I still don't know how much money I've got or how much I've spent. I deliberately avoid knowing, because I'm a working class boy. It seemed like my life, from the minute I started to listen to blues music ... it was all about obscurity and mythology. I sabotaged everything I got involved with that started to look like it was going to be a success."

Zanuck suggested that Clapton moved on swiftly because he didn't want to become a "sell-out".

She said: "It was also anytime it appeared to be a sell-out. Like when The Yardbirds wanted a pop hit.

"Eric was about being true to the music that he wanted to play. A lot of the time these exoduses weren't to sabotage anything. He didn't want a hit."

Agreeing, Clapton concluded that he wasn't "comfortable" with popularity.

He said: "I see. [laughter] Yes, it is based on a loyalty to the music I was listening to. I wasn't that interested in phenomenal success unless it was really worthy. Ray Charles, for example, was a huge success and was comfortable with it, and I don't really understand how that can be.

'Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bar Blues' hits cinemas on Friday (12.01.18).
Duchess Catherine made a new furry friend on her first royal engagement of 2018 yesterday (10.01.18).

Duchess Catherine

The Duchess of Cambridge - who shares pet dog Lupo with husband Prince William - fell in love with puppy Bear during her visit to Reach Academy Feltham in west London - which works with children's mental health charity Place2Be, of which the duchess is a royal patron - on Wednesday morning.

Catherine couldn't stop stroking Bear, a cross between a poodle and bichon frise, who is training to become a therapy dog to help the school's youngsters with reading skills, and to deal with emotional issues.

The duchess presented Bear with a rosette to congratulate him on completing his puppy training and praised him for being "well behaved".

Karen Howard, an attendance and community support officer at the school, told the Daily Mail newspaper: "My main concern was he'd been digging all morning and he's really dirty.

"He wasn't too bad, he's been really naughty all morning. She said, 'He's a really fluffy dog' and that he was 'really cute and really well behaved.'

"She was very interested to hear about therapy dogs and the children were telling her, 'The dog makes us really happy'."

Catherine was also intrigued to meet the school guinea pig and is no stranger to loveable rodents.

In May 2016, the 36-year-old royal told St John the Baptist Junior School pupil Darcey that she and her family - kids Prince George, four, and two-year-old Princess Charlotte, and her husband William, 35 - have a pet hamster.

The youngster said at the time: "She said she had a hamster, and Charlotte really likes it because the whiskers always tickle her face."
The Chattanooga College is hosting its Career and Opportunity Fair today. From 8 a.m.-5 p.m., the front entrance and atrium of Chattanooga College, 5600 Brainerd Road, Suite B38, will be full of vendors from area businesses who are looking to hire.

Event organizers invite anyone interested in employment, or learning more about Chattanooga College and their programs, to attend. The job fair is open to current students and the general public.

Vendors who will be at the Career and Opportunity Fair include: the Chattanooga Lookouts, Texas Roadhouse, law enforcement representatives, Tranco Logistics, Peoples Home Equity, Lipsey Logistics, Chattanooga Allergy Clinic, multiple representatives from the healthcare industry and many more.

"Chattanooga College wants to provide a diverse range of offerings so that attendees can find a role that best match their experience and interests. Individuals who are interested in continuing their education can learn more about the many programs offered by Chattanooga College. The technical school prepares students for a fulfilling career in fields like: computer networking, dental assisting, criminal justice, nursing, medical assistant, medical administration and cosmetology," officials said.

For more information on this event, visit ChattanoogaCollege.edu, or contact Sarah Halloran at 423-290-2134.
Not only does Istanbul sit on the Bosphorous Straitprecisely where the continents of Europe and Asia convergebut it also seems to be a crossroads for the ancient and modern worlds.

The city has been greatly influenced by various waves of powers and people of all cultural backgrounds.

The Hagia Sophia, a former basilica-turned-mosque that now serves as a museum, is an immaculate structure near the city center. Millions of tourists come here each year to marvel at the unrivaled architecture and breathtaking interiorsand, perhaps, to get a sense of the civilizations that have claimed the Hagia Sophia as their own.

Passed along from the Greeks to the Ottomans and many more, the Hagia Sophia tells a number of stories. These are just a few of our favorite tales.

Many faiths have prayed at the Hagia Sophia

Two basilicas stood at this site before the current building was erected: the Church of Constantius II and the Church of Theodosius II.

In 532, not long after the destruction of the second church, Byzantine Emperor Justinian I called for an even more ornate church to be constructed.

What we know as the Hagia Sophia opened its doors in 537, and served as the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. It briefly fell into the hands of Roman Catholicism (from 1204 until 1261) during The Crusades. In 1453, the Hagia Sophia became an imperial mosque when the Ottomans conquered the city. It would remain an Islamic house of worship until 1935, when it was secularized and converted to its current form: a museum.

It boasts ingenious architecture

Much of the Hagia Sophias preliminary structure shows Byzantine innovation. The dome, for example, is uniquely supported by four pendentivesthe first building to employ those curving, triangular vaults. And the 40 windows that line the base of the dome dont just serve to channel in natural light. They also help to ease the weight of the dome upon the entire structure.

Each successive culture has left its mark on the Hagia Sophia, too. The four widely famed minarets, for example, are a prominent feature of Islamic design.

The intricate mosaics tell a tale

While many of the original mosaics that portrayed Christian imagery were destroyed when the Hagia Sophia became a mosque (or were shipped to Italy by Crusaders), some were discovered when the structure became a museum. For centuries, the artworks were preserved behind ornate Islamic tile work.

The Deesis Mosaic, created at the end of the Catholic period, is particularly intriguing because it depicts Jesus Christ as someone else. Some researchers believe Apollonius of Tyana, a Greek philosopher, sits in Christs place. According to this theory, Christ is fictional, and Apollonius served as a model for the story.

Waters of panacea once attracted the ill

Until the Hagia Sophia was opened as a museum, many visitors flocked here to drink from two water wells, hailed for their purported healing powers. It was said that if you drank three times in a row, on Saturdays, from the well in the main hall, you would be cured of illness.

Another site, known as the Perspiring Column, puzzles guests because it remains constantly wet even on the hottest days.

At its base is a hole through which many place a finger in hopes of being healed. Myth or not, many visitors give it a shot.

Source: Travel and Leisure by Stephen Casale
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 01/10/18 -- Today, Cogeco Communications Inc. (TSX: CCA) ("Cogeco Communications" or the "Corporation") announced its financial results for the first quarter ended November 30, 2017, in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS").

For the first quarter of fiscal 2018:

-- Revenue increased by $4.5 million, or 0.8%, to reach $553.6 million mainly driven by the growth of 3.2% in the Canadian broadband services segment, partly offset by the decreases of 1.4% in the American broadband services segment and of 4.5% in the Business information and communications technology ("Business ICT") services segment. -- Canadian broadband services revenue increased mainly as a result of the impact of the timing of rate increases implemented in September 2017 and in November 2017 in Ontario and Quebec, respectively, compared to December 2016 in the prior year. The continued growth in Internet service customers combined with the movement of customers to higher value packages also contributed to the increase which was partly offset by a decline in video and telephony services customers; -- American broadband services revenue decreased as a result of the depreciation of the US dollar against the Canadian dollar compared to the same period of the prior year. Revenue in local currency increased by 4.2% mainly due to rate increases implemented in September 2017, the continued growth in Internet and telephony services customers in both the residential and business sectors, party offset by a decline in video service customers; -- Business ICT services revenue decreased primarily as a result of higher churn and competitive pricing pressures on the hosting and network connectivity services combined with the depreciation of the US dollar against the Canadian dollar compared to the same period of the prior year;

(1) The indicated terms do not have standardized definitions prescribed by IFRS and, therefore, may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. For more details, please consult the "Non-IFRS financial measures" section of the MD&A.

-- Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $2.2 million, or 0.9%, to reach $247.5 million mainly as a result of the following: -- Lower adjusted EBITDA in the American broadband services mainly as a result of a higher level of operating expenses including $3.1 million ($US2.5 million) in non-recurring costs related to hurricane Irma; -- Lower adjusted EBITDA in the Business ICT services resulting mainly from a decline in revenue combined with the prior year's $1.8 million gain on disposal of property, plant and equipment recognized as a reduction of operating expenses in the first quarter of fiscal 2017, partly offset by a decline in operating expenses (0.4% adjusted EBITDA decrease excluding last year's non-recurring gain); partly offset by -- Higher adjusted EBITDA in the Canadian broadband services as a result of organic growth; -- Profit for the period remained essentially the same at $76.5 million, or $1.55 per share, compared to $75.0 million, or $1.53 per share, in the comparable period of fiscal 2017 mainly as a result of the decreases in depreciation and amortization and in financial expense, mostly offset by a lower adjusted EBITDA and an increase in income taxes; -- Free cash flow remained essentially the same at $102.3 million compared to $101.4 million for the same period of the prior year as a result of the decrease in financial expense, mostly offset by the decrease in adjusted EBITDA; -- Cash flow from operating activities decreased by $117.2 million, or 94.9%, to reach $6.3 million mainly due to the increases in income taxes paid of which $85.5 million was related to a deferral in income tax installments in the prior year and changes in non-cash operating activities primarily due to changes in working capital; -- The Corporation revised on January 10, 2018 its fiscal 2018 financial guidelines to include MetroCast's financial projections for an eight- month period and present year-over-year comparisons on a constant currency basis. On a constant currency and consolidated basis, Cogeco Communications expects fiscal 2018 revenue to grow between 11% and 13% and adjusted EBITDA between 10% and 12% while free cash flow should decrease between 11% and 18% compared to fiscal 2017; -- At its January 10, 2018 meeting, the Board of Directors of Cogeco Communications declared a quarterly eligible dividend of $0.475 compared to $0.43 per share paid in the comparable period of fiscal 2017; -- On January 4, 2018, the Corporation's subsidiary, Atlantic Broadband, completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Harron Communications, L.P. cable systems operating under the MetroCast brand name ("MetroCast") which served about 125,000 Internet, 75,000 video and 36,000 telephony customers at November 30, 2017. This acquisition extends Atlantic Broadband's footprint across 11 states on the East Coast of the United States from Maine to Florida. The transaction valued at US$1.4 billion is subject to customary closing adjustments. This acquisition was financed through a combination of US$1.7 billion under a new Senior Secured Term Loan B, whereby US$583 million was used to refinance the existing First Lien Credit Facilities, and US$150 million under a new Senior Secured Revolving Credit facility combined with a US$315 million equity investment by Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec ("CDPQ") in Atlantic Broadband's holding company, representing 21% of Atlantic Broadband; and -- On December 11, 2017, the Corporation extended its $800 million Term Revolving Facility maturity date by an additional year until January 24, 2023.

"The results of our first quarter are generally aligned with our guidance for the full year as presented prior to the MetroCast acquisition," declared Louis Audet, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogeco Communications Inc. "Cogeco Connexion, our Canadian broadband subsidiary, reported financial results that were above expectations largely thanks to overall judicious management."

"Atlantic Broadband, our American broadband subsidiary, posted results in line with expectations apart from the impact of unforeseen challenges when hurricane Irma hit the Florida region in the fall," stated Mr. Audet. "Teams in place worked diligently to ensure the safety of our employees and quickly restored service to our customers. I am proud of how our teams prioritized customers during this difficult time, while they were also preparing for the closing of the MetroCast acquisition and the expansion of our Florida operations."

"The focus for Cogeco Peer 1, our Business ICT subsidiary, is to reinforce their role as a trusted advisor, offering relevant solutions in a market where change is perpetual and the competition is increasingly relentless," added Mr. Audet. "Cogeco Peer 1 is on its trajectory intended to renew with growth," concluded Mr. Audet.

ABOUT COGECO COMMUNICATIONS

Cogeco Communications Inc. is a communications corporation. It is the 8th largest cable operator in North America, operating in Canada under the Cogeco Connexion name in Quebec and Ontario, and in the United States under the Atlantic Broadband name in 11 states along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida. Cogeco Communications Inc. provides its residential and business customers with Internet, video and telephony services through its two-way broadband fibre networks. Through its subsidiary Cogeco Peer 1, Cogeco Communications Inc. provides its business customers with a suite of information technology services (colocation, network connectivity, hosting, cloud and managed services), through its 16 data centres, extensive FastFiber Network and more than 50 points of presence in North America and Europe. Cogeco Communications Inc.'s subordinate voting shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CCA).

Analyst Conference Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) Call: Media representatives may attend as listeners only. Please use the following dial-in number to have access to the conference call by dialing five minutes before the start of the conference: Canada/United States Access Number: 1 877-291-4570 International Access Number: + 1 647-788-4919 In order to join this conference, participants are only required to provide the operator with the company name, that is, Cogeco Inc. or Cogeco Communications Inc. By Internet at http://corpo.cogeco.com/cca/en/investors/investor- relations

SHAREHOLDERS' REPORT

Three-month period ended November 30, 2017

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quarters ended November 30, (in thousands of dollars, except percentages, per share 2017 2016 Change data and the number of shares) $ $ % ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operations Revenue 553,625 549,090 0.8 Adjusted EBITDA(1) 247,482 249,703 (0.9) Adjusted EBITDA margin(1) 44.7% 45.5% - Integration, restructuring and acquisition costs 392 - - Profit for the period 76,469 75,024 1.9 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash flow Cash flow from operating activities 6,267 123,461 (94.9) Acquisitions of property, plant and equipment, intangible and other assets 96,158 96,494 (0.3) Free cash flow(1) 102,300 101,379 0.9 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Financial condition(2) Cash and cash equivalents 122,240 211,185 (42.1) Short-term investments 34,000 54,000 (37.0) Total assets 5,307,659 5,348,380 (0.8) Indebtedness(3) 2,656,141 2,598,058 2.2 Shareholders' equity 1,657,787 1,599,267 3.7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Capital intensity(1) 17.4% 17.6% - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Per Share Data(4) Earnings per share Basic 1.55 1.53 1.3 Diluted 1.54 1.52 1.3 Dividends 0.475 0.43 10.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weighted average number of multiple and subordinate voting shares outstanding 49,288,155 49,144,311 0.3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) The indicated terms do not have standardized definitions prescribed by the International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") and, therefore, may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. For more details, please consult the "Non-IFRS financial measures" section of the MD&A. (2) At November 30, 2017 and August 31, 2017. (3) Indebtedness is defined as the aggregate of bank indebtedness, balance due on a business combination, principal on long-term debt and obligations under derivative financial instruments. (4) Per multiple and subordinate voting share. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contacts:

Source:

Cogeco Communications Inc.

Patrice Ouimet

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

514-764-4700



Information:

Media

Rene Guimond

Senior Vice-President, Public Affairs and

Communications

514-764-4700




NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 10, 2018 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against RYB Education, Inc. ("RYB" or the "Company") (NYSE: RYB) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-09261, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired RYB's American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs"): (1) pursuant and/or traceable to RYB's false and misleading Registration Statement and Prospectus, issued in connection with the Company's initial public offering on or about September 27, 2017 (the "IPO" or the "Offering"); and/or (2) on the open market between September 27, 2017 and November 22, 2017, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act") and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act").

If you are a shareholder who purchased RYB securities between September 27, 2017, and November 22, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until January 26, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and amount of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

RYB Education, Inc. offers educational services. The Company operates kindergarten and pre-schools. RYB Education provides training in a variety of subjects and languages, teacher recruitment, guidance, innovative learning, development of children, rating systems, parents consulting, and other services.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) RYB failed to establish safety policies to prevent sexual abuse from occurring at its schools; (ii) RYB's failure to remedy problems within its system exposed children to harm and unreasonable risk of harm while in the Company's care; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, RYB securities traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, and class members suffered significant losses and damages.

On November 24, 2017, various news outlets reported that police have opened an investigation into RYB after numerous parents accused a RYB nursery of drugging and molesting their children. Beijing's education authority confirmed the police investigation in a statement. According to China's leading newspaper Xinhua News Agency, RYB has suspended multiple teachers at RYB Education New World after kindergarten students were "reportedly sexually molested, pierced by needles, given unidentified pills," and forced to undress and locked in a dark room. Parents reported that at least eight children have been abused at the school and that the children had given similar accounts with respect to their abuse.

On this news, RYB's ADR price fell $10.28 per share, or over 38% from its previous closing price, to close at $16.45 per share on November 24, 2017.

On the following day, several news outlets reported that Chinese police had detained teachers in connection with its RYB's child abuse inquiry. According to police reports, one of the teachers was arrested after needle wounds were found on at least eight children aged 2 to 6 years at the kindergarten. In a statement issued later that day, RYB announced it had fired the detained teachers, as well as the head of one of its kindergartens.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 10, 2018 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Kobe Steel Ltd. ("Kobe Steel" or the "Company") (OTC PINK: KBSTY) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the Southern District of New York, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Kobe Steel's American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs") between May 29, 2013, and October 12, 2017, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Kobe Steel securities between May 29, 2013, and October 12, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until February 26, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Kobe Steel is one of Japan's largest steel manufacturers and a major supplier of aluminum and copper products. The Company's other business segments include wholesale power supply machinery, construction machinery, real estate and electronic materials.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the Company falsified data on many of its aluminum, copper and steel products sold to customers; (ii) the Company sold products that in reality failed quality control tests in violation of laws and regulations; (iii) the Company's financial performance relied on selling products that did not meet quality standards in violation of laws and regulations; (iv) the Company would incur significant costs and lose customers if customers became aware of the substandard quality of products they purchased; (v) the Company's compliance initiatives, corporate governance and risk management activities were ineffective and inadequate at preventing product data manipulation, fraud and other related misconduct; (vi) the Company's internal reporting systems failed to foster employee participation and adequately address employee concerns, and there was an excessive propensity by senior management, including the Individual Defendants, to hyper-emphasize profitability at all costs, that promoted a pervasive culture of corner-cutting, and looking the other way in the face of compliance violations, as long as profits were achieved, which deterred employees from making claims over product quality for fear of retribution and/or management failing to properly investigate claims; and (vii) as a result of the foregoing, Kobe Steel's shares traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, and class members suffered significant losses and damages.

On October 8, 2017, the Company issued a press release entitled "Improper conduct concerning a portion of the aluminum and copper products manufactured by Kobe Steel." The press release disclosed that certain of Kobe Steel's products "did not comply with the product specifications" and "[d]ata in inspection certificates had been improperly rewritten etc., and the products were shipped as having met the specifications concerned."

On this news, Kobe Steel's ADR price fell $0.62, or over 10% from its previous closing price, to close at $5.30 per share on October 9, 2017.

On October 10, 2017, before the U.S. market opened, Reuters published an article entitled, "Kobe Steel's data-fabrication stuns Japanese manufacturers," which disclosed that several major manufacturers had confirmed use of the affected Kobe Steel products.

On this news, Kobe Steel's ADR price fell $1.30, or over 24% from its previous closing price, to close at $4.00 per share on October 10, 2017.

On October 12, 2017, post-market, Bloomberg published an article entitled, "Kobe Steel Scandal Expands Into Core Business Overseas," which reported that the Company's fake data scandal included its core business of providing steel to numerous international companies.

On October 13, 2017, Kobe Steel issued a press release entitled, "Report on improper conduct concerning Kobe Steel and its group of companies." The press release provided updated information about an investigation into the falsified data and related wrongdoing and listed numerous nonconforming products the Company had identified to date. On the same day, several media outlets reported that the number of impacted customers had more than doubled from the initial estimates of 200 customers.

Following these news, Kobe Steel's ADR price fell $0.40, or over 10% from its previous closing price, to close at $3.55 per share on October 13, 2017.

Subsequent news reports and the Company's own internal investigation revealed that Kobe Steel's lack of quality controls and data tampering was a result of, among other things, wholly inadequate and ineffective corporate governance and compliance initiatives.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP




Corporate Communications Division Mazda Motor Corporation, Japan +81-3-3508-5056 [Tokyo] +81-82-282-5253 [Hiroshima] mailto: media@mazda.co.jp Toyota Motor Corporation Public Affairs Division Global Communications Department Tel: +81-3-3817-9926

TOKYO, Jan 11, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle joined Mazda (MZDAF) and Toyota (NYSE: TM) leaders today to announce the automakers have selected Huntsville, Alabama as the site of their new joint-venture manufacturing plant.The new plant will have the capacity to build 300,000 vehicles annually, with production split evenly between two lines for each company to produce Mazda's crossover model that will be newly introduced to the North American market and the Toyota Corolla.The joint venture represents a $1.6 billion investment that Mazda and Toyota plan to make with equal funding contributions. The site for the new plant is in Huntsville, located approximately 14 miles from Toyota's Alabama plant (Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Alabama, Inc.). The facility is expected to create up to 4,000 jobs. Production is expected to begin by 2021."The partnership between Mazda and Toyota will expand innovative automotive manufacturing in Alabama," Governor Ivey said. "Their decision to locate this new facility in Huntsville is a testament to the talented workforce in our state. We are proud that this partnership puts Alabama on the forefront of technology in this dynamic global industry.""With this announcement, our world changes overnight," said Tommy Battle, mayor of Huntsville. "Mazda and Toyota, two of the world's most innovative automakers, have created a legacy project that will provide jobs for decades to come for Huntsville and Alabama. It vaults Alabama to the top as an industry leader in producing the next generation of cars that will power our nation."Mazda Motor Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Masamichi Kogai and Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda joined Gov. Ivey and Mayor Battle for the announcement.For Mazda, the plant comes on line in a significant year that will mark the start of the company's second century of operation and second half-century of sales in the U.S. The automaker is enhancing its commitment to the U.S. market and will focus efforts on manufacturing and increasing sales in the country."Mazda makes cars with a clear vision of how we want to inspire people, contribute to society and help preserve the beauty of the earth. By making such cars here in Alabama, we hope that over time our plant will come to occupy a special place in the hearts of our employees and the local community. By making this plant a vibrant part of that community, we hope to work, learn and grow together with the people of Alabama and Huntsville," Kogai said.For Toyota, this joint-venture plant will be its 11th U.S. manufacturing facility and represents its continued commitment in the U.S., in addition to the $10 billion dollar investment over the next 5 years that was announced in January 2017."Our investment to establish a new vehicle assembly plant with Mazda builds on the strong success we have enjoyed in Alabama where we produce engines for the North American market," Toyoda said. "Starting from 2021, I'm confident that we will run a highly competitive plant, by bringing together the expertise of Toyota and Mazda as well as the excellent Alabama workforce. We are committed to being another 'best-in town' company in the city of Huntsville and the state of Alabama, a new hometown for Toyota and Mazda."The State of Alabama is the fifth largest producer of cars and light trucks nationally with a strong automotive manufacturing presence including Toyota's engine plant in Huntsville, where Toyota employs 1,400 team members. With more than 150 Tier 1 and 2 automotive suppliers in the state as well as automakers, there are approximately 57,000 automotive manufacturing jobs in Alabama.In the coming months, after obtaining approvals and authorization by antitrust agencies, the new joint venture will be established, and site preparations will begin with the start of production in 2021.About MazdaMazda Motor Corporation (TSE: 7261) started manufacturing tools in 1929 and soon branched out into production of trucks for commercial use. In the early 1960s, Mazda launched its first passenger car models and began developing rotary engines. Still headquartered in Hiroshima in western Japan, Mazda today ranks as one of Japan's leading automakers, and exports cars to the United States and Europe for over 30 years. For more information, please visit www.mazda.comToyotaToyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is the global mobility company that introduced the Prius hybrid-electric car in 1997 and the first mass-produced fuel cell sedan, Mirai, in 2014. Headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, Toyota has been making cars since 1937. Today, Toyota proudly employs 370,000 employees in communities around the world. Together, they build around 10 million vehicles per year in 29 countries, from mainstream cars and premium vehicles to mini-vehicles and commercial trucks, and sell them in more than 170 countries under the brands Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino. For more information, please visit www.toyota-global.com.Source: MazdaToyotaContact:Copyright 2018 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
New Data Shows Employee Salary Expectation Key Motivation for Resignation; One-Third of Employers Anticipate More Employees Leaving in 2018

MILL VALLEY, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Glassdoor, one of the world's largest job and recruiting sites, today released new data1 which reveals that 35 percent of hiring decision makers expect more employees to quit over the next 12 months. The survey, conducted among 750 hiring decision makers (those in recruitment, HR and responsible for hiring) in the U.S. and UK, also finds that nearly half (45 percent) note that salary is the top reason for employees changing jobs, followed by career advancement opportunities, benefits and location.

While two-thirds (64 percent) of those surveyed believe their organization is satisfactory/very satisfactory at clearly setting pay and benefit expectations within job postings, salary ranges are still an enigma: Glassdoor data shows fewer than one in 10 online job listings include pay data in the job description2. More than one-third (37 percent) of hiring decision makers say retention rates would increase significantly if new hires were better informed during the hiring process.

In addition, a separate Glassdoor survey from 2017 shows that nearly all (98 percent) job seekers and employees say it would be helpful to see pay ranges included in open job listings3.

"Pay can be a big motivator for employees to take a job, however, very few job listings actually include pay information, even if this is overwhelmingly what job seekers want. If candidates were better informed about how their pay and career could progress during the initial job search and recruiting process, they would be less likely to take a job that turns out to be a bad fit," said Carmel Galvin, Chief Human Resources Officer at Glassdoor. "Recruiters and hiring managers need to manage expectations and use all channels available to them to communicate with potential candidates to ensure pay realities meet expectations. It shouldn't be a battle for job seekers to gain insights into salaries, benefits, culture and what their career path might look like in a job."

Half (48 percent) of hiring decision makers note salary and compensation is the most influential factor for a candidate decision on where to work. Pay offers from rival firms are a significant consideration for employers - two-thirds noted competing offers were a major challenge in attracting and hiring informed candidates.

"There is almost always going to be a rival firm that could potentially pay your best people more, but Glassdoor research and other third party studies confirm that company culture matters more than pay as a driver of long-term employee satisfaction and engagement. If you can improve your workplace culture and offer people career advancement opportunities, this will help you hold on to people longer," added Galvin.

A separate study4 by Glassdoor Economic Research found that employers with better overall Glassdoor ratings are more likely to retain employees. Improved workplace culture, competitive base pay, and employee career advancement opportunities are associated with lower employee turnover.

To help ensure employee pay expectations better meet employer pay realities, Glassdoor introduced salary estimates in job listings last year. In the majority of U.S. job listings on Glassdoor, job seekers will see an estimated pay range based on recent employee-provided salary reports for similar job titles at the company, its competitors and other employers in a specific location. Glassdoor expects to include coverage outside the U.S. in the future.

To learn more about what defines an informed candidates and the value of an informed candidate on recruiting and business, please visit the Glassdoor Informed Candidate Survey.

To learn more about your company's candidate demographics on Glassdoor, visit the Glassdoor Employer Center by accessing a Free Employer Account.

About Glassdoor

Glassdoor is one of the largest and fastest growing job sites in the world today. Set apart by the tens of millions of reviews and insights provided by employees and candidates, Glassdoor combines all the jobs with this valuable data to make it easy for people to find a job that is uniquely right for them. As a result, Glassdoor helps employers hire truly informed candidates at scale through effective recruiting solutions like job advertising and employer branding products. Launched in 2008, Glassdoor now has reviews and insights for more than 700,000 companies in more than 190 countries. For labor market trends and analysis, visit Glassdoor Economic Research. For company news and career advice and tips, visit the Glassdoor Blog and for employer-related news and insights to help employers hire, visit the Glassdoor for Employers Blog. Visit Glassdoor.com or download our apps on iOS and Android platforms.

Glassdooris a registered trademark of Glassdoor, Inc.

Know Your Worth', Salary Explorer' and the Glassdoor logo are trademarks of Glassdoor, Inc.

Aptitude Research Partners, 2017 Glassdoor Internal Data. January 2017 Glassdoor Survey, April 2017 "Why Do Workers Quit? The Factors That Predict Employee Turnover." Glassdoor Research, 2017

Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/449764/Glassdoor_Logo.jpg
COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENT

11 January 2018

TRADING UPDATE FOR THE THIRD QUARTER ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2017

Financial highlights

Sales in the quarter increased by 7% at constant exchange rates and by 1% at actual rates compared to the prior year period



Most regions grew at constant exchange rates, with sustained double digit growth in Asia Pacific



Continued double digit increase in retail sales driven by the Jewellery Maisons and Specialist Watchmakers; moderate decline in wholesale sales



Strong performance from the Jewellery Maisons

October-December 2017 m October-December 2016 m Change at constant exchange rates versus prior period (%) Change at actual exchange rates versus prior period (%) Sales by region Europe 846 861 -1% -2% Asia Pacific 1 182 1 130 +11% +5% Americas 561 559 +8% +0% Japan 294 313 +5% -6% Middle East and Africa 236 230 +11% +3% Sales by distribution channel Retail 1 983 1 858 +13% +7% Wholesale 1 136 1 235 -3% -8% Sales by segment Jewellery Maisons 1 829 1 746 +11% +5% Specialist Watchmakers 781 813 +1% -4% Other 509 534 +0% -5% Total Sales 3 119 3 093 +7% +1%

Review of trading in the three-month period ended 31 December 2017 at constant exchange rates

In Europe, the strength of the euro and challenging comparatives in the United Kingdom weighed on sales, which declined by 1%.

Double digit growth in Asia Pacific was driven by mainland China, Korea, Hong Kong and Macau. The performances of the Jewellery Maisons and Specialist Watchmakers were particularly noteworthy in this region.

The 8% growth in the Americas region reflected good performance from the Jewellery Maisons.

The 5% increase in sales in Japan was supported by strong growth from the Specialist Watchmakers and a favourable currency environment.

Sales in the Middle East and Africa rose by 11%, benefitting from favourable currencies, the internalisation of external points of sales and the anticipated introduction of a value added tax in the UAE.

Retail sales maintained strong momentum, recording double digit growth of 13%, underpinned by solid performances from the Jewellery Maisons and Specialist Watchmakers. Wholesale sales decreased by 3%, reflecting qualitative upgrades to our external distribution network and the monitoring of inventory at our multi-brand retail partners. Growth in Asia Pacific in the wholesale channel was offset by declines in other regions.

The Jewellery Maisons delivered the strongest sales progression, with an 11% increase reflecting strength in the retail channel.

The Specialist Watchmakers' performance, at +1%, was subdued, reflecting the continued monitoring of sell-in versus sell-out in the wholesale channel. Wholesale sales declined, partly offsetting double digit growth in retail.

The Other businesses posted stable sales with growth notably from Montblanc, Chloe and Lancel. Excluding the impact of the sale of Shanghai Tang, the Other businesses would have recorded moderate growth.

The Group's net cash position at 31 December 2017 amounted to  5.1 billion (2016:  5.2 billion).

Trading in the nine-month period ended 31 December 2017

Sales over the nine-month period to December increased by 10% at constant exchange rates and by 7% at actual exchange rates, continuing the positive trend seen in the first six months of the financial year. They are presented in Appendix 1a.

Corporate calendar

The Group's results for the current financial year will be announced on Friday, 18 May 2018, and its annual general meeting will be held on Monday, 10 September 2018 in Geneva.

About Richemont

Richemont owns a portfolio of leading international 'Maisons' which are recognised for their distinctive heritage, craftsmanship and creativity. The Group operates in three segments: Jewellery Maisons, being Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Giampiero Bodino; Specialist Watchmakers, being A. Lange & Sohne, Baume & Mercier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Officine Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin as well as the Ralph Lauren Watch and Jewelry joint venture; and Other, including Alfred Dunhill, Azzedine Alaia, Chloe, Lancel, Montblanc and Peter Millar as well as watch component manufacturing activities.

In addition, Richemont holds a 49% equity-accounted interest in the YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP, a publicly traded company.

For the financial year ended 31 March 2017, Richemont reported sales of  10 647 million, operating profit of  1 764 million and profit for the year of  1 210 million.

Richemont 'A' shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, Richemont's primary listing, and are included in the Swiss Market Index ('SMI') of leading stocks. Richemont South African Depository Receipts are listed in Johannesburg, Richemont's secondary listing.

Investor and Media contacts

Sophie Cagnard, Group Corporate Communications Director

James Fraser, IR executive

Investors/analysts +41 22 721 30 03 (investor.relations@cfrinfo.net: mailto:investor.relations@cfrinfo.net) Press +41 22 721 35 07 (pressoffice@cfrinfo.net: mailto:pressoffice@cfrinfo.net) (richemont@teneobluerubicon.com: mailto:richemont@teneobluerubicon.com)

Disclaimer

The financial information contained in this announcement is unaudited.

Appendix 1a: Sales for the nine months ended 31 December 2017

April-December 2017 m April-December 2016 m Change at constant exchange rates versus prior period (%) Change at actual exchange rates versus prior period (%) Sales by region Europe 2 469 2 449 +2% +1% Asia Pacific 3 357 2 899 +20% +16% Americas 1 451 1 379 +9% +5% Japan 773 790 +6% -2% Middle East and Africa 674 662 +5% +2% Sales by distribution channel Retail 5 276 4 830 +13% +9% Wholesale 3 448 3 349 +6% +3% Sales by segment Jewellery Maisons 4 992 4 501 +15% +11% Specialist Watchmakers 2 308 2 258 +5% +2% Other 1 424 1 420 +3% +0% Total Sales 8 724 8 179 +10% +7%

Appendix 1b: Foreign exchange rates

Average exchange rates against the euro April-December

2017 April-December

2016 United States dollar 1.15 1.11 Japanese yen 129 118 Swiss franc 1.13 1.09

Actual exchange rates for the period are calculated using the average daily closing rates against the euro.

In terms of sales at constant exchange rates, average exchange rates for the year ended 31 March 2017 are used to convert local currency sales into euros for the current three-month period, the current nine-month period and comparative figures. Exchange rate translation effects are thereby eliminated from the reported sales performance.

Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA

50, Chemin de la Chenaie | Case Postale 30 | 1293 Bellevue | Geneva | Switzerland

Telephone +41 (0)22 721 3500

(www.richemont.com: http://www.richemont.com/)
CHESHUNT (dpa-AFX) - Tesco plc (TSCO.L, TSCDY.PK) reported that its Group like-for-like sales grew by 0.6% for the 19 weeks to 6 January 2018. Total sales (exc. fuel) grew by 0.8% at constant exchange rates and by 1.8% at actual exchange rates. Like-for-like sales for the combined UK & ROI business over the 19-week period grew by 2.2%. In the third quarter, like-for-like sales in the UK grew by 2.3%. The Group noted that its Asia like-for-like sales were down 11.1% over the 19-week period, with its decision to withdraw from bulk selling activities in Thailand continuing to be the main driver of the decline. Tesco Bank sales grew by 4.8% over the 19-week period, with strong growth in the number of savings accounts and new mortgage customers. Dave Lewis, Chief Executive, said: 'We have continued to outperform the market throughout this period, particularly in fresh food, thanks to our most competitive offer for many years. Our trading momentum accelerated across the third quarter and into December, with the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day delivering record sales and volumes in the UK.' Looking ahead, the Group said it is confident in the outlook for the full year and is firmly on track to deliver the medium-term ambitions outlined in October 2016. The Group will report its full year results on 11 April 2018. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Pigeon Forge is calling all foodies, cowboy aficionados and anyone looking to indulge in a time-honored culinary experience to the annual Pigeon Forge Chuck Wagon Cookoff on Saturday, March 3.

Lunch, consisting of from-scratch dishes prepared for the competition, will be served at noon.

Tickets are $12.50 each and may be purchased onsite or online at MyPigeonForge.com/ChuckWagonCo okoff

Our Pigeon Forge Chuck Wagon Cookoff offers a unique experience to journey through time and taste a bit of history, said Pigeon Forge Executive Director of Tourism Leon Downey. This interactive event pulls back the curtain on the culture of the old American West through a delicious meal, music, and poetry.

Ten competing chuck wagons will gather at Claboughs Campground (405 Wears Valley Road) for this one-of-a-kind outdoor cooking event. An ancestor to the food truck craze sweeping the nation, the chuck wagon is a far cry from the mobile kitchens chefs are creating today but it laid the foundation for the evolution of street food over the last several decades. In the late 1800s, early American chuck wagons fed hungry cowboys on the open prairies during cattle drives. Chuck wagon cooks, or cookies, as they are known, rely on simple ingredients to guide their menus and fire to power their ovens.

Chuck wagon cookoffs aid in the preservation of cattle drive trail days as well as ensuring the authentic reproduction of the mobile kitchens. The competition includes cash prizes for most authentic wagon and awards in various food categories, including meat, potatoes, bread, beans and dessert. All food items must be prepared onsite and using ingredients provided to the cooking teams. Condiments may be used at the cooks discretion. Prohibited ingredients are announced prior to the competition.

The day also includes several free activities from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: an old-time Western Buckaroo Roundup for children of all ages featuring Cal Farleys Boys Ranch Under Buckaroo Roundup providing roping and branding demos; roving cowboy lookalikes from the Golden Age of cinema, and Sisters on the Fly, the largest womens outdoor adventure group in the country, with free tours of their Cowgirl Caravan of vintage trailers; and Western poetry and music featuring Andy Nelson, Marshal Andy & the Riders of the Silver Screen Band and Cal Farleys Youth Cowboy and Cowgirl Poets from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

A special concert featuring award-winning artist RW Hampton and Andy Nelson will take place at Dollywoods DreamMore Resort at 6 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase for $20 onsite or in advance at MyPigeonForge.com/ChuckWagonCo okoff .

Sunday, March 4, features the Chuck Wagon Breakfast and Cowboy Church at Stages West (2765 Parkway). Served from 8:30-10 a.m., a chuck wagon breakfast is prepared and $5 tickets may be purchased onsite or in advance at MyPigeonForge.com/ChuckWagonCo okoff . Cowboy Church follows at 10:30 a.m. and admission is free.

For more information about the Chuck Wagon Cookoff and other events, visit MyPigeonForge.com.
Regulatory News:

NANOBIOTIX (Paris:NANO) (Euronext: NANO ISIN: FR0011341205), a late clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to the treatment of cancer, today announced that it will cooperate with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston TX, to work on NBTXR3, Nanobiotix's lead product. NBTXR3 is a first-in-class product designed to destroy, when activated by radiotherapy, tumors and metastasis through physical cell death and to induce immunogenic cell death leading to specific activation of the immune system.

This project with MD Anderson, one of the world's leading oncological research centers, will provide an unparalleled ability to develop pre-clinical data using NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy plus anti-PD1 Nivolumab (murine version of Opdivo).

Dr. Elsa Borghi, CMO, said: "The main objective of this collaboration is to analyze the micro environment of the tumors treated with NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy, in order to increase and optimize the immune response."

Dr. James Welsh, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, will be the Principal Investigator and lead the research program. The project between MD Anderson and Nanobiotix will take place over the course of two years and will evaluate the use of NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy plus anti-PD1 Nivolumab (murine version of Opdivo), provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) in lung cancer models (in vitro and in vivo). Lung cancer is one of the most common cancer worldwide, accounting for 1.69 million deaths annually (WHO 2015

The joint program will focus on 3 aims, leading to the maximization of NBTXR3 potential benefits in triggering an immune response:

Evaluate the abscopal response through the combination of NBTXR3 plus an anti-PD1 antibody and radiation therapy in specific and resistent murine lung cancer models, in order to measure NBTXR3's potential to control metastatic disease.

Evaluate if NBTXR3 can further improve T cell activation for standard radiotherapy fractions compared to SBRT, notably by determining the STING activation in vitro in cancer cells with and without NBTXR3.

in cancer cells with and without NBTXR3. Continue the characterization of the different mechanisms and types of cell death induced by NBTXR3 activated by radiation.

The joint program will also further explore the potential future use of NBTXR3 in immuno-oncology with checkpoint inhibitors, as well as its potential to control metastatic disease.

As announced in December 26, 2017, the Company has received from the Food and Drug Administration the approval of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application and should launch its first clinical trial combining NBTXR3 with immune checkpoint inhibitors in the U.S. in Q2 2018. This will be a multi-arm trial targeting a sub-population of advanced lung cancer patients and head and neck cancer patients.

NBTXR3 positioning in IO

Many IO combination strategies focus on 'priming' the tumor, which is now becoming a prerequisite of turning a "cold" tumor into a "hot" tumor.

Compared to other modalities that could be used for priming the tumor, NBTXR3 could have a number of advantages: the physical and universal mode of action that could be used widely across oncology, a one-time local injection and good fit within existing medical practice already used as a basis for cancer treatment, as well as a very good chronic safety profile and well-established manufacturing process.

Published preclinical and clinical data indicate that NBTXR3 could play a key role in oncology and could become a backbone in immuno-oncology.

Nanobiotix's immuno-oncology combination program opens the door to new developments, potential new indications, and important value creation opportunities.

About NBTXR3

NBTXR3 is a first-in-class product designed to destroy, when activated by radiotherapy, tumors and metastasis through physical cell death and to immunogenic cell death leading to specific activation of the immune system.

NBTXR3 has a high degree of biocompatibility, requires one single administration before the whole radiotherapy treatment and has the ability to fit into current worldwide standards of radiation care.

NBTXR3 is being evaluated in head and neck cancer (locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity or oropharynx), and the trial targets frail and elderly patients who have advanced cancer with very limited therapeutic options. The Phase I/II trial has already delivered very promising results regarding the local control of the tumors and a potential metastatic control through in situ vaccination.

Nanobiotix is running an Immuno-Oncology program with NBTXR3 that includes several studies. In the U.S., the Company received the FDA's approval to launch a clinical study of NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy in combination with anti-PD1 antibodies in lung, and head and neck cancer patients (head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer). This trial aims to expand the potential of NBTXR3, including using it to treat recurrent or metastatic disease.

The first market authorization process (CE Marking) is ongoing in Europe in the soft tissue sarcoma indication.

The other ongoing studies are treating patients with liver cancers (hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastasis), locally advanced or unresectable rectal cancer in combination with chemotherapy, head and neck cancer in combination with concurrent chemotherapy, and prostate adenocarcinoma.

About NANOBIOTIX: www.nanobiotix.com

Incorporated in 2003, Nanobiotix is a leading, late clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to significantly change patient outcomes by bringing nanophysics to the heart of the cell.

The Nanobiotix philosophy is one rooted in designing pioneer physical based approaches to bring highly effective and generalized solutions to address high unmet medical needs and challenges.

The Company's first-in-class, proprietary lead technology, NanoXray, aims to expand radiotherapy benefits for millions of cancer patients. Furthermore, the Company's Immuno-Oncology program has the potential to bring a new dimension to cancer immunotherapies.

Nanobiotix is listed on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris (Euronext: NANO ISIN: FR0011341205; Bloomberg: NANO: FP). The Company's Headquarters are based in Paris, France, with a U.S. affiliate in Cambridge, MA, and european affiliates in Spain and Germany.

Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Nanobiotix and its business. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that Nanobiotix considers to be reasonable. However, there can be no assurance that the estimates contained in such forward-looking statements will be verified, which estimates are subject to numerous risks including the risks set forth in the reference document of Nanobiotix filed with the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorite des Marches Financiers) under number D.17-0470 on April 28, 2017 as well as in its 2017 annual financial report filed with the French Financial Markets Authority on March 29, 2018 (a copy of which is available on www.nanobiotix.com) and to the development of economic conditions, financial markets and the markets in which Nanobiotix operates. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to risks not yet known to Nanobiotix or not currently considered material by Nanobiotix. The occurrence of all or part of such risks could cause actual results, financial conditions, performance or achievements of Nanobiotix to be materially different from such forward-looking statements.

This press release and the information that it contains do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe for, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for, Nanobiotix shares in any country. At the moment NBTXR3 does not bear a CE mark and is not permitted to be placed on the market or put into service until NBTXR3 has obtained a CE mark.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180410006508/en/

Contacts:

Nanobiotix

Sarah Gaubert, +33 (0)1 40 26 07 55

Director, Communications Public Affairs

sarah.gaubert@nanobiotix.com / contact@nanobiotix.com

or

Noel Kurdi, +1-646-241-4400

Director, Investor Relations

noel.kurdi@nanobiotix.com / investors@nanobiotix.com

or

Media relations

France Springbok Consultants

Marina Rosoff, +33 (0)6 71 58 00 34

marina@springbok.fr

or

United States RooneyPartners

Marion Janic, +1-212-223-4017

mjanic@rooneyco.com
GovSat's first satellite GovSat-1 will offer highly secure capabilities for governments and institutions

The GovSat-1 spacecraft has arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. GovSat-1 is the first satellite of GovSat, which is a brand operated by a joint venture between the Government of Luxembourg and the world-leading satellite operator SES. It is scheduled for launch at the end of this month on board a SpaceX flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180110006292/en/

GovSat-1. Photo credit: Orbital ATK

The multi-mission satellite was built by Orbital ATK and is designed for the exclusive use of governments and institutions. Located at the 21.5 degrees East orbital slot, GovSat-1 will serve Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including substantial maritime coverage over the Mediterranean and Baltic seas, and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Patrick Biewer, CEO of GovSat, said, "We are committed to our mission of providing secure satellite communication services for governments and institutions. GovSat-1, with its highly flexible payload featuring advanced encryption and anti-jamming capabilities, will further secure the connectivity for our users' applications. We are incredibly excited about the upcoming launch of this satellite."

Follow us on:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Facebook

About GovSat

GovSat is a brand operated by LuxGovSat S.A., a public-private joint venture between the Luxembourg government and SES, the world-leading satellite operator. GovSat's mission is to provide secure, reliable and accessible governmental satellite communication services to address the demand resulting from defence and institutional security applications. The company's first satellite GovSat-1 is a multi-mission satellite that will use X-band and Military Ka-band frequencies on high-power and fully steerable mission beams to support multiple operations.

For more information visit: www.govsat.lu

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180110006292/en/

Contacts:

SES

Markus Payer, +352 710 725 500

Corporate Communications PR

Markus.Payer@ses.com
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Premier Oil plc (PMO.L, PMOIY.PK) said it delivered production of 75.0 kboepd in 2017, in line with full year guidance and up 5 per cent on the prior year's 71.4 kboepd. Production in December was impacted by the unplanned shutdown by INEOS of the Forties Pipeline System or 'FPS' which has now been resolved. Total revenues for 2017 will be of the order of US$1.090 billion , compared to US$983 million last year, reflecting both higher production and realised commodity prices. Production in 2018 from Premier's existing producing assets is expected to be between 80-85 kboepd reflecting the phased ramp up from the Catcher Area, natural decline in certain of Premier's fields and the impact of the 2017 Wytch Farm and Pakistan disposals. 2018 development and exploration spend is expected to be around US$300 million, of which cUS$170 million relates to the Catcher development (including a cUS$55 million one off first oil payment to the FPSO provider BW Offshore) and US$45 million to exploration. Capex will be weighted to the first half of 2018 as the spending on the Catcher project completes. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Ultra Electronics Holdings plc (ULE.L), a defence, security, transport and energy group, Thursday said it expects fiscal 2017 revenue to be over 770 million pounds and underlying operating profit just over 120 million pounds. In November, the company said it expects full-year revenue to be around 770 million pounds and underlying operating profit to be approximately 120 million pounds. In its post-close trading statement in respect of the year 2017, the company stated that group trading remains in line with previous announcement. Order intake has continued to be strong at around 900 million pounds. Further, the Board remains minded to recommend a final dividend of 35p per share and will finalise this when the Group announces its full year results. Looking ahead, for fiscal 2018, the company said it expects modest progress in underlying revenue and operating profit at constant currencies. Trading performance for each half of 2018 is expected to be approximately 48%:52%. The company said it enters the new year with an order cover on expected 2018 revenues of around 62%, compared with approximately 56% in 2017. Ultra Electronics said it will adopt IFRS 15 with effect from 1 January 2018 and will provide pro-forma 2017 results under IFRS 15 in March. Further, the search for a new Chief Executive is underway and the Group will update the market when appropriate. In November, Rakesh Sharma had stepped down as Chief Executive and from the Board with immediate effect. Douglas Caster, Executive Chairman said, 'The Board is confident that Ultra has sustainable operating trading momentum with a significant number of recent long-term contract wins.' Ultra's results announcement for the year 2017 is scheduled for March 5. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.


OMAHA (dpa-AFX) - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has warned that cryptocurrencies are set to have a bad ending and he would not bet any money on them.



'In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending,' Buffett, who is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said in an interview to CNBC.



'When it happens or how or anything else, I don't know.'



He also said,' If I could buy a five-year put on every one of the cryptocurrencies, I'd be glad to do it but I would never short a dime's worth.'



Buffett also reiterated his well-known stance that he will not invest in anything that he does not know anything about.



On the same show, Buffett's partner Charlier Munger said both bitcoin and venture capital were bubbles.



As Bitcoin set new highs in December, Munger said the Bitcoin boom was total insanity and urged investors to avoid it 'like a plague'.



Back in 2014, Buffett, known as the Oracle of Omaha, had told CNBC that Bitcoin and its peers were a mirage and it was a joke that they had some huge intrinsic value.



True to his reputation for patience and resolve, he has stuck on to this view even as digital currencies registered a meteoric rise.



The world's second richest man had already warned on crytpocurrencies as they started their massive surge in the last few weeks of 2017, a trend that has continued into this year.



In one of his classes for business students in October, he had said Bitcoin could be valued as it is not a value producing asset, but a 'real bubble'.



Traditional finance have largely shunned cryptocurrencies amid their price surge, citing reasons ranging from the lack of backing with solid assets to being unregulated.



Earlier this month, the Bank of America's brokerage arm Merrill Lynch had reportedly banned its clients and financial advisers from buying bitcoin-related investments due to concerns over the investment standard of the cryptocurrency and related products.



This week, Jamie Dimon, who is JP Morgan Chase CEO and chairman, said he regrets calling Bitcoin 'a fraud' earlier. However, he claimed he had little interest in investing in cryptocurrencies.



Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin's underlying technology, blockchain, have found favor with venture capitalists.



This month, media reports revealed that Peter Thiel, who is Paypal co-founder and an angel investor known for early bets on Facebook and SpaceX, started investing in bitcoin as early as 2012. His investments in the digital currency via the Founders Fund are reportedly worth around $15 million - $20 million.



Former hedge fund manager and now a prominent cryptocurrency investor, Mike Novogratz, said in November that cryptocurrencies would be 'the biggest bubble of our lifetimes', but asserted his confidence in blockchain and expects it to outlast the digital currency Bitcoin it supports.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Trade show cements its position as one-stop hub for insight, inspiration and innovation

GUANGZHOU, China, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2018 edition of the China International Gold, Jewellery & Gem Fair - Shenzhen (Shenzhen Jewellery Fair)hosted by UBM China (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. promises to create a product sourcing experience that goes beyond the trade show floor by embracing a theme that reflects Shenzhen's vibrant jewellery design and manufacturing heritage.

"Living up to its reputation as one of the most important shows in the global jewellery sector, the Shenzhen Jewellery Fair is shifting its focus by branding the whole trade show experience around the theme 'Jewellery Resources China,'" said Teddy Tan, Event Manager of Shanghai Jewellery Fair. "This strategy is aligned with our clients' business goals and objectives. The fair aims to better address the market's ever-changing needs, enabling exhibitors and buyers to engage in more meaningful interactions, build stronger relationships, gain access to a knowledge-rich environment that is unique to Shenzhen and arrive at more competitive decisions that will help them grow their businesses."

As competition becomes fiercer and the complexity of the global jewellery market increases, more and more enterprises are compelled to think differently and adopt strategies and techniques that can drive business growth. To some, it may mean exploring partnership opportunities with manufacturers and designers to maximise resources, and to others, it may entail the deployment of new technologies and even the creation of new sales channels to boost revenues.

Industry powerhouse UBM Asia, the engine driving more than 20 jewellery fairs in key cities around the world, is harnessing Shenzhen's jewellery manufacturing excellence and concentration of expertise and opportunities to create a show that will serve as a one-stop source for customised solutions aimed at industry stakeholders everywhere.

Global scope

Scheduled for 19 to 22 April 2018 at the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center, the 16th edition of the Shenzhen Jewellery Fair will feature more than 300 exhibitors from 13 countries and regions, and is anticipated to draw nearly 10,000 buyers from 60 countries and regions. The central attraction are core pavilions hosting some of the world's major jewellery manufacturers and gemstone suppliers, and industry segments under the show's signature "Resources" umbrella that are trending right now, including Brand, Innovation, Crossover, Fine Jewellery, Design, Fashion Jewellery, Jade, Other Finished Jewellery, Display/Technology, Materials and HR/Media.

In its 2017 outing, the fair drew 8,633 visitors and featured 260 exhibitors from around the world. The Shenzhen Jewellery Fair has firmly secured its position as the must-attend jewellery fair in Southern China. It has served as a powerful platform for buyers and suppliers of finished jewellery, diamonds, coloured gemstones, pearls and other jewellery-related merchandise. While at the fair, visitors are encouraged to take advantage of the exciting line-up of high-level forums. One of the fair's core attractions is the highly popular China Jewellery Market Summit, which is jointly organised by the Shenzhen Jewellery Fair and CJNA. In 2017, the summit drew more than 2000 attendees, including regional jewellery retailers in China, and local and overseas media representatives.

Jewellery hub

Acknowledged as a pillar of China's jewellery industry, Shenzhen hosts around 3,600 jewellery manufacturers who produce more than 70 percent of the country's jewellery output. Not only is Shenzhen China's most important jewellery processing and production centre-- and one of the world's primary jewellery manufacturing hubs-- it is also the country's main wholesale market for jewellery. Shenzhen is facing exciting and challenging times, which means the region is rife with possibilities and business opportunities. Manufacturers who want to stay relevant are embracing new technologies and approaches that can transform --even disrupt -- their businesses. They are expanding the reach of their talent searches, investing in innovative processes and encouraging creativity to drive profitability in the years ahead. This exceptionally dynamic and vibrant environment further underscores the significance of the Shenzhen Jewellery Fair as the trade show where meaningful conversations between manufacturers, designers and yes, even competitors, do take place.

If jewellery traders want to stay ahead of the industry, make sure to sign up for the 2018 edition of the show. For further information, please visit http://exhibitions.jewellerynetasia.com/szj/en-us/.
BRUSSELS, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Dynamic partnership is longstanding, with duo newly launching WISDOM PANEL' Health

Mars Petcare acquired Genoscoper Laboratories, a specialist in molecular diagnostics for companion animals. The acquisition will accelerate the pace of discoveries in genetics, to form the basis for future practical applications in enabling precision healthcare for pets.

Mars Petcare's genetic testing unit Wisdom Health is a pioneer in this field with its market leading breed detection test WISDOM PANEL[TM]. Finland-based Genoscoper, in close partnership with University of Helsinki, created the genetic health testing platform MyDogDNA. Since 2015, Genoscoper and Wisdom Health have partnered to discover new genetic health markers for companion animals and have recently launched a new product for dogs, WISDOM PANEL' Health, combining breed ancestry with detection of potential inherited health conditions.

"Our world-class genetics research is focused on helping pet owners and veterinarians improve the health of pets with tools that define their genetic predispositions for health and disease. Ultimately this will enable targeted and preventive veterinary care with pets getting individualized nutrition, exercise and treatment," said Leonid Sudakov, President, Connected Solutions, Mars Petcare. "This is a critical time in the development of genetic testing for pets, which we believe is poised to expand dramatically as breeders, veterinarians and pet owners increasingly understand its benefits, exactly as it is currently happening for humans."

"Through Genoscoper's strong research expertise in companion animal genomics, we developed a unique concept that brings top level academic discoveries into practice enabling even further advances; not only scientifically speaking, but for the benefit of entire animal populations," said Professor Hannes Lohi, Chairman of Genoscoper and leader of the University of Helsinki canine genetics research group. "Our long-term vision has been to adopt the biggest advances in canine genetics research to improve animal welfare, and that exactly is where I see this partnership leading."

The acquisition was finalized on 27 December 2017, and the companies will manage the transition over the course of 2018.

A few of the benefits of genetic testing include:

Genetic tests can detect which animals might be carriers for specific diseases, so breeders can avoid mating them with another carrier.

Genetic testing can also identify mixed-breed dogs at risk for developing a genetic condition that may otherwise go undiagnosed; allowing the owner to be counselled as to how to best manage the condition.

WISDOM PANEL' canine DNA tests can also provide details about a dog's breed ancestry fulfilling many owners' curiosities about their dog's heritage, but it may be especially revealing for dogs who work with the emergency services or as support animals.

There is also a new test, OPTIMAL SELECTION' Feline, developed by Wisdom Health and Genoscoper for cat breeders to identify more than 40 genetically associated conditions, over 20 traits, and genetic diversity information which can help identify potential mates through genetic compatibility.

About Genoscoper Laboratories

Genoscoper Laboratories is a Finland-based animal diagnostics company established in 1995. Its testing concept helps explore inherited characteristics in companion animals with the world's first commercially available genome-wide DNA analysis. The technology uses a comprehensive panel approach to test for known mutations, while simultaneously recording thousands of neutral chromosomal markers that can be used to measure genetic diversity and even locate new mutations associated with other genetic disorders. For further information, please visit http://www.mydogdna.com/.

About Wisdom Health

Wisdom Health is a business unit of Mars Petcare, the U.S. operations of the world's largest pet care company at the privately-held Mars, Incorporated. Its mission is facilitating responsible pet care by enhancing the well-being and relationship between pets, pet owners, breeders, shelters and veterinarians through valuable insights into pets as individuals. For more than a decade, Wisdom Health has researched and developed state-of-the-art genetic tests for companion animals, revolutionizing personalized pet care. By unlocking the secrets of their dog or cat's DNA, owners and veterinarians can work together to tailor wellness programs that fit the one-of-a-kind needs of their unique pet. For more information, visit http://www.wisdompanel.com or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

About Mars Petcare

Mars Petcare is the world's leading pet nutrition and health care business that strives to make A Better World for Pets every day. Mars Petcare believes that pets make our lives better and that pet ownership brings joy and benefits which should be accessible to everyone. Mars Petcare has a total of 41 brands in our portfolio, including billion dollar brands PEDIGREE WHISKAS ROYAL CANINand BANFIELD Other leading brands include: IAMS CESAR SHEBA NUTRO DREAMIES EUKANUBA BLUEPEARLand PET PARTNERS[TM]and the WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition, a leading scientific authority on pet nutrition and well-being. Mars Petcare has more than 40,000 Associates worldwide.

For more information about Mars Petcare, please visit http://www.mars.com/global/brands/petcare. Join us on Instagram and LinkedIn.

About Mars, Incorporated

Mars is a family-owned business with more than a century of history making diverse products and offering services for people and the pets people love. With almost $35 billion in sales, the company is a global business that produces some of the world's best-loved brands: M&M's SNICKERS TWIX MILKY WAY DOVE PEDIGREE ROYAL CANIN WHISKAS EXTRA ORBIT 5', SKITTLES UNCLE BEN'S MARS DRINKS and COCOAVIA Mars also provides veterinary health services that include BANFIELDPet Hospitals, Blue Pearl VCAand Pet Partners'. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars operates in more than 80 countries. The Mars Five Principles - Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom - inspire its more than 100,000 Associates to create value for all its partners and deliver growth they are proud of every day.

For more information about Mars, please visit http://www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
SAN FRANCISCO, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The global concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) market is expected to reach USD 6.35 billion by 2025 at a 10.1% CAGR during the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Demand for concentrated photovoltaic is anticipated to register rapid growth owing to its ability to harness solar energy in areas with no space constraints.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160524/371361LOGO )



CPV technology is yet to gain worldwide acceptance and manufacturers are constantly engaged in developing new modules with improved efficiency. Growing popularity of PV has overshadowed the efficiency and advantages of CPV. However, the technology shows great promise owing to its scalability and efficiency.

Globally, Asia Pacific is the largest market for CPV. Presence of a large number of module manufacturers, coupled with favorable government initiatives, is driving the demand for this technology. The advantage of low labor cost and introduction of smaller rooftop systems are also expected to boost market growth.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) Market Analysis By Product (Reflector, Refractor), By Application (Utility, Commercial), By Concentration Level (High, Low), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2014 - 2025" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/concentrated-photovoltaic-market

Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest:

By level of concentration, low concentrated photovoltaic is likely to be the fastest-growing segment at a revenue-based CAGR of 10.8% from 2017 to 2025. This is owing to innovations resulting in highly efficient products

The commercial application segment is expected to exhibit a 9.0% CAGR from 2017 to 2025 in terms of revenue. This can be attributed to increasing number of installations in manufacturing facilities as well as private buildings

In terms of revenue, the reflector product segment is expected to register a CAGR of 10.8% from 2017 to 2025 owing to rapidly increasing demand for low concentration photovoltaics made from mirrors

By volume, Asia Pacific accounted for just over 50.0% of the global market in 2016 on account of rapidly growing capacity additions in China and India

accounted for just over 50.0% of the global market in 2016 on account of rapidly growing capacity additions in and The installed capacity of CPV in Middle Eastern and African countries was 66.8 MW in 2016, backed by commissioning of projects in countries such as South Africa , Morocco , and Jordan

, , and Manufacturers are constantly working on introducing new products with improved efficiencies and reduced quantities of silicon

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Vegetable Oil Market - https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/vegetable-oil-market

Geothermal Heat Pumps Market - https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/geothermal-heat-pumps-market

Advanced Gas Generators Market - https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/advanced-gas-generators-market

Heat Pump Market - https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/heat-pump-market

Grand View Research has segmented the concentrated photovoltaic market on the basis of product, application, level of concentration, and region.

Product Outlook (Volume, MW; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Reflector Refractor

Application Outlook (Volume, MW; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Utility Commercial

Level of Concentration Outlook (Volume, MW; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) High concentration photovoltaic Low concentration photovoltaic

Regional Outlook (Volume, MW; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Europe France Spain Asia Pacific China India Japan Central & South America Brazil Middle East & Africa



Read Our Blog By Grand View Research: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/energy-and-power

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. Thecompany provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com



Web: http://www.grandviewresearch.com
Premier Property Group Inc., a full-service real estate firm in Chattanooga, has grown from the vision of owner and principal broker Christi Doll to a team of 15 agents representing residential and commercial clients in Tennessee and Georgia in just four months. The firm is poised to continue rapid growth as 2018 begins and the real estate market continues to surpass expectations, said officials.

Ms. Doll opened Premier Property Group for business at One Park Place, an executive building on Lee Highway, on Aug. 1. She structured the firm to serve agents who work from home but want to operate under an umbrella company and desire access to an external office.

Premier Property Group offers its agents the support systems large franchises offer but charges none of the usual fees. "We're keeping things simple," Ms. Doll says. "There are no fees  no monthly or annual fees, no transaction fees, no franchise fees, no royalty fees and no copier fees. None, zero, zip."

Premier Property Group's revenue split with agents is just as straightforward. Each calendar year, agents keep 85 percent of their commission until they earn $50,000. They then retain 95 percent of their commission for the rest of the year.

To help agents run a successful business, Premier Property Group offers these tools  including training, broker availability, yard signs, business cards and Dotloop tools and services at no charge. Agents also have access to shared desk space, free Wi-Fi and printer use and parking.

Ms. Doll is continuing to grow Premier Property Group as 2018 begins on the heels of what was for many agents a record-setting 2017.

Last year, sales of existing homes rose about 3.5 percent to 5.64 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. The NAR predicts existing-home purchases will rise an additional 2.8 percent in 2018 to 5.8 million. Sales of new homes are expected to jump 8 percent from 620,000 in 2017 to 670,000 in 2018, according to the NAR.

"I'd like to have 25 to 35 agents who are great at what they do and stand by the code of ethics," Ms. Doll says. "I see Premier Property Group as a tightly knit family with people who like where they work."

To learn more about Premier Property Group or to inquire about joining the team, contact Ms. Doll at (352) 302-4046 or ScenicCityBroker@gmail.com.




ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR -- (Marketwired) -- 01/11/18 -- Fortis Inc. ("Fortis" or the "Corporation") (TSX: FTS)(NYSE: FTS) will release its 2017 annual financial results on Thursday, February 15, 2018. A teleconference and webcast will be held the same day at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern). Barry Perry, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Karl Smith, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, will discuss Fortis' 2017 annual financial results.

Analysts, members of the media and other interested parties in North America are invited to participate by calling 1.877.223.4471. International participants may participate by calling 647.788.4922. Please dial in 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. No pass code is required.

A live and archived audio webcast of the teleconference will be available on the Corporation's website, www.fortisinc.com. A replay of the conference will be available two hours after the conclusion of the call until March 15, 2018. Please call 1.800.585.8367 or 416.621.4642 and enter pass code 5798338.

About Fortis

Fortis is a leader in the North American regulated electric and gas utility industry with total assets of approximately C$47 billion as of September 30, 2017. The Corporation's more than 8,000 employees serve utility customers in five Canadian provinces, nine U.S. states and three Caribbean countries.

Fortis shares are listed on the TSX and NYSE and trade under the symbol FTS. Additional information can be accessed at www.fortisinc.com, www.sedar.com, or www.sec.gov.

Contacts:

Investor Enquiries

Ms. Kealey Martin

Director, Investor Relations

Fortis Inc.

709.737.2900

investorrelations@fortisinc.com



Media Enquiries

Ms. Karen McCarthy

Director, Communications & Corporate Affairs

Fortis Inc.

709.737.5323

media@fortisinc.com




MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 01/11/18 -- Relevium Technologies Inc. (TSX VENTURE: RLV)(FRANKFURT: 6BX) (the "Company" or "Relevium"), is pleased to announce the signing of a joint venture agreement ("JV") with Quantomic LLC (the "Parties") for Tagspire, a virtual retail and visual commerce platform.

Highlights

-- Tagspire uses AI and Machine Learning to auto-tag products to retailers in photos and videos -- Product database of over 35 million and growing -- Tagspire is fully operational on iOS and Android -- JV consummated on a proposed Initial Coin Offering (ICO) or equity financing of USD 20MM+ -- Relevium will integrate the platform to the blockchain as a network utility token

Note to reader: There are multiple hyperlinks in this news release. If the reader cannot see the hyperlinks, please consult http://releviumtechnologies.com/press-releases/ where a version of the release with hyperlinks is available.

Aurelio Useche, CEO of Relevium Technologies stated: "Initially announced on September 7, 2017, Relevium has been looking at how to integrate AI and machine learning in the e-commerce space." Mr. Useche continued: "The team quickly found out that the biggest hurdle was to have enough data in order to gain insight on consumer behaviour. Tagspire solves this issue as all user data is generated in the Tagspire ecosystem and then pushed out to platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. The team at Relevium believes that the Tagspire platform is a perfect candidate for blockchain integration as a network token and an ICO."

Karim Hijazi, President and Founder of Quantomic LLC stated: "I created Tagspire when witnessing the rise of visual platforms like Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat; where immense amounts of time and creativity were being spent producing content. However, effective monetization of that content was still nascent."

Mr. Hijazi went on to state: "With Tagspire, the goal was to create a truly immersive, fun and social marketplace platform that would appeal not only to entrepreneurial consumers, but also to influencers and brands alike. I believe that user-generated content leveraged appropriately and effectively will be the next big disruptor in retail; not to mention the unparalleled intelligence that could be gleaned from it."

What is Tagspire?

Tagspire is a virtual retail and visual commerce platform, the purpose of which is to deliver high fidelity marketing intelligence to brands, harvested from user-generated content. Presently, Tagspire can be used on iOS, Android and as a WebApp and browser extension. When images are captured and pushed to social media, users earn a commission on any sales made from items/objects that are tagged in their photos or videos.

Tagspire is a sales engine inside an Instagram-like environment capitalizing on discovery and the "impulse purchase" facilitated by a familiar face. Auto-tagging functionalities are currently being deployed and the artificial intelligence engine - using Google TensorFlow - can recognize over 35,000,000 retail products ranging from apparel to electronics and cosmetics. The Tagspire technology is in constant evolution and can already auto-generate tags on static images as well as in video clips. Tagspire currently connects to such retailers as: Best Buy, Avon, Target and American Eagle. A full list of currently connect retails can be found at tagspire.com/retailers.

To illustrate the power of the technology, click here to watch a short video illustrating the Tagspire mobile app. The technology identifies an Apple iPhone in a photo taken by the app, and then auto-tags the product in the image, linking it to the apple.com purchase page. Using the power of Google TensorFlow machine learning, the Tagspire neural network has been trained to identify an "Apple iPhone Red Product" and then link it automatically, in this case, to the buy page on apple.com. The final post is embedded here (make sure to roll your mouse over, or tap the tag icon to see a preview of the buy page).

Tagspire is currently operational and is available in the Apple iTunes Store for iOS (click here), as well as for Android (click here) in the Google Play Store.

Initial Purpose and Principal Terms of Joint Venture

The Parties will combine resources to raise capital through either an ICO or initial token offering on an existing blockchain or through the capital markets (the "Offering") for gross proceed of no less than USD$20 million. If the Offering is structured as an ICO, it is expected that it will be completed through a newly created entity ("NEWCO") using the current best practices for coin and token offerings. If the Offering is structured as an equity or debt financing through traditional capital raising mechanisms (for example investment dealers), it will be completed through Relevium Technologies. Management of Relevium Technologies is working towards the structure of the Offering and will disclose terms as they become finalized.

A USD$8 Million portion of the proceeds of the Offering will be paid to Quantomic LLC and complimented by human and intellectual capital from Relevium Technologies. Upon consummation of the JV, NEWCO will operate as a subsidiary to Relevium Technologies and the Board of NEWCO will be represented by both JV Parties.

The Parties also agree to cooperate and contribute the following:

(i) Relevium shall contribute all the costs, know-how and resources necessary to ensure a successful token offering or financing to fund the Offering, including preliminary due diligence of the IP, definition of the project, attributes of the proposed token, preparation of the white paper, legal and accounting fees, compliance, marketing and overall management of the financing of the JV.

(ii) Quantomic LLC shall contribute the intellectual assets, licenses, trademarks, patents, proprietary information, copyright and content necessary to demonstrate the current and prospective value of the IP.

While the Parties have agreed to use their commercially reasonable efforts to complete the Offering, there can be no guarantee that the Offering and JV will be completed as currently contemplated by the Parties or at all.

Right of First Refusal

Quantomic LLC acknowledges that Relevium will be incurring substantial costs to finalize the terms of the JV and the Offering. As partial consideration of the JV, Quantomic LLC agrees for a period of 60 days not to enter into any new negotiations or discussions with any third party in respect of the sale of all or any part of its shares, business or assets. However, Quantomic LLC may continue existing and ongoing discussions with third parties regarding the potential acquisition of its intellectual property. Prior to accepting any bona fide offer, Quantomic LLC must give notice to Relevium as the Company has a right of first refusal on any such offers.

Pursuant to regulatory guidelines, further financial details and related fees regarding the joint venture will be disclosed in connection with the closing of the transaction.

About Relevium Technologies

Relevium is a TSXV-listed company focused on growth through the acquisition of businesses, products and/or technologies with a focus on e-commerce in the growing health and wellness sector. Relevium Technologies Inc. also holds patented intellectual property for the use of static magnetic fields for application on wearable devices.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding future estimates, plans, objectives, assumptions or expectations of future performance, including the timing and completion of the proposed acquisitions, are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information. Generally, forward- looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". Forward-looking statements are based on certain material assumptions and analysis made by the Company and the opinions and estimates of management as of the date of this press release, including the assumptions that the Company will obtain stock exchange approval of the Offering, the proposed acquisition will occur as anticipated, that the Company will raise sufficient funds, and that the Company will obtain all requisite approvals of the acquisition. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Important factors that may cause actual results to vary, include, without limitation, the risk that the proposed acquisitions may not occur as planned; the timing and receipt of requisite approvals and failure to raise sufficient funds under the Offering. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial outlook that is incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

RELEVIUM TECHNOLOGIES INC.

Aurelio Useche, President and CEO

RELEVIUM TECHNOLOGIES INC.Email: eierfino@releviumcorp.comWebsite: www.releviumtechnologies.comLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterFollow us on LinkedIn

Contacts:

Edward Ierfino

Investor Relations

+1 (514) 562-1374




VAL-D'OR, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 01/11/18 -- Cartier Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: ECR) ("Cartier") is pleased to announce that 4 drill rigs are currently in operation on the Chimo Mine property, located 45 km east of Val-d'Or, to complete 20,000 m of drilling in the coming months. The program is intended to explore the depth and lateral extensions of 23 known gold zones in order to expand their dimensions (VIDEO 3D).

In 2017, Cartier completed 56 holes totaling 21,000 m on the Chimo Mine, Wilson and Cadillac Extension properties and 8,000 m on the Fenton property which is in partnership with SOQUEM. Of this drilling, more than 3,000 assay results are still pending. The 11,000-m drilled on the Chimo Mine property demonstrates the continuity of gold mineralization in three areas. Similarly, the 8,000-m drilled on the Wilson property prioritized 2 out of 4 gold zones where a 10,000-m drilling program will be completed in 2018.

Alongside these activities, Cartier has built a solid financial position starting in 2018 with $ 16,000,000 in its coffers. During 2017 Cartier has:

-- Attracted Agnico Eagle Mines Limited as a strategic investor. Agnico, re-invested to maintain its strategic position of investment in Cartier by holding 17% of the issued and outstanding common shares; -- Interested 3 new institutional investors to buy a total of 15% of issued and outstanding common shares; -- Convinced the Quebec institutional funds to increase their participation in 13% of issued and outstanding common shares.

"The Company is active in the heart of 2 major areas of interest in Abitibi, namely the Val-d'Or Mining Camp and the recent Osisko area play in the Urban-Barry - Lebel-sur-Quevillon - Chapais belt.", commented Philippe Cloutier, President and CEO, adding, "This year we are focussing on two of our assets, where drilling in the lateral and deep extensions of the gold mineralization has confirmed the continuity of the mineralization."

Quality Assurance / Quality Control

The scientific and/or technical information presented in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Gaetan Lavalliere, P. Geo., Ph. D. and Vice President for Cartier Resources. Mr. Lavalliere is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulatory services provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Contacts:

Philippe Cloutier, P.Geo.

President and CEO

819 856-0512

philippe.cloutier@ressourcescartier.com

www.ressourcescartier.com



Investor Relations:

Relations Publiques Paradox

514 341-0408




Using new material COBARION, symbolic Irish design meets Japanese technology; portion of proceeds to benefit Great East Japan Earthquake recovery

Kyocera Corporation (NYSE:KYO)(TOKYO:6971) today announced that it has developed a hypoallergenic Claddagh ring with renowned Irish-born designer Paul Costelloe. The jewelry utilizes COBARION, a new material that rivals platinum in shine but which is much less likely to cause metal allergies*. The product is now available to the Japanese market and overseas sales are under consideration.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180111005399/en/

Paul Costelloe Claddagh ring AMATERUS using COBARION (Photo: Business Wire)

Dating back to the 17th century in Ireland, the traditional Claddagh ring is given to represent love, loyalty and friendship. The ring is now available in two types: the stylish thin AMATERUS and the gorgeous bold WADADUMI. Both styles are unisex, making them ideal for matching rings for friends or romantic relationships. A part of the sales of this product will be donated to the recovery support of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

"The COBARION Claddagh is a symbol of the deep and long friendship between Ireland and Japan the joining of hands of Irish design and Japanese technology. It is also a sign of the deep respect I have for the city of Kamaishi where COBARION is developed Iwate Prefecture and the Tohoku Region, and a remembrance to all that was lost in the Tohoku Earthquake of March 2011," said Paul Costelloe. "I am very excited to be working closely with Kyocera to make the COBARION Claddagh a success for Kamaishi, for Japan, and for the world."

About COBARION

COBARION material is a type of Co-based alloy jointly developed by Tohoku University, Iwate Prefecture, and Eiwa Co, LTD (Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture). A collaboration of industry and university, the team developed the new biologically friendly material by minimizing the nickel content, typically a main cause of allergy, while maintaining a brightness and sparkle that is equal to platinum. In addition, it features four times higher toughness than silver so a COBARION ring is virtually scratch-proof and will not easily discolor.

About the Claddagh Ring

The Claddagh ring is a traditional design that has been produced in Ireland for a few hundred years and loved by many around the world. It features two hands clasping a heart surmounted by a crown to depict love (the heart), friendship (the hands), and loyalty (the crown). Depending on which hand the ring is worn and the direction of the heart, the ring can be worn to indicate a person's relationship status: single, in a relationship, engaged or married.

About Paul Costelloe

The designer Paul Costelloe was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1945 and established his own brand "Paul Costelloe" in 1979. A prominent fixture at London's Fashion Week for 30 years, Costelloe has designed for British Airways and the Irish Olympic Team. He also served as Princess Diana's personal designer for 16 years until her death.

This product does not guarantee that it will not cause metal allergy to any person. Reactions and severity of allergy-causing ions are dependent on the individual.

To see more images, please visit: https://global.kyocera.com/news/2018/0102_nfos.html

About KYOCERA

Kyocera Corporation (NYSE:KYO)(TOKYO:6971) (http://global.kyocera.com/), the parent and global headquarters of the Kyocera Group, was founded in 1959 as a producer of fine ceramics (also known as "advanced ceramics"). By combining these engineered materials with metals and integrating them with other technologies, Kyocera has become a leading supplier of electronic devices, semiconductor packages, printers, copiers, mobile phones, solar power generating systems, cutting tools and industrial components. During the year ended March 31, 2017, the company's consolidated net sales totaled 1.42 trillion yen (approx. USD12.7 billion). Kyocera appears on the "Top 100 Global Innovators" list by Clarivate Analytics and is ranked #522 on Forbes magazine's 2017 "Global 2000" list of the world's largest publicly traded companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180111005399/en/

Contacts:

KYOCERA Corporation (Japan)

Natsuki Doi, +81-(0)75-604-3416

Corporate Communications

webmaster.pressgl@kyocera.jp

Fax: +81-(0)75-604-3516
NEW DELHI, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Singapore-based hybrid blockchain firm XinFin (www.xinfin.org), in association with Assocham, launched its marketplace platform, TradeFinex (www.tradefinex.org ) at the 2nd Global Summit on P2P Digital Asset System Summit held in Delhi, India. As a part of this association, XinFin will extend its TradeFinex platform to Assocham's network of 300+ trade associations and 450,000 members to minimize inefficiencies in trade and finance.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/627518/XinFin_Logo.jpg )



Powered by their XDC Protocol, the launch of TradeFinex platform will enable peer-to-peer contracting between financiers, suppliers and beneficiaries thereby minimizing the role played by intermediaries. The hybrid nature of XinFin's blockchain technology implements a decentralized but highly secure transaction platform that can be used with existing laws of the land and payment rails or in an approved jurisdiction using underlying XDC tokens.

Mr. DS Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM, said, "We are happy to inaugurate TradeFinex beta platform at our event. The adoption of blockchain technology in India is at a nascent stage and therefore requires an enhanced level of understanding about its applications, ethical, legal, and regulatory issues."

Sameer Dharap, VP Blockchain Applications at XinFin, said, "The launch of TradeFinex will allow beneficiaries to get their projects financed at globally competitive rates, while financiers can track the progress of their projects at real-time and suppliers can overcome problems like uncertainty and volatility of supply chain. This will not only increase transparency and overall efficiency but also help reduce the global financial and infrastructural deficit."

All users of TradeFinex can drive bottom line benefits by using the blockchain-based platform to escrow based smart contracts between beneficiaries, financiers and suppliers. The payment terms can be linked to customized smart contract milestones, triggered upon delivery of goods/services. The platform will partner will government bodies, export councils, banks and other players for a blockchain-based ecosystem.

XinFin focuses towards enterprise use cases of blockchain technology using native token called XDC. TradeFinex helps buyers secure capital at globally competitive rates, gives suppliers visibility on global tenders and customer base and provides financiers real-time visibility on their investments using blockchain. Launched in 2017, XinFin has already expanded its client base across Singapore, India, USA, Europe and currently working on 10+ pilot projects across aviation, travel, banking, supply chain management among others.

About XinFin FinTech Pte. Ltd

XinFin is a Singapore-based blockchain technology company focused on international trade and finance across the globe. XinFin's XDC protocol is a hybrid blockchain that allows peer-to-peer contracts over regulated payment rails or using XDC tokens in approved jurisdictions. With an aim to bridge the global infrastructural deficit with their open source marketplace platform - Tradefinex, XinFin enables financial institutions with tools to undertake peer-to-peer financial contracts between governments, corporation, buyers and suppliers. This helps in an efficient use of capital and deployment of projects without burdening the government treasury. You can follow XinFin on Twitter (@XinFinF) and on Telegram (https://t.me/xinfintalk)

Media Contact:

Rachna Baruah

rachna@madchatter.in
The European Investment Trust plc (the "Company")

Share Repurchase Authority

The Company announces that, as a result of the passing of resolution 11 at the Company's Annual General Meeting held on 11 January 2018, it has authority to repurchase up to a maximum of 6,296,814 of its ordinary shares. Such authority lasts until the Company's next Annual General Meeting in 2019, unless it has been fully exercised, or renewed or expressly revoked by shareholders before then.

The maximum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid by the Company for an ordinary share shall be no more than the higher of (a) 105% of the average of the closing market value of such shares (as derived from the Daily Official List of the London Stock Exchange) for the five business days prior to the date of purchase; and (b) the amount stipulated by Article 5(6) of the Market Abuse Regulation.

In addition, it is the Company's policy that repurchases of shares will only be made at prices below the prevailing net asset value of the Company's shares and where the Company's Directors consider it to be in the best interests of shareholders and the Company to do so.

It is expected that similar announcements will be made each time the share repurchase authority is renewed.



11 January 2018

LEI: 213800QNN9EHZ4SC1R12

Enquiries:

Kenneth J Greig

Edinburgh Partners AIFM Limited

Tel: 0131 270 3800

The Company's registered office address is:

Beaufort House

51 New North Road

Exeter

EX4 4EP
Research by scientists at the Queen Mary University of London, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Gottingen, alongside German and Japanese researchers, has sought to analyze the impact of renewables and trading on power grid frequency fluctuations.The study, published in Nature Energy, analyzed the reliability of the electrical supply after splitting larger grids into smaller autonomous cells, called "micro-grids". A micro-grid would, for example, allow independent villages to utilize renewables set up in their own proximity, instead of relying on the nearest larger grid to draw their power. The international team of scientists asked: Do renewables impact grid frequency as negatively as sometimes claimed by critics?; How likely are large and, therefore, risky deviations from the reference frequency?; and What would be the consequent challenges posed by renewables to the electrical power grid and its operators. To answer these questions, data was collected from grids of different sizes in France, Germany, the U.K., Finland, Mallorca and the U.S. European power grids operate at 50Hz. If additional power is drawn from the grid, then the frequency drops for a short time, ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
World Bank Group member, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), has pledged to provide financial support for six solar power plants in Egypt, the accumulative capacity of which stands at 250 MW.In what represents the first set of a total of 12 projects approved by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency's board in support of Egypt's solar feed-in tariff (FIT) program, the World Bank Group agency will allocate a total of $102.6 million. The funds will be granted in support of the construction, operation and maintenance of six solar power plants in Egypt with a combined capacity of 250 MW. According to the agency, some $5 million will go to equity holder ib vogt GmbH of Germany for up to 15 years, while an additional $97.6 million will be provided for up to 20 years to China's Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), bolstering the longer-term strength of the projects against fluctuating tariffs. "Significant investments are needed in Egypt to meet growing demand for power, and diversify the country's energy mix," MIGA Executive Vice President and CEO Keiko Honda said. "We are proud to ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 11, 2018) - WPC Resources Inc. (TSXV: WPQ) (the "Company" or "WPC") is pleased to report it has entered into an option agreement ("Ulu Option Agreement") with Mandalay Resources Corporation ("Mandalay") under which the Company may acquire a 100% interest in the Ulu Gold Property ("Ulu") located in Nunavut Territory, Canada. The Ulu Option Agreement supersedes the previous option agreement dated May 30, 2014 (WPC news release dated June 2, 2014) and the Lupin Mines Inc. Purchase Agreement dated October 31, 2016 with respect to Ulu (WPC news releases dated November 1, 2016 and March 3, 2017).

Under the terms of the Ulu Option Agreement, WPC can acquire a 100% interest in the Ulu Gold Property by satisfying the following conditions:

Paying Mandalay CA $200,000 within five business days of the receipt of regulatory approval of the Ulu Option Agreement;

Paying Mandalay CA $200,000 on or before May 31, 2018;

Issuing to Mandalay 15 million common shares;

Posting all future security required by the Kitikmeot Inuit Association ("KIA") and the Nunavut Water Board ("NWB") relating to future exploration-stage activities on Mining Lease #3563 and related water license in order to transfer the Mining Lease; and

Assuming all future reclamation and site monitoring expenses and liabilities associated with Ulu in a manner reasonably satisfactory to Mandalay, the KIA and the NWB.

The Ulu Option Agreement will be subject to review and approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The Company may exercise its option on the later of May 31, 2018 or the date on which WPC and Mandalay have satisfied all the conditions of completion contained in the Ulu Option Agreement. In order to satisfy all the conditions to complete the transaction, Mandalay will complete permanent reclamation of historic surface mining and infrastructure disturbances that are beyond the needs of the exploration-stage project.

About the Ulu Gold Property

Ulu is located 530 kilometres ("km") north-northeast of Yellowknife and 125 km west of Bathurst Inlet. The Ulu lease covers roughly 947 hectare ("ha") located contiguous to the Hood River Property in the High Lake greenstone belt. A 5% net proceeds of production royalty is payable to Royal Gold on gold production from Ulu in excess of 675,000 ounces and BHP Billiton retains the Ulu diamond rights.

In 2015 and under the previous agreement with Mandalay, WPC filed an amended technical report, titled "Technical Report on the Ulu Gold Property, Nunavut, Canada" and dated July 10, 2015 (WPC news release dated July 14, 2015). The Company's Ulu mineral resource was estimated by independent consultants using a 4 gram per tonne ("g/t") of gold cut-off value as follows:



Classification Gold Tonnage Gold Grade Gold Contained

Cut-off (g/t) Tonnes g/t Oz Flood Zone









Measured > 4.0 1,000,000 8.48 272,000

Indicated > 4.0 1,500,000 6.90 333,000

Measured & Indicated

> 4.0 2,500,000 7.53 605,000

Inferred > 4.0 891,000 5.57 160,000 Gnu Zone









Inferred > 4.0 370,000 5.57 66,000 Total - Flood and Gnu Zones









Measured & Indicated > 4.0 2,500,000 7.53 605,000

Inferred > 4.0 1,261,000 5.57 226,000

About WPC Resources Inc.

WPC is a Vancouver, Canada, based gold exploration company focused on mineral exploration and development. In 2014, the Company entered into an agreement to acquire Inukshuk Exploration Inc., the owner of a 100% interest in the 8,015 ha Hood River property located contiguous to the Ulu Gold Property. The Company currently has 98,900,304 shares issued and is listed on the TSX-V with the trading symbol: WPQ.

For additional information, please contact:

Stephen Wilkinson, President;ORWayne Moorhouse, CFO & SecretaryTelephone: (778) 379-1433E-mail: info@wpcresources.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the Policies of the TSX-Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this Release.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND INFORMATION

This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking information. All information included herein, other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements and involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 11, 2018 / SeeThruEquity, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on smallcap and microcap public companies, today announced it has issued an update on IEG Holdings Corporation (OTCQB: IEGH).

The report is available here: IEGH January 2018 Update Note.

IEG Holdings Corporation (OTCQB: IEGH) provides online unsecured consumer loans under the brand name "Mr. Amazing Loans" via its website, www.mramazingloans.com, in 20 US states. The company offers $5,000 and $10,000 personal loans over a five-year term at rates ranging from 19.9% to 29.9% APR. IEG Holdings plans future expansion to a total of 25 US states, which would cover 240mn people and represent approximately 75% of the US population.

Since 2013, IEGH has obtained additional state lending licenses, and they are licensed and originating direct consumer loans in 20 states including: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The Company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Highlights from the note include:

IEGH announces tender offer for up to 4.99% of LendingClub

On January 5, 2018, IEGH announced the commencement of a tender offer for shares of LendingClub Corporation (LC, "Lending Club"), which is set to expire on February 22, 2018. As part of the offer, IEGH will offer 13 shares of its common stock for each legally tendered share of common stock in LendingClub, up to an aggregate of 20,701,999 shares of LendingClub stock. If fully subscribed, the offer would represent 4.99% of LendingClub's outstanding shares as of October 31, 2017. IEGH previously attempted a LendingClub tender offer in July 2017 but withdrew it in August 2017 without closing or obtaining shares. The company did close a tender offer for shares of OneMain Holdings (OMF) in June 2017, and subsequently sold the shares at the discretion of management. We are not aware of a company the size of IEGH successfully acquiring control or meaningful influence over a company the size of LendingClub by way of a common share tender exchange.

IEG Holdings Plans to Create its own IEGH Crypto/Blockchain Currency Backed by Gold Metal and SEC Registration as a Security

IEGH announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Investment Evolution Crypto, LLC ("Crypto"), is negotiating to purchase a gold project with gold metal in the ground and prospecting licenses. IEG Holdings plans to utilize a gold resource to investigate creating, through Crypto, and a joint venture with Investment Evolution Corporation, also a wholly owned subsidiary of IEG Holdings, its own gold metal-backed crypto/blockchain currency, and potentially offer loans and accept loan repayments in its own crypto/blockchain currency. Crypto has not begun material operations and is in the development planning stages to explore these crypto/blockchain opportunities in this time of changing technology. Prior to launching these plans, Crypto will investigate the legalities and economic risks and benefits of its plans. Any crypto currency offering will be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").

IEGH increases loan originations

IEGH provided an update to its lending activities over the last several months on January 2, 2018. The company stated that it provided $960,000 in new consumer loans through its online property mramazingloans.com, from the October 2017 to December 2017 period. This represented a 12.3% increase over its July to September 2017 operating period, during which the company's new loan originations were $855,000. As we noted in prior coverage of the company, IEGH appears to have increased its advertising expenses, which supports growth in loan originations. Since January 2015, the cumulative amount of loan volume issued by the company has increased by 192% to $16.2mn, from $5.5mn.

IEGH planning new crypto / blockchain business

In late December 2017, IEGH announced that it would enter the cryptocurrency space with the incorporation of a new wholly-owned subsidiary, Investment Evolution Crypto, LLC. The new entity will explore the practicality and legality of working with Mr. Amazing Loans to accept payment for customer loans by way of Crypto / Blockchain currencies such as Bitcoin, provide the crypto currency equivalent of $5,000 and $10,000 loans, and potentially issue its own cryptocurrency. The decision to enter the cryptocurrency space is understandable for IEGH, which already has an existing business issuing $5,000 and $10,000 consumer loans through online channels, and IEGH may be able to leverage the interest in cryptocurrency to grow its business and raise new capital that could be deployed to grow its loan book.

No change to price target

Our price target is unchanged at this time for IEGH. IEGH is a high-risk, high potential reward company in the consumer finance sector.

Please review important disclosures at www.seethruequity.com.

About IEGH Holdings Corporation

IEG Holdings Corporation provides online $5,000 and $10,000 unsecured consumer loans under the brand name, "Mr. Amazing Loans," via its website, www.mramazingloans.com. For more information about IEG Holdings, visit www.investmentevolution.com.

About SeeThruEquity

Since its founding in 2011, SeeThruEquity has been committed to its core mission: providing impactful, high quality research on underfollowed smallcap and microcap equities. SeeThruEquity has pioneered an innovative business model for equity research that is not paid for and is unbiased. SeeThruEquity is the host of acclaimed investor conferences that are the ultimate event for publicly traded companies with market capitalizations less than $1 billion.

SeeThruEquity is approved to contribute its research reports and estimates to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), the leading estimates platform on Wall Street, as well as Capital IQ and FactSet. SeeThruEquity maintains one of the industry's most extensive databases of opt-in institutional and high net worth investors. The firm is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.

Contact:

SeeThruEquity

info@seethruequity.com

SOURCE: SeeThruEquity
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 11, 2018) - Bayhorse Silver Inc. (TSXV: BHS) ("Bayhorse" or the "Company") has increased its interest in the Mining Lease on the Bayhorse Silver Mine from 80% to 100%.

During the period from May, 2017, when it exercised its Option to earn an 80% interest in the Mining Lease, and December 31, 2017, the Company has expended a further US$2,175,000 for a total deemed expenditure of $3,775,000 on the Bayhorse Silver Mine.

American Cordilleran Mining Corp, and AMCOR Exploration, (together AMCOR) the 20% minority holder, has advised Bayhorse that it is not contributing its proportionate share of the Joint Venture expenditures, and has accepted dilution of its interest below 10%. According to the terms of the Joint Venture formed between Bayhorse and AMCOR, Bayhorse now has acquired a 100% interest in and to the Mining Lease.

Subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, it is increasing the previously announced financing of $1,250,000 to $1,500,000, and has closed a second tranche of the financing for gross proceeds of $446,300. Each Unit consists of one (1) common share and one (1) transferable common share purchase warrant at an exercise price of $0.30 cents, exercisable for a period of 24 months from issuance.

The funds raised will be for working capital for the Bayhorse Silver Mine, and for general and corporate purposes.

Finder fees may be payable on a portion of the financing according to the policies of the TSX-V. Graeme O'Neill, an Officer and Director of the Company has sold 960,000 common shares of the Company through the facilities of the Exchange in an arranged sale (gypsy swap) and has now subscribed for a total of 3,000,000 Units of the financing.

The Company advises it is not basing its decision to produce on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and also advises there is increased uncertainty and specific economic and technical risks of failure associated with its production decision.

This News Release has been prepared on behalf of the Bayhorse Silver Inc. Board of Directors, which accepts full responsibility for its contents.

On Behalf of the Board.

Graeme O'Neill, CEO

604-684-3394

Bayhorse Silver Inc., a junior mining & exploration company, has earned a 100% interest in the mining lease on the historic Bayhorse Silver Mine, Oregon, USA. Bayhorse is also earning a 75% interest in the past producing Bridging the Gap Project, consisting of ASARCO's historic Crown Point, Silver King, Ranger, Wyoming, Curlew, and Blackhawk silver/lead/zinc mines in Idaho's Silver Valley. The Company has an experienced management and technical team with extensive exploration and mining expertise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Today, Sarah Cannon announced the promotion of Johanna C. Bendell, MD, to Chief Development Officer. In her new role, Dr. Bendell will work to further develop and expand physician, site and Pharma relationships across the Sarah Cannon network, enhancing the organization's collaborative efforts to bring cutting-edge treatments to patients close to home.

"As a patient-centric, physician-led research institute, it is important to capitalize on Johanna's expertise and experience to further our mission of advancing therapies for patients," said Howard A. "Skip" Burris III, MD, President of Clinical Operations and Chief Medical Officer for Sarah Cannon. "Under her leadership, we look forward to continuing to enhance access to the latest treatments for people facing cancer in communities across the U.S. and UK."

Since joining Sarah Cannon in 2008, Dr. Bendell has served as Director of the GI Cancer Research Program and Associate Director of the Drug Development Program at Sarah Cannon Research Institute. In this role, Dr. Bendell oversees the clinical trial offerings for gastrointestinal (GI) cancers across the Sarah Cannon network and works closely with partners on clinical trial design. Her work in early drug development has helped guide first-in-man agents through proof-of-concept studies. In her new role, Dr. Bendell will continue to work in drug development and lead Sarah Cannon's GI cancer research efforts.

"Dr. Bendell's global reputation as a thought leader in GI cancer research and drug development coupled with her extensive network of Pharma and physician relationships make her an ideal candidate for this role," explained Dee Anna Smith, Chief Executive Officer for Sarah Cannon.

As Chief Development Officer, Dr. Bendell will work closely with the leaders of Sarah Cannon Development Innovations, the organization's CRO, and clinical operations teams to provide additional, experienced physician leadership to these lines of business.

Dr. Bendell received her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Chicago. She completed her internship and residency in the Department of Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and her fellowship in adult oncology at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is board certified in medical oncology.

Dr. Bendell will officially begin her position in January 2018 at Sarah Cannon headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. She will continue to care for patients as an associate with Tennessee Oncology, PLLC.

About Sarah Cannon Research Institute

Sarah Cannon Research Institute is the research arm of HCA Healthcare's global cancer institute, Sarah Cannon. Focused on advancing therapies for patients, it is one of the world's leading clinical research organizations conducting community-based clinical trials throughout the United States and United Kingdom. Sarah Cannon's network of strategic sites includes more than 275 physicians who engage in research. The organization has led more than 300 first-in-man clinical trials since its inception in 1993, and has been a clinical trial leader in the majority of approved cancer therapies over the last 10 years. Additionally, Sarah Cannon offers management, regulatory, and other research support services for drug development and industry sponsors as well as strategic investigator sites through its contract research organization (CRO), Sarah Cannon Development Innovations. For more information, visit sarahcannon.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180111005383/en/

Contacts:

Sarah Cannon Research Institute

Sam Maxwell, 615-922-9180
WEATHERFORD, Texas, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Al Micallef, President and Founder of Micallef Cigars, spoke today about the company's Reserva being awarded the Top Boutique Cigar of 2017 by Cigar and Spirits Magazine. "I couldn't be more pleased," says Micallef. "I believe we have several cigars in our portfolio that could have been rated as the top cigar as well. The Reserva was blended specifically for me and I'm delighted to see the experts at Cigar & Spirits Magazine recognize this crowd pleaser of a cigar as #1."

Micallef Cigars also received the #1 spot as the Top New Cigar Company in Cigar & Spirits Magazine's current "best of 2017" issue. "The selection of the Micallef brand as the #1 Top New Cigar Company and recognition of the Reserva as the #1 Boutique Cigar of 2017 is significant," says CEO & Publisher Lincoln Salazar. "The boutique field is highly competitive. Micallef Cigars has truly distinguished itself with these accolades."

In just a few short years, Micallef Cigars has garnered a number of prestigious awards and ratings throughout the cigar landscape. Micallef Cigars is distinct in quality and the company's spectrum of price points offers cigar enthusiasts a variety of high caliber blends to choose from.

About Micallef Cigars

Micallef Cigars is the partnership of two inspiring families. Al Micallef's expertise in worldwide commerce combined with the Gomez Sanchez Family's elite handcrafting has created one of the finest cigar lines in the world. Micallef Cigars are made in Esteli, Nicaragua and distributed from their headquarters in Weatherford, TX.Micallef Cigars produces a variety of tobacco blends, including the Reserva Limitada Privada, Gomez Sanchez Leyenda Series, Experiencia La Crema, Experiencia Prominente, Herencia Maduro, Herencia, Connecticut, Migdalia, Reata, and Torcedores. www.micallefcigars.com


BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Runaway trends in the price of cryptocurrencies have brought them under the regulators' scanner in several countries, clouding the outlook for what was touted as the next big thing after Internet. South Korea and China, which are among the most active markets for cryptocurrencies, are leading the list of countries that are initiating crackdown measures.



Latest on the regulation front was an announcement by South Korea on Thursday that the justice ministry is planning a legislation to curb the excessive speculation in the cryptocurrency market. The measures include a ban on all cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, thus effectively preventing trading in digital currencies.



'We have great concerns about virtual currency,' Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said at a press conference. The ministry was preparing legislation that bans any transactions based on virtual currencies via exchanges, he added.



The price of Bitcoin plunged as much as 14 percent to below $13,000 following the news. As of 8.06 am ET, Bitcoin was down 0.49 percent at $13.877.64 on coinbase.



The total market cap of cryptocurrencies fell to $628.38 billion early Thursday, which was roughly $100 billion less than the level at the same time on Wednesday. Market cap recovered to $683.44 billion as of 8.13 am ET.



There were also reports this week suggesting that Chinese authorities have stepped up their clampdown on cryptocurrencies. A multi-agency task force, apparently including the People's Bank of China, has asked provincial governments to 'guide' companies in their regions to shutdown cryptocurrency mining activities, reports said citing various sources.



Mining is the process using which new bitcoins are created by a competitive and decentralized process by individuals or groups of individuals using freely available special software to solve mathematical problems to verify and confirm each bitcoin transaction in a block.



Verified blocks are entered into the 'blockchain' for others to accept. The first miner to solve the mathematical puzzle will receive new bitcoins as reward. But, Bitcoin mining is an expensive process requiring high processor speeds, time, and intensive use of electricity.



China mines more than three quarters of world's bitcoins as the country provides cheap electricity in several regions, and has a cooler climate that favors cryptocurrency mining.



In September last year, China had ordered a closure of bitcoin exchanges and banned initial coin offerings, or ICOs, a crypto-equivalent for the initial public offerings of shares.



While the Chinese government makes huge investments in new era technology and wants to project the country as a hub for artificial intelligence and robotics, going forward, it seems not very interested in promoting cryptocurrencies.



One main concern China has about digital currencies is that these are decentralized and cannot be regulated. The government is also worried about the huge financial risks such a boom entails.



In South Korea, the government has been voicing concerns over the past several months as the cryptocurrency surge gained steam despite severe falls in between.



The country has witnessed intense interest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and several crypto exchanges are located there. Prices of cryptocurrencies in the South Korean market tend to be much higher than elsewhere, reportedly over 40 percent, as buyers exceed those willing to sell.



'Cryptocurrency trading has started to resemble gambling and speculation,' Park said. The minister said foreign investors are considering the Korean trade in virtual currencies as abnormal due to the excessive prices relative to other markets across the world, a gap that is dubbed the 'Kimchi premium', in an allusion to the famous Korean dish of spicy pickled cabbage.



Different Korean market regulators have initiated a joint effort to curb the unbridled trading in cryptocurrencies.



At the start of the week, South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit and Financial Services Commission launched a probe into six commercial banks, which were offering trading accounts to crytpocurrency exchanges in the country.



Joint inspections were planned for Woori Bank, Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, NongHyup Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea and Korea Development Bank from Monday through Thursday.



Officials said they wanted to check whether these banks complied with their anti-money laundering obligations in their transactions with cryptocurrency exchanges. They also wanted to inspect whether the banks have implemented appropriate measures to verify their customers' identification in regard with cryptocurrency trading.



'Cryptocurrencies are highly likely to be used as a means to money laundering due to their nature of anonymity and non-face-to-face transaction,' the FSC said.



Authorities hope that a shutdown of crytptocurrency exchanges would minimize side effects of cryptocurrency trading such as fraud using cryptocurrencies, cyber hacks on cryptocurrency exchanges, and irrationally overheated speculation.



As the so-called 'virtual accounts' offered to cryptocurrency exchanges were making it more difficult to identify real names of account holders, the country is implementing new rules that will require real-name cryptocurrency transactions, starting January 20.



Leading digital currency exchanges, Bithumb and Coinone, confirmed on Thursday that tax authorities had visited their offices.



The number of accounts linked to cryptocurrency exchanges totaled 111 with a combined deposit value estimated around 2 trillion won or $1.8 billion, Yonhap, a South Korean news agency, reported. More than 2 million Koreans own digital currencies.



Late December, the South Korean government had said that it was planning to implement special measures to curb speculation in the virtual currency market.



The country has sought deeper co-operation with regulators in China and Japan in curbing intense speculation in cryptocurrencies.



Virtual currencies have been around for nearly a decade with the Bitcoin, the largest digital currency in value that transacts on the blockchain network, emerging in 2009. Over the years, several new avatars of crytpocurrencies came into view such as Ether that works on the Ethereum protocol, and Ripple that run on the RippleNet payment system.



In its initial years, cryptocurrencies, mainly Bitcoin, were seen as something reserved for geeks and tech junkies. Later, its emerged as a darling of the darknet, thanks to the perceived anonymity assigned to it.



It is the recent surge in prices of cryptocurrencies that caught the attention of regulators whose main fear is that an asset bubble is looming.



Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has warned that cryptocurrencies are set to have a bad ending and he would not bet any money on them.



Whether or not the cryptocurrencies survive the crash and boom cycle, businesses and investors are confident that their underlying distributed ledger technology called blockchain, would ride out the storm to emerge as the next big thing.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - In a post on Twitter on Thursday, President Donald Trump highlighted a Quinnipiac University National Poll showing positive views of the economy at a multi-year high.



'In new Quinnipiac Poll, 66% of people feel the economy is 'Excellent or Good.' That is the highest number ever recorded by this poll,' Trump tweeted.



The 66 percent of voters saying the economy is 'excellent' or 'good' is the highest positive rating since Quinnipiac first asked the question in 2001.



However, the poll found that voters are more likely to say former President Barack Obama is responsible for the state of the economy.



Forty-nine percent of voters say Obama is more responsible for the state of the economy, while 40 percent say Trump is more responsible.



'President Trump can hang his hat on the economy, but must share the hat rack with President Barack Obama,' said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.



The poll also included some more troubling news for Trump, with a majority of voters saying that he is not fit to serve as president.



Fifty-seven percent of voters said Trump is not fit to serve as president compared to 40 percent that said he is fit for office.



Voters also said 69 percent to 28 percent that Trump is not level-headed, although voters said 53 percent to 44 percent that the president is intelligent.



Grading Trump's first year in office, 39 percent of voters give him an 'F,' while another 17 percent give him a 'D.'



Trump gets an 'A' from 16 percent of voters, a 'B' from another 16 percent and a 'C' from 11 percent, the Quinnipiac poll found.



'Considered an intelligent person with a really bad report card, filled with far more 'F's' than 'A's' or 'B's', the president is a long way from the Dean's list in the eyes of voters,' Malloy said.



The Quinnipiac survey of 1,106 voters was conducted January 5th through 9th and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.



(Photo: Marc Nozell)



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 01/11/18 -- Cogeco Inc. (TSX: CGO) and Cogeco Communications Inc. (TSX: CCA) announced today the publication of their fourth Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report. This report, issued once every two years, is produced according to the international Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. It communicates the company's initiatives, its targets and commitments, as well as the most material issues linked to its environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance.

Examples of achievements for the period covered by the report are the implementation of our supplier Code of Conduct and its progressive adoption by Cogeco's top suppliers, the significant progress made in the attainment of Cogeco's corporate CSR commitments, which includes the reduction of the Corporation's greenhouse gas emissions and the integration of all business units under the CSR program with the most recent onboarding of Cogeco Media. The Corporation also supported local organizations directly through cash donations and sponsorships totaling $6 million over two years. These efforts to be a good corporate citizen have not gone unnoticed. For the past four years, Cogeco has been included in the Jantzi Social Index, consisting of 60 Canadian companies that meet a set of broadly-based environmental, social and governance criteria.

"Our CSR program has continued to evolve significantly over the years, and we remain committed to setting and achieving concrete targets over time," said Louis Audet, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. "Corporate social responsibility is in our fibre and doing our part to create a better world is also core to our culture, and ingrained in each of our employees. Ultimately, we aspire to help connect the world, every day, in a sustainable manner."

To learn more about Cogeco's endeavours, successful initiatives and progress in sustainability, the 2017 report is available on the corporate website at: http://corpo.cogeco.com/cgo/en/company-overview/corporate-social-responsability/.

ABOUT COGECO INC.

Cogeco Inc. is a diversified holding corporation which operates in the communications and media sectors. Through its Cogeco Communications Inc. subsidiary, Cogeco provides its residential and business customers with Internet, video and telephony services through its two-way broadband fibre networks. Cogeco Communications Inc. operates in Canada under the Cogeco Connexion name in Quebec and Ontario, and in the United States under the Atlantic Broadband name in 11 states along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida. Through Cogeco Peer 1, Cogeco Communications Inc. provides its business customers with a suite of information technology services (colocation, network connectivity, hosting, cloud and managed services), through its 16 data centres, extensive FastFiber Network and more than 50 points of presence in North America and Europe. Through its subsidiary Cogeco Media, Cogeco owns and operates 13 radio stations across most of Quebec with complementary radio formats serving a wide range of audiences as well as Cogeco News, its news agency. Cogeco's subordinate voting shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CGO). The subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Communications Inc. are also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CCA).

Contacts:

INFORMATION AND INTERVIEW REQUESTS:

Nancy Bouffard

Corporate Communications Director

Cogeco Inc.

(514) 764-4613

Nancy.Bouffard@cogeco.com






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Pentagon's comptroller told Congress that the first-ever full-scale audit of the Defense Department has begun.



A comprehensive audit of the Defense Department's assets is important for business reform, for Congress and for the taxpayer, David L. Norquist said at a meeting of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.



Defense is the largest department in the US executive branch and has assets around the world.



The extensive process will cost about $367 million in 2018 and an additional $551 million to fix problems identified by the auditors, according to him.



While the department has auditors looking at various contracts or processes, 'this is the first time the department will undergo a full financial statement audit,' he said.



Defense Secretary James Mattis and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan are fully behind this effort, Norquist told the committee.



This audit will verify the count, location and condition of military equipment and real property.



There will be 1,200 financial statement auditors assessing the books and records to develop a true account of the state of the department. It will take time to pass all the process and system changes necessary to pass the audit and get a so-called 'clean opinion,' he said. He noted that it took the Department of Homeland Security -- a much smaller and newer agency -- 10 years to get a clean audit.



An audit will improve accountability, the comptroller said, noting that, for example, an initial Army audit found that 39 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were not properly recorded in the property system. 'The Air Force identified 478 structures and buildings at 12 installations that were not in its real property system,' he added.



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Jan. 16: Red Bank Chamber Council Meeting

Noon to 1 p.m.

Red Bank Community Center: 3620 Tom Weathers Dr.

Speaker: Chris Sislo, HHM

$10

Jan. 17 Ooltewah/Collegedale Chamber Council Meeting

9:15 to 10:30 a.m.

Collegedale City Hall: 4910 Swinyar Dr.

Speaker: Tracy Hobek, Collegedale Parks & Recreation

Jan. 17 Hixson Chamber Council Meeting

11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.

North River Civic Center: 1009 Executive Dr.

Speaker: Higher Education Panel

$10

Jan. 18 Reality Check at Red Bank High School

7:30 to 11 a.m.

Red Bank High School: 640 Morrison Springs Rd.

Reality Check teaches 9th graders budgeting and emphasizes the connection between education and income by allowing students to roleplay as heads of household providing a on a budget. Community volunteers are needed to assist with this event. To volunteer for this Chattanooga Chamber career readiness program, contact Cathy Humble at 423.763.4321 or chumble@chattanoogachamber.com.

Jan. 18 North Hamilton County Chamber Council Meeting

11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Budweiser: 200 Shearer St.

Speaker: Choices Wellness Center

$10

Jan. 18 Find Your Funding- Complimentary

1:30  3 p.m.

INCubator: 100 Cherokee Blvd. (Parking available across the street in the Republic pay parking lot.)

Explore your funding opportunities that range from traditional loans to bootstrapping, crowd funding and angel and venture capital funding. A representative from SBA and TSBDC will discuss the variety of options, including the SBA 504, SBA 7a and others for small business startups.

Speakers: Jackie Merritt, SBA & Lynn Chesnutt, TSBDC

Register: clients.tsbdc.org/workshop.aspx?ekey=30370094

Jan. 18 Chamber Business After Hours Sponsored by Mellow Mushroom

5 to 7 p.m.

Mellow Mushroom: 205 Broad St.

Business After Hours brings an average of 100 business people together for networking and refreshments. Business After Hours in January is sponsored by Mellow Mushroom.

Jan. 18 Leadership Chattanooga Alumni Association Annual Meeting

5  7:30 p.m.

Turnbull Building: 1401 Fort St.

Enjoy complimentary hors doeuvres and beer and wine. This is sure to be a fun evening with LC graduates from 30+ classes.
FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: Messrs. Hoare Trustees as Trustees of 'Master Charitable Trust - The Saffron Fund' (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. Donor: Richard Sneller

Trustee: Messrs. Hoare Trustees

Beneficiaries: This is a 'donor advised fund' for the benefit of charitable causes. (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree Lombard Risk Management Plc (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 11/01/2018 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" NO

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security: 1p Ordinary Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: Nil 0 (2) Cash-settled derivatives: (3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:

TOTAL: Nil 0

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale Number of securities Price per unit Ordinary Sale 8,050,000 0.1265

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit

(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)

4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"

None

(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"

None

(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO

Date of disclosure: 11/01/2018 Contact name: Messrs. Hoare Trustees Telephone number: 02073534522

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.
Sulzer announces that it has completed the acquisition of JWC Environmental, LLC ("JWC"). JWC is a leading provider of highly engineered, mission-critical solids reduction and removal products such as grinders, screens, and dissolved air flotation system for municipal, industrial and commercial wastewater applications.

The transaction allows Sulzer to grow its wastewater treatment offering through complementary equipment as well as to improve its access to the municipal and industrial wastewater market in North America. Furthermore, Sulzer intends to strongly pursue and support JWC's geographic expansion into markets in EMEA and Asia. Significant sales synergies are expected through growth in JWC's markets outside North America. JWC will operate as part of Sulzer's Pumps Equipment division and will continue to be headquartered in Santa Ana, California.

The enterprise value of USD 215 million adjusted for an acquired tax asset corresponds to a multiple of approximately 10x 2018 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). JWC is headquartered in Santa Ana, California, US, and employs around 230 people.

About Sulzer

Sulzer's core strength is flow control and applicators. We specialize in pumping solutions, services for rotating equipment, as well as separation, mixing and application technology. Our customers benefit from a network of over 180 production and service sites around the world. Sulzer has been headquartered in Winterthur, Switzerland, since 1834. In 2016, we achieved sales of roughly CHF 2.9 billion with around 14 000 employees. Our shares are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: SUN) www.sulzer.com

About JWC Environmental

Since its founding in 1973, JWC Environmental has become a world leader in solids reduction and removal for the municipal wastewater industry with its Muffin Monster line of products. JWC partners with industrial customers for wastewater and process optimization with its IPEC Screens, FRC DAF's and Monster Industrial waste shredders. JWC Environmental is headquartered in Santa Ana, California. For more information, visit JWC Environmental at www.jwce.com

This document may contain forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, projections of financial developments, market activity or future performance of products and solutions containing risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to change based on known or unknown risks and various other factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ materially from the statements made herein.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180111005726/en/

Contacts:

Sulzer

Investor Relations:

Christoph Ladner, Head of Group Communications and Investor Relations,

Phone +41 52 262 30 22

Fax +41 52 262 03 02

christoph.ladner@sulzer.com
PUNE, India, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Cognitive Radio Market by Component (Software Tools, Hardware, and Services), Application (Spectrum Sensing, Spectrum Analysis, Spectrum Allocation, Location Tracking, and Cognitive Routing), End-User, and Region - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets' the market size is expected to grow from USD 3.45 Billion in 2017 to USD 7.44 Billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.6% during the forecast period.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 69 market data Tables and 41 Figures spread through 136 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Cognitive Radio Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cognitive-radio-market-219954724.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Technological advancements in the wireless communication field, optimized spectrum utilization, and the increasing adoption of the 5G technology are some of the major factors that are expected to drive the growth of the global Cognitive Radio Market. Furthermore, the rising adoption of the cognitive radio technology in government and defense organizations and increasing demand for the cognitive radio technology in commercial applications are expected to provide significant opportunities for the growth of the Cognitive Radio Market.

The government and defense end-user is expected to be the largest contributor in the Cognitive Radio Market during the forecast period.

The governments of various countries are focused on developing and implementing advanced communication technologies, such as cognitive radios and Software-Defined Radio (SDR), for serving the requirements of the modern nature of warfare. Moreover, the government bodies, such as public safety and homeland security, are responsible for ensuring the protection of citizens, organizations, and institutions against threats to their well-being and the prosperity of their communities. The major issue faced by the government agencies is the highly congested radio frequencies allocated for emergency communication in many areas. The cognitive radio helps these government bodies tackle this issue by ensuring efficient and effective spectrum usage as well as responding to emergency incidents efficiently.

The managed services segment is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period.

The demand for services is expected to grow with the evolution of the Cognitive Radio Market, specifically for managed services. The managed services segment is expected to have the faster growth rate during the forecast period. Managed service providers deliver third-party infrastructure services that help organizations manage their wireless communication devices. Managed service providers take care of all the hardware and software functions, while organizations are only responsible for updating and installing business applications and configuring company policies.

North America is expected to have the largest market share during the forecast period.

North America is expected to be the most competitive region in the Cognitive Radio Market during the forecast period. North America, among all the regions, has shown the maximum adoption of the cognitive radio technology, due to its early implementation in the majority of verticals. The region is expected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period. The US and Canada are expected to extensively implement cognitive radios for wireless communication.

The major cognitive radio vendors are BAE Systems (London, UK), Raytheon Company (Massachusetts, US), Thales Group (Paris, France), Rhode & Schwarz (Munich, Germany), Spectrum Signal Processing (Burnaby, Canada), xG Technology (Florida, US), Nutaq (Quebec, Canada), Ettus Research (California, US), Shared Spectrum Company (Virginia, US), DataSoft (Arizona, US), EpiSys Science (California, US), and Kyynel (Oulu, Finland).

Enquiry Before Buying @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=219954724

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MarketsandMarkets' provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets' for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets' are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets' now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets' is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets' flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

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TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/11/18 -- Editors Note: A photo for this release is available on the Canadian Press picture wire via Marketwired.

Today, the YMCA GTA broke the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the Largest exercise ball demonstration/class. With determination and grit, 454 community members lunged and stepped to the beat for a 30-minute class at the Toronto Central YMCA, where their sweat powered the forces of good.

Celebrity fitness trainer Eva Redpath led the 30-minute exercise ball routine with support from the YMCA's Sherry Perez. This record-breaking event was hosted to launch the YMCA GTA's "Sweat For Good" campaign into the spotlight, and immerse both members and the public in the YMCA experience that connects everyone to a larger purpose. At the Y, members not only sweat for themselves; they sweat for others, for positive change, and for the community.

"I am honoured to be a part of this incredible team and this record-breaking event," said Medhat Mahdy, President and CEO of YMCA GTA. "When you choose the YMCA, you are choosing to be part of an organization that seeks to build the foundation for a healthy, vibrant future for every individual in our community, and our society as a whole. In a nutshell, we're a gym - and a whole lot more."

Here are the five important factors that set YMCA Health & Fitness Centres apart:

-- Their broad offering: They offer diverse programs for every interest and stage of life. -- They create a sense of belonging: They bring people together, nurture their growth, and promote inclusivity. -- Their people-first culture: Their dedicated and expert team of staff and volunteers proactively supports members' health goals; removes barriers to achieving those goals; and believes that everyone has the ability to continually improve. -- They are committed to doing local good: They address community-specific needs and invest in building permanent facilities in communities across the GTA. -- They are a charitable organization: Their gyms are part of a much larger charitable organization that provides programs and services that make people strong in all sorts of ways - physically, of course, but also mentally and socially.

For GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS adjudicator Christina Conlon, judging this world record-breaking event was both exhilarating and inspiring.

"While in this room, I couldn't help but be caught up by all the excitement around setting a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title," said Conlon. "I'll never tire of that aspect of my job. It was also a joy to see firsthand how many people gathered together to help shine a light on the YMCA GTA and the great work it does for the community."

The YMCA is the largest charitable program and service delivery organization in the GTA. For more than 160 years and through hundreds of programs, the YMCA GTA has been offering individuals opportunities for personal growth, community involvement and leadership.

About the YMCA of Greater Toronto

For well over a century, we've provided leadership and worked with partners solving complex social problems to create real, measurable outcomes that have strengthened the social health and fabric of our communities. As a charity, the YMCA offers a variety of programs responding to the needs of the community, including education and training, employment and immigrant services, family and youth services, health and fitness programs, child care, and camps. The breadth of our programs, and the diversity of the communities we serve, is the basis of our new Sweat For Good campaign: when you break a sweat with us, you're showing your support for all of these programs that give everyone their chance to shine. Serving the population of the GTA, Durham, Peel, York, Halton Region and Dufferin County, the YMCA connected with more than 557,000 people across 438 locations last year.

www.ymcagta.org

http://sweatforgood.ymcagta.org

About Guinness World Records

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS (GWR) is the global authority on record-breaking achievement. First published in 1955, the iconic annual GWR books have sold over 138 million copies in over 20 languages and in more than 100 countries. Additionally, the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition, first published in 2007, has sold more than 5 million copies to date.

GWR's worldwide television programmes reach over 750 million viewers annually and more than one million people subscribe to the GWR YouTube channel, which enjoys more than 300 million views per year. The GWR website receives 21 million visitors annually, and they have over 12 million fans on Facebook.

The GWR commercial sales division provides bespoke consultancy services for some of the world's top brands and agencies to help place record breaking at the heart of their marketing campaigns, employee-engagement programmes, and live and experiential events.

To view the photo associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/CPiYMCAGTA0111.jpg

Contacts:

Deane Code

Veritas Communications/YMCA of Greater Toronto

E: code@veritasinc.com

T: 416-640-4661

M: 416-732-4835



Kassandra O'Brien

Veritas Communications/YMCA of Greater Toronto

obrien@veritasinc.com

T: 416-482-2617

M: 289-264-6499




Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 11, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Dr. Timothy Timura, CFA, as Deputy Director and Deputy Chief Economist in the agency's Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA).

Dr. Timura joins DERA from the faculty of the Kogod School of Business at American University, where he has been an Executive in Residence. Dr. Timura has more than 30 years of experience serving individual and institutional investors as a professional money manager, and he has held senior management positions with private financial institutions and the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. Dr. Timura also taught finance and economics at Ohio State University, Lehigh University, and Albright College.

Dr. Timura will assist the Chief Economist on a wide range of agency activities focusing initially on economic policy in agency rulemaking.

"Tim brings a wealth of academic knowledge and industry expertise in finance that will significantly help the Commission's efforts in financial economics and risk analysis," said Dr. Jeffrey Harris, DERA Director and Chief Economist. "I'm looking forward to working with him and truly appreciate Tim's willingness to help DERA serve investors."

Dr. Timura said, "It is a great honor to serve the public here at the SEC and I'm excited to have this opportunity to share my experience with the dedicated staff in DERA as we work on behalf of the long-term interests of Main Street investors."

Dr. Timura is a graduate of Dickinson College and has an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a D.M. from Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Timura's doctoral research focused on the challenges faced by average investors when seeking to secure their own financial futures specifically exploring interactions between investors and investment professionals and how their relationships may be enhanced.
Las Vegas, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - January 11, 2018) - American Paramount Gold Corp. (OTC Pink: APGA) ("American Paramount") announced today that it has agreed to amend the November 27, 2017 Letter of Intent (LOI) with Indigenous Roots Corp. ("Indigenous Roots") to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of Indigenous Roots. The parties were unable to complete a definitive agreement on or before December 31, 2017 as proposed in the LOI. The Company has agreed to extend the date for completion of a definitive agreement to January 31, 2018.

Additional Information:

Statements made in this press release include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding, but not limited to, the amount and use of proceeds the Company expects to receive from the sale of the shares of common stock in the registered direct offering and the warrants and the closing of the transaction described in this press release, which is subject to customary conditions. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "plan," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties, many of which the Company cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Company might not even anticipate, and involve factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and are advised to consider the factors listed above together with the additional factors under the heading "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, dated August 31, 2016 and the most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, dated May 31, 2017. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events, new information or otherwise.

Investor Contact:

Ron W. Loudoun, CEO

1.855.462.8882

info@americanparamountgold.net
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/11/18 -- Dalradian Resources Inc. (TSX: DNA)(AIM: DALR) ("Dalradian" or the "Company") announces that Michael Barton has been appointed as a non-executive director of the Company, as Orion Mine Finance Fund II LLP's ("Orion") designated nominee, effective immediately.

Patrick F.N. Anderson, Dalradian's President and CEO, commented:

"We are delighted to welcome Mike Barton to our Board. He is well known in the London and broader financial markets, having served on the boards of many listed mining companies. Dalradian will benefit from his extensive experience in mine project finance and development as we continue to advance our high-grade Curraghinalt gold project through permitting and project financing."

Michael Barton is a Portfolio Manager at Orion, a mining-focused investment business with approximately $3.7 billion under management (at December 31, 2017) that provides flexible capital investment solutions to mining companies in the base and precious metals sector. Orion has demonstrated capability in debt, equity, and production-linked investments, such as streams, offtakes and royalties. Prior to Orion, Mr. Barton was Chief Executive Officer of Pala Investments, a mining-focused investment company. Mr. Barton held various positions at Pala Investments, having joined Pala shortly after its formation. At Pala, Mr. Barton was responsible for all aspects of strategy development, deal origination, investment management and portfolio management across a broad portfolio of investment types, including public equity, private equity, debt, convertible debt, royalties and product streams. Before joining Pala, Mr. Barton was Vice President at Hatch Corporate Finance (now HCF International Advisers), a mining and metals-focused corporate finance boutique. Mr. Barton holds a First Class Honours degree in Geography from the University of Leicester. He is a qualified chartered accountant (ICAEW).

In terms of the appointment of Michael Barton (aged 38) to the board, there is no further information that is required to be disclosed pursuant to Schedule 2 paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies, save for the following:

-- Current directorships/partnerships: Orion Resource Partners (UK) LLP, ORP Investment (UK II) LLP, Mitchell Drilling Pty Limited. -- Past directorships/partnerships (past five years): Pala Investments Limited, Sierra Rutile Limited, Concord Resources Limited, Kore Potash Limited, Hana Mining Ltd, Nevada Copper Corp., Peninsula Energy Limited, WDS Limited, 8926549 Canada Inc., Datamine Investments Limited, Tamzamdex LLP. -- Mr. Barton is indirectly interested in approximately 0.009% of the issued share capital of Dalradian through his indirect holding in Orion.

About Dalradian Resources Inc.

Dalradian Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration and development company that is focused on advancing its high-grade Curraghinalt Gold Project located in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The Curraghinalt Project is in permitting, with exploration ongoing to build on the positive feasibility study released in January 2017.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to future financial or operating performance of the Company and its subsidiaries and its mineral project, the future price of metals, test work and confirming results from work performed to date, the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, the realization of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital, operating and exploration expenditures, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, costs and timing of future exploration, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of mining operations, environmental risks, reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims, limitations of insurance coverage, the timing and possible outcome of pending regulatory matters and the realization of the expected production, economics and mine life of the Curraghinalt gold deposit.

Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "plans," "expects," "is expected," "budget," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and are based on various assumptions, such as continued political stability in Northern Ireland, that permits required for Dalradian's operations will be obtained in a timely basis in order to permit Dalradian to proceed on schedule with its planned exploration and mine development, construction and production programs, that skilled personnel and contractors will be available as Dalradian's operations commence and continue to grow towards production and mining operations, that the price of gold will be at levels that render the Dalradian's mineral project economic, that the Company will be able to continue raising the necessary capital to finance its operations and realize on mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates and current mine plans, that the assumptions contained in the Company's Technical Report dated January 25, 2017 are accurate and complete and that a permitting application for mine construction will be approved .

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Dalradian to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current and future exploration activities; the actual results of reclamation activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; meeting various expected cost estimates; changes in project parameters and/or economic assessments as plans continue to be refined; future prices of metals; possible variations of mineral grade or recovery rates; the risk that actual costs may exceed estimated costs; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2016 dated March 23, 2017.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

Marla Gale

Vice President Communications

+1 416 583 5600

investor@dalradian.com



Grant Thornton UK LLP (Nominated Adviser)

Philip Secrett / Richard Tonthat

+44 (0)20 7383 5100



Canaccord Genuity Limited (Broker)

Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor / Martin Davison

+44 (0)20 7523 8000




Third Point Offshore Investors Limited (the "Company")

(a closed-ended investment company incorporated with limited liability under the laws ofGuernsey with registered number 47161)

LEI: 549300WXTCG65AQ7V644

D i vidend Declaration

5 JANUARY 2018

The Board of Third Point Offshore Investors Limited is pleased to announce that it has approved the fifth annual dividend of approximately 4% of the net asset value of each share class.

The declaration is in line with the Company's current dividend policy as adopted by the Board on 24 October 2012. This policy anticipates that the Company will pay a cash dividend of 4-5% of NAV to the extent that the positive NAV performance of the Company would support such a dividend and absent other, exigent circumstances relating to the Investment Manager and otherwise.

The Company is pleased to announce the following share class rates and dates:



Dividend per USD Share 81 cents (USD) Dividend per GBP Share 77 pence (GBP) Ex-Date 11 January 2018 Record Date 12 January 2018 Pay Date 16 February 2018

The dividend yield per share, based on the current share price, is approximately 5%. Shareholders will receive their dividend in the respective class currency.

The Company also announces the payment of the annual dividend to B shareholders at fixed rate of 0.0000001 pence (Sterling) per B Share, irrespective of whether their B Shares are denominated in Sterling or in any other currency. This dividend will be paid on 16 February 2018.

Marc Antoine Autheman, the Chairman of the Company, made the following statement: "We are obviously very pleased with the performance of the investment manager in 2017, although we are disappointed with the lingering discount of the share price versus the NAV. The Board is in the process of reviewing the dividend policy as part of a broader review of the Company's discount management strategy. The results of such review will be announced in due course."

Enquiries:

Company website:www.thirdpointpublic.com

Andy Dovey

Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited

Tel: +44 (0) 1481 745346
CAMARILLO, California, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

BNK Petroleum Inc. (the "Company") (TSX: BKX) is pleased to announce that the Company has begun drilling the Glenn 16-2H well in the Company's Tishomingo Field with Power Rig #7.

The Company has a 100% working interest in the Glenn 16-2H, which is located directly south of the Company's Brock 9-2H well and is the first well in the Company's 2018 drilling program. The well is expected to take about 30 days to drill. Once drilling is complete, the rig is scheduled to move to the Scott 14-2H location which is about two miles to the east of the Glenn 16-2H. Fracture stimulation of the Glenn 16-2H well will be scheduled as quickly as possible.

Wolf Regener, President and CEO, commented, "We are looking forward to the continued success of our drilling campaign, which we believe will continue to increase our cash flow and reserves."

About BNK Petroleum Inc.

BNK Petroleum Inc. is an international oil and gas exploration and production company focused on finding and exploiting large, predominately unconventional oil and gas resource plays. Through various affiliates and subsidiaries, the Company owns and operates shale oil and gas properties and concessions in the United States. Additionally, the Company is utilizing its technical and operational expertise to identify and acquire additional unconventional projects. The Company's shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the stock symbol BKX and on the OTCQB under the stock symbol BNKPF.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws, including statements regarding the timing of and expected results from planned Caney wells development and the Company's plans and objectives. Forward-looking information is based on plans and estimates of management and interpretations of data by the Company's technical team at the date the data is provided and is subject to several factors and assumptions of management, including that that indications of early results are reasonably accurate predictors of the prospectiveness of the shale intervals, that required regulatory approvals will be available when required, that no unforeseen delays, unexpected geological or other effects, including flooding and extended interruptions due to inclement or hazardous weather conditions, equipment failures, permitting delays or labor or contract disputes are encountered, that the necessary labor and equipment will be obtained, that the development plans of the Company and its co-venturers will not change, that the offset operator's operations will proceed as expected by management, that the demand for oil and gas will be sustained, that the Company will continue to be able to access sufficient capital through financings, farm-ins or other participation arrangements to maintain its projects, and that global economic conditions will not deteriorate in a manner that has an adverse impact on the Company's business, its ability to advance its business strategy and the industry as a whole. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions on which such forward looking information is based vary or prove to be invalid, including that the Company or its subsidiaries is not able for any reason to obtain and provide the information necessary to secure required approvals or that required regulatory approvals are otherwise not available when required, that unexpected geological results are encountered, that equipment failures, permitting delays, labor or contract disputes or shortages of equipment or labor are encountered, the risks associated with the oil and gas industry (e.g. operational risks in development, exploration and production; delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration and development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of reserve and resource estimates and projections relating to production, costs and expenses, and health, safety and environmental risks, including flooding and extended interruptions due to inclement or hazardous weather conditions), that the offset operator's operations have unexpected adverse effects on the Company's operations, that completion techniques require further optimization, that production rates do not match the Company's assumptions, that very low or no production rates are achieved, that the Company is unable to access required capital, that occurrences such as those that are assumed will not occur, do in fact occur, and those conditions that are assumed will continue or improve, do not continue or improve, and the other risks and uncertainties applicable to exploration and development activities and the Company's business as set forth in the Company's management discussion and analysis and its annual information form, both of which are available for viewing under the Company's profile at http://www.sedar.com, any of which could result in delays, cessation in planned work or loss of one or more concessions and have an adverse effect on the Company and its financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

Wolf E. Regener, +1 (805) 484-3613, Email: investorrelations@bnkpetroleum.com, Website: http://www.bnkpetroleum.com
Technavio has announced the top five leading vendors in their recentglobal bicycle crank motor market report from 2017-2021. This market research report also lists four other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180111006006/en/

Technavio has published a new market research report on the global bicycle crank motor market 2017-2021 under their automotive library. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Competitive vendor landscape

E-bikes account for a significant share of the global bicycle sales. This mode of transport is cheap, efficient, flexible, fast, and eco-friendly. Crank motors that are used in e-bikes assist the rider in difficult terrains by minimizing the rider input and increasing power to the wheels. The global bicycle crank motor market is dominated by four major vendors. Apart from them, small, regional vendors are also present in the market.

According to Amey Vikram, a lead analyst at Technavio for powertrain research, "Almost 60% of the bicycle crank motors in the market belong to the four large vendors that are Bosch, Panasonic, Yamaha, and Continental. In terms of revenue, Bosch is performing better than the average industry standard, followed by Panasonic. In terms of R&D expenditure, Bosch and Panasonic lead the market with higher R&D expenditure when compared with the other vendors."

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Technaviomarket research analysts identify the following key vendors:

Bosch

Bosch is a global provider of technology and services. The company also manufactures a range of automotive and consumer products. The company's R&D activities focus on optimizing existing products and developing new technologies. Bosch eBike drive was launched in September 2010. Cult bicycle brands such as Cannondale and Scott are also powered by the Bosch eBike drive system. These bikes have a battery, a motor, and a control unit along with a sophisticated control panel.

Panasonic

The company manufactures and distributes electronic and electric products in Japan and across the world. Panasonic provides various business solutions such as communication solutions, security systems, professional audio-visual (AV), terminal solutions, document and imaging solutions, information technology (IT) solutions, and recording media. Panasonic produces efficient, high-quality, and reliable crank drive systems. The company offers a wide range of e-bikes that are reliable and ensure the riders the best eBike experience.

Yamaha

The company develops, manufactures, and sells a wide range of products and solutions in North America, Japan, and Europe. The company has operated in the e-bike market for over 10 years. Yamaha is the first company to introduce the crank drive e-bike system in the global market. The company offers a range of e-bike solutions such as power assist systems for e-bikes that are equipped with electric crank motors or hub motors, battery systems, and sensor-based interface.

Continental

Continental is one of the world's largest automotive manufacturing companies that manufactures, develops, and sells industrial tires and related products. The company also specializes in tachographs, brake systems, tires, automotive safety, powertrain components, chassis components, and other related parts for the automotive and transportation industries. Continental's e-bike systems are designed with high-class integrated components that focus on a smooth design and maximizing user-friendliness and ergonomics.

Brose Antriebstechnik

Brose Antriebstechnik is one of the divisions of the Brose Group. The company specializes in mechatronic systems. The company supplies electric motor for automobiles and e-bikes. The motor of e-bikes produced by Brose is made according to strict automotive standards. The company has its manufacturing plant in Berlin. Brose motors produces minimal noise and has a good power to weight ratio. The company produces different crank motors for specific e-bikes.

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Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 10,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

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TWRA officers recovered the body of Scott Northrup, 66, from Putnam County, on Center Hill Lake around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.

The body was recovered using a remote operated vehicle in about 33 feet of water in the Florida Branch section of the lake.

Mr. Northrup was reported missing around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. He did not return home from a fishing trip when expected. His truck and trailer were found at the Hurricane boat ramp and his boat was later recovered from the water around 7:30 p.m.

TWRA crews and the Dekalb County Sheriffs office searched late into the night. The search resumed early Thursday morning. The incident remains under investigation.
Hexion Inc. ("Hexion" or the "Company") today announced it has sold its Additives Technology Group (ATG) business to MUNZING CHEMIE GmbH (MUNZING), a privately-owned specialty additive company headquartered in Abstatt, Germany ("Transaction"). The Company received approximately $50 million in proceeds from the transaction, which is subject to customary post-closing adjustments. Hexion will use the sale proceeds for general corporate purposes.

The Transaction involved the sale of two manufacturing sites located in Somersby, Australia and Sungai Petani, Malaysia, along with certain intangible property. These sites produce a range of specialty chemical materials for the engineered wood, paper impregnation and laminating industries, including catalysts, release agents and wetting agents. The ATG business operated within Hexion's Forest Products Resins Segment. No other terms of the transaction were announced.

"We are pleased to successfully complete the sale of our ATG business," said Craig A. Rogerson, Chairman, President and CEO. "We continue to position the Company for profitable growth by strategically managing our portfolio and optimizing our cost structure."

About the Company

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Hexion Inc. is a global leader in thermoset resins. Hexion Inc. serves the global wood and industrial markets through a broad range of thermoset technologies, specialty products and technical support for customers in a diverse range of applications and industries. Hexion Inc. is controlled by investment funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management, LLC. Additional information about Hexion Inc. and its products is available at www.hexion.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180111005684/en/

Contacts:

Hexion Inc.

John Kompa, 614-225-2223

john.kompa@hexion.com
Technavio's latest market research report on the global marine turbine propulsion engine marketprovides an analysis of the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2017-2021. Technaviodefines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180111006022/en/

Technavio has published a new market research report on the global marine turbine propulsion engine market 2017-2021 under their heavy industry library. (Graphic: Business Wire)

One of the key factors resulting in the growth of the global marine turbine propulsion engine market is the rising demand to build new ships which will lead to a significant need for marine turbine propulsion engines.

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The top three emerging market trends driving the global marine turbine propulsion engine market according to Technavio research analysts are:

Rising adoption of marine hybrid propulsion technology

Emergence of dual-fuel engines

Gradual adoption of LNG over conventional marine fuel

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Rising adoption of marine hybrid propulsion technology

The use of hybrid marine propulsion engines has increased due to the pollution caused by diesel propulsion engines. Standards for marine vessels operating in designated areas are being established by maritime authorities and several major ports worldwide. Shipping operators need to comply with these emission guidelines. In Europe, the EU has imposed stringent regulations on sulfur control norms through the declaration of ECAs in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Therefore, the use of hybrid vessels in northern and north-western Europe has increased, with inland boats and small ships that operate within the ECAs being the main contributors for development.

According to Gaurav Mohindru, a lead analyst at Technavio for unit operations "In APAC, countries such as China, Indonesia, and Australia are anticipated to make significant investments in offshore support vessels and hybrid tugboats. Along with APAC, South America is another region which is anticipated to witness a considerable addition of hybrid vessels due to the development of offshore hydrocarbon basins in the region. Therefore, the development of hybrid marine propulsion systems offers marine engine manufacturers the potential to increase their revenue and market shares which will drive growth for the overall market."

Emergence of dual-fuel engines

Both liquid and gaseous fuels are used to operate dual-fuel engines. These dual-fuel engines mix air with natural gas, and then the mixture is ignited using diesel as the fuel. Natural gas gradually substitutes diesel and the substitution rate refers to the portion of the cumulative fuel energy that is provided by the natural gas. The dual-fuel engine uses diesel if there is any interruption in the natural gas supply.

Merchant shipping companies will be able to reduce their fuel bills while simultaneously cutting down their emissions with the help of dual-fuel engines. Various industries across regions will adopt such technological and commercial advances and this will lead to the growth of the global marine turbine propulsion engine market.

Gradual adoption of LNG over conventional marine fuel

Majority of the fuel demand in the shipping industry stems from container shipping, bulk carrier/general cargo, and tanker (crude and chemical products) sectors. The broad range of fuels used by the shipping industry includes HFO and MDO/MGO, bio-alternatives, such as biodiesel and straight vegetable oils. Other fuels used include LNG, biogas, along with methanol and hydrogen, both of which are derived from methane or wood biomass.

"Even though the share of HFO would reduce over time, it is anticipated that it would still hold the majority share in marine vessels for at least a decade. But at the same time LNG is expected to be an important replacement for HFO. The chemical/product tanker market is expected to be the leading consumer of LNG as a fuel, within the shipping industry," says Gaurav

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Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 10,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

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www.technavio.com
Regulatory News:

Aegon today announces that its US subsidiary, Transamerica, has entered into an agreement with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to administer the company's US insurance and annuity business lines. The partnership enables Transamerica to accelerate the enhancement of its digital capabilities and the modernization of its platforms to service its customers in all lines of business. The agreement, a multi-year partnership with more than USD 2 billion of revenues to TCS, is expected to be completed by the second quarter 2018.

This agreement is expected to lead to annual run-rate expense savings for Aegon of approximately USD 70 million initially, growing to USD 100 million over time. The majority of these expense savings is expected to benefit underlying earnings. Total transition and conversion charges are estimated to amount to approximately USD 280 million, and these amounts will be recorded in non-underlying earnings. The majority of these charges are expected to be recorded over the first three years of the agreement, with approximately USD 100 million of transition and conversion charges reflected in the first half of 2018.

TCS will administer Transamerica's life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance and workplace voluntary benefits products and take on administration of over 10 million policies. In addition, Transamerica is considering entering into a similar servicing and administration arrangement for its long term care customers. Any forthcoming decision would be announced separately. Transamerica will continue administration and servicing of its retirement plans, IRAs, Advice Center, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and stable value solutions on existing platforms.

This decision supports execution of Transamerica's customer centric strategy and focus on sustainable growth. "We continue to put our customers at the forefront of everything we do. I'm very excited to embark on this partnership with TCS, whose transformation and technology innovation capabilities will supplement our focus on improving our customers' experience in a digitally enabled way. This supports meaningful growth in all business lines including insurance and annuities and advances our competitive positioning. TCS was carefully selected because of its significant, ongoing investments in technology and its expertise in the insurance and annuity industry," said Mark Mullin, member of Aegon's Management Board and CEO of Transamerica. "TCS' core competencies complement ours. TCS will provide valuable administration and quality customer service, and Transamerica will continue to engage with our customers, clients, and advisors in ways that are most meaningful to them by utilizing our digital engagement platforms and by developing new solutions that help people save, protect, invest and retire."

All of the Transamerica employees currently supporting these business lines and whose roles are in scope will be offered positions by TCS, helping to ensure a consistently excellent experience for Transamerica customers. The transition will affect approximately 2,200 current Transamerica employees. Transferring employees will be given the opportunity to remain in the same US cities where they are currently based.

Founded in 1968, TCS is a leading global IT services, digital, consulting, operations, and business solutions company that has operated in the US for more than 40 years. It offers deep expertise in the insurance sector and works with more than 100 insurers today, including six of the world's top 10 insurance companies. TCS will expand its existing relationship with Transamerica under this transaction, and will locate in Transamerica's current offices in various US cities. The agreement between Transamerica and TCS represents a notable expansion of TCS' insurance business in the US, and the company plans to establish its new North American insurance hub for business operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as part of its plan to make a significant investment in the region.

"TCS continuously invests in the latest technologies, local talent and US facilities to help leading US companies adapt to rapidly evolving customer demands. This agreement marks TCS' entry into a highly specialized US Insurance Third Party Administration marketplace and will establish TCS BaNCS as a formidable digital platform for the US Insurance industry, following its stellar global track record over the past decade," said Suresh Muthuswami, President and Global Head, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Platforms, at TCS. "TCS has partnered with its global insurance clients in their transformation journeys and played an integral role in their growth. We have enabled improved speed-to-market, customer engagement and cognitive operations through our innovative technology services, the TCS BaNCS agile and digital platform, and our unmatched industry expertise. TCS is proud to partner with Transamerica in its ongoing transformation to enhance its customer experience, and looks forward to welcoming their current employees for new careers at TCS."

TCS has invested nearly USD 3 billion in the US over the past three years and is among the top two job creators in IT services in the US. It is also one of America's 50 most community-minded organizations, engaging nearly two million Americans through its extensive nationwide STEM education programs, academic partnerships and endowments to schools such as Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell Tech and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About Aegon

Aegon's roots go back more than 170 years to the first half of the nineteenth century. Since then, Aegon has grown into an international company, with businesses in more than 20 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Today, Aegon is one of the world's leading financial services organizations, providing life insurance, pensions and asset management. Aegon's purpose is to help people achieve a lifetime of financial security. More information on aegon.com/about.

About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, digital, consulting, operations and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPS, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model (GNDM), recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India's largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 389,000 of the world's best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $17.58 billion for year ended March 31, 2017 and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and the NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. For more information, visit www.tcs.com



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Forward-looking statements

The statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The following are words that identify such forward-looking statements: aim, believe, estimate, target, intend, may, expect, anticipate, predict, project, counting on, plan, continue, want, forecast, goal, should, would, is confident, will, and similar expressions as they relate to Aegon. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Aegon undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which merely reflect company expectations at the time of writing. Actual results may differ materially from expectations conveyed in forward-looking statements due to changes caused by various risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to the following:

Changes in general economic conditions, particularly in the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom;

Changes in the performance of financial markets, including emerging markets, such as with regard to: The frequency and severity of defaults by issuers in Aegon's fixed income investment portfolios; The effects of corporate bankruptcies and/or accounting restatements on the financial markets and the resulting decline in the value of equity and debt securities Aegon holds; and The effects of declining creditworthiness of certain public sector securities and the resulting decline in the value of government exposure that Aegon holds;

Changes in the performance of Aegon's investment portfolio and decline in ratings of Aegon's counterparties;

Consequences of a potential (partial) break-up of the euro;

Consequences of the anticipated exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union;

The frequency and severity of insured loss events;

Changes affecting longevity, mortality, morbidity, persistence and other factors that may impact the profitability of Aegon's insurance products;

Reinsurers to whom Aegon has ceded significant underwriting risks may fail to meet their obligations;

Changes affecting interest rate levels and continuing low or rapidly changing interest rate levels;

Changes affecting currency exchange rates, in particular the EUR/USD and EUR/GBP exchange rates;

Changes in the availability of, and costs associated with, liquidity sources such as bank and capital markets funding, as well as conditions in the credit markets in general such as changes in borrower and counterparty creditworthiness;

Increasing levels of competition in the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and emerging markets;

Changes in laws and regulations, particularly those affecting Aegon's operations' ability to hire and retain key personnel, taxation of Aegon companies, the products Aegon sells, and the attractiveness of certain products to its consumers;

Regulatory changes relating to the pensions, investment, and insurance industries in the jurisdictions in which Aegon operates;

Standard setting initiatives of supranational standard setting bodies such as the Financial Stability Board and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors or changes to such standards that may have an impact on regional (such as EU), national or US federal or state level financial regulation or the application thereof to Aegon, including the designation of Aegon by the Financial Stability Board as a Global Systemically Important Insurer (G-SII);

Changes in customer behavior and public opinion in general related to, among other things, the type of products Aegon sells, including legal, regulatory or commercial necessity to meet changing customer expectations;

Acts of God, acts of terrorism, acts of war and pandemics;

Changes in the policies of central banks and/or governments;

Lowering of one or more of Aegon's debt ratings issued by recognized rating organizations and the adverse impact such action may have on Aegon's ability to raise capital and on its liquidity and financial condition;

Lowering of one or more of insurer financial strength ratings of Aegon's insurance subsidiaries and the adverse impact such action may have on the premium writings, policy retention, profitability and liquidity of its insurance subsidiaries;

The effect of the European Union's Solvency II requirements and other regulations in other jurisdictions affecting the capital Aegon is required to maintain;

Litigation or regulatory action that could require Aegon to pay significant damages or change the way Aegon does business;

As Aegon's operations support complex transactions and are highly dependent on the proper functioning of information technology, a computer system failure or security breach may disrupt Aegon's business, damage its reputation and adversely affect its results of operations, financial condition and cash flows;

Customer responsiveness to both new products and distribution channels;

Competitive, legal, regulatory, or tax changes that affect profitability, the distribution cost of or demand for Aegon's products;

Changes in accounting regulations and policies or a change by Aegon in applying such regulations and policies, voluntarily or otherwise, which may affect Aegon's reported results and shareholders' equity;

Aegon's projected results are highly sensitive to complex mathematical models of financial markets, mortality, longevity, and other dynamic systems subject to shocks and unpredictable volatility. Should assumptions to these models later prove incorrect, or should errors in those models escape the controls in place to detect them, future performance will vary from projected results;

The impact of acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings, product withdrawals and other unusual items, including Aegon's ability to integrate acquisitions and to obtain the anticipated results and synergies from acquisitions;

Catastrophic events, either manmade or by nature, could result in material losses and significantly interrupt Aegon's business;

Aegon's failure to achieve anticipated levels of earnings or operational efficiencies as well as other cost saving and excess capital and leverage ratio management initiatives; and

This press release contains information that qualifies, or may qualify, as inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

Further details of potential risks and uncertainties affecting Aegon are described in its filings with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this document. Except as required by any applicable law or regulation, Aegon expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in Aegon's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180111006014/en/

Contacts:

Aegon

Media relations

Dick Schiethart

+31 (0) 70 344 8821

gcc@aegon.com

or

Investor relations

Willem van den Berg

+31 (0) 70 344 8405

ir@aegon.com
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/11/18 -- As at the close of business today, Inspiration Mining Corporation will be reinstated for trading.

The Company has rectified the default situation that gave rise to the suspension.

Effective Date: January 11, 2018

Symbol: ISM

If you have any questions or require further information please contact Listings at (416) 367-7340 or E-mail: Listings@thecse.com

To unsubscribe click here

Contacts:

Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE)

Listings

(416) 367-7340

Listings@thecse.com

www.thecse.com




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/11/18 -- Gratomic Inc. ("GRAT" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: GRAT) (FRANKFURT: CB81) (WKN: A2JAP3) is pleased to announce that Mr. Steve Gray has been appointed a director of the Company to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Mr. Bernard R. Stannus. The Company also wishes to announce that Ms. Luisa Moreno has resigned as a director.

Steve has worked in the mining industry for 25 years since graduating with BSc. Geology from the Carleton University of Ottawa. As a P. Geo and "Qualified Person" under NI 43-101, Steve possesses diverse experience within the resource management sector, advancing projects from grassroots through both development and production. His efforts include ascension from Mine Geologist to Chief Geologist with notables Placer Dome, Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting, and Kirkland Lake Gold. Operations experience includes Mine Management of operating open pit mines and plants in precious metal, base metal, and industrial mineral commodities.

Currently Steve is Vice President of Northern Sphere Mining Corp advancing projects in both Canada's Sudbury Nickel District and in the United States' Arizona's Copper Porphyry District.

Mr. Sheldon Inwentash, Co-CEO and Executive Chairman of the Company stated "I would like to welcome Steve to the Board of Directors. I would also like to thank Mr. Stannus and Ms. Moreno for their service to the Company as directors. They have been instrumental in laying the building blocks for the Company's success. I wish them good luck in their future endeavors."

The Company also announced that it has granted 195,000 options to Steve Gray. The options are priced at $0.14 and have a 5 year term to January 11, 2023.

The appointment of Mr. Gray is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Gratomic Inc.

Gratomic Inc. is an advanced materials company focused on mine to market commercialization of graphite products most notably high value graphene based components for a range of mass market products. We are collaborating with a leading European manufacturer of graphenes to use Aukam graphite to manufacture graphene products for commercialization on an industrial scale. The Company is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol GRAT.

For more information: visit the website at www.ckr-carbon.com.

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com).

Contacts:

Arno Brand

Co-CEO

+1 416-561-4095

abrand@ckr-carbon.com




MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 01/11/18 -- Goodfood Market Corp. ("Goodfood" or the "Company") (TSX: FOOD), held its annual meeting of shareholders in Montreal at the offices of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP.

1. Election of Directors

All of the nominees for director listed in the Company's Management Proxy Circular dated November 28, 2017 were elected by a majority of shareholders. The voting results for each nominee are as follows:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nominees Votes for Votes withheld ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonathan Ferrari 33,496,019 (99.997%) 1,000 (0.003%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neil Cuggy 33,496,019 (99.997%) 1,000 (0.003%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hamnett Hill 33,496,019 (99.997%) 1,000 (0.003%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guy LeBlanc 33,496,019 (99.997%) 1,000 (0.003%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Donald Olds 33,496,019 (99.997%) 1,000 (0.003%) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Appointment of Auditors

KPMG LLP were appointed as auditors of the Company for Fiscal 2018. The voting results are as follows:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Result Votes for Votes withheld ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carried 33,718,694 (100%) 25 (0%) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Ratification, Confirmation and Approval of the By-Laws of the Company

The new general by-laws of the Company (the "General By-laws"), were approved and confirmed as the general by-laws of the Company in replacement of the previous By-law No. 1. The General By-laws contained advance notice provisions requiring that shareholders provide notice for director nominations to the Company prior to any annual or special meeting of shareholders where directors are to be elected (the "Advance Notice Provisions").

The Advance Notice Provisions ensure that (i) all shareholders receive adequate notice of director nominations and sufficient time and information with respect to all nominees to make appropriate deliberations and register an informed vote; and (ii) that annual or special meetings of shareholders of the Company proceed in an orderly and efficient manner. The Advance Notice Provisions fix the deadlines by which shareholders must submit director nominations to the Company prior to any annual or special meeting of shareholders and sets forth the information that a shareholder must include in a timely written notice to the Company for any director nominee to be eligible for election at such annual or special meeting of shareholders.

Pursuant to the Advance Notice Provisions of the General By-laws, shareholders seeking to nominate candidates for election as directors other than pursuant to a proposal or requisition of shareholders made in accordance with the provisions of the Canada Business Corporations Act must provide timely written notice in proper form to the Corporate Secretary of the Company. To be timely, a shareholder's notice must be received (i) in the case of an annual meeting of shareholders, not less than 30 days and not more than 65 days prior to the date of the annual meeting; provided, however, that in the event that the annual meeting of shareholders is to be held on a date that is less than 50 days after the date on which the first public announcement of the date of the annual meeting was made, notice by the shareholder may be received not later than the close of business on the 10th day following the date of such public announcement; and (ii) in the case of a special meeting (which is not also an annual meeting) of shareholders called for any purpose which includes the election of directors to the Board, not later than the close of business on the 15th day following the day on which the first public announcement of the date of the special meeting was made. The Advance Notice Provisions also prescribes the proper written form for a shareholder's notice. The Board may, in its sole discretion, waive any requirement under these provisions.

The voting results are as follows:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Result Votes for Votes against ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carried 33,094,009 (98.797%) 403,010 (1.203%) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Amendments to the Articles to Relocate Company's Registered Office to Quebec

The proposed amendments to the articles of the Company to relocate the registered office to Quebec were also approved. The voting results are as follows:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Result Votes for Votes against ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carried 33,492,019 (99.985%) 5,000 (0.015%) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The resolutions voting on at the meeting are described in more detail in Goodfood's Management Information Circular, dated November 28, 2017, which was mailed to shareholders of Goodfood and is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The full report of voting results has been filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Goodfood

Goodfood is Canada's leading meal kit company, delivering fresh ingredients that make it easy for subscribers to prepare delicious meals at home every week. Goodfood's objective is to take the hassle out of cooking, leaving subscribers with the fun part - cooking, sharing with family and eating. Subscribers select their favorite recipes from a variety of original dishes online. The Company prepares a personalized box of fresh ingredients and delivers it to the subscriber's doorstep with easy step-by-step instructions. Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Goodfood had 45,000 active subscribers as of November 30, 2017. www.makegoodfood.ca

Contacts:

Jonathan Ferrari

Chief Executive Officer

1(855) 515-5191

IR@makegoodfood.ca




Cadre, a NYC-based online investment platform providing access and insight into institutionally sourced alternative assets, closed on $250MM investment from Goldman Sachs private wealth clients.

The close represents the start of an ongoing strategic partnership between Cadre and Goldman that will allow Goldmans clients to invest in a broad-based portfolio of U.S. income producing commercial real estate assets.

Led by Ryan Williams, CEO and Co-Founder, Cadre is a technology-enabled real estate investment platform that provides qualified individuals and institutions access to fully vetted commercial real estate opportunities.

The company has closed on roughly $1 billion in total transaction value to date, and more than $130MM in corporate funding from backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Ford Foundation, Thrive Capital, and General Catalyst.

FinSMEs

11/01/2018
Harver, an Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based provider of pre-hiring and talent matching technology company, raised an additional $4.2m in Series A funding.

The round, which brings Series A total funding to 12.3M and total funding to $15.6m, was led by Insight Venture Partners.

The company intends to use the funds to expand the team and bring its AI matching technology to companies of all sizes, specifically within the United States.

Led by CEO and founder, Barend Raaff, Harver provides software that allows companies and applicants to eliminate the resume, establishing a more accurate and effective hiring process while also removing hiring bias and discrimination. Through automating the application process, Harver analyzes modules, tests, and assessments to match the right candidate to the job  without factoring in age, name, look, gender, or resume.

Over the past two years, the company has served tech and Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, Harver signed deals with Zappos, Netflix, Booking.com, Vodafone, OpenTable, and Casper.

The company currently has clients across 20 countries and pre-selects job candidates in 42 languages. The list of customers includes Zappos, Netflix, Booking.com, OpenTable, Casper, Xerox, Vodafone, Swisscom, Arvato and many more.

FinSMEs

11/01/2018
UserZoom, a San Jose, CA-based user experience (UX) research platform company, acquired WhatUsersDo, a research technology company.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Led by CEO Nick Imrie, WhatUsersDo has specialized in sourcing participants for qualitative usability research with an emphasis on the European market. Following the acquisition, UserZoom customers can leverage this new ecosystem of panelists to enable participant sourcing  especially internationally where demand is rising rapidly.

In 2016, the company had already acquired YouEye, whose large panel of quality participants for Think-Out-Loud feedback was incorporated into UserZooms participant sourcing engine.

In Q4 of 2015, UserZoom completed a $34m financing round led by TC Growth Partners (now Sunstone Capital Partners), Trident Capital and StepStone Group.

UserZoom provides a cloud based enterprise class research and testing platform that provides quantitative and qualitative insights to measuring and improving the user experience. With offices in four countries, the company serves global brands like Coca-Cola, Google and Amazon.

FinSMEs

11/01/2018
One only needs to wait and watch to see what the recent decision of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) liberalisation could do on the ground and how early. But, it certainly tells us that the reform juggernaut is rolling, albeit, slowly or with brief pauses. The Narendra Modi-governments decision to go for further liberalisation of FDI norms will help build optimism among investors that the government hasnt lost track of the reform path particularly in the backdrop of Gujarat poll results.

The decision to let foreign investors take up to 49 percent stake in Air India, opening up 100 percent FDI in single-brand retail under the automatic route and 100 percent FDI via the automatic route in real estate broking services sends out strong signal that the government is not averse to foreign private money including in the national carrier, which has mostly been a burden on the state-exchequer.

Allowing more private investment in the aviation sector particularly in the case of Air India makes a lot of sense. This can let many prospective suitors of Air India such as Vistara, Jet Airways and IndiGo to vie for ailing state-owned carrier for a significant stake either solo or in partnership with a foreign airline. Despite its well-known financial problems and operational inefficiencies, Air India remains a favourite for potential buyers largely because almost everyone identifies a future giant in the national carrier if fed properly.

The 100 percent FDI in single brand retail is an encouraging move thatll give a leg up to Modis Make in India plan that is struggling to find its way ahead despite the initial campaign. Big international bands can set shop in India. But, as mentioned in the beginning this announcement reconfirms the confidence that reform juggernaut is rolling again.

After a series of disappointing economic data, this is a confidence-builder for investors in the Modi-government. Even now, it isnt quite clear whether, towards the end of its term, this government will continue to show the political will to progress to more politically sensitive reform hurdles such as land and labor reforms and shaping a clear cut plan to continue with the privatisation agenda in ailing PSUs, particularly among state-run banks.

Except in the initial phase, this government has done well in keeping the momentum on through a series of incremental reforms originated in the UPA-era (Aadhaar-based direct benefit transfer and subsidy reforms, GST) and other structural reforms such as bankruptcy code, monetary policy reforms and NPA-clean up. Despite a series of disappointing economic data, India continues to be seen as an emerging economic power with a strong growth engine. There arent too many economists who are surprised looking at the first gross domestic product (GDP) advance estimate of the fiscal year 2018 at a four-year low of 6.5 percent.

In a year battered with demand-slowdown, demonetisation impact and goods and services tax (GST) transition pain, GDP was expected to perform badly unless there is a statistical miracle. But, if the growth scene picks up in the second half of the year, this estimate can change. The World Bank believes that India will grow 7.3 percent in 2018-19 and 7.5 percent in the medium term on the back of revival of private investment as businesses adjust to the shift to GST.

But, till the time reforms translate into jobs, Modi governments biggest economic challenge will remain. So far, this government has not succeeded in creating large number of jobs it promised in the beginning, despite initiatives such as Mudra Yojana, which basically has done what state-run banks and agencies such as SIDBI and Nabard had been doing, to a large extent.

This is where the real challenge lies. In a recent meeting with economists ahead of union budget, the big feedback the Prime Minister received was to focus on job creation. More number of people approaching the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme might appear as a good sign but it actually tells us that more workers are moving away from factory jobs, which isnt a good sign in an economy.

In the three years of Modi rule, unemployment has actually gone up  in 2015-16 to 5 percent from 4.9 percent in 2013-14, the year before the BJP assumed power. The renewed focus on reforms is good but the government will have to make sure the reform process is structured to focus mainly on job creation.

Two key economic moves of this government -- GST and demonetization -- havee actually hurt job creation and rendered more jobless people in the informal sector. The point is unless more jobs are generated, it is unlikely that any reform will win brownie points to Modi. Lack of jobs remain the biggest pain in the economy at this juncture. The government can no longer ignore this problem.
Here is the weekly road construction report for Hamilton County:

I-75 North Exit 1 interchange reconfiguration project at mile marker 1: Work on this project continues. The project will result in a reconfiguration of the exit ramps and will combine both northbound exits (1A and 1B) into one, which will allow drivers to turn both east and west on Ringgold Road at a signalized intersection. Traffic has been shifted onto the newly constructed portion of Camp Jordan Pkwy., and the intersection (I-75 NB off-ramp and SR-8/Camp Jordan Pkwy.) is now controlled by a new traffic signal. Estimated project completion date is May. [C.W. Matthews Contracting / City Of East Ridge / LCLPRGM]

SR-153/SR-319 (Hixson Pike) bridge repair on Hixson Pike over SR-153: Possible daytime lane closures on both SR153 and Hixson Pike to support punch list item work. Estimated project completion date is January. [Mid-State Construction Company, Inc. / Micka / CNQ941]

The tunnel cleaning of the McCallie Tunnel on U.S. 11 (US 64, SR-2), the Stringers Ridge Tunnel on U.S. 127 (SR-8), and the Bachman Tubes on U.S. 41 (U.S. 76, SR-8): No tunnel cleaning during reporting period. Estimated project completion date is June. [ETI Environmental, Inc. / Micka / CNR223]

U.S. 27 (I-124) widening from I-24/U.S. 27 interchange to north of the Olgiati Bridge over the Tennessee River, including widening the Olgiati Bridge: Work on this project continues. The contractor has closed the 12th Street tie-in ramp to U.S. 27 South. This closure will be in place until April. Traffic from 12th Street will be detoured to Carter Street and then to Westbound MLK where motorists may access the U.S. 27 South on-ramp. Detours are posted. Motorists should exercise caution when traveling through the construction zone and pay close attention to the detour signage posted. The speed limit on U.S. 27 in the construction zone is 45 MPH. Weather Permitting, the contractor will implement a lane/shoulder closures daily between the hours of 7 p.m.-6 a.m. On Wednesday night the contractor changed ramp configurations on U.S. 27 North between Martin Luther King Blvd. and 4th Street. These changes will affect the on-ramp to U.S. 27 North from MLK Blvd., and the off-ramp (Exit 1C) from U.S. 27 North to 4th Street. Traffic coming from downtown Chattanooga and using the on-ramp to U.S. 27 North from MLK Blvd. will be required to come to a complete stop at the top of the ramp. Traffic wishing to access 4th Street at Exit 1C from U.S. 27 North will now be directed to a new temporary exit ramp before crossing the 6th Street overpass. This new temporary exit ramp will be narrow and posted for 15 MPH. This new traffic pattern will be in place for approximately two months. Motorists are encouraged to seek alternate routes due to the increased congestion between MLK Blvd. and 4th Street. The speed limit will also be reduced from 45 MPH to 35 MPH between Main Street and 4th Street on U.S. 27 North. The speed limit on U.S. 27 in the rest of the construction zone remains 45 MPH. Motorists should exercise caution when traveling through the construction zone and pay close attention to the signage posted. Thursday night from 7 p.m.-6 a.m. temporary left lane closure will be in place for Northbound US27 from I-24 to Martin Luther King Boulevard for Setting Beams over 12th Street. During this closure no ramp traffic will be affected. Weather permitting, the contractor may implement temporary lane/shoulder closures on weeknights between the hours of 7 p.m.-6 a.m. At least one lane will remain open in each direction on U.S. 27. THP will assist with traffic control on the project as necessary. Restrictions: I 124 (US-27) Northbound Exit 1C 4th Street Off Ramp. No oversize/over-dimensional loads. Width Limit is 10 feet. Estimated project completion date is July 2019. [Dement Construction Company, LLC / Micka / CNP230]






On Wednesday, Warren Buffett appointed India-born Ajit Jain as the new vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway's insurance business and elevated him as a director in the company's 14-member board (read about it here), raising speculations that he may succeed Buffeft as the new head of the American conglomerate, which does business in real estate, media, aerospace, toys, food and internet among others.

According to Forbes, Jain, 66, head of its reinsurance operations, will join Charlie Munger as vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Jain will be vice chair of the $500 billion conglomerate's insurance operations, led by GEICO, National Indemnity, and its reinsurance business.

Jain, who joined the company in 1986, is credited to have made billions of dollars for investments and acquisitions for the American conglomerate through the reinsurance business. According to Mint, in 2011 Buffett had said "the board would make Jain CEO if he wanted the job".

An IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, Jain completed his engineering in 1972. He then worked as a salesman for two years for IBM.

Jain's first choice, however, was not financial services, but technology-related salesmanship at IBM, writes The Economic Times.

After IBM wrapped up its business in India, Jain came to the US to get an MBA at Harvard University. He worked with McKinsey and company from 1978 to 1986 before Buffett hired him to work on insurance operations in Berkshire Hathaway.

According to Forbes, Jain is one of Buffett's favourite business executives, and often finds a mention in the company's annual letters to its shareholders. Buffett once described Jain as someone with unmatched underwriting skills and his mind as an "idea factory".

Buffett's insights about Jain outlines the reasons as to what makes the Odisha-born man a leading contestant to lead Berkshire Hathaway.

"Ajit insures risks that no one else has the desire or the capital to take on. His operation combines capacity, speed, decisiveness and, most important, brains in a manner unique in the insurance business. Yet he never exposes Berkshire to risks that are inappropriate in relation to our resources," Buffett had said in 2015.

According to another Economic Times report, Jain had told the newspaper that Buffett looks for "managers who love their work and not money".

Speaking of how Jain re-built the then-struggling insurance business of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett had said, "When Ajit entered Berkshires office on a Saturday in 1986, he did not have a days experience in the insurance business. Nevertheless, Mike Goldberg, then our manager of insurance, handed him the keys to our small and struggling reinsurance business. With that move, Mike achieved sainthood: Since then, Ajit has created tens of billions of value for Berkshire shareholders. If there were ever to be another Ajit and you could swap me for him, dont hesitate. Make the trade!"

Speaking of Jain, in 2009 letter to shareholders, Buffett said, "I immediately knew we had found a superstar."

Buffett also describes Jain as "world-leading" and someone who would never compromise the "Berkshire system" of doing things.

A strict vegetarian, Jain is described as a humble man. According to The Economic Times, Jain visits New Delhi occasionally to meet his family. On such occasions, "Jain can often be sighted travelling in non-air-conditioned metered taxis," it adds.

The road ahead

Jain has emerged as the most likely successor of Buffett along with Gregory Abel, who has been elevated as vice chairman of everything non-insurance of the multinational conglomerate.

Though Buffett rubbished any reports of their joint elevation creating any friction the company, Buffett has described each of them as a "better business executive" than himself.

"...I believe neither Jain nor Abel would (1) leave Berkshire, no matter what someone else offered or (2) desire much change in the Berkshire system," Buffett had said about the two in 2014 letter to shareholders.

According to Reuters, in an interview, Buffett said the changes are "part of the movement toward succession over time," saying Abel and Jain "have Berkshire in their blood" and are "the two key figures" at the Omaha, Nebraska-based company.

Buffett said it was Munger's idea to make them vice chairmen, and that it would be valuable to whoever succeeds him to manage a large portion of Berkshire.

In a 2014 letter to the board, Buffett had said: "Both the board and I believe we now have the right person to succeed me as CEO  a successor ready to assume the job the day after I die or step down. In certain important respects, this person will do a better job than I am doing."

CNBC argues that most people believed it to be Jain, especially since Buffett has spoken so highly of him over the years, however, lately, "Abel has been discussed as the most likely successor given his younger age and success in running the utility business".

"Challenges for Jain would be to overcome the slump in the insurance sector. Berkshire's latest earnings helped make his case for maintaining such a sprawling conglomerate, with last year's slump on the insurance side being offset by a rebound at the BNSF railroad and strength in the manufacturing operations," it argues.
Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy has urged the top 100 Indian companies to allocate 10 percent of their profits towards corporate social responsibility with a focus on areas like public health, nutrition, science and research and education.

Speaking at a panel discussion organised by Business Standard, he said, the companies could allocate an additional 8 percent "as against the current 2 percent of the profits earmarked for CSR" under Section 135 of the Companies Act, to achieve these goals, he added.

Murthy, a trustee of the Infosys Foundation, also said that he wouldn't mind sitting down with the chief executive officers of all the top 100 companies to achieve this goal.

"Let us be very clear, being rich in a poor country is not much fun. This may seem a little bit outlandish, but I think these are the kind of discussions we must have."

"If we can contribute towards making this a better society, I feel all of us will be much happier," he added.

Murthy stressed that the private sector needs to play a bigger role in Indian science and technology research.

According to a Business Line report, India's spending on scientific research, as a percentage of GDP, has been stagnant at 0.69 per cent during the last three years, which is way lower than developing countries, who according to Department of Science and Technology, spend more than than 2 percent of their GDP in R&D.

Not just that, among BRICS countries, India was ranked at the bottom in terms of percentage of GDP spent on R&D, the report adds. The situation has remained dismal even though "India's gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) has been steadily increasing over the years, and has tripled in a decade from 24,117 crore in 2004-05 to 85,326 crore in 2014-15", it adds.

Murthy also said that India must improve the contribution of taxation towards GDP from the current 11.5 percent to 16-18 percent in order to reduce inequality in the country, and to achieve, he recommended that increasing the tax rates at the highest marginal levels and adding more people into the tax net.

"Unless you have money, there's no way you can solve these problems," he added.
New Delhi: There have been loud cheers for liberalisation in foreign direct investment (FDI) norms by the government but the cheerleaders have perhaps failed to see that these changes are largely cosmetic and at best, enabling. Of course, any easing of FDI norms is welcome and it cannot be denied that under the Modi government, FDI inflows have jumped substantially.

But having said that, the changes announced on Wednesday alter little on the ground. The government has announced up to 49 percent FDI in Air India and also opened up single brand retail to 100 percent FDI through the automatic route.

In Air Indias case, this move just brings the airline on par with the FDI cap for all other private airlines where up to 49 percent equity investment by foreign airlines was already permitted. As for single brand retail, the 100 percent FDI permission has merely been put on the automatic route  it was already allowed but through specific government approval on a case to case basis after the 49 percent cap. The bigger bugbear of foreign retailers  mandatory local sourcing norms  has merely been somewhat diluted, it remains a roadblock. And FDI caps on multi brand retail stay in place.

The Opposition is already roasting the Modi government for its alleged U turn on FDI easing in retail trade, saying the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had opposed the same vociferously when the UPA was in power. This, when multi-brand retail trade and FDI limits in it have not even been touched. So is the cosmetic tweaking of FDI limits in high-profile sectors of aviation and retail trade a mere flash before the PM and his large entourage head to Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting?

Let us look at Air Indias case first. By allowing foreign airlines to also participate in the disinvestment process, the government has merely lifted a small irritant  this single decision will likely not propel the disinvestment process forward at greater speed or with better efficiency. In the first place, keeping Air India out of the FDI ambit was a bit foolish  why have a policy for just one section of the industry and keep select companies (even if government owned) out of its ambit?

Besides, there is an indication that easing FDI limits now signals the governments resolve to go ahead with the proposed disinvestment amid a lukewarm response from potential Indian bidders. Remember, Air Indias parent  the Tatas  may not have placed a bid at all if partner Singapore Airlines wasnt allowed in. With the latest move, the Tata-Singapore Airlines combine, Jet Airways (which has a 24 percent partner in Etihad Airways and is looking for more foreign airline equity) and well-funded foreign airlines become potential bidders.

Till now, only IndiGo had evinced interest in the disinvestment process of Air India among airlines (others have been merely hinting at their interest without any formal proposal) and this too was restricted to international operations of Air India. All other potential bidders seem more interested in ground handling or other select businesses of Air India  not the airline operation.

But as we said earlier, allowing foreign airlines to partner Indian entities in bidding for Air India is just one step in easing the disinvestment process. The deal maker would be clarity on several other critical issues  how much debt is the government willing to take off Air Indias books, how much equity it is willing to offload and whether it wants to retain control in any fashion even after disinvestment. While global aviation consultancy CAPA has said that lifting the cap on foreign airline participation in the Air India disinvestment process will likely bring 4-6 potential bidders for the stake sale, it is final contours of the sale which will determine buyer interest.

On single brand retail, again the government has merely saved the foreign retailers mountains of paperwork they have had to do till now to get in, in case they wanted to set up shop with full control in India. Till now, 49 percent FDI was allowed under the automatic route in single brand retail but for anything beyond, government approval was needed. The local sourcing norms have been eased, but remain. Now, an single brand retail entity can set off its incremental sourcing of goods from India for global operations during initial 5 years, beginning 1st April of the year of the opening of first store against the mandatory sourcing requirement of 30 percent of purchases from India.

For this purpose, incremental sourcing will mean the increase in terms of value of such global sourcing from India for that single brand (in rupee terms) in a particular financial year over the preceding financial year, by the non-resident entities undertaking single brand retail trading entity, either directly or through their group companies. After completion of this 5 year period, the single brand retail entity shall be required to meet the 30 percent sourcing norms directly towards its Indias operation, on an annual basis, said an official statement.

Does putting 100 percent FDI on automatic route in single brand retail open up floodgates for global retailers desperate to come to the Indian market?

This piece in Business Standard says Apple may still not be enthused to set up branded stores in India though retailers like Ikea and H&M will benefit from easier sourcing norms. It also says that more than 200 fashion and apparel brands are lined up to enter India, including international labels such as Avva, Colins, Damat, Tudba Deri and Dufy. Local traders are, obviously, opposed to the easing of norms with the Confederation of Indian Traders ( CAIT) pointing out love of this government towards multinational companies and speaking of large scale job losses as a result of the FDI norms easing.
New Delhi: A man, arrested in connection with the 2000 Red Fort attack case, was on Thursday sent to 10-day police custody by a Delhi court.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat allowed the plea of Delhi Police seeking 10 days custody of Bilal Ahmed Kawa, who arrested on Wednesday from Delhi airport in a joint operation of the Delhi Police and Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

Three people, including two Army jawans, were killed in the 22 December, 2000 Red Fort attack.

According to the police, the Gujarat ATS informed it that Kawa, who had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case, was travelling from Srinagar to Delhi.

Kawa, who was suspected to be linked with Lashkar-e-Toiba, was arrested last evening from the T-3 terminal of the Delhi Airport, the police said, adding that money to the tune of Rs 29.50 lakh was transferred through hawala in various bank accounts, including those of Kawa, to fund the attack.

Kawa was on the run since 2000 and hiding in Kashmir, it claimed.
Almost a month after his acquittal in the crucial 2G spectrum scam, former telecom minister A Raja's "tell-all book" on the case is likely to be released soon. Titled 2G Saga Unfolds, Raja, in the book, claims that former prime minister Manmohan Singh was repeatedly misinformed by his advisors and despite approving Raja's telecom policy, chose to remain a passive observer even when the DMK leader was arrested and jailed for 15 months.

Raja's book is likely to spark another round of political controversy. Raja, who was at the time of the scam a DMK minister, spent 15 months in Tihar Jail after he was sacked as a minister. In the 200-page book which is being published by Penguin India, Raja chronicles crucial events in the 2G case and trains his guns on the then Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai and Manmohan.

The book, reported News18.com, also slammed Rai, whose report formed the basis of the alleged 2G spectrum scam. Rai's report, which took the wind out of the Manmohan-led UPA II government, was a "a mixture of inappropriate legal interpretations, incongruous comparisons and flippant allegations," the book claimed.

"It is my conviction consequent to the whole experience of the trial that there was political motivation to kill UPA-II and Rais was the shoulder on which the gun was placed," Raja wrote. "Rai was the 'sutradhaar' who created the devious apparition His report is mere trash, which is unanimously deemed fit for the dustbin and his statements would not have stood test of cross-examination," Raja alleged, adding that the former CAG should be called as a witness in the criminal case filed against him.

Raja was accused of misleading Manmohan about the changed procedure for spectrum allocation. The special court, however, found no evidence in the allegations and blamed two officials in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) at the time for misleading Manmohan.

Reports said that the book claimed Manmohan didn't have any clue about the CBI raids with regard to the spectrum allocation.

"On October 22, 2009 (after CBI raided telecom ministry and offices of some telecom operators) I met the Prime Minister in his office in South Block at around 7 pm. TKA Nair (the then principal secretary in the PMO) was also present. People will find it hard to believe that the PM was quite surprised when I told him about the CBI raids," Raja wrote.

The former telecom minister claimed that during his tenure in UPA-II, Raja fought against telecom lobbies to draft a "just spectrum auction policy", but one day he received a letter from the PMO, as the policy draft was in its final stages. The contents of that letter matched the business interests of the lobbies, Raja wrote in the book.

"This makes me wonder whether this letter was indeed drafted by the PMO It is still a puzzle to me as to what could have prompted the PM to send that letter to me With all due respect, I am of the opinion that such a letter bearing the PM's signature should never have been sent," he says. Among many claims made in the book, one is that the PMO was closely monitoring "this matter and following up on it proving false the allegation that the PM was misled or kept in the dark."

Manmohan privately confessed to have been influenced by articles appearing in the press, the book claimed.

Here are a few excerpts from the book, a copy of which was accessed by CNN-News18:

"Unfortunately, neither the Prime Minister nor the Finance Minister came forward...to back my legitimate positionDr Manmohan Singhs palpable silence in relation to defending my wholly justified actions especially when the governing bodies (CVC, CBI, JPC, Supreme Court) were refusing to hear my defence felt to me like a silencing of our nations collective conscience."

"I came to Delhi from Chennai on the evening of the 14th of November. When I landed in Delhi around 9.00 pm, T.R. Baalu informed me that I could resign as per the advice of our party leader. While on the way to my official residence 2A, Motilal Nehru Marg I sought an appointment with the PM. I called in my PA, prepared my resignation letter and then went to the PMs residence. The Prime Minister appeared to be gloomy and perturbed. He offered me tea and I handed him my resignation letter."

"He spoke dejectedly about the whole situation, the oral observations of the Supreme Court and about his name having been unduly dragged down. The Prime Minister touched upon the introduction of 3G service to the nation and agreed with the impropriety of the CAGs views. While I was clear and firm as I spoke to him, I was unable to make out anything from the vexed-look of the Prime Minister. Was it due to the condemning remarks from the Supreme Court or due to his assuming that there were irregularities in the files in a big way? I was not sure and could not guess."



On 20 December, Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and 17 other accused were acquitted by a special CBI court which held that the prosecution "miserably failed" to prove the charges. The fifteen other accused allowed to walk free include former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG)  Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair.

The CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of licences for the 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the top court on 2 February, 2012. Raja and Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi, were also let off in another case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate under the money laundering law arising out of the 2G scam. In the packed courtroom, the judge had said, "I have absolutely no hesitation in holding that prosecution has miserably failed to prove any of the charges against any of the accused."

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal and seven individuals and nine companies also faced trial in the money laundering case. The trial in the third case, arising out of the 2G scam probe, was conducted against Essar promoters  Ravi Kant Ruia and Anshuman Ruia  and six others. The CBI had named them in its charge sheet on 12 December, 2011, alleging they had cheated the Department of Telecommunication by using Loop Telecom as a "front" to secure 2G licences in 2008.

With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: After a Milan court acquitted Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanica's former chief Giuseppe Orsi and former AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini in the case, the Congress on Wednesday said the BJP stands exposed for fabricating a perception that the party is corrupt.

It also asked why prime minister Narendra Modi had remained silent on the alleged corruption charges against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and not taken any action against party's President Amit Shah's son Jay Shah for charges against him.

"We were open to any kind of inquiry. The government has set up inquiries, but this perception battle that the BJP had built upon corruption charge against the Congress government is a smack in their face," said Congress spokesperson RPN Singh.

"We saw that being played out in the 2G scam, which was a make-believe scam, that the BJP took to the whole country," he added.

Singh also said, "We have seen that now in the so-called VIP chopper scam. This is exactly what the BJP does creating false perceptions about the Congress party. In the end truth shall prevail.

"But why the BJP is not taking any action against BJP President's son when there is adequate proof?"

He also asked why the prime minister had not spoken even once about the corruption in the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, and against the chief ministers of some BJP-ruled states, against whom there were charges of graft.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday said its investigation in the multi-million dollar AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal case during the UPA government was "independent and very strong".

The central agency's remarks came following the acquittal of Orsi and Spagnolini by an Italian appellate court on Monday.
Jerusalem: Not disheartened by India's vote against Israel at the UN General Assembly on the issue of Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed hope that bilateral ties would receive a further boost during his milestone visit to the country.

India in December voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the US for its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Netanyahu, who would be leaving for India on 14 January, said: "Well I would have preferred a different vote to be frank but I dont think it materially changes the tremendous flowering of relations between India and Israel".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also visited the Jewish state in July,becoming the first Indian premier to do so.

"I think everybody can see that. Modi's visit was a very important milestone in that. My visit to India is the other one," Netanyahu said addressing the Government Press Office's annual end-of-year reception for the foreign press corps on Wednesday.

When asked about the impact of Indias recent decision to cancel a half a billion dollars defence deal related to development of spike antitank guided missiles, the Israeli leader said, "I think you are going to see an expansion of economic and other ties regardless of this or that deal".

Pointing towards the tremendous strengthening of ties on all fronts, Netanyahu expressed optimism saying, "overtime I hope I will see a reflection of that more often in the voting of India in international forums.

"It does not nullify the fact that with India, with other countries in Latin America and Africa there is a tremendous increase of relations on all fronts," the Israeli prime minister noted.

"It just takes longer on the international front," he stressed.
Hyderabad: Union Minister of State Ramdas Athawale on Thursday said Dalits were replying to attacks on them. "You attack, we reply. You attack, we reply," Athawale, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, said at a seminar at Osmania University.

He was referring to the recent attack on Dalits in Pune who were celebrating 200 years of the victory of British troops over Peshwa Bajirao II's Army in Koregaon Bhima. Dalits were part of the British troops. "Some people attacked our community. We also replied. Sometimes, they are attacking but we are also replying," he said but clarified that Dalits were not attacking anyone.

The Minister was addressing a seminar on 'Ambedkar and Constitutionalism' at Osmania University.

Athawale said Ambedkarites were not against any caste. "We don't want to quarrel with anybody. If you want to fight, go to the border and fight against Pakistan. Why do you want to fight your own countrymen?" he asked.

The RPI leader admitted that atrocities on Dalits were taking place but claimed this was not happening everywhere. He said his party was supporting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) because the Modi government believes, respects and follows the Indian Constitution and Ambedkar's philosophy.

Athawale said that Modi told the Parliament that the Constitution is the 'dharmagranth' (sacred book) for him and he became the Prime Minister because of the Constitution. "BJP may have different philosophy but Modi, who is an Other Backward Class (OBC) leader from Gujarat, believes in and follows the Constitution," he said.

He said that those who do not believe in the Indian Constitution should leave India.
New Delhi: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung on Thursday expressed his willingness to hold dialogue with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to defuse the crisis in Darjeeling and asserted that his fight was for Gorkha identity.

In his first direct interaction with reporters following a long and violent agitation in Darjeeling in 2017, Gurung also rejected Banerjee's accusation that he was a separatist, saying his party's demands were within the purview of Indian Constitution and he believed in national integrity.

He claimed that the state police had implicated him and his party's workers in false criminal cases and sought an independent enquiry into the matter.

His party leaders said Gurung was booked in over 350 cases and had been on a run before the Supreme Court asked the police to not take any coercive measure against him after he filed a plea there.

Asked if he was willing to hold dialogue with Banerjee, he answered in affirmative.

"I'm ready for dialogue. Dialogue is the way ahead," he said.

Though his party has been demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland to be carved out of West Bengal, he did not touch upon the issue in his Thursday's comments.

"Our agitation is for Gorkha identity," he said.

He said he had nothing against the people of Bengal but the language and culture of Gorkhas were distinct from them and whatever they were demanding was within the ambit of the Constitution.

Gurung accused the state government of acting in an "one-sided" manner following the start of an agitation in Darjeeling in June, 2017.

Eleven Gorkhas died in police and other violent action, he said.

Gurung also appealed for peace and asked his supporters to stay away from any illegal activity.

In his absence, a group of other Gorkha leaders led by Vinay Tamang had claimed to be the real representatives of people. Banerjee appointed Tamang as the head of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) after Gurung, who was its chief, and his associates resigned.

People close to Gurung have claimed that the Trinamool Congress had propped up Tamang but the GJM leader remained the "real leader" of Gorkhas.
The Chattanooga Zoo announces the arrival of the newest addition to the zoo family, Tashi the snow leopard. Tashi is a one-year-old male snow leopard. He came to the Chattanooga Zoo as a breeding loan from the Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan. Tashi has been recommended for breeding with the Chattanooga Zoos resident female snow leopard, Callie.

The SSP is a population management and conservation program created by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. This program focuses on breeding programs by strictly monitoring the placement and propagation of selected animal species. The Chattanooga Zoo is a participant of 39 individual SSP programs including snow leopard, chimpanzee, red panda, and komodo dragons.

In addition, the Chattanooga Zoo partners with the Snow Leopard Trust to support their in-field conservation efforts better understand the needs of snow leopards in the wild and the communities surrounding their natural habitats in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia.

Male snow leopards do not sexually mature until age four, and the Chattanooga Zoo officials hope to breed Callie and Tashi in the future in hopes of fulfilling the Zoos mission to conserve animals and protect endangered species. Efforts at breeding snow leopards in captivity have been marginally successful at best due to their highly solitary lifestyles and low birth survival rate. In years past, the Chattanooga Zoo has had two successful snow leopard births.

It is so exciting to add to our animal collection and strengthen our conservation efforts through our partnership with the SSP, says Dardenelle Long, Zoo CEO and president. We are so thrilled to receive another snow leopard breeding recommendation.

Tashi is now on exhibit full time with Callie and open to public viewing during normal operating hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m.). To differentiate the snow leopards, Callie has a slimmer frame while Tashi has shorter legs, a larger body mass weighing around 10 pounds more than Callie, and has a white tipped tail.
Kolkata: Cold conditions continued to prevail in eastern India on Wednesday with Daringbadi in Odisha recording the lowest temperature in the region at 3.5 degrees Celsius.

Darbhanga and Bhagalpur in Bihar recorded the lowest minimum temperature at 5 degrees Celsius.

Normal life in Odisha's interior and forested districts continued to be affected as mercury levels dipped below 10 degrees Celsius in most places, the Meteorological office said.

The districts affected by cold conditions are Kandhamal, Koraput, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Angul, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Sundergarh, Bolangir, Sonepur and Dhenkanal.

The IMD forecast has said that moderate cold conditions is likely to prevail over some places of Odisha till 15 January.

In Bihar, severe cold conditions prevailed in a number of districts across the state such as Patna, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Muzaffarpur, Supaul and Forbesganj.

While the minimum temperature rose slightly in the state capital, from Tuesday's 5.5 degrees Celsius to 6.9 degrees Celsius, there was a sharp fall in the maximum temperature from 17.6 degrees Celsius to 13.6 degrees Celsius, which contributed to the day-time chill.

According to the weather forecast, there would be no respite from chill on Thursday.

The MeT department in Kolkata today warned that cold wave conditions are likely to continue in parts of Gangetic West Bengal for the next two days, as the minimum temperature in Sub-Himalayan West Bengal rose by a couple of notches.

Sriniketan in Birbhum district reclaimed its position in recording the lowest night temperature in the state's plains at 6.6 degrees Celsius, as cold wave conditions in Sub-Himalayan districts of Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar abated to give some respite to people there.

Jalpaiguri, which had on Sunday night recorded 3.8 degrees Celsius, was warmer at 8.5 degree Celsius.

Kolkata was slightly cooler than Tuesday at 10.9 degrees Celsius, down from 11.0 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, Ranchi, which experienced a minimum of 7.7 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, recorded 6.2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.

The maximum temperature of the state capital remained 24.8 degrees Celsius, according to the MeT sources.

Palamau, which recorded a minimum temperature of 4.5 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, experienced 5.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.
New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday accused Union minister Nitin Gadkari of insulting the Indian Navy by saying that "not an inch" of land would be given to the force for building houses in upscale south Mumbai.

Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the "pseudo-nationalist" BJP now wanted to give "certificates of loyalty" to the armed forces.

"Shameful & Unacceptable! Ex-BJP President & Union Minister, Nitin Gadkari insults 'Indian Navy', questions their valour and dedication. Pseudo-Nationalist BJP now wants to issue certificates of 'loyalty' to India's armed forces," he wrote on Twitter.

Gadkari said at a public event in Mumbai: "Actually, Navy is needed at the borders from where terrorists sneak in. Why does everyone (in the Navy) want to stay in South Mumbai? They (Navy) had come to me, asking for a plot (of land). I will not give even an inch of land. Please don't come to me again."

The minister for road transport and highways, shipping and water resources made the remark while voicing his disappointment at the Navy's objection to a floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai, where a floating hotel and seaplane service are planned.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea seeking withdrawal of coins having religious symbols embossed on them, saying it does not dent the secular fabric of the country.

Two Delhi residents had filed a PIL seeking a direction to the RBI and the finance ministry to withdraw the coins brought out in 2010 and 2013 with images of Brihadeeswara Temple and Mata Vaishno Devi, respectively.

Rejecting the PIL, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said, "It does not dent the country's secular fabric and secularism does not bar issuance of coins to commemorate any event."

It observed that the petitioners were not able to support their argument that the act of issuing coins with religious figures was impacting religious practices.

"The decision to issue coins to commemorate an occasion is purely in the domain of the government under the Coinage Act, 2011," the court said, adding there was no act of favouritism or discrimination by the government by directing minting of coins to commemorate a particular event under the Act.

The PIL by Nafis Qazi and Abu Sayeed, had sought a direction to the RBI and the finance ministry to withdraw the coins brought out in 2010 and 2013 with religious symbols on them.

The court had asked the petitioners as to how it was destructive of secularism. "Tomorrow there may be a commemorative coin or note of any other religion. Secularism means equal respect, regard for all religion. It is not discriminatory to any religion," the bench said.

The PIL had also sought a direction to the central goverment to formulate a national policy whereby figures and symbols of any religion were prohibited from being made on any tangible or intangible property of the Indian State.

The government had in 2010 brought into circulation a Rs five coin to mark 1,000 years of Brihadeeswara Temple, Thanjavur with its image embossed on it.

In 2013, the RBI brought out another Rs five coin with the figure of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board embossed on it, the PIL had said while terming this act as "anti-secular".

It had said that these symbols undermined the secular character, a basic feature of the Constitution, claiming that "the making, marking, naming, drawing, embossing or displaying overtly any religious figure or symbol is tantamount to espousing a religion by the State".
Washington: Working with countries like India, Russia and China is a good, not bad, thing, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday.

He was responding to criticism of his desire to improve relationship with Moscow.

"Working with countries, whether it's Russia or China or India, or any of the countries that surround this world and encompass this world, is a very good thing. That's not a bad thing," he told reporters at a joint White House news conference with Prime Minister, Norway, Erna Solberg.

Trump said he was for strongest military, massive oil and gas and a lot of energy. "Putin (Russian President Vladimir Putin) can't love that," he added.

Trump said it was "very much better" having to do with North Korea where the US currently has a problem.

"That should have never been my problem. It should have been a problem solved many years ago when it was much less dangerous. But it was given to him, along with a big mess of other things," he noted.

He blamed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his presidential rival in 2016 elections, saying she "was not was not for a strong military".

"Hillary, my opponent, was for windmills, and she was for other types of energy that don't have the same capacities at this moment certainly," he said.

Trump said it was a "lot better" to work with other countries.

"We're working with China on North Korea. We're working with various other countries, and I think we're doing very well. We had a great talk, as you know and as you reported."

"We had a great talk this morning with President Moon (of South Korea), and I think that a lot of good things are happening. We're going to see what happens," the US president said.

Solberg said Norway has a "very good" relationship with Russia.

"As a neighbouring country we do day-to-day work on things that we have to solve for the people and the economic activity that is in that area, which is a fragile area for the whole world," she said.

Norway shares border with Russia.

Responding to a question on allegations of Russian interference in elections in European countries, Solberg said her government has found no such evidence in Norway.

"I think that it's up to every political system and countries to scrutinise and discuss their own political agenda in their countries. And I respect that very much and that this is an issue for American politics," she said.
Mumbai: In the latest in a series of incidents involving him, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra on Thursday survived another air scare while his helicopter was about to land at Bhayander near Mumbai.

The pilot, on noticing that there was a cable wire in the vicinity of the school ground where the helicopter carrying Fadnavis was to land, took it up again, police said.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was also in the helicopter, police said, adding nobody was hurt in the incident.

Last month, a helicopter ferrying Fadnavis to Aurangabad was forced to land soon after taking off from Nashik apparently due to overloading.

The private chopper had taken off again successfully for its scheduled journey after offloading one of the passengers and some luggage.

As the helicopter was unable to get the required altitude to fly, some luggage was also off-loaded, an official had said.

On 7 July, before take-off in a helicopter from Alibaug near Mumbai, Fadnavis narrowly missed being struck by the chopper's tail rotor when the pilot inexplicably started the engines before the chief minister had boarded.

Security guards accompanying Fadnavis had then pushed him out of harm's way.

On 25 May, the rotor of a helicopter carrying Fadnavis tangled with power lines and it crash-landed during take-off from Nilanga in Latur district.

On 10 May, a helicopter assigned to ferry Fadnavis to Nagpur crashed before reaching the pick-up location in Gadchiroli.
The faculty at IIT Kanpur were left surprised after a decade-old dormant website containing ancient Indian texts created by them started registering a sudden, massive uptick in its online readership.

The website, Gita Supersite, contains ancient Indian texts, including the Vedas and Shastras. It registered a record 24,000 visitors per day against the usual 500-600 visitors per day, ANI reported.

The reason behind the sudden uptick seems to be a WhatsApp message that is making the rounds, professors at the institute told the news agency ANI.

This fact was also reported by The Indian Express. The daily accessed the WhatsApp message being circulated, that said: "IIT Kanpur has developed a website on our treasures of Vedas, Shastras etc. Finally, someone from today's science and technology field is digging into what has already been done many many years ago Please share this as much as you can."

Professors at IIT Kanpur say that their 10-years-old website to transliterate shlokas registered a record 24,000 visitors per day against a usual 500-600 visitors per day after the website was circulated on WhatsApp by a user. pic.twitter.com/6U96G30G45  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 11, 2018

The report quoted TV Prabhakar, a professor of computer science and engineering departments, who spearheaded the designing of the database and translations of the texts on the site, as saying, "This project was aimed at converting ancient Indian knowledge in a contemporary format accessible on the internet. But, it used to register 500 hits a day on an average. We noticed the sudden surge in online traffic in October and we could not understand why."

It's a simple website. Idea is putting our traditional knowledge on a website under a new format. For instance, Bhagvad Gita is in Sanskrit & usually written in Devanagari Script. It is an old website but gained popularity through WhatsApp: TV Prabhakar, Professor IIT Kanpur pic.twitter.com/u0zKoCI6wO  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 11, 2018

There were some, however, who criticised the website as they claimed it was an attempt to promote Hindu religion through these services. Both Prabhakar and IIT-Kanpur director Mahendra Aggarwal rejected these claims, according to a report in The Times of India.

"There will be criticism for the sake of it for every good thing. Secular credentials can't be questioned on such a noble and pious initiative," Prabhakar was quoted by the report.

Agarwal told The Indian Express that there was nothing new on the website, which is a 10-year-old project undertaken by the faculty and a student body. It was aimed to make Indian languages accessible on the Internet "even before Google and Unicode were in use", he said.

"Its a simple website. The idea is putting our traditional knowledge on a website under a new format. For instance, Bhagavad Gita is in Sanskrit and usually written in Devanagari script. It is an old website but gained popularity through WhatsApp," Prabhakar told ANI.
During an interaction between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan, India made it clear that terror and talks cannot go together but talks on terror can go ahead, media reports said. I agree that talks took place and our issue was eliminating terrorism from the region. We, of course, raised the issue of cross-border terrorism in those talks, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

'We have said terror &talks cannot go together but talks on terror can definitely go ahead,' MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Pakistan pic.twitter.com/EyTLEDfZUo  ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018

I am agreeing that talks took place & our issue was eliminating terrorism from the region, we of course raised the issue of cross-border terrorism in those talks: MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on NSA level talks b/w India & Pakistan pic.twitter.com/DE26LaOyrL  ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018

"India and Pakistan have a dialogue process...However, there are other dialogue mechanisms like at the DGMO level or between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers," Kumar said. "Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of operational-level talks," Kumar added.

Earlier, media reports had said that a meeting took place between Pakistan's National Security Advisor Lieutenant General Nasser Khan Janjua (retired) and India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Thailand. Dawn online had quoted a senior National Security Division official as saying that the objective of the meeting was to avoid serious missteps over the visit of Kulbhushan Jadhav's family to Pakistan.

During the meeting, Janjua reported raised the issue of targeting of civilians along the Line of Control while Doval spoke of infiltration.

India has accused Pakistan-based groups of giving rise to militant attacks along the LoC, especially in the Kashmir valley. Ceasefire violations on both sides of the border have increased the tensions in the bilateral relations, Hindustan Times reported

Pakistan's treatment of Kulbhushan Jadhav's family members during their visit to the country recently became a cause for heightened tensions with India. Jadhav was captured in March 2016 and has been sentenced to death by a military court.

With inputs from agencies
India will begin negotiations with Russia next week regarding the acquisition of four stealth frigates to scale up the Indian Navy's capabilities, a report in Hindustan Times quoted a senior government official as saying.

The report quoted defence sources as saying that India is prepared to bargain hard for the project. "Price negotiation with a visiting Russian delegation will begin on 15 January. GSL has the expertise and infrastructure to build the warships in the country," said the public sector yard's chairman, Rear Admiral Shekhar Mital (retd).

Of the four new stealth frigates, two will be constructed in Kaliningrad while two others will be at Goa. They will take the total number of Russian stealth frigates with India to 10; India currently operates six frigates purchased from Russia between 2003 and 2013  three each of the Talwar Class and Teg Class.

The move comes just a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin on the occasion of New Year, and the two sides vowed to strengthen special and privileged bilateral partnerships.

"They discussed the intensification of the bilateral relations between India and Russia and their cooperation on international forums," the release said.

They positively reviewed the exchanges between the two countries in 2017 and agreed to further strengthen the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia, it said.

Course correction

The deal signed with Russia would be a type of course correction for India, which has inched towards the US in recent years. Though Russia still remains India's largest defence supplier, New Delhi has begun looking towards the US for its top-of-the-line defence requirements.

As reported by Firstpost earlier, Russia contributes 68 percent of India's total arms import, while the US is a distant second place with 14 percent.

However, as pointed out in a separate copy by The Times of India, if you narrow it down to deals struck in recent years, the US would actually overtake Moscow to top spot. Russia has notched military sales worth over $40 billion since the first MiG-21 jets and T-55 tanks in the 1960s to the present-day Sukhoi-30MKI fighters and T-90S main-battle tanks, The Times of India report said.

However, the US is aggressively working at making inroads into the Indian defence market. And not only them, Israel and France are also eyeing this sector. India, incidentally, has turned to Israel even to upgrade some of its Russian-origin equipment, The Times of India report added.

From 2007 onwards, the report said, the US has bagged Indian defence deals worth almost $10 billion, including deals for 12 C-130J 'Super Hercules' aircraft, eight P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft and 10 C-17 Globemaster-III giant strategic airlift aircraft ($4.1 billion).

All this is happening at a time when ties between the US and Russia are frayed. Technical cooperation between India and the US is coming at a time when there exists great distrust between Washington and Moscow since the Ukraine crisis. A report on The Hindu said Moscow is increasingly wary of US-India defence cooperation lest it compromises existing Russian defence technology in Indian hands.

At times like these, if India and Russia manage to sign the defence pacts for four stealth frigates, it will come as a great boost to their bilateral ties. As mentioned by the report on The Hindu, India can ill afford to alienate Russia. Moscow's technical assistance to Indias indigenous nuclear submarine programme has been immense. Its first nuclear submarine, INS Arihant, was with Moscow's assistance, and this assistance is something that India's next generation of nuclear submarines would also need.

Russian naval personnel are always on board its nuclear submarines which are leased to India, the report said. And though some Indian strategists now argue for US technical cooperation in naval nuclear propulsion, New Delhi knows it will be difficult for the US to overcome its reluctance to share military nuclear technology with India. For the sake of future possibility of cooperation with the US, India is unlikely to alienate its most important defence partner.

With inputs from PTI
India will sign an MoU with the United Kingdom to enable the return of illegal Indian migrants within a month of their detection by authorities, an official said on Wednesday.

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju's visit to London along with a delegation on Wednesday is a step towards the move that could affect hundreds of Indians. The UK has consistently raised the issue of return of illegal migrants with India.

The Memorandum of Understanding comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to the UK in March.

A Home Ministry official said: "The process was not streamlined yet. The British authorities will first identify the illegal migrants, inform the Indian authorities, followed by police verification back home. If the claims of the British authorities are found to be correct, then the travel documents of the person concerned will be readied and he/she deported by the UK authorities. This process will have a timeline of one month."

Hindustan Times reported that the memorandum will be signed on the British side by newly appointed minister for immigration Caroline Nokes. The report UK says that Indians the number of Indians living illegally in the country at more than 1,00,000.

It is worth noting that the estimates of illegal migrants varies to an astonishing degree. In 2016, UK Home Office visa information put the number at 2,782. If so, it would have been a stunning decrease from the BBC's 2008 estimate of 8,00,000 or campaign group Migration Watch's 2010 estimate of 11,00,000. A 2017 report in the Hindustan Times said that while there is no accurate estimate of the overall number of illegal migrants, a top UK government functionary put the number at more than 1,00,000. This number is more than twice that of the next country on the list (Nigeria). As far as Indian agencies are concerned, IANS reported that they have found that only 2,000 Indians were overstaying.

The BBC investigation had also revealed a network of young, poor, and usually male farmers from the Punjab who described themselves as faujis (soldiers). Many were working menial jobs in the UK to send their wages back home. A number of them were living on fake documents. Some had destroyed their real passports on arrival, in the hopes of slowing down any deportation efforts.

On the flipside, an economic downturn in the UK, coupled with stricter housing rules and hefty penalties for using illegal labour, means that there is a sharp decrease in jobs and housing options open to illegal immigrants, according to Quartz.

The Hindustan Times report also mentioned since biometric and other information is sought while seeking a British visa, the UK wants India to accept the details and start the deportion process. New Delhi wants the identity to be confirmed only after an investigation by Indian authorities. There have also been instances of Pakistani and Bangladeshi citizens being sought to be sent to India, which was averted after investigations established they were not Indians.

The official said the Indian delegation led by Rijiju is expected to ask Westminster to "spell out" its position in court on businessman Vijay Mallya's extradition. He said the UK had assured all possible help in the extradition requests by India. The MoU on sharing of criminal records is in line with a similar agreement signed with the US, the official said.

Rijiju is also expected to convey New Delhi's concerns on the continuing anti-India propaganda carried out by Sikh and Kashmiri extremist groups based in the UK that bear "serious repercussions on India's sovereignty". He will also discuss with his counterpart the issues of sharing information about crimes and criminals.

With inputs from IANS
Editor's Note: This story was first published on 11 January 2018 and is being republished in light of the recent Karnataka High Court ruling that could help shape the debate on marital rape, which said that rape is a rape, be it performed by a man or the husband on the woman wife

By Taruni Kumar

On 7 January 2018, the Delhi Police arrested a 34-year-old man for allegedly having unlawful sexual intercourse with his wife from whom he had separated. The case was registered under sections 323 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises assault, as well as under section 376B, which criminalises sexual intercourse with a separated wife without consent. Yes, there is an entire section of the IPC dedicated to explaining rape as committed by a man against a woman from whom he has separated and who is not a live-in partner or a divorced wife. Youd think rape would just be that, rape. But not in the eyes of the law in India. The law compartmentalises the criminality of the act based on the relationship of the victim to the rapist.

How does this segregation of criminality matter? Well, heres the catch. Offences under section 376B are punishable by two to seven years of imprisonment. The punishment for rape minus these specific factors is a term not less than seven years and extendable up to life imprisonment. So, for some reason, raping an estranged wife is less of a crime than raping a divorced one.

Judicial separation is when a husband and wife live separately but do not divorce. The idea is that in this situation, there exists the possibility of a reconciliation. So, if one were to go by the IPC, there seem to be three levels in the hierarchy of rape and theyre all based on the relationship of the woman to the man. A woman who is not married to the perpetrator, lives-in with him or has divorced him falls into the standard rape category. The rape of a separated wife has its own special category and falls lower on the hierarchy and of course the last rung is the rape of a woman who is the wife of the perpetrator which is not counted as rape.

It is important to note that its not that the law just doesnt recognise the crime, but it has, in fact, actively added an exception that sets marital rape aside. There are in total, two exceptions to the standard rape law in the IPC. The first says that a medical procedure or intervention wont count as rape and the second states, Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.

Yup, the law basically tells women that once they have married a man, they have given de facto consent to their husbands to have sex with them as and when they want. The act of marriage itself is an act of signing off power of attorney of ones sexual agency.

If one is to take only a couple of steps back and take a look at Indias rape laws, its more than evident that the hierarchy is based on the concept of women as property. The punishment varies based on how much ownership a man continues to have over his wife.

Much has already been said about the lack of recognition of marital rape in India. The Delhi High Court is currently hearing arguments to criminalise marital rape from petitioners RIT Foundation and the All India Democratic Womens Association. But the Centre has spoken in favour of retaining the exception clause that disregards marital rape. The logic is that criminalising marital rape would threaten the institution of marriage. While of course random or premeditated violence towards ones spouse strengthens it? Dunno. This is just another example of how shaadi and sanskar are seen as more important than the protection of women in India. Or rather, how patriarchy enables the protection of the shaadi and sanskar that sustain it.

It goes without saying that rape laws that are built on a hierarchy that is built based on mens views of the world are dangerous. But it seems like the obvious nature of this danger isnt visible to everyone.

How does one even begin to talk about consent in a culture where the concept of a no is nullified by the assumption of a woman as property? How can such a woman be expected to provide or withhold consent and how can someone hold the view that this consent would matter in such a situation?

How can the legal and judicial systems of the country, with a clear conscience, talk about eradicating rape culture when its fundamental principle of women as property is also the basis of the states laws to protect women? Data from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB)s 2015 report shows that in 95 percent of all rape cases, the victim knew the perpetrator. But as per the rape hierarchy, the maximum punishment is for rapes where the perpetrator is a stranger.

The conversation about criminalising marital rape is one thats been ongoing for some years, but it is just as crucial to question the discrepancy in the quantum of punishment as laid down in section 376B. Rape is rape and the punishment for the crime cannot be defined in the context of how the victim relates to the perpetrator. A separated wife is not partially owned by her husband. Similarly, the sexual agency and consent of a married woman can be stated by nobody but herself.

The Ladies Finger is a leading online women's magazine.
Kim Daniel has joined Pinnacle Financial Partners as a senior vice president and mortgage advisor for the firms Shallowford Road office.



Ms. Daniel, with more than 28 years of experience, most recently spent 14 years with SunTrust Mortgage, where she was a mortgage loan officer. Previously, Ms. Daniel was with American Home Mortgage, where roles included serving as a mortgage loan officer, FHA underwriter and mortgage loan processor.



Kim is an excellent addition to our team, said Chris Avans, a mortgage manager with Pinnacle. She is extremely dedicated to her clients and to meeting all of their needs. We are very fortunate to have her.



Ms. Daniel attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.






Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday vowed to break the "vicious cycle" of youth taking up arms on the death of a militant and said efforts were on to ensure that those joining militant ranks return home.

She said that her government would continue its efforts to bring back local youth who had joined militancy to end the "vicious cycle" besides strengthening panchayats after successfully conducting the elections next month.

Jaish-e-Mohammad's "Afzal Guru squad" that has claimed responsibility for major terror attacks in the Valley recently "is a challenge for not only the government but for all of us", she said in her reply to the motion of thanks on the Governors address in the state Assembly in Jammu.

"(Slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander) Burhan Wani was born at that time (when NC-Congress was ruling the state) and those (militants) who will be born today somebody else will face them," she said.

Mehbooba was apparently responding to the remarks of legislative party leader of opposition National Conference and former chief minister Omar Abdullah who had on Tuesday said, "You talked about my role in creating Burhan Wani when I was the chief minister. Just think how many Wanis have you created under your rule."

"Young boys get glorified by taking arms in their hand and uploading the picture on social media sites. My effort is that the local militants should get back," Mehbooba said.

It was in this endeavour that one militant was caught alive in an injured condition during a recent operation after firing on the security forces throughout the night, she said.

"We are thankful to the parents who are appealing to their wards to return from the path of militancy. Many a youth had returned and we are not harassing them. We are happy that they are coming back," Mehbooba said, adding "we have to reach out to the people especially to the youth of the state".

On an Aligarh Muslim University scholar joining Hizbul Mujahideen in Kupwara district a few days back, she said his class fellows ad also appealed him for his return and "we are hopeful that he too will return to his weeping family".

"Our effort is that the local youth give up gun and return back to their homes. It is our loss as one militant is getting killed, his native village see another boy taking up the arms. It is a vicious circle and we have to break it," the chief minister said.

As a major initiative, Mehbooba said, her government had announced an amnesty to stone-pelters by withdrawing FIRs registered against them.

"About 8,000 to 9,000 youth, I don't have the exact figures, will be benefited by withdrawal of FIRs. We have started the process in 2016 but had to stop it due to the unrest (triggered by the killing of Burhan Wani)," she said.

On the Panchayat elections scheduled to start from next month, she said her government would ensure full power to the local bodies and make them partner in the development of the state.
The Jet Airways on Thursday terminated the crew member who allegedly attempted to smuggle out forex worth around Rs 3.2 crore, ANI reported.

Jet airways has terminated services of the air hostess who was recently arrested by DRI for carrying US dollars worth over Rs 3 crores.  ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018

The 25-year-old flight attendant was intercepted by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials during a flight to Hong Kong last week. She was allegedly trying to smuggle $4,80,200 out of the country.

Later, a tour operator identified as Amit Malhotra was also arrested for being part of a major hawala racket busted by the DRI

She was later sent to two-day judicial custody by a Delhi court. During the hearing, the DRI sought two-week judicial custody for the duo.

The DRI suspected the role of some other crew members of Jet Airways in smuggling forex.

"Malhotra has been illegally smuggling forex for the past over one year. There are some other crew members involved in the case. We are also trying to find out the details of bullion dealers involved in this syndicate," a DRI offical said.

The airline had promised strict action against the accussed.

In an offical statement, it said that it has a strict code of conduct and zero tolerance towards any action of its employees that contravenes domestic or international laws of the countries in which it operates.

"Based on the investigations and inputs from law enforcement agencies, the airline will take further action," the airline said.

With inputs from PTI
Renowned scientist K Sivan was on Wednesday appointed as the chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to replace AS Kiran Kumar.

Sivan, at present Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, will succeed Kumar (who took over as ISRO chairman on 12 January, 2015).

Sivan is popularly known as the "Rocket Man" for his significant contribution in the development of cryogenic engines for India's space programme.

The announcement of Sivan as ISRO chief comes two days ahead of the proposed historic launch of the ISRO's 100th satellite along with 30 others in a single mission from Sriharikota.

Education and early career

Sivan was born in Nagercoil, the border town of Tamil Nadu with Kerala. He graduated from Madras Institute of Technology in aeronautical engineering in 1980 and completed Master of Engineering in Aerospace engineering from IISc, Bangalore in 1982, according to his biodata. Subsequently, he completed his PhD in Aerospace engineering from IIT Bombay in 2006.

Sivan joined the ISRO in 1982 in Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) project and has contributed immensely towards end-to-end mission planning, mission design, mission integration and analysis. He held various responsibilities during his stint in ISRO.

Accolades

Sivan has numerous publications in various journals and is a fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering, Aeronautical Society of India and Systems Society of India and and Indian Systems Society for Science and Engineering. He has received various awards throughout his career which includes Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from Sathyabama University, Chennai in April 2014 and Shri Hari Om Ashram Prerit Dr Vikram Sarabhai Research award for 1999.

Sivan's contribution to ISRO

Sivan has contributed significantly to Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and GSLV Mk-Ill vehicle design. He has been credited for the development of the PSLV rocket that launched 104 satellites in a single mission, setting a world record in February last year.

Sivan also designed a software called Sitara, which ISRO uses for simulating trajectories of its rockets.

He led the Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) project, one of the most technologically challenging endeavours of ISRO towards developing essential technologies for a fully reusable launch vehicle, and was involved in its design qualification, aerodynamic charecterisation and hardware development.

Any idea that comes in, he knows how to push it to the logical end within the prescribed timeline. Thats what his strength has been, Dr Annadurai, Director ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore was quoted as saying about Sivan by News18.

When asked what the new appointment means to him, Sivan told News18 that he ''feels like shaking''.

"It's a huge responsibility; I'll be occupying a position that so many eminent people have held," Sivan was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

Challenges ahead of Sivan

Sivan, Business Standard reported, is the second rocket scientist to head ISRO, after G Madhavan Nair, who has been roped in to prioritise a public-private consortium to build the PSLV rocket. In August last year, then ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar had said that since ISRO was trying to increase the number of launches, a consortium approach would be more appropriate for PSLV, The Hindu had reported. Currently 60-70 percent assistance comes from the industry. The idea behind consortium is to get the industry take care of the entire building of the launch vehicle.

Bringing private players into satellite and rocket building will also be an area where Sivan will need to focus, said the Business Standard report.

With inputs from agencies
Absconding for over 12 days, Jigar Sanghvi and Kripesh Sanghvi  1Above pub co-owners wanted in connection with the 29 December Kamala Mills fire which claimed 14 lives  were arrested on Wednesday, police said. The Sanghvi brothers, who were on the run since the incident, were arrested from Link Road, Bandra West in Mumbai, reported The Indian Express.

The police had on Tuesday arrested Vishal Karia, a hotelier, for allegedly giving shelter to the Sanghvi brothers and Abhijeet Mankar - owners of the 1Above pub.

"Vishal Karia, who owns hotels and pubs in the city, was placed under arrested after a team of NM Joshi Marg Police picked him for questioning," Deputy Commissioner of Police Akhilesh Mishra told PTI.

During the investigation, it came to light that 42-year-old Karia sheltered Kripesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankarthe three owners of 1 Above pubat his residence, he said.

Police recovered a high-end car of Mankar, which was found parked at Karia's place, he said. Mankar is still absconding.

During interrogation, Karia had revealed that he had advised the absconding accused to seek legal help from a prominent lawyer. Following the lead, a team was kept stationed near the lawyers residence. Between 11 pm and 11.30 pm on Wednesday, the two brothers were apprehended near Link Road in Bandra. The team was waiting in a car and after spotting the duo crossing the road, a few officials chased and caught them, a senior officer told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity. The police also added that they suspect the Sanghvi brothers have information about Mankar's whereabouts as well.

The trio have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other offences under the Indian Penal Code. The police had also announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information about their whereabouts.

A Bhoiwada sessions court on Tuesday sent managers of Kamala Mills pub 1Above, Kevin Bawa and Lisbon Lopez to judicial custody till 22 January and adjourned the anticipatory bail application of Yug Tuli, owner of Mojo's Bistro, till 11 January.

On 6 January, Mumbai Police booked the owners of Mojo's Bistro for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with the fire, a day after a probe revealed that the blaze started from the high-end pub. A day later, Mojo's Bistro owner Tuli was sent to police custody till 12 January by a Mumbai court.

On 29 December, fire had swept through the 1Above and adjacent Mojo's Bistro resto pub in Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai, resulting in the death of 14 people.

With inputs from PTI
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Aijaz Ahmad Mir described Kashmiri militants killed by Indian security forces as "martyrs", and added that their deaths should not be celebrated, according to several media reports.

Militants who are from Kashmir are martyrs, they are our brothers, some of them are minors who don't even know what they are doing: Aijaz Ahmed Mir,PDP MLA pic.twitter.com/13vRlhFBJ3  ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018

Mir was also quoted by Hindustan Times as saying, Call them militants or terrorists, but they are Kashmiris, they are our brothers. I request all to stop politicising their killings..

This comment comes a day after Mir created an uproar in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly after he asked legislators not to express happiness over killing of terrorists, since they too were 'brothers', Indian Express reported. Mir also asked the House to stop the 'blame game' over the killings, according to the report.

Mir's statements came in for flak from the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)  a PDP ally  as well as Opposition National Conference (NC).

Speaking to NDTV, state BJP MLA Ravinder Raina said, "I condemn this ridiculous statement. It is glorifying terrorism, you are playing with fire. This is rubbing salt into the wounds of relatives of those killed in Pakistan-sponsored terror".

NC leader Akbar Lone said PDP is the party of contradictions which on one hand kills militants, and on the other calls them "martyrs", NDTV reported.

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was quoted by DNA as saying, "Terrorists and separatists are enemies of Kashmir, Kashmiris, development, and peace. How can they be someone's brother?".

Mir's statement comes amid Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's statement that the situation cannot be cannot be set right by the Centre alone, calling all stakeholders to come together to set it right through the political process.

With inputs from PTI
Kochi: Two persons have been arrested on charges of helping a Muslim man "forcibly" convert a Kerala woman and attempting to take her to Syria to be sold off to Islamic State terrorists.

Fayaz and Siyad, both natives of North Paravur near, were arrested on Wednesday following investigations based on a complaint by the 25-year-old woman, who was rescued from Saudi Arabia and brought home last year by her family.

The two are friends of Muhammad Riyaz from Thalassery in Kannur district, the prime accused in the case.

"They have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act," Ernakulam Rural SP A V George said, adding a hunt is on to arrest eight more accused, including Riyas, in the case.

He said the police have begun a probe into their alleged link with the Islamic State terrorists.

George said both Fayaz and Siyad were arrested based on the woman's complaint that she was allegedly tortured by them in a house in North Paravoor before Riyaz took her abroad.

The woman had alleged that Riyaz pretended to be in love with her when she was studying in Bengaluru in 2014 and forced her to convert to Islam and married her.

The woman from Pathanamthitta was brought up in Gujarat.

She had moved the Kerala High Court last year seeking an NIA probe against Riyaz for attempting to take her to Syria from Saudi Arabia and sell her to the Islamic State terrorists as a sex slave.

She has also alleged that her marriage was registered using forged documents.
Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the government was planning a law to create a separate category for orphans appearing for various competitive exams.

Citing the case of an orphan girl who cleared the state Public Service Commission (MPSC) examination, Fadnavis said the government was mulling a law creating a separate category for orphan candidates.

"Recently, an orphan girl who passed the MPSC exam met me. The issue is, if an orphan candidate like her is put in general category, she is not on merit list. If she is in SC/ST or OBC category, she is in the merit (list).

"Since she is an orphan, her caste is not known. To resolve this issue we plan to enact a law where orphans appearing for competitive exams will be in a separate category," he said.

Fadnavis was speaking at a function where awards were distributed to journalists.

The event was organised by the Mantralaya and Vidhimandal Vartahar Sangh at the Raj Bhavan.

The chief minister said the government has accorded an in-principle approval for pension to journalists and the final decision will be taken soon.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday lashed out at the Maharashtra government for the delay in submitting the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report on the death of over 40 farmers in the state due to pesticide inhalation.

In fact, the court asked the government "why it was suppressing the report", according to The Times of India.

"When an assurance was given in October to make the SIT report public within three weeks, why hasn't it come till date? You should have pointed it out, whether it was ready or not. You should have called the concerned authorities today itself, taken details about the report, and made a statement today itself," the report quoted the judges as saying.

In early October last year, several deaths due to pesticide poisoning were reported from Yavatmal and adjoining districts in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

The SIT appointed by the state government submitted its report to the government in November.

PTI had reported that the SIT report had revealed that names of four farmers, who had committed suicide earlier, also figure in the list of the pesticide victims.

The report had also said that there has been a violation of standard operating procedures by several departments, including the home department, headed by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

In fact, a senior IAS officer posted in the state Agriculture Department had alleged, "It is a deliberate attempt to show these suicide cases as victims of pesticide inhalation possibly to misappropriate the compensation amount (at the departmental level) given by the state government."

"It is not just about inserting the farmers' names for compensation. It seems officials from the health, agriculture, home and revenue departments, apart from private companies selling these pesticides, are involved in this mess..." he had alleged.

In the report, the SIT had also mentioned that the local government doctors collected the blood samples of pesticide victims and in most cases, had asked their relatives to get the samples tested from the Nagpur-based laboratories.

These instructions were given despite the government having funds to carry out such blood tests and obtain results, the report had said.

The Times of India had also reported on 24 December that Fadnavis had told the media then that the report was not ready and more investigations were required before making it public. "It's still under scrutiny. Many departments are yet to study it. Only after their comments, the report would be finalised," the report had quoted Fadnavis as saying.

With inputs from PTI
Panaji: Making a U-turn on Mahadayi river water sharing issue, Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday said that ongoing dispute with Karnataka will be fought before the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal.

Parrikar, who has been facing flak over his letter on the dispute to Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa last December, blamed the media for "making an issue out of a non-issue".

In his missive sent to Yeddyurappa, Parrikar had said Goa could share the river water with Karnataka for drinking purposes and expressed his willingness for bilateral talks.

The letter created a controversy as it was addressed to the BJP leader instead to Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah who represents the state government.

The letter, which was viewed as a political gambit by Parrikar ahead of assembly polls in the Congress-ruled southern state, had evoked a sharp reaction from Siddaramaiah and various opposition parties.

Mahadayi river riparian states Karnataka and Goa, besides Maharashtra, have been locked in a bitter dispute over sharing of the water.

While addressing media persons on Wednesday over his recent meeting with prime minister Narendra Modi in Delhi, Parrikar blamed media for blowing the Mahadayi issue out of proportion.

"Mahadayi issue is created by you (media) for the sake of news. The fight over distribution of Mahadayi river water is before the tribunal and we will fight it there," he said when asked if the issue came up for discussion during his meeting with the prime minister.

The Mahadayi (called Mandovi in Goa) originates in Karnataka and flows to Goa and Maharashtra.

The water sharing issue is politically sensitive one, especially in five north Karnataka districts.

The southern state is going to polls later this year.
Jammu: Under Opposition fire over the government's "tough posturing", Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Wednesday that even though the situation cannot be set right by the use of police and security forces alone, things were improving in the state.

She also asserted that it was India alone that could address the issues facing the state.

"I am alive to the situation for the past couple of years...the situation is limping back to normal but is still grave. I am not saying the situation has returned to normal," the chief minister said.

She added that the situation cannot be set right by the government alone and all stakeholders had to come together to set it right through the political process.

"We cannot set it right through the use of police and security forces," Mufti said in her reply to the motion of thanks to the Governor's address in the state legislative Assembly in Jammu.

She said it was only India that can address the issues facing the people of the state.

"The people of Jammu and Kashmir, whether in mainstream or outside, should understand that whatever we will get, we will get it from this country alone and not from anywhere else...Honorable position, life with dignity, opening of (cross-LoC) routes, taking trade to another level, or ending bloodshed to start dialogue. This will not be done by any other country but our own," she said.

Apparently referring to the repeated disruption of the House by opposition over killings of innocents and human rights violations, she said "the House has a genuine concern over the prevailing situation and primarily it should be because whether on borders or in the hinterland our people are getting killed, whether it is a fidayeen attack or an IED blast".

"We should be concerned and the entire house is concerned over the situation," she said adding that when there is an attempt to disturb peace, other issues take a back seat.

Mufti said the Jammu and Kashmir state legislature was the most empowered in the country but added "we have to safeguard its status to become truly the crown of this country".

GST was passed in the country but we passed it after discussion and implemented when we decided, she said. It demonstrates the empowerment of our legislature, Mufti said.

"(Former chief minister) Mufti Mohammad Sayeed used to say that the state has got from the country its own constitution, separate flag and residency powers. We have to safeguard it as this is big treasure," she said.

"If we will say we do not accept the Constitution of the state and the country then what we will get and from where," she added.

The people of the country need to think what was the reason for the present situation, she added.

"We, including the people of the country, need to think what happened after Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim majority state rejected religious partition and became part of the biggest and secular nation. I have heard that Jawaharlal Nehru having said that Jammu and Kashmir will be a showcase window for the whole world to gaze at. We have to think where the mistake happened," she said.

Mahatma Gandhi had seen a ray of hope in Kashmir because of the peaceful atmosphere and harmony, she said. "Where that light has gone?" she asked.

Expressing displeasure over the absence of Opposition members who boycotted her address over the law and order situation, she said this was a prolonged problem.

"Jammu and Kashmir is faced with a situation where fidayeen attacks, IED blasts, cross firing and border firing is going on for a long time. I am pained when it is proudly said that we are constructing 14000 bunkers for border residents instead of ensuring good hospitals, good schools, job opportunities for youth and tourism initiatives."

"Our people (on the borders) are afraid and frightened. We will construct bunkers for their safety but I want to ask the people of my country what about the education of our children who got dislocated and are living in rehabilitation camps for the past six months," she said.

She said National Conference president Farooq Abdullah had repeated what her father used to say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the potential to address the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The problem (of Kashmir) is there but its solution lies in humanity. When anyone is getting killed or martyred, he is a resident of the state, except those being pushed from across the border," she said.

"I am talking about our civilians. Yesterday our youth was killed and earlier such incidents happened in Shopian, Handwara, where a driver was killed," she added.

She listed the work her government was doing to improve the conditions of the people. "We have launched various welfare schemes but because the discourse is something else, so many people are killed in attacks, our good work and major initiatives could not be projected," she said.

She said the government had money but was not able to spend it because of the situation. "Big contractors are not willing to come here and local contractors do not qualify for major projects," she said.

She said the alliance stitched (with the BJP) by her father and former chief minister has resulted in harmony and brotherhood.

"It is heartening to see the bells of temples, call for prayers from mosques and prayers from gurdwaras vibrate in the air as was once the case in Kashmir," she said.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid tribute to former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on his 52nd death anniversary saying he will be remembered for his courageous leadership.

"We pay homage to Shastriji on his punya tithi (death anniversary). His impeccable service and courageous leadership will be remembered for generations to come," Modi said in a tweet.

We pay homage to Shastri Ji on his Punya Tithi. His impeccable service and courageous leadership will be remembered for generations to come.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 11, 2018

Shastri was born in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Sharada Prasad and Ramdulari Devi on 2 October, 1904.

On 11 January, 1966, he breathed his last in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, a day after signing the Tashkent Declaration, reportedly due to cardiac arrest.

Shastri was the first person to be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award in 1966.
Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday lashed out at the Indian Navy over its alleged objection to a floating jetty project at Malabar Hill in Mumbai, and accused the force of "obstructing work," India Today reported.

Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has courted controversy with his remarks on navy officials as he slammed them for obstructing development work.  IndiaTodayFLASH (@IndiaTodayFLASH) January 11, 2018

Gadkari felt that the jetty did not pose any security risk. What has the navy got to do with Malabar Hill? They should be guarding the borders, said Gadkari was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

He was speaking at an event where he laid the foundation stone along with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for an international cruise terminal at Mumbai Port Trust.

CM @Dev_Fadnavis and Union Minister @nitin_gadkari at Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of new International Cruise Terminal in Mumbai, making Mumbai a Global Cruise Destination !

Project cost: 300crore,

Project completion: by December 2019,

Tourists expected : 7 lakh/annum pic.twitter.com/HN2ZOzW1Qq  CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) January 11, 2018

"Actually, navy is needed at the borders from where terrorists sneak in. Why does everyone (in the navy) want to stay in South Mumbai? They (navy) had come to me, asking for a plot (of land). I will not give even an inch of land. Please don't come to me again," Gadkari said.

The Union minister further claimed the naval officers wanted prime homes but said that they "should stay on the Pakistani border." He made the remarks in presence of Western Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Girish Luthra.

"Everyone wants to build quarters and flats on south Mumbai's prime land. We do respect you (navy), but you should go to the Pakistan border and do patrolling," Gadkari said.

He further added that "a few important and senior officials can stay in Mumbai," and that land on the eastern seafront being jointly developed by the state-run Mumbai Port Trust and the Maharashtra government, would be utilised only for the benefit of local citizens.

South Mumbai has a sizeable presence of Navy officers, and houses the headquarters of the Western Naval Command, as well as the naval residential quarters at Navy Nagar in Colaba.

Berths for naval ships are close to the port trust assets used by merchant ships. Over time, a lot of cargo handling has moved out of the Mumbai Port, one of the oldest ports in the country.

"I heard that you (navy) gave a stay to the floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill, despite it getting the high court's nod," Gadkari said.

Claiming that stopping such developmental work has become a habit, Gadkari wondered what has the navy got to do with the Malabar Hill area which is primarily a private residential zone also having official residences of Maharashtra governor and chief minister.

"Where is the navy at Malabar Hill? There is no navy at Malabar Hill and the navy has nothing to do in the area," Gadkari said and invited the navy for talks to resolve the issue.

Gadkari said he chairs a committee for stalled infrastructure projects, adding that projects are cleared "as soon as they come on the agenda".

"We are the government. The navy and the Defence Ministry are not the government," Gadkari said.

The Bombay High Court had on Monday refused to give permission for an ambitious luxury floating hotel near Nariman Point in South Mumbai on the grounds that it did not have the no objection certificate (NOC) from the Western Naval Command.

A division bench of justices AS Oka and PN Deshmukh had dismissed the petition filed by Rashmi Development Pvt Ltd, challenging an order passed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and a committee denying permission for the construction of the floating hotel, jetty and ramps abutting the Marine Drive promenade.

In its order, the high court had noted that the letters issued by the city police, the Western Naval Command and the Coast Guard on the issue were misconstrued by the company as NOCs.

"The Western Naval Command had never granted NOC for erection of the floating hotel. All that their letter records is that the safety and security issues will have to be examined first," the bench had said.

"Even the Coast Guard in its letter says that a security audit will have to be carried out first before permission is granted for construction of a floating hotel and jetty," it had said.

With inputs from PTI
Puducherry: The Puducherry government has said families belonging to the Scheduled Caste community and those living below poverty line in Puducherry would receive cash instead of garments for the Pongal harvest festival this year.

Each male and female member in the Scheduled caste families would be granted Rs 500 for Pongal instead of 'dhotis' and sarees and the amount would be credited under Direct Benefit Transfer scheme in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, Welfare Minister M Kandasamy said in a press release on Wednesday.

He also said the Department of Women and Child Development would also credit Rs 750 in the bank account of each of the differently abled persons instead of garments that were provided along to them ahead of Pongal.

Besides, those holding red colour ration cards (BPL category) would also be granted Rs 750 and the amount would be deposited in their bank accounts, the release said.
Rajkot: Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday stressed that people should strive to make India a 'vishwa guru' (guide of the world) again instead of just focusing of making it a 'superpower'.

"Instead of just focusing on making India a superpower, we should take efforts to make our country a 'vishwa guru' again," Singh said while addressing a gathering at Praansala village in the district.

He was speaking at 'Rashtra Katha Shibir' organised by Vedic Mission Trust, a brainchild of Swamy Dharmabandhu.

Praising Swamy Dharmabandhu's efforts for organising the shibir, Singh said, "This shibir is not an ordinary one. It is an attempt to educate participants about nation's culture."

"Such shibir is like a campaign to make youths and students independent," Singh was quoted as saying in a release issued by the state government.

He added that Swamiji has been doing a "great job" to educate people about the Indian culture.

The minister also expressed confidence that India would become a 'vishwa guru' with the the help of science and technology.
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal filed against an earlier judgment of the Patna High Court, which had quashed a defamation complaint against a media channel which reported on allegedly irregular allotment of land in the Bihiya Industrial Area by the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority.

According to the appellant in the case (the original complainant before the Magistrate's Court), the news channel had made factual inaccuracies in its reportage of the event and thereby tarnished her reputation.

However, the Patna High Court in its judgment had held that the complaint was untenable. It said the accused were charged with conspiracy, but necessary sanction under Section 196 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, had not been obtained prior to their prosecution, and therefore the magistrate could not take cognisance of the offence of defamation.

However, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal and passed some oral observations that are worth noting. Chief Justice Misra observed: "In a democracy, you must learn to tolerate. The case has continued since 2011. The persons have spent a lot of time and money in defending themselves. Defamation may be constitutionally valid. But an alleged incorrect news item about a scam does not amount to defamation."

He further added, "There could be some error or enthusiasm in reporting an alleged scam. But we must allow freedom of speech and expression to press at the fullest. There may be some wrong reporting. For that they need not be hauled up for defamation."

Section 499 of the Penal Code of 1860 makes defamation a criminal offence punishable with two years' imprisonment and fine. The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of this provision. Section 499 has many exceptions, but all the exceptions hinge on imputations or statements being truthful.

Given the fact that the press sometimes has to reproduce allegations or information as it's being received, the press cannot at all times be able to verify and authenticate all the information it publishes. Some of the information will be unverified and subject to further confirmation. By linking truth as the standard, it opens the door to harassment of the media through defamation cases.

This is why in the UK, the House of Lords in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd (2001) 2 AC 127 outlined what is known as the public interest defence. It is a qualified privilege that permits a journalist to publish an an allegation in the public interest even if the allegation later turns out to be false. This is colloquially known as the 'Reynolds Defence', and is an important development in defamation in common law. The UK codified this defence when it codified its civil law on defamation (defamation is not a crime in the UK) via its Defamation Act, 2013.

India has codified its criminal law on defamation via Section 499 of the penal code and has provided a series of defences as exceptions in the section itself. But there is a need to introduce something like the 'Reynolds Defence' to Section 499 in order to protect the press from frivolous defamation complaints. Provisions like Section 499, in the absence of a clear public interest defence, may deter the press from reporting on scams and news that is unfavourable to public figures. For example, a politician or an industrialist may use the defamation law to threaten a newspaper and prevent publication of a scam or allegation of a scam. The public is better served by knowing about an allegation then by being left in the dark.

Further, India also needs to codify its law in relation to civil defamation. The law as it stands now is judicial precedent. It is not codified and libel remains the last bits of common law that hasn't been reenacted via statute. This creates significant room for ambiguity as to what constitutes qualified privilege, especially for journalists who require to examine the legal position prior to publishing their articles. India ought to follow the British example and codify the civil law on defamation and incorporate defences of qualified privilege.

Further, there is also a need to impose a standard on corporations to prove financial loss before they can claim to be defamed. This will prevent industrialists from attacking the press in the name of libel in the future.
Bengaluru: Former Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani said there was an "orchestrated campaign" to malign Aadhaar.

He was reacting to filing of an FIR on The Tribune newspaper report relating to Aadhaar data breach.

"There is hundred percent an orchestrated campaign to see how Aadhaar gets maligned, yes absolutely," Nilekani told ET Now on the sidelines of the Infosys Science Foundation Award.

Delhi Police had on Monday registered the FIR on complaint by an UIDAI official following the newspaper report on data breach of more than 1 billion Aadhaar cards, naming the journalist behind the story.

The police was informed by the official that the correspondent, posing as a buyer, had purchased a service being offered by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provide unrestricted access to details of Aadhaar numbers.

Nilekani said the issue has been blown out of proportion as Aadhaar has too many built-in security layers and it is not possible to randomly get information from it.

Further referring to FIR filed in The Tribune case, he said negative views on Aadhaar will have negative reaction and hence, it would be better for people to have constructive view on it. "If you are just taking a negative view, and not constructive view, then you also have other (negative reactions. I think, everybody has to accept Aadhaar is here to stay," The former UIDAI chief said.

Aadhaar is here to stay because as many as 119 crore people have it, 550 million have linked the numbers to their bank accounts and Rs 95,000 crore transferred into DB accounts, he added.

Nilekani said he was very confident of the Supreme Court upholding Aadhaar under the fundamental right of privacy because it meets the test of the law being proportionate and reasonable.

Replying to a query, he welcomed putting in place a two-layer security to reinforce privacy protection for Aadhaar number holders by the UIDAI. "I think this is a very significant announcement by UIDAI and in some sense it really makes the case against it go away," he said.

The former UIDAI chief said it has introduced a virtual identification for ID holders so that the actual number need not be shared by the people to authenticate their identity.

Simultaneously, it has further regulated the storage o the Aadhaar number within various databases, he added
Three army jawans suffered a freak mishap on Tuesday, after a rope they were using to jump out of a helicopter broke. The jawans fell to the ground. Reports said that the jawans were practising ahead of Army Day celebrations in New Delhi. Media reports said the army has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Army Day is observed on 15 January every year to honour Lieutenant General KM Kariappa, who took over as the first commander-in-chief of the Indian Army on this day. Reports said that the jawans were practising the manoeuvres they will be performing at the event. A report in The Financial Express said the jawans were all stable, and that none of them suffered any serious injuries.

The incident took place when the jawans were using a rope to climb down from the helicopter, a practice the army uses every time it goes for operations in hostile areas. However, the rope broke and three jawans crashed to the ground, reported CNN-News18.

3 Indian army soldiers fall from helicopter after rope from which they were hanging breaks. Accident happened when the chopper was hovering in air & the jawans were coming down to the ground. They were rehearsing for Army Day Parade which takes place on Jan 15 every year in Delhi pic.twitter.com/3dSlbRc97M  News18 (@CNNnews18) January 11, 2018

Through special parades and weaponry display, the army shows off its might to the world and encourages the youth to join the force, the report in Financial Express said.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), an autonomous government body which looks after the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateshwara in Tirumala, has issued a notice to its 44 non-Hindu employees and asked the state government to redeploy them in other departments, according to several media reports.

The notice seeks an explanation from the employees as to how they came into the Tirumala temple board's service as the rules bar non-Hindus from working there. A government order issued in 1988 and later modified in 2007 bars non-Hindus from being employed at the temple board, The News Minute reported.

While the 1989 order prohibited all non-Hindus from working in the organisation except in its educational department, the 2007 modification lifted that exemption as well, making employment of an all-Hindu staff mandatory, according to the report.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, temple authorities want to know if any of the 44 employees hid their religious identity to secure a job.

Thirty-five persons got jobs between 1989 and 2007, while seven non-Hindus were employed after 2007, The New Indian Express quoted a report by TTD Chief Vigilance and Security Officer (CVSO) A Ravikrishna as saying.

Non-Hindus are allowed to enter the temple and take darshan of Lord Venkateshwara, provided they sign the entry register declaring they have faith in the Hindu god, the Hindustan Times report added.

Meanwhile, the state government has reportedly agreed to depute these employees at other departments at a similar scale and cadre of their current positions, The Tribune reported.

"We will be sending them to other government departments in the equivalent cadres and scales, TTD Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal told The Tribune.

In addition to their redeployment, the Tirumala temple board has also decided to make it mandatory for the employees to sport the Thiru Namam (a traditional tilak or vermilion pattern streaked across one's forehead; it is usually a mark of belief in Hinduism).

The issue came to light after a local TV channel conducted a sting operation, wherein a TTD employee was seen using her official car to go to church on Sundays. Her driver also allegedly complaint that he was being made to come to work on Sundays, according to The Indian Express.

The media report spurred protests from Hindu priests and local religious organisations, following which the CVSO conducted an inquiry and found 44 persons of non-Hindu religious beliefs working at the temple board.

However, this is not the first time a controversy concerning religion erupted in Andhra Pradesh temples. In fact, according to the The Times of India, it was in the wake of allegations that evangelist activities were being conducted in temple towns, the government of previously united Andhra Pradesh had brought in the an ordinance banning propagation of other religions in certain places of worship, including Tirumala.

In Andhra Pradesh, in all 20 temples are notified in the list of places where propagating and practicing other religions have been banned. Ten out of these are controlled by the TTD, according to the report.
New Delhi: The US will not tolerate cross- border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere, its newly- appointed Ambassador Kenneth Juster said on Thursday, asserting that $ 2 billion military aid to Pakistan was suspended as America felt "they have not done as much as they could in eliminating terror sanctuaries" there.

In his first public speech after taking over as the ambassador in November, Juster talked about robust India-US partnership in key areas of defence and counter-terrorism and pitched for enhanced trade ties while describing India as a "net provider" of security in the India-Pacific region.

He said President Donald Trump and other US leaders have been clear that they will not "tolerate cross-border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere".

"As part of this effort, last month we launched the first-ever US-India Counterterrorism Designations Dialogue.

We need to continue to enhance the sharing of information, designations of terrorists, combating of financial crimes and networks, and disruption and dismantling of terrorist camps and operations both regionally and globally," Juster said.

However, he made no reference to Pakistan in his speech.

When asked why the terror groups which were active against India were not named while suspension of the aid, Juster said, "Pakistan is important too for the situation in Afghanistan."

"Don't think we will get stability in Afghanistan if Pakistan does not positively contribute. That was the major factor behind the suspension as we feel they have not done as much as they could in eliminating terror sanctuaries in Pakistan that are contributing to instability in Afghanistan," he added.

Emphasising that it was time to make sure that the Indo- US strategic partnership is a durable one, Juster stressed on the need to view the Indo-US ties strategically and not from the "signature initiatives".

He also noted that a combination of India's interest in technology and engaging in the co-development and co- production of military equipment and the US's interest in safeguarding information and technology underpins the future success of initiatives in defence sector.

He also acknowledged that the US and India had initial "strained" exchanges on topics related to the transfer of sensitive US technology with both military and conventional applications.

"Now, India is celebrating its membership in two of the four multilateral export control regimes the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use items, which India just joined, and the Missile Technology Control Regime. We also expect in the very near future India to join the Australia Group on chemical and biological weapons," he said and added that the US was "working closely" with the international partners to secure India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The remarks come in the backdrop of increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region.

On defence and counter-terrorism, Juster observed that both India and the US have suffered "horrific terrorist attacks" and continue to be targeted.

"We have a strong mutual interest in eliminating this threat to our societies."

A major part of Juster's speech was on ways to enhance economic and commercial relations and underlined that the US is concerned about persistent trade deficits with India.

Asked about the US ties with China, he said his country wants to have a constructive relationship with every country in the region.

"We want to have a constructive relationship with the Chinese as well. But we also want to make it clear that if they are going to be engaged in certain predatory economic behaviour or other activities than there's an alternative set of principles that other countries of the region are going to follow," he said.

He also added that "we can have more points of convergence than divergence but the only way to try to make that happen is to constructively build something on our part that China sees benefit to be a part of.
Washington: The US on Wednesday issued a new travel advisory for countries including India, which its officials said is "user friendly" as it is based on ready-to-understand level of advice ranging from one to four.

India has been ranked Level 2 (exercise increased caution) while Pakistan has been places in Level 3 (reconsider travel).

Level 1 advises travellers to exercise normal precaution, while Level 4, which has countries like Afghanistan, recommends "Do Not Travel".

Now every country has a travel advisory based on this system, which has replaced all the previous such advisories.

"These improvements will provide US citizens with clear, timely, and reliable safety and security information worldwide," the State Department said.

Placing India on Level 2, the State Department identified "crime and terrorism" for Americans to exercise increased caution. However, it asks Americans not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir, except for eastern Ladakh and Leh and not to venture within 10 miles of the India-Pakistan border due to the "potential for armed conflict".

The State Department explained that while it will issue an overall travel advisory level for every country, levels of advice may vary for specific locations or areas within a country.

"Indian authorities report rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. Violent crime, such as sexual assault, has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations," the new India travel advisory said.

Terrorists or armed groups are active in east-central India, primarily in rural areas, it added.

"Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities," it said.

Ranking Pakistan on Level 3, the State Department asked Americans to reconsider travel to this country due to terrorism.

It advises Americans not to travel to travel to Balochistan province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) due to terrorism.

Americans are also advised not to travel to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir due to terrorism and the potential for armed conflict.

"Over the past six months, there have been at least 40 significant terrorist attacks across Pakistan, resulting in over 225 deaths and 475 wounded, most of which occurred in Balochistan, KPK, and the FATA. In the past, there have been large-scale terrorist attacks resulting in hundreds of casualties," it said.
Vikas Barala was on Thursday granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the Chandigarh stalking case, ANI reported.

Chandigarh Stalking Case: Punjab and Haryana High Court grants bail to accused Vikas Barala pic.twitter.com/0CeQTh4iPJ  ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018

Barala, son of Haryana BJP chief Santosh Barala, was accused of stalking Varnika Kundu, the daughter of an IAS officer.

His petition for bail was dismissed four times by the trial court.

In December, Barala's counsel, seeking regular bail from the court, submitted his client had been behind bars for nearly four months.

During the cross-examination of Kundu on Monday and Tuesday, Barala's lawyer argued there were contradictions in her statement given to the police, also claimed her father exercised pressure on the police to fabricate evidence and implicate Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar, The Indian Express reported.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, call records proffered by Barala's lawyer showed Kundu wasnt in the city right before the incident on the intervening night of 4 August and 5 August last year.

However, Kundu rejected the arguments, pointed out various technical errors in the call detail records. She also stood by her allegations and reiterated the entire sequence of events in the court, according to another report in The Indian Express.

The incident allegedly took place on 4 August, 2017. Kundu accused Vikas, the son of a senior BJP leader, and his friend Kumar of following her car in the middle of the night in Chandigarh.

The men were arrested following her complaint but released on bail as they were booked under bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Motor Vehicles Act.

However, they were arrested again on 9 August and were then charged with attempted abduction under Sections 365 and 511 of the IPC.

With inputs from PTI
Editor's note: Amit Khare, the additional chief secretary of Jharkhand, blew the lid off the fodder scam two decades ago. It was on 23 December last year that RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav was finally convicted and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail. The following is his account of the uncovering of the fodder scam.

It was a cold winter morning on 27 January, 1996, when I raided the Chaibasa Treasury, and the offices and farms of the animal husbandry department located in a corner of the old British Raj building, and started verifying the bills of the department. To my horror, practically all of them were of the same amount (Rs 9.9 lakh), of the same supplier and all of which prima facie appeared to be bogus.

By the time I called the district animal husbandry officer (DAHO) and his subordinates to seek an explanation, they had all run away from their offices. I then decided to personally visit the office of DAHO along with my magistrates. I was shocked to find cash, bank drafts and a large number of fake Treasury Bills littered all over, making it quite apparent that they had fled in a hurry.

By 12 noon, I had asked my magistrates to start sealing the offices of the animal husbandry department, ordered the State Bank of India's Treasury Branch to stop all payments of animal husbandry and alerted all police stations to ensure that records are kept safely so that the wrongdoers do not get an opportunity to destroy them.

Finally, after cross-verifying with the accountant general's office and the state finance department, it was clear that the amounts withdrawn from the treasury were even more than the states' total budget for the department. I lodged the first FIR in the series of cases which were later described by many as the fodder scam.

Another verdict came on Saturday in the fodder scam. I watched as TV screens flash 'Breaking News', reporting on the fraudulent withdrawal of government money from the Deoghar Treasury.

Reams of pages have been written about how the fraudulent bills were made by the suppliers with the collusion of state officials, how cash and bank drafts were recovered by the teams who had raided the offices and how the entire administrative and financial systems were subverted by those very people who were supposed to be its protector. All this was done in the name of supply of fodder to animals in practically all the districts of what was then south Bihar.

People ask me: Was I not afraid for my career and the security of my family? Some even commented that the state police would implicate me in these cases.

To be honest, none of these thoughts came to my mind when I began. When I was a student of IIM Ahmedabad, one of my teachers (Professor Kuchhal) used to say that "too much of analysis leads to decision paralysis". I am glad I did not waste my time thinking about my career or my family, or of my future. Otherwise, I would not have been able to take the decision of starting the inquiry into the fodder scam.

Why did I do it? The answer is that most of us joined the civil services as a career with a dream of making a new India. And as deputy commissioner, who is the administrative head of the district, it was my duty.

But I didn't do all this alone. There was an alert Hindi and English language press who immediately flashed the story not only in the state but all over India. Of course, I did later become some sort of a local hero, because of the press coverage.

But there were many 'unsung' heroes. Lal Shyama Charan Nath Sahdeo, the additional deputy commissioner, meticulously checked the accounts of the entire treasury; VS Deshmukh, the superintendent of police, who immediately alerted all the police stations and made security arrangements so that evidence was not destroyed; the Sadar SDO, Fidelis Toppo, and the second officer, Binod Chandra Jha, who were instrumental in sealing the offices and farms of the animal husbandry department; and the large number of block development officers and circle officers who ensured that the material evidence was properly collected and secured. Most of these officers were from the state services. Many were willing to take the "risk" for a better state of affairs.

But this leads me to my last question. These officers were all there even before I became the deputy commissioner. Why were they silent earlier? Perhaps when the subordinate officers saw that their deputy commissioner was willing to risk his career (and maybe also his life), they found a moral calling to bring out the truth.

Many years ago, when I was a young SDO in the tribal Latehar area, Baba Amte had come during his Bharat Jodo Yatra and had said "Jo nek hain woh anek hain, unhe ek banene ki jaroorat hai (there are many honest people, they just need to come together)."

If you bring them on a common platform and build upon their latent goodness, it would perhaps be the beginning of a 'New India'.

The author is presently development commissioner, Jharkhand.
In a breakthrough in the 2000 Red Fort attack case, the Delhi Police and Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested one of the suspects at the Delhi airport on Wednesday. The joint operation took place after the Gujarat ATS informed the Delhi Police that one Bilal Ahmed Kawa, who had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case, was travelling from Srinagar to Delhi.

Photo of suspected LeT terrorist Bilal Ahmed Kawa arrested in a joint operation by Special Cell of Delhi Police and Gujarat ATS from Delhi Airport for alleged involvement in terror attack on Red Fort in the year 2000. pic.twitter.com/PIDTAchwBI  ANI (@ANI) January 10, 2018

Who is Bilal Ahmed Kawa

Kawa, who was suspected to be linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, was arrested in the evening from the T3 terminal of the airport and his questioning is underway, said the police. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) PS Kushwah said Kawa was arrested around 6 pm.

The Indian Express reported that Kawa told the police that he had changed his location frequently since the attack but was living in Kashmir for the time being. Sources told the newspaper that Kawa was going to meet his brother in Delhi. The police has said that these claims are yet to be verified.

Another officer said that money to the tune of Rs 29.50 lakh was transferred through hawala in various bank accounts, including those of Kawa, to fund the attack.

Kawa was on the run since 2000 and was hiding in Kashmir, the police said.

On 22 December, 2000, three people, including two army jawans, were killed in the Red Fort attack when terrorists started indiscriminate firing near the monument, according to The Financial Express. The army personnel present in the Fort had retaliated but the terrorists had managed to flee through the Fort's rear wall. While 11 people have been convicted in the case, Kawa was absconding till now.

The Indian Express report also added that the attack's mastermind, Mohammad Arif, transferred money to Kawa's account between July and December, 2000. This money was allegedly used to fund the Red Fort attack and was also sent to Kashmir for militancy.

With inputs from PTI
It is International Yoga Day on 21 June, and yoga enthusiasts from all over the world will be celebrating the practice, which helps both body and mind. Yoga brings to mind images of a person meditating peacefully, or contorted into a seemingly impossible pose. But yoga is so much more.

There's so much to discover when it comes to this 5,000-year-old practice than you might imagine. There are different types of yoga, and you can take your pick depending upon what you are looking for.

Here are some of the most popular types of yoga taught in Indian cities:

Hatha Yoga

The word 'hatha' can be translated as sun (from the word 'ha') and moon (from the word 'tha'), which means the yoga of balance. Hatha yoga generally concentrates on physical postures or asanas.

When a yoga class is marketed as Hatha yoga class, it means that you will get a gentle introduction to the most basic yoga postures. You probably won't work up a sweat in a hatha yoga class, but you should end up leaving class feeling longer, looser, and more relaxed.

Where to find Hatha Yoga classes:

Mumbai: Isha Yoga

Delhi: Studio Prana

Bengaluru: Shuddham Yoga

Iyengar Yoga



This style of yoga was developed by BKS Iyengar, and is a very meticulous style of yoga, with the focus being on finding the proper alignment in a pose.

In order to help each student find the proper alignment, an Iyengar Yoga class will stock a wide array of yoga props  blocks, blankets, straps, chairs, bolsters are all common.

But this isn't a class where you will get your heart rate pumping; instead you will be amazed to discover how much mental and physical stamina you need for staying put in one asana.

Where to find Iyengar Yoga classes:

Mumbai: Iyengar Yoga

Delhi: Iyengar Yoga Yogakshema

Bengaluru: Dheergayu Institute of Yoga

Ashtanga Yoga

Ashtanga is based on ancient yoga teachings and rigorous style of yoga that follows a specific sequence of postures and is similar to Vinyasa Yoga, as each style links every movement to a breath. The difference is that Ashtanga always performs the exact same poses in the exact same order.

This yoga class will be more demanding than Iyengar or Hatha yoga.

Where to find Ashtanga Yoga classes:

Mumbai: Ashtangayoga Mumbai

Delhi: Ashtang Ajay

Bengaluru: Sri K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga

Kundalini Yoga

Kundalini Yoga has a combined focus on physical workouts and meditation, thus making it a kind of blend between varied forms like Bikram Yoga and Jivamukti Yoga. It also has an added focus on consciousness for the activation of energy centers in the body.

The participation of the guru and student in each kriya resembles the aura of a temple rather than a gym. It is known as the "yoga of awareness" because it focuses on achieving one's potential. It also does not assert on strict dogmas.

Take up this form of yoga if you want varied workouts each day and breakthroughs in mental patters.

Where to find Kundalini Yoga classes:

Mumbai: Anahata Yogshala

Delhi: Hith Yoga

Vinyasa Yoga



The word 'vinyasa' can be translated as 'arranging something in a special way', like yoga poses for example. In Vinyasa Yoga classes, students coordinate movement with breath to flow from one pose to the next.

Vinayasa Yoga links movement and breath together in a dance-like way. In most Vinyasa Yoga asanas, there is no slow paced pose. Instead, teachers often pump music which plays to the beat of the sequences of the poses.

For people looking for a slow-paced, laidback yoga style, this is not for you. Instead, endurance athletes and runners love Vinyasa because it serves as an alternative way to exercise, and burns calories to help you lose weight. Since you change poses with each breath, you can burn upward of 400 calories.

Where to find Vinyasa Yoga classes:

Mumbai: Yoga House

Delhi: The Yoga Chakra - Vinyasa Yoga Studio

Bengaluru: Harsha Yoga Pathashala

Power Yoga

To simplify the term, power yoga is a faster paced form of yoga, where you sweat your calories as you would in a regular gym workout.

But the way every teacher interprets the practice is totally different. Some power rooms are heated (like in hot yoga, so that you burn more calories), while others keep it cool. But one thing is sure, you will burn alot of calories. Power yoga is great for strength training since you change your asanas constantly. This means you are lifting and holding your entire body's weight constantly and this will definitely help you pump adrenaline.

This form of yoga takes its cues from the the practice made famous by Ashtanga master Sri K Pattabhi Jois since two of the most notable names associated with power yoga  Beryl Bender Birch and Bryan Kest  have personally studied under Pattabhi Jois.

Where to find Power Yoga classes:

Mumbai: Yoga Power Studio

Delhi: Wholistic Fitness

Bengaluru: Akshar Yoga

Yin Yoga

This form is perfect for those who do not want their yoga routine to be fast-paced or sweaty, and want a gentle warm-up or stretching session.

Yin Yoga is far more slow-paced than Ashtang or Bikram Yoga, thus making it suitable for beginners. But it would be wrong to assume that it is not challenging, because it can take you out of your comfort zone in the process of healing tight body parts like hamstrings or hips.

Where to find Yin Yoga classes:

Mumbai: Lakshya Yoga

Delhi: The Yoga Studio

Bengaluru: Aayana Yoga
Contemporary accounts tell us that Nalandas large and distinguished library  apparently housed in a nine-storeyed building  burnt for three days in the flames of destruction. While Nalanda lingered on for some time more after it had regrouped and reorganised itself following the devastation, it would never regain its former size, quality or reputation.  From 'An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions'; Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen.

The ruins of Nalanda bear testimony to Turkish invader Bakhtiyar Khiljis dishonourable deed of burning nine million books  encompassing subjects as diverse as literature, astronomy, theology and astrology  c. 1200 CE. At this ancient seat of higher learning situated in Bihar, the past is imagined time and again  sometimes in its ascendant, sometimes in its descent. But, the present is almost equidistant from both and has the will to align itself to either version of the two pasts.

After APJ Abdul Kalam mooted the idea of Nalanda Universitys revival in 2006, the school woke up from its long slumber. With the cooperation of the government of Bihar and the Government of India, 450 acres of land were identified for a new structure in Rajgir to come up around Nalandas remains. Since the ancient university attracted scholars from Japan, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Korea and South East Asia, internationalism was at the core of this redevelopment. It 2013, under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed with Australia, Cambodia, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, Lao PDR and Myanmar, and the first academic session began in September 2014. In the same year, the Centre sanctioned Rs 2,727 crore for the construction of the university over the next decade.

On board the national train journey of social entrepreneurs, the Jagriti Yatra, Firstpost reached Nalanda and got a look into the problems of quality education that lie beyond infrastructural developments and large spends.

At the convention centre, whose plane glass windows offered unspoiled views of the Rajgir hills, we found four 20-somethings  Ranjan Kumar, Subhash Kumar, Dipesh Kumar and Chandan Kumar  locals who work as part of the housekeeping staff. Ask them if theyve attended college or finished school and they tell you they had neither the motivation nor the money  the two prerequisites for the pursuit of higher education.

It has been two years since the establishment of the Samastipur Government Polytechnic but classes are still held in Adarsh Madhya Vidyalaya, a government middle school. On one side the students have begun graduating from college and on the other side, the college doesnt have its own building. Similarly, the Sher Shah College of Engineering at Sasaram operates inside a polytechnic at Dehri-on-Sone. Why should we trust whats on paper? asks Preetam Kumar Shahi, who teaches civil engineering at a government polytechnic in Darbhanga. He wonders how hundreds of students prepare for IIT-JEE at centres in Kota, Rajasthan, but are somehow able to show 75 percent attendance in schools back in places like Rajgir, Kishanganj, Buxar, Araria, and Bihar Sharif. Many engineering students feel they gain more from attending tuition in Patna because government colleges dont have labs. Due to a shortage of full-time staff at colleges, professors have to make students do lab work, informed Shahi, who also alleged that at the Munshi Singh College in East Champaran releases only half the merit list because the rest of the seats are paid for. The scandal of paid seats must be investigated further, it is quite a common problem in Bihar, he told us.

Munna Kumar had a similar story to share. He is lecturer at Lakshmi Narayan Dubey College, a Bihar government college established in Motihari in the East Champaran district in 1966. In our college, the teaching staff numbers in the single digits and most of them are hired on a contractual basis. I also teach at the Dr Shri Krishna Singh Mahila College because the Bihar government doesnt match the UGC minimum wages. Most teachers start their own tuition centres since its more profitable, he said, explaining how economic loopholes are causing a disruption within the system. Kumar, who teaches MCA students, confessed that his pupils often 'outsource' projects like website designing and software development to teachers and pay them a good amount. Munna talked about a dearth of teaching staff in establishments like the Aryabhatta Knowledge University, Patna; Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur; Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga; Magadh Univesity, Bodhgaya; Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University, Madhepura.

RS Mehta, who runs a community welfare project named Samajik Vikas Sansthaan in Nalanda, said that the government, in its large scale awareness drives against liquor and dowry (nasha-bandi and dahej-bandi) involves school administration along with district administration. This adds to the burden of teachers. He asked why a similar road-mapping cannot be done for education. Recently, Minister of State for HRD in Bihar, Upendra Kushwahas party Rashtriya Lok Samata Party conducted an awareness program called 'Shiksha Sudhar Manav Katar', where critical issues in education were being raised. Mehta called this a welcome move but insisted that such efforts must be consistent.

After seven decades of independence, awareness about the need for education is still necessary in Bihar. As stated in the Government of Bihars Economic Survey 2016-2017: In 2011, the literacy rate in India was 72.9 percent, with male literacy at 80.9 percent and female literacy at 64.6 percent. The literacy rate in Bihar was much lower at 61.8 percent, with male literacy at 71.2 percent and female literacy at 51.5 percent. However, the increase in literacy rate in Bihar was 17.9 percentage points between 2001 and 2011, compared to 10.9 percentage points for the entire country. Bihar still has a long way to go.

Mohd Tausifur Rahman runs an education-awareness NGO named Aapka Banjariya in Banjariya, East Champaran. Champaran, where Gandhi started the first satyagraha of Indian independence is now a hotbed of crime. The bahubalis and dacoits are a real threat and years after the Land Ceiling Act, the zamindari system still exists. This results in economic deprivation and children drift further away from education, he explained.

According to the Tendulkar Committee estimates, the poverty ratio for Bihar is 34.1 per cent for rural and 31.2 percent for urban households in 2011-12, implying an overall poverty ratio of 33.7 percent. Between 2004-05 and 2011-12, the poverty ratio declined by 20.7 percentage points for Bihar, as against 15.3 percentage points for all-India. Much like Champaran, life in Bihars Jamui district isnt easy. The region is fraught with Naxal terror. It is here that Niwas Kumar lives. The 20-year-old school dropout-turned-social entrepreneur is working on the concept of teacher-less schools through his NGO Saathi Education. In Jamui, youll find that in one classroom, children between the ages of 10 to 15 studying from different textbooks. My concept is that the students can be moulded to teach their juniors instead of waiting for teachers to finally show up, he said, adding that time is being wasted in waiting and a chain of knowledge can be formed to make the students more interested in each others welfare.

Razia, who works for an NGO called Project Potential, works on mindset change among the women of Kishanganj. I come from a Muslim family and I know how I have overcome social and economic factors to complete my education. Unless we work on mindset change through counselling, the literacy rate might not improve, more so for girls. Rajasthan and Bihar had the lowest female literacy rates in India at roughly 53 per cent each (Census of India, 2011).

As per the Annual Status of Education Report 2016, (a household-based survey, conducted by the non-profit organisation Pratham) the attendance rate in schools in Bihar ranges from 50 to 60 percent. Project Potential is an NGO is working on hacking the problem of unemployed and migration in Bihar, where 25 percent of graduates are currently unemployed; close to 4.5 million people migrate out of Bihar each year to try to find work.

Zubin Sharma, the founder of Project Potential, is a New Yorker, but has shifted base to Bihar (namely the Kishanganj, Araria, Katihaar and Purnia districts). The problem we have noticed in primary schools is that teacher absenteeism is rampant. The contract teachers are paid less and made to work more and the older teachers are paid more and get away with doing less. There are two teaching unions that are constantly at war with each other and strikes happen often, he said, adding that another problem he has noticed in schools of Bahadurganj is that the student-teacher contact is quite low, sometimes as little as an hour a day.

The doctrine that serves as the axis of existence for a Buddhist is 'anitya', or the truth of impermanence. No amount of fame or privileged insight can survive change, for it is the only reality that is constant. Unless the state of Bihar wipes the mist off the mirror and sees the flaws in its education sector with clarity, despite efforts of magnificent scale, the narrative of Nalanda will remain one of lost glory.
post-truth - pst:tru - adjective

"Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief"

**

The word post-truth may have been coined in 1992, but it has gained a new significance in the era of Donald Trump, Brexit and 'alternative facts'. At a time when narratives of a national scale are being defined and shaped using what are deemed less important facts, one grapples with the very idea of what is real  and this is not limited to America or the UK. Back home, historians, journalists and political commentators have at many points in the past and present found themselves at odds with a majority and State that is simply unwilling to accept the inferences drawn from and interpretations of their research, because it challenged their power or ideology directly, or because it went against the dominant narrative.

It is then unsurprising why the examination of post-facts which culminate into post-histories, and indeed the role of historians, becomes more relevant than ever. Professor Sunil Khilnani, Director of the King's College London India Institute and scholar of politics and history, said in an interview, "The purpose of scholarship is to engage with the public imagination, not just with other scholars," thus highlighting the need to present such information to the public, so that they may engage with it and have a balanced, informed perspective. Professor Khilnani held forth on the subject in the third Jehangir Nicholson Memorial Lecture held at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, drawing from the challenges he faces today as an academician.

"The word post-truth is a cliche in an age when the American president outright denies facts. Masters of post-truths focus on emotion," he said. But how did we turn into such a society? Professor Khilnani said that it was result of the attacks on the works of historians, the collateral damage of which could even take the form of "being shot at one's doorstep" as was the unfortunate case of right-wing critic and journalist Gauri Lankesh. He said that people such as Dr Ambedkar and Rabindranath Tagore sought truth and awareness, and they and others who ensured India's independence created a "transparent moment" in history. "We have not been able to deliver this transparency today. India is a young nation, so there is a tendency to be protective of its image. We are sentimental, deferential. We deny the work of Tagore and Ambedkar. India was founded by open thinkers  men who were people, not pillars. They believed in frank, civil expression and public reason and logic. We are cynical, secretive now," he said.

He said that there is a tendency to frame narratives which deify, demonise, and mythologise both historical personalities and events, and which are singular and unidirectional in nature, which goes against one of the fundamentals of Nehru  of a pluralisitic culture with varied stories. He warned of the danger of mythologising facts, which prevents people from debating about them. "History has only been glorified. It is not appreciated when it is 'complicated' by asking questions. If you can de-mythologise, you can re-humanise. Evidence of pluralistic narratives is available aplenty, as Romila Thapar has shown in her work where she found that singular narratives are actually difficult to find," he said.

He warned about the dangerous tendency of memory to be exclusive and forgetful at the hands of political entrepreneurs, who he termed 'Godfathers of memory'. He said that fears stem from the view that history doesn't support one's view of the world. Democracies, where people are otherwise interested in the past and varied accounts of it, suffer the most due to simplified narratives, in his opinion. Prof Khilnani advocated that there must be counter-narratives, much like the counter-essentialist Indian response to the essentialist British portrayal of India in pre-Independence times.

To amply answer the question 'Who are we?' he says that we must think self-critically and challenge widely held beliefs. "We think of Ashoka as a non-violent ruler, but he had a blood-splattered youth, and he used violence against the forest people. We think we are a deeply spiritual people, but ancient texts like the Arthasastra talk about deceit, murder and ways to execute them. Women are turned into mythic symbols. Instead of an able ruler, Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi has been turned into a goddess," he said. He said that this was also true in the case of Rani Padmini who is at the centre of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Padmaavat. "People are fearful when figures such as her are portrayed as human beings with emotions. Vasundhara Raje said that 'Her myth is our self-esteem', which seems to suggest that myth is the only way we know ourselves to be worthwhile... We need to move away from such essentialism and romanticisation," he said.

In his book Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, he presents subversive personalities who questioned what was accepted by larger society. "It is the historian's job to show diversity. For very long, history has been reduced to being the polish that is used to burnish idols, or the mud to be slung towards one's enemies. The attitude towards historical inquiry must extend beyond facts," he said. He emphasised on the need to leave behind documents for the interpretation of history.

"Shutting down intellectual curiosity is patronising. Our prejudice in the way we view history is revealing about our own conceits," Prof Khilnani explained. He believes that apart from cultural differences, there are three other reasons why post-facts are generated. The first of these is economistic, which emerged in India in the 90s when there was an urge to dispose off history, which was considered baggage or bunk. It was not seen as having economic value. "The second is the substitution of memory for fact, whereby people give up on history. The third is weaponisation, visible in instances such as the Maharashtra bandh, where historical events were the basis to make present demands," he explained.

He says that all of these factors weaken knowledge. "It is harder to write freely. Values are being lost, and partisanship dominates narratives. Our identity becomes more elusive if historians do not continue their work," he added. He has noticed an optimistic trend, where people have attempted to make the present more transparent. "Guerrilla instances like the Panama Papers have shown that there are no objective facts, and I hope there will be more such instances," he said.

In most universities, courses on modern history are limited to the period up to the 1940s. JNAF trustee Cyrus Guzder recalled a conversation with Khilnani where the professor elucidated the importance of considering current affairs, and how we continue to draw from ancient knowledge to understand the present. "Sunil asked us to consider Jignesh Mevani's march to the Prime Minister's office... with the Constitution in one hand and the Manusmriti in the other. He was probably welcomed by a guard wearing a saffron hat, holding the Rig Veda and Arthasastra in his hands." He said that India's democracy gives us the opportunity to transform experience into history, which can serve as the reference for other post-colonial societies  "a more relevant reference than the US or Europe".

Prof Khilnani compared the way India's history is engaged with to that of the West, which he says is well-documented. For example, much of what we know about industrialisation as an economic change is from sources based on accounts of workers in Britain. "India seeks ways to expand its presence in the world, and ideas are the most ideal way to achieve this, not military or economic power. For India's history to become more central to the world, we must be more open to questions," he said.

In totalitarian regimes, the personality of dictators or theology are central, he explained, but in the case of democracies, history is vital. "Voters are confronted with choices that they are accountable for, and in order to make decisions, they draw upon what they know about choices made in the past," he said. "To falsify history is to weaken the state. It is the worst of all corruptions because it hampers the ability of the state to understand itself."
New Delhi: Former Congress leader Arif Mohammad Khan blamed the Grand Old Party for the stalemate over the triple talaq bill in Rajya Sabha, alleging that it had acted on the directions of the AIMPLB in the Upper House.

Khan, a staunch supporter of reforms in the Muslim personal laws, had resigned from the Rajiv Gandhi-led government in 1986 due to his differences over the Muslim personal law bill piloted by the dispensation to nullify the verdict in the Shah Bano case.

"You are exercising your power (as members of Rajya Sabha) to meet the whims of one organisation. You could have said your views (of AIMPLB) would be considered sympathetically. This raises serious questions, including about the dignity of the House," he claimed.

He blamed the Congress for stalling the triple talaq bill in the Upper House.

Defending the provision for a three-year imprisonment in the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, Khan said, "Only through an effective deterrent punishment can the criminal act of instant divorce be checked."

Khan told Rajya Sabha TV in an interview that instant divorce was a criminal act under Islamic jurisprudence and it deserved an effective, deterrent punishment.

"They (Congress) made a law in 1986 to negate the Supreme Court's judgement in favour of Muslim women in the Shah Bano case and they now stopped a law being made in pursuance of the judgement of the apex court. It is a clear case of political expediency," he alleged.

The Supreme Court in the Shah Bano case had upheld the right to alimony. Its judgement had triggered a controversy about the extent to which courts can interfere in Muslim personal law.

Khan claimed that there was growing support among Muslim men as well for the bill.

Speaking on the Opposition's demands over subsistence allowance for Muslim woman, he said the bill was for a limited purpose of enforcing the Supreme Court's judgement.

The government has to enforce all laws, including those emanating from the Supreme Court, he added.

Khan claimed that when the Congress did not refer the Shah Bano bill to any committee, how could they now demand that the triple talaq bill be referred to a select committee.

The bill criminalising talaq-e-biddat was passed by the Lok Sabha in the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament but was stuck in the Rajya Sabha. Opposition parties as well as NDA ally TDP had reservations over criminal provisions in the draft law.

MPs in the Upper House had demanded that the bill, which proposes to make triple talaq a cognisable and non-bailable offence, be referred to a parliamentary committee for review.
Mumbai: Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal will address a rally at the birthplace of Jijabai, mother of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji, in Maharashtra on Friday.

Kejriwal will address the rally at Sindkhed Raja in Buldhana district, and pay tributes on her birth anniversary,

party sources said.

Every year, lakhs of people, mostly from the politically dominant Maratha community, gather at the place to pay their respects to Rajmata (King's mother) Jijabai.

Police had initially denied permission for the rally citing law and order issues, but the rally, slated on Friday morning, will be held as planned after AAP leaders took up this issue with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and senior police officials, the sources said.

After the permission was granted, Kejriwal had tweeted in Marathi, saying "On the occasion of Rajmata Jijau Jayanti on 12 January, I am coming to Sindkhed Raja to have a dialogue with the people of Maharashtra."

Marathas, who comprise of approximately 32 percent of the state's population, had taken to the streets last year,

demanding reservations in education and job sectors. The choice of the venue also underlines the agenda of the party, particularly in the backdrop of the recent turmoil in Maharashtra, where Marathas were pitted against Dalits

after the Bhima-Koregaon violence.

Kejriwal is expected to induct Brigadier (retd.) Sudhir Sawant, a former Congress MP from Konkan region, into the AAP, at the rally on Friday AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said. Sawant is a Maratha.

However, the AAP spokesperson said her party does not believe in wooing the Maratha community or any other

community. "We do not believe in the politics of caste," she added.

"We chose this venue because we believe in the values of Jijabai which she imbibed in Shivaji Maharaj," she said.
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday lashed out at the BJP government in the state and accused them of misleading the people with false hopes and dividing them along caste and religious lines.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Lucknow, Yadav said there was an atmosphere of lawlessness and fear under the watch of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and listed several cases where the police and the members of ruling party had allegedly committed excesses on the common people.

"The BJP has mastered the art of misleading people and I am sure that having seen their reality, the people will throw them out in the 2019 General Elections," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

Many atrocities were being perpetrated on women and girls and their honour and lives were not safe under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, he said.

The party also paraded the father of a minor girl who was hacked to death while returning from school.

The bereaved father alleged that he was getting threatening calls from the perpetrators and members of the BJP asking him not to rake up the matter further.

Coming from Nishad community, the man told media persons that his family had been living in perpetual fear, after which Yadav assured him that the matter would be taken up with Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik.

"I will write to him and petition him on your behalf, seeking safety and security of your family," Yadav told the man.

The former chief minister also called the BJP "the biggest casteist force" and said: "When they (BJP) do it, the media says it is social engineering, demographic understanding and booth management, but when we advocate the rights of people from different castes, we are dubbed casteists."

"Now we will also fight iron with iron -- lohe se loha katenge," he said suggesting that the party would emulate the formula of caste combinations mastered by the BJP.

Asked to comment on the future of his party's alliance with the Congress, as was the case in 2017 assembly polls, he responded ambiguously, saying that as of now the party was busy with sprucing up its own machinery and added that the SP would cross the bridge when it came.
Bungalow No. 15 on Mahadeo Road, in close proximity to the Parliament House, has recently become a place of much discussion in political circles. On this Lutyens Delhi road stands a house allotted to Mahesh Giri, BJP MP from East Delhi. In here, one can get a sense of the contours of the master plan for a Narendra Modi victory in the 2019 elections. A large banner and a projection system invoking all to take a pledge, make a commitment (Aao ek sankalp lein, aao ek aahuti dein) is unmissable.

The projector shows a video of a yagna or a collective Hindu prayer around a ceremonial fire, being performed by sadhus in large-sized mandaps at various locations. Aao ek sankalp lein, aao ek aahuti dein is the slogan for the mahayagna being planned in the grounds adjacent to the Red Fort from 18-25 March, sources close to Giri said. Inside his house, a pandal has been installed with almost 200 chairs to seat visitors who will be given tea and snacks.

The pandal confirms the mahayagna (which is being caled the rashtriya raksha yagya) rumours at Giri's residence, who happens to be a disciple of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living. This event, particularly the choice of venue (next to the Red Fort), is already causing much consternation and has the potential to develop in to a full blown political debate.

The Red Fort is intrinsic to national heritage. The monument was the seat of the Mughal Empire for nearly 200 years. The coronation of Bahadur Shah Zafar, last Mughal emperor, was held here in 1837. It then went to the British, and became an important address for barracks and offices of the Raj. It is from its ramparts that Prime Ministers have addressed the nation on the 15th of August.

The idea that such a location can be the possible venue for a Rashtriya Raksha Yagya might ruffle feathers. There is, however, no official confirmation for the proposed event.

When approached by Firstpost, Giri confirmed that he had no information to give at this stage but said that a curtain raiser will be held on 22 January during which the media would be briefed on all aspects of the proposed event, including the guest list and whether the Archaeological Survey of India will grant permission for such an event so close to the monument. The press conference will be held from 18-25 March, 2018.

Interestingly, there already exists a strict check on media entering Giri's residence. In case, media persons reach him home, his supporters strongly urge them not to shoot any photos or videos of the pandal. Even though nobody wanted to go on record, the murmurs in the pandal seem to suggest that the purpose of the yagna is to come up with a 2019 electoral master plan.

Sources went on to speculate that Modi might inaugurate the yagna, but quickly added that the prime minister hasn't committed to anything yet. Sources also indicated that President Ram Nath Kovind might bring the ceremony to a close and that BJP chief Amit Shah will be present at the ceremony too. The biggies aside, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, Union Ministers, parliamentarians and Hindu religious leaders are expected at the ceremony.

Even though there is no confirmation, it seems that the BJP, which holds power in 19 states, still wants to ensure that nothing comes in the way of its victory in 2019.

This article was first published on Firstpost Hindi. Click here to read the original article
Mumbai: While saying he has other options open, BJP MLA Ashish Deshmukh, facing a show cause notice for 'anti-party remarks', on Thursday said Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis should first give reply to his letter on the issue of separate Vidarbha.

Deshmukh is a vocal supporter of statehood for Vidarbha.

Addressing a press conference, he said that Fadnavis and his cabinet colleague Sudhir Mungantiwar, when they were Opposition MLAs, had moved a resolution for separate Vidarbha in the Maharashtra Assembly seven times.

"I reminded in my letter to the chief minister about the BJP's assurance on Vidarbha state after four years in power. If two Marathi states come into existence, it will be a good development. (As it is) There are two Telugu-speaking states," Deshmukh, the son of former state Congress chief Ranjit Deshmukh, said.

Statehood to Vidarbha would solve the problems of development deficit, farmer suicides and unemployment in the region, he said.

"For the first time in the history of the state, there is 30 percent cut in development works of District Planning Development Committees (DPDC). Governments change but the situation on the ground remains the same," he said.

Not a single project was sanctioned in Vidarbha under the Make In India project, he alleged.

"Options are open before me. But I am confident the party would address the issues raised by me. Fadnavis should reply to my letter before I reply to the show-cause notice," he said.

Deshmukh, who started a 'Vidarbha Atmabal Yatra' for the cause of separate Vidarbha on 7 January, said he will cover all 62 Assembly constituencies in the region before it concludes on 13 February.
New Delhi: Latching onto a PDP MLA's "Kashmiri militants are martyrs" comment, the Congress on Thursday questioned the BJP whether it agrees with what the legislator belonging to its alliance partner in Jammu and Kashmir has said and asked it to come clean on the issue.

"It is the PDP MLA who has said this. The PDP is in alliance with the BJP (in Jammu and Kashmir). The BJP will have to tell whether it agrees with what its alliance partner has said", Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said, while speaking to reporters.

"Whether the BJP believes that the militants are their brothers and sisters? These are questions the BJP needs to answer. People are awaiting answer," he said.

Ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Aijaz Ahmed courted controversy on Wedensday by calling Kashmiri militants "martyrs" and "brothers", batting for talks with separatists, and cautioning against glorifying killing of terrorists.

"Terrorists, who are from Kashmir are martyrs. Yes, they are our brothers. They are our children," Ahmed, an MLA from South Kashmir's Wachi, said in Jammu.

He noted that some of the militants were minors who don't even know what they are doing.

"They are children who have gone down the wrong track and should be counselled and brought back," Ahmed said.
New Delhi: The Congress appeared to defend Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah after he called the BJP and the RSS "Hindutva extremists", saying he wouldn't have made the statement without police intelligence inputs.

"He (Siddaramaiah) is the chief minister of a state... It is possible that the chief minister has inputs which we don't have. In this situation, you will have to pose this question to the chief minister and seek clarification. Because he won't speak anything of this kind if he has no intelligence input," Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan told reporters.

He also hit back at BJP president Amit Shah for his remarks that the Karnataka government was "anti-Hindu". Addressing a rally in Karnataka on Wednesday, Shah charged the state government with perpetrating atrocities against BJP and RSS workers, claiming 20 of them were killed in the state over the last three years.

Siddaramaiah, while speaking to reporters on Wednesday in Chamarajanagara district, alleged that the BJP, RSS and the Bajrang Dal had terrorists in their organisations, a charge rubbished by the saffron party. It was not clear whether the chief minister made the comment in retaliation to Shah's remark.

Siddaramaiah, who came under intense attack from the BJP on Wednesday for saying that the party and its fountainhead RSS had "terrorists", on Thursday called them "Hindutva extremists".

Speaking to reporters, Siddaramaiah said, "I had said they are Hindutva terrorists. I am also a Hindu, but I'm a Hindu with humanity, they are Hindus without humanity. That is the difference between me and... (them)."

Referring to Shah's jibe, Vadakkan also said the BJP chief made the comment with the sole intention of winning the upcoming Assembly election in Karnataka. Hitting out at Shah, Vadakkan said it was "strange" that Shah called the state government as "anti-Hindu".

"Shah's intention is to win. How he does that is his angle. It is strange to say that anti-Hindu. Only Amit Shah ji can do this," he said, adding only people of the state can decide whose government will be formed (in the state). The BJP also dared Siddaramaiah to arrest its as well as RSS leaders.
Delhi: Attacking the Centre over China's reported attempt to build a road in the Tuting area of Arunachal Pradesh, the Congress said it happened due to "intelligence failure" and asked if New Delhi had granted a "franchise" to Beijing to construct roads.

Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan wondered what Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Home Minister Rajnath Singh were doing when China "reportedly built 1.3-km-long road in the Indian territory". "It was an attempt by China to foster Doka La 2.0," he said.

On a sarcastic note, he asked if the government had granted a franchise to China to construct road in India. "My simple question to the Government of India is have they granted a franchise to the Chinese government to build roads in India, in our territory? Why is this happening? "What was our intelligence doing? What were our defence minister, home minister doing? It's total intelligence failure," he told reporters.

Vadakkan suggested relaxing a Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) criteria that a village with a population of at least 100 can have a government-built road. "Bishing, the village where China reportedly constructed the road, has 16 households and a population of 54, which is why there is no road there," he said. "The Congress wants to give a positive suggestion to the government. Taking in account national security, PMGSY norms for remote areas should be relaxed and roads must be built to prevent such cases in the future," he added.

Vadakkan alleged that "false bravado, chest thumping and TV studio warfare" were the tools the Modi government employed to manage headlines when it came to critical issues of national security. "The Modi government has displayed a heedless, incautious and short-sighted attitude, when it comes to such issues of national security...National security is being ignored," he

alleged.

Vadakkan cited the alleged rise in the number of Chinese transgressions into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control, scrapping of a Rs 32,000-crore project to build 12 advanced minesweepers and nuclear submarine INS Arihant reportedly suffering major damage due to "human error" to drive his point home. "The defence minister should clarify the factual matrix

on INS Arihant and when will it be operational again. Shockingly, its absence from operations came to the Modi government's attention during the Dokalam standoff.
Bengaluru: In a no-holds barred attack, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday alleged BJP, RSS and Bajrang Dal have terrorists within their organisations, a charge rubbished by the BJP.

"They are themselves like terrorists in a way. BJP, RSS and Bajarang Dal also have terrorists within," he said taking his attack on the ruling Congress' principal rival to a new level ahead of the state Assembly polls due early this year.

Strongly reacting to the remarks, the state BJP accused Siddaramaiah of desperately trying to polarise elections on communal lines "by calling BJP-RSS terror organisations."

Speaking to reporters in Chamarajanagara district, the chief minister said the government would not tolerate whoever indulges in terrorist activities.

"Whether it is the Popular Front of India (PFI), Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), Bajarang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad or any other organisation... if they indulge in disturbing harmony and brotherhood in the society, and spread communalism, they will not be tolerated," he added.

Asked whether he will send a report to the Centre for banning such organisations, Siddaramaiah said, "...we have to get documents to say that they are indulging in such activities."

In a tweet, the state BJP charged: "CM @siddaramaiah is desperately trying to polarise elections on communal lines by calling BJP-RSS terror organisations...

"What they don't realise is India is not in 1975 and Indira Gandhi is not the Prime Minister today," it added.

Hitting back at the chief minister, senior BJP Leader and MLC V Somanna said Siddaramaiah has "lost his mental balance".

RSS has contributed immensely for the nation, he told reporters and demanded an apology from Siddaramaiah to the people of the state and withdrawal of his remarks.

"I urge the chief minister that he should not show a soft corner towards terror organisations that are planning to turn this state into Kerala-like situation. It is not good for you," he added.

BJP has been demanding a ban on Islamist outfit PFI and its political wing SDPI holding them responsible for a spate of killings of Hindu activists in the coastal Dakshina Kannada district.

On the other hand, PFI has blamed Sangh Parivar outfits for the killing of those from Muslim community in the region.

As the coastal region remained on edge over repeated incidents of communal tensions, Siddaramaiah had recently warned of 'stringent' action against organisations provoking communal sentiments in the state.

"Not only PFI, we will take action against all communal organisations," he had said while also naming Bajarang Dal and Pramod Muthalik's fringe right wing Sri Rama Sene.
Ahmedabad: Members of Koli community from various states on Wednesday pressed the resolve to strengthen their organisation so as to "effectively negotiate" better representation in the BJP and the Congress during elections.

Representatives of the community from 15 states assembled in Ahmedabad to demand better representation of their MLAs in both the parties in Gujarat and to chalk out a strategy for states which will go to polls in coming months.

"In Gujarat, the community is aggrieved with both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress for not allotting senior Koli leaders the posts they deserved," said Gujarat chapter of Akhil Bharatya Koli Samaj president Chandravadan Pethawalla after the meeting.

As many as 33 MLAs in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly are Kolis, who accounts for around 24 percent of the state population, he said.

Among the 33 legislators, 11 are from the BJP and 12 from the Congress, Pethawalla said.

"This was significantly higher than the 17 Koli MLAs who were elected last time," he said. Pethawalla said despite being a numerically significant community, Koli MLAs are not getting the posts they deserve in the BJP as well as the Congress. He said the Congress "ignored" the demand of the Koli community to make senior MLA Kunwarji Bavaliya as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Gujarat.

"Similarly, the ruling BJP did not give five-time MLA Purshottam Solanki a Cabinet rank (in the Vijay Rupani

government)," he said. Both Bavaliya and Solanki had recently staked claims for LoP and a Cabinet portfolio, respectively.

"While the Congress picked Paresh Dhanani as the LoP, the BJP assured Solanki that it would consider his demand.

However, his demand is not met yet," Pethawalla said. Despite Bavaliya being a senior leader and the national secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Koli Samaj who had worked hard for the Congress to perform well in Saurashtra region, he was not given the position he deserved, he claimed.

Pethawalla said the Koli community was "hurt" because of the manner in which political parties are treating their

leaders.

"At 26 percent, we form a significant chunk of population across the country. We resolved to strengthen our political position so that we could negotiate better with political parties during elections," Pethawalla said. He said the organisation would write to the BJP and the Congress at national level and seek appointments from their top brass to put forward demands of the community and to express grievances.
The CBI court may have acquitted all accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case but former Union telecom minister A Rajas tell-all book busts for good the myth of personal integrity created around Manmohan Singh. The book  2G Saga Unfolds  is yet to hit the stands but excerpts from it  run exclusively by CNNNews18  and the sequence of events since the DMK leaders acquittal show the former prime minister in unflattering light. Manmohans carefully crafted image  that he was an honest (if helpless) man besieged by dishonest men around him  now lies in tatters.

The issue isnt whether or not there were massive irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation. That case will continue in courts. The issue is whether Manmohan Singh, who professes to be the Caesars wife, has been consistent in his statements about the extent of his involvement in the spectrum allocation procedure.

Raja directly contests Singhs long-standing defence  that he wasnt aware of the details  and claims in his book that the prime minister was kept fully aware of all his actions. If true, this destroys Singhs arms length defence.

It may be recalled that merely 13 days after Raja had allocated spectrum in January 2008  as an RTI inquiry had revealed  Singh had directed the PMO to write to the telecom ministry that his office be kept at arms length from Rajas decisions.

Accordingly, the prime ministers private secretary wrote: "PM wants this informally shared with the Dept...Does not want a formal communication & wants PMO to be at arms length pl. Two days later, Singhs PS recorded that the note on spectrum allocation has been "informally shared with secretary, DoT. We may keep on file", according to a report carried by The Times of India.

The newspaper further reported that the PMO note does not call for auction of start-up spectrum, raises concern about shortage of spectrum, and steers clear of policy manipulations when Raja was the telecom minister.

This clearly suggested Singh was either aware or at least apprehensive about Rajas actions, as Arun Shourie, the telecom minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayees cabinet, told Economic Times in 2011.

Why would he (Singh) give this instruction to his officers unless he knew that there is murky stuff going on and it is better to stay away? I think he had full knowledge and I think he had deep apprehension that something terrible has happened and his only concern was let's stay away from the filth. That is not what a prime minister is supposed to do...

Further, in an interview in 2011 with electronic media editors, the former prime minister had cited coalition compulsions as the reason behind his inaction against Raja and categorically denied that he was aware of the first-come-first-served (FCFS) methodology.

"Who got the licences... how FCFS was implemented...this was never discussed with me nor was it brought to the Cabinet. This was exclusively Telecom Minister's decision," Singh had said during the interaction.

This creates an impression of plausible deniability which Singh had so far used as a cloak to deflect all criticisms of his action (or inaction). That the former prime minister may have been economical with truth in his denial of knowledge about FCFS procedure is a possibility that was highlighted in media.

In 2013, Shalini Singh in The Hindu cited a set of hitherto unseen documents emerging from PMO File No 180/31/C/26/OS.ESI, Vol. IV that the Prime Minister, after receiving written intimations from Mr. Raja on 26 December about his plans to manipulate the first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy, directed on 29 December, 2007 that the letter be examined urgently.

The deniability defence is comprehensively taken down by Raja. Excerpts from his book (a copy of which is in possession of CNN-News18 punch huge holes in Singhs contention that he was kept in the dark.

The DMK leader claims he had several meetings with the prime minister and that the PMO was monitoring this matter and following up on it, proving false the allegation that the prime minister was misled or kept in the dark. The former telecom minister also rues that the prime minister never came to his help despite being in the loop on telecom ministrys decisions all the while.

Some of the other revelations in Rajas book include:

On 2 November 2007, I wrote a letter to the PM (Manmohan Singh) to apprise him of the events and decisions taken in the department in relation to the 2G licensing/spectrum. (P70)

I had a meeting with the PM later in the month of November in order to further discuss the matter contained in our letters along with details of the existing rules and regulations. (P 74)

I explained everything in detail to him citing the observations in the department files. I pointed out to him that the enhanced subscriber base criteria recommended by TRAI was central to the concerns raised by COAI. (P 74)

The PM asked me to explain more about the enhanced subscriber base criteria. The PM expressed his surprise because he had been repeatedly misinformed that spectrum was not available. (P 74

The Prime Minister shifted in his seat, looked askance at me and asked, Is that so? I have been told that the impediment to the growth of Telecom sector is the non-availability of spectrum... How is it possible to have that much of spectrum available for distribution to so many? (P75)

The Prime Minister after listening to my explanations patiently and carefully made it clear to me that his letter was motivated by the news in the press about wrongdoings in the Ministry.I got his approval to go ahead with the process as indicated in my letters. (P77)

After going through the letters, the PM gave me a good suggestion, There is nothing wrong in your effort to prove that you have legal justification for every action of yours. (P 85)

The last few lines deserve expansion. If Singh was convinced that Raja did nothing wrong and that the telecom ministers actions were legally justified (as the DMK leader claims in his book), why did the former prime minister tell journalists in 2011 that he was constrained to retain Raja as telecom minister in UPA 2 because in a coalition government, the choices of the leaders of the alliance partners have to be accepted?

It verily seems as if Singh failed to cope with the political challenge arising out of the CAG report, Oppositions accusations and media pressure and hung Raja out to dry. The DMK leader betrayed his disappointment with Singhs conduct. He writes: Dr Manmohan Singhs palpable silence in relation to defending my wholly justified actions especially when the governing bodies (CVC, CBI, JPC, Supreme Court) were refusing to hear my defence felt to me like a silencing of our nations collective conscience.

Curiously, now that Raja has been acquitted by a special court of any wrongdoing in the spectrum allocation procedure, the former prime minister still cannot bring himself to either support his former ministers actions or issue an apology for forcing him to resign.

Raja evidently feels vindicated by courts decision and seeks a restoration of his integrity through Singhs public endorsement. His missive to Singh, though, brought a constipated and cautious response.

In his post-acquittal letter, Raja wrote: I understand the compulsions that prevented you from openly supporting me. Today, I stand vindicated. I hope you will acknowledge that I remained loyal and faithful to you  unlike some senior cabinet colleagues  and ensured that you did not suffer personal embarrassment in the trial proceedings.... Now that the truth about 2G is out in the open, perhaps you too could come forward in my support, which you could not earlier.

In response, all that Manmohan Singh could manage was Many thanks for your letter I am very happy that you stand vindicated in the 2G case. You and your family have suffered greatly in this process but all your friends are greatly relieved that truth has prevailed.

If the Congress is convinced that there was no scam and no illegality in 2G spectrum allocation, why cant Singh come out in public support of Raja as the DMK leader has sought? Perhaps this is because Singh is keen to avoid the trap of logical impossibility of his positions. An admission and public support of Rajas actions now would expose the lie that he had always been at arms length from the telecom ministrys moves. An apology for forcing Raja to resign would be politically inexpedient, since Congress claims there was no scam. It would prove the charge that he was a weak PM.

We are finally left with the urban myth about Manmohan Singhs integrity. It isnt difficult to draw the conclusion.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena, which has been opposing the likely induction of former Congress leader Narayan Rane into the Maharashtra cabinet, on Thursday said he is an "insignificant" figure for the party.

"Narayan Rane left the party (Sena) in 2005 and since then, he has twice been defeated by the Shiv Sena candidates. Thus, he is an insignificant figure for the party," party spokesperson Neelam Gorhe told reporters in Solapur.

The Sena has time and again voiced its opposition over Rane's imminent entry into the state cabinet.

Sena's Minister of State for Home Deepak Kesarkar had recently termed Rane "corrupt" and had advised the BJP against inducting the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP) leader who has a "criminal nature".

Downplaying the move of its estranged ally BJP, Gorhe claimed that it was because of the perseverance of Shiv Sena that issues like Goods and Services Tax (GST) and loan waiver for farmers were implemented.

"Shiv Sena MPs raised the issue in the Parliament and spoken to Jaitley and he had assured that our demands would be met. Thereafter, the chief minister also followed the issue up," she said.

The Sena had earlier made the issue of Rane's entry into the state cabinet as a precondition for its support to the candidature of BJP candidate Prasad Lad to the Legislative Council last month.

Rane, a former chief minister of Maharashtra, had tendered his resignation from the Congress and also the post of MLC in September last year.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday launched another attack on BJP, calling people of the Sangh Parivar "Hindutva terrorists". The attack comes a day after Siddaramaiah had alleged the Sangh has terrorists within its organisations, a charge rubbished by the BJP.

What I had said was that BJP and RSS people are Hindutva terrorists: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah pic.twitter.com/JMqxjWsldj  ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018

According to News 18, Siddaramaiah later clarified, "In my opinion, whoever spreads hate and incites violence is a terrorist."

Asked whether he will send a report to the Centre to ban such organisations, Siddaramaiah said, "We have to get documents to say that they are indulging in such activities."

The BJP reacted strongly to these remarks, and accused Siddaramaiah of desperately trying to polarise elections on communal lines "by calling BJP-RSS terror organisations". Senior BJP leader and MLC V Somanna said Siddaramaiah has "lost his mental balance", while BJP state spokesman S Prakash said, "If we are terrorists, the government must arrest us."

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "The statement of Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has reiterated Congress's policy of appeasement and its hatred towards Hindus."

The statement of Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has reiterated Congress's policy of appeasement and its hatred towards Hindus: Sambit Patra,BJP pic.twitter.com/h2h08J6ALc  ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018

BJP has been demanding a ban on Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political wing Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), holding them responsible for a spate of killings of Hindu activists in the state's coastal Dakshina Kannada district.

As Karnataka heads for Assembly elections this year, Siddaramaiah has been stepping up the fight against the Opposition. On 6 January, he had said the "fight" in the upcoming Assembly polls in the state would be between two ideologies: Communalism and Secularism.

"It's not between Siddaramaiah versus BJP, it is not between me versus Narendra Modi... it is not between Siddaramaiah and Yeddyurappa; it is between two ideologies: Congress' versus BJP's," he had told reporters in Chikkamagalur.

With inputs from PTI
Jabalpur: Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said on Wednesday that since he could not get an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he has now decided that he will not meet anyone in the government and instead express his views in public.

Referring to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP veteran LK Advani, Sinha said "today's BJP is not like the one in the days of Atalji and Advaniji."

He said in those days, even a "small-time worker could go to Delhi and meet party president Advani without appointment, who has targeted the government on many occasions recently".

"Now even senior and important leaders don't get appointment with the party president. So, I was not surprised when I did not get appointment for 13 months," he told reporters in Jabalpur.

"I sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi 13 months ago to discuss various issues, but I haven't got it so far. Since I haven't got time, I have decided now I will not meet anyone in the government. Whatever I have to say, I will say openly in public," Sinha said.

Referring to a photograph of BJP president Amit Shah offering a laddoo to the prime minister, Sinha said, "In that photo, Rajnath Singh, Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and others are visible. But Advani is not seen even at the back. Now he has become an 'aam' (ordinary) worker from 'khaas' (important one)."

The former finance minister is slated to take part in a farmers' agitation at Gadarwara in Narsinghpur district on Thursday.

He alleged that after coming to power, the BJP accepted all policies which it had opposed while being in the Opposition.

"I have decided that now I will not talk with the government. Farmers are being neglected in the country. Their condition is not good in Madhya Pradesh too," he said.

Referring to awards that the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh has received for its performance in agriculture, he said, "They are given on the basis of mere figures. I have played with them a lot in my life."

Sinha termed the Madhya Pradesh government's 'Bhavantar' scheme, under which farmers are paid the difference between the minimum support price and the low market price, and crop insurance scheme as an "empty gimmick".
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (3rd L) attends the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 10, 2018. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Li Keqiang co-chaired the meeting, which also brought together Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Myanmar Vice President U Myint Swe. [Photo: Xinhua/Zhang Duo]

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has announced that China will provide another 7 billion yuan (1.08 billion U.S. dollars) of government concessional loans within the framework of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC).

Li made the pledge here Wednesday at the second LMC leaders' meeting, where he also announced the setup of a 5-billion-dollar credit line for supporting production capacity and equipment manufacturing cooperation among Lancang-Mekong countries, according to a statement released Thursday.

The new offer came after China supplied other Lancang-Mekong countries with 10 billion yuan (1.54 billion dollars) of concessional loans, 5 billion dollars of export credit and 5 billion dollars for capacity cooperation in more than 20 infrastructure and industry projects, Li said.

The deficit that China holds with Mekong countries on farm product trade will not prevent China from importing more, Li said, adding that protectionism is China's last choice.

With a theme of "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development," the meeting brings leaders of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the table on such issues as connectivity, water management and industrial production capacity.

China is the largest trading partner of Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand and the second largest of Laos. Bilateral trade between China and the five riparian countries totaled 220 billion dollars in 2017, up 16 percent year on year.

Some 80 percent of China's rice imports are from Mekong countries. Their fruit exports to China have increased at 21 percent annually over the past decade.

Initiated by China in 2014, the framework spans connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, and agriculture and poverty reduction, benefiting dozens of millions of people living on the waterway.

The first LMC leaders' meeting was held in Sanya of China's Hainan Province in March 2016, when the goal of building a community of shared future of peace and prosperity for the LMC countries was endorsed.

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwest China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.
tech2 News Staff

Apple is in a big soup of its own making, as reports are coming that the number of lawsuits against the Cupertino-based giant have now doubled to 30 from 15 last week. The lawsuits in question are being filed after Apple admitted to slowing down older iPhone models in order to preserve battery life.

9to5Mac reports that 13 separate lawsuits have been filed in Northern California alone out of which eight are in San Jose. The report states that the three latest cases have listed five separate causes for the lawsuit which are Breach of Implied Contract, Trespass to Chattel, Breach of Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, Violation of Californias Unfair Competition Law and Violation of Californias Consumers Legal Remedies Act.

Will Apple be able to mitigate this disaster?

Offering battery replacement for $50 discount seemed to have eased the problem a bit. However, Apple is reportedly under investigation by a French watchdog and also has to face the US Senate Commerce Committee.

(Also Read: Apple admits to slowing down older iPhones as battery ages, but it needs to be more proactive about informing its users)

Apple had issued an apology on its website on 28 December after severe backlash from consumers over throttling iPhone speeds via software updates. Apple is also facing possible multiple class-action lawsuits across different countries as well (US, Israel, France) who seek to represent potentially millions of iPhone owners.
tech2 News Staff

Ecuador's foreign minister has said that the country has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

This comes immediately after Britain denied a request by Ecuador to issue diplomatic status to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in the country's London embassy since 2012 on 11 January.

"The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Mr. Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter," the British foreign ministry said in a statement.

Ecuador's attempt to obtain diplomatic status for the 46-year-old comes as part of the country's broader efforts to resolve the case of their long-term lodger, who moved into the embassy to avoid arrest over a Swedish probe into rape allegations.

Sweden dropped their investigation over the 2010 allegations last year, but British police have said they are still seeking to arrest him for failing to surrender to a court after violating bail terms.

"Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," Britain's foreign ministry said on 11 January.

Assange has refused to step outside the embassy and claimed he fears being extradited to the United States, for WikiLeaks' publication of leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Ecuadorian foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said on 9 January that her government is looking at the possibility of a "third country or a personality" stepping in to resolve the stand-off.

"No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out," Espinosa told foreign correspondents in Quito.

On 10 January the Ecuadorian foreign ministry had refused to comment on media reports that Assange, an Australian national, had been granted citizenship by the South American country.

With inputs from AFP
IANS

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope  the world's premier infrared space observatory of the next decade  has successfully completed the critical testing in a massive thermal vacuum chamber, enabling it to function properly in the extremely cold and airless environment in space in 2019, the agency said.

Webb Space Telescope, developed in coordination among NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, is the most sophisticated  and expensive  space observatory ever designed.

It features a 21.3-foot-wide primary mirror made up of 18 adjustable gold-coated segments.

Webb Telescope is a barrier-breaking mission for engineers and astronomers that will help solve mysteries of our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it, NASA said in a statement.

Webb telescope arrived at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston in May 2017, where it underwent critical cryogenic testing for nine months inside Chamber A, a massive thermal vacuum chamber at the centre.

On 10 July, the cryogenic testing of the telescope began.

During approximately 100 days in the chamber, Webb was put through a series of tests designed to ensure the telescope functioned as expected in an extremely cold, airless environment akin to that of space.

The engineers also checked on the alignment the telescope's 18 primary mirror segments to make sure that all of the gold-plated, hexagonal segments acted like a single, monolithic mirror in a space-like environment.

This test also showed Webb's science instruments were properly aligned with its mirrors and could detect simulated "starlight" within the chamber.

Webb emerged from Chamber A on 1 December, the statement said.

Scheduled for launch in the spring of 2019 aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket, the gamut of tests ensured that Webb will safely reach its orbit at Earth's second Lagrange point (L2) and be able to successfully perform its science mission.
Shomik Sen Bhattacharjee

Samsungs A series lineup which is the companys mid-premium smartphone category has always seen a number of features trickle down from its flagship Galaxy S and Note series. This year though Samsung seems to have finally done a few things differently and given the mid-ranged flagship space some competition.

The 2017 Galaxy A7 has been given a complete makeover for 2018, to a point that it has even seen a name change. The Galaxy A8 Plus (2018) was announced by Samsung India at a familiar price point of Rs 32,990. While that price puts the A8 Plus directly into OnePlus 5T and the Huawei Honor View 10 territory, the Korean giant has thrown in a number of features to make it a more compelling buy for most who would have thought otherwise.

The Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus (2018) not only features a completely fresh appearance and design, it brings a number of features that we earlier saw in Samsungs 2017 flagships. In my short handling and fidgeting around with the Galaxy A8 Plus, it surely feels like Samsung has attempted to make the A8 Plus feel like a affordable flagship rather than a premium mid-ranged smartphone.

Build and Design

Similar to last years Galaxy A7, the Galaxy A8 Plus comes with a sandwiched glass and metal design which is characteristic of the companys premium range of devices. What has changed though is the inclusion of the companys infinity edge display which gives the phone a very different look and feel than its predecessor.

The smartphone looks stunning at first glance and resembles the Galaxy Note 8 in many ways. Weighing 191 grams, the A8 Plus is cool to touch and feels every bit like a premium smartphone with a 6-inch display. On the front sits a layer of 2.5D glass while the back is adorned by a 3D curved glass pane with a cutout for the camera, LED flash and the fingerprint scanner (which is thankfully placed in the centre).

On the left we have a SIM slot and the volume rocker, while on the top we find another SIM card and microSD card slot. Towards the right side of the handset, we get the power button and surprisingly the speaker grille finds its place right above the power button. Though the positioning of the speaker grille is a little odd, the Galaxy A7 also had a similar positioning. The finish on the device is great and it is IP68 water and dust resistant, a feature which is not very common at this price point.

Features

The Galaxy A8 Plus comes with a 6-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display and is powered by Samsungs own Exynos 7885 chipset along with a Mali G71 graphics processing unit to handle graphic-intensive work. The variant launched in India comes with a massive 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage.

It also features a 16 MP camera on the back which has an aperture f/1.7 and PDAF (phase detection autofocus) and an LED flash. On the front it gets a dual-camera lens setup with one being a 16 MP sensor, while the other being an 8 MP sensor. Both sensors have an aperture of f/1.9. Video shooting capabilities are however capped at 1080p at 30fps on both front and rear cameras.

The A8 Plus also features a 3500mAh non-removable Li-ion battery which is smaller than last years A7 but should not be an issue for most. The battery can also be topped up quickly thanks to the inclusion of Samsungs Adaptive fast charging.

The A8 Plus also has a face recognition software built in which was quite fast in my time with the phone. On the connectivity end, the phone includes Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner.

Display

The Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus (2018) packs a 6-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity Edge display which has an aspect ration of 18.5:9 ratio and a resolution of 1080 x 2220p . The slim borders on the display ensure an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 75.5 percent.

In my short time with the phone, colours seemed vibrant thanks to the Super AMOLED panel and were more or less neutral in tone. I was using the phone under direct sunlight and did not have any issues in viewing text on the screen. Samsung has also continued to feature its Always On display technology on its A series lineup which is an added bonus.

The display does come with Corning Gorilla Glass protection which should be able to withstand a few small bumps. Samsung does bundle a plastic shell-like cover as well to have you covered if you are a little clumsy with the device.

RAM, Chipset and storage

The Galaxy A8 Plus is powered by Samsungs own Exynos 7885 chipset which houses an octa-core processor along with a Mali G71 graphics processing unit to handle graphic-intensive work. The chipset comprises of six lower powered Cortex A53 cores and two higher powered Cortex A72 cores for more intensive tasks.

The variant launched in India comes with a massive 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. This essentially means that Samsung has doubled both the RAM and storage in the phone this year. This should result in better multitasking and a smooth multi-window experience.

The phone by default comes with a usable space of 52 GB out of the total 64 GB but that is expandable up to 256 GB thanks to the addition of a microSD card slot.

Software and OS

Samsung is yet to release Android Oreo and the Galaxy A8 Plus comes with Android Nougat 7.1.1 with Samsungs Experience operating system. This would be a bit of a disappointment for most but the company does pack in the December Android security patch which is a slight consolation.

The operating system otherwise remains the same if youve used any Samsung device over the past year. There is no app drawer and swiping left takes you to Bixby.

There are some preloaded apps on the A8 Plus such as Facebook app, Opera Max and a number of Microsoft apps like Word, PowerPoint and Excel. These apps can't be uninstalled, which is disappointing.

Camera

The highlight of the Galaxy A8 Plus is its dual front-facing camera setup. This includes a 16 MP sensor and another 8 MP sensor, both with an aperture of f/1.9. Samsung has brought its Live Focus feature to the A8 Plus which we saw debut on the Galaxy Note 8.

The Galaxy A8 Plus has a 16 MP primary rear-facing camera with an aperture of f/1.7. It features a phase detection auto-focusing system and an LED flash. Samsung says that the camera here does not shy away from low light shots which we will have to test out during our review.

The camera interface is simple and user friendly with right swipe enabling filters and a left swipe taking you to the different camera modes, including a PRO mode for manual control. I was unable to put the camera through its paces during my short time but quick shots returns pleasing images in well lit conditions. This was true for shots in artificial lighting conditions as well.

Conclusion

With the launch of the Galaxy A8 Plus at such a compelling price, Samsung has not only upped its A series lineup from falling behind budget flagships but is also sending a message to it competitors. Instead of throwing in incremental changes to a refreshed Galaxy A7, the A8 Plus sees a bunch of features that users loved in 2017, make it way to what is Samsungs first smartphone launch of 2018.

The addition of its Infinity Display technology and throwing in a live focus mode for selfies, the A8 Plus seems to pack a punch in all the key areas.

Whether is really does so and gives the likes of OnePlus and Honor a good fight is something we need to find out in our comprehensive review of the Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus.
tech2 News Staff

Back in May 2016, WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption for all its users across its platform. While this raised the bar for privacy in the digital messaging sphere, it has become increasingly difficult for the company to keep security standards up, especially when it comes to dealing with group chats. German researchers have now reportedly found a way to breach WhatsApp's security and sneak into group chats.

The researchers found that the flaws in WhatsApp make it much easier to break into group conversations, than what should be the case. Attending the Real World Crypto security conference in Zurich, Switzerland, the German cryptographers exhibited a series of flaws in encrypted messaging apps including WhatsApp, Signal and Threema. Based on a report by Wired, the flaws found in Signal and Threema were relatively harmless while that found in WhatsApp were a severe privacy concern.

According to the researchers, anyone who has access to and controls WhatsApp's servers could insert new people into an otherwise private group without much hassle.

Paul Rosler, one of the Ruhr University researchers, said, "The confidentiality of the group is broken as soon as the uninvited member can obtain all the new messages and read them. If I hear there's end-to-end encryption for both groups and two-party communications, that means adding of new members should be protected against. And if not, the value of encryption is very little."

Demonstrating how group conversations on WhatsApp can be hacked, the researched stated how their attack takes advantage of a simple and small bug in the way WhatsApp's encryption works. Only an administrator of a WhatsApp group can invite new members, but WhatsApp does not have a mechanism to authenticate that invitation. Its servers can hence spoof the invitation allowing the addition of a new member to a group with no interaction on the part of the administrator. The smartphones of each participant in the group then automatically share secret keys with the new member, giving the new participant full access to future messages.

The researchers also pointed out several methods that can be used to delay the detection of a new participant, including using the server to selectively block any messages in the group. This involves caching the messages and then deciding which get sent to whom and which not.
Washington: A Bangladeshi immigrant has been indicted on terrorism charges in the US for December's botched bombing in a New York City subway station.

Akayed Ullah, 27, would face life in prison if convicted of the attack in a passageway near the Port Authority bus terminal on 11 December that left three persons injured.

Ullah, 27, who was also injured in the explosion, has been in federal custody since his arrest.

He will be arraigned before Judge Sullivan.

The federal grand jury indicted Ullah on Wednesday with one count of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, and one count of using and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

He has also been charged with one count each of bombing and attempting to bomb a place of public use and a public transportation system; destruction and attempted destruction of property by means of fire or explosives; conducting and attempting to conduct a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system.

"As alleged in the indictment Akayed Ullah constructed a pipe bomb and detonated it in a mass transit hub in the heart of New York City to terrorise as many people as possible and to bring Islamic State-inspired violence to American soil," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente.

Ullah migrated from Bangladesh some six years ago on a family visa.

He was sponsored by his uncle, who came to the US through diversity lottery visa.

Since then US president Donald Trump has been pushing for end to chain migration and diversity lottery visa.

He began to self-radicalise three years ago, authorities said, but law enforcement said he was not on their radar before the subway attack.
Washington: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that it "seems unlikely" that he'd give an interview in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Trump said "we'll see what happens" when asked if he'd provide an interview to Mueller's team.

"When they have no collusion and nobody's found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview," Trump said during a joint news conference with the prime minister of Norway.

The special counsel's team of investigators has expressed interest in speaking with Trump, but no details have been worked out. Trump's lawyers have previously stated their determination to cooperate with requests in the probe, which has already resulted in charges against four of Trump's campaign advisers.

Trump called the investigation a "phony cloud" over his administration. "It has hurt our government," he said. "It was a Democrat hoax."

Trump's words differed from what he said at a news conference in June, shortly after fired FBI Director James Comey had told Congress that Trump asked him for a pledge of loyalty. Trump denied that, and said he'd be "100 percent" willing tell his version of events under oath. He said he'd be "glad to" speak to Mueller about it.

The comments come after Trump had already lashed out at the investigations on Twitter Wednesday morning, urging Republicans to take control of the inquiries and repeating his claim that they are on a "witch hunt." "There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes," he tweeted. "Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!"

In a separate tweet Wednesday morning, Trump accused Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of being "underhanded and a disgrace" for disclosing details of a dossier of allegations about his ties to Russia during the presidential campaign.

A day earlier, Feinstein, who faces a primary challenge in her re-election this year, released the transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee's closed-door August interview with an official from the political opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which commissioned the dossier. She released the transcript of Glenn Simpson's interview over the objections of the committee's Republican chairman, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. She is the top Democrat on the panel.

"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," Trump tweeted. "Must have tough Primary!"

The material wasn't classified, and Feinstein said Wednesday that she didn't do anything illegal. And as the top Democrat on the committee, she didn't need authorisation from Grassley to release it. Her staff helped conduct the interview with Simpson, who had also asked for the interview to be released. Still, the release was a blow the two lawmakers' earlier attempts at bipartisanship on the committee's Russia investigation. Feinstein told reporters that she didn't tell Grassley beforehand, and "I owe him an apology and I will give him an apology as soon as I see him."

Grassley said in an angry news release on Tuesday that he was "confounded" by the release and argued that it could undermine attempts to get additional witnesses. By Wednesday he appeared to have softened, saying he was continuing to negotiate witnesses with Feinstein in the Russia probe. "Listen, I screw up regularly and she doesn't owe me an apology," Grassley said.

Trump has derided the dossier as a politically motivated hit job. Following his lead, several GOP-led committees are now investigating whether the dossier formed the basis for the FBI's initial investigations. That has angered Democrats, who say those probes are distractions from the Russia investigations.

Feinstein said that she was trying to set the record straight after speculation about Simpson's interview. "The innuendo and misinformation circulating about the transcript are part of a deeply troubling effort to undermine the investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice," she said. "The only way to set the record straight is to make the transcript public." Feinstein also sits on the Senate intelligence committee, which is conducting its own investigation into the Russian interference and whether Trump's campaign was in any way involved.

Trump has often invoked Feinstein on the collusion issue. She said on CBS's "Face the Nation" on 8 October that there's "no proof" yet that there was any collusion between Russia and Trump's campaign, adding: "I think that proof will likely come with Mr. Mueller's investigation."

Feinstein faces a primary from California state Senate leader Kevin de Leon. Asked about Trump's tweet, she brushed off the idea that the release had anything to do with her election. "Oh come on," she said. "Of course not."

Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, also criticised Trump's tweet, saying it "smacks of interference in investigations and I think that's inappropriate."

Also Wednesday, Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, and FBI Director Christopher Wray were on Capitol Hill to speak to Warner and the Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence panel, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr. Neither senator would comment on the meeting's purpose.
New research from Gallup International Association (GIA) and CVoter International collaborative survey has revealed that there has been a significant increase in favourability towards Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has topped the chart, followed by French president Emmanuel Macron in second place. Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump is now at the rock bottom of global public opinion. Two years back, his predecessor Barrack Obama was rated number one in this global poll.

Modi climbed up on the global rating and is now ranked third; the highest ever rank any Indian prime minister has got so far in the GIA Global polls. Meanwhile, Putin has gone from one in three (33 percent) viewing him favourably to 43 percent, a significant increase over two years.

Two years back, in the 2015 survey, Modi had ranked fifth with a Nett score (negative rating subtracted from positive rating) of four. This time around, he has doubled his score with eight.

Putin, meanwhile, polls favourably in most regions of the world except the US (14 percent) and EU-Europe (28 percent), but still higher than the 20 percent favourability for Trump.

This year, after having been in office for just over a year, Trump got drastically reduced numbers with just 31 percent holding a favourable view of him. Trump lands at the bottom rank globally.

What the world thinks of Modi

The top three Modi-loving countries are Vietnam, Fiji and Afghanistan respectively. Interestingly, Vietnam registered a massive shift in Modi's popularity with the Nett score seeing a jump of a staggering 62.

Meanwhile, Modi is hated most, predictably, in Pakistan; where the anger against him has gone considerably up in last two years, from -43 to -54.

Among the G8 countries comprising Russia, USA, Canada, UK, Japan, France, Germany and Italy, Modi's favourability decreased overall by a score of four, with Russia registering the sharpest decline (-31) despite visiting their four times. France and Germany also recorded a decline when compared to the last survey in 2015.

The US, UK, Italy and Japan saw improvement in Modi's favourability with scores of three, four, one and one respectively. Canada saw no change.

The SAARC countries' Nett favourability of the Indian prime minister saw a sharp decline owing to Bangladesh and Pakistan, with the former registering a huge shift from a score of 50 to 13 and the latter recording a decline of -11. Afghanistan saw an uptick of three.

Among the BRICS countries comprising Russia, South Africa, China and Brazil, Modi saw an overall score of -2 (offset by India's score of six). Brazil and South Africa saw an improvement of 12 and two respectively, while his favourability remained consistent in China when compared to the 2015 data.

Impact of Modi's foreign visits on his favourability (rest of the world)

Amongst the other countries that Modi has visited since assuming office, Mexico and Turkey registered positive changes of 32 and 14 respectively. Surprisingly, the Netherlands and Korea saw a decline in Modi's favourability despite the prime minister's visit.

How Indians rate the top 10 world leaders

Interestingly, despite the global trends, Trump ranked as the top-rated global leader in India, where his New Year tweet on Pakistan has perhaps helped him climb the popularity charts.

Putin is seen as the second most effective leader by Indians followed by Merkel. Chinese president Xi Jinping ranks ninth in the list with a score of -7.

Meanwhile, Modi's favourability among his countrymen is exceedingly positive, with an overall score of 71.

Compared to 2015, Modi's favourability (Nett score) among Indians has increased from 61 to 71. Obama had topped the list two years ago, maintaining the consistency of Indians voting for the US president as the top global leader.

The Gallup International End of Year Survey (EoY) is an annual poll. This year, it was carried out by the Gallup International Association in partnership with WIN in 55 countries around the world. A total of 53,769 persons were interviewed globally.

Here is the full survey:

Data sourced from Gallup International and CVoter Global Survey 2017: Global ratings of top 10 world leaders (cross-country opinion poll in 71 countries)
Beijing: The front section of an Iranian oil tanker that has been on fire for days off the east China coast has exploded, forcing rescue boats searching for 31 missing sailors to retreat and sparking environmental concerns.

Thirty-two crew members, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, went missing after the tanker carrying 136,000 tonnes of oil condensate from Iran to South Korea collided with a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter and caught fire on Saturday in waters about 160 sea miles east of the Yangtze River's estuary.

Since then, the Panama-registered tanker Sanchi has been ablaze and drifting in the waters between Shanghai and southern Japan.

So far, no survivors from the tanker have been found and only one body has been recovered. All 21 crew members aboard the Chinese ship were rescued.

The front section of the tanker exploded on Wednesday.

"Vessels at the scene have to stop putting out the fire and withdraw back to (a safe distance)," China's Ministry of Transport said.

"The fire extinguishing operation did not achieve the desired effect," it said.

China's largest patrol ship Haixun 01 is fighting the fire after the explosion while organising other vessels to move away, the ministry said.

According to the ministry, Japanese sea police arrived at the scene an hour before the explosion and established contact with Haixun 01.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that 12 vessels were searching for the missing sailors in the tanker's vicinity before the explosion, and efforts were continuing to clean up any spilled light crude.

Since the crash, the tanker has been billowing thick plumes of black smoke. Officials worry that the explosion might sink the ship, releasing its 1 million barrels of oil into the water.

The resulting spill would be about three times as big as the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

"For now, burning might be good for consuming the leaked oil, but there will be some remaining for which disposal will be difficult," Lin Boqiang, director of the China Centre for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

Sanchi was carrying 1.36 lakh tons of condensate oil when it collided with CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter in waters about 160 nautical miles east of the Yangtze River estuary.

Experts are especially worried because the ship is carrying condensate, an ultralight version of crude oil. Condensate is highly toxic and even more combustible than regular crude oil. It also is nearly colourless and odourless, which makes it difficult to detect.

Oil is usually not degradable, meaning the damage to the ocean would be long-term, he said.

Zhao Ruxiang, an expert with China's Yantai Oil Spill Response Technical Centre, was quoted by the ministry as saying that a simulation test showed condensate oil in the water can evaporate so quickly that it will leave little residue - less than 1 percent after five hours.

"It is toxic and volatile when exposed to air," Zhao said.
Washington: US president Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed the news media will ultimately support him, as otherwise their ratings and businesses would be impacted.

Trump said this a day after he opened to the press almost his entire meeting with the Congressional leadership on immigration.

For this, they got great ratings and reviews.

Trump told his cabinet colleagues that he received letter of congratulations from news anchors.

"Then, after that, they were called by their bosses for saying, 'Oh, wait a minute'. And, unfortunately, a lot of those anchors sent us letters saying that was one of the greatest meetings they've ever witnessed. And they were great. For about two hours, they were phenomenal. And then they went a little bit south on us, but not that bad. It was fine," Trump told his cabinet colleagues.

They probably wish they didn't send us those letters of congratulations. But it was good. I'm sure their ratings were fantastic; they always are  which is why I think the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because they're going to say, if Trump doesn't win in three years, they're all out of business," Trump said amid laughter from his cabinet members.

"You guys will be out of business. But the boom holders are still going to be there, so that's good. Those are the people I like," Trump said referring to the media present in the room.

Trump has a love-hate relationship with the media ever since he started his presidential election campaign.

He often attacks the mainstream media and has branded some of them as "fake news" including CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Next week, he is planning a Fake News Award for the media outlet he dislikes the most.
President Xi Jinping on Thursday called for heroism and resolution to cope with the complexity the Party faces in governing the nation.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks at the second plenary session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC.

File photo of President Xi Jinping [File Photo: Xinhua]

He said that "the Party itself and its members have gone through essential and profound changes," which required higher quality of Party management and enhanced political and organizational functions of Party organs.

"We should push forward the campaign with heroism that takes the bull by the horns and a fighting spirit that never steps aside in face of an enemy," he said.

Safeguarding the authority of CPC Central Committee and under its centralized and unified leadership, the CPC should develop itself into a vigorous Marxist ruling party that is always riding with the trend of times, supported by the people, brave in self-reform and survives all challenges and hardship, he said.

The CPC will not only foster faith among its members but also introduce institutional measures, not only address specific problems but also make top-down designs, Xi said.

Senior Party members should be subject to higher and more rigorous standards and placed under tighter scrutiny, though all Party members should follow the rules, he said.

Noting that senior officials should fulfill their duties fully and responsibly, Xi stressed that they should show strong commitment in bearing their political responsibilities and will be held accountable if failing them.

While exercising strict governance, the Party will try its best to discover problems as early as possible, to prevent officials from making mistakes and encourage them to actively perform their duties, he said.

Party's internal supervision will function well with assistance from the public, Xi said, promising smooth channels for ordinary people to advise on Party management and inform against misbehaved officials.
New York: New York City on Wednesday announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the five largest oil companies for contributing to global warming.

"The City will be seeking damages from BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Royal Dutch Shell for the billions of dollars the City will spend to protect New Yorkers from the effects of climate change," Xinhua quoted a statement from the mayor's office as saying.

The city alleges the fossil fuel industry was aware for decades that burning fuel was impacting climate change.

"We're bringing the fight against climate change straight to the fossil fuel companies that knew about its effects and intentionally misled the public to protect their profits," New York City mayor Bill De Blasio said.

"As climate change continues to worsen, it's up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient," he added.

Meanwhile, de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer also announced that they will divest the city's five pension funds of roughly $5 billion in fossil fuel investments out of its total of $189 billion, which would make New York City the first major US pension plan to do so.
Kunduz: Five Afghan police personnel were killed and two others wounded in an attack by the Taliban in the country's northern province, an official said on Thursday.

"The incident took place in Archi, a restive district on the outskirts of Kunduz city, on Wednesday night after the Taliban stormed police checkpoints, triggering clashes lasting for hours," official Nasruddin Nazari told Xinhua news agency.

The injured were shifted to a hospital in Kunduz.

"Several militants were also killed and wounded during the gun battle, but their number could not be exactly specified as the militants evacuated their casualties after the fighting," Nazari said.
Tunis: More than 200 people have been arrested and dozens of police hurt during clashes in Tunisia, the interior ministry said Wednesday, as anger over austerity measures spilt over into unrest.

The North African country has been hailed for its relatively smooth democratic transition since a 2011 revolt that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings, but seven years after the revolution, tensions over economic grievances are high.

Tunisia has seen rising anger over hikes in value-added tax and social contributions after a tough new budget was applied at the start of the year.

Interior ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani told local radio that 49 police officers were wounded during a second night of clashes across the country Tuesday to Wednesday and that 206 "troublemakers" were arrested.

Properties were damaged, he said, including a branch of the Carrefour supermarket chain in a suburb of Tunis that was looted.

After a calm day on Wednesday, residents said demonstrators in the evening took to the streets of Tebourba, a town west of the capital Tunis where a man in his 40s died in unrest on Monday night.

On a visit to a nearby town, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed condemned acts of "vandalism" that "serve the interests of corrupt networks to weaken the state", pointing the finger at a leftist party that called for protests.

Fresh clashes broke out on Wednesday night in the northern town of Siliana, where youths threw stones and molotov cocktails at security forces. Police responded with tear gas, an AFP correspondent said.

There were similar scenes in Kasserine, a town in Tunisia's neglected central region, with protesters burning tires to block roads and some throwing stones at police.

The army has been deployed around banks, post offices and other government buildings in the country's main cities, the defence ministry said.

There have been no figures given for the number of protesters injured in the clashes.

Stones, tear gas

On Tuesday night, hundreds of young people took to the streets of Tebourba for the funeral of the man who died.

Police have insisted they did not kill him. Health Minister Imed Hammami said that results of an autopsy would be made public on Thursday.

Unrest was also reported in the working-class neighbourhoods of Djebel Lahmer and Zahrouni on the outskirts of Tunis, the central cities of Gafsa and Kasserine, and the northern town of Jedaida.

In the central town of Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the protests that sparked the 2011 uprisings, youths blocked roads and hurled stones, and the police retaliated with tear gas, an AFP reporter said.

A representative of Tunisia's Jewish community said two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the entrance to two Talmudic schools on the Mediterranean island of Djerba, but their interiors were not damaged.

Friday protest

The recent unrest started with peaceful protests against the austerity measures last week, but escalated into clashes with police in the night of Monday to Tuesday.

Activists have called for a massive demonstration on Friday against the austerity measures, which are expected to increase the cost of living.

They have demanded a revision of the legislation behind the VAT and social contribution hikes, as well as better welfare for struggling families.

"There are acts of looting and robbery but also a political message from a section of the population that has nothing to lose and feels ignored" seven years after a revolution demanding work and dignity, said political scientist Selim Kharrat.

He said that many public buildings have been targeted while the government has "taken a pretty strong stance against the protesters".

Tunisia's economy has struggled since the 2011 revolution, which was fuelled by unemployment and graft.

Protests are common in the North African state in the month of January, when Tunisians mark the anniversary of the revolt that unseated dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

January 2016 saw the biggest wave of public discontent since the uprising as the death of an unemployed protester in Kasserine sparked days of unrest.

In December, unemployed protesters and activists marched through the streets of Sidi Bouzid, angry over the lack of jobs and opportunities that continue to plague residents.

In a report released on Thursday, conflict analysts International Crisis Group (ICG) warned the country's political class against succumbing to "authoritarian temptation".

While politicians had so far resisted the urge to backtrack on reforms, ICG said "in the context of an economic slump, the nostalgia for a strong state, like the one that the former regime claimed to defend, is spreading".

The revolution in Tunisia began in December 2010 after street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire and later died in a protest over unemployment and police harassment that spiralled into Ben Ali's overthrow.
United Nations: Governments that crack down on migrants are only harming themselves, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday ahead of UN talks on a global response to migration boycotted by the United States.

Guterres presented a report to the General Assembly on ways to address the plight of the 258 million international migrants, some of whom are trapped in legal limbo.

"Authorities that erect major obstacles to migrationor place severe restrictions on migrants' work opportunitiesinflict needless economic self-harm," Guterres said.

"They impose barriers to having their labour needs met in an orderly, legal fashion."

"Worse still, they unintentionally encourage illegal migration," he said.

President Donald Trump's administration is threatening to deport thousands of immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children and were allowed to stay under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, which Trump has since scrapped.

UN member-states will next month open negotiations on a global compact for migration that would encourage governments to offer more legal venues for migrants, but the United States will not be at the table.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley cited concerns over sovereignty, saying "our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone", even though the document is non-binding.

Calls for stronger cooperation to address migration followed the 2015 refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, when countries were overwhelmed by the flow from Syria and Libya.

The total number of international migrants has grown by 49 percent since 2000 and now represents 3.4 percent of the world's population, according to the United Nations.

The majority of migrants move across borders legally, but Guterres warned in his report that climate change and demographic trends will lead to a further spike in migration in the future.

Describing migration as a "positive global phenomenon," Guterres called for greater international cooperation to protect vulnerable migrants.

The global compact will be adopted in December at a conference in Morocco.
Washington: The US called for an "immediate release" of all political prisoners in Iran, saying it was "deeply concerned" over imprisonment of thousands of people by the Iranian regime for engaging in peaceful protests.

"Iran's regime claims to support democracy, but when its own people express their aspirations for better lives and an end to injustice, it once again shows its true brutal nature," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

She said the US demands "immediate release" of all political prisoners in Iran, including the victims of the most recent crackdown.

The Trump administration, Sanders said, was "deeply concerned" by reports that the Iranian regime has imprisoned thousands of its citizens in the last week for protesting against the government.

"Further reports that the regime has tortured or killed some of these demonstrators while in detention are even more disturbing. We will not remain silent as the Iranian dictatorship represses the basic rights of its citizens and will hold Iran's leaders accountable for any violations," she warned.

Sanders said the protesters in Iran are expressing legitimate grievances, including demanding an end to their government's oppression, corruption, and "waste of national resources on "military adventurism".
Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been on a roller-coaster for nearly 60 years. But last week saw a new low for their ties, starting with Donald Trump's stormy New Year tweet and the subsequent suspension of US military aid to Islamabad.

Trump said that the United States had "foolishly" handed Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years while getting nothing in return, and pledged to put a stop to it.

Following this, a National Security Council official on Monday said the White House does not plan to send $255 million in aid to Pakistan "at this time" and said, "the administration continues to review Pakistan's level of cooperation."

In response, Pakistan's foreign minister Khawaja Asif said the United States was behaving towards Pakistan as "a friend who always betrays".

Small groups of students chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Trump" burnt American flags and torched photos of Trump in capital Islamabad and the eastern city of Lahore. The organised protests ended swiftly but begged the question if the ties between the two nations had finally gone beyond repair.

Trust deficit

Ties between the two have been strained on numerous occasions, but the military and economic needs of the nations have kept them in a precarious state, as cautious allies.

The last six decades of US support, according to a report in The Hill, has neither helped cultivate an ally in Pakistan nor has it meaningfully changed Pakistans behaviour. "Although Pakistan has weathered previous US aid cuts, each past episode in the bilateral relationship has driven the partnership more toward an irreparable trust deficit," the report says.

As per the report, the first event that created a Pakistani distrust of the United States was in 1962 during the India-China border conflict. When the then Kennedy administration decided to provide India with military assistance, Ayub Khan, Pakistans president at the time, felt the US had stabbed Pakistan in the back.

According to a report in The Diplomat, over time, both the US and Pakistan governments accepted the losses grudgingly and gains ungratefully and still found each other relevant in times of need.

"But times have changed," the report adds, "Since the 11 September attacks, the relationship has gotten entangled with the ongoing war in Afghanistan. It is never easy to handle a war-related relationship, especially when that war has not been going well. This is even more so when there are multiple issues and stakeholders with competing interests and priorities. Also impacting the relationship is Washingtons growing ties with India, along with a whole set of new security issues which have agitated public concerns, fueled by a 24-hour news cycle and an activist think tank community."

Since then, the relationship has transformed to a one best described as "transactional."

History of US-Pakistan ties

Right from the time Pakistan was established after its independence, the United States has had a relationship with the nation. In fact, it was one of the first nations to establish relations with the new sovereign state.

During the initial years of Pakistan, the country had the options of building allegiance with the Soviet Union or the United States, however, Pakistan opted for the latter.

Since then, ties between the United States and Pakistan have veered between extremes over the past four decades. Here are some of the key moments in their turbulent relationship:

1965: The US suspends military assistance to both India and Pakistan during India-Pakistan war.

1970: Pakistan helps US open communications with China, leading to the first US presidential visit to China the following year.

1971: The US suspends military aid to Pakistan over the civil war between East and West Pakistan. The war results in the formation of Bangladesh.

1975: The US resumes military aid to Pakistan, despite tensions over Indian/Pakistani nuclear rivalry.

1979: Under US president Jimmy Carter, the US again cuts off Pakistan's military aid, this time over its nuclear weapons activity.

Late 1979-1980: Soviet Union invades neighbouring Afghanistan, leading to a US promise of $3.2 billion in US aid to Pakistan over five years. Pakistan becomes a route for arms and supplies sent by the US to the Afghan resistance.

1980s: United States pumps weapons, money and foreign fighters into Afghanistan, with the help of Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, to support mujahideen fighters defeat Soviet Union troops in Afghanistan.

1990: The United States imposes sanctions on Pakistan over Islamabad's covert nuclear program. With the Soviet Union routed in Afghanistan and the Cold War ending, Pakistan had lost its importance as a regional ally.

1998: The United States imposes sanctions on Pakistan and India over their nuclear tests.

1999: Washington imposes more sanctions on Pakistan after army chief Pervez Musharraf topples a democratically elected government in a military coup.

2001: After the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, the United States asks Musharraf to help track down al Qaeda and remove the Taliban from power. Pakistan turns on its former Taliban allies and arrests Al-Qaeda leaders.

* Washington removes all sanctions against Pakistan in the wake of Pakistans support for its war against Al-Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups in Afghanistan.

2004: George W Bush's administration designates Pakistan a major non-NATO ally, boosting Islamabads diplomatic prestige and giving Pakistan greater access to US military technology.

2011: CIA contractor Raymond Davis kills two Pakistanis in the eastern city of Lahore in January 2011. Davis was acquitted of murder and allowed to leave Pakistan after a $2.3 million payment was made to the mens families.

* US troops kill Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil in May 2011. The raid, kept secret from Pakistani authorities, was a humiliation for Pakistans powerful military and again raised questions about whether it was harbouring militants.

* NATO helicopters and fighter jets attack Pakistani military outposts by accident, killing 24 soldiers. Pakistani retaliated by blocking a NATO supply route through its territory to Afghanistan for more than seven months.

2016: The US Congress blocks the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. Military aid to Pakistan reduced.

2017: US president Donald Trump outlines a new South Asia policy. Trump accuses Pakistan of harbouring agents of chaos and providing safe havens to militant groups waging an insurgency against the US-backed government in Kabul.

2018: The United States announces it will continue withholding $255 million in aid from Pakistan over what the Trump administration describes as a failure to sufficiently fight terrorism.

The worsening ties between the two nations may push Pakistan further into the arms of long-time ally China, which backed Islamabad after the fallout from Trump's tweet. Beijing's diplomatic and financial support has also strengthened Pakistan's hand, analysts say, as per a Reuters report.

Future of diplomatic ties

Pakistan is now likely to align itself more closely with China. For given the recent Trump storm and the cutting of military aid, Islamabad is bound to feel that its national interests are served better by Beijing than Washington.

The future of US-Pakistan ties, thus, boils down to an exercise of trust-building. The United States and Pakistan need to cultivate a strategic relationship, as their current transactional model is now on the verge of collapse.

"For Washington, it has to realise that strategic issues cannot be dealt with through a merely transactional relationship with Islamabad. Forging this is not easy; both countries need to contribute. Pakistan does have legitimate security concerns that need to be acknowledged. The United States also has to recognise that Pakistan does have a strategic importance as it affects American interests in India one hand and Afghanistan on the other," The Diplomat report says.

With inputs from agencies
Washington: US Republican lawmakers on Thursday unveiled an immigration package that would tighten border security, end chain migration and fund President Donald Trump's border wall, while shielding nearly a million so-called "Dreamers" from deportation.

The legislation was introduced just minutes after Trump said that any legislation that protects such undocumented immigrants would need to fund a wall along the US-Mexico border  one of the primary pledges of his 2016 presidential campaign.

"Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all doesn't work," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"We need the wall for security. We need the wall for safety."

Congress is grappling with how to break an impasse over the "Dreamers"  immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children, but were permitted to stay under Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Trump scrapped DACA last September, but left a six-month window for Congress to craft a solution by March, when thousands of immigrants would face deportation.

He met with two dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday at the White House, urging them to craft a compromise that would accommodate the Dreamers but also achieve some immigration reforms.

"The president indicated that our bill, the Securing America's Future Act, is the starting point to correct the flaws in our immigration system," House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte told reporters.

"This bill funds the border wall and secures ports of entry along the southern border. It also increases boots on the ground," limits immigrants from bringing family members into the country in the future, and ends the green card lottery system, he added.

But it also includes conservative priorities like cracking down on sanctuary cities, and provides no special pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.

As lawmakers race against time to find a fix, a US judge late Wednesday blocked Trump from scrapping DACA and ordered it maintained "on a nationwide basis," as legal challenges against it proceed.

But the White House and Democrats agreed that the ruling does not diminish the urgent need to resolve the issue.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged to build a community of shared future with Cambodia that is of strategic significance on Thursday.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen holds a welcoming ceremony for the visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Phnom Penh on Thursday, January 11, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua/Li Tao]

Li made the pledge in his talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

Li attended the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh and paid an official visit to Cambodia from Jan. 10-11.

Calling the two countries close neighbors with profound friendship, Li said China always respects Cambodia's sovereignty and independence, and supports the country to stick to a development path with Cambodian characteristics.

China hopes to take the opportunity of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the bilateral diplomatic ties this year to cement high-level contacts, substantial cooperation in various areas and cultural exchanges, he said.

The Chinese premier vowed to offer assistance for Cambodia's economic development as well as improvement of people's livelihood and to jointly build a community of shared future that is of strategic significance.

China expects to align its development strategy with Cambodia, and take the opportunity of the Belt and Road Initiative to facilitate bilateral capacity and investment cooperation, he said.

Li said China is willing to work with Cambodia to make good arrangement for celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the bilateral diplomatic ties and strengthen the bilateral cooperation in the areas of economic zones, infrastructure building, tourism, agriculture and deep processing of agricultural products.

Hailing the second LMC leaders' meeting as fruitful, Li said China expects to maintain close coordination with Cambodia within the frameworks of LMC as well as China-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) cooperation and to contribute to regional development and prosperity.

For his part, Hun Sen said Premier Li's visit would consolidate the bilateral friendship and boost the two countries' comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership to a new stage.

Calling China a friendly cooperation partner of Cambodia, Hun Sen hailed the high-level political trust, vigorous cooperation and people's friendship between the two countries.

Cambodia appreciates China's firm support and help over the years, and wishes Chinese people to realize their Two Centenary Goals at an early date, he said.

Hun Sen expressed satisfaction over the progress in major bilateral projects in such areas as highway, port and economic zones, vowing to boost stronger cooperation in infrastructure, agriculture, tourism and people's livelihood.

It is a consensus of the Cambodian government and people to consolidate and develop friendship with China, he said, vowing firm support for China on issues regarding its core interest.

After their talks, Li and Hun Sen witnessed the signing of 19 bilateral cooperative documents regarding the areas of politics, economy, trade, public health, forestry, agriculture and culture.

During his stay in Phnom Penh, Li also met with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. The two countries issued a joint communique on deepening bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in a new era.
A possible plea agreement for the Minnesota man charged in the 2016 death of a UW-Stout student is under consideration.

On Tuesday, Cullen Osburn appeared before Judge Rod Smeltzer in Dunn County Circuit Court for a status hearing. Osburn, 29, faces charges of felony murder and aggravated battery resulting from an altercation involving Hussain Saeed Alnahdi, a UW-Stout student, that took place outside a pizza restaurant in downtown Menomonie in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 2016. Alnahdi died in an Eau Claire hospital the following day as a result of traumatic brain injuries.

Lawyers on both sides indicated that a plea deal may be in the offing. "I think we may be close to a potential resolution," Christopher Zipko, Osburn's attorney, told the judge. "I have to sit down and go through the history with my client."

Dunn County District Attorney Andrea Nodolf affirmed that work on an agreement is underway and could be presented before the end of the month. In the meantime, a final pretrial is set for March 23, with an eight-day jury trial scheduled to begin April 10.
TagStation today announced that Samsung has extended its support to NextRadio to unlock FM chips in upcoming phones launched USA and Canada. The company pointed out that FM Radio is still essential in some parts of the world especially when cellular coverage is congested or unavailable.

Smartphones launching these days come with a hardware that is capable of receiving free FM radio signals, and Samsung is the new OEM to take steps in bringing phones with unlocked FM chips. This will allow users to connect directly with the NextRadio app, listen to their favorite local stations, and use less battery and less data than streaming radio apps.

Samsung joins the list which also includes recently joined LG, Motorola, and Alcatel. Though the company claims that upcoming Samsung phones will launch with unlocked FM chips, reports suggest there are already plenty of phones on the market with unlocked chips, including the Galaxy S7, S8, Note 8 and more .

Commenting on the same Paul Brenner, President of NextRadio powered by TagStation said:

Samsung should be lauded for taking this important step. They are providing their customers a more engaging, immersive radio experience and, as importantly, a means to connect with life-saving information in emergencies.

Source
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Two journalists face 14-year prison sentence, trial begins January 23

(YANGON, January 11, 2018)The Government of Myanmar should immediately release and drop charges against two Reuters journalists arbitrarily detained since December 12, Fortify Rights said today. The trial against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo is scheduled to begin on January 23.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested for doing their jobs and should be immediately released, said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. Its not too late for the government to unconditionally drop the charges and let them go home to their families.

Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, are charged with allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act and face up to 14 years in prison if convicted.

Police arrested Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in Yangon around 11:30 pm on December 12. Earlier that evening, the two journalists attended a dinner with police officials near the Battalion 8 compound north of Yangon, where they were reportedly given documents related to the situation in Rakhine State. The Ministry of Information reported on December 13 that legal action would also be taken against Police Captain Moe Yan Naing and Police Sargeant Khin Maung Lin, without explaining further.*

From December 12 to 26, the authorities held Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in incommunicado detention at an unknown location, prompting worldwide calls for their release. The two journalists are now detained at Insein Prison, reportedly with the general prison population. The Insein Court is scheduled consider their application for bail on January 23.

Following the arrest of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Lieutenant Major Yu Naing of the Yangon Police Division filed a complaint against the two at the Htaukkyant Police Station on December 13. On January 10, the Insein Court formally accepted charges against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under Section 3.1(c) of the 1923 Official Secrets Act, a colonial-era law that makes it an offense to obtain or collect any material or information calculated to be or might be or is intended to beuseful to an enemy.

Myanmars Ministry of Information claimed the authorities arrested the two journalists for possessing important and secret government documents related to Rakhine State and security forces and that the journalists illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media.

At the time of their arrest, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were investigating a military crackdown against Rohingya civilians in Rakhine State, including an alleged mass grave in Inn Din village in Maungdaw Township. On January 10, the Myanmar military admitted in a statement that security forces and villagers captured and summarily executed 10 Bengali terrorists and buried them in a mass grave near Inn Din, claiming, ethnic Buddhist villagers were threatened and provoked by the terrorists. This marks the militarys first admission of wrongdoing against Rohingya in Rakhine State since major military operations began in October 2016.

The militarys admission demonstrates the culpability of soldiers and commanders in mass atrocities, said Matthew Smith. The arrest of Wa Lone and Kyaw San Oo was an ugly attempt to cover their tracks.

In a report released in November, Fortify Rights and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum found mounting evidence of the crime of genocide by state security forces against Rohingya in Rakhine State and documented information about mass graves.

The arrest and ongoing detention of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of liberty, Fortify Rights said. Arrest and detention are unlawful when individuals are arrested or detained for engaging in activity, such as exercising the right to freedom of expression, protected under international law.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and other government officials internationally have also called for the release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. On January 8, former United States President Bill Clinton tweeted: A free press is critical to a free society  the detention of journalists anywhere is unacceptable. The Reuters journalists being held in Myanmar should be released immediately.

The Government of Myanmar has severely restricted independent media access to northern Rakhine State since October 2016, when attacks by Rohingya militants prompted Myanmar-Army led clearance operations against Rohingya civilians in northern Rakhine State. The military operations resulted in mass atrocity crimes against Rohingya men, women, and children and forced more than 700,000 civilians to flee to Bangladesh.
The tech world and tech enthusiasts have descended upon Las Vegas for the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show to see some of the latest advances and devices in technology. But Kairos founder Ankur Jain takes issue with this, proposing Silicon Valleys priority should be on tackling Americas biggest issues, not impressing with the latest gadgets.

Silicon Valley, weve taken pride for a long time in solving some of the worlds biggest problems. But I dont think it takes more than a couple minutes at this dark CES to see another Alexa-powered toaster, Alexa-powered fridge, Alexa-powered toilet to realize that these arent the biggest problems the world is facing, Jain told FOX Business Maria Bartiromo on Mornings with Maria.

Jain, the former vice president of product at Tinder, argues Silicon Valley should focus on broader issues such as mounting student loan debt and the high cost of rent in cities such as New York. He predicts one of the biggest trends for 2018 will be streamlining health care.

The trend baby boomers becoming the new millennials in the sense that for the first time ever you have an entire generation, 10,000 people retiring a day and the first generation thats tech savvy right? Jain said.

According to Jain, baby boomers level of comfort with technology will lead to a health care shift out of hospitals.

So, 72% of Baby Boomers use Facebook daily, he said. Think about that. So youve got a generation thats retiring thats now comfortable using mobile phones, tech at home, etc. And one of the big shifts well see from that is that health care is going to be moving out of the hospitals and into the homes.

But Jain said the latest technology doesnt just help boomers.

Its the boomers parents who they can now take care of by using these tech-enabled solutions putting basic things in their homes, he said.

Jain then pointed to the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Watch as an example of a tech device already having an impact on health care.

Today an Apple Watch can be tracking someones health more efficiently and effectively than any other platform, better than these care homes, Jain said.
The town of Leonia, New Jersey has been inundated with traffic due to navigation apps suggesting some of the towns streets as alternate routes. In an effort to fight back, the town is planning to restrict access to 60 of its streets during rush hour to residents or those that work in the town. Leonia also wants the towns residential streets removed from navigation apps such as Waze and Google Maps (NASDAQ:GOOGL).

The goal here, as soon as we enact it, is that the algorithms in navigational apps will remove those streets as restricted access streets from the recommendation engines, Leonia Mayor Judah Zeigler told FOX Business Stuart Varney on Varney & Co.

According to Zeigler, the town doesnt want to have to do this and is not trying to raise revenue, but sees it as a public safety issue.

We are, because of our geographic location, at the confluence of three major interstate highways, a quarter mile from the George Washington Bridge, twenty minutes from midtown Manhattan. We are inundated from all sides.

The mayor says the town has done its research and does not have any legal obstacles to taking this measure.

Theres a Supreme Court decision that very clearly says governmental entities can legislate restrictions on streets as long as they dont restrict some residents and not others, and were not, and as long as it serves a legitimate public purpose and in this case its public safety and quality of life, both of which were called out in the Supreme Court decision from 1977.

Despite the Supreme Court decision the mayor sourced, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst, took issue with the legality of the towns plans.

You cant stop somebody and ask them where theyre going and if theyre local going from home to the drug store they can stay on the street, but if theyre long distance going from Franklin Lakes to the George Washington Bridge youre going to give them a ticket, this simply isnt a valid public safety purpose for stopping them.

According to Napolitano, the town can ask, but does not have the power to force navigation apps to adjust their algorithms.

He is free to ask Google to do that, he of course doesnt have the authority to compel Google and Waze to do that.
Former McDonalds USA (NYSE:MCD) CEO Ed Rensi said on Thursday the restaurant industry is a bellwether for the state of play in Americas minimum wage small businesses.

People are going to get eliminated because technology is cheaper over the long-road than what is minimum wage, Rensi told FOX Business Maria Bartiromo on Mornings with Maria.

Minimum wage increases took effect in 18 U.S. states in earlier this month, and has already impacted some casual dining chains.

Restaurants arent the only industry seeing minimum wage increases, Walmart, on Thursday, raised its starting hourly wages to $11 an hour, while giving employees a one-time bonus of up to $1,000, depending upon the length of time spent with the company.

Walmarts even talking about doing away with all their employees and everything is going to be done with a smart device, said Rensi.

Red Robin, on Monday, announced it would eliminate bus boys at 570 locations in an effort to save an estimated $8 million over the course of 2018.

The CEO of Jack in the Box, on Tuesday, said he is considering replacing cashiers with automated kiosks. Wendys (NASDAQ:WEN), in 2016, announced it would offer self-ordering kiosks.

Weve confused what minimum wage is with a living wage. Its not a living wage, Rensi said.

McDonalds is also rolling out kiosks in 2,500 locations, but has vowed to not replace cashiers.
Cox Enterprises said Wednesday the majority of its employees will receive bonuses of up to $2,000 following the passage of tax reform.

The Atlanta-based company, which owns the Cox cable provider among other businesses, announced that bonuses of $1,000 to $2,000 will be distributed on Tax Day to employees who have worked at Cox Enterprises for at least a year and are not part of an executive incentive plan. The move impacts most of the companys nearly 60,000 employees.

The $1.5 trillion tax bill reduces the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and changes the way the U.S. government taxes companies that also operate internationally.

FOX Business is keeping track of the tax benefits that have reached over 3 million Americans so far.

Updated 3/7/18

Anthem

Anthem Inc. (NYSE:ANTM) said it would contribute retirement savings for more than 58,000 current and former employees, joining other major corporations in rewarding workers after the passage of a GOP-backed tax reform package.

The Indianapolis-based health insurance company said its associates and recent retirees will receive $1,000 toward their 401(k) accounts, for a total investment of more than $58 million. Anthem said other tax reform-related savings would be used to reduce the cost of healthcare for customers.

Apple

The California-based tech giant gave employees below the senior level title of "director" bonuses worth $2,500. The awards were composed of restricted stock units, a source familiar with the situation told FOX Business.

AT&T

The telecom giant said in late December that more than 200,000 of its employees, including union-represented and non-management workers, will be eligible for a $1,000 bonus. The checks will be in the mail in time for the holidays if Trump finalizes the tax bill with his signature before Christmas. AT&T (NYSE:T) also said it will invest $1 billion more than expected in the U.S. in 2018, once the cuts are final.

Congress, working closely with the President, took a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world, AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said in a statement. This tax reform will drive economic growth and create good-paying jobs.

BNY Mellon

Starting on March 1, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. will raise minimum wage to $15 per hour for roughly 1,000 of its 52,500 employees, the Wall Street Journal reported.

BNY Mellon executives noted the new tax code will allow for savings of roughly $250 million per year, which will be used on technology upgrades.

Boeing

The aerospace and defense company immediately announced $300 million in investments after the bill passed, with $100 million toward corporate giving including employee gift-match programs, $100 million toward workforce development, training and education and $100 million toward enhancing Boeings workplaces.

"On behalf of all of our stakeholders, we applaud and thank Congress and the administration for their leadership in seizing this opportunity to unleash economic energy in the United States," Boeing (NYSE:BA) President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement. "It's the single-most important thing we can do to drive innovation, support quality jobs and accelerate capital investment in our country."

Charter Communications

Charter, which owns the Spectrum cable brand, says all of its employees will be paid at least $15 per hour within the next year. The company cited tax reform and the repeal of net neutrality rules for its decision.

"Charter's workforce is key to the success of our company," Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said in a statement. "Our commitment to pay every employee at least a $15 per hour income will enhance our efforts to develop our highly-skilled, diverse and locally based workforce, improving their lives and the lives of the customers they serve."

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) is rolling out benefits reaching all of its 71,000 employees, including special cash and stock bonuses and enhanced paid and parental leave.

Qualified hourly employees and salaried restaurant employees will receive a special one-time cash bonus of up to $1,000, and some staff employees will receive a one-time stock grant.

Other offerings will include accelerated training programs, and additional paid parental leave for everyone, from hourly managers to salaried employees.

The company also added life insurance and short-term disability insurance coverage for hourly restaurant managers.

According to the company, the tax cut and the jobs cut made the sweetened compensation and benefits possible. The company will invest more than one-third of its anticipated savings from tax law changes on behalf of its employees, and the remainder will be used to improve its restaurant facilities and operations.

The company said it has already started rolling out these new benefits.

Comcast

The Philadelphia-based telecom corporation said it would award $1,000 bonuses to more than 100,000 non-executive employees. In addition, Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) NBC Universal Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts said the company plans to spend more than $50 billion in the next five years on infrastructure investments that are expected to create "thousands of new direct and indirect jobs."

In a press release, Comcast said the initiatives were "based on the passage of tax reform and the FCC's action on broadband."

CVS

Hourly employees of CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) will see their wages increase to $11 per hour from $9, effective April 2018. The company also plans to adjust pay ranges and rates for many of its retail employees later in the year.

The company is creating a new paid parental leave program. Effective April 1, 2018, full-time employees who become parents can take up to four weeks away from work at 100% of their pay.

Fifth Third Bancorp

The Cincinnati-based banking corporation said it would raise the minimum hourly wage for all employees to $15 per hour and dispense $1,000 bonuses for more than 13,500 workers. The company says tax reform was directly responsible for the initiatives.

It is good for our communities, employees and Fifth Third Bank (NASDAQ:FITB), Fifth Third President and CEO Greg Carmichael said.

Home Depot

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) announced it will pay its U.S. hourly workers a one-time bonus of up to $1,000 tied to President Trumps tax reform.

"This incremental investment in our associates was made possible by the new tax reform bill," Craig Menear, chairman and CEO of the company, said in a statement.

The Home Depot bonus will be paid in addition to the retailers existing bonuses. It employs more than 400,000 associates.

JPMorgan Chase

The country's largest bank said it will raise wages for roughly 22,000 workers to between $15 and $18 per hour. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) employees are also set to receive a $750 bonus this month.

JetBlue

The New York-based airline said on Jan. 4 that it would grant a $1,000 to each of its 21,000 crewmembers, with the exception of its CEO and other executives.

"We believe these tax changes will be positive for our company, and provide us the opportunity to do good things for our crewmembers, customers and shareholders," JetBlue President and CEO Robin Hayes said in a letter to company employees.

J.M. Smucker

J.M. Smucker Co. will offer one-time $1,000 bonuses to thousands of its employees, joining other major companies in rewarding employees due to savings tied to the recent passage of GOP-backed tax reform.

The Ohio-based company said last week that nearly 5,000 employees will receive bonuses. In addition, Smucker announced $1 million in charitable donations and $20 million in investments toward employee pension plans.

Lowe's

The retailer said it's giving more than 260,000 of its hourly employees bonuses of up to $1,000 as well as expanding its benefit plans to include adoption assistance and paid parental leave.

In addition, Lowe's said it plans to shorten its eligibility time for new employees who want to enroll in the company's health plans, giving them the option to sign up in the first 30 days of service.

McCormick

McCormick & Company (NYSE:MKC) will use a portion of its savings from tax reform to pay out $1,000 bonuses in May to eligible U.S. hourly employees and will accelerate wage increases, adding that the majority of hourly employees will benefit from the changes.

McCormick said in a statement that in addition to employee bonuses and wage increases, the company will use its tax benefits to make strategic investments to drive growth, return cash to shareholders and pay down debt.

MetLife

The New York-based insurance company (NYSE:MET) said it will increase its minimum wage to $15 per hour, enhance employee benefits and boost retirement plan contributions for all of its workers. MetLife also said it plans to create a new $10 million skills development fund to help its employees around the world upgrade their workplace skills.

Starbucks

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is giving all of its U.S.-based hourly and salaried workers an unspecified raise in April, in addition to a wage increase already dispersed earlier in the fiscal year, which began last October. Starbucks says it is investing roughly $120 million in the wage increases.

The company is also awarding workers stock grants worth a total of more than $100 million to those employed by the chain as of Jan. 1, 2018. Retail employees will receive at least a $500 grant, while store managers will receive grants of $2,000, the chain said.

Southwest Airlines

The Dallas-based airline is awarding a $1,000 cash bonus to all of its full-time and part-time employees. The bonuses will be distributed on Jan. 8. In addition, Southwest said it will donate $5 million toward charitable causes and partner with Boeing to modernize its fleet of planes.

We applaud Congress and the President for taking this action to pass legislation, which will result in meaningful corporate income tax reform for the transportation sector in general, and for Southwest Airlines, in particular, Southwest Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said in a statement. We are excited about the savings and additional capital, which we intend to put to work in several formsto reward our hard-working employees, to reinvest in our business, to reward our shareholders, and to keep our costs and fares low for our Customers.

Tyson Foods

The Arkansas-based food company said it will award $1,000 bonuses to full-time employees and $500 to part-time employees who did not already receive an annual bonus. Tyson CEO Tom Hayes said in an email to employees that the companys total savings from tax reform will top $300 million, with leftover cash from the bonuses used to improve training and education, the Associated Press reported.

U-Haul

U-Haul said it will issue bonuses to its full-time and part-time employees, joining other corporations in rewarding employees after the passage of tax reform.

The Phoenix-based moving and storage company, which is a subsidiary of AMERCO, said full-time employees will receive a one-time bonus of $1,200 and part-time workers will receive a bonus of $500. The bonuses will be issued by the end of February and amount to more than $23 million in payments to nearly 29,000 team members, U-Haul said.

U.S. Bank

U.S. Bancorp, the parent company of U.S. Bank, is distributing $1,000 bonuses to roughly 60,000 of its employees and raising minimum wage for hourly workers to $15 per hour. The Minneapolis-based company is also donating $150 million to the U.S. Bank Foundation, upgrading health care packages for its employees and investing in better customer service capabilities.

"We believe that tax reform is positive for the U.S. economy because it provides an immediate opportunity to benefit our employees, our communities and our customers, said Andy Cecere, U.S. Bank's president and CEO. We are proud of our people and their commitment to our customers and communities. We felt it was important to reward their hard work and dedication with this special bonus, the minimum wage increase and the health care enhancements.

Verizon

The telecom giant will give nearly all of its employees 50 shares of restricted stock, worth roughly $53 each as of this week, a source with knowledge of the equity award confirmed to Fox News. The share prices will be set on Feb. 1.

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), the world's largest employer, boosted pay for U.S. hourly workers to $11 per hour. Additionally, the retailer is giving one-time $1,000 bonus payments to workers, depending on length of service. It is also extending maternity and parental benefits for workers. The changes take place in February.

The Walt Disney Co.

More than 125,000 Disney employees will receive $1,000 cash bonuses, the company announced on Jan. 23. The bonuses will be dispersed in two payments, one in March and another in September. In addition, Disney invested $50 million in an education program to cover tuition payments for hourly employees.

I am proud we are directing approximately $125 million to our cast members and employees across the country and making higher education more accessible with the launch of this new program, Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. I have always believed that education is the key to opportunity; it opens doors and creates new possibilities. Matched with the $1,000 cash bonus, these initiatives will have both an immediate and long-term positive impact.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) said it would raise the minimum wage for its team members to $15 per hour and earmark $400 million for philanthropic initiatives in 2018. Some $100 million of that total will be committed to boosting small businesses, while $75 million will support neighborhood revitalization efforts.

We believe tax reform is good for our U.S. economy and are pleased to take these immediate steps to invest in our team members, communities, small businesses, and homeowners, said Wells Fargo President and CEO Tim Sloan. We look forward to identifying additional opportunities for Wells Fargo to invest, as we continue to execute our business strategies and provide long-term value to all our stakeholders.
Mexico will leave the NAFTA negotiating table if U.S. President Donald Trump decides to trigger a 6-month process to withdraw from the trade pact, three Mexican sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Wednesday.

Reuters reported earlier in the day that Canada was increasingly convinced that Trump would soon announce the United States intends to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), sending the Canadian and Mexican currencies lower and hurting stocks across the continent.

"I think it's indisputable that if Trump announces a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA, well at that moment the negotiations stop," said Raul Urteaga, head of international trade for Mexico's agriculture ministry.

The two other sources, who are involved in the trade talks and asked not to be named, said that Mexico remains firm on its position to get up and leave from the negotiating table if Trump goes through with the move.

While a NAFTA termination letter would start the six-month exit clock ticking, the United States would not be legally bound to quit NAFTA once it expires. Washington could use the move as the ultimate sleight of hand as it seeks to gain leverage over Canada and Mexico in talks to update the 24-year-old trade pact.

Trump has long called the 1994 treaty a bad deal that hurts American workers. His negotiating team has set proposals that have alarmed their Canadian and Mexican counterparts.

Among the most divisive are plans to establish rules of origin for NAFTA goods that would set minimum levels of U.S. content for autos, a sunset clause that would terminate the trade deal if it is not renegotiated every five years, and ending the so-called Chapter 19 dispute mechanism.

Though observers in Canada and Mexico have become increasingly gloomy about the upcoming Jan. 23-28 Montreal round in recent weeks, some took heart from a recent speech made by Trump to farmers this week in which he held back from provocative comments about the trade deal.

Urteaga, who was a member of Mexico's original NAFTA negotiating team in the 1990s, said that Trump's speech was an "interesting signal."

"No news, means good news sometimes."

(Editing by Sandra Maler and Jacqueline Wong)
Bitcoin prices were reeling on Thursday, following reports that South Koreas government plans to ban cryptocurrency trading.

South Koreas Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said the government was preparing a bill to ban trading of the virtual currency on domestic exchanges, Reuters reported.

"There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and the justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges," Park said told a news conference, according to Reuters.

But, after bitcoin collapsed, a few hours later South Koreas presidential office said a ban on the country's virtual coin exchanges had not yet been finalized, though it was one of the measures being considered.

In South Korea, police and tax authorities raided local exchanges on alleged tax evasion, Reuters reported.

Government bodies around the world have been clamping down on bitcoin in some form. Last weekend, Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities had outlined proposals to discourage bitcoin mining. Bitcoin miners are prevalent in China due to low operational costs.

Meanwhile, stateside, a few companies withdrew their applications for bitcoin ETFs, according to Coindesk, with some companies saying that the SEC had been resistant to their efforts. Companies that withdrew their applications include Exchange Listed Funds Trust, ProShares and Direxion.

The price of bitcoin was down more than 5% at $14,106.27 as of 10:30 a.m. ET, according to Coindesk.
The Latest on New Jersey's efforts to attract Amazon's second headquarters to the state (all times local):

3 p.m.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed into law up to $5 billion worth of tax incentives aimed at attracting Amazon' second headquarters to the state.

Christie signed the bipartisan legislation on Thursday. He says the legislation shows that no other state wants Amazon to come more than New Jersey.

Under the bill Amazon would have to create at least 30,000 full-time jobs to get the tax credits, worth up to $10,000 per job. The company has said it anticipates creating 50,000 jobs.

The new law represents perhaps a final achievement for Christie, who leaves office on Tuesday. He had said passing the tax credits was a lame-duck goal of his.

11:40 a.m.

New Jersey is promising up to $7 billion in state and local tax credits to persuade Amazon to locate its second headquarters here.

The Democrat-led Legislature last week sent GOP Gov. Chris Christie legislation authorizing billions in tax credits to lure Amazon to Newark. And the city is promising property tax abatements.

The state's public promises to the online retailer contrasts with other states' offers, which have remained private.

More than 15 states and cities, including Chicago, Cleveland and Las Vegas, refused requests from The Associated Press to release the offers they made to the technology giant.

Among the excuses for not releasing the information included that it was a "trade secret" or "confidential."
If youve got a minute to pause from our collective obsession with a gossipy book of dubious veracity, heres an issue of compelling importance that reveals another side of this president and his administration: Iran and how Donald Trump addresses the deadly anti-regime demonstrations now convulsing that historic land that clearly is the linchpin of any future regional stability, or the opposite.

The last time such nationwide protests erupted there  the Green Revolution of 2009  Barack Obama was painfully reluctant to involve the U.S., even rhetorically. His tardy and limp comments about peaceful demonstrations came only after congressional resolutions and John McCains Senate tongue-lashing for their absence.

Hillary Clinton later admitted, We were too restrained in our support of the protests in June 2009, and in our condemnation of the government crackdown that followed.

Though theres little media attention these days, theres no confusion this time. Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, Trump has said. The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime.

Vice President Mike Pence gave a lengthy interview to Greta Van Susteren for Voice of America to broadcast in Farsi: Were going to continue to send, from the very outset of this effort on the streets of Iran, an unambiguous message that the American people stand with freedom-loving people in Iran and around the world.

In a Washington Post op-ed Pence wrote, We stand with the proud people of Iran because it is right. And because the regime in Tehran threatens the peace and security of the world.

Obamas abiding reluctance to confront Iran on anything was tied to his consuming desire for the coveted nuclear pact he sought with Tehran, a leaky pact Trump has now declined to certify Iran is obeying.

Any president, especially one like Trump not known for nuance, walks a tightrope in these situations. He must make clear Americas support for a peoples democratic strivings without creating false hopes of direct U.S. intervention, as arose during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, ultimately squashed by Soviet tanks.

Irans second national uprising against the mullahs in nine years is fueled this time by rural Iranians, once the regimes strongest pillar. Demonstrators now chant for regime change because the anticipated gains from more than $100 billion in unfrozen funds were squandered on weapons, foreign forays, terror funding and, likely, corruption.

Reporters seeking news offered Trumps spokeswoman an opportunity to reveal that her boss supports regime change in Tehran. Instead of taking the bait, she said carefully, I think the ultimate endgame would be that the citizens and the people of Iran are actually given basic human rights, and hed certainly like to see them stop being a state sponsor of terror.

Trumps tweets at North Koreas little Rocket Man draw instant media attention, even igniting speculations on the presidents mental health. They reinforce a popular perception that this president is a loose cannon, a perception he sometimes seeks and feeds with unorthodox presidential behavior and statements.

What doesnt get reported so eagerly nor attributed to Trumps presidency are puzzling positive developments: Economic growth exceeding three percent by Trumps seventh month, unemployment falling to longtime lows, 1.84 million new jobs since Trumps inauguration, confident stock markets soaring to all-time highs, new homebuilding up, dozens of large companies granting bonuses and wage hikes. Even Trumps job approval was climbing at years end.

How can so many things be going so well with an unbalanced usurper in the Oval Office?

Trumps firm stance on Irans global export of terrorism and his sober conduct toward Irans mullahs with the unnoticed absence, for instance, of offensive name-calling tweets go willfully unnoticed because such respect does not fit the favored anti-Trump narrative.

So, too does his mutual decision with South Koreas president to suspend possibly provocative joint military exercises ahead of next months Winter Olympics there. Or Trumps instantly-implemented vow to crush ISIS quickly, no longer an organized fighting force.

Or his carefully targeted response to Syrian use of chemical weapons on its own people. His imposition of new sanctions on Russia, sale of badly-needed defensive weapons to Ukraine, U.S. troop deployments to Eastern Europe as a NATO commitment.

And now the suspension of $2 billion in aid to Pakistan for harboring terrorists, a firm consequence dodged by all recent administrations.

These and other actions demonstrating freshened resolve abroad suggest when it comes to foreign policy, friends and foes alike would do well to note that Trump follows words with action.
The possibility of one of the nation's largest online charter schools shutting down halfway through the academic year is looming larger for its roughly 12,000 students and hundreds of employees as its sponsor moves to cut that tie, which could halt operations within a week.

Staff and students at the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow knew before the sponsor's decision Wednesday that ECOT might close mid-year, but for a different reason. The school had warned it could run out of money and be forced to close because of state efforts to recoup $60 million or more in disputed funding amid a related legal fight.

The sponsor, Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West, said its decision to suspend its arrangement with ECOT around the semester's end next Thursday stemmed from the e-school's financial troubles  specifically, that ECOT couldn't afford to stay open for the rest of the school year or secure a required bond for its fiscal officer as of next month.

ECOT has until Wednesday to appeal the decision. The sponsor will work with the school and Ohio's Department of Education "in the hopes of minimizing any negative impact these proceedings may have" on students, said Apryl Morin, who leads the sponsor's Community Schools Center.

In Ohio, public charter schools can't operate without a sponsor, the entity that establishes the school and also provides oversight and technical help.

A spokesman for ECOT said it tried unsuccessfully to work things out with the Department of Education during the past year and is working to avoid losing its sponsor.

"Our goal is to keep ECOT's doors open and our students in the classroom and provide them with the education they deserve and the setting that is appropriate for their needs," school spokesman Neil Clark said in an email.

The Ohio Department of Education said it's ready to help the sponsor, students' families and educators if ECOT's operations are halted.

A shutdown next week would occur about a month before the Ohio Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in ECOT's case challenging how officials tallied student logins to determine that the virtual school was overpaid for the 2015-16 school year.

The state says that ECOT didn't sufficiently document student participation to justify its funding and could owe millions more from 2016-17. ECOT alleges that officials wrongly changed criteria to adjust funding.

___

Find Kantele Franko on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/kantele10 and her work at http://bit.ly/2qEaebN .
The Trump administration has proposed a vast expansion of offshore drilling that would open 90 percent of the nation's offshore reserves to development by private companies. The plan affects at least 22 coastal states and has drawn bipartisan opposition from 15 governors, support from six governors and one who is undecided.

Most Democrats oppose the plan. Two Republican governors, Florida's Rick Scott and South Carolina's Henry McMaster, have formally requested that their states be withdrawn from the plan.

Following is a list of coastal states and the positions of their governors, with party affiliations included:

Maine, Republican, supports drilling.

New Hampshire, Republican, opposes drilling.

Massachusetts, Republican, opposes.

Rhode Island, Democrat, opposes.

Connecticut, Democrat, opposes.

New York, Democrat, opposes.

New Jersey (governor-elect), Democrat, opposes.

Delaware, Democrat, opposes.

Maryland, Republican, opposes.

Virginia (governor-elect), Democrat, opposes.

North Carolina, Democrat, opposes.

South Carolina, Republican, opposes.

Georgia, Republican, undecided. A spokeswoman says Gov. Nathan Deal generally supports drilling but "has some concerns regarding opening up Georgia's pristine coast."

Florida, Republican, opposes.

Alabama, Republican, supports.

Mississippi, Republican, supports.

Louisiana, Democrat, supports offshore drilling but has not spoken publicly on Trump's plan.

Texas, Republican, supports.

California, Democrat, opposes.

Oregon, Democrat, opposes.

Washington, Democrat, opposes.

Alaska, Independent, supports.

__

Sources: Interior Department, Associated Press reporting
Atlanta airport officials are looking to boost its backup power in the wake of the power outage that crippled the world's busiest airport last month.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport General Manager Roosevelt Council told the city council transportation committee Wednesday that he wants to determine if it's possible to physically separate the main and redundant power systems.

Council says he wants to set up a system of emergency generators powerful enough to keep concourses operating. He says the airport has a say in facility maintenance, but Georgia Power is responsible for design.

The nation's air-travel system was snarled after an underground blaze knocked out electricity in December for around 11 hours.

Council says he expects associated costs would be included in the fiscal year 2019 budget request.

___

Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
Rhode Island economic development officials say the state's bid to become home to Amazon's second headquarters was hand-delivered by an employee who personally flew to Seattle, where the company is based.

The detail was included in a set of documents released by the Commerce Corp. in response to an open records request by The Associated Press.

The Commerce Corp. refused to release the application itself, and it declined to release any studies it used to determine the benefits of luring Amazon to Rhode Island. It said those documents were exempt from the state's Access to Public Records Act, citing exemptions for documents that contain strategy and discussion of the potential investment of public funds, as well as preliminary drafts and notes.

More than 15 states and cities, including Chicago, Cleveland and Las Vegas, refused requests from The Associated Press to detail the promises they made to try to lure the company.

But Rhode Island did release invoices and contracts related to making and promoting the application. They showed that the agency spent $6,911 on the application, including legal fees, work on a website and travel to Seattle.

It also included a contract with a Harvard architecture professor, Preston Scott Cohen, an alumnus of the Rhode Island School of Design. He worked pro bono to create renderings for potential Amazon buildings in Providence, according to Matt Sheaff, a Commerce spokesman.

Invoices show charges for airfare, hotel and parking at Boston Logan International Airport for a Commerce RI executive vice president who Sheaff said hand-delivered the application "out of an abundance of caution."

"We felt it was important for us to not only submit electronically, but also deliver it in person," he said. "We took this entire process seriously, and it was important for us, so out of an abundance of caution, we did both."

Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo told the AP in an interview last month that Amazon had asked the state for more information about its application, but had not indicated any timetable for its decision.

"They asked a lot of questions, they engaged with us," she said. "They've indicated to us they're impressed with our proposal."
What happened

Silver mining stocks were stuck in a rut in 2017, with some of the largest producers like Coeur Mining (NYSE: CDE) losing nearly 17.5%, faring only slightly better than Hecla Mining, which shed 24%, but lagging First Majestic Silver, which lost 11.7%.

In hindsight, Coeur delivered where it matters -- production and investments for the future  and if not for external factors that the company could do little about, Coeur would've been among the top-performing silver companies in 2017. In fact, Coeur just released its preliminary fiscal 2017 sales and production numbers, and they're encouraging.

So what

Coeur's silver equivalent ounces (SEO) production hit record highs of 39.4 million ounces in FY 2017, driven primarily by a 64% jump in production from its largest mine, Palmarejo in Mexico.

While Coeur will release its full-year numbers on Feb. 7, I expect Palmarejo to have contributed substantially to the miner's cash flow thanks to its renewed streaming agreement with Franco-Nevada Corp (NYSE: FNV), under which Coeur was to sell a portion of the gold produced from the mine to Franco-Nevada at $800 per ounce. That's twice the amount Coeur was getting under its previous streaming agreement with Franco-Nevada. For those of those who wish to learn more about the precious-metals streaming business, I encourage you to read this.

The only problem is that Coeur will likely report substantially lower profits for FY 2017 -- given that it incurred losses of $8.9 million during the nine months ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $63.7 million in the year-ago period -- thanks to significant mining and tax expenses, which depends on jurisdictional taxes and foreign currency fluctuations. As Coeur derived a significant portion of production from Palmarejo in 2017, fluctuations in the Mexican peso hit its bottom line hard.

Now what

Coeur is guiding for 36.6 million to 40.0 million SEO production for FY 2018. That may sound discouraging, but the ongoing mine sequencing at Palmarejo, which should boost ore grades and recovery in the longer run, is a major reason why Coeur's production is expected to decline this year. Furthermore, Silvertip -- a mine that Coeur acquired last year and is expected to start production soon -- should help offset some of the production loss from Palmarejo.

What investors should watch for are Coeur's costs and cash flow in 2018. If the company can control its costs and remain free-cash-flow positive despite production hiccups -- which I believe it will -- 2018 could be a better year for the stock.

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Congresswoman Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) is on the verge of declaring her candidacy for Jeff Flakes (R-Ariz.) Senate seat, and she wont be short of support within the donor ranks, which includes the backing of one the most influential super PACs, the Senate Leadership Fund, FOX Business has learned.

Officials within the PAC, dedicated to maintaining a Republican majority in the Senate, have privately informed McSally that she will receive their support when she jumps into the race for Flakes soon-to-be-vacant seat, according to sources familiar with the matter. The CEO of the fund, Steven Law, has personally spoken with McSally and recently told her, she's the ideal candidate and he would definitely back her,according to a person close to the PAC.

A spokesperson for the Senate Leadership Fund declined to comment about its support for McSally. A spokesperson for McSally did not return requests for comment.

McSally all but declared her candidacy for Flakes seat after he announced he was retiring in October. Since then, shes courted numerous donors including Randy Kendrick, the wife of Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, according to McSally campaign aides.

McSally also did not deny she was going to run for Senate when she was asked by Trish Regan on FOX Business Wednesday whether shes prepared to declare her candidacy. We have an important announcement coming out on Friday so stay tuned, she said, declining to comment further.

The addition of the Leadership Fund to McSallys fundraising arsenal, however, could give her a colossal advantage in campaign resources over her opponents in former State Senator Kelli Ward and Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Democrat political strategist Hank Sheinkopf told FOX Business in a phone interview on Wednesday that the funds backing McSally could guarantee her a clear path to victory.

It will be tough to beat her in the primary and the general now that she has this super PAC on her side. Its a toss up election, he said. It leans Republican but their support makes her the front runner for the time being.

So far in the 2018 midterm election cycle, the PAC has spent more than $3 million in television advertisements for its allies running for Republican Senate seats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

During the 2016 election, the PAC spent $83 million on TV ads and $4 million on internet attack ads. The PAC was created in 2015 by supporters of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and is now run by Law, a former chief of staff to the Republican leader. Since its inception the fund has been backed by mega donors such as Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman, Las Vegas Sands Corporation CEO Sheldon Adelson and Point72 Asset Management Founder Steve Cohen.

In 2016, Schwarzman and Adelson were some of the funds top donors, with the Blackstone executive contributing more than $2 million and Adelson handing out over $17 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Cohen is the top donor so far this year, giving $2 million to the PAC.

McConnell has not officially endorsed McSally for Senate, but at his end of the year press conference in December he listed her as a candidate even before an announcement was made.

"We've got some great candidates out there and you're familiar with them. Martha McSally, Josh Hawley and we hope to land a few more in the coming weeks," he said then.

A spokesperson for McConnell did not return a request for comment at the time of publication.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Tom Homan, on Thursday, said illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S. has declined.

Weve seen a huge increase in Central American aliens from Guatemala, El Salvador Honduras. The Mexican illegal immigration actually declined, Homan told the FOX Business Maria Bartiromo on Mornings with Maria.

President Trump, on Tuesday, discussed his plans for a border wall, Dreamers and DACA with Congressional Republicans and Democrats. According to Homan, illegal immigrants from 140 different countries were deported from the U.S. in 2017, and in his opinion, a border wall would help protect the country.

Every place they built a barrier, the illegal crossings decreased significantly, he said.

Earlier this month, California officially became a sanctuary city, which puts more ICE agents at risk and also puts more immigrants in danger, in Homans opinion.

When my officers cant arrest a bad guy and they release them to the street that means our officers have to go to a home a neighborhood or place of employment where they are going to find most likely other illegal aliens that werent the target of the operation and those other illegal aliens will be arrested, he said.

Meanwhile, ICE agents swarmed nearly 100 7-Eleven stores nationwide, on Wednesday, arresting 21 employees alleged of being in the country illegally. Homan said to expect more of this going forward.

We have stepped up worksite enforcement, 7-Eleven was the first large one we did there are many more large ones to come, he said. We are also going to concentrate on medium sized companies and small companies. We are going to hold employers responsible.
If anyone had challenged President Obama's sanity they would be out of a job in ten seconds flat and then banished from respectable society.

But, with President Trump its a different story: There are no restrictions. Call him what you like.

Thus, the New York Times' editorial board has this headline: "Is Mr. Trump nuts?" the Times answers its own question, saying its beside the point: He is impulsive, erratic, alarming, and unfit to serve.

Not a word about the president's actual performance: Strong growth, 2 million new jobs, over 1 million workers getting bonuses, tax cuts and a huge win for everyone's pension plan! ISIS gone. That is the one year record of this "unfit to serve, dangerous" president!

Just who exactly, is dangerous? President Obama? Who gave away the store to Iran, opened the door to ISIS and ran up the debt to "dangerous" levels?

What are foreign governments supposed to think? What are Americans supposed to think, when the left and the media combine to suggest our country is being run by a president who is mentally unstable? How low can you go? How dangerous can you be?
Honda is developing an off-roader that can carry just about anything, except a driver.

The 3E-D18 is an autonomous ATV designed to be used as a workhorse by construction crews, farmers, search and rescue teams, etc., or adventurers who just need a little help lugging their gear into the wilderness.

The electric 4x4 is powered by swappable batteries and fitted with a rack system where all sorts of equipment can be mounted. Honda envisions it being used for spreading fertilizer, plowing snow, fighting forest fires and even picking crops, and its non-pneumatic airless tires mean its virtually flat-proof. Fitted with GPS and a guidance system, it can be summoned and deployed via an app on a smart device.

There arent any plans for production yet, but Honda has made a functional prototype and is looking for companies to partner with on proof of concept tests.

TEST DRIVE: POLARIS TERRAINARMOR 'AIRLESS' TIRES:
They sealed their fates with a kiss.

An alleged car-thieving couple led police on a wild, half-hour high speed pursuit outside of Phoenix Wednesday night that had its dramatic end captured on camera by a Fox 10 helicopter.

The chase began when cops identified an SUV on the Salt River reservation that had been reported stolen and tried to pull it over, but the driver refused to comply. Instead, he sped off and tried to get away by going off-road and the wrong way down some streets.

Units from multiple police departments soon joined the pursuit, which ended 30 miles later, when the vehicle smashed through the back fence of an industrial yard in Apache Junction, drove into the desert and crashed into a ditch.

Thats when the romantic drama began.

A man and a woman exited from either side of the car and took off on foot their separate ways, the spotlight from a police helicopter sticking tight to the driver.

Within a few moments, he stopped and was reunited under the light with his partner in crime. The two then hugged and apparently kissed before they laid down on the ground as police approached them on foot and arrested them.

They were both injured in the accident and taken to a nearby hospital. The man, Dustin Perkins, had a broken hand and told Fox 10, Im sorry, everybody. It was a really stupid thing, as police escorted him out of the building on their way to the station for booking.

When asked if the woman, identified as Lovida Flores, was his wife, he said she might as well be, and said shed injured her jaw in the accident. The Arizona Republic reported that Flores was in serious condition.

Perkins told police that he was trying to bring the truck to his father, who is suffering from cancer, but authorities are still investigating who the vehicle belongs to.

The pair face several charges, including unlawful flight and vehicle theft.
Dan Harmon, the creator of Community and the co-creator of Rick and Morty, came under fire for sexual harassment last week when a former writer publicly called him out for his past misconduct. Now that same writer is publicly forgiving him after calling his lengthy apology a masterclass.

As previously reported, Megan Ganz, a writer whose work includes Modern Family, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Last Man on Earth and Community aired some grievances on Twitter after Harmon commented on all the sexual harassment in Hollywood thats been going on. Harmon was contrite in his response, but it wasnt until he had a chance to speak on his podcast that he gave a clearer picture of what happened in the past with Ganz.

In the latest episode of Harmontown, the series creator explained that he was attracted to Ganz while he was her boss on "Community," and had a live-in girlfriend. He says he recognized that those feelings were bad news, but continued to lie to himself about them.

And so I did the cowardly easiest laziest thing you could do with feelings like that and I didnt deal with them, and in not dealing with them, I made everybody else deal with them, he said. Especially her.

He eventually broke up with his girlfriend in an effort to justify his attraction to another woman. Soon after, he claims he told Ganz he loved her, but she didnt share his feelings. Furthermore, she tried to explain that his feelings for her, as her boss, made it difficult to know if she was any good at her job. Afterwards, he admits to treating her poorly for her response.

And that was probably the darkest of it all. Im going to assume that when she tweets about it and refers to trauma that thats probably it, because I drank, I took pills, I crushed on her and resented her for not reciprocating it," he said. "And the entire time, I was the one writing her paychecks and in control of whether she stayed or went and whether she felt good about herself or not, and said horrible things, just treated her cruelly, pointedly. Things that I would never ever ever have done if she had been male and if I had never had those feelings for her.

The day the podcast was released, Ganz took to Twitter to urge her followers to actually listen to what Harmon had to say.

Please listen to it, she wrote in a Twitter thread. Its only seven minutes long, but it is a masterclass in How to Apologize. Hes not rationalizing or justifying or making excuses. He doesnt just vaguely acknowledge some general wrongdoing in the past. He gives a full account.

She ended her thread noting that if any part of this process should be done in the public eye, it should be the forgiveness part.

So, @danharmon, I forgive you.

You can listen to the podcast on the Harmontown website, where the apology begins at the 18:40 mark. You can also read the full transcript of what he said on Splitsider.
The teenage daughter of "Big Brother" houseguest Amber Siyavus died in an apparent suicide on Monday, making her the fourth student from the same high school to have died in the past six months.

Lexi Tomcavage, 18, died Monday night and her death is being investigated as a suicide, the Stark County Coroner's Office told Fox News.

The coroner's office also told Fox News four other teenagers from Perry Township have died in the past six months, and their deaths have been ruled as suicides. One of the deaths is still being investigated but it is a suspected suicide.

The teenagers' ages range from 14 to 18.

Four of the teenagers, including Tomcavage, attended Perry High School. The school told Fox News Tomcavage was not a student at the time of her death.

In November, at least a dozen people protested outside of Perry High School to bring awareness to suicide prevention, according to Fox 8.

In response to the suicides, the Perry Township Police Department and Perry Local Schools are working together to make counselors available to students in the district.

"In an effort to address additional questions our department has received, none of the circumstances surrounding the other three student deaths have uncovered issues related to school. Additionally, none of the four death investigations are connected," the police department told Fox 8 on January 1.

The school district also told Fox 8 in a statement, "We are a proud community that comes together in difficult times, and we are asking the community to support our students, our parents, each other and our districts staff as we move forward together."

Siyavus appeared on Season 8 of "Big Brother" in 2007. According to her Facebook page, she lives in Las Vegas and is a cocktail waitress at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.
Comedian Chelsea Handler is getting roasted for a vulgar homophobic tweet she sent Wednesday night that implied Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is a closeted gay man who is sucking up to President Trump instead of coming out.

On Tuesday, Trump allowed cameras into a lengthy bipartisan immigration meeting with lawmakers. The former Netflix talk show host-turned-self-described activist apparently didnt like what she heard from Graham, R-S.C., who participated in the meeting, and voiced her opinion to her more than 8 million followers.

Holy, f--k f--k. I just [saw] the video of trumps bipartisan meeting yesterday, Handler tweeted. Hey, @LindseyGrahamSC what kind of d--k sucking video do they have on you for you 2 be acting like this? Wouldnt coming out be more honorable?

Keep being a voice for the Democrats while you use homosexuality as an insult  Twitter user responding to Chelsea Handler's tweet

The tweet had not been deleted at the time this article was published, and had racked up more than 20,000 likes. But the vile homophobic remark immediately resulted in criticism, with many followers asking if Handler was drunk. Drunk tweeting again, Chelsea..? And its only Wednesday, one response said.

Keep being a voice for the Democrats while you use homosexuality as an insult, another user wrote, while another said, You are attacking him and claiming that hes gay and that he is ashamed so that is why he is being nice to Trump?

This woman is simply gross, a contributor to The Federalist wrote.

Twitter declined to comment on whether or not Handler will be disciplined.

The tweet had amassed more than 5,000 comments  mostly condemning the former Netflix star. Fox News contributor Harlan Hill wrote, If a Republican said something like this, they'd be burning down the RNC.

Handler, who claims to be an advocate of the LGBTQ community, was rehashing rumors that Graham shot down back in 2010.

I know its really gonna upset a lot of gay menbut I aint available. I aint gay. Sorry, he told The New York Times.

Many people asked if Twitter would consider this an example of abuse or targeted harassment. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

GLAAD did not immediately respond to request for comment.

This is far from Handlers first mishap on social media.

Handler announced she would take a break from Hollywood to focus full time on political activism last October and has sent a series of controversial tweets since the decision was announced.

Last month Handler came under fire for tweeting a vulgar video that mocked White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders' weight and physical appearance. She was also criticized in November for blaming Republicans for the deadly mass shooting at a Texas church before facts about the shooter emerged. Less than two weeks after announcing she would focus on activism, she mistakenly referred to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher as a woman.

Handler was blasted on social media last year for blaming President Trump for the California wildfires. The outspoken liberal has even called for a military coup to overthrow Trump and mocked first lady Melania Trump for barely speaking English.

Handler ended her Netflix series after two rocky seasons because the past presidential election and the countless events that have unfolded since have galvanized her, she wrote.

While Netlfix does not provide viewership information, Handlers Netflix talk show was not necessarily as popular as she or the streaming service hoped it would be and there was widespread speculation that the show would have ended regardless of her decision to walk away for political purposes.

Netlfix did not return an email for comment on Handler's tweet.
Corey Feldman "vehemently denies" allegations that he groped a woman in early 2017.

A rep for Feldman told Fox News on Wednesday via email that Corey "vehemently denies these egregious accusations. It goes against everything he believes in and is fighting for  victim protection and stopping inappropriate behavior toward both children and adults."

TMZ reported that an unidentified woman filed a police report on Monday with the Los Angeles Police Department.

"We can confirm that a crime report was taken by LAPD on 1/8/18 listing Corey Feldman as a suspect in a sexual battery report," the LAPD told Fox News via email.

Feldman has been on a crusade to out Hollywood predators within the last year.

In December, the Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office validated the '80s star's claim that he named alleged predators during their investigation into Michael Jackson in 1993 after they claimed to not have such recording.

Following the recent inquiries into the Sheriffs Office interview of Mr. Feldman in 1993, the Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office conducted an additional review for any stored items remaining from the Michael Jackson investigation.

In a container which included the original reports from the investigation, the Sheriffs Office located some detective working copies of audio recordings made during the investigation. A copy of Mr. Feldmans interview was located. The recording is being turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department. Due to the fact that this case involves the alleged sexual abuse of a child, we are unable to comment further and any documentation or evidence related to this case is exempt from release.
Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno said todays late-night shows have become negative following the election of President Trump and said the hosts all discuss depressing Trump stuff.

Leno, who gave up his coveted spot to Jimmy Fallon four years ago, told The Hollywood Reporter he had no interest in coming back to late-night and enjoys hosting his CNBC show Jay Lenos Garage.

Leno explained late-night has always been pretty topical except now every host appears to be covering the same topic.

CHELSEA HANDLER SLAMMED FOR HOMOPHOBIC ANTI-TRUMP TWEET QUESTIONING LINDSEY GRAHAMS SEXUALITY

Its all depressing Trump stuff, Leno said. And they all do a great job.

Leno said that now the subjects appeared to be negative.

The trouble is that there's such negativity now, Leno said. When I did the show, Bush was dumb and Clinton was horny and it was human problems. Now it's all anti-women, anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim, anti-Mexican, anti-Salvadoran; it's such a negative thing.

Leno applauded hosts like Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Myers for making it funny, but ultimately, its depressing.

FORMER PRICE IS RIGHT MODEL GWENDOLYN OSBORNE-SMITH SAYS DREW CAREY CELEBRATES WOMEN

However, the former host said that he told his wife, who was upset following Trumps victory, that it would be the greatest thing that ever happens in the womens movement.

Because even men who are apathetic are going, Whoa, wait a minute. Harvey Weinstein was a catalyst, but Trump really started [the groundswell]. 750,000 women showed up for that march on three days' notice. That was unprecedented, he said.

When asked if he wished he still had his talk show in order to have his "shot" at Trump, Leno said he did not. Leno said he liked having his show for 22 years and was lucky for the opportunity, but felt too old to return to the late-night circuit.

Leno said he enjoyed what he was doing now and would not consider doing a series for a streaming service like his colleague David Letterman.

Not really. I like what I'm doing, Leno said. To me, I like talking to regular people and seeing what I can draw out of them. I'm sure Dave will be excellent, he always does a good show.
Actor Johnathon Schaech has accused Italian director Franco Zeffirelli of molesting him while on the set of their 1993 film, Sparrow. The son of the now-94-year-old Zeffirelli has denied Schaech's claim.

Schaech, who is known for his TV roles on shows like Ray Donovan and Quantico, alleged that he was sexually assaulted by the director in a detailed personal essay for People Magazine.

He would tell me how wonderful and beautiful I was, told me incredible stories and what I needed to do to really be a real artist, Schaech wrote. I could tell he wanted something from me beyond just being his leading man.

The actor, who is now 48, was 22 when he starred in Sparrow." He claims the famous director pursued him while they were filming. The actor recalled jumping at the chance to work with Zeffirelli saying that it was a big opportunity to be a part of the film.

He was trying to seduce me, under the guise of teaching me, from the start, Schaech wrote.

On the set, Schaech claimed that the director would fawn over him and say things like, I need to be with you, while at the same time being verbally abusive.

It got to the point where he made me feel like I couldnt act, I couldnt do anything right, I couldnt speak right, I couldnt move right  everything I did was wrong. So I felt beaten down.

Then one night, Zeffirelli allegedly crossed the line and told the young actor that he was going to come to his room despite Schaech saying no. He alleges the director attempted to perform oral sex on him.

I was vulnerable. I didnt scream and yell. I didnt physically stop him, and it took me 25 years to answer the question why not. Theres a moment when someone is being violated by a predator where it is a clear form of violence that creates trauma in the body, Schaech wrote. We have a fight or flight response. People say they 'leave their bodies' and thats what I did. When it was obvious Franco wasnt getting what he wanted that night, he just left. He never tried to touch me again. I told him not to come near me again. He never said anything about it.

Schaech, who appeared in films like "That Thing You Do!" and "Hush," said the alleged assault impacted his life. He wrote the incident drove him to alcohol and drug problems, as well as sexual addictions.

It caused my whole world to be confused for a long time. I carried this shame all along, I thought it was just part of who I was, he explained.

After star Rose McGowen alleged Harvey Weinstein raped her, Schaech decided to speak up.

When I saw Rose, my co-star [in 'Doom Generation'], post about her experience, it hit home. I told her this happened to me, and shes been great.

Zeffirellis son called Schaechs allegations against his father not credible.

My father is in poor health and not able to understand this attack and to respond to the allegations made by Jonathan Schaech, Zeffirelli said in response to the account. This would be an attack to a great director, an artist and to a man at the end of his life that he is not able, nor he will be in the future able to respond. This will be an incredible damage to his image and reputation on the basis of allegations which are not credible and cannot be proved.
LGBTQ groups are oddly silent regarding a tweet sent by former comedian Chelsea Handler on Wednesday that implied Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is a closeted gay man who's appeasing President Trump instead of coming out of the closet.

GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, National LGBTQ Task Force and a variety of other gay rights organizations have either ignored or declined to comment on Handlers tweet when reached by Fox News.

On Tuesday, Trump allowed cameras into a lengthy bipartisan immigration meeting with lawmakers. The former Netflix talk show host-turned-self-described activist apparently didnt like what she heard from Graham, R-S.C., who participated in the meeting, and voiced her opinion to her more than 8 million followers.

Holy, f--k f--k. I just [saw] the video of trumps bipartisan meeting yesterday, Handler tweeted. Hey, @LindseyGrahamSC what kind of d--k sucking video do they have on you for you 2 be acting like this? Wouldnt coming out be more honorable?

None of the LGBTQ groups mentioned have condemned Handlers comment on their Twitter feeds, either. However, GLAAD has been quick to condemn conservatives who make similar statements. Back in 2013 the organization called for A&E to take action when Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson made derogatory comments about homosexuality.

Last summer, GLAADs Transgender Media Program director Nick Adams responded to an episode of Survivor immediately after the show aired when an episode featured contestant Zeke Smith being outed as transgender by fellow competitor Jeff Varner.

It is dangerous and unacceptable to out a transgender person, Adams said at the time.

Daily Wire contributor Harry Khachatrian tweeted, Apparently homophobic slurs are ok as long as theyre against a Republican.

Fox News contributor Harlan Hill wrote, If a Republican said something like this, they'd be burning down the RNC.

Gay rights groups arent the only ones staying silent when it comes to Handler, as Twitter declined to comment when asked if the tweet violated the companys guidelines. Twitters website states that users may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.

A list of things the company does not tolerate includes non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone.

Despite numerous calls for Twitter to suspend or discipline Handler, the social media company refused to discuss the matter when reached by Fox News.

Another hateful Leftist with Twitter's blue check mark seal of approval, conservative writer Mark Pantano said.

However, not everyone thinks she should be punished for the tweet. Actor James Woods said Handler is the gift that keeps on giving to Republicans and conservatives because of the way she negatively portrays the left.

Why would anyone want her censored? Her demeanor, sense of tact, and level of intelligence define her as a classic liberal icon, Woods tweeted.

Handler, who has claimed to be an advocate of the LGBTQ community, was rehashing rumors that Graham shot down back in 2010. I know its really gonna upset a lot of gay men... but I aint available. I aint gay. Sorry, he told The New York Times.

Handler announced she would take a break from Hollywood to focus full time on political activism last October and has sent a series of controversial tweets since the decision was announced. She ended her Netflix series after two rocky seasons because the past presidential election and the countless events that have unfolded since have galvanized her, she wrote.

While Netlfix does not provide viewership information, Handlers Netflix talk show was not necessarily as popular as she or the streaming service hoped it would be -- and there was widespread speculation that the show would have ended regardless of her decision to walk away for political purposes.

Netflix did not return an email for comment on Handler's tweet.
Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino penned an open letter to Dylan Farrow stating she believes the sexual abuse allegations Farrow made against her adoptive father, Woody Allen.

Sorvino began her letter by expressing her belief in and support of Farrow, who wrote an editorial for the New York Times in 2014 claiming Allen molested her when she was 7 years old.

In the letter published in the Huffington Post, Sorvino said she was a naive young actress when she worked with the director and swallowed the medias portrayal of your abuse allegations against your father.

PAUL SORVINO THREATENS TO KILL HARVEY WEINSTEIN FOR BLACKLISTING DAUGHTER MIRA

Sorvino played Linda Ash in Allen's 1995 film "Mighty Aphrodite," for which she earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

The actress wrote she never experienced any inappropriate behavior from Allen while working with him but it did not excuse my turning a blind eye to your story simply because I wanted desperately for it not to be so.

Sorvino wrote she looked up to Allen as one of her heroes and called him talented, but there was no excuse for his alleged behavior.

The actress said she met with Ronan Farrow, Dylans brother, after his expose on Harvey Weinstein for The New Yorker. Sorvino was one of the women to come forward describing an incident in a hotel room in 1995 with Weinstein. Sorvino said the movie mogul attempted to get physical with her before she left the room. The actress stated Ronan Farrow brought up the allegations his sister made against Allen.

HARVEY WEINSTEIN SMEAR CAMPAIGN KEPT ASHLEY JUDD, MIRA SORVNO FROM LORD OF THE RINGS, DIRECTOR CLAIMS

He pointed me toward publicly available details of the case I had ruefully never known of, which made me begin to feel the evidence strongly supported your story, Sorvino wrote. That you have been telling the truth all along.

Sorvino concluded her letter with an apology to Dylan Farrow and her mother, Mia Farrow. She also vowed to never work with Allen again and called Dylan a hero for coming forward.

I am grateful to you and admire your integrity and bravery, one woman who has had to stand virtually alone all these years speaking her painful truth, she wrote. You are a true hero, and I stand with you.
Star reporter and celebrity scion Ronan Farrow has left NBC for HBO, months after executives at the Peacock Network spiked his explosive expose on Hollywood heavy hitter Harvey Weinstein. The departure is an embarrassment for NBC News, which has been battling accusations that it had ulterior motives for suppressing reporting on sexual harassment.

Its a happy ending for Farrow, though, who had ended up publishing his Weinstein report in the prestigious magazine The New Yorker. He will produce documentaries for HBO, long considered the gold standard in that department.

Ronan Farrows extraordinary, revelatory reporting for The New Yorker has helped to propel a string of other investigations, breakthroughs and overdue conversations, HBO programming chief Casey Bloys said in a statement. His work has contributed to this watershed moment in our culture, and we are excited to provide a platform for this dogged reporter to pursue projects that continue to speak truth to power.

Farrows reporting helped expose Weinstein as a sexual predator, though the truth about the disgraced Hollywood mogul could have surfaced months earlier if it hadnt been spiked by embattled NBC News President Noah Oppenheim and his boss, NBC News Chairman Andy Lack. After NBC passed, The New Yorker jumped at the opportunity to publish Farrow's work, which is now receiving Pulitzer Prize buzz.

In the hallowed halls of HBO, Farrow will develop and front a series of investigative documentary specials. He also used the new gig to finally update his Twitter profile, which had long stated he was still with NBC despite an obvious feud with the network that included appearances on archrival ABC while he was still supposedly working for the Peacock.

In various media appearances to promote his Weinstein reporting, Farrow took a series of jabs at NBC News for refusing to air his Weinstein reporting, implying that Lack and Oppenheim had maintained a veil of silence.

Last year, HuffPost reported that NBC tried to put a stop to an interview with a woman accusing Weinstein of rape so Farrow wound up paying out of his own pocket for a camera crew to film an interview.

Farrow, son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen, also published a still photo from an interview he conducted with actress and Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan that never aired on NBC. He also said multiple times that his producer at NBC, Rich McHugh, was threatened by network executives with losing his job if he continued to work on the Weinstein story.

Its unclear if McHugh, who did not respond to requests for comment, will be joining Farrow at HBO or will remain at NBC.

Farrow knew he could not count on support from NBC News, The Hollywood Reporter wrote this week. Multiple sources tell THR that Farrow was told to stand down, though NBC has strongly disputed this and executives have stressed that Farrow did not have one accuser willing to be identified at the time.

NBC has been insistent that the reporting Farrow presented to it was not nearly as strong as what eventually appeared in The New Yorker.

For his part, Farrow bluntly rebutted NBCs contention that his reporting was not up to snuff in an appearance on MSNBC the day his New Yorker piece was published.

NBCs critics have pointed out that Oppenheim, the news president, moonlights as a Hollywood screenwriter and had a conflict of interest in standing judgment over Weinstein, long the premier producer of prestige Hollywood films. Oppenheim had also sat at a small table with Weinstein at the exclusive Time 100 dinner in New York in April, while Farrows investigation was well underway.

Oppenheim, who has worked full time as a screenwriter, has long been represented by the Creative Arts Agency, which continues to rep him on projects including a movie hes writing about the escape artist Harry Houdini. The New York Times recently published a lengthy feature that details CAAs role in protecting Weinstein. Farrow was also with CAA which, The Times reported, tried unsuccessfully to broker a parley between Weinstein and Farrow.

Five days after Farrow's story was published in The New Yorker, he fired CAA and signed with its primary competitor, WME.

But while Oppenheim has taken much of the heat for spiking the Weinstein story, industry insiders have pointed the finger at Lack, who has been mum on the subject. The Hollywood Reporterfeature on Farrow this week even reported that it was Oppenheim who, identifying a cryptic comment by McGowan as being about Weinstein, originally suggested that Farrow pursue the Weinstein story  a story that was ultimately killed by Lack.

New Yorker reporter Ken Auletta questioned NBCs decision in The Hollywood Reporter this week, noting that Oppenheims only comment about the decision  that Farrows reporting essentially wasnt good enough for NBC  simply doesnt add up, given the final product.

"It doesn't make sense to me," Auletta told THR.

For its part, NBC continues to struggle with issues pertaining to sexual harassment and misconduct, as parent company Comcast conducts an investigation to determine who knew about now-disgraced former Today co-host Matt Lauers sexual misbehavior and when they knew it. NBC Universals corporate team of human resources and legal executives is leading the ongoing harassment probe and will report its findings to HR Executive Vice President Patricia Langer and Vice President, General Counsel Kimberley D. Harris.

Lack recently announced a culture assessment of NBC News and an assortment of other bureaucratic efforts to combat sex harassment  these include focus groups and mandatory training on workplace behavior and harassment prevention. None of the steps taken by NBC News place any blame on leadership that may have allowed for Lauers alleged predatory behavior.

In addition to firing Lauer, NBC News has had a smorgasbord of other sexual misconduct-related incidents to contend with of late. Among them, MSNBC admitted that star Chris Matthews had settled with a former producer who accused him of sexual harassment; the network also fired Morning Joe regular Mark Halperin for sexual misconduct; and suspended two contributors, Glenn Thrush and Harold Ford, Jr., amid accusations they'd harassed women.

When news first broke that Lauer had been fired, Lack initially claimed there was only one complaint about the network star in 20 years -- the one that led to his dismissal. But the executives soon backtracked, with NBC clarifying in a statement that only current management was in the dark about "reports" of Lauer's conduct. Even the second statement has raised eyebrows and the Variety reporters who broke the Lauer bombshell, Elizabeth Wagmeister and Ramin Setoodeh, have questioned the claim that current NBC staffers were unaware of Lauers misconduct.

As all this is going on, Lack and Oppenheim have still not explained why they sat on another one of the biggest stories of the decade: the Access Hollywood tape of Donald Trump making lewd comments about women. The tape of Trump caught on a hot mic was leaked from within NBC to The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold, who is Oppenheim's friend from Harvard, where they worked as editors together on the student newspaper.

Observers have recently pondered whether NBC executives reluctance to expose other big stars bad behavior -- via the "Access Hollywood' tape or Farrow's investigation -- was linked to what Vanity Fair called a glass houses problem.

Comcast did not respond to request for an update on the internal investigation.

Farrows deal with HBO will begin later this year.
Internationally renowned musician Seal trashed Oprah Winfrey on social media just days after her widely praised speech at the Golden Globe Awards on sexual misconduct in Hollywood, calling her a part of the problem for decades.

In a fiery Instagram post Wednesday, Seal republished a pair of photos of Winfrey with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, including one in which she appears to be kissing the producers cheek. Overlayed on the photos, in all-caps, is the text: When you have been part of the problem for decades, but suddenly they all think you are the solution.

Seal added a sarcastic comment to the right of the photographs that suggested Winfrey knew Weinstein was mistreating women.

Oh I forgot, that's right.....you'd heard the rumours but you had no idea he was actually serially assaulting young stary-eyed actresses who in turn had no idea what they were getting into. My bad, Seal wrote.

He added the hashtag #SanctimoniousHollywood to the post.

On Tuesday, comedian and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane also spoke out against Winfrey, cautioning that celebrity power does not alone qualify a candidate for the presidency.

Oprah is beyond doubt a magnificent orator, MacFarlane wrote. But the idea of a reality show star running against a talk show host is troublingly dystopian. We dont want to create a world where dedicated public service careers become undesirable and impractical in the face of raw celebrity.

Juanita Broaddrick, the now-75-year-old retired nurse, has alleged former President Bill Clinton raped her during his 1978 campaign for Arkansas governor, and that his wife Hillary Clinton helped him cover it up. She brought that allegation to Orpah's attention.

Hey @Oprah #GoldenGlobes, tweeted Broaddrick Monday. Funny Ive never heard you mention my name. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?Guess not. My rapist was/is your friend, Bill Clinton.
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Tim Allen is feeling inspired by fans who have recently begun petitioning again for a "Last Man Standing" revival.



"Last Man Standing" fans called on ABC to bring back Allen's show after Roseanne Barr revealed on Monday her sitcom character is a Trump supporter in the upcoming "Roseanne" reboot headed to the network. Allen's show famously featured conservative values and many speculated that was the reason behind its cancellation.

"The support from all the fans to bring back 'Last Man Standing' is truly overwhelming to me and so appreciated," Allen told Fox News exclusively. "I, along with the talented writers, wonderful crew and terrific actors would definitely entertain the idea of bringing the show back as there is so much gas left in the tank, more to be said, and laughs to be had."

ROSEANNE BARR DEFENDS TRUMP, SAYS SITCOM WILL TACKLE POLITICS

The 64-year-old told us his fans' recent push to revive "Last Man Standing" has given him hope that the show could make a comeback.

"I know fans would love nothing more than for us to take the cover off, fire up the engine, back this car out of the garage and get it back on the highway, full-throttle," Allen said. "My sentiment sits in the front seat beside you."

Allen, a conservative himself who has voiced his support for President Trump, played Mike Baxter, who is also politically conservative, on the show -- which was canceled in May 2017 despite its high ratings.

"Last Man Standing" has been praised for being one of the few shows that appeal to a conservative viewership and ABC vehemently denied it gave the show the boot over its politics.

TIM ALLEN 'STUNNED AND BLINDSIDED' BY 'LAST MAN STANDING' CANCELLATION'

In May 2017, the network revealed that it would not be renewing Last Man Standing for a seventh season. The sixth -- and final -- season of the show, which skews more toward a blue-collar audience, was the networks second most-watched comedy with 8.1 million views, behind only the seemingly untouchable Modern Family, which scored 8.7 million in the same year.

"Stunned and blindsided by the network I called home for the last six years," Allen wrote on Twitter at the time.

The former "Home Improvement" star has been open about his conservative-leaning politics in the past. Allen told Jimmy Kimmel in March that living in Hollywood right now is akin to Nazi Germany.

"You gotta be real careful around here," Allen noted. "You get beat up if you don't believe what everybody else believes. This is like '30s Germany."
When Alyssa Alcaraz was sent home from school after throwing up, her family thought she probably had a bug of some sort  maybe even a mild case of the flu.

The next day, Alcarazs mother, Keila Lino, decided to take her daughter to a nearby urgent care, where doctors confirmed her suspicion: Alcaraz had the flu.

Doctors gave the young girl some nausea medicine and cough syrup, just in case.

Shes been sick before with a cold and flu that has lasted longer, Lino told Fox News. It was nothing new for us. Like any normal teen, she just wanted to be left alone on her phone.

Over the next four days, Alcarazs health continued to deteriorate. She was fatigued, had no appetite and was having trouble breathing.

When medication, rest and fluids failed, Lino rushed her daughter to urgent care. A physician told Lino the seventh graders oxygen levels were low, and Alcaraz was rushed to Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, Calif.

The doctor wanted to rule out meningitis, though she wasnt complaining about her neck, he didnt want to rule it, Lino explained. We were starting to do that procedure to test her fluid when she coded.

The 12-year-old went into cardiac arrest, which, her parents say, was a result of septic shock from a strep infection in her blood  an infection she had no idea her daughter was suffering from. Within hours, Alcaraz was dead.

It wasnt until days after her daughter died, on Dec. 17, that Lino learned the cause of her death.

A couple days after she passed, we got a call from the lab at the funeral home, Lino said. We were shocked by it. Doctors said it was the flu, but it was a bacteria infection due to strep that shut down [her] organs all within three days.

With the nation suffering from an unusually severe flu season, Lino says she isnt surprised her daughter was misdiagnosed with the flu.

"We dont want revenge. We want changes. We want something positive out of this.  Keila Lino

The flu is now widespread in 46 states, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). California is being hit particularly hard. State health officials say at least 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in the state since October.

I know right now with the flu season clinics, hospitals, everyone is just busy and assuming thats what everyone has, Lino said. But its more than that. In order for us to know, with simple blood work, it could have been caught. Something so simple.

Lino, a mother of four, said shes sharing her daughters story as a warning to other parents, encouraging them to push doctors to do further testing.

We want to do something on her behalf and make a change in some way, Lino said. Its not fair. We know its not fair. We dont want revenge. We want changes. We want something positive out of this.

Alcarazs father, Jeremy, agreed  and thanked the dozens of people who have showed support for the family since Alcarazs unexpected death. Nearly 200 people raised $12,350 as of Thursday morning via GoFundMe to help cover funeral expenses.

She loved to sing. She was a smart girl, beautiful, Jeremy said. It was awesome. She had a beautiful funeral.
When Elizabeth Guardino brought home her newborn from the hospital, he seemed a healthy, bright-eyed boy. But three months later, she realized something was amiss  Christian was unable to track objects placed in front of him and had developed no facial recognition.

Guardino knew something was horribly wrong and she needed to act quickly. He was diagnosed with a rare retinal disease called Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, and he spend nearly a decade in the dark.

People born with this [mutation] have severely poor vision and, as they get older, the disease gets worse because the cells in the back of the eye, where vision begins, die off and the individual becomes completely dependent, says, Dr. Jean Bennett, University of Pennsylvania ophthalmologist and Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) physician.

Christian was eventually able to see again, thanks to a breakthrough drug recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDAs approval of Luxturna, the first gene therapy to treat a specific inherited gene mutation, RPE65  has been deemed a medical milestone. The procedure injects a copy of a healthy gene directly into the retina. This allows proteins to repair tissue, thus gradually restoring the patients vision through a one-time injection.

Yet for some groups, the initial enthusiasm surrounding the breakthrough treatment has already worn off. Earlier this month, the company announced that it planned to charge $850,000 per patient for the drug making it the most expensive medicine sold in the U.S., ranked by the sticker price. The outstanding cost also raises an important question, just how much is eyesight worth?

Spark Therapeutics co-founder said the drug is not only a breakthrough for vision, but clinical success reinforces the potential of gene therapy in treating patients with other inherited and challenging diseases.

This shows that there is a pathway to change a gene into a medicine  and this is the first, says Dr. Kathy High, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Spark Therapeutics, Inc.

While gene therapy holds this promise until just a few months ago the field had been plagued with failures. That is perhaps why Luxturna is pushing for an unusual payer model, including installment payments and rebates to address patients who do not have success or experience only partial or temporary success.

Critics are not only concerned about the longevity of the treatment, they also raise skepticism about what this price tag will do for future treatments like it.

Spark is doing what every drug company does, which is figure out what is the highest rate it can charge and then charging it without any regard to the impact on people or to the impact on our ability to pay as a country, said David Mitchell, founder and president of Patients for Affordable Drugs.

For the Guardinos, however, life hasnt been the same since participating in the first clinical trial.

Christian, now 17 and a senior in high school who loves to sing, was a contestant on Americas Got Talent. His performance of Jackson 5s Whos Loving You received a golden buzzer pass into the live round of competition and he fulfilled his dream of singing for Simon Cowell.

The gene therapy treatment gave me confidence. I was a rock on stage, too scared to move because I couldnt see, Christian said. Now, I can see. And I looked Simon Cowell in the eyes.
Need a crib? More importantly, need to know if you need a crib? IKEA has you covered. Its latest print ads, from Swedish advertising agency Akestam Holst, contain a swatch created with chemicals similar to those found in at-home pregnancy tests. So if you urinate on the ad (yes, on the ad), it sets off a chemical reaction that reveals a lower price for the crib advertised, according to Adweek. The IKEA family discount?

The tech was created with Marcene Labs and Akestam Holst is running the advertisement in Amelia magazine, "one of Swedens most influential magazines for women," the brand told Adweek. The agency also boasted that "technical advancements made during the work with this campaign have the potential to improve medical diagnostics," so if we see breakthroughs in medicine in the next few years prepare to thank IKEA.

For reference, the crib in question, the Sundvik, is currently available for $119.00 online, pre-discount. The ad does not specify whether a person has to bring a urinated-on paper into a store to redeem their savings, or if maybe it also reveals and code that can be used online.

Our condolences to the Amelia writer whose work this month will appear on the flip side of "the ad the readers pee on." And to all the Swedish almost-parents too squeamish to try this out, sorry to tell you, but this is just the beginning of your journey with the wonders of the human body.

So, is this gross or genius? Below, you'll find what folks had to say on Twitter. Feel free to assemble your own opinion... just like IKEA furniture.
A British bra-fitter was stripped of its royal warrant after the former owner released a book disclosing details of the companys private fittings at Buckingham Palace.

June Kenton, who still remains on the board of the luxury lingerie brand Rigby & Peller, said she was absolutely killed over the store losing the royals endorsement, and says she regrets writing about the royals intimate details in her 2017 book Storm in a D Cup.

QUEEN ELIZABETH BOUGHT STAFFERS SUPERMARKET CAKE FOR CHRISTMAS

Among other reveals, Kenton reportedly wrote about outfitting a half-naked Queen Elizabeth in front of the monarchs beloved Corgis, as well as bringing Princess Diana pictures of scantily clad lingerie models for William and Harry to hang in their dormitories at Eton, the Daily Express reports.

Kenton, 82, also claimed that the Queen Mum once confided in her that she would only pretend to listen to her daughter, Princess Margaret, whenever Margaret would offer her mother style advice about hats.

Russel Tanguay, the director of royal warrants at the Royal Warrants Holders Association, confirmed to the Express that Rigby & Peller lost its royal warrant  i.e., its right to advertise itself as a royal supplier  in mid-2017. The company was also given a specified time frame for when it had to remove the royal coat of arms on its marketing materials.

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S SECRET WEAPON AGAINST JET LAG

Buckingham Palace, meanwhile, told the Express that it would never comment on individual companies.

"I'm very sad Buckingham Palace took exception to the story  it's a kind and gentle story about what went on in my life," said Keller, according to the BBC.

Rigby & Peller has been held a royal warrant from the monarchy since 1960, well before Kenton and her husband bought the company for 20,000 pounds in 1982. She later sold off a majority stake in the company in 2011, but remains on the board.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Hidden beneath the controversy stirred up last week by the publication of a book called Fire and Fury, a highly critical insiders view of the Trump White House that the president has not only denounced on national television but also tried to prevent from being published and distributed, are the efforts of the Trump administration and congressional leadership to bypass the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

Here is the back story.

After the excesses of the Watergate era, during which the Nixon administration used the FBI and the CIA unlawfully to spy without warrants on the presidents real and imagined domestic political opponents, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA prohibited all domestic surveillance except that which is pursuant to warrants signed by federal judges.

The Fourth Amendment -- which guarantees privacy in our persons, houses, papers and effects -- permits the government to invade that privacy only when a judge has signed a warrant that authorizes surveillance, a search or a seizure. And judges may only issue warrants when they have found probable cause to believe that the government surveillance or invasion of the targets privacy will produce evidence of criminal behavior. The Fourth Amendment further requires that the judicial warrant describe specifically the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized.

All these requirements are in the amendment so as to prevent any court from issuing general warrants. Before the Constitution, general warrants were issued by British courts that met in secret in London. They were not issued based on probable cause of crime but issued based on the governments wish to invade the privacy of all Americans living in the Colonies to find the more rebellious among them. This was the king and Parliaments version of protecting national security.

General warrants did not describe the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized. They authorized the bearer -- usually a British soldier physically located in the Colonies -- to search where he wished and seize whatever he found.

FISA did not interfere with the standard understanding or use of the Fourth Amendment by the government and the courts. But it did add another way for the government to invade privacy when its wish is to surveil people for national security purposes -- a return to general warrants -- as opposed to solely gathering evidence of crimes.

The FISA-created procedure, enacted in defiance of the Fourth Amendment -- which makes no distinction between government evidence gathering and government intelligence gathering -- permits a secret court in Washington to issue general warrants based on the governments need to gather intelligence about national security from foreigners among us. It pretends that the standard is probable cause of foreign agency, but this has now morphed into the issuance of general warrants whenever the government wants them.

Since 1977, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has issued well over 99 percent of the warrants that the government has requested. And these warrants do not specifically describe the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized. A typical FISC-issued warrant authorizes government surveillance on all landlines, mobile devices and desktop computers in a given area or ZIP code. One infamous FISC-issued search warrant permitted the feds to surveil all Verizon customers in the U.S. -- in excess of 115 million people -- without any evidence of crime or even suspicion about any of them.

Now back to the Trump administrations work below the radar. Even in the fresh aftermath of 9/11, when the governments respect for constitutional norms was at a lamentably low point, the government interpreted the Fourth Amendment as requiring the government to separate its intelligence functions from its law enforcement work. The government recognized that its trigger for mass surveillance -- namely, looking for a foreign agent among the populace -- was a far lower standard than probable cause of crime, which is what the Fourth Amendment requires.

Today, the federal governments computers are permanently connected to the mainframes of all telecoms and computer service providers in America, so the spying is in real time. Today, the federal government employs more than 60,000 domestic spies -- one spy for every 5,500 Americans. Today, if any of them come across evidence of crimes while listening to your telephone calls or reading your texts or emails ostensibly for intelligence purposes, there is little they can do about it.

Until now.

Now, hidden beneath the Fire and Fury controversy is the muffled sound of the Trump administration and Republican congressional leaders plotting the enactment of an addition to FISA that would permit the use of evidence of crimes in federal court even when it is discovered during mass surveillance authorized by general warrants.

If enacted, this radical, unconstitutional hole in the Fourth Amendment would bring the country full circle back to the governments use of general warrants to harass and prosecute -- general warrants so odious to our forebears that they took up arms against the kings soldiers to be rid of them.

I am surprised that President Donald Trump supports this. He has himself been the target of unlawful foreign surveillance and unconstitutional FISC-authorized domestic surveillance. Fire and Fury even quotes former British Prime Minister Tony Blair warning a newly elected Trump about this. And now he wants to unleash upon us all the voracious appetite for surveillance that was unleashed upon him and prosecute us for what is found, the Constitution be damned.

Whatever happened to the public promise to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution as it is written? Thats in the oath all in government have taken. That is the oath that the president and his Republican allies reject.
Tax reform legislation signed into law by President Trump in December, which will lower taxes for most Americans this year, unfortunately did nothing to stop billions of dollars in new taxes under ObamaCare from hitting millions of Americans in the wallet.

This is because while the tax reform law weakens part of ObamaCare  by basically ending the mandate requiring individuals to buy health insurance coverage  important parts of the health-care law still remain in effect. These include: a big expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health program serving the poor; federal regulations on health insurance markets; and several taxes to finance the health-care law.

Three of the ObamaCare taxes have been targeted for elimination by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers who are concerned about raising the cost of health insurance for so many Americans. While the official name of ObamaCare is the Affordable Care Act, the new taxes harm rather than protect consumers and make health insurance less affordable.

The ObamaCare taxes being targeted by opponents are: the so-called Cadillac tax on some high-value health insurance policies; an excise tax on medical devices; and a 4 to 6 percent tax on some insurance policies when they are sold. While the Cadillac tax hasnt gone into effect, both the health insurance and medical device taxes became effective Jan. 1.

Although Republicans did not create ObamaCare, they are in a golden position to do something about the rising premiums that have resulted.

The health insurance tax is troubling because its paid for directly by consumers, in the form of higher premiums. So millions of us will take a direct hit, even though most people who will be paying for the tax increase dont even realize it.

Lawmakers and President Trump should consider immediately ending the health insurance tax, whether as part of their discussions regarding a spending package for the remainder of 2018 or as part of additional health-care reform efforts.

In addition to the taxes imposed by ObamaCare, there are a number of factors that influence how much consumers generally pay for health insurance.

For example, the premium is impacted by the specific benefits and health-care providers that are part of the plan. The premium is also affected by the relative health or sickness of others who participate in an insurance plan. Plans that include a larger proportion of sicker beneficiaries overall will be more expensive, while plans with a healthier mix of enrollees are cheaper.

The new health insurance tax applies to so-called fully-insured health insurance plans. It will be paid by: consumers who purchase their coverage on the individual market (including ObamaCares health insurance exchanges); many employees of small businesses that furnish coverage; and even some people who get their health insurance through large employers.

The new health insurance tax also applies to seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage or Medicare prescription drug plans, as well as low-income Americans in Medicaid managed care plans.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tax will raise about $13 billion in revenue in 2018 alone, and about $145 billion over the next 10 years. But these numbers dont tell the full story of how the health insurance tax impacts families, small businesses and taxpayers across America.

A study last year by Oliver Wyman Health found that the health insurance tax will increase annual health insurance premiums in 2018 by $158 per person in the individual market; about $500 per family for those getting coverage through many small employers and some large employers; and $245 for each Medicare Advantage member.

These increases will accelerate in 2019 and beyond. So over the next 10 years, the study concludes that individual market beneficiaries will pay over $2,000 more in premiums; families getting their coverage through small employers will pay over $6,000 more; and Medicare Advantage members will pay over $3,000 more.

Medicaid managed-care enrollees will see premium increases of $181 in 2018 and an estimated $2,370 over the next 10 years. These costs wont be borne by the low-income beneficiaries of the program. Instead, states and their taxpayers will foot the bill.

As insurance premiums rise  in part because of the health insurance tax  healthier consumers are more likely to forego health insurance. This concept, known as adverse selection, will leave only sicker consumers  particularly in the individual and small-group marketplaces.

With a higher proportion of sicker individuals on health insurance rolls, the cost of an insurance policy will become even more unaffordable. The effective elimination of the individual mandate to purchase health insurance could actually worsen this trend. This is because there will be even less economic incentive for healthy consumers, in particular, to buy coverage. This will tend to boost premiums even more for those who are sicker or need health insurance coverage.

Republicans, then, have both a policy and political imperative to get rid of ObamaCares health insurance tax. While the tax certainly isnt the only reason that many consumers are experiencing higher premiums this year, it is an important factor.

Although Republicans did not create ObamaCare, they are in a golden position to do something about the rising premiums that have resulted. A failure to do so may hurt congressional Republicans when they come before the voters in this Novembers midterm elections. And thats a risk they shouldnt take.
In what may be the final chapter of their long and tumultuous relationship, Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner, the former Democratic congressman beset by scandal, are reportedly finalizing their divorce outside of court.

In order to ensure the proceedings have a minimal impact on their child, the parties have decided to attempt to reach a settlement swiftly and privately, Charles Miller, Abedins lawyer, first told the New York Post. The couples child, Jordan, is 6.

Abedin filed for divorce shortly after Weiner pleaded guilty in May 2017 to sending explicit messages to a minor. Weiner is currently serving a 21-month sentence at a federal prison in Massachusetts.

The news comes the same day that a Manhattan Supreme Court judge was scheduled to hear the case, according to the Post.

The couples relationship and strains have been widely publicized as a consequence of their strong political ties. Weiner is a former congressman who represented New York; Abedin is a top aide to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Read on for a look at the couples relationship over the years.

2001

Weiner asked Abedin out on a date, The Washington Post reported.

2008

The two started dating during Clintons first White House run.

2010

The couple were married.

2011

A picture of Weiner in his boxer briefs was shared via his Twitter account. Weiner first claimed that his account was hacked but later admitted to uploading the photo. He said he meant to send it as a direct message, not as a public post, according to The Washington Post.

"To be clear, the picture was of me, and I sent it," Weiner said at a news conference in June 2011, adding that he would be taking a leave of absence from Congress. He resigned five days later.

Abedin was not present at the news conference.

Later in 2011, Jordan, the couples son, was born.

2013

Just a couple of months after Weiner announced he was running for mayor of New York City, screenshots of an alleged conversation between Weiner and another woman emerged. The conversation included explicit photos.

Weiner, at a news conference a few days later, admitted to sexting. This time, Abedin was with her husband, saying at the news conference that she loves him and has forgiven him and adding that the two were moving forward.

Weiner lost the mayoral primary to Bill de Blasio in September 2013.

2016

Abedin announced in August 2016 that the couple were separating. The news came after the New York Post reported that Weiner had sexted a woman while son Jordan was lying next to him in bed.

"After a long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband," Abedin said in a statement.

ANTHONY WEINER SCANDALS: FROM POLITICS TO SEXTING CASES

In September, a 15-year-old girl told The Daily Mail that Weiner had sent her lewd messages. After hearing about the allegations, the FBI opened an investigation into the former congressman.

Then, in October, the FBI said it was reopening its investigation into the private email server of then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The FBI discovered new emails while looking into Weiner's laptop during the investigation into the sexting case.

2017

Abedin filed for divorce in May, shortly after Weiner pleaded guilty in federal court to sending explicit messages to a minor.

In September 2017, Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. And in November, he reported to a prison to begin serving his time.

2018

The couple submitted paperwork to withdraw their divorce case from court, the New York Post reported.

In order to ensure the proceedings have a minimal impact on their child, the parties have decided to attempt to reach a settlement swiftly and privately, Charles Miller, Abedins lawyer, told the newspaper.

The legal move is a way to keep the details of their divorce private, according to The Washington Post.

Fox News' Katherine Lam contributed to this report.
A federal judge on Wednesday sided with the Trump administration for a second time in a fight over the control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, denying a request for a preliminary injunction filed by an Obama-era official.

Leandra English, the agencys deputy director, has sought to unseat Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director named by President Donald Trump in November as the agencys interim chief. She has claimed she is the rightful acting director, having been chosen by former director Richard Cordray, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, as his temporary successor.

Judge Timothy J. Kelly, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Ms. English hasnt met the standard to obtain a preliminary injunction. The Court finds that English is not likely to succeed on the merits of her claims, nor is she likely to suffer irreparable harm absent the injunctive relief sought, the judge wrote in his opinion. Moreover, the balance of the equities and the public interest also weigh against granting the relief.

Ms. Englishs lawyer, Deepak Gupta, said he and his client were disappointed. Mr. Mulvaneys appointment undermines the Bureaus independence and threatens its mission to protect American consumers, he said. Mr. Gupta didnt say what his clients next move would be.

The judge in November rejected Ms. Englishs request to block Mr. Mulvaneys appointment, leading to her preliminary injunction request.

Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.
President Trump can withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear agreement over the next week, though sources close to the process say he'll likely keep the U.S. in the deal for now, essentially holding together an agreement he says he loathes.

Over the next several days, President Trump must decide whether to continue waiving sanctions against Iran that were lifted as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Within the week, the administration must also tell Congress whether Iran is complying with the major components of the nuclear deal.

In October, the administration, for the first time, refused to certify Irans compliance. That kept the U.S. in the deal but gave Congress a greater role in developing Iran strategy.

The president said he is either going to fix it or cancel it, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told The Associated Press last week. We are in the process of trying to deliver on the promise he made to fix it.

Lawmakers are considering reducing how often the president must make these decisions on waivers and certifications. Theyre also debating stronger enforcement of the nuclear deal, and more measures to penalize Irans ballistic missile program.

Sources close to the discussions said Tillerson met Wednesday at the White House and this weekend at Camp David with the president to discuss these deadlines and broader Iran policy.



"The goal is actually to get a better deal, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The way you do that is to create the conditions through more pressure and also to regovern the way under which the U.S. is party to the deal and to tighten the conditions for sanctions relief and clarify the path ahead.

These deadlines arrive amid reports from Iran that the government there is arresting, torturing and killing those who have protested across the country.

"Iran's regime claims to support democracy, but when its own people express their aspirations for better lives and an end to injustice, it once again shows its true brutal nature," said a statement from the White House press secretary.

The administration also said it wants Iran to release all political prisoners.

It's absolutely true that the protests in Iran are affecting the calculus over the decision to waive sanctions on Tehran, said Taleblu. However, he said, the decision to remain in the nuclear deal and waive sanctions is driven by attempts to change Iran policy in Congress.

While the U.S. lobbies the allies that also signed the nuclear deal to support changes to the agreement, European diplomats are to meet Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The Europeans will reportedly reassure Iran that they remain committed to the deal.

Zarif claimed the U.S. has failed to observe its obligations under the agreement but has taken a destructive policy course.

The Trump administration has already increased sanctions on Iran, unrelated to the nuclear agreement, for its missile program, terrorism financing and other destabilizing activities around the region.
EXCLUSIVE: Vice President Mike Pence promised in an interview with Fox News Wednesday night that the Trump administration would "continue to bring maximum economic and diplomatic pressure" on North Korea in response to the totalitarian nations ballistic and nuclear missile programs as he prepares to lead the U.S. delegation to next months Winter Olympics in South Korea.

The vice president also told "The Story with Martha MacCallum" that past administrations had allowed North Korea to build up its arsenal through "patience and negotiation."

"Thats unacceptable," said Pence, who admitted that the Norths weaponry "may well threaten the United States of America as we speak."

In addition to his trip to the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, Pence is scheduled to meet with leaders in South Korea and Japan, as well as stop in Alaska to review intercontinental ballistic missile defense systems.

"Part of my message in going is going to be to stand with those American athletes and know that were cheering them and wishing them well," Pence told host Martha MacCallum. "But the underlying message is the president is sending us there to make it clear that we stand with South Korea, we stand with our allies in the region, and we will continue to bring maximum economic and diplomatic pressure to bear until North Korea abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile programs that threaten the United States of America."

Pence also reaffirmed Trumps statement that the administration would not approve any immigration bill that does not include money for Trumps long-promised wall along the U.S. Mexico border.

"Look, the American people want us to build a wall," Pence said. "They want border security, they want to end the flow of illegal immigrants into this country and also illicit drugs that are tearing apart families and communities all across this country."

Democrats have pressed the president to extend the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shields immigrants brought into the U.S. illegally as children from deportation. Trump ended the program this past September, giving Congress until early March to find a legislative solution.

"I think the president's been very clear. Theres no deal on DACA without a wall, Pence said. "And  not only without a wall, Martha, but also without ending the visa lottery program and ending the kind of chain migration that has resulted in letting people into this country that have done harm to Americans in recent months," a reference to two recent terror attacks in New York City late last year.

Pence also confirmed that he would travel to the Middle East "in the coming weeks" to meet with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Israel. Pences visit to Israel will be the first by a high-ranking U.S. official since Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as that countrys capital late last year.

"Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," Pence said. "The president said that we have recognized the obvious, we have affirmed the will of the American people, but now our hope is that we can move forward and begin to discuss those issues that can be negotiated in the hopes of achieving a lasting peace."

The vice president added that "planning is underway" to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, but did not give a target date as to when the move would be completed.

"I think it will probably be several years before we cut the ribbon, but the decision is made," Pence said. "We're moving our embassy to the capital of Israel."
President Trump raised eyebrows Wednesday evening when he told members of Congress and health care practitioners that "I think I know the answer" to America's opioid crisis.

However, the president added that he was "not sure the country is ready for it yet."

Trump was speaking at an Oval Office ceremony prior to signing legislation aimed at giving Customs and Border Protection agents additional tools to stop the flow of illicit drugs.

"Does anybody know what I mean?" Trump asked the group gathered around his desk. "I think so." He did not elaborate.

The newly ratified law mandates that CBP agents have portable and fixed chemical screening devices at ports of entry and mail facilities. It also appropriates $9 million for hundreds of new screening devices, laboratory equipment and facilities.

Trump described the law as "a significant step forward" in the fight against powerful opioids such as fentanyl, which he described as "our new big scourge."

"We used to have the 'Age of Aquarius.' Everyone thought that was a big drug age. That was nothing compared to this," he said, citing a nickname for the 1960s that's perhaps best associated with a song from the musical "Hair."

"Drugs are entering our country across our borders and even through our own postal system," Trump added. "They're using our postal system and they're killing our people."

Trump has made fighting the opioid epidemic a centerpiece of his administration, though critics say he hasn't dedicated nearly enough money or resources to make a difference.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Female lawmakers in Washington are calling on colleagues to wear all black to President Donald Trumps State of Union address at the end of the month -- on behalf of victims of sexual harassment.

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said she is spearheading the protest to keep momentum going following last Sunday's all-black-attire protest at the Golden Globe awards ceremony.

This is a culture change that is sweeping the country and Congress is embracing it, Speier said in a statement, the Washington Post reported.

Speier invited both Democrats and Republicans, as well as women and men, to join the demonstration at Trump's speech on Capitol Hill on Jan. 30.

In November, Speier and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced the #MeTooCongress Act to strengthen victims rights and increase accountability for offenders, the Post reported.

In recent months, at least seven male lawmakers in Washington have faced allegations of sexual harassment or other misconduct, the newspaper reported. All have either resigned or opted not to seek reelection.

President Trump faces more than a dozen allegations of sexual misconduct, but has called the reports "false" and "fabricated."

In December, Trump sharply responded when Gillibrand called on him to resign over the accusations.

Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office begging for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED! Trump tweeted.

On Dec. 31, the New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton friend Susie Tompkins Buell paid $500,000 in an unsuccessful effort to fund women willing to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct before the 2016 election.

Earlier in the month, the Hill reported that attorney Lisa Bloom tried to line up big paydays for women who were willing to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct during the final months of the election.
The lawyer for a man who says Eliot Spitzer crudely threatened him in a Manhattan restaurant plans to file a formal complaint with New York police investigators as well as a lawsuit against the disgraced ex-governor.

Jamie Antolini has alleged the former New York governor confronted him at a restaurant after he praised a longtime Spitzer enemy. According to The New York Post, he says Spitzer told him "Ill get a fking knife and stab you right in your f-----g c--k!

Attorney Joe Murray, who also represented former escort Svetlana Travis Zakharova whom Spitzer also allegedly threatened, confirmed to Fox News that he wants an investigation.

He suggested others are coming forward, saying another man called him with a complaint similar to Antolinis.

Im calling this the Eliot Spitzer Me Too movement, Murray told Fox News on Thursday. He has, so far, escaped criminal prosecution. He thinks hes untouchable and above the law and that he can get away with anything he wants. Were hoping this will be the thing to bring him down.

Murray told Fox News that he has requested to have the same NYPD investigators who probed the Zakharova case investigate Antolinis incident.

I dont want two separate investigatorsI want them to be investigated by the same people. He would then be charged on the same docket for both of these cases, Murray said.

Spitzers spokeswoman Lisa Linden said the allegations are absurd.

Mr. Spitzer is a private citizen whom various people seek to harass for money or attention, Linden said in a statement to Fox News. Now it appears that a lawyer is making absurd allegations against law enforcement. Mr. Spitzer has been fully cooperative with law enforcement and has the highest respect for their integrity and fairness.

Linden was apparently referring to a claim made by Murray that the Bronx DA committed prosecutorial misconduct.

The Jan. 2 incident took place at the restaurant Avra Madison Estiatorio, where Antolini was dining with potential business partners.

Spitzer, who resigned in 2008 amid revelations of being a high-priced prostitution patron, allegedly walked by Antolinis table and overheard him call his so-called archenemy Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone an amazing guy and say Langone should have been president.

The comments reportedly enraged Spitzer, who allegedly leaned into Antolinis face and yelled I dont know who the fk you think you are! Ill f---g have you killed!

Spitzer then, allegedly, left the table, but returned minutes later with more threats.

Murray told Fox News that Spitzer returned a third time.

My client was in definite fear of his safety. Mr. Spitzer threatened to stab in him in the penis, saying different things each time he returned to the table, Murray said. This guy [Spitzer] has lost it.

But Spitzer's spokeswoman claimed Antolini provoked the incident.

"There was an argument started and provoked by an Avra patron. Mr. Spitzer was at a dinner celebrating his mother's 90th birthday," Linden said in a statement to Fox News. "The patron persisted in making aggressive remarks, which Mr. Spitzer initially ignored. An argument ensued, but at no time did he make any threats."

The incident occurred just days before Zakharova, who accused Spitzer of choking her, gave the police a recording where Spitzer is reportedly heard threatening her.

You know whats going to happen to you? Youre going to be fg dead, Spitzer allegedly says in the recording. Youre going to die a slow painful death and your family is going to look at you and laugh because youre a f---g bh.

Fox News' Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein seemed to blame a bad cold for the controversial way she handled the release of an interview transcript for the co-founder of the firm behind the anti-Trump dossier.

The California senator and top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee drew the ire of committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, earlier this week for publishing the transcript without consulting him.

She told an NBC News reporter that she regrets not speaking to Grassley beforehand, citing her cold as a possible factor.

"The one regret I have is that I should have spoke with Senator Grassley before. And I don't make an excuse but I've had a bad cold and maybe that slowed down my mental facilities a little bit, she said, according to a tweet from a fellow NBC producer.

She did not necessarily voice regret for releasing the transcript itself, however. The 312-page transcript detailed Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpsons August interview with committee investigators.

The move prompted a Twitter rebuke from President Trump on Wednesday.

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.

A spokesman for Grassley called it totally confounding that Senator Feinstein would unilaterally release a transcript of a witness interview in the middle of an ongoing investigation.

The testimony contained numerous revelations about Fusion GPS, its work and its investigation into Trump.

One passage in particular drew heavy attention -- where Simpson's lawyer claimed someone had been killed over the dossier's publication.

He wants to be very careful to protect his sources, Simpsons attorney Josh Levy said during the Aug. 22 committee interview. Somebodys already been killed as a result of the publication of this dossier and no harm should come to anybody related to this honest work.

Levy did not elaborate on who was killed, and congressional investigators did not follow up with any questions to his claim.

The dossier was written by former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele. Fusion GPS, which hired Steele, was funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The findings eventually made their way to the FBI. The dossier was published on BuzzFeed News in January 2017.
The popularity of a White House tell-all predicts President Donald Trumps political demise, North Korean state media said Thursday.

The rogue regimes Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the sales of Michael Wolffs bombshell book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House reflect what it calls rapidly surging anti-Trump sentiments in the international community.

Fire and Fury was released last week and sold nearly 30,000 copies in its first two days, according to BookScan, a data provider for the book publishing industry. The book has already sold more than a million copies through Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Comments from North Korean media came hours after Trump said he would be open to talks with Pyongyang at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances.

"We have certainly problems with North Korea," Trump said at a news conference Wednesday. "A lot of good talks are going on right now. A lot of good energy. I see a lot of good energy. I like it very much what I'm seeing ... hopefully a lot of good things are going to work out."

Vice President Mike Pence later reiterated to Fox News Martha MacCaullum on The Story that the Trump administration would "continue to bring maximum economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea in response to the totalitarian nations ballistic and nuclear missile programs.

Trump was credited by South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier Wednesday for sparking talks with North Korea and trying to help thaw the tensions between the Koreas on the peninsula.

I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks, Moon said. It could be a resulting work of the U.S.-led sanctions and pressure.

A North Korean official insisted earlier this week that the regimes weapons are only aimed at America and its territories and not at South Korea, China or Russia.

Despite threats of ramped up pressure, the official said that discussing North Koreas nuclear program will only damage ties with South Korea.

Trump and North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un have traded barbs since the presidency began. The pair have traded threats of war and crude insults against each other.

Trump called Kim a Rocket Man on a suicide mission as well as threatening fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which the world has never seen before. Kim called Trump "the mentally deranged U.S. dotard.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A high-ranking Obama administration official unlawfully billed taxpayers more than $4,000 for taxi rides from his home to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office headquarters, an internal investigation has found.

Vikrum Aiyer, who served as chief of staff of the agency, a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, forced taxpayers to foot a bill for at least 130 unauthorized taxi rides  the majority of which occurred during a four-month period in 2016, according to a report released Tuesday by investigators, the Washington Post reported.

Aiyer previously served as President Obamas senior policy adviser at the National Economic Council. He allegedly impersonated other current and former high-ranking agency officials, using their names on taxi receipts to avoid being caught in the unauthorized scheme.

But the ruse was soon discovered after officials started raising questions. They confronted the Patent and Trademark Offices then-communications director  one of the names Aiyer used to bill the rides  who told investigators that he did not use the taxis as he regularly drove to work.

The evidence  establishes that Political Appointee knowingly used the Agencys Cab Company account for impermissible purposes on a routine basis and that he took steps to conceal his unauthorized use of this account by providing false names and false location information, Commerce Department Investigator General Peggy Gustafson wrote in the report, according to the Post.

Aiyers use of government money to pay for his commute violated federal policy prohibiting such practices.

He did not deny the findings during an interview with investigators in December 2016. Instead, he justified the practice by saying other officials allegedly did the same.

Political Appointee said he thought it was permissible to provide incorrect trip origin or destination information because this was the protocol that was imparted to [him] by [his] bosses at the time, and because this is how  prior bosses approach[ed] it,  investigators wrote, according to the Post.

Over two years, the government paid Alexandria Yellow Cab, a company contracted to provide authorized cab services to agencys officials, well over $4,000 for Aiyers rides, the report said.

While most of the cab rides took him to and from work, investigators also found that Aiyer sometimes used the agencys cab account to facilitate his weekend social activity ... but he made it appear otherwise when arranging for these cabs.
The House voted Thursday to renew a key foreign surveillance program after a heated floor debate, amid mixed messages from President Trump about his support.

The renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which lets agencies collect information on foreign targets abroad, was approved on a 256-164 vote. The bill now heads to the Senate.

Supporters say it's a critical tool for preventing terrorist attacks.

We don't know what the terrorists are up to, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said on the House floor ahead of the vote, warning of grave consequences if the program is not renewed. We can't send that information to our authorities to prevent terrorist attacks. The consequences are really high.

But foes worry about Americans getting swept up in the process.

FISA SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM: WHAT IS IT AND WHY IS IT SO CONTROVERSIAL?

As the bill heads across the Capitol, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a libertarian-leaning Republican, has suggested he will mount a filibuster, saying, "No American should have their right to privacy taken away."

The bill passed by the House would allow the FBI to continue querying a key database, using search terms, for information on Americans. But in an important tweak, it would require investigators to get a probable cause warrant if they want to view the actual content of those communications.

Earlier, the House rejected a measure that would have imposed stiffer restrictions on the FBI.

Creating some confusion, Trump briefly took aim Thursday morning at the program despite his administration's official support for renewing it, suggesting 702 was used to "badly surveil and abuse" his campaign based on the "phony" Trump dossier.

This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others? Trump tweeted.

Trump's opposition, though, didn't last long. Later Thursday morning, he posted a follow-up tweet clarifying that he has sought changes to the law and voicing support for the surveillance program.

"With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!" he tweeted.

It was an apparent attempt to get back on the same page with his own administration, which backs the so-called 702 program.

The White House on Wednesday had issued a statement opposing an amendment seeking to blunt some of the program's powers and shield communications of Americans who may get caught up in efforts to pick up foreign electronic communications.

The confusing tweets from the president injected last-minute drama into the votes, provoking some Democrats to call for the vote to be pulled.

In light of the significant concerns that have been raised by members of our caucus, and in light of the irresponsible and inherently contradictory messages coming out of the White House today, I would recommend that we withdraw consideration of the bill today, to give us more time to address the privacy questions that have been raised, as well as to get a clear statement from the administration about their position on the bill, said California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Earlier Thursday, the House voted down the alternative FISA plan from libertarian Republican Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, which would have imposed multiple restrictions on spying.

Former FBI director James Comey also weighed in on the bill Thursday, reflecting the views of many in the intelligence community that the program should be renewed.

Thoughtful leaders on both sides of the aisle know FISA section 702 is a vital and carefully overseen tool to protect this country. This isnt about politics. Congress must reauthorize it, he tweeted.

Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Help appears finally to be on the way to thousands of desperate Christian, Yazidi and other minority refugees in northern Iraq, more than two months after Vice President Mike Pence promised last October 25 to stop funding ineffective relief efforts at the United Nations and provide support directly to persecuted communities through USAID.

After some complicated negotiation between the Trump administration and the U.N., USAID has announced a revamp of its announced $150 million contribution to a projected $420 million Funding Facility for Stabilization in Iraq (FFS)  which is disbursed through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)  to specifically address the needs of vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities communities in Iraqs northerly Ninevah province.

A $55 million slice of a $75 million USAID payment already forwarded to the UNDP fund is to be especially aimed at those who have been victims of atrocities by ISIS, the release declares.

The USAID announcement represented the outcome of an elaborate bureaucratic process that revved up after Vice President Pence personally intervened to promise some measure of relief to the savagely battered Christian and other minority populations, which were murdered, plundered and expelled from their millennia-old homelands by radical Islamists between 2015 and the ostensible defeat of ISIS in the past year.

One of the agencys top officials, USAID Counselor Tom Staal, subsequently told Fox News that the $55 million was specifically for minorities, and that new agreements with UNDP even mentioned specific towns where the money was to be spent.

Whether the U.N. agency will get another $75 million promised for its stabilization fund will depend on UNDPs success in putting in place additional accountability, transparency, and due-diligence measures for the FFS, as USAID declared in a press release.

USAID is far and away the biggest contributor to the stabilization fund, handing over more than $115 million in 2016 out of $315 million actually donated.

Previously, the U.N. had insisted it was administering its relief aid in an impartial manner on the basis of greatest need, according to a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres some weeks ago.

But critics instead found that the needs blind approach was leaving the minority communities in the lurch and forcing desperate refugees to choose flight from their ancestral homelands if they hoped to survive.

In fact, when examined closely on the ground, the religious minority recovery needs, critics charged, have been scandalously scanted or ignored in the U.N. reconstruction efforts.

Pences call for change and criticism of U.N. action galvanized a variety of bureaucratic actions, including a whirlwind, five-day trip to the suffering region by USAID counselor Staal, the agencys highest ranking career foreign service officer.

Staal told Fox News he met directly with Iraqi government officials as well as religious and community leaders in the Ninevah area  roughly 100 people in all  and even attended the rededication of a 3rd Century Christian church that had been ravaged by ISIS.

The trip was followed by a flurry of meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill that added further to the aid package. Above and beyond the refocusing the $150 million, another $10 million to $10.5 million of emergency humanitarian assistance had been sent to the beleaguered communities, Staal said, for supplies such as food and blankets for refugees still living in hand-to-mouth conditions.

Atop that, $10 million in State Department in discretionary funding aimed at such things as combating the effects of gender-based violence resulting from ISIS horrifying campaign of rape and kidnapping of sex slaves from the Christian and Yazidi populations.

Staal also said that a variety of new oversight procedures have been put in place by USAID in a written contract to ensure that UNDP does its job effectively.

They include the U.S. hiring of third-party  non U.N.  oversight of the agencys work, and an arrangement that gives the U.S. agencys Inspector General access to UNDPs books, in addition to more frequent, detailed reporting on the agencys work and progress.

In addition, he said, UNDP had added its own independent oversight and had banned sub-contracting on the Ninevah projects, meaning that all contractors would report directly to the U.N. agency.

For its part, UNDP told Fox News through a spokesperson that it already has strong oversight over all contracts to ensure that all funds are spent transparently and with full value for money.

The UNDP spokesperson also declared that $37 million is currently being channeled through UNDP to stabilization projects in high priority minority communities. In coming weeks, this will increase to more than $56 million  a number more or less the same as the amount of rechanneled U.S. aid.

(According to Staal, $35 million of USAID funds already channeled to UNDP are intended for trunk lines of water and electricity into the beleaguered areas. These would clearly benefit both minorities and the Muslim majority in the region.)

Making the policy adjustment without cutting back its U.N. support also required some diplomatic footwork on the part of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley.

She first met with Guterres in November, weeks before a planned December trip by Pence to the Middle East.

According to a U.S. Mission official, Haley specifically asked for his help in better assisting vulnerable groups in Iraq such as Christians and Yezidis. She evidently got assent.

(As it happens, Pences December trip to the Middle East was postponed, due to the uproar over President Trumps announcement that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel. He is now slated to leave on January 19 for Egypt, Jordan and Israel.)

The Haley-Guterres session was followed by an early December meeting at the U.S Mission in New York where UNDP, USAID non-governmental organizations working with these communities in Iraq further discussed details, the Mission official said. Afterward, according to the official, Haley and her staff worked with USAID and UNDP to broker the altered agreement.

As a result of all the action, a White House official says the Vice Presidents office is satisfied that all of Pences earlier promises of change are being fulfilled. Said the official: We are very confident that not only will U.S. funds go more directly toward assisting persecuted religious minorities  the U.N. is also stepping up to the plate to further fund effective programs that directly go to communities  particularly in Iraq.

In addition, the official declared, they [the U.N.] have agreed to work with NGOs, including faith-based NGOs on the ground like they never did before.

For its part, one of the methods USAID is also going to work directly with refugees, as Pence promised. Its main tool is an elaborate process known as a Broad Agency Announcement, a tendering procedure that will allow private NGOs that support the oppressed minorities to propose directly for USAID approval innovative ideas that support the resettlement of ethnic and religious minorities in their ancestral homes in Iraq.

The new process will be backed up by yet another $35 million of direct USAID funding, and is supposed to bear fruit, USAID says, by early spring.

The U.S. effort has drawn praise from the Knights of Columbus, which have given $17 million of their own to support Christians and other minorities in Iraq.

Hope is running high, said Andrew Walther, the Knights vice president of communications and strategic planning. I was just told by a representative of the Christian community in Iraq that the money being directed to them by the U.S. government, both directly and through the U.N., is the most positive American action on behalf of their communities since 2003."

That is, if all the retargeted relief goes ahead as planned. Based on past practice, some experts on religious minority suffering in Iraq remain highly skeptical.

Getting UNDP to root out corruption and poor management by adopting reforms for accountability, transparency and due diligence is a tall order, observes Nina Shea, head of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, and a strong critic of the U.N.s behavior toward the minority refugees.

Meantime, Shea says, Each passing week, more Iraqi Christians and Yazidis give up hope and leave.

A lot needs to be done to give the families who live in these communities confidence in their future, UNDPs spokesperson admitted. Its clear that families who have been forced to flee their homes only return to them and start to rebuild their lives when they trust the security forces on the ground, and when they play a leading role in how their communities are governed.

Through its Funding Facility for Stabilization, UNDP is advocating with Iraqi authorities to ensure these conditions are in place, the spokesperson concluded  a hint, perhaps, that the outcome was still in doubt, and that someone else should take the blame if the effort, despite the new U.S. approach, still failed.
The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it is creating a task force to take a fresh look at drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations linked to Hezbollah after an investigative report last month claimed that the Obama administration turned a blind eye to such activities to preserve the Iran nuclear deal.

The task force, dubbed the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team (HFNT), will begin its work by reviewing investigations stemming from Project Cassandra, a campaign led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) targeting the Lebanese terror groups actions.

According to a Politico report published last month, officials with the Obama Justice and Treasury Departments repeatedly delayed or rejected requests by Project Cassandra leaders to pursue significant investigations, prosecutors or sanctions.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION UNDERMINED ANTI-HEZBOLLAH TASK FORCE TO SECURE IRAN NUKE DEAL, REPORT SAYS

Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of Project Cassandra days after the Politico report was published. Justice Department officials told Fox News at the time that the review could lead to new prosecutions of people affiliated with Hezbollah.

The Justice Department will leave no stone unturned in order to eliminate threats to our citizens from terrorist organizations and to stem the tide of the devastating drug crisis, Sessions said in a statement announcing the formation of HFNT.

Hezbollah was created in the early-1980s as part of an Iranian effort to counter the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon during that countrys brutal civil war. The U.S. has designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization since the State Department list was created in 1997.

SESSIONS ORDERS DOJ REVIEW AFTER REPORT OBAMA ADMINISTRATION GAVE HEZBOLLAH A PASS

The Politico report outraged multiple Republican lawmakers, who have demanded answers from the Justice, Treasury and State Departments.

Former Obama administration officials denied the story, with one calling it, a figment of the imagination of two very flawed sources.

There are many reasonable critiques of Obamas foreign policy, former Obama National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor tweeted on Dec. 19. The idea that he was soft on Hezbollah is not one of them.

Fox News Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
The Trump administration's budget-slashing campaign at the United Nations has a new target -- a Palestinian refugee agency that critics say promotes an anti-Israel agenda in the Middle East.

President Trump has repeatedly warned that his administration will pull funding from agencies that do not serve American interests. And before the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution last month condemning the U.S. decision to move its Israel embassy to Jerusalem, he warned member states directly.

They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, then vote against us. Well, were watching those votes, he said. Let them vote against us; well save a lot. We dont care.

The attention is turning now to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides funding to Palestinian refugees.

Just a few weeks after that Israel vote, Axios reported that the U.S. has frozen a $125 million payment to the agency. The move is possibly the first step in cutting off the entire $364 million a year the U.S. contributes to UNRWA.

Trump hinted at such a move in a tweet this month, complaining about the amount the U.S. gives to the Palestinians and asking why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?

UNRWA was set up in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to deal with displaced Palestinians, but is a frequent target of Israel, which rejects a so-called right of return for the descendants of those who were displaced in the conflict.

UNRWA provides health care, education, financial assistance, and food to 5 million people in the Middle East, including Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The New York Times reports that nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip receives aid from UNRWA and the agency acts as a de facto government in the area.

But critics also say UNRWA uses too broad of a definition for refugees, covering the descendants of Palestinian refugees, as well as people who have become residents in other countries and are no longer displaced. They also object that Palestinian refugees are the only refugees with their own refugee agency, with all other refugees coming under the remit of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the process an absurdity that perpetuates the problems it claims to be working to solve.

UNRWA is an organization that perpetuates the problem of the Palestinian refugees, he said, according to The Jerusalem Post. It also perpetuates the narrative of the so-called right of return with the aim of eliminating the State of Israel, and therefore UNRWA must disappear.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the Trump administration is split on how to proceed, with U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley arguing for a full funding cut, while State and Defense Department officials argue for at least partial funding of the agency.

A U.S. official told Fox News that deliberations are still taking place, but that the Palestinians need to show they are willing to come to the negotiating table for peace talks. A spokesman for UNRWA said that the agencys understanding was that no decision had yet been made by the Trump administration.

The United States has been our largest single donor over the past seventy years and remains an important strategic partner in our humanitarian mission, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told Fox News. UNRWA will continue to work tirelessly to ensure the full implementation of our mandate which was fully endorsed by the General Assembly, which has described our role as indispensable.

Even some critics warn against a full pull of funding, saying that it needs to be reformed into a humanitarian organization instead.

Cutting funding as a negotiating tactic is good in the short term, but it could be filled by low-level funders by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Gregg Roman, director of the Middle East forum, told Fox News.

Roman claims that turning UNRWA into a humanitarian agency and redefining who is classified as a refugee could reduce the population covered by UNRWA from over 5 million to approximately 20,000 actual refugees, saving a lot of money for the U.S. while also reforming the organization.

What Im afraid of is that if there is a complete withdrawal, you lose the ability to reform the agency from within and it becomes more despotic than it is, he said.

A senior Israeli official told Axios that Israel prefers gradual disengagement" with UNRWA by the U.S. instead of a big funding cut.

Such reform however, would likely require backing from other countries and top-level officials at the U.N. itself. Such backing, particularly after significant objection to the U.S. decision to declare Jerusalem as Israels capital, seems unlikely.

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres described UNRWA as a stabilizing presence in the region, and urged instead for efforts to focus on peace talks from both sides of the conflict.

What perpetuates the refugee crisis is the failure of the parties to deal with the issue, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. This needs to be resolved by the parties to the conflict in the context of peace talks, based on UN resolutions and international law, and requires the active engagement by the international community.
The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will open the door for states to impose work requirements for Medicaid recipients, in a major shift that could affect millions of low-income people receiving benefits.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services described the decision as a response to requests from states to test work requirement programs.

Medicaid needs to be more flexible so that states can best address the needs of this population. Our fundamental goal is to make a positive and lasting difference in the health and wellness of our beneficiaries, and todays announcement is a step in that direction, CMS Administrator Seema Verna said in a statement.

A letter sent to state Medicaid directors Thursday said the move would help "improve Medicaid enrollee health and well-being through incentivizing work and community engagement."

Our policy guidance was in response to states that asked us for the flexibility they need to improve their programs and to help people in achieving greater well-being and self-sufficiency, Verma said, noting the agency has received demonstration project proposals from 10 states: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin.

The test programs, according to CMS, could make work, skills training, education, job search, volunteering or caregiving a requirement for Medicaid for able-bodied, working-age adults. It would not apply to those getting benefits due to a disability, elderly beneficiaries, children, and pregnant women.

The move was pitched as an effort to turn the page for states in the Medicaid program, to give them more freedom to design innovative programs and results, and to remove bureaucratic barriers.

The plan will likely face a political battle, which could lead to legal challenges for the Trump administration over concerns that people would lose their Medicaid health care coverage. The plan comes after months of failed negotiations on Capitol Hill to repeal and replace former President Barack Obamas landmark health care legislation.

Under current law, people are not legally required to hold a job or to be employed to receive Medicaid benefits, but states can request federal waivers to test new ideas for the program. The Trump administrations latest action outlines guidelines that states should consider to have their proposals for waivers imposing work requirements federally approved. The waivers would be demonstration projects.

Medicaid is a federal-state collaboration covering more than 70 million people, or about one in five Americans, making it the largest government health insurance program. Medicaid was expanded during the Obama administration, when an option was provided to allow states to cover millions more low-income adults.

CMS said Thursday that they would support state efforts to align Medicaid work requirements with those of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which they said may streamline eligibility and help reduce the burden on states and beneficiaries.

Under the new policy, states must fully comply with federal disability and civil rights laws to ensure that disabled individuals have the necessary protections to ensure they are not inappropriately denied coverage, CMS said. States will be required to offer modifications to individuals with disabilities and will be required to exempt individuals determined to be medically frail or having an acute condition that would prevent them from complying with the new requirements.

The Trump administration has been vocal about adding the new requirements for almost a year, but a study from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that more than half of working-age adults on Medicaid are already employed. Nearly 60 percent work either full time or part time, mainly for employers that do not offer health insurance. The study said most who are not working report reasons like illness, caring for a family member or going to school.

The Kaiser Family Foundation also conducted a poll in 2017, which revealed 70 percent of the public support allowing states to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries.

"It is a very major change in Medicaid that for the first time would allow people to be cut off for not meeting a work requirement, regardless of the hardship they may suffer," said Judy Solomon of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for the poor. The Obama administration would have never approved such waivers, she added.

Fox News Kristin Brown and John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Canadian officials are increasingly worried that President Donald Trump will withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA, the decades-old trilateral trade agreement that Trump has repeatedly maligned, according to multiple reports.

The government is increasingly sure about this ... it is now planning for Trump to announce a withdrawal, a Canadian government source told Reuters in a report published Wednesday.

Trump also recently said I want out as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) overhaul negotiations continued to sputter, Reuters reported, citing a U.S. source close to the White House.

Canada's NAFTA concerns were publicized the same day as its complaint against the U.S. with the World Trade Organization, alleging that the Trump administrations tariffs were inconsistently targeting Canadian lumber producers.

The news helped weaken the Canadian dollar, Reuters reported, with financial experts citing heightened uncertainty.

Crucial talks to retool NAFTA are planned for Jan. 23-28 in Montreal, marking the sixth and next-to-last round of negotiations to save the beleaguered agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

But Trump administration proposals to amend the agreement have been met with skepticism and alarm by trade groups and Canadian and Mexican officials.

TRUDEAU: CANADA 'READY FOR ANYTHING' THAT MIGHT HAPPEN WITH NAFTA

Those proposals include cutting Canadian and Mexican access to the bidding market on U.S. state and federal contracts, as well as a provision that would require a significant uptick in regional automotive content from the U.S.

The White House has also proposed a sunset clause that would automatically end NAFTA after five years if any of the three participants fails to renew it.

The suggestions are poison pill proposals that could doom the negotiations, the CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in October.

The U.S. would be required under NAFTAs terms to provide six months notice before exiting the agreement, but the notice would be nonbinding.

At a campaign-style rally in August, Trump reiterated his disdain for NAFTA, a theme that he emphasized throughout his presidential run.

The U.S. will "end up probably terminating" NAFTA "at some point, Trump said at the rally, adding that "I don't think we can make a deal because we have been so badly taken advantage of."

The White House said the presidents position on NAFTA has not changed, Reuters reported.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misrepresented information supplied by Reuters. The news agency correctly reported that the Canadian dollar "weakened to its lowest this year against the greenback," referring to a brief Wednesday decline attributed to concerns about whether the U.S. would remain in the North American Free Trade Agreement. The text above now accurately reflects this information.
President Trump on Thursday held a listening session on prison reform which covered how to address mass incarceration in the United States as well as how to reduce the rate of recidivism.

We will be very tough on crime but we will provide a ladder of opportunity, Trump told a roundtable that included governors from Georgia, Kentucky and Kansas, criminal justice experts and faith-based leaders.

Trump added that he wants those in prison to be able to contribute to society once they leave.

Two-thirds of the 650,000 people released from prison each year are arrested again within three years, he said. We can help break this vicious cycle through job training, very important, job training, mentoring and drug addiction treatment.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, who has brought significant prison reform to his state, weighed in, saying we are good at removing but we need to do more than simply remove people from society.

Bevin said 95 percent of the nation's prison population will eventually be released.

"What are we doing as a society, at the federal level, at the state level, at the local levels, what are we doing to ensure that they have been rehabilitated and they can be re-assimilated?"

The steps are aimed at reducing the rate of recidivism. As Trump noted, the Justice Department has reported that approximately two-thirds of the more than 650,000 ex-offenders released from prison every year are rearrested within three years.

While the president has sounded a tough-on-crime message during his first year in office, the White House views changes to the prison system as a conservative issue that could potentially gain bipartisan support in a divided Congress.

Trump discussed potential changes to the prison system with lawmakers and Cabinet members at Camp David earlier in the month.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, whose own father spent more than a year behind bars, was part of the listening session though he did not speak when reporters were in the room.

Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have been building support for bipartisan reform for the past six months.

During that time, Kushner met with prison experts and has reportedly developed a bipartisan proposal to address mass incarceration in the United States, which includes ways to address recidivism.

Brooke Rollins, president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told Fox News ahead of the meeting that shes worked closely with Kushners Office of American Innovation and says shes given them advice on ways to reform the prison system.

In Texas, Rollins, who also serves on Trumps economic advisory committee, has worked with other advocacy groups on criminal justice reform and has helped shutter eight prisons.

Shes also worked with the American Civil Liberties Union to create programs to keep nonviolent offenders out of jail and helped inmates transition into jobs following their release. She believes she can bring similar results to the national stage.

I think that the time is so right for really great and significant dialogue on prison reform, Rollins told Fox News ahead of the meeting.

She added that most of the reforms being discussed involve non-violent offenders, which doesnt step on Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledges to crack down on crime.

His big effort has been on sentencing but were talking about prison reform, she said.

Sessions has taken a strict stance on drugs and violent crimes and has repeatedly threatened to utilize the toughest sentences possible.

One of Sessions' first orders was to reverse an Obama-era directive phasing out the use of private prisons, an acknowledgement that they may be needed given his aggressive enforcement of drug and immigration laws.

But facing a narrow majority in the Senate, the White House views the issue -- along with plans for a sweeping infrastructure bill -- as among a handful of areas where Trump could work with Democrats in Congress.

On Thursday, Sessions said the Justice Department is committed to a reentry program and if we do this right, we can make progress.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump briefly took aim Thursday at a key surveillance program despite his administration's official support for renewing it, suggesting the program was used to "badly surveil and abuse" his campaign based on the "phony" Trump dossier.

This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others? Trump tweeted.

He was referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which lets agencies collect information on foreign targets abroad. The House is voting Thursday on possible changes.

Trump's opposition, though, didn't last long. Later Thursday morning, he posted a follow-up tweet clarifying that he has sought changes to the law and voicing support for the surveillance program.

"With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!" he tweeted.

It was an apparent attempt to get back on the same page with his own administration, which backs the so-called 702 program up for renewal in a House vote Thursday.

The White House on Wednesday had issued a statement opposing an amendment seeking to blunt some of the program's powers and shield communications of Americans who may get caught up in efforts to pick up foreign electronic communications.

This amendment would re-establish the walls between intelligence and law enforcement that our country knocked down following the attacks of 9/11 in order to increase information sharing and improve our national security, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in the statement. The Administration urges the House to reject this amendment and preserve the useful role FISAs Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives.

Section 702 of the FISA Act gives the government the ability to monitor electronic communications of foreigners outside of the U.S. Supporters say the powers help stop terrorist attacks and cyberattacks, but opponents note that it can also monitor the communications of Americans if they are communicating with monitored targets. The House bill before Congress would extend section 702 to 2021.

Former FBI director James Comey also weighed in Thursday, reflecting the views of many in the intelligence community that the program should be renewed. Thoughtful leaders on both sides of the aisle know FISA section 702 is a vital and carefully overseen tool to protect this country. This isnt about politics. Congress must reauthorize it, he tweeted.

House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., blasted Trump's earlier tweet as "truly amazing," highlighting the disconnect with his own White House team.

"First, this is not true. Second, his national security people have been working like mad to get this passed. #owngoal," Himes tweeted.

Trump, though, has focused intently on the dossier in recent days, especially after a transcript was released of the congressional interview with the co-founder of the firm behind the document.

Republicans have long raised concerns that the dossier, written by a British spy and funded in part by the Democratic National Committee, was used by the FBI as justification to secure a FISA warrant and monitor members of the Trump campaign over concerns of collusion with Russian officials.

Trump had tweeted about the dossier earlier Thursday, declaring: What a mess!

He also answered questions Wednesday about allegations of collusion, calling the claims a phony cloud that has hurt the country.

It's a Democrat hoax that was brought up as an excuse, for losing an election, he said.

Fox News' Kristin Brown and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump lamented s---hole countries during immigration negotiations on Thursday with lawmakers in the Oval Office, Fox News has confirmed.

Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here? the president said, in comments first reported by The Washington Post.

The president was referring to people from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and African countries in the temporary protected status program, a source in the meeting told Fox News.

About a dozen people, both Republicans and Democrats, were in the room at the time, including South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin.

Trump made the comments as Durbin was reading a list of temporary protected status countries.

The president also suggested the United States should admit more people from countries like Norway instead, the Post said. Trump had met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and held a news conference with her Wednesday.

In a statement, the White House did not deny Trump made the comments.

Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people, said Raj Shah, the principal deputy White House press secretary.

Democrats reacted by accusing the president of racism.

As an American, I am ashamed of the president, said Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez. His comments are disappointing, unbelievable, but not surprising. We always knew that president Trump doesnt like people from certain countries or people or certain colors.

Some Republicans also voiced their disapproval. Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, whose district includes Miami, responded: Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House.

Rep. Mia Love of Utah, whose parents were Haitian immigrants, called on Trump to apologize, saying his comments were unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values.

The Trump administration announced Monday that as many as 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants living in the United States will no longer be allowed to stay because they have decided to end their protected status.

SEVERAL SENATORS CLAIM TENTATIVE AGREEMENT ON IMMIGRATION

The administrations decision to end special status for Salvadoran immigrants has emerged as a possible bargaining chip for the president as he works to strike a deal with Congress on immigration.

A bipartisan group of six senators said Thursday afternoon they reached an agreement in principle with each other on immigration, including a plan to shield illegal immigrations brought to the United States as children from deportation, though its unclear if Trump or others in Congress will go along with it.

The President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration  two programs that hurt our economy and allow terrorists into our country, Shah said.

Shah added: Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation. He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.

The comments followed a recent report in the New York Times that Trump said the people of Haiti all have AIDS and the people from Nigeria would never go back to their huts in Africa after receiving visas to enter the United States. But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said at the time that the report was false.

Sanders said senior staffers who were actually in the meeting deny these outrageous claims and it's both sad and telling the New York Times would print the lies of their anonymous 'sources' anyway.

Fox News John Roberts and Serafin Gomez contributed to this report.
WARNING: IMAGE BELOW MAY BE GRAPHIC FOR SOME

A dead koala found screwed to a post in an Australian park sparked a police investigation after an animal rescue group posted a photo of the disturbing discovery and demanded that the culprit is caught.

The koala was found on Wednesday cruelly attached to the wooden post in Brooloo Park Lookout, about 85 miles north of Brisbane, Koala Rescue Queensland posted on Facebook, along with a picture of the dead marsupial. The koala, with gum leaves in his paws, appeared to have his arms and legs wrapped around the wooden post.

All is not as it seems in this photo. This poor koala has been screwed to the pole with building screws, he is deceased, but whether or not he was when cruelly attached to the structure is unknown, the rescue group wrote on Facebook.

FLORIDA IS TRYING TO GET RID OF DANGEROUS, VIRUS-EXCRETING MONKEYS

The group called for anyone with information on the culprits to come to police.

The incident sparked outrage among animal rights groups that led to a police investigation, Reuters reported. Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will also conduct an autopsy on the koala to determine the cause of death.

This is very disturbing, Queensland RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty told Reuters. Whether or not the koala was dead, how somebody would think this was in some way humorous, when little kids go to that lookout area, is beyond me.

The autopsy will also determine if the koala was dead or alive at the time he was bolted to the wooden post. Beatty said some injuries, including head trauma, were found on the animal, the Brisbane Times reported.

THOUSANDS OF FLYING FOXES ARE 'BOILED ALIVE,' FREAKING PEOPLE OUT AS THEY FALL FROM THE SKY

Koalas are one of Australias main tourist attraction and listed in 2012 as a vulnerable species under the countrys conservation law. Fewer than 100,000 koalas are believed to be living in the wild, but the Australian Koala Foundation estimated the number could be as low as 43,000.
A woman swimming in the San Francisco Bay early Thursday became the latest person to be attacked by sea lion, as the spate of attacks in the area continued.



The San Francisco Fire Department said the incident happened around 7 a.m. when the woman was bit on the knee while swimming at Aquatic Park. A retired fire paramedic was also swimming in the area at the time and witnessed the attack, fire officials said.

The retired paramedic then "assisted the victim back to shore where she provided care and comfort until units arrived." Her injury is non-life threatening, according to fire officials.

Three swimmers were attacked around the same area in the space of a week last month, which led to the temporary closure of Aquatic Park Cove to swimmers.

In one of the incidents a man was taken to a trauma center with non-life threatening injuries after he was bit in the groin, according to KTVU.

SEA LIONS TERRORIZE SAN FRANCISCO BAY SWIMMERS IN SPATE OF ATTACKS

Marine mammal specialists told KTVU they aren't sure if the same sea lion was responsible for both attacks, but in a 2015 case study, experts explained that biting incidents involving sea lion and seals, although not unheard of, are rare in the waters of San Francisco Bay.

Reports of bites and contact abrasions from sea lions and harbor seals are relatively rare in open-water swimmers and typically involve the lower extremities, explained the authors. The majority of cases in our series occurred at low tide, and bumping of the swimmer by the animal before or after a bite was common, but no clear tide or attack pattern was identified.

GIRL DRAGGED INTO WATER BY SEA LION BEING TREATED FOR 'SEAL FINGER'

In May of last year, a young girl was dragged into the water by a sea lion in Vancouver. She survived the dramatic attack, which was captured on video.

Fox News' James Rogers contributed to this report.
Believers in aliens visiting Earth's friendly skies via Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) couldn't ask for more: A secretive government group backed by federal "black money," a talkative former U.S. military intelligence official, fighter-jet video of odd objects doing out-of-this-world maneuvers and a space mogul purportedly housing leftovers of unidentified aerial craft.

It all has the feel of sliding open a top drawer in a new "X-Files" TV episode.

Yes, "the truth is out there," a maxim made all the stranger by reports last month by both The New York Times and Politico Magazine of the secretive Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, or AATIP for short. Along with the reporting, a video was released by the Department of Defense showing a 2004 encounter near San Diego involving two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets and an unknown object. [UFO Watch: 8 Times the Government Looked for Flying Saucers]

Behind the scenes

AATIP was originated by then-United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who garnered taxpayer dollars to start the program in 2007, along with the support of the late senators Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

But behind the scenes is Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace, a Harry Reid political donor in Nevada. A hefty chunk of the AATIP's $22 million budget over five years was reportedly given to Bigelow's company to hire subcontractors and carry out research for the program.

Now toss into the mix Luis Elizondo, the former intelligence officer who ran the AATIP, which initially was under the wing of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He resigned from the job last October, advising CNN post-departure that it was his personal belief "that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone."

Elizondo also told CNN that the craft studied by AATIP "are displaying characteristics that are not currently within the U.S. inventory nor in any foreign inventory that we are aware of." [7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs]

Turning point

Jan Harzan, the executive director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), sees the eye-opening reporting as a "turning point in the study of UFOs." He said his organization is excited about the events beginning to unfold "and feel[s] the public and everyone on this planet should be as well."

MUFON has been investigating and researching the UFO phenomenon since 1969, Harzan said. The group's analysis of over 100,000 UFO reports over the past five decades has shown three things to be true, he has stated:

1. UFOs are real

2. UFOs represent extremely advanced technology

3. Tremendous breakthroughs will happen if we make it safe for our scientists and engineers to study this phenomenon unimpeded. These breakthroughs involve the fields of propulsion, energy, communication, biology and consciousness, to name just a few.

The recently released fighter-jet camera video of craft off the coast of San Diego "is just the tip of the iceberg," Harzan said. "Our military vaults are full of such videos and data on these objects. Now that the spill gates have been opened a little, it is time for the rest to come out in an orderly fashion," he added, "and in so doing make it safe for our scientists and engineers to study this phenomenon without fear of ridicule or retribution, but with funding provided by Congress and private industry." [UFO Watch: 8 Times the Government Looked for Flying Saucers]

No national security threat

The new revelation about the AATIP is evidence that the U.S. government has been researching and taking this issue seriously for decades, despite claiming no interest in the phenomenon since 1969, said Alejandro Rojas, spokesman for the Scientific Coalition for Ufology (SCU).

Indeed, between 1952 and its termination in 1969, the U.S. Air Force's official UFO-investigation program, known as Project Blue Book, came to the following set of conclusions: No UFO reported, investigated and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security; there has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge; and there has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" are extraterrestrial vehicles.

Advanced technology

Rojas endorses the scientific study of the UFO phenomenon and believes that all information regarding unidentified aerial objects should be released so that the data can be properly analyzed by the scientific community.

"Remember, the 'U' is for unidentified, not alien," said Rojas, who is also director of operations for Open Minds Production.

"We don't know what these things are," Rojas told Space.com. "Just because we get uncomfortable with the idea of aliens does not mean we should not investigate when the people who pilot our most advanced technology say they encounter something that outclasses their aircraft. It would be highly negligent not to investigate."

Another striking point in the recent disclosure, Rojas added, is that the incidents "are very similar to events that have been recorded by the U.S. Air Force and other governments for decades."

Tone of evidence

There is one head-scratcher: Why release this information now? Some see it as a trial balloon to take the pulse of citizens' reactions. Is the public being set up for the really big news about alien visitors?

"I can't say I know why things are coming out at this time," said Stanton Friedman, a retired nuclear physicist and a long-time investigator and lecturer on the UFO phenomenon.

"I appreciate the courage of those former officials who came forth," Friedman said. He criticized debunkers who advocate listening for alien signals "but ignore the tone of evidence of alien visitors."

Small program, little to show

Robert Sheaffer is a writer and one of the leading skeptical investigators of UFOs.

In his summary of recent events, Sheaffer notes that Robert Bigelow has been a strong believer in UFOs and alien visitors all his life. He was a campaign contributor to Sen. Reid and some of Reid's causes and persuaded Reid that the military budget ought to include funds for the study of UFOs.

The AATIP is a small program by Pentagon standards, Sheaffer said; it ultimately spent just $22 million over five years.

"Who knew it apparently only takes three senators to set up a secret Pentagon project?" Sheaffer said.

Funding for the AATIP activity was discontinued in 2012, Sheaffer said, "because it was not producing any results, just reams of paper, although the investigation is reported to still be continuing, but without funding, if that is possible."

"They have only released two very blurry infrared videos of objects that appear to be distant jets, without sufficient information to do a really good analysis of them," he added. "So, ultimately, all you have are a few UFO believers in and outside government who were able to get away with funneling a few million Pentagon dollars to themselves for UFO research, and have very little to show for it." [Ten Alien Encounters Debunked]

UFO artifacts

Sheaffer said that what is really interesting is the statement in The New York Times story that, under Bigelow's direction, the aerospace company "modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena."

If that's true, Bigelow supposedly has actual artifacts from UFOs, Sheaffer said, "and in fact has such a large quantity that he needs to modify his buildings to accommodate them? That is just utterly bizarre. We need an explanation of exactly what buildings were modified at federal expense, and what do they contain?" he said.

Purpose of the program

"Threat identification is obviously an important task," said Steven Aftergood of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C.

"But the fact that this program was initiated at the request of Senator Reid  not the Air Force  suggests that national security was not the paramount motivation here," Aftergood said. This impression, he said, is reinforced by the fact that a constituent of Sen. Reid (Robert Bigelow) received funding through the program.

"It is somewhat dismaying to see how quickly 'unidentified' aerial phenomena are publicly interpreted and portrayed as UFOs of possibly extraterrestrial origin," Aftergood concluded. His advice: "Collectively, we should all be becoming more intelligent and more perceptive, not more stupid and gullible."

Serious study

"It is complicated, and I am still trying to make sense of things," said Mark Rodeghier, president and scientific director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in Chicago, Illinois.

The center was started by Hynek, who served as the astronomical consultant to Project Blue Book. Hynek himself was initially dubious of the whole UFO business, but after culling through hundreds of reports by witnesses, he became convinced UFOs were worthy of serious study.

In broad terms, the outing of the AATIP and its investigation of military UFO sightings "confirms something that has been believed for many years  that these sightings are still happening," Rodeghier said. "We just were not learning about them."

Blip in UFO history?

Rodeghier said he hopes the core of AATIP information that has been gathered can be released to the public and made available for scientific analysis.

"It would be extremely disappointing and frustrating if these reports are not released for scrutiny. We need high-quality data about UFOs to do better science," Rodeghier said.

"If those reports are never released, all of this is going to be blip in UFO history," he added. "But even if it's only a blip in history, it's still a darn interesting blip."

Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel series "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Originally published on Space.com.
A Japanese yakuza boss who's been a fugitive since allegedly committing a 2003 murder was done in by his extensive tattoos. The BBC reports Facebook photos of Shigeharu Shirai, variously reported as being 72 or 74, showed the frail and elderly man doing what frail and elderly men might do: playing checkers with peers alongside a road in Thailand.

Except these photos, posted in August, went viral, ostensibly because they show Shirai's extensive chest and back tattoos. The person who took the images didn't know who Shirai was but admired the marks.

Japanese police took notice of the images and asked their Thai counterparts to apprehend Shirai, which they did Wednesday in the town of Lopburi on the grounds of visa violations.

He'll be extradited to Japan in connection with the 2003 murder of a rival. Another giveaway: The photos showed Shirai absent the tip of his pinkie, a common self-inflicted punishment among those yakuza who've made a mistake.

Shirai reportedly fled to Thailand in 2005 and married a woman there, and the AP reports by way of police that Shirai was visited two or three times annually by cronies who provided him with cash.

AFP reports eight gang members were said to be involved in the rival's murder; the others were all arrested and sentenced to 12 to 17 years.

(Ready to leave the yakuza? This woman will provide a fake finger.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: He Escaped Capture for Years. Then Facebook Saw His Tattoos
Berkeley Johnson and his wife had just climbed to the roof of their Montecito home after boulders and mud smashed into the building -- a result of the deadly California mudslides -- when the couple heard the muffled, desperate sound of a baby crying.

Johnson and his wife dug through four feet of mud, eventually pulling the baby from the depths of the mudslides, which have already killed 17, with many people unaccounted for as of Wednesday afternoon.

"We don't know where it came from but we got it out, got the mud out of its mouth," he told KSBY-TV. "I hope it's okay. I'm glad we got it out but who knows what else is out there."

The baby was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but its condition remains unknown at this time.

In another rescue captured on social media, a mud-caked 14-year-old girl was pulled from a collapsed Montecito home where she'd been trapped for hours.

"I thought I was dead for a minute there," the dazed girl could be heard saying on video posted by KNBC-TV before she was taken away on a stretcher.

The death toll from the mudslides in California unleashed by a powerful winter storm is expected to rise Wednesday as rescuers continue to dig through the destruction caused by powerful mud flows that swept away dozens of homes.

Around a dozen people remained missing Wednesday night, according to the Santa Barbara County sheriff.

A spokeswoman for the county, Amber Anderson, said earlier, "We have no idea where they're at. We think somewhere in the debris field," adding that damage is spread over 30 square miles.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MUDSLIDES, FLOODING LEAVE AT LEAST 13 DEAD IN MONTECITO, HIGHWAYS CLOSED

More than a half-inch of rain fell in five minutes on Tuesday, officials said.

"Right now our assets are focused on determining if anyone is still alive in any of those structures that have been damaged," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a news conference. He said there are "at least several dozen homes that have been either destroyed or severely damaged, and likely many other ones are in areas that are as-yet inaccessible."

Most deaths were believed to have occurred in Montecito, an upscale community located just outside Santa Barbara, said Santa Barbara County spokesman David Villalobos.

The wealthy enclave of about 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles is home to such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and Ellen DeGeneres. The region was threatened last month by the state's largest wildfire in modern history, which led to vegetation being burned off. Burned-over zones susceptible to destructive mudslides because scorched earth doesn't absorb water well and the land is easily eroded when there are no shrubs.

"It sounded like a freight training coming down the hill, you could hear these boulders rolling down, the whole house was shaking," Carpinteria resident John Livergood said.

PHOTOS: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MUDSLIDES

Authorities had been bracing for the possibility of catastrophic flooding because of heavy rain in the forecast for the first time in 10 months.

Evacuations were ordered beneath recently burned areas of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. But only an estimated 10 to 15 percent of people in a mandatory evacuation area of Santa Barbara County heeded the warning, authorities said.

U.S. Highway 101, the link connecting Ventura and Santa Barbara, looked like a muddy river and was expected to be closed for two days.

Montecito and neighboring Carpinteria are beneath the scar left by the Thomas Fire, which erupted Dec. 4 and became the largest ever recorded in California. The blaze spread over more than 440 square miles and destroyed 1,063 homes and other structures.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Investigators have identified the remains of a body  which had been dead for about two weeks  found at a Georgia mall.

Silling A. Man, a 19-year-old Georgia State University sophomore, was discovered Dec. 21 in a vacant Subway restaurant at Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Officials said her body was in an advance state of decomposition, according to The Gwinnett Daily Post.

Man first disappeared Oct. 8, but returned home shortly after a relative contacted the cops.

She disappeared again two days later, police said.

Officials said she last was seen Nov. 20 when she picked up a paycheck at a store in a different mall from the one where she was found dead.

Police said there was no missing persons report filed over her last disappearance.

Authorities have asked that anyone with information to call the Gwinnett Police Department or Crime Stoppers Atlanta.
The Louisiana teacher whose widely viewed arrest sparked online outrage has returned to work while fallout from the incident rages on.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said he saw nothing on videos of Deshia Hargrave's arrest that warranted her rough treatment. Meanwhile, the superintendent of Vermilion Parish Schools says he, his staff and his family have received death threats over the incident.

Hargrave returned to the classroom Wednesday. A local prosecutor says he won't pursue charges against her. Hargrave says she is appalled at her treatment and grateful for support from students, parents and others.

A rally of support for the teacher was planned Thursday afternoon.
A man whose wife was accused of killing their 5-year-old daughter in a fit of anger has been sentenced to 12 years in an Ohio prison.

The Repository in Canton reports 35-year-old Liang Zhao (Lee-AHNG' zow) was sentenced Wednesday in Canton. He pleaded guilty last year to charges including obstructing justice and corpse abuse.

Zhao's wife, Ming Ming Chen, was sentenced last year to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges in a plea deal. Authorities say Chen repeatedly hit Ashley Zhao in a fit of anger and that her husband helped hide the body.

The body was found hidden in the family's North Canton restaurant after Ashley was reported missing last January.

A message was left Wednesday at the office of Zhao's attorney.
The daughter of an admitted serial killer described the moment she realized her father was a murderer and how she managed to turn him in to police, a report Wednesday said.

April Balascio, 48, told People the harrowing details of discovering that her father, Edward Wayne Edwards, was responsible for the 1980 murders of two people in Watertown, Wis., after investigators in 2009 revealed evidence in the unsolved crime.

Before Edwards eventual arrest, the state of Wisconsin had reopened the sweetheart murder cold case, Detective Chad Garcia told People. State investigators reportedly provided evidence to the public in 2009 with the hopes that someone would have some information in the case.

Balascio told the outlet that shed seen the news report and recognized some of the details. So I started reading and then  it was at that time that I realized I had seen the Concord House before, Balascio said. And I was shaking, I was shaking because immediately I knew who it was that had committed the murderers.

The Concord House was a dance hall in Jefferson County, Wis., where the couple had attended a wedding reception before vanishing.

Balascio told police what she knew and a few months later, her father was arrested.

In 2009, Edwards admitted to killing Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew, WMTV reported earlier. He later admitted to at least three other murders.

Edwards was handed two life prison sentences and also was sentenced to death for another case, the outlet said at the time. He died in prison before he was executed.

Balascio told People about a day she remembered in 1980 when her father abruptly told the family they were moving from the Wisconsin town immediately. She was just 11.

Balascio said the family had lived in Watertown for about a year and the fact that they were leaving didn't seem odd at the time. They reportedly moved frequently, about every six months to a year, and with little planning.

Hed tell us the we had to move in secret because he was protecting us, because there were people who wanted to hurt him or us, Balascio told People.

Edwards had the eyes of the FBI before the killings, landing on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 1961 after he broke out of jail and robbed gas stations, ABC News reported. He was caught and served several years in prison -- and once he got parole, he wrote a book about his supposedly reformed life and appeared on TV to promote it. That was years before the Wisconsin couple turned up dead.

The interview and case are included in next Mondays episode of "People Magazine Investigates" on Investigation Discovery, the outlet said.
The founder of a Catholic school and a woman known as the "first lady" of luxury real estate were among 17 people  ages 3 to 89  who were killed when a powerful mudslide tore through a wealthy coastal enclave in Southern California.

Hundreds of searchers continued digging through knee-deep ooze Thursday looking for survivors, as the people reported missing has dropped to eight and the names of those killed began to trickle out.

Roy Rohter, 84, died early Tuesday when he was swept from his Montecito home alongside his wife, according to a statement from Saint Augustine Academy, which he founded in Ventura in 1994.

Roy Rohter was a man of strong faith and a great friend of Catholic education, Michael F. McLean, president of the college, said in a statement posted on the schools website Wednesday.

Rohter's wife, Theresa, was rescued from the torrent of mud, boulders and other debris and was in stable condition, the Academy said.

Michael Van Hecke, the school's headmaster, said in a statement that Rohter lived his life "in service to his good, loving and ever-forgiving God."

"He has done so much for so many people and pro-life and Catholic education causes. Thousands have been blessed by the Rohters' friendship and generosity," he said.

OPRAH, ROB LOWE AMONG CELEBRITIES AFFECTED BY DEADLY MUDSLIDES IN CALIFORNIA

A woman known as the "first lady of luxury real estate" was killed when the mudslide pounded the town of 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles, which is home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.

Rebecca Riskin, 61, of Riskin Partners in Montecito, died early Tuesday, her real estate group confirmed in a Facebook post.

Riskin was a professional ballerina before she earned the "first lady" moniker, according to KEYT. She sold more than $2.17 billion in real estate during her career.

"Per her wishes, we intend to carry out her lifes work with the same strength, grace and elegance that wholly defined Rebecca," Riskin Partners said in its Facebook post. "Rebecca was an exceptional woman, and her legacy will continue to live on and thrive through her children, Robert and Julia, her husband Ken Grand, and her namesake firm, Riskin Partners."

The other victims identified are: Jonathan Benitez, 10; Kailly Benitez, 3; Martin Cabrera-Munoz, 48; David Cantin, 49; Sawyer Corey, 12; Peter Fleurat, 73; Josephine Gower, 69; John McManigal, 61; Alice Mitchell, 78; James Mitchell, 89; Mark Montgomery, 54; Caroline Montgomery, 22; Marilyn Ramos, 27; Peerawat Sutthithepn, 6; and Richard Taylor, 67.

The company that employs the mother of a 14-year-old girl who was dramatically pulled from a California home that collapsed in a mudslide says the girl's father and 16-year-old brother are still missing.

NeoTract, a maker of devices used in the medical field of urology, has launched a GoFundMe page asking for financial support for the family of Kim Cantin.

Cantin's 14-year-old daughter, Lauren, was rescued by firefighters this week after being trapped for hours. The house was flattened hours earlier by the deadly storm-triggered mudslide that ravaged the Montecito area.

"I thought I was dead for a minute," the dazed girl, covered in mud, told firefighters before she was taken away in an ambulance.

Meanwhile, hundreds of searchers from around the state continued to dig through the mud and wreckage left by the flash flooding, poking long poles into the mud to probe for victims. The death toll from Tuesday's pre-dawn flash flood rose to 17 on Wednesday as more bodies were found. Authorities said Thursday that 43 people are possibly missing.

"We've gotten multiple reports of rescuers falling through manholes that were covered with mud, swimming pools that were covered up with mud," said Anthony Buzzerio, a Los Angeles County fire battalion chief. "The mud is acting like a candy shell on ice cream. It's crusty on top but soft underneath, so we're having to be very careful."

A dozen people were hospitalized at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and four were in critical condition, Dr. Brett Wilson said at a news conference.

People in Montecito had counted themselves lucky last month after the biggest wildfire in California history spared the town, but it was the fire that led to the mudslide, by burning away vegetation.

Only an estimated 10 percent to 15 percent of residents fled when ordered and much of the damage occurred where evacuations were voluntary. Rescue crews worked up to 12 hours a day and risked stepping on nails or shattered glass, or being exposed to raw sewage, or dealing with leaking gas, Deputy Dan Page, chief of the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team of the Los Angeles said.

Fox News' Nicole Darrah and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From time to time, parts of California are at risk of powerful mudslides as flooding causes mud and debris to slide down hillsides into communities.

A weather system known as an "atmospheric river" can help trigger mudslides in California. An atmospheric river, or a huge plume of subtropical moisture, can bring inches of rain in foothills and mountains. The flooding caused by such weather events can send mud and debris sliding down from wildfire-charred hillsides that are stripped of vegetation, eventually reaching the communities below.

LAKE EFFECT SNOW: HERE'S HOW IT IMPACTS THE GREAT LAKES

In 2018, some 21 people died from the mudslides that swept over parts of the states southern region, mainly in Montecito, Santa Barbara County  an area northwest of Los Angeles thats home to celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres, Rob Lowe and Oprah Winfrey, among others. Several homes were destroyed because of the mudslides, which were sparked after torrential rains caused flash flooding in the Santa Ynez Mountains.

Heres what you need to know about mudslides.

Why do mudslides occur?

Mudslides, also known as debris flows, are a type of landslide that can occur after a natural disaster, such as a wildfire. Debris flows often contain mud, rock and other materials.

Human modification of land can make certain slopes and steep areas vulnerable to landslides during and after heavy rains, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimates that roughly 25 to 50 people die each year in the United States because of land and mudslides.

But mudslides can also occur without a wildfire preceding it, according to Francis Rengers, a research geologist at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the science agency for the Department of Interior.

In January 2018, you had a large amount of rain and a burn area that didnt need much to get going in the first place, Rengers said.

A few different factors contribute to debris flows in Southern California, David Peterson, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Washington, told Fox News.

The Thomas Fire, which burned more than 280,000 acres and primarily affected Ventura, Montecito, Carpinteria and Santa Barbara Counties, removed all of the living and dead vegetation that protected the soil beneath, Peterson said. The land quickly eroded when there was no vegetation to hold it in place.

The fire was also hot enough to cook out the organic matter in the soil, which helps the earth to absorb water when it rains.

When you have five or more inches of water in a day or two, it doesnt buffer the impact of the rain on the soil, he said, adding that the soil also became very hot from the wildfires. This results in the so-called hydrophobic effect, which causes the soil to repel water.

Different soil texture can also affect the severity of mudslides, Peterson said. As for the January 2018 incident, however, Peterson added that the upper layer of soil got so saturated [by the rain] that it became like Jell-O and just flowed downhill.

Where do they occur?

Mudslides typically occur in areas with steep hillsides, gullies and other narrow channels that make it easy for rain, mud and debris to flow through -- much like the terrain in Southern California, Peterson said. These gullies and other passageways form over millions of years.

In the West, the rains always come in the winter, flow downhill and create these big drainages, he said.

LIGHTNING SAFETY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

While Peterson acknowledged the devastation that mudslides have caused, he said that the occurrence is a natural phenomena."

"Big mudslides are normal. This has happened for millions of years, he said.

Is there anything that can be done to prevent or stop mudslides?

The short answer: no.

Theres nothing to prevent the magnitude of these events, Peterson said. While dams might catch some of the sediment, he said, the structures wouldnt be of much use for a large mudslide.

Its unclear if the Thomas Fire made the mudslides worse. Peterson suspects not. But Rengers said the USGS is continuing to research the phenomena.

Basically, the really high rainfall rates are what controlled the really large response that we saw. And the damage inflicted by the debris flows is proportional to the rainfall, Rengers said in January.

What can people do to protect themselves?

Peterson cautioned those who choose to live beneath steep hillsides in Southern California.

There are many homes at the bottom of these steep drainages. But at some point mudslides will happen, he said.

He explained that when people choose to build their homes at the bottom of these steep drainages, they decide to take on the risk because they think its a low probability it [mudslides] will happen to them.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE WEATHER COVERAGE FROM FOX NEWS

Most of the stucco-style homes that are popular in California dont have basements or subfloors, meaning they have relatively little defense against the powerful mudslides.

Since many of the stucco homes are placed on top of a cement slab, the soil from the mudslide weighs more than the house. The result? The homes become like a little boat in the bathtub, he said. These are natural risks that people need to think about.

Peterson said most people would have better luck defending their home from fire than a mudslide. In 2014, debris and mud from a mudslide in Oso, Wash., covered a square mile in roughly 20 seconds, Peterson said.

Rengers cautioned people who do have homes in these areas to heed all evacuation warnings.

If they dont evacuate and are stuck, they should try contacting local authorities, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Fire and Fury is an unexpected hit, with copies flying off the shelves even as divided readers post decidedly mixed -- and sometimes bitterly incensed -- reactions online.

But the book has nothing to do with President Donald Trump. In fact, it was written 10 years ago by Randall Hansen, a political science professor at the University of Toronto.

Its full title: Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945.

Perhaps because the title is so similar to that of Michael Wolffs new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, the historical analysis now appears on several Amazon bestseller lists related to military writing.

I dont know how much of this is a mistake and how much of this is from new interest created by free advertising, Hansen told the New York Times. There might be some returns.

"I dont know how much of this is a mistake and how much of this is from new interest created by free advertising."  Randall Hansen, author of "Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945"

It amused me and part of me thought, can people really be that dumb to be confusing these books? Hansen added.

Some reviewers on Amazon did appear confused by the name of Hansens tome, while others poked fun at the situation.

I DON'T SEE ANYTHING ABOUT PRESIDENT TRUMP! wrote a reviewer using the name RANDEY. I DON'T KNOW WHY THE DEMOCRATS ARE SO HAPPY WITH THIS BOOK AND MAKEINIG A BIG DEAL OF THIS !

Numerous comments on the review pointed out RANDEYs apparent error.

I bought this book after seeing an ad for it on The Gorilla Channel, wrote another reviewer, referencing a satirical fake news channel. Another wrote: I love Trump, so I bought this book to spite Wolf[f].

Mixed in were some critical reviews of the books historical analysis, including one from last summer that said flatly, This book is essentially boring.

On Twitter, the confusion led to mockery from media watchers.

Hansen told the Guardian that he was unsure exactly how big the sales boost has been, but should have a better idea once royalties are paid in the next month.
A Florida man says hes lucky to be alive after he was viciously attacked by a black bear while walking his dog.

Andrew Meunier was standing outside of his Naples apartment complex Wednesday night when a bear suddenly appeared and lunged at him, slashing his face and torso.

"This is the first documented injury from a bear in South Florida since we started keeping records in the 1970s, Brian Norris, public information officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, told Fox News.

Meunier suffered several cuts across his head and chest before he managed to escape the bears grip. He called 911 and was rushed to a local hospital, where he received 41 stitches.

I don't think it's very deep, but it's an 8 inch cut, Meunier said, describing the gash across his cheek to FOX4.

Though Meunier anticipates a slow and painful recovery, the man says hes grateful the outcome wasnt worse.

"I'm just happy to be alive," Meunier said. "It could've been a totally different story."

Meunier said he saw three other bears along with the one that attacked him.

Several neighbors told FOX4 theyve recently spotted a mother bear and her cubs roaming around the apartment complex.

"Any bear to me is big, but I have to say this one here is probably between 250 to 300 pounds, neighbor Kirk Amerine said. She's had three cubs around with her.

Bear sightings arent uncommon in Florida. There are about 4,050 black bears statewide, according to a 2015 report from the FWC.

But the FWC said its very rare for bears to attack humans.

And about 31 percent of all bear-related calls from 2000 to 2016 have involved a bear rummaging through garbage, the report stated. Meuniers neighbors believe thats the reason why this particular group of bears has been circling their complex.

"We use these old trash bins, and they should be inside the garage, but they are not, resident David Johnson told WFTX. Therefore, any trash that's left out is a free meal for the mother bear and her cubs.

In response to the attack, the FWC said it placed two traps in the area with the hopes of catching and relocating the bears.

Public safety is paramount to the FWC, and we take this incident and all human-bear conflicts very seriously, Dave Telesco, the FWCs bear management program coordinator, said in an emailed statement to Fox News. We have been and will continue to work with this community and others to reduce human-bear conflicts.
A Florida National Guardsman, who was arrested in May after authorities found a stockpile of highly explosive material and neo-Nazi propaganda in his apartment, was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew concluded at the end of a four-hour court hearing that her decision to place Brandon Russell, 22, behind bars stemmed from a concern for public safety.

She added that she hoped Russell wont be influenced by the wrong crowd while serving out his term.

"It's a difficult case," Bucklew told the defendant. "You seem like a very smart young man."

Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, described Russell as a dangerous neo-Nazi leader, while his mother and grandmother said he was a follower who looks to please his friends.

Russell, a dual citizen of the U.S. and the Bahamas, pleaded guilty in September to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage of explosive materials.

He was arrested in May, after Tampa police responded to an apartment north of downtown where they found two dead men  with Russell crying outside.

Russell was not charged in the deaths of his two roomates, but a third roommate was arrested and awaits trial.

During the investigation, authorities found a hoard of highly explosive material, as well as a stash of neo-Nazi signs, posters, books and flags. It was later discovered that Russell and the surviving roommate co-founded a neo-Nazi group called Atomwaffen Divsision. Atomwaffen is German for "atomic weapon."

During the court hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors showed a photo of Russell's car, which had flyers saying, "Don't prepare for exams, prepare for a race war." He also had a framed photo of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in his room and owned books that an FBI agent testified were staples of white supremacist extremists.

Russell's mother said her son at a young age was diagnosed on the autism spectrum and suffered from attention deficit disorder.

Prosecutors were seeking an 11-year prison sentence, which far exceeds federal guidelines, while Russells defense attorney requested a term of 2  years in prison.

"The longer sentence you impose, the worse outcome you'll have. He'll be in prison with other people who believe the same things," defense attorney Ian Goldstein said.

During his sentencing, Russell said "I'm sorry for what I have done," and "I take responsibility for what Ive have done."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A former Alabama pastor who pleaded guilty in the rape of a 15-year-old female church member has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The Dothan Eagle reports a circuit court judge sentenced 31-year-old Camerius Mills, of Edison, Georgia, on charges of rape, sodomy and traveling to meet a child for the purpose of unlawful sex.

Mills was sentenced on Friday. He pleaded guilty in November.

Investigators believe Mills met the victim in November 2014 when she started attending St. Paul Baptist Church in Abbeville, Alabama, where Mills had served as pastor for about three years. They say the offenses took place in February 2015.

Henry County Sheriff's investigator Keith Cauthen told the newspaper that Mills befriended the victim under the pretense of teaching her piano.

___

Information from: The Dothan Eagle, http://www.dothaneagle.com
The former Idaho state lawmaker who was found dead Tuesday was under apparent investigation for allegedly molesting two girls, according to details that emerged Wednesday.

Brandon Hixon, 36, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, authorities said. Officials did not disclose more details, except that the suicide may have been related to possible sexual abuse allegations.

But in a report published Wednesday, the former wife of the three-term Republican  who resigned from the Idaho Legislature in October amid a sexual abuse probe  said Hixon was investigated over sexual abuse of two girls, including a young female relative whom she says was abused for more than a decade.

Danielle Eirvin Hixon, who was married to the former lawmaker for 10 years until their divorce in 2016, said she was encouraged to speak out after seeing other praising her ex-husbands character and wanted people to know the other side of the story.

'He would cheat on me'

Brandon made people believe that he was a stand-up, morally correct person, she said. But behind the house walls, he would cheat on me and molested children.

She said investigators asked her not to disclose details about the allegations until charges were filed against her former husband. She and two other people had been scheduled to testify before a grand jury Wednesday.

I had no idea it was happening, the ex-wife added about the alleged abuse, noting that the girl who told her kept it quiet for so long.

The other alleged victim of sexual abuse is not related to the lawmaker, the woman said. She learned about her allegations from the victims mother.

Speaking about the suicide, she branded her ex-husband a coward for taking his life rather than facing justice and giving closure to the victims.

I say he was a coward by taking the easy way out, Hixon said.

'Running to the press'

But the public statements from the ex-wife caused upset to the grieving family. Kayle Olson, the lawmakers sister, criticized the ex-wife for already running to the press about the allegations.

Danielle has brought forth many allegations. She has put the minor children on the front line of this tragic battle when they should have not ever been, Olson told the Idaho Statesman. This should have remained private and not exposed by her in the manner it has been.

She added: This is a sealed case with minors involved and the children need to be thought of first, which she has completely failed to do, she added.

The family is grieving. We would wish that everyone respect that at this time. This has been a very tragic and devastating case for everyone involved. It is very real for us. It is not a joke to us. Somebody is dead.

The former wife told the Statesman that one of the victims, who is now a teenager, allowed her to speak about the alleged sexual abuse.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An associate pastor at Roman Catholic churches in Illinois faces 16 felony child porn charges as well as a methamphetamine possession charge, authorities said.

The Rev. Gerald Hechenberger, 54, who serves at three parishes in St. Clair County, Ill., east of St. Louis, was arrested Monday after a search warrant was executed at a church rectory in Mascoutah, Ill, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Hechenberger was charged with eight counts of dissemination of child pornography, seven counts of possession of child pornography (photos), one count of possession of child pornography (video) and possession of methamphetamine, the Belleville News-Democrat reported.

Bond for Hechenberger has been set at $2 million, FOX2 Now in St. Louis reported.

The Belleville Police Department said they received a tip from Internet Crimes Against Children that said a person in the area was distributing child pornography. The department said they received search warrants in relation to the tip. On Monday, detectives executed the search warrant at the church and said they discovered drug paraphernalia, images of child pornography and meth. They also took a few electronic devices. The department said the victims in the images were under the age of 13.

The department said they were not sure if Hechenberger took the pictures of the underage children himself.

It is unknown at this time if Hechenberger produced any of the images himself, or if he has had any inappropriate contact with children directly, the press release from the department stated. Although Belleville Police do not have knowledge of any additional victims, we release this information and encourage parents to speak to their children if they had any contact with Hechenberger. Parents or guardians should immediately report any suspicions to the Belleville Police Department.

Police confirmed Hechenberger was the only person at the church being investigated.

Bishop Edward K Braxton of the Belleville Diocese said the situation was serious and the diocese was cooperating with police. Parents of students at the Holy Childhood School were informed of Hechenbergers arrest.

Hechenberger was also an associate pastor at St. Liborius Parish and St. Pancratius Parish.

The Belleville News-Democrat reported Hechenberger took a leave of absence when he was a pastor at St. John the Baptist in Smithton in 2011. At the time, the priest wrote a statement to the parish saying he was struggling with depression and needed to take some time off.

The investigation is continuing, police said.
An intellectually disabled teenage girl was suspended by Brooklyn school officials in 2016 after she reported being gang-raped by a group of male students, according to a federal lawsuit.

The suit, obtained by the Daily News, states the girl, 15, who asked not to be identified, had no disciplinary record at the Teachers Preparatory High School when she was suspended after reporting a group of male students forced her to perform oral sex.

The alleged incident occurred Feb. 5, 2016, when the girl was surrounded by seven male students while walking in one of the schools hallways on her way to meet with a teacher, the suit stated. One of the students allegedly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into a stairwell where she was forced to perform oral sex on two of the students.

LOUISIANA SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT ON TEACHER ARREST: EVERYONE WANTS TO SIDE WITH THE POOR LITTLE WOMAN

The girl told school officials about the alleged assault six days later -- but she was suspended after a 24-hour investigation for engaging in sexual activity at school when officials determined the interaction was consensual, according to the lawsuit.

"My client is a 15-year-old girl of color on public assistance with a severe developmental disorder who was gang raped at her Brooklyn school and then suspended for it," said Carrie Goldberg, the attorney representing the girl.

It was not immediately clear if any of the male students reportedly involved were suspended. One of the students was arrested and charged with sexual misconduct and sexual assault but it was not clear if he was tried, found guilty or sentenced due to the case being sealed.

NEW LAWSUITS TARGET TEACHER, 37, ARRESTED FOR SEX AT SCHOOL WITH THREE TEEN BOY STUDENTS

The Daily News reported officials eventually reversed the suspension but the girl said she remained traumatized by the incident. The suit alleged the girl suffered from anger issues, post-traumatic stress disorder, hair loss, anxiety and failure to sleep.

School officials did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
A Louisiana school board president drew criticism Wednesday for his response to a video that shows a female teacher being forcibly removed from a school board meeting after questioning the school superintendents pay raise.

The video shows middle school teacher Deyshia Hargrave being handcuffed and led out of the building Monday night. Critics have called out the teacher's removal, saying it was unnecessary.

Everybody wants to side on the poor little woman who got thrown out, Anthony Fontana, the Vermilion Parish School Board president, told WAFB in a phone interview. Well, she made a choice. She could have walked out and nothing would have happened.

Fontana said the publics reaction to the video has been swift. But he drew criticism himself for his reaction to the video.

In the video, Hargrave makes the case that children learn in the classroom, and it is the teachers who are on the front line. She is soon led out of the meeting by a marshal, and the video cuts to show Hargrave on a hallway floor, screaming as the marshal handcuffs her hands behind her back.

Fontana did not immediately respond to Fox News requests for comment Tuesday and Wednesday. He told the Advertiser that he stands by the officer "100 percent."

His job is to make sure we have an orderly meeting, Fontana said. He knows what the law is. He knows what our policy is.  The officer did exactly what he is supposed to do.

Debbie Meaux, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators, called out Fontana over the comment.

This didnt happen to this little woman, as he calls her, but her name is Deyshia Hargrave.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said he saw nothing on videos of Hargrave's arrest that warranted her rough treatment.

Hargrave returned to the classroom Wednesday. A local prosecutor said he won't pursue charges against her.

Hargrave said she was appalled by the way she was treated -- and grateful for support she has received from students, parents and others.

A rally of support for the teacher was being planned for Thursday afternoon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A California man pleaded not guilty Tuesday after being accused of beating an Uber driver with a wrench and stealing his vehicle, authorities said.

Deveon Deonteray Wilson, 26, was charged with second-degree robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and carjacking, KTLA reported, citing a news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office.

The Uber driver, identified as Alex Bermudez, was allegedly beaten inside his Toyota Prius shortly after picking up Wilson in Los Angeles on Friday night, the station reported.

Wilson continued beating Bermudez into unconsciousness, authorities said. He then fled in the driver's vehicle, they said.

Wilsons next scheduled court date is Jan. 23. His bail was set at $150,000, and he could face up to 15 years and 8 months in prison if convicted, the station reported.

Click here for more from KTLA.
A Michigan man had been living with his girlfriend's decaying body for at least a month and attempting to hide the foul smell by lighting candles when he was arrested Wednesday, authorities said.

David Hall, 49, was charged with concealing the death of an individual and was placed on a $50,000 bond, FOX2 Detroit reported. Authorities uncovered Halls morbid secret after neighbors complained about a rotten stench coming from the home. Katrina Baker said she thought it was strange a window was open during the freezing winter.

"Upstairs in our hallway, facing their house, it kind of looks at the window," Baker told FOX2. "Why is this window open in the dead of winter?"

Baker and other neighbors wondered for a month about the smell until the landlord called officers to check on the apartment upstairs. The body of Halls girlfriend Kandace Simmons, 56, was found in a bedroom.

"That's crazy. It is absurd. Who would do that?" Baker said.

A preliminary autopsy showed that Simmons, who suffered from unspecified medical issues, may have died from natural causes in early December, FOX2 reported. Hall also had a warrant out for his arrest in a domestic violence case involving Simmons, but police believe there was no foul play involved in her death.

Hall was taken into custody after police conducted a traffic stop.
It starts from a cockpit inside an old military trainee plane.

The plane shakes as the cockpit window is open, catching wind, waiting for air traffic control to give the go-ahead for takeoff.

But this is no ordinary liftoff because right next to this plane is another small

military trainee plane. Both take off simultaneously, in sync with each others

every move, using hand signals as a way of communication.

Now above ground, the pilots can see the vastness of whats below. Yet, its the

people below who are looking up to figure out what is taking place: formation

flying with Arizonas Falcon Warbirds.

These warbirds in Mesa consist of a retired Air Force General who was a fighter

pilot, a retired General Motors engineer, an airline pilot, a doctor, six

others, and their 10 military trainee planes. All with one goalto take care of

veterans. They do so by taking flight.

These pilots, through a non-profit group formed four years ago, conduct formation flights for veterans events in the community, along with Missing Man

Flights.

Since the flights can be dangerous, as they fly so close together, the group has a

briefing and debriefing before and after each flight, respectively.

Each briefing may be different, but each mission is the same  to honor veterans.

They fly for veteran ceremonies or memorials all across the state.

We do them summer and winter, so if its 110-degrees we wont turn down a veteran that needs to be buried and respected here in the Valley, Stich said.

Each pilot owns a trainer aircraft that were used to train pilots from China,

Russia, and the U.S.

The planes are housed in an historic hangar at the Falcon Field Airport in Mesa,

Arizona. The hangar was used during World War II by the British military to

train its pilots. Now its used by this group of 10 pilots.

Were just a group of guys that put this together and its worked out dramatically well, said Dick Stich, a retired U.S. Air Force general. Its what I do. Its what I am. I just love what I do. I love the guys I work with and the guys

I fly with. The guys that are doing the formation flying are all good. Theyre

all certified. We got to trust one another. We fly very close together and

were pretty good at it.

Another pilot said it gives him a unique outlook.

I enjoy being up in the sky and seeing the world from a different perspective,

said Monte Montez, Falcon Warbirds Vice President who aims to encourages the

youth to look into aviation as a profession. It gets in your blood. Aviation

gets in your blood. Once it gets in your blood, you got to go out and fly once

or twice, at least, a month.

Their main flight is The Missing Man Flight, where four planes fly and one tilts up

toward the sky in recognition and symbolism of a fallen veteran. Stich said the

military stopped doing them about 10 years ago.

When we do our Missing Man flybys at the National Cemetery, everybody comes apart, Stich said. It is so dramatic. You just wouldnt believe the impact it

has on the family and the friends that are there.

The Falcon Warbirds did a Missing Man Flight in 2012 for Deidre Morhets late

husband, Jeff, who was an Army Ranger, and her 12-year-old son, Jack, who died

in a tragic plane accident. Her husband was training to fly with the Warbirds

at the time of the crash.

It meant so much because it was almost like he was home, Morhet said. When that plane flew off and Jeffs dad was in the plane when they did the formation

flyingI mean, everybody said it was justit was amazing closure for us, as a

family, to know that he was missed.

Stich said he's proud of doing these types of flights.

Our guys are all the same way, he said. Theyre so proud to be involved doing a close formation flyby for a funeral or just a gathering of veterans. Its a big deal.

Veterans and their families can also reach out to the group and ask them to fly

formation for veteran events.

The Falcon Warbirds welcome any family who wants to honor their beloved veteran with open arms  or wings.

It starts inside a cockpit.

And it continues by taking off into the clouds.


A Bangladeshi immigrant accused of attempting to bomb the New York City subway system told a federal judge Thursday he was "at this moment, not guilty" of the charges against him.

Akayed Ullah was indicted Wednesday on six counts, including providing material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction.

Ullah was the only person injured on Dec. 11, when he attempted to blow himself up in a corridor linking the subway to the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan during the morning rush hour.

The explosive device strapped to Ullah's body was described by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as "effectively low-tech." Law enforcement officials said the device was ignited with a Christmas light, matches and a nine-volt battery, but did not produce an explosion powerful enough to kill or seriously injure anyone else.

Ullah suffered burns and wounds to his abdomen and hands and made his initial court appearance last month via video link from a hospital bed.

Authorities said Ullah taunted President Donald Trump on Facebook prior to his failed attack, writing, "Trump you failed to protect your nation" and "O America, die in your rage." The president later demanded tightened immigration rules in response to the failed attack.

According to prosecutors, Ullah said the attack was "for the Islamic State [ISIS]" and a response to U.S. military actions in the Middle East.

Fox News' Tamara Gitt and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Czech news agency CTK has reported that an American who was convicted of killing four of his Czech relatives has killed himself in prison.

The agency says Kevin Dahlgren killed himself Thursday in the Valdice prison northeast of Prague where he was serving a life sentence.

Prison service spokeswoman Petra Kucerova confirmed a prisoner died but gave no details, citing an ongoing investigation.

In 2016, a Czech court convicted Dahlgren of killing the father, mother and their two sons in their home during his visit to the Czech city of Brno on May 22, 2013.

An appeals court upheld the life sentence last year.

Dahlgren, of Palo Alto, California, was detained at Washington Dulles International Airport following the killings and was extradited to the Czech Republic in 2015.
Russian women are arriving in the U.S. on visas to give birth to dual-citizen babies.

The women are traveling to Miami with help from agencies that assist them in finding apartments, doctors and even obtaining visas, services that could total up to $100,000, NBC reported.

Provided they obtained their visas by honest means, their actions are protected under the U.S. Constitutions 14th Amendment, which states that anyone born on American soil is a U.S. citizen and allows the child to receive all the benefits that come with citizenship.

"There is no clear law that prevents hospitals from establishing this business and promoting it abroad and theres no law against a foreigner coming here for the specific purpose of having a baby," Jessica Vaughan, of the Center for Immigration Studies, told FoxNews.com. "It only crosses the line into a violation of law if they are misrepresenting the purpose of their visit or if they were to overstay or if they were to fraudulently claim public benefits."

While there are no official numbers on birth tourism, The Center for Immigration Studies told NBC they estimate there are as many as 36,000 babies born in the U.S. to foreign nationals.

The child gets the right to live and work in the U.S., and at age 21 can sponsor their parents for green cards.

Birthright citizenship has been a hot issue during presidential elections, with 2016 GOP candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas having been born in Canada and 2008 GOP nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona having been born in Panama.

In addition, both Republicans and Democrats have sparred over the political correctness of the term anchor baby.

In August 2015, then-Democratic-candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted a response to then-GOP-candidate Jeb Bushs use of the term, suggesting more politically correct words.

Then-GOP-candidate Donald Trump criticized Bush for using the term against Asians, calling the situation a mess.

Since taking office, President Trump has stated he is against chain migration.

We are going to end chain migration, Trump said Monday at a farming convention in Tennessee. "We are going to end the lottery system and we are going to build the wall."

Birth tourism practices are nothing new. A New Jersey hospital courted Russian women through its AmeriMama program in 2016.
The Pentagon's senior enlisted member has drawn the line against ISIS: "surrender or die!"

In a blunt warning to the remaining ISIS fighters, Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell said the shrinking band of militants could either surrender to the U.S. military or face death.

ISIS needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them, he wrote in a forceful message on Facebook. So they have two options, should they decide to come up against the United States, our allies and partners: surrender or die!

Troxell said the U.S.-led military coalition would provide them safety in the form of a detainee cell, food, a bed and due process if they give themselves up.

"If they choose not to surrender, then we will kill them with extreme prejudice...by dropping bombs on them, shooting them in the face, or beating them to death with our entrenching tools."  Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell

However, if they choose not to surrender, then we will kill them with extreme prejudice, whether that be through security force assistance, by dropping bombs on them, shooting them in the face, or beating them to death with our entrenching tools, he continued. Regardless, they cannot win, so they need to choose what its going to be.

The post was shared Tuesday evening along with a photo of an entrenchment tool  a collapsible shovel used by the U.S. military. It also included the hashtag #ISIS_SurrenderOrDie.

The Facebook post doesn't appear to be Troxells first time warning ISIS about the U.S. militarys intentions with entrenching tools if the terrorists don't give up.

During a stop in Afghanistan on a United Services Organization holiday tour last month, Troxell delivered a speech in which he said ISIS will be annihilated, period!

That may be through advising, assisting and enabling the host-nation partners, he said in a video recorded by a Stars and Stripes reporter. It may be by dropping bombs on them. It may be by shooting them in the face. And it even might be beating them to death with your entrenching tool, but we are going to beat this enemy!

Marine Gen. Joseph R. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Florent Groberg, a Medal of Honor recipient, were in attendance at the event.

As senior enlisted member, Troxell is assigned to serve as a voice for enlisted service members at the Pentagon, the Washington Post reported.

Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for Dunford and the Joint Staff, told the Post that Troxells comments emphasized the U.S.-led coalitions resolve to defeat ISIS.

His intent was to communicate the tenacity of the warrior ethos that, even when faced with the brutal and unforgiving nature of combat, will use every resource available to fight and win, Ryder said of Troxell.
More than a dozen alleged members of the violent MS-13 gang, including a person believed to be an operation leader on the East Coast, were indicted by a grand jury in New York on Thursday, officials announced.

Murder and drug trafficking are among the charges leveled in the 21-count indictment against the 17 suspects, who were apprehended amid one of the most far reaching and extensive investigations into the brutal criminal organization known as MS-13, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said. If convicted, she said the alleged members could face 25 years to life in prison.

MS-13 GANG MAY HAVE KILLED THREE TEENS FOUND ON LONG ISLAND, REPORT SAYS

The investigation, which initially focused on narcotics trafficking, lasted approximately seven months and stretched from New York to New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Texas. Singas said investigators focused on the Long Island Hollywood and Sailors cliques, or MS-13 operation cells, and added that the information obtained will be invaluable to law enforcement agencies around the world.

"This massive multi-agency investigation laid bare the global size, complexity and brutality of MS-13, and these indictments strike a heavy blow to the gang's operations on Long Island," Singas said. "These alleged gang members have terrorized vulnerable immigrant communities (and) trafficked deadly heroin into our neighborhoods."

The indictment included suspects in the case of the murdered teen, Angel Soler, who disappeared in July. His body was discovered in October in a wooded lot near the Roosevelt-Baldwin border. Soler's remains were one of three discovered close to each other over the course of nine days.

MS-13 GANG MAY HAVE KILLED LONG ISLAND TEEN FOUND IN WOODS, REPORT SAYS

Authorities said Soler was brutally attacked by multiple people and his injuries appeared to be from a machete.

Singas also added that law enforcement agents have thwarted a number of planned attacks during the investigation.

The MS-13 gang, or the Mara Salvatrucha, has become a prime target of President Trump, with both he and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions having highlighted efforts to fight the violent group.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A former Virginia high school sign language interpreter and mother was sentenced to prison Thursday for having sex with a 15-year-old student in a van specially equipped with a bed, officials said.

Amanda Nasser, 32, who worked at Louisa County High School, was sentenced to 90 years in prison, but had all of the time except for seven years suspended, FOX5DC reported. She was convicted of 18 felony charges of indecent liberties with a minor and computer solicitation of a minor.

Ms. Nasser abandoned her duties at the school to prey on a young boy whom she met when she was employed as a sign language interpreter at the local high school. These convictions send a clear message that such predatory behavior will be met with swift and severe repercussions, Louisa Commonwealths Attorney, Rusty E. McGuire, said in a statement.

Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Joshua C. Loren added the student will be forever scarred by the sexual encounter. Loren mentioned Nassers children, but did not go into further detail about her family.

Nasser was arrested in September 2016 after authorities uncovered hundreds of text messages to a high school freshman, KTRE reported.

Nasser immediately turned the conversation to sexual innuendo. During the sexually explicit chats, Nasser even sent nude pictures of herself to the minor and solicited sex from the minor on several occasions, police said in a news release at the time.

The former high school teacher then suggested she befriend the teenagers mother so she could gain access to the boy outside of school hours.

Nasser initially denied her sexual relationship with the student, but then confessed to soliciting sex through text message. She picked him up in her bed-equipped van at least four times and had sex with him, according to KTRE.

Nasser was described as a dangerous predator who groomed and took advantage of a child. She faced up to 230 years in prison.
An Arkansas 17-year-old who was a passenger in a car stopped for speeding early Sunday is seen pulling a gun and firing at officers before he was killed by police, a newly released dashcam video shows.

North Little Rock police released the 5-minute video on Wednesday that showed when officers pulled over the vehicle for speeding and a headlight violation. Charles Smith was a rear-seat passenger.

In the video, an unidentified patrolman tells the driver to step out of the car, asking, You aint got anything crazy on you, do you? and Why were you driving so dang-gummed fast, man?

While searching Smith, the officer asked about weapons, marijuana and his Nike Air Force 1 shoes. Do you do you like them? the officer asked during a pat-down.

After twice telling Smith not to reach for something, the two are suddenly seen wrestling to the ground.

I cant go to jail, the 17-year-old is heard crying out.

Get your (expletive) hand out, one officer told Smith, whose hands were out of the cameras view. The officer then yelled, Its a (expletive) gun.

The video then shows Smith pointing a handgun at officers, cocking it while his right hand is pinned against the curb, firing it and then cocking it again.

The police officers opened fire in response, killing the teenager.

Police Chief Mike Davis said the video was released to dispel misinformation that Smith was unarmed during the confrontation.

Since the incident, a great deal of erroneous information has appeared on social media outlets.  I want to make sure we clear that up today, he told reporters.

Davis said the officers involved did not have body cameras. He said the names of the officers involved could be released after a plan is in place to protect them, since the agency has received threats.

"Misinformation gets out that says ... the subject wasn't armed, the subject didn't shoot," Davis said. "He was armed and we, in fact, had to take action because of that. I want people to see what happened."

A lawyer for Smith's family, Willard Proctor Jr., said police showed the video to the teenager's relatives earlier Wednesday.

"We're not at a point where we can make any conclusions," Proctor said. He said that once a complete set of video footage is released, there could be an opportunity to look into "what, if anything, could have been done differently."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Wisconsin private school that asked fourth graders to list three good reasons for slavery and three bad ones apologized to parents after the mother of a black student shared the assignment on Facebook, calling it offensive.

In a letter to parents Tuesday, Our Redeemer Lutheran School in Wauwatosa agreed the homework was offensive and said it "showed a lack of sensitivity." It also thanked the student's mother for bringing the issue to their attention.

"Our Redeemer regrets deeply an unjustifiable assignment on slavery earlier this week," Principal Jim Van Dellen said in a statement to The Associated Press on Thursday. The statement went on to say that the church and school "work hard to promote the human dignity of all people, and this assignment did not reflect our core values or practices."

Trameka Brown-Berry, the parent who shared the assignment online, said the school explained the assignment as a way to have students think about why white people once thought it OK to own slaves. She said it's good for students to learn about slavery but that the assignment's question was shocking.

"You wouldn't ask someone to list three good reasons for rape or three good reasons for the Holocaust," she said.

She posted a picture of the assignment Monday evening after seeing her 9-year-old son, Jerome, struggling with his homework and "looking real confused." She saw he'd already listed bad reasons for slavery  "making them do your chores," splitting up families and "punishing them." He made sure to mention he is proud to be black.

But his mother said he couldn't think of any good reasons for slavery. She said she suggested he just write how he felt so he wrote: "I feel there is no good reason for slavery that's why I did not write."

Brown-Berry said the school responded quickly to her concerns and agreed to her suggestions for addressing the matter, including written and verbal apologies to students and parents and cultural diversity training for staff. She said the teacher has also apologized to students.

Van Dellen said in his statement to the AP that they "are working with the African-American community to guide our educational goals and create important dialogues in our church and school."
Dave Toschi, the lead detective in San Francisco's unsolved Zodiac serial-killer case of the 1960s and 70s, and who served as the model for charaClint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" movie character, has died at age 86.

Toschi died Saturday at his home in San Francisco after a prolonged illness, his daughter Linda Toschi-Chambers told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Toschi's investigation into the Zodiac case began with the shooting death of a San Francisco cab driver in 1969. He was taken off the case nine years later after acknowledging he wrote and mailed anonymous fan letters to the Chronicle applauding his own work.

Between 1968 and 1969, five people were fatally stabbed or shot in Northern California and their killer sent taunting letters and cryptograms to the police and newspapers. The killer was dubbed the Zodiac because some of his cryptograms included astrological symbols and references.

The killer was never caught.

Duffy Jennings, who had grown close to Toschi through covering the killings for the Chronicle, said he visited the San Francisco murder scene on the anniversary of the killing for many years in a row to see if he overlooked any clues.

The Zodiac case gnawed at him, Jennings said of Toschi. He said it gave him an ulcer.

"The Zodiac cased gnawed at him. He said it gave him an ulcer."  Duffy Jennings, journalist and friend of Dave Toschi

Toschi's stylish detective work immediately caught the eye of Hollywood, with Steve McQueen basing his character in the 1968 film Bullitt after him.

Clint Eastwoods character Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry movies also was modeled after Toschi, the Chronicle reported.

Toschi received a full portrayal by actor Mark Ruffalo in the 2007 movie Zodiac, based on the killings.

Toschi was born in San Francisco and graduated from Galileo High School before serving in the Korean War with the U.S. Army. He retired from police work in 1985.

He "could sing with the best of them," his daughter recalled. "His greatest pleasure was his loving family, and we will miss his keen sense of humor, his gentle guidance and his unconditional love."

Toschi is survived by his wife, Carol Toschi of San Francisco; two daughters, Toschi-Chambers of San Francisco and Karen Leight of San Mateo County; and two granddaughters, Sarah Leight of Pacifica and Emma Leight of Los Angeles.

Private services were held Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


A U.S.-based company that recently embarked on a new search mission for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 could earn up to $70 million if the crucial wreckage is found within three months, Malaysian officials said Wednesday.

Ocean Infinitys search team set off on their expedition on Jan. 2. They will scour a 25,000 square kilometer area in the southern Indian Ocean previously identified by experts to search for the planes wreckage, and most specifically, the two black boxes onboard.

"The primary mission by Ocean Infinity is to identify the location of the wreckage and/or both of the flight recorders ... and present a considerable and credible evidence to confirm the exact location of the two main items," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said.

SUB-EQUIPPED BOAT DEPARTS SOUTH AFRICA TO SEARCH FOR MISSING MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT

MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014, and was headed to Beijing when it disappeared. There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.

After more than 1,000 days searching, the initial search mission was called off last January by governments in Malaysia, China and Australia without a concrete conclusion as to where or why the Boeing 777 vanished.

There was an 85 percent chance of locating the debris in the new area, Lai said on Wednesday. If the mission is successful, the price tag will increase depending on how much of the new territory the team searches.

If the wreckage is found within three months, Lai said the government will pay Ocean Infinity $20 million for 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles) of a successful search, $30 million for 15,000 square kilometers (5,790 square miles), $50 million for 25,000 square kilometers (9,653 square miles) and $70 million if the plane or recorders are found beyond the identified area.

NEW HUNT FOR MISSING MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT 370 BEGINS, OFFICIALS SAY

The agreed upon deal was signed on a no cure, no fee arrangement, meaning if the company didnt find anything, the Malaysian government wouldnt have to pay.

The Seabed Constructor search vessel, which departed from the South African port of Durban, is expected to reach the southern Indian Ocean by Jan. 17, according to Ocean Infinitys Chief Executive Oliver Plunkett.

He said eight autonomous underwater vehicles - drones fitted with high-tech cameras, sonars and sensors - will be dispatched to map the seabed at a faster pace.

"We have a realistic prospect of finding it," he said. "While there can be no guarantees of locating the aircraft, we believe our system of multiple autonomous vehicles working simultaneously is well suited to the task at hand."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The State Department unveiled a revamped travel warning system Wednesday, giving five Mexican states the sternest "do not travel" advisory alongside war-torn nations like Syria, Yemen and Somalia.

All five states -- Tamaulipas on the U.S. border and Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero on the Pacific coast -- are hotspots of drug cartel activity, either hosting trafficking routes or extensive drug-crop cultivation.

The new warning system designates the states as a "level 4" risk, the highest level of potential danger. Mexico as a whole has a level 2 rating, meaning Americans should "exercise increased caution" because of concerns about crime. But an additional 11 Mexican states got a level 3 warning Wednesday, which urges people to "reconsider travel" there. Mexico has 31 states in all.

Those states where Americans are urged to reconsider travel include the State of Mexico - Mexico's most populous state, which includes most suburbs of Mexico City - and Jalisco, home to the city of Guadalajara, the Puerto Vallarta resorts and the lakeside expat community of Chapala and Ajijic. But the travel advisory said there are "no restrictions on U.S. government employees for stays in ... Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Chapala, and Ajijic."

Most of northern Mexico, including the border states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Sonora as well as Durango, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, are under level 3 warnings.

Mexico's federal tourism department was not immediately available to comment on the new warnings.

But the government's Mexico Tourism Board said in a statement that "Mexico's major international tourism destinations have been explicitly listed as having no travel restrictions," apparently a reference to major resorts like Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Huatulco.

However, at least two Mexican resorts -- Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo and Acapulco -- are in a do-not-travel state, Guerrero, and last year, the State Department extended a total ban on personal travel by U.S. government personnel there.

U.S. personnel had previously been allowed to fly to Ixtapa, the last place in Guerrero where they had been allowed to go. Personal travel by land and to the resort city of Acapulco had already been prohibited.

The no-travel states had mostly already lost much foreign tourism.

Tamaulipas has long been riven by turf wars between rival drug cartels, and Sinaloa is home to the cartel of the same name. Michoacan was so dominated by a drug cartel that vigilantes took up arms in 2013 to drive them out.

Colima has seen homicides skyrocket in recent years due to the growth of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, and the state now has Mexico's highest homicide rate, with 83.3 killings per 100,000 residents, according to figures for the first 11 months of 2017.

The U.S. government did note its employees are allowed to go to the seaside city of Manzanillo, Colima.

The state with second-highest homicide rate -- 61.6 per 100,000 -- was Baja California Sur, home to the twin resorts of Los Cabos. The state conserved its level 2 advisory, "exercise increased caution," despite a series of shootouts and killings in recent months.

Rising levels of violence have not so far affected Los Cabos, which saw a 16 percent increase in tourism arrivals and an 18 percent rise in hotel occupancy in 2017, said Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board.

Esponda said local officials and tourism operators are investing in increased security, including camera systems and the construction of a new marine base.

"We are going to keep working very hard in 2018 to make sure that Los Cabos continues as a safe destination," Esponda said.

Speaking to local media earlier this week, Tourism Secretary Enrique De la Madrid said, "In my opinion, the most important challenge we have in the tourism sector are crime events occurring where they didn't before, for example in Cancun, la Paz and Los Cabos."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A U.S. service member was wounded Thursday during a joint U.S.-Afghan ground operation in an area of eastern Afghanistan home to an ISIS-affiliate with about 1,000 fighters, Fox News confirmed.

A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul told Fox News the operation against the insurgents was over, but would not describe the wounds of the injured service member.

The Taliban claimed the attack Thursday was carried out by two insurgent disguised as local militiamen. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the Associated Press the attackers had infiltrated the local forces months ago.

Thirteen U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan in 2017  seven of which were killed in the eastern province of Nangarhar during operations against the ISIS-affiliate.

The affiliate claimed responsibility for a number of suicide attacks that killed dozens in Kabul late last year.

As the war against ISIS winds down in Iraq and Syria, more U.S. jets are being sent to Afghanistan.

This year some of the 3,000 recently deployed U.S. troops will be moving closer to the front lines to call in more air strikes in Afghanistan.

Expect more U.S. jets to be sent to Afghanistan in the coming days to provide close air support to those troops, officials have said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Cambodia and China have signed nearly 20 agreements worth several billion dollars to develop the impoverished Southeast Asian country's infrastructure, agriculture and health care.

The agreements and memorandums of understanding were signed during a meeting between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang. Li led a senior delegation on a daylong official visit Thursday to Cambodia, China's close ally.

Among the major agreements is building a new expressway more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) long linking the capital, Phnom Penh, with the coastal city of Sihanoukville,, and a new Phnom Penh international airport.
Nearly one in 12 Christians across the globe lives in an area where there is high-level persecution against members of the religion, according to an annual report by a top religious advocacy group.

The recent World Watch List released Wednesday by Open Doors USA, tracks and monitors incidents of Christian persecution reported globally, and ranks countries seen as the biggest offenders. The findings in this years report showed 215 million Christians are in areas that have experienced high levels of persecution, including 50 countries that were on the list.

Among those facing persecution during the reporting period, 3,066 Christians were killed, 1,252 were abducted, nearly 800 churches were defaced and 1,020 Christians were raped or sexually harassed. Officials with Open Doors say the last figure is a troubling development as Christian women became an increased target of persecution -- with six women being targeted daily.

The most significant findings were that Christian women are among the most violated in the world, in maybe a way that we havent seen before, David Curry, the president and CEO of Open Doors USA, told Fox News. We need to raise the flag. These are tactics are being increasingly used by extremists.

Curry also cited incidents where sex traffickers received more money for the abducted daughters of pastors, compared to other girls.

These incidents are happening all the time.

We need to raise the flag. These are tactics are being increasingly used by extremists.  David Curry, Open Doors USA

At least six women every day are raped, sexually harassed or forced into marriage to a Muslim man under the threat of death for their Christian faith, the study found.

The World Watch List documented over 2,000 such incidents against womena number that covers only the reported incidents, and is estimated to be a fraction of the total who were raped and harassed.

The report also found that Islamic extremism is still the main global driver of persecution and that the Middle East has seen a dramatic increase of persecution against Christians in 35 of the 50 countries on the list.

Afghanistan, in particular, showed an alarming trend among the top ten of the list  no central government, extremist Muslim factions trying to control the country and an intense, conservative Islamic population.

Afghanistan and North Korea nearly tied, Curry said. Never before have the top two countries been so close to incidents. Both countries are extreme in intolerance and outright persecution of Christians in every area Open Doors monitors. Afghanistan now meets the same level of persecution as North Korea in five out of the six areas. This is a tragedy considering the efforts being made by the international community to help rebuild Afghanistan are failing to ensure freedom of religion.

Other countries that saw a sharp rise in incidents of persecution for 2017 included Egypt, India, Libya, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkey.

Topping the list for the 16th year in a row: North Korea. The Hermit Kingdom is officially an atheist state where  except for a show church in Pyongyang that tourists are shown  public worship is forbidden.

The totalitarian state forces the estimated 300,000 Christians living there to hide their religious beliefs and fellowship among each other. This leads much of the religious population in North Korea to go underground with their worship.

In a nation where the ruling regime demands total control over the general public, anything that challenges the governments power is seen as a threat, including religion, Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, told Fox News in October 2017. As a result, the North Korean government does everything in its power to squash the spread of Christianity.

Also in the top ten: Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. Syria, which was in the top ten last year, dropped down to no. 15.
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European Union foreign ministers say a key agreement curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions must be preserved as U.S. President Donald Trump weighs whether to pull out of the pact.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Thursday that the deal is "a crucial agreement that makes the world safer."

His remarks came ahead of talks in Brussels between ministers from Britain, France and Germany and their Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the EU wants to preserve the deal "because it is in our interest not to develop or to see that nuclear weapons are developed in Iran."

Under the accord, Iran slowed its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of international economic sanctions. Trump has said he would consider scrapping the deal.
From the crack of dawn to a starry dusk, hundreds of technicians from around the world can be seen against a backdrop of pale-colored mountains and a still, sapphire reservoir. It appears serene and picturesque, but those workers are rushing to salvage Iraqs deteriorating Mosul Dam  which was once under ISIS control and straddles the Tigris River just 40 miles upstream from the city of Mosul.

Failure to reinforce and maintain the dam could mean unleashing what is, in effect, a potential weapon of mass destruction.

When we started, the risk assessment regarding the potential fate of the dam was very high. And ISIS had stolen everything that was here, Carlos Morales, deputy project manager for Trevi, the Italian company awarded the repair and maintenance contract to prevent catastrophe, told Fox News on a recent exclusive visit to Mosul Dam.

The dam, the largest in the country with the capacity to hold 3 trillion gallons of water, controls the flow of the Tigris River north of Mosul and supplies electricity to more than a million residents. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that if the dam ruptures, it will send floodwaters crashing more than 200 miles downstream  swallowing villages and much of Mosul City with waves as high as 80 feet. In addition, floodwaters could reach as far as Baghdad and potentially result in the loss and displacement of millions of lives and up to $20 billion in damages.

Furthermore, a 2015 study from the European Commissions Science Center concluded that even a partial fissure that released just one quarter of its full capacity would be disastrous. The concern even prompted an urgent memo from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in March 2016, cautioning Americans to avoid areas within three miles of the river and have a plan in case of emergency.

Progress is being made. Since the emergency work began just over a year ago, some 15,000 metric tons of cement have been poured into the 370-foot structure and more than 150 miles of electrical grids have been installed. Also, some of the critical grouting, the pumping of a mixture of clay, water and cement into the dangerously soft bed of gypsum on which the dam wall rests has been completed. Another year of critical grouting is planned.

The dam, which has been a cause of concern since it was built in 1984 and known at the time as the Saddam Dam, was captured by ISIS in August 2014 in the early onslaught of the terror group. Although it only controlled the area for 10 days before being run out by Kurdish and Iraqi forces, the massive structure has deteriorated badly as it has not received mandatory maintenance from either ISIS or, subsequently, coalition forces.

ISIS CURSED, MOCKED IN MOSUL, WHERE OLD CITY REMAINS A HAUNTED WASTELAND

AFTER ISIS CAMPAIGN, IRAN-BACKED FIGHTERS IN IRAQ VOW TO DRIVE OUT US TROOPS

The Trevi Group is calling its work a success -- so far -- yet the intense pace of its work must be maintained for the sake of scores of lives downstream of the dam. The Iraqi government has not yet officially renewed the groups contract, which the Iraqi government says was worth about $300 million and funded in large part with a loan from the World Bank. That contract expires this spring.

Discussions are underway about continuing the Trevi partnership into 2019, as the Iraqi government has acknowledged ongoing risks to the dam, an officials with the Corps told Fox News.

Some grouting results look promising, but uncertainty will remain until grouting efforts have progressed across the full length of the dam, the representative of the Corps said. The Ministry of Water Resources has concluded that a second year of grouting and training is necessary.

The Trevi contract also came with the Italian governments promise to deploy 450 troops to guard the vulnerable area while repairs are underway. Along with protecting workers, the soldiers  led by the Praesidium Task Force of the 3rd Alpine Regiment of the Italian Army  have been training Iraqs counterterrorism forces and have implemented initiatives to support the local hospitals, schools and families inside the small villages that make up the Mosul Dam community.

Weve been cooperating with the Italian taskforce with the objective of protecting the dam and the people around it, explained Iraqi counterterrorism leader, Maj. Ahmed. But the idea long-term is for us not only to help in a military way, but in a humanitarian way, too.
A German federal court has overturned the acquittal of seven men who posed as a self-styled "Sharia police."

The group took to the streets of Wuppertal in September 2014 in orange vests bearing the words "Sharia police," handing out leaflets declaring the area a "Sharia-controlled zone" where alcohol, music and pornography were banned.

The men were charged with violating uniform wearing rules, but a state court found the vests couldn't be classified as a uniform and weren't intimidating, and ruled the men couldn't be convicted. Five were allegedly part of the self-styled patrol; the other two alleged accessories.

The Federal Court of Justice on Thursday sent the case back to Wuppertal for a retrial. It said the lower court gave insufficient consideration to possible violations of the law.
A group of thieves attempting to rob one of Paris' most high-end hotels appeared to have botched the heist as police reported Thursday all of the $5.4 million worth of stolen jewels and watches was found scattered at the scene and in a bag that was dropped by one of the escaping accomplices.

The robbery occurred late Wednesday evening when five thieves, some armed with axes, smashed display cases at The Ritz and sent hotel guests and workers into panic.

The perpetrators "entered by the service entrance, smashed the jewelry stands, grabbed jewels that were clearly expensive with the help of axes," said Jean-Michel Huguet of police union Alliance Police Nationale.

Three suspects inside threw bags of goods out a window to at least two accomplices outside, according to a police official. The three inside were then blocked when they tried to flee through another door, the official said.

Police managed to arrest three of the thieves at the scene but two escaped using a motorcycle and car.

Authorities believe one of the escaping thieves mistakenly dropped a bag of stolen goods when his motorcycle knocked into a pedestrian during his escape.

An official close to the investigation said Thursday night that all the stolen goods have been recovered, after authorities and jewelers carefully examined the contents of the bag and debris and found everything had been accounted for.

Police continue to hunt for the two robbers who managed to escape the scene.

The robbery raised questions about security in one of the world's most prestigious neighborhoods, the Place Vendome, whose well-guarded buildings include the Justice Ministry, high-end boutiques and the 19th century Ritz.

Paris police are investigating whether renovation work underway at the Ritz may have contributed to the lack of security, Sky News reported.

Patrons at the hotel's renowned Hemingway Bar described panic as the thieves entered the hushed environment of the Ritz, where rooms start at $1,200 a night.

Several high-end Paris jewelry stores have been targets of dramatic robberies in recent years, including Cartier, Harry Winston and Chopard. Kim Kardashian West said she lost millions of dollars' worth of jewelry when she was robbed at gunpoint in a Paris apartment in October 2016.

The Ritz was an especially luxurious target. The hotel has housed such famous names as Ernest Hemingway and Coco Chanel. It was the last place Princess Diana ate before her fatal car crash in a Paris tunnel, and hosts elite guests from around the world drawn to the refined neighborhood.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Nearly two years after British voters sent political shockwaves across the globe by voting to leave the European Union, and with U.K.-EU divorce talks heating up, Britains pro-EU establishment is pushing hard to get Brits to think again.

Immediately after the June 2016 vote, calls for a second vote were muted by a broader consensus that the will of the voters should be respected. This was emphasized by the decision of then-Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron -- who campaigned against Brexit -- to resign the morning after the vote.

The British people have voted to leave the European Union, and their will must be respected, Cameron said in front of 10 Downing Street.

But almost two years later things are different. Current Prime Minister Theresa May, who also supported remaining in the EU, is leading a government that is intact but significantly weakened by elections in 2017.

U.K. and EU officials are now thrashing out terms of the divorce ahead of Britains departure in March 2019 -- including to what extent the U.K. should have access to the single market and customs union.

But as Britain stands at the brink of one of the most consequential political moments in post-war European history, pro-EU establishment voices, known as Remainers, sense an opportunity and are demanding that Brits be frog-marched back to the polls.

A second Brexit vote would at least would stop the 'whingeing and whining' of the Remainers.  Pro-Brexit leader Nigel Farage

Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been unapologetic in his calls for Britain to stay in the bloc, has been spinning a potential second referendum, not as an exercise in frustrating the will of the voters but as a chance for voters to think again.

Once we know the alternative, we should be entitled to think again, either through Parliament or an election or through a fresh referendum, which will, of course, not be a rerun of the first because it will involve this time a choice based on knowledge of the alternative to existing E.U. membership, he wrote in a piece for The New Statesman this month.

On a BBC radio show last week, Blair was taken to task by audibly exasperated host John Humphreys, who noted that not only had there been a referendum, but also a 2017 general election that had resulted in a Conservative government that had campaigned on seeing Brexit through.

You risk civil disobedience here, dont you? Humphreys asked. This is serious stuff, you really do. If you say to people, We are going to give you a referendum and the choice is in or out and we will respect ... we will accept your decision, you the people, you are now saying: actually, maybe not, maybe not.

No Im not saying that, Blair responded. I accept entirely the result of the 2016 referendum, Im simply saying one very simple thing, which is that in 2016 you knew you wanted to get out of the European Union, but you didnt yet see the terms of the alternative relationship.

But Blair is not the only Remainer who is openly calling for a second Brexit vote. Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg published a book last year called How to Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again)," which called for a redo.

Lord Malloch-Brown, a former U.N. deputy secretary-general and former foreign minister heading up anti-Brexit movements, said this week that he wants a second referendum, although he conceded that the public mood hadnt changed as much as he would have liked.

I think people are changing their minds, Malloch-Brown said in a BBC interview. I agree they havent changed it as dramatically as I would like to see.

Polling on the topic is far from clear. Some polls suggest that a new referendum could result in a vote to remain by as much as 10 points. However, Ladbrokes, one of the top U.K. bookies, said it would lean its odds toward a Leave outcome.

Brexit supporters also note that polls predicted a Remain win just days before the Leave camp triumphed.

Most Brexit supporters have opposed a second referendum, with Conservative MEP and Brexit campaigner Daniel Hannan accusing Blair of encouraging Brussels to offer the U.K. a worse deal.

However, Nigel Farage, the former head of the U.K. Independence Party and one of the main voices behind the push for a referendum in the first place, said Thursday that such a move at least would stop the whingeing and whining of the Remainers.

I think if we had a second referendum on EU membership, wed kill it off for a generation, he said. The percentage that would vote to leave next time would be very much bigger than it was last time round and we may just finish the whole thing off and Blair can disappear off into total obscurity.
British politician Nigel Farage suggested the United Kingdom should hold a second referendum on Britains European Union membership to stop anti-Brexit politicians from whining.

Farage, who was in favor of the UK leaving the EU, tweeted Thursday: Maybe, just maybe, we should have a second referendum EU membership. It would kill off the issue for a generation once and for all.

The former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader appeared on The Wright Stuff television show earlier Thursday and suggested the second referendum.

"What is for certain is that the [Nick] Cleggs, the [Tony] Blairs, the [Lord] Adonises will never ever, ever, give up, Farage said. They will go on whining and whining and moaning all the way through this process.

STUDY SHOWS HALF A MILLION UK JOBS AT RISK IN NO-DEAL BREXIT

"So maybe, just maybe, I'm reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendumon EU membership, he added.

"The percentage that would vote to leave next time would be very much bigger than it was last time around, he said.

Britain voted 52-48 percent in June 2016 to leave the EU.

Farage suggested the second vote may send former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in favor of staying in the EU, into total obscurity.

"We may just finish the whole thing off and (Tony) Blair can disappear off into total obscurity, Farage said.

Lord Malloch Brown, the chair of Best for Britain, a political campaign in favor of staying in the EU, said in response to Farages suggestion: Bring it on.

Chuka Umunna, a British politician in the Labour Party, who opposed Brexit, told Sky News, For perhaps the first time in his life, Nigel Farage is making a valid point.

BRITAIN PRESSES GERMANY FOR EU FINANCIAL SERVICES DEAL

However, Peter Whittle, Farages former UKIP colleague, did not agree with the second vote.

Whittle tweeted: No, no, no! By doing this we would be giving the anti-democratic remoaners such as Blair, Clegg Adonis a moral victory. Rest assured they would never give up, even after 3, 4, 5 referenda. The Referendum was a once in a lifetime vote for Brexit. We must not weaken!

Opinion polls suggested Britons remain roughly evenly divided on the subject.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A woman in Scotland who shot cellphone video of herself in a sex act involving her pet dog and whipped cream has pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing pornography.

Cops in the West Lothian region of Scotland found the video  along with a cache of sickening child pornography photos  back in March, when they raided the home of Suzy Cairns, following a tip to the Cyber Crime Unit of Scotlands national police force.

Cairns copped to possessing the extreme pornographic images depicting in an explicit way a female engaging in sexual activity with a dog, according to officials.

Prosecutor Jim Robertson said during Cairns' court appearance this week that the video appeared to be self-generated involving the accused and her pet dog, the Edinburgh Evening News reported. Robertson added the dog, a yellow Labrador retriever, was present at Cairns home during last Marchs raid.

Authorities were alerted to Cairns after her internet IP address was discovered trying to access indecent images of children. While going through her phone, police found more than 160 pornographic photos featuring children.

After pleading guilty, Cairns will make her next court appearance on Feb. 9. Her sentencing has been deferred until social workers' reports on her background have been reviewed.

Cairns name was immediately added to the countrys sex offenders register, with law enforcement asking the court to assess her for electronic monitoring.

You pled guilty to a serious matter which requires me to obtain reports, Sheriff Peter Hammond told Cairns. In the meantime I have to explain that because of your plea of guilty to a sexual offence, as of today you have become subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act.

The dog, meanwhile, remains in Cairns' possession, according to reports. What happens to the dog when Cairns is sentenced is still unclear.
Britain's Foreign Office says it has rejected Ecuador's request to grant diplomatic status to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in the nation's embassy in London since 2012 to avoid arrest by U.K. authorities.

In a statement Thursday, the Foreign Office says "Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice."

Ecuador gave Assange, 46, political asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for investigation of sex-related claims.

While Sweden has dropped the case, Assange has remained inside the embassy because he is still subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail.

The Ecuadorean newspaper El Universo reported Wednesday that Assange is now listed on a registry of the nation's citizens.
810 Weekend Gallery, 810 Caroline St. New works by Beverley Coates (watercolors), Penny A. Parrish (photography) and Lynn Abbott (acrylics and oils). 540/371-4099.

Art First Gallery, 824 Caroline St. All-member exhibition. Through Jan. 29. 540/371-7107; artfirstgallery.com.

Artful Dimensions Gallery, 922 Caroline St. All-member show. Through Jan. 29. 540/899-6319; artfuldimensionsgallery.com.

Atrium Gallery Art Studio, 5262 Wolfe St. Works by Nancie Harris. Acrylic and watercolor paintings, Chinese embroidery, turquoise jewelry and cigar boxes. 540/538-6072.

Backdoor Gallery, 819 Caroline St. Spotlight on Spotsy Teachers. Through Jan. 31. 540/371-3900; backdoorgallery.org.

Brush Strokes Gallery, 824 Caroline St. Dream Big! features artwork with dimensions of 40 inches and above. Through Jan. 28. 540/368-0560; brushstrokesfredericksburg.com.

Center for the Arts of Greater Manassas/Prince William County, Caton Merchant Family Gallery, 9419 Battle St., Manassas. 14th annual Off the Wall, featuring works in a variety of media by area high school students. Through Jan. 25. 703/330-2787; center-for-the-arts.org.

Central Rappahannock Regional Library, 1201 Caroline St. Johnny Johnsons Painting Group. Through January. 540/372-1144.

Community Bank of the Chesapeake, 425 William St. Community Art Series: works by Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts. fccava.org.

Fredericksburg Baptist Church, 1019 Princess Anne St. Works by local artists. 540/373-4402.

Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts, 813 Sophia St. Frederick Gallery: Word, Text and Image. Members Gallery: Works by Mark Prieto. Through Jan. 26. 540/373-5646; fccava.org.

Gari Melchers Home and Studio, Belmont, 224 Washington St., Falmouth. Rotating works by early-20th-century artist Gari Melchers. Included with museum admission. 540/654-1015; garimelchers.org.

The James Monroe Museum, 908 Charles St. Dynamic Ceramics: Selections from The James Monroe Museum Collection, featuring a spectrum of pottery artifacts from James Monroe and his family, the exhibit is an in-depth examination of ceramic wares including American stoneware, earthenware and porcelain. 540/654-1043; jamesmonroemuseum.umw.edu.

JarrettThor Fine Arts, 100 Taylor St., Suite 101, Colonial Beach. Old and new works by Ebbie Hynson, who is celebrating her 98th birthday. Jan. 12-13. Reception 5-8 p.m. Friday with cake-cutting at 7 p.m. 804/224-7200; jarretthor.com.

The John J. Wright Educational and Cultural Center Museum, 7565 Courthouse Road, Spotsylvania. Our Founding Fathers: Citizens of African Descent. Pioneers. Visionaries. Entrepreneurs. Through February. 540/582-7583; jjwmuseum.org.

Kingdom Inspiration Studio, 1008 Sophia St. Encountering God through the Arts, works by over 20 local artists. 540/479-6865; kingdominspiration.com.

LibertyTown Arts Workshop, 916 Liberty St. LibertyTown Students Show, annual exhibit of artwork done by students taking classes at LibertyTown. Through Jan. 28. 540/371-7255; libertytownarts.com.

Mary Washington Hospital, hallway gallery on first floor. Suzi Bevan will be the featured artist January through March. Rotating works by 26 local artists. A portion of sales benefit hospital; purchase works during gift shop hours.

National Museum of the Marine Corps, Combat Art Gallery, 18900 Jefferson Davis Highway, Triangle. Honor, Courage, Commitment: Marine Corps Art, 1975-2015. Through April. 703/432-1775; usmcmuseum.com.

The Old Stone Warehouse, the Famous Unknown Art Gallery, 923 Sophia St. Drawings and paintings of Florida by Jack Edlund, local artworks and historical artifacts. Call for hours. 540/207-1071.

PONSHOP Studio and Gallery, 712 Caroline St. Ceramics by Scarlett Pons and Rachel Ruddle as well as fine art by Gabriel Pons, Maddie Huddle and James Walker. 540/656-2215; ponshopstudio.com.

Sammy Ts, 801 Caroline St. Art exhibit and sale, including paintings, photographs and woven art. All proceeds benefit Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic. Through Jan. 31. 540/371-2008; sammyts.com, mossfreeclinic.org.

Sophia Street Studios, 1104 Sophia St. Works by local artists. 540/372-3459; sophiastreetstudios.com.

Tappahannock Art Gallery, 200 Prince St., Tappahannock. Film and Brush, photography by David Litchfield and watercolor paintings by wife Gwynn Litchfield. Opening reception 5-7 p.m. Friday. On display through Feb. 25. tapparts.org.

Tarver Harris Design Studio at Jarrett Thor Fine Arts, 100 Taylor St., Suite 102, Colonial Beach. Paintings, textiles and silk scarf designs, plus decorative minerals, unique jewelry and wooden bowls. 804/224-7200; jarretthor.com.

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg, 25 Chalice Circle. The Art Of Memory, paintings by Mark Prieto. Diagnosed in 2010 with dementia, Prieto paints every day in an effort to ward off memory loss. Through Feb. 25. Storytelling talk with Prieto on Jan. 21, 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Free.

Visions by Shirl, 116 Hawthorn St., Colonial Beach. Handmade original art gifts and wall art by local artists. 703/303-1743.

Wegner Gallery, 520 Wolfe St. Paintings by brothers Steven and Stewart Wegner. 540/373-5662; worksbywegner.com.

Woodberry Forest School, Baker Gallery at Walker Fine Arts Center, 4 miles north of Orange on Route 15. deliberations, mixed-media paintings by Sharon Zarambo. Through March 3. Opening reception Jan. 12, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. with gallery talk at 6:30 p.m.
Dining out has a lot of appeal.

First, you dont have to plan what to cook or go to the grocery store.

Then, you dont have to do the cooking. Best of all, someone else washes your dishes.

Nothing beats thatexcept perhaps for the possibility of exploring the range of dining options available downtown.

Whether you want to try some place new or visit an old favorite, downtown Fredericksburgs Winter Restaurant Week offers great opportunities for dining out with special menus and prices. The annual event kicks off Friday and runs through Jan. 21.

Thats 10 days of two- and three-course specials priced at $10.18, $20.18 and $30.18.

Maybe youd like a German feast at Bavarian Chef or Deutschland Downtown, or three courses of Italian food at Orofino or Ristorante Renato.

Some restaurants, like Cork & Table, offer wine and/or beer pairings for an additional price. Cork & Tables menu includes two choices for each course: crab and corn chowder or butternut squash puree, followed by crab-crusted salmon filet or a 6-ounce seared Wagyu filet mignon, followed by a dark chocolate pot de creme or classic cheesecake.

Eileens Bakery & Cafes deal includes a sandwich, side salad or soup, pastry or dessert, and a soda or iced tea, all for $10.18.

Or maybe you dont want to have to decide between different options. Capital Ale House is serving a simple menua Texas brisket sandwich at lunch, and a dinner that serves two consisting of a baked chili to start, followed by brisket with twice-baked potatoes and BBQ corn, followed by a warm chocolate sponge cake.

But there are plenty more options available.

This year, all the menus are now live on a new website: fredericksburgrestaurantweek.com.

Some people go out everyday, and they like to plan out their whole week, said Fredericksburg Visitor Center Manager Danelle Rose, who is coordinating this years annual event. We want it to be an easy process.

Last year, restaurants sold 16,334 platesa significant increase from both of the two previous years, when about 12,800 plates were sold each year.

Thats a huge jump, Rose said. We were really excited about that.

Sedona Taphouse proved to be the most popular restaurant last year in terms of sales, serving more than 2,100 plates last year.

New to the list of participating restaurants this year are Billikens Smokehouse at The Chimneys and The Confident Rabbit. Cafe New Orleans is making a return, too.

Restaurant Week can also be a chance for diners to try out higher-end restaurants where they dont otherwise have a chance to dine.

Rose said its not uncommon to have people stop in the visitor center to say theyve returned to a certain place that they had visited during Restaurant Week.

Its definitely a win for that restaurant, she said.

For the second year, the City of Fredericksburg is sponsoring a Restaurant Week passport. People who dine at five or more participating restaurants, get their passport stamped and turn it in to the Fredericksburg Visitor Center (706 Caroline St.) will be entered for a drawing to win $250 in downtown gift cards.

Passports are available at the Visitor Center, participating restaurants and at visitfred.com. Completed passports must be submitted by 5 p.m. Jan. 22.

More than 300 people entered last years drawing.
A jury Wednesday recommended a two-year prison sentence for a man who left the scene of an accident in Stafford County last year, then repeatedly called 911 to complain about deputies who had come to his home to investigate the wreck.

Paul Joseph Magner, 40, was convicted in Stafford Circuit Court of felony hit and run and falsely summoning police. He will be formally sentenced on March 26.

According to the evidence presented by prosecutor Ryan Fitzgerald, Magner was involved in an accident the evening of Feb. 14 at the intersection of Brent Point and Arkendale roads. The victim reported that Magner's Ford SUV had crossed into his lane and collided with his vehicle, causing considerable damage to the driver's side.

The victim said he spent between five and 10 minutes trying to get insurance information from Magner, which Magner would not give. He told the victim that his name was Paul and that he did not want to get the insurance company involved.

When the victim announced that he was going to call the police, according to the evidence, Magner got into his vehicle and sped off, nearly striking the other vehicle again.

Based on the description given by the victim, deputies went to Magner's home on Decatur Road. They saw his vehicle with damage to its front driver's side and Deputy A.J. Layug spotted Magner in the garage.

Magner refused to open the door or speak with the deputy. Instead he made multiple 911 calls to report that the deputies were trespassing.

A relative came outside and asked the deputies to leave. Instead, police obtained warrants and took Magner into custody.
A woman who helped a former Stafford School Board member steal money from a parent-teacher organization in Stafford pleaded guilty to four charges Wednesday in Stafford Circuit Court.

Marcie Heather Slack, 36, of Stafford was convicted of embezzlement, forgery, conspiracy and failure to appear in court. As part of a plea agreement, a number of other charges were dropped.

Slack will be sentenced on March 26 by Judge Michael Levy.

Slack, the former president of the Anne E. Moncure Elementary School PTO, was indicted by a Stafford grand jury in November 2016. Court records show that between 2013 and 2015, she and another former PTO president, Emily Fallon, conspired to steal thousands of dollars from the PTO.

Stafford Detective Ed Chinault began a lengthy investigation after other PTO associates noticed significant discrepancies in the organization's accounts. The investigation showed that Fallon was diverting funds to her personal American Express account to pay for purchases made at various businesses, including Target and Walmart.

Fallon served a one-year prison sentence and repaid $23,463 that she was accused of stealing.

Slack was accused of authorizing some of Fallon's transactions and helping Fallon conceal the wrongdoing. She was also accused of taking about $2,500 for herself. One of the conditions in Slack's plea agreement is that she have no contact with Fallon.

Attorney Price Koch is representing Slack.
Del. Bob Thomas of Stafford County considers himself more of a policy wonk than a political partisan.

But the Republican found himself in the middle of a political firestorm after squeaking past Democrat Joshua Cole in the race for the 28th District House of Delegates seat that represents Fredericksburg and Stafford. Critics called the result irreparably tainted," and a Democratic-aligned law firm filed a federal lawsuit requesting a new election on behalf of several of the 147 voters who had been assigned to the wrong House district in a race Thomas won by 73 votes.

The outcome would potentially determine which party controlled Richmonds lower chamber.

Thomas stayed quiet during the legal fight and actually submitted a few billsone of which he hopes will lead to more road improvements in the Fredericksburg region. He had hoped to invite constituents to a town hall, but settled for an online survey as the controversy continued to mount.

I was just committed to letting the process play itself out, Thomas, who succeeds Republican House Speaker Bill Howell as the district's representative, said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon. Its been hard on my family not really knowing what the next couple months of our life were going to look like.

Finally, on Wednesday morning, he learned that a federal appeals court had rejected an emergency motion to prevent him from being seated. A couple of hours later, Robert M. Thomas Jr. was sworn in with his wife Christi and daughter Amberly, a Virginia Commonwealth University freshman, looking on.

He hopes the controversy is behind him. Now its time for what he calls the fun part, or the actual legislating.

Ive got some catching up to do, the Marine Corps veteran and business owner said.

Thomas said he plans to work with registrars on any problems with the voter rolls. At the same time, hes convinced the mistakes did not tip the election in his favor.

Even though its never good to have mixed-up ballots  I knew in my heart of hearts that it wasnt enough to change the results, said Thomas, who described himself as a data guy.

On Wednesday, Thomas received a handwritten letter from Cole, his former opponent, wishing him well. He mentioned me being his delegate, which was really nice, Thomas said.

Cole actually attended Wednesdays swearing-in ceremony, calling it very exciting to watch Thomas take the oath of office. He said hes not sure where the legal action stands, but that he will vie for the seat again in two years.

We are ready to go, Cole said.

Cole was not a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, though he did support its request for a new election.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis declined to order a new election at a hearing Friday. Washington firm Perkins Coie appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but a three-judge panel on Wednesday morning denied its request for an injunction barring Thomas taking office.

Katie Baker, a spokeswoman for the Virginia House Democratic Caucus, said the group plans to assess its legal options. This election, as the Washington Post editorial board has noted, is irreparably tainted, she wrote in an email.

The GOP holds a slim majority in the House after a surprising wave of Democratic victories, widely considered a response to Republican President Donald Trump's first year in office.

Thomas received nearly 3,800 more votes than Howell got in 2015, but Cole more than doubled the previous 28th District Democratic candidate's tally.

"I know it took a lot of crossover votes to get me down here, and I appreciate that," Thomas said, noting that Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam won the district by 3 percentage points.

Thomas has proposed eight bills, all of which appear to be nonpartisan.

One would tweak how the state prioritizes road projects, which he hopes will put the Fredericksburg region on a more even playing field with Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

He's also filed a bill that would let localities prohibit homebuilders from using retention ponds to meet open-space requirements of "cluster subdivisions." That legislation reflects Thomas' experience as a Stafford supervisor from 2012 until this year.

Thomas' new office in Richmond is next to that of veteran Republican Del. Bobby Orrock of Caroline County, a low-key lawmaker with a pragmatic record. Thomas decorated the walls with pictures of Stafford landmarks Chatham, Belmont and Aquia Episcopal Church, in addition to an honorary resolution he received from the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

He joked that he only "half moved into my apartment" because of all the uncertainty.

He is one of just three new Republican lawmakers, compared with 16 on the Democratic side. He said he hopes Democratic legislators will reach out him with ideas and that he's able to do the same for them.

And he plans to have what he described as an "open-door policy" for constituents.

"I'm hoping people will stay engaged and let me know what they think," Thomas said.

With the next election less than two years away, he will probably get his wish.
Commander David P. Richardson, United States Navy, Retired, age 85, of Stafford, VA received his eternal orders on Monday, January 8, 2018. Forevermore, Cdr. Richardson shall stand watch over his devoted family, friends and brothers on the sea. Born in Boonville, MO on November 16, 1932, his hardscrabble upbringing instilled in him a work ethic that was unmatched. Cdr. Richardson graduated from Boonville High School and then attended the University of Missouri before enlisting in the United States Navy in 1953. Prior to enlisting in the Navy the largest body of water he had ever seen was the Missouri River. He became an aviation electronics technician and attained the rank of Chief Petty Officer. One of his most unique tours was as an air crewman in a lighter-than-air (blimp) anti-submarine squadron. Upon acceptance into an active duty college program, he returned to the University of Missouri where he received a BS degree in physics and a BA in math. After graduation, Cdr. Richardson attended Officer Candidate School at Newport, RI, where he was commissioned as an ensign. He received an MS in oceanography from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Subsequent tours included the USS Ranger (CVA-61), the USS Bronstein (DE-1037) and command of the USS Hampshire County (LST-819) in Vietnam. Cdr. Richardson was first the executive officer and then the commanding officer of the USS Epperson (DD-719) and he was the commanding officer of the USS Peoria (LST-1083), from which he retired after 28 years of distinguished service. His decorations include the Bronze Star with combat V, Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation and Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Silver Anchor. His most cherished accolades were not the ribbons and medals but the admiration and respect shown to him throughout his life by the sailors he commanded. As recently as 2017, Cdr. Richardson was a regular attendee and honored guest at ship reunions. "Cdr. Richardson was different" one of his sailors commented at a recent reunion. "We came to the Navy as boys and he taught us how to be men. He commanded respect, not because he demanded it, but because he demonstrated it." Upon retirement, Cdr. Richardson obtained his Coast Guard masters license and worked for several years in offshore operations. He then worked for ISA, Inc. in Arlington, VA as a program manager and technical director. Cdr. Richardson became a dedicated member of Lions International, first in the Lake Ridge, VA club and then with the Aquia Harbour Host Lions, serving on numerous committees and as club president. He received the Melvin Jones Fellow award for dedicated humanitarian services from the Lions Clubs International Foundation. He was also active in the Aquia Harbour homeowners association and served one term on the board of directors. Cdr. Richardson found tremendous joy and satisfaction in helping others. He gave freely of his time, talent, and resources to the causes he cared deeply about. He was a dedicated driver of cancer patients to their treatments for many years. Cdr. Richardson spent thousands of hours navigating the sea but some of his greatest hours on the water were found in the countless trips with friends and family, cruising the Inter Coastal Waterway and the Potomac. Trips to Coles Point, Colonial Beach, the National Harbor on July 4th and a solo crossing to the Bahamas, among many others, all brought him immense joy for the time those trips afforded him with his family. He loved jazz music, good ham, rare steak, fine gin, a long drive, avoiding traffic, being busy, fishing, visiting, and above all, his family. Cdr. Richardson was a voracious reader, a student of history, an accomplished craftsman, a sailor, an excellent chef, a civil war buff, a patriot and a volunteer. Most importantly, he was a devoted and loving husband, father, Papa, brother, uncle and friend. Cdr. Richardson is survived by his wife, Dottie of the home; daughter Becky Wales (John) of Danville, VA; step-daughters Cheryl Serpe of Westford, MA; and Lynda Kraxberger of Columbia, MO.; grandchildren Jenny Wales (Jim), Patrick Wales (Ashley), Lindsay Serpe, Nicholas Serpe, Madeline Serpe and Lily Kraxberger; and great-grandchildren Pearson Wales and Helen Grace Wales. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Ida Lee Adair Richardson; his parents, Jesse and Margaret Richardson; his sisters Marian Dye and Jackie Nixon; and his great-granddaughter Molly Wales. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully asks that donations be made to the Aquia Harbour Host Lions Club, P.O. Box 304, Stafford, Va. 22555 or God's Storehouse, P.O. Box 48, Danville, Va. 24543. A funeral service will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, January 16, at Covenant Funeral Service, 1310 Courthouse Road, Stafford, Va. 22554. Visitation will be held from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. prior to the service. Interment will follow at noon at Quantico National Cemetery, 18424 Joplin Road, Triangle, Va. 22172. Online guest book at covenantfuneralservice.com.
Dear Dr. Northam,

I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your upcoming inauguration.

While I respect your professional credentials, I did not vote for you because of your political party affiliation.

I object to the philosophical political paradigm of your Democratic Party because it enables parental neglect and irresponsibility. My thoughts are based on personal, professional and political experience.

The personal experience goes back to my early medical training in the late 1960s and early 70s. At that time, I worked in the health department of another state.

I was amazed at the amount of unnecessary suffering. Unnecessary because it was caused by dysfunctional behavior, self-destructive behavior and adverse social circumstances.

Having come from a challenging background myself, I realized at that time that I had opportunityand that same opportunity was not afforded to African-Americans.

However, I was optimistic about the future and believed that by the turn of the century things would be better for all. My optimism was based on the stirring words of two great American heroesJohn F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

President Kennedy challenged America with the statement: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Reverend King said: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

With the call to action by these great Americans in the war on poverty, I thought the social miasma that I observed would be gone by the beginning of the 21st century.

I have had the great privilege of practicing obstetrics in Fredericksburg for 30 years. I left private practice in 2016, and went back to working at the Health Department.

To my dismay, I found the social conditions had only worsened. Within a short amount of time, I came to the realization that the opportunity for a sound and fulfilling life for these babies left when they left the hospital. That was not due to limitations imposed by the city, but by the home situations these newborns had no choice but to go to and live in.

Would that home be able to provide the shelter, nutrition (both physical and psychological) and direction that a child must have to become a healthy, productive and responsible adult?

While I was mayor of Fredericksburg (a microcosm of American demographic issues), I participated in statewide efforts for social improvement. One effort was being a part of a committee on health and education with the Virginia Municipal League.

Local elected officials from throughout the commonwealth would meet to discuss the challenges of social issues that affected each of us. What was quite remarkable was that in reading the minutes of these meetings, one was not able to identify the gender or the ethnicity of the participants.

But all agreed on the importance of the negative impact caused by the breakdown of families and communities.

Another political event I attended involved a meeting called by then-Gov. Tim Kaine to address ending urban poverty.

A large group gathered around a table in the statehouse. We were all invited to make an opening statement. When my turn came, I said that we were going to continue chasing our tails on urban poverty until we addressed issues such as the responsibility and role of the male in these relationships.

The gasp was guitar audible, and I was corrected by one of Gov. Kaines staff members, who stated that we have to respect other cultures.

And there you have it ,Dr. Northam.

When was the last time a Democratic presidential candidate called for personal responsibility and determination? Instead, your party promotes dependency on government.

The Democratic Party continues to twist the meaning of Dr. Kings great words, and ignores the content of character part because of the color of skin.

While I believe we always will need a government-funded safety net, your party panders to parental irresponsibility and promotes parenting children via government programs. I could go on, but your party has a reactionary philosophy that hinders social progress.

As I said earlier, I did not vote for you, but I wish you success. I hope that you can provide leadership that will bring us together for the sake of my children and grandchildren. I also hope you can constructively help to heal the horrible legacy of slavery.

Respectfully,

Thomas Tomzak, M.D.

Dr. Thomas Tomzak, a retired obstetrician, was the mayor of Fredericksburg from 2004 to 2012.
As president and CEO of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area, I strongly endorse the proposal for Virginia to create a state park at the Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain battlefields in Culpeper County.

It is a proposal years in the making whose time has come; state Sen. Bryce Reeves, RSpotsylvania, long a supporter of the effort, is championing the proposal in Richmond during the General Assemblys current session.

Transforming these important Civil War battlegrounds into the commonwealths next state park would add another must-see site to the string of historic pearls along the four-state journey through the Heritage Area. This, in turn, would provide a substantial boost to tourism and economic prosperity in the region.

This 180-mile-long, 75-mile-wide landscape includes 16 national historic landmarks, more than 10,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, 49 national historic districts, nine presidential homes, 13 national parks, sites from the French and Indian War, Revolutionary War and War of 1812, and the largest concentration of Civil War sites in the nation.

As Civil War buffs know, Culpeper County was a hotbed of activity during the conflict, with armies from both sides marching through repeatedly. The countys first and bloodiest battle was at Cedar Mountain on Aug. 9, 1862, with more than 2,700 casualties. The Confederate victory there was a prelude to the Second Battle of Bull Run later that month and Robert E. Lees invasion of Maryland in September 1862.

Just up the road, the Battle of Brandy Stationwhich took place on June 9, 1863was the largest cavalry battle ever fought in our country and opened the Gettysburg Campaign. More than 1,400 horsemen and soldiers fell there.

Were fortunate that forward-thinking preservationists stepped up to save these battlefields when development proposals began to take shape in Culpeper almost 30 years ago. The struggle was long but effective as the Brandy Station Foundation, Friends of Cedar Mountain Battlefield and other local organizations joined with state and national groups to stop the bulldozers and the blight.

Today, about 1,400 acres of battlefield land have been acquired and preserved at Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain.

Heritage tourists will come to Culpeper for the history, of courseas many do alreadyand studies show they consistently spend more and stay longer than typical visitors to Virginia. But the benefits of a new state park will extend far beyond protecting historic sites and honoring the soldiers who fought and died there.

The Piedmont Environmental Council, for instance, supports the proposal because it would be a boon to the Piedmonts celebrated natural resources. As green space, the Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain State Parks hills, hollows and natural habitat would attract outdoor enthusiasts of all stripes.

Its proven that the parks within the National Heritage Area bring in millions of visitor dollars that help fuel local economies. A 2011 Michigan State University study showed that the 13 national parks along the Journey generate more than $270 million in spending by non-local visitors and account for more than 4,000 jobs.

The same is true for Virginias state parks, which attracted more than 10 million people in 2016, generating in excess of $224 million in visitor spendingincluding $98 million from out-of-state visitors. As Gov. Terry McAuliffe underscores, this is an incredible return on only $19.8 million in general fund appropriations.

Those who travel the Journey Through Hallowed Ground fill hotel rooms and restaurants and buy gas for their cars at our regions service stations. They shop at the stores of our famously charming rural retreatsCulpeper among them. They seek out authentic experiences on the battlefields and on Main Street alike.

Theres no question that northcentral Virginia deserves a new park. Although the state park system includes 37 parks, only oneSpotsylvanias Lake Anna State Parkexists in the vast area bounded by I95 to the east, I81 to the west, I66 to the north and I64 to the south. A Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain State Park would not only be centrally located, but would instantly become one of the closest Virginia parks to Washington, 70 miles from Culpeper.

The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation has recognized that the Culpeper area is underserved by the state park system and has expressed a desire to establish a new park to fill this gap. The land comprising a Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain State Park is already preserved and can easily be transferred to the commonwealth. Further, both battlefields are already well on their way to being parks, with multiple interpretive trails and parking areas on site.

The creation of Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain State Park will help enhance this storied corridor as a special place to visit and will add yet more horsepower to the already powerful economic engine of tourism.

William W. Sellers, a Leesburg resident, is president and CEO of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (hallowedground.org).
KUDOS TO Virginias General Assembly for making the publics business a little more transparent. Starting this past Wednesday, committee hearings will now be streamed live and archived, something that open-government proponents have been seeking for years.

Although the House of Delegates is awash with new members this session following last Novembers Democratic tsunami, the desire for more openness apparently came from the old guard.

A majority of the states legislators last year asked that the committee hearings be broadcast from the Pocahontas Building in Richmond, where the lawmakers will meet for the next four sessions while a new General Assembly building is being built.

The new policy will be a godsend for those who live many hours from Richmond and want to keep an eye of what their legislators are doing. Anyone with internet access, from Chincoteague to the Cumberland Gap, can view the hearings live or watch them later after they have been archived.

It will make it much easier to hold our lawmakers accountable.

Lack of transparency in Richmond is nothing new. A report released to the Richmond Times-Dispatch three years ago pointed out that meetings of legislative committees were often called with little or no notice, the committees declined to hear many bills and public comment was often blocked.

In 2015, the House either did not take a recorded vote or didnt vote at all on 76 percent of the bills that were killed in subcommittee or committee, according to Transparency Virginia.

Among other things, bills seeking bipartisan redistricting to deal with gerrymandering were tabled in House Privileges and Elections subcommittees on voice votes, thereby shielding individual lawmakers from accountability on a contentious issue.

Last year, in an effort to open the door a little more, the liberal advocacy group Progress Virginia, though its Eyes on Richmond project, paid citizens to record video from some committee hearings, but the sound and general quality were uneven. Live streaming should be a big step forward.

According to Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar and House Clerk G. Paul Nardo, the cost for making the Senate and House of Delegates hearings available to all of us will be about $736,000. That comes out to about 9 cents per Virginiannot a bad price for a little sunlight.
TO MANAGE risk in the financial markets, experts uniformly recommend diversification. Not putting all your eggs in one basket is also a good idea in other areas of life. One such area is the generation of electricity needed to power Virginias homes, businesses and government facilities.

Besides its coal, natural gas and nuclear-powered plants, Dominion Energy, the commonwealths largest electric utility, has 744 megawatts of solar power either in operation or under development in the commonwealth.

The 20-megawatt Remington Solar Power Generation Facility in Fauquier County went online last November. This 125-acre solar farm, which was built on former farmland now owned by Dominion, will provide enough energy to power 5,000 homes.

Other solar farms that have recently been proposed or approved in the Fredericksburg region will also add a substantial amount of renewable energy to the mix. In late December, King George County officials green-lighted a second 333-acre solar farm, which will generate another 20 megawatts of solar power.

And in Spotsylvania County, a Utah-based company wants to build one of the largest solar facilities on the East Coast, turning 3,500 acres of mostly timberland near Fawn Lake into a 500-megawatt solar energy farm.

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, 29,423 homes in the commonwealth are currently powered by the sun, although solar power still accounts for less than 1 percent of all the electricity generated in Virginia.

But that will change, as a number of other solar farms are in various stages of development not only in the Fredericksburg region, but also in Virginias Historic Triangle, Middle Peninsula and Tidewater regions.

Because solar panels produce clean electricity directly from sunlight and diversify the types of fuel needed to power the grid, they are a welcome addition to Virginias energy production portfolio.

That said, all forms of energy production have their drawbacks, and solar is no exception.

Because the sun doesnt always shine, backup infrastructure will always be needed to deal with the problem of intermittent supply. This necessary duplication must be figured into the true cost of providing solar energy.

The highly subsidized solar industry got a reprieve when the tax reform bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump retained the 30 percent solar investment tax credit for homeowners and commercial developers, which will be reduced to a permanent 10 percent by 2022. But consumers will eventually have to make up the difference.

And farmland that is being repurposed to produce solar power wont be used to grow crops. Since 1982, 24 million acres of agricultural land in the U.S. has been lost to development. According to the Farm Bureau, a 70 percent increase in food production will be needed by 2050 to feed the worlds growing population. The more farmland thats taken out of production, the harder it will be to reach that goal.

Dustin Mulvaney, lead technical adviser of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, also pointed out that solar energy isnt always as green as you think.

Large-scale solar farms like the one proposed in Spotsylvania can consume almost 400 million gallons of water during installation and another 7 million gallons a year to keep the panels clean.

Manufacturing solar panels also creates hazardous waste-containing heavy metalssuch as lead, cadmium telluride and silicon tetrachlorideas well as ozone-depleting substances.

Two-thirds of all solar panels used worldwide are made in China. First Solar, the largest solar manufacturer in the U.S., laid off 1,600 employees last year because it was unable to compete with cheap imported panels from China, whose cost has fallen 90 percent over the last decade.

Although importing solar panels offshores the environmental problems associated with manufacturing them, it does not address the growing problem of how to dispose of the used panelswhich contain toxic materialswhen they reach the end of their lifespan.

As Virginia adds more solar farms, the commonwealth must ensure that the operators and others involved manage that risk as well.
Reagan Republicans need to speak up on Russian interference

Reagan Republicans, where are you? All too often you speak up when issues related to fiscal responsibility are at the forefront of the American debate. You lauded him when he went up against the then Soviet Union.

I ask this question: Would President Reagan have accepted the help of the Soviet Union to win an election? I disagreed with him on a lot of issues, but I agreed with him that the Soviet Union didnt have our best interests at heart.

Now look at what we have todaythe Soviet Union has been dissolved, and Russia has emerged to replace it. The dynamic has changed, but what remains is still a hostility toward the American ideal.

So Reagan Republicans, where is your voice on this matter of Russian interference in the American political elections? Where is your indignation that an American candidate for the presidency of the United States allowed the Russians access to the fundamental expression of American freedom: The election of our president. Is the lust for power now the driving force of your patriotism?

Would you have remained silent if Jimmy Carter had met with foreign agents to get dirt on Reagan? Would you have shouted treason and instituted impeachment proceedings against him? Where have all the statesmen gone?

Its time for all good Republicans to come to the aid of our country. Speak up for America. Speak up for your party.

Bob Smith

Fredericksburg
Time to vote partisan Warner out of office

Addressing the Jan. 3 letter to the editor: Democrats not worthy of trust in 2018 elections, by Joe Spero, I do not disagree with him, as his statements are correct. What it lacked is a statement about Sen. Mark Warner heading up the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

President Trump specifically stated, I will not fire Robert Mueller. Immediately after, Warner stated, any attempt to remove Mueller would provoke a constitutional crisis.

I have to ask, does Warner read? Does he listen? He has shown us that he does not care about being bipartisan, and crossing the political lines to do what is right. He proved this when the majority of his constituency rejected Obamacare, while he still voted for it. As did Sen. Tim Kaine. And now we have an overpriced, unregulated health care system. Thank you, Warner and Kaine.

You would think a successful businessman like Warner would understand the world of small business. And you would think a man who did a good job as Virginias governor would understand the needs of small businesses and new businesses.

It is a shame, a man with this background cares more about unfounded conspiracies than he does about the people he represents. It is a shame he cares more about partisan politics than he does about usthe people who voted for him.

It is time to vote Mark Warner out.

Les Shutts

Ruther Glen
As Virginias General Assembly convenes for the 2018 session, it is an ideal opportunity to reflect on the history of the states legislature and its significance in establishing the foundation for American democracy.

Nearly 400 years ago, the Virginia Company of London, which established the Jamestown settlement, commissioned Gov. Sir George Yeardley to abolish martial law in the colony and forge a General Assembly. In July 1619, the first legislative assembly in English North America met in Jamestown during six hot and humid days.

The first legislators were not directly elected as they are today, but consisted of two representatives from each of the existing 11 plantations. This pioneering group met in a small church in Jamestown, developing and passing laws that evolved Virginias Colonial settlement beyond a commercial enterprise.

Virginias seat of government would relocate twice, first to Williamsburg in 1699 and then to Richmond in 1780. But what began in Jamestown in 1619 persists to this day as the oldest continuous lawmaking body in the New World.

The political philosophy reflected in our early legislatures cultivated in Virginians a finely tuned sense of self-determination and a belief that government existed by consent of the governed. Those first principles inspired the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which boldly proclaimed that all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people, prefiguring both the Declaration of Independence drafted later that year and the Bill of Rights in 1791. Throughout the centuries, the arc of Virginia history toward progressively expanding democracy is firmly rooted in Jamestown in 1619.

Virginia is home to more presidents than any other state, so it is neither coincidental nor accidental that Virginians such as Washington, Jefferson and Madison played such prominent roles in the founding of our nation. The Virginia leaders of revolutionary America were heirs to a tradition of self-governing that began with Jamestown. Those early days of government in the New World are important to understanding how we have evolved to the United States current system of representative government.

Understanding our history better prepares elected public officials as they work through difficult and sensitive issues. It also engenders all citizens with an appreciation of what makes American democracy a model for the world. Civics education is the foundation of this knowledge, and an educated populace is a crucial component of a well-functioning democracy.

As leaders of the Virginia General Assembly, we are proud to serve as co-chairs of Virginias American Evolution. Over the next two years, through a series of events and projects, Virginias 2019 Commemoration American Evolution will recognize the key historical events of 1619 Virginia that continue to shape our countrys progress toward the ideals of democracy, diversity and opportunity. The 2019 Commemoration is dedicated to advancing awareness and education surrounding these pivotal events in our nations history, including how the 400-year evolution of democratic government in the United States remains relevant to our lives today.

Learning about the challenges, successes and inequities of the past enables a full appreciation of the difficult path we as a nation have taken to arrive at todays America. This knowledge allows us not only to learn from our past, but to have an honest and open dialogue about what we strive to become in the future.

We encourage all Virginians to join us in learning more about Jamestown and Virginias rich history as we commemorate our commonwealths essential role in founding American democracy.

M. Kirkland Cox is speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and Thomas K. Norment Jr. is majority leader of the Senate of Virginia. This op-ed was originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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On The Water: You might need a bigger boat for Transpac 2023
Oregon State University's efforts to raise the money for a new $60 million arts and education complex on its Corvallis campus have received a $2 million boost.

The university Wednesday announced it had received a gift commitment from the family of a Portland-area arts advocate to build a new concert hall as part of the complex.

The $2 million gift, from the family of the late Lynne Detrick of West Linn, will help develop what OSU hopes will be an acoustically superior concert hall that would seat between 400 to 600 people. Larry Rodgers, dean of OSU's College of Liberal Arts, said the idea is to create a space that would be ideal for relatively intimate music performances, such as choir concerts, recitals and chamber music programs.

The space, to be dubbed Lynne Detrick Hall, will double as a classroom, although Rodgers said "music is the focal point of this part of the building."

Detrick, a teacher and writer who graduated from OSU in 1968, co-founded Music and Arts Partners, an organization that supports arts education in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. She and her husband, George, previously made gifts to support OSU music programs, including investments in instruments, technology, arts entrepreneurship and marching bands.

OSU last year announced plans for the arts complex, an expansion and enhancement of the LaSells Stewart Center, 875 SW 26th St. in Corvallis. The facility is intended to house OSU's music and theater programs along with other initiatives.

At that time, OSU also said it had received a $25 million gift for the project from an anonymous donor in the Portland area. OSU officials have been working since then to raise an additional $5 million and plan to approach a future Legislature for approval of a matching $30 million in state bonds. The current timeline calls for the facility to open in 2022.

Plans also call for the center's Austin Auditorium, which now seats about 1,200, to be enhanced. The finished complex also could include classrooms, practice rooms for musicians, shop space, faculty offices and seminar rooms.
Remember the fun we had last year during flu season?

By the time the dust had settled, and the last tissue had hit the last waste basket (en route, we hope, to incineration), Oregon health authorities said it was the worst flu season on record in the state.

Sequels at the movies tend to be bigger than their predecessors  and, unfortunately, the same appears to be the case for this year's flu season, now fully underway. In fact, as you can read from Jennifer Moody's story in today's paper, experts say this year's flu season is shaping up in Oregon as even worse than last year's record-setter.

Across the nation, the flu season already is rated as being "moderately severe"  and the word is that it could get worse.

Dr. Daniel B. Jernigan, the director of the influenza division of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The New York Times this week that the flu now is widespread across the country  no doubt getting a jump in transmission from the opportunities provided by the holiday travel season.

About 80 percent of the cases reported thus far are of the H3N2 strain. This is the same strain that hit Australia hard during its flu season, which peaks during July and August.

But here's a key difference between Australia and the United States: In Australia, the government recommends flu shots only for health care workers and people at high risk. In the United States, the government recommends a flu shot for everyone older than 6 months, so more people here likely have some immunity to H3N2, which also circulated to some extent last season in the United States.

This year's vaccine isn't a perfect match for the strains of flu active in the United States; producing the vaccine usually involves a bit of an educated guess as to which strains will be active, and the guesses some years are better than others. But the shot still remains your best defense against the flu, and it's not at all too late to get one: The flu season still has three months to go. And experts say that even in the cases in which the vaccine fails to prevent infection, it can help stop complications such as pneumonia and death.

Without putting too much of a point on this, the flu is a killer: The CDC says, the flu kills about 12,000 Americans in mild years and 56,000 people in moderately severe ones like the one we're having. Worldwide, a severe flu year can kill nearly 650,000 people.

So no wonder that doctors are insistent about people getting their flu shots.

Doctors also advise that people with the flu stay home until all their symptoms have subsided.

But we understand that this isn't always possible, so this is a good time to review how to proceed if you absolutely have to drag yourself  sneezing, shuffling, coughing and bleary-eyed  into the office.

 First, of course, remember what we've learned in previous years about coughing or sneezing into your elbow, not your hands.

 Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer after coughing or sneezing.

 Try to limit your contacts with other people. Remember how much you've complained about how most of your meetings at work aren't essential? Here's a good chance to test that theory.

 There's no need to shake hands; you won't want to be meeting new people anyway, not in your condition.

 Wipe surfaces down after you touch them.

 Consider wearing a mask to cover your nose and mouth to control the numerous respiratory droplets you'll be generating. That flu, it just keeps on giving and giving.

 Have we mentioned that you should get your flu shot? No? Well, then, you should get your flu shot. (mm)
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Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Helmet repeal measure killed

LINCOLN  Sen. John Lowe of Kearney thought he had the 33 votes needed Wednesday to stop a filibuster on his motorcycle helmet repeal bill.

On Monday, debate closed after three hours and Speaker Jim Scheer agreed to allow more debate and a vote on Wednesday. That two days was the death knell.

Senators voted 30-15 on a motion to stop debate, meaning the bill (LB368) is dead for this session, and helmets will continue to be required for Nebraska motorcycle riders and those passing through the state.

Diabetes program at local hospital

COLUMBUS -- Columbus Community Hospital will offer the National Diabetes Prevention Program in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The program has been proven to help people lose weight and prevent or delay their risk of type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. The program requires a yearlong commitment that includes more than 16 sessions for the first six months and sessions once or twice a month for the remaining six months. Individuals at risk of developing diabetes include adults who are overweight, have a family history of diabetes, were diagnosed with gestational diabetes, prediabetes borderline diabetes or had a baby weighing more than 9 pounds.

To learn more about the program, attend a free informational session from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Jan. 18 in Columbus Community Hospitals Prairie Room or contact the following diabetes educators: Alicia Mueller at 402-562-3322 or aamueller@columbushosp.org or Joan Plummer at 402-562-4462 or jlplummer@columbushosp.org.

Omaha Sen. Robert Hilkemann said in the end senators voted in favor of safety and people's lives. Safety is improved with helmets, he said.

Lowe said it's possible he could bring the repeal bill back next year.

Possible Buffett successors added

OMAHA (AP)  Berkshire Hathaway is promoting the two top candidates to eventually replace CEO Warren Buffett to its board, but the 87-year-old investor says he isn't leaving.

Buffett and Berkshire's 94-year-old Vice Chairman Charlie Munger will retain their positions on the board, which is expanding to 14 members from 12. But Greg Abel and Ajit Jain will also become vice chairmen and take on more duties.

Buffett said on CNBC Wednesday the new board members are "part of a movement toward succession over time."

Buffett said the move isn't due to any looming concerns, saying he's in "remarkably good health." Yet Buffett says Abel and Jain are the right choices as potential successors.

"They've both got Berkshire in their blood," Buffett said.

For years, Buffett has said Berkshire had identified several internal CEO candidates who could replace him. Buffett had refused to name them, but investors who follow Berkshire had long included Jain and Abel on their short lists.
Destroyed railway systems : Vandalism to cost several ten thousand Euro in repairs

BORNHEIM-SECHTEM The Deutsche Bahn speaks of blind destructive fury. Unkown culprits have destroyed the railway systems at the track in Bornheim-Sechtem. The damage caused considerable delays to rail traffic.

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A path of destruction and damage in the region of several ten thousand Euro has been left behind by unknown culprits late on Tuesday night at the Cologne-Bonn train track near Sechtem. Among others a large switch box, axis counting device and several signal cases were destroyed. This caused a considerable amount of delays in the train traffic schedule.

Normally we have to deal with metal thieves, but this time it was blind destructive fury, according to a spokesperson for the Bahn. The federal police are investigating, but there has been no trace of the culprits yet. Mostly affected were the trains of the RE 5 line, during the early hours of yesterday morning, also the regional trams of the lines 26 and 48.

Due to the destruction of electronic systems, there were no signals at the track in Sechtem, which would normally regulate the train traffic. Thus, the culprits endangered the safety of the passengers, said the spokesperson.

This case of vandalism happened around 10pm on Tuesday night near the Bannweg crossing. On a stretch of about 100 metres, the switch boxes and signal systems were destroyed. That did not only cause the signal failure for the train drivers on this track, but brought the entire section in Roisdorf and Sechtem to a halt for the responsible dispatchers.

As a result, many trains needed to be guided manually through that track section until 10am the following day by the dispatchers on duty. This caused delays in both direction of 15 to 20 minutes. Because of the missing signals, the dispatchers had to call the train drivers and give them the green light verbally to pass slowly, explained Florian Kunert, division manager line and signal technology Bonn.

During the night, Kunert and eight staff members were working on assessing the damage and to do first repairs. That was like open heart surgery. We had to repair the facilities or replace them and keep the train schedule running somehow. At the same time we have to ensure our customers safety and our own, he said when interviewed on site in Sechtem.

Around 10am on Wednesday the technical workers had provisionally repaired the signal and power systems so that the trains could pass that stretch of the tracks signal-directed again. Due to the continuous repair work which might last until Friday to fix the entire damage, all trains will pass Roisdorf-Sechtem with reduced speed. Meaning: Passengers can expect delays still. Those should only be in the region of a few minutes though, said the spokesperson.

Despite regular checks by Bahn employees and federal police, it is not the first time this track section at the Bannweg crossing in Bornheim has been the targeted.

We noticed similar cases repeatedly over the past two years. Usually non-ferrous metal thieves steal metal parts and aim for copper, aluminium and bronze. The Deutsche Bahn states explicitly that standing on or between the tracks means acute danger to life. Also, residents were asked to come forward and call the police if they have seen any suspicious ongoings at any stage.

Original text: Klaus Elsen
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xspraise at 11-01-2018 08:19 AM (4 years ago) (m)

There was drama at the Tinubu Magistrates Court yesterday afternoon following the disappearance of Aamir Atiku, the seven-year-old son of Aminu Atiku and his ex-wife, Unmi Fatima Bolori.

There was drama at the Tinubu Magistrates Court yesterday afternoon following the disappearance of Aamir Atiku, the seven-year-old son of Aminu Atiku and his ex-wife, Unmi Fatima Bolori.

The boys mother claimed that Aminu, son of former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, snatched Aamir and drove off with him.



The alleged incident occurred at 1:59pm, minutes after Aminu lost custody of his daughter Ameera Atiku, 9, and Aamir 7, to Bolori.



Chief Magistrate Ayeye granted Bolori full custody of the children after Aminu failed to file a response to her application for child custody.





The court ordered Aminu to pay Bolori N250, 000 monthly for the upkeep of the children, beginning from this month. It also ordered Aminu to carry out medical insurance on the children among others.



Boloris November 2017 application for child custody proposed a nine-point statement of arrangement for the children.



It was argued by her counsel, Gloria Albert-Ekpe (Mrs.) and Ethel Okoh from Festus Keyamo Chambers.



The applicant prayed the court to order Aminu to pay her N300,000,00 monthly as feeding and maintenance allowance for the kids upkeep and N1million yearly as their clothing allowance.



Bolori also sought an order restraining Aminu from taking the kids outside the shores of Nigeria for any purpose whatsoever without her consent.



At the resumed hearing of the matter yesterday, neither Aminu nor his legal team was present to announce appearance.



Chief Magistrate Ayeye said: The respondent failed to file a response. In view of the deliberate absence of the respondent and his legal team, I am constrained to make these following orders in default of respondents presence and in the best interest of the children to wit:



Unmi Fatima Bolori is hereby granted full custody of Aamir Abubakar Sadiq Aminu Atiku (seven years) and Ameera Amina Atiku (nine years).



The applicant is allowed to reside with the children at her residence at Katampe Extension, Abuja.



The applicant is ordered to put the children in schools suited for their educational needs in Abuja.



Access is granted to the respondent to visit his children in Abuja and request for the children to spend holidays with him.



The respondent is ordered to pay monthly upkeep for the children in the amount ofN250, 000.00 monthly beginning January 2018.



The Respondent is ordered to effect medical insurance on each of the children.



When Aminu and his legal team eventually arrived at the courtroom at around 1pm, the proceedings were practically over.



The Nation observed him laughing and playing with both kids in the courtroom. At about 1:45pm, he consulted with his lawyers and walked out of the courtroom.



According to Boloris counsel Okoh, Aminu snatched his son from the mum, locked him in his car before driving off.



Okoh said last night that Aminu had refused to hand over his son to her client. She said his mother was worried because they were due to catch a flight to her Abuja home today.



Bolori, daughter of Maiduguri businessman Alhaji Bukar Bolori, and Aminu got married in Ghana in 2007, but they separated in 2011.



On October 18, 2017, Chief Magistrate Ayeye temporarily remanded Aminu in a transit cell within the courts premises after citing him for alleged contempt.



Atiku allegedly kept Amir from his mother, contrary to an October 11, 2017 order of the court. The boys mother claimed that Aminu, son of former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, snatched Aamir and drove off with him.The alleged incident occurred at 1:59pm, minutes after Aminu lost custody of his daughter Ameera Atiku, 9, and Aamir 7, to Bolori.Chief Magistrate Ayeye granted Bolori full custody of the children after Aminu failed to file a response to her application for child custody.The court ordered Aminu to pay Bolori N250, 000 monthly for the upkeep of the children, beginning from this month. It also ordered Aminu to carry out medical insurance on the children among others.Boloris November 2017 application for child custody proposed a nine-point statement of arrangement for the children.It was argued by her counsel, Gloria Albert-Ekpe (Mrs.) and Ethel Okoh from Festus Keyamo Chambers.The applicant prayed the court to order Aminu to pay her N300,000,00 monthly as feeding and maintenance allowance for the kids upkeep and N1million yearly as their clothing allowance.Bolori also sought an order restraining Aminu from taking the kids outside the shores of Nigeria for any purpose whatsoever without her consent.At the resumed hearing of the matter yesterday, neither Aminu nor his legal team was present to announce appearance.Chief Magistrate Ayeye said: The respondent failed to file a response. In view of the deliberate absence of the respondent and his legal team, I am constrained to make these following orders in default of respondents presence and in the best interest of the children to wit:Unmi Fatima Bolori is hereby granted full custody of Aamir Abubakar Sadiq Aminu Atiku (seven years) and Ameera Amina Atiku (nine years).The applicant is allowed to reside with the children at her residence at Katampe Extension, Abuja.The applicant is ordered to put the children in schools suited for their educational needs in Abuja.Access is granted to the respondent to visit his children in Abuja and request for the children to spend holidays with him.The respondent is ordered to pay monthly upkeep for the children in the amount ofN250, 000.00 monthly beginning January 2018.The Respondent is ordered to effect medical insurance on each of the children.When Aminu and his legal team eventually arrived at the courtroom at around 1pm, the proceedings were practically over.The Nation observed him laughing and playing with both kids in the courtroom. At about 1:45pm, he consulted with his lawyers and walked out of the courtroom.According to Boloris counsel Okoh, Aminu snatched his son from the mum, locked him in his car before driving off.Okoh said last night that Aminu had refused to hand over his son to her client. She said his mother was worried because they were due to catch a flight to her Abuja home today.Bolori, daughter of Maiduguri businessman Alhaji Bukar Bolori, and Aminu got married in Ghana in 2007, but they separated in 2011.On October 18, 2017, Chief Magistrate Ayeye temporarily remanded Aminu in a transit cell within the courts premises after citing him for alleged contempt.Atiku allegedly kept Amir from his mother, contrary to an October 11, 2017 order of the court.

Post Reply I am Victor, I write reportage on sport news and latest metro happenings in Nigeria. Posted: at 11-01-2018 08:19 AM (4 years ago) | Hero
The Nigerian Community in South Africa says four members are in critical condition in the hospital while some shops have been burnt in renewed attacks by South Africans. Paul Nwanedo, chairman, Nigerian Union, North West Province chapter told the us on the telephone from Rustenburg that the attacks against Nigerians began on Sunday.

He said that taxi drivers in Rustenburg alleged that a Nigerian abducted and raped a 16-year-old South African girl and also alleged that Nigerians sold drugs to a local gang that attacked their members.

Quote

This is absolutely untrue. We have investigated and found out that the allegations are false. The union is worried about the safety of our members in Rustenburg,

he said.Mr. Nwanedo said that four Nigerians caught by the taxi drivers were beaten and are in critical condition in the hospital while some shops belonging to Nigerians had been torched.

Quote

As I speak to you, we are afraid because the attacks have continued and our members are still in hiding.

We have reported to the police and our national secretariat. We want the safety of lives and property of our people,

he said.Adetola Olubajo, President of the union, said that the national secretariat had been informed about the incident at Rustenburg.

Quote

Investigation by the union shows that no Nigerians abducted or raped a South African girl. Indeed, no Nigerian has been arrested for the offence and we are worried about the turn of events.



The lives and property of our citizens in Rustenburg are in danger and there is an urgent need for intervention. We appeal to our mission and Federal government to intervene urgently and save the situation, Mr. Olubajo said.



The spokesman of the police in Rustenburg, Sabata Mokgwabone, said the reason for the violent protest was unclear but confirmed that the burnt houses are those occupied by foreign nationals,



North West Provincial Commissioner of Police, Baile Motswenyane, called on the public to work with law enforcement officials.



Those who are doing this must know that they are committing a crime and drastic action will be taken, including against our own members who are involved in criminal activities,

he said.
clarajancita at 11-01-2018 03:12 PM (4 years ago) (f)

This might sound ridiculous, but do you know that there are countries where citizens are being begged by the government to have more s*x? Have a look at the s*x-starved nations. There are few things more important than fertility in determining a nation's future viability. Demographers suggest that a country needs a fertility rate of just over two children per woman to hit "replacement fertility"  the rate at which new births fill the spaces left behind by deaths.

This might sound ridiculous, but do you know that there are countries where citizens are being begged by the government to have more s*x? Have a look at the s*x-starved nations. There are few things more important than fertility in determining a nation's future viability. Demographers suggest that a country needs a fertility rate of just over two children per woman to hit the rate at which new births fill the spaces left behind by deaths.

But because of certain cultural and economic forces, only about half of the world's 224 countries currently hit replacement fertility. For those that don't, encouraging people to have sex can involve strategies that range from highly explicit to downright bizarre.



1. Denmark

If you aren't going to have a kid for your own family, Danes are told, at least do it for Denmark. No, literally, do it for Denmark. The small Nordic country has such a low fertility rate  about 1.73 children per woman  that Spies Rejser, a Danish travel company, has come up with ingenious incentives to persuade women to get pregnant.



First, it offered to provide three years' worth of baby supplies to couples who conceived on a vacation booked through the company. Now it has come up with a sexy campaign video titled "Do it for Mom," which guilt trips couples into having kids to give their precious mothers a grandchild.



2. Russia



Vladimir Putin once brought Boyz II Men to Moscow to rile men up right before Valentine's Day. Can anyone blame him? As Tech Insider recently reported, the country is experiencing a perfect demographic storm. Men are dying young. HIV/AIDS and alcoholism are crippling the country. And women aren't having babies.



The problem got so bad that in 2007 Russia declared September 12 the official Day of Conception.



On the Day of Conception, people get the day off to focus on having kids. Women who give birth exactly nine months later, on June 12, win a refrigerator.





3. Japan



Japan's fertility rate has been below replacement since 1975.



To offset that decades-long trend, in 2010 a group of students from the University of Tsukuba introduced Yotaro, a robot baby that gives couples a preview of parenthood.



If men and women begin thinking of themselves as potential fathers and mothers, the students theorized, they'll feel emotionally ready to take a stab at the real thing.





4. Romania



The 1960s in Romania were a perilous time for couples.



Population growth flatlined, prompting the government to impose a 20% income tax for childless couples and to implement provisions that made divorce nearly impossible.



The idea was: If you weren't contributing to the communist state by creating future laborers, you had to contribute with dollars instead.



The 1980s weren't much better, however  women faced forced gynecological exams that were performed by "demographic command units" to ensure pregnancies went to term. When Romanian leadership changed in 1989, the brutal policy finally came crashing down. But at 1.31 children per woman, the fertility rate is still well below replacement.



5. Singapore



Singapore has the lowest fertility rate in the world, at just 0.81 children per woman.



On August 9, 2012, the Singaporean government held National Night, an event sponsored by the breath-mint company Mentos, to encourage couples to "let their patriotism explode."



The country has also placed a limit on the number of small one-bedroom apartments available for rent to encourage people to live together and, presumably, procreate.



Each year the government spends roughly $1.6 billion on programs to get people to have more sex.





6. South Korea



On the third Wednesday of every month, South Korean offices shut their lights off at 7 p.m. It's known as Family Day.



With a fertility rate of just 1.25 children per woman, the country takes any steps it can to promote family life  even offering cash incentives to people who have more than one child.





7. India

India as a whole has no problem with fertility  the country's ratio of 2.48 children per woman is well above replacement. But the number of people in India's Parsis community is dwindling  it shrank from roughly 114,000 people in 1941 to just 61,000 in 2001, according to the 2001 census.



That problem led to a series of provocative ads in 2014, including one that read The ads seem to be working: By the latest measure, the population has inched back to 69,000.





8. Italy

With a fertility rate of 1.43  well below the European average of 1.58  Italy has taken a controversial approach to encourage citizens to have more kids. As Bloomberg reports, the country has been running a series of ads reminding Italians that time might be running out and that kids don't just come from nowhere.



"Beauty knows no age, fertility does," one ad said. "Get going! Don't wait for the stork," another said. Couples haven't responded positively to the guilt trip. Francesco Daveri, a professor of economics at Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, has called the ads a failure.



9. Hong Kong

With a fertility rate of just 1.18 children per woman, Hong Kong faces the same challenge as many industrialized countries: Without enough young people to replace aging citizens, populations are dwindling and economic growth is slowing.



In 2013, the country proposed giving cash handouts to couples to encourage them to have kids.



The idea took its cue from Singapore, where parents receive a "baby bonus" of about $4,400 for their first two children and $5,900 for their third and fourth. But in Hong Kong, the plan never came to life.



10. Spain

Fertility rates in Spain are creeping downward while unemployment is rising: About half of all young people don't have a job. It's the second-highest rate in Europe, behind Greece.



To combat the worrying trends, the Spanish government hired a special commissioner, Edelmira Barreira, in January 2017. Her first tasks are finding the myriad causes of the trend and devising macro strategies to reverse it .



"We have a lot of work ahead of us," Barreira told the Spanish newspaper Faro De Vigo But because of certain cultural and economic forces, only about half of the world's 224 countries currently hit replacement fertility. For those that don't, encouraging people to have sex can involve strategies that range from highly explicit to downright bizarre.If you aren't going to have a kid for your own family, Danes are told, at least do it for Denmark. No, literally, do it for Denmark. The small Nordic country has such a low fertility rate  about 1.73 children per woman  that Spies Rejser, a Danish travel company, has come up with ingenious incentives to persuade women to get pregnant.First, it offered to provide three years' worth of baby supplies to couples who conceived on a vacation booked through the company. Now it has come up with a sexy campaign video titledwhich guilt trips couples into having kids to give their precious mothers a grandchild.Vladimir Putin once brought Boyz II Men to Moscow to rile men up right before Valentine's Day. Can anyone blame him? As Tech Insider recently reported, the country is experiencing a perfect demographic storm. Men are dying young. HIV/AIDS and alcoholism are crippling the country. And women aren't having babies.The problem got so bad that in 2007 Russia declared September 12 the official Day of Conception.On the Day of Conception, people get the day off to focus on having kids. Women who give birth exactly nine months later, on June 12, win a refrigerator.Japan's fertility rate has been below replacement since 1975.To offset that decades-long trend, in 2010 a group of students from the University of Tsukuba introduced Yotaro, a robot baby that gives couples a preview of parenthood.If men and women begin thinking of themselves as potential fathers and mothers, the students theorized, they'll feel emotionally ready to take a stab at the real thing.The 1960s in Romania were a perilous time for couples.Population growth flatlined, prompting the government to impose a 20% income tax for childless couples and to implement provisions that made divorce nearly impossible.The idea was: If you weren't contributing to the communist state by creating future laborers, you had to contribute with dollars instead.The 1980s weren't much better, however  women faced forced gynecological exams that were performed by "demographic command units" to ensure pregnancies went to term. When Romanian leadership changed in 1989, the brutal policy finally came crashing down. But at 1.31 children per woman, the fertility rate is still well below replacement.Singapore has the lowest fertility rate in the world, at just 0.81 children per woman.On August 9, 2012, the Singaporean government held National Night, an event sponsored by the breath-mint company Mentos, to encourage couples to "let their patriotism explode."The country has also placed a limit on the number of small one-bedroom apartments available for rent to encourage people to live together and, presumably, procreate.Each year the government spends roughly $1.6 billion on programs to get people to have more sex.On the third Wednesday of every month, South Korean offices shut their lights off at 7 p.m. It's known as Family Day.With a fertility rate of just 1.25 children per woman, the country takes any steps it can to promote family life  even offering cash incentives to people who have more than one child.India as a whole has no problem with fertility  the country's ratio of 2.48 children per woman is well above replacement. But the number of people in India's Parsis community is dwindling  it shrank from roughly 114,000 people in 1941 to just 61,000 in 2001, according to the 2001 census.That problem led to a series of provocative ads in 2014, including one that readThe ads seem to be working: By the latest measure, the population has inched back to 69,000.With a fertility rate of 1.43  well below the European average of 1.58  Italy has taken a controversial approach to encourage citizens to have more kids. As Bloomberg reports, the country has been running a series of ads reminding Italians that time might be running out and that kids don't just come from nowhere.another said. Couples haven't responded positively to the guilt trip. Francesco Daveri, a professor of economics at Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, has called the ads a failure.With a fertility rate of just 1.18 children per woman, Hong Kong faces the same challenge as many industrialized countries: Without enough young people to replace aging citizens, populations are dwindling and economic growth is slowing.In 2013, the country proposed giving cash handouts to couples to encourage them to have kids.The idea took its cue from Singapore, where parents receive a "baby bonus" of about $4,400 for their first two children and $5,900 for their third and fourth. But in Hong Kong, the plan never came to life.Fertility rates in Spain are creeping downward while unemployment is rising: About half of all young people don't have a job. It's the second-highest rate in Europe, behind Greece.To combat the worrying trends, the Spanish government hired a special commissioner, Edelmira Barreira, in January 2017. Her first tasks are finding the myriad causes of the trend and devising macro strategies to reverse it .Barreira told the Spanish newspaper Faro De Vigo

Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 11-01-2018 03:12 PM (4 years ago) | Hero
Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier

"When you shake a veteran's hand today, look them in the eye and give them a heartfelt thank you," said USAF Ret. Col. Jen Fullmer, parade grand marshal, who spoke at the event.
French English

Nexans Acquires BE CableCon In Strategic Move Into Wind Turbine Cable-Kitting Business

Denmark-based BE CableCon is an expert supplier of cable kits to Europe's most important wind turbine companies.

The acquisition is part of Nexans' strategy aimed at reinforcing the Group's portfolio of activities and accelerating its growth in the renewable energy segment.

Paris La Defense, January 11, 2018 - By 2040, renewable energy sources will account for almost three quarters of the $10.2 trillion global investment in new power generating technology. To accelerate its growth in this highly promising segment, Nexans has acquired a controlling interest in BE CableCon, the Denmark-based manufacturer and supplier of cable kits for some of Europe's leading wind turbine companies. The acquisition is an illustration of the recently-announced "Paced for Growth" strategy aimed at developing Nexans' business beyond manufacturing cables to provide customers with complete, fully-integrated cable services.

BE CableCon, a world-renown expert in wind turbine cable-kitting

BE CableCon was founded in Viborg, Denmark in 2007. It has established a strong reputation in the design, engineering and manufacture of cable kits that enable wind turbine companies to simplify the installation of the vital power, control and communication cable systems within their towers and nacelles. The company's kitting range covers low voltage (LV) and medium voltage (MV) applications including connectors, pre-connected and pre-assembled cable kits, and customized packing for complete ready-to-install kits.

Klaus Moller, CEO of BE CableCon, will head the new Nexans subsidiary company. He said, "Joining the Nexans Group with its expertise in cable production and global footprint will provide the ideal platform to take our business to the next level. We look forward to expanding beyond Northern Europe to work with global OEMs as well as addressing new markets in the North American and Asia-Pacific regions."

Alain Robic, Nexans VP Industry Solutions and Projects, said: "We have developed an excellent working relationship with BE CableCon as a subcontractor for our own kitting projects. Bringing them into the Nexans Group is a key step in our strategy to take greater control of critical elements within the value chain so that we can offer customers a complete engineered connection system. In addition to wind turbines, we will now be able to develop new growth opportunities for cable-kitting solutions in other industry segments."

About Nexans

Nexans brings energy to life through an extensive range of cables and cabling solutions that deliver increased performance for our customers worldwide. Nexans' teams are committed to a partnership approach that supports customers in four main business areas: Power transmission and distribution (submarine and land), Energy resources (Oil & Gas, Mining and Renewables), Transportation (Road, Rail, Air, Sea) and Building (Commercial, Residential and Data Centers). Nexans' strategy is founded on continuous innovation in products, solutions and services, employee development, customer training and the introduction of safe, low-environmental-impact industrial processes.

In 2013, Nexans became the first cable player to create a Foundation to introduce sustained initiatives for access to energy for disadvantaged communities worldwide.

Nexans is an active member of Europacable, the European Association of Wire & Cable Manufacturers, and a signatory of the Europacable Industry Charter. The Charter expresses its members' commitment to the principles and objectives of developing ethical, sustainable and high-quality cables.

Nexans, acting for the energy transition, has an industrial presence in 40 countries, commercial activities worldwide, is employing close to 26,000 people and generating sales in 2016 of 5.8 billion euros. Nexans is listed on Euronext Paris, compartment A.

For more information, please consult: www.nexans.com & follow us on: Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube | Facebook

Contacts :

Press

Angeline Afanoukoe

Tel: +33 (0)1 78 15 04 67

angeline.afanoukoe@nexans.com Investor relations

Michel Gedeon

Tel: +33 (0)1 78 15 05 41

michel.gedeon@nexans.com



Ksenia Kanareva

Tel: +33 (0)1 78 15 04 74

ksenia.kanareva@nexans.com Marieme Diop

Tel: +33 (0)1 78 15 05 40

marieme.diop@nexans.com
VANCOUVER, B.C., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Medgold Resources Corp. (TSX-V:MED) (the Company or Medgold) is pleased to announce results from ridge-and-spur soil sampling near Medgolds Tlamino gold project in southern Serbia.



HIGHLIGHTS:

Two large gold targets identified for follow up work,

The targets measure 3 km by 1 km and 2 km by 1.5 km and are located northwest and north of Tlamino, respectively, and

The targets are part of the Crnook Licence Group.

Dan James, President of Medgold, commented: We are very pleased to see early success from a major regional sampling campaign with the identification of two quality exploration targets. We are beginning to identify what appears to be a regional exploration play, with mineralization associated with a major flat-lying detachment fault, and which is continuous for over 50 km and is thought to be a significant control on gold mineralization at the previously sampled targets of Barje and Karamanica. We have already identified high-grade gold mineralization in a similar setting at the Tlamino Project, and are now aiming to identify new detachment-related targets based on what weve learned at Tlamino. These excellent gold-in-soil results demonstrate that our targeting work is proving very successful and were looking forward to getting on the ground to explore them in detail in the Spring.

The Crnook Licence Group

Medgold holds five exploration licences, each approximately 100 sq km in area, in southeastern Serbia, close to where the country borders both Macedonia and Bulgaria. Two of the licences (Donje Tlamino and Surlica-Dukat) are part of the Tlamino Gold Project optioned to Fortuna Silver Mines. The remaining three licences, Ljubata, Crnook and Radovnica, are wholly-owned by Medgold.

In the Fall of 2017 Medgolds field crews completed a program of ridge-and-spur soil sampling and collected 2,096 soil samples at a sample spacing of 100 m along lines covering the trend of a major detachment fault. Medgold has interpreted the fault to have an important association with both gold-silver and lead-zinc mineralization in the region. The fault separates the Vlasina Schists from the underlying basement rocks of the Crnook Dome. It is a low-angle structure, continuous for nearly 50 km, and rings the Crnook Dome. The detachment fault is thought to be a significant control on the distribution of mineralization which is believed to occur along the fault hosted in breccias (e.g. at the Barje Prospect  part of Tlamino), and also in high angle structures (e.g. Karamanica  10 km northwest of Barje) parallel and proximal to the detachment.

The program identified two areas of strongly elevated multi-element geochemistry:

A 3 km by 1 km Au+As+Pb+Zn anomaly, with 10 samples assaying greater than 100 ppb Au, located on the western flanks of the Crnook Dome, and within the Ljubata licence. It occurs in proximity to a calcareous schist, of the Vlasina Unit, and also a young porphyry unit, considered to be of a similar age to the mineralization in the region, and appears to be geologically similar to the Karamanica target, located approximately 15 km to the southeast.



A 2 km by 1.5 km Au+As+Cu+Pb+Zn anomaly, with 4 samples assaying greater than 100 ppb Au, located on the northern edge of the Crnook Dome, also with the Ljubata licence.

Maps showing the anomalies are available on Medgolds website at: https://medgoldresources.com/projects/crnook

Work will continue on these areas, as well as following-up other smaller anomalies, in the Spring once the snow has cleared. Programs of grid-soil sampling will be undertaken, and if justified, ground geophysics.

About Medgold

Medgold is a European-focused, TSX-V listed, exploration and development company targeting gold properties in Serbia. Run by a highly experienced management team with a successful track record of building value in resource companies, Medgold is aiming to become a leading European gold exploration company.

Qualified Person

Mr. David Clark, M.Sc., P.Geo., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Clark approved the disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

Medgold follows industry best practices for its prospecting and geochemical sampling campaigns. Samples are delivered by Medgold personnel directly to the assay laboratory facilities in Bor, Serbia. Soil samples are analysed by ALS Chemex using analytical method codes AuME-TL43 for gold and multi-element analysis. Medgold inserts regular field duplicate samples into the soil sample stream.

Additional information on Medgold can be found on the Companys website at www.medgoldresources.com and by reviewing the Companys page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Dan James

Daniel P. James, President & Director

For Further Information, Contact:

President

Dan James (UK)

dj@medgoldresources.com

+44 7972 579188

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and include, without limitation, statements about the exploration plans for the Companys properties in Serbia. Often, but not always, these forward looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as estimate, estimates, estimated, potential, open, future, assumed, projected, used, detailed, has been, gain, upgraded, offset, limited, contained, reflecting, containing, remaining, to be, periodically, or statements that events, could or should occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

Forward-looking statements involve 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 results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, the exploration plans for the Companys properties in Serbia; changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; the Company or any joint venture partner not having the financial ability to meet its exploration and development goals; risks associated with the results of exploration and development activities, estimation of mineral resources and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; unanticipated costs and expenses; and such other risks detailed from time to time in the Companys quarterly and annual filings with securities regulators and available under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to: that the proposed exploration of the Companys properties in Serbia will proceed as intended; that the Companys stated goals and planned exploration and development activities will be achieved; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
A 29-year-old Danville man was sentenced Tuesday to more than five years in federal prison for using the names of other people to get student loans and debit cards.

James Willie Waller Jr. pleaded guilty In U.S. District Court to one count of student loan fraud, one count of wire fraud, and two counts of aggravated identity theft in September.

He applied for financial aid under the names of residents in the regions of Danville and Martinsville and enrolled in online courses, which meant that loans and debit cards were issued in the names of the fictitious use. Waller used the cards for personal use.

I never held a gun to anybodys head, Waller said during sentencing Tuesday.

He will serve five years and one month in federal prison and be on supervised release for three years afterward. He must also repay $117,958 to the U.S. Department of Education, American Public University and University of Phoenix.

He also forfeited an HP laptop computer as part of the judgment, due to being used or intended to be used to commit a violation.

Waller will self-report to the federal prison.
Danville police report the officer involved in the fatal shooting of Richard Towler early Sunday morning had worked with the department for less than two weeks after being re-hired.

Justin P. Nelson was named as the officer involved in the fatal shooting that occurred at 1069 Halifax Road, police reported Wednesday afternoon.

Nelson has more than 12 years combined experience in law enforcement. He has previous experience with the Danville Police Department and the Pittsylvania County Sheriffs Office, police said.

Officer Nelson was recently re-hired by the Danville Police Department and was sworn in Dec. 28.

Nelsons age was not disclosed. It was unknown how long he had previously worked for the department or when.

Questions from the Register & Bee about Nelson's background, including whether he's been the focus of any use-of-force investigations, were not answered by the police department Wednesday evening.

Danville police had responded to a 911 call from a woman claiming a man was inside a home shooting at her, state police reported.

Danville police reported that responding officers knocked at the door of 1069 Halifax Road at about 12:50 a.m. Sunday. Then, shots were fired from inside the house toward the officers.

Authorities report officers took cover and tried to negotiate with Towler, 54, but he came out of the house shooting at the officers.

One officer returned fire, killing Towler, who lived at the home.

Inside the house, police report finding 38-year-old Crystal Lynn Averett, of Danville, dead.

Both bodies were transported to the medical examiners office in Roanoke for autopsy.

The Virginia State Police has taken over the investigation.

Staff writer Denice Thibodeau contributed to this report.
Court records show that Richard R. Towler, the 54-year-old Danville man shot and killed after a reported gunfight with police early Sunday, had previously been accused of holding a shotgun on a group of people and firing it into the air last year.

Among the people in that group was Crystal Averett, the woman police report finding dead in his house after the Sunday shootout.

Police initially went there following a 911 call from a woman claiming a man was inside the home shooting at her.

The previous criminal complaint of Towler holding a firearm on the group was dismissed by judges in two separate cases last year, court records show.

According to the complaint, on Aug. 30, 2017, Towler was accused of pointing a loaded 12-gauge shotgun at a family member, Averett and one other person while at his residence at 1069 Halifax Road.

After pointing the gun, they stated Towler shot one round off in the air, Danville Police Department Officer C.L. Jackson wrote in the complaint. After shooting off the round, [the family member] states Towler pointed it at her again.

One part of the case was tried in Danville Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on Oct. 16, 2017 by Judge Dale Wiley, because one of the people involved was related to Towler, and another part of the case tried in Danville General District Court by Judge Robert L. Adams on Nov. 2, 2017, because Averett and the other person involved were not related to him.

Towler pleaded not guilty in both misdemeanor court cases, records show, to charges of brandishing a firearm and discharging a firearm in a public place.

Danville Chief Deputy Commonwealth Attorney Petra Haskins told the Register & Bee the cases were dismissed because witnesses testified that he didnt point the gun at anyone and nobody was afraid for their lives.

It didnt induce fear, Haskins explained.

According to state law, its unlawful for anyone to point, hold or brandish any firearm  in such manner as to reasonably induce fear in the mind of another 

Because general district court cases are not recorded, it could not be determined whether anyone testified under oath that Towler fired the shotgun into the air as written in criminal complaints.

Also, it is not known whether the same 12-guage shotgun used in the August incident was the same firearm involved in the Sunday shootings.

Danville police would not say if the department ever confiscated the shotgun following the allegations in August. Instead, the department referred the question to the Virginia State Police, which is investigating the death of Averett, 38, and the officer-involved shooting.

Virginia State Police had not replied to the Register & Bees query about the shotgun by the end of business Wednesday.

Court records show that police were familiar with Towler by the time they were called to his house for the August incident  he was accused of assaulting the same family member months earlier.

On Dec. 6, 2016, Towler was accused of assaulting the family member and admitted to officers that he hit her, according to a criminal complaint filed that day by officer C.L. Jackson.

[She] had blood on her nose and a bruise on her head, Jackson wrote in the complaint.

Officer R.P. Wright, who assisted Jackson, wrote in a complaint that Towler pushed out the door toward the victim yelling and threatening them. Towler was told multiple times to go back inside and to calm down.

Towler pulled his right hand back as if he was going [to] punch the victim, Wright wrote.

When Wright grabbed Towler and told him he was under arrest, Towler started pulling away from officers, Wright wrote in the complaint.

He then grabbed a pole on the front porch and refused to place his hand behind his back, he wrote. Towler was taken to the ground where he was placed in handcuffs.

Court documents show he was charged with obstructing justice by threat or force, which was tried in General District Court by Judge Robert L. Adamson Jan. 19, 2017, and assault and battery of a family member, which was tried in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court by Judge Dale Wiley on April 25, 2017. Both are misdemeanor charges.

Towler pleaded guilty to both charges. For the obstruction charge he received a suspended, 120-day sentence and fined $50. For the assault and battery charge he was put in an anger management course and placed on a two-year probation period, with the case set to be heard again on April 24, 2019. He was also charged $182 in court costs.
LONDON, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Further to its news release dated 19 December 2017, Horizonte Minerals Plc, (AIM:HZM) (TSX:HZM) (Horizonte or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has completed the second and final tranche of its equity fundraising. The Company has successfully placed 60,587,500 Ordinary Shares. in the Canadian portion of the Placing, (the Placing Shares) raising gross proceeds of CAD$3,635,250. When combined with the 7m announced on 19 December 2017, the Company has raised a total of 9.2m, an increase on the previously announced quantum of 8.5m.



Horizonte CEO Jeremy Martin said, I am pleased to announce that the Company has successfully raised 9.2m predominantly through existing and new institutional investors based in London and Toronto, demonstrating support for the development of Araguaia and the new acquisition of the Vermelho nickel-cobalt project. The combination of the two projects will allow us to create one of the leading nickel development companies. These corporate developments sit against a backdrop of improving nickel market fundamentals, driven by the robust market for stainless steel combined with the fast growing Electric Vehicle market focused on nickel and cobalt. We look forward to updating shareholders as we advance both projects during 2018

Settlement and dealings

The Placing is being conducted under existing authorities to allot shares and as such there is no requirement for approval at a general meeting.

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is expected that Admission of the 60,587,500 Placing Shares will become effective and dealings in such Placing Shares will commence at 8.00 a.m. on 11 January 2018.

The Placing Shares will, when issued, rank pari passu in all respects with the ordinary shares of the Company that are issued and outstanding (the "Existing Shares") including the right to receive dividends and other distributions declared following Admission.

The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) has conditionally approved the Placing subject to fulfilling all of the listing requirements of the TSX.

Total shares in issues

The Company now has 1,432,521,800 Ordinary Shares in issue. The total voting rights will therefore be 1,432,521,800 and Shareholders may use this figure as the denominator by which they are required to notify their interest in, or change to their interest in, the Company under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Enquiries:

Horizonte Minerals Plc

Jeremy Martin (CEO) / David Hall (Chairman)

+44 (0) 20 7763 7157

Numis Securities Limited (Joint Broker)

John Prior/James Black/Paul Gillam

+44 (0)207 260 1000

finnCap Ltd (NOMAD & Joint Broker)

Christopher Raggett/ James Thompson /

Anthony Adams / Emily Morris

+44 (0) 20 7220 0500

Shard Capital (Joint Broker)

Damon Heath / Erik Woolgar

+44 (0) 20 7186 9952

Tavistock (Financial PR)

Jos Simson / Barney Hayward

+44 (0) 20 7920 3150



About Horizonte Minerals:

Horizonte Minerals Plc is an AIM and TSX-listed nickel development company focused in Brazil, which wholly owns the advanced Araguaia nickel laterite project located to the south of the Carajas mineral district of northern Brazil. The Company is developing Araguaia as the next major nickel mine in Brazil, with targeted production by 2021. The Project has good infrastructure in place including rail, road, water and power. Horizonte has a strong shareholder structure including Teck Resources Ltd. 14.7%, Richard Griffiths 9.0%, Lombard Odier Asset Management (Europe) Limited 8.6%, Hargreave Hale 10.4%, JP Morgan 6.9%, and Glencore 5.2%.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

Except for statements of historical fact relating to the Company, certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward-looking information under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the potential of the Companys current or future property mineral projects; the success of exploration and mining activities; cost and timing of future exploration, production and development; the estimation of mineral resources and reserves and the ability of the Company to achieve its goals in respect of growing its mineral resources; and the realization of mineral resource and reserve estimates. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, and are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to risks related to: exploration and mining risks, competition from competitors with greater capital; the Companys lack of experience with respect to development-stage mining operations; fluctuations in metal prices; uninsured risks; environmental and other regulatory requirements; exploration, mining and other licences; the Companys future payment obligations; potential disputes with respect to the Companys title to, and the area of, its mining concessions; the Companys dependence on its ability to obtain sufficient financing in the future; the Companys dependence on its relationships with third parties; the Companys joint ventures; the potential of currency fluctuations and political or economic instability in countries in which the Company operates; currency exchange fluctuations; the Companys ability to manage its growth effectively; the trading market for the ordinary shares of the Company; uncertainty with respect to the Companys plans to continue to develop its operations and new projects; the Companys dependence on key personnel; possible conflicts of interest of directors and officers of the Company, and various risks associated with the legal, the Companys use of proceeds from the Placing, the Companys ability to obtain final approval from the TSX for the listing of the Ordinary Shares issued in the Placing and regulatory framework within which the Company operates.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sanatana Resources Inc. (Sanatana or the Company) (TSX-V:STA) is pleased to provide this exploration update to its shareholders.

Santoy Mountain Claims Location Map





Sanatana has signed an asset purchase agreement, which is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval, with Brian Fowler and Christian Carl (Fowler and Carl) to acquire the Santoy Mountain property adjacent to the Companys Jackfish Property.

Peter Miles, President and CEO, states, "The work we have conducted to date on the Jackfish property has encouraged us to acquire additional prospective ground in the area. In late December 2017, the lines for the previously announced HLEM survey were cut and a crew from Abitibi Geophysics are mobilizing and will conduct the survey over the next several days. Sanatana is looking forward to an exciting year of exploration at the Jackfish property and we continue to evaluate other projects."

The three newly acquired claims comprise 31 units bringing the land position of the Jackfish Property to a new total of 269 units covering an area of 4121 hectares (see map below).

Claim # Units Area 4282574 8 117.1 Ha 4282576 16 245.6 Ha 4283452 7 116.5 Ha

The three mining claims tie onto the Jackfish Property covering the southeast extension of the North-Hematite-Cliff gold mineralized trend, including part of the Terrace Bay Batholith granodirorite as well as the contact zone and part of the southern arm of the Schreiber-Hemlo greenstone belt from where the main fault that defines the trend originates. There is also a strongly conductive unit in the greenstone belt sequence delineated in the publicly available Ontario Geological Survey airborne geophysical survey data and relates directly to a historic nickel-copper showing. Elevated cobalt, copper, lead and silver values in soil sample data reviewed from previous assessment reports may also be related to this conductive unit. There is no recorded drilling within the claims.

To acquire a 100% interest in the Property, Sanatana must, in aggregate:

a) Pay Fowler and Carl $12,500 cash;

b) issue 250,000 of the Company's common shares to Fowler and Carl (shares subject to a hold period of four months and a day from the date of issuance); and

c) pay a net smelter return ("NSR") royalty on metals of 2% upon the commencement of commercial production to Fowler and Carl, with an option to reduce the royalty to 1% for cash payments of $1,000,000.

The information in this news release was prepared under the supervisions of Troy Gill, BSc. MAIG, Exploration Manager for Sanatana. Mr. Gill is a Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Technical Projects and has reviewed and approved the technical information disclosed in this news release.

About the Company

Sanatana Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration and development company that has optioned the Jackfish gold property in northwestern Ontario. With an experienced management team and board of directors, the Company has the ability required to identify, develop and fund economic mineral properties. Sanatana is based in Vancouver and is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V:STA).

SANATANA RESOURCES INC.

(signed) Peter Miles______________



Peter Miles

President and Chief Executive Officer

For additional information on the Company, please contact:

Mr. Peter Miles, President and Chief Executive Officer at (604) 408-6680 or email investor@sanatanaresources.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Some of the statements contained in this news release are forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, intends, is expected, potential, suggests or variations of such words or phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, should, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements and information are not historical facts and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties beyond Sanatanas control. Actual results and developments are likely to differ, and may differ materially, from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

A map accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/712cff91-93f4-43ed-a99a-2bae12b176d0
Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - Gungnir Resources Inc. (GUG: TSX-V, ASWRF: OTCBB) (Gungnir or the Company) has received final approval for five exploration permits in the Norrbotten District in northern Sweden. These new exploration permits complement Gungnirs existing gold and base metal property portfolio in Sweden.

Company assets:

$4,000,000 advance royalty stream; next annual $1,000,000 payment due April 30, 2018

Knaften property: near surface gold mineralization (including 2.92 g/t Au over 13.0 metres) and new drill discovery of copper-nickel bearing sulphides

Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget properties: 70 million lbs of nickel in historical resources

New Norrbotten permits include reported grab samples with copper (up to 2.3 % Cu), gold (up to 7.7 g/t Au) and silver (up to 380 g/t Ag)

The Company plans a larger second phase 2018 drill program and prospecting activities and will provide more detailed exploration plans and timing once they are finalized.

Norrbotten samples noted above are historic surface grab samples of boulders/blocks and may not be representative of mineralization hosted on the permits. Assays results are from the Swedish Geological Survey (SGU) data files. The Company has not verified this data. Also, a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates above as current resources and Gungnir is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources.

Mr. Jari Paakki, M.Sc., P.Geo., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Paakki prepared the technical information contained in this news release and has approved its disclosure.

About Gungnir Resources

Gungnir Resources Inc. is a Canadian-based TSX-V listed mineral exploration company (GUG: TSX-V) with gold and base metal permits in northern Sweden within a region hosting 12 million ounces of gold delineated in existing and mined resources plus several past-producing and producing base metal mines. The Companys key gold project, Knaften, is situated at the southern extension of the Gold Line which hosts a number of gold deposits including Faboliden and Svartliden (Dragon Mining), and Barsele (Agnico Eagle and Barsele Minerals). The Company also has permits covering two nickel deposits in Sweden, Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget which collectively host 70 million pounds of nickel in historical resources (see NR dated February 24, 2015). Gungnir additionally holds a $5,000,000 royalty stream and received the first annual payment of $1,000,000 on May 2, 2017. The next annual payment of $1,000,000 is due on April 30, 2018. Further information about the Company and its properties may be found at www.gungnirresources.com or at www.sedar.com.

On behalf of the Board,

Jari Paakki, CEO and Director

For further information contact:

Jari Paakki, CEO

Tel: 705-507-4470

jpaakki@eastlink.ca

Chris Robbins, CFO

Tel: 604-683-0484

robbinscr@shaw.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements made herein may contain forward-looking statements or information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved", or the negative of these words or comparable terminology. By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual performance of the Company to be materially different from any anticipated performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements or information include, but are not limited to, statements or information with respect to Gungnir Resources plan for future funding, and exploration and development of its properties. Forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of estimates and assumptions and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying estimates and assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements or information. For example, there is no certainty, that any economically viable mineral deposit will be located on the properties, or that the Company will receive or be able to raise sufficient capital to complete all of its exploration programs. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements or information. Gungnir does not expect to update forward-looking statements or information continually as conditions change, except as may be required by securities law.

To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/Gungnir01112018.pdfSource: Gungnir Resources Inc. (TSX Venture:GUG, OTC Pink:ASWRF, FWB:AMO1)

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Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - Belmont Resources Inc. (TSX.V: BEA; FSE: L3L1; DTC Eligible  CUSIP 080499403); (Belmont, or the Company)

International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)

Further to our news release dated August 22, 2017. The Company has re-engaged the law firm Derains & Gharavi of Paris, France to pursue annulment proceedings relating to the arbitral tribunal ICSID decision made on August 18, 2017. Legal costs of this action are being borne by a third party as previously agreed.

Mr. Vojtech Agyagos, CEO/President comments; If the definitive annulment decision is made in our favour, Belmont will be automatically be restored as a claimant in the Belmont-EuroGas vs. Slovak Republic arbitration, and the arbitration will proceed as if no prior verdict had been made. The claims of Belmont and EuroGas Inc. arose out of the revocation of the claimants exclusive rights for mining activities at the Gemerska Poloma talc deposit allegedly without compensation, despite three decisions of Slovakias Supreme Court declaring such action illegal.

It is the view of the dissenting judge of the ICSID Tribunal that the actual dispute arose after the critical date of March 14, 2009 and as a result, falls squarely within the Tribunals jurisdiction ratione temporis provision found at Article XV(6) of the 2010 Canada-Slovakia BIT (the BIT or the Treaty). Further details of the 12 page Dissenting Opinion of Professor Emmanuel Gaillard ICSID Case No. ARB/14/14 can be reviewed on the website http://investmentpolicyhub.unctad.org/ISDS/Details/594

About Belmont Resources Inc.

Belmont is an emerging resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Canada and Nevada, U.S.A.

For further information see our Website at: www.BelmontResources.com

- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Nevadalithium/

- Twitter https://twitter.com/Belmont_Res

Belmont has recently optioned 31 mineral claims encompassing approx. 7 sq.km; located 24 km northwest of Saint John, New Brunswick  the Mid Corner/Johnson Croft  a Zinc, Cobalt prospect.

On March 30, 2016; the Company acquired sixteen placer (16) mining claims, representing 1036 hectares (2,560 acres) in Esmeralda County, Nevada, U.S.A. The Kibby Basin property is located 65 km north of Clayton Valley, Nevada-U.S.A. The Company believes the property to be highly prospective to host lithium. Subsequent ground geophysics & gravity surveys, surface sampling and a two hole- 2046 ft. diamond drill program have confirmed the presence of lithium on Kibby.

On July 11, 2016; the Company reported it has arranged the staking of 213 x 20 acre additional placer mineral claims totaling approx. 1724 hectares ( 4,260 acres) , adjoining the Kibby 16, increasing the total Kibby Basin land position (the Property) to 2,760 hectares (6,820 acres).

In 50/50 ownership with International Montoro Resources Inc., Belmont has acquired and is exploring joint venture opportunities for its two significant uranium properties (Crackingstone -982 ha & Orbit Lake  11,109 ha) in the Uranium City District in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Vojtech Agyagos

Vojtech Agyagos,

CEO/President/Director

This Press Release may contain forward-looking statements that may involve a number of risks and uncertainties, based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results that may prove to be inaccurate as a result of exploration and other risk factors beyond its control. Forward looking statements in this news release include statements about the possible raising of capital and exploration of our properties. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Companies forward-looking statements and expectations. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, that we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval; that we may not be able to raise funds required, that conditions to closing may not be fulfilled and we may not be able to organize and carry out an exploration program in 2017; and other risks associated with being a mineral exploration and development company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, except as required by applicable laws, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results differed from those projected in the forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/Belmont01112018.pdfSource: Belmont Resources Inc. (TSX Venture:BEA, FWB:L3L1)

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Since the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault transcended Twitter in October, many powerful men have lost their jobs and reputations -- in Hollywood, in media, in Congress and in state capitols. It has sparked conversations about power and gender in the workplace, laying the groundwork for a potentially revolutionary societal change.But sexual harassment is not just committed by people at the highest levels of industries. It can happen between peers at work and by someone at the bottom of the payroll.Some states and cities recognize this and are already taking action.In the last two months, at least five governors issued executive orders dealing with sexual harassment policies, training and practices for their own state employees. Louisianas John Bel Edwards launched a sexual harassment task force, which had its first meeting in December. Floridas Rick Scott is focused on improving the reporting and investigation of complaints. Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma is working with the state attorney generals office to increase the availability of training to state agencies. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy ordered a review of policies and procedures regarding sexual harassment prevention training. And Vermont's Phil Scott's new code of ethics addresses the need for "quick and effective action" to combat sexual harassment. Already, the state has required all 8,000 state employees to take a sexual harassment prevention class by the end of the year.Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has similarly ordered all of the public workers that keep the nations capital running to undergo sexual harassment training by February.But what should sexual harassment training look like?Susan Bisom-Rapp, associate dean and professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, has been researching sexual harassment for two decades and believes that sexual harassment training has been misguided for years.The whole ethos of training and prevention thats been built into employment law has been not to solve the problem but to avoid liability. Thats the wrong approach, she says.She and other experts say its important to scrutinize a workplaces culture. To do that, she recommends first doing a climate survey to uncover underlying problems in the way workers are treated.Rather than directly asking employees if they have been sexually harassed at work, climate surveys ask employees about specific working conditions -- such as offensive jokes being commonplace -- that may lead to sexual harassment. Its kind of like a barometer to see whether a hurricane is coming, rather than waiting for the dangerous winds to damage property and threaten lives.Minneapolis, where officials have taken an active role in the last two months in reexamining the city's sexual harassment policies, is doing something similar.The city recently formed "employee resource groups" -- one for women, one for racial minorities and one for military veterans -- that meet monthly to communicate problems to management, talk with peers in a safe and comfortable environment, and provide management a new way to interact with employees."We use the groups to communicate to employees what they can do if they have a problem and how the problem will be handled," says Patience Ferguson, the city's chief human resources officer. "Employees need to know that we're going to hold people accountable. The worst thing is creating an expectation that something will happen and nothing is done."In November, the city council asked the HR department as well as the citys attorney and ethics officer to take feedback from the employee resource groups into account and review sexual harassment policies with the ultimate goals of increasing the awareness of reporting options and the independence of investigations.The city is also putting a focus on managers and devoting more training to helping them develop skills for listening to employees' concerns and figuring out ways to resolve problems.Its more than just about the harassment, says Ferguson. Its creating a different environment in government.Other cities are clearly defining what constitutes sexual harassment because as Maria Monteagudo, the employee relations director for Milwaukee, says: "Saying we have 'zero tolerance' is not enough."Milwaukee rewrote its policies at the end of 2017 to emphasize the importance of educating workers on what harassment is and the responsibility foremployees, not just victims, to report improper behavior. (Monteagudo drew many of her ideas from a 2016 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission task force report on harassment .)Similarly, D.C. brought its harassment guidelines into the digital age, adding sexting and sending suggestive messages on apps like Snapchat to the list of banned behaviors.In Idaho, HR officials are emphasizing the financial and workforce benefits of combatting sexual harassment.Were focusing our training on how you will save money if you create a workplace that is professional, with all people treated with respect, civility and professionalism, says HR Administrator Susan Buxton, who was hired by Gov. Butch Otter of Idaho. She says the amount of training that combats sexual harassment training has since tripled. You have more productivity, a more engaged workforce and less turnover. Its just a better business model.
An East Tennessee lawmaker has started drafting legislation that would defund Planned Parenthood operations across the state after a federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the 2014 vote in favor of Amendment 1, a ballot measure that stripped the right to an abortion from the Tennessee constitution.Rep. Jimmy Matlock, R-Lenoir City, issued a news release calling for the defunding Tuesday night."A false narrative exists in Tennessee that Planned Parenthood doesn't receive Tennessee taxpayer dollars. Media and professional politicians from both sides of the aisle have reinforced this false narrative time and time again to protect their funding," he said. "It is beyond time for Tennessee leaders to show integrity and honesty by putting this to bed once and for all."In 2011 state lawmakers voted to divert state funding from Planned Parenthood to the state Department of Health.Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers in Tennessee have not received these funds, so-called Title X funds, since lawmakers voted to divert them in 2011.Matlock claimed, however, that between 2011-15 Planned Parenthood of Tennessee received nearly $11,000 from the state.The issue revolves around the fact that Planned Parenthood provides abortions. Though federal funds -- including Medicaid -- don't pay for abortions, and haven't since 1976, some organizations oppose allowing federal (or state) dollars to go to family-planning organizations that also provide abortion services.Matlock said he doesn't expect any opposition to the legislation."I know my Republican colleagues will stand by me and finally codify, once and for all, that Planned Parenthood can receive no taxpayer dollars," he said. "In addition, because Planned Parenthood and their allies on the left push a narrative that they don't receive taxpayer dollars to begin with, they shouldn't have a single bit of opposition to the legislation either."But in a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Democrats said such a proposed measure would be redundant given the 2011 legislation and would send a negative message to those who support women's rights issues.Democrats from the House and Senate argued the bill didn't advance the Republican majority's goals.Sen. Sara Kyle, D-Memphis, said the bill could be a deterrent to more businesses coming to the state, and Rep. Brenda Gilmore, D-Nashville, said it could result in more abortions as women had less access to contraceptives."If we're serious about reducing abortions, then our colleagues across the aisle would be willing to join with us to make family planning more available," Gilmore said. "This legislation was announced with no plans for the central health care services for women. It's a political game with political consequences."Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, said the Republicans are acting like "a one-trick pony on their third trick," in reference to the 2011 legislation."If they actually cared about this issue, they would know that when women have access to health care, you actually see fewer abortions," he said.In a statement to the USA TODAY NETWORK -- Tennessee, Keri Adams, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Middle & East Tennessee, said Matlock's use of the word "defund" shows his lack of understanding about how the health care system works. She said the bill would have a "devastating impact" on the people who rely on Planned Parenthood."Planned Parenthood receives reimbursement, just like hospitals and other health care organizations, for providing preventive care services including birth control, breast exams, cancer screenings, and STD testing and treatment."This bill is simply an attack against women," she continued. "It would prohibit women from accessing preventive care at Planned Parenthood health centers and take away a person's ability to see the qualified health care provider of their choice for these sensitive services."Amendment 1 passed with the support of 53 percent of voters in November 2014. It added language to the state constitution that said, in part: "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion."A recount of the 2014 vote opened a path for lawmakers to enact stricter abortion regulations, including a 48-hour waiting period for women seeking the procedure, which was signed into law by the governor in 2015.The challenge to the Amendment 1 vote count loomed over state policymakers for three years, making the future of abortion measures enacted by the legislature after its passage uncertain.Matlock is running for the soon to be expired congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. John J. "Jimmy" Duncan. Other Republican opponents include Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, Jason Emert and Vito Sagliano. Democrats Joshua Williams and Renee Hoyos are also running.
GIS - 11 January, 2018: An agreement was signed this morning at the Treasury Building in Port Louis between the Mauritius-Seychelles Joint Commission on the Extended Continental Shelf and Spectrum ASA in view of conducting a geotechnical study in the extended continental shelf management area of the Mascarene region, as part of the joint jurisdiction between Mauritius and Seychelles for an additional area of 396,000 km2 on the Mascarene Plateau. An agreement was signed this morning at the Treasury Building in Port Louis between the Mauritius-Seychelles Joint Commission on the Extended Continental Shelf and Spectrum ASA in view of conducting a geotechnical study in the extended continental shelf management area of the Mascarene region, as part of the joint jurisdiction between Mauritius and Seychelles for an additional area of 396,000 km2 on the Mascarene Plateau.

The Joint Commission had issued a call for tenders for an exploratory study in the area in order to understand and explore the area for its potential for oil and gas. The two-year study will comprise detailed sea-band imagery and provide high quality seismic data to better understand the geology of the area. These data will eventually be of interest to oil and gas companies. According to the Department for Continental Shelf, Maritime Zones Administration and Exploration which operates under the aegis of the Prime Ministers Office, Mauritius and Seychelles wish to open the area to oil exploration.

The signature ceremony was held in the presence of Dr Reza Badal, Coordinator of the Mauritius-Seychelles Joint Commission, and Mr Graham Mayhew, Executive Vice President of Multi-Client Africa, Mediterranean & Middle East at Spectrum ASA. Were also present during the signing ceremony, Mr N. Ballah, Secretary to Cabinet and Head of Civil Service, and Mr Philippe Michaud, Special Adviser to the Vice-President of Seychelles.

In his address, Mr Ballah highlighted the need for both Mauritius and Seychelles to work as partners to unlock shared potential. He underscored that the Governments of both countries are leaving no stone unturned to unlock the economic potential of its ocean resources while adding that substantial amount of work has already been done such as the setting up of the institutional framework.

For his part, Mr Philippe Michaud highlighted that since 2012, both Mauritius and Seychelles have achieved important milestones as regards the joint management of the extended Mauritius-Seychelles continental shelf. The signing of the contract with Spectrum ASA for the geotechnical survey in the area, he said, represents an important landmark event. He expressed confidence that 2018 will be a crucial year for the Joint Management Authority (JMA) which will be called to build a better and brighter future for the people of Mauritius and Seychelles.

Project with the UNDP

A second agreement was signed today as regards the implementation of a joint database system that will facilitate the management of the joint area. It was done by Ms Christine Umutoni, UNDP Resident Coordinator and Dr Reza Badal, Coordinator of the Mauritius-Seychelles Joint Commission .

The project, which is supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Joint Commission, amounts to US $ 17 million. It will be partially funded, up to US $ 2.2 million, by the Global Environment Facility. Spread over five years, the project will assist in marine spatial planning for the Joint Commission while enabling both countries to better communicate and exchange data in the joint area.

New opportunities for cooperation between Mauritius and Seychelles

In December 2008, Mauritius and Seychelles, both parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, made a joint submission to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) for an extended continental shelf beyond their respective 200 nautical miles of Exclusive Economic Zones in the region of the Mascarene Plateau. The area comprises a vast extent of seabed and underlying marine subsoil of approximately 396 000 km2.

The CLCS appointed a sub-commission that examined the joint submission in 2009. Following extensive deliberations, the CLCS made its recommendations in March 2011 which resulted in Mauritius and Seychelles being jointly conferred the jurisdiction upon the joint area of extended continental shelf of 396 000 km2.

This area lies beyond the boundaries of the two countries' exclusive economic zones, which opens the door to new opportunities for cooperation between the two countries, especially in terms of seabed resources with oil and gas, mineral deposits and living marine organisms.

To translate this cooperation into reality, two treaties were signed in March 2012 during the visit to Mauritius of the President of Seychelles who was the guest of honour at the National Day celebrations. The first pertains to the joint exercise of sovereign rights by Mauritius and Seychelles on the continental shelf. The second deals with the management of the seabed of the continental shelf. It defines the modalities for exploration and exploitation of the living and non-living resources of the continental shelf, while providing a favorable framework for both countries to jointly and fairly manage the continental shelf.

13th meeting of the Joint Commission

Since then, Mauritius and Seychelles have been working on the legal and institutional framework to enable activities in relation to marine resources. A Joint Commission has also been established, which is supported by a technical committee and is under the supervision of a ministerial council. Several documents have been developed including the Model Petroleum Agreement, the Environment Code of Practice, the Offshore Petroleum Safety Code, and the Joint Tax and Taxation Code. Since the treaty was established, the Joint Commission meets every year. This year, it is meeting for the 13th time and the meeting coincides with the signing of the agreement today.

During this meeting, which will be co-chaired by the Secretary to Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service, a strategic plan for the joint management of the area will be finalised.
Description

GIS - 11 January, 2018: A delegation of the Pakistan Navy Fleet headed by Rear Admiral Muhammad Amjad Kan Niazi met the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, today at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis. A delegation of the Pakistan Navy Fleet headed by Rear Admiral Muhammad Amjad Kan Niazi met the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, today at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis.

Rear Admiral Muhammad Amjad Kan Niazi described his meeting with the Prime Minister as cordial and fruitful. He underlined that it is part of a continuous effort to bring the two countries closer and strengthen existing bonds.

He highlighted that issues discussed with Prime Minister Jugnauth focused mostly on training that the Pakistani Navy can provide to fight piracy and any other maritime related issues. The Rear Admiral underscored that both countries can work together to eradicate maritime threats in the region.

It is to be recalled that Pakistani Navy regularly visits Mauritius and during the current visit two ships with a crew of 600 persons have stopped over for three days.
(TNS) - Rescue crews continued to search for survivors amid the mud and wreckage of Montecitos massive debris field on Thursday, but acknowledged that the window to save lives is rapidly closing.At least eight people remain unaccounted for following Tuesdays massive mud flow, which killed at least 17 people and obliterated scores of homes.First responders have searched approximately 75% of the debris field left by a torrent of boulders, detritus and muck, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.It is a massive operation that we have underway, still in the search and rescue mode, as mentioned, but as we transition and will transition to a recovery mode, we realize that this is going to be a long and difficult journey for all of us and for our community, he said.Emergency crews successfully rescued three people Wednesday, using helicopters to reach residents trapped in canyon areas that were rendered inaccessible by mud, downed power lines and fallen trees.We continue to work down a list of missing people and their addresses and do a much more focused search of that area, Montecito Fire District Deputy Chief Kevin Taylor said during a news briefing Wednesday.Much of the focus of Thursdays search will be on areas where rescue crews had yet to reach, said Amber Anderson, a public information officer for the multi-agency response team handling the disaster. Secondary searches also will be conducted in areas that emergency crews were able to access earlier in the week.Hundreds of people who were trapped but not injured in the slides, such as those stranded in Romero Canyon, were taken to safety on Wednesday, she said.As of Thursday morning, eight people remained missing, according to Mike Eliason, public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. Anderson could not say whether those eight people were all believed to be in areas rescue crews had yet to reach.None of the dead has been formally identified, but the names of some of those killed and missing in the mudslides have begun to trickle out.In some cases, the deluge seemed to split families as well as homes.Fabiola Benitez, 28, was swept away along with her husband and two children when her house was leveled during Tuesdays deluge, according to Lori Lieberman, a family friend. Benitezs husband and older son were rescued and hospitalized in stable condition, according to Lieberman, who said Benitez and her 9-year-old son remain missing and are feared dead.Roy Rohter, the founder of St. Augustine Academy in Ventura, was swept from his home alongside his wife on Tuesday morning, school officials said. Rohter did not survive, but his wife was rescued and said to be in stable condition, the college said in a statement earlier this week.Rebecca Riskin, a Montecito real estate agent, also was identified as one of those killed, according to a statement issued by her firm. She is survived by her husband and two children, the statement said.The surge destroyed or damaged hundreds of buildings in Montecito and washed out a 30-mile stretch of the 101 Freeway. The roadway will remain closed until at least Monday from Highway 150 to Milpas Street in Santa Barbara as crews work around the clock to clear the area of mud, cars and other debris. On the stretch of the freeway by the Montecito Inn, several feet of mud and rubble collected in the road.It looks like a swamp  theres so much stuff down there, said Jose Gonzalez, a road crew worker stationed by a bridge over the 101. Some of the locals think theres probably bodies in there. I hope not.Nearly 60 single-family residences were destroyed in Montecito, and 446 others sustained damage, according to an update published Wednesday night by the multi-agency team responding to the devastation. An additional 1,500 homes remain threatened.The debris field also cut off gas, electricity and water to much of the area. A boil water notice remains in effect for the Montecito Water District, officials said, and rescue personnel are concerned that those who survived the slide but remain trapped soon could run dangerously low on supplies.A majority of Montecito and that whole area is in the Stone Age right now, Eliason said Wednesday. Were actively pursuing trying to get in there as quick as we can to get those people to safety.Despite the devastation, some of Wednesdays searches resulted in happy endings.Sally Mobraaten, 56, arrived at an evacuation center at Santa Barbara City College on Monday night desperately looking for her missing 86-year-old mother. She thought her mother had been evacuated but could not find her.Mobraaten decided to head toward a Vons on Coast Village Road where the National Guard had been dropping people off. Along the way, she called hotels in Santa Barbara to see whether her mother was there.She had no luck, until she spotted an elderly woman wearing a red rain coat and a white hat.Thats my mother! she shouted.With the engine of her SUV still running, Mobraaten jumped out, ran to her mother and gave her a kiss.Mejia and Hamilton reported from Montecito. Queally reported from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Melissa Etehad in Montecito and Alene Tchekmedyian in Los Angeles contributed to this report.brittny.mejia@latimes.comMatt.hamilton@latimes.comjames.queally@latimes.comFollow @brittny_mejia @MattHjourno & @JamesQueallyLAT for updates on the mudslides in Montecito.2018 the Los Angeles TimesVisit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
You might have heard recently about a large study of body-worn police cameras in Washington, D.C., that shed new light on the cameras' effects. The findings -- that the cameras had little impact on police or civilian behavior -- were important, but there's a broader, equally valuable insight for mayors wanting to improve city services: The study was conducted by a group of scientists embedded within the mayor's office, called The Lab @ DC . We think every mayor should consider building a similar type of applied scientific team.The Lab's mission is to embed the scientific method into the heart of city operations to provide decision-makers with high-quality evidence that they can use to achieve better outcomes for D.C . residents. It currently has 15 experts on the team, many with PhDs in fields such as economics, mathematics and sociology. It also works with a network of researchers at nearby universities who expand the Lab's analytical capabilities.Mayor Muriel Bowser officially launched the Lab in July 2017, although it had been ramping up since 2016. Part of the Lab's value is in idea generation. When the city is dealing with a policy challenge, the team helps define the problem or opportunity and then draws on existing research and data analysis to suggest a useful approach. If that sounds academic, the topics it works on are very real. For example, the Lab used Chicago's approach of using data to help the city predict the location of rats and improve eradication efforts. The Lab also is testing whether signage on trash receptacles reduces litter, and it's planning to study whether a nurse advice line improves health outcomes and saves money on needless ambulance rides.The Lab also adds value by building a learning culture. When the city rolls out a new policy, such as the body-worn police cameras, the Lab looks for opportunities to build in evaluation. That way city officials can determine whether the new policy actually achieves the hoped-for results. The Lab specializes in low-cost yet credible research. The body-worn camera study, for example, was both rigorous (using a randomized design, like a drug trial) and low-cost (using data already being collected).A particular focus of the Lab's work has been on designing interventions that improve customer service at low cost. For example, it examined how to simplify and clarify city forms that people use to apply for benefits, services or permits. In doing this work, it used a unique approach, hosting a community design session to work on the forms with nearly 100 attendees on a Saturday -- a "formapalooza," as it was called. The Lab invited attendees back a few months later to see the finished versions.So how can cities afford to expand their analytical capabilities, drawing on the example of The Lab @ DC? One option is to obtain a foundation grant, as the Lab did. That grant covers most of the staff salaries, allowing the team to operate as a proof of concept for a few years, working to demonstrate its value and hopefully justify an eventual city investment. Another option is to draw on existing talent within a city government, such as agency staff with strong research and analytical skills. A city can start with one or two people and empower them to build and use data and evidence to improve city services. In fact, The Lab @ DC started with two people and then expanded after the foundation grant.A small team can use creative ways to build capacity for free, such as bringing in academic researchers for a semester using temporary assignment-of-personnel agreements, or who are on sabbatical and want to gain experience helping tackle real-world city challenges. Once a core team is in place, it can further expand its capacity by partnering with university-based researchers.There are, of course, other good examples of researcher-practitioner partnerships, often called policy labs, that are helping governments move from wanting to use data and evidence to actually having the capacity to do that. Yet few of them are embedded within city government, ensuring a tight link between researchers' efforts and analytical tools -- data analysis, rigorous low-cost evaluation and rapid experimentation -- and the needs of city decision-makers. That's why The Lab @ DC is an initiative that every mayor should learn about and then ask themselves: How could our city build similar capacity?
(TNS)  The Bakersfield Police Department has the green light to move forward with implementation of the gunshot-detecting ShotSpotter system.The Bakersfield City Council unanimously approved an agreement with ShotSpotter Technology Inc. at its Wednesday night meeting. The company will install about 70 sensors in Bakersfield that detect and record gunfire and alert the police  within less than a minute  to the location of the gunfire."We believe ShotSpotter will help us achieve our goals by building community trust, improving police service and making our city a safer place," Capt. Joe Mullins said at the meeting. "A faster response time to incidents is critical to effective public safety. Getting to the scene faster means getting aid to the victims quicker, evidence is obtained and retained and witnesses are still on scene and can be identified."The council also approved the appropriation of $430,000 from a federal Project Safe Neighborhoods grant to help pay for the implementation of the system.The grant covers the installation and operation of the system for two years, paying for its installation, training for officers, and evaluation of the systems effectiveness.The grant doesnt cover a subscription to the data provided by ShotSpotter. The city is matching $103,451 from the Board of Community Corrections Trust to help pay for costs that the grant doesnt cover.If the BPD decides it wants to continue using the system, the department will have to obtain additional funding or set aside some of its own budget for it.The sensors will be placed within a three-square-mile area that runs north from Brundage Lane to California Avenue and east from Chester Avenue to Washington Street, with legs that continue north through the Baker Street neighborhood.The BPD said they have decided to focus on that area because 28 percent of reported gunfire comes from the area  and it represents just 2 percent of the citys land area."We had a school assembly for a bunch of sixth-graders at Bessie Owens School and asked how many of them had ever heard gunshots," Mullins said. "They all raised their hands, and some of them laughed and said they heard gunshots on their way to school that day. This is unacceptable in our city. This sort of acceptance  this learned helplessness  leads to an erosion of faith in the law and in law enforcement."Councilman Willie Rivera and Andrae Gonzales both expressed their excitement and appreciation for the ShotSpotter system."The ShotSpotter gunshot detection system is something I think southeast Bakersfield certainly stands to benefit from," Rivera said. "I'm really interested in seeing how it helps us out in the field over the next two years. I think it's a welcomed addition to this community."Added Gonzales: "I'm very excited to see what comes of it. I'm interested in seeing the aggregate data once we deploy all of this new technology."Police Chief Lyle Martin said in a December Safe Neighborhoods and Community Relations Committee meeting that the goal is to finish installation of the sensors by mid-February. The system would then be tested with practice fires. The goal is to have the system fully operational by early March.In other matters, the City Council approved a contract between the BPD and the Bakersfield City School District to employ two full-time school resource officers.BPD said it worked with the district last year to come up with the pilot program, which is aimed at reducing chronic absenteeism and truancy, violence, drug and alcohol use and other disciplinary issues.Under the contract, the officers will work Feb. 1 through June 30. If that goes well, BPD will consider a more long-term commitment with BCSD.Officers will be paid $5,837 by the school district every two weeks during the work period, according to the contract. For the most part, the district will not be charged when school is not in session.
(TNS)  Emergency alerts warning of flooding, tornadoes or other looming disasters could be targeted to specific neighborhoods under proposed upgrades to the nation's emergency alerts system, filling a gap exposed during Hurricane Harvey.The proposed changes, announced Tuesday by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, would allow officials to use "device-based geo-targeting" to send alerts to all the cellphones in areas as small as one-tenth of a mile in radius. The current Wireless Emergency Alerts system only allows officials to target all cellphones in a county."If adopted, it will be the single most important improvement to the nation's alerts and warnings infrastructure in years," said Francisco Sanchez, Harris County's deputy emergency management coordinator.He said that the current system's lack of precision was particularly problematic during Hurricane Harvey, which battered all 1,700 square miles of Harris County for days on end, overwhelming 911 systems and forcing officials to use mobile applications like Nextdoor to communicate with residents in dangerous areas.As controlled releases began upstream of Buffalo Bayou, for example, Sanchez said OEM had two choices: send evacuation alerts to every cellphone in the county, possibly pushing tens of thousands of people out of their safe homes and into deadly floodwaters, or hope that thousands of people along the bayou would check social media during the night."I would have loved to have been able to draw a polygon around Buffalo Bayou and say, 'Hey, water is being released, expect water to rise,'" Sanchez said. "But because I didn't have that granularity, that message would have gone countywide."The 49-page proposal unveiled by Pai largely mirrors suggestions from some of the nation's largest public safety organizations. The recommendations, if approved at the FCC's Jan. 30 meeting in Washington, D.C., would also require the upgrades to be implemented by November 2019  years earlier than had been requested by companies including AT&T and Verizon Wireless.Such changes have long been opposed by the nation's top telecommunications companies, which argue that the upgrades would be expensive and could potentially overload their networks.The FCC in 2016 quadrupled the maximum length of a wireless alert to 360 characters and pushed for more alerts in Spanish. But wireless carriers do not currently have to assist with narrowing alert targeting to specific neighborhoods, and have lobbied heavily against any such requirements.But emergency management officials say those concerns should be secondary to the safety of Americans.In a Friday letter to the FCC, leaders from five of the nation's largest public safety groups said the technology for implementing more precise alerts is already in place."Phones are capable of precise geo-targeting today and WEA must have access to these capabilities," the group wrote. "Without the ability to geo-target our alert originators will continue to use WEA sparingly or not at all.""This is a shame," the letter continued. "An effective WEA can literally mean the difference between life and death."That sentiment has been shared by a bipartisan group of representatives from disaster-prone areas around the country. After officials from Sonoma County, California cited lack of precision as one of their reasons not to deploy WEAs during historic wildfires last year, California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris wrote a joint letter to the FCC stressing the need for upgrades.Texas Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, voiced similar concerns in the wake of Harvey."Almost 11 years (after Hurricane Katrina), we continue to witness event after tragic event where an effective and reliable emergency alert system could have saved lives," he wrote in a Sept. 27 opinion column for the"As we are in hurricane season and face more natural and man-made disasters in our future, our citizens deserve and need a device-based public alert system now that will deliver timely and accurate information to those who find themselves in harm's way."Hamilton Bean, a University of Colorado-Denver professor who's studied WEAs extensively, said Tuesday that the recommendations were "a step in the right direction."Bean, however, said that until more precise technology is officially adopted, emergency managers will have to be careful with when or how they deploy alerts."It is a dilemma: Risk sending WEAs to the wrong people, prompting them to opt out of the notifications altogether, or delay sending potentially life-saving alerts for a year or two until precision improves," he said. "I do not envy any emergency manager who has to make that kind of cost-benefit calculation."
A senate committee is considering a bill that could bring an end to some of Washington states largest salmon farms.

Senate Bill 6086, heard in committee on Tuesday, Jan. 9, is sponsored by 11 Democratic senators and calls for a ban on the use of Atlantic salmon and other non-native fish in marine aquaculture.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, as part of his propo...
Chase Carey has given Copenhagen the thumbs-up as a potential grand prix venue of the future.

The Danish capital is vying to secure a place on the 2020 grid with a city street circuit.

"We are very excited to explore the possibility of a race here in Denmark," F1 chief executive Carey told BT newspaper during his visit on Wednesday.

"We have talked a lot about the importance of our events being at iconic locations that capture the world's interest, and I think Copenhagen does that," he added.

However, there are some hurdles. Private investors are still raising money and trying to secure the full support of government and the community.

And they would prefer an initial three-year race deal.

But Carey said: "Our goal is to have long term partnerships that benefit both sides."

The government, however, is supportive, with industry minister Brian Mikkelsen attending Wednesday's meeting with Carey.

"We had a really good meeting with Chase Carey," he said. "The Danish government is interested in attracting major sporting events, and formula one is definitely that.

"I have told Chase that the Danish government supports this project and is willing to discuss the economics. But we will not be funding the majority."

Carey would not say how close F1 is to a Danish grand prix deal.

"I do not want to say anything about how close we are, as we are interested in many places in the world. But Copenhagen is a special city and we have an opportunity to do something and make this a win-win for everyone," he said.

(GMM)
A journalist has defended his claim that Williams has definitely decided to sign Sergey Sirotkin instead of Robert Kubica for 2018.

Among those reporting the news about Russian Sirotkin's soon-to-be-announced deal the most confidently in recent days has been British journalist Andrew Benson.

He now tells the Polish publication Sportowe Fakty: "The team told me that the results on the track was the primary reason for signing Sirotkin.

"It turned out that the Abu Dhabi test was crucial," Benson added.

He said Sirotkin was consistently quicker than former BMW and Renault driver Kubica in qualifying trim.

"I also received information that even Robert told team management about his problems adapting to the new tyres supplied by Pirelli," Benson said.

"Williams decided that in their situation there was no room for risk."

Benson concludes that F1 will therefore "probably never see Kubica return to formula one" after the Williams setback.

And he played down the role played by Sirotkin's reported $20 million sponsorship purse, thanks to his support by the Vladimir Putin-linked SMP bank.

"Robert was able to provide about EUR 8 million, but Sirotkin at least doubled this amount," said Benson.

"But in reality money is just a bonus from a driver. If Kubica was twice as good as Sirotkin, he would be in the car this season.

"Nobody seems to remember that Renault stopped working with Robert for exactly the same reason as Williams did," he added.

"It sounds harsh, but those are the facts," said Benson.

"Almost no one in the paddock didn't want to see Robert back on the grid. He is one of the greatest unfulfilled talents in the history of the sport.

"It would have been great PR for Williams and brought F1 a lot of new fans, and the FIA also saw the benefit and lobbied for his candidacy.

"Clearly it wasn't an easy decision for Williams," he added. "They're now being criticised all over the world and some are saying Stroll-Sirotkin is the worst Williams driver lineup ever. Are they right? Time will tell.

"But when making decisions, there is no room in F1 for sentimentality," said Benson.

(GMM)
The law firm of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP has filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Ford and Bosch of knowingly installing emissions-cheating software devices in 2011-2017 Ford 250 and 350 Super Duty diesel pickup trucks, allowing the affected pickups to pollute at levels up to 50 times legal limits. Ford called the claim baseless.

Hagens Berman is the same firm responsible for emissions lawsuits against Fiat Chrysler, Mercedes, General Motors and Volkswagen. The firm said that it conducted independent testing of the 2011-2017 Ford 250 and 350 Super Duty trucks, which revealed emissions of harmful pollutants including NO x at up to 50 times legal emissions standards. The suit adds that the diesel Super Duty trucks that pollute at illegal levels cost $8,400 more than their gasoline counterparts. Even in average stop-and-go conditions, emissions are routinely as high as five times the standard, the suit says.

The class action hits Ford and Bosch with a total 58 counts of violations of state consumer laws, false advertising laws, deceptive trade laws as well as violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), adding that Ford did not act alone, but colluded with Bosch in an organized scheme to evade emissions requirements, for sake of profit.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District for the Eastern District of Michigan, states that the trucks touted performance, power and towing capabilities are only obtained by switching off or turning down emissions controls when the software senses the vehicle is not in an emissions-testing environment.

Resources
Under the terms of the five-year research and development partnership, researchers from the Nissan Research Center in Silicon Valley and NASA Ames have been working together to advance autonomous vehicle systems. In January 2017, at CES in Las Vegas, Nissan introduced Nissan Seamless Autonomous Mobility (SAM), a new platform for managing fleets of autonomous vehicles, developed from NASA technology.

Nissan North America announced an agreement with NASA Ames Research Center to collaborate on research and technology development for future autonomous mobility services, including a working demonstration in Silicon Valley. This update to the existing 5-year research collaboration between Nissan and NASA announced in 2015 ( earlier post ) builds on previous success to define a new scope of activities into 2019.

This new phase in the joint collaboration will build on that success to develop the technology further and to test the use of SAM for managing autonomous transportation services, ahead of public implementations.

We built SAM from technology NASA developed for managing interplanetary rovers as they move around unpredictable landscapes. Our goal is to deploy SAM to help third-party organizations safely integrate a fleet of autonomous vehicles in unpredictable urban environments, for example ride-hailing services, public transportation or logistics and delivery services. The final stage of our existing research agreement with NASA will bring us closer to that goal and test SAM in a working demonstration on public streets. Maarten Sierhuis, director of the Nissan Research Center in Silicon Valley

One of NASAs strategic goals is to transfer the technology developed to advance NASA mission and program objectives to broader commercial and social applications. Using NASAs work in robotics to accelerate the deployment of autonomous mobility services is a perfect example of how the considerable work required to advance space exploration can also pioneer advances here on Earth. Eugene Tu, Center Director, NASA Ames

The research collaboration with NASA is part of Nissans roadmap for the technology and business evolution of the automotive industry, called Nissan Intelligent Mobility. This roadmap consists of three workstreams of inter-related innovations in autonomous drive (Intelligent Drive), electrification (Intelligent Power) and infrastructure technologies (Intelligent Integration). SAM represents a major milestone in Nissan Intelligent Integration, providing the infrastructure safely and seamlessly to integrate autonomous mobility services into existing urban environments.
By evolving cars eyes through image sensor-based viewing and sensing, Sony aims to contribute to enabling a higher level of safety and to advance the realization of autonomous driving.

In addition to showcasing its new lineup of consumer products such as 4K OLED televisions, smartphones and wireless noise-cancelling stereo headsets, Sony used CES to introduce its safety cocoon concept, which signifies the creation of an area of enhanced safety around a vehicle where it can monitor and detect the 360-degree surroundings and prepare for danger avoidance from an early stage in a variety of driving situations.

Kaz Hirai, Sony Corporation Chief Executive Officer & President, discusses the role of Sonys automotive image sensors at CES 2018.

Sony announced its intention to commercialize image sensors for automotive use in 2014. In October of that year, the company announced the commercialization of the IMX224MQV CMOS image sensor for automotive cameras. That sensor is capable of capturing high-resolution color images even in light conditions as low as 0.005 luxdarker than a star-filled night sky. Mass production and shipment commenced in May 2016. This sensor allows the quick and effective detection of obstacles and people in parking lots, on dark nights, and in other situations that would challenge the naked eye.

In 2015, Sony acquired Belgium-based Softkinetic Systems S.A. (now known as Sony Depthsensing Solutions Holding SA/NV), which possesses time-of-flight (ToF) image sensor technology for distance detection.

With ToF technology, the distance to an object is measured by the time it takes for light from a light source to reach the object and reflect back to the sensor. ToF image sensors detect distance information for every pixel, resulting in highly accurate depth maps. To further improve accuracy from near to far distances, reflected light must be efficiently received and the signal processing must be executed at a high frame rate.

Combining the technological expertise of both companies, Sony is developing its future solutions for the areas such as smartphone, robotics, and automotive. ToF image sensors are already being applied in the automotive field to enable gesture control, and going forward they will be used for an ever-increasing range of applications crucial to the realization of advanced autonomous driving. These include the development of HMI (Human Machine Interfaces) that can track the status of drivers and passengers.

In April 2017, Sony introduced the IMX390CQV high-sensitivity CMOS image sensor. The sensor is equipped with an LED flicker mitigation function that reduces flickering when shooting LED signs and traffic signals, as well as an HDR function capable of 120dB wide dynamic range shooting. The sensor can do both simultaneously.

It is capable of accurately recognizing traffic signs with LED and adjacent vehicles LED lamps while capturing high-quality images with a wide dynamic range, even in situations with a wide contrast gap, such as when entering or exiting tunnels during daylight hours. The product is ready for use in forward-sensing cameras and cameras for Camera Monitoring System (CMS), an application expected to grow as a substitute for conventional rearview mirrors, and expected to show persons and obstacles on an in-car monitor with clear visibility. Sample shipment began in May 2017.

In October 2017, Sony releases a 7.42 effective megapixel stacked CMOS image sensor for automotive cameras. The IMX324 is intended for forward-sensing cameras in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). Sample shipment began in November 2017. This image sensor is capable of high-definition image capture of distant road signs up to approximately 160 meters ahead.

Furthermore, this image sensor is expected to be compatible with the EyeQ4 and EyeQ5 image processors currently being developed by Mobileye, an Intel Company, for use in ADAS and autonomous vehicle technology.

In December 2017, Sony released a back-illuminated, time-of-flight (ToF) image sensor which is 1/2-type, VGA resolution and that delivers improved depth sensing performance. Sony will start shipping sample units in April 2018.

The new sensor is part of Sonys DepthSense lineup, a group of depth-sensing image sensor products with range finding capability, and it is the first product in the lineup to adopt a back-illuminated ToF configuration.

Compact sensors that can provide accurate depth maps are used for various applications such as gesture recognition, object recognition, and obstacle detection, as well as for robotics and drones that require autonomous operations, or virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality systems, for which market expansion is anticipated. The small size of the new product was achieved thanks to development of a 10m square pixel, with highly accurate distance measurement performance from close to far distances, which can be used in a wide range of applications in these fields.

The new sensor adopts a back-illuminated CMOS image sensor architecture and allows for more accurate detection of the reflected light because of improved sensor sensitivity. While conventional ToF sensor has difficulty in measuring far distance of approximately 10 meters, the new product comes with a sensitivity raising mode, enabling distance measurement with a high rate of detection at these distances. It is also possible to capture high-precision depth maps in a VGA resolution at close distances of approximately 30 centimeters to 1 meter.

Additionally, because this sensor captures depth maps for each frame, it enables image capture at a higher frame rate than when using a laser to scan the object for distance measurement. This reduces distortion of moving subjects in depth maps.
In an effort further to strengthen its e-mobility activities, the Volkswagen brand is creating a separate Board of Management division for e-mobility. The newly created e-mobility division will be responsible for all Volkswagen electric vehicles and for the development of Europes largest competence center for electric vehicles in Zwickau.

With effect from 1 February 2018, responsibility for the division is to be assumed by Thomas Ulbrich, previously Board of Management Member of the Volkswagen brand responsible for Production and Logistics. Ulbrich is to be succeeded, also with effect from February 2018, as Board Member for Production by Dr. Andreas Tostmann, previously Executive Vice-President for Production of the SEAT brand.

Ulbrich holds a degree in automotive engineering and has worked for the Volkswagen Group since 1989. In 1996, he became Head of Logistics at FAW-Volkswagen in China. Following further positions in Wolfsburg and Emden, he became Technical Managing Director and Speaker of the Management Board of Auto 5000 in Wolfsburg in 2001.

In 2008, he was appointed Board of Management member responsible for Production at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and, in 2010, Technical Executive Vice President of Shanghai-Volkswagen in China. Since April 2014, he has been Board of Management Member of the Volkswagen brand responsible for Production and Logistics.
Morgan Whitney, a musician from Salt Lake City, performs at the American Legion Tom Whitmore Post 28 Saturday night as part of the yearly Music for Vets benefit.

Anyone passing by the American Legion Tom Whitmore Post 28 in Green River Saturday night would have heard the building barely containing the music coming from within.

Inside, a packed house listened to local musicians, as well as those from Denver, Salt Lake City and Wisconsin as they hosted a benefit for veterans in the area. The American Legion hosted the fourth Music for Vets performance last weekend, which benefits the legion's Veteran's Relief Fund, a program providing cash grants to help veterans in need throughout the area.

Tom Niemic, the post's commander, said the fund helps veterans throughout the community, as well as helps traveling veterans who breakdown as they going through the area.

"We get a lot of calls from Little America," Niemic said.

He said they also work with the Archie Hay Post 24 in Rock Springs when it comes to assisting vets.

Members of the band Zamtrip have organized the performances since the first Music for Vets in Rock Springs. Kyle Zampedri, one of the band's members, said the event first started as a simple concert, but they shifted its focus to a veterans' benefit as a way to have support the community.

Kyle said they contacted other musicians they've met while touring, which helped bring more support for the concert and fill out the concert.

Niemic said the post had visitors from both Salt Lake City and Denver driving to Green River to support their favorite performers.

"We thought 'why not give back to the people who ensure we can live the life we do,'" Kyle's brother and bandmate Cory Zampedri said.

Zamtrips's focus on Green River came after Tom Whitmore Post 28 allowed the band to host their CD release party at the building.

"They treated us so well, we decided to give back to the post in Green River," the third Zampedri brother, Cody, said.

Kyle believes the event has outgrown the American Legion's building, but wants to keep the benefit in Green River next year and wants to continue supporting the Tom Whitmore Post. That commitment to Green River and the post stem from they community support they've received.

"We're trying to grow this thing and make it huge," Kyle said.
Sweetwater County School District No. 2 will initiate a voluntary separation program.

The districts board of trustees voted Tuesday night to approve the voluntary separation program after a 24 minute executive session on the topic.

The bottom line is we are avoiding laying people off, board member Steve Core said.

Information regarding the program was unavailable on the districts website prior to the meeting.

According to Donna Little-Kaumo, superintendent of the school district, the programs details are being worked out between the district, a consulting firm and the districts attorneys. She said eligible employees will receive a hand-delivered letter Jan. 22 describing the program, with an application attached.

Funding for the program will come from the districts reserve monies.

Little-Kaumo said she anticipates a final list of employees approved to take part in the program to be completed in time for a vote during the boards February board meeting.

The program comes in response to the district moving to close Jackson Elementary School at the end of the school year and a possible $3.99 million decline in funding from the state.

Little-Kaumo said the $3.99 million amount represents a worst-case scenario after legislators decide how to fund the states school systems.

With declining enrollment and a state government looking to cut back on education spending, the district faces increased pressure to reduce its costs. Little-Kaumo said changes to how the state pays districts based on their enrollment, as well as recommendations being made to increase class sizes starting with the fourth grade and changes proposed to how school insurance programs will all result in decreased funding amounts to the district.

While there is some good news in a few recommendations seeking more money for instructional facilitators, materials and teacher salaries, the district will still see funding declines.
The Bureau of Land Management responded to the Sweetwater County Commissioners letter about the removal of juniper trees on Little Mountain with a letter of its own.

After reading this letter, Commissioner Wally Johnson spoke to the issue at the Commissioners recent meeting.

Im very disappointed, not surprised, Johnson said.

In December, the Commissioners sent a letter to the BLM letting the BLM know they felt the money being spent to remove the juniper trees on the west side of Little Mountain would be better spent on removing the dead and dying trees on the top of Little Mountai...
Eric Aldinger, 75, of Green River, passed away quietly Thursday Jan. 4, 2018, in Salt Lake City.

He was born Sept. 17, 1942, in Torun, Poland while that region was occupied by German troops. His parents were Annie Gabriella Germin of Austria and Gotthilf Aldinger of Besserarabia, Ukraine.

The family moved to Stuttgart, Germany as the troops pulled back from Poland. The family was sponsored for emigration to the U.S. and arrived in Montana in 1951.

He learned English in Glendive, Mont., and graduated from high school in Spokane, Wash. He attended WSU, where he met his wife, Carol. They wer...
As Green River continues to face economic challenges, were happy to see people still believe in establishing businesses in the city.

Last week, the Green River City Council approved a liquor license for the Town Bar and Grill, a restaurant aiming to open up downtown on Railroad Avenue. Work continues on a Taco Bell location near the old Sweetwater Ford building and OReilly Auto Parts shop. Of course theres the ongoing renovations at the Tomahawk Building too, which we believe will ultimately create a economic beacon in downtown Green River.

Green River is worth investing in and pe...
Nineteen medical students from across Wyoming, attending the University of Washington School of Medicine at the University of Wyoming, are moving on to the clinical phase of their education. Among those students is JayCee Mikesell, a second-year medical student from Green River.

The students are all part of WWAMI, a partnership between the UW School of Medicine and the states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho, to offer residents state-supported medical education with a goal to increase the physician workforce in these states.

During a ceremony on Dec. 11, they were presente...
A Green River author who was once again recognized for her writing was delighted by the news of her award.

Christine Alethea Williams, who's pen name is Alethea Williams, the author of "Naapiikoan Winter" recently received third place from the Will Rogers Medallion Award Committee in the inspirational fiction category. She also received a bronze from the Independent Publisher Book awards in the Best Regional E-Book, fiction category. This book was also a finalist in the Laramie Awards and Goethe Awards.

This isn't the first time Williams has received an award for a book she wrote. William...
HARRISBURG  Gourds are in. Needlework is out.

Baskets are in. Decorated bowling pins are out.

The Family Living displays feature a fun, creative side of the 102nd Pennsylvania Farm Show. Here, people from across the state have entered everything from basic pillowcases to a chandelier made of deer antlers.

We have quite a variety of displays, said Diana Bissett, Family Living crafts superintendent.

A walk through the department, located in the Main Exhibition Hall, verified this.

The gourds seem to be everywhere. Ann Kroh of New Bloomfield seems especially gifted in gourd art. She made one gourd into a tall mother cat with four small gourds as her kittens. She made another gourd into a polar bear. She painted yet another gourd hot pink and made it a flamingo birdhouse.

Robert Shatto of New Cumberland turned a gourd into a whimsical snowman.

Others entered the hobbies division, making colorful greeting cards (no computer-generated cards permitted), decorating clay flower pots and pincushions, making crafts out of duct tape and making tote bags, purses, ornaments and mug rugs also known as coasters.

Amber Grew of Mechanicsburg appeared to have fun in the Jazzy Jar contest, turning a Mason jar on its side, painting it and giving it a snout, feet and antlers.

People who sewed, or wished they did, have been looking at the clothing and other handmade items.

Christmas Blessings, a colorful and intricately designed quilt made by Cheryl Maulfair of Lebanon, seemed to draw the most of attention in the Best of Show winners circle.

The textile displays, mostly clothing but also everything from afghans to aprons, seemed a little smaller than usual. Many of the aprons looked decidedly old-fashioned. Several dresses were made in floral patterns while the special occasion dresses were in solid colors. Coats and jackets were in dark, mostly subdued colors.

Emma Boling, Family Living Department canned goods specialist, said the number of Family Living canned good entries increased since last year. Canned good categories are fruit, vegetables, fermented vegetables, jams and jellies.

A lot of people grow fruit and vegetables, then can them, she said. We also got a lot of dried corn this year. Thats good to use in soup.

Asked if the food category has any unusual entries, Boling smiled.

Heres some corn cob jelly, she said. Over here we have cherry tomato jam and some peach salsa.

Youths in the 4-H Opportunities area entered everything from posters to photography and from electricity to entomology.

The Farm Show runs through 5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free while parking is $15 a vehicle.
HARRISBURG  While goat milk hasnt gone mainstream, its getting closer, several dairy goat owners said Thursday at the 102nd Pennsylvania Farm Show.

The market for goat milk is strong, Helen Snyder, Farm Show Dairy Goat superintendent, said during junior dairy goat showmanship judging on the Farm Shows sixth day. The Farm Show runs through 5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free but parking is $15 a vehicle.

Goats are front and center during the last three Farm Show days, with junior dairy goat showmanship on Thursday, open dairy goat judging on Friday and a Boer (meat) goat show on Saturday.

Snyder, who has been raising dairy goats for 44 years, called goat milk the most consumed milk in the world.

We have a demand for goat milk, and we are producing it, she said. But theres a link missing from that chain and thats the goat milk processors.

She said Pennsylvanias dairy goat industry took a hit when Trickling Springs Creamery of Chambersburg, one of the few large dairies that handled goat milk, stopped buying and processing it. Some small goat dairies went out of business, she said, while others tried to find new ways to use their milk.

Vermont Creamery in Webersville, Vermont, processes goat milk, she said. But its pretty far away. That creamery started in 1984 on an 80-goat dairy farm. Today, 20 Vermont goat farms ship their milk there.

Snyder called Pennsylvania a good state for dairy and meat goats.

Goat meat is the most consumed meat in the world, she said, adding that it is more than 50 percent lower in fat than beef and 40 percent lower than chicken yet has a high protein rating. Goat milk is the most popular milk, she said. But a lot of people have never tasted either.

She said goat owners are trying to change that. In the Food Court, the Pennsylvania Livestock Association has been selling goat sloppy joes. A goat and three of her kids are on display in one of the Maclay Street lobbies.

On Thursday, the public also spent time in the Farm Show Complex Northwest Hall, where dairy goats were competing in the show ring and Boer (meat) goats were being groomed in preparation for showing. Snyder said 411 dairy goats were being judged. One of them was Rosie, a 3-year-old Lamancha owned by Kali Snyder, 9, of Liverpool.

Ive been coming to the Farm Show since I was 2, said the Greenwood Elementary School fourth-grade student. I like the competition.

Abby Beidel of Newville brought seven goats to the Farm Show in her fathers cattle truck. The Big Spring High School ninth-grader said that in addition to showing goats, she has been educating the public.

People ask a lot of questions about goats, she said as a family photographed and petted her friendly goats. I got my first goat when I was 8 and having a birthday party at a roller skating rink. My Aunt Heather Ocker gave me a black Nubian goat named Flower. 

Beidel, whose goats have names like Frosty, LuLu and Harley, said she considers her goats to be pets. Each has her own name, she said. My goats are sassy, curious, intelligent and wonderful. I love them.

Robert Diehl of Wheatfield Township was grooming Marshmallow, a 5-year-old Saanen. My wife and I have 20 meat goats and 20 dairy goats, he said, adding that they brought six goats to the Farm Show. He said goats are a way of life for the couple, who previously were beef farmers.

My wife had goats when she was growing up, he said. So she wanted goats as a novelty. We bought one and it screamed for attention. So we bought another one to keep her company. It grew from there.

Eventually, they got out of the beef business and into the goat business.

Like other dairy goat owners, Diehl laments the fact that nobody around here processes goat milk. We drink our goat milk. I grew up drinking raw cow milk and theres not much difference between that and goat milk. We also feed it to market calves and use it to make cheese and soap.

The Diehls milk their goats twice daily, getting between one and two gallons of milk each day from each goat. They also raise Boers, which they sell at Carlisle Livestock market or Middleburg Livestock Market.

We like raising goats, he said, adding that they have quirks. They dont like to get their feet wet. Our goats wont even walk on the dew. During the blizzards last year, we had to shovel a path from the barn to the water tubs because they wouldnt walk in the snow.

Skip Bowen of York Haven was trimming one of the 10 Boers he brought to the Farm Show.

The goat meat industry is doing very well, he said, adding that he has 60 Boers at home. More and more people are eating goat meat, although the biggest market is immigrants.

Kyle Miller of Newport said he considers his 20 dairy goats a hobby.

We milk them every 12 hours, getting an average of 8 pounds of milk a day from each, he said. Goats are fun. If you have a bad day, just spend time with your goats and youll feel better. They are excellent therapy.
HARRISBURG  The January thaw came at a perfect time Wednesday for seven sheep and thousands of visitors at the sheep-to-shawl contest at the 102nd Pennsylvania Farm Show.

As temperatures climbed to the 40s outside, visitors inside shed their coats. Meanwhile, shearers removed the heavy woolen coats of the sheep so that seven teams, including one from Cumberland County, could turn the fleece into shawls.

The fifth day of the agricultural exposition featured a meatball showdown, speed horse demonstration, antique tractor pull, bid calling contest and more. The Farm Show runs through 5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free while parking is $15 a vehicle.

By midafternoon, the wild, woolly sheep-to-shawl contest was in the spotlight. A sheep to shawl contest involves a team shearing a sheep, spinning the wool into yarn and using it to make a 22 by 78 inch shawl with five inches of fringe on each end, all in 2 hours.

Time Warp of Montour County was named grand champion for the 11th year and seventh consecutive year and sold its shawl at auction for $675.

Friends Thru Fiber of Franklin County finished second and sold its shawl for $900 while For the Love of Ewe, Cumberland Countys team, finished third and sold its shawl for $900.

State Agriculture Deputy Cheryl Cook kicked off the contest after shearers did a preliminary removal of fleece from the bellies of the sheep. When Cook told them to begin shearing, they got to work.

Using electric shears, muscle and know-how, they grabbed their sheep, sat them on their rumps and began shearing wool. Soon, the shorn sheep were beside piles of fluffy fleece.

Hoyt Emmons of Pennsburg, who shears for the Cumberland County team, sheared a 2-year-old pregnant Romney ewe named Charlotte. Emmons shears about 2,000 sheep annually in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

Dan Dailey of Chambersburg, shearer for Friends Thru Fiber of Franklin County, had no problems shearing a Corriedale sheep from the flock of team member Joyce Mellott. Dailey, who has been shearing for 47 years, said the team spends all year planning its sheep-to-shawl project.

As the shorn sheep were led back to their stalls teams got to work. Team members used wire brushes to card or comb the fleece to remove debris and make the fibers go in one direction.

Piles of fluffy fleece were given to the three spinners who sat at their foot-operated spinning wheels and spun the fibers into long strands of yarn. They wound that on wooden bobbins and passed them to the weavers for the next couple hours.

Members of For the Love of Ewe, mostly members of Christian Life Assembly Church in Upper Allen Township, included sisters Rachel Logue, a weaver, and Lisa Logue, a spinner; Michelle Gaydos of Mechanicsburg, a carder, and her daughter, Hannah, who slipped off her shoes to work a spinner; and Dot Helmick of Newberry Township.

For the first hour or so, teams seemed relaxed. But they became more intense as the contest deadline approached. Their pace increased and participants talked less, worked more and looked determined.

The loom of the Loyalhannon Spinners broke when the warp threads separated from the apron end of the loom.

We had no tension, said Liza Seiner, weaver. I had nothing to pull against. Contest timekeeper Sara Bixler helped her make a repair so tension could be restored.

That was terribly stressful, Seiner said. I thought we were done but after the loom was fixed we kept going. We finished our shawl in two hours and 15 minutes.

In the final minutes, teams tied fringes on the shawls, checked their shawls and ran them to the four judges before taking a break.

Earlier in the day, prizes were given to winners in the fleece-to-shawl contest, held for youth participants.

Libby Beiler, Time Warp weaver, said her team was honored to take first place. Competition was tough, she said. Every year, teams get more creative and set the bar higher.
WASHINGTON  Bipartisan negotiators hoping to resolve the standoff over so-called Dreamers brought their proposed immigration package to the White House on Thursday, but were quickly rebuffed by President Donald Trump and GOP leaders, who advised them to broaden their group to include other lawmakers.

The swift rejection, during a meeting in the Oval Office, shows how difficult it will be for Congress to develop a legislative solution to protect some 700,000 young immigrants when Trump ends the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in March.

The White House also made clear it does not want to include as part of the deal the Dream Act, which would expand the existing program, according to Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who took part in meeting. Instead, the administration is seeking to protect a narrower universe of young immigrants who already have temporary DACA protections.

I think we still have a ways to go, White House legislative director Marc Short told reporters on Capitol Hill. Were pleased the bipartisan members are talking.

The meeting comes after a federal judge this week issued an injunction halting Trumps plans to end DACA, providing the immigrants with temporary relief. The administration plans to appeal.

More than 1,000 DACA recipients daily will face deportation in March, advocates say. They are young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children, but have temporary permits under DACA to work, attend school or serve in the military.

Only one Democrat, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois  a leader of the bipartisan Senate group  was among the seven lawmakers at the noontime meeting. It included Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., another leader of the bipartisan group, and four other House and Senate lawmakers.

Cotton, who has emerged as one of the strongest proponents of White House plans to limit legal immigration, called the bipartisan senators proposal a joke.

Its not even a fig leaf. Its a pine needle, Cotton told reporters after the meeting.

When House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told Trump that a separate group of congressional leaders was planning to continue its own discussions later Thursday, the president told them: Go do that, according to Cotton.

The Senate groups proposal focused on four elements that had been agreed to during a meeting Trump convened with lawmakers earlier this week at the White House.

Their proposal centered on a deal that would offer Dream Act-like deportation protections for the young immigrants in exchange for border security measures and new limits on legal immigration through family unification visas and the diversity lottery.

Cotton said the border security measures were insufficient, though, and only included one year of funding for development of Trumps proposed border wall, far short of the $18 billion the White House has requested from Congress. The proposal would have provided $1.6 billion for border security.

The groups proposal also did not fully end family unification, also known as chain migration, and only delayed the ability of Dreamers to bring in some other family members, including their adult siblings.

Similarly, the diversity lottery was not eliminated, as some are seeking, but instead shifted its 50,000 annual visas to other immigrant groups, namely Salvadorans and others who must leave the country as Trump ends their under temporary protected status.

Republican leaders distanced themselves from the bipartisan group.

McCarthys group includes the four No. 2 leaders in the House and Senate, which includes Durbin, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the GOP Whip.

Cornyn told reporters any deal needs support from more than the six senators who comprised the bipartisan group.

Its not going to be done by just a sub group, he said.
During the extended sub-freezing temperatures, I heard from Sam, a faith-based volunteer who serves Meals on Wheels.

Sam was trying to get help for Joe, a man in his 70s who lives alone in small travel-trailer that is no longer towable. Joe is living on the edge of poverty in conditions that threaten his life.

Joes trailer has no water. A space heater struggles to keep temperatures inside the thin walls above freezing. For all of its limitations, the once-abandoned trailer now contains all of Joes earthly possessions and is Joes home.

Sam hoped that I could help him to help Joe. Sam already had called the Office of Aging. Staff there said that, unless Joe is willing to accept the conditions of the help, they could not do anything. Joe wants to be warm, but he is afraid that he will lose everything if he leaves his trailer.

Anticipating my next question, Sam said Joe is not demented. Joe is scarred by a lengthy prison sentence for a criminal act that Sam believes could have been defended by a top-notch attorney. Having been incarcerated, Joe now values his independence, even though he is alone, broke and cold.

I could anticipate Sams next questions: Dave, can you help me? What should I do? My answer was not what Sam hoped to hear.

Joe cannot be forced to leave his trailer unless costly legal action is initiated against the owner of the land under Joes trailer, or against Joe himself. Sam neither wants to ask the government to condemn Joes home, nor petition the Orphans Court to ask a judge to declare Joe to be an incapacitated person.

One of my greatest challenges is to meet with an older person who is living on the edge, trying to balance a sense of independence with a sense of dignity. We dont often interact with older people like Joe. The clients we see are middle-class persons who are not living on the edge of poverty, but on the edge of safety and cognitive awareness.

We regularly hear from people like Nancy, a concerned daughter whose father, Fred, is living alone, unable to use the stairs safely to get to the second floor bathroom and bedroom, and unable to remember when to take medications. We have more options for Nancy and Fred than we do for Sam and Joe.

In each case, it is important to focus on the older person, such as Fred or Joe. What do they want? Is what they want a threat to themselves or others? Is it such a threat that the government needs to take control of their decisions?

That might sound too melodramatic, but the process of petitioning for guardianship is one of getting a judge to listen to enough evidence to conclude that an adult citizen is no longer capable of making decisions for him or herself. If that is the conclusion, the Orphans Court will appoint a guardian, who is usually a family member.

If a family member is not available or willing, as in Joes case, then an agency will take over the incapacitated persons affairs and make decisions. Taking away the rights of an older person to be independent is not an easy decision for a judge.

When we encounter a person such as Fred, we must win his confidence to become our client. Legal counseling can usually motivate our client to cooperate and get the help he needs, even if it sometimes means relocating to a care facility. While our focus is always centered on what is best for our client, sometimes our client can be motivated by a plan that creates an asset preservation opportunity for his family. Asset preservation is a coincidental benefit for a family caregiver, such as Nancy, who is not motivated by asset preservation, but for the safety of her parent, Fred.

A case becomes more complex when we cant reason with our client to create a safe care plan. A petition of guardianship is a final option. We wont get into the details of the guardianship process here. Several previously published articles that discuss that subject are on our website.

So what might Sam do to help Joe now? After the cold passes, Joe probably will want to return to his independent life in his discarded travel-trailer. Sam understands that an effort to get Joes trailer to be condemned as uninhabitable, or to petition the Orphans Court to have Joe be declared to an incapacitated person, would be opposed by Joe. Even if Sam would not care about that, such efforts would require time and money, and in all likelihood would not reach the outcomes Sam might imagine.

Ultimately, I suggested that Sam might help Joe to get in from the cold in the closest homeless shelter to Joes trailer. If Joes trailer had been in Cumberland County, I would have suggested that Sam contact Carlisle Cares, whose mission is serving the emergency needs of those without a home with compassion, respect and resources.

To learn more about Carlisle Cares, visit its website. Or, better yet, you can attend its upcoming fundraiser, the world premiere showing of The Leisure Seekers, this coming Wednesday, Jan. 17 at the Carlisle Theatre. The Leisure Seekers stars Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren. Since next Wednesdays showing really is a world premiere, all I know is that the movies theme involves a Maine-to-Florida trip in a recreational vehicle by a couple, one of whom has Alzheimers disease.

You are most likely neither homeless nor living with Alzheimers disease, but you almost certainly have known someone who is. Next Wednesday is a chance to learn more about both. Tickets to Carlisle Cares fundraiser are available online or from the Carlisle Theatre at a cost of $25 per ticket.
Nonprofits have until Feb. 1 to register for the fifth edition of Fairfield Countys Giving Day scheduled for the first day of March, with last years fundraiser generating nearly $1.5 million in donations for more than 400 area nonprofits.

To date this year, more than 280 nonprofits have registered to raise money on Fairfield Countys Giving Day, which is organized by the Norwalk-based Fairfield Countys Community Foundation with sponsors including Bank of America and Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Of last years donations, more than a third were by people making a contribution to that nonprofit for the first time  a key point for organizations looking to expand their sources of funding.
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HARTFORD  Accrediting officials overseeing one of the largest changes in New England higher education told state officials Thursday they need to see evidence a plan to merge 12 community colleges into one will leave some 53,000 students in the system better off.

The commission is going to need more than Trust us, said Patricia OBrien, a senior vice president of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

OBrien, along with Barbara Brittingham, president of the commission, appeared Thursday before the Academic and Student Affairs Committee of the Board of Regents to answer questions and discuss the process for winning NEASC approval for the merger.

Brittingham called the plan  to keep all existing campuses but under a single accreditation  a very big deal.

The biggest change I have seen in 18 years, Brittingham said.

Under the plan, the number of community college administrators would be reduced and programs offered by the colleges  including Norwalk, Housatonic in Bridgeport and Gateway in New Haven  would be aligned.

One of the main concerns will be what happens to students stuck in the middle of what is expected to be a two- or more year process, Brittingham said.

There are a lot of moving parts, she said. We want (students) served at least as well if not better.

Hector Navarro, a student member on the Regents board asked if students should worry that existing programs would disappear during the process.

What needs to be in (the) proposal is what will happen to programs, Brittingham said. All of them.

Late last month, the Regents voted to advance the merger plan, called Students First, over the objections of a number of faculty and students who remain unconvinced the plan will save the state money or improve student outcomes.

Barbara Richards, a professor at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport and ex-officio member of the Regents, asked NEASC officials Thursday about the dangers a single, centralized system would pose when it comes to hiring on local campuses.

How can we keep from just being another state agency where lots of friends and relatives of people get dumped, Richards asked.

Brittingham said she saw no inherit reason one community college would be any more susceptible to that type of thing than 12.

In the audience Thursday were a number of union representatives from state universities. System President Mark Ojakian called the assemblage curious.

This doesnt effect them, Ojakian said, insisting a merge is not envisioned for the states four regional universities which the Regents also oversee.

The proposal, headed to NEASC in March, suggests the move to merge community colleges is driven by severe fiscal challenges and changes in state demographics.

Brittingham noted that resources were a concern in the latest NEASC accreditation reports for 10 out of 12 of the states existing community colleges.

State funding to community colleges has shrunk by 15.5 percent since 2016 as costs escalate. Meanwhile the traditional college-aged population is on the decline.

It is unclear when the 28-member commission will formally take up the plan. The panel meets in March and April and has a summer retreat in June where Brittingham said no major business is conducted. Ojakian said he was hoping for a decision by July 2018 with hopes of the actual merger occurring by July 2019.

Brittingham said when the commission gets the proposal, it will focus on whether or not it addresses a set of accreditation standards that touch on nine areas including mission to academics and resources.

The panel can accept, reject or request more information. It will be looking for evidence that Connecticut is working toward meeting all standards, she added.

Brittingham went on to rattle off a list of examples of college mergers, all involving far fewer campuses.

Yvette Melendez, vice chair of the Regents, asked if any of the mergers have been reversed.

Brittingham could only name only one in New Hampshire where campuses shared presidents for awhile before pulling the pairings apart.

Regents Chair Matt Fleury said nothing raised by the NEASC officials Thursday was terribly surprising.

We understand what is expected, he said. The goal, he added, is to get as close to right as possible on most of the plan, and make adjustments before the actual merger takes place.
GREENWICH  The town is taking a look at its parking code, with the goal of eliminating many outdated regulations.

Most of the changes reflect the passage of time, and are being made without much discussion or controversy. But one, regarding parking outside Greenwich High School on Hillside Road, already has sparked debate.

Greenwich Police Department Capt. Mark Kordick, who is the towns interim director of parking services, asked the Board of Selectmen on Thursday to make official a policy that reserves street parking on Hillside Road for Greenwich high students.

Kordick said the policy has been in place for decades, but for an unknown reason is not included in the town code of regulations.

Neighbors, however, are seeking a change in the practice, saying limiting parking to students is unfair.

The selectmen did not grant Kordicks request. First Selectman Peter Tesei said he would talk with the towns Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Education to get more information before any decisions are made.

A vote could potentially take place on Jan. 25.

A 1995 ruling by the Planning and Zoning Commission, at the time of the new GHS science wing addition, made the parking spots part of the high school property.

Both Kordick and town Traffic Operations Coordinator Melissa Evans said codifying the regulation is necessary because there is uncertainty among residents.

Neighbors of the school say the spaces are needed for the homeowners. Two Hillside Road residents, Elizabeth Dempsey and Ashley Cole, told the selectmen Thursday that the high use of parking on the street  by high school students and Christ Church members on weekends  puts homeowners there at a disadvantage because they pay high property taxes in a residential zone but cant use their street for parking.

This is not about me having a parking spot on the street, Dempsey told the selectmen. Its about the larger aspect of what the town and Board of Education are looking at for that location and that property. Its not about having spots for a luncheon.

Dempsey said the neighborhood is taxed at a residential zone rate, but is actually an under the cloak commercial zone, in a way. She said residents are frustrated because everyone gets value from the site but them.

Cole added, We have a parking problem and a traffic problem on Hillside Road and something needs to be done. But what doesnt need to be done is to codify the current situation and make it permanent. Its currently an open, public street and it should belong to the neighbors.

At Kordicks urging on Thursday, the selectmen did unanimously approve several changes to the towns parking code without the need for additional discussion.

The changes include alterations to the ordinance allowing individual handicapped parking spaces on public roads  which incorporates a list of specific spots where spaces were created to accommodate handicapped residents. Kordick said the list includes people who have moved or have died and no mechanism had existed to take them off the books.

One of my favorite things is that theres still language in the parking code that actually predates the handicapped parking law in Connecticut, Kordick said. Theres a reserved parking part of the code that references a lady who used to live in Armstrong Court. They made a reserved parking spot for whats identified in the code as her 1968 Dodge Coronet. I know shes not around anymore and I dont think her 68 Coronet is either. But thats in the municipal code.

The selectmen also approved an elimination of a no-parking zone on Steamboat Road that dated back to when Maneros was open as a restaurant. And they deleted language about the Penn Central Railroad Bridge over Sound Beach Avenue, which references a railroad company that has been out of business since 1976.

Kordick said he would be back with more on Jan. 25.

Since I started at the Department of Parking Services last month, weve noticed kind of an upsetting trend with respect to the lack of accuracy in certain parts of the town code as it relates in particular to parking and also a few traffic things, Kordick said. Most of them appear to be drafting or typographical errors. Some are due to changes in town.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
Last year pretty much blew by. But, in 2018, you have an opportunity to start fresh, using new marketing strategies and proven tactical tools. What worked in 2017? What didn't? What must be changed to increase traffic, leads, revenue and, of course, value?

Related: 4 Trends That Will Shape (or Continue to Shape) Content Marketing in 2018

With updates in Facebook's and Googles algorithms in 2017, content marketing has changed considerably. For instance, it's become harder to have content with clickbait titles show up on Google searches and Facebook feeds.

This means that your content marketing, at both the strategic and execution levels, must adapt to those changes. Here are some ideas for how to do that:

1. Strategy

On a strategic level, Joe Lazauskas of Contently predicts three major trends:

The first is increased engagement with viewers, using content strategies that are in alignment with organizational needs and audience acceptance. This would require a content audit, a competitive analysis and an activation strategy to upport the underlying strategies.

Second is originality in content strategies, which is key for standing out among the tons of content available. This doesn't mean that once a topic has already been covered, it's not a good idea to create and publish your own take on the issue. The key is to focus on your brand's uniqueness.

Third is a "quality-over-quantity" feel, which should come naturally. You don't need to publish 100 blog contents per day, for example, unless you're an online publisher like BuzzFeed. Carefully develop breakthrough pieces of content, not just mediocre ones.

Related: The Best Technology Tools for Content Marketing

2. Execution

On an execution level, using the right tools could make a huge difference in your marketing efforts. When selecting those tools, keep in mind that each will ideally come with detailed analytics using specific metrics.

With the six tools discussed below, you can plan, design, create, schedule, publish, reuse, innovate and track your content so no one piece of it goes unpublished and each is primed to bring new leads and, eventually, revenue.

1. Buffer is the granddaddy of social media schedulers. You can connect all your social accounts (Twitter, Facebook Profile/Page/Group, LinkedIn Profile/Page, Google+ Profile/Page, Pinterest, and Instagram). Here, Buffer's central hX works best and ensures ROI. Its Canva-like add-on image-editing app, Pablo, is a useful and practical tool.

2. Almighty.Press is a disruptive content-discovery tool that allows you to identify pre-viral contents. You can then track and be notified about keywords of your choice, and curate and schedule them for publication before similar contents saturate the web. This intuitive platform connects users with real-time news feeds from reputable content providers around the world.

Using Google Trends and BuzzSumo for finding viral content is a thing of the past, because they measure already viral contents. Almighty.Press's algorithms, called "Almighty Force," track, locate and curate pre-viral contents. "Pre-viral" means content that is in the process of becoming viral. It's like an "early warning" of viral content, and is an incredibly useful tool for marketers.

3. GrooveJar. Many online businesses have a conversion rate below 3 percent; this means an average of 97 percent of website traffic is lost. GrooveJars easy-to-customize pop-up apps are designed to increase email sign ups. Its Collect & Convert feature strategically sends out customized email templates to get those visitors coming back.

The solution focuses on website traffic that would normally be lost (the aforementioned 97 percent) by urging these visitors to leave an email address, so your online business can have a chance to retarget them. In addition to using GroveJar's Collect & Convert feature, you also have the capability to integrate with other email service providers, like: MailChimp, Send Grid, Drip, AWeber and Infusion Soft. One of GroveJar's popular pop-up apps allows online businesses to pull reviews from Yelp, Google and Facebook that then can be elegantly displayed on your website.

GrooveKudos, meanwhile, is a widget that shows happy customer reviews from Facebook, Google, Yelp, Thumbtack and Angie's List. Other popular pop-up apps are GrooveUrgent and GroovePop, which help websites collect emails to grow their subscriber lists and campaign targets. Groovejar comes with real-time apps analytics, where users can see the number of impressions and the amount of recovered revenue and recovered traffic. GrooveJar takes its users suggestions and recommendations and makes improvements quickly -- reinforcing the notion that users are truly part of the team.

4. MailChimp is a popular email marketing automation platform. It's simple to use, and the paid version comes with many advanced features. These include tracking the opt-in source for each subscriber and the ability to build and run Facebook and Instagram ads targeting subscribers. MailChimp has also got hundreds of email templates and drag-and-drop email blocks to track subscribing behaviors with UTM codes. The latter create fully automated email sequences for sales funnels. They also track leads and paying customers, re-engage stale subscribers and personalize content with merge tags. Further, A/B testing capability is available.

The automated email sequence itself is worth the price, as it will allow you to run the business hands-free. Once you have a new subscriber, MailChimp will send you a series of welcome emails. And you can create drip-marketing campaigns triggered by each subscriber's behavior.

5. Tap Influence. Influencer marketing is the future of marketing. For decades, Hollywood's boldface names and other influencers have been marketing products without our realizing it. Kardashian-Jenner family members, for instance, are renowned as the "big wig" in influencer marketing. For one sponsored Instagram post, they command hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you can afford only a fraction of that price, there are more than 100,000 influencers in Tap Influencer's database to choose from. With IBM Watson data, you can see the 360-degree picture of each influencer. The Audience Intelligence feature provides additional information about influencers audiences, brand affinities, DMAs and interests, along with advanced demographic data. It comes with built-in program management for campaign deployment and tracking.

6. Idio personalizes web, email and mobile-customer experiences. It provides in-depth predictive analytics on overall competitiveness, content audit, content strategy and performance, plus analytics on searches and social optimization, and dynamic segmentation. Idio furthers a salesforce's understanding of each customer's unique journey through sales intelligence, sales content and dynamic prioritization.

In a nutshell, Idio is a marketing-automation suite using NLP (natural language programming). Based on 10 million interactions tracked per day, Idio updates a user's profile based on the content that he or she has viewed. Idio provides customized content for marketing purposes by picking the best piece of content at that point in time for any individual. In just milliseconds, it can choose the best-personalized content out of hundreds of thousands of pieces of content in real time.

Final thoughts

Depending on your marketing strategies and business models, you can combine these six tools or choose them a la carte, to superboost customer engagement, which is key to increasing brand awareness, generating new leads and elevating your revenue and profit.

Start attracting organic traffic with the help of Almighty.Press to identify potential viral contents. You can then curate and repackage that content with the stories you have that are related to your product.

While you can schedule the curated stories on Almighty.Press, you can also use Buffer. Once your stories generate traffic, capture your visitors with MailChimp's email-marketing automation platform. To ensure the highest conversion rate, use GrooveJar apps, which can be seamlessly integrated with MailChimp and other similar platforms.

Related: 12 Content Marketing Trends You Should Be Following

Finally, for extra exposure to your brand, use Tap Influence, which boasts 100,000-plus influencers in the database. Then use Idio for powerful customization and personalization. All in all, these six powerful content marketing tools can level up your content creation, scheduling and distribution in 2018.

Related:

6 Top Tools to Transform Your Content Marketing in 2018

15 Tips for Writing Killer Sales Copy

4 Marketing Strategies Every Startup Can Afford



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


WASHINGTON - Immigration talks on Capitol Hill foundered Thursday after the White House and some GOP lawmakers rejected a tentative deal from a bipartisan Senate group - and President Donald Trump made incendiary remarks about people from developing countries.

In a midday immigration meeting with senators in which they proposed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations, Trump became frustrated and made a reference to "shithole countries," arguing that the U.S. should bring in more immigrants from Norway instead, according to several people briefed on his comments.

Those explosive remarks from the president roiled the debate as Democrats erupted in outrage and accused Trump of setting back prospects for any deal.

"This is like throwing gasoline to the fire," said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. "It's not consistent with what the behavior of a president should be."

The fast-moving developments came as lawmakers and the White House try to come up with a solution for immigrants brought illegally to this country as children, who are losing temporary protections granted with executive powers by President Barack Obama under a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Trump plans to phase out the program completely in March unless Congress replaces it.

The president's remarks came at a moment of frustration during an Oval Office meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers Thursday, as they were presenting an opening bid for a broad immigration package.

Now Playing: A federal judge in San Francisco issued a nationwide injunction ordering the Trump administration to revive DACA. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allows undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children to work lega Video: Fox9

The deal included a solution for "dreamers," as well as improvements to border security and changes to two other elements to the immigration system: one allowing U.S. citizens to sponsor certain relatives for citizenship, and the other, known as the "diversity visa lottery," which distributes 50,000 visas annually to nations with low rates of migration to the United States.

Trump became angry during a conversation about the visa lottery program, which benefits some African countries, and about the temporary protected status afforded to immigrants from certain nations, including El Salvador and Haiti.

"Why do we need more Haitians?" Trump said, according to people familiar with the meeting. "Take them out."

The comments left lawmakers taken aback, according to people familiar with their reactions. And the events left any solution looking even more elusive - and raised prospects for a government shutdown because Democrats are insisting on a DACA deal before they vote for spending legislation that must pass by midnight on Jan. 19.

The day began much differently, with rumors circulating on Capitol Hill that senators from both parties were close to an immigration deal.

Not long after, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., announced that there was indeed an agreement.

We "have an agreement in principle. We're shopping it to our colleagues," Flake told reporters.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., another member of the group, added that "we have answered the call" of Trump, who brought Democrats and Republicans together at the White House earlier this week and called on them to reach a deal he can sign.

But the tentative plan from just six senators in a closely-divided body of 100 immediately sparked fresh tensions over how Republicans should oversee the emotionally charged immigration debate.

White House officials and top GOP Senate leaders insisted that no deal had been reached. Adding to the confusion, other groups of lawmakers are meeting separately to come up with a solution, including the vote counters in each chamber, who have been called on by Trump to reach consensus. Some of these lawmakers bridled at the notion that a small group of their colleagues, especially a group that does not include any immigration hard-liners, could come up with a deal and impose it on everyone else.

"I'm sure there's good things in it, but six people can't agree to something that will bind the Congress," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the Senate majority whip.

"It's my job to count votes, and we need to have more than six votes for a proposal," Cornyn said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that there is no deal yet on immigration. "However, we still think we can get there," she said.

In addition to Flake and Graham, the bipartisan group includes Sens. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo., all of whom have worked on immigration issues for several years and hail from states with large immigrant populations.

According to details provided by aides, the deal would allow DACA recipients a minimum 10-year path to citizenship and allocate at least $1.5 billion for design and construction of a border fence as well as at least $1 billion more for additional border surveillance, technology and manpower; specify that parents of DACA recipients would be ineligible for citizenship; and replace the diversity lottery program with a new system dividing the visas between people who have received temporary protected status and people selected on the basis of merit from low-immigration countries.

Graham and Durbin presented details of the plan to the president and a handful of conservative Republicans at a hastily arranged Oval Office meeting, where Trump made his insulting remarks, including the outburst about Haiti because of its participation in the TPS program along with El Salvador and Nicaragua, several aides said. The surprise meeting, which Graham and Durbin had sought, angered senior Republican leaders and conservatives who are eager to fulfill Trump's campaign pledges on immigration and control floor debate on the issue. But any attempt to pass immigration and border security legislation will require Democratic support in the closely-divided Senate.

Democratic votes will also be needed to keep the government open - which is why Democrats, under intense pressure from immigrant advocates, are determined to use their leverage to force a long-sought immigration deal.

Graham wouldn't say how the president responded, but he said that coming up with bipartisan support in the coming days "will matter to the president."

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., however, an immigration hard-liner and ally of Trump who also attended the Oval Office meeting, said that the bipartisan plan "is unacceptable" because of how it deals with ending the diversity lottery program and with family-based migration policy, a practice that conservatives deride as "chain migration."

"It doesn't end chain migration," Cotton said of the bipartisan plan. "It merely delays it for an extremely small class of persons. On the diversity lottery, it simply takes all those visas and gives them away to other people for no rhyme or reason, it doesn't just end the diversity lottery."

Cotton added that the group's border security proposal "doesn't give near enough resources to meet the president's demands."

Told of Cotton's public criticisms, Graham snapped back: "Sen. Cotton can present his proposal. We presented ours. I'm not negotiating with Sen. Cotton, and let me know when Sen. Cotton has a proposal that gets a Democrat. I'm dying to look at it."

Flake added that "I don't think we'll get all Republicans - I never thought that."

Meanwhile, other Republicans have released a flurry of new legislation in recent days designed to placate concerns of conservatives wary of a potential bipartisan deal.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Reps. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, and Martha McSally, R-Ariz., on Wednesday unveiled a conservative plan that would grant dreamers an opportunity to apply for a legal residency that would be renewed every three years. Democrats and some Republicans reject such a plan.

The bill also would authorize construction of border walls and fencing; allow federal immigration and security agencies to hire at least 10,000 new agents; end the diversity lottery program; end the ability of new U.S. citizens to legally move family members into the United States; withhold federal funding from cities that refuse to help federal agencies enforce immigration laws; and intensify use of the E-Verify system to check an employee's immigration status.

Privately, aides to GOP leaders say the bill would not be able to pass in the House.

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., on the other hand, whose Denver-area district is being closely targeted by Democrats this year, introduced a bill to grant permanent legal residency to people protected by TPS. It is unclear whether it might ever earn a vote.

- - -

The Washington Post's David Nakamura and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.

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Video: The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe takes a look at President Trump's demands in the negotiation over a program shielding young undocumented immigrants from deportation.(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

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I certainly didnt know when I discussed snow that we would have a good sized amount, almost a blizzard. Some called it a blizzard but not quite. The good folks at my house were not crazy about the fact that I went to the hairdresser and out for dinner on Saturday night. The roads were fine, as I expected, given the fact that downtown Greenwich does a marvelous job on them. To be sure they do not do as well as, say, Vermont, but then if Vermont didnt do a fine job, where would they be?

I was interested to note that they use a different sort of plow than we do. It throws the snow up and over the road side, not just to the side of the road. Obviously Vermont has snow storms more often than Connecticut, and therefore they hardly ever close schools or anything else.

While leafing through my files, I came across what happened during the famous blizzard (a real one) of 1888. In those days there were no fancy plows as we have today. There are pictures showing men standing between two piles of snow taller than them. Not much moved, especially in northwest Greenwich.

Louise Mead Feltas tells us a story about the happenings at the North Greenwich Congregational Church during the great blizzard. The Reverend Charles Hoyt had been newly called as the pastorate of the church. He had come to the church on Sunday and was trapped by the blizzard. Unfortunately he could not get away to attend his own wedding in New Jersey.

The men of the church got together and were able to open a path to get him to Riversville Road, and then to Glenville, and from there to Port Chester and a train to New Jersey. There were no snow plows, just a few horses to do some of the work.

He reached New Jersey only a few days late for his marriage. I wonder what the bride thought of that?

That story makes me think about how much can be accomplished in spite of not having any of the many helpful transportation ways we have today.

From Greenwich Time about the 1888 blizzard: It started on Sunday afternoon with a light fall of snow which soon afterward changed to rain, which continued until midnight, then the northeast wind started in at fifty miles an hour, and the snow again began to fall. At daylight Monday it was a furious gale, the snow was piling up rapidly and the drifts were already mountain high. Few people were out and by noon all travel was impeded. All day long the wind blew a terrific gale, great big trees lying across the road telling of its tremendous force, and the snow fell fast and furiously. At times it was so thick that a distance of fifty feet was not discernable.

At sundown Monday drifts of twenty to thirty feet high were piled up in every section of town. People hurried to their homes and even then had great difficulty getting through the heavy snow.

Daylight Tuesday morning found the storm unabated in its fury but about 9:00 it seemed inclined to break away, and blue sky appeared in the west. But it let up for a short time only, and the snow began to fall just as hard, though the wind now came in gusts and seemed abated in its fury.

On Tuesday night Greenwich was cut off from the world. Telegraphic communications were cut off and no railroad trains were running. At 8:00 Tuesday evening the storm ceased and on Wednesday morning the sun shone brightly in a clear sky, but it became overcast again, and a light fall of snow began. The wind however, had subsided and the storm was really over.

Since I was not part of the blizzard I thought the reporter who was would tell the story. So to all complainers, think what those folks lived through.

Greenwich native Norma Bartol, a former Greenwich Time reporter and columnist, lives in the backcountry.
Volocopter

With every passing year, we grow more disappointed by the fact that science fiction hasn't come true, and we still aren't riding around in flying cars. But maybe it's time to re-evaluate what a flying car would actually look like.

German startup Volocopter (formerly E-Volo) has been developing drone-like VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) vehicles for the better part of a decade, and this week at CES, the electric-powered Volocopter 200VC took its first autonomous flight in North America at CES in Las Vegas. During Intel CEO Brian Krzanich's keynote address, Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter joined him onstage to announce a partnership between the two companies and kick off the flight demonstration.
Washington County Memorial Hospital, has plans to install the countys first Open Bore, 1.5 Tesla, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system in April 2018. This system includes a larger opening for obese and claustrophobic patients, an increased table capacity of 550 pounds, motion reduction software, and decreased scan times all while capturing high-field quality diagnostic images.

This is going to increase our efficiency and patient convenience, said Michele Meyer, CEO, Washington County Memorial Hospital. The patient-friendly design of this magnet will make it easier for large patients and those with claustrophobia to have a MRI examination which produces higher quality images.

This advanced technology, added comfort, and shorter scan times will reduce repeat imaging for all patients added Randy Dunn, director of Radiology, Washington County Memorial Hospital. Maybe the best part of providing this new technology to our patients is the convenience of having the same advanced imaging capabilities as larger hospitals in our community.

Since two-thirds of American adults are overweight, the health-care industry is challenged to accommodate these larger patients with imaging systems that were designed for people who weigh much less. Currently, patients too large to fit inside the bore of a high-field MRI magnet have image studies done in open MRI systems with low-field magnets. This limits the diagnostic usefulness of the images obtained. The field strength of a magnet is measured in units of Tesla  the higher the number, the higher the field strength. The higher the field strength, the better the quality of images produced.

Claustrophobic patients present another challenge for MRI systems. They can be sedated, adding to their inconvenience and the time it takes to schedule and perform an exam. With the new Open Bore design scanner many claustrophobic patients will be able to undergo their exam relaxed and without sedation.

The Siemens Medical Solutions MAGNETOM Espree to be installed in April 2018, at Washington County Memorial Hospital includes a bore opening of nearly 2.3 feet in diameter and almost one foot of free space between a patients head and the magnet. The Espree also features the shortest 1.5 Tesla magnet available. At approximately 4 feet long the magnet allows more than 60 percent of exams to be completed with the patients head outside the magnet, helping to ease claustrophobia.
Photo: Lyft

No one understands alcohol impairment like todays ride-hailing start-ups. Imagine being the Uber driver hailed to take this stooge to a bar that was 82 feet away. Stupid rides like these are why Lyft has run its Give a Damn. Dont Drive Drunk. campaign the past two years to help people drink responsibly and get home safe. Budweiser is a partner in the effort, and its turned out to be pretty win-win for both companies, thanks to lots of free media.

Well, it seems Lyfts marketing geniuses have found an even cleverer type of self-promotion. Encouraging people to Lyft home once theyre drunk only gets the company halfway there  turns out they cant hail a ride home drunk if they dont drink first, so cynics are going to have a field day with this: Lyft is now making the very beer people need to reach that cant-drive state. The Chicago Tribune reports the company and one of the Windy Citys microbreweries, Baderbrau, have gone in together on a new crisp helles lager that theyre calling Five Star, after the rating it hopes youre leaving your drivers. It debuts January 18, comes in 12-ounce cans, and is an easy-drinking palate cleanser of a beer with an ABV on par with Buds. The collab will only be sold in Chicago bars, meaning you cant have one at home where there will be no ride-hailing.

The real point of Five Star is that cans also include a discount code for a Lyft ride  the Tribune says the amount is for as much as $5 off, so it apparently varies can to can. In other words, if your first Five Star doesnt get you the highest discount, no fear: Keep drinking more of them!

Lyfts Midwest manager tells the Trib the beer helps them achieve a longtime goal of getting inside bars. He pretty shamelessly explains that nightlife is one of our largest business segments, but unfortunately the psychology of how [customers] decide to get home and when they decide to make that happen is difficult to parse. Until it can, Lyft figures having its own beer brand cant hurt, and the paper adds, dont be surprised if a version of the brew eventually pops up in other cities.
The soon-to-be-blended family. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

It looks like Nutella is about to get some American stepsiblings. Italian parent company Ferrero has reportedly struck a $2.8 billion deal to acquire all of Nestles U.S. candy brands. An insider tells Bloomberg News that the official announcement could come as soon as Sunday, and itd put Nutella  a brand beloved partly for its distinct Europeanness  under the same roof as a bunch of all-American confectionery like Bart Simpsons Butterfingers, a chocolate bar named for Babe Ruth, and 90s-school-kids lunch-box faves like SweeTarts and banana Laffy Taffy.

As Earths largest food company, Nestle has made bazillions off of candy, and still will for the foreseeable future. But its American candy arm has underperformed expectations for some time. Electric-colored sugar globs like Nerds, Wonka Fun Dip, and Runts arent selling like they used to, and the Swiss food conglomerate warned last year that it was exploring a sale. When the U.S. business changes hands, it will mark Nestles first serious exodus from chocolate.

Ferrero, meanwhile, is justifiably feeling pretty pumped about its ability to sell Americans sugar, and apparently thus emboldened, would like to try its hand at hawking stuff besides jars of hazelnut spread. It technically already makes Tic Tacs, Kinder bars, and those little gold Ferrero Rocher chocolates, but their business is piddling compared to Nutellas, which almost amounts to enough each year to stretch around the planet twice.




Haiti - Politic : Energy and environment on the agenda





Tuesday at the Convention Center of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), together with CARICOM, the Ministry of Commerce through the Haitian Bureau of Standardization (BHN) organized a Consultation meeting around a proposal of Regional Code of the Caribbean on Energy Efficiency Building, which aims to find solutions to the economic and environmental problems of the region related to the consumption of petroleum products. This meeting allowed various stakeholders involved in this theme to put forward their views and proposals on this code.



Developed by the CARICOM Regional Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), following the 41st Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) held in Trinidad & Tobago in 2013 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8773-haiti-economy-launch-of-the-caricom-aid-for-trade-strategy.html , this document has been submitted for 6 months to the analysis of the member countries for a future validation and application in 2018. Haiti has until Monday, January 15 to share its comments and recommendations to CROSQ.



Trade Minister Pierre Marie du Meny emphasized the importance of this activity for Haiti, which currently holds the rotating presidency of CARICOM. According to him, by engaging in this process, Haiti is contributing to international efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, in particular by improving the energy performance of buildings.



According to Michel Barthole Paultre, the coordinator of the BHN, each country must make proposals that take into account its specificities, which will be taken into account in the final report, underlining that entrepreneurs, traders as well as households are concerned by this code.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23233-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8773-haiti-economy-launch-of-the-caricom-aid-for-trade-strategy.html



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : The Intervention Brigade Against Land Insecurity in operation or not ?





Wednesday Prime Minister Lafontant on his Facebook account, after a visit to the premises of the Intervention Brigade Against Land Insecurity (BRICIF) said "This structure under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security will work together with the Haitian justice in the fight against theft and dispossession to eradicate the phenomenon of land insecurity in the country."



A surprising statement that gives the impression that the BRICIF has just been created, which is not the case and which specifies that the brigade "will work", while we were convinced that for 6 months it was already at work ! https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21445-haiti-flash-creation-of-a-task-force-to-combat-spoilers.html



Recall that this brigade, was created by Order made by the Council of Ministers on July 12, 2017 and according to the statements of the time, it would be composed of about twenty police officers who have a local for more than 6 months already... https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21516-haiti-justice-the-anti-spoliation-brigade-soon-into-operation.html



The Order published on July 18 states : "[...] For decades, organized gangs have burst onto properties in Haiti. This has caused unrest in several parts of the territory of the Republic, particularly in the jurisdictions of the Courts of First Instance of Port-au-Prince and Croix-des-Bouquets. This situation of land insecurity hampers any intention to invest in the country.



To remedy this, the Head of State and the government create this structure: the BRICIF. Under the direct authority of the Minister of Justice and Public Safety, its mandate is to :



1.- Collect complaints from victims of dispossession or spoliation;

2.- Intervene on the scene of property crimes;

3.- To apprehend all offenders and to refer them, if need be, within the legal period, before the competent jurisdiction;

4.- Facilitate all executions of decisions passed in force of thing sovereignly judged."



A statement by Prime Minister Lafontant that follows up on President Moise's statement on Monday, January 8 in his State of the Nation address. "The government will strengthen the measures advocated to secure the right to private property. This policy appeals to all Haitians, especially those who have a duty to protect the lives and property of citizens. The only obstacle to the guarantee of private property is the weakness of the State, at all levels, calling for the responsibility of the Government, legislators, lawyers, notaries, surveyors, police and other actors of the judicial system." Download the speech of moise : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/jovenel-moise-08-01-2018.pdf 2)



Leaving aside the question of whether or not this Brigade is actually in operation, and if so, what is the record of its interventions during its first six months of operation ?



SL/ HaitiLibre


















When its time to spend some quality time with your kids, there is only so much Cocomelon that one man can take. You have to get out of the house and get some fresh air or some socialization for your...
Fever-Tree adds two non-executive directors

By Lisa Riley

Fever-Tree has added two non-executive directors, Kevin Havelock and Jeff Popkin, to its board.

Joining the board of the premium mixers business with immediate effect, Havelock and Popkin combined bring more than 55 years of experience in the drinks industry with them.

Havelock is currently global president for refreshment at Unilever with responsibility for the Groups 10 billion global beverages and ice cream business, while Popkins leadership roles have included CEO of Red Bull Distribution, North America and President of Vita Coco. He is currently North American CEO of Mast-Jagermeister.

As highly respected sector leaders, the duo would make a significant contribution to the next stage of Fever-Trees growth as it continued to pioneer the global mixer category, said chairman, Bill Ronald.

Kevin and Jeff both have highly impressive track records across the beverage sector and a breadth of relevant international experience that will bring valuable insight and additional perspective to the Company, he said.

In December last year, Fever-Tree announced its intention to open an office in North America in the second quarter of 2018 as part of a strategy to focus on the US.

The premium carbonated mixers brand said the new office would be open for business in the second quarter of 2018 and would be headed up by Charles Gibb as CEO, who joined Fever-Tree as its global strategy director in August this yea

Fever-Tree saw sales soar by 27.6m  a 14% jump  to 46.4m in the year to 22 July, 2017, according to IRI. In November, it said in a trading statement it anticipated its full year results for the year ending 31 December, 2017 would be materially ahead of current market expectations.

The positive forecast came on the back of an exceptional performance in the UK, its biggest market, with the strong growth seen in the first six months of the year having continued during the second half.
Chateau dEsclans Whispering Angel: Marketing Manager

This is an unprecedented opportunity to join the team at the Domain in Provence. The ideal candidate needs to be both passionate, ambitious and possess an unconditional willingness to take direction for anything within the realm of their general responsibilities. Those responsibilities include but are not limited to handling daily marketing oriented tasks in addition to participating in helping to implement and execute strategic marketing plans for the four-award winning & famous roses from Sacha Lichine as well as product line extensions.

Our portfolio of successfully branded wines is distributed globally, currently in 107 countries with the U.S. market as its mainstay. The ideal candidate will therefore work with marketing counterparts at Distributors in their respective locations to assist them with their marketing needs. The candidate will also interface with the companys trade association in Provence and PR agencies (currently based in Paris & New York). The candidate will also work with the companys web master/ online technician.

Other responsibilities will include participating in the creation and development of promotional literature while procuring articles and features about the wines and Mr. Lichine. There will also be opportunities to solicit and work with journalists on content development about the wines and Mr. Lichine. Excellent writing skills and complete computer literacy including graphic design skills are a must.

The ideal candidates native language has to be English and they also need to have a strong command of French making them bilingual. Other prerequisites include holding an undergraduate University degree and having a minimum of 3-5 years of related experience in marketing & communications in the wine industry. Strong interpersonal skills and an ability to naturally manage relationships on a professional level are key to being successful in this role which requires residing in the vicinity of the Domain located in La Motte en Provence.

To apply for this job send your covering letter, CV and accompanying headshot to Tom Schreckinger at tschreckinger@sachalichine.com.
Saunders spreads his wings

By Andrew Catchpole

Ex-Bibendum MD and Conviviality business development director Michael Saunders has stepped back from a full time roll at the UK drinks giant with plans to explore other avenues including consultancy to the industry.

Saunders told Harpers that he is continuing to work at Conviviality two days a week, saying that the business is going incredibly well and stressed that he remains firmly committed to playing a part in that success.

However, with more time to focus elsewhere, Saunders said that he is open to new opportunities, with one or two considerations already in the pipeline, through his independent company Dower House Consulting.

There isnt much to say at the moment as this all happened [recently], but I am open to ideas, said Saunders, declining to be drawn further.

A well-know and influential figure in the trade, Saunders was managing director at Bibendum Wine where for 34 years since its founding in 1982 he built the company (originally along with joint-managing director Dan Jago) from its Primrose Hill merchant origins to a heavyweight national wholesaler.

Bibendum was sold to the fast expanding Conviviality Ltd in May 2016, with Saunders coming aboard to work with CEO Diana Hunter as business development director, while also helping affect a smooth transition into the fold for his old company.
Known as the The Greatest Generation, the veterans of World War II sacrificed more than most, traded their safety for the safety of others, and in many cases, continued to serve their community once they returned.

Although the war was well documented, most of these men never told their stories. They kept their accomplishments to themselves and simply went on with life.

Pete Wiley is one of those men. He's a Farmington native who spent a good part of his teenage years in the Pacific Theater jumping from one island to another and following General Douglas MacArthur around the Pacific.

I was no more than 17 years old when I signed up, Wiley said. In fact, my folks had to give permission for me to join the Army."

Wiley wouldnt have to wait long before his adventure would begin. Like most men from Southeast Missouri, he was first ordered to report to Jefferson Barracks for his physical and induction, and then from there, he was sent to Camp Wallace in Texas.

When I went to Jefferson Barracks, it was the first time I had ever been away from home, Wiley said. It wasnt too bad, I was pretty much as strong as a horse when I left J.B. From there, they sent me to Camp Wallace for Advanced Training.

Although he didnt mind his time at Jefferson Barracks, Wiley said Camp Wallace was horrible.

Camp Wallace was nothing but sand and mosquitos, Wallace said. I was there for 13 weeks, and I tell you the mosquitos were so big they could turn your dog tags over and bite you underneath. I really didnt mind leaving.

After leaving Camp Wallace, Wiley had one more stop before shipping out to the Pacific where he would find himself in the thick of things throughout the duration of the war.

The young infantryman was sent to Camp Stoneman located in Pittsburg, California. During the war, it was the largest troop staging area on the West Coast for units deploying to the Pacific Theater of Operations.

We were sent to Pittsburg, California where we boarded the USS West Point, Wiley said. There must have been 10,000 soldiers on that ship with more than 1,000 sailors to take care of us while we were underway.

According to Wiley, his first jumping off spot was Sydney, Australia, an ocean crossing that he said seemed to take forever.

We went in a zig-zag pattern all the way to Australia, Wiley said. We would go 10 miles and turn right, then another 10 and then go left. All the way over we did this. I didnt think we would ever get there.

It was during his first ocean voyage that Wiley first came in contact with the war. Although he said the ship was never under attack, the drills alone struck fear into the young man who had never left Farmington before leaving for the war.

I was 17, and I was scared to death, Wiley said. These sailors told us when we heard the whistle for them to man the guns that we needed to cling to the wall because they were going to get their station and didnt matter if you were in the way or not. The first time I heard that whistle, I became part of that wall.

Over the next three years, Wiley would be in places that would be forever linked to the war  places like New Guinea, Leyte, Luzon and Corregidor. He would follow MacArthur back to the Philippines and meet people who had been a part of the Death March of Bataan.

When we got to New Guinea, we got mixed up with these Australians, and let me tell you, they were mean, but boy could they fight. They would fight you in a minute, Wiley said. I was glad to see them. They took over everything. They really wanted to rid the island of Japanese.

He said the most scared he had ever been was while on Corregidor.

I was scared when I left Farmington, but I was the most scared on Corregidor, Wiley said. We got there before the paratroopers came in. When they came in they blew everything to bits. Me and another guy were in fox hole and our knees were shaking we were so scared.

Wiley said they one thing he would never forget was when the Navy would drop flares during the night.

Because of the shadows the flares made, it looked like someone was running. I will always remember that, Wiley said. When daylight came, it was the greatest thing because the nights were dark, really dark.

When the war came to an end, Wiley said he boarded a liberty ship and headed back home. For most of the men, he added, they knew the war was over when they steered into San Francisco Bay and saw the Golden Gate Bridge.

You cant imagine how amazing it was to look up and see the Golden Gate Bridge, Wiley said. You thought, 'God, Im home. I made it home.' But you really werent. I was mustered out of Jefferson Barracks, so when I saw the sign for Bonne Terre, then I knew I was home.

Wiley would return to Farmington in January of 1946 and never leave again. He would meet the love of his life, Mildred, and marry her shortly after returning home and for the last 71 years they have been together.

Upon returning, Wiley first became a shoemaker but eventually took a position with the citys electric department as a lineman.

I fell right in to civilian life, Wiley said. It was pretty easy for me. After being a shoemaker for a while, a friend of mine asked if I wanted to come work with him with the electric company. I started as a lineman and worked my way up to be boss.

Just one month after returning to Farmington, he and 96 other men who had served during World War II founded the Farmington VFW Post 5896.

I am the last charter member of the VFW here in Farmington, Wiley said. We formed the charter in February 1946. When we first began, we would meet at Long Memorial Hall.

Over the course of 70-plus years, Wiley said he has never found a reason to leave Farmington again.

I grew up in Farmington, got a job as a lineman and got married, Wiley said. I fell in love with the city. It has been pretty good to me.
Area law enforcement officers are still searching for a man wanted for a reported home invasion in Fredericktown on Tuesday night.

According to the Fredericktown Police Department, officers are seeking Glenn O. Frick. He is thought to be armed with a .357 magnum revolver pistol. He is described as 5 foot 11 inches tall and approximately 145 pounds, and was last seen wearing blue jeans and a blue hooded shirt.

Frick, 47, is considered to be dangerous and was last seen Wednesday morning in the wooded creek area behind Pense Brothers Drilling Co.

Police responded to the area behind Pense Brothers Drilling Co. for a report of contact with Frick. Employees stated that he was spotted inside one of the company's vehicles on the back lot next to the creek.

Employees said they spoke with him, asking if he needed any help. Frick responded saying the union is "trying to kill me," and then fled on foot toward the creek area and disappeared into the tree line.

When officers arrived on the scene an AR 10 308-caliber rifle was seized from the vehicle.

In an effort to keep the community safe, the Fredericktown Police Department conducted extra patrols. Madison County Medical and the Fredericktown School District were placed on a community lockdown.

"After receiving this new information, a phone call was made to our school district," Police Chief Eric Hovis said. "Superintendent (Reutzel) placed the schools on a community lockdown until further notice and while active searches of the area are being conducted."

"I spoke with Hovis this morning and since they had not found him (Frick) yet it was decided to go ahead with the lockdown," Superintendent Brett Reutzel confirmed. "It was for precautionary reasons."

Fredericktown Elementary School posted on their Facebook page that students were busy learning and having fun as they remained on lockdown and staff were maintaining a vigilant watch at the entryway. As they awaited word that the outside danger no longer exists they assured parents that there was no threat to the school but that keeping students inside was the best way to ensure their safety. The school administration thanked parents for their understanding and cooperation with the lockdown procedures.

Hovis assured the community that resource officers are placed at the schools every day and not just when a situation like this occurs.

Early in the search, Hovis told residents to lock their doors, stay calm and call 911 if they hear or see anything unusual on their property. On Wednesday he was formally charged with armed criminal action and first-degree burglary. Bond is set at $100,000 cash-only.

Hovis said that officers responded Tuesday evening to 317 College Street in Fredericktown for a report of an armed home invasion. The officers were informed that the alleged suspect had fled the scene. Frick was then positively identified by the victims before any safety bulletins were released.

"I personally requested everyone to lock their homes and property while we conducted the area grid search," Hovis said.

According to Hovis, family and friends of Frick stated that he was raised in Fredericktown and was familiar with the terrain.

Hovis said that they did have other emergency calls Tuesday night, around the same timeline, that dealt with armed suicidal individuals which led to some confusion on social media.

"On a positive note it is great to have a sheriff like Katy (McCutcheon) who comes out with us and helps when things get a little hectic," Hovis said. "Thanks Madison County Sheriff's Department for your support."

McCutcheon said that everything went smoothly other than Frick not being found.

"The Police Department is conducting searches and I have assigned officers to the school for transports and extra patrol so normal business can be conducted," Hovis said. "We are working with the family and close friends to locate Mr. Frick safely. Our community's safety is my top priority."

Family members have said Frick has acted differently since a fall that resulted in a head injury. Hovis has said he doesn't believe Frick intends to injure anyone but Frick thinks someone is after him.

If you have any information on his location, contact your local police department or Fredericktown Police Department at 573-783-3660.

We will update the story as we receive additional information.
BORDALLO, HANABUSA, GABBARD, SABLAN REINTRODUCE COMPACT IMPACT RELIEF ACT

News Release from Rep Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU), January 10, 2018

Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo, together with Congresswomen Colleen Hanabusa and Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan of the Northern Mariana Islands, reintroduced the Compact Impact Relief Act to provide additional federal resources to Guam, Hawaii, the CNMI, American Samoa, and other jurisdictions affected by migrants from the Freely Associated States (FAS).

Each year, Guam and other affected jurisdictions submit estimates for the cost of providing public service to migrants under the Compacts of Free Association between the United States and three FAS: the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Republic of Palau. According to the most recent estimates , Guam remains the primary destination for Compact migrants followed closely by Hawaii. In 2017, GovGuam estimated Compact impact at $142.6 million for just fiscal year 2016 but received just $16.2 million from the U.S. Department of the Interior , which administers federal Compact aid.

To address this disparity, Congresswoman Bordallos bill makes numerous practical policy changes to alleviate costs borne by local jurisdictions, which are required by federal law to provide public services to Compact migrants and other lawful immigrants. The Compact Impact Relief Act introduced today expands upon the Congresswomans bill from prior Congresses.

Addressing Compact impact has always been and remains a top priority for me in Congress. This bill seeks to bring much-needed federal dollars and resources to compensate Guam for the costs of serving Compact migrants. said Congresswoman Bordallo (D-GU). I continue to believe that the Compacts are an important national security and economic agreement between the U.S. and the Freely Associated States, but the federal government must do more to help the affected jurisdictions governments with the costs they bear to provide services to these migrants. This bill provides a holistic approach to the challenges of the Compacts. If they are to be renewed after they expire in fiscal year 2023, Congress must first increase exponentially Compact impact funding for Guam and the affected jurisdictions. I hope that Governor Calvo will join me in demanding that the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans increase mandatory Compact impact funding for GovGuam, as a requirement for any renewal of the Compacts after 2023.

Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI) said, The benefits to the United States, from the Compacts and the presence of citizens from the Freely Associated States are without question. Hawaii is home to more than 17,000 FAS citizens and state and county governments spend about $100 million a year to provide healthcare, education and other government services. However, the federal government reimburses about $.16 for every dollar. Mahalo, Congresswoman Bordallo, for introducing this measure and thank you to our co-sponsors, Congresswoman Gabbard and Congressman Sablan for supporting this common sense solution to help our local governments pay for services to support these communities.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) said, Without adequate federal funding, Hawaiis state and local governments have faced tremendous strain and challenge in caring for the more than 17,000 COFA migrants in Hawaii, who were promised care and services by the federal government. This legislation will relieve much of this burden by increasing federal funding and resources for Hawaii to deliver needed healthcare, education, social, public safety, and other services to COFA migrants who call Hawaii home.

Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-NMI) said, The U.S. Pacific insular areas should not be saddled with an unfair share of our nations foreign policy costs. For that reason, I join with my colleagues from Guam and Hawaii to introduce the Compact Impact Relief Act. As the only Micronesian in Congress, I also want to be sure that, when our friends and neighbors from the Freely Associated States decide to make their home in one of the U.S. islands, they know they are welcome and not a financial burden. The Compact Impact Relief Act will help achieve both of these goals. I thank Congresswoman Bordallo for her leadership.

Congresswoman Bordallos bill includes her National Community Service Improvement Act of 2015, which was originally developed at the request of Speaker Cruz, 34th Guam Legislature.

I thank Speaker Cruz for his support and was pleased to incorporate into this years bill a section making Compact migrants on Guam eligible for federally funded national and community service program like AmeriCorps, added Congresswoman Bordallo.

AmeriCorps exists to build stronger communities. Citizens of the Freely Associated States should have the opportunity to share in this vital work just as much as everyone else. I want to thank Congresswoman Bordallo for taking action through this amendment. With her help, I pray Congress realizes that every person willing to work for it deserves a job not a jail cell, said Speaker Benjamin J.F. Cruz, 34th Guam Legislature.

Congresswoman Bordallos bill would also double Guams waiver from the requirement to match federal grants. This change will help Guam seek even more federal grant money, especially for local projects where territorial matching funds are simply unavailable. Each year, the Congresswoman supports local entities like the University of Guam (UOG), as they apply for competitive federal grants.

Congresswoman Bordallos bill will help UOG and all Guam organizations secure additional federal grant money for local projects and initiatives, without the current burdensome matching requirement. UOG appreciates the Congresswomans help in securing these federal grants, her support for our students, and her work on this important legislation for Guam, said Dr. Robert A. Underwood, president of the University of Guam.

Overview of the Compact Impact Relief Act:

Increases federal (FMAP) funding for hospitals and clinics in Guam and other affected jurisdictions like Hawaii to offset costs of serving Compact migrants, with federal Medicaid matching funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Increases federal (ESSA) funding for public schools to offset costs of serving Compact migrant schoolchildren on Guam and nationwide, by reclassifying them as  federally connected  students eligible for impact aid from the U.S. Department of Education.

Expands federal national/community service programs to make Compact migrants living in the United States eligible for federally funded national and community service programs like AmeriCorps and the Youth Conservation Corps , which also teach job skills.

Requires comprehensive assessment of the Compacts of Free Association and their implementation ahead of fiscal year 2023 expiration, including inadequate Compact impact aid to Guam and other affected jurisdictions.

Specifies that Compact migrants be counted in the upcoming 2020 census and future censuses. The U.S. Department of the Interior uses these headcounts to determine Compact impact funding to Guam and other jurisdictions, so an accurate count is critical.

Authorizes annual federal economic assessments for all 5 U.S. territories and the 3 Freely Association States, including the economic impact of Compact migrants residing in the territories. Currently, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis only provide gross domestic product estimates for the five territories.

Directs the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a national strategy to meet the health needs of Pacific Islanders, including Native Hawaiians, Guams Chamorro people, and FAS citizens. Pacific Islanders have substantially different health challenges and needs than mainland residents. Congresswoman Bordallos intent is that better data will improve healthcare delivery to Pacific Islanders and provide additional federal support to underserved islands communities.

Expands Guams and other Insular Areas long-standing waiver from legal requirement that territorial governments match federal funding in order to receive federal grants. Without this expanded waiver, many federally funded infrastructure and economic development projects on Guam and the Insular Areas will remain at a standstill due to lack of available local funding to fulfill federal matching requirements.

Doubles existing waiver, from $200,000 to $400,000 for all federal grants to Insular Areas (Guam, the Northern Marianas, American Samoa, and U.S. Virgin Islands), and increases waiver for Guam and other jurisdictions impacted by Compact migrants to $600,000 per grant for unreimbursed Compact impact costs.

Allows GovGuam and other governments affected by Compact migrants to meet federal matching fund requirements above the new waiver limit with in-kind services rendered for unreimbursed Compact impact costs. This ensures that federal agencies take into account the significant, unreimbursed costs borne by GovGuam in serving Compact migrants when awarding federal grants.

Provides new federal resources for workforce development and vocational training on Guam and other U.S. territories, including federally funded Job Corps centers. Clarifies that Compact migrants are indeed eligible for these federally funded vocational training programs, along with U.S. citizens and nationals.

Ensures that, at the request of state or territorial governors, Compact migrants will be eligible for same federal programs and benefits (SNAP, TANF, SSBG) as legal permanent residents of the United States, i.e.green card holders. Congresswoman Bordallos bill explicitly requires that no funding or benefits are taken away from Americans in order to serve Compact migrants under any of these federal assistance programs.
Hawaii Visitor Accommodation Units Surpassed 80,000 Statewide in 2017

Not All Vacation Rentals Accounted for in State Visitor Plant Inventory

HTA News Release (18-03), January 10, 2018

HONOLULU  The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) today released the 2017 Visitor Plant Inventory, which showed that visitor accommodation units statewide increased to 80,336 units (+1.6%) year-over-year, the largest total ever recorded for the State of Hawaii (Figure 1).

The annual census of existing and planned visitor accommodation units statewide showed growth in three of the five categories reported, with increases in hotel rooms (+1.2% to 44,431), timeshare units (+3.2% to 11,062) and vacation rental units (+3.9% to 12,659) compared to 2016. Condo hotel units declined slightly (-0.4% to 10,875) and there was a decrease in units provided by apartments, bed & breakfasts, hostels and other miscellaneous accommodations (-3.5% to 1,309) (Figure 2).

Most of Hawaiis visitor accommodation units in 2017 were comprised of hotel rooms (55.3%), followed by vacation rentals (15.8%), timeshare units (13.8%) and condo hotels (13.5%), with the balance (1.6%) from a combination of other providers, such as apartments, bed & breakfasts and hostels.

Nearly half of Hawaiis visitor accommodation units are on Oahu (47.9%), with the majority in Waikiki. Maui has the second-highest percentage of units (26.5%), followed by the island of Hawaii (14.0%) and Kauai (11.0%). Molokai and Lanai combined for the fewest units (0.6%).

The report shows that Hawaii has an effective mix of accommodation offerings that is meeting the lodging interests of travelers coming from around the world, said Jennifer Chun, HTA Director of Tourism Research. From the properties that we can survey and assess, overall growth in 2017 was modest highlighted by increases in the supply of hotel rooms and timeshare units.

Chun noted the following updates for each island in the 2017 Visitor Plant Inventory:

Oahu: The islands supply of hotel rooms increased in 2017 with the opening of new hotels, such as the Hampton Inn & Suites and Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach, and the reopening of several properties following a renovation or rebranding, including the Prince Waikiki, The Laylow Autograph Collection and Holiday Inn Express Waikiki. Also notable was the opening of the new Hilton Grand Islander in Waikiki with 411 timeshare units in March 2017.

Maui: The Westin Nanea Ocean Villas opened with 195 timeshare units in April 2017, increasing the islands total timeshare units by 6.9 percent.

Kauai: The expansion of the Koloa Landing Resort at Poipu, Autograph Collection, resulted in a net increase in the islands hotel units.

Island of Hawaii: There was a net decrease in hotel units due to the renovation of the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel and redevelopment of the 555-hotel unit Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, which reopened as the 122-timeshare unit Marriotts Waikoloa Ocean Club.

If all vacation rentals could be accurately identified and counted, the overall total of Hawaiis visitor accommodation units would be greater in the 2017 Visitor Plant Inventory report, said Chun. Until all vacation rentals are being accounted for in the report, the tourism industry will never fully know the impact this segment of accommodations is having on the quality of Hawaiis brand as a travel destination.

Individually Advertised Units Adds Uncertainty to Vacation Rental Total

In recent years, technology has greatly impacted Hawaiis visitor accommodations supply by facilitating the rental of individual properties, which has led to unprecedented growth in the number of vacation rental units statewide. The proliferation of independently managed vacation rental units includes many that are unlicensed, unidentified and not accounted for in HTAs Visitor Plant Inventory.

Chun commented, The current survey methodology used for the Visitor Plant Inventory is insufficient with regards to vacation rentals because individually advertised units do not have identifying information.

Included as an appendix to the 2017 Visitor Plant Inventory Report is a supplemental study, the 2017 Individually Advertised Units in Hawaii Report, which analyzes data from AirBnB, HomeAway, and TripAdvisor. This HTA study, which has been done annually since 2014, utilizes point-in-time data extractions of popular vacation rental booking websites to try and better assess this rapidly evolving type of accommodations.

Island maps showing the location of individually advertised units by zip code, as reflected in the supplemental study, shows the extent of vacation rental units statewide, particularly the density of units found in resort areas (Figures 3-6). Many vacation rentals have operated for decades and are accounted for in the 2017 Visitor Plant Inventory report.

However, the number of Hawaii properties listed on these booking sites is highly fluid because a property can be listed or unlisted based on market changes or changes in ownership. In addition, this data collection method likely over-counts the number of individually advertised units due to the practice of operators listing rentals on multiple booking sites and also using these sites as a marketing channel for traditional accommodations, such as hotel rooms and timeshare stays.

Chun added, This supplemental study tells the tourism industry that searching these booking sites is unreliable for determining how many vacation rentals are being offered throughout the islands. The total number of individually advertised units is likely overstated.

Due to the lack of unique identifying information associated with each vacation rental unit on these booking sites, it is not possible to eliminate much of the double and triple counting that occurs when a property is listed on multiple sites. Without this information, the true impact of the positives and negatives created by vacation rentals in Hawaii is unknown.

A benefit of having comprehensive regulations for alternative accommodations is that travel consumers seeking this type of lodging in Hawaii can make reservations with confidence, knowing that the laws of the state are being followed. They can be assured that the units being rented actually exist and are also clean and safe.

HTAs 2017 Visitor Plant Inventory was produced by Kloninger & Sims Consulting LLC. Data was gathered by surveying properties in HTAs Visitor Plant Inventory database and identified using a variety of sources. The report is posted on HTAs website at www.HawaiiTourismAuthority.org.
He predicts that the daily number of boardings on the western extension of the metro network will creep up to 80,000 later this week.

An estimated 75,000 people a day have boarded trains at the eight new stations added to Helsinki Metro in November, reveals Tero Anttila, the head of public transport planning at Helsinki Region Transport (HSL).

Last weeks Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were the first days [] when the feeder system was working. But at the time school-aged children were still on their [winter] holidays, as were many others, explains Anttila.

And because youre talking about passenger boardings, the number of users is naturally almost two times as high if you add those who have gotten off the trains.

HSL initially predicted that approximately 60,000 passengers a day would be boarding trains at the new stations in Helsinki and Espoo

The commencement of services on the western extension and subsequent discontinuation of direct bus services between Espoo and Helsinki have lengthened commute times for many residents of Espoo. The metro system experienced severe congestions between Tapiola and Matinkyla, Espoo, on Monday, while a signalling control malfunction suspended the services entirely for over an hour on Tuesday.

Anttila admits that new measures will have to be introduced to ensure the smooth operation of trains if the passenger numbers rise sharply.

HSL, however, has only a few options at its disposal.

We cant lengthen the trains because the platforms [cannot accommodate longer trains]. Increasing the frequency of metro services is difficult and would require automation, which was called off three years ago. Automation wont be resolved until the end of the 2020s, at the earliest, he explains.

He reminds that decisions about the platform lengths were made with the assumption that the automation of the metro would be completed and it would be able to operate the trains on shorter frequencies.

In spite of the initial difficulties, HSL has stated that it is not yet considering re-commencing direct bus services from Espoo to Kamppi, Helsinki, for example.

Thatd be expensive. Tapiola has yet to be fully utilised as a feeder station due to ongoing renovations. Thatll alleviate the situation one year from now. The more immediate questions include could we take better advantage of Niittykumpu and Urheilupuisto, tells Anttila.

This is still in its early stages. Once the situation has stabilised, and we see where the passenger numbers settle, how passengers are distributed between the stations and how the stations are used at peak hours, thats when we can start having these conversations.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Panu Tuunala  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
DEAR HARRIETTE: I live next door to a family from Guatemala. They are nice enough people, but to tell you the truth, they have too many people coming and going from their house. I bet anything that some of the visitors are undocumented. I can't imagine that they all have their green cards. There are just too many of them. They are tidy and friendly and all, but still.

I wonder if I should report them to the police. They aren't disrupting things, but there are too many of them for everything to be on the up-and-up. I know that a lot of Guatemalans do day work here for lawn services and contracting, but I wonder if they pay taxes. It's all a bit suspicious to me. What should I do? -- Dropping a Dime, Jupiter, Florida

DEAR DROPPING A DIME: It is true that law enforcement wants people to report suspicious behavior, but before you pick up the phone, evaluate your opinion and your motivation. That there are a lot of people visiting your neighbors' home is not a crime. That they are friendly and tidy -- essentially good neighbors -- should make you relax.

If they are not doing anything that leads you to believe that they are committing a crime, you should mind your business and let them live their lives. Reporting people to the police is serious. It should be done with caution and only when appropriate.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My boyfriend and I have been dating for four years now. We get along great and feel like we will be together forever. We both just finished college and are working hard to get on our feet. Though we talk about the future, we have not specifically talked about marriage.

A few of our friends are engaged now, and I'm feeling a little anxious. I know we need to get good jobs and earn enough money to get a real home and all, but I don't know why we can't do those things together as a married couple. I don't want to push my boyfriend, but I do want to get married. What should I say to him? -- Ready to Tie the Knot, Wilmington, Delaware

DEAR READY TO TIE THE KNOT: Without pressuring your boyfriend, you should talk about the future and how you envision it. If you want to have children, let him know that and give a sense of when you would want to have a child. Go through your list of questions and thoughts about building a life together, and ask him to share his thoughts. You can ask him if he wants to get married, and, if so, when he thinks would be a good time. You deserve to know if the two of you are on the same page as you plan for the future. Talk it out, and you will have a better sense of whether the two of you should remain on this journey together.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My company is taking the leadership team on a retreat soon, and I have been invited. This sounds like a wonderful opportunity. The only thing is, I have never been out of the country, and I don't have a passport. I heard that it takes a long time to get a passport. I don't want to miss out on this trip. I also don't want everybody to know that I have never been anywhere. Most of my co-workers who are on the fast track spent a semester abroad while they were in college. Quite a few of them go to the Caribbean every year. Me, I just work and go home. I work a gazillion hours, which is why I have been promoted. I worry that I'm not going to measure up. -- Going Abroad, Cincinnati

DEAR GOING ABROAD: You are likely not alone. Many people get passports when they are adults. Do not be ashamed about that. Get proactive. You can get an expedited passport -- for a premium price -- in a matter of days. You may need proof of travel, which would be a copy of your airline ticket. Then you should get your passport photos taken and choose an expediter to process your passport. Depending on how much time you have, you can also process it normally. Without extra fees, you need four to six weeks. Expedited is two to three weeks, and expedited through an agency is about eight days. For more information, visit travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/requirements/processing-times.html.

Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106
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The Fair Housing Act will be 50 years old on April 11, but we already know the landmark civil rights laws anniversary wont be altogether happy. The Trump administration has just taken a step that will probably further delay the already overdue fulfillment of the laws promise.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it amid violent urban unrest whose proximate cause was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. but whose deeper causes included systematic housing discrimination against African-Americans. The years between the Great Depression and the Vietnam War saw mass migration of black people from the South to northern cities, where they were all but required to live in certain areas and to occupy substandard apartments and houses - due not only to private-sector bias but also to explicit local, state and federal policies. Consequently, by 1970, American neighborhoods were somewhat more racially segregated than they had been in 1930, according to data compiled by University of Michigan demographer William Frey.

The Fair Housing Act attacked this evil on two fronts: It banned discrimination by landlords, home sellers and lenders, and it required localities that receive federal funds affirmatively to further the goals of the legislation. The laws nondiscrimination provisions have been effective, which is a reason that segregation has declined significantly since 1970; progress has continued, though at a slower rate, in the 21st century, Frey reports. The affirmative portion of the law, however, has remained mostly unenforced, which is part of the reason there is still so much neighborhood segregation, especially in older northern cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis.

In President Barack Obamas second term, his administration tackled this long-standing issue with a regulation requiring jurisdictions receiving federal housing aid to make much more detailed analyses of their residential patterns and submit remedial plans to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). For the first time in almost half a century, this put teeth in the affirmative part of the Fair Housing Act. Opponents, including then- presidential candidate, now HUD secretary, Ben Carson, cried social engineering - though the new rule was the mirror image of mid-20th century policies, which had leveraged federal dollars to promote segregation.

This past Friday, Carsons department announced that it would move back the existing deadline for compliance with the new rule, effectively postponing implementation for most communities until at least 2020. Obamas approach has not been repealed, but it has been cast into limbo.

Housing segregation is difficult to separate from racial disparity in education, health and access to transportation. With those connections in mind, the Obama administration produced a complex and intrusive regulation - possibly too complex and intrusive for some communities under some circumstances. The solution, though, is not to abandon the effort under the guise of allowing more time to get it right, as the Trump administration has done. It is to work in good faith to devise a more effective approach. Unless and until that kind of effort materializes, it will appear that fighting neighborhood segregation is not really a Trump administration priority at all.

This editorial appeared in Wednesdays Washington Post.
Dr. Jessica Urzen, Catawba Valley Medical Centers Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Medical Director, will speak about how physiatrists help patients manage neuro-recovery with brain injury and spinal cord injury. This talk will provide a brief overview of brain injury statistics, how neurophysiology is altered after injury, and what we can do about it.
HICKORY  The Catawba Valley Dinner Club is a 73-year-old social organization that is open to all area residents. It offers its members six dinner meetings a year that feature food, fellowship, and speakers and other cultural events.

The club was founded by community business leaders working in collaboration with Lenoir-Rhyne University officials, a relationship that continues. Originally called the Catawba Valley Executives Club, the recent name change was intended to encourage non-executives (e.g. community residents, newcomers, retirees, and other interested parties) to become involved in club activities.

The next meeting of this season is on Tuesday, Jan. 16, at Lake Hickory Country Club beginning at 6 p.m. with drinks and social time, followed by a buffet at 6:30 p.m. The program starts around 7:30 p.m. and lasts no more than one hour.

The January program will explore the topic of climate change with the help of Professor Charles Cooke of Lenoir-Rhyne University. Cooke has taught physics, meteorology, astronomy and computer science, all of which figure prominently in understanding this issue.

The programs for the rest of the 2017-18 season are as follows:

Tuesday, Feb. 20, John Morris, Deputy State Archeologist-Underwater will tell members the latest about Black Beards flagship and the other 4,000 or so shipwrecks in North Carolina waters  aptly called The Graveyard of the Atlantic.

Tuesday, March 20, Maestro John Gordon Ross recounts his 27 years of service as director of music of the Western Piedmont Symphony through the many tales in his symphonic reflections.

Tuesday, April 24, Emilee Syrewicze, executive director of the Catawba Riverkeepers Foundation, will educate attendants on the importance of her organizations work and opportunities to become a Catawba Riverkeeper.

Anyone interested in becoming a member or in need of more information may call Lutz Keller, club president, at 828-466-0225 or 828-461-4381.
The case of Erica Parsons, the 13-year old Rowan County girl who we now know was tortured and murdered, is much like the case of Zahra Baker, the Catawba County girl who was tortured, murdered and dismembered.

An autopsy reveals Erica suffered extreme abuse that some people, including her brother, say was inflicted by her adoptive parents. Zahra, Australian by birth, was abused by her step-mother, who pleaded guilty to her murder and dismemberment.

In Ericas case, her adoptive father led authorities to a makeshift grave in Chesterfield County. Zahras father steadfastly maintained he didnt notice anything wrong with his daughter and had nothing to do with her abuse or her death.

My question is how can any parent, adoptive parent, or guardian escape prosecution when physical evidence points to abuse and homicide? Claiming ignorance of the how and when of abuse would seem to be an actionable form of neglect. Responsibility for the health and safety of a child begins and ends with parents or guardians.

Now that an official autopsy and accompanying paperwork are complete in Ericas case, the district attorney will decide if prosecution is viable. Law enforcement  in this instance the sheriff  can recommend charges, but the district attorney has the final say in our state prosecutorial/judicial system.

There always seemed to be overwhelming evidence that one or both of Ericas adoptive parents were involved in her disappearance, and there is testimony that she was systematically abused. The autopsy reveals a grisly, diabolical pattern of torture.

Evidence must show a clear and convincing connection of wrongdoing between victim and suspect. Heres hoping Ericas autopsy can do just that.

One may hope punishment will be meted out to whoever took Ericas life. Because we are a civilized society, punishment cannot equal the quantity of abuse and suffering.

What we can do is be more proactive with child protection. I see nothing wrong with checking up on a child from time to time if that child has been the victim of abuse. We track child abusers for the rest of their lives. Im not proposing we do the same for abuse victims, but we should keep tabs on child victims for a time  even if no new abusive incidents are reported.

I am not criticizing the professionals within the agencies responsible for child protection and intervention. I believe we can provide them with the ability to better act on a childs behalf.

I am not convinced that all abuse cases involve only those convicted of abuse. And I dont think claiming ignorance is an air-tight excuse for any adult living in a house where child abuse occurs.

On the other hand  sadly, there is an other hand in many criminal cases involving prolonged violence  fear is a terrible weapon that can silence accusers and witnesses, and some situations are manufactured because the perpetrator chose to be among people who can be manipulated.

I had a minor part in covering the Zahra Baker case. But nobody in a newsroom is isolated from a story of that magnitude. In 40 years of journalism, I worked with numerous law officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, magistrates, jailers and others connected to our justice system. They know all too well the powers of fear, pain and manipulation. Its hard for an adult to come forward. For a child, even a 13-year-old, trying to escape torture is a seemingly impossible task.

I do not understand abuse. But then, some people do things simply because they can. I dont want to know someones justification for abuse. Any rationale is indefensible.

Systematic bullying, mental and emotional abuse and physical torture and deprivation are wrong. There are no mitigating circumstances, in my opinion.

I am against the so-called Nanny State. But we must do more to address abuse.

Look at whats been reported on Ericas autopsy. Put yourself in her place. Or Zahras, for that matter. Could you endure? Could you really carry on if you knew somebody in your family or circle of friends was living in physical agony and emotional terror?

We may  and should  pray for Gods blessings for our children. But Im telling you right now that what my life and the years in journalism have taught me is that we are responsible for defending them. The authority required to intervene on behalf of a child  and follow up on intervention  must never be compromised or forestalled.

Justice must be given every opportunity to work. There are times we have to do some of the work. Within the framework of justice, but we still have to act.

There is nothing more important for a society than taking care of the children. Not my child? It doesnt matter. Its how a societys deep-down character is measured.

Reach Larry Clark at wryturlc@yahoo.com.
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Wary of antagonizing the farmers of Mandsaur Neemuch districts where a protracted agitation saw death of six farmers to police bullets and lathis last June, the state government is thinking of allowing self-certification by farmers themselves in the matter of destruction of doda chura (poppy husk), because many farmers have illegally sold their poppy husk in the black market and will run foul on the law if the poppy husk is weighed before destruction.

Principal Secretary, (excise), Manoj Shrivastava said that they were actively considering allowing self-certification in the matter of destruction of poppy husk and it would be announced shortly. He justified the policy by saying that even Rajasthan was following it and refused to comment on the illegal sale of poppy husk.

Trade of poppy husk, which is made by crushing the poppy bulb after extraction of opium, has been made illegal by Central government, and 32,000 odd farmers of the region are holding (or supposed to be holding) 56,000 quintals of poppy husk for the past one year, due to policy indecision on part of the state and central government, regarding whose responsibility it was to get the poppy husk destroyed. Now the state government has taken the onus upon itself to destroy it.

The authorities well know that a large quantity of the poppy husk has been sold illegally in the black market where prices range from 3000 to 5000 per quintal as there is huge demand of poppy husk in Punjab, Haryana and other parts of north India where it is consumed with tea or water, mainly by truckers.

It is a fact that many farmers have sold their poppy husk and many farmers will have a tough time explaining where the poppy husk has disappeared if it is strictly weighed by officials before destruction said farmer leader and office-bearer of Patidar Samaj, Mahesh Patidar.

That there has been rampant smuggling of poppy husk can be gauged from the fact that according to figures of the Narcotics wing of the Madhya Pradesh police, over 80 quintal of poppy husk, a record in itself, been seized in the area by police in the last six months.

The excise department too realizes this problem. Says Neemuch district excise officer, Bhimrao Vaidya, Possibility of law and order problem cannot be ruled out as the farmers will have to be booked under the draconian NPDS Act.

A senior local BJP leader said, BJP is on the back-foot due to the farmers agitation last year and we cannot afford to anger them once again in this election year. We had demanded self-certification during a meeting with the chief minister recently as that is the best possible solution.

At present, all the district officials are waiting for the policy announcement and trying to shift the onus from one department to another, because in private they are aware of the likely problems if poppy husk is weighed before destruction.

Mandsaur collector O P Shrivastava initially said that it was up to the excise department, but when pointed out that the excise commissioner Arun Kochar had said that the work of destruction would have to done by the concerned collector, said, We are waiting to get details from the Narcotics Control Bureau regarding how much poppy husk should be produced in one hectare.
James Ellroys mother was raped and murdered when he was 10-years-old. This event had a significant influence on his writing  he wrote about similar young women, left battered on the sides of Los Angeles streets, and he wrote about the tough young men who took it upon themselves to bring them justice. It is Ellroys stories  particularly his magnum opus, the LA Quartet  that inspired Anurag Kashyap to make Bombay Velvet.

Mothers, and the absence of maternal figures, are what bring its two protagonists to each other. Both Johnny and Rosie, despite their clashing natures  years of abuse have made her demure, and him more reckless than he was already  are similar in way, abandoned by their mothers, and cursed with scars that never really heal. Her first line in the film, which comes almost after 30 minutes, hammers home this deep fear: Agar tune mujhe akele chhoda, toh kaat dungi (If you ever leave me alone, Ill kill you), she says.

Like his idol, Martin Scorsese, who with Gangs of New York made a similarly dirty, yet empathetic film about the history of the city he loves, Bombay Velvet was Kashyaps attempt to uncover some of Bombays more murkier secrets  complete with Parsi gangsters, glamorous jazz clubs, petty gossip rags and shady real estate scams, all staples of Bombay noir.

It might look like a love-letter on the surface, but theres a nihilism to Kashyaps Bombay  like there is to Ellroys Los Angeles  that usually goes unnoticed. Its a city that takes no prisoners. This is a theme Kashyap finds himself returning to in several of his films, from Black Friday to Ugly  people come looking for salvation, but usually end up in a ditch somewhere, eaten alive by the living, breathing monster that is Bombay.

In an especially well done early scene, Rosie escapes her tormentor and boards a bus to Bombay, hoping, like thousands of young men and women like her, to find a better life in the City of Dreams. Its a naive idea, because Johnny has been there all his life, and the city has given him nothing but grief. His only dream is to become a big shot, something he decided after catching a screening of James Cagneys The Roaring Twenties. Kashyap intercuts these scenes, establishing the ambitions of his characters. While Rosies more immediate goal is to escape to what she thinks will be a more hopeful future, Johnny knows better. Bombay has trampled on his face and kicked him to the curb, but like Rosie, he hasnt let it kill his spirit.

More than being a tribute to the city, Bombay Velvet is a tribute to movies. Its a film made by a man whose entire understanding of the world, and the history of the world, is based on what he has seen at the cinemas. Like Scorsese, from whom he borrowed editor Thelma Schoonmaker to cut his film, Kashyap must relate to what the maestro once said: Your job (as a filmmaker) is to get your audience to care about your obsessions.

And Anurag Kashyap is obsessed with movies. So he shot Bombay Velvet like Gordon Willis shot The Godfather, like Tonino Delli Colli shot Once Upon a Time in America  top lit in amber hues, a world in which solitary figures are silhouetted against rainy nights, where every drag of a cigarette is shot with more love than Quentin Tarantino shoots feet, where the nights are soaked in neon and womens lips appear to have been smeared with blood. He created a Cagneyesque hero with bits of Billy Wilder and Brian De Palma thrown in, and left everyone who watched it as confused as you lot reading this sentence.

He tried to get his audience to care about his obsessions -- he tried to make an homage to gangster movies in the way that Sholay is an homage to Westerns. And in return, everyone shrugged. They accused him of wasting hundreds of crores and tarnishing the reputation of Mumbai, not Bombay, thank you very much. They accused him of having corrupted promising stars such as Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma  who, by the way, gives an outstanding performance in the film (her body language alone is worth dissecting). After the opening weekend, heck after the opening day, the message was clear: Audiences would much rather watch them dance around trees than brandish Tommy Guns.

In hindsight, Bombay Velvet never stood a chance. It was a movie caught between two world, inaccessible to both. There is, however, a chance that a few years down the line, people appreciate it for what it is.

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The author tweets @RohanNaahar
Nothing creates better drama than a political mystery. Filmmaker and member of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Vivek Agnihotri has announced a film on the mystery of Indias second prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastris death. He has already signed Naseeruddin Shah and Mithun Chakraborty for the film.

On this day, 10th Jan 1966, in Tashkent a tiny man called Lal Bahadur Shashtri who won a war with Pakistan, soon after a humiliating defeat with China, signed the Tashkent treaty. Hours later he died. A death mystery unsolved till date. Why? On this day, our 2nd PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri died mysteriously in Tashkent. Was it heart attack or poison? Even after 52 yrs, the truth of the biggest cover-up of free India has been denied to his family, followers, citizens. After years of research, I present #TheTashkentFiles (sic), he tweeted Thursday morning.

On this day, 10th Jan 1966, in Tashkent a tiny man called Lal Bahadur Shashtri who won a war with Pakistan, soon after a humiliating defeat with China, signed the Tashkent treaty. Hours later he died. A death mystery unsolved till date. Why? pic.twitter.com/azBvX45FeU  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) January 10, 2018

On this day, our 2nd PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri died mysteriously in Tashkent. Was it heart attack or poison? Even after 52 yrs, the truth of the biggest cover-up of free India has been denied to his family, followers, citizens. After years of research, I present #TheTashkentFiles pic.twitter.com/k53WBSrKk8  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) January 11, 2018

The filmmaker further wrote, Privileged to work with two National Award Winners to tell an untold story of beloved Shashtri ji. More to come.

Privileged to work with two National Award Winners to tell an untold story of beloved Shashtri ji. More to come. pic.twitter.com/o13G0uVTXz  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) January 11, 2018

Both Naseeruddin and Mithun are powerhouses and were obvious choices for the film. This film also brings them together onscreen after a long time. The two are extremely excited about the project and I am sure the audience will be waiting to see them in this new avatar, he said in a press statement.

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Days after Bollywood actor Salman Khan received death threats, his manager and police have dismissed reports that shooting of his film Race 3 was stalled and that the actor was escorted home after armed men were spotted at the shoot location.



We have not received any complaint about it. Nothing like that has happened, said Vinay Rathod, deputy commissioner of police, zone XII. Rathod also categorically denied any shoot being stopped or the entrance or the presence of armed men at the shooting site.

When contacted, Salmans manager, Jordy Patel, categorically denied any such incident. This is absolutely untrue and nothing of the sort has happened. No one has entered any set and the shoot is on as usual.

On Thursday, a Mumbai Mirror report said police arrived at the Race 3 set in Film City after armed men were spotted there. The report said cops asked Salman and producer Ramesh Taurani to stop the shoot and later escorted the actor home.

The actor earlier received death threats from a gangster from the Bishnoi community that worships black bucks. According to IANS, Salmans appearance in Jodhpur last Thursday in the black buck case led to threats by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. The black buck case -- in which Salman is charged with poaching the endangered animal -- has been going on in Jodhpur for the past 10 years.

Salman Khan will be killed here, in Jodhpur... Then he will come to know about our real identity. Now, if police want me to do some major crime, I shall kill Salman Khan and that too in Jodhpur, Bishnoi told media on January 5.

Bishoi is a notorious gangster and has been charged in over 20 cases of attempt to murder, carjacking, extortion, snatching and under the Arms Act in Punjab-Haryana belt.

(With IANS inputs)

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At The Booksmith in San Francisco, theyre trying to keep up with all the anti-Trump releases and other works of the resistance.

Its staggering, the number of books, says store manager and leader buyer Camden Avery. Politics has a much more prominent place in our store and for our customers than weve had for a long time.

The rise of Donald Trump has been mirrored by an expanding literary genre that will intensify in 2018, with dozens of new works expected, on top of the dozens from last year. Books of resistance will include guides to activism, reflections on democracy, investigations of Russian interference in US election and legal analysis, along with poetry and fiction.

Trumps election revived interest in such classic dystopian novels as 1984 and The Handmaids Tale, and an upcoming compilation, It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art, also uses narrative as a form of social consciousness. The book, which will help support the American Civil Liberties Union, includes original material by such popular authors as Neil Gaiman and Mary Higgins Clark.

Labelling a resistance book can be as challenging as defining the resistance movement. Disdain for the president is the unifier for authors who might otherwise have little to say to each other, from Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors to Frum, a former George W. Bush speechwriter.

I asked that contributors write stories and fiction because I didnt want more political rhetoric, says the books editor, Jonathan Santlofer. I wanted to do something people would enjoy reading and holding and looking at. A story is something that can convey feeling and even a message without being more polemic.

This month marks not just the one-year anniversary of Trumps presidency, but also of the massive womens marches staged the day after his inauguration. Together We Rise: Behind the Scenes at the Protest Heard Around the World includes essays by Roxane Gay, Ashley Judd and America Ferrera. Keep Marching: How Every Woman Can Take Action and Change Our World, by activist and Womens March speaker Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, features proven tactics, policy solutions and strategies any woman can use to build her power.

Several new works will address challenges to our system of government. How Democracies Die by Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, traces the demise of political rights in countries around the world. David Frums Trumpocracy warns against the complacent optimism that American politics are immune from fatal damage. Amy Siskinds The List compiles her widely read online annal of breaks from democratic tradition during 2017. Timothy Snyder is following his bestselling On Tyranny, a brief handbook about signs of authoritarianism, with The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America. Snyder is a history professor at Yale University and his new book looks at threats to democracy in the US and overseas.

For me at least the point of On Tyranny was to get ahead: knowing what we know of the past, we have to act quickly in the present, Snyder wrote in a recent email. In the next book, I try to show us our own moment in history, so that we see what we treasure by observing how it is attacked. The point of Road to Unfreedom is responsibility: as we act to preserve threatened political virtues, we make ourselves into the kinds of citizens who can make a better future.

Labelling a resistance book can be as challenging as defining the resistance movement. Disdain for the president is the unifier for authors who might otherwise have little to say to each other, from Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, whose memoir When They Call You a Terrorist is due this month, to Frum, a former George W. Bush speechwriter; to author-journalist Sarah Kendzior, a prominent commentator on authoritarianism whose 2015 e-book The View from Flyover Country is being reissued this spring in paperback.

Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale University, is following his bestselling book On Tyranny, a brief handbook about signs of authoritarianism, with The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America.

I think a diverse resistance is a positive force, Kendzior wrote in a recent email. Everyone has different insights on how the situation happened and how inhumane and unconstitutional policies can be stopped. This doesnt mean we have to agree about everything  Im sure we dont  but we can agree we do not want an American autocracy.

Harvard law professor and former Obama administration official Cass R. Sunstein has edited Can It Happen Here: Authoritarianism in America, essays by a diverse range of scholars on American democracy. The book was clearly inspired by Trump, but Sunstein said he doesnt consider it a work of resistance. He calls it an exploration of self-government touching upon currents events and such historical moments as the internment of Japanese during World War II.

Trump opponents have been enjoying Fire and Fury  Michael Wolffs explosive tell-all about the administration, which became an immediate bestseller. But booksellers hesitate to put it in the resistance category. At Unabridged Books in Chicago, owner Ed Devereux says that the book has been placed in a more traditional setting, new nonfiction.

I dont think youre going to read that book to learn how to resist, or think of ways to deal with the political system, he said. Its just a bestseller.

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After disrupting the telecom sector with its free offers and hyper-competitive tariffs, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd plans to create its own cyptocurrency, JioCoin.

With Mukesh Ambanis elder son Akash Ambani leading the JioCoin project, Reliance Jio plans to build a 50-member team of young professionals to work on blockchain technology, which can also be used to develop applications such as smart contracts and supply chain management logistics.

The company plans to hire 50 young professionals with average age of 25 years for Akash Ambani to lead. There are multiple applications of blockchain (for the company). The team would work on various blockchain products, a person familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.

Blockchain is a digital ledger for storing data including, but not limited to, financial transactions. In simple terms, blockchain decentralizes information without it being copied. The information is held on blockchain through a shared database which can be accessed on a real-time basis. This database is not stored on physical servers but on the cloud, which makes it easy to store unlimited data.

The most popular application of the technology has undoubtedly been cryptocurrency, and Reliance Jio also plans to create its own version called JioCoin.

One (application) is cryptocurrency. We can deploy smart contracts. It can be used in supply chain management logistics. Loyalty points could altogether be based on JioCoin, the person cited above said, adding that all of this was in proposal stage.

An email sent to Reliance Jio seeking a response remained unanswered till press time.

Reliance Jio also aspires to get into Internet of Things (IoT). Blockchain technology would come in handy there, the person said.

IoT is a network of devices such as smartphones, wearable devices, home appliances and vehicles, connected to the internet, which enables these objects to connect and exchange data. Experts have also pointed out that blockchain could potentially address security risks to IoT as it provides a shield against data tampering by labelling each block of data.

Significantly, the Indian government has cautioned against cryptocurrencies, stating that virtual currencies were not backed by assets and posed risks such as money laundering. On 2 January, finance minister Arun Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha that the government was still studying the issue.

A committee under the chairmanship of secretary, department of economic affairs, is deliberating over all issues related to cryptocurrencies to propose specific actions to be taken, Jaitley said, adding that the government does not consider cryptocurrencies to be legal tender.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have come under the scanner of governments across the world as their soaring prices attracted speculators and unsophisticated retail investors in droves. On Thursday, Bitcoin dropped as much as 12% to $12,801, its lowest since Christmas day, as South Koreas justice minister reiterated his proposal to ban local cryptocurrency exchanges, Bloomberg reported.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday cautioned against attempts to distort history and said that such ploys should be resisted at any cost as she received an honorary degree from the state-run Calcutta University.

Even in the last History Congress at Kolkata, I cautioned against attempts to distort history. Intolerance is rising in the country. There are attempts to distort history. Today, I am again appealing for resistance to distorting history, Banerjee said at the varsitys convocation ceremony.

The honorary Doctorate of Literature (DLitt) degree was conferred on her for by governor and chancellor Keshari Nath Tripathi for her contribution to art, culture and social welfare.

Banerjee had said attempts to distort history is nothing but a crime while addressing the 78th Indian History Congress in Kolkata on December 29 last year.

Without naming the Bharatiya Janata Party, the chief minister said that there are attempts to destroy the Indian culture of unity in diversity.

India has a diversity of origin and we should respect that, she added.

Banerjee said it was a great honour for her but she is not going to use the degree.

Some people are maligning me over this degree. I will not use it since I personally feel that I do not have the qualification to have it, she said.

The Calcutta high court was set to hear a public interest litigation from Ranjugopal Mukherjee, a former vice chancellor of state-run University of North Bengal, opposing the conferring of the degree on the chief minister even as she received it at Nazrul Mancha, an indoor auditorium in south Kolkata.

Mukherjee said in his petition that since the members of the university senate are appointed by the state government, which is headed by Banerjee, they cannot decide to honour her with the honorary degree.

The state government challenged the litigation and described it as politically motivated and indulging in character assassination.

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DEHRADUN: The BJP government drew sharp criticism from the Congress after it was caught in a bind over providing monetary compensation to the family of debt-ridden Kathgodam transporter Prakash Pandey.

A thought has not been given to that as yetwe will think over it, Cabinet minister Madan Kaushik said when asked if the BJP government had assured a monetary assistance of Rs 10 lakh to the family. Pandey died on Tuesday after he consumed poison while attending the Janata Darbar (the peoples court) at the BJP headquarters on January 6. He had blamed GST and demonetisation for his business losses.

Kaushik said the issue of providing monetary compensation for the family of a person who committed suicide was a serious issue. It is not something on which a decision can be taken without considering the pros and cons, he said, reacting to reports that several people called up the CMO threatening to commit suicide, if their problems were left unresolved. The minister suggested that monetary compensation is not provided in suicide cases.

Darshan Singh Rawat, the CMs media coordinator, confirmed some people did call up threatening to end lives even over minor issues. One such case involving Sanjay Bisht, said to be a Congress worker, was reported on Thursday. Darshan Singh said Bisht was arrested when he was driving towards the chief ministers residence.

On Thursday, Nainital district magistrate Deependra Chaudhary announced Rs 12 lakh in compensation following assurance by BJP legislator Bansidhar Bhagat. A monetary assistance of Rs 2 lakh was provided on the day (Thursday) the transporter was cremated, Haldwani sub-divisional magistrate AB Bajpayee said. He (the DM) announced that the remaining monetary assistance would be provided following an assurance from Bhagat. The DM promised that the deceaseds wife would be provided a job on an ad hoc basis.

Bhagat admitted he asked Chaudhary to announce a monetary assistance of Rs 10 lakh for the family following the chief ministers assurance. What can I do about that? Bhagat said when told that the government was yet to confirm the DMs announcement relating to the monetary assistance of Rs 10 lakh. Later, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat confirmed the district magistrate had already provided a separate monetary assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the family.

Congress state president Pritam Singh flayed the BJP government for its flip-flop on compensation. The way this government is promising monetary compensation for the family and then going back on its promise shows its double standards, he said. This kind of flip-flop on such a sensitive issue shows its insensitivity.

Singh said the government should not just provide monetary compensation to the family. It should also pay the debt because of which the debt-ridden transporter committed suicide, he said, adding that such a gesture was obligatory on the government. It is obligatory because the transporter committed suicide citing demonetisation and GST for business failure. Besides, he is on record stating that he decided to end life after his request for help to the PM and the CM failed to get any response.

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DEHRADUN: Over two dozen people thronged at the BJP headquarters on Thursday only to find no ministers attend Janta Darshan or public hearing of their grievances at the office.

In the absence of cabinet ministers after a 45-year-old transporter consumed poison before attending the Janta Darshan on January 6, BJP general secretary Naresh Bansal and the Officer on Special Duty to the chief minister heard grievances of the people.

HT enquired about the whereabouts of seven Cabinet ministers and two ministers with independent charge. Cabinet ministers Satpal Maharaj, Prakash Pant and Yashpal Arya along with minister of state Rekha Arya were in Dehradun while Cabinet ministers Harak Singh Rawat, Madan Kaushik, Arvind Pandey, Subodh Uniyal and MoS Dhan Singh Rawat were out of town.

The BJP is dragging itself out of the public programme fearing suicide threats, said party insiders. Subodh Uniyal, agriculture minister who was presiding over the Janta Darshan on January 6, was lucky as Pandey had consumed poison before attending the programme. Had he consumed poison before the minister, then? Now, the ministers are having second thoughts to hold any such event, a senior BJP leader.

BJP state president Ajay Bhatt said the party planned to hold Janta Darshans in districts through the local administration.

The complainants, however, continue to visit the BJP office with optimism. Govind Ram, 74, a resident of Purola, reached to seek financial assistance from the party. He is ailing with asthma and prostrate problems while his wife Gayatri Devi, 72, is also terminally ill. Similarly, Heera Mani, a 70-year-old resident of Ghansali, also came for financial aid.

I travelled so far to put forward my plea before the cabinet minister at the Janta Darshan but I came to know that it wont be organised any further. The administration doesnt do any work and I had hoped that the ministers could help me, Heera Mani said in a quavering voice.

The Janta Darshan began at the BJP office in August 28. The ministers used to preside over the programme as per a schedule. But, after Diwali and assembly election preparations at Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat intensified due to which the ministers started sitting at the office twice in a week. After the election, the event was held as per the availability of the ministers. Over 2,000 complainants had registered for the programme in last four months

BS Budhiyal, additional district magistrate, visited BJP office on Thursday. He is conducting the magisterial investigation of Pandeys death. He enquired at the office and asked whether Pandey had come or not. I wanted to confirm whether Pandey had visited the office. Its a part of magisterial investigation.

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A tiger translocation project is caught in red tape as the Public Works Departments response is needed by the Rajaji management for a specialised work that necessarily may not be the expertise of the government agency.

After a nod from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the Rajaji management had finalised five companies for the construction of special cages for soft release of tigers in western part of the reserve. Rajaji is the third reserve in the country after Sariska and Panna to get the nod for translocation of tigers.

The Uttarakhand governments rules for procurement makes it necessary for engagement of the Public Works Department (PWD) in any construction work whose budget exceeds Rs 15 lakh. In the tiger translocation project, the agencies finalised to construct cages have quoted Rs 30 lakh - a figure relatively lesser than the market cost of Rs 45 lakh (for three cages).

The Rajaji management is awaiting a response from the PWD, which is primarily engaged in planning, designing, construction and maintenance of government properties in the field of built environment and infrastructure development.

Officials are in a fix as not only the construction of cages is an altogether different task, but also because the PWD lacks the capability in handling a sensitive task like tiger translocation. Its the procurement rules that binds us to engage the PWD for this scientific task. But, we will first confirm with the PWD engineers. I will also talk to the government to relax norms for the project so that an appropriate agency can undertake this task, Rajaji director Sanatan Sonkar said.

Its been over five years now that the project was planned to translocate tigers from Corbett to the western part of Rajaji (570 sq km) that has two tigresses. There are 32 tigers showing healthy signs of breeding in the eastern part (150 sq km) but they are cut off from the tigresses in the other side. The plan is to introduce one tiger and two tigresses in the western side. For that they will be first released in big enclosures with forest-like conditions before they are let off in the wild.

The officials have received the permission to radio collar the three tigers chosen for the project. But the Rajaji field staff cannot radio collar the tigers till the enclosures are ready. Radio-collars will be put once the cages are ready. Also, we dont know how much time it will take to construct enclosures. It is not advisable to put collars on the tigers unless the situation is clear, an officer involved in the project said.

AK Singh, team leader at the World Wide Funds Terai Arc Landscape said there was a need to prepare enclosures first. Its important to keep the infrastructure ready before radio collaring tigers that will be translocated. The project, I am sure will start soon.

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The Delhi Police fined 8,214 people for smoking in public in just four days of a special drive in south and southeast Delhi areas such as Hauz Khas, New Friends Colony, Greater Kailash, Lajpat Nagar and Saket.

Teams from the 28 police stations in the two areas caught people smoking in public. Police said Rs 200 challans were issued in each case.

The drive was carried out on December 30 last year and January 3, 6 and 10.

Till 8pm on Wednesday, the south district police had fined 2,755 violators while their southeast district counterparts had fined 5459 smokers. While the figures for south Delhi were final, the drive in southeast district was to go on till 10 pm, said DCP (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal.

Biswal said that the drive was announced after public health activists had pointed it out to the senior police officers that while there was a law  Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COPTA)  which made public smoking punishable with fine, the enforcement was not satisfactory.

After this,we sent out teams for action on selected days, said Biswal. He added that this is the first such drive in recent times.

11.3%smokers enjoy while other 88.7% non-smokers suffer passive smoking.Exemplary work in enforcement of #COTPA 2 make change in public behaviour, tweeted Romil Baaniya, DCP (south), earlier in the day.

While Section 4 of COTPA prohibits smoking at public places. Sale of tobacco products to minors is prohibited by Section 6 of the Act.

The four-day drive has helped in creating awareness and it will go on, Baaniya said.
Hassled and clueless, a woman in her twenties approached a Police Control Room Van (PCR) at India Gate. Holding her crying baby, she looked restless. We saw her coming. She looked tensed. We sensed that she needed help, says Ram Kumar, Assistant Senior Inspector (ASI), Delhi Police, who is also the in-charge of

PCR-17. He adds, She told us that her baby is hungry and crying for the past one hour. The lady could not feed because there is no private space around.

Without a second thought, Kumar instructed his team to help the woman. We took our wireless set from the van and stood outside it so that the lady could feed her child inside the van, in privacy. Many have applauded the initiative on social media, however Kumar thinks that this act was nothing out of the ordinary for him or his team. This was a genuine problem that she faced. Being guards of the city, it is our job to extend a helping hand. Hamne hamari duty bhi nibha li, aur thodi insaniyat bhi dikha di, says Kumar.

Ashish Barak, the gunman with the PCR Van, says that its quite rewarding and motivating when people acknowledge police efforts. People were watching us. They must be trying to figure out whats happening. After the lady fed her child, she and her husband thanked us and even told others about the help we provided. that felt so good that, at least someone is talking positive about us.

And the additional DCP (PCR), Rakesh Kumar Bansal says that this is not the one-off incident, for women and distressed are always on the priority of Delhi Police. The staff has been instructed to help them without waiting for a call and approval. Bansal says, We have already instructed our team to provide an assistance to the people in need. Whether its about providing taxi to the girls during late night or helping those who are new in the Capital, we are always proactive.

Follow @htTweets for more

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Shahdara residents recall their experience in the week ending November 12 as walking around with chilli powder in their eyes and throats. Others remember smog so thick that they dared not venture out, some children were placed under house-arrest, while others considered leaving Delhi altogether.

Since November, air quality in Shahdara has not been within permissible limits for a single day.

Shahdara sits on the north-eastern edge of Delhi, bordering Uttar Pradesh. Despite being classified as a nonconforming cluster of industrial concentration in the Delhi Master plan, the subdistrict is home to about 60,000 families, with almost 40,000 children under the age of six. Its population grew 1.5 times in the decade ending 2011, according to Census data.

Like most neighbourhoods in Delhi, Shahdaras planning has not kept up with population growth. Delhi wasnt made for these many people or vehicles, said D Saha, scientist at the Central Pollution Control Boards air lab. We have three times the population the city was built for and four times the number of vehicles.

Road dust and vehicular emissions compound the problem as the neighbourhood is crisscrossed by some of the busiest roads in Delhi-NCR. NH-9 that connects Malout in Punjab to Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, and State Highway-57 that connects Delhi to Yamunotri in Uttarakhand run through Shahdara. A stretch of NH-24 that runs south of Shahdara carries much of the traffic headed to Meerut from Delhi, as does a stretch of NH-44, which is a part of the historical Grand Trunk Road.

People living in Nand Nagri and New Seemapuri suffer the most, especially at night when the trucks start moving on GT Road. People sit outside the many, mostly mechanical repair shops by the roadside where there is so much dust that breathing becomes difficult even on a normal day, said Harish Kumar, 39, who has been living in the area for nearly 25 years and runs a printing store.

Unplanned construction

I have asthma and the wheezing worsens indoors because its cold inside. I used to spend my afternoons sitting in the sun, but cannot now because of the dust and pollution, said Savita Devi, 60, a DDA colony-resident for 16 years.

With people illegally adding rooms to their flats and renting them out, the colonys population has gone up three to four times over the past two decades. This is the problem in Seemapuri, Nand Nagri, Seelampur  families and rents have risen and now each house has 20-30 residents, compared to six-seven people a decade ago, said Satish Verma, 47, who works at the Vivek Vihar ITI, who has lived here for 22 years.

Renovations and additions mean constant unplanned construction. Who keeps a check on the dust and pollution when a house is being constructed? Every day, there are houses being broken down and reconstructed, with people encroaching pavements and public land, causing traffic jams and congestion, said Verma.

Industry

Industries, both legal and illegal, a constant flux of vehicles from outside city borders, and perpetual construction compound air pollution. In 1996, the Supreme Court directed Delhi government to relocate industries in central residential areas remote places. It took the Delhi government 20 years to complete that allocation process, but the industries are there.

Why are you allowing people to live next to industrial areas? said MC Mehta, lawyer and activist. They only plan well on paper. They should have thought about what would happen by the time they finish the relocation.

Unregulated construction has accompanied industries and growing population. In 2015, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation fined 33 under-construction commercial and residential properties for polluting the air. None of the fines have made a difference, Sanjay Upadhyay, an environmental lawyer, said.

Development always wins against environment, Saha said, explaining how Beijing appears to be tackling the problem better by not allowing migrants to settle in the city.

The air pollution is more likely to drive residents out. If this continues, we will think about leaving Delhi, said Mukesh Kumar, an advocate, who bought masks for his entire family this November.
A day after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) released the exam schedule for Class 12 boards, some students, parents and teachers  especially those from the humanities stream  expressed dissatisfaction and called for changes in the date sheet.

History exam has been scheduled on March 20, followed by Mathematics on March 21, raising concerns that with no break in between, preparations could get severely affected and cause stress. The coveted JEE exam  for entrance to technical institutions  is scheduled for April 8, a day before the Physical Education exam. For the humanities stream students, three exams have been scheduled without break from April 5 to 7. Psychology is scheduled for April 5, Political Science for April 6 and Legal Studies for April 7. After the gap of a day, Physical Education exam has been scheduled for April 9.

CHECK CBSE CLASS 10 AND CLASS 12 DATE SHEETS

While school principals seem to be satisfied with the Class 10 board exam schedule  that was also released on Wednesday  many expressed concern about Class 12 exams. Ashok Pandey, principal of the Ahlcon School, also echoed the concerns. The question is not how much would a student be able to study in a day. The question is how much he wouldnt be able to. We need at least the gap of one day for revision, relaxation, and breaking from one subject to another. Personally, I think two days should be the minimum break, but at least one is necessary, he said. Pandey, however, said he was sure that the CBSE would be generous enough to reconsider the dates.

Political Science has 18 chapters. It is unfair to expect students to revise them all in just one day. In fact, they wont even get one full day after the Psychology exam, said a Political Science teacher, who did not wish to be named.

Saumya Gupta, a Humanities stream student of Class 12 from Queen Mary School, Model Town, argued that the date sheet is not balanced as for some papers there is too much gap and for some there is none.

Upset with the examination dates, several turned to Twitter. Dont play with the career of Humanities students! CBSE give gap please! Humanities students, 4 papers in 5 days. Disheartening as all the major papers are subjective 7 lengthy!, Sanjeev Saxena wrote.

Great....no gap between mains and the PE paper.....how are we suppose to prepare for it when we have career's most important exams...took so much time for preparinf such a horrible time table.....hatsoff...#cbse#CBSEDateSheet  nishant (@nishant1503) January 11, 2018

Questioning the schedule, Shivaani K Talwar, a former teacher in Delhi University even sought intervention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Human Recourse Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javdekar. Can someone in the Govt @narendramodi, @smritiirani @HRDMinistry @PrakashJavdekar look into the #CBSEDateSheet for 12th boards. No proper gaps for Economics for commerce Maths, Physiscs, History & list goes on. Can the sduents b given a stress free date sheet #CBSE, she tweeted.

#CBSEDateSheet

Don't play with the career of humanities students!

Give gap please..l

Humanities students

4 papers in 5 days

Really disheartening as all the major papers are subjective & lengthy!

5th Ap.Psy.

6th https://t.co/BgJunPt2eI

7th Ap. Legal Studies

9th April. P.E.  Sanjeev Saxena (@Sanjeev11806701) January 11, 2018

A student Shreyansh Dhaiya wrote, Well thanks CBSE today for providing such a crap datesheet in so many years, now I dont know how will I perform tomorrow I just read 6 chapters and 9 are coming and this stress of datesheet today just broke my concentration.

Seeking revision of the date sheet, he further posted, CBSE do something asap and make necessary changes in the date sheet or else the whole nation would in a turmoil.

Can someone in the Govt @narendramodi @smritiirani @HRDMinistry @PrakashJavdekar look into the #CBSEDateSheet for 12th boards . No proper gaps for Economics for commerce Maths students , Physics , History & list goes on . Can the students b given a stress free date sheet ? #CBSE  Shivaani K Talwar (@ShivaaniKTalwar) January 10, 2018

Science stream students also raised concerns over only a days gap for Physics exam March 7 after English on March 5. I am concerned about Physics. It is a major and difficult subject. Just one days time to revise may not be enough. They are giving more gap between other science stream subjects, up to 4 and 5 days. I would have liked at least two days time to revise for my Physics exam. But now, I will have to manage, said Abhimayu Chadha, a class 12 humanities student at Ambience Public School.

Parents also pointed out that Mathematics and Computer Science exams are falling on March 21 and March 23, respectively. They said students appearing for both the subjects will not get enough time for revision and preparation.

A user @kulkarniuttara said, still goosebumps because this is the worst time table for science students.

Still in goosebumps because this is the worst time table for science students.#CBSE #CBSEDateSheet  TheMellifluentGirl (@kulkarniuttara) January 10, 2018

Others said the schedule was tough particularly for those appearing for JEE exam which is on April 8 as the Physical Education exam has been scheduled for the following day on April 9. JEE mains on 8th April and Physical Education exam on 9th April? Youre joking right? We get it, 12th is tough, but a little pacification from you wont bring down an apocalypse!, Anirudh Singh, a student, tweeted.

However, some people were not convinced with the arguments, and felt the outrage came from a place of entitlement. Class 10 datesheet is completely fine. Even class 12, for science and commerce they have at least a days gap for their exams. It is only for humanities, and those who have opted for Mathematics and History, where there isnt a gap. But you have 20 days off before that! How many students actually have these combinations? With so many students, attempting the exams for so many different subjects, somebody was bound to be unhappy. Whatever advantage or disadvantage the dates present, will be the same for everyone, said the principal of a leading private school who did not wish to be named.
At least three traders in Old Delhi were hit by hackers who encrypted files on their computers and demanded ransom in Bitcoins to release documents critical to their businesses, police officers and victims said on Wednesday.

Delhi Polices crime branch has registered three FIRs so far, including one on January 5, but traders say the number could be much more as several ransoms paid in Bitcoins were not reported to authorities.

Police said the traders were given links to buy Bitcoins, with a warning that not complying with their demand would lead to the permanent loss of data.

Some traders paid in Bitcoins and got their data back. Some deposited the money from abroad. When my data was hacked, I spoke to fellow traders and learnt that there were other such cases. I wrote to the hackers and they agreed to decrypt the files for $1,750 (around Rs 1.11 lakh), said Mohan Goyal, one of the victims who is joint secretary of the Delhi Steel Tools and Hardware Traders Association.

Though rare in India, ransomware attacks are a prevalent online fraud in several countries. A police officer, who asked not to be named, said the IP address in one case was traced to a system in Germany.

The traders were given the option of getting five files decrypted for free, and the rest after the ransom was paid. A police officer said the free option was to demonstrate to the traders that the hackers had control.

The message displayed on the victims computers was that there was a security problem on the system. The traders were given case numbers and email addresses for communication.

Police have sent the hard disks of the complainants for forensic tests. Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Bhishma Singh confirmed the hackings but declined to give further details.

We suspect there are syndicates in Nigeria or Pakistan. They identify vulnerable computer systems and use ransomware to target their files. Getting money in Bitcoin works for them because it is difficult to trace the money, said Jiten Jain, the director of cyber-security firm Voyager Infosec.

Bitcoins are gaining in popularity as a digital payment mode but are not legal tender in India. The Union finance ministry recently cautioned investors trading in the cryptocurrency and comparing it with ponzi schemes.
A 37-year-old suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant, allegedly involved in the 2000 Red Fort terror attack, was arrested on Wednesday evening from Delhi airport by a joint team of the Delhi Police special cell and anti-terrorist squad (ATS) of Gujarat Police. Police claim the accused, Bilal Ahmed Kawa, was the same person they had been looking for since the day of the attack on December 22, 2000.

MM Oberoi, joint commissioner of police (special cell) confirmed Bilal Ahmed arrest. He had come to Delhi from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir by flight. We are interrogating him to verify his antecedents and probe the purpose of his Delhi visit, said Oberoi.

Bilal is being interrogated at the Lodhi Colony special cell. Special cell officials said Bilal Ahmed was in the business of manufacturing leather jackets in Kashmir. He has told interrogators that he had been visiting Delhi every year for business purpose.

Why he could not be arrested in the last 17 years is a matter of investigation. Though he has been denying his role in the Red Fort attack, we have enough evidence against him to prove that he was a key accused in the shoot out, said a special cell officer associated with the probe.

Six LeT terrorists had stormed Red Fort on December 22, 2000, and opened fire, killing three security personnel. The army personnel present in the Fort had retaliated but the terrorists managed to escape. The terrorists had sneaked into the Red Fort on the pretext of watching the light-and-sound show . A case was registered at the Kotwali police station.

According to police, during investigations they learnt that Rs 29.5 lakh was transferred through hawala and through various bank accounts in Bilal Ahmeds name. This amount was deposited in Bilal Ahmeds account by Mohammad Arif alias Ashfaq Ahmed, the mastermind of the Red Fort attack. Ashfaq Ahmed had received the money through hawala from his handlers apparently based in Pakistan. The money was utilized in the funding of the terror attack, said police.

The Delhi Police filed a chargesheet against the prime accused Ashfaq Ahmed and 21 others in February 2001. However, the court framed charges only against 11 people, including Ahmed.

Bilal Ahmed continued to evade arrest and was hiding in Jammu and Kashmir. The law enforcement agencies were looking for him since then, said the officer.

Pramod Kushwah, deputy commissioner of police (special cell), said, We arrested the suspect after it was confirmed that he was the same man we had been looking for in the Red Fort terrorist shoot out case.
Three cities from the National Capital Region  Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Delhi  were among Indias five most polluted cities last year, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the countrys apex pollution monitoring and control body, said on Wednesday.

Ghaziabad, with an average air quality index (AQI) of 258, topped the list. Gurgaon was close behind with an AQI of 247, and Delhi ranked fourth at 228. Noida, Faridabad and Alwar  other heavily polluted cities in the NCR  ranked 8th, 11th and 12th. The CPCB rated Thiruvananthapuram as the city with the cleanest air with an AQI of 64.

The list was prepared based on annual average Air Quality Index values from 51 cities across India in 2017. According to the CPCB report published with the list, an AQI of 0-50 is good, 51-100 is satisfactory, 101-200 is moderate, and 201-300 is poor. In November, the AQI in Delhi was above 400, or severe, for a week. The city was enveloped in a toxic haze that forced authorities to take drastic measures such as closing schools, hiking parking charges and declaring a public health emergency.

The cities of north India are all landlocked, said D Saha, the head of the air quality laboratory at CPCB. Air quality in these cities depends heavily on weather conditions. If the wind is strong and it gets a clear passage and ventilation then pollution level drops. The entire Indo-Gangetic plain is prone to dust pollution.

Mukesh Khare, a professor of environmental engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, suggested unplanned urban sprawl was also to blame for the tendency of pollutants in the capital not to be flushed out by wind.

Delhis high ranking comes despite the fact that the city enjoyed relatively cleaner air in 2017 than 2016, when it was shrouded in its worst smog in at least 17 years.

AQI is calculated based on the quantity of materials such as particulate matter and gases, including SO2, NO2 and ammonia, found in the air. The CPCBs list features the average AQI values in 2017 from the 51 cities across India.

Cities such as Kolkata, with an AQI of 106, Mumbai, with 107, and Chennai, with 95, enjoy much cleaner air than Delhi or any other city in north India.

This doesnt mean that Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai have fewer sources of pollution, said Vivek Chattopadhyay, the senior program manager of the air pollution control wing at the Centre for Science and Environment. They remain cleaner mainly because of favourable meteorological conditions such as strong winds.

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Kanpur A hitherto dormant website of IIT-Kanpur (IIT-K) on ancient texts, including the Vedas and Shastras, has shown a sudden spike in traffic which could have been triggered off by a WhatsApp message, the Indian Express has reported.

Gita Supersite, designed by IIT-K faculty and the government-funded Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions has texts in Sanskrit. The institutes professors have said the site, which used to register 500 hits a day showed a sudden spike in traffic with 24,000 hits, the newspaper said.

Quoting Professor T V Prabhakar of the computer science and engineering department, the Indian Express said the Gita Supersite project was aimed at converting ancient Indian knowledge in a contemporary format accessible on the Internet. Prabhakar spearheaded the designing of the database and translations of texts like The Gita and the Upanishads in the institute a decade ago

The sudden surge in online traffic was noticed in October last year and the reason was attributed to a WhatsApp message circulated on social media.

The message, which was accessed by The Indian Express this week, reads that IIT-Kanpur has developed a website on our treasures of Vedas, Shastras etc. Finally someone from todays science and technology field is digging into what has already been done many many years agoPlease share this as much as you can.

The traffic at the site went up to 24,000 hits a day, registering an increase of 4,700% in readership from India and around the world. Now about 12,000 hits a day are recorded.

This is the power of social media. This is all we can put a finger on behind this surge, Prabhakar was quoted as saying by Prabhakar.
Officials of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday said the schedule for Class 12 board examinations was decided after taking a number of factors, including competitive exams, into consideration after enraged students, parents and teachers called for changes in the date sheet.

The board has scheduled the history exam on March 20 followed by mathematics on March 21, raising concerns that preparations could get severely affected and cause stress with no break in between.

The coveted Joint Entrance Examination or JEE  for entrance to technical institutions  is scheduled for April 8, a day before the physical education exam.

Three exams have been scheduled without a break from April 5 to 7 for students of the humanities stream  psychology on April 5, political science on April 6 and legal studies on April 7. The physical education examination has been scheduled for April 9 after the gap of a day.

Officials said some papers do not have any gap as under the present system students opt for subjects from different streams for the board exams and it was not possible to keep the exams apart.

There are around 200 subjects out of which students can have any combination. Students have such subject combination that science students take up one from the humanities and commerce subjects and vice-versa. So, no matter how much we try some subjects might not get as many gap days as others, an official said.

Another official said schedulers made the date sheet in a way so that all the 200 subjects were covered by the first week of April as competitive exams such as the JEE start after that.

We start in the first week of March and end by the first week of April. Students also want to get free early to focus on competitive exams. There could be some subject combinations where there is not much gap but the board also has so many other considerations while making the date sheet, the official said.

The principal of Delhis Ahlcon International School, Ashok Pandey, raised concerns over the date sheet, saying students need to relax between one exam and the other.

We need at least the gap of one day for revision, relaxation, and breaking from one subject to another. Personally, I think two days should be the minimum break, but at least one is necessary, he said.

Saumya Gupta, a Class 12 humanities student at Queen Mary School in Delhis Model Town, argued that the date sheet is not balanced as for some papers there is too much gap and for some there is none.

Dont play with the career of Humanities students! CBSE give gap please! Humanities students, 4 papers in 5 days. Disheartening as all the major papers are subjective 7 lengthy! (sic), Sanjeev Saxena wrote on Twitter.

Science students also raised concerns over only a days gap for physics exam March 7 after English on March 5. Parents pointed out that mathematics and computer science exams have been scheduled on March 21 and March 23, respectively.

They said students appearing for both the subjects will not get enough time for revision and preparation.

The Class 12 exams will end on April 12 and Class 10 on April 4. The entire exercise will be completed in 38 days that will give more time for evaluation, a CBSE official said.

Nearly 11.86 lakh students are scheduled to appear for the Class 12 exam.
Hamel Patel is a US-based model and make-up artist with over 36k followers. While her feed is filled with stunning make-up looks, its her latest series of Disney princesses that has the internet in awe. The Indian-American Instagram influencer didnt just re-create the princesses we all spent our childhood obsessing over  she gave them an Indian twist.

Growing up I always wished there was a Disney Princess I could relate to, one that represented where I came from. So I came up with this idea many months ago and Im so happy how they turned out! Introducing outfits/makeup looks inspired by the eight original Disney Princesses we all grew up watching, with a little desi twist! Patel wrote in one of her Instagram posts, explaining her inspiration for the looks as well as feeling the lack of Desi representation in the Disney community.

Hamel dazzles as Cinderella, Belle, Pocahontas, Aurora and Ariel. (Instagram/ hamelpatel_)

Combining traditional Indian attire  like saris and ghagra cholis, Indian jewellery, as well as bold eyes and lips  with the classic colours and props of Disney princesses, Patel dazzles as Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Jasmine, Mulan, Pocahontas, Aurora and Ariel. Her take on the princesses makes the iconic characters more inclusive for kids from different backgrounds.

Trying to keep all the looks different was really difficult, so I tried different styles and used colours that matched each princess, Hamel said in PopSugar report. In the captions of her pictures, the North Carolina blogger also gave details of how she created her make-up looks.

Read on to see the re-imagined princesses, and prepare to be amazed.

1. For Snow White, she coyly bites into an apple while sporting the red bow and dark blue clothing weve always seen Snow White wearing. She opted for a classic red lip and lined her eyes with blue winged liner, adding a blue bindi as a finishing touch. (Instagram/ hamelpatel_)

2. The unmistakable touches of sky blue and the headband make Hamels Cinderella just about perfect. On her eyes, she used a matching shade of blue to paint her lids and finished off the demure look with a nude lip. (Instagram/ hamelpatel_)

3. As The Little Mermaids Ariel, Hamel cleverly adds a fork (or dinglehopper as the mermaid princess calls it) to her hair. Her eye make-up also matched her two-tone purple and aqua sari, with shimmering purple shadow placed on her lids and an aqua liner framing her bottom lashes  the two colours of Ariels shell top and fin. (Instagram/ hamelpatel_)

4. For her take on Mulan, Hamel clutches a knife and references being a warrior. She wore statement earrings with her forest green attire and accented her face with a dark green bindi surrounded in tiny gems. (Instagram/ hamelpatel_)

5. Looking bright in pink as she channels Sleeping Beautys Aurora, Hamel references a dream. She piled on gold jewellery, including a headpiece that seems to mimic the gold crown Aurora wears. She also matched her pink eye shadow, eyeliner, and lipstick to her clothes, which are the same colour as Sleeping Beautys dress. (Instagram/ hamelpatel_)

6. Hamel said Jasmine from Aladdin was her favourite look from the whole series. She wore a turquoise sari complete with sheer headscarf and finished off with teal eye make-up and a turquoise bindi. (Instagram/ hamelpatel_)

7. For Beauty and the Beasts Belle, Hamel alludes to the character with a pop of a yellow sari blouse and a rose. The blogger kept her eye make-up on the more subtle side, finishing things off with a statement red lip and picking a rose for her prop. And that jewellery is stunning. (Instagram/ hamelpatel_)

8. Hamel gave Pochahontas a reboot, too, donning a red and yellow outfit with Native American-inspired bead jewellery. While her previous hairstyles were more elaborate, for the photos she wore it straight and down. (Instagram/ hamelpatel_)

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Scientists have developed an implantable medical robot that can stimulate tissue growth in stunted organs without causing discomfort.

The system induced cell proliferation and lengthened part of the oesophagus in a large animal by about 75 %, while the animal remained awake and mobile.

According to the researchers from Boston Childrens Hospital in the US, the system could treat long-gap oesophageal atresia, a rare birth defect in which part of the oesophagus is missing, and could also be used to lengthen the small intestine in short bowel syndrome.

The most effective current operation for long-gap esophageal atresia, called the Foker process, uses sutures anchored on the patients back to gradually pull on the oesophagus. To prevent the oesophagus from tearing, patients must be paralysed in a medically induced coma and placed on mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit for one to four weeks. The long period of immobilisation can also cause medical complications such as bone fractures and blood clots.

This project demonstrates proof-of-concept that miniature robots can induce organ growth inside a living being for repair or replacement, while avoiding the sedation and paralysis currently required for the most difficult cases of oesophageal atresia, said Russell Jennings, from the Boston Childrens Hospital.

The potential uses of such robots are yet to be fully explored, but they will certainly be applied to many organs in the near future, said Jennings, co-investigator on the study published in the journal Science Robotics.

The motorised robotic device is attached only to the oesophagus, so would allow a patient to move freely.

Covered by a smooth, biocompatible, waterproof skin, it includes two attachment rings, placed around the oesophagus and sewn into place with sutures. A programmable control unit outside the body applies adjustable traction forces to the rings, slowly and steadily pulling the tissue in the desired direction.

The device was tested in the oesophagi of pigs - five received the implant and three served as controls. The distance between the two rings was increased by small, 2.5-millimetre increments each day for 8 to 9 days.

The animals were able to eat normally even with the device applying traction to its oesophagus, and showed no sign of discomfort. On day 10, the segment of oesophagus had increased in length by 77 % on average. Examination of the tissue showed a proliferation of the cells that make up the oesophagus. The organ also maintained its normal diameter.

This shows we didnt simply stretch the oesophagus - it lengthened through cell growth, said Pierre Dupont, Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering at Boston Childrens. The research team is now starting to test the robotic system in a large animal model of short bowel syndrome.

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Marvel comics legend Stan Lee has been accused of sexual misconduct by his nurses. According to Mail Online, multiple women have come forward to accuse the ninety-five-year-old Lee of sexual misconduct.

The former president and chairman of Marvel is alleged to have repeatedly groped and harassed several female nurses, including walking around naked in their presence and asking them for oral sex in the shower.

A representative for the nursing company confirmed several nurses have complained and the owner of the company has spoken to Lee directly, but the company stopped working for him at the end of 2016.

About Stan Lee someone said "him too? This sucks."



No. HER too. The person he groped got groped too. Just like tons of other women. Her too.  Sophia Benoit (@1followernodad) January 9, 2018

Majority of the comments and responses to the Stan Lee accusations make me sick. So sexual harassment doesn't apply to him because he gave you some fucking comics and movies? It's suddenly a conspiracy because it's him? Do you hear yourselves?  donnia (@fincherism) January 10, 2018

Incredibly sad to see Stan Lee accused of sexual misconduct. I am even more sad to see all of those defending him. My heart goes out the victims.  Maile (@mysoulisfandom) January 10, 2018

In a statement, Lee has denied all the allegations.

The statement read, Mr Lee categorically denies these false and despicable allegations and he fully intends to fight to protect his stellar good name and impeccable character. We are not aware of anyone filing a civil action, or reporting these issues to the police, which for any genuine claim would be the more appropriate way for it to be handled.

The statement continued, Instead, Mr Lee has received demands to pay money and threats that if he does not do so, the accuser will go to the media. Lee will not be extorted or blackmailed, and will pay no money to anyone because he has done absolutely nothing wrong.

The accusations come to the fore when Hollywood has started #TimesUp campaign, which tends to expose the accusers and tell them that their time is up in Hollywood.

Lee has now joined the long list of powerful people in Hollywood who have been accused of sexual abuse or misconduct.

The other names include Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Dustin Hoffman, Brett Ratner and Russell Simmons.

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The transcript of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee released to the public by Dianne Feinstein is both the entire congressional investigation in brief, and a revealing insight into why Republicans have been so anxious to keep this information under lock and key.Every question asked by Republicans in the meetingevery single questionfocused on trying to find information they could use to demean and defame the witness. They wanted to paint Fusion GPS as a Democratic operation. They were determined to turn Christopher Steeles visit to the FBI into a partisan act. They used every moment of their time to find something Fusion had done wrong, or that Steele had done wrong  some way that both the company and the information they had gathered could be dismissed. In a day-long interview that was supposed to further the investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, no Republican expressed the slightest interest in that topic.
Two days after female empowerment dominated the star-studded Golden Globes, the #TIMESUP movement was still very much on stars minds at the National Board of Review Awards.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Meryl Streep took the stage to accept the award for Best Actress for her role in The Post, and took the opportunity to acknowledge and address both genders.

Streep started her speech by saying, I love men. Yeah, I know its the year of the woman and everything, but all of my mentors have been men.

Before signing off, the legendary actor threw in an anecdote that came from Daniel Ellsberh, who was the whistle-blower from the Pentagon Papers.

The star ended her speech with a message to all the ladies out there and said, I think the movie really did meet its moment in time, and the times up. So lets go, girls!

Female-driven storytelling was recognized throughout the awards, whose winners were announced in November. Lady Birds Greta Gerwig triumphed in best director, while Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot were given the Spotlight Award for the superhero movies accomplishments.

Actor Tom Hanks attends the 2018 The National Board Of Review Annual Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on January 9, 2018 in New York City. (AFP)

Heres the full list of winners:

Best film: The Post

Best director: Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Best actor: Tom Hanks, The Post

Best actress: Meryl Streep, The Post

Best supporting actor: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

Best supporting actress: Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

Best original screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread

Best adapted screenplay: Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, The Disaster Artist

Best animated feature: Coco

Best breakthrough performance: Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Best directorial debut: Jordan Peele, Get Out

Best foreign language film: Foxtrot

Best documentary: Jane

Best ensemble: Get Out

Spotlight Award: Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Angelina Jolie and Loung Ung, First They Killed My Father; John Ridley, Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992.



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A new step to protect data associated with peoples Aadhaar number, two big economic reforms, CBSE exam datesheets and controversy over drought-hit Tamil Nadu MLAs getting a salary hike. These stories made news on Wednesday. Here is more about them.

Virtual ID enables people to protect Aadhaar numbers

People can submit a virtual ID instead of sharing their 12-digit Aadhaar number--a safeguard intended to protect privacy. The virtual ID will be a temporary, revocable 16-digit random number mapped with the Aadhaar number. It will not be possible to derive the Aadhaar number from the virtual ID. UIDAI, the agency which issues Aadhaar numbers, also said organisations from now can only do limited KYC (know-your-customer), eliminating the need for them to store Aadhaar numbers.

CBSE class 10, 12 board exams to begin from March 5

The Class 10 and 12 exams under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will start from March 5, the board announced on Wednesday. Students can check the date sheets on CBSE website www.cbse.nic.in. The class 12 exams will end on April 12 and class 10 on April 4. The entire exercise will be completed in 38 days that will give more time for evaluation, a CBSE official said. A total of 28.24 lakh students have registered for the class 10 and 12 exams.

Air India opened up, FDI allowed in single-brand retail

The government cleared a proposal to allow foreign investors to own up to a 49% stake in state-run carrier Air India, paving the way for global airlines to bid for the loss-making flagship carrier. The government also allowed 100% FDI in single-brand retail via automatic route and eased a rule on 30% mandatory local sourcing of products for five fiscal years after the opening of the first Indian store, reports Reuters.

India projected to be worlds fastest growing economy

India is expected to grow by 7.3% in 2018, making it the worlds fastest growing economy again, according to the World Bank. In comparison, Indias statistics office has projected the countrys economy to slow down to 6.5% in 2017-18 from 7.1% a year ago on the back of lingering imp act of demonetisation of high-value currencies and disruptions caused by implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The World Banks Global Economic Prospects report projected Chinas economy to further slow down and grow at 6.4% in 2018 from 6.8% in 2017.

SC sets up committee to monitor anti-Sikh riot cases

A retired high court judge will lead a new three-member special investigation team (SIT) to monitor probe into 186 anti-Sikh riot cases in Delhi that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday. A committee the court had set up earlier found that out of 241 riot cases, 186 cases were closed without investigation.

Indian-origin shopkeeper punched for refusing cigarette paper, dies

An Indian-origin shopkeeper died after he was allegedly punched for refusing to sell cigarette paper to teenagers in north London. Vijay Patel, 49, suffered injuries to his head and was found lying on the pavement outside his convenience store. A 16-year-old boy appeared before court and was charged with murdering Patel, the father of two.

Pakistan town protests rape and murder, 2 killed

Two people died in Kasur town of Pakistans Punjab province after police opened fire on people demonstrating against the alleged rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl. Kasur has been tense after the girls body was found in trash and people alleged the police for not investigating the case properly.

Drought-hit Tamil Nadu doubles MLAs monthly salary

The state government on Wednesday raised the monthly salary of MLAs from Rs 55,000 to Rs 1.05 lakh, as farmers battled a severe drought in 32 districts. Chief minister Edapaddi Palanisami, who has promised farmers that their loans will be waived off, said the hike in MLAs salary and perks will be effective from July 1.

Kendriya Vidyalaya school prayer against constitution?

Does a prayer sung in government-funded schools called Kendriya Vidyalayas promote Hinduism? The Supreme Court has asked the government and the schools to give their view on a petition which alleges that the prayer violates the constitution.

Journalist who travelled with Mamata to Scotland was caught stealing

A journalist who travelled with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee when she visited Scotland last year was caught stealing cutlery at a dinner party hosted in an Edinburgh hotel. West Bengal journalists were embarrassed and decided not to speak about the incident till a Bengali tabloid published a story this week.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said the expeditious hearing of cases involving lawmakers and politicians should start with the top court itself.

The apex court said this as it directed the hearing of a plea by former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh Housing Society case on March 13.

Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul referred to media reports about the apex courts order directing setting up of special courts to ensure trial of lawmakers and politicians within one year.

It must start with the Supreme Court, Justice Chelameswar said favouring the expeditious trials.

The court also stayed the trial of Chavan before a Mumbai court as it directed the listing of the matter for final hearing on March 13.

Chavan is facing trial for allowing civilians to become members of the Adarsh Society which was essentially meant for defence personnel.

Chavan, as then revenue minister of Maharashtra, had also permitted Adarsh to earmark 15 per cent of the society land for recreational purposes.

Prior to staying the trial, the apex bench had asked the counsel appearing for the CBI whether he would make a statement that the agency would not press with the trial if the court stays it.

You have an option, either make a statement or we stay it, Justice Chelameswar told the CBI counsel. The counsel requested the court to pass the order.
The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Thursday formed a two-member committee to prepare a report on the activities of its expelled research scholar Mannan Wani, who has reportedly joined militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).

The HM had earlier this month claimed that 26-year-old Phd student, who was earlier seen holding an Ak-47 rifle in a photo circulated on the social media, has joined the outfit.

Rattled by the claim, the AMU has taken a slew of security measures to keep a tab on its students and probe Wanis campus activities. The university already expelled Wani soon after his gun-toting photograph surfaced on the social media.

The two-member committee headed by Prof SH Arif has been asked to submit its report within a week, universitys spokesman of the S Safi Kidwai said. Professor Kamlesh Chandra is the other member of the committee.

Prof Mohd Saghir Khan, officiating dean of students welfare (DSW), said the provosts and wardens are making frequent rounds till late hours to keep a watch on their respective halls. He said no unauthorised persons would be allowed in the halls.

Students will only be allowed to enter the halls after producing valid AMU ID cards, said the officiating DSW, adding no vehicle would be allowed to enter the premises of residential halls as students and staff had been asked to park their vehicles at designated places.

He further said provosts of various halls were ensuring that every room was occupied by legal residents and CCTV cameras were in working condition.

Students have also been asked to refrain from interacting with unauthorised persons, said the officiating DSW.

The ripple effect of the incident is also felt outside the university campus. The state Anti Terror Squad are camping in the city, interrogating some of the college mates of Wani and people familiar to him and his activities. Some of his local contacts are also under surveillance.

After Mannan incident, the police are put on alert. We will keep a strict watch on students against whom we get any input from intelligence agencies said superintendent of police (city) Atul Shrivastava.

The police officer, however, promptly added that it would be wrong to point fingers at the internationally acclaimed university for the Wani episode.

The AMU is ranked 801-1000 in the QS World University Rankings of 2018.

But this is not the first time that the university finds itself in the news for the alleged terror link of its students.

An MSc (physics) student of the university Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqui founded the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) with some alumni of the institute in April 1977. The SIMI was banned and declared a terrorist organisation and in 2002, bringing the university under security glare.

Another student Mubin was arrested from Habib Hall of the university in 2001 in connection with Sabarmati Express train blast. However, he was acquitted by the court as no evidence was found against him to prove the charge.

In September 2016, a Kashmiri student Mudassar Lone was expelled from the university for posting objectionable comments on a social networking site over the terror attack on the Indian Armys base in Jammu and

Kashmirs Uri.

A joint investigation group has been constituted to probe the Wani episode, said Aligarh inspector general Sanjeev Gupta.

Ruling out that the case would bring a bad name to the institution, Kidwai said teachers and students from different religions, ethnicity and culture worked together at the university.

I would like to quote former President Pranab Mukherjee who, during his last visit to the university, said the AMU was a perfect example of Indian nationalism and ethos, Kidwai said.
The BJP, an ally of the ruling Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, has accused Andhra Pradesh-Telangana governor ESL Narasimhan of being biased towards the neighbouring state.

Penmetsa Vishnu Kumar Raju, BJP floor leader in the state assembly, claimed that Narasimhan has hardly ever left the Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad to visit Andhra Pradesh in recent times. The only exceptions, he said, were unavoidable official functions and a day or two during the assembly budget session.

Narasimhan has hardly stayed here for more than 10 days in the three-and-a-half years that followed the bifurcation of combined Andhra Pradesh. He only entertains Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, accepting his recommendations within minutes. Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is largely ignored, Raju told mediapersons in Visakhapatnam.

He demanded that the Centre appoint a separate governor for Andhra Pradesh before the budget session. Why should we have a governor who is biased towards Telangana? Cant we get our own governor? he asked.

Narasimhan has been the longest-serving governor of any state in India. He took over combined Andhra Pradesh in December 2009, at a time when the Telangana statehood movement was at its peak, and has been in the post ever since.

The immediate reason for the BJP leaders outburst was the rejection of a bill aimed at amending the Andhra Pradesh Non-Agricultural Lands Assessment Act-1963 to reduce the fee for converting agricultural plots into non-agricultural land for industrial and infrastructural purposes. The bill, passed by the Andhra Pradesh assembly last month, was initially rejected by Narasimhan on several counts. However, he approved the legislation on Thursday, after repeated clarifications from the Naidu government.

The BJP leader wondered why the governor rejected the bill passed by Andhra assembly when he had consented to a similar bill from the neighbouring state.

BJP leaders in Telangana have also accused Narasimhan of cozying up to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), and ignoring Opposition parties. He paid little attention to the representations made by Opposition parties against chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his TRS government, one of them said.

Congress leaders in Telangana also want Narasimhan replaced by an impartial governor. Our main demand is Narasimhans ouster. We are open to having separate governors for both states, said Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) spokesperson Dasoju Sravan.

A team of Congress leaders led by TPCC chief Captain N Uttam Kumar Reddy had entered into a confrontation with Narasimhan a few days ago, when they approached him for action against sand mafia members who alleged killed a village revenue assistant in Kamareddy district. The Congress claimed that the sand mafia enjoys the backing of TRS leaders close to Raos family.

Narasimhan claimed that the person had died in an accident, and chided them for dragging Raos family into every controversy. He was acting like a TRS agent, said Sravan, who was part of the delegation.

The governor had later said it was natural for differences to arise within any family. We (the governor and all political parties) are like one family, he added.

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The status of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir is temporary, RSS leader Indresh Kumar said on Thursday as he stressed that the occupation of Indian land by China and Pakistan was unconstitutional.

India was suffering from Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and secessionism and over 66,000 people had lost their lives since 1972 due to this, he said.

According to a statement issued here, the senior RSS leader said that article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was temporary. He was in the city today to attend the Yuva Sansad 2018.

Terrorist activities have reduced due to the policies of government and separatist leaders are in jails. Efforts to bring youths in Jammu and Kashmir to the mainstream are yielding positive results, he claimed.

On the Ram temple in Ayodhya issue, he said that even Muslims did not want a mosque to be built at the site as there are rules for construction of mosques.

The RSS leader, who has often made controversial remarks in the past, claimed the occupation of land by Shias and Sunnis was immoral.

Muslims in Ayodhya concede that occupying the land was a mistake by their ancestors and there was no need to have a mosque in the name of Babar, the statement said.

Kumar claimed that China had to bow down to India under diplomatic pressure on the Doklam issue. He said that war with China was not a solution to the problem.

He also said that the occupation by China and Pakistan of Indian territory was unconstitutional.
Reacting to a reported move to ban the entry of Indian officials in some gurdwaras in Canada and the United States, the government on Thursday said that it takes no cognisance of fringe elements spreading hate and communal disharmony.

We have seen several reports regarding such notifications, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said while replying to a question on the issue.

He said the vast majority of the Sikh community in Canada and other parts of the world shared a very warm emotional bond with India and had worked for improving ties between India and the country where they lived.

We take no cognisance of fringe elements which spread hate and communal disharmony, Kumar said.

A group of office-bearers claiming to represent more than a dozen gurdwaras in the Canadian province of Ontario had decided to bar officials representing India, its diplomats and others from entering the premises of these places of worship.

This decision was made at a meeting held at the Jot Parkash Gurdwara in Brampton, a suburb of Toronto, on December 30 last year.
Keeping up his attack on the BJP and the RSS, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday called them Hindu extremists but the saffron party hit back saying it was the Congress which supported separatists.

The BJP also dared Siddaramaiah to arrest its as well as RSS leaders.

Siddaramaiah, who came under intense attack from the BJP on Wednesday for saying that the party and its fountainhead RSS had terrorists, on Thursday called them Hindutva extremists.

I had said Hindutva extremists, he told reporters in Chamarajanagara when asked about his remarks on Wednesday, which had stirred a hornets nest in the poll-bound state.

But, later speaking to reporters in Mysuru, Siddaramaiah said, I had said they are Hindutva terrorists. I am also a Hindu, but Im a Hindu with humanity, they are Hindus without humanity. That is the difference between me and... (them), he said.

He quoted a Kannada proverb to say that it is like one touching his shoulder to check when called a pumpkin thief, implying that one with a guilty conscience needs no accuser.

Calling Siddaramaiah irresponsible for linking the party built by Atal Bihari Vajpayee with terrorists, BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje on Thursday alleged that if there is terrorism in this country today, Congress is the main reason for it, also for the situation in Kashmir.

Accusing the Congress of having supported and encouraging the Khalistan movement, she said, we have lost several officers, soldiers, leaders and also prime minister because of it.

Karandlaje also alleged that the Congress had sheltered, financed and trained LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran.

Siddaramaiah had on Wednesday alleged that the BJP, the RSS and the Bajrang Dal have terrorists within their organisations, a charge rubbished by the saffron party.

They are themselves like terrorists in a way. The BJP, the RSS and the Bajarang Dal also have terrorists within, he had said taking his attack on the ruling Congress principal rival to a new level ahead of the assembly polls due early this year.

Reacting strongly to the remarks, the state BJP had accused Siddaramaiah of desperately trying to polarise elections on communal lines by calling BJP-RSS terror organisations.

Senior state BJP leader and MLA Suresh Kumar asked when he would get arrested as he was from the RSS.

When will I get arrested? Chief Minister has named me as a terrorist, because Im RSS, Kumar said in a tweet in Kannada. Im also RSS, arrest me too, he said in another tweet.

Citing a spate of killings of Hindu activists in the state, particularly in the coastal Dakshina Kannada district, the BJP has been demanding a ban on Islamist outfit PFI and its political wing Social Democratic Part of India (SDPI) holding them responsible for it.

On the other hand, the PFI has blamed the Sangh Parivar for the killing of those from Muslim community in the region.
The Karnataka unit of the BJP is set to file a complaint of criminal defamation against chief minister Siddaramaiah who accused the saffron party and its parent organisation, the RSS, of harbouring extremists while addressing the press on Wednesday.

With all three parties in the state  the Congress, the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular)  beginning their pre-poll campaigns ahead of the assembly polls, set to be held in May, temperatures have soared in the southern state with a flurry of charges being traded by all sides.

Siddaramaiahs remarks had come in the wake of calls from the BJP to ban the Popular Front of India (PFI), an Islamist organisation, after an NIA court charged five members of the organisation and its affiliate Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) under the anti-terror law in the murder of an RSS worker.

While the BJP had raised objection to Siddaramaiahs comment, the latter on Thursday reiterated his stand, saying RSS and Bajrang Dal members were extremists. We will take action against those who disturb communal harmony, be it PFI, SDPI or Bajrang Dal, he said in Mysuru. I called them Hindutva extremists because I, too, am a Hindu. But I have humanity and these people dont.

BJPs S Suresh Kumar condemned the CMs remarks. Putting BJP and RSS on the same pedestal as PFI is objectionable. He called us extremist without proof. For this reason, we are going to file a criminal complaint against him on Friday, he said.

Kumar said members of the PFI were to be tried under terror charges and, hence, there could be no comparison.

We had asked for their activities to be banned, and instead the chief minister has made such irresponsible statements, he said, adding that the comments made by the chief minister on Thursday would be added to the complaint as well.

BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje said the party would organise Jail Bharo campaign to protest the CMs remark. Our appeal to Siddaramaiah is to arrest and put us in jail as we are all terrorists roaming on the streets, she said, calling on the CM to tender an unconditional apology.

State home minister Ramalinga Reddy said the Congress was willing to face any complaint because there was enough proof to substantiate the chief ministers statement.

There have been many instances recently that have highlighted the BJPs penchant for fear mongering, he said.

MP Karandlaje is reported to have circulated fake news by tweeting a Honnavar taluk girls self-inflicted injuries to escape a stalker as the result of jihadis (who) tried to rape and murder a girl. The police later registered a case against one Ganesh Eshwar Naik under the POCSO Act.

Reddy said the BJP had made it openly known that it was set to go the extremist route.

Referring to a video purportedly showing BJP MP Pratap Simha saying party chief Amit Shah had asked state leaders to intensify agitations, Reddy said there was no denying which way the saffron party was headed.

Their leaders Karanadlaje, Anantkumar Hegde and Simha have laid bare the BJP strategy to vitiate the atmosphere in the state ahead of the elections, Reddy said.

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A Class 3 student in Ghaziabad who had been complaining of harassment for some time died mysteriously in his school, leading to allegations of foul play by his parents, police said on Thursday.

According to the police, Katib, son of Sizauddin, went to his school as usual on Wednesday morning but later the family was told that he had died.

We rushed to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Delhi where doctors said the student was brought dead and the body had been sent for autopsy. In the evening, we performed the last rites, a distraught Sizauddin said.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Anoop Singh said: We are awaiting the autopsy report. We will initiate legal action accordingly.

Katib was a student of JD Shastri Public School at Loni in Ghaziabad, the family said.

We rushed to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Delhi where doctors said the student was brought dead and the body had been sent for autopsy. -- Sizauddin, boys father

Afsana, the boys mother, said: My son had been complaining about his teacher ... He said he was being harassed in the school but we ignored it.

School Manager Mahesh Kumar Sharma told the family that the student was initially taken to Dharampal Memorial Hospital in Loni and then to Delhi.

According to Afsana, the Delhi doctor said the child was admitted too late. Sizauddin said the entire sequence of events raises several questions.

What happened to the boy after reaching the school? Why was he rushed to the Loni hospital and then to GTB Hospital? What happened in between? Why we were not intimated about the condition of the child earlier, the father asked.
MILL CITY  Next year will mark the 100th anniversary for the Mill City railroad bridge and the community wants to celebrate its historic landmark in style.

For the last two years, community volunteers and the city have been raising funds through its Save Our Bridge project to make about $400,000 in improvements to the 120-foot-long bridge that traveled cross-country before making its permanent home in the timber-rich Santiam Canyon in 1919.

The bridge is huge for our community, committee volunteer Frances Thomas said. Its an icon for the community, something people grow up with. They have seen that bridge as part of their landscape. It is highly used as a pedestrian walkway for those going to school or exercising.

Thomas said the bridge is unique because it's located next to a bridge that carries modern-day vehicle traffic. (The railroad bridge is limited to foot or bicycle travel.)

When you see a photo of those two bridges side-by-side, you know its Mill City, Thomas said. And, there is a pipe on the bridge that carries water from one side of the river to the other.

The city of Mill City  population 1,865  and Save Our Bridge volunteers had the bridge evaluated in 2014. Although it doesn't have major structural issues, the bridge needs some wooden structural supports replaced, and most of its wooden deck has deteriorated. It also needs to be cleaned and painted.

Thomas said the fundraising effort is going well, with about $281,000 in the bank. The goal is a moving target, although volunteers expect to reach the full amount by 2019.

She added that the community plans to take care of structural repairs first, and, as money is available, take on aesthetics such as cleaning and painting.

We have applied for several grants that might be used for the cosmetic portion of the project, Thomas said.

For decades the bridge played an important role in moving logs by rail from the Santiam Canyon before it was retired by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1967. The last train traveled over its tracks in 1971. Since then, it's been a focal point for photographs, river-watching, hiking, biking and even weddings.

Experts say the bridge is rare in that it is built in a Phoenix column style and was manufactured in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, in 1888. Another Phoenix column bridge can be found near Springfield, but it isn't in use. Other such structures are primarily in the Midwest and eastern states.

A Phoenix column is a hollow cylinder composed of four, six or eight wrought-iron sections riveted together. That resulted in a column that was stronger, but lighter than traditional cast-iron columns of the era. They were used extensively in high-rise buildings and bridges that carried heavy loads.

The Mill City railroad bridge was moved to San Jose, California, and then to Lake Oswego at the turn of the 20th century. It was shortened to 120 feet in 1919 and has spanned the North Santiam River ever since.

The Phoenix Iron Works dates to the 1790s. By the 1860s, the company was producing cannons for the Union Army during the Civil War, thanks in part to its development of a power-driven rolling method of welding and forging wrought iron.
Ahmedabad

Within a month of getting its highest tally in Gujarat assembly polls in more than two decades, the Congress is poised to regain control of Mehsana municipality and Mansa taluka panchayat from the BJP. Both locations are of significant symbolic importance for the BJP.

Mehsana is the home district of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarats deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, while Mansa is the home district of BJP president Amit Shah.

The Congress had won elections to the municipality and the panchayat in 2015, but lost power after a spate of defections. It has scripted a turnaround by wooing back the defectors in Mehsana, and getting members who deserted it in Mansa legally disqualified.

Based on a (Gujarat) High Court order, which we received today, 10 Congress members at Mansa who defected to the BJP have been disqualified. In the next general board meeting, the Congress will have eight members, and the BJP six. The Congress will claim the majority, Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said on Thursday.

In Mehsana, Congress lost power a year-and-a-half after winning the civic polls. Amid infighting, 10 of its councillors sided with the BJP to form the governing board.

Raiben Patel, who left the Congress along with nine party councillors, went on to become the municipality president with the support of BJP councillors in mid-2017.

However, the honeymoon did not last. Raiben and the other nine rebel councillors returned to the Congress fold earlier this month. Simultaneously, BJP councillors were removed from all municipality committees, paving the way for a Congress comeback.

In both the cases, the BJP came to power by divide and rule. But the Congress has made the comeback with prompt action, said Doshi.

BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya lashed out at the Congress. This is political drama by the Congress, which indulges in corruption wherever it is in power and tries to destabilise the situation wherever it is not, said Pandya.

Though Mehsana is the home district of top BJP leaders, the Patidar-dominated belt has been spelling trouble for the ruling party for over two years now.

The seeds of Hardik Patel-led Patidar quota agitation were sown in Mehsana town. The agitation not only made it difficult for BJP leaders to hold public meetings in the town, but even their houses were targeted by mobs demanding quota.

In the December 2017 assembly polls, the Congress won 77 seats and the BJP got 99 in the 182-member House.

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The Delhi high court on Thursday upheld the validity of a money laundering law provision while rejecting 19 pleas, including that of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singhs wife Pratibha Singh, challenging its constitutional validity.

The clause in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) empowers the ED to provisionally attach the properties bought from proceeds of crime.

Besides Virbhadras wife, others who had challenged the PMLA provision include their daughter Aprajita Singh, sand mining baron and former Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams (TTD) Board member J Sekar Reddy and his business associates S Ramachandran and K Rethinam.

The accused had challenged the constitutional validity of section 5(1) second proviso, which deals with the power of an officer not below the rank of deputy director in the ED to provisionally attach a persons property suspected to be brought from proceeds of crime, if he has reasons to believe that not doing so could frustrate the PMLA proceedings.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta, in its 48-page judgement, said the second proviso to Section 5(1) PMLA is not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and the challenge in that regard in these petitions is hereby negatived.

Therefore, the court is not satisfied that the second proviso to Section 5(1) of the PMLA is so excessive and disproportionate so as to render it arbitrary, it said.

The court, however, disagreed with the submission of the counsel for the Centre and Enforcement Directorate (ED) that there was no mandatory requirement to communicate to the noticee the reasons to believe (reasons for such belief).

While upholding the validity of the provision of PMLA, the court said that the ED will have to communicate the reasons to believe at every stage to the person to whom an attachment notice was being issued under the Act.

If there is a violation of the legal requirements, the order of the provisional attachment would be rendered illegal, it said.

It also said the noticee was entitled access to the materials on record that would constitute the basis for reasons to believe, subject to redaction for reasons to be recorded in writing.

Central Government Standing Counsel Amit Mahajan had raised preliminary objection on some of these petitions regarding their maintainability on the ground that no cause of action had arisen within the jurisdiction of this court.

Regarding maintainability of the 19 petitions in two separate money laundering cases allegedly involving Virbhadra Singhs wife, daughter and Reddy respectively, the bench said it will be decided by a single judge of the high court and listed it for hearing on February 6.

The various accused in two separate cases have challenged the EDs FIR against them, provisional attachment orders regarding their assets and all further proceedings.

The bench said the expression reasons to believe has to meet the safeguards in-built in the clause and has to satisfy the requirement of the law.

Another question of law before the bench was whether a single member of the adjudicating authority of ED can exercise powers and conduct proceedings relating to provisional attachment of assets and should it be a judicial member.

To this, the court held that there can be single-member benches of the adjudicating authority and appellate tribunal under the PMLA and such single-member benches need not mandatorily have to be judicial members.

In the money laundering case against Virbhadra and his wife, ED had attached assets worth nearly Rs 5.8 crore belonging to Pratibha Singh and Rs 1.34 crore of the former chief minister.

The ED had registered a case against the sand mining baron and others soon after the CBI booked them for possessing Rs 33 crore of new denomination of Rs 2,000 currency notes, barely a month after demonetisation in November 2016.

After the accused were released on bail as the CBI failed to file charge sheet within the mandatory 90-day period, the ED arrested them on charges of money laundering. The Madras high court had granted conditional bail to Reddy and others.
Kerala police on Wednesday arrested two people from North Paravur near Kochi over an alleged case of forced religious conversion of a 24-year-old woman and suspected plans to take her to Syria to be sold as a sex slave to radical Islamists.

The two, identified as Fawaz Jamal and Mohamed Siyad, were charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC, said AV George, the Ernakulam (rural) superintendent of police

The woman has accused her husband Mohamed Riyaz (26), a native of North Kerala, of hatching the conspiracy to sell her to the Islamic State (IS), which is active in parts of Syria.

North Kerala is one of the hotbed of fundamentalist Islam in India and more than a 100 people  including women and children  are believed to have joined the jihad waged by Islamic radicals in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In her complaint, the woman said she was forcibly taken to a religious centre in Paravur and tortured by the two at the instructions of her husband before taken to Saudi Arabia.

READ MORE: About 100 Keralites suspected to have joined ISIS, say Police

Police had registered a case in December following the complaint by the woman before a court. Police are also trying contact Interpol and other agencies to deport her husband, a resident of Kannur, who is believed to be in Jeddah.

We are examining whether the arrested have some connection with the Islamic State, the SP said.

While in Saudi Arabia, she said, she was locked in a room but she managed a mobile phone and contacted her parents back home. She said she was rescued from Saudi Arabia in October with the help of some NRIs and flew back to the country.

The woman, hailing from Pathanamthitta in central Kerala, was brought up in Gujarat and she was studying in Bengaluru. She said during her stay in Bengaluru in 2015 she met with Riyaz and later developed physical relations with him.

READ MORE: Has Kerala become a hub for terror-related activities?

She alleged that he took videos of their intimate moments without her knowledge and started blackmailing her. She said later she was forcibly admitted in a madrasa in North Paravur and forced to learn tenets of Islam.

Later their marriage was solemnised by a cleric in May, 2016 May. However, the woman said she managed to escape from her husband but he later filed a habeus corpus petition in the high court saying she was illegally confined by her parents.

She said due to mounting pressure and threats from different quarters she was forced to go with him again. She said her husband behaved properly for some time and took her to Saudi on tourist visa in August last year and confined her in a room from where she escaped.

She said once she overheard a conversation between her husband and others and came to know that they were planning to take her to the IS in Syria.

She had also filed a complaint Kerala high court to annul her marriage with Riyaz.

She had moved another petition in the HC recently seeking a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), saying the state police was not keen in probing the case.

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National security advisors of India and Pakistan held bilateral talks last month that focused on cross-border terrorism, a foreign ministry spokesperson in New Delhi confirmed Thursday.

The statement by India comes days after media reports that NSAs Ajit Doval and retired Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua held a secret meeting in Thailand on December 27.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Doval and Janjua also discussed ways to ensure the elimination of terrorism from the region in their operational-level talks.

India and Pakistan have a dialogue process and we have said terror and talks cannot go togther. However, there are other dialogue mechanisms like at the DGMO level or between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers.

Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of operational-level talks. We have said terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead, Kumar said.

Bilateral talks between the nuclear-armed neighbours are on the back-burner, with tensions running high over territorial issues and terrorism.

India accuses Pakistan-based groups of orchestrating several terror attacks on its soil, especially in the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley. Repeated ceasefire violations and casualties on both sides have added to the tension.

Ties hit another roadblock when New Delhi alleged that Islamabad disregarded cultural and religious sensibilities of family members of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was captured in March 2016 and has been sentenced to death by a military court.

While Pakistan termed its decision to allow Jadhavs family to travel to Islamabad to meet him in December as a humanitarian gesture, India said the neighbour violated mutual understandings, asserting that the Indian national appeared coerced and under considerable stress during the tightly controlled interaction.

New Delhi says Jadhav was kidnapped in Iran where he had legitimate business interests, and brought to Pakistan. To save Jadhav, India moved the International Court of Justice, which ordered Pakistan in May to stay his execution.
Israel will invest $68.6 million to boost cooperation with India in areas like tourism, technology, agriculture and innovation over a period of four years, a senior official here has said ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus high-profile India visit next week.

The commitment is in addition to the India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund of $40 million over five years with equal contribution from both sides that has already been agreed between the two sides, deputy Director General of Israels Foreign Ministry, Gilad Cohen, told PTI.

Netanyahu will be leading a high-profile delegation comprising 130 businessmen from 102 Israeli companies drawn from areas like agriculture, water, cyber security, health care and security on his four day trip to India starting January 14.

It will be the second visit by an Israeli Prime Minister to India after a gap of 15 years since Ariel Sharon visited New Delhi in 2003. The visit comes merely six months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Jewish state, becoming the first Indian premier to do so.

Several MoUs, including in the field of oil and gas, renewable energy, amended protocol for airports, cyber security, co-production of films and documentaries will be signed between the two sides.

Israels Saare Tzedek hospital would be signing an agreement with Indias Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well.

Informed sources here said that this relates to sharing of knowledge in the field of homoeopathy and ayurveda that have been gaining popularity in Israel over the last few years.

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology would also be signing an agreement with Ministry of Science and Technology, sources here said.

Reciprocating the warm reception extended to him by Netanyahu, Modi is likely to spend a lot of time with his Israeli counterpart during the trip.

Netanyahu accompanied Modi almost throughout his three day trip in July of last year, an honour generally reserved for Presidents of Israels close ally the United States.

Prime Minister Modi will be hosting a private dinner for Netanyahu on January 14 after his arrival in New Delhi. The Israeli leader would be meeting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also the same day.

The Israeli Prime Minister would be formally welcomed the next day at the Rashtrapari Bhawan following which he would lay wreath at Rajghat.

He would be then participating in a dialogue at Hyderabad house which will also include a one-on-one discussion with Modi. Meetings with President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu are also scheduled for Monday.

Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara, would be travelling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal on Tuesday and return to Delhi to participate in the Raisina Dialogue.

Modi would be accompanying Netanyahu to Gujarat on Wednesday where he will be welcomed in the same fashion as Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was with a road show in Ahmadabad.

The road show is said to be an 8-kilometer drive from the airport to the Sabarmati Ashram. The two leaders will also be witnessing several innovative technologies in the field of water, agriculture and health at iCreate and visit a Centre of Excellence.

Netanyahu would be arriving in Mumbai on Wednesday in the evening where he would be meeting with the Indian Jewish community.

A packed schedule on Thursday for the Israeli Prime Minister in Mumbai would include a power breakfast with Indian business leaders, a business seminar, attending two memorial services for the victims of Mumbai terror attacks at the Taj hotel and Nariman House and finally a gala event with Bollywood actors, directors and producers.
The BJP sought to draw a parallel on Thursday between Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and Hafiz Saeed, the founder of terror outfit LeT, saying the Congress leader in his attack on the BJP and the RSS echoed Saeeds views.

Desperation and frustration of Siddaramaiah is evident. For vote bank politics, he is making senseless charges against the BJP and the RSS, and echoing views of Hafiz Saeed who considers India, BJP, RSS terrorists, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said, seeking his apology.

He wondered if the Congress leader would join Saeeds new party after polls. Pakistan-based Saeed had recently announced to launch his own political party.

Raos attack at the Karnataka chief minister after the latter called the BJP and the RSS Hindu extremists.

The BJP has been making a strong bid to dethrone him from power. Its president Amit Shah had on Wednesday accused the state government of pursuing anti-Hindu policies.

Rao also tweeted Saeeds comments in which he had called the BJP and the RSS terrorist outfits to claim that Siddaramaiah echoed his views.

Siddaramaiah had alleged that the BJP and the RSS had terrorists among their ranks.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Siddaramaiah said, I had said they are Hindutva terrorists. I am also a Hindu, but Im a Hindu with humanity, they are Hindus without humanity. That is the difference between me and... (them).

Look at these statements, one by Hafiz Saeed and the other by Siddaramaiah. Karnataka CM is echoing views of Hafiz Saeed. Uncannily similar thinking or deliberate attempt to divert focus from misgovernance? CM should apologise, Rao of the BJP said.
The family members of an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative arrested in New Delhi have rejected Intelligence claims that he was involved in the 2000 Red Fort terror attack, maintaining that he never went underground to evade arrest.

Police arrested 37-year-old Bilal Ahmad Kawa from the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday evening. He was charged with using his bank account to transact hawala money for facilitating terror strikes at the Red Fort and several places in Kashmir.

Kawas family said he had never moved away from his ancestral home in Kashmir. We have been living in this place for decades. Although Bilal has constructed a new house, his ancestral home remains on the compound. Bilal never left this place. If he was underground for 17 years, why did the police not search his house? a relative asked.

Kawas family maintained that he was a leather merchant with no militant links.

The suspects uncle, Mohammad Shafi, said he was only a teenager when terrorists attacked the Red Fort on December 22, 2000  killing two soldiers and a civilian. Even this time, he had gone to Delhi under his own name, carrying haak (collard greens) and Kashmiri bread for his family, said Shafi. Terrorists dont live in their own houses and book flight tickets in their own name.

Kawas relatives said he had gone to the national capital to visit his wife and two daughters, who were staying there for the duration of the winter. Bilals brother, Niyaz Ahmad Kawa, resides in Delhi. Bilal and his family would stay with him every winter to get away from the cold weather here, said Hinna, a cousin.

Jammu and Kashmir police are verifying the familys claims. Bilals relatives did come to us, confirmed additional director general of police Muneer Khan. We are in touch with our people in Delhi as well.

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Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, who is behind bars in the fodder scam, has told his counsel not to move the Jharkhand high court for his bail during the inauspicious Kharmaas period, the former Bihar CMs advocate said.

Devout Hindus, particularly in north India, refrain from doing anything auspicious during this period as it is believed that any work started at that time would not yield fruitful returns.

Kharmaas is considered to be bad and auspicious works like marriage, house warming are strictly prohibited in this period. Astrologically, the period is related with the movement of Sun, Venus and Jupiter that produces bad effect during this period, said Ranchi-based priest Awdesh Mishra.

Mishra added the inauspicious period began on December 14, 2017 and will end on January 14 of this year.

Confirming Prasads instruction, his advocate, Prabhat Kumar, said: We got the copy of the fodder scam judgment on January 7. We are preparing the appeal-cum-bail petition. As per my clients instruction, it will be filed in the Jharkhand high court soon after end of Kharmaas.

Prasad was sentenced to a three-and-a-half-year jail term in a fodder scam case on December 23 of last year and is currently serving time at the Birsa Munda Central Jail.

RJD men who surrendered in false case

The two RJD workers, who had surrendered in a false case to get themselves lodged in the same prison as Prasad, were released on Thursday.

Madan Yadav and Lakshman Kumar came out of the Birsa Munda Central Jail (BMCJ) after police submitted a final form before the court, stating that the criminal case in which they had surrendered was a false one.

The duo with the help of Sumit Yadav, Madans nephew, had successfully got an FIR registered against themselves so that they could allegedly serve Prasad inside the jail.

The recommended proceedings against the complainant under IPC Section 182 (false information with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person) and 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure), said deputy SP Raj Kumar Mehta.

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Indias minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju met the UKs security minister Ben Wallace on Thursday and appreciated the Theresa May governments cooperation in the ongoing extradition case of controversial Indian businessman Vijay Mallya.

We look forward to seeing him in India, Rijiju told Wallace during the meeting that also discussed the issue of a section of Britains Sikh community planning to impose a ban on the entry of Indian officials in gurdwaras in their official capacity.

The Westminster magistrates court was due to resume hearing in the Mallya case on Thursday. The case is in its closing stages after several days of hearing in December 2017. The judge is expected to announce a timetable for pronouncing judgment.

Rijiju was also scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding on Thursday evening on the issue of exchange of criminal records of individuals between the two countries, and the return of illegal migrants, which is a key issue in relations between the two countries.

Prime Minister Theresa May said norms for legal migration of Indians will be improved if the return of illegal migrants is speeded up. We have agreed to do this, it is now up to the British government to improve the visa offer to Indians, a senior official said.

May had flagged the issue during her 2016 visit to New Delhi: (The) UK will consider further improvements to our visa offer if at the same time we can step up the speed and volume of returns of Indians with no right to remain in the UK.

Data on Indians staying illegally in the UK are not released, but Home Office officials believe that Indians are one of the top nationalities living in the UK illegally, and estimate their number to be over 100,000.

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The Maldives on Thursday assured the Indian leadership of its India first policy -- an affirmation which comes amid chill in bilateral ties over a host of issues, including the signing of an FTA between the Maldives and China.

The assurance was given by Maldivian foreign minister Mohamed Asim during talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj.

Asim, also special envoy of the President of the Maldives Abdulla Yameen, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and reiterated the commitment of his government to maintain close relations with India under Maldives India first policy, an external affairs ministry release said.

Modi affirmed that India would always be a reliable and close neighbour of the Maldives supporting it in its progress and security.

Swaraj also conveyed Indias commitment in achieving the full potential of bilateral relationship in line with the governments neighbourhood first policy.

The visit by the Maldivian leader is seen as an effort by Male to assuage concerns of New Delhi following a free trade pact with China after which India had made it clear that it expected that as a close and friendly neighbour, the island nation would be sensitive to its concerns in keeping with its India first policy.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India was committed to supporting democracy, development and stability in the Maldives.

We do attach high importance to our reationship with the Maldives. They have a India first policy, we have a neighbourhood first policy. I think it is important for the two countries to work together, he told reporters.

The MEA release said discussions centred around strengthening of the development partnership between the two countries, and enhancing defence and security cooperation.

Asim also reiterated Yameens invitation to the prime minister to visit the Maldives. Modi conveyed his gratitude for the invitation and agreed to the visit at a suitable time, it said.

During his call on, the special envoy also emphasised that the Maldives attached the highest priority to its ties as close neighbours bound by shared history, culture and maritime interests in the Indian Ocean.

Asim conveyed the greetings of Yameen to the prime minister, which was warmly reciprocated by Modi.
SWEET HOME  On a 5-2 vote Tuesday evening, the Sweet Home City Council approved a contract with Scott Edwards Architecture in Portland to develop plans for renovation of the former U.S. Forest Service building into a new city hall.

Councilor Diane Gerson made the motion, although several council members thought the cost was excessive.

We are renovating an old building, not creating a new one, Gerson said. I believe we are at the point where we either do this or sell the property. We cant let that building to sit. It has sat for nearly two years since we bought it.

Councilors Dave Trask and Bob Briana voted against the motion, which was a contract not to exceed $97,500 or 10 percent of the estimated construction cost, whichever is less.

Councilor Lisa Gourley said, I dont like the cost, but we have to be accountable and we need to move this project forward.

Mayor Greg Mahler said he wants the process to be open to all area contractors, not a select few.

The contract will include a schematic design, design development, contract documents, bidding, permitting and construction services. It includes up to $4,000 in reimbursable expenses such as printing, plotting, travel and long-distance phone charges.

The council purchased the nearly 13,000-square-foot building at 3225 Hwy. 20 for $750,000 in July 2016. At one time it had been offered for sale for $1.5 million and was valued at $757,000 by the Linn County Assessors Office.

The building was constructed in 1985 and housed the Sweet Home Ranger District until 2006. It has been empty since.

The current City Hall was built in 1954 and has structural and mold issues. It is also two-stories tall, although there is an elevator in the building.

The city council meets in a modular building that was placed on-site in 1996 as a temporary police department after the basement of City Hall flooded. That is where the police department had been housed.

The Forest Service building is on ground level and has enough land to accommodate a large parking area and possibly a community park.

There is enough room in the building to create offices for current city staff and a large council chambers. There is also room for possible expansion in the future.

The city has about $266,000 set aside for renovation of the building and plans to use income from the sale of the former city water treatment plant as well.
Various groups and political parties in Nagaland have urged the Centre to postpone the upcoming assembly elections in the northeastern state till a final solution to the seven-decade-old Naga insurgency is arrived at.

Groups like Nagaland Tribes Council and Central Nagaland Tribes Council have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past weeks with the request to defer the polls. The influential Gaon Burrah Federation of Nagaland, which comprises village chiefs, and Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) have also written to Modi with the same demand.

The term of the present assembly, which was elected in 2013, expires on March 13 and elections in the state is expected to be held next month, along with Meghalaya and Tripura.

Chief minister TR Zeliang met Union home minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday and apprised him about the popular Solution before Election demand.

The home minister assured Zeliang that he would convene a meeting on the demand of the Naga people and convey the outcome of the meeting to the Nagaland government, a release issued by the chief ministers office said.

Zeliangs Naga Peoples Front (NPF) heads the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) coalition government in the state of which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also a part.

Last month, the 60-member state assembly passed a resolution urging New Delhi to usher in an honourable and acceptable solution to the Naga political issue well before the assembly election.

We too support an early solution. The Centre has been apprised of the sentiment in Nagaland, and we hope a decision will be taken soon, the chief of the state unit of the BJP Visasolie Lhoungu said.

The Centre had signed a framework agreement with National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) in 2015 on how to resolve the decades old demand for creating a Greater Nagalim comprising contiguous Naga-inhabited areas in neighbouring states.

The details of the agreement are yet to be made public. But with six more Naga groups joining the talks last October, theres expectation that a final solution would happen soon.

When we are already on the negotiating table and on verge of a solution, the election can be postponed. Holding of the election at this stage might also affect the talks, Tia Longchar, co-convener of ACAUT, said.

But deferring the elections may not be an easy task. According to the Election Commission of India, elections can be deferred or stopped only in extraordinary circumstances and by means of a constitutional amendment.

If a solution can be arrived within the next one or two months, the election can be deferred. Or else it should be held on time. Negotiations have been going on for over two decades now, Nagas want a solution which is transparent and accepted by all, state Congress chief K Therie said.

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A warm welcome awaits Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu when the two visit the formers home state likely on January 17, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani said on Thursday.

The two leaders, who hit it off during Modis visit to Israel in July last year, the first by an Indian prime minister since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1992, would visit two centres of excellence and inaugurate another such facility.

They are also likely to visit the Sabarmati Ashram, the abode of Mahatma Gandhi for a long time, here, Rupani said.

According to an Ahmedabad civic body official, a joint roadshow on an 8 km stretch from the city airport to the Sabarmati Ashram is also on the cards.

Modi and Japanese premier Shinzo Abe had held a joint roadshow during the latters visit here in September last year. The Indian premier had played a guide as he showed Abe and his wife around the Sabarmati Ashram.

They had also spent some time at the Sabarmati Riverfront, developed during Modis tenure as Gujarat chief minister. Modi had also accompanied Chinese President Xi Jinping and his spouse to the riverfront during the latters India visit in 2014.

According to the tentative schedule, Modi and Netanyahu would first visit the Sabarmati Ashram on their arrival here on January 17. Both the dignitaries will be accorded a grand welcome, Rupani told reporters.

From the ashram, Modi and Netanyahu would go to iCreate, an autonomous centre of excellence near Bavla town close to the city, Rupani said.

iCreate was formally launched in 2011 by Modi when he was the chief minister. The institution mentors budding entrepreneurs and guides them to set up start-ups, according to an official.

The two would then proceed for a Sabarkantha-based centre of excellence for agriculture. They will inaugurate a research facility for cultivation of dates in Kutch by remote control from Sabarkantha, the chief minister said.

At the start of Modis visit to Israel, the two leaders had repeatedly hugged each other and addressed each other as friend several times.

Netanyahu had personally received Modi at Tel Avivs Ben Gurion airport, an honour previously accorded only to the Pope and the US President.

India and Israel have deep defence and security ties, and Netanyahus four-day visit beginning January 14 is likely to further strengthen them. The two sides are also likely to discuss ways to further enhance cooperation in high technology, agriculture, water management and trade.
The Janata Dal (United) on Thursday decided to join the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) severing its ties with the Congress-led coalition in Kerala to defeat sectarian policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Sangh Parivar.

The party, which was veering around the idea for some time, said the decision was unanimous and presidents of all 14 districts supported the move.

Party general secretary Verghese George said it was time for all secular and democratic forces to join hands to defeat the BJP and Sangh Parivar.

The chief of JD(U)s Kerala unit MP Veerandra Kumar, also a media baron, quit his Rajya Sabha seat in December last year as he said he did not want to be part of the party headed by Nitish Kumar, who is sharing power with the BJP in Bihar.

It is inevitable. It is time to strengthen all secular and democratic forces, said Veerandra Kumar.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is likely to offer the vacant RS seat to Veerandra Kumar.

CPI(M) state secretary Kodyeri Balakrishnan lauded the decision of the JD(U).

It shows only left parties can fight the BJP effectively, he said.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president MM Hassan decried the move, saying it was unwarranted and ill-timed.
Pakistan has not done enough to eliminate safe havens for terrorists on its soil, new US ambassador to India Kenneth Juster said on Thursday.

I dont think we can have civilian security in Afghanistan and Pakistan if Pakistan does not contribute positively to that, Juster said in response to a question after delivering his first policy address on India-US Relations: Building a Durable Relationship for the 21st Century organised by the US Embassy and the Carnegie India think tank.

He said the major reason behind the suspension of US security assistance to Pakistan is because we feel they have not done all that they could to try and eliminate terror sanctuaries in Pakistan that are contributing to the unrest in Afghanistan.

We have made it clear we will not tolerate terrorism, cross-border terrorism or any form of terrorism or safe havens of any type.

Juster said that the US works closely with India in various ways, including information sharing, that are related to terrorism beyond just what is happening in Afghanistan.

He also lauded India for its role in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan and said both India and the US have a shared interest in the stability and security in Afghanistan and its long-term growth both and also to prevent it from being a haven for terrorist organisations.

Stating that both India and the US bring different capabilities to this process, he said: We feel India has made a substantial investment in economic development of Afghanistan, be it a hydroelectric plant, be it training in India of Afghan military personnel and students. And we would like to see India continue that economic development assistance.

In his address, Juster also touched upon the five pillars that can provide the framework for durable partnership between New Delhi and Washington: defence and counter-terrorism; economic and commercial relations; energy and environment; science, technology and health; and regional cooperation.
PDP MLA Aijaz Ahmed Mir has called Kashmiri militants our brothers and those killed martyrs, and sought to involve them in the dialogues to resolve the Kashmir issue.

The Wachi MLA made the comment while speaking to mediapersons outside the Assembly on Thursday.

Mir, who hails from a militancy-infested area, said the time has come to talk to the Hurriyat, militants and other stakeholders to resolve the Kashmir issue and end the violence and bloodshed in the region.

To a poser on local militants, he said, Call them militants or terrorists, but they are Kashmiris, they are our brothers. I request all to stop politicising their killings.

This house has to end the blame game over the killings, he said, and stressed that the Centres special representative, Dineshwar Sharma should take the militants on board during dialogues.

When asked about killings of security personnel, the legislator said that he feels bad about them too.

He said that talks between India and Pakistan should be held for a meaningful resolution of the Kashmir issue.

The ruling party MLAs controversial statement has left its ally BJP red-faced.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a meeting with top BJP leaders, including party chief Amit Shah, in which they deliberated over a host of organisational issues and took stock of the current political situation.

The meeting, which was held at the prime ministers official residence here, lasted more than three hours and was attended by all BJP general secretaries.

A senior party leader said organisational issues were discussed at length at the meeting.

The meeting comes as the BJP gears up to fight a number of assembly polls, including the key election to the Karnataka Assembly and the Modi government readies to present its final full-fledged budget.

The BJP is running a high-voltage campaign in poll-bound Tripura and Meghalaya, both of which are likely to go to polls next month, and Karnataka, where elections are expected to take place in May.
Underground Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung said on Thursday he was not leading any separatist movement as claimed by his rivals and that he was ready for a dialogue with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The leader, with 381 criminal cases filed against him during June-September agitation for statehood, said in an interview in New Delhi that his demand was within the ambit of Indian Constitution and the Gorkhas will remain part of this country till their last breath.

Dialogue is the solution and I am ready to talk to Mamata Banerjee if she approaches the issue with an open mind, Gurung said.

He added that the fight for the identity of Gorkha people will continue in a peaceful and democratic manner, despite regressive action by the police and local administration.

I am ready to face a probe by an independent agency, he said, terming the state polices action as motivated.

Darjeeling was on the boil for over three months last year with the GJM launching a violent agitation over its demand for a separate Gorkhaland state to be carved out of West Bengals northern hill districts.

The state government managed to quell the movement and installed Binay Tamang, once a close aide of Gurung, as chief of the board of administrators for the Hills. While the state government claims to have restored normalcy, it seems only temporary with Gurungs dominance still continuing.

The GJM, the leading political force in the hills for over a decade, is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

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With crores spent on Swachh Bharat campaign, aimed at making the entire country open-defecation free by October 2, 2019, girl students of a residential school in a remote village of Andhra Pradeshs Prakasam district have come up with an innovative idea.

Last week, the girl students of Kasturba Gandhi Girls Residential School at Pamuru village wrote letters to their parents in their respective villages declaring that they would not come home for the Sankranti festival on January 14 and 15, unless they construct individual toilets in their houses.

Sankranti is an important festival for the people of Andhra Pradesh, when all the family members compulsorily gather to celebrate it in a big way.

All these days, we have been used to open defecation. Our teachers have told us that open defecation is an unhealthy practice, which results in communicable diseases. So, it is every important that all of us should have individual toilets at home. The government is providing necessary funds for the construction of toilets, the students wrote to their parents on the postcards.

We wish you construct the toilet compulsorily before we come home for Sankranti festival. Otherwise, we will not be coming for the festival vacations, they said.

A girl student told the local media that open defecation had been the practice in their villages in the district, as none of the houses had individual toilets, adding that it was especially a problem for women and girls.

S Sirisha, special officer of the Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan under which Kasturba Gandhi residential schools function, said the students had come up with this post card campaign idea to educate their parents about the importance of individual toilets.

We have told them to create awareness among not only their parents but also in the entire village about avoiding open defecation and how the governments were promoting the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in a big way. Every day, we teach them to participate in the campaign for making their villages open defecation free, she said.

Last week, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu threatened to sit on hunger strike in villages which do not complete the 100% construction of toilets before the March 31 deadline.

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The United States sees India as a leading power in the Indo-Pacific region, Washingtons envoy to New Delhi Kenneth Juster said on Thursday, describing the country as a potential regional trade hub for American businesses.

In his first policy speech since taking over as ambassador, Juster laid out the Trump administrations agenda for India and emphasised that the US will not tolerate cross-border terrorism or terror safe havens.

However, Juster made no reference to Pakistan in his speech. The US recently suspended military aid to Islamabad, accusing it of lies and deceit.

Juster acknowledged that the US and India initially had strained exchanges on topics related to the transfer of sensitive US technology with both military and conventional applications.

Now, India is celebrating its membership in two of the four multilateral export control regimes, the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use items, which India just joined, and the Missile Technology Control Regime.

We also expect in the very near future for India to join the Australia Group on chemical and biological weapons. And we are working closely with India and our international partners to secure Indias membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, he said.

Juster said shared values and common interests inform the vision of New Delhi and Washington for the strategically significant Indo-Pacific region, in which the US considers India to be a leading power.

On defence and counter-terrorism, Juster observed that both India and the US have suffered horrific terrorist attacks and continue to be targeted.

We have a strong mutual interest in eliminating this threat to our societies. President Trump and other US leaders have been clear that we will not tolerate cross-border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere, he said.

A major part of Justers speech was on ways to enhance economic and commercial relations. He also underlined that the US is concerned about persistent trade deficits with India.

He stated that a number of US companies have reported increasing difficulties in conducting business in China. Accordingly, some companies are downgrading their operations there, while others are looking with great interest at alternative markets.

India can seize the strategic opportunity - through trade and investment - to become an alternative hub for US business in the Indo-Pacific region, he said, adding that Trumps poll slogan America First and the Centres flagship initiative Make in India are not incompatible.
A 10-year-old student of Police Public School in Madhya Pradeshs Indore city committed suicide after he was punished and threatened with rustication by authorities, his family members have alleged.

Superintendent of police Vandana Chouhan said Hemant Jain, a Class 6 student, was found hanging in the bathroom of his house in Brahmabagh Colony on Wednesday afternoon. He came home around 3.30pm and told his mother that the school principal wanted to meet her and his father after some of his schoolmates had complained about him.

His mother asked him to freshen up and eat something. Jain went to the bathroom where he hanged himself from an iron angle with his sisters scarf.

Chouhan said the police talked to some of his close friends, including Pratham who lived in the same locality, and came to know that Jain and some other students were made to do around 150 sit ups for some mischief they had done.

Two girls from Jains class complained against him on Wednesday and he was taken to the principals office by the class teacher. The principal wrote a note to his parents asking them to meet the school authorities and also threatened to rusticate him.

Hemant probably got very scared due to the note sent by the principal calling his parents to the school and he told Pratham that he would commit suicide. Apparently, he had talked about committing suicide earlier also to his friends, Chouhan added.

The school management and officials of the 15th battalion that runs the school have denied the allegation.

Commandant of the 15th battalion Anil Khushwaha said the boys suicide was very unfortunate.

The principal called his parents after two of his classmates made a written complaint against him and this is normal procedure. No one is given corporal punishment in the school, and we are examining the footage from the CCTV in the school to check the truth behind the allegations, Khushwaha said.
Let's face it: the man needs a muzzle and his index fingers taken away! President Trump's incessant tweeting about things of which he has no clue only serves to validate the theory that a vacuum occupies his cranium.

It's become painfully obvious that there exists no filter between his personal feelings and his mouth; his incessant mindless tweeting is merely fodder for stand-up comics' monologues. His interactions with America's allies are making friendly (so far) foreign governments leery of his commitment to mutual defense and assistance. His interjecting support for the violent dissenters in Tehran, the excoriation of his own staff, his lies, deception, deflection and fallacious, unsubstantiated accusations have totally infiltrated the administration, rendering it completely ineffective (can we really trust anything that comes out of Sarah Sanders' pie hole?).

Trump's penchant for name-calling smacks of third graders in a sandbox during recess. Can we really afford three more years of this man and his misguided party? This "Leader of the Free World" has single-handedly made America a laughingstock among the community of nations.

However, all is not lost: We informed and concerned Americans can make a difference with our ballots in the 2018 mid-term elections. We can help drain the "swamp" the Trump administration has so blithely repopulated.

Douglas Bauer

Albany (Jan. 6)
A 25-year-old man in a Rajasthan village was killed in firing by Uttar Pradesh police who had crossed state borders to catch suspected cattle thieves.

The incident happened at Saypur village under Sar Mathura police station limits in Dholpur district of Rajasthan at around 1 am on Wednesday where a police team from Basai Jagner in UPs Agra had arrived to catch absconding cattle thieves.

The cops raided the village and caught some old men, who started crying. The villagers, who did not realise they were UP police, protested this move, and raised a dispute which led to pelting of stones.

Basai Jagner (UP) SHO, Vivek Sharma said when the villagers started to assaulting us and pelting stone on us, we tried to escape and hide in a farm, and opened fire in defence.

25-year-old Rameshwar Gurjar was killed in the firing while constable Uma Shankar of UP police was injured in the incident and was admitted to a hospital.

Local police soon arrived and took charge. They took custody of the body, which was sent for post-mortem and later handed over to his family for last rites.

On a complaint by Gujrars cousin, Mohar Singh, the local police booked UP cops Sharma, sub-inspector Pradeep, constable Uma Shankar, two female constables and five others under section 302 (murder).

According to Singh, some miscreants came in two jeeps and tried to forcibly take away some elderly people. Protesting this, villagers started pelting stones, to which the miscreants started firing and killed his cousin.

Dholpur SP Rajesh Singh said the Uttar Pradesh police did not inform the local police before conducting the raid.

He also stated that there was no complaint against the deceased with regard to cattle-stealing.

However, Sharma of Basai Jagner (UP) police said that they had informed the local police, but they didnt help us.

He said that nearly 40 cases of cattle thefts were registered against people from Saypur village in Dholpur.
The Centre has approved  10 crore to upgrade the food-testing laboratory in Jodhpur, and Rajasthan will soon get a state-of-the-art mobile lab, a state health department official said.

The Centre will spend 480 crore for strengthening food-testing labs in the country, including the one at Jodhpur, said additional director (rural health) Dr Ravi Prakash Mathur who attended a national round table conference, organised by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in Delhi on January 8 and 9.

The Jodhpur facility will be developed as a state-of-the-art laboratory and efforts will be made to get recognition from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, Mathur said. The Centre will provide Rajasthan a mobile food-testing lab costing 30 lakh; this will have state-of-the-art facilities.

Union health minister JP Nadda addressed health ministers on Tuesday during the conference that was also attended by health secretaries of all states and union territories.

The mobile laboratory will be used for surveillance and creating awareness among people about adulteration in edible items. The lab can be taken to a place where there is a complaint about food items, so that testing can be done on the spot, Mathur said.

The state has six food labs at Jaipur, Ajmer, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Alwar, and five more will be opened at Jalore, Churu, Bikaner, Banswara and Bharatpur, he said. The chief minister had announced the five new food labs in the 2015-16 budget.

He said, Civil works of the new labs are almost complete, and the process of procurement of equipment and recruitment of manpower is under way.

In October last year, the facility of testing heavy metals and pesticides in fruits, vegetables and food products has been added to the central food lab in Jaipur.

Mathur said seven charters were announced at the conference. They include improving food standards, bringing food businesses under licensing and registration, popularising simple tests by consumers, reducing salt by 30% and sugar by 10% by 2022, participation in nutritious food campaigns, and training of regulatory and lab staff.

He said 47,492 samples were collected from August 5, 2011 to November 30, 2017, of which 23362 were in high-risk category and 5598 were substandard and unsafe.
In a sign of the changing times, a young woman has got her widowed mother married despite opposition from society and family.

Geeta Agarwals husband Mukesh Gupta had died of cardiac arrest in May, 2016. The Jaipur school teacher went into depression, which worsened when her younger daughter Sanhita moved to Gurgaon last March, for work.

I used to curse myself for leaving my mother behind. I visited her over the weekends so that she could be happy at least for two nights but still felt selfish for choosing my career over her, Sanhita said.

In August, she decided to do find a partner for her 53-year-old mother. Everyone needs a partner in life  you cannot share everything with your children. Without my mothers consent, I created her profile on a matrimonial site and put my mobile number there, Sanhita said.

Widowers on the site began contacting Sanhita. When she visited her mother in September, she told her about what she was up to.

But Geeta was apprehensive about the plan, and her family was against just the idea of remarriage.

I was mad at her for the idea, said Geeta. In our conservative families, widow remarriage is outrageous.

No member of the family came on board, Sanhita recalls. But she was convinced: I wanted to give her a chance to live again.

In October, KG Gupta, a 55-year-old revenue inspector from Banswara , contacted Sanhita on the matrimonial site. Gupta had lost his wife to cancer in 2010.

For many years, I immersed myself in badminton to tide over the loneliness but now I have fitness issues. A colleague suggested remarriage and created a profile for me on a matrimonial site, Gupta said. The father of two sons, Sanhita felt, was the ideal match for her mother.

In November, Geeta was advised a hysterectomy. When he learned about the surgery, Gupta came to Jaipur, and was by her side for three days, which convinced Geeta to give marriage another shot and the two got married in December .

Sanhita says shes happy to see a smile on her mothers face. She has started looking pretty again, she said.

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Agriculture minister Prabhu Lal Saini has asked agriculture scientists at the Rajasthan Agriculture Research Institute (RARI) in Durgapura to develop gluten-free wheat so that children suffering from celiac disease could also consume them.

Saini, on Thursday, inspected RARI and International Horticulture Innovation and Training Centre at Durgapura and gave necessary directions to the scientists and other officials.

He said celiac disease is increasing in Rajasthan and doctors ask such children not to consume wheat, as it contains gluten. I have asked agriculture scientists to develop a variety of wheat that is gluten-free and yields are better. I want children suffering from the celiac disease to eat roti like other people, he said.

Celiac Society Rajasthan founder and president ML Chhabra said that there are around 10,000 children suffering from the disease in the state and around one lakh in India. Most of the patients are in north India.

JK Lone Hospital medical superintendent Dr Ashok Gupta said children with celiac disease develop an allergy to gluten, generally found in wheat and barley. As there is no cure for this disease, children have to avoid food items containing wheat, barley and other items containing gluten.

He said that for those suffering from the disease, the body does not absorb gluten which leads to problems such as severe anaemia, stunted growth, inability to gain weight, vitamin A deficiency resulting in night blindness, skin disease etc.

It is to be mentioned that Saini on last Friday had addressed a workshop on agriculture research, innovations and future thrust areas for doubling farmers income in Rajasthan in which he asked the agriculture scientists to conduct research on traditional varieties of crops and do innovations.

Agriculture minister on Thursday visited RARI of Shri Karn Narendra Agriculture University, Jobner, where the scientists showed him various researches done on wheat, barley and other crops that were growing in the fields.

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The Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government is examining the feasibility of launching a Rajasthan Agriculture Crop Insurance Company within this year, which may be a first among Indian states.

Agriculture minister Prabhu Lal Saini said, The state government is working on launching its own crop insurance company. The move has been initiated in farmers interest, if it materialises then issues such as delay in release in compensation, claims of wrong assessment etc would be addressed at state level.

He said that since a government works in public interest, a state-run company would take decisions that benefit farmers, and loss and profit of the company would be of the government.

The chief minister is serious over the issue and the department is working on it. The licence authority is Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), we are examining the rules and regulations, he said.

The minister said the union ministry of agriculture and farmer welfare has agreed in-principle to the states proposal.

Some states are of the view that the empanelled insurance companies are making huge profits and paying less claims and expressed their desire to float their own crop insurance company to take the benefit of less claims during good/normal crop years and to make reserve for future high claims, the union agriculture department said in its letter responding to the proposal.

The ministry has no objection in principle to the floating of crop insurance company subject to the condition that the state shall adopt transparent and competitive bidding process to determine the actuarial premiums to be charged for coverage of risk under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Fasal Bima Yojna and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme, the letter clarified.

A senior agriculture department official said on the condition of anonymity that the state is examining all aspects of setting up such a company, including the feasibility of a tie-up with an existing company at a lower profit margin. The process of getting the licence from IRDA is long, and requires the company to have paid up capital to the tune of 1.5 times of the total sum insured, he said.

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Over 46% of complaint calls to UP100  one of Indias biggest police emergency management systems  were related to personal disputes and domestic violence while only around 16% pertained to heinous crimes like life threat to any person, attempt to murder, female harassment, murder, theft and robbery in the past one year,

This was revealed through a data analysis of calls.

Sharing the data with the media on UP100s first foundation day on Wednesday, additional director general (ADG) of police, UP100, Aditya Mishra said most of the calls between January and December 2017 pertained to personal disputes (29.74%) followed by 16.41% related to domestic violence.

Further analysis showed that 28.7% of domestic violence cases were related to senior citizens and 21.6% cases related to wife beating.

He said other events in the top 10 were related to property disputes (9.15%), accidents (6.27%), thefts (5.77%), female harassment (5.66%), murder attempts (2.87%), gambling (2.61%), traffic jams (1.98%) and life threats to persons (1.85%). Multiple types of complaints covered in the remaining 17.69%, he added.

From resolving problems of senior citizens, married couples, removing traffic blockages to attending spots of loot, murder and other heinous crime incidents, the UP100 is attending similar 1.25 lakh calls daily and maintaining a high service level of around 99%, said the ADG, adding, Of the total calls received, around 47.39 lakh were actionable calls and only 5.04% of these were high priority calls.

He said the experts of UP100 analysed the data on several aspects and many interesting things came out  summer was the busiest season as call frequency was more as compared to winter and spring.

Similarly, Sunday, which is a holiday for most office-goers, was the busiest day for UP100 employees with maximum number of calls being received on this particular day. Besides, 7pm to 10pm was the busiest period daily and 60% callers were from rural areas, he said.

AVERAGE RESPONSE TIME

ADG Aditya Mishra said the UP100 centre was maintaining an average response time (ART) of around 15 minutes and 23 seconds. The ART in rural areas was 16.46 minutes while in urban areas it was 13.27 minutes.

He said efforts were on to reduce this further and improve services by integrating many other services. Two more mirror centres of UP100 would be developed in two other cities, including one in Noida for National Capital Region. Nearly 1,400 motorcycles will be added as response vehicles across the state for better response in remote and crowded areas.

INTEGRATION OF SERVICES

Two phone call services 108 for medical ambulance and 101 for fire have already been integrated with UP100 in October 2017. Since then, over 1,500 medical events were created while over 6,800 fire events were reported at the emergency response centre. Other services like Women Power Line (1090), services related to senior citizens, child welfare, rehabilitation centres for mentally retarded and drug addiction were also under consideration for integration with UP100.

ALERT CALLERS FELICITATED

On the occasion of UP100s first foundation day, ADG Aditya Mishra felicitated two callers, Harvinder Singh from Bareilly and Pranav Shukla from Lucknow, for their alert calls that averted major incidents. Singh had alerted the emergency response centre about cracks in railway tracks following which a major train tragedy was averted. Shukla alerted about a suicide attempt by a youth and PRV personnels immediate intervention saved his life.

BEST PERFORMERS AWARDED

Three districts of western UP  Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar and Gautambuddhnagar were among the top three performers in average quick response by PRV vehicles and personnel. The average response time of Ghaziabad was 14 minutes and 59 seconds, Muzaffarnagar 16 minutes and 6 seconds and Gautambuddhnagar 16 minutes and 28 seconds.

Similarly, the top three PRV personnel of Lakhimpur Kheri, Mirzapur and Jhansi were also rewarded for their quick response and sensitivity in attending victims. The top three PRVs of Gautambudhnagar, Etawah and Kanpur were also rewarded for attending maximum number of calls.
Muslim scholars and clerics of both the Shia and Sunni sects on Wednesday demanded the arrest of UP Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi for his controversial remarks that some madarsas were a breeding ground for terrorists.

Prominent Shia cleric of Lucknow Maulana Kalbe Jawad has even threatened to launch a protest movement if Rizvi is not put behind bars. Why is the UP government giving such a long leash to this man (Rizvi), who has been indicted in inquiries for corruption, bungling and fraud in waqf properties, said Maulana Jawad, who has a long history of crossing swords with Rizvi on waqf properties.

The cleric said such baseless and provocative statements (on madarsas) could disturb the peace and harmony and may lead to riots in the state. We will launch a protest from Lucknow to Delhi if stern action is not taken against him, Jawad said.

A Shia body in Mumbai, Mujtamae Ulama Wa Khotaba, too has endorsed the stand of Maulana Kalbe Jawad and demanded action against Rizvi. Zafar Sareshwala, chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu university, too has come down heavily on the Shia Waqf Board chief, saying his statement shows that he knows nothing about the functioning of madarsas. Rizvi has no idea how a madarsa functions. There are several corruption cases against him but he wont speak on it. He must be jailed for spreading hatred, Sareshwala said to ABP News.

Rizvi was virtually hounded on social media sites and platforms for his controversial remarks. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief and Hyderabad MP Asadudin Owaisi called Rizvi a stooge of the RSS on the social media.

If he has proof then he should go and show it to the Union home minister, Owaisi said.

Maulana Khalilur Rehman Sajjad Nomani, spokesperson for the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, too chided Rizvi over his ignorance about the role and contribution of madarsas in the countrys Freedom Movement.

There cannot be a bigger insult to these madarsas, which had played a key role in the freedom movement, he said.

On Tuesday, the Shia Waqf Board chairman, in a letter to PM Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, alleged that the education imparted in madarsas encouraged students to join terrorist ranks.

I never said all madarsas are involved in such activities. I was talking about only some madarsas in West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and along the Nepal border, in which Bangladeshi clerics teach and which are getting funds from Pakistan, Rizvi said in his defence.
Retired judges, bureaucrats and others may cease to have the right to move into swanky government bungalows when they are appointed as chairpersons or members of a statutory body under the state government after retirement from service.

Amid a debate over whether authorities like the Lokayukta and the chief information commissioner are entitled to superior Type-VI and Type VII bungalows or not, the Yogi Adityanath government is trying to find a permanent solution to the issue by amending the existing rules.

The government, according to the estate department sources, is actively considering a proposal, seeking to provide a hefty house rent allowance to those who are appointed to top posts in various statutory commissions, tribunals and corporations after retirement, instead of allotting government accommodation to them.

The estate department has moved a proposal seeking to amend the Allotment of Houses Under the Estate Department Act 2016 in a bid to discontinue the age-old practice of allotting spacious government houses to people appointed or selected to top positions in various statutory bodies after retirement, sources said.

There is a proposal to provide a sumptuous monthly house rent allowance to them instead, enabling them to take a house of their choice on rent, the sources added.

Some of the statutory government bodies headed by judges or bureaucrats post-retirement are the Lokayukta organisation, information commission, human rights commission, law commission, state election commission, administrative tribunal, electricity regulatory commission, legal service aid authority, SC-ST commission and the like.

The government move comes at a time when UP Lokayukta justice Sanjay Mishra and others moved the high court recently, challenging the government notice asking them to vacate the Type-VI and Type VII bungalows which they were occupying and move to the Type-V houses they were actually entitled for under the fresh rules framed on the Supreme Courts directions a year ago.

According to sources, the half-a-dozen people to whom the estate department had served notices last month include chief information commissioner and ex-chief secretary Javed Usmani, human rights commission chairman justice S Rafat Alam, former IAS officers Anand Mishra and Rohit Nandan apart from the Lokayukta.

Some of them have moved the high court justifying their entitlement to a Type VII and Type VII accommodation after which the court recently stayed the operation of the notice till the next hearing , sources said.

They said the Lokayukta and the chairman of the human rights commission, both retired high court judges, had claimed that Lokayuta Act and the Human Rights Commission Act under which they had been appointed made them entitled to superior Type VI and Type VII houses.

Now, the court has to decide as to which view, the estate departments or theirs, will prevail, said sources.

But amending the Act providing for a sumptuous HAR to such authorities instead of allotting houses to them will put an end to the possibility of recurrence of controversies like this apart from bringing many other benefits to the government, they claimed.

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Governor Ram Naik has written a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath to enact a new law to check unauthorised use of the official state emblem. Use of this emblem without any authorisation by law or state government was not justified, he said.

Naik, in his letter, further said the government had no law that could provide information to people about the use of its emblem. He said misuse of Indias state emblem was a punishable offence. However misuse of UPs emblem could not be considered a punishable offence in the absence of any law, he said.

Naik said the laws about use of Indias emblem were enacted in 2007 and provided for categories that could use the emblem. It also provided that the emblem could not be used by former ministers and former MPs, said the governor, adding there was a provision for a maximum two-year imprisonment, minimum six-month imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 for the offence.
Former chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Pawan Kumar Srivastav, who was an accused in the multi-crore national rural health mission (NRHM) scam that allegedly took place during the last BSP regime, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at his residence in Gorakhnath area on Thursday noon.

Srivastav, who used his licensed revolver to commit suicide, was reportedly under stress due to grilling by the CBI, the investigating agency which is probing the scam in which massive government funds meant for the mission were allegedly siphoned off.

His daughter-in-law Ekta Srivastav said Srivastav was upset with repeated appearance in the CBI court since 2010. He was to appear again before CBI court on January 15. This led to depression and he killed himself today using his pistol, she said.

Dr Srivastav was CMO at Kushinagar and Sitapur and retired as a director in the state health services. His son Dr Pankaj Srivastav runs a private clinic in Gorakhnath area.

SSP Satyartha Anirudhdh Pankaj said prima facie it appeared to be a case of suicide. Further investigation was on, he added.
Former hair stylist Alex Smeaton is living out his dream as an animator working in Germany thanks to his time at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).

This radical change of career became a reality once Alex graduated from Animation BA (Hons) in 2016, landing various roles with Birmingham-based studios, as well as securing a stint as a guest lecturer at DMU.

Since August, the 27-year-old from Leicester has been working as an animator at Studio Soi in Ludwigsburg, supporting the team responsible for season six of Cartoon Networks The Amazing World of Gumball.

Alex said: The rough animation is done in London and then sent to the studio in Germany where I clean it up and add any lip-sync.

Im a fan of the show, so its such a great feeling to watch a finished episode and see the scenes I worked on for hours!

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The opportunity came about when Alex heard that the company was hiring. He sent in a showreel of his work and was invited to do a timed test.

They liked the test and offered me the job! It has been a big learning curve as this is the sixth season so they have a very particular look, which Im still getting used to now, he said.

Working in Germany is amazing though. I had never worked in another country before and was quite nervous about moving, but I am so glad that I did.

Luckily the show is in English so thats a big help. But I am enjoying learning the language and soaking up the culture, it really is a wonderful country.

Alex is grateful to his tutors at DMU who made the whole process of learning incredibly smooth.

He said: The course teaches you all of the basics first, from the fundamental elements of drawing, to editing video footage together and to understanding audio in a completely different way.

The experience I gained cant be underestimated, and I found it in places I didnt expect. I found a new appreciation for the industry and the patience and skill that goes into it in all the different forms, from 3D to 2D and VFX.

You get the chance to try your hand many forms of animation, which definitely helped me decide to pursue the 2D animation industry.

DMU has given me the chance to work in an incredible industry - I truly love that I actually get to draw for a living! And that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
It is yet another instance of saffron making its presence felt in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh but this time its villagers initiative, not a government one.

Residents of Amritpur village in Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadavs home district Etawah have painted 100 toilets saffron on their own.

The district administration had constructed 350 toilets in the village under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

The gram panchayat decided on Monday to paint all the toilets saffron.

Gram pradhan Ved Pal said, Till Wednesday, 100 toilets were painted saffron and the remaining will be painted within three days.

The villagers have no objection to the saffron paint.

Saffron is the favourite colour of chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the toilets have been constructed under the government scheme. To appreciate the CMs initiative for the Swachh Bharat Mission, we decided paint the toilets saffron, said Guddi Devi, a villager.

The villagers said there was no directive or pressure from the district administration or the state government officials to use saffron paint for the toilets.

It was a unanimous decision by the villagers at the panchayat meeting, they said.

We hope the state government will launch more development schemes in the village after seeing the residents love for the saffron colour, said Vinod, another villager.

Five days ago, a controversy erupted after the boundary wall of the UP Haj Committee office in Lucknow was painted saffron. A day later, the boundary wall got back its original cream hue.

Hardly had the controversy subsided when the Qaiserbagh police station building in Lucknow was painted saffron.

In Pilibhit district, over 80 of the 1,230 primary schools were painted saffron late last year. However, this did not go down well with the district magistrate who gave directives to the managing bodies of the government primary schools to repaint the schools in white, which is the official colour.

The chief ministers secretariat (annexe) called Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan was splashed with saffron in October-end.

The chief ministers chair at both his official residence and office are covered with a saffron towel. Government hoardings displaying the orders and achievements of the state government have also gone saffron.

The education department distributed saffron school bags among the students after the state government ordered replacement of the green bags that had a picture of former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party patriarch.

On October 11, chief minister Yogi Adityanath flagged off a fleet of 50 saffron buses called the Sankalp Sewa service.

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Amidst row over triple talaq bill in Parliament, another woman alleged she has been divorced through triple talaq on mobile phone using WhatsApp.

The woman said her husband, who is in Saudi Arabia, had sent a voice recording in which he accused her of having relations with another man and pronounced talaq thrice. The woman went to lodge an FIR with the police but couldnt as the inspector concerned was not present at the time.

According to 28-year-old Nazia (name changed), who is resident of Gaus Nagar area in Kareli, she was married to Mohammad Arif of Mahewa Purabpatti area of Naini in June 2009. She alleged that her in-laws started harassing her over different issues, including dowry, soon after their marriage. Later she also came to know that Arif was previously married to a girl in Rewa district and had divorced her a few years back. Arif went to Saudi Arabia while the harassment of Nazia continued at the hands of her in-laws. She said he also took her passport on pretext of taking her to Saudi Arabia. Nazia said she was finally thrown out of the house in May 2016 after which she started living with her family.

To insult my family, Arif even used to call my late father when he was alive and inform him that he had tortured me. I endured thrashings several times at the hands of my husband and in-laws for several years but still tried to maintain the relation. My husband and in-laws insulted me for belonging to a poor family, said Nazia who has no issues out of the marriage.

She said on December 18, 2017 Arif sent a voice recording in which he made false allegations of she having relations with a man and pronounced triple talaq to her. Nazia called her father-in-law Mohammad Yunus and informed him about the incident but he sided with his son and instead told her to take Rs 30000 as compensation.

One of the brother-in-laws of Nazia, Ismail, who also lives in Saudi Arabia, also called her and threatened her and her family.

When contacted, SHO Kareli Vijay Singh said the incident was in his knowledge and an FIR will be lodged after receiving a written complaint from the victim.
DOWNSIZING Direction: Alexander Payne Actors: Matt Damon, Hong Chau Rating: 5 / 5

What a wonderful week! Along with a double bill of Paddington 2 and The Post, an even more bewitching film is unspooling at the multiplexes.

Working from an audacious idea conceived by his long-time collaborator Jim Taylor, co-scenarist and director Alexander Payne (Nebraska) has pulled off one of the great cinematic accomplishments of the new millennium.

Imagine a future in which people have the option to shrink themselves to 5 inches tall. Thanks to the efforts of Norwegian scientists, the downsizing procedure has now become a reality. It seems to offer a permanent solution to the problems of overpopulation and environmental hazards.

A middle-class couple (Matt Damon-Kristen Wiig), intrigued by the possibilities of a better life in a miniaturised world, decides to undergo the transformation. When their plans go awry and the husband is left to fend for himself, he befriends a hedonistic neighbour (multiple Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz, having a blast) and a Vietnamese refugee (a star-making turn by relative newcomer Hong Chau).

You will want to watch this movie again. And part of the credit for that goes to production designer Stefania Cella and cinematographer Phedon Papamichael.

The story then more or less dispenses with the sci-fi premise to turn into a blithely cynical meditation on the human condition.

Veering from subtle satire to overwhelming poignancy with effortless ease, Payne elicits striking performances from all his actors, including Udo Kier and Laura Dern in the cameo roles of a sea captain and downsizing promoter respectively.

While the directors soundtrack choices are as eclectic as ever, the contributions of production designer Stefania Cella and his regular cinematographer Phedon Papamichael are invaluable.

Downsizing is one of those rare contemporary films which merits, and will reward, a repeat viewing.

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Its been 10 years since the Bhau Daji Lad museum reopened in its Unesco award-winning form.

Built in colonial style in 1857, complete with Milton tiles, wooden windows and large pillared halls, the museum was built to showcase the business crafts of Britain. Its restoration was a five-year labour of love led by INTACH (the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage), supported by the Mumbai Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation. Today, the museum hosts some of the best contemporary art exhibitions in the city, working in association with museums from around the world.

Under the directorship of Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, it has showcased works by prominent artists such as LN Tallur, Nalini Malani, Jitish and Reena kallat, Atul Dodiya and Sudarshan Shetty, in keeping with the idea that museums arent about history alone but about contemporary culture too. The Bhau Daji Lad also now offers an art history programme, host art film screenings, lectures, workshops and story-telling sessions in multiple languages.

The museum came back into the publics consciousness after its restoration. Before that it wasnt perceived as a place of relevance, says Kallat. It has been a leading example of what a cultural space can do, which is to preserve history and intersect with present moment with its contemporary art project.

Theres been controversy too, most notably with reference to its use of land and its expansion plans. The museum is now focusing on a digital extension, via virtual tours and Google Art and Culture Lab.

The most heartening thing has been how the demographic of our visitors is changing. Earlier we only got spillover from the zoo; now the museum has become a destination in itself, says Mehta. Recently, we started Marathi Katha, which has become hugely popular. A vegetable seller from the neighbourhood is one of our most regular visitors. People appreciate the mix of contemporary and historic programming and its a lesson in how people respond to art.

The future, Mehta says, will depend on space. The long-term vision for Mumbai, if it wants to become a truly global city, must include more state of the art cultural spaces. In the short term we hope to develop our digital space more actively including interactives on the collections and a global chat show with Google who is partnering our efforts, she adds. We would also like to grow the education space and take it online.
Its not just students from engineering and management institutes who are being offered fat salary packages.

At city colleges where campus placements are underway, undergraduates are being offered annual packages as high as Rs13 lakh.

Although the students will appear for their final semester examinations in April, placement officers at Vile Parles Narsee Monjee College and St Xaviers College, Dhobi Talao, said they were busy handling offers.

Last year, the highest salary offered was Rs11 lakh.

Among the companies participating in campus placements are Proctor and Gamble, Ernst and Young, Deloitte, Axis Bank, JP Morgan and Nomura.

Over the years, more students have opted for placements immediately after graduation, rather than seeking higher education. This is because several international universities give preference to students with work experience, said Soni George, placement coordinator, St Xaviers.

At St Xaviers, around 370 students have registered for placements this year  mostly from the finance and economics stream.

Students are clear about amassing work experience for two years before applying to universities abroad for post-graduation courses, she added.

While finance companies have shown the maximum interest in hiring fresh graduates, media and consultancy firms have outnumbered them in terms of participation.

With the changing job market, consultancy firms have an increasing presence during placements. Media firms also hire young talent for digital media and marketing, George said.

However, opportunities are not the same for every faculty. At RA Podar College, Matunga, students pursuing majors in human resources and marketing are feeling let down, as finance seems to be getting preference.

Companies are coming with set job profiles and students too are clear about their interest, so many turn down the offer if they feel the profile does not fit them, said Simran Jain, student-coordinator of the placement cell of the institute.

Besides job offers, salaries too have risen this year. Most colleges have been seeing offers averaging between Rs3 lakh and Rs6 lakh per annum. Last year, the lowest offer was Rs2.5 lakh. A small number of students have opted to turn their passion into profession after graduation.

The number of students wanting to launch start-ups is increasing, and its a welcome trend, said Navin Punjabi, placement coordinator, HR College, Churchgate.

The number of companies visiting college campuses to hire students for internships has also seen an upward trend.

At Jai Hind College, Churchgate, 26 companies have registered for placements this year and another 57 firms have shown interest in hiring students for short-term internships.

A lot of finance companies are showing interest in hiring students. Real estate firms are also testing waters and trying to find active and confident students for internships and full-time jobs, said Haseena Sayed, placement coordinator of the institute.

So far, 35 students of the institute have bagged job offers through campus placement.

Companies are insisting on prior work experience while hiring, so the number of students opting for internship is growing because it reflects well on their CV, she added.

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An hour after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) fire department declared that the fire in Kamala Mills had originated in Mojos Bistro restaurant, its co-owner Yug Tuli and his wife left Mumbai in his high-end vehicle on Saturday evening.

According to a police officer, Tuli, who was in his Chembur apartment along with his wife, Pritina, fled by road to Hyderabad via Sholapur. The couple, who had married 15 days before the fire, left their house at 9.30pm on Saturday after the news channels flashed the fire departments findings. They first dropped Pritinas mother at the Mumbai airport and then fled to Hyderabad where Tulis grandparents live, said an officer. During investigation, the police learnt that Tulis wife has a British passport. The police found out that Pritina on Monday booked a ticket for herself from Hyderabad to Delhi, but she did not board the flight.

On Saturday, Tuli and Yug Pathak, son of a former IPS officer, were booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder based on the fire departments report which stated the fire started from Mojos Bistro. The owners of Mojos were earlier booked under the MRTP Act for illegal structures.
The anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of the Mumbai police has, for the first time, seized cocaine mixed with bleaching powder in a recent raid. While officials have made no entry of this in the panchnama, they said they are studying the case to find out if the mixing was for profit or if bleaching powder gives some kind of kick to addicts.

Shivdeep Lande, deputy commissioner of police, ANC, confirmed the seizure and said they were studying the case. ANC officers said on January 5, the Bandra unit of the ANC raided a place at Vakola, from where they arrested a 22-year-old man of African origin and seized 20g cocaine and 54g MD worth Rs2.08 lakh.

The cops were surprised to find bleaching powder mixed with the drug. In past cases, cocaine has been mixed with paracetamol and crocin, but never bleaching powder. The officers added that mixing was mostly done to increase the quantity of the drug which in turn increases profit.

The cops are studying the mixture to check if this was done for profit or the mixed bleaching powder is being demanded by addicts. The seized cocaine has been sent to the state forensic laboratory for testing.

A drug like cocaine is very costly and on times 1g of it is sold for anything between Rs5,000 and Rs10,000, said officers. An officer who interrogated peddlers in the past said almost all drugs are adulterated and sold to unsuspecting customers, especially new ones and addicts. The pure or what is called in drug lingo as Ozi is sold to very few, only who are old and loyal customers, added an ANC official.

In parties held in pubs or college get-togethers, peddlers take advantage of the revellers excitement, owing to which they barely pay attention to the quality of the drug, said the officer. So the peddlers supply adulterated drugs. The contraband at times is diluted 20 times more than the original form and this increases the quantity and so the money earned, he added.

The cops added that most of the drugs are mixed with something or the other. In perhaps the biggest example of drug mixing, in March 2015, the Satara police, following a tip off, raided a house of Marine Drive police constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe in Kanheri village and seized 112kg drugs, supposed to be MD. It created flutters in Mumbai police as allegations of its men being involved with drug mafia Shashikala Patankar alias Baby emerged. After the probe, in May 2015, Mumbai crime branch arrested several police officials. However in June 2016, a report from Kalina FSL and its Pune branch on samples sent to them by Mumbai and Satara police ruled out the seized substance to be MD. The FSL reports said it was ajinomoto.

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For the first time, the Maharashtra government or any other government authority probing the killings of rationalists Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi said that they had found a forensic link between the murders. This happened on Thursday when Ashok Mundargi, special counsel for the state government , told a single judge bench of justice Revati Mohite-Dere of the Bombay high court that the forensic science laboratories in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka have found a link between the bullets used for killing the three rationalists.

The senior advocate also told the court that initially the Special Investigation Team (SIT), set up to probe Pansares murder, wanted to send the bullets for ballistic investigation to the forensic science laboratory (FSL) of the Scotland Yard. But, the bullets could not be sent there owing to technical issues. Later, they were sent to the FSLs in Gujarat and Karnataka that have found a link in the three cases.

Mundargi added that Pansares two assailants have been identified but both are at large. It is a case of conspiracy and unless the two are arrested, the plot cannot be unfolded, he said.

He was arguing a petition filed by the state challenging May 2016 order of the sessions court at Kolhapur to proceed with the trial of the two accused arrested in connection with the murder. The SIT had, however, opposed the proposed framing of charges by the trial court, as it wanted to conduct further investigation.

Counsels for the two accused  Sameer Gaikwad and Virendra Tawade  urged the court to vacate the stay on trial saying it would not prejudice prosecution. Justice Revati Mohite-Dere, however, refused to vacate stay on the proceedings.
Maharashtra will open the countrys first state-backed global skill development and placement centre soon. The project received a go-ahead from Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday.

The centre will prep youngsters to get jobs in various sectors overseas. Job seekers from Maharashtra and other states will be able to apply for skilled jobs at the centre, which will assist them in securing jobs.

The first centre will be set up in Mumbai; later sub-centres will open in Aurangabad and Nagpur, too.

State labour minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar said: Sushmaji has been keen on this project and has given us the green signal after the final proposal was submitted. The Centre has given us the permission to go ahead with the state recruitment agency, under which we will also do overseas placement.

The state government is now ascertaining the demand of workforce in various countries that face a shortage of skilled labour. We are looking at non-English speaking countries. For example, Japan has announced that it has one lakh jobs to offer across various sectors, Nilangekar said. The state is also looking at some European countries, including Germany, he added.

He said the placement centre would also provide end-to-end emigration support, orientation sessions to groom peoples language skills and post-placement support.

People hunting for jobs will not have to worry about getting cheated as the centre will protect their interests and rights, the minister said. As a safeguard, we will sign an agreement with the candidate who goes abroad for a job.

There are many cases where people have been cheated by recruitment agencies. As of today, there are 151 fake agencies [in the state] on which action will be taken, the minister added.
All three owners of the Mumbai pub 1 Above, who were arrested in connection with the December 29 Kamala Mills fire that claimed 14 lives, were produced before a magistrates court on Thursday and sent to police custody till January 17.

Seeking their custody, the police said they wanted to question the owners of 1Above and Mojo Bistro together.

Kripesh Sanghvi and his brother Jigar Sanghvi -- on the run since the fire broke out -- were arrested from a hotel in Bandra late on Wednesday. The third partner, Abhijeet Mankar, was arrested early on Thursday morning, confirmed Mumbai police spokesperson Deepak Devraj.

(From left) The owners of 1 Above, brothers Kripesh and Jigar Sanghvi and their partner Abhijit Mankar, are all in police custody.

Earlier, the police had arrested Vishal Kariya, a hotelier, for allegedly giving shelter to the Sanghvi brothers and Mankar.

The three have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other offences under the Indian Penal Code.

The police tracked the mobile numbers the owners were using after Kariya shared the information during questioning.

A fire broke out in Mojos Bistro and spread to the adjoining 1Above, also injuring 55 others.

While a co-owner of Moso Bistro, Yug Pathak is in jail, his partner Yug Tuli is still on the run.

The police have recorded the statements of at least 70 witnesses and staff members of both the restaurants, including the owner of Kamala Mills. We are now investigating how the two restaurants managed to get the no- objection certificate from BMC for renovation, said the officer.

The police have recorded the statements of at least 70 witnesses and staff members of both the restaurants, including the owner of Kamala Mills. We are now investigating how the two restaurants managed to get the NOC from BMC for renovation, said the officer.
The arrests of three owners of 1Above in connection with the December 29 Kamala Mills fire incident have led to slew of questions.

The Sanghvi brothers were arrested past Wednesday midnight, when they were supposedly loitering around the KFC outlet in Bandra (West).

The sudden surfacing of Sanghvi brothers, who were untraceable for the past 12 days, despite police teams hunting for them in south Mumbai, Pune, Lonavala and neighbouring areas of Palghar and Panvel, has raised questions over the police efforts to find them.

The arrest of Abhijit Mankar, the third partner in 1Above restaurant, is equally baffling. Mankar, like Sanghvi brothers, was absconding, only to be found outside Hotel Marine Plaza in south Mumbai at 7.30am on Thursday, seven hours after the arrest of Sanghvis.

Police officers, including additional commissioner of police (central Region) S Jaykumar, maintain the three were arrested based on the interrogation of Vishal Karia, who they arrested two days ago.

Karia allegedly gave their mobile numbers, which helped them track the accused, who were nonchalantly moving around in the open in Mumbai. Interestingly, even after their arrests, the mobile phones of none of the three accused were seized. We arrested the three based on Karias interrogation. We are yet to seize their mobile phones or interrogate them, said Jaykumar.

One of the investigators, on condition of anonymity, said it was not Karias interrogation which got them to the accused.

The Mumbai police had to take the help of crime intelligence unit who posed as peanut vendors and other disguises outside various spots, including the house of the accused and their lawyers, to finally get their whereabouts. Surprisingly, the plea of Sanghvi brothers and Mankar in the court claim they surrendered to the police.

The police said after they were arrested, the Sanghvi brothers said just one thing  for all these days, they were in their village is Rajasthan, We have not got time to verify their claims. We are now bothered with the case and getting the documents concerned of the restaurant. It is an open-and-shut case, said Jaykumar.

Meanwhile Virendra Mishra, deputy commissioner of police (Zone 3) confirmed the highway police have seized Yug Tulis jeep from Hyderabad highway for speeding on January 3.
A 23-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for abusing and forcibly kissing his ex-girlfriend in public on Carter road, Bandra (West).

The Khar police, with whom the FIR was filed, said the incident took place around 9 pm on Tuesday. The accused and the complainant had been in a relationship, but had broken up last year, the police said. In the FIR, the woman has said the accused kept calling her mobile phone and also tried contacting her on social media, and that she asked him to stop trying to get in touch.

On Tuesday night, the complainant said she was with her friends on Carter Road when the accused landed up at the spot. He blocked her path and forcibly kissed her, and also verbally abused her and tried to intimidate her, the complainant has alleged.

Her friends and other people present on Carter Road overpowered the accused, by which time policemen from Khar police station, posted at a police chowky on Carter Road, rushed to the spot.

On Wednesday morning, the FIR was registered against the accused under sections 354 (sexual harassment), 354 D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.

A police officer from Khar police station said: The accused has been remanded in police custody for two days by a magistrate court. He does not have a criminal background. He has completed his studies, but is currently unemployed.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari hit out at the Navy on Thursday, asking why its officials need to stay in posh South Mumbai and criticising it for opposing the construction of a jetty at Nariman Point.

Actually, Navy is needed at the borders from where terrorists sneak in. Why does everyone (in the Navy) want to stay in South Mumbai? They (Navy) had come to me, asking for a plot (of land). I will not give even an inch of land. Please dont come to me again, Gadkari said.

The ministers public displeasure comes in the backdrop of the Navy declining permission for building a floating jetty at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai, where a floating hotel and seaplane service are planned.

The Bombay high court had refused permission to a private company for the construction of the jetty because it did not have the no-objection certificate (NoC) from the Western Naval Command.

As part of Gadkaris plan to promote tourism, a private firm, Rashmi Development Private Limited, proposed to build a jetty to ferry its passengers to its five star floatel in the Arabian Sea.

What has the Navy to do with Malabar Hill?...Everyone wants to build quarters and flats on south Mumbais prime land. We do respect you (Navy), but you should go to the Pakistan border and do patrolling, said the minister at a function where he laid the foundation stone for an international cruise terminal at Mumbai Port Trust.

Gadkari said he chairs a committee for stalled infrastructure projects, adding that projects are cleared as soon as they come on the agenda.

We are the government. The Navy and the defence ministry are not the government, he said.

South Mumbai is home to a sizeable presence of the Navy and houses the headquarters of the Western Naval Command, as well as the naval residential quarters at Navy Nagar in Colaba in south Mumbai.

(with PTI inputs)
Explosive materials, suspected to be two crude bombs, were unearthed during excavation at a Metro construction site in Mumbai Central on Wednesday evening, the police said.

Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limiteds on-duty officer Mukesh Kumar, who was overlooking the digging work, spotted the suspicious material just outside Mumbai Central railway station and alerted his seniors as well as the Nagpada police.

The Nagpada police said they got a call at 4pm. The police, in turn, called the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad. The teams reached the site with a dog squad, recovered and defused the explosives.

The police have registered a case and are now investigating the matter. Sanjay Baswat, senior police inspector at Nagpada police station, confirmed: We have seized the crude bombs found during excavation. A panchnama has been done. We will now investigate to find the miscreants.

The suspicious material has been sent to the forensic science lab in Kalina for expert opinion, said another officer from Nagpada police station, who did not wish to be named.

The police said that at this point, they could not confirm whether it was a deliberate attempt of sabotage.
A US national approached the Khar police on Tuesday after an unidentified man sent an anonymous letter with sexually explicit comments to her rented residence in Bandra (West). The police are trying to trace the sender of the letter.

According to the Khar police, the complainant, who is in her 30s, has been staying in India on a work visa. She works as a teacher at an International school.

On Monday evening, when she returned home from work, she received an anonymous letter by post, which was dropped at her residential building. The buildings watchman handed over the letter to her.

The one-page letter is handwritten with a pen in English language. In the letter, the stalker proposed to the woman, and also wrote sexually explicit comments.

The next day, the woman approached the Khar police station, where an FIR was registered against the unidentified man under section 354 D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code. A police official confirmed the development but refused to divulge further details.

The police suspect that the person might be known to the victim. They have recorded detailed statements of the complainant to find out if she was harassed by any person in the past. They will be recording statements of the watchman and checking the CCTV cameras in the vicinity.
When shareholders and lenders give capital to a business, they believe it will succeed and give them returns. Handling failure well is an equally important part of the business ecosystem. That had been found wanting in India till the new bankruptcy law kicked in. A year after the first insolvency case was admitted by courts, the bankruptcy framework still remains a work in progress.

India needed a modern framework to replace the ineffective and loophole-ridden set of insolvency laws that led to inordinate delay in cases. The new code marked a big shift in the balance of power between debtors and creditors. Banks, and other creditors, no longer need to be at the mercy of big borrowers.

The framework sets a clock of 270 days for resolution and defaulters could no longer hide behind a maze of state laws to avoid paying their dues. The Supreme Court ruling in the case of Innoventive Industries, the first case to be tried under the new law, said that the insolvency code took precedence over state laws.

Government data showed that 2,434 fresh bankruptcy cases have been filed and 2,304 cases of winding up companies have been transferred from various high courts in the past year. Of these, 2,750 cases have been disposed. There is little data on the kind of resolution, recovery rates and costs. However, it is clear that the law is yet to fully demonstrate its effectiveness and is facing teething troubles as seen from the frequent changes in rules, the recent ordinance and amendment bill.

The first case under the new framework had a less than satisfying outcome and highlighted loopholes. Lenders to Synergies Dooray Automotive recovered 6 paise to the rupee. The resolution has been challenged. There are allegations the company gamed the system by placing a proxy in the committee of creditors which takes the final call on resolution plans.

Indeed, concerns that devious promoters will get a backdoor entry to control firms at a steep discount prompted the government to issue an ordinance in November amending the code. It barred promoters of firms that hadnt paid up their dues and related entities from participating in the bidding for assets of a distressed company under the resolution process.

On one hand, it reinforced the signal that promoters have no divine right to control firms if they dont repay loans. However, the unintended consequence may be that banks may see a fall in recovery rates because of fewer bidders. The amendment bill, which was passed earlier this month, gives promoters some leeway to bid if they pay the overdue amount. The bill also exempted banks, asset reconstruction firms and those specialising in acquiring distressed assets from the definition of related entities.

Still, there are many areas where clarity is required, especially where the insolvency law comes in conflict in other laws. The government has already set up a committee to identify areas which require attention and is moving quickly to resolve these issues.

One example is the applicability on minimum alternate tax (MAT) on the portion of debt written off under a resolution plan because that could be seen as income. On Saturday, the Central Board of Direct Taxes granted an exemption. Other examples of conflicts include de-listing of listed shares, equity reduction and the applicability of competition law. Getting approvals from different regulators might lead to a delay in timelines.

These issues are at the lawmaker level. Coming to the application of the law, as mentioned earlier, the apex court ruling on Innoventive Industries was welcome support. The courts intervention in the case of Jaypee Infratech Ltd led to a change in rules. Homebuyers were recognised as a category of creditors. Still, researchers have pointed out cases of judicial overreach. There are examples where cases have been dismissed because the court got into analysing the balance sheet of debtors and ruling that it was healthy enough. In some others, they have allowed a settlement even after a case was admitted, which is not explicitly allowed under the code.

That said, one area where the code has proved useful is for operational creditors like vendors, employees and service providers. A study of 515 cases by the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research shows that these operational creditors have been successful in recovering their dues using the threat of the bankruptcy court.

The coming year is crunch time for the code. Twelve big cases  accounting for a quarter of distressed bank loans  will reach their deadlines for resolution. Banks have filed (or are in the process of filing) cases against another 25 big accounts identified by the RBI. If even half of these are successfully resolved, it will build confidence in the new framework.

ravi.k@htlive.com
Lets start with a disclosure. Im not religious, much to my familys dislike. The savage, large-scale burning of Sikhs in 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi disturbed me deeply and invoked feelings of humanity not religion. I had just begun my journalistic career and was out on the streets of Delhi, reporting on the violence. The methodical planning and the cold-blooded killings left me appalled.

Before I left home on the three mornings that Delhi burnt, I would put a large lock on the door to secure members of MY family. My father, a practising Sikh and proud Indian Air Force officer, had to discard his turban and wear a helmet. That was the only way to escape the murderous mob. My brother, chased by one such mob, ran with all his might and hid in a water tank before returning home, shivering with cold and fright.

This piece is not about them. They are both dead  one of a cancerous brain tumour and the other of a cardiac arrest.

The memories have a habit of surfacing each time I read about 1984. Now, 33 years after nearly 3000 Sikhs were killed  only because of their religion  the Supreme Court has ordered the re-investigation by a special investigation team of 186 cases that were closed.

What is this special investigation team going to find, three decades later? The question is not a cynical one; many witnesses have died and more importantly, police records, meant to detail the violence are just blank.

Ask Ved Marwah, a former Delhi Police commissioner who was appointed by the then Rajiv Gandhi government to probe the role of the police and he will tell you he had seized all records of the police stations in whose jurisdiction the killings had taken place and it as clear as daylight that the men in uniform had vanished from their police stations for the period that the massacres were on. According to police rules, all movements of police officers are recorded minute by minute in the thana daily diary, but the diaries were totally blank, he had said in a previous interview.

He also found that the mob usually comprised groups of 20 to 30 and as he said, the police could have intervened and stopped the groups from setting Sikhs ablaze. But alarmed that Marwah had asked for police records, Delhi Police officers filed a writ against his inquiry in the High Court. The court didnt stay the inquiry but the government did. Marwah received a written order asking him to stop the inquiry.

Apart from the Marwah inquiry, several other commissions probed the role of prominent Congress leaders named by eye-witnesses. After over three-decades, only junior accomplices have been sentenced, despite the brave testimony of several women who saw their husbands and sons being pulled out of their homes after being exhorted by the senior leaders to avenge the killing Indira Gandhi, their mother, who was shot by her Sikh bodyguards.

Investigations into the role of leaders like Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler were re-opened after commissions of inquiry found what they termed credible evidence.

Kumar was tried in one case but was acquitted by a lower court in 2013, 29 years after the violence. The acquittal has now been challenged by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

It is hard to argue against the pursuit of justice, though, despite the fact that 33 years have failed to deliver much (unlike in Gujarat where a minister was convicted for her role in the 2002 riots)

The anti-Sikh riots shattered thousands of families. Scores of orphans, too young to remember how their fathers were killed know each gruesome detail of how burning tyres were thrown around the necks of thousands. Many of them have turned into drug addicts even as their mothers try to eke out a living between numerous trips to different courts where cases continue to languish.

Justice is the only balm for the widows who have stood steadfast against money and muscle-power. The fight to punish the guilty cant be theirs alone.

They have been let down by the police and by successive governments in the past but the silver lining  even 33 years later  is that the Supreme Court has stepped into the picture.

That alone is giving many victims hope.

@shammybaweja

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The murder of two businessmen within an hour at Muzaffarpur on Wednesday night sparked widespread protest in the north Bihar town on Thursday.

Traders of Muzaffarpur, 70 km north of state capital Patna, observed a bandh in protest against the incident and angry people took to streets, blocking main thoroughfares of the town at Suttapatti, Tower Chowk, Company Bagh, Motijheel, Saraiyagang, Jawaharlal Road and Akhara Ghat road for many hours.

They blamed good relations between police and criminals for the spurt in crime.

Unidentified criminals had shot dead young trader Rohit Kumar in his jewellery shop at Sonarpatti, a busy market hub, in Muzaffarpur town police station area on Wednesday night. Within an hour, Chandan Bhagat, a small time transporter from Darbhanga district, was shot dead near Khabara locality, just 100 metres from the sadar police station of the town.

READ| Two minor girls of a family killed, hung by a tree in Bihar; cops suspect honour killing

North Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries president Moti Lal Chapadia said there had been sudden increase in incidents of crime in the town and businessmen were the soft target. The trading community is in the grip of fear, he said.

READ| Criminals in Bihar pump eight bullets into Samastipur civil court clerk, killing him instantly

A national-level bodybuilder, Shakti Kumar, who was shot at in November last, said police inaction was responsible for the rise in crime. I had registered a named FIR with the town police station against Chandan Soni. But, the police did not arrest Soni, who can be seen moving scot free, said the silver medal winner at a national-level bodybuidling event.

Social activist Arvind Arun said that the law and order situation in the town had gone bad to worse. Policemen are busy with crackdown on liquor mafia for award. This has badly affected policing. Even chief minister Nitish Kumars directive to control crime has gone in vain, he said.
A 27-year-old man hanged himself at his house in Punjabs Gurdaspur district and live-streamed the suicide on his Facebook page on Wednesday night after being allegedly harassed by his in-laws, who wanted him to live with them, police said on Thursday.

The station house officer of Bhaini Mian Khan, Sarbjit Singh, said that Paramjit Singh was a crane operator in Karnataka and had come back to his Nanowal Jindarh village a fortnight ago after the birth of his son.

The deceased was being mentally harassed by his in-laws. They wanted him to sell off his share in his parental property at Nanowal Jindarh and settle with them at Daburji village in Amritsar district, the SHO said.

Paramjit came back to his home in Nanowal Jindarh on Wednesday after meeting his wife at his in-laws house in Daburji. His wife is living with their six-day-old baby boy at her parents home.

The SHO said Paramjit was happy on the birth of his son and had even distributed sweets to his relatives and friends in the village on Wednesday.

Paramjits cousin JP Singh, who lives in Bahrain, saw the Facebook video and immediately called Paramjits father. When no one answered his call, JP called his father Ranjit Singh to tell him about the suicide. By the time Ranjit was able to contact Paramjits father, he was already dead.

Gurdaspurs senior superintendent of police HS Bhullar said a case under sections 306 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against Paramjits father-in-law Upkar Singh, mother-in-law Sarbjit Kaur and wife Baljit Kaur at the Bhaini Mian Khan police station.
A day after jewellery worth at least Rs 1.5 crore was looted from a businessmans house in a posh Sector-33 locality, police suspect it to be an insiders job. Around 7.30pm on Tuesday, four masked men with pistols in their hands fearlessly walked in through the front gate of the house of Ajit Jain, who owns cold stores in Lalru and is also into gold trade.

His wife, Ritu, runs a jewellery boutique, sells gold jewellery online and also designs wedding jewellery. Police say the looted jewellery could be worth as high as Rs 5 crore as the family is yet to ascertain its value.

The accused may be a former employee, a former servant or a person who visited the house as a customer, said a senior police officer, not wishing to be named. The accused were aware of the house layout and had planned everything meticulously.

Police have started questioning Jains former employees besides customers who visited his house recently. The mobile dump of the area has also been collected.

The family has a Golden Retriever dog, which was in the house when the accused barged in. The dog, according to Jain, did not bark at all.

Got extortion letter in 2012

In 2012, too, police had arrested one of Jains former drivers after the businessman received a letter demanding Rs 5-crore extortion. The sender had threatened to throw acid on Jain and his son if he failed to pay the money.

However, the driver was acquitted as charges against him could not be proved.

Came in Santro, didnt talk much

At the time of the incident on Tuesday, Ajits wife, daughter Khushboo, and servant Dev Raj were at home. Khushboo is married and her husband is in paramilitary forces and posted in North East.

The four accused came in a black Hyundai Santro car wearing monkey caps and mostly communicated through gestures during the 20 minutes they were in the house. Only one did the talking  in Punjabi and Haryanvi  and kept asking about the locker (safe). Police probe suggests the accused knew where the jewellery was kept in the house.

As the accused had LED backlights on the car, the registration number is not visible in the CCTV footage.

Dog didnt bark at all

The family has a Golden Retriever dog, which was in the house when the accused barged in. The dog, according to Jain, did not bark at all. They may have fed the dog something to keep it busy while they carried out the loot, he said.

Meanwhile, police are trying to trace the accuseds exit route by scanning the footage of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed at the entry and exit points of the area. A house in the neighbourhood has a permanent watchman, but he did not see anyone. Meanwhile, a neighbour, on the condition of anonymity, said: We did see a car but didnt hear any cries. It was only after the police arrived we got to know of the incident. A Santro is visible in the footage.

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Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has welcomed the Supreme Court decision to order fresh probe by a new Special Investigation Team (SIT) into 186 cases of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, with the hope that justice would finally be meted out to the innocent victims.

The chief minister said that more than 30 years had passed since the gory violence, which claimed many lives and left many others homeless, and while various commissions had been set up to investigate the cases, justice continued to elude the victims. Several names had cropped up in connection with the riots, and it was now up to the SIT to verify the allegations and bring the investigation to its logical conclusion, said a statement, quoting his statement to select media persons.

Capt, who himself had quit as MP in protest against the violence, said it was high time that justice be provided in these cases.

On the ban announced by certain elements on entry of Indian officials in gurdwaras in Canada and the US, the CM said anyone, be it Sikh or non-Sikh, can enter the `guru ghar (abode of the Guru) to pay his respects or partake the langar prasad.

It is against the `Sikhi (tenets of Sikhism) to stop anyone from entering the gurdwaras, he said, condemning the ban as totally wrong. It was for the management committees of the gurdwaras, as well as the Sikh community, in these countries, to put a stop on such acts, he said, pointing out that never in history had any person been barred from entering a gurdwara.

To a question on the issue of political conferences at Shaheedi Jor Melas, Captain Amarinder said the precedent laid in the case of the Fatehgarh Sahib Jor Mela should be followed for all other Shaheedi Jor Melas, such as Maghi and Chamkaur Sahib.
Ujjal Dosanjh, a Liberal Party parliamentarian in Canada and former premier of British Columbia province , has entreated Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be the Prime Minister that India deserves on his new website commentindia.com on Wednesday. He has appealed to Modi to be the PM of all Indians and not (of) just the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)

Dosanjh, 70, who was born in Dosanjh Kalan village in Jalandhar district with a socialist freedom fighter for grandfather, said, I have deep ties with India and I am deeply pained by the trolling, harassing and lynching of the past few years and complete silence by Indias PM and his government. The most recent is harassment of a degree college in Chikkamagaluru by the Hindutva brigade.

Mr Modi, shed your past of just being an RSS parcharak; India needs not an RSS parcharak. 

Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal Party parliamentarian in Canada

Dosanjhs angst is visible as he writes: In Karnataka, Dhanyashree, a young woman barely twenty years old, has taken her life; I say she was cruelly driven to her death. She was harassed on social media and in person by the Hindutva vigilantes in their fight against the so-called Love Jihad. This heinous vigilantism has been unleashed, or rather uncorked, by the many fronts of the Hindutva brigade long nurtured by the RSS. It has become more virulent and pervasive under the almost complete and complicit silence of Narendra Modi and his entire regime.

He blogs further: The BBC and the Indian media have described Dhanyashrees death as a suicide; I say shame on them; it was anything but. Suicide has a ring of weakness, of cowardice. She was neither a coward nor guilty of anything any young man or woman shouldnt do: Express themselves freely, without fear or favour; have respect for all peoples and faiths. All she is reported to have done is to proclaim on the Facebook that she liked Muslims; she hadnt said she hated being a Hindu or whatever her faith may have been. Should India want or have its men and women hating its diversity?

Seeking PM Modis apology to the family of the woman, he further wrote, Mr Modi, shed your past of just being an RSS parcharak; India needs not an RSS parcharak.

When contacted, he said, This is my second piece on commentindia.com and the first one was Modi: The Dangerous Distortionist. I will continue to comment in my blogs because it is time to speak out. I fear that political Hindutva is furthering the crises caused by political Islam in tearing apart the social fabric.

In the first blog, Dosanjh had described Modi as the best orator on the Indian political scene today: the undisputed king of political one-liners, alliteration, rhyme, and distortion.
A Chandigarh resident, his wife and their three-year-old son were killed, while their infant daughter had a miraculous escape, in a freak accident with a truck on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur road in Jagraon on Thursday morning.

Police said the driver of the Hyundai i20, Sudarshan Kumar, 36, lost control of the car after its tyre burst. The car jumped over the divider and rammed into an oncoming truck, killing him, his wife Seema, 33, and their son Dhruv, on the spot.

Their domestic help, Kajal, 26, suffered serious injuries, while their six-month-old daughter Dhwani escaped without a scratch.

The impact of the collision left the vehicles front side completely mangled, making it difficult for rescuers to pull out the victims.

Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Baljinder Singh, in-charge, bus stand police post, said the family was travelling from Chandigarh to Faridkot to attend the memorial of Seemas uncle. While Seema was in the navigators seat with Dhruv in her lap, Kajal was in the back seat with the infant in her care.

As they reached near Gurdwara Nanaksar in Jagraon, Sudarshan lost control of the car as its tyre burst, and rammed into a truck coming from Moga. Onlookers rushed to the car, as cries of the baby filled the air, and informed the police, he said, adding that the truck driver, Parminder Singh, escaped unscathed.

Sudharshan, Seema and their son were dead by the time they were rescued. A seriously injured Kajal was rushed to Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, where doctors referred her to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.

The baby was found unhurt after being medically examined, and was handed over to the victims relatives, who reached the city from Chandigarh and Faridkot, after being informed.

The ASI said they had initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) on the statement of the victims family members, and sent the bodies to the Jagraon civil hospital for post-mortem examination.
At 63, he towers over most people around him but still looks like a boy. He is a fan of both the Assassins Creed and mom-made biryani, has a soft spot for wildlife and enjoys sharing a laugh. This wannabe video games programmer wishes for a cleaner and poverty-free India.

Name: Avi Giri

Born: March 23, 2000

Badge of honour: Head boy, Strawberry Fields High School, Chandigarh

What turning 18 means to me

It means I will finally get a licence to drive. It also means Im an adult with a long list of responsibilities. It does make me a bit nervous because this number doesnt necessarily mean that I have the experience to handle what comes my way.

What I want to be and why

I want to be a programmer in the video games industry. I have been in love with video games ever since I was six when I started playing Pokemon on Nintendo DS, my first hand-held console. I want to be part of the team that develops the next best-selling video game. It will give me immense satisfaction to give others the same pleasure that I get from gaming.

My idea of India

India has a rich culture and heritage. Its also a country brimming with innovative ideas and new solutions. We have potential for being a superpower because the majority of our population is young.

What makes me happy

Im happiest when I return home to a biryani surprise by mom. Or when I read a question paper and realise I know it all. Sharing jokes and spending time with friends and family make me happy.

What makes me angry

I dont get angry easily but I cant stand bullies. I get frustrated when people are mean to others and dont even regret their bad behaviour. I get upset when people whine and dont solve the problems they can.

Fear and fantasy

At times, I have the fear of failing, of not achieving my goals. But it goes away the moment I start studying. As for my fantasy, Im fond of wildlife and would love to visit all biodiversity hotspots such as the Galapagos Islands, Madagascar, and Costa Rica before some species disappear from this planet. I want to see every possible wildlife destination in the world.

Am I happy where I am?

Look, Im appearing for the pre-boards right now. The board exams are around the corner and then I have to take entrance exams to engineering colleges. With so many exams lined up, Im certainly not in a happy place right now.

What money means to me

As a teenager, you dont have much money. Money means going out with friends for a movie or ordering food. It is a medium of exchange, and is important for a comfortable life. But I dont think it is good to be greedy.

What makes me proud of India

India has a rich and diverse culture. We have such close-knit families, whose members are always there for one another.

What I cant live without

I cant live without food and oxygen. I cant live without burgers, pizzas, biryani and ice tea. I cant imagine life without superhero comics. Batman is my favourite.

What social media means to me

Its a great platform for your thoughts, opinions, feelings, and a great way to remain in touch with current events as they unfold. But there is a downside if you start spending too much time on social media. Its important to do a balancing act.

Change I want to see in Chandigarh

Chandigarh used to be a very clean city during my childhood but now I notice a lot more pollution, garbage, and traffic. We should live the title of City Beautiful. We should promote public transport and make it regular and punctual. It is doable if officials put their mind to it.

What religion means to me

It is for me a belief which anyone can have. It helps you through difficult times. It helps you to be at peace with yourself, others, and your environment. People must know more about every religion so that they can feel for one another.

My role model and why

He is Elon Musk, a futurist. The world needs more people like him. He is very hard working and is doing a lot for the environment. He went through a lot of failures but never gave up.

Change I want to see in India

I want to live in a cleaner India with zero poverty. I wish we Indians were more tolerant and accepting. Also, we need to heed to the voice of our youth. Right now, ideas given by a young person are usually shot down on the plea that he lacks experience.
From Central to Western Japan, there are many great tourist attractions and places to visit. In the Land of Clear Waters, the prefecture of Gifu, there are numerous world heritage sites, diverse histories, and many industrial tourism resources.

The history and culture of Gifu prefecture are what make it attractive. We have the Shirakawa-go Gassho village that exhibits the earliest remembered scenes of the past. The town of Takayama, which displays the stores and streets of the Edo period, where remnants of old Japan can be felt and experienced. And, the many industries that provide an experience of Japanese culture, like the making of umbrellas, said Gifu Prefecture, Yoshiki Hayashi.

Located in the southern part of Kyoto prefecture, the Yamashiro region has a history of over 800 years of producing tea. It has created a unique cafe culture and cultural landscape centered on Uji tea. With Japanese tea in the Kyoto region of Japan, its the leading tea production areas in Japan, and the world, you can experience various things related to themes of tea. Many foreign visitors come to Kyoto, but many attractions remain unknown. We would love everyone to experience the themes of tea in Kyoto prefecture, said Kyoto Prefectural Yamashiro Regional Office, Mitsugu Sumiyama.

The gorgeous Kokura castle in Kitakyushu. (Shutterstock)

In Kitakyushu city, located in the northern part of Kyushu, you can journey to satisfy your intellectual curiosity that touches the industrial heritage and state of the art manufacturing which supported the modernization of Japan. In 1901, Kitakyushu developed and flourished as an industrial city. It still does attract a lot of people because of our manufacturing base. But it has also become a leader in tackling environmental problems in Japan. The entire city is working in this direction, aiming to be the Worlds environmental capitol, said Kouichiro Hiratani, City Of Kitakyushu.

After the Kumamoto earthquake in 2016, Kumamoto prefecture has been working hard to rebuild from the disaster. Kumamoto comprises a lot of world heritage, Japanese heritage and is surrounded by many natural and beautiful landscapes. Kumamoto prefecture has many resources that you can enjoy like lots of clean and tasty water, delicious food, and many hot springs. We are all working hard towards reconstruction of Kumamoto. So definitely, you should take time to come and visit us here in Kumamoto, said Kumamoto Prefecture, Hiromi Nakano. With the variety of tourist attractions, Japan is waiting for tourists to visit.

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The Singapore zoo on Thursday introduced to the public 500 newborns it welcomed into the world in 2017, representing 145 species, more than a quarter of which are endangered.

Khansa, an eight month old critically endangered Bornean orangutan, sucks on its thumb at the Singapore Zoo on Thursday in Singapore. The Singapore Zoo is active with its breeding programs as part of its wildlife preservation efforts. This is the Zoo's 46th successful orangutan birth. (AP)

Two-month old Abina, the 24th successful pygmy hippo to be born at the zoo, waddled near the waters edge around her mothers legs, to the delight of visiting schoolchildren.

Khansa, the Singapore Zoo's 46th orangutan baby, clings to its mother Anita during a media tour to showcase newborn animals at the Singapore Zoo. (REUTERS)

The pygmy hippo is one species our zoo has been able to breed consistently well over the years, said Cheng Wen-Haur, deputy chief executive and chief life sciences officer at Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

Khansa, the Singapore Zoo's 46th orangutan baby, clings to its mother Anita. (REUTERS)

There are about 2,000 of the animals left in the wild and in zoos, he added.

Khansa, the Singapore Zoo's 46th orangutan baby, with its mother Anita. (REUTERS)

The park also unveiled two baby electric blue geckos that hatched a few days before Christmas.

Abina, the park's 24th successful pygmy hippo born in captivity walks behind her mother at the Singapore Zoo on Thursday. (AP)

The critically endangered species can only be found in an 8-square-km (3-sq-mile) area of Tanzania. Cheng said the ability to breed it was valuable, just in case it should disappear in the wild.

Albina, feeds next to its mother in their enclosure at the zoo. (REUTERS)

The zoo also presented Khansa, a critically endangered female orangutan born in April last year, as well as a bevy of recently-born Asian small-clawed otters, one with an amputated forelimb.

Asian small-clawed otters, part of the 14 birthed at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari, gather during feeding time during a media tour to showcase newborn animals at the Singapore Zoo on Thursday. (REUTERS)

Wildlife Reserves Singapore, which includes a bird park as well as river and night safaris, was considered the fourth best zoo in the world, a survey by Tripadvisor showed in 2017.

An Asian small-clawed otter is pictured during a media tour to showcase newborn animals at the Singapore Zoo. (REUTERS)

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TV actors Jyoti Sharma and Pranav Misshra have quit Zee TVs daily soap Aisi Deewangi...Dekhi Nahi Kabhi. The two have accused the shows producers of exploitation and mistreatment. Actor and CINTAA (Cine And TV Artistes Association) director has, however, said the actors have served a two-month notice. Our Dispute Settlement Committee had a joint meeting with the producers and the actors of the show. All the issues have been addressed in an amicable manner.The actors didnt wish to continue with the show, and have served a two-month notice for the same, he told HT.

In an interview to Bombay Times, Jyoti and Pranav said the two were made to work 18-hour shifts in unsafe conditions and not given food or water for a year. There would be no food, tea or even water during these extended hours. Even though it would get late, they never checked on how I was commuting alone at that hour. There have also been times when I have been called back midway, to shoot. The environment is so negative that we dont wish to continue on the show, Jyoti said.

Jyoti also talked about the lack of safety on sets. She said she was suspended in air without proper harnesses and had to be hospitalised when she inhaled too much smoke during a fire scene with fire. There was a fire sequence and the only window in the room was covered, as we had to shoot a night sequence. I was inside the room, which was filled with smoke. I was throwing up incessantly. I even lost my voice and had to be hospitalised, she said.

Pranav also accused the producers of treating them worse than animals. Just a day ago, I reported to the shoot despite being unwell. As per the guidelines, one needs a 12-hour break between two shifts. However, I can vouch that we have reported back to the set within five hours at least 250 days in a year. Both Jyoti and I have undergone stress test as advised by CINTAA, and we have been diagnosed with depression, stress and anxiety, he said.

Singh called it a glaring example of the inhuman working conditions faced by television actors and nothing short of bonded labour. The medical reports clearly state that they are under severe stress and depression, and they have been prescribed medication. However, we are obligated to hear both sides of the story, hence any further action will be taken only after the due process, he said.

Jatin Sethi, a producer on the show, said the reports are rumours and the actors are still working on the show. I am not aware of any such development; these are just rumours. Pranav and Jyoti are shooting with us. There could be a technical issue, but nothing more. I havent been contacted by CINTAA yet, he said.

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Armed robbers launched a spectacular raid on the world-famous Ritz hotel in Paris Wednesday, making off with an estimated four million euros worth of jewels, the latest in a string of high-profile heists in the French capital.

The gang of five men armed with hatchets smashed display windows on the ground floor of the hotel in Paris luxurious Place Vendome around 6.30pm (1730 GMT), making off with the jewels.

Three of the gang were detained while fleeing the scene and an AFP journalist said some roads around the hotel were sealed off by security forces following the incident. Two people were still being sought by authorities on Thursday evening.

We heard a loud noise and lots of racket in the street, one hotel employee told AFP. Passers-by took refuge in the hotel. We didnt know what was going on until someone told us there had been a robbery.

Another employee said he saw a motorbike speed along a road at the back of the hotel after the break-in.

Several luxury brands display their jewels in the street-front windows of the Ritz.

A judicial source put the value of the jewels seized at more than four million euros ($4.75 million).

Interior minister Gerard Collomb praised officers professionalism, saying they had done our police force credit.

Paris prosecutors have opened a probe into the robbery, according to a judicial source.

Riches and robbers

Place Vendome, with its opulent window displays of jewellers and high-end watchmakers, has been the scene of several audacious daytime raids.

Security had been boosted in the area, which also houses Frances justice ministry, in 2014 after several daring armed raids on Place Vendome in which jewels worth between 420,000 and two million euros were seized.

But thieves struck again in March 2016, when an estimated six million euros worth of jewels were stolen from luxury fashion brand Chopard by robbers who threatened employees with a gun and grenade. Three men were charged in connection with that heist.

The French capitals most high-profile recent jewellery theft was carried out in October 2016 against US reality television star Kim Kardashian.

Five men, some wearing jackets with police insignia, held Kardashian at gunpoint, making off with several pieces of gold and diamond jewellery as well as a ring -- a total estimated worth of nine million euros.

One of the robbers, fleeing the scene on a bicycle, dropped a diamond-encrusted cross worth 30,000 euros, which was found by a passer-by a few hours later.

It remains the only piece to be recovered from the heist.

The landmark Paris Ritz hotel re-opened its palatial doors to guests in 2016 after nearly four years of renovations and a major fire.

The hotel founded by Swiss entrepreneur Cesar Ritz in 1898 is storied as the lodging of choice of Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, who has a small bar named after him.

In more recent history however, the Ritz has become known as the place where Britains Princess Diana spent her last hours before a car accident in a tunnel in the French capital while being pursued by paparazzi.
As Pakistan simmers under protests against the brutal rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Kasur, a news anchor with Samaa TV protested by hosting a news bulletin with her daughter on Wednesday.

Kiran Naz, with her child on her lap, starts the bulletin by saying, Today Im not Kiran Naz. Today, Im a mother. This is why I am sitting here with my daughter.

The 1.50 minute long monologue by Naz sees her condemn the rapes and murders that plague the country. It is true when they say that the smallest coffins are the heaviest and entire Pakistan is burdened by the weight of her coffin.

Not often that you see a TV news anchor bring her own child to her news cast - @SAMAATV 's Kiran Naz did precisely that to make a point about how she felt as a mother in Pakistan #JusticeForZainab #Justice4Zainab pic.twitter.com/6XMXQJmfzV  omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) January 10, 2018

The alleged rape and murder of the 8-year-old girl triggered violent protests in Punjab province that left two people dead in police firing on Wednesday.

Kasur town, located a short distance from the border with India, had been tense after the girl disappeared on January 4 while on her way home from a tuition centre. Her parents were away on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, and her family circulated CCTV footage on social media that showed her with an unidentified man. Reports said the girl was allegedly raped multiple times before being strangled.

In the news bulletin, Naz points out the sad irony, that while the girls parents were praying for their daughters long life in Saudi Arabia and buying her toys, a monster in Pakistan was raping her and throwing her body in trash. This is not just a childs rape and murder. This is the entire societys murder.

Naz goes on to say that the 8-year-olds rape and murder will once again initiate regret, investigation, committess, commission, enquiry and suo moto but, the truth is that the girl does not need your justice. She will get justice by her God on Judgement Day when she questions her death and asks her fault.

The girls father, on returning to Pakistan on Wednesday, told the media that he would not bury her till justice was done.

Naz ends the bulletin by saying that it is not just the girl who is dead, the whole of humanity died with her.

Local media reports said the girls murder was the twelfth such case in Kasur over a period of one year. Kasur had hit the headlines in 2015 when a gang of paedophiles running a child sex ring was busted in the town. The gang allegedly abducted and sexually assaulted 280 children and blackmailed the families of some victims since 2009.
I shall not be silenced, said a prominent Pakistani journalist and a vocal critic of the countrys powerful military who was assaulted and threatened with death by armed men who tried to abduct him.

Taha Siddiqui, the Pakistani bureau chief of Indian television channel WION, said he was attacked by 10-12 men while he was going to the airport in Rawalpindi but managed to escape before being kidnapped, suffering minor injuries during the struggle, the DawnNews reported.

It is a miracle that I am still alive...But I am in deep shock, he told reporters late Wednesday night.

He said the taxi-driver was an eyewitness to the entire scene and police should trace him to verify the account.

Siddiqui said the attackers were well informed about his travel plans as they knew that I was going to the airport.

He said he feared for his safety and asked the Islamabad police chief to provide security to him and his family.

Siddiqui recounted the details of the kidnapping attempt in a series of tweets.

I was on my way to (the) airport today at 8:20 am when 10-12 armed men stopped my cab (and) forcibly tried to abduct me, Siddiqui, the winner of Frances highest journalism award - The Albert Londres Prize, said in a tweet.

Saale ko goli maaro (shoot him), shouted the men, who Siddiqui said were armed with Kalashnikovs and pistols.

In his post, Siddiqui further said that he had managed to escape the kidnapping attempt and that he was safe and with the police now.

Looking for support in any way possible, Siddiqui added, ending his tweet with the hashtag #StopEnforcedDisappearances.

Finally reconnected on social media & got new phone. Thank u all for support. I shall not be silenced, he later tweeted.

Pakistans interior minister Ahsan Iqbal has asked Islamabad police to brief him about the incident and the investigation, according to an official of his ministry.

Superintendent of police Mustafa Tanveer confirmed that Siddiqui, who is the Pakistan bureau chief at World Is One News (WION) approached police soon after the incident.

Tanveer said that Siddiqui was in a private taxi when he was stopped by armed men.

He said the investigation has been launched and police are trying to get the footage of the security cameras.

Initial probe showed that registration number of one the vehicles was fake, he said.

The attack on Siddiqui came just months after investigative journalist Ahmed Noorani was badly thrashed in a car in Islamabad by unidentified armed men.

Reacting to the incident, World Is One Newss Editor- in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhury said, Despite the shocking attack on WIONs Pakistan Bureau Chief, Taha Siddiqui, WION remains committed to pursuing fearless journalism from the soil of Pakistan. We will continue to report, expose and comment on events in that country.

Recently, Siddiqui criticised the Pakistani medias treatment of Indian death-row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhavs mother and wife who were visiting him.

Somedays we do a story that disgusts us. Today was one such day. But it was not because of what I covered. Rather it was because of how my fellow journalists behaved with the mother and wife of #KulbushanJadhav when they left FO (Foreign Office) building. They shouted taunts. It was very shameful, Siddiqui tweeted on December 25 after Jadhav met his family in Islamabad.

Many of these journalists are familiar faces at Foreign Office briefings and have a number of years of experience before being allotted such an important news beat to cover. And yet on Monday, when they were covering the meet-up, they seemed to have lost all sense of ethics when it comes to reporting, Siddiqui had written in an article in World Is One News.

When Jadhavs family visited Pakistan to meet him, Siddiqui was the only media professional to criticise the ill behaviour given to his family and got trolled on social media by fellow Pakistani journalists, WION said in the statement.

In May last year, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had issued a notice to Siddiqui, known for posting comments on social media against the military, and asked him to appear before its counterterrorism wing.

The Pakistani military has so far denied playing a role in any enforced disappearances, as has the civilian government. Militants have also targeted journalists in the past.

In November 2017, World Press Freedom Index placed Pakistan among the most dangerous countries for journalists. Pakistan was ranked 139th out of 180 countries.
The front section of an Iranian oil tanker that has been on fire for days off the east China coast has exploded, forcing rescue boats searching for 31 missing sailors to retreat and sparking environmental concerns.

Thirty-two crew members, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, went missing after the tanker carrying 136,000 tonnes of oil condensate from Iran to South Korea collided with a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter and caught fire on Saturday in waters about 160 sea miles east of the Yangtze Rivers estuary.

Since then, the Panama-registered tanker Sanchi has been ablaze and drifting in the waters between Shanghai and southern Japan.

So far, no survivors from the tanker have been found and only one body has been recovered. All 21 crew members aboard the Chinese ship were rescued.

The front section of the tanker exploded on Wednesday.

Vessels at the scene have to stop putting out the fire and withdraw back to (a safe distance), Chinas ministry of transport said. The fire extinguishing operation did not achieve the desired effect, it said.

Chinas largest patrol ship Haixun 01 is fighting the fire after the explosion while organising other vessels to move away, the ministry said.

According to the ministry, Japanese sea police arrived at the scene an hour before the explosion and established contact with Haixun 01.

Chinas Ministry of Foreign affairs said on Wednesday that 12 vessels were searching for the missing sailors in the tankers vicinity before the explosion, and efforts were continuing to clean up any spilled light crude.

Since the crash, the tanker has been billowing thick plumes of black smoke. Officials worry that the explosion might sink the ship, releasing its 1 million barrels of oil into the water.

The resulting spill would be about three times as big as the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

For now, burning might be good for consuming the leaked oil, but there will be some remaining for which disposal will be difficult, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Centre for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

Sanchi was carrying 1.36 lakh tons of condensate oil when it collided with CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter in waters about 160 nautical miles east of the Yangtze River estuary.

Experts are especially worried because the ship is carrying condensate, an ultralight version of crude oil. Condensate is highly toxic and even more combustible than regular crude oil. It also is nearly colourless and odourless, which makes it difficult to detect.

Oil is usually not degradable, meaning the damage to the ocean would be long-term, he said.

Zhao Ruxiang, an expert with Chinas Yantai Oil Spill Response Technical Centre, was quoted by the ministry as saying that a simulation test showed condensate oil in the water can evaporate so quickly that it will leave little residue - less than 1 percent after five hours.

It is toxic and volatile when exposed to air, Zhao said.
Nepal will receive internet bandwidth from China from Friday, ending the Himalayan nations sole dependence on India for connecting to the cyber space.

State-owned telecom company Nepal Telecom (NT) said that all the groundwork has been completed to formally connect Nepal with Chinese bandwidth from January 12.

The process of acquiring internet bandwidth from China has been completed. The commercial operation of the Nepal- China optical fibre link will begin from Friday, said Prativa Baidhya, spokesperson for NT.

However, NT did not disclose the actual volume of Chinese internet bandwidth that Nepal will receive.

The details will be made public after a formal inauguration tomorrow, she added.

In December 2016, NT had reached an agreement with China Telecom to acquire internet bandwidth. NT had begun the test transmission of the project from the first week of September last year.

With successful test transmission, Nepal will now be commercially connected with Chinese bandwidth, according to the official.

Chinese internet will be supplied via Rasuwagadhi gateway, according to sources at NT.

As the use of Internet has been increasing rapidly in the country, Chinese internet bandwidth is taken as an alternative source for Nepal to meet the ever-increasing bandwidth demand, she said.

The commercial operation of the Chinese bandwidth project will end Nepals sole dependence on India for internet bandwidth.

Nepal is currently linked to the global internet connectivity through Indian telecom operators via different optical fibre connections in Biratnagar, Bhairahawa and Birgunj, among others, the Himalayn Times reported.

Besides ending the monopoly of bandwidth supply, the Chinese Internet gateway is also expected to facilitate service providers in Nepal to establish bandwidth connection with other countries via China.

Though NT is purchasing limited volume of Internet from China in the first phase, the company will increase the volume of Chinese internet gradually in the coming days.
President Donald Trump began his maiden State of the Union address, around this time in 2017, condemning the killing of Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Kansas by a man who had yelled at the Indian IT engineer to go back to his country.

This year, Kuchibhotlas widow, Sunayana Dumala, will be in the visitors gallery of the House of Representatives watching President Trump as he delivers his second State of the Union speech later this month.

Dumala will be a guest of Representative Kevin Yoder, her area Congressman, a Republican , whose office confirmed the invitation and her acceptance on Wednesday, but has not responded yet to a request for comments about his reasons for inviting her.

The shooters bullet destroyed her husband and broke her so deeply that we had to ... show him that he didnt break our community, the congressman said to Kansas City Star, a local news publication.

We had to let the world know that Kansas City, Kansas and America are welcome to immigrants.

Yoder, who is a member of the House India Caucus, has emerged as a leading advocate of Indian techies on H-1B struggling to navigate Trump administrations war on legal and illegal immigration. He was the only Republican to come out in opposition, for instance, to the administrations now-junked proposal to end H-1B visa extensions, a draconian measure that could have led to mass deportation of Indians.

Dumala spoke to the Star for an article about a year since the tragedy, but did not talk about her upcoming visit to the US Congress.

She had not responded to an emailed request for comments at the time of writing this report.

Kuchibhotla, an avionics engineer with GPS major Garmin, was fatally shot by Adam Purinton, a US navy veteran, at a bar in Olathe, Kansas on February 22, 2017 in an incident that sent shockwaves across the United States, India and beyond.

The assailant, who had told Kuchibhotla and his friend Alok Madasani at the time of the attack to go back your country, had also shot Ian Grillot, a white male who tried to intervene, wounding him grievously.

The shooting was blamed on a surge in xenophobia and Islamophobia  Purinton had allegedly mistaken Kuchibhotla and Madasani for West Asians  following Trumps upset victory in a bitterly contested election in which he was widely seen as pandering to elements on the extreme right, and every imaginable bigotry they stood for.

In the aftermath of the shooting, prominent Indian Democrat Shekar Narasimhan had said that the president had blood on his hands.

The Trump administration was slow to condemn the incident, with then press secretary, Sean Spicer, choosing to focus instead on distancing the White House from it, angrily.

A day later, Spicers deputy Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is now press secretary, delivered the much-needed unequivocal denunciation: As more facts come to light and it begins to look like this was an act of racially motivated hatred. I want to reiterate the President condemns these or any other racially or religiously motivated attacks in the strongest terms. They have no place in our country.

A few hours later, beginning his first State of the Union speech, Trump said: Recent threats targeting Jewish Community Centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last weeks shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a Nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.

What will he say this time with Sunayana Dumala looking on?
Agents of a US agency that enforces immigration and customs rules raided a large number of 7-Eleven convenience stores around the country, and arrested 21 people who were found to be living in the country illegally.

The raids were conducted early Wednesday at 98 stores in Washington DC and 17 states, including New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Texas and California.

7-Eleven stores are a chain of ubiquitous convenience store franchises that are very popular with newly minted legal immigrants, a large number of whom are of South Asian descent, including Indian. But the agency, Immigration and Custom Enforcement, did not share information about the nationality  or country of origin  of those raided or held.

The individuals arrested face removal from the country.

Workplace immigration raids are nothing new. Under President George W Bush, agents would raid places that they suspected employed people illegally in the US. During President Barack Obama, agents would conduct inspections of papers employers have to fill up about their workers eligibility, called 1-9. The Wednesday raid was similar in nature.

Todays actions send a strong message to the US businesses that hire and employ an illegal workforce: ICE will enforce the law, and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable, said Thomas D. Homan, ICE Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director.

Businesses that hire illegal workers are a pull factor for illegal immigration and we are working hard to remove this magnet. ICE will continue its efforts to protect jobs for American workers by eliminating unfair competitive advantages for companies that exploit illegal immigration.

These raids were a follow up of 2013 action, ICE said, during with nine 7-Eleven franchise owners and managers were arrested for allegedly conspiring to commit wire fraud, stealing identities and concealing and harboring illegal aliens employed at their stores. All but one, who remained a fugitive until his arrest in November 2017, pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay more than $2.6 million in restitution for back wages stolen from workers.

7-Eleven Inc, which is based in Texas, said in a statement it was aware of ICS actions but said Franchisees are independent business owners and are solely responsible for their employees, including deciding who to hire and verifying their eligibility to work in the United States.
Working with countries like India, Russia and China is a very good thing, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday, defending his efforts to improve ties with Moscow.

Trump said he was for strongest military, massive oil and gas and a lot of energy. Putin (Russian President Vladimir Putin) cant love that, he added.

Working with countries, whether its Russia or China or India, or any of the countries that surround this world and encompass this world, is a very good thing. Thats not a bad thing, he told reporters at a joint White House news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Trump said it was very much better having to do with North Korea where the US currently has a problem.

That should have never been my problem. It should have been a problem solved many years ago when it was much less dangerous. But it was given to him, along with a big mess of other things, he noted.

He blamed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his presidential rival in 2016 elections, saying she was not was not for a strong military.

Hillary, my opponent, was for windmills, and she was for other types of energy that dont have the same capacities at this moment certainly, he said.

Trump said it was a lot better to work with other countries.

Were working with China on North Korea. Were working with various other countries, and I think were doing very well. We had a great talk, as you know and as you reported.

We had a great talk this morning with President Moon (of South Korea), and I think that a lot of good things are happening. Were going to see what happens, the US president said.

Solberg said Norway has a very good relationship with Russia.

As a neighbouring country we do day-to-day work on things that we have to solve for the people and the economic activity that is in that area, which is a fragile area for the whole world, she said.

Norway share border with Russia.

Responding to a question on allegations of Russian interference in elections in European countries, Solberg said her government has found no such evidence in Norway.

I think that its up to every political system and countries to scrutinise and discuss their own political agenda in their countries. And I respect that very much and that this is an issue for American politics, she said.
In 1859 the Pony Express built a station on Schell Creek in central Utah Territory (present-day Nevada). In June 1860, after raiding Paiute Indians killed the stationmaster and two attendants, the Army established a post (later named Fort Schellbourne for its founding commander, Major A.J. Schell). Soldiers abandoned the fort in 1862 as the Paiute danger subsided.

Elijah Nichols Uncle Nick Wilson is credited as the first rider out of the Schell Creek Station for the fledgling Pony Express. He claimed to have survived several skirmishes with Indians and once took an arrow to his head, though he escaped serious injury and arrived at Deep Creek, the terminus of the Schell Creek run, with his mochila of mail intact. (The mochila, leather saddlebags, hung over the flanks of ones horse, suspended by the saddle horn, which protruded through a hole in the strap.)

When the Pony Express folded in October 1861, the Overland Stage commandeered the station, using it as a regular stop until 1869. Ironically, the station sat on the route of the national telegraph line that helped bring about the eventual demise of the mail service.

In 1865 the local vigilance committee lynched two horse thieves at Schell Creek Station. The rustlers had bludgeoned three men with axes and then tried to obscure the murders by mutilating the victims faces and hiding their bodies in the sagebrush. An area rancher rounding up his own stray cattle found the dead men. Searchers soon located the bloodthirsty rustlers and returned them to the station, where they confessed. Vigilantes threw the necktie party for the outlaws a week later, on June 15, 1865.

The Overland stopped running in 1869, but the fort earned a reprieve when prospector James McMahon discovered silver here in early 1871. The assay results were sufficiently rich to merit growth of the town, now called Schellbourne. By 1872, in addition to the original stage station and accompanying corrals, the community boasted four or five saloons, two law offices, a Wells Fargo office, two boarding houses, scattered line cabins, a livery stable, two eateries and a mercantile store.

At its peak, the mining camps population approached 400. The Schell Creek Prospect rolled out its first edition in July 1872 but only lasted seven months its brief lifespan reflecting the flyby-night fortunes of the town. Soon, discovery of a more viable silver deposit in Cherry Creek, five miles across SteptoeValley, prompted a mass exodus, as Schellbournes miners, stamp mill, equipment and buildings all uprooted and relocated at the new strike site.

Schellbourne wasnt wholly abandoned. Some miners remained to work on their claims, although the town comprised barely 50 residents. In 1916 The Complete Official Road Guide to the Lincoln Highway referred to it as a ranch and post office. The post office finally shut its doors in 1925, when the population dipped below 20.

Time and weather took their toll. By 1999 the old Pony Express stationonce packed with wayfarers on the Overland Stage and protected by the soldiers of Fort Schellbournehad deteriorated beyond repair and was razed. Residents have since torn down other buildings, including the Wells Fargo office, out of concern for safety. The few remaining town ruins are on private property.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express, Schellbourne, now centered on the Schellbourne Station Motel & RV Park on US 93, welcomed mounted reenactors. The contemporary riders used GPS signals to pinpoint the station, while teams of historians marshaled them along the old delivery route during daylight hours.

The author expresses his gratitude to June Shaputis for her research on the 1865 Schell Creek Station lynching. Recommended for further reading: Romancing Nevadas Past, by Shawn Hall.

Originally published in the December 2010 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
Many South Dakota dailies and weeklies attacked the Sioux in print, some even calling for their extermination, both before and after the bloody clash of December 1890.

Historians often cite mistakes and misunderstandings as the reason for the bloody clash that occurred on the morning of December 29, 1890, as soldiers disarmed a Sioux band on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Details vary as to what set off the mostly young and untrained bluecoats hail of bullets that cold morning. Some say a deaf Indian refused to turn over his gun because he could not hear the order to do so. Others say a young brave named Black Coyote did not want to surrender his brand new rifle, which went off during the ensuing struggle.

What happened next is clear. The 7th Cavalrys four rapid-fire Hotchkiss guns and its 4-to-1 manpower advantage over the starving Sioux left no doubt as to the outcome. Within minutes the gunfire leveled some 150 (estimates range from 128 to 300-plus) Sioux men, women and children, some in their tepees, others gunned down up to two miles from their makeshift camp on Wounded Knee Creek. (The number of Indian warriors under Minneconjou Chief Big Foot appears in most accounts as 106 or 120.)

No matter who fired the first shot, the soldiers had the upper hand in numbers and weapons. Because of that, and because Big Foot (also known as Spotted Elk) was in bad health and not looking for a fight, the clash has most often been referred to as a massacre rather than a battle. Twenty-five soldiers died, and 37 were wounded, so some have argued it was not a one-sided affair. No matter what its label, it was a tragedy, undoubtedly one most of the participants did not want. Wounded Knee was also the last major fight between soldiers and Indians in the West.

Tensions had run high in the Dakotas during the fall of 1890. Certain Indian agents and white settlers felt threatened by the Ghost Dance, a religious movement that had blossomed at Pine Ridge and the other Sioux reservations. But there were additional sources of tension, including one overlooked by many historiansthe American press. An examination of press coverage during the leadup to Wounded Knee reveals hysteria and calls for genocide by many South Dakota newspapers. Only a few showed any understanding of the Sioux position. One major out-of-state paper, The Chicago Daily Tribune, hearing about the Indians frustration with their treatment, ran a multi-deck headline on October 28, 1890, predicting a revenge attack:

TO WIPE OUT THE WHITES

WHAT THE INDIANS EXPECT OF THE COMING MESSIAH

FEARS OF AN OUTBREAK OLD SITTING BULL STIRRING UP THE EXCITED REDSKINS

Illustrated American correspondent Warren K. Moorhead, who was at the Pine Ridge Agency, condemned such hyperbole directed toward the Sioux. He later wrote, There were a number of newspapermen in the little log hotel at Pine Ridge, and they sent many sensational accounts to the Eastern papers. Could all that sensationalism have helped trigger the tragedy?

Of the 14 South Dakota news- papers published in 1890 91 and available for research, only two publications wholly ignored the Indian situation at Wounded Knee in their news and editorial pages. The Dakota Farmers Leader, a Canton weekly published by A.E. Linn, did not mention Wounded Knee or any of its participants. Ironically, that papers long front-page motto read: A Faithful LEADER in the Cause of Economy and Reform, the Defender of Truth and Justice, the Foe of Fraud and Corruption. Conklins South Dakotan, pitched as A Home Journal Devoted Editorially to Dakota Issues and Interests, was a 16-page monthly from Watertown. Of three 1891 issues available, only the January edition made any mention of Indians. It reprinted a December 19 item from a Denver paper about a brief skirmish in the region.

Other papers criticized press coverage of the Sioux situation. On Christmas Day, the Marshall County Sentinel, published in Britton in the northeast corner of the state, cautioned readers with timely advice about the printed rumors concerning outbreaks between armed warriors and military troops:

The dispatches from the seat of war appearing in these columns are culled from the most reliable associated press and special telegrams. It is well known that all are not literally true, but a newspaper, in order to give the news of the day, must print those it deems most truthful and strive to cull out those dispatches that are merely sensational. The reader must also exercise his own judgment in accepting those for absolute truth which appear to be particularly sensational.

South Dakotas Daily Huronite reprinted a bit of sarcasm on Pages 1 and 2 of its December 20 issue, five days after Indian police killed Sioux holy man Sitting Bull while trying to arrest him at his cabin on Standing Rock Reservation. One item reads: An eastward paper questions the genuineness of the news of Sitting Bulls death. Never mind the news. The death is genuine. The second item reads:

Give the bucks plenty to eat and take away their guns, is the sensible advice given by the New York World. Huron Herald Democrat If that is to be one of the planks in the democratic platform, explanation is needed as to why we should give the lusty Indian bucks plenty to eat.Why not give the bucks plenty of chance to work or starve, and to be peaceable or get killed, just like white folks?

The third item in The Daily Huronite asks, What shall we do with our Indians? A Black Hills paper replies, Ever try whiskey?

Although the Huronite published jokes about making a good Indian, it did serve as a forum for the Indian point of view. On December 23 the paper ran verbatim on Page 1 a resolution introduced in the U.S. House to investigate Sitting Bulls death. The next day, the paper challenged its readers: What have the hostiles done? It seems to be so far a white mans war. On December 26, the Huronite was even more explicit:

Havent the Indians good right in the Bad Lands? Are they off the reservation? Havent they a right to dance? Is there any law against their carrying guns? Havent they a right to look blue in these hard times? What is the whole United States army doing out in that section, anyway?

The Daily Huronite first made mention of the Wounded Knee fighting in a brief on Page 1 of its December 30 issue. Following a list of the dead and wounded soldiers was the unusually candid remark, After the shooting began, Indians were shot down without discrimination. While the Huronites approach to the Wounded Knee news story was hardly typical in South Dakota, its reporters were not alone in finding fault with the way soldiers handled things on December 29.

The Yankton Press and Dakotan published every evening except Sunday, was not quite as condemning of the military action, but it covered Wounded Knee as thoroughly as any paper in the state. Its December stories were rather sensational accounts of armed Indians seeking revenge. The paper reported Sitting Bulls death and Chief Big Foots capture. Its December 30 top story was a long eyewitness account of the shootings. Part of it reads:

The correspondent says the Indians [at Wounded Knee] must have been mad to have attacked the number of soldiers who were gathered about them, there being only 120 bucks. The treacherous deed, coming at the time it did, was a surprise, and the [correspondent] doubts if any of the Indians will be left alive to tell the tale when the soldiers get through the days work.

Names of the dead and wounded soldiers followed, but the paper did not list Indian casualties. A related story on the same page related the discovery of Big Foot. If not for the serious nature of the saga, it would seem comical:

As they came forward, Big Foot extended his hand in token of peace. I am sick. My people here want peace, he said.

But Major [Samuel] Whiteside cut him short with: I wont, nor will I have any parlaying at all; it is either unconditional surrender or fight. What is your answer?

We surrender, said the chief. We would have done so before but we couldnt find you and couldnt find soldiers to surrender to.

That newspapers coverage boosted tensions several days after the Wounded Knee confrontation. Two subheads for a January 2, 1891, front-page follow-up story read: THE HOSTILES GATHERING THEIR FORCES FOR ANOTHER BATTLE and RED CLOUD AND LESSER CHIEFS HAVE JOINED THE WAR PARTY. In truth, old Red Cloud, while once a formidable war leader, sought peace and never encouraged the Ghost Dance movement.

The Yankton Press and Dakotan published its first Wounded Knee editorial in the January 2, 1891, edition. Longer than average, it called for transfer of the Indians back East:

When the redskins are finally conquered, they will be disarmed as a matter of course, and judging from the past, a period of peace will follow; but it will take years to restore a feeling of security to the white settlers on the Nebraska and Dakota frontiers who have been alarmed by this outbreak, if the Indians are permitted to roam at will. One of the best things to do to secure a permanent peace and give the settlers a feeling of perfect security would be to remove the Indians from their reservation altogether. As far as practicable, select small reservations for them back in the older states, scattering them a few hundred at each place, breaking up their relations. In this way, the frontiers would be rendered secure, settlement would rapidly advance, and the terrors of pioneering would lose much of their actual danger.Remove them to the land of Penn and scatter them along the banks of the Ohio, where they will be convenient to those philanthropists who are anxious to lend them a helping hand.

The papers final coverage of the event comprised two front-page articles in the January 9 issue. One blamed the battle on missionaries and Indian protection societies. The other printed warnings about Indian reprisals, including William Buffalo Bill Codys reported dire caution: Buffalo Bill takes a gloomy view of the future and saysa big battle is almost sure to occur within a few days. Although the Yankton Press and Dakotan certainly had done nothing to reduce tensions in South Dakota, another big battle did not follow.

The closest major city to Wounded Knee is Rapid City, South Dakota. In a December 16 front-page warning that trouble could soon break out on the reservation, The Rapid City Daily Journal boasted it had sent three reporters to the scene: The party went well equipped and if called upon will no doubt render valuable services with gun as well as pen. Two days after the lopsided December 29 fight, the Journal ran a lead editorial criticizing other publications that had doubted a serious confrontation might occur:

Many people and many papers have for a month past been ridiculing the belief that the Sioux meant to fight. It is noteworthy that those who have had the most experience with Indians have been anxious. They have not been inclined to believe fears of trouble groundless.

And for the first time during this major event, the paper expressed the Indian viewpoint. A Page 2 article on January 4, 1891, explained:

All the Indians in the hostile camp are well armed and mounted and claim that the soldiers took the arms away from Big Foots men and then massacred them, and they want them to come in and do the same with all the Indians in and around the agency.

Pierre, the state capital, published three newspapers that still are extant. The Pierre Daily Capital printed sensational accounts in mid-December, with such headlines as WAR BEACONS BLAZING and INDIAN SCARE NEWS. At the same time, it ran a December 17 front-page story on the innocence of the dreaded Ghost Dance, relating Army Chaplain Orville J. Naves speech back East, in which he said the dance was merely a religious ceremony, not a war dance.

The Daily Capital also covered Big Foots capture and the subsequent escape of some warriors. Headlined AT LAST A BATTLE, a December 31 article shared Wounded Knee details. The next day, a front-page headline declared PANIC REIGNS SUPREME:

Panic reigns supreme between here [Rapid City] and the camp of the government troops on Wounded Knee creek, the scene of Mondays bloody battle with Big Foots treacherous band. Settlers are fleeing in all directions to escape the impending massacre, and the roads are crowded with terror-stricken women and children.

The Free Press Co. published both the Pierre Daily Free Press and the Pierre Weekly Free Press. The December 18 Weekly Free Press offered a matter-of-fact solution to the Indian problem:

The general impression among frontiersmen here seems to be that the best way to handle the difficulty now is for the government to insist on having the Indians obey orders, stay on their reservations and quit the ghost dances, and to kill as many as may be necessary in order to enforce discipline.

A December 19 editorial in the Daily Free Press concluded: It is hoped that nothing serious will come of it, but if the troops are compelled to fight it would be better that every hostile is wiped out and thus teach the Indians that it is wisdom to steer clear of such things in the future. Another Daily Free Press journalist in Pierre made a similar suggestion to teach the savages a lesson which they wont soon forget. A December 23 editorial in the Daily predicted less action and fewer reporters with the onset of freezing weather:

When the mercury in the thermometer begins to settle down, there will be less heard from the seat of the Indian war, and the war correspondents sent out by the metropolitan sheets will wind up their reports in short order and go back. They cant paint things rosy enough to warm up the atmosphere when Dakota winter weather gets on a frolic.

Once the fighting broke out, the Daily Free Press was late in giving details. On December 31, it noted: At present writing no further news has been received from the battle. The presumption is that the small band of hostiles will be practically exterminated by the soldiers who will be just as anxious now to make a good Indian as the ranchmen.

A consolidation of the Argus the 1881), the Leader (founded in 1880) and Sioux Falls Argus- (established in Daily Leader covered Sitting Bulls death and Big Foots flight. A December 26 editorial compared civil trouble in Ireland with the Sioux situation: In the former case, the public sees a great deal of bad blood where it ought not to be, and in the latter, it sees little where some would doubtless have a salutary effect.

The Argus-Leader ran battle coverage identical to dispatches printed in the Pierre Daily Capital. A December 31 story with a Rushville, Neb., dateline carried this startling subhead: THE MADDENED SOLDIERS SPARED NEITHER AGE NOR SEX. Near the end of the article was this sentence: The soldiers of the 7th killed all the women and children in Big Foots band that they could get at.

A lengthy editorial on January 5, 1891, explained the Argus-Leader was not an Indian worshiper, adding: It recognizes the lazy, filthy, immoral and brutal habits of the Sioux. It believes that the rapid extinction of the Indians during the past century has been of great benefit to the American people, since it has removed an impediment to civilization.But it believes that justice is above all other ends, and particularly justice to the weak. A treaty should be sacred.It is a national disgrace that this is not true of the treaty between the U.S. and the Indians.

One week later, another Argus-Leader editorial called for an end to the uprisings and took to task fellow publishers in South Dakota who had spewed hatred: But the attitude of the press, particularly that of this state, is a much greater disgrace. The papers have been filled lately with bitter denunciations of the Indians, with bloodthirsty wishes for their massacre and with threats of confiscations and annihilation.

A rather comical but telling portrayal of the scene prior to Wounded Knee appeared in the Aberdeen Daily News on December 28: The news today indicated that the Indian troubles are about to be brought to a close.The whole body of braves, squaws and papooses who have been enjoying several weeks outing at the famous terrace of wall camps in the Bad Lands killing and smoking beef, stealing horses and engaging in other healthful and exciting pastimes, are now en route to the hospitable agency at Pine Ridge.

The weekly Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer printed a lengthy editorial after Sitting Bulls December 15 death. Editor L. Frank Baum, who would later write The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, penned it:

The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies, inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With his fall, the nobility of the redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are. History would forget these latter despicable beings and speak, in later ages of the glory, of these grand kings of forest and plain that Cooper loved to heroise.

We cannot honestly regret their extermination, but we at least do justice to the manly characteristics possessed, according to their lights and education, by the early redskins of America.

Following the Wounded Knee clash, another Baum editorial dated January 3, 1891, included this call for action:

The PIONEER has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extirmination [sic] of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands.

Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past.

Although extreme in his view, the man who would conjure up Oz by the end of the century hardly stood alone in the less-than-noble, one-sided word fight against the natives of the West.

Coverage of Indian defiance began in the Mitchell Daily Republican as early as December 18. The paper, published far from the scene, ran several front-page stories about the battle but printed no editorials.

The Marshall County Sentinel predicted trouble with its December 11 headline: WAR IS CERTAIN. It covered the battle, reprinting reports and telegrams sent from the state to Washington, D.C.

The Union County Courier bore the motto Independent in All Things Neutral in Nothing. It lived up to that billing in its December 24 issue:

Red Cloud writes to Dr. Bland of the Indian Defense Association, making complaints against the government that the Indians are not receiving half rations, and that large numbers of the Indians are actually starving. If the government has contracted to feed these red whelps, it ought to give them enough to eat and not starve them, although they do not deserve a better fate.

The December 31 issue had no battle coverage. In its next issue, January 6, 1891, the Courier heralded its subjective slant on the news with the headline: 300 INDIANS KILLED; MANY BAD REDSKINS MADE GOOD IN A VERY FEW MOMENTS.

Watertowns Public Opinion offered this December 19 editorial from editor L.D. Lyon: Sitting Bull is now a good Indian and has gone to join the ghost dancers on the happy hunting grounds. He died several years too late. Following the battle, the front page editorialized on January 2: News from the Indian trouble causes a mingled feeling of joy and sadnessjoy because 300 of the treacherous devils have been made to bite the dust; and sadness to think that so many brave soldiers were compelled to sacrifice their lives in the fight, lives more precious than the whole pack of copper-colored bucks who have gone on the warpath.

The Brookings Register, near the Minnesota border, usually repeated stories appearing elsewhere. On December 26, the Register spread rumors of war. On January 2, under the headline MORE GOOD INDIANS, the paper made brief mention of the fighting.

Catherine Weldon, a friend of Sitting Bull, made the following observation regarding newspaper coverage of the Indian situation prior to Wounded Knee: All papers print the most dangerous lies, and I blame [Standing Rock agent] Major [James] McLaughlin for allowing it. If he had not started these stories, they would not have been published, although he positively knows they are untrue.

The unfounded rumors in South Dakota papers found credence among readers, who clamored for military protection. Warnings to readers by a few editors came too late; the rumors took on a life of their own. The December 17 Chicago Daily Tribune reported on a chiding it overheard Adjutant General John C. Kelton giving reporters: We will get those bucks into a corral pretty soon, and then I guess the Indian war you newspaper men are waging will be over.

Dr. Charles Eastman, an Indian doctor who tended to wounded Sioux after the fight, criticized the media in his memoir: The press seized upon the opportunity to enlarge the strained situation and predict an Indian uprising. The reporters were among us and managed to secure much news that no one else ever heard of.

Left unreported in state newspapers was the fact Indians had neither killed any noncombatants nor committed any depredations off the reservation in the months leading up to the winter battle. Nor had cavalry troops and the Sioux clashed prior to the massacre. Except for the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, South Dakota papers instead wrote or reprinted sensational stories, headlines and editorials to condemn the Indians and clamor for military action. Citizens statewide believed the printed rumors and sent anxious pleas for unwarranted Army protection. An overwhelming majority of editorial stances clamored for the making of good Indiansthat is, good and dead.

Could all that sensationalism in print have helped trigger the tragedy? The archived facts certainly point in that direction. Unscrupulous journalists often want to make news rather than merely report it. Such seemed to be the case in December 1890. South Dakota journalists may not have fired guns at Wounded Kneejust wordsbut some of them could be charged with inciting that bloody showdown with the Sioux.

Randall Hines is a professor in the Department of Communications at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. His most recent book is Print Matters: How to Write Great Advertising, with Robert Lauterborn (2008). Suggested for further reading: Voices of Wounded Knee, by William S.E. Coleman; The American Indian in the United States: Period 18501914, by Warren King Moorhead; and Eyewitness at Wounded Knee, by Richard E. Jensen, R. Eli Paul and John E. Carter.

Originally published in the December 2010 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
36-year-old Brandon Hixon, who was a Republican Idaho State Representative for District 10 in the A seat, has shot himself in the head after being forced to step down from his position while being investigated for sexual abuse.

Back in October, the Idaho police department confirmed that Hixon was the subject of a criminal investigation. It was subsequently reported that Hixon was under investigation for unspecific "sexual abuse allegations".

This then prompted the father of five, who denied the charges, to submit a letter of resignation a few days later to the House Speaker.

After stepping down, he hit the headlines after being arrested for drink-drinking charges on two separate occasions.

He was found dead in the family home on 9 January. Hixon is the second US politician to commit suicide recently following following sex abuse allegations. Kentucky lawmaker Dan Johnson shot himself last year after he was accused of sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl in 2013.

Records obtained by The Associated Press show that Hixon was previously the focus of a separate police investigation after being accused of what is being described as "inappropriate touching" back in 2014.


Here's a whopper Monday night drinks deal to avail of, down at the newly refurbished Tramline venue on Hawkins Street.

In association with Hot Press, TRAMLINE LIVE MONDAYS are hosting some of Ireland's best underground musicians from January 15. First to enter the spotlight, will be headliners Orchid Collective with support from Vulpynes and Jesse John Heffernan.

After announcing a crazy good pizza and beer deal for a mere tenner, Tramline are now offering free bottles of Miller at the weekly Monday night event.

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Put on your Sunday best and go chase down some of that hoppy goodness.
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For several years over the past decade, a day spent examining and fixing teeth was considered to be the "best job" in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report's annual survey. This year, a job that requires tech savviness and scientific know-how tops the list.

The best job in 2018 is that of a software developer, according to the annual ranking, which uses data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify jobs with the greatest hiring demand and the best work/life balance, salary and future prospects, among other factors.

The job of dentist, which has frequently topped the annual ranking over the past decade, was No. 2 this year followed by physician assistant at No. 3 and nurse practitioner at No. 4. Health care jobs, including nurse practitioners and physicians, usually dominate the list, but this year marks first time since 2015 that a health care practitioner has not topped the list. Orthodontist, which held the top spot last year, came in at No. 5.

Software developers, which on average make $100,080, according to the report, are in "huge" demand now and are expected to be in the future, said Rebecca Koenig, U.S. News' careers reporter, who researched and contributed to the report.

"Our society is more and more dependent on digital technology for all aspects," she said, "Not just Facebook and Google, but every other business needs software developers to make their applications. Even hospitals are tapping into digital communication to make sure doctors and patients can communicate."

The fastest-growing jobs in America pay about $22,000 a year

It's not the first time software developer has topped the list. In 2014, the techie job usurped health care jobs to land in the top spot. Since then, however, health care jobs - particularly dentistry - have led the list.

Health care jobs are expected to grow 18 percent by 2026, according to data from the BLS, adding 2.3 million new jobs, more than any other industry.

Koenig also noticed that some of the fastest-growing jobs are at opposite ends of the health care spectrum. Heavy job growth is expected in the health care support field, which includes lower-paid, less-skilled jobs such as home health care aides and medical transcriptionists. Also booming are higher-paid and skilled nurse practitioner jobs, which earn just over $100,000, she said.

Despite their high demand, the health care support jobs tend to be heavily female and often don't require bachelor's degrees. That, in part, explains why they are lower-paid jobs, Koenig said.

"Part of it is the lower educational requirements and the gender trends of pay that unfortunately depress wages in that area," she said.

The report also presented a list of the highest-paying cities in 2018, which was topped by San Francisco.

Koenig said that ranking was culled from data from the BLS and was not adjusted for cost of living.
Politics have no rage like love to hatred turned, nor business a fury like a CEO scorned.

With apologies to English playwright William Congreve, a modification of his most famous phrase applies to Robert Murray, CEO of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., after he failed to obtain a taxpayer bailout for the doomed coal industry.

He called a unanimous decision by President Donald Trump's appointees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject subsidies for old coal plants "a bureaucratic cop-out."

"While FERC commissioners sit on their hands and refuse to take the action directed by Energy Secretary Rick Perry and President Donald Trump, the decommissioning of more coal-fired and nuclear plants could result, further jeopardizing the reliability, resiliency and security of America's electric power grids," Murray said.

"If it were not for the electricity generated by our nation's coal-fired and nuclear power plants, we would be experiencing massive brownouts and blackouts in this country," he added.

Wrong, wrong and wrong again.

RELATED: Even with Perry's help, coal is doomed

Murray, who runs the largest privately owned coal company in the country, has every right to feel disappointed. He is Trump's friend and a huge supporter during the campaign. He convinced Trump to make coal miners a priority, along with coal mines and coal-burning power plants.

All of the political pull in the world, though, couldn't blind Trump's five FERC commissioners to the reality that burning coal is not only a horrible way to make electricity, but simply not viable in the age of cheap natural gas, competitive renewable sources and American's desire to have children without asthma.

In his statement, Commissioner Richard Glick said that "if a threat to grid resilience exists, the threat lies mostly with the transmission and distribution systems, where virtually all significant disruptions occur."

Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur's statement read: "In effect, (the proposed subsidy) sought to freeze yesterday's resources in place indefinitely, rather than adapting resilience to the resources that the market is selecting today or toward which it is trending in the future. I believe the Commission should continue to focus its efforts not on slowing the transition from the past but on easing the transition to the future."

Commissioner Neil Chatterjee voiced support for the competitive electricity market, and said subsidies should be used "only as a last resort."

Contrary to what Murray said in his tantrum, every grid operator in the country said they did not need to prop up coal to supply reliable power to the country. The vast majority of electricity generators, even those with coal-fired power plants, opposed subsidies as a slippery slope back to the bad old days when politicians decided who would generate electricity and how much consumers would pay for it.

RELATED: Rick Perry wants you to pay more to support coal, nuclear industries

The Washington Post reported last year on how Murray demanded that Trump rig the electricity market to favor coal and nuclear power, and how Murray convinced Perry to carry his proposal to FERC. Clearly, this move will anger Trump voters, but FERC commissioners made their decision based on the facts.

The commissioners proved the value of having an independent commission to stop just this kind of crony capitalism. We should celebrate the bureaucrats who did their job under what must have been tremendous pressure, because they saved consumers $10.6 billion in needless subsidies for coal companies.
In the weeks after Hurricane Harvey, Danielle Bartz began driving the neighborhoods where she had been shopping for a house before the storm hit.

She made notes of the streets had piles of soaked carpets and wet furniture on the curb, crossing them off her list. Bartz, who works in the mayor's office, even asked the city's flood czar to make sure the house she became interested in had stayed dry.

After checking and double-checking, she made an offer in October on a two-bedroom brick cottage in Eastwood. She moved in Christmas day.

Bartz, like thousands of other Houstonians in 2017, contributed to what was a record year for the local housing market.

By New Year's Day, buyers had closed on 79,117 single-family homes across the Houston area, representing $23 billion, and besting the previous year's sales record by 3.5 percent, the Houston Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.

The market saw an unexpectedly strong rebound after the August hurricane, as investors snapped up flooded houses to rent or flip, and buyers like Bartz concentrated their searches in neighborhoods that remained high and dry.

"I would never have thought of looking in Meyerland," said Bartz, who moved to Houston in 2015 and had been living with her brother in his condo in the River Oaks area.

While prices dipped in some neighborhoods last year, values held up overall.

The median price of all the homes that sold in 2017 was up 3.8 percent from the previous year to $229,900.

"No one could ever have imagined 2017 turning out to be a record-setting year for the Houston real estate market, which had weathered the effects of the energy slump only to have Harvey strike such a devastating blow," Kenya Burrell-VanWormer, the realty association's chairwoman, said in a statement.

Considering the size and scope of last year's hurricane, "the housing market, the rental market and the new construction market look relatively healthy," said Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist with real estate listing and data firm Trulia.

Houston's improving economy is bolstering the outlook.

The metropolitan area could add 75,000 jobs this year if oil prices stay above $60 a barrel, recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas show.

Yet while many Houstonians have moved on from Harvey, others face daily struggles as they wrangle with insurance companies and worry about their financial futures.

"There's likely to be a spike in foreclosures, especially for those who were uninsured because they didn't think they were in a flood zone," McLaughlin said.

Foreclosure activity is expected to rise to as high as 2,000 property postings each month beginning in the second half of the year, according to Foreclosure Information & Listing Service, a local reporting firm.

The market faces other headwinds.

The supply of available homes, which had begun moving to more sustainable levels earlier this year, has fallen off considerably since Harvey.

Changes in federal tax policy also may have a negative influence on the market.

High-end buyers could shy away from buying million-dollar homes given the new cap on property tax and interest deductions.

Luxury home sales here declined for the second straight month in December, according to the local realty association, which tracks residential property sales throughout primarily Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. The strongest sales performance took place among homes priced between $250,000 and $500,000.

Single-family sales totaling 6,875 last month were up 4.1 percent over December 2016.

To be sure, Harvey has changed the perspective of potential home buyers.

Trulia conducted a survey at the end of last year that showed natural disasters are causing homeowners and home buyers to rethink where they live.

Given recent hurricanes and wildfires, 39 percent of Americans said they are more concerned about the potential threat of a natural disaster affecting their home, Trulia reported. Concern is highest South, the report said, where 43 percent are more concerned about natural disasters affecting their home.

McLaughlin said Houston may experience a ding in its reputation as a place to relocate and live, but the way the city's residents and leaders handled the storm may counteract any negative perception.

"Houston's response to the natural disaster has been pretty admirable," he said.
The sudden departure of the Alley Theatre's artistic director Gregory Boyd, announced Tuesday and effective Thursday, leaves the most prominent theater in Houston facing an uncertain future.

Not only is the Alley witnessing a new path without the man who, for nearly three decades, guided it to become one of the most respected playhouses in America, it could have a difficult time trying to find a replacement as several notable theaters across the country have similar openings.

"At this point in time, there are more of these jobs open than any time I can remember in 25 years in the field. A few of the most prominent theaters in the country are looking for artistic leadership. Berkeley (Repertory Theatre), ACT (San Francisco), Louisville. It's a long list," said Kevin Moore, managing director of the Cleveland Play House, which co-produced "Freaky Friday" last year with the Alley.

"That being said, there's a wealth of talent in this field, too. If you said, 'We only want somebody who has run a theater before,' well then you're limiting your pool. But if you're willing to think in terms of potential and possibility, there are great artists everywhere you look. The Alley is fortunate because there's great structure there on the management side."

Alley administrators, Boyd, 66, and several board members refused to respond to requests for interviews about the surprising departure, which comes after Boyd signed a five-year contract in 2016 and was weeks away from the Alley's first production of 2018.

The Alley management is planning for a nine-month search process, according to a Tuesday press release, which also stated that longtime Alley actor and director James Black will serve as interim artistic director.

'Mansion on the hill'

Even though those with the Alley aren't talking, the Houston theater community certainly is. They see this as an opportunity for the Alley, with its $18.5 million budget, to remake itself and amplify the Bayou City's reputation for being hospitable to the arts. They're seeing this as an unexpected, if late, Christmas gift.

"I'm so excited that he's retiring," said Kim Tobin-Lehl, co-artistic director of Houston's 4th Wall Theatre Company. "What was problematic for me with the leadership of Mr. Boyd was I didn't feel like it was very visionary for the community of Houston as a whole. ... (The Alley Theatre is) very insular. They don't reach out. They don't support the artistic community outside their own base.

"If we're going to build this community and make people from New York and all the great schools move here, we have to offer them a big experience, not just The Alley," Lehl said. "We don't have that reciprocal relationship with our large flagship, which should be our example, what we aspire to be. Instead of being like this mansion on the hill ... and nobody can go there."

There's hope in the city's theater community that Boyd's eventual replacement could facilitate a better relationship. "I would like more than anything for the person in this position to see himself or herself as the leader of the entire Houston theater community," said Rebecca Greene Udden, artistic director of Main Street Theater. "I think Greg's kind of a shy guy, but that's in contrast to other cities where the artistic head of the major company really knew who else was working in town and what their work was like. ... It would be great if the Alley acknowledged the rest of us were around."

Such recognition is more than a social nicety. By fostering collaboration or tapping into local directors, actors, designers and others involved in the production process, many feel that such reciprocity would strengthen both The Alley and the smaller houses.

"A great deal of their casting and production staffing, almost all of them were not local," said John Johnston, executive artistic director of the Classical Theatre Company. "They have, up to this point, done a disservice to Houston because of that."

A Tony and other accolades

Still, under Boyd's leadership, the national reputation of The Alley and the Houston theater community blossomed.

During Boyd's tenure, which began in 1989, he brought prestige actors such as Vanessa Redgrave and Marisa Tomei, to town to star in Alley productions, and he produced premiere plays that went on to New York and elsewhere while leading the organization's financial and artistic growth. Boyd also directed numerous productions and in 1996, the Alley earned a special Tony Award for outstanding regional theatre. Since then, the Alley has seen a major building renovation and a new play festival.

His sudden decision even surprised board members. Boyd had called one of them, socialite and philanthropist Lynn Wyatt, on Tuesday to tell her he was retiring, but she didn't realize he meant immediately, she said.

In the news release the Alley said, "Boyd decided to make the announcement early in 2018 in order to give the Alley time to prepare for a new season."

Some in the Houston theater community expressed hope that small changes might happen under the watch of Black, the interim director and a Houston native, who has been with the theater for many years.

"He is someone who has connections to the city," Johnston said. "It's entirely possible that he opens that up a bit more."

"He came up from the smaller companies, so he's much more aware," Udden said. "He's going to have a lot on his plate. I don't expect an overnight transformation."

A giant presence, gone

Whatever happens, there could be reverberations beyond Houston as Boyd is a nationally known figure in the theater community. Rob Weinert-Kendt, editor of the New York-based American Theater Magazine, gasped when he heard the news about Boyd's unexpected departure.

"It's a shocking thing," he said.

Moore, from the Cleveland Playhouse, cautions that the board shouldn't make a hasty replacement.

"If you put a make-or-break emphasis on a hire, or anything, you're destined to make yourself go nuts," Moore said. "Take your time. Look in front of you and where you want to be as an organization .... You have to look to the future. It's less about measuring a great tenure and more about where you want to go as a company."

Whichever direction the Alley goes, it's certain to affect other Houston stages.

With Boyd's departure everyone involved in the theater scene is stepping from the familiar into the unknown.

"We in the community have been waiting for this shoe to drop for awhile now, and, frankly, almost all of us have no recollection of what theater was like in Houston before he was artistic director at the Alley," Johnston said. "We're not really sure what to expect."

Andrew Dansby, Molly Glentzer, Wei Huan-Chen and Maggie Gordon contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - Former White House strategist Stephen Bannon has hired prominent Washington attorney William Burck to represent him as he prepares to testify to the House Intelligence Committee about his role in Donald Trump's presidential campaign, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.

Bannon had previously insisted that he did not need a lawyer because he had not been drawn into the multiple investigations into whether Trump's team coordinated with Russia during the 2016 campaign. But in recent weeks, the House intelligence panel made a request that Bannon testify before the committee.
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Juan Rodriguez went to the Immigration and Customs Authorities headquarters in Houston this morning for an appointment, prepared to be deported.

Instead, the undocumented Salvadoran father, was granted an extension to stay in his Houston home with his wife and three daughters, all American citizens, until the Board of Immigration Appeal rules on his request for asylum.

Rodriguez became caught up in the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigration in February 2017, when he went to his regular check-in ICE. He'd done it 25 times before, the beneficiary of "prosecutorial discretion" granted by immigration officials to many of the undocumented who have no criminal record. But this time, Rodriguez was told he would be deported because "the rules have changed" under Trump.

He pleaded at the time for an extension so that he could watch his eldest daughter graduate from high school. When the Chronicle began telling his story in a series, "Out of Time," the city's Hispanic Bar Association came to his aid and succeeded in winning him further reprieves.

But it was not clear what would happen Wednesday morning when Rodriguez arrived at ICE headquarters in Northpoint with his family at 8 a.m. He was also accompanied by his lawyers, Carolina Ortuzar-Diaz and Jacob Monty, both partners in Monty and Ramirez LLP, a law firm specialized in immigration law.

Now Playing: As the days tick down until Juan Rodriguez's scheduled deportation, he and his family are trying to stave off that fate and enjoy the time they have left with each other in the United States. Video: Jon Shapley & Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle

They presented a request for a stay so that Rodriguez's request for asylum could be ruled upon by the appellate board. They had reason to believe some extension would be granted.

Last week, in anticipation of Wednesday's check-in, three lawyers from the Hispanic Bar Association met with lawyers in the Department of Justice and received indications that the Trump administration would not insist on Rodriguez's immediate deportation, according to one of the three lawyers, former Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina.

Medina was expecting that Rodriguez would receive at least a 30-day extension on Wednesday.

Instead, he and his colleagues were surprised that ICE granted an extension with no specific end date, lasting until the appellate board rules, which could take six months or more.

"This is great news," said Juan Vazquez, another of the Hispanic Bar Association lawyers.

While they await the board's ruling, Rodriguez's attorneys will pursue a parallel process in which he is claimed as a husband for citizenship by his wife, Celia, via the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

oliviaptallet@chron.com

Twitter: @oliviaptallet

A New America Keep up with the latest immigration coverage here. To see more stories about the Rodriguez family, go here. And to see what the Rodriguezes are going through in photos, go here. See More Collapse

***

OUT OF TIME: Candidate Donald Trump inspired anti-immigration fervor across the country - and created panic at Juan Rodriguez's home. His family felt that Juan, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who had been regularly checking in with ICE, would be in danger of deportation. Soon after the election, he was told that he wasn't "a priority for this country anymore." An immigration lawyer came to his defense, and three high-profile attorneys signed on to assist Juan's wife, a U.S. citizen, and their three American daughters in the legal battle.
SAN ANTONIOThe Texas attorney general's office is investigating the San Antonio police response to a smuggling incident last month that resulted in 12 undocumented immigrants being released.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Mayor Ron Nirenberg, Police Chief William McManus and other city officials , Assistant Attorney General Cleve Doty warned the city to "preserve all relevant materials" related to the incident.

"Several citizens have filed complaints with the Texas attorney general's office regarding an incident on Dec.23 involving the release of numerous suspected illegal aliens," Doty wrote. "The Texas attorney general's office will investigate these complaints and the procedure in Senate Bill 4 contemplates litigation."

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also asked the attorney general to investigate the incident.

"I am very troubled by the recent news reports of the San Antonio police chief releasing suspected illegal immigrants in a case of human trafficking or human smuggling without proper investigation, identification of witnesses, or cooperation with federal authorities," Patrick, who pushed for SB 4 in last year's legislative session, said in a letter to the AG Wednesday night. "Such action could be in direct violation of the recently passed Senate Bill 4 and threatens the safety of citizens and law enforcement."

Under SB 4, parts of which have been blocked by courts, local officials can face fines for restricting the enforcement of immigration law by local police. Several provisions have been left in place, including one that punishes local officials who won't let police ask about immigration status.

McManus didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Nirenberg said, "This is more frivolous political theater from Austin, where some would rather punish cities than fund schools."

Police found 12 immigrants who apparently had been smuggled to San Antonio in a tractor-trailer Dec. 23 on the East Side. Rather than turn the immigrants over to federal immigration authorities, McManus decided to charge the truck's driver under a state smuggling law. Police interviewed the 12 immigrants as witnesses and released them.

In a similar incident in July that left 10 people dead in a sweltering semi-trailer, San Antonio police turned over the surviving immigrants to federal authorities.

McManus has taken heat from council members and the union representing police officials over the December incident. Councilman Greg Brockhouse sent a letter Wednesday to the U.S. attorney's office asking it to investigate a possible "lapse in protocol."

McManus has said police didn't have the authority to hold the immigrants because they weren't being charged criminally, which immigration attorneys have said is accurate.

However, he's still faced questions about why he used the state charges and why the immigrants weren't turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

McManus has responded that ICE was notified and agents weren't prevented from interviewing the immigrants or detaining them.

San Antonio is one of several cities and counties challenging SB 4, which is under appeal with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Lawyers involved in the city's case have said it doesn't appear he violated the law because it only prohibits blanket policies that interfere with immigration enforcement, and McManus has been careful to say he'll make decisions about when to arrest smugglers under state law and when to refer them to federal authorities on a case-by-case basis.

"This call was situational, based on a fairly fluid situation on the scene," he told reporters last week. "So this is not necessarily the way every case is going to be handled going forward."

Peggy Fikac contributed to this report.
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Years from now, I suspect, we'll remember Steve Bannon as a minor player in the tragedy that was the Trump administration.

But we should also remember "Sloppy Steve" as a cautionary tale. So before we bid him adieu, let's take a moment to reflect on Bannon's failings.

For starters, Bannon is sloppy. His former boss, Donald Trump, is right about that.

That's the explanation for Bannon's downfall, which culminated on Tuesday when he stepped down as executive chairman of Breitbart News. Bannon's second banishment came about a week after reports that he made some very pointed comments last year about the president's family, and whether the Russians may have played a role in Trump's success.

Sloppiness is a quality that Bannon has seemed to take pride in. At the beginning of 2017, Bannon was a senior adviser in the White House. He reported directly to Trump, rather than to then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and held a seat on the National Security Council. Even so, Bannon flouted a variety of conventions including the dress code, routinely showing up for work in khakis rather than a suit -eschewing ties, but sometimes wearing two shirts.

A kind of sloppiness was also manifest in Bannon's failure to distance himself from another nickname he was given in the wake of Trump's election: "President Bannon." Some of the people who used the sardonic nickname obviously hoped to provoke Trump.

Bannon should have been able to see that the provocation of the president might come at his own expense. But he was oddly complacent about risks to his own ambitions that might emerge as a result.

In his telling, he played a crucial role in the Republican nominee's ascent and had a rightful role in his administration, as the intellectual impresario behind Trump's philosophical agenda. Similarly, he dismissed his critics and skeptics, pre-emptively, by asserting that they were ideologically motivated.

"They're corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed - adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has," he said last February, during a joint appearance with Priebus at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Poor damage control

And it was certainly sloppy of Bannon to air his true concerns about Trump, and the Trump family, to journalist Michael Wolff, who essentially set up shop at the White House while working on a book. The excerpts that have emerged from "Fire and Fury" thus far suggest that on certain subjects, at least, Wolff was receptive to hearing and airing Bannon's point of view.

Still, if you're lurching around the West Wing accusing the president's son of behavior that you describe as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic," you should probably expect the president to object.

That's especially true if the president in question is Trump.

More evidence of sloppiness: Bannon's ham-fisted efforts at damage control. Five days after the Trump Jr. comments emerged, Bannon issued a statement saying that it was directed at Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

"Donald Trump, Jr. is both a patriot and a good man. He has been relentless in his advocacy for his father and the agenda that has helped turn our country around," he said.

Measure of smugness

It's telling that even in this context Bannon was unable to resist the temptation to insist that Trump's "agenda" had anything to do with his electoral success.

Bannon's belligerence and coarseness were never a rebuke to the political establishment he reviled or the media elites he disdained. Nor were they a sign of authenticity, consistent with his self-declared concern for the "forgotten man." Bannon's sloppiness was a measure of his arrogance.

Bannon met Trump in 2011, a few months before the reality television star began publicly questioning whether Barack Obama, then the president, was really born in the United States. In 2015, when Trump declared his run for the White House, Breitbart was one of his first and most enthusiastic cheerleaders. So, if nothing else, it's easy to understand why Bannon would be smug about Trump's shocking electoral upset.

All the same, it was Trump's name on the ballot, not Bannon's, and nearly a year into his presidency, Trump's agenda remains a bit nebulous. Tuesday's White House meeting, about immigration reform with all the rambling and mid-meeting position changes, made that clear enough.

'In it for himself'

Trump fired Bannon in August. That's a plain fact. And last week, in a blistering statement about his former adviser, the president made a very valid point. "Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country," he said, noting that Bannon only joined the campaign after he secured the Republican nomination.

"Steve doesn't represent my base - he's only in it for himself," Trump added.

It's hard to argue with that.

Bannon may have seen Trump as a potentially useful messenger for his own political agenda. Perhaps he believed that if elected president, Trump would embrace "economic nationalism."

But for Bannon to insist that Trump shares his agenda, or that Trump voters elected him in the hopes that he would implement Bannon's agenda is tendentious at best. It's sloppy. It's arrogant. And it shows a complete lack of concern, on his part, for whatever it is Trump's voters actually did want.

That carelessness is what we should remember Bannon for, in the years to come. For now, let's just say good riddance.
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The casket sat at the front of the chapel, wrapped with an American flag, containing the remains of a soldier who had died seven decades earlier.

It had taken a long time to find Army Pfc. Lonnie B.C. Eichelberger - who enlisted at age 16 and died in World War II at age 20 - but the military had found him. And now, under a gray Texas sky, he was going to be buried in home soil. Descendants could feel a sense of closure. The mantra of "no soldier left behind" was going to feel true.

Soft music played through the chapel's speakers. Six members of an honor guard from Fort Sam Houston entered, their black shoes shining, their white gloves spotless. They gripped the casket and marched in sync, seven steps to the right and then out to the waiting hearse.

Cheyenne Eichelberger, dressed in a black suit and yellow tie, followed behind. He had never met the man - his great uncle. He hadn't even been born when Lonnie entered the military. But he knew the story. He felt a sense of gratitude and pride.

"It puts the final seal on the chapter of Lonnie's life," Cheyenne said.

This was a day, Cheyenne knew, his grandmother would have loved to see. She had talked to him some about Lonnie, her only brother; about how they had grown up in a farming family in China Spring, a rural Texas community outside of Waco; how Lonnie - a black soldier during a time of segregation - had been killed fighting but his body never recovered.

A limo awaited, and Cheyenne got inside. A family friend and a reverend accompanied him, as a did a military representative. The procession of vehicles pulled out of the Katy-area funeral home, with an escort of four Houston Police officers on motorcycles shepherding the way.

It was a 37-minute drive to the Houston National Cemetery. And it would be an hour more before Lonnie's remains - one final time - would be lowered into the ground.

***

If one thing was certain Wednesday, it was that the decades had not erased the sacrifice Lonnie B.C. Eichelberger had made. Locating his remains had not been easy.

Lonnie had been part of the only black infantry division to fight in Europe during World War II, according to Army records. The members of the 92nd Infantry Division were known as "Buffalo Soldiers," a nickname given to them by Native Americans after the Civil War.

Lonnie died in battle in February 1945 in northern Italy, near the coast, but a search-and-recovery team had not been able to return to the location for months, as the war neared an end. When officials discovered the remains, they could not be identified. They were buried in a cemetery outside of Florence.

Officials removed them in 1948, when they were declared still unidentifiable, and again in 2016, when a link to the 92nd division was established.

In late 2017, Cheyenne, a retired Navy veteran, had received the phone call at his Fort Bend County home: based on dental records, DNA and other evidence, U.S. Department of Defense officials believed they had located his great uncle's remains.

Dozens of people awaited them at the cemetery. They included the Patriot Guard Riders ("Standing for Those Who Stood For Us"), the National Memorial Ladies ("'No Soldier Old Or Young Will Ever Be Buried Alone"), Blue Star Mothers ("To support the Armed Forces of the United States of America and its Veterans"), and Rolling Thunder ("We Will Not Forget").

They saluted as the honor guard removed the casket. Cheyenne took out his cell phone and aimed it toward the procession as they marched forward. He placed his hand over his heart as they placed the coffin on the pavilion platform. The air was chilly but not cold.

The headstone, narrow and gray, identical to the thousands of others lined in neat rows around them, was displayed nearby:

LONNIE B EICHELBERGER

PFC US ARMY

WORLD WAR II

OCT 18 1924

FEB 10 1945

***

Cheyenne had not expected to see all of these groups. He would remember the moment, he later said.

The honor guard folded the flag in a series of coordinated motions, faces stoic. They picked up their guns and aimed them toward the sky.

Three volleys cracked through the silence. Everyone saluted. Taps was played. Cheyenne saluted.

He first received the flag, then a box of medals Lonnie had been posthumously awarded, then certificates and pins from the various groups.

"He is home at last," one woman said. An entire agency, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, is tasked with locating more than 82,000 veterans from wars past. Lonnie was just one. Two hundred others are listed on the agency's website as accounted for in 2017.

It was 11:29 a.m. when the pastor, Richard Booker, from the Kendleton area, stepped forward. Also an Army veteran, he had only recently learned of Lonnie's story from Cheyenne, his friend of more than five years.

"We're grateful for the service of men such as this and so many others," Booker said to the crowd. "We salute him today, the service that he provided and the freedom that we now enjoy."

Cheyenne had been given the option of having the remains buried in Italy or Texas. He chose the latter, finding it important that his great uncle be returned to the country that he died fighting for.

The plane with the remains had arrived the day prior at Hobby Airport. Fire trucks launched an arch of water over the aircraft. Passengers were held on board while the casket was removed.

"It now becomes my duty to commit his body to the ground," Booker said.

Cemetery workers took the casket away. They lowered it seven feet into a concrete chamber in the ground. They packed the empty space tight with dirt.

Seventy-two years and 334 days had passed since Lonnie was killed in action. At last, his body would be moved no more.
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Chaise Perry can't quite see the words in his favorite "Pete the Cat" books, or those on the whiteboard at the front of his Francone Elementary School classroom.

The second-grader tried squinting. He sat on the floor, in front of his classmates' desks. Neither worked.

Then, late last year, his teacher devised a simple solution: "She told me they were gonna give me glasses," Perry recalled.

On Wednesday, he grabbed at hologram wasps to gauge his depth perception. At a free eye-testing clinic at the Richard E. Berry Educational Support Center in Cypress, Perry traced rainbow-colored hexograms to test for color-blindness. And, with his eyes peering through a clunky, metal phoropter, he read aloud jumbled sequences of letters - "HKNTO" or "LNZUP" - occasionally confusing Ps for Rs, and vice versa.

But a month from now, a pair of bright, red glasses will arrive for him, and he'll sit in his usual assigned seat and no longer squint.

There are likely millions more like Perry. As many as 20 percent of America's 50 million or so elementary and secondary school students have untreated vision problems, according to University of California-Los Angeles health researchers, of which roughly 80 percent could be corrected with glasses.

The Houston Health Department estimates up to 20,000 area students start school each year with unresolved eye or vision issues - a problem so pervasive that, in 2011, the agency and its nonprofit wing, the Houston Health Foundation, began offering free, full eye exams to 10 school districts. Most of the roughly 50,000 students who have since been treated through the temporary, makeshift See to Succeed clinics come from low-income schools and households, where access to proper health care is fleeting and parents can't always take days off work for private eye doctor appointments, Health Department officials said.

Chronic issues

"Some of these kids show up, and you wonder how they got through the door," said Bob Rugur, who spent Wednesday giving basic eye tests to about 400 Cy Fair Independent School District students.

Many more - about 12 percent - arrive at the clinics with chronic eye issues that would have at one time been easy to address but have, after years without treatment, worsened to the point of needing outside medical care.

Inward eye turn, astigmatism, nerve swelling, glaucoma - the program's optometrists have seen them all, to varying degrees. Particularly worrisome are the severe vision problems among the many young, low-income Hispanic or African-American students, who are genetically more susceptible to problems like glaucoma, said Veronica Mendez, a clinical teaching fellow at University of Houston's College of Optometry.

Seeing the dinosaurs

"These kids will often not have been able to see a doctor at all before," she said. "Children with low resources are often not being seen, and so the problems are able to progress."

An hour before a mobile autorefractor measured the myopia of Chaise Perry's eyes, Dayne Arceneaux, 9, peered over a table of frames, before picking out a blue-gray pair to be fit with durable, polycarbonate lenses.

He's in third grade and owns a pop-up book that shows how the dinosaurs died.

He likes the book and school more these days, having received his first pair of glasses last year through a Health Foundation clinic.

"I couldn't always see the words," he said Wednesday. Then came the glasses, and with them better grades. Now, he wants to be a scientist, "because you get to do awesome stuff."

Big improvements

Dayne's changes in the classroom aren't irregular.

Through a data-sharing agreement with the Houston Independent School District, the Health Foundation was able to track the progress of its 2015 program participants in the year after they were treated. Among their findings were dramatic improvements in classroom scores and school attendance, and plummeting rates of disciplinary action.

All told, 80 percent of students saw grades improve. Of that group, 67 percent passed math after failing it the year before, the study found. Another 93 percent of those students received passing grades in reading or language arts, despite failing it a year earlier.

"It's very simple: Kids can't learn if they can't see," said Christiane Bernal, a former school nurse for Cy-Fair ISD. "And parents don't always have the money or resources to get their kids help."
OUT OF TIME Chapter 8: A Houston father checks in with ICE to learn his fate

OUT OF TIME Chapter 8: A Houston father checks in with ICE to learn his fate

Published January 10, 2018

Juan Rodriguez sat Wednesday morning in the lobby of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Northpoint where the undocumented go to be deported, waiting for - he wasn't exactly sure.

An undocumented Salvadoran, he'd shown up here 25 times over a decade to check in. With a wife and three daughters who are all American citizens, a clean record and a thriving auto repair business, Rodriguez had been granted "prosecutorial discretion" during the Obama administration, which allowed him to remain in the country and legally work. He was proud of being a taxpayer.

But then at his annual visit in February, a month after President Donald Trump took office and embarked on his immigration crackdown, Rodriguez was told that "the rules have changed" and he would be deported. He pleaded for more time to watch his eldest graduate from high school, and, shortly thereafter, became the subject of a Chronicle series, "Out of Time."

Soon, the Hispanic Bar Association rallied around him and his family and helped him win a series of reprieves.

Moment of disbelief

A New America Keep up with the latest immigration coverage here. To see more stories about the Rodriguez family, go here. And to see what the Rodriguezes are going through in photos, go here.

Now, here he waited, yet again, one would-be American who had become the face of a political maelstrom in Houston, an ultra-diverse metropolis with an estimated 600,000 undocumented immigrants. Because he'd played by the rules for years, it seemed, he'd been caught up in a dragnet that could deport him at any moment. And were that to happen, it could take years to be reunited with his wife, Celia, seated on his left, and their three girls. Karen, 19, an engineering student at the University of Houston, sat to his right. A row behind them, Rebecca, 17, wove French braids into the thick, dark hair of her little sister, Kimberly, 10.

OUT OF TIME: For a Houston Family, ICE crackdown shatters the good life they knew

They were all elegantly dressed - Juan in a black suit and black overcoat, Celia and the girls in skirts and dresses at the behest of their lawyers, who huddled nearby.

There were David Medina, a former Texas Supreme Court Justice, and his partner Juan Vasquez, of Chamberlain Hrdlicka. They'd gone to federal court and filed suit over the summer to block his deportation on constitutional grounds, only to withdraw it to allow Rodriguez's asylum claim to proceed. They conversed sotto voce with Carolina Ortuzar-Diaz and Jacob Monty, partners in Monty and Ramirez, an immigration firm, who had filed a stay of Rodriguez's pending deportation and were also representing him in a bid before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for residency with his citizen wife.

They'd come around 8 a.m. with an inkling, based on prior conversations with ICE attorneys, that the government was prepared to be flexible. But they didn't know much more than that.

Shortly before 9 a.m., an ICE official appeared at the door that leads to the inner offices from the lobby and called out, "Juan Rodriguez."

The lawyers, who were near the door, approached him, exchanged a few words and handed him a file. The ICE official took the file and closed the door. At his earlier visits this year, Rodriguez had always been called inside for an interview, but not this time.

"They didn't ask me to go in with them!" he said, his face covered in a big smile. "That has to be a good sign, right?"

His lawyers didn't say a word, although his smile clearly warmed them.

Fifteen minutes later, the same ICE official opened the door and again called out, "Juan Rodriguez." He gave Ortuzar-Diaz the document back and told her they could leave.

Ortuzar read the document, and soon, an expression of disbelief appeared on her face. She raised her eyes from the paper, looked at all the other lawyers, and said: "This document doesn't have a date for Juan's next appointment."

OUT OF TIME: Lawsuit against federal government will challenge Houston man's deportation

"Are you sure?" Monty asked.

"They wrote here an acknowledgment of the documents that we brought, but they did not put any date! Let me ask."

Ortuzar-Diaz turned to find the ICE official. The Rodriguezes and the other lawyers all exchanged quizzical looks, each trying to glean what the other was thinking.

"No, no more reporting here," said the ICE official said to Ortuzar-Diaz.

It was, for the time being, over.

Instead of the 30-day reprieve the lawyers had been expecting, ICE had handed Rodriguez an indefinite stay until the Board of Immigration Appeals rules on his request for asylum, which could take six months or more.

"Let's go, let's go outside," Medina said to the group, not wanting to create too much commotion in a room where others awaited their fate.

Juan Rodriguez rests his head on his daughter Karen Rodriguez's shoulder relieved that he got another 30-day extension to stay in the United States with his family as his immigration case goes to be reviewed by an immigration board. Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Houston. ( Marie D. De Jesus / Houston Chronicle ) less Juan Rodriguez rests his head on his daughter Karen Rodriguez's shoulder relieved that he got another 30-day extension to stay in the United States with his family as his immigration case goes to be reviewed by ... more Photo: Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle Photo: Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close OUT OF TIME 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

'Not a bad man'

They all gathered in a parking lot across Northpoint Drive, about 15 miles north of downtown,

"Yes, Yes! I am so happy," Rodriguez exclaimed.

Medina, one of Houston's best-known Hispanic lawyers, spoke with a cracked voice, clearly holding back tears, extolling what ICE had done and reflecting on his own family and the immigrant story in America.

"My children are really first generation Americans, from their mother side," he said. "Their mother is from Honduras."

Monty, the immigration lawyer, didn't try to minimize the complexity of the immigration debate dividing the country. "It's a very difficult job, sorting out the bad men," he said. "But (ICE) appears, so far, to have been able to find that Mr. Rodriguez is not a bad man, and that is good."

Karen Rodriguez, who had been dreading this day for weeks, fearing she would have to help raise her sisters if her dad was whisked away, glowed with relief. "I am so grateful with you all!" she told the lawyers. "Because this year has been crazy; it has been a rollercoaster, but we know that God has supported us. We came thinking that we were going to get just 30 more days, and then you see what we got!"

The Rodriguezes are devout Seventh-day Adventists, attending Wednesday and Saturday services at their church on Fresa Road in Pasadena.

OUT OF TIME: For one Houston family, a new year full of fear

Celia Rodriguez beamed. "I feel grateful first to God, right? Because of the many opportunities he has given us, and because of such good lawyers," she said. "So busy are you all. You are important people, and are here with us. "

"Let's pray," Medina said.

A husband and wife and their three daughters clasped hands with four lawyers and bowed their heads in what was, at this moment, a distinctly American moment. "Our Father, thank you for everything you give us," Medina began.

When he had finished, Rodriguez excused himself and left to go to the office that monitored the ankle bracelet he has been required to wear since his ordeal began. That hasn't changed.

On her way home, his wife pondered what she would cook for a celebration with the lawyers. Maybe cheese pupusas, or a Salvadoran fish soup.

***

Olivia.Tallet@chron.com

Twitter: @oliviaptallet

OUT OF TIME: Candidate Donald Trump inspired anti-immigration fervor across the country - and created panic at Juan Rodriguez's home. His family felt that Juan, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who had been regularly checking in with ICE, would be in danger of deportation. Soon after the election, he was told that he wasn't "a priority for this country anymore." An immigration lawyer came to his defense, and three high-profile attorneys signed on to assist Juan's wife, a U.S. citizen, and their three American daughters in the legal battle. Click here to read the series.
Gov. Greg Abbot seems to be loosening up his views on marijuana.

During Sunday's debate with Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez, the governor said he would be open to reducing the penalties of people found in possession of under two ounces of weed.

It's a good sign, especially considering we are being outclassed by our neighbors; Almost every state surrounding Texas from New Mexico to Louisiana has more relaxed marijuana laws than the Lone Star State.

Putting politics aside, do we really want to be in the same marijuana-restricting boat as Oklahoma?

Our pride is at stake here, folks.

READ MORE: Abbott, Valdez clash on arming teachers, Hurricane Harvey, pot

Amusingly, even if our laws don't reflect it, Texas is already a cultural hub for weed. There's a strain of pot named Willie Nelson. Likewise, interacting with anyone under the age of 30 in Austin is interacting with a high person.

There's some serious wasted potential here, and not just revenue-wise, like Colorado's half a billion in collected taxes and fees since legalization. We're talking about cultural potential.

Texas is just so damn good at making everything Texas-y, and pot would be no exception.

To see what the future holds in store, Chron.com put together some fake but real-sounding marijuana strains that would no doubt come to fruition if pot was legalized.

Above: See what Texans would name their marijuana strains if pot was legal.
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San Antonio City Council today approved a new law prohibiting merchants in the city limits from selling tobacco products to anyone under 21 years old.

San Antonio is the first city in Texas to enact such a law. Five states and more than 280 cities in other states have approved similar measures.

The new ordinance, which city officials had been discussing since August, passed by a 9 to 2 vote. Council members Greg Brockhouse and Clayton Perry voted against the measure, questioning if the city should regulate such activity and expressing concerns that the new rules might financially harm smaller businesses.

READ ALSO: State alcohol commission launches back-to-school sting operation

Now Playing: One Cigarette May Lead to Habitual Smoking According to a journal published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research two-thirds who try cigarettes become daily smokers. Based on data from the U.K., U.S. and Australia, 60.3% percent of people tried smoking. And of those people, 68.9% progressed to smoking on a daily basis. "We've found that the conversion rate from first-time smoker to daily smoker is surprisingly high, which helps confirm the importance of preventing cigarette experimentation in the first place." Lead researcher Prof Peter Hajek Video: Wibbitz

In one last-minute change, San Antonio Metropolitan Health District Director Colleen Bridger said the new law will take effect Oct. 1 instead of Aug. 1 as originally planned. This will allow San Antonio officials additional time to talk to surrounding cities, such as Leon Valley, about whether they plan to enact similar measures.

Several council members criticized Bridger for not getting more input from merchants or meeting with retailers organizations sooner in the process. Bridger said she had worked to do that in recent months, even meeting with two merchants groups late Wednesday.

Brockhouse and Perry pushed for tabling the proposed law. Brockhouse called for more input to be gathered in the next 60 days from retailers whose businesses could be negatively impacted by the new rules before council voted on the issue. Those attempted delays failed.

State law already forbids the sale of tobacco products to anyone 17 years old or younger. It also prohibits anyone that young from purchasing or possessing such items. But San Antonio's new city ordinance goes further.

RELATED: Alleged underage party goes wrong in Texas

The ordinance approved by council today only targets retailers who sell tobacco products to 18-, 19- or 20-year-olds. Retailers who violate the new law could face a fine of up to $500.

The new city law does not seek any penalties or enforcement measures against young adults 18 to 20 years old who purchase, use or possess tobacco products.

Supporters said the measure is necessary to protect public health. Critics called it heavy-handed government regulation and said it will penalize businesses, particularly smaller retailers who could see their profits eroded by the new law.

Before the vote, council heard from more than 30 citizens expressing their views on the proposal. Most of them  including physicians, high school students and teen ambassadors  expressed support for the measure.

pohare@express-news.net
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MISSION  Immigrants caught illegally crossing the Southwest border in December climbed for an eighth consecutive month, reaching the highest point since President Donald Trump took office a year ago, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

A total of 40,513 immigrants entering illegally or seeking asylum were apprehended from California to Texas in December, compared with a total of 39,006 apprehended in both categories in November.

Families and minors fleeing high levels of violence and poverty in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico made up more than a third of all apprehensions since October, most of them arriving in the Rio Grande Valley.

For October, November and December, a total of 13,491 unaccompanied children were apprehended trying to cross illegally plus seeking asylum. Another 31,685 adults and children came in as part of families.

The significant increase over the last month in the number of family units and unaccompanied children coming across the border illegally highlights the dire need for Congress to immediately adopt responsible pro-American immigration reforms, Tyler Q. Houlton, the Department of Homeland Securitys acting press secretary, said in a statement.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended 303,916 people along the border with Mexico during the 2017 fiscal year, a precipitous drop compared with the 408,870 apprehensions recorded in fiscal year 2016, the lowest level in 45 years, the agency noted.

Immigrants considered inadmissible for humanitarian protection at international ports of entry, including families and children unaccompanied by a parent, fell from 150,825 in fiscal year 2016 to 111,275 in the 2017 fiscal year.

Houlton said Tuesday the 40 percent decrease in apprehensions during the 2017 fiscal year, compared with the last year of the Obama administration, prove that Trump is having an impact on reducing illegal crossings, but he noted that policy changes are needed to further secure the border.

Current loopholes in our immigration laws have created an incentive for illegal immigrants who knowingly exploit these same loopholes to take advantage of our generosity, Houlton said.

The latest data comes as Trump met Tuesday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to negotiate a deal on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and immigration reform. Late last year Trump said in exchange for any deal to protect Dreamers, as the recipients of DACA are known, he would demand that loopholes and outdated laws and easily exploited vulnerabilities in the immigration system be addressed.

The loophole in question is migrants right to apply for asylum and get a hearing before an immigration judge, said Adam Isacson, an expert on regional security with the Washington Office on Latin America. Its really troubling to see this coming out of CBP.

Isacson said while some migrants probably exploit the so-called loopholes in the immigration system, there is no evidence of widespread abuse.

Without such evidence, the reference to them here as illegal is especially offensive, Isacson said. There is nothing illegal about petitioning another country for protection if you believe your life to be at risk.

anelsen@express-news.net | Twitter: @amnelsen
The candidates running to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Ted Poe are set to square off in their first debate next week.

On Tuesday, the Cherry Tree Republican Club will host the nine candidates running for the 2nd Congressional District. That forum is at 6 p.m. at Don Ramon's Mexican Restaurant, 5505 FM 1960, Houston.

"It's important for the voters to hear from all the candidates side-by-side and determine who they feel will do the best job in DC," said hospital CEO David Balat, one of the nine Republicans battling in the March 6 primary.

Businessman Rick Walker said he's been itching for the debates. On his website and on social media he has been calling for the candidates to all show up to any and all debates.

"With weighty issues facing our nation, it's worth taking the time to understand the differences between these candidates," Walker said.

Two days later the candidates will battle again before the Houston Area Pastor Council's candidate's forum at 11:30 a.m. at the Houston's First Baptist Church, 7401 Katy Freeway, Houston.

Besides Balat and Walker, also running in the race are State Rep. Kevin Roberts, longtime Republican activist and donor Kathaleen Wall, former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw, heart surgeon Jon Spiers, attorney Jonny Havens, businessman Justin Lurie and attorney Malcolm Whittaker.

The 9 Republicans are battling in a March 6 primary election. Early voting begins on Feb. 20.

The candidates are aiming to replace Poe, who announced in November he would not seek another two-year term in Congress. Poe, a Republican from Atascocita, was first elected in 2004.

The 2nd Congressional District includes parts of west Houston, then wraps around the northern edges of Harris County and takes in the area around Humble.
WASHINGTON - As immigration activists fanned out across the U.S. Capitol, Texas U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul and other top Republicans unveiled legislation Wednesday that they held out as the starting point for negotiations to protect "Dreamers," immigrants brought into the country illegally as children.

But the $30 billion GOP plan, coming a day after President Donald Trump called for a "bill of love," hewed closely to Republican priorities that Democrats have rejected, including construction of border wall.

For Dreamers, or beneficiaries of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, it would offer three-year renewable legal status allowing them to work, travel and study in the U.S. and abroad.

"I see a unique opportunity with DACA to finally get the border secure once and for all," said McCaul, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security. For McCaul, once a skeptic about the usefulness of a border wall, the bill represents a doubling-down on a $15 billion border security bill he introduced last year.

The new bill was introduced with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and other GOP leaders as top Democrats and Republicans scrambled to come to terms on a broader 2018 funding bill before government funding dries up Jan. 20.

More Information ICE targets 7-Eleven stores nationwide Federal immigration agents targeted nearly 100 7-Eleven stores across the U.S. for audits and inspections Wednesday morning in one of the most sweeping illegal immigration probes taken against an employer under the Trump administration. Twenty-one people were arrested on suspicion of being in the country illegally as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents served inspection notices at convenience stores in 17 states, including Texas, and the District of Columbia, officials said. 7-Eleven is based in Irving. Los Angeles Times See More Collapse

Though Republicans have the votes to pass the legislation in the House, they would need the votes of at least nine Senate Democrats to overcome a filibuster in the upper chamber.

Despite an extraordinary on-camera negotiating session Tuesday at the White House, Democrats and Hispanic activists appeared unwilling Wednesday to back away from their demand for a "clean" legislative fix to the DACA program, which Trump is terminating in March.

As Republicans outlined their bill, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland appeared outside the Capitol with dozens of Dreamers, calling for no-strings-attached legislation granting them a pathway to citizenship.

"They are just people who don't have any papers, in every other sense they are Americans," Hoyer said. "They put their hands on their hearts and pledge allegiance to the United States of America."

The GOP bill would provide Dreamers no special pathways to legal status or citizenship other than those available to other immigrants.

The bill also includes a long wish list of GOP priorities on immigration enforcement, including construction of a border wall and other border security measures. It would crack down on so-called "sanctuary cities"  communities that Republicans say fail to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

It also would add another 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 5,000 customs officers, as well as authorize the National Guard to provide aviation and intelligence support to border security operations.

Though not billed as a comprehensive immigration reform effort, the GOP bill also would curtail legal immigration. It would eliminate the controversial visa lottery for green cards and limit a sponsorship program for extended family members, which Republicans call "chain migration."

The bill's overall goal, sponsors said, is to reduce legal immigration levels by about 260,000 a year, or roughly 25 percent of the current annual average of a more than one million. The new system also would emphasize skilled workers and an agricultural guest worker program.

Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the top Republican in Tuesday's freewheeling encounter with Trump, called the House bill "a good place to start," saying it will prompt discussions on DACA and other immigration issues in the House and Senate.

"That is a lot of work in a short period of time," Cornyn said.

Also Wednesday, the president denounced the federal courts as "broken and unfair" after a U.S. 9th District judge in San Francisco issued a temporary ruling keeping the DACA program in place, despite Trump's decision to end it this year.

The administration vowed to request a stay and appeal.

Alejandra Matos contributed to this report from Austin. Chronicle wire services also contributed.
Trying to decipher President Trump's positions at Tuesday's White House meeting on immigration probably requires the best neuroscientists in the Texas Medical Center as well as an interpreter. We'd like to think there was affirmative progress for those interested in fair reform.

The president met with congressional leaders ahead of a Jan. 19 deadline for a budget deal to prevent a partial government shutdown. Perhaps the key issue in the budget negotiations is the status of more than 700,000 young adults who have been protected from deportation by President Obama's executive order known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

President Trump has repealed the executive order but has also urged Congress to pass legislation to normalize the status of the so-called "Dreamers," which includes more than 120,000 Texans. Democrats, whose votes will be needed in the Senate to pass a bill to keep the government open, have said a DACA solution must be part of the government funding bill.

RELATED: 'Dreamers' in limbo

Trump seemed open to the idea at Tuesday's meeting, but he seemed open to a lot of ideas, many of them contradictory. He said he'd back a "clean bill" that addressed only DACA, but later said any bill must include funding for his foolish border wall fantasy.

Then he said he'd sign whatever Congress sent him. "I'm not saying I want this or I want that. I will sign it," he told the lawmakers.

That's not leadership, but it's typical for Trump, who doesn't specialize in details.

RELATED: Defend 'Dreamers'

Congress must do two things in the coming days. It must agree on a budget resolution to prevent a government shutdown. And it must pass a bill that grants permanent deportation protection to DACA recipients.

Protecting young adults who were brought to this country illegally as children is a moral and economic imperative. The United States is essentially the only home many of them have ever known, and kicking them out of the country would be profoundly un-American.

Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes on Wednesday said DACA-eligible young adults are a key talent pool for the state and nation. He said Texas has about 24,000 DACA-eligible students enrolled in higher education. Texas taxpayers have invested millions in the education of Dreamers.

RELATED: End DACA theater and fix immigration

"I think we need to find a solution, an equitable solution," Paredes said in a call with reporters, later adding that without one, "we're going to lose a lot of important and very productive workers."

Democrats will have to make some concessions on increased border security, despite the insistence of some leaders that DACA be the only immigration topic in the funding bill.

"With all due respect to my Democratic friends, it's not going to happen," Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat who attended Tuesday's meeting, told NPR. "We've got to have DACA and some sensible border security."

RELATED: Congress needs to fix the DACA program to avoid the waste of human potential

But as Cuellar pointed out, border security doesn't mean a wall stretching from Brownsville to San Diego. Congress can approve funding for additional technology and staffing that can more effectively enhance security than prehistoric techniques like a wall.

Beyond the immediate issue of DACA and the government shutdown, Trump on Tuesday also expressed willingness to explore "comprehensive immigration reform." That's a phrase that's anathema to many in Trump's base, and it's not really clear what he means by it.

A 2013 bill that passed the Senate but died without a vote in the House remains a good blueprint for immigration reform. Truly comprehensive reform would create pathways for many of those here illegally to normalize their status, fund effective border control measures, add additional immigration judges to process claims, and create a legal immigration system that matches the 21st century needs of the United States.

Trump on Tuesday said he would "take the heat" if Congress wanted to take up immigration reform. That's an admirable statement, but the president has never shown willingness to stand up to the hard-core elements of the Republican base who rebel at anything they classify as "amnesty."

A sincere immigration debate that leads to fixes for an antiquated and broken system would be a welcome development. Sadly, there's nothing in recent history that suggests such a debate is possible in the current political climate.

However, a permanent DACA fix does seem possible, especially given the Democrats' leverage on the government funding bill. Congress must act on this rare chance to take important action on immigration. Perhaps that can be a springboard to further reforms.
The farmers and ranchers hoping to hear some calming words or insightful policy positions about lucrative export markets didn't exactly get what they wanted during Donald Trump's speech to the American Farm Bureau Federation in Nashville earlier this week. Instead they were treated to a usual campaign-style diatribe that, by this point, has lost much of its ability to either inspire or horrify, depending on your personal politics.

However, cautious listeners in the audience might have been heartened to hear a slight change in rhetoric on NAFTA, the trilateral trade treaty that's key to much of our nation's agricultural business.

Gone were the usual nonspecific demands for vague changes or threats to unilaterally disband the treaty. Instead Trump merely focused on promises of a "better deal." Members of Congress viewed that shift as a sign that Trump may be accepting the reality of NAFTA's benefits.

RELATED: While North America updates our trade deal, the U.S. loses to overseas competition

"There are some signs that the president's rhetoric on NAFTA is softening in the face of leadership from [Senate Agriculture Chairman] Pat Roberts and the ag community. Today could have been a chance to take withdrawal off the table once and for all," former U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, who co-chairs the advocacy group Farmers for Free Trade, said in a statement to Politico. "The continuing specter of withdrawal is not an effective negotiating technique, particularly because right now it's harming American farmers whose livelihoods depend on certainty."

It's not a bad idea to modernize the 24-year-old accord with Canada and Mexico. A better deal is possible. But Congress cannot let this become another Trump trade debacle like his decision three days after taking office to withdraw the U.S. willy-nilly from the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Not surprisingly due to our location, Texas and Houston have been big NAFTA beneficiaries. As a state, we generate an estimated $178 billion in trade annually with Mexico, which has been Port Houston's top trading partner most of the past decade.

RELATED: Trump's retreat crafts a global order without the U.S. at a familiar spot  the center

Trump is trying to bolster U.S. manufacturing by amending the pact to increase U.S. content in cars made of parts from all three countries, now common practice by the auto companies, and he wants NAFTA to expire automatically every five years unless it is renegotiated.

Neither idea has been warmly embraced by Canada or Mexico, which has slowed negotiations to a snail's pace. Only two of 22 chapters have been resolved as they head into their next round of talks Jan. 23 in Montreal.

We have no problem with Trump seeking changes in the agreement, that's part of the process. But we would urge him to drop any thought of withdrawing from NAFTA because despite what he says the pact has been good for all three countries and has become a bedrock of their joint economy.

RELATED: President Trump's bluster threatens Texas-based exports to global markets

He has already done damage to our global stature by pulling the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was a shock to a world that looks to us for leadership and Pacific allies hoping for a stronger U.S. economic presence to help balance a growing China. Leaving NAFTA would only bring that policy of retreat and economic isolation to our own shores.
Leaders and guests (from left to right) Park Jae Min, deputy mayor of Busan city, South Korea; Wei Hongtao, deputy director of the China National Tourism Administration; Sun Dongsheng, deputy governor of Heilongjiang provincial government; Song Xibin, deputy secretary of CPC Harbin Municipal Committee and mayor of Harbin; Yu Qun, Chinas assistant minister of culture; and Hosoda Damade, deputy mayor of Kanazawa city, Japan, open the ice and snow festival. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

The 34th China Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival & Culture City of East Asia 2018 opened Jan 5 in Harbin, East Chinas Heilongjiang province, a major event initiated and organized by the Ministry of Culture and Heilongjiang Provincial Peoples Government.

Culture City of East Asia is the major fruit of the strengthened cooperation in the social field thanks to the establishment of mechanism of the trilateral meetings for leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea. Since the campaign was launched in 2013, 13 cities from the three countries have been crowned this title. As the Culture Cities of East Asia 2018, Harbin, Kanazawa, and Busan look to hold various cultural exchange activities.

Culture City of East Asia 2018  Harbin is to introduce more than 20 major activities of three themes  Dating with Snow and Ice, Tour of the Summer City and City of Music and other over 100 minor activities. Capitalizing on the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, this event starts with Dating with Ice and Snow in an effort to promote the ice and snow tourism resources in Harbin during January and March. Established in 1985, Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival has developed into a grand festival featuring ice and snow art exhibition, cultural exchanges, and economic cooperation.


Two political scientists specializing in how democracies decay and die have compiled four warning signs to determine if a political leader is a dangerous authoritarian:

1. The leader shows only a weak commitment to democratic rules. 2. He or she denies the legitimacy of opponents. 3. He or she tolerates violence. 4. He or she shows some willingness to curb civil liberties or the media.

"A politician who meets even one of these criteria is cause for concern," Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, both professors at Harvard, write in their important new book, "How Democracies Die."

"With the exception of Richard Nixon, no major-party presidential candidate met even one of these four criteria over the last century," they say, which sounds reassuring. Unfortunately, they have one update: "Donald Trump met them all."

We tend to assume that the threat comes from coups or violent revolutions, but the authors say that in modern times, democracies are more likely to wither at the hands of insiders who gain power initially through elections. That's what happened in Russia, the Philippines, Turkey, Venezuela, Ecuador, Hungary, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Poland and Peru.

Venezuela was a relatively prosperous democracy, for example, when the populist demagogue Hugo Chavez tapped the frustrations of ordinary citizens to be elected president in 1998.

A survey that year found that the Venezuela public believed that "democracy is always the best form of government," with only one-quarter saying that authoritarianism is sometimes preferable. Yet against their will, Venezuelans slid into autocracy.

"This is how democracies now die," Levitsky and Ziblatt write. "Democratic backsliding today begins at the ballot box."

Likewise, the authors say, no more than 2 percent of Germans or Italians joined the Nazi or Fascist parties before they gained power, and early on there doesn't seem to have been clear majority support for authoritarianism in either Germany or Italy. But both Hitler and Mussolini were shrewd demagogues who benefited from the blindness of political insiders who accommodated them.

Let me say right here that I don't for a moment think the U.S. will follow the path of Venezuela, Germany or Italy. Yes, I do see in Trump these authoritarian tendencies - plus a troubling fondness for other authoritarians, like Vladimir Putin in Russia and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines - but I'm confident our institutions are stronger than Trump.

It's true that he has tried to undermine institutions and referees of our political system: judges, the Justice Department, law enforcement agencies, the intelligence community, the news media, the opposition party and Congress. But to his frustration, American institutions have mostly passed the stress test with flying colors.

"President Trump followed the electoral authoritarian script during his first year," the authors conclude. "He made efforts to capture the referees, sideline the key players who might halt him, and tilt the playing field. But the president has talked more than he has acted, and his most notorious threats have not been realized.  Little actual backsliding occurred in 2017."

That seems right to me: The system worked.

And yet.

For all my confidence that our institutions will trump Trump, the chipping away at the integrity of our institutions and norms does worry me. Levitsky and Ziblatt warn of the unraveling of democratic norms - norms such as treating the other side as rivals rather than as enemies, condemning violence and bigotry, and so on. This unraveling was underway before Trump (Newt Gingrich nudged it along in the 1990s), but he accelerated it.

It matters when Trump denounces the "deep state Justice Department," calls Hillary Clinton a "criminal", denounces journalists as the "enemy of the American people" and promises to pay the legal fees of supporters who "beat the crap" out of protesters. With such bombast, Trump is beating the crap out of American norms.

I asked the authors how we citizens can most effectively resist an authoritarian president. The answer, they said, is not for Trump opponents to demonize the other side or to adopt scorched-earth tactics, for this can result in "a death spiral in which rule-breaking becomes pandemic." It's also not effective, as seen in Venezuela.

Rather, they suggested protesting vigorously - but above all, in defense of rights and institutions, not just against the ruler. They emphasized that it's critical to build coalitions, even if that means making painful compromises, so that protests are very broadly based.

"If these actions are limited to blue-state progressives, the risk of failure and/or deeper polarization is very high," Levitsky told me. "Extraordinary measures are sometimes necessary to defend democracy, but they should rest on extraordinary coalitions - coalitions that include business leaders, religious leaders and crucially, as many conservatives and Republicans as possible."

Kristof is a New York Times columnist.
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Music Publishing News: Reservoir  Sony/ATV  Kobalt  Round Hill  More

Reservoir, the New York based music publishing company, which includes UK based Reverb Music, has promoted Rell Lafargue to President and Chief Operating Officer. Since 2008, Lafargue has served as COO.

 Joe Walsh, songwriter the Eagles Life In the Fast Lane and In The City, has signed with Sony/ATV Music Publishing for representation in all territories.

 Kobalt has hired Avid Larizadeh Duggan as EVP and Chief Strategy & Business Officer. The London-based exec joins from Google Ventures where she was general partner and was in charge of GVs investment in Kobalt.

 Carlin Music Publishing, home to 100,000 songs from songs the likes of Elvis Presley, James Brown, AC/DC and Billie Holiday has closed its $240 million sale to Round Hill Music, Variety has confirmed.

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The Real Secret To Success Most Musicians Dont Want To Hear

Here Chris Robley reveals the real blood, sweat, and tears "secret" to success in the music industry, and why it is that most musicians don't want to hear it.

_____________________________

Re-post from CD Baby's DIY Musician blog, by Chris Robley

Stop waiting for the miracle.

As musicians we spend nearly countless hours creating music, only to cross our fingers and hope our latest-greatest songs will magically meet the ears of new listeners.

Or we post Instagram pics with a billion hashtags all day long, because thats what some social media guru told us to do.

Or we put our faith and future in the hands of the latest flashy tool or iPhone app.

Were tempted by the promise of the silver bullet, the next thing, the program that will guarantee us instant fans, the trendy marketing strategy that will surely knock down every barrier to our success.

Even an online marketing tool as powerful as CD Babys Show.co (PLUG!) is only as effective as the creative energy you put into your campaigns; its reach is only equal to the effort you spend spreading the word.

Its work. Its all work. Not magic. Yes, a little luck. But mostly: work.

Hard work means more than hustle.

My interview with instrumental guitarist Lance Allen drove this point home for me. Hes been paying off his mortgage with the revenue he earns from streaming activity on Spotify and Pandora. How? Not by magic and not by chance. The dude works his ass off. Not just on his guitar skills, but on research, reaching out to the right people in the right way, following up, setting goals and keeping after them without letting up until hes explored every possible avenue. Hes not hustling, which for me always implies either an element of swindle or frenzy. Hes working hard AND smart. His efforts are deliberate.

Yes, its tempting to think you can pay some company or some guru $50 or $5000 and have an overnight win, but the truth is that your success  if it happens  will have been the result of many small wins. Ones that YOU struggled for, learning from the failures and adjusting as you went.

How to book more and better gigs. How to tweak your target audience for better Facebook ads. How to find curators who will include your music in their playlists. How to get your album to chart. When it comes down to it, its all on you, from planning to execution.

Youre in this music thing for the long haul, right? Dig in.

It may sound sexy to have a radio promoter and a publicist working your next record. But thats exactly what theyll be doing, working it. Working  for which youll pay them thousands & thousands & thousands & thousands of dollars. It could be a worthwhile investment, simultaneously opening doors to radio and press, all while saving you hours of time that could be spent touring or recording or whatever. If you have the budget, by all means

But you could also keep that money and buy a book like The Indie Bible. Yes, an old-school book, not a fancy app. A book with lists of industry contacts broken up by region, genre, and area of expertise (radio, press, booking, etc.), with names and emails and addresses. All of those contacts completely useless until YOU put in the work to connect with them and create a new conversation.

Likewise, you could pay a streaming promotions team a wheelbarrow of cash to get your music onto playlists (if youre lucky). Or you could set aside an hour a day to connect the dots between Spotify user profiles and LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or whatever other clues you can find  all in an effort to identify and contact playlist curators yourself.

Its work. Its long nights until 3am staring at a computer screen. Its booking your own tour by befriending bands all over the country. Its hearing a hundred NOs for every YES, and still holding your head (kinda) high.

Its work. It sucks. Its essential.

Chris Robley is the Editor of CD Babys DIY Musician Blog. "I write Beatlesque indie-pop songs thatve been praised by No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, & others. My poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, & more. I live in Maine and like peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, a little too much."

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The former St. Mary the Morningstar Church and it outbuildings will be transformed into market-rate apartments.

Pittsfield Approves Incentive For St. Mary's Church Development



Plans for the convent building.

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The City Council can't wait for the renovation of the St. Mary's complex.

The council opted against fleshing out a tax increment exemption at the subcommittee level and approved it as presented Tuesday night to help move the project along. The agreement would exempt developers CT Management from paying on any increased value caused by the renovation of the four structures into 29 market-rate housing units for four years.

"I think because we as a community asked these buildings be preserved and be respected, and now we have a proposal that will do that, we got what we wanted, what we asked for and what we dreamed of," Ward 5 Councilor Donna Todd Rivers said in urging her colleagues to support the agreement.

The four buildings -- a school, rectory, convent, and church -- have been vacant. One by one, the Diocese of Springfield had vacated the properties, concluding with the 2008 closure of the church.

The 2.6 acres of land with the structures has been on the market. In 2014, the community had a collective gasp when it heard that the property was set to be sold and the church demolished to make way for a Dunkin' Donuts. A Save St. Mary's group was formed to fight the sale and even city councilors pushed back against the developer.

Eventually, the plan was dropped. Finding someone to preserve the historic facade of the church while bringing new life into the buildings was the next task.

CT Management Group, headed by David Carver, then submitted an offer. Carver had previously purchased the former St. Raphael's in Williamstown; Holy Family Church in North Adams; the former Notre Dame School on Melville Street; and the former Holy Family Church on Seymour. In each case, he converted the existing buildings to apartments while preserving much of the historic architecture and appearance.

"We've come up with a floor plan that does not require much alteration to the exterior of the church," Carver told the City Council of his similar plans to renovate the St. Mary the Morningstar buildings.

He said at St. Mary's, which he is calling the Morningstar project, the only exterior changes would be new windows, the addition of new windows on the side of the church, and possibly creating an entrance in the rear, where the altar is located.

At the convent, an L-shaped addition will be removed, bring more symmetry to the building, and Carver plans to repair the school on the hill -- the oldest structure and the one with the most damage.

The work is expected to cost $7.5 million -- a price tag that Carver says without assistance from the city and state would require rents too high for the market to bear. Carver bought the property for $500,000 and is now working with the banks, city, and state to craft a long-term financing plan that will allow rents to fall into the high end of Pittsfield's market.

"The cost to renovate this complex would require rents probably $3,000 to $3,500 a month. That is just not sustainable," Carver said.

"We know that the top of the market is in this range of $1,200, $1,500 ... We know above $1,500 the market starts to disappear in Pittsfield."

The proposed rents are comparable to those at the former Notre Dame School and the Powerhouse Lofts project, among other downtown Pittsfield projects Carver has completed. And they are comparable to what Allegrone is charging for the Howard and Onota buildings, both of which were renovated into market-rate housing in recent years. All of those projects, once completed, had quickly filled up.

"These are rents that are taken from averages, which we understand are representative of properties we own and others own," said Craig Barnum of CT Management.

To hit those target rents, the developer is working with the state's Housing Development Initiative Program -- which the city expanded to cover the Tyler Street area last year -- and the city.

Director of Community Development Deanna Ruffer said the city's agreement would place a base assessment of $290,000 -- which can go up or down depending on an independent assessment every year. Carver would pay the residential tax rate on that for four years.

For the first four years, the city will see somewhat of a drop in revenue. Currently, the property is divided into four parcels for a collective assessed value of $509,200. And the church has been paying at a commercial rate of $39.78 per thousand. That led to a tax bill of $20,448.98 in fiscal 2018.

Those parcels are going to be merged and assessed at the lower residential rate of $20.01 for the base $290,000 assessment. The merging of the parcels changes the assessment factors -- from having two pieces of prime land to only have one, large residential property -- and the residential tax rate is lower than the commercial. Under the fiscal 2018 tax rate, that would result in a bill of approximately $5,800.

"It is giving up revenue on the short term for gains on the long term," said Director of Finance Matthew Kerwood, adding that the $290,000 value is mostly driven by the land and not the vacant buildings.

Once developed, however, the value will rise to an estimated $1.8 million. In year five, 20 percent of the value added by Carver's investment would be included on the bill. And for the 15 years subsequent, 5 percent of the new value would be added each year.

In all, Ruffer estimates some $600,000 would be paid in taxes by the developer and about $300,000 would be forgiven.

"We consider this a critical project to go forward. We are pleased it is a local developer," Ruffer said.

The project is more than just a renovation of a vacant building and the eventual increase in tax revenue. The property is the first major project undertaken in the city's Transformative Development Initiative zone -- a program with the state's MassDevelopment to develop key properties in Morningside to trigger more private investment.

"I think this project is being very well received," said Mayor Linda Tyer. "This is going to be a milestone in solidifying all of the efforts we are putting into revitalizing this neighborhood."

The hope is that one successful project will lead to another and then another as the city continues its focus on Tyler Street.

And the project improves and diversifies the housing stock in the city. Market-rate housing has been identified as a major gap in the market and a type of rental units young professionals are seeking.

"This improves our housing stock, which we know we still have a lot of work to do even after this," Council Vice President John Krol said.

Carver estimates the market can use between 200 and 250 more market-rate units in downtown Pittsfield.

The project hits a number of priorities of the City Council, which is why multiple motions to send the proposal to a subcommittee were defeated. The council is eager to move the project along and Tuesday's approval may help move the state's incentives along. According to Ruffer, the state waits until local action is taken.

"I am incredibly happy to see this project move forward tonight," said Ward 1 Councilor Helen Moon.

The council unanimously approved the agreement. Ruffer said her office is now working with the state and attorneys to finalize the agreement.
Principal John Vosburgh updated the School Committee about his preparations on Wednesday.

Taconic Principal Plotting Use, Scheduling of New High School

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  More than 100 tradesmen have been on and off the site of the new Taconic High School getting the building ready.

And inside the current building across the driveway, Principal John Vosburgh has been doing the same. Vosburgh has been meeting with faculty, staff, and parents to devise a plan on how to layout and schedule operations in the new Valentine Road school.

"I hope we can get it right the first time and if we don't, we'll fix it," Vosburgh told the School Committee on Wednesday night.

The biggest struggle relates to the cafeteria. The capacity is only 300, which means the school will have to have three lunch periods instead of two. That creates a headache all of its own when scheduling class times.

"It is muddy at best to figure out a schedule that will work," Vosburgh said, and later adding, "it is doable. We are going to have a creative fourth and fifth period, which is our lunches."

Between the vocational options such as a week on and week off program, teachers shared with other schools, and students on rotation, working out a time for everyone is posing a challenge. Vosburgh is now working with the cafeteria staff to figure out the time needed between lunches and hopes to craft workable schedules soon.

"It is tricky to accommodate a large number of students with the number of various programs we offer," he said.

Vosburgh said there is an urgency to figuring it out because students will be registering for classes in a little over a month. That also means figuring out where all the classrooms will be located.

The new building has two pods of classrooms off from the main hallway on each of the second and third floors. The classrooms surround common workspaces  a design the School Building Needs Committee had particularly fought to keep. And now Vosburgh needs to decide whether those classrooms are grouped by class or by subject matter.

If it is aligned by grade, Vosburgh said teachers of the same students can more easily collaborate and the teachers will be seeing the students in the hallway much more often. It also reduces the number of times the student needs to transition to other parts of the building and gives a little more consistency in parents dropping students off in the area where their classrooms are located.

But, there is a question of whether it is good for the children to be grouped with the same peers for most of the day. Vosburgh said it is important for the younger high school students to mingle with the older ones so they can see the more mature behavior of older students. The principal said he modeled 15 student schedules for ninth-graders and, with the exception of three or four classes, the students do move around the building often, which alleviates that concern somewhat.

If the rooms are grouped by subject, that too allows for teachers to share materials more easily. But, the individual teacher will only interact with the student in the class because that student will be in other parts of the school for other classes.

In the current building, the teacher areas are grouped by subject but the classrooms aren't necessarily. He said the classrooms themselves are a bit mixed.

School Committee member William Cameron suggested considering doing a similar model with the new school. The teacher workrooms are in the middle of each grouping and Cameron suggested that grouping the faculty space by discipline.

"If the faculty is grouped by discipline, that would facilitate interactions of teachers teaching the same subject regardless of where the classrooms are," Cameron said.

The staff had also been active back in June in determining the furniture and equipment. And every Wednesday, Vosburgh says he holds an option meeting with staff members to discuss the new building's operations.

The new $120.8 million school will welcome its first class of students in the fall. Vosburgh is hoping to get everything planned out ahead of time to ease any worries staff might have heading into that school year.

"We want this to be an exciting opportunity, a positive move and not something the folks will be anxious about," Vosburgh said.

School Committee member Cynthia Taylor said it is already an exciting time. She said every Taconic staff member she's spoken to has raved about moving to the new school. Meanwhile, School Committee member Dennis Powell is glad that Vosburgh is including students in that planning process.
Clarksburg Readies Fee Schedule for Marijuana Locations

CLARKSBURG, Mass.  With the successful passage of a retail cannabis bylaw, town officials are now starting to look at a fee structure for all the licensing and inspections that will need to happen.

Those fees can include but are not limited to: applications, zoning compliance certification, building inspections, Fire Department inspections, security and legal fees, and host community agreement legal review fees. Most are one-time fees, others may be annual.

"We're also going to have to establish some parameters on the Board of Health, an annual inspection fee like for instance we have for restaurants," Town Administrator Carl McKinney told the Select Board on Wednesday. "Because they are having a consumable product, if you will. ... I'm trying to get some numbers, I don't want to wildly throw some numbers out there, but I want to be somewhat consistent with the other communities."

The community host agreement provides payments up to five years. Hadley had negotiated an agreement for a medical dispensary four years ago for $50,000, McKinney said. Northampton did not sign a host agreement but instead will receive $100,000 a year and a 1.5 percentage of the profits of its dispensary. Other communities have negotiated not only money , but levels of hiring for local people or for diversity.

McKinney noted that a much larger town like Hadley, which is also in densely populated area, can command more.

"With the understanding we're a smaller community, but that can go right into the general fund," he said.

The state Cannabis Control Commission is expected to begin accepting applications for licenses for retail marijuana and related production facilities in April, with the first of about 75 licenses statewide to dispensed in June. Communities are seeing the state legalization of pot as new source of revenue since the state will also allow a local sales tax of up to 3 percent.

Sales of retail pot in Colorado topped $4 billion in 2016. The new production and sales facilities have been a boon to a number of struggling communities by creating jobs and they've used the windfall to rebuild schools and infrastructure.

However, as more states legalize marijuana, the level of competition will grow. There's also the concern that the U.S. Department of Justice will interfere in the growing trade because it remains illegal at the federal level.

McKinney said he was going to go through the current fee schedule and will add in the fees for the marijuana licensing and certificates and have it back to the board by mid- to late February.

"We should up and running and ready to go for when the floodgates open," he said.

Chairman Jeffrey Levanos also asked if there were going to be changes to the solary array bylaw approved in December. A number of residents had expressed concern that the overlay district for large commercial arrays was limited to one section of town on the west side. At least one resident is trying to install an agricultural array  an installation designed to work with agricultural pursuits  off Daniels Road.

"My thought is to just expand the overlay district to those areas that are appropriate for it," McKinney said. He anticipated putting that to a vote at town meeting after the Planning Board holds hearings. "I think that will be an easy one because we don't have to change tables or any of the uses, it's just going to expand the overlay district."

Any array would still have to go through the permitting process and abuttors within 300 feet of a property line would be alerted to the fact that any proposal was seeking permitting.

In other business:

 McKinney said department budget requests were coming in and he expected to hold the first budget review on Jan. 22. The town now has a full Finance Committee comprised of James Stakenas, Mark Denault and Ronald Boucher, a former North Adams city councilor who recently moved over the border.

The governor's budget should be released in a little over two weeks and McKinney thought a good sign was that state revenues were pacing $720 million over what had been anticipated.

"I don't know if that means they're going to find it in their hearts to help out small towns and cities with state aid, or put it in the rainy day fund in Boston, or fund other initiatives they weren't able to fund with the budget they passed last year," he said. "But at least one good thing out of that is it's unlikely that will get the governor's 9C cuts halfway through the year."

 The board had placed David Dunn of Middle Road on the agenda but he did not attend the meeting.
Town Accountant Mary Beverly, Selectmen Chairman John Duval and Christine Hoyt discuss the next steps in finding a new town administrator.

Adams to Post Town Administrator Job

ADAMS, Mass.  The position of town administrator will be posted at the end of the week and officials hope to wrap up the entire process in four to six months.

"It is a pretty aggressive timetable and I think we are all aware of that but that is what we are aiming for," Selectwoman Christine Hoyt said Wednesday.

Former Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco left the post at the expiration of his three-year contract in December. Mazzucco is now the general manager of Norwood.

Since his departure, the Selectmen's personnel subcommittee has been outlining the search and hiring process.

While the town conducts this search process, Community Development Director Donna Cesan has taken over the position in the interim, as she had before Mazzucco was hired.

Town Accountant Mary Beverly said the advertisements should be posted at the end of the week and that the advertising is being done in more places than in 2014.

"The last search we did was on a shoestring budget but we do not anticipate this being much more," she said.

Beverly said there will be a cost to this and she will have a better handle on that later in the month.

Duval said because the town has not budgeted for advertising or a search process there will most likely need to be a reserve fund transfer.

Hoyt said the composition of the search committee should be finalized at the end of the month.

"We have some names of people who have come forward, but we haven't reviewed their qualifications yet," Hoyt said. "So we do have those willing volunteers so far and I am sure we will have a few more."

Selectman John Duval noted that this year, two selectmen will sit on the seven-member search committee.

The board members had agreed that they wanted to have more involvement in the process instead of handing over all responsibilities to a search committee.

During the search for Mazzucco in 2014, the selectmen only interviewed three candidates the search committee chose as finalists.

Hoyt said the subcommittee did look at hiring a firm to help in the process. She said although it seemed to be cost prohibitive, they have not ruled it out completely

The subcommittee will bring these recommendations to the full board at a future meeting for a vote.
ELKO  A group home for recovering drug and alcohol addicts could be allowed on Winchester Drive in a residential area if the owner can meet conditions ordered by the Elko City Council.

Stacey Payne brought her lawyer, Kenneth E. Thomas from Las Vegas, to the city meeting Jan. 9 after the city planning commission denied a conditional use permit Dec. 5 for a sober living facility through her business LYFE Recovery Services.

Her attorney said that laws protecting fair housing and Americans with disabilities make denial of the sober living facility illegal on the federal level.

The commission considered city code and good will of the applicant in its decision, said City Planner Cathy Laughlin, who explained that the business model didnt match descriptions in city code, that parking was insufficient for the potential number of residents, that the applicant had missed filing deadlines and was advertising rooms for rent through Airbnb.

They denied it because of the extensiveness of the use of the 22 people living there and the limited amount of parking, Laughlin said after the meeting. We werent in violation of any laws  because we allow it in residential zoning district. It just needs to be with a CUP.

Payne began the administrative process to get a business license last year in May or June. When she was denied on the grounds of needing a conditional use permit, the city instructed her to cease renting. She said she would not do that over the holidays to people who had nowhere else to go.

Im not trying to violate your rules, Payne said. Im not trying to be antagonistic.

The city council members, excluding John Patrick Rice who was absent, unanimously rejected the commissions unanimous decision to deny the conditional use permit but attached stipulations that city attorney Dave Stanton said pertain to intensity of usage not type of usage.

The stipulations require that Payne follow the recommended conditions of the city planner in a Nov. 21 memo, adhere to an 11-occupant limit, and obtain a waiver or variance within 180 days to bring the number of parking spaces up from three into compliance with city code. The planning commission would review her application for a waiver or variance. If denied, she could appeal to city council.

Councilman Reece Keener also strongly suggested that Payne hold a neighborhood meeting to help clear up misconceptions about what the facility would offer. The city also got it on record that Payne committed not to bring in any new renters until she obtains a business license.

Several neighbors attended the public hearing to express concerns about traffic, parking and property value. Additional comments regarding the type of residents at the facility were chided by Paynes lawyer.

Even public comments on that are discriminatory, Thomas said.

Payne operates about 10 related for-profit sober living facilities in Northern Nevada, and the Winchester Drive facility would be her first in northeastern Nevada. The building formerly operated as part of BeeHive Homes, an assisted living facility, before being abandoned for about a year.

LYFE Recovery clients are directed to sober living homes through drug court, Payne said, and residents at the Elko location would be local. She said she will have to look at her expenses and rates, about $600 per person, to determine if 11 occupants could cover her lease.

I guess we are going to keep fighting this fight. We have to. Im not a quitter, Payne said after the meeting. We are also really solution oriented. Im really, really grateful that they let us keep operating.
Faces of The Fellowship: Esfir

The Fellowship | January 10, 2018 Faces of The Fellowship: Esfir

Esfir, 79, was born in a small town in Ukraine three years before the outbreak of World War II. When the war began, her family fled to Vinnitsa, Ukraine, where they felt they had a better chance of surviving. Vinnitsa had a ghetto, but Esfirs family was fortunate  a Christian family hid them in a shack in their backyard.

The family returned home after the war, only to find that their house had been destroyed in the fighting; not a scrap was left.

Despite her traumatic early childhood, Esfir has fond memories of their return home, including her first meeting with the classmate who eventually became her husband. The couple met when they were just seven. Esfir used to joke that they were together for so long she was tired of him.

Now Esfir longs for those days. Her husband passed away many years ago, at the age of 56, and every day Esfir mourns his loss.

The couples only son lives in Moscow, where he recently suffered a heart attack. Esfir is worried sick, but her own health is too fragile, and her finances too strained, for her to visit him.

Esfir has heart disease and chronic bronchitis. A few years ago, she went blind in one eye, when the hospital electricity shorted out in the middle of her cataract surgery.

The Fellowship and Hesed, an organization we partner with and also support, have become Esfirs family. Hesed provides her with homecare, warm blankets in the winter, and assistance paying her utility bills. The Fellowship helps Esfir by paying for food and medicine. Thanks to The Fellowships assistance, Esfir is no longer forced to choose between the two. And shes once again surviving thanks to the kindness of Christians!

Learn how you can help impoverished elderly in need, like Esfir, receive the lifesaving care they desperately need.




This Isnt Our Last Love Letter



Dear Don Don,

Way back in 92



I walked into the room and knew



Never felt this way before



I shook your hand while gazing into your eyes



And the feeling grew



As I took a seat I knew



A love that would have my heart



Forever



I knew



Way back in 92





They say love at first sight doesnt always last or isnt true



We were the exception to that rule



Our love had no where to hide



A spark set fire



As if this is how the universe started





I never doubted our love or what we could do



Together we grew



Forming a bond everlasting



That became our glue



My euphoria was YOU



Im eternally grateful for the love and life we shared



For how fortunate we were :



to have and to hold

through sickness and in health

Til death do us part



Until we are together again



This isnt our last love letter



I love you with all my heart and soul



Yours forever,



Deirdre (Mrs. Hank Snow)





Im fortunate to have fallen in love with, marry and make a life with the sharpest, coolest, funniest, most rare, bad ass, tender loving, loyal man on the planet, my husband Don Imus.









A True American Hero

I dont know why it has been so hard for me to write about my dear friend Don Imus.



I certainly know what he meant to me, my family, my charity, my hospital and the millions of fans that listened and loved him for so many years.



I keep reading all the beautiful condolences that people are writing about how much a part of their lives were effected by listening to him over the years.

But what most people dont talk enough about is what he did for all of us.

In every sense of the word, he was an American Hero. His work with children with so many different illnesses and his dedication to their future was unmatched by anyone I have ever known or heard about.



Besides raising over $100,000,000 for so many causes, he took care of young people for over 20 years in a state where he could not breathe. Along with his incredible wife Deirdre, he created a world where children were not defined by their disease. That was a miracle! He was a miracle.

I will miss him ever day for the rest of my life.

I was blessed to be a part of his and Deirdes life.

No one will ever do what he did.

I love you Don Imus - A TRUE AMERICAN HERO





David Jurist

IMUS IN THE MORNING

FIRST DAY BACK!
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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Popular Marvel character Black Widow is finally being treated to her own film with a writer officially in place.

According to Variety, the studio has pulled in Jac Schaeffer to write the currently untitled film making good on its promise to bring fans the standalone film they've been wanting.

Marvel fans have long questioned why the character - played by Scarlett Johansson - hasn't been handed her own film despite appearing in five previous films including Iron Man 2, Avengers Assemble and Captain America: Civil War. She'll next be seen in Avengers: Infinity War released in the UK this April.

The project is yet to be given the official greenlight, however, the fact it's in the early development stages is a hugely promising notion. Schaeffer's previous credits include the Disney short Olaf's Frozen Adventure while her name will be attached to Nasty Women, the forthcoming all-female Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remake starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson.

Should Black Widow - real name Natasha Romanoff - make it to production, it's likely it'll arrive beyond its next phase which looks to be kickstarted by Black Panther next February.

27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Show all 27 1 /27 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Black Panther Released: 12 February 12 February Director: Ryan Coogler Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Forest Whitaker, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 The Greatest Showman Released: 1 January 1 January Director: Michael Gracey Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Darkest Hour Released: 12 January 12 January Director: Joe Wright Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri Released: 12 January Director: Martin McDonagh 12 JanuaryMartin McDonagh Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones > Twentieth Century Fox 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Coco Released: 19 January 19 January Director: Lee Unkrich ,p>Cast: Anthony Gonzalez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renee Victor 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Downsizing Released: 19 January 19 January Director: Alexander Payne Cast: Matt Damon, Christopher Waltz, Jong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Early Man Released: 26 January 26 January Director: Nick Park Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Fifty Shades Freed Released: 9 February 9 February Director: James Foley Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Kim Basinger 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Maze Runner: The Death Cure Released: 9 February 9 February Director: Wes Ball Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 The Shape of Water Released: 16 February 16 February Director: Guillermo del Toro Cast: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Annihilation Released: 23 February 23 February Director: Alex Garland Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Lee, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Dark River Released: 23 February 23 February Director: Clio Barnard Cast: Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, Sean Bean 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Red Sparrow Released: 2 March 2 March Director: Francis Lawrence Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Tomb Raider Released: 16 March 16 March Director: Roar Uthaug Cast: Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Dominic West, 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 A Wrinkle in Time Released: 23 March 23 March Director: Ava DuVernay Cast: Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Zach Galifianakis 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Pacific Rim: Uprising Released: 23 March 23 March Director: Steven S. DeKnight Cast: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Roman J Israel, Esq Released: 23 March 23 March Director: Dan Gilroy Cast: Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo Columbia Pictures 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Isle of Dogs Released: 30 March 30 March Director: Wes Anderson Cast: Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Ready Player One Released: 30 March 30 March Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Avengers: Infinity War Released: 27 April 27 April Director: The Russo Brothers Cast: Robert Downey, Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Untitled Han Solo Film Released: 25 May 25 May Director: Ron Howard Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Released: 8 June 8 June Director: J.A. Bayona Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pine, B.D. Wong, Toby Jones 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Deadpool 2 Released: 1 June Director: David Leitch 1 JuneDavid Leitch Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Zazie Beetz, Josh Brolin 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Ocean's 8 Released: 22 June 22 June Director: Gary Ross Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Anne Hathaway, Olivia Munn, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna, Matt Damon 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Ant-Man and the Wasp Released: 29 June 29 June Director: Peyton Reed Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Soldado Released: 29 June 29 June Director: Stefano Sollima Cast: Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Donovan, Catherine Keener, Matthew Modine 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 The Incredibles 2 Released: 13 July 13 July Director: Brad Bird Cast: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Samuel L. Jackson

It won't be the first time a female superhero has led a Marvel film - that will go to both Brie Larson's Captain Marvel as well as Lost star Evangeline Lilly's The Wasp who shares the title role of Ant-Man and the Wasp with Paul Rudd.

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For a second consecutive night, James Franco has addressed recent allegations made against him following the Golden Globes awards ceremony.

Speaking to Seth Meyers, Franco gave a similar response to questions about the accusations, the current #MeToo movement and Time's Up campaign as those given previously to Stephen Colbert.

The actor  who won the Best Actor Golden Globe for The Disaster Artist  began by acknowledging the claims, calling them not accurate but saying a conversation needs to take place in Hollywood.

Speaking specifically about Ally Sheedy, who accused Franco of misconduct in since-deleted Tweets, he said: "I had a great relationship with her, she took the tweet down. I don't know.

Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Show all 30 1 /30 Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Margot Robbie The Australian actor is renowned for her sartorial prowess and this ornate Gucci gown is no exception. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Maggie Gylenhaal The American actor offset the minimalism of her custom Monse jumpsuit with dramatic drop earrings reaching down to her decolletage. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Alilison Janney Before taking home the award for best supporting actress for her role in I, Tonya, Janney turned heads on the red carpet in a graphic Mario Dice fishtail gown. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Reese Witherspoon & Eva Longoria While the Big Little Lies producer opted for a off-the-shoulder Zac Posen number, Eva Longoria donned a custom Genny gown, complete with a thigh-high slit. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Alison Brie The Glow star opted for a billowing trouser suit by Vassilis Zoulias. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Jessica Chastain The Molly's Game star donned a custom Armani Prive off-the-shoulder gown. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Mandy Moore The This Is Us star chose a halterneck gown from Rosie Assoulin's Fall 2017 collection, paired with a Tyler Ellis clutch. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Catherine Zeta-Jones Not one to shy away from a daring design, the Welsh actor donned a sheer plunging gown from Zuhair Murad's couture collection. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Penelope Cruz Ralph & Russo know a thing or two about dressing high-profile celebrities (remember that Meghan Markle dress?) making the Australian design duo a perfect fit for Cruz, who stunned in an ornate couture gown from their latest collection. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Meryl Streep and Ai-jen Poo Streep donned a custom Vera Wang gown with a sweetheart neckline at this year's ceremony. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Alexis Biedel The Handmaid's Tale star wore a dynamic strapless jumpsuit by Oscar De La Renta, complete with a leaf-like sash and a classic burgundy lip. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Allison Williams Bringing a splash of colour to the Globe's all-black-everything aesthetic, the Get Out actor wore a strapless Armani Prive couture gown. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Oprah Winfrey Winfrey opted for a form-fitting Atelier Versace gown as she took to the stage to accept the Cecil B. de Mille award. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Lily James The British actor went all-out glamour puss in this Valentino couture gown. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Naomi Campbell The British model kept it classic in an off-the-shoulder pleated number by Jean Paul Gaultier paired with Neil Lane jewellery. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Saoise Ronan The Irish actor might have taken home the prestigious gong for best actor, thanks to her stellar performance in Ladybird, but her custom Atelier Versace gown is no less noteworthy. Paired with Cartier jewellery, Ronan is the epitome of elegance in this award-worthy look. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Zac Efron If anyone can make an all-black suit their own, it's the Disney heartthrob-turned-bonafide-talent Efron, who took to the red carpet in a sleek Hugo Boss tuxedo. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Angelina Jolie A strong contender for best-dressed, Jolie paired her Atelier Versace dress with Forevermark jewellery and Stuart Weitzman shoes. The effortlessly chic up-do perfectly compliments the actor's sheer neckline while proudly showing off her diamond earrings. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Kerry Washington The Scandal star channelled rock'n'roll glamour in this sequin Prabal Gurung gown, complete with a thigh-high slit. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Millie Bobby Brown She may only be 13 years old, but the Stranger Things actor has already firmly established herself as a red carpet pro and this custom Calvin Klein mini is no exception. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Kendall Jenner When it comes to red carpet fashion, the reality star-turned-model is known for her regal tastes and this Giambattista Valli gown is the perfect fit for Jenner's perennial princess aesthetic. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Justin Timberlake and Jessie Biel While Timberlake oozed sophistication in a Dior Homme tuxedo, Biel opted for a strapless tulle gown from Dior's Spring couture 2017 collection. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Dakota Johnson The American actor is a longstanding Gucci girl so it's no surprise she chose a belted velvet number from the Italian design house. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Nick Jonas Showing his support for the Times Up campaign, the singer donned an all-black tuxedo on the red carpet. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Zoe Kravitz If anyone can pull off paired-back simplicity on the red carpet, it's Zoe Kravitz. The Big Little Lies star paired her stunning custom Saint Laurent gown with emerald drop earrings and a striking red lip i.e. an exemplar in the 'less is more' aesthetic. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Emilia Clarke The Game of Thrones star turned heads in a strapless Miu Miu gown. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman If there's one couple that knows how to master the art of red carpet coordination, it's Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, whose ornate custom Givenchy gown perfectly complimented the simplicity of her husband's all-black ensemble. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Gal Gadot The Wonder Woman star made her mark on this year's red carpet with a fitted strapless Tom Ford complete with a touch of androgyny thanks to a cropped tailored blazer. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Daniel Kaluuya The Get Out frontman glided across the red carpet in a classic Gucci tuxedo. Rex Features Golden Globes 2018 Best Dressed Kate Hudson If anyone can pull off a plunging sheer Valentino gown, it's Kate Hudson. The actor completed her look with a dramatic pendant necklace while keeping her hair and makeup fairly simple, allowing the dress to take centre stage. Rex Features

Pressed on the issue by Meyers, who asked whether the actor had approached Sheedy to understand why she would Tweet those messages, Franco replied: It was just so shocking, I don't know. I guess I'm just letting it be."

The host then asked about whether the recent #MeToo movement has made him reflect on past actions, Franco gave his most revealing answer: "I think what I really learned, like I said, there are stories that need to get out, people that need to be heard.

I have my own side of this story but I believe in these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much.

If I have to take a knock because I am not going to try and actively refute things then I will because I believe in it that much." Watch below.

Franco was one of the many actors to wear a Time's Up pin to the Golden Globes, receiving criticism on Twitter as a result. As a result of the new allegations, a scheduled TimesTalk with Franco concerning The Disaster Artist was cancelled.
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A man named Sandy Schklair claims it was he - rather than Tommy Wiseau - who directed The Room, the notoriously terrible movie written, directed and acted in by Wiseau.

Schklair, whose credits include War, Inc and The Devil's Rejects, has stayed mostly silent about his involvement with the film for the past 15 years.

The timing for Schklair to come forward is interesting considering James Franco's biographical adaptation of the film, The Disaster Artist, just won a Golden Globe for 'Best Musical or Comedy.'

In The Disaster Artist, Schklair was played by Seth Rogen, helping out Wiseau on set.

Schklair claims his job was originally as The Room's script supervisor, but that he ended up directing the majority of the movie when he was made director and first assistant by Wiseau.

"He had no idea what the directing process was, no idea how you shoot," Schklair explained to THR.

Schklair has now detailed his claims in a new book titled, Yes I Directed the Room, which will be released this Friday via Canadian publisher Finding Dimes Literature.

"You know what, I don't care if it's a sh***y movie. I directed crap and got it noticed all around the world," he said. "I directed this entire movie, except for the love scenes and the second unit stuff in San Francisco."

In the 2013 book version of The Disaster Artist, Schklair's involvement in the film is detailed by authors Greg Sestero (Wiseau's close friend and The Room co-star) and Tom Bissell saying, "Sandy helped set up eyelines, blocked scenes, worked on the dialogue, and established a basic through-line of minimum coherence," later explaining Schklair was the "only reason we'd gotten anything remotely watchable on film."

It's understandable as to why Schklair's involvement with The Room would have been downplayed for the past 15 years, considering it wasn't a part of mainstream pop culture for so long.
Nonprofit groups may submit announcements of upcoming events to events@elkodaily.com.

BLM to host blood drive Jan. 18

ELKO  The Bureau of Land Management Elko District office will host a United Blood Services community blood drive from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 18 at 3900 E. Idaho St.

The Elko community really stepped up last year and 70 donors gave 78 lifesaving units of blood. Said Camille Howes, associate district manager. This was more than double what we received the year prior. And, the event is growing, we hope to collect 100 units of blood during this drive.

According to United Blood Services, the winter months are a critical time for blood donations.

Some blood donation facts:

Save up to three lives with your donation

Northern Nevada needs 125 pints of blood a day to take care of the area hospital patients

You can donate whole blood every 8 weeks

Someone needs a blood transfusion every 2 seconds

80% of patients entering the hospital will receive blood

Almost everyone knows someone who has received blood

All blood types are needed!

Blood donors are encouraged to visit the United Blood Services website for more information and to complete the screening process prior to arrival at www.UnitedBloodServices.org, use sponsor code EBLM.

Financial Peace classes begin Jan. 9 in Elko

ELKO  Ramsey Solutions Financial Peace University will offer a nine-week course at Elko Assembly of God, 700 Front St., beginning Jan. 9.

Created by financial expert Dave Ramsey, the course provides families and individuals with practical tools to gain control of their finances and set themselves up for long-term financial success.

Along with Ramsey personalities Rachel Cruze and Chris Hogan, Ramsey teaches lessons on budgeting, relationships and money, getting out of debt, saving for emergencies and investing.

FPU will not only transform the way you handle money, but also your marriage and other areas of your life, says Ramsey. This isnt a boring financial class. We make learning about money fun and easy to understand so people in every situation can benefit from the information.

The Elko classes will be held at 6 p.m. Go to www.fpu.com/1052969 for more information or to register.

Local RPEN to meet January 10

ELKOThe Elko County Chapter of Retired Public Employees of Nevada will hold their monthly meeting at 12:30 p.m. Jan. 10 at the Terrace Senior Center, 1795 Ruby View Drive. Tony Buzzetti from Liberty Mutual speaking on insurance needs will be the guest speaker.

All active and retired public employees who are in the PERS retirement system are invited to attend.

For more information contact President Hal Keaton at 962-1991 or email halkeaton@yahoo.com.

Learn about species at Audubon meeting

ELKO  Bristlecone Audubons next meeting will be at 7 p.m. Jan. 12 in Room 208 of the DCIT Building on the campus of Great Basin College, 1050 Chilton Circle.

Nycole Burton, wildlife biologist from the BLM; and Ali Helmig, biodiversitycoordinator for the Great Basin Institute, will present Special Status Species, The Biodiversity Program. Learn about BLM-listed special status species, their habitat, distribution, current research and management. Focus species will include Prebles shrew, western red bat, Mattoinis blue butterfly and the Goose Creek milkvetch.

Everyone is welcome. For more infomation contact BristleconeAudubon@gmail.com.

Workshops set on Humboldt River study

CARSON CITY  The Nevada Division of Water Resources will hold public workshops to provide information on Humboldt River Basin water modeling studies by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Desert Research Institute.

The Elko workshop will be held at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 10 at the Nannini Administration Building, County Commissioner Chambers, 540 Court St.

Other meetings are at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 9 at Lovelock City Hall, and 2 p.m. Jan. 9 at the Humboldt County Cooperative Extension Building, 1085 Fairgrounds Road, Winnemucca.

The Division can make reasonable accommodations for members of the public who are disabled and wish to attend the meeting. If special arrangements are necessary, write the Nevada Division of Water Resources at 901 S. Stewart St., Ste. 2002, Carson City, Nevada, 89701, or call 775-684-2800.

EHS Cheer Clinic this month

ELKO  Its that time of year again. The Elko High School Cheerleaders are holding their annual Cheer Clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. January 13 at the Centennial Gymnasium.

Registration begins at 8 a.m. There will be an evening performance at 6 p.m. at the Centennial Gym that same evening.

The cost is $30 per child for ages kindergarten to eighth grade. Price includes a t-shirt. Please bring a sack lunch and water bottle. There will be dancing, cheering, stunting and a whole lot of fun.

Any questions, call Penny Wilson at 340-2726 or Elko High School at 738-7281.

A busy month at the Folklife Center

ELKO  The Western Folklife Center 501 Railroad St. has several events planned in January heading into the 34th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

Join the free musical jam session Jam On! from 6-8 p.m. Jan. 10. The bar will be open, serving no-host Ruby Mountain beers and other refreshing beverages. Facilitated by Southwind, bring your favorite tunes to share, your instruments, your friends and fans.

Lets Dance will be from 6-9 p.m. Jan. 11. Dance lessons in a selected style are at 6, followed by open social dancing at 7. Admission is $5. Adults and teens are welcome, no partner or experience necessary. Contact ElkoLetsDance@gmail.com.

A training session and chili feed for Gathering volunteers is slated from 6-8 p.m. Jan. 16 at the Pioneer Saloon. Sign-ups are available for unfilled positions  register to volunteer anytime on the Western Folklife Center website.

Drop by the Pioneer Saloon from 6-8 p.m. Jan. 17 and enjoy the lively music of Elkos own Southwind band. The bar will be open for business and theres room to dance.

Foster parent training set in Elko

ELKO  An opportunity for Foster/Adoptive Parent Training is coming to Elko in mid-January.

Participants will attend three sessions, each lasting from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Jan. 12-14 at The Terrace at Ruby View, 1795 Ruby View Drive.

Interested persons should call Lori Nichols, Foster Care Recruiter, at 1-888-423-2659 to sign up. All three days are required for applicants who wish to move forward with licensure.

Medicare basics to be discussed

ELKO  Learn the basics of Medicare at 6 p.m. Jan. 17 at the Terraces Senior and active Lifestyle Center, 1795 Ruby View Drive.

The instructors are Jan Brizee of the Nevada Office of Consumer Health Assistance and Vicki Salazar of Aging and Disability Services. The evening talk is hosted by the Medicare in Elko Workgroup.

The presentation will be followed by questions from the audience. Topics will include: Who is eligible? How do I sign up? What is covered under Parts A, B & D? Do I need a supplemental plan? Is there help for low-income?

The evening presentation is open to all members of the public.

After-School Crafts at the library

ELKO  Join Elko County Library for some creative fun with After-School Crafts @ Your Public Library.

Children can be preregistered for Spring After-School Crafts that will be held every first and third Wednesday of the month beginning Jan. 17 and running through April 18.

Preregistration is required and there is no cost. This program is designed for children ages 5 years and older.

Drop by the Library to register or call 738-3066 for additional information.

Lego mania time at the library

ELKO  Its Lego mania time at the Elko County Library. Show off your skills by building a Lego creation individually, with your family, or with a team. Prizes will be awarded in five categories.

A contest packet, with registration and guidelines, is available at the Library and on its website. Participants can deliver their LEGO creations to the Library from Jan. 8-20.

Special thanks to Wingers for sponsoring this contest.

Heart and Shield: Family violence prevention

ELKO  The Heart and Shield program provides parents and children with resources and skills to strengthen family relationships and build resilience. Parent survivors of former domestic violence and their children ages birth -18 may be eligible to participate.

This nine-week education program includes a light meal, separate skill building activities for adults and children, and family activities to practice skills together. Program topics include communication, emotions, problem-solving, healthy relationships, stress management and more.

This free program begins in February. A program demonstration for interested families will be held on Jan. 23 from 5:30-6:30 p.m.at the Elko County Cooperative Extension office, 701 Walnut St.

To RSVP call 340-8360 or email woodburyj@unce.unr.edu.

SBA state director coming to Elko

ELKO  Joe Amato, the new Nevada director for the U.S. Small Business Administration, will be in Elko on Jan. 25 to discuss the state of small business and SBA priorities,

Small businesses, chamber members, the financial community, development authority members, and economic development partners are invited to the session from 10 a.m. to noon at the Elko County Library, 720 Court St.

To RSVP contact Clint Koble at 775-843-4081 or ckoble@unr.edu.

Faith Lutheran sets annual meeting

ELKO  The annual meeting of Faith Lutheran Church congregation will be Jan.28 following the 10:30 service.

Agenda items include approval of the annual budget, confirmation of council members, and other items of concern to the congregation.

A potluck dinner will follow the meeting.

Nevada Humanities grant information

LAS VEGAS  Nevada Humanities will hold a series of free informational grant meetings, including one in Elko from 10-11 a.m. Feb. 2 at the Elko County Library.

These meetings are open to anyone interested in learning more about applying for project grant funding from Nevada Humanities. Nevada Humanities offers grants of up to $5,000 to nonprofit organizations and government entities, such as libraries and schools, to fund public and educational programs in the humanities.

Nevada Humanities funds projects that encourage community engagement and conversation. This may take the form of face-to-face dialogue, such as lectures, forums, and round-table discussions, or through programs that stimulate thought and reflection, such as media productions, film screenings, exhibitions, local history projects, and projects that explore local culture and Nevadas diverse heritage and unique places.

The Nevada Humanities grant application deadline is March 10, 2018, for projects taking place beginning July 1, 2018, and running through June 30, 2019. Applications requesting $1,000 or less may be submitted at any time, at least eight weeks prior to the proposed project date. Grant guidelines are available on the Nevada Humanities website at www.nevadahumanities.org.

Sweetheart Bingo at Carlin Senior Center

CARLIN  The Carlin Senior Center invites residents to Sweetheart Bingo from noon to 3 p.m. Feb. 10.

Free refreshments will be provided.

For more information call the Carlin Senior Center at 754-6465.
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Millennials watching Friends on Netflix have expressed reservations about the popular sitcoms storylines, describing it as transphobic, homophobic and sexist.

While the show ran for more than 10 years until 2004, it arrived on Netflix at the end of last year in the UK.

The series, starring Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer, remains one of the most popular shows in the US.

However, some millennials found LGBT plot points left them feeling uncomfortable  for example when Chandler was paranoid about being perceived as a gay man or made mean-spirited jokes about his cross-dressing dad.

Sexism seeps in when Rachel hires a nanny for her daughter Emma, but Emmas father Ross cant handle the fact that the nanny is a man. Ross takes it one step further to being homophobic by asking if hes gay.

Chandler trying to prove his sexuality to Monica on Friends (Warner Bros) ( Warner Bros. Television)

Not to mention Monica (played by Courtney Cox) was never allowed to forget she was once overweight  theres even an episode where Joey Tribbiani (played by LeBlanc) yells, Some girl ate Monica!

Monica dancing when she weighs more on Friends (Warner Bros) (Monica dancing when she weighs more. Credit: Warner Bros.)

New audiences claimed that Rachel would have been fired for sexual harassment because she hires an assistant who isnt qualified for the position because she wants to date him.

Theres also the controversial relationship between Monica and her fathers best friend whos 20 years older than her, but it was perceived as even more uncomfortable in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and #MeToo stories.

The sitcom has also received criticism for its lack of diversity  there were only two notable non-white characters on the show: Ross girlfriend Julie and Dr Charlie Wheeler.

Ross with his girlfriend Charlie on Friends (Warner Bros) ( Warner Bros. Television)

Friends still may be of peoples favourite series, but that doesnt mean it isnt problematic in 2018.
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The government of South Australia has given planning approval to a major solar thermal plant which, the developers say, would be the largest of its kind ever built.

The project is being developed by US company SolarReserve at a budgeted cost of A$650m (380m), and construction is set to begin this year.

This will be the latest move from the southern Australian state to cement its reputation as both a national and international leader in renewable energy.

 Teslas enormous battery in Southern Australia

This important milestone is a significant step in the development of the Aurora solar thermal power station, which will bring SolarReserves world-leading clean power generation technology to South Australia, said SolarReserves CEO, Kevin Smith.

The development follows Teslas construction of the worlds largest lithium ion battery in South Australia, which has already helped provide power during energy outages.

Upon the launch of the battery, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said the state is leading the world in dispatchable renewable energy.

Renewable energy has seen extensive investment in recent years, and a report released by the Conservation Council of South Australia in 2015 concluded the state could be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

The report found around 40 per cent of South Australian power came from wind and solar, and over a quarter of houses were fitted with rooftop solar panels.

South Australia has the highest penetration of renewables in the world, said Sara Bell, founder of energy company Tempus Energy, who has worked extensively in Australia.

They are kind of lucky with their resources  a lot of places that have the kind of climate they do have lots of solar but very little wind.

The mountain ranges found in the southern state, combined with its position by the sea, mean it has plenty of capacity for wind power as well as solar.

Labour state politicians in South Australia have been highly supportive of renewable energy.

They are deeply committed to decarbonisation, whereas the federal government is a virtual climate denier, said Ms Bell.

The new development will be located near Port Augusta, the site of the last coal power station in South Australia.

It will make use of solar thermal technology, and a molten salt tower to capture and store the suns energy.

The plant will use an array of panels, which function like mirrors and direct solar rays to a point in a central, salt-filled tower, heating the salt to a high temperature.

This heat energy can be stored in the salt battery, and then used to create steam and generate electricity.

SolarReserve has claimed the new plant will be able to power around 35 per cent of all of the households in South Australia.

The remarkable story of the transition of Port Augusta from coal to renewable energy  which won a competitive tender against fossil fuel  is also a preview of the future of power generation around the world, said Mr Smith.

Ms Bell agreed that renewable energy in the region is setting an example for the rest of the world.

It has put South Australia on the map, she said.
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Environmental groups have criticised the lack of proposed legislation and the lengthy timescales for dealing with problems in the Governments new environment strategy.

Theresa May launched the 25 year environment plan in a speech on Thursday, setting out the Governments goals for preserving and improving the environment.

Notable targets include eliminating all avoidable waste by 2050 and all avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042.

However, while the plan has been broadly welcomed by environmental groups, it has also drawn criticism.

We are not really clear what legislation there will be to implement this plan, Ben Stafford, head of campaigns at WWF told The Independent.

If you want to have a vision to not just protect the environment but improve it you need ambitious new laws to do that.

There are fantastic words and ambitions for land and sea that raise the spirits  but the lack of legal underpinning is a fundamental flaw, agreed Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts.

Ms Hilborne said an ambitious Environment Act will be necessary in the next Parliament if the new plan is to have any significance.

Plastic pollution was the topic from the plan that made headlines, with suggestions including the introduction of plastic-free supermarket aisles and an extension of the 5p carrier bag charge to all English retailers.

However, environmentalists emphasised the importance of focusing on other environmental challenges that have not been given the same prominence.

 Latte levy: The plastic problem inside your coffee cup

You only need to look at the things Theresa May didnt talk about for the clues to where the Governments record is not nearly so strong, Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, told The Independent.

Mr Bennett listed air pollution, fracking and the destruction of ancient woodlands as topics that were noticeable by their absence.

The long periods of time set aside to address problems is another issue highlighted by groups.

Its all very well saying in 25 years time you want to have a well-protected network of marine areas, or we want to increase our wildlife, said Mr Stafford.

Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Show all 11 1 /11 Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Plastic as far as the eye can see Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Plastic cutlery floats in the sea Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas An underwater view of the rubbish that sits on the top of the ocean Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas The plastic pollution is only getting worse in the ocean Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Plastic pollution in the sea looks like a pathway through the ocean Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Underwater view of a plastic bag in the sea Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Plastic floating in the sea Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Sea level view of the plastic pollution Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas A collection of plastic spreads across the sea Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Another view from in the ocean of the plastic floating Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Large quantities of trash gather in the sea Caroline Power Photography

But what are we going to do in the short term to make that happen?

According to Mr Stafford, the success of the 2008 Climate Change Act can largely be attributed to the setting of budgets every five years, targets and reports back to Parliament on progress.

We would like to see something similar to that in terms of the progress government is making, he said.

Twenty five years is a long way off  particularly for a government that might not last 25 weeks. We need action now, said Mr Bennett.

The environment is now a mainstream concern in this country, with millions of people caring deeply about it, said Greenpeace UKs executive director John Sauven.

Theresa May has a unique opportunity to rise to the challenge and make Britain a global leader in environmental protection. She should not waste it.
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A Marks & Spencer jumper worn by Meghan Markle has sold out just hours after her visit to a Brixton, south London, radio station.

The woman who can seemingly wear anything, Markle might have sported a 56,000 couture gown for her engagement photographs, but for her second official public engagement with Prince Harry, the actress selected a high/low mix of both designer and high street.

Sporting a chic all-black ensemble, the 36-year-old wore the black round-neck knit with bell sleeves from Marks & Spencer to visit the studio of community radio station Reprezent in south London on Tuesday.

She expertly teamed it with a pair of wide-leg Burberry trousers, a 580 camel coloured coat by Canadian brand Smythe, and continued her nod to the British high street by wrapping up in a scarf from Jigsaw.

Despite the stylish jumper being in stock that very morning, it had completely sold out online by 6pm as fans went on a frantic rush to emulate her look.

However, if you missed out first time round the good news is that Marks & Spencer has finally restocked the jumper.

Less than 48 hours after selling out, the retailer has relaunched the popular knit from its Autograph collection which, at the time of writing, is available in every size.

But at just 45, youre going to have to be quick.

This isnt the first time the so-called Markle Effect has seen the bride-to-bes style choices sell out though.

(Getty Images)

For her first royal engagement with Prince Harry, Markle wore a 455 tri-colour leather midi tote by Scottish label Strathberry, which promptly sold out.

It has also been reported that following the news of their engagement, demand for three diamond stone rings in a gold setting skyrocketed after the actress revealed her custom made ring to the world.
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A new email scam is targeting thousands of Netflix customers and attempting to trick them into handing over their credit card details, cyber security experts say.

Users are being sent a convincing-looking email that claims to have been sent by Netflix.

The message, which has the subject line Payment declined, contains the Netflix logo. Netflix is also listed as the name of the sender.

However, it is in fact a well-designed fake.

12 useful Netflix features you need to know Show all 12 1 /12 12 useful Netflix features you need to know 12 useful Netflix features you need to know Secret codes Netflix has a staggering number of hidden sub-genres, which you can unlock with special codes. You can browse the codes at http://ogres-crypt.com/public/NetFlix-Streaming-Genres2.html. When you find the one you want, paste it at http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/CODE (replacing CODE with the right combination of numbers). Unfortunately, this is only possible on the Netflix website. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know New features Everyone likes getting early access to new features for things they love, and Netflix lets you do just that. All you need to do is go to your Account page and select Test Participation. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know History We all have our guilty pleasures, though some are guiltier than others. If you really dont want other people to find out what yours is, you can delete it from your viewing history by visiting Netflixs Viewing Activity page, which you can find in the Account menu. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know Rogue users The Viewing Activity page has an option called See Recent Account Access, which shows you information about your account, such as when it has been used, on what device and where. If you spot any rogue-looking activity, you can knock anyone who isnt supposed to have access to your account off your account, by going back to your Account page and selecting Sign Out of All Devices. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know Ratings Unless youre binge-watching a series and therefore dont care about anything else Netflix has to offer, suggestions are important. You can help Netflix improve the recommendations it gives you by actually rating the things you watch. If you hate a film, tell Netflix you hate it. If you love it, say you love it. This tiny bit of extra effort will soon pay off. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know Manual ordering If youre not convinced by the suggestions Netflix automatically adds to your My List section, you can choose to manually order suggestions instead by visiting netflix.com/MyListOrder. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know Downloads Netflix pleased a lot of users when it added the ability to download shows for offline viewing. As well as helping yu save mobile data, its great for when youre stuck on a plane or somewhere with terrible reception. Find out what films and TV shows are available to download by opening the menu and selecting Available to Download. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know Keep an eye on your data Phone, computer and TV screens are constantly improving, so its worth checking your Playback Settings (in your Account page) to ensure youre watching Netflix in the best quality you can. On the other hand, however, sometimes your web connection cant keep up. Because nobody likes buffering, you can make a compromise by lowering the playback quality. Doing so could also help you save data if youre on a limited plan. Low quality burns through roughly 0.3GB of data per hour, Medium burns through roughly 0.7GB per hour and High gets through roughly 3GB per hour for HD content, and roughly 7GB per hour for 4K content. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know Switch browsers Google Chrome may be the most popular web browser in the world, but it isnt great for watching Netflix on - the crown belongs to Microsoft Edge. Believe it or not, Netflix even looks better on Internet Explorer than it does on Chrome. The maximum resolution you can watch Netflix on differs depending on which browser you use. You can go up to 4K on Microsoft Edge, up to 1080p on Internet Explorer and Safari, and up to 720p on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know Clearer subtitles You can customise the appearance of subtitles on Netflix to make them easier to read or slightly less prominent - whatever suits you. Go to Subtitle Appearance in your Account menu and play with font, colour, text size and even shadow effects. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know Requests Netflix is constantly refreshing its line-up, but theres always going to be something you want to watch that isnt available. You can request a TV show or film by visiting help.netflix.com/en/TitleRequest. Its an outside shot, but its worth a try. 12 useful Netflix features you need to know The end If you decide to cancel your Netflix subscription early, your Viewing Activity, recommendations and ratings will still be saved for 10 months. That essentially means theres nothing to lose from closing your account down temporarily - you can pick up where you left off as soon as you resurrect it. Its a good option to have if youre about to go on holiday for a while or decide that you need to cut down on the amount of Netflix-bingeing youve been doing.

We attempted to authorize the Amex card you have on file but were unable to do so, the message reads.

We will automatically attempt to charge your card again within 24-48 hours. Update the expiry date and CVV (card verification value) for your Amex card as soon as possible so you can continue using it with your account.

The email also contains a prominent Update Payment button, which users should not click.

If you do, youll be taken to a malicious website that looks like an official Netflix page, says MailGuard, which spotted the scam.

The phishing page is designed to operate like a legitimate login portal, it says. It asks for card details and password verification, then ejects the scam victim to a real Netflix page to allay suspicion.

Phishing emails are often littered with spelling mistakes or formatting issues, which usually make them easy to spot.

(MailGuard (MailGuard)

However, what makes this particular scam so dangerous is that it looks so convincing.

It is extremely concerning to hear that thousands of Netflix customers could have been hit by a somewhat sophisticated phishing scam, said Raj Samani, McAfee fellow and chief scientist.

Yet, sadly it isnt all surprising. Phishing attacks remain the most common method of manipulating individuals into clicking on links and ultimately installing malicious content onto their systems.

Taking advantage of trusted, well-known brands attempts to leverage the use of authority, resulting in the incoming messages to appear trusted to the consumer.

Netflix says it will never ask customers to send any of their personal details, such as payment information or passwords, over email.

Never enter your login or financial details after following a link in an email or text message. If youre unsure if youre visiting our legitimate Netflix website, type www.netflix.com directly into your web browser, the company says.

Never click on any links or open any attachments in an email or text message you received unexpectedly, regardless of the source.

If you suspect an email or text message is not from Netflix, do not reply to it.

If you think you have received a fake email that claims to have been sent by Netflix, you can report it at Netflixs Help Center.
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Women typically outlive men in almost all populations today and new research suggests this may be because they are better equipped to survive a crisis.

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark examined the survival rates of both sexes under extreme conditions in seven populations and found that women were more likely to survive than men in almost all circumstances.

They analysed 250 years' worth of mortality data, looking at societies plagued by famine and disease epidemics across the world.

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This included former slaves working in the US and Trinidad in the 1800s and victims of famine in Sweden and Ireland in addition to those affected by measles epidemics in Iceland.

While the average life expectancy of those analysed was 20 years old, the scientists found that women lived longer than men by an average of up to four years.

For example, during the 1933 famine in Ukraine, girls born during this time lived to the age of 10 whereas boys only made it to seven-years-old on average.

The researchers concluded that this disparity was also apparent in infant mortality rates, as they found that baby girls had higher survival rates in harsh conditions than baby boys.

They noted that in Liberia, where life expectancy is the lowest, newborn girls were hardier than newborn boys, giving them an advantage in terms of survival.

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The hypothesis that the survival advantage of women has fundamental biological underpinnings is supported by the fact that under very harsh conditions females survive better than males even at infant ages when behavioural and social differences may be minimal or favour males, the study states.

Our findings also indicate that the female advantage differs across environments and is modulated by social factors.

Hormones might well have a part to play too, given that the female sex hormone oestrogen has been known to boost the immune system.
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A transgender model is set to appear on the cover of Playboy magazine for the very first time.

Giuliana Farfalla, a 21-year-old model who starred on Heidi Klums Germanys Next Top Model, shared the cover with her followers on Instagram yesterday.

Accompanying the image of her posing topless, she wrote: My dears Im on the latest Playboy cover and very proud of the result.

I hope you like the cover as much as I do.

Farfalla, who was born Pascal Radermacher in the southwestern Germany city of Breisgau, underwent gender reassignment surgery at 16 years old.

Her cover has already proven very popular on Instagram, gaining almost 10,000 likes.

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This isnt the first time Playboy has championed the inclusion of transgender models.

In October last year, Ines Rau became Playboy magazines first ever transgender Playmate of the Month for November 2017.

The 26-year-old French model previously appeared in Playboys May 2014 issue.

Farfalla will appear on the cover of Germanys edition of the magazine, which will be on sale on newsstands on Thursday.

While Playboy has been embroiled in its fair share of controversy, the publication has also been hailed for advocating diversity.

In 1971, model Darine Stern graced the cover of the October issue nude during a time in which African-American women were fighting to be visible in society.

James Bond actress Caroline Cossey became the first openly transgender woman to pose for Playboy in 1991, having previously posed for the magazine in 1981 before news of her transition had been publicised.

In a 1994 interview with The Advocate, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner described himself as a human rights activist.
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The price of bitcoin dropped sharply on Thursday after South Korea said it planned to ban trading in cryptocurrencies.

The move came after police and tax authorities reportedly raided local exchanges this week over alleged tax evasion.

The digital currency fell more than 10 per cent from over $15,000 (11,100) to around $13,300 in the early hours of Thursday morning UK time, before paring some of its losses.

:: The Independents bitcoin group is the place for the best headlines and discussion of all cryptocurrencies. Like it here for the latest on how people are making money  and losing it

Recommended Warren Buffett not biting on cryptocurrencies

South Korea has been one of the keenest adopters of bitcoin but the countrys justice minister, Park Sang-ki, said in a press conference on Thursday that the government had great concerns about digital currencies, Reuters reported.

The justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges, Mr Park said.

Legislation imposing a ban will be subject to a majority vote of the 297-member National Assembly.

The news comes after the South Korean government banned cryptocurrency exchanges from opening new customer accounts in December as it attempted to rein in speculation which has seen prices swing wildly in recent months.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Politicians and central bankers around the world have warned that bitcoin and other digital currencies are extremely risky investments that have the potential to crash.

Until now, authorities have largely stopped short of direct intervention, but increasing fears about scams, money laundering and hacks linked to cryptocurrencies, could attract further attention and mean more crackdowns in future.

In December, the Bank of England set up a research team to investigate how digital currencies might impact the financial system, but imminent regulation in the UK appears unlikely. The BoE's deputy governor in charge of financial stability, Sir Jon Cunliffe, said in November that bitcoin was not big enough to unsettle the global economy, but that investors need to do their homework.
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A dramatic fall in the share price of one of Britains biggest outsourcing companies has sparked fears that the taxpayer could be left to pick up the cost of contracts that provide crucial maintenance work in NHS hospitals.

The Prime Ministers spokesman said today that the Government was monitoring Carillion closely amid fears that it could collapse as the health service struggles to cope with the worst winter crisis on record.

Carillion, which has had to contest with a slowdown in many of its major markets, has seen its share price plummet from 230p a year ago to less than 20p today. The company, which employs 43,000 people worldwide, has also been hit with numerous profit warnings. A gaping pensions deficit and the departure of its chief executive have contributed to the investor exodus.

Recommended HS2 contractor Carillion to meet with lenders after two profit warning

This week alone, shares in the company plummeted around 22 per cent as investors awaited the outcome of crunch talks with lenders, and as reports surfaced that the Government had made contingency plans for the collapse of the firm.

Up until late last year the NHS was a major source of income for Carillion, generating around 200m a year in revenue.

However, the beleaguered company said that it had inked a deal to offload a significant part of its UK healthcare facilities management business to outsourcing group Serco, helping it to trim its sizeable debt pile. But the transfer is likely to run throughout 2018, meaning that Carillion will still be responsible for providing a significant proportion of essential services  like cleaning, catering and maintenance of dilapidated wards  to at least 15 NHS hospitals throughout the current debilitating winter crisis.

Official NHS data published for the first week of the year showed that 95 per cent of beds were occupied, with many hospitals reporting 100 per cent occupancy. Thats well beyond the recommended safe operating levels of 85 per cent, above which experts warn that patients are more at risk from rapidly spreading hospital infections.

Apart from the NHS, Carillion has a contract for work on the HS2 rail link and is one of the leading suppliers of rail infrastructure services in the UK. It has contracts with the UK Ministry of Defence and scores of companies.

A collapse, financial strategists agree, could send shock waves through most sectors of the economy as well as the public service.

The Government is really up to its neck in this one, one senior financial analyst told The Independent.

In October last year, Carillion agreed to some new credit facilities and managed to defer the repayment date for a portion of its existing debt, providing respite for shares, but that proved short-lived.

In December, the company was understood to be in talks with lenders and other stakeholders about further options to restructure debt, but a deal has so failed to materialise.

Financial analysts and strategists said that the firm could try to swap some of its debt for equity which would dilute the value of shareholders investments but could prevent it from breaching its debt covenants.

Talks between creditors, The Pension Regulator, government officials and the firm are reportedly set to continue on Friday.
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Researchers misrepresented the results of animal studies in order to obtain funding and approval for human trials for a new tuberculosis vaccine, a study claims.

The investigation by the British Medical Journal examined MVA85A, a vaccine developed by a team at Oxford University which supposedly boosted the efficacy of the BCG vaccine to provide greater protection against Tuberculosis.

The drug was reported to have been effective in animal studies, but subsequently failed to show a benefit when tested in a large clinical trial in South African infants in 2009.

The concerns over methodology prompted an independent review in 2015 which concluded the results of the animal studies had been overstated.

It was also claimed that prior to human testing, a small scale trial on monkeys should have raised doubts about the efficacy of the drug, but the trials went ahead nonetheless.

According to the BMJ, the Oxford researchers publicly claimed the animal trials had been effective, but played down their significance when speaking privately.

The study, led by the BMJs associate editor, Dr Deborah Cohen, said the investigation highlighted the pick and mix approach to animal research, and raised serious questions about oversight and transparency, as well as unaccountable regulatory decision making.

She said it also revealed a lack of clarity about what data was required when deciding to move from animal (preclinical) studies to human (clinical) trials.

The BMJ said as a result of the concerns over how animal tests were used to bolster the case for MVA85A funding, major sponsors of TB research are now rethinking their funding priorities, with allegations that this has slowed progress in the entire field.

But Professor Ewan McKendrick, registrar of Oxford University, dismissed the allegations, saying "independent expert analysis has demonstrated [the claims] to be without foundation".

Three separate investigations by Oxford University cleared the researchers of "any wrong-doing", he added.

And the team behind the research said the MVA85A programme "observed the highest scientific and ethical standards, aiming to improve global control of the worlds most lethal infectious disease".

In a statement seen by The Independent, the researchers said the "misleading" accusations in the BMJ "fail to distinguish between a lengthy academic disagreement and scientific misconduct".

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

However, Jonathan Kimmelman, associate professor in the biomedical ethics unit at McGill University in Canada, told the journal the concerns over MVA85A were not an isolated case.

Its widely recognised that animal studies intended to support drug development are often riddled with flaws in design and reporting, he said.

But it sometimes feels as if regulators and ethics committees missed the memo. Unfortunately, there are other cases where new treatments were put into human testing on animal evidence that was foreseeably flawed, incomplete, or even negative.

Malcolm Macleod, professor of neurology and translational neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, said a more rigorous approach was required in establishing when a drug is ready for clinical trials.

He said the case also raised questions about how researchers and institutions respond to criticism.

Until our institutions recognise that their core purpose is to produce research of value to society, they risk a slow decline in their reputation, and possibly a faster and more serious erosion of public trust in science.

In these troubled times, that public trust is more important than ever.
Nonprofit groups may submit announcements of upcoming events to events@elkodaily.com.

Guardianship presentation

at the library

ELKO  Learn about guardianship procedures and reporting requirements at a Jan. 19 presentation by Nevada Legal Services.

Topics include Identifying the need for guardianship, filing of petition, and emergency situations.

The presentation is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Elko County Library.

Ask a Lawyer Jan. 23 at the library

ELKO  Nevada Legal Services is sponsoring Ask a Lawyer from 2-4 p.m. Jan. 23 at the Elko County Library.

Attorneys will be present to answer questions and assist with legal paperwork regarding civil legal issues.

Pre-registration is required. Call Amy for an appointment at 753-5880.

Learn about species at Audubon meeting

ELKO  Bristlecone Audubons next meeting will be at 7 p.m. Jan. 12 in Room 208 of the DCIT Building on the campus of Great Basin College, 1050 Chilton Circle.

Nycole Burton, wildlife biologist from the BLM; and Ali Helmig, biodiversitycoordinator for the Great Basin Institute, will present Special Status Species, The Biodiversity Program. Learn about BLM-listed special status species, their habitat, distribution, current research and management. Focus species will include Prebles shrew, western red bat, Mattoinis blue butterfly and the Goose Creek milkvetch.

Everyone is welcome. For more infomation contact BristleconeAudubon@gmail.com.

EHS Cheer Clinic this month

ELKO  Its that time of year again. The Elko High School Cheerleaders are holding their annual Cheer Clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. January 13 at the Centennial Gymnasium.

Registration begins at 8 a.m. There will be an evening performance at 6 p.m. at the Centennial Gym that same evening.

The cost is $30 per child for ages kindergarten to eighth grade. Price includes a t-shirt. Please bring a sack lunch and water bottle. There will be dancing, cheering, stunting and a whole lot of fun.

Any questions, call Penny Wilson at 340-2726 or Elko High School at 738-7281.

A busy month at the Folklife Center

ELKO  The Western Folklife Center 501 Railroad St. has several events planned in January heading into the 34th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

Lets Dance will be from 6-9 p.m. Jan. 11. Dance lessons in a selected style are at 6, followed by open social dancing at 7. Admission is $5. Adults and teens are welcome, no partner or experience necessary. Contact ElkoLetsDance@gmail.com.

A training session and chili feed for Gathering volunteers is slated from 6-8 p.m. Jan. 16 at the Pioneer Saloon. Sign-ups are available for unfilled positions  register to volunteer anytime on the Western Folklife Center website.

Drop by the Pioneer Saloon from 6-8 p.m. Jan. 17 and enjoy the lively music of Elkos own Southwind band. The bar will be open for business and theres room to dance.

Foster parent training set

in Elko

ELKO  An opportunity for Foster/Adoptive Parent Training is coming to Elko in mid-January.

Participants will attend three sessions, each lasting from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Jan. 12-14 at The Terrace at Ruby View, 1795 Ruby View Drive.

Interested persons should call Lori Nichols, Foster Care Recruiter, at 1-888-423-2659 to sign up. All three days are required for applicants who wish to move forward with licensure.

Medicare basics to be discussed

ELKO  Learn the basics of Medicare at 6 p.m. Jan. 17 at the Terraces Senior and active Lifestyle Center, 1795 Ruby View Drive.

The instructors are Jan Brizee of the Nevada Office of Consumer Health Assistance and Vicki Salazar of Aging and Disability Services. The evening talk is hosted by the Medicare in Elko Workgroup.

The presentation will be followed by questions from the audience. Topics will include: Who is eligible? How do I sign up? What is covered under Parts A, B & D? Do I need a supplemental plan? Is there help for low-income?

The evening presentation is open to all members of the public.

BLM to host blood drive Jan. 18

ELKO  The Bureau of Land Management Elko District office will host a United Blood Services community blood drive from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 18 at 3900 E. Idaho St.

The Elko community really stepped up last year and 70 donors gave 78 lifesaving units of blood. Said Camille Howes, associate district manager. This was more than double what we received the year prior. And, the event is growing, we hope to collect 100 units of blood during this drive.

According to United Blood Services, the winter months are a critical time for blood donations.

Some blood donation facts:

Save up to three lives with your donation

Northern Nevada needs 125 pints of blood a day to take care of the area hospital patients

You can donate whole blood every 8 weeks

Someone needs a blood transfusion every 2 seconds

80% of patients entering the hospital will receive blood

Almost everyone knows someone who has received blood

All blood types are needed!

Blood donors are encouraged to visit the United Blood Services website for more information and to complete the screening process prior to arrival at www.UnitedBloodServices.org, use sponsor code EBLM.

After-School Crafts at the library

ELKO  Join Elko County Library for some creative fun with After-School Crafts @ Your Public Library.

Children can be preregistered for Spring After-School Crafts that will be held every first and third Wednesday of the month beginning Jan. 17 and running through April 18.

Preregistration is required and there is no cost. This program is designed for children ages 5 years and older.

Drop by the Library to register or call 738-3066 for additional information.

Heart and Shield: Family violence prevention

ELKO  The Heart and Shield program provides parents and children with resources and skills to strengthen family relationships and build resilience. Parent survivors of former domestic violence and their children ages birth -18 may be eligible to participate.

This nine-week education program includes a light meal, separate skill building activities for adults and children, and family activities to practice skills together. Program topics include communication, emotions, problem-solving, healthy relationships, stress management and more.

This free program begins in February. A program demonstration for interested families will be held on Jan. 23 from 5:30-6:30 p.m.at the Elko County Cooperative Extension office, 701 Walnut St.

To RSVP call 340-8360 or email woodburyj@unce.unr.edu.

Lego mania time at the library

ELKO  Its Lego mania time at the Elko County Library. Show off your skills by building a Lego creation individually, with your family, or with a team. Prizes will be awarded in five categories.

A contest packet, with registration and guidelines, is available at the Library and on its website. Participants can deliver their LEGO creations to the Library from Jan. 8-20.

Special thanks to Wingers for sponsoring this contest.

SBA state director coming to Elko

ELKO  Joe Amato, the new Nevada director for the U.S. Small Business Administration, will be in Elko on Jan. 25 to discuss the state of small business and SBA priorities,

Small businesses, chamber members, the financial community, development authority members, and economic development partners are invited to the session from 10 a.m. to noon at the Elko County Library, 720 Court St.

To RSVP contact Clint Koble at 775-843-4081 or ckoble@unr.edu.

Faith Lutheran sets annual meeting

ELKO  The annual meeting of Faith Lutheran Church congregation will be Jan.28 following the 10:30 service.

Agenda items include approval of the annual budget, confirmation of council members, and other items of concern to the congregation.

A potluck dinner will follow the meeting.

Nevada Humanities grant information

LAS VEGAS  Nevada Humanities will hold a series of free informational grant meetings, including one in Elko from 10-11 a.m. Feb. 2 at the Elko County Library.

These meetings are open to anyone interested in learning more about applying for project grant funding from Nevada Humanities. Nevada Humanities offers grants of up to $5,000 to nonprofit organizations and government entities, such as libraries and schools, to fund public and educational programs in the humanities.

Nevada Humanities funds projects that encourage community engagement and conversation. This may take the form of face-to-face dialogue, such as lectures, forums, and round-table discussions, or through programs that stimulate thought and reflection, such as media productions, film screenings, exhibitions, local history projects, and projects that explore local culture and Nevadas diverse heritage and unique places.

The Nevada Humanities grant application deadline is March 10, 2018, for projects taking place beginning July 1, 2018, and running through June 30, 2019. Applications requesting $1,000 or less may be submitted at any time, at least eight weeks prior to the proposed project date. Grant guidelines are available on the Nevada Humanities website at www.nevadahumanities.org.

Sweetheart Bingo at Carlin Senior Center

CARLIN  The Carlin Senior Center invites residents to Sweetheart Bingo from noon to 3 p.m. Feb. 10.

Free refreshments will be provided.

For more information call the Carlin Senior Center at 754-6465.
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The National Health Service is at a watershed moment and cannot deliver care to the standards required by its constitution with the funding it receives, Jeremy Hunt has been told.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which acts as as bridge between trusts and the Department of Health, has written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to call for extra investment on a long-term basis to address the fragility of the wider NHS.

The three-page letter calls for the Government to commit to increasing the NHS budget to 153bn by 2022/23  a sum the Office for Budget Responsibility said was needed, given projected increased demand for services.

But Mr Hopson has warned that, due to the current state of NHS finances, substantial progress must be made before the Autumn Budget this year.

Mr Hopson said: Despite planning for winter more thoroughly and extensively than before, it hasnt been sufficient. Rising numbers of flu cases and more respiratory illness have placed intolerable pressures on staff.

Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Show all 6 1 /6 Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves The elderly We acknowledge that there are pressures on the health service, there are always extra pressures on the NHS in the winter, but we have the added pressures of the ageing population and the growing complex needs of the population, Theresa May has said. Waits of over 12 hours in A&E among elderly people have more than doubled in two years, according to figures from NHS Digital. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Patients going to A&E instead of seeing their GPs Jeremy Hunt has called for a honest discussion with the public about the purpose of A&E departments, saying that around a third of A&E patients were in hospital unnecessarily. Mr Hunt told Radio 4s Today programme the NHS now had more doctors, nurses and funding than ever, but explained what he called very serious problems at some hospitals by suggesting pressures were increasing in part because people are going to A&Es when they should not. He urged patients to visit their GP for non-emergency illnesses, outlined plans to release time for family doctors to support urgent care work, and said the NHS will soon be able to deliver seven-day access to a GP from 8am to 8pm. But doctors struggling amid a GP recruitment crisis said Mr Hunts plans were unrealistic and demanded the Government commit to investing in all areas of the overstretched health service. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Simon Stevens, head of NHS England Reports that key members of Ms Mays team used internal meetings to accuse Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, of being unenthusiastic and unresponsive have been rejected by Downing Street. Mr Stevens had allegedly rejected claims made by Ms May that the NHS had been given more funding than required. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Previous health policy, not funding In an interview with Sky Newss Sophy Ridge, Ms May acknowledged the NHS faced pressures but said it was a problem that had been ducked by government over the years. She refuted the claim that hospitals were tackling a humanitarian crisis and said health funding was at record levels. We asked the NHS a while back to set out what it needed over the next five years in terms of its plan for the future and the funding that it would need, said the Prime Minister. They did that, we gave them that funding, in fact we gave them more funding than they required Funding is now at record levels for the NHS, more money has been going in. But doctors accused Ms May of being in denial about how the lack of additional funding provided for health and social care were behind a spiralling crisis in NHS hospitals. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Target to treat all A&E patients within four hours Mr Hunt was accused of watering down the flagship target to treat all A&E patients within four hours. The Health Secretary told MPs the promise  introduced by Tony Blairs government in 2000  should only be for those who actually need it. Amid jeers in the Commons, Mr Hunt said only four other countries pledged to treat all patients within a similar timeframe and all had less stringent rules. But Ms May has now said the Government will stand by the four-hour target for A&E, which says 95 per cent of patients must be dealt with within that time frame. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves No one Mr Hunt was accused of hiding from the public eye following news of the Red Crosss comments and didnt make an official statement for two days. He was also filmed refusing to answer questions from journalists who pursued him down the street yesterday to ask whether he planned to scrap the four-hour A&E waiting time target. Sky News reporter Beth Rigby pressed the Health Secretary on his position on the matter, saying the public will want to know, Mr Hunt. Sorry Beth, Ive answered questions about this already, replied Mr Hunt. But you didnt answer questions on this. You said it was over-interpreted in the House of Commons and you didnt want to water it down. Is that what youre saying? said Ms Rigby. Its very difficult, because how are we going to explain to the public what your intention is, when you change your position and then wont answer the question, Mr Hunt. But the Health Secretary maintained his silence until he reached his car and got in. Getty

The NHS is no longer able to deliver the constitutional standards to which it is committed. We need to be realistic about what we can provide on the funding available.

If we continue to run the NHS at close to 100 per cent capacity day in, day out, permanently in the red zone, its not surprising that the service cant cope when we get a high, but entirely predictable, spike in demand.

Warning that failure to act would lead to targets moving further out of reach, he said: There is so much at stake. We can fix this, but there must be no more delay. The ball is now firmly in the Governments court.

The letter follows the Health Secretarys admission on Wednesday that the NHS will need substantially increased funding in future, which should be delivered across a 10-year spending period.

The letter adds: The Government now needs to set out how it will create the sustainable, long-term health and care funding settlement you have rightly called for.

NHS Providers has said the Government must commit to review this years winter preparations, which Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly said are the best ever, despite hospitals relying on a last-minute allocation of 335m in the Budget.

The Government has also guaranteed hospitals will be protected against further funding squeezes if they fail to hit increasingly remote financial targets.

The cancellation of non-urgent care, as advised by the NHS last week, will mean trusts, which are paid on a fee-for-service basis, miss out on income from these operations.

 Jeremy Hunt apologises to patients as thousands of operations delayed

This will also make it harder to hit strict savings and performance targets and unlock the associated funding for delivering them.

NHS Providerss intervention comes on the day after a leaked memo revealed Oxfords Churchill Hospital was having to consider cutting back chemotherapy services for cancer patients because of staff shortages.

A letter from the hospitals head of chemotherapy, Dr Andrew Weaver, said nurse numbers were down 40 per cent, and chemotherapy start dates may have to be pushed back or the number of cycles reduced.

Norman Lamb, a former Liberal Democrat minister, said the country had been honest about how to give the NHS more funding.

His party has called for adding a penny in the pound on income tax.

The clear message from NHS leaders is that the Government must drop its sticking-plaster approach to the health service, he said.

The gap between demand and resources in the NHS is growing each year, with tragic human consequences across the country.

The stark reality is that the current winter crisis is just a taster of what is to come unless ministers get to grips with the long-term funding shortfall facing the health service.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: The NHS was given top priority in the recent Budget with an extra 2.8bn allocated over the next two years, and was recently ranked as the best and safest healthcare system in the world.

We know there is a great deal of pressure in A&E departments and that flu rates are going up, and we are grateful to all NHS staff for their incredible work in challenging circumstances.

Thats why we recently announced the largest single increase in doctor training places in the history of the NHS  a 25 per cent expansion.

Additional reporting by Press Association
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Patients being treated in NHS hospital corridors are dying prematurely according to a letter from A&E chiefs warning Theresa May of very serious concerns about patient safety.

Sixty-eight senior doctors in charge of some of the busiest accident and emergency departments in England and Wales said safety compromises are becoming intolerable.

The letter includes accounts from frontline A&E doctors, one of whom warned 120 patients a day were being treated in corridors because of a lack of space on wards.

It adds that some of these people are dying prematurely as a result and says that serious cases of deaths and delays reported in recent weeks "are not outliers" and are happening around the country.

Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Show all 6 1 /6 Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves The elderly We acknowledge that there are pressures on the health service, there are always extra pressures on the NHS in the winter, but we have the added pressures of the ageing population and the growing complex needs of the population, Theresa May has said. Waits of over 12 hours in A&E among elderly people have more than doubled in two years, according to figures from NHS Digital. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Patients going to A&E instead of seeing their GPs Jeremy Hunt has called for a honest discussion with the public about the purpose of A&E departments, saying that around a third of A&E patients were in hospital unnecessarily. Mr Hunt told Radio 4s Today programme the NHS now had more doctors, nurses and funding than ever, but explained what he called very serious problems at some hospitals by suggesting pressures were increasing in part because people are going to A&Es when they should not. He urged patients to visit their GP for non-emergency illnesses, outlined plans to release time for family doctors to support urgent care work, and said the NHS will soon be able to deliver seven-day access to a GP from 8am to 8pm. But doctors struggling amid a GP recruitment crisis said Mr Hunts plans were unrealistic and demanded the Government commit to investing in all areas of the overstretched health service. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Simon Stevens, head of NHS England Reports that key members of Ms Mays team used internal meetings to accuse Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, of being unenthusiastic and unresponsive have been rejected by Downing Street. Mr Stevens had allegedly rejected claims made by Ms May that the NHS had been given more funding than required. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Previous health policy, not funding In an interview with Sky Newss Sophy Ridge, Ms May acknowledged the NHS faced pressures but said it was a problem that had been ducked by government over the years. She refuted the claim that hospitals were tackling a humanitarian crisis and said health funding was at record levels. We asked the NHS a while back to set out what it needed over the next five years in terms of its plan for the future and the funding that it would need, said the Prime Minister. They did that, we gave them that funding, in fact we gave them more funding than they required Funding is now at record levels for the NHS, more money has been going in. But doctors accused Ms May of being in denial about how the lack of additional funding provided for health and social care were behind a spiralling crisis in NHS hospitals. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Target to treat all A&E patients within four hours Mr Hunt was accused of watering down the flagship target to treat all A&E patients within four hours. The Health Secretary told MPs the promise  introduced by Tony Blairs government in 2000  should only be for those who actually need it. Amid jeers in the Commons, Mr Hunt said only four other countries pledged to treat all patients within a similar timeframe and all had less stringent rules. But Ms May has now said the Government will stand by the four-hour target for A&E, which says 95 per cent of patients must be dealt with within that time frame. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves No one Mr Hunt was accused of hiding from the public eye following news of the Red Crosss comments and didnt make an official statement for two days. He was also filmed refusing to answer questions from journalists who pursued him down the street yesterday to ask whether he planned to scrap the four-hour A&E waiting time target. Sky News reporter Beth Rigby pressed the Health Secretary on his position on the matter, saying the public will want to know, Mr Hunt. Sorry Beth, Ive answered questions about this already, replied Mr Hunt. But you didnt answer questions on this. You said it was over-interpreted in the House of Commons and you didnt want to water it down. Is that what youre saying? said Ms Rigby. Its very difficult, because how are we going to explain to the public what your intention is, when you change your position and then wont answer the question, Mr Hunt. But the Health Secretary maintained his silence until he reached his car and got in. Getty

The Prime Minister and Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt last week repeatedly claimed the NHS is better prepared than ever before this winter.

But the letter says: Our experience at the frontline is that these plans have failed to deliver anywhere near what was needed.

The fact remains however that the NHS is severely and chronically underfunded. We have insufficient hospital and community beds and staff of all disciplines especially at the front door to cope with our ageing populations health needs.

Other issues raised in the letter, first reported in the Health Service Journal, include patients waiting up to 12 hours for a bed after doctors had decided to admit them, with queues of 50 patients waiting in one emergency department.

Mrs May said that the cancellation of 55,000 appointments last week was part of the plan for the NHS this winter, but said of her Governments response so far nothing is perfect.

The doctors end their letter by apologising to patients, and adds: We feel compelled to speak out in support of our hardworking and dedicated nursing, medical and allied health professional colleagues and for the very serious concerns we have for the safety of our patients.

The current level of safety compromise is at times intolerable, despite the best efforts of staff."

When asked about the serious concerns highlighted in the letter, the Department of Health and Social Care said it was grateful for the hard work of staff, and insisted numbers of senior A&E doctors had increased since 2010.

A spokesperson said: There has been a 68.7% increase in the number of A&E consultants since 2010, and the NHS was given top priority in the recent Budget with an extra 2.8bn allocated over the next two years.

"But we know there is a great deal of pressure in A&E departments, and we are grateful to all NHS staff for their incredible work in challenging circumstances."

 Theresa May says 55,000 missed operations are part of the NHS plan

This comes as official figures show NHS A&E waiting times have hit record levels.

Performance against the target of seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours fell to 77.3 per cent in major emergency departments.

It also follows another letter from hospital representatives, NHS Providers, warning the health service is at a watershed moment and can no longer meet the standards of care set out in the NHS Constitution.

NHs Providers called for the budget to be increased to 153bn by 2022/23  up from 122bn this year.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labours Shadow Health Secretary, asked how many more warnings Theresa May needed to hear before she pledged more funding to the health service.

This damning message from frontline clinicians could not be any clearer," he added.

"Patient care is acutely suffering because of this Governments chronic underfunding of our NHS, which has left 92,000 patients languishing in the back of ambulances and staff vacancies of over 100,000.
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Scientists have picked up something very unusual about one of the most strange phenomenon we know.

Fast radio bursts are some of the most mysterious and intriguing phenomenon in our universe. They are incredibly strong, incredibly short blasts of energy that reach us from deep in the universe  and little more is known about them than that.

Now scientists have suggested that they are coming from an "extreme" environment. Such a situation is thought to form around black holes, though could be the result of other strange astrophysical circumstances.

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. 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The signals appear to be coming from somewhere with very strong and very rare magnetic fields. Such a situation is thought to be the result of being in the area around a black hole, though could come from other causes.

Those findings came from a study that looked at one of the bursts called FRB 121102. That's the only one of the incredibly bright signals from which there have been repeated bursts, making it the most reliable for researchers to study.

Recommended Japanese astronaut who said he might not fit in capsule measured wrong

By looking intensely at that bursts, using the huge Arecibo Observatory telescope, scientists were able to understand how the message is polarised  or, in other words, whether it had twisted on its way down to Earth. They found that twisting appeared to suggest that it had come from the strange source, such as a massive black hole.

While such a behaviour doesn't necessarily suggest aliens  and indeed might imply the opposite  the research is being keenly watched by astronomers involved in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. ""We can not rule out completely the ET hypothesis for the FRBs in general," said Vishal Gajjar, one of the scientists on the project and a SETI researcher.

The project has been supported, for instance, by Breakthrough Listen  a major project to try and find life elsewhere in the universe. The project, funded by Russian entrepeneur Yuri Milner, is spending $100 million to look for clues.

Now Dr Gajjar hopes to get samples from all of the other remaining fast radio bursts to try and understand their characteristics, and where exactly they might be coming from.

The dependable burst known as FRB 121102 has been picked up more than 200 times from the same source. It appears to be coming from a dwarf galaxy that is about 3 billion light years from us  and the fact it can be seen from all the way across the universe is testament to how bright it is.

The environment surrounding the signal appear to be entirely unique in the universe.

"We estimate the magnetic field and gas density surrounding the blast source, and we can link them, for example, with a model involving a young magnetar  a neutron star with an especially large magnetic field  to the central engine that produces the bursts," said James Cordes, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University.

Scientists now hope to do more work both to explore the bursts themselves and try and understand how such a star could be throwing the shot of energy all the way through the universe so that it can reach us.
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Palaeontologists have discovered teeth and bones belonging to an ancient species of burrowing bat.

The species, named Vulcanops jennyworthyae, inhabited New Zealand around 16 million years ago.

Burrowing bats are a unique group of mammals only found in New Zealand.

These animals not only fly, but crawl along the ground too, and are equipped with specialised claws that enable them to do so.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. 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Vulcanops is the biggest burrowing bat ever found  although it still only weighed around 40 grams.

The finding was described in the journal Scientific Reports.

Burrowing bats are more closely related to bats living in South America than to others in the south-west Pacific, said Professor Sue Hand, the first author of the study describing the new species, and a palaeontologist at the University of New South Wales.

Specifically, Prof Hand said burrowing bats such as Vulcanops are related to vampire bats.

However, unlike its blood-feeding cousins, the teeth of this new species suggest it consumed plant material as well as small creatures.

The scientists said the discovery served as a reminder of the diversity of life that has been lost from New Zealand.

These bats, along with land turtles and crocodiles, show that major groups of animals have been lost from New Zealand, said study co-author Professor Paul Scofield, of Canterbury Museum.

They show that the iconic survivors of this lost fauna  the tuataras, moas, kiwi, acanthisittid wrens, and leiopelmatid frogs  evolved in a far more complex community that hitherto thought.

Many bats used to inhabit New Zealand, but climate fluctuations are thought to have led to the ultimate demise of all but two species, which still survive today.

While the nation is still home to a diverse array of bird species, the two remaining bats are the only mammals to still inhabit the island that were not introduced by humans.
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Police are hunting two armed robbers who shot a security guard during a string of raids on staff refilling cash machines.

Scotland Yard said the pair had struck five times in north-east London since May 2016, ambushing guards and threatening them with guns as they delivered money.

Detectives warned the robbers were growing increasingly violent, having also pistol-whipped an employee at a cash-and-carry.

The Metropolitan Police has released CCTV footage of the latest raid, in which a security guard was shot three times and seriously injured at Nationwide Building Society on Walthamstow High Street.

The robbers, both dressed in dark clothing and motorbike helmets, threatened two guards as they refilled cash at 3.25am on 18 May this year.

One of them was armed with a self-loading pistol fitted with a silencer, which they fired several times when the guards refused to hand over the money. The robbers escaped in a stolen Ford Fiesta.

The guard spent a week in hospital following the raid, which has been linked to four other robberies.

In the first, the suspects  both armed with guns  pistol-whipped staff at a 24-hour cash-and-carry Cyprofood in Tottenham on 23 May last year before escaping in an Audi A4 with stolen number plates.

Weeks later, on 28 June, they ambushed security guards as they refilled a cash machine at Santander bank in Woodgrange Road, Newham. The robbers, one armed with revolver-style firearm, stole cash before driving off in a silver Volswagen Scirocco.

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Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA

The other two raids took place at another Santander branch in Mare Street, Hackney.

In the first, on 29 August last year, the robbers ambushed two security guards and threatened them with a pistol as they refilled a cash machine. They stole cash and escaped in a stolen Range Rover Sport.

On 3 December 2016, two suspects again attacked two guards as delivered cash to the same branch but were stopped from stealing cash by the victims and a member of the public.

The suspects escaped in a white 4x4 Mitsubishi Outlander, which has since been recovered by police.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Blackburn, of Scotland Yard's robbery squad, said: An increasing amount of violence is being used during these offences and we need the publics help to identify the suspects, their firearms and the stolen cars they escaped in.

In the latest offence, a guard was shot a number of times at close range. Fortunately, he has recovered from his physical injuries but has suffered a severe psychological impact from the incident.

Any piece of information, no matter how small, could be what we need to identify the men responsible for these crimes.

Detectives have appealed for anyone with information to come forward, while Crimestoppers is offering a 5,000 for a tip-off that leads to the robbers' arrest and conviction.
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Two more teenagers have been arrested by detectives investigating the murder of a shopkeeper who was attacked after refusing to sell cigarette papers to a group of teenage boys.

Vijay Patel, 49, was attacked at the Rota Express shop in Mill Hill, north London, on Saturday night and died in hospital two days later.

A 16-year-old from north west London has been charged with murdering the father-of-two.

A photograph of Vijay Patel, 49, outside the shop where he was killed on The Broadway in Mill Hill, north London (PA)

Two boys, aged 15 and 16, have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder, the Metropolitan Police said.

Police said Mr Patel had been working in the shop when three teenage boys came in around 11.30pm and tried to buy some items including ciagarette papers.

Tributes outside the shop on The Broadway in Mill Hill, north London (PA)

Due to concerns about their age they were refused service after they were unable to provide suitable identification," a spokesperson said.

"The three were unhappy about the decision and became aggressive, threatening to vandalise the shop.

"As such Vijay and a colleague went outside after them to ensure no damage was done to the shop. Vijay was struck once by one of the teenagers causing him to fall to the floor."

His colleague was also punched by the teenagers and suffered minor injuries.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 18 November 2022 Kevin Sinfield on day six of the Ultra 7 in 7 Challenge from to York to Bradford. The former Leeds captain is set to complete seven ultra-marathons in as many days in aid of research into Motor Neurone Disease, finishing by running into Old Trafford at half-time of the Rugby League World Cup tournaments finale on 19 November PA UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA

Detective Inspector Ian Lott, from the homicide and major crime command, previously said: At this stage we believe this to be an unprovoked spontaneous incident sparked entirely by refusal to let the suspects buy what they wanted.

A man has lost his life for no reason other than trying to uphold the law."
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Several deep-sea fish have washed up on a beach in Scotland, sparking renewed interest in the bizarre-looking creatures.

Nearly 10 different species were found by two local conservation volunteers on St Cyrus beach in Aberdeenshire.

Jobrul Chamberlain, 15, and Bob Fitzpatrick took around 15 fish to the manager of the St Cyrus National Nature Reserve for identification.

Their haul included fangtooth, viperfish and deep-sea dragonfish, as well as chimaera or ghost sharks.

"It's a real privilege to see these fish close up," Therese Alampo, manager of St Cyrus National Nature Reserve, told The Independent.

"I think it is wonderful how so many people have shown an interest in these deep-sea creatures, and been inspired by how incredible they are."

The fish, which typically dwell in the darkness beneath the ocean's surface, had been caught by a marine scientist on a research expedition in deep water off the coast of the Shetland Islands, Ms Alampo said.

A long-nosed and short nosed Chimaera (St Cyrus National Nature Reserve)

He then brought them to the beach, where they were washed out to sea by the tide before they reemerged.

Ms Alampo said pictures of the bizarre creatures posted on the reserve's Facebook page have been seen over 30,000 times.

She added: "The marine environment fascinates people.

"People see it as a mysterious world and connecting with it by seeing the creatures that live within it, usually hidden away, can be a magical and exciting experience."

Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of York, told The Independent the fish would look even more spectacular if they had not been "trawl caught."

"Deep-sea fish tend to have very thin skins, given that they inhabit water where there is very little movement and tough skins are not necessary. So when they roll around in a trawl net, the skin is stripped off, which is why they look blotchy."

He said the different types of fish would rarely be seen by beachgoers, as they often inhabit deep-sea channels.
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Billionaires have been blocked from snapping up a privately-owned Scottish island in order to give locals a chance to buy it.

Ulva, a secluded Hebridean island with a population of six, was put up for sale by its owner after he said he could no longer afford to run the 5,000 acres.

But the Scottish government blocked the sale to wealthy buyers in order to give a community group the opportunity to raise the 4.2m asking price.

Now the buyout has taken a major step forward after locals on the neighbouring island of Mull voted in favour of the proposals.

The North West Mull Community Woodland Company (NWMCWC) has eight months to raise the funds. It has so far raised 21,000 through a crowdfunding appeal.

Jamie Howard, who inherited the island from his mother in 2014, put it on the market in the summer.

But independent assessors put the value of the land and properties slightly below the 4.5m he wanted.

Scottish island Isle Of Tanera Mor for sale

The 60-year-old has accused the Scottish government of acting shamefully over the issue.

When I put the island up for sale, I was looking for a buyer who would have Ulvas interests at heart and have the funds to run it, he told The Times.

The NWMCWC said it hopes to access the Scottish Land Fund - which offers grants to help communities take ownership of land - to raise a further 1m.

But Mr Howard said it would take another 4m in order to run the island. I dont see how they can find the funds to run it properly, he said.

In pictures: Couple rescued from desert island Show all 5 1 /5 In pictures: Couple rescued from desert island In pictures: Couple rescued from desert island Linus and Sabina Jack were found on Fayu Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia, on 25 August US Embassy Kolonia In pictures: Couple rescued from desert island Linus and Sabina Jack were found on Fayu Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia, on 25 August US Embassy Kolonia In pictures: Couple rescued from desert island Linus and Sabina Jack were found on Fayu Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia, on 25 August US Embassy Kolonia In pictures: Couple rescued from desert island Linus and Sabina Jack were found on Fayu Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia, on 25 August US Embassy Kolonia In pictures: Couple rescued from desert island Linus and Sabina Jack were found on Fayu Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia, on 25 August US Embassy Kolonia

I dont know where I will move to, at the moment I will be homeless.

In total, 401 residents of Mull within the membership area of the NWMCWC were eligible to vote in the postal ballot.

By the deadline on 8 January, 255 people had voted, with 64 per cent backing the buyout.

The community group put in its ownership bid under the Land Reform (Scotland) 2003 Act - an SNP law which allows rural communities first right of refusal on land for sale.

Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Land Reform, will now decide whether to trigger the community groups right to buy.

NWMCWC has been contacted for comment.
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The plight of jailed Briton Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe serving a five-year sentence in Iran will be raised by Boris Johnson when he meets his Iranian counterpart for talks today.

The Foreign Secretary will also use a meeting on the sidelines of a summit in Brussels to reassure Iran of the UKs support for the nuclear deal struck in 2015, following threats by Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the pact.

The main focus of the talks, which will also be attended by French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel and EU high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini, will be the nuclear deal.

Recommended Hopes jailed British mother was about to be freed dealt blow by Iran

But Mr Johnson has promised to raise all of the UKs consular cases, including mother-of-one Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested in 2016 during a holiday visit to show her baby daughter Gabriella to her parents.

Iranian officials claim the 39-year-old, from Hampstead, north London, was plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

Mr Johnson will discuss her fate with Tehran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Last month, the Foreign Secretary held worthwhile meetings in Tehran over the case of a jailed British-Iranian woman.

But despite her familys hopes, she was not freed in time for Christmas.

 Boris can 'redeem himself' by bringing Nazanin home, says husband

Her future was thrown into doubt when, in November, Mr Johnson mistakenly told MPs that she had been teaching journalists in Iran  something her family vehemently denies  which Irans state broadcaster seized on as proof of the allegations against her.

Speaking before todays summit, Mr Johnson said: The UK has always been clear: the Iran nuclear deal is a crucial agreement that makes the world safer. It is vital that we continue to work with our European partners to preserve the Iran deal, and with it the security and prosperity it is bringing to the people of Iran and the world. It is those shared interests which will drive our discussions in Brussels.

Of course there are areas where we disagree with Iran, not least on its destabilising regional activity and its ballistic missile programme. This will be an important part of our conversation.

I will be making it clear to Foreign Minister Zarif, on the subject of the recent protests in Iran, that the right to peaceful demonstration within the law is central to any truly thriving society. I will also raise all of our Iranian dual-national consular cases.
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Momentum officials are planning to launch a new network for its young members after falling out with an unofficial group that was set up as a youth wing.

Sources told The Independent the group was intending to ramp up activity this year in university towns and engage more young people in politics in an attempt to show that Britains youth quake is far from over.

It comes after the Momentum founder claimed that an existing group, Momentum Youth and Students (MYS), had no legitimacy to use the organisations name or logo.

The veteran left-winger Jon Lansman added in a leaked letter that the group should hand over its passwords and social media accounts linked to MYS to Momentums national office.

It is understood the group ceased to be recognised by Momentum following an overhaul of the organisations structure and introduction of a new constitution in January 2017 but continued to use related social media accounts.

In the letter Mr Lansman, a key architect of Momentum, added: I want to note, with regret that the MYS social media accounts have at times been used in a way which have brought Momentum into disrepute and which are inconsistent with those of Jeremy Corbyns two leadership campaigns, of fair, honest debate focused on policies, not personal attacks or harassment.

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It is unclear what specific social media posts Mr Lansman was referring to in his letter, but he added: In meantime, given that MYS has no formal recognition from the NCG [National Coordinating Group], whilst bringing the organisation into disrepute on social media, for the time being I respectfully ask those involved to cease to use Momentums name, and to close down the social media accounts or hand them over to a member of the national office team.

While the organisation refused to comment on the leaks, a Momentum source told The Independent: Of course Momentum played a key role in mobilising young activists and voters during the general election.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 18 November 2022 Kevin Sinfield on day six of the Ultra 7 in 7 Challenge from to York to Bradford. 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The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant 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And in 2018 were excited to bring together young Momentum activists in a new network which will ramp up our organising in university towns, engage more young people in politics and show that Britains youthquake is far from over.

The letter also emerges as voting in Labours National Executive Committee (NEC) comes to a close on Friday, with results expected on Monday.

Mr Lansman, alongside two other candidates, Yasmine Dar and Rachel Garnham, have Momentums backing and are widely tipped to take the three vacancies on the partys ruling body.

Such a result would be a major boost for the Labour leader and would make it easier for the left-wingers in the party to push for changes in Labours rulebook.
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Eddie Izzard is a man well placed to stop Jeremy Corbyns latest powergrab on the Labour Party, but he will not say whether he actually wants to do so.

The battle in which he has chosen to fight is itself evidence of Labours ongoing civil war, but he stands on the battleground pleading for an end to hostilities. He is a pacifist in combat fatigues.

This weekend, the party will announce who has been elected to four new posts on its National Executive Committee. The email and postal ballot of all party members is open until Friday. Izzard is among the candidates.

I want to bring people together, he tells The Independent. I dont want us to hack against each other. Were a team. I just want us to win the next election.

He has stood for election to the NEC before, and lost. But this election is different. The vote itself is part of the conflict. One of the extra positions will go automatically to a trade union representative. The other three will be directly elected by the rank and file membership, a move designed to shift party power back to the part of it that is avowedly pro-Corbyn.

It was approved by the party conference in October. Momentum have instructed their supporters which three candidates to for. One of them is Jon Lansman, Momentums founder. If the three Momentum backed candidates do not win, something very unusual will have happened.

Progress, the Labour grouping that encapsulates the parts centre left elements, has instructed its supporters to vote for Izzard.

I didnt ask them to do it, he says Thats just them. I want support from all parts of the party. I havent gone in and asked any organisation for their support. I havent said, Theres the slate, put me on it.

In his election campaign, he is determined to stick almost to basics, to offer energy and enthusiasm.

I know that in any interview you will want me to take a contrary position but I am just not going to do that, he says. Jeremy is the leader. He has won two elections."

He went on: I have been an activist, self-propelled, volunteering, saying Can I go round the country? Can I do this, Can I do that? Ive done it through thick and thin. Even when we were having a really tough time Ive been out there, pushing. And I want to bring that energy in. It is a positive thing on my behalf.

Izzard first became a prominent figure in the Labour cause in the bacon sandwich years. When, from a try-and-look-normal perspective, it needed all the help it could get. Those days are gone. The Labour Party certainly does not need any help getting the cool kids on board. They are fully signed up, in their hundreds of thousands. Which is why, at times, the Izzard sales pitch sounds curiously like a job interview.

What Im good at, he explains,and I think this is a little rare, is Im a pretty good individual and Im pretty good as a team player. I cant really prove it but I know it from all the different elections Ive fought in.

Whether he personally agrees or disagrees with Jeremy Corbyns views on things, is not the point. Corbyn, for example, has spent three decades campaigning against the European Union, and the evidence to suggest he willfully sabotaged Labours weak-willed Remain campaign is not small. Izzard speaks four languages, regularly performs standup in French and is as pro European as they come.

The leader of a party is not necessarily going to do exactly what you would have done, he says. Thats never going to happen. But that is the whole way parties work. Someone gets elected leader. Its their direction. They have the wind in their sails. They say ok guys Were going to go in this direction. You cant have everybody going in every direction. Thats just never going to work.

In November last year, the wider reaches of the party were engaged in various battles over transgender issues, each one specific in its nature. One of the partys veteran feminists, Linda Bellos, a friend of Jeremy Corbyn, had written on Facebook that she wanted to thump transgender activists over the issue of gender neutral changing rooms. On the same topic, another activist had described an amendment to the Gender Recognition Act as a perverts charter, suggesting it would allow predatory men to self-define as women and make womens changing facilities unsafe.

In this area, Izzard will acknowledge there is something of a civil war occurring, between factions who should be supportive of one another. Izzard has spoken publicly about his own transvestitisim for more than 25 years, describing himself on occasions as a male lesbian.

Women have had a tough time over many centuries, as have trans people. The idea that were now going to fight each other is not the way forward, after all the hell both groups, both communities have been through, the idea that were now going to turn on each other, thats what Im trying to avoid.

I am very pleased with the place women have got to. Im very pleased with the place transgender people have got to. The T in LGBT wasnt even in there before.

I came out in 1985. Ive had a tough old ride. Just last year Ive had someone shout homophobic abuse at me. Very positively, I gave it to the police and the CPS acted on that. Im very pleased that we got to that place.

I am looking at the positive things. I know this debate is going to go on. I dont have a magic pill answer. I know I cant say that but I want us to go forward rather than sideways.

It is not only for this reason that Izzard says what he has to offer is that he is a different voice.

I want to represent our members, I want to come in and be maybe a slightly different voice, he says. People whove come up through political systems, they can get into this factional siding thing. Im going to relentlessly try not to do that. Im going to keep my eye on the prize, which is to get us elected.

Thing is, in the Miliband era, this was what was needed. But the party is overwhelmed by people from outside political systems now, and theyve been instructed not to vote for him, and those who have been instructed to vote for him, he has very deliberately disowned.

Either way, this particular battle ends next week. It is hard to avoid the suspicion Izzard may again be caught in the crossfire.
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The rights of same-sex spouses have to be recognised by every member of the European Union, even if a nations government does not permit gay marriage, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has been advised.

The ECJs advocate general, Melchior Wathelet, said in an official legal opinion there had been evolution in the societies of EU countries, and the idea that the term marriage means a union between two persons of the opposite sex can no longer be followed.

If the advocate generals recommendation is followed by the ECJ, European Union citizens will be allowed to bring in their same-sex spouses from non-EU countries to live with them in any member states under free movement rules  a right some countries only recognise for opposite-sex marriages.

The official opinion of the advocate general  the highest officers of the court who advise judges on how to rule on complex cases  will now be considered by a panel of ECJ judges. If they confirm his opinion, the ruling will become law across the whole EU.

In his opinion delivered today, advocate general Melchior Wathelet states, first of all, that the legal issue at the centre of the dispute is not that of the legalisation of same-sex marriage, but that of the free movement of EU citizens, the court said in a statement.

While member states are free to provide for marriage between persons of the same sex in their domestic legal system or not, they must fulfil their obligations under the freedom of movement of EU citizens.

The judge said the term spouse in EU law had to be interpreted autonomously and uniformly throughout the EU, adding that it refers to a relationship based on marriage while nevertheless being neutral as to the sex of the persons concerned and indifferent as to the place where that marriage was contracted.

Concluding, he said: In that context, the advocate general considers that, in view of the general evolution of the societies of the member states of the EU in the last decade in the area of authorisation of same-sex marriage... the term marriage means a union between two persons of the opposite sex can no longer be followed.

The judge added that the objective of protecting the traditional family cannot justify discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and that the concept of spouse within the meaning of the directive also includes spouses of the same sex. Accordingly, such a person may also reside on a permanent basis in the territory of the member state in which his or her spouse is established as an EU citizen after exercising his or her freedom of movement.

Sophie in t Veld, vice president of the Liberal group in the European Parliament and vice president of the European Parliaments LGBTI Intergroup, said: This is fantastic news and a landmark opinion for rainbow families. Freedom of movement is a right of all EU citizens, it cannot be restricted because of whom they love. The European Union protects our rights.

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The case in question was brought to the European Court of Justice by Relu Coman, a Romanian national who married his US partner while living in Brussels in 2010.

When Mr Coman tried to bring his partner with him to live in Romania, the government refused to grant the spouse right of residence on the grounds that Romania did not recognise same-sex marriage. They would have been compelled to do so had Mr Comans partner been of the opposite sex.

In the EU, same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK, excluding Northern Ireland.

Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia have no legislation on the matter  while Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Estonia all allow some form of civil partnerships.
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Theresa May is under renewed pressure to omit international students from the immigration figures after new research claims the benefits are 10 times greater than the cost.

The major study concluded that almost every part of the British economy benefits from the cash brought in by overseas students  totalling around 20bn each year.

The figures will likely be met with alarm in Downing Street as the Prime Minister becomes increasingly isolated in the Cabinet over the the policy she has championed of counting international students in the official data.

In the research  jointly published by the Higher Education Policy Institute and Kaplan International Pathways  the costs and benefits of international students are analysed by parliamentary constituencies.

After taking out the cost of international students, including health and social security costs, which amount to 2.3bn, the net impact of hosting international students in the UK amount to 20.3bn.

The report also shows that international students benefit all areas of the UK, not just big cities such as London.

Recommended Boris Johnson risks new row with Theresa May over student immigration

For example, on average, overseas students make a 31.3m net economic contribution to the UK economy for each of the 650 parliamentary constituencies. This is equivalent to 310 per member of the resident population.

Out of the 20 constituencies receiving the greatest levels of economic benefit from international students, 19 are held by Labour MPs, including Sheffield Central, Manchester Central and Nottingham South.

Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said international students bring economic benefits to the UK that are worth 10 times the cost of hosting them.

Trying to persuade the Home Office that international students nearly always benefit the UK can feel like banging ones head against a brick wall, he added.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 18 November 2022 Kevin Sinfield on day six of the Ultra 7 in 7 Challenge from to York to Bradford. The former Leeds captain is set to complete seven ultra-marathons in as many days in aid of research into Motor Neurone Disease, finishing by running into Old Trafford at half-time of the Rugby League World Cup tournaments finale on 19 November PA UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA

In the past, they have not accepted figures on the benefits on the grounds that they ignore the costs. Our work, in contrast, includes all the potential costs and conclusively proves these are small compared to the huge benefits.

Labours Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott welcomed the study, adding: As well as receiving all sorts of cultural benefits from international students, over 300 pounds a year for every UK resident is no small sum.

Theresa May is increasingly isolated on this issue, stubbornly refusing to change her policy of including international students in the Tories net migration target. She is too weak to accept she is in the wrong.

The Independent and Open Britain, a campaign group calling for a soft Brexit, are also calling on the Government to drop its tens of thousands immigration goal and for overseas students to be omitted from the statistics.

Last year Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, asked her independent advisers on immigration to review the costs and benefits of overseas students.

In September 2018 the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is expected to release the findings from the Home Office on the role foreign students play in contributing to local economic growth and their impact on the provision and quality of education provided to UK students.

Welcoming this, Mr Hillman added: We now implore ministers and civil servants as well at the MAC to take this new evidence with the seriousness of its merits. Given the detail that we are presenting, we also urge the MAC to report earlier than the planned date of September 2018.

And Linda Cowan, the managing director of Kaplan International Pathways, added that in recent decades Britain has been phenomenally successful in recruiting overseas students.

By calculating the net impact by region and constituency, the study shows that international students bring economic benefits to regions throughout the UK, she said.

The challenge now is to ensure the UK provides a compelling and attractive offer as the best place to study. To be successful, we need a bold commitment from Government as it considers the Immigration Bill to show the UK welcomes international students more than ever. A key step would be to stop counting students as immigrants in net migrations statistics.

A Home Office spokesperson said: There is no limit to the number of genuine international students that can come to the UK to study and we very much value the contribution that they make.

We have commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to provide an objective assessment of the impact of EU and non-EU students. This provides an important opportunity for the sector to share evidence, and the MACs independent advice will help inform decisions on the future migration system.

We have no plans to take international students out of the net migration figures. Including them does not act to the detriment of students or the education sector and since 2010 we have seen the number of student visas increase by 24 per cent.
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The European signatories of the Iran nuclear deal have warned Donald Trump from ditching the accord, arguing that it is essential to maintain international security and is achieving its goals.

At a meeting in Brussels on Thursday Federica Mogherini, the EUs foreign affairs chief, said the bloc  as well as Britain, Germany, and France who signed the deal independently  were united in wanting to ensure full and continued implementation of the programme.

The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), agreed by President Obama in 2015, was signed by China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, the European Union, and the United States  but Mr Trump has since suggested he could renege on it.

The US president has repeatedly referred to the JCPOA as the worst deal ever and accused Iran of violating it, despite assurances from international observers that the country is complying.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said no better alternative had been proposed to the deal, adding:

We greatly value the nuclear deal with Iran, we think it is a considerable diplomatic accomplishment. Its a way of stopping Iran from acquiring the nuclear weapons and as my colleagues have said Iran is in compliance with this agreement according to the International Atomic Energy Authority.

That is very, very important for us. But it is also clearly important to build worldwide support for this deal that Iran should be able to show, as my colleagues have said, that it is a good neighbour in the region.

Ms Mogherini said: The deal is working, it is delivering on its main goal, which means keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check,

Sigmar Gabriel, the German foreign minister, contrasted the success of the approach with the deteriorating situation with regards to North Koreas nuclear programme, without naming the East Asian country.

We know that its absolutely necessary to have the signal that its possible, by diplomatic approaches, to prevent the development of nuclear weapons in a time where other parts of the world are discussing how to get nuclear weapons, he told reporters in Brussels.

It would send a very dangerous signal to the rest of the world if the only agreement which prevents the proliferation of nuclear weapons would be negative effect.

Under the agreement, Iran has agreed to dramatically reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium and cut the number of gas centrifuges it operates to produce the nuclear ingredient, with strict limits on other nuclear technologies like heavy water. Iran has also given the IAEA regular access to its nuclear facilities to observe compliance.

Donald Trump has called the JCPOA 'the world deal ever' (AP)

In return, the worlds other countries have agreed to progressively lift sanctions against the country.

The three top European diplomats, as well as French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, had just held talks with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Brussels on Thursday.

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. 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In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Johnson also used the discussions to raise the case of the imprisoned British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a 39-year-old British dual national who was arrested and imprisoned in 2016 while on holiday in Iran to show her baby daughter Gabriella to her parents. She is serving a five-year sentence for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, a charge she denies.

Iran has been gripped by anti-government protests in recent weeks, leading the Islamic Republic to imprison thousands of people. The protests are the biggest anti-government uprising since the Green Movement of 2009, and are motivated by a mix of opposition to the countrys theocratic government and economic concerns.
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Justine Greening blocked proposals to cut tuition fees, according to one of Theresa Mays former chiefs of staff.

The ex-education secretary dramatically resigned from the Government after refusing an offer from the Prime Minister to move to the Department for Work and Pensions in this weeks Cabinet reshuffle.

Her departure was welcomed by Nick Timothy - a senior aide who left Number 10 after the election - who said Ms Greening had put the brakes on policies that work and made life difficult for civil servants during her time in Whitehall.

Recommended Justine Greening quits job in reshuffle blow for Theresa May

In a critical column, Mr Timothy also accused former universities minister Jo Johnson of opposing efforts to reform the university fees system, which would have allowed institutions to bid to charge different amounts.

Ms May announced lesser plans to freeze tuition fees at the 9,250 mark in a pre-conference interview in October, but the move received a lukewarm response and it was later put to one side.

Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Timothy said: Greening blocked proposals to reduce tuition fees and refused to hold a proper review of tertiary education.

He tipped her successor Damian Hinds as a potential leader, adding: [Damian] Hinds must be brave enough to do that, to ensure universities are better, fees are lower, and young people get the technical or academic education that suits them.

He is already touted as a potential future prime minister - if he gets this right, he will be a convincing candidate for the job.

Young people who do not go to university are neglected by a system guilty of institutionalised snobbery, he said and called for better choices for teenagers entering into higher education.

Mr Timothy said: Right now, the incentives tell them to go to university. Many emerge with good degrees, but others come out with a costly qualification that makes little difference. On average, they will graduate with debts of 50,000, the highest in the world.

Those who do not go to university  still more than half of young people  are neglected by a system guilty of institutionalised snobbery.

However Mr Johnson, who became a junior transport minister in the reshuffle, said the claims about Ms Greenings opposition were untrue and praised her record on university reform.

He posted on Twitter: So wrong, this stuff re Justine Greening  she supported me in every single reform we undertook of our universities, was a terrific colleague and faultlessly loyal.

Higher education posed a problem for the Tories during the election campaign, as young people were drawn to Jeremy Corbyns eye-catching pledge to scrap tuition fees entirely.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city 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Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA

Ms Greening was one of the high-profile casualties of the new years reshuffle, which descended into farce when the Conservatives official Twitter account accidentally announced the wrong person as the new party chairman.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was named initially, before the job was given to former immigration minister Brandon Lewis.

The process also ran on late into the evening as several ministers, including Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Business Secretary Greg Clark, reportedly refused to move from their posts.

Ms Greening said she had decided to resign as social mobility matters to me and our country more than my ministerial career.
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Theresa May will commit the UK to eliminating all avoidable plastic waste by 2042 as she launches the Governments environmental plan for the next 25-years.

Under the pledge waste such as the carrier bags, food packaging and disposable plastic straws that litter the country and pollute the seas would be abolished.

But the target was given a frosty reception from environmental groups with one leading organisation saying it lacks urgency, detail and bite, while another said the country cant afford to wait so long.

 Tide of plastic rubbish discovered floating off idyllic Caribbean island coastline

The broader 25-year plan, first promised three years ago, will also urge supermarkets to set up plastic-free aisles for goods with no packaging and confirm plans to extend the 5p charge for carrier bags to all English retailers.

It comes as the Government seeks to burnish its environmental credentials with recent pledges on animal protection and plastic microbeads.

But with concern growing around plastic waste, Ms May will say: We look back in horror at some of the damage done to our environment in the past and wonder how anyone could have thought that, for example, dumping toxic chemicals, untreated, into rivers was ever the right thing to do.

In years to come, I think people will be shocked at how today we allow so much plastic to be produced needlessly.

In the UK alone, the amount of single-use plastic wasted every year would fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls.

She will say the 2042 pledge to eliminate avoidable plastic waste  that which it is technologically, environmentally and economically practical to do so  will be met through a string of measures.

Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Show all 11 1 /11 Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Plastic as far as the eye can see Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Plastic cutlery floats in the sea Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas An underwater view of the rubbish that sits on the top of the ocean Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas The plastic pollution is only getting worse in the ocean Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Plastic pollution in the sea looks like a pathway through the ocean Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Underwater view of a plastic bag in the sea Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Plastic floating in the sea Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Sea level view of the plastic pollution Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas A collection of plastic spreads across the sea Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Another view from in the ocean of the plastic floating Caroline Power Photography Vast sea of plastic and pollution in the Caribbean: in pictures Plastic pollution plaguing our seas Large quantities of trash gather in the sea Caroline Power Photography

The Government will bring England into line with other devolved nations in extending the 5p carrier bag charge to all retailers.

Officials will work with supermarkets to encourage them to introduce plastic-free aisles in which all the food is loose, allowing shoppers to make environmentally friendly choices.

Government will also encourage industry to take more responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products and make them easier to recycle.

The PM will also task civil servants to look at how the tax system or charges could further reduce the amount of waste, while putting out a call for evidence on reducing the use of single-use plastics.

A 7bn research and development pot will be used to inject new funding into plastics innovation.

But environmental groups that have praised some recent policies, pointed to a lack of detail and to the fact that potentially stronger measures such as tax incentives were not more central.

 Latte levy: The plastic problem inside your coffee cup

Senior Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace UK Louise Edge told The Independent: This announcement was billed as a major push to tackle our plastic problem, but it looks more like a missed opportunity.

It's good that the Government wants to make tackling plastic waste a priority, but the specific measures announced today don't match the scale of the environmental crisis we face.

Encouraging more water fountains, extending charges on plastic bags and funding for innovation can all be part of the solution, but the overall plastics plan lacks urgency, detail and bite.

 Sea creatures at bottom of world's deepest point have eaten plastic

She argued that the most glaring omission was the lack of support for deposit return schemes which see people paid for returning plastic items.

It is estimated that 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, with research indicating that without urgent action to cut demand this is likely to be 34 billion tonnes by 2050.

In the UK alone, during its recent Great British Beach Clean Up, the Marine Conservation Society found 718 pieces of litter for every 100 metre stretch of beach surveyed, and of this, rubbish from food and drink made up at least one fifth.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove is behind a push for a more environmentally friendly Tory image (Reuters)

Friends of the Earth CEO Craig Bennett said: A 25 year plan is clearly needed  but with the nation facing an accelerating environmental crisis we cant afford to wait a quarter of a century for urgent action to tackle the issues that already threaten our lives, health and planet.

He went on: If Theresa May wants to champion the environment she must spell out the bold measures her Government will take in the next few weeks and months.

WWF Chief Executive Tanya Steele welcomed any step to reduce plastic waste, adding that plastic-free aisles can spur change.

But she said: If we really want to solve this problem, we need to think bigger and ultimately move towards an end to single-use plastics.

Shadow Environment Secretary Sue Hayman said the plan was now years behind schedule branding the plan a cynical attempt at rebranding the Tories image.

She went on: [It] appears to contain only weak proposals with Britains plastic waste crisis kicked into the long grass.

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said the Prime Minister had shown a complete lack of ambition, adding: The Conservatives should be eliminating all avoidable plastic waste now  a target of 2042 beggars belief.
 Close Theresa May: 'In the UK alone, the amount of single-use plastic wasted every year would fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls'

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Theresa May has delivered a landmark speech on the environment in which she laid out the Government's 25-year plan for reducing waste and tackling climate change.

The Prime Minister pledged to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042, alongside a range of other measures, but environmental groups said the plan lacks "urgency, detail and bite".

Also included in the Government's strategy are a 7bn fund for "plastics innovation" and plans to encourage supermarkets to set up plastic-free aisles.

Elsewhere, Boris Johnson will use a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to raise the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The British mother has been imprisoned in Iran since April 2016. And new analysis commissioned by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, showed a no deal Brexit could cost the UK economy up to 50bn.
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Washington DC has renamed the street outside the Russian embassy after a critic of Vladimir Putin who was assassinated.

The City Council voted unanimously to rename the northwest Washington street in honour of Boris Nemtsov, who was shot and killed outside the Kremlin in 2015.

The segment of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the Russian embassy will be renamed Boris Nemtsov Plaza on 27 February, the third anniversary of his death, according to Vladimir Kara-Murza, chair of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom.

In a statement the council said the decision was made to honour the "slain democracy activist."

 Thousands march in Moscow to remember murdered opposition leader Nemtsov

Russian politicians called the move "immoral" and said it was an attempt to "plague" Russia.

Vladimir Jabarov, a Russian senator, told RIA he thought the decision was taken to "irritate Moscow," while Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the nationalist LDPR party, said US authorities "want to play dirty tricks in front of the Russian embassy."

In pictures: Marchers mourn Boris Nemtsov in Moscow Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: Marchers mourn Boris Nemtsov in Moscow In pictures: Marchers mourn Boris Nemtsov in Moscow Russian protest march People march in Moscow in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov (Dmitry Lovetsky/AP) In pictures: Marchers mourn Boris Nemtsov in Moscow Russian protest march A man prepares portraits of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov who was gunned down on Friday (AP/Pavel Golovkin) AP/Pavel Golovkin In pictures: Marchers mourn Boris Nemtsov in Moscow Russian protest march People hold posters of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on Friday night, during a march to commemorate him in central Moscow (SERGEI KARPUKHIN/Reuters) (SERGEI KARPUKHIN/Reuters) In pictures: Marchers mourn Boris Nemtsov in Moscow Russian protest march Riot police near the site of Russian opposition veteran leader Boris Nemtsov killing in central Moscow (SERGEI ILNITSKY/EPA) SERGEI ILNITSKY/EPA In pictures: Marchers mourn Boris Nemtsov in Moscow Russian protest march People hold flags and posters during a march to commemorate Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on Friday night, in central Moscow (MAXIM SHEMETOV/Reuters) MAXIM SHEMETOV/Reuters In pictures: Marchers mourn Boris Nemtsov in Moscow Russian protest march Portraits of murdered Russian opposition veteran leader Boris Nemtsov are held by members of the crowd (EPA/SERGEI ILNITSKY) In pictures: Marchers mourn Boris Nemtsov in Moscow Russian protest march People march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov (Pavel Golovkin/AP) AP

Last year, Russia sent five Chechen men accused of killing Mr Nemtsov to prison, but the late politician's allies said the investigation had been a cover-up and those who had ordered his killing remained at large.

Recommended Russia jails five Boris Nemtsov killers for up to 20 years

Mr Nemtsov was shot four times in the back with a pistol while walking across the Bolsho Moskovoretsky Bridge with his girlfriend.

His killer then sped off in a getaway car.

Mr Nemtsov, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was a key opponent of the Russian President and his murder sent shockwaves through Russia's opposition supporters.

Hours before his death he had denounced Mr Putin's policies as "mad, aggressive and deadly" and was scheduled to lead an anti-government march in protest of the Kremlin's military intervention in Ukraine.
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Police are responding to reports of a shooting in the New York village of Ellenville.

Three people were reported killed, and a fourth person was also injured, local police said during a press conference.

The incident was being treated as a murder-suicide.

Nearby schools were placed on lock down pending police activity Thursday morning, according to the Ulster County Sheriff's Department.

A police officer with the Ellenville Police Department had confirmed that officials were responding to "a shooting", but declined to comment further on the evolving situation.

The village, located less than 20 miles west of Poughkeepsie, is small, with a population of just over 4,000 people.
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A Michigan couple has been caught and arrested for allegedly burning and abusing a four-year-old child, resulting in what medical examiners called the "worst child death case.

Gabrielle Barrett had burns all over her body and bruising to her entire body" according to a petition,which the Detroit Free Press has obtained, filed to remove another child from the couple's custody.

The girl's mother Candice Diaz and Brad Fields, Ms Diaz's boyfriend, have been charged with felony murder, second degree murder, first degree child abuse, and torture.

Recommended Pensioner found guilty of murdering toddler 50 years ago

Police had gone to the home after an emergency call on 1 January. The child was unresponsive and in cardiac arrest, according to the petition filed by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

In a statement, police said: "Upon arrival, CPR was being administered by family members and officers found the child suffering from severe burns about her extremities."

The child died soon after arriving at an area hospital.

Mr Fields is not Gabrielle's father but the couple have custody of her half sister, a one-year-old baby. A court granted the state agency's request and the couple have been prohibited from seeing the child.

 NSPCC encourages people to say something about child abuse with 'Say Something' advert

The couple were previously on the run from police after Gabrielle's death was ruled as a homicide, but were apprehended by the US Marshal Service while driving in Georgia.

The petition also said Ms Diaz and Mr Fields each have severe mental illnesses" and both admit they are not under proper medical treatment. Ms Diaz was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety and Mr Fields said he had been told he had schizoaffective disorder, social anxiety, agoraphobia, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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

It is unclear whether child protective services had been involved with this family prior to Gabrielle's death, but the petition stated the medical examiner found a history of traumatic injuries to Gabrielle's body.

The state agency told the newspaper it does not comment on such cases involving children and declined to provide further details, but police records indicated a chaotic home.

In May 2016, Mr Diaz accused Mr Fields of punching her several times. He had allegedly shot the family dog and then shot himself in the leg.

In addition to finding crack pipes and several guns and knives, the police report said "the smell in the house was quite foul due to old garbage, decaying food, uncleaned dishes, dog urine on the living room floor, dog feces in the children's room, a rabbit with unchanged wood shavings and general uncleanliness.There were flies of all sorts in the air throughout the house."

Ms Diaz dropped the charges three days later and was put on probation for two years when she said she owned the weapons. Mr Fields had also been in trouble with the law prior to Gabrielle's death for carrying a concealed weapon.

Kyle Barrett, Gabrielle's biological father, has not been charged in relation to his daughter's death. He said the last time he saw the girl was in September 2017 when he turned himself into police on an unrelated warrant.

Mr Barrett was released from jail two days after the child died.

Jerry Barrett, Mr Barrett's father, said he was unaware of where his granddaughter lived or the condition of the home. "If I'd have known, I would have been there in a heartbeat," he lamented to the Detroit Free Press.

"Shes just a little angel. Everybody's been broken up about it," he said. It is not known whether the couple have yet had a chance to enter a plea.
Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei sees no immediate threat to the states burgeoning marijuana industry following Attorney General Jeff Sessions recent decision to overturn policy at the Justice Department that gave states protections from federal prosecution.

I dont think there is a reason for panic, Amodei said on a call with reporters on Tuesday, several days after the decision was announced. It is good to keep your eye on it.

Although he doesnt expect a crackdown, he believes Congress should act to clear up the issue of medical and recreational marijuana use.

If we want some predictability and stability  its probably time  that Congress get off its butt and start dealing with the issues, Amodei said.

The Northern Nevada lawmakers measured approach mirrors that of some in the states marijuana industry. Nick Spirtos, a doctor who runs The Apothecary Shoppe dispensary west of the Las Vegas Strip, said that while his customers were stressed by Sessions move, he entered the business with eyes wide open.

I dont worry about it, Spirtos said in an interview after a Thursday press conference held at his dispensary. Look, the federal government couldve closed us down anytime they wanted. We undertook this with the understanding that there were risks. Hopefully they will appreciate what were doing to contribute to the overall health of the patients in this state.

Democrats sounded the alarm about the move, calling Nevadans to fight for their states rights to maintain a marijuana industry in spite of federal prohibition. Democratic state Sen. Tick Segerblom, sometimes called the godfather of marijuana in Nevada, said hed been fielding anxious calls from people in the industry.

I tell them on the one hand, dont worry, relax, calm down, he said in an interview Thursday. On the other hand, Ill say, we need to push back. We need to scream bloody murder. This is unacceptable.

Democratic Rep. Dina Titus said that while Congress  which has anti-marijuana lawmakers in key leadership positions  has made virtually no progress on relaxing a federal marijuana ban, the anxiety over Sessions decision could force more lawmakers to take a stand.

This may work to our advantage, she said in an interview on Thursday. Now that we see what this is really going to do, it may motivate more representatives from states to get busy and pass that legislation because theyll be hearing from their constituents, theyll be hearing from businesses and maybe we can make something good about that.

Marijuana is currently classified with drugs such as heroin, that are deemed to be drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Amodei noted that he has been working with Titus to support legislation introduced by Maryland Republican Andy Harris that would legalize medical marijuana. He said the two also back a bill from Colorado Democrat Jared Polis that would allow recreational use to classify marijuana similar to alcohol.

Amodei said that marijuana could become an issue his re-election campaign since in the election everything is fair game, and underscored his belief that it is time for Congress to settle the matter.

If you really want to address the issue, youll hear me say in the campaign cycle, its time for us to act, said Amodei, who represents a heavily Republican district. By the time that discussion starts in a few months, youll also hear me say heres the legislation Ive affiliated myself with, heres why, heres the research weve done.

He expects dealing with medical marijuana will be easier than dealing with recreational. While he is working with Titus, he said he had not seen the details of a bill co-sponsored recently by Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen that would prohibit federal prosecution of individuals for marijuana possession so long as they follow their states respective marijuana laws.

Amodei was not also prepared to advocate for language to be included in the annual spending bills that would prohibit use of federal funds to prosecute recreational use. Such a provision, offered by California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, exists for medical marijuana, which has been included in previous spending bills. California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock has proposed a provision to protect both. I havent thought about it, but we are going to look at that, Amodei said.

Asked if he had worked with any Senate counterparts, Amodei said, I cant tell you what theyre doing over in the Senate, but thats not a news flash for me, Amodei said.

Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, who also chairs Senate Republicans campaign arm, said he expects lawmakers from states with legalized marijuana, such as Nevada, to stand up for their constituents.

The people of Colorado made it very clear what they wanted as it relates to marijuana, at first medical marijuana, then recreational marijuana, and I think its my job to protect those states rights and states decision, Gardner said Tuesday. I think senators in states  where they have legalized medical and recreational marijuana will find themselves in the same situation defending and protecting states rights.

Heller issued a less forceful statement than Gardner when Sessions decision came down, encouraging the Department of Justice to work with Nevadas governor, attorney general and congressional delegation. Segerblom called on Sen. Dean Heller to join Gardner in a more aggressive crusade.

If Heller would stand up and join with Gardner, theyd have to back off in a second. Then wed have 51 votes on our side and no federal appointments or nothing, Segerblom said. So if those Republicans in states that have recreational would just get together and say this is money, this is jobs, wed be in good shape.

Heller didnt respond to a request Tuesday for additional comment.

Gardner, who has threatened to block all Department of Justice nominees, including U.S. marshals and U.S. attorneys, was meeting with Sessions on Wednesday. The bottom line is that this could be solved by the Department of Justice changing their decision to reverse the Cole Memorandum.

Gardner said that he intends to discuss with Sessions a solution that would allow (Sessions) to live up to his commitments he made to me prior to his confirmation.

The Colorado senator, who voted to confirm Sessions as attorney general has said that he had commitments from Sessions and President Donald Trump that marijuana enforcement policy would not change.

Under Sessions pronouncement, U.S. attorneys will have broad discretion on whether to prosecute violations of federal marijuana law in their districts rather than adhering to guidelines provided under the Cole Memo. Gardner said that he was concerned by the comments issued Monday by the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts.

Although the U.S. Attorney in Colorado said last week that he would not seek to prosecute violations of federal law with regard to marijuana, the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts, Andrew Lelling, released a statement noting that he could not provide assurances that certain categories of participants in the state-level marijuana trade will be immune from federal prosecution.

The office of Nevadas U.S. attorney, Dayle Elieson, declined to comment on Tuesday. Elieson, who hails from Dallas and began in the role on Friday, so far has not given any public indication about where she stands on the matter  a fact that concerns some marijuana proponents.

It leaves it up to the discretion of the states. Some may be more aggressive than others in going after the businesses, Titus said about Sessions decision. Texas doesnt have it, she doesnt know much about it. We dont know what that means, whether shes going to be aggressive or not.

Now that we see what this is really going to do, it may motivate more representatives from states to get busy and pass that legislation because theyll be hearing from their constituents ...  US Rep. Dina Titus
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The author of a document listing men in the media industry accused of sexually harassment and assault has revealed herself, saying she only wanted to create a place for women to share their stories without being needlessly discredited or judged.

Writer and editor Moira Donegan came forward following speculation that Harpers magazine planned to publish an article naming her in its March edition.

Dubbed the S***ty Men List, the Google spreadsheet included the names of men working in the US media who were accused of wrongdoing.

It attracted criticism for preserving the anonymity of contributors and was branded reckless and harmful by some critics.

The anonymous, crowdsourced document was a first attempt at solving what has seemed like an intractable problem: how women can protect ourselves from sexual harassment and assault, she wrote in The Cut.

The hope was to create an alternate avenue to report this kind of behaviour and warn others without fear of retaliation.

She said formal reporting routes available to people who witnessed sexually inappropriate behaviour, such as going to the police or to human resource departments, were bad".

The existence of the list was first revealed in an article on BuzzFeed and the spreadsheet in full was published by Reddit.

Donegan, a 28-year-old former editor at The New Republic, said the list was intended to be private, but it had spread much further and much faster than she anticipated.

She said she was incredibly naive to have made the spreadsheet, saying she was misguided to believe the focus would be on the behaviour described in the document, rather than on the document itself.

A number of journalists threatened to pull their articles from Harpers in protest if it published the name of the list creator. Several women also posted on Twitter to say they were responsible for the list in an attempt to shield Donegan.

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

Donegan says essayist Katie Roiphe contacted her in December to ask her if she would comment for a Harpers story on the feminist moment.

She did not say that she knew I had created the spreadsheet. I declined and heard nothing more from Roiphe or Harpers until I received an email from a fact checker with questions about Roiphes piece, Donegan wrote.

Katie identifies you as a woman widely believed to be one of the creators of the S***ty Men in Media List, the fact checker wrote, although Roiphe has since denied she planned to name the author.

All of this was terrifying, Donegan said. I still dont know what kind of future awaits me now that Ive stopped hiding.
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Donald Trump's joint press conference with the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Wednesday should have been a straightforward affair, announcing new military and trade collaboration between their two nations.

But in the latest gaffe to befall the US President, Mr Trump managed to suggest the US was selling Norway a type of fighter aircraft that does not actually exist.

The President claimed Norway had started receiving the first American-made F-52s . In November, we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets, he said.

The F-52 is a fictional aircraft that features prominently in the successful Call of Duty video game series.

The former real estate mogul was supposed to be speaking at the White House to announce Norway's purchase of 52 F-35 jets from American aerospace firm Lockheed Martin.

Mr Trump's blunder prompted a flurry of jokes from his critics on social media.

We have a total of 52 and theyve delivered a number of them already, a little ahead of schedule, Mr Trump said on Wednesday, adding its a $10 billion order.

Norway received the first three F-35 fighter jets in November as part of efforts to increase the strength of its air force.

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

Norway's is the fourth military after the US itself, Israel and Italy to incorporate the planes.

These warplanes will improve the entire Norwegian defence, General Major Tonje Skinnarland, head of the Norwegian air force, told broadcaster TV2 at the time.
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New York City officials have announced the city is hitting out against the fossil fuel industry in two ways: a lawsuit against a number of large oil and gas companies and a promise to divest citys funds from the industry.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will be seeking billions in the lawsuit to recoup money spent by the city for resiliency efforts related to climate change.

The Mayors Office said in a statement that the cost of the so-called resiliency programme which includes improvements to aging physical infrastructure, like coastal protections, upgraded water and sewer infrastructure, and heat mitigation, but also public health campaigns, for example to help protect residents from the effects of extreme heat could cost the city upwards of $20bn in the near future.

Recommended Climate change blamed as US hit by major cold snap

City residents have repeatedly called for improvements to the subway system as well.

"As climate change continues to worsen, it's up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient, said Mr De Blasio.

The defendants in the city's federal lawsuit are BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell who, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists account for eight per cent of global sea level rise - a pressing issue for the island of Manhattan.

A BP spokesman declined comment. A Shell spokesman said climate change is a complex issue that should not be addressed by the courts. The other three did not immediately comment.

Some of the oil companies being sued by New York City over claims they contributed to global warming have disputed the allegation.

 Climate change might be worse than thought after scientists find major mistake in water temperature readings

"Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global issue and requires global participation and actions," said Exxon Mobil's Scott Silvestri. "Lawsuits of this kind  filed by trial attorneys against an industry that provides products we all rely upon to power the economy and enable our domestic life  simply do not do that."

Chevron spokesman Braden Reddall said the lawsuit had not merit and that the litigation will do nothing to address climate change. Curtis Smith, a Shell spokesman, said the courts are not the venue to address climate change.

New York's lawsuit, filed in federal court follows similar litigation filed by San Francisco, Oakland, and Santa Cruz, California.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court, followed the city's announcement that it plans to divest its pension funds from fossil fuel companies to the tune of $5bn.

The total investments in the pension fund is currently $189bn.

According to the Mayors office, it is the largest divestment away from fossil fuels committed to by any sub-national government in the US.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

"Safeguarding the retirement of our city's police officers, teachers and firefighters is our top priority, and we believe that their financial future is linked to the sustainability of the planet, city Comptroller Scott Stringer said in a statement.

The decision came on the heels of the state of New York deciding to divest its pension fund from fossil fuels as well. Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement last month.

Environmental activist Bill McKibben of 350.org called the actions by the city "one of a handful of the most important developments" in the past 30 years.

"The mightiest city on the planet has now sort of walked into a real fight with the richest and most irresponsible industry on the planet," he said.

Several environmental advocacy and green energy groups also had praise for the decision by the Big Apple.

However, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Association of Manufacturers Linda Kelly felt otherwise, saying the lawsuit is just a political maneuver on the part of Mr De Blasio.

"Ironically, this attack on energy manufacturers comes at a time that New Yorkers have depended on natural gas and heating oil to carry them through the recent extreme cold," she told the Associated Press.

Ms Kelly said: "The mayor's announcement may raise his profile, but it will do nothing to address climate change and will ultimately fail."

Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy and chief climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists argued in a statement that for decades, fossil fuel companies have spent millions to deceive the public about the harms of their products and block policies that could have limited the impacts that communities in New York City, California, and across the world are facing.

Taxpayers and impacted communities are right to demand that major fossil fuel companies...pay their fair share," Mr Frumhoff said.

Agencies contributed to this report.
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Donald Trumps former top strategist is to appear before congressional investigators probing possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russias alleged meddling in the election.

Steve Bannon, who was fired by Mr Trump last summer after spending the first six months of the administration as one of the most powerful people in the White House, is to be questioned on Tuesday by members of the House Intelligence Committee. Reports suggest the committee members will focus on the months Mr Bannon spent on Mr Trumps campaign.

Mr Bannon, 64, joined Mr Trumps campaign in August 2016 at a time when it was facing many problems and when few believed the former reality television star could overcome the challenge of Democrat Hillary Clinton. As it was, Mr Bannon was credited with urging Mr Trump to maintain his aggressive, unapologetic and populist stance, seeking to tap into frustration and anger among many working class Americans. When Mr Trump won, Mr Bannon was rewarded with an office in the White House and a senior job.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTSKNGCWsAAZxbM.jpg

But in recent weeks Mr Bannon has fallen out badly with Mr Trump. The former strategist was a source for many of the claims contained in Michael Wolffs controversial and incendiary book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

He claimed that a meeting Mr Trumps eldest son had with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer was treasonous and that the President was lacking a brain trust. He claimed that Mr Trumps daughter, Ivanka Trump, was dumb as a brick.

Mr Trump was said to be furious about the publication of the book and the apparent betrayal it contained.

 Steve Bannon: There's a 'special place in hell' for Republicans who don't vote for Roy Moore

His lawyers sought to halt its publican and the President attacked Mr Bannon, saying he had lost his mind after leaving the White House and that his only skill was leaking stories to the media that made him look good.

Mr Bannon subsequently apologised and said his comments were not directed as Mr Trumps eldest son, but rather former campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Manafort is one of four former Trump associates who have been indicted by the separate investigation being carried out by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.

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

Yet the row has cost Mr Bannon dearly. His chief patron, Rebekah Mercer, whose farther is a major Republican donor and shareholder in Breitbart News announced her support for Mr Trump. Earlier this week, it was announced that Mr Bannon was leaving the influential conservative website.

Im proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class platform, Mr Bannon was quoted as saying in the announcement.

Earlier on Thursday, the Daily Beast said Mr Bannon had retained lawyer Bill Burck, of the firm Quinn Emanuel, to help him prepare for the hearing of the committee, which is chaired by Republican Devin Nunes. It said Mr Bannon plans to fully cooperate with investigators.

Mr Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates have pleaded not guilty to a total of 12 charges, including money laundering. Meanwhile, Mr Trumps former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, have pleaded guilty of charges of lying to the FBI and are cooperating with Mr Muellers probe.
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Journalists are accusing Donald Trump of again fabricating praise, saying he falsely claimed to have received laudatory letters from television anchors.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump presided over an extended meeting on immigration with members of Congress that, in an unusual twist, was left open to members of the media.

In subsequent remarks the President said the tremendous meeting was reported as incredibly good, adding that television network anchors sent us letters saying that was one of the greatest meetings they've ever witnessed.

They probably wish they didnt send us those letters of congratulations. But it was good. I'm sure their ratings were fantastic, Mr Trump said.

The claim drew skepticism from journalists who cover Mr Trump. The White House did not respond to The Independents request for copies of the congratulatory letters.

But when CNN reporter Jim Acosta said that when he asked about the letters, he was sent something else entirely: a pair of video clips and a list of tweets in which reporters marvelled at being allowed to observe protracted negotiations.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Trump has long had an uneven relationship with facts, and he has been caught out before claiming praise for which there was no evidence.

Last year, he said he received a phone call from the leader of the Boy Scouts of America calling his politically charged speech at a scouting jamboree the greatest speech that was ever made to them. But the Boy Scouts denied that account, releasing a letter apologising for Mr Trumps address.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders subsequently said multiple members of the Boy Scout leadership approached the President to congratulate him in person after the speech.

I wouldnt say its a lie  thats a pretty bold accusation, Ms Sanders said. The conversations took place, they just simply didnt take place over a phone call.
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In a major departure from more than 50 years of US healthcare policy, the Trump administration will let states move towards imposing work requirements on people as a condition for obtaining health insurance under the Medicaid government program for the poor.

The proposed change will allow states to deny access to Medicaid  the largest single health insurance provider in the country  to certain low-income adults, as part of a sweeping welfare reform that many Republicans have demanded for years.

A letter from Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) deputy administrator Brian Neale declared the Trump administration was incentivising work and community engagement by allowing states to exempt certain adults from the programme if they were not working or participating in community engagement.

Recommended Trump budget to include huge Medicaid healthcare cuts for poorest

Subject to the full federal review process, CMS will support state efforts to test incentives that make participation in work or other community engagement a requirement for continued Medicaid eligibility or coverage, said the letter, which was sent to state Medicaid directors on Thursday morning.

More than 70 million Americans depend on Medicaid for health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. While other social safety nets  such as welfare and food stamp programmes  have been reformed over the years to include work requirements, healthcare access has been viewed by most policy experts as a right.

 Fox: Democrats saying people will die over Medicaid is ridiculous because 'we're all going to die'

Under the new rules, however, states can apply for a waiver to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. Ten states have already applied for a waiver and three more are considering doing so, according to the Washington Post. The Trump administration could approve the first waiver as early as Friday.

When applying for a waiver, states must justify how the work requirement would further the objectives of Medicaid, according to the letter. They must also allow elderly people, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and those determined by the state to be medically frail to be exempted from the requirement. Special consideration must also be given to those struggling with opioid addiction.

Beyond that, states have large flexibility to determine what counts as employment. The Department of Health and Human Services suggests, but does not require, that activities such as community service, care giving, education, job training, and substance use disorder treatment count towards the requirement.

Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Show all 30 1 /30 Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Threatening to shut down Twitter after being fact-checked After the president tweeted that voting by post would be "substantially fraudulent", Twitter attached a warning label to his tweet and referred readers to a site which explained how the claim was "unsubstantiated". Trump then said Twitter was "stifling free speech" and that he may have to shut it down, something which he would not have the power to do AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Flippantly dismissing a serious allegation of sexual assault When author E Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her, the president responded: Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Insulting the Mayor of London as he landed in London Just before touching down at Stansted Airport for his state visit, Trump took time out to @ the London mayor Sadiq Khan on twitter. He said that Khan has done a "terrible job"as mayor and that he is a "stone cold loser" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Taking plenty of "Executive Time" The president's official schedule sets aside the hours from 8 to 11am daily for "Executive Time". Further intermittent periods of "Executive Time" are scheduled throughout any given day, ranging from 15 minutes to 3 hours. His duties in these hours have not been officially disclosed, though Axios reports that he spends them watching TV, reading the newspapers and tweeting Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the president has faced difficulty in raising the required $5bn at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and Congress's refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Joking about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet from 13 November 2018, the president mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Railing against the Mueller investigation The president has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Trump Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the president claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it would not have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Colouring in the US flag wrong The president coloured in the US flag wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The president announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the president made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the president reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape". Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying: There are a lot of killers. You think our countrys so innocent? Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Asking for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump couldnt help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzeneggers show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of The Apprentice  which buoyed Trumps celebrity status years ago Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the worst call he had had so far Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Trumps travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administrations argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the president picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be little Rocket Man as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticising Khan for saying there was no reason to be alarmed after the attack. Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Trump mocked MSNBCs Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to join him. He noted that she was bleeding badly from a face-lift at the time, and that he said no MSNBC Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Retweeting cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of fake news Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Trumps firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Trumps White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didnt mention jews or even the word jewish in the written statement Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Anger over Inauguration crowd size Trumps inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didnt, the day was very dreary Reuters

The letter argues that the new rules will encourage people to find employment. It also suggests the change may make people healthier, because employment and community engagement have been linked to increased wellbeing.

Some healthcare experts, however, contested this point.

It doesnt incentivise people to work when you take away their care, because the vast majority of people who can work already are working, Hannah Katch, a senior policy analyst at the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities, told The Independent.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, approximately 60 per cent of the non-elderly, non-disabled adults currently enrolled in Medicaid are already employed. Of the unemployed population, a third said they could not work because they were taking care of their home or family. Another 15 per cent said they were in school, and 6 per cent were looking for work.

Another third of the unemployed enrollees said they could not work because of a disability that had not been verified by the government. According to Ms Katch, work requirements could actually prevent these people from finding employment by denying them the medical treatment they need to thrive.

We could certainly see people with chronic health conditions get sicker; we could see them not getting access to the primary preventative care that would help them get better, Ms Katch said. And its certainly not going to help them get a job.

 Bernie Sanders grills Tom Price on Trump's health care plans

Ms Katch also pointed to hourly employees, such as waitresses or construction workers, who work variable hours. If they are unable to verify their exact hours to the government each month, they may risk losing eligibility as well.

This is not going to help anybody get a job, its just going to take people off healthcare, Ms Katch said.

Several critics, including the National Health Law Program, are already considering legal action against the policy. Matt Salo, the executive director of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, told the Washington Post that the policy would go to court the minute the first approval comes out.

The new policy comes as the Trump administration seeks to weaken Obamacare, the 2010 law that aimed to increase the number of people with health insurance  and greatly expanded the number of people eligible for Medicare. More than 10 million people became newly eligible for Medicaid under the expansion, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Clare Pierce-Wrobel, the Director of Payment Reform Models at the Health Care Transformation Task Force, recalled her familys struggle to find coverage before the Medicaid expansion. Ms Pierce-Wrobels aunt, a scientific researcher with a PhD, lost her job after the economic recession of 2008. Unable to find a job, and not eligible for Medicaid, her insurance policy lapsed.

Without a way to pay for preventative care, her aunt waited months to see a doctor when she began feeling ill. When she did, it was too late  she had developed advanced ovarian cancer. She died shortly thereafter.

Theres kind of this myth that able bodied people who are receiving Medicaid are lazy, Ms Pierce-Wrobel said, but most able-bodied people who are receiving Medicaid are working poor.

She added: If a family and a person in our position cant get health coverage in this country, who can?

The move by the White House follows the recent passage of a major tax overhaul. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was among Republican leaders who met with Mr Trump to work on priorities for 2018, has long had Medicaid in his sights.

He told a radio show last month: Frankly, its the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so we spend more time on the health care entitlements  because thats really where the problem lies.
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President Donald Trump has reportedly referred to Haiti and African countries as "s***hole countries" during a meeting with congressional leaders in the Oval Office.

After ideas for restoration projects to help immigrants in Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries were floated as a potential part of a bipartisan immigration deal, the President grew frustrated.

"Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?" Mr Trump asked, two people briefed on the meeting told the Washington Post.

Mr Trump then reportedly suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, a country whose prime minister met with the President Wednesday.

The members of Congress were meeting with Mr Trump as a part of efforts to find a solution to America's immigration problems, which Mr Trump made a central theme of his campaign.

Since taking office, Mr Trump has ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several groups in the US, including for Haitians and for people from El Salvador.

 CNN guest tries to defend Trump's 's***hole' comment

Haitians became able to apply for TPS following the 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean island nation, and from which Haiti has still not recovered.

People from El Salvador qualified for the program as a result of the dangerous conditions they faced back home, where murder rates have skyrocketed as a result of gang violence there.

The President has said that he would not consider an immigration overhaul unless money is put aside to fund the construction of his much talked about border wall, even though that wall is anything but popular among members of Congress.

Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Show all 30 1 /30 Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Threatening to shut down Twitter after being fact-checked After the president tweeted that voting by post would be "substantially fraudulent", Twitter attached a warning label to his tweet and referred readers to a site which explained how the claim was "unsubstantiated". Trump then said Twitter was "stifling free speech" and that he may have to shut it down, something which he would not have the power to do AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Flippantly dismissing a serious allegation of sexual assault When author E Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her, the president responded: Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Insulting the Mayor of London as he landed in London Just before touching down at Stansted Airport for his state visit, Trump took time out to @ the London mayor Sadiq Khan on twitter. He said that Khan has done a "terrible job"as mayor and that he is a "stone cold loser" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Taking plenty of "Executive Time" The president's official schedule sets aside the hours from 8 to 11am daily for "Executive Time". Further intermittent periods of "Executive Time" are scheduled throughout any given day, ranging from 15 minutes to 3 hours. His duties in these hours have not been officially disclosed, though Axios reports that he spends them watching TV, reading the newspapers and tweeting Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the president has faced difficulty in raising the required $5bn at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and Congress's refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Joking about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet from 13 November 2018, the president mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Railing against the Mueller investigation The president has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Trump Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the president claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it would not have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Colouring in the US flag wrong The president coloured in the US flag wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The president announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the president made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the president reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape". Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying: There are a lot of killers. You think our countrys so innocent? Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Asking for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump couldnt help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzeneggers show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of The Apprentice  which buoyed Trumps celebrity status years ago Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the worst call he had had so far Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Trumps travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administrations argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the president picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be little Rocket Man as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticising Khan for saying there was no reason to be alarmed after the attack. Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Trump mocked MSNBCs Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to join him. He noted that she was bleeding badly from a face-lift at the time, and that he said no MSNBC Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Retweeting cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of fake news Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Trumps firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Trumps White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didnt mention jews or even the word jewish in the written statement Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Anger over Inauguration crowd size Trumps inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didnt, the day was very dreary Reuters

The Oval Office are just the latest instance in which Mr Trump has referred to Haitians in a questionable manner. Earlier reports indicated that Mr Trump had expressed disgust for immigrants from Haiti, and claimed that all of the individuals coming to the US from the island have "AIDS".
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At least 28 people are missing and four have been confirmed dead after a boat from Venezuela sank on the way to the Dutch island of Curacao.

Police and relatives of the surviving passengers confirmed the boat had been trying to reach the city of Willemstad despite a travel ban imposed by the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Reginald Huggins of the Curacao police told Reuters that the victims were two men and two women who were "found on the beach" the morning on 10 January.

Recommended Venezuela halts air and sea traffic with three neighbouring countries

"This was not a crime, they were not murdered," Mr Huggins confirmed.

A relative of one of the survivors said the boat "was carrying too many passengers" and broke apart as the result of large waves.

Venezuela's Regional Civil Protection director Jose Montano confirmed there were a total of 34 passengers on board, which left only two survivors who made it to shore after the boat broke.

 Donald Trump considers possible military action against Venezuela

Amid Venezuela's socialist economic crisis, citizens were often travelling to the island in search of goods, employment, and services that were either unavailable or expensive in the country.

Last week, Mr Maduro placed a ban on travel to the Caribbean islands Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba in an attempt to stop the smuggling of Venezuelan goods. He has said he thinks Venezuela's heavy subsidies for consumer goods - like fuel - have led to years of contraband going to neighbouring nations.

A turbulent year in Venezuela Show all 11 1 /11 A turbulent year in Venezuela A turbulent year in Venezuela Demonstrators scuffle with security forces during an opposition rally in Caracas, Venezuela, April 4, 2017. Venezuelan security forces quelled masked protesters with tear gas, water cannons and pepper spray in Caracas after blocking an opposition rally against socialist President Nicolas Maduro. The clashes began after authorities closed subway stations, set up checkpoints and cordoned off a square where opponents had planned their latest protest against the government and the crippling economic crisis. Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "For me that was the day that made a difference, never before had I seen the protesters and police clashing men-to-men and struggling back and forward. From then, the strategy of the police changed and they never faced the protesters so close again." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela A man who was set on fire by people accusing him of stealing during a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro runs amidst opposition supporters in Caracas, Venezuela, May 20, 2017. Marco Bello: "I spotted a man running in front of me as a group of protesters, most of them hooded and with makeshift shields, were chasing him so I followed them. Some 100 meters down the street, the protesters caught the man and surrounded him. When I walked up and went through the circle of people to take pictures, someone had already poured gasoline over the man and set him on fire. Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela "Rowdy groups of government supporters busted into Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly. There were several clashes happening at the same time, so I tried to follow a small group of attackers as they pushed their way through the main building. By the time I got into the building, they had already finished hitting people and were on their way out, leaving behind an opposition lawmaker covered in blood. I quickly went over to the politician, Leonardo Regnault, whose grey suit was spattered in blood. He was up against an ornate wooden door, clearly in a state of shock. Another opposition lawmaker, Luis Stefanelli, was standing next to him, hands up in a sign of surrender and pleading with the attackers to stop the beating. Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela A member of the riot security forces points a gun through the fence of an air force base at David Jose Vallenilla, who was fatally injured during clashes at a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela A demonstrators attends a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, June 19, 2017. Ivan Alvarado: "I was under the highway photographing some protestors who had surrounded a woman they accused of stealing a phone from someone. I turned around to check what was happening behind me and saw this man appearing from the shadows to see what was going on. The white on his face is salt, which the protestors said helped to reduce the effects of the tear gas." REUTERS A turbulent year in Venezuela Riot security forces clash with demonstrators as a motorcycle is set on fire during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in San Cristobal, Venezuela, May 29, 2017. Carlos Eduardo Ramirez: "Security forces arrived to disperse demonstrators that already had burned two taxis and a bus, throwing tear gas and pellets and the demonstrators' response was to throw molotov cocktails and one of those petrol bombs reached a National Guard member, setting him and the motorbike on fire." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela Riot security forces detain a demonstrator during a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, July 28, 2017. Rock-throwing Venezuelans braved tear gas and rainstorms, blocking streets in protest against a legislative super-body to be elected two days later that critics call an attempt by President Nicolas Maduro to create a dictatorship. Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "After many hours of very violent clashes between the demonstrators and security forces, the National Guard in an attempt to end the situation, suddenly advanced their line very quickly, even going beyond where I and other photographers were taking cover. All the protesters who did not react fast enough to leave the place were detained." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela Opposition lawmaker Carlos Paparoni is hit by jets of water during riots at a march to the state ombudsman's office in Caracas, Venezuela, May 29, 2017. A group of young Venezuelan lawmakers has risen to prominence on the violent front line of anti-government marches that have shaken the South American country for three months, bringing 75 deaths. On the streets daily leading demonstrators, pushing at security barricades and sometimes picking up teargas canisters to hurl back at police and soldiers, the energetic National Assembly members are heroes to many opposition supporters. Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "I remember clearly how instants after I spotted Paparoni standing in front of 'The Whale', the common name of the water cannon armoured cars, he was flying through the air due to the unstoppable power of the water, as if he was a feather. Fellow protesters had to drag him out of the place, because from where I was, he seemed to have been unconscious." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela Flames erupt as clashes break out while the Constituent Assembly election is being carried out in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2017. Deadly protests rocked Venezuela as opposition voters boycotted an election for a constitutional super-body that unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro vowed would begin a 'new era of combat' in the crisis-stricken nation. Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "Suddenly, a bomb exploded in the capital during an opposition protest and wounded seven police officers in what seemed to be the spread of more aggressive tactics. We were taking photos from close by but the police panicked and chased everyone away, firing teargas, rubber bullets and pellets." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela An injured opposition supporter is helped by volunteer members of a primary care response team during clashes with riot security forces at a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, June 22, 2017. Ivan Alvarado: "This image was taken next to an airforce base where another protestor was fatally injured that day. I don't know how this man was injured, I first saw him as the first aid volunteers carried him out from the midst of the tear gas. You can really see the pain in his expression as he cries out. After I took the image the motorbike speeded off down the highway." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela A demonstrator shouts slogans in front of police officers during a women's march to protest against President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela Reuters

He has said such contraband is driving the current product shortages. However, his critics have said the state-led economic system is what is to blame.

The government of Curacao had said that "unilateral closure of the border with Venezuela does not fit with the search for better relations with our neighbour."

Governments around the world have criticised Mr Maduro for not allowing a democratic transition to a new administration and skyrocketing prices on basic goods, but none have proffered armed conflict as a solution.

There have been some economic measures from the EU and neighbouring countries, but they have done nothing to stem Mr Maduros political power.
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Vermonts senate has passed a bill to legalise recreational marijuana use, which would make the state the first in the nation to do so through the legislative process rather than a ballot initiative.

Republican Governor Phil Scott is expected to sign the bill, which passed the Democratic-controlled Senate by a voice vote. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed the measure last week. Although Vermont is one of the most politically liberal states, it is also one of 23 in the nation that do not allow ballot initiatives.

The Vermont bill would allow those 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana, two adult plants and four immature plants beginning on 1 July. It does not immediately clear the way for retail sales of the drug, leaving that up to a commission created last year to study how to tax and regulate it.

Recommended States slam Jeff Sessions over legal weed reversal

Passage would put the state directly at odds with the Trump administration. Last week, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed an Obama-era policy easing enforcement of federal laws banning the drug in eight states where it is legal.

Vermont in particular doesnt care very much what the attorney general thinks, said Matt Simon, New England political director for the pro-legalisation Marijuana Policy Project. With the way this bill is written, having a few plants, theres nothing that the feds could do even if they wanted to.

Law enforcement groups in Vermont have criticised the legalisation drive, saying the drug poses health risks and that there is no way to quickly test drivers who might be intoxicated by marijuana.

Neighbouring Massachusetts, nearby Maine and six other states have legalised marijuana use as a result of voter initiatives.

New Hampshires House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a similar bill to legalise recreational marijuana use. That states governor, Republican Chris Sununu, has said he opposes legalisation.

In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Show all 26 1 /26 In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A man wears a marijuana leaf mask during the annual 4/20 cannabis culture celebration at Sunset Beach in Vancouver, British Columbia AP In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A lady smokes marijuana on Parliament Hill on 4/20 in Ottawa, Ontario Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies James Reed smokes a joint during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies People sign a 4/20 sign on Parliament Hill on in Ottawa, Ontario Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A woman smokes marijuana on Parliament Hill on 4/20 in Ottawa, Ontario. Polling released showed strong support in Canada for a government drive to legalise recreational use of marijuana, but many would like the proposed minimum age for consumption to be raised. Sixty-three percent of respondents told the Angus Reid Institute they support legalisation Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A man smokes marijuana during the annual 4/20 marijuana rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Reuters In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Demonstrators smoke marijuana during the '4/20 Santiago' rally in favour of legalisation in front of the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, as part of the Global Marijuana March which is being held in hundreds of cities worldwide Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies People play with a mock marijuana joint during a 4/20 party to demand legalisation and to celebrate marijuana culture outside the Senate building in Mexico City, Mexico Reuters In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Adam Eidinger, co-founder of DCMJ, hands out free marijuana joints to DC residents who worked on Capitol Hill as part of the 1st Annual Joint Session to mark '4/20' day and promote legalising marijuana on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Police arrest Rachel Ramone Donlan after she handed out free marijuana joints to DC residents who worked on Capitol Hill as part of the 1st Annual Joint Session to mark '4/20' day and promote legalising marijuana on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Police arrest Rachel Ramone Donlan after she handed out free marijuana joints to DC residents who worked on Capitol Hill as part of the 1st Annual Joint Session to mark '4/20' day and promote legalising marijuana on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Thousands of people gather to smoke marijuana during the '420 Santiago'rally in front of the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies People attend the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Kevin Barron and Lasean Moore of Raleigh, North Carolina, share a joint during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Nic Ruhl takes a pull on a giant hand rolled joint at precisely 4:20pm MDT during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Various cannabis paraphernalia on display at a vendor's stall during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Mo Banez, of Austin, Texas, lights a joint during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A man displays a large container of cannabis during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado. The rally, held annually, is a celebration of both the legalisation of cannabis and cannabis culture. Colorado is one of twenty-six U.S. states along with the District of Columbia that has legalised the use of cannabis either recreationally or medically AFP/Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Sitting in small groups on mats shaded by trees in the Rose Garden just across from the Knesset, participants lit up as the clock struck 4:20 for the local version of the traditional worldwide April 20 pro-marijuana events, known as '420' rallies Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies An Israeli smokes a marijuana joint in Jerusalem during a rally at the Rose garden Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Sitting in small groups on mats shaded by trees in the Rose Garden just across from the Knesset, participants lit up as the clock struck 4:20 for the local version of the traditional worldwide April 20 pro-marijuana events, known as '420' rallies Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies An Israeli girl poses with a mock marijuana joint in Jerusalem during a rally at the Rose garden, to celebrate 420 and to express their defiance of current laws Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies aelis pass around a marijuana joint in Jerusalem during a rally at the Rose garden, to celebrate 420 and to express their defiance of current laws Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies An Israeli smokes a marijuana joint in Jerusalem during a rally at the Rose garden, to celebrate 420 and to express their defiance of current law Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies An Israeli smokes a marijuana joint in Jerusalem on April 20, 2017 during a rally opposite the Knesset to celebrate 420 and express defiance of current laws AFP/Getty Images

Marijuana advocates say that legalising sales of the drug will help to phase out the existing illegal market and allow states to take in additional tax revenue.

Five of the first states to legalise the drug - Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada - together generated more than $485 million in tax revenue off marijuana sales in the first nine months of 2017, according to an analysis by the Marijuana Policy Project.

Reuters
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Chinese business leaders are being offered the chance to have dinner with David Cameron  as long as they stump up the trifling sum of 12,000.

Those willing to hand over the readies will also have the chance to pose for a photograph with the former Conservative leader, according to reports.

Mr Cameron is in China and was reportedly set to meet the communist state's president, Xi Jinping, on Thursday.

Recommended David Cameron to head fund to boost British trading links with China

Adverts for the Shanghai International Ball and Leaders' Forum featured a photograph of the former prime minister alongside a price in Chinese renminbi.

The promotion appeared on social media and was first reported by the BBC's China correspondent, Robin Brant.

Mr Cameron is leading a billion-dollar investment initiative between the UK and China.

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 750m private fund is supported by the British Government, will be used to railways, ports and other facilities.
ELKO  The amount of water allowed to be withdrawn from the Humboldt River Basin exceeds the yield, and the Nevada Division of Water Resources is in the process of modeling the regions hydrogeology so the state can better govern the resource.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and Desert Research Institute are completing the study, and representatives from the organizations updated shareholders on their progress during workshops Jan. 9 in Lovelock and Winnemucca, and Jan. 10 in Elko.

These guys  the USGS and DRI  are doing a good job and are very thorough, said Jon Benedict, a Nevada Division of Water Resources geologist, after the Elko workshop. We are in good hands as far as the technical expertise that we brought to bear.

After the drought of 2012-2016, the issue of over-allocated water resources came to a head as downstream senior surface water right holders said junior groundwater pumping upstream took away from their allocations. The Pershing County Water Conservation District filed a writ petition in 2015, amended 2016, requesting that the state curtail water in over-appropriated basins.

The perennial yield of the Humboldt River Basin is about 429,000 acre-feet while appropriations total about 716,000 acre-feet, research shows.

In response to the writ petition, the state initiated the four-year study costing $2.8 million to better understand the water resource then use the data to create a management system by 2020. Nevada Division of Water Resources Deputy Administrator Rick Felling visited Elko in July 2017 to gather input on how the possible regulations could affect small-business owners and describe the history of the states water rights, according to Elko Daily Free Press archives.

During the January Elko workshop at the Nannini Administrative Building  attended by more than 25 people, including representatives from Elko area governments, ranchers, mining companies and conservation groups  researchers covered the general principles of groundwater and evapotranspiration from plants, and showed progress on models for the upper, middle and lower basins.

The results should come together to create an understanding of stream depletion and how governance would affect the river system.

Jake Tibbitts, natural resources manager for Eureka County, asked the presenters if the estimated acre-feet of water pumped yearly counted gross or consumptive use total. He pointed out that the studies credited mines with reinjecting water back into the resource while irrigators didnt seem to be judged the same.

Why not adjust irrigation for consumptive use? he asked, explaining that the difference risked labeling irrigation as a high water user.

One of the panelists responded by saying that mines and geothermal operations must reinject water according to their permits, and the data is well-documented. Benedict added that a management plan would look at consumptive use for irrigators, as well.

The concept would be that it is equitable and fair, Benedict said.

Other concerns voiced during a question-and-answer session included whether high-water-use plants would be removed, the effects of drilling new wells and which pivot systems were most efficient at irrigation.

Tibbitts said he looked forward to seeing more detail in the reports so he can better connect how the science will inform the regulations because that all will have bearing on someones livelihood in the future.

The research team expects to have a draft report by the first quarter of 2019, followed by a review process. The final report could be finished as early as the end of that year or 2020.
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Hundreds of thousands of people will gather on an island in the Ganges delta this weekend for one of the world's largest pilgrimages.

Each year Hindus from across India take part in a ritual bath on the shores Gangasagar, where the river meets the Bay of Bengal, to mark the Makar Sankranti festival.

The holy dip is the world's second biggest Hindu gathering, and the largest that takes place annually.

Recommended Thousands of Hindus take dip in holy waters to celebrate festive

Here's what you should know about it.

Where and when is the Gangasagar pilgrimage?

Each January pilgrims journey to Gangasagar, also known as Sagar Island, about 95 miles south of Calcutta in West Bengal. The island sits at the confluence of the Hooghly river, a tributary of the Ganges, and the Bay of Bengal.

The holy dip takes place on 14 January, the day of the Hindu festival of Makar Sankranti, although pilgrims usually begin to arrive several days earlier.

Who makes the journey?

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus of all castes travel from across India, as well as elsewhere in the world, to take part. Last year more than a million people braved ice-cold water and winds for the ritual bath. Authorities installed 20,000 toilets for those attending.

It is India's second largest gathering, dwarfed only by the Kumbh Mela, which can draw more than 120 million people and is considered the largest religious pilgrimage in the world.

The volume of people attending Gangasagar brings safety problems for authorities. Last year six people were killed in a stampede as people rushed to board a boat to leave.

What happens at the event?

The pilgrimage centres on the holy dip, which Hindus believe cleanses their sins.

After bathing, most worshippers prayer at the Kapil Muni temple near to the event's main fair, or "mela".
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A Japanese gang member who evaded police for 14 years has been captured by authorities in Thailand after images of his distinctive body tattoos went viral.

Shigeharu Shirai was arrested to the north of Bangkok where he had been in hiding to evade murder charges in Japan in connection with the death of a rival gang member.

The 74-year-old was arrested after photos of him playing checkers at an outdoor table were posted to Facebook last year by a Thai man who was impressed by his tattoos.

The post quickly went viral and was shared more than 10,000 times, allowing police to identify Shirai.

Police General Wirachai Songmetta said Japanese associates paid visits to Shirai two to three times a year, each time bearing cash gifts. He is married to a Thai woman and kept a low profile over the past decade.

Shirai will face illegal entry charges before he is handed over to Japanese authorities, the police statement said.

Police said Shirai was implicated, along with seven others, in the killing of Kazuhiko Otobe. Japan's Kyodo News service said police in Mie prefecture had obtained an arrest warrant in the 15-year-old case.

Shirai is accused of being one of eight gangsters involved in the murder of another gang leader in 2003 (AP)

Shirai and Otobe were members of small rival factions affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza, or underworld, syndicate.

Tattoos on the back, upper arms and a missing tip of a little finger are trademarks of Japanese yakuza. Tattooed guests are often refused entry to public baths and swimming pools.

According to the National Police Agency, 22 organisations were designated as organised crime groups in 2017, with membership totalling more than 20,000.

Almost three-quarters of the gangsters belong to the Yamaguchi-gumi and two other groups, Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai, which together dominate Japan's underworld.

In addition to illegal drug sales and gambling, which are their traditional ways of earning money, gangsters also have entered construction, finance and security businesses.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The parents of an eight-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Pakistan have claimed police didnt do anything to find their daughter.

Zainab Ansaris death sparked widespread protests across the country after her body was found in a rubbish tip on Tuesday in Kasur, eastern Punjab.

Her father, Ameen Ansari, who was on a pilgrimage with his wife to Mecca when his daughter disappeared, said family and friends searched frantically for Zainab after she was reported missing, but police expended little effort.

My relatives and neighbours told me that the police used to come, have food and leave, he told local media. While they didnt do anything, my friends and family spent day and night looking for my daughter.

Speaking from Islamabad airport, Zainabs mother, who has not been named, said: I dont know anything. I dont know what happened. I just want justice. I have lost Zainab. I dont have anything to say.

The provinces chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, who assured Mr Ansari justice would be done for Zainab, fired Kasurs police chief over negligence in the case, according to a Punjab government statement.

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

Hundreds of angered residents took to the streets of Kasur in protest on Wednesday.

Some attacked a police station and government buildings while local TV cameras captured others throwing stones and smashing car windows with sticks.

Police were seen firing gunshots into the air to disperse protesters.

Two people died and dozens more were injured.

Kasurs police chief, Zulfiqar Hameed, declined to say whether those killed had been shot by his officers.

Four police officers have since been arrested for allegedly opening fire on the protesters, the Government said in a tweet.

Zainab went missing as she walked to her nearby religious studies class, according to police.

They said six girls have been sexually assaulted in the region in recent months, and are investigating whether there is a connection between the cases.
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Peter Hoekstra, the newly minted US ambassador to the Netherlands, held his first conference with the Dutch media at his new residence in the Hague on Wednesday.

It did not go well.

Dutch journalists peppered Hoekstra, who became Donald Trump's ambassador after serving 18 years as a Republican congressman from Michigan, with questions on unsubstantiated claims he made in 2015 about the chaos the Islamic movement had brought to the Netherlands.

There are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned, he had said at a conference hosted by a conservative group. And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.

The comments have widely been described as inaccurate, and reflect certain conspiracies about sharia law that crop up in some circles of the far-right in the West. When pressed by the Dutch reporters, Hoekstra declined to retract the comments or give specific examples to back them up.

In fact, after saying that he would be revisiting the issue, he simply refused to answer the question at all.

But the reporters were not done with the line of questioning yet. Instead of moving on, another reporter would simply ask a variation on the question again.

Everybody there had one question: that crazy statement you made, are you going to withdraw it? said Roel Geeraedts, a political reporter at the Dutch television station RTL Nieuws in a phone interview about the event. We were not getting answers, so we all kept asking it.

Geeraedts published a segment with video of the remarkable exchange on social media.

After at least one person had asked the question, Geeraedts followed up to ask Hoekstra about a John Adams quote - Adams was the United States' first ambassador to Holland - that was mounted right behind the ambassador. Hoekstra said he had read the quote, which expresses Adams' hope that only honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.

If you're truly an honest and wise man, could you please take back the remark about burned politicians or name the politician that was burned in the Netherlands? Geeraedts asked.

An uncomfortable silence followed the question.

Thank you, Hoekstra said, before trying to call on someone else over the clamour of the reporters in the room.

Excuse me, I asked you a question, Geeraedts said.

Another journalist jumped in.

Mr. Ambassador, can you mention any example of a Dutch politician who was burned in recent years?

Again, silence, as Hoekstra stared around the room.

This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions, another reporter said.

Sherry Keneson-Hall, an embassy counselor who was helping run the news conference, pushed back, asserting that Hoekstra was answering the questions.

At least one more journalist fired the question off. Reporters had asked the question at least five times.

We were all astonished that he didn't want to take back the comment. It was simply untrue, so why not take it back? said Geeraedts. It was awkward, to be honest.

Hoekstra has been in hot water in the Netherlands for the remarks since he was first confronted by a Dutch journalist, Wouter Zwart, in December. Hoekstra falsely claimed to Zwart that he had never made the remarks and called them fake news. Moments later, he denied that he had called them fake news.

Video of the bizarre exchange, juxtaposed with his no-go zone remarks, went viral, and the episode drew a slew of critical headlines in the United States and the Netherlands.

Hoekstra's silence when faced with reporters' questions on Wednesday drew a similar response.

Embarrassing performance from controversial ambassador, read a web headline at De Telegraaf, one of the country's largest newspapers. Ambassador Hoekstra lost his way again in The Hague, read another. Very uncomfortable meeting between ambassador and journalists, went RTL Nieuws.

Hoekstra pointed to the public regrets he had made for the exchange with Zwart on Wednesday. But he did not clarify whether the apology was meant to include the no-go zone comments when asked on Wednesday. At one point, he seemed to indicate that he was most concerned about the interview, not the statements.

It is not about my personal views anymore. This is about the views on the policies of the United States of America as directed by this administration, he said. One interview is not going to have an impact. The other thing I just want to reinforce, this relationship has been maintained by countless people over the last 400 years, this is not about me.

A CNN report published this week documented multiple times Hoekstra had referred to no-go zones, in European cities during appearances on conservative media, including talk radio, and a print op-ed, and unearthed other instances where he had given fuel to conspiracy theories about Muslims.

He speculated that some 10-15 percent of the Muslim community in the world - 270 million people - were radical Islamist militants and appeared to imply that Huma Abedin had egregious ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a claim that The Washington Post's fact-checker Glenn Kessler, and other publications, have determined as bogus. On another far-right show, Hoekstra said he had considered the possibly that President Barack Obama might be intentionally aiding the rise of Muslim extremists.

The State Department did not return a request for comment.

Geeraedts said he believed that Hoekstra's behaviour confirmed some suspicions the Dutch have about the Trump administration.

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Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the president has faced difficulty in raising the required $5bn at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and Congress's refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Joking about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet from 13 November 2018, the president mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 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A lot of Dutch people have seen the press conferences of the White House and seen how some questions are not answered, he said. Everybody knows about 'alternative facts.' And this fits that picture.

He said that the press corps' unwillingness to let the question go was a spontaneous response, and said he had seen a similar tactic employed on a smaller scale when Dutch politicians gave evasive answers to direct questions. But he said politics in the Netherlands differed a bit from the current situation in the United States.

In the Netherlands you don't get a straight up answer, if you ask straight up questions, he said. But you hardly get false answers.

The Washington Post
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Alarmed by displays of anti-Semitism among new immigrants to Germany, a German politician has offered a novel idea that appears to be gaining traction: required visits to Nazi concentration camp memorials.

The idea, proposed by Sawsan Chebli, a Berlin state legislator of Palestinian heritage, received a significant boost on Wednesday when the leaders of Germanys Central Council of Jews and the far larger World Jewish Congress agreed with her.

People who have fled to us who have themselves had to escape or been expelled can develop empathy in such memorials, the councils President, Josef Schuster, told Deutschlandfunk radio.

The World Jewish Congress, a leading advocacy organisation that represents Jewish communities in 100 countries, also welcomed the idea.

This proposal is an encouraging and effective method of educating people of all backgrounds about the Nazi attempt to wipe out the entire Jewish population of Europe and the dangers such hatred can yield, Ronald S. Lauder, the organisations President, said.

Germany has faced up to the crimes of its past in an honest and straightforward way, and has made it clear at the highest levels of government that the memory of the Holocaust must never be forgotten or diminished, he added.

The idea of requiring new arrivals to visit concentration camps was not universally endorsed. Some scholars of German history described it as a simplistic answer to a more complicated and insidious problem.

You dont stop someone from being a racist or xenophobe by taking them to a concentration camp, said Sabine von Mering, director of the Center for German and European Studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. I dont think that making it a requirement is somehow going to magically solve this problem. It requires a lot more attention and education.

It was not clear whether the German government would move to make such visits mandatory for immigrants, who are currently offered courses on German language, culture and history.

Remembering the Holocaust Show all 16 1 /16 Remembering the Holocaust Remembering the Holocaust 119165.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119169.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119229.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119167.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119162.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119166.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119163.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119224.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119168.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119228.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119152.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119226.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119150.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119151.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119147.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119231.bin Hannah Bills

But the suggestion reflected a growing concern that Germanys absorption in recent years of more than 1 million immigrants had inadvertently created potential incubators of anti-Semitism.

Sensitivities about the Nazi past are extremely strong in Germany. Student trips to former Nazi concentration camps are regular elements of German school curriculums.

The New York Times
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A group of Islamists who formed a vigilante gang called the Sharia Police will be subject to a retrial after a German court overturned their 2016 acquittal.

The seven men had been charged with wearing uniforms expressing a shared political opinion after patrolling the streets of Wuppertal in Western Germany at night in September 2014 in orange vests emblazoned with the words Sharia Police.

The group, which included Islamist preacher Sven Lau  who was sentenced to a prison term for supporting a foreign terrorist organisation in July - sought to discourage young men from visiting bars and brothels and drinking alcohol.

They reportedly carried signs in English declaring a Sharia Controlled Zone.

The citys district court had initially ruled the men had not breached a ban on political uniforms when they approached people wearing the vests.

Judges claimed the mens uniforms were not threatening or intimidating and therefore could not be in violation of the ban  which was originally aimed at preventing street movements such as the early Nazi party.

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. 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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

But Germanys federal supreme court said on Thursday it would overturn the acquittal and order a retrial.

The court said the decision to acquit the men did not explain how the mens action might have affected the people they targeted.

So-called sharia patrols by sometimes violent radical young Salafists have also been seen in other European cities such as London, Copenhagen and Hamburg.
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The global hotel chain Marriott has issued a profuse apology to the Chinese authorities after describing Tibet as a separate country, a move interpreted by some as disrespecting the sovereignty of the Peoples Republic.

Marriott is under investigation after an email it sent to members of its loyalty scheme were asked to name the country where they lived. The choices included Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, all of which are regarded by the Beijing government as being part of China.

Tibet is officially known as the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The Foreign Office warns British travellers: Dont attempt to travel there without the right permits. After a UK diplomat was allowed to visit Tibet in 2014, the Government reported: Security in the TAR is substantial and entrenched. A propaganda campaign against the Dalai Lama continued.

Episodes of unrest continued in 2014. Local authorities reportedly used lethal force to disperse protestors in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, in August. Reports suggest that five Tibetans died.

Taiwan, the island which calls itself the Republic of China, is regarded by Beijing as part of the Peoples Republic. In October a spokesperson for Chinas Taiwan Affairs Office told Reuters: Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, has never been a country and can never become a country.

The former British and Portuguese territories of Hong Kong and Macau respectively are now part of the Peoples Republic.

A user of the Sina Weibo social media site, Zhongjusaodi, posted screen shots from the Marriott Rewards survey. The user said that the English-language version of the survey did not contain the options. Some social media users have called for a boycott of Marriott.

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 authorities in Shanghai Huangpu District ordered Marriott to delete the content that caused offence and to check its online platforms to prevent any repeat.

Arne Sorenson, president and chief executive of Marriott International, issued a statement saying: We dont support anyone who subverts the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China and we do not intend in any way to encourage or incite any such people or groups. We recognize the severity of the situation and sincerely apologize.

We will be taking the necessary disciplinary action with respect to the individuals involved, which could include termination, changing our approval and review procedures for online content, reviewing our customer feedback channels, and enhancing training to ensure these situations dont happen again. We are also working closely and co-operating with the relevant Government authorities in China.

We will learn from this experience, make changes to ensure errors like this dont happen again, and continue to focus on making sure our Chinese guests feel respected and have wonderful experiences as we have the privilege of serving them in our hotels in China and around the globe.

The UK, in common with other Western governments, respects Chinese sensitivities by refusing officially to acknowledge Taiwans independence. The Foreign Office says: The UK does not recognise Taiwan as a state and has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan. However, both Taiwanese airlines, China Airlines and Eva Air, operate frequent flights between London and the capital, Taipei.

Marriott operates two hotels in Taipei.
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A Ryanair flight from Alicante to Dublin had to be diverted to remove two disruptive passengers.

The flight on 10 January made an unscheduled stop in Santander just before 4pm in order for the unnamed couple in their 50s to be removed by police.

This flight from Alicante to Dublin diverted to Santander after two passengers became disruptive inflight, a Ryanair spokesperson told The Independent. The aircraft landed normally and the passengers were removed and detained by police upon arrival, before the aircraft continued to Dublin.

We will not tolerate unruly or disruptive behaviour at any time and the safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority. This is now a matter for local police.

Recommended Ryanair calls for airport alcohol ban before 10am

Once the aircraft landed at Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport, Civil Guard officers were waiting to escort them from the plane to formally identify them.

The pair were not arrested, but likely face a hefty fine for causing the incident.

The pilot asked us to attend because he didnt want two people who were on the plane and being aggressive to continue their journey, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard in Cantabria told Mail Online. The couple left the aircraft voluntarily after we went on board and did not have to be removed by force.

Their personal details were recorded and they were informed they were being reported for breaching air security.

They wont face any criminal charges but are likely to receive a fine from AESA, the state body that will now move things forward.

The couple were believed to have been drinking; while they were not aggressive towards other passengers, they began arguing violently with one another during the flight.

Ryanair used the incident to highlight the need for airports to reduce the amount of drinks travellers can consume before a flight.

This is exactly why we are calling for significant changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, such as a two-drink limit per passenger and no alcohol sales before 10am, the spokesperson added. Its incumbent on the airports to introduce these preventative measures to curb excessive drinking and the problems it creates, rather than allowing passengers to drink to excess before their flights.
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There was a time when we all went along with the myth that American peacemaking in the Middle East was even-handed, neutral, uninfluenced by the religion or political background or business activities of the peacemakers. Even when, during the Clinton administration, the four principle US peacemakers were all Jewish Americans  their lead negotiator, Dennis Ross, a former prominent staff member of the most powerful Israeli lobby group, Aipac (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee)  the Western press scarcely mentioned this. Only in Israel was it news, where the Maariv newspaper called them the mission of four Jews.

The Israeli writer and activist, Meron Benvenisti, wrote in Haaretz newspaper that while the ethnic origin of the four US diplomats may be irrelevant, it is hard to ignore the fact that manipulation of the peace process was entrusted by the US in the first place to American Jews, and that at least one member of the State Department team was selected for the task because he represented the view of the American Jewish establishment. The tremendous influence of the Jewish establishment on the Clinton administration found its clearest manifestation in redefining the occupied territories as territories in dispute.

But lest they be accused of antisemitism, said Benvenisti, the Palestinians cannot, God forbid, talk about Clintons Jewish connection... Still slandered as antisemitic for merely condemning Israels brutality and occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the same fear still eats away at the courage of the Palestinian Authority. When Trumps Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner became the disgraceful Presidents peace envoy, the Palestinians, well aware that he supported the continued  and internationally illegal  colonisation of Arab land, even politely welcomed his sudden exaltation as peacemaker. It was the Israeli media that first pointed out how little he knew  and how few people he knew  in the real Middle East.

 Background check chief has 'never seen' mistakes and omissions at level of Jared Kushner forms

But Dennis Ross, the ex-Aipac man whose bias towards Israel was criticised by Jewish colleagues as well as Arabs, hugely supported Kushner when he was appointed Trumps special envoy. As for Trump, here is the official record of his thoughts on the prowess of Jared Kushner: Ya know what, Jared is such a good kid, and hell make a deal with Israel [sic] that no one else can. Hes a natural, hes a great deal, hes a natural  ya know what I was talking about, natural  hes a natural dealmaker. Everyone likes him.

As a real estate investor, Kushner may indeed be a natural dealmaker. But no one expected to discover  as they did in the New York Times a few days ago  that shortly before Kushner accompanied Trump on his first diplomatic trip to Israel in May, his family real estate company received about $30m (22m) in investments from Menora Mivtachim, one of Israels largest insurers and financial institutions. The agreement was  surprise, surprise  not publicised. Theres no evidence that Kushner was directly involved in the deal and it doesnt seem to have violated federal ethics laws, according to the New York Times.

But as the paper said, quite apart from Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Kushner arrangement could undermine the ability of the United States to be seen as an independent broker in the region. Tut tut. How could this be? Doesnt the New York Times accept that Kushner takes the ethics rules very seriously (this from a White House press secretary) and that while Kushner Companies cannot be stopped from doing business with a foreign company just because Kushner works for the US administration; it does no business with foreign sovereigns or governments.

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

Kushner remains a beneficiary of trusts that have stakes in Kushner Companies, even though he resigned as chief executive in January of last year. My favourite quotation came from one of Kushners lawyers, Abbe D Lowell, who said that connecting any of his well-publicised trips to the Middle East to anything to do with Kushner Companies or its businesses is nonsensical and is a stretch to write a story where none actually exists.

So thats OK, then. And if a future member of a principal US Middle East peace-negotiating team happened  just by chance, mind you  to be a Muslim (his ethnic origins as irrelevant as we must regard Kushners) and, while working for the US President, was a beneficiary of trusts in a company that was doing business with, let us say, companies in Saudi Arabia, Egypt or  even, heaven spare us  in Ramallah in the Palestinian West Bank, that would be above board, hunky-dory and acceptable practice for a chap whose only desire in life was to bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians. And if those Arab companies were investing in that particular peace-negotiators real estate company, no one would turn a hair or suggest that anything was just a bit remiss or  let us not use the word unethical for a moment  not really quite the appropriate thing to do.

After all, elected American officials have always been a bit sceptical about Arab financial help to the US, even when the aid has come free of charge and with no interest attached. Take Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal  one of the worlds richest men, currently residing on a mattress in the Riyadh Ritz Hotel as an unwilling guest of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman  who in 2001 offered a $10m donation to the Twin Towers Fund, for the families and victims of the 9/11 attack. He also mentioned the Palestinian cause because, he said, reporters have since the attack repeatedly asked how to eradicate terrorism. America had to understand, he said, that if it wants to extract the roots of this ridiculous and terrible act, this issue has to be solved.

Whoops! This self-evident truth was far too much for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York, who promptly told Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal to keep his cheque. You cant offer cash and talk politics at the same time. But it did show how sensitive can be the connection between money  even donations from an Arab  and politics in the Middle East-US axis. No such problems, however, seem to attend Jared Kushner  who obviously approved of his father-in-laws grotesque decision to accept Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, thus cutting the Palestinians out of the natural deal which Trump claimed he could secure. And most surely, Kushners real estate companys relationship with Israeli financial institutions have nothing to do with that.
Following the mistrial declared in the case against rancher Cliven Bundy and codefendants, public lands advocates hosted a press conference Wednesday to respond to what they called a miscarriage of justice and the potential ramifications for public lands such as Gold Butte National Monument.

Rudy Zamora, director of Chispa NV:

Our federal public lands are important to all of Nevadas families. And we deserve to be safe in those places. This week charges were dismissed against the Bundys and their allies with no chance of a retrial. This announcement may embolden more extremists who share the Bundys anti-public land and anti-government views to do the same. This is not justice and it does not make our community safer.

Fawn Douglas, Las Vegas Paiute Tribe member:

This weeks news tells us that once again, people like the Bundys can break the law and walk free, no matter the destruction they cause on public lands sacred to indigenous communities in Southern Nevada and across the Wes. The Bundys staged their standoff right next to Gold Butte, a sacred area meant to be protected for future generations, not taken over by armed extremists. Southern Paiute leaders have spent decades peacefully advocating for the protection of these lands, our ancestral lands. But the Bundys have no respect for our rights and our history, just like they have no respect for public management of special places like Gold Butte.

Maria-Teresa Liebermann, deputy director of Battle Born Progress:

For decades, Cliven Bundy ignored the law by illegally grazing his livestock on public lands, ignored court orders, and refused to pay more than $1 million in fees and fines. Rather than be held accountable for his actions, Bundy encouraged an armed standoff next to Gold Butte, which Bundy claims is not protected federal public land. The 2014 standoff also served as inspiration for an act of violence against our own law enforcement. Their release puts our public lands, including Gold Butte National Monument, at risk and endangers people visiting the area or trying to do their jobs on our public lands.

Christopher Scott , American Values Network:

Nobody should be surprised by this for many reasons. Mondays dismissal was hinted at last month when Judge Navarro ordered a mistrial. However, the mistrial that led us ultimately to this weeks dismissal was not merely a mistrial but also a miscarriage of justice. The one tall irony to this whole thing: Cliven Bundy and his family are all free today because the very system they are so hell-bent on defying and destroying actually works ... and works in their favor. Four times now  in high-profile cases in Nevada and Oregon  the Bundy family and its allies have beaten the federal government in court.

Pastor Ralph Williamson, Faith Organizing Alliance:

Our communities deserve to be safe wherever they are and especially in our public lands where we can enjoy our natural heritage. The Bundys used guns to express their displeasure with the government and have been released without trial. This is the exact opposite of safety and a clear lack of justice. The armed militias who aimed their weapons on federal law enforcement officials committed a crime and should be held accountable. This decision is an example of continuing racial inequalities in our justice system. All of us must condemn the actions of the Bundys. The way they went about their business is not how we solve our problems as a community.
The sting of the premature death of 27-year-old Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, is still fresh.

On Christmas Eve, Erica Garner suffered a massive heart attack, which caused extensive brain damage. She died on Dec. 30. This latest loss emphasizes something we have known: Black women are dying from the trauma of police violence, and this issue must be grappled with before more die.

When I heard the news of Erica Garners heart attack, a wave of familiar shock and pain ran through me. I immediately recognized the correlation between her heart attack and her fathers death, because I had seen it before.

As an anthropologist who studies the impact of police violence on Black communities in Brazil and the United States, I was familiar with many stories like Ericas. My research examines the ways that police violence kills Black women slowly through trauma, pain and loss.

Some may find this idea startling. Let me explain.

Trauma, pain and loss

In the wake of the deaths of Black people at the hands of the state  from the police to the prison system  the living are often weighted with a sadness that is too heavy to bear, and in the weeks and months following the initial death of a loved one, they become sick and many die prematurely.

When we think of police lethality, we typically consider the immediate body count: the people that die from bullets and baton blows. The death toll gives the impression that Black men are the disproportionate victims of police killings. But these numbers do not reveal the slow death that Black women experience. The long-range trauma police brutality causes can be as deadly as a bullet. The pain of loss kills with heart attacks, strokes, depression and even anemia.

This is not to say that Black women do not also die from the immediate physical effects of police abuse. The work of researchers like Andrea Ritchie and Kimberle Crenshaw, and Black womens organizations like Assatas Daughters and Let Us Breathe Collective, clearly demonstrate that they do. But in addition to working tirelessly to draw attention to the immediate ways that Black women are killed and abused by the police, it is also important to consider what happens to Black women in the weeks and years after lethal police encounters.

To be sure, Black men also suffer from the trauma and pain of brutal policing. But I believe that the people most affected by the sequelae, the fallout of state violence, are Black women, particularly Black mothers. This is true beyond the United States.

Mothers and grandmothers

It happens in Brazil.

Consider the case of Dona Iraci, the 45-year-old grandmother who died of a heart attack when the police in Salvador, Bahia, raided her home looking for her grandson in 2002. Anthropologist Keisha-Khan Perry chronicles this story in her research on Black land rights struggles.

There is also the story of Joselita de Souza, the mother of a 16-year-old boy who was gunned down and killed when the police ambushed the car he was riding in with his friends in Rio de Janeiro in 2015. Less than a year after her sons death, de Souza died of what her family members said was sadness. After Roberto was killed, she stopped eating everything but soup, developed a severe case of anemia and passed away from its complications.

In the United States similar cases hit home.

In 2016, Venida Browder died of complications from a heart attack at St. Barnabas hospital in New York. Sixteen months earlier she lost Kalief, her baby boy, to suicide. Kalief had been suffering from depression since his release from Rikers Island, where he spent three years awaiting trial for allegedly stealing a backpack. His case was eventually dismissed, but not before he suffered permanent damage. While locked up, he was severely beaten and subjected to more than 800 days of solitary confinement. Venida Browder worked relentlessly to release her son from prison. But, by the time she succeeded, the trauma of his confinement had taken a deadly emotional toll. It eventually took a toll on her as well.

Im struggling

In one of her last interviews before her death, Erica Garner talked about the death of Venida Browder and her own health challenges.

Look at Kalief Browders mother, she died of a broken heart, Erica Garner said. Im struggling with my health right now.  The system beats you down.

In multiple interviews, Garner talked about her deep sadness. She also talked about the financial obstacles that Black families living on public assistance, like hers, face when they need therapy to deal with grief.

Racism kills Black women, yes. And Erica Garners passing cannot be separated from the growing research that demonstrates that the toxic stress of living with gender-based racism in America, misogynoir, has a deadly impact on Black womens health in pregnancy. Erica Garner had a baby boy in August. She named him Eric after her father. The enlarged heart that in part caused her heart attack was strained due to her recent pregnancy. But the added dimension of her fathers death complicates the difficult yet familiar story of Black women, maternal death and racism. In addition to the cumulative effects of misogynoir that no doubt took a toll on her body, the extreme trauma of having her father choked to death by Staten Island police officers and then having to watch the video of his killing loop endlessly on social media and television exacerbated her experience with stress in her everyday life. Indeed, she said as much.

The links between stress and disease are clear and corroborated; just consider the connections between stress and cancer. The impact that stress has on Black women is acute. Black women already exhibit signs of accelerated aging due to the stress of gendered racism in our everyday lives. One study found that At ages 4955, black women are 7.5 years biologically older than white women. We can only imagine what that looks like for a young woman who has been through all that Erica Garner experienced.

If the world is to truly begin to take steps to preserve Black womens lives, then we must take this into account in our discussions. Given Ericas passion for justice, and her fearless and fervent efforts to fight police violence, I believe that is one fight she would want to see tackled right now. I also believe that she would be leading this fight if she were here today.

Christen A. Smith is associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin. This article was originally published by The Conversation, an independent, nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Learn more at theconversation.com.
Nevada was among four states to legalize recreational marijuana in November 2016, passing an initiative written and promoted by the commercial marijuana industry. The Nevada initiative was largely financed by the states medical marijuana owners who wrote into the ballot measure their exclusive right to be the recreational marijuana retailers.

Their campaign was well-financed as it has been in other states that have legalized recreational marijuana by initiative. Opponents find themselves badly out spent by pot promoters  most notably by a $5 to $1 margin in Colorado in 2012, and by an overwhelming $11 to $1 in California in 2016.

As a result of the huge financial disparity, legalization opponents in initiative campaigns are at a monumental electoral disadvantage  its actually a rigged system.

Immediately following the election, an alliance of medical marijuana licensees and Nevada politicians joined together in an unprecedented rush to a July 1, 2017 Early Start date for recreational marijuana sales. There were no public hearings and no vote of approval by the commission charged with regulating marijuana. Voters had been assured that recreational sales would begin six months later, on January 1, 2018, after permanent regulations were approved.

Nevadas wild ride to Early Start resulted in national embarrassment with a self-created pot emergency being declared by Governor Sandoval on July 6  just five days later  as a result of a legal controversy over marijuana distribution rights. One news outlet described the first 13 days of legalization in Nevada as total mayhem.

While Douglas County in northern Nevada has zoned out commercial marijuana establishments, economically disadvantaged North Las Vegas in southern Nevada already has issued 52 commercial marijuana licenses. Douglas County keeps commercial marijuana away from their countys young people, while we legitimize it and make it more accessible to at-risk youth in low income communities like North Las Vegas.

Ownership information on the identity of these licensees has been denied to the press by city government officials, citing state Supreme Court case authority. There is no marijuana ownership identity transparency in Nevada. Who are these licensees? A Nevada recreational marijuana licensee with Reno and Las Vegas retail stores has been implicated in a money laundering felony conviction in California involving their medical marijuana dispensaries.

The country needs to tap the brakes on commercialized marijuana. Marijuana was reaffirmed as a Schedule 1 dangerous drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act. That finding was made by the Obama Administration in 2016 after a lengthy, exhaustive review of all relevant scientific and medical evidence by the Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Its true that social mores are changing and legalization of marijuana is now favored by a majority, i.e., no prison time for small quantity possession. It is equally true that a strong majority of Americans have grave reservations about commercialization of marijuana. They dont want pot shops and grow operations in their towns and neighborhoods, or near their schools and homes.

An inconvenient truth also needs acknowledgment by the Nevada marijuana industry and state politicians. Federal marijuana law trumps state law under the Constitutions Supremacy Clause, and the Supreme Court so ruled in Gonzales v. Raich (2005). It is settled law that the feds can prosecute marijuana offenses under the authority of the Commerce Clause through the Controlled Substances Act.

Attorney General Sessions should be commended for upholding the rule of law on marijuana as well as putting the scientific and medical evidence on the dangers of marijuana ahead of the politics (and profits) of legalization and commercialization.
Monday evening, Stephen Clay got what he has wanted for years  and he did it by selling his soul and aligning with City-County Council Republicans to oust former president and fellow Democrat Maggie Lewis.

Clay was so desperate in his approach to the presidency that his deal with Republicans will reduce the strength of the Democratic majority, which was elected with a mandate of the people. This is highly likely to negatively impact key initiatives and could hurt Indianapolis most vulnerable and underserved communities, including the very east-side district that elected Clay.

I am rarely surprised at anything relative to politics these days, but the depths that Clay went to assume the top seat in the Council is shameful and his tactics have been sexist, immoral and just outright distasteful.

There are two sides to Clay: There is Pastor Clay who preaches the word of God before his congregation on the east side of Indianapolis, and there is an uglier, sneaky side of Clay who doesnt like to admit wrongdoings, who uses disparaging language and who is incredibly argumentative, oftentimes for no reason.

I have experienced both sides of Clay.

Many years ago, I was a member of his congregation, but I left because I didnt agree with some things that occurred within the church. Even though I was much younger, I am grateful I had the strength (it was hard because he was a captivating preacher) and foresight to know that I didnt want to be associated with such an entity.

I came to know the other side of Clay about 10 years ago when he and I butted heads over aspects of the professional relationship between the Recorder and Messiah Missionary Baptist Church. Clay and I moved beyond our professional spat and maintained a respectable acquaintance with one another. However, I again experienced that dark side of Clay after the editorial I wrote two weeks ago about his plan to oppose Lewis on the Council.

Clay didnt like my column, so he called me (and Lewis) names in conversations with others whom he probably assumed were his confidants and would keep it quiet. And rather than respond to Recorder questions regarding the claims made by Jonathan Bryant and documented in 2004 by the Indiana Department of Child Services, Clay instead chose to submit a letter to the Recorder suggesting I was one of Maggies minions. In addition, he and members of a local ministers alliance refused to allow Recorder photographers to photograph their annual Emancipation Service, an event that we have reported on and photographed nearly every year it has been in existence.

Clay apparently has a problem with strong women, which is why Lewis and I have felt his wrath as of late  she far more than me. When a strong woman doesnt defer to Clay, when she expresses an opinion he doesnt like or when she calls him out or puts him in his place, he pounces on her and she obtains a spot on his list of dont likes.

Isnt it interesting how Clay blames Lewis for resurfacing the Bryant allegations when, in fact, Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, who is a known Republican, had the exclusive on the story and spoke with Bryant before the Recorder or any other media outlet ever did? As a matter of fact, Shabazz has been following the Bryant story for several years. On his indianabarrister.com website, there is a post from June 24, 2011, that addresses the allegations and states that Shabazz asked Clay in person if he has ever been the subject of a DCS investigation. Clay didnt respond to the question then, nor did he respond to Shabazzs texts prior to that.

However, during Clays media blitz and countless conversations with people in the community these past couple of weeks, he repeatedly blamed Lewis for the story.

Never has Clay referenced Shabazz.

I suspect he hasnt for a few reasons:

He thought blaming Lewis could benefit him politically.

He pulled from Donald Trumps deck of cards and tried to deflect from the actual sexual misconduct story by claiming fake news and pitching a different story altogether.

Shabazz is a Republican. Clay won the Council presidency because he sold out to Republicans. The last thing he could do  especially before the big vote  was attack or criticize a member of that party.

Republican leader Michael McQuillen said, What will happen is, Indianapolis will now see a bipartisan committee structure in which both Republicans and Democrats will chair the committees of the (Council).

McQuillen also stated there have never been bipartisan committees in the 10 years he has been on the Council and he doesnt believe committee leadership has ever been bipartisan.

What has happened is something that has never been done in the history of the Indianapolis City-County Council and for good reason: It hurts the agenda of the party that is in control, the party that has a majority and mandate from the people.

Clay hasnt directly admitted that, only saying, Were offering them the opportunity to discuss what a reorganized Council would look like.

Shame on Clay for selling out and compromising the progress and people of his district. He is now in bed with Republicans and will be heavily influenced by them.

Now that Clay has the position he has craved, we will see how he uses it. Time will tell whether he will use his presidency to heal a divided council, listen to all members of the Democratic caucus and make changes that will move this city forward. Unless Clay leads in a productive and unifying manner, his criticism of Lewis leadership will be hypocritical.

My column a couple of weeks ago was far more docile than this one, yet Clay resorted to calling me names, refused to answer Recorder questions and prevented my staff from photographing an event he was part of. I can only imagine how he will respond to my remarks this week.

After Mondays vote, some folks asked me if I was afraid that Clay would try to further target me or the Recorder with his newfound power. My responses were clear and direct: I am not afraid of or intimidated by Clay. I never have been, and the Recorder and I will continue to do our jobs as journalists and as community watchdogs. That means we will report on the City-County Council as we have in the past (we have information on Clays win in this weeks issue and a picture of him). We will not compromise our journalistic integrity nor the legacy of this historic newspaper.

If Clay or any of his associates try to treat me, any of my staff or the Recorder unfairly or attempt to sabotage us in any way, I have no qualms about addressing him directly and informing the community of any iniquitous efforts on the part of him or others.

Since Clay has now received the gavel he has wanted for so long, my suggestion to him would be to fill the stilettoes Lewis left as president and behave with a modicum of respect, fairness and decorum.
A new documentary by PBS Frontline delves into the idea that Black women are pushed toward getting abortions at higher rates than white women, perpetuating the countrys history of medical racism and Black genocide.

According to a report by the Huffington Post, filmmaker Yoruba Richen was inspired to explore the topic while shooting footage of an anti-abortion protest in Indiana, where she saw signs saying Abortion is killing black people and Margaret Sanger was racist.

Richen, a Black woman herself and an award-winning documentarian, spoke with people on both sides of the issue, including pro-choice Planned Parenthood physicians and anti-abortion clergy.

Rev. Clenard H. Childress Jr., who was prominently featured in the documentary, told BlackNews.com that he had some misgivings about participating in the project with secular, liberal-leaning media, but he was pleased with how it turned out.

Much of the reporting of the issue of abortion in the Black community has always produced censorship and extreme bias, but I must say this report was pretty objective, he said. PBS is far from a conservative source and normally has a left-leaning political slant, but this was well toward the middle, and I appreciate that.

The film also explores where the two sides find common ground.

What I think both pro-lifers and reproductive-righters can agree on is that Black women have a larger number of abortions than you would expect when thinking about their share of the population, reproductive rights historian Cynthia Greenlee notes in Richens documentary. Where we differ is the interpretation.

That number, according to the report by Huffington Post: Black women in the U.S. account for 28 percent of reported abortions each year, while making up only 13 percent of the female population.

Black women are having higher numbers of abortions than their population. Just as similarly, and not to compare it, but there are higher numbers of African-Americans in lots of things that you can point to, such as incarceration rates, Richen told the Huffington Post. The real question that reproductive rights people want to look at is why thats the case. What is it that is causing those numbers? And its everything from lack of sex education, health care access and many, many other causes people have looked into and written about. You can definitely use that statistic in many ways. But as Dr. Raegan (a Planned Parenthood physician interviewed in the documentary) says in the piece, Lets not focus on statistics. Thats not the focus. Lets focus on women getting access to care.

To watch Anti-Abortion Crusaders: Inside The African-American Abortion Battle, visit pbs.org/frontline.

Black women in the U.S. account for 28 percent of reported abortions each year, while making up only 13 percent of the female population.
What inspired you to write New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration?

I have been fascinated by the Black new religious movements of the Great Migration era since I read Arthur Huff Fausets 1944 Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults of the Urban North as an undergraduate. There has been a renewed scholarly interest in many of the groups he profiled that had emerged or expanded in the early 20th-century urban North  Black Jews, the Moorish Science Temple, Holiness and Pentecostal churches, and Father Divines Peace Mission, for example  and attention to other groups he did not include in his study, such as the Nation of Islam. I thought the time was right to do a comparative study like his and revisit the period in which he conducted his ethnographic work, thinking across the groups about commonalities and differences.

I chose to focus on the Moorish Science Temple, the Nation of Islam, Father Divines Peace Mission, and congregations of Ethiopian Hebrews, all early 20th-century urban Black religious movements in which founders, leaders and members embraced new ways of thinking about the relationship of religion to racial identity. Like Fauset, I was interested in how migration and urbanization shaped the religious worlds of African-Americans and Afro-Caribbean immigrants, but questions about the intersection of religion and racial identity frame my project.

Whats the most important take-home message for readers?

I want readers to come away with an understanding of the complexity with which religion and racial identity have been intertwined for people of African descent in the United States. Religious ideas, practices and institutions have contributed to the production and maintenance of racial categories across American history and, with these groups  which I call religio-racial movements  we have rich cases of Black people challenging and reformulating racial identity through religious means.

These were flamboyant, performative movements in which people took spiritual names, adopted new styles of dress and food practices, and ordered their families and communities in ways that sometimes chafed against social conventions.

By looking at how members of these groups understood religio-racial identity, we see that Black people were not only subject to racial construction  that is, that white people produced and imposed categories and hierarchies  but contributed to racial thinking in American history, and religion was often central to these contributions. I also hope the book inspires readers to ask questions about the intersections of religion and race for other groups and at different moments in American history.

Is there anything you had to leave out?

I had to cut a good deal of material to get the book down to a reasonable length. Most of what I left out were short narrative sections that offered supporting examples supplementing other examples in the book, and the streamlining benefited the flow. Nevertheless, editing out stories of average members of the groups, even though many remained, was difficult for me because I was especially interested in highlighting their experiences.

What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic?

The characterization of these groups in earlier literature and in popular discourse as deviant sects and cults, their founders and leaders as fakers and charlatans and the members as gullible dupes has obscured the complexity of the religious and social worlds participants created. Critics at the time and some scholars since have characterized leaders and members of the movements as pretending to be something they were obviously not: Asiatic Muslims, Ethiopian Hebrews, Moorish Muslims or raceless children of Father Divine. When we focus on the religio-racial theologies and practices of the movements, we see their argument that Negro, the prevailing racial category of the time, is an invention and a product of slavery and how they sought new religious frameworks for understanding the Black past and future.

Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing?

I want the book to be of interest and useful to a scholarly reader, but I had my undergraduate students in mind, particularly those I have taught in courses on African-American religious history and religion and race in America. I wanted to engage them with a readable text that offers new theoretical insights about the co-constitution of race and religion in this period and that locates these religious groups that highlight religious diversity, in a prominent place in the narrative of African-American religious history.

Are you hoping to just inform readers? Entertain them? Piss them off?

My hope is that readers will be engaged by the stories of the leaders and members of these groups who were striving to remake the landscape of possibility for Black flourishing. Theres a lot of playfulness on their part, mixed in with their serious work, and I hope I conveyed this as well.

What alternative title would you give the book?

Apostles of Race was the working title throughout the years of research and writing, drawn from a chapter title of journalist Roi Ottleys 1943 New World A-Coming: Inside Black America, in which he discussed culture, politics, religion and social life among African-Americans and Afro-Caribbean immigrants in Harlem. I used Ottleys work as a primary source because of his interest in questions about Black history and the Negros future in transnational perspective.

I came to think of the people I was writing about as apostles of race in offering new ways of thinking about the relationship between religio-racial identity. When I submitted the manuscript, my editor, Jennifer Hammer, and her colleagues at New York University Press, encouraged me to go with a title that emphasized the dynamic change the leaders and members wanted to effect, so we settled on New World A-Coming.

Is there a book out there you wish you had written? Which one? Why?

So many to choose from! Ive been thinking a lot lately about Toni Morrisons Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (which she published 25 years ago) and James Baldwins The Devil Finds Work. Both are beautifully written and offer penetrating analysis of race, the arts and American identity.

Whats your next book?

Im just getting started on a book about the intersections of race, African-American religions and psychiatry in the late 19th and early 20th century United States. Im interested in the way that psychiatric theory framed African and African diaspora religious practices in relation to ideas about normal and disordered minds, and in the treatment Black people deemed to be suffering from religiously grounded mental illness received in communities, courts and mental institutions.

Other works by Judith Weisenfeld:

Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949

From the earliest years of sound film in America, Hollywood studios and independent producers of race films for Black audiences created stories featuring African-American religious practices. In the first book to examine how the movies constructed images of African-American religion, Weisenfeld explores these cinematic representations and how they reflected and contributed to complicated discourses about race, the social and moral requirements of American citizenship, and the very nature of American identity.

African American Women and Christian Activism: New Yorks Black YWCA, 1905-1945

The middle class Black women profiled here were committed both to social action and to institutional expression of their religious convictions. Their story provides an illuminating perspective on the varied forces working to improve quality of life for African-Americans in crucial times. When undertaking to help young women migrating to and living alone in New York, Weisenfelds protagonists chose to work within a national evangelical institution. Their organization of a Black chapter of the Young Womens Christian Association in 1905 was a clear step toward establishing a suitable environment for young working women; it was also an expression of their philosophy of social uplift. And predictably it was the beginning of an equal rights struggle  to work as equals with white women activists. Growing and adapting as New Yorks Black community evolved over the decades, the Black YWCA assumed a central role both in the communitys religious life and as a training ground for social action.

(Source: judithweisenfeld.com)
Will Trump Kill the Iran Nuclear Deal This Week? China Better Watch Out



A key decision by the US president is due by Friday, and could put his country on an almost inevitable path towards more conflict in the Middle East



By Trita Parsi

January 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - This week is crucial for the Iran nuclear deal, and by extension, stability in the Middle East. By Friday, US President Donald Trump is obligated to renew sanctions waivers on Iran. If he fails to do so, the US will violate the nuclear deal of 2015 and trigger a process that will likely see the deal collapse and bring the United States and Iran back on a path towards war.

Its been a year since Trump became president, and clearly the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is hanging by a thread. At first, Trumps hostility against the agreement appeared to be limited to rhetoric. After all, Trump twice renewed the sanctions waivers and certified Irans compliance to Congress. But all of that changed in October when Trump failed to certify the deal to the US legislative body. Ever since, Trumps intent to kill JCPOA has become a foregone conclusion.

Trump famously threw a temper tantrum in the Oval Office in July when he was not offered an option to kill the deal and instead was forced to recertify it. By October, his national security team realised, he had to be offered a decertification option. But if the deal was to be saved, they figured, Trump had to be given the option of being tough against Iran on another front.

In September, a consensus inter-agency recommendation was presented to Trump that recommended recertifying the deal while aggressively pushing back against Iran and Hezbollah in the region. The hope was that Trump would be satisfied with the hawkishness of the recommendation and leave the nuclear deal alone.

But Trump outsmarted his national security team. He agreed to escalating against Iran in the region, but insisted on decertifying the nuclear deal nevertheless. All but two of his senior officials opposed decertification  CIA chief Mike Pompeo and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Trumps advisers still managed to score a point though. Instead of killing the nuclear deal right away, Trump was convinced to pursue a two-step process: he would call on Congress to pass new legislation that would fix the deal by unilaterally changing some of its key terms, particularly the expiration of some of the restrictions imposed on Irans nuclear programme. The problem is that any unilateral change to the deal is still a violation of the agreement. Thus, rather than fixing the deal, unilateral Congressional revisions would end up violating and killing it.

If Congress would fail to act, on the other hand, Trump vowed that he would terminate the deal himself. So either way, the deal would end up getting nixed.

Indeed, the White House expected that Congress wouldnt act. The Congressional path was solely aimed at giving the appearance of a more deliberate process and a genuine effort by Trump to work with Congress.

More than a month has passed since decertification, and predictably Congress has failed to act. Now the ball is back in Trumps court and he must make a decision by Friday.

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But can the JCPOA survive without the US? That depends on whether Trump decides to implement the pre-JCPOA secondary sanctions. If the president goes down this path, the US will once again target Asian and European companies trading and investing in Iran.

China, Russia and the EU will fiercely oppose Trumps sabotage of the nuclear deal and reject the new sanctions. But even if they do, it is not clear if Asian and EU companies will remain in the Iranian market if forced to choose between the US and Iran.

If Asian and EU companies leave Iran in order to retain access to the American market, then Iran will be left with almost none of the benefits of remaining inside the nuclear deal. Sooner or later, internal political dynamics will force the Iranians to leave the agreement and restart aspects of their nuclear programme.

At that point, the pressure on the US to bomb Iran  both from within and from states such as Israel and Saudi Arabia  will increase once more. But unlike 2011-2012, when the risk of war between the US and Iran last peaked, the option of diplomacy will most likely not exist. As a result, the risk of escalation eventually leading to war will be far higher.

While Chinas focus rightfully is on the Korean peninsula, it should be careful not to neglect the danger of that war with Iran poses for stability in Asia.

Related articles

Trita Parsi is author of Losing an Enemy - Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy

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AP sources: Trump to extend sanctions relief for Iran

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Store owner Kamal Saleh was just hit with thousands of dollars in fines.

His crime? He sold three cigars for $8.89. Too cheap! say New York City bureaucrats. The cigars should have cost 11 cents more.

Politicians want you to spend more for tobacco.

They decided this after anti-smoking crusader Dr. Kurt Ribisl told the Centers for Disease Control, Higher prices will deter children from smoking.

A pit of socialist micromanagers called the New York City Council quickly embraced the idea. Its also being considered very seriously in a number of jurisdictions in California, Ribisl told me.

When health totalitarians make suggestions, leftist politicians jump.

Ribisl also told the CDC, Very cheap (tobacco) products should no longer be available. So for my YouTube video this week, I asked him, Why do you get to decide?!

No, Im not deciding, he insisted. Im a person who studies these policies. Ill let the policymakers decide.

OK, I sighed, Why do the politicians get to decide?

Cigarettes are the most lethal product ever introduced, he replied.

That may be true, although few people realize that half the people who smoke do not die from tobacco-related illness.

Fatty foods, swimming pools and cars also kill lots of people. Maybe the health police will raise their prices next.

But so far, its just tobacco. At Ribisls urging, New York City adopted price floors and taxes to bring the price of a pack of cigarettes to $13 a pack.

People still have the ability to buy it, if they so choose, he said.

Just not poor people, I told him. Youre screwing poor people.

We see much higher smoking rates among poor people, answered Ribisl. We need policies that are going to reduce tobacco use among poor people.

I think all people should get to decide for themselves, but Ribisl wants to engineer a transition toward thinking more about healthy food and beverage.

At the CDC, Ribisl suggested that it should also be government policy to reduce the number of tobacco stores.

That seems cruel to store owners like Kamal Saleh, but Ribisl said, Were not interested in putting stores out of business ... Theyre going to find new products to sell.

Really? How does he know?

New York already has a blizzard of regulations that put little stores out of business.

Tobacco sales regulations alone go on for 47 pages  confusing pages filled with fine print like: the price floor for any package of cigars that contains more than one cigar and that has been delivered to a retail dealer in a package described by subdivision a of section 17-704 shall be computed by multiplying the number of cigars in the package by $1.75 and adding $6.25 to the total.

The 47 pages are just for tobacco sales. For food, refrigeration, deliveries and everything else, the administrative code could be thousands of pages, says lawyer Andrew Tilem.

Tilem defends store owners who get fined. Many can barely afford to pay him. Sometimes they pay in fish and paper plates and tortillas. Those who cant afford to hire a lawyer may just go out of business.

City Council meddlers, who often complain about big business, dont notice that their own rules make the big businesses bigger.

The big guy can hire lawyers, says Tilem. Its the little guy whos trying to pinch his pennies and make a dollar that has the biggest problem.

Playing devils advocate, I tell him, the government just wants to protect peoples health.

Im not a smoking advocate, Tilem replied, but I think in this country ... people have the right to do the wrong thing.

We should.
Arab Violence, Volatility, and Vulnerability in the Era of Trump

By Rami G. Khouri



January 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - BEIRUT  Of the many fascinating reports in Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury book on the Donald Trump White House, perhaps most troubling for Americans and for the world were the new insights into how the United States today shapes its Middle East policies. After spending the last three months in the U.S. and interacting with numerous people and organizations that deal with Mideast issues, I see several problem categories in Trumps Mideast actions.



The key ones are: the adolescent and personalized nature of how pivotal officials engage with Middle Eastern leaders, based on personal chemistry more than studied national strategic realities; Washingtons working to change Arab leaderships like trading Monopoly properties; the massive sway that extremist, pro-ultranationalist Zionist American donors have in the White House; the disdain that Trump and his associates seem to feel for Arab leaders and countries; the exaggerated and dominant fears of Iran that shape U.S. policies; and, the presumptuous, mostly ignorance-based and unilateral decisions on critical issues such as the status of Jerusalem.



The quotes in the book are not a comprehensive overview of U.S. policy-making in the region or the world, to be sure, but the consistency and tone of the sentiments expressed by White House officials  especially former chief strategist and American White-ultranationalist Steve Bannon  reflect a manner of decision-making in the most powerful office in the world that should frighten us all. (The key quotes in the book are in this report by Middle East Eye: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-president-donald-trump-middle-east-what-we-learned-from-michael-wolff-book-fire-and-fury-1505120232 ).



The bottom line for me is that major decisions on existential issues that impact the lives of 600 million people in the wider Middle East are being made largely on the basis of policy preferences among the Israeli and Saudi Arabian leaderships, and intermediated by mostly ignorant, and often very young and inexperienced American officials like Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.



The revelation that President Trumps White House last year managed Middle Eastern issues mainly through the Israeli, Saudi Arabian, and Egyptian leaderships, with an overarching desire to push back Iranian influence in the region, helps explain why the United States finds itself in confusing situations across the Middle East. It has mainly crisis-managed relations through the lens of security and militarism, and often with mixed successes.



The main problem with the Israeli-Saudi-Egyptian combine as Washingtons preferred entry point into the Middle East is that these four counties leaders appear to be totally blind to the conditions, rights, sentiments, and aspirations of the 400 million people in Arab countries, and the other 200 million Middle Easterners in surrounding states. These four states steadfast attempts to maintain security and stability by using massive military and police force  alongside stringent limits on citizen political, social, and economic rights  has achieved exactly the opposite of what was desired.

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Never before has the Arab region been so fractured, violent, volatile, and vulnerable to the whims of desperate citizens, powerful autocrats, renegade militants, durable terrorists, and predatory foreign militaries. And for good measure, Irans influence in the region continues to expand in places, as does that of Turkey and Russia, making a mockery of the American approach to Middle Eastern issues. U.S.-backed Israeli, Saudi Arabian, and Egyptian policies in the region are among the leading causes of the tensions and conflicts that plague us all, but they are not solely to blame, due to many other problematic policies by Arab, Iranian, Turkish, Russian, British, and other countries.



Last months decision by Washington to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital captures in one fell swoop everything that is wrong and destructive about the Trump approach. It ignores existing international law and UN resolutions that reflect a powerful global consensus; it totally dismisses the sentiments of the hundreds of millions of Muslims and Christians in the Middle East who see Arab East Jerusalem as the rightful capital of a future Palestinian state living alongside Israel; and, it makes this decision unilaterally, and mainly on the basis of domestic political commitments to rightwing pro-Zionist lobbies and political donors like Sheldon Adelson, who has pushed hard for this move.



I thought the most striking revelation in the book was the quote by Steve Bannon that Jordan should take control of the West Bank and Egypt of the Gaza Strip, saying the U.S. should let them deal with it  or sink trying.



Such disdain towards two long-standing Arab allies of the U.S. like Jordan and Egypt should be a red flag to all leaders in the region who might want to rely on the U.S. as a consistent partner. It is more apparent now that the Trump governance system in the U.S. is likely to please pro-Israeli American political donors more than it would consider the interests of its other friends and allies, or the dictates of international law and UN resolutions. This is a sure recipe for greater strife and suffering in the Middle East, which can only spread dangerously to other parts of the world.



It should also be a warning sign to Arab leaders that they should wake up and figure out how to regain and exercise their own sovereignty, in order to ensure the well-being of their own citizens. Otherwise, they will wake up one day and realize that they have become little more than properties on a Monopoly board that adolescent airheads in the White House buy, sell, and discard at the whim of wild men in the U.S. waving campaign donation checks.



Rami G. Khouri is senior public policy fellow and professor of journalism at the American University of Beirut, and a non-resident senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Middle East Initiative. He can be followed on Twitter @ramikhouri



Copyright 2018 Rami G. Khouri  distributed by Agence Global

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Finding the Answer to a Riddle Shrouded in a Mystery



The art of the non-deal might be the only way out of the stand-off between the US and North Korea



By Pepe Escobar

January 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - High-level inter-Korean talks at the border village of Panmunjeom not only represent a vital step in Winter Olympics diplomacy but also offer a tantalizing chance of a breakthrough in stalled six-party discussions.

In stark contrast with the usual tweet barrage, United States President Donald Trump even told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that the meeting could yield a positive outcome.

Among the possibilities are that Seoul and Pyongyang could resume civilian exchanges. The hotline between South and North Korea could reopen along with the joint Kaesong Industrial Region, which was closed in 2016.

The potential of reinvigorating the sidelined six-party talks, involving China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, the US and North Korea, is another possibility.

Beyond the Winter Olympics, the fierce divide between North and South, of course, will not be breached, even though North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stressed that his country will not go nuclear unless hostile forces attack his regime.

He appears confident that there will not be a preemptive US nuclear strike because of the Norths deterrent. So, the question now is where will China position itself after the Panmunjeon talks?

Rumors that Beijing was resigned to an imminent war between Washington and Pyongyang were never credible. Certainly, one view that came out of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last October was that President Xi Jinping would protect Beijings complex relationship with Washington in parallel with relationships with major trade partners across Asia.

But that does not necessarily mean abandoning North Korea. The number one strategic imperative for Beijing is to keep the country as a cushion against the US presence in Northeast Asia. A reunited Korean peninsula, with American soldiers stationed at Chinas northwest border, has to be prevented at all costs.

Direct confrontation

Yet that also means averting any escalation that could lead to a direct confrontation with the US. So, it is fair to argue that Xi has concluded that business with the US far outweighs unconditional support for the North, which does not advance Beijings interests.

Leading Chinese adviser, Professor Shi Yinhong, has famously described North Korea as a time bomb, so contingencies plans have been put in place. The building of a six-lane highway between Shuangliao, a city in western Jilin, through to Jian, a prefecture-level city in the central region of Jiangxi, and on to the Korean border is significant.

It can be interpreted as a roadmap to secure the Norths nuclear arsenal in an extreme case. This would involve the Kim dynasty crumbling or a move by Beijing to change the Pyongyang regime  something that has been discussed by Chinese think tanks for years.

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Indeed, that scenario ties up with suggestions that Chinas Peoples Liberation Army would not interfere even if the US launched a preemptive attack. Officially, though, Beijings position is in favor of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

This would start with a double freeze mechanism, allowing for dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang. Beijing is acutely aware that containing the Norths nuclear program will have a direct effect on the military upgrading of Japan and South Korea. China is also keen to improve relations with Seoul.

Since 1953, only a flimsy armistice exists on the Korean peninsula. And no geopolitical actor has attempted to alter the status quo. After all, any wobble would generate a tectonic shift in the Asia-Pacific geopolitical chessboard, with unforeseen consequences.

Now, though, a nuclear North Korea is changing the dynamics as competition between the US and China in the region intensifies along with Russias eastward tilt. Then, of course, there is Japan and South Korea, two major economic powers.

As much as the North may fear the impact in its own internal market of Beijings trademark geoeconomic onslaught, it is not far-fetched to imagine Kim looking toward Washington to throw a wrench into Chinas New Silk Roads, known as the Belt and Road Initiative .

Just like Trump, Kim may not be a stellar reader. But he is certainly aware, as the Pentagon sees it, that the Western Pacific, coupled with the Indian Ocean, is absolutely strategic for the containment of China.

Studies such as Michael Greens By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783 make it clear that the US will not tolerate another power establishing exclusive hegemony.

Still, Washington is at a loss when dealing with North Korea. Russia and China oppose any military solution which would interfere with their geopolitical aims. At the same time, Pyongyang wants to be accepted as a nuclear power and a key actor on the Asia-Pacific chessboard.

Devastating strike

Therefore, there are only three options on the table. The first is a devastating preemptive strike, nuclear as well as air and sea forces. This would lead to an immense loss of life not only in the North but also in Seoul, which would be within range of Kims artillery.

The talks in Panmunjeon are yet more evidence that President Moon is doing everything in his power to prevent a march toward war.

The second option is to accept North Korea as a nuclear power under stringent international controls from the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. The de-escalation would have to include a deal to freeze the Norths nuclear program.

There are signs that secret channels used by the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are still open. This improbable redemption of a nuclear rogue state, though, would mean a slight alteration of the status quo. It would also hand China a huge advantage in the region.

Finally, the third option is to admit this is an insoluble problem, and turn Kim into a rational actor and let the North keep its bomb. Kims regime would then be warned that any attempt to use it would result in fire and fury.

Call it the art of the non-deal.

Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. https://www.facebook.com/pepe.escobar.77377?

This article was originally published by Asia Times -

- See Also -

China says will not attend Vancouver meeting on North Korea

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Shadow Armies: The Unseen, But Real US War In Africa

By Ramzy Baroud

January 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - There is a real  but largely concealed  war which is taking place throughout the African continent. It involves the United States, an invigorated Russia and a rising China. The outcome of the war is likely to define the future of the continent and its global outlook.

It is easy to pin the blame on US President Donald Trump, his erratic agenda and impulsive statements. But the truth is, the current US military expansion in Africa is just another step in the wrong direction. It is part of a strategy that had been implemented a decade ago, during the administration of President George W. Bush, and actively pursued by President Barack Obama.

In 2007, under the pretext of the war on terror, the US consolidated its various military operations in Africa to establish the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). With a starting budget of half a billion dollars, AFRICOM was supposedly launched to engage with African countries in terms of diplomacy and aid. But, over the course of the last 10 years, AFRICOM has been transformed into a central command for military incursions and interventions.

However, that violent role has rapidly worsened during the first year of Trumps term in office. Indeed, there is a hidden US war in Africa, and it is fought in the name of counter-terrorism.

According to a VICE News special investigation , US troops are now conducting 3,500 exercises and military engagements throughout Africa per year, an average of 10 per day. US mainstream media rarely discusses this ongoing war, thus giving the military ample space to destabilize any of the continents 54 countries as it pleases.

Todays figure of 3,500 marks an astounding 1,900 percent increase since the command was activated less than a decade ago, and suggests a major expansion of US military activities on the African continent, VICE reported.

Following the death of four US Special Forces soldiers in Niger on October 4, US Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, made an ominous declaration to a Senate committee: these numbers are likely to increase as the US is expanding its military activities in Africa.

Mattis, like other defense officials in the previous two administrations, justifies the US military transgressions as part of ongoing counter-terrorism efforts. But such coded reference has served as a pretense for the US to intervene in, and exploit, a massive region with a great economic potential.

The old colonial Scramble for Africa is being reinvented by global powers that fully fathom the extent of the untapped economic largesse of the continent. While China, India and Russia are each developing a unique approach to wooing Africa, the US is invested mostly in the military option, which promises to inflict untold harm and destabilize many nations.

The 2012 coup in Mali, carried out by a US-trained army captain, Amadou Haya Sanogo, is only one example.

In a 2013 speech, then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautioned against a new colonialism in Africa (in which it is) easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave. While Clinton is, of course, correct, she was disingenuously referring to China, not her own country.

Chinas increasing influence in Africa is obvious, and Beijings practices can be unfair. However, Chinas policy towards Africa is far more civil and trade-focused than the military-centered US approach.

The growth in the China-Africa trade figures is, as per a UN News report in 2013, happening at a truly breathtaking pace, as they jumped from around $10.5 billion per year in 2000 to $166 billion in 2011. Since then, it has continued at the same impressive pace.

But that growth was coupled with many initiatives, entailing many billions of dollars in Chinese credit to African countries to develop badly needed infrastructure. More went to finance the African Talents Program, which is designed to train 30,000 African professionals in various sectors.

It should come as no surprise, then, that China surpassed the US as Africas largest trading partner in 2009.

The real colonialism, which Clinton referred to in her speech, is, however, underway in the USs own perception and behavior towards Africa. This is not a hyperbole but in fact, a statement that echoes the words of US President Trump himself.

During a lunch with nine African leaders last September at the UN, Trump spoke with the kind of mindset that inspired western leaders colonial approach to Africa for centuries.

Soon after he invented the non-existent country of Nambia, Trump boasted of his many friends (who are) going to your (African) countries trying to get rich. I congratulate you, he said, they are spending a lot of money.

The following month, Trump added Chad , his countrys devoted counter-terrorism partner to the list of countries whose citizens are banned from entering the US.

Keeping in mind that Africa has 22 Muslim majority countries, the US government is divesting from any long-term diplomatic vision in Africa, and is, instead increasingly thrusting further into the military path.

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The US military push does not seem to be part of a comprehensive policy approach, either. It is as alarming as it is erratic, reflecting the US constant over-reliance on military solutions to all sorts of problems, including trade and political rivalries.

Compare this to Russias strategic approach to Africa. Reigniting old camaraderie with the continent, Russia is following Chinas strategy of engagement (or in this case, re-engagement) through development and favorable trade terms.

But, unlike China, Russia has a wide-ranging agenda that includes arms exports, which are replacing US weaponry in various parts of the continent. For Moscow, Africa also has untapped and tremendous potential as a political partner that can bolster Russias standing at the UN.

Aware of the evident global competition, some African leaders are now laboring to find new allies outside the traditional western framework, which has controlled much of Africa since the end of traditional colonialism decades ago.

A stark example was the late November visit by Sudans President Omar al-Bashir to Russia and his high-level meeting with President Vladimir Putin. We have been dreaming about this visit for a long time, al-Bashir told Putin , and we are in need of protection from the aggressive acts of the United States.

The coveted protection includes Russias promised involvement in modernizing the Sudanese army.

Wary of Russias Africa outreach, the US is fighting back with a military stratagem and little diplomacy. The ongoing US mini-war on the continent will push the continent further into the abyss of violence and corruption, which may suit Washington well, but will bring about untold misery to millions of people.

There is no question that Africa is no longer an exclusive western turf, to be exploited at will. But it will be many years before Africa and its 54 nations are truly free from the stubborn neocolonial mindset, which is grounded in racism, economic exploitation and military interventions.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a US-Arab journalist, media consultant, an author, internationally-syndicated columnist, Editor of Palestine Chronicle (1999-present), former Managing Editor of London-based Middle East Eye (2014-15), former Editor-in-Chief of The Brunei Times, former Deputy Managing Editor of Al Jazeera online. http://www.ramzybaroud.net

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A Tale of Two Americas: Where the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Go to Jail

By John W. Whitehead

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.  Nelson Mandela

January 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - This is the tale of two Americas, where the rich get richer and the poor go to jail.

Aided and abetted by the likes of Attorney General Jeff Sessionsa man who wouldnt recognize the Constitution if it smacked him in the facethe American dream has become the American scheme: the rich are getting richer and more powerful, while anyone who doesnt belong to the power elite gets poorer and more powerless to do anything about the nations steady slide towards fascism, authoritarianism and a profit-driven police state.

Not content to merely pander to law enforcement and add to its military largesse with weaponry and equipment designed for war, Sessions has made a concerted effort to expand the police states power to search, strip, seize, raid, steal from, arrest and jail Americans for any infraction, no matter how insignificant.

Now Sessions has given state courts the green light to resume their practice of jailing individuals who are unable to pay the hefty fines imposed by the American police state. In doing so, Sessions has once again shown himself to be not only a shill for the Deep State but an enemy of the people.

First, some background on debtors prisons, which jail people who cannot afford to pay the exorbitant fines imposed on them by courts and other government agencies.

Congress banned debtors prisons in 1833.

In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the practice to be unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendments Equal Protection clause.

Despite prior attempts on the federal level and across the country to prevent the profound injustice of locking people in cages because they are too poor to pay a debt, concludes The Atlantic, the practice persists every day.

Where things began to change, according to The Marshall Project , was with the rise of mass incarceration. As attorney Alec Karakatsanis stated, In the 1970s and 1980s, we started to imprison more people for lesser crimes. In the process, we were lowering our standards for what constituted an offense deserving of imprisonment, and, more broadly, we were losing our sense of how serious, how truly serious, it is to incarcerate. If we can imprison for possession of marijuana, why cant we imprison for not paying back a loan?

By the late 1980s and early 90s, there was a dramatic increase in the number of statutes listing a prison term as a possible sentence for failure to repay criminal-justice debt . During the 2000s, the courts started cashing in big-time by using the threat of jail time  established in those statutes  to squeeze cash out of small-time debtors.

Fast-forward to the present day which finds us saddled with not only profit-driven private prisons and a prison-industrial complex but also, as investigative reporter Eli Hager notes,  the birth of a new brand of offender-funded justice [which] has created a market for private probation companies. Purporting to save taxpayer dollars, these outfits force the offenders themselves to foot the bill for parole, reentry, drug rehab, electronic monitoring, and other services (some of which are not even assigned by a judge). When the offenders cant pay for all of this, they may be jailed  even if they have already served their time for the offense.

Follow the money trail. It always points the way.

Whether youre talking about the governments war on terrorism, the war on drugs, or some other phantom danger dreamed up by enterprising bureaucrats, there is always a profit-incentive involved.

The same goes for the war on crime.

At one time, the American penal system operated under the idea that dangerous criminals needed to be put under lock and key in order to protect society. Today, the flawed yet retributive American system of justice is being replaced by an even more flawed and insidious form of mass punishment based upon profit and expediency.

Sessions latest gambit plays right into the hands of those who make a profit by jailing Americans.

Sharnalle Mitchell was one such victim of a system for whom the plight of the average American is measured in dollars and cents. As the Harvard Law Review recounts :

On January 26, 2014, Sharnalle Mitchell was with her children in Montgomery, Alabama when police showed up at her home to arrest her. Mitchell was not accused of a crime. Instead, the police came to her home because she had not fully paid a traffic ticket from 2010. The single mother was handcuffed in front of her children (aged one and four) and taken to jail. She was ordered to either pay $2,800 or sit her debt out in jail at a rate of fifty dollars a day for fifty-nine days. Unable to pay, Mitchell wrote out the numbers one to fifty-eight on the back of her court documents and began counting days.

This is not justice.

This is yet another example of how greed and profit-incentives have not only perverted policing in America but have corrupted the entire criminal justice system.

As the Harvard Law Review concludes:

[A]s policing becomes a way to generate revenue, police start to see the people theyre supposed to be serving not as citizens with rights, but as potential sources of revenue, as lawbreakers to be caught. This approach creates a fugitive underclass on the run from police not to hide illicit activity but to avoid arrest for debt or seizure of their purportedly suspicious assets In turn, communities  begin to see police not as trusted partners but as an occupying army constantly harassing them to raise money to pay their salaries and buy new weapons . This needs to end.

Unfortunately, the criminal justice system has been operating as a for-profit enterprise for years now, covertly padding its pockets through penalty-riddled programs aimed at maximizing revenue rather than ensuring public safety.

All of those seemingly hard-working police officers and code-enforcement officers and truancy officers and traffic cops handing out ticket after ticket after ticket: theyre not working to make your communities safer theyve got quotas to fill .

Same goes for the courts, which have come to rely on fines, fees and exorbitant late penalties as a means of increased revenue . The power of these courts, magnified in recent years through the introduction of specialty courts beyond your run-of-the-mill traffic court (drug court, homeless court, veterans court, mental health court, criminal court, teen court, gambling court, prostitution court, community court, domestic violence court, truancy court), is reshaping the American legal systemwith little oversight, concludes the Boston Globe.

And for those who cant afford to pay the court fines heaped on top of the penalties ($302 for jaywalking, $531 for an overgrown yard , or $120 for arriving a few minutes late to court ), theres probation (managed by profit-run companies that tack on their own fees , which are often more than double the original fine) or jail time (run by profit-run companies that charge inmates for everything from food and housing to phone calls at outrageous markups ), which only adds to the financial burdens of those already unable to navigate a costly carceral state.

When bail is set unreasonably high, people are behind bars only because they are poor , stated former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Not because theyre a danger or a flight risk  only because they are poor. They dont have money to get out of jail, and they certainly dont have money to flee anywhere. Other people who do have the means can avoid the system, setting inequality in place from the beginning.

In  Policing and Profit , the Harvard Law Review documents in chilling detail the criminal justice systems efforts to turn a profit at the expense of those who can least afford to pay, thereby entrapping them in a cycle of debt that starts with one minor infraction:

In the late 1980s, Missouri became one of the first states to let private companies purchase the probation systems of local governments. In these arrangements, municipalities impose debt on individuals through criminal proceedings and then sell this debt to private businesses, which pad the debt with fees and interest. This debt can stem from fines for offenses as minor as rolling through a stop sign or failing to enroll in the right trash collection service. In Ferguson, residents who fall behind on fines and dont appear in court after a warrant is issued for their arrest (or arrive in court after the courtroom doors close, which often happens just five minutes after the session is set to start for the day) are charged an additional $120 to $130 fine, along with a $50 fee for a new arrest warrant and 56 cents for each mile that police drive to serve it . Once arrested, everyone who cant pay their fines or post bail (which is usually set to equal the amount of their total debt) is imprisoned until the next court session (which happens three days a month). Anyone who is imprisoned is charged $30 to $60 a night by the jail. If an arrestee owes fines in more than one of St. Louis Countys eighty-one municipal courts, they are passed from one jail to another to await hearings in each town.

Ask yourself this: at a time when crime rates across the country remain at historic lows (despite Sessions inaccurate claims to the contrary), why does the prison population continue to grow ?

The prison population continues to grow because of a glut of laws that criminalize activities that should certainly not be outlawed , let alone result in jail time. Overcriminalization continues to plague the country because of legislators who work hand-in-hand with corporations to adopt laws that favor the corporate balance sheet . And when it comes to incarceration, the corporate balance sheet weighs heavily in favor of locking up more individuals in government-run and private prisons.

As Time reports, The companies that build and run private prisons have a financial interest in the continued growth of mass incarceration . That is why the two major players in this gamethe Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Groupinvest heavily in lobbying for punitive criminal justice policies and make hefty contributions to political campaigns that will increase reliance on prisons.

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Its a vicious cycle that grows more vicious by the day.

According to The Atlantic, America spends $80 billion a year incarcerating 2.4 million people. But the costs dont end there. When someone goes to prison, nearly 65 percent of families are suddenly unable to pay for basic needs such as food and housing  About 70 percent of those families are caring for children under the age of 18.

Then there are the marked-up costs levied against the inmate by private companies that provide services and products to government prisons. Cereal and soup for five times the market price. $15 for a short phone call.

The Center for Public Integrity found that prison bankers collect tens of millions of dollars every year from inmates families in fees for basic financial services. To make payments, some forego medical care, skip utility bills and limit contact with their imprisoned relatives  Inmates earn as little as 12 cents per hour in many places, wages that have not increased for decades. The prices they pay for goods to meet their basic needs continue to increase.

Worse, as human rights attorney Jessica Jackson points out, the fines and fees system has turned local governments into the equivalent of predatory lenders . For instance, Jackson cites:

Washington state charges a 12% interest rate on all its criminal debt. Florida adds a 40% fee that goes into the pockets of a private collections agency. In California, penalties can raise a $100 fine to $490, or $815 if the initial deadline is missed. A $500 traffic ticket can actually cost $1,953, even if it is paid on time. And so we are left with countless tales of lives ruinedpeople living paycheck to paycheck who cannot afford a minor fine, and so face ballooning penalties, increasing amounts owed, a suspended license, jail time, and being fired from their jobs or unable to find work.

This isnt the American Dream I grew up believing in.

This certainly isnt the American Dream my parents and grandparents and those before them worked and fought and sacrificed to achieve.

This is a cold, calculated system of profit and losses.

Now you can shrug all of this away as a consequence of committing a crime, but that just doesnt cut it. Especially not when average Americans are being jailed for such so-called crimes as eating SpaghettiOs (police mistook them for methamphetamine), not wearing a seatbelt, littering, jaywalking, having homemade soap (police mistook the soap for cocaine), profanity, spitting on the ground, farting, loitering and twerking.

There is no room in the American police state for self-righteousness. Not when we are all guilty until proven innocent.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, this is no longer a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

It is fast becoming a government of the rich, by the elite, for the corporations, and its rise to power is predicated on shackling the American taxpayer to a debtors prison guarded by a phalanx of politicians, bureaucrats and militarized police with no hope of parole and no chance for escape.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute . His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is available online at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org .

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U S to Loosen Nuclear Weapons Constraints and Develop More 'Usable' Warheads



New proposal is significantly more hawkish than Obama-era policy

Critics call development of new weapons dangerous, Cold War thinking



By Julian Borger

January 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The Trump administration plans to loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a new low-yield nuclear warhead for US Trident missiles, according to a former official who has seen the most recent draft of a policy review.

Jon Wolfsthal, who was special assistant to Barack Obama on arms control and nonproliferation, said the new nuclear posture review prepared by the Pentagon, envisages a modified version of the Trident D5 submarine-launched missiles with only part of its normal warhead, with the intention of deterring Russia from using tactical warheads in a conflict in Eastern Europe.

The new nuclear policy is significantly more hawkish that the posture adopted by the Obama administration, which sought to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in US defence .

Arms control advocates have voiced alarm at the new proposal to make smaller, more usable nuclear weapons , arguing it makes a nuclear war more likely, especially in view of what they see as Donald Trumps volatility and readiness to brandish the US arsenal in showdowns with the nations adversaries.

The NPR also expands the circumstances in which the US might use its nuclear arsenal, to include a response to a non-nuclear attack that caused mass casualties, or was aimed at critical infrastructure or nuclear command and control sites.

The nuclear posture review (NPR), the first in eight years, is expected to be published after Donald Trumps State of the Union speech at the end of January.

Wolfsthal, who has reviewed what he understands to be the final draft of the review, said it states that the US will start work on reintroducing a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile, as a counter to a new ground-launched cruise missile the US has accused Russia of developing in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

Wolfsthal said that earlier drafts of the NPR was even more hawkish. The final draft drops proposals to develop a nuclear hyper-glide weapon, and to remove assurances to non nuclear weapons states that the US will not use its nuclear arsenal against them.

My read is this is a walk-back from how extreme it was early on. It doesnt have as much terrible stuff in it as it did originally, Wolfsthal said. But its still bad.

What Ive been told by the people who wrote the thing was what they were trying to do was to send a clear deterrent message to Russians, the North Korean and the Chinese. And there is pretty good, moderate but strong language that makes clear that any attempt by Russia or North Korea to use nuclear weapons would result in a massive consequence for them and I think thats actually moderate, centrist and probably very much needed.



Where they go overboard, is where they say that in order to make that credible the US needs to develop two new types of nuclear weapons, he added.

Wolfsthal said the modified Trident warhead, with just the primary (fission) part of its thermonuclear warhead, was totally unnecessary as the US already has low-yield weapons, B61 gravity bombs and air-launched cruise missiles, in its arsenal.

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He also said it was pretty dumb to put a low-yield tactical weapon on the planned new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, because firing it would give away a submarines position.

We spend $5bn per submarine to make it invisible and we put a lot of warheads on each submarine and so what they want to do is take one missile, put one small warhead on it and launch it first, so the submarine is vulnerable to Russian attack. Wolfsthal said. That strikes me as being unsustainable from a naval strategy point of view.

The development of a low-yield warhead for a sea-launched ballistic missile is based on the belief that in any conflict with Russia on Natos eastern flank, the Russians would use a tactical nuclear weapon early on, to compensate for their relative weakness in conventional arms. The Russians, the argument goes, would count on US reluctance to use the massive warheads on its existing weapons, leading Washington to back down.

Hans Kristensen, the director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists, said that justification for developing the new weapons was incoherent.

It assumes that the intelligence community has determined that one or several adversaries out there are gambling that the US would be self-deterred from using a ballistic missile warhead because they have larger yield. Thats just not the case. We have never, ever heard anyone say that is so, Kristensen said.

I dont think any adversary  certainly not Russia,  would gamble that if they did something with nukes that were low yield that we would not respond. Thats completely ludicrous, he added. I think this is about having some warhead work at the laboratories and exploring options. I dont see this as a real mission.

Daryl Kimball, the head of the Arms Control Association, said that the development of new weapons in the US nuclear arsenal was dangerous, Cold War thinking.

The United States already possesses a diverse array of nuclear capabilities, and there is no evidence that more usable weapons will strengthen deterrence of adversaries or compel them to make different choices about their arsenals, Kimball wrote on the Arms Control Today website.

He also cautioned against moves to broaden the circumstances in which nuclear weapons would be used.

The use of even a small number of these weapons would be catastrophic, Kimball said. Threatening nuclear attack to counter new kinds of asymmetric threats is unnecessary, would increase the risk of nuclear weapons use, and would make it easier for other countries to justify excessive roles for nuclear weapons in their policies.

This article was originally published by The Guardian -

- See Also -

Trump administration will 'increase risk of nuclear war' with new plans to develop smaller warheads

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How Palestine's Tamimi Family Resists Israel's Occupation

By Real News



January 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Israeli forces have killed three of its family members and arrested scores of others, including 16-year old Ahed, but the Tamimi family continues its non-violent struggle for Palestinian freedom. We speak to Manal Tamimi about her recent imprisonment and her family's defiant activism

AARON MATE: It's the Real News. I'm Aaron Mate. In recent weeks, people around the world have learned of Palestinian resilience through the plight of the Tamimi family in the occupied West Bank. For years, the Tamimis have led protest against the Israeli occupation and theft of Palenstinian land. Then last month, 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi became a global symbol of resistance when she was arrested for slapping an Israeli soldier who was trespassing on her property. Just earlier, Ahed's cousin, Mohammed Tamimi, was shot in the face, leaving him in a coma. Ahed remains in Israeli military prison and is charged with multiple counts of assault. Then last week, Israeli forces shot dead Ahed's 17-year-old cousin, Musab Tamimi, at a protest in the West Bank. As he was laid to rest, just before, Israel released another cousin, Noor Tamimi, on bail.



Joining me now is Manal Tamimi. She was also arrested last week at a protest calling for her relatives' release. Welcome, Manal. Thank you so much for joining us. It's hard to know where to start, given how much has happened to your family, but let's start with your own case. You were arrested at a protest calling for the release of Ahed, Noor, and Ahed's mother. What happened to you?



MANAL TAMIMI: First, I want to thank you for giving me the chance to talk about what's really going on with our family and in the village. Actually what happened that we decide to make ... we made a protest. First, in solidarity with Ahed and Nariman, because they had the trial in Ofer prison, which is the only Israeli prison in the West Bank, and then also in solidarity with female prisoners in the Israeli prison.



After nearly two or three minutes of beginning the protest, actually it was gathering, and suddenly they began to shoot tear gas at us and one of the soldiers, she came to me, and she asked me to go back. When I refused, she immediately arrested me without any justification or without even warning, and then they told me that I tried to ... I attacked this soldier and that I was organizing illegal activity in a closed military zone.



AARON MATE: What happened to you after you were taken to prison, after you were arrested?



MANAL TAMIMI: After, when she took me back to the Ofer prison, and there we were away from the media and the cameras, they began, and she began to beat me, and I had bleeding in the jaw that I all the time in the prison I was very sick, and I was under extreme pain, and then they took me to interrogation where they kept me the whole night until 12:30 at night, outside, in cold. They took me inside for interrogation. Then they took me back, took me outside in the cold, and without food, without the water, without anything. And by the end of the interrogation they sent me to Hasharon prison where Nariman and I reached the prison around 4:00 in the morning, and then after that the trial began. I had two trials. I had to go back to Ofer prison, which is around three hours from Hasharon. Hasharon, it's in Netanya and inside occupied [inaudible 00:04:31] and the Ofer is in West Bank in the Ramallah area.



We, of course, just going to there from one prison to another, it's a torture because they put you in a bus made of cells, metal, with metal chair. You can't move or without ... The cell is very small that you can't move, and it's black without windows or anything, and they took us from Hasharon at 2:30 in the morning, and we were back at 12:00 at night. The next day is the same. At 2:30 in the morning, we have to leave to the court and go back [inaudible 00:05:21], so it simply it's exhausting, and in the same time they, in this buses during the taking us to the court, they put us with the Israeli criminals -- men, not women -- in the same place. So this is also where terrifying because most of them are ... Well, one of them, he was drunk and he was fight. I think he had the drug or something, and he all the time he was trying to attack us and it was so scary and all the time we were terrified that one of them can attack us.



AARON MATE: As you were released, your cousin, Musab Tamimi, he was shot dead in the occupied West Bank at a protest. He was 17 years old.



MANAL TAMIMI: Yes.



AARON MATE: If I have this right, if I have this correct, he is the third member of your family to be killed by Israeli forces. Can you tell us about him, and were you able to go to his funeral?



MANAL TAMIMI: Actually, Musab, he was killed while I was in prison. I was back from the prison clinic because I was very sick, and we were watching TV, and suddenly I saw him on the TV saying that Musab Tamimi, he was shot and killed. Of course, this is one of the most difficult experiences anybody could go through to see your cousin and his blood on TV while you don't understand what's going on and what's happening, and you will think about the other, what happened with [inaudible 00:07:20].



So then at night, I was released then the ... Musab, he was an active young man. He has many dreams want to come true. He wanted to study. He was so clever. He was this kind of person who loved life to that end, and always he was ... They used to live in Jordan, and they just came back to Palestine a few months ago, so he was so happy that finally he is in his country among his family with his people. But a sniper, well, he shot him, and it was clear that it ... It's assassination. It's not a random shooting. By the way, the bullet went in his [inaudible 00:08:21]. Of course, one of them, the difficult times we are facing with the attack, the rest of the women, the attack at the village, but Musab, he's the third member of my family who was killed the non-violent resistance that we began in 2009, but actually 22 Tamimi has been killed since 1976 until now, during the resisting the occupation.



AARON MATE: Manal, can you tell us about that, these protests that your family has been involved in for years now against the Israeli theft of your land and water sources? This is not something that began recently, and this is something that goes on on a weekly basis. Can you just explain to us, for people who aren't familiar with what your family has done to defend your land in the occupied territories?



MANAL TAMIMI: Actually we are resisting since the beginning of occupation, but our organized resistance, it began in the ninth of December 2009. After we lost two-thirds of the village land, due to the settlement, expansion. The settlement, it's called Halamish, and it's been built in 1976, after the settler took over British police stations, since the British men did, and since that time, they began to expand the settlement, and they began to get land under different justification, either that natural expansion for the settlement or for the clearing of state land or a closed military zone. So every time they change the excuse but always it's about the thefting of the land.



So in 2009, when they took the spring, we decide that we have to begin our nonviolent, organized protest in the village. What we mainly wanted to do is to march toward the spring and [inaudible 00:10:51] there and planting new trees and just to ensure that this is a Palestinian land, not [inaudible 00:11:01]. But the Israeli response were very violent. They began to use different kinds of tear gas, which contain white phosphorus, nerve gas, and other chemicals of this kind. They began to use live ammunition and steel-coated bullets, the same kind that they shot Mohammed, that they two weeks ago, and he was so lucky that he survived.

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Also, skunk water which is a chemical substance mixed with water with a very bad smell, like dead animals, the smell, and they tried to hose you with this [inaudible 00:11:44] water [inaudible 00:11:48] was the intention that [inaudible 00:11:52] because we already have problems with water. We only have 12 hours a week water.



Since 2009 until now, the village count is 650 residents. 550 of them have been injured, and 215 have been arrested, including 44 child and 10 women. We have 12 demolition orders and also 38 houses partially burned of gas canister. So all this or this collective punishment for the village, just because of the choice of non-violent resistance, just people who trying to march or express their opinion peacefully, children, men, women. So there's no need for such a force to stop us. Of course, the worst thing about this that we have to lose or we lost Rushdi, who was 30 years old, and he has a three years old daughter, Mustafa, who was 28 years old and recently Musab who's 17, and another guy who was 80, and he's from a nearby village, but he was shot and killed in the village during one of the protests.



AARON MATE: And Mohammed, your 15-year-old cousin, as you say, almost lost his life, was left in a coma.



MANAL TAMIMI: Yeah.



AARON MATE: And let's hear from him. He recently spoke to the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, in a video, and he told his story of what happened.



Mohammed Tamimi: When we got to the villa, I stood up on the wall, and I didn't know that the army was there. I didn't see a single soldier, and then the soldier shot me, and I lost consciousness. They took us to Beit Rema hospital nearby. They didn't know what to do with me, and they didn't do anything, so they took me to a hospital in Ramallah where they operated on me for six hours. I didn't get up for a week afterwards because of the pain in my head. Because of what happened to my head, I can't leave my house for six months for school or to go into town. This is because I don't have a skull here in my head.



AARON MATE: So that's 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi telling his story of what happened to him. Now, it was after he was shot in the face and left in a coma that Ahed Tamimi heard this news, was distraught, and when an Israeli soldier trespassed on her property, that's when she was seen slapping him. Manal, let me ask you, you're describing these years of nonviolent Palenstinian resistance that your family's been involved in, and here in the West we're supposed to revere nonviolence. We hear often about questions of Palestinians, "Why aren't Palestinian's non-violent," but the reaction to Ahed Tamimi and your family has not been overwhelmingly positive. I mean even for those who acknowledge what happened, we get headlines like this.



So I want to read you a couple of headlines from U.S. media, okay? The first one is from CNN, and it says, "Ahed Tamimi, Palenstinian heroine or dedicated troublemaker?" Okay, and the next one from Newsweek says ... This is Newsweek, and it says, "Despite her age, Ahed Tamimi has a long history of assault against police and soldiers." So Manal, I'm just wondering your reaction. When you hear that, when you hear that that's how some Western media outlets are portraying your family, your thoughts?



MANAL TAMIMI: First, I feel sorry that this media, it's obviously that they are brainwashed and they are adopting the Israeli story, and either they're not preparing or they didn't ask what's really happening. Ahed, she never went to a settlement, so threatening settlers is lie. She never went to inside [inaudible 00:16:36] to try to bomb herself or ... All the incidents, all the videos that you saw, for most of it or all of it, it's in the village, and it's in the front of her house. It's in her property or in her [inaudible 00:16:53]. So actually they are the one who's storming the village, threatening our lives, put our children lives in danger, and they want us just to say hi for them or just to keep silent without doing anything, which is impossible.



Anybody in the world, any person who feels that his children in danger or he feels that he cannot lose one of his family members, his normal reaction will be the same reaction that Ahed did. She didn't do anything. We, all of us, we thought that Mohammed, he died and he lost his life, and it's one of the most difficult moment after the death of Rushdi and Mustafa, and saw dying in front of us. The whole village saw them dying, and it was everything or with all the force that Israeli authority is using against us, it's very difficult to think that we're going to lose another member of the family. So it was a very normal reaction, and [inaudible 00:18:03] she's a child. She's not ... She's still a teenager, and she shouldn't be treated this way.



Israel, they was ... In the West Bank, we are living under the military law and they legitimize arresting children from 11 years up, and they can put them in jail for life, and there is another law that they can put children for up to 20 years for throwing rocks only. In the time that the Israeli or the settler child would living in the same area around only 500 meters from us, they are allowed to throw rocks. They are allowed to threatening our lives, and they are ... they will be treated under the civilian law. This is not a democratic state. It will never be ... It's not democratic so these two children in the same place different law. One to call him a terrorist, a criminal, and other one to call him a victim.



So I hope that people, they won't listen to this media, and they can [inaudible 00:19:31] they can go to Nabi Saleh, or go [inaudible 00:19:34] Tamimi, and they will see or they can go to YouTube to Bilal Tamimi channel on YouTube, and they can see the horrible life we are living and what we have to face in the occupation because we took the decision to stay on our land and to fight for our right.



AARON MATE: Manal Tamimi, we have to leave it there. We thank you so much for joining us.



MANAL TAMIMI: You're so welcome, and thank you again for giving me this chance.



AARON MATE: Thank you. Thank you, and thank you for joining us on the Real News.

This article was originally published by Real News -

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Avalon Intercontinental Nigeria Limited, an international independent hotel group hereby announces a partnership with Radisson Blu Hotel, a global hotel chain within the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group; one of the worlds fastest growing hotel companies with a portfolio in Africa of 85 hotels and over 17,800+ rooms in operation and under development. This development follows a mutual agreement to part ways with our former partners, the Renaissance Hotel group. The responsibility of the management of Avalon Intercontinental to continue to serve its esteemed clientele with best global standards was top of mind in choosing new partners. We are delighted to announce that effective today the Hotel formerly known as Renaissance Hotel Ikeja is now to be known and addressed as Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos Ikeja, part of the Avalon Hotel Collection owners of Protea Hotel Ikeja, Protea Hotel Victoria Island and Avalon Hotel, Offa, Kwara State.

The hotel is centrally located in Ikeja, the capital of the Lagos State, home to many corporate headquarters, government offices and large manufacturers. It is situated on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Highway, a main highway linking Ikeja with the rest of Lagos. The location of Radisson Blu Hotel Lagos Ikeja is also just a few km away from Murtala Muhammed International Airport and close to the suburbs cultural and tourist attractions.

The 155 room Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos Ikeja offers a choice of contemporary standard, deluxe and executive rooms and a range of ultra-stylish 1,2 and 3 bedroom suites. All rooms carry a fresh and modern design with free High-Speed Wireless Internet.

The hotel has an extensive food and drinks offering with six different outlets. Guests can enjoy dining at the hotels all-day dining restaurant serving international and local cuisine, a steak house restaurant ready to calm a carnivorous craving, as well as a destination rooftop terrace and stylish lobby cafe. Guests can also bask in the views from the pool terrace while sipping on a refreshing drink at the adjoining bar or play a game of pool in the afropolitan business class lounge. The hotel is also fitted with a luxurious state of the art spa.

The hotel has impressive meeting and events facilities encompassing an area of 2,047m2 and including a ballroom, expansive conference room capable of hosting over 400 guests and six meeting rooms with an adjoining business centre. All meetings rooms are equipped with modern meeting technology and break-out area. Leisure facilities include a wellness spa, fully-equipped gym and swimming pool for travellers seeking to rejuvenate or maintain their fitness regime.

Throwing more light on this new development, Director of Legal at Avalon Intercontinental, owners of the hotel, Olaitan Tajudeen Salaudeen stated that both existing and potential customers are assured of boundless experiences from this new offering, Our partnership with Radisson Blu is bound to provide a new lease of life within the property; our focus has and always will be on providing excellent services and an overall memorable guest experience

She emphasized that Avalon Intercontinental is excited about the new partnership as both parties share the same intrinsic values. We are so excited as we look forward to Radisson Blu bringing to bear their expertise to the delight of our esteemed customers, the strength of the Radisson Blu brand reinforces our optimism and belief in this decision.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why is Radisson Blu Hotel expanding its operations in Nigeria at this time?

We have identified Nigeria as a key country for scaled growth and the addition of our second Radisson Blu in the megacity of Lagos perfectly complements our development strategy. We are confident the appeal of the international upscale Radisson Blu brand and the excellent location of the hotel will attract the attention of both international and domestic travellers.

What sets Radisson Blu apart from the other global hotel chains in Nigeria?

Beyond the fact that we are iconic, stylish and sophisticated. We create excitingly individual hotels for individual minds. We delight our travel savvy, modern guests with a genuine, inviting ambiance. We create excitement with our stunning, leading edge design. And we strive to engage each and every guest through our innovative and very relevant range of holistic facilities and services. Weve packaged it all neatly together with 100% guaranteed satisfaction.

Does the opening of the new branch mean that Radisson Blu is shifting its focus from the existing one?

The addition of Radisson Blu Ikeja reaffirms what our consumers already know, which is striving to engage each and every guest through our innovative and very relevant range of holistic facilities and services in any location of operation. We ensure same global standards at all our facilities.

What experience should existing and potential customers expect?

Radisson Blu features 380 unique hotels, open or coming soon, in the worlds most desirable destinations: dynamic major cities, nearby airport gateways and in the most sought after leisure hotspots. Its a perfect equation that adds up to a highly individual and unforgettable 360 hospitality experience, unrivalled anywhere in the world today. Just as our consumers want their hotel to meet their lifestyles and preferences, we are saying we can offer them a lifestyle choice, and keep the experience remarkable(memorable instead).

This current location was prior to now known as Renaissance; was there any conflict?

It was mutually agreed by all partners to part ways after a great working relationship. Avalon believes there are clear benefits of working with Radisson Blu with its existing presence in Lagos.

What changes should the customers expect?

Consumers should expect to enjoy the great experience that comes with individual hotels for individual minds that ties in with their hospitality experience at every Radisson Blu Hotel.
The General Overseer of Winners Chapel and the Chancellor of Covenant University, Bishop David Oyedepo tops the Forbes list of richest pastors in the world with a net worth of $150 million.

According to Forbes, Oyedepo heads the single largest church in the world, which is otherwise known as Winners Chapel.

He also exerts control over churches in 45 African nations, as well as several in Dubai, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Believers Love World; T.B Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations; and Pastor E.A Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG were also in the list.

See the full list below as released by Forbes;

10. Joseph Prince Net Worth 2018  $5 Million

Pastor1Head of the largest church in the all of Asia and netting a salary of $550,000 a year, Prince could easily be seen as blessed. Born to a Sikh priest and previously employed as an IT consultant, his unlikely career has garnered a grand following worldwide from his native Malaysia to the United States. This popularity is partially thanks to such friends as Joel Osteen of Lakewood Megachurch who has hosted a number of his sermons. One of the most internet savvy of the pastors listed, Prince also has a online video and podcast with a following from over 150 countries.

9. T.B. Joshua Net Worth 2018  $10 Million

Pastor2Considered a Prophet by most of his congregation, Joshua has a unique and notable influence in his native country of Nigeria. While primarily preaching from his home city of Lagos, Nigeria, Joshua has over 1.5 million Facebook fans. He also has a history of sending Anointed Water to thousands of individuals worldwide, most notably during the recent Ebola crisis. There has been ongoing controversy regarding his claims to deliver people from possession, and there are 3 reported deaths in the U.K. linked to his church. These were reported to be cases where the individuals refused life lengthening AIDS medication and instead relied on prayer for survival.

8. Billy Graham Net Worth 2018  $25 Million

Pastor3Once called by many as Americas Pastor, Billy Graham is among the most well known and long-lived pastors on the planet. Born in 1918 and educated in Anthropology and Biblical Studies by the Trinity Bible College in Florida State, he has been a presence for many historic events of the past two generations. From bailing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr out of jail during the fight for Civil Rights, to directly writing and supporting Nixon during the Vietnam war, he has always been quite political minded. This fact has no doubt helped his following, with an estimated audience of around 2.2 Billion individuals over the course of his career.

7. Kenneth Copeland Net Worth 2018  $25 Million

Best known for his messages about prosperity and abundance, it appears Copeland can reference quite a bit of firsthand experience. Before his conversion to Christianity he had commercial success as a recording artist, releasing 1957s Pledge of Love which made it to #17 of the top 40 billboard hits of the year. Copeland has had a lifelong love for flying as well, which allowed him after conversion to become the personal pilot of Oral Roberts before starting his own ministry and owning his own private jet (admittedly paid for by church donations). Copeland and his family also reside in a $6.3 million estate, where television audiences are invited to sit around the table with the family on Believers Voice of Victory.

6. Creflo Dollar Net Worth 2018  $27 Million

Pastor4With Dollar in his name, was there any doubt this pastor would appear on such a list? Known as one of the flashiest of American Ministers, he owns a Rolls Royce, multiple $2.5 million dollar estates and in recent years been given an F by the Ministry Watch for financial transparency. To make matters worse, Dollar was arrested in 2013 for allegedly attacking his own daughter but the charges were dropped after agreements to join anger management groups. He like quite a few of his comrades in this list preaches almost exclusively the prosperity gospel. While receiving a Bachelors in Science for Education from West Georgia College, it appears this pastor has yet to learn the intricacies of Do unto Others.

5. E. A .Adeboye Net Worth 2018  $39 Million

Pastor5Enoch Adejare Adeboye began his career in preaching while still maintaining a professorship at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. It appears his Ph.D. in mathematics continues to serve him well, as membership numbers of his Redeemed Christian Church of God continue to swell in over 100 countries. Adeboye has claimed a goal to put a church within 5 minutes of every home in the world. With 14,000 branches in Nigeria alone, it seems he has done so for at least one country.

4. Benny Hinn Net Worth 2018  $42 Million

Benny Hinn is perhaps the most openly controversial of any American Televangelist. Publicly claiming a gospel that empowers faith healing, he has been investigated by the United States Senate for manipulation of tax status, and his Ministry has been flagged with a Donor Alert by Ministry Watch. Regardless of this shady financial situation he continues to have a solid fellowship in both Canada and the United States. Followers of his teachings believe that if they are prayed over, they can be healed of any malady. Among his many luxury possessions is a Gulfstream G4 jet.

3. Chris Oyakhilome Net Worth 2018  $50 Million

Yet another Lagos native, Pastor Chris has an incredibly busy schedule to go with his wealth. His Believers Loveworld Incorporated not only contains an absolutely massive fellowship branch, but also branches for humanitarian aid and education. He also owns three separate television channels that garner up to 2.5 million views per nightly event. As is common for someone with the faith healing gospel, there is some backlash, particularly from the Treatment Action Campaign against his claims of faith healing AIDS. As an interesting aside, as of 2017 South Africa is considering a warrant for his arrest if Oyakhilome and his organizations do not become more financially transparent.

2. Bishop T.D. Jakes Net Worth 2018  $147 Million

Head of the Potters House Megachurch and Potters Touch television program, T.D. Jakes is a common face on many national broadcast stations. Jakes has also been seen with both Presidents Bush (during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath) and Obama (leading a morning church service in 2009) who have both commented on his faithful intents and actions. This is particularly notable, as both his Bachelor and Masters of Arts degree came from an unaccredited institution, Friends International Christian University. Though he does make a sizable yearly sum as a pastor, most of his wealth has originated in sales of his gospel music (for which he has won at least one Grammy award), books and numerous syndicated appearances. As it turns out, T.D. Jakes is also of Nigerian heritage, which was proven when he allowed for his DNA to be tested for a PBS program.

1. Bishop David Oyedepo Net Worth 2018  $150 Million

Coming in as a supposed host of the Holy Ghost with the most, Bishop David Oyedepo heads the single largest church in the world, Winners Chapel, which seats 50,000. As one of the main founders of the Nigerian Christian Charismatic movement, he also exerts control over churches in 45 African nations, as well as several in Dubai, the United Kingdom and the United States. Having been mentored by Adeboye, it is quite clear he took the formula of church expansion up a notch. Alongside churches, there has also been active outreach within his native continent where his ministry has aided in the development of hospitals, schools and maternity homes. As to be expected with such successes, two of his sons are following in his footsteps by heading up both the London and South African Winners Chapel divisions.

-Forbes
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Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum

Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights

Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh

Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom

Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Google Ad

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces
The Kaduna State police command have deployed 8, 000 personnel across Kaduna metropolis ahead of the protest by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over the sack of 36,000 civil servants by Gov Nasir El-Rufai.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that heavily armed security personnel were stationed at the NLC headquarters along Independence Way and strategic areas of the metropolis while others were patrolling the town.

The police and other security personnel were also stationed along major streets in the city including Kaduna-Kachia road, Kaduna-Zaria highway and Kaduna-Abuja expressway.

Most streets were empty with minimal vehicular movement due to the high presence of security personnel within the town, with few commercial vehicles plying the roads.

The NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, is expected to lead other union members from across the country to protest the mass sack of workers by the state government.

However, the police and state government on Wednesday announced total ban on all forms of protests in the state.

Muktar Aliyu, spokesman of Kaduna State Police Command, told NAN that about 8,000 policemen were deployed in the city to stop the planned protest and ensure law and order.

The police will not fold its arms to whatever will disrupt peace and order in the state.

We are on top of the situation to ensure maximum protection of lives and property, Mr. Aliyu said.

Source: (NAN)
A Nigerian-based Cameroonian Artiste, @its_cameey has reacted to Huddah Monroes call for Africans to boycott Nigerians Music.

In her rants on Insta Stories, she wrote;

Nigerians dont even listen and support other African artists music unless its collaboration which artists from other countries pay so much for them to be in their songs. We the rest of AFRICA we should just boycott. Be your brothers keeper.

In response to her, he wrote;

As a Cameroonian whos lived in Nigeria for quite a while I can confidently tell you one thing about Nigerians and that is the fact that if a Nigerian likes or dislikes something you would definitely know. Nigerians dont mince words with you, they confidently tell it how they see it and thats one unique quality about them I admire deeply.

source: Gistreel
Actor and producer, Omoni Oboli is not new to filmmaking. From Being Mrs. Elliot, First Lady, Wives On Strike, Okafors Law and now to Wives on Strike Revolution, she has successfully cemented her place in the history books as the first female Nollywood filmmaker to have consecutively produced and marketed her movies into becoming hits at the cinemas.

Her latest effort, Wives on Strike Revolution follows up on the chronicles of the womens fight against domestic violence after one of them was beaten to death by her husband. This leads to yet another strike, by the women against their husbands forcing their hands to stand up for what is right.

The movie opened to the public on December 29, 2017 has gone on to become the movie with the most favourable review at the currently. The record sales experienced in just one week has gone on to confirm that Omoni Oboli may have outdone herself this time.

The movie parades an array of stars that brought life into the movie: Odunlade Adekola, an abusive husband who fell to his knees the moment his wife stood up to him. Sola Sobowale was the typical Iyaloja who claimed to have installed Tinubu, Fashola and Ambode as Governors. Julius Agwu, Saka, Uche Jombo, Kenneth Okonkwo, Kalu Ikeagwu, Chigurl and more are also worthy of note. One of the most distinctive acts in the movie remains Toyin Abraham whose role in the movie appear to be custom made for her.

Reviews have poured in from social media. Instagram users have taken the front roll in sharing their unsolicited reviews of the movie. We are still waiting to find a negative one from atleast one of them. Here are some of the feedback online:

@crystal_o_c It was a really beautiful movie. It struck the right balance between comedy and passing a very important message on domestic violence while also being aware of the cultural ideologies inherent in Nigeria. A must watch for everyone. Welldone Omoni Oboli

@JuwonOdutayo I finally got to watch Wives on Strike Revolution, hilarious from beginning to the end. The creativity is weaving a powerful message with comedy without losing the essence of the story indescribable. Great job Omoni. That was a masterpiece.

@mz.lade_ Yes!!! Im a living witness. If you havent watched, then you are on a long thing because Wives on Strike the Rovolution is the movie of the year. @AMVCAAwards Get in here. It made sense die. I enjoyed it. I laughed all through and cried at some point. How can one pass a good message in such a comedic way? You are a genius maam. God bless you ma.

Wives on Strike Revolution can enjoy all the great accolades coming her way this opening week because its well deserved.

Source: Linda Ikejis blog
Governor Rauf Aregbesola has called on Nigerians to pray for the speedy recovery of President Muhammadu Buharis son, Yusuf.

Mr. Aregbesola made the call while speaking at the closing of 19th edition of the Annual National Conference of the Jamaatu Taawunil Muslimeen (Society of Nigeria) on Wednesday in Iwo

According to the governor, the comfort of the president is the comfort of all.

Mr. Aregbesola described prayer as the only instrument that could rescue Nigeria from some of its predicaments.

He called on religious leaders to intensify prayers for president Buhari, his sick son as well as for the socioeconomic prosperity of the country.

According to him, apart from prayer being a powerful part of our existence as human beings, it is pertinent for every believer to pray for his or her leaders.

I am happy that every religion emphasises this, and it is something important we can do to support the present administration by praying and fasting for our leaders.

As we all know the condition of the Presidents son, I urge Nigerians regardless of our socio-economic, political and ethnic differences to pray for the speedy recovery of Yusuf Buhari who is presently receiving medical attention.

Yusuf had a bike accident at the Gwarimpa Area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in December 2017.

The accident left him with a broken limb and an injury on his head.

Earlier, Imran Molasan, the Founder and President of Jamaatu Taawunil Muslimeen Society of Nigeria, commended Mr. Aregbesola for laying a strong foundation for the economic development of the state.

Mr. Molasan applauded Mr. Aregbesolas high sense of commitment to human and capital development, particularly the impact his government had made toward re-engineering the economy of the state.

In his remarks, the Oluwo of Iwoland, Abdulrasheed Akanbi, described Mr. Aregbesola as a rare political gem for repositioning Osun.

Source : (NAN)
Pope Francis has ordered the Vatican takeover of an elite Catholic society in Peru whose founder is accused of sexually and physically abusing children and former members of the group.

The move, according to a statement that was released by the Vatican, is the latest step in a saga that has damaged the reputation of the Catholic Church in Peru.

It comes a week before Francis is due to make his first visit as pope to the country and Chile as victims of sexual abuse said that he has not done enough to stop root it out.

The credibility of a commission he formed in 2014 has been severely damaged by the defections of senior members who accused the Vatican of dragging its feet.

The Vatican said the pope had appointed an administrator to run Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), whose founder Luis Figari, a layman, is due to go on trial in Peru for the sexual abuse of minors later in the year.

However, Mr. Figari has denied wrongdoing.

An internal report by the group in 2017 concluded that Mr. Figari, who founded it in 1971 and headed it till 2010, and three other high-ranking ex-members, had abused 19 minors and 10 adults.

Most of the cases took place between the 1970s and 2000.

The report, published on the groups website, describes Mr. Figari as a charismatic, authoritarian and cult-like leader who publicly humiliated members as part of his strategy to control them.

Peruvian authorities opened an investigation into Mr. Figari in 2015 following the publication of a book into the alleged abuse written by Peruvian investigative journalists, Pao Ugaz and Pedro Salinas.

Mr. Salinas once belonged to the ultra-conservative Sodalitium, whose members include businessmen, writers and politicians from Perus upper classes and was founded as a part of a backlash to the Liberation Theology, which took sides with the poor.

The Vatican statement said the pope had been following the groups situation with worry for years and had taken the action after a detailed analysis of all the documentation.

It said the pope was concerned about the gravity of information regarding the internal system, (religious) formation (of members) and economic and financial management.

The Vatican move came a month after a lawyer for victims said a public prosecutor was seeking pre-trial detention for Mr. Figari and three other former leaders of the group.

The Vatican, which officially recognised the group in 1997, however, in 2017 prohibited Mr. Figari from having any contact with members.

The takeover of the SCV was similar to the action the Vatican took against another conservative group, the Legionaries of Christ.

An administrator was appointed to run the Legionaries after its founder, the late Mexican priest Marcial Degollado, was discovered to have been sexually abusive with a secret family.

The Vatican said the SCV would be run by a Colombian Bishop Noel Buitrago.

(Xinhua/NAN)
Two army officials were arrested by the Ondo State Police Command along side four other suspects for alleged armed robbery.

The two, Moruf Oguntade and Adetayo Ogunbadejo, who claimed to privates in the Nigerian Army, were said to operate while in their army uniforms.

Speaking at the police command headquarters on the arrest on Wednesday, the Commissioner of Police, Gbenga Adeyanju, said the suspects were arrested along Akure-Owo expressway in Ogudu Camp, along Emure town.

Mr. Adeyanju said the hoodlums blocked a road leading to the expressway around Emure town in order to rob vehicles or kidnap people during the operation.

He further explained that officials of the state police command received the information about the activities of the robbers and swung into action. That led to the arrest of one the robbers, Jacob Amos, who confessed to the crime and led the police to their hideout.

He noted that although five persons alleged to be members of the gang were arrested, three others were still on the run.

The other suspects paraded include Moses Aleka, Iliyasu Suleiman and Jayeola Ojo.

One of the suspects, Mr. Suleiman, who claimed to be a computer repairer, told journalists that he was invited from Kogi State and lured to the robbery operation by his friends who claimed to be Internet fraudsters popularly known as Yahoo boys.

Mr. Suleiman, 37, said he joined the gang of robbers because he needed to raise enough money for his mothers burial.

When I came, he told me it was Yahoo. It was when I got to him that it became a different thing, I told them I cannot go out like this, and they said there is no problem, Mr. Suleiman said.

It was when we went out that I knew it was a real problem. The village people shouted at us and we ran. I was later arrested by the police.

I am a repairer of the laptop, he told me to come and that he will teach me how to make faster money with Yahoo. When I came, I asked him, where is the laptop? He said I should not worry. On the eighth day, he said we should stroll out, he gave me a knife, he gave the other guy cutlass and he handled the pistol.

I am appealing to the police to sympathise with me because of my late mother, I dont care what they want to do to me I want to witness her burial.

Items recovered from the suspects include army uniforms, one Beretta pistol, cutlasses, knives, charms, one Hummer SUV and three booklets of Army pass.

The police commissioner, however, said detectives from the command were on the trail of three other members of the gang who would certainly arrested.

Source: ( Premium Times )
Ucoms mobile customers will benefit from the best internet roaming rate of 8 AMD/MB when travelling to Georgia, Egypt or the UAE

Ameriabank Launches Google Pay and Google Wallet Support for Card Users in Armenia

Karen Vardanyan donated 112 million drams for the medical equipment for National Center for Infectious Diseases.

UCOM HAS INTRODUCED FUTURE NETWORK WI-FI 6E ROUTERS

Statement by the Spokesperson on the conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts

Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum

Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights

Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh

Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom

Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Google Ad

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces
Despite high property prices, new self-storage projects continue to spring up across Australia. The entrepreneurial spirit is high down under, with many established operators adding new locations, and small and new investors entering the sector.

The investment metrics for new projects are increasingly marginal, but the lack of alternative opportunities and the continuing capitalization-rate compression are still justifying new developmentfor now. Is overbuilding imminent in this well-established market? Lets look at local operating performance and other factors.

Mixed Results for the REITS

There are two real estate investment trusts (REITs) with assets in Australia and New Zealand. National Storage REIT (NSR) is a pure self-storage REIT, while Abacus Property Group is a diversified REIT with self-storage as one of its significant investment sectors. They both reported end-of-year finances on June 30, which is when the fiscal year ends in Australia.

NSR has seen an increase in occupancy in Australian locations to 77 percent, and an increase in revenue per available metre (REVPAM) by 5 percent. The companys same-store results in New Zealand have experienced an occupancy reduction from 76.3 percent to 71.8 percent in the past 12 months, while REVPAM is stable.

NSR continued its acquisitive ways, completing $138 million in purchases between July 2017 and June 2018, as well as a $285 million buyout of Heitman LLC's 90 percent interest in the Southern Cross Storage Group joint venture. That transaction set a new benchmark for capitalization (cap) rates in the Australasian self-storage industry, with a passing yield of 5.8 percent. The portfolio consisted of 26 established and stable storage facilities, trading at occupancy of 74 percent.

Acquisitions have led NSRs total asset value to grow to $1.1 billion. Its annual report also reveals an improvement in cap rates from its annual valuation update, with those rates down .38 percent to 7.86 percent.

Abacus owns $629 million in self-storage assets. Its recent reports have shown an occupancy increase to 89.2 percent and a REVPAM increase to 2.2 percent. The company added three new storage sites to its portfolio, taking it to 62 overall. It now has 302,000 square meters of net leasable area. Abacus storage valuations have also seen a reduction in cap rates, down .3 percent to 7.7 percent. The firm also indicates an appetite to grow through acquisition and new development.

Prices and Occupancy Flatten

The Australian consumer has been under cost-of-living pressure with rising energy prices, housing and many other increases. This appears to be biting many retail sectors, which see lower spending and report suboptimum performance.

Urbis, an Australian firm that advises property developers, owners, investors and others, has been tracking self-storage prices and occupancy since 2008, and publishes the Urbis Storage Index twice per year. The December 2016 report revealed some softening in occupancy and prices in Australia. In contrast, Auckland, New Zealand, continues with strength. The report states:

Results for the 12 months to December 2016 reveal a continued downward trend in area occupied for East Coast Australia facilities. The decline of 1.13 percentage points supports the Urbis view that occupancy expectations have topped out. Average occupancy at the end of the year for sample facilities for the East Coast of Australia was 86.71 percent.

Total facilities monitored in Australia and New Zealand average storage fee rates for all East Coast Australia facilities continued to enjoy moderate growth over the year, recorded at 2.3 percent. Average storage fee rate growth continues to track above consumer price index, which was 1.5 percent for the same period.

Auckland remains the standout performer in terms of storage fee rate growth for the year, recording a 6.15 percent increase. The Melbourne Outer Zone experienced the second largest increase at 3.69 percent for the same period.

Does Overbuilding Loom?

With 26 years of almost uninterrupted economic growth in Australia, the memory of recession has long faded for many, and theres an entire generation of adults that havent even experienced one. Some observers worry this is lending a false sense of security and infallibility to peoples investment decisions.

Asset prices are booming. Theres strong appetite for property assets of all kinds, and self-storage is getting much interest, including new development. Despite the mixed economic signals, theres noticeable increase in building in Australia and New Zealand. Existing owners and new entrants are jumping in to develop new sites and accepting lower returns to secure properties.

The REITs are looking to build and small syndicates have emerged to develop. My company, Kennards Self Storage, will open five new properties in 2017. In addition, we have several expansions and redevelopments planned for existing locations.

There are opportunities for operators who appreciate the market and opportunity at a micro-level. However, its highly likely that some markets will see too much new development too quickly. Its inevitable that an overabundance of new supply will emerge in some areas.

In addition, lenders in Australia have recently hardened their view on lending to many segments. Unproven new entrants to the storage sector are finding it more difficult to obtain financing. This might quell some of the oversupply risk.

Urbis is developing a new tracker that will maintain a live list of known incoming self-storage supply. This will improve the visibility of new projects and enable investors to more fully assess their prospects.

Sam Kennard is managing director of Kennards Self Storage. Founded in 1973, the company operates more than 85 facilities across Australia and New Zealand, with more than 575,000 square meters of lettable space and a market-asset value exceeding $1.4 billion. It remains a private, family-owned and -operated business. For more information, visit www.kss.com.au.
Update 10/9/19  Overland Park officials have struck an agreement with Sky Real Estate on new deadlines for the Metcalf Crossing mixed-use project. The developer is required to clear the vacant hotels off the site by Nov. 30, and redevelopment work must begin by February. The self-storage facility, which is slated to be built off Marty Lane, must be complete by December 2020, according to the source. The city council approved the new deadlines on Monday.

9/11/19  Overland Park officials are becoming cautious of changes to the Metcalf Crossing mixed-use project. Since the original proposal was made more than a year ago, the size of the self-storage facility has grown to 114,000 square feet and the office to 14,250 square feet. The city council has voiced frustration over the direction of the proposal and this week balked at replacing the original retail components with a five-bay Charlies Car Wash. It delayed a decision on the development until Oct. 7, according to the source.

Council members appear unhappy that the plan is moving further from citys desire for pedestrian-friendly, walkable areas. During a meeting on Monday, some officials voiced doubt that the office component would ever be built.

Im very, very, very disappointed, councilmember David White said in addressing the developer. I have absolutely no confidence the office will ever get built. I think youre going to dumb it down and essentially going to put an industrial area right next to a residential area. Thats not what we promised those people.

I just cant see an office tenant moving into a building thats next to a storage facility and a car wash, added councilmember Paul Lyons. Had I known that this was going to go down this path, I would not have supported the [tax-increment financing].

Demolition of the existing hotel structures was originally scheduled to begin later this month, but city staff indicated that appears unlikely, the source reported.

4/19/18  Overland Park officials have scheduled a public hearing on June 4 to give residents the opportunity to comment on the special sales tax and redevelopment plan connected to the Metcalf Crossing self-storage, hotel and retail project. Among the topics discussed will be the Community Improvement District (CID), which would initiate a 1 percent sales tax within a defined geographic area, according to the source.

The CID would be set up as a pay-as-you-go system for development costs. The tax would be collected over 22 years, the source reported.

3/23/18  The Overland Park City Council has approved the rezoning and special-use permit required for the $39 million Metcalf Crossing project to move forward. A final review and vote must still be held before the existing hotel structures can be razed and replaced by the mixed-use development. Though city officials view the project favorably, multiple council members expressed some apprehension toward the business uses, including the self-storage facility, which is expected to be constructed first, according to the source.

The council also voted to designate the site a tax-increment financing district to help Sky Real Estate cover some expenses. The district is expected to provide about $2.6 million to pay upfront for demolition, land acquisition and site preparation, the source reported. A special, 1 percent sales-tax district designed to raise another $3 million in public financing will be discussed at a later date.

Despite their apprehension about the mix of businesses, council members acknowledged the project will be a welcome improvement to a site riddled with crime and vandalism. Councilmember Curt Skoog called the property an open wound. Between 2010 and mid-2016, nearly 7,000 incoming police calls were related to activity on the property, according to a study commissioned by Sky Real Estate. Of those calls, 238 arrests were made, mostly for drug-related crimes and traffic warrants. The hotels had nine times the arrests of others in the city.

I think that since it is a safety concern, we should be investing in this area, said councilmember Gina Burke. I just hope that we get the entire project and not just the storage facility. Fellow councilor Dave White also said he wasnt looking forward to only having a storage facility.

1/10/18  The Overland Park Planning Commission recommended approval on Monday for Sky Real Estates mixed-use project. The 77,250-square-foot storage facility is expected to be built north of the 108-room hotel. The permitting process is anticipated to extend through the spring, with a ground-breaking in the summer, according to the source.

The retail-center component of the project is expected to comprise 8,600 square feet, while the sit-down restaurant and fast-food eatery are planned for 5,600 and 2,500 square feet, respectively.

This is one of the most troubled sites in Overland Park, Korb Maxwell, an attorney representing the developer, told the commission. So, bringing forward a bright new future for it that has development like you see herefirst-class, high-quality, modern, class-A retail, hotel and storageseems like an excellent use given its location.

Commissioner Mike Flanagan was among the planners who agreed with Maxwells assessment, calling the site one of the key intersections in the city thats needed some improvement for many years.

A request by Sky Real Estate for tax-increment finance and community-improvement district incentives is expected to be reviewed by the city councils Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee on Jan. 31.

10/11/2017  Developer Wes Grammer of Sky Real Estate LLC submitted a proposal last week to build a mixed-use project in Overland Park, Kans., that will comprise self-storage, a hotel, and retail and restaurants. The plans for the property at 7240 Shawnee Mission Parkway include demolition of an existing Ramada Inn, according to the source.

The three-story storage facility facing 62nd Street would comprise 25,750 square feet. It would be east of a four-story hotel, which would face Shawnee Mission Parkway. An additional three structures, ranging in size from 5,000 to 6,100 square feet, would be placed along the southern edge of the parcel.

The storage facility will require a zoning change. Icon Architecture and engineering firm Olsson Associates have been contracted to work on the proposal, which will be heard by the Overland Park Planning Commission next month, the source reported.

Last spring, Sky Real Estate filed a zoning request for another self-storage project in the state. Grammer faced opposition to converting an empty warehouse in the River Market neighborhood of Kansas City, Kan. The property at 417 Grand Blvd. sits on a corner across from the Arabia Steamboat Museum and east of the historic City Market, a farmers market that also contains restaurants and retailers.

The former chief development officer for Legacy Development, Grammer is also converting the seven-story American Electric Co. building in St. Joseph, Kan., to 140 apartments.

Sources:

KSHB, Overland Park Approves Non-Discrimination Ordinance, Development Agreement

Shawnee Mission Post, Overland Park Officials Sour on Plans for Metcalf Site Once Touted as Textbook Case for Tax Incentives

Shawnee Mission Post, Overland Park Sets Public Hearing on Community Improvement District Sales Tax for Metcalf Crossing

Shawnee Mission Post, Overland Park Council Advances Proposal to Redevelop Open Wound Property at Metcalf and Shawnee Mission Pkwy

Shawnee Mission Post, Overland Park Planning Commission Advances Mixed-Use Plan for Former Shawnee Mission Parkway Ramada Site

Shawnee Mission Post, Developer Files Proposal for New Hotel, Storage and Retail on the site of Overland Park Ramada
I do not know the materials, I cannot draw conclusions - Gevorg Kostanyan (video)

Former Prosecutor General, member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Gevorg Kostanyan believes that any crime is not a result of impunity yet, by refering to the tragic car accident that took place several days ago in Yerevan with the participation of the son of Ara Vardanyan, as a result of which two traffic police officers were killed. "Now, I do not know whether or not he had a driver's license, whether or not he had the right to drive, and whether or not the road traffic had been violated. I do not know the materials, so I cannot draw conclusions. " Deputy Chief of Police Hunan Poghosyan said that the police did their actions accordingly. Sargis Vardanyan, who became a reason for two killed police officers, had been deprived of driving licenses since 2014, so the issue should be searched in other parts of the system. Gevorg Kostanyan also had observations on the draft amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, which was discussed at the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs. He suggests that the detainee should be provided with all the materials, when he decides to appeal. "If he decides to appeal, but does not have all the materials, his appeal will be a non-justified, which means that the court can, in any case, consider the complaint as unfounded and refuse. " "Four hours after the arrest of the person, all documents must be presented to the person already," Deputy Justice Minister Artur Hovhannisyan clarified. The commission members also discussed the rights of the detained person. "If we cannot secure their rights in the way of arrest to police, it should be written, so in this case, a person can keep silence and know why he is deprived of his liberty," said the Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs and Human Rights Hrayr Tovmasyan.
The William Warren Group (WWG), a privately held real estate company that operates the StorQuest Self Storage brand, is seeking to convert a former Los Angeles taco shop into a four-story storage facility. The property at 2803 W. Broadway, which once housed Ernie Jr.s Taco House, has been vacant for nearly four years, according to the source.

The plans include construction of a nearly 85,000-square-foot building, with glass walls overlooking El Verano Avenue and West Broadway. In its application, WWG requested permission to build the site taller and higher than normally allowed by the city, and to provide 14 parking spots instead of the required 38.

The company is also seeking an exemption from design and other development guidelines for the area. To justify its request, the developer noted the community needs more storage following the states efforts to legalize garage and accessory-building conversions into living spaces. Therefore, self-storage facilities located in close vicinity to densely populated communities/neighborhoods serve a much-needed service for residents themselves, the application stated.

The Eagle Rock Neighborhood Councils land-use committee has recommended opposing the current proposal. The council would like to see the project follow the existing development guidelines, the source stated.

The Eagle Rock Association, a neighborhood group, has yet to take a position on the project, but plans to meet with developer this week, according to Greg Merideth, association president. Residents surveyed by the association in 2015 stated theyd support the effort. At that time, the vast majority of them favored the storage facility because it would likely generate less noise, traffic and parking issues, Merideth said.

Founded in 1994 and based in Santa Monica, Calif., WWG acquires, develops and operates 128 self-storage facilities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, South Carolina and Texas.
Mege, a dual-qualified French and English private client lawyer, became a director at the firm as of January 1 2018.

He has several years of experience in advising international private clients on personal tax and other legal issues. Mege began his career with Arthur Andersen in Paris. He then moved to London and worked at BDO Stoy Hayward and Grant Thornton in their private client tax departments.

In his new role, Mege will work in Moores Rowlands specialist area of cross-border tax planning, which has for many years advised clients on French inbound tax planning.
JERUSALEM - January 11, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform, today announced the launch of Cognitiv, a specialized $100 million global fund focused on early-stage companies that leverage AI, deep-learning, IoT, robotics and digital manufacturing to become tomorrow's category leaders. Cognitiv is the 12th fund to launch for funding on OurCrowd's platform and will give investors access to approximately 20 companies, with initial investments in EquityX, KolGene and FreshKeep.

Cognitiv is a direct result of the success of OurCrowd First, the first fund entry by OurCrowd, raising approximately $12 million, closing in May 2016. Cognitiv is led by three storied entrepreneurs, collectively responsible for creating value in the billions of dollars. Cognitiv's newest General Partner, Avi Reichental is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of 3D Systems, (NYSE:DDD) and brings decades of executive leadership in late stage global corporations. Reichental partnered with OurCrowd First's Eduardo Shoval and Yori Nelken, both of whom come with highly successful track records in early-stage company-building and investment.

"AI powered transformation is poised to disrupt and automate every sector in business  from healthcare and financial services to agriculture and manufacturing and could create the largest transfer of wealth in recorded history," said Avi Reichental, General Partner at Cognitiv. "Having built successful businesses ourselves, we understand that what looked impossible just yesterday, is fast becoming tomorrow's reality. That is why we are seeding and scaling the very businesses that we believe are harnessing the power of cognitive technology to become tomorrow's category leaders."

"We are thrilled to partner with Cognitiv and once again work together with Eduardo, Yori and Avi to launch a fund that is at the intersection of tech disruption and wealth creation," said Jon Medved, OurCrowd Founder & CEO. "This growth from $12 million under management to a proposed new $100 million fund is reflective of the rapid and dramatic growth of the fund management business within the OurCrowd platform and underscores our expanding global reach and the power and vibrancy of our unique ecosystem."

OurCrowd First's diverse portfolio represents multiple exponential tech sectors including Ag-Tech, 3D Printing and Digital Health. Companies include deep learning imaging company Zebra Medical Vision, Ag-Tech disruptors Taranis and Centaur, AI powered visual service provider TechSee and Ultrafast 3D printing company Nexa3D, and more. OurCrowd First invested alongside leading investors including Softbank, Khosla Ventures, Finistre, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Artis Ventures. Several of the portfolio's seed investments have already converted into larger Series A rounds of significant size.

Cognitiv General Partner, Avi Reichental will be available for interview at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, NV, as well as OurCrowd First portfolio company Nexa3D (Booth #9100). For more details or to arrange an interview, email leah@ourcrowd.com.

About Cognitiv:

Cognitiv Ventures invests in early-stage cognitive AI companies with strong teams, disruptive business models and technologies that have a real use case for a big market. Cognitiv believes that in the sectors where AI has already been implemented at scale, it has been shown to deliver returns, increase profit margins and distinctively widen competitive advantages. Cognitiv is part of OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors, and the third fund offering of OurCrowd First (OCF), one of Israel's leading seed stage funds. For two years in a row, OCF has been recognized as Israel's most active seed fund by IVC Research.

About OurCrowd:

OurCrowd is the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors. Managed by a team of seasoned investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd vets and selects opportunities, invests its own capital, and brings companies to its accredited membership of global investors. OurCrowd provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies, assigns industry experts as mentors, and takes board seats. The OurCrowd community consists of almost 20,000 accredited investors from over 112 countries. OurCrowd has raised over $500M and invested in 130 portfolio companies and funds. To join OurCrowd as an accredited investor visit www.ourcrowd.com and click "Join."

The 2018 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit, Feb. 1, 2018, in Jerusalem, Israel, is the largest equity crowdfunding event in the world, and the largest investor event in the entire Middle East. The event will bring together Corporate partners like GE, Honda, DuPont, Samsung, and more, along with entrepreneurs, global delegations from over 50 countries, industry leaders and members of the press from all over the world. 10,000 are expected to register to attend. Learn more at summit.ourcrowd.com

For Press Materials: http://blog.ourcrowd.com/cognitiv

Contacts

OurCrowd

Press:

Leah Stern, UK: +44 747 0196826 / US: +1 703 626 4310

Dir. Of Communications

E: leah@ourcrowd.com

Judith Arkush, +14159371724

Silicon Valley Communications,

judith@siliconvpr.com

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SALT LAKE CITY - January 11, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Overstock.com, Inc. (OSTK) closed out 2017, its 18th year as a leading online home goods retailer, with tremendous growth, industry-leading innovations, and award-winning recognition.

Overstock's stock saw dramatic gains in 2017, ending the year at more than $63.90 a share, an increase of 260 percent from its start of $17.75 a share at the beginning of the year. The retailer's loyalty program, Club O, which offers members free shipping on every item and at least 5 percent rewards on every purchase, also grew strongly in 2017, with memberships increasing more than 46 percent. The program is offered free to active and veteran military members, teachers, and first responders.

In May, Allison Abraham was appointed chairwoman of Overstock's board of directors. Abraham, the first female chairwoman of Overstock's board, previously served as a director on the board for 15 years, and chairs the board's audit committee.

Other key milestones in 2017 for the online home goods leader include the introduction of new technologies in the blockchain space, advances in the mobile shopping experience including the introduction of augmented reality (AR), the opening of new offices, and continued community outreach through partnerships with a number of non-profit organizations and individuals in need.

"The retail arm of the business is continuing to lead the increasingly saturated online home goods and furniture market by finding efficient ways to stay ahead of competitors who have no qualms losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year," said Overstock.com CEO, Patrick Byrne. "Additionally, Overstock's investments into work on blockchain technology through our subsidiary Medici Ventures are utilizing that technology to disrupt some of the most bloated and inefficient global institutions, including capital markets, property rights and land titling, money and banking, voting, and more, further cementing our position as a global leader in the transformative and revolutionary technology."

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

2017 was a landmark year for both cryptocurrency and its underlying technology, blockchain. Overstock continued to be a leader in the blockchain industry, investing in companies that are at the cutting edge of development in the space. The online retailer, which in 2014 was the first major retailer to accept bitcoin payments for purchases, expanded its payment options to include dozens of major cryptocurrencies through integration with ShapeShift, a leading digital asset exchange.

Overstock's blockchain-focused subsidiary, Medici Ventures, named its board of directors in 2017, and also saw a number of its portfolio companies continue to use blockchain to revolutionize industries including capital markets, money and banking, property registry, voting, identity, and underlying blockchain technology, including:

tZERO, the world's first SEC approved, blockchain-based alternative trading system, launched its initial coin offering (ICO), which attracted over 10,000 subscribers and raised $100M in commitments in the first 12 hours of its pre-sale. A significant portion of the tZERO security tokens issued will be available to accredited investors in the public sale beginning in January, 2018. Overstock.com Blockchain Subsidiary tZERO Security Token Sale Launches

DeSoto Inc., a joint venture between Overstock.com founder and CEO Patrick Byrne and world-renowned economist Hernando de Soto, was created to develop a global property registry system to surface the property rights of billions of people in the developing world. Hernando de Soto and Patrick Byrne Unite to Challenge Global Poverty & Inequality

Bitt, a Barbados-based financial technology company using blockchain to create central banking tools and mobile money applications, named Rawdon Adams, son of former Barbadian Prime Minister Tom Adams, as its CEO. Bitt also fully launched its new mMoney digital payment product, bringing to market a blockchain-based mobile wallet that allows users to participate in digital transactions on their smartphones without the need for a traditional bank account, helping to foster financial inclusion in the region.

South-American based Ripio (formally known as BitPagos), participated in an ICO that raised $37M to fund its Ethereum-based peer-to-peer lending platform, Ripio Credit Network.

Belgium-based SettleMint launched a token sale for its DataBroker DAO, a peer-to-peer marketplace created to provide Internet of Things (IoT) sensor-owners with a clear path to data monetization, and data consumers with a decentralized marketplace in order to buy IoT sensor data. SettleMint also signed an agreement with The Islamic Research and Training Institute, the research arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group, to work with local partner Ateon on developing blockchain-based financial products that can be used to support development and inclusion in IsDB member countries. Medici Ventures Portfolio Company SettleMint Announces Token Sale for DataBroker DAO Beginning; IRTI Partners With SettleMint to Develop Blockchain Products for Financial Inclusion

Mobile Shopping

Overstock continued to improve its industry-leading mobile shopping platforms in 2017, leading to the retailer's sixth consecutive year winning the Web Marketing Association's Mobile Web Award with the Best Retail Mobile Application, and to its first year receiving the Best in 2017 Mobile Star Award in Best Shopping App.

Much of the success in this field was due to the introduction of AR to the iOS version of the mobile shopping app, which allows customers to view true-to-life size 3D models in their room, creating an added convenience for shopping for furniture and home goods online. Additionally, the majority of Overstock.com's high traffic landing pages have scaled to AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) landing pages, an achievement that was highly showcased at the Google Chrome Dev Summit.

Those technologies and more helped Overstock surpass the 5 million download mark on mobile shopping apps in 2017 while growing its active monthly user base more than 80 percent from the beginning of the year.

New Business Developments

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies continue to advance rapidly, Overstock has begun implementing the technology throughout all areas of the organization. To further foster advances and innovations in these areas, Overstock created a dedicated AI data science group applying the technology to improve or replace existing systems in all divisions of the company, including Website Development, Pricing, Customer Care, Supply Chain, Marketing, Sourcing, and more.

Overstock also introduced several consumer options to the website, including the newly-re-launched Cars by Overstock. Cars by Overstock is a full-service online automotive platform helping customers navigate every aspect of the car ownership process, including pre-purchase research and negotiation, and post-purchase protection and repair.

Overstock also expanded operations outside of Utah with the addition of two facilities in the state of Washington. Its newest customer care center, located in Elma, WA, hosted Washington Governor Jay Inslee at its official ribbon cutting in May, 2017, and has helped Overstock continue to provide customers the high-quality customer support for which the online retailer has long been famous. In addition, an office location in downtown Seattle was secured, and staffing of a tech-focused, Seattle-based team is currently underway, with the goal of being fully operational in early 2018.

Finally, 2017 was the year Overstock launched three new private label brands; Porch and Den, which features contemporary furniture and decor, Carson Carrington, a modern-style furniture and decor line, and O Sleep, which focuses on mattress and bed accessories. The brands, which are currently exclusive to Overstock.com, were developed with the retailer's current suppliers to provide quality versions of top-selling products at a value that is unmatched for customers. Overstock will continue to introduce more private label brands throughout 2018.

Awards and Recognitions

Overstock received a variety of recognitions in 2017, spanning from awards in high-quality customer service to awards in environmental stewardship. Notable awards received in 2017 include:

LEED Gold Certification for Overstock's environmentally-conscious corporate headquarters, Peace Coliseum

Inclusion in the list of the world's top 50 e-retailers by the National Retail Federation

A sixth-consecutive win of the Web Marketing Association's Mobile Web Award, with Overstock's iOS app named the 2017 Best Retail Mobile Application

A Best in 2017 Mobile Star Award for Best Mobile Shopping App

A Platinum Loyalty360 Customer Award in Operational Excellence

Induction into the Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame for Overstock CEO and founder Patrick Byrne

Utah's Best in State Award for General Merchandising

Corporate Giving and Philanthropic Support

In 2017, Overstock's fair-trade store, Worldstock, which was founded in 2001 to provide traditional artisans across the world a global platform to sell their handmade goods, expanded to include products made by artisans in UN Refugee camps.

Overstock also partnered with a number of non-profit organizations to provide support or donations, including Best Friends Animal Society, Special Operations Warrior Foundation, the American Red Cross, Parity.org, the Human Rights Campaign, Special Olympics Utah, the Road Home, and other local, national, and global philanthropic groups.

About Overstock.com

Overstock.com, Inc. Common Shares (OSTK) / Series A Preferred (Medici Ventures' tZERO platform: OSTKP) / Series B Preferred (OSTBP) is an online retailer based in Salt Lake City, Utah that sells a broad range of products at low prices, including furniture, decor, rugs, bedding, and home improvement. In addition to home goods, Overstock.com offers a variety of products including jewelry, electronics, apparel, and more, as well as a marketplace providing customers access to hundreds of thousands of products from third-party sellers. Additional stores include Pet Adoptions and Worldstock.com dedicated to selling artisan-crafted products from around the world. Forbes ranked Overstock in its list of the Top 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in 2014. Overstock regularly posts information about the company and other related matters under Investor Relations on its website, http://www.overstock.com.

O, Overstock.com, O.com, Club O, Main Street Revolution, and Worldstock are registered trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. O.biz and Space Shift are also trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. Other service marks, trademarks and trade names which may be referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact. Additional information regarding factors that could materially affect results and the accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained herein may be found in the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2017, which was filed with the SEC on November 8, 2017, and any subsequent filings with the SEC.

Media Contact:

pr@overstock.com

Investor Contact:

ir@overstock.com

SOURCE: Overstock.com, Inc.

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After natural disasters bring destruction to Caribbean region, Aldelano solar products harness natural elements to provide new sources of clean drinking water and power generation. Aldelano now in talks with Puerto Rico. Designs on display at Open House, Blue Carpet Celebration, Jan.22.

Jackson, Tennessee - January 11, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Pulling moisture from the air and energy from the sun, 16,000 servings of water per day are produced from a solar product, simply called, the Aldelano Solar WaterMaker. It's one of six original designs by Aldelano Solar Cold Chain Solutions to be unveiled at an Open House, Blue Carpet Celebration in Jackson, Tennessee, January 22-23, 2018.

Aldelano is a Global leader in Industrial-Grade Solar Technology, which has developed a line of products that provide off-grid refrigeration, water generation and power generation after a natural disaster. The robust designs also solve a global and humanitarian crisis; bringing relief and infrastructure by supplying clean drinking water, refrigeration/freezing cold storage [to avoid food waste], and renewable power to any village or entire community.

The newest designs are the Aldelano Solar PowerPak/Generator, which can power up to 7 households, and the Aldelano Solar BackPack, a unit that can be connected to an existing insulated room to provide solar-powered refrigeration and freezing. Existing designs include the flagship Solar ColdBox, providing industrial sized cold storage including refrigeration and sub-zero freezing, the Solar Chiller, providing a temperature controlled environment for agriculture and other storage needs, the Solar WaterMaker, which extracts moisture from the air and purifies it for drinking and the Solar IceMaker, converting up to 2,300 lbs of ice per day. Also new are design enhancements that include easy access panels, options for casters, expandable power outlets for future customization and component redundancies that help ensure continuous operation.

Aldelano is in the process of shipping Antiqua, Barbuda and British Virgin Islands several Solar Coldboxes, PowerPaks and nearly 100 Solar WaterMakers one month after Aldelano's Founder, Al Hollingsworth, visited Caribbean Islands and met with British Virgin Islands OBE Premier the Honourable D. Orlando Smith, the Deputy Premier and Minister of Natural Resources the Honourable Dr. Kendrick D. Pickering, District 2 Representative the Honourable Melvin M. Turnbull, and other government officials. Three powerful hurricanes in less than two weeks decimated areas of the Caribbean region, leaving dozens of people dead, millions without power or drinking water and countless homes destroyed.

Now, as those who remain face the reality of rebuilding, the primary focus of each day is basic needs like food, shelter and clean drinking water. Other countries, such as Nigeria, Liberia and Angola, fighting humanitarian disasters, have placed orders with Aldelano to offer people access to clean water and power. In 2017, United Nations coordinator, Stephen O' Brien issued a plea for help to avoid a catastrophe, saying "the world is facing its greatest humanitarian crisis since 1945, with more than 20 million people across four countries in Africa and the Middle East facing starvation and famine." Today, the UN says the "situation in Yemen, looks like the Apocalypse."

Al Hollingsworth, and his wife Hattie, have seen the sickness and disease overseas with their own eyes. Their decades of international mission work, moved them to do more than bring their hearts to people in grave need, but brainstorm ways to return with helping hands. So, when the company created its first solar product and saw its effectiveness, they quickly understood the immensity the technology would have globally.

"Nations are rich in natural resources, yet are poor because they don't have systems in place to have access to clean water and preserve their food from harvest to market. We are opening people's eyes to their own resources and empowering them to birth their dreams and visions. People are dying, and our products are a needed solution, not a vanity want'," according to Hollingsworth. Dr. Douglass Sterrett, Professor of Engineering at University of Tennessee at Martin and former NASA and USAF consultant, recognizes the value of the designs as well. "I have been a part of the project since its inception. The technical challenges were intriguing, but the humanitarian aspect excited me the most. This has the potential to impact the quality of life for many, many people."

Founders Al and Hattie are especially excited to introduce the company's designs at a time when our nation recognizes the sacrifices and contributions of African Americans. "The inspiration comes from engineers, scientists, inventors, electricians and others who are involved in the production. When I see someone who looks like me, it makes me [and others] proud, and inspires us all to do great things. We must inspire people by our examples, so they too can desire to become champions of industry as well as the arts," Al Hollingsworth commented.

About Aldelano Corporation:

Aldelano Corporation has been a leader in contract packaging, specializing in refrigerated supply chain solutions, with plants that service major and Fortune 500 clients that include Kellogg's, Procter & Gamble, Sunny Delight, American Airlines, Toyota, General Mills, Red Bull and Verizon. Aldelano has built a reputation of dependability and trust and has received numerous awards and accolades. Business acknowledgments include the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC's) Corporate Plus distinction, the President's Achievement Recognition Award, City of Los Angeles Minority Global Export Firm of the Year, Businessman of the Year and the Award of Excellence from the United States Department of Commerce.

About Al Hollingsworth:

Al Hollingsworth is a business leader, international speaker, minister, author, and owner of the Aldelano Corporation. A successful entrepreneur, Hollingsworth's heart is to help others succeed in the visions, dreams, and ideas God gives them. Hollingsworth lobbied in Washington during the civil rights movement and opened the door for disadvantaged businesses to compete for government contracts, becoming one of the first to receive a contract through the 8(a) Program. In the early 70s, Al formed and was President of the Black Businessman's association in California with 3 other local entrepreneurs. The group worked with their local government in addition to traveling to Washington D.C. several times a year to meet with congressional and state representatives. Hollingsworth worked closely with California's Governor Michael Brown, and later went on to become the Commissioner of Economic Development for the State of California. He recognized that youth would soon face an economic crisis and wanted to give them an alternative to gangs, drugs, and hopelessness. In response, the Hollingsworth and his wife, Hattie, founded the internationally-acclaimed, Christ-centered B.O.S.S. The Movement youth success training curriculum and its adult component, the Vertical Leap Seminar. The programs' biblically-based training principles have been embraced throughout the U.S. and around the world in regions such as Japan, Kenya, South Africa, Switzerland, Ghana, Jamaica, Italy, Ukraine, Brazil, Belgium, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Bahamas. The movement has trained thousands on marketplace ministry ethics and applications. Hollingsworth also served on the Board of Regents for Oral Robert University and on the Board of Directors for Promise Keepers and Save Africa's Children.

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Sharie Johnson

Aldelano

702-604-3091

sharie@prinsidersfirm.com

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Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions.

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Climate of Armenia can become tropical (video)

There was snow in the Sahara Desert several days ago, but it is "spring" in Yerevan today. This is not the first time, however, that the Meteorological Center of the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations predicted a higher air temperature than norms r weather anomalies for this winter. Environmentalist, Karine Danielyan, president of the Association for Sustainable Human Development, does not consider this unexpected. "Global climate change is taking place. This is not surprising for scholars, as many decades ago this warning was made by scientists that if humanity continues its attitude towards nature, then the environment will change, so that man can no longer live on this planet," says Karine Danielyan. "Changes can be made, for example, to the National Climate Change Convention report, so the desertification risks and the risks of reducing water resources will increase. There are also, however, other predictions, such as that our climate can become tropical and the nature can change in positive direction. Thus, the system is so destabilized that it seems impossible to predict something seriously," says Karine Danielyan. This type of winter in Armenia will first of all hit agriculture. If there was frost, snow and ice, we would lose most of the crop. Regardless of the fact that meteorologists consider this winter a weather anomaly, citizens are satisfied.
Billionaire businessman Richard Branson shared his insights into entrepreneurship, leadership, delegating and work-life balance in Dublin yesterday, writes Padraig Hoare from the Pendulum Summit.

Mr Branson was the headline guest speaker at the Pendulum Summit, which is attracting 7,000 delegates over two days at the Convention Centre Dublin.

Mr Branson spoke of how he began a mail order record business almost 50 years ago, before building world-recognised brands within the Virgin Group.

He said growing a reputation as well as a brand meant zealously promoting it, and then doing your best to protect it.

Were not a Google or Facebook in terms of wealth, but we are in the top 10 best-known businesses in the world, he said.

Mr Branson said many entrepreneurs failed because they tended to get caught up in the minutiae of business rather than looking at the big picture.

He said his preference was to promote within rather than look for an outsider to enhance a business, and that he tended to avoid criticising employees.

People flourish when praised while the faintest criticism can be very damaging, he said.

Meanwhile one of the UKs most recognisable businesswomen has warned Brexit will lead to five to seven years of serious difficulties for British business.

Michelle Mone, the founder of the Ultimo lingerie company who was made a UK peer in 2015, was speaking after her appearance at the summit where she reflected upon her rise from being born into poverty in Glasgow to being recognised for her brand all over the world.

She told the audience that the less money you have, the more creative you become, saying she launched her Ultimo bra line with just 500.

Speaking afterwards, she said: Regarding Brexit, there is a hell of a lot of work to be done. I did say that if it does happen, which is has, it is going to take five to seven years to all calm down. There is so much to do  if you think about a nasty divorce, it can take years to sort it out. Youre talking about the UK here.

She added: I do believe it will be good in many years to come, but the whole transition period and nasty divorce will take time. Business needs stability and we need to know how trade is going to work, what we are going to keep when it comes to legislation of the EU. Weve got to go through every single law and decide. That will take many, many years.

Ms Mone was appointed by the British Government in 2015 to review entrepreneurship and small business with a special focus on deprived areas  which led to criticism from some quarters about her suitability.

When youre a woman, younger and the rest of it, you get criticised but Ive got thick skin. As long as you do a good job, and I believe I did do a good job giving up 52 days of my time, I really put a lot of effort into that review.

HSBC are now opening up business centres in these areas so it did make a difference.

Ms Mone and Mr Branson were part of the annual two-day event fronted by former Irish rugby international Frankie Sheahan.

Mr Sheahans wife Norma Sheahan and his brother Jonathan Sheahan are directors of the company behind the event.

Mr Sheahan, who won 29 rugby caps for Ireland as a hooker, stepped down from the company as director in 2017 but continues to be involved in its day-to-day operations.

Other speakers yesterday included entertainer Keith Barry and business growth and sales expert Jack Daly.

Former Facebook executive officer and now chief executive and founder of Zuckerberg Media, Randi Zuckerberg is due to speak today, along with serial entrepreneur and former UK Dragons Den investor James Caan. Other speakers today include Jo Malone and former Irish rugby international captain Paul OConnell.
An 18-year-old man is due back in court this morning charged with the murder of a Japanese man in Co Louth.

24-year-old Yosuke Sasaki was stabbed to death last week on Avenue Road in Dundalk.
By Ann OLoughlin

A Portugese construction worker has told the High Court he and his colleagues lived in "terrible conditions" at a "work camp" provided by his former employers when they were building a section of the N7 motorway.

Armando Agostinho Alves Da Silva is one of 20 workers who allege they were underpaid while working for three Portuguese companies - RAC Eire Partnership- contracted to construct the section of motorway between Limerick and Nenagh in 2007 and 2008.

He said he and the others would start work at 7am and might not finish till 10 or 11pm at night.

Mr Da Silva told Ms Justice Carmel Stewart he and up to ninety other Portuguese workers lived in a prefab building where there between six to eight people per room.

The facility, which had been located at a rural townland outside Nenagh, Co Tipperary lacked basic facilities, and was cramped.

He said the water at the accommodation was not drinkable, the showers didnt work all the time.

"It was horrible" he told his counsel David McGrath SC, adding there was there was smell from waste water from the building and also that it took a long time for bags of rubbish from the facility to be collected.

Meals were only provided by his employer on days the men worked.

On days they did not work, such as Sundays they had to fend for themselves despite the fact there were no cooking facilities in the building.

"If I had known It would be like this, I would never have come to Ireland," he said.

He said after a new company took over from his employer he moved into a house in the locality, got better money and worked shorter hours.

Mr Da Silvas and the other cases are the latest of a number of similar actions to come before the High Court. In 2016 the High Court awarded 27 others workers a total of 1.5m.

All proceedings are against Portuguese based Rosas Construtores SA, Constructocoes Gabriel AS Couto SA, and Empresa Deconstrucoes Amandio Carvalho SA all trading under the title RAC Contractors or RAC Eire Partnership.

The court also heard evidence from consultant engineer Mr Ronald Greene, who said the mens accommodation was "utterly substandard in every respect" and "prison facilities were of a superior standard."

He said the facility, which has since been taken down, raised serious health and safety issues and lacked planning permission.

In their action the workers, who are represented by solicitor Tom ORegan, seek damages for alleged breach of contract.

Despite working all the hours they were directed to under their contracts of employment they claim their employers failed and refused to pay them for all the work they did.

They also claim that deductions were taken by the employer from their wages for accommodation and laundry were not reasonable or fair and their accommodation was not of a reasonable standard.

They further allege their employers maintained fraudulent records of the hours they worked.

The defendant partnership is not represented in court, and the cases are proceeding uncontested.

When the matter was called before the High Court today the court heard a letter had been sent to the judge in charge of the chancery division asking it to appoint a solicitor to defend the actions.

Before deciding the case was to be heard by Ms Justice Carmel Stewart, Ms Justice Caroline Costello said assigning a solicitor was not something the High Court can do.

The cases continues tomorrow.
The country's rail boss is leaving for a job in Australia.

In the midst of a pay dispute with Irish Rail drivers and the company in difficult financial circumstances, David Franks is to move to a new public transport role overseas in the coming months.

He held the post of chief executive for five years.

Frank Allen, Iarnrod Eireann chairman, said: "I want to thank David for his immense contribution to Iarnrod Eireann over the past five years.

"David has led Iarnrod Eireann at a very challenging time for the company and has delivered significant improvements in safety, passenger growth of 24% and new customer-focused systems and processes.

"These changes will benefit the company for many years to come."

Mr Allen said the outgoing chief executive will remain fully committed to addressing challenges at the company as he sees out his notice.

Mr Franks joined Iarnrod Eireann in 2013. He previously worked for Keolis UK, a division of the French national railway company SNCF.

The announcement of his departure follows warnings from unions on Wednesday of industrial action as drivers fight for a wage increase as part of commitments to train new staff.
Update 6.05pm: The White House said Mr Trump and Mr Moon emphasised the importance of continuing the "maximum pressure" campaign against North Korea over its development of nuclear weapons - the US-led international sanctions that are starting to hit Pyongyang's economy.

But South Korea's presidential office also said Mr Trump told Mr Moon to let North Korea understand there will be no military action of any kind while the two Koreas continue to hold dialogue, the Yonhap news agency reported.

"President Trump expressed his openness to holding talks between the United States and North Korea at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances," the White House said.

President Trump spoke today with President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea. Readout of the call: https://t.co/zEFCDadmp7  The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) January 10, 2018

Mr Trump also told Mr Moon that Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen will lead the US delegation to the Winter Olympics, scheduled for February 9-25 in Pyeongchang.

Mr Pence will stop in Alaska to review intercontinental ballistic missile defence systems and in Japan, stressing the US commitment to stability in the region.

Speaking at his Cabinet meeting today, Mr Trump claimed his administration's pressure had prompted the North Koreans to negotiate with the South, and he voiced cautious hopes for diplomatic success.

"Without our attitude that would have never happened," Mr Trump said of the inter-Korean dialogue.

"Who knows where it leads. Hopefully it will lead to success for the world - not just for our country but for the world, and we'll be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens."

Update 5pm: Donald Trump has told South Koreas president that he is open to talks with North Korea "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances".

He phoned President Moon Jae-In today after the two Koreas held their first high-level talks in two years.

North Korea confirmed it will send a delegation to next months Winter Olympics in South Korea, and both sides agreed to hold talks on reducing tensions along their border.

Mr Moon has said he would be prepared to hold talks with Kim Jong Un to resolve the North Korean nuclear stand-off, but that the success of such a summit must be guaranteed before any meeting can be arranged.

More to follow.

PA
Tunisian police have arrested 328 people and fired tear gas as protesters hurled rocks and burned tyres during further nationwide demonstrations over price rises.

The protests late yesterday in multiple towns appeared less violent than previous nights as heavy security was deployed at key sites.
Mr Varadkar raised the concern despite ministers being warned at Cabinet that they will lose their political cover if they deviate from the recommendations by the Oireachtas committee on the Eighth Amendment or try to unpick its findings.

During a two-hour Cabinet meeting yesterday, ministers were given an overview of the committee report published last month and the likely timeline between now and the expected abortion referendum in late May or early June.

The meeting  during which all ministers present spoke  heard that the majority of the Cabinet back the recommendations, with chief whip Joe McHugh, Defence Minister Paul Kehoe, Education Minister Richard Bruton, Business Minister Heather Humphreys, and Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring raising concerns over the 12-week-limit.

The meeting also heard Mr Varadkar confirm he will make his views on the issue known after next weeks Dail and Seanad debates, and that he will allow ministers to campaign based on their personal views.

Despite a strong warning at Cabinet that deviating from the committees recommendations will remove the Governments political cover, Mr Varadkar told reporters ongoing concerns over the 12-week limit show the recommendation may be a step too far.

I think its fair to say that, for a lot of people not just in the Cabinet but in the country, the proposal to allow for terminations up to 12 weeks went further than many people would have anticipated.

It certainly went further than I would have anticipated a year or two ago.

But, having read the committee report, I also understand the logic behind that [the recommendation], particularly given the widespread availability now of the abortion pill.

There is a concern, understandably, among many politicians and perhaps for the majority of the public that proposal might go a step too far. But then again, perhaps not. Thats the debate were going to have over the next few months, he said.

The comments came as ministers were given a clear warning about the risks of deviating from the committees recommendations.

The benefit of the report is that it is all-party and we would be loathe to deviate from it. Once we deviate, it becomes our problem, said a Cabinet source.

The majority of Cabinet members back the committee recommendations. They include Katherine Zappone, Paschal Donohoe, Charlie Flanagan, Shane Ross, Regina Doherty, Simon Harris, Eoghan Murphy, and Josepha Madigan.

Super-junior minister Finian McGrath said reform is the only way to resolve cases involving rape and incest.

Other ministers, such as Paul Kehoe, Michael Creed, Heather Humphreys, and Michael Ring, are concerned over the 12-week limit, with chief whip Joe McHugh particularly vocal at Cabinet.

The 2:1 split in part explains Mr Varadkars hesitance over the 12-week limit, the delay in revealing his own views, and his decision to allow ministers to campaign based on their personal opinions instead of forcing them to back a specific position.

Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger last night claimed that, in reality, they show Mr Varadkar is far behind the public and is using the middle ground to promote his own concerns.

TDs and senators will debate the committee recommendations next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday  but are unlikely to be given the chance to vote on the findings.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney  who was not present at yesterdays Cabinet meeting as he was in the Middle East  is believed to have spoken with Mr Varadkar in depth about his own concerns relating to the Eighth Amendment over the new year.

He is likely to express his opinion at a special Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting on Monday.
Nicholas Kearns, a former President of the High Court, was commenting a year after the Government published its plan to improve motor insurance provision in the face of growing public anger over soaring premiums.

The report of the cost of insurance working group also recommended the setting up of the Personal Injuries Commission, which is due to publish its second report later this year.

While the cost of premiums has fallen in the past year, they had risen by as much as 70% in the previous three-year period, sparking the high-level review.

Speaking on RTEs Today with Sean ORourke programme, Nicholas Kearns said a number of options could still be considered, including the conducting of independent medical reviews and so-called black box policies for younger drivers.

The levels of compensation paid out for motor-related injuries here has been higher than in comparable EU countries and compared with levels in the UK.

Mr Kearns revealed there had been a delay in receiving information from the insurance industry on cases settled away from the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. He said the commission will meet with Insurance Ireland to discuss that data later this week but that it would mean the commissions next report would be more likely to appear in May or June, as opposed to the planned publication at the end of March, as a result.

He said the new data would help with benchmarking where Irelands compensation payout level is compared with other countries and admitted: I suppose at the extreme end the Government might decide to legislate to cap awards  I think that would be a last resort.

He also said he believed there was a significant amount of fraud permeating the motor claims scenario, driven by the very substantial awards available, very little chance of being caught if lying regarding the injuries claim, and very little chance of being punished if you were caught lying or committing perjury.

We really need a massive onslaught on fraud and claim exaggeration, which in my view is another form of fraud, he said.

Mr Kearns also said people involved in processing claims and providing insurance need to become much more savvy at all levels, including with the use of technology such as telematics, which would give a real-time portrait of your driving behaviour and could lead to lower premiums for those on such policies.

He also admitted there might be a need for new legislation in relation to judges who could be seen as plaintive-friendly, but he stressed that he had great faith in judges to make the right compensation awards.

He was also critical of some cases brought before the PIAB, including a recent case in which a burglar sought to sue a shop owner after harming himself while on the premises.
This individual, from Rialto in Dublins south inner city, and another close relation, are considered to be on the lower rungs of the cartel, but have a close link with a more senior member.

It is the latest in a series of operations conducted by CAB and local detectives against members of lower and mid-ranks of the cartel in the south inner city area.

Sources said the latest swoop  which involved nine searches  was aimed at gathering evidence regarding the purchase and renovation of at least one property in the area.

CAB will also be examining the purchase of a nightclub in Ibiza, involving the people targeted yesterday and a significant Kinahan player, a convicted drug dealer from Crumlin.

In yesterdays operation, CAB raided homes and businesses across the south inner city, as well as a professional firm in Dun Laoghaire.

The places searched include two firms of solicitors, an accountancy firm, a signage company, a beautician and residential homes.

As well as gathering documentation, mobile phones and other digital devices, officers seized 4,500 in cash, two Rolex watches and a drone with recording facilities. One source said: This operation was about gathering evidence  documentation and devices  in relation to the purchase and renovation of at least one property.

The operation stemmed from an initial examination conducted by the Special Crime Task Force, which was set up last July to specifically target the lower and middle ranks of organised crime gangs. This included a particular focus on the range of criminal gangs associated with the Kinahan cartel, many of which are based in the south inner city and neighbouring Crumlin and Drimnagh.

The task force has members of CAB seconded to it, and they refer cases for full investigation to CAB.
Corks business and tourism chiefs welcomed yesterdays announcement, one of three European summer routes unveiled by the airline.

It also unveiled routes to Wroclaw in Poland and Bergen in Norway. It already operates 28 weekly flights to Dublin.

The service from Cork to Paris-Charles de Gaulle will be operated by Air France Hop! from May 26 until October 27 using a 76-passenger capacity Embraer 170 aircraft. Fares start from 129 return in economy, including all taxes.

The service will add 33,750 seats to Cork Airports capacity and provide outbound passengers with access to Air Frances extensive network of over 180 destinations worldwide from Charles de Gaulle.

Cork Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy said the new route would be a huge boost for passengers seeking to travel to France and beyond.

By flying out of Cork Airport with Air France, travellers will have easy access to many long-haul destinations from Paris-Charles de Gaulle, such as Brazil, Mauritius, Mexico, and Algeria, as well as easy short-haul connections to Nice, Brussels, Rome, and Lisbon, he said.

Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said the new route was also good news for tourism to Cork and the South.

We already work very closely with Air France and we look forward to co-operating with them to maximise the promotion of this new service from Paris, he said.

As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated  they are absolutely critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism.

Benedicte Duval, the general manager of Air France-KLM UK and Ireland, said the airline was delighted to announce the new routes.

The flight, lasting one hour 50 minutes, will depart Cork Airport daily at 4.30pm and arrive at Paris at 7.20pm local time. The return leg departs Paris at 2.55pm local time and arrives at Cork at 3.50pm.
New figures obtained by the Irish Examiner reveal amounts spent by individual departments.

These are separate from the 5m being spent out on the new government spin unit.

The highest spend came from the Department of Foreign Affairs, with 280,000 paid out to photographers in recent years. The Taoiseachs department followed this by spending 120,000 on pictures.

The 780,000 spent on capturing moments on camera has been described as an exorbitant amount for taxpayers to foot, according to Fianna Fail TD Shane Cassells.

Fine Gael is clearly committed to building a Republic of Photo Opportunities for itself. It has overseen hundreds of thousands spent on Kodak moments since it came into power. Taxpayers are picking up the bill while Fine Gael ministers say cheers for the camera.

The other big department spenders who were not camera shy included Agriculture (54,679), Arts (49,403), and even the Public Expenditure (35,246), a department usually charged with cutting back costs across all of the Government and its agencies.

Mr Cassells questioned why the photo PR spend was so high at a time when the housing crisis was gripping the nation and such money could be best spent elsewhere.

This is a Government clearly obsessed with spin over substance. The hundreds of thousands splashed out on photography to show ministers in a positive light further highlights this spin-driven policy.

All of this money comes on top of the supposedly cost-free strategic communications unit that was then revealed to cost 5m.

This comes a time when we have the worst housing crisis in the history of our country, the Meath West TD said.

Some of the lowest department spenders since Fine Gael took control in government in 2011 included Defence (2,680), Finance (2,708) as well as Health (11,633)  departments which regularly launch events.

Mr Cassells, who is also Fianna Fails local government spokesman, now wants individual ministers heading departments to clarify why so much has been spent over the last few years on photographs and setpieces and to see if taxpayers are in fact getting value for money while ministers boost their image.
Sean Buckley, aged 23, of 63 Waterfall Road, Bishopstown, Cork, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm to the teenager in Cork city and brought 1,000 in cash to court yesterday for the victim.

Judge Tim Lucey said in relation to the prosecution evidence that the injured party was bitten and the defendant had no recollection of a bite. Furthermore the judge said the injuries consisted of scratches and marks that were not consistent with a bite.

Michael Quinlan, solicitor, said the young man had assured him he would never appear in court again.

Judge Lucey said: Assaulting someone on the street gratuitously for no reason is a serious matter and it is a little bit frightening. People do not want that kind of thing happening on the streets.

He has pleaded guilty. Essentially he has no previous. He has probably done as much as he could.

People when they hear of these things they expect jail sentences as if that is the solution to all problems.

I think the correct sentence is that he should be convicted and fined.

I am considering the fact that he has paid 1,000. He will be convicted and fined 400.

Inspector John Deasy said the injured party, a Leaving Cert student, was walking along Maylor St with friends when his hat was grabbed from his head. It was then thrown around between Buckley and his friends and the hat ended up on the ground.

The injured party picked it up and the inspector said a fight ensued where the victim was assaulted by two parties including Buckley.

While the victim was on the ground being assaulted by another party he pulled Sean Buckley towards himself to protect himself from blows from another man.

At this point he was bitten on the cheek by Sean Buckley. Mr Buckley and other then ran from the scene, Insp Deasy said.

The inspector said Buckley was forthcoming when interviewed by gardai and accepted responsibility for his part in injuries caused to the teenager.

While the victim sustained a bite mark to his right cheek he had recovered well, the inspector said.

Michael Quinlan said Buckley had gone to Australia where he was doing well. He said Buckley was so drunk at the time he had no memory of a bite.
Liam Doyle, of 66 Greenhills Court, South Douglas Rd, Cork, yesterday pleaded guilty, at Cork District Court, to being threatening and to being drunk and a danger.

Solicitor Frank Buttimer said the defendant had been tipped over the edge by the death of his twin sister in October. He was in or about the Silversprings Hotel when an incident occurred around 4am one morning in November. There was a saga about the non-arrival of a taxi, Mr Buttimer said. He lost the run of himself.
The HSE target states that 90% of patients undergoing radical radiotherapy should commence treatment within 15 working days of their doctor deeming them ready to treat.

However, Dr Paul Kelly, a consultant radiation oncologist at CUH, said they had been operating at max capacity before Christmas and had been unable to meet the 15-day target in some breast cancer and prostate cancer cases.

We were certainly slipping. There was a bit of a backlog in November and December and the number being treated within 15 working days was declining.

Because capacity at the hospital is limited  the department has four radiation machines and treats approximately 2,000 patients per annum  Dr Kelly said they had to prioritise the more serious cases.

Generally when capacity is limited, the more aggressive cancers get priority, so the patients with slow-growing tumours are the ones who are inconvenienced. The majority were either breast cancer or prostate cancer cases, said Dr Kelly.

One patient who contacted the Irish Examiner and was given a cancer diagnosis in September said his treatment started just before Christmas. I wasnt the only one. Treatment was being deferred because of overcrowding, he said.

Dr Kelly said the issue of delayed treatment was raised at a meeting last spring, but came to a head in October/November.

We [the clinicians] were agitating for a solution. It was frustrating for patients and their doctors. It was eventually agreed that radiographers would extend their working day beyond their basic day of 8am-6pm. Things had to get to a certain point before that happened.

The radiographers began working extended hours on January 1 and Dr Kelly said their extra work was already having the desired effect and things were improving for his patients.

He said he was grateful to hospital management.

However, doctors are unsure how long this arrangement will last.

Figures from the HSEs most recent quarterly performance report (July to Sept 2017) show while 100% of patients attending the Mid Western Radiation Oncology Centre, Limerick, and UPMC, Whitfield, Waterford, were referred within the 15-day target time, just 52% were meeting the target in Cork.

The report describes Cork as an outlier.

Nationally, 76% of patients deemed ready for treatment by their doctor are commencing treatment within the 15-day timeframe.
Gangs of up to 250-strong take over the John OCallaghan Park, in Glanmire, nightly, with many involved in drug-taking and dealing, underage drinking, arson, and vandalism.

In an incident last week, stones were thrown at a fire brigade crew as they tried to put out a blaze deliberately set in the park.

Passing vehicles regularly have windscreens smashed by youths who throw rocks at them from a hilly area in the park, which overlooks the busy main road in Riverstown.

Condoms and used syringes have also been left strewn near a childrens play area.

Community garda, Noel Fitzgerald, told a county council meeting that the park had also been the scene of serious sexual assaults and of drug dealing, including of heroin.

Garda Fitzgerald said that gangs of youths were not all local.

Some were from city suburbs, Mayfield and Mahon, and many arrived with rucksacks full of drink.

Something has to be done, sooner rather than later, Garda Fitzgerald said.

There could be a serious loss of life there. Our gardai are getting calls every day of the week.

Its definitely escalating there.

Garda Fitzgerald urged local residents, concerned about incidents, to ring gardai immediately.

Community groups and gardai have asked the council to erect fencing and additional lighting and to install CCTV in an effort to quell the situation.

Community seeks CCTV in Glanmire park over teenage gangs

Teenage gangs are causing so much trouble in a public park that the local authority is planning to take a number of measures to combat it, including installing CCTV and linking it to Garda stations.

Gardai and locals outlined a litany of antisocial behaviour in a meeting with council officials to discuss measures which could be taken to combat almost nightly trouble at the park in a Cork satellite town.

Underage drinking, drug-dealing, drug-taking, arson, and wanton vandalism by gangs of youths up to 250-strong have blighted John OCallaghan Park in Glanmire.

Gardai have set up extra patrols to try to curb the trouble, but have often returned to their patrol cars after such forays to find vehicles deliberately damaged.

Local people who have challenged youths have been verbally abused on a regular basis.

One woman told a meeting of the Cobh/Glanmire municipal district council that a youth stole her wheelie bin from outside her door to set it alight in the park. When she confronted him, he swore at her and continued to walk off with the bin.

Wheelie bins are constantly being stolen from houses and set alight in the park. Cars, meanwhile, are being regularly damaged.

A committee which cleans up the park has become frustrated with the regular sight of burnt seating, repeated vandalism of the childrens playground, discarded condoms, and syringes, along with huge volumes of empty drink cans and other litter.

Cllr Ger Keohane (Ind), who arranged for the delegation to meet council officials, said the youths are out of control. He said he recently confronted some of them in the park and they had threatened him for challenging their behaviour.

The delegation pleaded with council officials for fencing, additional lighting, and Garda-monitored CCTV to be installed in the park.

Council engineers said it would be impossible to fence off the entire park as there are too many entrances.

However, they agreed with community Garda Noel Fitzgerald that they might fence off the main entrance as it would make it more difficult for youths to steal wheelie bins and bring them in to the park.

The officials will also consider fencing off the childrens playground to make it inaccessible at nighttime.

Some children had reportedly been injured on broken glass deliberately left in the area.

Stones are being thrown at passing vehicles travelling along the busy main road between Riverstown and Glanmire village.

The location for the stone throwing is a hill inside the park. While the vast majority of the park is owned by the council, there is confusion over who owns the hill and what, if anything, could be done to tackle the problem.

Cllr Sinead Sheppard (FG) said the council was having to replace stolen lifebuoys along the parks riverside walk and vandalised play equipment on a regular basis.

Council officials said they were also planning to put additional lights in the park and upgrade existing ones.

Municipal district chairman Cllr Padraig OSullivan (FF) said they would seek funding for a CCTV system.
Details of the revamp of Wilton Shopping Centre on the southside of Cork City will be unveiled by complex owners, Clarendon Properties, at a public meeting tonight.

The company declined to comment in detail ahead of the meeting but it understood its ambitious Wilton Town Centre project will focus on the northern side of the complex, and includes plans for:

A new two-storey mixed retail-use area on the site of the Penneys outlet, which faces demolition.

A multi-screen cinema.

A hotel and two new public plazas.

The centres existing covered malls will be retained, unlike plans by the previous owners which were granted conditional planning by An Bord Pleanala in 2011, which included extensive demolition and the construction of up to four blocks ranging in height from four to seven storeys. The planning for that scheme is valid for another two years.

An artists impression of part of the plans lodged in 2011 by the previous owners of Wilton Shopping Centre. The development never proceeded. The centres new owners, Clarendon Properties, say their new plans have resolved many of the issues raised during the original planning process.

A spokesman for Clarendon said they have spent almost 18-months examining that scheme, the observations and objections, and the relevant statutory documents as they developed their new proposal.

Our proposal resolves many of the contentious issues raised while building on the strengths of the existing centre, he said.

The entrance to Wilton Shopping Centre yesterday. Picture: Denis Minihane

We are excited to present a scheme that maintains the existing centre malls and provides an extension to the retail offer.

Wilton Town Centre will also incorporate a hotel and two new public plazas. We are also proposing a cinema which will act as an evening focal point and be at the centre of more lifestyle uses.

It is hoped that pending the outcome of local consultation, a planning application could be lodged with Cork City Council within months.

But the Wilton Traders Association said they feel they have been kept in the dark about the plans.

We were very disappointed with the lack of respect and common business decency shown towards the traders in Wilton by Clarendon Properties in relation to this planning proposal, a spokesman said.

They at no point engaged with us at any level or stage of this process to date.

We, as an association, along with the two anchor tenants, represent the 60 shops whom in turn employ in excess of 500 people.

Our members livelihoods and the 500-plus jobs all depend on the future of Wilton Shopping Centre.

We feel that as the major stakeholders we should have been kept in the loop on any major developments. We were not.

The spokesman for Clarendon said they look forward to discussing their vision for the centre with the traders and local residents tonight.
The Wicklow-born, Dublin-based comedian was chosen to tour with the annual Best of The Edinburgh Fest show, after his stint at the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. But it was a long road, travelled by motorbike, that got him there.

Inheriting a decrepit Honda Nighthawk from his uncle last year, OBrien toured Ireland on it,

performing in out-of-the-way places and building up material for a new show, RaconTour, that he would then motor to Edinburgh with.

But he wasnt reckoning with quite how bumpy his metaphorical road was going to get. I had the ingenious idea that Id take the bike and drive it all around Ireland; I had a kind of romantic notion of reconnecting with my country, OBrien says.

Then, I failed my test three times. Every time I failed, I was haemorrhaging money and it was breaking me down.

As well as failing his test, OBrien battled with the bikes mechanical failings: dodgy brakes and no fuel gauge. He was about to quit, when the chance discovery of a photo of his estranged dad, at 17, on a similar motorbike, provided the turning point.

Hes been completely uncontactable for 20 years, so I made it my dual mission to do the show and find out what the craic was with him, at the same time, OBrien says.

Although its high family drama, and a vein that OBrien taps into for RaconTour, hes still wary of sensationalising the backstory about his missing father, who has been living in the UK for the past 30 years, but with whom he has no contact.

Ive already had really trashy headlines to try to make it seem dramatic, he says. I last spoke to him when I was about 14 and that was literally it, but its not like he walked out the door to go to the shop one day and vanished. Him and my mum had split when they were younger.

The dual purpose of touring the country and tracking down his dad  he plays his cards close to his chest on any resolution to the family story, saying all is revealed in the show  fuelled OBrien on a country-wide tour that demonstrated that Irish people are as full of deranged whimsy as ever they were in Flann OBriens time.

I wanted to push my boundaries, so I took weird gigs in pretty obscure places, because I wanted to write something a little different, he says.

I met some absolute headers and ended up giving them lifts back after gigs and stuff.

I also did the worst gig that Ive ever done in nearly nine years, in Kerry, to about five people. It was a brutality. Afterwards, I had to drive back home on the motorbike, for five hours, in the absolutely roaring rain. It gave me far too much time to reflect on what I was doing with my life and career choices.

OBrien, resident host of the Comedy Crunch, in Dublin, has had a highly promising couple of years in comedy, with shows like Ah, Jaysus! and Back to the Hills garnering reviews that praised his energetic delivery and anecdotal, personal content.

Im not one of these comics who sits down and writes jokes at my kitchen table all day; I write stories around real things that have happened to me, he says.

But exploring his relationship with his dad meant tapping into deeper veins of the personal than he had before, and one concern was how his family would respond when they saw the show at a sell-out night in Whelans: I didnt want to upset anyone. But they absolutely loved it, and if I got through them, the rest of Ireland should be grand.

With 22 dates in six countries, including 15 Irish shows, already underway for 2018, OBrien is going to try to drive his motorbike to as many as possible; one upshot of his time with the bike is that he has formed what he describes as a Stockholm Syndrome connection to the ancient machine.

Its basically like an old tractor with two wheels, but now I have a weird attachment to it, he says. I cant leave it; its like having a really, really expensive kid that doesnt talk back to me.
We are all photographers now: it barely costs us a seconds thought or effort to pick up our smartphones and tap our screens for a snapshot or selfie, which is processed and stored in the blink of an eye. A fascinating new series on TG4 looks back at a time when photography was a far from accessible pursuit in Ireland, only practised by a wealthy and educated elite.

Trid an Lionsa (Through the Lens), produced by Sibeal Teo and presented by Dr Una Ni Bhroimeil, returns for a second series to explore Irish photographic collections at the turn of the century and what they reveal about society at the time.

The first instalment in the six-part series  Radharc na nUasal (View from the Big House) features the extensive collection of the Clonbrock estate in Ahascragh, Co Galway, while other episodes focus on formative moments in an Ireland which was emerging from the yoke of colonialism and progressing towards independence.

According to series director and producer Niamh Ni Bhaoill, all six programmes offer very different perspectives on Irish life.

The first programme on Clonbrock is from the point of view of the landlords and the upper class, while the following programme is looking at prisoners in Kilmainham and Mountjoy, which is the completely opposite end of life. What I found fascinating about it is when you see the human stories behind these photographs, it opens everything up. Its a fascinating way for people to engage with history, to bring it down to the local and individual level.

The Clonbrock Collection comprises over 3,000 glass plates and was primarily the work of Lady Augusta Crofton Dillon, wife of Luke Gerard Dillon, the fourth Baron of Clonbrock, and their daughters Edith, Ethel and Georgiana.

The Clonbrock collection would really only have been seen by the family members and whoever they wanted to see them. There was no agenda behind it except to document their lives and interests, which lay in their surroundings, the estate, and whatever was happening there. There are lots of photographs of the tenants and their work, their houses and the stock, and also the interiors of the house and the family themselves and their leisure activities, says Ni Bhaoill.

One of the photographs in the collection features something rarely seen in Irish estates at the time, a specially designed Photograph House.

It is quite unusual and it was where they used to develop and print the photographs and also show them  a lot of them would have been on lantern slides and they would project them on to a screen. It still exists and has been partially restored.

Ni Bhaoill says while the collection naturally gives a flattering portrayal of the Dillon family, there isnt a sense that they are patronising their subjects.

There is more a sense of pride in their ability to keep a good estate. They were good landlords, comparatively, though obviously there were negative things about the system. Like anything, they wanted to put their best side forward. It is interesting to ask if the tenants had a choice in posing for pictures. They probably wouldnt tell their landlord, No Im not going to stand outside my gate and let you take a photograph of me. It is a very interesting collection, even in terms of what kind of farming was being done, what tools were being used, what kind of fashions they were wearing, all those different things.

The other episodes explore the stories behind images of the Jubilee Nurses of Donegal, the Dublin tenements in the wake of the Church Street disaster and the inmates of

Kilmainham and Mountjoy Jails, which provides some particularly poignant moments.

Most of these criminals were put in prison for minor misdemeanours such as stealing to buy food for their families or for things that were socially unacceptable, such as prostitution or drunkenness; although there were more serious crimes, such as infanticide, says Ni Bhaoill.

Anocht ar @CaintChiarrai beidh stiurthoir agus leithreoir Dhuibhneach Niamh Ni Bhaoill linn chun caint faoin sraith nua #TridAnLionsa a thosnaionn ar @TG4tv an Deardaoin seo: eist beo anocht ag 8.30 ar @RadioKerry no eist ar line anois ag: https://t.co/KfxwuEIGDz #Gaeilge pic.twitter.com/SifS5uwpys  Caint Chiarrai (@CaintChiarrai) January 7, 2018

Photographs were taken of the prisoners for the purposes of identification, as it was very common for criminals to assume a number of identities, according to Ni Bhaoill, who says they also traced a relative of one of the prisoners.

His name was Samuel Hale and he was jailed for robbing a bag of sugar when he was 12. He was given five years in reformatory school, which was almost like a training school for becoming a career criminal. He went on to become a real character, and he escaped from prison a couple of times. We found a relative of his in Belfast, Stephen Perry, who came down to Kilmainham jail, to see where his great-grandfather escaped from.

As he said, you always hope theres someone famous in your ancestry but this wasnt quite what he had in mind. At the same time he was very proud of Samuel because he was only trying to put food on the table for his family.

Ni Bhaoill says that photographs were also often taken of prisoners on their release.

That is also an interesting comparison to make  what did people look like when they went in and when they left. At the time, at least two-thirds of the population in Dublin were in absolute poverty. Often, prisoners looked healthier when they were leaving because they were being fed, which was a very poor reflection on society, that you would prefer to be in prison.

The changes in technology are also evident as the series draws to a close, says Ni Bhaoill.

In the middle of the 19th century, they almost had to bring a chemistry lab out with them but by the end of this series, almost anyone could take a photograph. The last programme in the series looks at the beginning of the notion of privacy when it comes to photography. Before, if you wanted to have your photograph taken, you would have to go into a studio. With the arrival of the Kodak box brownies you could press the button and the rest would be done by somebody else. It marked the introduction of the concept that a photograph could be taken without consent, that it could be something invasive.

Trid an Lionsa begins tonight on TG4

The fake native village

One episode of Trid an Lionsa looks at the story behind the Ballymaclinton fake native village which was a huge success when staged at the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908.

The village was a marketing tool for McClintons soap company which was based in Co Tyrone; it featured replicas of the Blarney Stone, a round tower, a Celtic cross and numerous model cottages, along with a staff of 150 Irish men and women who lived in the village for the six months of the exhibition, giving demonstrations of traditional Irish village life.

Images of the village were widely distributed on postcards, including this one which features Irish colleens going about their morning toilette.

Photographs began to be used as postcards and in 1902, a law was brought in to allow messages to be written on them, says Niamh Ni Bhaoill.

They became like the texts or Snapchat of the time and were also used as a marketing tool which was very innovative at the time. When you think of the image that many Americans would have had of Ireland, some of it could possibly have grown from the Ballymaclinton postcards, as they would have been the only images people would have seen of Ireland. Some people still come here looking for that.
They live in a beautiful part of this island. A place where peace comes dropping slow and cattle heave the clop of broken path.

Its a place where the din of the maddening city is forgotten and stillness envelops the undulating landscape.

Quite simply, the place is magic. My bedroom overlooks the family homestead of Michael Collins. I often find myself day-dreaming, imagining what it must have been like for the Collins family when the Black and Tans turned up, with menace in their hearts.

It is a place steeped in history, the local pub (The Four Alls) belongs to a different time, the anachronistic oral tradition of story telling and song is very much alive there.

The people are welcoming too and always curious about your lineage and why and who you are visiting. Sams Cross is a special place and my children always look forward to their visit. Not only because their grandparents lavish them with such attention but also because of the space and silence they have there, something they lack living in a city like Dublin.

However, this years trip was particularly special. And it brought something up for me that I have often encountered as a theme in the therapeutic space.

As we all sat around the fire on the Friday night after Christmas silently watching TV, trolling through our phones and Ipads, my little nephew sending snapchats to an undisclosed recipient, there was a power cut.

And for a moment, there was a deadening silence, broken only by my father in laws excitement for the opportunity to use his plethora of torches. The darkness in the country is different, its more absolute.

My daughter came running down from her sleep, the darkness had woken her. And she had never experienced a blackout before, so she didnt understand what was going on.

We rang the ESB and were told it would take at least two hours to fix. This was met by groans from the teenagers in the room (no internet) and by some of the adults whose programmes would now remain unrecorded. For a moment we didnt really know what to do. And then we lit a candle and started to talk. And then we really started to talk. I started by asking by father-in-law, who is nearing retirement, where he sees himself in five years and what advice would he give his twenty-year-old self now if he could?

This got the conversation moving nicely. He spoke, more to the fire than anyone in particular, about his early working life and about the dreams he had as a young engineer starting out in his profession and how he had felt blessed to work in a job he loved. He also spoke about his regret that he hadnt travelled as much as he would have liked. He said to his young self, enjoy the journey more and dont always be looking for the next thing. Try to be content with what you have.

My mother-in-law spoke about her early working life, before she had children and stopped working to raise them. She spoke warmly about her early adult life living in Ballinhassig with her great neighbours. I brought up the fact that my own mother was forced to give up her job by the government when she got married. The teenagers in the room couldnt comprehend that piece of information. What do you mean they stopped her, sure how could they? This was the catalyst to an in-depth conversation on the marriage bar and what it meant for women in Ireland. As the conversation was taking place free from the ubiquity of technology and the Internet I was reminded of the song Bob Dylans Dream. For in that moment we were all together, listening to each other and spilling our dreams and hopes for the future into the evening and learning things about each other we hadnt known.

Often in therapy, couples come to me wondering how to build their levels of communication.

Something has happened to the couple and interrupted their way of communicating. So much so, they now find themselves in a bind because they do not communicate effectively with each other. This is certainly a theme I encounter on a regular basis. And I find myself wondering what impacts on a couples relationship that communication becomes stymied, almost awkward?

I cant help but think that technology has disrupted our patterns of communication, making communication functional and abbreviated.

Couples often describe how they go on their phones to relax and unwind but because of this they dont really talk to each other anymore and that has created a distance between them. This is such a common conversation in the modern therapeutic setting.

I was thinking about that as we were together in that room in West Cork, my daughters eyes dancing listening to her grandparents describe their early life. And in that moment sitting there, chatting about ourselves and our journey through life, I felt there was something happening that has been lost in modern relationships.

Have we allowed technology to take that from us? And even though there was a gentle sigh when the lights came on and the Wi-Fi booted up, we all fell comfortably back into our familiar modern way of being in the world, watching TV and scrolling through our phones. I have thought of Dylans words since that day I wish, I wish, I wish in vain, that wed sit simply in that room again.

Her eyes danced listening to her grandparents talk of their early life.
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A GREEN Party Member of European Parliament will visit the Isle of Wight next weekend to fight against oil drilling.

Keith Taylor, MEP for the South East, will be leading the campaign against the licence to drill for oil in Compton Bay.

Oil extraction has been planned by UK Oil and Gas for two sites on the Island - outside Arreton and from Compton Bay to Atherfield Point.

Mr Taylor said: "We cannot see the beautiful Island countryside pock-marked with oil wells.

"New oil and gas drilling operations are an affront to local communities and a dangerous form of climate change. We must keep fossil fuels in the ground."

A public meeting will be held on Saturday, January 20 at 11.30am at Wilberforce Hall in Brighstone, where residents can hear Mr Taylor discuss the issue.

Daniel James, chairman of the Isle of Wight Green Party, said: "The Conservative manifesto in 2017 pledged to overhaul planning laws to treat exploration drilling as 'permitted development'.

"There is a very real threat to our beaches, our wildlife and our drinking water from such fossil fuel extraction."
SENIOR Isle of Wight Councillors should answer questions in public, according to a leading opposition member.

After the Tories took control of County Hall following their election win, they axed members' question time  when cabinet members would take questions from the opposition  from full council meetings.

Labour Cllr Geoff Brodie has branded the move undemocratic, and called for members' questions to be reinstated.

"Even the prime minister and their cabinet are accountable to parliament through PMQs and regular ministerial questions, with the media and public in attendance." he said.

Cllr Brodie's motion is due to be discussed at a full council meeting on Wednesday, January 17.
THE GOVERNMENT'S post-Brexit green farming policy will give the Isle of Wight a chance to further cement its reputation as a producer of top-quality food, MP Bob Seely said.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove recently announced that agricultural rules will be tailored for the UK after we leave the EU with subsidies only given to farmers who do public good as well as produce food.

Money will move away from a model based on landowning, to support those who plant woodland, provide new habitats for wildlife, increase biodiversity, improve water quality and provide public access to their land.

Mr Seely said: "Brexit is a huge opportunity for agriculture to work with government to develop flexible schemes that produce the best food in the world and protect the environment.

"This announcement is also a good opportunity for the Isle of Wight because there will be help to protect the landscape, but also scope to really develop the Island's reputation as a producer of top-quality food as I believe the Isle of Wight should be a national and international brand.

"The reassurance that farmers will have continuity with subsidies until at least 2022 is sensible while a new and better system  a system for the UK  is put into place. I also see no reason why this should not extend to a better deal for fishermen too."
Newly enacted rental ordinance back on agenda The town council is considering the formation of a working group to potentially amend the ordinance that governs short-term rentals, which was passed unanimously in August. Ron Ratcliffe, serving as...

LITTLE WOMEN, BIG STAGE The Jamestown Community Theatre will perform a five-show production of the Broadway musical Little Women, a coming-of-age-story based on the classic 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott. The story follows...

Fire chiefs want to boost tax breaks for volunteers In an effort to attract new volunteers and preserve its current membership, the fire department is proposing to increase tax abatements for its membership. Volunteerism is a dying breed right...
COLUMBIA, S.C.  South Carolina's governor said Wednesday he is seeking an exemption from the Trump administration's expansion of offshore drilling, a move that will test the relationship between the president and one of his earliest supporters.

Gov. Henry McMaster told reporters that the risks associated with drilling pose too great a threat to South Carolina's lush coastline, around which much of the state's $20 billion tourism industry is based.

"We cannot afford to take a chance with the beauty, the majesty and the economic value and vitality of our wonderful coastline in South Carolina," McMaster said. "It is just too important. This is a matter of serious importance to us in South Carolina."

McMaster reiterated his overall opposition to offshore drilling and seismic testing, the exploratory step before actual drilling can take place. That puts him at odds with President Donald Trump, whose administration announced last week an expanded drilling in the Arctic and off the Atlantic coast, as well as in waters off of California for the first time in more than three decades.

Drilling would be allowed from Florida to Maine in areas that have been blocked for many years.

The administration has already shown readiness to back off of the expansion when met with state opposition. On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke nixed drilling plans off of Florida's coast after a meeting with Republican Gov. Rick Scott. On Wednesday, Zinke's spokeswoman, Heather Swift, said the governors of both North and South Carolina had requested meetings with the secretary.

McMaster had a delayed reaction to the president's plan before saying last week that he is no fan of drilling.

McMaster's office hasn't released details of his exemption request plans. Heather Swift, a spokeswoman for Zinke, confirmed Wednesday that McMaster had asked for a meeting with the secretary on the issue.

Opposition to drilling is a bipartisan position within South Carolina's congressional delegation: All three of the House members who represent the state's 190 miles of coastline told The Associated Press they are against the expansion plan.

A resolution from state lawmakers adding their voices to McMaster's could strengthen the state's case against drilling. On Wednesday, Republican state Sen. Chip Campsen, who said he represents nearly half of the state's coastline, said South Carolina's resort- and beach-rich coastline can't incorporate the land-based infrastructure needed to support offshore drilling rigs.

"If we were to do it in the 1940s, that'd be a different matter," Campsen said. "It's just incompatible with what has developed on our coast."

Campsen also said he hopes Trump would listen carefully to McMaster, who as lieutenant governor in early 2016 was the nation's first statewide-elected official to endorse Trump's candidacy.

"If the Trump admin is responsive to the request of Florida's governor, he ought to be responsive to the request of our governor," he said.
The pending $30 billion sale of Rockwell Collins Inc. received strong support from shareholders Thursday.

Rockwell said 72 percent of its 163.7 million outstanding shares were represented in the vote. Of that amount, 96 percent approved the proposed offer from United Technologies Corp.

UTC announced its $23 billion offer for Rockwell on Sept. 4. The offer includes taking on an additional $7 billion in Rockwell debt.

Shareowners have made clear their support for this acquisition, bringing it one step closer to reality, Kelly Ortberg, Rockwells chairman, president and chief executive, said in a statement.

The proposed deal was confirmed less than five months after Rockwell completed in April its $8.6 billion purchase of B/E Aerospace Inc., which had more than 1,600 employees in Winston-Salem.

The companies plan to close on the transaction in the third quarter, possibly in early July. Rockwell has agreed to pay United a $695 million breakup fee if Rockwell is not able to complete its end of the transaction.

Rockwell and UTCs Aerospace Systems division would be integrated to create Collins Aerospace Systems. Ortberg would serve as Collins Aerospaces chief executive.

As Collins Aerospace, well be a stronger company, with attractive aerospace product and service portfolios, and ultimately, better positioned for long-term success, Collins said.

Collins would receive a change-in-control package worth $30 million if the deal is completed. The packages are called golden parachutes, but the executives would get the money whether they stay with the company or leave.

In addition to voting on the sale, Rockwell shareholders were asked to approve, on an advisory and non-binding vote, the executive compensation packages at the special meeting.

Josh Baynes, Rockwells senior media relations manager, said shareholders approved the golden parachutes. He said the results would be disclosed in a regulatory filing later today.

Even if a majority of shares cast were voted against the golden parachutes, they still would be payable if the United purchase is approved.

Ortberg stands to gain $8.18 million in cash that includes a $270,444 bonus. He also qualified for an equity stake worth $21.1 million, an executive pension payment worth $612,000, and perks worth $98,501 that includes $25,000 for outplacement assistance.

For fiscal 2016, Ortberg made $997,348 in salary, $1.11 million in incentive pay, stock and option awards valued at $5.02 million on the date they were awarded, and $212,715 in all other compensation. Total compensation was $7.59 million.

The companies said Dec. 5 that United may take until March 31 to determine where to place the headquarters for the Collins Aerospace Systems unit.

About 200,000 people work for United, which has its headquarters in Farmington, Conn. More than 40,000 work for the UTC Aerospace Systems division based in Charlotte.

Rockwell, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has 30,000 employees.

Ortberg has pitched a bigger-is-better message to local employees as they braced for more uncertainty.

There will be no local impact on staffing levels, Ortberg told the Journal on Sept. 5. The combined company will be larger and more stable and give employees more opportunity to grow the overall business and leverage our research and development capabilities.

However, on Oct. 20, Baynes confirmed that company officials have begun discussions with its union employees and their leadership at its Winston-Salem facility. Baynes said Thursday there is no update on the work force status.

Employees have told the Winston-Salem Journal that at least 130 local Rockwell workers could be affected by a potential transfer of aftermarket production, possibly to facilities in the Philippines. At 130 jobs, it would represent 8 percent of Rockwells local workforce.

Employees said the bulk of affected workers are based at Rockwells operations near Smith Reynolds Airport in the plastics molding and shaping departments for aircraft seating.

Baynes said employee conversations involve Teamsters 391, based in Greensboro.

As far as what exact positions, thats still being evaluated, Baynes has said. We are still in the decision-making process, and negotiations with our union are a key part of that process.
A former doctor at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses him of inserting a birth-control device into a woman without her knowledge during a surgery, ruining her chances of getting pregnant.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has also filed a motion seeking dismissal of the lawsuit.

Kimberly Bryant of Caburrus County filed the lawsuit Sept. 21 in Forsyth Superior Court against Dr. Mehmet Tamer Yalcinkaya, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Wake Forest University Health Services and N.C. Baptist Hospital. The lawsuit, filed by Harvey and Harold Kennedy and Donna Taylor, alleges fraudulent concealment and medical malpractice. Bryant is seeking more than $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

In motions filed Jan. 4 in Forsyth Superior Court, attorneys for Yalcinkaya and Baptist say Bryant did not follow North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure in having an expert review medical care and medical records. They said the expert would have to be willing to testify that the medical care did not comply with the applicable standard of care.

Attorneys for Bryant filed an amendment to the complaint on Jan. 2 certifying that the medical care and medical records were reviewed by an expert.

Yalcinkaya and Wake Forest Baptist also argue that the lawsuit isnt specific enough about the allegations of fraudulent concealment. Attorneys for Yalcinkaya said in court papers that Bryant fails to state what Yalcinkaya had to gain from allegedly withholding information from Bryant.

Defendants commonly file motions to dismiss in major civil litigation, Harvey Kennedy said in a statement. We will appear at the court hearing on Jan. 29, 2018, and vigorously oppose these motions.

Scott Stevenson, an attorney for Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, declined to comment Wednesday.

I think the pleadings can speak for themselves, he said.

Tamura Coffey, an attorney for Yalcinkaya, could not immediately be reached for comment. Yalcinkaya, former director of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Baptist, denied all the allegations in an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal in September.

Bryant went to the Center for Reproductive Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist in 2007, where Yalcinkaya determined Bryant had uterine fibroids, the lawsuit said. Yalcinkaya scheduled a surgery for Oct. 5, 2007. The lawsuit said Bryant told Yalcinkaya that she wanted to remain fertile and that she and her husband wanted to have children.

The lawsuit alleges that during the surgery to remove the fibroids, Yalcinkaya implanted into Bryant a Gore-Tex plastic barrier that would act as a birth control device. Yalcinkaya never told Bryant about the device, even when it expired on April 21, 2012, the lawsuit alleges.

It wasnt until Feb. 21, 2017, that Bryant found out why she couldnt get pregnant, the lawsuit said. She became sick and had to have surgery at Wake Forest Baptist. The plastic barrier had split into two parts. According to the lawsuit, Dr. Erica Johnston, one of the surgeons, told Bryant, I am outraged; and you should be outraged too.

Johnston, according to the lawsuit, told Bryant she would have to have a hysterectomy.

Yalcinkaya has specifically denied that the device was an IUD and has said it is a FDA-approved product that has been used to prevent infertility and scar tissue from forming back. He is currently practice founder of Carolinas Fertility Institute, which has offices in Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Charlotte. Yalcinkayas medical license remains active.
Many otherwise hard-boiled political reporters still fondly recall their moments with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on the Straight Talk Express, the low-spin, laughs-filled campaign bus of his losing 2000 presidential try.

My travel memories with the senator are no less evocative, if perhaps not quite as rollicking: slogging through a muddy refugee camp in Serbia, say, or listening to the anguished testimony of exiled Belarusian dissidents in a government building in Vilnius.

Year after year, to no particular political advantage, McCain has traveled to distant, lightly touristed corners of the world, dragging along whatever senators or members of Congress he could, no matter their party or ideological persuasion. Meanwhile, the McCain Institute for International Leadership gives temporary shelter in Washington, D.C., and Arizona to democratic activists from those same distant corners.

At a time when U.S. global leadership is in doubt as never before in the modern era, we have something to learn from that commitment.

McCain being McCain, when I asked him during a recent conversation in his Senate office why he devotes so much energy to such trips, he shied away from grand pronouncements and began telling stories instead.

About the time he helped head off a Russian-inspired coup in the tiny Balkan nation of Montenegro.

About walking through Tripoli, Libya, with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens in 2012 as dozens and then hundreds and thousands of Libyans gathered, honking their horns and shouting, Thank you, USA, for Americas part in overthrowing Moammar Gadhafi.

About meeting with former political prisoners in Burma who began to cry when they heard his voice  having heard him, on the Voice of America, speak up for human rights.

So the reward is mine, not theirs, McCain told me.

Like many people, Ive been alternately cheered and disappointed by McCains stances on domestic matters over the years  admiring when he helped save Obamacare a few months ago, disappointed when he went along with the Republican tax-cut bill last month.

But McCain has never wavered in his support for democracy and human rights, and in his conviction that the United States needs to provide moral support to those who fight for freedom around the world. With President Trump often expressing more admiration for dictators than for democratic leaders, McCains advocacy has become lonelier  and more essential.

His advocacy isnt always successful, as his anecdotes make clear. Libya slid into civil war, and Stevens was killed two months after that election-day stroll through Tripoli. Burma, though former human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi is nominally in charge, is presiding over the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people.

The easy part is the revolution, McCain said. The hard part is democracy. ... The trend is obviously in the wrong direction.

One reason, he said, is the lack of American leadership, which he believes accelerated under President Barack Obama. For the most part McCain tries to restrain his criticism of the incumbent, though the occasional acerbic remark slips out. Maybe we ought to have a rule that [national security adviser H.R.] McMaster has to be up and about by 5 a.m., he suggested to me, for example.

But he does not disguise how worried he is by the deeper currents that recall to him the darker movements of the 1930s: the nativism, the assaults on freedom of the press and the rule of law, the blaming of foreign competition for all ills, the rise of extremism.

I worry about the polarization thats going on here, I really do, McCain said. The terms of the debate is what is really disappointing.

The other day I was flipping the channels, and I saw [Steve] Bannon just beating the crap out of [Mitt] Romney, he continued, alluding to Bannons attacks on Romney for his service as a Mormon missionary in France during the Vietnam War.

McCain, who more than did his part in Vietnam, made clear he didnt share Bannons view. I didnt think there was anything wrong with serving your church. I had no idea that was a crime.

Then McCain, who is fighting a brain tumor and who briefly returned to the hospital not long after our conversation, paused for a moment to gather his thoughts.

Could I also say  I still believe that were the best nation on Earth, he said. I still would not bet against the United States of America. I still would rather be the United States than any of these other countries.

But were going through some very choppy waters, he said. Weve got to appeal to the better angels of our nature.
Its good to know that the deaths of two inmates at the Forsyth County jail in May did not involve any violations of state safety regulations, as Michael Hewlett reported in Mondays Journal. But there are still big questions about these and two other deaths of inmates in the last few years  at least one of which resulted in a costly settlement  and officials must follow up with detailed answers.

Given that county commissioners recently approved a new, multi-million-dollar contract with Correct Care Solutions LLC of Nashville, Tenn., the company that provides medical service to jail inmates, answers from that company and Forsyth Sheriff Bill Schatzman are especially important.

Schatzman said Wednesday that attorneys have not cleared him to release full details on the four deaths, but he hopes to soon do so.

Deshawn Lamont Coley, 39, died at the jail on May 2. His autopsy report said that he died as a result of complications from asthma.

Coley had a history of asthma and had complained to jail officials about shortness of breath and received treatment for it, according to the report.

He was in the process of being transferred for medical evaluation when he died.

Stephen Antwan Patterson, 40, died at the jail on May 26. Patterson told detention officers that he had high blood pressure and asked to see a doctor in the infirmary, his uncle, Frederick Patterson Jr., told the Journal. His autopsy results have not been publicly released but should be.

The sheriffs office investigated the deaths, as well as the SBI, which has all but concluded its investigations. The Construction Section, part of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, sent inspectors to determine if the jail complied with state jail regulations. The inspectors didnt find anything that was out of compliance, but the units chief, Steve Lewis, made clear to the Journal that their investigation was focused solely on the issue of compliance.

The public deserves full details on these two deaths, as well as two others (including one of an inmate who died in a hospital after experiencing medical problems at the jail). After all, taxpayers are footing the bill, in more ways than one.
EU Advocate General Melchior Wathelet advised [opinion, PDF] the European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] Thursday that the rights of same-sex spouses must be recognized by every member of the EU, even if a countrys government has not authorized same-sex marriage.

EU law [materials] permits the spouse of an EU citizen to obtain a residence permit for the EU member state where the spouse resides. But Romanian authorities refused to honor a request of a same-sex couple. The couple challenged the decision in Romanias constitutional court, saying it was discriminatory on the grounds of sexual orientation. Romanias constitutional court then referred the case to the ECJ.

According to Wathelet, the term spouse includes, in the light of the freedom of residence of citizens of the EU and their family members, spouses of the same sex.

A press release [PDF] from the ECJ states the legal issue at the centre of the dispute is not that of the legalization of same-sex marriage, but that of the free movement of EU citizens. While Member States are free to provide for marriage between persons of the same sex in their domestic legal system or not, they must fulfill their obligations under the freedom of movement of EU citizens.
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] on Wednesday upheld [text, PDF] a 2014 citizen vote to amend the state constitution to remove the right to abortion.

The question before the court was not whether such a provision was constitutional, but whether the voting method used to ratify the amendment was consistent with Tennessees constitution. The challenged amendment states:

Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother.

Under the Tennessee constitution, an amendment will be added to the constitution if the number of yes votes exceeds 50 percent of all votes cast in the election. These votes include those for the amendment and those for the governor, keeping in mind that any voter may abstain from voting on the amendment. In the election, the number of votes cast totaled 1,430,117 and the number in favor of ratification was 729,163.

The appeals court analyzed Tennessees constitutional provision setting forth the process for ratification, along with previous interpretations of the provision. It also acknowledged that the topic, abortion, was highly controversial, which is why the case was of great importance to many Tennessee citizens. However, the court concluded that the voting process used to ratify the amendment was directly in line with the constitution and previous interpretations. The amendment, therefore, was properly ratified and may take full affect.
A three judge panel for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania [official website] on Wednesday rejected 2-1 [opinion, PDF] a constitutional challenge to Pennsylvanias electoral map. Although there was no unified majority opinion in Agre v. Wolf [JURIST archive], two judges found that Plaintiffs failed to bring a cognizable claim under the federal Constitutions Election Clause [Art. I  4 text].

Chief Circuit Judge D. Brooks Smith held that partisan gerrymandering claims could not be brought under the Election Clause, writing:

[T]he Framers provided a check on state power within the text of the Elections Clause, but it is a political oneaction by Congress.

Concurring in the judgment, Judge Patty Shwartz would restrict judicial interference [opinion, PDF] under the Election Clause to cases

. . . where a regulation so disrupts the voting process that a citizens vote is rendered meaningless, and all requirements for Article III are met.

Shwartz found that plaintiffs failed to meet this high standard and failed to show that the redistricting plan was crafted to dictate the outcome of elections.

The dissent, in a 148-page opinion [PDF], described the facts of the case in great detail and argued that there was a justiciable claim under the Election Clause. District Judge Michael Baylson would find partisan gerrymandering actionable under the Election Clause where clear and convincing evidence shows the legislature failed to follow traditional or neutral factors in redistricting. Baylson argued that the testimony, the strange shapes of the districts in the 2011 maps, the legislatures failure to abide by normal processes, and its lack of convincing explanation showed that the legislature engaged in an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.

The majority closed the door on an Election Clause challenge to partisan gerrymandering in this case but, other challenges to Pennsylvanias 2011map persist. The other claims are under the First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause and, as Chief Circuit Judge Smith points out in his opinion, such partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable under Supreme Court precedent. Thus, this ruling is unlikely to have much effect on Diamond v. Torres [materials], which also makes claims under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, or League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Pennsylvania General Assembly, [JURIST report] which relies on Pennsylvanias constitution.
Myanmar prosecutors said Wednesday that two Reuters journalists have been charged with obtaining state secrets.

Journalists Wal Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on December 12, 2017, while investigating the governments crackdown on the Rohingya minority group in the nations Rakhine region. They were reportedly invited to meet with police officers in a restaurant. Police officers gave the journalists some documents, and both journalists, along with two police officers, were arrested soon after.

Prosecutors charged the journalists with possession of important secret government documents pursuant to Section 3.1 (c) [text, PDF] of the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act. If convicted, the pair might face up to 14 years in prison.

Various governments and international entities have condemned the arrests. Human Rights Watch [press release] called the arrest an enforced disappearance in accordance to international law definitions. Amnesty International [press release] said this is part of a growing climate in Myanmar where journalism is stifled and members of the press find themselves in increasingly hostile environments.

The US Embassy in Myanmar condemned [statement] the arrests and called for the release of the journalists. Representatives of the UN and various embassies including the UK, the US, Australia and the Netherlands attended the hearing. Reuters [Reuters report] Editor-in-Chief also condemned the arrests, calling it a blatant attack on press freedom.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Wednesday that a 17-year-old immigrant in government custody was blocked [ACLU] by the Trump administration from obtaining an abortion.

The unidentified 17-year-old girl, referred to as Jane Moe, is believed to be in her second trimester of pregnancy and made it clear that she wanted an abortion about two weeks ago. She has the means to obtain one, but the government will not allow it, making her the fourth undocumented immigrant to be refused an abortion by the Trump administration.

Instead of getting an abortion, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) sent [Newsweek] Moe to a pregnancy crisis center. These centers have historically discouraged women from getting abortions.

The ACLU has stated that it will take on the case, saying that [t]he Trump administration is blatantly ignoring the fact that the Supreme Court has held for the past 45 years that abortion is a fundamental constitutional right. And that right does not depend on immigration status. It is also seeking an order [WP report] that would apply to future cases. For this case, the ACLU is seeking [order] a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prohibit the government from denying [Moe] the ability to access abortion.

In the previous cases, it was ruled [JURIST report] that the administration must allow immigrant teens to end their pregnancies.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [official profile], Zeid Raad Al Hussein, on Wednesday condemned [press release] the rise in civilian casualties in the Eastern Ghouta region of Syria resulting from the recent increase in airstrikes and ground-based attacks by government forces and its allies, highlighting that all parties are obliged under international law to distinguish between lawful military targets, and civilians and civilian objects.

Zeid also expressed grave concern about the situation of an estimated two million people in the Idlib governorate of Syria where tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced due to increased clashes between government forces and its allies, and the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham alliance of armed opposition groups that controls much of the Idlib area. Many of these civilians were already previously displaced from the Hama and Aleppo governorates.

Airstrikes and ground-based attacks on on Tuesday have reportedly killed at least 13 civilians, including four women, four boys and three girls in a residential area of opposition-controlled Hamourya. Similar strikes in a residential area in the opposition-held town of Duma reportedly killed twelve civilians including five boys and a girl. On 4 January, a rocket fired into Old Damascus hit the vicinity of a bakery killing 14 civilians.

Zeid stated:

The suffering of the people of Syria knows no end. In Eastern Ghouta, where a crippling siege has caused a humanitarian catastrophe, residential areas are being hit day and night by strikes from the ground and from the air, forcing civilians to hide in basements. Armed opposition groups also continue to fire rockets into residential areas in Damascus, causing terror among the population. In Idlib, ground attacks and airstrikes have escalated as a rapidly-moving Government offensive gains momentum, jeopardizing the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians.  The reports emerging from Eastern Ghouta of civilian casualties as a result of airstrikes suggest that attacking forces may be failing to abide by the international humanitarian law principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions, raising concerns that war crimes may have been committed.

Zeid urged the parties to ensure strict adherence to international law including by ensuring the protection of civilians from the effects of hostilities and to allow unhindered access by humanitarian agencies to provide badly needed aid, in particular to Eastern Ghouta where at least 390,000 civilians have been living under siege for four years.
Key developments in Tunisia in the seven years since president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in a revolt that sparked a wave of uprisings in the region.

- 2011: President flees -

Ben Ali quits on January 14, 2011 after weeks of demonstrations sparked by the self-immolation of a fruit seller who was protesting police harassment and unemployment.

He is the first leader to stand down in the Arab Spring, fleeing to Saudi Arabia after 23 years in power.

In October, Islamist group Ennahda wins 89 of the 217 seats in a new constituent assembly, just months after being legalised in March. It is Tunisia's first free election.

The assembly elects former opposition leader Moncef Marzouki as president in December.

- 2012: Attacks, unrest -

In June and August, violent demonstrations erupt, while Islamists start staging attacks.

In September, four attackers are killed in clashes at the US embassy as hundreds protest over an anti-Islam film.

In late November, riots break out in Siliana, southwest of Tunis, in which 300 are injured.

Since the summer, sometimes violent strikes and demonstrations have affected industry, public services, transport, and business. The unrest in mostly in the country's economically sidelined interior.

- 2013: Opposition leaders killed -

In February, prominent anti-Islamist opposition leader Chokri Belaid is assassinated in Tunis, sparking deadly protests and a political crisis.

In July, leftist opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi is also shot dead. Jihadists claim both killings.

- 2014: First free presidential poll -

In January, lawmakers adopt a new constitution after two years of turmoil that has exposed a deep rift between Ennahda and the secular opposition.

In October, the secular Nidaa Tounes party led by Beji Caid Essebsi comes top in the parliamentary polls.

Two months later, Essebsi defeats Marzouki in Tunisia's first free presidential election.

- 2015: Carnage -

In 2015, the country suffers three attacks claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

In March, 21 tourists and a policeman are killed as gunmen assail the Bardo museum in Tunis.

In June, attackers kill 38 foreign tourists, 30 from Britain, in a coastal resort town south of Tunis.

And in November, a suicide bomber kills 12 presidential guards in the capital.

- 2016: New protests -

In January 2016, a wave of protests against poverty and unemployment erupt throughout the country. It is the worst social unrest since the 2011 revolution.

The unrest fans out from the central town of Kasserine, where an unemployed man died of electrocution during a protest.

In a new attack in March, at least 35 jihadists, 11 members of the security forces and seven civilians are killed during an assault on security installations in the town of Ben Guerdane on the Libyan border.

In August, Youssef Chahed of Nidaa Tounes forms a national unity government including ministers from Ennahda and independents.

In November, a Truth and Dignity Commission begins hearings into six decades of dictatorship, including under Ben Ali.

- 2017: 'Decisive measures' -

The International Monetary Fund in December 2017 calls on Tunis for "urgent action" and "decisive measures" to reduce its deficit, after giving the country a $2.9-billion loan the previous year.

- 2018: New protests -

In January, after an austerity budget comes into force, peaceful protests start.

They degenerate into riots, with more than 200 people arrested by January 10.
FRANKLIN  An Upland man accused of physically abusing a 2-month-old girl was sentenced to eight to 10 years in prison.

According to court records, Dalton Howard, 21, was sentenced Tuesday in Franklin County District Court for assaulting the girl in his care in February 2016.

Howard received 182 days credit for time already served, according to court records.

Howard was charged in February 2016 with felony child abuse, but the charge was amended to a lesser felony in exchange for his plea of no contest.

A person making a no contest plea neither admits nor denies guilt, but the plea is treated the same as a guilty plea.

According to a 2016 press release, the child abuse resulted in serious injury to the baby. The girl was originally taken to Kearney County Health Services emergency room in Minden where she was diagnosed with a brain bleed and hemorrhaging behind her eyes. She also had bruising on the left side of her face and torso, court documents say.

The child was treated for her injuries at Childrens Hospital in Omaha and was placed into the care of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 11, 2016.

@erikadpritchard
KEARNEY  One of the countrys oldest retail companies will soon open a storefront at Kearneys Hilltop Mall.

Gliks, a family-owned retail chain carrying name-brand apparel and footwear, will have a grand opening at the mall in mid-March, according to a news release from the company. The store will be in the former Vanity location, which closed in March 2017.

The womens boutique will offer brands such as Patagonia, The North Face, Silver Jeans, Roxy, Elan, Billabong and more.

The company chose to open the new storefront in Kearney after CEO Jeff Glik and his father, Joe Glik, chairman, visited Kearney and fell in love with the community.

Gliks, which is based in Granite City, Ill., began in 1890 after Joseph Glik, the companys founder, decided to sell top-quality merchandise from a horse-drawn wagon in rural areas of Missouri and Iowa, according to the news release.

Today, Gliks is recognized as the 14th oldest retailer in the United States. According to company officials, Gliks has held out as one of the oldest retailers by keeping its focus on customers, embracing new technology and adapting to an ever-changing fashion retail climate.

Gliks also has locations in Grand Island and Columbus.
KEARNEY  A Kearney businessman has filed to run against incumbent Joe Brayton for District 3 Buffalo County Commissioner.

Managing partner for Kearney Runza stores, Timothy Higgins of Kearney, filed for office today, according to a Higgins campaign press release.

Brayton is currently finishing his second term on the Buffalo County Board of Commissioners.

District 3 covers north Kearney, Riverdale and its surrounding area.

If elected, Higgins goals as commissioner are to reduce the tax burden on families and businesses, while "creating a climate of economic growth" for the district.

"I will take a business-like approach toward governing. I understand that people work hard for their money, and I will watch every penny," added Higgins.

Higgins is currently a member of the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce, serves on the Kearney Public Schools Board of Education and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Greater Nebraska School Association. He currently serves on the Nebraska Public Leadership Foundation Board of Directors and the Kearney Little League Board. Higgins has been named "Citizen of the Year" by the Kearney Kiwanis and "Outstanding Alumni" by the Southeast Community College. His business has been recognized as "Small Business of the Year" by the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce, and his business received the Neighborhood Marketing Achievement Award from Runza Restaurants of Nebraska.

Higgins lives in Kearney with his wife, Sue, and their son Cal. He has two adult children Nick and Katie.
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Samantha Mongeon, left, kisses her sister Sabryna in this undated handout photo. A young Quebec woman whose arms and legs were amputated following a car crash on Christmas Day has undergone another surgery in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Samantha Mongeon, *MANDATORY CREDIT*
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-o-cha meet on the sidelines of the 2nd Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) Leaders Meeting. (Photo: VNA)



The two Prime Ministers expressed delight at the development of bilateral ties across the fields of politics-diplomacy, investment, trade, security-defence and judicial matters.

They noted that bilateral trade value grew 20 percent in 2017 to reach USD15 billion.

The two sides also coordinated closely at regional and international forums such as ASEAN, APEC and GMS.

PM Phuc hailed Thailands contributions to promoting cooperation in the Mekong sub-region and in the MLC framework, and asked Thailand to bring into play its role in ensuring water resource security and sustainable use of Mekong water resource.

The Thai PM said Thailand is ready to work with Vietnam in organising the summit of the Greater Mekong Sub-region in March.

Discussing measures to further expand the bilateral partnership, PM Phuc requested that Thailand create more favourable conditions for Vietnamese goods to enter its market.

Phuc took the occasion to thank the Thai Government for creating conditions for the Vietnamese community in Thailand to settle down and contribute to Thailands socio-economic development as well as serve as a bridge for Vietnam-Thailand friendship.

On the evening of January 10th, PM Phuc and the Vietnamese delegation left Phnom Penh for home, concluding his trip to Cambodia to attend the 2nd Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) Leaders Meeting at the invitation of Cambodian PM Samdech Techo Hun Sen./.
FILE - in this Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998, file photo a group of schoolchildren read signs posted in the dense woods of the Aokigahara Forest at the base of Mount Fuji, Japan.YouTube says it has removed blogger Logan Paul's channels from Google Preferred and will not feature him in the new season of "Foursome." Paul's new video blogs also are on hold after he shared a video on YouTube that appeared to show a body hanging in a Japanese forest that is said to be a suicide spot. The sign at right reads: "Your life is a precious gift from your parents. Once again, try to remember your parents, brothers and sisters and think about your children." (AP Photo/Atsushi Tsukada, File)
FILE - In this July 27, 2016 file photo, actress Mira Sorvino poses for a photo in Los Angeles. orvino says she hopes the Me Too movement keeps its focus on sexual harassment and doesnAot turn into a general womenAos rights movement. Sorvino spoke before television critics on Thursday, a day after she penned a public apology to Dylan Farrow. In a letter published on HuffPost, Sorvino says she was sorry for "turning a blind eye" to the accusations Woody Allen's daughter made against him. The former "Mighty Aphrodite" actress vowed never to work with Allen again. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018 file photo, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens delivers the annual State of the State address to a joint session of the House and Senate, in Jefferson City, Mo. Greitens acknowledges he was "unfaithful" in his marriage but denies allegations that he blackmailed the woman he had an extramarital affair with in 2015 to stay quiet. The Republican governor and his wife released a statement Wednesday night. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)
Lifes full of tough choices, and choosing a burger this month is one of them.

The unions representing city police officers and firefighters are raising funds for their charities one burger at a time.

They kicked off the second annual Battle of the Burgers Wednesday night at Waterfront Warehouse, 3322 Sheridan Road.

Both sides bought their A game  and very different burgers.

The Kenosha Professional Police Association burger features two 4-ounce all-beef patties between two cherrywood-smoked bacon and American grilled cheese sandwiches. Its garnished with lettuce and tomato and served on Texas toast with fries.

The Kenosha Professional Firefighters Local 414 burger has two 4-ounce all-beef patties topped with chorizo, pepper jack cheese and pico de gallo. Its finished with avocado aioli and served on a brioche bun with fries.

Whichever burger is ordered most this month will be served all year at the northside eatery and bar.

The police won last year, but the firefighters changed their recipe, offering a less spicy burger.

Its such a cool thing, said Detective Jason Melichar, who helped organize the effort. At the end of the day, it benefits our community, so were happy to be a part of it.

Melichar, vice president of the KPPA, said such events allow officers to increase their community programming and outreach efforts.

Its unique but its fantastic, Melichar said, adding that he believes their colossal burger will emerge victorious.

Firefighter Scott Arneberg, secretary/treasurer for Local 414, said the friendly competition is a win-win for everyone.

Anything to help our disadvantaged youth in the community and families in general, its good to have an opportunity to give back and be able to do something positive for anybody who might need it, Arneberg said.

Firefighter Paul Reggie Reget served as a volunteer bartender for the night.

We are really involved in the community. This is what we do. We spend a lot of our off time making a difference. All the money that we make here tonight goes right back to the community, said Reget, who serves on the board for Local 414s Community Assistance Response Effort.

Dino Katris, one of the Waterfront owners, said hes happy to host the event, adding he was inspired to launch it after meeting local officers and firefighters.

Kenoshas our community and we wanted a cool, fun way to give back, Katris said, adding that a dollar from every KPD or KFD burger sold in January goes to their respective charities. The most popular burger will remain on the menu for a year, with a percentage of the proceeds going to charity. The battle raised thousands of dollars last year.

Were pretty pumped, Katris said.

The night also included an old-fashioned burger eating contest, with officer Eric Glaum defeating firefighter Jake Puntillo.

Im excited and nervous, Glaum said before the contest. Glaum said he was drafted for the contest because word spread of his ability to put down two or three burritos in one sitting.

The contest was close, but Glaum finished his two cheeseburgers, mountain of fries and beer a few seconds before Puntillo.

I need a napkin, Glaum said afterward. Ive felt better. Ive felt worse, as well.
The ugly scandal that has embroiled the Miss America Organization  leading to the resignation of CEO Sam Haskell, several executives and members of its board of directors  has now affected our local Miss Kenosha Scholarship Pageant.

The good news is that the pageant will go on as scheduled on Saturday night, Feb. 3; the bad news is that Laura Kaeppeler Fleiss is no longer involved.

Fleiss, a Kenosha native who was Miss America in 2012, had taken over directing the local pageant in 2017 and was organizing this year's event, too.

As part of the fallout from the Miss America mess  in which Haskell's emails with board members and other executives disparaging past Miss America winners were published via the Huffington Post  Gretchen Carlson, the 1989 titleholder and former Fox News host, was named chair of the Miss America Organization. Also, three former Miss Americas were added to the board of directors  Fleiss, Kate Shindle (Miss America 1998) and Heather French Henry (Miss America 2000).

Because she's now part of the national Miss America organization, Fleiss can no longer organize our local pageant.

"In the spirit of fairness, any member of the Miss America board cannot run a local or state pageant. It is a conflict of interest," Fleiss said from her home in Hawaii.

With the Kenosha pageant coming up fast, Fleiss reached out to Joya Santarelli for help.

Santarelli, a former Miss Kenosha and Miss Wisconsin, didn't hesitate to say "yes."

"Honestly, it was either cancel or postpone the pageant or take it over and get it done this year," Santarelli said. "I considered the contestants and their families and all the work they've done to prepare, and I couldn't say 'no.'"

Also, she added, "Miss Kenosha is all over the community; people look forward to meeting her."

Santarelli has been involved with the local pageant since she won it in 1998. She worked with longtime director Lou Cristiano until his death in 2010 and then took the reins herself.

This year, she is working with Ashley Dennis (Miss Kenosha 2011) and Tori Bogren (Miss Kenosha 2014) to organize the pageant. Miss Kenosha 2017 Kaitlyn Rhey will emcee the show. There are five contestants; two women dropped out this week.

"Ashley Dennis will be on-site running the show," said Santarelli, who will be out of the country on a vacation on Feb. 3. "We'll make it work. This is an awesome community that supports the pageant. We've already sold over 200 tickets."

Looking for a director

While Santarelli, who manages Santarelli Oral & Facial Surgery, is happy to help this year, she "really hopes someone else takes over as the executive director. You don't have to have any pageant experience, not at all. You just have to be organized and willing to volunteer your time."

She adds that she is "more than willing to be a mentor. I just am not interested in being the solo person in charge right now."

Fleiss said the local pageant director is "in charge of every aspect of the program. From fundraising, recruiting and preparing the contestants to putting the production together. It is a volunteer position, and it is very rewarding to see the contestants grow through the process. Its exciting to help the contestants pursue their dreams of becoming Miss Kenosha, Miss Wisconsin or even Miss America."

Anyone interested in becoming the new local pageant director should email Fleiss at Fleiss.laura@gmail.com or Santarelli at joya.santarelli@gmail.com.

Miss America troubles

Santarelli says she wasn't shocked by the Miss America scandal, though she hastens to add that "the local organization has always been top-notch."

"The national organization has changed so much since I was Miss Wisconsin 18 years ago," she said. "I wasn't thrilled with the direction it was heading and I'm glad it was exposed. Hopefully, they'll get the organization back to where it should be  focused on volunteerism, community and empowering women."

The Miss Kenosha pageant, Santarelli said, "always tried to keep it a positive experience for everyone. We're one of the last few remaining community pageants left in the state."

(Most of the Wisconsin pageants are open competitions. Miss Kenosha is open to any women, ages 17-24, who work full time in Kenosha, attend school in Kenosha or who have a permanent address in Kenosha.)

There is a measure of poetic justice to this Miss America scandal. Carlson settled a sexual harassment claim against former Fox News President Roger Ailes in 2016 for $20 million and has become an activist against sexual harassment. Seeing her take over Miss America from a male CEO who used crude, juvenile language against former Miss Americas, including Carlson? Well, that's a beautiful thing.

Have a comment? Email Liz at esnyder@kenoshanews.com or call her at 262-656-6271.
Several people were charged Wednesday with drug-dealing charges.

Three Kenosha residents, Andre Davis, 37, Tywan Davis, 29, and Keshalla Kittler, 22, were charged as co-defendants, accused of selling drugs from a home at 1002 Washington Road.

The home was under surveillance by members of the Kenosha County Drug Operations Group, and according to criminal complaints filed against Andre Davis, Tywan Davis and Kittler, undercover investigators conducted a series of controlled drug buys at the house in November, December and January.

On Wednesday, Andre Davis was charged with delivery of heroin; Tywan Davis was charged with two counts of delivery of heroin and one of cocaine; and Kittler was charged with two counts of delivery of cocaine and one of heroin.

All the charges were enhanced because the sales were conducted within 1,000 feet of Washington Middle School.

A fourth person was charged with delivery of narcotics in an unrelated investigation.

Joshua Green, 23, of Kenosha, was charged Wednesday with delivery of narcotics near a school and delivery of narcotics, party to a crime.

He was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to the criminal complaint, Green is accused of selling prescription hydrocodone and Vyvanse pills to an undercover investigator in two controlled buys in November.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the second Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Leaders Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Photo: VNA)



Stressing the important principals of the cooperation for the socio-economic development of member states as well as regional peace, stability and prosperity, the Vietnamese leader underlined stronger collaboration in effective and sustainable management and use of Mekong water resources.

Overriding priorities should be given to hydro-meteorological statistics and information sharing, cooperation in response to droughts and floods and joint scientific research to construct reservoirs along the Mekong River as well as infrastructure development to facilitate flows of commodities, services and capital, and local peoples travel, he noticed.

It is necessary to support member states to take advantages of the fourth industrial revolution to promote their industrialisation process, he said, adding that efforts should be made to develop high-quality human resources, enhance research and technology transfer in agriculture, especially hi-tech organic development.

The MLC is a sub-regional cooperation mechanism that was jointly established in 2016. With the theme of Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development, this year's meeting drew the participation of leaders from six members: Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

At the event, they reaffirmed the goal of building a Mekong-Lancang region of peace, stability, sustainable development and prosperity. They reached consensus that the MLC should contribute more to promoting regional socio-economic development, narrowing development gap among member states and supporting the ASEAN Community building.

The mechanism must be in harmony with programmes and plans like the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, the Initiative for ASEAN Integration, the UNs 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and many other regional connectivity initiatives.

The leaders adopted Phnom Penh statement and MLC action plan during 2018-2022 with measures to realise cooperation in three pillars: security-politics; economy and sustainable development; society, culture and people-to-people exchange.

They hailed 214 projects proposed by MLC members and agreed to enhance cooperation in management and sustainable use of water resources via an array of activities, including policy dialogue, hydro-meteorological statistics and information sharing, technical cooperation, joint research and pilot projects related to Mekong water.

Also, they consented to step up environment collaboration, especially in minimising environmental risks in economic activities.

The biennial MLC Leaders Meeting is organised in rotation among the member countries. This years event is co-organised by Cambodia and China./.
The front page article described 2017 as one of the most successful years of Vietnams foreign affairs which were implemented actively and drastically in both bilateral and multilateral aspects, serving strategic targets set by the Vietnamese Party and State.

Vietnam excellently hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Year 2017, especially the APEC Economic Leaders Week in the central city of Da Nang, thus affirming the countrys role in a global-level event, the article wrote.

With the attendance of all leaders from APEC member economies and the largest number of delegates, entrepreneurs and reporters, the APEC events turned Vietnam into the centre of attention in the world, helping to promoting the countrys image and improving its position and prestige in the international arena, the article stressed.

President Tran Dai Quang (blue suit) and foreign leaders attending the 25th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Da Nang. (Source: VNA)



The APEC Year 2017 vividly showed that Vietnams multilateral diplomacy has been lifted to a new height, thus effectively protecting and promoting the countrys strategic interests related to security and development, as well as its reputation as a responsible member of the international community.





The success of the APEC Year 2017 created a new perception, faith, strength and momentum for Vietnams stronger international integration in the coming time, it said.

The article also praised Vietnams great efforts to bolster and deepen its relations with countries in the region and powers in the world.

In 2017, Vietnams senior officials paid 18 visits to foreign countries and attended eight multilateral international meetings, during which they held hundreds of bilateral meetings with leaders of countries around the world. At the same time, Vietnam welcomed 36 heads of state and heads of governments on their visits to the country.

Through anniversary celebrations in relations with Laos and Cambodia as well as visits to Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Singapore, Vietnam strongly improved political trust and effectively boosted practical cooperation with regional countries, it said, adding that Vietnams relations with its key partners such as China, Russia, the US, Japan, and India also recorded fruitful development in both politics and economy.

According to the article, Vietnam worked hard to foster international economic integration. The country joined member countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement in pursuing discussions towards a deal pact, which is from now on called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and promote negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. It also joined hands with the European Union (EU)s member nations to accelerate the official signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

Vietnams efforts and determination during the year contributed to enhancing its economic relations with foreign partners. The country reached or exceeded all economic targets set for the year, with total export-import turnover hitting 425 billion USD  the highest amount ever, the article noted./.
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver investments should not be missed out on amid the recent crypto craze, said ABC Bullions global general manager, pointing out that risks associated with digital currencies are often overlooked.

Cryptos huge returns of late might not be able to protect traders against much bigger problems that exist within the cryptocurrencies space, Nicholas Frappell told Australian Mining in an interview on Wednesday.

It would be unfair to compare something like bitcoin with an asset like gold, whose use as money goes back to the beginnings of recorded time, but the fact is that there isnt a lot of depth to the market at the moment, and it is tough to gauge just how hard the market would fall to clear if a large group of cryptocurrency investors decided to exit the market at the same time, ABCs GM Frappell said.

In comparison, the precious metals markets offers a very safe choice, he noted.

Unlike almost all Crypto, gold and silver are traded on a combination of regulated exchanges in the true meaning of the word, or on markets via regulated intermediaries, he said. Huge protections exist to aid investors that are not apparent in the crypto-currency space. This will change, as regulators in major economies seek to extend their powers to the trading of virtual currencies.

Frappell listed some of the risks linked to various virtual currencies: unregulated or unsupervised trading platforms; cybersecurity risks, such as hacking of trading platforms or e-wallets; speculative risks surrounding volatile price movements; and manipulation risks like insider trading or Ponzi schemes.

With time, some of the risks could potentially be mitigated, as government regulators step up their oversight, but the impact of that oversight on the market is currently unclear, said Frappell.

As a Federal market regulator, the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is cognizant of the considerable risks of virtual currencies like Bitcoin, he said.

In the end of January CFTC is holding a meeting dedicated to discussing virtual currencies, their status, as well as some of the main risks and opportunities associated with them.
HANOI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0420 GMT.

January 11 USD/VND mid-point 22,413 USD/VND interbank 22,708.5/22,7

09.5 USD/VND unofficial 22,700/22,720 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.45/36.67

Interbank offered rates Overnight 2.0-2.7

1 week 2.2-3.0

1 month 3.7-4.5

3 months 4.7-5.0

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
Steve Holland, Christine Kim

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday after the first intra-Korean talks in over two years that the United States was willing to speak to North Korea under the right circumstances, although it was far from clear whether this would pay dividends.

South Korea said Trump had also said in a phone call with its President Moon Jae-in that there would be no military action while North-South talks were going on and that a Wall Street Journal article saying he was contemplating a military strike against North Korea was completely wrong.

Who knows where it leads? Trump told reporters at the White House after his call with Moon to discuss Tuesdays North-South talks, the first since 2015.

He said Moon told him the talks went well, and added: Hopefully it will lead to success for the world, not just for our country, but for the world. And well be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens.

At a later news conference with the visiting Norwegian prime minister, Trump said the United States had problems with North Korea, but a lot of good talks are going on right now.

I see a lot of good energy. I like it very much ... So, hopefully, a lot of good things are going to work out.

I think that we will have peace through strength, he added, referring to his policy of ensuring peace through a strong military.

South Koreas Presidential Blue House said both men had said the dialogue could naturally lead to talks between the United States and North Korea for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

At Tuesdays intra-Korea talks, North Korea said it would attend the Olympics, which South Korea will host next month, while both sides agreed to resolve problems between them through dialogue and to revive military consultations to avoid accidental conflict.

However, Pyongyang said it would not discuss its nuclear weapons because they were aimed only at the United States and not its brethren in South Korea, or Russia or China, showing that a diplomatic breakthrough to the crisis remained far off.

While Washington has welcomed the talks as a first step toward solving the crisis over North Koreas program to develop nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States, it has reiterated that any talks involving the United States must be aimed at North Koreas denuclearization.

The White House said Trump told Moon the United States was willing to talk to North Korea at the appropriate time and under the right circumstances.

Trump, who has swung between hurling insults and threats at North Korea to expressing a willingness to talk, said on Saturday he would be willing to speak to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, though not without pre-conditions.

An unsourced article in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday said U.S. officials were debating whether it was possible to mount a limited military strike against North Korea without igniting an all-out war.

The Trump administration has said it prefers a diplomatic solution, but that all options are on the table, including military ones.

U.S. officials say Trump has been considering a number of military options, including a preemptive strike on a missile or nuclear facility, but officials and analysts have warned of the risks of triggering a catastrophic wider conflict.

U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis, holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 10, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

MOON CREDITS TRUMP FOR TALKS

Earlier on Tuesday, Moon made a point of crediting Trump for the Korean talks and also said he himself was open to meeting with Kim at any time if conditions were right and certain achievements are guaranteed.

The purpose of it shouldnt be talks for the sake of talks, he told a news conference, while warning that Pyongyang would face stronger sanctions if provocations continued.

North Korea ramped up missile launches last year and conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, prompting a U.S.-led campaign to impose some of the strongest international sanctions yet, which Pyongyang dubbed an act of war.

Trump and Kim have exchanged threats and insults over the past year, raising fears of war. South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with the North after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Washington and Seoul opened the way for the talks last week when they announced the postponement of joint military exercises that Pyongyang has denounced as a rehearsal for invasion.

Washington had raised concerns that a New Year overture from Kim that led to the talks could be aimed at driving a wedge between the allies, but Moon said he and Washington did not differ over how to respond to North Korean threats.

This initial round of talks is for the improvement of relations between North and South Korea. Our task ... is to draw North Korea to talks aimed at the denuclearization of the North, he said. (Its) our basic stance that will never be given up.

North Koreas official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said all problems would be resolved through the efforts of the Korean people alone.

If the North and South abandon external forces and cooperate together, we will be able to fully solve all problems to match our peoples needs and our joint prosperity, it said.

In spite of the hopeful words about the potential for future talks, the U.S. intelligence assessment of North Koreas weapons programs has not altered, officials say.

U.S. officials familiar with the classified analysis say the consensus is that Kim remains convinced that the United States is determined to overthrow him and that only a nuclear arsenal that threatens America can deter that.

One official said the North-South talks were likely to follow the pattern of past diplomatic efforts, in which North Korea has benefited from aid without making concessions.

Lee Woo-young, a professor at Seouls University of North Korean Studies, said it was wise of Moon to praise Trump.

By doing that, he can help the U.S. build logic for moving toward negotiations, he said.

The United States and Canada are due to host a conference of about 20 foreign ministers next week in Vancouver to discuss North Korea, without the participation of China, Pyongyangs sole major ally and biggest trade partner.

China would not attend and was resolutely opposed to it, its foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

It will only create divisions within the international community and harm joint efforts to appropriately resolve the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, he said.

Additional reporting by Josh Smith and Hyonhee Shin in SEOUL, Michael Martina in BEIJING and David Brunnstrom, John Walcott, Tim Ahmann and Eric Beech in WASHINGTON; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Soyoung Kim; Editing by James Dalgleish
ISTANBUL, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Here are news, reports and events that may affect Turkish financial markets on Thursday.

The lira stood at 3.7960 against the U.S. dollar at 0453 GMT, firming slightly from Wednesday's close of 3.8004.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond was at 11.79 percent in spot trade on Wednesday and fell to 11.77 percent in Thursday-dated trade.

The main BIST 100 share index fell 1.25 percent to 113,589.45 points on Wednesday.

GLOBAL MARKETS

The New Year rally in Asian shares ran out of steam on Thursday as concerns about the U.S. administration's protectionist stance hit Wall Street while U.S. bonds were dented by speculation China may curtail buying. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.1 percent in early trade, slipping further from Tuesday's 10-year peak. Japan's Nikkei lost 0.6 percent. U.S. CHARGE D'AFFAIRES SUMMONED

Turkey on Wednesday summoned a top U.S. diplomat in Ankara to protest Washington's support of a Kurdish militia in Syria, sources in the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, the latest in a long-standing disagreement between the NATO allies. ERDOGAN

President Tayyip Erdogan will hold a breakfast meeting with lawmakers from his ruling AK Party (0800 GMT). He will then make a speech at one of his regular meetings with neighbourhood administrators from across Turkey (1000 GMT). He will also hold regular weekly meetings with the chief of the armed forces (1330 GMT), the head of the national intelligence agency (1500 GMT) and the prime minister (1600 GMT).

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT RULING

Turkey's constitutional court is scheduled to make rulings on challenges by three journalists and a former member of the court itself, who say their rights were violated by their imprisonment during trial in cases linked to the July 2016 attempted coup. The case could have implications for other journalists imprisoned in Turkey.

AKBANK The lender sold a non-performing loan portfolio of 774 million lira ($204 million) for 36 million lira to Guven Varlik, Efes Varlik and Hayat Varlik. For other related news, double click on:

Turkish politics Turkish equities Turkish money Turkish debt Turkish hot stocks Forex news All emerging market news All Turkish news For real-time quotes, double click on:

Istanbul National-100 stock index , interbank lira trading , lira bond trading ($1 = 3.7907 liras)

(Writing by Daren Butler)
(Adds detail, gives background)

LUANDA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Angolan President Joao Lourenco removed the son of his long-serving predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos as head of the country's $5 billion sovereign wealth fund on Wednesday, the latest in a series of moves that sidelined dos Santos allies.

Lourenco, who took office in September when dos Santos stepped down after nearly four decades in power, has swiftly wrested control of key areas of the state by pushing aside powerful figures associated with his predecessor.

He announced on Wednesday that he was replacing the board of the fund, including its head Jose Filomeno dos Santos, after an external inquiry into the fund's performance and governance.

The new board chairman was named as Carlos Alberto Lopes, a former finance minister.

Last month Lourenco dismissed the former president's daughter Isabel dos Santos as chairwoman of the state oil company Sonangol, replacing her with Carlos Saturnino, an oil industry veteran. Lourenco has also appointed allies and former prime ministers Lopo Fortunato Ferreira do Nascimento and Jose Carlos Marcolino Moco as non-executive directors of Sonangol, further solidifying his power within the company.

Oil accounts for a third of Angola's gross domestic product and more than 95 percent of its exports, according to the World Bank, making the leadership of Sonangol one of the most important and powerful jobs in the southwest African country.

(Reporting by Herculano Coroado; Writing by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Peter Graff)
* Vietnam's discount at $30-$45 to London's March contract

* Indonesia's premiums flat at $160 to March contract

* Global output seen rising to new record in 2017/18 - ICO

By Mai Nguyen

HANOI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Trading in major Asian coffee producers remained dull on Thursday, with Vietnam seeing low activity on weak demand while the Indonesian market is expected to remain muted in the lean pre-harvest season, traders said.

The 5-percent black and broken grade 2 robusta was quoted at a discount of $30-$45 per tonne to the ICE March futures contract , compared with a discount of $60-$65 per tonne a week earlier.

This price level is not attractive to importers while exporters could not lower the price further as farmers were unwilling to compromise, traders said. Domestic prices fell nearly 17 percent alone in the last quarter of 2017, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Vietnamese farmers in coffee-growing Daklak province quoted coffee beans at 37,000-37,100 dong ($1.63) per kg, slightly lower than last week's range of 37,000-37,300 dong, traders said.

Prices had scaled a 5-1/2-year peak of 47,650 dong in March last year when Vietnam's coffee crop was hurt by unusually long rainfalls during the harvest season.

Global coffee output is also seen rising to a fresh record in 2017/18 as a recovery in robusta production offsets a decline in the arabica variety, the International Coffee Organization (ICO) said on Tuesday. Arabica coffee production is projected to reach 97.3 million bags, down 1.1 percent from the 2016/17 season, while the robusta coffee output in 2017/18 is seen at 61.5 million bags, up 3.7 percent on last season, ICO said in its monthly report.

Traders estimated that about 30 to 50 percent of the current harvest in Vietnam has already been sold.

In Indonesia, the grade 4 defect 80 robusta were traded at a $160 premium to London March contract this week, unchanged for the past three weeks due to the holiday season, said a trader in Bandar Lampung.

A few small transactions took place this week, the trader added, but activity is expected to remain subdued in the next few months ahead of the harvest. ($1 = 22,708 dong)

(Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Additional reporting by Mas Alina Arifin in Bandar Lampung; Editing by Vyas Mohan)
LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Baltic Exchange is looking into launching a freight index for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and is working with leading ship brokers to explore potential shipping routes that might be used as the LNG market grows, the company said on Thursday.

Founded in 1744 as a forum for chartering vessels, the Baltic Exchange now produces benchmark indexes for global shipping rates, including ones used by the multi-billion dollar freight derivatives market.

Singapore Exchange acquired the exchange in 2016 and since then the Baltic has been looking for new markets to develop.

The London-run business said in a statement it would work with ship brokers Affinity, Braemar ACM , Clarksons and SSY to assess a variety of potential routes before moving to a trial phase.

"The growth in LNG transported by sea has led to the formation of a spot market," Baltic Exchange Chief Executive Mark Jackson said in the statement.

"However, any spot market needs to be underpinned by standard contractual terms - as already happens in the tanker and dry bulk freight markets. The Baltic Exchange is looking to support the LNG freight market as it matures and we hope to deliver greater transparency through an index."

The exchange publishes the Baltic Dry Index, which is the most widely known freight benchmark, that tracks rates for ships transporting dry bulk commodities including iron ore and coal.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Mark Potter)
LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Bank of England has proposed easing the burden of European Union capital rules for insurers, but stopped short of meeting calls from British lawmakers for more radical change.

The BoE's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which supervises banks and insurers, published a consultation paper to lighten some reporting requirements under the bloc's Solvency II rules.

The PRA said the proposed changes take into account recommendations for reform made by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), and by parliament's Treasury Select Committee.

"The PRA believes that these proposals would, in particular, reduce the reporting burden for smaller firms," the watchdog said in its consultation paper.

Solvency II came into force in January 2016 and was the PRA's single biggest regulatory task at the time. The ABI has called for several changes and has found backing from UK lawmakers.

The TSC said in a report last October that the BoE and insurers must find common ground over proposed tweaks to keep the 1.9 trillion pound sector in Britain competitive after the UK leaves the EU in 2019. The PRA is too focused on capital levels and not enough on allowing insurers to compete, the TSC said.

Lawmakers want the PRA to urgently ease the "risk margin", an add-on capital requirement to cover what a third party would need to safeguard policies if an insurer goes bust.

But PRA Chief Executive Sam Woods has so far resisted making unilateral changes to the risk margin, and hopes that the EU would step in before Brexit to change the risk margin have faded.

Woods is expected to respond to the TSC report when he addresses the ABI's annual conference on February 27.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; editingby Ralph Boulton)
SOFIA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Bulgaria expects to apply to join the European exchange rate mechanism known as ERM-2 by June as a preliminary to adopting the euro, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said on Thursday.

"Most likely we will apply in the first six months," Goranov told reporters through an interpreter. A spokeswoman confirmed that he was referring to an application in the first half of 2018.

"In no way we can present any risk to the euro zone," he said, describing Bulgaria's two-decade linking of the lev currency to the euro and the country's strong economic fundamentals, which are well within the criteria for euro zone membership.

The EU executive has said it supports the move but not all the 19 members of the single currency area are comfortable with Bulgaria joining.

(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Oliver Hirt

ZURICH, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse expects a boom in Swiss initial public offerings (IPOs) this year, but not the mega-deals that pushed Switzerland to the top of the world flotation charts last year.

"We see as many or more IPOs in Switzerland in the first half of 2018 as we saw in full-year 2017, so a very strong acceleration," Jens Haas, the bank's head of Swiss investment banking, told journalists on Thursday.

"We don't yet see mega-IPOs like Galenica Sante and Landis+Gyr , so the volume might drop slightly but the number of IPOs will be higher," he said.

He gave no names, but airline catering outfit Gategroup, owned by Chinese group HNA, is considering listing. Last year, Landis+Gyr raised 2.3 billion Swiss francs ($2.36 billion) in the country's biggest IPO in 11 years, while Galenica fetched 1.9 billion francs, marking two of Europe's three biggest IPOs in 2017.

Switzerland's second-biggest bank said it expected leveraged finance, as well as mergers and acquisitions for mid-market companies, to pick up this year, striking an optimistic note on the country's investment banking environment.

UBS has also said it expects a good year for Swiss IPOs in 2018 as a mixture of large and small deals hits the market. ($1 = 0.9758 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Edmund Blair)
ROME/MILAN, Jan 11 (Reuters) - European Central Bank Supervisory Chief Daniele Nouy will meet top Italian banks' representatives and Bank of Italy's officials on Jan. 17 to discuss a number of hot topics including bad debts, several source close to the matter said on Thursday.

Nouy is expected to hold talks with the Bank of Italy's top ranks on Wednesday morning and meet later executives from Italian lenders under the ECB's direct oversight as well as officials from banking association ABI, the sources said.

One source said there was no set agenda for the meeting but key issues such as bad loans, internal models and individual banks' supervisory process would be discussed.

(Reporting by Stefano Bernabei in Rome and Luca Trogni in Milan, writing by Francesca Landini, editing by Valentina Za)
BRUSSELS, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Euro zone industrial output was higher than expected in November, underlining the strong economic momentum of the single currency area that is enjoying its fastest growth in a decade.

The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said on Thursday that industrial production in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 1.0 percent in November against October and was 3.2 percent higher than a year earlier.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.8 percent monthly rise and a 3.0 percent year-on-year gain.

The stronger than expected growth was mainly thanks to a surge in the production of capital goods, demand for which rises when investment goes up, as well as intermediate goods and durable consumer goods.

Industrial production is one of the main components of euro zone gross domestic product, alongside services.

Euro zone GDP rose 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2017 and was 2.6 percent higher year-on-year and investment and household consumption were the biggest contributors to the quarterly figure.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)
NAIROBI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling was steady on Thursday with dollar demand from food and oil importers being met by inflows from charities and remittances, traders said. At 0808 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 103.25/25 per dollar, the same as Wednesday's close. ...........................Shilling spot rates .....................Shilling forward rates .......................Cross rates ..................................Local contributors .......................Central Bank of Kenya Index .....................Kenyan Bonds contributor pages ...............Treasury bill yields ..................Central bank open market operations .........................Horizontal repo transactions , ................Daily interbank lending rate .............................Kenya Bond pricing ..................Real time Africa economic data <ECI & AFR> ...........................African economic news .................................NSE-20 Share Index .................................NSE-25 Share Index .................................NSE All Share Index ...........................FT NSE Kenya 15 Index .......................... FT NSE Kenya 25 Index SPEED GUIDES: (Reporting by John Ndiso; Editing by George Obulutsa)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
LIMA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Peru logged a fiscal deficit equal to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2017, wider than the government's 3 percent target and the 2.6 percent deficit registered in 2016, the central bank said on Thursday. A drop in government revenues made up 0.5 percentage point of last year's deficit, followed by increased government spending, which contributed 0.2 point to the shortfall, the central bank said in a statement.

(Reporting By Mitra Taj, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
BUCHAREST, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Romania sold a planned 500 million lei ($128.85 million) worth of March 2022 treasury bonds on Thursday, with the average accepted yield at 3.8 percent, central bank data showed. Debt managers last issued the paper September at an average yield of 2.71 percent. So far this month, Romania has issued debt worth 1.57 billion lei. Series: RO1722DBN045 Issue date 15/01/2018 27/09/2017 Auction date 11/01/2018 25/09/2017 Maturity 08/03/2022 08/03/2022 Avg.yield (pct) 3.80 2.71 Avg. accepted price 98.4938 102.8519 Highest accepted yield 3.82 2.73 Tail (highest yield minus 0.02 0.02 average yield) Total bids 810 mln lei 423.7 mln lei Allotted 500 mln lei 349.0 mln lei Bid-to-cover ratio 1.6 1.2 ($1 = 3.8806 lei)

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
(Repeats January 10 story with no changes to text)

* Retailers look to bypass cards for online purchases

* Tougher competition could reshape Europe's retail banking

* Establishing consumer trust in data protection a hurdle

By Huw Jones

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - New European rules on online payments and banking due to go into effect on Saturday mark the start of a "slow burn" revolution that will prise open traditional retail banking and may force lenders to rethink their business models, regulators say.

The Payments Services Directive 2 (PSD2), which allows retailers and consumers to bypass banks by authorising payments directly from personal accounts, among other things, aims to cut costs and increase choice by widening the range of firms offering financial services. The European Union rules, which also reflect rapid advances in technology in banking like the use of smart phones, open the door to "fintech" online applications like Money Dashboard, Plum and Moneybox, as well as established retail giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.

"The development of the market is likely to be a slow burn," said Karina McTeague, director of retail banking supervision at Britain's regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). "We, like everyone in this industry, don't know exactly which direction it will go."

Industry experts said the directive would likely have enormous implications for traditional retail banks.

Although firms with PSD2 licenses will not be authorised to take deposits or make loans, bypassing the banks means debit or credit cards will not be necessary for most of their customers' online transactions.

Customers will also be able to authorise firms to access their accounts to help them manage their finances, for example by guiding them to the cheapest points of credit and consolidating data from accounts with more than one bank, which banks have resisted up until now.

"PSD2 is a revolutionary piece of regulation that is likely to signal the end of the high street bank in the medium-to-long term," said Michael McKee, head of financial services regulation at international law firm DLA Piper.

The FCA said it has received 40 licence applications for PSD2 services in Britain. As many as a dozen could be in place by Saturday, it said.

The directive puts the EU at the forefront of efforts to disrupt the central role of banks in how people pay for goods and services online and encourage competition by giving customers the right to share their account data.

Fintech startups in the United States have argued that a little-known provision in the Dodd-Frank Act gives them the right to source data from their customers' accounts, but say some banks have been slow to comply.

OPEN BANKING

The "open banking" system may take a while to gain momentum with the public.

British government efforts to make it easier to switch bank accounts have had limited success due to customer inertia, for example. Another difficulty is convincing customers that their bank account data is safe in the hands of outside firms.

"It will be a challenge for all existing banks and payments firms, given their responsibilities to protect information, to properly and promptly handle requests for access to customer data from new open banking portals," said Tim Dolan, a regulation lawyer at Reed Smith.

Steve Tigar, CEO of Edinburgh-based personal financial management service Money Dashboard, said the new rules will help their business by establishing trust.

"Using a service like Money Dashboard will become commonplace as opposed to the sole domain of early adopters," he told Reuters.

The Bank of England has said direct payment and account services firms could become the future "face" of day-to-day banking, effectively turning traditional retail banks into vaults.

That represents a challenge for banks. A BoE stress test of top UK lenders last year said PSD2's feature of finding the cheapest credit could mean banks will lose revenue from charging for overdrafts, for example.

Income from processing payments and overdrafts currently contribute 800 million pounds and 2.6 billion pounds respectively to annual pre-tax profits of the major UK banks, the BoE said.

That's a relatively small amount compared to the 2016 pre-tax profit of 3.2 billion pounds at just one bank, Barclays. But banks may also have to spend more on marketing to attract and retain customers in face of increased competition, the BoE says.

"I think the days of when you have a big bank and it provides all the touch points to that financial services organisation and provides you with all the product sets, and keeps you captive, are gone," said Anne Boden, CEO of upstart Starling Bank. "PSD2 could change banking forever."

Reed Smith's Dolan said there is nothing to stop banks competing in the same space. HSBC has already said it will launch a new app to aggregate bank accounts.

"We are expecting a mixed market to develop here with both small firms challenging and larger players offering these services to their customers for the first time," said Christopher Woolard, the FCA's executive director of strategy and competition.

The FCA this year is reviewing the business models of retail banks to see if they are sustainable, and will include the impact of PSD2 as an added consideration.

Britain's plan to leave the EU next March will not affect the implementation of PSD2 because all of the EU's financial rules will be incorporated into UK law.

(Additional reporting by Emma Rumney in London and Anna Irrera in New York; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
ZURICH, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Swiss blue-chip SMI was seen opening little changed at 9,525 points on Thursday, according to premarket indications by bank Julius Baer .

The following are some of the main factors expected to affect Swiss stocks:

RICHEMONT Cartier maker Richemont said on Thursday solid sales growth in the quarter to Dec. 31 was driven by the Asia Pacific region and buoyant jewellery demand, kicking off the luxury goods reporting season on a positive note. For more click on NESTLE Food giant Nestle plans to pick a buyer for its U.S. chocolate business by the end of this week, three sources close to the matter said on Wednesday, in a deal expected to top $2.5 billion. Italy's Ferrero is seen as a front-runner, according to several other sources. CLARIANT Swiss exchange SIX has opened an investigation into chemicals maker Clariant on account of a possible breach of the ad hoc disclosure requirements, SIX said on Thursday. ABB Swiss engineering group ABB will nominate three new members to its board at the upcoming annual general meeting. The board is nominating former Baidu CFO Jennifer Xin-Zhe Li, Royal DSM CFO Geraldine Matchett, and former Atlas Copco CEO Gunnar Brock to replace current members Ying Yeh and Louis R. Hughes. BITCOIN

Chinese bitcoin mining giant Bitmain Technologies is expanding to Switzerland in a move that will be key to widening its reach, the group told a Swiss newspaper. EFG EFG has appointed Christian Fleming as chief operating officer, as current COO Mark Bagnall becomes the group's chief technology officer. Fleming was head of finance at Banco BTG Pactual . The private bank also said its head of strategy, Peter Fischer, would be stepping down. COMPANY STATEMENTS * Partners Group expects strong client demand this year after it raised assets under management 14 percent to 62 billion euros in 2017. * Ascom said it expects an EBITDA margin of about 14 percent for 2017 after net revenue grew around 3 percent according to preliminary unaudited results. * Bossard saw sales rise 13.1 percent to 786.2 million Swiss francs in 2017, the group said, after sales in the last three months of the year rose 10.3 percent. * SGS said it acquired Laboratoire de Controle et d'Analyse, a Belgian company that generated revenues of roughly 1 million euros in 2017.

ECONOMY ($1 = 0.8370 euros)

(Reporting by Zurich newsroom)

Daily Swiss stock market report in German................ All SMI constituent stocks............................ News on major Swiss stock price moves.................. FTSE Eurotop 300 index................................ DJ STOXX index........................................ Top 10 STOXX sectors............................. Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors........................ Top 10 Eurotop 300 sectors....................... Top 25 European pct gainers... , losers... Swiss mid-cap index SMI futures Swiss all-share index Market statistics Swiss market digest Sector overview All Swiss news Swiss research news All equity news INTERNET ADDRESSES: Swiss Exchange / Eurex STOXX Ltd SPEED GUIDES: ))

Keywords: MARKETS SWISS STOCKS/


PRAGUE, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Following are results of Thursday's auction of 13-week Czech Treasury bills compared with the previous sale of bills with the same maturity. AUCTION DATE 11/01/18 04/01/18 YIELD (PCT) 0.050 0.175 SOLD IN AUCTION (BLN CZK) 22.358 12.650 incl.FINMIN RETAINED (BLN) 0.000 0.000 INVESTOR DEMAND (BLN) 42.808 16.650 TOTAL VOLUME (BLN) 0.00-5.00 0.00-5.00 AUCTION OFFER (BLN) 0.00-5.00 0.00-5.00 CORRESPONDING PRIBOR (PCT) 0.76 0.76 KEY POLICY RATE (PCT) 0.50 0.50

(Reporting by Mirka Krufova; Editing by Jason Hovet)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
BANGKOK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Thailand plans to sell 157 billion baht ($4.90 billion) of government bonds in the January-March quarter to help restructure debt, the finance ministry said on Thursday.

The bonds will have maturities of between five and 50 years, the ministry said in a statement.

That compares with 124 billion baht of government bond sales planned for the previous quarter. For the bond schedule: ($1 = 32.02 baht)

(Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon and Satawasin Staporncharnchai; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing)
Editor's Note: Updating earlier story to include more details from report.

(Kitco News) - Initial weekly U.S. jobless claims rose by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 261,000 in the week to Saturday, the Labor Department said Thursday.

This was more than consensus forecasts compiled by various news organizations, which called for initial claims to be around 245,000 to 248,000. The government left the prior weeks tally unrevised at 250,000 claims.

Claims taking procedures continue to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands, the Labor Department said, referring to areas hit by storms last year. The claims taking process in Puerto Rico has still not returned to normal.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for new claims  often viewed as a more reliable measure of the labor market since it smoothens out week-to-week volatility  was up by 9,000 claims to 250,750.

Continuing jobless claims, the number of people already receiving benefits and reported with a one-week delay, decreased by 35,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1,867,000 during the week ending Dec. 30, the government said. This is the lowest level since 1973. The four-week moving average fell by 5,500 to 1,913,250.

Traders monitor jobs data closely to gauge how aggressively the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee alters monetary policy.
(Adds detail, gives background)

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 11 (Reuters) - One person was killed and part of South Africa's Royal Bafokeng Platinum's (RBPlat) conveyor belt was burnt during overnight protests at one of its shafts in the country's North West Province, the platinum producer said on Thursday.

Social and labour violence, soaring costs and depressed world platinum prices have hurt South Africa's platinum industry and threatened its profitability.

RBPlat said on Thursday that an individual within a crowd of more than 100 protesters, who attempted to access its premises at its North Shaft on Wednesday night, was killed by live ammunition fired from someone in the group of protestors.

The protest was against recent staff dismissals and the company said its security had tried to disperse the crowd with rubber bullets and paint-balls.

Protesters also set fire to a conveyor belt, burning around 200 metres, and damaging a boom gate and guard house, the company said, adding it could not yet estimate the cost of the damage.

"Activity that takes place on the conveyer belt will be affected but the mining operations will continue," said RBPlat spokesman Mpueleng Pooe.

The protest, which included former employees as well as unknown persons, stemmed from the dismissal of 14 employees last month, following a wildcat strike, the company said.

RBPlat said there had been no protests on Thursday but it would remain vigilant. The incident has been reported to the police and an investigation has begun, the company said.

(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Ed Stoddard and Susan Fenton)
(Adds comment from Freeport)

By Wilda Asmarini

JAKARTA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Indonesia hopes to finalise contract talks with Freeport McMoRan Inc over the Grasberg copper mine by June, although divestment issues are still unresolved, a mining ministry official said on Thursday.

Indonesia and Freeport formed a framework agreement in August to transfer the company's rights to Grasberg to a new mine license system from an existing contract of work. Under the change, Freeport promised to divest 51 percent of its Indonesian unit to the government. However, details of the divestment still need to be ironed out by Freeport, the State Owned Enterprises Ministry and the Finance Ministry, Bambang Gatot, the Coal and Minerals Director General at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, told reporters at a briefing.

"The main issue that hasn't been resolved yet is divestment," Gatot said.

An official at the finance ministry declined to comment.

Other issues under consideration include the development of another domestic copper smelter, an investment stability agreement and the extension of Freeport's operations up to 2041, he said.

State-owned mining holding company PT Inalum has been appointed by the government to acquire the Freeport stake. Grasberg is the world's second-biggest copper mine and is located in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua.

The divestment may involve liquidation of a joint venture that Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI), operator of Grasberg, formed with Rio Tinto in 1996. Under that venture, Rio has a 40 percent interest in PT-FI's Grasberg contract, which entitles them to a 40 percent share of all production after 2022. Rio has held talks with Indonesia about a possible exit to the venture.

Gatot also mentioned that Freeport exported 921,000 tonnes of copper concentrate in 2017, and has a quota to ship up to 1.1 million tonnes through to Feb. 16, noting that the company has not applied for any new quota yet. "They haven't applied for a recommendation (for an extension of exports) yet," Gatot said, referring to Freeport and fellow copper miner Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara, a unit of Medco Energi Internasional .

A Jakarta-based spokesman for Freeport said the company was preparing to apply for a new export recommendation soon, but declined to comment on the contract talks.

Amman shipped 560,000 tonnes of copper concentrate in 2017, Gatot said.

(Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and David Evans)
By Yoon Ja-young



The government will grant tax breaks to individuals investing in Kosdaq funds and encourage public pension funds to increase their investment in the tech-heavy secondary market, according to the finance ministry.



"We will bolster the Kosdaq market to make it a key infrastructure in promoting startups. It will be a market that is healthy and trusted," Strategy and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said at an economy-related ministers' meeting Thursday.



At the meeting, the government unveiled measures to promote the tech-loaded junior stock market. While the government wants to nurture startups as a new growth engine, the Kosdaq has failed to achieve growth to support the plan. It has remained a minor league player with the prejudice that it is a market for speculative small investors.



The government's promotion package includes providing tax breaks of up to 3 million won for individuals investing in the Kosdaq.



It will also induce institutional investors such as the National Pension Fund (NPF) to increase their investment by exempting them from transaction taxes on arbitrage trading. The NPF had invested 2.7 trillion won in the junior bourse as of last September, just 2 percent of its 125 trillion won investment in stocks.



The country's bourse operator, the Korea Exchange, will also establish a 300 billion won scale-up fund to invest in under-evaluated Kosdaq firms.



The government plans to launch new benchmark indices and induce the development of diverse products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs).



A new comprehensive index that comprises both the main bourse KOSPI and the Kosdaq will be launched next month. Indices focusing on small- and medium-sized companies on the KOSPI and Kosdaq will also debut in June to increase investment in them.



Venture capital firms will be allowed to set up private equity funds to encourage their active role in corporate financing and acquisition of startups.



The government also plans to lower barriers to facilitate the listing of innovative firms on the Kosdaq. Currently, a company must meet diverse targets such as market capitalization and total sales.



It also needs to profit steadily from business operations with no capital impairment. Because of these, there have been complaints that startups or businesses that require huge facility or R&D investments cannot be listed on the Kosdaq, despite their high growth potential.



The government will therefore scrap some of the regulations as well as diversify the criteria for listing. This means e-commerce businesses that are capital impaired due to massive investments can also apply for listing.



Analysts expect the policy package to improve investor sentiment on the Kosdaq.



"The Kosdaq scale-up fund will induce additional capital inflow to the market," said Seol Tae-hyun, an analyst at DB Financial Investment. "When considering investors' interest in passive investment, products based on the new comprehensive index are definitely a positive factor for the Kosdaq."



However, some have expressed concern of a bubble in the Kosdaq. They point out it may end up increasing risks for investors.
By Kim Yoo-chul



Korea's leading financial institutions are reconsidering their investment banking strategies in the face of challenging market conditions, heated competition and dwindling profits. They increasingly turn to the international market.



In recent years, lenders have attempted to cut their longtime reliance on the local market. But the results have been mixed in terms of profit growth. Many of them failed to chalk up good results due to lack of business focus.



Nonghyup Financial Group Chairman Kim Yong-hwan is trying to make a difference. The group is attempting to actively take part in large financing projects through close collaboration with banks and life insurance companies. Its eventual goal is to become the Korean version of Goldman Sachs.



"Nonghyup handles deals worth about 6 trillion won from overseas, annually. I want NH Investment Securities, the group's securities unit, to lead the way for external growth of corporate investment financing business. All Nonghyup bank branches in the country are asked to revamp their business structure," Kim said in a recent meeting with newly promoted executives.



"If everyone follows the same business model, a systemic risk tends to rise. We have to facilitate resources to continuously grow our investment banking business. Nonghyup Financial is the only financial holding company in Korea which holds more than 200 trillion won management in assets."



Nonghyup's focus on the investment banking sector would surprise its competitors, which have mostly relied on traditional retail and corporate banking.



Commercial banking and investment banking are totally different businesses and have different logic. Hence, a powerhouse of the former does not automatically develop into a leader of the latter.



The chairman has pushed for improving communication between front and back offices and for swifter implementation of strategies.



"All key information relating to investment banking businesses must be shared between relevant group affiliates. I believe the latest wins in mega project financing deals were the results of the partnership between our units," the chairman said.



Nonghyup aims to achieve 1 trillion won in profit by the end of this year. Kim hopes Nonghyup Bank would take up 78 percent of its year-end profit target.



He said the bank will expand its business territory beyond Korea to make the financial group more sustainable. Nonghyup is in talks with several banks in Indonesia with an aim to acquire stakes. It also plans to invest in banks in Cambodia and Vietnam.



Despite repeated efforts for external growth through mergers and acquisitions, Korean players still lag far behind major overseas investment banks.



As of 2015, Goldman Sachs, a top-tier investment bank, was known to have over $100 billion in net capital, while its rival Morgan Stanley was known to have more than $85 billion.






By Jhoo Dong-chan



The government has come under growing criticism for showing discord in dealing with the controversial cryptocurrency trading.



The justice ministry said Thursday it was preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading and shut down all exchanges in Korea.



But Cheong Wa Dae later denied this, saying the ministry's stance was not a final policy. The dissonance caused extreme confusion on the virtual coin market.



Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said during a press conference that the ministry will push ahead with its plan to take the stern measure against virtual coin trading. His announcement follows the financial authorities' investigation into six of the country's major banks that offered virtual accounts to investors and institutions.



"They are not even currencies. I believe cryptocurrencies are more like an imaginary symbol because they don't work as a means of real currency," Park told reporters.



"There are great concerns about virtual currencies. The justice ministry has delivered its negative view to other government agencies and we are now preparing a bill to stop cryptocurrency trading through exchanges."



Park added he can't comment on a specific timetable for the legislative process, but said his ministry has come up with a plan to counter speculative investments in virtual currencies after discussions with the finance ministry and financial regulators.






Ex-chief US negotiator says NK should never be taken as nuclear state'



By Kim Jae-kyoung





Christopher Hill
North Korea on Thursday called for South Korea to suspend its military drills with the United States, claiming the drills are the fundamental cause of growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The North's call came after the two Koreas agreed Tuesday, at high-level talks on the reclusive country's participation in the upcoming Winter Olympics in the South, to hold military talks to reduce tensions.

"If the South Korean authorities really want detente and peace, they should first stop all the military acts they have waged with (the U.S) against their (northern) brethren," the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party, said in a commentary.

Armament and large-scale joint military exercises, designed to threaten and attack the North, are the main source of inter-Korean tensions and are driving the peninsula into an unpredictable and dangerous situation, the paper said.

"The two Koreas cannot remove mutual distrust and confrontation, and move toward unification, under persistent military tensions," the paper said.

The North is expected to strongly call for the suspension of South Korea-U.S. drills when the planned inter-Korean military talks open.

Earlier, Seoul and Washington agreed to postpone their joint exercises until after the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, which are to be held in the South Korean alpine town of PyeongChang, from Feb. 9-25 and March 9-18, respectively. (Yonhap)
By Kim Rahn



U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that there will be no military action by his country against North Korea as long as the two Koreas are engaged in talks, according to Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday.



Trump said this during a phone call with President Moon Jae-in the previous night, a day after the North and South held their first high-level talks in almost two years to discuss Pyongyang's participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and other issues.



In the 30-minute phone conversation, the U.S. president dismissed speculation about possible military action against the North.



"Trump said The Wall Street Journal recently reported he was considering military action against the North but that this was not true," Moon's chief press secretary Yoon Young-chan said. "He asked Moon to let North Korea know clearly that the U.S. will not carry out any military action against it while Seoul and Pyongyang continue to hold talks."



The remarks show the U.S. president has softened toward the North, given that he used to say all options, including military ones, were on the table and that dialogue with the North was a waste of time.





US-N. Korea talks?






By Kim Rahn



South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to increase cooperation to help the ongoing inter-Korean talks lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue, according to Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday.



In a phone conversation, the two leaders reviewed the inter-Korean talks that took place two days ago over the North's participation in PyeongChang Winter Olympics to be held next month.



"Xi welcomed the improvement of inter-Korean relations through the talks, saying he supported Moon and the South Korean government's efforts for this," Moon's chief press secretary Yoon Young-chan said.



"They agreed to strengthen strategic communication and cooperation so the talks can go beyond the Olympics participation and lead to a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue, and peace on the Korean Peninsula."






By Kim Rahn







The U.S. forward deployed three B-2 Spirit stealth bombers from the U.S. mainland to Guam recently, according to the country's Pacific Air Force Command (PACAF), Thursday.







Analysts say the deployment is seen as move to pressure North Korea to expand the recently launched inter-Korean talks to dialogue for denuclearization, and at the same time showing the U.S. readiness for any possible missile provocations.







According to PACAF, the U.S. Air Force recently deployed three B-2 bombers and 200 airmen from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to Anderson Air Force Base in Guam.







It said the deployment is short-term that took place according to the U.S. Strategic Command's regular bomber rotation, but did not disclose how long the strategic assets would be stationed in Guam.







The PACAF said the bombers would carry out training flights and joint drills with partners in the region.







The B-2 Spirit is one of the U.S. military's three major bombers along with the B-1B Lancer and the B-52 Stratofortress. With the best stealth function among the three types, the B-2, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, can arrive over the Korean Peninsula from Guam in six hours.


A woman bundles up against the cold in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap





Cars are covered with snow in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Thursday. / Yonhap
President Moon Jae-in, left, and United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed in a phone conversation the dialogue between South Korea and North Korea should lead to the communist state to join talks for its nuclear disarmament. / Korea Times file



By Ko Dong-hwan

United States President Donald Trump welcomed South Korea and North Korea resumed talks this week, saying his country will also likely hold a dialogue with the North under the right timing and conditions.

Trump talked to South Korean President Moon Jae-in in a telephone conversation on Wednesday. The American president noted the possibility of inter-Korean dialogue that will lead to the start of the U.S.-North Korea negotiations on ending the communist state's nuclear armament.

The South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said, "After noting that South-North Korea talks may go beyond North Korea's participation in the PyeongChang Olympic Games and eventually lead to talks between the U.S. and North Korea for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the two leaders agreed to closely consult on the direction of talks between the South and North Korea in the future."

The two leaders had a direct phone conversation for the second time in less than a week  and the ninth since Moon's presidential inauguration in May 2017. The Wednesday talk came one day after the two Koreas resumed their dialogue in more than two years to discuss the North's participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in the South in February.
By Kim Jae-heun



Former DB Group Chairman Kim Jun-ki has filed an appeal with the government to revalidate his passport, the Seoul District Court said Wednesday.





Kim fled to America after his secretary sued him sexual harassment last year. Police summoned Kim three times in October and November, but he defied the summons saying he needed to stay in the United States for medical treatments.





Police asked Interpol for assistance with their investigation of Kim in their effort to bring him back to Korea. They also requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invalidate the businessman's passport, which the ministry accepted last month.





Kim's U.S. visa expires at the end of this month and he will become an illegal alien if he does not leave before then.





According to the Seoul Administrative Court, Kim filed a lawsuit against the Minister of Foreign Affairs in November, requesting they cancel their decision to restrict his passport.





He submitted his first plea Tuesday at the second division of the Seoul Administrative Court. The second will take place Feb. 8.





Kim requested a suspension of the foreign ministry's invalidation of his passport along with the original lawsuit but the court rejected it.


People's Party Chairman Ahn Cheol-soo tries a virtual reality archery range developed by Korean startup PDK Limited during a visit to the firm's research center in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap



By Choi Ha-young



The People's Party and the Bareun Party may announce their merger as early as next week, according to sources Thursday.



People's Party Chairman Ahn Cheol-soo is spurring the merger, despite the severe factional dispute whether to merge with the conservative Bareun Party. Ahn will convene the party's executive committee on Friday, which will decide when and how to organize the party's national convention.



The national convention is the only body authorized to make a final decision on the merger. If Ahn wins the vote in the convention, the two parties will embark on the move officially. Sources said the convention will be held at the end of this month, at least by early February.



Considering the composition of the convention members, Ahn holds a dominant position if it reaches a quorum, the sources said.



The merger drive has gained steam recently, following a rift within the Bareun Party. Earlier, Bareun Party Chairman Yoo Seong-min was relatively lukewarm on the merger but a defection of two leading party members has put the party's independent survival in question.



On Wednesday, Gyeonggi Governor Nam Kyung-pil and Rep. Kim Se-yeon left the Bareun Party, with Kim rejoining the larger conservative Liberty Korea Party. Now the Bareun Party has only 10 lawmakers.



"The dialogue with the People's Party is in its final phrase. I will personally brief party members about the talks and finalize the merger, with all of your approval," Yoo said Wednesday.



"At the general meeting, all Bareun Party lawmakers had an honest talk about the merger and we agreed to join hands for it."



Meanwhile, around 18 anti-merger lawmakers in the People's Party are seeking to create their own party, to protest Ahn's leadership. Rep. Choi Gyung-hwan, a vocal critic of Ahn, lashed out at Ahn's "trick" to render the national convention in favor of the merger.



"Ahn is trying to remove anti-merger convention members and replace them with pro-merger members," Choi said in a statement, Thursday. "This is dictatorship which denies parliamentary politics. Ahn's attempt can never be a success."



The anti-merger lawmakers' moves, as well as defections from the Bareun Party, overshadow the united party's fate. Even though they will be united, the number of the envisioned party's seats in the National Assembly will hover around 30  about 20 from the People's Party and 10 from the Bareun Party  less than the People's Party's 39 existing seats.


Representatives of labor and management of Paris Baguette and politicians hold hands at the CCMM building in Seoul after reaching an agreement on the employment of bakers, Thursday. From left are Lee Jae-kwang, head of Paris Baguette franchisees' organization; Lee Jeong-mi, chairwoman of the Justice Party; Shin Hwan-sub, president of the Korean Chemical & Textile Workers' Federation; Kwon In-tae, Paris Croissant CEO; Moon Hyun-goon, leader of the Federation of Korea Trade Unions' public sector workers in the central area; Woo Won-shik, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea; and Lee Nam-shin, a civic group leader. / Courtesy of SPC Group



By Park Jae-hyuk



Paris Baguette's franchise headquarters and the nation's two umbrella unions have finally ended their dispute over the employment of bakers.



SPC Group, the parent company of the nation's top bakery chain, said Thursday the union accepted the company's suggestion that the franchiser's subsidiary will hire 5,300 subcontracted bakers, who have been dispatched to Paris Baguette bakeries nationwide.



The agreement is expected to allow SPC to avoid a 16.2 billion won fine, which the Ministry of Employment and Labor imposed on the company last month. The ministry said it would not levy the penalty, unless the bakers want direct employment.



Also, some bakers decided to withdraw lawsuits demanding the franchiser confirm their status as employees.



"The bakers regarded job stability as their top priority, so they decided to accept our suggestion," a Paris Baguette official said.



The controversy first arose in September last year, after the labor ministry ordered the franchiser to directly hire bakers working at Paris Baguette bakeries. Since then, experts in industry, labor and law have debated the practical employment of the bakers.



As the dispute heated up, the nation's two umbrella unions and the franchise headquarters began discussing the matter in depth. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), the minor opposition Justice Party and civic groups mediated so the dispute could be finally settled.



According to SPC, the franchiser will hold more than a 51 percent stake in a new subsidiary. Also, an executive from franchise headquarters will serve as the representative director of the subsidiary. The existing subcontractors will be excluded from holding the subsidiary's shares and being board members.



In addition, bakers will receive 16.4 percent higher salaries on average and will enjoy the same welfare as the employees at headquarters. They will be granted more days-off as well, so the company will hire 500 additional workers.



"As chief of the franchise headquarters, I feel responsible for causing anxiety to the bakers, franchisees and subcontractors," said Kwon In-tae, the CEO of Paris Croissant operating Paris Baguette. "As we reached a socially meaningful agreement amid difficulties, we will try our best to create more decent jobs."



On the day of the agreement, officials from the franchise headquarters, an organization of franchises, the two umbrella unions, the DPK and the minor opposition Justice Party signed an agreement at the CCMM building in Seoul.


By James M. Dorsey



Expressions of support by U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu have provided the grist for Iranian claims that anti-government protests were instigated by foreign powers. The largely baseless assertions nonetheless offer insight into the very different strategies adopted by Iran and Saudi Arabia in their vicious struggle for regional dominance.



There is little doubt that the protests were fueled by widespread economic grievances with Iran's detractors resembling not always helpful fans on the sidelines. In fact, Saudi Arabia, Iran's nemesis, was the one opponent of the Islamic republic that refrained from joining the fans publicly in a bid to deprive the regime in Tehran from using it as a scapegoat. That did not stop Iranian leaders from pointing a finger at the kingdom in ways that reflected the dynamics of the Iranian-Saudi rivalry.



Both Iranian and Saudi approaches to their rivalry are in flux. Protesters in Iran challenged the government's heavy expenditure on propping up allies like Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and funding proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Yemen, not to mention proselytization campaigns in West Africa.



The protests are unlikely to change Iranian policy that the country's leaders view as the crux of their defense strategy in covert wars with the United States and Saudi Arabia that have been ongoing since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the shah, a monarch and an icon of now waning U.S. power in the region.



Nonetheless, Iranian leaders will have to take public grievances into account even if the protests peter out. Rather than toting its regional successes publicly, Iran going forward is likely to be more circumspect about its foreign involvements. While that will not change things on the ground, it may contribute over time to an environment more conducive to a lessening of tensions.



Despite the protests, Iran has little reason to change facts on the ground. With access to the world's most advanced weapons systems severely restricted for decades because of sanctions and boycotts, some in response to provocative Iranian actions and policies, others part of regional power struggles; Iran has sought to fight its battles far from its borders. Many Iranians bought into the argument that the policy had largely shielded their country from instability and jihadism wracking the rest of the region.



Simultaneous Islamic State attacks last June on the Iranian parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic, that killed 12 people were viewed as the exception that proved the rule. That perception has changed in a significant segment of the population as protesters demanded that funds allocated to Iran's defense doctrine and enhancement of its regional influence be invested in improving their deteriorating living standards.



"Our military doctrine is  based on historical experience: During the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein rained Soviet-made missiles on our cities, some of them carrying chemical components provided by the West. The world not only kept silent, but also no country would sell Iran weapons to enable us to at least deter the aggressor. We learned our lesson," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in the New York Times weeks before the protests erupted.



Speaking last week at a Brookings Institution seminar in Washington, Iranian-American journalist Maziar Bahari described Iran's doctrine as a more brutal and militarized version of the late Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion's policy of the periphery that in the absence of relations with Israel's neighbors sought to forge ties with the neighbors of the Jewish state's neighbors.



Zarif represents the view of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's pragmatic government, a view shared by conservatives as part of a far greater ambition that they have no compunction about articulating.



In a column in the conservative Tehran Times entitled "What makes Iran stronger than Saudi Arabia?" sociologist and journalist Mohammad Mazhari argued that "the Saudi regime has no comprehension that money cannot replace ideological values." By contrast, Mazhari wrote, "There are common ties between Iran and Hezbollah, however the crux of those ties is not monetary. What drives Iran is not a superficial goal, it is working hard to restore the empire, but this time culturally, while Saudi Arabia and its alliances have no clear vision or project in the Middle East save for keeping their thrones."



Prince Mohammed vowed months before Zarif articulated Iran's defense doctrine, that the fight with Iran would take place "inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia." In doing so, the crown prince was playing on deep-seated Iranian fears rooted in a history of foreign intervention that stretches from ancient to modern times as well as highlighting the fundamentally different Saudi and Iranian strategies.



Since coming to power in 2015, Prince Mohammed has shifted the emphasis of Saudi strategy from long-term cultural and public diplomacy focused on promotion of Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism as an antidote to Iranian Shiite and revolutionary ideology, and passive reliance on the United States to defend the kingdom by containing Iran to a more assertive confrontation of the Islamic republic everywhere but in Iran itself.



Prince Mohammed's approach is a power play based primarily on checkbook diplomacy, pressure tactics, and projection of the kingdom as the custodian of Islam's holiest cities. It is an approach that is void of any ideology or worldview beyond the need to counter Iran and support autocratic or authoritarian rule in a bid to ensure the survival of his family's rule.



Prince Mohammed's approach has so far produced mixed results at best. His effort to force a political crisis in Lebanon by pressuring Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign backfired. King Abdullah of Jordan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the crown prince's demand that they not attend an Islamic summit in Istanbul convened last month to condemn Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.



The prince's one military adventure, intervention in Yemen, has produced a quagmire, severely tarnished the kingdom's image, and even provoked criticism from one of his greatest fans, Trump. Egypt has adopted an independent foreign policy that is at times at odds with positions adopted by Saudi Arabia despite being financially dependent on the kingdom.



Hanging in the balance is the question whether Prince Mohammed's declaration last year that he wants to return the kingdom to a yet undefined moderate form of Islam means that he will introduce an ideological element to his strategy that would replace the increasingly problematic propagation of Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism.



It's a tall order in a country whose religious establishment and culture is steeped in ultra-conservatism despite support for more relaxed religious and social codes among a significant segment of a predominantly young population.



A successful redefinition of Islam would not only significantly enhance confidence in Prince Mohammed's ability to change the nature of Saudi society and its economy but also strengthen the kingdom in its struggle with Iran that despite being fought as a zero-sum game can only be resolved with an agreement that recognizes both Saudi Arabia and Iran as key regional players.



Economics rather than Iran's rivalry with Saudi Arabia and hostility towards the United States and Israel is at the crux of anti-government protests in Iran. Nevertheless, the protests are likely to force Iranian leaders to repackage their foreign involvements at a time that Prince Mohammed is seeking to revamp his kingdom as part of an economic and political survival strategy. In the longer term, that could unintentionally create building blocks for the lowering of tensions in a dispute that has wreaked havoc across the Middle East and the wider Muslim world.





Dr. James M. Dorsey (jmdorsey@questfze.com) is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wurzburg's Institute for Fan Culture, and co-host of the New Books in Middle Eastern Studies podcast.






By Arthur I. Cyr





The New Year has begun without a bang, at least of the nuclear weapons variety. We can all be thankful the apocalyptic bluster from the leader of North Korea has continued to be just that, with no indication of using this fearsome new weapons capability.



Two resolutions for 2018 on the part of Washington would be welcome. First would be a commitment to sustained, disciplined diplomacy. Adult behavior is always particularly welcome  and important  in the uncertain and dangerous world of international relations.



The end of the Cold War has actually increased the danger of instability and war, thanks to greater political and military uncertainty. Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago made this profound point with remarkable insight and prescience as the Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe bloc of satellite states were disintegrating, nearly three decades ago.



Second, we must keep alliance relations at the forefront in the Pacific, concerning not only North Korea but also China and other centers of tension and trouble. In the Atlantic region, emphasis on working together with other nations now comes naturally; indeed it is second nature to us.



Shortly after World War II, the Truman administration made courageous decisions and had a historic impact in fostering economic and military collaboration. Secretary of State and General George C. Marshall announced a comprehensive European economic recovery program in an address at Harvard University in June 1947.



The following year, Congress passed the unprecedented economic aid package, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, working together in a bipartisan manner with the White House and other administration representatives. The Democratic Truman administration worked assiduously to develop Republican allies in Congress, notably the formerly isolationist Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan.



Beginning in early 1953, the new Republican administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower continued by then established trends in both domestic and foreign policies. The White House confirmed basic elements of the New Deal, and expanded Social Security.



In foreign policy, Eisenhower reinforced the internationalist wing of the Republican Party, in part through bipartisan cooperation, while isolating isolationists. Working behind the scenes, he effectively destroyed the anti-Communist demagogue, Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin.



Such cooperation was not magically easier in that earlier time, but collectively Americans were more realistic, and more mature. Tremendous hardships during the Great Depression, followed by the life-and-death struggle of World War II, rendered today's self-indulgence unacceptable to the American people, and in consequence to the leaders we then elected.



Eisenhower did not like dealing with Congress. Nonetheless, he worked with congressional leaders of both parties. For six of Ike's eight years in office, the Democrats had congressional majorities.



Powerful incentives today encourage especially close collaboration with South Korea, a dedicated long-term U.S. ally. That country has steadily expanding economic influence in Asia, and increasingly also in global terms.



President Moon Jae-in has impressive experience for current challenges. He has been a human rights activist and lawyer. Moon also served as a Special Forces soldier.



The Korean War made the Cold War a global conflict. President Truman courageously decided to defend South Korea against an invasion from the North. President Eisenhower achieved the armistice in that war.



Despite constant tension and sporadic violence between North and South Korea, the armistice has held. Pyongyang's current efforts to deal directly with South Korea are encouraging. The current disarray in Washington provides further reason to let Seoul lead.



After all, the Korean Peninsula is their home, not ours.





Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of "After the Cold War." Contact acyr@carthage.edu


President Moon Jae-in gave his first New Year press conference at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday. The event was different from others during previous administrations in that the President took random questions from the press.



This unique aspect of Moon's New Year press conference received favorable responses from international and local media. "A welcome development from Moon Jae-in: this press conference is a free-for-all. Journalists are not pre-selected to ask questions, unlike previous administrations," Anna Fifield, Tokyo bureau chief for the Washington Post, wrote on Twitter.



The domestic media also had mostly good things to say about Moon's interaction with reporters. It was noteworthy that the President chose to take questions not just from major news outlets but also less influential ones, such as provincial newspapers. However, the open exchanges between the President and the press could not make up for some of the shortcomings of his job so far. He has failed to give Koreans more confidence about his administration's capacity to improve their lives. Despite his focus on being the "jobs president," the youth unemployment rate reached a record high last month since 2000, with 9.9 percent of people aged between 15 and 29 being out of work.



The main focus of the President's New Year message was improving the people's lives as he devoted much of his 20-minute speech to the subject.



Moon is right to show more determination to focus on the economy as Koreans are facing some of the most troubling times since the financial crisis of the late 1990s. Many people are struggling to find jobs and even those who are employed are having a rough time making ends meet, with stagnant wages and rising living costs. Under these circumstances, more Koreans across all generations are feeling hopeless and becoming cynical about the government's ability to turn things around to make the nation a better place to live.



The President failed to give a detailed explanation about policies regarding some of the most crucial challenges, including job creation and population issues, such as the declining birthrate and aging society. There was also not enough mention about some of the issues working families are most interested in, such as education, real estate and health care.



Many people are becoming increasingly doubtful about Moon's overly ambitious welfare pledges. Koreans are expected to face a considerable tax hike this year, including the National Health Insurance fees.



We hope that the President will arrange meetings with journalists in the future more regularly. During such occasions, he should provide concrete explanations about how he plans to improve the people's lives.






Visitors to this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) take a look at a smart tire prototype displayed by German automotive system giant, Continental, at the Las Vegas Convention Hall, Tuesday (local time). The sensor-equipped tire alarms drivers when it detects damages inside or outside the tire. / Korea Times photo by Lee Min-hyung



Harman, Continental unveil sensor-driven smart vehicle solutions



By Lee Min-hyung



LAS VEGAS  Drivers are getting safer.



New smart vehicle systems were unveiled at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here.



Self-driving vehicles are all the rage at the world's largest tech tradeshow, which opened Tuesday (local time).



Leading automakers such as Mercedes-Benz and Toyota hyped their state-of-the-art systems for the upcoming autonomous vehicle era.



With the rise of the connected car, a number of safety-focused auto-parts manufacturers have also drawn keen attention by displaying cutting-edge smart vehicle systems.



Continental, a German automotive systems manufacturer, is one of the companies to showcase what the next-generation tires will look like.



The company displayed a sensor-equipped tire prototype, powered by its patented Conti Sense technology, which warns the driver if tires are damaged or overheat.



"The technology allows the tire to send signals to the vehicle in real-time," an engineer at the Continental booth said. "To detect any possible damage, the tire is equipped with a series of sensors."





An official at the Continental booth demonstrates how the smart tire prototype can detect damages from a nail at the Las Vegas Convention Center on the sidelines of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Min-hyung

The puncture sensor, set up inside the tire is used to detect any minor punctures of the tire.



"Another sensor is to measure the temperature of the tire, informing drivers of the tire's condition and temperature," he said.



The Conti Sense tire has not been commercialized as it is still in the final stages of development, he said.







Seen above is the Digital Cockpit, co-manufactured by Samsung Electronics and Harman. Both companies showcased the prototype for the next-generation in-vehicle smart system at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Tuesday (local time). / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
By Kang Aa-young, Park Si-soo







Nearly 120 iPhone users here have filed a collective lawsuit against U.S. tech giant Apple and its Korean branch over the deliberate slowdown of their iPhones caused by controversial Apple software.







They filed a suit with the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday, each demanding 2.2 million won ($2,056) in compensation, the Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty, a consumer rights group representing the plaintiffs, said.







This is the first lawsuit of its kind in South Korea raised by the deliberate malfunction that has seen the Silicon Valley-based company hit with a torrent of criticism and lawsuits around the globe.







Apple admitted on Dec. 20 that it had deliberately slowed the performance of the iPhone 6, 6S and iPhone SE that had degraded batteries to "prevent the models from unexpectedly shutting down." But critics say it was a technical gimmick aimed at encouraging users of aged iPhones to buy new models.







Haunnuri Law, a South Korean law firm, is accepting applications from people who want to join the lawsuit. So far, more than 370,000 people have expressed their intention to join.


By Park Jae-hyuk



Hyundai Motor has taken its first step toward the sharing economy in the Southeast Asian market.



The nation's top automaker said Thursday it has decided to invest in Grab, the leading ride-hailing service provider in Southeast Asia.



Dubbed the "Southeast Asian version of Uber," Grab has grown into a company accounting for 75 percent of the region's car-hailing service market since it was established in 2012.



It offers services in 168 cities in eight Southeast Asian nations. The number of drivers registered in the network topped 2.3 million. They provide 3.5 million daily rides, on average, proving the company's competitiveness in the industry.



Hyundai plans to develop various services based on Grab's business platform, expanding its presence in Southeast Asia's mobility market.



The two companies will consider using the Hyundai Ioniq electric vehicle (EV) for car-hailing services in Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries.



Given that Southeast Asian countries have recently begun showing interest in ride-hailing services using eco-friendly vehicles, the two firms' cooperation is expected to improve Hyundai's brand image in the region.



"If Grab's service combines with our eco-friendly cars, innovation will be brought into the Southeast Asian market," said Hyundai Motor Executive Vice President Chi Young-cho, who is in charge of strategic technologies. "Seeking continuous cooperation with mobility service providers having world-class technical skills, we will lead the global sharing economy market."



Grab CEO Anthony Tan said he is pleased with Hyundai's cooperation, because Grab is expected to grow further, thanks to collaboration with powerful partners including Hyundai.



This is not the first time Hyundai Motor Group has joined with companies providing car-hailing, car-sharing or carpool services.



Hyundai Motor has offered its Ioniq EV to a U.S. car-sharing service provider and its hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to Korean and German car-sharing service companies. In October last year, the world's fifth-largest carmaker launched an Ioniq EV-based car-sharing service in Amsterdam.



Kia Motors, Hyundai Motor's sister company, launched a car-sharing service called WiBLE last August. The service will be available in major European cities from the second half of this year.



The automotive group said it will continue to focus on the Southeast Asian market because of its high growth potential.



During the first half of last year, Hyundai created a joint venture in Vietnam with the country's domestic carmaker, Thanh Cong, to produce the i10 and Tucson there. In December, the Korean firm sealed a deal with the Indonesian-based Artha Graha to set up a joint venture for the manufacturing and sales of commercial vehicles.


Two men have been charged with crimes after a 14-year-old victim came forward, telling authorities that she had been brutally raped and then forced inside the trunk of a car, suffering hypothermia and frostbite.

According to two separate charging documents filed in Fairbanks, Spencer LaChapelle, 20, of Healy faces the charge of first degree sexual assault, and Anthony "Tony" Timeche, 19, also of Healy, faces the charge of second degree sexual abuse of a minor.

The victim in both cases is the same girl, authorities say. Her father reportedly called the Alaska State Troopers following a violent sexual assault on the night of Dec. 29.

According to charging documents, LaChappelle offered to give the 14-year-old victim a ride in his car to a party. The affidavit says that the two had known eachother "for years, while living in the small town of Healy," despite their age difference.

After driving a half mile, LaChappelle reportedly told her that he was going to have sex with her. She told him that was not going to happen, and he "immediately became violent," according to authorities.

What came next, the victim described to authorities, was a cavalcade of rage and violence. LaChappelle allegedly raped, sodomized, and bit the victim's genitals until she bled, according to the charging document.

The victim "began screaming and crying aloud which she believes halted Spencer from any further actions," the document states.

After the rape, the investigator said LaChappelle drove his car into a snow berm. He allegedly "became agitated after becoming stuck, and grabbed [the victim] by her hair, slapping and spitting in her face." The document says he bit her again, this time on the face, and forced her to perform oral sex on him in the disabled vehicle.

According to the document, LaChappelle strangled the victim until she "began scratching and fighting him off." At that point, authorities say he called his father, Wayne LaChappelle, to help get his car out of the snow berm.

However, LaChappelle did not want his father seeing him with a girl obviously much younger than he was. "Spencer directed [the victim] to get in the trunk of his vehicle due to her being a minor and him not wanting his dad to recognize how young she was." The victim remained in the trunk of the car the entire time it was being pulled from the ditch.

In addition to Wayne arriving, Anthony "Tony" Timenche, a friend of LaChappelle also showed up to provide assistance. According to a separate charging document, 19-year-old Timenche had a "consensual sexual relationship" with the female victim.

Timenche was arrested following the incident for sexual abuse of a minor after the victim told investigators about their relationship, where she alleges the two engaged in various sexual acts "over 30 times" between October and December of 2017.

During the night of the rape, Timenche and LaChappelle drove the car, now freed from the snow, all the way back to her residence. During that time, the charging document states, "[the victim] yelled and pleaded with the two to allow her to get out of the trunk; however, both Spencer and Tony ignored her while she screamed and pleaded."

The temperature outside that night was 20 degrees below zero, according to the document. The girl suffered from hypothermia and frostbite "due to being locked in the trunk for quite a while."

The girl recorded herself pleading for help on her phone, before they eventually let her out of the trunk. She also recorded herself stating she had been raped and was afraid, the document states.

Forensic examiners later confirmed much of her allegations, with details such as forced penetration and a "large laceration" on her genitals corroborating her statement of being raped and bitten.

The Alaska State Troopers arrested LaChappelle, who initially denied having sex with the victim, but later admitted to it, stipulating that it was consensual. According to charging documents, he continued to deny the oral sex or physical assault.

Both men face charges, though prosecutors believe they could face even more charges before the cases go to trial.
Anchorage voters are receiving address verification cards in the mail ahead of the city's first election by mail.

The Municipal clerk's office says 208,000 registered voters in Anchorage should receive the postcard by the end of this week.

Ballot materials will be mailed to the city's registered voters 21 days before the April 3, 2018 election day.

Even with the earlier mailing deadline, voters may still

information until the normal deadline, of March 3.

This is also the first year that Alaskans can

, but since the PFD deadline is March 31, procrastinating filers who want to update their information to vote in Anchorage may want to beat that deadline.
PRESS RELEASE

Russia: Sochi Congress Is To Reinforce Geneva Process, Not Replace It

Jan. 10, 2018 (EIRNS)The official Syrian opposition is putting on the diplomatic pressure to try to reduce Russias role in the Syrian peace process. A delegation, led by Nasr Hariri, the head of the oppositions Geneva negotiating team, is in the U.S. hoping to persuade the Trump Administration to counter Russias weight in Syria. "All of us, all of our countries are waiting for an American role" in finding a settlement to the nearly seven-year war, Hariri told AFP in an interview. The United States is "the most important player in the Syrian fight, the only state that can make a balance with the Russian influence," he said. While in Washington, they hope to meet with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster as well as officials at the State Department and members of Congress.

Yesterday, they were in New York, trying to convince U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the UN should not participate in the National Dialogue Conference that Russia is organizing for Sochi. Hariri said he was told by Guterres that no decision had been made yet on whether the United Nations would take part in the Sochi conference, a move that would bring credibility to the Russian-led effort. Hariri also indicated that no final decision has bene made yet on whether or not the opposition will boycott the Sochi congress. Hariri claims that the Russians will use the Sochi meeting to hijack the Geneva process.

The Russians, however, continue to present their efforts as reinforcing the Geneva process, rather than being separate. Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, characterized the Sochi meeting, yesterday, in those terms.

"We assume it is in the interests of the United Nations to participate since Sochi is not an isolated event, and should contribute to the UN-sponsored process,"

he said, reports Tass. According to Nebenzya, Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the National Dialogue Congress "is not an alternative" to the Geneva process as the Syrian opposition assumes. "We are telling it to all, from Secretary-General to Staffan de Mistura, to all participants, Syrian government and opposition and other member-states," he said, adding that the goal of the upcoming forum is to "enhance the UN-sponsored process in Geneva aimed at political settlement in Syria."
PRESS RELEASE

South Korean President Ready for Summit, Credits Trump

Jan. 10, 2018 (EIRNS)South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed his readiness to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, provided certain conditions are met, including the resolution of North Korean nuclear issue must be resolved. Moon also credited President Donald Trump for creating the political conditions for this weeks inter-Korea talks.

"I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks, and I want to show my gratitude," he told reporters at his New Year press conference in Seoul Wednesday, as quoted in todays Guardian. "It could be the result of U.S.-led sanctions and pressure."

"This initial round of talks is for the improvement of relations between North and South Korea," he said.

"Our task going forward is to draw North Korea to talks aimed at the denuclearization of the North. That is our basic stance, and that will never be given up."

He continued:

"We cannot say talks are the sole answer. If North Korea engages in provocations again or does not show sincerity in resolving this issue, the international community will continue applying strong pressure and sanctions."

Moon said he would be willing to meet the North Korean Chairman but wouldnt have "a meeting for the sake of a meeting," calling for Pyongyang to move towards denuclearization. "War must not break out on the Korean Peninsula again," Moon said according to CNN. "My goal is to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem and solidify peace during my term."

On Jan. 9 following a long day of negotiations at the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, Moon referenced the management of international pressure on the North and the tension it could create.

"We need to have a deep consideration regarding how we would appropriately manage these tensions, prevent unintentional clashes and establish dialogue with North Korea,"

the South Korean President said.
PRESS RELEASE

Trump Split from GOP Leaders on Infrastructure Funding

Jan. 10, 2018 (EIRNS)Heads of transportation associations spoken to yesterday said that no serious initiative on infrastructure-building legislation appeared likely to come from either the White House or Congress, and feared cuts in existing credits instead, due to wide differences. One said he thought that the subject could be put off to February or beyond, despite President Trump motivating it in the State of the Union Address.

A split between Trump and Congressional Republicans is becoming evident. CNBC today reported,

"An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, "The presidents inclination is just spend money, while the House is more talking about public-private partnerships."

And a Congressional "senior aide" is quoted in the same article, "The President is not on board with what Gary Cohn presented"i.e., Cohns motivation of public-private partnerships at the Camp David meeting.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), representing millions of people in manufacturing companies, released a strong letter to Trump Jan. 9, signed by NAM CEO Jay Timmons.

"The infrastructure investments of the 1950s and 1960s brought tremendous economic benefits, built strong communities, improved productivity and competitiveness and allowed manufacturing to grow and put people to work in solid middle-class jobs. Today, however, as more and more of our infrastructure crumbles, it is not keeping up with modern demands for safety and innovation, nor is it giving American workers the tools they need to compete with the rest of the world." The letter demands: "Shore up the Highway Trust Fund with a reliable, user-based, long-term funding stream [a gas tax increaseed.]; spend the $9 billion balance in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to deepen ports and harbors; quickly upgrade aging locks and dams,"

in a list of ten demanded actions.
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request for a preliminary injunction to remove Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The judge sided with Mulvaney  President Trumps budget director and choice for the interim position  over Leandra English, the agencys deputy director who has said she is the rightful acting director.



For the record: An earlier version of this article reported that President Trump chose Mick Mulvaney to be the CFPBs acting director last month. The choice was made in November.

The court finds that English is not likely to succeed on the merits of her claims, nor is she likely to suffer irreparable harm absent the injunctive relief sought, said Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a 46-page decision.

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The ruling came after Kelly denied a request by English last month for a temporary restraining order to remove Mulvaney and install her as acting director.

The restraining order decision could not be appealed, so Englishs attorney, Deepak Gupta, filed for a preliminary injunction. Kelly heard nearly two hours of arguments on the injunction Dec. 22.

The denial of the injunction request by Kelly, a Trump appointee, can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Gupta said he and English were disappointed in the decision, which hinged on which of two federal laws governed succession at the bureau.

The law is clear: President Trump may not circumvent the Senate confirmation process by installing his White House budget director to run the CFPB part time, Gupta said Wednesday night in a statement on Twitter. Mr. Mulvaneys appointment undermines the bureaus independence and threatens its mission to protect American consumers.

Gupta did not say if the ruling would be appealed and did not respond to a request for additional comment. But he had indicated English would appeal, saying previously that I think everyone understands this court is not the final stop, this judge does not have the final word on what happens in this controversy.

A White House spokesman said Thursday that the judge got the ruling right.

The administration is glad to see the courts once again recognize the presidents lawful designation, said Raj Shah, principal deputy White House press secretary. The president looks forward to acting director Mulvaneys continued work on behalf of American consumers.

A spokesman for Mulvaney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trumps choice of Mulvaney, an outspoken opponent of the bureau in the past, drew protests from Democrats and consumer advocates.

The dispute began Nov. 24 when Richard Cordray, a Democrat, stepped down as bureau director. He promoted English, his chief of staff, to deputy director and said she would be the acting director under a provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that created the bureau.

Within hours of Cordrays resignation announcement, Trump appointed Mulvaney to fill the post under the Federal Vacancies Act of 1998. The administration said that law allowed Trump to appoint an official who already had been confirmed by the Senate in another capacity to also serve as the bureaus acting director.

Kelly noted in his decision that both sides urged a quick resolution to the uncertainty about the bureaus leadership and said removing Mulvaney, who has been serving as acting director, would not accomplish that.

There is little question that there is a public interest in clarity here, but it is hard to see how granting English an injunction would bring about more of it, Kelly said.

The president has designated Mulvaney the CFPBs acting director, the CFPB has recognized him as the acting director, and it is operating with him as the acting director, he said. Granting English an injunction would not bring about more clarity; it would only serve to muddy the waters.

Mulvaney has moved quickly to put his stamp on the bureau, which writes rules and enforces consumer protections against banks and other financial institutions.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera

UPDATES:

5:20 a.m. Jan. 11: This article was updated with additional comment from Deepak Gupta and White House reaction.

9:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional detail from the ruling.

This article originally was published at 8:40 p.m. Jan. 10
The leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau remains under a cloud of uncertainty despite another Trump administration victory in the legal battle over who should be the agencys acting director.

A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request for a preliminary injunction to remove President Trumps appointee for the temporary job, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney. But Leandra English, the deputy director who has said she is the rightful acting director, is expected to appeal the decision.

Such a move would extend for weeks the unease among banks and consumer advocates about the direction of the independent watchdog agency created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

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This is the beginning, not the end, of a legal journey, said Ed Mierzwinski, federal consumer program director at the nonprofit U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which was among several consumer groups that filed briefs supporting Englishs injunction request.

In addition, a separate lawsuit filed in federal court in New York by the Lower East Side Peoples Federal Credit Union, which also seeks an injunction to remove Mulvaney, is set for a hearing Friday.

Only a permanent director, confirmed by the Senate, would definitively resolve the leadership dispute in the near term, said Alan S. Kaplinsky, head of the consumer financial services group at law firm Ballard Spahr.

The industry needs certainty when it comes to any federal agency. They need to know whos in charge and whos got authority and right now they dont, he said. Id be very reluctant to enter into any kind of agreement with the CFPB right now because I cant be assured that the director has authority.

But Kaplilnsky said the latest court ruling reduces the pressure on Trump to replace Mulvaney, who has moved quickly to put his stamp on the bureau, which writes rules and enforces consumer protections against banks and other financial institutions.

The law under which Trump appointed Mulvaney allows him to serve for as long as 210 days. The restriction is suspended if a nomination is pending in the Senate and the 210-day clock starts again if the Senate rejects a nomination.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a strong supporter of the bureau, said Thursday that the White House needs to act.

This administration should swiftly nominate someone who will have full bipartisan support in the Senate and will protect consumers instead of special interests like Wall Street and payday lenders, he said.

But a White House spokesman didnt indicate Thursday that a nomination was coming soon.

The administration is glad to see the courts once again recognize the presidents lawful designation, said Raj Shah, principal deputy White House press secretary. The president looks forward to acting director Mulvaneys continued work on behalf of American consumers.

Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with Mulvaney over English in a 46-page decision.

The ruling came after Kelly denied a request by English last month for a temporary restraining order to remove Mulvaney and install her as acting director.

The restraining order decision could not be appealed, so Englishs attorney, Deepak Gupta, filed for a preliminary injunction. Kelly heard nearly two hours of arguments on the injunction Dec. 22.

The denial of the injunction request by Kelly, a Trump appointee, can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Gupta said he and English were disappointed in the decision, which hinged on which of two federal laws governed succession at the bureau.

The law is clear: President Trump may not circumvent the Senate confirmation process by installing his White House budget director to run the CFPB part time, Gupta said on Twitter. Mr. Mulvaneys appointment undermines the bureaus independence and threatens its mission to protect American consumers.

Gupta did not say if the ruling would be appealed and did not respond to a request for additional comment. But he had previously indicated English would appeal, saying that I think everyone understands this court is not the final stop, this judge does not have the final word on what happens in this controversy.

Kaplinsky said an appellate panel could be made up of judges who are more liberal than Kelly so it would be in the White Houses interests to make a permanent nomination.

I certainly hope we see a nominee soon but I wouldnt bet on it, he said. Clearly the White House is in the lead here because they won in the lower court but that could change very quickly on appeal.

One person reportedly under consideration for the permanent job is Mark McWatters, chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, the federal regulator for that industry. McWatters, a Republican, has the support of CFPB critic Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the powerful chairman of the House Financial Services Committee for whom he once worked as legal counsel.

But there are potential problems with McWatters.

The head of the Independent Community Bankers of America has publicly expressed concerns that McWatters is not as knowledgeable about banking regulations given his background in credit unions.

And McWatters was the subject of a critical article this week by the conservative Breitbart News Network website, which said former President Obama thought so highly of McWatters he nominated him in 2016 to head up the Export-Import Bank, the poster child of crony capitalism reviled by virtually every conservative leader.

Obama actually nominated McWatters for a seat on the banks five-member board.

Trumps choice of Mulvaney, an outspoken opponent of the bureau in the past, has sparked protests from Democrats and consumer advocates.

The dispute began Nov. 24 when Richard Cordray, a Democrat, stepped down as bureau director. He promoted English, his chief of staff, to deputy director and said she would be the acting director under a provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that created the bureau.

Within hours of Cordrays resignation announcement, Trump appointed Mulvaney to fill the post under the Federal Vacancies Act of 1998. The administration said that law allowed Trump to appoint an official who already had been confirmed by the Senate in another capacity to also serve as the bureaus acting director.

Kelly noted in his decision that both sides urged a quick resolution to the uncertainty about the bureaus leadership and said removing Mulvaney would not accomplish that.

There is little question that there is a public interest in clarity here, but it is hard to see how granting English an injunction would bring about more of it, Kelly said.

The president has designated Mulvaney the CFPBs acting director, the CFPB has recognized him as the acting director, and it is operating with him as the acting director, he said. Granting English an injunction would not bring about more clarity; it would only serve to muddy the waters.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera
Dropbox Inc., the file-sharing private company valued at $10 billion, has filed confidentially for a U.S. initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will lead the potential listing, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the filing wasnt public. Dropbox is talking to other banks this month to fill additional roles on the IPO, the people said. The company is aiming to list in the first half of this year, one of the people said.

Representatives for Dropbox, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan declined to comment.

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A share sale by San Francisco-based Dropbox, one of a closely watched group of high-profile private tech companies with multibillion-dollar valuations, would follow Snap Inc.s disappointing step into the public markets. How the stock fares post-listing will be an ongoing focus for Wall Street and the tech community. Snap shares are down 15% from its IPO in March.

Unlike money-losing Snap, Dropbox will come to the table with annualized sales of more than $1 billion, Chief Executive Drew Houston said in an interview last year. And it has been profitable, excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Those benchmarks are the product of more than two years of focusing the company, expanding its product suite for businesses and reining in expenses, Houston said at the time.

ADT and Spotify

Dropbox could be one of the biggest U.S. enterprise technology companies to list domestically in recent years. First Data Corp. went public at a market value of about $14 billion in 2015  the biggest such IPO in the last five years.

Dropbox joins a growing list of large tech companies preparing to go public in the U.S. early this year. Apollo Global Managements security company ADT Inc. is aiming to raise as much as $2.1 billion in an IPO expected to price on Jan. 18. Spotify, owner of the worlds largest paid music service, plans to execute its unconventional direct listing this quarter, a person familiar with the matter said this month.

Nonpublic filings have become more common since July, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began allowing all companies to file early IPO documents confidentially  a perk previously reserved for smaller businesses.

Dropbox achieved its $10-billion private valuation in its last private funding round in 2014. Although its uncertain whether the company will be able to initially sell shares above that valuation, the stock could trade higher once its public, the people said.

Its own cloud

As of August, Dropbox had 500 million users, including 200,000 businesses, storing and sharing files online through its cloud service. The service enables companies to keep documents in a commonly accessible place without having to build their own server farms. Dropbox will have to show potential investors how its differentiating its core file-sharing products and newer collaboration tools from the likes of Google, Microsoft Corp. and Box Inc.

Dropbox is likely to tout its biggest investment in recent years: its own cloud. It has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build data centers and mostly wean itself off of Amazon.com Inc.s servers, a rare feat for a software business with hundreds of millions of users. That has made it easier for Dropbox to cut costs while speeding file transfers, Chief Operating Officer Dennis Woodside said in an interview last year.

The two lead banks have a history of working with Dropbox. Goldman Sachs advised the company on earlier funding rounds and extended the company credit, and JPMorgan led a $600-million credit line to Dropbox last year, the people said.

Taking on the risk of lending to a private company typically can help a firms chances in underwriting an eventual IPO. JPMorgan led a credit line extended to Dropbox, along with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Corp., Deutsche Bank, Macquarie Group Ltd. and Royal Bank of Canada, people familiar with the matter said last March.

Goldman Sachs had been helping the company prepare IPO documents.

Barinka writes for Bloomberg.
Canadian government officials say theres an increasing likelihood that U.S. President Trump will give six-months notice to withdraw from NAFTA.

The officials, speaking Wednesday on the condition that they not be identified, declined to say whether they now think the likelihood of Trump following through on repeated threats to quit the pact now exceed 50%. The Canadian loonie fell along with Mexicos peso and yields on Canadas government bonds.

A White House official, speaking on background, said there hasnt been any change in the presidents position on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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Trade relations between the two countries have taken a dramatic turn this week, with Canada escalating its trade spat with the United States by filing a World Trade Organization complaint over American duties against Canada and other countries. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer responded earlier Wednesday, calling that move a broad and ill-advised attack.

Trump withdrawing from NAFTA was always a risk, but that risk is clearly more elevated now, said Brian DePratto, senior economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

A sixth round of negotiations will begin this month in Montreal. Talks to overhaul the trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico began in August. They have so far yielded little firm indication of whether a deal can be reached to update the pact, the officials said.

The Canadian dollar fell 0.9% to $1.2574 against the greenback at 3:05 p.m. in Toronto. The peso fell 0.8% to 19.3963 per dollar.

The markets been too complacent regarding NAFTA termination risk for too long, said Bipan Rai, a Toronto-based foreign-exchange and macro strategist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo has said that Mexico wont negotiate under duress and will leave the table if the United States initiates the withdrawal process. The Canadian officials said Wednesday they were not sure how Mexico would react to any withdrawal notice, but that Canada would keep negotiating after one was given.

A withdrawal notice doesnt mean NAFTA would be killed  a country can give notice and then not actually leave.

Wingrove writes for Bloomberg.

jwingrove4@bloomberg.net
More than three years after state regulators permitted Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to start charging consumers billions of dollars for the failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant, utility executives and consumer advocates appear to have settled a long-running dispute over premature closure costs.

In a joint filing to the California Public Utilities Commission, key parties alerted regulators that mediation efforts paid off and a notice of settlement conference would follow soon.

Parties that signed off on the notice included Edison, SDG&E, The Utility Reform Network, the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, Citizens Oversight and the utilities commissions Office of Ratepayer Advocates.

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Holding a settlement conference is the last step before announcing terms of a deal. The meetings allow other interested parties to weigh in on a proposal before it is submitted to the commission for approval.

Similar negotiations between Edison and TURN led to an agreement in 2014 that was approved by regulators later that year. But other groups complained they were shut out of the discussions, and in 2015, it was disclosed that a framework for the deal had been outlined at an undisclosed meeting in Warsaw, Poland, in 2013.

San Diego attorney Michael Aguirre, who represents ratepayer Ruth Henricks and the Citizens Oversight advocacy group, sued the commission over its 2014 vote to allow the utilities to charge customers $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion in costs related to the San Onofre plant closure.

He said a new deal is all but formalized.

Im looking forward to the time to discuss in greater detail the terms and conditions of the settlement, Aguirre said.

Edison issued a brief statement saying it was among several parties to reach a preliminary agreement in the San Onofre case.

Southern California Edison, along with other parties in the San Onofre nuclear plant closure proceeding, today advised a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge of their intent to serve notice of a settlement conference within 15 days, spokeswoman Maureen Brown wrote in an email Wednesday.

The company also alerted investors to the development through a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, although the five-page document warns shareholders that a decision is not final.

It is not clear how the settlement might affect a criminal investigation of the utilities commission, which has been under scrutiny by the attorney generals office for its handling of the San Onofre plant failure and other proceedings. Back-channel dealings between regulators and utility executives are under review.

Also unclear is the agreements effect on a series of lawsuits Aguirre filed as a result of the San Onofre case, including a review by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and a state lawsuit seeking access to scores of San Onofre-related emails to and from the governors office.

The conceptual agreement comes after earlier mediation efforts failed to secure a deal last summer.

Even though neither side would discuss terms, the tentative deal likely involves suspending millions of dollars Edison and SDG&E have been charging customers every month under the 2014 commission decision.

The nuclear plant north of Oceanside leaked a small amount of radiation in January 2012, months after a steam generator replacement project was supposed to add decades to the life of the facility.

The settlement adopted by commissioners in 2014 effectively ended an investigation into what caused the plant breakdown. Last year, amid a looming federal court review and continuing criticism, the commission agreed to reconsider the division of costs.

According to Edison, the utility already recovered more than $1.1 billion from ratepayers for the San Onofre breakdown.

SDG&E, which owns 20% of the shuttered nuclear plant, collected a proportionate amount of money from its customers.

Aguirre has been trying to stop those charges for years, through the commission, the courts and mediation.

Last summer, as the last round of mediation fizzled, he filed a motion requesting regulators suspend the monthly collections due to an improper meeting between Edison and former commission President Michael Peevey.

Aguirre said the private 2013 meeting in Warsaw, where Peevey and then-Edison executive Stephen Pickett sketched out a framework for settling the San Onofre costs at a hotel bar, was illegal and violated the due process rights of his clients.

The plant has not been used or useful to utility customers since January 2012, he wrote in the June filing. There can be no more profiteering from this plant.

Edison disclosed the Poland meeting nearly two years later than required by commission rules  days after criminal investigators found the Warsaw meeting notes during a search of Peeveys Los Angeles area home in early 2015.

The commission fined Edison $16.7 million for 10 separate violations related to the Warsaw meeting.

jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com
On the first day of 2018, a dozen cities in Germany, from Augsburg to Wiesbaden, celebrated a new year with concerts that included music by Leonard Bernstein. No matter Americas fraught relationship with Iran, Bernsteins piano music happened to be played in Tehran on Jan. 1. Thus has begun  with nearly 2,500 events around the globe  Anno Leonardo, or the Year of Lenny.

Aug. 25 is the 100th anniversary of Bernsteins birth in Lawrence, Mass., 30 miles north of Boston. He was the son of Jewish emigres from Ukraine. His father ran a beauty supply business that Leonard was expected to take over. Instead, he became the most celebrated, most multitalented and most American musician of his time, and he managed to change pretty much everything he touched.

He was the first great American conductor. He became the first classical music television star. He proved an inspired educator and first-rate pianist. He was the first internationally esteemed conductor everyone, whether you knew him or not, called by the familiar, Lenny. For better and worse, Lenny was bigger than life  a shaman, even.

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Above all, Bernstein was a conflicted composer. He planted one foot gleefully in the popular culture of Broadway; the other incautious and questing one sought footing in the slippery realm of classical. For a long while there was a debate about whether Bernsteins neo-Romantic concert works were on the wrong side of progressive music history, let alone good taste. Nothing would have pleased him more when he died at 72 in 1990, prey of his four-packs-a-day cigarette habit, to know that his lasting legacy would be as a composer.

If anything, Anno Leonardo might easily result in Bernstein burnout. Fall was already Lennified. The Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra played the 1950s violin concerto Serenade. The New York Philharmonic, Bernsteins orchestra, traversed his three symphonies. The Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony and Boston Symphony began their seasons with Bernstein galas. The London Symphony ended the year with Bernsteins Second Symphony (Age of Anxiety) and musical Wonderful Town.

In the coming weeks, the San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Opera will mount the Broadway operetta Candide. Next month, Gustavo Dudamel, a longtime Bernstein champion, will lead an elaborate L.A. Phil staging of the once-dissed Mass, and in April Dudamel will preface Beethovens Ninth with Bernsteins joyous Chichester Psalms (with which the Los Angeles Master Chorale began its season). The Boston Symphonys summer Tanglewood Festival in the Massachusetts Berkshires, where Bernstein got his conducting start, will be bloated with Bernstein, including stagings of six music theater works and operas, along with a stellar celebratory birthday blowout.

Thats only the tip of the Lenny iceberg. Sony has released a glorious 100-CD set of remastered recordings mainly from the 1950s and 60s when he was music director of the New York Philharmonic. Deutsche Grammophon will follow suit next month with a set of 121 CDs and 36 DVDs of live performances from the last two decades of his life. Memoirs will be published by Bernsteins eldest daughter, Jamie, and his assistant and editor Charlie Harmon.

I look forward to it all. Bernstein has been with me my entire musical life. While in elementary school, I faithfully watched his Young Peoples Concerts on television. The first LPs I ever bought were Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. The most recent recordings I bought have been hi-res downloads of some of those same early recordings and others, in an effort to delve ever more deeply in their nuances. I am among the generation for whom Bernstein became an incontrovertible musical father figure.

For all kinds of reasons, Bernstein seems more necessary than ever today. His centennial comes at exactly the right time. But that doesnt mean we will necessarily be afforded the Bernstein we need.

What we are getting in spades is the glamorously irresistible Bernstein of the early and middle years when he could dash off a great show tune one minute, take over the New York Philharmonic the next, and wow the kids on TV and adults in his books.

There were, of course, critics and orchestra musicians who thought him too flashy. There were crises: He watched the avant-garde take music in a direction that worried him for the future of the symphony orchestra. He was regularly accused of spreading himself too thin. An outspoken leftie who would support just about anything he thought was a noble cause, he had a penchant for getting himself in trouble politically and wound up with an FBI dossier and was blacklisted for a couple of worrisome years in the early 1950s.

He struggled with his sexuality but settled into a loving marriage and raised a family. In the 1940s and 50s, he wrote spiritually probing concert works, spirited ballets, film music, West Side Story and Candide. This is the music we will mostly hear, and it holds up especially well. In her Bernstein biography, Joan Peyser surmised that this was thanks to his stable family life.

But what happened in the 1970s remains undervalued. At a time when entire artistic legacies are being questioned based on an artists behavior and when artistic life-and-death battles over musical style or high art versus low are all but forgotten, Bernsteins later years  legendarily challenging, musically and personally  demand close and, I would suggest, sympathetic scrutiny. Americas greatest musician was who he was, and we are forced to deal with the fact that the more impossible he became, the greater he became as a conductor, composer and sage.

In 1976, he left his wife, the Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre, for a young male lover. Though Bernstein eventually returned to her, she died shortly afterward of lung cancer in 1978. He never forgave himself. His guilt led him to a life of excess intricately intertwined with regret.

The once young god ballooned into a grotesquely self-indulgent old man. His conducting got just as exaggerated and distended. He suffered crises of faith and even of his legendary self-confidence.

He wrote works that were uneven, but uneven for the right reasons, the grappling with life-and-death subjects. He no longer had answers at the tip of his tongue, only questions  the big, important ones. His last words were: What is this?

This what-is-this Bernstein will mostly be ignored this year. There isnt a huge appetite for his opera, A Quiet Place, about dysfunctional familial relationships (of which he was an expert) or his craggy neglected ballet, Dybbuk. Likewise for his indiscreet Songfest or his studiedly discreet final work, the song cycle Arias and Barcarolles, in which you sense the fight to give meaning to every note. These are not works easily embraced, like the evergreen Candide and West Side Story, shows in which everything feels irresistibly right (even if tunes intended for one ultimately ended up in the other).

In the most important later works, rightness is no longer a given. In Candide, Bernstein deliciously mocks our supposed best of all possible worlds; in the tormented A Quiet Place, he reaches the far less ingratiating philosophical place of this being the best of all impossible worlds, which is to say the one we are faced with every day.

But would we put up with him today? Kissing on the mouth was his trademark. He kissed the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic. He would have kissed the pope on the mouth, his daughter says in a recent German documentary, if he could have.

My first encounters with Bernstein were by curious chance. That lover who broke up Bernsteins marriage, Tom Cothran, was one of my high school friends. We spent endless hours listening to records and played music together. We argued about Bernstein, whom Tom found ostentatious.

I saw very little of him after that as he moved into Bernsteins dazzling world, of which he seemed bemused. He is portrayed as a kind of court jester in Humphrey Burtons Bernstein biography, which sounds about right. For obvious reasons, the Bernstein family and circle hated Tom.

I went to Paris in 1976, when Tom was sharing an apartment with Bernstein, to meet with the Italian composer Luciano Berio, who had suggested I become his biographer and assistant. Over long meals charged to Bernstein, Tom talked me out of it. He felt Bernstein was sucking the life out of him and cautioned me to follow my own path. Instead, thanks indirectly to Bernstein, I became a music critic.

The outcome for Tom was tragic. He went to India and elsewhere in a quest to find himself, contracted AIDS and died an early victim of the disease.

I dont know how Bernstein ultimately felt about Tom. He was a verboten subject. Nor could I ever get Tom to talk much about the personal side of Bernstein. He felt it was his job to keep Bernstein from being too neurotic, but he may well have made him more so in the process. Still, as Bernsteins inner monster grew, so, too, did his giving side. Shamans can be like that.

The most transcendent performance of anything I have ever heard was Bernstein conducting Mahlers Third Symphony at a New York Philharmonic concert in 1987 the night before Thanksgiving. This was two weeks after Bernstein, in the wake of Toms death, had helped produce a star-studded concert, Music for Life at Carnegie Hall, as a benefit for Gay Mens Health Crisis, the leading New York AIDS organization.

Mahlers Third ends with a hymn to love. Bernstein drew it out and out, but never let the tension subside. The rapture grew to the point where something happened I have never witnessed before or since. Not content with the obligatory standing ovation, the audience, as though driven by a magnetic force, slowly herded down the aisles toward the stage, just to get closer to the maestro as oracle. It was a communal moment when something bigger than ourselves swept us all away.

Let Anno Leonardo begin.

        

Candide

Who: Los Angeles Opera

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27 and Feb. 3, 8 and 15; 2 p.m. Feb. 11 and 18

Tickets: $18-$324

Info: (213) 972-8001 or www.laopera.org

         

Mass

Who: Los Angeles Philharmonic

Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Feb. 1-3; 2 p.m. Feb. 4

Tickets: $72-$225

Info: (213) 850-2000 or www.laphil.com

mark.swed@latimes.com

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If you see floating stages on Echo Park Lake this weekend with a vocalist crooning a siren song through ginormous wooden bullhorns as brass musicians march on the shore, dont be confused. Youve just entered Pacific Standard Time.

About 75 performances by Latin American and Latino artists will be unfurling across Los Angeles starting Jan. 11 as part of Pacific Standard Time Festival: Live Art LA/LA. Organized by CalArts REDCAT theater, the festival is a performance component of the Getty-funded PST series of exhibitions.

The 11-day festival will feature more than 200 artists, some in intimate happenings at galleries, some in ambitious site-specific installations and others in theatrical events at grand, historic spaces such as downtown L.A.s 1,000-seat Mayan Theater.

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Drawing on a tradition of activist performance-art practices in Latin America and Southern California, many of the artists in the festival will address issues of social justice, often outdoors in free, public spaces the way a protest would unfold, said REDCAT Executive Director Mark Murphy.

Throughout these pieces, there are very strongly aligned voices that touch on the ideas of feminism, environmental rights, immigration rights, economic justice  those are some of the key issues, Murphy said. And [theyre] often using the forms of community protest or activating town squares  in this case, a variety of parks and plazas  in a celebration of both the diversity and urgency of the voices of artists in this rapidly changing world.

Two events in particular share a ritualistic element, he said, that addresses the idea of belonging, artistically and culturally.

On Saturday, experimental Mexican vocalist and L.A. performance artist Carmina Escobar will stage performance interventions on and around Echo Park Lake. Fiesta Perpetua! is a version of a piece she staged in May in a commission by the Echo Park arts space Machine Project. The 4-hour-long work draws on Escobars experiences at ritualistic festivals in Mexico City, where she grew up.

The 40-member Oaxaca-based Banda Filarmonica Maqueos Music will lead seven processions in different spots around the lake, each timed to positions of the sun and lasting about 10 to 15 minutes. As the youth brass musicians play, conducted by 20-year-old Yulissa Maqueos, Escobar will perform surrealistic vocal music on one floating raft, while the movement artist Oguri performs on another.

The raft positions and performing landing points are all different and designed in triangulation, so the whole space is occupied by the intervention, Escobar said. The ritualistic aspect is mainly that theres not really a distinction between the audience and the performers. Its all one. So the aim is not only to produce a spectacle, but a spectacle that we share with the community of Echo Park Lake, which is pretty diverse.

The communal nature of the performance, Escobar said, is meant to reveal the syncretic, crosscultural nature of L.A. The city, she said, is not a melting pot, because that implies assimilation. Its more about being together in this space with our own cultural references creating a third entity  one in which we all belong.

Raul Baltazars Mi Sereno is an interactive, ritualistic experience over two Sundays honoring multiple generations of cultural workers. On Sunday and Jan. 21 hell stage an hour-long public procession, a slow meditative hike of sorts, through the Ascot Hills Park followed by a picnic and performances in the park.

The public is encouraged to wear red or blue, a collective costume that he sees as representing lava and water flowing through the hills. Participants are also encouraged to bring food to share at the picnic, where Danza de Compton will perform the Mexican folk dance La Danza de los Viejitos wearing traditional wood masks representing resistance to colonialism.

The first Sunday is focused more on the elders, Baltazar said, our roots, how we migrated here, the foundation of where we come from. The second Sunday is more geared towards the children, the future, what were aspiring towards.

The inspiration for the piece came last year when Baltazar visited Mineral de Pozos, near Guanajuato, Mexico, an old mining town his grandparents had migrated from. He learned of a custom in which the miners met once a year for a celebratory picnic.

Baltazar sees the El Sereno location of Mi Sereno as integral to the piece. Mi Sereno translates as My Peace, but as someone born and raised in the neighborhood, he also means My Sereno.

The trails end up becoming a microcosm or metaphor about how our ancestors have migrated throughout the continent, he said. In the midst of this political climate where were meant to feel like lawbreakers or guests in our own home, this little sanctuary in the park is a place to celebrate the fact that were alive, and moving along the continent. Were here, we all ended up here no matter what our stories are.

Both Baltazars and Escobars works, Murphy said, break down the relationship between the audience and the artist  because youre invited to participate in the midst of a community ritual that celebrates and claims a sense of belonging. It acknowledges connections between the land here and the land south of here. Its a celebration of a neighborhood as home.

Other highlights of the festival:

Astrid Hadad, I Am Made in Mexico, Thursday: The Mexico City-based cabaret performer and activist, known for the lavish and storied sculptural costumes she makes, will perform with a band at the Mayan. She will play everything from rock to bolero music  and make eight costume changes in about 90 minutes.

Sylvia Palacios Whitman, Around the Edge, Thursday and Saturday. With five local performers, the Chilean artist will restage pieces from the 1970s that include sculptural props and wearable art. Think ethereal mummies and imposing elephant trunks. Theres also a new, architecturally inspired piece, in which some of the performers interact with REDCATs ventilation system, crawling in and out of vents. Co-presented with the Hammer Museum and Show Box L.A./we live in.

Ligia Lewis, minor matter, Friday-Sunday. Originally from the Dominican Republic and now based in Berlin, the choreographer will perform an exploration of black identity at REDCAT. Dancers Jonathan Gonzalez and Tiran Willemse will join Lewis in literally climbing the walls  and one another  to a post-apocalyptic-like score.

Teatro Linea de Sombra, Durango 66, Jan. 16-18. The Mexico City collective will put on an interactive piece in Spanish and English, moving audiences in small groups through stage settings outdoors, adjacent to Walt Disney Concert Hall. The piece speaks to student uprisings in Durango, Mexico, during the summer of 1960s and protest actions today.

Carmen Argote, If Only It Were That Easy  Jan. 20. The L.A. artist will stage a two-hour motorcycle performance, in collaboration with other motorcycle-riding artists, honing her still-developing skills on an obstacle course she created near Griffith Parks Old Zoo. The event is preparation to ride her fathers old Moto Guzzi motorcycle from Guadalajara back to L.A.

Find the full lineup of events here.

deborah.vankin@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @debvankin

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Mika Brzezinski apologizes for homophobic insult of Pompeo By Tracy Brown Morning Joe co-hosts Mika Brzezinski, left, and Joe Scarborough. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski has apologized for referring to Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo as wannabe dictator President Trumps butt boy. During a segment discussing the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the MSNBC show Wednesday morning, Brzezinski questioned whether Pompeos comments were the words of a patriot. I understand that Donald Trump doesnt care.  He doesnt care, said Brzezinski. But why doesnt Mike Pompeo care right now? Are the pathetic deflections that we just heard when he appeared on Fox & Friends, is that a patriot speaking? Or a wannabe dictators butt boy? Critics were quick to point out the homophobic nature of the insult, and Brzezinski promptly apologized on Twitter for her super bad choice of words. (While sometimes referring to a person eager to please for personal gain, a butt boy is also understood as a derogatory term for gay men.) I should have said water boy like for football teams or something like that, tweeted Brzezinski. So Sorry! And its not the first time Trumps critics have been called out for relying on homophobic jokes in their efforts to mock the president. Totally agree with you -SUPER BAD choice of words .. I should have said water boy... like for football teams or something like that.. apologize to @SenatorDurbin too! SO SORRY! https://t.co/zIqsGdK3Tk  Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) December 12, 2018 Facebook

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Baby, Its Cold Outside bites back as fans embrace embattled holiday song Fans are pushing back against the Baby, Its Cold Outside backlash, driving the song to surge in both sales and streaming. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) Baby, Its Cold Outside got a chilly reception on some airwaves earlier this year, but the seasonal favorite is heating up the charts, thanks to loyal fans who are pushing back against, well, the backlash. The tune has grown controversial in recent years, due to a changing cultural climate and conversations cropping up in the wake of #MeToo, prompting some radio stations to remove the song from airplay. But the tide appears to be turning for Baby, Its Cold Outside. On Monday, San Francisco-area radio station KOIT-FM (96.5) announced that it had returned the song to its rotation after a vast majority of listeners in an online poll voted to have it reinstated. KOITs listeners have spoken, and the overwhelming message is they do want to hear Baby, Its Cold Outside on our station, as they have throughout the years, KOIT program director Brian Figula said in Mondays statement. The radio station was one of several that had excised the song from their playlists, is now among those that reversed their original decision after fan outrage. And its not just on the radio where Baby is gaining ground. Billboards Holiday Digital Song Sales chart for the week of Dec. 15 feature three different versions of the song, with Dean Martins 1959 rendition at No. 2, Idina Menzel and Michael Bubles 2014 duet reentering the chart at No. 29, and Leon Redbone and Zooey Deschanels 2003 duet from the Elf soundtrack debuting at No. 41. As for radio stations, they remain dedicated to giving the audience what it wants. More than seven out of every ten listeners who responded said although some lyrics of the song may reflect a different era and a different sensibility than today, still they love the tradition and history of the song, and want to hear it as part of their holiday season, Figulas statement added. At KOIT, we always listen carefully when our listeners take time to comment. In this case, it was very obvious what they wanted us to do. Facebook

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Selena series based on the life of the Tejano singer ordered at Netflix By Los Angeles Times Staff The late Tejano singer Selena was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2021 Grammys. (Photo by Rick Corrales) Netflix is ready to Bidi Bidi Bom Bom. The streaming platform has ordered a new scripted series about the life of famed Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla. Selena: The Series will follow the coming-of-age of a young Selena as her dreams of becoming a professional singer come to fruition, forcing her and her family to make life-changing personal and professional choices. The family of the late singer is involved with the project and will serve as executive producers. Moises Zamora (Star, American Crime) is attached to write and executive-produce the series, which hails from Campanario Entertainment. Selena will always have a lasting place in music history and we feel great responsibility to do justice to her memory. With this series, viewers will finally get the full history of Selena, our family, and the impact she has had on all of our lives, Suzette Quintanilla, Selenas sister, said in a statement. We are excited to partner with Campanario and Netflix to give fans a never-before-seen glimpse at our story and highlight why Selena will remain a legend for generations to come. Selena rose to fame in the late 80s and early 90s with hits like Bidi Bidi Bom Bom and Como La Flor. She was shot and killed in 1995 at the age of 25 by her former fan club manager. Her death came months before she was slated to release her first crossover English-language album, which featured the hit singles I Could Fall in Love and Dreaming of You. Jennifer Lopez famously played the singer in a 1997 biopic, which marked one of Lopezs early breakout roles. More recently, Selena served as the inspiration for a posthumous makeup line for MAC cosmetics that launched in 2016. There is no premiere date yet for the series. Facebook

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Heres how to watch the SAG Award nominations on Wednesday By Nardine Saad Hump day might be a lot more enjoyable this week thanks to Awkwafina, Laverne Cox and the Screen Actors Guild. Cox (Orange Is the New Black and Bad Hair) and Awkwafina (Oceans 8 and Crazy Rich Asians) are teaming up to announce the nominations for the 25th SAG Awards on Wednesday and will hopefully enliven the typical awards-show announcements with their sass and comedic chops. The acting nominees will be revealed at 7 a.m. Pacific time at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The announcement  being made on TNT, TBS and truTV  will also be carried live on each outlets website and social media pages, as well as the SAG Awards site. Heres when and how to watch: Live on TNT, TBS and TruTV and their websites and social media pages

tntdrama.com/sag-awards

truTV.comsagawards.org

TNTs Facebook, Twitter @TNTdrama and YouTube channel

TBS Facebook, Twitter @tbsnetwork and YouTube channel

The SAG Awards homepage Actresses Awkwafina, left, and Laverne Cox will announce the Screen Actors Guild Award nominees on Wednesday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris will introduce Awkwafina and Cox. Before that  at 6:50 a.m. Pacific  nominees in the the stunt ensemble categories will be announced by SAG Awards Committee chair JoBeth Williams and committee member Elizabeth McLaughlin during a live webcast on TNT and the SAG Awards websites. The 25th SAG Awards ceremony will be simulcast live on Jan. 27 at 5 p.m. Pacific on TNT and TBS and on the networks mobile and smart TV apps. Facebook

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Hoda Kotb in tears after Kathie Lee Gifford announces Today exit By Nardine Saad Kathie Lee Giffords announcement that shes leaving NBCs Today show reduced her on-air BFF Hoda Kotb to a sea of tears on Tuesday, and their life preserver was the box of tissues that a prop master dropped from the ceiling. Kotb, who knew about Giffords departure before the live announcement, was still emotional afterward, telling her longtime co-host that she had changed her life. The minute you stepped into my life with both feet, everything changed, Kotb said through tears, prompting the tissue-box drop. You chose me and thats how it started, she added. I was thinking about everything good thats happened in my life has happened since you came. "Its bittersweet, as these things always are@kathielgifford announces she will be leaving TODAY on her 11th anniversary in April 2019. pic.twitter.com/YsHIq6c9ev  TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 11, 2018 Kotb, who has become a fan favorite since co-hosting the freewheeling 10 a.m. hour of the program with Gifford since 2008, said Gifford hiring her enabled her to meet husband Joel Schiffman and adopt their daughter, Haley Joy Kotb. Gifford also invited Kotb to meet her family when she first joined the Today team. Everything happened.  How does one person step in your life and change it like that? And you did that for me, Kotb said. Gifford, who will officially sign off the show in April, referred to Kotb as a beautiful Egyptian goddess and thanked their viewers for sticking with them from their disastrous early days as a nothing burger outside on the plaza. You start sharing life, and your friendship shows up on the air, Gifford said. We werent colleagues very long. We became friends and now were going to be friends for the rest of our lives. Im grateful to God for you, Gifford added. Gods used you in my life every bit as much as hes used me in yours, sweetie. Thats the way it goes. No crumbs on his table. Gifford has co-anchored Todays fourth hour with Kotb for the last decade and is retiring from the program to pursue other creative endeavors. I had a chance to work with a legend... not something many people get to say in their lifetime.. but thanks to you @KathieLGifford .... I get to xxxx https://t.co/sXGdwmq7vm  Hoda Kotb (@hodakotb) December 11, 2018 Facebook

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Times Person of the Year? Four journalists and a newspaper, guardians in the war on truth By Associated Press Times Person of the Year recognition for 2018 is shining a collective spotlight on guardians in what the magazine calls the war on truth. The group is made up of four journalists and a newspaper that Time says are representatives of a broader fight by countless others around the world. Read More Facebook

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Carol Burnett to receive inaugural Golden Globe award for TV achievement Carol Burnett will need to clear some space on her crowded mantel: At next months Golden Globes ceremony, she will pick up yet another award honoring her long and distinguished career in television. The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced Tuesday morning that Burnett will receive the inaugural Carol Burnett Award, a new prize honoring lifetime achievement in television. The award was teased at last weeks nominations announcement for the Globes; its meant to be a bookend prize to the HFPAs Cecil B. DeMille Award for film achievement. A five-time Golden Globe winner, Burnett is also the most decorated honoree of all time in the TV category, according to the organization. For more than 50 years, comedy trailblazer Carol Burnett has been breaking barriers while making us laugh, HFPA President Meher Tatna said in a statement Tuesday. She was the first woman to host a variety sketch show, The Carol Burnett Show. She was also the first woman to win both the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and Kennedy Center Honors. And now we add another first to her running list: the first recipient  and namesake  of the new Golden Globe top honor for achievement in television, the Carol Burnett Award. Burnett, 85, will receive the award at the Golden Globes ceremony, which NBC will broadcast live from coast to coast on Jan. 6 from the Beverly Hilton hotel. Facebook

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Andy Serkis revives Gollum as a Brexit-obsessed Theresa May By Tracy Brown As if British Prime Minister Theresa May werent in enough of a Brexit bind, now she has to deal with a biting Andy Serkis impersonation thats making the digital rounds. Literally biting because its Serkis via his immortal rendition of Gollum. The Lord of the Rings actor reprised a version of the One Ring-obsessed character in a new video posted by We Wants It. Much like the Gollum of the film series, Serkis May has her own fixation: the Brexit withdrawal agreement. Oh, Precious, our agreement, says a blue-suit clad Serkis. This is it. Our deal  We takes back control: Money, borders, laws, blue passportses. But another May personality quickly rebuts: No. It hurts the people. Makes them poorer. The parody features the two sides of May arguing with herself and its somehow both hilarious and terrifying. One personality only cares about how much she wants the juicy and sweet deal, while the other recognizes that there are plenty of people opposed to the idea. They hates the deal, all of them hates it. They wants a peoples vote, Gollum/May says to herself. The Peoples Vote refers to the efforts of those in the U.K. calling for a public vote on whether Britain will leave or remain in the EU based on the terms of the final exit agreement. On Monday, the real May delayed the parliamentary vote for the Brexit plan because she feared it did not have enough support to pass. The vote had been scheduled for Tuesday. While May has defended the deal (that EU leaders have said is the only one on the table), it has been slammed by both Brexit-backers and remainers who oppose leaving the 28-nation bloc. As of now Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29, 2019. Facebook

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Sarah Hyland of Modern Family opens up about second kidney transplant By Nardine Saad Sarah Hyland (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) After her body rejected her first kidney transplant, Modern Family star Sarah Hyland underwent dialysis last year and had to have a second transplant, she revealed Monday in an interview. Recovery from that surgery has been relatively smooth, but the 28-year-old has contended with a spate of other medical issues that resulted in additional procedures. After the second transplant, she had surgery to mitigate her endometriosis and another to repair a hernia. The chronic illnesses have resulted in six surgeries in the past 16 months, she told Self magazine, where she opened up about her tumultuous medical journey. Im stable. Im thriving. Im super happy with life, the 28-year-old actress said. .@sarah_hyland was born with kidney dysplasia. She went into kidney failure, and needed a transplant. In 2012, her dad gave her one of his. What Hyland hasnt been ready to share until now is that in 2016, her body began to reject the donated kidney. https://t.co/iAw8rdXJ1z pic.twitter.com/rR0xqZPiGy  SELF (@SELFmagazine) December 10, 2018 Hyland was born with kidney dysplasia, which causes the organs to grow debilitating cysts. She had a kidney transplant in 2012, with her father giving one of his kidneys to his daughter. But in October 2016, her body began rejecting the transplant and  under the scrutiny of social media and the public eye  Hylands weight dropped, her face swelled due to immunosuppressant drugs and fluid retention and her blood pressure spiked, damaging her vision, the mag said. The candid star said she began dialysis in February 2017 to filter her blood because her kidneys couldnt. However, the treatment fell short and the transplanted kidney had to come out. Doctors removed it that May, then in September of that year transplanted a kidney donated by her younger brother, Ian. I was very depressed, she told the magazine. When a family member gives you a second chance at life, and it fails, it almost feels like its your fault. Its not. But it does. Hyland felt completely helpless, she said, and for a long time contemplated suicide. I didnt want to fail my little brother like I failed my dad, she said. I had gone through [my whole life] of always being a burden, of always having to be looked after, having to be cared for. The thoughts subsided after she reached out to a friend, and she encouraged others to do the same. Its not shameful, she said. For anybody that wants to reach out to somebody but doesnt really know how because theyre too proud or they think that theyll be looked upon as weak, its not a shameful thing to say. Its not a shameful thing to share. Hyland said on Instagram on Monday that she shared her story so others might feel like theyre not alone. Hopefully those that are lucky enough not to experience this will learn about something new and take a moment to appreciate their health, she wrote. Facebook

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New Godzilla: King of the Monsters trailer features the titan fights youre craving When the first trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters was released in July, it delved deep into the lives of its human characters  which was fine  and was accompanied by Debussys Clair de Lune  which was awesome  and everyone seemed happy to see that the titular titan seemed to be doing OK for himself. It was arty and magnificent. But there wasnt any fighting. And there was barely any destruction. And if youre coming in here to sell me a Godzilla film, then by gosh, it had better be apocalyptic. Luckily, most of that appears to be rectified in the second trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which was released Monday morning. While the humans are still hanging out in the background, wringing their hands and staring in mute disbelief, far more of the footage is given over to the wrath of the titans. Heck, Godzilla even takes on King Ghidorah head-to-head(-to-head-to-head) and it looks amazing. See what it looks like when the world burns, but this time the old gods are to blame. Godzilla: King of the Monsters is scheduled to stomp its way into theaters May 31. Facebook

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New Stranger Things teaser reveals totally 80s episode titles By Nardine Saad Its summer 1985 and things are still pretty strange in Hawkins, Ind. Netflix on Sunday unveiled a teaser for Season 3 of Stranger Things, giving fans a list of eight episode titles to mine for clues about the sci-fi series new season. The new season will reunite viewers with Chief Hopper (David Harbour), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and their gang of middle-school outcasts, who find themselves at the center of the peculiar happenings in their small town. The streaming giant also confirmed a 2019 release for the new season, which will center on the already announced arrival of the Starcourt shopping mall, which makes the finale episode title all the more foreboding. (Check out that earlier teaser below.) Heres the title list: Suzie, Do you Copy?

The Mall Rats

The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

The Sauna Test

The Source

The Birthday

The Bite

The Battle of Starcourt In March, Netflix announced that Priah Ferguson would return as Lucas Sinclairs (Caleb McLaughlin) younger sister Erica, and Maya Hawke was cast in the new role of Robin. Last week, the Emmy-winning show earned a Golden Globe nomination for dramatic television series and a supporting actor nod for Harbour, who in addition to playing the town sheriff is now Elevens adoptive father. Facebook

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Americans, Gianni Versace and Dannemora lead Critics Choice TV nominees By Libby Hill The Broadcast Film Critics Assn. clearly has a thing for crime, with Mondays announcement of the TV nominees for the 24th annual Critics Choice Awards revealing lots of love for shows about skirting the law. The Americans, famous for its super sneaky Russian spies; The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story and its depiction of the murder and aftermath; and Escape at Dannemora, with its tale of a real life jailbreak, lead all television nominees with five mentions apiece. Gianni Versace and Dannemora are competing in limited series, with Americans in drama, but all four projects were buoyed by their performances, which got four nominations each. Read More Facebook

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The Favourite and Black Panther lead film nominees for Critics Choice Awards By Libby Hill The Broadcast Film Critics Assn. announced its film nominees for the 24th Critics Choice Awards on Monday, with period black comedy The Favourite earning 14 nominations, just ahead of box office blockbuster Black Panther, which scored 12. Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz all garnered nominations for their performances in The Favourite, with Yorgos Lanthimos also nominated for direction and editing. Nipping at the heels of the two front runners are Damien Chazelles First Man with 10, Mary Poppins Returns, A Star is Born and Vice all nabbing nine nominations each and Roma with eight notices. Read More Facebook

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Times Person of the Year shortlist includes Meghan Markle, director Ryan Coogler, President Trump and separated families By Nardine Saad Actress-turned-duchess Meghan Markle is on Time magazines short list for 2018 Person of the Year. (Gareth Fuller / Associated Press) Actress-turned-duchess Meghan Markle and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler joined Donald Trump, separated families, Robert S. Mueller III and Christine Blasey Ford on Time magazines shortlist for the 2018 Person of the Year. Selected by the magazines editors since 1927, the title is bestowed on a person  or people  who most influenced the news and the world, for better or for worse, during the last year. On Monday, the magazine revealed the top 10 candidates on NBCs Today show, which will also name the titleholder on Tuesdays show. Markle and Coogler were the only entertainment figures represented during another contentious news year. Last year, the Silence Breakers who spoke out against sexual assault and misconduct earned the magazines cover spot. Heres the shortlist for @TIMEs Person of the Year #TIMEPOY pic.twitter.com/kHAmF8A3ut  TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 10, 2018 Heres who made the shortlist this year: Donald Trump: The tweet-happy U.S. president was named the 2016 Person of the Year when he was president-elect. Last year, when he also made the shortlist, Trump tweeted he had passed on the nominal title, though Time disagreed Separated families: Despite weathering the fallout of putting a crying Honduran child who had not been separated from her family on its magazine cover earlier this year, Time still selected migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border as candidates for its Person of the Year, again highlighting the battle over immigration in the U.S. Vladimir Putin: The Russian president was named Person of the Year in 2007 and has continued to make headlines due to Russias alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, and his relationship with Trump. Which brings us to ... Robert Mueller: The special counsel appointed by the Justice Department, who has been investigating allegations of Russian meddling in the election and Trumps ties to Russia, has become a foil to the bombastic leader. Though the investigation has ensnared Trumps former personal attorney Michael Cohen, his former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and several others, Trump has repeatedly decried it as a witch hunt for evidence of collusion with Russia. Ryan Coogler: The Black Panther director and screenwriter turned a lesser-known superhero into a cultural phenomenon with his groundbreaking film, which became a critical darling and broke a bevy of box-office records while boasting a predominantly black cast. Christine Blasey Ford: The university professor who accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers brought the nation to a standstill with her emotional testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in September, throwing Kavanaughs shoo-in appointment into question for weeks. Jamal Khashoggi: The Saudi journalist was killed soon after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and his disappearance led to widespread criticism of the Arab nation, particularly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is believed to have ordered Khashoggis murder. March for Our Lives activists: The teenagers who survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., assembled to take on gun control and march on Washington, D.C., to speak out against gun violence. Moon Jae-in: The South Korean president, who helped host the Olympic Games this year, mounted a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, officially bringing about an end to the war between the two countries. Meghan Markle: The Suits actress who hails from California became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Britains Prince Harry in May, offering a fairy-tale reprieve from pressing conflicts around the world. In October, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child, who would be seventh in line to the British throne. Facebook

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Saturday Night Live finds DeNiros Robert Mueller in Eric Trumps closet After a week full of new revelations from the Robert Mueller investigation, it was probably no surprise that Robert De Niro got the call to reprise his role as the special counsel for this weeks Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Jason Mamoa with the musical guest Mumford and Sons. With the always-on news cycle of 2018, the cold open is typically a feast-or-famine affair that benefits from standout, vaguely surreal moments  Kanye West in the White House, for example. With so much news this week surrounding the legal affairs of the presidents inner circle, SNL imagined the FBIs special counsel as the boogeyman in Eric Trumps closet. Dont be scared, its just me, De Niro assured him, your dads friend from work. Alex Moffat as a clueless Eric and Mikey Day as Don Jr. has been a solid pairing on Weekend Update, and they were natural choices given the news cycle. Still, the segment lacked the sort of standout snap that makes the cold open the usual talking point for the episode, apart from its closing exchange. People say youre the worst thing that happened to my dad, Moffats Eric Trump told De Niro. No, getting elected president was the worst thing to happen to your dad, he countered. Watch a clip below. "Its just me, Robert Mueller. Your dads friend from work." #SNL pic.twitter.com/xsLhnSg1oe  Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) December 9, 2018 Facebook

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Times Up congratulates Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu on Golden Globes nomination Approaching the one-year anniversary of the movements birth, Times Up congratulated the women who earned 2019 Golden Globe nominations, including Crazy Rich Asians star and activist Constance Wu. We celebrate all of our sisters who were nominated for Golden Globe awards this year, including Constance Wu who became the first Asian woman to be nominated for best actress in more than 40 years, the organization said in a statement to The Times. (While few women of Asian descent been nominated for best actress in the awards 75-year history, Hailee Steinfeld, who is part Filipino, was nominated in 2017 for Edge of Seventeen.) As far as Asian Americans go, not Asian-Asians, there have been two others [in the comedy/musical category], Wu told The Times on Thursday morning, reacting to her nomination for Crazy Rich Asians, the first contemporary-set all-Asian studio film in 25 years. It is especially meaningful to receive a nomination for a leading role in an Asian American-centered story, Wu added. In its Globes nominations kudos, Times Up also called out the lack of female filmmakers among this years all-male directing nominees. We are thrilled to see some progress in the diversity of artists recognized, but, once again, the best director category lacks a single woman nominee, the statement read. The body of work directed by women this year deserves acknowledgement. The Times Up movement was first announced Jan. 1, unveiling an initiative to battle sexual harassment in industries including Hollywood, which included a legal defense fund to help underprivileged women. The movement called for supporters to wear all black to the glitzy 2018 Globes ceremony and speak out against harassment and gender inequality. As of Thursday, Wu was not yet sure if there will be a repeat of last years red carpet call to action or similar coordinated show of solidarity. I dont know if its going to be a clothing statement, but the solidarity and the sisterhood that we have is always there and is growing every day  so it will 100% be there at the Golden Globes, she said. Maybe not in terms of wardrobe, but in terms of passion? For sure. Read the full Times Up statement below: Statement from TIMES UP on the 2019 Golden Globe Nominations We celebrate all of our sisters who were nominated for Golden Globe awards this year, including Constance Wu who became the first Asian woman to be nominated for best actress in more than 40 years. We are thrilled to see some progress in the diversity of artists recognized, but once again the best director category lacks a single woman nominee. The body of work directed by women this year deserves acknowledgement. While we greatly admire the excellent work honored yesterday, we are also reminded of the vast imbalances that still exist across our industry and many other industries, and remain committed to our collective work. Facebook

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Kevin Hart shouldnt have stepped down from Oscars gig, GLAAD chief says: He should have stepped up By Christie DZurilla Comedian Kevin Hart decided not to host Februarys Academy Awards. (Willy Sanjuan / Associated Press) GLAAD would rather Kevin Hart hadnt quit as Oscars host, with its leader expressing disappointment Friday morning on social media and on CNN. Kevin Hart shouldnt have stepped down; he should have stepped up, tweeted Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the LGBTQ advocacy group. Harts apology to LGBTQ people is an important step forward, but he missed a real opportunity to use his platform and the Oscars stage to build unity and awareness. Ellis said the group would still welcome that conversation with the 39-year-old comic. Hart, who got the job only Tuesday, walked away Thursday night rather than cave to internet trolls for old anti-gay tweets that had resurfaced after he deleted them. He later did an about-face and offered an apology to those he had hurt, saying he was stepping down because he didnt want to distract from the awards themselves. We were hoping that this was going to turn into a teachable moment, Ellis told CNN on Friday morning. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis on why she was hoping Kevin Hart wouldnt step down as Oscars host:



We were hoping that this was going to turn into a teachable moment  [and] to use the Oscar stage ... to help build unity and awareness. https://t.co/Kt5qT05hAA pic.twitter.com/PNijmSM2Vv  New Day (@NewDay) December 7, 2018 Ellis said Hart could have become an ally of the community if he had faced it, explained he had evolved and was willing to lead moving forward. It wasnt the conclusion that I think everybody would have liked, Ellis said. The academy has yet to respond to Harts public exit or announce a replacement host. (But we have some ideas about who should get the gig.) We would still welcome that conversation with him. The Academy has recently made significant strides in featuring diverse talent onstage and they should now double down on that commitment as they look for a new host.  Sarah Kate Ellis (@sarahkateellis) December 7, 2018 Facebook

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Marvel drops Avengers 4 trailer, reveals title By Los Angeles Times Staff The end is near. Or more precisely, the endgame. On Friday, Marvel Studios unveiled the official first trailer for the latest Avengers film. The clip also confirmed the title for the project, Avengers: Endgame, and an April 26 release. Endgame picks up where the events of Avengers: Infinity War, released in April, left off. The beginning of the trailer focuses largely on Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) in solitude before moving the focus to Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). The new footage also shows the return of Jeremy Renners Hawkeye, who did not appear in Infinity War. He was last seen in Captain America: Civil War. Watch the trailer below. Facebook

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Justin Timberlake postpones Man of the Woods tour, citing bruised vocal cords By Nardine Saad Justin Timberlake. (Amy Harris / Invision/Associated Press) Justin Timberlake is sorry that the remainder of his Man of the Woods tour has now been postponed to next year while the singer recovers from bruised vocal cords, a problem that has dogged him since October. My vocal cords are healing but they are not all the way back to normal yet, so my doctors want me to continue to rest my voice, the 37-year-old wrote on Instagram Wednesday night. That means hell hold off on singing until next month. Im really sorry, Timberlake wrote. I want to be back on the stage and I am doing all I can to get there quickly. Live Nation, the producer of the tour, confirmed on Thursday that the tour would resume in January, and tickets for the originally scheduled shows will be honored at the 2019 events. Timberlake, whose tour accompanies his folksy fifth studio album, Man of the Woods, first canceled his Madison Square Garden show in New York in late October and had since postponed a slew of dates. (Though that didnt derail his silent interview on The Tonight Show to promote his memoir Hindsight shortly after.) The North American tour will now resume in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 4, according to Live Nation. Timberlakes Los Angeles stop at the Staples Center  originally set for Nov. 27  is now slated for March 10, Live Nation said. Hes also been rescheduled to play the Honda Center in Anaheim on Feb. 22. Additional appearances in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Fresno and Oakland have also been pushed back to March, and tickets for the previously scheduled concerts are valid at the respective new dates in each city. Refunds are also available at point of purchase. (A full list of the rescheduled shows can be seen here.) Facebook

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Faye Dunaway returning to Broadway to play Katharine Hepburn in Tea at Five By Nardine Saad (Lionel Cironneau / Associated Press) Oscar winner Faye Dunaway is returning to Broadway to play four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn. The Bonnie and Clyde star will embody the legendary actress with a devil-may-care personality in Matthew Lombardos Tea at Five, marking the shows Broadway debut and Dunaways return to the Great White Way after 35 years, producer Ben Feldman said in a statement on Thursday. Lombardo has created a new version of the one-woman-show, which took audiences to 1938 as Hepburn awaited word on the final casting for the role of Scarlett OHara to 1983, where they witness the sunset of her health and career. The new show will be directed by Tony Award nominee John Tillinger and will have a limited engagement in summer 2019. Additional information, including the complete creative team, dates and theater, will be announced early next year. Dunaway made her Broadway debut in 1961 with A Man for All Seasons and followed it up with appearances in After the Fall and The Changeling. However, her breakthrough happened off-Broadway when she appeared in Hogans Goat, which led to her casting in 1967s Bonnie and Clyde. (She later earned her Academy Award for the 1976 drama Network.) The 77-year-old actress last appeared on Broadway in 1982 in the original play The Curse of an Aching Heart. Facebook

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Father John Misty rallies musician friends for wildfire benefit concert Father John Misty announced that he will host a benefit concert for victims of Californias recent wildfires. (Suzanne Cordeiro / AFP/Getty Images) Father John Misty, the singer, songwriter and occasional Chateau Marmont pianist, announced Thursday morning the California Wildfire Benefit Concert, an evening of music to benefit victims of the recent fires. Misty, the stage name of Josh Tillman, is teaming up with Los Angeles-based concert promoter Goldenvoice and has scrolled through his contacts for a coterie of special guests, including Haim, Mac DeMarco, Lucius, Tim Heidecker, Rostam, Jonathan Wilson, Rivers Cuomo and Weyes Blood, among others. Set for Dec. 18 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in L.A., the night promises to be an intimate affair: an all-acoustic session of songs from some of the areas most accomplished songwriters, with a Steinway & Sons-donated piano to add some class. The benefit is the latest to raise money for those affected by the devastating fires. Over the weekend, Katy Perry, Gwen Stefani and Robin Thicke raised a reported $1 million as part of the One Love Malibu Benefit Concert. Last week, garage rocker Ty Segall and friends took over Zebulon in Frogtown to make money for those in need. Proceeds from Tillman & Co.s event will go to the Southern California Disaster Relief Fund, created by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles in partnership with United Way of Ventura County. In a statement Thursday morning, organizers explained that the fund is directed at low-income families whose lives and livelihoods are affected by the current wildfires in Southern California. Specifically, the fund focuses on longer-term support to help individuals and families in need to rebuild their lives. Bonus opportunity: Fans will be able to bid on front-row tickets to the concert through CharityBuzz. The high-bidder will also get a commemorative poster signed by participating artists and a room at the Ace Hotel. Tickets for the all-ages concert range from $59.50-$199.50 and go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific. Facebook

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A Star Is Born: Peter Buck turns 62 today By Los Angeles Times Staff (Joe Pugliese / Los Angeles Times) Everyone I know has enough bad times and struggles in their lives to draw upon for a lifetime.  Peter Buck, 1996 FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Lowdown on Hi-Fi Facebook

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Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg to co-host 2019 Golden Globes By Nardine Saad Andy Samberg, left, and Sandra Oh will co-host the 2019 Golden Globes. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times; Micha Theiner / Los Angeles Times) Killing Eve will meet Brooklyn Nine-Nine at the 76th Golden Globe Awards next month now that Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg have been announced as co-hosts of the annual show. They bring wit, charm and style to a room filled with the very best of film and television. Its sure to be another unforgettable fun-filled night, said NBC co-chairmen Paul Telegdy and George Cheeks in a statement on Wednesday. The party-like ceremony, hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. at the Beverly Hilton hotel, will honor the best in film and television and marks the official kickoff of the 2019 awards-show season. The three-hour telecast will air live, coast to coast, on NBC on Jan. 6 at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Golden Globes nominations preview: 5 things to watch for, including Mary Poppins Returns vs. Roma  The nominees will be announced early Thursday across 25 categories  14 in film and 11 in television  and the winners are voted on by members of the HFPA. Were excited to welcome Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg as co-hosts of Hollywoods Party of the Year, said HFPA President Meher Tatna in a statement. Both Golden Globe Award recipients have continually showcased their talents in film and television, and we cant wait see what their undeniable chemistry will bring to the Golden Globes stage. Oh, who famously starred as Dr. Cristina Yang on ABCs Greys Anatomy, won a 2006 Golden Globe for performance by an actress in a supporting role in a series, limited series or motion picture made for television; a Screen Actors Guild Award for the role and five Emmy nominations for supporting actress in a drama. Her role as an MI5 officer hunting down a female assassin on BBC Americas Killing Eve earned her another Emmy nomination earlier this year. As for Samberg, the Saturday Night Live alum won two Golden Globes in 2014 for his work on the cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which recently landed at NBC after being canceled on Fox. It wont be the first time for him to host a major awards show either: The comedian previously emceed the Primetime Emmy Awards as well as the Film Independent Spirit Awards. The duo take over hosting duties from recent hosts Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and Ricky Gervais. Facebook

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Natalie Portman apologizes to Jessica Simpson for bikini-shaming her By Nardine Saad Actress Natalie Portman, left, in a recent interview alluded to a bikini photo of Jessica Simpson. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times, left; Evan Agostini / Invision/Associated Press, right)) Oscar winner Natalie Portman hears you, Jessica Simpson, and agrees that women should dress and behave however they like without judgment. Thats a different tune than the one Portman appeared to sing in a USA Today profile published on Tuesday  one that prompted a lengthy statement from Simpson calling out Portman for shaming her, particularly amid the Times Up era that Portman helped usher in. Portman plays a pop star in the upcoming film Vox Lux, which explores the underbelly of the music industry, and in discussing the topic, she lauded Madonna but appeared to throw shade at Simpson and the industry that touted the virgin/vixen paradigms around the millennium. I remember being a teenager, and there was Jessica Simpson on the cover of a magazine saying Im a virgin while wearing a bikini, and I was confused. Like, I dont know what this is trying to tell me as a woman, as a girl, Portman, 37, told the publication. Simpson. 38, read those words Wednesday morning and, in a missive posted on Instagram and Twitter, said she was disappointed, but did not indicate what magazine cover Portman was referring to. As public figures, we both know our image is not totally in our control at all times, and that the industry we work in often tries to define us and box us in, the fashion designer wrote. However, I was taught to be myself and honor the different ways all women express themselves, which is why I believed then  and I believe now  that being sexy in a bikini and being proud of my body are not synonymous with having sex, Simpson added. Simpson, who made no secret of losing her virginity after she wed 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey in 2002, had said that shes always embraced being a role model to women by letting them know they can look and wear whatever they want and choose to have or not have sex whenever they want. The power lies within us as individuals, Simpson wrote. Addressing Simpson directly (and publicly) in the comments section of the post, Portman thanked her and said she she completely agrees with her. I only meant to say I was confused  as a girl coming of age in the public eye around the same time  by the medias mixed messages about how girls and women were supposed to behave, Portman wrote. The actress said she didnt mean to shame Simpson and is sorry for any hurt her words might have caused. I have nothing but respect for your talent and your voice that you use to encourage and empower women all over the globe, Portman said. UPDATE 2:21 p.m.: This story was updated with Portmans apology. This story was originally published at 11:52 a.m. pic.twitter.com/zBLuyF3a8p  Jessica Simpson (@JessicaSimpson) December 5, 2018 Facebook

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Surviving R. Kelly screening evacuated after anonymous threats By Christie DZurilla Singer R. Kelly. (Noam Galai / Getty Images) Phoned-in threats cleared the house at a screening of the Surviving R. Kelly documentary Tuesday night in New York City, leaving the singers ex-wife Drea Kelly more fired up than deterred. [S]everal anonymous threats were called in, Lifetime said in a statement to The Times. As a precaution, the network elected to evacuate the building. The incident was investigated and concern about a gunman in the house was determined to be unfounded, a New York Police Department spokeswoman told The Times. The R&B singer has been accused of abusive and controlling behavior toward women, especially younger ones, allegations R. Kelly has denied. Those allegations are detailed in the three-part documentary series. Tuesdays screening was attended by alleged victims Jerhonda Pace, Kitti Jones, Assante McGee, Lisa Van Allen and Lizzette Martinez, in addition to Drea Kelly. Also there were #MeToo activist Tarana Burke, radio host Angela Yee and former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson. Burke and Yee were to have been part of a panel with Lifetime executive producer Brie Miranda Bryant. They thought they were putting us out; they just put gasoline on a fire and now were just gonna burn longer and stronger. You actually helped us when it was meant to harm us [because] this did nothing but unite us even more, Drea Kelly told Rolling Stone. The incident lets me know were on the right track. Were causing people to listen. Were getting peoples attention and were getting attention from the one who thought that he was invincible and untouchable, she said. Surviving R. Kelly airs Jan. 3-5 on Lifetime. Facebook

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Cardi B announces split from Offset a year after they wed By Nardine Saad Offset, left, and Cardi B arrive at the American Music Awards in October. (Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press) A little more than a year after they secretly wed, rappers Cardi B and Offset have split, according to Cardi B, who announced the break-up in an Instagram video on Tuesday night. Things just havent been working out between us for a long time. And its nobodys fault, its just like I guess, we grew out of love, the Okurr-trilling, I Like It rapper said. Were not together anymore. It might take time to get a divorce, but Im always gonna have a lot of love for him because he is my daughters father, she added. Cardi and Offset, a member of the rap trio Migos, secretly wed in Georgia in September 2017 before the arrival of their daughter, Kulture, whos now nearly 5 months old. Cardi, 26, real name Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar, said that they remain good friends and business partners who got a lot of love for each other. Offset, also 26, real name Kiari Kendrall Cephus, very publicly proposed to the Bodak Yellow MC in October and the two often discussed their plans for a blowout celebration. Then news of their actual marriage  and marriage certificate  leaked in June and the two welcomed their baby girl in July. Reps for Cardi and Offset did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment. Facebook

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Kevin Hart to host the 2019 Academy Awards Kevin Hart will be hosting the Oscars next year. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) Stepping into what is often considered one of the most difficult  and at times thankless  gigs in Hollywood, Kevin Hart is set to host the 91st Academy Awards. The stand-up comedian and actor made the announcement himself Tuesday on Instagram, promising, I will be sure to make this years Oscars a special one. For years I have been asked if I would ever Host the Oscars and my answer was always the same, Hart wrote. I said that it would be the opportunity of a lifetime for me as a comedian and that it will happen when its suppose to. In tapping Hart, who has starred in box-office hits like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Central Intelligence and who boasts a massive social media following and large base of young fans, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is hoping to stem a steady decline in ratings for the telecast. In each of the past two years, under host Jimmy Kimmel, the ratings dipped, with Marchs show reaching a record-low audience of 26.5 million viewers. Facing perennial criticism over what many have decried as the sometimes tedious length of the Oscars, the academy has vowed that this coming years show, which is being produced by Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss, will not run over three hours. To trim the proceedings down, some awards will be given out during commercial breaks rather than live on air. In an ultimately fizzled gambit to bring in a wider audience for the all-important telecast, the academy earlier this year announced the creation of a new award recognizing outstanding achievement in popular film. But after weeks of blowback, the academys board of governors reversed itself and decided to shelve the idea, at least for the time being. Hart has previously served as emcee of the MTV Movie Awards along with his Central Intelligence co-star Dwayne Johnson. The Oscars will air on ABC on Sunday, Feb. 24. Facebook

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2018 AFI Awards honorees include Black Panther, Atlanta, Roma and The Americans By Sonaiya Kelley The American Film Institute announced 10 films and 10 television shows as honorees of the 2018 AFI Awards this morning. BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, Eighth Grade, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Favorite, First Reformed, Green Book, Mary Poppins Returns, A Quiet Place, and A Star Is Born were recognized as culturally and artistically significant films by the institute. Netflixs Roma, a Spanish-language film not eligible for the main list, was also recognized with an AFI Special Award which honors films outside the Institutes criteria for American film. On the television side, FXs The Americans, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Atlanta and Pose, HBOs Barry and Succession, AMCs Better Call Saul, Netflixs The Kominsky Method, Amazon Primes The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and NBCs This Is Us were all recognized. The AFI Awards will be presented at an annual private luncheon on Jan. 4, 2019, in Los Angeles. Facebook

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Terry Crews, Danai Gurira, Leslie Mann and Christian Slater to announce Golden Globe nominees Terry Crews, left, Danai Gurira, Leslie Mann and Christian Slater will announce the Golden Globe nominees on Thursday morning. (Ricardo DeAratanha, left, Carolyn Cole, Michael Nagle, Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) There are four Hollywood stars who are guaranteed to be awake bright and early for this years Golden Globe Awards announcement, regardless of whether they have a nomination in the offing. Terry Crews, Danai Gurira, Leslie Mann and Christian Slater have been tasked with presenting the Golden Globe nominees at Thursdays annual news conference, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced Tuesday. The HFPA also said a major announcement regarding the Golden Globes schedule would be made prior to this years nominees. Joining Crews, Gurira, Mann and Slater will be newly minted Golden Globe Ambassador Isan Elba (also the daughter of actor Idris Elba), HFPA President Meher Tetna and Golden Globe executive producer Barry Adelman. The Golden Globe nominations announcement will take place on Thursday at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills. Live-stream coverage of the event begins at 5:05 a.m., with the first categories announced at 5:15 a.m. and a second and final group of categories revealed shortly thereafter. Facebook

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SNL star Pete Davidson says he wont give in to online bullying; Ariana Grande chimes in By Christie DZurilla Pete Davidson (Angela Weiss / AFP/Getty Images) Pete Davidson says no matter what you do to him, hes not going to kill himself. Wait, what? Yes, exactly what you just read. Online trolls cant bully him to death, he says. And he wonders why theyre getting away with such abusive behavior. Ive been getting online bullied and in public by people for 9 months. Ive spoken about BPD and being suicidal publicly only in the hopes that it will help bring awareness and help kids like myself who dont want to be on this earth, the Saturday Night Live actor said bluntly Monday on Instagram. I just want you guys to know. No matter how hard the internet or anyone tries to make me kill myself. I wont. The Saturday Night Live actor, who has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, was presumably referring to his break from pop star Ariana Grande. The two met in March and became an item toward the end of May, got engaged just weeks into the relationship and then split up in October. She has got around 137 million Instagram followers, some of whom have apparently been talking to  or at  Davidson online. He has no verified Twitter or Facebook accounts. He said he has kept his mouth shut about the online bullying to this point and hasnt mentioned any names  nor does he drop any names in the post. Im trying to understand how when something happens to a guy the whole entire world just trashes him without any facts or frame of reference, Davidson wrote. Especially in todays climate where everyone loves to be offended and upset it truly is mind boggling. Pete Davidson just posted a touching note about mental health to his Instagram pic.twitter.com/nAudS7NdmU  Alexis Benveniste (@apbenven) December 3, 2018 Davidsons missive comes on the heels of the new video for Grandes hit song thank u, next, whose title echoes a Twitter comment involving the actor. The singer put Davidsons statement and a comment of her own on her Instagram story around midnight, urging her many fans to change their behavior. [I] really dont endorse anything but forgiveness and positivity. i care deeply about pete and his health. im asking you to please be gentler with others, even on the internet, Grande said, in part. Later in the statement, she got a bit more specific. [P]lease let whatever point youre trying to make go. I will always have irrevocable love for him and if youve gotten any other impression from my recent work, you might have missed the point, she said. Heres Grandes statement in full: i know u already know this but i feel i need to remind my fans to please be gentler with others. i really dont endorse anything but forgiveness and positivity. i care deeply about pete and his health. im asking you to please be gentler with others, even on the internet. ive learned thru my own mistakes not to be reactive on socials so i do understand. but you truly dont know what anybody is experiencing ever. regardless of what they choose to display on social media or how they may appear in public. i can promise u that. so please let whatever point youre trying to make go. I will always have irrevocable love for him and if youve gotten any other impression from my recent work, you might have missed the point. Borderline personality disorder is marked by an ongoing pattern of varying moods, self-image and behavior, according to the National Institute of Mental Health website. Symptoms can often result in impulsive actions and relationship problems, with people experiencing intense episodes of anger, depression and anxiety that last for hours or days. People with BPD tend to experience things as all good or all bad, and according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the risk of self-harming behavior or suicide is an extreme risk. UPDATE Dec. 4, 10:18 a.m.: This post was updated with the statement from Grande. This post was originally published on Dec. 3 at 12:37 p.m. Facebook

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Kanye West apologizes after being called out for his behavior at The Cher Show By Christie DZurilla Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West at the opening night of The Cher Show on Monday. (Evan Agostini / Associated Press) Kanye West really, really liked The Cher Shows opening night on Broadway. But at least one performer couldnt tell, cause Ye apparently was messing with his phone the whole time. Hey @kanyewest so cool that youre here at @TheCherShow!, cast member Jarrod Spector tweeted at the rapper shortly after things got rolling on Monday night. If you look up from your cell phone youll see were doing a show up here. Its opening night. Kind of a big deal for us. Thanks so much. West might as well have taken a flash photograph  he was so busted. Hey @kanyewest so cool that youre here at @TheCherShow! If you look up from your cell phone youll see were doing a show up here. Its opening night. Kind of a big deal for us. Thanks so much.  Jarrod Spector (@jarrodspector) December 4, 2018 West must actually read his mentions  at least the ones that blow up  because he replied with an apology a few hours later. And he apparently really did dig the show. The dynamics of Cher and Sonnys relationship made Kim and I grab each others hand and sing I got you babe, he wrote. Please pardon my lack of etiquette. We have so much appreciation for the energy you guys put into making this master piece. the dynamics of Cher and Sonnys relationship made Kim and I grab each others hand and sing I got you babe

please pardon my lack of etiquette. We have so much appreciation for the energy you guys put into making this master piece.  ye (@kanyewest) December 4, 2018 But West might not have behaved as awful as all that. A Kanye source told TMZ that the rapper loved the show so much he was actually taking notes on his phone. Still rude, but at least he didnt tweet that apology halfway through the show. Facebook

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Red Bull Music Festival sets 2019 lineup, including Red Dead Redemption 2 live gig Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd in October. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times ) Liquid adrenaline manufacturer Red Bull has announced the lineup for the 2019 Red Bull Music Festival Los Angeles, which will focus nearly as much on sight as on sound. Most notably, the multi-event program will feature the first live performance of music from the blockbuster action-adventure game Red Dead Redemption 2. It will be the centerpiece of a festival that aims to explore how music intersects with gaming, film and photography. Attendees will experience live Red Dead Redemption 2 performances by composer Woody Jackson, Indonesian duo Senyawa and others featured in the game in whats billed as a reimagining of the score as a unique auditory installation. The festival, happening at various locations across multiple February dates, will also present the first U.S. stops on Swedish pop powerhouse Robyns upcoming North American tour. Hitting the States to promote her new album, Honey, Robyn will perform her first Los Angeles shows in eight years on Feb. 22 and 23 at the Hollywood Palladium. The festivals Feb. 7 opening event will aim a much-deserved spotlight on the performer San Cha. Shell be introducing a new original piece, according the notes, based around the telenovela programs of her childhood, and will feature artists from a range of L.A.s creative disciplines. On Valentines Day, the Tupelo, Miss., rap team Rae Sremmurd will host an event described in release notes as an eclectic show inspired by the golden age of Hollywood. Along with surprise guests, hosts Slim Jxmmi and Swae Lee will marry their hits with covers of iconic love songs of past and present, putting a contemporary slant on classic silver screen romance. The party will take place at the Reserve, which is in a historic bank vault in downtown Los Angeles. On Feb. 16, the skate, film and art collective Illegal Civilization will take over the Pink Motel in Sun Valley  most visible these days as a setting in the Netflix show GLOW  for a daylong installment called Illegal Civ Movie Motel. The group is headed by Mikey Alfred, best known for his work with Jonah Hill on Mid90s, and Alfred and his peers will entangle skating, film screenings and a swap meet with music performances by affiliates including Show Me the Body, Tierra Whack and Tommy Genesis. Throughout February the festival will take over the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Koreatown to present Center Channel, a film series with a mission to explore the most compelling intersections of sound and film. In conjunction with Los Angeles curators and tastemakers, programmers have scheduled not-yet-announced premieres, screenings, panels and live performances. Tickets for all events go on sale Wednesday at noon. Facebook

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New Captain Marvel trailer teases Carol Danvers backstory and cosmic fights By Tracy Brown The new trailer for Captain Marvel features a little something for everyone: additional details about the story, fight scenes in outer space and a cute cat. The second trailer for the Marvel Studios film debuted Monday night, and it sends a clear message that Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, is the hero everyone has been waiting for. At least according to Disney. While the first trailer hinted that Carol (played by Brie Larson) is trying to piece together what seems to be her forgotten past on Earth, this new promo provides more information about who she has become. Carol explains to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) that she is Kree, an alien race of noble warrior heroes. But then the trailer immediately reveals that wasnt always the case. It turns out that after somehow stumbling upon an injured and memory-less Carol, the Kree turned her into one of them. This gave her enhanced strength, a prolonged lifespan and various other superpowers. And these powers appear to be no joke. The trailer shows Captain Marvel handle everything from hand-to-hand combat against what appears to be an elderly woman (but is likely an enemy in disguise) to flying around in space while taking out spaceships with energy blasts she shoots from her hands. Looks like there is definitely hope for the remaining Avengers to save the universe following the events of Avengers: Infinity War after all. Captain Marvel is scheduled to hit theaters March 8, 2019. Check out the new poster and tune-in to @ESPNs Monday Night Football to see the brand new trailer for Marvel Studios #CaptainMarvel. pic.twitter.com/43EPkcTBET  Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) December 3, 2018 Facebook

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Queen announces Rhapsody Tour with Adam Lambert By Christie DZurilla Brian May, left, and Adam Lambert perform at the Forum in 2014. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) Bolstered by the success of the new biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen is going back on tour in North America next summer. And Adam Lambert will take the mic once again in place of the late Freddie Mercury, the band announced Monday. The Rhapsody Tour will take place from mid-July to late August 2019 and feature (in the bands words) 23 giant shows. Theyll play the Forum in Inglewood on July 19. Tickets go on sale Friday, with pre-sale codes sent to fan club members and QueenOnline.com subscribers on Tuesday. The soaring success of Bohemian Rhapsody  the Freddie Mercury/Queen movie that is set to become the biggest-grossing music biopic of all time  has proven that the publics love for Queen remains as strong as ever, the band said in a release. We are ready for America and raring to get back in the saddle, drummer Roger Taylor said in the statement, with lead guitarist Brian May adding: This is a great opportunity. Our last tour featured our most ambitious production ever and got us our best notices ever. So we decided to rip it apart and get even more ambitious! Lambert has been touring with the band since 2012 after sharing the stage with them during the 2009 American Idol finale. Completing the tour lineup are longtime collaborator Spike Edney on keyboards, Neil Fairclough on bass and Tyler Warren on percussion. See the full list of dates here. Were excited to announce Queen + @adamlambert will be debuting the brand new Rhapsody touring show across 23 North America dates July-August 2019. Read all the details here:https://t.co/rBI0jbxQRb



Photographer: Bojan Hohnjec

 Miracle Productions LLP pic.twitter.com/s0LTa128Ey  Queen (@QueenWillRock) December 3, 2018 Facebook

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Halsey calls out Victorias Secret Fashion Show over trans exclusion By Christie DZurilla Halsey, left, performed at the 2018 Victorias Secret Fashion Show, recorded last month. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images) Halsey, who performed at the 2018 Victorias Secret Fashion Show that aired Sunday night on ABC, posted a lengthy note on social media at the same time regarding the shows perceived lack of trans inclusivity. I have adored the Victorias Secret Fashion Show since I was young. Performing this year alongside other amazing artists, and hardworking models/friends was supposed to be the best night of my year. However, after I filmed the performance some comments were made regarding the show that I simply cannot ignore, she wrote. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I have no tolerance for a lack of inclusivity. Especially not one motivated by stereotype, continued the 24-year-old singer, who is out as bisexual. She then directed followers to the GLSEN website and said she had made a big donation to the organization, which champions LGBTQ issues in K-12 education. The show featured 49 female models of various races and skin colors from at least 14 countries and six continents. However, a comment from a Victorias Secret executive in a Nov. 8 Vogue article  which ran the same day the show was taped  upset some transgender people and their allies, and appears to have sparked Halseys post. There was also discussion in the article about the absence of plus-size models on the VS catwalk. Its like, why doesnt your show do this? Shouldnt you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I dont think we should, Ed Razek, chief marketing officer for Victorias Secret owner, L Brands, told the magazine. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. Its a 42-minute entertainment special. Thats what it is. It is the only one of its kind in the world, and any other fashion brand in the world would take it in a minute, including the competitors that are carping at us. And they carp at us because were the leader.  @GLSEN - https://t.co/XdQMPro0KC pic.twitter.com/agOzSYREkX  h (@halsey) December 3, 2018 Victorias Secret did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The quote was in the context of a larger discussion about criticism of the show on social media, which had ramped up ahead of the show. Halsey, for one, wasnt having it. If you are a trans person reading this, and these comments have made you feel alienated or invalidated please know that you have allies. We stand in solidarity, and complete and total acceptance is the only fantasy that I support, she said in her Sunday post. Also performing at the fashion show were Shawn Mendes, Rita Ora, the Chainsmokers, Bebe Rexha, Leela James, Kelsea Ballerini, and the Struts, most of whom posted generic social-media reminders to watch the show. None of them talked about trans exclusion. Rexha, however, had a bit more to say, and added a video of her performance Monday on Twitter so followers could see it  in some cases, again. It has always been a big dream of mine to perform at @victoriassecret Fashion Show and its finally happening tomorrow!! So dont you miss it!!!, she posted Saturday on Instagram. Watch me strutting my curvy ass body unapologetically down that runway.  I cant believe this happened. Dream come true. https://t.co/lHJMfI7OhM  Bebe Rexha (@BebeRexha) December 3, 2018 Facebook

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Kennedy Center Honors celebrate Cher, Wayne Shorter, Reba McEntire and Philip Glass  plus the creators of Hamilton By Christie DZurilla Wayne Shorter, front left, Cher, Reba McEntire, Philip Glass; back, Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Andy Blankenbuehler, Alex Lacamoire. (Greg Allen / Associated Press) The Kennedy Center Honors, which once again were not attended by President Trump, included tributes Sunday night to the late former President George H.W. Bush, who died Friday at age 94. I think its appropriate to recognize the passing of a wonderful man who dedicated his life to service and who graciously attended this event many times during his administration, laughing, applauding, singing along and even shedding a tear from right up there in the presidential box, host Gloria Estefan said to kick off the evening at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington. She recalled being invited to the White House and how Bush literally spent 45 minutes patiently talking to my 8-year-old son about how government worked. Estefan was recognized last year; this year, the lifetime artistic-achievement honors went to jazz great Wayne Shorter, pop diva Cher, country star Reba McEntire and composer Philip Glass, with a unique award of distinction going to the team behind Hamilton: Andrew Blankenbuehler, Thomas Kail, Alex Lacamoire and star Lin-Manuel Miranda. Their names, like the other nominees, were first announced this summer. In recognizing Hamilton and its co-creators, Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter said in a statement at the time, the Kennedy Center is making an unprecedented statement about an unprecedented work  a work that transcends cultural boundaries and tells Americas story in a powerful and contemporary way. On Sunday, comic Whoopi Goldberg introduced Cher and friend Cyndi Lauper sang If I Could Turn Back Time. Kelly Clarkson paid tribute to McEntire with a version of Fancy, the Bobbie Gentry song McEntire turned into a hit in 1990. Jason Moran, the Kennedy Centers artistic director for jazz, said Shorters sound over a six-decade career holds a special place in the galaxy, adding that he could safely say that somewhere in the galaxy right now, a band is playing one of his pieces. And previous award winner Paul Simon did the honors for Glass, whom he praised for never settling into one particular style, always developing and exploring. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, who also missed last years event after several honorees threatened a boycott, returned in the wee hours Sunday from the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. Though Bush attended most years and continued to do so after his presidency, he  like other heads of state, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton  missed a year due to major events. Trump is the first president to decline an invitation twice. You can watch the Kennedy Center Honors when they are broadcast on CBS on Dec. 26. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Facebook

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Grammy Awards nominations delayed over Bushs memorial services By Christie DZurilla (Julio Cortez / Associated Press) The Recording Academy said Monday morning it would delay its announcement of the 61st Grammy Award nominees to avoid competing with memorial services and public viewings for former President George H. W. Bush, who died Friday. The organization had planned to announce nominees early Wednesday morning but will now share nominees in select categories on Friday at 5:30 a.m. PST via CBS This Morning and Apple Music. A full nominations list across 84 categories will follow at 5:45 a.m. PST on Friday at Grammy.com  the academys website  as well as all of its social-media platforms. Nominations cover recordings released between Oct. 1, 2017, and Sept. 30, 2018. Facebook

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A Star Is Born: Lucy Liu turns 50 today By Los Angeles Times Staff (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) For me, I want to be the best person for the job  not the best color for the job. That to me would be the most ideal thing.  Lucy Liu, 2006 FROM THE ARCHIVES: Versatility in action Facebook

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Alec Baldwin, Ben Stiller open a Saturday Night Live that features a Kendrick cameo and a Robert Mueller holiday jingle After a few weeks off for some legal trouble involving a parking dispute, Alec Baldwin was back in the pursed-lip saddle as President Donald Trump this week on Saturday Night Live. Playing off the G20 summit in Argentina and recent revelations surrounding the Russia investigation, SNL found Baldwins Trump isolated and calling his Mikey Coco Puffs in attorney Michael Cohen, who was again played by Ben Stiller. Nostalgic for the late-night talks with Cohen and vacations to Moscow, the sketch found Trump sad to see his lawyer going to prison, and told him he was like a son to me. Then whyd you make me do such much illegal stuff? Stillers Cohen asked. Thats cause you were like a son to me, Baldwins Trump countered. The sketch went on to nod toward Baldwins troubles as Trump hung up and Baldwin said he hadnt been so mad since he flipped out over that parking space. Fred Armisen also appeared in the sketch as Saudi Arabias Mohammed bin Salman, Cecily Strong as Melania Trump and Kate McKinnon as a wild-eyed Rudy Giuliani. The Russia investigation received another callback at the end of the episode with McKinnon and Strong joined by Aidy Bryant, Leslie Jones, Melissa Villasenor, Heidi Gardner, and newest cast member Ego Nwodim for a performance of All I Want for Christmas Is You dedicated to Robert Mueller in the hopes of an indictment for the president. All they want for Christmas is you, Mueller  #SNL pic.twitter.com/bYtpwM0moN  Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) December 2, 2018 Still, thats unlikely to be the nights most talked about musical moment. Those honors likely go to Oxnard native Anderson .Paak, whose third album (which is named after his hometown) was released in November. .Paak performed Who R U along with his single Tints, which featured an assist from Kendrick Lamar, who performed a few verses next to .Paaks drum riser. It wasnt a recast of a Christmas song, but it made a strong impression nonetheless. Facebook

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Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson make beautiful music together on Nothing Breaks Like a Heart Its been a minute since Miley Cyrus released new music, but much like Los Angeles, the drought is over. Cyrus, in collaboration with British DJ and producer Mark Ronson, released Nothing Breaks Like a Heart on Thursday, the first single from Ronsons upcoming album, his first solo effort since 2015. Its the first new music from Cyrus in more than a year. Cyrus brings her huskiest growl to the tale of love gone wrong, singing, This world can hurt you, it cuts you deep and leaves a scar / Things fall apart, but nothing breaks like a heart. The accompanying video features Cyrus in a low-speed chase with a bevy of cop cars, smashing through walls as if she were a wrecking ball  or the Kool-Aid Man. In the world outside, cultural references play out in disconnected fashion, as football players kneel and children visit a gun range, all while Cyrus looks on. Also, she goes to a strip club, so watch the video at your own risk. However, the video does end with a stunning sequence of a car wreck that features Cyrus still inside the vehicle singing, as gold and glass float through the air around her, in what appears to be an obvious homage to Julie Taymors gold dust bus crash in 2002s Frida. The video is worth watching for those stylish seconds alone. Facebook

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Hugh Jackman is hitting the road  and the Hollywood Bowl  with 2019 world tour Hugh Jackman starred in The Greatest Showman last year and is now taking to the stage to see if he can match the hype. The Logan actor appeared on Today on Thursday to announce his 2019 world tour, The Man. The Music. The Show. The tour will feature Jackman performing hits from The Greatest Showman, Les Miserables and other stage and screen roles. Im on the back nine of my life right now, Jackman said on Today, explaining the impetus for the show, and this is about the best parts of the front nine. The tour launches with a 12-date European leg in May, beginning in Hamburg, Germany, and concluding with two shows in London. The U.S. tour begins June 18 in Houston and wraps up with two shows at the Hollywood Bowl on July 19 and 20. Fans of comic-book culture will notice that those Los Angeles dates coincide with San Diego Comic-Con, leaving Jackman either plenty of time for a jaunt south for a guest appearance at SDCC or a built-in excuse for the Wolverine actor to skip out altogether. Tickets for a handful of Jackmans tour dates go on sale Dec. 7 at 9 a.m. PST on HughJackmanTheShow.com. Tickets for the Hollywood Bowl appearances do not yet have an announced sale date. pic.twitter.com/iO5NLSDE8G  Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) November 29, 2018 Facebook

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Quentin Tarantino marries singer-model Daniella Pick in L.A. By Christie DZurilla Quentin Tarantino and Daniella Pick in 2016. (Jean-Philippe Ksiazek / AFP/Getty Images) Once upon a time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino married Daniella Pick, the Israeli singer-model hes been engaged to since last year. The two tied the knot in Los Angeles in an intimate ceremony, People reported exclusively Wednesday, ahead of a larger gathering that was planned for that night. Tarantino, 55, and Pick, 35, met in 2009 when he visited Israel to promote Inglourious Basterds, but they had been dating steadily only for about a year when he popped the question in summer 2017. Theyd been on and off before that. Its a first marriage for the director, who explained his take on marriage to GQ in 2009. When Im doing a movie, Im not doing anything else. Its all about the movie, he said. I dont have a wife. I dont have a kid. Nothing can get in my way.  Im not saying that Ill never get married or have a kid before Im 60. But Ive made a choice, so far, to go on this road alone. Because this is my time. This is my time to make movies. Tarantino said at a conference in 2016 that he was going to retire after he had directed 10 movies. His Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is in post-production now, while an untitled Star Trek project looms. That latter one would be his 10th full-length effort. Just Married! Congrats Quentin Tarantino & Daniela Pick!

 Curtis Dahl / @people pic.twitter.com/uFBk94kvyS  Quentin Tarantino Fan Club (@TarantinoFC) November 29, 2018 Facebook

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SpongeBob fan lobbies for Empire State Building to glow yellow to honor Stephen Hillenburg By Christie DZurilla A SpongeBob SquarePants balloon floats over Central Park West last week during the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Associated Press) A fan of the Nickelodeon show SpongeBob SquarePants has started an online petition asking that the Empire State Building be lit up in yellow to remember series creator Stephen Hillenburg, who died Monday of ALS at age 57. As Nickelodeon Studios is based in New York, I felt it fitting to ask the Big Apple to show its love for Stephen by embracing SpongeBobs classic yellow glow, fan Alison P. said in her petition on the Care2 website. She said she started the petition as a way to honor Hillenburg and also to drive awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative neurological condition also known as Lou Gehrigs disease. The petition had closed in on its 3,000-signature goal by early Wednesday afternoon. Stephen Hillenburg at the world premiere of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in 2015. (Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images) SpongeBob SquarePants has taught his audience not only about friendship but helped to drive awareness around the importance of ocean conservation, Alison P. said. It was Stephens genius that was able to invent a character who could connect with kids and adults to deliver such an important message in a fun and charming way. Though Hillenburg left the series in 2002 after about 60 episodes, it has continued on through 12 seasons so far and amassed a loyal fan base that includes both young and old. There have been two SpongeBob movies, with one more on tap for 2020. Hillenburg went public with his ALS diagnosis in March 2017. READ MORE: Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, dies at 57 Facebook

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Bobby Brown sues Whitney: Can I Be Me distributors, including Showtime and the BBC By Christie DZurilla Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown in 1997. (Rene Macura / Associated Press) Bobby Brown and the estate of Bobbi Kristina Brown are suing Showtime and other distributors of the unauthorized 2017 biopic Whitney: Can I Be Me, alleging the defendants used more than half an hour of old footage of both Browns, plus his other children, without permission. The suit, which seeks at least $2 million in damages, was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, where defendants Showtime, the BBC and Passion Pictures all have offices. The named defendants  which also include Tracey Baker-Simmons, Wanda Shelley, B2 Entertainment and Simmons Shelley Entertainment, based in Atlanta  are accused of distributing footage including some shot for the 2005 reality show Being Bobby Brown, thereby violating the Browns privacy rights in pursuit of financial gain. Though Brown was contacted by the filmmakers, the suit says, to be interviewed for Can I Be Me, he declined. A mention in the films credits suggests Browns production company OKd the use of the Being Bobby Brown footage, including footage of Bobbi Kristina Brown, but the complaint says no such permission was given. The footage was actually recorded prior to the divorce in 2007 between Brown and Houston. Brown never signed or executed a release for the material that appears in the film, the lawsuit says. The footage of Brown is approximately fifteen (15) years old. The Los Angeles Times review of Can I Be Me noted that some voices were absent from the film, which was co-directed by Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal. (Neither director is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.) Broomfield, for his part, was hampered by the fact that he was not able to interview key people in Houstons life, including ex-husband Bobby Brown, her closest friend Robyn Crawford, and Clive Davis, the Svengali who began her career, Times critic Kenneth Turan wrote. Showtime and the BBC declined to comment on Wednesday. And an email sent to Tracey Baker-Simmons was not immediately returned. Bobbi Kristina Brown died in July 2015 from undetermined causes. Facebook

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Sundance 2019: Get an inside look at the feature film lineup and the festivals early trends By Los Angeles Times Staff People walk past the Egyptian Theatre, a landmark venue showing films during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Mindy Kaling. Alec Baldwin. Naomi Watts. Pete Davidson. Awkwafina. Emma Thompson. Shia LaBeouf . Those are just a few of the many names headed to Park City, Utah, in January for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. On Wednesday, the Sundance Institute unveiled the full lineup of feature films from all over the world set to premiere at the annual festival. To mark the official lineup reveal, festival director John Cooper and programming director Kim Yutani visited the Times video studio for a livestream discussion. Joined by Times film reporter and The Reel host Mark Olsen, the two offered their instant analysis on the lineup and what trends to watch for come January. Read our full report on the titles selected, and press play on the video below to watch a replay of the livestream. The 2019 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 24 to Feb. 3. For full coverage, make sure to bookmark latimes.com/entertainment and follow @latimesent on Twitter, @latimesent on Facebook and @latimes_entertainment on Instagram. Facebook

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Mac Miller singles released posthumously on Spotify By Christie DZurilla Rapper Mac Miller died Sept. 7 of an accidental overdose. (Owen Sweeney / Associated Press) Spotify has released a couple of new tunes from the late rapper Mac Miller. A recording of his song Dunno and a cover of Billy Prestons 1974 hit Nothing From Nothing are part of a Spotify Singles playlist that came out Tuesday on the streaming platform. They were recorded live in New York City before Millers death on Sept. 7. Miller appears to get emotional about an ex-girlfriend  perhaps Ariana Grande?  in the wistful Dunno, from his 2018 album Swimming. And he puts a smoky, introspective spin on Nothing From Nothing. Listen to songs below. Miller, who was 26, died from an accidental overdose of alcohol, cocaine and fentanyl, the Los Angeles County coroners office concluded. The unexpected nature of his death left many strings untied, including a Halloween concert date at the Greek Theatre that became the peer-loaded tribute concert Mac Miller: A Celebration of Life. Facebook

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Margaret Atwood announces Handmaids Tale sequel to be released in 2019 Margaret Atwood announced Wednesday that a sequel to her iconic 1985 novel, The Handmaids Tale, is coming next year. (Patrick T. Fallon / Los Angeles Times) In the surest sign yet that we are living in the age of reboots, revivals and sequels, Margaret Atwood announced Wednesday that a sequel to The Handmaids Tale, her prescient 1985 novel, is in the works. Titled The Testaments, the new novel is set 15 years after the protagonists final scene in The Handmaids Tale, and is narrated by three female characters. Atwood revealed the news in a tweet Wednesday morning and said the book is set to be published next year. The Handmaids Tale and its dystopian tale of life in Gilead, a patriarchal society overseen by fundamentalist zealots with a singular obsession with womens reproductive rights has seen renewed cultural significance in recent days. The books continued relevance is thanks in part to the high-profile Hulu adaptation, along with plenty of other contributing factors. Dear Readers: Everything youve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! Atwood wrote in her tweet. The other inspiration is the world weve been living in. Yes indeed to those who asked: Im writing a sequel to The #HandmaidsTale. #TheTestaments is set 15 years after Offreds final scene and is narrated by three female characters. It will be published in Sept 2019. More details: https://t.co/e1umh5FwpX pic.twitter.com/pePp0zpuif  Margaret E. Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) November 28, 2018 I have published Margaret Atwoods work since 1976  her poetry, fiction and nonfiction, publisher Nan A. Talese said in a statement Wednesday. A manuscript from her is always a reason for joy. She writes wonderfully and has a mind like a steel trap. This new book is no exception. Beyond the timeline and the narrators, little else has been revealed about the sequel. The book is not, however, in any way connected to Hulus current adaptation. The Testaments is scheduled for release on Sept. 10, 2019, by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday with a first printing of 500,000 copies. Facebook

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A Star Is Born: Alfonso Cuaron turns 57 today By Los Angeles Times Staff (Anacleto Rapping / Los Angeles Times) I think it is vital for filmmakers to have their feet firmly planted in their countrys cultures. ... But the theme must be universal.  Alfonso Cuaron, 2002 FROM THE ARCHIVES: A New Mexican Revolution Facebook

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Amanda Bynes makes triumphant return on cover of Paper magazine Actress Amanda Bynes, pictured in 2013, battled several problems that played out in public for a few years. (Neilson Barnard / Getty Images) Former child star turned cautionary tale Amanda Bynes has resurfaced on the cover of Paper magazine looking happy, healthy and ready for a comeback. Bynes broke through on Nickelodeons sketch comedy show All That before scoring a series of her own at age 13 with The Amanda Show. Her star continued to rise through the early 2000s with movie roles aplenty, including What a Girl Wants, Shes the Man and Hairspray. But eventually, Bynes said in a new sit-down interview with Paper, self-image issues fueled her burgeoning drug habit and led to her abandoning acting altogether. The actress recounted a moment on the set of Hall Pass, when, after seeing herself on a monitor, literally tripping out and thinking my arm looked so fat because it was in the foreground or whatever and I remember rushing off set and thinking, Oh, my god, I look so bad. According to Bynes, it was a combination of image issues and Adderall abuse that resulted in her eventually leaving Hall Pass. Shortly thereafter, she found herself in a similar situation while watching her performance in Easy A. Amanda Bynes on the cover of Paper magazines Break the Internet issue. (Danielle Levitt / Paper) I literally couldnt stand my appearance in that movie, and I didnt like my performance, she said. I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it. Bynes is clear that any bad behavior in previous years was spurred by drug use and not by psychological issues, saying that once she quit acting, her days were filled with little beyond getting high and self-destructing online. Im really ashamed and embarrassed with the things I said. I cant turn back time, but if I could, I would, Bynes said. And Im so sorry to whoever I hurt and whoever I lied about because it truly eats away at me. It makes me feel so horrible and sick to my stomach and sad. Everything I worked my whole life to achieve, I kind of ruined it all through Twitter, she said. In the interview, Bynes also discusses her four years of sobriety and educational pursuit at Los Angeles Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, as well as her potential return to acting. Facebook

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Aubrey Plaza to host 2019 Spirit Awards By Sonaiya Kelley Aubrey Plaza, a Spirit Award winner herself, will host the 2019 Spirit Awards ceremony. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) Film Independent announced on Tuesday that Aubrey Plaza will host the 2019 Spirit Awards. The search for a great Spirit Awards host is never easy, Film Independents president, Josh Welsh, said in a release. This year we said, Lets find someone funny, smart, a cinephile  being a great actor wouldnt hurt and it would be an added bonus if theyve previously won a Spirit Award. Then we realized, Oh wait, thats Aubrey Plaza! I am truly honored and delighted to host the Spirit Awards this year, said Plaza in the release. It is a dream come true to host a show that celebrates my greatest loves: independent film, the people that make them possible and live television. Plaza starred opposite Elizabeth Olsen in last years Ingrid Goes West, which she also produced. As a producer, she received a Spirit Award for best first feature for that film. She currently stars in FXs Legion series, which is based on a Marvel comic of the same name. Season 3 of the show will premiere in 2019. She is also well known for her role on the Emmy-nominated series Parks and Recreation and will next appear in Lars Klevbergs Childs Play remake with Brian Tyree Henry, scheduled for release on June 21, 2019. The Spirit Awards are the primary fundraiser for Film Independents year-round programs. Nominees were announced on Nov. 16. Among this years best feature nominees are Eighth Grade, First Reformed, If Beale Street Could Talk, Leave No Trace and You Were Never Really Here. The 34th Independent Spirit Awards will broadcast live on IFC on Feb. 23, 2019. The ceremony will be held on the beach in Santa Monica. Facebook

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Bruce Springsteen teases Netflixs Springsteen on Broadway with a new trailer By Christie DZurilla One step up and two steps back? More like one door closing and another one opening. So it is with Bruce Springsteen, whos bringing Springsteen on Broadway to small screens the day after his autobiographical show closes following more than a year at New York Citys Walter Kerr Theatre. This is what Ive presented to you all these years as my long and noisy prayer, as my magic trick, Springsteen says to kick off the trailer released by Netflix on Tuesday, not quite three weeks ahead of the specials debut on the streaming service. Think of it as a two-hour reward for resisting the urge to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a ticket to the gig, which opened in October 2017. Heavy on serious theatricality, the trailer offers a low-key taste of the nearly solo show  staged in a theater that seats fewer than a thousand  which on most nights has included Springsteens wife, Patti Scialfa, on a couple of songs. Its a hybrid, but clearly not a Bruce concert. Far from it. Unlike his raucous arena shows, there are no massive singalongs by the crowd. It doesnt stretch to 3 or four hours, though its apparently grown longer with time. Its a coming-of-age story, and I want to show how this  ones coming of age  has to be earned, Springsteen told Esquire magazine this month. Its not given to anyone. It takes a certain single-minded purpose. It takes self-awareness, a desire to go there. And a willingness to confront all the very fearsome and dangerous elements of your life  your past, your history  that you need to confront to become as much of a free agent as you can. This is what the show is about. Springsteen on Broadway premieres Dec. 16 on Netflix. Facebook

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Sesame Street Records is reborn, with classic childrens hits headed to streaming Tell your kids to break out the Casio keyboard, because 
The first words uttered in In Between, the assured feature debut of Arab Israeli filmmaker Maysaloun Hamoud, are words of advice: If you want to make your husband happy, an older woman tells a bride, dont raise your voice. For the trio of young women at the center of this sharp, wise and vibrant ode to female independence, those are words to resist, not live by.

Theyre twentysomethings who came from the provinces to the big city  a setup as universal and time-tested as storytelling itself. But in this case the city is complex, cosmopolitan Tel Aviv and the women are Palestinian. On top of the family expectations and Old World traditions theyre breaking away from, theyre confronted with the day-to-day realities of their minority status; one woman is admonished at her restaurant job for upsetting the customers by speaking Arabic.

With the outstanding contributions of cinematographer Itay Gross and composer M.G. Saad, Hamoud brings the citys youthful grit and vitality into focus, as well as the specific in-between that her characters occupy. The writer-director has a keen ear for natural dialogue, lent unpredictability and dimension by the lived-in performances of her three dazzling leads.

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As hard-partying, chain-smoking attorney Lalia, Mouna Hawa is unstoppable, suffering no fool in her orbit gladly, whether hes a grabby stranger or a flirty colleague. Her roommate Salma (Sana Jammelieh), a DJ, hasnt told her Christian parents that shes a lesbian, and continues to play along, grudgingly and comically, with their endless matchmaking efforts. During an especially hungover morning for the roomies, their new housemate arrives: jilbab-clad college student Nour (Shaden Kanboura), whose open-mindedness will soon expose irreconcilable differences with her humorlessly pious fiance (Henry Andrawes).

Theres no shortage of self-satisfied men in this tale of awakening, and hypocrisy of the most brutal, patriarchal sort meets its comeuppance. But however pointed the dramas lessons, theyre never simplistic and always involving, pulsing with compassion and urgency as Hamouds vivid characters defy the rules. Each, in her own way, raises her voice.

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In Between

In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Playing: Laemmles Ahrya Fine Arts, Beverly Hills

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calendar@latimes.com
Played out against the backdrop of a nursing home, Abe & Phils Last Poker Game, a first feature by neurologist Howard L. Weiner and the last starring the late Martin Landau, too often finds itself treading a wobbly line between melancholic and mawkish.

Landau, who died last July at age 89, makes for an effective Abe Mandelbaum, a doctor who has reluctantly checked into Cliffside Manor with his mentally deteriorating wife (Ann Marie Shea).

He quickly strikes up a series of friendships, including a chummy one with a womanizing gambler (Paul Sorvino), a paternal one with a new nurse searching for her biological father (Maria Dizzia) and a decidedly less fatherly one with a divorced 50-something volunteer (Pamela Dubin) who, um, awakens something long dormant within him.

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Its the films candid treatment of that latter aspect  the depiction of senior citizens as sexual beings  that sets it apart from other American movies in which randy octogenarians are usually played strictly for laughs.

But while Landau and Sorvino gamely go all in, delivering the sort of uninhibited performances that will cause more than a few viewers to squirm uncomfortably in their seats, writer-director Weiner, himself well over retirement age, was unwilling to settle for Carnal Knowledge with canes.

Tripping over soapy subplots and maudlin conventions, it loses its footing just as Abe regains his mojo.

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Abe & Phils Last Poker Game

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills

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Pick any ripped-from-the-headlines social ill, and odds are screenwriter Nicolas Aaron Mezzanatto and director Brett Donowho have worked it into their gritty action picture Acts of Violence. Human trafficking, opioid addiction, PTSD Its all a tad too serious for a movie thats essentially a tawdry pulp thriller.

Still, anyone who comes to Acts of Violence looking for colorfully sleazy characters and shootouts  as opposed to nuanced public policy briefs  should find enough reasons to stick around. The pictures choppily paced but generally lively, thanks to comedian Mike Epps ice-cool turn as a shrewd crime lord, and an unusually energized Bruce Willis in another of his recent string of Can you shoot all my scenes in two days? gigs.

Cole Hauser stars as Deklan, a struggling Iraq war vet who finds renewed purpose when his future sister-in-law Mia (Melissa Bolona) gets kidnapped from her bachelorette party. Alongside brothers Brendan (Shawn Ashmore) and Roman (Ashton Holmes), Deklan tracks down the fiends who broke up his family.

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Willis pops up only occasionally as the rule-bending lawman who surreptitiously helps the boys, while Epps drops by every 10 minutes or so to scold his lackeys for making dumb decisions and endangering his stable of doped-up prostitutes (or products).

Mostly though, this is a movie about military-trained brothers doing the job the cops wont. Any hard messages it means to deliver are hard to hear over the frequent sound of gunfire.

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Acts of Violence

Rating: R, for violence, language throughout, sexuality/nudity and drug material

Running time: 1 hour, 26 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Monica Film Center, Santa Monica

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January is the grimmest month as far as new releases are concerned, an elephants graveyard where signs of life are few. So its a good thing we can count on Liam Neeson to periodically rescue us from these dark and desperate times.

Starting with Taken a decade ago, a saga successful enough to spawn two sequels, Neeson has transformed himself into a berserker for our time, an action hero who will go to any and all lengths to right wrongs and rescue those close to him.

Now comes The Commuter, the fourth collaboration between Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra. As in the previous films (Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night) The Commuter puts an increasingly desperate, exhausted character into an all but impossible situation and watches as he throws every fiber of his being into battling his way out of it.

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Calling many of these scenarios, very much including the one in The Commuter, far-fetched is to understate the case, but that has always been part of their charm.

That and the fact that Neeson, in addition to being a rangy 6-foot-4, is an accomplished actor with lots of serious work to his credit as well as the uncanny ability to be simultaneously everyman and Superman.

As written by Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi and Ryan Engle, The Commuter has a lot in common with Non-Stop, which cast Neeson as a U.S. air marshal with an alcohol problem who has to prevent a serial killer from doing his worst on a trans-Atlantic flight.

This time around, as the title indicates, Neeson is taking the train, not the plane. He plays a harried commuter who has to stop a conspiracy so complicated he probably wishes he had something as simple as a serial killer to deal with. Its not the best of the series, but it gets the job done.

Before we get to the nefarious acts of the films evildoers, however, The Commuter takes its time setting up its protagonist, showing us how and why Neesons Michael MacCauley became desperate enough to set the plots central conceit into motion.

A montage of shots over time of MacCauley rising in the morning, getting his wife and son squared away and headed out to work reveals the man to be an ordinary commuter, someone who has spent the last 10 years taking a train from leafy Tarrytown, N.Y., into the concrete jungle of Manhattan and then back home again.

Once a New York City cop (where he picked up some skills that just might come in handy), MacCauley became a life insurance salesman to better support his family, but all that is about to change.

Out of nowhere, just a few years before retirement, MacCauley is fired by his boss, just when a crushing combination of financial obligations places him in desperate need of funds.

After having a beer with his old police partner Alex Murphy (the reliable Patrick Wilson), MacCauley heads for the train home to break the bad news to his family. If you want to know what God thinks about money, he sourly tells his pal, look who he gives it to.

The uneventful ride MacCauley is anticipating, however, does not materialize. Not even close.

Taking the seat directly across from him is the formidably enigmatic Joanna (the always effective Vera Farmiga), who introduces herself as an expert in human behavior. What kind of person are you? she asks. Lets do an experiment.

Joanna presents MacCauley with a theoretical proposition, the chance to do something that means little to him but is critical to her shadowy confederates, a proposition that turns out to be all too real.

There is someone on this train, says Joanna, who doesnt belong here, someone who is not one of the regular commuters. Find that person, place a tracking device on him or her, and end up with $100,000, no questions asked.

Weakened by his suddenly impoverished situation, MacCauley says he will do it, a decision he will soon regret, but it is too late, way too late, to change his mind.

For though Joanna quickly exits the train, she and her confederates have eyes and ears everywhere, they know MacCauleys every move, they even threaten (never a good idea when dealing with a Neeson character) to harm his family if he doesnt stick to the bargain.

With elements lifted from Murder on the Orient Express, Runaway Train, even, God help us, Spartacus, The Commuter is burdened with a story line that gets increasingly far-fetched, inconsistent and hard to follow.

But while it doesnt pay to think too hard about the plot, after four of these films, director Collet-Serra, shooting here on a 30-ton set put together from authentic discarded railroad scrap, is an expert, so to speak, at making this kind of train run on time.

Once MacCauley takes a deep breath and says, Im done playing games, audiences can breathe freely as well. Its Neeson Time, and its not in the man to let us down.

The Commuter

Rating: PG-13 for some intense action/violence, and language

Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Playing: In general release

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kenneth.turan@latimes.com

@KennethTuran
As the zany-but-brainy on-air alter ego of music historian Barret Hansen, veteran radio show host Dr. Demento has championed the career of Weird Al Yankovic, the wacky music of humorists Spike Jones, Allen Sherman, Stan Freberg and Tom Lehrer, and obscure recordings that push the limits of propriety.

Less known is that he also was an early advocate of punk rock. No surprise, considering this is a man with a distinctive raspy and squeaky voice who continues to greet listeners as Dementoids and Dementites.

The punk connection takes center stage with Dr. Demento Covered in Punk, an exceedingly ambitious and densely packed double album  triple in the vinyl edition  being released Jan. 12.

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The album comprises 64 tracks spread over a pair of CDs, pulling together new recordings of mad music and crazy comedy songs long associated with the quirky radio emcee. Participants include Yankovic, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, William Shatner, Adam West, the Vandals, Fred Schneider of the B-52s, the Misfits, Japans Shonen Knife, Los Straitjackets, Missing Persons, the Dead Milkmen and at least a dozen more.

I was always a fan of rock n roll, and some of the early punk music of the 60s with groups like the Music Machine, Hansen, 76, said in the cozy living room of his home in Lakewood, where he also records his shows that now reach listeners through subscriptions by way of his official website.

So when the new punk rock showed up around 1976 and 1977, I played a few samples on my show, he said. Hansen graduated as a classical music major from Reed College in Portland, Ore., and subsequently earned his masters degree in folk music studies from UCLA.

I got the Ramones first album and played several of those songs, including Beat on the Brat, the song Weird Al did for this album, said Hansen, who has been inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, the Comedy Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.

And the response from his listeners to first-wave punk rock?

There was a little bit of What the  is that? he said. But mostly people took it in stride. They were used to hearing me drop in odd things that might have been unexpected. In fact, Im sure that was part of the appeal of the show for many people. My audience was quite young in those days  lots of high school kids. Thats how the show became popular: Monday morning conversations about songs Id played the night before, some of which were scandalous for various reasons.

As it turns out, many of those groups were already, or soon-to-be, fans of Dementos twisted sense of humor.

We are children of the Demento legacy, said Joe Escalante, bassist of long-running Southland punk band the Vandals, which contributes its version of Lehrers sardonic National Brotherhood Week. We are hugely grateful to him.

The new recordings were made at the behest of John Cafiero, a musician and producer who has worked with the Misfits, the Ramones and fronts the pop-punk band Osaka Popstar. For his bands track, Cafiero chose to update the goofy Pico and Sepulveda song recorded in 1947 by Felix Figueroa and his Orchestra, and which Hansen adopted as his shows theme song.

I cant say how old I was  probably 6 or 7  when a friend of mine who lived downstairs, played me the original version of Benny Bells Shaving Cream, which he had taped off of Dr. Dementos show. That was mind-blowing for me.

His show was hard to follow for me because I was on the East Coast, and it was always changing stations, he said. I came to think of it as this elusive UFO that would appear and then disappear, but I was religiously following it as much as I could.

Cafieros goal with the album is to introduce a new generation of listeners to Dr. Demento, those who maybe have never heard his show, so they can experience some of the same thrill and sense of discovery I got from it.

About four years ago he came up with the idea of creating a tribute album with new versions of many of the songs Demento played over the decades, highlighting the anti-authority spirit they shared with the punk community.

Besides shepherding new versions of vintage songs, Cafiero also talked Hansen into providing intros and outros as hes long done on the radio  including historical tidbits such as the revelation that the Muppets catchy Ma Na Ma Na song, covered on the album by the Kipper Kids, originated in the soundtrack for a soft-core porn film in the early 1970s.

From the beginning I envisioned it as a full-length tribute album to Dr. Demento, structured like one of his radio shows, Cafiero said. I didnt plan on it being a double album, but the more I got into it, the more I got into the groove.

Actually, those who listened to Demento in the 70s and 80s probably remember the days when he commanded a full four hours each Sunday night.

When his show began being syndicated nationally in 1974, the time slot was scaled down to half that, and his weekly top 10 list of most-requested songs slimmed down to a Funny Five. These days hes back to creating a new 10 each month for his Internet audience.

Among the coups Cafiero scored for Dr. Demento Covered in Punk are tracks from the stars of two of the biggest cult-classic TV series of the 1960s: Star Treks Shatner, who recorded the song Garbageman and Batmans West, heard in one of his final performances before his death in June at 88. He sings The Thing, a vaguely suggestive song recorded in 1950 by Phil Harris.

It was an absolute honor to work with both of them, Cafiero said. Both did amazing jobs with their performances. Theyre both great actors with incredible senses of humor.

The biggest success story out of Hansens nearly 50 years on the air  his first radio gig using the Dr. Demento persona came in 1970 at Pasadena-based underground station KPPC-FM (106.7)  was no doubt Weird Al Yankovic. His appearance here with Beat on the Brat is his first studio recording thats not a parody nor one of his original songs.

Operating these days in the realm of internet radio, Hansen recognizes the advantages and disadvantages over his many years in broadcast radio.

People have to subscribe now and pay for it, which means they cant just tune in for free like they used to, he said. On the plus side, there are no commercials. And people can listen to it anywhere in the world.

He also no longer has to think twice if he wants to cue up Monty Pythons Sit on My Face, Ruth Wallis The Dinghy Song or any of the more suggestive tunes from his collection of more than 100,000 LPs, 45s, 78s, CDs, reel and cassette tapes  songs that often made his broadcast world bosses nervous.

I dont have to answer to the FCC, he said with a smile. Theres a lot more freedom.

randy.lewis@latimes.com

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Hong Kong-based luxury department store Lane Crawford is bringing its hunt for emerging fashion and lifestyle talent to Los Angeles later this month, marking the first time the retailer has held such an event in the U.S.

The Lane Crawfords buying team will decamp to the 3.1 Phillip Lim store in the downtown Los Angeles Arts District from Jan. 24 to 26 in an effort to connect with up-and-coming designers and brands that dont traditionally present their wares at the major fashion weeks around the world. The call covers a wide range of categories, including (but not limited to) womenswear, menswear, footwear, bags and accessories as well as home decor, furnishings, kitchenware and furniture.

According to last weeks announcement by the retailer, its looking for other kinds of creatives as well  stylists, photographers, illustrators and writers among them.

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Dubbed Creative Call Out, its a 4-year-old program that has held six previous events  three in Hong Kong (where the retailer is based) and three in mainland China  resulting in the launch of 50 brands and 45 creative projects over that period of time.

In addition to getting their wares on the racks and shelves of 10 brick-and-mortar Lane Crawford stores (as well as its website), successful submissions will benefit from the marketing and logistics muscle of the retailer, which dates to 1850.

Even though the event is nearly two weeks away, those interested in attending need to register by Jan. 18. Additional details  and the registration form  can be found here.

Lane Crawfords Creative Call Out Los Angeles, by appointment only, Jan. 24 to 26 at 3.1 Phillip Lim, 734 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles.

adam.tschorn@latimes.com

For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me at @ARTschorn.
During his first year in office, President Trump has guided the nations energy course directly into the headwinds of market instability, civic opposition, unstable finance and environmental risk in order to fortify the domestic coal and oil industries.

But this week, the administrations plan to achieve what it termed American energy dominance has foundered amid obstacles of law, economy, technology and political miscalculation.

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On Monday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission swept aside as ill-advised and unlawful a proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to subsidize old coal and nuclear power plants to keep them operating.

The next day, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke dismissed Florida from his mammoth offshore oil drilling plan, opening to court challenge from other coastal states the legal legitimacy of a proposal that just five days before he promised would make America the strongest energy superpower.

Trump has big plans for offshore oil development. But will it ever happen? 

Both setbacks came as a new report by the Energy Information Administration, a research unit of the Energy Department, projected that utilities were preparing this year to shut down a near-record number of old coal-fired power plants. A coal mine operator announced a closure in Pennsylvania that would end 400 jobs. And oil and gas lease auctions on public lands in Alaska and across the West attracted weak interest from exploration companies.

This wasnt the goal.

Unlike China, Europe and India, which are pivoting to renewable energy and away from coal and oil for economic and environmental reasons, Trump and his aides have focused on making the fuels that ruled the 20th century economically relevant again. He has withdrawn the United States from the Paris climate treaty. He signed one executive order to dismantle President Obamas program to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, and a second to curb regulatory burdens that unnecessarily encumber energy production.

Just last week, the administration, under Zinkes plan, proposed to open almost all of the outer continental shelf to offshore energy exploration.

Environmental groups have delighted in watching the administrations fossil-energy campaign founder, and California and other coastal state leaders have called on Zinke to remove their states from the offshore drilling plan.

At the same time, though, one more momentous decision for energy, the economy and the environment awaits the president.

Sometime before Jan. 26, Trump will rule on levying a tariff on imported crystalline photovoltaic panels, by far the most popular equipment in the U.S. for generating electricity from the sun.

In October, the U.S International Trade Commission recommended levying tariffs on solar cells and panels of up to 35%. The president has full authority to follow that recommendation, opt for his own remedies or not to act at all. Industry executives warn that a high tariff would injure American competitiveness in renewable energy, one of the largest job-producing industrial sectors of the 21st century.

It would be very disruptive, said Mark Marion, a senior vice president at Juwi Americas, a developer of utility-scale solar power stations, based in Boulder, Colo. Its like driving a car fast and slamming on the brakes.

The presidents decision on solar tariffs marks a clearly defined pivot point for the United States, one defined by powerful and converging trends in economics and the environment that the president has resisted. But other powerful nations have embraced the converging trends and pointed themselves in a new direction.

In the United States, the worlds second-largest producer, domestic coal consumption continues to slip, and production is 35% lower than its peak in 2008, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The United States now generates 30% of its electricity with coal, down from more than 50% a decade ago.

Coal markets in China and India also are getting softer as both countries close coal-fired power plants. China, the worlds largest coal producer and consumer, has canceled 300 coal-fired power plants in the last two years. In India, too, coal production is flattening.

Oil markets also are erratic. Consumption in the U.S. is more than 1 million barrels a day less than it was in 2005, and it is leveling off globally.

The downturn in both sectors, along with the threat of carbon-influenced climate change, has caused utilities and oil companies in the U.S. and around the world to encounter new impediments in financing their work. Oil company stock prices are well below their 2007 peaks. The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the World Bank, pension funds and other big financial institutions have announced they will not fund new fossil fuel projects.

On Wednesday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that in the next five years he and the city comptroller planned to divest the $5 billion in fossil fuel holdings from the citys $189-billion pension fund. Were bringing the fight against climate change straight to the fossil fuel companies, De Blasio said in a statement.

As fossil energy has turned down, investments in renewable energy are rising fast. The U.S. solar sector has grown to about 40 manufacturing plants, over 9,000 installation companies and 260,000 employees, according to the Solar Energy Industries Assn., the industrys major trade group in Washington. (By contrast, 53,420 people work in the coal industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

New and cleaner fuel sources are becoming mainstream. Electric plants that rely on wind, solar and small hydropower dams are easier and cheaper to build and operate, engineers and utility executives say. Investments worldwide in new generating capacity from wind and solar energy reached $286 billion in 2015, twice as much as investments in fossil-fuel-generated electricity, according to a study by the United Nations Environment Program.

ALSO

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Times staff writer Nina Agrawal in New York contributed to this report.
Gov. Jerry Brown wants California to launch its first fully online public community college to help 2.5 million young adults without college credentials gain skills for better jobs and greater economic mobility.

In the 2018-19 budget plan he unveiled Wednesday, Brown proposed spending $120 million to open such a college by fall 2019, with a focus on short-term credential programs for careers in fields including advanced manufacturing, healthcare and child development.

The governor is a longtime advocate of online learning, which he sees as more cost effective than traditional education.

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Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the 114-campus California Community College system, said the online college is targeted at people who dont have time to physically go to school to attend classes, and that it wont compete with traditional campuses.

What were talking about are job skills  that target adult learners  those who are in the workforce with no college or some college but no credential, he said.

These are people, Oakley said, who work hard to support their families but find themselves stranded in an economy that is unforgiving without college credentials. In his budget plan, Brown said that such Californians are at great risk during economic downturns and from the impact of automation in the California workforce.

Community college officials say they have worked in recent years to significantly improve their online learning programs. A 2015 UC Davis study of 217,000 state community college students found that those who took online courses between 2008 and 2012 had lower grades and course completion rates than those who took the same courses in person.

In 2013, San Jose State University abruptly suspended an online learning program with Udacity, a Silicon Valley start-up, after more than half of the students enrolled failed to pass final exams.

Laura Hope, a California Community Colleges executive vice chancellor, said improved classes and tools for online orientation, counseling and tutoring have significantly narrowed the performance gap between online and traditional classes. Nearly two-thirds of online students completed their courses in 2015-16, compared with just over half a decade earlier. Over the same period, the percentage of students who completed traditional classes stayed roughly the same, at about 71%.

One in three community college students now take at least one online course, Hope said, twice as many as a decade ago. The option gives working adults more flexibility and cuts the cost of transportation and childcare, she said.

All told, Brown wants to boost revenue for the community colleges from general funds and property taxes by $609 million, or 6.5%, to $9.9 billion.

The University of California and Cal State University did not do as well in the governors plan. Brown proposed increasing their funding by 3%, down from 4% in each of the last few years. Overall, UC would receive about $3.5 billion and Cal State about $3.8 billion in general fund dollars.

Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White, in a statement, called the proposal concerning and surprising. University trustees had requested three times the amount proposed.

UC President Janet Napolitano and Board of Regents Chairman George Kieffer said in a joint statement that they were pleased to get an increase but that it was less than anticipated.
A man considered to be the highest-ranking Mexican cartel leader to self-surrender to the United States pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court Wednesday to a scheme to distribute and import methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine to the U.S., authorities said.

Damaso Lopez-Serrano, 29, is believed to be the godson of Sinaloa drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. In his plea, Lopez-Serrano admitted to being a leader in the cartel, acting as a major coordinator of moving drugs into the U.S., successfully importing tonage quantities of narcotics across the border. He also admitted to possessing guns for his cartel duties.

Lopez-Serrano faces a mandatory sentence of at least 10 years in prison, and he has agreed to forfeit $1 million in cash.

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Lopez-Serrano, also known as Mini Lic, gets his nickname from his father, Damaso Lopez Nunez, also known as El Licenciado. The father, also reputed to be in the cartels leadership, is in Mexican custody awaiting extradition to the U.S.

Lopez-Serrano pleaded guilty to all charges in the San Diego indictment, as well as to a cocaine distribution conspiracy charge out of Virginia that also names his father. He presented himself to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Calexico West Port of Entry on July 27. News reports out of Mexico said authorities there had been hunting for him in Mexicali at the time.

Lopez-Serrano, who once enjoyed a close relationship with Guzmans sons, was said to be in the middle of a power struggle within the cartel after his father fought them for control of the organization.

The guilty plea is part of a massive assault on the Sinaloa cartel by the U.S. attorneys office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and agencies around the country.

The investigation began in 2011 into what was at the time believed to be a small-scale drug distribution cell in National City and Chula Vista. It was discovered the drugs were being supplied by the cartel, and the case opened wide. More than 125 people have been charged, including the cartels top leadership tier.

Guzmans co-leader of the cartel, Ismael El Mayo Zambada Garcia, is charged in the initial indictment, as are two of his four sons  one of whom is in Mexican custody pending extradition to the U.S. One of Guzmans sons also has been charged.

Guzman is awaiting trial in New York on drug trafficking charges.

Davis writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com
Santa Barbara County officials chose not to send an emergency alert to cellphones warning of mudslides until destructive flooding had already begun in Montecito, officials said Wednesday.

The message, similar to an Amber Alert for abducted children, was sent about 3:50 a.m. Tuesday to all registered cellphones in areas that were under voluntary and mandatory evacuations because of heavy rains that threatened mudflows in the wake of the Thomas fire, officials said.

Its unclear how many people actually got the alert. But by then, tons of mud, trees, rocks and other debris were rolling down hills that had been burned in the largest fire on record in California. At least 17 people died and more than 100 homes were destroyed in the mudslides.

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Jeff Gater, Santa Barbara Countys emergency manager, said the alert was sent because of deteriorating conditions and followed one issued by the National Weather Service.

Officials expected heavy rain, but the downpour was much worse than anticipated and it became clear mudslides were occurring.

In the days leading up to the storm, the county had issued numerous warnings about the possibility of mudflows on the countys website and social media, through news outlets and via community information emails that residents can sign up to receive. Gater said more than 200,000 emails and other warning messages were sent out. But the county decided not to use the the push alert system to cellphones out of concern that it might not be taken seriously.

If you tell everyone to get out, everyone get out, the next time people wont listen, he said. If you cry wolf, people stop listening.

Deadly natural disasters in California over the last few months have sparked debate over how best to warn the public about an impending safety threat. More than 40 people died in October when fires swept through wine country. Some residents said they got little or no warning, in part because Sonoma County decided not to use the cellphone bulletins as the fire approached Santa Rosa subdivisions.

The wine country fires, as well as Decembers Thomas fire, highlighted weaknesses in emergency warning systems that officials are now trying to address. Among the problems: Cellphone alerts are not getting to those targeted, and television warnings are not being broadcast properly.

Its unclear how many people would have heeded an emergency evacuation order had it been issued earlier in Montecito. Numerous residents said they knew about the mudslide risk from warnings but decided to stay in their homes anyway. Some said that after fleeing from fire in December, they doubted the rains would pose much of a risk.

David Cradduck, 66, was one of many people in his Montecito neighborhood who stayed.

I think all of us have learned our lessons on this one. We were all bad children and ignored the warning, he said.

After the fires, some said they had disaster fatigue.

We were all tired of it, Cradduck said. Now here we are, shovels in hand, trying to get our vehicles out. Mother Nature came back and dealt us a big blow, but its our fault. We should have heeded the warning.

Gater was also skeptical about whether more alerts could have changed minds, especially in the early morning hours when many people were asleep.

A lot of people dont listen to their phones when they go to bed, he said. Thats why we messaged people on Sunday for something that was 30 hours away.

Mandatory evacuation orders issued Sunday had focused on foothill communities home to about 7,000 people above Montecito, areas closer to where the Thomas fire had burned. Deputies had gone door-to-door there Monday night, including in Romero Canyon, where scores of people were stranded Tuesday and Wednesday after the mudslides.

Voluntary evacuation orders were issued at the same time for about 23,000 others, including in some neighborhoods where mudflows buried homes and killed people.

This isnt an exact science in terms of actually defining where something is going to happen, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters Tuesday. Obviously a lot depends on Mother Nature  the magnitude of the rainfall, the magnitude of the mudslides.

Gater said research by the county and federal experts suggested that although mudflows were likely to result from the storm, officials didnt think they would go as far south as they did. Debris from the burned areas overwhelmed creeks, sending the flow into neighborhoods and then down onto the 101 Freeway.

Despite the destruction, Gater said, he believes the warnings and preparations paid off.

Times staff writers Brittny Mejia in Montecito and Ruben Vives in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @josephserna

UPDATES:

11:05 p.m.: The headline was updated to reflect that it was the countys alerts, specifically, that didnt go out until after the mudslides began.

This article was originally published at 7:40 p.m.
Officers shot a man near Exposition Park on Thursday after responding to a report of a man with a knife, Los Angeles police said.

Details of the shooting, including the condition of the man who was struck by gunfire and what prompted police to fire their weapons, were not immediately clear, said Sgt. Frank Preciado, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.



For the record: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of a man shot and killed by Los Angeles police in South L.A. on Monday. The mans name is Primitivo Macias-Rodriguez Jr.

Preciado said the shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. near 40th Place and Menlo Avenue, just south of Exposition Park.

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It was the second shooting by Los Angeles police so far this year.

The first occurred Monday evening, when police shot and killed a man near Florence Avenue and San Pedro Street in South L.A. Officers assigned to the LAPDs Metropolitan Division tried to stop a man who was driving erratically when he fled and then crashed his vehicle, Chief Charlie Beck said this week.

The man then pulled out a gun, pushed his upper body out of the vehicle and pointed the gun at the officers, Beck said, prompting police to shoot. The man died at the scene.

The man was identified by coroners officials as Primitivo Macias-Rodriguez Jr., 46, of Los Angeles.

Police said the gun  which Beck described as an assault weapon  was found near the car.

kate.mather@latimes.com

@katemather
In a span of 30 days in 2001, El Salvador endured two devastating earthquakes, the first a magnitude 7.7 followed by a magnitude 6.6. Hillsides crumbled and swept away neighborhoods. Houses disintegrated. Roads buckled. In all, the two quakes killed 1,156 people and injured 8,122 more while destroying 150,000 houses and damaging another 185,000. It was a devastating $2.8 billion natural disaster. The George W. Bush administration responded with compassion, allowing more than 200,000 Salvadorans who happened at that moment to be in the U.S. (both legally and illegally) to remain and work here under what is known as Temporary Protected Status until El Salvador recovered sufficiently to let them return safely.

President Trump says that time is now. After 17 years, quake recovery has been sufficient to allow Salvadorans to return home, according to the Department of Homeland Security. But while it may be true that the earthquake damage has been repaired, the country continues to be one of the most dangerous in the world. Thats why Trumps decision to end protected status as of Sept. 9, 2019, for more than 200,000 Salvadorans is such a heartless and dangerous decision, and one that runs counter to American interests in the region.

There are numerous moral and pragmatic arguments for allowing the Salvadorans to remain in the United States. First, there is the question of whether the U.S. should ever send people against their will to a country where they will be in mortal danger. Furthermore, these are people who have been in the United States for more than 20 years on average, and have established homes, families, and, in some cases, businesses; its cruel to send them back after allowing them to build lives here for so long. Whats more, they have become parents of some 192,000 U.S. citizens; many of those young Americans would also end up living in dangerous conditions  in a country they dont know where they might not even speak the language. Those who didnt go back would be separated from their parents.

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El Salvador is not safe. In fact, the State Department warns U.S. travelers against going there.

History matters here. Civil war wracked El Salvador from 1980 to 1992 (the U.S. backed the government in its bloody suppression of a leftist insurgency), which sparked an exodus of Salvadorans to the U.S. In Los Angeles, that led to the creation of the notorious Salvadoran gangs, such as MS-13, whose leaders and members eventually were deported back to El Salvador, planting the seeds for the rise there of the powerful street and drug gangs that have made contemporary El Salvador numbingly violent. Gang conscription, beatings and murders of those who refuse to join, rape of sisters and mothers as coercion  those conditions have made neighborhoods so dangerous that parents pay thousands of dollars to smuggle their children into the U.S. Its true that gang violence isnt the reason Salvadorans were granted protected status, but it would be callously formalistic to ignore that risk and force some 200,000 people to repatriate just because some houses and hospitals have been rebuilt since the earthquake.

From a pragmatic point of view, a forced return could be destabilizing for El Salvador, which relies heavily on the remittances sent back from the United States to family members at home. And as a poor country with a population of 6.4 million, El Salvador could have significant difficulty absorbing such a large number of returnees.

Unfortunately, the 1990 law creating temporary protections did not anticipate situations in which temporary dangerous conditions might drag out into near-permanency. Currently, about 400,000 people from 10 countries are in the United States under protected status; the Trump administration is lifting protections for those from Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti and, now, El Salvador. Over the years previous administrations have granted and then lifted protections for people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Guinea-Bissau, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Rwanda and Sierra Leone after unrest abated.

But El Salvador is not safe. In fact, the State Department warns American travelers against going there. The U.S. needs a smarter and better approach to dealing with foreign nationals left in limbo by protracted instability in their home countries. And it needs to find a better solution to the plight of the Salvadorans than to summarily boot them from a country we have let them call home for a generation.

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To the editor: I sympathize with The Times Editorial Boards plea for the Trump administration to get serious about bringing about Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that would lead to a sovereign, economically viable Palestinian state alongside Israel as the clearest path to peace. But that is a hollow hope because the White House has shown no hint of going in that direction. (Trump bungles his quest for the ultimate deal in the Middle East, Jan. 6)

For decades there has been a tension in American Israeli-Palestinian policy. The U.S. has said it supports an end to the occupation and the emergence of a Palestinian state, but it has acted contrary to that policy. The only hope for peace was for the U.S. to start acting in conformity to its stated policy.

President Trumps Jerusalem decision resolved that tension by changing American policy to conform with its actions. That killed any hope for a Palestinian state and set Israel on a short path to fully acknowledged apartheid. A Palestinian drive for equality will surely follow.

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Jeff Warner, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: One would think The Times Editorial Board has a calendar that reads 1968 rather than 2018.

Is the board unaware that for the last few years, Israel and the most powerful of the Arab states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have formed a de facto alliance against Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah? Isnt it interesting that while all the Arab states publicly denounced Trumps proper decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, none of the Arab states took any concrete action relative to the decision?

The board might heed the adage that things are not always as they seem.

Nathaniel J. Friedman, Beverly Hills

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
Gavin Newsom releases ad that highlights his push to allow same-sex couples to marry By Phil Willon A new ad from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom features Phyllis Lyon, who with her partner, Del Martin, received the first marriage license after Newsom vowed to allow same-sex couples to marry when he was mayor of San Francisco in 2004. The current lieutenant governors push for marriage equality thrust him into the national spotlight and he has emphasized that effort to portray himself as a bold, progressive leader. Facebook

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Failed California housing bill was not a bad idea, Gov. Jerry Brown says By Liam Dillon Gov. Jerry Brown (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Earlier this month, high-profile housing legislation that would have allowed for four- to five-story apartments and condominiums near transit stops failed to advance in the state Legislature. But had it reached his desk, would Gov. Jerry Brown have signed it? Maybe. I think that was not a bad idea, Brown said of Senate Bill 827 at a meeting with business leaders from the Bay Area Council on Monday afternoon. The bill, written by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), attracted national attention and a maelstrom of opposition in part because it would have eliminated single-family zoning near transit stops in favor of apartments or condominiums. Brown said that a relative of his who lives in West Portal, a low-density neighborhood in San Francisco, told the governor he was horrified by the bill. Brown also lamented dramatically rising housing costs. He said he bought his first house in Los Angeles in 1973 for $75,000 at a time when his salary as secretary of state was $35,000. Now, he said, buying a house for a little over twice ones annual salary is virtually impossible anywhere in the state. FOR THE RECORD

May 1, 9:32 a.m.: This post originally misstated the year Brown purchased his house as 1970. It was 1973. Facebook

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John Cox begins California barnstorm with the delivery of gas tax repeal signatures By Javier Panzar GOP gubernatorial candidate John Cox strolled up to the stack of 12 boxes in front of the Los Angeles County registrar-recorders offices in Norwalk on Monday and placed his hands on top of his partys hope for success in 2018. The boxes, stacked four across and three high, contained 211,000 signatures for an initiative to repeal recent increases in Californias gas tax and vehicle fees. Cox says the effort has gathered more than 940,000 signatures from registered voters to put the measure on the ballot  far more than the 585,407 signatures that are required. The aim: to bring out the partys base to the polls this November and help candidates in tough congressional and legislative races down the ticket. A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll in November found 54.2% of registered voters surveyed said they would repeal the tax and fee hike, but a survey a month earlier by another group said a majority would vote to keep the higher taxes. Cox was flanked by Bill Essayli, a former federal prosecutor who is challenging Democratic Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes of Riverside in the June primary. Cervantes voted for the gas tax and Essayli plans to use that vote against her. He even launched his campaign at a 76 gas station in Norco. This is a central issue in my campaign, he said. Cox also submitted signatures in San Diego on Monday and is headed to Bakersfield, Fresno and Sacramento, as well as Shasta and Butte counties in coming days. We are going all across the state, Cox said. The whole state is paying this tax and the whole state wants it gone. Facebook

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All Californians would be able to serve on state boards  even people in the U.S. illegally  under new bill By Jazmine Ulloa Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) State lawmakers on Monday introduced legislation that would allow all Californians to serve on state boards and commissions regardless of immigration status. Senate Bill 174, by Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), comes as the state is locked in a broader legal battle with the Trump administration over state immigration laws and his call for mass deportations. Lawmakers point to what they say is the states own discriminatory history as their basis for introducing the legislation. The proposal would amend an 1872 provision that was first adopted to exclude Chinese immigrants and other transient aliens from holding appointed civil positions. At the time, antipathy toward the Chinese had been building in California, though, Chinese immigrants opened hundreds of businesses across the state and would play a critical role in building the transcontinental railroad. The Senate bill would delete the phrase transient aliens from the government code and make clear that any person, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, can hold an appointed civil office if they are at least 18 years old and a resident of the state. That would allow any Californian to serve on hundreds of boards and commissions that advice in an array of policy areas, including farm labor, history and employment development. Californias two million undocumented immigrants are a source of energy for our state, Lara said in a statement. It is shocking to read the words of fear and exclusion that are still in California law but belong in historys trash can. Facebook

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Tony Mendozas fundraising dries up after resignation amid harassment inquiry By Patrick McGreevy Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). (Steve Yeater / Associated Press) Political contributions to Tony Mendoza, who resigned from the state Senate under pressure amid sexual harassment allegations, have nearly dried up. New documents he filed with the state in his bid to reclaim the seat he once held show that his support has eroded. As a result, five other candidates for the 32nd District senate seat in the June 5 election have raised more than Mendoza so far this year. With the June 5 election approaching, Mendoza has reported raising just $7,750 in cash from six supporters during the nearly four-month period from Jan. 1 to April 21. Mendoza, a Democrat from Artesia, went on a leave of absence from the Senate Jan. 3 and resigned a month later under the threat of expulsion from colleagues. An investigation ordered by the Senate found a pattern of unwanted flirtatious or sexually suggestive behavior based on testimony from six women. Mendoza has denied wrongdoing. Last year, Mendozas reelection campaign raised $412,600, or an average of about $34,000 per month, from more than 350 supporters. Most of Mendozas 2018 total was contributed by the political arm of the Southern California Pipe Trades District Council 16 on Jan. 22, a month before Mendoza resigned. Mendoza also reported that his campaign loaned $125,000 this year to his legal defense fund. That left him with $446,600 in his campaign account at the end of April. Mendoza is running against eight Democrats and two Republicans. Democrat Bob J. Archuleta, a Pico Rivera city councilman, raised the most, $210,000, during the period. On Monday, Mendoza suffered another setback when the State Legislative Womens Caucus endorsed Democrat Vicky Santana, a member of the Rio Hondo College Board. Facebook

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Newsom and Villaraigosa affairs coming to TV ads in California By Phil Willon An independent political committee backing Republican John Cox for governor released an ad blasting both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for their past sexual affairs. The California Deserves Better ad, which was first reported by Politico, criticizes Newsom for having an affair with a woman on his staff in 2005 while he served as mayor of San Francisco. It also goes after Villaraigosa for having an extramarital affair with a television reporter in 2007 while he was mayor of Los Angeles. The ad, which begins airing on Fox stations in the states top media markets Monday, links Newsom and Villaraigosa to the men accused of sexual impropriety in the #MeToo movement, including movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and disgraced Today show veteran Matt Lauer. Powerful men are finally being held to account, punished for inappropriate sexual conduct with women over whom they exercise power, the ad begins. Newsom and Villaraigosa think the rules shouldnt apply to them. The independent campaign committee, called Restore Our Values, already has raised more than $100,000, said Leigh Teece of Emeryville in Northern California, co-founder of the group. Teece, the CEO of a nonprofit that helps line up students with professional mentors, said the campaign will actively support Cox. She called him a true conservative and noted that he supports cutting taxes and opposes Californias sanctuary state policy. John is a business person who has demonstrated integrity, Teece said. Facebook

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Was that Cisneros in the voicemail? Dispute is latest espisode of Democratic infighting in crowded primary races By Christine Mai-Duc Gil Cisneros speaks during a forum at Fullerton College in January. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) With less than five weeks to go before Californias primary, insults and accusations are flying with abandon in the most crowded races Democrats hope to ultimately win. The latest example of this is in the 39th Congressional District, where a half dozen Democrats are vying for a chance to replace Rep. Ed Royce, whos retiring. Its one of several California contests where Democratic leaders are already worried that divisions could ultimately split votes and shut Democrats out of key pickup opportunities. In that race, millionaires Gil Cisneros and Andy Thorburn are going negative  about going negative. Cisneros was recently elevated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committees Red to Blue program in hopes it would serve as a signal to Democratic activists and donors that his campaign was the most viable. But both Cisneros and Thorburn have poured millions into the race, which promises to be a knock down, drag out fight through June 5. At the center of the latest controversy is a voicemail, allegedly left by Cisneros on Thorburns home answering machine earlier this month. The recording, which the Thorburn campaign turned over to media outlet The Intercept, lasts less than 10 seconds. Hi Andy, its Gil Cisneros. Im gonna go negative on you, a mans voice is heard saying. Cisneros campaign manager Orrin Evans denied the candidate made the call, posting a cease and desist letter to The Intercept on Twitter. The letter, sent by a Cisneros campaign attorney, called the voicemail fabricated and demanded that the story be taken down, calling it defamatory. It gave the publication until 3 p.m. Friday to take down the story before they pursue all legal rights and remedies. An attorney for The Intercept, in a letter to Cisneros, said the publication confirmed with multiple sources familiar with Mr. Cisneros that his voice was on the recording, and that it stands by its reporting. Thorburns camp says it flatly rejects Cisneros denial, and that the timing of a negative website filled with unflattering background on Thorburn, released three days later, suggests it was him. Track the California races that could flip the House According to The Intercepts report, Cisneros campaign manager did not respond to initial inquiries about the voicemail, calling its questions ridiculous. In a follow-up statement Friday, Evans said called the episode a dirty, desperate trick by the Thorburn campaign and said they are readying to pursue legal action for defamation and false light against both him and the publication. It sounded like him to me! said Thorburns wife, Karen, in a statement released by the campaign. She was the one who first heard the voicemail, they said. Thorburn campaign manager Nancy Leeds called Cisneros threats Trump-like tactics and accused the candidate of trying to harass and intimidate anyone who stands in his way. Its not the first time candidates from the same party have clashed in the lead-up to the June 5 primary, and its all but certain to not be the last. Cisneros sued two of his opponents, Thorburn and Sam Jammal, over their ballot descriptions until they had to change them. Earlier this month, Democrat Bryan Caforio asked his opponent, Katie Hill, to sign a pledge rejecting the use of independent expenditure committees, entities that neither of them can legally coordinate with, in the race to unseat Rep. Steve Knight (R-Lancaster). Hill refused and called the attempt hollow and likened it to political theater, while Caforio accused her of empty campaign promises. Facebook

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California Politics Podcast: The money raised in the race for governor hints at a race thats now red hot By John Myers With less than six weeks before election day, the cash raised in the California governors race mirrors the overall dynamics: one major front-runner and a heated race for second place. This weeks podcast episode offers a glimpse into those cash reports and how the Republican field seems more settled in a new statewide poll than the battle between Democrats. We also examine the reasons why a nationally talked-about housing bill in Sacramento was killed by the Democratic authors own allies. Im joined by Times staff writers Melanie Mason and Liam Dillon. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher. Facebook

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L.A. County politician sexually assaulted woman when she was 16, lawsuit claims By Dakota Smith A woman sued an unnamed politician in Los Angeles County on Friday, alleging the man sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager after he gave her an unusual-tasting drink. The politician, identified as John Doe, was in his early 40s and a public figure at the time of the 2007 assault, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The man is an elected official today and lives in Los Angeles, said attorney Lisa Bloom, who is representing the woman identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe. Bloom declined to say what branch of government the man represents. Read More Facebook

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Villaraigosa touts his working-class upbringing, accomplishments as mayor in first TV ad By Phil Willon Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa released his first TV ad in the governors race Friday, touting his record and accomplishments as mayor of Los Angeles when up against the economic downturn during the recession. The 30-second television spot opens with a sweeping shot of Los Angeles and cuts to Villaraigosa sitting on a bus. In kindergarten, my sister and I took three buses to get to school. As mayor, I remembered that, Villaraigosa says into the camera. And despite the recession, we built more new schools and rail lines than any city in America, added 200,000 living wage jobs, built 20,000 units of affordable housing and nearly doubled graduation rates. Campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino said the ad will air statewide over the next week at a cost of approximately $1 million. The commercial will being airing Saturday. Two Democratic rivals in Californias race for governor, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Treasurer John Chiang, also launched ads this week, signaling the biggest ramp-up of the campaign as the June 5 primary approaches. Newsom is the front-runner, while Villaraigosa is battling for second place with Republican John Cox. One recent poll has Villaraigosa trailing both Cox and Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach. Chiang has been stuck in the single digits in almost all polling in the race. Last week, an independent expenditure group called Families and Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor, funded largely by a trio of wealthy charter school backers, launched a spot in support of the former mayor of Los Angeles. That ad campaign is focused on increasing Villaraigosas chances of coming in second in the June 5 primary and moving on to the general election. Villaraigosas ad, titled Three Buses, emphasizes the struggles he faced growing up in East Los Angeles and addresses one of his central campaign themes  that hes the candidate best suited to help working-class Californians. I know how far a bus can take you, Villaraigosa says in the ad. Facebook

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein wont participate in pre-primary debate By Sarah D. Wire California Sen. Dianne Feinstein will not participate in a proposed pre-primary debate because there are too many candidates in the race, her campaign spokesman said Thursday. Political activists with the group Indivisible Los Angeles said they had a venue and date  May 5  reserved for a debate with four of the Senate candidates. But they said if Feinstein does not participate, it will be canceled. Feinstein faces 31 primary opponents in her bid for a fifth full term representing California in the Senate. Feinstein staffers initially said she had a prior commitment on May 5 in San Francisco. When organizers offered to let her campaign pick another date, her campaign said it wasnt fair for the group to invite only some of the candidates when there is such a big field, said Tudor Popescu, volunteer community organizer with Indivisible Los Angeles. The invited candidates, all Democrats, were Feinstein, state Sen. Kevin de Leon, political action committee director Alison Hartson and lawyer Pat Harris. They were selected based on fundraising and poll numbers. There are 11 Republicans, 10 Democrats, nine independents and 2 third-party candidates running for Senate on the June ballot. Indivisible Los Angeles is still hoping Feinstein will pick another date, Popescu said. Feinstein spokesman Jeff Millman pointed to a San Francisco Chronicle endorsement of Feinstein, which indicates that she told the editorial board she would be willing to have a debate ahead of Novembers general election. Senator Feinstein looks forward to debating her opponent in the general election, Millman said in an email. Feinstein holds a substantial lead in both fundraising and in the polls. Front-runners in statewide races have routinely declined to debate their challengers, knowing that its free publicity for candidates who dont have the cash to increase their name recognition on their own. De Leon spokesman Jonathan Underland said the state senator has done candidate forums before, but planned to attend the May 5 debate only if Feinstein did. We basically said well clear his calendar 100%, well clear his calendar if Feinstein shows up, Underland said. Wed love to make it happen, but we want her to be there. Facebook

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NRA, Olympic shooter sue California over its restrictions on ammunition sales By Patrick McGreevy Olympian Kim Rhode is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the NRA and its state affiliate against California. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) The National Rifle Assn. and its state affiliate have filed a fourth lawsuit against California over its gun control laws, this time challenging new restrictions on the sale and transfer of ammunition. The NRA and the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. filed a challenge in federal court to a requirement that ammunition sales and transfers be conducted face to face with California firearms dealers or licensed vendors, ending purchases made directly from out-of-state sellers on the internet. The lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California also challenged a requirement starting next year for background checks for people buying ammunition. The lawsuit was filed in the name of Kim Rhode, a six-time Olympic medal-winning shooter, and others. It challenges Californias new ammunition sales restrictions as a violation of the 2nd Amendment and the commerce clause of the United States Constitution. Restrictions on ammunition purchases were included in Proposition 63, approved by voters in 2016, and in bills approved by the Legislature. As a result of these laws, millions of constitutionally protected ammunition transfers are banned in California, Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRAs Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement. Californias law-abiding gun owners are sick of being treated like criminals and the NRA is proud to assist in this fight. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor, defended his initiative and vowed to fight the NRA lawsuit. We wrote Proposition 63 on solid legal ground and principle: If youre a felon banned from possessing guns in California, then you should not be able to purchase the ammunition that makes a firearm deadly, Newsom said in a statement. California voters said loudly and clearly that guns and ammunition do not belong in the hands of dangerous individuals  but once again, the NRA has prioritized gun industry profits over the lives of law-abiding Californians. Facebook

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Republicans hope to ride a gas-tax repeal to victory By Patrick McGreevy In a Central Valley barn decked out in red, white and blue, dairyman and state Senate candidate Johnny Tacherra drew cheers from a crowd of fellow farmers when he said he opposes the California Legislatures hike on gas taxes and vehicle fees. I would not have voted for that. It is not the time to be voting on (raising) the gas tax, said Tacherra, a Republican running against Democratic Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, who voted for the tax increase last year. Three hundred miles away the same week, a campaign mailer arrived at homes in Orange County from an Assembly candidate with a message blaring from the cover in bold type: Republican Greg Haskin  tough enough to stand up to Jerry Brown and repeal the gas tax. Read More Facebook

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Treasurer John Chiang launches ad in governors race touting his record as a fiscal steward By Seema Mehta In his first television ad in the governors race, state Treasurer John Chiang touts his record on fiscal issues as California faced the recession. Some thought we were done, Chiang says in a voiceover in the 30-second spot he released Thursday, with images of him standing seriously at a lectern and complimentary headlines about his work as controller and treasurer. But I knew better. I made the tough calls. And brought California back from the brink of financial disaster because you trusted me to manage our economy. Chiangs campaign is spending about $500,000 to air the ad in Los Angeles and San Diego in coming days. That buy is dwarfed by seven-figure purchases for ads supporting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Newsom is the front-runner, while Villaraigosa is battling for second place with Republican businessman John Cox. Chiang has been mired in the single digits in almost all polling in the race. His ad, called Quiet Storm, tries to portray Chiang as a progressive who is effective and can move policy in Sacramento. Chiang points to his work challenging Wells Fargo before arguing that he could accomplish what doubters say is impossible to improve the states healthcare, housing and schools. I say, we got this, Chiang concludes. Facebook

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Been ignoring the race for California governor? Thats OK, in some ways its just starting By Mark Z. Barabak On a recent trip to Iowa, Eric Garcetti  the mayor of Los Angeles and a possible 2020 White House contestant  raised eyebrows with a bit of exuberant outreach. Los Angeles and Iowa, Garcetti insisted, have a ton in common, and he didnt simply mean both are inhabited by carbon-based life forms needing oxygen to survive. Urban or rural, farmer or fashion plate, all of us harbor the same hopes and dreams, the mayor suggested, and if it wasnt a terribly original thought it also wasnt the most egregious sort of political pandering  like, say, ordering that every home in Los Angeles be powered by Iowa-produced ethanol. Read More Facebook

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California voters should expect to decide on an $8.9-billion water bond in November By Liam Dillon (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A proposal to borrow $8.9 billion for improvements to Californias water quality systems and watersheds and protection of natural habitats is eligible for the statewide ballot in November, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced in a press release Wednesday. Padilla said the measure, which is backed by agricultural interests, had exceeded the 365,800 valid signatures it needed to qualify for the general election ballot. The bond measure will appear on the ballot unless proponents withdraw it by June 28, the release said. The bond is one of many voters could decide on in 2018. A $4-billion bond for parks and water infrastructure improvements will appear on the June 5 ballot. State lawmakers approved it last year. Facebook

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They came for Darrell Issa. They stayed with their inflatable chicken, blue wall and signs for political therapy By Christine Mai-Duc (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) A mother of two turned ringleader of the resistance and more than a hundred of her faithful followers gathered on Tuesday morning outside Rep. Darrell Issas office in a northern San Diego County suburb. Across the street was her foil, a wedding DJ in a red Make American Great Again cap, setting up hefty speakers for an upcoming war of words. For about 65 weeks the deep divide in America played out along this 100-yard stretch of road in Vista. Here, at 10 a.m. every Tuesday, passersby found signs, chants, songs and, if they were lucky, sometimes a 20-foot-tall inflatable chicken with a Trump-esque coif. Theyd also glimpse the state of the body politic in 2018, a time when shock has turned to anger and post-2016 calls for reconciliation have morphed into grudging acceptance that each side might be better off in their respective corners. Or in this case, their sides of the street. On Tuesday, the anti-Issa, anti-Trump contingent fought this particular battle for the last time, declaring it their final protest at the congressmans office. They said they planned to use their energy to knock on doors and get out the vote, with an occasional protest on the side. Their pro-Trump rivals vowed to show up wherever they do. Read More Facebook

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Efforts to regulate bail companies have some unlikely allies: bail agents By Jazmine Ulloa Jane Un, chief executive and founder of Abba Bail Bonds, works with a client. ( Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) In recent years, the seriousness and number of official complaints related to the bail industry in California have significantly increased while bail agents and bounty hunters face limited oversight, putting vulnerable communities at risk of fraud, embezzlement and other forms of victimization. This year, as Gov. Jerry Brown has pledged to work with lawmakers in a push to overhaul how courts assign defendants bail and to better regulate bail agencies, even some who profit from the court practice admit its time for regulation. These bail and bail-recovery agents could become unlikely allies, saying they advocate for change because theyve seen the system abuse the poor. Read More Facebook

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California voters: Get ready for an onslaught of television ads By Seema Mehta After a sleepy campaign, California voters are now being bombarded with television advertisements in the governors race, an onslaught that is expected to ramp up in coming weeks. The ads most frequently seen on television are those promoting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the front-runner in the race, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is trying to secure the second spot in the June primary. Newsoms campaign and an outside group backing Villaraigosa are spending seven figures weekly on these efforts, according to filings with the California secretary of states office and a media buyer who asked not to be identified in order to freely discuss the ads. Other gubernatorial candidates are expected to hit the airwaves soon, the media buyer said. State Treasurer John Chiang has reserved a half-million dollars in the coming days in the Los Angeles and San Diego markets, and Villaraigosas campaign has requested availability in at least five of the states biggest TV markets. The GOP candidates in the race, who will be seeking the state Republican Partys endorsement at its convention next weekend, have been much less active. Businessman John Cox in recent weeks has been spending about $90,000 per week, but doubled that this week in Los Angeles and added small buys on KFI-AM radio and cable in markets including Fresno, Bakersfield and Salinas. State Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach, who has been scooping up Republican Party endorsements across the state, has yet to make a notable television or radio buy, though he and Cox have received some attention as commentators on Fox News. Facebook

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Republicans ready to turn in signatures for ballot measure to repeal California gas-tax increase By Patrick McGreevy A Chevron gas station in Sacramento shows prices last year. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Republican activists said Tuesday that they have collected at least 830,000 signatures for an initiative to repeal recent increases in Californias gas tax and vehicle fees, more than enough to qualify the measure for the November ballot. The activists need 585,407 signatures of registered voters to qualify the ballot measure. Because signatures are still being processed and counted by the campaign, backers hope to have 900,000 by the time they begin turning them in to the counties on Friday, according to Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego City Council member and organizer of the drive. The breadth and depth of voter anger over the car and gas tax hikes is just amazing, said DeMaio, who hosts a radio talk show. We are seeing Democrats, independents and Republicans sign the petition and volunteering to carry the petition, people from all walks of life. The initiative targets a law approved in April 2017 by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown that is expected to raise $5.4 billion annually for road and bridge repairs and improvements to mass transit. The money comes from a recent 12-cents-per-gallon increase in the gas tax, a 20-cent increase in the diesel fuel excise tax and a new annual vehicle fee ranging from $25 for cars valued at under $5,000, to $175 for cars worth $60,000 or more. The petition drive raised more than $2 million with significant contributions from the California Republican Party and Republican members of Congress from California, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Reps. Ken Calvert of Corona and Mimi Walters of Irvine. Republicans hope the issue will help their candidates for office in this years election and hurt Democrats who support the higher taxes. I think this is going to put Democrats in real bad spot, DeMaio said. A spokesman for Brown declined to comment until the signatures are filed. DeMaio said there were approximately 20,000 volunteer petition circulators who brought in more than 250,000 signatures, with the rest collected by paid circulators who received $1 to $2.50 per signature. Its a pretty comfortable margin [of signatures] that we have been able to hit here, DeMaio said. Opposition will grow, he said, as more Californians get their annual vehicle registration notice. The repeal campaign hopes to raise $5 million for the campaign to pass the constitutional amendment, which would not only repeal the increase in the gas tax and vehicle fees but require future increases to be submitted to voters. We know that Gov. Brown and his cohorts are going to spend an amazing amount of money to mislead voters, DeMaio said. But I feel pretty confident that we will repeal the gas tax. Read More Facebook

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Rep. Duncan Hunter sets up trust to raise money for legal expenses amid ongoing criminal investigation By Morgan Cook Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, has filed paperwork to establish a legal expense fund amid an ongoing federal criminal investigation into misused campaign cash. Hunter filed the required paperwork March 27, seeking a rarely granted Legal Expense Fund through which members of Congress under investigation or being sued in connection with doing their jobs or running for office can raise money for their legal expenses. Such funds are administered by an independent trustee and allow donors to give above the maximum amount they can contribute a candidates campaign. Hunter has spent more than $600,000 of campaign money on lawyers. Read More Facebook

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Kamala Harris says she wont take corporate donations anymore By Sarah D. Wire (Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press) California Sen. Kamala Harris says she will no longer accept money from corporate political action committees. In an interview with WWPM-FMs The Breakfast Club, in New York that aired Monday, the senator said she wasnt expecting a question at a town hall this month about whether she would accept money for corporations or corporate lobbyists. At the time, Harris said it depends, but she said on Monday that she had reflected on the matter and changed her mind. Money has had such an outside influence on politics, and especially with the Supreme Court determining Citizens United, which basically means that big corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money influencing a campaign, right? Harris said. Were all supposed to have an equal vote, but money has now really tipped the balance between an individual having equal power in an election to a corporation. So Ive actually made a decision since I had that conversation that Im not going to accept corporate PAC checks. I just  Im not. You can watch the video of the interview here. (Harris corporate money comments come about 30 minutes in.) Harris wouldnt be on the ballot for a second Senate term until 2022, though its widely believed that she is planning a presidential bid in 2020. Other potential 2020 presidential candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have also ruled out taking corporate PAC money. Soon after Mondays show aired, Harris campaign sent out a fundraising request noting her new stance. As corporate PACs continue to corrupt our politics and twist Congress priorities at your expense, were going to focus on raising money from small-dollar, individual donors like you, the email says. Facebook

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With money tied up in court, California lawmakers try again with new plan to spend $2 billion on homeless housing By Liam Dillon A man sleeps on the sidewalk in front of the Union Rescue Mission in the skid row neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) A measure to spend $2 billion on housing homeless Californians could be on the November statewide ballot. State Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) is pushing the idea to deal with what he said was a burgeoning humanitarian crisis whose epicenter is here in California. De Leons new measure is a do-over for a 2016 plan passed by the Legislature to redirect $2 billion toward building homeless housing from a voter-approved 1% income tax surcharge on millionaires that funds mental health services. A Sacramento attorney sued over that decision, arguing that the move violated constitutional rules on approving loans without a public vote and that lawmakers shouldnt take money away from mental health treatment. The case remains active in Sacramento Superior Court and its unclear when, or if, the state will be able to spend the $2 billion. De Leons Senate Bill 1206 would put the $2-billion loan on the ballot in November, freeing up the money if voters approve the measure. De Leon said had he been able to predict the 2016 plan would end up in court, he would have sought a ballot measure at the time. We thought this was like apple pie and baseball and puppies, De Leon said. Who would oppose the idea of repurposing the dollars to build immediate housing as a permanent solution for homelessness? Obviously with a crystal ball, had I anticipated the litigation, I would have worked to place it on the ballot. De Leon noted that the 2016 plan had bipartisan supermajority support in the Legislature, something his new bill also will need to get on the ballot. Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) is a coauthor of the plan. SB 1206 is scheduled for its first hearing in the Legislature on Wednesday. Should De Leons measure be approved, it will join a crowded list of housing issues before voters in November. Californians will decide on a separate $4-billion bond to help finance new low-income housing and home loans for veterans. De Leon said hes not worried those two measures will compete against each other because voters are aware of the scale of the states housing problems and the proposed homeless housing bond redirects existing dollars instead of raising taxes. Once [voters] know that the impact on their pocketbook is not existent, Im confident that theyll join me and my colleague John Moorlach in support of this measure, De Leon said. Facebook

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California lawmakers say too many former felons are being denied professional licenses By John Myers Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) along with supporters of bills to allow more former felons to receive professional licenses. (John Myers/Los Angeles Times) A trio of California Assembly members urged colleagues on Monday to pass legislation that would prohibit state commissions and agencies from rejecting a professional license for those who were once convicted of less serious crimes. We cant say we want to rehabilitate people, and then block them from getting the jobs that they need when theyre released, said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco). That leads to more recidivism and to more crime. The bills, scheduled to be heard in Assembly committees Tuesday, would ban the use of arrest or conviction records as the reason for denying a professional license. The bill would not apply to Californians who served time for any of the offenses on the states list of violent crimes. The authors, all Democrats, said that a government-issued professional license is required for some 30% of all jobs in the state. Their bills would change the licensing process at the California departments of Consumer Affairs and Social Services and agencies that certify emergency medical technicians. The bills would block prior convictions from leading to the delay or denial of a license unless that crime is directly related to the profession the person intends to pursue. Two of the bills also specifically say convictions less than 5 years old could continue to play a role in licensing decisions. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that keeps private sector employers from inquiring about a job applicants conviction history prior to an offer of employment. Advocates joined the lawmakers at a press conference in Sacramento to point out that limits on awarding licenses should focus only on those whose prior criminal activity could pose a threat to consumers. Continuing to hold people back for crimes that are 6, 7, 8, 10, 20 years old does not actually make sense if youre looking at public safety, said Jael Myrick of the East Bay Community Law Center. One of the proposals, Assembly Bill 2293, seeks to make it easier for ex-felons to get a license allowing a job with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection  the same agency that often uses prison inmates to battle blazes around the state. If a person is good enough to risk their life fighting fires for the state of California as an inmate, said Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-Grand Terrace), their previous actions should not prevent from having a job utilizing the skill set that they learned. Facebook

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Assembly speaker rebukes building trades union after it targets Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia By John Myers ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) The decision by a politically powerful labor group to openly campaign against an embattled Los Angeles-area lawmaker drew a sharp rebuke on Friday from Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. The Lakewood Democrat lashed out hours after the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California filed paperwork for a political action committee to defeat Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens). Garcia, whos seeking her fourth term, took an unpaid leave of absence in February following allegations of sexual misconduct. She has denied the reports and an Assembly investigation remains underway. Rendon didnt criticize the labor group by name, insisting instead that the decision was driven by oil and gas industry interests. This is a thinly veiled attempt by Big Oil and polluters to intimidate me and my members. It is an affront to my speakership, Rendon said in a statement. We are proud of the work that the Assembly has done to increase jobs and wages while defending our environment. We will vigorously defend the members of our caucus from any ill-advised political attack. A statement from the labor group, which sparred with Garcia last year on her effort to link new climate change policies with a crackdown on air pollution, said it had decided to reverse past support for her. The Trades have thousands of hard working members in Garcias district, and we look forward to lifting up another Democrat in the 58th Assembly to better represent them and their families, said the statement. The political action committees campaign finance filing on Friday listed nonmonetary in kind contributions from Erin Lehane, a public affairs consultant aligned with the building labor group. Lehane said she had begun researching Garcia in November. In January, a former legislative staffer accused her of groping him in 2014. Lehane, who identified herself as a spokesperson for the labor groups political action committee, said on Friday that she believed Garcias hypocrisy threatened a movement that will dictate how much harassment and abuse my daughter will face in her work life. Garcia, who has been an outspoken advocate for women in the #MeToo movement, has complained that her political opponents helped fan the flames of the accusations. Through a campaign consultant, she declined to comment on Friday. Rendons critique came on the heels of a full-page ad in The Times on Friday, partly paid for by the Trades Council, that criticized well-funded ivory tower elites who push proposals that hurt the oil and gas industry. We are the real jobs that fuel the real California economy, read the advertisement. Facebook

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Legal tiff breaks out over independent committees ad backing Antonio Villaraigosa for governor By Phil Willon An attorney representing Gavin Newsoms campaign for governor is demanding that California television stations cease airing an ad by an independent political committee supporting his Democratic rival Antonio Villaraigosa. Attorney Thomas A. Willis, in a letter to the stations, said the ad is false and misleading and violates California law because it uses snippets of video footage from Villaraigosas own campaign ads. Willis called that illegal coordination between the campaign and PAC. Under California law, advertisements made by entities other than a candidate are presumed to be coordinated  and thus not independent expenditures  when the advertisement replicates, reproduces or disseminates substantial parts of a communication, including video footage, created and paid for by the candidate, the letter states. A representative for the independent expenditure committee  Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor  fired back. Attorney Brian T. Hildreth says those allegations have no merit and accused the Newsom campaign of being misleading. Hildreth sent a letter to the television stations in response, urging them to ignore the Newsom campaigns accusations. He said the Newsom camp appears to intentionally misrepresent the law and that the video use was permissible. He said only six seconds of video from Villaraigosas campaign ads was used, which is well within the legal limits. The independent committee is sponsored by the group California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, according to the California secretary of states office. The ad is airing on broadcast and cable stations statewide. The committees ad is focused on Villaraigosas record as Assembly speaker and as mayor of Los Angeles when there was a drop in crime. Facebook

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Governors race snapshot: Californians are generally upbeat but not focused on the campaign By Mark Z. Barabak Armand Werden, a 29-year-old community college student who works the taps at Dust Bowl Brewery in Turlock, said the state is on the upswing. (Phil Willon / Los Angeles Times) As California chooses a new governor  one of just a handful in the last 40 years not named Jerry Brown  the state seems to be enjoying something unusual in these tumultuous political times: a feeling of relative contentment. Not to say things are perfect. Still, more than 100 random interviews conducted over the length and breadth of the state  from Redding in the north to Santee in the south, from the Pacific coastline to the edge of the Sierra Nevada  found most saying things are looking up, at least so far as Californias direction is concerned. Read More Facebook

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Sierra Club backs Gavin Newsom for California governor By Phil Willon Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with members of the public following a debate at USC in January. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The Sierra Club endorsed Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom in the race for California governor, with officials in the established environmental group praising the Democrats record on climate change and clean energy. He has a proven record for leading on environmental protection, public health and clean energy, Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, said in a statement released by the Newsom campaign. He understands that we are feeling the effects of climate change and that California must reduce carbon emissions and reach 100% renewable energy to achieve our climate goals. Phillips said the Sierra Clubs extensive network of volunteers will campaign for Newsom as the June 5 primary approaches. Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune also praised the Democrat, saying he will protect California from Donald Trumps attacks on our clean air and water. The Sierra Club joins a series of other influential groups in California that have backed Newsom. The California Medical Assn., the powerful state doctors lobby, announced its endorsement of Newsom on Thursday. The California Nurses Assn. and the Service Employees International Union, one of the most powerful labor unions in the state, also support Newsom. Newsom is the races front-runner in polls and fundraising. A poll released earlier this month by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 26% of likely voters backed Newsom. John Cox, a Republican from Rancho Santa Fe, was favored by 15% of likely voters and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, by 13%. Facebook

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Californias GOP House members are taking their challengers more seriously and the numbers show it By Christine Mai-Duc For much of last year, consultants and campaign managers for some of Californias most vulnerable Republican incumbents maintained a bullish tone on the prospect that the GOP would hold the House in this years midterms. The National Republican Congressional Committee insisted that longtime Republican incumbents in California had built up reputations as effective champions of local issues that would help them weather a flood of Democratic enthusiasm. Since then Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) have decided not to seek reelection and the NRCC has opened a West Coast headquarters in Orange County. Read More Facebook

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California officials say Pentagon has confirmed National Guard funding despite Trump threat By John Myers (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) The awkward dance between Gov. Jerry Brown and the federal government over the National Guard jerked back toward discord on Thursday, when Trump said he would refuse to pay for a new deployment of troops  just hours after his administration said otherwise. And a few hours later, California officials said they had received written confirmation from the Pentagon that the mission would indeed be funded. Trump had earlier called Browns decision to approve 400 troops for a mission focused on combating transnational crime and drug smuggling a charade in a tweet. We need border security and action, not words! the president wrote. Governor Jerry Brown announced he will deploy up to 400 National Guard Troops to do nothing. The crime rate in California is high enough, and the Federal Government will not be paying for Governor Browns charade. We need border security and action, not words!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2018 A spokesman for Brown pointed to a tweet written Wednesday night by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, thanking the California governor for his efforts. Trump was meeting on Thursday with Nielsen at his Mar-a-Lago estate not long after his tweet was posted. A tweet later posted by the California National Guard said that almost three hours after Trumps comment, the state received written confirmation from the Pentagon to fund the mission as outlined by Brown the day before. In short, nothing has changed today, said a subsequent Guard tweet. Just spoke w @JerryBrownGov about deploying the @USNationalGuard in California. Final details are being worked out but we are looking forward to the support. Thank you Gov Brown!  Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen (@SecNielsen) April 19, 2018 Brown was the last of the nations border governors to respond to Trumps insistence earlier this month that National Guard troops were needed to assist with immigration-related duties at the U.S.-Mexico border. And he has consistently refused to allow California troops to engage in any mission related to federal immigration law. This will not be a mission to build a new wall, Brown wrote last week to Nielsen and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. Exactly what the California operations will cost remains unclear, as state officials have said it will depend on decisions made once the mission begins. The funds would not be transferred to the state, but instead would be paid directly by the Department of Defense. Trump has critiqued California several times over the past few days, often writing tweets that embrace the actions by some cities and counties to join his administrations lawsuit against the states sanctuary immigration law. He made similar comments to reporters on Thursday afternoon. If you look at whats happening in California with sanctuary cities  people are really going the opposite way, Trump said. They dont want sanctuary cities. Theres a little bit of a revolution going on in California. 2:26 p.m.:This article was updated with additional information from the California National Guard and with remarks from Trump. This article was originally published at 9:51 a.m. Facebook

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Gay conversion therapy services would be banned under measure advancing in California By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The California Assembly voted Thursday to add gay conversion therapy to the states list of deceptive business practices, following a debate that focused on the personal experiences of several lawmakers and hinted at potential lawsuits to come. It is harmful and it is unnecessary, Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), the bills author and one of the Legislatures most vocal LGBTQ members, said of the practice. Low, who told Assembly members that he explored conversion therapy as a teenager and suffered depression over his sexual orientation, insisted that the bill would be limited to efforts that involve the exchange of money. Theres nothing wrong with me, he said in an emotional speech on the Assembly floor. Theres nothing that needs to be changed. The bill, which now heads to the Senate, has become the focal point of intense debate on social media. Some religious groups have said that such a law would be a violation of their constitutional rights, while advocates insist the provisions are narrow and theres no credible evidence that the services work. One key part of the debate centers on whether Assembly Bill 2943 would stretch beyond businesses that charge for these programs and extend to printed documents, even Bibles. An analysis by the Assembly Judiciary Committee says the bill would apply only to services that purport to change a persons sexual orientation and offered on a commercial basis, as well as the advertising and offering of such services. Lawmakers who spoke in support of AB 2943 also made clear that they believe those kinds of services have been discredited. This is fraudulent, it should not be occurring, said Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton). But you can still try to pray the gay away, if you like. Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City), who said the bill addresses a difficult issue, nonetheless said that its important to ensure laws dont tamper with religious freedom. We have to think about the legitimate experience of people who have gone through conversion therapy and said this was a good thing for them, Gallagher told his colleagues. California law already bans the use of conversion therapy by mental health professionals on those under age 18. Lows bill would expand the states efforts beyond minors. It would join a list of commercial activities deemed unfair or deceptive acts or practices and therefore banned under state law. Facebook

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Gavin Newsom gets backing from doctors group, despite differences over single-payer healthcare By Melanie Mason Californias doctors are siding with Gavin Newsom in the governors race, even though they dont see eye-to-eye on a defining issue of the campaign: single-payer healthcare. The California Medical Assn., the state doctors lobby and a political heavyweight, announced its endorsement of the lieutenant governor on Thursday. Gavin is a lifelong champion for health care in California, and we know he will continue to fight for pragmatic solutions to our most crucial health care challenges, including working to achieve universal access and tackling our states physician shortage, CMA President Theodore M. Mazer said in a statement. Newsom has made his support for state-financed healthcare a centerpiece of his campaign, and he earned the early backing of the most ardent single-payer supporters, the state nurses union. The doctors, meanwhile, oppose the nurses bill, SB 562, which emerged as a flashpoint in the healthcare debate last year. The CMA said the bill would dismantle the healthcare marketplace and destabilize Californias economy. Newsom has said SB 562 should advance in the Legislature, but also said it has open-ended issues that still need to be addressed. The doctors group is also battling with another prominent Newsom endorser, the Service Employees International Union, over a new measure that would impose price caps on an array of medical services paid for by commercial health insurers in the state. The SEIU is a leading sponsor of the proposal; the doctors fiercely oppose it. Newsom and the physicians group have a history of political alignment. Newsom was the first statewide official to support Proposition 56, a 2016 tobacco tax pushed by the CMA that raised revenue in part to increase money for doctors who saw Medi-Cal patients. That year, the association also endorsed two initiatives championed by Newsom: Proposition 63, which imposed new gun control measures, and Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. Facebook

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Independent committee backing Antonio Villaraigosa for governor hits the airwaves with first ad By Phil Willon Antonio Villaraigosa speaks at the 2018 California Democratic Party Convention in San Diego in February.. (Denis Poroy / Associated Press) A well-financed independent committee backing Antonio Villaraigosas bid to be Californias next governor released its first television ad Thursday, praising his record for working with Republicans and as a candidate for all of California. The ad, which is to air statewide on broadcast and cable stations, is focused on Villaraigosas record as Assembly speaker and mayor of Los Angeles, including on education and a drop in crime while he was at City Hall. To move California forward, we need to help more Californians get ahead, the ad says. Thats why Antonio Villaraigosa brought both parties together to balance the state budget with record investments in public schools and new career training programs. The independent expenditure committee behind the ad campaign, Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018, is sponsored by the California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, according to the California secretary of states office. The committee is spending seven figures per week on the ad buy, said Josh Pulliam, a political consultant for the committee. As mayor of Los Angeles, Villaraigosa clashed with teachers unions, starting with his failed attempt to take political control of the Los Angeles Unified School District. His fight with those unions continued after he left office in 2013. Money has poured into the committee this month from wealthy charter schools supporters: Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, donated $7 million, and Los Angeles billionaire and philanthropist Eli Broad donated $1.5 million. On Wednesday, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan donated $1 million. The independent expenditure committee is expected to provide a boost to Villaraigosas campaign. Democratic front-runner Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has a major advantage in fundraising over all other candidates in the race and has received the backing of the California Teachers Assn. and other education unions. A recent Public Policy Institute of California poll also showed Villaraigosa lagging in third place in the race, trailing Newsom and Republican businessman John Cox. The candidates who finish in the top two in the June 5 primary will advance to the November general election, regardless of their party affiliation. Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown says Trump administration will fund his National Guard mission  without immigration duties By John Myers (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown formally mobilized 400 California National Guard members Wednesday for transnational crime-fighting duties, thus preventing any effort by President Trump to have the troops focus on immigration enforcement on the Mexican border. The governor announced that federal officials have agreed to fund the plan he announced last week  a mission to combat criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers in locations around California, including near the border. The order Brown signed makes clear that the troops will not be allowed to perform a broader set of duties as envisioned by Trumps recent comments. California National Guard service members shall not engage in any direct law enforcement role nor enforce immigration laws, arrest people for immigration law violations, guard people taken into custody for alleged immigration violations, or support immigration law enforcement activities, the order read. The cost of the mission, a spokesman for Brown said, will be paid directly by the federal government. No initial estimate has been made, as the exact amount will depend on exactly how the troops will be used. Though the duties of California Guard members were outlined last week, the state had been waiting for an agreement by federal officials to pay for the operations. Since that time, the president has taken Brown and the state to task over its decision to avoid any immigration-related duties at the border. On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted, Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW! There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018 Looks like Jerry Brown and California are not looking for safety and security along their very porous Border. He cannot come to terms for the National Guard to patrol and protect the Border, Trump tweeted Tuesday. There was no immediate reaction from the White House to Browns announcement. On Tuesday, Brown told reporters in Washington that his plan was consistent with a safer border. That sounds to me like fighting crime, the governor said. Trying to catch some desperate mothers and children, or unaccompanied minors coming from Central America, that sounds like something else. The order Brown issued Wednesday after returning from a brief trip to talk climate change in Toronto and to speak to a national trade union and visit with reporters in Washington is set to expire at the end of September. It specifically says no Guard service member may participate in a mission that would exceed the mission scope and limitations related to transnational crime activity. It also says troops cannot help build any new border barrier. 5:27 p.m.: This article was updated with information related to the cost of the Guard mission and Browns trip to Washington. This article was originally published at 5:13 p.m. Facebook

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California bill aims to end practice that keeps workplace misconduct cases out of court By Melanie Mason A California bill would prohibit employers from requiring workers to use private arbitration to settle disputes, a practice that critics say shields improper workplace conduct from public view. The bill by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) would bar businesses from making employees, when they are hired, waive their future rights to take any harassment, discrimination or other claims to court. Arbitration can be a highly effective dispute resolution method when both parties can choose it freely, when both parties are equal, Gonzalez Fletcher said at a news conference on Wednesday. It is far less successful when the more powerful party forces the other to accept those terms, especially as a condition of employment. Forced arbitration has come under increasing scrutiny since the #MeToo movement, with high-profile figures such as former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson pointing to the practice as shielding workplace abusers from public disclosure because arbitration resolutions often include nondisclosure agreements. Last year, a bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress to end mandatory arbitration in employment agreements. Gonzalez Fletcher said she was pursuing an unusual tool to draw attention to the issue  a subpoena issued by the Legislature to compel testimony from a worker bound by a nondisclosure agreement as a result of arbitration. The Legislature has subpoena power but it is rarely used. The bills sponsors believe lawmakers last issued a subpoena in 2001 while investigating price manipulation by Enron. Gonzalez Fletcher said she has requested Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) to issue the subpoena to require Tara Zoumer, who sued the company WeWork in 2016 for overtime pay, to testify before the Assembly Judiciary Committee next week. Zoumers suit was moved to arbitration and resolved. She is now subject to a nondisclosure agreement and could face a financial penalty for speaking publicly about her case. A spokesman for Rendon said the subpoena request is under consideration. Business groups oppose the bill, AB 3080. The California Chamber of Commerce has dubbed it a job biller, claiming it would dramatically increase legal costs for businesses. Banning such agreements benefits the trial attorneys, not the employer or employee, the group said. The bill must first advance from the Assembly Labor Committee on Wednesday. Facebook

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At least 240 House lawmakers want a vote on immigration. California supporters say they arent ready to force one By Sarah D. Wire Rep. Jeff Denham says at least 240 of the 430 current House members have signed onto his resolution to hold votes on four immigration bills, and he hopes House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and President Trump are paying attention to the show of support. But, the Republican from Turlock and his allies said Wednesday that they are not yet willing to commit to forcing Ryans hand through a little-used procedural move called a discharge petition; they acknowledged theres no guarantee that all of 47 Republicans and 193 Democrats House co-signers will back them up if they try to force the issue. Im sure that it is something that will be discussed in the coming weeks. You should not need a discharge petition. When you can show the overwhelming majority of the House, the support of it, you should not need a discharge petition, but it is something we would talk about in the future, Denham said. It is far too early to talk about next steps. Ryan said last week that he opposes Denhams effort, saying its a waste of time for the House to vote on bills the president might veto. Denhams resolution would prompt debate and votes on four very different immigration bills: one favored by the Trump administration, one preferred by Democrats, one bipartisan proposal and another immigration bill of Ryans choice. Whichever got the most votes would move forward to the Senate. All four bills would help Dreamers to differing degrees and include varying levels of border security or immigration enforcement. For example, the Trump-backed bill would also dramatically reduce legal immigration, while the Democrats would only deal with legal status for Dreamers. Democrats say they dont expect the show of support will sway Ryan. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) said Tuesday night she expects Ryan will have to be forced into allowing a vote. It doesnt matter how many signatures we get. We could have every signature, technically, except his, on the floor of the House and... if he doesnt want to, it doesnt happen, Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) said. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands), who gathered the Democratic co-sponsors for Denham, also wouldnt give a deadline for House leaders to act, but said the co-sponsors are only willing to wait weeks not months. We do want to give them an opportunity to bring up the rule and to use whatever process they want, Aguilar said. They do have options, but I think they need to understand that we have options too. Facebook

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Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer endorses Kevin de Leon in his insurgent bid against Sen. Dianne Feinstein By Seema Mehta Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer is endorsing state Sen. Kevin de Leon in his insurgent challenge to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and did not rule out funding an outside effort to boost De Leons chances. I think hes the kind of young progressive that reflects California and would be a very strong advocate for our state nationally, Steyer said in an interview on Tuesday, pointing to De Leons efforts on issues such as immigration, climate change and gun control while he was the state Senate leader. I know him well and hes a friend. We share a lot of values. Steyer, who flirted with running for the Senate seat, did not criticize Feinstein as he has in the past. Sen. Feinstein has been an outstanding public servant who has dedicated the bulk of her adult life to the service of our state and the country, he said. These are two strong, very good Democrats. I just believe Kevin is the true progressive and he reflects something we need representing California going forward. I have nothing bad to say about Dianne Feinstein. I have a lot of good to say about Kevin de Leon. De Leon faces enormous odds as he tries to oust Feinstein, who has served in the Senate for a quarter-century, is well known to the states voters and has daunting leads in polls and fundraising. But De Leon has gained notable endorsements, most recently from the 2.1-million-member California Labor Federation last week. Campaign finance reports released this week show that Feinstein has more than $10 million in the bank, while De Leon has just more than $670,000. Feinstein, a multimillionaire and one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, has already lent her campaign $5 million and could easily write another check. But Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund manager, could write a larger one. He is among the largest Democratic donors in the nation and has already committed more than $50 million to push for the impeachment of President Trump and to register young voters. He was noncommittal when asked if he would fund an independent expenditure group on behalf of De Leon. I dont have any concrete plans for that, he said. Read More Facebook

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Californias largest pension fund sends next years invoice to state government: $6.3 billion By John Myers The California Public Employees Retirement System building (Max Whittaker / Getty Images) As part of a shift toward less optimistic expectations for investment returns to pay for government worker pensions, board members of the California Public Employees Retirement System voted Tuesday to require an almost $6.3-billion payment from the state budget in the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The action, which could receive final approval on Wednesday, reflects a gradually higher annual contribution to public employee pensions by the state and from local governments across California. In 2016, CalPERS approved a half-percentage point decrease in its official estimate of the long-term investment return on its $353.3-billion portfolio. That shift was designed to happen over several years, in hopes it would lessen the financial shock of shifting more of the costs onto government employers. The highest costs are also, in part, a reflection of increases in the size of the states payroll. The states CalPERS payment will be about $450 million more than the total paid in the current fiscal year and more than double what it was only a decade ago. CalPERS board members voted on Tuesdays staff proposal with little discussion, save for a question about the increase in contributions also required from workers hired after a pension overhaul that took effect in June. It seems like it will be a ding on peoples salaries, said Theresa Taylor, the chairwoman of CalPERS finance committee and a member of SEIU Local 1000, the union that represents some 96,000 state employees. The $6.299-billion payment required from Californias state government must now be factored into the budget crafted by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in late June. Brown had already assumed a similarly sized payment in his budget proposal unveiled in January. In February, a coalition representing city governments warned about the effects of rising pension costs under the expectations of less money from Wall Street investments. The report issued by the League of California Cities projected an average increase of more than 50% in annual pension payments made by the states largest cities over the next seven years. A CalPERS staff report notes that the net return on all of the funds investments for the fiscal year that ended in July was 11.2%. But expectations on profits over the next 30 years remain significantly more modest, and theres long been a robust debate about how to properly set those future expectations. The lower the rate of projected investment return, the larger the share of pension costs that must be covered by taxpayers and some employees. Overall, CalPERS officials believe the system has assets to cover 71% of its long-term obligations. Facebook

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California warns legal pot sellers not to participate in unlicensed 4/20 events By Patrick McGreevy Marijuana on display at a dispensary in Los Angeles. ( (Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images)) The state issued a warning Tuesday that businesses holding licenses to sell marijuana could face penalties if they participate in unlicensed temporary events away from their stores, including on Friday, April 20, which has become an annual celebration for counterculture groups. The warning was issued ahead of 4/20 by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control. Since Jan. 1, the bureau has issued more than 700 state licenses to sell marijuana for medical or recreational use. The bureau has issued 47 temporary event licenses to groups that are limited to holding the marijuana celebrations on county fairgrounds that have authorized such events with city approval. Any bureau licensee participating in an unlicensed cannabis event may be subject to disciplinary action, the warning said, adding that lawful participation by bureau licensees in any temporary cannabis event that allows sales and/or consumption is dependent upon issuance of the appropriate licenses from the bureau. While many Californians have been issued medical approval to sell or use marijuana, the law does not allow them to participate in unlicensed events, also referred to as Proposition 215 events after the ballot measure that legalized medical pot two decades ago in the state. Participation in such events may lead to civil penalties for unlicensed commercial cannabis activity, the warning said. Meanwhile, a survey of some 1,000 marijuana users that was released Tuesday by the firm LendEDU found that the average 4/20 participant plans to spend $71 on marijuana to celebrate the unofficial holiday, and about 35% of respondents are planning to take off work Friday. Facebook

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California police groups shift position on officer discipline records, now consider support for making some of them public By Liam Dillon Los Angeles Police Department recruits at a graduation ceremony in April (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Some major law enforcement groups signaled Tuesday they are willing to support making part of police officer disciplinary records public, a dramatic departure from their past positions. Local and national attention on police shootings and misconduct has led law enforcement organizations to reconsider their blanket opposition to proposals that would give public access to some internal disciplinary investigations of officers. Were going to be open to supporting efforts that would allow for some records to be released, said Ryan Sherman, a lobbyist with the Riverside Sheriffs Assn. Debate over secrecy provisions in officer disciplinary files came during a legislative hearing on Senate Bill 1421 from Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). Skinners bill, which advanced out of the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, would require public disclosure of all internal officer shooting investigations and confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. Currently, all police discipline information is confidential outside of a courtroom in California, which has some of the nations strictest standards against public disclosure. Unfortunately, the fact that we have such strict restrictions on any access to public records has affected certain communities trust towards our law enforcement, Skinner said during the hearing. Prior to Skinners effort, other have tried to loosen these rules, some of which date back 40 years. Most recently in 2016, a bid by then-Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) failed in a Senate committee. In debate two years ago, no major law enforcement groups indicated they would accept changes to state laws that would make individual internal investigations public, saying they were essential to protect officer privacy and safety. But Tuesday, Sherman and other lobbyists including those representing the states largest police labor organization, signaled they might be willing to entertain changes. They said they were negotiating with Skinner on the bills details. Law enforcement groups still have major concerns about SB 1421 as written. Ed Fishman, an attorney for the Police Officers Research Assn., told legislators that the bill would wrongfully expose police officers who acted within departmental policy to invasions of their privacy. It has unintended consequences that are extreme and will hurt the public, Fishman said. Tuesdays hearing featured testimony from many who have had relatives killed by police officers in recent years advocating for the bill. Senators on the Public Safety Committee also gave public rebukes to law enforcement lobbyists, criticizing them for a lack of diversity and insensitivity to concerns raised by communities of color. I think that you are completely and utterly out of touch with the realities of how those you are representing are perceived by major segments of California, said Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles). You are not going to be able to continue to lobby your way out of it. The bill faces at least one more committee hearing in the Senate before reaching the floor. It will have to pass both houses of the Legislature by the end of August. Facebook

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Newest member of the California Assembly arrives ready to work on criminal justice issues By John Myers Two weeks after winning a Los Angeles special election, the newest member of the California Assembly says she hopes to focus on reforms to the states criminal justice system during her time in Sacramento. Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) took the oath of office on Monday, filling one of three vacant seats representing Los Angeles County in the lower house. The Democrat, a former community college trustee and legislative staffer, thanked her mentors in remarks from the Assembly rostrum. So many women, and in my life so many black women, have paid in giving me the kind of morals and integrity and grit that is required to fight on behalf of people that you know, and people that you dont know, she said. Kamlager-Dove won handily on April 3, receiving 70% of the votes cast in the 54th Assembly District which encompasses communities west of downtown Los Angeles, from Crenshaw to Culver City and as far north as Westwood. She will serve the remaining eight months of the term of former Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, who resigned last year citing health concerns. She has said she hopes to focus her attention on poverty issues and on reform of the states criminal justice system. I think we have an opportunity to really push the needle in terms of how we look at rehabilitation, how we look at incarceration, and how we look at changing the lives oftentimes of poor men and women of color, Kamalager-Dove said on Monday in a video released by Assembly Democrats. Facebook

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Survivors of violent crime raise their voices in California to call for a new approach to criminal justice By Jazmine Ulloa Aaliyah Smith marches with her cousins. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Her father, uncle, a cousin and two older brothers. Those are some of the family members 16-year-old Aaliyah Smith has lost to gun violence. Then there are her friends. Jermaine Jackson Jr., 27, was shot and killed in 2016 while he painted over graffiti in San Francisco. Toriano Tito Adger, 18, was shot there a year later at a bus stop. He called Smith, who was nearby, and warned her to run. She made it inside a library moments before the crack of gunfire. Last week, Smith was among hundreds who gathered in Sacramento for annual National Crime Victims Rights Week events, where calls were issued for a new approach to criminal justice and public safety in California, one that puts survivors at the center of policy. But a debate is brewing over what that entails. Read More Facebook

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California expects $14 billion in tax payments this month By John Myers State workers handle income tax returns at the California Franchise Tax Board offices. (Laura Morton / For The Times) Gov. Jerry Browns proposed state budget is built on what taxpayers might find an audacious assumption: almost $14 billion in tax payments in the month of April, an average of $83 million collected per hour on every business day of the month. Most of that money will come from the taxes Californians pay in advance of Tuesday nights filing deadline for income tax returns. If history is any guide, the rate of payment could quadruple by weeks end. While tax rules have shifted some of the payment schedules to other months, April remains a vitally important month to the fiscal health of state government. The state controllers office reports more than 15% of all personal income tax revenues in 2017 were collected in April. In the recession years of a decade ago, tax revenue predictions were frequently off the mark by hundreds of millions of dollars. The last two state budgets have seen significant windfalls of personal income tax revenue, thanks in part both to an improving economy and to the continuation of a temporary surcharge on the wealthiest taxpayers  extended by voters in 2016. In the budget plan he sent to lawmakers in January, Brown projected a $6.1-billion windfall and proposed using a sizable amount to top off Californias rainy-day fund ahead of schedule. The independent Legislative Analysts Office reports that through the end of last week, the months income tax tally stood at $3 billion, slightly ahead of projections. By the end of the current week, a single days total could be almost that large. Lawmakers began reviewing the governors $190.3-billion spending plan during the winter, but few decisions are made until they get a look at Aprils tax revenues. The governor will release a revised plan based on the new data next month; lawmakers are required to send him a completed budget no later than June 15. Facebook

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Feinstein war chest tops $10 million while Kevin de Leon struggles to keep pace By Sarah D. Wire Sen. Dianne Feinstein widened her already-massive fundraising advantage in the run-up to Junes primary, raising twice as much in the first quarter than her strongest Senate challenger has sitting in the bank. Feinstein raised $1.3 million between January and March, bringing her war chest to just over $10 million as Californias U.S. Senate race begins in earnest, according Federal Election Commission reports. Former state Senate leader Kevin De Leon, the best known of the more than 30 people who will appear with Feinstein on the June primary ballot, raised just $575,991 in that same period, bringing his cash on hand to $672,331, according to his quarterly FEC report. Read More Facebook

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Trump has met his match, says Gov. Jerry Brown in promoting climate action on a quick trip to Canada By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press) Gov. Jerry Brown told a Canadian audience Monday that he believes President Trumps efforts to reverse course on climate change policy are a momentary deviation as others in the United States seek limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Thats very temporary, I can assure you, Brown said at a joint event in Toronto with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. The governors quick international trip, announced only late last week, comes as Wynnes Liberal Party faces a stiff challenge in Junes election from the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and its leader, Doug Ford. Critics of Wynnes party have called for Ontario to pull out of the Western Climate Initiative, a cooperative agreement between three Canadian provinces and California on efforts to limit greenhouse gases. Brown sought to link the efforts of Canadian conservatives with Republicans in the United States who oppose existing climate change programs. In contrast, he told the audience, several GOP lawmakers voted last summer to renew Californias cap-and-trade program. I would say to the conservatives of Canada, wake up and see what your friends in California are doing, he said. The Democrat took particular notice of Trumps efforts to shift away from climate change policies from the administration of former President Obama, as well as a push by the Environmental Protection Agency to cancel Californias strict limits on automobile emissions. If Trump tries to change that, well have litigation well beyond his term in office, Brown said while also noting Chinese government efforts to produce more low-emissions vehicles. Between California and China, Trump has met his match. What hes saying is not going to happen. Many of the governors remarks, though, were aimed at the tough political situation in which Wynne finds herself with seven weeks to go before Ontarios parliamentary elections. Dangers abound, but success is right in our hands, Brown said. So dont blow it! Facebook

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California voters are getting to know the states attorney general through his aggressive stance challenging Trump By Patrick McGreevy Less than two months from his first statewide election, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra has become adept not only at challenging President Trump but at using the bully pulpit of his office to raise his profile with voters. The aggressive effort may help boost the former Los Angeles congressmans chances at winning a full term in office this fall, almost two years after he was appointed to replace Sen. Kamala Harris in 2017. Appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, Becerra took office as attorney general four days after Trumps inauguration. Thats afforded him an opportunity to get in front of Californians  and potential voters  on an array of issues including immigration, healthcare and the environment. Read More Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown forms commission for 2020 census outreach By Melanie Mason In an effort to make sure California has a strong showing in the next national census, Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday established a state commission to prepare outreach for the decennial count. It is vitally important for California to do everything it can to ensure that every Californian is counted in the upcoming census, Brown said in a prepared statement. The commissions formation comes on the heels of a Trump administration plan to ask about citizenship status as a part of the census. State officials fear that such a question, which has not been asked in a census since 1950, could chill participation among California residents. That could result in the state losing billions of dollars in federal funds and a seat in Congress. The 23-member panel, appointed largely by Brown as well as picks by legislative leaders, comes from private- and public-sector backgrounds, including civil rights groups, religious institutions and educational institutions. Facebook

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Garcetti kicks off Iowa visit with 2020 on his mind and a hardhat on his head LA Mayor - and 2020 prospect - Eric Garcetti makes his Iowa debut at the Carpenters Union Training Center. Fearlessly flaunts the never be photographed in head gear/safety glasses rule. pic.twitter.com/14bUOPXMvF  Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) April 13, 2018 Facebook

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Asm. Rocky Chavez takes the lead in race to replace Issa, while Doug Applegate slips By Joshua Stewart A new poll shows that Republican Assemblyman Rocky Chavez has taken a clear lead over 15 other candidates running to replace Rep. Darrell Issa in Congress and has overtaken Democrat Doug Applegate, the previous frontrunner. In a SurveyUSA poll by 10News and The San Diego Union-Tribune, Chavez, R-Oceanside, has support of 16 percent of likely voters, putting him ahead of Applegate, a lawyer, who was favored by 12 percent of voters and is in second place. The top two vote-getters in June, regardless of party, will proceed to a November runoff election. Competing with Applegate for the No. 2 spot is Democrat Mike Levin, also a lawyer, with support of 9 percent of voters. Several other candidates were right at his heels. Democratic Businessman Paul Kerr and Board of Equalization Member Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, were tied for fourth at 8 percent each. Read More Facebook

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Pro-Kevin de Leon group launches ad castigating Dianne Feinstein By Seema Mehta A group that is supporting Kevin de Leons bid for the U.S. Senate launched a blistering ad against Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday, questioning her progressive principles and tying her to President Trump. The ad buy from A Progressive California is minuscule  $10,000 to air it in Los Angeles for one day on CNN and MSNBC during programming such as The Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews and Anderson Cooper 360. The minute-long ad features news clips about Feinstein not getting the California Democratic Party endorsement earlier this year, as well as footage of Feinstein saying that Trump can be a good president and appearing to share a laugh with Trump. That moment actually came during a White House meeting in the aftermath of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting when the president suggested an assault weapons ban should be included in a bipartisan bill to expand gun background checks. It also features extensive clips of de Leons speech at the state partys convention. De Leon, who just ended his final term as leader of the state Senate, announced last year he would run against fellow Democrat Feinstein as she seeks her fifth full term. Feinsteins longtime political advisor dismissed the ad, noting the size of the buy. Its not really a buy, said Bill Carrick. Ten thousand dollars in cable in L.A. Poof, its gone. Still, he said he planned to have the campaigns lawyers review the ad to see if it violates campaign law that limits what outside groups like A Progressive California can do. Such groups cannot coordinate with campaigns or candidates, and are limited in how much their messages can support a candidate. Ann Ravel, the former chair of the Federal Election Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission, said if the ad was in a state race, she is certain that the state commission would open an investigation into potential coordination with de Leons campaign because of the messaging and the types of footage in the ad. But the bipartisan federal commission cant agree on how to enforce the federal regulations, she said. The problem is [outside groups] understand that given the lack of very strong enforcement at the federal level, theres the ability to stretch the law, she said. A spokeswoman for the FEC declined to comment. Dave Jacobson, a spokesman for A Progressive California, disputed the suggestion that the ad violated campaign law. This frivolous allegation shows that Sen. Feinstein is afraid of the public seeing an ad which showcases her own words, that Donald Trump can be a good president, he said. Facebook

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Dispute over money emerges in campaign to repeal Californias gas tax increase By Patrick McGreevy A motorist prepares to gas up her vehicle in San Rafael, Calif., in 2015. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) A proposed initiative to repeal hikes to Californias gas tax has been caught in the middle of a dispute involving Republican rivals in the governors race. Assemblyman Travis Allen, a Republican candidate for governor, decided in January to drop plans for his own initiative and said he would urge supporters to sign a separate petition being supported by several Republican members of Congress. Then last week, the committee Allen formed to finance his ballot measure reported a $300,000 contribution from PISF Inc., a Novato, Calif., real estate firm. Now, an organizer of the still active Give Voters a Voice committee is urging the Allen committee to immediately donate their funds in support of the ongoing signature gathering efforts. There is only one gas tax repeal measure currently in circulation and that is the measure sponsored by the Give Voters a Voice Committee, said Dave Gilliard, a consultant to the group. PISF Inc., he said, gave to repeal taxes and there is only one committee that can do that. Allen rejected the request, noting that the active initiative drive is co-chaired by wealthy businessman John Cox, a Republican also running for governor whose campaign has donated $250,000 to the initiative drive. I would be doing the gas-tax-repeal contributors a huge disservice if I was to transfer any funds to a campaign committee involving John Cox, Allen said. John Cox has spent millions of dollars campaigning for office and he has lost every single time. Cox ran unsuccessfully for three offices in Illinois before he moved to California. Allen said he will use the donations received by his ballot measure committee to campaign for approval of the gas tax 
As he rejected a bipartisan compromise to resolve the standoff over so-called Dreamers, President Trump asked participants in an Oval Office meeting Thursday why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

What do we want Haitians here for? the president asked, according to the people briefed. Why do we want all these people from Africa here? Why do we want all these people from shithole countries?

The president added: We should have people from places like Norway.

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Asked about the presidents use of the slur, the White House did not deny it, but issued a statement saying Trump would always fight for the American people.

While cruder and blunter than his past public statements, the presidents comments were in keeping with his long-standing position that the United States should shift its immigration policy away from poorer, developing countries, and instead focus on carefully selecting educated immigrants, especially from Europe, who can already speak English and have professional or technical skills needed in the United States.

Its not the first time Trump has made disparaging comments about foreigners and members of minority groups. He has frequently characterized Muslims as terrorists and opened his presidential campaign calling Mexican immigrants rapists.

Trumps statement was met with quick condemnation.

Immigrants from countries across the globe  including and especially those from Haiti and all parts of Africa  have helped build this country, said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). They should be welcomed and celebrated, not demeaned and insulted.

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has frequently sparred with Trump over his negative comments about Mexico, tweeted: Your mouth is the foulest shithole in the world.

Albert Saint Jean, a Haitian American organizer with the New York-based Black Alliance for Just Immigration, called Trumps comments appalling and insulting.

Saint Jeans group advocates on behalf of immigrants from countries across Africa and the Caribbean, including many Haitians. If Trump was referring to those countries as impoverished, he said, that impoverishment is a result of the U.S. and European powers legacy of involvement there.

When these people come here, they create very productive communities and contribute to major economies like Miami, New York and Boston, he said. Its showing the total lack of understanding he has of global policy.

The Oval Office exchange came during a meeting intended to present the White House with a bipartisan compromise to help resolve the standoff over immigration.

Trumps swift rejection shows how difficult it will be for Congress to develop a legislative solution to protect some 700,000 young immigrants when Trump ends the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in March.

The White House also made clear it does not want to include as part of the deal the Dream Act, which would expand the existing program, according to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who took part in meeting. Instead, the administration is seeking to protect a more narrow universe of young immigrants who already have temporary DACA protections.

I think we still have a ways to go, White House legislative director Marc Short told reporters on Capitol Hill. Were pleased the bipartisan members are talking.

The meeting came after a federal judge this week issued an injunction halting Trumps plans to end DACA, providing the immigrants with temporary relief. The administration plans to appeal.

More than 1,000 DACA recipients daily will face deportation in March, advocates say. They are young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children, but have temporary permits under DACA to work, attend school or serve in the military.

Only one Democrat, Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois  a leader of the bipartisan Senate group  was among the seven lawmakers at the noontime meeting. It included Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another leader of the bipartisan group, and five other House and Senate lawmakers.

Cotton, who has emerged as one of the strongest proponents of White House plans to limit legal immigration, called the bipartisan senators proposal a joke.

Its not even a fig leaf. Its a pine needle, Cotton told reporters after the meeting.

When House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) told Trump that a separate group of congressional leaders was planning to continue its own discussions later Thursday, the president told them, Go do that, according to Cotton.

The Senate groups proposal focused on four elements that had been agreed to during a meeting Trump convened with lawmakers earlier this week at the White House.

Their proposal centered on a deal that would offer Dream Act-like deportation protections for the young immigrants in exchange for border security measures and new limits on legal immigration through family unification visas and the diversity lottery.

Cotton said the border security measures were insufficient and included only one year of funding for development of Trumps proposed border wall, far short of the $18 billion the White House has requested from Congress. The proposal would have provided $1.6 billion for border security.

The groups proposal also did not fully end family unification, also known as chain migration, and only delayed the ability of Dreamers to bring in some other family members, including their adult siblings.

Similarly, the diversity lottery was not eliminated, as some are seeking, but instead shifted its 50,000 annual visas to other immigrant groups, namely Salvadorans and others who must leave the country as Trump ends their temporary protected status.

It was the discussion about this provision that led to Trumps comments. As Durbin listed the countries that would benefit, Trump questioned why they should.

Earlier Thursday, Durbin and Graham had reached out to the White House to update the president on their emerging deal. The president spoke very positively of the effort, according to one of the sources briefed on the meeting. Trump invited them to the White House to talk about it.

But when the senators arrived, so did other lawmakers, all Republicans, including some of the more strident opponents of their approach. All of a sudden these other hard-line guys showed up, the source said.

Republican leaders also distanced themselves from the bipartisan groups plan.

McCarthys group includes the four No. 2 leaders in the House and Senate, which includes Durbin, House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the GOP whip.

Cornyn told reporters that any deal needed support from more than the six senators who comprised the bipartisan group.

Its not going to be done by just a subgroup, he said.

Times staff writer Nina Agrawal in New York contributed to this report.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaro

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Bannons ouster could boost the powerful Koch network, which has surprising sway in Trumps White House

GOP tax bill is latest example of Senate Leader McConnell breaking the norms he often espouses

Is this small-town congressman from New Mexico tough enough to win Democrats the House majority?

UPDATES:

3 p.m.: The story was updated with comments from Sen. Kamala Harris and Mexican President Vicente Fox.

2:15 p.m.: The story was updated with Trumps comments during the meeting.

The story was originally published at 1:45 p.m.
President Trump publicly contradicted a major policy position of his administration Thursday  the second time he did so in a week in which the White House has sought to beat back questions about his stability and grasp of policy details.

The incident provided a new and striking example of the contradiction between Trumps dueling identities as an individual often guided by impulses, grievances and what he sees on television and Trump the president, responsible for taking a broader view of government and security issues.

The events began Thursday morning when Trump sent a tweet that rattled the national security community and Republican lawmakers, nearly derailing a vote in the House on one of the administrations top national security priorities  renewing the National Security Agencys broad authority to conduct surveillance of foreigners, without warrants, including those communicating with U.S. citizens.

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The bill eventually passed the House, 256-164, but only after Speaker Paul D. Ryan and others intervened with Trump, prompting him to send a second tweet that partially walked back his earlier criticism of the surveillance law. The extension of surveillance authority still faces uncertainty in the Senate, where Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, has threatened a filibuster.

Trumps initial tweet insisted, angrily and contrary to all known evidence, that the NSAs surveillance program might have been used to spy on his campaign during the 2016 election.

This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others? Trump wrote.

The tweet came shortly after Fox & Friends, Trumps favorite program and a frequent inspiration for his Twitter account, aired a segment in which Andrew Napolitano, a commentator, offered scathing criticism of the surveillance program.

Mr. President, this is not the way to go, he said, looking at the camera.

White House officials would not say whether Napolitanos comment prompted Trumps tweet.

After talking to Ryan, Trump issued a second tweet, more supportive of the surveillance authority:

With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!

The White House, in an official statement released Wednesday night, had explicitly warned lawmakers of the need for the bill, arguing that an alternative pushed by critics on both the right and left would undermine the useful role FISAs Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives. The House rejected that amendment Thursday, 183-233.

The tweets had Republican lawmakers at a private meeting listening to real-time updates on the presidents stream of consciousness. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and chief sponsor of the bill to extend surveillance authority, read Trumps second tweet aloud to the group.

Nunes showed his phone to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), according to lawmakers and others familiar with the private meeting.

It was funny, said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.).  Be smart got lots of laughs.

He is a rookie, Cole said. But thats one of the reasons the American people chose him.

Chief of Staff John F. Kelly has tried to calm reactions from White House staffers to such incidents, telling reporters in November, after Trump wrote provocative tweets about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, that he has instructed staffers to avoid reacting to Trumps Twitter account.

On Thursday, Kelly was in the Capitol, along with Marc Short, the White House legislative director, just ahead of the vote for which administration officials had been intensely lobbying.

Its not more difficult. Its a juggling act, Kelly told a CNN reporter.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, asked later about Trumps tweets, gamely insisted, We dont think that there was a conflict at all.

The tweeting incident was the second time this week that Trump publicly differed from his administrations position on a major issue.

On Tuesday, during a televised White House meeting with lawmakers to discuss immigration, Trump said he would agree to sign a stand-alone bill extending legal protections to so-called Dreamers, the roughly 700,000 immigrants who came to this country illegally as children.

Trump had to walk that statement back after McCarthy reminded him that the White House was insisting such protections could be agreed to only in exchange for a host of other changes to immigration law.

On Wednesday, Trump contradicted a statement he made in June, when he said he would agree 100% to sit down with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to discuss the probe into potential collusion with Russia during the election and possible subsequent obstruction of justice.

Well see what happens, Trump said in a news conference Wednesday, adding that he would speak with his attorneys while declining to reaffirm his prior promise.

In the House on Thursday, the floor debate quickly turned contentious as critics of the surveillance legislation seized on the presidents comments. The debate split lawmakers into unusual bipartisan alliances, which frequently have stymied legislative action on surveillance since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed the scope of the eavesdropping program in 2013.

A coalition of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans was pushing an alternative bill that would have limited the NSAs power and established additional privacy protections for Americans, requiring intelligence agencies to go to court for a warrant before getting most information on U.S. citizens.

Get a warrant, said Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas). Lets redraft it and protect Americans.

Democrats seized on Trumps remarks as reason to put off the entire debate.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, went to the House floor to urge Republicans to postpone the vote after the inaccurate, conflicting and confusing statements.

All of us were in turmoil this morning in the wake of the presidents tweets, which threw the whole proceedings into disarray, he said later. When the first tweet came out, all of us were imagining the expletives that were flying in the intelligence community, let alone the Cabinet.

Authority for the surveillance program was set to expire at the end of last year, but Congress agreed to a temporary extension, though mid-January, to give lawmakers more time to debate reforms. Under the House bill, the surveillance program would be extended through 2023.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbierman

UPDATES:

12:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional detail on Trumps tweets and the House debate.

The article was originally published at 8:40 a.m.
Former Vice President Joe Biden had sharp words of advice for President Trump Wednesday.

Grow up. Stop focusing everything through the prism of me, Biden told a sold-out crowd at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles. The childish behavior of My buttons bigger than your button. Its not just ridiculously funny, its dangerous.

Biden made his comments at the Los Angeles Times Ideas Exchange speaking with Times columnist Patt Morrison. It was a wide-ranging discussion that touched on his grief following the death of his son, the 2016 election and sizing up candidates to be the next occupant of the Oval Office.

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The former vice president said his book, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose about Beau Bidens 2015 death, is intended to help people who have lost loved ones understand, You can find significant hope and purpose after that loss.

Without naming Trump, Biden spent much of the time expressing concern that the countrys moral fabric is being torn apart, in part due to the words and actions of the president.

Biden alluded to the presidents comments last year about white supremacists following violence in Charlottesville, Va., and what has happened since.

I never thought Id live to see the day when youd see people literally coming out of fields with lighted torches, Biden said. It gives license to the most unappealing aspects of humanity to crawl out from under the rocks.

He said he is less concerned by the Trump administration undoing the Obama administrations work and cited progress on civil rights issues, including same-sex marriage.

What I worry most about is the conduct of foreign policy, Biden said, adding that some of the presidents actions border on dangerous.

I dont think he fully realizes how consequential the words of a president are, Biden said. The world listens, and it matters.

The comments came one week after Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un traded barbs over nuclear capabilities.

The only war worse than one thats intended is one thats unintended, Biden said.

Asked about his own decision not to run for president in 2016, Biden recalled a conversation he had with Hillary Clinton, who asked him if he would run himself.

At the time, his son was fighting for his life against an aggressive brain tumor. I knew in my heart I wasnt going to run then, but I couldnt tell her. For surely if they knew, theyd know my Beau was dying.

What happened next made him sad, he said, recounting a story from the book. She knew how brutal this was going to be, he said.

Everybody thinks that Hillary has this overwhelming ambition. ... I dont see her that way. I saw her as a woman who thought it was her responsibility to run, a woman who knew that if she didnt run she would be letting down millions of women across the world.

While Clinton would have made a hell of a president, Biden said he felt he would have been the most qualified person to finish the job Barack and I started.

Biden referenced the number of world leaders he had met (all of them), the number of miles he traveled on Air Force Two and how frequently he was sent to Congress to reach out to Republicans.

The conversation was punctuated by shouts from the audience of President Biden! and other encouragement that he run for president a third time.

There will be a Biden president, he said, and her name is likely to be Finnegan Biden, his granddaughter.

Asked to size up the potential 2020 candidacies of Oprah Winfrey and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Biden quipped he was a good vice president, so Id be happy to be on any one of their tickets.

As the crowd cheered, Biden called Garcetti a great guy who has real character and understands what the future looks like and said he considered Winfrey a good friend who is a bright, decent person, but said shell have to build foreign policy chops if she wants to run.

He also had high praise for freshman California Sen. Kamala Harris  to loud applause  and mentioned New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Biden, who took the stage to shouts of Joe! and played to the crowd during the hour-long discussion, was in high spirits. He quipped that he wanted to stay longer, despite needing to catch a red-eye flight out of Los Angeles.

The discussion was part of a national book tour. Before it began, organizers played a biographical video that was strikingly similar to campaign messaging, featuring photos of Biden as a child, speaking out in support of same-sex marriage, grieving the loss of his son, earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom and interacting with President Obama in the White House.

There even was a clip from a video released several years ago of Biden in a yellow corvette.

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc.

ALSO

Updates on California politics
Former Vice President Joe Biden knows how to work a crowd. At turns somber and hopeful, self-deprecating and confident, Biden charmed a friendly audience in downtown Los Angeles at the Orpheum Theatre on Wednesday night.

Joe Biden to President Trump: Grow up. 

Biden spoke with columnist Patt Morrison at the Los Angeles Times Ideas Exchange, touching on grief, Hillary Clinton and the nations future as part of a book tour for his new memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. The book delved into the death of his son, Beau Biden, and how he ultimately decided not to run for president in 2016.

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Biden looked almost bashful when shouts of President Biden! came from the audience, and he didnt talk much about his own presidential ambitions. But he did weigh in on a couple names being floated for the next race.

Eric Garcetti is smart as hell. He is strategic, and Eric Garcetti understands what the future looks a little bit like, Biden said of the Los Angeles mayor, before calling Oprah Winfrey an incredibly bright, decent, appealing person who needs to gain some foreign policy experience and learn strategic doctrine if she wants to be president.

Id be happy to be on either one of their tickets, Biden joked. Im a good vice president.

On a future President Biden

Biden, who has run for president twice, promised, There will be a Biden president, and the name is likely to be Finnegan Biden, referring to one of his granddaughters.

Watch: Bidens message to Californians 

Much of Wednesday nights conversation centered around Bidens family, who he said pushed him to run for vice president, and he recalled the words his son Beau often said to him before he walked onto a stage: home base, a reminder to remember where you come from.

On why Hillary Clinton ran

Biden spoke about his decision not to run for president a third time, when he was still reeling from grief over Beaus death.

He recalled that Clinton visited him to ask whether he would run for president. He already had decided against it, but he didnt want to tell Clinton because he was afraid it would make it obvious that his son was dying.

Clinton told Biden that she intended to run, he said.

As she walked to the door, I didnt feel sorry for her, but I felt a little sad, Biden said. She knew how brutal this was going to be. Shed been there before.

Everybody thinks that Hillary has this overwhelming ambition.  I dont see her that way, he said. I saw her as a woman who saw it was her responsibility to run, a woman who knew if she didnt run, shed be letting down millions of women around the world.

On what the next president needs

Biden had plenty of thoughts about the necessary qualities of the next president. He said the future leader should have:

1. A strategic vision for the nation and its role in the world

2. The ability to convince people that youre authentic

3. The ability to reach across the aisle and build consensus

4. A vision for how to expand the middle class

He also took a few jabs at President Trump, though he didnt use Trumps name. He said he should grow up and called some of his tweets and antics childish and dangerous.

For the millennials in the room

Recalling his mid-20s and the tumult of 1960s assassinations, protests and the civil rights movement, Biden scoffed a bit at the idea that millennials have it bad. The younger generation now tells me how tough things are, Biden said. Give me a break. We decided we were going to change the world, and we did.

He urged young people to get involved in civil rights and environmental issues, and added to loud applause, Its wide open. Go out and change it.

On becoming the Obama whisperer

Biden may have demurred when it came to talking about his own ambitions in 2020, but he sounded self-assured as he talked about his role as vice president in the Obama White House. He highlighted the dozens of trips he made to Iraq, his work as a White House liaison to Congress and his knack for helping smooth communication between Obama and his Cabinet secretaries.

I was the person who knew each of the senior Cabinet members better than the president knew them, Biden said, adding that he soon became known as the Obama whisperer.

On threats to democracy

Biden emphasized the need for a free press and pointed to efforts by the far right aimed at going after the guys in the striped shirts, the referees  the press and the courts.

Biden warned that undermining democratic institutions has been the history of the demise of democracies.

We need you now more than we ever have before, he said of the news media, to cheers and applause. Anybody who thinks democracy is automatic here in America is making a gigantic mistake.



christine.maiduc@latimes.com

For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc.

Updates on California politics
A complex proposal to help Californians evade a provision in President Trumps federal tax plan faces key questions even as its author is working toward the bills speedy passage: How much would the plan ease Californians new tax burdens, and would the Trump administration let it happen?

The state legislation would create a state-run nonprofit, the California Excellence Fund, to accept donations to fund schools, road repairs and everything else in the state budget. The donations would allow residents to reduce their state income tax payments and also receive a federal charitable tax deduction.

The bills author, State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), introduced the measure this month after Trump signed an overhaul of the federal tax code. The federal plan caps state and local tax deductions at $10,000, a blow to residents in high-tax California.

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De Leon hopes the nonprofit gambit will preserve Californians federal tax deductions and keep state revenue stable.

Its my job to protect all Californians, said De Leon, who is also running for U.S. Senate. Thats what Im doing for this piece of legislation: to protect all Californians from double taxation.

The legislation, Senate Bill 227, addresses a federal tax concern faced primarily by a subset of higher-earning Californians. About 2.5 million single and joint filers in California  comprising 15% of all returns  claimed more than $10,000 in state and local tax deductions in 2015, the most recent data available, according to the state Department of Finance. Nearly 90% of those filers reported annual incomes of $100,000 or more.

Under the legislation, taxpayers  or their accountants  would have to estimate how much they would need to pay in state and local taxes before the end of a tax year. If the total is larger than $10,000, they would need to decide whether to make a donation to the state fund in the same year to receive a federal charitable deduction.

Another complication is that a donation to the state fund can only reduce taxpayers income tax payments, not property taxes, which are paid locally. For instance, if a taxpayer owes $15,000 in property taxes but only $5,000 in state income taxes, that taxpayers state and local tax obligation would be $10,000 over the new cap on those deductions, and a donation could only help offset the income tax portion of the bill.

As it stands, De Leons bill offers a dollar-for-dollar state income tax credit for those who donate, which a legislative analysis of the bill called the most generous tax credits ever allowed in California history. The measure could allow donors to receive greater federal and state tax benefits than the amount of their contribution to the California Excellence Fund, the analysis said: A taxpayer at the highest income tax bracket who owed $10,000 in income taxes and instead donated that amount would receive $13,700 in benefits through the elimination of their state tax liability and addition of the federal charitable deduction.

Some opposed to the plan wonder why De Leon and other politicians who generally support legislation aimed at benefiting less well-off residents would try to develop a complicated system that offers perks for the wealthy.

The scramble to restore the uncapped state and local tax deduction in high-tax states is in some ways a curious political exercise, as it largely involves elected officials who have championed progressive taxation contemplating intricate, almost Rube Goldberg-esque ways to make the federal tax code less progressive for wealthy taxpayers in their states, wrote Jared Walczak, a senior policy analyst at the right-leaning Tax Foundation, in a critique of the legislation.

Beyond practical considerations, Walczak wrote, its unlikely the Internal Revenue Service would allow the effort because charitable deductions must have a public purpose under the law, and simply trying to sidestep federal tax liabilities wouldnt qualify.

De Leon and legal experts working on the bill disagree, arguing that similar proposals have a long precedent in California and across the country. A De Leon-authored bill in 2014 provides charitable tax deductions to those who donate to a state fund that provides financial aid for low-income college students. In South Carolina, taxpayers can receive large reductions in their state taxes if they donate to a state-run nonprofit that funds private school scholarships for children with special needs.

Its a long-standing, super-familiar, very well-settled, deeply-embedded feature of the law that when you make a charitable contribution you oftentimes derive tax benefits from making that gift, said Kirk Stark, a professor at the UCLA School of Law who is helping De Leon with the legislation.

Still, De Leon is planning to change his bill to make it less generous. Stark said that its less likely the Trump administration would challenge Californias policy if the credits it offered were less than dollar-for-dollar.

Were fine-tuning the percentage, De Leon said.

De Leon also wants to work quickly so that Californians can begin making donations this year. His bill cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday, and hes aiming for a full Senate vote by the end of the month. SB 227 would still need approval in the Assembly and Gov. Jerry Browns signature before it would become law.

Brown, during Wednesdays briefing on his proposed state budget, seemed intrigued by the bill but wondered how it might work and if the IRS would torpedo it.

Im certainly open to it, Brown said. It looks interesting.

Times Sacramento bureau chief John Myers contributed to this report.

liam.dillon@latimes.com

@dillonliam

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Updates on California politics
It seemed like Gov. Jerry Brown was tying up loose ends and starting to pack as he unveiled his 16th and final state budget proposal Wednesday.

Hell be walking out the door and into retirement  at least from state office  at the end of this year.

Brown was 36 when first elected governor in 1974 and hell be 80 when he leaves for the last time. His four terms are the most of any California governor.

The youthful hair is long gone, but not the tight grip on the state pocketbook, the passionate oratory or showmanship.

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Browns goal with the final budget he sent the Legislature is to leave state government in sound financial shape for his successor. He isnt embarking on any major new projects. Instead, hes polishing up existing projects, in some cases endeavoring to assure theyre sustainable.

Protecting his rear as he leaves the governors office has been Browns obsession in recent years. He learned from the first time he was governor.

I dont want to get caught in the jaws of the persistent fiscal instability of the state of California, Brown once told reporters. One thing we know is when governors leave town with big deficits, theyre more scorned than praised.

Democrat Brown heard the scorn in 1983 when he left his successor, Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, with a badly bleeding budget. And his father, Democratic Gov. Pat Brown, heard it even louder in 1967 when he dumped a barrel of red ink on his successor, Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan.

But Jerry Brown has generally been a penny pincher for most of his career. And hell be missed by moderate Democrats and, especially, fiscally conservative Republicans. Its a good bet that no Democrat likely to succeed him will be nearly as tight with a buck.

Brown was in typical form at his budget news conference when a reporter noted that faculty activists at the University of California and state universities were dissatisfied with the 3% increase he was proposing for each institution. Thats not enough, they insisted.

More from George Skelton 

It is enough, the governor shot back. Youre getting 3% more. And thats it. Theyre not going to get any more. I think they need a little more scrutiny over how theyre spending things. Theyve got to lower the cost structure. And they need to step up and more creatively engage in the process of making education reasonable and affordable.

Brown proposed doing that with community colleges, which he targeted for a 4% increase. His first elective office was as a board member of the Los Angeles Community College District in 1969.

He wants to give community colleges $120 million to develop an online program for the estimated 2.5 million Californians ages 25 to 34 who hold a high school diploma but want more education. These are people who must work to support themselves and their children and cant afford to take time off to attend class. But they could go to college online at home.

These young adults lack the skills and education to succeed in the modern economy and, therefore, are particularly at risk of being laid off during a recession, Brown said in his budget write-up.

Brown placed $46 million in the budget to pay for a bill he signed last year that will allow any first-year, full-time student to attend a community college without paying course fees.

The governor also wants to quickly turn last years increases in fuel taxes and vehicle fees into highway repair projects. Republicans, in an effort to draw GOP voters to the polls in November, are trying to qualify a ballot initiative to repeal the unpopular tax hike. Brown proposed spending $4.6 billion on road projects about the time Californians will be voting.

Asked about the anti-tax ballot measure, Brown said: It hasnt qualified yet. Secondly, there will be a very strong opposition to it.

Coverage of California politics 

That opposition would be funded primarily by highway contractors and labor unions.

For Brown, the highlight of his $190.3-billion budget proposal  a roughly $132-billion general fund, $56 billion in special funds, $2.5 billion in bonds  is the $5 billion he wants to stash in a rainy-day fund. Thats $3.5 billion more than hes legally required to piggy-bank. And it would bring the total savings to $13.5 billion, only to be spent when the next inevitable recession hits.

Hes like the street corner preacher shouting that the end is near  the end of good times and the return of doom.

Right now Democrats are exuberant about surplus revenue rolling into the state treasury, Brown said. But if Sacramento isnt careful, it will become exuberance followed by regret and pain.... We know how it works. Ten years ago, the state was yoked with a $42-billion budget deficit and the Legislature was forced to whack vital programs.

Of course, theres a stench of hypocrisy here too.

Brown isnt attempting to do the tough task thats badly needed: modernize Californias archaic tax system to make it less volatile by lowering state income and sales tax rates and extending the sales tax to services. Thats a real solution, not a temporary rainy-day Band-Aid.

Hell also be leaving the next governor with a bullet train wreck, a $64-billion high-speed rail system that is far behind schedule and short tens of billions of dollars.

Brown should face up to that before he walks out the door.

george.skelton@latimes.com

Follow @LATimesSkelton on Twitter

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Trump tweets: a perfect day for all Women to March President Trump hailed the nationwide Womens March gatherings Saturday. On Twitter, the president called it a perfect day for all Women to March, seeming to imply that those taking part were celebrating his administrations accomplishments: Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Participants in the marches across the United States were actually seeking to deliver a powerful rebuke to Trumps policies and mount a crucial mobilization for this years midterm elections. But Trump continued to tout his administrations unprecedented success in tweets sent later in the day: Unprecedented success for our Country, in so many ways, since the Election. Record Stock Market, Strong on Military, Crime, Borders, & ISIS, Judicial Strength & Numbers, Lowest Unemployment for Women & ALL, Massive Tax Cuts, end of Individual Mandate - and so much more. Big 2018!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The Trump Administration has terminated more UNNECESSARY Regulation, in just twelve months, than any other Administration has terminated during their full term in office, no matter what the length. The good news is, THERE IS MUCH MORE TO COME!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 In addition to the roll call of major American cities where womens marches took place  including New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta  protesters also raised their voices in suburbs and small towns, reflecting the aim of coalescing a broad-based movement on the anniversary of Trumps inauguration to oppose the presidents stance on immigration, healthcare, racial divides and an array of other issues. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Trump calls shutdown a present from Democrats By Associated Press President Trump is blaming Democrats for the government shutdown  tweeting that they wanted to give him a nice present to mark the one-year anniversary of his inauguration: This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 That comes after Senate Democrats late Friday killed a GOP-written House-passed measure that would have kept agencies functioning for four weeks. Democrats were seeking a stopgap bill of just a few days in hopes that would build pressure on Republicans, and they were opposing a three-week alternative offered by GOP leaders. Democrats have insisted they would back legislation reopening the government once theres a bipartisan agreement to preserve protections against deporting about 700,000 immigrants  known as Dreamers  who arrived in the United States illegally as children. Trump on Saturday accused Democrats of holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration: Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Cant let that happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Democrats are laying fault for the shutdown on Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House and have struggled with building internal consensus. In a series of tweets hours after the shutdown began, the president tried to make the case for Americans to elect more Republicans to Congress in November in order to power through this mess: Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 He noted that there are 51 Republicans in the 100-member Senate, and it often takes 60 votes to advance legislation: For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60. That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher on Crime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 #AMERICA FIRST!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The stopgap spending measure won 50 votes in the Senate, including five from Democrats. Although the House and Senate were in session Saturday, it was unclear whether lawmakers would take any votes of consequence. Trump had been set to leave Friday afternoon for a fundraiser at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., where he intended to mark the inauguration anniversary. But he remained in Washington and ended up scrapping his plans to attend the Saturday fundraiser. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet casts doubt on likelihood of averting shutdown President Trump appeared to cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown Friday night in a tweet. Trump also sought to blame Democrats for what would be the first shutdown since 2013. His message came just hours before the midnight deadline by which lawmakers must pass a measure to fund government agencies, or some operations will cease. Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Despite last-minute negotiations Friday between Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Congress remained deadlocked over a spending bill and the federal government was headed toward a shutdown at midnight. Senate Democrats  joined by some GOP deficit hawks and immigration allies  were set to filibuster a stopgap funding bill approved by the House on Thursday. A Senate vote was planned for 10 p.m. Eastern, and even White House officials predicted it would fail. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Lisa Mascaro. Facebook

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Trump signs surveillance law after confusing tweets By Associated Press President Trump on Friday signed a bill into law to renew a foreign intelligence surveillance program, announcing his action in the latest in a series of confusing tweets about the spy program: Just signed 702 Bill to reauthorize foreign intelligence collection. This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2018 Trumps tweet on Jan. 11 created chaos in the House just before it voted to reauthorize what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He linked the intelligence program to a dossier that alleges his presidential campaign had ties to Russia. That caused people to wonder if he didnt support the program that allows U.S. spy agencies to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad. Trump and other Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials improperly shared the identities of Trump presidential transition team members mentioned in intelligence reports. Democrats say there is no evidence that happened. Shortly before the House vote, and after conferring with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump did an apparent about-face. This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land, he tweeted. We need it! Get smart! In his tweet announcing that he had just signed the bill, Trump wrote: This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first! There are no obvious links between the dossier Trump spoke of, which includes salacious but unsubstantiated allegations against him, and the reauthorization of the spying program, or between the program and Trumps oft-repeated claims that the Obama administration conducted surveillance on Trump Tower during the presidential campaign. Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests that Pennsylvania trip is a political one The White House press office was once again forced to walk back a tweet from President Trump on Thursday morning after he described a trip to Pennsylvania later in the day as a political one  a statement that would force the Republican Party, not taxpayers, to pay for the journey. The White House had said Trump was going to an industrial equipment company outside of Pittsburgh to highlight the good economy and new tax cuts, making it an official, policy-oriented event. It was widely assumed that the trip had a political cast  the area is holding a special election to fill a congressional seat vacated by a Republican who resigned. Trump, by his tweet, seemed to confirm that politics was the whole purpose: Will be going to Pennsylvania today in order to give my total support to RICK SACCONE, running for Congress in a Special Election (March 13). Rick is a great guy. We need more Republicans to continue our already successful agenda!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 Trump later shared via Twitter a pair of video clips of his speech at H&K Equipment, in which he touted the tax cuts he signed into law just before Christmas and tried to turn the conversation back to his accomplishments after weeks dominated by distractions, including questions about his mental health and comments about immigration that some considered racist: Departing Pittsburgh now, where it was my great honor to stand with our incredible workers, and to show the world that AMERICA is back - and we are coming back bigger and better and stronger than ever before! pic.twitter.com/kWPgylqFzj  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 AMERICA will once again be a NATION that thinks big, dreams bigger, and always reaches for the stars. YOU are the ones who will shape Americas destiny. YOU are the ones who will restore our prosperity. And YOU are the ones who are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/f2abNK47II  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 The Republican National Committee, rather than the White House, is supposed to pay for political travel so that taxpayers are not financing party activities; for trips that combine policy and politics, parties have split the cost under past presidents. Neither the RNC nor the White House responded to emails sent Thursday asking who would pay. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement later Thursday suggesting that taxpayers would foot the bill. She insisted that Trump would be conducting government business while in Pennsylvania. Read More This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump tweets praise of Bob Dole after awarding him Congressional Gold Medal By Associated Press Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole knew the art of the deal before President Trump published the 1987 book of the same name. The two shared a stage under the Capitol dome Wednesday as Dole, 94, accepted Congress highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, for his World War II service and decades of work in the House and Senate. Trump later praised Dole in a tweet, attaching to his message a video composed of clips from the ceremony: Today, we witnessed an incredible moment in history  the presentation of Congress highest civilian honor to our friend, and true AMERICAN HERO, Bob Dole. #CongressionalGoldMedal pic.twitter.com/qNQqDLRmCk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2018 At the ceremony, the president saluted Dole as a patriot and gave tribute to Doles struggle as a veteran who worked his way back from a grievous shoulder wound he suffered in Italy. He knows about grit, said Trump. But it was Doles penchant for working across the aisle that earned him his latest award, according to the legislation. Bob Dole was known for his ability to work across the aisle and embrace practical bipartisanship, reads the legislation Trump signed in September. Some of the awards 300 recipients include George Washington and Mother Teresa, according to the Congressional Research Service. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts report that seeks to link terrorism cases with immigration By Joseph Tanfani The Trump administration on Tuesday released a report attempting to link terrorism with migration, arguing that it was evidence of the need to dramatically reshape the nations immigration system. New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 ....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based. https://t.co/7PtoSFK1n2  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The report, ordered by President Trump in an executive order last year, said that 75% of the 549 people convicted of terrorism charges since 9/11 were born outside the U.S. Administration officials called that a sign that the U.S. needs to scrap its policy of family preferences for visas, which they call chain migration, and a diversity visa lottery program. But the report did not specify how many  if any  of the convicted terrorists entered the country through those means. It also did not detail how many of the convictions were related to attacks or plans in the U.S. versus overseas and how many involved people who went to fight overseas for the Islamic State or another terrorist group. Those details were not available, officials said. The report, due last year, is being released in a highly charged moment in the immigration debate, as Trump and some Republicans in Congress seek tough new border and immigration measures in return for a deal protecting the 690,000 people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump also fired off a pair of tweets on the topic earlier Tuesday: We must have Security at our VERY DANGEROUS SOUTHERN BORDER, and we must have a great WALL to help protect us, and to help stop the massive inflow of drugs pouring into our country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security. The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding Military, at a time we need it more than ever. We need a merit based system of immigration, and we need it now! No more dangerous Lottery.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The focus of our immigration system should be assimilation, a senior administration official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition that his name not be used. He said the nation should give priority to potential immigrants who speak English, who have an education and those who are committed to supporting our values  not family members of people already here. The official said the timing of the report was coincidental. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets welcome to president of Kazakhstan By Associated Press President Trump said Tuesday that he and the president of Kazakhstan are united in a shared determination to prevent North Korea from threatening the world with nuclear devastation. Trump and President Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed North Korea along with other issues during meetings at the White House. Today, it was my honor to welcome President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to the @WhiteHouse! pic.twitter.com/TerYFZViax  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 Trump said Kazakhstan, once part of the Soviet Union, is a valued partner in our efforts to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. Together we are determined to prevent the North Korean regime from threatening the world with nuclear devastation, he said, as both presidents addressed journalists between meetings. Nazarbayev noted that his country once had one of the worlds largest nuclear arsenals but voluntarily gave it up after the Soviet Union collapsed. He said his country is in talks with Iran, which was the focus of a global deal that lifted some economic sanctions in exchange for Irans curbing its nuclear program. Trump has sharply criticized the Iran nuclear deal and threatened last week to pull out soon unless other countries fix what he says are terrible flaws. Read More Facebook

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Trump falsely claims his approval rating among black Americans has doubled By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump lashed out at the news media Tuesday morning in a tweet denouncing the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion among members of his campaign team. Do you notice the Fake News Mainstream Media never likes covering the great and record setting economic news, but rather talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative. The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Dems. Public gets it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the presidents tweet, but it appeared as though he was watching Fox & Friends. A short time later, Trump tweeted a headline from a report that aired during that mornings episode: 90% of Trump 2017 news coverage was negative -and much of it contrived!@foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The segment focused on the latest survey results from conservative watchdog Media Research Center, which purportedly analyzed the evening news broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31 and found that 90% of the statements made about Trump were negative. Study: 90% of Trump media coverage in 2017 was negative pic.twitter.com/vbrwup4Drg  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 16, 2018 But believe it or not, through all this negative coverage, they did a survey of 600,000 people about how black America views this president, co-host Brian Kilmeade said. His numbers have actually doubled in approval. Trump highlighted the statement in another tweet: Unemployment for Black Americans is the lowest ever recorded. Trump approval ratings with Black Americans has doubled. Thank you, and it will get even (much) better! @FoxNews  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 But its not true. The claim appears to have originated from a misreading of data from the online polling firm SurveyMonkey, according to factcheck.org. The firm polled 600,000 Americans in 2017 and found that Trumps approval rating among blacks actually dropped from 23% early in his presidency to about 17%, as of the week ending Jan. 3. Some conservative outlets, including Breitbart, produced an average from those and other SurveyMonkey figures and compared them to the scores Trump received from black voters in the 2016 exit polls. That methodology is not sound. And since the statistics measure different things, the comparison is misleading. Facebook

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Trump goes after senator who surfaced his immigration remark By Associated Press President Trump turned his Twitter torment Monday on the Democrat in the room where immigration talks with lawmakers took a famously coarse turn, saying Sen. Richard J. Durbin misrepresented what he had said about African nations and Haiti and, in the process, undermined the trust needed to make a deal. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting, Trump tweeted, using a nickname to needle the Illinois senator. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 Trump was referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young people who came to the United States illegally as children. Members of Congress from both parties are trying to strike a deal that Trump would support to extend that protection. Trump also cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching an agreement in tweets sent earlier Monday: Statement by me last night in Florida: Honestly, I dont think the Democrats want to make a deal. They talk about DACA, but they dont want to help..We are ready, willing and able to make a deal but they dont want to. They dont want security at the border, they dont want.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 ...to stop drugs, they want to take money away from our military which we cannot do. My standard is very simple, AMERICA FIRST & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 On a day of remembrance for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Trump spent time at his golf course with no public events, bypassing the acts of service that his predecessors staged in honor of the civil rights leader. Instead, Trump dedicated his weekly address to Kings memory, saying Kings dream and Americas are the same: A world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from. That message was a distinct counterpoint to words attributed to Trump by Durbin and others at a meeting last week, when the question of where immigrants come from seemed at the forefront of Trumps concerns. Some participants and others familiar with the conversation said Trump challenged immigration from shithole countries of Africa and disparaged Haiti as well. Without explicitly denying using that word, Trump lashed out at the Democratic senator, who said Trump uttered it on several occasions. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks pundit for laudatory Fox & Friends spot By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump thanked Fox News personality Stuart Varney after Varney praised Trump during an appearance on Fox & Friends. In a pair of tweets early Sunday, Trump quoted from Varneys commentary, in which he argued that Trump deserves more credit for the booming economy. The pundit, who also hosts a show on Fox Business Network, cited moves by some corporations to raise workers minimum wage or pay out one-time bonuses in response to the GOP tax cuts. President Trump is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy. Tax Cut bonuses to more than 2,000,000 workers. Most explosive Stock Market rally that weve seen in modern times. 18,000 to 26,000 from Election, and grounded in profitability and growth. All Trump, not 0...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 ...big unnecessary regulation cuts made it all possible (among many other things). President Trump reversed the policies of President Obama, and reversed our economic decline. Thank you Stuart Varney. @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 Varney was reacting to a quote from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who on Thursday called the bonuses handed down to workers pathetic in comparison to the gains corporations are expected to see from the tax cuts. In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic, Pelosi told reporters. Its pathetic. Varney shot back Sunday that the bonuses, along with explosive stock market growth, are enriching all Americans. This is a huge shot in the arm, its the result of this tax cut deal and I think President Trump should get the credit for it, he said. .@Varneyco Sets the economic record straight after Nancy Pelosi calls U.S. mass bonuses crumbs pic.twitter.com/BvjIHGm3HE  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 14, 2018 The sweeping tax plan passed last month lowers the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and cuts personal income taxes. Analysts say the benefits will largely flow to corporations and the wealthy, as theyre more likely to be in positions to share in corporate profits. For instance, Wells Fargo & Co., which responded to news of the tax overhaul by announcing it will raise workers pay to at least $15 an hour, also reported that it expects to pay an effective tax rate of 19% this year, down from about 31% in previous years. That should amount to tax savings of more than $3 billion annually. On average, middle-class Americans are expected to see a very small tax cut in the near term and a tax increase after 2025, when all of the tax cuts for individuals expire. The tax cuts for corporations, however, are permanent.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer James Rufus Koren. Facebook

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Trump touts MLK proclamation in tweet, but ceremony is overshadowed by reports of racist remarks By Associated Press President Trump signed a proclamation Friday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, noting the contributions of a great American hero. Today, it was my great honor to proclaim January 15, 2018, as Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service activities in honor of Dr. King's life and legacy. pic.twitter.com/samlJsz1Nt  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 Overshadowing the event was mounting backlash from Trumps comments during a private meeting with lawmakers the day before. A short time after the meeting, which was called to discuss a possible immigration deal, reports emerged that Trump had asked participants why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, the Senates second-ranking Democrat, appeared to confirm those reports on Friday. Trump did not respond Friday to several questions about the incident, including whether he actually used vulgar language to describe African nations, or if he is racist. The president said at the White House that love was central to the slain civil rights leader. Trump said the nation celebrates King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter what the color of our skin or place of our birth, we are all created equal by God.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump criticizes Democrats in tweet calling for stricter immigration rules President Trump hit out at Democrats on Thursday night in a tweet calling for stricter immigration rules. Trump wrote that members of the party seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the border with Mexico: The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process. It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the tweet. Earlier Thursday, Trump rejected a bipartisan compromise to resolve the standoff over so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children but have temporary permits to work, attend school or serve in the military. The president drew widespread condemnation after reports emerged that he had asked participants in an Oval Office meeting about the proposal why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts bill aimed at improving border screening for fentanyl By Associated Press President Trump signed legislation Wednesday aimed at giving Customs and Border Protection agents additional screening devices and other tools to stop the flow of illicit drugs. Speaking at a surprise bill-signing ceremony while flanked by members of Congress from both parties in the Oval Office, Trump described the bill as a significant step forward in the fight against powerful opioids such as fentanyl, which he called our new big scourge. He echoed that language Thursday in a tweet: Yesterday, I signed the #INTERDICTAct (H.R. 2142) with bipartisan members of Congress to help end the flow of drugs into our country. Together, we are committed to doing everything we can to combat the deadly scourge of drug addiction and overdose in the United States! pic.twitter.com/ELZvFol5Lo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 The legislation will pay for new portable and fixed chemical screening devices to detect and intercept fentanyl at ports of entry and in the mail, along with other laboratory equipment and personnel, including scientists. Trump has made fighting the opioid epidemic a centerpiece of his administration, though critics say he hasnt dedicated nearly enough money or resources to make a difference. Trump suggested during his remarks on Wednesday that hed like to take a more aggressive approach to the drug crisis  but the countrys not ready for what he has in mind. So were going to sign this. And its a step. And it feels like a very giant step, but unfortunately, its not going to be a giant step, because no matter what you do, this is something that keeps pouring in, he said. And were going to find the answer. There is an answer. I think I actually know the answer, but Im not sure the countrys ready for it yet, he added. Does anybody know what I mean? I think so. Facebook

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Trump applauds news that Toyota-Mazda plant is slated for Alabama By Associated Press Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda on Wednesday announced plans to build a mammoth, $1.6-billion joint-venture plant in Alabama that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. President Trump lauded the news in a tweet: Cutting taxes and simplifying regulations makes America the place to invest! Great news as Toyota and Mazda announce they are bringing 4,000 JOBS and investing $1.6 BILLION in Alabama, helping to further grow our economy! pic.twitter.com/Kcg8IVH6iA  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Good news: Toyota and Mazda announce giant new Huntsville, Alabama, plant which will produce over 300,000 cars and SUVs a year and employ 4000 people. Companies are coming back to the U.S. in a very big way. Congratulations Alabama!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 Several states had competed for the project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and company executives held a news conference to announce that the facility is coming to the Huntsville area not far from the Tennessee line. Production is expected to begin by 2021. The decision to pick Alabama is another example of foreign-based automakers building U.S. factories in the South. To entice manufacturers, Southern states have used a combination of lucrative incentive packages, low-cost labor and a pro-business labor environment, because the United Auto Workers union is stronger in Northern states. Read More Facebook

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Trump highlights call for border wall in tweets on visit with Norways prime minister By Associated Press President Trump praised Norways prime minister in a tweet on Wednesday after Erna Solberg became the first foreign leader to visit with the president in 2018. Today, it was my great honor to welcome Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway to the @WhiteHouse - a great friend and ally of the United States! Joint press conference: https://t.co/qWR1BhfQZI pic.twitter.com/PJvwznjRCO  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Trump also shared via Twitter a video clip of a joint news conference he held with Solberg on Wednesday afternoon. In the clip, Trump responds to a question from a reporter by saying there can be no bipartisan immigration deal absent funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been seeking a solution for hundreds of thousands of so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought to the United States as children and are living here illegally. The United States needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval. The safety and security of our country is #1! pic.twitter.com/4CFzQXb5aS  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 We need the wall for security, we need the wall for safety, we need the wall for stopping the drugs from pouring in, Trump said Wednesday.  Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all doesnt work. On Tuesday, Trump drew widespread attention when he said during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers that he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. That contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill in subsequent tweets and public comments. Read More This post contains reporting from Los Angeles Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump praises Cabinet in tweet touting meeting By Associated Press President Trump promoted a meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday, sharing via Twitter a link to a video of the session posted on the White House YouTube account. In his tweet, Trump thanked his Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country and wrote that the last year has been one of monumental achievement. I want to thank my @Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country. 2017 was a year of monumental achievement and we look forward to the year ahead. Together, we are delivering results and MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! https://t.co/ptXa1hAPwW pic.twitter.com/yv6RALkQf3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The former reality television star continued to dispense accolades at the meeting Wednesday, greeting reporters in the Cabinet Room by saying: Welcome back to the studio. Then he proceeded to relive a Cabinet Room session from the prior day, when he had allowed reporters and TV cameras to stick around for much of his meeting with a bipartisan group of legislators on the thorny issue of immigration. It was a tremendous meeting. Actually, it was reported as incredibly good. And my performance  you know, some of them called it a performance  I consider it work, Trump said. Trump went on to say he had received letters from news anchors calling it one of the greatest meetings theyve ever witnessed. He added that the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because theyre going to say, if Trump doesnt win in three years, theyre all out of business. Asked for examples of letters received from news anchors, the White House said it had received private communications. It also offered a series of positive on-air comments and tweets from journalists about the unusual access to the meeting. During his remarks, Trump swung from praising his own meeting coverage to telling journalists that they were dependent on his presidency for ratings to threatening a strong look at libel laws. Still, Trump thanked the journalists in front of him, joking: Youve gotten very familiar with this room. I appreciate your nice comments yesterday. Facebook

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Trump blasts DACA ruling in tweet calling courts broken and unfair By Lisa Mascaro President Trump denounced the federal courts Wednesday as broken and unfair after a district judge in San Francisco issued a nationwide injunction keeping protections in place for so-called Dreamers. Trump tweeted: It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 On Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administrations decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which has protected from deportation some 700,000 people who came to the country illegally as children. Alsup granted a request by the state of California, the University of California and other plaintiffs to stop Trump from ending DACA on March 5. The administrations decision to end DACA, which was announced in September, was based on a flawed legal analysis, Alsup wrote in his decision. Dreamers would be irreparably harmed if their DACA protections, which allow them to live and work legally in the U.S., were stripped away before the courts had a chance to fully consider their claims, he ruled. The action is the mirror image of a ruling in 2015 by a federal judge in Texas who ruled in favor of that state when it sought to block President Obama from expanding DACA to include the parents of Dreamers. Trump administration officials praised that judicial ruling. By contrast, they sharply criticized Alsups decision. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks lawmakers for productive immigration meeting, says deal must include border wall President Trump thanked a bipartisan group of lawmakers for participating in a meeting on immigration legislation on Tuesday. Much of the discussion involved so-called Dreamers, an estimated 700,000 young people who were brought to the country illegally as children and are now facing deportation. In a tweet, Trump wrote that there was strong agreement to negotiate a bill to protect Dreamers, as well as put into place some of the reforms favored by Republicans. Thanks to all of the Republican and Democratic lawmakers for todays very productive meeting on immigration reform. There was strong agreement to negotiate a bill that deals with border security, chain migration, lottery and DACA. https://t.co/SdqAQ3aL3z pic.twitter.com/8DYHZHspAy  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 The most notable exchange of the meeting came when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the San Francisco Democrat, asked Trump whether he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. Yeah, I would like to do it, Trump responded. The statement drew widespread attention because it contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump later backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill, tweeting that a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico must be part of any deal: As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Pressure has been mounting for Congress to broker an immigration deal by Jan. 19 as part of a must-pass budget package to fund the government. This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump thanks officers and veterans in tweets President Trump doled out a slew of accolades Tuesday via Twitter. He thanked the nations law enforcement officers, including in his message a hashtag denoting a day of appreciation organized by a national support group for law enforcement families. On behalf of the American people, THANK YOU to our incredible law enforcement officers. As President of the United States - I will fight for you, and I will never, ever let you down. Now, more than ever, we must support the men and women in blue! #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/Qb4uxB4JRm  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trump later expressed gratitude for federal immigration agents, in particular: .@ICEgov HSI agents and ERO officers, on behalf of an entire Nation, THANK YOU for what you are doing 24/7/365 to keep fellow Americans SAFE. Everyone is so grateful!#LawEnforcementAppreciationDay

President @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/HXCpTlruVo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The president thanked veterans as he cited his administrations efforts to curb the number of veteran suicides by improving mental health treatment for the high-risk group: Today, it was my great honor to sign a new Executive Order to ensure Veterans have the resources they need as they transition back to civilian life. We must ensure that our HEROES are given the care and support they so richly deserve! https://t.co/0MdP9DDIAS pic.twitter.com/LP2a8KCBAp  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trumps tweet included photos of the president signing an executive order Tuesday directing the secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to develop a plan to provide seamless access to mental health and suicide prevention resources for 12 months for members leaving the armed forces. Also on Tuesday, Trump touted a law he signed the day before designating the birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a national historic park: It was my great honor to sign H.R. 267, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Act, which redesignates the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site in the State of Georgia as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. https://t.co/Qe0b6HBFTY pic.twitter.com/QTgaqTawPT  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 And he thanked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) for sharing a video compilation comprised of clips of politicians and commentators praising the GOPs tax cut bill: Thank you @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy! Couldnt agree w/you more. TOGETHER, we are #MAGA https://t.co/QaxtqpyXTR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018  This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump hails tax bill in tweets recapping speech to farmers By Associated Press Connecting with rural Americans, President Trump on Monday hailed his tax overhaul as a victory for family farmers. Farm country is Gods country, Trump told the annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Trump became the first president in a quarter-century to address the federations convention. His Southern swing also included a stop in Atlanta for the national college football championship game. Cant wait to be back in the amazing state of Tennessee to address the 99th American @FarmBureau Federations Annual Convention in Nashville! #AFBF18



On my way now - join me LIVE at 4:00pmE: https://t.co/QaljAqekdD. pic.twitter.com/Wm7Io0hYT8  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Joined by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and a group of Tennessee lawmakers, Trump said most of the benefits of the tax legislation are going to working families, small businesses, and who  the family farmer. The package Trump signed into law last month provides generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest reductions for middle- and low-income individuals and families. In every decision we make, we are honoring Americas PROUD FARMING LEGACY. Years of crushing taxes, crippling regs, & corrupt politics left our communities hurting, our economy stagnant, & millions of hardworking Americans COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN. But they are not forgotten ANYMORE! pic.twitter.com/MdYS7xnukQ  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The president vastly inflated the value of the package in his speech, citing a total of $5.5 trillion in tax cuts, with most of those benefits going to working families, small businesses and who? The family farmer. The estimated value of the tax cuts is actually $1.5 trillion for families and businesses because of cuts in deductions and the use of other steps to generate offsetting tax revenue. We have been working every day to DELIVER for Americas Farmers just as they work every day to deliver FOR US. #AFBF18 pic.twitter.com/QDH7fvFkZ7  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 From Nashville, Trump traveled to Atlanta to watch Alabamas Crimson Tide and Georgias Bulldogs face off Monday night in the College Football Playoff National Championship. We are fighting for our farmers, for our country, and for our GREAT AMERICAN FLAG. We want our flag respected - and we want our NATIONAL ANTHEM respected also! pic.twitter.com/16eOLXg6Fi  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Before departing for the game, Trump referenced his ongoing defense of the American flag and the national anthem, saying there was enough space for people to express their views. We love our flag and we love our anthem, and we want to keep it that way, he said. Facebook

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Trump tweet hails drop in unemployment rate for African Americans By Associated Press President Trump touted a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans on Monday in a tweet. African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. The Hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year and is close to the lowest in recorded history. Dems did nothing for you but get your vote! #NeverForget @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The rate fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Trump also hailed the development via Twitter on Saturday. His latest tweet on the topic came about an hour after it was discussed during an episode of Fox & Friends, according to Mediaite. Facebook

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Trump talks up the economy and dresses down the media in Sunday tweets With President Trump cheering from the sidelines, the White House on Sunday pressed its defense of the presidents fitness to govern, as fired former aide Stephen K. Bannon reversed course and apologized for his role in a new books explosive portrait of Trump. The presidents critics, meanwhile, said Trumps stream of taunts and insults in response to the book  Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, released last week  served only to underscore the authors unsettling portrayal of Trumps year-old presidency, depicting a leader whose own aides consider him childish, ignorant and dangerously erratic. Trump provided more ammunition Sunday morning, as he continued to attack the book via Twitter while preparing to depart Camp David for the White House: Leaving Camp David for the White House. Great meetings with the Cabinet and Military on many very important subjects including Border Security & the desperately needed Wall, the ever increasing Drug and Opioid Problem, Infrastructure, Military, Budget, Trade and DACA.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Ive had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 The most vehement defense of Trump on Sunday came from senior advisor Stephen Miller, a onetime Bannon acolyte who distanced himself from his former mentor. In a combative appearance Sunday on CNNs State of the Union, Miller called the book grotesque and writer Michael Wolff the garbage author of a garbage book. Trump is known to closely monitor aides televised performances in putting forth his case, and he gleefully weighed in within moments of Millers televised clash with host Jake Tapper. CNN has long been a particular target of Trumps ire. Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trumps reaction, however, seemed to bolster Tappers on-air depiction of Miller as using his appearance on the show to play to the president rather than addressing questions put to him. I get it  theres one viewer that you care about, the host said exasperatedly after Miller turned the discussion repeatedly to negative news coverage of the president while deflecting specific queries. Later on Twitter, Trump took up two themes that have been prevalent on his social media feeds recently. The president again went after the news media, tweeting that the recipients of his self-proclaimed most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year, which he promised earlier in the week to announce on Monday, would actually be revealed the following Wednesday: The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trump later lauded a New York Post opinion piece that compared him favorably with his predecessor, President Obama, as well as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In quoting the op-ed, Trump initally misspelled consequential as consensual, but he deleted those tweets and re-sent the messages. His is turning out to be an enormously consequential presidency. So much so that, despite my own frustration over his missteps, there has never been a day when I wished Hillary Clinton were president. Not one. Indeed, as Trumps accomplishments accumulate, the mere thought of...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 ...Clinton in the WH, doubling down on Barack Obamas failed policies, washes away any doubts that America made the right choice. This was truly a change election  and the changes Trump is bringing are far-reaching & necessary. Thank you Michael Goodwin! https://t.co/4fHNcx2Ydg  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Trump also continued talking up the economy, which has been enjoying a period of strong gains. The Stock Market has been creating tremendous benefits for our country in the form of not only Record Setting Stock Prices, but present and future Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Seven TRILLION dollars of value created since our big election win!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 In addition to Miller, other senior administration officials made the rounds of Sunday news talk shows to decry the claims made in Wolffs book. CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Wolffs characterization of Trump as averse to digesting classified briefing material was ludicrous, and the ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, insisted that that those around Trump love their country and respect their president. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Responding to book that mocks his intelligence, Trump tweets hes like, really smart By Tracy Wilkinson President Trump declared himself a very stable genius on Twitter on Saturday and later in a televised news conference called the author of a book that questioned his mental fitness a fraud. His comments came on a bone-cold day at Camp David during a weekend retreat with top administration officials and Republican congressional leaders strategizing on the years legislative agenda, including matters such as infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and national security. Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Still, Trumps explosive rebuttal to author Michael Wolffs claims not only opened the day, but it also ensured the presidents capability to fill the highest office in the land was a topic that would not go away. In his early-morning tweets, Trump said two of his greatest assets have been mental stability, and being, like, really smart. He noted that his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, played these cards [about competence] very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). Read More Facebook

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In morning tweets, Trump touts job numbers and takes digs at news media By Associated Press President Trump used Twitter on Saturday morning to tout a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans. He also used the tweets as an opportunity to take digs at media outlets whose past coverage he has found to be critical. The African American unemployment rate fell to 6.8%, the lowest rate in 45 years. I am so happy about this News! And, in the Washington Post (of all places), headline states, Trumps first year jobs numbers were very, very good.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The unemployment rate for African Americans fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Still, the rate for black workers remains well above those for whites and some other groups, something experts attribute in large part to decades of discrimination and disadvantages. Robust job creation has lowered unemployment for all Americans. U.S. employers added nearly 2.1 million jobs in 2017  the seventh straight year that hiring has topped 2 million. In his tweet, Trump praised a report that noted the numbers, touting the fact that it appeared in the Washington Post (of all places). Minutes later, Trump renewed his attack on an ABC News reporter who was suspended last month after filing an erroneous report on Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security advisor. Brian Ross, the reporter who made a fraudulent live newscast about me that drove the Stock Market down 350 points (billions of dollars), was suspended for a month but is now back at ABC NEWS in a lower capacity. He is no longer allowed to report on Trump. Should have been fired!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The reporter, Brian Ross, was reportedly reassigned within ABC News upon returning from his unpaid suspension. But on Saturday, Trump wrote that he should have been fired. Trumps tweets came hours before he was set to host congressional Republicans and administration officials at Camp David. The meeting scheduled to begin at midmorning Saturday was expected to touch on the budget, infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and the shape of the midterm election this fall. Facebook

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Trump commends Sen. Rand Paul after he proposes eliminating all U.S. aid to Pakistan President Trump commended Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican announced plans to introduce legislation that would eliminate all U.S. aid to Pakistan. Trump tweeted Friday night: Good idea Rand! https://t.co/55sqUDiC0s  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 On Thursday, the Trump administration announced it was suspending security assistance to Islamabad until the country moves aggressively against local militants who have attacked U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration at the apparent inability of Pakistani authorities to rein in militants who cross out of the countrys rugged tribal areas to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson. Facebook

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Trump continues to lash out at Sloppy Steve Bannon in tweets on tell-all book By Associated Press President Trump is praising a major Republican donor family for distancing themselves from his former advisor Steve Bannon. Trump tweeted Friday: The Mercer Family recently dumped the leaker known as Sloppy Steve Bannon. Smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trump has continued to lash out at Bannon over an explosive new book that quoted his former aide as questioning Trumps competence and describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower among Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer as treasonous and unpatriotic. On Thursday, billionaire GOP donor Rebekah Mercer issued a statement distancing her family from Bannon. Mercer is a co-owner of Breitbart, the populist website Bannon helps run. I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected, Mercer said. My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements. The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, quickly shot atop Amazons best-seller list, and the publisher moved up its release date by four days, to Friday. Trump took up the topic again on Twitter on Friday night, denouncing both Bannon and the books author, Michael Wolff, in starkly personal terms: Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad! https://t.co/mEeUhk5ZV9  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Trumps message linked to a meme depicting a parody book cover titled, Liar and Phony, that featured a photo of Wolff and disparaging quotes about the author. In a tweet sent earlier Friday morning, Trump suggested the book was intended to serve as a distraction from the FBIs investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which Trump wrote is proving to be a total hoax. Well, now that collusion with Russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Hillary Clinton and the FBI/Russia, the Fake News Media (Mainstream) and this phony new book are hitting out at every new front imaginable. They should try winning an election. Sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 That came amid reports that Trump directed his White House counsel to tell Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Departments Russia investigation. Trumps effort to keep Sessions, a vocal and loyal supporter of his election bid, in charge of an investigation into his campaign offers special counsel Robert Mueller yet another avenue to explore as his prosecutors work to untangle potential evidence of obstruction. Read More Facebook

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Trump praises the economy ahead of meetings at Camp David By Associated Press President Trump is praising the strength of the U.S. economy ahead of meetings at Camp David with congressional Republicans. Trump tweeted early Friday: Dow goes from 18,589 on November 9, 2016, to 25,075 today, for a new all-time Record. Jumped 1000 points in last 5 weeks, Record fastest 1000 point move in history. This is all about the Make America Great Again agenda! Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Six trillion dollars in value created!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The president also told reporters on the South Lawn that the tax cuts are really kicking in after Congress passed a package of tax cuts at the end of 2017. And the president praised the December jobs report, which found U.S. employers added 148,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.1%, the lowest level since 2000. The modest but steady pace of hiring is a reassuring sign for investors who have been buoyed by the just-passed Republican tax plan and have been sending stock market indexes roaring to uncharted heights. The president is meeting with Republican congressional leaders and members of his Cabinet on Friday and Saturday to discuss the 2018 agenda. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets as Dow crashes through 25,000 By Associated Press President Trump dispatched a congratulatory tweet as the Dow Jones industrial average rose above the 25,000-point mark Thursday, just five weeks after its first close above 24,000. Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 After the Dow closed above 25,000, Trump shared a graphic depicting the stock indexs record-setting rise. MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/iONbr1DkVk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Later in the day, the president was back on Twitter, complaining that news outlets had barely covered the stock market milestone. He suggested that the strength of the economy would be the biggest story on earth, had it unfolded during the presidency of his predecessor. The Fake News Media barely mentions the fact that the Stock Market just hit another New Record and that business in the U.S. is booming...but the people know! Can you imagine if O was president and had these numbers - would be biggest story on earth! Dow now over 25,000.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The Dow broke past 1,000-point barriers in 2017 on its way to a 25% gain for the year, as an eight-year rally since the Great Recession continued to confound skeptics. Strong global economic growth and good prospects for higher company earnings have analysts predicting more gains, although the market may not stay as calm as it has been recently. The Dow has made a rapid trip since it reached 24,000 points Nov. 30, partly on enthusiasm over passage of the Republican-backed tax package, which could boost company profits this year with across-the-board cuts to corporate taxes. Read More Facebook

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Trump reacts to Fire and Fury book in tweet lashing out at author and Sloppy Steve President Trump lashed out at the author of a soon-to-be-released book about the chaotic first year of his presidency Thursday night. In a tweet, Trump called Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a phony book and claimed that hed never spoken to its author, Michael Wolff. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve! Trump wrote. He appeared to be referring to former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, whose stunning criticisms of Trump and his circle figure prominently in the title. I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that dont exist. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trumps tweet came hours after he had his lawyer demand that Henry Holt & Co. and Wolff stop publication the book. Instead, the publisher expedited the books release to Friday, four days before it was slated to hit bookstore shelves, in response to unprecedented demand. Published excerpts on Wednesday and Thursday whetted that appetite and roiled Washington. Bannons comments, including that it was treasonous and unpatriotic for Trumps son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort to have met in 2016 with Russians said to have dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, prompted Trump on Wednesday to rebuke his former advisor, saying Bannon had lost his mind. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Brian Bennett and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump thanks senators who attended meeting on immigration President Trump tweeted thanks to Republican senators who attended a meeting about possible immigration legislation on Thursday. In his message, Trump also listed his top priorities when it comes to any type of overhaul of the nations immigration system. Thank you to the great Republican Senators who showed up to our mtg on immigration reform. We must BUILD THE WALL, stop illegal immigration, end chain migration & cancel the visa lottery. The current system is unsafe & unfair to the great people of our country - time for change!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Trumps tweet echoed his remarks at the beginning of Thursdays meeting, when he insisted again that constructing a border wall and overhauling two legal immigration programs must be part of any deal with Democrats to protect the so-called Dreamers from deportation. Two-year deportation protections and work permits given under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program begin to expire March 6 under an executive order. Trump announced in September that he was ending the Obama-era program, but told Congress to draft a law to continue protections for people brought to the country illegally as children  a group that has widespread public support. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Brian Bennett. Facebook

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Trump resumes Twitter war against kneeling NFL players President Trump has resumed his Twitter war against NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest social injustice and racial inequality. In a tweet early Thursday, Trump replied to a supporter who shared a meme that appears to depict family members lying on the grave of a fallen soldier with the caption: This is why we stand. Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! Trump wrote. So beautiful....Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! https://t.co/tJLM1tvbvb  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The president has denounced players who kneel during the anthem in previous tweets. Hes also called for the firing of players who do so. His latest message came amid news that the NFL finished the regular season with TV ratings that fell nearly 10% below the previous season. Analysts attribute the drop to controversies facing the league, as well as changing viewing habits and a possible saturation point in the number of games available. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Stephen Battaglio and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump credits himself with facilitating talks between North and South Korea By Associated Press President Trump says his tough stance on nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula is helping push North Korea and South Korea to talk. Trump tweeted early Thursday: With all of the failed experts weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasnt firm, strong and willing to commit our total might against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 That assertion is in conflict with some of the presidents own statements. Last year, he ridiculed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for talking about negotiations with the North. This week, Trump seemed open to the possibility of an inter-Korean dialogue after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare overture toward South Korea in a New Years Day address. But Trumps ambassador to the United Nations insisted that talks wont be meaningful unless the North is getting rid of its nuclear weapons. The overture about talks came after Trump and Kim traded more bellicose claims about their nuclear weapons. In his New Years Day address, Kim repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. Kim said he has a nuclear button on his office desk and warned that the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike. Trump mocked that assertion Tuesday evening in a tweet. Facebook

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After disbanding his vote fraud panel, Trump still says voting system is rigged By Brian Bennett One day after disbanding his troubled voter fraud commission without any findings of fraud, President Trump continued to call the U.S. voting system rigged and said states should require that Americans have voter-identification cards. In two tweets on Thursday morning, Trump blamed the commissions failure on the lack of cooperation from mostly Democrat States that refused to hand over voter rolls because they know that many people are voting illegally. However, voting supervisors in Republican-led states refused as well, objecting on privacy and other grounds. Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud. They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do.....except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country. Push hard for Voter Identification!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Despite Trumps assertions, analysts have not found evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May after alleging, without proof, that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump was elected after winning a majority in the electoral college, but the nationwide count showed Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes. The commission sought personal data on voters across the country and faced mounting lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts another good day for stocks, credits tax cut By Associated Press President Trump touted another good day for the stock market Wednesday in a tweet. Stock Market had another good day but, now that the Tax Cut Bill has passed, we have tremendous upward potential. Dow just short of 25,000, a number that few thought would be possible this soon into my administration. Also, unemployment went down to 4.1%. Only getting better!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Big gains for technology and healthcare stocks helped U.S. indexes set records again Wednesday. Some analysts attributed the surge to investor enthusiasm for Trumps $1.5-trillion tax cut. All told, Wall Street analysts estimate the tax package should boost earnings for companies in the Standard & Poors 500 index by roughly 8% this year. Thats much more generous than the average tax cut of 1.6% that middle-class families will receive, according to the Tax Policy Center. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The public has been less enthusiastic about the tax law. A Monmouth University poll last month found that nearly half of Americans disapproved of it, with only 26% in support. Still, as Trump also noted on Twitter, some workers have seen a benefit: So far, dozens of companies have announced bonuses and higher minimum wages as a result of the tax cut. AT&T, Comcast, Bank of America, and American Airlines have all pledged to pay $1,000 bonuses to their employees. Some 40 U.S. companies have responded to President Trumps tax cut and reform victory in Congress last year by handing out bonuses up to $2,000, increases in 401k matches and spending on charity, a much higher number than previously known. https://t.co/bmWrwWzxMR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Investors also appear less concerned than many politicians about how the additional profits will be used. The Trump administration says it expects companies will plow much of the extra profit back into their businesses, purchasing more software, machinery, and other equipment. Those investments will make workers more productive and provide a key boost to the economys long-run growth. They should also boost wages and salaries for employees. Opponents of the tax law respond that companies are more likely to pass the windfall on to shareholders in the form of higher dividend payments and share buybacks, which raise the price of those shares still in investors hands. Previous cuts in corporate tax rates, in the United States and overseas, havent always led to higher wages. For Wall Street, its all good, at least in the short run. Most analysts take the view that either way, companies and the economy will benefit. Facebook

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Trump reacts to death of Mormon Church president By Associated Press President Trump mourned the death of Mormon Church leader Thomas S. Monson on Wednesday evening. Trump tweeted a link to a statement in which he said that Monson demonstrated wisdom, inspired leadership, and great compassion and delivered a message of optimism, forgiveness, and faith. Melania and I are deeply saddened by the death of Thomas S. Monson, a beloved President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...https://t.co/ETD3fWtfU3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 A church bishop at the age of 22, Monson became the youngest church apostle ever in 1963 at the age of 36. He served as a counselor for three church presidents before assuming the role of the top leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2008. After a life of church service, Monson died Tuesday at his home in Salt Lake City, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. He was 90. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets that Iranian protesters will see great U.S. support at the appropriate time By Associated Press President Trump continued to express support for Irans anti-government protesters on Wednesday. In a tweet, Trump commended the protesters and pledged that the United States will support them at the appropriate time. Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Trumps tweet Wednesday morning came as Iranian Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo sent a letter to United Nations officials complaining that Washington was intervening in a grotesque way in Irans internal affairs. The President and Vice-President of the United States, in their numerous absurd tweets, incited Iranians to engage in disruptive acts, the ambassador wrote to the U.N. Security Council president and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The U.S. didnt immediately respond to the letter, which maintains that Washington has crossed every limit in flouting rules and principles of international law governing the civilized conduct of international relations. At least 21 people have been killed and hundreds arrested in Iran during a week of anti-government protests and unrest over economic woes and official corruption. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people took part in counter-demonstrations Wednesday backing the clerically overseen government, which has said enemies of Iran are fomenting the protests. Trump has unleashed a series of tweets in recent days backing the protesters, saying Iran is failing at every level and declaring that it is time for change in the Islamic Republic. Facebook

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Trump congratulates Sen. Orrin Hatch upon news of his retirement By Associated Press President Trump congratulated Sen. Orrin Hatch for an absolutely incredible career upon news of Hatchs impending retirement. In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Trump called Hatch a tremendous supporter and wrote that he will be greatly missed in the Senate. Congratulations to Senator Orrin Hatch on an absolutely incredible career. He has been a tremendous supporter, and I will never forget the (beyond kind) statements he has made about me as President. He is my friend and he will be greatly missed in the U.S. Senate! pic.twitter.com/0VjzLEeHTl  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Hatchs decision to retire from the Senate after four decades lets the Utah Republican walk away at the height of his power after helping to push through an overhaul of the tax code and persuading Trump to downsize two national monuments. Retirement also preserves the 83-year-olds legacy by allowing him to avoid a bruising reelection battle that would have broken his promise not to seek an eighth term. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet exaggerates progress in improving veterans care By Associated Press President Trump played up tremendous progress in improving care for veterans in his first year on Tuesday in a tweet. His message linked to an Instagram video describing eight accomplishments that show Trump is fighting for our veterans. But it overstates the impact of these steps. We will not rest until all of Americas GREAT VETERANS can receive the care they so richly deserve. Tremendous progress has been made in a short period of time. Keep up the great work @SecShulkin @DeptVetAffairs! https://t.co/ir25vW15hx pic.twitter.com/OtuzIgxMn6  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Of the eight achievements cited, two are ceremonial proclamations recognizing National Veterans and Military Families Month and National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Two are pieces of legislation that extended the troubled Veterans Choice program on a temporary basis. This became necessary because the Trump administration repeatedly miscalculated the amount of taxpayer dollars available to pay for care from private doctors outside the Veterans Affairs system when veterans had to endure long waits for treatment at VA medical centers. The departments poor budget planning caught lawmakers off guard. A fifth claim involves telehealth, a step letting doctors practice medicine across state lines using digital technology. Announced in August, it has yet to take full effect because a proposed VA regulation hasnt been completed. The VA wants authority to practice across state lines to come from legislation, not a regulation. On Wednesday, the Senate approved a telehealth measure that now goes to the House. A sixth claim refers to legislation that streamlines the appeals process for disability compensation claims within the VA. This step has had limited effect so far because it applies to new disability claims, not the 470,000 pending claims. The last two initiatives make it easier for the VA to discipline employees. The department has pointed to more than 1,300 employees who have been fired under Trumps watch. Because their infractions are not detailed in public documents, the effect on veterans care is not fully known. Facebook

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Trump unleashes his first tweetstorm of 2018 By Noah Bierman President Trump clearly didnt resolve to change his Twitter habits this year. With nine disparate tweets over three hours on Tuesday morning, the first working day of 2018, Trump continued to exploit social media to be the most aggressive commentator in chief in American history. For any other president, his posts would have made for a monumental day of (mis-)statements. Yet for Trump, the series  attacks on political foes and media, provocations of foreign leaders and self-praise for events he had nothing to do with  was all but unremarkable. His Twitter barrage  sent between 7:09 a.m. and 10:16 a.m.  reflected a familiar gamut after nearly a year in office: Attacks on political foes: Nearly 14 months after his election, Trump called for the jailing of Huma Abedin, Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid (his misspelling, another occasional feature of Trump tweets). Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 In the same tweet, he disparaged the Deep State Justice Dept, headed of course by his appointees, calling on it to act against James B. Comey, the FBI director he fired for investigating the Russia thing. Diplomatic provocations: Trump again called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Rocket man, ridiculed the volatile nuclear-armed foe for recent military defections and openly speculated about potential talks between North and South Korea. Sanctions and other pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not  we will see! Trump wrote. Later Tuesday, Trump tweeted: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Also later Tuesday, Trump tweeted an attack on Pakistan, his second in as many days, and added a new one against Palestinians: It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They dont even want to negotiate a long overdue...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Undermining media: Trump offered Congratulations! to A.G. Sulzberger, who took over as publisher of the New York Times this week. The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved. Get...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ....impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent sources, and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you wont have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the two-part post was really yet another slam against a perceived media foe: Trump said the paper had a last chance to fulfill its journalistic mission, and accused it of relying on phony sources and substandard reporters  just days after he granted another exclusive interview to the paper. As a bonus, the tweet contained a recycled falsehood, that the paper apologized after the election for reporting on him unfairly. It didnt. Trump later said on Twitter that he would soon announce the most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year. Stay tuned! I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 oclock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 The president also tweeted a quote from Fox Business Networks Lou Dobbs Tonight, which aired a segment praising Trumps first-year accomplishments. Dobbs reportedly joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday for a gala to celebrate New Years Eve. President Trump has something now he didnt have a year ago, that is a set of accomplishments that nobody can deny. The accomplishments are there, look at his record, he has had a very significant first year. @LouDobbs Show,David Asman & Ed Rollins  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Taking credit: Trump congratulated himself for policing the border with Mexico, an area where his policies and anti-immigration rhetoric are believed to have had some effect on reducing illegal crossings. Thank you to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council for your kind words on how well we are doing at the Border. We will be bringing in more & more of your great folks and will build the desperately needed WALL! @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 He took credit for employee bonuses by companies after he signed Republican tax cuts into law last month. Companies are giving big bonuses to their workers because of the Tax Cut Bill. Really great!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the jaw-dropper was Trump congratulating himself for planes not crashing. Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 It was the safest year on record worldwide, but the American streak without commercial jet passenger deaths goes back to 2009. Trump, who has promoted deregulation as one of his top accomplishments, has not signed off on any new airline safety regulations. The White House pointed to new security screening of passengers, to electronic devices to prevent terrorist attacks and to Trumps support for privatizing air traffic control  a proposal that has gotten nowhere in Congress. Falsehoods: Trump said President Obama, in brokering the 2015 nuclear arms limitation deal with Iran, foolishly gave money to the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. He didnt. The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 The nuclear deal, which included major U.S. allies as signators, released Irans own funds that had long been frozen. Trumps art of the deal: When Trump sees a big deal looming, he often blasts the other side  to gain leverage, as hes written. This week he resumes a showdown with Democratic lawmakers over funding the government and immigration protections for so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the country illegally as children. Democrats are doing nothing for DACA - just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start falling in love with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Trump, who in September ordered a gradual end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, sought to shift blame for the resulting controversy, saying Democrats are doing nothing for DACA and are just interested in politics. Trump has insisted that any help for Dreamers be paired with funding for a border wall and a crackdown on legal immigration. Democrats, and some Republicans, are opposed. Read More Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests U.S. will withdraw financial assistance to Pakistan By Shashank Bengali Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of lies & deceit and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism. It was the presidents latest broadside against Pakistan after a speech in August in which he demanded its leaders crack down on the safe havens enjoyed by Taliban militants fighting U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Afghanistan. The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018 U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the presidents statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest and asked for clarification about Trumps comments, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Pakistans prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trumps New Years Day tweet. Read More Facebook

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Trump continues to tweet in support of Iranian protesters By Laura King President Trump expressed renewed support Sunday for protesters in Iran, declaring that people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. In a tweet from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, the president said the nationwide economic protests that began on Thursday  and have taken on wider political overtones as they have grown in size  were a signal that Iranians will not take it any longer. Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Trump has tweeted about the protests for three days straight as Iranians took to the streets despite a heavy police presence, tear gas and scores of arrests. The defiance gained urgency after two people were reported shot to death in the city of Dorud, about 200 miles southwest of Tehran. As the conflict escalated, Iranian authorities on Sunday slapped a temporary ban on Instagram and the messaging app Telegram, which were widely used to fan protest fervor. Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Irans leaders already are casting Trumps increasingly effusive expressions of support for the demonstrators as opportunistic meddling and are painting the demonstrators as foreign pawns, adopting a strategy that some analysts say could jeopardize the legitimacy of the nascent antigovernment protests. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets condolences after Colorado deputies are shot in ambush, one fatally By Associated Press A man fired more than 100 rounds at sheriffs deputies in Colorado early Sunday, killing one and injuring four others, before being fatally shot himself in what authorities called an ambush. Two civilians were also injured. President Trump expressed sorrow, writing on Twitter: My deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible shooting in Douglas County @DCSheriff, and their families. We love our police and law enforcement - God Bless them all! #LESM  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said deputies came under fire almost
Allies balk at Trump administration bid to block Chinese firm from cutting-edge telecom markets By David S. Cloud Britain and Germany are balking at the Trump administrations call for a ban on equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, threatening a global U.S. campaign to thwart Chinas involvement in future mobile networks. Both countries are expected to limit Huawei and other Chinese companies from providing core components including routers. But other types of Chinese equipment for next-generation, high-speed communications could still be installed on British and German networks, officials and analysts say. The U.S. push to ban Huawei has provoked a global dispute in recent weeks, with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, publicly urging NATO allies in Europe to exclude the company and warning that the United States might limit its military presence in countries that did not do so. Read More Facebook

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Confucius Institutes: Do they improve U.S.-China ties or harbor spies? By Don Lee Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Marylands Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from Chinas central government. But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they werent looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004. American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings  one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition. Read More Facebook

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Watch Live: White House holds surprise news briefing amid government shutdown Facebook

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U.S. policy toward China shifts from engagement to confrontation By David S. Cloud For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein. As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tungs old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China. Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead. Read More Facebook

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Mnuchins attempt to calm markets backfires as Trump takes another shot at the Federal Reserve By Jim Puzzanghera An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy. Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economys only problem and that it didnt have a feel for the market. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who cant score because he has no touch -- he cant putt! Trump said on Twitter. Read More Facebook

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He speaks to Democratic hearts. But is Beto ORourke a serious White House contender? By Mark Z. Barabak Hes a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect  despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does. Beto ORourke suggests the will-he-or-wont-he speculation is something he himself cant quite fathom. I think thats a great question, he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. I ask that question myself. Read More Facebook

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Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Associated Press) Months after President Trump took office, Russias disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there. The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram  which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal  claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with radical Islamic groups. Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday. Read more Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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President Trump announces Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff By Associated Press President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year. I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 Facebook

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It aint over when its over: In Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere, losers seek to undermine election results By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort. In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do. In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance. Read More Facebook

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New CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger says she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position. To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agencys creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Kraningers declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency. Read More Facebook

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Trumps pick for chief of staff, Nick Ayers, out of running By Associated Press Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press) President Trumps top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role. Thats according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Ayers is Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff. The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment. The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration. Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year. Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause.  #Georgia  Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) December 9, 2018 Facebook

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U.S. hiring slows to 155,000 jobs, unemployment rate holds at 3.7% By Jim Puzzanghera Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates. U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from Octobers strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday. Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last years average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth. Read More Facebook

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Trump is expected to pick State Department spokeswoman for U.N. ambassador By Associated Press Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Two administration officials confirmed Trumps plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trumps announcement. Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year. Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past. Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson. Facebook

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Senate confirms new consumer financial protection chief: Kathy Kraninger, protege of industry-friendly Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year. Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it. Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms. Read More Facebook

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Shutdown postponed by two weeks under plan approved by Congress By Erik Wasson Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trumps border wall is a waste of money. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border. The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated hell sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush. The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall. Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesnt get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for border security, because the wall is a waste of money. The presidents demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence. Most of the U.S. governments $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security. Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is basically done. Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trumps $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that. Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday. The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21. Facebook

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Bipartisan Senate group wants to formally blame Saudi crown prince for journalists killing By Karoun Demirjian Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Associated Press) A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same. This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe. The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agencys assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIAs findings. You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi, Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being good soldiers and at worst were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia for presenting the evidence of Mohammeds involvement as inconclusive. The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggis murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinsteins resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggis killing. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggis death. So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggis killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution  something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly. Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners. But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will. Demirjian reports for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Los Angeles County offices and U.S. Postal Service closed Wednesday in honor of George H.W. Bush By Brian Park The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images) The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush. All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited. In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriffs Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments. All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open. Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday. To honor the life and legacy of President Bush, the Postal Service will observe the National Day of Mourning. Learn how Postal operations will be affected. https://t.co/Mffch7bPCh pic.twitter.com/vG46BsIOpm  U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) December 4, 2018 L.A. County offices and libraries will be closed tomorrow (Dec 5) in observance of the #NationalDayOfMourning for President George H. W. Bush.



The Countys Disaster Recovery Centers in Malibu & Agoura Hills will remain open from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Sv1J7GoJ7T  Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) December 4, 2018 @LAPublicHealth offices will be closed tomorrow December 5 in observance of the national Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Essential Services including clinics and other services will remain open: https://t.co/tZGoGGHRlg pic.twitter.com/ypXsV6vlYY  LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 4, 2018 Facebook

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to skip 2020 White House race, sources say By Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014. (Elise Amendola / Associated Press) Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he wont launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run. A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patricks plans was first reported by Politico. Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governors office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election. Earlier this year, some of Patricks supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020. Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states. While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run. Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasnt sure he could stand out in such a large field. Its hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and Im none of those things and Im never going to be any of those things, Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod. Facebook

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Former Trump adviser Roger Stone invokes 5th Amendment right and wont testify before Senate Judiciary Committee By Associated Press Roger Stone in 2017. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he wont provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview. Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks plans. In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committees requests were far too overbroad, far too overreaching and far too wide-ranging. Facebook

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Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook

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Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure has bipartisan support. But who gets to pay for it? By Jim Puzzanghera The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a childs report card. Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-. The nations overall grade: D+, which translates to being in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards with significant deterioration and a strong risk of failure, according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Read More Facebook

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Trump calls former lawyer Michael Cohen a weak person who is lying By Associated Press President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is lying to get a reduced sentence. The president is reacting to Cohens guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia. During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trumps political message. Cohens lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates. Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Mark Z. Barabak When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Sarah D. Wire When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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Michael Cohen, President Trumps ex-lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia By Associated Press Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trumps behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress. Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document. Read More Facebook

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James Comey says acting Atty. Gen. Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer By John Wagner Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isnt too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trumps acting attorney general. Matthew Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump  as recently as Tuesday  continues to call it a witch hunt. I think its a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry, Comey said. The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact. He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and Im sure he doesnt want that, added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Trump has called Whitaker a very smart man. Earlier this year, Trump called Comey an untruthful slime ball. Wagner writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Interior Department watchdog clears Zinke in investigation of Utah national monument By Juliet Eilperin Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The Interior Departments Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinkes deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office found no evidence that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinkes recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noels property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noels land holdings, but later reversed the plan. We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOIs proposed revisions to the [monuments] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noels financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries, Kendall wrote. Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector generals office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress no sooner than 31 days from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinkes office. The Associated Press first reported the inspector generals conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself. Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noels land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea. Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The inspector generals office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it. Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdogs conclusions. The report shows exactly what the secretarys office has known all along  that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws, she said in an email. This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IGs office. But Kendalls spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time. The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently, DiPaolo added. Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year. I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest, he said. Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits. Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump advisor Larry Kudlow says China must do more to end trade war By Jim Puzzanghera Larry Kudlow, President Trumps top economic advisor, said Tuesday that Chinas response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers trade relationship has been extremely disappointing but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough. They have to do more. They must do more, Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina. I think the president is exactly right  to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls, Kudlow said. Theyre so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation. Read More Facebook

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Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook

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Democrat TJ Cox grabs lead over Republican David Valadao in nations last remaining undecided House race By Maya Sweedler Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the countrys sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide. Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the states recent voting history. On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results. Read More Facebook

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Former CIA director Michael Hayden hospitalized after suffering a stroke By Deanna Paul Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008. (Saul Loeb / Getty Images) Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday. He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful, according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters. Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009. Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trumps campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review. Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump tells troops hes thankful for what hes done for the U.S. and rails against courts and migrants By Associated Press President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trumps call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays. Its a disgrace, Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas. Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost control on its side. The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops  You really are our heroes, he said  as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him. It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics. You probably see over the news whats happening on our southern border, Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: I dont have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who were letting in. Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was a very big subject for him personally. Weve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals, Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, Mr. President, from our perspective on the water  we dont see any issues in terms of trade right now. And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch. I hope that youll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well, he said. The nations doing well economically, better than anybody in the world. He later told reporters, Nobodys done more for the military than me. Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his great family as well as himself. I made a tremendous difference in this country, he said. Facebook

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Trump contradicts CIA assessment that Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi killing By Josh Dawsey | Washington Post (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIAs assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had feelings but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. He denies it vehemently, Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that maybe he did, maybe he didnt. I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do, Trump said. Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame. Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place, the president said. He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, we wouldnt be able to have anyone for an ally. Trumps remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy. Facebook

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Former FBI Director James Comey gets subpoena from House Republicans By Bloomberg Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday. Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat. Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. Im still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a closed door thing because Ive seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Lets have a hearing and invite everyone to see.  James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018 Read More Facebook

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Republican David Valadaos lead slips to 447 votes over Democrat TJ Cox in still-undecided Central Valley House race By Mark Z. Barabak Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), right, finds himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox. (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term. But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted. Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since. The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted. Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016. Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes  he last won reelection by a 14-point margin  suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats. If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January. Facebook

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Trump says no new punishments against Saudi Arabia in Jamal Khashoggi murder By Eli Stokols In this Oct. 25 photo, candles are lit in front of a photo of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Lefteris Pitarakis) President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October. In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIAs reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggis murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to carry it out. Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff. Facebook

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Sixteen House Democrats vow to oppose Nancy Pelosi as next speaker By Mike DeBonis | Washington Post House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Sixteen House Democrats said Monday that they will vote to deny Rep. Nancy Pelosi another stint as House speaker, a show of defiance that puts her opponents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as their party prepares to take the majority. Their pledge to oppose Pelosi (D-San Francisco), both in an internal caucus election and a Jan. 3 floor vote, delivered in a letter sent to Democratic colleagues, comes as Pelosi has marshaled a legion of supporters on and off Capitol Hill to make her case. But her opponents said Monday they are convinced it is time to select a new leader. We are thankful to Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and to our Caucus, they wrote. However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran on and won on a message of change. Pelosi has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speakers gavel in January  eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House. Come on in, the waters fine, she said Friday about a potential leadership challenge. The signers might not be able to force Pelosi out themselves. The size of the Democratic majority remains in flux, but Democrats have already won 232 seats, according to the Associated Press, with five races still undecided. All those races have Republican incumbents, but the Democratic challenger is ahead in only one of them. If the leads hold in the uncalled races, Democrats would have won 233 seats, a 16-seat majority. That means Pelosi could lose as many as 15 Democratic votes when she stands for election as speaker on Jan. 3. Read More Facebook

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Democratic senators sue over Whitakers appointment as acting attorney general By Associated Press Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images) Three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to remove him. The suit, filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, argues that Whitakers appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. Whitaker was chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and was elevated to the top job after Sessions was ousted by President Trump on Nov. 7. The Constitutions Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm all principal officials before they can serve in their office. The Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that said Whitakers appointment would not violate the clause because he is serving in an acting capacity. The opinion concluded that Whitaker, even without Senate confirmation, may serve in an acting capacity because he has been at the department for more than a year at a sufficiently senior pay level. President Trump is denying senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nations top law enforcement official, Blumenthal said in a statement. The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called constitutional nobody and thwarting every senators constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts. The lawsuit comes days after a Washington lawyer challenged Whitakers appointment in a pending Supreme Court case dealing with gun rights. The attorney, Thomas Goldstein, asked the high court to find that Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and replace him with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, the second-ranking Justice Department official, has been confirmed by the Senate and had been overseeing special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker is now overseeing the investigation. The Justice Department issued a statement Monday defending Whitakers appointment as lawful and said it comports with the Appointments Clause, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and legal precedent. There are over 160 instances in American history in which non-Senate confirmed persons performed, on a temporary basis, the duties of a Senate-confirmed position, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. To suggest otherwise is to ignore centuries of practice and precedent. Facebook

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Gov. Rick Scott says Sen. Bill Nelson concedes Florida Senate race By Associated Press Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott speaks with his wife, Ann, by his side at an election watch party in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 7. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called him to concede defeat in their extremely tight race. Scott issued a statement Sunday saying Nelson graciously conceded their Senate race shortly after the states recount ended. The final results show Scott defeated Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of 8 million cast. Nelson is scheduled to release a videotaped statement later Sunday. The defeat ends Nelsons lengthy political career. The three-term incumbent was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Before that he served six terms in the U.S. House and as state treasurer and insurance commissioner for six years. Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money on ads that portrayed Nelson as out-of-touch and ineffective. Nelson responded by questioning Scotts ethics and saying he would be under the sway of President Trump. Facebook

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Orange County goes blue, as Democrats complete historic sweep of its seven congressional seats By Michael Finnegan Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange Countys undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the states six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism. With Cisneros victory, Democrats will constitute the entirety of Orange Countys seven-member congressional delegation, the first time since the 1930s that the birthplace of Richard Nixon, home of John Wayne and spiritual center of the Republican Party will have no GOP representative in the House. Sitting back in the 1960s, I would never have believed this would happen, said Stuart K. Spencer, a party strategist who spent more than half a century ushering Republicans, including President Reagan, into office. Read More Facebook

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Going, going ... with midterm wipeout, California Republican Party drifts closer to irrelevance By Michael Finnegan For a party in freefall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that its possible to plunge even further. The GOP not only lost every statewide office in the midterm election  again, in blowout fashion  but Democrats reestablished their supermajority in Sacramento, allowing them to legislate however they see fit After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller footprint on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) When the vote-counting is finished, the GOP may not even have enough lawmakers in Californias 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person softball team. Read More Facebook

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Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter says she will support Rep. Nancy Pelosi for speaker By Maya Sweedler Democratic Rep.-elect Katie Porter is congratulated by volunteers at her campaign headquarters in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter said she plans to support Rep. Nancy Pelosis bid for speaker of the House and will make campaign finance reform her top priority when she enters the chamber in January. Im going to continue to have conversations, but so far I feel like Leader Pelosi is definitely making the things that were a priority to the families that elected me her priorities, including announcing her support for campaign finance reform and anti-corruption as HR1, Porter said in her first public appearance since being declared the winner in Californias 45th Congressional District on Thursday evening. It means a lot to me that she is a Californian. She understands our state, Porter added. When we talk about environmental protections, this is a person who understands as a Californian how fragile our environment is and whats at risk in things like drilling off our coasts. Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, defeated two-term Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The 45th District, covering inland Orange County, has never been represented by a Democrat. Porter became the third Democrat to claim a Republican-held seat in Orange County, following the victories of Harley Rouda in the 48th District and Mike Levin in the 49th. A fourth, Gil Cisneros, is running slightly ahead of his Republican opponent in the race for the open seat in the 39th District, which extends into Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Porter attributed the massive political shift in the county, for decades a conservative stronghold, to increased levels of political engagement. Folks here care about education, they care about the environment, they believe climate change is real, they want healthcare that protects preexisting conditions, they want a tax system that doesnt punish California, they want our schools and places of worship to be safe from gun violence, she said. Those are the issues we campaigned on, and to the extent that Donald Trump and Mimi Walters were on the wrong side of those issues, the voters have made clear what direction they want us to go. Porter was flying back from the East Coast when her race was called, she said. She turned on her phone to find 167 text messages from friends and supporters. Among them was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was one of Porters teachers in law school and with whom she has remained close. The pair spoke via FaceTime this morning, she said. Facebook

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Bitter battle for Senate seat in Florida goes to hand recount By Associated Press Employees look through damaged ballots during a recount Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes. But the highly watched contest for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appeared to be over, with a machine recount showing DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race. Gillum, who conceded the contest on election night only to retract his concession later, said in a statement that it is not over until every legally casted vote is counted. The recount so far has been fraught with problems. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. A federal judge rejected a request to extend the recount deadline. We gave a heroic effort, said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher. If the county had three or four more hours, it would have made the deadline to recount ballots in the Senate race, she said. Meanwhile, election officials in another urban county in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. Media in South Florida reported that Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes. Counties were ordered last weekend to do a machine recount of three statewide races because the margins were so tight. The next stage is a manual review of ballots that were not counted by machines to see whether there is a way to figure out voter intent. Scott called on Nelson to end the recount battle. Its time for Nelson to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes  which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served, the governor said in a statement. The recount has triggered multiple lawsuits, many of them filed by Nelson and Democrats. The legal battles drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who slammed the state for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems. He also said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this, Walker said during a morning hearing. Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work. This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile, Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark. The overarching problem was created by the Florida Legislature, which Walker said passed a recount law that appears to run afoul of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore decision by locking in procedures that do not allow for potential problems. A total of six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court in Tallahassee as well at least one lawsuit filed in state court. Walker also ordered that voters be given until 5 p.m. Saturday to show a valid identification and fix their ballots if they have not been counted due to mismatched signatures. Republicans appealed the ruling, but an appeals court turned down the request. State officials testified that nearly 4,000 mailed-in ballots were set aside because local officials decided the signatures on the envelopes did not match the signatures on file. If those voters can prove their identity, their votes will be counted and included in final official returns due from each county by noon Sunday. Walker was asked by Democrats to require local officials to provide a list of people whose ballots were rejected. But the judge appointed by President Obama refused the request, calling it inappropriate. Under state law, a hand review is required with races that have a margin of 0.25 percentage points or less. A state website put the unofficial results showing Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.15 percentage points. The margin between DeSantis and Gillum was at 0.41 points. The margin between Scott and Nelson had not changed much in the last few days, conceded Marc Elias, an attorney working for Nelsons campaign. But he said that he expected the vote tally to shrink due to the hand recount and the ruling on signatures. The developments fueled frustrations among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats want state officials to do whatever it takes to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Trump, have argued without evidence that voter fraud threatens to steal races from the GOP. Facebook

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Democrat Gil Cisneros pulls ahead of Republican Young Kim as more votes are tallied in Orange and San Bernardino counties By Michael Finnegan Congressional candidate Gil Cisneros (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Democrat Gil Cisneros pulled ahead of Republican Young Kim in one of Californias undecided congressional races Thursday, an ominous sign for a GOP already reeling from its loss of four House seats in the state. In updated vote counts released by the registrars for Orange and San Bernardino counties, Kim fell 941 votes behind Cisneros in the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Ed Royce in Californias 39th Congressional District. The 39th straddles Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties. In another unresolved House race, Democrat Katie Porter pulled further ahead of Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in the 45th District, which includes Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills. Porter, a consumer attorney and UC Irvine law professor, is now 6,203 votes ahead. The Nov. 6 midterm election has been devastating to Republicans in California. If Cisneros and Porter win, the party will have lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, essentially a wipeout in every contest that both parties spent heavily to win. The three Republicans already bounced from Congress are Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista in the fourth district flipped so far. Facebook

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Florida Senate race likely headed to second recount By Associated Press A Palm Beach County Sheriffs deputy walks past boxes of ballots before a recount on Nov. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee) Unofficial Florida election results show that the governors race seems to be settled after a machine recount but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount. Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governors race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount Thursday that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount. Unofficial results posted on a state website show the margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with a margin of 0.25 percentage point or less. Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered. The election will be certified Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Pelosi says she has the votes to become the next House speaker By John Wagner Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference in Washington on Nov. 14. (Susan Walsh) House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that she has the votes to become the chambers speaker despite solid opposition from more than a dozen Democrats who want fresh leadership when the party takes control next year. I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House, the San Francisco lawmaker told reporters. I happen to think at this point, Im the best person for that. A vote within the Democratic caucus is scheduled for Nov. 28. The full House votes on Jan. 3 to elect a new speaker. During her remarks, Pelosi touted the size of the Democratic victory in the midterms, which she called almost a tsunami. With a few races still to be decided, Democrats are poised to pick up close to 40 seats in the chamber. Pelosi called that the biggest victory for the Democrats since 1974, when the Watergate babies came in. Pelosis comments come as she faces solid opposition from at least 17 Democrats, setting the stage for a battle over who will ascend to one of the most powerful positions in Washington. After a campaign in which some Democrats prevailed in competitive districts by promising to oppose her, a coalition of incumbents and newly elected members has denied her a smooth path to the speakership. The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes for speaker Jan. 3. However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that shes being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesnt have the votes. In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been overwhelmed by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race for House speaker. Over the last 12 hours, Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of support Ive received, Fudge said, adding that there are probably closer to 30" Democrats who have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi. Things could change rapidly, Fudge said. Fudge, 66, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she is building a diverse coalition as she mulls a speaker run, talking with allies in the caucus, moderate Democrats and newly elected members. To this point, Pelosi has enjoyed the strong backing of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), one of its members, wrote a letter to colleagues praising her insight, fortitude and strategic thinking and urging support for her speakership bid. Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., an African American who is contemplating a 2020 presidential bid, also voiced support for Pelosi, praising her in a tweet as an architect of the recent midterm success. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a leader of the resistance to Pelosi, said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that Fudge is the kind of new leader that we need in this party. Shes in touch with middle America. She understands what the American people want. Shes a next-generation leader that people will look to and say, Thats the future of our party, thats the future of our country, and thats exactly the kind of leader that I want to see as our next speaker. Wagner reports for the Washington Post. The Posts Robert Costa, Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. Facebook

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GOP Rep. Jeff Denham concedes to Democrat Josh Harder in Central Valley race By Maya Sweedler Rep. Jeff Denham (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Republican Rep. Jeff Denham has conceded to Democrat Josh Harder in the race to represent Californias 10th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. It has been an absolute honor to serve our community and represent the Central Valley in Congress over the past eight years, the 51-year-old congressman said. The enormity of the responsibility was never lost on me. My wife Sonia and I look forward to starting the next chapter of our lives. Harder said he had spoken with Denham and the two were committed to a productive transition. Denham, an Air Force veteran, previously represented the region in the state Senate for eight years and founded a company specializing in plastic packaging used in agriculture. While a member of Congress, he sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture committees. First-time candidate Harder was born and raised in the district. After graduating from Stanford University, he served as vice president of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Since moving back, he has been teaching at Modesto Junior College. Denhams House seat is one of four in California that Republicans lost in the Nov. 6 election, with two contests in Orange County still undecided as of Thursday morning. Jeff Denham called me this morning and we had a very productive conversation. I'm honored that I've been chosen to serve our community in Congress, and we're both looking forward to a productive transition that best serves the people of District 10.  Josh Harder (@JoshHarder) November 14, 2018 Facebook

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Democrat Katie Porter now nearly 3,800 votes ahead of GOP Rep. Mimi Walters By Maya Sweedler Rep. Mimi Walters thanks all of her supporters as she watches election results in Irvine on Nov. 7, 2018. (Alex Gallardo / Associated Press) Democrat Katie Porter opened a 3,797-vote lead Wednesday over Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange Countys 45th Congressional District. In the neighboring 39th, Democrat Gil Cisneros has nearly tied the race against Republican Young Kim. Cisneros now trails Kim by a razor-thin margin of 122 votes. The 39th District straddles Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties; Wednesdays updated ballot counts came from the latter two. There are more than 202,000 ballots left to count in Orange County, which includes parts of seven congressional districts. The 45th is entirely in inland Orange County. In California, the ballots counted first tend to lean Republican and those tallied later skew Democratic. In the Central Valleys 21st Congressional District, Democratic challenger TJ Cox has pulled within 2 percentage points of Rep. David Valadao, who is serving his third term. The Associated Press had projected a win for Valadao on election night, but his 4,839-vote advantage has shrunk to 2,090. Back in CA-21, Valadao (R) wins a batch of ballots from his stronghold in Kings Co., but by a considerably smaller margin (14 points) than his previous ~30-point margin in the county. We're moving to Lean R from Likely R; today a bit scary for Valadao.https://t.co/WqJVUVkqGW  Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2018 A spokesman for Valadao told the Fresno Bee that the changes were expected and that [s]tatistically, David Valadao has won this race. Democrats in California have already flipped four House seats, defeating three Republican incumbents and claiming an open seat previously held by the GOP. Reps. Steve Knight of Palmdale, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Jeff Denham of Turlock have already lost their races, and retiring Rep. Darrell Issas San Diego County seat was claimed by Democrat Mike Levin. Facebook

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Trump aide departs West Wing after rebuke from Melania Trump By Associated Press First Lady Melania Trump. (Alain Jocard / AFP-Getty Images) Deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel is leaving the White House, one day after First Lady Melania Trumps office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal. No replacement was named. Aides said Ricardel clashed with the first ladys staff over her visit to Africa last month. Yet it is highly unusual for a first lady or her office to weigh in on personnel matters, especially the presidents national security staff. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Ricardel would have a new role in the administration. On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, the first ladys spokeswoman, released a statement saying, It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House. President Trumps White House has set records for administration turnover. Ricardel was the third person to hold the post under Trump. An ally of national security advisor John Bolton, Ricardel began her service in the Trump administration as associate director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, then moved to the Commerce Department last year. Bolton brought her into the West Wing shortly after taking the job in April. He is traveling in Asia this week alongside Vice President Mike Pence. Facebook

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Race for House Minority Leader is Kevin McCarthys to lose By Associated Press (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next years shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress. The race for minority leader is McCarthys to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the House Freedom Caucus. The two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year. Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate. Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosis bid to return as the Democrats nominee for speaker, is later this month. Read More Facebook

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Melania Trump calls for the firing of deputy national security advisor By Justin Sink First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on Nov. 11. (Alain Jocard / AFP/Getty Images ) First Lady Melania Trumps office said she wants Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, ousted from the White House. It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House, Trumps spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardels removal. Ricardel is the top deputy to national security advisor John Bolton. She drew the first ladys wrath after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trumps trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said. Grishams statement comes as several media outlets have reported that President Trump is considering a broader shakeup of his administration, including ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Sink and Jacobs report for Bloomberg. Read More Facebook

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CNN sues Trump over the suspension of Jim Acostas White House press credentials By Jim Puzzanghera CNN said Tuesday that it is suing President Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference last week. The suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating fake news for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acostas 1st Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their 5th Amendment rights to due process, CNN said in a written statement. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials. Read More Facebook

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Maxine Waters to take aim at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank as new head of House Financial Services Committee By Jim Puzzanghera Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks  Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank  when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committees top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last weeks elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while  including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump. With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for Americas consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight, Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times. Read More Facebook

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Heres how a controversial voting system will decide a congressional race in Maine By Kurtis Lee For the first time in U.S. history, a controversial voting system known as ranked choice is being used to decide a federal election. Its happening in Maine, which adopted the system in 2016. Rather than marking a single candidate, each voter ranks them all, assigning a first-place vote, a second-place vote and so on down the ballot. Read More Facebook

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ACLU files suit to stop Trumps new asylum limits By Associated Press A group of Central American migrants march to the office of the U.N.'s humans rights body in Mexico City on Nov. 8. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to President Trumps order denying asylum to migrants if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco and argues the new rules are against the law. Attorney Lee Gelernt said the regulations will put families in danger. The suit seeks to declare the regulations invalid and wants a judge to stop the rules from going into effect while the litigation is pending. The new rules were spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot, but officials say they will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally. Officials say about 70,000 people who enter the country illegally claim asylum. The order invoked the same national security powers Trump used to push through his travel ban. Read More Facebook

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Trump on new acting AG: I dont know Matt Whitaker By Associated Press President Trump talks with reporters before departing for France on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 9. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump is moving to distance himself from Matthew Whitaker as he faces criticism over his choice for acting attorney general. Trump told reporters Friday that I dont know Matt Whitaker and said he didnt speak with Whitaker about special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker has made public comments critical of Muellers investigation, and critics have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the inquiry. Under former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the investigation was overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Of the scrutiny Whitaker is facing, Trump said: Its a shame that no matter who I put in they go after. He also called Whitaker a very highly respected man. Whitaker was Sessions chief of staff before Trump made him Sessions interim replacement. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg out of hospital after fall By Associated Press The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is home after being released from the hospital. She had been admitted for treatment and observation after fracturing three ribs in a fall. The court said Ginsburg was released Friday. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg says she is doing well and working from home. The court had previously said the justice fell in her office at the court on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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Gun-control activist Lucy McBath defeats GOP Rep. Karen Handel in Georgia By Associated Press Lucy McBath speaks during a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Nov. 2 at Morehouse College in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Democratic gun-control activist Lucy McBath has defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel of Georgia in a suburban congressional district long considered safe for the GOP. Handel had to seek reelection after winning her seat last year in a close special election race against Democrat Jon Ossoff. McBath became an advocate for stricter gun laws after her son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a man angry over loud music the teenager and his friends were playing in a car. McBaths margin of victory was narrow enough for Handel to have requested a recount. The Associated Press declared McBath the winner Thursday after Handel conceded. Handel conceded in a statement Thursday morning, stating that after reviewing all of the election data, its clear she came up a bit short in Tuesdays vote. Handel congratulated McBath, offering good thoughts and much prayer for the journey that lies ahead for her. McBath, who is African American, declared victory Wednesday. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall By Associated Press Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital. The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening. Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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White House suspends press pass of CNNs Jim Acosta after heated exchange with Trump By Associated Press The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference. They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, Thats enough! and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern, calling it absolutely unacceptable. The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. Pardon me, maam, he told her. Acosta tweeted that Sanders statement that he put his hands on the aide was a lie. CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acostas press pass in retaliation for his challenging questions Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acostas actions. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporters colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Contrary to CNNs assertions there is no greater demonstration of the Presidents support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters...  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 As a result of todays incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Sanders provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better, CNN said. Jim Acosta has our full support. Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved. Facebook

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Trump spars with reporters at post-election news briefing, ordering several to sit down By Associated Press  President Trump assails CNNs Jim Acosta at a White House news conference. President Trump sparred with reporters at his post-election news conference, ordering several to sit down and telling another hes a rude, terrible person. He told another reporter hes not a fan of yours, either. The presidents mood turned sour Wednesday after reporters pressed him on why he referred to a migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. on foot through Mexico as an invasion. Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan in the final days of the midterm elections. Trump was also pressed on why his campaign aired an ad featuring a Mexican immigrant convicted of killing American police officers and linking the mans actions to the caravan. Several television networks pulled the ad after airing it or declined to air it at all. Facebook

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Im living one hour at a time at this point By Christine Mai-Duc Republican congressional candidate Young Kim and gubernatorial candidate John Cox campaign in Rowland Heights. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Republican congressional candidate Young Kim greeted gubernatorial candidate John Coxs giant campaign bus, the words HELP IS ON THE WAY emblazoned across it, as it rolled into the parking lot outside her Rowland Heights field office. Standing beside Cox on Saturday, Kim predicted that a string of GOP victories Tuesday would start with voters repealing the gas tax hike. Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor? Can you imagine Gil Cisneros being your representative? Kim asked the crowd, to loud boos and cries of Nooo! The former state assemblywoman who worked for retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is vying for his seat with Democrat Gil Cisneros. She led the crowd in chants of Enough is enough! and, though short-lived, Drain the swamp! Ive served you in Sacramento and Ive seen dysfunction personally, Kim continued. We cannot continue that route. She urged her supporters to stay and help make phone calls or walk neighborhoods. Lets get out there  the 72 hours is really critical. Its all going to come down to a few votes, it could be your vote, she said pointing to her left, then pivoting right, it could be your vote. So dont sit back and do nothing. Every night I go to sleep thinking, OK, how many more votes can I get or how many more people can I call tomorrow? Kim said. It can be physically exhausting but Im mentally, emotionally very energized. She listed off her events so far that day  and the next one she was heading to. Thats just what I can remember, she said. Im living one hour at a time at this point. Kims campaign invited press to two of her events on Saturday. After she was whisked away to her next event  a high tea fundraiser in Walnut, a couple dozen volunteers remained. John Freeman, a statewide field manager for the state Republican Party, tried to pump them up. This is the Super Bowl. Were not in an NFL stadium, were not getting paid millions of dollars, but you know what? Freeman said. Were walking on the field right now. This is that high-stakes-level game. Facebook

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Its going to be tough out there Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background. (Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times ) Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porters campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember 70s rock n roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na. Jon Bauman, as Bowzer is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked, he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. There has never been a more important election. Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside. We love Trump, the voice cried out. We love him too, he makes great fodder, the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter. Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district. I know its going to be tough out there, she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat. This election is going to be close, she said. If we dont fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 oclock on Tuesday, this could slip away. Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song Good Night Sweetheart: Good night, Mimi Walters, he crooned. A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt. She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds. We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids its supposed to be run, said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: Theyve had control over all these years and Californias gone to crap. Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children  the older ones are 5 and 2  about the presidency and the government since Trumps election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town. This is the first time its felt like a big deal and there isnt a president up for election, she said. Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals  her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican  she the race felt m
Laguna College of Art and Design on Wednesday turned into a mock crime scene as police officers and firefighters from multiple agencies practiced responding to an active shooter on the campus at 2222 Laguna Canyon Road.

Laguna Beach police and LCAD officials spent more than a year developing training exercises for public safety personnel throughout the region, including Costa Mesa and Newport Beach fire departments and UC Irvine police, and the colleges staff and students.

Groups of officers, with guns drawn, ran into one of the buildings as repetitive popping noises of mock gunfire rattled the air.

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About a minute later volunteers who played injured people ran outside while screaming refrains such as, hes in there and someone is shooting.

A group of firefighters, flanked by police officers, then went inside to move actors playing injured or dead persons out of the building. Wounded people wore white T-shirts with red splotches to emulate blood stains.

Sequences played out three times each during morning and afternoon sessions.

LCAD President Jonathan Burke played one of the people in harms way during the morning round.

Burke said he sat in the library dazed and deaf because he lost his hearing aids. Volunteers consisted of LCAD staff and community members, he said.

School was not in session Wednesday because the college is on winter break.

We heard shots and the police came in, Burke said. We knew where the shooter was, but police [initially] had no idea. We were crying, asking for help and assistance.

Another group of officers eventually corralled the shooter and firefighters entered to aid the wounded, Burke said about the exercise.

Even though the process was a drill, Burke said certain sounds, such as police car sirens and cries of people portraying victims, made it feel real.

The whole exercise elicited strong emotions out of all of us, Burke said. Someone was hurt and we needed to do something.

You respond to this as a person.

Burke said volunteers arrived at 7 a.m. Wednesday, well ahead of the 9 a.m. start time, to learn their roles and the proper things to say and do.

Laguna Officer Brandon Drake, like Burke, participated in the morning round of exercises.

In one exercise, he was part of the second group of responders.

The scene had been contained so we were looking for people who were crying out for help, Drake said. You have to neutralize the threat and prevent any further loss of life.

Drake said the main takeaway from the exercise was situational awareness.

This job is all about being uncomfortable, Drake said. You have to be prepared for anything.

Preparations for the drills began more than a year ago, Jordan Villwock, Lagunas emergency operations coordinator, wrote in an email earlier this week.

LCAD had sufficient facilities to pull off the exercise, Villwock said. The college embraced the chance to participate with law enforcement on the drill.

The more preparedness the college can have, the better, LCAD public information officer Mike Stice said. The reality is that these [types of incidents] are becoming more common.

Laguna police will evaluate the drill and assess whether they want to repeat or adjust it, Sgt. Jim Cota said, adding that this was the first time in his 23 years with the department that it has partnered with a school or college on responding to a shooter.

This is one of the most challenging calls for a supervisor, Cota said. You ask yourself how much personnel do you have, how many people are hit and how many victims. There are a lot of variables.

Cota gave credit to Villwock and Laguna Sgt. Eric Lee for preparing the drill.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce
Orange County coroners officials Thursday released the names of a man and a woman killed last week in a crash on the northbound 405 Freeway in Costa Mesa.

Authorities said the crash occurred shortly after 8:30 p.m. Jan. 5 when the driver of an Audi A4 abruptly changed lanes and lost control of the vehicle. The Audis driver, Uyu Suo, 38, and passenger, Ping Yang, 46, were killed, according to the coroners office. Their cities of residence were not available.

The Audi collided with a Dodge Challenger before crashing into the concrete center divider north of Harbor Boulevard, according to the California Highway Patrol. The Audi came to a stop in the carpool lane.

A Mercury sedan then struck the side of the Audi, and the impact ejected Suo from the car, authorities said.

Another vehicle  identified only as a white sedan  struck Suo, according to the CHP. The white sedan then fled the scene, authorities said.

The driver of the Mercury, Bingying Ma, 23, and a passenger, Shihao Wang, 24, were taken to Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana with injuries described as minor and moderate, according to the CHP.

Anyone with information about the crash or the white sedan or its driver is asked to contact CHP Officer D. Beckton at (714) 567-6000. Authorities said the front of the car might be damaged.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
With the announcements of two congressional retirements in less than a week, many California politicos are wondering who could be next as the Republican delegation faces an increasingly hostile outlook for the midterm elections.

In a statement Wednesday, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) said it loud and clear: It wont be him.

I am unequivocally running for reelection and confident that my views reflect the values and the needs of my constituents here in Orange County, Rohrabacher said in a statement posted to his website and on social media. Ive never run away from a fight over things I believe and Im not about to start now.

Rohrabacher, a 15-term congressman, has consistently won reelection by large margins. But his controversial tactics and ties to Russia and Russian operatives have prompted a long list of Democrats to challenge him this year.

GOP Reps. Ed Royce (Fullerton) and Darrell Issa (Vista) both announced this week that they would not seek reelection.

 Christine Mai-Duc, Los Angeles Times

Tax reform to be discussed at Newport Beach Womens Democratic Club meeting

Stephen Landsman, a tax partner with the firm Squar Milner LLP, will lead a discussion of the recently passed federal tax reform bill during Tuesdays meeting of the Newport Beach Womens Democratic Club.

The meeting will be held in Room 1 at the Oasis Senior Center, 801 Narcissus Ave., Corona del Mar. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Admission for club members is free with an RSVP and $10 for walk-ins. Non-members can attend for $10 with an RSVP or pay $15 at the door.

For more information or to RSVP, visit NBWDC.org or call (949) 423-6468.

Jewish Republican Alliance chapter to meet in Newport

The Jewish Republican Alliance will have the inaugural luncheon meeting of its Newport Beach chapter from noon to 1:30 p.m. Jan. 19.

The event will be at Bayside Restaurant, 900 Bayside Drive. Tickets are $30 for alliance members and $35 for non-members.

For more information, call (818) 419-9278 or visit jewishrepublicanalliance.org.
Its been a good week for Orange Countians who are tired of being represented in Congress by men who dont have the best interests of their constituents, their state or their country at heart. The announcements by U.S. Reps. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and Darrell Issa (R-Vista) that they would not seek re-election are a chance for our region to make a meaningful change in the complexion of the House of Representatives, as well as a sign that these gentlemen have some inkling of the discontent that was likely going to sweep them (and any number of their colleagues) out of office anyway.

I would humbly invite Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) to follow their lead. Though he demonstrated a moment of clarity by voting against the Republican tax scam bill, his far-right voting record, persistent science denial, lack of empathy toward marginalized communities, troubling ties to Russia and refusal to meet with some constituents should more than disqualify him from serving one more term.

Rohrabacher does not represent this community. I hope he opts to join his colleagues in moving on to another calling; if not, I look forward to devoting all my resources and energies to helping make that decision for him.

Eliza Rubenstein

Costa Mesa

Newport City Council should work to lower carbon emissions

Speak up Newports Sea Level Rise meeting at City Hall was an evening filled with sobering assessments of what projected sea level rise would cost us: Estimates were as high as $1 billion.

But adaptation to the problem was all that was discussed by the panel, two from the city and two scientists from UC Irvine. The only talk about addressing climate change and mitigating the problem came from the audience.

One questioner asked, and got confirmation, that if we lower CO2 emissions we would reduce the threat of sea level rise. Another questioner, a Newport Beach resident, asked if it wouldnt make sense for the city to discuss mitigation and what we as a community can do. He was spot on, and his was the only question that drew applause.

Working to slow or stop sea level rise is something worth talking about, but thats in the City Councils hands, according to former Mayor Ed Selich, who moderated the meeting.

Selich is right: it is in the hands of our council, and we should be asking it to follow the lead of other cities and petition Congress for action on climate change

Mark Tabbert

Newport Beach

How to get published: Email us at dailypilot@latimes.com. All correspondence must include full name, hometown and phone number (for verification purposes). The Pilot reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and length.
In a play that examines the absurdity of bureaucracy in a government-run facility, Antaeus Theatre Co. will present Harold Pinters black comedy The Hothouse beginning Jan. 18 through March 11.

The play was originally written in 1953 but went unproduced for decades after a string of poorly received plays by Pinter caused the playwright to shelf the project until 1980.

The Hothouse is set in a mental institution, where its primary administrator, Root, is faced with a Christmas Day crisis of solving the death of one patient and the impregnation of another.

The escapades of the caretakers under the iron fist of Root are used to illustrate the problems with power.

It shows what a bad organizational environment can do to people. When theres a bad leader, it infects everybody, said Nike Doukas, the plays director. Root manages to do it in a way thats extremely funny, but it can get very dark and scary at moments.

Doukas, who has been with Antaeus Theatre Co. since its second year of being founded in 1991, said she is primarily an actor, but has since moved into directing and was looking for a play that is relevant to current events.

The Antaeus Theatre Co., which opened in Glendale early last year, uses a partner-cast system, where each role is cast with two actors, Doukas said.

I would recommend that all come and see it twice. The different cast members show how much a cast contributes to each production, she said. Both cast members can agree on every point of their shared role and still make their performance feel very different.

The Hothouse is being presented in the theaters Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 E. Broadway, Glendale.

For more information, visit antaeus.org

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLanda
With one of the nastiest flu seasons in recent history gaining steam, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital experts shared some free tips Wednesday on how to recognize the symptoms of influenza and what to do if you think youve been hit.

In the first of a series of free lunchtime Doc Talks being held at the Crescenta-Canada YMCA every second Wednesday through November, Mary Virgallito, director of patient safety for the local hospital, discussed the different strains of influenza and how the virus can be spread from up to 6 feet away.

Its almost like Sea World  you have a splash zone, Virgallito said. When I talk Im actually shooting out saliva, and when we sneeze or cough it spreads out even more.

The best way to prevent infection is to keep hands and nearby surfaces clean and refrain from touching ones nose or mouth with an unclean hand.

Virgallito explained its still recommended people get a flu shot this season, even though unpublished final estimates from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention place the effectiveness of last years vaccine at 39%, and speculation is spreading that this years vaccine could be even less of a match with active viruses.

If there was a big change in the virus since they took the proteins to make the vaccine there could be a mismatch, she said. But your vaccine actually teaches your immune system what the virus looks like, so if youve had a vaccine, even if it doesnt match, [the immune system] pretty much knows what its looking for.

Jessica Thomas, USC Verdugo Hills Hospitals emergency department clinical director, explained at what point people who think theyre sick with the flu should stay home and rest, and when they should seek help from a doctor or a hospital. If serious symptoms like diarrhea or vomiting persist more than 24 hours, medical help may be in order.

You know your body and how your body behaves when its sick or well, Thomas advised. So if you have a fever, and youve had it for longer than 24 hours, thats a trigger.

In the audience was Montrose resident Harriet Hecht. A retired nurse, she knows how to prevent the spread of flu and cold viruses but thought a refresher couldnt hurt.

This will remind me to wash my hands more often and use disinfectant, said Hecht, who got her flu shot in October. Also, it reminds me to just take care of myself and rest more.

FYI: Next months talk, Heart Disease and Heart Health, takes place Feb. 14. For more, visit uscvhh.org/doc-talks or call (818) 583-4732.

sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine
In the midst of my 35th year, I contracted a bad case of baby fever. It happened all at once like an abrupt wall of brake lights on the Hollywood freeway. Until then, I thought the biological clock was a myth created by women dissatisfied with their careers or trying to mend wayward marriages. But this was no myth. After years of systematically thwarting pregnancy, I was out of my mind, crazed to become pregnant. But, I was in a dead-end relationship living in a city that seemed to foster dead-end relationships.

Several years earlier, I had finished graduate school at USC and decided real life was supposed to begin. I didnt know what that looked like, but it did not entail being alone. After years of failed real-life dating, I caved to the lure of online dating and posted a noncommittal profile. Meanwhile my single girlfriends and I commiserated that Los Angeles was the worst place for relationships. We blamed it on the narcissism endemic of the Hollywood industry where romance takes a backseat to career. Singles were more likely to attend a networking event than go to a meetup where they might find a mate.

One day, I agreed to go out with a guy on an online dating site. We met at a cafe near his apartment on Abbot Kinney on a typical summer evening when its so warm you can wear a sundress at night. He was quick and clever and good at telling stories. We got each others literary references. We discussed our favorite films. He understood writing as a craft, not a hobby or dream. It didnt matter when he shared that he didnt see himself ever getting married or having kids. Me neither, I beamed.

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Three years later, he was more interested in using his wit for dialogue than making me laugh. It became clear his career was his number one priority. I guess theres something to be said about a self-fulfilling prophecy. Thats when the baby fever struck.

One isnt quite herself when suffering from a fever. Reality seems less solid, more pliable, even morally slippery. I became determined to mold the going-nowhere relationship into one that met the needs of my biological clock. I knew nothing had really changed. He wasnt interested in having a family. I just didnt particularly see that as a hindrance to my predicament. I didnt need him to marry me, I rationalized. I didnt even need him to be a father. I just needed his sperm.

I discovered there were other women with my problem, through a national organization with meetings all over Los Angeles. I chose a gathering in Marina del Rey. With the top down on my Jeep, I headed toward the beach. I drew in the sea air and merged on the 90, my heart pounding with the anticipation of finding my tribe. As soon as I stepped into the room, I felt like an impostor among women with infants tugging at their breasts and juice-spilling toddlers running amok. The ones with kids were talking to the ones without (me) about everything from the horrors of fertility hormone injections to adoption woes. Most had waited until they were in their 40s to try to get pregnant and here I was in my mid-30s with a boyfriend. Man, did I have a nerve.

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At this juncture, the relationship with the boyfriend devolved from one of steady monogamy to friends with benefits. Somehow, I hoped, those benefits might include pregnancy. He insisted on protection. I admit it: I considered subterfuge. But a fertility doctor quickly disabused me of any turkey baster schemes. The doctor informed me it was perfectly acceptable to purchase the needed material from a donor at a sperm bank. (The idea was so foreign to me it had never entered my mind.) This was the eureka! moment that cured me of insanity, lifted the fever and led me to officially break off the futureless relationship. I still wanted a baby; I just wasnt willing to commit larceny for one.

I didnt need a man after all, and I never had.

Choosing a donor, I soon discovered, was as daunting as dating in LA.

This ones got hazel eyes, but his idea of a good time is playing Mortal Kombat. This one plays piano, but hes a foot too short. This one reads Tolstoy but wrote in his personal essay that his genes were too perfect not to share with the world...

Some women reported getting so overwhelmed with the hundreds of variables, they made a spreadsheet.

It was easier for me because as soon as I chose Mexican in place of white, I only had to contend with six possible donors.

Two months later, I had knocked myself up.

When my son turned 1, I met someone who not only didnt mind I had already started a family but was delighted when the chubby brown baby began calling him Dada.

Eventually we married, and to this day, Ill look at my husband with our son and remember how convinced I was that I didnt need a man.

That was absolutely true.

Turns out, all that time, all I needed was love.

The author is currently taking a break from Los Angeles in the south of France where she writes as a cultural critic and can be found on Twitter @sheanaochoa

L.A. Affairs chronicles the current dating scene in and around Los Angeles. If you have comments or a true story to tell, email us at LAAffairs@latimes.com.

MORE L.A. LOVE STORIES 

She dumped me. By text.

Why I always fall for the bad boy

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Sail off in search of your own blue lagoon on a 15-day Hawaiian island cruise this winter and spring aboard Princess Cruises Star Princess, which recently returned to service after a two-week, multimillion-dollar renovation.

The ship, which sails round-trip to Hawaii from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver, Canada, has been outfitted with some of the cruise lines latest enhancements, including the new Princess bed, Camp Discovery Youth & Teen Center and revamped Sabatinis restaurant.

The round-trip Los Angeles to Hawaii cruise visits four islands and includes stops at the cities of Hilo and Honolulu and the islands of Kauai and Maui. The ship then sails back across the Pacific for a stop at Ensenada, Mexico, before returning to L.A.

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Rates for an inside cabin start at $1,299 per person, based on double occupancy.

Star Princess will begin cruising in Alaska this summer.

Renovations aboard the ship include new decor in Sabatinis Italian Trattoria and a new menu developed in collaboration with Angelo Auriana, executive chef and partner at Factory Kitchen and Officine Brera in Los Angeles.

The new Princess bed was developed with assistance from Michael Breus, a sleep expert, and Candice Olson, HGTV designer.

Camp Discovery Youth & Teen Center, for cruisers ages 3 to 17 years old, caters to specific age groups, with three center themes.

Other renovations took place within the ships boutiques, spa and fitness center and casino.

Info: Princess Cruises, (800) 774-6237 or contact a travel agent

travel@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimestravel
For many travelers, Amtrak trains may be the best way to get from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara for the foreseeable future. Caltrans said late Friday that the 101 Freeway would not reopen Monday, as originally thought.

Also, an airport shuttle continues to run between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles International Airport on a detour that takes five hours each way.

Rail service was restored Thursday for the first time since Mondays deadly rainstorms and mudslides shut service on the tracks between Oxnard and Santa Barbara.

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Coast Starlight trains that run between Los Angeles to Santa Barbara and eventually all the way to Seattle have resumed regular service, according to a news release Thursday.

SERVICE UPDATE: Trains 573 & 566 are cancelled for today. Train 768 will operate btwn #Goleta & #LosAngeles, but will depart behind schedule. An on-time section of Train 768 will depart LA at 9:55am. All other trains expected to run, but delays may be incurred.  Pacific Surfliner (@PacSurfliners) January 11, 2018

The Pacific Surfliner service, which runs between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, has resumed but on a modified schedule. The routes Twitter account shows selected trains running behind schedule. (Check for updates @PacSurfliner.)

Amtrak ThruWay bus service isnt running because of the closure of the 101 Freeway.

Santa Barbara Airbus, which provides airport shuttle service, is running a modified schedule because of the 101 Freeway closure. The company is operating 56-seat buses on the detour that travels north to Santa Maria, east on Highway 166 and then on Interstate 5. It takes about five hours one way.

The pickup and dropoff point for travelers is at 750 Technology Drive in Goleta (free parking). Buses leave Goleta for LAX at 3:30 a.m., 7 a.m., 10 a.m., noon and 4 p.m. Shuttles leave LAX at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tickets cost $49 to $55 each way. Info: Santa Barbara Airbus

The companys website says it will provide the detour service until the 101 Freeway reopens.

For air travelers, American, Alaska and United airlines are waiving change fees for travelers who were supposed to fly in or out of Santa Barbara Airport (SBA). For example, on American and United, if you were supposed to fly Thursday or Friday, you may change your flight to as late as Monday without paying the fee.

The freeway closure from Highway 150 in Carpinteria to the Milpas Street exit in Santa Barbara was expected to remain in place at least until Monday afternoon, but Caltrans said late Friday that the reopening date is unknown..

Emergency rescue efforts continue after the slides caused by Tuesdays rainfall killed at least 18 people.

Drivers traveling north from L.A. are still advised to take a long detour on Interstate 5 around the slide area in Montecito and parts of Santa Barbara County. You can cut back to the coast on Highways 46 or 166 and travel south to Santa Barbara.

Caltrans said in a tweet Friday that the 101 Freeway through the Santa Barbara area will NOT reopen on Monday, Jan. 15, and there is no estimate due to ongoing rescue/recovery & extensive clean-up/repairs.

For information, see lat.ms/roadinformation or call (800) 427-7623.

Also, Island Packers is ferrying passengers from Ventura Harbor to Santa Barbara Harbor until the 101 Freeway reopens on an emergency basis. It costs $32 for adults each way and takes about an hour and 45 minutes. More details at Island Packers Cruises, (805) 642-1393.

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel

UPDATES:

12:15 p.m. Jan. 11: This story has been updated with information about American, Alaska and United airlines waiving change fees.

1:50 p.m. Jan. 12: This updates adds information and schedule for Santa Barbara Airbus between Goleta and LAX.

This story originally posted at 11:10 a.m. Jan. 11
Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska's Surf Horizon Ltd. has filed a suit in New York State court against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, a spokesperson for the Russian businessman told Interfax.

"The suit to recover losses and the fine was filed in relation to investment made by Surf in a group of Ukrainian companies, Black Sea Cable. The investment was made by Surf after Manafort and Gates had persuaded it was feasible and had also pledged to control its implementation. The investment deal turned to be unsuccessful, more than $26 million was lost without a trace," Deripaska's representative said. He did not specify what the wording "turned to be unsuccessful" means and also did not answer a question whether Surf Horizon belongs to the structures of Deripaska at the moment.

"Last year alone, Surf received access to the evidence indicating that Manafort and Gates not only failed to properly control the implementation of the investment transaction, but secretly made a profit of it," the representative added.

Deripaska's representative announced in March last year when the cooperation between the businessman and President Donald Trump's former campaign manager became the subject of attention of foreign media that there were contracts with Manafort which are now involved in litigation.

"Back in the day, Mr. Manafort indeed provided investment advisory services to Oleg Deripaska within the framework of contracts that dealt exclusively with Oleg Deripaska's business interests. Currently, these contracts with Mr. Manafort are subject to legal proceedings," the businessman's representative. Yet, he did not comment on Wednesday what kind of trial was at issue at that time.
Weeks after Mexico logged its deadliest year on record, the United States urged its citizens not to visit five violence-ridden Mexican states, placing them in the same danger category as war-torn Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria.

In an advisory made public Wednesday, the State Department issued do not travel warnings for the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas and the Pacific coast states of Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan and Sinaloa.

Although the U.S. has discouraged travel to all or some of those states in the past, its new evaluation is sterner, giving the states its highest-risk Category 4 warning. Countries given that classification include Libya, Yemen and other nations engulfed in conflict.

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Mexico as a whole was given a Category 2 rating, with U.S. citizens implored to exercise increased caution.

Violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread, the advisory said.

The advisory is the latest recognition of Mexicos surging violence, which claimed 22,409 lives in the first 11 months of last year  more killings than in any year since the government began releasing crime data in 1997.

The bloodshed, fueled by increased U.S. demand for heroin and a power struggle within one of Mexicos most powerful drug cartels, is on the rise in a majority of Mexican states.

The violence has even encroached on the long-safe tourist havens of Cancun and Los Cabos, where in December the bodies of four men were found hanging from a highway overpass. Between January and November, there were 62 homicides per 100,000 residents in Baja California Sur, where Los Cabos is located. Thats about 2  times the 2017 rate in Chicago, a city that has received considerable attention for violence.

The State Department warned citizens about traveling to Los Cabos and Cancun last summer, sparking fears that it could affect Mexicos $20-billion-a-year tourism industry, which represents about 7% of the countrys gross domestic product. Wednesdays travel advisory repeated those warnings but issued the two states where they are located Category 2 designations, calling for Americans to exercise increased caution but not stay away.

Thats good news for Mexican authorities who lobbied the U.S. to keep the tourist hot spots off the Category 4 list, security expert Alejandro Hope said.

Im guessing they are breathing a sigh of relief, he said.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

Twitter: @katelinthicum
It was a historic day for the Middle East and a U.S.-backed effort to bring peace. On Sept. 9, 1993, the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security.

Now, more than two decades later  as U.S. Vice President Mike Pence prepares to visit the region  Palestinian leaders are threatening to take back that decision.

The PLO is examining whether you can rescind recognition, said Hanan Ashrawi, a prominent lawyer on the groups executive committee. You can suspend or cease relations, but we are examining if revocation can be done.

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At issue is President Trumps announcement last month that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv.

That would reverse decades of U.S. policy and reduce prospects of the two-state solution, the long-held international consensus that any peace deal would include creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Palestinian leaders have never accepted Israeli rule over all of Jerusalem and insist that East Jerusalem be the capital of any future Palestinian state.

In an interview this week with Voice of Palestine radio, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Trumps announcement removed Jerusalem from negotiations and that the Palestinian Authority would reject any and all proposals for peace negotiations with Israel until the U.S. decision on Jerusalem is annulled.

Our peace will not be at any price, he said.

On Wednesday, Israels internal security agency, the Shin Bet, announced that Palestinian attacks against Israelis had tripled since the announcement of Trumps Jerusalem policy change, with 249 incidents in December, compared with 84 incidents in November. Most were fire bombings.

Two Palestinians were killed and three were wounded Thursday in a renewed wave of violent clashes with Israel forces. Palestinian officials reported that both of those killed were 16-year-old boys, one in a protest in the Gaza Strip and the other near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Pence is scheduled to arrive in the region Jan. 20 for a four-day visit.

The Vice President is traveling to the Middle East to reaffirm our commitment to work with the United States allies in the region to defeat radicalism that threatens future generations, Pences press secretary, Alyssa Farah, said in a statement. The Vice President is looking forward to meeting with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and Israel to discuss ways to work together to fight terrorism and improve our national security.

Notably absent from the schedule was any meeting with Palestinian leaders  marking the first time in decades that an official visit by a senior American figure does not include such a meeting.

Palestinian authorities declared Pence persona non grata just before Christmas, when he was initially expected in the region. That trip was postponed due to the close Senate vote on tax reform.

Ashrawi confirmed that Pence remains unwelcome.

Of course there are no planned meetings, she said. We will not meet any American in the context of negotiations.

The Palestinian Authority governs the West Bank and is the internationally recognized Palestinian representative. But the PLO remains the most powerful political faction, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the helm of its executive committee.

The PLO leadership is scheduled to convene early next week to discuss several recommendations toward holding Israel accountable to advance with the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, a statement from the executive committee said.

There are lots of ideas floating around and proposals and questions, Ashrawi said. In each and every case we have to look at legality and all the ramifications and how to prepare for them.

For the sake of the two-state solution, we can demand Israeli recognition of the Palestinian state and demand that Israel define its borders, she said. Its the only country without borders. We are working nonstop on these questions. The Palestinian people are quite upset. They feel betrayed and feel that the United States has taken sides and subverted the prospect of peace and that Israel has become totally emboldened and is escalating in a historical way.

We are at a very dangerous junction, she said.

Aaron David Miller, a distinguished fellow at Washingtons Woodrow Wilson Center and a veteran American peace negotiator, said, Neither Israel nor the Palestinians have a stake in escalating the conflict.

But the political and security environment is tense, so things could easily deteriorate, he said. Visits can often afford opportunities to make a point.

Trump has referred to an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement as the ultimate deal. But neither Palestinian nor Israeli officials said they have seen any part of a possible American proposal to restart talks that have been halted since 2014, when an initiative by then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry faltered.

In a pair of Twitter messages on Jan. 2 , Trump wrote that we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They dont even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?

Tarnopolsky is a special correspondent.
Even closest friends must play by the rules  U.S. secretary of commerce on anti-dumping duties on Ukrainian wire rod

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has expressed his satisfaction with the final determinations in the anti-dumping duty investigations of imports of carbon and alloy steel wire rod (wire rod) from South Africa and Ukraine, which will allow protecting U.S. producers.

"Today's decision allows U.S. producers of carbon and alloy steel wire rod to receive relief from the market-distorting effects of foreign producers dumping their goods into the domestic market," the department's press service quoted Secretary Ross as saying.

"While the United States values its relationship with South Africa and Ukraine even our closest friends must play by the rules," he added.

As reported, the U.S. Department of Commerce has determined the final anti-dumping duties for the import of carbon and alloy steel wire rod originating from Ukraine at the level of previously calculated preliminary determinations set at 44.03% for ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih and Yenakiyeve Iron and Steel Works (EMZ, Metinvest) and at 34.98% for other Ukrainian producers.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said in an announcement on January 9, 2018, that the final duties for South African companies are also determined at the level of the preliminary determinations. In particular, they will be 142.26% for ArcelorMittal South Africa, Scaw South Africa (also known as Scaw Metals Group) and Consolidated Wire Industries (South Africa); while other South African companies will have to pay duties set at 135.46%.

The final duties must be approved by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) no later than February 22, 2018, and a relevant decision on the introduction of the final duties will be made by U.S. Department of Commerce no later than March 1, 2018.

In 2016, exports of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from Ukraine to the United States more than doubled in physical terms compared to 2015, to 146,470 tonnes and grew by 70.9% in monetary terms, to $55.02 million. Shipments from South Africa, on the contrary, more than halved in physical terms, to 20,000 tonnes and decreased by 58.3% in monetary terms, to $7.05 million.

As was reported, the U.S. Department of Commerce on October 25, 2017, issued affirmative preliminary anti-dumping duty determinations on carbon and alloy steel wire rod from Italy, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
The Moscow Arbitration Court rejected a motion from LLC Siemens Gas Turbines Technologies in its lawsuit against two Rostec companies, LLC VO Technopromexport (TPE) and JSC Technopromexport regarding turbines delivered to Crimea, an Interfax correspondent reports from the court.

The court refused to hear Tekhnopromexport's counter-claim at the start of the session and rejected a Siemens motion to suspend court proceedings until a court order adopted in December 2017 comes into effect. On December 14, 2017 the Moscow Arbitration Court rejected a lawsuit from Siemens against LLC Technopromexport and OJSC Technopromexport regarding what Siemens says was the illegal transfer of its turbines to Crimea,

The court also rejected a counter-claim from the Technoexport companies against Siemens at the time.

In this lawsuit, Siemens Gas Turbines Technologies, a joint venture between Siemens and JSC Power Machines, is demanding the return of the turbines manufactured for the Taman thermal power plant, but which ended up being sent to Crimea in violation of EU sanctions and contract articles.

Speaking at the court hearing, a Siemens spokesperson said that the disputed deal "was concluded under false pretenses," and the defendant made the purchase in bad faith. Due to this, the contract should be declared void and the property returned. If the claimant had known that the turbines would have been sent to Crimea, the contract would not have been signed, he said.

He also added that the company found out about the transfer of the turbines to Crimea in the summer of 2017 through media reports, which the defendant did not deny.

The TPE spokesperson, in turn said that the filing of the lawsuit is an abuse of the law. Siemens Gas Turbines Technologies cannot prove how its rights were violated. "The lawsuit is focused on the potential enforcement of claims on behalf of the EU," he said.

He also said that there was insufficient evidence of "malicious" intent or of the claimant having been misled in case materials.

The court named Germany's Siemens as a third party that has not stated independent claims in the case following a motion filed by LLC VO Technopromexport on December 11, 2017.
The Supervisory Board of PrivatBank on January 10, 2018, appointed Czech-born Petr Krumphanzl as Chairperson of the Management Board and applied to the National Bank of Ukraine for approval of his candidacy.

Until recently, Krumphanzl has been Chief Operating Officer of Home Credit (China). Prior that that, he was Chief Operating Officer at Heta Asset Resolution, created by the Austrian government, where his responsibilities included separation of non-performing loans into the so-called "bad bank," corporate strategy definition, infrastructure set up and legal support.

Before that, he worked as Head of Operations at Raiffeisen Bank Aval.

In July 2017 it was announced that the Supervisory Board of PrivatBank selected Amrop Executive Search Ukraine, a reputable international recruiting company, to search for candidates for the positions of CEO and CFO of PrivatBank.

As reported, ex-Minister of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Shlapak was tapped to head PrivatBank's board in December 2016, after the government, at the suggestion of the Central Bank and the shareholders of PrivatBank, decided to nationalize this biggest Ukrainian bank. Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov were the bank's largest shareholders at that time.

In July last year, PrivatBank's supervisory board decided to appoint Halyna Pakhachuk as acting chairperson of the bank's board instead of Shlapak who had tendered a letter of resignation.
Elizabeth "Liz" Rivera may not have had a home with four walls, but she found love, support and a place in the Bethlehem community.

Rivera, 47, died Tuesday night shortly after she was struck by an SUV while crossing Broad Street near the Bethlehem YMCA.

Authorities are struggling to locate Rivera's family amid an outpouring of support from those in Bethlehem who encountered the petite and cheerful woman.

Rivera was a fixture in Bethlehem's downtown where she sold her handmade crafts and that community is rallying to support her in death, organizing memorials to mourn together and raising money to pay for her funeral.

A GoFundMe created Wednesday had already raised almost $7,000 of its $15,000 goal by Thursday morning.

It was flooded with messages and memories from residents and downtown workers, who enjoyed chatting with Rivera, browsing her wares and encountering her warm smile.

"No one could have had the optimism and continued wherewithal to weather the storm you did... day after day after day. I miss our talks on the street! Love you Liz," Ryan Ballow wrote.

"Its nice to see so many people coming together to donate to her fund. She inspired us with doing the best she could with no real material possessions. Rest in Peace Liz. I'll always think about her when I walk past her bench on Broad St.," Steve Nalevanko wrote on the GoFundMe.

Friends and strangers alike shared remembrances of Elizabeth "Liz" Rivera on a GoFundMe created to pay for her funeral expenses.

A memorial is being organized 1 to 4 Sunday afternoon in the Sun Inn Courtyard to celebrate Rivera's life and share memories, according to a Facebook post.

The organizer is suggesting attendees bring a canned good or toiletry item, so it could be donated to a local organization supporting the homeless and those in need.

Wednesday afternoon a memorial for Rivera popped up beside a bench in the first block of East Broad Street where she often used to set up shop.

Rivera was out all year round, in all seasons, selling her crafts in Bethlehem, said those who gathered about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to remember her.

Angel Ramos, 25, of Bethlehem, met Rivera about three years ago, just by striking up a conversation with her after seeing her around so many times.

"She was homeless. It was hard to tell she was homeless, she didn't show it," Ramos said beside the memorial to Rivera he set up. "She was just so happy all the time, she kept herself clean 24/7, she dressed great, she looked 100 percent all the time. When you looked at her you couldn't just get the impression this was a homeless person."

"You know she didn't take handouts either. You could try to toss her a $20 bill and she'll slide her right back your way, no problem, and she'll prefer a nice cup of tea or something like that, or she'll just prefer you bought her crafts. That's what she liked. She's a business lady. She was wonderful."

The Lehigh County Coroner's Office is still searching for Rivera's next of kin. Anyone with information about her family is asked to call the coroner's office at 610-782-3426.

The GoFundMe notes that Cantelmi Funeral Home will be handling Rivera's arrangements once a relative is located. Cantelmi's is not accepting donations towards the cost of Rivera's funeral. Money can be donated via the GoFundMe page.

If the money is not needed, all of the money raised will be donated to a shelter or organization in Rivera's honor, the GoFundMe notes.

Rivera was struck and killed while walking about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday a few blocks east, near the city's Greater Valley YMCA location at 430 E. Broad St. The driver, a 61-year-old man, stopped and spoke with police, who were continuing to investigate what happened.

Police spoke to one witness, but said if anyone else witnessed the crash, they should call the department's traffic division at 610-865-7155 or the non-emergency number at 610-865-7187.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A white Chevrolet van crossed the double yellow line and slammed into parked cars before rolling over just after 6:30 a.m. Thursday in the 2300 block of Park Avenue in Palmer Township, authorities say.

Lee Zastowny, 68, who lives nearby on Park Avenue, was trapped on top of the passenger seat on the side of the van that rested on the pavement, police Detective and township fire department Assistant Chief Jim Alercia said.

"Our first priority was to stabilize the vehicle in order to access the driver and begin removing him," Alercia said.

The windshield was taken out and Zastowny, with a laceration on his forehead, was transported by Suburban EMS to a St. Luke's Hospital, Alercia said.

Zastowny didn't recall the crash so it wasn't immediately clear why the van crossed into the other lane, Alercia said. Alcohol was not a factor, the detective said.

A purple Ford Escape was the first vehicle hit by the van. It was lifted on the hood of the tan Honda Accord behind it and that car made contact with a blue Honda Civic, Alercia said.

Juan Gil-Nunez has lived on the block for a month and said he didn't see the crash, but he heard it. Gil-Nunez said he believed the van was traveling "really fast" before it hit his SUV, doing significant damage to the front end on the driver's side.

Vito Piazza, 60, at 15-year resident, said the area near Palmer Park Mall is often the scene of crashes.

"They fly down this road sometimes," he said.

Once the SUV was pulled off Piazza's 2002 Honda, a large dent and other damage was evident on the hood.

Asked the car's age and if it could be repaired, the former New Yorker said, "It's not like it's new or nothing, but it's what I got."

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
New Jersey is the only state that requires attendants to handle the gas-pumping duties at filling stations.

Until a few years ago, Oregon was the only other member of the full-serve club, but in 2015 motorists in less-populated counties were freed to pump their own. As of Jan. 1, Oregon made it easier for those who prefer to do to it themselves. The change grew out of hardship. Many drivers complained it was difficult to find a gas station open at night, presumably because owners don't want to pay for attendants around the clock.

New Jersey's prohibition dates to 1949. Several attempts to overturn the ban have failed. Some polls show solid majorities New Jersey residents like full-service and want to keep it. (An unscientific lehighvalleylive.com poll in 2015 found respondents almost evenly split on the question.)

Legislators in Trenton aren't inclined to make a change to allow self-serve, which some people want because it saves time. Others prefer the option of not having to get out of the car, especially in bad weather. In Pennsylvania, self-serve has been an option many years; stations with attendants are now a small minority.

What do you think? Should New Jersey give motorists the option to pump their own gas? Have a say in our informal poll, and feel free to join the discussion in the comments section.
Hackettstown police are warning of a new scam after a 78-year-old borough man was victimized this week.

Police said the victim used a company called Core It for computer maintenance over the past two years.

On Tuesday, the man received a call from someone named Travis Carter, claiming the business's license expired and the victim was due a refund.

The caller claimed the company's bank was not located in the U.S., and they would need to deposit a certain amount in the victim's bank account.

It would be more than what was due to the victim, so the caller said he would take the difference in gift cards, police said.

The victim bought $7,500 in Target gift cards, called the company back and then checked his bank account on his computer, where he saw a deposit of $12,000, police said.

The victim gave the company the gift card numbers, police said.

On Wednesday, the victim received another call, where the caller demanded $2,000 more in gift cards or the "company" would withdraw the money from the victim's accounts, according to police.

The victim went to the bank to change his accounts, when he learned there was no $12,000 deposited into his account. Police said the victim's computer was hacked, and he was looking at a fake bank statement on his screen.

This is the first time a scam of this type was reported to Hackettstown police and they wanted the public to be aware of purchasing gifts cards in exchange for money "deposited" into their bank accounts.

AARP has an information page about similar tech scams here.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A HOMELESS man has admitted unlawfully killing another man in Limerick city centre more than a year ago,

When arraigned at Limerick Circuit Court this Thursday morning, Wayne Kennedy, aged 33, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Gerard Freyne in October 2016.

The 53-year-old victim, who lived at Brother Russell House, Mulgrave Street, died at Cork University Hospital in the early hours of October 14, 2016, almost 36 hours after he was found with serious injuries on a footpath at Lord Edward Street near its junction with Lower Careys Road.

A major garda investigation was launched following the incident and Mr Kennedy initially appeared in court a number of days later after he was charged under the provisions of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act with assaulting Mr Freyne causing him harm.

On the instructions of the Director of Public Prosecutions, he was charged with manslaughter last year and the matter had been listed for trial on Wednesday.

After the defendant entered his guilty plea this Thursday, Andrew Sexton SC requested an early sentencing date adding that he would need a little bit of time to prepare his submissions.

BREAKING: A 33-year-old Limerick man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Gerard Freyne (53) at Lord Edward Street in the city on October 14, 2016. Wayne Kennedy of no fixed abode will be sentenced at Limerick Circuit Court on February 5, next. pic.twitter.com/AcAebVwNT3  David Hurley (@DHurleyLL) January 11, 2018

Judge Tom ODonnell noted the guilty plea and adjourned the matter to February 5, next.
FORMAL directions are not yet available in the case of a County Limerick man who is accused of murdering his brother during a violent incident at their home last month.

Gerard Lynch, aged 29, who has an address at Main Street, Pallaskenry, appeared before Limerick District Court this Tuesday for a brief procedural hearing.

Last week, he was brought before a sitting of Newcastle West Court after he was charged with murdering his older brother Willie Lynch on the evening of December 30, last.

The 35-year-old victim, who was well known in Pallaskenry, was found dead at his home in the village having sustained stab wounds during what gardai believe was a violent altercation.

His funeral took place in Ballybrown last Friday.

Appearing before Judge Mary Larkin via video-link from Limerick Prison on Tuesday, the defendant only spoke to confirm his name and that he could see and hear the court proceedings. I can yeah, he stated.

Sergeant John Moloney said directions were not yet available and that a file is being prepared by gardai for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in relation to the matter.

Therefore, he sought a further adjournment of the case until January 23, next to facilitate the securing of directions from the DPP.

Solicitor Tracey OBrien, representing the defendant, did not oppose the application and Mr Lynch was remanded in continuing custody by Judge Larkin.

There was no indication during the hearing, which lasted for less than 90 seconds, if the defendant intends applying for bail in the High Court.

The matter is likely to proceed on indictment before the Central Criminal Court with any trial not expected to be heard until late next year.

At an earlier hearing, Judge Larkin recommended that Mr Lynch receive all necessary medical assistance while in custody.
GARDAI in Limerick investigating the murder of Martin Clancy have arrested a second man, the Limerick Leader has learned.

It is understood that the man was arrested on Wednesday night on suspicion of impeding an investigation.

The man was detained at Mayorstone garda station.

Martin Clancy, aged 45, was found dead at his home on Little O'Curry Street on Sunday evening.

A man in his mid-20s, understood to be from Limerick, was arrested in Cork City on Wednesday at around 8pm in connection with the murder of the 45-year-old.

He was detained at Roxboro Road garda station on Wednesday night, under the provisions of section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 as amended.

The Limerick Leader can confirm that he is being detained for an extended period of time.

Superintendent Derek Smart, who is leading the murder investigation, is urging people with information to come forward and to contact Henry Street garda station at 061 212400 or the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666111.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has cancelled the decision to set up a strategic development council headed by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and consisting of former Ukrainian prime ministers.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine reporter, the respective decision was made at a government meeting in Kyiv on Thursday. The government cancelled some decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers regarding certain draft acts approved in 2016-2017. The list also includes the decision on the establishment of the strategic development council, which was adopted without discussion at a meeting on November 22, 2017.

As reported, the decision to create the council foresaw the appointment of First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv as deputy head of the council.

The council was also to include Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Hennadiy Zubko, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, deputy prime ministers of Ukraine, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleksandr Sayenko, persons from among former prime ministers and a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers as secretary.

It was envisaged that the council would be a temporary auxiliary government body created to examine and study problematic issues related to the implementation of domestic and foreign policy of the state, the implementation of national programs for economic and social development, ensuring national defense and national security, and carrying out foreign economic activity.
Organizations & Institutions Ahmed Bin Saeed inaugurates Richemonts new state-of-the-art operations center in DAFZA



11.01.2018 08:31:57 - The facility is the first purpose-built building within the Dubai Airport Freezone



(live-PR.com) - UAE, January 10 2018 - His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA), today officially inaugurated Swiss luxury goods group Richemonts new operations centre, the latest and most advanced facility in DAFZA. The inauguration event was attended by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, Director General of DAFZA, the Swiss Ambassador to the - UAE, January 10 2018 - His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA), today officially inaugurated Swiss luxury goods group Richemonts new operations centre, the latest and most advanced facility in DAFZA. The inauguration event was attended by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, Director General of DAFZA, the Swiss Ambassador to the UAE Her Excellency Ms. Maya Tissafi and Dr. Christoph Thomet, Chief Operating Officer of Richemont Middle East & India, along with senior officials and executives of Dubai Government, DAFZA, Richemont and Richemont business partners.



The Richemont Operations Center (ROC) is a pioneering project, as for the first time, DAFZA has purpose-built a facility based on a client's specific requirements. The unique facility, designed with more than 700 technical specifications and over 2,000 shop drawings, is the result of the close and strategic collaboration between DAFZA and Richemont. It provides key services for the Richemont Maisons including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Montblanc among others, retailing across the Middle East and India region in more than 100 own and partner-operated boutiques.



H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of DAFZA, commented: We profoundly welcome Richemonts great commitment towards their strategic growth in Dubai, UAE and the region which will further enhance Dubais positioning as the home of the most prestigious luxury brands in the world. Over the last two decades, DAFZA has stood out as being the most preferred free zone for multinational companies, driving and shaping the economic growth of the emirate. DAFZAs constructing a built-to-suit facility for Richemont demonstrates free zones vital role in enabling growth of multinational companies. We praise such collaborations between free zones and highly valued clients such as Richemont.



H.E. Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni said, Dubai Airport Freezone is very pleased with the results of working closely with Richemont in the development of this new, technologically advanced facility to meet their growing operational requirements. The highest technology material and latest techniques were utilized in the construction to ensure that every facet of the building conforms to their global standards and international best practices.



Covering a total built-up area of about 4,500 square meters, the three-story, freestanding ROC building in DAFZA enables Richemont to deliver world-class services and is designed for optimal workflows and efficiency to enable shorter delivery times. It comprises a regional logistics facility, Grade A office spaces, a state-of-the-art customer service centre that serve more than 20 countries as well as a regional data centre.



Benefiting from plenty of natural light, the building was designed with a focus on the well-being of Richemont employees. Employee-focused design highlights include an expansive breakout area with an outdoor terrace, as well as various sizes of casual and formal meeting areas to create a collaborative environment. The facility also has a prayer room, providing a dedicated space for prayers.



Dr. Christoph Thomet said, We are delighted to partake in the official opening of our new operations centre in DAFZA under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum and in presence of H.E. Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, which marks another milestone in realizing our vision to create a facility of tomorrow. We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude and appreciation to our partner DAFZA for their strong support in making ROC a reality.



The facility, which is constructed in line with green and sustainability standards, features an urban, industrial-chic design with concrete floors, grey slate stones, mat-black metal and natural rustic wood furniture with an open ceiling, providing an open spacious and soothing feel.



H.E. Dr. Al Zarooni added, ROC is the best example of what the long-standing partnership between DAFZA and Richemont can accomplish as we strive to achieve our shared goal of driving national growth and prosperity in this complex age of borderless world. As part of our vision of a 'Freezone that goes beyond' and in line with our belief that customer satisfaction and service excellence is the way for our partners growth, DAFZA will continue to extend its support and provide the needed infrastructure and services to all its strategic partners. Richemont is one such valuable partner, where supporting their growth, seamless operations and productivity is paramount for our organization.

UAE Her Excellency Ms. Maya Tissafi and Dr. Christoph Thomet, Chief Operating Officer of Richemont Middle East & India, along with senior officials and executives of Dubai Government, DAFZA, Richemont and Richemont business partners.The Richemont Operations Center (ROC) is a pioneering project, as for the first time, DAFZA has purpose-built a facility based on a client's specific requirements. The unique facility, designed with more than 700 technical specifications and over 2,000 shop drawings, is the result of the close and strategic collaboration between DAFZA and Richemont. It provides key services for the Richemont Maisons including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Montblanc among others, retailing across the Middle East and India region in more than 100 own and partner-operated boutiques.H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of DAFZA, commented: We profoundly welcome Richemonts great commitment towards their strategic growth in Dubai, UAE and the region which will further enhance Dubais positioning as the home of the most prestigious luxury brands in the world. Over the last two decades, DAFZA has stood out as being the most preferred free zone for multinational companies, driving and shaping the economic growth of the emirate. DAFZAs constructing a built-to-suit facility for Richemont demonstrates free zones vital role in enabling growth of multinational companies. We praise such collaborations between free zones and highly valued clients such as Richemont.H.E. Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni said, Dubai Airport Freezone is very pleased with the results of working closely with Richemont in the development of this new, technologically advanced facility to meet their growing operational requirements. The highest technology material and latest techniques were utilized in the construction to ensure that every facet of the building conforms to their global standards and international best practices.Covering a total built-up area of about 4,500 square meters, the three-story, freestanding ROC building in DAFZA enables Richemont to deliver world-class services and is designed for optimal workflows and efficiency to enable shorter delivery times. It comprises a regional logistics facility, Grade A office spaces, a state-of-the-art customer service centre that serve more than 20 countries as well as a regional data centre.Benefiting from plenty of natural light, the building was designed with a focus on the well-being of Richemont employees. Employee-focused design highlights include an expansive breakout area with an outdoor terrace, as well as various sizes of casual and formal meeting areas to create a collaborative environment. The facility also has a prayer room, providing a dedicated space for prayers.Dr. Christoph Thomet said, We are delighted to partake in the official opening of our new operations centre in DAFZA under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum and in presence of H.E. Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, which marks another milestone in realizing our vision to create a facility of tomorrow. We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude and appreciation to our partner DAFZA for their strong support in making ROC a reality.The facility, which is constructed in line with green and sustainability standards, features an urban, industrial-chic design with concrete floors, grey slate stones, mat-black metal and natural rustic wood furniture with an open ceiling, providing an open spacious and soothing feel.H.E. Dr. Al Zarooni added, ROC is the best example of what the long-standing partnership between DAFZA and Richemont can accomplish as we strive to achieve our shared goal of driving national growth and prosperity in this complex age of borderless world. As part of our vision of a 'Freezone that goes beyond' and in line with our belief that customer satisfaction and service excellence is the way for our partners growth, DAFZA will continue to extend its support and provide the needed infrastructure and services to all its strategic partners. Richemont is one such valuable partner, where supporting their growth, seamless operations and productivity is paramount for our organization. Contact information:

Orient Planet PR & Marketing Communications



P.O.Box. 500266, Dubai, UAE



Contact Person:

Eyad Zeidan



Phone: 0097144562888

eMail: eMail



Web: http://www.orientplanet.com

Author:

Pratik Karkera

e-mail

Web: http://www.orientplanet.com

Phone: 0097144562888 11.01.2018 08:31:57 -

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Three servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone, three others were wounded, and one was injured on Wednesday, the ATO press center reported.

"Over the past day, seven shellings of ATO forces by militants were recorded. In one case, the Ukrainian military gave the aggressor an adequate response... During the execution of combat missions, three Ukrainian soldiers were killed, three others were wounded, and one was injured," the ATO headquarters press service reported on its Facebook page on Thursday morning.

Ukrainian military positions in Donbas have come under fire seven times over the past 24 hours, it said.

In the Luhansk sector, militants attacked Ukrainian positions in the vicinity of Troyitske, the Svitlodarsk bulge, Luhanske and Novoluhanske, using mortars and large-caliber machineguns among other weapons, the press center said.

In the Donetsk sector, shelling attacks involving automatic grenade launchers were seen near Verkhnetoretske and the Butovka mine.
Ukraine and its partners have prevented the Russian delegation from returning to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which would have ruined the Council of Europe's authority, Ukrainian Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe Dmytro Kuleba said.

"Russia stays home. The PACE will be working without it in 2018. Ukraine mobilized its partners and managed to stop the forceful attempt to kill the institutional authority of the Council of Europe for the sake of the Russians," Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

This would not have been achieved without the systematic efforts taken by Ukraine on every level, Kuleba wrote on Facebook.

The steps taken by Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland "appeared to be in vain," as most delegates were not ready to accept Russia without sanctions for the events in Crimea and Donbas, the head of the Ukrainian mission to the PACE and a parliamentary deputy representing the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Volodymyr Aryev, wrote on Facebook.

Some PACE members, among them Italian socialist Michele Nicoletti, whom experts believe to be a leading candidate for the PACE presidency in 2018, will try to bring Russia back to the Assembly, Aryev wrote.

"Supported as they are by the pro-Russian lobby in the Council of Europe, they will be trying to modify the PACE's regulations and lift the provision which allows for sanctions against national delegations," Aryev wrote, adding, "This is what we will be fighting against during the 2018 session."

Incumbent PACE President Stella Kyriakides was elected on October 10, 2017. Her term ends this month.

The Chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, Leonid Slutsky, said in the mid-December 2017 that Russia would initiate a meeting with the PACE Presidential Committee, the heads of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers Bureau, and Russian members of parliament in Moscow in early 2018 to discuss cooperation.

The conditions for Russia's return to the Parliamentary Assembly have yet to be created, considering that the assembly has not signaled an intention to change its regulations to make depriving national delegations of the right to vote impossible, Slutsky said.

The PACE imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 in connection with the events in Crimea and Ukraine.
The text of a ruling by Kramatorsk's District Court on special confiscation of $1.5 billion from disgraced ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and his cronies has been classified because investigatory measures are underway and the safety of participants of the process should be provided, Deputy Chief of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office Yevhen Yenin has said.

"Our investigation has much more information at its disposal than that contained in the Al Jazeera article, so, as of today, in the interests of the investigation, we cannot say everything we know now," Yenin said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday. He added that most of the companies listed in the court ruling are still under investigation, including those registered outside of Ukraine.

"In this country it costs only several thousand dollars to assassinate a person. Imagine the risks faced by the witnesses in the case who are cooperating with investigators," Yenin said, adding: "As for the court decision, we are convinced it is absolutely legal. I cannot now divulge all details, but I would say that it is not the only one that enabled us to confiscate the named assets. It was preceded by 30 verdicts involving other participants of the criminal group."

As earlier reported, Al Jazeera on January 10, 2017 published a 95-page text of Kramatorsk's City Court ruling, dated March 28, 2017, which was later classified because it contained state secrets.

The court verdict is posted on the TV channel's website both in Ukrainian and in English.

Al Jazeera argues that the verdict reveals the scheme through which public funds were embezzled under Yanukovych, and asks why the court verdict was classified.
PGO winds up pretrial investigation involving Staviysky, summons him to appear court to review case against him in a week

Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) has finished its pretrial investigation into ex Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytsky, who is accused of large-scale embezzlement and summoned him to appear in a Kyiv court to review materials in the case against him.

"In line with requirements of Article 290 of Ukraine's Procedural Code, You have the right to review the materials of the pretrial investigation personally, as well as with the assistance of lawyers," the PGO notice says, adding Stavytsky will be able to daily review case materials at the address listed from January 18, 2017.

As earlier reported, on March 24, 2014 the Prosecutor General of Ukraine issued a wanted notice on Stavytsky. He is suspected of embezzlement on a large scale.

It was reported on Interpol website on August 4 that Stavytsky is wanted by Interpol.

Stavytsky was earlier sighted in Israel, where he reportedly changed his name to Rosenberg. Ukraine has asked Israel for assistance in locating the fugitive ex minister.
Ukraine and Romania will open new border checkpoints in the first half of 2018, Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Viorel Melescanu said.

"We talked about these checkpoints, two checkpoints - Dyakivtsi-Racovat and Krasnoyilsk-Vicovu de Sus, which are scheduled to open in the first half of 2018," he said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Chernivtsi on Thursday.

At the same time, Melescanu added that border crossing points on the Romanian side of the border have already been arranged.
A sea lion bit a woman swimming at San Franciscos Aquatic Park on Thursday in the fourth such attack in about a month.

The woman apparently was not badly hurt, but authorities are worried about further attacks.

A retired San Francisco firefighter also swimming in the bay around 7 a.m. helped the woman as she came out of the water, said Fire Department Lt. John Baxter, but the woman was able to walk on her own. She was taken to a hospital.

Alice Ma said she and the victim are members of the South End Rowing Club, and that they were swimming together when the sea lion latched onto her friend and tried to drag her underwater.

It chomped down onto her, said Ma, who lives in San Jose. It bit her and pulled.

The woman didnt want to go to the hospital, but we convinced her she needed to go, Ma said, adding that she is very much an independent woman. Shes a go-getter. Shes a fighter.

Lee Hammack, a member of the Dolphin Swim and Boat Club, was swimming nearby and saw the victim get out of the water.

She was bleeding pretty badly, he said. But I know her  shes tough, shes not scared.

Hammack said he planned to take his daily swim Friday at Aquatic Park, though my wife may have other ideas.

This is an anomaly, said Hammack, who has been swimming with the club for 32 years. Twenty years or so ago there was a sea lion attack there, and there was distemper going around. It happens.

Weve been swimming there (in the bay) for over a century as a club, and I dont intend to stop.

The fact that four attacks by sea lions have occurred at the popular spot prompted warnings for swimmers.

Were encouraging the public, if they are swimming, that they swim in pairs and keep a close eye out, Baxter said.

The cove is run by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, which closed the swimming spot for five days after the last sea lion attack on Dec. 15. Lynn Cullivan, a spokesman for the park, said there are no plans to close it this time because this latest attack may just be a singular event.

Its not totally unusual, he said.

In the Dec. 15 attack, a male swimmer suffered a severe bite on his thigh and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, the Fire Department said. The man was injured one day after another swimmer was treated at the hospital for a bite on the arm. Both were members of the South End Rowing Club.

Another swimmer was bitten the previous week, but did not require hospitalization.

Its not known whether the same animal was responsible for all the attacks. Its not even certain the culprit or culprits were sea lions  authorities said they could have been harbor seals. But witnesses to the latest attack insist it was a sea lion.

Such attacks arent unheard of. The Marine Mammal Center conducted a study of 10 pinniped bites in San Francisco Bay and one in Puget Sound, Wash., from 2011 through 2013. It did not find any identifiable pattern to the bites, except in one case the victim was trying to pet a harbor seal and another swimmer got between a seal and some bait that a fisherman had dumped.

Kevin Fagan and Jenna Lyons are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com, jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron @JennaJourno
Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Housing for homeless people in San Francisco got a boost Thursday when the federal government announced it is giving the city $9 million more than it did last year as part of its annual funding for homeless programs around the nation.

In all, San Francisco won $41.5 million in homelessness grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, more than any other California county except Los Angeles ($109.4 million).
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An ax-wielding man yelled shoot me and kill me before running at San Jose police officers and being shot to death, authorities said Wednesday.

Employees at Metcalf Energy Center called 911 at about 5 p.m. Tuesday to report a suspicious man in a Mercedes at the front gate of the power plant, Police Chief Eddie Garcia said at a news conference. Within minutes of the call, the man allegedly hopped the fence onto the property.

When officers arrived on scene, they discovered a large sword in the front seat of the Mercedes before tracking down the suspect, who was allegedly in possession of an ax, a six-foot pipe, pepper spray and throwing stars.

Two minutes after police spotted the man walking with an ax, according to dispatch recordings, officers reported shots fired. The suspect was commanded to drop his weapons at least 23 times, Garcia said.

Now Playing: San Jose police confirm they are investigating an officer-involved shooting this evening at Metcalf Energy Center. Video: KTVU

No one really knows what he was thinking, but toward the final confrontation he was telling officers to shoot him and kill him with an ax in hand, Garcia said.

The mans name is being withheld until next of kin can be notified by the Santa Clara County Coroners Office, but Garcia noted that the suspect was in his mid to late 20s.

Both officers fired at least one round and were wearing body cameras. They have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

The suspect, who was struck at least once and pronounced dead at the scene, had a warrant in Santa Cruz County for an alleged weapons violation. He also had a history of narcotic offenses, weapons violations and resisting arrest. He was placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold last September, Garcia said.

Authorities noted that the suspect had no known connection to Metcalf Energy Center, which provides power to the San Jose area and is owned by Houston-based power company Calpine. No employees were injured in the incident, said Brett Kerr, a company spokesman.

The Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office will investigate the case and review footage from the officers body cameras, Garcia said, noting that this is the citys first police shooting in 2018.

Its a sad case, Garcia said. There is no winner here. I know my officers were shaken by it. I have no doubt that this individuals family will be shaken by it.

The timing of the shooting came just a day before San Jose police announced a self-funded study that found there were no significant racial disparities in the departments use of force involving white, black, Latino and Asian suspects, according to data compiled from 2015 and 2016.

However, the report also concluded that the department had a higher average rate of using weapons, including firearms and batons, compared to other cities.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Gnomon

By Nick Harkaway

Knopf. 704 pp. $28.95

---

Imagine, if you will, a Pynchonesque mega-novel that periodically calls to mind the films "Inception" and "The Matrix," Raymond Chandler's quest romances about detective Philip Marlowe, John le Carre's intricately recursive "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," the dizzying science fiction of Philip K. Dick, William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, Iain Pears' hypertextual "Arcadia" and Haruki Murakami's alternate world "IQ84" and even this week's Washington Post story about China's push for "total surveillance."

What would such an ambitious book look like? You know the answer already.

Nick Harkaway's "Gnomon" opens in the not-too-distant future, when England is governed by the System. Perfect security has been achieved through a constant monitoring of virtually all citizens. Cameras, microphones and other sensors are ubiquitous. Every aspect of a person's life is immediately gathered into a vast database. Each day a cross section of the populace votes on civic questions and proposed regulations - the polls, not the pols, guarantee a kind of pure democracy. In exchange for total personal transparency, the System offers safety and empowerment to all.

In this world, a police force, called the Witness, often prevents crimes before they happen. Through high-level technology its officers communicate nonstop with a kind of super-Siri. They can even employ instant lie detection to assess an informant's honesty and level of sincerity. In some extreme cases, surgical probes may be used in interrogation. These are widely recognized as benign, with no debilitating consequences. At least not usually.

"The death of a suspect in custody," says Inspector Neith in the opening sentence of "Gnomon," "is a very serious matter. There is no one at the Witness Programme who does not feel a sense of personal failure this morning." An ornery old woman named Diana Hunter has died during a supposedly routine interrogation, and Neith, well known for her probity, has been assigned to learn what went wrong. The case file bears the randomly generated name "Gnomon."

Gnomon? Throughout, Harkaway - not only the author of three excellent previous novels and a study of digital culture, but also, as he must be tired of hearing, the son of John le Carre - regularly drops in arcane words and literary or historical allusions, which he usually defines or identifies, though not always right away. Just keep reading. A gnomon is the perpendicular part of a sundial, the part that casts a shadow.

To understand what happened to Diana Hunter, Inspector Neith employs a standard investigative tool: She connects her own mind to a Witness interface that allows her to relive - in a kind of dream-state - what Hunter was thinking during the brain probe. It grows quickly apparent that the woman was terrified the surgical procedure would, in her own words, "hollow me out like a pumpkin and leave me with a pumpkin smile: a wide, idiot, toothless grin." Hunter also turns out to have valued privacy to a seemingly paranoid degree. She has kept her house, filled with books and art, entirely free of electronics, made it a zone into which the System could not peer.

As Neith and the reader quickly guess, Diana Hunter wasn't just a kindly old lady who lent books to the neighborhood children. In fact, she had - through some kind of special training - prepared herself to combat any cranial intrusion by guarding her inner self with four wildly different screen-narratives, each recounted by a very different protagonist. In the first, a Greek mathematical genius-turned-banker relates his financial and sexual exploits. The second focuses on Saint Augustine's cast-off mistress, now grown deeply learned in the occult and desperate to bring her dead son back to life. In the third, we follow a once-famous Ethiopian painter who comes out of retirement to design the art for a computer game created by his granddaughter. For the fourth, we grow privy to the thoughts of a far-future hive-mind called Gnomon, who seems able to travel in time.

Harkaway divides up and parcels out these four narratives over the course of Neith's investigation. Each, I should stress, is genre-novel exciting just on its own. Still, one soon notices certain repeated motifs and symbols: a descent into darkness and near-death, references to ominous Fire Judges, a computer game that resembles the society of the System, a magical place sometimes called the Chamber of Isis or Firespine, the ability to walk through walls, the eerie recurrence of the number 5. What is really going on?

As the enigmatic and androgynous figure known as Lonnrot tells Neith: "The truth is rotational; it is a pattern of responses arranged around a core. As one uncovers one answer, it vanishes away to reveal another ... until the whole is visible at one time and is revealed to be quite different from what was suggested by the individual parts." Are Hunter's narratives really fictional? Has she planted secret information in them? Could she actually be playing her interrogators and using their brain probe for mysterious ends of her own? And, most tantalizing of all, why does Lonnrot ask, "How long ago do you think Diana Hunter's interrogation started?"

Neith believes wholeheartedly in the System, convinced that universal surveillance is a small price to pay for universal well-being. Still, she finds herself suspicious of the smoothly debonair Oliver Smith, who runs the innocuous-sounding agency called the Turnpike Trust. An elderly bookseller later tells her that no one can locate copies of the books published by the young Diana Hunter. Eventually, the case takes Neith to Oxford to question a celebrated professor of semiotics, then to a foreign embassy to confront an old enemy known as the Waxman. Finally, a computer whiz shows her how, in an emergency, to contact a dark-web entity called Kraken.

Despite the richness of its invention and virtuosic tricksiness, "Gnomon" is probably a bit too long. Still, it means to dazzle and it does, while also raising serious questions about identity, privacy, human rights and the just society. Like a Cedar Point roller coaster, its final chapters will leave your head spinning. But what a ride!
One month before its induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bon Jovi will take the stage at Houston's Toyota Center. The band's This House Is Not for Sale Tour comes to town on March 23.

Bon Jovi is plugging its 2016 release "This House Is Not for Sale," which will be reissued next month with two new tracks, "When We Were US" and "Walls."
The Romanian authorities insist that the language of instruction clause of the Ukrainian law on education has a negative impact on the national minorities living in the country, Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu has said.

"Romania continues to hold the view that Article 7 of the new law on education has a negative impact on ethnic minorities," he said at a joint news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Chernivtsi on Thursday.

According to Melescanu, Romania considers it necessary to hold consultations with representatives of local communities regarding the processes relating to their rights.

"The Romanian side considers it necessary that all those proposals that were made by Romania could be reflected in additional documents that could be introduced into Ukrainian legislation," he added.

As reported, the Ukrainian law on education came into force on September 28, 2017.

Among other things, the law stipulates that the state language is a language of learning at educational institutions, but one or several subjects in two or more languages, namely, the state language, English and other European Union official languages can be taught in compliance with the educational program.

People, who belong to ethnic minorities, are guaranteed the right for learning in the native language along with the Ukrainian language in separate groups of municipal pre-school and primary school institutions.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent the education law for examination by the Venice Commission.

On December 8, the Ukrainian Education and Science Ministry reported that the Venice Commission had not supported Hungary's accusation of narrowing the rights of national minorities in the article on the language of instruction in Ukraine's law on education.

On December 11, the ministry said that it was grateful to the Venice Commission for its work on providing conclusions on the language of instruction article of the education law, was ready to implement its recommendations and had already developed three models for the implementation of this article in the law on general secondary education.

On December 13, Ukrainian Education and Science Minister Lilia Hrynevych said that a draft law on secondary education with explanations on the use of languages in education, in accordance with the conclusions of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), was to be submitted for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada in the spring of 2018.

"Now, given these conclusions, we need to formulate models of education for national minorities in the law on general secondary education. That is, we will not make any changes to Article 7 [on the language of instruction] of the law on education," she told journalists.
WETA

Houstonians weary of trying to explain to relatives, friends or haters on the coasts, or closer to home in Austin and Dallas, about the Bayou City's charms just might want to point them to the debut episode of travel host Samantha Brown's new show, "Places to Love," debuting 2 p.m. Saturday on PBS. That's right, globetrotter Brown, best-known for a variety of Travel Channel and Discovery projects, has chosen H-town - not San Francisco, Rio or Paris - to be the introduction to her new series about regions she absolutely adores. (Houston isn't the only part of Texas she appreciates. An upcoming entry in the 13-episode series spotlights the Hill Country.)

Over the course of the half-hour that was filmed five months before Hurricane Harvey struck, Brown doesn't spring any surprises for locals. She covers some of the same territory that Anthony Bourdain did in 2016 for his Houston episode in the CNN series "Parts Unknown."
Paddington 2, sequel to the charming 2015 childrens live-action film featuring a computer-animated, talking bear, lacks some of its predecessors spark. But it is so warm-hearted and well-acted (and animated) that a slight drop-off in quality hardly matters.

The sequel also cements the Paddington franchise  based on Michael Bonds Paddington Bear books  as a new, Harry Potter-esque home for top-tier British ensemble casts.

Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) and Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) return from the first film as the Browns, who took in Paddington when he arrived in London from Peru. Hawkins, Bonneville and voice actor Ben Whishaw  who makes Paddington sound like the Geico gecko minus the attitude  give the film a strong base of kindness.

These actors all yield the floor to Hugh Grants delightful performance as Phoenix Buchanan, a vain thespian who lives near the Browns in London. The glint in Grants eye tells us Buchanan believes no one notices when his supposed humility really is humble bragging. And the Browns do not notice, because they are guileless and believe other people are, too.

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Grant maintains the same affable yet slyly self-satisfied demeanor even after his character goes mad with greed. Buchanans machinations put little Paddington in the path of a criminal bear of a man played by Brendan Gleeson. Grant lets the zestfully cranky, ultimately cuddly Gleeson steal Paddington 2 for 10 minutes before taking it back.

A treasure-map story line that might have been fun to follow is introduced and then practically abandoned in favor of a few too many scenes of Paddington getting into mishaps. A bucket falls on his cute head, and a mountain of oranges on his small body  gags sure to please 4-year-olds. But the first Paddington appealed to adults as well as children throughout, with its sharp comic dialogue. Here, only Grant and Gleeson get really good lines. The change might be due to director Paul King collaborating with a different screenwriter, Simon Farnaby, this time.

Dialogue ceases to matter when Paddington 2 shows close-ups of its animated bear. Paddingtons eyes are exceptionally expressive. So are Hawkins, and a soulful moment between actress and bear evokes Shape of Water while melting hearts in its own right.

Carla Meyer is a Northern California freelance writer

Paddington 2

Comedy. Starring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins and Julie Walters. (PG. 103 minutes.)
1 Fossil fuel divestment: New York City officials cited climate change as their motivation to join a growing number of investors ridding themselves of financial interest in fossil fuels. Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer announced plans on Wednesday to divest the citys five pension funds of roughly $5 billion in fossil fuel investments out of its total of $189 billion. They say the divestment is the largest of any municipality in the U.S. to date.

2 Border crossings: Just months after border apprehensions hit a 17-year low, which administration officials proudly celebrated as a Trump effect, the number of migrants trying to enter the U.S. has been surging, surpassing 40,000 along the Southwest border last month, more than double the springtime numbers, according to Homeland Security. Many factors, including the Central American economy and gang violence, play a role in migration patterns. But it also appears that any deterrent effect of Trumps tough talk and ramped-up immigration enforcement has begun to wane.
Construction is anticipated to start this month on an environmental education center at John Paul's Landing in Katy.

The center is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2019 at the park, 9000 Katy Hockley Road, said Eric Heppen, project manager, Harris County Precinct 3.

"It will include a classroom area, a great room, as well as various touchscreen monitors and exhibits to help show people about the native vegetation of the area and about the ecosystem around them," he said. "The classroom will be geared toward small group activities and educational classes while the great room will be geared toward larger presentations. The outside landscape area will have vegetation zones to show some of the various ecosystems of Texas."

Harris County Precinct 3 staff will operate the facility, Heppen said.

The Harris County Engineering Department (Design Group) did the architectural work for the project. The inside of the building is approximately 4,600 square feet.

"There will be a 10-foot covered porch surrounding the whole building that is approximately 4,400 feet totaling around 9,000 square feet," said Heppen.

Harris County Commissioners Court awarded in November a construction contract to Panorama CMT to build the center. According to the meeting agenda, the company submitted the low bid of $1,392,420. The contract includes a maximum incentive payment of $60,000 for early completion.

Last summer, the county received a $1 million grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to build the center. Harris County Precinct 3 will match those funds.

"Part of these funds will go toward the remainder of the building cost while the rest of the matching funds will go toward items such as the interior furniture, waterlines, driveway, parking lot, landscaping, septic, etc.," said Heppen.

Harris County is taking bids for construction of a pedestrian bridge and boardwalk at the park. Bids were due Jan. 8.

The south end of the 865-acre park is scheduled to open in February and will feature a lake, playgrounds and covered park pavilions.

Harris County Flood Control District supported Precinct 3 in development of the regional park with a stormwater detention basin.

Harris County took bids Dec. 18 for construction of a new detention pond at John Paul's Landing Park north bank.

Visit www.pct3.com/Parks/all-parks/john-pauls-landing-park for more information.
Ukraine's National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting recommends that the Verkhovna Rada reduce the transition period for the introduction of a 75% language quota on television from October to March-April 2018, the regulator said in a statement published on its website.

"The law on language quotas on television did not meet expectations due to the established transition period, which will last until October 13, 2018. The regulation of the transitional provisions which classifies all national and domestic television products as programming made in the Ukrainian language has destroyed all expectations," the regulator said in its statement.

The National Council said a transition period was intended to allow broadcasters to adjust their production tasks, teach program hosts the Ukrainian language, train or employ new program hosts, update their content, and increase production. According to the National Council, some channels left their programming unchanged, only formally observing the legislative requirements.

The regulator suggested that the Verkhovna Rada initiate a revision of the legislative norms as soon as possible so that the transition period can end no later than March-April 2018. "This is the only approach that will stimulate television channels to care about the quality of programming," the National Council said in its statement.

The law requiring 75% of television content to be in Ukrainian was officially published in the parliamentary newspaper Holos Ukrainy (the Voice of Ukraine) on June 13. The law took force four months after its publication.

The law introduced amendments to the law on television and radio broadcasting, the law on culture, and the law on general principles of state language policy. The law also provides for sanctions against television and radio broadcasters for violations: fines in the amount of 5% of the total amount of the licensing fee.

The law stipulates that programs and films in Ukrainian must account for at least 75% of the weekly amount of broadcasting for nationwide or regional television channels and radio stations between 07.00 and 18.00 and between 18.00 and 22.00. The quota for local television and radio broadcasters was set at 60%.

Television channels and radio stations broadcasting in the languages of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine must ensure that 75% of total broadcasting be in Ukrainian and the languages of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, with at least 30% in Ukrainian.
Twenty years after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a local group began an annual program to honor his legacy.

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, which will be held at noon on Jan. 15, commemorates the life that King led through singing, a keynote speech and presentation of awards. There will be an adult choir, a children's choir and a special needs choir singing throughout the program. Keynote speaker Dr. Kirby John Powell will describe how the teachings of King impacted his life. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the celebration.

Elsa Dotson, co-founder and committee member of the program, said that each year an individual, organization or business is recognized for their outstanding work in the community. The honorees are given a Drum Major award because they exemplify the characteristics King spoke of in a sermon during February 1968.

King referred to a 20th century notion of greatness-the innate human need for recognition, the desire for distinction-calling this impulse the Drum Major instinct. In the sermon, the human rights leader referred to the gospel of St. Mark in which Jesus presents a new norm for greatness, saying, "Recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant."

"(King) talked about being a drum major-a person who goes out and is in the community," Dotson said, adding that recipients of the Drum Major award are nominated by others in the community. "It's a person or people or an organization that goes beyond the function of the organization or themselves and reaches out in the community. Whether its volunteering or organizing, helping people in need. These people don't do what they do for their jobs or personal lives. They just help others in the community."

Tanya Nero, another member of the organization committee, added that Drum Major award recipients advocate for justice and equality.

"The committee looks at individuals, organizations and businesses who have done something that exemplifies the idea of being a drum major. According to Dr. King, that's someone who fights for justice or righteousness in the community they are in," Nero said.

The committee also awards four $500 scholarships-one to each high school in the Conroe Independent School District. Seniors from all four high schools are invited to compete in an essay contest describing how they can make King's dream a reality. The essays are judged on content, originality, evidence of research and clarity of expression. Elementary school students are invited to participate in a poster contest using the theme "Living the Dream." The winner will receive a $100 check at the ceremony and the poster will become the design for the choir's T-shirt at next year's event.

Dotson was fortunate enough to attend the March on Washington and witness King give his famous "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963. She said the program is important because it allows King's dream to live on.

"It's important because having been there and heard Dr. King give a speech, I didn't know that anybody else would ever hear that speech," Dotson said. "To know that by my going there-and 200,000 other people-by going to the program I can see the results because a place like The Woodlands, Texas, was impacted. People are still writing essays, still making posters. To feel that I'm a part of that is awesome."

Nero has been on the committee for 10 years and also believes the program has a high importance in the community.

"In the beginning it was about my kids wanting to participate in the children's choir and I sang in the adult choir. After the first event I was amazed by the effects it had on my children and me and the effects on the community. Everyone was able to come together on one day," Nero said. "To continue to be a part and do more with each year was important to me. To continue to see the ideals of Dr. King live and breathe."

The program is hosted by Impact Church, formerly known as St. Paul Baptist Church, which was the first predominantly black church in The Woodlands. Dotson was one of the founding members that first met in November, 1986.

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration was originally the idea of Dotson's husband, Jimmie. The couple had gone to hear a speech by King's widow, Coretta Scott King, at a church in Houston in 1987. Jimmie Dotson was so inspired that he believed they could do something similar in The Woodlands. Jimmie Dotson spoke to Gerald Irons who was working for Woodlands Corporation, and the company offered to sponsor it. The next year, the community program was born.

"I can't give enough credit to Myrna and Gerald Irons," Elsa Dotson said, adding that Myrna Irons has been the chairperson and has been essential to keeping the program running for all 30 years.

Dotson said that an average of 1,000 to 1,500 people attend the event each year. A love offering is taken up to help fund the scholarships and awards for the essay and poster contest winners.

"We want everybody to come out and participate and enjoy the program," Dotson said.

Nero said the celebration is a free event for the community.

"We're always looking for other people who are aware of Dr. King or those who don't know his story, his legacy to come out and enjoy this celebration," Nero added.

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration will take place at noon on Jan. 15 at The Woodlands United Methodist Church, 2200 Lake Woodlands Drive.
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Whoever is hired as the new superintendent at the Conroe Independent School district will have "big shoes to fill."

Officials with the Conroe ISD Board of Trustees recently put up a job posting for the position on its website with a list of responsibilities and duties that include 43 bullet points under categories ranging from "instructional management" and "school/organizational climate" to "student management."

In just six months, Dr. Don Stockton, who for 15 years has headed the school district in the fastest-growing city in the nation among cities with more than 50,000 residents, will step down from his role.

With a budget of more than $473 million and more than 7,000 employees, 61,000 students, 61 schools in a 348-square mile radius district that encompasses the city of Conroe, The Woodlands, Shenandoah, Oak Ridge North and other smaller communities around the county, the new superintendent will have his or her work cut out for them.

More Information Conroe ISD timeline for superintendent search. January 8-28, 2018: Superintendent job description/want ad posted February 6-March 9, 2018: Candidate interviews March 20, 2018: Board names lone finalist April 17, 2018: Board names new superintendent June 4, 2018: New superintendent's first day See More Collapse

Conroe ISD Board of Trustees President Melanie Bush, who alongside other trustees will begin looking at potential candidates for the role, said finding a new superintendent will be tough, but not impossible.

"They are big shoes to fill," Bush said of departing superintendent Stockton. "But I don't think that we have the expectation that whoever the board chooses is not going to be Dr. Stockton 2.0. There is no Dr. Stockton 2.0. They are going to be their own person and they are going to bring their own ideas, thoughts and things to the table."

The right candidate is going to be someone that matches up with the community, the district and has a clear vision on where the district is headed, she said. And, they will be somebody who draws out the best in their team and truly brings people together, she added.

"And that is a special person," Bush said. "They are not focused solely on their vision but welcomes people challenging them."

As the 13th-largest school district in Texas, district officials estimates roughly 70,000 students will attend district schools by 2020, growing by roughly 1,500 students each year.

According to the job posting, the ideal candidate will have three to five years of central office experience in a Texas school district of 15,000 students or more.

"We all felt like that was very important," Bush said. "CISD being as large as it is, you can't have someone who has only worked only in a 5,000-student district or a 10,000-student district come in and understand how we work. One of the keys with the 15,000 is we are going to be looking at whether they have multiple feeder zone experience."

The Conroe ISD has six high school feeder zones, including Grand Oaks High School, which opens its door this August.

"Each are very different to a degree and each in some areas would be their own school district," Bush said. "Managing six very different feeder zones is something we're looking for whether or not this candidate is able to do that well."

Addressing the diversity of the district's student population-which is reported as slightly more than 50 percent non-Caucasian, Bush said the board hasn't discussed the race of the incoming superintendent.

"I'll be honest, we haven't specifically discussed that point," she said. "It's about finding the best person for the district."

The new superintendent is expected to begin work in the role on June, 4, three days after Stockton leaves the district.

In the coming months, the school board will review submitted resumes, interview potential candidates and name a finalist. At the April 17 Board of Trustees meeting, the district will name its new superintendent, according to information from the Conroe ISD.
Passengers left stranded at Boston's Logan International Airport after last week's winter storm say an airline employee ordered them to stop filming near the carrier's gate counter and delete videos from their phones. The employee threatened to call police and have them arrested if they failed to comply.

At least one passenger on the Toronto-bound Porter Airlines flight scheduled to leave Friday evening defied the order, later posting a video online showing the Porter representative citing security and government regulations and telling passengers to delete any video they've taken. Passengers apparently were frustrated by the employee's handling of customers attempting to get flights out of the city.

"If you're going to arrest us for taking a video, call the cops!" one passenger is heard shouting in the minute-long video .

"Don't make it worse," the airline worker responded.

"Who is making it worse? . . . You said you were going to call the cops. Call the cops!"

"Help us," another passenger pleaded. "We are waiting in line for hours."

Before the encounter, passengers had sat on the tarmac for about two hours. The crew, a passenger said, had told them they were having difficulty closing the latch on the plane's luggage compartment. The airline said the weather conditions were so bad - just after the bomb cyclone had battered the Northeast with snow, ice and frigid cold - that one of the aircraft's doors froze and could not be fixed in time before the crew exhausted its regulated duty day limits.

Passengers were deplaned. Another two hours later, at the gate, and in line to get information about their way out of Boston, passengers grew frustrated, Kira Wegler said. Some did what many air travelers do these days.

"People started pulling out their phones," recalls Wegler, who kept on filming after the directive to stop. "People wanted to document their experience and the (airline) personnel threatened to call the police and security and have us arrested. He said, 'I will not help you until you delete the video.'"

There is no law that prohibits filming inside Logan, except in secure areas and of security procedures, according to Kelly Smith, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Filming is even allowed at the security checkpoints, according to the Transportation Security Administration, "as long as the screening process is not interfered with or sensitive information is not revealed." Restrictions include filming of equipment monitors that are shielded from public view.

In a statement, Porter Airlines apologized to the passengers, acknowledging the airline worker was wrong to ask passengers to stop filming and to delete footage. But the request was made only with the intention "to try and enforce what was believed to be an airport policy," the statement said.

"In this particular case, there was a misunderstanding by the team member involved that taking video beyond the security checkpoint was part of the secure area and was not permitted," the airline said. "He did not realize the distinction at the time, but we have advised the team members involved for future reference."

Porter also disputes passenger's assertions that their representative threatened to have passengers arrested.

"While it was indicated at the time that police based at the airport could be called to address this situation, there was no direct statement that passengers would be arrested," the airline said.

Flight 948 was carrying 74 passengers and scheduled to depart Boston for Toronto around 5:30 p.m. Friday. Passengers were rescheduled to fly out Monday, the airline confirmed. According to the Toronto-based regional carrier, the flight was complicated by the weather conditions in Boston. Hundreds of flights had been canceled and delayed Friday, a day after the major winter storm.

But no weather conditions justify misleading passengers on a policy that doesn't exist, passengers and experts said.

"It is clear that in this instance the airline employees overstepped their bounds," said Douglas Kidd, an advocate with the National Association of Airline Passengers. He said the group is also concerned that airlines might be blaming weather for a mechanical problem to avoid compensating passengers.

"Airlines might be unreasonably blaming weather as the cause of flight cancellations, when in fact mechanical issue or other internal issues are to blame."

That's an important distinction, Kidd said, because passengers are compensated in the event of mechanical issues, but not when a cancellation is due to weather.

As far as filming in airports, he said: "Photography is not a crime, but passengers should be wary of unnecessarily antagonizing security and airport personnel. Know and follow TSA and airport guidelines when you photograph and make audio and video recordings. Be discrete. Should unreasonable demands be made by anyone other than police, simply walk away and take a bathroom break. Remember the advice Pallas gave Hercules: Strife will only increase if you feed it."

Wegler said she wants travelers to know their rights and not be intimidated by airline personnel.

"In this day and age you pull out your cell phone out and go to social media," she said. "I think that is the reality of 2018."
The Trump administration's decision to exempt Florida from expanded offshore drilling kicked off a frenzy Wednesday in other coastal states, with governors from both political parties asking: Why not us?

"We cannot afford to take a chance with the beauty, the majesty and the economic value and vitality of our wonderful coastline," South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, R, who backed President Donald Trump in his state's competitive 2016 primary, said in a statement.

"Not Off Our Coast," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, D, wrote in a tweet. "We've been clear: This would bring unacceptable risks to our economy, our environment, and our coastal communities."

The Florida carve-out, announced Tuesday by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, created new doubts about the fate of the entire offshore drilling decision - and immediately became another challenge for Republicans as they work to hold off Democrats in the midterm elections. Nine of the 11 states that opposed the drilling order have gubernatorial races this year, and many of the most competitive contests for the House of Representatives will unfold in districts that touch coastline.

By Wednesday afternoon, state attorneys general, joined by environmental groups, were suggesting that Zinke had undermined the entire drilling rule with his high-profile visit to Tallahassee, Florida, where he heaped praise on "straightforward, easy to work for" Gov. Rick Scott, R - a political ally whom Trump has repeatedly urged to run for the U.S. Senate.

"The Administrative Procedure Act requires there to be a reasonable rationale behind agency decisions, and that they can't be arbitrary and capricious," said Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, referring to a 1946 law governing major regulatory changes. "So, saying Florida is exempt because Rick Scott is straightforward and trustworthy? That Florida's coastlines are unique? That seems to be the definition of arbitrary and capricious."

Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone said the governor had not contacted the White House about the issue but had expressed his concerns to Zinke in face-to-face meetings in October and on Tuesday, as well as in multiple phone calls.

In a Wednesday interview with The Washington Post, Zinke said he first met Scott when his state and the federal government were preparing for Hurricane Irma, then a second time when the two worked on Everglades restoration. Zinke said he felt a personal connection with the governor, so when Scott contacted him in writing he felt an obligation to respond.

"Quite frankly, Gov. Scott called me and [also] expressed in writing a desire to have a meeting," he said. That meeting was the first "in what I believe will be a series of conversations" with other governors, the secretary said.

"I will no doubt talk to every governor," Zinke said. "It doesn't matter to me whether you're Republican or Democrat. This is going to be a long process. This is going to be at least a year with public comment. We have to get it right, look at the geology, look at the science."

The White House declined to say whether Trump was personally involved in the decision to exempt Florida. Two senior aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they were not aware of any efforts on his behalf.

"Secretary Zinke has been directed to develop a 5-year program for development in the Outer continental shelf," deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement. "The Secretary is currently in the process of speaking to stakeholders, like Governor Scott yesterday, to determine the most responsible and environmentally sound path forward. All states have different concerns and needs which is why this is an ongoing process with a built-in 60-day comment period."

The decision has been subject to a torrent of ridicule and anger from coastal governors and senators who wonder why their states have not been exempted. In a conference call with reporters, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., unloaded on Zinke and Trump, saying that Gov. Terry McAuliffe, D-Va., and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Va., had asked for an exemption and heard nothing back.

"Is it because the governor of Florida is a Republican and the Virginia governor and governor-elect are Democrats?" Kaine said. "Are they putting Florida off-limits because President Trump has a vacation property - Mar-a-Lago - on the Atlantic coast of Florida and he worries about the environmental risk there, but he's not worried about environmental risk in Virginia?"

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, D, called the decision "outrageous," saying in an interview that she had contacted Zinke with hopes of having a similar conversation but had not heard back.

"Our tourism is as important to Oregon as tourism is to Florida," she said, adding that drilling would also be a detriment to her state's natural resource industries.

To Brown, it appeared that Trump was either trying to bolster Scott's political prospects, helping his own standing in a key swing state for 2020 or "protecting his real estate holdings in Mar-a-Lago."

"What else am I supposed to think?" Brown asked.

The commentary about Trump's properties was bipartisan. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., a former governor who represents his state's Atlantic coastline, suggested during an interview with CNN that the president held one standard for states where he vacationed and one for the rest of the country.

"It smacks of what we never want to see in politics which is: Is it self-serving?" Sanford said. "I mean, you can't say, 'I don't want to see an oil rig from Mar-a-Lago' as you look out from the waters of Palm Beach, but it's OK to look at an oil rig out from Hilton Head or Charleston, South Carolina."

But most of the opposition to both the drilling order and the Florida exception came from Democrats. In an interview, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said that the standards Zinke applied to Florida - the importance of tourism and coastal industries - were "standards that California can meet." He also suggested that Zinke had given states strong grounds to challenge the drilling decision and that industries hoping to develop energy off the coast should not necessarily expect it to happen.

"This puts some of that into doubt," Becerra said. "We want to make it clear to everyone in California that things have not changed as a result of this announcement."

Democrats, who view Scott as the GOP's best challenger to Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., added to the chorus by suggesting that they would turn the decision into a liability. Before the carve-out, Nelson had been urging bipartisan legislation to halt the entire offshore drilling order.

"I have spent my entire life fighting to keep oil rigs away from our coasts. But now, suddenly, Secretary Zinke announces plans to drill off Florida's coast and four days later agrees to 'take Florida off the table'?" Nelson said in a statement Wednesday. "I don't believe it. This is a political stunt orchestrated by the Trump administration to help Rick Scott, who has wanted to drill off Florida's coast his entire career. We shouldn't be playing politics with the future of Florida."

In a separate statement, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called Scott "a self-serving con-man" and said Trump had helped "manufacture a crisis to try to help his political ambitions."

Scott spokesman John Tupps said in a statement that the governor's success in getting the exemption had been a clear win for the state.

"Senator Nelson and anyone else who opposes oil drilling off Florida's coast should be happy that the governor was able to secure this commitment," Tupps said. "This isn't about politics. This is good policy for Florida."

Scott is not the only Republican governor who would stand to benefit politically from an exemption. In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan, R, is up for reelection this year in a Democratic-leaning state and has been an outspoken opponent of offshore drilling.

"The governor has made it extremely clear that he opposes this kind of exploration off our coastline and that will never change," Hogan spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said Wednesday."The administration will continue making the case to the federal government that Maryland's bays and beaches are vital to the health and economy of our state and region."

She added that Hogan previously asked the state's attorney general to take "any legal action necessary."

In 2016, Hogan was one of several high-profile Republicans who refused to support Trump for president. Instead, Hogan wrote in the name of his late father, who had been the first Republican congressman to call for the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon.

- - -

The Washington Post's Darryl Fears contributed to this report.
In the final six weeks of 2017, the village of Bethalto experienced a rash of vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles.

Bethalto Police Chief Gregory Smock updated trustees about the situation at Mondays monthly meeting of the Bethalto Village Board.

From Nov. 2 to Jan. 2, there were 23 burglaries from vehicles and three vehicle thefts.

I think we have people coming in from out of town to commit the burglaries, Smock told the trustees.

No vehicle was broken into. They were all unlocked, and no vehicle was stolen without the keys left in them. So were kind of creating our own problem.

Smock has been urging residents to lock their vehicles.

A news release on the departments Facebook page listed several streets that have been targeted: Patton Drive, Albers Lane, Westmoreland Drive, West Corbin Street, Silver Street, Patriots Drive, Mill Street, Longfellow Street, East Central Street, Oak Crest Drive, Strohbeck Lane and Hawthorne Court.

Each of the stolen vehicles was taken shortly after Christmas Day. On Dec. 26, a brown Chevy Silverado was taken from Oak Crest Drive; four days later, a black and tan Ford Explorer was stolen in the 900 block of Albers Lane; and on Jan. 2, a black Toyota 4 Runner was taken from Hawthorne Court.

In no way are we blaming the victims, and everyone has a right to be secure in their property, the news release states. Hopefully 2018 will be more successful. It only takes a moment to remove your valuables and lock the vehicle. It also only takes a moment for a thief to remove your valuables or steal your vehicle when it is unlocked.

Overall, Bethalto police investigated 29 vehicle burglaries in 2017. Of the eight vehicles stolen in the village in 2017, four have been recovered, Smock said Monday. None of the three taken over the Christmas holiday has been recovered.

Im thinking that these guys might be from Missouri, Smock said. The last burglaries we caught were in a ring, and they were all out of town  in the southern Illinois area. We caught them just a few weeks ago doing some burglaries. I think it stems from the heroin problem. Theyre coming to these rural areas, like us, where people feel more confident that theyre safe. (Theyre) leaving their vehicles unlocked or leaving their keys in the car, and theyre getting taken.

Trustees also received an update from James Schulte, with the Bethalto Fire Department. The department received 94 calls in December, Schulte said. In 2017, the fire department received 1,126 calls, 53 of which were unanswered, with no response.

The fire department responded to 1,073 incidents in 2017, three more than the previous year.

The fire department is continuing to seek volunteers. Anyone interested in applying can stop by Village Hall or email Fire Chief Alex Campbell at acampbell@bethalto.com.

Volunteer firefighters are not required to live in the village of Bethalto.
The Hale County Commissioners Court heard a presentation from Rachael Foster, the Project Analyst for the City of Plainview regarding the citys proposed tax increment financing district in downtown Plainview. Plainview City Manager Jeffrey Snyder made a previous presentation to the city council in November.

Foster said that the proposed TIF district is covered by Chapter 311 of the Texas Tax Code and is primarily for areas that are underdeveloped. She noted that downtown Plainview is trending along a negative growth pattern at -0.42 percent, compared to the rest of the city, which she said is trending at a roughly 1.5 percent growth rate.

What the district, called a tax increment reinvestment zone under Texas Law, would do would be to effectively create a tax increment fund, which could then be reinvested in the downtown area to enhance further growth and development.

The catalyst by which the district would have these additional funds would be the increase in tax revenues resulting from the proposed Conrad Lofts project renovation of the old Hilton Hotel.

Foster explained that effectively, the district would be created and that both city and county would still retain the taxes from the proposed district based on the 2017 tax values, which Foster listed at $3,892,169. When the Conrad Lofts goes onto the tax rolls, the increased amount in tax receipts would, instead of going directly to the city or county, be placed in a tax increment fund, which would be used for reinvestment in the district.

According to Foster, the proposed district would include primarily Broadway and Ash streets from Fourth St. to Ninth St., although she said those boundaries were somewhat fluid and she said the city welcomes the countys input on the matter. The only caveat on boundaries is that the statute limits the percentage of residential buildings that can be included in the district.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Kenny Kernell asked specifically how much money would be available for reinvestment in the district. Foster responded that possible appraisal values from the appraisal district currently vary widely based upon the method of valuation and that they didnt have a clear figure, but that it ranged from $1.4 to possibly $2.9 million in additional tax value.

Also, according to Foster, there are some 230,000 square feet of vacant space downtown that is either not being used or is underutilized. She noted that potential reinvestment could enhance the possibility of the properties again returning to active use.

Decisions about how the funds for the district would be used would be determined by a separate board, Foster said. According to the statute, the board can consist of between five and 15 members and the specific makeup and number of board members would have to be determined by the city and county after the parties come to an agreement on specific involvement aspects in the district. Foster said the city would manage the TIF fund as far as handling the paperwork, but would do so with the countys approval.

No formal action was taken regarding the district. Foster said that the city was still studying some economic feasibility issues and that they anticipated forming the district sometime in March.

In other matters before the commissioners:
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The family of a mentally ill Port Arthur man who died while struggling with police and security guards at a hospital filed a lawsuit Wednesday, alleging his death was caused by inadequate training of officials who shocked him multiple times with a stun gun.

"I want to know how he died," said Patricia Delacruz, during an emotional press conference with her attorneys.

Manuel Delacruz died in August 2016, after his family took him to a local hospital out of desperation.

A diagnosed schizophrenic, Delacruz he hadn't eaten or slept in days. He wouldn't stop pacing and he exhibited signs of paranoia, so they took him to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas in Port Arthur.

But the 26-year-old's family couldn't admit him without his consent. His parents couldn't get power of attorney on short notice and didn't know what else to do, so they called the police to sign a court order that would allow an emergency admission.

That's when things got really bad, they recalled.

The last time Ruth Delacruz saw her brother, she says, he wasn't out of control. He was scared.

"He said, 'Ruth, take me home. They're going to kill me. The police are going to kill me.'"

Later that night, Manuel Delacruz was dead.

In the lawsuit, the young man's family alleges that Port Arthur police officers used excessive force and the staff at the Medical Center of Southeast Texas showed negligence in Delacruz's death, which occurred at the hospital during a struggle with police and security.

Autopsy results were inconclusive. The Jefferson County district attorney's office investigated the death, and a grand jury did not indict the officers who were involved.

The civil suit names the city of Port Arthur, the local police department, specific officers and the hospital, saying all contributed to what Muhammad Aziz, one of the family's attorneys, called a "completely avoidable" death.

The police department and hospital did not reply to requests for comment to allegations in the lawsuit.

Delacruz, who died just days before his 27th birthday, was an amateur boxer and a Golden Gloves champion who had lived with schizophrenia for about a decade.

At the hospital, Delacruz - who told his family he was afraid of being raped - refused to take off his pants to change into a hospital gown. He also refused a blood test.

But his family maintains he wasn't violent or threatening while he waited to be treated.

"He was not out of control," said attorney Joe House. "He sat calmly for six hours."

But when Port Arthur police arrived, House said, they and a hospital security guard tried to force Delacruz to take off his pants and submit to a blood test. The family says they used excessive force, striking him, putting him in a chokehold and using a Taser multiple times. At one point "there were five or six officers on him, all at once," House said.

Delacruz died during the scuffle.

"We were never given a clear answer as to why this happened," said Carlo Delacruz Jr., his brother.

The crux of the problem, House said, is that police and security agents aren't trained properly to deal with mental health patients.

"These officers are supposed to be trained not to allow this to happen," House said. "They're not supposed to be spoiling for a fight.  They were there to help this man."

The family doesn't have an amount of compensation in mind, Aziz said; they're more interested in changing the ways medical professionals and police deal with mental health patients to make sure a death like Delacruz's doesn't happen again.

"I want justice for my brother," Ruth Delacruz said, "and to have some kind of peace, to know what really happened that day."
WASHINGTON - The Republican effort to enlist formidable candidates for the Senate suffered another setback Thursday, when Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., announced that he will not run despite President Donald Trump's personal appeals for him to challenge Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in one of the year's top battlegrounds.

Cramer's decision to instead seek reelection in the House, which he announced in a radio interview, followed other recruiting letdowns for Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in deeply conservative states where Republicans are hoping to unseat Democratic senators and pad their narrow 51-49 majority.

"That's a disappointment. Yeah, I know Kevin - he would've have been a great candidate," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., one of McConnell's top lieutenants.

At the beginning of 2017 with Trump's inauguration, Republicans were optimistic about increasing their Senate majority. With Democrats defending more than three times as many seats as the GOP, Republicans saw opportunities to build out their majority - perhaps even reach the filibuster-proof number of 60 - and give themselves considerable leverage on future legislation.

But attracting top candidates in key Senate races has been an ongoing struggle for a party facing strong political headwinds. A pair of Republican retirements - Jeff Flake in Arizona and Bob Corker in Tennessee - have opened the door for Democrats in GOP-held states. In Montana, Wisconsin, Michigan and now North Dakota - all states that Trump won and Democratic senators face reelection this year - top Republicans have passed on the Senate contest to pursue other opportunities.

Democrats will be looking to hold onto 26 seats, including in Minnesota after Al Franken step down amid sexual misconduct allegations, and the two independent seats in Vermont and Maine. Republicans have eight seats on the ballot in November after Democrat Doug Jones stunned the GOP with a win in ruby-red Alabama last month.

Cramer, who has been a staunch supporter of Trump and has a higher profile than most Republicans in his state - North Dakota has only one seat in the House, making its representative more visible than most - said family considerations led him to conclude that it was in his best interest to run for the House, not the Senate.

"It's far less intense than flying around the country for the next 10 months every weekend going to Chicago and New York and, you know, cities far away to raise adequate funds to, you know, to run," he said on the radio program "What's on Your Mind?"

Cramer said he did not want to "diminish the impact" of Trump urging him to run. He added, "while he was very persuasive, he was also very understanding when we raised concerns."

Trump extensively courted Cramer for the race, even calling his wife to make his pitch. The two met on Jan. 2 in the Oval Office. By the end of 2017, White House officials thought Cramer was going to run and were even predicting the date of his announcement. Senate Republican officials were also keen about getting him onboard.

The North Dakota Senate race is a top priority for Republicans this year. It is one of 10 states Senate Democrats are defending that Trump won. He carried the state by more than 36 percentage points in 2016.

Republican State Sen. Tom Campbell has announced his candidacy, but he has not as well known as Cramer. Other Republicans could be tempted to challenge him, triggering a potentially bruising primary.

Heitkamp was reluctant to talk about Cramer's decision. As she boarded a subway in the Capitol, she tried to brush aside questions. "I've issued a statement," she said. A campaign representative provided a statement from Heitkamp that made no mention of Cramer.

"It's telling that people don't want to take on that race - and for good reason. Because Heidi's been all about North Dakota," said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Cramer's decision adds to the list of Trump's personal recruiting missions that have proven unsuccessful.

The president tried to convince Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to run for reelection - even organizing a trip to Utah last year largely to court him. Aides made sure he was alone with Trump in certain moments and photo opportunities.

But Hatch announced earlier this month he plans to retire, clearing the way for Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic, to launch a likely bid for his seat.

Trump's political director, Bill Stepien, frequently met with Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, who ended his Senate campaign last week, citing an unspecified health issue his wife is dealing with as the reason for his decision.

After Mandel ended his bid, the White House was successful in nudging Rep. James Renacci, R-Ohio, to run instead. Renacci met with Stepien on Wednesday at the White House and announced Thursday that he was ending his campaign for governor to run for the Senate.

Still, the sting of Cramer's decision could be felt in the hallways of the Capitol, where some Republicans were plainly deflated by the news.

"Very disappointing. He's a good congressman. He would have made a very good United States senator," said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.
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A man is expected to recover after he was found bleeding from the chest Wednesday night walking just outside of a North Side apartment complex.

San Antonio Police Department spokesman officer Douglas Greene confirmed the man, in his early 20s, was found walking in the woods behind the complex at about 5 p.m. in the 14200 block of Vance Jackson Road.

Two residents, who did not wish to be identified, said they found the man bleeding from the chest and called 911. Police said he had been shot in the chest.

RELATED: Two dead in fiery South Side accident on I-35

When police arrived, the man was still able to talk but was uncooperative, officers said.

Police said it appeared the man had a gunshot wound to his chest.

When police arrived, the man was still able to talk but didn't provide details as to what happened to him, officers at the scene said.

Later, the man told police he had been followed by three men because he was driving too slow, Greene said. When he got out of his vehicle, he was beaten by three men and shot by one of them during the assault, police said.

The three men then stole his vehicle as they drove away and he was left stumbling for help, according to police.

Greene said the man is now in stable condition at University Hospital. A description of the vehicle that was stolen was not released by police.

Jacob Beltran is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here.| mailto:jbeltran@express-news.net| Twitter: @JBfromSA
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), addresses a CMC ceremony to confer the flag on the armed police force, in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday ordered the armed police force to uphold the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks at a ceremony by the CMC to confer a flag on the armed police force.

Xi asked the armed police force to resolutely follow the CPC's instructions and fully implement the CPC's thought on building a strong army in the new era.

At the ceremony, Xi presented the flag to Commander Wang Ning and Political Commissar Zhu Shengling of the armed police.

Xi stressed the significance of placing the armed police under the unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC.

The adjustment in the leading and command system of the armed police force is "an important political decision" the CPC Central Committee made to fully realize the absolute leadership of the Party over all armed forces and to develop "a socialist military system with Chinese characteristics," Xi said.

"The move has vital and profound effect on building a strong military for the new era and modernizing the country's system and capacity for governance," he said.

In accordance with a statement by the CPC Central Committee released late last month, the armed police force would be put under the command of the CPC Central Committee and CMC from Jan. 1, 2018 and would no longer be under the authority of the State Council.

Stating that the armed police force is an important part of the people's armed forces led by the CPC, Xi said the armed police force bears major responsibility in safeguarding national security and social stability, as well as protecting people's life.

"The armed police force plays an important role in safeguarding political security, especially the security of the political power and system," Xi said.

Xi asked the armed police force to accelerate its integration into the joint combat system of the armed forces, enhance reform and innovation, and strive to build a strong and modern armed police force.

The armed police force must focus on real combat training and readiness for war, remain on high alert as always, and better deal with emergencies and terrorism.

Xi also stressed the importance of discipline, demanding increased efforts to contain corruption and purify the political ecology of the armed police force.

The CMC decision to confer the flag on the armed police force was read by CMC Vice Chairman Xu Qiliang, and the ceremony was presided over by CMC Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia.
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AUSTIN  An arbitrary special education enrollment target set by the Texas Education Agency led school districts to delay or deny special education services to students across the state, according to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education released Thursday.

For more than a decade, TEA judged a school district's performance based in part on the percentage of students receiving special education services. The benchmark, set at 8.5 percent, prompted school districts to delay or deny special education services, the Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs wrote said in a 14-page letter to TEA.

"TEA's use of the 8.5 percent indicator contributed to a statewide pattern of practices that demonstrate that TEA did not ensure that all [districts] in the State properly identified, located and evaluated all children with disabilities who were in need of special education and related services," the department wrote.

Following the federal report, Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter Education Commissioner Mike Morath directing him to prepare an initial corrective action plan within seven days.

"The past dereliction of duty on the part of many school districts to serve our students and the failure of TEA to hold districts accountable are worthy of criticism," Abbott said in the letter. "TEA must take steps now to significantly increase the oversight provided to ensure our special education students are receiving the services they deserve."

Abbott noted that the problems predate Morath, who became commissioner in 2016. Still, Abbott said, "parents and students demand significant actions be taken now to improve special education in Texas."

DENIED: How Texas keeps tens of thousands of children out of special education

Morath said he shares Abbott's urgency to quickly address issues identified in the federal report.

"More importantly, I share the Governor's commitment to doing what's right for special education students in our public schools," he said.

The department has added 39 special education support staff across the state in the past year, Morath said: "I am committing today that there will be more. The corrective action plan called for by the Governor will outline the specific steps TEA will take to address all the identified issues. Parent and special education advocacy group representatives will play an ongoing integral role in helping shape this plan, as well as all efforts of the agency in the years ahead. My top priority has and continues to be to improve outcomes for all students in Texas."

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said she has worked with Morath on resolving special education issues, and appreciates TEA's efforts "to ensure all children with disabilities are appropriately identified, evaluated and served under IDEA."

"Every child with a disability must have appropriate access to special education and related services that meet his or her unique needs," DeVos said in a written statement. "Far too many students in Texas had been precluded from receiving supports and services under [the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act]."

The report confirms the Houston Chronicle's findings in a 2016 investigation, showing that tens of thousands of students with disabilities were denied special education services because of the 8.5 percent cap. TEA officials have repeatedly said the benchmark was not a cap but an "indicator" of performance.

But in practice, districts used the number as a cap, the Department of Education found, and denied or delayed services for children across the state. The state now must comply with at least four corrective action steps following the federal investigation.

"While TEA did not specifically direct [districts] to limit the percentage of students identified as children with disabilities, the performance indicator certainly affected district policies and procedures relating to the identification of children with disabilities," said Kimberly Richey, the department's acting assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services.

TEA eliminated the policy two months after the Chronicle's investigation. In May, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law prohibiting the use of performance indicators based solely on the number of students receiving special education services.

WORK REMAINS: Major strides made on special ed in session, but much work remains ahead

Steven Aleman, a policy specialist with Disability Rights Texas, said the federal government's findings come as "no surprise" to parents and advocates.

"Texas students with disabilities who have been ignored and shunned by the special education system have some measure of validation today," Aleman said. "The Commissioner of Education must immediately embrace the corrective actions required by the U.S. Department of Education and take additional steps, in collaboration with stakeholders, to ensure that all students who were previously denied special education services now rightfully receive compensatory services."

Department of Education officials also found other violations, including the use of alternative programs.

Several school districts in Texas have employed "Response to Intervention," an approach that involves addressing learning barriers in a mainstream classroom, rather than through special education programs.

While the Department of Education allows RTI, schools cannot require teachers to try it before referring a student for special ed.

But the department found schools in Texas were doing just that, saying there is a "general understanding" among educators that students were required to complete RTI before offering special education services.

The education department ordered the TEA to implement several corrective action measures. The state must show that it is monitoring the way districts evaluate students suspected of having a disability to ensure schools are providing students a "free appropriate public education," a tenet of federal special education laws.

Schools must provide special education evaluations to students that were previously denied services. For students that already receive special ed, educators may need to determine if those students need more academic support.

The state must also submit a plan, including a timeline, for how it will train educators on RTI, the state's dyslexia program and other special education laws.

"While there is still more work to be done, leaders in the state have assured me they are committed to ensuring all students with disabilities can achieve their full potential," DeVos said.

The department did not lay out a specific date for when it expects to see the state's plan, but the governor wants it within seven days, as well as potential legislative recommendations to ensure schools are following special education laws.

"Throughout your tenure, you have advised me of changes taking place at TEA to strengthen and better support special education in Texas," Abbott said to Morath in the letter. "Through your efforts, much has already been done. However, it is obvious that more can be done, and more must be done."

Alejandra Matos covers politics, education and immigration policy. Follow her on Twitter. Send tips to alejandra.matos@chron.com.

***

DENIED: In 2004, Texas arbitrarily decided what percentage of students should get special education services. Today, tens of thousands of children are paying the price. Click here to read our award-winning investigation.

Part 1: How Texas keeps tens of thousands of children out of special education

Part 2: Schools push students out of special education to meet state limit

Part 3: Mentally ill lose out as special ed declines

Part 4: Texas schools shut non-English speakers out of special ed

Part 5: Unable to get special education in Texas, one family moved

Part 6: Houston schools systematically block disabled kids from special ed

Part 7: Special ed cap drives families out of public schools
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (3rd L) attends the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 10, 2018. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Li Keqiang co-chaired the meeting, which also brought together Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Myanmar Vice President U Myint Swe. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday called on five nations living on the Lancang-Mekong River to consolidate political will and deepen economic ties to promote regional peace and sustainable development.

China is willing to work with others to strengthen the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) as China benefits from regional stability and its neighbors are beneficiaries of China's economic vitality, Li said at the second LMC leaders' meeting held in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

With a theme of "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development", the meeting brings leaders of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the table, discussing issues such as connectivity, water management and industrial production capacity.

The LMC mechanism has produced better-than-expected progress over the past two years as the countries moved forward with the principle of equality, inclusiveness and put development as a priority.

With progress and results delivered daily, monthly and annually, a truly remarkable LMC speed has been created, and a defining LMC culture featuring equality, sincerity, mutual assistance and kinship has been established, Li said.

The Chinese premier made five proposals to secure shared future for the LMC countries as he said he believed they will become the biggest and earliest beneficiaries of China's development.

He called for stronger coordination among countries along the Lancang-Mekong River on water resource management, accommodating each other's concern, and properly handling the relations between economic development and environmental protection.

In his speech, Li also urged to map out a five-year action plan for water resource cooperation, enhance emergency management on droughts and floods, carry out joint research on water resource and climate change, and improve water quality monitoring system.

Regarding capacity cooperation in water conservancy infrastructure and other areas, Li said China encourages companies to participate in the construction of hydropower stations, reservoir, irrigation and drinking-water projects in Lancang-Mekong countries.

He proposed to nail down plans for those countries' connectivity and action plans for capacity cooperation, and push forward the construction of economic and trade cooperation zones as well as cross-border economic cooperation zones.

To expand agricultural cooperation, Li said China backs its companies to tie up with their partners in Lancang-Mekong countries on the deep processing of agricultural products and the joint development of the third markets.

China is willing to deepen cooperation with Lancang-Mekong countries in agricultural technology and build platforms for technology exchange, joint research as well as investment and trade cooperation, said the premier.

Meanwhile, Li called for upgrading human resource cooperation. China will offer short-term training and in-service education for 2,000 people in Lancang-Mekong countries and 100 four-year scholarships for undergraduates in 2018, he said.

He also urged to facilitate medical and public health cooperation. China is willing to set up mechanism with relevant countries in prevention and control of infectious diseases, carry out cross-border projects on prevention and control of such diseases, and build a network for malaria elimination, Li said.

The six countries also adopted two major documents, namely the Five-Year Action Plan (2018-2022) and the Phnom Penh Declaration at this year's meeting.

In the declaration, the leaders stressed the vision and importance of the LMC in contributing to the socio-economic development of sub-regional countries and enhancing the well-being of their peoples, narrowing the development gap among countries, supporting the ASEANCommunity building as well as advancing South-South cooperation and enhancing the implementation of the United Nations2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The meeting, co-chaired by Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and the Chinese premier, also released the second batch of cooperative projects and reports of the six Joint Working Groups on the key priority areas.

Initiated by China in 2014, the framework spans connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, and agriculture and poverty reduction, benefiting dozens of millions of people living on the waterway.

The first LMC leaders' meeting was held in Sanya of China's Hainan Province in March 2016, when the goal of building a community of shared future of peace and prosperity for the LMC countries was endorsed.

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwest China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg(not seen in picture) at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Jan 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Shen Ting)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Washington could "conceivably" re-enter into the global Paris climate agreement, from which he announced the withdrawal last year.

At a news conference with Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, Trump said: "We could conceivably go back in."

However, he insisted that Paris Agreement, which the international community signed in 2015 with the aim of combating climate change by limiting global temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius, was "a bad deal" and "very unfair" to the United States.

"The Paris Accord really would have taken away our competitive edge, and we're not going to let that happen. I'm not going to let that happen," he added.

Trump's words may mean that his position was actually unchanged from a year ago.

Trump's decision in June last year to pull the United States out of the landmark global accord has sparked a wave of anger and dismay at home and also a chorus of disapproval abroad.
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SEOUL, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump saw possibility for the ongoing talks between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leading to a dialogue between the United Statesand the DPRK, multiple local media reports said Wednesday.

Moon and Trump had a telephone conversation for about half an hour from 10 p.m. local time (1300 GMT), agreeing to strengthen cooperation between the two allies, according to local media citing Seoul's presidential Blue House.

It marked the ninth phone talks between the two presidents since Moon took office in May 2017. During last week's phone conversation, Moon and Trump agreed not to conduct the springtime South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises during the South Korea-hosted Winter Olympics period.

South Korea and the DPRK held the first high-level talks in about two years Tuesday, agreeing to hold a separate dialogue on military affairs. The DPRK agreed to send its athletes and cheering squads to the 2018 Winter Olympics scheduled to kick off on Feb. 9 at South Korea's eastern county of PyeongChang.

During the phone conversation, Moon and Trump saw a possibility that the inter-Korean talks can lead to the U.S.-DPRK dialogue for the denuclearized Korean Peninsula beyond the DPRK's participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Trump said he would be open to talks, if the DPRK wants it, at an appropriate time and under right situations.

The U.S. president noted that there would be no military action while the inter-Korean talks go on, dismissing the U.S. media's speculation.

Trump said in last week's phone talks with Moon that he supported the inter-Korean dialogue.
Danville, WV (25053)

Today

Cloudy. Snow showers developing this afternoon. Temps nearly steady in the mid to upper 30s. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low around 25F. Winds light and variable.
People's Education Press on Wednesday refuted rumors that the chapter on Cultural Revolution was deleted from eighth-grade history textbooks, saying the contents would be included in the spring semester textbook, to be published in March.

"Someone posted online claiming the new history textbook will delete the chapter on Cultural Revolution which drew attention from internet users. The situation is that the second volume of the national history textbook for the eighth grade will teach the Cultural Revolution as a main theme in a chapter called 'arduous exploration and development achievement.' The textbook will be put into use in the spring semester in March," read a statement released by People's Education Press late on Wednesday.

Net user jiangshitang released a post on his Sina Weibo on Wednesday claiming that the new edition history textbook would delete the Cultural Revolution.

The post was deleted as of press time.

The post triggered heated discussions among net users with some commenting that"the historical lessons should not be forgotten."

The statement said the arrangements were in accordance with the new writing style. The Cultural Revolution is divided into six parts including the background, procedure and damage. The second part noted the shock to some Communist Party institutions including the struggle and suffering of large groups of Party leaders and scholars. And the sixth part mentioned the enormous losses for society.

"We appreciate the public concern about the national history textbooks. We have opened a platform on our website to collect public opinions and their suggestions for the textbooks for primary and middle schools. We will give an accurate reply to people's questions if you contact us," the statement read.
A total of 23 former officials at provincial level or above were put under investigation by Chinese prosecution authorities in 2017, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Wednesday.

Since October 2014, 34 of the 100 fugitives who are wanted by China and are the subject of an Interpol red notice have either been captured or persuaded to turn themselves in, the SPP said.

China has cooperated with a number of countries to hunt down fugitives suspected of involvement in corruption. Many of the fugitives were former government officials or employees of state-owned enterprises.

Since 2017, 1,300 fugitives have returned to China, including 347 Party members and state functionaries, as well as 14 who are Interpol red notice suspects.
MARTINSVILLE-Power bills in Henry County could be dropping over the next few months, thanks to an order from the Virginia State Corporation Commission. SCC officials said they wanted to make sure customers of Virginias major public utilities get the benefits of legislation Congress passed last month cutting the federal corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

The tax cut, effective Jan. 1, 2018, reduces the cost of service for Virginias major electric, gas and water utilities, one of which is Appalachian Power Co, according to an State Corporation Commission news release and Ken Schrad, SCC spokesman. Utility rates that customers pay are based on cost of service.

The State Corporation Commission ordered Monday that all applicable public utilities -- companies that pay federal taxes  account for the tax savings by accruing a regulatory liability on the utilitys books. This does not apply to municipalities -- such as Martinsvilles electric department -- which do not pay federal taxes.

The State Corporation Commissions order says, in part: Virginias electric, natural gas, and water utilities that are subject to the Act (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017) will be eligible to receive the substantial corporate tax rate cut contained therein. Federal tax costs incurred by these utilities are generally recovered from customers as part of the utilitys cost of service. A corporate tax rate cut therefore will benefit customers by reducing the utilitys cost of service,

By requiring applicable Virginia utilities to account for the tax savings by accruing a regulatory liability on the utilitys books, the tax savings will be quantified (or put into numbers) and available to be passed on to customers in subsequent rate proceedings, according to the SCC.

John Shepelwich, a spokesman for Appalachian Power, referred to regulatory liability as an accounting placeholder.

The SCCs order stated, This regulatory accounting recognition of cost of service savings will serve to protect the interests of customers until such time as the federal tax benefits can be appropriately reflected in customers rates.

Shepelwich said, We want customers to get  what is rightfully theirs.

Besides Appalachian Power Co., the other utilities subject to this SCC directive include: Virginia-American Water Co.; Aqua Virginia Inc.; Washington Gas Light Co.; Columbia Gas of Virginia Inc.; Virginia Natural Gas Inc.; Roanoke Gas Co.; Atmos Energy Corp.; Southwestern Virginia Gas Co.; Appalachian Natural Gas Distribution Co.; Kentucky Utilities Co.; and Virginia Electric and Power Co. (a subsidiary of Dominion Energy).

In December, State Corporation Commission staff told legislators who serve on the General Assemblys Commission on Electric Utility Regulation that cutting the federal income tax rate to 20 percent would save Appalachian Power about $80 million a year and Dominion Energy Virginia about $165 million a year. However, Congress ultimately set the corporate tax rate at 21 percent.

Those dollar figures are still in the ball park, Schrad said he believes.

Shepelwich questions those dollar amounts

We dont think thats the correct amount. We dont know what it is, Shepelwich said. Dominion is about five times larger than Appalachian.

Both Schrad and Shepelwich said they could not project at this point how much money individual customers might save as a result of the federal tax legislation.

Shepelwich said that if nothing changes under current Virginia law, Appalachian would undergo a base rate review in 2020.

In 2015 the General Assembly passed and Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed legislation freezing the base rates of Appalachian Power and Dominion Virginia Power and suspending the SCC biennial review of earnings during a transitional period ending Dec. 31, 2019 for Dominion and ending Dec. 31, 2017, for Appalachian.

Thus, the company could not seek a base rate increase, the SCC could not order a base rate reduction, nor could the SCC do a biennial review to determine if customers were due a rate credit resulting from any over-earnings, if proven, Schrad said. These SCC proceedings would have been fully litigated involving multiple parties. So, the actual outcome is pure speculation.

Schrad said heres how Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general, described it in a letter to the editor with the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Dec. 29, 2017:  in September, the SCC noted that absent a recent decision by the General Assembly, ratepayers would have enjoyed refunds of between $133 million and $175 million. That same report estimated Dominion Energy was collecting up to $426 million more per year than it needed to provide its service and make a fair profit. If that number held up after a full rate case, it could lead to a big rate reduction.

Cuccinelli added, Dominion has dominated the General Assembly for too long. Its time to turn electric rate-making back to the SCC completely.

Appalachian Power reported earnings for 2016 which showed revenues above the authorized rate of return of approximately $22.66 million," Schrad said. "The credit to APCo customers was not calculated because it is on a different two-year cycle. So, it will depend on what the company reports for calendar year 2017, the second year of its biennial review. It is possible the company is not in an over-earnings position in 2017.

Schrad added: Remember, under Virginia law, if the Commission finds there are excess earnings during a biennial review (currently suspended), the Commission may order that 70% of those over-earnings be returned to customers in the form of a credit/refund.

Virginia Sen. J. Chapman Petersen, Democrat of Fairfax, has introduced a bill for the 2018 session that would move up Appalachian Powers next biennial rate review from 2020 to 2018 and would move up Virginia Electric and Power (Dominion)s next biennial review from 2022 to 2019.

Shepelwich said Appalachian Power representatives have been talking with officials of the State Corporation Commission and legislators since November since it looked like federal tax reform would become reality. He said Appalachian certainly will comply with regulations put into place.

Shepelwich noted that the federal tax legislation enacted last month was effective Jan. 1, 2018, and is a forward-looking thing, not retroactive for previous payments.

Appalachian has about half a million customers in Virginia, he said.
MARTINSVILLE  The City Council will consider three people to fill a seat recently vacated on the Martinsville School Board.

During a public hearing at Tuesday nights council meeting, city resident James Hyler voiced interest in the seat. Council members said they also have heard from Sammy Redd and Efigenia Cuenca Mota who expressed interest.

On Jan. 23, council members will privately interview the candidates before publicly announcing their pick for the seat.

Whoever is chosen will succeed Andy Hall, who recently resigned from the school board.

Under state law, only people who state their names during a public hearing, or have someone else state their names, can be considered for appointment to school board seats.

Hyler is a retired employee of the U.S. Department of Education. He briefly told the council that he wants to be part of continuing efforts to make improvements in Martinsvilles schools.

Redd is student services coordinator for the New College Institute. Cuenca Mota, a businesswoman, made an unsuccessful bid for a city council seat in 2016.

Unlike in many localities  such as Henry County  where school boards are elected by voters, the Martinsville School Board is appointed by the council.

Referring to the process of appointing school board members, City Attorney Eric Monday told council members you all have been through this rodeo many times this past year.

Three times, actually.

Board member and former vice chairman Lawrence Mitchell resigned in August, citing irreconcilable differences with Chairwoman Joan Montgomery and other members. Mitchell also has said he thinks the relationship between the council and its appointed board is too political.

After being appointed to replace Mitchell, Hall was on the school board from October to December. He was the citys deputy commonwealths attorney at the time. He resigned from the seat after he was named commonwealths attorney to succeed the late Clay Gravely, who had resigned as the citys top prosecutor due to health problems.

State law allows deputy commonwealths attorneys, who are hired, to serve on local boards. It prohibits commonwealths attorneys, who usually are elected, from doing so.

In June, Tonya Jones was appointed to the school board. Jones, a Martinsville resident, is an assistant principal at McMichael High School near Mayodan, N.C. She succeeded Victor Correa, who the council chose not to reappoint to the board. Correa once had been the boards chairman.

Whoever succeeds Hall will fill the remaining months of his  and previously Mitchells  unexpired term that ends June 30. He or she then will be eligible for appointment to a full three-year term.

Also Tuesday, the council learned that the city will hold another Citizens Academy from 6-8 p.m. on Thursdays from Feb. 1 through Feb. 22. The academy gives area residents an inside look at how the citys operations function.

Anyone interested in participating in the academy can call Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Wayne Knox at 403-5169 or email him at wknox@ci.martinsville.va.us for more information.

The council appointed Karen Garrett and Carol Kendrick to the Anchor Group Home Commission and Michael Law and John Tripp Smith to the Martinsville Transportation Safety Commission.

A scheduled discussion concerning the citys telecommunications operations was postponed until the Jan. 23 council meeting.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron visit the Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City, in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 9, 2018. The French president is paying a state visit to China from Monday to Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhou Gaoliang)

BRUSSELS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Upon concluding his successful visit to China, a short video showing French President Emmanuel Macron learning Mandarin endeared him to the Chinese people and demonstrated in full detail of what said he would bring to China in building a new relationship.

Determination and humility, the words he said in an interview ahead of the visit, were widely perceived by the Chinese people, not least in the video of his grappling with the Mandarin pronunciation of "make the planet great again" -- a tongue-in-cheek jab at U.S. President Donald Trump's "Make America Great" campaign slogan.

Macron was humble to try the guest's language and determined to properly execute Mandarin's difficult tones. And he succeeded.

During a tour of the Forbidden City in Beijing, he also made clear his open-mindedness: "We are here too with a lot of humility and curiosity. Humility, because you can't pretend to have it figured out in such a short amount of time. This visit allows us to pick up a little bit of the place and the depth of Chinese civilization."

The attitude, a stark contrast with the arrogance and condescendence that are sometimes seen in Western power's diplomacy, was one of the crucial factors to nurturing trust and friendship in China.

Being the first European Unionmember state leader to visit China since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which ushered in a new era for the Chinese people, and against a background of uncertainties in Germanyand Brexit, Macron's diplomacy set a fine example for his European colleagues, not only in style but also in content.

He said Francewould like to take an active part in the Belt and Road Initiative, echoing China's key proposal to seek common prosperity in the international community.

Macron also pledged to work with China to address common challenges of the international community, championing globalization and multilateralism -- when it's most needed. Populism and nationalism with a strong protectionist flavor is not a solution to the problems that the world -- including Europe -- is facing.

An open global economy with a level playing field and an economic globalization process that is more transparent, inclusive and balanced brings benefits to all. The liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment should be, as China and France did, reaffirmed.

France, a permanent member of the United NationsSecurity Council, is seen by China as a country of importance; one with which it is able to coordinate with on major international issues in the hope of promoting world stability and prosperity.

Neither a global policeman nor a global leadership vacuum is desired when there are so many global challenges.

And of course there is the issue of climate change, where China and France vow to stay the course. Macron, who is a well-known advocate for the environment, will find a stable partner in China, which has been cleaning up its own environment at an unprecedented scale.

Together, the two countries can help "make our planet great again."
Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in early July. Many of the details surrounding his assassination are still shrouded in mystery. While 27 suspects have been arrested and a total of 44 have been detainedincluding four police officers and 18 former Colombian soldiersthere remain many questions, including who organized the assassination and why.
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AGAWAM -- Bankrupt Southworth Paper Co. is selling its Agawam plant for $1.88 million to investors from Adams. The city of Agawam has first claim on $140,000 it's owed by Southworth.

Papers field this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Springfield detail the sale. Southworth needed court permission to transfer its assets after filing in September for federal bankruptcy protection.

Southworth abruptly shut down its operations in August 2017, saying it could no longer get financing. The company, in business for 178 years, had 120 employees in Agawam, the Turners Falls section of Montague, and Seattle.

Southworth once boasted that President Abraham Lincoln used its paper to accept Stephen Douglas' invitation to debate.

The Bankruptcy Court has already approved the sale of Southworth's former paper mill in Turners Falls for $4 million, said attorney Joseph B. Collins of Hendel & Collins in Springfield. He represents Southworth in its bankruptcy.

According to papers in Bankruptcy Court, Southworth sold the Turners Falls mill, 36 Canal St., in 2017 to SBD Greentech, a Maine corporation with offices in New York City. Included in the sale are the mill's equipment, remaining stock and its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license to create hydro power from the Turners Falls Canal.

The buyers in Agawam, PCT Realty Ventures LLC, are not buying Southworth's leftover equipment there, Collins said.

On Wednesday, Southworth asked for court permission to sell two die cutters used to cut paper to Mohawk Fine Papers of Cohoes, New York, for $150,000. Mohawk has an envelope factory in South Hadley.

At the end of its life, Southworth had the mill in Turners Falls, where it made paper, and the warehouse and converting facility in Agawam, where it took rolls of paper and cut it in to usable sizes. The company also made envelopes there.

The leased Seattle offices were for a greeting card and note card subsidiary.

The company sold its Southworth-brand line of office paper to Neenah Paper of Wisconsin in 2012.

PCT Realty, buyers of the Agawam plant, is a partnership between Peter R. West and Corey J. Bishop of Adams and Tyler Nepote of Kansas.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Bishop said he wouldn't talk about PCT's plans for the Agawam property. But he said he and his partners own a number of industrial properties in the Berkshires. West and Bishop are real estate agents and own Bishop West Team Real Estate in Adams.

The Agawam plant, which includes a 146,000-square-foot building and 21 acres of land at 265 Main St., is zoned for industrial uses.

Southworth has two tenants in the building now, Collins said. He wouldn't say what they do. But when Southworth shut operations in August, much of the facility was being used to store empty cartons for Friendly's manufacturing operations in Wilbraham. On Wednesday there were trailers stored in part of the parking lot and passenger cars and trucks parked near an employee entrance.

Collins said Southworth has to pay off any debts owed municipalities in order for new owners to take title. It's paying the town of Montague $275,000 as that sale closes.

At this time, Southworth said it owes Agawam $128,000 in unpaid taxes, water and sewer charges and other municipal claims. Southworth's lawyers estimate that a municipal lien from Agawam will grow to $140,000 by the time the sale is final, which might not be until March 15.

Once Agawam is paid, Southworth also has to pay $50,000 in legal fees before it can pay its other creditors with money from both the Agawam and Turners Falls sales.

Southworth also owes Byline Bank $2.28 million and a lender called ACF $814,000.

Anything left over goes to the debtor, in this case Southworth, which still faces claims by other unsecured creditors including liens on the Turners Falls property placed by suppliers and contractors.

Agawam Mayor William Sapelli, in office for just two weeks, said the sale is good news. He had been curious what would become of the parcel, which is located among some major town employers.

Bankruptcy Court previously gave Southworth permission to pay employees who were owed for their last paycheck as well as benefits, sick time and vacation time. Those payments are in process, according to court documents.

A further hearing in Bankruptcy Court is set for Feb. 15.
Country star Miranda Lambert will partner with country band Little Big Town for a co-headliningg tour this summer that will include stops in Hartford, CT and the Boston area.

The tour stops at The Xfinity Theatre in Hartford on July 20 and moves on to the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, MA on July 21.

The joint effort is being referred to as "The Bandwagon Tour."

Lambert is currently supporting her "Weight of These Wings" double album and Little Big Town has a Grammy nomination for its current release "Breaker."

The group will play Mohegan Sun Arena on Feb. 23. Tickets are not yet on dale but fans can sign up at the artists' websites for notification.
An airline has apologized to passengers on a flight out of Boston after several were threatened with arrest for recording their interactions with airline employees.

Two hours after passengers were seated on their Porter Airlines flight from Boston to Toronto Friday evening, they were told to return to the terminal within Boston Logan International Airport due to a mechanical issue within the plane.

Back inside the terminal, customers wanted answers. Their flight had been canceled and they would be stuck in Boston until Monday. As Porter Airlines officials spoke, several passengers pulled out their phones and began recording as discussions became heated.

An airline employee threatened to have a customer arrested, a discussion recorded on the above video, if he did not delete the recording made on his smartphone.

"Okay, call the cops," a passenger is heard saying. "You're going to arrest us for taking a video? Call the cops. Do it right now."

In response, the airline employee said, "Don't make it worse."

Porter, a regional airline headquartered in Toronto, has issued an apology to customers and said the incident was due to a misunderstanding.

"In this particular case, there was a misunderstanding by the team member involved that taking video at this particular airport beyond the security checkpoint was not permitted," said Brad Cicero, spokesperson for Porter Airlines, told Global News. "In fact, the prohibition applies to secure airport areas and security screening. He didn't realize the distinction at the time, but we have advised the team members involved for future reference. While the request to stop filming or delete footage was incorrect, the intention was only to try and enforce what was believed to be an airport policy."
Credit: The Ward Family (SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas) -- A little boy who was shot in the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church massacre is set to return home Thursday -- riding through town on a fire truck -- after more than two months in the hospital.



On Nov. 5, a gunman stormed the rural First Baptist Church, leaving 26 dead, according to police, who have included an unborn child in the death count. The attack was deemed the worst mass shooting in Texas history.



Among the injured was now-6-year-old Ryland Ward, who was shot several times.



Volunteer firefighter Rusty Duncan was a first responder that day, and he told ABC News he was the one who found Ryland and pulled him to safety.



Once he rushed inside the church, he went through the aisles and "started checking for people's pulses," Duncan said. "That's where Ryland's hand reached out from under his stepmom and grabbed my pant leg. I rolled her over and grabbed him and started running outside with him."



"As soon as we got him outside, his dad [Chris Ward] ran up to me and said, 'They killed my baby.' "And I told his dad, 'No, he's not dead, he's still alive,'" Duncan said. "Unfortunately his wife and two girls were actually gone."



Chris Ward's wife and Ryland's stepmother, Joann Lookingbill Ward, was among the dead, as well as Joann Lookingbill Ward's daughters, Brooke Bryanne Ward, 5, and Emily Garcia, 7.



Ryland was rushed to the hospital and soon the young boy's mother reached out to Duncan, the firefighter said.



"I met with her and talked to her then I was actually able to go to the hospital and see him for the first time," about a week after the shooting, Duncan said.



"He was heavily sedated," Duncan said, going through "surgery after surgery."



Duncan said he continued to visit the little boy at the hospital, including this week.



"He's doing great," Duncan said. "He walked for me for the first time. Of course with my help, but he walked."



Ryland's grandmother, Sandy Ward, told ABC News, Ryland is trying to walk but keeps dragging his left foot. He has 15 percent use of his left hip, she said.



"He's a character," Duncan said. "This little boy has the best fighting spirit I've ever seen out of anybody in my entire life. He's kept me going this whole time. Even when I was giving up ... just thinking about him and being around him makes me smile."



The "fighting spirit" turned 6 while he was in the hospital.



According to University Hospital, Ryland is the facility's final patient from the Sutherland Springs shooting.



According to his grandmother, Ryland has inspired everyone.



"It's just a miracle he survived and is doing as well as he is," Sandy Ward said. "We're just excited to get him to come home."

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Washington (People's Daily) -- US President Donald Trump may extend economic sanction relief to Iran after Tehrans recent progress on amending US legislation on the 2015 nuclear accord, according to an Associated Press (AP) report on Wednesday.

But the possible relief extension could bring newer sanctions targeted at Iranians and businesses.

Sanction deadline is Friday, and failure to meet the scheduled due date would automatically jeopardize the Obama-era nuclear agreement.

Sources close to the issue willing to comment anonymously expressed concerns that Trump could still reject the recommendation from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and security adviser H.R. McMaster.
Washington (People's Daily) - An official White House statement confirmed that US President Donald Trump told South Koreas President, Moon Jae-in, he would be willing to participate in multi-party talks with Seoul and Pyongyang to help ease peninsula tension if an opportunity arises.

An official statement said that Trump had expressed his openness to holding talks between the United States and North Korea at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances.

It was revealed that US Vice President Mike Pence would lead the American delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next month.

The two leaders underscored the importance of continuing the maximum pressure campaign against North Korea, said the official statement.

Information on when the right time would be for a multi-party roundtable between the countries was not mentioned in the statement.
[File photo]

Indonesian authorities on Tuesday called for a review of the countrys Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway project, noting that the torpid construction schedule is not being caused by Chinese investors, but by the Indonesian government itself.

Its not a financing issue. The problem is with ourselves, and we need to know, for example, whether a high-speed rail link between Bandung and Jakarta, which are only 140 kilometers apart, is a necessary project, said Maritime Affairs Coordinating Minister Luhut Pinsar Pandjaitan on Tuesday as reported by the Jakarta Post.

According to Luhut, China, as the major investor in the project, is still committed to the agreement, which had already been signed by the governments of both countries. He also noted that the government would evaluate the project as requested by President Joko Widodo, while the evaluation would be completed within a month.

[File photo]

The evaluation is the Indonesian governments latest response to public doubts regarding the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, which is a joint project signed by China and Indonesia. As the projects land acquisition makes slow progress, many locals have shown their discontent over the stagnant project.

The governments decision to evaluate the project might be a good thing. The Chinese side has done everything to ensure that the project runs smoothly. The problem lies with the Indonesian government, which is inefficient and heel-dragging, said Liu Quanning, a Chinese worker in Jakarta.

According to the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia, the Jakarta-Bandung railway is Chinas first attempt to promote a complete set of its high-speed railway system and is an icon for Chinas Belt and Road Initiative.

The Chinese side has attached great importance to the project. Just 10 days after his arrival to Indonesia, Xiao Qian, Chinas new ambassador to Indonesia, visited the projects construction site on Jan. 8, urging Chinese companies to accelerate the project and complete it as soon as possible.

Though the evaluation has caused uneasy feelings among the Chinese community in Indonesia in fear of a possible change or even cancellation of the project, Luhut promised that there was no change to the financing scheme, as the funding would still come from China as previously agreed.

We have to respect the agreement, he was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.

Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, a 142-km-long railway project, is the first such project in Indonesia, as well as in the region of Southeast Asia. Once complete, it will shorten the traveling time between the two cities from three hours to 40 minutes and spur economic activities along the line.
Idaho is severely lacking in doctors, and many of its existing ones are nearing retirement age, Dr. Ted Epperly told lawmakers Wednesday as he presented the states new 10-year plan to increase graduate medical education in the state.

"Were 49th out of 50," Epperly said, both in the number of doctors per-capita and in the number of medical residents per capita. "This plays out in terms of not having ready access to care, especially in rural and frontier areas across our state."

If the plan is enacted as proposed, Idaho would move up from 49th in the nation to 41st in 10 years. The state Board of Education is recommending that it launch this year.

By Betsy Z. Russell

[email protected]

(208) 336-2854

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/jan/10/idaho-lawmakers-mull-ambitious-plan-to-address-sta/
What are rural Montana communities doing to respond to a growing economy in the cities without much evidence of that growth in their communities? What can they do to help their residents weather the economic winter? And what could they learn from other communities?

For the next six months, a group of journalists from western Montana, supported by High Country News http://www.hcn.org/ and the Solutions Journalism Network https://www.solutionsjournalism.org/, will dig into the question. This project is funded by the LOR Foundation http://lorfoundation.org/ .

Erika Fredrickson

http://missoulanews.com/coverstory/with-missoula-s-remaining-agricultural-land-threatened-by-development-can/article_cb469d6a-f642-11e7-9979-ff25c24af850.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

***

Can rural towns stem the trend of population decline? http://www.matr.net/article-80799.html

***

LOR FOUNDATION

We partner with rural communities in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming with a focus on improving livability and quality of life through community-driven solutions. http://lorfoundation.org/

***

HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

for people who care about the West

http://www.hcn.org/

***

SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM

We train and connect journalists to cover whats missing in todays news: how people are responding to problems.

Were working to bring solutions journalism to every newsroom worldwide. https://www.solutionsjournalism.org/

***
Small-town Choteau, Montana, is working to find answers to the question that is plaguing 23 of the states counties.

Melody Martinsen/Choteau Acantha

http://www.hcn.org/articles/the-montana-gap-can-rural-towns-stem-the-trend-of-population-decline

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Montana Economic Developers Association Resource Team Assessments

What is a Resource Team?

Sponsored by Montana Department of Commerce with coordination by Montana Economic Developers Association and your local Certified Regional Development Corporation, Resource Teams are

a county and/or community based planning and assessment process involving interviewing a large number of people

in the community, recording their suggestions and having a team of experts write-up implementation plans for

county/community use. The critical focus is the community.

The team of experts suggests ways of accomplishing the goals of the community.

http://www.medamembers.org/meda/resources/resource-team-assessments/

***

The challenges of urban economic growth vs. rural stagnation in the West. What can communities learn from each other? http://www.matr.net/article-80798.html
City posted opening online this week after longtime Chief Roger Nasset retired

The job description http://www.kalispell.com/human_resources/documents/PoliceChief.pdf asks that applicants have at least seven years of police experience, including five years as a sergeant or higher rank. The new chief will be paid between $83,926 and $107,432, depending on experience.

By Justin Franz
Two University of Montana Regents Professors recently were recognized as Highly Cited Researchers on the 2017 list of "The Worlds Most Influential Scientific Minds."

The publication, released in December by Clarivate Analytics, lists UM Regents Professor of Ecology Ragan Callaway and recently retired UM Regents Professor of Ecology Steve Running under its Environment/Ecology section.

https://news.umt.edu/2018/01/011018mind.php
Missoula County is recruiting a new generation of election judges and we are asking our community leaders for their help. Missoula voters have made it clear that they want to vote in-person at their neighborhood polling place. This opportunity cannot be provided without election judges.

As a business owner, we would be humbled and appreciative if you would be willing to encourage your staff to consider becoming an election judge. A representative from the Missoula County Elections Office can make a brief a presentation to staff members regarding this process and what it means to be an election judge. The Elections Office can also provide you with materials to share with employees.

What is an election judge?

 Election judges are a critical component to local democracy.

 Judges greet voters at polling places, distribute ballots and operate equipment. They may help with delivery or ballot drop-off, and assist with tabulation.

What is required of an election judge?

 Attend training.

* Basic training is about three hours and there are a variety of class dates throughout February. Most training sessions are held at the Missoula County Fairgrounds.

 Work the June Primary and the November General Election.

 Judges may work a full or a half-day shift and typically work at their neighborhood polling place.

 Judges are paid for training and their service on Election Day.

Businesses supporting election judges are encouraged to their promote service and support for employees on social media, in employee newsletters, etc.

For additional information please call 258-4751 or visit http://www.MissoulaElectionJudge.com.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have about this process or what you can do to help ensure fair, honest and transparent elections in our community.

Thank you in advance for your consideration to Give a Day for Democracy.
Chinese authorities have established an online suggestion box to solicit public opinion regarding plastic pollution management, as the effects of the countrys decade-long ban on free plastic bags has been waning thin in recent years.

The online suggestion box, which was created by Chinas National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and posted on its official website, will collect public opinion from Jan. 5 to Jan. 31. Netizens are invited to make suggestions on how to efficiently ban or limit the use of plastic products, as well as on the establishment of new regulations of plastic pollution management.

China issued its first national ban on free plastic bags in 2007. The ban prevents supermarkets and shops from handing out free plastic bags to customers in an effort to reduce energy consumption and protect the environment. It also prohibits the production and sale of bags thinner than 0.025 mm.

The measure has, to some extent, reduced plastic pollution in China. According to Peoples Daily, 700,000 tons of shopping plastic bags were used in 2015, compared to a million in 2007. Less than 800,000 tons of shopping plastic bags was used per annum in the intervening years.

But the use of plastic bags has skyrocketed in recent years following the emergence of Chinas delivery and take-out food industry, putting public focus on the efficiency of the free plastic ban. According to Peoples Daily, Chinas delivery industry consumed over 14.7 billion plastic bags in 2017, while plastic food container and package have also been used excessively.

He Lifeng, director of NDRC, told media in November 2017 that the government will conduct further research into plastic pollution management and make new policies to limit the use of non-degradable plastic packaging among newly emerging industries, including e-commerce and take-out food and delivery.
Going to school isnt hard. My classmates told me my hair was completely covered in snow and then I made a face at them, said Wang Fuman, the boy who touched many hearts for trekking to school in freezing colder weather on Jan 8.

Wangs father, Gangkui, a 28-year-old migrant worker, is the only wage earner in the family. He supports the family with a monthly income of over 2,000 yuan ($307).

The family also raises two pigs as an additional source of income. After school, Fuman is in charge of attending the pigs.

After the boys story went viral, the family received many calls from warmhearted people across the country, wanting to offer the poor family a hand.

The father didnt refuse the help. I gave them our address and my phone number. I really appreciate their help, he said.

The boy, who is good at math, said when he grows up, he wants to become a policeman to catch bad guys, or a scientist.

The family will move into a new house built by the local government soon. They said the new one is much closer to the school.

Like Wang, many children in the rural areas of Zhaotong, Yunnan Province, are impoverished.

On Wednesday, local provincial authorities and a youth development fund launched a program to provide winter clothes to Wang and other children in the area. About 100,000 yuan (about $15,000) of charitable donations has been sent to Wangs school and other nearby schools.

Each of the 81 students at Wangs school received 500 yuan as winter heating allowance.

Wang became known by more people after a picture of him with his hair covered in ice after hour-long walk to classes in freezing temperatures was widely shared on social media.

Wang had walked 4.5 kilometers (about 2.8 miles) from his home to school when his teacher took that now famous photograph.
Chinese authorities have approved a plan to build a radio telescope in Qitai, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, noting that it will be the worlds largest fully steerable single-dish radio telescope upon completion.

The construction of Xinjiang Qitai 110 Radio Telescope (QT), which intends to operate at 150MHz to 115 GHz, will be operated under the leadership of Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). According to Thepaper.cn, the construction plan was approved by Chinas National Development and Reform Commission on December 26, 2017, and will be used to study gravitational waves, black holes, and dark matter.

QT will be able to scan three quarters of the sky, including the center of our Galaxy. It will become Chinas only universal radio telescope, as well as a unique astro-observation center, Zheng Yongchun, a research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Thepaper.cn.

The project is part of the 13th Five Year Plan of Xinjiang Autonomous Region and the related plan of CAS. Meanwhile, the Qitai site has fully entered into the construction phase.

China has been making great progress in outer space exploration in recent years. The country has built the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in Guizhou province in 2016, the worlds largest filled-aperture radio telescope.
A total of 13,200 tons of imported waste mixed up with imported garbage was inspected and returned by Ningbo in 2017, topping all other Chinese ports, according to the Ningbo Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, China News reported.

The bureau says that a total of 42,200 tons of imported waste to be used as raw materials worth $4.71 billion were inspected by the port, among which 13,200 tons was mixed up with illegally imported garbage worth $20.12 million. The waste was all returned by the port.

The main reason for the large number is that overseas shippers are not familiar with Chinas policy and laws on the import of waste as raw materials and their efforts to reduce relevant sorting costs, so that they usually turn a blind eye on waste exports to China.

Developed countries including the U.S., the Netherlands, Germany, and Canada create the most industrial waste each year. China, as the worlds largest importer of waste that could be used as raw materials, might be affected if the countries do not carefully sort out their waste.
More tech firms to launch IPOS in HK as the stock exchange mulls dual-class shares system

Xiaomi, Lufax, Ant Financial. An increasing number of hi-tech and financial companies are expected to launch IPOs in Hong Kong after the city started dual-class share listings, according to yicai.com, a Shanghai-based business website.

Chinese leading hi-tech enterprise Xiaomi, online Internet finance marketplace Lufax, Ant Financial, a technology company that brings inclusive financial services, and other high-tech and financial groups are expected to go public in Hong Kong in 2018, being the first batch of dual-class share structures.

Last year saw the booming Hong Kong stock market. The good trend has continued into 2018, reaching a new high since last November with Hang Seng Index traded at 31073.72 on Wednesday.

A total of 174 companies went public in Hong Kong in 2017, an increase of 38 percent and 48 companies compared with that in 2016.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE) and Clearing announced in December that Hong Kong will broaden its listing regime and introduce dual-class shares. It has begun drafting specific rule changes that will be put up for a formal public consultation in the first quarter of 2018, said HKSE chief executive Charles Li.

Dual-class shares structure has been a trend of going public and will be the biggest move for Hong Kongs stock market.

Alibaba launched an IPO in New York in 2014, after Kong Kong, its favored venue, refused to accept its governance structure, triggering heated discussion of rule changes of Hong Kongs shares system.

Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba, recently said he will definitely consider listing in Hong Kong when responding to the listing invitation from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Chief Executive Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor at a recent event.

Alibaba is likely to list again in Hong Kong, said a market analyst, adding that Alibabas participation will add dynamism to Hong Kongs financial market.

Now, almost 160 enterprises have submitted listing applications in Hong Kong, said Deloitte in a report. Rule changes and a broader listing regime will attract more new enterprises to Hong Kong.

Hong Kongs amount of IPOs in 2018 is expected to reach $40 billion, the second largest after that in 2009, said a manager of Goldman Sachs, a leading global investment banking and management firm. And most potential public companies are from the TMT industry, namely technology, media, and telecom industries.

A market analyst anticipated that more IPOs will boost a corresponding growth of turnover in Hong Kong shares.
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Artisans have the Midas touch. They possess rare skills that they are now determined to showcase with the benevolent support of the Michelangelo Foundation. Jointly founded in Geneva by Franco Cologni and Johann Rupert, this Foundation dedicated to promoting, preserving and perpetuating the finest artisanal practices by cultivating ties between craftsmanship and design has just announced that is organizing the most important exhibition ever dedicated to fine craftsmanship. Homo Faber is an expression that was first coined during the Renaissance and it captures and celebrates the infinite creativity of human beings, Johann Rupert, Co-founder of the Michelangelo Foundation, says. The exhibit will provide a panoramic view of European fine craftsmanship but it will nevertheless have a singular undercurrent: what human beings can do better than machines.

Detail of lacework done by Renata Casertelli, master lacemaker from Cantu, Italy

To celebrate the nobility of the human touch, the choice of location was obvious. We chose Venice for this exhibition not only because it is a bastion of culture and a place of unequalled beauty, Franco Cologni, Co-founder of the Michelangelo Foundation explains, but also because Venice is today and has always been a European hub for exchange and connection internationally. Spread over approximately 4,000 sq.m in the gallery, libraries and cloisters  including a former swimming pool  of the Giorgio Cini Foundation, on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, the Homo Faber exhibition will immerse visitors into the world of craftsmanship in all its forms, from the finest jewelry to custommade bikes. Several exhibitions are designed like an interactive route aimed at defending artisanal expertise through exceptional works, original installations, as well as the possibility of watching creations live from the workbench, with artisans plying their trade.

Jose Luis Bazan, master leather artisan from Andalusia, Spain

In developing these various themed spaces, Alberto Cavalli, Executive Director of the Michelangelo Foundation, enlisted the support of artists, designers, architects and curators including Michele De Lucchi, Stefano Boeri, India Mahdavi, Judith Clark, Jean Blanchaert et Stefano Micelli. Each in their own realm of expertise, they have created dedicated areas designed to highlight fine craftsmanship in all its countless different facets. The latter are all governed by a common denominator : excellence born of the intelligence that guides the human hand, has been exercised since the dawn of time and is the very opposite of artificiality.



HOMO FABER

September 14th to 30th 2018

Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Ile de San Giorgio Maggiore, Venise, Italie

michelangelofoundation.org/homofaber
Stroke Onward set out on an epic journey across the United States . Known as Stroke Across America, the goal was to ride across the country and, during the 100-day journey, raise awareness about stroke, aphasia, and the emotional wellness journey ...


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According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), fentanyl is manufactured in China but enters US territory across the borders with Mexico and Canada, where the drug arrives by postal mail and in very small quantities, making it very difficult to detect.Trump said that the new bill is "a significant step forward" in the fight against fentanyl, a substance which, according to him, is so dangerous that it has killed police sniffing dogs."Even dogs die from the scent," Trump said, adding that "nobody has ever seen anything like this."The law that Trump signed on Wednesday stipulates that the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must have portable chemical screening devices at ports of entry and at mail facilities.Specifically, the legislation grants $9 million to the CBP to purchase hundreds of such devices as well as laboratory equipment.The bill was passed in the House of Representatives with 412 votes in favour and only 3 against, and it subsequently received the unanimous support from the Senate.Over the past six years, drug overdose deaths have become the most common cause of violent death in the US, over and above road traffic accidents or weapons.According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016.Fentanyl is directly linked to more than 700 deaths between the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2015, according to the latest data from the DEA.Source: IANS
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Youve been working at Bulgari for 17 years. How has the watchmaking division evolved over this period?

I started working at Bulgari in the year 2000 and things are completely different now than they were then. But the world is also a different place. Back then the Japanese were running the show, they were buying up watches everywhere and we had to have Japanese-speaking staff in our stores. They have now been replaced by the Chinese, who have different tastes, whereas the tastes of the Japanese  at least as far as mens watches were concerned  were more aligned with western tastes.

So there has been an evolution in tastes, an evolution in customers and an evolution in materials, because models in gold, steel-gold and rose gold barely existed back then. And last, but not least, there has been an enormous evolution in the understanding of what watchmaking is about. Until the year 2000 it was relatively easy to build a brand with a nice design and have the watches assembled by a third party. Nowadays its much more difficult to enter the market because you need pedigree and legitimacy and this is what we have been building up over the past 17 years.

"When I started we had 50 boutiques, now we have 300."

Was there a particular moment when you saw the need for vertical integration at the Bulgari watch division or did it happen organically?

I think there are two sides to this. On the one hand there is how you see things yourself; on the other hand there is how things will actually play out. We knew what we wanted to do but getting there has been a long process. But the crucial moment was the acquisition of Gerald Genta in July 2000. That gave us the opportunity to understand the expertise of high-end watchmaking. When I had to integrate both Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth into Bulgari in 2009 that obviously accelerated the entire process of vertical integration.

Its important to stress that Bulgari is about an expression of aesthetics above anything else, which is quite unique in the watch industry. But without the know-how behind it, of course, it would be impossible to perfect this expression and a watch like the Octo would never have been possible.

Does the high level of vertical integration, including case and dial manufacture, also help with the development of a watch as distinctive as the Octo?

Yes, of course. First of all, you cannot buy an ultra-thin movement on the open market, because the few brands that produce them guard them preciously. Secondly, we wanted our own expression of what an ultra-thin watch is, which is far removed from the dressy nature of our competitors products and more geared towards everyday elegance. Without the technical skills we have developed, we would not have been able to do this, and with them we have a point of differentiation.

From talking to fans and customers, the ultra-thin nature of the Octo and its world record is not necessarily the main reason that people like (and buy) the Octo Finissimo. Have you had the same feedback?

Yes, the world record is definitely not the main reason why people buy the Octo Finissimo. But its the reason why the watch made so much noise when we presented it at Baselworld. The watch introduced an entirely new aesthetic, but this aesthetic would not have been possible without the ultra-thin movement. We could have done the sand-blasted finish on the original case but it wouldnt have been the same watch. We wanted the contemporary look more than anything.

Octo Finissimo Automatic  Bulgari

The Octos success has been confirmed by the number of awards it received last year but also by the success it has enjoyed in terms of sales, which were double what we forecast before the launch. Here too, it is only thanks to our vertical integration that we have been able to adapt our production to cope with such a huge increase in demand in only 8 months.

Are you happy with the level of vertical integration at Bulgari or could you see it developing further?

If you are asking me whether I would like to integrate the production of another component, then I would say no. I am more interested in improving in other areas, for example in logistics, to give us even greater flexibility. We are in the hard luxury industry, which can tie up huge amounts of cash. So the way we manage this cash can be very important. For example, our inventory levels for components are now half of what they were a few years ago because we have reduced lead times considerably.

What do you enjoy most about your job and what is the toughest part of your job?

I get the most enjoyment in taking the brand from A to B. When I look back to what the brand was when I first started and what it is now it gives me a great sense of pride. Im very proud of the Serpenti because it was my first launch in my current position and was a game-changer in ladies watches. The fact that it is the best seller for the brand shows that when you have something that defies conventions it works much better than simply trying to copy what everyone else is doing.

One of the main challenges is reconciling the different cultures of an Italian design team and a Swiss product development team. But at Bulgari the technical side is always at the service of design and the product development team have adapted to the Italian way of doing things, where taking time and mulling over aesthetics is more important than having a strict set of specifications. We have reached a great compromise with both sides respecting the philosophy of the other, but it has taken time.
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Jaquet Droz has announced the opening of its first boutique in the Dubai Mall, inviting connoisseurs, collectors and watch aficionados from the Middle East to explore and discover the legacy of the brand. Established 280 years ago, it is one of the oldest and most prestigious Swiss watchmaking brands in the world.

Since its creation in 1738, by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, one of the greatest craftsmen of the 18th century, the brand has been developing crafted collections that stay true to its founders legacy for close to three centuries.

 Jaquet Droz

With a refreshed brand campaign  "Some Watches tell Time. Some tell a Story" - Jaquet Droz will take customers on a journey of exclusive timepieces at its new boutique in Dubai Mall and showcase its passion for master watchmaking and time-old watch culture.

The new boutique features an elegant ambience, with sleek lines and a palette of beige, black and grey. Set in a modern and luxurious atmosphere, customers will be able to revel in the brands refined style and appreciate the watches that will be presented in a wall showcase. In addition, a structured wall inspired by the stars found in the brands logo and the crown of its watches is the finishing touches to the interior design.

 Jaquet Droz

The automata models and the Ateliers dArt limited editions are especially favored by connoisseurs, who will now be able to leisurely browse an extensive collection and enjoy exclusive dial customizing services. The Ateliers dArt collection which features birds  a theme that was very dear to Jaquet Droz since the 18th century, will also be available at the new boutique.



Mr. Christian Lattmann, CEO of the brand, said: We are delighted to open our first independent boutique in Dubai Mall  the home to the world's leading luxury brands and one of the largest shopping centers in the world. With a large number of watch connoisseurs and collectors, the Middle East represents a key market for Jaquet Droz and we are pleased that our discerning customers will be able to browse our extensive collection of timepieces in the comfort and luxury of our exclusive new address in Dubai.

 Jaquet Droz

With 280 years of legend combined with exquisite craftsmanship and history, the new boutique promises to be a delight for watch enthusiasts. The collection will showcase Jaquet Drozs extreme precision of the art of watchmaking and its relation to the mysteries of the universe and its infinite possibilities.
Today, (11 January 2018) in Thessaloniki, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Mr Nikos Kotzias and Mr Nikola Dimitrov, held a meeting.

The meeting was held within the framework of the established dialogue and consultations between the two countries, directed towards strengthening the transparency and mutual trust. At the meeting the Ministers had a good discussion and focused on the advancement of bilateral relations and cooperation in a wider context related to the ongoing Confidence Building Measures.

The Ministers have expressed their joint expectation that at the forthcoming meeting on 17 January, UN SGs Personal Envoy Mr. Nimetz will table an initial framework that will be used to move the process essentially forward. The two Ministers discussed the methodology, the approach of the two parties and the framework related to the name issue, and agreed to take a more direct role in the talks to overcome the difference over the name.

They also exchanged views with regard to confidence building measures and other arrangements for the next meetings at high political level between the two countries.
The Manero watches in the John Wick chapter 3 ... The Manero watches in the...

The brand was present on May 9th, 2019, in New-York for the global premiere of the Hollywood movie. The brand was present on May 9th, 2019,...
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Over its 133-year history, Bulgari has had both the opportunity to define a stylistic identity and the skill to continually renew it. For that, the Italian jeweler has extensive archives at its disposal, and a wealth of motifs some of which so enduring that they have become a signature symbol of the house.

The Serpenti, is one of those symbols: the coiled snake motif, which first appeared in Bulgaris watch repertoire in the 1940s, was revisited this year in the form of the two-headed Serpenti Misteriosi high jewelry secret bangle-watch, a shortlisted entry in the jewelry category at the GPHG.

Montre a secret Serpenti Misteriosi  Bulgari

A path of design mutations

From the early stylized Serpenti watches of the 1940s, the maison moved on, in subsequent decades, to naturalistic iterations of the motif, according to the jewelry historian, Amanda Triossi, author of Bulgari: 125 Years of Italian Magnificence, published in 2011.

Since the 1950s, Bulgari has continually produced Serpenti watch-bracelets in a variety of metal and color combinations. Though the dial and watch movements were, for a time, supplied by Jaeger LeCoultre, Movado, Audemars Piguet, or Vacheron Constantin, the bracelet design and manufacture - each piece carved, hand-set, and assembled in the jewelers own ateliers  have been the product of Bulgaris own savoir-faire and mastery of metal flexibility. Manufacturing techniques were perfected over time, with some, like the Tubogas (or gas-pipe) technique developed in the 19th century, attaining iconic status by the 1980s.

Serpenti Tubogas  Bulgari

Early versions of Bulgaris Serpenti watches were made in yellow gold, with the snakes head and tail set with diamonds. The watch purchased in 1962 by Elizabeth Taylor, which she is seen wearing in the still shots from Cleopatra filmed in Rome, is a famous example. Thanks to Ms. Taylor in part, Serpenti watches came to represent the glamour of Rome in the golden age of the Cinecitta Studios when the Eternal City was the destination of choice for the worlds glitterati and Hollywood celebrities.

Decades later, when Ms. Taylors Serpenti watch came to auction at Christies in 2011, its appeal was such that it fetched $974,500 (from an estimate range of $12,000-15,000) at the sale of her estate.

Serpenti Five-coil Tubogas  Bulgari

Even without a star-studded provenance, polychrome enamel or gemstone variations of the Serpenti have been appreciated by both watch and jewelry collectors. In 2014, a Bulgari enamel and diamond Serpenti watch from 1965 sold at Christies for $1.1 million, a world record for the wristwatch.

Serpenti  Bulgari

Since then, Bulgari has redoubled in creativity in the design of Serpenti watches. In 2015, the Head Over Tail Serpenti watch brought the snakes head to rest on the end of its tail. In 2016, Bulgari introduced the Serpenti Spiga, the Serpenti Five-coil Tubogas, and the Serpenti Incantati, or Enchanting Snake, with a geometric serpent biting its own tail as it slithered around the bezel of a round dial.

Serpenti Spiga  Bulgari

For that redesign, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, director of Bulgari Watches Design Center, found his inspiration in a 1930s diamond brooch in the house archives, and came up with a new shape that helped define four new jeweled lines and the design of the Incantati Tourbillon Lumiere Skeleton watch, the first Serpenti with a complication.

Serpenti Incantati Tourbillon Lumiere Skeleton  Bulgari

A multicultural symbol

Though the snake motif has lent itself beautifully to coiled jewelry designs, its enduring appeal is explained by its ancient and widespread symbolic significance. Widely present in both mythology and history, serpents have come to represent a variety of concepts including rebirth, transformation, immortality and healing. Their inherent duality  the combination of good and evil, beauty and danger, poison and antidote - adds to their intriguing charm.

Serpenti Incantati  Bulgari

The Ouroboros, or the serpent eating its own tail, for instance, originated from Egyptian iconography as a representation of infinity or the cycle of life and death. Cleopatra was famously associated with the snake motif, a symbol of her seductive powers instilled with a latent danger. In Ancient Rome, the coiled snake represented immortality. In Greece, snakes were the accoutrements of Asclepius, god of medicine. Even the Victorian era succumbed to the charm of the snake when in 1840, Queen Victoria accepted Prince Alberts engagement ring representing a snake, symbol of eternal love.

The artistic trajectory of the snake

The rich history of Bulgaris Serpenti and the trajectory of the snake motif in jewelry, art and design have been, since 2016, the subject of a travelling exhibition titled SerpentiForm curated by Lucia Boscaini, Bulgaris Brand and Heritage curator and examined in the book titled Serpenti, Art and Bulgari Design.

Exposition  SerpentiForm   Bulgari

The show examines Serpenti creations from Bulgaris historical archives and explores its relationship to jewelry on loan from Pompeii and the Archeological Museums of Taranto and Naples, alongside contemporary works of art and photographs by artists including Alexander Calder, Robert Mapplethorpe and Helmut Newton. The show is visible through December 25 in Tokyo at the Mori Arts Center Gallery.

With the snake, Bulgari has tapped into a symbol that is both ancient and perfectly adaptable to contemporary tastes. Expect to see new examples of Bulgari's perpetually renewed symbol very soon.
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With a staff strength of 350 and 30 stores spread across Asia located in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Cortina Watch has come a long way since its founding. It all began when founder Anthony Lim opened a watch store in Singapore on 15 December 1972 with four staff at the then Colombo Court (Colombo Court was demolished in the late 1990s to make way for Singapores Supreme Court).



Cortina Watch was the first dealer in Singapore for Cartier and other brands subsequently added to its portfolio during those early days were Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, Patek Philippe and Rolex, recalls Anthony Lim.In 2017, Cortina Watch celebrated not just its 45th anniversary (1972 to 2017) but its 15th year of listing on the Singapore Exchange (2002 to 2017).



At milestone anniversaries of its founding celebrated, typically once every five years, Cortina Watch will partner with watch brands to produce special commemorative limited editions. This tradition began when Cortina Watch first celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1992. In the past, Cortina had collaborated with several brands for each of its major anniversaries but for its 45th anniversary, Cortina Watch decided to partner only with Panerai.



As such, two special editions were produced for Cortina Watch to commemorate the 45th anniversary of its founding  the Luminor Due 3 Days Automatic PAM00751 in steel that is limited to 45 pieces (priced at SGD21,800) and the Luminor Due 3 Days PAM00752 in 18K red gold (priced at SGD38,800), of which only 10 were made (picture at the top of the page).

Luminor Due PAM00751  Panerai

Both the Luminor Due PAM00751 and PAM00752 have the case diameter of 45mm, an apt size given that this is also Cortina Watchs 45th anniversary. We have not done oversized commemorative watches before. I believe the largest was previously the IWC Portuguese, says Jeremy Lim, chief operating officer of Cortina Watch and the son of Anthony Lim. Jeremy Lim highlights that what is interesting is the fact that it was also in 1972, the year of Cortina Watchs founding, that the Officine Panerai brand name was created. The branding is credited to Dino Zei, an engineer and Italian Navy man who helmed the company from 1972 to 1997.



The Luminor Due, inspired by the Luminor 1950, was first introduced in 2016 and with the thickness of 10.7mm, it is the thinnest watch that Panerai has ever manufactured. The brand highlights that as compared to the Luminor 1950 of the same size, the Luminor Due is significantly thinner and lighter thanks to the calibres structure and the design work.



With its thickness of 10.7mm, the Luminor Due has been reduced by almost 40% as compared to the Luminor 1950 PAM00312 which is 17.95mm thick and its distinctive design remains unchanged. However, the Luminor Due has the water-resistance of 30 metres vis-a-vis the 300 metres of the PAM00312.



Both the Luminor Due PAM00751 and PAM00752 are equipped with the Calibre P.4000/10 skeletonised in-house movement with an off-centred oscillating weight in 22K gold with the Clous de Paris decoration. The bridges feature circular brushed finishes and have gilded engraving. This skeletonised version is a significant enhancement over the Calibre P.4000 automatic movement found in the Luminor Due 3 Days Automatic PAM00674 of 2016 for example.

Luminor Due PAM00752, Calibre P.4000/10  Panerai

With four earlier Luminor Due references and with an additional four launched in 2017 plus the two Cortina Watch special editions, there are 10 models in this collection as at the time of writing.
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has started via his Facebook page the third round of the "Ask the President'' initiative, where he personally responds to questions and suggestions by citizens.

The president is receiving questions and suggestions between 10 and 15 January, the Facebook page announced.

The initiative was initially launched in April 2017 during the third national youth conference in Ismailia governorate, where the president received 172,000 questions from citizens on all aspects of political, economic and social life in Egypt.

The president responded to the questions in a closed televised broadcast at the National Youth Conference.

The second edition of the initiative took place on the sidelines of the fourth National Youth Conference in Alexandria last July, where the president responded to a handful of questions out of a total 300,000.

The initiative classifies questions by category, with the last edition including Egypt's war on terrorism and the country's stance towards nations that support terrorist activity, economic and social safety nets, as well as Egypt's economic reform programme.

The president's Facebook page states that the initiative reflects the president's keenness to directly communicate with all Egyptians and build bridges of trust and dialogue between citizens and the political leadership.

Since assuming office in 2014, President El-Sisi has sponsored and attended four national youth conferences organised in different governorates, with the aim of directly communicating with Egypt's youth.

The first national youth conference was held in Cairo in December 2016.

The second youth conference was held in January 2017 in Aswan and tackled challenges facing Upper Egypt, including ways to develop the economy and tourism of the region as well as socially and politically empowering the youth.
El-Adly and 12 other defendants in the case were convicted by a lower court in April 2017 on charges of illicit gains of EGP 2 billion from the interior ministry in the period between 2000 to 2011.

The Court of Cassation ordered the retrial of all defendants in the case.

El-Adly served as minister of interior under former President Hosni Mubarak from 1997 until Mubarak was ousted in 2011.

Following the April 2017 ruling, El-Adly disappeared until he was arrested in December by security forces.

In May 2017, the former minister lost an initial appeal against the sentence in the case due to failure to appear in person in court.

El-Adly's lawyer Fareed El-Deeb appealed against the criminal court's ruling before the Court of Cassation.

The former minister is set to be released from his detention within hours upon the completion of legal procedures.

The long-serving former minister faced several trials since the ouster President Mubarak in the January 2011 revolution, including for the killing of protesters and the cutting of telecommunications, but he was acquitted in all of the cases except for two.

In 2013, El-Adly was sentenced to three years in prison in the case known in the media as the conscripts' enslavement case." The Cassation Court upheld that ruling in February 2014.

The current illicit gains trial is the last case pending against El-Adly.



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ELKLAND TOWNSHIP  The push for renewable energy has many Tuscola County townships developing or updating zoning ordinances for possible development.

One those townships is Elkland.

The Elkland Planning Commission Zoning Board of Appeals will host a public hearing at 7 p.m. Jan. 16 at the township hall, located at 6691 Church St. in Cass City.

The reason for the hearing is for the planning commission to consider updates to the 2012 ordinance regarding wind turbines, special land use permits and civil fee schedules.

Township officials are encouraging residents to attend the hearing to ask questions and make comments about the proposed changes.

A copy of the proposed changes is available for viewing at the Rawson Memorial Library, 6495 Pine St., according the Elkland Township Planning Commission Chair Richard VanVliet.

Also, for those who are unable to attend the meeting, written comments can be sent to: Attention Clerk, 6691 Church St., Cass City, MI, 48726 before the meeting.

According to a 2008 study by the Michigan Wind Energy Resource Zone Board, the Thumb area is a prime location for wind development.The state is ranked 14th in the U.S. for wind energy potential, and Huron leads the state in wind turbines.

The state board identified townships in Tuscola County that have potential for wind energy development, and Elkland was among the townships that were listed.
BAD AXE  A Florida comic is coming to entertain people on Jan. 18.

Tim The Dairy Farmer will be the special guest at the Huron County Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA) banquet on Jan. 18 at the Franklin Inn. The evening begins at 7 p.m., and it is open to the public this time around.

Tim The Dairy Farmer is a real-life third-generation farmer from Florida who does comedy on the side, said the comic whose real name is Tim Moffett.

I just enjoy making people laugh, Moffett said. Sometimes all you can do is laugh because youve been done crying.

Moffetts comedy routine is all about farming, he told the Daily Tribune.

Im a dairy farmer, he said. Its pretty much farm humor, but if youre a farmer from a rural area, we may relate.

Though he is a third-generation farmer, Moffett has been a comic for 16 years.

The first paid gig I had I offered their money back  I was that bad, he said.

There was a time Moffett was ready to just go back to farming full-time and drop the comedy gigs. He relates a story about after one of his shows.

About seven years afterward (starting comedy), I was like, 'I dont want to do it anymore,' he said. Then a man came up to me seven years ago and he said thats the first time I laughed since my wife died. That kind of makes it worth while.

Moffett jokes he has to supplement his farm business somehow.

My brother and I have been partners in the dairy business for 30 years. We also have a beef business, he said. We got our milk check and it had a comma when our feed bill had two.

This wont the first time the Floridian has been to Michigan.

I like Michigan. Ive been up there several times, he said. I like the polish sausage in Michigan. Thats what Im looking forward to, some of those mom-and-pop stores.

Tickets to Moffetts performance are $15 per person in advance or $20 at the door. Tickets are available at the Huron County Michigan State University Extension office on South Van Dyke Road, or from any one of five DHIA committee members.
UNIONVILLE -- Erika Kaiser and her first grade class recently participated in a servant event at Christ the King Lutheran School in Unionville.

She and her class wrote a grant to Thrivent Financial which would allow the class to purchase bibles. The bibles will be given to people who visit St. Paul Lutheran Church in Unionville and would like a copy of the bible for use at home.

The students were able to put a sticker on the inside of the bible stating what the purpose of the servant event was. Kaiser led a discussion with the class about what it means to be a servant to the community and emphasized to her class that even though they are young men and women, they are still able to make a difference in the lives of other people, including those people they have never met.

"Christ the King wants to show our students that they can make an impact in the lives of people at St. Paul Lutheran Church and the communities of Unionville, Sebewaing, and other areas as well," Kaiser said. "Through this servant event, the students were able to take a small amount of time out of their day and make a positive impression on their surrounding community."

"I definitely want to thank Thrivent Financial for donating the funds so that my first graders are able to witness to others," she added.
There are signals of a possible breakthrough in one of the biggest sticking points in NAFTA discussions after Canada joined Mexico in indicating room for negotiation in the auto sector.

The development comes one day after markets dipped on Canadian fears odds are rising U.S. President Donald Trump will walk away, and suggests officials are looking for progress in upcoming talks in Montreal as a way to keep negotiations moving.

Canada is preparing new talks related to autos at the Montreal negotiations, two government officials said, speaking on condition they not be identified. Mexico has also signaled there's room for a breakthrough on autos, after the U.S. unveiled contentious proposals in previous discussions. Shares of auto parts makers Magna International Inc. and Linamar Corp. traded higher Thursday after Bloomberg initially reported the news.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, speaking to reporters Thursday, said the country would bring "new ideas" for "unconventional" U.S. proposals, though she didn't say which. One of the Canadian officials said Freeland was referring to the auto sector. Both officials said Canada wouldn't give a full autos counter-proposal.

The three countries are also "close" to reaching agreements on some individual subjects, known as chapters, of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Freeland said, describing them as "bread and butter" issues. The most contentious U.S. demands are on dairy, automotive content, dispute panels, government procurement and a sunset clause.

"When it comes to the more unconventional U.S. proposals, we have been doing some creative thinking, we have been talking with Canadian stakeholders, and we have some new ideas that we look forward to talking with our U.S. and Mexican counterparts about in Montreal," Freeland said in London, Ontario in comments aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "I think if there's goodwill on all sides, we could have a great outcome in Montreal."

Officials are jockeying for position ahead of the sixth round of talks which begin Jan. 23 in Montreal. The Canadian dollar, the Mexican peso and the stocks some auto maker and parts makers that rely on NAFTA slumped Wednesday after Canadian officials said they think the chances are rising that Trump will give notice of withdrawal from the pact. A White House official later said the president's position on NAFTA hadn't changed.

The chief executive of the region's biggest parts supplier, Magna, warned earlier this week that overly complex NAFTA changes could leave U.S., Mexican and Canadian manufacturers vulnerable. Magna's shares rose 0.4 percent as of 11:32 a.m. in New York after the news of Canada's involvement. Linamar reversed declines, trading up 1 percent.

"If it becomes too complicated, too bureaucratic, too costly that you can't get low-cost, high-labor products into this region -- then all of a sudden we have damaged the whole NAFTA region," Chief Executive Officer Don Walker said. "It's going to be a lose-lose-lose."

Flavio Volpe, president of the Toronto-based Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association, said progress was made on autos during a mini-round of talks last month in Washington. "All sides understand each other's core imperatives much better now," he said Thursday in an email. "The tone is respectful and everyone appears to actually want a solution that the others will be able to sign off on."

The U.S. is proposing to raise the minimum content requirement, for a vehicle or auto part to be traded under NAFTA, to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent, while also requiring that a full 50 percent of content comes from the U.S. The proposals were flatly dismissed by Canada and Mexico. The U.S. also wants to substantially expand the so-called tracing list, which means more products and parts would need their origins tracked and documented.

Freeland didn't say whether she believes the chances of a U.S. withdrawal notice are rising. Such a notice, which would be given under Article 2205, isn't binding, meaning it could still be issued and NAFTA still survive.

"The U.S. has been very clear since before the talks started that invoking Article 2205 was a possibility, and I think we need to take our neighbors at their word, take them seriously," Freeland said. "So Canada is prepared for every eventuality."

Finance Minister Bill Morneau, speaking at the same event, said Canada has "made preparations and considered every scenario" when it comes to NAFTA. "What we are trying to achieve is an improvement in NAFTA. We know that's better for Canada and we will continue down that path."

---

Bloomberg's Greg Quinn contributed.
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HEBRON  In a battle for the soul of the party, a faction of insurgent Republican gubernatorial hopefuls tried Wednesday night to upset the political establishment during the partys latest candidate showcase.

Nine Republicans ventured out to the sparsely populated eastern part of the state for the second of five debates sponsored by the state party, far away from the gridlock of Interstate 95 and Fairfield County wealth corridor.

The forum at RHAM High School in Hebron highlighted the divide between candidates touting themselves as proven vote-getters and political outsiders, who trod carefully on President Donald Trump while saying Connecticut is in the doldrums because of career politicians.

Fairfield immigration attorney Peter Lumaj, an immigrant from Albania who ran unsuccessfully for secretary of the state in 2014, emerged as the aggressor in the debate.

If our towns were doing so great under their leadership, how come so many people are leaving the state? Lumaj said. Were losing businesses to New York City, which has a socialist mayor. Just think about that for a second. Professional politicians.

Multiple candidates admonished Lumaj, including former eight-year Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst, who tried to straddle the line between battle-tested candidate and a creature of government.

More Information GOP debate participants - Toni Boucher, Mark Boughton, Mike Handler, Tim Herbst, Mark Lauretti, Peter Lumaj, Steve Obsitnik, Prasad Srinivasan and Dave Walker. Absent - Bob Stefanowski and David Stemerman See More Collapse

You have to win an election if youre going to win an election, Herbst said. We need proven reformers and Hartford outsiders that are committed to change.

Herbst, who opted to not run for re-election in Trumbull last fall, said Lumaj has no clue what its like to be on call day and night running a town or city.

The last person on this stage that I want getting that 3 a.m. phone call as governor is Peter Lumaj, Herbst said.

Lumaj was not the only one to challenge the establishment.

Do you trust another career politician to solve that problem? Because I dont, said Steve Osbitnik, a Westport businessman and Stamford native who ran unsuccessfully for Congress.

State Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, who is still exploring a run for governor, took umbrage at Lumajs barbs, as did state Rep. Prasad Srinivasan, R-Glastonbury, who called them an embarrassment to the GOP.

We are a part-time citizen legislature, Boucher said. Weve been blocking and tackling and fighting against all these (Democratic) proposals. We bring the real world to the Legislature all the time.

A record number of Republicans are vying for their partys nomination in what nonpartisan handicappers have pegged as a toss-up race. Working in their favor is the unpopularity of incumbent Democrat Dannel P. Malloy, who is not seeking a third term. Malloys stock has been hurt by billion-dollar deficits, tax increases and the loss of corporate headquarters such as General Electric and Aetna to neighboring Massachusetts and New York.

You cannot bribe companies to stay here, said Dave Walker, the former U.S. comptroller general under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Connecticut is broke.

The Bridgeport resident panned a proposal to eliminate the state income tax in 10 years by longtime Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, a third-time candidate for the states highest office.

Its the kind of political pandering that has gotten us to where we are today, Walker said.

Boughton said the income tax, signed into law by Lowell Weicker Jr. in 1991, is the number one job-killing tax.

Thats the Republican Party I know, Boughton said of the repeal plan. Weve got to chart a new course.

Lumaj and Boughton mixed it up over their support for Trump, with Lumaj declaring himself as the only true conservative in the field who would get along great with the president.

Instead of voting for the president, he put his dogs name on the ballot. Shame on (him), Lumaj said of Boughtons rescue dog, Ellie.

Boughton said he was being facetious.

I just want to set the record straight here. I love my dog, but I didnt vote for her for president, Boughton said.

The back-and-forth provided an opening for Herbst to deliver an applause line.

Donald Trump is not the most unpopular person in Connecticut. Dan Malloy is, Herbst said.

Reform of the states public pension system, one of the most underfunded in the nation, was a major theme of the debate.

Our state is on fiscal life support, said Mike Handler, the city of Stamfords chief financial officer and a New Canaan resident. We have a spending problem in our state, not a revenue problem.

Handler said the sniping during the debate was taking away from problem solving.

Enough is enough, he said.

Since 2010, when Malloy was elected to his first four-year term, Republicans have picked up 35 seats in the House, where Democrats hold a 79 to 72 majority. In the Senate, the GOP has gained six seats over the same period, creating an 18-18 tie for the first time in more than a century. Democrats hold the tie-breaker by virtue of Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman serving as Senate president.

It is critical for us to be in the majority and thats what we are fighting for, said Srinivasan, who called Lumajs line of attack childs play.

Whats not encouraging for Republicans are the results of last Novembers municipal elections, when voter backlash against Trump powered Democrats to victories in a number of key races, from Trumbull first selectman to the Greenwich finance board. Midterm elections have been historically unkind to the party in power in Washington.

Like Boughton, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti made his debut on the debate stage Wednesday night. Both missed the first debate because of scheduling conflicts. Fairfield Countys longest serving mayor or first selectman, Lauretti said Shelton is a magnet for businesses.

Theyre coming to Shelton because were affordable and predictable, Lauretti said. Thats what Connecticut used to be.

A no-show for the first two debates was David Stemerman, the Greenwich hedge fund mogul who wired $1.8 million to his campaign startup at the end of September. Stemerman has been unraveling his business interests and plans to make his debut in February, his campaign has said.

Bob Stefanowski, a one-time UBS and GE executive from Madison, kept Republicans guessing right up until the day of the debate whether he would participate. Ultimately, he skipped, with organizers removing his and Stemermans chairs from the debate stage.

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Related Body recovered from Alexandria sea thought to be victim of drunk driver hit at Stanley Bridge

A DNA sample extracted from a body retrieved from the Mediterranean in Alexandria on Monday has identified the deceased as Mohamed Hassan, a 21-year-old Alexandrian man who was hit by car on the city's Stanley Bridge last week, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

Hassan and another person fell off the bridge into the water after being hit by the vehicle at dawn. The other victim was rescued from the water.

The driver, a Menoufia University student, was arrested at the scene.

The victim's relatives and friends were unable to identify the body when it was retrieved on Monday due to advanced decomposition after spending nearly seven days in the water.

A misdemeanour court judge has ordered the 15-day detention of the driver pending investigation for involuntary manslaughter and injury, driving while intoxicated and damaging public property.

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Courtesy of Smith campaign website Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Ctnewsjunkie file photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3





HARTFORD  The former commissioner of Veterans Affairs and a former executive from Greenwich jumped into the race for governor Tuesday.

Sean Connolly, a Democrat from Hebron, made his campaign for governor official at an American Legion post in Hebron.
Sudans decision to recall its ambassador to Egypt and renew its complaint to the UN Security Council over the Halayeb Triangle has compounded tensions in the already strained relationship between Khartoum and Cairo.

Khartoum agreed last month to lease the Red Sea island of Suakin to Turkey, bolstering the latters influence in the Red Sea. A meeting of the chiefs-of-staff of Turkey and Qatar, two countries which Egypt accuses of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, and the chief-of-staff of Sudan, was held in Khartoum, bolstering Cairos concerns.

The moves, denounced in Egypts media as provocative, passed without any official comment in Cairo.

On Monday, during a joint press conference with the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade George Noble Plunkett in Cairo, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said Egypt remained keen on maintaining its historic relations with Sudan.

The direction in which relations are now heading requires avoiding negative impacts on both peoples, he said.

Shoukri explained that Cairo had been notified that the Sudanese ambassadors withdrawal had to do with the dispute over sovereignty of the Halayeb Triangle and Egypt is assessing the situation and will take appropriate action.

The Halayeb Triangle, on the Egyptian-Sudanese border bordering the Red Sea, has been a point of difference between the two states since the demarcation of borders carried out during the British occupation of Egypt in 1899.

Sudan has renewed a complaint to the UN Security Council demanding Cairo hand over control of the region, according to a statement issued by Sudans Foreign Ministry on Monday. Abdel-Mahmoud Abdel-Halim, Sudans ambassador to Egypt, left Cairo last Thursday.

In the press conference Shoukri said the Halayeb issue is delicate and needs to be addressed wisely, at the highest levels and outside the framework of cooperation between the two countries.

Following the 2016 agreement delineating the maritime border between Egypt and Saudi Arabia Sudan is demanding Egypt either engages in direct negotiations over the area or refers the issue to international arbitration, says Rakha Hassan, a former assistant to the foreign minister.

Recalling its ambassador and the other measures taken are an attempt by the Sudanese regime to distract its citizens from ongoing internal problems, argues Hassan. There has been a spate of bread riots and Sudan is still suffering economically from the impact of the separation of South Sudan. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir is also the subject of media criticism because of his policies.

The move to lease Suakin to Turkey for 99 years was interpreted by local news anchors and analysts as a sign that Turkey, Sudan and Qatar are conspiring against Egypt.

Egypt is not concerned with expanding ties as much as it is with Turkeys aspirations in the region and the impact of the deal on Egyptian interests, says Rakha.

Suakin was for centuries an important trading port on the Red Sea and a staging post for Muslim pilgrims travelling from Africa to Mecca and Medina. During Ottoman times Turkey constructed a mosque on the island. Ankara has been carrying restoration works on the island since 2011 and has already restored the mosque.

After the leasing decree was signed Turkey said it would start restoring other Ottoman ruins on the island. When the restoration project is complete Turkish pilgrims travelling to Mecca will be able to fly to Sudan to visit historical sites and then go to Jeddah by ship, reviving the old Ottoman pilgrimage route.

Turkeys growing role in Sudan includes building a new airport in Khartoum, a port, shipyards for military and civilian vessels on the Red Sea, a hospital and power stations.

The meeting held between the Qatari, Sudanese and Turkish chiefs-of-staff concluded with an agreement by the three states to develop military cooperation.

Cairos perception that Khartoum remains supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood, something the Sudanese regime denies, has also negatively impacted relations, says Rakha.

Media reports in Sudan which falsely claimed Egypt had asked Ethiopia to exclude Sudan from negotiations on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam complicated an already febrile situation.

The allegations do not make sense. The two states share a common history. We share the same language and religion. We not only share the same river but we are both downstream countries, says Rakha.

Shoukri condemned the false information being purveyed by some Sudanese media, cautioning that this undermines the joint interests of both countries.

It is not the first time the media in both states have contributed to strained relations.

Last year, Sudans media minister insisted in public statements that his countrys civilisation is older than that of Egypt, triggering a media led row.

Tense relations between Cairo and Khartoum threaten to further derail the already blocked tripartite negotiations between Egypt and both Ethiopia and Sudan over the Renaissance Dam. Sudan had initially been supportive of Egyptian concerns over the impact of the dam on the flow of the Nile but changed its position in 2015.

Al-Bashir said in a TV interview in December 2015 that the dam has become a reality and that it requires the cooperation of all parties to ensure its success.

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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DEXTER, MI - One of the top beers of 2017 hails from a brewery in southeast Michigan.

Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales was recognized in Draft Magazine's Top 25 Beers of 2017 ranking for its Gigantic Phuket; It's Not That Far From Laos, the only Michigan beer in a list of international and American brews.

The list highlights new or newly-packaged beers and includes selections from Oregon, California, New York, the United Kingdom and Germany.

The sour fruit saison known as Gigantic Phuket clocks in at 6 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) and was made in collaboration with Gigantic Brewing Co. in Portland, Oregon.

Jolly Pumpkin brews at its facility in Dexter, Mich. and has taprooms in Ann Arbor, Dexter, Detroit, Traverse City and Chicago.

According to the Jolly Pumpkin website, the saison spends about eight months in oak barrels and is made with Michigan Chinook and Cascade hops. It's also dry-hopped with the spicy, fruity strain of hops known as Jarrylo, which brings the beer to 20 IBUs (International Bittering Units.)

The Gigantic Phuket was released in July 2017 after brewers from Jolly Pumpkin and Gigantic Brewing met in Hawaii and collaborated on the fruity and hoppy creation. It is available on draft and in bottles, and is distributed to 15 states including Michigan.

"Aromas of lime, unripe pear, and the classic pineapple tinted notes of Jolly Pumpkin funk, erupt from your glass," the Jolly Pumpkin website said. "The use of Cascade, Chinook, and Jarrylo hops, as well as Lime Peel, meld together flavors of citrus, pine, and white grape that linger quietly before finishing slightly bitter with mild tartness."

Beer, food and travel publication Draft Magazine described the Gigantic Phuket, in the category of Rustic Elegance, as a "mastery of ingredients, a weaving of each's best aspects that enhance rather than overwhelm each other" in its review.

"Each addition feels purposeful, contributing to an irrefutably food-friendly sip that closes slightly tart, dry and bitter, leaving just a whisper of green pear and gewurztraminer flavors behind," the website said. "Tropical was perhaps the beer word of the year, and this beer exemplifies the trend's elegant, finessed side."

Jolly Pumpkin is looking to do more collaborations with other breweries in the future, and even solicited ideas on Facebook with the posting of an animation of flashing backgrounds and logos.
LANSING, MI -- A few investments and an early retirement are on the mind of a Monroe County man who won $2 million playing the Michigan Lottery's Multiplier Spectacular instant game.

"I scratched the ticket at home and couldn't really believe what I was seeing," said the player who chose to remain anonymous. "I called for my wife to come read the ticket and when she saw it, her eyes lit up so I knew we were winners."

The 56-year-old man said he thought about how to handle the big win before cashing in his ticket. he elected to receive his prize as a one-time lump-sum of $1.3 million instead of the annuity.

"I did a lot of reading about how to be wise with this money," said the 56-year-old player. "We decided that we'll invest it in to a retirement account and maybe retire a little earlier than we'd planned.

"It's an awesome feeling to win. You never think this is going to happen to you, and it's amazing when it does."

He bought the winning ticket at the Lightning Quick Gas N Go, located at 640 Saline Street in Petersburg last month and sat on the big winner until he had a solid plan in place. The lucky winner claimed his prize Wednesday at Michigan Lottery headquarters in Lansing.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Carolyn Grawi has announced she is leaving her post as executive director of the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living.

On Monday, Jan. 8, Grawi was honored with a proclamation by Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor at the city council meeting. Taylor proclaimed Jan. 8 to be known as "Carolyn Grawi Day" in the City of Ann Arbor.

"I was in total shock," Grawi said. "I was like, 'What are you doing?' It was very humbling and an honor for him to do that."

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, also honored Grawi with a Congressional award on Jan. 3 for her service to the community over the years.

The Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities through individualized counseling, advocacy efforts, skill-building classes, recreation and arts programming, and more.

Grawi, executive director of the center since 2014, said she could not come to terms on a new contract to lead the center and is leaving for a new, undisclosed opportunity out of state.

"I was fortunate enough that I had a long-running career with them," she said. "I loved the time I spent there and I want to see the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living continue to do great things in the future."

Grawi has been a strong advocate for people with disabilities. She was also one of the leaders of the successful Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority transit millage campaign that led to an expansion of local transit services in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas.

Grawi replaced Jim Magyar as CEO and president in 2014 when he retired after 32 years with the organization. The job title was eventually changed to executive director.

She has worked and lived in the Washtenaw County area for almost 30 years and has been associated with the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living since 1987.

Grawi said she will miss the Ann Arbor community and hopes the AACIDL continues to grow.

"There's lots of great work that still needs to happen here," she said. "My hope is when I come back, everything is just as good or better. I love Ann Arbor and I love Michigan and I wish nothing but the best for this community."

Alex Gossage, the center's associate director, will serve as the interim executive director, Grawi said.
ANN ARBOR, MI - A feature film with scenes shot in Washtenaw County is screening in Ann Arbor next month, with proceeds from the screenings benefiting the Ann Arbor African American Cultural and Historical Museum.

"All or Nothin,'" dramatizes one of the largest recorded underground railroad escapes, "The Escape of the 28." The film will make its debut in Ann Arbor at 6:45 p.m. on Feb. 2 in Towsley Auditorium of Washtenaw Community College. The film also is set for screening at 1 p.m. on Feb. 4 in the Michigan Theater.

In conjunction with Black History Month, tickets to "All or Nothin'" are not required for the screenings, but suggested donations of $10 per person will support Ann Arbor's African American Cultural and Historical Museum.

Directed by filmmaker Charles K. Campbell, "All or Nothin'" tells the story of Underground Railroad conductor John Fairfield, who guides an enslaved group from a northern Kentucky farm in Boone County to their freedom in Canada.

He is forced to share center stage with Washington Barker, who at the same time leads his wife and loved ones out of enslavement from a neighboring farm.

The adventure intertwines multiple stories to create a portrayal of the

numerous players - black and white, men and women - needed to implement a successful group escape.

A question and answer session with Campbell and actors from the film will follow both screenings. For more information on the film, visit its website.
ANN ARBOR, MI - A Livingston Award-winning journalist, a MacArthur Genius and anthropologist, and a University of Michigan public policy expert will share their stories and findings behind immigration statistics and discuss the complexities and ramifications involved in clandestine migration during an upcoming talk at UM.

The discussion will take place during "Beyond the Wall: The Human Toll of Border Crossings," which is set for 4 p.m. Jan. 31 inside the Annenberg Auditorium of UM's Weill Hall, 735 S. State St., Ann Arbor. The event is free and open to the public.

Speakers for the discussion include Jason De Leon, an associate professor of Anthropology at UM and director of the Undocumented Migration Project, a long-term anthropological study of undocumented migration between Mexico and the United States that uses ethnography, archaeology and forensic science to understand this clandestine social process.

In recognition of his work on this project, De Leon was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2017. The study uses ethnographic, archaeological, forensic and visual approaches to understand this phenomenon in places such as the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona, northern Mexican border towns and the southern Mexico/Guatemala border.

De Leon was one of two UM professors and 24 total members of the 2017 class of MacArthur Fellows. The awards are given annually to individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for more in the future, according to the MacArthur Foundation.

De Leon is joined by Brooke Jarvis, a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and The California Sunday Magazine. Jarvis received the 2017 Livingston Award for "Unclaimed," an investigative narrative about an unidentified migrant bed-bound in a San Diego hospital for 16 years and the networks of immigrant families searching for their missing loved ones.

Also joining the discussion is Ann Lin, an associate professor of public policy in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at UM. Lin teaches courses on public policy implementation, gender and politics, qualitative research methods and immigration. She currently is studying potential immigration policies and the beliefs of American immigrants with a special focus on Arab Americans.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Rather than play Candy Crush while waiting in line at the grocery store, Laura Grey uses those spare couple of minutes to learn a new language.

That has been her routine for nearly five years.

Grey, a graduate student in the University of Michigan's School of Information, says she is learning at least eight different languages in her spare time through the use of Duolingo, an online language-learning platform.

On top of immersing herself in learning and speaking foreign languages, Grey, 45, uses the tool to keep her mind sharp. She's done all of this after being diagnosed as dyslexic in 2012. According to the Mayo Clinic, the learning disorder involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words. Also called reading disability, dyslexia affects areas of the brain that process language.

People with dyslexia have normal intelligence and usually have normal vision.

"There was a point where I made it to level 20 on Candy Crush and I was like, 'I've got to learn 15 new words in Russian instead of playing this game,'" Grey said inside UM's Hatcher Library, where she works in interlibrary loan and document delivery. "I felt like I should be more productive - there's kind of a drive to be productive. This is kind of a nice way to start my day and feel like I'm doing something I can cross off the list.

"It definitely qualifies as a hobby, or in some ways, when I have extra time in the summer, I really get into it, she added. "I figure if you're going to be spending so much time on your phone, it's at least something that's productive."

Grey has long been interested in learning about new languages and cultures, using any opportunity she can to have a conversation with someone who has mastered a foreign language.

She studied French during a trip to Paris, France, while working as an au pair to cover room and board expenses. While pursuing a music degree at the University of Texas in the early 1990s, she was required to take a semester of French, Italian and German to refine her skills singing opera.

During the trip to Paris, her instructor introduced to her the idea that she might be dyslexic because she was making mistakes only a person with the disorder would have. The more she thought about it, and after she consulted with family members, the more it made sense.

"In an academic sense, I've never been as successful because spelling counts and I can't spell in any language very well," Grey said. "I was an early reader and undiagnosed for a long time. There were hints. My father was also undiagnosed as dyslexic until he was in college.

"A lot of times people who are reasonably intelligent and have a non-severe form of dyslexia can often compensate in ways that we don't know that we're compensating," she added. "You kind of fly under the radar if that's the case, until you get into higher education."

While she wouldn't consider herself to be fluent in any specific language she is learning or has immersed herself in, Grey can start and hold a conversation in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Russian, Norwegian or Dutch, while dabbling in learning a variety of other languages.

On a light day of study, Grey said she'll devote as little as 15 minutes to learning new terms and quizzing herself. Other days - many of which took place before the birth of her son, Benjamin - she would spend multiple hours drilling on terminology.

Despite dealing with the challenges of being dyslexic while learning new languages, Grey said the diagnosis she received helped provide clarity to many of the struggles she faced as a student and in everyday life.

"There was a part of me that was kind of sad, because I was almost 40 and I thought, 'If I had known this earlier, a lot of things could have gone differently in my undergraduate,'" she said.

"I think I would've gotten a graduate degree a lot earlier if I would have known," she added. "Because of the diagnosis, I know exactly what my problem is, whereas before, it was always a surprise. I'd be studying and I couldn't get something and I didn't know why, but I felt like a failure, I felt like an idiot, I felt like there was something wrong with me that couldn't be addressed."

Learning a new language with dyslexia can cause some difficulties, but listening and speaking through the Duolingo program allows for people like Grey to make up for those difficulties, Duolingo Senior PR Manager Michaela Kron said.

"Dyslexia is a learning disability that makes writing, reading and spelling difficult, which in turn can make language learning more challenging," Kron said. "However, since language learning also involves a great deal of listening and speaking, this can make it easier for those with dyslexia to pick up new languages. Not only are speaking and listening skills easier for dyslexic students to learn, but they tend to be the most useful skills to have while traveling to other countries or conversing with native speakers."

Grey hopes to earn her master's degree from UM in December.

In the meantime, Grey has no plans of slowing down the fervent pursuit of her hobby, she said, recognizing that the benefits of continuing to learn new languages can go beyond culture.

"I have a grandfather who had Alzheimer's and a grandmother who had dementia," Grey said. "Various studies say that learning new words and different languages is very helpful for staving off those diseases. Some people do crossword puzzles, but this is helpful for the brain, so that's a motivation."
Renowned Egyptian leftist lawyer, labour activist, and former presidential candidate Khaled Ali has declared at a Cairo press conference his intention to run for president in the 2018 elections, scheduled for 26 March, calling on his supporters to collect endorsements to support his bid.

On Monday, the National Elections Authority (NEA) announced that starting 20 January, it will be receiving for nine days official nominations for candidates, and that the campaigning period will run from 24 February until 23 March.

Ali called on his supporters to collect the minimum 25,000 endorsements from citizens required for prospective candidates to be allowed to run in the race, which he will submit to the NEA on 25 January.

Article 142 of Egypts 2014 constitution states that a hopeful presidential candidate must secure the recommendation of at least 20 MPs or 25,000 citizens from 15 governorates, with a minimum of 1,000 from each governorate.

Ali has also called on his supporters to form a human chain from his campaign headquarters in Cairo to the NEA headquarters on 25 January while holding images of "the martyrs" and "political detainees."

The 45-year-old Ali, who is the founder of the leftist Bread and Liberty Party, also slammed the campaign timetable set by the NAE, arguing that it is too short.

"I reject this timetable as it defeats the purpose of the presidential campaigns," Ali said.

He also called on the NAE to remove all unofficial posters endorsing sitting President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi from public streets and squares, given that the campaign season has not yet started.

Ali is currently awaiting a final court verdict in a case where he was sentenced to three months in prison for offending public decency after making an "obscene hand gesture" during a demonstration outside the State Council headquarters in January 2017.

The final verdict in the case is set to be issued on 7 March.

If the guilty verdict is upheld, Ali would be disqualified from the presidential race in accordance with Article 1 of the 2017 elections law, which states that presidential candidates cannot have been convicted of a felony or a crime involving an "immoral act."

Ali ran for president in the first round of the 2012 elections, but received only 134,056 votes.

Although President El-Sisi has not declared his intention to run for a second term, over 500 MPs, including House Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, have signed endorsements supporting his candidacy.

El-Sisi, whose first term ends in June, won the 2014 presidential elections in a landslide victory, receiving nearly 97 percent of the vote.

Former MP and veteran politician Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat also declared his intention to run for office, submitting on Wednesday a request to the parliament speaker to collect endorsements from MPs for his candidacy.

El-Sadat, the founder of the Reform and Development Party, has also slammed the timetable announced by the NEA as being too short.

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Commercial passenger flights between Cairo and Moscow may resume in mid-February, Russian transport minister Maxim Sokolov told reporters on Thursday, according Russian news agency Sputnik.

Sokolov said that the resumption of air traffic between the two cities would require one-and-a-half months after the signing of a protocol in December between the FMs of the two countries to resume flights for the first time since 2015.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving the resumption of commercial air traffic between Russia and Cairo.

Egypt and Russia have also agreed to hold meetings in April to discuss the resumption of flights from Moscow to Egyptian touristic resort cities, the ministrys statement added.

Moscow grounded all commercial passenger flights to Egypt in 2015 over security concerns after a Russian A321 airbus crashed in Sinai shortly after taking off from Sharm El-Sheikh. All 224 people on board were killed in the crash.

Egypt has since boosted security procedures at many of its airports in response to Russian conditions to lift the flight ban.

The crash of the Russian flight has dealt a blow to Egypt's tourism industry, a major source of hard currency, with tourist numbers dropping by some 50 percent in the first half of 2016 year-on-year.

Russians used to make up the largest single tourist group in Egypt, contributing to about a fifth of foreign vacationers in the country as of 2015, according to official data.

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Britain, France and Germany called on Donald Trump on Thursday to uphold a pact curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions on the eve of a sanctions ruling by the U.S. president they fear could torpedo an accord he has relentlessly criticised.

Hailed by its admirers as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear programme. It was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union.

The U.S. Congress requires the president to periodically certify Iran's compliance and issue a waiver to allow U.S sanctions to remain suspended. The next deadline is on Friday.

In sharp contrast to Trump's view that the 2015 pact was "the worst deal ever negotiated", the foreign ministers of the three countries and the EU's top diplomat said there was no alternative to it and that sanctions should remain lifted.

"We agree on this approach, we want to protect (the deal) against every possible decision that might undermine it," Germany's Sigmar Gabriel said alongside his French and British counterparts and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini after meeting Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

"It is absolutely necessary to have this to prevent the development of nuclear weapons at a time when other parts of the world are discussing how to get them," Gabriel said, later specifically mentioning North Korea in his remarks.

Trump's choice comes at a delicate time for Iran's government, which faced protests over economic hardships and corruption that are linked to frustration among younger Iranians who hoped to see more benefits from the lifting of sanctions.

The meeting in Brussels was choreographed to send a message to Washington before Trump is due to decide whether to re-impose oil sanctions lifted under the deal. If that happens, Iran has said it would no longer be bound by the pact and could return to producing enriched uranium.

Zarif tweeted that the Brussels meeting had shown a "strong consensus" that Iran was complying with the pact, had the right to enjoy its economic benefits and "any move that undermines (it) is unacceptable".

"E3 (Germany, France and Britain) and EU fully aware that Iran's continued compliance (is) conditioned on full compliance by the US," Zarif added.

European countries have benefited from renewed trade with Iran as sanctions have been lifted, while U.S. companies are still largely barred from doing business with the Islamic Republic due to other sanctions unrelated to the nuclear issue..

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"The deal is working. It is delivering on its main goal which means keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check and under close surveillance," Mogherini said, adding that the International Atomic Energy Agency had shown in nine reports that Iran is meeting its commitments.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the pact was also a way for Iran to show it was "a good neighbour" in the region by complying.

Trump formally rejected the deal in October, although the United States has not yet pulled out.

That major shift in U.S. policy put the United States at odds with its European allies, as well as Russia and China that are also signatories to the nuclear accord, in the most visible transatlantic split on foreign policy since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

European governments are troubled by Trump's "America first" rhetoric and inconsistent statements on NATO and the European Union, while they consider the Iran nuclear deal one of West's the biggest diplomatic achievements in decades.

In a gesture to Trump, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Paris shared Washington's concerns about Iran's ballistic missile programme and involvement in wars in Yemen and Syria, but stressed the nuclear deal should still stand.

"We do not hide other disagreements, which exist ... both in the ballistic field and over Iran's actions in the whole region," Le Drian said.

Tehran has repeatedly vowed to continue building up its ballistic missile arsenal, one of the biggest in the Middle East, saying it is for defence purposes only. The West sees it as a threat and has installed a U.S.-built missile shield in southeastern Europe, under NATO command.

Gabriel said Zarif agreed at the Brussels meeting to discuss the issues in a more regular and structured way, but diplomats said there was no immediate timetable for talks.

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Serbia's defense minister says the US's rejection of a visa application from his army's chief of staff will have consequences for military relations between the two countries.

Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said Thursday that it was unclear why the US Embassy in Belgrade rejected the visa for Gen. Ljubisa Dikovic, who in October was invited to a conference in Washington on the fight against terror groups.

Vulin says the refusal to issue Dikovic a visa "does not contribute to our cooperation and leaves a bad trail."

The US Embassy has refused to comment on the general's application.

Serbian human rights group have accused Dikovic of war crimes committed by his troops during the 1998-99 war against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo. He has never been tried for the alleged crimes.

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[January 10, 2018] New CTA Scorecard Identifies the Most Innovative Countries

A new global ranking from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) identifies 13 countries as leading with factors conducive to innovation. In its inaugural International Innovation Scorecard, CTA identified Finland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, United States, Singapore, Netherlands, Canada, Portugal, Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark and New Zealand as the 2018 Innovation Champions. Announced during CTA's keynote address at CES (News - Alert) 2018 in Las Vegas, NV, the Scorecard identifies critical areas of national policy that spur innovation and reveals the areas in which countries may be stunting their own futures and economic growth. "Our goal with the International Innovation Scorecard is to evaluate countries from a uniquely American perspective, to determine which countries have the best policies in place to allow innovators to create and introduce new and transformative technologies," said Gary Shapiro (News - Alert), president and CEO, CTA. "Innovation is both the heart and the product of the American Dream. Today, more countries than ever see a similar dream within reach and are positioned to realize the benefits of innovation - through both their own nation's successes and the collective progress of the world. We congratulate all of this year's Innovation Champions." CTA, the largest U.S. tech trade association, conducted a comparative analysis of 38 countries and the European Union. The Scorecard uses several objective criteria including: whether governments welcome disruptive business models and technologies including the sharing economy and self-driving vehicles; how friendly their tax systems are; how well they protect the environment; and issues of perennial importance such as broadband speed and cost. The Scorecard also gauges countries on diversity; the ratio of female-to-male employees in the workplace in key age demographics; immigrants as a share of the national population; and freedom of thought and expression. "The trend lines are clear. Innovation is encouraged where governments are hospitable to new ideas, where people enjoy great freedom and clean environments and where innovators are embraced," added Shapiro. "Countries' futures are tied to innovation, because it will bolster economic growth and provide future generations with the jobs they want. Graduates entering the work force today don't necessarily want to stay in the factory jobs of previous generations, they want to use their creativity and curiosity to build brighter futures worldwide." Other key findings, ranked by grade, include: The most diverse countries are Australia, Canada, Singapore and Sweden The countries with the greatest individual and political freedom in the world are Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Portugal The countries that have, on average, the fastest and most affordable internet connections are the United Kingdom, Finland, South Korea, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands The countries with the most educated workforces are Singapore, Israel, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and New Zealand The countries with the most innovation-friendly tax systems are Singapore, China, Panama, Chile, Ireland and Canada The countries with the greatest R&D spending as a percentage of GDP are Israel, South Korea, Japan, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and the United States The countries with the highest level of entrepreneurial activity are Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the United States, Singapore, Ireland and Sweden The countries most fully enabling people and companies to test and deploy drone technologies are Australia, Finland, Portugal, Singapore and Sweden The countries that allow ridesharing to operate most freely are Finland, Panama, Peru, Poland, Rwanda, South Africa and Mexico The countries with the best federal frameworks for short-term home rentals are Chile, Denmark, Finland, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Portugal and South Africa The countries that allow people and companies to test and deploy self-driving vehicles most widely are Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States The countries with cleanest water and air are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States



In April, CTA will release the fifth edition of the U.S. Innovation Scorecard which grades all 50 states.

To read more about the Scorecard, visit www.internationalscorecard.com. About Consumer Technology Association: Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM is the trade association representing the $351 billion U.S. consumer technology industry, which supports more than 15 million U.S. jobs. More than 2,200 companies - 80 percent are small businesses and startups; others are among the world's best known brands - enjoy the benefits of CTA membership including policy advocacy, market research, technical education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CTA also owns and produces CES - the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. Profits from CES are reinvested into CTA's industry services. UPCOMING EVENTS CES 2018 - Register

January 9-12, Las Vegas, NV CES Asia 2018

June 13-15, Shanghai, China Digital Patriots Dinner

April 17, Washington, DC CES on the Hill

April 18, Washington, DC View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180110006053/en/

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[January 11, 2018] Calero Software Acquires Netherlands-based A&B Groep

ATLANTA, Georgia and ROOSENDAAL, Netherlands, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Calero Software, LLC ("Calero" or the "Company"), a leading provider of Communications Lifecycle Management (CLM) software and managed services including Telecom Expense Management (TEM), Managed Mobility Services (MMS) and Usage Management, announced today that it has acquired A&B Groep. A&B Groep is a leading provider of Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solutions throughout the EMEA region and is headquartered in the Netherlands. The acquisition was completed on January 1, 2018. Financial terms were not disclosed. "I am thrilled to welcome the customers and employees of A&B Groep into the Calero family," commented Chris Jurasek, President & CEO of Calero Software. "A&B Groep expands Calero's technical, customer service and commercial operations in Europe, and significantly deepens Calero's local knowledge and presence in more than 30 countries and across more than 100 additional telecom providers. Together, Calero and A&B Groep offer the industry's most robust and cohesive set of tools and solutions globally. This acquisition represents Calero's commitment to global investment for our clients and prospects." Ron Rijkenberg, co-founder and CEO of A&B Groep and now a Managing Director for Calero added, "Since day one, A&B Groep's mission has been to become the most trusted provider for telecom expense management services in the EMEA region. As part of Calero we have accelerated achievement of that goal and joined forces with a partner who truly shares our values of integrity, innovation and high-quality service. I am excited to be partnering with Chris Jurasek, Calero's management team and Riverside Partners and look forward to my role in leading the combined company's EMEA operations. Our customers will benefit greatly from our increased resources, complementary TEM solutions and accelerated investment in innovation as part of Calero. At the same time, A&B Groep's clients should absolutely continue to expect the same high level of satisfaction, local knowledge, employees and focus on data privacy and security that they have come to expect from us." Michelle Noon, General Partner at Riverside Partners added, "Our investment thesis for Calero anticipated significant growth, both organic and through selective strategic acquisitions, to build the global TEM leaer. With a strong year of organic growth in 2017 and the acquisition of A&B Groep, Calero is well on its way to achieving those objectives. A&B Groep stood out to us for its growth-oriented leadership team, high customer satisfaction and deep local knowledge. The acquisition of A&B Groep by Calero provides the foundation for our continued investment in the region. Furthermore, A&B Groep's talented team and complementary technology capabilities will integrate seamlessly into Calero, enhancing Calero's position as the market's first truly integrated global solution."



"We are delighted to welcome Ron Rijkenberg, Cees Wiedijk and the entire A&B Groep team to Calero," said Steven F. Kaplan, General Partner at Riverside and Chairman of the Board of Calero. "A&B Groep's impressive customer base will benefit from the Company's continued local presence and A&B Groep's Roosendaal office will now become the EMEA headquarters for Calero. We expect both Calero's US customers and A&B Groep's European customers to benefit from the acquisition. We look forward to continuing to invest behind Calero." Since its founding in 1999, A&B Groep has combined its significant local expertise, independent and objective analysis and its global reach to enable clients to more effectively manage their increasingly complex telecommunications spend. A&B Groep's GTEM Solutions include a robust mobility management platform that spans across devices, users, applications, documents and expenses. Additionally, across wireline, wireless and data networks, GTEM Solutions provide valuable financial and usage reporting to its end-users.

Calero's software and managed service solutions deliver sustainable value within large enterprises, universities and government agencies by enabling clients to more efficiently and more effectively manage the myriad of cloud and communications services, devices, contracts, invoices and spending across their operations. Today, Calero manages more than $6 billion of annual telecom, mobility and cloud spend for over 3,000 customers operating in more than 40 countries globally. Calero also provides managed mobility services for more than 500,000 mobile devices. About Calero Software, LLC Calero is a leading provider of Communications Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions designed to turn communication data into actionable insight by simplifying the management of voice, mobile and other unified communications services and assets. With a deep commitment to innovation and customer service, Calero's CLM approach enables organizations to support the full communications lifecycle, from procurement to payment, including software and services that aid Telecom Expense Management (TEM), Managed Mobility Services (MMS) and Usage Management. Calero has thousands of customers in over 40 countries worldwide, including Fortune 2000 corporations, universities and government agencies. Calero is a portfolio company of Riverside Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm. Learn more at www.calero.com. About A&B Groep Founded in 1999, A&B Groep provides Telecom Expense Management (TEM), Enterprise Mobility Management, and Global Asset Recovery solutions throughout the EMEA region using its GTEM Solutions platform. Collectively, these Global Telecom Expense Management (GTEM) solutions enable organizations to easily manage their complex, multi-national telecommunications. www.ab-groep.eu



About Riverside Partners Founded in 1989, Riverside Partners is a middle market private equity firm currently investing Riverside Fund V, L.P. The fund focuses on growth-oriented companies primarily in the healthcare and technology industries. Riverside Partners is particularly experienced at partnering with founders, owners and management teams and it brings substantial domain expertise and operating experience to its portfolio companies. For more information visit www.riversidepartners.com. For more information, contact: Michelle Noon

Riverside Partners LLC

[email protected]

+1-617-351-2818 Jorg Wiedijk

A&B Groep

[email protected]

+31-683-173-754 SOURCE A&B Groep

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Egypt will run candidates for the top post of trading bloc COMESA, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Egypt's Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Qabil said in a statement on Thursday.

The move is aimed at "bolstering Egypt's role in the African continent... and boost[ing] its trade and investment ties" with the bloc's 19 member nations, the minister added.

Candidacy for the post opened on 3 January. Each country aiming to run for the seat is required to field five candidates by 6 February, according to COMESA's regulations.

The newly elected candidate will replace Zimbabwean Sindiso Ndema Ngwenya.

Founded in 1994 to replace the former Preferential Trade Area (PTA) from the early 1980s in Eastern and Southern Africa, COMESA's main objective is to promote sustainable economic development and overcome trade hindrances faced by individual states.

Egypt's exports to the COMESA countries are estimated at around $1.7 billion, while imports from the bloc's nations amount to some $600 million, according to the ministry.



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India's passenger vehicle exports remained flat in 2017, plagued by issue of GST refund to automobile manufacturers which has touched Rs 2,000 crore since the implementation of the new tax regime.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), passenger vehicle (PV) exports from India stood at 7,38,894 units last year as against 7,38,137 units in 2016, a marginal growth of 0.1 per cent.

"The system of GST refund is not functioning and having an impact on exports of passenger vehicles. In December, we had a meeting of five-six top exporters and what we found was that the pending refund amount is around Rs 2,000 crore," SIAM Deputy Director General Sugato Sen said.

The issue has affected companies which export more from India than they sell in the domestic market, he added.

"One particular company had around Rs 800 crore of pending GST refund," Sen said, adding those companies which had substantial domestic sales could still afford to manage the blocking of capital.

Under the GST regime, payments are made upfront and manufacturers claim input tax credit refund later.

Such has been the impact of GST on PV export from India that as per SIAM data, after its implementation in July 2017, exports began to decline rapidly.

In the January-March 2017 period, exports stood at 1,82,473 units as against 1,62,103 units in the year-ago period, a growth of 12.56 per cent.

Similarly, in April-June period it increased by 13.79 per cent to 1,80,669 units from 1,58,770 units in the same period a year ago.

In July-September, exports declined by 12.87 per cent to 1,81,423 units as against 2,08,223 units in the same period previous year.

Likewise, in October-December, PV exports stood at 1,94,329 units as against 2,09,041 units in the year-ago period, a decline of 7.04 per cent.

Automobile manufacturers such as Ford India and Volkswagen India had in November expressed concern over the challenges faced by companies related to GST refund.

VW India had even stated that it could be forced to rethink on exports if the challenge was not resolved. Sen said one of the reasons for drop in exports of PVs from India was also due to major exporter like Hyundai turning focus on catering to the growing demand in domestic market.
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This is further to our earlier letter dated December 30, 2017, wherein it was informed that Bank has on December 29, 2017 received infusion of Rs.2,257 Crore from Government of India, in form of Common Equity Tier-1 Capital, which is being kept as Share Application Money.2. A meeting of Board of Directors has been scheduled on January 20, 2018 inter alia to consider capital raising plans by the Bank.3. This information is furnished in terms of Regulation 29(1)(d) and 29(2) of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015Source : BSE

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Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) signed an MOU today with Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) for management and operation of the Shiprepair Facilities at Mumbai Port trust.

At 14:15 hrs Cochin Shipyard was quoting at Rs 559.50, up Rs 24.70, or 4.62 percent.

The share touched its 52-week high Rs 598.90 and 52-week low Rs 432.00 on 24 November, 2017 and 10 August, 2017, respectively.

Currently, it is trading 6.58 percent below its 52-week high and 29.51 percent above its 52-week low.

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ENERGY DRAIN | These mining computers require a vast amount of energy to run. A recent estimate by tech news site Motherboard put the energy cost of a single bitcoin transaction at 215 kilowatt-hours, assuming that there are around 300,000 bitcoin transactions per day. Thats almost enough energy as the average American household consumes in a whole week.

China, which accounts for over 70 percent of the Bitcoin networks collective hash rate, is mulling stopping mining operations.

According to a leaked official document that saw the light of day on Twitter, the Leading Group of Internet Financial Risks Remediation, which is Chinas top internet finance regulator, has asked local governments to guide bitcoin-mining operations towards an orderly exit from the business.

The development comes after multiple reports of the Chinese government planning to limit electricity supply to bitcoin miners, who are infamous for consuming extremely large quantities of power.

Also Read: Energy consumed by bitcoin miners around the world is more than over 150 countries

Currently, there are some so-called mining enterprises that produce virtual currencies. They have consumed huge amounts of resources and stoked speculation of virtual currencies, read a Chinese government document dated January 2.

The document has asked local authorities to use means like jacking up power prices, inspecting usage of land and raising issues like environment protection in order to push miners to exit the business.

In addition to this, local bodies have also been asked to report information about mining facilities in their respective regions, and the progress of exits by miners on January 10 and then on the 10th of every month. A separate document issued by the regulator on January 4 asked that the progress be reported on the 5th of every month.

The Chinese government last year banned initial coin offerings in the country and shut down local cryptocurrency exchanges, a move that was endorsed by the countrys central bank as well. The latest crackdown on bitcoin mining comes amid the governments efforts to better distribute electricity to undersupplied areas.

A report by Quartz pointed out that Beijing has been known to go hard at seemingly risky investment vehicles because it fears the social chaos that could possibly arise from small investors losing money. The government had recently cracked down on other investment vehicles like peer-to-peer lending, online insurance, and a few local commodity exchanges.
Almost a decade after the Satyam scam came to light, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has banned Price Waterhouse (PW) entities from issuing audit certificates of listed companies for two years. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Universal shared his views and readings on the same.

Pai said that Sebi's action on Price Waterhouse sends a message to audit companies to take their work seriously.

He further said that Sebi has taken a very good decision with regards to Price Waterhouse, entities.

According to him, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) should have sent a show cause notice to the auditors immediately.

Personally feel a longer ban on Price Waterhouse would have been better, he added.

CNBC-TV18's Yash Jain also spoke at length about the same. Watch accompanying video for more details.
Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed more than Rs 135 crore penalty on three firms for rigging bids and forming "hard core cartel" with respect to tenders floated by Maharashtra State Power Generation Company.

The ruling has come on a complaint filed back in 2013 wherein it was alleged that there was cartelisation in tenders related to coal liasoning works for various thermal plants floated by Mahagenco.

Apart from penalising them, the regulator has directed the three firms -- Nair Coal Services, Karam Chand Thapar & Bros (CS) and Naresh Kumar & Co to "cease and desist" from anti-competitive practices.

By "acting in a collusive and concerted manner which has eliminated and lessened the competition besides manipulating the bidding process" in respect of the tenders floated, the firms have violated competition norms, CCI said in its 59-page order.

These entities were found to have Section 3 of the Competition Act that pertains to anti-competitive agreements.

The case falls in the category of "hard core cartels" as the firms reached an agreement to submit collusive tenders and to divide the markets, CCI said, adding that the case deserves to be dealt with "utmost severity".

A fine of Rs 111.60 crore has been imposed on Karam Chand Thapar & Bros while Naresh Kumar & Co has to pay Rs 16.92 crore as penalty. Besides, Nair Coal Services has been penalised to the tune of Rs 7.16 crore.

The penalty is being levied at the rate of two times the total profits earned from provision of coal liasoning services extended to all power generators for continuance of the cartel for 2010-11 to 2012-13 period.

As per the order dated January 10, the three firms quoted identical basic rates in respect of the tender floated by Mahagenco in 2005 and also quoted rates in a manner that each of them could get the chosen thermal power stations.

The regulator said that the three firms have entered into an arrangement in respect of the tenders floated during the period 2005-13 whereby they not "only allocated the market but also rigged the bids".

An official release said that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has deprecated the conduct of the informant -- one Surendra Prasad -- for breaching the confidentiality of the inquiry by circulating copies of the investigation report to B S N Joshi & Sons Ltd.

B S N Joshi is a rival of the three firms who have been fined and had forwarded the copies to various authorities, the release added.

Initially, when the matter of alleged cartelisation had come up, the CCI had closed the matter through a majority order in December 2013. However, that order was set aside by erstwhile Competition Appellate Tribunal and CCI's probe arm -- Director General (DG) -- was asked to investigate the matter.

The DG submitted its report to the regulator in June 2016.
The World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) announced that it will provide Egypt with $102.6 million in credit facilities to support the construction, operation and maintenance of six solar plants in the country, the agency said in a press release.

The agency is set to provide guarantees against expropriation and restrictions on currency transfers, failure to exchange currency, contract disruption, war and civil unrest.

The funding will be used to cover $5 million over 15 years in investments in the solar project by developer IB Vogt, as well as additional coverage worth $97.6 million for 20 years to the leader of the project, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The six solar plants are set to be built with investments worth $385.8 million, and are expected to provide energy for 349,912 housing units, according to the agency.

The MIGA will provide coverage to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, with Saudi power developer Acwa Power to manage construction of three plants.

Keiko Honda, the executive vice president and chief executive officer of MIGA, affirmed the need for further bolstering investment in Egypt to fulfil the increasing demand for electricity and diversifying its resources in the country.

Egypt is aiming to increase its use of renewable energy to 22 percent by 2020, the countrys investment and international cooperation minister Sahar Nasr said in April.

The country has been aiming to upgrade its power plant capacity and renewable energy projects in order to meet rising power demand.

Last October, Egypt signed agreements for the construction of 13 solar power plants in Aswan, financed by the International Financial Corporation (IFC), which is a member of the World Bank Group.

The 13 solar power plants, which are expected to generate 590 megawatts, will cost $823 million in total, with the IFC providing $653 million. The IFC will provide its funding package in cooperation with around nine international banks.

Egypt's new solar deal represents the largest private-sector financing package for a solar photovoltaic facility in the Middle East and North Africa.

The solar plants will be linked to 19 other plants to make up the Benban Solar Park in Aswan.

The World Bank has been working with the Egyptian government to help reform the electricity sector.

Last week, Siemens Gamesa secured a contract to construct a 262MW wind turbine in Egypt's Gulf of Suez in the company's largest deal in the country to date, the company said on Wednesday.

In 2015, German conglomerate Siemens signed a 8 billion ($9 billion) deal with the Egyptian government to build three combined-cycle power plants and 12 wind power installations at a capacity of 16.4 gigawatts.

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Cable television operators have sought to revise the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to five per cent from 18 per cent.

Cable television services are essential services and should not have 18 per cent GST which is in effect at present. I shall, on behalf of the Cable TV operators, present this with Finance Minister Amit Mitra, who is a member of the GST Council," Cable TV Equipments Traders & Manufacturers Association (CTMA) said quoting state municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim.

He further said with the consent of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, a Cable TV Summit in April 2018 in the city will be held.
The new taxation regime under Goods and Services Tax (GST) is all set to boost polymer downstream industry in the eastern region, including West Bengal.

"In the GST regime, abolition of CST and entry tax and on top of that plastics goods flowing in from other states evading taxes have now stopped. This will encourage local manufacturers from Bengal to produce more to meet the demand," Indian Plastics Federation president Alok Tibrewala told PTI.

West Bengal plastics industry is pegged at Rs 12,000 crore involving 2500-3000 units and growing at 15 per cent annually.

Tibrewala said the any new industrial policy for petrochem downstream industry at the Bengal Global Business Summit 2018 will create more vibrancy in the investment environment in this sector of the state.

They expect inclusion of expansion in the incentive scheme and direct payment of capital subsidy, Tibrewala said.

IPF officials said the state government must look at 'affordable power' for the plastics industry to encourage more manufacturing in this state.

Meanwhile, IPF was looking for some 100 acres land for a new plastics park exclusively for the MSME plastic sector within 50-60 kilometres from city limits.

"In the next one year, Rs 800-1000 crore investment will come. Demand for 60 acres is already there before we can finalise land for a new plastics park," Tibrewala said.

Speaking on 'Indplas 18' in Kolkata, the IPF said 120-125 foreign delegates are expected in this mega event from countries like China, Thalinad, Taiwan, Malaysia and UAE among others beside companies across the country.

The triennial exhibition will take place from November 30 to December 3.
The government is open to retaining a minority stake in Air India even as it pursues sale of a strategic holding in the loss-making carrier, Moneycontrol learnt today in an exclusive interview with Jayant Sinha, union minister of state for civil aviation.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday allowed foreign direct investment of up to 49 percent in Air India. This decision means that foreign airlines too can buy a stake in the fully state-owned company under the total FDI limit of 49 percent. The foreign investor will need the approval of the government. FDI of up to 49 percent is already allowed in private Indian airline companies under the automatic route.

So for instance, just to make it perfectly clear. Suppose the government were to disinvest 60 percent of Air India. If we have disinvested 60 per cent of Air India, 60 percent would be with the private sector, 40 percent would remain with the government. OK. Now we have said that no more than 49 percent could be in foreign hands. So 49 percent of the 60 percent, for instance, could be with the foreign player, then 11 per cent could stay with an Indian player and 40 per cent could stay with the government. So the 51 percent would be met, Sinha told Moneycontrol.

The government has so far not clearly specified how much stake it would sell in Air India other than the fact that it wanted to sell a strategic stake. Whether the government would exit the company or retain a minority share has not been very clear so far. Sinhas statement indicates the government could look at retaining a minority stake with a majority stake of not more than 49 per cent going to a foreign player.

So, on one hand we are saying that this is a strategic disinvestment which exceeds 51 percent and at the same time we are saying FDI cannot exceed 49 percent. So they are two different things. You cannot combine the two together in a somewhat jumbled-up way, he said.

Sinha said the stake sale by the government should not take more than six to eight months with the legal closing and transfer of assets taking another few months.

So far, Interglobe Aviation, which runs IndiGo Airlines, is the only airline company to have officially expressed its intent to buy the national carrier.

Air India made a loss of Rs 4,310.65 crore in 2015-16, adding to its Rs 6,280.42 crore loss in the previous financial year. The airline, which is completely owned by the government, is weighed down by a debt of around Rs 52,000 crores.

Divestment of stake in Air India is a hot potato because it is likely to rile the unions and is being driven by no less than the Prime Ministers Office. The government has appointed all the necessary advisors to value the airline and advise it on the stake sale.

It is almost a given that the government will have to absorb much of Air Indias massive debt to entice enough interest from any private sector company though Sinha was non-committal on the quantum of debt the government would be willing to absorb. He said an audited mechanism, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, would take a decision on that based on the advice coming from the transaction advisor Ernst & Young.

The edited excerpts of the interview:

Q. On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet passed a significant policy decision of allowing FDI, including investment from a foreign airline, up to 49 percent in Air India. What sense do we derive out of it? Can we say the government may be OK with a less than 100 percent privatisation of the airline?

A. I think we need to clarify one thing first just so that nobody is confused about it. Yesterdays decision related to FDI. And that decision was that directly or indirectly, foreign ownership of Air India should not exceed 49 percent. That was the decision on FDI. Government has already said that we are in a strategic disinvestment process. In a strategic disinvestment process, the government will divest 51 per cent or more of Air India. So we have already said that we will divest more than 51 percent. It may be 51 percent or it may be more. That will be decided by the audited mechanism which is headed by the honourable Finance Minister. As and when the divestment happens and an ownership stake is purchased by a private player, then in that ownership no more than 49 per cent of Air Indias ownership, directly or indirectly, can be held by foreign investors. So on one hand we are saying that this is a strategic disinvestment which exceeds 51 percent and at the same time we are saying FDI cannot exceed 49 percent. So they are two different things. You cannot combine the two together in a somewhat jumbled-up way. You have to be clear what one means and what the other means.

So for instance, just to make it perfectly clear. Suppose the government were to disinvest 60 percent of Air India. If we have disinvested 60 percent of Air India, 60 percent would be with the private sector, 40 percent would remain with the government. OK. Now we have said that no more than 49 percent could be in foreign hands. So 49 percent of the 60 percent, for instance, could be with the foreign player, then 11 percent could stay with an Indian player and 40 percent could stay with the government. So the 51 percent would be met. Do you understand how that would work? So the two are different ways of looking at the divestment process.

A.

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We have said over and over again that from now we expect it to take another six to eight months for the winning bidder to be announced. And thereafter, it will take another few months for the legal closing and the transfer of assets to actually happen.Those are decisions that will be made by the audited mechanism under the advice from the transaction advisor which is EY.The government has been playing a very active role in the Delhi airport masterplan and we have been working with all the parties concerned for many, many months now to find an amicable solution. Unfortunately, we have not been able to reach an amicable solution in this situation and the reasons is because IndiGo and Spicejet effectively cannot come to an agreement on exactly how operations will be shifted to T2. T1 right now is already over its planned capacity and there is a significant expansion of T1 that is required which will mean reducing the capacity of T1 even further. And because the capacity of T1 is going to come down so much, we have to move operations to T2. Now, which operations go to T2 and when they go to T2 is something that Spicejet and IndiGo cannot agree upon. And that is why we are having this dispute over this matter. But its very clear that we have to reduce operations in T1 and increase operations in T2 and thats what we cant come to a conclusion around. We have been in the middle of that discussion but because we have two parties right now which cannot agree, therefore, it has gone to the High Court.

Q. Seeing the success of UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme thats called UDAN, an acronym for Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik), do you think its under-funded?

A. Well as far as UDAN round one is concerned and in UDAN round one, we have activated some 25-30 airports and for that we have estimated for the routes that will originate and will terminate at these airports, it is estimated that it will cost in subsidy terms about Rs 200 to Rs 300 crores. And the current funding for UDAN is sufficient to cover that. Now, in UDAN round two, we are going to cover another 40- plus airports and many, many more routes as well. And for that we will need additional financing for that. We are working through the process so that we will have additional support for round two.

A.

We are working through multiple alternatives for that.

Q. Do you think the time has come to have a more focused approach towards having low-cost airports in the country?

A. We are already working on many airports and doing them in a bare bones, no frills way so that instead of spending many hundreds of crores in building an airport, we can do it in a very reasonable, affordable way between lets say a Rs 100 to 200 crore. So we are looking at that model and we have in fact come out with various different approaches for that. So as and when we need to do that, we will certainly do it and come out with a no-frills airport.

Q. Could we expect some relaxation in norms to attract more private participation in UDAN scheme?

A. We have a very open and liberal policy regime for airports right now and so we are very much hoping that the great built out of airports thats required in India as we go from about 200 million passenger trips which is what we have right now to lets say a billion passenger trips, which is what we will have 20 years from now. So that expansion, which many people have estimated, experts have estimated is going to cost between Rs 3 lakh crore to Rs 4 lakh crore that the vast majority of it is done by and funded through the private sector.

A.

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A.

Private sector airports are doing extremely well and the vast majority of our air traffic actually moves through our five to six private airports -- Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin. Those have been very, very successful. We are working through an approach for existing brownfield airports and we have offered them up for bid and we are revising the whole bidding process for Jaipur and Ahmedabad. So we want to make it sufficiently attractive, interesting for the private sector to take over. In addition to that, on the greenfield side -- whether it is Goa, whether it is Navi Mumbai, or new airports being considered in Pune and Guwahati and so on -- those airports will actually come under the greenfield PPP (public private partnership) model.Chennai airport, we are building a new terminal there. That will be of course an AAI (Airports Authority of India) terminal because it is an AAI airport right now. But we are in discussions with the government of Tamil Nadu to see whether we can build an entirely new greenfield airport for Chennai which will be required in the next 10 years or so.Thats not true. Allocation of all resources at private airports by law has to be done in a very fair, transparent and open manner. Of course, theres a separate issue which is that we dont have enough parking bays and slots, particularly in Mumbai. In fact, it is not possible to give equal either parking bays or slots right now because Mumbai is completely saturated as of now. But whenever there is any allotment, that allotment has to be done in a fair and transparent manner. And in fact, as we were talking about earlier as far as Delhi airport is concerned, if airlines believe what they are being asked to do is not fair and transparent, they do and they bring it to court. So of course litigation and legal disputes are what happen when people dont agree with certain decisions.We are working through the modalities of all of that. Seaplanes are a very interesting and very high potential alternative for air transportation in India. The question of course with seaplanes is two-fold. One, safety with a single engine, fixed wing aircraft and second obviously, is to find places where they can land and where they are safe and secure. So we are working through the modalities of that right now. We are seeing what should be our policy for water drones, and we have an expert committee looking at single engine, fixed wing aircraft as well as single engine helicopters to see what their safety record is and what should be the overall safety protocols and regulations that enable us to fly these kinds of planes safely.(The video of this interview will run later today.)
Though the battle for Taj Mansingh, one of the crown jewels of Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) may have got longer  with the NDMC shifting dates to complete the auction - the Tata company is firmly ahead in the race. In fact, some of the prospective bidders, including The Leela Group, have already opted out of the auction.

The landmark hotel in Delhis tony Lutyens neighbourhood had been put on sale after the Supreme Court last year gave the go-ahead to NDMC to conduct auction. Till then the Municipal Corporation had been contending IHCLs claim to first right of refusal to match the highest bid at the auction. The hotels lease had expired in October 2011.

While the auction was expected to get over by January 30, the NDMC in a notice on the third of this month put out a notice saying: Prospective Bidders are hereby notified that the publication of responses to queries which was scheduled for Wednesday, January 03, 2018 has now been postponed. The responses to queries will now be published at a later date and all other dates will be notified accordingly. The queries were submitted by December 28, and the Corporation was expected to get back to the bidders by the first week of January.

According to industry sources, the race  whenever it commences  could be a face-off between Indian Hotels and ITC, which owns the ITC Maurya, located less than 7km away from Taj Mansingh. This is a prestigious property, a source close to ITC told Moneycontrol. We are surely evaluating the project, the executive added.

Executives from the Kolkota-based major visited Taj Mansingh last month and submitted their pre-bid queries with the NDMC. The IHCL too has submitted its queries, say industry sources. At the moment, it is difficult to ascertain who else will be interested in the property, says a senior industry executive.

The Leela Group, which was expected to be one of the bidders, has dropped out. We are not participating in the auction, an executive from the Group said.

While PRS Oberoi, Chairman of the Oberoi Group, went on record that the company is examining whether we should bid for the hotel or not, industry sources say it wont be surprising if the legendary hotelier decides not to.

The Oberoi Group recently opened its revamped The Oberoi Hotel, just 10 minutes drive from Taj Mansingh. After spending Rs 600 crore in the revamp, it might not make financial sense for him to go for the Taj property, said a hotel consultant.

Emailed queries to the IHCL and the Oberoi Group were unanswered till the time of publishing the story.

Many industry players had earlier complained about the strict conditions NDMC had put for prospective bidders. Some of the conditions, like only those owning 500 operational five-star rooms are eligible for the auction, eliminated 95 per cent of the bidders, says an executive from a leading hotel brand that was interested. The requirement of having a topline of Rs 400 crore eliminated many of the international brands who mostly limit themselves to managing a property, which means they only earn a share of a hotels revenue.

Also, as per the present conditions, adds the executive, it will take at least two years for the hotel to make any kind of money. Apart from the acquisition money, much more will have to be invested if the branding changes, said the official.
The Cabinet on Wednesday allowed 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) under the automatic route for single-brand retail.

To discuss in detail what would be the positive impact of the above development on ground for the retail companies CNBC-TV18 spoke to Rakesh Biyani, Joint MD, Future Retail, J Suresh, MD and CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands and to know the impact on their growth and stock prices, they spoke to Abneesh Roy, Senior VP, Edelweiss Securities.

Biyani said although all policies in India so far haven't attracted enough FDI, the above move could make it easier for companies to do business.

Echoing Biyani's thoughts, Suresh said FDI relaxation besides increasing ease of doing business will also make help Make in India initiative.

The government has decided to allow single brand retail trading entity to set off its incremental sourcing of goods from India for global operations during initial 5 years, beginning April 1 of the year of the opening of first store against the mandatory sourcing requirement of 30 percent of purchases from India.

The relaxation in the 30 percent sourcing norm is a more significant move which will further help many companies to do business in India in the single-brand route, said Biyani, adding that it is a reasonable concession.

According to Biyani, without manufacturing in a country like India, it is not going to be possible to build a scalable business model. Companies like Ikea, H&M which are 100% FDI would definitely benefit from easier sourcing norms.

Biyani said, the entire policy mechanism with regards to retail needs to be simplified further, so that India, which is emerging as one of the largest consumption markets gets the right sort of investments and also so that retail can deliver to its full potential.

However, several retail categories in India still do not get an opportunity to grow their businesses, and a look at that could have helped, said Biyani, adding that he is hopeful of the government coming out with a simpler policy that will make India an attractive FDI destination.

Suresh also said complexities in the retail business have to be eased.

Agreeing with Suresh, Roy said other complexities in retail business has to be eased. However, he is very upbeat on the growth of retail companies going forward and expect them to report double-digit same store sales.

Several retail companies will deliver strong EBITDA and net profit growth, said Roy.

The online retail has also seen next phase of evolution with them setting up physical stores, like Myntra set up LensKart, Amazon acquiring physical retail stake etc., said Roy.

Roy is bullish on Trent, Titan Company, Future Retail and Shoppers Stop and is also upbeat on D-Mart although valuation comfort is not there.

Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.

Latha: What is the material difference of this announcement?

Biyani: I think approval route and automatic route, since the approval process now does not require  will reduce the timeline to start business by at least four to six months. So that is one. However, I think the bigger underlying change that has been announced yesterday which is under this route where the 30 percent sourcing norm, there is a significant relaxation for a period of five years where instead of really sourcing for India to sell within India, incremental sourcing done for overseas would be considered towards that obligation. I think that sort of makes it easier for many companies to do business in India on a single brand route.

If you really look at the overall retail policy, and we have been sort of taking about it for several years, significant amount of policy announcements have happened in the previous government and this government, unfortunately none of them have really attracted any amount of significant FDI in India. I think that is more to do with the complexity that exists in the entire policy thought process. Brand wise policies, category wise policies, and now different ways of calculating the sourcing norms, I think it is just too complex for a simple trading business called retail.

There was an opportunity and that opportunity has to be taken up to how do we simplify this entire policy mechanism so that India which is emerging to be one of the largest consumption markets, truly gets the right set of investment so that the retail can deliver to its potential over the next decade or so.

Sonia: What is your view on how the relaxation of the 30 percent sourcing norms could impact, not just the industry, you spoke about that, but also a company like yours?

Biyani: For us it does not make an impact because whatever business that we try and do even on a joint venture basis, we typically would look at manufacturing in India. What I believe is a fact that without really doing manufacturing in a country like India, it is not going to be possible to really build a scalable business model. So, while I think some companies which are very large in size, they need a lot more time before they can factor in a new way of doing supply chain management. They can really factor that only if they are able to build the scale in India and for them I think it is a good start.

So I would say companies like Ikea, or companies like H&M, which are both 100 percent FDI investments, and both are large investments, they would definitely benefit from this. Ikea more because it has to really setup a large scale furniture manufacturing facility, etc. and quite a lot of that does not exist to a very large extent in India. So while they will continue to source the linens, etc. from India which is very good out of India, they get extra time to do the domestic sourcing.

So I just hope the fact that -- ultimately our objective should be to encourage manufacturing within the country and maybe at the end of five years that would happen and that would really bring in the real benefits of FDI to the market. So, it is a good way to startup, I think it is a reasonable concession, but I think the larger opportunity was to sort of really look at, if you really look at, almost all the policies about what foreign companies can do or cannot do but there was an opportunity to sort of address the capital needs of the domestic companies specifically in the so called multi-brand space.

Truly speaking, this brand definition has no meaning. Frankly, it is about really serving the customers needs and you will have multi-categories. It is not going to be possible for everybody to produce everything in a single brand. Several categories which have been consumed in India are not getting the right kind of opportunities to sort of grow their business and that simplicity could have had helped. I am just still hopeful that over a period of time government will have the wherewithal and have the learnings around what has happened in the last few years and come up with a more simpler policy which would actually make India a truly attractive FDI destination.

Latha: Both these rules, the single brand retail entry through the automatic route for 100 percent FDI as well as the dilution or easing of the sourcing norm, how will it impact textiles?

Suresh: I echo what Rakesh Biyani was mentioning. I think what it does is just eases ease of doing business and also in terms of sourcing norms I think it will encourage Make In India for some of the global people. So as a fashion retail, I am not expecting a huge amount of inflow of foreign exchange because of this change mainly because even otherwise the approval route was available and it is a question of three to four months delay, you can always open a retail store. So I dont see a big impact in terms of the foreign exchange investment. I think it is more complexity in terms of retail policy which has to be untangled if really the country has to attract international investment into retail.

Sonia: You heard both the gentlemen from the corporate side, what is your own view on how the stocks would move because the sector as a whole is now trading at about 20 times FY20 EV/EBITDA. How is that placed and what are your top picks here?

Roy: We are quite positive on the entire space. We have seen sentiments improve. India has been rated as the best retail destination by independent study. We have seen in the past few quarters significant recovery in the same store growth across most formats. If you see QSR, jewellery, fashion, and even food and grocery, even this quarter we expect most of the companies to clock strong growth and it is an improvement versus earlier. So most companies should see close to a double digit same store growth.

In terms of online also, because the government regulations and funding drying up, we have seen discounting come off and physical retailers have also adapted to the situation. Future Group is rolling out Retail 3.0, similarly D-Mart is doing D-Mart Ready, Shoppers Stop has tied up with Amazon. So in terms of online also, clearly we are seeing the next phase of evolution and discounting coming down. We have seen online players setup physical stores, we have seen Myntra setup, Lenskart. Similarly Amazon has acquired globally and within India physical retailers some stake and Alibaba in China also.

Anuj: The issue here is that some of these stocks have  Future Retail for example, from Rs 200 to Rs 600, V-Mart, D-Mart, all these stocks have rallied a lot. So, the point here is how much of this is already in the price or are we looking at a consistent 30-40 percent kind of CAGR over the next 10-12 years, is that that the market is pricing right now?

Roy: The entire market, India and global market, are at a multiyear high and retail companies have seen huge course correction, debt reduction, sale of non-core assets. So, yes, retail stocks have done well. In terms of the profit growth, clearly it will be a very strong growth in the coming years. For most companies, we expect EBITDA growth of strong double digits across the board and also debt levels have come down. So clearly earnings growth is something which will propel the next cycle.

Rerating may not happen, but clearly if you see, Indian market is the highest growth market currently and we are seeing sentiment improvements. So our top picks currently are Trent, Titan, Future Retail, and Shoppers Stop. We are also positive on rest of the names  in some stocks, valuation comfort is not there, for example, Avenue Supermart (D-Mart), great story, but valuation comfort may not be there in some cases. However, frankly speaking, we do expect significant upside in the next one year for most of these stocks.

Latha: What is your sense, how have footfalls been and is the story as cheerful as Abneesh Roy is saying that there is a sizeable improvement in demand in your stalls?

Biyani: I think Abneesh has been tracking the sector and he is sort of summarised is quite well. The markets have been buoyant, and I think the big difference is the fact that organised retail is not a very old business in India. The companies have matured, the teams have matured, the execution standards that we are able to achieve are significantly higher. I think also when you really look at -- now GST has for the first time enabled the real supply chain act that an organised retail must bring in where we can bring in the scales to the benefit of the consumer. We can actually sort of promise on to the delivery without worrying about where will we get it from because in the past taxation was a huge hindrance to create efficient supply chain.

I think the real enablers to sort of take the benefit of an organised retail chain or organised distribution, has really started with the implementation of GST. GST is just about settling in and I think almost not only us but I know for a fact that several of our partners who sort of help us supply goods, etc. are already looking at and are in discussion with us in terms of how do we sort of improve the entire experience of the consumer at an organised retail store. I also strongly believe the fact that when we are going to be able to implement that, we would actually see a significant amount of savings for the customers coming in our stores and the entire experience would go up. I think that is what the real enabler of an organised retail is and that has got to happen in the next couple of years.

So while we are a decade old business, but the real work has started today and I think the good times are still to come. The demand will be stronger, and we will ensure the fact that we bring in prices and products which convinces customers to come and shop with us.

Latha: 20 percent CAGR, not an overestimation?

Not an overestimation, definitely.
GAIL India

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State-owned GAIL plans to extend the ambitious Urja Ganga natural gas pipeline project to Guwahati to connect the north-eastern region with grid, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

GAIL is laying a pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal and onwards to Bokaro in Jharkhand and Dhamra in Odisha by 2022 at a cost of Rs 12,940 crore.

Speaking at a seminar organised by industry body Ficci, Pradhan said GAIL has "proposed to extend the Jagdishpur Haldia and BokaroDhamra pipeline to Guwahati".

The company has done a feasibility study on laying a spur line to Guwahati in Assam within the approved Rs 12,940 crore project cost, he said.

GAIL has approached the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for the permission to lay the spur line, which would connect the north eastern states to the national gas grid.

Also, five state-owned firms including GAIL, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Oil India Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) have decided to join hands to lay a gas grid connecting the seven north-eastern states.

"There are gas reserves in Tripura, Manipur, Silchar and Arunachal Pradesh which so far have not been exploited as there is no pipelines to evacuate the gas and take it to users," he said.

The North-Eastern Gas Grid is currently at conception stage and the five companies are in the process of forming a special purpose vehicle which will approach PNGRB for permission to lay the pipeline, he said.

Eastern India has so far been untouched by the gas revolution with pipelines transporting the environment friendly fuel mostly concentrated in west and north India. Some lines are being laid in the south but east was totally unconnected.

The Urja Ganga project will take the gas to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, Varanasi.

Pradhan said the government has taken the decision to integrate the hitherto neglected eastern part of the country into the emerging gas economy.

Work on the 2,655 km Urja Ganga project has begun. It will connect Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal.

The Central government has sanctioned Rs 5,176 crore, or 40 per cent of the project cost, as budgetary support for the pipeline. "This is the first time a gas pipeline is being funded from the Budget," he said.

The pipeline connecting Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh, Bokaro in Jharkhand, Dhamra in Odisha and Haldia in West Bengal, will be used to supply natural gas to three fertiliser companies to be revived as per a plan approved earlier by the Cabinet.

Fertiliser units at Sindri in Jharkhand, Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and Barauni in Bihar, the main gas customers of the pipeline project, will benefit from the clean fuel which will be used to produce urea, the most commonly used plant nutrient in the country.

The pipeline would also feed steel plants and help produce quality steel, he added.
NEW DELHI, INDIA - MAY 4: Acharya Balkrishna, Managing Director, Patanjali Ayurveda, with Yog Guru Baba Ramdev during a Patanjali's annual press conference announces the opening of Patanjali Aavasiya Sainik School this year, on May 4, 2017 in New Delhi, India. During the press conference, Baba Ramdev announced Patanjali's annual turnover of the fiscal year 2016-17, and said it was at Rs. 10,000 crore. Patanjali Ayurved Ltd., which Ramdev set up in 2006, has seen phenomenal growth in last few years, clocking a reported Rs. 10,561 crore revenue in the year, ended March 31, 2017. (Photo by Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

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Private equity fund L Catterton, which is co-owned by French luxury group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE  also known as Louis Vuitton (LVMH)  is keen on buying a stake in Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved, according to a report the The Economic Times.

"We would love to work with him if we can find a model," L Catterton Asia Managing Partner Ravi Thakran told the paper. He also said he is aware that Ramdev's business model does not support working with multinational companies and with foreign money or brands.

The L Catterton private equity fund is co-owned by Louis Vuitton. They claim to be ready to bet USD 500 million, which is close to half of their remaining funds in Asia, to buy a stake in the Patanjali enterprise.

Patanjali has emerged to be one of the fastest growing FMCGs by attaching the 'Swadeshi' label on their products. They managed to outrun their global and local competitors who had already been a part of the market. In order to compete with Patanjali, Hindustan Unilever, Colgate Palmolive and Dabur were forced to recreate and ramp up their ayurvedic products.

"Patanjali has the potential to go to the world and I can tell you today that Patanjali has been a disruptor in its category, as strong a disruptor as many of the global disruptors are and it has taken Indian-ness and celebrated it with pride," Thakran told the paper. He said L Catterton can help Patanjali go international and expand its markets in US, Japan, China, South Korea and Europe.

Even though Patanjali is seeking for funding companies, the offer from Louis Vuitton may not bear fruit. This is because Ramdev has always portrayed his brand to be anti-multinational.
It has been a dream run for Indian markets in the year 2017. The Nifty50 closed above 10,000 levels for the first time in July 2017 but there were as many as 36 stocks which gave 10x return than the Nifty index in the same period.

The Nifty50 raced from 10,000 levels recorded on 26th July 2017 to 10,600 in January 2018 which translates into a gain of nearly 6 percent but as many as 36 stocks rose more than 10 times in the same period.

Stocks which gave 60-480% return from the period July 2017-January 2018 in the S&P BSE 500 index include names like Jai Corp, VIP Industries, Divis Laboratories, KEI Industries, Torrent Power, Adani Transmission etc. among others.

Stocks which more than doubled your wealth in the same period include names like HEG, Graphite India, Rain Industries, Bombay Dyeing, Phillips Carbon Black, Jai Corp, Meghmani Organics, Himadri Speciality, PC Jeweller, Gujarat Alkalies, VIP Industries, and Bombay Burmah.

For the year, the Nifty50 rose by about 29 percent but analysts caution investors to tone down their expectations from equity markets for the next 12 months. The index might at best give a low-teen return but the traditions of Nifty hitting fresh record highs is likely to continue.

"The stupendous rally which we saw was driven not only by liquidity but also by hope of earnings and economic recovery (due to reforms by Modi government) going ahead, which had been lagging for many quarters in the past," Mahesh Patil, Co-Chief Investment Officer of Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC said on the sidelines of Aditya Birla Capital conference.

"That kind of returns seem unlikely in 2018 though earnings and economic recovery look possible is the word coming from Aditya Birla Capital. What it expects is 12-15 percent return in the current year and the similar kind of uptrend is likely to continue in 2019 & 2020 as well," he said.

Analysts do not expect a major correction on D-Street but a 3-5 percent correction could give a good entry point to long-term investors. However, investing should follow a staggered approach to investing because the upside remains limited.

Markets have been relentlessly rallying day after day with most stocks at their 52-week highs. The Midcap and smallcap universe in particular clearly seem to be in overvaluation zone.

This is more of a trader's market currently and the margin of safety for short-term investors is pretty low. Hence, new investments, if to be made for the short to intermediate term, are exposed to higher volatility and price risks, Saurabh S Jain, MD, SSJ Finance & Securities told Moneycontrol.

We believe that if market indices are to correct by 3-5%, it will be a healthy sign for a sustained bull run to continue. We also believe that the budget will be rural and infra focused which will benefit sectors like Agrochemicals, Cement, FMCG and 2 wheelers, he said.
3:30 pm Market Closing: Benchmark indices closed higher after consolidation, with the Nifty holding 10,650 for the first time.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 70.42 points at 34,503.49 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 19 points at 10,651.20.

About 1,594 shares advanced against 1,326 declining shares on the BSE.

3:25 pm Budget Expectations: The government needs to increase the basic customs duty on medical devices in the range of 5-15 percent to promote domestic manufacturing, Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) said today.

The current slab is 0-7.5 percent, it said.

"The government has rightly revised custom duty on Electronics to up to 20 per cent recently to maintain the investment climate, and same is sought for Medical Electronics where import dependency is 90 per cent," AiMeD Forum Coordinator Rajiv Nath told PTI.

3:14 pm Buzzing: United Breweries shares rallied nearly 6 percent as CNBC-TV18 reports quoting Cogencis that the company hiked Kingfisher beer price by 7-8 percent in Mumbai.

3:03 pm Buzzing: IDFC Bank has been buzzing during the week, rising more than 8 percent today.

Media report indicated that the bank may be looking for merger with Capital First.

Capital First shares gained more than 5 percent.

Here are the top headlines at 3 pm from Moneycontrol News' Sakshi Batra

2:56 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices gave up some gains in late trade as the Sensex was up 40.69 points at 34,473.76 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 6.60 points to 10,638.80.

The gap between advances and declines narrowed. About 1,511 shares advanced against 1,267 declining shares on the BSE.

2:50 pm Buzzing Stock: Shares of Cochin Shipyard rose 6.5 percent intraday Thursday as it signed MoU with Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT).

The MoU is for management and operation of the ship-repair facilities at Mumbai Port Trust.

As per the terms of the MOU, MbPT and CSL are to associate with each other for utilizing the Indira Dock facility at Mumbai Port to set up a professional ship repair Eco system, that would be beneficial for the commercial as well as defence ship repair industry in India.

2:21 pm Gold Update: Gold regained glitter today with the price rising by Rs 145 to Rs 30,620 per 10 grams, driven largely by a firm trend overseas as well as pick-up in buying by jewellers in the domestic spot market.

Silver also recovered by Rs 180 to Rs 39,680 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

Bullion traders attributed the recovery in gold prices to a firm trend overseas as the weakness in dollar boosted demand for the precious metals as a safe-haven for investors.

2:10 pm NCLT case: Country's largest lender State Bank of India has initiated corporate insolvency resolution process against IVRCL in National Company Law Tribunal.

Here are the top headlines at 2 pm from Moneycontrol News' Anchal Pathak

1:59 pm Earnings: Private sector lender IndusInd Bank has reported nearly 25 percent growth in profit at Rs 936.2 crore for quarter ended December 2017 YoY, which was largely in line with estimates, but asset quality weakened a bit sequentially.

Profit in year-ago quarter had reported at Rs 750.64 crore by the bank. Other income, operationg income and NII boosted profitability.

Net interest income grew by 20 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,895 crore, from Rs 1,578.4 crore in corresponding quarter.

Profit was estimated at Rs 931.5 crore and net interest income at Rs 1,926.1 crore for the quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

1:49 pm Bank of India fundraising: Public sector lender Bank of India today said its Board will meet on January 20 to consider raising funds.

The bank also said it has received capital infusion of Rs 2,257 crore from the government.

"A meeting of the Board of Directors has been scheduled for January 20, to consider capital raising plans by the bank," Bank of India (BOI) said in a BSE filing.

1:30 pm Budget expectations: HSBC Global Asset Management is holding its investment summit titled 'India Investment Marathon' in Mumbai.

Speaking from the sidelines of the summit, Tushar Pradhan, CIO, HSBC Global Asset Management (India) told CNBC-TV18 that the investor mood is cautious because of substantial rise in the markets both in India as well as global.

Investors now are apprehensive on what to expect next year because too much of good thing is also not good, said Pradhan.

1:10 pm Oil & gas results: Global research firm Nomura expects a good December quarter for oil and gas companies.

It believes that Q3 earnings could be good for upstream companies as well as Reliance Industries, while oil marketing companies may disappointment on core numbers.

For RIL, it believes there could be another quarter of strong refining and petchem results. In case of Reliance Jio, there could be a profit of Rs 250 crore, but it may surprise as well.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.

Here are the top headlines at 1 pm from Moneycontrol News' Sakshi Batra

12:55 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices extended gains after consolidation, with the Nifty hitting fresh record high.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 110.38 points at 34,543.45 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 28.10 points at 10,660.30.

The Nifty Midcap index gained over half a percent and BSE Smallcap rose nearly a percent. About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

Infosys was the biggest gainer among Sensex 30 stocks, rising 2.5 percent ahead of earnings tomorrow.

12:45 pm Earnings Estimates: IndusInd Bank is the second private sector lender to announce third quarter earnings today. Profit is expected to increase 24.1 percent to Rs 931.5 crore for the quarter ended December 2017.

The bank had reported net income at Rs 750.6 crore in year-ago quarter.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, is seen growing 22 percent to Rs 1,926.1 crore from Rs 1,578.4 crore year-on-year, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

12:30 pm Fundraising: Bank of India, on December 29, had received infusion of Rs 2,257 crore from Government of India, in form of Common Equity Tier-1 Capital, which is being kept as share application money.

A meeting of board of directors has been scheduled on January 20, 2018 to consider capital raising plans by the bank, it said.

12:20 pm Earnings Estimates: Shree Cements is likely to post a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 265 crore in Q3, a rise of 13 percent against Rs 235.4 crore year on year, according to a CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts.

The revenue from operations may grow over 24 percent at Rs 2,290 crore against Rs 1,843 crore in the third quarter of FY17.

At the operating level, operating profit may grow to Rs 545 crore, a rise of 16 percent from Rs 469 crore, while the operating margin is seen lower at 23.8 percent against 25.4 percent.

12:10 pm Japan's stimulus: The Bank of Japan maintained the amount of its bond purchases today, helping to soothe a market rattled earlier this week by a cut in its buying of longer-dated debt that fanned worries the central bank may be moving to turn off its stimulus.

The BOJ maintained the size of its buying in one- to three-, three- to five-, and five- to ten-year Japanese government bonds at 250 billion yen (USD 2.24 billion), 300 billion yen and 410 billion yen respectively.

Here are the top headlines at 12 pm from Moneycontrol News' Anchal Pathak

11:46 am CPI Inflation Poll: India's retail inflation likely rose to a 17-month high in December, a Reuters poll showed, and that could push the central bank to tighten monetary policy.

After November's 15-month high of 4.88 percent, consumer price inflation likely climbed to 5.10 percent, which would the highest since July 2016, according to the median in the poll of nearly 40 economists over the past week.

The December inflation data is due to be released on Friday, January 12 at 17:30 hours IST.

11:39 am Rupee Trade: The rupee slid further by 22 paise to hit a low of 63.82 against the greenback in late morning deals on continued bouts of dollar demand from importers and banks amid flat equities.

The rupee opened lower at 63.65 per dollar from yesterday's closing level of 63.60 at the inter-bank foreign exchange market today.

The Indian unit witnessed volatility and fell further to 63.82 on heavy dollar demand.

11:20 am Buzzing: Sun Pharma shares extended gains, rising more than 1 percent after CNBC-TV18 reports quoting Cogencis that company's Halol unit in Gujarat has received Good Manufacturing Certificate from Dutch Agency.

Dutch's health regulator had audited Sun Pharma's Halol unit on August 25, 2017.

11:08 am Mobile Users Addition: Bharti Airtel has added 43 lakh users in November while Reliance Jio, the part of Reliance Industries, added 61.2 lakh users in same month.

Idea Cellular and Vodafone, which are going to merge in current year, added 32 lakh and 27 lakh users in November.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.

11:05 am Buzzing: Share price of India Nippon Electricals advanced 10 percent intraday as board going to consider sub-division of equity shares of the company.

The company has been decided to convene a meeting of the board of directors on January 29 to consider the unaudited financial results of the company for the quarter ended December 31, 2017.

The board will also consider the proposal of sub-division of equity shares of the company. The board will consider payment of an interim dividend for the year ending March 31, 2018. The rate, quantum, date of payment of interim dividend and the record date, if declared, will be intimated soon after the meeting.

Here are the top headlines at 11 am from Moneycontrol News' Sakshi Batra

10:58 am Lupin outlook: Lupin is aiming for a bigger thrust on the USD 54-billion complex generics market as it tries to insulate itself from increasing competition and consolidation of distribution channel in US in plain vanilla copycat drugs.

Out of USD 98-billion products under development 55 percent will come from complex categories like biosimilars, inhalation, depot injectables, opthalmic and topical dermatological drugs, the company said in its presentation at JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco, US.

LupinIndias number two company by salesis banking on the inhalation pipeline worth USD 17 billion in the next three years. It said it is in discussions with the US FDA to explore opportunities to accelerate development timeline for inhalation programs.

10:45 am Results Date: Car maker Maruti Suzuki said the meeting of the board of directors is scheduled to be held on Thursday, January 25 to consider and approve the unaudited financial results for the quarter ended on December 31, 2017.

10:35 am Market Outlook: "We expect strong momentum to continue for equity market over FY19 due to revival in earnings after teething problems of GST, low base of demonetisation, increasing focus of government on infrastructure development even at the cost of fiscal slippage and favourable global headwinds with favourable commodity prices," Abhinav Gupta - President, Capital Markets - Share India Securities said in an interview to Moneycontrol.

Increasing government spend will lead to higher purchasing power and we expect earnings to grow at around 17-18 percent over next year, he added.

The research house has maintained its year-end Nifty target at 12,500 in line with current multiples and pricing in the earning growth over the course of year. Indian markets currently in pre-budget rally might see a small correction which we believe would be a buying opportunity.

10:15 am Crude Oil Update: Oil prices held near three-year highs, supported by a surprise drop in US production and lower crude inventories, although analysts increasingly warned of signs that fuel markets have overheated.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at USD 63.49 a barrel, 0.13 percent below their last settlement but still close to a December 2014 high of USD 63.67 per barrel reached the previous day.

Brent crude futures were at USD 69.09 a barrel, 0.16 percent below their last finish. That was also close to the previous day's high of USD 69.37 a barrel, which was the highest level since an intraday spike in May 2015 and, before that, in December 2014.

10:05 am Market Check: Benchmark indices continued to be rangebound in morning but the broader markets outperformed, with the Nifty Midcap rising 0.24 percent. Investors focussed on corporate earnings.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 3.41 points at 34,436.48 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 7.30 points to 10,624.90.

About 1,268 shares advanced against 959 declining shares on the BSE.

Here are the top headlines at 10 am from Moneycontrol News' Anchal Pathak

9:55 am Buzzing: Share price of Som Distilleries and Breweries touched 52-week high of Rs 262.90, gaining nearly 12 percent in morning as investor Porinju Veliyath bought stake in the company.

On January 10, 2018 Porinju V Veliyath bought 1,50,000 shares of the company at Rs 197.95.

EQ India Fund also bought 5,00,000 shares of the company at Rs 197 on the NSE.

9:45 am Rupee Trade: The rupee weakened 12 paise to trade at 63.71 against the US dollar in morning session at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on increased demand for the American currency from banks and importers.

Foreign fund outflows and rising crude oil prices also weighed on the rupee sentiment.

Crude oil prices were ruling at around three-year high levels, putting pressure on the rupee as India is a major oil importer.

Yesterday, the rupee had bounced back to end higher by 11 paise at 63.60 against the US currency on bouts of dollar selling by exporters and corporates.

9:33 am Satyam Case: Finding Price Waterhouse guilty in the multi-crore Satyam scam, Sebi today barred its network entities from issuing audit certificates to any listed company in India for two years and ordered disgorgement of over Rs 13 crore wrongful gains from the audit major and its two erstwhile partners who worked on the IT major's accounts.

The market regulator's order comes after nine years post the scam at Satyam Computer Services came to light and after two failed attempts by auditor major Price Waterhouse to settle the case through consent mechanism.

This is also one of the most stringent orders passed by any regulator against a Big Four audit major.

9:29 am Buzzing: Shares of GE Power India rose 5.6 percent in the early trade on contract win worth Rs 818.3 crore.

The company has been awarded a contract worth approximately Rs 818.3 crore by Navayuga Engineering Company.

The contract includes design, engineering, manufacturing, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of 12 Nos., 80 MW capacity vertical full kaplan turbine generator units along with all associated auxiliary and ancillary equipment.

9:21 am IPO Subscription: The initial public offer (IPO) of Apollo Micro Systems, which caters primarily to the defence and aerospace sectors, was subscribed 2.14 times on the first day of bidding on Wednesday.

The IPO, to raise Rs 156 crore, received bids for 88,60,500 shares against the total issue size of 41,44,955 shares, data available with the NSE showed.

The portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) was subscribed 32 peipocent, non institutional investors 51 per cent and retail investors 3.78 times.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks were flat in opening on Thursday as investors await third quarter earnings of Infosys, TCS and IndusInd Bank.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 2.74 points at 34,430.33 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 7.20 points to 10,625.

About 780 shares advanced against 536 declining shares on the BSE.

Infosys, Hindalco and HCL Technologies were early gainers.

Wipro, Yes Bank, Bajaj Finance, Cipla, HPCL, L&T, Eicher Motors, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were early losers.

Jai Corp, Prism Cement, GVK Power, Welspun India, Indiabulls Real, JSW Energy and NMDC gained 1-8 percent.
The bulls managed to push the index higher after slipping towards its 5-days exponential moving averages (DEMA) to a fresh record high of 10,664.60 on Thursday making a small bullish candle which also resembles a 'Hanging Man' kind of pattern on daily candlestick charts.

The index which started the day on a muted note slipped to its 5-DEMA placed at 10,612 but then bulls took control and pushed the index to a fresh record high. Last 30 minutes buying took the index above 10,650 levels towards closing.

The Nifty50 index which opened at 10,637 slipped to an intraday low of 10,612.35. It rose to a record high of 10,664.60 before closing the day 19 points higher at 10,651.

Trading continued to remain lackadaisical even in Thursdays trading session ahead of crucial results from two IT bellwether names  Infosys and TCS.

Investors are advised to stay light and dont be in a hurry to create fresh long positions on the index and wait for a breakout. However, chances of a breakdown look more likely considering the fact Nifty is showing signs of overbought levels.

The Nifty50 moved in a narrow range of around 50 points before signing off the day with a small bullish candle. These kind of a range bound moves for last 3 sessions are clearly suggesting that market is in need of a trigger for further upsides and unless it sees a strong intraday up move beyond 10660 levels it is bound to remain sideways, Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist  Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in told Monneycontrol.

Slowly momentum oscillators on lower time frame charts are facilitating sell signals whereas some oscillators on a medium term time frame are in an extremely overbought zone thereby capping the upsides, he said.

Mohammad further added that a close below 10592 shall confirm the weakness and may trigger a fresh bout of selling. In the light of these facts traders should give priority to preserve their profits and shall not be in a hurry to create fresh long positions without signs of an upside breakout, he said.

India VIX moved down by 0.20 percent at 14. VIX has to hold below 13-12.50 zones to support the fresh leg of the rally with a smooth ride in the market.

On the options front, maximum Put open interest was seen at 10500 followed by 10400 strikes while maximum Call OI was seen at 11000 followed by 10700 strikes.

Fresh and significant Put writing at 10600 and 10500 strikes which is shifting its support while Call unwinding is seen at all the immediate strike prices. Option band signifies a trading band between 10600-10750, Chandan Taparia, Derivatives, and Technical Analyst at Motilal Oswal Securities told Moneycontrol.

On the technical charts, Nifty formed a hanging man candle for the third consecutive day, however, some follow up buying is required to take the index to higher levels. It has to continue to hold above 10600 zones to extend its up move towards 10700 while on the downside supports are seen at 10550 and 10500 levels, he said.
Though more than one round of technical talks took place this year, the Ethiopian minister of foreign affairs visited Cairo in April and Egypts minister of irrigation made an official visit to the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in October these potentially positive signs appeared to lead nowhere.

The same is true of the issuing of a preliminary report on Ethiopias Renaissance Dam in March and Addis Ababas repeated reiteration that it remains committed to the2015 declaration of principles which includes a provision none of the signatories will cause harm to the others.

In meetings on the periphery of the African Union Summit in June and during the UN General Assembly in September, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri voiced Egypts worries about the failure to finish the required technical studies on the hydrological, environmental and economic impacts of the dam on Egypt and Sudan, yet as the year ends 62 per cent of construction work on the dam has been completed.

Egypt initially dealt with the file as a chance for cooperation between downstream and upstream Nile Basin state that could benefit all. Unfortunately, the deadlock on the technical track does not reflect the timetable recognised in the Khartoum Agreement which states studies on the impact of filling the reservoir must be undertaken before the work continues, Shoukri said during a meeting with his Italian counterpart earlier this month.

Mona Omar, former assistant foreign minister for African affairs, argues that while the past 12 months saw a clear failure to progress on the technical track, issuing the preliminary report on the planned studies, increased cooperation between Cairo and Addis Ababa, and greater understanding on the part of the political leadership in both countries of the others position could be seen as positive developments.

While the technical track is very important it cannot be divorced from the political process. The problem is not the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Irrigation but must be tackled on all levels, she told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Mohamed Hegazi, an expert on Nile-related issues, believes involving a third party could help break the deadlock on the technical track.

The tripartite technical committee has held three meetings since September, the last of them in Cairo in November, in the hope of reaching agreement on the preliminary report prepared by two French consultancy firms which outlines the methodology to be adopted by the technical studies which will assess the effects of the dam on downstream countries. Following the November meeting Minister of Irrigation Mohamed Abdel-Ati declared that the technical track had failed. The constant delays have raised concerns about the three states ability to work together to ensure Egypts water security, he said.

The technical committee also failed to agree on a timetable for the filling of the reservoir and protocols for the operation of the dam once it is complete.

Ethiopia wants the reservoir filled within three years whereas Egypt is seeking a seven to 10 year period in order to minimise the impact of water flow.

The Khartoum Agreement, signed in December 2015, stipulates that the reservoir can only start to be filled once all technical studies are complete. The studies were supposed to begin in September 2016, with preliminary reports issued every three months and a final report after 11 months at most. Yet 15 months later a single preliminary report has appeared.

The agreement also allows for field visits to the construction site by Egyptian and Sudanese experts, and in October the ministers of irrigation of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt visited the site.

With no solution to the deadlock found in 2017 most analysts believe a breakthrough now hinges on the exercise of sufficient political will.

Hopes are being pinned on a visit to Cairo by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn initially scheduled for December but now delayed  tentatively  to January.

Egyptian officials are also raising the issue of the dam during bilateral meetings, which is what Shoukri did this month with his Saudi and Italian counterparts.

We can also refer the issue to international bodies like the African Union and the UN. After all, water security is a human right, says Mona Omar, former assistant foreign minister for African affairs.

Hegazi argues that pushing ahead with the Nile Corridor Project which seeks to establish a mechanism by which dams in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt are linked in a manner that ensures the level and storage capacities of one and are not adversely affected by another that could help facilitate wider cooperation. The project envisages a network of links that will include roads, railways and power grids which Hegazi says will boost political understanding and have a positive effect on relations between the three states.

Since Addis Ababa began building the dam in 2011 Cairo has repeatedly voiced its concern the dam will reduce Egypts annual share of Nile water.

The dam will generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity. It is planned as Africas largest hydro-electric power plant with a storage capacity of 74 billion cubic metres. Partial operation is likely to start by the middle of 2018.

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly



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21:45 That's all for today, readers. Thanks for staying on with our coverage of the day's action. Your enthusiasm encourages us to better our coverage every day. Do come back tomorrow for more news, views and insights.

21:39 India tops domestic air traffic demand at 16.4% in November: IATA

India's domestic air passenger traffic

IATA

grew by 16.4 percent in November last year, topping the growth chart worldwide, global aviation body, the International Air Transport Association () said on Thursday.

The IATA, comprising major air carriers, said India continued to witness double-digit growth for the 39th consecutive month.

Globally, the total revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) increased 8 percent compared to November 2016  the fastest growth rate in five months.

The available seat kilometeres (ASKs) or capacity grew by 6.3 percent.

21:16 FDI reforms against BJP line, says Yashwant Sinha

Veteran BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Thursday termed the latest round of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) reforms as a deviation from the party's stand, and said 100 percent FDI in single-brand retail will hit small traders.

Sinha, who has been critical of the Narendra Modi government for its handling of economy among other issues, was here to take part in a farmers' protest against an upcoming power project in Gadarwara town of Narsinghpur district.

Talking to the reporters here, Sinha said, "As an opposition party, the BJP opposed 100 percent FDI in retail. But after coming to power, the union government headed by the BJP decided to implement it. This is not good for the country. 100 percent FDI in single-brand retail would create problems for small traders.

21:08 SBI to raise Rs 20,000 crore via bonds for affordable housing

Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) plans to raise Rs 20,000 crore through long term bonds to fund affordable housing.

SBI had earlier proposed to raise Rs 5,000 crore for the purpose.

"A proposal will be submitted to Executive Committee of Central Board (ECCB)... for approval for issuance of long term bonds of Rs 20,000 crore for financing of infrastructure and affordable housing in domestic and overseas market instead of Rs 5,000 crore intimated earlier," SBI said in a filing to the stock exchanges.

20:58 Indian Oil Corp buys third shipload of US crude oil

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) today bought its third shipload or cargo of US crude oil as it looks at cheaper alternatives that have emerged due to the global supply glut.

IOC bought 2 million barrels of light Louisiana sweet crude oil in a tender today, official sources said.

The oil is for delivery at its Paradip refinery in Odisha during April 11-20.

IOCs Paradip refinery had in October last year received Indias first ever shipment of US crude oil when it imported a 1.6 million barrels parcel.

20:52 Trade setup for Friday: Top 15 things you should know before Opening Bell

The bulls managed to push the index higher after slipping towards its 5-days exponential moving averages (DEMA) to a fresh record high of 10,664.60 on Thursday making a small bullish candle which also resembles a 'Hanging Man' kind of pattern on daily candlestick charts.

The index which started the day on a muted note slipped to its 5-DEMA placed at 10,612 but then bulls took control and pushed the index to a fresh record high. Last 30 minutes buying took the index above 10,650 levels towards closing.

Read the full report here

JNU

Jawaharlal Nehru University administration has made minimum 75 percent attendance compulsory for all students.

However, if a student is absent on valid medical grounds then 60 percent attendance will suffice.

The circular issued by Assistant Registrar(Evaluation) Sajjan Singh, based on recommendations of the compulsory attendance committee, said, for students of BA, MA, MSc, MTech, PG diploma, MPhil, Phd and all part-time programmes a minimum of 75 percent attendance in a course in mandatory for appearing in the end-semester examination.

20:36 FSSAI working on safer prasad at temples

Food regulator FSSAI has expanded its programme for training officials of renowned temples like Iskcon and Somnath temple to ensure the prasad served to devotees is safe and hygienic.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which launched a programme called BHOG in 2016, organised a workshop in the national capital today which was attended by representatives of all major temples including Chintapurni Shakti Peeth, Meenakshi temple and Somnath temple.

It also released a guidance manual to facilitate voluntary implementation of food safety at places of worship.

20:32 Panel examining cryptocurrency-related issues submits report

A committee appointed by the government last year to examine issues related to cryptocurrency has submitted its report, a senior law ministry official said on Thursday.

The panel is also examining pros and cons including launching an own cryptocurrency.

Addressing the '2nd Global Summit P2P Digital Asset System,' organised by ASSOCHAM, Additional Secretary in the Department of Legal Affairs Anadee Nath Mishra said the government is also looking into the allegations that people who had black money had diverted the same to cryptocurrencies in India during demonetisation.

20:16 ED issues fresh summons to Karti Chidambaram in INX Media case

The Enforcement Directorate today issued fresh summons to Karti Chidambaram, the son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, after he skipped his appearance before it in connection with the INX Media money laundering case probe.

Official sources said he has now been called by the agency on January 16.

The investigating officer (IO) of the case had earlier this month summoned him for appearance today, which he skipped.

20:07 Health Assure to invest USD 15 mn to strengthen biz

Health Assure, a health-tech platform, today said it will invest USD 15 million (over Rs 95 crore) over the next three years to strengthen its primary care network in the country.

Started in 2011, Health Assure provides access to 3,100 primary care centres across 1,000 cities and connects insurers and corporates through its platform.

We plan to invest USD 15 million over the next three years. This will go towards network enrichment, creation of more products, strengthening IT infrastructure and distribution, Health Assure founder and CEO Varun Gera told PTI.

20:05 Roads accident deaths have come down in 2017 in Tamil Nadu: Official

Nadu

Various steps taken by the Tamilgovernment has brought down the number of deaths and road accidents in 2017 as compared to 2016, a top official today said.

There were 1,061 lesser deaths and 5,869 lesser accidents in the the state in 2017 when compared to 2016 due to various measures, Transport and Road Safety Commissioner Dayanand Kattaria said without elaborating at a review meeting on road safety with senior officials of departments including Transport and police here.

However, steps should be taken to bring down the accident rate to nil in due course as there were increased incidents of drunk driving, driving while speaking over cell phone, rash driving and riding without helmets, which lead to mishaps and deaths, he said.

19:58 Finger print, iris data in Aadhaar are safe, secure: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today that finger print and iris data stored in the Aadhaar system are safe and secure and cannot be breached even by billions of efforts.

Speaking at an event of Delhi School of Economics, he showed his Aadhaar card to audiences and said, The (Aadhaar) system contains my finger print and iris kept in safe and secure encrypted form which cannot be broken even by billions of efforts. That is an Indian technology.

The comments from Prasad come at a time when there have been reports of alleged data breach of Aadhaar subscribers.

19:53 Kerala to use robots to clean sewers, end manual-scavenging

Robots will soon replace men in cleaning up sewer holes in Kerala, ending the age-old practice of manual scavenging in the southern state. Bandicoot, the robot developed by the startup firm Genrobotics, will be used for cleaning sewer holes.

The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) and Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) today signed an MoU for transfer of technology and products, including use of the robots for the purpose. The MoU was signed between Kerala Water Innovation Zone under KWA and KSUM at the Chief Ministers office here, a statement said here.

Bandicoot will start its work, so far mostly done manually, by cleaning sewer holes in the city during the coming famed Attukal Pongala festival in Thiruvananthapuram in March, it said.

19:19 Crimes in Delhi increased by 12 percent in 2017: Police

Crimes in the national capital increased by 12 per cent in 2017, with the police saying that factors like economic disparity, consumerism and slack family control have a bearing on the rising figures, according to Delhi Police data.

However, records show that crimes in the city under major heads like rapes, murders have declined. The increase in motor vehicle thefts continues to be an area of concern for the police. (PTI)

18:48 Pressure on Finance Minister to fulfil promise of cutting corporate tax rate, say experts

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be under pressure to moderate tax rate for the industry which was promised a lower levy of 25 percent by the government three years ago, experts said.

With the US substantially cutting corporate tax, the minister will also need to keep India's tax rate globally competitive, they added. (PTI)

18:30 UAE confident world oil market will balance out in 2018

UAE Energy Minister and OPEC president Suheil al-Mazrouei insisted today that oil producers can balance out supply and demand this year as they stick to a production cut deal. (PTI)

18:15 Global solar sector attracts USD 12.8 billion corporate funding in 2017

Total global corporate funding into the solar sector amounted to USD 12.8 billion in 2017, registering a 41 percent jump over last year, a report says.

This is a 41 percent increase compared to USD 9.1 billion raised in 2016, according to global clean energy communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital Group.

Total global corporate funding into the solar sector - including venture capital/ private equity, debt financing and public market financing -- stood at USD 12.8 billion last year. (PTI)

18:03 Dept of Telecom to take view on TRAI's pending proposals by March 31

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will seek to move quickly and take a view on most of sector regulator TRAI's recommendations pending with it, including on net neutrality and internet telephony, by March 31, a senior government official said today. (PTI)

17:46 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be visiting India from January 14 to January 19. Netanyahu will be visiting Delhi, Agra, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

17:36 TCS Q3 Earnings |TCS reports Q3 Rupee revenue at Rs 30,904 crore. Dollar revenue at USD 4,787 million and EBIT margin at 25.2 percent.

17:15 RBI sets rupee reference rate at 63.7364 against US dollar

The Reserve Bank of India today fixed the reference rate of the rupee at 63.7364 against the US dollar and 76.1395 for the euro.

The corresponding rates were 63.8264 and 76.1385, yesterday. (PTI)

17:00 Passenger vehicle sales zoom past record 30 lakh mark in 2017

Passenger vehicle sales in India crossed 30 lakh mark for the first time in 2017, growing at a five-year high of 8.85 percent on the back of robust demand for utility vehicles.

According to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), passenger vehicle sales in 2017 stood at 32,29,109 units as against 29,66,603 units in 2016, a growth of 8.85 percent. (PTI)

16:46 Honda launches special editions of City, Amaze, WR-V

Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) today launched special editions of its three models City, Amaze and WR-V.

Honda City 20th Anniversary Edition petrol automatic is priced at Rs 13,74,532 while the diesel trim with manual transmission is tagged at Rs 13,82,382, HCIL said in a statement. (PTI)

16:32 Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan rules out upstream oil and gas regulator

Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan today virtually ruled out giving statutory powers to upstream oil and gas regulator DGH, saying the sector has not fully developed and needs government support.

There are two regulatory bodies in the oil and gas sector - the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, which is a regulator for the downstream activities like laying of pipelines and fuel marketing but without powers to review pricing. (PTI)

16:20 'No deal' Brexit could cost Britain about 5,00,000 jobs, says London mayor

Britain could lose almost 500,000 jobs and 50 billion pounds ($67.41 billion) investment over the next 12 years if it fails to agree a trade deal with the European Union, according a report commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Cambridge Econometrics, an economics consultancy, looked at five different Brexit scenarios, from the hardest to the softest form of Brexit, and broke down the economic impact on nine industries, from construction to finance. (Reuters)

Benchmarks Sensex and Nifty ended at fresh life-time highs today on optimism surrounding corporate earnings amid mixed global cues. The BSE Sensex jumped 70.42 points to end at 34,503.49, while the broader NSE Nifty finished at 10,651.20, up 19 points. The 30-share Sensex, after a cautious start, gathered momentum and rallied to 34,558.88, before ending at 34,503.49, a rise of 70.42 points, or 0.2%.

It broke its previous closing high of 34,443.19 hit on January 9. The 50-share Nifty, after range-bound morning trade, spurted to touch an all-time high of 10,664.60 on a flurry of buying. It finally settled 19 points, or 0.18% higher at 10,651.20, surpassing its previous closing record of 10,637 hit on January 9.

IndusInd

YoY

IndusInd Banks Q3 net profit rose nearly 25%, helped by higher interest income. Net profit climbed to Rs 9.36 billion in the quarter ended December 31, from Rs 7.51 billion a year ago, the country's sixth-largest private sector lender by assets said. Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 1.16% at end-December, compared with 1.08% in the previous quarter and 0.94% a year ago. Interest earned by the bank jumped about 16% in the quarter to Rs 42.87 billion.

Bulge bracket private equity funds including TPG Capital Management, Bain Capital and Baring Private Equity Asia are in initial talks to buy state-run Canara Bank's 30% stake in its listed housing finance subsidiary, Can Fin Homes, sources told The Economic Times.

As per Wednesdays closing price, the 30% stake of Canara Bank is valued at Rs 1,922 crore. "The stake sale will happen with one buyer or multiple buyers and may happen in tranches," sources said. "We have hired bankers and they have in turn approached some big-ticket funds, which expressed interest."

15:49 Bajaj

55cr

FMCG firm Bajaj Corp reported a 4.55% decline in its standalone net profit at Rs 55.16 crore for the quarter ended December, on account of higher expenses. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 57.79 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal, Bajaj Corp said in a regulatory filing. Total income during the quarter under review, however, increased 5.92% at Rs 212.53 crore as against Rs 200.65 crore in the year ago period.

Former US president Barack Obama had received gifts worth about $3,000 during his visit to India in 2015 as Chief Guest at the Republic Day Parade, according to the US State Department. According to the Department of State's Protocol Office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented Obama telegram facsimile from the US to India's Constituent Assembly in 1946 and reproduction of the cover page of a report on India's Constitutional Debates.

Modi also presented him a framed photograph of Marian Anderson's radio interview in India and a hand-carved wooden Jali box with a small wooden latch and photo of Marian Anderson's radio interview in India on the lid. Among other gifts from Modi were a CD set, title: All India Radio Interview with Marian Anderson, November 18 1957, New Delhi.

Obama also received a hand-carved black wooden Jali box with painting on the lid; blue Shahmina shawl, red Shahmina shawl and beige and cream coloured shahmina shawl. The State Department Protocol Office have estimated their value at $1,231. The Rajghat Samadhi Committee presented him a model spinning wheel with white tread looped around the wheel and a cloth scroll listing the Seven Social Sins as articulated by Mahatma Gandhi.

He also received a book on Mahatma Gandhi titled "An AutobiographyThe Story of my Experiments with the Truth" and a bronze-coloured bust of Mohandas Karamchard Gandhi on a wood base. The gifts were estimated to be a value of $929.01.

The then president Pranab Mukherjee presented Obama a book titled "Thoughts and Reflections", "Winged Wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan RB Series 20122014" along with a Photobook, titled "State Visit of His Excellency Barack H Obama, President of the United States of America and Michelle Obama to India on January 25 to 27 January 2015". The gifts were estimated to be $825.

The First Lady Michelle Obama received gifts worth over $1,500, according to the list. All the gifts have been handed over to the National Archive. Michelle was given by Modi a hand-embroidered Shahmina shawl, hand-carved wooden Jali box, and assorted Indian tea of an estimated value of $662.

While rest of the items were given to the National Archives, the tea box was handled pursuant to United States Secret Service policy, the Office of Protocol said. And finally, President Mukherjee presented to Michelle pashmina Shawl with hand-embroidery and specially commissioned tea set, including pot, six cups, six saucers, milk pitcher, and sugar jar, at an estimated value of $900.

150cr

1st

Realty firm M3M India said it has sold 20 luxury apartments worth Rs 150 crore under the Trump Towers project in Gurgaon within a day of its launch, reports PTI. The company is targeting Rs 2,500 crore from the sale of 250 units in this project, which was launched on Wednesday. Global realty brand 'Trump Towers' made its debut in North India through real estate firms M3M India and Tribeca Developers.

15:34 COAI

Industry body COAI said the proposal to extend payment period for spectrum to 16 years from the current 10 years will ease cash flows initially, but will not yield any tangible financial benefits for telecom companies, reports PTI. This is because the industry will end up shelling out Rs 80,000 crore more over the life of the debt on account of the extended timelines for spectrum payment, the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) argued.

India should not replicate foreign models like that of China for urbanisation and needs to create growth hubs across the country, NITI Aayog's Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said. Kumar also noted that the country needs to use less resources per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), whether it is materials or environment. (PTI)

Europe's biggest economy, Germany, accelerated by 2.2% in 2017, according to the official data. The growth figure were released by the Federal Statistical Office suggest that growth has been strongest since 2011, when the economy grew by 3.7%. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 1.9% in 2016 and 1.7% in 2015. The data also suggested that German budget surplus hit 1.2% of the GDP in 2017.14:37 Infosys to announce Q3 earnings on Friday; here are 5 key things to watch out

Infosys, the country's second largest software services provider, will announce its third quarter earnings on Friday. The key things to watch out for would be its full year guidance and management commentary. Overall it is expected to be soft quarter due to seasonality.

The IT bellwether is expected to report a profit of Rs 3,609 crore, down 3.14% compared to Rs 3,726 crore in the previous quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. Revenue is seen growing 1.5% sequentially to Rs 17,823 crore from Rs 17,567 crore.

President Donald Trump hinted that it "seems unlikely" that he would allow Special Counsel Robert Mueller to "interview" him in the ongoing probe into the potential links between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 US presidential election, reports PTI. Mueller and congressional committees investigating the matter have yet to reach a conclusion about whether any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia took place.

CPRPL

The Delhi High Court declined to pass an interim order restraining Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt (CPRPL), a McDonald's franchisee, from selling products under the name of the US fast food giant, reports PTI. CPRPL is a 50:50 joint venture of McDonald's and its estranged Indian partner, Vikram Bakshi.

Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said the restaurants of the franchisee were a running business and hence, cannot be stayed ex-parte without proper consideration of all aspects, including the CPRPL's reply. The court, however, allowed a representative of McDonald's legal team to visit by this afternoon some of the restaurants run by CPRPL to collect samples of food and packaging as well as inventory. The restaurants were directed to provide the samples to the representative.

Aadhaar

Nandan

Nilekani

Former Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani said there was an "orchestrated campaign" to malign Aadhaar, reports PTI. He was reacting to filing of an FIR on The Tribune newspaper report relating to Aadhaar data breach. "There is 100% an orchestrated campaign to see how Aadhaar gets maligned, yes absolutely," Nilekani said.

Independent directors should exercise special care in issues of conflict of interests in related party transactions as well as those related to managerial remuneration as they are the watchdogs of companies, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs PP Chaudhary said. Amid persisting concerns over corporate governance practices, the minister stressed the need to further strengthen the institution of independent directors, adding that they are required to play a critical role in establishing internal financial controls.

PropTiger

Housing sales dropped 17% during 2017 in nine major cities of the country because of demand slowdown and impact of the new realty law, according to a report by realty portal PropTiger. Sales declined to 2,18,500 units last year in nine cities - Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad - against 2,63,500 units in 2016, the News Corp-backed PropTiger said in its report. Launches fell by 43% to 1,63,573 units in 2017 from 2,88,748 units in the previous year.

13:58 The Securities Appellate Tribunal has quashed the merger order between ICICI Prudential Life and Sahara Life. It has upheld the appointment of IRDA's administrator to run Sahara Life's business. The ruling will come as a huge relief for Sahara Life which had challenged the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India's (Irda) merger order between ICICI Prudential Life and it. Irda will now give Sahara Life a fresh hearing before passing the merger in three months.

13:51 The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has allowed Bharti Airtel to do Aadhaar-based eKYC verification of its mobile customers till March 31.

13:48 The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea seeking withdrawal of coins having religious symbols embossed on them. In its ruling, the court said the coins having religious symbols do not dent the country's secular fabric and secularism does not bar issuance of coins to commemorate any event.

Armed robbers launched a spectacular raid on the world-famous Ritz hotel in Paris, making off with an estimated four million euros worth of jewels, the latest in a string of high-profile heists in the French capital, reports AFP. The gang of five men armed with hatchets smashed display windows on the ground floor of the hotel in Paris' luxurious Place Vendome around 6:30 pm, making off with the jewels.

Three of the gang were detained while fleeing the scene and an AFP journalist said some roads around the hotel were sealed off by security forces following the incident. Two people were still being sought by authorities on Thursday evening.

13:20 GMR

GMR Infrastructure is looking to raise between Rs 4,000 crore and Rs 5,000 crore through the listing of its airport holding entity, sources told The Economic Times. The move will help it pare debt and mobilise expansion funds. GMR is working with at least five banks  Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, JM Financial, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital and ICICI Securities  on the mega issue that is expected to hit the markets in the April-June quarter, sources said.

3cr

Lamborghini has launched Urus at Rs 3 crore, making it the costliest in its class in India. Calling it super sport utility vehicle the Urus is Lamborghini's first ever SUV and India is amongst the first few countries to get the vehicle, reports Moneycontrol News Swaraj Baggonkar. Attaining 100km/hr in just 3.6 seconds the Urus has a top speed of 305 kmph. Powering the SUV is a mammoth 4 litre litre V8 engine mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission. This engine generates peak power of 650 hp.

12:51 The Income Tax Department has stepped up action under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act. In a tweet, the Finance Ministry said, Benami properties of more than Rs 3,500 crore attached. The department had set up 24 dedicated Benami Prohibition Units (BPUs) under its Investigation Directorates all over India in May, 2017 to ensure swift action in respect of Benami properties.

For an MD of a high-tech defence-system company, Apollo Micro Systems' 55-year-old chief Karunakar Reddy Baddam strangely does not seem to have a voter identification number and driving licence - at least it hasn't disclosed in the company's red herring prospectus filed with SEBI, as is practice. But that's the least of the concerns here, finds Moneycontrol Researchs Jitendra Kumar Gupta.

Apollo, whose IPO opened on Thursday, is seeking to raise Rs 156 crore for a mere 24.7% stake. Context: over the last two decades of operations, the company has created a net worth of only Rs 63 crore. The other big concern is the purpose of fundraising. Out of the total issue size of Rs 156 crore, Rs 118 crore will be used for working capital. The rest Rs 38 crore will be used for general corporate purpose, which is on the higher side.

Nainital

Bank of Baroda, Indias third-largest state-run lender, is seeking to sell unit Nainital Bank as it sheds non-core assets to bolster its balance sheet, sources told Bloomberg. A decision on the size of the stake to be sold will depend on approvals from the Reserve Bank of India, sources said.

BoB holds 98.6% stake in the 96-year-old Nainital Bank, which had assets of about Rs 77 billion as of March end. Deliberations regarding the sale are at an early stage and private equity firms have expressed initial interest, sources said. Theres no guarantee the talks will lead to a sale, they added.

Nainital Bank has about 135 branches spread across five states. It reported a net income of Rs 484 million in FY17, little changed from the previous year, and its bad-loan ratio stood at 5% of the total. That compares with a soured-debt level of 9.6% for the banking system as a whole, data compiled by RBI shows.

130m

enrolments

52m

The Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), the governments personal accident insurance scheme, has crossed 130 million enrolments and had 132.57 million enrolments as on January 8, 2018, reports Moneycontrol News M Saraswathy. Meanwhile, the term insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), has covered 52 million individuals for Rs 2 lakh each so far, according to data from the Department of Financial Services.

Launched in May 2015 as part of the Jan Suraksha Yojana by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both insurance products are valid for one year each and can be auto-renewed through deduction of premium from the bank account of the person insured. The premium for the accident insurance is Rs 12 per annum, while that for the term insurance is Rs 330 per annum.

Trai

paise

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) may today announce halving of international termination charges to 25-30 paise per minute from 53 paise, a senior official told Moneycontrol News Dhirendra Tripathi. The regulation will be effective from a later date.

International termination charges are paid by the telecom operator from whose country the call is originating to the service provider here on whose network the call terminates. The charges are payable on calls made to mobiles as well as landlines. The international operator recovers this charge from its subscriber.

The telecom regulator had raised the international termination charges to 53 paise per minute from 40 paise in February 2015 while cutting the mobile termination charges to 14 paise per minute from 20 paise per minute. It further cut the mobile termination charge to 6 paise in its September 19, 2017 order while leaving the subject of revising international termination charges open to further deliberations.

11:49 Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries rose nearly 2% after its Halol plant in Gujarat was cleared by the Dutch health regulator.

11:46 Shares of Bharti Airtel gained over 1%, hitting a high of Rs 516.70. Global research and broking firm Nomura has initiated a Buy on the telecom major with a target at Rs 625 per share.

Indian oil consumption in 2017 grew at its slowest in four years, according to government statistics, hit by the governments demonetisation move and a tax increase that knocked the gain in fuel use back to a modest 2.3%, reports Reuters. The low growth also coincided with another year of weak, albeit improving, new vehicle sales.

A report that China is considering slowing or halting purchases of US Treasury bonds may be based on erroneous information and could be fake, the countrys foreign exchange regulator said. Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that Chinese officials reviewing the countrys vast foreign exchange holdings had recommended slowing or halting purchases of US Treasury bonds amid a less attractive market for them and rising US-China trade tensions. The report sent US Treasury yields to 10-month highs and sent the dollar lower. The news could quote the wrong source of information, or may be fake news, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement published on its website.

Ramdev's

Patanjali

French luxury group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, also known as Louis Vuitton or LVMH, is interested in buying stakes in Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved, reports The Economic Times. "We would love to work with him if we can find a model," L Catterton Asia Managing Partner Ravi Thakran said.

He said he is aware that Ramdev's business model does not support working with multinational companies and with foreign money or brands. The L Catterton private equity fund is co-owned by Louis Vuitton. They claim to be ready to bet $500 million, which is close to half of their remaining funds in Asia, to buy stakes in Patanjali.

An Indian-American investment banker has announced his plan to run for the US House of Representatives from a Congressional seat in Connecticut, reports PTI. Harry Arora, 48, seeks to oust Democratic incumbent Jim Himes, who has represented the 4th Congressional District since January 2009.

Arora wants to have a Republican voice in the so called 'Samosa Caucus' -- the informal group of Indian-Americans in the US House of Representatives. Currently four Indian-Americans in the US House of Representatives - Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Pramila Jayapal - are from the Democratic party.

1Above

Abhijeet

Mankar

Abhijeet Mankar, owner of '1Above' pub, was arrested in connection with the December 29 Kamala Mills fire in Mumbai that claimed 14 lives. The 30-year-old hotelier was on the run along with co-owners of the pub, Kripesh Sanghavi and Jigar Sanghavi, since the day of the incident. "Our team arrested owner of the 1 Above pub, Abhijeet Mankar, from Marine Lines in the early hours," Ahmed Pathan, Senior Police Inspector, NM Joshi Marg Police Station told PTI.

10:49 Sensex

The benchmark Sensex rebounded by 51 points in opening trade today after IT, realty and teck stocks rose on optimistic buying by investors ahead of announcement of quarterly results. The 30-share index rose by 51.78 points, or 0.15%, at 34,484.85, in opening trade with IT, realty, teck, power and auto leading the recovery by rising up to 0.8%. The gauge had shed 10.12 points in the previous session following profit-booking at record levels.

Also, the NSE Nifty traded higher by 9.05 points, or 0.08%, at 10,641.25 in the opening trade. Traders said widening of bets by investors ahead of Q3 numbers from IndusInd Bank and TCS, to be released later in the day amid buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) influenced sentiment.

DIIs bought shares to the tune of Rs 600.24 crore, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 572.26 crore on Wednesday, as per the provisional data. Support came from key stocks such as Infosys, ONGC, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ITC, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, Adani Ports, Power Grid, Hindustan Unilever and M&M, rising by up to 1.04%.

7yr

YoY

Regulatory changes, high levels of unsold inventories and weak consumer sentiment have led to a sharp 7% YoY fall in home sales and launches last year. This even as developers scrambled to complete projects, a report by property consultant Knight Frank India shows. Home sales volume hit a seven-year low, witnessing a 38% decline from the peak of 2011. Around 228,072 homes were sold last year as against 368,568 in 2011.

Knight Frank conducted the survey across eight major cities - Mumbai, National Capital Region (NCR), Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Home launches fell by 41% YoY in 2017 to 103,570 housing units. While Hyderabad saw the biggest fall in launches at 84% YoY, Pune, Bengaluru and Chennai fell by 58%, 37% and 33% respectively.

IT major Tata Consultancy Services will be the first index heavyweight to announce its earnings for the October-December quarter. As it is seasonally a weak quarter for IT companies due to holidays and furloughs in western markets, analysts expect revenue growth to be muted. A CNBC-TV18 analyst poll sees profits for the IT major flat at Rs 6,460 crore as against Rs 6,446 crore in Q2. Revenue in constant currency terms is seen around 1%.

10:01 IndusInd

NII

IndusInd Bank is the second private sector lender to announce third quarter earnings on Thursday. Profit is expected to increase 24.1% to Rs 931.5 crore for the quarter-ended December 2017. The bank had reported net income at Rs 750.6 crore in year-ago quarter. Net interest income is seen growing 22% to Rs 1,926.1 crore from Rs 1,578.4 crore year-on-year, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

cryptocurrency

Bitcoin skidded on Thursday, after South Koreas justice minister said a bill to ban cryptocurrency trade was being prepared, reports Reuters. Bitcoin was down more than 10% on the Bitstamp exchange at $13,350 on the news, after earlier dropping as low as $13,120, its weakest since January 2.

09:42 UPA

Vindicated in the 2G spectrum allocation case, A Raja has launched a scathing attack on former CAG Vinod Rai, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA II dispensation in his tell-all book 2G Saga Unfolds. The book, which was accessed by News18, is expected to be released this month. The former telecom minister, who was at the centre of the 2G case, didnt spare the former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai. The sanctity of the CAG was severely compromised by its then head, Vinod Rai, Raja said in the book.

Raja wrote that Rais report and the now debunked Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss on which 2G spectrum case was built, was a mixture of inappropriate legal interpretations, incongruous comparisons and flippant allegations. The sharpest salvo, however, comes when Raja says, It is my conviction consequent to the whole experience of the trial that there was political motivation to kill UPA-II and Rais was the shoulder on which the gun was placed.

Raja also slammed former Manmohan Singh and the UPA II machinery, almost likening himself to a scapegoat saying, Singhs silence on the issue was like silencing of our nations collective conscience. A decision to put him "behind bars had been taken to salvage the governments image", Raja wrote in the book. He claimed in the book that Singh was repeatedly misinformed by his advisors. Raja alleged that Singh chose to remain a passive observer even when he was arrested and jailed for about 15 months.

President Donald Trump said the United States could "conceivably" return to the Paris climate accord, although he stopped short of signalling any move in that direction, reports AFP. "Frankly, it's an agreement that I have no problem with, but I had a problem with the agreement that they signed, because, as usual, they made a bad deal," Trump said.

"So we can conceivably go back in," added the president, who announced his intention to pull out of the 2015 accord on curbing global warming emissions last June. The process of leaving is long and complex, and Trump's comments will renew questions about whether he actually intends to withdraw or simply wants easier US emissions targets.

Amfi

Mutual fund body Amfi has proposed inclusion of debt-linked savings scheme under Sec 80 C of the Income Tax Act in Budget 2018, reports Moneycontrol News Himadri Buch. It has also proposed a Mutual Fund Long Term Retirement Plan (MFLRP) similar to the 401(k) plan in the US. The industry association wants the Finance Ministry to consider fund of funds category as equity funds if more than 65% is invested in equities. Lastly, Amfi has also pushed the case for extending Sec 54 EC benefit for mutual fund schemes with lock-in period of three-to-five years.

08:49 InMobi

AerServ

90m

Mobile advertising platform InMobi on Wednesday today announced the acquisition of Los Angeles-based AerServ for $90 million in cash and stock. "This acquisition fits in perfectly with our global strategy to bring next generation platforms for premium publishers," InMobi founder and CEO Naveen Tewari said in a statement.

Also, two profitable companies are combining forces to cement leadership position in mobile video advertising, he added. InMobi, founded in 2007, is backed by Japanese conglomerate, SoftBank.

08:39 Satyam

Sebi

Waterhouse

Finding Price Waterhouse guilty in the multi-crore Satyam scam, Sebi on Wednesday barred its network entities from issuing audit certificates to any listed company in India for two years and ordered disgorgement of over Rs 13 crore wrongful gains from the audit major and its two erstwhile partners who worked on the IT major's accounts.

The market regulator's order comes nearly nine years after the scam at Satyam Computer Services came to light and after two failed attempts by auditor major Price Waterhouse to settle the case through consent mechanism. This is also one of the most stringent orders passed by any regulator against a Big Four audit major.

In a 108-page order, Sebi has imposed a two-year ban on entities/firms practicing as chartered accountants in India under the brand and banner of PW from directly or indirectly issuing any certificate of audit of listed companies, compliance of obligations of listed companies and intermediaries registered with the regulator.

cryptocurrency

South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchanges were raided by police and tax agencies this week for alleged tax evasion, reports Reuters. "A few officials from the National Tax Service raided our office this week," an official at Coinone, a major cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, said.

"Local police also have been investigating our company since last year, they think what we do is gambling," said the official. He said Coinone was co-operating with the investigation. Bithumb, the second largest virtual currency operator in South Korea, was also raided by the tax authorities on Wednesday.

Warren Buffett on Wednesday appointed Gregory Abel and Ajit Jain to the Berkshire Hathaway board as vice chairs, hinting that one of them is the most likely heir to the Oracle of Omaha at the helm of his sprawling, market-beating conglomerate. Buffett told CNBC this is "part of a movement to succession over time."

Abel, 55, will be vice chair of non-insurance businesses and will likely be seen by Wall Street as the most likely to ascend into Buffett's role eventually. Abel currently is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company, which he joined in 1992. Jain, 66, was named vice chair of the insurance operations. Jain is the executive vice president of National Indemnity Company and joined the Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group in 1986.

Fujifilm

Printer manufacturer Xerox Corp is talks to do a major deal with Japanese camera maker Fujifilm Holdings Corp that may or may not include a change in control of Xerox, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. However, a full takeover of the company is not on the table, the newspaper added.

08:10 Brexit

Britains forthcoming exit from the European Union was the main reason for a 37% YoY decline in new jobs available in Londons financial sector last month, according to a report from recruiting firm Morgan McKinley released on Thursday. Financial services jobs new to the market in December fell to 3,150 from 4,980 in December 2016, the report said, as uncertainty around the terms of Britains exit from the EU made companies in the city reluctant to hire.

Chinas Premier Li Keqiang said the economy is expected to have grown around 6.9% last year, the official Xinhua news agency reported, accelerating from a 26-year low the year before. In the past year, Chinas economy has maintained a steady and favourable trend, with the overall situation better than expected, Li said at the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Forum on Wednesday.

CES

The digital economys big annual trade show, CES, suffered a brief, disruptive plunge into darkness on Wednesday because of a power outage the shows organisers blamed on a glitch caused by heavy rains the day before in usually sunny Nevada, reports Reuters. The irony of a partial blackout at a trade show dedicated to the latest electronic technology did not escape social or industry media. Lights out at CES 2018. Does anyone have a battery pack? wrote Endgadget, a technology news site.

Large swaths of the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center lost power at about 11:15 am local time, shutting down brightly lit company booths and darkening rooms used by hundreds of journalists covering CES. Emergency lights stayed on, and backup batteries kept wireless internet connections functioning. CES organisers said power was restored within minutes to the convention centres South Hall, where many gaming companies had exhibits. Other areas took longer. Power was fully restored at 2:10 pm, CES said in a statement.

China is moving to eradicate the country's bitcoin mining industry over concerns about excessive electricity consumption and financial risk, reflecting authorities' judgment that cryptocurrencies are not a strategic industry. A multi-agency task force has instructed provincial governments to "actively guide" companies in their respective regions to exit the cryptocurrency mining industry, according to a document seen by the Financial Times. The move to pressure miners follows China's shutdown of local bitcoin exchanges and its ban on initial coin offerings.

Miners create new bitcoins by solving complex maths problems whose solutions are used to validate new bitcoin transactions. Though ostensibly a computational task, the reliance on raw computing power makes the process more akin to industrial manufacturing than traditional high-technology businesses. Many bitcoin miners have established operations in remote areas without even registering a company. Some have also skirted Chinese regulations that forbid end users from purchasing electricity directly from power producers rather than grid operators.

China mines about three-quarters of the world's bitcoins, according to Liao Xiang, chief executive of Lightningasic, a Shenzhen-based mining operation. Chinese miners have taken advantage of cheap electricity in regions rich in coal or hydroelectric power, including Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and Yunnan.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday after the first intra-Korean talks in over two years that the United States was willing to speak to North Korea under the right circumstances, although it was far from clear whether this would pay dividends, reports Reuters. South Korea said Trump had also said in a phone call with its President Moon Jae-in that there would be no military action while North-South talks were going on and that a Wall Street Journal article saying he was contemplating a military strike against North Korea was completely wrong.

Who knows where it leads? Trump said after his call with Moon to discuss Tuesdays North-South talks, the first since 2015. He said Moon told him the talks went well, and added: Hopefully it will lead to success for the world, not just for our country, but for the world. And well be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens.

The New Year rally in Asian shares ran out of steam on Thursday as concerns about the US administrations protectionist stance hit Wall Street while US bonds were dented by speculation China may curtail buying. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.1% in early trade, slipping further from Tuesday's 10-year peak. Japan's Nikkei lost 0.6%. The SGX Nifty is trading unchanged at 10,638.

The three major US stock indexes ended lower on Wednesday after a choppy trading session as investors worried that China would slow US government bond purchases and that US President Donald Trump would end a key trade agreement. The S&P and the Nasdaq snapped a six-day rally after Bloomberg reported that China, the worlds biggest holder of US Treasuries, could slow or stop buying the government bonds. The report sent Treasury yields to a 10-month high.

The S&P 500 pared some losses as yields backed away from their intraday peaks and investors digested the China report. But the index lost ground again in mid-afternoon trading after Reuters reported that Canada is increasingly convinced Trump will soon announce a US exit from the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 16.67 points, or 0.07%, to 25,369.13, the S&P 500 lost 3.06 points, or 0.11%, to 2,748.23 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 10.01 points, or 0.14%, to 7,153.57.

China, the biggest buyer of US sovereign bonds, could be slowing down or even halting its purchases. Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that officials in Beijing have recommended the Chinese government lower  or even stop  its buying of US sovereign debt. The report also notes that Chinese officials think US debt is becoming less attractive compared with other assets, adding that trade tensions between the two countries could provide a reason to slow down or halt the purchases.

"If China stops buying Treasuries, the market could suffer," strategists at Jefferies said. "Treasury financing needs are going to rise significantly in 2018 and beyond relative to recent history, so Treasury is going to be looking for as many sources of demand as they can find." The news worried markets. Treasury prices fell, boosting yields. The dollar also dropped against most currencies and gold rose. US equities declined.
Housing sales dropped 17 per cent during 2017 in nine major cities of the country because of demand slowdown and impact of new realty law, according to a report by realty portal PropTiger.

Sales declined to 2,18,500 units last year in nine cities -- Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad -- against 2,63,500 units in 2016, the News Corp-backed PropTiger said in its report.

Launches fell by 43 per cent to 1,63,573 units in 2017 from 2,88,748 units in the previous year.

Yesterday, Knight Frank India released its report and reported 7 per cent decline in housing sales and 41 per cent fall in home launches during last year in eight top cities. Cushman & Wakefield reported 35 per cent fall in launches.

"Overall sales in top nine cities only dropped by 17 per cent compared to steep reduction in new launches.

"Drop in sales is chiefly due to drop in new launches as 32 per cent of sales in 2016 was contributed by projects launched in 2016 itself. This ratio came down to 24 per cent in 2017," PropTiger.com, part of Elara Technologies which also owns Housing.com and Makaan.com, said in the report.

Gurgaon and Hyderabad were the only two cities which witnessed increase in sales by 27 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. The other seven cities saw decline in the range of 3 per cent to 33 per cent.

Commenting on the report, PropTiger.com Chief Investment Officer Ankur Dhawan said: "2017 was a year of reform for the Indian real estate sector with the roll out of game changing policies such as GST and RERA".

He said states did not implement the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, which came into force from May last year, on time and hence there was confusion in the market for at least 2 months whether sales are allowed or not.

Dhawan cited example of realty major DLF which did not sell flats from May to November.

As per the report, housing sales in Gurgaon rose by 27 per cent to 14,000 units in 2017, while sales in Hyderabad went up marginally by 2 per cent to 21,000 units.

Ahmedabad saw the maximum decline by 33 per cent to 12,000 units, followed by Pune 32 per cent to 34,000 units, Noida 30 per cent to 16,000 units and Bengaluru 23 per cent to 31,500 units.

Housing sales fell by 15 per cent in Kolkata to 14,500 units in 2017 while bookings dropped by 10 per cent in Mumbai to 60,000 units. Chennai saw marginal dip of 3 per cent to 15,500 units.

Sharp fall in new launches helped in reduction in the number of unsold housing units in 2017 by 7 per cent to 7,25,828 units in these nine cities, of which Mumbai and Pune alone contribute about 4 lakh units.
Bull's Eye, CNBC-TV18's popular game show, where market experts come together to dish out trading strategies for you to make your week more exciting and compete with each other to see whose portfolio is the strongest.

Remember these are midcap ideas not just for the day, but stocks that look attractive in the medium-term as well.

This week, Kunal Saraogi, Vishal Malkan and Ruchit Jain battle it out for top honours.

Below their top stock picks and analysis:

Kunal Saraogi of Equityrush

Buy Indo Count Industries with a stoploss at Rs 131 and target of Rs 140

Buy Oil India with a stoploss at Rs 380 and target of Rs 395

Buy KPIT Technologies with a stoploss at Rs 203 and target of Rs 215

Buy Jindal Steel with a stoploss at Rs 260 and target of Rs 270

Vishal Malkan of malkansview.com

Buy Hexaware Technologies with a stoploss at Rs 355 and target of Rs 385

Buy Tech Mahindra with a stoploss at Rs 535 and target of Rs 575

Buy JSW Energy with a stoploss at Rs 91 and target of Rs 99

Buy Century Textiles with a stoploss at Rs 1420 and target of Rs 1520

Ruchit Jain of Angel Broking

Buy RBL Bank with a stoploss at Rs 516 and target of Rs 551

Buy CONCOR with a stoploss at Rs 1418 and target of Rs 1524

Buy Indo Count Industries with a stoploss at Rs 127 and target of Rs 145

Buy Sintex Plastics with a stoploss at Rs 88 and target of Rs 100
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Motilal Oswal's research report on Tata Motors

JLR's wholesale volumes grew 3.8% YoY and 1.5% MoM in December 2017 to 55,066 units (including China JV's 10,269 units). Jaguar volumes grew 6% YoY to 16,826 units against our estimate of 12,000 units due to lower XE sales. Land Rover (LR) volumes increased 2.8% YoY to 38,240 units against our estimate of 54,750 units, led by ramp-up of all-new Discovery and RR Velar. For 3QFY18, JLR wholesales grew 4.5% YoY to 159,067 units, led by 12.4% YoY growth in Land Rover sales while Jaguar sales fell 12.5% YoY to 42.4k units. JLR's retail volumes increased marginally by 0.6% YoY and 6.4% MoM to 55,697 units. The 4.1% YoY increase in LR volumes was partially offset by 7.8% YoY decline in Jaguar volumes. XF volumes grew 6.1% YoY. Jaguar XE volumes declined 35% YoY. F-Pace volumes remained flat YoY. Company started retails of E-Pace, with 454 units. LR's retail volumes increased by 4.1% YoY, mainly led by 71.1% rise in Discovery volumes, while RR Sport and RR Evoque volumes declined 37.5% and 12.5%, respectively. RR Velar clocked in 6,521 units. Region-wise, China reported strong volumes at 15,603k units (including China JV's 8,556 units), up 12.6% YoY. The growth in China is reflecting the introduction of the long wheelbase Jaguar XFL as well as strong sales of F-Pace, Discovery Sport, Range Rover Sport and Evoque. While retail sales were down in Europe (-4.6%), US (-9.2%) and UK (-15.8%), other markets witnessed volume growth of 19%. Mr Joe Eberhardt, President and CEO, Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC said, "Jaguar Land Rover in the US achieved another record year for 2017, as our newest models broadened the appeal of both of our great brands.

The stock trades at 7.2x/6.6x FY19E/FY20E consolidated EPS. Maintain Buy with a target price of INR593 (December 2019E SOTP-based) for ordinary shares and INR414 for DVR (~30% discount to TP for ordinary shares).

For all recommendations report, click here

The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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Sun Pharmaceutical Industries shares extended gains to nearly 2 percent intraday Thursday after its Halol plant in Gujarat is cleared by Dutch health regulator.

CNBC-TV18 reports quoting Cogencis that pharma major's Halol unit in Gujarat has received Good Manufacturing Certificate from Dutch Agency.

Dutch's health regulator had audited Sun Pharma's Halol unit on August 25, 2017.

Other reason for upside in the stock is that the clearance by Dutch regulator raised hopes for early approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the same plant.

Recently sources told CNBC-TV18 that inspection of the plant by USFDA is expected to be in February.

Halol plant, which is critical to companys big product approvals, was issued a warning letter by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2015 due to violation of good manufacturing practices. Consequently, the pace of product approvals in the US has slackened.

At 11:22 hours IST, the stock price was quoting at Rs 596.00, up Rs 10.35, or 1.77 percent on the BSE.
Vatika Hotels, the hospitality arm of Vatika Group - a Gurgaon based real estate and hospitality major has bought back the remaining shares from US banking group Goldman Sachs and now owns 100 per cent of its equity.

In 2007, Vatika Group had raised Rs 900 crore in the form of equity. Goldman Sachs being the larger investor along with Baer Capital Partners had invested Rs 600 crore in the group. Wachovia Bank had also invested Rs 200 crore along with Zaheer Mauritius that inducted Rs 100 crore, a company release said.

Goldman Sachs further invested Rs 300 crore in Vatika Hotels in the form of CCD (Compulsory Convertible Debenture) which got later translated into equity in 2015.

GIC, a leading global investment entity, had also invested in Vatika Group in 2014 and remains invested in the organisation, the release said.

Gaurav Bhalla, Managing Director, Vatika Hotels said In the following years, we have rigorous growth plans for all our verticals and aim to issue an IPO by the 3rd quarter of 2018.

The funds generated would be used to take the advantage of the newly formed Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy. The company plans to increase the capacity of Westin, Gurugram with 200 more rooms along with additional expansion plans for the Westin resort by 40 keys located in Sohna, both owned by Vatika Group.

Vatika also intends to invest in brownfield projects and are currently seeking opportunities in the market. Additionally, the funds would also be used for the expansion of Vatika Business Centres & Enviro-a premium facility management company.

Vatika Business Centre, a premium business centre service provider, at present, has 15 centres spread across New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. It covers over half a million sq. ft. area in the country, facilitating over 5,000 seats with over 1000 seats under development.

VBC aims to open 42 centres by the end of 2020 including going overseas with centres in Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong.

Enviro, a facility management vertical by Vatika with over 18 years of experience currently has presence in National Capital Region, Ambala and Jaipur.

The group also owns Nukkadwala, the newest chain of QSR (Quick Service Restaurants) with currently 10 stores in the National Capital Region and has plans to expand overseas with stores opening in Dubai, London, and New York soon.
Moneycontrol Research

For the ferrochrome industry, Africa is strategic location for two reasons. Firstly, the continent has a huge logistic advantage in terms of being near to western market. Secondly, it is very cheap to produce ferrochrome in Africa, which even China cannot match.

Balasore Alloys got a bargain in this market when it recently announced acquisition of 70% stake in Zimbabwe Alloys. Zimbabwe has the second largest reserves of ferrochrome in the world.

Why bargain?

On the business front, Balasore will gain access to vast mining reserves outside India, particularly in the competitive export market. It can leverage its expertise, export to clients and manufacture value-added products to create value.

Importantly, Zimbabwe Alloys had been under pressure because of the governments directive to surrender its claims on reserves so that new investors can come and exploit reserves. On top of that, despite huge reserves of chrome ore and manufacturing facility for the ferrochrome, the company had been under financial stress.

Valuation comfort

For the 70% stake, Balasore will be paying about Rs 105 crore in cash along with infusion of another Rs 473 crore for the payment of the creditors and capex to revive the plant and meet working capital requirements.

Excluding debt, the company is valued at around Rs 825 crore, which is attractive considering that currently Balasore, which is having mining reserves of about 34 million tonne is valued at around Rs 20 crore per million tonne as against Rs 11.41 crore per million tonne in the case of Zimbabwe Alloys.

But that also explains the current state of operation of Zimbabwe Alloys, which in last three reported accounting years (2014-16) made an average sales turnover of only Rs 19 crore. Nevertheless, valuations should also be looked at from the perspective of time value of money as large part of these payments, such as capex and creditors, will be incurred in a staggered manner.

Balance sheet strength

While the structure of the funding is not clear as of now, Balasore should be in comfortable position to deal with the financing. It had Rs 155 crore debt on a net worth of Rs 535 crore or debt to equity of 0.3:1 and interest coverage ratio of 5 times at the end of FY17.

Even at one time debt to equity, the company can raise another Rs 380 crore. Moreover, because of improvement in ferrochrome prices and demand, in the first half of current financial year, the company made a cash profit of Rs 60 crore. This would be around Rs 120 crore without factoring in any growth in FY18. This essentially means that company may not have to rely too much on debt particularly in the light of internal cash flows and would not put too much pressure on balance sheet.
10. Kotak Mahindra Bank | Market Cap for the week ended October 30: Rs 3,06,331.09 crore | Loss during the week: Rs 32,570.94 crore.

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With the banking sector struggling with challenges from GST implementation and the residual impact of demonetisation, Kotak Mahindra Bank, one of the fastest growing private sector lenders, has been focusing on new customers in the last six months to build its book.

"The primary driver for growth is more the new customers and not so much from old or existing customers, which tells a story that the existing customers' requirement for capex or loans for financing their growth, that piece has not grown much," the banks Business Head for Corporate Banking and SME (small and medium enterprises), Manish Kothari told Moneycontrol News in an interaction. "Existing customers have seen mild growth but a large part of growth is coming from new customers."

The focus means that despite the challenges, the bank will witness 15-20 percent growth in the corporate banking and SME portfolio -- even higher if the challenges move away faster.

Kothari said that companies had not seen any new capacities being built up. "(It is) happening in pockets for sure; say the auto sector, which is seeing some expansion; chemical industry is seeing investments in capex; roads, with NHAI coming out with bids; lot of new projects being given in renewables in the solar space."

He added that a pickup in investments by corporates was perhaps still 6-12 months away.

Low loan demand from corporates has been the case for about more than a year now -- loan growth touched a multi-decade low of 4.1 percent in the month of May 2017.

Moreover, the Goods and Services Tax or the GST that got implemented from July 1 last year, has seen taxpayers struggling with teething problems such as delay in input credit refunds, lack of clarity on filing, errors in invoice matching and few other technical snags.

Additionally, there is also some degree of disintermediation which has happened. "So the better quality corporates have raised money from the money market, instead of bank funds," Kothari said.

Kothari, who joined Kotak 22 years ago straight after finishing from the XLRI business school, expects the bank to keep performing better than many of its peers.

He expects that with the initial GST hiccups waning, and also with the resolution of the non-performing assets (NPAs) eventually coming in with the NCLT proceedings, corporates will make a comeback. "(They will) expand capacities as better companies and players with more equity such comapnies. Those (distressed) companies are not operating at optimum levels, the Kotak executive said.

Kotak banks standalone corporate and business banking (which includes SME) together contribute 32 and 12 percent, respectively. The total corporate portfolio as on September 30, 2017, stands at nearly Rs 49,000 crore while business banking book is just above Rs 18,100 crore.

This, for the corporate book, was a growth of 26.4 percent from a year ago period and a one-digit 6.4 percent over the June quarter.

However, business banking portfolio suffered as it grew by a meagre 4.3 percent from September 2016 and 3.4 percent from the June quarter 2017.

"Delinquency rates in ABS (asset backed securities) deals backed by loans against property to SMEs will increase in 2018, because of the tougher operating environment for SMEs. The introduction of a GST in July 2017 and the government's demonetisation policy have placed stress on the SME sector," said Dipanshu Rustagi, assistant vice president at Moody's, said in a report by Moodys and ICRA on Monday.

However, like the government and many others, Kothari sees a fat silver lining with more organised players coming into the system with GST streamlining the processes in the next 12 months.

Those in the organised sector are happy that the demand or business from a host of unorganised people is shifting to them. There is lesser of cash economy now than before and the differentiation is much more on who followed good practices who are getting stronger and those cutting corners face difficulties managing cash flows, he said, adding that people who align to the change faster will be in a better shape.

Kothari is not worried even if a majority of Indias economy is thriving on the unorganised segment.

According to him, Some mortalities will happen, (but) we cannot underestimate the power of entrepreneurship and they will come back into the business. The pain point is more with respect to the refund process taking longer because the reconciliation takes time and the system is new, so the cash flow cycle has to become faster, which will (happen).

Kothari adds that the challenge is only in the last mile where the cash element is the highest. Because he doesnt need credit inputs but there is benefit that he also doesnt add much value to the taxes.
This week, the Upper Egyptian city of Aswan celebrates both its national day and the 58-year anniversary of the start of construction on the famous Aswan High Dam.

The dam, a rock-filled structure located at Egypt's southern border with Sudan, is fed by the River Nile, with its reservoir forming Lake Nasser.

On 16 May 1964, Egypt announced it was diverting the Nile in conjunction with the end of the first stage of the dam's construction. This major event was announced in the presence of then-president Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Construction on the High Dam began in 1960, and it was officially inaugurated in 1971 at a cost of $1 billion, much of which was provided by the USSR. The dam stores 160 billion cubic metres of water, and its reservoir stretches some 350km across southern Egypt and 150km into Sudan.

The Aswan High Dam was not the first dam to be built across the Nile at Aswan.

In 1898, the British occupation authorities built a dam at roughly the same location. The dam, which was inaugurated in 1902, failed to effectively dam the river.

This earlier dam, however, could not compare to the High Dam, which is 3,600 metres long, 980 metres wide at its base, 111 meters high, and 40 metres wide at the top. The body of the dam consists of 43 million cubic metres of concrete, iron and other building materials.

Since its construction, the High Dam has spared Egypt annual floods that had threatened to destroy the countrys agriculture.

The dam also supplied the country with almost 70 billion cubic metres of water during several years of drought between 1979 and 1988. It has also increased the agricultural land to almost 1.5 million feddans due to the increased availability of water, while its power plant provides some 10 percent of Egypts electricity.

The dam has not been all positive, however. The flooding of the Nile, which had been an annual occurrence in Egypt since time immemorial, would deposit a rich layer of fertile soil across the rivers flood plain, as well as wash away harmful salts into the Mediterranean Sea; a process that has been halted by the dam's presence.

Aside from its utilitarian purpose, the massive dam also serves as a tourist attraction.

"A huge recovery [in tourism] has been taking place since October, with tourists of different nationalities visiting the dam," Aswan High Dam security director Abdel-Elah Mohamed Abdallah told Ahram Online

Abdallah says that a tour of the dam includes the dam itself, the nearby monument to Egyptian-Soviet friendship, a panorama of the High Dam that shows its electricity station, Lake Nasser, and the nearby temple of Kalabsha.

Tickets for the dam and the friendship monument cost EGP 30 for foreigners and EGP 10 for Egyptians, while taking photos is free of charge. A tour that includes Kalabsha temple and Lake Nasser costs EGP 75 for foreigners and EGP 20 for Egyptians.

To reach the dam, one can either take a 90-minute Nile boat ride or a 45-minute bus ride from Aswan City.

Egypt initially sought partial funding to build the High Dam from the World Bank, which imposed restrictions that Egypt found unacceptable.

Egypt then sought funding from the UK and the US, who later withdrew their offer of funding for political reasons.

The Soviet Union finally provided the required funds in 1958, and construction on the dam began in 1960. President Nasser also nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956 to contribute to funding the dam.

The 72-meter-high Egyptian-Soviet friendship monument, which was erected near the dam after construction was complete, takes the form of a five-leaved lotus flower; a symbol of ancient Egypt.

When at the dam, one should consider visiting the nearby Abu Simbel temples on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230km southwest of Aswan.

One can also visit Aswan's Kom Ombo temple, which was constructed during the Ptolemaic dynasty between 180 and 47 BC. Some additions to temple were made later during the Roman period.

You can also visit the Nubian archaeological museum, which holds thousands of Egyptian antiquities from different eras, as well as showcases ancient methods of agriculture and Egyptian marriage traditions.

Those who enjoy natural landscapes can visit the Aswan Botanical Island (Al-Nabatat Island), which is a small, oval-shaped island in the Nile that is less than one kilometre long and half a kilometre wide.

For souvenirs, the old market in downtown Aswan offers Aswani cloth, spices, native drinks, peanuts, perfumes and Nubian products for a low price.

There are many hotels along the Nile corniche, as well as restaurants with a Nile view that serve Egyptian and fast food.

You can also book a Nile cruise to Luxor to visit more temples. The trip, which must be pre-booked, ranges from four to seven days.

The trip explores the same route the pharaohs would have taken in their stately processions up the Nile from Luxor to Aswan, though the modern version of the trip includes internet and international phone services.

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N Chandrababu Naidu | Andhra Pradesh | Total cases: 3 | Serious IPC: Nil

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant Rs 11,000 crore for construction of government offices and residential complexes in the state's new capital Amaravati.

The Prime Minister finally granted an appointment to the CM after a gap of 10 months and their meeting is scheduled to take place around 11 am in New Delhi tomorrow, a senior official said.

Naidu held a meeting with senior bureaucrats tonight in which it was decided to seek Central financial assistance to the tune of Rs 11,000 crore for developing essential infrastructure in the new capital, the official said.

The AP Capital Region Development Authority has estimated that Rs 6,705 crore would be required to build a permanent Secretariat, High Court and Legislature complex, another Rs 2163 crore would be required for constructing residential towers for legislators, bureaucrats and other junior officers and Rs 760 crore for bungalows for ministers.

Officials said that the Centre had already granted Rs 1,500 crore for the construction of the High Court, Legislature, Secretariat and some other government buildings.

The state government has submitted utilisation certificates for a sum of Rs 1,583 crore claiming to have spent the money for the "specified purpose" though no such structures, barring the Interim Government Complex, were built.

In this backdrop, the Chief Minister is set to place a fresh demand for funds, the official pointed out.

Naidu is also expected to discuss other issues related to the implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 with Modi.

It wants the Centre to fund Rs 16,725 crore through NABARD for six major projects in the ratio of 90:10 between the Centre and the state.

Chandrababu had written a letter to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in this regard, officials said.

Other issues like delimitation of Assembly constituencies to increase the number of seats in the AP Assembly from 175 to 225, bridging the revenue deficit caused by the state's bifurcation, division of assets listed under Schedules IX and X of the AP Reorganisation Act among others are also expected to be taken up with the Prime Minister, official sources said.
KASHMIR, INDIA - AUGUST 15: Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers stand alert during the official celebrations for India's Independence Day at Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir on 15 August 2017. (Photo by Faisal Khan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The status of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir is "temporary", RSS leader Indresh Kumar said today as he stressed that the occupation of Indian land by China and Pakistan was unconstitutional.

India was suffering from Pakistan's sponsored terrorism and secessionism and over 66,000 people had lost their lives since 1972 due to this, he said.

According to a statement issued here, the senior RSS leader said that Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was "temporary". He was in the city today to attend 'Yuva Sansad 2018'.

"Terrorist activities have reduced due to the policies of government and separatist leaders are in jails. Efforts to bring youths in Jammu and Kashmir to the mainstream are yielding positive results," he claimed.

On the Ram Temple in Ayodhya issue, he said that even Muslims did not want a mosque to be built at the site as there are rules for construction of mosques.

The RSS leader, who has often made controversial remarks in the past, claimed the occupation of land by Shias and Sunnis was immoral.

Muslims in Ayodhya concede that occupying the land was a mistake by their ancestors and there was no need to have a mosque in the name of Babar, the statement said.

Kumar claimed that China had to bow down to India under diplomatic pressure on the Doklam issue. He said that war with China was not a solution to the problem.

He also said that the occupation by China and Pakistan of Indian territory was unconstitutional.
Former US president Barack Obama had received gifts worth about USD 3,000 during his visit to India in 2015 as Chief Guest at the Republic Day Parade, according to the State Department.

Obama was the first US head of state who attended the parade in 2015.

According to the Department of State's Protocol Office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented Obama telegram facsimile from the US to India's Constituent Assembly in 1946 and reproduction of the cover page of a report on India's Constitutional Debates.

Modi also presented him a framed photograph of Marian Anderson's radio interview in India and a hand-carved wooden Jali box with a small wooden latch and photo of Marian Anderson's radio interview in India on the lid.

Among other gifts from Modi were a CD set, title: All India Radio Interview with Marian Anderson, November 18 1957, New Delhi.

Obama also received a hand-carved black wooden Jali box with painting on the lid; blue Shahmina shawl, red Shahmina shawl and beige and cream coloured shahmina shawl. The State Department Protocol Office have estimated their value at USD 1,231.

The Rajghat Samadhi Committee presented him a model spinning wheel with white tread looped around the wheel and a cloth scroll listing the Seven Social Sins as articulated by Mahatma Gandhi.

He also received a book on Mahatma Gandhi titled "An AutobiographyThe Story of my Experiments with the Truth" and a bronze-coloured bust of Mohandas Karamchard Gandhi on a wood base. The gifts were estimated to be a value of USD 929.01.

The then president Pranab Mukherjee presented Obama a book titled "Thoughts and Reflections", "Winged Wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan RB Series 20122014" along with a Photobook, titled "State Visit of His Excellency Barack H Obama, President of the United States of America and Michelle Obama to India on January 25 to 27 January 2015".

The gifts were estimated to be USD 825.

The First Lady Michelle Obama received gifts worth over USD 1500, according to the list. All the gifts have been handed over to the National Archive.

Michelle was given by Modi a hand-embroidered Shahmina shawl, hand-carved wooden Jali box, and assorted Indian tea of an estimated value of USD 662. While rest of the items were given to the National Archives, the tea box was handled pursuant to United States Secret Service policy, the Office of Protocol said.

And finally, President Mukherjee presented to Michelle pashmina Shawl with hand-embroidery and specially commissioned tea set, including pot, six cups, six saucers, milk pitcher, and sugar jar, at an estimated value of USD 900.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday asked the people of the state to come up with suggestions, if any, with regard to the budget which would be tabled in the forthcoming session of the assembly.

In a statement issued here, Sushil - who also holds the finance portfolio - said common citizens may send their suggestions to the state government through email as well as by post.

The Bihar Deputy CM's outreach is in line with the policy of Narendra Modi government at the Centre of inviting commoners' suggestions ahead of general and railway budgets.

He also said prior to the budget, discussions would be held on the budget with five different groups comprising representatives from various economic sectors.

The first group would comprise representatives from industry, trade, real estate and transport, besides Chartered Accountants and Company Secretaries.

The second group would comprise those involved in agriculture, pisciculture, poultry farming and animal husbandry besides those associated with the cooperative sector.

The third group will comprise representatives from the health care sector while the fourth and the fifth would have those from central and state public sector undertakings respectively, Sushil said.

This is the first time that representatives from PSUs like NABARD, NTPC, NHAI and BUIDCO (Bihar Urban Infrastructure Devlopment Corporation) have been invited for discussions on the budget, the Bihar Deputy CM said.
The newly appointed chief minister of eastern Indian state of West Bengal and Trinamool Congress (TMC) Mamata Banerjee addresses her supporters during a rally in Kolkata July 21, 2011. The annual rally was held to commemorate the July 21, 1993 event where 13 political party workers were killed by the police, and also to celebrate their historic win in the recent concluded state elections, TMC leaders said on Thursday. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri (INDIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - GM1E77L1SXK01

The decision of Calcutta University to confer an honorary D Litt on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has raised "several questions", Left Front chairman Biman Bose said today.

He said as the matter is sub judice, the varsity should have refrained from awarding the honorary degree to Banerjee.

"Calcutta University was known for its autonomous functioning. Earlier, the members of senate and syndicate of the university were elected, now they are nominated by the government. The same senate has decided to confer D Litt on chief minister. It has raised several questions," Bose said.

The university has "lost its independence" under the Trinamool Congress rule, he asserted.

Referring to claims by a section of the TMC leadership that former chief minister Jyoti Basu was also conferred D Litt by the varsity, Bose said both the issues should not be confused as he got the award years after stepping down as CM.

A PIL has been filed in the Calcutta High Court challenging the varsity's decision to award the honorary D Litt degree to Banerjee.
Have a long-term outlook | Timing investment is logically impossible because the best entry and exit opportunities are known only in hindsight. No one can predict market movements with certainty. Therefore, it is important to allow your investments to compound over a long term.

China today objected to Vietnam's invitation to India to invest in oil and natural gas sector in the disputed South China Sea, saying it is firmly opposed to infringement of its rights using development of bilateral ties as an "excuse".

Vietnam's Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh on Tuesday had told an Indian news channel that his country would welcome Indian investments in the South China Sea.

Responding to remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: "China does not object to the development of normal bilateral relations of relevant countries in our neighbourhood".

"But China firmly oppose relevant party to use it as an excuse to infringe upon China's legitimate rights and interests in the South China Sea and impair regional peace and stability," Lu said.

Ton had also said defence cooperation is one of the important and effective areas of cooperation between India and Vietnam and India can be helpful in expanding Vietnams defence capabilities.

China has been opposing India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) exploring oil in wells claimed by Vietnam in the South China Sea (SCS) for years. India has been asserting that the ONGC's exploration is a commercial operation and not connected with the dispute.

China claims almost all of the SCS while Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims.

Oil exploration in the SCS is a sensitive issue in the Vietnam-China relations. There were anti-China riots in Vietnam when China tried to deploy oil rigs in an areas claimed by Vietnam few years ago.

India, which is ramping up ties with Vietnam, calls for freedom of navigation in the SCS through which trillions of dollars of trade happens every year.
CHIEF OF KASHMIR'S RULING PARTY MEHBOOBA ADDRESSES A NEWS CONFERENCE IN SRINAGAR.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti welcomed the Rs 80,313 crore annual budget 2018-19 presented in both Houses of the state legislature today, terming it development-focused and people-oriented.

Based on the feedback from her public outreach programme, Rs 200 crore was earmarked for drinking water supply in the state, and Rs 50 crore for completion of around 1000 ongoing schemes, Mufti said.

This, the chief minister said, depicted the developmental intervention the government has thought of for changing the socio-economic profile of the State.

Mufti said the budget, by focusing on panchayats, displayed the commitment of her government to strengthen the local self-government at political, administrative and financial levels.

Lauding the budget presented by state Finance Minister Haseeb A Drabu in the Legislative Assembly, the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) called it a big sigh of relief for the marginalised and unrepresented class of the state.

PDP's Srinagar district president and member of Legislative Council Mohammad Khurshid Alam said the budget was a much-needed one as it had all the contents to benefit the common masses across the state.

"From industrialists to houseboat owners, and from daily wagers to state government employees, the budget has adopted the most humane approach in addressing the woes of the common man living in the state," Alam said.

The PDP MLC said covering the transgender community of the state under the BPL category was a landmark decision.

"The implementation of the 7th Pay Commission will be a major achievement of the government as unlike the previous governments, this regime didn't compel its employees to hit the streets for their demands," he added.

Terming it a budget with a 'conscience and a heart' to reach out to every section of the society, Minister for Public Works Naeem Akhtar lauded Finance Minister Drabu for taking into consideration the interests and aspirations of common masses, employees, businessmen, traders, youth, poor and marginalised.

It had been prepared keeping in mind both the people's interests and the short and long-term economic objectives of the state, Akhtar added.
Pro-Kannada outfits have given a call for 'Karnataka Bandh' on January 25 to press for the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Mahadayi river water sharing row between the state and neighbouring Goa.

Vatal Nagaraj, leader of Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha (KCVP), a pro-Kannada outfit, claimed that about 2,000 pro-Kannada outfits had backed the bandh call.

He said the organisations had decided to speak to government officers and employees, lorry owners, fuel service stations, education institutions and appeal to them to cooperate in ensuring that the Bandh is a success.

The Kannada film industry has already agreed to support the bandh, Nagaraj said. The Kannada organisations have also decided to show black flag to Modi when he visits Karnataka on January 28 for the concluding ceremony of BJP's Nava Karnataka Parivarthana Yatra,a state-wide programme against the Congress government.

Karnataka has locked horns with Goa over the Mahadayi river sharing issue to supply water for Hubballi and Dharwad towns for drinking water through Kalasa-Banduri canal. Recently, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said he would go by the decision taken by the Mahadayi river water sharing tribunal.

Earlier he had written to state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa lending his support to resolve the Mahadayi river water sharing issue. Karnataka is seeking release of 7.56 tmcft water by Goa from the Mahadayi river for the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project, being undertaken to improve the drinking water supply to Hubballi-Dharwad and districts of Belagavi and Gadag in the northern region. The Kalasa-Banduri Nala (diversion) project involves building barrages across Kalasa and Banduri, tributaries of Mahadayi River, to divert 7.56 tmcft to the Malaprabha river which supplies drinking water needs of the region.

On December 27 last year, a bandh was observed in five north Karnataka districts over the same issue following a call by farmer groups.
Niti Aayog

Government think-tank NITI Aayog will come out with a ranking of 115 aspirational districts by April 2018.

In its presentation at the 'Transformation of Aspirational Districts' conference which was held earlier this month, the Aayog said it will rank the 115 backward districts on 10 parameters which will include nutrition, education, health.

According to the presentation, which was posted on Niti Aayog's website today, it will also set up a mechanism for real-time monitoring of government's development programmes by April 2018.

The government think-tank said it will create a dashboard which will reflect the change in ranking of districts on continuous basis by the end of March this year.

Last week, while participating at the conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked collectors and officers-in- charge of the 115 aspirational districts to come up with pioneering innovations to achieve visible results for development by April 14, the birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar.

The officials concerned should focus on "low hanging" fruits to show results and create an atmosphere of optimism and positivity, Modi had said, adding success stories are needed to change the psyche of people.

"On April 14, we celebrate the jayanti of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Let us devote these coming three months to pioneering innovation in the less developed districts and transform the lives of the poor," he had said.

Calling for a concerted effort to achieve visible results in three months, Modi had said he would like to personally visit one such well-performing district in April, adding those 115 districts could become "the foundation for developing New India".

The event was organised keeping in view Modi's vision of creating a 'New India' by 2022.

The Centre has embarked upon a major policy initiative for rapid transformation of districts that are lagging on specific development parameters.

Senior government officials of the rank of additional secretary and joint secretary have been designated as officers in-charge to coordinate the efforts of the Centre and states in addressing the specific developmental needs of these districts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos is the reflection of India's ambition at the global stage, a former top US diplomat said.

This is for the first time in about 18 years that an Indian Prime Minister is attending the prestigious World Economic Forum meeting.

This week, the White House also announced that President Donald Trump too would be attending the meeting of world economic leaders.

"To me this speaks to India's ambitions on the global stage. India has at previous World Economic Forum's taken large delegations headed by cabinet ministers, but this year is going to be a little bit different," Alyssa Ayres, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow and author of the forthcoming book 'Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place' told a New York audience.

Participating in a panel discussion 'Asia Briefing: India 2018', Ayres said her guess is that last year's appearance by Chinese President Xi Jinping probably made something of a "splash" and probably factored into the decision for India to send its head of government to that forum this year.

Noting that she is saying this as an anecdote to illustrate what she thinks one is seeing happening with India now on the global stage, Ayres said: "What you see happening on the world stage is now in India that is stepping up in a more active way".

The Indian government has defined a new term for the type of global leader it would like to be, she said at the event organised by Asia Society ahead of the launch of her book.

"There's a new term that to my mind has not been used in this way before. Leading power not a global power not a great power...what does this mean," she said and referred to the remarks made in this regard by top Indian diplomats wherein they have talked about not reacting but "shaping the global events" as they unfold.

"That's what you're seeing happening now with India," Ayres said.

Adding that some of the issues that India's stepping up on the world stage are economic in focus. Some of them are also about rising military power and the way India is thinking about its role militarily, she said.

The Indian navy has a declared ambition for primacy across the Indian Ocean, said Ayres. India thinks of its space in the region increasingly describing its role across the Indian Ocean as a net provider of regional security.

One hears that echoed in the way US secretaries of defence and secretaries of state talk about India and its role a net provider of regional security.

"This starts to paint a portrait of a country that's now playing a little bit different role than it was 15 years ago and one which it's playing the more active role; playing a more participatory role with other countries in the process of thinking about global challenges and what the solutions should be," she said.

But she quickly pointed out that this is not true in every case like global coalition against the Islamic State which India has decided not to join.

"But I think you are starting to see more instances in which India is ready to stand up and say this is our position, this is what we'd like to be debating with the global community and our view is our voice should be heard," Ayres said.

Ayres served in the Obama administration in a senior leadership role as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia from 2010 to 2013, covering all issues across the region.

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2018 will take place later this month in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, under the theme 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.

Modi will travel to Switzerland on January 22 on a two- day visit during which he will deliver the keynote address at the plenary session of the WEF.

This would be the first time since 1997 that an Indian prime minister will attend the Davos summit.
A Fifth Dynasty royal administrative complex at Tel Edfu and two Ptolemaic era stelae at the Kom Ombo temple are among the finds

Egyptian and American archaeologists unveiled two new discoveries in Aswan, including a royal administrative complex in the ancient Egyptian city of Tel Edfu and a collection of artefacts in the Kom Ombo temple, according to a statement by Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.

At the Tel Edfu archaeological site, a joint Egyptian-American archaeological mission with researchers from The University of Chicago has uncovered the late Fifth Dynasty (24982345 BCE) administrative complex.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, described the newly discovered complex as the oldest archeological evidence to be found in Tel Edfu till now.

Prior to the find, the earliest known evidence at the site dated to the second half of the Sixth Dynasty (23452181 BCE), according to Waziri.

According to Nadine Moeller, head of the American mission, the complex sheds light on the royal expeditions organized during the Fifth Dynasty reign of King Djedkare Isesi, who reigned from the late 25th to the mid-24th century BCE.

Gregory Marward, the missions co-director, pointed out that a collection of 220 mud brick stamps of King Djedkare Isesi were found inside the complex.

The site was also used as a storehouse for goods retrieved on King Isesi's famous royal expeditions to Wadi Al-Maghara in South Sinai to extract raw materials, especially copper.

King Isesi also ordered a famous expedition to Punt, an ancient kingdom on the Horn of Africa, to retrieve goods not available in Egypt.

Also found at the site was an official list of the names of the workers who participated in the excavation and mining expeditions, including a commander by the name of "Sementio."

Nubian pottery and shells from the Red Sea were also found, as well as fragmentary evidence of mining activities.

Moeller told Ahram Online that she considers this the most important discovery at Tel Edfu since the current mission began excavating the site 2014.





Finds at Kom Ombo

Meanwhile, an Egyptian archaeological mission working on the dewatering project in Aswan's Kom Ombo temple has discovered four ancient artefacts on the temple's western side.

Ayman Ashmawi, Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Ministry, told Ahram Online that the discovered artefacts include a limestone stele depicting a man and his wife presenting offerings to a seated deity.

The stele measures 40-by-27 cm and the upper part of its left side is missing. A sandstone statue depicting a seated man was also found, as well as two sandstone statues of the god Horus in the form of falcon which lacks any inscriptions.

The Temple of Kom Ombo was constructed during the Ptolemaic Dynasty between 180-47 BCE, during Egypt's Hellenistic period.

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The result of the UPSC 2017 Civil Services (Main) examination was declared by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on its website upsc.gov.in, an official statement said.

How to access the result> Visit the UPSC website at upsc.gov.in > Click on the Written Results 2017 Mains link > Download the document on your system for easier reference

The Main examination was conducted between October 28 and November 3 last year.

The Civil Services examination is conducted by the UPSC annually in three stages -- preliminary, mains and interview -- to select officers for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

The roll numbers of the candidates, who cleared the mains examination were made available on the commission's website-- www.upsc.gov.in -- it said, without mentioning the total number of successful candidates.

Personality test or interview of the selected candidates is likely to commence from February 19, the UPSC said.

The e-summon letter for the personality test of candidates called for interview may be downloaded from the commission's website from January 18, it said.

The mark sheets of candidates, who have not qualified, would be put on UPSC's website within 15 days from the date of publication of the final result (after conducting the personality tests) and would be available on the portal for a period of 60 days.
Vijay Mallya

Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering allegedly amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore, on Thursday appeared in court here for a hearing related to his extradition trial.

The 62-year-old Mallya is back in the dock at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London for what is expected to be one of the final hearings in the case to determine the "admissibility" of some of the evidence presented by the Indian government.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot will rule on the evidence, following which she is expected to set a timetable for closing arguments and her verdict on whether the UK-based businessman can be extradited to India to face the fraud and money laundering allegations involving his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The judge had directed both sides to submit their arguments for and against the admissibility of the material, which will be taken up this week.

Judge Arbuthnot had also sought further clarifications related to availability of natural light and medical assistance at Barrack 12 of Mumbai Central Prison on Arthur Road, where Mallya is to be held if he is extradited from Britain.

The extradition trial, which opened at the London court on December 4, is aimed at laying out a prima facie case of fraud against the tycoon, who has been based in the UK since he fled India in March, 2016.

It will also seek to prove that there are no "bars to extradition" and that Mallya is assured a fair trial in India over his erstwhile airline's alleged default of over Rs 9,000 crore in loans from a consortium of Indian banks.

Mallya was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant in April, 2017 and has been out on bail on a bond worth 650,000 pounds.

Chief Magistrate Arbuthnot will present her ruling within a timeframe she sets out at the end of the trial.

If she rules in favour of the Indian government, the UK home secretary will have two months to sign Mallya's extradition order.

However, both sides will have the chance to appeal in higher courts in the UK against the chief magistrate's verdict.
Susmit Pushkar and Susanah Naushad

The Satyam Scam in 2009, sent shock waves through India Inc and in its wake altered the corporate governance landscape in India permanently. On January 7, 2009, the Chairman of Satyam Software Services Ltd, Ramalinga Raju, confessed to a Rs 7,136 crore fraud committed by him and a few others at the company. The scam highlighted several loopholes in the Indian corporate governance structure - unethical conduct, fraudulent accounting, insider trading, oversight by auditors, ineffectiveness of Board, failure of independent directors and non-disclosure of material facts to the stakeholders.

Criminal cases were initiated against B. Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju (former Managing Director) and 8 others in connection with the matter.

On April 9, 2015 the Special Court at Hyderabad found all the ten accused guilty of cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, forgery, and obstruction of evidence. B Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju were sentenced to seven years jail and fined 5 crore each. The convicted persons have appealed against the decision. The appeal is pending in the Sessions Court in Hyderabad, and are on bail.

In between, however, a host of measures have been taken by the government and regulators with respect to corporate governance in India.

Committees

In 2009, the Confederation of Indian Industries set up a task force headed by former cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra to suggest reforms. Based on the recommendations of this task force, the Ministry of Corporate affairs issued Voluntary Guidelines for Corporate Governance in 2009. The National Association of Software and Services Companies also established a corporate governance and ethics committee. This Committee suggested reforms relating to audit committees, shareholder rights, and whistle-blower policy.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

In April 2014, SEBI amended the Listing Agreement to include provisions relating to establishment of a vigil mechanism, role of Audit Committee in cases of suspected fraud or irregularity, and the role of the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer pertaining to financial reporting and disclosure to the Audit Committee. In 2015, SEBI framed the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (LODR), applicable to all listed companies, and provided for stringent guidelines relating to reporting / disclosure of material events and actual and suspected fraud.

Companies Act, 2013:

The Companies Act 1956 came to be repealed with the new Companies Act 2013 (Act). The new Act has made a clear departure from the old Act and has brought in several measures intended to benefit the larger stakeholder community, with the resulting increase in compliance costs for the company. The Act provides for corporate fraud as a criminal offence. It sets out clear obligations for reporting of instances of fraud on auditors, cost accountants and company secretaries. It clearly outlines the responsibility and accountability of auditors and independent directors, who are expected to play a more active role. The checks and balances introduced to ensure proper governance and management in the company require the hitherto passive actors to play a vital role, in the interest of the shareholders, creditors, vendors, customers and other stakeholders in the company.

To detect and report instances of fraud and other irregularities, the Act provides for all listed companies to have a vigil mechanism, and mandates a Directors' Responsibility Statement to be a part of the Report of Board of Directors. It provides for compulsory rotation of individual auditors after five years and audit firms after ten years to rule out malpractices and financial oversight and ensure independence of auditors. The auditors are also obligated now to report instances of fraud noticed by them during the performance of their duties. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) came out with a Guidance Note on Reporting on Fraud (ICAI Guidance Note, 2016). The Act also puts forth a stringent framework for related party transactions.

Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO)

The SFIO under the new Act has a statutory status and has recently also been conferred the power to arrest. The SFIO has been actively investigating cases relating to corporate fraud.

Conclusion

In the years since the Satyam scam broke out, substantial changes have been made with respect to corporate governance in India. The use of criminal sanctions by the Parliament to regulate corporate conduct has been on the rise. The regulators and the investigative bodies are more vigilant. The increased compliance costs of companies only serves well to protect the interests of all the stakeholders in the company.

(Susmit Pushkar is Partner and Susanah Naushad is Associate at Khaitan & Co)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal will address a rally at the birthplace of Jijabai, mother of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji, in Maharashtra on January 12.

Kejriwal will address the rally at Sindkhed Raja in Buldhana district, and pay tributes on her birth anniversary, party sources said.

Every year, lakhs of people, mostly from the politically dominant Maratha community, gather at the place to pay their respects to Rajmata (King's mother) Jijabai.

Police had initially denied permission for the rally citing law and order issues, but the rally, slated tomorrow morning, will be held as planned after AAP leaders took up this issue with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and senior police officials, the sources said.

Afer the permission was granted, Kejriwal had tweeted in Marathi, saying "On the occasion of Rajmata Jijau Jayanti on January 12, I am coming to Sindkhed Raja to have a dialogue with the people of Maharashtra."

Marathas, who comprise of approximately 32 per cent of the state's population, had taken to the streets last year, demanding reservations in education and job sectors.

The choice of the venue also underlines the agenda of the party, particularly in the backdrop of the recent turmoil in Maharashtra, where Marathas were pitted against Dalits after the Bhima-Koregaon violence.

Kejriwal is expected to induct Brigadier (retd.) Sudhir Sawant, a former Congress MP from Konkan region, into the AAP, at the rally tomorrow, AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said.

Sawant is a Maratha.

However, the AAP spokesperson said her party does not believe in wooing the Maratha community or any other community. "We do not believe in the politics of caste," she added.

"We chose this venue because we believe in the values of Jijabai which she imbibed in Shivaji Maharaj," she said.
WhatsApp began end-to-end encryption for conversations two years ago. But research has found that it is possible to add people to private group chats without the admin's permission, according to a Wired report.

A team of German cryptographers from Ruhr University has found flaws in WhatsApp's security system.

According to the report, the team has said that anyone who controls Facebook-owned WhatsApp's servers can add people to private group chats without an invitation from the group's admin, effectively giving the uninvited member access to the messages on the group.

The uninvited member can only access messages sent after they have been added to the group. Messages sent to the group before the member joined can't be accessed and are safe from decryption, the report clarifies. But once the member has access to the group, he or she can also selectively block messages on the group.

WIRED spoke to Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins University who reviewed the Ruhr University researchers' work. "If you build a system where everything comes down to trusting the server, you might as well dispense with all the complexity and forget about end-to-end encryption," said Green.

The report says a WhatsApp spokesperson confirmed the findings but added that no one can "secretly" add members to a group. The group members will receive a notification that a new member has joined the group. The spokesperson said that if an admin spots unknown members of the group, they can alert other members through another group or one-to-one conversations.

The research examined other encrypted messaging apps as well, including Signal and Threema. The security flaws found in WhatsApp were more harmful than the ones found in Signal and Threema, according to the report.

To rectify this bug in the security system, researchers suggested that WhatsApp could introduce a secret key as a way of verifying group invites.
Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today appealed not to "overblow" the issue of data breach, even as he asserted that innovations taking place in the country as part of digital revolution, cannot be killed under the garb of privacy.

Speaking at the inauguration of the 6th Annual International Commerce Conference here, he lamented that the country missed the industrial and entrepreneurial revolutions in the 80s and 90s due to licence raj.

"But, it (India) should not miss the digital revolution," Prasad said while mentioning the Justice Srikrishna Committee, which is working on making a robust law for data protection and anonymity.

"Travelling is your private affair. But everything is recorded if you take public transports like flights. What you eat is your personal choice, but if you eat in a restaurant it is recorded by a bill. Therefore, let us not overblow this issue of privacy," he said.

The law minister also said that innovations happening in the country cannot be killed under the garb of privacy.

"What is strictly private is medical and banking records. When you talk about privacy, there should be a balance between data availability, data utility, data anonymity and data privacy," he said.

Prasad also talked about how a number of fake accounts and teachers were identified with the help of Aadhaar cards, thus helping the government save precious resources.

"Aadhaar does not contain community, religion, medical, educational or income reports. The system instead contains iris and finger prints kept in a safe and secure encrypted form which cannot be broken into even by the billionth of efforts," he said.

The two-day conference on 'Digital Outreach and Future of Marketing Practices' was attended by Delhi University Vice Chancellor Yogesh K Tyagi among others.

A newspaper report had recently brought to the fore alleged Aadhaar data breach.

Delhi Police had on Monday registered an FIR on a complaint by an UIDAI official following the report on data breach of more than 1 billion Aadhaar cards, naming the journalist behind the story.

The police was informed by the official that the correspondent, posing as a buyer, had purchased a service being offered by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provided unrestricted access to details of Aadhaar numbers.
South Korean tech giant Samsung is planning to unveil its first flagship for 2018 -- the Galaxy S9 -- at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February.

The development was confirmed by Samsungs mobile business head DJ Koh at a press conference during the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show 2018 (CES 2018).

Historically, Samsung has unveiled most of its flagship phones at the Mobile World Congress, with the exception of Galaxy S8, which was launched at its own Galaxy Unpacked event.

The Galaxy S8 started hitting stores in April 2017, a month after it was launched. Going by that, one can expect the S9 to be out sometime around the end of March or early April.

Although there isn't anything concrete to go by when it comes to the Galaxy S9s specifications, the phone is expected to run on Samsungs Exynos 9 Series 9810 processor, which according to the company is the most innovative mobile processor yet.

To be sure, the Galaxy S9 will come equipped with the Exynos 9 processor in all countries except the United States, where it is expected to be sold with a Snapdragon 845 processor, the latest in Qualcomm's range of mobile processors.

The newest addition to Samsung's Galaxy range of phones is not expected to be radically different from its predecessor, at least in terms of appearance. This is probably because the Galaxy S8 featured a completely overhauled design, which was very well received by the smartphone market.

However, reports suggest that the Galaxy S9 will come with an on-screen fingerprint scanner and a will also have a variant with internal memory of 512 GB.

In addition to this, Koh said that the company is looking to launch a revamped Bixby 2.0 with more artificial intelligence (AI) capability within the year. He added that the virtual assistant will be supported by all of the company's flagship devices by 2020.

"Many companies have AI competence, but not many have hardware competence," Koh said. "We started a little later [than others] but we are confident in offering the best experience for consumers."

The company also announced its plans to launch bendable phones in 2019.
Passengers travelling on British Airways flights for short distances will now have to say good bye to the comfort of reclining seats. The development comes after the popular British carrier announced that it will remove all reclining seats on short distance flights by the end of the year.

The decision is reportedly taken by the carrier to cut its expenditure. The carrier had also removed the free food service in the economy class on short flights replacing it with paid-for snacks and also reduced the leg room to create more space inside the aircrafts.

As per a report in Mail Online, British Airways will fit fixed seats with gentle recline on the 35 A320neo and A321neo planes, coming into use from this year at Heathrow. As well as new long-haul aircraft, we have 35 brand new short-haul planes arriving over the next five years. We're also completely refurbishing the cabins of all of our existing A320 and A321 aircraft at Heathrow to improve quality and choice for our customers. We are installing at-seat power throughout the aircraft and will soon offer on-board wi-fi, a spokesperson from the carrier was quoted saying in the report.

In addition, the carrier group will also re-arrange seating on the Boeing 777s based at Gatwick. The current nine-seat configuration on each row will be changed to ten seats similar to the Emirates.

However, this may be just the beginning of the changes that could be introduced on the carrier. There are also reports that the carrier will overhaul the catering arrangements existing for economy class on long-range flight services including the replacement of present three-course meals with four-course version and introduction of ice creams and snack boxes from known brands. It may also end the sale of branded duty-free products inside the aircraft during short flights.

All these measures could help the carrier in reducing ticket charges enabling it to compete more successfully with budget airlines like easyJet and Ryanair.
Julian Assange

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition to the US, was today denied diplomatic status by the UK government.

The anti-secrecy group's chief has been based at the Ecuador embassy in central London since 2012 after he lost appeals against sexual assault charges in Sweden.

The request for diplomatic status was made on behalf of the 46-year-old campaigner by the Ecuadorean government, which has reportedly issued a passport to the Australian national after he had sought political asylum from the South American country five and a half years ago.

"The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter, said a spokesperson for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

"Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," the spokesperson added.

According to media reports from Ecuador earlier this week, Assange has been registered to the province of Pichincha, which covers the capital Quito.

The public database of the country's internal revenue service indicates that the travel document was delivered to Assange on December 21, indicating that the country is preparing for the campaigners exit from his London hideout.

Ecuador foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa has said that the country is seeking a neutral third-party nations mediation to revolve what she described as an "untenable" situation.

While the grant of a passport has not been officially confirmed, it is seen as part of a process to get Assange out of the UK by giving him a role at the embassy that confers diplomatic immunity.

The rape allegation against the computer programmer had followed a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm in 2010.

Assange has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the sex was consensual and that the case was politically motivated to get him extradited to the US over massive Wikileaks dumps of secret US military reports that year.

Swedish prosecutors have since dropped their investigation into the allegations but Assange still faces arrest by Scotland Yard for breaching bail conditions if he steps outside the embassy.

Assange also fears he will be extradited to the US if he leaves the building over a sealed indictment ordering his arrest.

A United Nations panel had concluded in 2016 that Assange was under arbitrary detention. But the British government has maintained he must face justice in UK courts over his breach of bail conditions.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous sources.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem. (REUTERS)

Marko Vukicevic of Serbia in the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup, Men's Downhill Training , in Wengen, Switzerland. (REUTERS)

A bride waits to take her wedding vows during a mass marriage ceremony in which, according to its organisers, 111 Muslim couples took their wedding vows, at a mosque in Ahmedabad. (REUTERS)

A team of IAF mountaineers had successfully scaled highest peaks of seven different continents culminating with Mt Vinson in Antarctica. (PTI)

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav with party leaders at a press conference in Lucknow on Thursday. (PTI)

President Ram Nath Kovind, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi at the inauguration of a three-day International Dharma Dhamma Conference at Rajgir. (PTI)

Delhi police commissioner Amulya Patnaik along with other senior police officers during an annual press conference in New Delhi. (PTI)

A newly-raised all-women bikers contingent of Border Security Force (BSF) 'Daredevils' practice ahead of their first performance at the Republic Day parade, in New Delhi. (PTI)

Fully integrated PSLV-C40 with all the 31 Spacecrafts at First Launch Pad, at Sriharikota.ISRO's 100th satellite is set for launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, along with 30 others in a single mission. (PTI)

A man splashes paint on the dome of Swayambhunath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. (REUTERS)

SSR Marine Services during the launch of Harbour Cruise Ship which promises a never before experience of sailing at Mumbai shoreline on Wednesday. (PTI)

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu along with his wife Usha offer prayer at Lord Venkateswara temple, Tirumala in Tirupati on Thursday. (PTI)

Indian soldiers take part in a laughter yoga session during their rehearsal for the Republic Day parade on a winter morning in New Delhi, India. (Reuters)

This aerial photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department shows mudflow and damage to homes in Montecito, California. (AP/PTI)

Video screens are shown built into the backs of passenger seats onboard a Delta Airlines Boeing 737-900ER aircraft in San Diego, California, US. (Reuters)

Police officers fire tear gas to break up a protest during demonstrations against rising prices and tax increases, in Tunis, Tunisia. (Reuters)

Activists demonstrate outside the New York office of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to ask for the passage of a 'clean' Dream Act, one without additional enforcement or security, in New York, US. (Reuters)

The Mormon Temple is shown at Temple Square downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, US. (Reuters)

Labourers dig the ground before replacing concrete sleepers along railway tracks in Karachi, Pakistan. (Reuters)
Despite the intense pressures the Iranian regime has faced due to the protests that swept the county as of 28 December, the government has shown no signs of willingness to change its domestic and foreign policies in a way that would diminish the possibility of another wave of demonstrations.

In fact, the measures the regime has taken so far suggest that it has failed to grasp the underlying causes and the nature of the protests. Although the military establishment  above all the Revolutionary Guard  declared last week that the demonstrations had ended, they continue to spread from one province to another.

The government has stated that it would step in to reduce the costs of certain commodities whose prices have soared recently, yet it has not signalled any intent to lower the levels of funding it provides to allies abroad.

Meanwhile, the regime has sustained its roundups of individuals believed to be instrumental in the demonstrations. It has targeted university students in particular, as they have always played a central role in protest activity in Iran in light of the important political status of the student movement in the country.

Not surprisingly, the regime continues to harp on the theme that the protests are supported by foreign agencies with the intent of undermining the pillars of the regime from within, even though it is perfectly aware that the protests have their roots in actual domestic conditions worsened by the regimes radical policies.

These policies, which run counter to the will and aspirations of the people, contributed to aggravating the popular discontent, ultimately driving thousands to pour out to the streets to voice their views, not just on the governments policies and programmes but also on the performance of the political system.

The Iranian regimes attitude is reflected in a statement released by the Revolutionary Guard on its website Sabah news on 7 January 2018: "The people, tens of thousands of Basij, the police and the Ministry of Intelligence, have succeeded in suppressing the unrest provoked by foreign enemies."

Mohsen Rezaee, former Revolutionary Guard commander and current secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council, added that the demonstrations were the product of plans designed by the US, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (the Peoples Mujahedeen) organisation and loyalists of the former regime of the shah who are in Irbil in Iraq.

Ironically, the foregoing statement conflicts with remarks by quite a few prominent Iranian politicians and clerics who held that some of the protesters demands were legitimate. They also criticised the government for failing to deal seriously with the standard of living problem faced by a broad segment of the Iranian people. The popular economic frustrations, they said, fuelled the protests and drove demonstrators to condemn the governments policies.

Rezaees statement conflicts with other concrete realties, most notably the substantial Iranian influence in Iraq. In addition to its strong relations with the central government in Baghdad, Tehran also has good relations with some Kurdish forces in the north which contributed to obstructing the Iraqi Kurdistan bid to act on the results of the independence referendum in September.

Iranian authorities took other decisions that are likely to have negative repercussions. One is the Supreme Educational Councils decision to ban English language instruction in primary schools. The decision was a response to Supreme Guide Ali Khameneis warning that teaching children English at an early age would increase the chances of Western cultural invasion.

The foregoing developments have two important implications. Firstly, the regime is still in the thralls of conspiracy theorising as a way to explain the current protests. Its line of reasoning is that the West is conspiring to invade Iran culturally after having failed to do so militarily.

Secondly, the openness espoused by President Hassan Rouhani's government has proven itself no more than a facade, an attempt to touch up the Iranian image abroad but with no genuine intent to take measures to improve relations with Irans neighbours and to stop supporting the forces of anarchy and instability.

President Rouhani, for his part, has shown that his policies are, in effect, merely an attempt win support and enhance his prospects of winning a second term in the presidential elections. He has no real desire to take the necessary measures to come through on his pledges for reform.

In general, if the regime succeeds in continuing the protest crisis, this will not cause the demands to fade away. To do so, it will have to stop its conspiracy approach to the protests, attempt to identify the deeper causes and devise mechanisms for meeting the peoples demands. If it fails to do so, as appears likely, Iran will be heading for a more severe crisis.

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Do you have an ultimate wish that you quit your job, shed the responsibilities and move to a lonely, quiet island and do farming and rear animals for rest of your life?

Well, then, You can mull over Orkneys island of Stronsaya tiny island with a population of 370 in Scotland. And, what is more, the island is inviting tourists and residents.

The campaign to attract tourists and residents describe the island as removed from the 24/7 hustle and bustle of city and commuter life.

Stronsays 300 residents work together to maintain a tight-knit community with a rich social and cultural life underpinned by a sense of place, freedom and self-sufficiency that many city dwellers frustrated with the frenetic pace of modern life can only dream about, the campaign adds.

The campaign is a welcome break from multiple complains of over-tourism from traditional destinations in Europe like Venice, Barcelona and even the Scottish island of Skye which sought urgent help to deal with the surge of tourist arrivals.

The Stronsay islands, on the other hand, is seeking help to attract more visitors. The island known for cliffs, sea caves and sandy beaches, plans to double the arrival of tourists to the island from current 600.

Currently, the visitors arrive at the island via Kirkwall, the capital of Orkney using ferry or plane. Orkneys "finest" natural sea arch at the Vat of Kirbister is the main attraction of the island. Apart from that, miles long white unspoiled beaches, peaceful Whitehall village and pastoral countryside are among the other attraction.

Dianne Riley-Moore, who migrated from London to spend her retirement seven years ago, and a voice behind the campaign says in the report by The Guardian, We hope that by increasing tourism we will be able to create additional jobs on the island that will bring more residents, whether retirees or young families.

We have a small, brilliantly equipped and resourced school, fantastic healthcare and a safe, crime-free environment. The community is active and friendly but everyone has the freedom to be as involved or as solitary as you please. It is a truly unique place to live, she adds.

Another migrant, Shirley Whiteman says that she had no regret making the island her home as the community is welcoming and friendly.
Letter to editor: Gas pump politics and the election
January 11, 2018

Syria - Erdogan (Again) Switches Sides - Delivers New Supplies For Terrorist Attacks

Turkey, in line with U.S. services, decided to block the current Syrian advance in south-east Idleb. Yesterday an ad-hoc alliance of jihadi "rebels" launched a counteroffensive to stop the Syrian army from cutting off a big chunk of "rebel" held territory in east-Idleb.

The Syrian army attack



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The area of the "rebel" counterattack (green)



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The Turkish and U.S. supplied "rebels" (see below) made a few local advances capturing some 12 villages of the 150 villages the Syrian army had recently liberated. They were soon beaten back. Some 50 Ahrar al-Sham fighters were killed or wounded after they ran into a trap. Some 10 Syrian soldiers have been captured by the enemy. Syrian and Russian air support is very active in the area and the Syrian army is again moving forward.

There is no mention or picture (yet) of al-Qaeda in Syria, currently labeled HTS, taking part in the "rebel" counterattack. Four days ago HTS published photos of its leader Joulini meeting with his military commanders to assess the situation. It looked bad for them. The squabble with other "rebels" increased. Two days ago Jouliani issued a statement that HTS would stop fighting other factions in Idleb to enable all to confront the advancing Syrian government forces. It seems that this was a condition for the renewed Turkish/U.S. support.

The counteroffensive could only proceed because Turkey (again) delivered hundreds of tons of weapons to the jihadis. New supplies of TOW anti-tank missiles, distributed exclusively by the CIA, have also been seen. (Turkey is also again supplying jihadists in Libya. The Greek navy just caught a ship going from Turkey to Libya with 29 containers full of bomb precursors, detonators and other bomb making parts.)

Here are some relevant tweets from the last few hours:

Terrormonitor.org @Terror_Monitor 9:54 AM - 11 Jan 2018

#SYRIA #AlQaeda Affiliate #Uyghur #Jihadi Group Turkestan Islamic Party (#TIP) Releases Pictures Showing Its Fighters Against #SAA In Southern #Idlib. #TerrorMonitor

(pictures attached)

The Uygur terrorists were brought from west-China to Syria on official Turkish passports issued by the Turkish embassy in Thailand. On September 18 2015 al-Qaeda (Nursra, HTS) and the Uyghur jihadist group Turkistan Islamic Party stormed the long besieged Abu al-Duhur airbase and executed 56 Syrian soldier. It is this airbase the current Syrian attack in east-Idleb is aiming at. This time it will be the Uygurs who will lose their lives.

More on the today's events:

Ali Ozkok @Ozkok_ - 10:06 AM - 11 Jan 2018

#Turkey supplied Feylaq el-Sham militia with at least six armoured vehicles. This is a major indicator that Turkey also supports the massive counter offensive of rebels and islamists in #Idlib and #Hama against Syrian army and allies! I guess we will see soon some ATGM strikes.

Carl Zha @CarlZha - 1:36 PM - 11 Jan 2018

Syria: Jihadists launching the counter-offensive against the Syrian government forces in Southern Idlib with APCs, heavy artillery and rockets this morning. APC were provided by Turkey earlier

(video attached)

The Syrian army captured one of the the new armored personal carriers. The various pictures and videos show a variant of the Armored Panthera F9 produced by the company Minerva SPV which resides in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Ali Ozkok's remark, "I guess we will see soon some ATGM strikes," was prophetic:

Carl Zha @CarlZha - 1:58 PM - 11 Jan 2018

#Idlib: Syrian Rebel group Jaish Nasr TOW attack on Syrian Army Tank in Maraq Hill this morning. Wonder who provided them with TOW missiles?CIA is suppose to account for all TOW missiles supplied by Saudi 

(video attached)

Carl Zha @CarlZha - 2:38 PM - 11 Jan 2018

#Syria Al Zenki Movement (Jihadist who beheaded a Palestinian child in Aleppo) firing ATGM hitting T72 tank today. Turkish support have been crucial for this rebel counter-offensive against #SAA

(video attached)

There was some early announcement of new Turkish and U.S. supplies by the Gulf propagandist Charles "Jihad" Lister:

Charles Lister @Charles_Lister - 5:58 AM - 11 Jan 2018

Sources - #Turkey has provided new supplies of: - Turkish armored vehicles - SALW ammo - RPGs - Mortars - Grad rockets & launchers - Tank shells & more  To all major non-#HTS factions, for the express purpose of todays new offensive vs. #Assad/#Iran/#Russia.

Two days ago Turkey protested to the Russian and Iranian ambassadors against the Syrian army moves in Idleb. According to the deescalation agreement it is Russia and Iran that are responsible for the south-eastern third of the Idleb deescalation zone while Turkey is supposed to control the north-western part. That Turkish part was recently used to attack the Russian bases in Syria though the Russians believe that the attack itself was launched not under Turkish but under U.S. command:

Russia said it held Turkey accountable for the drone attack, calling it a breach of their cease-fire agreement in northern Syria, while Turkey accused Russia and Iran of jeopardizing the entire peace process by launching an offensive to take control of an opposition-held air base in the area. The Russian Defense Ministry named the opposition-controlled village of Muwazarra in southern Idlib province as the location from which a swarm of at least a dozen drones armed with crude explosives was launched Saturday, attacking the Hmeimim air base and the nearby naval base of Tartus in northwestern Syria. Under the cease-fire deal, Turkey is supposed to restrain opposition forces in Idlib province.

...

The [Muwazarra] village remains loyal to the moderate opposition, but military positions surrounding it belong to the Nusra offshoot Harakat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, said another man who lives in the village and did not want his name to be used. The closest HTS base, lying in a valley to the east of the village, was destroyed in a Russian airstrike earlier this week, he said  after the attacks on Hmeimim.

...

Many Syrians and also Russians have speculated that foreign intelligence agencies with reasons to provoke the Russians may have helped a local group conduct the attack. Theres a lot of fishy stuff going on in Idlib  agents running around, and groups working with groups they shouldnt work with, [Aron Lund, who analyzes Syria for the Century Foundation,] said. Its very, very murky.

The "rebels" in Idleb also set up a website with 150 pre-scripted tweets about killed children and barrel bombed hospitals which their fans can distribute at will. In the next few days we will hear news of the destruction of at least eight "last hospitals" in the Idleb governorate ...

One wonders what the wannabe-Sultan Erdogan is thinking. He had tried to provoke Russia before by shooting down a Russia jet. Turkey paid a huge price when Russia stopped all tourism and trade with it. A year later Erdogan had to go to Moscow to apologize and to beg for relief. Does he believe that Russia will react less sharply now when he allows attacks on their bases and again supplies their enemies?

What was he promised by the White House or the Pentagon for taking that risk and for again changing sides?

Posted by b on January 11, 2018 at 19:15 UTC | Permalink

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  Federal judges have ruled that North Carolina's congressional district map drawn by legislative Republicans is illegally gerrymandered because of excessive partisanship that gave the GOP a rock-solid advantage for most seats and must quickly be redone.

The ruling late Tuesday marks the second time this decade that the GOP's congressional boundaries in the state have been thrown out by a three-judge panel. In 2016, another panel tossed out two majority black congressional districts initially drawn in 2011, saying there was no justification for using race as the predominant factor in forming them. The redrawn map was the basis for a new round of lawsuits.

The latest lawsuit  filed by election advocacy groups and Democrats  said the replacement for the racial gerrymander also contained unlawful partisan gerrymanders. Those who sued argued that Republican legislators went too far when they followed criteria designed to retain the party's 10-3 majority in the state delegation.

Tuesday's ruling marks the first time a congressional plan was struck down on partisan gerrymandering claims, according to Allison Riggs, an attorney representing the League of Women Voters of North Carolina and other plaintiffs.

All three judges agreed the "invidious partisanship" in the plan violated the Constitution's equal protection provision and direction to the state to hold congressional elections because it took the power to elect their representatives away from the people.

"We find that the General Assembly drew and enacted the 2016 plan with intent to subordinate the interests of non-Republican voters and entrench Republican control of North Carolina's congressional delegation," U.S. Circuit Court Judge Jim Wynn wrote in the majority opinion. Wynn added that the evidence shows the "plan achieved the General Assembly's discriminatory partisan objective."

The judges ordered the General Assembly to approve another set of districts by Jan. 24. Candidate filing for the November congressional elections begins Feb. 12, with primaries set for early May. A majority of the judges also agreed the panel would hire a redistricting expert to draw replacement boundaries if the legislature won't.

Through a spokeswoman, Senate Redistricting Committee Chairman Ralph Hise of Mitchell County said lawmakers plan to appeal. There's a good chance Republicans will try to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the ruling's enforcement until the justices rule in a similar case from Wisconsin that they heard in the fall. That case involves legislative districts.

The districts "are fair and were drawn following all known rules, and existing case law," state Republican Party Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse said in a news release.

But Bob Phillips with Common Cause, which with other voters filed a lawsuit tried with the League of Women Voters' case, said "politicians will no longer be allowed to use partisan gerrymandering in order to shield themselves from accountability to the public" if the ruling stands.

At the time of the 2016 debate, according to the order, House redistricting chief Rep. David Lewis attempted to justify the criteria by saying "I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country."

Wynn and U.S. District Judge Earl Britt agreed that the map also violated the First Amendment rights of Democrats in each district where their favored candidate had little chance to win, burdening their freedom of speech and of association. In a separate opinion, District Judge William Osteen wrote that those who sued had failed to prove those rights had been violated.

During a trial in October in Greensboro, attorneys for Republican mapmakers argued that the plaintiffs had blown the partisanship factor out of proportion, saying aspects like incumbent protection and district compactness were considered. But Wynn, in his 191-page opinion, gave lots of credence to the number-crunching of math and political science experts who testified that the only explanation for the 2016 map was partisanship.

Wynn is on a separate three-judge panel weighing whether to accept changes to two dozen state House and Senate districts completed by a special master. Lawmakers redrew legislative maps last August after boundaries originally drawn in 2011 were struck down as racial gerrymanders, but the judges were worried unconstitutional lines remain.

Woodhouse focused his critique on Wynn, a former North Carolina state judge nominated to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Barack Obama. Wynn, according to Woodhouse is "waging a personal, partisan war on North Carolina Republican voters." Osteen was nominated by President George W. Bush while President Jimmy Carter chose Britt.
Thanks to Nigel the Nutcracker from The Warehouse, we are granting wishes across the country!
School district and local law enforcement officials are calling for public assistance in identifying a suspect who allegedly spray painted over a security camera and tagged the back of a food service delivery truck at Live Oak High School over the weekend of Jan. 6-7.

Vandalism on school campuses cost the district tens of thousands of dollars each year to clean up and repair, which takes away much needed funds from our students and programs, according to Morgan Hill Unified School Districts Jan. 10 announcement. Although, many times these incidents are dismissed as teenagers being teenagers, the financial impact on a school district is significant.

Britton Middle School and San Martin Gwinn Elementary campuses were tagged with graffiti over the winter break, while someone set a bag of trash afire in front of building at Los Paseos Elementary, according to district staff.

The districts insurance company is offering an undisclosed cash reward for any information about the recent act of vandalism at Live Oak HS. The cash reward for information on any of the acts of vandalism is $1,000, according to district staff.

Over the last few months, the district has seen an uptick in vandalism across a number of our campuses, according to the press release. As a result, our insurance company is offering a cash reward for any information regarding these incidents.

In total, there were six incidents of vandalism, including three at Live Oak HS, between Christmas and Jan. 8, according to district staff. The district has paid $3,000 in repairs.

Anyone with information regarding the Live Oak HS vandalism or any other vandalism involving school district property can call 1-800-782-7463 or email [email protected]

Morgan Hill Police posted images of the alleged perpetrator on its Facebook page and is also asking for any tips to be directed to Officer Brandon at (669) 253-4920.

Live Oak High School has been hit numerous times over the past few months with vandalism and theft and this may be the guy responsible, the MHPD post states.
In September 2016, Jerry Sides closed his consulting business, officially ending a geology career spanning 67 years  all of them in the Permian Basin.

I never wanted to work in any other play, Sides said at Tuesdays West Texas Geological Society meeting.

Sides worked for the legendary The Superior Oil Co. for 30 years and  along with former coworkers Charlie Tierce and Bill Tift  was honored in 2017 as an American Association of Petroleum Geologists GeoLegend for the organizations 100-year anniversary.

WTGS invited Sides and Tierce to discuss the Superior days at its monthly members meeting at Midland Country Club. Tift is deceased; however, his son attended in his honor.

Sides and company discovered major oil and gas reserves in the Delaware and Val Verde basins. Fields included the Chapman Deep, Grey Ranch, Worsham Bayer, Coyanosa, Crittendon, Quito, Mi Vida, Barstow and Rojo Caballos, according to a short AAPG biography. The company also drilled in the Gomez.

Superior outmaneuvered many larger competitors, building a highly successful business, the bio said.

Sides credits that success to being a small. Because we were a small company, we were able to move quickly. That was one of the keys to our success. Being able to move quickly got us into a lot of plays.

The Delaware Basin is an active area for large companies today, which over the past few years have paid tens of millions of dollars to buy acreage. These lease prices blow my mind, he said, recalling that $100 an acre used to be pretty good.

Back in Sides time, Most big companies were shut out completely (in the Delaware).

I remember (the Pan American Petroleum and Transport Co.) drilled a well on the west side of Gomez, Sides said. It was a dry hole in in the Ellenberger. We had 10 sections just west of that. Pan Am had the only dry hole in the field. It was because of that unsuccessful well that caused a lot of the majors to pull out of the Delaware Basin.

While companies today mostly target the shales in the Wolfcamp benches, that wasnt always the case.

The Wolfcamp when we drilled it was just a pain in the ass, Tierce said. As you went deeper, the pressure kept increasing. You had to raise your mud weight, which made the drilling slower.

The hydrocarbons were there, he said. We just didnt know how to get them out. We would perforate it, but it would deplete quickly. Thats where the engineers came in. The technology is so good today.

Even though hes officially retired, Sides still stays active in geology as a hobby. The Texas Tech grad who began his career in 1949 in the Permian Basin goes to the Subsurface Library weekly to analyze old scout tickets and electronic logs for fun. And while the lines-on-paper records might seem dated, Sides, 91, encourages geologists young and old to use them because they hold answers for where to drill next.

If you give me an old electric log, I can tell you which ones are going to be possibilities for horizontal wells, Sides said.

The role of geologists in the Permian has diminished in the past decade as petroleum engineering has become more prominent. Drilling in the nations most prolific basin is more about recovery than discovery these days. However, Sides said being able to consult the past will keep geologists necessary for decades to come.

There are places where geology is still going to reign, but we have to point the way.
On December 1, as headlines across the country blared with news about Matt Lauer's surprise firing from the "Today" show for sexual misconduct, a woman named Jules Woodson tapped out a short email. It ran only 78 words but was nearly 20 years in the making. "Do you remember?" the subject line read.

"Do you remember that night that you were supposed to drive me home from church and instead drove me to a deserted back road and sexually assaulted me?" Woodson wrote. "Do you remember how you acted like you loved me and cared about me in order for me to cooperate in such acts, only to run out of the vehicle later and fall to your knees begging for forgiveness and for me not to tell anyone what had just happened?"

She closed with three words and a hashtag. "Well I REMEMBER," the email said. "#me-too."

Now Playing: Time magazine has named the social movement epitomised by the #MeToo hashtag as its "Person of the Year" for 2017. Video: Euronews

The message landed in the inbox of Andy Savage, a pastor at Highpoint Church, an evangelical Memphis mega-congregation that draws more than 2,000 Sunday worshipers. The 42-year-old checked all the right boxes for a rising minister: handsome and CrossFit-cut; an attractive wife and five young son; social media savvy and unafraid of speaking on topics such as sex. Savage's career had begun as a college student working at a church outside Houston, a congregation Woodson attended as a high school student.

When Savage failed to respond to Woodson's December email, she took her allegations public on Jan. 5, posting a detailed account of the alleged sexual assault on a blog for abuse survivors. Evangelical circles started spinning with reports of a then-college student forcing a sexual encounter with a student.

Yet instead of following the course of so many recent sexual harassment scandals - reports that have toppled the careers in Hollywood, media and politics - Savage's public outing seems to have failed to upset his position. On a message on the church website, he admitted to a "sexual incident" with a high school student at the time. Highpoint's main pastor, Chris Conlee, also released a statement supporting Savage. And last Sunday, the pastor addressed his congregation about the allegations.

"In hindsight, I see more could have been done for Jules," Savage said, according to video. "I am truly sorry more was not done. Until now I did not know there was unfinished business with Jules. So today, I say, Jules I am deeply sorry for my actions twenty years ago."

As Savage finished his remarks, he was greeted with a 20-second standing ovation from Highpoint's congregation, according to a video.

"His apology isn't enough because number one, he's lying about how he handled it," an unsatisfied Woodson told Memphis's Action News 5. "He never came to me, the church told him he couldn't talk to me and they told me I couldn't talk to him," she explained.

But response to Savage's situation tracks with a larger tendency within the evangelical community, according to Christa Brown, an expert on church abuse scandals and coverups. "Religious leaders use forgiveness theology as a cover, and as an avoidance, of accountability," Brown told The Washington Post. "And it's a way of further shaming victims. 'What a bad girl you are, you aren't forgiving.'"

According to Woodson's account, in spring 1998 she was hanging out with a group of kids at their church, Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church. Savage, the youth minister, was also there. After the others left, Savage offered to take the 17-year-old high school senior home.

"It was dark outside," Woodson wrote. "As he was driving me toward my home, he passed the turn he should have made to go to my house. I asked him where he was going. I don't remember his exact response, but it was something along the lines of 'you'll see' or 'it's a surprise.' I know for sure he did not tell me where he was taking me. I remember feeling special and excited, as in my mind, he obviously wanted to spend more time with me before taking me home. I assumed we were going to get ice cream."

Savage pulled into an isolated area and parked the car. He then exposed himself to her and had her perform oral sex on him, she said. Savage also fondled her breasts, Woodson wrote. After five minutes, Savage abruptly stopped. "I remember him pleading, while he was on his knees with his hands up on his head, 'Oh my god, oh my god. What have I done? Oh my god, I'm so sorry. You can't tell anyone Jules, please. You have to take this to the grave with you," Woodson wrote. "My fear and shame quickly turned to anger. I had just been manipulated and used. I swore to him I wouldn't tell anyone just to get him to stop," she added. "We both got back in the truck. As he drove me home, I don't remember there being any conversation. I was in shock."

Even though she was consumed by "fear, shame, anger and hurt," Woodson told church leaders about the incident. They told her not to speak to Andy while they handled the situation. But the church took no action. Woodson confided what had happened to other women in the congregation. Finally, the church's leaders announced Savage was leaving.

"The church, however, never came out with an official statement addressing what had happened and/or what was being done about it," Woodson wrote. "Instead, they held a going away reception for Andy at the church in which he was allowed to simply say that he had made a poor decision and that it was time for him to move on from our church."

In his statement on the incident, Savage said he had "shared every aspect of this situation" with his wife before they were married. "I further disclosed this incident to Chris Conlee before coming on staff at Highpoint and have shared with key leaders throughout my tenure," Savage wrote. In his own statement, Conlee confirmed the "information is not new to me or to our leadership."

Despite the congregation's support of Savage, repercussions from Woodson's story have hit elsewhere.

Larry Cotton, one of the pastors in whom Woodson confided in 1998, was put on leave at his current church in Austin pending an investigation, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported. Bethany House, a Christian book publisher, announced Monday it was canceling the publication of Savage's upcoming book, "The Ridiculously Good Marriage." Woodson also told the New York Times she has reported the 1998 incident to law enforcement in Texas.

"Faith can be a very powerful thing, and power without accountability is a dangerous thing," church abuse expert Brown told The Post. "While evangelicals profess great faith, I think they are also effectively dismissive of their faith's power because, if they actually recognized the power that they afford to their faith leaders, they would demand the implementation of accountability structures. It's what responsible organizations do."

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Video: During a Jan. 7 church service, Memphis pastor Andy Savage admitted to and apologized for a "sexual incident" that occurred between him and a teenage woman in 1998. Highpoint Church leaders have faced criticism for keeping Savage on its staff.(Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)

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Groveland city council has voted Mayor George Rosario out of office after over a year ago, council members found out Rosario was a convicted felon.



Groveland city council votes to oust Mayor Rosario

Rosario has two felony convictions from 1987

Council member said Rosario had no proof civil rights were restored

Despite this, Rosario's attorney said Rosario will serve as mayor until he receives a court notice. Jim Jimenez said the decision was unlawful and council had no authority to take the action they did.

This is not over at all. This is an unconstitutional action taken by an unlawful body without the law behind them," said Jimenez.

City council members found out that Rosario had two convictions from Pennsylvania in 1987  one for possession of cocaine and another felony for trying to sell cocaine to an undercover officer.

According to Groveland charter, as a felon Rosario is not qualified to hold office unless his civil rights were restored.



At a special meeting Wednesday night, City Council Member Mike Radzik said theres been no proof of restored rights or of a pardon.

Its done from the perspective that we voted to forfeit his office and declare a vacancy. Weve been threatened with a lawsuit. The bottom line is Mr. Rosario doesnt have legal standing and the lawsuit will be over," said Radzik.

During the meeting, Rosario said he was not there to participate but rather to defend himself.



This is a target on a minority and thats the bottom line, he said to the audience.



That statement was met by many boos, but supporters spoke out during the public phase of the meeting.



People want to say there aint no race card being played here. You better open up your eyes because youre blind, said one speaker.



The meeting was heated at times.



This needs to go back to the court, said one public speaker.



Dont hurt our city get out of the seat, said another.



The council plans to swear in the vice mayor as mayor at their next meeting.
President Donald Trump's meeting with bipartisan lawmakers on immigration Wednesday leaves Republican and Democratic leaders scrambling to agree on a plan.

President Donald Trump still wants border wall

Democrats want to stop the deportation of Dreamers

READ CEOs' letter that supports Dreamers

RELATED: White House hosting bipartisan meeting on DACA

Negotiations continue on Thursday on how to handle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program.



President Trump made his position on DACA clear: No wall, NO DACA.

The DACA program is about to run out for so-called "dreamers" or young immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as minors.

A group of conservative lawmakers came up with a plan, which would authorize a border wall construction and gives DACA immigrants a three-year extension, but with no path to a green card or citizenship.

Vice President Mike Pence appears to be on the same page with them.

Were going to BUILD THE WALL. We're going to END CHAIN MIGRATION. Were going to END THE VISA LOTTERY PROGRAM, and were going to address DACA. But this administration is going to do it in a way that will meet the expectations of the American people. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/GY2YXbY7BJ  Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) January 11, 2018

However, Democrats want urgent action to stave off deportation of some 800,000 immigrants currently protected by an Obama-era DACA program.

Then there is a bipartisan plan in the works that lawmakers hope to unveil this weekend.

However, some Democrats are not happy with the president's terms.

Iowa U.S. Representative Steve King tweeted:

A DACA Amnesty in exchange for a wall and enforcement would be the LAST deal of a Trump administration. Unless a second amnesty is served up to trade for more enforcement. No civilized nation should be held hostage to amnesty as a requirement to secure its border.  Steve King (@SteveKingIA) January 11, 2018

Meanwhile more than 100 CEOs, including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook of Apple, Microsoft president Brad Smith and Amazons Jeff Bezo, sent a letter to lawmakers this week urging them to support Dreamers.

You can read that letter here.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Walt Disney World has special deals for members of the U.S. military.

2 ticket types are being promoted

Valid military ID required for special rates

For 2018, two ticket types are being offered as part of the promotion: A 4-day military ticket for $226 plus tax and a 5-day military ticket for $246 plus tax.

The tickets can be purchased now through Dec. 15, 2018 and must be used by Dec. 19, 2018, according to Disney.

As an added bonus, the Park Hopper option is included and allows entrance to all four parks on the same day.

Memory Maker can be purchased for $98. It includes digital downloads of all Disney PhotoPass photos and video and discounts on prints of the photos.

Eligible service members, or their spouse, may purchase up to six military-rate tickets at participating U.S. military sales outlets.

Members of the military can also enjoy special rates at the Disney World resorts. The discounts are valid for most nights now through March 24 and April 6 through Dec. 19.

For more information about the hotel offer, click here.

Disneys military discounts are available to active duty and retired U.S. military personnel, including

members of the U.S. military, the National Guard, Reservists, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service and the Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A valid military ID is required to receive the special rates.

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Commuters eager to hop on a BART train to or from San Jose will probably have to wait until fall, at least three months later than projected, BART officials said Thursday.

Its not their fault, they said.

BART will need six months of testing before beginning the new service, but the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which is responsible for building the 10-mile extension from Warm Springs/South Fremont Station to Berryessa Station in east San Jose, hasnt yet handed over the new tracks.

Under an agreement between the two transit systems, VTA has to allow BART six months of testing and to obtain California Public Utilities Commission certification. BART officials say they dont expect to be able to start until March because VTA still needs to complete its own tests.

If testing goes its full six months, its obvious that service would not start in June, Bob Mitroff, BARTs chief development and planning officer, told the Board of Directors on Thursday.

A specific projection would have to come from VTA, he said, but BART has the final say on when service starts.

Brandi Childress, a VTA spokeswoman, said the agency is optimistic it can get the necessary testing and certification completed in time for a June opening. VTA is working with BART engineers to test simulated service on the extension, using empty trains, 20 hours a day, she said.

By working with BART, Childress said, VTA hopes to identify and resolve problems on the extension early.

So, when it is handed over to BART, we expect the testing to go much smoother, Childress said. We have been optimistic of staying on this path of delivering service by June.

When construction started in 2012, the two transit agencies agreed it would open in June 2018. But soon after, as work surged ahead of schedule, VTA officials began predicting an early opening  by the end of 2017. In August, after consulting with BART, they backed off the prediction and said service would start as originally scheduled.

VTA is putting the finishing touches on the extensions stations in Milpitas, near the Great Mall, and in Berryessa, near the San Jose Flea Market in east San Jose. Its also testing the computerized train control system, trying to discover and repair any glitches.

Then it will turn the extension over to BART, which will work on integrating the new line into its system, a complex process expected to take six months, Mitroff said. The opening of the Warm Springs extension, last March, was delayed by at least six months because of difficulties tying the extension into the existing BART system.

Childress said the tests on the Berryessa extension involve running trains through Warm Springs/South Fremont and onto the new tracks. The tests ran into difficulties converting that station from an end-of-the line facility into an intermediate stop.

Now VTA is trying to make up for lost time and get back on track, she said.

Our team is trying so hard to compensate and do what we can to shave some time off the schedule, Childress said.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
Amid budget cuts and layoffs, the Oakland school board has voted to give itself a raise, with trustees calling it a token increase to acknowledge their work.

The board voted 5-2 on Monday to raise their pay by $39 a month apiece, to $826.

There is a difficulty of asking for schools to cut and then asking for the boards pay increase, said board member Roseann Torres. However, it is very small and it is symbolic. Definitely Im in support of it.

It will be the first raise for board members since 2010.

The raise comes amid a fiscal crisis in the Oakland Unified School District that has resulted in staffing and spending reductions, including $5 million in cuts at school sites and $4 million at the central office.

District officials plan to eliminate dozens of administrative positions, while schools have been forced to eliminate spending on supplies and lay off substitute teachers who were permanently assigned to certain schools.

Parents and teachers staged protests in December over the cuts and have criticized the board for what they called its inadequate oversight of the budget.

I do not believe this board has been doing their job to the best of their abilities and putting in the actual hard work of making sure you understood the budget, said Kim Davis, a parent activist with Parents United for Public Schools. To give yourselves a raise after this performance is shocking.

Board members Jody London and Nina Senn voted against the raise.

After the bruising past several months that we have just experienced and just the grief and the anger that is in our schools and in our community, it would very much send the wrong signal right now to approve any increase for ourselves, London said.

London and Senn said they were considering rejecting the raise or, if that adds to administrative costs, donating the increase to their local schools.

I am considering turning it down because it sends the wrong message at this time, Senn said.

The raise puts Oakland board members well above their San Francisco counterparts, who make $500 per month and serve 58,000 students, about 20,000 more than Oakland.

In addition, Oakland school board members are eligible for full health benefits for themselves and their families, which costs the district an estimated $22,000 annually.

The five board members said the job often requires more than 20 hours of work each week.

This is a lot of sacrifice and work, said board member Jumoke Hinton-Hodge.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
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Sweethearts who love James Avery Artisan Jewelry and San Antonio might be charmed this Valentine's Day.

The craft jeweler, popular for their sterling silver charm bracelets, released a San Antonio-themed bauble in their latest collection.

For $40, the Kerrville-based business is inviting customers to "express pride in the place you call home or remember a wonderful vacation" with the Texas-shaped charm inscribed with "San Antonio."

RELATED: It's official! James Avery and Whataburger just released their 'one-of-a-kind' charm

The charm has a flat back, providing space for an engraving, according to the jeweler's website.

Other pieces in the collection range from love lock charms to necklaces.

Based off the Facebook interactions, the San Antonio charm is the big hit of the collection. Shoppers have been tagging their loved ones in the comments to give a hint at what they're expecting to unwrap on Valentine's Day.

Some promised to shower their friends in "all the sweet tea (they) can handle" if they surprised them with the charm.

Madalyn Mendoza is a digital reporter for MySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| mmendoza@mysa.com | Twitter: @MaddySkye
How far would you go for a good nights sleep?

South of the border seems reasonable, when calm-inducing amenities are part of an all-inclusive package at a luxury Pacific oceanfront resort facing the Sierra Madre Mountains. Here, all-inclusive means snooze, booze, gourmet dining, 24-hour room service (fresh-made guac and chips at 2 a.m.? Yes.), spacious contemporary-style suite, outdoor and indoor fitness classes, and nightly shows in the beautifully landscaped pool-studded oceanside front yard.

Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit is ready to lay on the pampering after the 20-minute drive from Puerto Vallartas airport. Upon stepping into the lobby, domed by the tallest thatched-roof palapa in Mexico, guests are greeted with fresh fruit-infused drinks and shoulder massages. As a concierge team shows you all of the room features, its clear that excellent service is a hallmark of the independent Mexico-based Velas brand.

All-inclusive is a new wave for luxury-class resorts. Layering on healthy amenities adds even more allure by dispelling stress over costs and guilt about over-indulging in the ever-present food and drink. Sure, binging is likely, but the food outlets feature a bounty of healthy alternatives and energetic fitness classes. I actually skipped morning coffee in favor of the fresh-squeezed detox and antioxidant veggie juices. You can have them delivered to your room or swiff them at the breakfast buffet.

More Information If you go http://vallarta.grandvelas.com See More Collapse

The oceanfront haven has invested in a bounty of sensory pleasures, creating a luxury resort playbook to win repeat visits and referrals. Some of the distinctions:

Awesome views day and night: Start with the trio of linked infinity pools flowing to the oceans edge. As the daylight changes, the postcard-perfect views refresh hour by hour. While happy hedonists indulge in the cocktails, beer, meals and snacks that are in constant supply, fit folks take aqua aerobic and scuba intro classes, play volleyball and swim laps. The resorts curvilinear design was chosen for physical and psychic flow. The handsome building hugs the grounds facing the ocean, which along with ever-present staff provides a sense of security. The only place that I felt forced to enter  by some jolly guests  was Koi Lounge, where I quickly volunteered for dancing and karaoke.

Calming waters: Adding to the gentle waves of Banderas Bay, the resorts flow motif includes bowls of water topped with mandalas composed of flowers and leaves, which appear in yoga and cooking venues, dining rooms and its Se Spa. Treatments such as the aromatherapy massage feature strokes that make you feel like youre body-surfing a rushing river. I opted for a guided seven-station hydrotherapy journey ($50 or included with a spa treatment) through saunas, herbal steam rooms, showers and hot and cold plunge pools. Afterwards, I sipped a lemon kiwi elixir while skimming fashion magazines.

For an exotic, tranquil touch, musician Roberto Gopar plays water-filled copper bowls at some yoga classes and ceremonial dinners; the frequencies make the water pogo atop the surfaces.

All-included resort meals at Azul (a la carte as well as buffet choices), Selva del Mar (a grill/cafe serving beachfront and poolside) and three fine dining rooms specializing in French, Italian and regional Mexican cuisine. At Frida, named for the iconic artist, dont let the optional insect mix-ins keep you from savoring the guacamole made fresh at the table-side trolley. Healthful options there included fruit ceviche, corn sopas with black beans, zucchini and cilantro, marinated Mayan-style wild mushrooms, and an oval of creamy colima lemon cake.

Temptations run from healthy to decadent, and that includes 24-hour room service. Its all you can drink, too, from the pool to Koi Lounge to room service. Be warned: at poolside, youll be approached by congenial servers bearing fruity drinks and house-made truffles. And no, the nut-covered one is not unhealthy.

Wellness suites. Heres the Velas spin on healthy lifestyle suites: 12 duplexes with a first-floor living space tricked out with a yoga mat, hand weights, resistance bands and a high-end exercise bike. To induce calm and sleep, theres an aromatherapy kit with a selection of scents (I chose lavender, but theres also tangerine and myrrh), a soft Nikken Kenko pillow, a mattress with magnetic technology and a LED lamp that simulates dawn and dusk light quality. In the bathroom, a showerhead dispersing Vitamin C essential oils good for the skin and immunity boosting Manos que Curan soap fortified by local botanicals. The second floor is a private patio with a therapy bed, a jacuzzi and room for personal training sessions. From the exercise bike you can watch TV or the waves.

The mini-fridge stocked daily with all-included snacks and sips differs for the wellness suites. Instead of beer, soda and junk food (and a bottle of regional-made tequila), the fridge holds fresh berries and aloe vera and coconut drinks. Because I jokingly observed no cookies? I received a bunch of Oreo snack-packs. In a place dedicated to people-pleasing, be careful what you wish for.

All this might keep you holed up in your suite if not for the allure of the infinity pools, beach, manicured paths and nightly shows ranging from salsa bands to acrobatics to fire jugglers. In the distance, the dreamy Sierra Madre Mountains cascade down to bookend calm Banderas Bay.

Fun activities include cooking classes, aromatherapy sessions and mandala-crafting workshops. I attended a super-juice demo and tasting led by Chef Yogui of Argentina. The mangosteen, jackfruit and Sacha inchi (mountain peanut) juices were so delicious Id take them over margaritas. Miami chef/cookbook author Robyn Webb led a humor-filled vegan cooking class. Strolling the grounds, I stopped to smell the blooms, watch several strutting peacocks and meet William the hawk, held by his handler Paola.

The 267-suite AAA Five Diamond luxury all-inclusive has earned awards from Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and TripAdvisor. Couples were abundant during my stay, but family-friendly attractions include the all-day supervised Kids Club and Teen Lounge. Everyone, even toddlers, seemed relaxed  mission accomplished, in my book.

At the end of each day, a diffusion of lavender carried away my sleep-busting anxieties, and my wellness pillow made a fine foundation for sweet dreams.

Robin Soslow, a writer-photographer based in the South, can be reached at rsoslow@gmail.com.
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The honeymoon for Republicans in the state Senate could be fleeting  thanks to career ambitions and love.

GOP Sen. Art Linares, newly wedded to House Democrat Caroline Simmons, is forgoing re-election to run for state treasurer this fall. He said he expects to move to Stamford, where Simmons is in her second term.

The couple was forced to postpone its honeymoon because of a 123-day state budget impasse, which ended in late October.

This latest development could disrupt the delicate equilibrium in the Senate, which is deadlocked for the first time in more than a century.

Each party controls 18 seats, which gives Republicans unprecedented committee leadership posts under a year-old power-sharing agreement. The lieutenant governor, Democrat Nancy Wyman, holds the tie-breaking vote by virtue of serving as Senate president.

Republicans expressed confidence that they will be able to hold onto Linares 33rd District, which includes 12 towns near the mouth of the Connecticut River. Senate GOP Leader Len Fasano, of North Haven, gave Linares his blessing.

He married up, Fasano said facetiously, adding, so I think hes got everything going for him and I think hes going to be great.

The son of a Cuban exile who interned for Marco Rubio, Linares is serving his third term. Although it is a part-time legislature, the 29-year-old has treated his Senate post as full-time job after selling his shares in Greenskies Renewable Energy, a Middletown-based solar panel contractor.

I think some of the biggest issues that we face in Connecticut are debt and pension costs, said Linares, who is from Westbrook. We need leadership from the treasurers office to reform and solve those problems.

Democrat Denise Nappier, who was first elected treasurer in 1998, is not seeking re-election. Fasano said there is an opening for Linares and he would never stand in the way of someone pursuing their dream, especially someone as qualified as his colleague.

I dont look at it as I need to force him to stay, Fasano said.

twitter.com/gettinviggy; nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436
On Thursday afternoon, Charity Burkland and her family will be seated at a long table in Gringo's Mexican Kitchen in Pearland to experience in person the love and support of a diverse group of people who rallied to help them after her husband died of a heart attack on Christmas Eve.

Burkland says the donation of more than $36,000 through a GoFundMe page, plus more coming from a popular restaurant's agreement to donate all proceeds from the day's food sales to her, will make a difference in many ways.

"This outpouring of love is offering a sense of comfort I did not expect at all," said Burkland, whose husband Stephen, a Pasadena native who was a retired Marine sergeant, died at age 37. He was the only wage-earner while she home-schooled the couple's three young sons.

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After learning of the GoFundMe effort, Russell Ybarra, a Pasadena native who graduated from La Porte High School and owns Gringo's and other Tex-Mex restaurants throughout Houston, agreed to donate all Jan. 11 sales at the Pearland Gringo's, 2202 E Broadway, to the widow.

Money raised through the online fundraiser will help Charity Burkland cover funeral costs and living expenses.

"It exploded," Charity Burkland said of the aid from the community. "It's such a blessing. It was beyond what we expected. I never dreamed it would be where it is right now."

The GoFundMe page was created by a fellow Marine Corps veteran, Christian Turbeville, with whom Stephen Burkland served during his five years in the military.

The two were deployed together in 2001. Burkland served in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

"He leaves behind a loving wife, 3 amazing children, and a wealth of friends who are better for knowing him," Turbeville said on the fundraising site. "I have no idea how to do this, and I'm just asking for anyone who is able to help in any way they can."

Turbeville launched the site from his home in London, England after Charity Burkland phoned with news of her husband's death.

Late Dec. 24 when the Burklands were hosting a party with relatives at their Humble home, Stephen complained of chest pains. He was transported to a nearby hospital, received CPR on the way and died in a nearby hospital.

"We were holding his hand," Charity Burkland said of her husband during the trip to the hospital. "He started getting quiet, his hands were getting kind of clammy and I made sure to make eye contact. I told him I loved him, he said, 'I love you, too.' "

He then lost consciousness and that was their last conversation.

"We had our last few moments and we were able to say our last goodbye and I'm thankful for that, but it wasn't enough time for our family and our circle of friends," Burkland said.

"In the hospital I just kept touching everyone because it felt like it wasn't real," she said. "They kept saying they did everything they could. I needed someone to tell me it was a horrible nightmare. There were no signs, no nothing."

The Burklands, who both graduated from Sam Rayburn High School in Pasadena, had been in the process of selling their home with the intention to move to the Pearland/Friendswood area to be closer to Stephen's job and to relatives on both sides of the families who live in Pasadena, South Houston, La Porte and League City.

Friends and family were important to him, Charity Burkland said, and they were looking forward to living close to them.

"I can't describe him," she said. "He was such a larger-than-life personality.

"If you were around him, you were going to have a good time. Maybe you would hear some inappropriate jokes, but you were going to have a good time."

Now that he's gone, she's finding out how his charming attitude touched other lives.

"This helps a little bit of our pain," she said. "That we can talk about how amazing Stephen was, the man that we knew. Remembering him, the stories, the conversations - sometimes it's a little difficult for me to cry because it makes me so happy to remember his face, things he would say."

Stephen Burkland was firm in his conviction that his sons - two 9-year-olds and one 3-year-old - be home-schooled, she said, even though that meant that his wife would need to find a way to earn money on a part-time basis from home.

With the sudden loss of her husband, Charity became overwhelmed with by pressing decisions in the midst of her grief. The monetary help has saved her from having to take immediate action on their house.

"I decided not to sell right now until I have it figured out what income is coming in," Charity said. "Of course I'd love to move back to where our biggest support is, but I don't want to get overwhelmed. With the blessings coming in, the boys and I are OK for right now. As far as anything else, I don't know."

Ybarra learned of the death through an employee at one of his restaurants, Stephen's nephew, Josh Burkland.

"Charity, I am so sorry for your loss," Ybarra posted on Facebook. "This coming January 11, 2018 The Original Gringo's in Pearland will be celebrating its 25th year in business. As a small token of appreciation for your husband's service to our country, Gringo's will donating 100% of our sales for that day from that location. It will give our anniversary celebration just that much more meaning & purpose beyond profit."
MIDDLETOWN  Local officials are reacting cautiously to Gov. Dannel P. Malloys decision to freeze more than $4.3 billion in state-funded transportation projects.

Malloy instituted the freeze on dozens of projects both large and small Wednesday and chastised the General Assembly for failing to find an adequate source of financing for the transportation fund.

The issue will become critical with the beginning of the new fiscal year July 1, Malloy said. In the meantime, the governor said he will present the General Assembly with a recommendation for more stable financing later this month.

In general, local officials are taking a wait-and-see attitude and conferring with their legislators about the possibility of the freeze impacting their towns.

Larry McHugh, president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, said he has three major concerns: the revamping of a portion of Route 9 in Middletown and repairs to the swing bridge in East Haddam and the secondary impact of the freeze  layoffs of construction workers.

All of us have to realize that transportation is key to economic development in the state, McHugh said Thursday afternoon. Construction work is very, very important to the economy  not just in Middlesex County, but in the entire state.

When they are working, construction workers spend their money here in Connecticut, he said.

They live here and they spend their money here, and thats so, so important to the state as a whole, he said. And when theyre not working, theyre laid off. And thats why its so important to keep them working. The construction trades are vital to Connecticut.

Middletown Mayor Dan Drew seconded McHughs comment about the construction trades and their impact on the local economy. These are local middle-class workers and when they spend the money locally, the economy grows, he said.

Beyond that, infrastructure improvements add value to a community as well, Drew said.

Town Manager Michael Maniscalco and Portland First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said their primary focus right now is crafting their 2018-19 municipal budgets and dealing with reductions in state aid in their current budgets. Both said they will continue to work with their legislative delegations.

Bransfield said she heard from state Rep. Christie Carpino, R-Cromwell, who, in the company of state Sen. Paul Doyle, D-Wethersfield, met Wednesday with James P. Redeker, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation.

Maniscalco said he had heard from state Rep. Melissa Ziobron, R-East Haddam, as well.

We will continue to work with our state delegation to find the best results and solutions for East Hampton, he said.

For her part, Bransfield encouraged residents in her town to contact their legislators and express their opinions and concerns.

We recognize the importance of good, safe transportation structure in Connecticut, Bransfield said.

No major projects in Portland were on the list of projects frozen by Malloy

For the most part, the freeze does not directly impact any major projects in Cromwell or East Hampton either, officials in those towns said.

Two projects in East Hampton that the town undertook in cooperation with the state  repairing and replacing bridges on Brewer Road and at Christopher Brook  have been all but completed with the exception of some punch-list items, Maniscalco said.

The state has completed the realignment of the Route 66/196 intersection. But the proposed replacement of the Pocotopaug Creek culvert isnt close to starting, he said.

Over the past few years, Maniscalco has pressed for the town to move away from reliance on state aid.

What we have found working with the state is that they have a tendency to increase the cost of a project exponentially, he said. Weve found that its just not cost effective to take state funds to do some these things.

The state has announced it will embark on repairs to the approaches to the Arrigoni Bridge in Portland next year, Bransfield said.

But, in an email Thursday afternoon, Carpino said, The Arrigoni Bridge project is not on the list released yesterday.

Cromwell Town Manager Anthony J. Salvatore said in an email Thursday morning he had reviewed the list of frozen projects and I dont see any of the projects we are involved with listed.

He did identify three projects in various stages that might be of concern should the freeze continue  or expand. They are: The Willowbrook Road project, which calls for widening a portion of the road where it intersects with Route 372/Berlin Road. The project, funded 80 percent by the federal government, with the state and town splitting the remaining 20 percent, is currently in winter shutdown, Salvatore said.

The North Road Extension Culvert Replacement Project funded 80 percent federally and 20 percent by the town is in design, he said, adding the state administers grant payments that pay for the work.

The third project involves the widening of, and repairs to, a portion of Coles Road, which is funded by a state grant, Salvatore said.

Reporter Jeff Mill covers East Hampton, Portland and Cromwell. Contact him at jeff.mill@hearstmediact.com.
A San Francisco police sergeant on his way to work Thursday morning was seriously injured in a motorcycle wreck on Interstate 880 in Oakland, officials said.

The sergeant, who was not identified, slammed his motorcycle into the back of a flatbed pickup truck in a northbound lane near the Seventh Street on-ramp in West Oakland, said Officer Matt Hamer, a CHP spokesman.
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Dave Toschi, a dapper cop who became the lead San Francisco police investigator for the Zodiac serial-killer case in the late 1960s and 70s, has died at the age of 86.

Toschi died at his home in San Francisco on Saturday after a lengthy illness, relatives said.

The Zodiac terrorized the Bay Area in 1968 and 1969 when he stabbed or shot at least five people to death, writing taunting notes and cryptograms to police and newspapers including The Chronicle after his kills. Toschi was drawn into the case when he was assigned to investigate the killing of the Zodiacs only San Francisco victim  Paul Stine, a cabbie shot to death in his taxi on Oct. 11, 1969.

It was the Zodiacs final confirmed slaying. Like every other inspector looking into the saga, from federal agents to police in Vallejo and Napa County, Toschi was unable to solve the case. But he never lost zeal for the mystery, friends said.

He was a super guy and a great cop, said Duffy Jennings, who covered the Zodiac case as a Chronicle reporter in the 1970s and maintained a lifelong friendship with Toschi afterward. And he told me that he still went every year on Oct. 11 to the Paul Stine murder scene to look around and try to figure out why they couldnt catch the guy.

The Zodiac case gnawed at him, Jennings said. He said it gave him an ulcer.

Toschi was born in San Francisco and, after graduating from Galileo High School, he pulled combat duty in the Korean War with the Army. Upon his return to San Francisco in 1953, he was hired at the Police Department and stayed there until retiring in 1985.

In addition to his work on the Zodiac killings, Toschi was part of the team that solved the racially motivated Zebra murders in the early 1970s, in which four black men were convicted of the random slayings of 14 white people. In 1985 he received a meritorious conduct award from the department for arresting a man who raped senior citizens and burglarized their homes.

His penchant for bow ties, snappy trench coats and the quick-draw holster for his .38-caliber pistol drew the attention of Steve McQueen, who patterned his character in the 1968 movie Bullitt after Toschi. Clint Eastwoods Dirty Harry character was also partially inspired by him.

But it was the Zodiac case for which Toschi was best known. He worked the clues until 1978, when he was taken off the case after admitting he sent fan notes with fictitious names to then-Chronicle writer Armistead Maupin praising himself. Toschi told the San Francisco Examiner that the notes were an ill-advised indulgence.

In the brouhaha that resulted, there were suspicions that he might have also written a letter to The Chronicle that purported to be from the Zodiac. However, nothing was proved, Toschi denied it and he remained with the department as a homicide inspector until his retirement. He was portrayed by Mark Ruffalo in the 2007 movie Zodiac.

I always looked up to him because he was this Italian guy who got this crazy case, said Gianrico Pierucci, who retired in November after being the latest in a long line of homicide inspectors to head up the still-alive Zodiac investigation. He was a good cop. He said he was always happy to get up and do his job.

Of the Zodiac case, Pierucci said: Dave did the best he could. He was always very pleasant and charming, and dapper, and Zodiac is a tough case.

After leaving law enforcement, Toschi worked in the security business, including several years as vice president of Northstar Security Services.

He loved books, music and could sing with the best of them, said his daughter, Linda Toschi-Chambers of San Francisco. His greatest pleasure was his loving family, and we will miss his keen sense of humor, his gentle guidance and his unconditional love.

Toschi is survived by his wife, Carol Toschi of San Francisco; two daughters, Toschi-Chambers and Karen Leight of San Mateo County; and two granddaughters, Sarah Leight of Pacifica and Emma Leight of Los Angeles.

Private services were held Wednesday. Donations may be made in his name to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in San Francisco, or to a charity of choice.

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron
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San Antonio Ppolice firefighters responding to a bomb threat at a West Side mobile home park determined the device was a fake.

The threat was reported around 1:15 p.m. at the Stonebridge mobile home park in the 11500 block of Culebra Road.

RELATED: Suspect allegedly trafficked minor in Bexar County, sexually assaulted her in front of witness

Woody Woodward, a spokesman for the San Antonio Fire Department, said the bomb device was fake and that there is no threat at this time.

Managers at the mobile home park declined to comment on the situation.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns
The driver of a black Chevrolet Silverado is dead after losing control of his vehicle during a police chase that exceeded 100 mph Wednesday afternoon in Comal County.

Comal County Sheriffs Office deputies were responding to a call for a reckless driver just after 1 p.m. on Interstate 35 near the Hays County line, according to a news release.
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Six Republican candidates contending for the state House seat being vacated by Speaker Joe Straus staked out their policy differences Wednesday as they took on issues that included property tax reform, school finance and transportation.

The candidates seeking to win the nomination in the GOP primary on March 6 are Steve Allison, an attorney and former Alamo Heights School Board president; Matt Beebe, owner of an IT and computer security business and a two-time opponent of Straus; Carlton Soules, a former District 10 City Councilman; Adrian Spears, an attorney who has represented various local cities; Charlotte Williamson, a St. Marys Law School graduate who recently worked for her familys oil and gas LLC; and Marc Whyte, a business lawyer who runs his own firm.

Most of the candidates meeting with the San Antonio Express-News editorial board lauded Straus record as speaker, pointing to his ability to work across party lines, which Whyte counted as one of Straus biggest strengths. The speakers tendency toward bipartisanship, Whyte said, led people to misconstrue his conservative record.

We've got too much polarization, and Joe did a great job of trying to bridge that huge gap and bring people together, Allison said.

Not everyone saw it that way. Beebe, Straus primary opponent in 2012 and 2014, said the speaker drove a wedge between the two sides of Austins Republican delegation. Beebe later indicated he favored the bathroom bill, a proposal to limit transgender public restroom access that Straus played a key role in defeating last year.

I was not appreciative of his time and service, Beebe said of Straus. I don't think he was conservative enough.

Spears said he supported the bathroom bill, too. The other four candidates said they would have voted against the legislation.

I'm not going to Austin to focus on those issues, said Whyte, who billed himself as part of a new generation of conservative leadership.

Meanwhile, the candidates agreed that property taxes in the district, which includes Alamo Heights, Olmos Park, Terrell Hills and most of San Antonios North Side, are too high, though they saw different solutions for fixing the problem. Williamson proposed capping property tax appraisal increases at 2 percent, down from the 10 percent annual limit.

Whyte called for more accountability among the chief appraiser, even proposing that the role become an elected position. Beebe shot down the notion, calling it a terrible idea, but he agreed the appraisal process should become more transparent.

Spears, whose grandfather served as chief federal judge of Texas Western District, said annexation issues spurred his interest in politics. He said his knowledge of the Local Government code, from representing cities as an attorney, would give him a leg up in Austin. Spears also called for greater transparency when local governments issue debt.

Soules cited his familiarity of District 121, which his City Council district overlapped. On the council, he opposed a controversial VIA Metropolitan Transit streetcar project and established himself as one of the councils most conservative members, voting against CPS Energy and San Antonio Water System rate increases.

On Wednesday, Soules painted himself as a policy wonk of sorts.

I can get into the weeds, he said. I like to try to find solutions to complex problems. Most of the issues that we deal with, school finance, transportation, property tax, everybody talks in slogan. But the reality is, these are complex issues that people have been fighting for 20 years.

On education, most of the candidates voiced opposition to the Robin Hood school finance system, which mandates equal financing for state school districts. Allison supported the idea of keeping funding in local schools and said vouchers undermine the public education system.

The candidates also rejected the idea of a rail public transit system, citing its high cost. Allison, most recently vice chair of the VIA board, said a multi-modal transit system is an acute need in San Antonio, but called for alternatives to rail.

Celina D. Montoya, vice president of community engagement at the San Antonio-based Alamo Fireworks, is the only Democrat running for the seat in the primary.

Jasper Scherer is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jscherer@express-news.net | @jaspscherer
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The actions taken by the San Antonio Police Department in a human smuggling case have set off a controversy that continues to linger.

The department has received national media attention since Police Chief William McManus released 12 suspected undocumented immigrants found in the back of a tractor trailer and decided not to turn over the case to Homeland Security.

Typically, human smuggling cases are handled by federal authorities rather than local agencies. Court records show the last time the Bexar County District Attorney's Office have handled a similar case was in 2011.

RELATED: San Antonio police arrest accused immigrant smuggler, release immigrants

Now Playing: The ongoing battle over the state's anti-sanctuary cities law is back in court. Video: Fox7

District Attorney Nico La Hood, whose office will prosecute the case, told mySA.com in an interview he wasn't consulted before McManus made the decision.

"He called me to give me an FYI after the decision was made," La Hood said. "We make ourselves available for consultation but we don't seek it out."

Though he wouldn't reveal specifics about his thoughts on how the case was handled, La Hood said he has already shared his opinions during a recent conversation with McManus.

"He assured us this was a one-time situational incident," he said. "He said it would not be the new norm."

READ MORE: Officer's Association president calls for SAPD chief to be placed on leave over human smuggling case

McManus has said the same thing, in a news conference he held shortly after the news broke about the human smuggling case.

"This call was situational, based on a fairly fluid situation on the scene," McManus said. "So this is not necessarily the way every case is going to be handled going forward."

Though La Hood and his prosecutors haven't handled a human smuggling case before, the district attorney said he's confident in his office's ability to do so.

"We'll handle it like we do any other case," he said. " We don't feel like we can't handle it."

McManus justified his actions to release the 12 immigrants after they were questioned, saying the department had no jurisdiction to detain them.

RELATED: Suspect allegedly trafficked minor in Bexar County, sexually assaulted her in front of witness

McManus has also pointed out that a Homeland Security agent had access to the immigrants and that the agent was not restricted or prevented from taking them into custody.

The explanation was not sufficient for San Antonio Police Officers Association President Michael Helle, who has called on an investigation into McManus' actions, claiming he potentially violated state or federal laws "in addition to the obvious violations of the general manual."

It's unclear if such an investigation will take place, but some council members have already begun to share their opinion on the matter.

Click through the slideshow to see what city officials have said about the incident.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
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A former Mexican state officials wife, who last year became the first person in a string of Texas money laundering prosecutions to go to trial, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison on a fraud charge.

The sentence by a Corpus Christi judge is a mixed bag for the at least nine former Mexican officials and businessmen who face criminal charges as the result of federal investigations in Corpus Christi and San Antonio on allegations they laundered tens of millions of dollars of bribes and stolen money in Texas.

READ ALSO: "Do not travel" warning issued for large stretch of Texas border

A jury in October acquitted Silvia Beatriz Perez Ceballos, whose husband was the finance minister for the state of Tabasco from 2007 to 2012, on a money laundering charge, but found her guilty of bank fraud.

Perez initially faced up to 6.5 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, but U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos rejected prosecutors arguments that she take into account the money laundering and bribery allegations presented at trial, defense attorney Andino Reynal said.

The judges decision brought absolute relief by the family, by Silvia, whos spent eight months in jail already, and also a sense of vindication in the fact that the judge announced from the bench that she agreed with the jurys verdict, that the money laundering and the foreign corruption hadnt been proven, and she wasnt going to give it any weight in the sentencing for this bank fraud, Reynal said.

The Houston-based U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas wouldnt comment Thursday.

At trial, prosecutors showed that Perez and her husband, Jose Manuel Saiz Pineda, used a complicated network of trusts and companies to purchase real estate and luxury cars across the U.S., including in the Houston area.

One state contractor testified that he had given Saiz gifts, including more than $500,000 in 2008, but denied they were bribes. In order to convict Perez of money laundering, prosecutors needed to prove that bribery happened in Mexico, that she was involved in financial transactions designed to hide the moneys criminal origins and that she knew the money was dirty. Jurors found that prosecutors hadnt met their burden of proof on the money laundering charge, but did find her guilty of fraud for altering bank records.

Saiz is in jail in Mexico, where he faces corruption charges. Reynal said the prosecutions there are a form of political score settling by the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, which took control of the state in 2013. Saiz was appointed by former Gov. Andres Granier Melo, a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party whos been accused of corruption as well.

I think that the new government in Tabasco over promised to the U.S. government, Reynal said. They promised a quality of proof that ultimately they were not able to deliver.

A half-dozen businessmen and former officials from other Mexican states have pleaded guilty and avoided trial or turned over millions of dollars in property to avoid prosecution. As a result of those cases, the U.S. government has seized bank accounts in Texas and Bermuda and real estate in San Antonio, Austin, Kyle, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley. Perez was the first to make prosecutors present evidence before a jury.

This was in a lot of ways a test case for the government, Reynal said. This is the first person to have gone to trial on one of these foreign corruption type theories. I think it was a serious reversal and shows the pitfalls overzealous prosecutors can fall into when they fail to conduct their own sort of independent investigation on what happens in other countries.

Andres Sanchez, a Houston lawyer who has represented Mexican businessmen and politicians facing criminal charges in the U.S., cautioned against reading too much into Perezs case.

I think people who feel like they played a small role might be emboldened to go to trial, but thats going to depend on each individual case, Sanchez said. Somebody played a role similar to what her husbands accused of probably wouldnt be expecting that same type of sentence.

This case kind of shows you how easy it is in some situations for the government to convict people, he added. They had a very sympathetic client that played a small role, and still she walked away with a conviction. It shows you how much power and how much strength the federal government has if they want to target someone even if they played a smaller role.

Reynal acknowledged that his client, a child psychologist who took the stand in her own defense, cut a more sympathetic figure than a politician accused of taking bribes.

Most of the other people who have been charged were all border governors, and I think based on what Ive read in the press is that theres many times allegations of connection to narcotics, and this has none of that, he said. This is a state far in the south of Mexico and theres no allegations of narcotics or organized crime or anything like that.

In October, the jury denied the governments request to seize property Perez and Saiz own in the U.S. On Monday, prosecutors filed a civil asset forfeiture lawsuit against a home they own in Sugar Land. Because its a civil proceeding, the government faces a lower burden of proof to take possession of the property.

The family is studying its options, but plans on mounting a vigorous defense, Reynal said.
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Editors note: Due to a law enforcement clerical error, it was initially reported Bishoy Elkhaliny was charged with sexual assault. That charge has not been filed though there is an active investigation into the allegation.

After he beat her, raped her and held her captive, Bishoy Elkhaliny called the hospital where Kaila Kutzik was recovering and posed as her father to see if she was still there, the 22-year-old woman said.

Kutzik is now out of the hospital but she said she is still trying to piece her life together after the Dec. 30 attack.

Elkhaliny, 30, was arrested Monday on suspicion of aggravated assault. He is also currently being investigated for sexual assault.

RELATED: Alleged rapist accused of beating woman unconscious at Stone Oak home has lengthy criminal history

Now Playing: S.A. ranked first out of 15 largest U.S. cities in 2016. Video: San Antonio Express-News

MySA.com does not normally identify victims of domestic abuse or sexual assault but Kutzik has spoken out on social media and given mySA permission to use the information and photos she posted. She declined to do an interview, saying she wanted to consult her lawyer first.

"There have been a series of events that have happened to me in these past 3 months that I wish wouldn't happen to anyone else in their entire life," Kutzik wrote. "I have lost everything."

Officers obtained a warrant for Elkhaliny's arrest after they went to his Stone Oak home on Dec. 31 during a theft investigation.

No one answered the officer's knocks, but as he walked back to his car, a woman ran to him from the home. She was beaten, bruised, and asked to be taken away, according to an arrest affidavit.

Kutzik said that around 1 a.m. Dec. 30, Elkhaliny "beat (her) worse than he ever did before."

"He broke my face, he broke my teeth, and left me with bruising all over my body," she wrote. "He told me I deserved to look deformed for the rest of my life."

RELATED: Affidavit: Man beat woman, held her captive in Stone Oak home

She told officers she lost consciousness. When she woke up, he beat her again and raped her after she asked him not to have sex with her, according to police.

Kutzik said Elkhaliny left her no way to escape, taking away her cell phone and locking her out of her social media accounts.

"He threatened to chain me up to the bed so I couldn't go anywhere," she wrote. "He made me clean his house while I couldn't even see out of my eye."

According to the arrest affidavit, Kutzik suffered an orbital fracture that caused her to lose vision.

She began losing hope, she said, until that fateful knock on Dec. 31.

"There was a police car. There was still hope. But I was scared. I looked down the hallway to see if my abuser had woken up and he hadn't," she wrote. "I then decided I was going to make a run for it."

Kutzik had successfully escaped but she said Elkhaliny's harassment didn't end there.

"Protective services had to be around 24/7 and I couldn't talk to anyone," she said. "My abuser would call the hospital pretending to be my dad to find out if I was still there."

RELATED: Man tells police he was shot and carjacked for driving too slow

She said he took everything from her. Besides locking her out of her social media accounts, he took her ID and passport, she wrote.

Kutzik thanked everyone for their support and acknowledged that though she escaped her alleged abuser, that the road to recovery won't be easy.

"Even though a huge weight that has been lifted it will still be a long journey," she said. "Please pray that he gets what he deserves and that I can move on from this horrible situation and start new."

A GoFundMe account was created for Kutzik recently by her cousin.

Elkahliny, who has two previous convictions for domestic abuse, remains in the Bexar County Jail with no bond.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
Wow, it looks like a new day is on the horizon! If Democrats decide to fight fire with fire, that is.

When Oprah Winfrey delivered that line at the climax of her thunderous Golden Globes speech, my reaction was the same as everyone elses: Is it my imagination, or does that sound like a well-crafted slogan for a presidential campaign?

I quickly told myself nah, no way, she wouldnt. But then her longtime partner, Stedman Graham, told the Los Angeles Times she just might. Its up to the people, he said. She would absolutely do it.

CNN later quoted two unidentified friends of Winfrey as saying that for several months she has been actively thinking about running. Step back for a moment and consider where weve come: If Id told you five years ago that the 2020 presidential race would be Oprah versus The Donald, youd have insisted I seek professional help. But today, who can rule it out?

President Trumps biggest accomplishment may have been to make the political waters safe for celebrities with 100-percent name recognition and zero government experience. At this point, whos to say that Winfrey couldnt run? Or that she couldnt win?

I admit to having mixed feelings about the prospect. On the one hand, Trumps abysmal performance in office proves, as if it needed proving, that experience is a good thing for a president to have. On the other, for the sake of the nation and the world, somebody has to beat Trump in 2020  and its not as if the Democratic Party has a lineup of potential candidates that begin to match Winfrey in charisma and star quality. Im assuming shed run as a Democrat, since thats where her worldview and sensibilities best fit.

If you wonder why anyone is taking the Oprah-for-president idea seriously, go back and listen to that speech. I found it inspirational  even thrilling.

Winfreys delivery wasnt the soft, enfolding, personal empathy of Oprah on the couch. It was Oprah on a soapbox  bold and full of vigor. When she raised her volume and used repetition to declare the end of the era when powerful men could abuse women with impunity  But their time is up. Their time is up. Their time is up.  I thought it sounded almost like a campaign speech. When she ramped the energy and emotion even higher with her new day is on the horizon proclamation, I no longer had any doubt that I was hearing political oratory of a very high order. And I confess that I had a lump in my throat.

We know a bit about Winfreys politics. Her major impact to date was her May 2007 endorsement of candidate Barack Obama  at a time when Hillary Clinton was the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic nomination.

She endorsed Clinton in 2016. Trump had said at one point that he would love to have Winfrey as his running mate, but she said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that if he actually asked, her response would be, Donald, Im with her  echoing a Clinton campaign slogan.

Response from the Hollywood luminaries who witnessed the speech firsthand inside the Beverly Hilton ballroom was little short of rapturous. For Americans traumatized by the Trump presidency, Winfreys address hit all the right notes. It offered hope  a commodity that has been in desperately short supply.

Back to reality. One big question is why Winfrey would even consider a presidential run. It would require nearly three years of grinding hard work  and in the end she might win, which would mean four more years of oppressive labor and crushing responsibility. The life of a billionaire media mogul is much more pleasant than the life of a president.

And the most important question of all: Could she actually be a good president? After Trump, we have to be skeptical of all political novices. But we should also be mindful that many people have underestimated Winfrey during the course of her long career. All have regretted it.

eugenerobinson@washpost.com
Here are useful factors when considering the Trump administrations cancellation of provisional residency permits for about 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived here since at least 2001.

Among them, they have an estimated 190,000 U.S. citizen children.

Their country  El Salvador  is already on shaky economic ground, is an undeniably violent place and cannot easily absorb 200,000 more people, whose remittances the country can ill afford to lose.

If El Salvador did get them back, the resulting shock would likely increase migration to the United States. People are already fleeing and seeking asylum here because of rampant violence, weak rule of law and lack of economic opportunity. We know because most are ending up at the Texas border.

Finally, think of this move not just as the administrations continuing efforts to curtail even legal immigration but as another bargaining chip to get that border wall built.

The Salvadorans have until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave the U.S. or get legal residency.

This follows removal of Temporary Protected Status also for 60,000 Haitians  after an earthquake devastated that country  and 2,500 Nicaraguans after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Though many of the Salvadorans here came before earthquakes ravaged their country and were fleeing civil war, their country is still not a welcoming place.

Along with immigrants brought here without documents by their parents when they were children, they are all now possible chips in pursuit of a budget to fund the government for the rest of the year. And that border wall is also among the Trump administrations demands for any broader immigration fix.

In making the move, the administration says only Congress can legislate a permanent solution and that it can do so in the 18 months until deportations are possible. This is true about Congress authority, but its also true that the administration knows it has wide leeway to make immigrant lives miserable  as it just has.

Congress must indeed step in to save all the immigrants here for long periods under Temporary Protected Status, but it must do so not as part of any grand budget or immigration deal. It must do so because its the right thing to do. Better yet, comprehensive immigration reform would do much to fix things.

These immigrants have sunk roots, given birth to U.S. citizens and contributed to the U.S. economy. To be thrown away as just so much refuse is unworthy of this country.
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Sheriff Javier Salazar is starting off the new year right focusing on increased training for his department and reviewing existing training polices.

The Bexar County sheriffs policies and procedures came under public scrutiny last month following the shooting death of a 6-year-old from a stray bullet during the apprehension of a felon on a rampage in a residential neighborhood.

Salazar, a former San Antonio Police Department officer who just completed his first year in office, set the right tone in the investigation by quickly asking the district attorneys office for assistance.

The Dec. 21 shooting involved four deputies with law enforcement experience ranging from two to 27 years. A prosecutor and investigator have been assigned to the investigation by District Attorney Nico LaHood.

RELATED: Bexar County Sheriff's Office will review its training policies after shooting death of 6-year-old

Kameron Prescott, who had been released from school early for the start of the winter break, was inside a mobile home with two other people when he was struck by a bullet fired outdoors at suspected car thief Amanda Jones, 30.

Jones was unarmed but had threatened deputies and was holding a metal tube that reportedly looked like a handgun. She was also killed during the incident.

No one is alleging deputy wrongdoing, but increased scrutiny of training is warranted given the death of a 6-year-old innocent. A review of the statements given to investigators by deputies are corroborated by a body camera worn by one of the deputies, Salazar told the Express-News.

Some of the training changes within the sheriffs office had been in the works prior to the shooting. Salazar started planning to increase training for his staff shortly after he was sworn in after taking note of the lack of sufficient training in the department.

READ MORE: Woman killed by Bexar County deputies was holding 'tubular object' that resembled gun, sheriff said

Last summer he announced plans to increase the annual training requirement for peace officers on his staff from 20 hours, the minimum required by the state, to 40 hours starting in 2018.

In addition to the increased training for all peace officers on his staff, the sheriff will require supervisors to go through eight hours of training to cover the diversity of situations they encounter in an urban county with miles of country roads.

This week he announced plans to review training polices to see if protocols need to change and to determine what can be learned from recent events.

As we wrap up the case and figure out what happened exactly, we will be incorporating some lessons from that shooting and from every other shooting that weve been in, Salazar told the Express-News.

Maintaining a well-trained law enforcement department and periodically updating policies and procedures is good public policy.
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Far too many dogs continue to roam in certain parts of San Antonio. The dogs roam, bite and breed. And with each litter, the cycle repeats itself.

But fewer dogs are roaming around town, and thats a credit to Animal Care Services. The agency, which is often unfairly criticized, has been diligently addressing the problem that plagues certain neighborhoods on the South, West and East sides.

The latest effort to curb this epidemic comes in the form of stepped-up owner education and outreach. Many of these roaming dogs are pets, not true strays. As Animal Care Services Assistant Director Shannon Sims told Express-News reporter Vincent T. Davis, Its not a huge stray problem. Its a huge people problem were facing.

RELATED: Deformed as a result of abuse, a dog named Squish gets 2nd chance at life in San Antonio

More and more often, ACS officers are returning animals to their owners. That number has increased from 2,000 in 2013 to about 7,000 in 2017, Davis reported. And more and more often, ACS officers are citing people for irresponsible pet ownership. In 2013, the agency issued about 5,000 citations. Last year, it was more than 11,000 citations.

The message is clear: Let your dog roam and the consequence just might be a $300 fine.

This education and enforcement campaign builds on previous forward-thinking policies at ACS and partner organizations. Animal Care Services achieved no-kill status in late 2015. This means that at least 90 percent of all animals are adopted, placed in a shelter, returned to their owners, or in the case of feral cats, spayed/neutered and released in the community.

Spay-neuter surgeries have increased dramatically over the past five years. And an affordable microchipping program makes it much easier for ACS officers to trace pets back to owners.

READ MORE: Fireworks, freezing temperatures in first days of 2018 kept Animal Care Services busy

Now and then, we hear comments from misguided elected officials who say ACS should euthanize more animals. Not only is that cruel, its not a solution to whats really a public health and safety crisis.

ACS has taken the long view on roaming dogs, and the community is beginning to see the benefits.
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Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Windy. Cloudy skies will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 28F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 17F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Taj Mahal, a Mughal-Era structure standing on the banks of river Yamuna in the city of Agra, Uttar Pradesh, is often termed as the Symbol of Love. But more than that, Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful man-made structures and is among the 7 Wonders of the World. People living in Delhi-NCR are lucky enough to have Taj Mahal on the arms length. However, being situated in North India, summers is not a favorable time to visit this beautiful piece of history.

So when should one visit Taj Mahal and Agra? The answer is now! From November to March is the best time to visit the city and we decided to explore the city ourselves in an ever-beautiful BMW 3-Series, perfect to compliment the persona of Taj Mahal. However, our journey had a twist! Delhi is connected to Agra via two roads  one is the old National Highway 2 passing through Faridabad and Mathura. While the other is the new Taj Expressway exclusively built to connect the capital to Agra via Noida.

BMW 3-Series 320d Edition Sport exterior. (Image: Arjit Garg/Cars18.in)

For our readers, we travelled on both the roads connecting Delhi to Agra in order to understand which is the better road and why you should take it? As said, accompanying us on the journey was the drivers delight BMW 320d Edition Sport. Heres our travelogue from Delhi to Agra and what road you should take  NH2 or Yamuna Expressway!

The Route

We started our journey from India Gate in Central Delhi and finished at Taj Mahal in Agra. For our onward journey, we took the old NH2 passing through Faridabad and Mathura. The highway is 205 km long and it took us almost 5 hours to complete the trip. Most of the highway is under construction and has a lot of route diversions. NHAI is building a six-lane highway connecting Delhi to Agra via NH2, resulting in a lot of construction work.

Delhi to Agra NH2 vs Yamuna Expressway comparison. (Image: Google Maps)

On the flip side, the Yamuna Expressway is the new route specially built to connect Delhi to Agra. Our return journey was through the Expressway, which is 221 km long. However, it took us just 3.5 hours to complete the whole journey. The expressway is a well-built six-lane highway that starts after Greater Noida and finishes in Agra. The road is supremely built with concrete and has fencing on the both sides to stop animals from crossing the road.

BMW 3-Series

Accompanying us on the journey was the competent BMW 320d Edition Sport, which left us mighty impressed with its handling, mileage, drive-ability and punchy diesel motor. The Edition Sport variant of 3-Series 320d is priced at Rs 40.20 Lakh (ex-showroom) and comes powered by a 2.0-litre turbo diesel engine producing 190 horses and 400 Nm of torque. The engine is mated to an 8-speed Steptronic Sport Automatic Gearbox.

BMW 3-Series 320d Edition Sport on Yamuna Expressway. (Image: Arjit Garg/Cars18.in)

The engine is grunty enough for a good highway run, and occasional speed run on a barren road like Expressway felt fun. To support the driving dynamics were the 4 drive modes  Comfort, Eco Pro, Sport and Sport without TCS. We especially liked the Eco Pro mode that saves a lot of fuel through the Regenerative Braking System. Handling is the biggest USP of the BMW 3-Series and so is the ride quality that makes the 3-Series feels at home, even on broken roads, which you will find in abundance on NH2.

Features like a sunroof, LED headlights, LED Fog lights, rain sensors, 2-zone climate control, steering mounted gearshift pedals, iDrive with 16.5 inch color display, cornering brake control, TCS, idle start/stop on the BMW 3-Series made the road-trip to Agra a memorable journey. We even got a 15+ fuel mileage (BMW claims 22.69 kmpl mileage).

BMW 3-Series 320d Edition Sport cabin. (Image: Arjit Garg/Cars18.in)

Things to do

While in Agra, do visit the following places-

Taj Mahal  The obvious choice of people traveling to Agra from world over has to be the mighty Taj Mahal.

Mehtab Bagh  Located opposite Taj Mahal across the river Yamuna is the beautiful Mehtab Bagh, offering a panoramic view of the Taj.

Agra Fort  Before Delhi, Agra used to be the capital of the Mughal Empire and Agra Fort was the place from where Akbar operated his empire. Later, Aurangzeb captured his father and maker of Taj Mahal  Shah Jahan in the same fort. One can view the majestic Taj from here.

Sikandra  The place where Akbar's tomb is located.

Guru ka Taal  A big and beautiful Sikh shrine (Gurudwara) nearby Sikandra.

Panchi Petha  The best shop in Agra to buy the local sweet delicacy called Petha. There are a 100 varieties to choose from.

Taj Ganj  The local market in the vicinity of Taj Mahal is full of rooftop cafes offering a splendid view of the Taj, while eating food. There are many shops selling souvenirs to those who want to take home a memory of the Taj.

Fatehpur Sikri - A small town located near Agra, Fatehpur Sikri is famous for Buland Darwaza. The large Mughal-styled door is the entrance for Jama Masjid.

BMW 3-Series 320d Edition Sport before reaching Taj Mahal. (Image: Arjit Garg/Cars18.in)

Which Route is the best?

As said above, our goal was to find a better route to reach Agra and come back, without much of a hassle. Here's a comparison between both the routes-

Yamuna Expressway-

Yamuna Expressway is faster and saves at least 1.5 hrs when compared to the NH2. The road is also wider with a proper 6-lane width throughout the highway and is safer as no animals can cross the road. On both the side of the highway are lush green farms offering scenic views.

However, the Expressway has its own set of negatives. Since it is surrounded by open fields, dense fog engulf the highway in winters, causing accidents every now and then. Also,

the road is cemented and can lead to tyre burst if proper air pressure is not maintained. The major problem, however, is the heavy toll tax, limited food joints, petrol pumps and repair shops, that can be problematic in case of emergency.

BMW 3-Series 320d Edition Sport getting washed. (Image: Arjit Garg/Cars18.in)

National Highway 2

When compared to the Expessway, the NH2 has enough petrol pumps, roadside restaurants, and repair shops. The toll tax is also less and you can save atleast 30 kms on the clock. However, the highway is under construction and has a lot of diversion causing delay in the journey. One has to pass through various towns, leading to altercations with cycles and bullock-carts. A lot of animals also cross the road.

BMW 3-Series 320d Edition Sport side exterior. (Image: Arjit Garg/Cars18.in)

Things to Remember

While traveling towards Agra from Delhi, here are a few pointers, one can keep in mind to have a trouble-free experience 

Expensive toll tax  Do carry a lot of cash as the toll tax is heavy on the Expressway. A round trip will set you back by at least 700 bucks and the card machine doesnt work all of the time.

Tyre pressure  The road is made of concrete and maximum speed is 110 (which is easy to maintain), tyres do heat up rather easily. It is advisable to have the right tyre pressure.

Over speeding  The road is laid perfectly, has no traffic and no animals, it is easy to get carried away and speed irrationally. Do maintain your speed limits and drive carefully.

Fog  Since the Expressway has empty land on both the sides, fog is a big issue during winters. Try not to start too early, or return too late.

Summers  Agra is too hot in summers, with temperature exceeding 45 degrees. Try to avoid peak summers.

One day return  One day return journey from Delhi to Agra is possible. If weather permits, start at 6 in the morning, reach by 10. Leave Agra by 6 and reach Delhi back by 10 at night. You will get 8 hours in Agra to visit everything.

Taj Mahal as seen from Mehtab bagh. (Image: Arjit Garg/Cars18.in)

Final Word

To sum it all, the trip to Agra was a memorable one, thanks to the beautiful and competent car like BMW 3-Series. Our suggestion is, no matter what  take Yamuna Expressway to Agra and do visit Taj Mahal by road. The majestic site of Taj on the banks of Yamuna is a sight to behold!

Also Watch:
New Delhi: A government-appointed committee has recommended against inclusion of all services, barring restaurants, under the ambit of composition scheme in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

The 10-member Law Review Committee, comprising representatives from both the Centre and states, also suggested that the limit of services provided by a composition dealer should be limited to 10 per cent of the taxable turnover or Rs 5 lakh, whichever is higher.

The panel suggested a separate composition rate not exceeding 18 per cent for services supplied by composition dealer by way of job work, sources said.

The recommendations by the Law Review Committee is based on the suggestions made by the advisory panel, comprising representatives from trade and industry, which wanted composition scheme to be extended to all service providers.

Over 15 lakh businesses opted for composition scheme, which allows them to pay taxes at a concessional rate and makes compliance easy under the GST which was rolled out from July 1.

Under the scheme, traders and manufacturers can pay taxes at a concessional rate of 1 per cent while restaurants pay 5 per cent GST.

The composition scheme is open for manufacturers, restaurant owners and traders whose turnover does not exceed Rs 1.5 crore.

The Council in its November meeting increased the threshold for the composition scheme to Rs 1.5 crore and also decided to amend the GST law to raise the statutory threshold to Rs 2 crore.

The law review committee, which has 5 members each from Centre and states, have suggested that GST Council should limit the composition scheme threshold limit at Rs 1.5 crore for the time being.

According to sources, the committee is not in favour of raising the threshold further to Rs 2 crore immediately.

The law review committee also suggested that the composition scheme should not be extended to businesses which are engaged in inter-state supply of goods and services. The recommendations of the law review committee is likely to be taken up for consideration by the GST Council, comprising Centre and states, in its next meeting on January 18.
French luxury group Louis Vuitton loves Baba Ramdevs Patanjali so much that it wants to invest $500 million  thats almost half of its remaining Asia fund in it.

We would love to work with him if we can find a model, Ravi Thakran, managing partner, L Catterton Asia told Economic Times.

Thakran feels that Patanjali has managed to break the cycle and celebrate Indianess and it could sell its products in markets such as the US, Japan, China, South Korea and Europe. And, they are willing to help Ramdev in that.

However, even if Louis Vuitton is showing clear love for the swadeshi brand, the love may not quite be reciprocated.

It could be a Catch-22 situation for Ramdev.

While Patanjali has been looking for funds, they have also made it clear that they are anti-multinational. So tying up with LV may not be a great idea for its image.

The ball is in Ramdevs court now.
As Pakistan witnesses protest against the brutal rape and murder of a 7-year-old, a news anchor in the country took a bold step and went ahead to host her show along with her little daughter sitting on her lap.

According to a video tweeted by journalist Omar R. Quraishi, Pakistan TV anchor Kiran Naz can be seen sitting with her daughter and talking about the barbaric rape and murder of a young girl from Pakistan's Kasur district. The 7-year-old's dead body was found in a rubbish dump on Tuesday.

In the video, that has garnered worldwide support, Naz can be heard saying, "Today I am not your host Kiran Naz, today I am a mother and that is why I am sitting here with my daughter."

"It is rightly said that smaller the corpse, the heavier it feels. Today, Pakistan is under the same burden as a tiny corpse is lying on the streets of Kasur. This day marks the funeral of humanity," she further said.

Not often that you see a TV news anchor bring her own child to her news cast - @SAMAATV 's Kiran Naz did precisely that to make a point about how she felt as a mother in Pakistan #JusticeForZainab #Justice4Zainab pic.twitter.com/6XMXQJmfzV  omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) January 10, 2018

According to a CCTV footage, Ansari was last seen walking with a man, right before she went missing last week. The deceased was reportedly staying with her relatives while her parents had gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

It was the twelfth incident of a girl being abducted, raped, and killed in the past year in Kasur district, police say. Residents have been furious at the authorities for what they see as a failure to investigate such cases.
Kolkata: A PIL challenging the Calcutta University's (CU) decision to honour West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with a D.Litt has been filed before the Calcutta High Court and is likely to be heard on Thursday.

The CU has announced that it will bestow the honorary D.Litt on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, an alumnus, for her contribution to social service at its convocation on January 11.

The West Bengal government told the HC that a PIL challenging Calcutta University's decision to confer honorary D.Litt to CM Mamata was politically motivated.

Advocate General Kishore Dutta submitted before a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee that the decision to confer the honorary degree was taken by the syndicate and senate of the university and there was no sufferance of public interest.

Dutta claimed that as such it should not be treated as a PIL and the petition should be dismissed.

Petitioner Ranjugopal Mukherjee, a former professor of the university, claimed that the decision to confer the award was arbitrary and opaque.

His counsel Bikas Bhattacharya submitted that university issues and education itself are of public interest and as such the petition was justified to be a PIL.

He submitted that the syndicate or senate decision did not attribute any reason for conferring the award on Banerjee.

Claiming that the Senate members were nominated by the state, Bhattacharya submitted that "here the nominated persons are nominating the nominator."

He also claimed that no incumbent chief minister has been conferred with the honorary degree by Calcutta University.

However, the AG said there was no bar on awarding the honorary degree to an incumbent chief minister, and submitted that Pranab Mukherjee was conferred the degree when he was the president of the country.

Claiming that the petition "is out and out in political interest," Dutta submitted that "except character assassination, nothing is there."

Appearing for the university, counsel Saktinath Mukherjee submitted that the petition lacked "justifiability" and should be rejected at the outset.
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court to be allowed to prosecute former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh housing scam.

The probe agency informed the apex court that they will file an appeal to challenge the order which quashed sanction to prosecute the Congress leader in the case. The court will hear the case in March.

This comes after the Bombay High Court on December 22, 2017, set aside sanction given by Maharashtra Governor C Vidhyasagar Rao to prosecute Chavan.

Chavan, the incumbent Maharashtra Congress Chief, was the CM when scam took place. He was forced to resign as CM after the allegations of his involvement in the scam surfaced.

In February 2016, Rao had granted sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan for offences under IPC sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating and under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai was meant for the families of Kargil heroes. But Army officers, politicians and bureaucrats were allegedly allotted flats in violation of the rules. Seen as a symbol of corruption, the Adarsh scam had kicked up a huge political storm after it surfaced in 2010.

The Bombay high court, in an order last year, blamed members of the housing society, who it said happened to be close relatives of highly-placed bureaucrats or related to politicians or ministers, for conspiring with them to grab a plot.

Then defence minister A K Antony had on December 9, 2010, ordered a CBI probe to fix responsibility among armed forces and defence estates officers in the scam.
New Delhi: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday granted bail to Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala's son Vikas Barala in the case of stalking and abduction of Varnika Kundu.

In August 2017, the 29-year-old daughter of a top bureaucrat in the Haryana government alleged that she was followed by Vikas Barala and his friend while she was returning from work late in the night.

Barala's SUV pulled up close to her car several times in a bid to block her way.

While the woman's complaint and a Facebook post narrating the incident caused a massive stir, the Haryana BJP unit blamed the victim for driving "so late in the night".

Soon after the police said that the recovered footage shows Barala chasing the woman, Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala said the police was under no pressure and claimed that the victim was "like his daughter".
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Collegium, after much deliberation, has cleared the name of Justice KM Joseph for his elevation as a judge in the apex court.

Justice Joseph, who is currently the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, had hit the headlines after a bench headed by him quashed the President's Rule in Uttarakhand in April 2016 and sharply criticized the manner in which the central rule was preferred by the governor in the state.

The judgment had finally resulted in restoration of Harish Rawat-led Congress government in Uttarakhand.

Although the Collegium's decision has been unanimously taken by the Chief Justice of India along with the other four most senior judges in the Supreme Court, it will be a matter of curiosity if the Central government will accept the proposal regarding Justice Joseph this time around.

It was in May 2016 -- less than a month after his verdict had trashed the presidential proclamation, when Justice Joseph was transferred as Chief Justice of the High court of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The Collegium's transfer order was seen as the stepping stone for the judge to be elevated to the Supreme Court. But the Central government did not clear his transfer and has kept sitting in his file till date.

The government has cleared several transfer recommendations since then, including those of three chief justices from one high court to another but Justice Joseph's file has been kept pending for 20 months now.

The Law Ministry neither accepted the recommendation nor did it return the proposal for a reconsideration.

Sources in the government told CNN-News18 that Justice Josephs file was pending at the highest level and that the Supreme Court Collegiums recommendation has put a spanner in the whole episode.

Notwithstanding the fact that their previous recommendation is still to be accepted by the government, the Collegium, in a meeting last evening, decided to go ahead and seek his appointment as a judge in the Supreme Court in view of his seniority and merit.

The Collegiums recommendation is likely to put the government in a Catch-22 position also because Justice Joseph still has a tenure of more than two years left as a judge in the High Court, and after the new proposal, it will become extremely difficult for the government to not decide in one way or another about his elevation.

If elevated now, Justice Joseph will have a tenure of more than five years in the Supreme Court.

In February last year, when the Collegium recommended five names of other judges for elevation to the Supreme Court, Justice J Chelameswar had penned down a dissent note, expressing his serious objections to the move to drop Justice Joseph.

Justice Joseph is an outstanding judge with impeccable integrity and the most suitable judge for elevation to the Supreme Court, Justice Chelameswar had then written, and added that by not elevating a highly competent judge like him, the collegium was setting an unhealthy precedent.

In the Collegium meeting on Wednesday, all the judges were unison that Justice Joseph has to be recommended for elevation.

As per the current Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), the recommendations of appointment, transfer and elevation of high court and Supreme Court judges are sent to the government. The government can return the file seeking some clarification or with objections if the Collegium reiterates its recommendations, the names have to go through.

Senior woman lawyer Indu Malhotra also recommended for appointment.

The Collegium also unanimously recommended Senior Advocate Indu Malhotra for her appointment as a Supreme Court judge. If appointed, she would become the first woman lawyer to be appointed as a judge in the highest court. In 2007, she was only the second woman lawyer to be appointed as senior advocate by the Supreme Court, three decades after the first, Justice Leila Seth, was designated.

At present there is only one woman judge in the top court and Malhotras appointment will help bringing the gender diversity in the higher judiciary.
New Delhi: The Maldives on Thursday assured the Indian leadership of its 'India first policy' -- an affirmation which comes amid chill in bilateral ties over a host of issues, including the signing of an FTA between the Maldives and China.

The assurance was given by Maldivian Foreign Minister Mohamed Asim during talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj.

Asim, also special envoy of the President of the Maldives Abdulla Yameen, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and reiterated "the commitment of his government to maintain close relations with India under Maldives' 'India first' policy", an external affairs ministry release said.

Modi affirmed that India would always be a reliable and close neighbour of the Maldives supporting it in its progress and security.

Swaraj also conveyed India's commitment in achieving the full potential of bilateral relationship in line with the government's 'neighbourhood first policy'.

The visit by the Maldivian leader is seen as an effort by Male to assuage concerns of New Delhi following a free trade pact with China after which India had made it clear that it expected that as a close and friendly neighbour, the island nation would be sensitive to its concerns in keeping with its 'India first' policy.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India was committed to supporting democracy, development and stability in the Maldives.

"We do attach high importance to our reationship with the Maldives. They have a India first policy, we have a neighbourhood first policy. I think it is important for the two countries to work together," he told reporters.

The MEA release said discussions centred around strengthening of the development partnership between the two countries, and enhancing defence and security cooperation. Asim also reiterated Yameen's invitation to the prime minister to visit the Maldives. Modi conveyed his gratitude for the invitation and agreed to the visit at a suitable time, it said.

During his call on, the special envoy also emphasised that the Maldives attached the highest priority to its ties as close neighbours bound by shared history, culture and maritime interests in the Indian Ocean.

Asim conveyed the greetings of Yameen to the prime minister, which was warmly reciprocated by Modi.
New Delhi: Counter-terrorism, security and trade is expected to top the agenda at the India-ASEAN Summit that will see participation of leaders of all the ten ASEAN countries who in an "unprecedented" event will also be the chief guests at the Republic Day parade.

The highest-level of participation at the summit on January 25, to mark the 25 years of Indo-ASEAN ties, comes in the backdrop of increasing Chinese economic and military assertiveness in the region.

Some experts feel that the meet can be an opportunity for India to present itself as a powerful ally to these countries in the strategic areas of trade and connectivity.

The visit of the leaders of the ten ASEAN countries to be the chief guests at the Republic Day parade is "unprecedented" and a "landmark" event, Preeti Saran, secretary (east), Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters in New Delhi.

Referring to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's visit to three ASEAN countries -- Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore -- last week, Saran said the trip turned out to be a curtain-raiser for the summit.

"In all our interactions, our External Affairs Minister had, a repeated refrain that we picked up was a desire on the part of all the ASEAN countries for a greater presence of India, greater cooperation to India, and a greater integration, economically, politically and in terms of people to people contacts," Saran said.

Saran said the leaders will start arriving from January 24.

There will be a leaders' retreat during which the leaders will have a "free and frank" discussion on January 25.

Following this, a plenary session will take place on the same day, she said.

Leaders from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos and Brunei will attend the summit.

Spouses of some of the leaders are also expected to come and a special programme is also being chalked out for them, said Anurag Bhushan, joint-secretary (ASEAN).

When asked whether security and counter-terrorism will be discussed, Saran said these issues "always remain on agenda".

"It (terrorism) has always remained on the agenda for discussions. We don't rule it out. When leaders sit together intimately in a retreat environment, I am sure they will discussing different aspects, including this aspect, which concerns all of us," she said.

In the run-up to the summit, various programmes in different areas ranging from culture to trade have been organised by India.

Saran said Ramayana is one of the common cultural link between India and Southeast Asia, and troupes from ten ASEAN countries have also been invited. In addition, commemorative stamps based on Ramayana will also be released.

Before the summit, discussions will also be held between the the working groups of India and ASEAN to step up the air and maritime connectivity, Saran said.

She added that textiles is an important commerce in Indian and the ASEAN countries and there will be a discussion on how to enhance cooperation in this area.

A Hackathon, a Start-up summit, business meets, film festival have also been planned ahead of the summit.

When asked whether any country has raised the issue of poor air quality in Delhi, Saran replied in the negative.

As the winter was setting in late last year, pollution level rose due to stubble burning, which depleted the air quality in the national capital. Diplomats of several countries had raised concern over the same.
QUITO/LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was "naturalized" as an Ecuadorean on Dec. 12, at his request, Ecuador's foreign minister said on Thursday, adding that she was seeking a "dignified" solution to his situation with Britain.

Britain said earlier on Thursday it had refused a request by Ecuador for Assange to be given diplomatic status, a spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said.

Assange has been holed up for more than five years in the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he was granted asylum in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations.

Ecuador's foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa confirmed Assange's citizenship request at a press conference in Quito. She said she feared for threats to Assange's life coming from third-party states.
Lucknow: Two-days after Shia Waqf Board Chairman, Waseem Rizvi wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to shut down madrasas alleging that they encouraged students to join terrorist ranks, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbasi Naqvi lashed out at media and termed people raising questions on madrasas as mad.

Speaking to News18 in Delhi, Union Minister Naqvi said, There are some mad people who are raising absurd questions about madrasas. I am also unhappy with the media, why they ask questions and make it an issue. Nor the government, neither the BJP is raising questions on madrasas.

The madrasas of this country have contributed towards the growth of the nation and have also played a great role in our freedom struggle. There have been some isolated cases in which respective state governments are taking necessary steps. Recently, the UP government had asked the madrasas about their funding and other details, nearly 90% have given their details so far. You cannot see all the madrasas with the same point of view, it is not correct, he added.

When asked about the recent controversy related to Shia Waqf Board Chairman Waseem Rizvis letter to PM Modi, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, I have studied in a madrasa, am I a terrorist? I am really hurt and sad by the way people are defaming madrasas. Debate and concern should be on issues like timely disbursal of salaries of madrasa teachers.

The Shia Central Waqf Board had urged PM Narendra Modi to shut down madrasas in the country, alleging that education imparted in these Islamic schools encouraged students to join terrorist ranks. In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Shia body demanded that madrasas be replaced by schools affiliated to the CBSE or the ICSE which will offer students an optional subject of Islamic education.

The Board suggested that all madrasa boards should be dissolved. The Shia Central Waqf Board chairman, Waseem Rizvi, claimed that most of the madrasas in the country are not recognised and the Muslim students studying in such institutions are moving towards unemployment.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered probe over allegations that the district magistrate and sub-divisional magistrate of Jalaun called up CBI Special Judge Shivpal Singh to seek favours for RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam case.

During the proceedings of the case on January 4, the CBI judge had said Laluji, we are getting a lot of references and calls for you, without naming the people who had called him up. Lalu was awarded three-and-a-half year jail term and a fine of Rs 5 lakh.

However, Jalaun DM, Mannan Akhtar, has refuted the allegations. I never spoke to CBI Special Judge Shivpal Singh over the phone. I have been here (Jalaun) just for four months and he had come to meet us in November in connection with his land dispute in the district. Nothing else was discussed."

How can someone levy such serious allegations without having any evidence? I belong to Assam and working in Uttar Pradesh. I have no connection of any kind with Laluji, added Akhtar, a 2011 batch IAS officer who was made DM of Jalaun in September last year.

There were allegations that Akhtar and SDM Bhairpal Singh were trying to seek favour for Lalu.
New Delhi: For residents of Delhi who are lovers of art, music and culture but can never manage to keep track of cultural events being organised in the city, the Delhi government has come up with an easy solution. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday launched a phone number - 9323300300 - which residents can give a missed call on to receive regular updates and alerts about upcoming events in the National Capital.

"Over the last year or so, we gave been organising various cultural and art events throughout the city, most of which are open to all free of cost. But one problem that many people face is that they can never keep track of which events are happening when and where. Even though many of our events are packed, there are still many people who miss out on these opportunities," the Deputy CM said.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi's minister for art, culture and tourism, added, For events that require passes, we will also give them (people) information about where to collect these passes. However, most of the events organised by Delhi Government are walk-in events that are free."

Recently, the Delhi government had organised an event called 'Dastak' where musicians from across the country were called to perform in Delhi's residential colonies and areas. The government had said this was aimed at breaking Lutyens Delhi's monopoly over cultural events, bringing it to a much wider audience.
New Delhi: Over a fortnight after their meeting, the government on Thursday confirmed that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (retd) in Thailand, noting that "talks on terror" can definitely go ahead.

Raveesh Kumar, the spoksperson of the Ministry of External Afairs, told reporters that the focus of the "operational-level talks" was "cross-border terror" and ways to ensure the elimination of terrorism from the region. He said India has been maintaining that terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead.

"India and Pakistan have a dialogue process and we have said terror and talks cannot go togther. Besides that, there are several other dialogue mechanisms between India and Pakistan. Talks take place at the DGMO level. There have been meetings between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers as part of a regular mechanism.

"Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of the operational-level talks. We have said that terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead," Kumar said.

He said the issue of cross-border terrorism was raised in the meeting.

Asked whether Doval raised the issue of humiliation of the family of Kulbhshan Jadhav as the talks between the two NSAs took place a day after the meeting between the Indian death row prisoner and his family in Islamabad on January 25, the MEA spokesperson said the focus of the engagement was on containing cross-border terrorism.

"Some of these meetings are pre-determined. Dates are decided well in advance. It is not to do with anything which is happening at that point of time," Kumar said.

On December 31, a newspaper had reported that the two NSAs met in Thailand on December 26. A day later, a Pakistani daily, quoting an unnamed Pakistani official, also reported about the meeting.

On whether the NSAs will meet again, Kumar said the information will be shared as and when such operational meetings take place.

Jadhav's mother Avanti and wife Chetna had met him in Islamabad on December 25.

It was not the first meeting between the two NSAs in a third country.

In December 2015 also, the two NSAs, along with the two foreign secretaries, had met in Bangkok, which was not revealed by both the countries till after the meeting. The Jadhav-family meeting became the latest flashpoint in already strained Indo-Pak relations, with Pakistan terming its decision to allow Jadhav's family to travel to Pakistan to meet him as a humanitarian gesture and India accusing it of violating mutual understandings.

The Pakistani authorities had forced both the women to remove their mangalsutra, bindi, bangles and footwear, and even made to change their attire on the pretext of security.
New Delhi: Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Aijaz Ahmad Mir on Thursday described terrorists from Kashmir as 'martyrs' and 'our brothers'. He also added that their deaths should not be celebrated.

"Militants who are from Kashmir are martyrs, they are our brothers; some of them are minors who don't even know what they are doing," Aijaz Ahmed Mir told the press in Jammu.

"We should not celebrate the killings of militants, it is our collective failure, we feel sad when our security forces are martyred as well, we should sympathise with parents of security jawans and with parents of militants as well," added Mir.

Mir, who represents Wachi constituency, said Centre's interlocutor for Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma should talk to everyone in the state, including Hurriyat and militants.

The Congress said the government needs to make a choice about its alliance with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP government must answer. PDP is their alliance partner in J&K, said Tom Vadakkan, Congress spokesperson.
New Delhi: A Ramayana festival, Ramayana stamps, specially-made khadi jackets, topped by the Republic Day Parade will welcome the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders as India celebrates its 69th Republic Day.

The highest-level of participation at the summit on January 25, to mark the 25 years of Indo-ASEAN ties, comes in the backdrop of increasing Chinese economic and military assertiveness in the region.

The visit of the leaders of the ten ASEAN countries to be the chief guests at the Republic Day parade is "unprecedented" and a "landmark" event, Preeti Saran, secretary (east), Ministry of External Affairs, told presspersons.

Saran said the leaders will start arriving from January 24.

Saran said Ramayana is one of the common cultural link between India and Southeast Asia, and troupes from ten ASEAN countries have also been invited.

The idea of the festival was suggested by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the ASEAN-India summit in Manila in November 2017. The festival has been curated by top artists, reported Indian Express.

There will be troupes performing Ramakien in Thailand, Pha Lak Pha Lam in Laos, Yama Zatddaw in Myanmar, Kakawin Ramayana in Indonesia and Hikayat Seri Rama in Malaysia will be part of the festival.

It will also showcase the similarities of mudra (hand gestures) in our dance forms across ASEAN and India will also be showcased during this festival to be held in the capitals Kamani Auditorium.

In addition, commemorative stamps based on Ramayana will also be released.

Before the summit, discussions will also be held between the working groups of India and ASEAN to step up the air and maritime connectivity, Saran said.

Leaders from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos and

Brunei will attend the summit.

Spouses of some of the leaders are also expected to come and a special programme is also being chalked out for them, said Anurag Bhushan, joint-secretary (ASEAN).

Sources said leaders will be given the choice of wearing Khadi jackets for either the leaders retreat or the gala dinner which will be held after the plenary session on January 25.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin corruption case.

Agreeing to hear the CBIs appeal, a bench headed by Justice NV Ramana sought a reply from Vijayan and other accused in the case, who have been let off.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, said this was a case that required an interference by the top court and that the notices must go to all the accused.

The court accepted the CBIs plea and issued notices, returnable in 4 weeks.

The bench also stayed the trial in this case, which would have been conducted in respect of other accused in this case.

Three other accused, who still have to stand the trial in this case, has also moved the court and the bench said it will hear all matters together.

On Wednesday, a bench headed by Justice NV Ramana, during the brief hearing, expressed displeasure over requests for repeated adjournment.

"You mention this matter before the Chief Justice for listing and then seek adjournment...this is not done," the judge told the lawyers, who represented some of the other accused in this case.

Representing the CBI, senior advocate Geeta Luhtra, however, requested the matter be heard on Thursday or day after, after which the Court fixed Thursday for hearing.

CBI had moved against Vijayan's discharge by the Kerala High Court in the SNC-Lavalin corruption case.

The criminal case concerns the renovation and refurbishment of three hydroelectric projects  the Pallivasal, Sengulam and Panniar projects  and contracts/transactions between the Kerala State Electricity Board and SNC Lavalin, a Canadian entity.

The HC had noted Vijayan cannot be prosecuted in the absence of strong and definite material and circumstances to show that he had some sort of unholy nexus with the SNC Lavalin or the other accused".

But the CBI has alleged that Vijayan, who was then Kerala Electricity Minister, wrongly entered into contracts with SNC Lavalin in February 1997 without any expert feasibility study or technical reports.

It had alleged that there was neither any global tender called for the projects nor fixation of rates.

It has pointed out that Vijayan and two others were exonerated in the case without a clear finding to point out the reasons for their discharge. The CBI said its chargesheet pointed to a collective responsibility of all the accused persons, including Vijayan.
Kolkata: If catch em young was the motto for tapping the finest brains from the farthest corners of the globe, then the worlds technology giant certainly has the penchant for converting it into a reality.

Meet Rishav Kumar  a Class VIII whiz kid in Kolkata who cracked a worldwide online examination to become one of the youngest registered app developers with Apple Inc.

Rishav is a student of The New Town School. Since November last year, he has published four apps on the iPhone and iPad App Store.

My son started developing apps when he was in Class V. We bought him some books and he self-trained himself with the help of search engines. Without any formal training he is now a registered app developer with Apple Inc. We are proud of him, Rishavs father Dr B Kumar, a medicine specialist, said.

Explaining how Rishav started developing interest towards gadgets and software, he said, I own a diagnostic centre and he developed a billing software for me. He developed it with the help of a few books. He then developed a software on prescriptions.

Rishav thanked his parents and everyone in his school for shaping his dream. "My next target is to participate in World Robotic Olympiad and will try to perform well. I am also working on a gaming App and on an iPhone software, he said

Principal of The New Town School, Satabdi G Bhattacharjee, said: He did a commendable job at this young age and we wish him all the best in future. In our school, we give our best to understand young minds to give them direction towards their respective goals.
New Delhi: Concerned over malpractices by unregistered agents who dupe people under the pretext of foreign jobs, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday told states that it is incumbent upon them to take stringent and punitive action against them to abate this menace.

This was conveyed by Swaraj during a meeting with NRI Affairs Ministers of States/UTs in New Delhi on the subject of promoting safe and legal migration overseas.

The meeting was attended by 12 state ministers, including Chief Minister of Haryana M L Khattar, and 31 senior officials of 25 States, an external affairs ministry release said.

Swaraj impressed upon the need of curbing the malpractices perpetrated by unregistered agents who dispatch innocent people abroad on false pretext of overseas employment and thereafter abandon them. They are left in the lurch in foreign land, penniless and the government is hard pressed to secure their rescue and repatriation.

"She exhorted that since these agents function from the States' jurisdiction and law and order being a State subject, it is incumbent on the state government to take stringent and punitive action against them which would abate this menace," the ministry said.

Though there are no official figures of those duped but according to the ministry data, lakhs of poeple go to a number of countries every year and out of these almost 7-8 lakh emigrants go to countries which are notified as 'Emigration Check Required' (ECR) nations, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Swaraj further outlined the four point agenda of the government on rescue or repatriation of distressed workers abroad to include free repatriation on government cost in case of war, natural calamity and in case of company closure of legally migrated persons.

"In case of illegal migration, the emigrant would be brought back only once the state lodges FIR against the illegal agent and cost would be recovered from the said agent.

If a person goes illegally in the second instance, cost would be recovered from the person and his passport would be suspended for five years," the release said.

Swaraj also asked the states to launch a media campaign to promote safe and legal migration and ensure that the potential migrants are adequately skilled.

During the meeting, state ministers and representatives gave their inputs and agreed to proactively curb the activities of these illegal agents, the release said.
Thiruvanathapuram: Months after a Hindu woman from Kerala moved the high court alleging that she was forcefully converted and married to a Muslim man using forged documents, the Ernakulam rural police on Wednesday arrested two people in connection with the case.

The accused have been identified as Fayas and Siyad, who are relatives of Muhammed Riyas. Riyas is the person whom the girl alleges she was fraudulently married to.

The arrested duo have been charged with various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Section 120 (B) of the IPC.

Police said that they helped Mohammed Riyas, the key accused in the case.

The woman, 25, had moved the HC in November 2017. In her petition to the HC, she mentioned that Riyas, a native of New Mahe, near Thalassery, had taken her to Saudi Arabia and had plans to take her to Syria thereafter, to be sold as a sex slave to ISIS.

The girl is a native of Kerala but was born and brought up in Gujarat. She met Mohammed Riyas in 2013 when she was studying in Bengaluru. Their friendship soon blossomed into a relationship. The girl alleges that the man recorded their private video and then used it to blackmail her.

Riyas used the video to put pressure on her to convert and marry him. V Sethunath, counsel for the girl, said that Riyas's mother was also hand-in-glove with him. The woman claims she was sent for religious classes and was also forced to watch Zakir Naik's video.

Post her marriage, the girl went back to her family in Gujarat.
Mumbai: Wondering why all Navy officials need to stay in posh South Mumbai, Ports minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said "not an inch" of land would be given to Navy to build flats or quarters in the area.

"Actually, Navy is needed at the borders from where terrorists sneak in. Why does everyone (in the Navy) want to stay in South Mumbai? They (Navy) had come to me, asking for a plot (of land). I will not give even an inch of land. Please don't come to me again," Gadkari said.

He made the remarks at a public event in presence of Western Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Girish Luthra.

Gadkari's public displeasure comes in the backdrop of the Navy declining permission for building a floating jetty at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai, where a floating hotel and seaplane service are planned.

"Everyone wants to build quarters and flats on south Mumbai's prime land. We do respect you (Navy), but you should go to the Pakistan border and do patrolling," Gadkari said.

A few important and senior officials can stay in Mumbai, Gadkari said, adding that land on the eastern seafront being jointly developed by the state-run Mumbai Port Trust and the Maharashtra government, would be utilised only for the benefit of local citizens.

South Mumbai is home to a sizeable presence of the Navy and houses the headquarters of the Western Naval Command, as well as the naval residential quarters at Navy Nagar in Colaba in south Mumbai.

Berths for naval ships are close to the Port Trust assets used by merchant ships. Over time, a lot of cargo handling has moved out of the Mumbai Port, one of the oldest ports in the country.

"I heard that you (Navy) gave a stay to the floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill, despite it getting the high court's nod," Gadkari said.

Claiming that stopping such developmental work has become a habit, Gadkari wondered what has the Navy got to do with the Malabar Hill area which is primarily a private residential zone also having official residences of Maharashtra governor and chief minister.

"Where is the Navy at Malabar Hill? There is no Navy at Malabar Hill and the Navy has nothing to do in the area," Gadkari said and invited the Navy for talks to resolve the issue.

Gadkari said he chairs a committee for stalled infrastructure projects, adding that projects are cleared "as soon as they come on the agenda".

"We are the government. The Navy and the Defence Ministry are not the government," Gadkari said.
Spain last year surpassed the United States to become the world's second most visited country after France, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said during a visit to Italy.

Rajoy, speaking late Wednesday, said 82 million people visited in 2017, a nine percent increase over the previous year that came despite terror attacks and the political crisis in tourism magnet Catalonia.

Tourism earnings rose 12 percent, totaling 87 billion euros ($104 billion), he said in Rome on the sidelines of a southern European summit on migration.

In 2016, Spain welcomed 75.3 million visitors, just behind the United States with 75.6 million, while France -- despite its own terror woes -- easily remained the world leader with 82.6 million visitors, according to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

International tourism to the United States shrank during the first five months of Donald Trump's presidency, according to the US International Trade Administration.

Arrivals fell five percent in the first quarter and three percent in the second quarter, official figures show.

Rajoy praised the Spanish tourism sector's "great effort" to become more competitive.

Arrivals in Spain beat records for the fifth consecutive year, despite jihadist attacks in the Catalonia capital Barcelona and nearby Cambrils last August that left 16 dead.

Catalonia also remains in the grip of a secession crisis.

Arrivals recovered after dropping off by five percent year-on-year in October as massive demonstrations were staged following a failed independence bid.

The Madrid-based UNWTO is set to release its figures for 2017 on Monday.

The French foreign ministry said in December it estimated 2017 arrivals at upwards of 89 million.
Even in France, the self-styled land of the gastronome, locating a super-hot curry can be a challenge. But when those pre-prandial pangs hit, fear not. There's a plane for that. And it helps if you're a pilot, which is where James Emery comes in.

"It's not the kind of thing you do every day," says Emery, a 31-year-old British amateur pilot and aeronautical trainer based in the southwestern French region of Gironde. Emery has spent seven years in France but found curry fare on offer in 'La Grande Nation' too bland for his taste buds. Cue a novel plan to fuse his love of food with his aviation abilities to offer like-minded local fans a fly-it-in service.

On Saturday, Emery will fly over an Indian takeaway from one of his favorite restaurants in the south of England where he has previously taken French pilots to eat. "We often go to an Indian restaurant in Portsmouth which I frequented when I was a student. When I told the owner I was disappointed with Indian food in France -- not very spicy to adapt to the French palate -- he suggested delivery by car," Emery told AFP. "As I'm a pilot in my free time we said, why not by plane?"

Pilot training firm Iroise Aero Formation, based in the western French city of Brest, has made available a single engine six-seater for Saturday's delivery. The aircraft will head for Lee-On-the-Solent in southern England and pick up around two dozen curries from Akash in Portsmouth, each costing 36 euros ($43) -- delivery included. "The owner will also make the trip with me," said Emery.

After a brief stop for customs formalities in Cherbourg, the plane will fly its spicy cargo to Bordeaux-Saucats aerodrome where it will be served up piping hot at a hangar to around 20 spice-loving customers, both British and French, in an "inter-cultural event," Emery said.
Actor Jason Isaacs has refused to apologize for calling US President Donald Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump a "brainless barbie". Isaacs, in fact, went ahead and called Ivanka a "plastically enhanced, deeply misogynist parody of a woman", reports aceshowbiz.com.

On January 8 after the Golden Globe Awards, Ivanka praised American media proprietor Oprah Winfrey's inspirational Golden Globes speech, which highlighted the need to fight sexual harassment. However, many social media users began responding to her tweet, expressing their confusion considering that her father has been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.

"Who knew a tweet could make you puke, piss yourself and spray shot all at the same time?" Isaacs tweeted on the following day, adding the hashtag #BrainlessBarbie. "To the many critics who have challenged me for the #BrainlessBarbie hashtag in response to Ivanka Trump, an apology: you're right," he wrote. "One's a plastically enhanced, deeply mysogynist parody of a woman. The other's Barbie," he tweeted.

Who knew a tweet could make you puke, piss yourself and spray snot all at the same time?#BrainlessBarbie https://t.co/xZiNDQ93H4 Jason Isaacs (@jasonsfolly) January 9, 2018

To the many critics who have challenged me for the #BrainlessBarbie hashtag in response to @IvankaTrump, an apology: you're right. One's a plastically enhanced, deeply mysogynist parody of a woman. The other's Barbie. Jason Isaacs (@jasonsfolly) January 9, 2018

Isaacs was not the only celebrity who slammed Ivanka. Model Chrissy Teigen tweeted: "Ew go away", in response to Ivanka's post.

ew go away christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) January 9, 2018

However, Ivanka has not responded to the criticism.
Lucknow/Dehradun: Despite threats by the Karni Sena to disrupt the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period saga Padmavat on January 25, the Uttar Pradesh government has not issued any orders in this regard, as of now.

A senior Home Department official told IANS on Wednesday that there was no order as such to ban the proposed release of the film in the state.

"But, in view of the protest calls from some quarters and the law and order in mind, a close watch is being kept on the developments," he added.

A delegation of Karni Sena had also met Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Dehradun on Tuesday and demanded that the film not be allowed to be screened in the hill state.

But the Uttarakhand government is yet to come up with any announcement to this effect.
Mumbai: Hindi movie Mohalla Assi has received an 'A' certificate -- with one cut -- for release from the censor board after a battle that lasted almost two years. The producer is hopeful to release it before the festival of colours Holi.

"We were very disturbed and had a lot of tension, but now I am very excited that it will release," producer Vinay Tiwari told IANS over phone.

"After a prolonged legal battle, we have received a judgement favouring our argument and CBFC has now issued an 'A' certificate for the movie. We will try and release it before Holi," Tiwari added.

The shooting of the Sunny Deol, Sakshi Tanwar, Ravi Kishan-starrer had started in 2011. Based on the book "Kashi Ka Assi" by Kashi Nath Singh, it is directed by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi.

The hurdle for the makers began when the application for certification of the film was submitted to Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in March 2016. The Revising Committee of the board, however, had refused to issue a certificate for exhibition of the film stating that the form and content of the film were highly derogatory of humans, culture and religion, including but not limited to mythology.

It was said to be laden with abusive and explicit content.

The producers then appealed to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), which in November 2016, directed the producers to carry out 10 cuts/modifications and resubmit the film for its consideration.

Contending that the FCAT order had a damaging effect on the theme of the movie, the producers challenged it in Delhi High Court through a writ petition, thereby reserving a certificate.

According to Tiwari, now the film is releasing after only one cut.

"There's one scene featuring Sunny, in which he uses some wrong language. They wanted that to be removed, that's all. The film gives a message about how foreigners have spoilt the environment in Varanasi... It's a good message.

"We have used the common language used there... It's not a film laced with abuses. It only has local flavour."

Earlier, following protests, the makers had removed a scene in which a man dressed as Lord Shiva is seen using abusive language.
Film after film in India has been getting into one hurdle or the other. The reasons can be as varied as criticism of a caste or religion, copyright violation, missing credit and overdue payment. A movie can also get stalled for mucking up historical facts, and so what if the feature is pure fiction. And like in the case of Udta Punjab, the authorities can have a problem with truth being depicted.

In Tamil Nadu, a film often gets stalled at the 11th hour, much to the chagrin of the filmmakers who can run into huge losses, because theaters had already been booked and big money paid. The Surya-starrer, Thaanaa Serndha Koottam in Tamil, all set to open on January 12 to attract the huge merry-making footfalls of Tamil Nadu's most important festival, Pongal  which celebrates the new harvest  has now hit a roadblock.

Tamil actor Prashanth's mother, Shanti Thiagarajan, filed a case against the makers of Thaanaa Serndha Koottam, because of a dispute over remake rights. The film has been remade (or maybe inspired by) from Neeraj Pandey's riveting Special 26 with Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpayee, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill and Kajal Aggarwal. Critically acclaimed and a box-office money spinner, this 2013 movie was based on the famous 1987 Opera House heist in Mumbai where a group of men posed as officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation and raided a jeweler. Pandey had worked out a climax which lent itself to a sequel. This is yet to happen. And I keep bugging Pandey for one!

Getting back to the Chennai heist, Thiagarajan alleged that her Staar Movies had signed an agreement valid for three years with the producers of Special 26, Viacom 18, which also owned the copyright of the film. Staar Movies had obtained the rights to remake Special 26 in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

In September 2016, Star Movies assigned the right to remake the film in Tamil to RPP Film Factory for a consideration of Rs 1.5 crore. But RPP failed to produce the remake within the agreed-upon one year period. And Staar Movies came to know that Studio Green was making the Tamil version. Alleging that the remake was being made without its consent, Staar approached the High Court. But noting that the petitioner had approached the court at the 11th hour seeking an injunction against the release, a single judge dismissed the application seeking an interim relief.

Now Thiagarajan has filed an appeal before the Division Bench, headed by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee. The verdict may be passed today.

Sadly, Tamil Nadu has gained a notorious reputation for attempting to stall a film release at the very last minute  probably with the intent to wrest a huge sum of money from a producer pushed to the wall and nervous to the core. He cannot let a release be delayed, for big amounts are involved. If this kind of arm-twisting is absolutely unethical  especially when it involves fellow professionals (actors, directors, producers and the like)  then, with all due respect to the legal system, courts must also decide on some kind of cut-off date for a dispute of this sort to be placed before a judge. The High Court had dismissed Thiagarajan's first application seeking interim relief.

No movie gets made in a jiffy. It takes months to get a film ready, and no movie is made secretly, particularly when it involves big stars like Surya. Maybe, producers and others in Tamil Nadu must come together to decide on a date beyond which an appeal of this sort cannot be filed in a court of law. Nobody says that the right to resort to a legal process is wrong, but the way these cases involving Tamil cinema have been timed appears so unfair. Really.

(The author is a writer, commentator and film critic)
New Delhi: Former Congress leader Arif Mohammad Khan blamed the grand old party for the stalemate over the triple talaq bill in Rajya Sabha, alleging that it had acted on the directions of the AIMPLB in the Upper House.

Khan, a staunch supporter of reforms in the Muslim personal laws, had resigned from the Rajiv Gandhi-led government in 1986 due to his differences over the Muslim personal law bill piloted by the dispensation to nullify the verdict in the Shah Bano case.

"You are exercising your power (as members of Rajya Sabha) to meet the whims of one organisation. You could have said your views (of AIMPLB) would be considered sympathetically. This raises serious questions, including about the dignity of the House," he claimed.

He blamed the Congress for stalling the triple talaq bill in the Upper House.

Defending the provision for a three year imprisonment in the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, Khan said, "Only through an effective deterrent punishment can the criminal act of instant divorce be checked."

Khan told Rajya Sabha TV in an interview that instant divorce was a criminal act under Islamic jurisprudence and it deserved an effective, deterrent punishment. "They (Congress) made a law in 1986 to negate the Supreme Court's judgement in favour of Muslim women in the Shah Bano case and they now stopped a law being made in pursuance of the judgement of the apex court. It is a clear case of political expediency," he alleged.

The Supreme Court in the Shah Bano case had upheld the right to alimony. Its judgement had triggered a controversy about the extent to which courts can interfere in Muslim personal law.

Khan claimed that there was growing support among Muslim men as well for the bill.

Speaking on the opposition's demands over subsistence allowance for Muslim woman, he said the bill was for a limited purpose of enforcing the Supreme Court's judgement. The government has to enforce all laws, including those emanating from the Supreme Court, he added.

Khan claimed that when the Congress did not refer the Shah Bano Bill to any committee, how could they now demand that the triple talaq bill be referred to a select committee. The bill criminalising talaq-e-biddat was passed by the Lok Sabha in the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament but was stuck in the Rajya Sabha. Opposition parties as well as NDA ally TDP had reservations over criminal provisions in the draft law.

MPs in the Upper House had demanded that the bill, which proposes to make triple talaq a cognisable and non-bailable offence, be referred to a parliamentary committee for review.
Bengaluru: It seems the terrorism debate has gone out of hands of both Congress and BJP in Karnataka. A day after chief minister Siddaramaiah dropped a bomb by calling BJP and RSS terrorist organisations, he has done a sudden U-turn.

Speaking to media persons at MM Hills near Mysore, Siddaramaiah clarified that he was referring to Hindutva terrorism.

What I said is BJP and RSS are spreading Hindutva terrorism for political gains. In my opinion, whoever spread hate and incites violence is a terrorist, said Siddaramaiah.

The chief ministers statement led to a furore on Wednesday. The BJP had launched an all-out attack on the Congress calling it a party that patronises terrorism and harbours extremist elements.

The firebrand BJP MP and BS Yeddyurappas close confidante Shobha Karandlaje has refused to lay down her arms even after Congresss decision not to precipitate the matter further.

Speaking to News18, she said: "Entire country knows Congresss link to terrorism. They gave birth to Khalistan movement and created Bhindranwale who killed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The same party created LTTE. The LTTE got Rajiv Gandhi assassinated. Even after all these tragic incidents. Congress is still soft on terrorism.

Some Congress leaders had earlier called Shobha a terrorist, who has been allegedly inciting violence in the name of Hindutva.

Several BJP and RSS sympathisers and workers are now demanding that they should be arrested by the Siddaramaiah government to prove the 'terrorist' charge against them.

BJP state spokesman S Prakash said: If we are terrorists the government must arrest us. Not arresting us means either the government is wrong or it is helping the terrorists. Only a mad man can call BJP and RSS terrorists. We will continue our protest. It is not acceptable.

Fearing negative publicity, the Congress strategists have decided to play down the terror comments and focus on previous BJP governments scams and failures.

On Wednesday, addressing a rally at Holalkere town in Chitradurga district, BJP President Amit Shah accused the Congress government in the state of being anti-Hindu.

"The Siddaramaiah government is doing vote bank politics, it is an anti-Hindu government," he said.

The Karnataka CM hit back and accused the BJP, as well as the RSS and Bajrang Dal, of harbouring extremist elements.

The government will not leave those who disturb peace, we will not tolerate it, Siddaramaiah told reporters. It does not matter if it is the SDPI or the Bajrang Dal, whatever organisation it is, we will not tolerate it, he said.

Karnataka is the only southern state where the BJP had been in power and hopes to wrest the state from the Congress in the upcoming polls.
Jabalpur: Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said on Wednesday that since he could not get an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he has now decided that he will not meet anyone in the government and instead express his views in the public.

Referring to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP veteran L K Advani, Sinha said "today's BJP is not like the one in the days of Atalji and Advaniji."

He said in those days, even a "small-time worker could go to Delhi and meet party president Advani without an appointment, who has targeted the government on many occasions recently".

"Now even senior and important leaders don't get an appointment with the party president. So, I was not surprised when I did not get an appointment for 13 months," he told reporters here.

"I sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi 13 months ago to discuss various issues, but I haven't got it so far. Since I haven't got time, I have decided now I will not meet anyone in the government. Whatever I have to say, I will say openly in public," Sinha said.

Referring to a photograph of BJP president Amit Shah offering a laddoo to the prime minister, Sinha said, "In that photo, Rajnath Singh, Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and others are visible. But Advani is not seen even at the back. Now he has become an "aam" (ordinary) worker from "khaas" (important one)."

The former finance minister is slated to take part in a farmers' agitation at Gadarwara in Narsinghpur district on Thursday.

He alleged that after coming to power, the BJP accepted all policies which it had opposed while being in the Opposition.

"I have decided that now I will not talk with the government. Farmers are being neglected in the country. Their condition is not good in Madhya Pradesh too," he said.

Referring to awards that the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh has received for its performance in agriculture, he said, "They are given on the basis of mere figures. I have played with them a lot in my life."

Sinha termed the Madhya Pradesh government's 'Bhavantar' scheme, under which farmers are paid the difference between the minimum support price and the low market price, and crop insurance scheme as an "empty gimmick".
Hyderabad: Union minister and RPI (A) president Ramdas Athawale today blasted Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, saying the latter was putting Dalits in "danger" and that he should stop taking the "support of Maoism people".

The minister also advised Mevani, who is championing himself as the new age Dalit leader, to stop making "provocative speeches" and instead work for bringing people together.

"Jignesh Mevani is a youth from our Dalit community. He has become an MLA. That is good. But, if he is a true Amedkarite, he should not take the support of people of Maoism, Naxalism, and Marxism. I feel Dalit protection would not happen by giving provocative speeches.

Mevani is doing the work of putting Dalits in danger," the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment told reporters here in reply to a query.

Athawale said he had already given a statement that the recent violence in Koregaon Bhima in Maharashtra had nothing to do with Mevani's speech when an allegation was levelled against the latter.

"It would not help if Mevani gives provocative speeches. He should talk about bringing the society together. He should not speak nonsense. He should speak sense," he said.

One person was killed in the caste violence between two groups near Koregaon Bhima village in Pune district on January 1 during the bicentennial event to commemorate the victory of the British forces, comprising Dalits, on the army of Peshwa Bajirao II.

Dalits view the battle as the defeat of "casteism" as Peshwas, who represented 'Chhatrapti' (Maratha king), were Brahmins.

The mobs had damaged and torched several vehicles and shops on New Year's Day. Besides, houses of local residents were also ransacked.

Preceding the Koregaon Bhima incident, an "Elgaar" parishad (conference) was held at historic Shaniwarwada, the erstwhile headquarters of Peshwas, in Pune on December 31.

A string of speakers including Mevani, JNU student leader Umar Khalid, late Rohit Vemula's mother Radhika Vemula, Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh president Prakash Ambedkar, and members of radical cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) had attended that conference.

The police had booked Mevani, Khalid, and KKM members for making "provocative" speeches and creating a rift between two communities during the Shaniwarwada event.

At the Yuva Hunkar' rally held in Delhi on January 9, Mevani had called the Narendra Modi government a "threat" to democracy and the Constitution.
Lucknow: Nine people died after consuming spurious liquor in Uttar Pradeshs Barabanki district on Thursday.

Two others have been admitted to a hospital and their condition is stated to be serious.

The victims have been identified as Nomilal, Kamalesh Kumar, Umesh Kumar, Kanshiram, Avniesh, Rakesh Kumar, Ramphal Gautam, Mata Prasad, Ramsuresh. Doctors said most of them complained of stomach ache and were vomiting.

Dr. AK Singh, posted in emergency duty at the Barabanki district hospital, said that people who were brought in had consumed spirit and were sent to the Lucknow Trauma Center.

Anil Kumar Singh, Additional District Magistrate, said, "There are reports of death due to the consumption of spurious alcohol. We can ascertain the reason behind death only after the postmortem report is received."

State Excise Minister Jai Pratap Singh has ordered a probe and asked for a report from the District Magistrate.

According to sources, the Excise Department officials pressured some the families of the dead to state that the deaths were due to cold if they want to get compensation.

According to sources, the Excise Department officials pressured the families of the deceased to say that the deaths were due to cold, if they want to get compensation.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 Lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased. The CM also directs a joint team of Excise department and Home Ministry to investigate the matter.

The Yogi Adityanath government had recently passed a bill providing death penalty and life imprisonment for those dealing in illicit or spurious liquor.
New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday accused Union minister Nitin Gadkari of insulting the Indian Navy by saying that "not an inch" of land would be given to the force for building houses in upscale south Mumbai.

Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the "pseudo-nationalist" BJP now wanted to give "certificates of loyalty" to the armed forces.

"Shameful & Unacceptable! Ex BJP President & Union Minister, Nitin Gadkari insults 'Indian Navy', questions their valour and dedication. Pseudo-Nationalist BJP now wants to issue certificates of 'loyalty' to India's armed forces," he wrote on Twitter.

Gadkari said at a public event in Mumbai: "Actually, Navy is needed at the borders from where terrorists sneak in. Why does everyone (in the Navy) want to stay in South Mumbai? They (Navy) had come to me, asking for a plot (of land). I will not give even an inch of land. Please don't come to me again."

The minister for road transport and highways, shipping and water resources made the remark while voicing his disappointment at the Navy's objection to a floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai, where a floating hotel and seaplane service are planned.
New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday appeared to be defending Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah after he called the BJP and the RSS as "Hindutva extremists" triggering a war of words, and said he would not have made such a statement without "intelligence" inputs.

"He (Siddaramaiah) is the chief minister of a state...It is possible that the chief minister has inputs which we don't have. In this situation, you will have to pose this question to the chief minister and seek clarification. Because he won't speak anything of this kind if he has no intelligence input," Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan told reporters in New Delhi.

He also hit back at BJP president Amit Shah for his remarks that the Karnataka government was "anti-Hindu".

Addressing a rally in Karnataka on Wednesday, Shah charged the state government with perpetrating atrocities against BJP and RSS workers, claiming 20 of them were killed in the state over the last three years.

Siddaramaiah, while speaking to reporters on Wednesdy in Chamarajanagara district, alleged that the BJP, RSS and the Bajrang Dal had terrorists in their organisations, a charge rubbished by the saffron party.

It was not clear whether the chief minister made the comment in retaliation to Shah's remark.

Siddaramaiah, who came under intense attack from the BJP on Wednesday for saying that the party and its fountainhead RSS had "terrorists", today called them "Hindutva extremists".

Speaking to reporters today, Siddaramaiah said, "I had said they are Hindutva terrorists. I am also a Hindu, but I'm a Hindu with humanity, they are Hindus without humanity. That is the difference between me and... (them)."

Referring to Shah's jibe, Vadakkan also said the BJP chief made the comment with the sole intention of winning the upcoming assembly election in Karnataka.

Hitting out at Shah, Vadakkan said it was "strange" that Shah called the state government as "anti-Hindu".

"Shah's intention is to win. How he does that is his angle. It is strange to say that anti-Hindu. Only Amit Shah ji can do this," he said, adding only people of the state can decide whose government will be formed (in the state).

The BJP also dared Siddaramaiah to arrest its as well as RSS leaders.
Flipkart is offering discounts as well as cashbacks on Apple products including Apple iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and Watches during an ongoing Apple Week, scheduled from January 9 to January 15. Apart from the discounts on the products, the e-commerce website is offering up to Rs 8,000 cashback on transactions done using ICICI Bank Credit Cards. While the Apple iPhone X is retailing at its original starting price of Rs 89,000, almost all the other iPhones have been put on offer with a discount. Here is a look at all the deals that you can avail during the Apple Week on Flipkart.

Apple iPhones

iPhone X: The Apple flagship is retailing at its original price of Rs 89,000 for the 64GB variant and Rs 1,02,000 for the 256GB variant. Buyers can avail Rs 8,000 cashback on the device though and up to Rs 18,000 on exchange offers.

iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus: Apple iPhone 8 64GB variant is retailing at Rs 54,999 after a Rs 9,000 discount. Similarly, iPhone 8 Plus is experiencing an eight percent discount and is now retailing at Rs 66,499, down from its original price of Rs 73,000. Both the smartphones are also eligible for Rs 8,000 cashback on ICICI Bank credit cards, as well as up to Rs 18,000 off in exchange offers.

iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus: Apple iPhone 7 Plus is retailing at Rs 56,999, down from its original price of Rs 59,000. The lower iPhone 7 variant is available for Rs 42,999, after a discount of Rs 6,000. Both the smartphones are eligible for Rs 5000 cashback on EMI transactions. The exchange offers for the iPhone 7 list up to Rs 21,000 off, while those on the iPhone 7 Plus are limited to Rs 18,000.

iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus: The base variant, iPhone 6 is up for sale with a Rs 25,499 price tag after a Rs 4000 discount. Similarly, iPhone 6S is retailing at Rs 34,999, down from its original MRP of Rs 40,000 as listed on the website. The iPhone 6S Plus is available for Rs 37,999, a whopping Rs 11,000 discount from its original price of Rs 49,000. All the three smartphones are also eligible for Rs 3000 cashback on EMI transactions along with exchange offers of up to Rs 18,000.

iPhone SE: The entry-level Apple smartphone is retailing at a discounted price of Rs 18,999, down from its original price of Rs 26,000. In addition, buyers can avail Rs 2,500 cashback and up to Rs 18,000 off in exchange offers.

Apple MacBook Air

Apple MacBook Air with Core i5 5th Gen and 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage is retailing at Rs 54,490 after a discount of Rs 1,500 from its original MRP. Additionally, Rs 8,000 cashback can be availed on the laptop. Rest of the Apple MacBook variants are retailing at their original price.

Apple iPad, iPad Pro

All the variants of Apple iPad and iPad Pro are put on various discounted amounts. Maximum discount of Rs 5,100 is being offered on Apple iPad 32GB with a 9.7-inch display. ICICI Bank credit card users can also avail Rs 2,500 cashback on the EMI transactions on Apple iPads.

Apple Watch

Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2: While the Apple Watch Series 3 is retailing at its original price, Series 1 is available at a discount of Rs 5,000, bringing its price down to Rs 18,900 and Series 2 is retailing at Rs 24,900, after a whopping Rs 8,600 discount. Another Apple Watch Series 2 variant with 38mm dial is retailing at Rs 22,900 down from its original price of Rs 31,600.

All the three Apple Watch Series products are eligible for Rs 5,000 cashback on EMI transactions.

Wacth: Apple iPhone X Review | Should You Pay Rs 1,02,000 For It?
French authorities have opened an investigation into Apple over revelations it secretly slowed down older versions of its iPhones, the Paris prosecutors office said Tuesday. The preliminary probe was opened last week over alleged deception and planned obsolescence of some Apple products, the office said. It is led by the French body in charge of fraud control, which is part of the finance ministry.

It follows a legal complaint filed in December by a French consumer rights group whose aim is to stop the intentional obsolescence of goods by companies. In France it is illegal to intentionally shorten the lifespan of a product in order to encourage customers replace it. A 2015 law makes that a crime, with penalties of up to two years in prison and fines of up to 5 percent of the companys annual turnover.

Apple apologized in December for secretly slowing down older iPhones, a move it said was necessary to avoid unexpected shutdowns related to battery fatigue. As part of its contrition, Apple is now offering to replace the batteries on older iPhones for $29, a $50 discount from the usual price. But Apple also has denied the slowdown of the older phones is a ploy designed to spur sales of newer models. We have never  and would never  do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades, the company said on its website.

Apple France didnt respond to email and phone requests for comment on the latest legal developments in France from The Associated Press. Lawsuits against the company have also been filed in the U.S. and Israel. Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi believes Apples throttling of older iPhones is helping to extend the devices lives by enabling to take advantage of the new features in the companys free software updates each year.

The companys choice boiled down to let the phone just run at full speed and kill the prematurely aged batteries or slow down the phone so the battery would last longer, Milanesi wrote in a recent analysis.

The French consumer rights group, called HOP, filed a lawsuit on Dec. 27. Its statement claims Apple slowed down older smartphones in order to make clients buy the new iPhone 8, which was launched on the market around the same time.Benchmark tests have suggested the slowdown isnt huge, but noticeable. Although Apple has said thats done to prevent iPhones from unexpectedly shutting down because of weak batteries, lawsuits filed against Apple say that its failure to disclose that right away could have led some people to wrongly conclude they needed a newer, faster phone rather than just a new battery.

Laetitia Vasseur, the director of HOP, said studies have showed that peaks in speed reductions match the releases of new phones on the market. We can see that there is an intention to have people buy new phones because of the speed reduction, she told the AP. Vasseur said her group launched a survey following its complaint so that users can report problems they have faced. In 10 days, HOP has received more than 3,000 reports that will be handed over to the DGCCRF, the government fraud watchdog in charge of the investigation, she said.

Vasseur said she hopes that the consequences globally could be to go toward more sustainable and durable products for all manufacturers that wont want to face the same kind of scandal. A similar investigation targeting Japanese printer-maker Epson was opened in November, also following a complaint by HOP. The Epson probe, was launched by another prosecutors office, in Nanterre outside Paris, is related to some of its ink cartridges and printers spare parts. It was the first legal action ever for planned obsolescence and deception in France, HOP said in a statement.

Epson has denied any wrongdoing, saying that planned obsolescence is not part of the companys policy. In the French legal system, preliminary investigations are launched and led by prosecutors offices. Such probes can last weeks or months. When theyre over, prosecutors can either decide to drop the cases or to send them to investigating judges for full investigations. Judges, in turn, can also dismiss the cases, due to lack of evidence for instance, or send them to courts for trial. In these cases, the whole process may last months or even years.

Since Epson and Apple cases are the first legal actions for planned obsolescence in France, there hasnt been case law yet on possible penalties, fines or damages awarded by courts under this particular offense. Any fine imposed on Apple would probably hurt its pride more than its pocketbook. The company has accumulated nearly $270 billion in cash from its sales of iPhones and other products.

Tech and Auto Show Ep 27 | Redmi 5A, Honor View 10, Volvo S60 Polestar & More
The chairman of the US Senates commerce committee wants Apple to lift the veil on its once-secret slowdown of older iPhones. Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, issued his request for more information in a letter sent Tuesday to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Among other things, Thune wants to know if Apple made any effort to notify its customers that its recent software updates would make several types of iPhones released before 2017 slow down when their batteries weakened. Thune also asked Apple whether it considered replacing the batteries for free, instead of the current discounted charge of $29 that it began offering in late December after acknowledging how its updates affected older iPhones. He also inquired whether Apple plans to throttle aging iPhones in the future and whether it plans to let consumers know what its doing.

Thune demanded a response by January 23. Apple declined to comment. The inquiry represents the latest backlash against Apples decision to slow down older iPhones, a move that the company says is designed to prevent the devices from abruptly shutting down when older batteries are running low or operating in cold weather. Although technology analysts have mostly defended Apples strategy as a way to make older iPhones last longer, some regulators and many consumers believe the company has been manipulating the way aging devices work to spur sales of its latest  and more expensive  models.

French authorities are investigating whether Apple is engaging in a pattern of planned obsolescence in violation of France law and a variety of consumer lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. Apple has responded with an apology and reduced the price to replace batteries on older iPhones by $50.

Tech and Auto Show Ep 27 | Redmi 5A, Honor View 10, Volvo S60 Polestar & More
Beijing: China on Thursday objected to Vietnam's invitation to India to invest in oil and natural gas sector in the disputed South China Sea, saying it is firmly opposed to infringement of its rights using development of bilateral ties as an "excuse".

Vietnam's Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh on Tuesday had told an Indian news channel that his country would welcome Indian investments in the South China Sea.

Responding to remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: "China does not object to the development of normal bilateral relations of relevant countries in our neighbourhood".

"But China firmly oppose relevant party to use it as an excuse to infringe upon China's legitimate rights and interests in the South China Sea and impair regional peace and stability," Lu said.

Ton had also said defence cooperation is one of the important and effective areas of cooperation between India and Vietnam and India can be helpful in expanding Vietnams defence capabilities.

China has been opposing India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) exploring oil in wells claimed by Vietnam in the South China Sea (SCS) for years. India has been asserting that the ONGC's exploration is a commercial operation and not connected with the dispute.

China claims almost all of the SCS while Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims. Oil exploration in the SCS is a sensitive issue in the Vietnam-China relations. There were anti-China riots in Vietnam when China tried to deploy oil rigs in an areas claimed by Vietnam few years ago.

India, which is ramping up ties with Vietnam, calls for freedom of navigation in the SCS through which trillions of dollars of trade happens every year.
Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed the news media will ultimately support him, as otherwise their ratings and businesses would be impacted.

Trump said this a day after he opened to the press almost his entire meeting with the Congressional leadership on immigration.

For this, they got great ratings and reviews.

Trump told his Cabinet colleagues that he received a letter of congratulations from news anchors.

"Then, after that, they were called by their bosses for saying, 'Oh, wait a minute'. And, unfortunately, a lot of those anchors sent us letters saying that was one of the greatest meetings they've ever witnessed. And they were great. For about two hours, they were phenomenal. And then they went a little bit south on us, but not that bad. It was fine," Trump told his Cabinet colleagues.

They probably wish they didn't send us those letters of congratulations. But it was good. I'm sure their ratings were fantastic; they always are -- which is why I think the media will ultimately support Trump in the end because they're going to say, if Trump doesn't win in three years, they're all out of business," Trump said amid laughter from his Cabinet members.

"You guys will be out of business. But the boom holders are still going to be there, so that's good. Those are the people I like," Trump said referring to the media present in the room.

Trump has a love-hate relationship with the media ever since he started his presidential election campaign.

He often attacks the mainstream media and has branded some of them as "fake news" including CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Next week, he is planning a Fake News Award for the media outlet he dislikes the most.
Washington: Robert De Niro directed a profanity-laced rant toward President Donald Trump Tuesday night and compared the Trump administration's attacks on the media to those of former President Richard Nixon.

"Our baby-in-chief -- the j---off-in-chief, I call him -- has put the press under siege, ridiculing it and trying to discredit it through outrageous attacks and lies," De Niro said in a speech at the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala, according to video of the event provided to CNN.

"This f------ idiot is the president. It's The Emperor's New Clothes -- the guy is a f------ fool ... our baby-in-chief -- the 'J-------in-chief' I call him," De Niro said while introducing Meryl Streep.

De Niro, who backed Democratic president candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, slammed Trump in a 2016 video, saying, "I'd like to punch him in the face."

Amid Trump's attacks on the media, Streep and Tom Hanks, who were honored at the gala, have been vocal about their support for the press.

The Oscar-winning actors star in Steven Spielberg's "The Post," which chronicles the story of The Washington Post's controversial decision to publish stories about the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's secret study of US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Streep became a target of Trump's Twitter ire in January 2017 when she criticized his rhetoric and called on the media to fight back while accepting an award at the Golden Globes.

Even though she didn't not mention Trump by name, Streep's thinly veiled references were not lost on the then-President-elect, who slammed her as a "Hillary flunky" and questioned her acting skills.

Hanks expressed concern over Trump's attacks on the media in an interview with David Axelrod on the "Axe Files" last month.

Last March, Hanks surprised the White House press corps with an espresso machine and added a note encouraging the journalists to continue their work.

"Keep up the good fight for the truth, justice and the American way," Hanks wrote in a note. "Especially for the Truth part."
New Delhi: Hollywood producer-director Steven Spielberg has come out publicly to support Oprah Winfrey if she runs in the election for the next President of the United States.

I think Oprah Winfrey would make an absolutely brilliant president, the Oscar-winning director told the Guardian in London on Thursday. If she declares, I will back her.

Speculation over whether the actor-turned-TV mogul will run for president in 2020 has been growing following a very charged political speech during the Golden Globes Awards ceremony.

She is crackerjack on the money on womens issues and I call her the ambassador of empathy. And our country could use a dose of empathy right now, Spielberg said.

Shes been on the air for 35 years with all kinds of social outreach, building bridges between different ideologies and different points of view, he added.

When asked about whether Winfrey possessed the requisite skills to run for president, he took an indirect potshot at President Donald Trump, saying, Does our current president have the skill set to be president?

Spielberg said that the US needed a mindful, empathetic human in the White House who understood people and put people ahead of their own ideas of power and self-aggrandisement. I think Oprah has already proved her capacity for selflessness, he said.

I think shell learn on the job the same way Bill Clinton learned  a former governor of Arkansas  or Barack Obama, a junior senator, learned on the job. Id much rather go for someone like Oprah Winfrey than a career politician, he added.
Tunis: Over 300 protesters were arrested overnight and the army was deployed in several Tunisian cities in violent demonstrations over prices, taxes and unemployment that have swept the country.

In Thala, near the Algerian border, troops were sent in after protesters burned down the national security building forcing police to retreat from the town, witnesses told Reuters.

Violent anti-government protests have raged in other towns in the North African country since Monday, among them the tourist resort of Sousse, against price and tax rises imposed by government to cut a ballooning deficit and satisfy international lenders.

While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among "Arab Spring" nations, it has also had nine governments since the overthrow of authoritarian leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, none of which have been able to deal with growing economic problems.

"Three hundred and thirty people involved in acts of sabotage and robbery were arrested last night," interior Ministry spokesman Khelifa Chibani said bringing the number of detainees since the protests began to around 600. The army was also deployed in several other cities, including Sousse, Kebeli and Bizert to protect government buildings that have become a target for protesters.

Uprisings in 2011 and two major militant attacks in 2015 damaged foreign investment and tourism, which accounts for eight percent of Tunisia's economic activity.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Wednesday accused the opposition of fueling dissent by calling for more protests.
Lahore: Two civilians were killed when officers fired live rounds to disburse crowds that attacked a police station in Pakistan on Wednesday in a protest over the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl.

Police recovered the body on Tuesday from a garbage dumpster in the town of Kasur in eastern Pakistan, four days after she was reported missing.

It was the twelfth incident of a girl being abducted, raped, and killed in the past year in Kasur district, police say. Residents have been furious at the authorities for what they see as a failure to investigate such cases.

The spokesman for Pakistan's Punjab province, Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, told Reuters that protesters turned violent and attacked a local police officer.

"They started throwing stones at the office and some of the armed protesters shot bullets at police. In order to stop them, police resorted to aerial firing," Khan said, adding that two people were killed and one wounded as a result.

Locals said police responded with undue force.

"A peaceful protest was taking place, some students threw stones and police responded by firing at the crowd," Saleem ur Rehman, a resident who was at the protest, told Reuters. "The law and order situation here is really bad and there have been many such incidents. That is what the protest was about."

Ansari's parents, who were not in the country when their daughter was kidnapped, returned on Wednesday.

"I want justice! I want justice!" Zainab's mother cried, surrounded by reporters at the international airport in the capital Islamabad.

Ansari's case has attracted the attention of the country's civilian and military leadership, with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif calling for immediate action.

Police in Kasur deny they have been lax in investigating child abductions in the town. Regional police officer Zulfiqar Hameed told Reuters that four kidnappers had been arrested and another killed during an arrest attempt.

"Investigations reveal that in each case a paedophile kidnaps little girls, rapes them and kills them," he said.

The case would soon be solved, he said: "We have got CCTV footage that shows a young man taking her along. We will catch him very soon," he said, adding that 95 DNA samples had been taken from suspects.

A number of police officials have been transferred out of the region for failing to investigate complaints of missing children since 2015 when authorities uncovered what they called a paedophile ring linked to a prominent local family. At least two people have been convicted in the case, in which authorities say hundreds of children in the district were abused.
At 73, Martin Wishnatsky has spent more than three decades on the front lines of a war against abortion: protesting, leading political campaigns and even spending time in prison for his efforts.

Recently Wishnatsky popped into the national news cycle when he was revealed as Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moores Jewish attorney, first mentioned by Kayla Moore at a campaign rally. When the candidates wife declared, One of our attorneys is a Jew, it set off a broad media search.

I was kind of amused to see the high-profile guessing game that went on among those who delight in finding an opportunity to make fun of the Moores, Wishnatsky said. It was amusing to watch.

Wishnatsky was born and raised in a Jewish family that he said loosely followed their faith, but became a Christian in his 30s and attended Liberty University School of Law, graduating in 2012.

Media outlets first unveiled a different attorney before Kayla Moore informed al.com she was referring to Wishnatsky, who has worked for the Moores Foundation for Moral Law since 2016. His work there is a continuation of his long battle against abortion and part of an ongoing culture war.

For Wishnatsky, his legal foundation comes from Liberty University. After years of anti-abortion protests, a stint in prison, and time spent working on anti-abortion campaigns, Wishnatsky decided to wade into the legal field, enrolling at LUs law school in 2009 at age 65.

It was terrific, Wishnatsky said. Im an academic at heart, thats how I started out. It was very nice, after all those years, to be back in an academic environment.

Wishnatskys academic career includes an undergraduate degree and a doctorate in political science from Harvard University. He also spent time lecturing in the political science department at UCLA from 1972-74 while pursuing his Ph.D from Harvard.

At LU, Wishnatsky served as submissions editor of the schools Law Review and interned with Liberty Counsel, where he spent a semester working on anti-abortion issues. After graduation, Wishnatsky was hired as an Alabama Supreme Court clerk in 2014. According to an LU news release in the same year, he and two fellow grads were the universitys first students hired as state supreme court clerks.

Wishnatsky said Liberty was a good place for students to find their lifes calling. His advice for students and graduates: Follow the calling that God has laid on your heart, and he will make a way.

For Wishnatsky, that calling has been working to advance anti-abortion efforts across the U.S. His concerns about abortion began in 1987, when he discovered an anti-abortion pamphlet on the floor of a train, which depicted an aborted fetus. He was shocked to see the mutilation of a human being.

In the mid-1980s, Wishnatsky still was trying to find his footing in the Christian faith. He first became concerned about his spiritual life in 1977 when a gypsy woman prayed to God over his sins.

I had never thought of myself as a sinner before, Wishnatsky reflected.

As an academic, Wishnatsky said his first thought was to buy a Bible and began studying.

When I opened the Bible it was like the voice of God speaking to me, Wishnatsky said.

He described his conversion as a process that took years, culminating at a Christian retreat in 1985.

Wishnatsky first attended services at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for a year. But Wishnatsky soon became disenchanted with Mormon teachings that he said included secret handshakes and bizarre costumed rituals. He left the church pondering his faith altogether. After much soul searching, Wishnatsky decided he believed in the Christian message and found his faith.

I felt the presence of the Lord and the comfort of his truth, Wishnatsky said.

He soon joined an evangelical church in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he lived at the time.

From 1980 to 1990, Wishnatsky worked as a Wall Street consultant, but his life and career path changed when he became deeply involved with anti-abortion efforts. He and other protesters often barred the entry way to abortion clinics, and he found himself arrested multiple times, spending an estimated 18 months incarcerated in New York, North Carolina and North Dakota. Wishnatsky lost his Wall Street job and his apartment and spent a 10-month stint in the North Dakota State Penitentiary. He saw the incarceration as his faith in action, fighting for what he believed in.

Your faith is not a ritual or a service on Sunday morning; its a continual experience of the reality of God in a fallen world, Wishnatsky said.

After multiple arrests, the loss of his job and home, Wishnatsky said his family struggled to understand why he would take such risks. He equates modern-day abortion to the Holocaust.

Abortion on this scale in the country is really a holocaust, Wishnatsky said.

He noted family members who did not emigrate from Eastern Europe had died in the Holocaust.

When he emerged from prison in 1992, Wishnatsky resumed his advocacy managing a 1992 anti-abortion Senate campaign in North Dakota for Darold Larson and running as mayor of Fargo in 1994. In 1993 he began working as a paralegal for Fargo attorneys who would take on abortion cases. Wishnatsky also waged a few legal battles along the way, unsuccessfully suing to remove the statue of a Greek goddess from a Grand Forks County Courthouse and working with legislators in an effort to eradicate pornography from prisons.

Wishnatsky served as a paralegal until 2001 and juggled other jobs and anti-abortion efforts simultaneously, including managing a Christian radio station, before he left Fargo for law school.

I wanted to go to a Christian law school, so that really narrowed the choices, Wishnatsky said.

At 65, he knew he couldnt take on debt, and a generous scholarship from LU won him over.

In Lynchburg he attended Tree of Life Ministries and served on the praise team.

After graduation, he soon went to work for Judge Moore in the Alabama Supreme Court.

It was a delightful place to work because everyone was a Christian; we started the day with a prayer meeting, Wishnatsky said.

Wishnatsky worked under Moore from 2013 to 2016, when he was removed from the bench for instructing Alabama justices to deny same sex marriage licenses. Following Moores removal, Wishnatsky said he was informed he and other law clerks serving Moore were to be fired.

Wishnatsky soon landed at Moores Foundation for Moral Law as a staff attorney. In the year-plus working for Moores nonprofit, Wishnatsky has focused on anti-abortion and religious freedom issues.

He didnt have an official capacity on Moores failed Senate bid but helped out off the clock.

In an election marked with multiple accusations of sexual impropriety by Moore with teenage girls, Wishnatsky said he was shocked by the allegations and considered them character assassination.

Though multiple accusers came forward against Moore, Wishnatsky remains unconvinced.

Its totally out of character with the person that I know, he said.

Wishnatsky first met Moore in 1996 when he spoke in Fargo at the Perry Center Maternity Home. He said Moore impressed him with his ability to quote long passages written by the founding fathers.

With Democrat Doug Jones chosen as Alabamas representative, Wishnatsky said he hopes Moore is able to clear his name following sexual misconduct allegations that emerged during the campaign.

I hope, in some fashion, that Judge Moore is able to rehabilitate his reputation in the public eye, he said.

Wishnatsky was not the only Liberty connection to Moores failed Senate campaign. The former Alabama Supreme Court Justice also earned the endorsement of LU President Jerry Falwell Jr.

According to statistics provided by the university, LUs law school has produced more than 700 graduates who now work for a broad range of law firms, government agencies and nonprofits.

When the law school opened, LU founder Jerry Falwell Sr. said the goal was to produce graduates who fight against abortion rights, same-sex marriage and tackle other sticky social issues.

We want to infiltrate the culture with men and women of God who are skilled in the legal profession, the late Falwell Sr. told The Associated Press when the law school opened in 2004.
In his final State of the Commonwealth speech, outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe urged the new-look General Assembly to build on the work done over the last four years and take seriously the message Virginia voters sent last year as Democrats swept all three statewide offices and made major gains in the legislature.

The people of Virginia, in their wisdom, have made significant changes to the composition of this General Assembly with a simple message in mind: Work together to get things done, McAuliffe told a joint session of the legislature in a 45-minute speech Wednesday night at the Capitol.

Chief among the opportunities for the reshaped General Assembly, McAuliffe said, is expanding Medicaid to nearly 400,000 uninsured, low-income Virginians.

Listen to the clear message the people of Virginia sent on Election Day, McAuliffe said. Put the politics aside. Its time to expand Medicaid in the commonwealth of Virginia.

McAuliffe will hand over the Executive Mansion to Gov.-elect Ralph Northam on Saturday, but according to Virginia traditions, the departing governor gives a going-away speech to members of the House of Delegates and the state Senate.

Though McAuliffe wont be around to push for legislation in the 2018 session, he crafted the two-year budget lawmakers will refine over the next 60 days. The final spending blueprint will, in many ways, lay out the parameters of how state government will function in the early stages of the Northam era.

Before McAuliffes speech even started, a line was forming for his post-speech party at the Executive Mansion, which was lit up with blue lights.

Reinforcing a key theme of his governorship, McAuliffe took a final victory lap over his record on economic development.

After announcing 1,100 others during his tenure, the governor revealed one more business project  the expansion of a metals manufacturing facility in Prince George County  that pushed total new capital investment during his tenure to more than $20 billion. McAuliffe went on to tout job-creation statistics and Virginias falling unemployment rate as proof of his economic successes.

Spotlighting another signature policy of his term, McAuliffe said his administration has now restored the voting rights of more than 173,000 felons, more than any other governor.

Every one of those Virginians represents the same story of hope for a better life that we saw play out just this past Election Day, as these men and women went to the polls, many of them for the first time in their lives, McAuliffe said.

One of the more unexpected moments of his term, McAuliffe said, was when Republican leaders tried to have him held in contempt during the 2016 legal battle over his executive actions on felons rights.

I think the fact that I was the first governor to receive such an honor only underscores what a truly historic four years this has been, McAuliffe said.

In a pre-packed Republican response to the speech, Sen. A. Benton Chafin Jr., R-Russell, and Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, said Virginias economy isnt nearly as rosy as McAuliffe portrays it. In general, Republicans have said theyre eager to move on from the McAuliffe era and start working with Northam, who, in contrast with McAuliffe, is coming into office with a low-key demeanor and statehouse experience.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday afternoon, newly elected House Speaker Kirk Cox said Northam works well with others and is willing to do things behind the scenes.

From the very beginning when Governor McAuliffe came in, it was sort of the boldness, the Rolodex, and maybe not the concern with detailed policy, Cox said.

Departing somewhat from his usual exuberance, McAuliffe said that if the executive order he signed on felon rights restoration was his proudest moment, the violent white nationalist rally last summer in Charlottesville was his lowest. He paused his speech to acknowledge the family members of the three people who died the day of the Aug. 12 rally: Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old activist killed when a white nationalist drove his car into a crowd, and two Virginia State Police officers  Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates  who died when their helicopter crashed.

McAuliffe went off his prepared script while talking about how close Bates had become with his family after spending three years in the governors Executive Protection Unit. McAuliffe said Bates was sending a care package to McAuliffes son, a Marine deployed in Iraq, with cigars, books and Irish whiskey.

I said, Berke, you cant send whiskey to someone in the U.S. military, let alone to a Muslim country, McAuliffe said. He said, Dont worry about it. Its in a Listerine bottle. Theyll never know.

Bringing back a joke he often tells about the unlikelihood of himself following in the footsteps of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, McAuliffe said he has loved every second of the job.

At the heart of that joke is a statement about the singular privilege it is to be the chief executive of a commonwealth with the people, the resources, the history, and the potential that ours has, McAuliffe said.
Former NetOne managing director Reward Kangai was yesterday arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on allegations of abuse of power during his tenure at the countrys second-biggest telecommunications company.



He was detained at Avondale Police Station and is expected to appear in court today. ZACC principal public relations officer Ms Phyllis Chikundura confirmed the arrest.



Reward Kangai has been arrested today (yesterday) for abuse of power during his tenure with NetOne and is being detained at Avondale Police Station. He will appear in Court 6 tomorrow (today), said Ms Chikundura.





His arrested follows a forensic audit conducted at NetOne last year. Last month, NetOne sued Kangai for prejudicing the company of over $2 million due to mismanagement. Kangai served as the companys managing director for four years before his expulsion for alleged mismanagement and abuse of office. After his dismissal, the company approached the High Court seeking to recover its losses from him.





NetOne contends that failure by Kangai to comply with the provisions of the Procurement Act, Public Finance Management Act, Sections 298(1) (d) and 308(2) of the Constitution, seriously affected its finances. Kangai and four executives at the State-owned enterprise were once accused of encashing over $274 000 in holiday allowances in contravention of their employment contracts.





Though Kangai was afforded this special concession, it did not apply to the other executives. The Herald reported then that the audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that Kangai was paid $135 702 cash after encashment of his holiday allowances between 2012 and 2015.





Other beneficiaries of the holiday encashment scheme were Spiwe Ndoro, Godfrey Tarupuwa, Darlington Gutu and Matavire Dzimhanhete. Ndoro got $55 264,15, Tarupuwa ($41 726,01), Dzimhanhete ($23 589,93), and Gutu ($18 136,08).





We noted instances where directors encashed their holiday allowances contrary to a clause in their contracts of employment at that time which stipulated that: In the event that the director fails to travel to any holiday resort, this benefit shall not be capable of being redeemed in whatever form, reads part of the forensic report.

It added: The total cash-in-lieu of holiday allowance received by the directors over the years under investigation was $138 716. Kangais contract did not include a clause preventing payment of these allowances in cash.





He received $135 702 in cash for these allowances during the period under review.

The forensic audit report noted that NetOnes encashment of holiday allowances policy did not set a ceiling for the holiday allowances to be enjoyed. The auditors also unearthed the inexplicable payment of incentives to some staff members for excellent work done in 2010. The State-owned NetOne also paid over $1,7 million in rentals for base station sites it acquired but failed to develop. Herald
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa will mark his first appearance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland in a fortnights time, presidential spokesman, George Charamba told The Financial Gazette yesterday.





Mnangagwas invitation to attend the elite summit is a significant step towards Zimbabwes reintergration into the international community.





His predecessor, former President Robert Mugabe, never made it to the annual summit, although he attended a regional WEF meeting in Durban last year.





Described as the worlds most high powered networking event, the WEF takes place in the resort town in the Swiss Alps from January 23 to 26, and is expected to bring together more than 3 000 members of the global elite, drawn from politics, business and academia.





Among those who will attend the WEF are journalists and columnists, Hollywood celebrities, researchers, corporate chief executive officers, global tycoons, and some Heads of State.

The President has an invitation from Mr Klaus Schwab to attend Davos, Charamba told The Financial Gazette.





We are busy preparing for the forum right now. Mr Mnangagwa is going to Davos representing Zimbabwe, said Charamba, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services.





Referencing Mnangagwas stated commitment to avoid travel to countries where diplomats or lower level officials could be sent at reduced cost, Charamba said the president was going to meet high-level investors.





That is not delegated because it is an interface between the investment community and Heads of State and Governments, Charamba said.

Economist John Robertson said the WEF is an opportunity for Mnangagwa to present Zimbabwes investment case to the world.





He said Davos presents a rare chance for the President to rebuild Zimbabwes bad image.

People have an image of Zimbabwe that is low at the moment, Robertson said.

He will have the opportunity to change this image. Countries like Rwanda have successfully done that. If the people around him keep his diary well, he will have an opportunity to speak to the worlds leaders and establish ground for future engagement. He has to impress, if he impresses, his stature will grow, said Robertson.





Davos will be the first major global economic conference that Mnangagwa will attend as

President.





He took over as President in November last year following a dramatic military intervention that led to the resignation of former president Robert Mugabe, blamed by many for crippling a once prosperous economy.





Top on Mnangagwas agenda has been establishing policies to rebuild an economy that has declined by over 50 percent since 2000 and continues to confront headwinds including cash shortages and firm closures.





Several challenges within the economy require his urgent attention, and his to-do list has been growing by the day as Zimbabweans, including industrialists, present their problems.

Both domestic and foreign investment is key for the growth of the economy, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries said in a letter to the President in December.





There is need for confidence building measures especially in the financial sector in order to attract local investors. For foreign investment, the major cloud hanging is the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act. There is need to urgently bring clarity; and key issues that investors look at are fairness, the return on investment, and investor protection, it said.

And if he fails to resolve them, the problems could continue to propel the economy down the abyss.





Zimbabwes manufacturing sector has virtually collapsed and a poor infrastructure network requires billions of dollars in new investment.





Tourist arrivals have remained subdued due to hostile policies under his predecessor, while the mainstay agricultural sector remains undermined by lack of finance and equipment to till vast tracts of farmland that have been taken over by indigenous Zimbabwe under the controversial agrarian reforms of 2000.





Hospitals are in distress and schools and universities are underfunded, while sanitation is deteriorating due to poor funding.





Mnangagwa hopes to leverage on his interactions with the worlds investment community

and other leaders to build the foundation on which Zimbabwe would attract capital to reverse the problems that have been undermining overall socio-economic development.

Founded in 1971 by Schwab, a German economics professor, the forum has become an annual meeting that includes dinners and over 400 panel discussion sessions, largely about world social and economic trends.





Officially, it is an academic conference; unofficially it is a global meeting for the rich and powerful.




The early 2000s witnessed a movement in the history of local music. It was a movement that brought to fore young artistes pursuing music that became known as urban grooves.



Many youngsters became stars overnight as their songs took the airwaves by storm. Among the youngsters of that time that made a mark were identical twins Roy and Royce Gomo who stole the limelight with their hits.



They made a mark with their debut 12-track album Gogoi that was an instant hit with songs such as

Handirege and Ndochema. They won the hearts of many with their soft superb music that had rich lyrics. In 2003 they recorded another successful album, Tenda, under their record label Twin Peaks. It had songs such as Ndazvipira, Ndiyambuke, Ndichakuwana among others.





The Gomo brothers attended the same primary school in Bulawayo and after high school Roy enrolled at National University of Science and Technology and graduated with a degree in Computer Science while Royce joined University of Zimbabwe and graduated with Medical Laboratory Sciences degree.





The sensational duo that had been in hibernation for the past seven years has broken the silence with the release of their new single titled Pahukama recorded by Mono Mukundu recently under his collection titled Anatha 8.





Herald reporter Yeukai Karengezeka (YK) caught up with the duo (R&R). They took turns to answer questions, but said they were speaking with one voice. Below are some of the excerpts from the interview.





YK: Where have you been since the release of your last album in 2005? Did the album make an impact?





R&R: Royce had relocated to Namibia and Roy found a base in South Africa in 2004. The album Ndimi was released in 2005 and since we were not in country, it was a bit difficult to promote the album. However, it did get fair airplay and we got feedback from quite a number of fans that are well acquainted with that album.

YK: How successful was your 2004 project called New Discoveries that promoted upcoming artistes?





R&R: New Discoveries Vol. 1 was implemented as project/platform to promote young up-coming artistes. We believe it was successful. The album carried Knoxs song Iwe Maria which was one of the hits that time. There was no looking back for Knox after then and he has since made himself a household name.





YK: What happened to your own Twin Peaks record label, does it still exist and who is running it?

R&R: Twin Peaks Recordings still exists. Roy and Royce are still running it, however, we have been concentrating on a few of our own projects, mostly singles.





YK: What is your new single Hukama all about and do you think that it will make an impact in the music industry?





R&R: We have released two singles over the past 12 months which include Zvoita Kunge and Hukama. The song Hukama is featured on Mono Mukundus 2017 compilation. Our intention was to respond to requests from our fans to continue to release songs. We hope that these songs will go a long way to live up to their expectations and hopefully keep the flame burning.





YK: So does this mean you are back into music full-time and when can fans expect more projects from you?





R&R: Music has always been a part-time venture for us. We are still there. Currently, we are working on a few projects, which will be released as singles over the next 12 months. The plan is to then release a complete album at the end of that period.





YK: What changes have you noticed in the arts sector since 2005?

R&R: Well, looking at the past 12 years, a lot has changed. For starters, we have grown older. So what appealed to our generation back then, may not necessarily be what appeals to the younger generation now. For instance, dancehall music has taken the scene by storm. But we have to say that Urban Grooves has definitely withstood the test of time.





However, and with some exceptions such as Jah Prayzah, the local music industry still is yet to yield good dividends for the majority of artists.

Popularity, fame and good airplay do not necessarily translate to good income. The music industry is a business and business principles need to be embraced when one is running their music career.





YK: When was the last time you had a performance in Zimbabwe and do you have a show that you still relish?





R&R: Our last live performance was in 2004 and our best and most memorable performance was at the Miss Malaika show at the HICC in 2002.

YK: Who is your role model and why?





R&R: Locally, we have always looked up to Oliver Mtukudzi. He is a true role model. He is now an international artist who has continued to churn out hits for so many years.

YK: Collaborations have proven to be popular these days. Given a chance who would you want to have collaboration with?





R&R: Well, there are many local artists that we would like to collaborate with: Oliver Mtukudzi, Jah Prayzah, Shinsoman, Winky D to name a few.





There are other urban grooves artists that we shared the studio and stage with back then, but never got a chance to collaborate with. These include Ex-Q and Ngoni Kambarami.

YK: Lets talk about your families. How many kids does each have and what professions are you pursuing?





Roy: I have one daughter and I am into the information technology industry. I am based in South Africa.





Royce: I have three children, I am in the medical profession and I am an entrepreneur. I live in Zimbabwe. Herald
This State's Road Signs

Were Too Much for the Feds
Authorities in the Paraguayan border town of Ciudad del Este have temporarily closed a shop accused of selling transgender dolls, the AP reports. Mayor Sandra McLeon justified Tuesday's closure by noting that the city, most widely known as a smuggling and counterfeiting haven, last year declared itself "pro-life and family." City attorney Christian Cabral said the shop also was closed for failing to pay this year's commercial tax and for selling toys when it's only authorized to sell electronic goods. The dolls had caused a local media stir after some customers complained. They appear to be standard, old-fashioned baby dolls with a red ribbon around the head, but with male genitalia.

Shop manager Esther Bazan told local reporters that the dolls came from China and said tourists from neighboring Brazil and Argentina had found them funny, but other customers were upset. Paraguay last year banned educational material about sexual diversity in schools and the education minister volunteered to help burn all books related to the subject. "We're not going to promote gender ideology," Education Minister Enrique Riera told local media last year. "We're going to base ourselves on what is expressed in the constitution, which says that marriage is between a man and a woman." Ciudad del Este, on the border with Argentina and Brazil, is a haven for shoppers from all three countries. It has been accused by US and international officials of being a center of drug and counterfeit-goods smuggling.

(Read more Paraguay stories.)
There won't be any hot gossip coming out of the Huma Abedin-Anthony Weiner divorce proceedingsbecause, as the New York Daily News reports, the former couple has agreed to finalize the divorce out of court. In order to reduce any impact of these proceedings on their child, the parties have decided to reach a settlement swiftly and privately, according to a statement from an attorney for Abedin. The former aide to Hillary Clinton was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday; instead the judge announced the divorce case had been "discontinued," the New York Post reports.

Abedin filed for divorce in May after Weiner pleaded guilty to sexting with a minor. She listed the case as "contested," indicating a dispute between her and her husband. Vanity Fair reports the judge had earlier denied a request from an Abedin attorney "to keep these proceedings secret to the extent your honor will allow." Abedin and Weiner will likely now work out custody and asset issues out of court before filing for an uncontested divorce. Weiner is currently serving a 21-month sentence. (Read more Huma Abedin stories.)
Seven months ago, President Trump said he would "100%" be willing to testify under oath as part of an investigation into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia, as well as potential obstruction of justice resulting from his firing of James Comey, NBC News reports. That appears to no longer be the case. "When they have no collusion, and nobody's found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview," USA Today quotes Trump as telling reporters Wednesday. The president refused to say if he would agree to be interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and called his investigation a "Democrat hoax" and "witch hunt" that, as per the New York Times, "has hurt our government."

Trump wasn't only defensive about the investigation when speaking with reporters ."The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues," Trump tweeted earlier Wednesday. "There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes." The president, notably, didn't rule out all collusion. "There is collusion, but it's really with the Democrats and the Russians," he told reporters. Regardless, Trump's legal team has been in communication with Mueller's investigation regarding the possibility of an interview. Politico looks at what Trump's lawyers are likely doing to make sure he's ready: "If the president is going to navigate this interview without stepping on any legal or political landmines, he absolutely must ... take this seriously." (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
There may soon be another reason to call Vermont the Green Mountain State: The state is poised to become the first in the US to legalize marijuana through its legislature instead of a ballot initiative. The Democratic-controlled state Senate passed a legal marijuana bill Wednesday, a week after it was passed by the Democratic-controlled state House. Republican Gov. Phil Scott has signaled that he plans to sign the measure into law soon, the Los Angeles Times reports. The eight other states to have fully legalized marijuana all did through via ballot measures, which are banned in Vermont and 22 other states.

The Vermont bill allows adults to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and two adult plants, but it does not set out a framework for retail sales. New Hampshire's GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed a similar bill Tuesday, though Republican Gov. Chris Sununu does not support legalization. Legislatures in states incuding Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey are also working on legalization bills, despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions' reversal of an Obama-era policy that let legal marijuana flourish. "Vermont in particular doesn't care very much what the attorney general thinks," pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Matt Simon tells Reuters. "With the way this bill is written, having a few plants, there's nothing that the feds could do even if they wanted to." (Read more Vermont stories.)
A Dallas woman appeared in court on Tuesday in connection with a December date gone horribly wrong. Following the appearance, the attorney for Lindy Lou Layman said, "We certainly disagree with Mr. Buzbee's rendition of the facts," per People. As for Layman's rendition of the facts, "I'll save that for the courtroom," Justin Keiter added, calling Layman a "great person." The 29-year-old Layman is free on bail but barred from drinking, using drugs, or having contact with Anthony Buzbee, the Houston lawyer who got Rick Perry off the hook in this case. As for his rendition of the facts, Buzbee alleges Layman got drunk on their first date, so he called for an Uber to collect her from his River Oaks mansion.

Per KHOU, she allegedly hid; Buzbee says he found her and called a second Uber, at which point she started swearing and ruined two Andy Warhol works, among other art. According to police, Layman tossed two sculptures and poured wine on three paintings, reports the AP; the Warhols are said to be worth $1 million in total. The Chronicle explains that because of the art's valueand the damage to them, said to be at least $300,000 worthshe has been charged with first-degree felony criminal mischief, which has a maximum sentence of life. (This may still go down in history as the worst first date ever.)
The Internal Revenue Service's outsourcing of tax debt collection is costing the IRS about $3 for every $1 it brings in, according to a report from a federal watchdog. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, head of the Taxpayer Advocate Service, said in her annual report to Congress Wednesday that the private debt collection cost the IRS $20 million in the last fiscal year and only collected $6.7 million in back taxes, the New York Times reports. The $20 million includes administrative costs as well as commissions. The private contractorswhose introduction was supported by both Democrats and Republicansalso managed to collect a 25% commission on some collections that the IRS made without them, Olson said.

Olson said the four debt-collection companies taking part in a program started last year collected less than 1% of the $920 million of the tax debt assigned to them. She said the IRS "has implemented the program in a manner that causes excessive financial harm to taxpayers and constitutes an end run around taxpayer rights protections." She also warned that the private companies are squeezing money from those who can least afford to pay, USA Today reports. Some 19% of those who paid up under the program had incomes below the federal poverty level and would have been given hardship status if the IRS had handled their cases. Olson has previously warned that the IRS is underfunded. The agency estimates it will need another $495 million to deal with President Trump's tax overhaul. (Read more Internal Revenue Service stories.)
The search for missing University of Pennsylvania sophomore Blaze Bernstein came to a grim end when the 19-year-old's body was found in a park near his parents' home, having apparently been exposed by this week's rainstorms, police in California say. The Orange County Sheriff's Department has not disclosed a cause of death or the condition of the body, but they say the case is now a homicide investigation, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The park, where a friend says he last saw Bernstein the night of Jan. 2, is around a 10-minute walk from his parents' home in Lake Forest. Investigators "are actively following multiple leads, but no suspect is in custody," the sheriff's office said. Police say they believe Bernstein, who was in California for winter break, was killed the night he disappeared.

"Our family is devastated," father Gideon Bernstein said, per the AP, thanking the community for supporting the search effort. A high-school classmate told investigators that after they drove to Borrego Park on Jan. 2, apparently to meet a third classmate, Bernstein walked into the park by himself and did not return. According to a search warrant affidavit seen by the OCRegister, when police spoke to the friend again on Jan. 4, he was "visibly shaking." He told police that scratches and abrasions on his hands were from a "fight club" he was involved in, and that he had dirt under his fingernails because he fell in mud during a sparring session. The friend told police that he went to his girlfriend's home after leaving Bernstein in the park, though he said he couldn't remember her last name or her address, the affidavit states. (Read more California stories.)
A US tourist has died while hiking in what police call "a beautiful but harsh environment" in Central Australia. The 33-year-old California man and a 40-year-old companion were descending Mount Sonder on a 10-mile hike Wednesday when they became separated. A Northern Territory police superintendent tells ABC Australia the American did "a very foolish thing" and "ran away from his companion." The 40-year-old returned to a parking lot, but the American did not. Three hours after he was last seen, the Californianwho police say had taken a wrong turnwas found dead a quarter to a half a mile from the car park, report Reuters and the BBC. It's not yet clear how he dieda fall or snake bite are possibilitiesbut authorities say heat and exposure were likely contributing factors.

It was about 108 degrees in the area as the men were hiking a section of the Larapinta Trail described by a Parks and Wildlife Service rep as a "very exposed mountain walk." Though police say the California man did have some water, the rep tells ABC Australia "it's almost physically impossible to put back the fluids that you're going to lose as quickly as you're losing them." That means "people become dehydrated very rapidly before ... realizing that it's even happening," which is why long walks in such heat are discouraged. He points out visitors from the Northern Hemisphere are used to temperatures "much cooler than what they're encountering here." The US Embassy says it's "aware of reports of the death of a US citizen in the Northern Territory" but has provided no additional information. (California can be deadly for hikers, too.)
A Japanese yakuza boss who's been a fugitive since allegedly committing a 2003 murder was done in by his extensive tattoos. The BBC reports Facebook photos of Shigeharu Shirai, variously reported as being 72 or 74, showed the frail and elderly man doing what frail and elderly men might do: playing checkers with peers alongside a road in Thailand. Except these photos, posted in August, went viral, ostensibly because they show Shirai's extensive chest and back tattoos. The person who took the images didn't know who Shirai was but admired the marks. Japanese police took notice of the images and asked their Thai counterparts to apprehend Shirai, which they did Wednesday in the town of Lopburi on the grounds of visa violations.

He'll be extradited to Japan in connection with the 2003 murder of a rival. Another giveaway: The photos showed Shirai absent the tip of his pinkie, a common self-inflicted punishment among those yakuza who've made a mistake. Shirai reportedly fled to Thailand in 2005 and married a woman there, and the AP reports by way of police that Shirai was visited two or three times annually by cronies who provided him with cash. AFP reports eight gang members were said to be involved in the rival's murder; the others were all arrested and sentenced to 12 to 17 years. (Ready to leave the yakuza? This woman will provide a fake finger.)
The US State Department tells citizens not to visit Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan. Five states in Mexico now carry the same "do not travel" warning, the Guardian reports. The State Department this week issued a level 4 advisorythe highest level of travel warningagainst the states of Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan, and Guerrero. According to the AP, all five states are home to either drug trafficking routes or drug crops. Cartels have been fighting a turf war in Tamaulipas on the US border, USA Today reports. The same is true of Guerrero, where 43 students disappeared in 2014, and Colima, which is the murder capital of Mexico. Violence has followed the 2016 arrest of El Chapo in Sinaloa, and Michoacan is a longtime home to cartels.

In addition to those five states, the US State Department classified 11 other Mexican states as level 3, or "reconsider travel." Half of Mexico's 31 states now have a level 3 or 4 warning, though the country as a whole sits at level 2, or "exercise increased caution." The number of murders in Mexico hit its highest level ever last year, with more than 22,400 people killed during the first 11 months of 2017. The homicide rate in Colima was 83.3 killings per 100,000 people. The new warnings could hurt tourism, which accounts for 7% of Mexico's GDP. The country's tourism board notes that the crime statistics being used by the US government "are not related to incidents that directly affected foreign visitors." (Read more Mexico stories.)
The story of the Louisiana middle school teacher arrested after speaking up at a school board meeting continues, now with a closer look at how women in the district are treated. When Deyshia Hargrave was carted off in handcuffs Monday after calmly questioning the $30,000 raise for Vermilion Parish School District Superintendent Jerome Puyau, Laura LeBeouf, one of the two female members of the school board, noted, "I have never seen a man removed from this room," per KATC. Critics of the school board point to footage of another recent board meeting, where a man made "an impassioned plea" about his recently deceased dad and wasn't removed as Hargrave was. Even celebrity host Sharon Osbourne backed up Hargrave on The Talk, noting: "She wasn't being violent.  They did that because she's a woman."

Stoking the fire are remarks made by school board president Anthony Fontana, who told WAFB Hargrave was "the poor little woman" whom "everybody wants to side [with]." "She could have walked out and nothing would have happened," he said. (In a video of the incident, Hargrave had indeed picked up her purse and walked out, only to be handcuffed in the hall.) Fontana also says Hargrave broke rules, including keeping her speech "civilized," and refuted any gender disparity, noting a board member's husband had once been banned. "All this stuff about this is a woman's issue is BS," he said. In a video posted on the Louisiana Association of Educators Facebook page, Hargrave says, "They  tried to take away my First Amendment rights to speak, and I'm appalled at this, and you should be, too." She tells NBC News that "it's sad that a woman has to be forcibly, violently removed from a board meeting for people to start caring." (Read more Louisiana stories.)
Bill Cosby referenced the #MeToo movement after a dinner at an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia on Wednesday, reports the AP. The 80-year-old comedian was dining with an old friend and his publicist, and some members of the media were invited to document the event. The Philadelphia Inquirerwhich dubbed it a "decidedly odd affair"says he shook a reporter's hand and said, "Please, don't put me on #MeToo," the social media movement denouncing sexual assault and misconduct.

"He had a taste for some Italian food, so we decided to fly down to Philadelphia," Cosby's spokesman was quoted as saying. When asked about his April retrial on charges he drugged and molested a woman in 2004, Cosby replied, "We're ready." Cosby's new trial was supposed to begin in November but was delayed until this spring so his new legal team could get up to speed. Jurors deadlocked in June and the judge declared a mistrial. He has said his sexual encounter was consensual. (Read more Bill Cosby stories.)
Following a "total victory" last spring, Julian Assange has faced a setback in his attempt to extricate himself from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London that's been his home for five and a half years. The British government announced Thursday it had rejected Ecuador's request to grant Assange diplomatic status, which might've allowed him to leave the embassy for Ecuador, where the 46-year-old has just been granted citizenship, report the New York Times and AP. Assange entered the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced rape allegations. The country dropped its investigation into the allegations last year, citing the unlikelihood of extradition. But UK police said Assange still faced arrest over bail violations. Plus, Assange fears being arrested and extradited to the US, where he faces charges related to WikiLeaks.

Luckily for Assange, Ecuador's request for diplomatic status is just one part of "a flurry of activity suggesting that the Ecuadorean government had ramped up efforts to find a solution," per the Times. In addition to the granting of citizenship, the country's foreign minister on Tuesday raised the possibility of a third-party mediator helping to broker a deal that would end Assange's "untenable" stay in London, per the Guardian. "No solution can be reached without international cooperation and without cooperation from the United Kingdom, which in addition has shown interest in finding a solution," the minister said, per Reuters. Britain's Foreign Office put a damper on that plan Thursday. Stressing Britain isn't in talks with Ecuador, a statement from the Foreign Office notes "Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," per the Times. (Read more Julian Assange stories.)
A Louisiana school superintendent wiped away tears as he said he "hated what happened" after a teacher was arrested during a school board meeting on Monday, CBS News reports. Deyshia Hargrave, a former teacher of the year in Vermilion Parish, was asked to leave the meeting after complaining about superintendent Jerome Puyau's $30,000 raiseteachers in the district haven't gotten a raise in a decadeand was arrested in the hallway outside.

Puyau blames himself for what happened. "I'm the superintendent, I'm to blame," he said. "I should have stood up, okay? That's what you want to hear and it's the truth. I should have stood up ... Let her speak." Puyau's response is a far cry from that of the school board president, who is blaming Hargrave amid accusations of gender bias from others in the district. (Read more Louisiana stories.)
"I believe you!!!" Mira Sorvino writes in an open letter to Dylan Farrow published by the HuffPost. The actor reached out to Woody Allen's daughter Wednesday to apologize for starring in her father's Mighty Aphroditefor which she won an Oscarwhile ignoring Farrow's claims of sexual abuse against Allen. Farrow was 7 when she said Allen sexually touched her, and a judge later found her claims credible, though Allen has continually denied the allegations, Vulture reports. Sorvino says she was aware of Farrow's claims when she made Mighty Aphrodite but dismissed them "as an outgrowth of a twisted custody battle" because of her lifelong love of Allen's work. "It is difficult to sever ties and denounce your heroes, your benefactors, whom you fondly admired and felt a debt of gratitude toward for your entire careers existence," she writes.

Sorvino says her experience opening up to Farrow's brother, reporter Ronan Farrow, about Harvey Weinstein made her want to learn more about Dylan Farrow's allegations, which led to her taking those allegations seriously. Sorvino says her love of Allen's work "does not excuse my turning a blind eye to your story simply because I wanted desperately for it not to be so." She says she won't work with Allen again, writing: "We are in a day and age when everything must be re-examined. This kind of abuse cannot be allowed to continue. If this means tearing down all the old gods, so be it." Sorvino isn't the first actor to denounce Allen. Greta Gerwig and David Krumholtz recently said they regret working with him. And Vanity Fair reports Ellen Page in November called doing an Allen movie "the biggest regret of my career." (Read more Mira Sorvino stories.)
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Mumbai:

Two suspicious-looking devices appearing like crude bombs were found during the excavation work for a Metro line outside the Mumbai Central Station on Wednesday evening, police said.

Some workers spotted them and alerted a police constable, an official said.

Also Read: Only 1 among 14 applicants got nod for rooftop restaurant in Mumbai

A dog squad, a unit of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad and a team of Nagpada police rushed to the spot, he said.

The devices, suspected to be old and unused crude bombs, had been defused and sent to the Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory for forensic testing and examination, he said.
New Delhi:

Actor Ankita Lokhande who is known for super hit television serial Pavitra Rishta is all set to debut in Bollywood film Manikarnika. The diva is currently busy with the shoot and rehearsals for a power pack character of a great warrior Jhalkari Bai.

The beautiful actress started 2018 with a noble cause by donating food, blankets and cloths at Jeevan Asha old age home in Veera Desai, Mumbai. The former Jhalak Dikh Laja contestant spent some quality time with them and had fun with all the people there.
New Delhi:

The Supreme Court to appoint a new special investigation team to probe 241 cases from the 1984 anti-Sikh riots which had been closed for lack of evidence.

The new team will consist of a retired high court judge and two IPS officers, one serving and the other retired. Their names will be announced on Thursday.

On January 6th the Supreme Court took on record the final report submitted by a supervisory body appointed by it to look into the closure of 241 cases in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and said it will examine it.

The bench examined on December 11 the report filed by the advisory body, comprising former apex court judges Justices J M Panchal and Justice K S P Radhakrishnan.

As the report was submitted in a leather bag with a number-lock system, after which a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said the lock will be opened on December 11.

It asked the parties including Additional Solicitor General Pinki Anand to be present to assist the court in the matter.

The court said a member of the panel had written a letter to the court on September 4, after the scrutiny of every matter on the issue whether Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the Sikh riot cases was justified in closing the 241 cases.

On August 16, the apex court had appointed the supervisory panel to examine the SITs decision to close 241 cases in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots matter and asked it to submit report in three months.

The Centre had earlier told that out of the 250 cases which were investigated by the SIT, closure reports were filed in 241.

It had said that nine cases were still being investigated by the SIT, while two cases are being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The apex court had on March 24 asked the Centre to place before it the files pertaining to the 199 cases of the anti-

Sikh riots which the special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Home Ministry had decided to close.

The SIT is headed by Pramod Asthana, an IPS officer of 1986 batch, and has Rakesh Kapoor, a retired district and sessions judge, and Kumar Gyanesh, an additional deputy commissioner of Delhi Police, as its members.

The anti-Sikh riots, which had broke out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone.

The government had earlier filed a status report on the probe conducted by the SIT in the cases.

Petitioner S Gurlad Singh Kahlon had earlier told the bench that a total of 293 riots related cases were taken up for scrutiny by the three-member SIT and it had decided to close 199 of them after scrutiny.

Kahlon, a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, had sought the courts direction for setting up an SIT to ensure speedy justice to riots victims.

With PTI Input

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New Delhi:

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday said Indian and Chinese troops had resolved an issue over the recent attempt by Chinese teams to build a road on the Indian side of the border at Tuting in Arunachal Pradesh.

Government sources said two excavators, brought in for road building activities by the Chinese teams, were returned on Saturday following an amicable resolution of the Tuting incident at a Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) between the two sides in Arunachal.

They said the Indian side had conveyed its concerns over the incident to China, which said that the teams had crossed into India by mistake and would no longer engage in such activities.

The Tuting incident has been resolved, General Rawat told reporters on the sidelines of an event, adding that a meeting of border personnel was held two days ago.

The Army chief also said there was a major reduction of Chinese troops in the Doklam area. Troops from the two countries were engaged in a 73-day long standoff in Doklam in the Sikkim sector last year.

Also Read | AgustaWestland chopper scam accused acquitted by Italy court

On December 28, Indian troops had foiled attempts by Chinese road-building teams to build a track around 1km inside Indian Territory in Tuting, government sources had said.

They had said the civilian teams went back when confronted by the Indian troops, but left behind two excavators and some other equipment.

The two excavators were returned to the Chinese side following the BPM on January 6, the sources said, adding that Indias objection to the incident was conveyed to China.

In an address at an event on the modernisation of the armed forces, General Rawat said future wars would be fought on difficult terrains and circumstances and the forces would have to be prepared for them.

His comments were seen as an apparent reference to China.

Days after the end of the Doklam standoff, the Army chief had said India should be prepared for a two-front war, noting that China had started flexing its muscles.

He had also said China was trying to take over Indian Territory in a gradual manner and cautioned the forces to guard against such attempts.

Future wars will be fought in difficult terrains and circumstances. We have to be prepared for them, General Rawat said.

He further said the armed forces needed major modernisation and that the country must fight the next war with indigenous solutions.

General Rawat said the Army was ready to induct equipment and platforms made by domestic defence firms.

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New Delhi:

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called for an enquiry over Special Court Judge Shivpal Singh's claim that prior to Lalu Prasad Yadav's sentencing in the fodder scam case, he "got phone calls from RJD chief's men".

However, the judge had not clarified as to who made these calls to him.

Taking not of the matter, Adityanath has ordered Jhansi Commissioner to investigate the case and draft a report at the earliest.

In a huge setback to the RJD, its supremo Lalu Prasad was on January 6 sentenced to three-and-a-half-years jail in a fodder scam case.

The court convicted Lalu Prasad and 15 others on December 23 in the case relating to the multi-million-rupee scam.

The sentences range from three-and-a-half-years to seven years imprisonment. The maximum fine imposed was Rs 10 lakh, slapped on three convicts including Jagdish Sharma, former Public Accounts Committee chairman, while they and three others got the seven years in jail too. Thre remaining nine were also sentenced to three and half years in jail.



He was facing a total five cases in the fodder scam and the judgment in two more cases are likely to be pronounced within one month.

The multi-million-fodder scam surfaced in 1996 and at directive of Patna High Court, the investigation was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). When Lalu Prasad moved the Supreme Court against high court order, the SC ordered the Patna High Court to monitor the investigation.

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New Delhi:

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday confirmed the meeting held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Lt General (retd.) Nasir Khan Janjua in Bangkok.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, I am agreeing that talks took place. Our issue was eliminating terrorism from the region.

We of course raised the issue of cross-border terrorism in those talks, added the MEA spokesperson.

He further said, We have said terror and talks cannot go together but terror can definitely go ahead.

Also read: Pakistan must curb Hafiz Saeed, other terror groups to ensure better relations with India, says Husain Haqqani

The confirmation on the meeting comes around a week after media of the two countries  India and Pakistan  reported that Doval met his Pakistani counterpart Lt General (retd) Janjua in Bangkok.

According to media reports, the meeting between the security advisor of the both the countries took place a day after jailed former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav met his family in Islamabad.

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New Delhi :

In a bizarre incident on Jan 9, three jawans of the Indian Army got injured during a practice drill ahead of the Army Day on Jan 15.

The incident occurred due to helicopter boom malfunction. In a video which has come out on the incident, it can be clearly seen that while the Jawans were slithering from a chopper, the rope snapped and the troops came down crashing on the ground

All the three jawans have been reported safe. The army authorities have called for an investigation into the matter.

Army Day is celebrated on 15 January every year in India, in recognition of Lieutenant General K. M. Cariappa's taking over as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General Sir Francis Butcher, the last British Commander-in-Chief of India, on 15 January 1949.

The day is celebrated in the form of parades and other military shows in the national capital New Delhi as well as in all headquarters.

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Noida:

A Uttar Pradesh Police constable on Thursday was beaten by mob and handed over to state police for allegedly raping a seven-year-old girl in Greater Noida.

The accused constable has been identified as Subash Singh.

We have sent the child to district hospital in Noida for medical test. Reports are awaited, said a senior officer of Surajpur police station, Greater Noida.

The officer added, Singh is deployed at sales tax department in Gautam Budh Nagar.

He added, The constable on Wednesday evening forcibly took the minor to his room while she was playing outside her house and allegedly raped her.

The officer further added, Her neighbour came for her rescue when she cried for help.

Also read: Violent protests erupt over rape, murder of 8-yr-old girl in Pakistan



According to the victims neighbour, they had tried to apprehend him, but he attacked them. Later a group of people took him captive and thrashed him.

The Uttar Pradesh have lodged an FIR against Singh under POSCO act and IPC sections 376 and 342.

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Jammu:

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday vowed to break the vicious cycle of youth taking up arms on the death of a militant and said efforts were on to ensure that those joining militant ranks return home.

She said that her government would continue its efforts to bring back local youth who had joined militancy to end the vicious cycle besides strengthening panchayats after successfully conducting the elections next month.

Jaish-e-Mohammads Afzal Guru squad that has claimed responsibility for major terror attacks in the Valley recently is a challenge for not only the government but for all of us, she said in her reply to the motion of thanks on the Governor's address in the state assembly here.

(Slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander) Burhan wani was born at that time (when NC-Congress was ruling the state) and those (militants) who will be born today somebody else will face them, she said.

Mehbooba was apparently responding to the remarks of legislative party leader of opposition National Conference and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who had on Tuesday said, You talked about my role in creating Burhan Wani when I was the chief minister. Just think how many Wanis have you created under your rule.

Young boys get glorified by taking arms in their hand and uploading the picture on social media sites. My effort is that the local militants should get back, Mehbooba said.

It was in this endeavour that one militant was caught alive in an injured condition during a recent operation after firing on the security forces throughout the night, she said.

Also Read: 21,400 hectares under illegal possession of Army in Jammu and Kashmir, says Mehbooba Mufti

We are thankful to the parents who are appealing to their wards to return from the path of militancy. Many a youth had returned and we are not harassing them. We are happy that they are coming back, Mehbooba said, adding we have to reach out to the people especially to the youth of the state.

On an Aligarh Muslim University scholar joining Hizbul Mujahideen in Kupwara district a few days back, she said his class fellows ad also appealed him for his return and we are hopeful that he too?will return to his weeping family.

Our effort is that the local youth give up gun and return back to their homes. It is our loss as one militant is getting killed, his native village see another boy taking up the arms. It is a vicious circle and we have to break it, the chief minister said.

As a major initiative, Mehbooba said, her government had announced an amnesty to stone-pelters by withdrawing FIRs registered against them.

About 8,000 to 9,000 youth, I dont have the exact figures, will be benefited by withdrawal of FIRs. We have started the process in 2016 but had to stop it due to the unrest (triggered by the killing of Burhan Wani), she said.

On the Panchayat elections scheduled to start from February, she said her government would ensure full power to the local bodies and make them partner in the development of the state.

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New Delhi:

Social media platform, Facebook, on Wednesday announced its new feature aimed at disseminating local news to its users.

The new tool, called Today In, will show a feed of local events, announcements and news to the users. The users will get to go through local news on their go.

The company is currently testing the feature in 6 states of the US. News that is specific to the related communities and cities will be given in the users feed.

Facebooks news partnership team will check the relevance of the news that goes on the feed.

Also Read: Facebook denies linking Aadhaar with user account, clears rumours in blog post

The users in the batches in which the test is going on can access the icon on the bottom of the menu in their mobile app.

The project is a part of the companys Journalism Project initiative, which was launched at the time of presidential elections in 2016, because it was facing inspection for fake news stories being published on the platform before the 2016 election.

The company will expand the Today In feature in other cities too.
Washington:

A powerful and shallow 7.6- magnitude earthquake has hit the waters off the coast of Honduras, triggering tsunami threats and advisories for nearby Caribbean shores, though there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake struck at 0820 IST late yesterday and its epicenter was located some 27 miles (44 kilometers) east of Great Swan Island, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). It was provisionally considered to be shallow.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said authorities had activated the country's emergency system, but urged people to "please remain calm."

"Based on the preliminary earthquake parameters, hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 1,000 kilometers of the earthquake epicenter," the US National Weather Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

Tsunami advisories, which are a level below "warnings" were issued for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Belize and Jamaica meanwhile were issued "threat" warnings of waves between 0.3 to one meter (a foot to 3.3 feet) high.

The USGS's PAGER algorithm assigned the event a "green alert," meaning a low likelihood of casualties and damage.

"Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are vulnerable to earthquake shaking, though resistant structures exist," it said.

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Kuala Lumpur :

Malaysia signed a deal with an American firm on Wednesday to resume the search for MH370 almost four years after the plane disappeared, with the company to receive up to $70 million if successful.

The new hunt, which will last 90 days, is expected to start in mid-January when a high-tech vessel leased by the seabed exploration firm, Ocean Infinity, reaches a new search zone in the southern Indian Ocean.

The Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people -- mostly from China -- on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, triggering one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

No sign of the plane was found in a 120, 000 square kilometre search zone selected by satellite analysis of the jet's likely trajectory.

The Australian-led sea search, the largest in aviation history, was suspended in January last year.

But three firms submitted bids to resume the hunt privately and after lengthy negotiations, the Malaysian government agreed to engage Ocean Infinity on a "no find, no fee" basis.

"I would like to reiterate our unwavering commitment towards solving the mystery of MH370," Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said today at a signing ceremony for the deal.

The new search zone is an area of approximately 25,000 square kilometres in the Indian Ocean.

If the company finds the Boeing 777, the amount they are paid will depend on where it was located, said Liow.

If it is found within the first 5,000 square kilometres, they will receive $20 million. The amount rises gradually to a maximum of $70 million if the jet is found outside the 25,000 square kilometre search zone.

Relatives of MH370 passengers welcomed the decision.

"We are grateful the Malaysian government is resuming the search for MH370," V. P. R. Nathan, whose wife Anne Daisy was on the plane, told AFP.

"We do not know what happened, we need to know what happened before we can get closure."

The ship that will conduct the hunt is a Norwegian research vessel named Seabed Constructor, which is carrying 65 crew members and set off from South Africa in early January for the search zone.

It is carrying eight autonomous drones, equipped with sonars and cameras, that will scour the waters in the hunt for the wreckage and can operate in depths up to 6,000 metres.

Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two- metre wing part known as a flaperon.

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New Delhi:

The alleged rape and murder of eight-year-old Zainab has left Pakistan in shock. People across the nation are protesting the brutal murder of the minor on streets and different platforms.

A Pakistani anchor to protest the brutal murder of Zainab after alleged rape and to convey a parents grief presented her news bulletin with her little daughter sitting on her lap.

In the video making rounds on the social media one can see Kiran Naz, anchor of Pakistans Samaa TV, presenting her news bulletin with her little daughter playing on her lap.

Prior starting the 7pm bulletin Naz said, I am not Kiran Naz today. I am a mother first. This is the only reason I am sitting with my daughter.

She added, A childs corpse is the heaviest janaza (funeral) and Pakistan is in the burden of Zainabs funeral.

Also read: Violent protests erupt over rape, murder of 8-yr-old girl in Pakistan



During the bulletin, Naz shared her anger over Zanaids rape and murder and frustration of the minors parents and relatives as there has been no progress in tracking down the minors violator and murderer.

Zanaids was abducted from from outside her house in Pakistans Punjab province. Her body was found from a heap of garbage in Saddar area of the city. According to Pakistani officials, initial autopsy report suggests the minor was stangulated after rape.

People in Pakistans Kasur took to streets after reports of the alleged rape and murder of the girl began circulating on social media.

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Washington:

The US on Thursday called for aimmediate releasea of all political prisoners in Iran, saying it was adeeply concerneda over imprisonment of thousands of people by the Iranian regime for engaging in peaceful protests.

aIranas regime claims to support democracy, but when its own people express their aspirations for better lives and an end to injustice, it once again shows its true brutal nature,a White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

She said the US demands aimmediate releasea of all political prisoners in Iran, including the victims of the most recent crackdown.

Also Read:A China says no major oil spill after Iran tanker collision

The Trump administration, Sanders said, was adeeply concerneda by reports that the Iranian regime has imprisoned thousands of its citizens in the last week for protesting against the government.

aFurther reports that the regime has tortured or killed some of these demonstrators while in detention are even more disturbing.

aWe will not remain silent as the Iranian dictatorship represses the basic rights of its citizens and will hold Iranas leaders accountable for any violations,a she warned.

Sanders said the protesters in Iran are expressing legitimate grievances, including demanding an end to their governmentas oppression, corruption, and awaste of national resources on amilitary adventurisma.

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Washington:

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he is open to talks with North Korea but at the appropriate time.

Trump said this in a telephonic conversation with the South Korean President Moon Jae-In during which the latter briefed him about his countrys talks with the North Koreans.

President Trump expressed his openness to holding talks between the United States and North Korea at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances, the White House said in a readout of the call.

Briefing reporters on his phone call, Trump said he had a good conversation with the South Korean leader.

I just spoke to President Moon. Hes very thankful for what weve done. Theyre having talks with North Korea. Well see how that happens. He felt that the original, that the initial talk was extremely good. Had a lot of good comment, he said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

Also Read: Donald Trump says US could 'conceivably' return to Paris climate deal

We had a very, very good conversation, and well see where it goes. Hes very thankful for what weve done. It was so reported today that we were the ones, without our attitude, that would have never happened. Who knows where it leads, he said.

Hopefully, it will lead to success for the world, not just for our country, but for the world. And well be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens, Trump said.

Moon also briefed Trump on his governments talks with a delegation from the North which resulted in Pyongyang agreeing to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in South Korea next month, both sides said.

According to the White House, Vice President Mike Pence would lead the US delegation to the Winter Olympics.

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New Delhi:

Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in asylum in its London embassy for the last five years. The development was announced by Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa on Thursday during a press conference in Quito.

Espinosa said, WikiLeaks Julian Assange was naturalised as an Ecuador national on December 12 at his request.

The Ecuador foreign minister also added that the Ecuadorian officials decided to permit Assange's naturalization while they were looking for ways to resolve his current situation.

She further added that they feared for his life threats coming from third party states.

Several media reports have claimed earlier that Assange was given Ecuador passport a few days before the Christmas.

Ecuador had granted Assange political asylum after taking refuge in Knightsbridge, west London, in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over charges of rape and sexual assault.

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Washington:

Working with countries like India, Russia and China is a good not bad thing, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday.

He was responding to criticism of his desire to improve relationship with Moscow.

Working with countries, whether its Russia or China or India, or any of the countries that surround this world and encompass this world, is a very good thing. Thats not a bad thing, he told reporters at a joint White House news conference with Prime Minister, Norway, Erna Solberg.

Trump said he was for strongest military, massive oil and gas and a lot of energy. Putin (Russian President Vladimir Putin) cant love that, he added.

Trump said it was very much better having to do with North Korea where the US currently has a problem.

That should have never been my problem. It should have been a problem solved many years ago when it was much less dangerous. But it was given to him, along with a big mess of other things, he noted.

Also Read: US President Donald Trump open to talks with North Korea

He blamed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his presidential rival in 2016 elections, saying she was not was not for a strong military.

Hillary, my opponent, was for windmills, and she was for other types of energy that dont have the same capacities at this moment certainly, he said. Trump said it was a lot better to work with other countries.

Were working with China on North Korea. Were working with various other countries, and I think were doing very well. We had a great talk, as you know and as you reported.

We had a great talk this morning with President Moon (of South Korea), and I think that a lot of good things are happening. Were going to see what happens, the US president said. Solberg said Norway has a very good relationship with Russia.

As a neighbouring country we do day-to-day work on things that we have to solve for the people and the economic activity that is in that area, which is a fragile area for the whole world, she said.

Norway share border with Russia. Responding to a question on allegations of Russian interference in elections in European countries, Solberg said her government has found no such evidence in Norway.

I think that its up to every political system and countries to scrutinise and discuss their own political agenda in their countries. And I respect that very much and that this is an issue for American politics, she said.

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Police arrested a 36-year-old man Wednesday on suspicion of trying to kill an acquaintance with heat-not-burn tobacco laced with mercury.

Takashi Miyawaki of Otsu in Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, allegedly gave a pack of the spiked tobacco product to the 37-year-old male acquaintance on a street in the prefecture on June 3 last year, investigative sources said, adding there appears to have been a dispute over money between the two.

The man, who ended up using 14 of the 20 cartridges in the pack, was rushed to a hospital the following day after suffering from headaches, coughing and slurred speech. He reported to the police on June 5, telling investigators he developed the symptoms after consuming the tobacco he had been given.

Miyawaki has admitted to the charge of attempted murder, telling the police he added 0.3 to 0.5 gram of mercury to each of the 20 cartridges in the pack. Investigators detected mercury in the victim's urine and blood samples as well as the remaining cartridges, the police said.

They suspect Miyawaki used a device to inject mercury into each of the cartridges without opening the package.
Details emerged Wednesday about significant debts faced by a kimono rental firm that went bust just before Coming-of-Age Day ceremonies, leaving scores of women celebrating adulthood without their formal attire.

The Yokohama-based company, Harenohi, was behind on payments, a credit research firm said, with a sharp increase in delays over the last six months. Unpaid bills were said to go back as far as a year.

aHarenohias finances must have worsened well before the payment delays,a said an official from the credit research company. aThe firm should have been able to predict its bankruptcy, so it seems malicious that it waiteda this long to cease operations.

A Kyoto kimono trading firm which had been supplying Harenohi suspended the relationship around the summer of 2016 due to late payments. Despite repeated requests for payment, the Kyoto firm says it has an irrecoverable debt of more than A10 million due to its business with Harenohi.

In addition to its Yokohama shop, Harenohi had locations in Hachioji, Tokyo; Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture; and the city of Fukuoka.

The Kanagawa Prefectural Police and Tokyoas Metropolitan Police Department have received approximately 380 complaints claiming that Harenohi failed to provide kimono that had already been paid for. Police are investigating the firmas financial status on suspicion of fraud, with damages possibly totaling tens of millions of yen.

In recent years, it has become customary in the industry to take reservations for purchasing or renting kimono for Coming-of-Age Day ceremonies two years in advance of potential customers reaching 20 years old, the legal age of adulthood. Competition has become increasingly fierce. Amid a scramble to win customers, Harenohias unstable finances were an open secret within the industry, sources said. Industry officials say they will have to work on winning back the confidence of customers.
BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Air Force of the People's Liberation Army of China has carried out real combat training, with the involvement of the J-20 stealth fighter and the Y-20 military transport aircraft, according to a military statement.

The J-20, China's fourth-generation medium and long-range fighter jet, made its maiden flight in 2011 and was officially commissioned into military service in September 2017.

Several new fighter jets including the J-16, J-10C and H-6K bombers were also included in the training, the statement said.

The training is aimed at improving the air force's capability to win battles, it said.
President Xi Jinping, who also is chairman of the Central Military Commission, confers an Armed Police flag on General Wang Ning (left), commander of the Armed Police, and General Zhu Shengling, political commissar of the force, in Beijing on Wednesday. LI GANG/ XINHUA

Force told to quickly merge with PLA system

President Xi Jinping urged the People's Armed Police Force on Wednesday to maintain absolute loyalty to the Communist Party of China and continue to improve its operational capability.

Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, said the Armed Police Force plays a key role in safeguarding national and political security, social stability and people's well-being, so it must be under the complete control of the Party.

He said the Armed Police must be flexible, multifunctional and capable and should speed up its integration with the People's Liberation Army's joint operation system. He told the force to concentrate on combat-ready training and to be well prepared for emergency-response and counterterrorism operations. He also ordered the force to regulate its officers with the strictest discipline, to leave no room for corruption.

Xi made the remarks after he conferred an Armed Police flag on General Wang Ning, commander of the Armed Police, and General Zhu Shengling, political commissar of the force, at a ceremony on Wednesday morning at the Central Military Commission headquarters in Beijing.

Starting this month, the Armed Police Force has been placed under the unified control of the CPC Central Committee and Central Military Commission. Previously, it was jointly administered by the military commission and the State Council.

Under the new command chain, Armed Police units take orders directly from the force's headquarters, which, likewise, will follow directives from the Central Military Commission. The Armed Police Force has been included in the Central Military Commission system and no longer takes orders from the State Council.

At Wednesday's ceremony, Xi said the transfer was an important decision made by the CPC Central Committee to make sure it has absolute control over all of the nation's armed forces, adding the move will extensively boost the Party's efforts to build a strong military and ensure long-term stability and prosperity.

The history of the Armed Police Force can be traced to 1949, the year the People's Republic of China was founded, when its predecessor  the Chinese People's Public Security Central Column  was set up to take charge of internal security. In the following decades, the force's name and affiliation was changed, but most of the time it was administered by the Central Military Commission.

In 1982, some PLA units responsible for domestic security were merged with police forces in charge of border defense and firefighting to form a new Armed Police Force. At that time, the Central Military Commission and State Council began to share its administration.
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One month ago, frustrated by the stigma and silence that often surrounds mental health disorders, John Sciarretta created an Instagram account that asks people to share their stories about how they cope with their illnesses.

The account, called The Mental Minute Project, allows people to post one-minute videos describing their struggles and how they deal with them.

Explain what you suffer from and how you cope with it, said Sciarretta, who himself has suffered from addiction and mental health disorders, in the video that launched the project. Ill share it on the page and well go from there as a team.

Sciarrettas hope was to build a community and let people know they are not alone, but even he did not expect what happened next. Within weeks, nearly 100 videos flooded the page, with submissions from at least 21 states and six countries, including Nigeria, Switzerland and Canada.

Mental health professionals from as far as Australia reached out to Sciarretta or posted their own videos, explaining that the page had become a tool in helping their own patients. One Texas doctor said it even helped save a suicidal patients life.

People of all ages  even a therapy dog with a voice-over from its owner  opened up about tackling illnesses such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.

We are one big family, and family and love is most important when youre suffering, said Chris Stockil, who lives in England, in one recent video.

In another, a 27-year-old from New Jersey shared her journey with depression.

I normally dont talk about it, but I think not talking about it further perpetuates the stigma, she said. Im here to tell you: You are not alone.

In addition to submitted videos, Sciarretta does several live-streams a day to discuss mental health with people all over the world. He also recently appeared on an ESPN radio podcast to talk about the project.

Sciarretta, who lived for a time in Ridgefield, said hes discovered that people are more likely to share their stories via video because it can be less intimidating than talking face-to-face. But for those watching, the videos are more powerful and relatable than written stories, he said.

(Its been) a domino effect of help, love and No. 1, hope, Sciarretta said. I look in their eyes and I see pain, and I see that theyre struggling, and I see relief. Thats whats making the difference and what is slowly helping people come out and break the silence."

And while allowing a space for others to open up was his main goal, Sciarretta said, sharing his own story has helped him cope, too.

Born in Stamford, Sciarretta was raised by his mother, who at the time suffered with addiction, after his father died when he was 4 years old. After repeated abuse by a babysitter and his mothers boyfriend, Sciarretta began acting out in school.

His family moved to Ridgefield when he was 11 with the hope of giving him a fresh start. Sciarretta said things started to turn around as he got involved in sports, but by 15 he was using drugs and alcohol.

Over the next few years, Sciarretta was sent to a military boot camp, spent time in prison on alcohol-related offenses, lived in a halfway house, became homeless and went to rehab three times.

But now, sober for almost four years, he said hes at a point in life where hes ready to share his past and help others.

Sharing is the number one coping skill, the number one tool, he said. I struggle every day, but Im a survivor. Thats how I look at it. Its a duty for me to be alive and be able to give back to the community and to help other people.

Sciarretta now lives in Norwalk and focuses on giving the life he never had to his 4-year-old daughter, Lyla. His mother, who is now clean and lives nearby, was the person who encouraged him to start The Mental Minute Project.

He isnt sure what the next step will be for the project, but has high hopes it will continue to grow.

One of the therapists, Alyse Price-Tobler, of Australia, said she might use the platform to offer online Q & As for those who cannot afford mental health treatment, Sciarretta said. He also has ideas of turning the posts into a book or starting a GoFundMe.

As long as its helping other people and moving the project forward, Im up for it, he said. Wherever it goes, it goes.

aquinn@newstimes.com
KENT  A federal lawsuit accuses the Kent School of improperly training and outfitting a former student who crashed during a school-sponsored bicycle ride, putting him in the hospital for nearly three months.

The suit, filed by the mother of Danilo Bracho, who was a freshman at the boarding school in 2016, said he is a novice bicyclist who was given a poorly maintained bike to ride when he took part in a ride organized by a teacher.

The family seeks more than $75,000 in damages, according to the complaint filed Jan. 3 in U.S. District Court.

Kent School officials did not respond to requests for comment before deadline Thursday. They have 21 days from the filing date of the complaint to respond, according to court records.

The school requires all students to enroll in an outdoor activity, the suit said, and the only requirement for road biking was that students have their own bike and helmet.

Bracho, who came to the school from Portugal, did not have his own bike, so English teacher and activity overseer John Hinman lent him a pre-owned De Bernardi bicycle that was the wrong size and poorly maintained in addition to being an old frame with old parts.

On Brachos first ride, both tires went flat, the suit said, and one flatted on his second.

Then, on April 21, 2016, when Bracho fell behind fellow riders during a ride along on Bulls Bridge Road, he failed to navigate a tight curve midway down on a steep hill and crashed into a tree. He suffered a brain hemorrhage, organ damage, a broken arm and leg and several other injuries, the lawsuit said.

After the crash, Bracho was flown by helicopter to Hartford for emergency care, and stayed in the hospital nearly three months. He has had 19 surgeries and more are likely, according to the lawsuit.

When a State Trooper went to the crash site, the suit said, Hinman told him that Bracho was a novice rider but expressed surprise that he had crashed.

It is not dangerous for an experienced rider, the suit quotes Hinman as saying.

The lawsuit argues that Brachos injuries were caused by the the schools negligence, that the school failed to inform him fully about the risks, failed to supervise him properly and allowed him to use an unsafe bike.

Kent School owed Danilo a duty of care, it breached that duty in multiple ways, the lawsuit said.

blytton@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3411; @bglytton
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RICHMOND, Va. -- The bill she was filing was due at 10 a.m., two hours before Danica Roem would be sworn in Wednesday as Virginia's first openly transgender state lawmaker.

The newcomer from Prince William County had made a procedural error earlier in the week, when she tried to assign a commuter-rail study to the wrong agency. She did not want her first official day to begin with another error.

But as she tried to finalize the language on legislation that would shield journalists from being forced to reveal their sources, a stream of well-wishers and lobbyists stopped by her office in the Pocahontas state legislature building, offering congratulations, hugs and advice.

Roem politely thanked each visitor before finally shutting her office door and leaning in to a laptop covered with death-metal band stickers.

"I am not going to blow this thing," she said, under her breath.

"You're going to get it in one way or another," said her aide, Maria Salgado.

Roem hunched her shoulders and kept typing.

Many LGBT groups and progressives - who helped fund Roem's campaign against a longtime incumbent who once described himself as Virginia's "chief homophobe" - see Roem's presence in the General Assembly as an affirmation of the arrival of transgender people into the country's mainstream.

Her victory over former Del. Robert Marshall, R, in Prince William County's 13th District was part of a wave of Democratic wins in November that nearly leveled the balance of power in Richmond. But for Roem, and for advocates, it was about more than which party has control.

"Her swearing-in is a milestone for the community," said Sarah McBride, press secretary for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, who at the Democratic National Convention in 2016 became the first trans American to address a major party convention. "It's a tangible reflection of the progress we have been making."

Five other transgender candidates around the country also won local races in November, triggering what advocates describe as a flood of new LGBT candidates seeking office this year.

"In Texas alone, there is something like 41 LGBT candidates running at all different levels," said Annise Parker, a former Houston mayor who is president of the Victory Fund, an organization that helps elect LGBT people at all levels of government. "People are inspired, and they want to go out there and be part of the change that is happening in America."

Roem is believed to be the first state lawmaker in the country to be sworn in after campaigning as an openly transgender candidate. She enters Richmond, Virginia, as a standard-bearer for that movement, her 64,000 Twitter followers lending muscle to her legislative agenda, which is mostly about good governance and fixing local infrastructure.

She is chief sponsor of 10 bills so far, including a resolution that addresses her signature pledge to alleviate traffic congestion on Route 28. That legislation calls on the state Department of Transportation to study alternative intersection designs along Route 28, a precursor to getting rid of traffic signals on the highway. Another bill seeks to extend a ban against lobbying by former state employees to three years from one.

Roem's ability to get any bills passed will depend on how well she navigates Richmond's deceptively polite political landscape. One of her first attempts at coalition building came when she asked state Sen. Chapman "Chap" Petersen, D-Fairfax, if she could champion House versions of bills he introduced seeking to further regulate Dominion Energy, the state's biggest corporate political donor.

"I give her credit," Petersen said. "She has approached people like myself with a little bit more seniority and is using our experience to be a more effective delegate."

On Wednesday, Roem was unsure how to fit into the sometimes button-down culture of the General Assembly, or where even to find the House chambers.

For her swearing-in, she had planned to sport the same rainbow headscarf she wore constantly while campaigning. She said it would be a declaration of what many Democrats are calling "a new day" in the General Assembly, where Republicans now hold a slim 51-49 majority. But, acknowledging the decorum inside the state capitol designed by Thomas Jefferson, she decided against that fashion choice.

"My presence here is exclamation enough," Roem said.

On Tuesday night, Roem was full of nervous energy. One minute, she spoke passionately with an entrepreneur camped outside a party caucus meeting about the need to upgrade the aging water system in the city of Manassas Park. Another, she exulted over how there had been no anti-LGBT bills filed yet in the legislature, and practiced yoga poses in a crowded hotel lobby, hoping to generate more good vibes.

"This is how you do the crow position," Roem said to state Sen. Jennifer Wexton, D-Loudoun, bending forward to place her hands on the carpet and raise her rear end in the air.

"Don't show us," Wexton said nervously. "We get the idea."

Roem's predecessor spent 26 years in the House of Delegates and was a well-liked, avuncular figure, despite his extreme views of social issues that put him to the right even of the Republican majority in the legislature.

During a bitter general election campaign, Marshall attacked Roem's gender identity and refused to refer to her as a woman or with female pronouns. Roem, for her part, criticized Marshall for being too focused on pursuing a conservative, anti-gay agenda.

She said Marshall has not called to offer any congratulations or advice, even in areas where they agree, such as their mutual concern over rampant development in Prince William.

"It's not my responsibility now," Marshall saidwhen reached by phone on Wednesday. "People who are there have to best figure out what to do."

He said he was spending his day at home in Manassas, Virginia, going through old files and deciding what to keep.

Roem said that, despite her celebrity, she is determined to "make government boring again" by reading every bill that comes across her desk before she votes. She said she would limit her socializing in Richmond, though that has proved a challenge so far.

Wherever she went, Democratic colleagues stopped Roem for a hug or to gather for a selfie while news cameras flashed. Republicans, meanwhile, kept their distance.

"Enjoy these moments," Del. John Bell, D-Loudoun, told Roem about her first day. "They're special. Every time I'm in the chamber, I look at this ornate space and go: 'I'm actually in this place. Oh, my God.' "

When she finally set foot inside the House chamber for the swearing-in ceremony, Roem glanced up toward a balcony where her mother and other family members sat, smiling as she held up a lanyard bearing her delegate's credentials so they could see.

When it was time to recite the oath to uphold the U.S. and Virginia constitutions, Roem raised her right hand and spoke in clear, measured tones.

In her left hand, she later said, she tightly gripped her rainbow headscarf.

---

The Washington Post's Patricia Sullivan contributed to this report.
BAGHDAD, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. ambassador to Iraq Wednesday said that there would be a new decrease of U.S. troops in Iraq in the upcoming months.

In a press conference for some local media at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Ambassador Douglas Silliman said "the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq has been decreased, especially in Anbar province in coordination with the Iraqi forces," according to al-Sumaria News Agency.

"There will be a gradual reduction of these (U.S.) forces in the coming months without replacing them with others," Silliman told reporters.

Previously, the troops were tasked to provide support of artillery fire in addition to training and advising to the Iraqi forces, but the U.S. forces are now only focusing on training the Iraqi forces on how to preserve the liberated areas, as well as providing humanitarian assistance to the displaced people until they return to their homes, according to Silliman.

Over 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces during the battles against Islamic State (IS) militants.

The troops were part of the U.S.-led international coalition that has also been conducting air raids against IS targets in both Iraq and Syria.
BRIDGEPORT  The shooting of a male who crashed with an ambulance on the way to the hospital Wednesday evening remains under investigation.

The victim survived and is in critical condition, Bridgeport Police spokesman Av Harris said.

Officers were dispatched to the area of Central and Barnum avenues shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday. Dispatch reports indicated the person shot was heavily bleeding and had crashed into an ambulance.

Greater Bridgeport Transit buses were rerouted and, later that evening, cars slowly turned at blocked-off intersections, trying to get a glimpse of what prompted the police activity.

Police Capt. Roderick Porter said all police know is that the male victim was shot in the head and may have been attempting to drive himself to the hospital.

We really dont know who he is, Porter said Wednesday. Were trying to establish who he is.

Porter said police think the victim came from the area of Connecticut and Stratford avenues. He said officers are trying to backtrack and figure out where the shooting took place.

By crashing into the ambulance, Porter said the victim was at least able to get some medical attention right away.

A white car, with its front end significantly smashed in, sat on Barnum Avenue near its intersection with Mill Hill Avenue.

Cop cars blocked off the intersections of Barnum and Mill Hill avenues, Barnum and Seaview avenues, Barnum and Central avenues and Central Avenue and Ford Place.

Porter said he couldnt confirm whether someone was being transported by the ambulance when the gunshot wound victim crashed into it. It was not immediately known if anyone in the amulance suffered injuries during the crash.

Cedar Attanasio contributed reporting
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The Justice Department announced Wednesday it has settled allegations against dental management company Benevis LLC and more than 130 of its affiliated Kool Smiles dental clinics, including offices in New Haven, for which Benevis provides business management and administrative services, according to a release.

Benevis was formerly known as NCDR LLC.

Under the agreement, Benevis and the Kool Smiles clinics will pay the federal government and participating states a total of $23.9 million, plus interest, to resolve allegations they knowingly submitted false claims for payment to state Medicaid programs for medically unnecessary dental services, the release said. Benevis and Kool Smiles had locations throughout 17 states.

Billing Medicaid programs for dental procedures that are not necessary contributes to the soaring costs of healthcare, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler of the Justice Departments Civil Division in the release. When healthcare providers put vulnerable patients at risk by performing medically unnecessary procedures to achieve financial goals, we will take action.

Federal prosecutors alleged between January 2009 and December 2011, Benevis and Kool Smiles clinics knowingly submitted false claims to state Medicaid programs for medically unnecessary baby root canals, tooth extractions and stainless steel crowns, as well as requiring payment for never performed baby root canals, the release stated.

The government claims Kool Smiles clinics routinely pressured and incentivized dentists to meet production goals through a system that disciplined unproductive dentists and rewarded productive dentists. According to the governments allegations, Kool Smiles clinics ignored complaints from their own dentists regarding overutilization, according to the release.

A spokeswoman for Kool Smiles said in a statement: Benevis, and its affiliate Kool Smiles, have voluntarily entered into a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and various State Attorneys General to end the governments seven-year long False Claims Act (FCA) investigation relating to services provided from 2009 to 2011.

The settlement agreement with the government does not relate to any claims regarding the quality of the dental care provided to patients, the statement said. Importantly, the settlement does not include any admission or determination of wrongdoing by the companies, their employees or any Kool Smiles dentists. In fact, the companies strongly disagree with the governments allegations.

The investigation largely focused on professional disagreements between qualified dentists in determining the appropriate level and cost of the care. For perspective, the government disagreed with the care provided in less than one percent of the procedures billed during the reviewed period, the statement said. The governments own data, as well as independent, third-party research and analysis conducted by experts, disprove the allegations. A recent study by respected healthcare economists Dobson DaVanzo & Associates found Kool Smiles dentists provided fewer total dental services per Medicaid patient than non-Kool Smiles providers. It also found this resulted in the government paying significantly less per Medicaid patient for dental services provided by Kool Smiles dentists than it pays for Medicaid patients treated by non-Kool Smiles dentists.

Of the $23.9 million to be paid by Benevis and its affiliated Kool Smiles clinics, the federal government will receive a total of $14,244,073, plus interest, and a total of $9,655,927, plus interest, will be returned to individual states, according to the release.

The allegations in these cases are particularly egregious because they involved medically unnecessary dental services performed on children, said John H. Durham, U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, in the release. Exploiting needy children for financial gain is inexcusable. The U.S. Attorneys Office in Connecticut is committed to aggressively pursuing health care providers that submit fraudulent claims to government health care programs.

The governments investigation was initiated by five lawsuits filed under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act. Four of the cases are currently pending in the District of Connecticut and one is pending in the Western District of Texas. As part of Wednesdays resolution, three of the whistleblowers  former Kool Smiles employees Adam Abendano, Poonam Rai and Robin Fitzgerald  will receive payments totaling more than $2.4 million from the federal share of the settlement, the release stated.

Editors note: This story has been updated since it was first posted to add the statement from Kool Smiles.
NEW HAVEN  Morris Cove residents were happy Wednesday to hear that high on the list of options for disposal of the material dredged from New Haven Harbor would be to fill the borrow pit they always worry about.

The pit, created decades ago in the harbor when Interstate 95 was being constructed and needed gravel, is always a potential site for contaminated spoils from dredging elsewhere in Connecticut.

Dumping material from Bridgeport Harbor, as proposed in 2010, stirred an uproar in New Haven and a promise from then-gubernatorial candidate Dannel P. Malloy that he would not allow this to happen if elected governor.

An informational hearing on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study to deepen the channel in New Haven Harbor from 35 feet to 42 feet was held at the Nathan Hale School.

The complete analysis of the material in New Haven Harbor that would need to be removed is expected to be finished shortly with a preliminary draft report due in spring.

But the corps can already estimate how much will be rock, fine sand with silt, or silt with clay, and the best uses for it.

Mark Habel, chief of the navigation studies section of the corps, told the crowd that it sometimes takes the agency awhile to hear what people are saying, but they are listening to the concerns of the residents and agree that closing that pit would be beneficial.

As long as that borrow pit is there, someone will want to fill it, he told them. Filling it now with clean material and capping it is the best protection.

The corps estimated that 5,769,000 cubic yards of material would be taken to deepen the channel to 42 feet, as well as widen it. It is also calculating what would be taken if it was only deepened to 37 feet.

For deeper dredge, some 49,000 cubic yards would be rock; 475,000 cubic yards would be fine sand with silt; 5,245,000 cubic yards would be a mix of clay and silt.

The other proposed uses include: creating an oyster habitat behind the east breakwater; undertaking salt marsh restoration at Sandy Point Dike; rock replacement at the west breakwater; capping older disposal mounds or putting some material in the open-water Central Long Island Disposal Site.

The citys port is the largest in the state, but it is not deep enough to accommodate larger vessels, which now have to off-load outside the channel.

Deepening the channel, which is expected to cost between $40 million and $80 million, would make it more efficient and increase the number of vessels coming here for a positive economic impact.

The crowd started to thin out and residents who had signed up to speak declined to do so when the recommendation on the borrow pit was proposed.

The environmental concerns of the residents was clear with one resident suggesting nothing be done with the borrow pit.

Chris Ozcyks concerns were about disposal of the first five feet of material, closest to the surface, if it contains petroleum products. Hable said federal and state environmental rules would not allow such material to be put into the pit or mixed with concrete and sent upland.

Because of the nature of the soil to be removed, it would not be used to enhance local beaches, help with coastal resilency projects in New Haven or upland structural fill.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577
PHNOM PENH, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-o-cha here on Wednesday, and both sides vowed to further promote bilateral cooperation.

Hailing the sound momentum of China-Thailand relations, Li told Prayut on the sidelines of the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting that the inauguration of the construction of China-Thailand high-speed railway last month marks a new step forward in bilateral cooperation.

The 253-km first phase of the railway links Bangkok with northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima. China is responsible for design of the railway, supervision of construction and manufacturing of trains and signal systems among others.

Li called for joint efforts from both sides to facilitate the railway project and push forward cooperation in other areas.

China hopes to synergize its Belt and Road Initiative with Thailand's Eastern Economic Corridor construction, upgrade bilateral trade facilitation and enhance cooperation in such areas as trade, tourism and technology, Li said.

Prayut, for his part, said there is huge potential in Thailand-China cooperation, noting that the railway project is of historical significance.

Thailand pays close attention to China's innovation-driven development strategy and hopes to learn from China's experience, he said.

Prayut urged to combine the two countries' development strategies and boost cooperation in trade, technology, tourism and education.

The second LMC leaders' meeting was held in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, drawing leaders from six riparian countries -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
NEW HAVEN  Recent graduates from New Haven schools came face-to-face with employers Wednesday through New Haven Promises fifth annual internship fair, its biggest yet.

New Haven Promise, which leverages public-private partnerships to provide New Haven public school graduates a tuition-free, in-state college experience, always had a vision beyond assisting its students financially with college.

Our thing is to get everybody ready for a career, said Patricia Melton, executive director of Promise.

Its motto  To. Through. And Back.  is designed to succinctly describe the programs goal of paying it forward by giving students a financial incentive to get a degree and return to the city to comprise its skilled workforce.

Melton said the fair gives Promise scholarship recipients the experience to meet with employers and city officials to procure summer internships. Once theyve done that, she said, they know how to get one elsewhere.

Will Ginsberg, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, which contributes funding to Promise, said New Haven Promise is about creating opportunities.

You are our future leaders, he told the interns, resumes in hand, before a series of group interviews.

Chris Brown, Yales New Haven Community Hiring Initiative director, said the university hired 23 interns in its first year, and has hired 200 in total over the first four years.

It takes more than a college degree to get a great job, he said.

Of the approximately 50 agencies seeking interns, many were from different departments of Yale University, another major financial contributor to Promise. There also were representatives from New Havens City Hall, police department, fire department and school district.

Robert Kanoff, assistant dean of finance and administration for the Yale University School of Public Health, said it was the first year the school had been represented at the fair, and he was more interested in evaluating the scholars strengths and interests than hiring for any specific positions.

Were not locked into anything, he said. We want to see what the candidates interests are.

Joining Kanoff at the table was Erving Xochipiltecatl, a portfolio associate for the college and a Promise graduate.

Were looking for the next Erving, Kanoff said.

Promise scholar Nicholas Wisdom, a 2017 Wilbur Cross graduate and a freshman at Southern Connecticut State University, gamely and confidently shook interviewers hands.

So far its been really interesting, Wisdom said. Its been about engaging with people and it makes this experience fun.

He said the fair had made him consider living and working in New Haven for the summer in a way he previously had not imagined.

Interim Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo said he was pleased by the number of New Haven public school graduates present at the fair.

More and more of our young people are getting Promise scholarships, so we expect there to be more, he said.

According to Mayo, the district hired 10 interns for the summer the year before.

In addition to internships, a smattering of Promise college graduates interviewed with six agencies looking to make full-time hires.

About 280 Promise scholars signed up for the fair, about 50 more than in 2017. More than one-third of the Promise scholars in attendance graduated from a New Haven high school in 2017, about half attend the University of Connecticut or Southern Connecticut State University and 48 colleges were represented in total.

According to information released by New Haven Promise, the 2017 fair led to about 130 paid internships for Promise scholars, who made around $500,000 total, or about $4,000 per student intern in a summer.

Nearly half of the 2018 internship fairs registrants report an annual household income below $30,000 and 84 percent identify as black or Hispanic. More than one-third say the highest educational attainment their parents have is a high school diploma.

This is the fifth year New Haven Promise ran an internship fair for its scholars presently enrolled in college. The organization has recently announced multiple partnerships with universities to make the program more financially accessible to graduating seniors from New Haven Public Schools, including an ambassador program at Southern Connecticut State University and a financial contribution of up to $5,000 from the University of Connecticut.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

French President Emmanuel Macron was on a state visit to China at the very beginning of 2018, which not only made him the first European leader to visit China since last fall's 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, but also marked his first state visit to Asia since he won the election last year.

After he took office, Macron sent the diplomatic signal that Paris would continue to talk to every country that is willing to, but would not paper over any disagreement. His diplomatic policy is seeking to restore France's status on the world stage and remaining committed to European integration. Compared to his predecessor, Macron is gifted with better diplomatic skills, unique diplomatic assertiveness, outstanding ability of communicating with foreign leaders, comprehensive knowledge of global issues and the enthusiasm to promote economic reforms.

The success of Macron's diplomatic policy depended on domestic reform. He is trying to bring France back on track after years of economic and social stagnation and to inject new impetus into European integration. His major approach to promote domestic reform is developing a new labor law, having it issued in the form of a presidential decree so as to circumvent the obstruction of French parliament and unions. Macron lays special emphasis on defending the vital interests of France, re-establishing the ties between the French government and its citizens. According to statistics released by the European Commission, the rate of economic growth in France was 1.6 percent in 2017, lower than average in the EU and the eurozone, with an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent. France is gradually picking up, but still far from restoring normalcy.

China-France relations are a pioneering trial through which China is building a new model for major-country relations. China is France's largest trading partner in Asia, while France is China's third-largest investment destination in the EU. Bilateral trade and investment cooperation is focused on energy, automobiles, aviation and medicine.

China-France ties are not only significant in bilateral areas, but also in multilateral fields and at a regional level. In bilateral areas, France is the first major country in Europe to build a partnership with China, as well as the first major country in the West to develop a comprehensive strategic partnership with China.

In multilateral fields, both as permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and France are investing joint efforts in building a multipolar world, a new type of international relations and a community of shared future for humanity.

At the regional level, the French government led by Macron is playing an active role in the EU, injecting new impetus for further European integration, which China is also proactively supporting. China-France relations play a significant role in deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU.

Bilateral cooperation is strengthened in global governance. Both advocates of independence and multilateralism, China and France are strengthening bilateral cooperation in global governance, focusing on climate change and energy cooperation. The Belt and Road initiative also provides an opportunity for the two countries to enhance bilateral cooperation, cooperation under the regional framework as well as trilateral cooperation.

The promotion of globalization and global governance is confronted by challenges, while the Belt and Road initiative as well as the idea of building a community of shared future for humanity proposed by China injects a new impetus into globalization.

Macron has shown an interest in the Belt and Road initiative, seeking to bring France and the EU back on track through the development of this initiative, to inject new momentum into European integration and to promote interconnectivity in the Eurasian region.

China and France are also enhancing bilateral cooperation by boosting people-to-people exchanges. Education and culture are two major fields in which the two countries are developing a comprehensive strategic partnership. Not only the number of Chinese in France ranks first in Europe, but also the depth and the width of bilateral cooperation in people-to-people exchanges tops the list.

Cooperation in people-to-people exchanges for one thing brings China's voice to France, and for another, offers China the chance to learn from France, a pioneer in modernization and a significant source of knowledge and culture for China.

China and France have entered a new stage of bilateral ties. On the basis of dialogue on an equal footing, it is expected that the two countries are able to cultivate complementary cultures, realize peaceful development and produce mutual benefits and a win-win outcome.

The author is an associate research fellow at the Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The Leader of the Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, has suffered a stroke amid concern his health is taking a turn for the worse.

The 68-year-old reportedly speaks with a slur and can no longer stand for prayers, and is on the verge of losing his eyesight.

El-Zakzaky has been in detention since December 2015, following a violent clash in Zaria, Kaduna State, between members of his group and the Nigerian military.

The movement, however, says his incarceration is illegal, criticising the Buhari administration for denying the leader access to medical treatment.

The health situation of the Sheikh has nosedived. He has suffered what turned out to be a stroke. But the authorities illegally detaining him have kept a blind eye to his dire situation, the IMN disclosed at a press conference yesterday.

The Spokesman for the group, Professor Abdullahi Danladi, said: It emerged that his health condition suffered severe knocks in the past week, such that he was critically ill and in urgent need of the best medical attention possible. But the Buhari administration is negligent about it. He suffered slurred speech, weakness of the right side of the upper limb and general weakness of both lower limbs. Consequently, he has been unable to walk or even stand for the past week. The Sheikh is also known to have been hypertensive for more than 10 years.

The police in Abuja yesterday arrested 52 members of the group who were protesting against the leaders detention. They began the demonstration from Garki Area 10 and headed towards Area 1. They were, however, stopped by armed security operatives at Moshood Abiola Road.

Policemen fired tear gas canisters, while some youths responded with stones.

The incident caused panic in the area, as traders hurriedly closed their shops while motorists sought alternative routes.

Police spokesman Anjuguri Manzah said the FCT command recovered petrol bombs and catapults used to attack police operatives and damage police operational vehicles. He said some policemen suffered injuries, adding that the arrested persons would be charged to court, following investigations.

Lawyers meanwhile have condemned the rights record of the Buhari administration.

We have never had it so bad under a civilian government, where a government will deliberately disobey court orders and authorise the detention of citizens, not even under the military era, said Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana.

He recalled: In the case of Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), three courts  two Nigerian courts and the ECOWAS court  ordered his release, yet government disregarded them.

According to him,  It is the worst case of human rights violation. But worse than detention is the spate of killings. You need to be alive to enjoy human rights. It is a very serious situation to continue to disobey when a court has ordered the release of someone. Right now, El-Zakzaky is fighting for his life. He has lost an eye in detention and may soon lose the other.

Falanas concern was re-echoed by Lagos lawyer and human rights campaigner, Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa, who noted: This government does not respect orders and judgments made by the courts.

He cited The judgment of the ECOWAS court of human rights, which gave a final decision that Dasuki should be released on bail. That has not been respected. He added: The Federal High Court in Abuja gave an order that Mallam El-Zakzaky should be released within 43 days with his wife. It is over a year now and that decision has not been respected.

According to the IMN, The 67-year-old was shot at close range during the murderous attack on his home by the military in December 2015. In the process, the Sheikh lost his left eye and is on the verge of losing the right, sequel to the brutal treatment meted out to him by armed soldiers. The Department of State Service has also denied him foreign medical treatment recommended by the local specialist who attended to him.

An alternative arrangement by the family of the detained to bring an eye specialist from within the country or from abroad was also rejected without any legal justification, the group said.

That we are agitated by the latest development is to say the least. We are deeply concerned and disenchanted by the attitude of this administration towards our peaceful protests and demands that the Sheikh and his wife be released, as ordered by a Federal High Court in Abuja. The court has affirmed the Sheikhs fundamental right to personal liberty guaranteed by Section 35 of the Constitution and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (CAP A10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

Urging President Buhari to release the couple for proper medical care, the IMN noted: As we focus our attention on the deteriorating health of Sheikh El-Zakzaky, we are not oblivious of the medical condition of his wife, Malama Zeenah Ibrahim.

For reasons best known to the Department of State Service, some of the bullets lodged in her body during the brutal attack of December 14, 2015 have not been extracted up till now. In the circumstances, she has been subjected to excruciating pain and agony on a daily basis. Her life, which is currently in danger, may be saved and prolonged, if she is allowed to receive adequate medical attention without any further delay.

The group added: We are strongly appealing to people of conscience, human rights organisations, activists and the international community to prevail upon this administration to tread the path of justice and pave the way for our leader to go and look after his health properly.
Nigerians have asked the federal government to ban Miyetti Allah, the foremost Cattle Breeders Association in the country.The position was made known in a poll conducted by Punch Online.The poll titled Benue killings: Should Miyetti Allah be banned? went live on Wednesday. It asked respondents to indicate Yes if they wanted Miyetti Allah banned or No if they wanted the cattle breeders association left alone.Respondents were also given the choice to be Indifferent on the matter.As of 1:00pm on Thursday, 2,122 out of the 2,363 respondents, who make 90 per cent of the total votes chose Yes, they wanted the group banned. The respondents blamed the herdsmen and stated the several deadly attacks in Benue State as the reason for their choice.The respondents who dont want the group banned were 175, making 7 per cent of the total votes, while 66 respondents, making 3 per cent were Indifferent.Miyetti Allah should be banned, not only proscribing the evil organisations activities, their leaders, sponsors, and all those involved in the killings of innocent souls should be arrested and prosecuted without delay; as we are talking we dont know what next these herdsmen are planning in Benue and other neighbouring states, wrote one respondent who gave his name as Raheem.Another respondent, Dencom wrote, If the less violent IPOB could be proscribed for allegedly being a threat to national security, why not Miyetti Allah which poses a far more dangerous threat to our national existence via their bloody bestiality? the respondent asked. When victims of Miyetti Allah killings are pushed to the wall of self-defence, another civil war might be on the horizon, the respondent concluded.Osinkolu Babafemi said on Facebook: Not only banned. They should be prosecuted and sentenced. The souls and blood of the innocents shall revenge!Agbo Ndubui Paul was very sarcastic in his comment, he wrote, NO. They should be awarded as the Best invaders of Nigeria. Since they are not Nigerians according to the FG, they should create a special grazing reserve in Aso Rock.Some of the respondents who do not think the group should be banned suggested that they should be controlled.They should not be banned but their movement should be controlled, one respondent who gave his name as Emmanuel commented.Ibrahim Tsoho Tsoho said, No way we must live together as usual.Even though the herdsmen/farmers clash had been existing in Nigeria for a long time, the recent spate of attacks in Benue State follows the initiation of the anti-open grazing law by the state government.About 24 hours after the anti-open grazing law took effect in the state in November 2017, suspected Fulani herdsmen attacked some communities in Logo Local Government Area of the state.They killed one person, Ortse Kwaghdoo (40), and injured a 70-year-old man, Hinger Aka.A few days after the passage of the law and the subsequent attack, the Fulani socio-cultural organisation, Miyeti Allah, had described the anti-open grazing law passed in some states as a time bomb. The association, which made the comment at its North-West zonal meeting in Kaduna, argued that the anti-open grazing law was an attempt to destroy herders means of livelihood.The National President of the association, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello-Bodejo, and the National Secretary, Alhaji Sale Alhassan, at a joint press conference held after the meeting, had said the law was not in the best interest of peace in the land. They called for its urgent review.The association also asked the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to provide security for Fulani herdsmen particularly in Benue State because their lives were under threat.Meanwhile, following the recent increase in the spate of attacks, President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to move to the state and tackle the crisis. The I.G landed in Makurdi, the state capital on Wednesday.
We should remember what it felt like three years ago, as the ability to recall it emotionally will pass and it is an emotional memory as much as anything else.

It was a moment rare in a democracys history. The feeling was palpableto supporters and opponents alikethat something important had happened. Nigeria had elected, the best candidate promised, a transformational president. And wrapped in a campaign that had produced the biggest influx of new voters and big Naira - contributions in a generation, the claim seemed credible, almost intoxicating, and just in time.

Yet three years into the presidency of President Muhammad Buhari, it is already clear that this administration is an opportunity missed. Because President Mohammed Buhari has given up the rhetoric of his early campaigna campaign that promised to "challenge the broken system in Nigeria" and to "fundamentally change the way Nigeria works." Indeed, "fundamental change" is no longer even a hint.

Instead, we are now seeing the consequences of a decision made at the most vulnerable point of Buharis campaignjust when it seemed that he might really have beaten the PDP's presumed nominee. For at that moment, Buhari handed the architecture of his new administration over to a team that thought what Nigerian needed most is at their selfish interest. A team that could envision nothing more than the ordinary politics of Nigeria  most than the kind of politics Buhari had called "corrupt politics." A team whose imagination politicallyis tiny.

These tiny mindsbrilliant though they may be in the conventional game of APC have given up what distinguished

Buharis extraordinary campaign. Not the promise of employment reform or Economic boom Goodluck Jonathan had embraced both of those ideas, and every other substantive proposal that Buhari advanced. Instead, the passion that Buhari inspired grew from the recognition that something fundamental had gone wrong in the way our government functions, and his commitment to reform it.

For Buhari once spoke for the anger that has now boiled over everywhere in the nation that our government is corrupt; that fundamental change is needed. As he told us, since the electorate had allowed "lobbyists and campaign contributions to rig the system." And "unless we're willing to challenge (that) broken systemnothing else is going to change." "The reason" Buhari said he was "running for president (was) to challenge that system." For "if we're not willing to take up that fight, then real changechange that will make a lasting difference in the lives of ordinary Nigerian will keep getting blocked by the defenders of the status quo."

This administration has not "taken up that fight." Instead, it has stepped down from the high ground the president occupied in 2015 andplayed the worst political game ever.

"Audacity" fits nothing in the list in recent years activity, save the suggestion that this is the administration the candidate had promised. Maybe this was his plan all along. It was not what he said. And by ignoring what he promised, and by doing what he attacked ("too many times, after the election is over, all those promises fade from memory, and the lobbyists and the special interests move in"), Buhari will leave the presidency,

This Country needs new leadership. On the right (PDP), since there is an unstoppable recognition that our government has failed this time.

This is corruption. Not the corruption of bribes, or of any other crime, Instead, it is a corruption of the faith Nigerians have in this core institution of our democracy. This corruption is not hidden. On the contrary, it is in plain sight, with its practices simply more and more brazen.

As fundraising was the focus of APC in 2015 election as the party force members to raise money for their presidential candidate, so as they reward the best fundraisers with lucrative portfolio assignments and leadership positions the focus of APC "work" shifts. Like addicts constantly on the lookout for their next fix, members grow impatient with anything that doesnt promise the kick of a campaign contribution. The first job is meeting the fundraising target

At the center of our government lies a bankrupt institution: APC. Not financially bankrupt, at least not yet, but politically bankrupt.

But it is this part of the current crisis that the dark soul in me admires most.There is a brilliance to how our democracy will be sustained. Everyone inside this game recognizes that if the public saw too clearly that the driving force in Nigeria is campaign cash, the public might actually do something to change that. A very effective campaign succeeds in obscuring the source of conflict over major issues of reform with the pretense that it is ideology rather than campaign cash that divides us. To my fellow Nigerians please let's bring back our democracy.
Founder and General Overseer of the Zion Heritage and Miracle Ministries, Bishop Okwudili Eze, has revealed what God told him about 2018. ...

Founder and General Overseer of the Zion Heritage and Miracle Ministries, Bishop Okwudili Eze, has revealed what God told him about 2018.

Bishop Ezes revelation carries what God told him concerning the Super Eagles of Nigeria, and the 2018 World Cup in Russia; the Nigerian currency, the Naira; Nigerias leading political party, the All Progressives Compress, APC; the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; and the much talked about Igbo presidency.





The cleric also made predictions concerning mysterious assassinations of political heavyweights in the country. He talked about a clash between the Governor of Kaduna State and a former Governor of Lagos State and national leader of the APC, Bolaji Ahmed Tinubu.





He also warned that the Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, may lose his mantle as the governor of the state to the APC.





Read full prophecy:





There shall be some signs of economic recovery in Nigeria not because of the government policies but because of the mercies of God that he wants to pour afresh on the nation because of the elect.









A golden era shall open for the super eagles in 2018. If they connect to hard-work and discipline, their glory days are here. There is grace on them for mega global impact.





The naira shall gradually begin to recover in value and its worth, will soon be appreciated by the citizens and global market.





APC shall experience internal party crises that may split the party into two opposing factions. The common bond that brought them together shall begin to break. I see a great break away. El-rufai camp versus Tinubu camp.





Nigerians should pray against the spirit of sudden and pre-mature death amongst her citizens. Destructive rainfall and flood should be prayed against. Increase in organ diseases amongst Nigerians must also be prayed against.









Mysterious assassination and unexplainable road accidents must be prayed against.





Igbo presidency in 2023 is divine and ordained by God. However, the Northern Oligarchy is having headache concerning the Igbo man that they can entrust with power who will not tamper with the present power structure and be loyal to them.





All the Igbo sons who are secretly positioning for the post shall be disappointed for God has prepared a David with a rod of Dominion to rule for him in 2023. If the north tampers with this divine agenda, they cant contain the restiveness that would shake the land.





Governor Ikpeazu should pray seriously that the rulership mantle does not depart from him. There is a great conspiracy by power brookers to replace him by all means. Should Abia state be governed by APC?





If PDP shall hearken to the call for internal party restructuring and to give the younger generation a chance for rulership, the lost glory of the party shall be restored.





Scandal of corruptions looming on some of President Buharis ministers. A strong wind that would open the buttocks of the fowl is coming heavily. I see sudden ministerial shake up mid-year.





The hand of judgement shall come heavily on kidnappers, those selling human parts and pedophiles mightily and their sponsors massively exposed and dealt with.





The dividends of jubilee shall begin to manifest on the Igbo nation. A lot of Igbo sons and daughters shall begin to come into unusual prominence and limelight in the committee of nations. And the enemies that have plagued them for years shall be humiliated before them and their strength depart from them forever.





The elements and forces of life shall fight those who would gather to resist the visitation of God on the seeds of covenant. Great leaders, discoveries and trans-generational impact shall begin to spring out of the Igbo nation to other nations.




Apostle Johnson Suleman, of Omega Fire Ministry, has vowed to fight those fighting Christians, across the country.

Apostle Johnson Suleman, of Omega Fire Ministry, has vowed to fight those fighting Christians, across the country.

Suleman gave the warning while declaring that hes not afraid of being arrested.





In a tweet via his verified twitter handle, the fiery preacher berated pastors who have been silent over the killing of Christians in the North.





Stressing that he is, born for this,the controversial clergy man stated that, true Christians will join him in his fight.





He wrote: I dont fear media or arrest.. not any threat. Am born for this. I will fight those who fight Christians and true Christians will join me.





Pastors in Nigeria are quiet at the killings of northern Christians cos dey are afraid of arrest and media been set up against them. Shame.





The Auchi-born Pastor also berated foreign media outlets for their silence on the killings of Christians in Benue, Taraba States respectively.




Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has called on Nigerians to pray for the speedy recovery of President Muhammadu Buharis son, Yusuf.Aregbesola made the call while speaking at the closing of 19th edition of the Annual National Conference of the Jamaatu Taawunil Muslimeen (Society of Nigeria) on Wednesday in IwoAccording to the governor, the comfort of the president is the comfort of all.Aregbesola described prayer as the only instrument that could rescue Nigeria from some of its predicaments.He called on religious leaders to intensify prayers for president Buhari, his sick son as well as for the socio-economic prosperity of the country.According to him, apart from prayer being a powerful part of our existence as human beings, it is pertinent for every believer to pray for his or her leaders.I am happy that every religion emphasises this, and it is something important we can do to support the present administration by praying and fasting for our leaders.As we all know the condition of the Presidents son, I urge Nigerians regardless of our socio-economic, political and ethnic.
Prof. Itse Sagay, has urged Samuel Ortom, Benue State Governor to take action as the Chief Security Officer of the state instead of crying for help and shield the general population of the state from the assaults of Fulani herders.Sagay, SAN, encouraged Samuel to take make use of his post as the CSO of the state, to compose his people to stand up to the herders like his partner, Ayo Fayose acted in Ekiti state.He however said instead of action, Samuel Ortom prefers to cry for help and blame the Federal Government of not coming to his rescue. He wondered the type of Governor that cries instead of protecting the people under him.Reacting to Benue State Killings, Sagay said : The point I generally make and I make it again is that the biggest disappointment and the individual who should assume all the fault for what is going on is the state senator, Samuel Ortom.Ortom is the main security officer of Benue. Without fail, the killings happen, he separates in tears and puts his hands on his head and continues faulting the government.Under criminal law, each Nigerian has a privilege of self-preservation. There is no motivation behind why Ortom shouldnt have sorted out the general population of Benue state into a condition of aggregate self-preservation in which he will thoroughly arm them to confront these killers.Rather, he continues sobbing constantly. No big surprise the Benue understudies and other youngsters pursued him with stones in light of the fact that contrasted with the government, his own disappointment is the most noticeably awful.
The Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, on Thursday said he warned his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom, against implementing the state anti-grazing law recently passed into law.Lalong said this in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.He said his position was that it was wrong to start implementing the law without proper alternatives. The governor said Plateau was enjoying peace at the moment because his government brought everyone, including farmers and herdsmen, together.
Nasarawa State Government said over 18,000 people in the state have been displaced due to the spillover from the killings in Benue State.The Special Adviser to Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura on security matter, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Adeka (retd.) revealed this at a press conference on Thursday in Lafia.Adeka, however, added that the press conference followed a decision taken at the state expanded Security Council meeting that was chaired by the governor.He added that the report received showed that the spillover attacks in some communities in Benue State had led to the displacement of so many people in the border towns between the two states.Adeka said currently, there were over 18,000 Internally Displaced Persons from various communities of Awe and KeanaLocal Government Areas taking refuge in 11 camps in the state, affirming that most of the IDPs were Tiv people.He said that already, security has been beef up in the affected areas and the government has set up mobile clinics, while it has also distributed relief materials to the IDPs.However, TIDA president in state, Mr. Boniface Iter, attributed the attack and killings of some Tiv people in some communities of Awe and Keana LGAs to the activities of terrorist group.Earlier, Mohammed Hussaini, chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, explained that the Fulani and Tivpeople in Nasarawa State lived peacefully.He added that the Fulani in the state were determined more than ever to stay in peace and harmony with other tribes for thedevelopment of the state.The briefing had in attendance all the security chiefs in the state, Tiv Development Association and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, among others.
SHANGHAI, Jan. 10 (ChinaMil) -- China's 21st military medical team to aid Zambia departed from Shanghai, taking Emirates Airlines flight EK303, for Lusaka, capital of Zambia on Wednesday.

The eleven military doctors of the medical team will provide one-year services for medical assistance and technical training at the General Hospital of the Zambian Defense Force located in Lusaka.

China began to offer medical assistance to Zambia in 1984 and has sent more than two hundred doctors in twenty military medical teams to provide medical services in Zambia in the past thirty-three years.
The Catholic Bishop of Gboko Diocese, Most Rev. Williams Avenya, has lamented that the people of Benue state could only receive 73 corpse...

The Catholic Bishop of Gboko Diocese, Most Rev. Williams Avenya, has lamented that the people of Benue state could only receive 73 corpses in return despite their massive support to the All Progressives Congress, APC party during the last election. Bishop Avenya who condemned the recent massacre of innocent indigenes of the state by herdsmen in his funeral oration at the mass burial service for the 73 slain indigenes of the state however prayed for the repose of the souls of the dead and called for prayers for the survivors of the attacks.Meanwhile, an elder statesman and Second Republic Minister of Steel and Industry, Mr. Paul Unongo, sounded a strong warning to the aggressors saying  enough is enough. He said the people of the state who fought in the civil war to sustain the unity of Nigeria, would not continue to allow invaders to kill and maim their people if the Federal Government failed to protect them.We are capable of raising a million people to defend our land if nothing is done to stop the killings. Enough of the killings. Earlier, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state has again rejected the suggestion that the state create Cattle Colony or Grazing Routes for herdsmen. He said the suggestions were not acceptable to the Benue people.Ortom stated this on Thursday in Makurdi in a service to mark the mass burial of the victims of the herdsmen invasion. He had stated this position on Wednesday at a stakeholders meeting attended by the Inspector General of Police. Idris Ibrahim. On Thursday, he said since the state does not even have adequate land for farmers, it does not have the space to give herdsmen for grazing.He insisted on ranching, saying it is the best way to go and it is in conformity with global best practices. Ortom said if the recent killings by herdsmen were meant to intimidate the state government to repeal the law, the herdsmen had failed woefully.He also blamed the killings of Benue indigenes on the silence of the Federal Government and others responsible for the security of lives and property, an accusation he also made on Wednesday. Ortom lamented that if the Federal Government had acted on the reports he gave it concerning the threats of attacks by the leader of Miyetti Allah, Kautal Hore, the killings would have been averted. He urged the Federal Government to arrest the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, because they had severally made incisive statements against the state.He, therefore, stated that the recent killings were a pointer to the fact that they had threatened and executed their devilish threats. He condoled with the families of the slain victims and those that were injured as well as those that lost their property. Also speaking, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN Chairman, Rev. Akpen Leva, urged Benue citizens to unite irrespective of tribe, political and religious differences in order to tackle their enemies. Leva described the attacks as a genocide that was targeted at exterminating the Tivs. Former Military Governor of Katsina State, Gen. Lawrence Onoja (rtd) also described the attacks as a conspiracy against the indigenes and said it would be resisted. Also in a funeral eulogy, Sen. Joseph Waku said the state has had enough of the senseless killings, adding that enough is enough. The Tor Tiv, Prof James Ayatse alleged that the killings in the New Year attacks were signs of an ethnic cleansing agenda. He said the persistent attacks on Benue communities were worrisome, especially since the federal government failed to prevent re-occurrence. He said the herdsmen have attacked Benue 47 times in five years, attacks, he said were akin to an agenda of genocide. I, therefore, call on the Federal Government to act swiftly by putting an end to this killings; this act of impunity must stop. He encouraged Governor Samuel Ortom to stand firm in his resolve to implement the anti-open grazing law, no matter the threats from the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore. The paramount ruler called for prayers for the dead and appealed to the media to report the carnage that had befallen the state. Also in a speech, the Country Representative of the UN in Nigeria, Mr. Martins Ejidike, said the world body would consider the request for humanitarian assistance to the 50,000 displaced people during the attacks. He assured that the UN would further discuss the details of the assistance with the Benue governor and prayed for peace in the state.One of the survivors, Mr. Akaater Azera, said the herdsmen came in the night while they were asleep and started shooting sporadically. According to him, when his wife came out, the gun toting men shot and killed her on the spot. Azera added that when he ran out of the house, he was pursued, with machete cuts inflicted on his face and leg.
Wole Soyinka, Africas first Nobel laureate, has described the current clash between herdsmen and farmers as history repeating itself.

Wole Soyinka, Africas first Nobel laureate, has described the current clash between herdsmen and farmers as history repeating itself.





In 2018 alone, over 80 people have been killed across Benue state, with Kaduna also recording deaths from herdsmen crisis.





In an article released on Wednesday, the scholar likened the situation to what happened with Boko Haram during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.





He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to act and save lives.





LIVING IN DENIAL

According to Soyinka, President Muhammadu Buhari and his government are in denial like former President Goodluck Jonathan refused to accept that schoolgirls had been kidnapped from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state.





Jonathan had first thought that the reports of the kidnap of 276 girls were not real. It took two weeks for him to act.





President Muhammed [sic] Buhari and his government  including his inspector-general of police  in near identical denial, appear to believe that killer herdsmen who strike again and again at will from one corner of the nation to the other, are merely hot-tempered citizens whose scraps occasionally degenerate into communal clashes





The marauders are naughty children who can be admonished, paternalistically, into good neighbourly conduct. The sustained, killing monologue of the herdsmen is what is at issue. It must be curbed, decisively and without further evasiveness.





Yes, Jonathan only saw ghosts when Boko Haram was already excising swathes of territory from the nation space and abducting school pupils. The ghosts of Jonathan seem poised to haunt the tenure of Mohammed Buhari.





COWS LIFE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

Soyinka said Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, claimed to have traced herdsmen to locations outside Nigeria and paid them reprisals for some ancient history and the loss of cattle through rustling to cure their homicidal urge.





The brilliant writer said at the time el-Rufais comment was: No life is more important than another but at the moment, the statement needs to be adjusted, to read perhaps  apologies to George Orwell: All lives are equal, but a cows is more equal than others.





Soyinka faulted the clamorous absence the Buhari administration.





I could only call to mind a statement by the same El Rufai after a prior election which led to a rampage in parts of the nation, and cost even the lives of National Youth Service corpers. They were hunted down by aggrieved mobs and even states had to organize rescue missions for their citizens, Soyinka said.





Countering protests that the nation owed a special duty of protection to her youth, especially those who are co-opted to serve the nation in any capacity.





WE MIGHT BE INVITING STARVATION

The Lion and the Jewel writer said the current situation is promising the plague of starvation that affected some countries in Africa where farmers were expelled from their farmlands.





It is true that I called upon the government a week ago to stop passing the buck over the petroleum situation. I assure you however that I never intended that a reverse policy should lead to exonerating  or appearing to exonerate  mass killers, rapists and economic saboteurs  saboteurs, since their conduct subverts the efforts of others to economically secure their own existence, drives other producers off their land in fear and terror, he said.





This promises the same plague of starvation that afflicts zones of conflict all over this continent where liberally sown landmines prevent farmers from venturing near their prime source, the farm, often their only source of livelihood, and has created a whole population of amputees.





HERDSMEN HAVE DECLARED WAR ON NIGERIA

While commending Audu Ogbehs vision of creating ranches and cattle colonies, Soyinka sad the present national outrage is about how they are getting away with their actions.





It rejects the right of any set of people, for whatever reason, to take arms against their fellow men and women, to acknowledge their exploits in boastful and justifying accents and, in effect, promise more of the same as long as their terms and demands are not met.





In plain language, they have declared war against the nation, and their weapon is undiluted terror. Why have they been permitted to become a menace to the rest of us? That is the issue!





IPOB DIDNT COME THIS FAR

He said while the government was quick to declare the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) a terrorist organisation, it has treated the killings by the herdsmen like they are the norm.





The Nobel laureate wondered why President Muhammed Buhari appears to believe that killer herdsmen who strike again and again at will from one corner of the nation to the other, are merely hot-tempered citizens whose scraps occasionally degenerate into communal clashes.





I am not aware that IPOB came anywhere close to this homicidal propensity and will to dominance before it was declared a terrorist organization. For the avoidance of doubt, let me state right here, and yet again, that IPOB leadership is its own worst enemyhe said.





However, as we pointed out at the time, the conduct of that movement, even at its most extreme, could by no means be reckoned as terrorism.




The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has raised the alarm over fake EFCC officials executing search warrant and harassing ...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has raised the alarm over fake EFCC officials executing search warrant and harassing innocent Nigerians.





Its spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement on Wednesday that among their victims are politically exposed persons including ranking law makers.





The anti-graft agency urged Nigerians to verify the authenticity of any demand for execution of Search Warrants by referring to the nearest EFCC office.





The statement reads, It has come to the knowledge of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC that some unscrupulous individuals parading themselves as operatives of the Commission have been harassing some prominent persons in the country on the pretext of purportedly executing Search Warrants on behalf of the Commission.





This development is frightening as it represents a new dimension to the nefarious business of impersonation of EFCC officers by fraudsters and other criminal gangs.





The Commission dissociates itself from the activities of these criminals and advises the public to be circumspect when confronted with request from suspicious persons to search their homes or properties.





Accordingly, the public are implored to verify the authenticity of any demand for the execution of Search Warrants by referring to the nearest office of the EFCC. They can also contact the head office through these numbers: 08093322644 or 08183322644.





The Commission can similarly be reached by email: info@efccnigeria.org.




Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, on Thursday maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari is openly encouraging and protecting F...

Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, on Thursday maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari is openly encouraging and protecting Fulani herdsmen killing Nigerians.

The former Minister stressed that the president was rationalizing herdsmen genocidal slaughter and mass murder.

Fani-Kayode, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, urged Nigerians to rise up and defend themselves from Fulani terrorists indulging in a bloodfest.

In a tweet via his social media handle, the former Minister wrote: Yesterday it was Benue today it is Taraba. The Fulani terrorists are indulging in a bloodfest of gargantuan proportions whilst the Buhari govt. openly encourages and protects them and attempts to rationalise their genocidal slaughter and mass murder. Time to defend ourselves!

There have been several attacks on residents of Benue State in recent weeks by Fulani herdsmen, a situation that has drawn condemnations from a cross section of Nigerians.

Just yesterday, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris arrived Benue State to restore law and order, following an order from President Muhammadu Buhari.

The police boss apologized to residents for the killings carried out by killer herdsmen.
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for replacing the sacked National Intelligence Agency (NIA) ...

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for replacing the sacked National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director General, Ambassador Ayo Oke with another northerner, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday approved the appointment of a substantive Director General for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.





Fayose stated that, Buhari has further demonstrated to Nigerians that he is an unrepentant sectional leader, who does not care about the feelings of people from other parts of the country.





The governors Special Assistant on public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, quoted him as saying in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Thursday that seeing what President Buhari has turned the country to, the forefathers of Nigeria, who laid the foundation of the country on equity, justice and fairness will be lamenting wherever they are now.





Fayose said, With the appointment of Ahmed Rufai Abubakar as the NIA Director General, all heads of security agencies are now northerners and the question is, is this what those who enshrined federal character in our constitution envisaged?





Ambassador Ayo Oke was removed from office the same day Babachir Lawal was removed as Secretary to the Government of the Federation. While Lawals replacement came from his home State, Okes replacement came from the north. That is unacceptable.





The Governor reminded Nigerians of President Buharis directive that the World Bank should shift its focus to the northern region of Nigeria, maintaining that because of the Presidents nepotism, religious bigotry and favouritism, Nigeria is now more divided than ever.





President Buhari has consistently demonstrated that he is an ethnic champion, a religious bigot and the number one promoter of disunity in Nigeria. This he has done again with the appointment of yet another northerner as the NIA Director General.





Even at a point, the National Chairman of the Presidents party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Oyegun had to openly fault the appointments made by the President, saying that as many as three people were appointed from one ward in a local government in the north.





The implication of what the President has done is that, when Security Council meeting is held today, apart from one or two insignificant people, those in the meeting will be people from one section of the country.





Even para-military agencies are headed by people from President Buharis section of the country. This is unfair.





Like I said before, those politicians, who painted the picture of a changed President Buhari to Nigerians before the 2015 presidential election must have seen now that he (Buhari) can never change from an ethnic champion to a nationalist.




Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose yesterday rallied local hunters against possible invasion by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose yesterday rallied local hunters against possible invasion by suspected Fulani herdsmen.Sounding the battle cry while hosting some hunters at the Government House pavilion in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, the governor said intelligence report available to him revealed that Bororo herdsmen had surreptitiously entered the state.Fayose, who wore a camouflage shirt, a pair of trousers and a fez cap to match to reflect the mood of the nation, urged the hunters to go back home and defend the people.Apart from the local hunters, other residents who showed up at the forum were the revered farmers, popularly called the Agbekoya, vigilance groups and other residents from the Tiv, Idoma and Igede ethnic groups in Benue State.The event was highlighted by intermittent firing of gunshots, whistling and songs by the hunters.Fayose, who sympathised with the people of Benue State, where scores have been killed by suspected herdsmen, promised not to allow his people to be slain, as done in the Northcentral state.The governor claimed that the alleged plan to invade Ekiti was to make the state ungovernable for him ahead of the July 14 governorship election.He said the situation in Benue and Taraba states showed that President Buhari lacks the capacity to protect Nigerians.Fayose said: I have received letters that the Bororos have entered our reserves; they want to violate our laws. I want to call the attention of the Federal Government that they have come and wanted to kill men, women and kids in Ekiti. We will not allow that to happen here in Ekiti.I want you all, our hunters, to go back today to protect your people. Be vigilant, open your eyes and make sure that everybody entering the state is screened.No one in the guise of grazing should enter our land after 8 p.m. For our brothers who harbour criminals, tell them Ekiti is a no-go area. If your plan is to make this state ungovernable, you are wasting your time.I have called this meeting for everyone to be vigilant. I will begin to support you now to secure Ekiti. Dont let them take you by surprise; dont allow them to take Ekiti by storm.Go to the farms and keep vigil; dont just entertain visitors who come in the night. Screen them. We dont want visitors in our reserves at 8 p.m.He added: This (camouflage) dressing is done to charge our hunters to secure the state. I saw pictures of the killings (in Benue) and I wonder if those were human beings. I asked the question if people could be that wicked to kill human beings that way. They will find no peace. It is no tribal killings, but that of mindless people.The blood of the departed will find those people and they wont know peace. It is the duty of the Federal Government to protect its people. We are not protected.We have never had it so bad. People must come to leadership with conscience. The Federal Government should have sent the Army and not the police.Governor (Samuel) Ortom should fasten his belt and protect his people. Those seeking help in Abuja would not find it because Abuja also needs help. I sympathise with you (Benue) people; nobody will kill you. You are all safe here.Fayose gave out telephone hot lines through which people who notice strange movements can call for urgent attention.
A convocation of the peoples of the South East, South West, South-South and Middle Belt groups has demanded for declaration of both Myitte Allah and Fulani herdsmen and terrorist groups.The People also stated that a minority part of Nigeria, the North West and North East, cannot hold the rest of the regions with over 99 million population to ransom by refusing to agree on restructuring Nigeria.They particularly accused President Mohammadu Buhari of spearheading the anti-restructuring posture and warned that if the country is not restructured before the 2019 general elections, Nigeria may be heading towards disintegration.The peoples convocation meet in Enugu, Thursday, under the platform of Handshake Across the Niger; a Celebration of Igbo/Yoruba Friendship Beyond Brotherhood, organised by a pan Igbo group, Nzuko Umunna.However, Pro-Biafra members made up of mostly elderly women countered against the demand for restructuring, saying that they want outright, separatist country, having been tired of Nigerias wobblings and injustices.Their voices rented the venue, overshadowing the speaking President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo.Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Chief Ifeanyi Ubah had hectic time calming the agitators but announced that the pro-Biafra members would be given time to express their anger against last year Operation Python Dance.Leader of Yoruba group and representative of Chairman of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo the meeting was a catalyst for unity of Nigeria which the enemies of Nigeria do not want to take place.He noted that it was not a gang up meeting or a forum for formation of a political party, but a meeting against common oppressors of the progressive Nigerians.Adebanjo said: its only restructuring that can guarantee your rights in Nigeria. Cheating, injustice and even corruption can only be wiped out through restructuring.President Buhari will not do that, instead he has ensured that all military and paramilitary institutions are under his control and he has refused to name herdsmen as terrorists yet he pounced on IPOB that seeks for justice.President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo said that the Fulani herdsmen are daring the Nigeria unity, adding that it was unfortunate the federal government has refused to declare the herdsmen as a terrorist group.A minute silence was observed for the victims of Benue killing by suspected herdsmen.
Former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu said that Fulani herders are not in charge of the current killings in parts of the nation. He revealed that the are from Niger Republic.In his revelation, Kalu confirmed that significant corrupt Nigerians who oppose the fight against corruption are the ones sponsoring the group.Kalu who expressed this while identifying with the casualties and groups of the individuals who were slaughtered in Taraba and Benue States, said culprits were for the most part returnees from Niger Republic who penetrated the general population and professed to be Fulani herders.He said these executioner herders were for the most part supported by lawmakers who were oppressed in light of the fact that the President hindered the different channels by which the nations assets were being looted.He included there was inconvenience around the nation now since President had finished the old methods for taking care of the countrys assets.Kalu talked in his nation home, Igbere, amid the dispatch of free intrigue advance to Abians in Abia North Senatorial District.
Parents in Kafanchan have called for dialogue between the Kaduna State Government and Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT)to end ongoing strike by public school teachers in the state.A section of parents said in separate interviews in Kafanchan on Thursday that only amicable solution of the issues end the current impasse.The NUT on Monday ordered its members to embark on an indefinite strike over job security and welfare issues.Mr Ishaya Yayock, a retired civil servant and resident of Garaje, Kafanchan, said compromise was necessary on all parts to ensure resumption of normal academic activities in government schools.According to him, speedy resolution of the crisis would prevent adverse disruption of the academic calendar.Another resident, Malam Lawal Ibrahim expressed concern that the strike would impact negatively on pupils preparing for Common Entrance Examination.The NUT and government should spare a thought for the future of the young ones who will be roaming the streets because of the ongoing strike, he said.According to him, any industrial action by workers in the education sector ultimately leaves negative consequences on the learners who are mostly from poor homes.
Former President Jonathan wishes to express his condolences to the government and people of Benue, Kaduna, Taraba, Adamawa and Nasarawa ...

Former President Jonathan wishes to express his condolences to the government and people of Benue, Kaduna, Taraba, Adamawa and Nasarawa states, over the recent spate of killings occasioned by herdsmen/farmers clashes. His heart bleeds for the sufferings of Nigerians and he calls on the authorities to do everything in their power to put an end to these needless killings.Having said that, let it be known that we find the statement by the Presidency stating that 756 Nigerians were killed by Fulani herdsmen in two years under the government of former President Jonathan as a mischievous assertion by a callous Presidential spokesman who thinks that death is something to be trivialized.For the avoidance of doubt, let it be known that the figure of 756 is wrong. But the issue is not that it is a false figure, the issue is that former President Jonathan was not inactive in the face of Fulani herdsmen killings during his Presidency.While in office, the former President knew that the capacity of the Nigerian police would be challenged by the sophistication of arms available to the herdsmen and so after he was elected President and sworn in on May 29, 2011, former President Jonathan summoned a National Security Council meeting and ordered that Fulani herdsmen attack must be decisively dealt with.In July 2012, the Plateau state government reported that herdsmen killings had reached a head in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area leading to tens of deaths of Nigerian citizens by Fulani herdsmen, many of whom were not even Nigerian citizens. Then President Jonathan, when briefed about the situation insisted that there would not be such impunity under his leadership and immediately ordered the army and the Air Force to go to the affected communities and fish out the perpetrators and bring them to book. The military immediately obeyed the then Presidents orders and sent troops and helicopters to Barkin Ladi Local Government Area.They ordered all residents to leave their residence for temporary accommodation provided for them so they could conduct a joint air and ground operation to flush out the armed herdsmen who had been suspected of killing innocent Nigerians. The residents complied and the soldiers went in and not only did they clear the area, they made arrests which led to trials and convictions. We wish to remind Nigerians that when this episode was being carried out, it was precisely members of the opposition who later became the All Progressive Congress that heavily criticized then President Jonathans orders.In fact, a prominent member of the APC and now the Governor of Kaduna State and a known confidante of the President, Malam Nasir El-Rufai tweeted his now infamous tweet on the 15th of July 2012 threatening that We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes. (his exact words).So the question Nigerians need to ask instead of allowing themselves to be distracted by the statement from the Presidency is this: Are Nigerians now repaying the loan that El-Rufai threatened to make Nigeria repay? If the then President was not active in decisively sending the military after herdsmen, why would El-Rufai have been so pained to have made such a statement? Let it be known that the former President views herdsmen who kill unprovoked and with the intention of advancing their own economic and other interests as terrorists, pure and simple.Not only did he treat them as terrorists, he also put the military on high alert to protect Nigerian lives. In conclusion, we state that any group who kills to advance their agenda is a terror group and failure to address them as such is a disservice to the Nigerian people Reno Omokri(for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan)
BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday urged Japan to stop making trouble over the Diaoyu Islands issue.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks at a daily press briefing.

Lu said that two ships of Japan's maritime self-defense force had earlier Thursday entered the Contiguous Zone of Chiwei Islet, which belongs to China's Diaoyu Islands. The ships have since left the area after tracking and surveillance by the Chinese navy.

"Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands have always been an inherent part of Chinese territory," said Lu. "Japan's relevant actions cannot change the fact that Diaoyu Islands belong to China and cannot shake China's determination to safeguard its territorial sovereignty."

China urges Japan to take concrete measures to improve bilateral ties, and meet China half-way in line with the four-point principled consensus reached in 2014, he said.
BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's defense ministry has expressed strong discontent with Japanese efforts to sensationalize a legitimate action by the Chinese navy, according to the information office of the ministry Thursday.

The remarks were in response to a claim from Japan that a Chinese vessel had entered the waters of the contiguous zone outside the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands.

According to the office, on Thursday morning two vessels of the Japanese maritime self-defense force entered the contiguous zone on the northeast of the Chiwei Islet of China's Diaoyu Islands, to which China's missile frigate Yiyang immediately reacted by tracking and monitoring vessels in the area.

The Japanese vessels have now left the aforementioned contiguous zone, the office said.

"The Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets have always been an inherent part of Chinese territory, thus the activities of Chinese vessel in the waters are totally legitimate," the office noted. "The Chinese military will continue to firmly defend China's territorial sovereignty and security interests by all means necessary."
The Newark Housing Authority donated $1,800 to Mayor Ras Baraka's re-election committee, records show -- in what would be a violation of state law prohibiting political contributions by public agencies.

But a spokeswoman for Baraka's campaign said the listed contributions were "likely a clerical error."

"This appears to be yet another example of poor management done by a former accountant," spokeswoman Samantha Gordon said Wednesday. She said the campaign was taking the matter "very seriously" and conducting a full audit "to get answers."

In a review of campaign documents, NJ Advance Media found two separate contributions from the federally-funded housing agency -- $600 on July 6, 2017 and $1,200 on Aug. 3, 2017 -- given to the Committee to Re-Elect Ras J Baraka 2018.

Officials at the Election Law Enforcement Commission would not comment on specifics in this case, but an official, citing state statute, said "in general, the law forbids contributions by public agencies."

The Commission has already cited Baraka's campaign and former treasurer Frederick Murphy for violating campaign finance rules during the 2014 election. The 28-count complaint filed in November, said the campaign failed to disclose 188 contributions worth $160,000 and provided incomplete or incorrect information in 161 instances worth $155,000.

At the time, Amiri Baraka, Jr., Mayor Baraka's brother and campaign manager, said they were working to comply with the law and had hired a compliance firm, CFO Compliance LLC.

The latest campaign contribution report is signed by treasurer Kanileah Anderson, not Murphy.

Victor Cirilo, executive director of the Newark Housing Authority, said he was looking into the matter.

"The housing authority is currently reviewing this matter, which occurred prior to the new administration being installed this past October. If we find that there was a prior improper usage of funds, it would be rectified immediately," said Cirilo, who began at the agency after both contributions were made.

Mayor Baraka appoints the Board of Commissioners at the Newark Housing Authority, an agency that oversees public housing in the city. The commissioners in turn, hire and fire the executive director.

Baraka is seeking re-election to a second term in the upcoming May 8 election. The Committee to Re-Elect Ras J Baraka 2018 has raised $700,000 so far, records show.

The committee's latest campaign filings also show a contribution by Linda Jumah, owner of political consulting firm Elite Strategies, who previously pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Jumah admitted in November she failed to pay taxes on income generated by her political consulting and fundraising business. Her $500 was received in September.

Records filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission show the Committee to Re-Elect Ras Baraka paid Elite Strategies $95,000 between April 2015 through April 2017 for consulting services and coordinating a fundraiser.

Staff writer Ted Sherman contributed to this report.



Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.
Richard "Richie" Roberts, the former Essex County assistant prosecutor who helped convict Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas of drug-trafficking crimes, was sentenced to three years' probation Thursday after pleading guilty to federal tax crimes, prosecutors announced.

His sentence will include 10 months of home confinement, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a statement. Roberts' attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

Roberts, 80, of Bloomfield, pleaded guilty in April before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark to failing to pay his personal income taxes and to pay the employer's portion of federal payroll taxes for his law firm.

As an Essex County detective and later assistant prosecutor, Roberts helped obtain an indictment against Lucas -- a notorious Harlem heroin dealer -- for crimes in New Jersey. Lucas was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 70 years in prison, but became a government informant and was released early.

The one-time prosecutor later became friends with Lucas, and represented him in court after prosecutors charged Lucas with trying to deceive the U.S. Treasury of $17,345 in Social Security checks meant for his son. Lucas was sentenced to probation in that case.

Roberts' investigation of Lucas was later memorialized in the 2007 film "American Gangster," with Roberts portrayed by Russell Crowe. Lucas was played by Denzel Washington.

Roberts, whose law license has been suspended, is currently facing charges in state Superior Court under an indictment obtained by the state Attorney General's Office, which has accused Roberts and his former law partner, Gerald Saluti, of misusing more than $140,000 in client funds.

Federal prosecutors said Roberts had not paid personal income taxes since at least 2000. In addition to the term of probation, Salas sentenced him to 100 hours of community service and ordered him to pay $224,962 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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JERSEY CITY -- The prosecution's key witness took the stand today in the murder trial of Isaiah Huggins and without hesitation said Huggins is the man who murdered 17-year-old Rondell Rush in 2016.

"He killed Rondell Rush," Romance Morrison, 19, of Jersey City, said of Huggins when asked by the prosecutor why he and Huggins' friendship had ended.

Huggins, now 18, was 16 years old when he was charged with the April 26, 2016, murder of Rush who was shot in the head in the area of Fulton Avenue near Martin Luther King Drive.

The defense contends Morrison is the real killer. Huggins looked on without emotion as his former friend told jurors that Huggins is the killer. Morrison was very soft-spoken and was repeatedly asked by the judge to keep his voice up and speak into the microphone.

Morrison said on the day of the killing he met with Huggins around Wilkinson and Ocean avenues and Huggins said, "Let's go fight Rondell."

When Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Greg Mullens asked Morrison why he went with Huggins, he said, "To fight."

Morrison said they walked off to "go look for" Rush and found him on Fulton near MLK. Morrison said Huggins and Rush exchanged words and "Isaiah pulled out a gun." The witness said he turned and ran, and about two seconds elapsed between the time the gun came out and shots were heard.

"Who pulled the gun out?" Mullens asked.

"Isaiah," responded Morrison.

"And what did he do with the gun?" Mullens asked.

"He shot him," the witness said.

"Did you know he was going to shoot Rondell?" the prosecutor asked.

"Not at all," said Morrison, adding that he did not have a gun and did not know Huggins had one.

The prosecutor also showed a half dozen security video clips from the time leading up to the shooting and in each, Morrison identified the men seen walking in the images as himself and Huggins.

After being shown the first clip, Huggins said the video showed himself and Huggins "Going to look for Rondell."

Defense attorney Mary Ciancimino cross examined Morrison for only a few minutes before the trial broke for the day around 4 p.m. Her cross examination will continue tomorrow.

Huggins' second attorney, Caitlin Flood, said in her opening statement that only one person gave a description of a man seen holding a gun at the scene and the description of the man's clothing fit Morrison, not Huggins.

Flood told the jury that detectives wrapped up the investigation after getting Morrison's statement without seeking security video to verify Morrison's version of events and they did not interview people he mentioned in his statement.

Speaking of the investigation, Flood said "That is not seeking justice."

The trial will resume at 9 a.m. tomorrow before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mark Nelson in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City.
JERSEY CITY -- More than 1,000 police officers from across the tri-state area have arrived in Jersey City to say their final goodbyes to Lt. Christopher Robateau.

Robateau, 49, was struck by a pickup truck on the New Jersey Turnpike after being involved in a crash at roughly 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 5. He was on his way to work when the accident occurred.

Bergen Avenue was lined with residents, business owners, and passerbys paying their respects as a procession made its way from Journal Square to St. Aedan's Church.

As Robateau's flag-draped casket was removed from the hearse, a sea of blue stretching nearly two blocks stood at attention, many of whom were visibly emotional. A State Police helicopter hovered overhead.

The funeral Mass is being said by Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, and a host of other priests. The funeral has shut down most of McGinley Square neighborhood.

Much of the city's police department is attendance while Union City, Hoboken, and other local departments are on patrol and providing security details in Jersey City. Most of the county's political leaders are attending the service along with some of classmates of Robateau's children.

Robateau, a 23-year veteran of the department. was one of the city's most decorated officers with more than 40 Meritorious Police Service awards. He also received several commendations, which are awarded to officers who put their lives at risk.

"We have over 900 officers in Jersey City and he may be our best," Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly said of Robateau at a City Hall news conference last week.

Robateau's death is being treated as in-the-line-of-duty because he was attempting to assist the other driver when he was struck with "considerable force," officials said.
JERSEY CITY - Lt. Christopher Robateau loved his job with the Jersey City Police Department, scary movies, his dog Rosie, and practical jokes.

But what he was most proud of was his wife, Rose, and the family they had together.

"My father above all else was a family man," his youngest son, Michael, 15, said at the lieutenant's funeral. "Going places and traveling together was a must. He loved family time and his free time was family time always."

On Jan. 5, Robateau, a highly decorated 23-year veteran of the department, was fatally struck by a vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike after being involved in a crash with truck. Because officials say he was going to check on the other driver and was on his way into work, the city has treated his passing as an in-the-line-of-duty death.

Before the funeral Mass at St. Aedan's Church, each of Robateau's three sons eulogized their father. They shared stories, including the time they went to Nickelodeon Studios and made matching SpongeBob t-shirts, his bizarre taste for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with butter, and the time Robateau fell asleep on the couch and his wife drew a mustache on him. He didn't learn of the prank until he got up to use the bathroom and noticed the ink on his face. He erupted in laughter.

A sea of blue covered Bergen Avenue as a procession made its way from McLaughlin Funeral home on Pavonia Avenue to the church. A flag draped from two fire trucks and close to 1,000 police officers from all across the tri-state area lined the street, standing at attention.

His middle son, Christopher Robateau Jr., 16, recalled his father as having a "heart of gold."

"He had this magical ability to light up any room he walked in with just his mere presence and almost always had a smile on his face," Christopher Jr. said. "He was a real jokester and always was up for a laugh even if it was at his own expense because that was just part of his wonderful nature."

Growing up, he sometimes felt being a "junior" was being less of his own person.

"Now more than ever I see it's actually the exact opposite," his son said. "To have the ability to carry on my father's name in my own is an opportunity that no one else has. I now stand tall and proud to do so and continue his legacy as well as make it my own and I hope to make him proud while doing it."

Dozens of police officers and firefighters from pipes and drums bands played as Robateau's flag-draped coffin was led from the church. Rose Robateau met Chief Michael Kelly for a long embrace after the flag was folded and handed to her. All three of her children held on to their weeping mother as Taps played.

His oldest son, Darin, 25, said his father not only loved his wife and family, but also "his family in blue."

"He brought us all together here now, and he will always be the greatest man I've ever known."

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
iPhone owners from several states sued Apple for not disclosing sooner that it issued software updates deliberately slowing older-model phones so aging batteries lasted longer, saying Apple's silence led them to wrongly conclude that their only option was to buy newer, pricier iPhones.

The allegations were in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Chicago federal court on behalf of five iPhone owners from Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina, all of whom say they never would have bought new iPhones had Apple told them that simply replacing the batteries would have sped up their old ones. The suit alleges Apple violated consumer fraud laws.

A similar lawsuit was filed Thursday in Los Angeles. Both suits came a day after Apple confirmed what high-tech sleuths outside the company already observed: The company had deployed software to slow some phones. Apple said it was intended as a fix to deal with degraded lithium-ion batteries that could otherwise suddenly die.

"Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices," an Apple statement said. It said it released the fix for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE and later extended it to iPhone 7. Apple didn't respond to a message Friday seeking comment.


In a rare admission of guilt, Myanmar's military says its security forces were responsible for the deaths of 10 Rohingya found in a mass grave.

Myanmar's Defense Ministry Information office released a statement Wednesday stating its forces had killed 10 suspected terrorists whose remains were found in a mass grave in Inn Din village of Maung Daw Township in the Northern Rakhine State.

The Defense Ministry said it will take action against the perpetrators involved in those killings and those in charge of security forces in the Rakhine State.

The 10 suspected terrorists were arrested following clashes with security forces last September, according to the military statement, which added security forces decided to execute them due to a lack of security and man power at the time.
"We don't know what the success of the TPP is going to yet look like, because it isn't yet negotiated. So, it would be a little bit premature for us to be wanting to sign up to something that we're not sure what the final details will look like. However, we have said that we want to be an open, outward-looking country, and therefore it would be foolish for us to rule out any particular outcomes for the future," Fox told reporters during the trip last week.

The British government hopes trade with fast-growing economies will make up for losses that may occur after it leaves the European Union as scheduled in 2019.

Britain is making known its hopes to one day join the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP, a free trade agreement currently being negotiated by eleven countries bordering the Pacific and the South China Sea.

London sits some 7,000 km from any Pacific coastline. So, does geography no longer matter in 21st century trade? Not so, said Jonathan Portes, an economist and professor at Kings College London.

"There has been an argument put forward that particularly as trade in services expands, and as a result of technology, it will matter considerably less in the future, and that seems to make a lot of sense. However, unfortunately, so far at least, the actual data and evidence dont really support this contention. For whatever reason, geography at the moment seems to matter as much as it ever did," he said.

By leaving the European Union's Single Market and Customs Union on its doorstep, Britain will abandon a free trade agreement that accounts for about half of its global trade. In contrast, all eleven countries currently negotiating the TPP combined accounted for less than 8 percent of British goods exported last year.

Portes said it will take decades for other trade deals to make up ground. "Our companies are in many cases very closely integrated with the European Union, meaning that there will be substantial disruption as a result of the likely implications of Brexit."

The countries negotiating the TPP include Chile, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

During his tenure, U.S. President Barack Obama was a driving force behind TPP, but his successor, Donald Trump, pulled the United States out of the deal, claiming it would be bad for America. Negotiations between the eleven remaining countries are progressing slowly.

"The TPP, already as a consequence of the U.S. withdrawal, has its own internal problems. And they're going to have to work out how to get that back on track," said Portes. But Britain's interest in the TPP has been welcomed by some of the parties involved, particularly Australia.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to visit Asia later this year in an attempt to boost ties ahead of Brexit.
Bennie Keeler, 18, and a 17-year-old were booked into the Orleans Justice Center jail Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, with one count each of armed robbery with a firearm, jail records show. A juvenile was booked into the juvenile detention center in connection to the robbery. (Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office)
Kyre West pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated animal cruelty Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, after New Orleans police said he shot a cat on Oct. 4, 2017, with a pellet gun outside Zeus Place adoption center and pet daycare on Freret Street. (Courtesy of Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office)
No jail time for Michoud woman in grandson's death after gun went off in bed
President Moon Jae-in in a New Year's press conference on Wednesday pledged to keep pursuing labor reforms.

The plans include turning contract workers into regular employees, narrowing wage gaps, shortening work hours and increasing jobs. He added that shortening Korea's notoriously long working hours "is an inevitable task for the sake of ensuring a dignified life."

Businesses have complained that shortening work hours would put them in a tight spot since they have to pay more overtime and eventually hire fewer staff.

Moon defended his drastic hike of the minimum wage but added, "It will only be possible when there is cooperation from all economic players. I will meet with anyone, whether they are labor or management, large conglomerates or small and medium-sized businesses, regular workers or non-regular workers."

Moon also vowed to reform big business, which often act like vampire squids by squeezing subcontractors and buying up the start-up competition.

"Chaebol reform is vital to return economic benefits to small and medium-sized businesses and the public in addition to forging a transparent economy," he said. "The unfair business practice of family-owned firms awarding exclusive contracts to their subsidiaries will be rooted out... Underhand tactics by chaebol owners and their families to expand their dominance will be reined in."

He was referring to tactics like Samsung's levering of the old chairman's son Lee Jae-yong to the leadership of the publicly traded conglomerate by exploiting its Byzantine holding structure.


This graphic shows the potential restoration footprint from operating the proposed Mid-Barataria sediment diversion for 50 years, based on a maximum flow of 60,000 cubic feet per second, and was part of a 2014 preliminary report. State officials say that in developing environmental permit information, they're setting a minimum flow of 30,000 cubic feet per second, which could occur for at least a brief time every year, and a maximum of 75,000 cfs, which would likely occur only once every few years. (Coastal Protection and Restorati)
5 things to do around the North Shore this weekend, Jan. 12-14
Former President Donald Trump is preparing to launch his third campaign for the White House with an announcement Tuesday night. Trump is looking to move on from disappointing midterm defeats and defy history amid signs that his grip on the Republican Party may be waning. The former president had hoped to use the GOP's expected gains in last week's elections as a springboard to win his party's nomination by locking in early support and keeping potential challengers at bay. Instead, Trump now finds himself being blamed for backing a series of losing candidates in last week's midterm elections.
Apple faces a class-action lawsuit in Korea for a software update that slows down older iPhones when their batteries run down.

Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty said Wednesday it plans to file the class-action damage suit at the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday.

The head of the consumer group said around 100 people have signed up already and more are expected to join, demanding damages of W2.2 million per person (US$1=W1,071).

The group is also mulling criminal charges against Apple. Other law firms here are planning to follow suit. One law firm, Hannuri, says it has lined up 350,000 plaintiffs already.

Apple now faces some 30 lawsuits in six countries including the U.S. and Australia over the same issue.

Prosecutors in France have also launched an investigation for "planned obsolescence," which carries up to two years in jail or a fine equivalent to five percent of annual sales.


Today

Mostly sunny. High 56F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 47F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Showers early, becoming a steady rain later in the day. High around 50F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shops chief executive and the new owner of Cabelas, is asking former Cabelas executives and owners who made big bucks in the sale of the company to donate some of that payout to a severance fund for Cabelas employees in Sidney.

Whats more, Morris is putting his own money where his mouth is.

Cabelas employed as many as 2,000 in the Panhandle town in recent years and has been headquartered there for decades. Bass Pro closed on its $5 billion purchase of Cabelas in September. As the two companies combine operations, its likely that some people in Sidney will lose their jobs. Bass Pro has not detailed how many people are likely to be affected but has said there will be cuts.

Morris has now asked former Cabelas executives who got large golden parachutes in the sale, as well as a profit from the sale of their Cabelas stock, to contribute to the severance fund for employees in Sidney.

As part of that challenge, Morris has said he will personally match all of the contributions to the severance fund, up to $10 million, said Bass Pro spokesman Jack Wlezien.

Bass Pro has said it already has committed an additional $10 million on top of its normal severance program to help people in Sidney.

While I know the former owners and executives are under no obligation to lend this additional support, I hope they consider doing so, Morris said in a statement.

Ralph Castner, who will work for Bass Pro in the same role he did at Cabelas as chief financial officer, said when reached on his cellphone that its something he will discuss privately with Morris.

Former Cabelas Chief Executive Tommy Millner couldnt be reached for comment. Mary Cabela, who helped found the company with her husband, Dick Cabela, also could not be reached. Neither could Jim Cabela, who also helped start the company with Dick and Mary and formerly served as Cabelas chairman. Jim Cabela and the Cabela family owned a large stake in the company.

Bass Pro has detailed which operations will stay in Sidney: The company will keep open all Nebraska retail stores, call centers and the distribution center in Sidney, according to a document sent to employees and obtained by The Omaha World-Herald last month.

It also will retain 125 Cabelas information technology employees and some accounting and finance jobs, although the company did not say how many.

Bass will donate empty Cabelas buildings back to the City of Sidney to aide in recruitment of new businesses that could employ people there.

At question are other headquarters jobs, as Bass has said the combined companys headquarters will be in Springfield, Missouri. Bass has not given specifics on what will happen to those employees.

Wlezien, Bass spokesman, said that was to avoid making false promises. However, he said the vast majority of Cabelas jobs companywide  many of them retail store positions  will be retained.

Our intent, as reflected by our actions to date, has been to avoid making false promises, and we will continue to be very thoughtful and candid before making commitments, Wlezien said.

Finance experts say the challenge to former executives is uncommon.

Quite honestly, I think that sounds very unique and extraordinary and odd, said Lee Dunham, a finance professor at Creighton University.

Dunham said he cant recall any other executives, of private or publicly traded companies, digging into ones own pockets or calling on others to help workers in such a way.

If these people who are going to be fired, released or laid off can get $20 million to divvy up, versus $10 million, maybe thats a good thing, Dunham said.

Since Bass Pro is a private company, it doesnt need to report its finances to regulators or answer to shareholders who might scoff at money being spent in such a way.

Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigans Ross School of Business, agreed that its not a common occurrence in corporate America.

It is rare even for a wealthy owner to dig into his or her pocket to the tune of $10 million for people losing their jobs when a company is sold, Gordon said. What will people do with the money? They cant live on it forever.
AVOCA  Robert Reynolds was sentenced to serve at least 35 of 50 years in prison for the 2014 murder of Patricia Kinkade-Dorsey on Wednesday, bringing to a close his retrial after his original conviction was overturned.

Reynolds, 67, will be at least 102 when he becomes eligible for parole.

In court, two of the victims daughters spoke about their grief and how Reynolds did not just end Kinkade-Dorseys life but damaged her family as well.

It ruined our lives. I had to learn about moms death on Facebook, one daughter said.

The second daughter quoted poet T.S. Eliot, telling Reynolds April has now become the cruellest month for her as a reminder of what they have lost.

Having to go through this again, I had to imagine again what must have ran through my moms mind while she was trying to shield herself from your gun, she said.

Both daughters implored Reynolds to accept responsibility for his actions that led to Kinkade-Dorseys death.

Reynolds previous conviction for first-degree murder following a jury trial in Council Bluffs was overturned by the Iowa Court of Appeals based on an 1884 law that called for the trial to be held in Avoca instead of Council Bluffs.

The law once divided Pottawattamie County into two for judicial purposes. Reynolds retrial was ordered to take place in Avoca, but the East Pottawattamie County Courthouse was deemed incapable of hosting the trial. The Avoca Fire Hall on Main Street was used instead.

Both the prosecution and defense agreed to waive having a jury, and a bench trial was held. Judge Susan Christensen found Reynolds guilty of not only shooting the victim, but that he acted with intent, not out of self-defense or insanity.

Reynolds did not have a comment for the court when asked before his sentencing. His attorney, Bill McGinn, said Reynolds will appeal the decision.

Before Reynolds was taken away by law enforcement, Christensen said she hoped the verdict and sentence would help the affected family heal  and that Reynolds could take ownership of his actions.

I hope their words to you did not fall on deaf ears, she said of the daughters statements. You can accept responsibility.
The Council Bluffs school board discussed a proposed partially enclosed link between Thomas Jefferson High School and the school activities center, along with proposed changes to the 2018-19 school calendar, during a work session Tuesday. No action was taken on the proposals.

Superintendent Vickie Murillo sees the connector at Thomas Jefferson as a priority and would like to see it completed by the beginning of the 2018-19 school year.

I believe it is pretty important at this time for us to work hard and see if we can do something about this, she said. The main thing is to be able to secure the high school and secure the activities center.

The connector would be made up of a permanent addition to the activities center and an open-sided cover over the old rail bed, where the city has a utility easement and an underground storm sewer line. The city plans to eventually install a bike trail on the easement, though no construction date has been established. It also wants to keep the option open for a rapid transit line on the easement.

The preliminary cost estimate, which includes $336,000 for contingency and fees, is about $1.7 million. Savings the district gained by refinancing bond series from 2010 and 2012 would pay for $1.43 million of the project.

The 76-foot-long addition to the T-JAC building, with an estimated cost of $470,000, would bring the north end of the building up to the fence line on the south edge of the easement, according to a drawing from HGM Associates.

The $300,000 canopy  which would match the roof of the addition, according to HGM architect Dean Fajen  would cover the remaining 55 feet between the activities center and the main building. The canopy would be made of durable materials and would be 17 feet, 8 inches wide.

It will be quite a bit wider than the actual walking trail to keep rain and snow off the students, Fajen said.

Troy Arthur, president of the Board of Education, was disappointed that the district would have to settle for a corridor that wouldnt be completely enclosed. Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh has said a permanent connector would encroach on that utility easement.

The value of a connector that doesnt connect is a bit of a struggle, Arthur said.

He said he was concerned that, with the open area where the trail would be, students would not be fully protected from trail users and other outsiders.

Murillo said the school resource officer would have to be outside watching when students were crossing between periods. She emphasized that there would be people in both the school and activities center watching the entrances.

The entrance to the T-JAC building would be modified at an estimated cost of $100,000. A security desk would be installed in the new addition so the activities centers door monitor could better control traffic in and out of the building, Murillo said.

The improvements would allow the school to eliminate one of the two door monitors for a savings of about $45,000, she said. Changes would be made to the entryway of the main building at an approximate cost of $75,000.

Once classes started each day, both entrances would be locked, and visitors to the main building would be routed through the office area for security purposes, she said.

Board member Jill Ogg-Gress asked if a connector could be built that would go up and over the easement. Murillo said there were concerns that students would not want to bother going up to cross and would just cross at ground level.

An overpass would cost about $4.5 million, compared to $1.6 million for the proposed connector, Fajen said.

There would be enhancements to the area near the connector on the side facing the parking lot. The cyclone fence along the south edge of the easement would be replaced with ornamental fencing at a cost of $75,000.

The area around the connector would be landscaped, and a Yellow Jacket logo would be embedded in the sidewalk at estimated costs of $20,000 and $10,000, respectively. Benches would be installed, as well as new lighting and security equipment, at a total cost of $70,000.

Its a really nice area were creating for our students and our community, Murillo said.

Thomas Jefferson officials have expressed concerns about security at the activities center, the superintendent said during the boards Aug. 22 meeting.

While teachers watch hallways during busy time periods in the main building, there arent as many staff in the T-JAC building to keep eyes on the entrances. The district subsequently hired door monitors to watch the entrances.

At the same meeting, board members voted to engage HGM to begin working on three possible plans for a structure to join the two buildings. That was put on hold after the city indicated it might want to use the easement for a bike trail or rapid transit route at some point in the future.

Walsh has said he likes the new proposal, which appears to accommodate those possibilities. He said he thought the canopy would allow room for repairs to the sewer pipe, if they were needed.

In other business, the board reviewed a revised calendar for the 2018-19 school year.

The new calendar differs only slightly from the one previously approved by the board. It shortens winter break from 10 days to eight days, allowing the school year to finish two days earlier.

The school year would still begin on Aug. 23, 2018, and graduation is still scheduled for June 2, 2019. The Mid-America Center is not available on the first Saturday in June for the next several years, said Corey Vorthmann, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.

Ogg-Gress said she liked the revised calendar.

I think people want to be home during the summer and not home during the winter, she said.
OMAHA  With the possibility of severe ice and snow moving across Nebraska in the next few days, the American Red Cross is stressing winter driving and home safety. Now would be a good time to make sure you are ready when conditions deteriorate.

People should stay off the roads if possible, said Jill Orton, American Red Cross CEO for Nebraska, Kansas and Southwest Iowa. Residents in our area should also make sure they are prepared at home for power outages that often result from heavy snow and icing conditions.

A Wednesday afternoon Red Cross survey of area hotels along the I-80 corridor in Pottawattamie County and Douglas and Sarpy Counties in Nebraska indicated a 60% occupancy rate, so there is lodging available for motorists who become stranded or want to get off the roads.

If you feel you must drive in freezing rain or snow, the Red Cross offers the following 10 tips for motorists:

 Keep your vehicles gas tank at least half full at all times and clean lights and windows to help you see, especially at night.

 Let friends and family members know where you are going and when you expect to arrive at your destination.

 Make sure you have extra clothing, coats and blankets.

 Carry nutritious snacks and water if heading out on a trip.

 Make sure everyone in the vehicle is wearing a seat belt.

 Dont follow other vehicles too closely. Sudden stops are difficult on snowy or icy roadways.

 Do not pass snow plows.

 Do not use cruise control when driving on ice or snow.

 If you do run off the road, stay with your vehicle. If you have to get out of your vehicle, use the side away from traffic.

 Do not run your engine and heater constantly, but run for about 10 minutes every hour.

In a severe storm, the Red Cross recommends that residents shelter in place until conditions are safe to leave their homes. Should the need arise for shelter locations, the Red Cross will advise through local and social media.

If a power outage occurs, make sure that your family and home get through the storm safely:

 Never use a gas stove or oven to heat your home. If you are using a fireplace, use a glass or metal fire screen large enough to catch sparks and rolling logs. Make sure fireplace embers are out before leaving the room or going to bed.

 Use flashlights for light, not candles.

 Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible. Your refrigerator will keep food cold for about 4 hours. If the freezer is full, it will keep its temperature for about 48 hours.

 Turn off and unplug all unnecessary electrical equipment and any appliances, equipment or electronics to avoid damaging them when the power is restored.

 Use generators correctly  never operate a generator inside the home, including the basement or garage.

 Portable generators should not be hooked to the homes wiring. The safest thing to do is to connect the equipment you want to power directly to the outlets on the generator.

 Dont forget your pets  bring them indoors. If they are ever outside, make sure they have enough shelter to keep them warm and that they can get to unfrozen water.

People can also download the Red Cross Emergency App for instant access to winter storm tips and weather alerts for their area and where loved ones live. Expert medical guidance and a hospital locator are included in the First Aid App in case travelers encounter any mishaps. Both apps are available to download for free on app stores or online at redcross.org/apps.
Winds have picked up and snow is falling in Council Bluffs-Omaha area. The area will see less snowfall than was expected Wednesday, but icy roads and sidewalks remain a concern.

Hazardous travel conditions are expected today due to freezing drizzle/rain, stiff winds and snow across most of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

Schools in the Council Bluffs and Omaha areas are closed today.

Streets

Blowing snow is picking up, and accumulating snow is making it harder to see the center lines on streets. Drivers are taking it slow. Sidewalks are slick.

Power outage

MidAmerican Energy had reporting that almost 2,500 customers in Council Bluffs were without power, but before 8:30 a.m., that number had dropped to 260. Here's the map of reported outages.

Trash collection

Curbside collection will collect garbage as normal today in Council Bluffs. However, expect crews to be delayed.

Flight information

No arrival or departure delays and no cancellations have been announced at Eppley Airfield. Eppley officials urged travelers to check with their airlines before arriving at the airport.

Area travel

Due to the conditions, the weather service issued:

>> A winter weather advisory until 6 p.m. today for most of central and western Iowa, and all of northeast, southeast and central Nebraska.

>> A winter storm warning for parts of northwest, north-central and west-central Iowa until 6 p.m. today.

Forecast

A winter storm warning for most of the region has been canceled, but wind-chill values as low as minus 15 are likely thanks to north-northwest winds gusting as high as 45 mph. Plus, freezing drizzle, snow, strong winds, cold conditions and hazardous roads are still very likely through today.

Omaha, Council Bluffs, Lincoln and locations to the north and west, including Norfolk and Columbus, are expected to receive 1 to 2 inches of snow. Other expected snowfall totals today in inches: Falls City, 4-6; Nebraska City, 3-4; Beatrice, 2-3; Red Oak, 4-6; Harlan, 2-3.

Ryan McPike, a KMTV meteorologist, said two computer models were calling for 2 to 3 inches or so of snow today in the Council Bluffs-Omaha area. McPike said he was calling for 1 to 3 inches.

However, the No. 1 thing this morning is the ice, he said about the early freezing drizzle and rain that will change to snow. And its only going to get worse as the precipitation continues today.

McPike also said the Council Bluffs-Omaha area could get 1 to 2 inches of snow Sunday.

The latest metro area forecast, according to the weather service:

Today: Freezing drizzle mixed with snow early, then becoming all snow after 5 a.m. until about 11 a.m. Temperature falling to around 12 by 5 p.m. Windy with north-northwest winds gusting as high as 45 mph. Total accumulation of around 1 to 2 inches of snow.

Tonight: Mostly clear with a low around 2. North-northwest winds could gusts as high as 25 mph.

Friday: Increasing clouds with a high around 15. Wind-chill values as low as minus 10.

Friday night: A slight chance of snow with a low around 5.
A tentative settlement announced Tuesday will have taxpayers footing a bill of several hundred thousand dollars for Iowa State Universitys unconstitutional crackdown on a pro-marijuana student groups T-shirts.

Subject to approval by a state board, the state has agreed to pay $150,000 in damages to two leaders of the university chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws whose free-speech rights were violated by campus administrators.

Under the proposed settlement, the former students, Paul Gerlich and Erin Furleigh, who filed the lawsuit in 2014, would each receive $75,000 for their emotional distress.

In addition to the $150,000 the state will pay the two former students, taxpayers would also pay two law firms that represented the group $193,000 for their efforts to defend against the universitys unsuccessful appeals. A judge has yet to decide what additional fees the law firms will receive for their actual trial work in the successful litigation that led to the universitys appeals.

It is an unambiguous win for our clients and for the First Amendment and for an understanding that violating peoples rights isnt free, the plaintiffs lead attorney, Robert Corn-Revere, told The Associated Press. One reason we urge universities to settle early is to avoid these kinds of expenses.

Corn-Revere said he expects to request a fee award for trial work that is substantially more than the $193,000 awarded for the appeals, based on the amount of time spent. The deal also requires the state to increase the amount awarded by $15,000 to compensate lawyers for their time spent on the fee application.

Adding insult to taxpayers injuries, the costs do not include work by the taxpayer-funded Iowa Attorney Generals office, which represented former ISU President Steven Leath and three other administrators who were found responsible for the constitutional violations.

The case began when The Des Moines Register quoted a NORML representative and published a picture of the groups shirt in a November 2012 article about efforts to legalize marijuana. The shirt, which had previously been approved by the university, featured the groups name on the front with Iowa States cardinal mascot and Freedom is NORML at ISU on the back with a small cannabis leaf.

Leath, who left ISU last year to become president of Auburn University, saw the article as a public relations problem after aides to Iowa House Republicans and then-Gov. Terry Branstad inquired about whether the university was supporting the groups pro-marijuana stance. Administrators blocked the groups pending re-order of the shirt and other designs featuring marijuana leaves, rewriting trademark guidelines to ban the use of school logos on shirts that feature drugs and drug paraphernalia that are illegal or unhealthful.

NORML ISU is one of 800 recognized student groups, which have the right to use school trademarks.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in June that Iowa States actions amounted to viewpoint discrimination, saying NORML ISU was singled out for unique scrutiny because the university opposed its political message. The ruling held that the administrators werent entitled to qualified immunity for their actions, which allowed claims for compensatory damages and attorneys fees against the officials.

Taxpayers, regents and our elected representatives should be asking why Leath didnt inquire as to the legality of his action to stem a public relations problem.
Facebook on Wednesday promised to pay its taxes in Korea and set up a start-up support outfit in Pangyo south of Seoul to develop the Korean Internet ecosystem.

Facebook vice president Kevin Martin visited the government complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province and said the company "will do our best" to abide by local tax laws as Korea is one of the countries where it vowed to adopt a "local selling structure."

Facebook plans to set up the "Innovation Lab" in the first quarter of this year.

Martin said Korea is an important market with a cutting-edge high-tech infrastructure and vowed to cooperate to bolster the country's Internet ecosystem.

Facebook has been in talks since last year with SK Broadband and LG Uplus over network usage fees.

Facebook, Google and other Internet giants have been widely slammed for dodging taxes in many countries where they operate and maintain big offices.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Tuesday said restrictions on advertising for fattening products like carbonated drinks and fast foods will be maintained.

The Cabinet approved guidelines that ban commercials for fattening food from TV from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. when many children are watching.

The ban was first introduced in 2010 for three years and renewed two times more. The new guidelines make it permanent. It covers foods that are high in calories, saturated fat, sugars, and sodium and low in proteins and other nutrients. Examples are cookies, soda drinks, cup noodles and hamburgers.

The ministry said, "We believe this regulation will help solve youth obesity problems."


Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts expressed support Wednesday for selling NCORPE property in Lincoln County while keeping the water rights to meet obligations to Kansas.

The governor was responding to a question during his State of the State stop in North Platte.

Kirk Olson, spokesman for Landowners for a Common Purpose, asked the governors stance on the Nebraska Cooperative Republican Platte Enhancement project. Landowners for a Common Purpose supports separating the land and water rights on the government-owned NCORPE property.

The solution, and (Olson and I) have talked about this and Ive talked to other folks as well, is to actually sell the land, Ricketts said.

While Im certainly not an attorney and dont pretend to be one, I think that sounds like an excellent solution to address some of those issues, Ricketts said. That sounds like a win-win to be able to put the land back on the tax rolls and still meet our (water) obligations.

He said if legal issues needed to be addressed, the state could probably deal with those through legislation.

Sen. (Mike) Groene will be (introducing) some new legislation exactly toward what we were talking about here today, Olson said.

Olson said after the governors town hall discussion that he had met with Ricketts on Tuesday to pose the question to him directly.

He was totally in favor of selling the surface rights, getting it back on the tax rolls, reducing government waste and everything we were after, he was spot on with where we were at, Olson said. Ive got all kinds of hope now and were ready to charge on.

Olson said his group plans to go to the NRDs and NCORPE to tell them what Ricketts said.

(The group I represent) was formed over concerns about the loss of tax revenue in Lincoln County, created by the purchase of property acquired through four natural resource districts, Olson said. This affects every property owner in Lincoln County, as well as taking precious dollars out of four local school districts and their municipalities.

Olson said that the group has proposed that the surface interest of the property be sold to private owners in order to recoup tax dollars and reduce bond debt on the property.
The Legislature convened last week with very little rancor or acrimony. I do disagree with the ill-informed who believe that the previous years session, where hard stands were taken by those with differing political viewpoints leading to filibusters and stagnation on certain issues, was counterproductive to good government. Good government occurs when debate is not stymied by vote trading, block voting or hasty compromise. Due to last years successful session, senators now know exactly the boundaries each of their colleagues have placed on individual issues. I am optimistic that we are seeing more willingness between senators of different viewpoints to negotiate within the confines of a bill and less attempts of vote trading (you vote for my legislation and I vote for yours).

Past Nebraska Legislatures have fallen into the trap of taking the easy way to compromise: throw money at it, which leads to Nebraska having the second highest ratio of local/state tax burden to private income in the nation; only Illinois, which is hemorrhaging population and is on the verge of bankruptcy, has a higher tax burden. Nebraskans deserve better; last year was a good start to redefine collegiality in the Legislature from lets all get along to respect for each others ideas.

Besides a few private exchanges with University of Nebraska administrators and regents, I have stayed out of the debate on harassment of a student by a university employee. The firing of the employee was warranted; individuals in positions of power over another (teacher/student) cannot be allowed to intimidate those they intend to educate. One has to wonder if the instructor involved believed it was appropriate to spew racial slurs against Caucasians and obstruct a students legitimate campus activity, what must have been the level of intimidation in the confines of her classroom. Sens. Steve Erdman, Tom Brewer and Steve Halloran need to be applauded for addressing the conduct of the lecturer. They attempted to create dialogue with the top administrators, they presented solid evidence of campus bias against certain political ideas, and when necessary they involved the public through the press.

Should Nebraskans be concerned about the censorship of certain ideologies on UNLs campus? When analyzing the political affiliation of the instructional staff of the English, teachers college, philosophy, sociology, psychology, political science and history departments, we find that out of 97 only seven are registered Republicans. A vigorous academic exchange of ideas cannot happen when one ideology is restricted from participating. This unbalanced situation happened under a previous administration. Now that the senators have brought this indefensible inequity to present President Hank Bounds and UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green, I am confident they will take steps to correct the sterile intellectual environment that now exists at UNL. Sen. Halloran is presenting legislation to remind students that their rights do not stop at the gates of a higher education establishment and will require the university to be accountable to the public on instances of free speech infringements. I will support him in his endeavor.

We are working on legislation to address NCORPE and TIF, and due to my position on the Revenue Committee, we have a front-row seat on proposals addressing taxation legislation. At present, it looks like the Education Committee, which I chair, will not have to cut state aid to public schools, due mostly to the increase in residential property valuations in equalized school districts. Those homeowners will pay more property taxes to support their schools but will receive less state aid.

When I ran for the Education Committee chairmanship after only two years in the Legislature, I was pleased to have the support of 15 eastern Nebraska senators, resulting in a 28-vote majority. So it was great to get the approval of a local editorial writer when they pointed out that when successful senators from western Nebraska show statewide vision and collaborative spirit, they are rewarded with Unicameral leadership positions, as I was with the election as Education Committee chair.

We are having a town hall meeting at Hershey Baptist Church on Saturday at 1 p.m. It will be an open discussion on what is happening in Lincoln.

Contact Sen. Mike Groene: mgroene@leg.ne.gov or 402-471-2729.
Two of Northwest Indiana's largest health care providers have ceased talks of a blockbuster merger they have been exploring over the past year.

Methodist Hospitals and Franciscan Alliance suspended talks about partnering because of shifts within the health care industry.

"Unfortunately, after months of thorough and thoughtful negotiations, we were unable to align on critical issues around the financial, operational and clinical service line implications of the proposed partnership," Methodist Hospitals said in a news release. "These discussions were compounded by headwinds in the health care industry. We are disappointed that this partnership did not come to fruition."

Methodist Hospitals, the nonprofit system with hospitals in Merrillville and downtown Gary, said it remains viable on its own as an independent and is "resolute in its commitment to continue to look for the right opportunities to chart a path forward that will ensure sustainability, continued growth and success."

"In the meantime, we are financially sound and are confident in our ability to continue navigating the current marketplace," Methodist Hospitals said in the release. "We will continue building on our history of excellence, guided by a commitment to do what is in the best interest of our patients, employees, physicians and community."

Franciscan Alliance said it would be open to eventually rekindling talks about bringing the two together "for the purpose of improving the quality of care and lowering the costs of health care delivery for all six of the two systems hospitals in the county."

The Franciscan Alliance Board and its management staff have the utmost respect for the members of Methodists Board and the excellent leadership team that Franciscans staff has had the pleasure to dialogue with over the past year," President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Leahy said. "Although the two organizations were unable, at this time, to develop a plan that was financially viable, we both remain committed to doing all that we can to improve Lake Countys health care needs. If in the future, (there is) another opportunity to work together to achieve better care, better access and lower costs, Franciscan Alliance would welcome it.

Franciscan Alliance had proposed building a new $300 million hospital at Interstate 80/94 in Gary if the merger went through, which would have been one of the largest private-sector investments in the city in some time, as well as a $75 million to $100 million expansion of the Southlake campus.

While I am disappointed to hear that the negotiations between Franciscan and Methodist have ceased, I am confident in the leadership of Methodist Hospital to provide exemplary health care while looking for a partner who will serve their business needs and the community," Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said. "Their recent $30 million investment in the Northlake Campus is evidence of their commitment to this community. I do not expect that commitment to change. Like so many citizens, I like new buildings. But I also know that there is a significant litmus test to drive the level of investment required for new construction."

Some residents of Gary raised concerns about disinvestment in downtown and, because Franciscan is Catholic based, a potential restriction of medical treatments like sterilizations and some palliative end-of-life care across Northwest Indiana.

"This is good news for the people of Gary," said chaplain and minister Marie Siroky, a longtime Miller resident. "My concern and those of many has always been on accessibility to services. Catholic health care is clear on services and treatments they will not provide. Everyone deserves accessible health care."

Gary residents had a number of concerns about the proposed merger, including it might jeopardize the new Level III Trauma Center at the Methodist Northlake Campus at 600 Grant St., said the Rev. Dena Holland-Neal with Trinity United Church of Christ. After all the expense and effort to bring a trauma center to town, Holland-Neal was worried about its future if the downtown hospital were turned into a rehabilitation/senior facility.

That potentially could have caused problems for many Gary residents, especially seniors and those who rely on public transportation, Holland-Neal said.

"The new hospital would be further out," she said. "A concern was if people would receive the type of health care they deserve. ... Public transportation doesn't exist on weekends. A lot of times people would have no choice but to take ambulances, and that's not cost-effective."
Centier is warning customers in Northwest Indiana about a potential scam in which they reveal their debit card number to someone posing as the bank via text message.

"There have been text messages made stating that the recipients debit card is being restricted and prompting them to reply by entering their debit card number," Centier said in a statement. "Centier Bank will never ask you to enter account information without the proper security."

The Merrillville-based family-owned bank, a Region institution since 1895 that has branches in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Allen, Boone, Elkhart, Hamilton, Marion, Marshall, St. Joseph, and Tippecanoe counties, is encouraging people to contact them if they received that message or responded to the text with their debit card number.

Anyone affected should call Centier's Client Service Center at 1-888-CENTIER.
Korellis Roofing, one of the largest roofing contractors in Northwest Indiana, has gone from being a family affair to employee-owned.

The Korellis family has owned the Hammond-based company since 1960, but decided to sell the roofing contractor to about 30 employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan known as a ESOP. It was part of a succession plan that was plotted out during the past year.

"We are excited to share the success of Korellis Roofing and to reward our employees for helping us get into the forefront of the roofing industry, President and CEO Pete Korellis said. "Korellis Roofing is now owned by its employees. It will be difficult to ever sell to an 'outsider.'"

About 120 workers in field crews already are excluded because they already have pensions negotiated by their unions.

A growing number of Northwest Indiana employers have become employee-owned, including Urschel Laboratories Inc. in Chesterton; Von Tobel Corp., in Schererville and Valparaiso; Belstra Milling, in DeMotte; and Central States Manufacturing Inc., in Michigan City. Family-owned businesses often pursue ESOPs when there is no family successor to take over the business.

Korellis Roofing is now 100 percent employee-owned with no changes in management or the senior leadership. Pete Korellis intends to stay on as president and CEO for at least three more years, but no more than five years.

Korellis Roofings culture is much like a family  a high-performance family, Korellis said. I think my father, George Korellis, would be very proud that the foundation he built is now affording this great career opportunity for many deserving employees.

The company built an onsite training center and storage buildings last year. It also is in the process of renovating 15,000 square feet of newly acquired office space.
President Moon Jae-in in his New Year's press conference on Wednesday said, "The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which was declared by the two Koreas, is a fundamental aim that can never be compromised." He added that inter-Korean relations cannot progress unless the nuclear standoff is resolved.

North Korea's position is that the nuclear issue involves only the U.S., while talks with South Korea should encompass only economic matters. But Moon has made it clear that he does not intend to dance to that tune. His comments will help ease many fears at home and abroad that Seoul could weaken international efforts to pressure North Korea for the sake of political gain at home.

Moon said he has no choice but to pursue both dialogue and pressure if the North does not show sincerity in addressing the nuclear problem. He added that Seoul has no intention to unilaterally ease sanctions against the North.

Signs are emerging that pressure on North Korea, which has accelerated under U.S. President Donald Trump, has reached a critical point. The North was hoping that the South would reopen the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex and tours to the North's scenic Mt. Kumgang resort, which would help it earn some much-needed valuta, but Moon has assured everyone that this will not happen.

"I'm open to any type of meeting with North Korea," Moon said. But he stressed, "It is undesirable to hold a summit for the summit's sake." He explained that he would sit face to face with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un only if "conditions are met and productive results are guaranteed."

One of South Korea's two presidents who pursued rapprochement with the North brazenly lied to the nation to achieve a summit, while the other held a summit just before the end of his term and saddled the next administration with terms it could never meet. Moon probably knows full well what side effects a fixation on inter-Korean summits can cause. His remarks have eased fears that he will go down the same road. Let us hope that his determination lasts.


Porter Health Care System has a new chief executive officer.

A national search, which began in October, concluded with the selection of Sean Dardeau, who has served as market CEO for Mary Black Health System in South Carolina, which has a network of two independent hospitals. Dardeau begins his new role Feb. 5 as CEO of Porter Health Care System and market CEO for Northwest Indiana.

Dardeau, who had worked for the Mary Black Health System since 2014, said he was drawn to Indiana by the people he met during his interview process.

When we arrived [for my interview] the whole family was impressed with the community, its people, and the surrounding opportunities both in and outdoors, he said. What sealed the deal for me was the people I met at the hospitals. The boards and medical staffs and directors made an impression on me.

Dardeau will oversee operations for Porter Health Care System, and as market CEO, will work with Ashley Dickinson, CEO of LaPorte Hospital and Starke Hospital in Knox.

Dr. Jac Cooper, chairman of the Porter Health Care System board of trustees, said Dardeau's leadership and experience made him the right choice.

Sean is a seasoned healthcare leader with nearly 25 years of experience, and proven leadership in strengthening care coordination, operations, and medical staff relations at hospital systems large and small, Cooper said.

Porter Health Care System, which employs 2,990 people, operates Porter Regional Hospital in Valparaiso and Portage Hospital in Portage as well as several other facilities that serve Porter, Lake, LaPorte, Starke, Newton and Jasper counties.

Dardeau has held many leadership roles in the south and southeastern U.S., supporting hospitals and physician clinics in Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. He has experience in rural acute care hospitals, large urban tertiary hospital operations and has been successful recruiting physicians.

Dardeau has a bachelors degree in economics and business administration from King College in Bristol, Tennessee and a masters degree in business administration from Averett College in Danville, Virginia.

Dardeau was active in the communities he served in South Carolina. He was a member in the Rotary Club of Spartanburg; served on the advisory board of directors for Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine  Carolinas Campus, and was on the boards of the South Carolina Hospital Association, and Upstate Employers Network of Spartanburg.

He will relocate his wife and teenage son and daughter to Indiana soon.

Dardeau replaces Stephen Lunn who left to become regional vice president for American Physician Partners in Nashville, Tennessee. Lunn served as CEO from March 24, 2014 to Nov. 10.
EAST CHICAGO  Police are investigating the report of a 28-year-old woman being struck by a BB pellet at about 4 p.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Indianapolis Boulevard and Chicago Avenue.

East Chicago police Lt. Marguerite Wilder said police were dispatched about 4 p.m. to the 800 block of West Chicago Avenue for a report of a gunshot wound victim.

The shooting occurred about one block east of the city's Pastrick branch public library.

The female victim, from East Chicago, said she was exiting her car when she heard a loud sound that appeared to be coming from a building across the street, Wilder said.

Wilder said moments later the woman "felt pain on the right side of her head area and noticed it was blood dripping" on her face.

Officers searched an empty building across the street, Wilder said.

Officers were unable to locate any suspects, Wilder said, but they did find a BB gun that had been abandoned inside the building.

East Chicago board-up services were called out to re-secure the premises, Wilder said.

The victim refused medical treatment and was released from St. Catherine's Hospital.
HAMMOND  A former St. John man has been indicted on charges of child pornography possession.

Christopher Raciti, 48, was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court on allegations he possessed more than 600 "visual depictions" of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct on his computer between Nov. 7, 2015, and March 9, 2016, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana.

A petition to enter a plea of guilty was filed Wednesday, the release stated.

The government is requesting a sentence of 78 months with five years supervised released. He also must pay $5,000 in restitution for each victim who may be identified, if the guilty plea is approved by a judge.

Enhancements were tacked onto his potential sentencing because the material included minors under age 12, portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct or depictions of violence. Additional enhancements were added because the offense involved the use of a computer, records show.
GRIFFITH  A Griffith man is facing felony rape allegations after he allegedly attacked a woman at his apartment Dec. 13.

Paul London Duke, 23, of Griffith, also texted the victim's phone after the incident to apologize, court records show.

The victim told police she went to Duke's apartment at about 10 a.m. Dec. 13 when the rape occurred.

She told detectives she and Duke had no prior sexual contact and had only hung out a few times, having met through various social events at the apartment complex, records show.

After the alleged rape, the victim spoke with her mother and close friend and went immediately to Community Hospital in Munster, where she met with a detective.

When Duke allegedly texted the victim that it "won't happen again," she responded, saying she was uncomfortable and that it's best they never speak again.

Duke was charged Wednesday in Lake Criminal Court with rape and criminal confinement, according to an affidavit.
LAKE STATION  The State Board of Accounts is asking a former city court clerk to reimburse the state for missing and mishandled money.

The state examiner made public Thursday an audit identifying Nicole Frizzell as the Lake Station City Court clerk who, in December of 2016, failed to deposit $385.50 in court money now missing and made a cash withdrawal of $250 from the court's bank account without proper authorization. Frizzell worked as a city court clerk from 2015 to 2016.

Frizzell couldn't be reached Thursday for comment.

Michael Bozymski, a deputy state examiner, said Thursday his office conducted the audit after City Court Judge Joshua M. Matejczyk's office discovered the discrepancies and reported them to the state.

He said his office is demanding Frizzell reimburse the state for missing or mishandled money as well as the cost of the audit for a total of $1,271. He said he doesn't believe Frizzell has returned the money and is forwarding the audit's findings to the Lake County prosecutor's office and the Indiana attorney general.

It is only the latest in a series of scandals to plague the court, which was hit by embezzlement and records violations because of a previous clerk's actions between 2008 and 2012.

Matejczyk, who took office in early 2016, said Thursday Frizzell was a holdover from the previous administration whose work wasn't under suspicion at the time.

He said he terminated Frizzell early last year for unrelated disciplinary matters and then ordered a routine review of the court's financial transactions, discovered the discrepancies and reported those to the state.

The judge said the inappropriate transactions weren't discovered earlier because Frizzell also failed to properly report the court's financial transactions.

Bank deposits and financial reporting will now be handled by separate clerks to avoid future discrepancies, Matejczyk said.

Bozymski said there is no evidence any other money is missing or that this is related to a prior theft of money from the court by former court clerk Miranda Brakley.

Previous cases of theft

Brakley, a stepdaughter of former Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist, pleaded guilty and was placed on two years probation in 2016 for embezzling bond money traffic offenders deposited with the court.

Soderquist pleaded guilty to attempting to cover up Brakleys theft. He and his wife, Deborah, also were convicted of misappropriating thousands of dollars from the mayors re-election campaign fund and the city-funded food pantry account to gamble at nearby casinos.

Keith Soderquist currently is serving a 54-month prison term at a federal penitentiary in Thompson, Illinois, and is scheduled to be released in 2020. His wife is serving a 24-month sentence at a federal prison camp and medical center in Lexington, Kentucky, and is scheduled to be released in July.

Brakley also was involved in a failure to report hundreds of traffic violations the court adjudicated during her tenure as its clerk.

State police investigated and found no evidence bribes were solicited or received for Brakley's squirreling away the convictions in the court's file instead of transmitting them to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Scrutiny of Lake Station City Court began following the 2016 arrest of Randolph L. Randy Palmateer, business manager for the Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council.

The Lake County prosecutor's office charged Palmateer with OWI, then let him plead guilty to the reduced charge. This flew in the face of county Prosecutor Bernard Carter's policy regarding repeat offenders as it was the second time Palmateer avoided an OWI conviction in five years.

Carter said he didn't know Palmateer had received a similar plea-agreement reduction in Lake Station City Court in 2011 because there was no record of it in Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicle files.

Carter discovered other OWI cases not transmitted downstate from Lake Station and a Times computer-aided investigation discovered hundreds such records.
Area residents can consult with a lawyer free of charge at eight Northwest Indiana locations in four counties on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Now in its 17th year, Talk to a Lawyer Today brings together 80 attorneys from various NWI bar associations, said Stephanie Wicke, of Hobart-based NWI Volunteer Lawyers Inc., about this public service pro bono program of the Indiana Bar Association and the Indiana Supreme Court.

We get all kinds of questions especially about family law  wills, estates, Wicke said.

Other inquiries deal with such topics as foreclosures, civil rights, nonprofits, identity theft and employment and wages, she said.

Locations and times vary by county.

LAKE COUNTY

 Tabernacle Baptist Church, 3715 Butternut, East Chicago, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 Westside High School, 9th and Gerry streets, Gary, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 Lake Station/New Chicago Public Library, 2400 Central Ave., Lake Station, from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

 Lowell Public Library, 1505 E. Commercial Ave., from 9 a.m.to 5 p.m.

PORTER COUNTY

 Valparaiso University Law Library, 656 S. Greenwich St., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

 Portage Township Trustees Office, 3484 Airport Road, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

JASPER COUNTY

 Jasper County Community Services, 967 E. Leopold, Rensselaer, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

NEWTON COUNTY

 Morocco Community Library, 205 S. West St., from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Phone-in questions will be answered in English and Spanish from 2 to 4 p.m. on Jan. 15 by calling 800-266-2581.
Record high temperatures and high winds are possible Thursday, before a cold front expected to spread over Northwest Indiana tonight ices roads and sidewalks and ushers in another blast of snow.

Highs between 55 to 63 degrees were predicted Thursday in the Chicago area. Chicago's record high temperature of 61 degrees was set Jan. 11, 1880.

South-southwest winds could gust to 30 or 35 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures were expected to begin falling by mid-evening, forecasters said.

A flash freeze was possible as a cold front moves from west to east starting in the early evening in north-central Illinois to Northwest Indiana by late Thursday or early Friday.

Temperatures were expected to decrease into the teens or 20s. Freezing rain or drizzle could glaze roads and sidewalks, and a dusting of snow was expected behind the front, forecasters said.

Sleet and snow accumulations could total as much as 1 inch.

A winter weather advisory for Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper counties was scheduled from 9 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday.

Drivers should allow extra time to complete trips and use caution because of slippery conditions, the weather service said. Drivers also should be prepared for reduced visibility in the overnight hours.

Localized ice jam flood will continue to be a threat on rivers, the weather service said.

More snow was expected after noon Friday and overnight Friday into Saturday, with the highest totals predicted in Lake County. High temperatures in the mid- to low 20s were predicted, though winds Friday could gust to 20 or 25 mph.

The Porter County Sheriff's Department issued a press release Thursday reminding residents in unincorporated areas that vehicles cannot be parked on roads if more than 2 inches of snow falls. Failure to remove vehicles could result in cars being towed at the owner's expense and a citation with fines up to $50.

Sun is expected Sunday, but the high temperature was expected to be below 20 degrees.
HIGHLAND  After a failed effort to renovate and reopen the Town Theatre, the final curtain  in the form of the wrecking ball  has come down on the historic structure known for its yellow outdoor tiles and Art Deco sign.

Actin Contracting of East Chicago became the 71-year-old theater's final visitor as demolition staging began on Monday. Actual demolition of the historic theater building began Thursday morning.

Last year, the Redevelopment Commission hired Actin to raze the theater and surrounding town-owned buildings for $49,130.

On Tuesday, demolition began on the two buildings adjacent to the theater's north side, which also made room to raze the theater from the empty footprint left behind.

"There will be no lane closures" on Kennedy during the demolition, Redevelopment Director Kathy DeGuilio-Fox said.

Motorists and pedestrians will notice temporary safety fencing along the sidewalk in front of all three sites.

"We don't want people to get too close," she said.

Noted for neighborhood feel, range of films shown

The theater walls may be tumbling down, but the countless popular, independent and foreign movies, and intermissions with dessert and coffee that pleased thousands of patrons will stand as its legacy, which began in July 1946 with owners Kenneth and Irene Dickinson.

With a reputation that spread as a friendly neighborhood theater, "The Town" hosted a Christmas Mass in 1949 for the newly formed Our Lady of Grace Catholic parish.

The Dickinsons operated the movie house until 1979, when it was bought by Ted and Vern Janowski.

The theater featured many popular movies over the decades and became famous in the Region and neighboring Illinois suburbs for offering foreign and independent films, which added sophisticated luster to its legacy.

"Unlike other theaters of its type, it had no balcony and seemed to be made to serve a small town like Highland," said Dan Helpingstine, co-author of the book, "Highland" (Images of America).

"The intermissions were part of the attraction of The Town. In its later years, it drew older audiences."

The owners created intermissions halfway through movies and served patrons free cake, pastries and coffee. They also created contests that entitled winners to a month of free movies. For the past several decades, there was only one show time  8 p.m. For many years, the price of a ticket was $5.

The kitschy '50s-style auditorium featured several metal ersatz suits of armor perched on platforms on the walls, and the cozy lobby had just one glass counter that offered popcorn, candy and pop.

Years of neglect took toll

The reels continued to roll until 2008 when a family illness led to the theater's closing.

In 2012, the abandoned building was purchased by the town in a county tax sale in hopes of renovating and reopening the theater.

A citizens' movement began in 2014 to garner Town Council support, which prompted the council to adopt a wait-and-see approach.

In 2015, the Indiana Landmarks commission awarded landmark status and funding for the Town Theatre. Such a listing made The Town eligible for incentives for restoration, including a federal tax credit for owners of income-producing property. The landmarks endorsement wasn't enough to save the historic theater.

The years of abandonment had taken a toll on the building, which would have required total replacement of the auditorium roof and three of the outside walls.

Town officials estimated the project to cost between $1.9 million and $2.5 million, but the contractor bids averaged $3.2 million, excluding the highest bid.

This led to a 3-2 council vote to reject the project last January and to schedule demolition.

Another town-owned building, on the theater's south side, will be razed at a later time as Maria's Buena Cocina anticipates a possible move to the southeast corner of Ridge Road and Grace Street.

Town officials want to purchase the remaining three businesses on the theater block between Condit Street and Garfield Avenue.

If this is accomplished, the entire 5 acres would be leveled all the way west to the bike trail.

The council then would invite developers to pitch their ideas for redeveloping the land.
Wisdom may finally be prevailing in a Region political system often defined by elected leaders standing up for their wayward  even criminal  colleagues.

But that same wisdom may not have rubbed off on attorneys trying to mitigate a high-profile client's felony prison sentence with at least two letters of support from unsavory sources.

Defense attorneys for former Lake County sheriff, and now convicted felon, John Buncich filed 30 letters of support in Hammond federal court Wednesday, all of which essentially seek leniency when Buncich is sentenced next week for bribery convictions.

In August, I promised to reveal the names and letters of any elected officeholders, public officials or other community leaders who wrote letters to the court seeking leniency for Buncich, who according to court documents could face up to 19-plus years in prison.

I did so because of a repugnant culture in Northwest Indiana in which some politicians have valued friendships with convicted felons over the taxpayer victims of the crimes.

In the August column, I argued it was time for elected officeholders to break the culture of acceptance for corruption by turning their backs on Buncich and others who would commit crimes under the guise of their public offices.

I made the very same call in a column published three years ago today when I pointed out the dozens of politically connected names  including several elected officeholders  who sought court leniency for former Lake County Surveyor George Van Til. Van Til was convicted of essentially stealing from taxpayers and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in February 2015.

It appears would-be apologists for corruption are beginning to get the message.

Out of the 30 letters of support filed Wednesday for Buncich, none appear to be elected officeholders, though the signed name on at least one letter is illegible and another is written by an unnamed "concerned citizen." PDF copies of those letters are attached to this column online an nwi.com/opinion.

Buncich defense attorney Brian Truitt also said he has been told the judge in the case may have received a few letters directly, and probation officers received four or five that he didn't obtain to file in the case.

But it could be a step in the right direction for both wisdom and morality.

However, political patronage  and good, old-fashioned bad judgment by Buncich and his attorneys  thrives in the letters that were filed.

A number of past employees of Buncich, who worked in both the Lake County Jail and sheriff's office, came to the disgraced former sheriff's defense.

Disgraced former warden

One is former Jail Warden Jeffery Kumorek, who asks U.S. District Court Judge James Moody to consider his former boss' "countless hours" in volunteer service to a Lake County anti-drug organization.

Including a character testimonial from Kumorek is shortsighted, considering Kumorek resigned his position as jail administrator in disgrace in 2012.

Buncich put then-warden Kumorek on sick leave on March 7, 2012, amid allegations that Kumorek had responded to a hit-and-run accident scene while intoxicated the day before he was put on leave.

Several jail officers had been jogging near the Lake County Government Center when a vehicle hit them and then kept on going.

Jail officer Britney Meux, 25, was killed.

Kumorek, who didn't return my calls seeking comment Wednesday, allegedly responded to the 2012 accident scene in a county police car that struck a curb as he arrived.

My former Times colleague and columnist, Mark Kiesling, reported that Kumorek allegedly fell when getting out of his squad car and verbally threatened a county chief of detectives when the chief refused to allow Kumorek to enter the scene.

Kumorek resigned later that month.

A testimonial from a warden who resigned in the wake of questionable circumstances isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

Carol Ann Seaton

Buncich defense attorney Truitt apparently liked a letter of support from Gary resident Carol Ann Seaton enough to file it twice, under two different court exhibit numbers, on behalf of Buncich.

That apparent clerical error aside, Truitt should have thought better of including even one copy of the letter in the court file.

Regular Times readers will remember Seaton as the failed Democratic candidate for Lake County assessor in 2010.

It was noteworthy at the time because she was defeated by a Republican  the first time a GOP candidate had won a countywide office in 50 years.

Though he was a good man, victorious Republican Hank Adams defeated Seaton more because of her scandal-ridden candidacy than because of a change in political winds. Seaton couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

At the time, Seaton was embroiled in controversy for allegedly dodging Indiana vehicle registration laws and fees by claiming she resided in Michigan while also claiming a Gary address when running for the office. She also has been implicated in the past of being delinquent on property taxes.

So it's hard to see how her letter of "humble words" imploring the judge to "see another facet of a good man" can help Buncich.

Good people

To be fair, some upstanding members of the Region community wrote some of the letters on Buncich's behalf.

Sister Maria Giuseppe, of St. Joseph's Carmelite Home for Girls, noted Buncich "was never less then a gentleman" when providing gifts and kindness to the residents of her East Chicago children's shelter.

I know Giuseppe by her reputation as being an ardent champion for some of the most vulnerable people in our Region.

But just because Buncich put a good foot forward in the eyes of some doesn't absolve him of the crimes of which he has been convicted.

A chief county lawman who accepts bribes in exchange for awarding towing work  the crux of the crime of which Buncich was convicted  brought disgrace on the county and the overall Region police profession.

We can expect Moody to consider that at Buncich's Tuesday sentencing hearing in Hammond federal court.

And we can be thankful, for once, that sitting elected officials don't appear to be among the letter-writing apologists.
Millions of children in the United States experience some form of homelessness each year. They have the same basic needs as all children: a stable place to live, high-quality education and committed adults in their lives. But many homeless children need something more.

They need a lawyer.

Because of their unique situations, homeless children face daunting circumstances that frequently give rise to legal problems. Some are on their own because of the death, incarceration or drug dependency of a parent; others age out of foster care, run away or leave a juvenile justice facility and have nowhere to go. A disproportionate number are LGBT, minorities or high school dropouts.

Lawyers can help these children get back on their feet, navigating complicated legal issues that children cannot handle on their own. Legal experts can traverse byzantine bureaucracies to help these children obtain essential documents they are missing, such as birth certificates, so they can gain access to basic services like health and education.

Beyond these basic requirements, some children also need legal assistance for more complicated issues confronting them, such as a lawyer to fight for them in court when they have fled a violent home or legal expertise in getting governmental and other benefits they are owed.

Out on the streets, homeless children frequently run afoul of the law for life-sustaining activities like eating or sleeping  a common problem for homeless people in this country. They need lawyers to work to expunge these records, so they face fewer obstacles in getting into college or finding a job.

In both the short term and long term, legal services can make the difference between a child who is living on the street and a child who achieves security, safety and a path forward.

To help these children create better lives, the American Bar Association has formed the Homeless Youth Legal Network. The network gives children and young adults experiencing homelessness increased access to legal services and matches lawyers skills and interests with the needs of the youth they assist. It also provides lawyers with training and technical assistance in the unique needs of homeless young people.

The network has chosen 12 Model Programs that showcase promising practices across the country. In addition to the high quality legal services they provide, these programs represent the wide range of approaches to serving homeless youth that exist across the country.

But securing the legal rights of homeless youth is not just a problem in the United States. The American Bar Association believes the magnitude of youth homelessness is a global civil rights issue.

To address these legal needs, the ABA convened the International Summit on the Legal Rights of Street-Connected Children and Youth in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in late November with more than 100 international academics, advocates, funders, lawyers and government officials from 20 countries.

Participants drafted principles to assist in the implementation and provision of the legal issues detailed in the U.N. General Comment on Children in Street Situations, including advancing safe harbor protections for child victims of trafficking and labor abuse and decriminalizing child and youth homelessness.

The expertise of lawyers, here and across the world, can make a huge difference for these children. And the ABA is working hard to deliver this assistance so they have the potential for full and productive lives.
Has the time for Sunday retail alcohol sales in Indiana finally come?

Is it also time to allow the sale of cold beer at businesses other than liquor stores?

Should things remain as they are?

The Indiana General Assembly is poised to discuss changing the law on Sunday retail alcohol sales in the Hoosier state during the 2018 legislative session.

We want to hear your thoughts on the matter. Send us a letter to the editor of 150 words or less on the topic via email to letters@nwi.com or by mail to Letters to the Editor, 601 W. 45th Ave., Munster, IN 46321.

Include your full name, city/town of residence and a phone number where we can contact you to verify the letter.

We'll publish letters on this topic online at nwi.com and in upcoming editions of The Times opinion pages or Sunday Forum.
Theres one less interim president serving in the Alabama Community College System.

Chancellor Jimmy Baker named Jacqueline Screws as the new president of Chattahoochee Valley Community College at the ACCS Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday in Montgomery.

Ms. Screws career has been dedicated to the success of her students, and Chattahoochee Valley will be well-served by her experience, Baker said. Her proven track record of overseeing a community college campus and her familiarity with the unique needs of two-year colleges and their students make her a tremendous asset to CVCC.

Screws has worked in education administration and student affairs for more than 30 years, most recently as Dean of Student Affairs and Sparks Campus for Wallace Community College - Dothan for more than 17 of those years. Her prior experience includes working as Dean of Student Services of Sparks Technical College before it merged with Wallace Community College - Dothan in 1999.

Ive seen first-hand what an incredible impact Alabamas community colleges can have on students and communities, and Im excited to continue that mission at Chattahoochee Valley, Screws said. It is an honor to be selected to serve in this capacity, and I look forward to joining the Pirate Family.

When Screws takes office at CVCC on Feb. 1, she will replace Mark Ellard, who has served as interim president of the college since Aug. 27, 2015.

During Ellards term, the community college system proposed a merger between Chattahoochee Valley, Southern Union State Community College and Central Alabama Community College. The proposed merger was halted in July 2016.

Southern Union

A permanent president for Southern Union is expected to be named this semester. Bill Blow has been working as the schools interim president since Nov. 1, following the transfer of former interim Glenda Colagross from Southern Union to Northwest-Shoals.

Colagross was interim president at Southern Union from 2013 until Blows appointment.

Blow has a history of filling interim roles, serving as interim president at Alabama Southern, Gadsden State and Jefferson Davis community community colleges. He also twice was appointed interim executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

Last semester, the ACCS created a strategic planning committee tasked with creating a plan of action for the college. An online survey and town halls at each SUSCC campus last semester aided the committee with identifying the schools strengths and weaknesses, and will help determine the future direction it takes.

The Southern Union strategic planning initiative will result in the selection of a permanent president for the college no later than the spring of 2018, Baker said in October.
Ahead of the start the new school term, the ministry Education has warned it will crack the whip on head teachers and teachers who abscond from work.

According the ministrys director of basic and secondary education, Robinson Nsumba-Lyazi, a head teacher is and must be the first inspector of a school but many are not playing their roles.



Similarly, many teachers continue to absent themselves and even those who are present, theyre not actually teaching.



Some of the head teachers are becoming lazy and irresponsible which is causing a problem. We have for long been talking ill about our education system but this is the time to bite, Nsumba-Lyazi said.

Education ministrys director of basic and secondary education, Robinson Nsumba-Lyazi addressing the teachers

Head teachers are paid a lot of money and given allowances to do their work. This is a year of action and they must be ready for any sanctions once found guilty, Nsumba-Lyazi said.



He made the revelations while opening a three-day training for teachers, head teachers, district education officers among other education officials held at Silver Springs hotel in Bugolobi.



The training, which ends today, is organised by STiR Education, a non-governmental organisation that seeks to re-ignite intrinsic motivation among teachers and within education systems.

Nsumba-Lyazi said the training comes at a time when government continues to allocate more resources to the education sector but this money is not properly utilised due to head teacher/teacher absenteeism.



Can you imagine that teachers go to class without lesson plans and schemes of work? How will such a teacher produce results? This is horrible! Some schools especially in rural areas are disorganized to the extent of not having class time tables. The person who is supposed to remind the teacher to do the right things is the head teacher who is also absent from school, Nsumba-Lyazi lamented.



A countrywide sample study carried out by the ministry of Education last year found that teacher absenteeism ranks at 45 per cent while that of head teachers stands at 20 per cent. This, Nsumba-Lyazi, said accounts for loss of up to Shs 72 billion annually.



We are going to compile a list of all people who are not performing well and display them. Moreover, the reduction in teaching time negatively influences the overall quality of education, he said adding that government will tolerate only effective and efficient teachers and head teachers in its schools.

Lydia Watuulo, the deputy head teacher Masaba SS in Sironko, agrees with Nsumba-Lyazi that to a greater extent, some head teachers are not doing their roles yet they are paid handsomely by government.



In most cases, you will go to a school and it is their deputies doing all the work. They come to school only to sit in offices, a reason why many things are not going on well in schools, Watuulo said.



Also an education leader with STiR Education, Watuulo told The Observer that whenever they visited schools to engage in teacher motivation sessions, head teachers were absent from school without genuine reasons.



She, however, blamed the laxity of head teachers and teachers on district inspectors that have not done much to inspect schools.



I think inspectors are overwhelmed with their work. In the past, the schools were few but many have mushroomed. In Sironko alone, we dont see district inspectors in schools and you wonder where they go and which schools they monitor. Ideally, district inspectors should be in school at least twice a year but the reality on ground is outrageous, she said.

Some of the teachers at the training. Photos: Nicholas Bamulanzeki

Currently, there are about 5,000 inspectors spread across the country. According to Nsumba-Lyazi, each district is allocated four inspectors which he concurs are insufficient. He believes that working with head teachers as the primary inspectors of their schools will improve learning outcomes.



Irene Wanyenze, a Coordinating Centre Tutor (CCT), in Sironko defended some head teachers, saying they are overwhelmed with various district and school activities which hamper their inspectorate role.



Sometimes, there are many district education meetings and they are forced to leave the schools. Some schools have few teachers and a head teacher is also a classroom teacher. How can this person supervise the whole class and other teachers? Wanyenze asked.

She added that some head teachers in rural schools are not substantively appointed and work without extra allowances, thus finding inspection an extra load.



If government talks about improving inspection and is serious about it this year, it must have strategy to first improve on the livelihood of the teacher/head teacher and inspection will be smooth, she said.



Eva Namukwaya, the country director STiR Education, said they are going to benchmark on the 2017- 2020 education sector plan to support government by building the capacity of head teachers, CCTs and DEOs for the next five years.

Our motivation will be intrinsic looking at the teachers mindset and classroom behavior. Once the teachers are supported to do their work, the children will be able to achieve and absenteeism will reduce in schools, Namukwaya said.



STiR Education targets government primary and secondary schools in at least 46 districts this year.



nangonzi@observer.ug
Police on Wednesday evening rounded up five suspected con men at Makerere University believed to be behind a $200,000 (about Shs 735 million) gold deal scam.



The suspects allegedly conned out of Assi Soubhi up to $200,000 about 3 years ago. Soubhi is a resident of Bogota, in Colombia and a dealer in rare and precious gemstones.



Four of suspects are male with one female. Some of the suspects have been identified as Stellah Kalungi, David Kironde, Ronald Kamugisha, Nasser Kibirige and Yazidi Kabonge. It's not immediately clear how the suspects conned Soubhi out of all that money.

Crime scene: Samples of gold arranged in the Chemistry lab at Makerere University

The suspects were arrested from the physical chemistry lab at the College of Natural Sciences, Makerere University after a three-hour operation by police officers from CID headquarters in Nsambya.



The con men arrived at the university in three separate cars, a Mercedes Benz E320 registration number UBB 292C, a Subaru, registration number UAY 907W and a Land Cruiser reegistration number UAQ 823F. All the cars have been impounded by the police.



There was heavy firing of bullets as police arrested the gang. Two suspects, believed to be employees of Makerere, managed to escape the arrest. They were identified by staff from chemistry department as Mutenywa, a lab assistant and Budigi Ruharara, the chief technician in the chemistry lab.

One lecturer identified as Dr Gabriel Nullfield Kasozi was also implicated in the scandal having been found in the lab at the time of the operation.

After several hours of pleading for fear of embarrassment, Dr Kasozi whose office can only be accessed through the lab was made to record a statement at the scene while the other suspects were taken to Kibuli CID headquarters.

According to Prof J.Y.T Mugisha, the principal of the College of Natural Sciences, Mutenywa, a university staff had been arrested over a similar case.



"That Mutenywa I received a case in my office that he had been arrested and implicated in a similar case about two-three months ago. He was later released after 14 days because there were no witnesses to implicate him," Prof Mugisha told URN.

Police says they have been tracking the suspects for the last three years since the crime was committed.
While mega construction projects in the country are on the climb, a key government facility supposed to test the quality and safety of building materials has degenerated into an obsolete edifice.

The governments materials testing laboratory, built during the colonial days, is now dilapidated, understaffed, underfunded and very poorly equipped.

This unit under the ministry of Works and Transport is supposed to test the quality of building and road construction materials to assure the integrity of whatever they build. However, its main laboratory in Kireka is a national embarrassment.

But that is before one comes face-to-face with the even poorer upcountry branches in Mbale, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Arua and Gulu. Industry insiders fear substandard building materials continue to be used leading to shoddy works and even loss of lives.

In 2016, a building in Wandegeya collapsed due to poor engineering and use of wrong materials, killing one person and injuring scores. This underscored the crucial part materials testing plays in building works.

This building in Wandegeya collapsed due to poor engineering, killing one person in 2016

In an interview with The Observer last week at their main office in Kireka, the assistant commissioner for Materials Testing and Research, Tony Mugenyi said that out of the 75 staff required, only 53 are present.

This, together with inadequate funding, has hampered the operations of the unit. Whereas we need Shs 6 billion to operate well each year, we receive just Shs 1 billion, the engineer said.

Lack of cash aggravates teething problems, including inadequate field and laboratory equipment, lack of protective gear and transportation means. The laboratory looks derelict from the outside.

At least $7 million is required to refurbish the building and equip the place with modern tools. A glance at the offices gives one the worrying impression that not much important activity is going on inside its old walls. Some staff in their blue overalls, with clearly little to do, sit idly under the tree near the gate, while others perch under an old structure near an equally old drilling vehicle.

The upcountry laboratories simply do basic tests. They cannot, for example, test the strength and chemical properties of soil. They send them here but we also still lack a few state-of-the-art testing equipment for things like steel, bitumen, concrete and geotechnical, Mugenyi said.

The head of the unit, Wilfred Okello, during a recent visit by the minister of Works and Transport, Monica Ntege Azuba, said that over the years, this important institution has been starved of resources; in fact, almost forgotten.

This establishment is only remembered in a technical crisis especially when there is a building that has collapsed or when there is a dispute over shoddy works, Okello said.

The engineer in chief at the ministry, Samson Bagonza, fears the department risks providing substandard work even when we are working within our means to deliver quality.

It has been a very big struggle. Efforts have been made to secure more government funding but without success. Unless those budgets are increased, the department will continue underperforming, Bagonza told The Observer.

According to Bagonza, top leadership in the ministry have not been identifying with the department, given its isolated location away from the ministry headquarters in the city centre. Minister Azuba, during her first visit to the place since she joined cabinet, was surprised by the state of both the buildings and equipment.

I was here 30 years ago as a student but I noticed that some of the equipment that was here then is still here, she said recently.

Chances are high that most of the technology in use is similarly obsolete, possibly incompetent to answer modern-day challenges. The minister implored the staff to be more innovative to attract attention and more funds.

While management worries about staff shortages, Azuba wonders whether they really need more people. As a compromise, she asked the human resource department to review and see if we need them; if we do, lets have them.

Expensive venture?

As a necessary requirement for construction works, a contractor interviewed for this story said that it gets expensive for them to find a laboratory fit to test their materials.

An engineer working with the respected Roko Construction Company said that while they can take certain materials to Kireka, they have to incur costs of flying out samples to countries like USA and Kenya with better laboratories.

There are also private laboratories here but they are either less equipped or very expensive. So, for the small contractors who might not have that money, they opt to build without testing, which causes problems, he said.

kamogajonathan50@gmail.com
In another desperate move to stall his trial in the Anti-Corruption court, Apolo Senkeeto, a key suspect in the Mukono-Katosi road fraud case, has written to the Principal Judge, Yorokamu Bamwine complaining that trial judge Lawrence Gidudu is incapable of rendering a fair judgement

In his six-paged letter, Senkeeto believes that Justice Gidudu who heads the Anti-corruption court is too conflicted to handle the case. Senkeeto cites a March, 14, 2017 event when Gidudu though still handling the Mukono-Katosi case, where its alleged that Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) lost over Shs 24 billion, the same trial judge presided over the swearing in ceremony of the authoritys new board of directors.

This represents conflict of interest of the highest order by the judge, Senkeeto writes in his letter dated January 10.

As though that was not bad enough, the judge proceeded to make speech in which he implored Unra not to contract any more 'quack' companies to construct roads in Uganda, added Senketo.

Apollo Senkeeto

The above utterances by Justice Gidudu, according to Senkeeto, implies that as early as March 14, 2017, the judge had already formed his opinion that Eutaw the construction company which is at the centre of the case, was a quack company and thus was fraudulent and hence stole the Shs 24 billion.

The judge made this further clear in his ruling of case to answer wherein he calls me a thief that stole Shs 24.7 billion from Unra yet all evidence on record is to the contrary, Senkeeto writes.

In the trial which is going into its third year, Abraham Byandala, the former minister for Works and Transport, is charged with abuse of office, disobedience of lawful orders and influence-peddling. His co-accused include Ssebbugga Kimeze, a former acting executive director of Unra; Joe Ssemugooma, Unras former acting director for finance and administration, and Marvin Baryaruha, the former Unra legal counsel.

Senkeeto, who introduced himself as the country representative of Eutaw, and Isaac Mugote, a former Housing Finance bank employee, are accused of aiding Eutaw to forge a bid security document that helped the company win the contract.

Also on the charge sheet is Wilberforce Senjaako the former Unra regional accountant. The case will resume on February 18 when Byandala starts to give his much-awaited testimony.

Another accusation, Senkeeto has instituted against the trial judge is that, he has consistently interfered during proceedings through giving evidence from the bench.

Though it is a well known principle of law that no judge can give his own evidence", Senkeeto says contrary to that principle, Justice Gidudu did just that when in his ruling of case, he stated that the complainant was the Inspector General of Government (IGG) yet the prosecution had stated that the complaint was the Commissioner for Patriotism in the Presidents Office.

Senkeeto, furthermore, accuses Justice Gidudus court of failing to provide any member of the defence with an accurate record of proceedings in order to enable them to adequately defend themselves.

The provided record of proceedings is not only highly erroneous, but also heavily edited to that much of what actually transpires in the court is missing from the record.

The businessmans last accusation against Justice Gidudus is respect to what he terms as "derogatory" and "unprofessional" comments which he says could not have been made by what he calls an unbiased judge on the bench.

Some of the of Justices derogatory comments Senkeeto says were directed to his former lawyer Peter Mulira. The comments were so demeaning, Senkeeto claims, to the extent that Mulira asked the judge to apologize because he made them in his absence.

By way of example, Senkeeto says that Justice Gidudus comments included: Counsel [Mulira], problems of accused five [Senkeeto] are higher than the highest mountain of the world and are beyond [your] ability to solve.

Senkeeto says that other ridiculous comments by Justice Gidudu were in respect what he calls Muliras inadvertent oversight to renew his practicing certificate in time.

The judge in this matter has acted so unprofessionally and with absolute disregard of the law so much so that my lawyer [Mulira] who happens to be one of the most senior lawyers in the Uganda today was forced to boycott these proceedings as a way of showing his dissatisfaction with the judge, Senkeeto writes.

Im now left with no lawyer and yet I have to continue with this highly biased judge. I believe my only chance of a fair trial is to remove this judge and review all the wrongs that he has so far done.

In addition to comments about Mulira, Senkeeto claims that the judge has also made comments in relation to the case such as: This is a case of great public concern and no more adjournments will be granted no matter the reason. With that, the suspect says such comments have left him wondering of Justice Gidudu cares about the letter of the law or his only interest is in appeasing the public with a quick conviction

It is no surprise therefore that in his ruling of case, he called me a thief even if all the evidence on record clearly shows that I did not steal any money Senkeeto says in the letter which has been copied to Bart Katureebe, the chief justice and the attorney general William Byaruhanga.

dkiyonga@obsever.ug
Kabarole Woman MP Sylvia Rwabwogo, one of the NRM MPs who voted against the age limit bill

The chairperson of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) caucus, Ruth Nankabirwa, has said the party caucus will sit on Tuesday to decide the fate of the 28 NRM MPs who voted against the removal of presidential age limits.

The 28 MPs defied the NRM leadership and voted against the constitutional amendment bill on December 20 that abolished the presidential age limit of 75 years, paving the way for President Museveni to run again in the next election. The President signed the bill into law seven days later.

A number of NRM MPs said that they could not support the amendment against the wishes of their constituents. Bugabula South MP Henry Kibalya said that in the four sub-counties he consulted; only 53 people asked him to support the amendment.

As the 10th Parliament, we can stand here and succeed in amending Article 102 (b), but we shall never succeed in amending the hearts of Ugandans which have been broken by this act, Kibalya said.

Others who voted against the amendment include Johnson Muyanja Senyonga (Mukono South), Barnabas Tinkasiimire (Buyaga West), Monica Amoding (Kumi Municipality), John Baptist Nambeshe (Manjiya), and James Ruugi Niringiyimana (Kinkiizi West).

Nankabirwa said yesterday that the fate of the MPs in question will be on the caucus agenda at next weeks meeting.

We are going to have a caucus meeting on Tuesday [and] I will be briefing them; I am going to give a statement. They will receive a communication from me the chairperson of the caucus, she said.

Some of the defiant NRM MPs told The Observer that they are not bothered by the caucus impending decision.

Nambeshe said he can never appear before any committee of the NRM party for disciplinary action because what I was discharging was a duty vested upon my shoulders by my bosses [the voters].

For me to have said no on the floor of parliament to the removal of presidential age limits was a mandate given to me by the people of Manjiya, he said.

Nambeshe added that the party should stop applying disciplinary action selectively.

They should start by disciplining the chairperson of the party and the chairperson of the caucus for illegally ejecting us out of the caucus for the rest of the meetings after that illegal suspension.

Ever since the 28 members voted against the bill, they have not attended any of the four caucus meetings that have since sat. Like Nambeshe, Niringiyimana is not concerned about any potential disciplinary action against them.

They know that there is a government bill and a private members bill. That bill was a private members bill which was not sponsored by the government, he said.

Niringiyimana added that since MPs went to consult their constituencies, what he presented was the views of his constituency; thus, there should be no disciplinary action. After voting to amend the constitution, Nankabirwa told journalists that the NRM MPs who voted against the bill were not following the party line.

If your party has taken a decision, you have to toe that line, but people here behave as if they came as independent members.., she said.

matsiko@observer.ug
MPs in the House

Parliament has allowed three legislators to draft the Patients Rights and Responsibilities Bill, 2018 that will especially prohibit health service providers from detaining patients that fail to pay medical fees.

MPs Paul Akamba (Busiki), Andrew Kaluya (Kigulu South) and David Abala (Ngora) say the bill will not only ensure that guidelines in the patients charter are made legally binding, but will also improve health financing and protect patients rights.

In some instances, patients are detained for long periods in health facilities and subjected to abuse and also denied vital services by health workers, Akamba said in his justification to have the House approve the motion for the trio to secure leave of parliament to draft and introduce the bill.

According to the trio, lack of patients rights is psychologically distressing, economically disastrous and can result in some of the poorest people sliding further into poverty. These say detention of patients by some health facilities is an infringement on the patients human rights.

If the bill is passed, it will ensure ethical treatment of patients seeking or receiving health care, including being treated with respect and dignity from an informed point of view, Akamba said.

But the state minister for Health Sarah Opendi and Planning state minister David Bahati unsuccessfully opposed the motion on grounds that the bill would have serious financial implications on the economy.

Opendi said some issues the bill seeks to address are already provided for since primary health care is free to all Ugandans. Bahati, on the other hand, said until the bill has been drafted, it was impossible to tell what impact it would have on the consolidated fund.

The promoters of the bill argued that the patients charter of 2009, which should protect patients, is not legally binding and enforceable.

Despite the protests, when deputy speaker Jacob Oulanyah asked members to vote, the House unanimously supported the move to grant the bill promoters leave of parliament.

namuloki16@gmail.com
Kizza Besigye

Former FDC presidential flag bearer Dr Kizza Besigye has announced a seven-point campaign program that his peoples government is going to embark on to resist what he termed as the overthrow of the constitution after its recent amendment.

Calls for boycott of age limit Act promoters

Proclaims set up of people's parliament

Says actions protected by the constitution

On December 20, 317 members of parliament controversially voted to have presidential age limits removed from the constitution, opening the door for 73-year-old president Museveni to contest the next presidential elections, whenever they will be.

It is not clear whether the presidential elections will be held in 2021 or 2023, following parliament's extension of its term by two years. There are legal challenges to the constitutional amendment law, which was recently assented to by the president.

Speaking to reporters at his Katonga Road-based office, Besigye said they (opposition leaders) cannot sit back and allow a group of politicians to circumvent the will of the people.

After the overthrow of the constitution by Museveni and his cabal we are duty bound as citizens by article 3 of the constitution to defend and restore constitutionalism and rule of law in the country, Besigye said.

The seven-point action plan includes putting pressure on individual MPs, who ignored the wishes of those who sent them to parliament and voted to remove the age limit from the constitution, boycotting their businesses and those of other NRM sympathizers who supported the amendment; setting up a peoples national assembly and regional assemblies where the aspirations of the people shall be discussed to determine the future of the country; campaigning for proper utilization of taxes; putting pressure on government to organize LC elections in two months; intensifying the campaign against the land bill and also expanding non-violent struggles that are meant to weaken and ultimately defeat president Museveni.

We shall very soon swear in the peoples government and release [details] of who does what, Besigye said. He added that all these actions are legal and provided for in the law.

There are provisions within the current constitution that immunizes it from overthrow. What we are doing is not unconstitutional at all; using provisions of the overthrown constitution is provided for in this constitution, that is why its unique.

Besigye scoffed at those who say that his previous campaigns have suffered a stillbirth therefore this latest effort is likely to suffer a similar fate.

All campaigns are part of one big campaign of returning the power to the people. All these campaigns come to reinforce this. The struggle is growing even when it is not visible. Those who think that what we are doing is going nowhere, let them remain looking, Besigye said.

Speaking at the same press conference, Kampala lord mayor Erias Lukwago echoed what Besigye said emphasizing that their actions are covered by the law.

All our actions are legitimate and provided for in the constitution. Its the people of Uganda who promulgated this constitution and put resistance as a form to defend its abrogation, Lukwago said.

All of us seated here, if we were committing treason, we should have been picked already, Lukwago said.

I call upon all leaders entrusted with the mandate of the people to rally behind the peoples government to bring this government to its knees, Lukwago said.

FDC president Patrick Amuriat Oboi said the NRM must know that once they allowed the amendment of the constitution, they opened the floodgate for resistance.

NRM shouldnt believe that what they did is a matter that has been settled. How can we do this when the future of Uganda is insecure? We are saying time up for Museveni and his schemers who think that they can just change the constitution anyhow, Amuriat said adding, Anybody who thinks we are looking at 2021 or 2023 like the NRM dreamers should think twice; this liberation struggle should be sorted out before anybody thinks about any other election.

bakerbatte@observer.ug
Everyone knows that Dubai is a rich city, but not many people know it is so rich that even beggars there can earn a small fortune by asking for handouts. Begging in Dubai is so lucrative that people come into the UAE legally, on a three-month travel visa, just so they can fill their pockets on the streets. That may sound shocking, but some of these so-called professional beggars or smart beggars can earn up to Dh270,000 ($73,500) per month. Thats more than most jobs pay in a year.

Reports of professional beggars taking advantage of the generosity and gullibility of wealthy Dubai citizens have been showing up online for the past three years now, but despite the best efforts of local police to eradicate the practice, it is still considered a widespread phenomenon. If anything, news headlines of beggars in the Las Vegas of the Middle East earning insane amounts of money by begging have only encouraged others to follow their example. Some sources report that there are now Arab and Asian gangs bringing beggars into Dubai legally and then taking most of their earnings.

Begging in general is illegal in Dubai, but just so were clear, these are not your average beggars. They are called professional or smart beggars for a reason. First of all, they primarily target people who look rich and have a well-rehearsed heart-wrenching story, often involving their families who are either sleeping on the streets or living in a war torn region and in need of urgent assistance. But what really sets these beggars apart is the fact that they dont settle for the usual Dh10 or even Dh100 handouts. They ask for considerable amounts, like Dh1000 ($270) or more, and some people actually give it to them out of pity.

They convince people with their stories and earn their sympathies. I used to give money to such people in the beginning. Later I realised that this has become a phenomenon and ignored their stories, Nawal Al Naqbi, a resident of Dubai, told The Khaleej Times.

Local authorities have been carrying out year-long campaigns against these professional beggars, especially after discovering how much money they were able to extort out of wealthy Dubai residents. In 2016, police nabbed one beggar who was making more than Dh270,000 ($73,500) a month. He, like most other smart beggars in the city, was a tourist with a valid three-month visa.

Through our calculations, we found that the beggar earned an average of almost Dh9,000 per day, which is equivalent to Dh1,500 per hour and a half. But we believe that more money was collected on Fridays, especially if they were standing in front of mosques, Faisal Al Badiawi, Head of Markets Section at the municipality, said at the time.

Some of the beggars were carrying passports issued with business or tourist visas. In the campaign, we found that the majority of beggars had entered the country legally with a three-month visa, in order to collect as much money as they could during their time here, Al Badiawi added.



2017 was a particularly good year for professional beggars operating in Dubai, as it was declared the Year of Giving, by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE. Authorities launched a number of initiatives to help the less fortunate both in the Arab Emirates and abroad, but the beggars and the crime gangs involved in the practice saw it as just an opportunity to help themselves.

65 professional beggars were arrested just within the first days of Ramadan, last year, along with gang members operating behind the scenes. Police also appealed tot he public to call a hotline whenever they spot beggars, instead of showing sympathy, but even so, many of the beggars managed to elude capture. One of the biggest challenges faced by police was actually identifying the beggars.

We have increased the service of Sanad patrols in various parts of the emirate to arrest the beggars, but the major challenge is the difficulty to recognise the beggars. Unlike earlier, its now very difficult to identify them as they also appear well-dressed and smart, a senior police officer said last year.

Those caught begging in Dubai or other UAE cities risk jail time and deportation, but the chance of earning a small fortune virtually overnight is apparently too hard to resist.
An unusual restaurant in the Jinbocho district of Tokyo offers meals in exchange for 50 minutes of labor. This unique open-source eatery, called Mirai Shokudo, is the brainchild of former engineer Sekai Kobayashi, 33, who wanted to create a place for hungry people who otherwise couldnt afford to eat out.

There is no permanent staff other than Kobayashi at the restaurant, which seats 12 at a counter. Customers can either pay for their meals or work one of two daily shifts to earn their meal. The lunch shift consists of serving orders, clearing tables, and other such tasks, while the evening shift, which starts after closing, consists mainly of cleaning. The shift can be exchanged for either a free meal or can be paid forward in the form of a voucher that is left at the front door for a hungry but broke patron. First-time customers must eat at the restaurant once before working a shift to familiarize themselves with the setting. So far over 500 people have opted to work for their meals.

Photo: Mirai Shokudo/Facebook

Kobayashi opened the restaurant two years ago, aiming to create an inclusive space where everyone is welcome and fits in. She had previously managed a few pop-up cafes during her time as a student but went into engineering after graduating from Tokyo Institute of Technologys faculty of science. After working for IBM Japan Ltd. she moved to Cookpad Inc., which runs a recipe site. The company had an office kitchen where employees could cook, eat, and share meals.

My colleagues really liked the lunches I made for them. This led me to strongly consider opening my own restaurant, Kobayashi told China Daily. Afterward, I received vocational training at a leading restaurant chain and other places before opening Mirai Shokudo.

She spoke to China Daily about the career change, which can be a daunting notion for many.

Those looking for jobs might feel that making the wrong choice could ruin the rest of their lives. But its okay to change course later on. Thatll eventually lead you in a direction that you feel strongly about. Thats what happened for me with Mirai Shokudo.

Photo: Mirai Shokudo

Working as an engineer actually was not a waste of time, she added. To manage my restaurant, I adopted an open-source model  a system through which software design is made available for free to the public so that everyone can improve upon it.

Kobayashi posts the restaurants business plan and finances on its website for anyone to see, and she collects input from the public on how to improve it. The information is also available to help those who might want to open restaurants of their own.

One such hopeful is a 56-year-old former teacher who has worked at the restaurant regularly since July 2017 and plans to begin a second career in Tokyos thriving food industry.

Its an exciting job because I work with a new person every time. Its interesting to develop a good rapport and work with others, she said to China Daily.
Donald Trump launched a clueless salvo at the press today, promising to take a strong look at the nations libel laws.

The tweeter-in-chief accused the media of saying things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as the money pours into your bank account." He called countrys libel laws a sham. Fake news!!!

The Supreme Courts 1964 landmark freedom of the press ruling determined that the media couldnt knowingly report false information about public figures like Trump without taking a legal hit.

The New York Times vs. Sullivan ruling set the malice standard for libel. It held that a publisher would be guilty of defamation or libel if he/she knew the challenged statement was false or acted with reckless disregard of its truth or falsity.

Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN America, which advocates for open and free expression summed it up nicely.

In response to Trumps knock on the press, she issued this statement:

This is not the first time President Trump has shaken his fist against our libel laws. In so doing, he is attacking the U.S. Constitution, which represents the gold standard worldwide in terms of protections for freedom of speech. Under the First Amendment people are free to denigrate and offend the President or anyone else, a freedom with which the President should be well-acquainted given his own penchant for insulting political opponents. While he can say what he wants, thankfully the President cannot change our laws, much less amend the Constitution.

According to Michael Wolffs "Fire and Fury," Trump never thought hed wind up in the White House. Note to Donald: Life Happens. Press criticism comes with the territory. Trump better grow some thicker skin.

And of course, Trump took his cheap shot at the libel laws the same day the Washington Post reported that he has made more than 2,000 false or misleading quotes in 355 days in office.

The president should take care of his own fibs before accusing the press of spreading lies.


Daniel O'Donnell



American International Group has named Daniel ODonnell corporate communications head and Jim Wells digital & social media chief to buttress the communications effort of the New York-based commercial insurance giant.

ODonnell joined Brunswick as an intern in 2008 and rose to the director position.



Wells did a two-year stint as Brunswicks digital practice director, following postings at Weber Shandwick, Cohn & Wolfe and Attention Global.

Both executives report to Cindy Leggett-Flynn, chief communications officer.

She expects ODonnell and Wells to play a big part in effectively telling our story and supporting our leadership team in realizing their vision for AIGs next chapter.

AIG reported $1.7B in third-quarter `17 red ink (vs. $462M year ago profit) due to $3B in catastrophe losses from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.


Tracy Naden

Lippe Taylor has named Tracy Naden to the newly created position of consumer practice leader. Naden comes to Lippe Taylor from Weber Shandwick, where she was an executive VP. She has also held executive positions at MSLGROUP, Allidura Consumer and W2O Group. Nadens hiring completes a reorganization of the agency, with a dedicated healthcare practice under Jennifer ONeill and the consolidation of its beauty division under Diana Sfera. As part of this process, chief strategic officer Lori Rubinson assumed a new position as chief integration officer. Tracy was the final piece in a restructuring weve undertaken to give best-in-class talent a place to be entrepreneurial and help our clients navigate the increasingly complicated communications landscape, said agency founder and CEO Maureen Lippe.



Valsa Williams

FTI Consulting has appointed Valsa Williams as a senior advisor for public affairs in the firms strategic communications segment in India. She will be based in Delhi. Williams previously led the government affairs and public Policy function for Intel in South Asia, specifically in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. She will work with the public affairs team within the strategic communications segment to advise clients on public policy matters in the South Asia region. Valsa will play a key role in enhancing our advisory capabilities in the fast-growing South Asia market, said Paul Downie, chairman of Asia Pacific for the strategic communications segment.



Amy Gardner

AdvisIRy Partners has brought on Amy Gardner as senior director. In the newly established position, Gardner has dual responsibility for developing institutional investor interest in the firms clients as well as leading business development. Before coming to AdvisIRy, she was a director of international corporate access for Robert W. Baird & Co. Previously, she held sales and corporate access positions at Morgan Stanley, Espirito Santo, Execution-Noble and Bloomberg. Amys expertise in building and strengthening professional relationships is a competitive advantage for AdvisIRy Partners as we move ahead to expand our franchise of domestic and international clients, said founding partner David Gold. AdvisIRy was officially established in November as a successor to investor relations firm Morgen-Walke Associates, which was acquired by a private equity firm.



Lichi Hsueh

FleishmanHillard has promoted Lichi Hsueh, currently head of the firms Shanghai operations, to chief operating officer for the firm in China. Yisi Liu, who was deputy general manager in Shanghai, has been promoted to GM of the Shanghai office. FH also announced that Li Hong, former chairman and president of China for the firm, as well as a senior consultant, is moving on after leading FHs mainland operations for 16 years. Hsueh, who has held executive posts at Golin, Devries Global and Elite PR Group, has worked with leading brands in the technology and financial services sectors. Liu has been with FH Shanghai since 2012. Before coming to FH, he worked for Shunuya Total Communication Group, Weber Shandwick and the China National Tourism Administration. Lichi and Yisi, together with other members of our senior team in Greater China, represent the next generation of leaders in the public relations industry. They are communication entrepreneurs and their energy and insights, plus disciplined approach, will help Chinese companies and multi-nationals operating in China leverage and export new ways of communicating, said FH president of Greater China Rachel Catanach.


Amy Binder

RF|Binder has formed RFB|Cheer, a joint venture between the agency and Cheer Partners, a business consultancy that specializes in talent, employee communications, and human resources advisory. The partnership is meant to expand the capabilities and expertise of RF|Binders corporate and financial communications practice. As part of the partnership, Cathleen Graham and Darcie Peck, the founders of Cheer Partners, will join the RF|Binder leadership team. With Cathleen and Darcie on board, we will have the expertise to create more holistic, integrated communications strategies that help businesses succeed and grow, said RF|Binder CEO Amy Binder. Working with RF|Binder will help us continue to grow and expand our employee communications resources, and build stronger offerings to both new and existing clients, said Cathleen Graham, founder and managing partner of Cheer Partners.

GLOBALHealthPR has added Johannesburg-based F/NE to its global network. The acquisition of F/NE supplements GLOBALHealthPRs strategic presence in South Africa and across the continent, helping to address increased client demand across the regions diverse markets. Healthcare communications plays a critical role in South Africa and across the African continent, helping to increase health literacy and access to care in underserved communities and highlighting incredible innovation taking place in the academic and commercial sectors, said Tim Goddard, Executive VP, GLOBALHealthPR. We are pleased to partner with F/NE as we continue to offer our clients access to the top healthcare communications agencies around the world. GLOBALHealthPRs presence covers more than 40 countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific regions.
Virginia Man Defends Display Of Noose With Black Doll As Free Speech Elijah C. Watson Elijah Watson serves as Okayplayer's News & Culture Editor. When

A Virginia man hopes to convince the states Supreme Court that hanging a life-sized black doll on his front yard by a noose to intimidate black people is free speech.

READ: Six Miami Firefighters Fired For Placing Noose Over Black Lieutenants Family Photo

Jack Turner of Rocky Mount, Virginia, is in court after being convicted of breaking a Virginia state law that prohibits hanging a noose in a manner having a direct tendency to place another person in reasonable fear or apprehension of death or bodily injury, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The law, which was passed in 2009, was violated by Turner in 2015 when he hung an effigy of a black man from a tree on his front lawn in retaliation to a conflict with his black neighbor, John Mitchell. Turner also hung a Confederate flag in a window facing Mitchells home after the noose and doll were confiscated, as well as displayed a sign with he following message on his lawn during his trial and sentencing: Black ni**ers lives dont matter. Got rope?

If he can hang a noose, I dont know whats going to happen. I fear for my familys safety, Mitchell said at the time of the trial. Every morning, I walk out my door. Is somebody going to shoot me in the back?

However, Holland Perdue, Turners lawyer, has defended his actions, claiming his free speech rights were violated. Because the noose and the doll were hung on his private property and not on public property, Perdue argued Turner is protected by the First Amendment.

Still, Turners case was upheld by Judge Robert Humphreys.

The evidence was sufficient to support the circuit courts conclusion that the offense occurred in a public place, Humphreys wrote, adding that Turners act violated the law because Turner displayed a noose and dummy in a place and manner to communicate threats to others with the intent to place members of the public in fear of violence and bodily harm, according to The Roanoke Times.

Although Humphreys noted that the First Amendment protects Turners right to be a racist and even to convey his racist beliefs to others, he also said that a constitutional limit to that allowance has been reached when an idea becomes a threat that causes reasonable people to fear leaving their homes.

Turner is the first person in Virginia to be convicted under the new noose law, which carries up to five years in prison and a $2,500 fine.

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
About three dozen officials from across the Omaha areas health care landscape gathered Wednesday to kick off a partnership to work cooperatively on issues in the fast-changing sector.

CHI Health, Nebraska Medicine, Charles Drew Health Center and OneWorld Community Health Centers joined to launch the Greater Omaha Healthcare Industry Partnership, working with community-based partners Heartland Workforce Solutions, Omaha Public Schools, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce and Metropolitan Community College.

Dr. Cliff Robertson, CHI Healths chief executive, said those in the health care industry largely have been of the mindset that they can solve problems individually.

Although organizations in Omaha have some ongoing collaborations, he said, the time is right for them to start taking steps toward coming together to meet medical needs in the area.

Both he and Dr. Daniel DeBehnke, Nebraska Medicines chief executive officer, said theyre familiar with partnerships, even among competing health systems, having been involved in them while with health systems in other states. Robertson came to Nebraska from Washington in 2014; DeBehnke from Wisconsin in 2016.

In Tacoma, Washington, Robertson said, groups partnered to open a breast imaging and diagnostic center, with support from a local philanthropist.

We really hope we can start a conversation today that might lead to new and different ways of thinking, he said.

Also participating in the kickoff session was Steve Martin, president and chief executive of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, and representatives from Methodist Health System, Childrens Hospital & Medical Center, Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals, Boys Town National Research Hospital, OrthoNebraska, the Douglas County Board of Health and a number of other organizations.

Lindsey Woolsey, who facilitated the initial two-hour discussion, said the group emerged with two areas for further work: finding ways to ensure more access points to behavioral health care and better integrating behavioral health care into primary care; and working as an industry with those who educate the health care workforce on a number of training and workforce development issues.

Woolsey is president and principal consultant of the Woolsey Group, a research, technical assistance and facilitation firm.

The effort is one of the first in the state to use what is a relatively new-to-Nebraska model aimed at bringing businesses to the table for robust conversations around common issues, said Linda Black of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

While the issues can revolve around workforce development, she said, its up to the participants to determine their focus areas.
AVOCA, Iowa  Robert Reynolds of Oakland, Iowa, has been sentenced to serve at least 35 years in prison for the April 2014 murder of a guest at his home.

Patricia Kinkade-Dorsey, 64, a friend of Reynolds wife, was shot at close range while arguing with him.

Kinkade-Dorsey, of rural Cass County, Iowa, had been spending the night at the Reynolds home before heading to Omaha. She and the Reynolds had spent the evening drinking with their neighbors.

The sentencing on Wednesday brought to a close Reynolds second trial. His first conviction, also for first-degree murder, was overturned.

Reynolds, 67, will be at least 102 when he becomes eligible for parole.

In court, two of Kinkade-Dorseys daughters spoke about their grief and how Reynolds did not just end their mothers life, but destroyed her family as well.

It ruined our lives, one daughter said. I had to learn about moms death on Facebook.

The second daughter quoted poet T.S. Eliot, telling Reynolds that April has become the cruelest month for her, a reminder of what the family has lost.

Having to go through this again, I had to imagine again what must have ran through my moms mind while she was trying to shield herself from your gun, she said.

Both daughters implored Reynolds to accept responsibility for his actions.

Reynolds previous conviction was overturned by the Iowa Court of Appeals based on an 1884 law that called for the trial to be held in Avoca instead of Council Bluffs.

The law once divided Pottawattamie County into two for judicial purposes. Reynolds retrial was ordered to take place in Avoca, but the East Pottawattamie County Courthouse was deemed incapable of hosting the trial. The Avoca Fire Hall on Main Street was used instead.

Both the prosecution and defense agreed to waive having a jury. Instead, Judge Susan Christensen heard the evidence and found Reynolds guilty of shooting Kinkade-Dorsey with intent, not out of self-defense or insanity.

Reynolds didnt have a comment for the court when asked before his sentencing. His attorney, Bill McGinn, said Reynolds would appeal the decision.

Christensen said she hoped the verdict and sentence would help Kinkade-Dorseys family heal  and that Reynolds would take ownership of his actions.

I hope their words to you did not fall on deaf ears, she said. You can accept responsibility.
Is Your Mama a Llama?

Tu mama es una llama?

Next school year, some Omaha area preschoolers could be hearing this story and other favorites both ways.

The Archdiocese of Omaha plans to launch its first dual-language education program next school year, teaching children as young as 3 years old in both Spanish and English.

Students who stick with the program through eighth grade will learn both languages, an advantage for college and the workplace, according to Donna Bishop, assistant superintendent of archdiocesan schools.

It truly fits our long-range vision of whats best for students, Bishop said.

The launch comes as Catholic educators across the country look for ways to better serve growing Hispanic communities.

The Omaha Public Schools have offered dual-language programs at select schools for years, starting in kindergarten and continuing in high school.

The archdiocese program will be called the Omaha Catholic School Consortium Dual Language Academy.

The archdiocese will house the early childhood portion of the program at St. Stanislaus Catholic School, 41st and J Streets. That school closed in 2013 when the archdiocese reorganized schools in eastern Omaha.

The St. Stanislaus site will enroll preschool, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. Officials hope to enroll 50 students in each grade level.

The plan is for half the students in each class to be native English speakers and half to be native Spanish speakers.

Those students will eventually feed into dual-language tracks that will be created as needed for first through eighth grades at Sts. Peter and Paul and Our Lady of Lourdes schools.

Both Sts. Peter and Paul and Our Lady of Lourdes will continue to offer all-English tracks as well.

The dual-language educational model integrates native English speakers and native Spanish speakers for all or most of the day.

Dual-language subjects will include math, science, social studies, reading and writing. The religion curriculum will be taught in English. Students will learn prayers in both languages.

Officials said that in addition to enhancing cross-cultural understanding, dual-language programs boost academic achievement.

Immersing kids early should enhance students academic growth, they said.

The archdiocese has partnered with Boston College, a Catholic university, on the startup of the new program.

Officials with the archdiocese applied for and were selected by Boston College to join a 26-member national network of Catholic schools that offer dual-language instruction.

The archdiocese will have a five-year partnership with the colleges Two-Way Immersion Network for Catholic Schools, which will provide training and mentoring for the Omaha educators.

In a 2016 report, Boston College researchers noted the importance of Catholic schools reaching out to Hispanic families.

Although more than 40 percent of the Catholics in the country are Hispanic, researchers said, only 4 percent of school-age Hispanic Catholic children attend U.S. Catholic schools.

Researchers said dual-language schools are making a remarkable difference in their engagement of Hispanic families and children.

The schools score the highest in terms of bilingual and bicultural faculty, the highest engagement of Hispanic families, and the highest levels of incorporation of Hispanic cultural and religious traditions, the report said.

Total enrollment in Omaha archdiocesan schools as of last fall was 19,861, of which 1,719 were Hispanic students.

The archdiocese will begin taking enrollment applications Jan. 22 for families in the 16 consortium parishes and on Jan. 29 for the general public. For more information, parents can call 402-557-5600 (English) or 402-557-5570 (Spanish).
LINCOLN  Gov. Pete Ricketts unveiled his newest budget and tax plans to mixed reviews Wednesday.

In his annual State of the State speech, he touted the proposals as doing whats right for hard-working Nebraskans and for the states future.

We have to remain laser-focused on growing Nebraska, he said. That means cutting red tape, balancing the budget and delivering tax relief.

Ricketts delivered the address  the fourth and last of his current term in office  during a year when state tax revenues continue to lag and demands for property tax cuts are rising.

The governor spent much of the speech reviewing the accomplishments of his term. He is seeking re-election this year.

Im happy to report that the state of the state is strong and growing, he said, listing several economic development projects and international trade deals.

Ricketts also reinforced his credentials as an abortion opponent by proposing to cut off federal Title X funding to entities that perform, counsel or refer for abortion.

But he acknowledged that the state has challenges, including a $200 million shortfall for the budget period ending June 30, 2019.

The governors proposal would reduce state spending for the two-year budget period to $8.81 billion, down from the $8.86 billion figure approved last year.

He said his budget plan would close the gap without raising taxes while still protecting state priorities, including K-12 education, developmental disability services, child welfare and corrections.

It also would take $108 million from the states cash reserve fund, leaving the fund at its lowest level since 2006.

Under the plan, most state agencies would see across-the-board cuts. The cuts would be 2 percent for the last half of the current fiscal year and 4 percent for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The cuts would be on top of the budget actions taken in 2017 to close a nearly $1 billion shortfall. Lawmakers reduced some state spending, slowed the growth of other spending and tapped various cash funds to make that budget balance.

This year, Ricketts is recommending a $55 million increase in child welfare funding, offset in part by a $20 million decrease in public assistance. The money is needed because of a 9 percent increase in the number of children coming into state care.

The governor said he will be forming a new child welfare task force to dig into the reasons for the increase. Some statistics show a link to methamphetamine use.

Ricketts is not proposing additional money for the prison system but is seeking the authorization to hire more corrections officers. He also is proposing to add 100 new prison beds with $5.8 million left over from a previously approved prison construction project.

State Sen. John Stinner of Gering, chairman of the budget-crafting Appropriations Committee, called the governors budget a reasonable and doable proposal and said he was comfortable with the amount to be taken from the cash reserve.

Once budget hearings start, he said, the committee will get a better idea of the effects of the across-the-board cuts.

You just have to measure what the outcomes are because you are making short-term decisions that may have long-term implications, Stinner said.

Sen. Kate Bolz of Lincoln, the Appropriations vice chairman, said she appreciated the governors effort to craft a balanced budget and his proposed investment in child welfare.

But she expressed concerns about the effect of the cuts to higher education and the Supreme Court, particularly its juvenile justice programs.

Outside groups had decidedly mixed reactions.

Brad Stevens, regional director of Americans for Prosperity, said the budget and tax plans would improve the lives of Nebraskans.

Controlling state spending is critical to making government sustainable and tax relief possible, he said.

But Hadley Richters, acting head of the Holland Childrens Movement, called the proposals misguided because they would make across-the-board cuts in services while helping big corporations with tax cuts.

If the governor truly wants to grow Nebraska, he should turn his attention to the middle class, the hard-working Nebraskans who are the heart of our states economy, she said.

One flashpoint in the proposal will be Ricketts bid to limit which health care providers get a portion of the states $1.9 million in federal Title X funding.

He said he wants to keep the family planning dollars from being used for abortion.

But the language in the budget bill appears to go further, barring any entity that refers women for abortions from getting the funds.

Tom Venzor, director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, welcomed the proposal, calling it strong, pro-life language.

I really do believe it keeps our hands clean in Nebraska, he said.

Meg Mikolajczyk, associate general counsel for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said the language represented a focused, blatant attack on Planned Parenthood. The organization provides abortions, as well as other reproductive health services, at clinics in Omaha and Lincoln.

Gov. Ricketts and his allies are attacking individual liberties and putting their personal beliefs over womens health, she said.
Police shot and killed 987 people in the United States last year. That is two dozen more than in the year before and nearly identical to the number of people killed by police the year before that.

The lack of appreciable change in the numbers is a depressing sign that, although much attention has been focused on this issue in the past three years, authorities are falling short in devising and implementing solutions.

The sobering look at the use of deadly force by police is the result of an unprecedented effort by the Washington Post to track fatal shootings in the aftermath of the debate sparked by the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, outside St. Louis. The ongoing project, using local news coverage, public records and social-media reports, has logged details of 2,945 shooting deaths.

The project has revealed patterns in the shootings that could lead to more effective action. The decline in the number of unarmed people shot suggests, for example, that heightened awareness and scrutiny may result in police showing more restraint before using deadly force in some circumstances.

Particularly striking is how often mental-health issues play a role in police shootings. In 2017, 236 people  nearly 1 in 4 of those killed  were reported to have been experiencing some form of mental distress at the time of their encounter with police.

That rate, the Treatment Advocacy Center calculated in a 2015 report, means the risk of being killed during a police incident is 16 times greater for individuals with untreated serious mental illness than for other civilians.

As the public mental-health system has been depleted, with insufficient facilities and other barriers to treatment, police have been unfairly burdened with having to deal with people in mental crisis.

The results are too often tragic, as The Post detailed in the heartbreaking case of a 15-year-old Prince William County, Virginia, boy suffering from depression who was shot and killed last year in a confrontation with police he initiated, apparently as a way of committing suicide.

Expanding mental-health services could reduce the number of police shootings. So might better training of police and the use of intervention teams schooled in how to respond to people in mental distress so that situations dont escalate into someone being killed.

Police have dangerous jobs, and sometimes they must use deadly force to protect themselves or the public. But figuring out ways to avoid such shootings is in the interests of both the police and the public they serve.
UPDATE (8:00 p.m.)

The snows over, now its into the deep freeze.

Brutal cold is the next big weather story, said Dave Eastlack, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Except for Sunday when temperatures might bounce into the 20s, highs the next five days will peak in the single digits and teens. Early next week, the morning wind chills could drop to about minus 20 degrees.

Stinko, Eastlack said, and you can quote me on that.

Theres a slight chance of snow Friday night into Saturday, and a greater chance early Sunday morning, according to the weather service.

Snowfall totals

The city of Omaha dodged the worst of the snow, but the southern metro area accumulated higher amounts because it was nearer to the heart of the heaviest snowfall.

Officially, Omaha received 1.1 inches of snow, while Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue tallied 3 inches and Plattsmouth, 4.9 inches.

Amounts quickly tailed off to the west. Valley and Lincoln both received about one-half inch of snow.

There wasnt much moisture in the powder. Omahas water equivalent was 0.11 inches.

The wind and the cold were the big story. In Omaha, winds peaked at 48 mph at 7:33 a.m., according to the weather service. Wind chills stayed below zero most the day.

Streets

Snow plows have been making progress on main roads, which are mostly open. Important side roads are OK to travel but some have slushy snow that still needs to be cleared off before temperatures drop again tonight.

Traffic has picked up as more people venture out. Deliveries are being made at local stores and restaurants, certainly at bars.

Mayor Jean Stothert tweeted early this afternoon that city plows would remain on a 24-hour operation for several days, salting & plowing. "We will not use private contractors after all, since the snowfall did not accumulate as expected," she said.

Stothert noted that conditions will again become more treacherous after dark when snow melt refreezes.

"Please drive safely, especially later this evening and tonight as the snow melt starts to refreeze," she said in her tweet.

Trash collection

Waste Management did not collect garbage today in Omaha. Thursdays routes will be collected Friday and Friday routes will be collected Saturday, city officials said. Next week, the regular collection schedule will resume. Mondays Martin Luther King Jr. holiday does not affect the collection schedule.

Area highways

Interstate 80 was clear cross much of the state at mid-afternoon, according to the Nebraska Department of Roads. This includes the stretch between Lincoln and Omaha. West of Lexington, the Interstate was partially covered.

Otherwise, highways were mostly clear to partially covered in Nebraska. Rural roads and highways between Omaha and Nebraska City were dicier.

Iowas 511 website showed roads partially covered over all but the northwest corner of the state. Some areas, included due east of Council Bluffs, were considered completely covered.

Interstate 29 was clear north of Council Bluffs and partially covered south of there.

Power outage

MidAmerican Energy had reported that almost 2,500 customers in Council Bluffs were without power, but all power had been restored by mid-afternoon. The Omaha Public Power District reported a half-dozen outages shortly after 3 p.m.

Traffic accidents

Omaha police weren't responding to property damage crashes for most of the day. About 3:20, things had calmed down enough that police resumed taking reports on minor crashes. That said, the evening rush hour could change things. Some drivers were traveling fast on some roadways.

City crews have treated the main roads, but intersections and side roads can be slick.

Water main

A water main break was reported this morning near Fontenelle Boulevard and Laurel Avenue.

Flight information

No arrival or departure delays and no cancellations have been announced at Eppley Airfield. Eppley officials urged travelers to check with their airlines before arriving at the airport.

Forecast

Tonight: Mostly clear with a low around 3. Winds are expected to lessen considerably as night falls, and drop off notably after 8 p.m.

Friday: Increasing clouds with a high around 15. Wind-chill values as low as minus 10.

Friday night: A slight chance of snow with a low around 5.

Snow chances? There's a slight chance of snow this weekend, but if it doesn't snow, it's not expected to be a lot, according to the weather service.

Wind gusts

Area winds gusts at 8:30 a.m.: Norfolk, 49 mph; Tekamah, 48; Eppley Airfield, 48; Columbus, 46; Wayne, 46; Falls City, 46; Lincoln, 45; Albion, 45; Blair, 43; Clarinda, 41; Council Bluffs, 40; Harlan, 39; Fremont, 39; Beatrice, 39; Wahoo, 39; Nebraska City, 39; Red Oak, 36; Plattsmouth, 35; Offutt Air Force Base, 35; Millard, 35.

Road conditions

Call 511 or visit safetravelusa.com.

Closings

Local colleges and Sarpy County government are among the institutions closed today.
Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

Alternative-focused mutual fund company Catalyst Funds has partnered with BNP Paribas to create the BNP Paribas Catalyst Systematic Alpha Index (BNPP CASA Index), an alternative, multi-asset index.

The BNPP CASA Index allocates between seven different strategies developed by BNP Paribas' Quantitative Investment Strategies (QIS) group, each specifically designed to harvest non-traditional sources of returns. Using a rules-based, risk-budget model, the BNPP CASA Index systematically allocates across each of these strategies, as frequently as daily, designed to adapt to various market conditions.

Although the BNPP CASA Index synthetically invests across equities, fixed-income, commodities and currencies, it is designed to offer a low correlation to these markets.

"We are excited to partner with the BNP Paribas QIS team, which has been a leader and a pioneer in developing rules-based systematic investment strategies," said Jerry Szilagyi, CEO of Catalyst Funds. "The newly-created BNPP CASA Index leverages recognized risk premia strategies and offers investors a diversified, low-correlated source of returns. The Catalyst Systematic Alpha Fund is based on this index, and for the first time, gives all investors access to a sophisticated, diversified strategy once available only to accredited investors."

Catalyst launches S......................

To view our full article Click here
Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

Humans still reign supreme against the machines as three of the top five best-performing hedge funds last year are made up of human-led stock-picking strategies, according to data by HSBC research.

According to a Reuters report, Alibaba, Tencent and AAC Technologies helped Hong Kong-based Oceanwide Asset Management to gain 43% in 2017 from its China equities-focused hedge fund.

Oceanwide's selective stock-picking strategies is the top-performing fund last year with its long-short strategy.

According to HSBC, some funds significantly exceeded their benchmarks - while other funds road both a strong beta market environment in delivering overall 6.5% returns basis. With the US stock market up near 20% in 2017, a 6.5% return might seem rather mundane. But with some hedge funds, the goal is not absolute returns, but rather a potential protective return stream during extended stock market downtrends, the report added.

The HSBC data also showed that funds using machine algorithms accounted to a mere 15% of last year's best performing hedge funds.

One investor with $2bn in hedge funds told Reuters, "I've not been a big believer in machines because the worl......................

To view our full article Click here
All-Bee Boys Soccer selection process explained The Bees sports staff is once again proud to recognize some of the areas top talent with the 2022 installment...

 All-Bee Boys Soccer  First Teamers were vital to their squads success

While there is no I in team, there certainly are individuals whose skill at their respective sports help improve the...
Opponents of a liquefied natural gas export terminal proposed in Coos Bay will rally at the capitol Thursday to highlight a study that suggests the project's in-state greenhouse emissions would be comparable to Portland General Electric's coal-fired plant in Boardman, and its total lifecycle emissions 15 times worse.

The latter comparison  stacking the project's lifecycle emissions against a single source in Oregon  is hardly apples-to-apples. But the study's authors suggest there is no emissions advantage to exporting natural gas versus burning coal in Asia.

The study's release coincides with the beginning of a legislative session in which the top priority for many Democrats is passing sweeping legislation to limit greenhouse emissions in Oregon. Opponents of the Jordan Cove Energy Project have been urging state leaders to use their regulatory authority to kill the project, and are hoping to highlight what they see as a double standard.

The study's conclusions are diametrically opposed to those of the project's boosters, who contend the terminal's exported gas would displace coal-fired electricity in Asia and reduce global greenhouse emissions.

Michael Hinrichs, a spokesman for Jordan Cove, said the study "appears to use an inaccurate comparison that supports a pre-determined stance."

"The project is putting Oregon on the path to supplying a cleaner energy future for our customers," he said. "Natural gas is cleaner burning, has fewer pollutants, is less expensive and more efficient than other fuels that are capable of meeting around the clock energy demand."

At least one supporter of the terminal project also plans his own news conference Thursday in Salem to dispute the study's findings.

The study was authored by Oil Change International, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy organization against fossil fuels. It estimates Jordan Cove's in-state greenhouse gas emissions at 2.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents a year, including 1.8 million tons from the terminal and another 400,000 tons from its feeder pipeline and a compressor station.

The study's estimate for terminal emissions, which assumed it operated at 85 percent of capacity, is a bit less than the maximum emissions level the company has projected in its applications with federal and state regulators. And that would put it at or near the top of the list of stationary emissions sources in Oregon tracked by the Department of Environmental Quality, particularly as PGE's Boardman coal plant, the state's largest source of emissions, is slated to close in 2020.

Several other gas-fired power plants in the state are permitted for emissions levels that exceed the level anticipated at the Jordan Cove terminal, but they are not operating at capacity. Managers for Jordan Cove have previously said it's unlikely the plant would be built unless its capacity was fully subscribed, though it's unclear what the utilization rate might be.

The Oil Change study also estimated the project's "lifecycle" emissions, including upstream methane leakage rates in gas production, processing and transportation, as well as emissions from tanker transportation to Asia, local distribution and combustion in China. It said those total emissions would be 36.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year, more than half of it from burning the gas in Asia. Thats about 15 times the Boardman plant's emissions, or the equivalent of 7.9 million passenger vehicles.

Based on those results, the study's authors concluded, exported LNG would have no advantage over burning coal in Asia coal and could lead to higher emissions if it ends up locking in new fossil fuel infrastructure for the next four decades.

A big piece of the emissions equation depends on methane leakage rates, as methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Much of the terminal's gas supply is expected to come from shale formation in Canada, but the authors said there are no good data sources on leakage rates there. Instead, they assumed all the gas for Jordan Cove came from basins in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, and estimated a leakage rate of 1.77 percent based on a recent academic study.

That's higher than some estimates, including a 2014 study by the U.S. Department of Energy, which included lower leakage rates and concluded that the lifecycle emissions of LNG exported to China from the Gulf Coast would be significantly lower than coal burned in China.

John Williams, a self-described environmental consultant from Hillsboro, plans to hold his own news conference at the capitol Thursday. He says he has no connection to Jordan Cove, but thinks "the best thing we can do is get coal plants off the face of the earth as fast as we can. I view natural gas as a powerful weapon in making that happen."

Williams says exporting LNG could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants in Asia. He says he has more faith in scientists at the Department of Energy  their study was authored during the Obama administration "when the Department of Energy was still trustworthy," he said -- than Oil Change International, which he maintains is overestimating methane leakage rates and Jordan Cove's lifecycle emissions.

"China wants to get rid of coal and they want to buy gas to do it," he says. "Are we going to sell it to them? It would be dramatically beneficial."

- Ted Sickinger

503-221-8505; @tedsickinger
The accused allegedly raped the 19-year-old model after offering a ride from a bar where they partied Thursday night.
Vancouver police are looking for family members who may have accidentally donated a loved one's ashes.

Police responded to the Goodwill at 6425 NE Fourth Plain Blvd after an employee sorting donations found an urn that contained cremated remains.

Police are asking anyone with information about the urn or its owners to contact the department's evidence unit at 360-487-7404 so it can be returned to family members.

-- Anna Marum
Longtime tenants at a North Portland apartment complex have filed a lawsuit against their new landlord, saying they're being evicted as punishment for demanding legally-mandated repairs.

"For the last year residents have repeatedly and amicably asked for repairs to no avail," a press release from the Oregon Community Alliance of Tenants said. "Children and adult residents have missed work and school as they succumb to illnesses caused by the multiple health and safety violations in the apartments."

Nineteen households are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The building, previously called Titan Manor now named The Melrose Apartments, was sold to a group of California- and Beaverton-based real estate partnerships in 2016.

The complex is home to many families with school-aged children who want to keep their tight-knit community together. They banded together when new owners issued no-cause evictions last year and were able to successfully stop some evictions at that time.

Apartments emptied after evictions underwent repairs and then were rented at higher rates, while poor conditions in occupied apartments were ignored, the lawsuit says.

In October 2017, tenants were told their rent was going up. After the tenants asked that the increase be delayed until their apartments were in better condition, they were told to get out, the lawsuit says.

Affected families include some who have lived there five, 10 and even 20 years, paying rent on time every month while enduring conditions including leaky doors and windows, mold, broken fire detectors, loose or dangerous electrical outlets and torn carpeting that poses trip hazards.

The landlords' position is that ousting the families is the quickest and easiest way to make the repairs the city says are needed.

The previous owners didn't keep up with maintenance, so the apartments are in horrible condition, Dan Lavey, a spokesman for the owners, said. City inspectors, as a result, papered the place with notices to take action, he said.

The complex was hit with 490 violations, according to Community Alliance of Tenants.

"The owners don't dispute that the condition of the residences. The whole complex was in severe disrepair," Lavey said. "The question is how to best make the improvements and under what timeframe you do that."

Lavey said owners will give the tenants on average $4,000 in required in rental assistance, plus an additional $200 for moving expenses. Application fees have also been waived for families that want to move into a renovated unit  but that means a rent hike.

Most of the renters who sued were paying $825 a month until October, when the rent rose to $900, the lawsuit says. The highest rent being charged to tenants suing to fight their evictions is currently $953, it says.

"As units are renovated, the rents are being adjusted to reflect the fact that units are newly improved and frankly to help finance the cost of the improvements," Lavey said. "The owners recognize that for the folks who live there this is their home and this is their neighborhood. If we can keep them in this neighborhood, in this complex we want to do that  but we want to do that in apartments that are cleaner, safer, healthier, nicer and warmer than they were before."
Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Black History 101 Mobile Museum and Professor Griff at Clark College

On Jan. 17, Vancouver's Clark College will honor the teachings of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with a traveling museum exhibit and presentation by Professor Griff, one of the founding members of hip-hop group Public Enemy. The exhibit, Black History 101 Mobile Museum, will display a collection of more than 7,000 artifacts focusing on the key events and personalities of 1968. Curated by Khalid el-Hakim, the exhibit promises artifacts "related to the 1968 Olympics, Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, the Black Panther Party, Shirley Chisholm, and numerous musical artists who were performing during that time," as well as material from the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Jim Crow era for context, according to a press release. From 1 to 2 p.m. in the student center, Professor Griff will talk about how the events of the late 1960s helped shape Public Enemy's work. Guests are asked to bring a nonperishable item for the Clark College Penguin Pantry and the ShareHouse Backpack Program.

10 a.m. -6 p.m. Jan. 17; Clark College's Gaiser Student Center, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver; free; clark.edu/cc/mlk.

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Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart screening with filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain

Catch a free screening of award-winning filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain's Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, a documentary about Lorraine Hansberry, a trailblazing African American playwright during the height of the civil rights movement. From her friendship with James Baldwin to her barrier-breaking work A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry lived an enterprising life before her death at age 34. The film draws upon archives, stage and screen productions of A Raisin in the Sun and interviews with Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Louis Gossett Jr. and others involved in its productions. After the showing, Tracy Heather Strain will be on hand to talk about her film.

7:30 p.m., Jan. 15; Portland Art Museum's Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 S.W. Park Ave.; free; nwfilm.org/films/sighted-eyes-feeling-heart

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The Oregonian/OregonLive

Keep Alive the Dream tribute

The World Arts Foundation will present its 33rd consecutive tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with local speakers, artists and musicians. Claudette King, daughter of the late BB King, will perform gospel and blues songs that helped define the civil rights movement. Other performances include Portland Interfaith Gospel Choir and the Jefferson Dancers. The event will be livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Jan. 15; Highland Center, 7600 N.E. Glisan St.; $5 suggested donation or five non-perishable food items

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Steve Nehl. Oregon Historical Society Research Library

Racing to Change: Oregon's Civil Rights Years

On Jan. 15, the Oregon Black Pioneers, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Oregon's African American heritage, will unveil its fourth exhibition at the Oregon Historical Society. Open through June 24, Racing to Change: Oregon's Civil Rights Years, "details the courage, struggle, and progress of Oregon's Black residents during the 1960s and 1970s and the reverberation of those issues today," according to a press release. The interactive exhibit will trace the way discrimination practices have affected Oregon's Black community and spurred the Civil Rights Movement in Oregon. In celebration of the opening, admission will be free on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday.

10 a.m.  5 p.m. Monday  Saturday, noon  5 p.m. Sundays; Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., $11, with discounts available for students, seniors and youth; ohs.org

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The Oregonian/OregonLive

Be the Dream: A celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.

Newbergs Chehalem Cultural Center commemorates the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. through spoken word, musical, vocal and dance performances and presentation by guest speaker Inez Pena.

Reception at 5:30 p.m., program at 6 p.m. Jan. 15; Chehalem Cultural Center, 415 E. Sheridan St., Newberg; 503-538-7947; free;

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Andrew Theen | The Oregonian/OregonLive

MLK Day of Service

Since 1994, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been observed as a day of service. Across the Portland area, find dozens of volunteer opportunities Jan. 12-15 through Hands On Portland and United Way, among other volunteer agencies, including the Human Rights Campaign. Numerous opportunities are already full, but there are still plenty of all-ages openings still available all across the city.

Various times Jan. 12-15; across Portland; free; handsonportland.org/special-event/a0M1H00000UlPxeUAF
NAACP picketing City Hall, September 30, 1963. Photographed by Hugh Ackroyd, copyright historicphotoarchive.net



By Samantha Bakall

The Oregonian | OregonLive

Though the Oregon Historical Society's newest exhibit focuses on Oregon's civil rights experience decades ago, many of the central themes still feel relevant to today.



Presented in partnership with the Oregon Black Pioneers, "Racing to Change: Oregon's Civil Rights Years," is the fourth exhibit in a chronological series from the African American heritage organization and the museum. The series, which began in 2011, has been cataloging African American life in Oregon from the 1700s toward present day.



On display until June 24, the new exhibit details the social upheaval and conflicts black Oregonians faced during the 1960s and 1970s, and the progress, experimentation and joy the black community experienced as they played an essential role in building the state's social, cultural and economic base. Using historical photos, music, documents and quotes from notable African American Oregon activists and Black Panther members, the interactive display outlines the events that spurred the civil rights movement in Oregon.



Admission to the Oregon Historical Society will be free Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day for all visitors. The exhibit runs from Jan. 15 to June 24. The Oregon Historical Society is open 10 a.m. -5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $11, and free for members and Multnomah County residents.



Here are five things curators hope visitors will learn from the exhibit:

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The civil rights movement wasn't just in the South

Portland police in the Albina neighborhood in 1969. OHS collection (digital image bb005811).



An image of two young African American men getting arrested by white police officers while surrounded by a crowd of stands near the center of the exhibit. If you had to guess, you might say it was a street corner somewhere in the South, but exhibit co-leader Gwen Carr says it's right here in Portland. She wants visitors to learn that the civil rights movement didn't only happen in the South.



"The West, Portland, Oregon, also had its own civil rights movement," Carr said. "This is Portland's story. Oregon's story, and we need to know about it."

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Oregon had its own Black Panther Party

Sandra Ford, Black Panthers, at a demonstration in support of repressed peoples at the U.S. Courthouse on February 14, 1970. Courtesy City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2004-005.2957



The Black Panther Party wasn't only in Oakland. In the late 1960s, the party, as well as the Black Berets, formed groups in Portland and Eugene. Though membership was small, the Eugene chapter of the Black Panthers was formed in 1968 to fight racism in the community and later went on to create a free breakfast program for children and started a Liberation School to teach African and African American history.



Portland's Black Panther Party started as a group of young African Americans who read Malcolm X and Mao Tse-tung. After a member was beaten and jailed, Kent Ford helped found the local party.

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Schools were major players

Black United Front leader, Ron Herndon, stands on a desk at a School Board protest against the closure of Harriet Tubman Middle School, March 30, 1982. Photographed by Steve Nehl. Oregon Historical Society Research Library, Oregon Journal Collection, digital image no. ba018353, copyright Oregonian Publishing Co.



From elementary school to colleges, African Americans fought against racial discrimination and for representation with faculty and curriculum. At Portland State University, the Black Student Union was an important center for in intellectual and educational conversations during the civil rights movement. The university was the first to grant degrees in Black Studies in the Pacific Northwest.



Racially restrictive housing policies created a segregated school system in Portland, which the NAACP attempted to fight with redistricting, new schools and busing. The school board implemented then Superintendent Robert Blanchard's plan in 1968, which bused black students to white schools while systematically closing schools in black neighborhoods over an eight-year period.

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Black identity blossomed in Portland

Children helping with the Albina Neighborhood Improvement Project, 1962. Courtesy City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2010-003



The "Black is beautiful" cultural movement started in the 1960s, which rose "out of Black nationalism and focused on emotional well-being and the beauty and strength of Black life," according to the exhibit. Images of activists, children and politicians with natural hair, as well as a display of Dashikis, the colorful garments worn in parts of West Africa, and combs can be found in the exhibit.



Music, as well as theater, also played a large part during the civil rights movement. Along North Williams Avenue, jazz clubs and record stores, like The House of Sound and Bop City Records, played and sold African American music that other radio stations often wouldn't air. Throughout the exhibit, excerpts of Aretha Franklin ("R-E-S-P-E-C-T"), Marvin Gaye ("Ain't No Mountain High Enough") and Stevie Wonder ("Superstition") songs play.

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The same issues are still relevant today

McDonalds, Union & Fremont. Voter registration drive. Nate Proby administering oath.(president, United Minority Workers), Voter is Francis Newman. April 18, 1972



Many of the themes of the exhibit -- grassroots activism, the fight for equality, pride and identity, clashes with police -- resonate with the issues African Americans still face in 2018. The serendipity of the exhibit's timing isn't lost on Carr.



"One of the questions we've been asked is, 'Did you plan this?'" Carr said. "We started working on this three years ago, and [the exhibit] just happened chronologically. I think it's very relevant, and the public will see it's very relevant."



Both Carr and co-leader Kim Moreland hope visitors are inspired by the national and local activists, and regular individuals who sacrificed for change highlighted in the exhibit, to make a difference in their own communities.

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MLK Day Events

Members of the NW Community Gospel Choir joined the congregation's Kol Echad choir in song. The eighth annual Shabbat evening service, at Temple Beth Israel, celebrated the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., January 16,2015. Michael Lloyd/Staff

Celebrate civil rights and the memory of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with these six events around Portland.
Nearly 20 percent of state-licensed marijuana retailers sold marijuana to underage shoppers in a recent series of undercover visits by regulators.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission sent people younger than 21 into 86 licensed stores across the state in December. Of those, 16 allowed underage people to purchase the drug.

In each case, the underage volunteer carried their own government-issued identification.

Steve Marks, executive director of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, called the results of the decoy operation "unacceptable."

Top state officials, including Gov. Kate Brown, and regulators have repeatedly stressed the importance of keeping marijuana out of the hands of minors. Marks said Oregonians were told Measure 91 would protect minors by discouraging their use of cannabis.

"Oregonians who voted for legalizing recreational marijuana implicitly told the cannabis industry to abide by public safety laws," Marks said in a statement. "Clearly they're not."

Portland-area stores had the worst showing of any region in the state, according to the agency. In the days before Christmas, regulators visited seven licensed shops; four shops, all of them on Northeast Sandy Boulevard, sold cannabis to underage shoppers.

None of the central Oregon stores visited sold to underage people, the agency said.

Inspectors cited the offending businesses, which now go through an administrative process that could result in fees or the temporary suspension of their license.

The agency plans to conduct such operations throughout the year and intends to visit every licensed store annually, said Mark Pettinger, a liquor commission spokesman.

Don Morse, whose Portland marijuana store was not among those visited by inspectors in December, applauded the agency's efforts to enforce the age requirements. Morse said he doubts stores knowingly sold marijuana to people under 21 and chalked up the sting's results to a lack of training among store employees.

"It's a matter of training and making sure people are doing their jobs trying to catch people coming in who are underage," he said.

AmeriCannaRX in Portland was among the shops that is accused to selling to someone under 21. Store owner Anna Schrab said she responded to the violation quickly by firing the employee who handled the transaction and buying a device that scans shoppers' identification. She said she's offering employees bonuses if they catch underage shoppers in the store.

She called getting caught in the state's sting operation "embarrassing."

The results of the state's minor decoy visits comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Justice's announcement last week that it is rolling back Obama-era protections for legal marijuana.

What that means for Oregon's regulated industry remains unclear. U.S. Attorney Billy Williams told The Oregonian/OregonLive last week that he is awaiting additional guidance from federal Justice Department officials before offering any specifics on how his office will carry out the new stance.

The stores accused of selling to underaged people include:

Buds, 439 W. 1st Ave., Eugene

Sweet Leaf Cannabis, 943 Olive St., Eugene

Hi Cascade,1628 Main St., Springfield

The Grass Hut II, 4085 Cherry Ave. NE, Keizer

7 Leaf Collective, 1026 Commercial St. NE, Salem

Herbal Remedies 2, 3940 Commercial St. SE, Salem

Hi Cascade, 5070 Commercial St. SE, Salem

Re-Leaf Cannabis Center, 1330 12th St. SE #100, Salem

La Mota, 4450 & 4460 N.E. Sandy Blvd., Portland

Roseway Organics, 7420 N.E. Sandy Blvd., Portland

AmeriCanna Rx, 8654 N.E. Sandy Blvd., Portland

Deanz Greenz, 10518-B N.E. Sandy Blvd., Portland

Hijinx Cannabis Co., 3943 S Pacific Hwy, Medford

Cannabiz Experience, 333 N Riverside, Medford

Rogue River Herbal, 510 E Main St #C, Rogue River

Rogue River Cannabis, 204 Madrone St., Rogue River

-- Noelle Crombie

ncrombie@oregonian.com

503-276-7184

@noellecrombie
I agree with Nancy Hline, who recently wrote a letter deploring the litter all over Portland ("Clean up your act, Oregon," Jan. 4). Garbage pickers rifle through the trash cans, often leaving debris strewn about. Emptying the cans more often would help. Many trash cans are old with easily removable lids that sometimes don't fit well or are left on the ground.

When litter is everywhere, everyone becomes more careless with their trash. Besides more frequent pick-ups and more secure trash cans, the city should start a public relations campaign to encourage responsible disposal and community pride and service. This could be along the lines of TriMet's "'Respect the Ride" campaign. Business owners should be encouraged to police their grounds. Central City Concern workers help with litter in a small area of downtown, but it is not nearly enough.

Some towns have clean-up days when residents are given bags and gloves and sent out in groups to pick up trash or programs to 'adopt' a block and keep it litter-free.

A major effort of some kind is needed to catch up and keep up.

Susan L. Gilbert, Southwest Portland
While your Jan. 7 editorial ("Bullied. Belittled. Ignored") regarding the feud between these two is important for the community and residents of Multnomah County, you spend nearly all of the column criticizing Kafoury and only a few sentences about Smith's equally bad behavior. Of course Kafoury needs to lead, remain even tempered and treat others with dignity and respect -- she is the chairwoman after all.

But, Smith's behavior is equally abhorrent, well-documented, and targeted at minorities and others of color. Does she get a pass from the editorial board because she is an African-American woman? I can't imagine your response if a white person had treated Muslims and Hispanics the way that Smith has done. Also, why haven't the two dozen members of Portland's African American community you site called for Smith to resign because of her "vulgar, degrading, and appalling" behavior? And, why do you not point out this hypocrisy?

Tom Larson, Hillsboro
By Catesby Holmes

The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that it will eliminate the Temporary Protected Status that gave provisional U.S. residency to Salvadoran migrants after a 2001 earthquake. Some 200,000 Salvadorans now have until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave the United States, obtain a green card or be deported.

According to a Jan. 8 DHS statement, the decision was made "after a review of the disaster-related conditions upon which the country's original designation was based," which determined that they "no longer exist."

Immigration advocates have condemned the move, saying it overlooks El Salvador's extreme violence, which has surged since the Bush administration first offered Salvadorans protective status. With 81.2 murders per 100,000 people in 2016, El Salvador is the deadliest place in the world that's not a war zone. More than 5,200 people were killed there in 2016.

How did El Salvador become so violent? These four articles shed some light on the country's complex crime problem. Spoiler: It's not just about the gangs.

1. It all started in the U.S.

President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions often claim that lax immigration policies allowed fearsome Central American gangs like MS-13 to spread from El Salvador into the U.S.

The truth is quite the opposite, writes Florida International University professor Jose Miguel Cruz.

"The street gang Mara Salvatrucha 13, commonly known as MS-13, was born in the United States," he explains.

Formed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s by the children of Salvadoran immigrants who'd fled that country's civil war, MS-13 was at first just "kids who met hanging out on street corners," writes Cruz.

It wasn't until the early 2000s that the group spread into Central America. There, it has brutally deployed extortion, human smuggling and drug trafficking, terrorizing neighborhoods and helping to turn the so-called Northern Triangle - El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras - into the world's deadliest place.

2. It's not just El Salvador

El Salvador may be particularly dangerous, but it isn't the only Latin American country facing a homicide epidemic, writes Robert Muggah, a Brazilian crime researcher.

As a whole, "Latin America is where the most murders in the world happen," Muggah writes. Home to just 8 percent of the world's population, the region sees over 38 percent of global homicides. Every day some 400 Latin Americans are killed.

Many factors contribute to this homicide epidemic, according to Muggah, including "the war on drugs, abundant unlicensed firearms, persistently unequal gender relations and, in Mexico and Central America, thousands of marginalized, uprooted, and sometimes convicted U.S. deportees."

Governments have responded to rising violence by sinking money into police forces, prosecutors and prisons. It hasn't worked, Muggah writes. Only 20 percent of murders in Latin America results in conviction. And in San Salvador, El Salvador - last year the seventh-deadliest city in the world - just 10 percent do.

3. Women can be targets

"Criminal violence, while potent, is just part of a dangerous cocktail" of crime in Central America, writes Ariadna Estevez of Mexico's National Autonomous University.

For example, in 2015, Honduras had the highest rate of feminicide - or female murder - in the world. Environmental advocates who stand up to illegal mining and other kinds of resource exploitation in Central America are also frequent targets of violence.

Those two facts are not unrelated, Estevez warns. "It's a common mistake to consider violence against women a private, non-political act. But women are often on the front lines of activism" she writes, because they tend to fight against activities that are "harmful to their children, homes and communities."

4. El Salvador's government isn't helping

Jose Miguel Cruz agrees that gangs like MS-13 are not the sole cause of crime in Central America. Rather, he contends, they are "largely a symptom of a far more critical issue plaguing the region - namely, corruption."

According to Cruz, groups like MS-13 have grown and thrived in El Salvador because the political class protects them. In August, prosecutors there showed that the country's two main political parties had colluded with MS-13 and other gangs, paying more than US$300,000 for help winning the 2014 presidential election.

The same nexus between government and organized crime has been exposed across Central America, where political institutions routinely shield gangs in exchange for economic support and political backing in the barrios they control. Few are ever prosecuted for this crime, Cruz says.

That erodes Central Americans' belief in the rule of law, which, in turn, makes it harder to fight violence. "Root out corruption in the Central American ruling class," he wagers, "and the gangs and crooks will go down with it."

Catesby Holmes of The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.
More than 500 people connected to Michigan's housing industry are attending the 2018 International Building Show this week in Orlando, Florida.

The IBS is the largest annual light construction show in the world with miles of the latest and most advanced building products and services ever assembled.

"Though our builders have experienced a modest recovery in recent years, we head to Orlando knowing that challenges remain that are inhibiting our ability to realize more robust growth," saud Robert Filka, CEO of Home Builders Association of Michigan. "Among those issues are a chronic shortage of skilled labor, burdensome government regulations and a lack of buildable lots in many communities."

HBAM recently issued its annual forecast for Michigan's housing industry which predicts a modest one percent growth in new housing permits in 2018. Though the industry has experienced growth in recent years, the annual number of new homes being constructed in Michigan remains well below historical averages and the levels that most experts say is needed to avoid an eventual housing shortage in Michigan, the HBAM stated.

"We must continue to communicate to our policymakers in Washington and Lansing and especially at the local level the importance of a strong housing market to our economy," Filka said. "Home sales means jobs and investment in our local communities, and is a critical source of revenue for local and state government and schools."
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It took some time for local artist Robert Iwamasa to create his most recent exhibit, "A Wonderful Line," on display at Creative 360 in Midland.

"The exhibit is about many paintings that I did over a period of about the last three years which focuses on line as a means to express my thoughts and feelings that I had at the time I did them," he said.

The pieces were created with acrylic paint on canvases that he made, and then placed in frames that he also fashioned.

Iwamasa was born in California and raised by his Hawaiian-born mother of Japanese descent and his Japanese father.

The artist and his mother were confined, along with an estimated 120,000 people of Japanese descent, during World War II by the U.S. government in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. This period of time is reflected in some of his paintings.

"Some of them are narrative, like those that are represented in the series concerning my and my mother's internment in Arizona by the United States government right after the surprise attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941," he said. "Some have to do with various persons that I know, my mother, father, my wife, friends. Many have to do with abstractions which are not easily explained by me."

One of the pieces, part of his "Internment Series," is called "Secret Pain."

"I remember my mother crying ... I tried to express the feeling of anger and suffering in my painting. An abstract representation of an open mouth yelling in pain with tears flowing down. The sun and the moon representing the many days and nights we were in the internment camp (3 years and 6 months) with many mountains to overcome by all those interned," he said.

Iwamasa and his wife, Ruby, moved to Midland in 1967. He worked at The Dow Chemical Co. and retired in 1994. After that he took some art classes to hone the skills in art and photography that he had been developing over his lifetime.

He credits several people as being supportive of his work, including Linda Smith and the staff at Creative 360.

"The exhibit would also not have been possible without my wife Ruby to whom my exhibit is dedicated, to my art teachers, Larry Butcher, Randal Crawford, Russell Thayer at Delta College, artist friends and especially to Charles Breed who introduced me to think about the line through a series of lectures that he developed," he said.

"I think now about the line as a wonderful means for expressing my ideas."

His work will be on display at Creative 360, 1517 Bayliss in Midland, until Feb. 4.

Iwamasa also finished a book in 2015 about his experiences. The book is called "The Internment."

"It's a print on demand book," he said. "It contains narrative about the internment and artwork."

For more about Iwamasa's exhibit, "A Wonderful Line," visit becreative360.org
Dr. Ginny Creasman will leave her role as director of the Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center in Saginaw to serve as the new director at VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System effective Feb. 18.

Creasman will oversee delivery of health care to more than 69,000 veterans and an operating budget of over $500 million.

"It has been my pleasure to serve veterans while overseeing operations at the Aleda E. Lutz VA in Saginaw and our nine Community Based Outpatient Clinics throughout Michigan for the past 18 months," Creasman said. "The VA staff I have worked with are devoted to providing quality, safe care, and have helped me become a better leader through their dedication and assistance."

Creasman has served in her Saginaw post since July 2016. Over the course of her career, she has served in many leadership roles at the national, VISN and medical center levels. Creasman holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Kentucky and is board-certified in health care management with the American College of Healthcare Executives.

"Dr. Creasman will provide the sound leadership required to further Ann Arbor's mission to deliver world-class, Veteran-centric care. VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System will continue to benchmark excellence and value in health care," said Robert McDivitt, VISN 10 Network director. "This care is delivered by engaged, collaborative teams in an integrated environment that supports learning, discovery and continuous improvement."
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A Mesick woman has been sentenced to probation and jail time for her role in helping to cover up a fatal hit and run crash that killed a Midlander in Mesick last summer.

Brianna Marie Rupe, 21, was sentenced for one count of attempted conspiracy to tamper with evidence. The charge was in connection with the hit and run death of Keith "Jay" Taylor, 47, Midland, on Aug. 26.

Rupe was sentenced Monday by Wexford County Circuit Court Judge William M. Fagerman to three years probation and 120 days in jail with credit for six days.

Fagerman also granted Holmes Youthful Trainee Act status in the case. The special status could leave Rupe with a clean criminal record if she successfully completes the probation term.

Rupe first was charged with tampering with evidence, conspiracy to tamper with evidence and witness tampering in a criminal case. Those charges were dismissed in a deal calling for her to plea guilty to the attempted conspiracy count.

Already sentenced to prison in the case was John Douglas Tiffany, 33, Mesisk. He pleaded no contest to felony counts of failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing death and driving while license suspended causing death.

Tiffany was sentenced to between 7 years, 2 months and 15 years in prison for each count, Michigan Department of Corrections records show.

Tiffany turned himself in about a month after the fatal crash. Wexford County sheriff's detectives had received a tip that the suspects had used heavy equipment to crush and bury the black 2003 Geo Tracker that Tiffany was driving when Taylor was struck.

Taylor was on West Mesick Avenue near South Alvin Street in Mesick when he exited a vehicle about 9 p.m. Aug. 26. At that time, he was struck by a passing vehicle. The driver of the vehicle that hit him didn't stop.

Taylor was taken to the Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, where he was pronounced dead.

Taylor, formerly of Reese, worked on assignment in the Dow Chemical Co. Maintenance Department, was co-owner of Espresso Milano Cafe and developed several rental properties.

A Go Fund Me page has been set up to help with college expenses for his teenage sons, Andrew and Aden.

"Both of Keith's sons were very close to their father -- each has inherited his sense of humor, love for music (each plays a variety of instruments), and most importantly, Keith's love for others," the page states.

In the four months since the page has been operating, $5,170 has been raised. The page is at http://bit.ly/2m7Hyqs
Designer: Salvita Bingelyte

Illustrator: Greta Duobiene

Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work

Client: The Mood

Location: Vilnius, Lithuania

Packaging Contents: Coffee beans

Packaging Substrate / Materials: Paper

Printing Process: Screen printing

ABOUT THE PROJECT

International coffee company branding and packaging for their single origin, premium Arabica beans from five coffee regions  Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Zimbabwe and Colombia.

The goal was to appeal to the new generation of coffee drinkers: those who appreciate old school style with a little extra money in their back pocket, interested in the complex, sophisticated flavors of coffeesimilar to a fine wine or craft beer.

INSPIRATION

I immediately thought of moods and monkeys. Why? Monkeys expression and behavior seem to reflect their moodsmuch like us humans. Since monkeys are a common thread among these five coffee regions, I thought it would create an impressionable and long lasting image by tying moods and monkeys together. From that, The Mood coffee brand was born with its mascot, The Monkey.

To take it a step further, the monkey symbolizes diplomacy, intellect and wisdom. Placing a hat on top of their head, further magnifies these traits creating an imagine of sophisticationnot only on the bag, but in the bag too.

DESIGN

Simple, yet detailed. Hand drawn, vintage inspired illustrations on kraft paper. Black ink represents the color of coffee, single sourced no distractions.

The monkey illustrations are playful, with facial expressions hinting at the coffees flavor profile such as sour citrus or velvety chocolate.

What are you in The Mood for? Coffee.
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BLOOMINGTON  Chad Bevers is finally ready to turn his hobby of brewing beer at his Heyworth home into a business.

After a longer-than-anticipated build-out period, Lil Beaver Brewery, 16 Currency Drive, is set to open its taproom at 4 p.m. Thursday. The east Bloomington brewery was founded by Bevers and longtime friend Dale Thomas, both from Bloomington-Normal.

"I thought about it a lot longer, but actually formulating a business plan and following it, it's been about two years," said Bevers.

Bevers began making beers as a hobby after purchasing his first home brewing kit about 14 years ago. By day, Bevers is the executive director for Midwest Food Bank in Normal.

"They are all handcrafted ales brewed by us ... from lighter beers to darker beers and everything in between," said Bevers.

Cost is from $5 to $8 per glass, depending on the beer. The brewery's hours are: 4-9 p.m. Thursdays, 4-10 p.m. Fridays and 2-10 p.m. Saturdays. It will feature 10 beers on tap.

"We will be rotating beers constantly," said Bevers. "My goal is if you come once a week there will be at least two different beers everytime you come."

Bevers said a lot of the beers he likes to brew are more extreme-flavored beers.

"One of our most favorite combinations is a chocolate coconut beer ... we have a 5 percent alcohol version called 'Little bit of wonderful' and a 13 percent alcohol version called 'Whole lotta wonderful.'"

Almost all of the beer names were made up by the business partners' young children.

"They say lots of silly stuff, and we've just been writing it down," said Bevers.

He and Thomas built the taproom themselves, with Thomas building the bar and Bever's brother-in-lawmaking the tables.

"It's a smaller space. We have 23 seats and occupancy of 45 individuals," said Bevers. "We were going for a rustic look so we used recycled pallet boards and things like that, that we sanded and stained."
BLOOMINGTON  State Farm employees are leaving the insurer's downtown building by the end of the month as the company redefines itself into a modern workplace, a move that includes condensing its IT departments, realigning management, offering buyouts and redesigning space at its corporate and south headquarters.

State Farm informed Twin City leaders about the decision during phone calls Thursday afternoon. The company plans to continue to call Bloomington home with its 15,000 local employees, State Farm executive Mary Schmidt told The Pantagraph earlier in the day.

12 things you might not know about State Farm's Downtown Building The building, 112 E. Washington St., was the first corporate headquarters of the insurance company, founded in 1922. It was also known as the 

"We don't have plans for our employees to return to that (downtown) facility in the foreseeable future," said Schmidt, the company's executive vice president and chief administrative officer. "We have not made any decision about the future of this building, but once the maintenance work is complete we will explore all options for the future."

The 89-year-old building has been a downtown beacon for decades and was the original headquarters of the Bloomington-based insurer. At its peak, the downtown building housed up to 900 employees, including founder G.J. Mecherle and some workers who used roller skates to quicken their deliveries.

The remaining 150 employees will be moved to other State Farm offices in Bloomington by the end of the month, Schmidt said.

"To offer customers a competitive price, we have to have operation efficiencies," said Schmidt. "While it is never easy to close a location, we gave people  in some cases  four years' notice because we wanted to make sure everyone in these facilities has ample time to make personal and professional decisions."

Despite the loss to downtown, local officials expressed optimism about the company's long-term commitment to the community.

SF operations center to close; 250 jobs to relocate to B-N BLOOMINGTON  Bloomington will be absorbing some of the employees being displaced by the closure of the State Farm operations center in Tacoma, Wash.

Its a loss for our downtown and a loss for Bloomington-Normal. Its an iconic building, and it represents a lot of State Farm history in this community, said Bloomington alderman Karen Schmidt, whose sixth ward includes the building. I know they have made some very difficult decisions as they strategize about their future, and I also know they have a legacy of being good neighbors in Bloomington-Normal, so when it gets to the point theyre deciding about the future of the building, I have every confidence theyll be working with the city and downtown community to make some wise decisions.

Karen and Mary Schmidt are not related.

We work with State Farm on a very regular basis, and they are committed to this community and to maintaining a strong workforce here with 15,000 employees. Theyve continued to prove that, added Kyle Ham, CEO of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council. "Any realignment with office space is just part of a larger plan for them to be efficient and make things work for them.

In May, State Farm announced plans to close 11 facilities across the U.S. over the next four years, displacing 4,200 employees. The insurer planned to move the work to the Bloomington headquarters and its regional hubs.

As part of the company-wide restructuring, employees may be moved to different locations or different roles, or may choose to leave State Farm, Schmidt said.

State Farm is in the midst of renovating its corporate headquarters along Veterans Parkway to accommodate large departments and teams, and smaller gathering areas to promote group dynamics and collaboration, Schmidt said.

As part of the changes, the company's three information technology departments have been combined into one. Schmidt did not provide the number of job losses that resulted from the consolidation.

"The majority of our IT is and will continue to be housed at Corporate South, and we're also expanding some of operations in the hubs for the technology areas," said Schmidt.

The IT changes will allow more and faster services, she said. The restructuring has been shared with employees over the past several months.

"If we don't get this technology piece right, we will not be as competitive as we could be," she said. "So it's critical that we make sure this transformation is successful.

While the building, 112 E. Washington St., is not for sale at this time, its size and layout do not align with the workplace model already in place at regional hubs in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix.

"The downtown building is an important part of our legacy, but we have decisions to make regarding the future of that building," she said. "The downtown building is not conducive for that open, collaborative environment that our employees need in terms of their environment. The space is very chopped up and not conducive to housing large groups of employees."

Since 2015, the company has spent $1.6 million on improvements to the downtown building, 112 E. Washington St., including asbestos abatement and new fire sprinklers and alarms. Schmidt believes the work should be be completed in three months.
BLOOMINGTON  The state is asking that one of the lawyers for John Y. Butler be disqualified from the legal team defending the owner of Central Illinois Arena Management on criminal charges related to his alleged theft of city money.

Bloomington lawyer Scott Kording is working with Steven Beckett of Champaign on Butler's felony case, which includes more than 40 counts of theft, money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit tax evasion. Butler, who supervised operations of what was then called U.S. Cellular Coliseum for 10 years, is one of five defendants charged with misconduct during CIAM's management contract for the city-owned venue.

In a motion filed by First Assistant State's Attorney Adam Ghrist and prosecutor Brad Rigdon, the state claims that Kording's representation of Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner poses a conflict of interest in Butler's case.

According to the motion, Kording represents Renner "personally in a separate but ongoing investigation by the Illinois State Police."

The state police opened its probe in August into Renner's use of a city credit card to purchase an airline ticket for his partner Margot Ehrlich, who accompanied him on a trip to Japan for a sister cities anniversary event.

Ehrlich repaid the city $1,836 for the ticket shortly after it was purchased.

State's Attorney Jason Chambers requested a special prosecutor to handle that investigation, which remains in the hands of the state police and the Illinois Office of the State's Attorney Appellate Prosecutor.

Renner "has made public comments on the investigation into John Butler and has contacted the prosecutor regarding the ongoing criminal charges," the motion said.

Allowing Kording to continue as counsel could provide grounds for a successful appeal of a conviction in Butler's case, the motion said.

Kording was unavailable for comment on the motion.

Pending along with the newly filed motion to remove Kording is a request filed by Butler's lawyers for the return of his assets frozen since his arrest last year.

Butler also is asking for records of all communications between the state police and all prosecutorial or law enforcement agencies at the county, state and federal level that may have been contacted about the investigation. Butler's legal team has accused a state police special agent of "prosecutor shopping" before choosing a jurisdiction for charges.

Charges also are pending against former CIAM assistant manager Bart Rogers; Kelly W. Klein, CIAM assistant general manager for finance; Jay C. Laesch, ex-finance director of BMI Concessions; and Paul Grazer, former food and beverage director for CIAM.
Conversation on aging set

NORMAL  The East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging, in partnership with the Activity and Recreation Center (ARC), will host a McLean County Conversation on Aging from 2 to 4 p.m. Jan. 17 at the ARC, 600 E. Willow St., Normal.

The area agency, throughout its service area, is convening a series of county conversations on aging to prepare for the area's plan for fiscal years 2019-2021.

Conversations are open to the public. Participants will be able to learn about programs for the aging, share their experiences using community services for the aging, help to identify unmet needs and barriers to independent living and recommend ways to improve services and supports.
BLOOMINGTON  Union laborers who could build a new McLean County wind farm and local landowners who would live near it squared off Wednesday in one of a series of public forums on the proposal.

Workers spoke in favor of Chicago alternative energy company Invenergy's special-use permit for the McLean County Wind Energy Center because it would create jobs over the next three years and property tax revenue for local schools for decades. The 250-megawatt wind farm, which would have about 100 turbines spread across Chenoa, Gridley, Lawndale, Lexington and Money Creek townships, would begin operating before 2021.

"You guys keep presenting yourselves as needing jobs, and I'm asking, 'Will you be forced to live near a wind farm?'" said Sara Emberton of Lexington in one confrontation.

"I don't think I'm forced to live anywhere," responded Laborers Local 362 member Eric Penn of Bloomington, who poured concrete for Twin Groves Wind Farm near Ellsworth.

Penn said the union got 140,000 hours of work and $4 million in wages from the two-phase Twin Groves project and White Oak Energy Center near Carlock.

Mike Matejka, government affairs director for Great Plains Laborers District Council, noted that Invenergy wants to spend $300 million on the project without any local incentives  unlike Portillo's, Rivian Automotive and the Brandt Group of Companies, which received tax breaks for the promise of jobs.

"This is a real opportunity to move our community forward, to come up to new standards and put ourselves in a position where economic development will continue," said Matejka. "That doesn't happen by accident. That happens by leadership and foresight ... so I hope this board and the McLean County Board will vote to support this project."

Amy Winterland of Colfax said she's concerned about an estimated 450 residents who aren't getting money from Invenergy to put a turbine on their land but will be live near one regardless, like her.

"We will have 10 turbines within a 1.25-mile radius of our house," she said. "I personally do not know what 47 decibels at 50 hertz sounds like. That's the maximum decibels at night from the Illinois Pollution Control Board, (and) the model that they are hanging their hat on ... might have some flawed estimates."

Commenters also questioned whether the environmental and health impacts of the wind farm have been adequately studied.

"Consider this on environmental and natural resources, not just the money end of it  jobs that will end, and numbers that may or may not be true," said Julie Cotter of Lexington, who would live near nine turbines.

Another hearing is set for 6 p.m. Jan. 23 in Room 400 at the Government Center, 115 E. Washington St., Bloomington.
CLINTON  Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a Tuesday night house fire that killed a Clinton woman and injured her son and four firefighters.

Evelyn Rosalie Eaton, 87, was pronounced dead at 10:55 p.m. Tuesday in the Warner Hospital & Health Services emergency room in Clinton, said DeWitt County Coroner Randy Rice.

We believe she died from smoke inhalation, Rice said.

First responders were called about 9:08 p.m. Tuesday to 417 N. Elm St. in Clinton for an unknown medical call. A few minutes later, 911 dispatchers received a call from a resident of Maple Street, which is a block west of Elm, concerning smoke in the area.

While en route, firefighters were notified of a garage fire at 417 N. Elm St. and were told at least one person was possibly trapped inside.

Clinton Public Safety Commissioner Dan Ballenger and firefighter David Dallas arrived on the scene first.

The actual fire was in the back of the house and the garage is attached to the house, Ballenger said. The son (Tim Eaton) had been able to drag her to the garage.

Firefighters arrived and removed the victims from the garage. Tim Eaton, who was living with his mother, suffered injuries in the fire and was transported to the Clinton hospital. He then was transferred to Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, where he was listed in serious condition.

Ballenger also said four Clinton firefighters also received treatment for minor smoke inhalation Tuesday night.

One was transferred to a Springfield hospital after experiencing some possible heart-related symptoms. His name and condition were not released.

The fire is under investigation by the DeWitt County coroners office and the state fire marshals office.

A Clinton Fire Department spokesman said the fire did not appear to be suspicious, but a cause probably would not be determined until Thursday or Friday.

Ballenger said the call was one of several the department has handled since the start of the year.

In 2017, we had 301 calls for service, he said, but already this year, we have had 31 calls. It has been a variety of things. Im not sure if the weather has anything to do with it or not.

The Kenney, Wapella and Maroa fire protection districts assisted at the scene. The Waynesville Fire Department was called in to staff the Clinton fire station.
The building, 112 E. Washington St., was the first corporate headquarters of the insurance company, founded in 1922. It was also known as the fire building.

The original section of the Art Deco building, eight floors on the south side, was constructed in 1929. In 1934, four additional floors and a penthouse were added.

The building expanded subsequently in 1939 and 1945.

The original south portion of the building includes the State Farm Insurance lettering pictured above. The letters stand 5 feet tall and have been electrically illuminated since 1935, see photo to right.

The building was designed by Archie Schaeffer and Phillip Hooton, who previously worked with noted Twin City architect Arthur Pillsbury.

Company founder George Mecherle moved into an office on the eighth floor in 1940; the company has kept it intact since 1951. The office faced toward Mecherle's beloved Merna farm.

In its day, the building was considered one of downtown's skyscrapers.

For a short time in the 1940s, the building had roller skaters who delivered mail.

The building didn't have air conditioning until the 1950s. Mecherle, however, had fresh air pumped from the basement into his office.

The building served as State Farm's corporate headquarters until 1974.

The building is listed as a contributing property for the Bloomington Central Business District's listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1999, 900 people worked at the downtown location. Today, that number is about 150.

Sources: Pantagraph archives, Wikipedia
When the Trump administration announced on Monday that it would be ending 17 years of Temporary Protection Status for approximately 260,050 El Salvadoran immigrants, the community had feared it might happen, but was shocked nonetheless. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, Jose, a professional in his mid-twenties, said that his mother had been crying all morning.

"People have reached out, asking me what they can do," Jose said over the phone. "I have no idea, except for calling representatives in Congress."

Jose has spent most of his life in the United States. His parents fled the El Salvadoran Civil War that ravaged the small Central American country from 1972 to roughly 1992, bringing him to the U.S. in the mid-nineties when he was just eight-years-old. Since then, Jose and his parents have never returned to El Salvador, having made lives for themselves in America like so many immigrants before them. TPS granted them the ability to live and work legally for nearly two decades, but now, they've been given eighteen months to pack up their lives and never return.

Related | Trump Orders Deportation of More Than 200,000 El Salvadoran Immigrants



TPS was enacted by Congress in 1990 to provide humanitarian relief to immigrants fleeing countries that are unsafe due to war or natural disaster. El Salvador fits into both categories: following its brutal and bloody 12-year civil war that ended roughly in 1992, the country was struck by a pair of devastating earthquakes in 2001 that left its infrastructure shattered. TPS has been renewed 10 times for El Salvador, and nine other countries  Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen  also had the protection, until now.

Since taking office last year, Trump has already revoked TPS for 2,500 Nicaraguans and 45,000 Haitians granted protection following a disastrous 2010 earthquake. 57,000 Hondurans are currently awaiting their fate. With the more than 250,000 El Salvadorans now affected, the administration has set up more than 320,000 immigrants to lose their ability to work and attend school legally over the course of the next two years, many of whom have deep ties to the U.S.

Vox reports that approximately 192,700 U.S.-born children have at least one parent who will lose their legal status following Monday's announcement, for instance. These decisions don't just affect individuals, but also the communities and families they're enmeshed in.

Many immigrants in Jose's peer group  young, educated millennials who've spent most of their lives in the U.S.  fall under the tenuous protection of the Dream Act. Though Dreamers are also being threatened with imminent deportation, they have received more media attention than their TPS counterparts. Though Jose could have applied to be part of the Dream Act, his immigration lawyers thought TPS was a safer bet.



"Way back when the Dream Act passed, I asked my lawyers if I should do that instead," he said. "And they said to stay with TPS, because they thought this was more stable. But Trump took DACA first, and now he's also taking TPS, so I'm kind of fucked."'

Related | Understanding the DACA Repeal

The Trump administration's argument is that the TPS program was never intended to last forever, and that only by ending temporary status will Congress be able to provide a "permanent solution" for the hundreds of thousands of people who've made their lives here and now have little connection to the countries they've come from.

But current pathways to citizenship are mostly unviable for these immigrants, and proposed legislation has a long history of being stalled. The ASPIRE Act, introduced in late November as a possible resolution for individuals here under TPS, has only a 5% chance of being enacted, according to data analysis company Skopos Lab.

Jose also says that the administration doesn't seem to understand the situation in El Salvador, calling the claim that the country is stable "ridiculous." Statistics provided by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security back Jose up: El Salvador has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, and according to the Bureau, "crimes of every type routinely occur, and crime is unpredictable, gang-centric, and characterized by violence directed against both known victims and targets of opportunity." In 2016, the US Peace Corps, which often travels to unstable and dangerous regions, suspended its program in El Salvador "due to the ongoing security environment."

"The murder rate in my country is higher than it was during the Civil War," Jose said. "[Trump] fails to look at anything outside of the infrastructure. Of course buildings have been rebuilt; the earthquakes happened in 2001. But the rest of society is worse off. That's why people are still fleeing. There's a huge gap of understanding facts that the administration fails to see."

Related | Celebrities Flood Ivanka Trump's Instagram with Clean Dream Act Protest



He also said that few immigrants have any intention of actually leaving the U.S., anyway.

"We are all going to stay," he said. "That's the other thing I think the administration doesn't understand. Okay, you're going to take our papers away. It's not like we're all going to self-deport. We have our lives here, and what we're going to do is just stay here and work illegally, which is terrible for the economy and terrible for everybody."



Heading to another country may not be an option, either. Bracing itself to receive an influx of immigrants as it did following Trump's ending of TPS for Haitians, the Canadian government said it plans to send representatives to El Salvadoran communities in the U.S. to urge them not to travel to Canada without proper papers.

"Canada has a robust and structured immigration system that must be respected," Pablo Rodriguez, an Argentina-born member of Parliament told La Presse newspaper in a French-language interview. "Before leaving your job, pulling your child from school and selling your house to come to Canada, make sure you understand the rules and the laws. Because if you don't fill these criteria, chances are you'll be returned, not to the U.S. but to your native country."

Jose is already deep into the complicated application process for obtaining an EB-1 Visa, which is granted to immigrants with "extraordinary abilities" and often reserved for workers in tech, which he is not. The end of TPS may make even this dream impossible, though, and he points out just how high the barrier to citizenship of any kind is for his cohort.

Related | Behold the Dreamers: 6 DACA Recipients on Trump, the American Dream and What the Future Holds



"The only paths are marriage or a ridiculous visa like the one I'm trying to obtain," he explained. "I don't think the rest of the population really understands."

The ending of TPS is just one more step toward fulfilling the administration's promise to cut immigration, even legal immigration, by nearly 50%. The Raise Act, an immigration plan unveiled by the administration in August, is based on Australia's "merit based" model and "favors applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy," Trump said in a press conference at the time.

Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller took offense when CNN reporter Jim Acosta said the plan "sounds like you're trying to engineer a racial and ethnic flow of people into this country."

"That is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said," Miller said back in August. "The notion that you think this is a racist bill is so wrong and so insulting."



Jose noted the wide gap in public perception between Dreamers and people with TPS.

"I think that the public had never heard of this [TPS] until recently. People are more aware of the Dream Act. And I think that's because the Dreamers are educated, and they're millennials, and they're younger like myself. In a weird way, because the Dreamers have positioned themselves as these valedictorians and educated individuals, there's a more public affinity towards them over people with TPS."

Jose added that people once protected under TPS may not represent the highly-skilled, financially able immigrant the administration dreams of attracting, but are worthy of safe and fulfilling lives nonetheless. "Most of the people that I know with TPS are our parents, and people who haven't had the privilege to get an education, and who sometimes struggle with English," he said. "I just want people to be aware that these people also deserve a green card and deserve to stay here legally."

"I'm one of the few people that I know that's my age who can fall under both of them," he added. "And I am educated, and I have had the privilege to attend really prestigious universities and that's why I qualified for this visa. But it's absurd that people haven't heard about TPS."

"I am hopeful that Congress won't let Trump do this. I urge people people to stand behind TPS and DACA, to demand both of these be part of a Clean Dream Act, or part of any negotiations. Not one or the other."

To find your representative and tips on how to contact him or her, head here.

Photo via Getty
Our beloved 9-year-old bb drag princess Queen Lactatia is the new covergirl of queer artist and designer Brandon Hilton's fashion label House of Mann. That's the good news. As Montreal's most fiercely unapologetic beacon of authenticity, what would Lactatia, born Nemis Quinn Melancon Golden, ever have to be sorry about? He's nine, and inspiring.

'Nuff said.

Apparently, all it takes for the underground surge of five-headed swamp trolls to rise these days is presenting a non-normative identity, and like, existing. So, the bad news  and it makes us cry  but the announcement, hailed by a series of iconic shots featuring Lactatia in a sequined full-coverage onesie  was followed by death threats and accusations of sexual abuse, ranging from 4chan and Twitter and spreading to right-wing outlets like The Daily Caller and Breitbart News. Hilton said he even received anonymous threats claiming someone ordered a hit to kill him via Bitcoin. Severe.

It should go without saying that Hilton and Lactatia have a professional relationship that seems built on artistry and mutual trust. Hilton, a professional drag queen himself, had heard about the sensational 9-year-old, and fully intended on making something for Lactatia to wear from his clothing line. Culturally speaking and for context, this is of course in line with how up-and-coming drag queens often have more established drag mothers who look out for them, lending outfits, booking them as opening acts for their shows, etc. Needless to say it's an act of love, family, and community. "We were completely planning on making her something original, but she picked the sequin onesie off the website and loved it," Hilton said in an interview with HuffPost. "So we made one in her size and sent it to her. Then her mom took photos of her in it."



To the haters, Hilton had this to say on Twitter:

woke up to countless tweets telling me kill yourself" and calling me a pedo" after we announced 9 year old drag superstar Lactatia as our new HOUSE OF MANN covergirl...



If you can't handle a kid in a sequin onesie, maybe the future isn't for you! pic.twitter.com/7HPbwzbMYX

 Brandon Hilton (@BRANDONHILTON) January 6, 2018

Lactatia's mother similarly shut down critics who felt that Lactatia was somehow being sexualized in the images. "People fundamentally do not understand what drag and drag performance is," she told HuffPost. "Consequently, those people do not want to understand it either, so it makes explaining or defending it useless. We were honored that House of Mann chose to gift Lactatia with an amazing drag piece, especially since it was custom to size. It's hard finding drag-appropriate attire in kid's sizes."



Related | Killer Portraits of 8-Year-Old Drag Queen Lactatia

What's important to note is that Hilton's decision to have Queen Lactatia be the face of his work plays a major role in the journey toward self-acceptance for all kids who color outside the lines. I can't speak for everyone, but if the 9-year-old me saw this 9-year-old back then, the world would've felt like a much safer, less scary, less monstrous, more free and colorful world. And also, do people have eyes? The image of Queen Lactatia in question is glorious, not condemnable.
U.S. Congress Expresses Overwhelming Support For Iranian Protesters

01/10/18

Source: RFE/RL

The U.S, House of Representatives has nearly unanimously adopted a resolution expressing support for antigovernment protesters in Iran and condemning Tehran's crackdown on the two-week-long demonstrations. Lawmakers backed the measure by a vote of 415 to 2 late on January 9.

The House "stands with the people of Iran that are engaged in legitimate and peaceful protests against an oppressive, corrupt regime," and condemns the government's "serious human rights abuses against the Iranian people," the resolution states.

The House resolution also called on U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to issue new sanctions punishing human rights violators in Iran.

"In standing with the Iranian people, we must explain that they are not the target of our sanctions," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said.

"U.S. sanctions target the oppressive, destabilizing regime, not the people of Iran," he added.

Earlier on January 9, an Iranian lawmaker said that about 3,700 people had been arrested during the antigovernment protests, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that Tehran foiled what he called attempts by the United States and Britain to create unrest.



Regime's officials have blamed the protests on foreign powers

Read related report by Iranian daily Etemad





The number of arrests cited by reformist lawmaker Mahmud Sadeghi is far higher than figures announced by the authorities.

Protesters in dozens of cities across Iran have vented anger about high unemployment and official corruption since December 28. Some demonstrators have called for the overthrow of Khamenei and the powerful conservative clerics who maintain Islamic rule.

In a tweet, Khamenei repeated accusations -- rejected by the United States and other governments -- that foreign countries including the United States and its allies were behind the protests.

"Once again, the nation tells the U.S., Britain, and those who seek to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran from abroad that you've failed, and you will fail in the future, too'," Khamenei said in a message on his official Twitter account on January 9.

Khamenei said that some of the calls being made by the demonstrators were "honest and rightful demands." He did not elaborate.

At least 22 people have been killed as a result of the unrest and government crackdowns surrounding the protests.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran said it had documented the deaths of three arrested protesters, the Associated Press reported on January 9. One died at Tehran's Evin prison in what Iranian authorities said was a suicide.

Another man detained in Arak, 235 kilometers southwest of Tehran, also died, the center said. His family said their son's body bore an enormous head wound "as if he had been hit with an ax," the center said.

Late on January 9, Iran's judiciary acknowledged a death in Arak via its Mizan news agency, saying an unnamed detainee committed suicide.

The center alleges a third detainee died in custody in Dezful, 460 kilometers southwest of Tehran. The death in Dezful had not been reported before.

Khamenei in his remarks blamed the protests on Iran's enemies. Citing what he said were Iranian intelligence reports, he said that "there's been a triangle pattern activating these events."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
German Prosecutors Consider Charges Against Top Iranian Cleric

01/10/18

Source: RFE/RL

Germany's federal prosecutor's office is examining whether to bring charges against a senior Iranian cleric who has been mentioned as a possible future Iranian supreme leader and who is receiving medical treatment in Germany. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office on January 9 acknowledged receiving a complaint filed against Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi by a former German lawmaker, whose complaint accuses the cleric of committing "crimes against humanity" during his decade overseeing hundreds of executions as the head of Iran's Justice Ministry.



Former Iranian judiciary chief Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi

undated photo by Mehr News Agency)

The prosecutor's office did not say how long it would take to determine whether it will act on the complaint from former Green Party lawmaker Volker Beck.

Shahrudi, who has been mentioned as a possible successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has attracted protesters and sharp criticism during his stay at a neurological treatment center in the northern German city of Hannover.

The mass-circulation Bild daily's front-page headline on January 8 read, "Death Judge In Iran, Luxury Patient In Germany."

The Jerusalem Post reported that the prosecutor in the German province of Lower Saxony, where Hannover is located, is also considering whether to pursue a criminal complaint filed against Shahrudi in that jurisdiction.

About 200 demonstrators showed up outside the Hannover hospital where he is saying on January 6 to protest the executions of an estimated 2,000 Iranians that took place while he was Iran's justice minister.

The complaints against him claim he can be prosecuted under German law for alleged crimes committed in Iran. Shahrudi has not publicly commented on the accusations against him.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said on January 8 that Shahrudi had sought treatment in Germany for a "serious illness" and that his request was granted after "credible health reasons" were given.

Bild reported that if the German government determined that Shahrudi, who is currently a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, is considered to be a government office-holder, he might be granted diplomatic immunity from prosecution.

"It would be a big mistake if the federal government provides diplomatic immunity here to the organizer of mass murders through Iran's justice system," Beck told The Jerusalem Post, explaining the reasons behind the complaint he filed against Shahrudi.

"Germany should not be a sanctuary for such people, who in their country persecute people for political or religious reasons and threaten them with death," he said. "The Iranian regime persecutes women who were raped, homosexuals, Baha'is, Kurds, and atheists."

Shahrudi headed Iran's judiciary for 10 years from 1999 to 2009. Amnesty International said that during that time he carried out more than 2,000 executions, including of adolescents, while overseeing the torture of prisoners and arrests of political and human rights activists.

Shahrudi was a student of Iran's first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and is viewed as a strict disciple of Khamenei.

Besides serving in the Assembly of Experts, Shahrudi currently heads Iran's Expediency Council, which moderates disputes between Iran's parliament and a constitutional watchdog known as the Guardians Council.

Saba Farzan, the German-Iranian executive director of Foreign Policy Circle, a strategy think tank in Berlin, told the Post that "this representative of the Islamic dictatorship shouldn't be on European territory at all," and criminal prosecution was "absolutely the right path to go."

"These human rights violators must learn that they can't deprive their own citizens of their inalienable rights and then receive luxurious treatment - medical as well as political," Farzan said.

Reinhold Robbe, the former head of the German-Israel Friendship Society, said, "It's a slap in the face to exiled Iranians and others to see such a former leader of the Iranian regime being treated in Germany."

With reporting by Reuters, The Jerusalem Post, and Bild
Iran After Protests: Change Does Come

01/11/18

by Sanam Naraghi Anderlini (source: LobeLog)

In Iran today, over 20 people have been killed in the streets and two young men are dead from unknown causes after being detained in prison. An estimated 3,700 others have been arrested across the country, most of them under the age of 25. In Tehran the families of detainees are camping outside Evin prison awaiting news of their children. With such news in the headlines, it is hard not to be pessimistic about the protests that for a week rocked the country and riveted the world. But perspective matters.

As usual, media commentary veered between those who believed or wished that Iran was on the brink of a major change and those who put a damper on the enthusiasm by reflecting on the strength of the Iranian state and warning against the potential negative outcomes of any regime downfall. Now that the latter has won out, the assumption is that the status quo of an inflexible regime will remain.

But in Iran nothing is ever black and white, either/or. The society and its politics is more akin to the intricate traditional mirror art works that are fragile yet resilient. Although there is a unified structure created by the artist, it looks different from every angle depending the reflections of light. More significantly, as observers look into the mosaic of mirror shards, they find different reflections of themselves, thus changing the very essence of the piece.

The dust hasnt settled yet on the outcomes of these protests, and emotions are still running high. Yet if past events are any predictor of the present, it would be erroneous to assume that they will result in either the status quo remaining or the hardline reasserting control. In other words to appreciate and understand the impact of such generational protests, it is important to take the long view.

A History of Protest

Irans history of public protests date back well over 100 years. But since the 1979 revolution, and particularly since 1999, each generation that has come of age has also let out a visceral cry against the oppressive weight of a state that seeks to control not only the public space and politics, but private thought and social norms. In the absence of inclusive governance or a sustainable civic space, public presence in protest or other forms is the language by which society prompts the state.

In 1999, the student dorm protests in Tehran quickly spread. It was in the early days of the Khatami administration, and the clampdown that came fast and furious tainted him. Although its impossible to know how many lives were destroyed by imprisonment, torture and exile, the protests did prompt change.

Despite every attempt by hardline forces to discredit and undermine the president, the Khatami presidency laid the foundations for civic reform: from opening space for the press and fostering non-governmental organizations to instigating a large-scale decentralization program to give more voice and power to local provinces. In every instance ordinary people-youth, women, and minorities-grasped at the opportunities to widen the space as much as possible and assert their voices. There is still far to go, especially given the uptick in recent pre-protest attacks on the Bahai and a Jewish synagogue. Those eight years did not bring democracy as form of governance to Iran but they did reform society. The legacy was the blossoming of a democratic and civic mindset among a critical mass of the population. Once known and experienced it cannot become unknown or erased.

Conservative forces, wary of the tidal wave of demand for social and political liberties, took advantage of the economic woes to surge forward in the Ahmadinejad years. They shut down much of the press and civil society. They sought to limit access to the Internet and social media. But try as they might, they could not completely suppress the ever-younger populations demands for greater social and political freedoms and economic opportunities. The 2009 demonstrations that came in the wake of the disputed elections were dignified, peaceful, and insistent on a simple basic demand of where is my vote? But as the state wielded its weapons, the call on the streets also took a sharper tone against the Supreme Leader and the foundations of the regime.

Again the clampdown came hard, with lives destroyed and yet another outflowing of talented youth into exile. But those protests were also a profound wake-up call to the regime leadership. Their instinct for self-survival, coupled with the late Ayatollah Rafsanjanis significant clout, forced an immovable leadership to move. So, in 2013, Hassan Rouhani appeared as the candidate of choice, with credentials among conservatives but enough credibility to represent moderation in the absence of Khatami.

The public also took a different tack. Instead of confronting the state head-on, the post 2009 generation opted to live their lives as freely as they could. A life style movement with women at its fore was born that became so mainstream that it could not be rolled back. In towns and cities this movement strikes at the very core of the Islamic Republics identity, because social control, especially pertaining to women and youth, has been a critical pillar of the regime, along with its anti-American stance.

Challenging Taboos

Thats why Rouhanis December 2017 announcement that security forces would no longer harass women with improper hijab was so significant. Between this move and the nuclear agreement, which led to Iranian officials negotiating and shaking hands with the erstwhile Great Satan, the architects of the regime and the revolution are remodeling two of the most defining pillars of the system.

Meanwhile, the political elite played their own games of tug of war-between moderate and hardline, reformist and principlist-in the media and on the national stage. So much so that the televised debates in the 2016 presidential elections tackled many of the most sensitive and taboo subjects of the regime. It is also widely reported that the protests in Mashhad were sparked by conservatives, who took offence at Rouhanis statements on the budget and his accusations leveled at key opaque institutions led by hardliners that have acquired and managed billions of dollars in assets. But those who lit the spark miscalculated how fast the fire of protest and anger would spread-fueled in large part by the penetration of smartphones and communications apps- particularly among the young and the urban and rural poor. In the past, conservative forces relied on this swath of society to become their foot soldiers. But aspirations for a better life, which fueled revolutionary fervor in the past, are pushing people toward a different kind of change.

The recent protests encompassed economic grievances-specific to each town and locality-as well as frustration with the corruption and hypocrisy of the system itself. It is always easier to rally around grievances, but any vision of an alternative system, and more importantly any path toward achieving a new ideal, were either absent or muted in the reports that came through. Either way, the urbanites and intellectuals as well as the moneyed classes and the reformist movements political leaders were wary of joining the fray for fear of unleashing uncontrollable chaos.

Looking Ahead

With the protests quashed again, some argue that these events have strengthened the hand of the revolutionary guard. But the regimes resilience in these past decades has not been simply due to the security forces. It is also because of its willingness to adapt to the changing currents of society. Rouhanis statements insisting on attention to the economic and political grievances are indicative of this tack. He also acknowledged that shutting down social media is no longer feasible since thousands of people rely on the apps for their income and jobs. So, so something else had to give.

As in the past, the current crackdowns may appear to suppress demands for change and strengthen the status quo. But evolution is essential for survival, and the system will evolve. Since the protesters come from the segments of the population that hardliners have long taken for granted, these forces may find themselves on the defensive and thus forced to heed the call of reining in the shadow state. If foreign investment flows in with greater requirements of transparency, the stranglehold of corruption on the economy could also be loosened, allowing more independent businesses to flourish again.

This is a far cry from a true and inclusive democracy that many Iranians dream of. It doesnt reflect the demands for citizen protection and adherence to the most basic standards of human rights. It also doesnt yet answer the call for accountability that victims of this state deserve. But it is a step in that direction. Perhaps as importantly, it also avoids the greatest fear that most Iranians harbor: a sudden descent into chaos and civil strife. It is metamorphosis and evolution, not stagnation and sudden revolution.

As the trajectory of the past 38 years suggests, the change that comes will likely be positive. The riot gear and the security forces notwithstanding, the demands for more freedoms and economic dignity constitute the most powerful force in Iran today.

In the years to come, just as with the shape of the intricate mirror works, the facade of the state may remain, but what we see when we peer in will likely be inherently different to its present and its past.

Photo: Iranian women protest Islamic dress code (Farhad Rajabali).

Anout the author:



Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini is the Co-founder and Executive Director of International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN). For over two decades she has been a leading international peace strategist. In 2000, she was among the civil society drafters of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. In 2011, Ms. Naraghi-Anderlini was the first Senior Expert on Gender and Inclusion on the UNs Mediation Standby Team. She provides guidance and training to senior personnel in UN agencies, governments and NGOs worldwide, and has worked in conflict affected countries globally, including leading assessments in Maoist cantonments in Nepal. Between 2002 and 2005, as Director of the Women Waging Peace Policy Commission, Sanam led ground breaking field research on womens contributions to conflict prevention, security and peacemaking in 12 countries. Between 2008-2010 she led UNDPs 10-country action research on men in crisis settings. She has served on the Advisory Board of the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF), and was appointed to the Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG) on Resolution 1325, chaired by Mary Robinson in 2010. Since 2013, she has served in the Working Group on Gender and Inclusion of the Sustainable Development Network. Ms. Naraghi-Anderlini is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and between 2004-15 she was Research Associate and Senior Fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies. She has published extensively on peace and security issues, including Women building peace: What they do, why it matters (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007). She was the 2014 recipient of the UN Association of the National Capital Area Perdita Huston Award for human rights and the 2016 Greeley Peace Scholar at the University of Massachusetts. Ms. Naraghi-Anderlini holds an M.Phil in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University. Iranian by birth, she is a UK citizen, and has twin daughters.
National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) may impose taxes on sugar in order to deter people from taking the product and raise funds to support the ailing health insurance scheme.



NHIA Chief Executive Officer, Dr Samuel Annor, said the decision has been informed by the increasing number of reported cases of sugar-related ailments reported at health facilities.



It is the Authority that usually bears the brunt by paying the bills of patients who are beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Scheme, he told Myjoyonline.com in an interview.



About four million Ghanaians are reported to be living with diabetes, the Ghana Diabetes Association has said.



Diabetes is a medical condition that indicates the patient has high blood glucose (or blood sugar) either because of insufficient insulin production or because the body cells do not respond properly to insulin or both.



Joy FM through its Sugar Project led by Super Morning Show Host, Kojo Yankson, has been creating awareness on the disease.



The project is also used to raise funds annually with the Pop Chain Concert held in collaboration with the Rotary Club to support the diabetic patients.



The Sugar Tax, Dr. Annor explained, will help raise funds to support the Authority as well as used to reduce the desire for high sugar consumption.



You want to eat 10 cubes of sugar in a cup of tea; go ahead but lets tax the sugarso that we can keep the money in the fund so that when you develop your diabetes, there will be money to take care of you, he said.



The NHIA has so far paid the sum of GH1.2b to settle monies owed service providers since the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over. The amount represents almost 90% of the money available in the Authoritys coffers.



Aside from the Sugar Tax, Dr. Annor disclosed the Authority has also proposed a Health Tax on cigarettes and alcohol as it continues to look at other sources of raising funds to support the Health Insurance.



Other sources being considered include increasing the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) component on Value Added Tax (VAT) from 2.5% to 3.5%.



Employers will also be required to contribute 2% of their monthly earnings, while workers will be made to contribute 1% of their monthly earnings towards the fund, he said.



If we are able to get government to agree on that then it becomes incumbent on other employers to do same.



The NHIA is also lobbying government for a percentage of the oil revenue, he said, adding: at the end of the day everybody in Ghana will benefit from the oil fund.

Source: today









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Former President John Dramani Mahama is expected to storm an Accra High Court today to solidarize with the immediate-past Board Chairman of the National Communication Authority (NCA) and four others before the court for alleged fraud and causing financial loss to the state.



The former president has over the past days used several platforms to call for support for his appointees who may be dragged to court for their alleged involvement in corruption.



Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, the former NCA Board Chairman; William Mathew Tetteh Tevie, former Director General of the NCA; Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, a former deputy National Security Coordinator, as well as George Derek Oppong, a private businessman and Director of Infraloks Development Limited, have been accused of conspiring to and causing financial loss to the state.



Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie, Alhaji Osman and Mr. Oppong have already appeared before the court, presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, for their alleged involvement in a shady deal and have been granted bail in the sum of $1 million each with three sureties.



They are being charged for allegedly creating, looting and sharing a staggering $4 million among themselves under the guise of procuring a Cyber Surveillance System which they claimed was to be used for anti-terrorism activities in the country.



The case reopens today and the pleas of Mr. Tevie and Dr Nana Owusu Ensaw, a former board member, are expected to be taken by the court.



Given that the suspects are former appointees of former President Mahama, he is expected to concretize his call on members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to stand by alleged corrupt ex-officials, by appearing in court to support the five accused persons.



Speaking at the 36th anniversary celebration of the 31st December, 1981 revolution in Ho, the Volta Region, Mr. Mahama said, Recently, President Akufo-Addo was threatening members of our administration with prosecution when he visited the Eastern Region; and I said yes, we are prepared to accept the probity of our tenure in office.



Having been the disciples of probity and accountability, we must not run away from probity and accountability; we must be prepared to face any prosecution that this government throws to us, but we must do this with commitment and solidarity, he underscored.



Mr. Mahama commented:They will have their day in court and until they have that day in court, it is our duty to solidarize with them to make sure they have the best legal representation to be able to put their case in order; and it is my wish that things will turn out well for them.



Anyidoho Disagrees



However, Deputy General Secretary of the opposition party, Koku Anyidoho, in reaction to Mr. Mahamas call for solidarity, warned the supporters of the party not to storm the courtrooms to support any officials of the Mahama administration who might be facing prosecution for alleged corruption.



According to him, the relatives and friends of those officials could do that but not the entire party and its supporters.



According to him, such persons have families, friends and loved ones who are free to follow them to court, but the entire party executives should not be expected to do so.



In what appears to be a sharp u-turn, Mr Anyidoho has stated that the party was ready to solidarize with its members, if the NPP government starts witch-hunting them.

Source: Daily Guide









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The Governing Board of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) has allayed fears of Ghanaians by directing management of GBC to withhold prosecution of defaulters in the payment of TV Licence.



According to the governing board, they have taken notice of the public outcry and resolved that it is only wise "not to pursue any activity or set of processes leading to the prosecution of any individual for non-payment of the TV Licence Fee".



In a statement signed by Chairman of the board, Rev. Emmanuel Adow Obeng and copied to Peacefmonline.com, the National Media Commission (NMC) has been recommended to steer affairs regarding the payment of TV Licence in the country.



The board came to this final decision "at an emergency meeting of the Governing Board of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation on the 10th January, 2018, the Board was apprised of the challenges that had come in the wake of the implementation of the Television Licence Fee. The Board also noted the outcry, anxieties and apprehensions expressed by the public with respect to possible prosecution for non-payment.



"...With respect to the future of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Board recommends that the National Media Commission (NMC) drives the processes of engaging critical stakeholders, to resolve the status of GBC and find a more enduring funding module that would enable it to discharge its constitutional mandate".









Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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President Akufo-Addo, has presented letters of credence to Ghanas High Commissioner to Malaysia, Akua Sakyiwa Ahenkorah, at a brief ceremony at the Flagstaff House, on Wednesday.



President Akufo-Addo in remarks following the swearing-in ceremony, noted that Akua Sakyiwa Ahenkorah, a career diplomat who becomes Ghanas first female High Commissioner to Malaysia, is deserving of the appointment and eminently qualified to represent Ghana.



The President, thus, reminded the High Commissioner of the fact that the image of our country is high in the comity of nations, and Ghana is considered a beacon of stability and democracy on the continent of Africa and beyond. It is an image that you have to do everything possible to guard and uphold.



Ghana attained independence at the same time as Malaysia, however, Malaysia has chalked remarkable economic successes over the period.



The President recalled the historical account of Malaysia procuring her first palm kennel seedlings from Ghana. But, today, this crop has become the main-stay of that countrys economy, producing millions of tons of palm oil annually, whereas Ghana has not gained much from the cash crop.



It is in line with the Presidents vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid that he urged Akua Sakyiwa Ahenkorah to be focused on her mandate, maintain a cordial working relationship with her staff and the Ghanaian community, as well as secure investment into Ghana.



Madam Afua Sakyiwa Ahenkora thanked the President for the great honour done her, and assured him of her determination to justify the decision by Government to enhance the involvement of women in the development of this country.



She promised to deliver on her mandate in achieving the overall government objective of improving the well-being of the good people of Ghana.



The High Commissioner assured the President of her responsibility to drive private sector investments into Ghana to help in achieving the governments flagship programmes of One-District-One-Factory, One-Village-One-Dam, Planting for Food and Jobs; and the overall objective of developing Ghana Beyond Aid.

She further promised to safeguard, protect and promote the image and interest of Ghana at all times, adding that she will strengthen the already cordial relations not only between Ghana and Malaysia, but also with the countries of concurrent accreditations such as Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines; and also explore areas of effective cooperation.



Akua Ahenkorah thanked the President for the great honour done her by this appointment as High Commissioner of Ghana to Malaysia, and expressed her gratitude for the confidence reposed in her, and assured the President of her loyalty to the government and people of Ghana in the discharge of her duties.



Present at the ceremony were the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei Opare; Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway; Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charles Owiredu; officials of the Presidency and Foreign Ministry, and family of the High Commissioner.

Source: Daily Graphic









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Some unknown armed persons on Wednesday night shot and killed two police officers and wounded another at Drobonso in the Sekyere Afram Plains District of the Ashanti Region.



The police officers were returning to their base at Kumawu after performing the day's duties at Drobonso in the Afram Plains area of Ashanti.



Confirming the attack, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Simon Osei Mensah who chairs the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) said the attackers opened fire on the police officers without provocation.



He said though the attackers were yet to be identified, he suspects the involvement of Fulani herdsmen.



The deceased have been identified as Inspector Adolph Mutse and Constable Prosper Ashinyo. They were said to have died on the spot.



The injured officer has been named as Constable Enoch Okyere who has been sent to the Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital in Kumasi for medical attention.



A fourth officer, Constable Prosper Ashinyo escaped unhurt.



They were on board a police vehicle with registration number GP 2346 driven by Inspector Adolph Mutse.



According to the police, the armed men numbering about eight had barricaded the Kumawu-Drobonso main road on the Onwam mountains.



This is the second time within a week that unknown armed persons have attacked security personnel in the region.



Three soldiers and a policeman were on Monday attacked by unknown assailants at Agogo.



The four were part of the "Operation Cow Leg" task force seeking to eject Fulani herdsmen and their cattle said to be causing havoc to farmlands from the Asante Akyem North District of the region.

Source: Daily Graphic









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Ghanaian migrants workers over the years have contributed enormously to the growth of the economy in diverse ways.



Empirical Evidence indicates that $ 1.4 Million transfers were recorded in 2004 by Bank of Ghana as a remittance inflow.



More so, International Labour Migration has also aided in reducing the high rate of unemployment in the country.



It is obvious that, these industrious migrants do not only contribute to the growth of their economy; but also to their destination countries.



In recent times, Ghanaian youth and the working class have embarked on travels to various countries especially to the Gulf countries in search of jobs and to advance their careers.



Unfortunately, some of these travels have been aggravated especially in the Gulf countries which have called for concern among Ghanaians and the government.



These are some of challenges the migrants have been going through:

Abuse and exploitation of migrant workers in the host countries,

Malpractices by private recruitment agencies involving high fees and misleading information,

Loss of critical skills in developing countries and deskilling of migrant workers in destination countries

Growth of irregular migration , including its worst manifestation of trafficking and smuggling and Discrimination and poor integration of migrants in host countries.



The menace has been a serious headache to the government and its stakeholders over the years.



However, in order to sanitize the system, government has taken a giant step by collaborating with Private Employers Guild Ghana (PEGG) which was launched over the weekend in Accra.



Speaking at the launching ceremony, under theme: The labour migration front; Opportunities, Challenges Solutions, the President of Private Employers Guild Ghana (PEGG) , Mr.Zack Rahman, noted that the youth with inner burning desire to seek for greener pastures migrate from their homelands in the quest of improving their economic live hood.



Often times, we have heard stories of abuse and maltreatments of our migrants in other countries, one of such is the recent happenings of Ghanaians been enslaved in Libya according to reports.



What we can do as a nation to address this issue of migration of our citizens especially the youth; is to regulate and initiate strict compliance of legal regime in the labour industry, he stated.



It is in this regard, the Private Employment Guild, Ghana is working closely with the government and relevant stakeholders to address this pressing issue.



Our aim, is to do everything possible in our capacity to sanitize the operations of this industry, to remove the bad nuts and serve as a pressure group to offer suggestions to relevant stakeholders of this industry, he noted.



According to him, they want the government to regard as the new and improved recruitment industry, thus bringing transparency in their operations in order to lift the image of Ghana high.



For his part, Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations Hon. Bright Wireko Brobbey hinted that International migration is now on high on national, regional and global policy agendas.

He said it is in this light, the government is putting measures in place to screen and also regulate the labour migration industry as a way of sanitizing the business for mutual benefit of all stakeholders.



Mr. Brobbey also noted government is proposing to undertake the following critical measures such as ensuring that all recruitment agencies are well licensed and certified and appropriate complaint mechanisms and desks are set up and are accessible at host countries for reporting and addressing cases of abuse and exploitation.



The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations works with Embassies especially the Gulf countries to orient all potential travelers to their contact; culture issues, travelling procedures protocols before visas are issued to them

He has therefore entreated all and sundry especially the stakeholders to continue to cooperation with the government in order to bring sanity into the labour migration.

Source: Isaac Kofi Dzokpo/[email protected]









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Ex President John Dramani Mahama has slammed the Akufo-Addo led government accusing it of discriminating against non members of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP) for job opportunities in the country.



According to the former President, it is very worrying that non NPP members are not getting jobs in spite of assurances from President Akufo-Addo and his appointees.



Addressing members of the opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC) after a Unity Walk in the Brong Ahafo Region Saturday, Mr Mahama urged Ghanaians to speak out against what he describes as discrimination in the creation of jobs.



We all need to unite as one people because no single party can develop this country. When our father, the late President Attah Mills came to power he was called the father for all because he never discriminated in everything he did because Ghana belongs to all of us irrespective of the political party one supports.



When Mills was in power, NDC members had jobs to do, same with CPP members but when Osofo, (Pastor) [referring to President Akufo Addo], assumed power, theyre saying that if youre not NPP member then forget it, youll have no job to do, ex President Mahama said.

Source: kasapafmonline.com









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(Polk County Sheriff's Office) Gerjuan Demarcus Jackson, 18, of Mobile, Ala., was arrested Jan. 9, 2018.(POLK CITY, Fla.) -- A FEMA contractor is accused of traveling from Alabama with two others to kill a man in Florida and steal his guns.



Gerjuan Demarcus Jackson, for whom detectives found an official FEMA contractor identification, allegedly drove with Kenley Campbell and Darril Lamar Rankin Jr. from their hometown of Mobile, Alabama, on Jan. 3 all the way to Polk City, Florida, where Jackson shot and killed a man he had met last year while on the job, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.



William Reiss was found dead inside his residence in Polk City. Reiss' roommate, Kenneth Maier, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.



When asked for comment on the alleged incident, FEMA spokesperson Jenny Burke told ABC News in a statement Thursday, FEMA is aware of an alleged incident that occurred in Polk County, Florida, and are looking into additional details on this matter. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims."



Burke added, "FEMA works closely with law enforcement on a regular basis, and will provide appropriate coordination with law enforcement on this incident.



Investigators learned Jackson, 18, had allegedly met Reiss while conducting a hurricane damage estimate in 2017, and he purchased two handguns from the Polk City resident. Upon returning to Alabama, Jackson was arrested for possession of marijuana and carrying a firearm without a permit, according to the sheriff's office.



Campbell, 22, allegedly drove Jackson and Rankin, also 22, to Polk City in his Chevrolet Sonic. Campbell and Rankin stayed inside the vehicle while Jackson went inside Reiss' residence. Jackson admitted to firing several shots at Reiss and Maier, the sheriff's office said.



Campbell and Rankin allegedly helped Jackson load Reiss' firearm collection and flat-screen television into Campbell's vehicle and Reiss' Dodge pickup truck. When the three men arrived back in Alabama, Jackson allegedly took Reiss' truck to a wooded area and set it ablaze.



Investigators later recovered six firearms, an extensive amount of ammunition, electronic devices and clothing believed to be worn by the suspects during the alleged killing. Three of the guns were from Reiss' looted collection, the sheriff's office said.



Detectives also discovered a box of latex gloves and apparent trace amounts of blood in Campbell's vehicle.



Jackson told authorities the stolen guns and television had been sold on "the streets," except for three firearms that were recovered from Campbell and Rankins home. Jackson estimated a total of 20 to 25 firearms were stolen from the Reiss' residence, according to the sheriff's office.



"Three killers traveled to Polk City all the way from Mobile, Alabama to steal firearms," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement Wednesday. "William Reiss was shot and murdered, and Kenneth Maier was shot and left for dead. Maier is currently in the hospital fighting for his life. I cant begin to say how disgusted we are at the depravity displayed by these men."



Campbell and Rankin were arrested Saturday, and Jackson was arrested Tuesday. They were booked into the Mobile County Metro Jail without incident and will be extradited to Polk County at a later date. The three suspects have been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and armed burglary, among other charges, according to the sheriff's office.



It's unclear whether the suspects have obtained attorneys or if they have entered any pleas.



The investigation is ongoing and further charges may be filed, the sheriff's office said.



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In this Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, photo, Laila Ummelaila, a personal shopper at the Walmart store in Old Bridge, N.J., pushes a cart with bins as she shops for online shoppers. On Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, Walmart announced it is boosting its starting salary for U.S. workers to $11 an hour, giving a one-time $1,000 cash bonus to eligible employees and expanding its maternity and parental leave benefits. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
In this Dec 20, 2017, photo, a customer writes name on a waiting list to get a table at the restaurant of 72-year-old Thai cook Supinya Jansuta, better known as "Jay Fai," in Bangkok, Thailand. Jay Fai's once relatively quiet restaurant is now busier than ever. The restaurant serves renditions of ordinary Thai dishes, like crab omelet or stir-fried noodles, all packed with fresh crab meat and super-size shrimps. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
Chris Vogel (left) and Richard North look over their marriage certificate in a 1974 handout photo.Two men from Winnipeg have been dealt a setback in a decades-long fight to have their marriage registered with the Manitoba Vital Statistics Agency. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-University of Manitoba Archives-Winnipeg Tribune-Jeff De Booy MANDATORY CREDIT
FILE - In this Dec. 9, 2014 file photo, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Issa says he will not seek re-election after serving out his ninth term in Congress. IssaAos decision continues a string of GOP lawmakers who have decided to retire rather than take on what would be a difficult re-election battle. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)
Waste of time, its not newly released inmates causing our problems

Great idea, lets have the facts and then make up our minds

Its pure political grandstanding

It doesnt go far enough. Numbers are just numbers.

Vote

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KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP)  An Alaska lawmaker is seeking to change the state law that allows a person as young as 14 to marry.

State Sen. Berta Gardner is planning to introduce legislation to increase the legal age of marriage to 18 in Alaska, the Ketchikan Daily News reported.

The Democratic senators legislation would also allow emancipated minors above the age of 16 to marry.

Under current state law, a person between the age of 14 and 18 can marry with permission from a superior court judge. After a hearing with the parents and the minor, the judge may grant permission if the marria...
Oil tanker ablaze in East China Sea could burn for a month - S.Korean official

By Reuters

SEOUL

Petroleumworld 01 11 2018

The stricken Iranian oil tanker in the East China Sea could burn for as long as one month, South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries told Reuters on Wednesday, as the blaze raged for a fourth day following a collision with a freight ship.

Dozens of rescue boats battled strong winds, high waves and poisonous fumes to locate 31 missing sailors and tame the ship fire, amid growing concerns the ship may explode or sink, said a ministry official.

We believe flames would last for two weeks or a month considering previous cases of oil tank accidents, said official Park Sung-Dong.

The tanker Sanchi (IMO:9356608), run by Iran's top oil shipping operator, National Iranian Tanker Co, collided on Saturday with the CF Crystal (IMO:9497050), carrying grain from the United States, about 160 nautical miles (300 km) off China's coast near Shanghai.

It was carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, an ultra light crude that is highly flammable and to South Korea, equivalent to about 1 million barrels and worth about $60 million.






EPA aims to replace Obama-era climate, water regs in 2018

By Valerie Volcovici, David Shepardson

WASHINGTON

Petroleumworld 01 11 2018

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will replace Obama-era carbon and clean water regulations and open up a national debate on climate change in 2018, part of a list of priorities for the year that also includes fighting lead contamination in public drinking water.

The agenda, laid out by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in an exclusive interview with Reuters on Tuesday, marks an extension of the agency's efforts under President Donald Trump to weaken or kill regulations the administration believes are too broad and harm economic growth, but which environmentalists say are critical to human health.

The climate is changing. That's not the debate. The debate is how do we know what the ideal surface temperature is in 2100?... I think the American people deserve an open honest transparent discussion about those things, said Pruitt, who has frequently cast doubt on the causes and implications of global warming.

Pruitt reaffirmed plans for the EPA to host a public debate on climate science sometime this year that would pit climate change doubters against other climate scientists, but he provided no further details on timing or which scientists would be involved.

Pruitt said among the EPA's top priorities for 2018 will be to replace the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama's centerpiece climate change regulation which would have slashed carbon emissions from power plants. The EPA began the process of rescinding the regulation last year and is taking input on what should replace it.

A proposed rule will come out this year and then a final rule will come out sometime this year, he said. He did not give any details on what the rule could look like, saying the agency was still soliciting comments from stakeholders.

He said the agency was also planning to rewrite the Waters of the United States rule, another Obama-era regulation, this one defining which U.S. waterways are protected under federal law. Pruitt and Trump have said the rule marked an overreach by including streams that are shallow, narrow, or sometimes completely dry - and was choking off energy development.

Pruitt said that in both cases, former President Barack Obama had made the rules by executive order, and without Congress. We only have the authority that Congress gives us, Pruitt said.

Pruitt's plans to replace the Clean Power Plan have raised concerns by attorneys general of states like California and New York, who said in comments submitted to the EPA on Tuesday that the administrator should recuse himself because as Oklahoma attorney general he led legal challenges against it.

BIOFUELS AND STAFF CUTS

Pruitt said he hoped for legislative reform of the U.S. biofuels policy this year, calling it substantially needed and important because of the costs the regulation imposes on oil refiners.

The Renewable Fuel Standard, ushered in by former President George W. Bush as a way to help U.S. farmers, requires refiners to blend increasing amounts of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into the nation's fuel supply every year.

Refining companies say the EPA-administered policy costs them hundreds of millions of dollars annually and threatens to put some plants out of business. But their proposals to change the program have so far been rejected by the Trump administration under pressure from the corn lobby.

The EPA in November slightly raised biofuels volumes mandates for 2018, after previously opening the door to cuts.

The White House is now mediating talks on the issue between representatives of both sides, with input from EPA, and some Republican senators from states representing refineries are working on possible legislation to overhaul the program.

Pruitt said he also hoped Congress could produce an infrastructure package this year that would include replacing municipal water pipes, as a way of combating high lead levels in certain parts of the United States.

That to me is something very tangible very important that we can achieve for the American people, he said.

Pruitt added that EPA also continuing its review of automobile fuel efficiency rules, and would be headed to California soon for more meetings with the California Air Resources Board to discuss them.

California in 2011 agreed to adopt the federal vehicle emission rules through 2025, but has signaled it would opt out of the standards if they are weakened  a move that would complicate matters for automakers serving the huge California market.

In the meantime, Pruitt said EPA is continuing to reduce the size of its staff, which fell to 14,162 employees as of Jan. 3, the lowest it has been since 1998, under Ronald Reagan when the employment level was 14,400. The EPA employed about 15,000 when Obama left office.

Nearly 50 percent of the EPA will be eligible to retire within the next five years, according to the agency.






U.S. Interior Department bars oil drilling off Florida after governor's plea

By Reuters

WASHINGTON

Petroleumworld 01 11 2018

President Donald Trump's administration will not allow drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Florida after urging from the state's governor, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said on Tuesday.

I support the governor's position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver, Zinke said in a statement. As a result of discussion with Governor (Rick) Scott and his leadership, I am removing Florida from consideration for any new oil and gas platforms.

The Trump administration last week proposed opening nearly all U.S. offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, a move aimed at boosting domestic energy production and which sparked protests from coastal states, environmentalists and the tourism industry.

The administration's decision on Tuesday removes from consideration a portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, an area that oil drillers have said they are interested in exploring  but not all of it.

Florida state waters extend 3 nautical miles from the shore on the Atlantic, and 9 nautical miles on the Gulf side, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Scott last week announced his opposition to the drilling plan and said he had asked to meet with Zinke.

Zinke's decision to exempt Florida from offshore drilling leaves the door open for other governors opposed to offshore oil and gas development to seek a similar prohibition for their states.

Oceana, an environmental lobby group, said it was pleased that Zinke had removed Florida from areas open to drilling.

Such a quick reversal begs the question: Will the Trump administration give equal consideration to all the other coastal Governors from both parties who overwhelmingly reject this radical offshore drilling plan? Oceana campaign director Diane Hoskins said in a statement.

On Twitter, several governors, attorneys general and lawmakers representing coastal states asked Zinke to extend the exemption for Florida to their coastal waters. The governors of New York and Oregon and the attorneys general of Maryland and California were among those who called on Zinke to ban offshore drilling.

Environmental groups Greenpeace and the League of Conservation Voters called the move to protect Florida a political ploy meant to bolster the governor who is reportedly planning to run for an open U.S. Senate seat.

President Trump has directed me to rebuild our offshore oil and gas program in a manner that supports our national energy policy and also takes into consideration the local and state voice, Zinke said in Tuesday's statement.

Zinke said last week that the department's draft National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2019 to 2024 would make over 90 percent of the outer continental shelf's total acreage available for leasing to drillers, a national record.

That would reverse the Obama administration order placing 94 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf off limits to drillers. Obama's 2017-2022 plan would be replaced by the new program when it is finalized.

The effort to open previously off-limits acreage in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans comes less than eight years after BP Plc's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - the largest in American history. The disaster caused billions of dollars in economic damage and led the Obama administration to increase regulation of the industry.

The Defense Department has also raised concerns about opening drilling that had been banned off the eastern Gulf of Mexico, where military exercises are held.






Explosion on oil tanker ablaze in East China Sea forces rescue team to retreat

By Josephine Mason and Yuna Park

BEIJING/SEOUL

Petroleumworld 01 11 2018

Rescue crews were forced to retreat from a stricken Iranian oil tanker in the East China Sea on Wednesday following an explosion on the ship as a fire raged for a fourth day after a dramatic collision.

The blast happened on board the tanker in the afternoon after rescue crews were dousing the ship with foam in an attempt to put out the fire, China's Transport Ministry (MOT) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The cause and damage to the tanker from the incident were not clear. The ship was carrying condensate, a highly flammable ultra-light crude, to deliver to South Korea when it collided with a Chinese freight ship on Saturday.

Dozens of rescue boats from China and South Korea have been battling strong winds, high waves and poisonous fumes to comb a 900-square-nautical-mile (3,100-square-kilometre) area for 31 missing sailors and tame the fire, amid growing concerns the listing ship may explode or sink.

Iran's Navy joined the effort on Wednesday, a government official said, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).

The lashing winds are expected to ease on Thursday, the MOT said.

The tanker Sanchi (IMO:9356608), run by Iran's top oil shipping operator, National Iranian Tanker Co, collided on Saturday with the CF Crystal (IMO:9497050), carrying grain from the United States, about 160 nautical miles (300 km) off China's coast near Shanghai.

The Sanchi was carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, equivalent to about 1 million barrels and worth some $60 million.

The Chinese government said late on Tuesday it had not found a large-scale oil leak, and the condensate was burning off or evaporating so quickly that it would leave little residue - less than 1 percent - within five hours of a spill. That reduces the chances of a crude-style oil slick.

Iranian officials said there was still a chance of finding survivors among the 31 remaining crew, who are all Iranian nationals except for two Bangladeshi citizens. The body of a crew member was found on Monday in the water near the tanker.

If the crew have been able to reach (...) some place like the engine room, then the chances of their rescue are high, said Hassan Qashqavi, a senior Iranian foreign ministry official, according to ISNA.

But if, God forbid, they have been caught up in explosions because of flames inside the ship, then the chance of their rescue is small.

VULNERABLE TO BREAK-UP

Authorities and environmentalists worry though the ship is increasingly vulnerable to breaking up and sinking the longer the blaze rages. Still, the ultra light crude is highly volatile when exposed to air and water.

South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries warned on Wednesday the tanker could burn for up to one month, potentially expelling the tanker's bunker fuel, or the heavy fuel oil that powers a ship's engines and contaminating the waters.

We believe flames would last for two weeks or a month considering previous cases of oil tank accidents, said Park Sung-dong, an official at the ministry.

Bunker fuel is the dirtiest kind of oil, extremely toxic when spilled, though much less explosive.

Fuel oil is relatively easy to contain because volumes are lower and its viscosity means it's easier to extract from water, but even small volumes can hurt marine life.

The problem is the ship's heavy bunker fuel, said Chauncey Naylor, a U.S.-based director of emergency response and training at Tyco Corp's oil-fire specialists Williams Fire & Hazard Control, which is not involved in the clean-up.

It burns real slow and it's heavy and will lay on the ocean and on any twisted metal and create heavy smoke. It's the stuff that spills and gets on birds.

The Zhoushan fishing ground where the collision occurred is known as one of the biggest in the East China Sea, particularly for mackerel and croaker, according to Greenpeace. In 2016, the catch from the East China Sea was 5.18 million tonnes, making it China's largest fishing ground.

A Suezmax tanker can hold a maximum of 5,000 tonnes of bunker fuel to keep it running. The Sanchi may have been carrying about 1,000 tonnes by the time it hit the grain freighter, according to bunker fuel traders' estimates.

Park said it's unlikely the oil will spread to South Korea at the moment because the tanker has moved 100 kilometres (62 miles) to the southeast.






Algeria replace Venezuela on sending oil to Cuba as PDVSA supplies fall

By Reuters

ALGIERS

Petroleumworld 01 11 2018

Algeria sent 2.1 million barrels of crude oil to Cuba last year and will ship the same amount in 2018, an official at state energy firm Sonatrach said on Wednesday, helping Cuba to offset lower supplies from the island's closest ally, Venezuela.

We delivered in 2017 three times 700,000 barrels, a total of 2.1 million barrels to Cuba, Omar Maaliou, Sonatrach's vice president in charge of trade and marketing, told Reuters. We will do the same this year, the first 700,000 barrels are about to be delivered.

Saharan Blend light sweet crude is Algeria's main export grade. Cuba and Algeria have maintained a close relationship in recent years. The island annually imports some $200 million to$300 million of oil products from the African country, including some purchases of naphtha.

Cuba is also a regular buyer of Algerian jet fuel.

But Cuba has relied almost exclusively on Venezuela, also an OPEC member, for its crude supplies through a 15-year-old assistance programme that Caracas has been struggling to maintain as power cuts, lack of investment and payment delays slash its oil output.

Insufficient crude imports last year  mainly from Venezuela - forced Cuba's state-run oil company Cupet to cut operations at its 65,000-barrel-per-day Cienfuegos refinery, where Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA had a 49-percent stake until August. It only refined 24,000 bpd of crude last year, according to official numbers.

Along with the drop in volume, the quality of the crude PDVSA had available for export also changed to heavier grades than Cuba's refinery was used to.

Cuba bought the light Algerian crude for the first time in 2016 to blend with the heavier oil. PDVSA had previously supplied Cuba with a few cargoes of other light foreign crude grades.

Cuba has also been buying oil products from Russia's Rosneft , which recently started talks with the Cuban government on exploring partnerships there.






The new year begins with some new flights between the Philippines and Indonesia courtesy of Philippines AirAsia.





On January 9, the Philippine-based arm of the AirAsia group had its maiden flight between Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and Jakarta's SoekarnoHatta International Airport. In command of the inaugural flight was company CEO, Captain Dexter Commendador. It was fully booked with 137 passengers onboard.





Copyright Photo: Angelo Agcamaran/PPSG





The Manila-Jakarta flight, Z2235, departs NAIA's Terminal 3 daily at 8.00 am and is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta at 11.00 am time. The return leg, Z2236, departs Jakarta at 11.30 am and returns to Manila at 4.45 pm.





Company chairman Marianne Hontiveros said that it took six years to establish this route in the carrier's network. Previously, passengers who wanted to use AirAsia to travel between Indonesia and the Philippines needed to stopover at Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.





In addition to the new Manila-Jakarta service, Philippines AirAsia will launch a new Manila-Bali service on January 19. Hontiveros added that while the Manila-Jakarta route focuses on business passengers, the Manila-Bali route will be a tourism-focused one.





The Indonesian government meanwhile welcomes the opening of the new flight. Indonesian Tourism Ministry's special adviser for tourism infrastructure Judi Rifajantoro expects growth in trade, tourism, and investment between the two countries as a result of these developments.





With the expansion into Indonesia, Philippines AirAsia now serves nine Asian countries from the Philippines. The new service also breaks the duopoly that Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific have enjoyed in the Philippine-Indonesia market for some time.





These new flights are the just the latest in a wave of expansions by the AirAsia group involving the Philippines. On December 21 2017, the group opened a Davao-Kuala Lumpur flight.
Tom Gravina, who founded Evolve IP in his Haverford garage 10 years ago, is stepping down as chief executive of the $100 million (yearly sales), Wayne-based firm.

Guy Fardone, part of the team that joined Gravina in starting Evolve IP after moving on from ATX Communications, is the new chief executive. Gravina will stay on as executive chairman of the board.

Evolve IP links 350,000 users at its national clients (such as Christian Dior and the Palm restaurants) and local firms (Firstrust, Malvern Federal Savings Bank) to big communications networks such as Comcast and Verizon, using technology from Cisco and other providers, and Evolve IP's own software.

"I'll remain involved in M&A and strategy, and I remain one of the largest shareholders," said Gravina, who has overseen 13 acquisitions for the firm. Deal volume has accelerated since Great Hill Partners bought a stake in the company in 2015. "It's been a great 10 years, and I'm happy to remain engaged. But it's time for Guy and the other executives to take the reins of this company."

Gravina, who also heads Philadelphia-based GPX Enterprises, said he will be able to devote more time to his real estate business and his family.

The company employs 350, more than half of them at its headquarters north of Wayne, the rest at offices in Amsterdam and other European cities, and in Austin, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and other U.S. locations. Evolve IP also uses developer teams in Europe and Latin America.

Cofounder Tim Allen will remain the company's sales and marketing chief, while cofounder Scott Kinka stays on as chief technology officer. Besides acquisitions, "we've been signing 15 to 20 new commercial customers every month," Fardone said.

Like other companies in its space, Evolve IP has fielded offers to purchase the company. But "we're going to remain independent," Gravina said. "We're going to grow by acquisition, we're going to grow organically in this region and around the country."

For how long?

"Now, we don't have a crystal ball," he said. "You never know what can happen. But there is no limit for how big we can get."
Medical marijuana plants grow at LifeLine Labs in Cottage Grove, Minn. When U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions green-lighted federal prosecutors to pursue violators of federal marijuana laws, not only states that legalized recreational pot are at risk of a crackdown, but so is most of the rest of America. All but four states allow some form of medical marijuana, even Sessions home state of Alabama. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) Read more

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded a Obama-era federal policy that allowed recreational marijuana to take root in Colorado and Washington, he did more than reignite a domestic legal and cultural battle.

He also highlighted a simmering diplomatic dispute whose outcome will shape U.S. ties with its closest neighbors and its ability to leverage international law: Whether the U.S. will comply with landmark conventions that  largely at Washington's insistence  unequivocally prohibit recreational use as part of the global fight against drug trafficking.

Notwithstanding Sessions's lifelong crusade against marijuana, the policy shift is an odd turn of events for an administration that has at least paid lip service to states' rights and found global governance to be anathema. In effect, it has the U.S. riding shotgun for the folks in black helicopters  only this time, instead of coming for your guns or your taxes, they're coming for your weed.

The bedrock for the global prohibition against recreational marijuana is the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which was signed in 1961, entered into force in 1964, and was amended in 1972. (The other two slabs of the global antinarcotics fundament are the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.) It classified marijuana as a Schedule I substance, similar to heroin and cocaine. Convention adherents agreed to make its cultivation, sale and purchase for anything other than strictly regulated medical or scientific use a punishable offense  prohibitions codified by the U.S. in the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. More Biblical than therapeutic, the preamble to the 1961 Convention calls the addiction to narcotic drugs "a serious evil for the individual  fraught with social and economic dangers to mankind."

The preamble's rhetoric and the convention's prohibitionist mind-set represented something of a victory for the U.S., which spent the 20th century pushing for tougher global drug laws, not least on marijuana. (Never mind its initial mixed motives in going after the global opium trade, or its decision to ignore or encourage drug trafficking, from postwar Burma and Italy to Cold War Afghanistan, when it suited national interests.)

Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics and one of the U.S. delegation's leaders, had campaigned against marijuana over his decades-long career. His lurid congressional testimonies read like the screenplay for the 1936 propaganda classic "Reefer Madness." (Jazz aficionados may also remember him as the official who hounded Billie Holiday, a heroin addict, to her deathbed.) But the convention's categorization of marijuana on the same plane as heroin and cocaine was based on paltry scientific evidence.

A half-century later, with the evolution of medical research and U.S. public opinion on marijuana, President Obama's administration tried to paper over the growing contradiction between state efforts to legalize the drug and the restrictions of U.S. law and its international treaty obligations. The Department of Justice's so-called Cole and Ogden memos set out lenient guidelines for the federal prosecution of marijuana users in states that had legalized its medical and recreational use.

The administration asserted that it nonetheless remained in compliance with the 1961 convention and its follow-on agreements because, in theory anyway, they allowed some degree of flexibility and prosecutorial discretion. The International Narcotics Control Board, the body in charge of monitoring treaty compliance, has repeatedly rejected that argument, noting that the convention explicitly prohibits any nonmedical use of marijuana. More recently, it dismissed any idea that federalism offers any leeway to countries in upholding the convention's obligations.

This dispute transcends purely legal arcana. The UN drug conventions are among the world's most widely adhered legal instruments. As David Johnson, a member of the INCB and the former assistant secretary of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (aka "Drugs & Thugs"), told me, "The U.S. has a strong interest in preserving respect for international law, and the current situation makes it more difficult for the U.S. to be a clarion on this issue."

The U.S. is no stranger to exceptionalism  it hasn't ratified popular international treaties such as the Law of the Sea, for instance. But in this case, the U.S. isn't just standing aside from a treaty. It's flouting a convention that it orchestrated and ratified.

That glaring hypocrisy is particularly corrosive in its hemisphere, where 17 countries considered "drug majors" undergo an annual U.S. certification process that includes judging their willingness to eradicate the cultivation and trafficking of cannabis. When the INCB jumped all over Uruguay for its recent legalization of recreational marijuana, its president, Jose Mujica, tartly rejoined, "Do they have two discourses, one for Uruguay and one for those who are strong?"

Latin American societies remain deeply conservative, and public opinion toward marijuana is shifting more slowly than it has in the U.S. But shifting it is. Several Latin American nations now allow the medical use of marijuana, Caribbean countries are considering the ramifications of legalization, and the Mexican Supreme Court ruled in November 2016 in favor of some individuals' recreational consumption, to cite a few recent examples of concern to the INCB in its most recent report. As Johnson pointed out, those decisions reflect each country's domestic circumstances. At the same time, what the U.S. does can cast a long shadow. It's pretty hard to tell Mexico to crack down on pot growers and wholesalers when California has legalized those businesses.

Sessions's prohibitionist crusade  as he put it, "Good people don't smoke marijuana"  seems unlikely to go far. More than 50 percent of all Americans 18 and over have tried marijuana; and more than 50 million Americans use it. That's a lot of bad people to put in the hoosegow. If anything, as John Walsh of the Washington Office on Latin America told me, "The attempt to turn back the clock will hasten the day that Congress gets its act together and modernizes U.S. laws on cannabis."

But that would just aggravate the U.S.'s international law problem. Opening the convention for renegotiation or amendment would be tricky and difficult, not least because of potential resistance from prohibition-minded China, Russia and African nations. Yet allowing states that have legalized marijuana to keep blowing smoke about their adherence to the convention risks undermining all the drug conventions, which remain vitally important for controlling truly dangerous drugs. As the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime put it, "Cannabis is the most vulnerable point in the whole multilateral edifice."

Outlining a series of options, Walsh leans toward what he and others call "principled noncompliance." Instead of clinging to dubious legal arguments, nations that choose to legalize marijuana should fess up to not abiding by the convention, explain their rationale, and attempt to mobilize other like-minded states in a reform effort. This approach, he argues, is less disrespectful of international law because "it confirms that treaty commitments matter."

Would such an approach work? We may be about to find out. In fulfillment of a campaign promise made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada is moving to legalize marijuana by this July. Doing so will put it clearly out of compliance with the 1961 convention and squarely in the INCB's sights. Proud of its global good citizenship, Canada has a strong incentive to find some way to square the circle. What it does will "provide a preview of how these drug treaty tensions might be managed," says Walsh.

Granted, only a tiny subset of the 50 million smokers back in the U.S. may have thought about this wrinkle. But those who care about international law and the soft power that flows from it should keep their eyes on their northern neighbor. For the world's marijuana smokers, what happens in Ottawa may not stay in Ottawa.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

James Gibney writes editorials on international affairs for Bloomberg View. He was features editor at the Atlantic, deputy editor at the New York Times op-ed page and executive editor at Foreign Policy magazine. He was a foreign service officer and a speechwriter for Secretary of State Warren Christopher, National Security Adviser Anthony Lake and President Bill Clinton.
Xfinity said it would make smart-home features -free to Xfinity Internet customers. The internet-connected devices can be accessed through a mobile phone. Read more

Comcast Corp. is making smart-home features free for 15 million customers with its Xfinity Internet service, the Philadelphia company said Wednesday.

The decision promises to make it cheaper for millions of Comcast customers to automate their homes with internet-connected garage door openers, locks, lightbulbs, and temperature-controlling thermostats.

It raises the prospect that customers could use their X1 voice remote to murmur, "Good night," and automatically bolt doors, extinguish lights, lower thermostats, and arm the home security system, the company said.

Comcast typically charges additional fees for such advanced telecom services. And until now, Comcast has made home-automation functions available only to customers who subscribed to Xfinity Home, a home-alarm and security service with 1.3 million subscribers. It costs at least $25 a month (on current promotion) in addition to an Xfinity Internet.

But Comcast has decided to free the smart-home features from its home security service to make Xfinity Internet service more appealing to consumers. Still, there is at least one catch.

Seeking to save money, many Comcast customers are considering purchasing routers at stores or online to avoid paying the monthly lease fees, which amount to about $11. But those store-bought routers now will lack the same free home-automation features as Comcast's leased routers, Comcast said Wednesday.

"The take-away is that we are giving away automation to 15 million Comcast customers," Daniel Herscovici, senior vice president and general manager of Xfinity Home, said Wednesday.

Herscovici said that Comcast would expand the number of Xfinity Internet customers with access to the free smart-home features as it upgrades its network and as new subscribers join Xfinity. Customers probably can get the service if they have an X1 set-top box and a relatively new router. Comcast has a total of about 25 million Xfinity Internet customers.

The automated features will become available over the next several months as Comcast announces partners that will interact with its network to handle duties in the home, such as closing the garage door.

Comcast said it could broaden its smart-home features through its acquisition of Stringify in September.The company provides a cloud-based platform for automating at least 500 internet-connected devices from companies ranging from General Electric to Kwikset.

"Xfinity will be the home operating system that integrates every [internet of things] device and transforms a connected home to an intelligent home," Chris Satchell, the company's chief product officer, said in a statement. He said the company would enable Xfinity customers to control their home features through the voice-control TV remotes and the X1 set-top box on the television.

Americans are expected to have an average of 50 WiFi-connected devices in their homes by 2020, the company said, and managing them could be tricky.

Comcast announced the changes at the CES, formerly the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which despite all the new gadgetry on display, suffered the most basic of system failures: a power outage.

Lights dimmed starting around 11 a.m. local time in one of the main convention halls that hosts demonstrations from the likes of LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Though backup power kept some booths running at least partially, some

sections of the Convention Center were cleared of attendees while the problem was addressed. Power was fully restored around 1:20 p.m., according to CES's official Twitter account.

The region has been afflicted by heavy rainfall, and on Tuesday, a booth run by Google had to be closed because of flooding. A joint statement from city and convention officials said a preliminary check showed condensation affected one of the facility's transformers.

This article contains information from Bloomberg News.
St. Katherine Drexel's Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament's "Motherhouse" property, home to the religious order for nearly 130 years. Credit: Read more

Bucks County-based Aquinas Realty Partners is under contract to acquire the 44-acre Bensalem estate that hosted St. Katharine Drexel's Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament religious order for nearly 130 years.

Aquinas will mull plans to convert what the Sisters call their Motherhouse property into dwellings for residents older than 55 during a "due diligence" period that's expected to take two or three years, order spokeswoman Sheila King said in an interview Thursday.

Proceeds from the sale, if it occurs, would be used to fund the order's charitable work among disadvantaged communities in the United States, Haiti, and Jamaica, Sister Donna Breslin, the order's president, said in a news release.

"By selling our Motherhouse, we carry forward the vision and spirit of St. Katharine Drexel," Breslin said. "Our Sisters continue to challenge, in new ways, all forms of racism, as well as other deeply rooted injustices in the world."

A final sale price for the property was still being negotiated as part of the due diligence process, King said.

The order announced in May 2016 that it planned to sell the property, home to the National Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel, along with land it owns in Virginia amid the shrinking of its aging congregation.

Many of the order's 50 or so members living on the property when the sale plan was announced have since moved to a Philadelphia retirement community, King said.

Drexel's remains are to be removed from the shrine, which closed to visitors Dec. 31, and will be reinterred at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Center City.

Aquinas, whose recent projects have included the AQ Rittenhouse apartment high-rise at 2021 Chestnut St. in Center City, was chosen as a prospective buyer through a selection process overseen by the real estate advisory division of Plante & Moran PLLC of Southfield, Mich.

It was not yet known how many of the estate's 10 buildings, half of which were built before 1933, would be converted to residences, or how much new construction may occur at the site, King said.

Aquinas president Leonard Poncia did not immediately respond to an email seeking further details.
Despite mounting pressure to reverse course, La Salle University president Colleen M. Hanycz, in an email to alumni this week, defended the school's decision to sell 46 pieces of art to fund teaching and learning initiatives in its strategic plan.

"It will have a significant impact on advancing the student learning experience at La Salle," Hanycz said.

The university continues to get criticism over the decision from both on and off campus. National art museum groups have called it unethical to sell art and use the proceeds for anything other than the museum or its collection.

Also this week, art history faculty, in a letter circulated by their chair, said members were not consulted or informed of the decision to sell one-third of the works on display at the museum, "all of which we use daily for pedagogical purposes," and decried it as a violation of museum ethical standards and an affront to the museum's founder, Brother Daniel Burke, a former president of the Christian Brothers college.

"This sale breaks faith with  Burke's legacy, as well [as] the integrity of a critical component of our mission  to deepen students' ethical sensibilities," said the letter, signed by Susan Dixon, chair of the faculty.

Dixon in the letter called on the administration to work with faculty and staff on "an alternate solution" rather than risk "weakening our reputation in the community and our national standing as a civically engaged liberal arts institution."

William A. Price, chair of La Salle's chemistry and biochemistry department and head of the university's faculty senate, said he would like to see a forum held on the Philadelphia campus for faculty, staff, board members and students to discuss the matter. Reaction to the sale, he said, has been mixed and he expects to hear more when faculty and students return to campus for the spring semester later this month.

"I think I understand both sides," said Price, who has been at La Salle for three decades. "My heart is probably feeling it more than my head, and my heart says that this is devastating. I'm saddened by it. But I'm not in a position to make these decisions.I'm not holding the purse strings."

Price said he hopes if the sale continues that a lot of the proceeds will be reinvested in the museum. The university estimates the sale could bring in between $4.8 million and $7.3 million.

Hanycz declined to be interviewed.

"We have no further comment on the deaccession," said spokeswoman Jaine Lucas.

The items to be sold include Dame Elisabeth Frink's sculpture Walking Madonna; Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' Virgil Reading the Aeneid Before Augustus from 1865; Dorothea Tanning's Temptation of St. Anthony; Georges Rouault's Le Dernier Romantique (The Last Romantic); and Albert Gleizes' Man in the City (L'Homme Dans la Ville). They will be auctioned by Christie's this year.

Hancyz in her communication to alumni said precisely what the funds will cover will be decided in the coming months, but in general will support efforts around improvements to the library, a new freshman academic seminar program, and an institute for advanced teaching and learning.

The board of trustees, she said, believes allocating the sale proceeds for these initiatives "is an appropriate use that goes to the core of our mission in Lasallian higher education."

"We indeed owe a huge debt of gratitude to  Burke, whose vision and wise investment in art will allow us to both maintain a great teaching museum on campus and invest in an ambitious and visionary strategic plan as La Salle continues on its path to reclaim its prominence regionally, and become a recognized leader nationally for exceptional student outcomes."

The museum reopened this week with new items on display from the collection, which consists of close to 350 paintings, 65 sculptures, 500 drawings, 3,000 graphic prints, 175 photographs, and a few items of furniture and decorative art, according to the museum's website. The museum, in the lower level of Olney Hall in the heart of campus, will remain open and used for teaching, the university said.

Despite the controversy over the art sale, Price, the faculty senate president, said he understands that difficult decisions need to be made to help the university recover from a small freshman class a couple of years ago.

When Hanycz arrived in 2015 to lead La Salle, a Catholic university with 3,200 undergraduates, she was faced with a financial crunch. Freshmen enrollment had plummeted 18 percent, or 159 students, from the year before, and 23 staff members had to be laid off. The school faced a $12 million deficit in its $132 million budget.

Since then, the university has lowered its tuition sticker price, launched a marketing campaign, and announced plans to eliminate some programs, helping to offset the shortfall. She's also initiated partnerships with businesses and this week announced a dual enrollment agreement with the Philadelphia School District for students from two of the district's top magnet schools to take classes at La Salle this semester for free.

Faculty, Price said, generally have been supportive of Hanycz's efforts.

"Overall, I think people are pretty pleased with her," he said.
A new report by Public Citizens for Children and Youth examines the charter school landscape in Pennsylvania. Read more

Many Pennsylvania charter schools are lackluster, and the law that governs them is among the nation's worst.

So says a report to be released Thursday by Public Citizens for Children and Youth, the Philadelphia-based child-advocacy organization. The analysis concluded that despite often being seen by parents as having stronger schools than traditional public schools, the charter sector typically underperforms when compared with such schools.

The Inquirer and Daily News reviewed "Expanding High Quality Charter School Options: Strong Charter School Legislation Matters," the report scheduled to be discussed Thursday by a panel of local and national charter experts in the city.

"Charter school students are not outperforming their traditional school peers; results are mixed at best and extremely subpar at worst," the report concludes. "Passing stronger legislation to link growth and charter renewal to student performance will encourage schools to strive for better student outcomes."

Charters are funded with public money, but run independently. In Pennsylvania, they are authorized and overseen by local school boards.

Pennsylvania's current charter law, the report said, hurts the 132,800 students in brick-and-mortar and cyber charters statewide, lacks adequate oversight, and does not allow ample opportunity for strong charters to expand easily.

Eugene DePasquale, Pennsylvania's auditor general, has called the charter law "simply the worst charter school law in the United States."

Statewide, 63 percent of traditional public schoolchildren in third through eighth grades met state standards in reading as measured via state standardized tests; 42 percent of charter school pupils did so. In math, 45 percent of traditional public schoolchildren hit the mark, vs. 21 percent of charter school students.

In districts like Philadelphia, where more than 10 percent of public school students attend charter schools, traditional public school students scored better in math, and charter school students tested better in reading. For all "historically underperforming students"  defined by the state as children who either require special education services, are poor, or are learning English  students fared better in district schools, with 43 percent meeting standards in reading and 27 percent in math. Such students in Pennsylvania charters scored 34 percent in reading and 14 percent in math.

The report also examined how charters and districts fare under the state's school-performance tool. The "School Performance Profile" uses test scores, graduation, and promotion rates and attendance to grade schools. Schools that score 70 or above are considered "good" schools.

Statewide, 21 percent of Pennsylvania's charters scored 70 or above, while 54 percent of traditional district schools hit that mark. (The state's cyber charters performed especially poorly, with none scoring 70 or above.)

And while charter performance is uneven, charter costs keep rising  in 2016, the state's public districts spent $1.5 billion to run charters. When children leave traditional public schools for charters, districts are unable to shed the entire costs of educating those students because they must still pay teachers, heat buildings, among other things. Recent research indicates that Philadelphia, for example, has $8,125 in "stranded costs" when each district student leaves for a charter school the first year, and $4,433 by year five.

The bottom line, PCCY says, is that charter reform must happen soon. A bill up for consideration by the state House does offer charter changes, but "it is not ready for prime time," said Tomea Sippio-Smith, PCCY's education policy director. "We're not saying that any revision is a step in the right direction. It needs to be the right revision."

The Center for Education Reform, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and National Association of Charter School Authorizers, all pro-charter organizations, have concluded that Pennsylvania's law is problematic, with inadequate accountability provisions. The law makes it too hard for good schools to grow and too difficult to close the worst schools.

Charters are a hot-button issue in education, with proponents strongly advocating for the innovation and choices for families charters were supposed to provide, and detractors saying the schools siphon off public dollars and detract from traditional public schools. PCCY characterizes itself as neither pro- nor anti-charter.

"We believe that high-quality charters should exist," Sippio-Smith said. "If they provide a good education for students, we believe there's a place for them."

The organization did call for a moratorium on new Philadelphia charters in 2015, but that was situational, it said, given the district's finances and the quality of the new charter applicants that year. It has also called for a moratorium on cyber charters in the past.

Pennsylvania's charter law has been around since 1997, when its charters were granted. There are now 179 across the commonwealth, with 84 in Philadelphia and several more in its suburbs. Since the first wave of charters in the late 1990s, a number of states across the U.S. have strengthened their charter laws.

PCCY calls for a new charter law to make it easier to define and expand good schools and weed out bad ones. It wants a standard application for would-be charters, and extensive background checks for their leaders. It wants a clear process for renewing charters that are performing relatively well but do not meet the high-quality definition. It wants charter schools to have predictable guidelines for periodic reviews.

"If other states can do this," Sippio-Smith said, "then Pennsylvania can do this."
Detail from Mary Lee Bendolphs Blocks, Strips, Strings, and Half Squares Quilt (2005), part of the new acquisition. Read more

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has acquired a significant group of works by self-taught African American artists, deepening the museum's already rich holdings of so-called outsider artists and strengthening its overall collection of art by American people of color.

The 24 works include three major assemblages by Thornton Dial, an iron and steel worker, pipe fitter, carpenter, and house painter who lived in Bessemer, Ala., near Birmingham.

The museum also acquired a number of works from Dials friends and relatives, and 15 quilts made by several generations of women from Gees Bend, a rural Alabama community near Selma.

The quilts and assemblages were part of the 1,200-work collection of the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation, an organization devoted to documenting, preserving, and promoting the work of self-taught African American artists from the Deep South.

"I think it's a spectacular addition to the collection and another piece to add to our growing holdings of work by self-taught artists," Timothy Rub, head of the museum, said Wednesday.

Rub said the acquisition, a partial gift from Souls Grown Deep and partial purchase, fills in  an important piece of the story of American art, broadly understood.

Beyond saying the museum was able to cover the discounted cost of the works with its own funds, Rub declined to discuss the purchase price or the discount provided by the foundation to facilitate the acquisition.

Maxwell L. Anderson, president of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, said the acquisition fit with the organization's overall strategy for gaining wider appreciation for the work of the artists. He noted that now "important works by African American artists who represent a distinctive voice in contemporary art are represented in [the Art Museum's] permanent collection."

"Partnering with the PMA and a growing number of other museums will ensure that the work and history of these artists is accessible to a broad audience," said Anderson.

Ann Percy, the museum's curator of drawings, said the museum considered the works to be representative of a "huge part of American art."

"But we didn't have any," she said, referring to pieces by self-taught or outsider African American artists from the Deep South. "We think it's an important aspect of American art that we didn't have represented in the collection."

Thornton Dial, who died two years ago, was first inspired as a teenager by the "yard art" displayed on lawns throughout the area. He began constructing sculptural assemblages out of whatever he could find, strongly motivated to express his ideas and feelings about history, slavery, racism, politics, war, spiritual matters, economic dislocation, and homelessness.

The three Dial assemblages acquired by the museum  The Last Day of Martin Luther King (1992), High and Wide (Carrying the Rats to the Man) (2002), and The Old Water (2004)  combine found materials such as steel, tin, wood, carpet, barbed wire, upholstery, driftwood, goat hides, metal pans, broken glass, a stuffed-animal backpack, mop cords, and a broom.

Dial's assemblages, and the two assemblages each by Lonnie Holley and Ronald Lockett, plus one piece by Hawkins Bolden and another by sculptor Bessie Harvey, provide ample evidence of the "profound subjects" at the heart of the work by these artists.

The celebrated quilt makers of Gees Bend have been practicing the art since the 19th century. They have became known in the 21st century as the result of two major traveling exhibitions: The Quilts of Gees Bend, in 2002, and Gees Bend, the Architecture of the Quilt, which visitors to the art museum enthused over in 2008.

Work by Mary Lee Bendolph and her daughter Louisiana P. Bendolph is contained within the acquisition. Quilt makers now represented in the collection are Delia Bennett, Nellie May Abrams, Annie E. Pettway, Henrietta Pettway, Loretta Pettway, Martha Jane Pettway, Sue Willie Seltzer, Andrea P. Williams, Irene Williams, Magdalene Wilson (1898-2001), and Nettie Young.

The 15 quilts were made between 1930 and 2005. Rub said the works will be on display in the near future.
This Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017 photo shows what remains of the entrance way at the former Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which is converting the casino into its own branded resort next summer, is training 15 young Atlantic City residents for construction jobs on the project. Read more

President Trump used to own three New Jersey casinos that could have, on a clear day, offered views of the kind of offshore oil drilling rigs his administration wants to allow off the Atlantic seaboard.

But his administration has exempted Florida  home of Trump's Mar-a-Lago property  from the threat of coastline oil exploration, saying the tourism industry there is too valuable to jeopardize.

Now New Jersey wants that exemption.

"We'd like equal treatment for N.J. and I'd like to meet with you to explain why," Gov.-elect Phil Murphy wrote on Twitter Wednesday. "The Jersey shore is our pride and joy and an economic driver for our communities  we cannot allowing drilling off the coast."

New Jersey officials raised a ruckus last week when the U.S. Department of the Interior, under Secretary Ryan Zinke, announced a plan to open virtually the entire U.S. coast to offshore exploration and drilling. At that point, Florida was still part of the plan.

That changed on Tuesday. Zinke issued a statement saying the Trump administration would not allow drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Florida after hearing from its Republican governor.

Zinke said that after meeting with Gov. Rick Scott and his leadership team, "I am removing Florida from consideration for any new oil and gas platforms."

Apparently, Zinke learned from Scott that "Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver."

That flabbergasted officials, Democratic and Republican, in New Jersey, which has 130 miles of coastline and also is heavily dependent on summer tourism and year-round birding. Estimates put direct and indirect economic impact of the coast at about $45 billion.

A spokesman for Murphy, who takes office on Tuesday, referred a request for an interview on the topic to the soon-to-be governor's Twitter account.

New Jersey Republican Rep. Frank LoBiondo also took to social media, noting that during the Obama administration, he opposed consideration of opening the coast. That administration blocked any drilling off the Atlantic  which the Trump administration wants to reverse.

LoBiondo also signed a letter sent by 13 members of New Jersey's congressional delegation, including U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, that requests a meeting at the Shore with federal officials.

"Given your recent meeting with Florida Governor Rick Scott, after which you decided to exclude Florida's coasts from any offshore drilling, we believe that New Jersey also deserves the courtesy of a Secretarial visit," the letter states. "We also request that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management consider holding a public hearing in New Jersey, in addition to the public meeting scheduled in Trenton, and that you consider doing so in a coastal community."

The draft proposal by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a part of the Interior Department, calls for expanded drilling in the Arctic and off the Atlantic coast and would open up waters off California. Originally, it would have allowed for drilling from Florida to Maine in U.S. waters, which has been blocked for decades. New Jersey's territorial waters extend 3 nautical miles, or 3.5 statute miles, from shoreline. Federal waters extend for the next 22 miles.

But there are no specifics on where exploration or drilling would take place off New Jersey  if at all. The state falls into the North Atlantic map, which lists two potential leases, and also borders the mid-Atlantic map, which lists three potential leases.

The greatest prospects for offshore oil are in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Arctic waters of Alaska, according to a 2011 assessment by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Atlantic offshore oil and gas fields represent less than 6 percent of the nation's "technically recoverable" offshore resources, BOEM said.

No Atlantic sites made the U.S. Energy Information Administration's 2015 list of the nation's top 100 oil and gas fields.

North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia stand to gain the most from Atlantic offshore oil and gas development, according to a 2013 economic study conducted for the American Petroleum Institute and the National Ocean Industries Association. That study estimated that by 2035, Atlantic offshore oil and natural gas development could produce an incremental 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, generate nearly 280,000 jobs and contribute up to $23.5 billion per year to the U.S. economy.

Some oil exploration took place off the Atlantic Coast between 1976 and 1983, when 51 wells were drilled on the outer continental shelf. Eight wells were drilled about 90 miles east of Atlantic City, and six of them showed natural gas. But they were all plugged and abandoned as "non-commercial"  gas prices started to fall, and the wells did not contain sufficient recoverable gas to extract. Those were the last wells drilled off the Atlantic coast.

President Trump used to own three Atlantic City casinos: Trump Plaza Casino & Hotel, Trump Marina Hotel Casino, and Trump Taj Mahal. All failed as the city declined with the rise of gambling competition from neighboring states, such as Pennsylvania.

Staff writer Andrew Maykuth contributed to this article.
Samantha Holbrook, president of Citizens for a No-Kill Philadelphia (left) poses outside the ACCT Philly shelter in Feltonville with ACCT Philly executive director Vincent Medley, and a poster that urges pet owners to connect with a rescue group if they must surrender their pet. Read more

In the opinion of animal activists such as myself, our city took an important step forward Wednesday with the creation of the Philadelphia No-Kill Coalition, with its goal of finding homes for all adoptable dogs and cats.

This is overdue and not easy to achieve.

The definition of "no-kill" generally means finding homes for at least 90 percent of at-risk animals. If Philadelphia achieves this goal, it will be the first big U.S. city to do it. There are about 240 no-kill cities now, the largest being Austin, Texas, and Jacksonville, Fla., each under 1 million population. Philadelphia has 1.5 million.

Major players in the Coalition are ACCT Philly, the city's animal shelter; the Pennsylvania SPCA and the nonprofit Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society; plus several smaller organizations, including Citizens for a No-Kill Philadelphia, founded in 2009. The coalition has no formal structure nor officers; it will be run by a steering committee comprised of ACCT, PSPCA and PAWS, according to PAWS's Melissa Levy.

The seed for the coalition may have been planted in the Alliance for Philadelphia's Animals, launched at the Academy of Natural Sciences in September 2004 on a night it rained cats and dogs.

Founding member Tara Derby-Perrin told the 150 animal activists that the alliance was modeled after similar organizations in New York and San Francisco that vowed to slash the number of animals put to death, mostly through adoption of unwanted animals.

The Philadelphia effort fizzled and Derby-Perrin became the executive director of the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association, which was ACCT Philly's precursor.

The main focus of the current no-kill push relies on keeping animals out of the shelter and in their homes.

In a kind of empty attaboy, Mayor Kenney praised the launch of the coalition but offered no more funds for the underfunded city shelter.

At an April City Council hearing, Humane Society of the United States board member Marsha Perelman called Philadelphia "the most poorly funded municipal shelter in America." She said Philadelphia's $4-million budget contrasts poorly with the $17 million spent by San Diego, slightly smaller than Philadelphia, and the $14 million spent by San Antonio, just about Philly's size. Councilman Bobby Henon agreed that the city doesn't "adequately fund" the shelter.

No deadline to achieve no-kill status has been set, I was told by Samantha Holbrook, president of Citizens for a No-Kill Philadelphia. Levy said the Coalition will look for year to year improvements rather than set a deadline to reach its no-kill goal.

Maybe because of the work I do, I've always felt deadlines promote focus and create urgency.

Just a few years ago, the major lifesaving effort was cutting off the supply of unwanted animals through spay and neuter programs. That's still on the table, but the big push today is keeping animals in their homes by providing aid and support to pet owners.

At ACCT, in recent years intake numbers declined while live release numbers increased.

In 2017, according to ACCT, the live-release rate for dogs and cats was an all-time high of 81 percent, but that still means almost 4,000 innocent animals died in the shelter.

The goal of no-kill is within reach, but it will take a lot of effort from everyone in the animal care community. With that, and luck, it could happen in five years.

Yeah, I know I just set a deadline. Innocent lives are at risk.
Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered in Washington Square Park, New York, NY on December 7, 2017, to stand up against Trumps regressive policies on immigrants and working people and demand action against the Muslim Ban and the Tax Scam, and stand for a Clean DREAM Act. Read more

I don't know if it has to do with my Catholic upbringing, or the fact that I'm an Eagles fan, but I've always had an acute appreciation for victims of circumstance. As a child I was taught to care for "the least of these," which is probably why I am so fervently anti-abortion. Those who have no recourse and no voice need champions, and we are the ones who need to step in and speak for them.

To a lesser, although not entirely different, extent, Eagles fans have an innate understanding of what it means to be blighted, cursed, doomed, and at the mercy of an angry God. We are defenseless (and our offense isn't that great, either) before the often brutal forces of nature, and we wear our victimhood like a noble green-and-white hair shirt.

I think that's why I was particularly incensed by the actions of newly anointed District Attorney Larry Krasner when he marched into his office and fired many of the men and women who had spent their careers worrying about victims. I promise: This is not going to be another "How is it possible this man won?" column. I've hit my quota for the month.

But the reference to Krasner has some strange symmetry with another event that happened in the same week that the new Philadelphia DA demonstrated just how little concern he has for victims.

Late Tuesday evening, a federal judge in California temporarily blocked President Trump's attempt to dismantle Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, otherwise known as DACA. Judge William Alsup ruled that the plaintiffs who challenged the Trump administration's move, which was announced in early September, had shown that they would suffer irreparable harm if the program were eliminated, and that they would also likely win the case on the merits.

The judge also engaged in some delightful schadenfreude when he used Trump's tweets against him by noting the president had "stated his support for DACA, tweeting 'Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!'"

Alsup concluded that Trump was right (oh, the irony!) and ruled that "for the reasons DACA was instituted, and for the reasons tweeted by President Trumpthe public interest will be served by DACA's continuation."

I know that a lot of people, including a large number of #MAGA folk, are disgusted with this turn of events. For them, DACA is just another example of illegality being given a thin, smelly veneer of legitimacy. I hear the arguments all the time about violating our laws, threatening our national security, making a mockery of our system of justice, putting innocent American lives in danger, etc.

I am not insensitive to arguments about illegal immigration, though I have a hard time discussing the issues with people who tend to confuse immigrants with terrorists and compare people who enter the country without permission to ax murderers. That kind of gross thinking is just, well, gross.

But DACA is the lowest-hanging fruit on the controversial immigration tree, and it should be easy enough to agree that kids who are for all intents and purposes "American" should be able to work, go to school, serve in the military, and contribute to society. Not all of them were brought here by their parents at a tender age, but the vast majority were. They all either graduated from high school, got their GEDs or are still enrolled. They haven't committed felonies, and most don't even have misdemeanor records or traffic violations. If they did, they wouldn't qualify for DACA.

Believe me, I've had a few clients rejected for the benefit. They are very strict in their vetting process.

Most of the people who disagree with me on this point will never be convinced that DACA is anything but an amnesty, the most misused word since bigly. I'm not even going to try to persuade them that these immigrants, the eldest of whom are in their early 30s and the youngest of whom are barely teenagers, are good people. We have to pick our battles.

I will, however, insist that they are victims of a political system that thinks in primary colors, in exaggerations, in macro principles, in stereotypes. Heck, they're just victims.

And that's my point: The reason I was so apoplectic with Larry Krasner, the Public Defender DA, is his refusal to care about the real victims in society. His primary concern is for the "wrongly accused" and not the wrongly abused. His philosophy is antithetical to everything I hold dear.

But so are the people who point fingers at the DACA folk, refusing to see that they are also victims of those who think that the only good immigrant is the one who stands in a line  that doesn't exist.
A panel of federal judges Wednesday effectively upheld Pennsylvania's often-criticized congressional district map, declining to take up a novel challenge that sought to have it declared unconstitutional as gerrymandered to favor the party in power.

In a 2-1 decision Wednesday, the judges said that specific challenge was not for them to decide.

Plaintiffs in Agre v. Wolf, led by a Democratic ward leader from Philadelphia, had hoped to use the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution to argue that any amount of partisanship in drawing the state's congressional maps was illegal.

The congressional boundaries in question were drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2011 after the 2010 census.

"Although there may be a case in which a political gerrymandering claim may successfully be brought under the Elections Clause, this is not such a case," wrote Judge Patty Shwartz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

"The structural change plaintiffs seek must come from the political process itself, not the courts," concluded D. Brooks Smith, chief judge of the Third Circuit.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is one of several cases nationwide involving redistricting.

The day before the judges' ruling in Philadelphia, a panel of federal judges in North Carolina ruled that state's congressional map unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to redraw it this month. The judges said Republicans had drawn it to their advantage. It was the first time federal judges had ruled that a congressional map was unconstitutional because of gerrymandering.

U.S. Supreme Court justices have said they will render a decision in gerrymandering cases out of Maryland and Wisconsin in the coming months.

Also in Pennsylvania, a group of 18 Democratic voters filed a state gerrymandering lawsuit against state officials in June. That case is the one to watch, said Michael Li, a gerrymandering expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

"I wouldn't read too much into this [federal] decision," Li said. "I don't think it says much about whether the court will find a problem" in other cases.

The case rejected Wednesday had legal theories that differ from those in the state cases and the other federal case in Pennsylvania, which involves claims under the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause, Li said.

Both Steve Miskin, spokesman for the House Republicans, and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati used Wednesday's decision to say that the state's congressional map is constitutional.

"For the past several months, plaintiffs have made dozens of strained legal arguments against the map, and the majority decision once again invalidated the plaintiffs' position," Scarnati said in a statement. He renewed his call for plaintiffs to "abandon their costly legal actions and allow the legislature's examination of reforms to move forward."

Miskin said the maps had "passed with bipartisan votes in the House."

Alice Ballard, attorney for the plaintiffs, pointed to the different outcomes in the North Carolina and Pennsylvania federal gerrymandering cases to say the issue is far from resolved. "Only the Supreme Court can make the final decision," she said.

In his dissent, Senior District Judge Michael Baylson said the congressional map should be redrawn, calling gerrymandering a "major public policy issue."

"Plaintiffs themselves described being alienated from the political process.  In my opinion, gerrymandering will only cause voter turnout to decline even further," Baylson wrote.

Also Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Mike Stack filed a brief with the state Supreme Court, saying he agreed with the plaintiffs in the state case that the map is unconstitutional and that a new map should replace it before the 2018 midterm elections. He proposed his own version, which consists of less-fragmented districts.

He said his map was "fair, allows voters to truly select their congressman, and allows communities with similar regional interests to have representation from a single member of Congress."

Stack, who began his reelection campaign last November, is a defendant in the gerrymandering lawsuit filed by the 18 voters in June. It also names Gov. Wolf, members of the General Assembly and other state officials.

The justices on the state's high court  five Democrats and two Republicans  have scheduled oral arguments on the constitutionality of the maps for next Wednesday.

Last month, a Commonwealth Court judge recommended that the state Supreme Court uphold the map. Judge P. Kevin Brobson ruled that politics played a role in creating the map and that the legislature could have drawn more neutral ones. But some degree of partisanship is acceptable in redistricting, he said.

The plaintiffs "have failed to meet their burden of proving that the 2011 plan, as a piece of legislation, clearly, plainly, and palpably violates the Pennsylvania Constitution," Brobson said in his recommendation on Dec. 29. He presided over a week-long trial focusing on the constitutionality of the map.

Staff writers Jonathan Lai, Liz Navratil, and Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this article.
Five women have accused James Franco, 39, of behavior they found to be inappropriate or sexually exploitative. Read more

James Franco arrived at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday wearing a Time's Up pin designed to show support for women who have dealt with harassment or assault. But the actor seems to be facing a brewing scandal of his own.

The night of the Globes, in which Franco won best actor in a comedy of musical for The Disaster Artist, three actresses tweeted accusations of sexual misconduct. Franco denied the claims in a Tuesday night appearance on CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, hours after the New York Times canceled a TimesTalk event scheduled for Wednesday that was set to feature him and his brother Dave, who also starred in The Disaster Artist. The Times said in a statement to the New York Daily News that it canceled the event "given the controversy surrounding recent allegations."

The controversy began when actress Ally Sheedy sent a series of tweets after Franco appeared at the awards show on Sunday, where he won best actor in a comedy for The Disaster Artist.

"Why is a man hosting? Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much. Nite love ya #goldenglobes," she tweeted, later adding, "James Franco just won. Please never ask me why I left the film/tv business."

Sheedy, whom Franco directed in the 2014 Off-Broadway play The Long Shrift, deleted the tweets later that night. But screenshots still managed to circulate as actress Violet Paley tweeted another accusation.

"Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco," she wrote. "Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis & that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?"

A third actress, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, wrote a tweet directed at Franco that stated, "Remember a few weeks ago when you told me the full nudity you had me do in two of your movies for $100/day wasn't exploitative because I signed a contract to do it? Times up on that!"

The Washington Post reached out to all four actors for comment. None responded except Paley, who declined comment for the time being.

This isn't the first time Franco has dealt with allegations of inappropriate behavior. In 2014, the actor was accused of pursuing an underage girl via Instagram when he allegedly direct messaged a 17-year-old fan and tried to meet up with her at a hotel, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Franco addressed the situation while appearing on Live! With Kelly and Michael after screenshots of the conversation spread online, saying he was unaware of the girl's age.

"I'm embarrassed, and I guess I'm just a model of how social media is tricky," he said. "It's a way that people meet each other today, but what I've learned  I guess because I'm new to it  is you don't know who's on the other end."

Twitter users drew attention to Franco's questionable past after his Golden Globe win.

Asked by Colbert at the end of Tuesday's interview to address the recent allegations, Franco denied their accuracy and clarified that he wore the Time's Up pin "because I do support it."

"First of all, I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy" he said. "I had nothing but a great time with her, total respect for her."

Regarding the other allegations, he added, "The things that I heard were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice, because they didn't have a voice for so long. So I don't want to  I don't want to, you know, shut them down in any way. I think it's a good thing, and I support it."

Colbert followed up by asking if there was a way to have this discussion off social media.

"Do you have any idea of what the answer might be to come to some sense of what the truth is so there can be some sort of reconciliation between people who clearly have different views of things?" he asked the actor. "I mean, it's a big question, but I don't know how to leave, or to further, this discussion."

In reference to his own situation, Franco said, "The way I live my life, I can't live if there's restitution to be made. I will make it. So if I've done something wrong, I will fix it. I have to. I mean, I think that's how that works. I don't know what else to do."

Regarding the bigger issue, he added, "Look, I really don't have the answers. And I think the point of this whole thing is that we listen. You know, there were incredible people talking that night. They had a lot to say. And I'm here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it's off, and I'm completely willing and want to."
Dr. James Kauffman, left, stands up to leave his video hearing room in jail, as Judge Bernard DeLury, seen at the bottom right of the screen, presides over the first appearnce hearing for Kauffman in the Atlantic County Courtroom on January 11, 2018. MICHAEL BRYANT/ Staff Photographer Read more

MAYS LANDING, N.J. _ Appearing remotely via video from a North Jersey jail, a frowning Dr. James Kauffman made a first appearance on charges he arranged the murder of his wife April to keep her from exposing a vast drug ring run out of his endocrinology office with members of the Pagan Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.

The now white-haired disgraced Kauffman, 68, sat stoically in a "video court" room appearing over two screens to a courtroom filled with journalists and cameras. At one point, he stifled a small yawn. Mostly he sat with his eyes cast downward. Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury read him his rights, and his attorney, Louis Barbone, said he waived a reading of the charges.

He answered the judge with "yes" several times, asked for the sound to be turned up, but otherwise said nothing. He will have a detention hearing on Tuesday.

Barbone said Kauffman had been moved to the Hudson County jail for his own safety. Prosecutors allege that in the last three months, he has been the target of a second murder plot by his co-defendant in the slaying of his wife.

Kauffman is accused of masterminding a vast oxycontin distribution network run out of his Egg Harbor Township office, in a bizarre partnership with Ferdinand "Freddy" Augello, a guitar-playing past president of the Cape May County chapter of the Pagans.

The two men were well known before the death of April Kauffman in the local shore community: Kauffman for his busy practice; Augello for his guitar and graphics business, and for his popular band "Who Dat" which played at the Atlantic City Seafood Festival and local bars.

Augello and two accomplices in the drug enterprise, Tabitha Chapman and Paul Pagano, also made first appearances Thursday via remote from the Atlantic County Correctional Facility on racketeering charges. A fifth defendant, Joseph Mulholland, had his appearance postponed because he was in the hospital being examined by a cardiologist, said Chief Assistant Prosecutor Seth Levy.

Augello is charged with murder in connection with April Kauffman, and with conspiracy to commit murder, in connection with an attempt to kill Kauffman inside the Atlantic County jail in the last three months, according to court documents and affidavits.

Chapman, who was described as romantically involved with Augello at some point, and Pagano, were two of the Pagan gang associates who allegedly made regular trips to see Kauffman at his medical practice and act as go-betweens for Augello and Kauffman. They are not charged in connection with the murder.

The three defendants were also ordered held after the brief hearing pending a detention hearing on Tuesday.

Augello and Pagano sat side by side. At one point before the hearing, Pagano made the shape of a gun with his fingers and held it up to Augello's head. Augello pushed him away playfully.

Kauffman has been in prison since June, after local and federal authorities executed a search warrant at his office, and he brandished a gun, saying, "I'm not going to jail for this."

At the time, Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner said the raid was related to an ongoing investigation into health insurance fraud by public employees.

Tyner said Thursday that there did not appear to be any link to the Pagan drug network, but that Kauffman was involved with both.

"It just seems to suggest that Jim Kauffman was a busy man with his criminal activities," said Tyner. "He's sort of a one man crime spree."

Carole Weintraub, Kauffman's current wife who has attended prior court hearings, was not in attendance at Thursday's hearing.

Barbone, Kauffman's attorney, told reporters outside the courtroom that his client continues to maintain his innocence.

"We say what we've been saying for the last five years, which is he's not guilty," Barbone said. "The doctor has maintained his innocence over the past five years. He's assisted in attempting to give information. What they in there was a plot to kill Dr. Kauffman, and the conspiracy is all about the plot to kill my client from what I've read so far."
Once again, Philadelphia City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson is in the middle of a highly questionable city land transfer. He not only set in motion a chain of events that turned an affordable housing plan into a bonus for a developer, but his actions undermine efforts to build a coherent plan for a changing city.

In 2014, Johnson steered two city-owned lots on Bouvier Street, between Dickinson and Tasker, to a non-profit called Chosen 300 Ministries for $15,000, ostensibly for an affordable housing project. Less than a year later, the nonprofit flipped the lots, which the new owner eventually sold to a for-profit developer, reported staff writer Craig R. McCoy. Using those two lots and two others, the developer is building four townhouses and plans to sell them for $500,000 each. The extraordinary jump in value dramatizes just how volatile land prices in Point Breeze can be and the need to stabilize the neighborhood for poor and moderate-income residents.

Point Breeze is just a microcosm of the city, though. Like the city as a whole, the community is undergoing change and increased development  and spurring concerns that longtime residents could lose out. But how a city grows  and who gets to benefit  is far more complicated than a single Council member's transactional approach. That's why the outsize power they have for approving or vetoing sales and disposition of individual land parcels in their districts is so problematic.

To be sure, Johnson is not alone  Council President Darrell Clarke has been accused in the past of favoring donors for development deals. But more recently, Johnson has been in the middle of other city land transactions made under the guise of creating affordable housing. Since he took office in 2012, Johnson has steered 11 city properties in Point Breeze to developers who paid between $7,800 and $23,000. The developers turned the properties into housing which was marketed for $400,000 and up.

This is no way to meet the city's growing housing affordability problem or, for that matter, how to coherently plan a city.

The Planning Commission is working on Philadelphia's first citywide affordable housing plan  and that is welcome only if Council doesn't undermine it.

Council has a very important role to play in representing its constituents and balancing citywide development  especially as the plan evolves from a housing policy that was based on the city's decline to one which is based on the city's new growth. But Council needs to stop micro-managing housing policy.

Mayor Kenney and Council should extricate housing policy from the stultifying grip of politics. Council members rightly argue that they have intimate knowledge of the districts they represent, but doesn't qualify them to control every piece of city-owned land.

It's hard to be confident that an entrenched Council will change its ways, but in the last two decades, we've seen mayors put a dent into the culture of favors, and aspire to a government that is efficient, ethical  and fair. Councilmanic privilege belongs in the last century, not in the city's future.
Volunteerism has existed in the United States since colonial times. Early settlers practiced "barn-raising," a preindustrial custom where communities banded together for the benefit of one of its members with the tacit understanding that each individual would receive the same support under dire circumstances. These benevolent cultural practices were in some ways a corollary to those of the sharing societies of Native American tribes, whose own traditions of mutual assistance predated the arrival of Europeans.

During the 18th century, volunteerism as it is known today began to take shape. Benjamin Franklin famously paved the way for volunteer societies with the formation of the Union Fire Company in 1736. Other Philadelphia-based organizations ushered in the era of institutional philanthropy and advocacy, such as the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, which lobbied for prison reform.

The social conditions stemming from industrialization resulted in the proliferation of volunteer societies and charity organizations, as increasingly entrenched class divisions created a disparity of wealth and leisure time. During this time period, a number of organizations that exist to this day began operations, notably the YMCA and the Salvation Army in England.

While women played an important role during this era of volunteerism and charity (especially in the realm of medical care, perhaps best illustrated in the United States by the American Red Cross founder Clara Barton), the philanthropic activities of women's societies were underreported in historical records of the time. This would change with the turn of the century, when the scope of work of one women's volunteer organization was too large to ignore.

In 1912, a group of women from prominent Philadelphia families including Constance E. Biddle, Sarah Lowery, Margaret Newbold, and Gertrude Ely founded the Junior League of Philadelphia (JLP), among the earliest expansion chapters of the storied women's service organization. The first Junior League began in New York City in 1901, launched by wealthy women who banded together to create settlement houses to provide basic-needs services for poor immigrant workers. JLP brought this mission to Philadelphia, setting up service houses that bridged social classes while offering poverty relief for the city's working-class neighborhoods.

Within JLP's first decade, the organization rapidly expanded its areas of focus. During World War I, volunteers from the organization offered vital services as nursing aides in Philly hospitals; the organization sponsored arts and cultural events for the enjoyment of injured servicemen returning from Europe.

Following the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, JLP integrated civic engagement and advocacy into its programs. Volunteers offered training and educational resources for women who were preparing to vote for the first time, striving to ensure that women made their political voices heard.

Over the next two decades, JLP had an enormous impact on a number of communities. Throughout the tribulations of the Great Depression, the organization supported homeless shelters and ran unemployment relief programs. Throughout the 1940s, JLP contributed greatly to the war effort by gathering and physically preparing medical bandages for the Red Cross, raising money for the purchase of hospital aircraft and penicillin, and serving in an advisory capacity in the Civilian Defense Office.

From raising money for children's health care to running initiatives to make produce more accessible to underserved communities, JLP has consistently run charitable programs in Philadelphia for more than 100 years.

Despite this history of service, the organization has suffered from what one member referred to as a "pumps and pearls" image problem, which pigeonholes the group as a social club for self-congratulatory wealthy women. Whatever the motivations of individual members who have passed through this historical organization over its many years of operation, JLP has benefited countless people, ranking it among the most notable, impactful charity organizations in Philadelphia history.

Patrick Glennon is a communications officer at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. pglennon@hsp.org
A barricaded gunman fired more than 15 rounds at this SWAT team armored vehicle during a standoff in Gloucester Township on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. pocking the armor and damaging the windshield. Read more

A standoff between police and a barricaded gunman in a Gloucester Township house ended after 13 hours Thursday morning when SWAT officers entered the residence and found the 24-year-old suspect dead.

Earlier, in announcing the end of the siege, Police Chief Harry Earle said only that the suspect was injured and had been taken into custody.

Township police later issued a statement saying the suspect, whose name was not released, was found dead. It did not say how he died except to note that police fired no weapons during the siege or to end it.

A handgun and an assault rifle were found in the house, the statement said. A woman who was found unharmed in the house was being questioned by investigators.

No other injuries were reported.

During the standoff, the gunman fired multiple times at police, hitting a SWAT armored vehicle.

Officials closed 14 schools while the siege dragged on, leaving parents of thousands of students scrambling with the prospect of their children having an unexpected day off.

Cellphone video showed heavily armed police entering the house. The door had been broken down before the standoff ended.

Police gave the following account:

About 8 p.m. Wednesday, police were called for a report of a man firing a gun outside a townhouse in the Brittany Woods development. Arriving officers heard gunfire and summoned backup after taking cover.

The gunman fired more than 15 rounds at a SWAT armored vehicle that took up a position in front of the townhouse with officers inside, damaging the windshield and pockmarking the armor.

Negotiators attempted to get the suspect to surrender, but he did not and they were met with more gunfire.

About 10 hours into the attempted negotiations, an armored vehicle smashed in the front door and robots were sent inside.

Around 9 a.m., SWAT officers entered the house, finding the dead suspect and the woman.

Eighteen residents were evacuated from their homes and taken to a firehouse, while other area residents were asked to shelter in place during the standoff.

Police said they did not expect to release any other information Thursday.
Tenet Healthcare Corp. completed the sale of St. Christophers Hospital for Children and Hahnemann University Hospital to American Academic Health System LLL. Read more

Tenet Healthcare Corp. completed the sale of Hahnemann University Hospital and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children to American Academic Health System L.L.C., an affiliate of a California investment firm, Paladin Healthcare, the groups said Thursday.

Tenet said it received $170 million from the sale, pretax, comprised of $152.5 million in cash at closing note for $17.5 million. In the 12 months ended June 30, Hahnemann, St. Chris and related operations had $790 million in net revenue and an operating loss of $15 million, Tenet said. The deal was announced Sept. 1.

"We are thrilled and proud to be the new owners of these venerable Philadelphia hospitals and the outstanding clinical and academic programs for which they are recognized," Joel Freedman, American Academic's founder and chief executive said in a news release.

As part of the deal, American Academic and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital L.L.C. formed a partnership to buy four medical office buildings on the Hahnemann campus and the parking facilities at St. Chris.

Barry A. Wolfman, American Academics's president, said in an interview that the first step would be to listen to employees, physicians, and the community "about how we might be able to proceed to enhance our position and to fit into the marketplace."

Another early effort will focus on infrastructure. "As you can imagine, the infrastructure needs are pretty substantial," Wolfman said, naming boilers, chillers, escalators, elevators, and roofs as examples. Wolfman ran Tenet's Philadelphia-area operations in the early 2000s.

The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses & Allied Professionals, which represents 850 nurses at Hahnemann and 520 nurses at St Chris, said nurses were looking forward to a better relationship with their new employer. Under Tenet's tenure, nurses experienced unsafe staffing and dangerous working conditions, the union said.
Blake Wexler, left, and Todd Glass, right, mug for a photo early on in their friendship. The pair met at Helium Comedy Club in 2004. Read more

If a friend left bizarre messages about everything from the pronunciation of the chocolate bar Toblerone to your grandmother's dating status on your phone for more than a decade, most people would probably stop talking to that person. But when it happened to Valley Forge native and comedian Blake Wexler, he turned the messages into an album.

Of course, it helps that all the messages came from Veteran comedian and Philly boy Todd Glass. With more than 30 years in the business, several popular specials, and successful podcast The Todd Glass Show to his name, Glass today is one of the most recognizable stand-ups going.

"It does sound like a mentally ill person after a certain period of time, but this is one of the funniest people in the world," says Wexler, 28, who is now based in Los Angeles. "It's taking that skill and directing it right at you, and only you. It's like Hoop Dreams for comedy fans. You get to see a window into [our] lives."

Appropriately dubbed 12 Years of Voicemails from Todd Glass to Blake Wexler, the album will be released Friday  right in the middle of a run of dates Glass has this week at Center City's Helium Comedy Club, where the pair first met in 2004. The album is a collection of nearly 50 messages from Glass to Wexler, chronicling the duo's friendship as a game of demented phone tag. It feels like a comedy set for an audience of one. They have their own inside jokes, but as a listener, you feel part of it.

Wexler's album is one of the first of its kind. But none of it would have happened without that fateful trip to Helium.

A Conestoga High School graduate, like Glass, Wexler began doing stand-up at 15, performing in bars and clubs in the Philadelphia area. In 2004, five months into his budding career, he met Glass after Glass performed at Helium. Glass, who started his comedy career at 16, took a liking to Wexler.

"I remember meeting him. He looked 16  he had pimples, and I felt bad for him," Glass says of Wexler in  what else?  a voicemail.

Wexler describes Glass as having been kind in that first meeting. The two connected over comedy and Conestoga, and Wexler ultimately gave him his card  yes, a teenage comedian had business cards  but didn't expect anything to come from it.

Glass, however, called Wexler shortly after they met and left a message saying he had set up tickets for a future show for Wexler and his father. Wexler saved that message, which opens the album. He also saved every other voicemail that Glass left him, up to the present.

"This might be a mental-health disorder on my part, but I do save a lot of voicemails," Wexler says. "This is dark, but I save some from my parents in case they pass away, so I will have something from them. With Todd, he could die at any minute  no, I'm kidding."

Wexler says he saved Glass' messages to play back to friends or to listen to again by himself. Glass was and is one of Wexler's comedy heroes, so archiving the messages seemed appropriate.

Over the last 12 years, Wexler saved about 60 messages from Glass, and cut only those that were too personal or nonsensical from 12 Years of Voicemails. In that time, you hear them cultivate a friendship. You might not expect that, though, considering that Glass' messages usually involve ranting about labradoodles or cheesesteaks or fake models of cars Jay Leno might own.

Though it's a comedy album, some of the messages aren't exactly funny, more heartfelt. In one, Glass encourages Wexler to quit Emerson College, where he was enrolled as a screenwriting major. Glass says he considered Wexler truly funny and wanted to give him "a kick in the ass" to follow his dream instead of having something to fall back on.

"Nobody ever asks you that if you are going to dental school," Glass says. "Your parents never say, 'What if dental school doesn't work? What are you going to fall back on?' If this money is being spent, and it's hard-earned money that you really don't have, quit college."

Wexler didn't leave school, but he appreciated Glass' sentiment. Today, he credits much of his success to Glass' tutelage, even if he didn't listen to it sometimes.

"My career now, I can attribute to two main things. I would say 30 or 40 percent was going to Emerson College, but 60 percent is Todd," Wexler says. "There is a weird line between, 'This is one of my best friends' and, 'This is also a guy who has taught me everything I know in comedy.' "

Glass doesn't see himself as a mentor exactly. But Wexler says he has seen Glass treat other new comedians similarly.

"What type of mentor would I be if I said, 'Of course I am [a mentor]'?" Glass says. "Some comedians have passed on words of wisdom to me. I tried to pass that kind of stuff on."

Glass' messages were not just professional, they got personal, too. In 2013, he gave Wexler advice after a particularly devastating breakup.

"Things go bad and things aren't right, and you just sort of wallow in it for a while. Better that you go through this now than stay in [it]," Glass said in the message. He also tortured Wexler back to equilibrium with worst-case scenarios, like his ex sleeping with everyone on the comedy scene. Instead of being horrified, Wexler found Glass' approach funny.

"It made me realize that this was like anything else. It can and should be laughed at," he says. "It was the best advice I could have gotten from a family member or close friend, and that close friend was Todd Glass."

It took Wexler some time to get comfortable around Glass. He started giving back as good as he got around 2011, when he felt he could hang with Glass comedically.

"Fifteen messages later, Blake starts to loosen up and be a little funnier with me," Glass says. "I told him, 'Don't get too comfortable, I'm still a headliner.' "

These days, so is Wexler. He's preparing to put together his next stand-up album  an 18-month endeavor of writing, performing, testing, and tweaking. With any luck, he says, proceeds from 12 Years of Voicemails will help pay for his next release.

But if it's really successful, you'll never get rid of him, he says.

"Maybe Texts from Todd will be a book," Wexler says. "We'll really milk this thing for what it's worth."

Staff writer Nick Vadala received his own voicemail from Todd Glass to comment on this article. We present it here in its full form. There is adult language, so listen at your own risk.
THE PARENTS: Kristen Shahverdian, 43, and Lisa Gochee, 44, of Point Breeze

THE KIDS: Quinn Simon, 7; Luca Dustin, 1 year, adopted July 19, 2017

A TURNING POINT IN THE KID-CONVERSATION: "When Kristen started talking about getting a dog," Lisa says, "I thought: If we're going to have a being that depends on us to take it to the bathroom, we might as well have kids."

Kristen and Lisa like to joke that former President George W. Bush deserves some credit for their first-born son.

As part of the Economic Stimulus Act, which Bush signed in February 2008, most Americans received tax rebate checks for $600  enough for the couple to buy three vials of sperm from a tall, blond, blue-eyed donor whose written essay had made them laugh.

They'd begun the project with questions  What is donor sperm? What does insurance cover? How much can we afford?  then spent hours scrutinizing lists of donors. They narrowed their choices to 10, then to four.

Eventually, they landed on one man's profile  his physical traits chimed with Lisa's (she would be the nonbiological mother) and his story about vomiting while on a roller-coaster "seemed human; it seemed real," Kristen recalls.

By that point, they'd spent three years contemplating parenthood  something they'd vowed, on one of their first dates, never to undertake. "Both of us were like, 'We don't believe in marriage. No kids. None of that,' " Lisa remembers.

They met at the Morning Glory Diner in Bella Vista, where Lisa was cooking, waiting tables  and noticing Kristen, a frequent customer who lived just around the corner. One day, after leaving the cafe to buy $40 worth of oranges from a nearby supermarket, Lisa ran into Kristen and finally summoned the nerve to ask for her number. She scribbled it on the grocery receipt.

Their first phone conversation lasted nearly two hours. "Within two minutes, I called Lisa back and said, 'Why don't we just go out tonight?' " They shared a vegetarian platter from an Asian soul food restaurant on South Street, followed by ice cream in Rittenhouse Square.

After about 18 months, they rented a house together  a rough adjustment, both women recall, after living alone for most of their 20s. Painting the place  multiple times, including a coat of sea foam green and one of primary blue  helped, as did cooking elaborate recipes from Bon Appetit.

When they bought a house in 2005, they imagined a gathering to consecrate the home  and their relationship. They'd thought about escaping to the beach or the woods to exchange private vows. "But I remember my mother saying, 'If you really want your extended family to see this as a marriage, you might need to do it in front of them,' " Kristen says.

So they rented a room at the William Way Community Center for a commitment ceremony (marriage equality wouldn't come to Pennsylvania for eight more years), followed by a reception at home. Kristen's uncle drummed on an overturned trash can while friends hoisted the women aloft in chairs.

And that resolution about not having kids? It began to weaken, especially for Kristen, who discovered she really wanted to experience pregnancy and birth.

It took two tries. Kristen remembers the Friday she used one of the drugstore tests. "I was by myself. It showed two lines. I didn't even know what that meant: Am I pregnant or not?"

Her doubt didn't last long. "I hated the first half of pregnancy," she says. "All I wanted to do was eat bread. I looked chubby, but not pregnant. At 20 weeks, I thought, 'Thank God this is half over.' Right after that, I started to feel great."

Kristen was determined  almost fanatical, she says now  about having an unmedicated birth at Lifecycle WomanCare rather than in a hospital. She labored at home through a day of erratic contractions, a sudden burst when her water broke, and a harrowing midnight drive to Bryn Mawr. Quinn was born three hours after they arrived.

Twelve hours later, they were on their way home. "They let us leave?" Lisa remembers thinking. "We're parents? We didn't know anything  what to do, what not to do." Kristen recalls being so delirious from exhaustion she couldn't remember whether she'd put the baby in the car.

By the time Quinn was almost 3  Lisa had left her longtime work in technical theater for a job at Microsoft  they began planning for a second child: two tries with sperm from Quinn's donor, then several with another donor, then a few more attempts boosted by fertility medications.

Finally, a doctor told Kristen the grim news: "I had almost no eggs left. I was mourning the fact that I wasn't going to get pregnant again. It was a really hard year."

A gay male couple told Kristen about their positive experience with adoption; once again, the pair plunged into research mode. It took a year to complete the home visit, all the paperwork, and their profile book that would be shown to birth parents.

In November 2016, the coordinator from Open Arms Adoption Network called: "Are you ready? You have a baby boy." The pair recall that whole month as a blur: a frantic trip to Target for a car seat and diapers, a first encounter with their tiny son in a Mount Laurel hotel lobby.

The day they told Quinn he was going to have a little brother, he asked, "What's the baby called?" They went through the short list of boys' names they were considering. "Those are terrible names," their son replied.

"Well, what would you call him?"

"Luca."

"We didn't say one word, but we looked at each other," Kristen says. "I thought: I really like that name."

Now the boys crawl-chase each other around the house and make tickle-piles in the morning. Kristen, who used to cherish spontaneity, uses a written schedule to chart the family's every move.

In June, they decamped to a larger house, near a park, where the boys can have separate rooms. Parenthood, the state they once shunned, now urges them forward, shaping their hours and their futures. Kristen recalls a recent moment in the car: she glanced in the rearview mirror to see two faces looking at her, and at the road ahead. She turned to Lisa: "Now, we're a family."
Left: Johnny Berry and his wife, Qiana. At right, Berrys arrest report when he was 16. Read more

Sixteen years ago, Johnny Berry received a handwritten letter that had crisscrossed Pennsylvania, from the Albion state prison to Berry's father's house in Philadelphia and back up the country roads of Montgomery County to Graterford Prison, where Berry unfolded it in his cell and wondered if his luck had changed at last.

A man named Tauheed Lloyd, who as part of a plea deal had named Berry as his accomplice in the 1994 murder of 73-year-old Leonard Jones, wrote in the letter that he took it all back.

"My reason for creating a story  was my way of 'seeking revenge'  for giving my name to the district attorney," Lloyd wrote. "Also, I seen an opportunity to receive a lesser sentence."

It was one of many moments when it looked like Berry might not spend the rest of his life in prison after all.

Yet he is still there.

Whether Berry might have one last chance to be exonerated depends in large part on whether Philadelphia's new district attorney, Larry Krasner, holds true to his promise to build a different type of Conviction Review Unit to examine innocence claims. Last year, the unit received 129 applications; of those, seven are under investigation, 93 were declined or rejected, and just two were exonerated. The rest are awaiting review.

Berry, a juvenile lifer, was up for resentencing last fall when Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara McDermott asked the District Attorney's Office to consider investigating his innocence claim.

But at a status hearing Wednesday, the office still did not have a response. "I don't know what the new process is," Assistant District Attorney Chesley Lightsey said. And if the case is reviewed, Lightsey said, "I don't know how long it will take whatever the new regime in that unit will be."

Berry has had 24 years of hopes raised, then dashed.

Growing up in West Philadelphia, he lived with his father  who worked repairing car radios and televisions  a stay-at-home mother, and four younger siblings. He dropped out of West Philadelphia High School after the 10th grade. "I was asked to read in front of the classroom," he said in a recent interview, "and I couldn't really read, so I left."

Instead, he started hanging with drug dealers who ran a ring centered at 46th Street and Lancaster Avenue.

"I wanted the money, the camaraderie," he said. "They treated me like family."

He sold, by his own account, a great deal of crack. As turf wars heated, he obtained guns. Once, he was arrested with an assault weapon, a MAC-11, and sent to a juvenile hall.

Then, in 1994, he got word police had kicked in his mother's door, looking for him in connection with a robbery.

"I knew I didn't do it, so I turned myself in," he said. "I sold drugs. It was pretty lucrative. I didn't need to rob anyone."

The case was straightforward. Two young black men had spotted an elderly man and a younger woman sitting in a van. One trapped the woman in the van by holding the passenger door shut. The other went to the driver's side and pointed a gun at the man, yelling at him to get out, and then shot him. Both teens fled.

The woman, Michelle Brooks, described both teens to police. The one who held her door shut was short like Berry and had a chipped front tooth. Police brought her a photo array, and she picked out Berry.

He was arrested a week or so later. He couldn't offer an alibi. He's not sure where he was that night. "I didn't have anything constructive going on," he said.

But at a preliminary hearing Aug. 31, 1994, came Berry's first break  well, his first almost-break. After seeing him in court, Brooks testified he was the wrong man. The case was dismissed.

Then, in September, police picked him up again and booked him for the same crime.

While Berry was in juvenile detention, though, he got a key piece of information about his case. It felt like another lucky break at the time.

A kid he met there said another young man  Lloyd, who was also detained on an unrelated robbery charge  had bragged he was one of Jones' robbers. Berry begged the kid to go to court on his behalf. He also went straight to Lloyd and asked him to set the record straight; an altercation followed.

So, months later, when Lloyd was found in possession of the gun that used to shoot Jones and charged with the murder, he implicated Berry as the shooter. In return for a promise to testify, Lloyd got a sentence of 15 to 37 years instead of life in prison.

Brooks was called again as a witness in Berry's trial, but her testimony was confused and contradictory. She said at various points that he was the shooter, that he was the accomplice, and that he wasn't there at all.

Then Lloyd took the stand and pointed a steadfast finger at Berry.

When the foreman said "guilty," Berry was stunned.

"I couldn't believe it," he said. "It felt like a nightmare."

In prison, he dedicated himself to fighting the case. He hired investigators, and sent them to plead with Lloyd. Lloyd always declined to speak.

Then John Rush, a former prison chaplain who headed a Lancaster-based Christian prison ministry, Justice and Mercy, took an interest even though Berry had become a devout Muslim in prison. He visited Berry and liked his positive outlook.

"Even though he claimed to be falsely accused," Rush said, "he didn't seem to hold much bitterness."

Rush reached out to Lloyd, who at first resisted, but in October 2002 sent the letter to Berry's father recanting his testimony.

In it, he included an admonishment to Berry. "It would of came sooner if you would of kept it funky." He added: "I don't want you to get the impression that I'm coming clean out of some feelings of remorse for you, now that ain't the case at all."

It took two more years, and several visits from Justice and Mercy advocates. But eventually, Lloyd agreed to testify. Rush recalls watching Lloyd appear in court via video conference from prison in 2007, stating that Berry was innocent.

Then, the judge cut the testimony short. He told Lloyd to take 30 days to consider the consequences.

After that, Lloyd was appointed with a lawyer. The judge retired. And by the time the case returned to court a year later, Lloyd had decided to invoke his Fifth Amendment right.

Rush had hoped the district attorney might offer him immunity to testify. Instead, the prosecutor on the case confirmed in court that if Lloyd's testimony changed, prosecutors would pursue perjury charges against him. And, she added, "Mr. Lloyd is also subjecting himself to a possible retrial on the charge of murder in the second degree for this crime."

Without Lloyd's testimony, Berry's petition was dismissed. He was out of options.

Then, hope flickered to life again with a series of Supreme Court decisions finding automatic life without parole sentences for juveniles to be unconstitutional and forcing states like Pennsylvania with large numbers of juvenile lifers to revise such sentences retroactively.

For the families of victims like Jones, the resentencings have been excruciating. Jones' wife, age 90, testified as much at Berry's hearing, as did his son and one of his daughters.

"Mr. Berry has never apologized for his actions, nor has he ever taken responsibility. I'm not here for revenge, just fairness," Jones' daughter Shirley Jones Hopkins said before asking the judge to resentence Berry to at least 35 years to life.

Berry was hoping for mercy. In most such cases, a mitigator assembles a packet describing the inmate's prison record and the personal history that preceded the crime. Jean Bickmire, Berry's mitigator, couldn't help including his side of the story.

"The court wants to hear that he's sorry and remorseful before he can be released, so it's problematic to keep saying you're innocent," Bickmire conceded. "But there was no way to really downplay it, because that's the whole crux of his case."

So far, a handful of juvenile lifers who had claimed they were innocent have been resentenced and paroled. At least one other, Terrance Lewis, is arguing both for a new sentence and exoneration simultaneously.

Going into his resentencing, Berry didn't imagine he'd get a chance to clear his name. "Judge, I did not participate in that robbery," he said in court. Then he added, "I understand that, really, the question of innocence is really not of concern today."

McDermott interrupted him: "It's always of concern to this court." She said she at least wanted to know the facts.

If Berry is innocent, he could be released. If not, she said in October, his revised sentence would likely be 30 years to life.
More than six years after authorities rescued four victims from this sub basement of a Tacony apartment building in Oct. 2011, Nicklaus Woodard, the final defendant in a ring charged with kidnapping and exploiting disabled adults for their Social Security checks, pleaded guilty to federal charges Wednesday. Inset: Ringleader Linda Ann Weston. Read more

The final defendant accused in a decade-long, multi-state plot to kidnap, enslave, and torture disabled adults pleaded guilty Thursday to federal hate-crime charges, drawing to a close a case that shocked Philadelphia more than six years ago.

Nicklaus Woodard, 31, of West Palm Beach, Fla., admitted that he helped ringleader Linda Weston hold victims captive for years in cramped basement hovels, cupboards and attics  all so she could steal their government benefit checks.

Weston, Woodard and the other members of what prosecutors have called "the Weston Family" had so terrified their victims that when Philadelphia police found four of them emaciated, covered in filth, and chained in a Tacony apartment basement in 2011, the captives begged investigators not to take them away for fear they would be punished.

"It's a very difficult case," Woodard's lawyer William J. Brennan said Thursday. "The facts are atrocious. But it's important to remember that Nick was only in it for roughly a year."

Woodard's plea comes more than two years after Weston struck a deal of her own with prosecutors in which she agreed to life in prison to spare herself a possible death sentence.

Before his decision Thursday, Woodard  who prosecutors have described as Weston's onetime boyfriend  had been facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 85 years had he taken his chances at trial.

He agreed instead to plead guilty to a host of crimes  including conspiracy, kidnapping and using a firearm in an act of violence  that carry a mandatory minimum of only seven years. Still, he could face up to life in prison at a sentencing hearing set before U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe in April.

Standing before Rufe on Thursday, Woodard  a soft-spoken man with long hair drawn back in braids  appeared to waiver on whether to accept what prosecutors had offered. He criticized Brennan, his lawyer, and expressed displeasure with the deal he had negotiated to spare him 78 years of mandatory jail time.

"I have to sign it," he said, before ultimately agreeing to continue with his guilty plea. "I don't want to get life."

His decision brought to an end the first federal hate-crime prosecution of its kind  one in which the protected victims were mentally and physically disabled adults.

All five defendants have now admitted that they lured and confined mentally disabled targets for more than a decade, while seeking to make money off them in any way that they could.

Together, the group stole more than $200,000 in Social Security benefits from their captives between 2001 and 2011 by pressuring them to sign documents naming Weston their designated payee. They forced others, including Weston's 17-year-old niece, into prostitution.

The group shuttled their captives from Philadelphia to Texas, Virginia, Florida, and back again to avoid detection  and left in their wake the bodies of those who did not survive after being malnourished and beaten with sticks, bats, guns, and hammers.

To keep the costs of care low, they fed their captives with depressant-spiked beans and ramen. And when supplies ran low, they forced them to eat their own and other people's waste.

All the while, Woodard admitted Thursday, they lured in victim after victim by snatching them off street corners, proposing romantic relationships, and even forcing their captives to have children together so Weston could file new government benefit claims.

Prosecutors have said that most of the group's targets were estranged from their families and were lured into Weston's clutches while looking for a place to stay. It was Woodard's job to serve as muscle.

According to court filings, he joined Weston's crew while involved in a romantic relationship with her in West Palm Beach.

Woodard, prosecutors say, beat and pistol-whipped one victim and threatened to shoot him after the man tried to flee.

Weston has admitted that she had that man locked in a closet under a staircase, where she fed him once a day and directed others to unleash a pit bull on him. The dog bit off half the man's right ear, authorities said.

Brennan, Woodard's lawyer, said Thursday that he plans to argue at sentencing that his client's involvement only lasted during the brief period Weston was living in Florida.

Weston is serving her life sentence at a federal prison in West Virginia. Like Woodard, the remaining three defendants  Eddie Wright, 57, of Killeen, Texas; Gregory Thomas Sr., 54, of Philadelphia, and Weston's daughter Jean McIntosh, 38, of Philadelphia  all face sentencing hearings this year.
Julian Assange speaks May 19, 2017, from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Read more

Ecuador has granted citizenship to fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the South American nation announced Thursday, in a bid to end his more than five-year stay at its embassy in London and resolve a protracted dispute with Britain.

But a standoff continued with the British government, which rejected an Ecuadoran request that it grant diplomatic status to Assange, insisting instead that the Australian national must "leave the embassy to face justice."

Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, subsequently said that Assange would not leave the embassy in the absence of security guarantees. She said in a news conference Thursday in Quito, the Ecuadoran capital, that Assange was granted citizenship on Dec. 12, after having applied for it in September.

Espinosa also said that Ecuador was concerned about potential threats to Assange's life from unspecified other nations and was looking for a "dignified" way to resolve an "unsustainable" situation at its London embassy, where Assange has been living in a small office, and end the stalemate with Britain.

The British government said in a statement Thursday that the granting of Ecuadoran nationality "does not in any way change Julian Assange's legal status" in the United Kingdom.

"Julian Assange is in breach of bail conditions set in 2012 and chose to enter the Ecuadorean Embassy of his own volition," the statement added. "The government of Ecuador knows that the way to resolve the situation is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice. Nobody should pretend that granting him Ecuadorean citizenship is a route to solving this longstanding issue."

Assange, who angered the U.S. government when his anti-secrecy organization published troves of classified documents obtained in 2010 from a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, sought refuge in the Ecuadoran Embassy in August 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was sought for alleged sexual offenses. Sweden later dropped the case, but Assange remained ensconced in the embassy because he still faced arrest in Britain for jumping bail.

He also has expressed fear of extradition to the United States, where the Trump administration's Justice Department is weighing whether to charge him for his role in publishing the secret documents leaked by Army soldier Bradley Manning, now known as Chelsea Manning.

News of the Ecuadoran move to grant Assange citizenship emerged Wednesday when the Ecuadoran newspaper El Universo reported that, according to the country's civil register, he had been assigned an identity number. The daily reported that Assange also may have been issued a passport.

The Ecuadoran Foreign Ministry at first responded that it would not address "rumors or distorted or out-of-context information," Germany's DPA news agency reported.

Assange surrendered to British police in December 2010, a month after Sweden requested his extradition, and was held for 10 days before he was released on bail. But when his effort to block extradition was rejected, he jumped bail and became a fugitive, seeking asylum at the Ecuadoran Embassy.

His asylum request was granted by Ecuador's then-president, Rafael Correa, a fiery leftist and fierce critic of Washington who once expelled both the U.S. ambassador and the U.S. Agency for International Development from his country.

However, Correa was succeeded last year by his former vice president, Lenin Moreno, who has sought to put Ecuador on a more moderate path. The new president also engaged in a public spat with Assange over the WikiLeaks founder's vocal support for Catalan separatists in Spain.

The Washington Post reported in April 2017 that federal prosecutors were weighing whether to bring criminal charges against members of WikiLeaks, revisiting the 2010 publication of U.S. diplomatic cables and military documents and investigating the organization's more recent revelation of sensitive CIA cyber-tools.

Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department decided not to charge WikiLeaks for revealing some of the government's most sensitive secrets on grounds that doing so would be like prosecuting a news organization for publishing classified information. But the Trump Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff Sessions has indicated that it may take a different view.

When Assange sought refuge in the red-brick Ecuadoran Embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London, next to Harrods department store in one of the city's poshest areas, he said his underlying concern was that returning to Sweden would lead to extradition to the United States.

Last year, Swedish prosecutors said they were dropping an investigation into sexual assault allegations because they were unable to serve him notice.

Internal memos from staff at the embassy, seen by BuzzFeed and the journalist Fernando Villavicencio, paint a picture of a sometimes stressful and difficult relationship between Assange and his hosts.

A more public dispute emerged in 2016 when Ecuador cut off Assange's Internet connection due to concerns that WikiLeaks was interfering in the U.S. presidential election after the organization published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee.

A medical evaluation of Assange, written anonymously and tweeted by WikiLeaks in 2016, said his bedroom was "just big enough for a single bed and a small cupboard for clothes." It complained that "there is no room for a chair or desk" and that "the room receives no sunlight." It added that Assange has "shared use of a second room," containing a desk, chairs and a treadmill.

At her news conference Thursday in Quito, Espinosa lamented that Ecuador's latest attempts to resolve the stalemate in a way acceptable to Britain were leaked prematurely. Apart from trying to arrange diplomatic status for Assange, she said: "Another option has been granting the asylee a special status, recognized under the Geneva Convention of diplomatic relations, with the aim of increasing his chances of protection."

WikiLeaks first burst onto the world scene a decade ago with headline-grabbing revelations about alleged abuses at the U.S. military's Guantanamo detention camp in Cuba and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The nonprofit, whose mission was to publish leaked documents revealing official malfeasance and overreach, and its flamboyant but reserved boss quickly became darlings of progressives and freedom-of-information campaigners.

But since then, Assange and his organization have fallen from favor, alienating many on the left by providing a conduit for purloined Democratic Party emails that helped undermine Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the stolen material came from Russian hackers working for the Kremlin, although Assange has denied knowing their provenance.

The sexual assault allegations also tarnished Assange's reputation. Unable to interview the only suspect in the case, Swedish prosecutors shelved their investigation, although they could reopen it if they were able to finally gain access to him.

For Correa, providing refuge to Assange offered the then-president a chance to raise his international profile while also cementing his leftist credentials during a stormy period at home. However, Moreno, with whom Correa has now had a spectacular falling-out, has proved a less enthusiastic ally of Assange.

The current Ecuadoran president has publicly told Assange to refrain from getting involved in Catalonia's independence struggle and politics more generally. In response, Assange angrily tweeted back that Moreno was trying to "gag my reporting of human rights abuses."

Ecuadoran analysts said Moreno has been looking for a face-saving strategy to get Assange out of the London embassy, where his continued presence brings the president little domestic political benefit while placing him at diplomatic loggerheads with the United States and other Western democracies.

Ramiro Crespo, a Quito-based investment analyst, said the Moreno administration has become increasingly "uncomfortable" hosting Assange in the embassy, adding that Ecuador no longer needs to deflect attention from its repression of journalists, an authoritarian Correa policy that Moreno has reversed.

"Assange's presence in the embassy has very high diplomatic and reputational costs for Ecuador," Crespo said. "Correa used Assange as a propaganda weapon to say that he was a defender of human rights, something that no one in Ecuador believes anymore."

Moreno "is more pragmatic" and "wants to have good relations with the U.S. and Europe," Crespo added, "and Assange really has no utility for him."
PARIS  French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to introduce a law against "fake news" by the end of 2018. But critics are voicing concerns over what they see as potential infringement on the freedom of expression.

Macron's proposal, announced last week, would add France to a growing list of European countries that have taken official action against disinformation online. A similar German law went into effect Jan. 1, and the Czech Republic established an anti-fake-news task force a year ago.

Although its specific contents have yet to be released, Macron's law would grant judges emergency powers to remove or block certain content deemed to be "fake" during sensitive election periods. It would also require greater transparency for sponsored content and permit France's media watchdog, the Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel, to combat "any attempt at destabilization" by foreign-financed media organizations.

"Thousands of propaganda accounts on social networks are spreading all over the world, in all languages, lies invented to tarnish political officials, personalities, public figures, journalists," Macron told journalists last week.

"We are going to develop our legal means of protecting democracy against fake news."

Skeptics quickly pounced. "The first question is: What is fake news? Who will define it?" said Daniel Schneidermann, a media columnist for the French newspaper Liberation and the director of "Arret sur Images" (Freeze Frame), a leading online venue for media criticism in France.

"Fake news" has been an issue for Macron since France's 2017 presidential election, when numerous false reports claimed that he benefited from offshore accounts  stories that his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen, regularly referenced. His campaign was also targeted in a major data breach on the last day of the contest, when thousands of emails and internal communications were dumped into the public domain before voters went to the polls.

By all accounts, his principal targets seem to be Russian state-owned media organizations, such as Sputnik and RT, formerly known as Russia Today. Both have French-language websites, and RT began broadcasting in France in late December.

At a joint news conference in May, Macron stood next to Russian President Vladimir Putin and decried these Russian news organizations as "organs of influence and propaganda that spread counterfeit truths about me." His view appears not to have changed: RT journalists, for instance, have difficulty securing accreditation for covering French government events.

"RT France journalists had already faced extreme difficulties and discrimination in doing their jobs, which included unfounded denial of access to En Marche HQ and the Elysee Palace," wrote Xenia Fedorova, chief executive of RT France, in an emailed statement. She referred to the headquarters of Macron's political party and the French presidential palace.

"Yet, recent comments by President Macron suggest that we are only at the beginning of curtailing of press freedoms in France  one that begins with an apparent attack against the 'alternative' media but may end up in persecution of all dissent, censorship and suppression of the freedom of speech for all," Fedorova added.

RT has also been the target of a crackdown in the United States, where its English-language channel was required last year to register as an agent of the Russian government in retaliation for allegedly publishing anti-American propaganda. RT's accreditation to cover Congress was subsequently revoked.

Most French journalists are loath to defend RT, and many share Macron's suspicions about the motives of organizations financed by the Kremlin. But some worry that a new regulatory law would be ineffective in fighting disinformation and would establish a risky precedent.

In an editorial, Le Monde, France's leading newspaper, said the law, "on a subject as crucial as the freedom of the press, is by nature dangerous."

In the French press, a common point of reference has been a similar new German law against hate speech. It was nominally intended to fight online threats, misleading accusations or defamation by forcing major social network platforms to withhold certain comments in Germany if they are deemed illegal and offensive and have been flagged by users. Critics call it a prime example of a well-intended law gone wrong.

Since it took effect last week, a number of users  among them prominent journalists and activists  have cited cases of what they perceive as infringement on freedom of speech. The German satirical magazine Titanic, for instance, was temporarily locked out of its Twitter account. A book author said Twitter removed a tweet in which she criticized German authorities for allegedly failing to pursue xenophobia investigations.

Many French journalists and academics point out that France  like Germany  already has regulations that restrict what can be published. An 1881 law, for instance, prohibits "the publication, the diffusion or the reproduction, by whatever means, of false news," among other things.

Macron's interest in social media platforms may only repeat the German example, some critics say.

"In theory, something along the lines of what Macron has proposed makes sense, but in practice it would have important difficulties," said Thomas Hochmann, a professor of law at the University of Reims and an expert on freedom-of-expression issues. "The problem on the internet is rapidity, and it will be hard for a judge to verify very quickly which news items are fake and which are not. Besides, there is a danger that Twitter or Facebook overreact and suppress more content than fake news."

For others, even a well-intentioned law that could be seen as limiting the freedom of expression for political ends would present a dangerous precedent in a European Union where rightist and nativist movements are on the rise.

"I'm very afraid of the bad effects that a law that has good intentions in France can have in other countries," said Frederic Martel, a writer and broadcast journalist on France Culture, a French radio program.

"Macron is the president of France, and I believe that he's somebody in favor of freedom of expression. But we are in Europe, and we have people in Hungary and Poland looking at France," he said. "And if the French president attempts to regulate content, our model will be taken as an example for them, and they can just say they're doing what the French are doing. And of course they will do that with different intentions."

Schneidermann and others see the least risky solution to the problem of fake news as more media literacy, not regulation. This is a line many French news organizations, notably Le Monde, have also adopted, investing heavily in tools that allow readers to investigate the origins of online information sources.

"Schools have a capital role to play," he said. "That's the least bad solution."

Rick Noack contributed to this article.
Ferdinand "Freddy" Augello, 61, was a well-liked guy down the Shore who played guitar in a familiar band, the Who Dat, a long-haired graphic artist who'd walk into a coffee house and sit in with whatever band was playing.

But prosecutors say Augello was also president of the Cape May Chapter of the Pagans Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, and the co-mastermind of a vast Oxycontin operation who conspired with endocrinologist Dr. James Kauffman to keep the drug money flowing by murdering Kauffman's wife, April, in May 2012.

And now, prosecutors say, Augello was recorded "numerous" times admitting to an informant the details of both the drug ring run by Pagans out of Kauffman's Egg Harbor Township practice, and the murder of April Kauffman.

"A confidential informant has had numerous recorded conversations with Ferdinand Augello and other individuals who have admitted to the details of the 'enterprise' including prescription fraud and the murder of April Kauffman," the affidavits, filed along with the murder charges, said.

In addition, affidavits say, in the last three months, Augello had "numerous conversations" with another person in which they planned to commit the murder of Kauffman inside the Atlantic County jail, where Kauffman was being held on weapons charges stemming from a June raid of his office, to prevent the doctor from implicating Augello in criminal activity.

Augello first said he could arrange for a relative in the mafia to take care of Kauffman, a plan that "did not come to fruition," the affidavits said. Later, the co-conspirator advised Augello that he had individuals who would kill Kauffman at the Atlantic County Justice Facility.

"On numerous occasions, Ferdinand Augello advised his co-conspirator that he wanted Kaufman dead and told the co-conspirator to have his individuals to proceed with the plan to kill Kauffman," the affidavit said.

On Facebook, Augello, a 1975 graduate of Holy Spirit High School, is a guy with lots of mutual friends with Shore journalists and musicians, and what appears to be a thriving guitar and graphics business known as Freddymade Guitars.

But documents filed in the case allege that the money James Kauffman and Freddy Augello made with their OXY ring was used to buy "guitars, firearms, vehicles and a home in Arizona."

Kauffman, Augello, and three other co-defendants in the drug ring are scheduled for first appearances later Thursday morning via video in Atlantic County Court. The dramatic arrests cap a nearly five year drought in the case, which was revived by current Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner.

The slaying has long shaken the Linwood community where the Kauffmans, both on third marriages, lived a flashy lifestyle, but the charges announced this week involving Pagans left the local music community equally shaken. "He came in to the coffee house and played guitar with us," said one local musician Wednesday. "Always thought he was nice. Ya never know!!"

The affidavits lay out a criminal enterprise that had essentially infiltrated Kauffman's busy practice, with Augello sending a half dozen Pagan associates into the office regularly to obtain prescriptions for oxycontin. The affidavits say Kauffman received both cash and a promise that his wife would be killed in exchange for providing the opioids to Augello's associates. The money from the enterprise funded both Kauffman's practice and the Pagan Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, authorities allege.

The affidavits allege that Augello, after a year of trying to find a hit man, unsuccessfully soliciting fellow Pagans, hired Francis Mullholland to execute the murder, and paid him $20,000.

"On May 10th, 2012, Mullholland entered the Kauffman home and shot April Kauffman twice, resulting in her death," the affidavit states.

Mulholland, of Lower Township, died in October, 2013 of an overdose, the prosecutor said.

James Kauffman, Augello plus defendants Paul Pagano and Tabitha Chapman all had first appearances via remote video Thursday before Judge Bernard DeLury and were all ordered held pending depention hearings next week.. Pagano and Chapman, who prosecutors said was romantically involved with Augello, are charged with racketeering.
Tana Smith is a professional YouTube personality and has decided to use her program to speak her truth, meaning what is important to her and her life, instead of just DIY decor, in the coming year. Read more

For the last four years, Tana Smith's YouTube channel featured DIY decor strategies and makeup tips. But as a cultural reckoning rages and Hollywood encourages women to speak up, she's refocusing her channel of more than 300,000 subscribers to something more personal: "speaking your truth."

Smith, 24, is now using her online platform to tell her story, even the uncomfortable parts  the painful breakup, the eating disorder, the alcohol addiction. Her aim is for viewers to know they aren't alone in their own struggles, so they might be encouraged to speak their truth, too.

"The reason to speak your truth is to help people and be more connected, and create more of a sense of oneness and community," said Smith, who lives in Kensington. "It's not about being right."

Smith is one of millions of Americans who were struck Sunday night by Oprah Winfrey's rousing Golden Globes speech, but for her, what resonated the most was Winfrey's message of "speaking your truth." The media mogul referenced this three times while addressing the seismic #MeToo movement, including: "What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have."

This idea of subjective truth  your truth, my truth, his truth or her truth  isn't new. But Winfrey renewed the mantra, and with a potential presidential run topping the headlines, she was criticized by some who wondered whether the wording "your truth" diminishes the power of "the truth."

A conversation has since emerged about whether living out your truth is a slip farther into postmodernism, in which facts are distorted by personal bias. Is living your truth a laudable goal, or is it the left's version of Orwellian doublespeak, similar to "fake news" or "alternative facts"? And what if "your truth" is that the Earth is flat or that dinosaurs helped build the pyramids?

As a rule, of course, it's not. When Winfrey and others say, "Speak your truth," they typically mean something more like: Share your perspective, tell your story, open up about your experience. But in an America some call "post-truth," semantics matter.

Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, said the idea of a subjective truth isn't at odds with actual facts.

"Some people say, 'This is postmodern nonsense,'" said Nunberg, a regular contributor on WHYY's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. But "when people are talking about 'my truth,' it's that 'when he hit on me persistently, I was made uncomfortable.' Those truths are the ones that are bubbling to the surface now."

Aliya Steele, a 21-year-old aspiring marketing professional who lives in West Philadelphia, is trying harder to speak her truth. She said she grew up shy, reserved and "agreeable," but is working to better express what she feels in the moment  at work, at home and online  without fear of being judged.

The important part of speaking a personal truth that some people miss, she said, is realizing it also means listening to others' personal truths.

"I kind of feel like there isn't one truth," she said. "Of course there's facts. There's certain things that are true. When it comes to perspective on things? There's a lot of wiggle room."

Alex Crispino similarly described what her "truth" means. She's a 27-year-old who works in learning and development at PricewaterhouseCoopers and also runs a network for women alumni of Temple University. For her, a personal truth means authenticity  "whoever you are, bring your full self."

"You can't verify someone's truth. You can't verify someone's journey," said Crispino, who lives in the city's Francisville section. "And it shouldn't have to be verified. It's theirs."

"Speak your truth" has been cited most frequently in reference to the #MeToo movement, which has empowered people, mostly women, to come forward with stories of sexual harassment and assault. But the terminology has been in use for years, as the title of many motivational speeches, as the crux of a book about recovering from lupus, as a slogan for the self-aware (though recent research shows humans aren't nearly as self-aware as they think they are).

It's that self-awareness that Susan Rocco says allowed her to finally speak her truth. It was Aug. 7, 2012, two days before she was expected to meet with WFYL-AM, a small radio station in King of Prussia, to pitch an idea for a talk show. She wasn't quite sure what the topic would be. That morning, Rocco had one of those visceral shower revelations. At age 48, she realized what she had to offer the world: The power of telling women's stories.

She got the show. Today, she's at a bigger radio station, WWDB (860 AM) in Bala Cynwyd and building Women to Watch, a media company of her own that aims to empower women.

"When I finally spoke my own truth, everything turned around for me," Rocco, 54, said. "What it means to me is to go out into life and live your life as your original self, because that is where you have the most power."
President Trump could sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators as soon as the next few weeks, though any cooperation from the president is being carefully negotiated right now, according to the Washington Post's Carol D. Leonnig.

Leonnig reports that Trump is eager to sit down with Mueller's team in an effort to clear his name, but his lawyers are understandably more cautious. They would like to set parameters for the discussion and possibly respond to certain questions via written answers, as President Ronald Reagan did with Iran-Contra.

In other words, there's a lot that hasn't been decided, and we don't know that Trump will even sit down for an interview at this point. But with the prospect of the president answering questions now on the table, it's worth reviewing a few things that badly need an explanation from the man at the center of this whole investigation.

Here are a few burning questions for Trump.

Why did you craft Donald Trump Jr.s misleading response on the meeting with the Russian lawyer?

After Trump Jr.'s explanation of the meeting fell apart repeatedly, the Washington Post reported that the president himself had dictated Trump Jr.'s misleading statement that the meeting was about Russian adoptions and not the 2016 campaign. At the time, those close to Trump admitted it was a misstep for him to involve himself in the matter, especially in a way that could be interpreted as a cover-up. His team had reportedly planned to be more forthcoming before Trump intervened.

Trump should be asked why, exactly, he thought the statement should be changed and whether it's because he believed it would be wrong or illegal for the meeting to have been about dirt on Hillary Clinton (which is what Trump Jr. was promised). If he didn't think it was wrong, then why did he intervene at all and try to apparently obscure the truth?

 READ MORE: You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.

Some have read this quote as an admission that Trump fired Comey because of Russia, but Trump doesn't state it so plainly. He said Russia was on his mind, but he didn't say that it was the reason he did it. That may seem like quibbling, but the legal standard for obstruction of justice is difficult to meet, especially when a president's broad executive authorities are involved.

It would be great to hear Trump explain his wayward comment to Holt more fully. And if he maintains he didn't fire Comey because of Russia, it would be great to hear why he even brought that up in the Holt interview.

Have you done anything official for the purpose of protecting yourself from this investigation?

This is related to No. 2, but given the sheer volume of things Trump has reportedly done that seem aimed at influencing the investigation, Mueller should get him on the record as denying any of the moves were intended to obstruct justice. Then, the investigators could ask about each one of them, including:

Did you tell Flynn what to say to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about President Barack Obamas sanctions?

Flynn, during the transition period, spoke with Kislyak and asked Moscow not to respond forcefully to the sanctions Obama had imposed for Russian meddling in the 2016 election. He initially denied having discussed sanctions at all.

The question is whether he was acting at the direction of Trump and whether he made Kislyak any assurances about how the Trump administration would handle sanctions. Basically anything Trump knew about this whole back-and-forth seems worth probing.

Did you know Flynn had lied to the FBI when you fired him? And did you ask Comey to take it easy on Flynn?

A month ago, a Trump tweet said he had fired Flynn because Flynn lied to Vice President Mike Pence and to the FBI. The problem: At the time Trump fired Flynn, the public only knew he lied to Pence. And given Comey said Trump asked him for leniency for Flynn soon after firing him, this would mean Trump knew Flynn was under investigation when he sought to intervene on his behalf. In other words, another possible obstruction angle.

Trump's lawyer, John Dowd, later took responsibility for the tweet, saying it was sloppily worded and that Trump didn't actually know that Flynn was in trouble for lying to the FBI. Given the tweet, though, it would seem fair game to ask Trump what he knew at the time  and why, if he didn't know Flynn was under investigation, he would have even asked for leniency. (Trump has denied asking for leniency for Flynn, of course, which would also be good to get on the record in order to compare it with what others have told investigators.)

Did you ever direct anybody in your campaign to reach out to Russia, or did you hear about anybody doing such a thing?

Trump previously denied that anybody in his campaign had contact with Russia. That's now completely fallen apart, so it's worth asking again and seeing how much he changes his statement. How much did Trump know about George Papadopoulos' attempts to broker contact with the Russians? Or about Trump Jr.'s meeting beforehand? Or about Trump Jr.'s contacts with WikiLeaks?

Was Trump really in the dark about all of this, or does he simply not believe it constitutes collusion?
Cristina Jimenez speaks to demonstrators, urging the Democrats to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, during a rally outside the office of California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018. Read more

WASHINGTON  The Trump administration vowed Wednesday to fight a federal injunction that temporarily blocked its plans to rescind work permits for young undocumented immigrants, insisting that Congress must find a solution for those known as "dreamers."

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers said a bipartisan proposal could come as early as Thursday or Friday, but such legislation would likely face fierce resistance from progressives opposed to ceding any ground on immigration rights and conservatives who feel the same on security issues.

President Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a top priority, a stance that was underlined Wednesday with a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement search for undocumented workers at dozens of 7-Eleven stores nationwide. The agency said it was the largest targeting of a single employer since Trump took office.

A key part of the crackdown was the decision to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Trump and his supporters called an egregious example of executive overreach. That effort was upended late Tuesday, when U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said the nearly 690,000 DACA recipients must retain their work permits and protection from deportation while a lawsuit challenging the decision to end the program moves forward.

Dreamers struggled to make sense of the ruling on Wednesday. Initially, they celebrated the injunction in a blitz of phone calls and text messages. But it quickly became clear that this was not the victory they wanted.

Lawyers said the lawsuit and perhaps the injunction could drag on for years, and could also be appealed by the Department of Justice, which spokesman Devin O'Malley said "looks forward to vindicating its position in further litigation." The Department of Homeland Security did not say whether it would begin renewing work permits, despite an order from Alsup to do so, and provided no guidance on its website, which includes a message in red letters: "DACA is ending."

The ruling offers "a temporary window without a permanent solution," said Missael Garcia, 27, a DACA recipient who works as a chef at a Baltimore restaurant and has been saving and building up credit with hopes of opening his own restaurant someday. "This is going to be a continual cycle of protests, marches, civil disobedience."

Leezia Dhalla, 28, came to the United States from Canada at the age of 6. Without legal status, she took out $100,000 in student loans to get through college. Her DACA protections are set to expire May 4, and she's worried that she won't be able to renew her apartment lease or fulfill her dreams of attending law school.

"It's disconcerting because it's so chaotic," Dhalla said. "It feels like an emotional roller coaster to wake up and not have an answers about my future."

Alsup said the government must continue to renew DACA and work authorizations for immigrants who had the status when the Trump administration ended the program on Sept. 5, though he said the federal government could deny them the right to return to the United States if they travel abroad. He also said the government did not have to accept new applicants.

The ruling said California and a host of other plaintiffs had demonstrated that they were likely to succeed on their claims that the Trump administration's recision of the nearly six-year-old program was "capricious," and that the states, tech companies and other employers  and immigrants themselves  had much to lose in the meantime if the administration was wrong.

On the campaign trail, President Trump had called the program an "illegal amnesty"and promised to swiftly eliminate it. But he let it linger for months after taking office, and said he'd treat dreamers with "love" and try to hammer out a deal with Congress.

In September, facing legal action from Republican attorneys general who oppose the program, Trump's administration announced it would phase out DACA starting March 5, when an estimated 1,000 dreamers a day would lose their work permits and protection from deportation. Trump has said repeatedly since then that Congress must pass a law to protect dreamers if they are to be allowed to stay.

"An issue of this magnitude must go through the normal legislative process," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee reiterated Wednesday. "President Trump is committed to the rule of law and will work with members of both parties to reach a permanent solution that corrects the unconstitutional actions taken by the last administration."

Top Democrats and Republicans met again Wednesday to begin sorting through the details of an agreement that would resolve the fate of people protected by DACA; bolster border security; make changes in legal, family-based migration; and end or revamp the diversity lottery system.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted that a solution to DACA must be part of any federal budget deal, an effort to stoke negotiations in coming days. On Twitter, he said the court ruling "in no way diminishes the urgency of resolving the DACA issue. On this, we agree with @WhiteHouse, who says the ruling doesn't do anything to reduce Congress' obligation."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a lead broker on immigration policy, agreed that the ruling "doesn't change the need for us to act, and so we're going forward." But later he told reporters that he didn't think the issue would be resolved by a Jan. 19 spending deadline because there still isn't an actual agreement on spending levels.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who joined Cornyn at the White House Tuesday for a highly unusual televised meeting with Trump, recalled the president asking lawmakers, "Is there anybody here not for taking care of the DACA recipients?"

"Not one of them said they were against that," Hoyer said. "Everyone agreed yes, we need to take care of DACA-protected individuals, we need to take care of them now."

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., hosted Republican senators in his office to follow up on the meeting with Trump. The group has been in discussions for several months in hopes of brokering a deal that could earn the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles in the closely divided Senate.

The fate of dreamers is "hanging out there with great uncertainty," Durbin told reporters. "Whether it's by the president's announcement or a court decision, it's time for us to meet the president's challenge and to create a law that solves this problem."

But any bipartisan agreement could be derailed by lawmakers who oppose any concessions on immigration rights or security issues.

"This particular issue is one that can divide members in the House and Senate from the president if he embraces a deal that is considered too lenient on the immigration issue," warned Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, a strident critic of Trump's calls for a border wall, said many lawmakers are frustrated by the scope of the negotiations. "There's so many moving parts on this, it's even hard to tell who's really doing the negotiating," he said. "It's a mess."

The White House called the injunction "outrageous" and the Department of Justice has said it will appeal.

Kari Hong, an assistant professor at Boston College Law School who supervises a law clinic in the 9th Circuit, said Alsup's ruling signaled the Trump administration couldn't rescind DACA without a solid reason.

"The courts said you can't just change your policy, you have to have facts and you have to have a reason," Hong said.

Immigration lawyers also differed on whether dreamers should renew their status now. Some suggested that immigrants file an application to get their foot in the door while the judge's ruling is pending. But others said they risked losing the hefty application fee and worried that some immigrants would fall prey to fraud.

"It's urgent that we have a permanent solution with a pathway to citizenship," said Ivonne Orozco, 26, New Mexico's teacher of the year, who has lived in the United States since she was 12 years old, brought from Mexico by her parents. She teaches Spanish at a public school in Albuquerque and is also finishing a master's degree at the University of New Mexico with straight A's. Her DACA status expires in 2019.

In a joint news conference at the White House with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Trump was asked if he would support a DACA bill that did not include money for the border wall he has proposed.

"No, no no," he replied. "It's got to include the wall. We need the wall for security. We need the wall for safety. We need the wall to stop the drugs from pouring in. I would imagine the people in the room, both Democrat and Republican  I really believe they are going to come up with a solution to the DACA problem that's been going on for a long time, and maybe beyond that immigration as a whole."
Questions of presidential succession go back even further than when James Garfield, left, died. The 25th amendment sought to clarify the situation, but some now say it could be used to remove President Trump, right, from office. Read more

WASHINGTON  The 25th Amendment is having its moment.

Added to the U.S. Constitution a half-century ago to address the line of succession when a president is unable to fulfill his duties, it is generating buzz because some see it as the crowbar to pry President Trump out of office by finding him unfit.

In fact, it is allegedly being invoked inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., at least according to Michael Wolff, author of the explosive Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. While reporting on the controversial book, he says he would often hear West Wing staffers make those references when they were frustrated by the president's behavior.

"This is, I think, not an exaggeration, and not unreasonable to say: This is 25th Amendment kind of stuff," Wolff said in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press. He said people in the West Wing brought it up "all the time."

"They would say  'We're not at a 25th Amendment level yet,' " Wolff said. Or they would say, " 'OK, this is a little 25th Amendment.' So the 25th Amendment is a concept that is alive every day in the White House."

The 25th Amendment may have little to offer to those who think Trump is unfit for office. It was born on Nov. 22, 1963, on that grassy knoll in Dallas, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. At the time, it was unclear whether Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was also wounded in the attack. Who would lead then? There was no plan.

Before Kennedy, different administrations would draft individual plans for succession, in case something happened, but nothing was formalized.

On Jan. 6, 1965, Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) and Rep. Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.) introduced joint resolutions to create an amendment laying out a transfer of power. The Bayh-Celler proposals were the foundations for 25th Amendment, which was approved on July 6, 1965, and ratified by the states Feb. 10, 1967.

It was long overdue. The question of presidential succession first came up in 1841, when newly elected President William Henry Harrison became ill and died a month after taking the oath of office. Congress was flummoxed about how to address Vice President John Tyler, whether he would be an acting president, temporary president, or as some of his detractors in the Whig party suggested, he would simply be called: "His Accidency." Tyler, a man of action, quickly got a local judge to administer the presidential oath and put a stop to the uncertainty. End of debate.

Until 1881, when President James A. Garfield was shot and clung to life for 80 days. Vice President Chester A. Arthur, the opposite of Tyler, was too nervous about looking like he was trying to seize power to formally take up his duties.

Oh, and then there was 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson had a stroke and his wife, Edith Wilson, essentially ran the country for the final 18 months of his term.

It was clear after JFK's death that we needed something in writing. And so the 25th Amendment was adopted, even though it was still a little vague around the edges. It gave a vice president a clear path to becoming president in three cases: death, resignation, and removal from office. And it gave that new president the power to name a new vice president. President Richard M. Nixon was the first to use the new amendment, in October 1973, when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned and Nixon named Gerald Ford vice president.

The amendment also allows the president to temporarily sign over his power, as President Ronald Reagan did on July 13, 1985, when he had surgery to remove cancerous polyps from his colon and Vice President George H.W. Bush took over for eight hours. The younger President George W. Bush handed the reins over to Vice President Dick Cheney twice in his term, also when he had colon procedures.

But it is the last part of the amendment that is the trickiest, and the most interesting in today's conversation. That allows a vice president, Cabinet, or Congress to determine that a president is unfit for office.

"The president may be nutty as a fruitcake and say 'Yes, I am able,' " one congressman said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a May 17, 1974, story on the amendment, which was being seen as an alternative to impeaching Nixon.

But putting that much power in the hands of others is fertile ground for a coup. And that part is probably why the standards for "able" were never clearly drawn.

When Reagan disclosed that he had Alzheimer's in 1994, former President Jimmy Carter created a task force to work on establishing what, exactly, the physical and mental requirements for being in office should be.

Neurologist James Toole was head of the Working Group on Presidential Disability in 1994.

"I became interested in this problem in the 1960s, when it came to light that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in addition to being physically exhausted, might also have had vascular dementia caused by uncontrolled hypertension and congestive heart failure when he and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill negotiated with Joseph Stalin at Yalta near the end of World War II," Toole wrote. "Subsequent revelations by Churchill's physician, Lord Moran, suggest that Churchill also suffered from increasing dementia during this critical period. Few now dispute that Roosevelt and Churchill were out-negotiated by Stalin, with resulting arbitrary divisions of Poland, Germany, Vietnam, and Korea that sowed the seeds of subsequent hot and cold wars."

Toole argued that presidential candidates "need physicals," particularly mental-health examinations, to hold them accountable to voters. At least 10 sitting presidents suffered from some mental disorder while in office, according to a 2006 study in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

But the amendment does not offer a way to figure out when we have a Roosevelt/Churchill situation, Toole wrote. Instead it enables "a cognitively impaired President who lacked insight into his mental deficiency to obstruct governmental procedures for removal from office (or to resume office), despite persistent deficits. Only a specially trained physician has the skills to determine the presence, treatment, and prognosis for neurologic and psychiatric disease."

He and other the scientists advocated for an independent, medical panel established to determine the physical and mental health of each president. Toole now has dementia himself, and his son, Bill Toole, speaks for him.

"I went through all these sessions. These were the most thoughtful people. Historians, experts, three different sessions over the course of time," Bill Toole said in an interview.

But others argued that a totally neutral panel of medical experts would be tough to find. Doctors can be partisan, too, Toole said.

"Ultimately," he said, "there was no clear solution to this."
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Washington. Read more

WASHINGTON  The Trump administration issued guidance to states early Thursday that will allow them to compel people to work or prepare for jobs in order to receive Medicaid for the first time in the half-century history of this pillar of the nation's social safety net.

The letter to state Medicaid directors opens the door for states to cut off Medicaid benefits to Americans unless they have a job, are in school, are a care-giver or participate in other approved forms of "community engagement"  an idea that some states had broached over the past several years but that the Obama administration had consistently rebuffed.

The new rules come as 10 states are already lined up, waiting for federal permission to impose work requirements on able-bodied adults in the program. Three other states are contemplating them. Health officials could approve the first waiver  probably for Kentucky  as soon as Friday, according to two people with knowledge of the process.

The guidance represents a fundamental and much-disputed recalibration of the compact between the government and poor Americans for whom Medicaid coverage provides a crucial pathway to health care.

The idea of conditioning government benefits on "work activities" was cemented into welfare more than two decades ago, when a system of unlimited cash assistance was replaced by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families with its work requirements and time limits. The link between government help and work later was extended to anti-hunger efforts through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as food stamps are now called.

But most health policy experts, including a few noted conservatives, have regarded the government insurance enabling millions of people to afford medical care as a right that should not hinge on individuals' compliance with other rules.

The Trump administration has signaled from the outset that it wanted to set a more conservative tone for Medicaid, a 1960s-era program that was part of Lyndon Johnson's anti-poverty Great Society. On the day in March when she was sworn in as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma dispatched a letter to governors encouraging "innovations that build on the human dignity that comes with training, employment and independence."

While some conservatives pressed her agency to quickly issue guidelines, lawyers within the the Health and Human Services and Justice departments jockeyed for time to construct a legal justification that they hope can withstand court challenges.

The legal issue is that states must obtain federal permission to depart from Medicaid's usual rules, using a process known as "1115 waivers" for the section of the law under which the program exists. To qualify for a waiver, a state must provide a convincing justification that its experiment would "further the objectives" of Medicaid.

Unlike the 1996 rewrite of welfare law, which explicitly mentions work as a goal, Medicaid's law contains no such element, and critics contend rules that could deny people coverage contradict its objectives. To get around this, the 10-page letter argues that working promotes good health. The guidance cites research that it says demonstrates people who work tend to have higher incomes associated with longer life spans, while those who are unemployed are more prone to depression, "poorer general health," and even death.

"[A] growing body of evidence suggests that targeting certain health determinants, including productive work and community engagement, may improve health outcomes" the letter says.

The critics are prepared to pounce on that rationale.

"This is going to go to court the minute the first approval comes out," predicted Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, whose members reflect a spectrum of views about requiring work.

Once CMS gives one state permission, "we would be looking very, very closely to the legal options," said Leonardo Cuello, health policy director at the National Health Law Program. "It's not a good idea, and it's illegal."

Cuello said the argument that work promotes health is "totally contorted . . . It's a little like saying that rain causes clouds. It's more that people [with Medicaid] get care, which helps them be healthy and makes them able to work."

The most recent federal figures show that Medicaid enrolls more than 68 million low-income Americans, including children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and the elderly. Under the Affordable Care Act, the program has expanded in more than 30 states to cover residents with somewhat higher incomes.

In states that now choose to link Medicaid to work, the requirement would apply only to able-bodied adults as defined by each state.

Sixty percent of Medicaid's non-elderly adults already work, according to a recent analysis of census data by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of those without a job, more than a third are ill or disabled, 30 percent are caring for young children, and 15 percent are in school, the analysis shows.

The CMS guidance gives states a great deal of flexibility to define their own exceptions to a work requirement, as well as what counts toward "work." The letter says that such activities "include, but are not limited to, community service, caregiving, education, job training, and substance use disorder treatment."

The guidance specifies only that "medically frail" people be exempt  though frailty is not defined  and that people with opioid addiction be either exempted or allowed to count time in drug treatment toward work activities. It also suggests that states take into account the local availability of jobs in creating requirements.

In the states that adopt such requirements, critics say, the effect will spread far beyond the healthy adults who do not already comply. Those who have a job, are in school or care for young children will need to document to their state's Medicaid agency that they are in compliance  or risk losing their benefits.

Under Kentucky's waiver application, for instance, people on Medicaid would be required to report income changes within 10 days, noted Cara Stewart of the Kentucky Equal Justice Center. For low-wage workers, such as waitresses with fluctuating wages, "it boggles my mind," Stewart said.

Before she became the CMS administrator, Verma was a health-care consultant who specialized in helping states redesign their Medicaid programs. She was an architect of Kentucky's waiver application once a Democratic governor who had eagerly embraced the ACA was succeeded by Matt Bevin, a Republican who campaigned on a pledge to reverse the program expansion there.

Verma also had a major role in designing an unorthodox approach to Medicaid in Indiana, which had asked the Obama administration to approve a work requirement. In the end, that state included in its Medicaid expansion only an encouragement of voluntary efforts by beneficiaries to train for work or find jobs. Indiana rewrote its waiver request last summer, this time asking for federal permission to compel work activities.

Verma has recused herself from ruling on those two states' requests but has imported the ideas behind them into the new federal policy.
WASHINGTON  President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to these people, referring to African countries and Haiti. He then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met Wednesday.

In addition, the president singled out Haiti, telling lawmakers that immigrants from that country must be left out of any deal, these people said.

"Why do we need more Haitians?" Trump said, according to people familiar with the meeting. "Take them out."

The comments left lawmakers taken aback, according to people familiar with their reactions. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) proposed cutting the visa lottery program by 50 percent and then prioritizing countries already in the system, a White House official said.

The White House released a statement Thursday that did not deny Trump used profanity in the immigration discussion.

Spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement that while some "Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries," Trump "will always fight for the American people."

He said Trump wants to welcome immigrants who "contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation," and will always reject "temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures" that he says "threaten the lives of hardworking Americans" and undercut other immigrants.

Trump has claimed without evidence that Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, wasn't born in the United States, has said Mexican immigrants were "bringing crime" and were "rapists," and said there were "very fine people on both sides" after violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., left one counter-protester dead.

"Racist," tweeted Rep. Kathleen Rice (D., N.Y.) after Thursday's story broke.

Trump has called himself the "least racist person that you've ever met."

For many of Trump's supporters, however, the comments may not prove to be particularly damaging. Trump came under fire from conservatives earlier this week for seeming to suggest he would be open to a comprehensive immigration reform deal without money for a border wall, before he quickly backtracked.

"He's trying to win me back," conservative author Ann Coulter, who has called for harsh limits on immigration, wrote on Twitter.

In the Oval Office meeting, the lawmakers discussed restoring protections for countries that have been removed from the temporary protected status program while adding $1.5 billion for a border wall and making changes to the visa lottery system.

The administration announced earlier this week that it was removing the protection for El Salvador.

Trump had seemed amenable to a deal earlier in the day during phone calls, aides said, but shifted his position in the meeting and did not seem interested.

After the meeting, Marc Short, Trump's legislative aide, said the White House was nowhere near a bipartisan deal on immigration.

"We still think we can get there," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the White House press briefing.

The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe, Maria Sacchetti and Erica Werner contributed to this article, which also contains information from the Associated Press.
Amy Kocis, executive director of the Animal Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley, awaits clients at the food bank with her dog MoMo. Read more

EMMAUS, Pa.  With one eye on the clock, Amy Kocis hustled around the small warehouse with her 3-year-old Shih Tzu, MoMo, tucked under her arm as she stacked cans and bags of pet food.

Outside, despite snow flurries and a biting wind on a recent Friday afternoon, a line of about 40 people waited, stamping their feet to keep warm. Some dragged folded shopping carts behind them from nearby bus stops. Others got out of dented cars, their dogs on a leash.

On the dot at 1 p.m., the doors to the Animal Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley flew open, and for the next four hours Kocis and a team of volunteers doled out pet food and listened to stories. The clients  all vetted as responsible pet owners in need of financial help  filled Kocis in on their pets' latest adventures and current health problems.

"For a lot of them, especially our seniors, their pet is their whole family," said Kocis, the food bank's president.

Launched in 2005, the Animal Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley is one of the longest-operating pet food banks in Pennsylvania. More than 300 families use the service each month, getting free food for their cats and dogs, or their "pocket pets" such as parakeets and hamsters.

Some clients find out about the food bank when they arrive at animal shelters to surrender their pets because they can't afford to feed them.

"It's sad," said Kelly Bauer, executive director of the Center for Animal Health and Welfare in Williams Township. "For the most part it's people who lost their jobs or had a change in their lives, and they don't want to surrender their pets, but they want to do what's best for them."

Bauer said she refers clients to the food bank. The shelter, which houses about 200 cats and 47 dogs, shares some of the pet food donated there to the food bank.

Approximately 7.6 million pets are surrendered to animal shelters each year. According to a 2015 survey by the American SPCA, financial concerns were a major reason that people gave up their pets.

People with a household income of less than $50,000 were most likely to "re-home" their animals because they couldn't afford to keep them, it found. While expensive veterinarian bills were the most common concern of respondents, 30 percent said access to low-cost pet food would have helped them keep their pets.

When people are feeding a lot of pets, the cost adds up quickly said Dick Bowman, a board member at Forgotten Felines and Fidos, a shelter in Germansville.

Bowman said he fields 40 to 50 phone calls a day from people asking for help with cats. When the callers share that they can't afford cat food, he refers them to the food bank or to certain pet stores that donate damaged bags of food.

"People take in stray cats out of the goodness of their hearts not realizing how expensive it can get," he said.

Dry cat food is always the most pressing need at the food bank, Kocis said.

The pet food bank grew out of another group trying to help people down on their luck  the soup kitchen at Trinity Episcopal Church in Bethlehem.

A 14-year-old Girl Scout who was volunteering in the soup kitchen noticed many people were wrapping up half of their lunches to take home to feed their pets. So, she organized a pet food drive for soup kitchen guests to earn a scouting badge. The service became so popular that it spun off and became its own nonprofit.

Now based in Emmaus, the food bank distributes food on the second and third Friday of each month.

"Some of these people can't even afford to feed themselves, but they're willing to stand in line for an hour to feed their pets," said volunteer Lulu Cramsey of Allentown.

Elder advocates have long recognized the benefits of helping older people keep their pets. Having a companion animal can improve mental health, psychologists say, and keep seniors more active.

According to a 2015 study by the University of Rochester Medical Center, patients over age 60 who had pets were 36 percent less likely to report feelings of loneliness. Researchers concluded that pet ownership significantly decreased feelings of isolation in older patients who lived alone.

That's no surprise to Michele Grasso, spokeswoman for Meals on Wheels of Lehigh County.

"We have clients who say they would rather starve than allow their pets to go hungry," she said.

Meals on Wheels in both Lehigh and Northampton Counties offer pet food to clients. About 15 percent of the homebound Lehigh County residents who use the meal delivery service take advantage of the pet service, which is funded through grants and donations, Grasso said.

"The program started because our volunteers were finding that so many clients were sharing their meals with their pets, which they consider their family," she said. "But we want our clients eating all of their meals, because that's what keeps them healthy."

In some cases, Meals on Wheels helps clients with veterinarian bills, Grasso said. The Animal Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley does too, by partnering with clinics that offer free or reduced rate vaccines and no-cost spaying and neutering.

To promote responsible pet ownership, the food bank requires proof that pets are up to date with their shots and also are fixed.

"If they're having difficulty feeding the one, we don't want them coming back and all of a sudden they have the mom plus eight more," Kocis said. "There is a pet overpopulation problem in this area and we can't be a part of that."

The pet food bank is open twice a month; its food comes from corporate and individual donors, pet food companies and big box stores.

As the first clients came through the door on that recent Friday, Kocis handed MoMo  who was dressed in a festive Christmas sweater  to a volunteer and got ready to fill orders. She said she was grateful to be able to help pets, who are sometimes forgotten in this season of giving.

"I do this for the animals," she said.
Black bunting hangs and people hug at the Philadelphia Engine Co 45 Ladder 14 firehouse at 2401 N. 26th St. in Phila., Pa where Lt. Matthew LeTourneau was stationed. Lt. Matthew LeTourneau was killed fighting a 2 alarm fire at 2242 N. Colorado St. In Phila. on January 6, 2018. Read more

The first thing you notice in the firehouse kitchen at Engine Company 45 is that you can't see the walls.

Every inch, floor to ceiling, is covered by plaques. Commendations for heroism, bravery, valor.

This room, where Lt. Matt LeTourneau sat, ate, and laughed with his crew every working day, is literally wallpapered with stories of the lives they saved.

I know this because on a very special day, May 25, 2016, I ate lunch here with the members of Engine 45, Ladder 14, and Medic 25.

The only smoke and fire on that afternoon spouted from the grill where Firefighter Greg Marshall prepared his legendary chicken recipe. Not wearing his protective gear, Marshall was blasted by a steady stream of insults to his cooking prowess, still producing what even his firefighter-critics conceded was a spectacular chicken sandwich.

If a firehouse were a church, the kitchen would be its altar. It is here  too tired and beaten to even speak  that firefighters gather in silence.

Stories of dangers, suffering, lives saved and lost, seen rather than heard in their bloodshot eyes and soot-blackened faces.

Between calls, this same kitchen echoes with laughter, griping, totally inappropriate jokes, and always plans for tomorrow  that almost mystical "day off"  free and safe for a few hours until the next shift, the next alarm. There is always a next alarm.

Seated side by side, the lieutenant and I dug in.This was, after all, no ordinary lunch. It was my last day as a reporter, ending a 45-year career, 36 with CBS3. Lunch with the lieutenant and his firefighters was my final assignment. And that's just how I planned it.

Weeks earlier, I got a surprise phone call from Engine 45's crew asking if "I'd like to drop by for lunch on my last day."

Understand this: An invitation to "drop by" a firehouse for lunch is among the greatest honors I could imagine. Let others show off their embossed invitations to White House galas or ritzy fund-raisers. When a firefighter says, "Come on in, we just put on some coffee," or "Have you had lunch? Got some chicken soup ready," it is a profound compliment.

I wish I could remember more of my conversation with Lt. LeTourneau that day. I know we spoke about our common experiences as volunteer firefighters  Matt with Station 44 in Springfield, Delaware County, before joining Philadelphia in 2007; my 29 years as a volunteer and life member of Narberth Fire Company.

I do recall, however, looking at those plaques surrounding me. So many stories, so many lives saved. How many entire newscasts might I fill with just these tales of courage?

I knew, however, that could never happen for one simple reason: LeTourneau and his crew were bound by a code of quiet humility. The risks, the triumphs, the pain, stayed here, voiced only around this kitchen table. Read the plaques if you like, but if you expect to hear a single, self-congratulatory syllable from LeTourneau or his firefighters, well, find another firehouse or, better yet, another profession.

Lt. LeTourneau and his fellow firefighters didn't arrive at Engine 45 by accident. It wasn't "luck of the draw." The lieutenant and his crew fought to be assigned among poverty-scarred neighbors and crumbling buildings. They knew it is among the busiest, most dangerous fire battlegrounds in the city, but it is here they are needed most, here that their strength, skills, and raw courage so often make the "life or death" difference.

Slowly, more details will emerge, and we'll know more about what happened during those terrible moments on North Colorado Street where Lt. LeTourneau lost his life Saturday.

But I know this now: Lt. LeTourneau made a commitment to put other lives ahead of his own on the first day he set foot aboard a fire truck. Whatever words you use to describe courage, Matt lived it. Every day, every alarm, including his last.

And I know this, too: All the firefighters I lunched with that day, along with scores of others, instantly reacted, offering their lives hoping to rescue the trapped lieutenant.

I know this because as a young reporter at the Gulf Refinery fire, I told of firefighters diving to certain deaths into a lake of burning gasoline trying to save their trapped brothers.

I know this because at the One Meridian inferno, I reported that nearly a dozen firefighters were minutes from dying as their air supply ran out, but they refused to stop searching for three members of Engine Company 11, trapped and killed in the flames.

I know this because Lt. LeTourneau, his crew, and fellow members are an elite group willing always to give their lives for others. They are firefighters.

Soon, there will be more plaques on that crowded wall of courage inside the kitchen of Engine Company 45. Memorials honoring Lt. Matt LeTourneau.

Thanks again, Matt, for your kindness, for that chicken sandwich, and for the chance to know  for far too short a time  a truly great man and firefighter.

Walt Hunter is a former CBS3 investigative reporter and a life member of Narberth Fire Company.
MASPEX is under construction at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The principal investigator is Hunter Waite, who leads a team of deputy and co-investigators that includes Chris Glein (Glein is a pending co-I). Both Waite and Glein hail from SwRI, and have prior experience with Cassini's Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (Waite was the PI). The two were co-authors on a key paper announcing the discovery of molecular hydrogen in Enceladus' plumes, which bolstered the odds for the moon's habitability.

Plumes or no plumes?

The Hubble Space Telescope has looked for plumes around Europa several times, with mixed results. Twice, Hubble saw what looked like a plume coming from the same surface location, but during other observations it saw nothing. In the end, the results were slightly ambiguous, despite the fact that scientists pushed the telescope's capabilities to the limit.

When Cassini flew by Jupiter en route to Saturn in 2000, it saw what looked like a faint torus of water around Jupiter matching Europa's orbit. Something is definitely coming from the surface; the question is, what? Could the Europan definition of a plume be different from that of Enceladus? Perhaps the "plumes" could be weak outgassing from the moon's interior (Earth's Moon does something similar), or molecules getting knocked off the surface by Jupiter's intense radiation.

"It almost seems like it becomes a religious or philosophical point as to whether there are plumes or not," said Hunter Waite in a recent phone interview. "Whereas the answer is there are plumeswe just don't know how big they are."

Hubble saw about 1,000 kilograms of material per second coming from Europa. MASPEX on Clipper will be able to analyze a mere 1 kilogram of material per second1,000 times less than Hubble. "We can look at a lot less dramatic features and obtain extremely interesting information," Waite said.

In the unlikely event MASPEX doesn't get to sniff anything plume-like, there's still probably ocean samples getting knocked off the moon's surface. Europa is littered with cracks and fissures where water and other compounds may ooze onto the surface. Jupiter's radiation splits that water apart, turning minerals and possibly organics dissolved in the water rust-colored, while also blasting some of them into space.

Because there are so many potential sources for what MASPEX sees, a fair amount of detective work, in tandem with other Clipper instruments, will be required to tell Europa's full story. Detecting hydrogen, for instance, could mean there are hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor (this was the conclusion at Enceladus, per the above-referenced paper). But hydrogen can also be created from the radioactive bombardment of surface materials, so the MASPEX team must be careful when pinpointing suspected sources of the compounds they detect. They can do this through a variety of methods, including correlating detections to surface geology, comparing the results to known abundances of compounds from other sources (like interstellar dust) and tracking the altitude, velocity and direction of the materials collected.
VIDEO: NYPD Sergeant Charged with Death of Fellow Officer in Off-Duty Crash

An NYPD sergeant was drunk when he flipped his car in a fiery crash that killed his rookie officer passenger, authorities said last week.

Sgt. Randolph Price is charged with manslaughter in the death of Officer Bianca Bennett, 27, who died in the Feb. 1, 2016 crash near City Island.

The two were on their way home after a day at the NYPD firing range when Price, who was speeding, lost control of the car, hit a tree stump and flipped over, sparking a fire.

Bronx prosecutors indicted Price, 33, for vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving, the New York Daily News reports.

Tests taken at the hospital showed that Prices blood alcohol content was .12  well over the legal limit of .08, authorities said.

Sitting in a wheelchair with extensive injuries to his legs from the crash, Price pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday. He was released on $100,000 bail.
Armor Express, Inc. ("Armor Express"), a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-performance body armor solutions, has merged with KDH Defense Systems. By joining forces, the companies now serve the U.S. Armed Forces, the Department of Defense, federal and domestic law enforcement professionals, and various international agencies across the world.

Since Armor Express was founded in 2005, it has been one of the leading suppliers of concealable and tactical body armor systems to law enforcement, with a distribution network spanning the United States and select international markets. The company has also expanded in recent years, becoming one of the largest providers of protective solutions to federal law enforcement, on the heels of recent contract wins with the Department of Homeland Security and other prestigious federal agencies.

KDH is one of the prime manufacturers of protective gear for the Department of Homeland Security and has several contracts with other federal agencies, in addition to its long-standing heritage as one of the largest suppliers of body armor systems to the U.S. Armed Forces. Since KDH was founded in 2003, it has produced various versions of the Outer Tactical Vest (OTV), Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV), Soldier Plate Carrier System, ATPC Spear system, Modular Scalable Vest (MSV), Light Air Warrior System (LAWS), Ultra Low Visibility Concealable Body Armor (ULV-CBA), and other related products and accessories.

It was also announced today that James R. Henderson has been appointed CEO of Praesidium, the Holding Company that owns both Armor Express and KDH Defense Systems. An industry veteran with over 30 years of operational and financial experience, Henderson also served as CEO of Point Blank Enterprises, Inc. and was instrumental in the Point Blanks expansion and growth with the U.S. Armed Forces, domestic and federal law enforcement, and internationally. He also was responsible for fostering strategic partnerships with supply chain and technology leaders, while working with the industry to optimize performance and deliver the highest quality solutions to our protectors.

The combination of Armor Express and KDH is a win for the industry and the thousands of end-users who rely on both companies life-saving protective solutions," Henderson said. "Manufacturing capacity, ballistic R&D and carrier design capabilities are significantly enhanced, and the platform for growth has never been stronger. The opportunities to continue to partner with leading fiber, fabric, material and component companies are limitless and together, Armor Express and KDH will drive innovation and deliver the highest-performing body armor systems in the industry. We look forward to working with our partners and exploring ways to improve further.

Matt Davis, founder of Armor Express, and Dave Herbener, founder of KDH, will both serve as presidents of their respective organizations, reporting to Henderson. Manufacturing of domestic and federal body armor will continue to be performed at Armor Express facility in Central Lake, MI, and KDH will continue to produce products for its military, government and federal law enforcement customers at its manufacturing facility in Eden, NC.
While the nation's attorney general is calling for a crackdown on legal marijuana, a former California Attorney General is launching his own marijuana distribution business, reports the Orange County Register.

Bill Lockyer, who served as the Golden State's top cop from 1999 to 2007, is co-founder of C4 Distro, a Newport Beach-based company that hopes to distribute cannabis between licensed retailers.

Lockyer, who has experience fighting Washington on the issue of legal marijuana, is among a small but growing group of people making the switch from government to the cannabis industry.

Distributors are the only entities legally allowed to transport marijuana between other licensed businesses. C4 Distro  the business name for Golden Systems LLC  plans to focus on picking up manufactured marijuana products, such as edibles and concentrates, and delivering them to shops that sell them to the public.
A man is accused of putting a police dog in a chokehold and setting a fire in a building near downtown Las Vegas, police documents show.

Wesley Sivac, 38, was arrested this week on suspicion of first-degree arson, burglary, and mistreatment of a police animal in a Sunday break-in to a business, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

There, he put Bear, a police dog, in a chokehold with one arm and held a metal flagpole against Bear's throat with his other arm, Sivac's arrest report said. The police report said Sivac choked Bear while his K-9 handler tried to take Sivac into custody.

"(The dog's handler) could see Bear's eye bulging out from the pressure of being strangled by the suspect," the report said.

Whether the dog was injured was unclear from the report.
A 38-year-old man was arrested and charged Wednesday after he allegedly stole a D.C. police cruiser in Southeast Washington.

D.C. police said Kenneth F. Davis took the cruiser just before 1 a.m. in the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE, outside a convenience store, reports the Washington Post.

Image: Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department/Facebook

A police report said officers parked their cruiser and went inside the store. They saw Davis get into the cruiser and drive off, the report said. The man ran several stop lights along Pennsylvania Avenue and eventually crashed into another cruiser that was involved in trying to catch him.

Davis then tried to flee but was taken into custody, police said.

An officer who was in the cruiser Davis allegedly crashed into suffered an injury to her leg and was transported to a hospital, according to court documents.
The Irena Sendler Exhibition

Until 2 February, 10am to 6pm, Monday-Friday

12 Star Gallery

Europe House

32 Smith Square

London SW1P 3EU

FREE





To mark the launch of the Year of Irena Sendler and to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day Europe House is a host to the new exhibition dedicated to life of Irena Sendler.

Irena Sendler was a remarkable Polish woman who, with the network of helpers she coordinated, successfully enabled many hundreds of Jewish children to survive the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto. She was recognised by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1965.




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Lawrence ODonnell perfectly captures the noose that is tightening around the neck of Trump and his family and the growing terror that the Russia investigation is causing the President.

Video:

ODonnell said, Donald Trump knows tonight that the special prosecutor already has at least two fully cooperating witnesses revealing everything that they know about Donald Trump and might soon have two more. Donald Trump knows that the special prosecutors investigations getting even closer to his son-in-law Jared Kushner who faces the possibility of being indicted for lying about his contacts with Russians and other foreign nationals. In other words, the noose is tightening around the Trump White House and the Trump family. And the president knows by now that all of his lawyers public claims that the special prosecutors work winding down is pure fiction and that the special prosecutor is still adding to his staff of legal experts pursuing this investigation. The most notable new member of the team is Ryan K. Dickey, a federal prosecutor of the Justice Departments computer crimes section. Ryan Dickey participated in the investigation of the famous hacker of Guccifier. Donald Trump does not know how to use e-mail. He clearly does not have the experience or the capacity to even begin to imagine what a cyber investigation actually is and what  and Donald Trump might then actually assume that he is safe from Ryan Dickeys cyber investigation simply because he himself never uses e-mail. But everything that has happened in the special prosecutors investigation, the last seven months has obviously been terrifying for Donald Trump. How terrifying? 100% guarantee that he would submit to an interview with the special prosecutor has now become  well see what happens.

The bravado is gone. Beneath the mountain of tweets, and repeating of the words no collusion like it some kind of positive thinking mantra is fear. Donald Trump is scared. Trump thinks that he can negotiate his way to a better deal with Mueller by saying maybe, or claiming that there is no need for an interview, but the Special Counsel holds all of the cards. Mueller doesnt have to make a deal. He can always subpoena Trump and force him to testify.

It is only a matter of time until a member of the Trump family gets indicted. The fear is real. The country can smell it on Trump each day. With the noose tightening Trump is panicking because, for him, the worst is yet to come.l
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Rachel Maddow torched Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying under his poor leadership the United States is one of the few countries in the world not taking the threat of Russia seriously.

Maddow said Trump isnt just asleep at the wheel when it comes to dealing with the possibility of future Russia attacks, but hes pouring gasoline on the problem.

Video:

Rachel #Maddow Torches Trump For Pouring Gasoline On The Russia National Security Threat pic.twitter.com/fpqMQYML05  Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) January 11, 2018

Maddow laid out all the ways our allies have been fighting the threat of Russia and explained how dangerous the poor U.S. response is for future elections:

Meanwhile, our government is closing the sanctions office and thinking what else to stick in a goody bag for Vladimir Putin. Top Democrat on the foreign relations committee issued a report on what doing in Europe. Ben Carden commissioned this exhaustive look at the threat posed by Putin and action taken across the world to defend against it. With some positive results even though comparative inaction from our government in the U.S., not seen spending money that Congress said should be spent to counter the disinformation. If you have seen coverage, pull quote is that no president ever before has ignored a national security threat like this one. But think, having read the report, its worth noting that not only is our president not leading us to do the kinds of things other countries have been trying to do to put out the fire, in some ways our government has been pouring on gasoline and helping this thing burn.

Its long been known that Russia was working tirelessly to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign. The president still likes to cast doubt on that reality, but its widely accepted by the U.S. intelligence community, and any casual observer with a semi-functioning brain.

Over the past year, though, its become increasingly clear why Moscow was so adamant to have Trump in the White House: Because he is exactly the kind of Putin puppet that Clinton repeatedly warned voters he would be. The presidents repeated efforts to appease and ignore Russia, despite their constant aggression, are just further confirmation of that reality.

As Rachel Maddow said on Wednesday, Donald Trump hasnt just let Russia get away with an attack on U.S. democracy  hes essentially encouraging the next attack, too.
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Nicolle Wallace laid the facts about the 702 provision of FISA and revealed the depth of Trumps ignorance and recklessness on national security.

Video:

Wallace, A quick fact check. No, this is not the act thats been used to abuse the Trump campaign. This is the act thats been used to save countless American lives. In conversations with three former national security officials who served at the highest levels of the last two administrations, that tweet was described as having rattled national security and counterterrorism officials. One, describing it as amazing in its absolute ignorance. Another suggesting that the most alarming thing about the presidents tweet is that it proves hes influenced by the last person he talks to on any topic. In this case, Rand Paul or Fox News. And the third individual confirming that the amount of actionable intelligence gathered on the very intelligence program Donald Trump disparaged on Twitter was, a ton.

It is easy to look at Trumps FISA tweet as just another day in the life of Americans under the most incompetent president in history, but it is so much more than that. Trumps FISA ignorance was a reminder that this very lazy and ignorant individual has control of the nations national security apparatus. Trump almost cost the country dearly with his stupidity.

No matter how one feels about FISA, everyone can agree that the President Of The United States should know and understand the law. Trump plunged the country into chaos because Fox News got him all riled up. America is living on the edge because every day is a national security risk with Trump in the White House.
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Someone in the White House or Congress leaked a Trump outburst where he called dark skin majority countries shitholes, as Trumps racism has never been more obvious.

The Washington Post reported:

President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump said, according to these people, referring to African countries and Haiti. He then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met Wednesday.

To summarize, Trump wants less brown and black people immigrating to the United States and more Nordic and European whites.

And yet, some Republicans cant understand why the vast majority of Americans think that Trump is a racist.

These comments are no surprise. Trump began his presidential campaign by calling Mexicans rapists. This is a man who defended white supremacist violence after Charlottesville. Donald Trump views non-white as inferior. His racist views drive his immigration policy. Trump wants to build a wall along the southern US border because he thinks that all Mexicans are rapists, drug dealers, and criminals. It is no coincidence that Trumps Muslim ban applies to people with brown and black skin.

Trump wants the Dreamers deported. He doesnt want a DACA fix.

Everything that this president has done on the topic of immigration and migration to the United States strongly suggests a racist point of view.

Trump is alienating and destroying the whites-only Republican Party one racist outburst at a time.
Having read the transcript of the interview that Fusion GPS head Glenn Simpson gave to investigators from the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have the following observations:

1) Simpson offered no meaningful support for the truth of the allegations in the Donald Trump dossier that he peddled to journalists. It was his subcontractor Christopher Steele who gathered the human intelligence in Russia that was the basis for the dossier. Simpsons contributions consisted of searching public data sources in a manner that does not sound impressive. For example:

What we generally do at the beginning of a case if its possible is to order all the books about the subject from Amazon so were not reinventing the wheel and we know whats been written and said before. So this was typical. We ordered every Donald Trump book and, to my surprise, thats a lot of books. I was never very interested in Donald Trump. He was not a serious political figure that Id ever had any exposure to. Hes a New York figure really. So anyway, we read everything we could read about Donald Trump. Those books cover his divorces, his casinos, his early years dealings with labor unions and mafia figures.

To the extent that Simpson tried to verify the allegations in the dossier, his efforts were of the theres the bed variety. (Ive got a bed that George Washington slept in. If you dont believe me, theres the bed!) So, for example, if Steele claimed that the Trump presidential campaign was collaborating with a particular Russian, Simpson may have verified that the Russian exists. This description of how Simpson corroborated the claim that Carter Page may have been compromised would be funny in a different context:

Q. So beyond what is in the dossier, did you kind of find any evidence that he had actually been compromised? Now Im speaking of Carter Page. A. Well, the definition of compromised is someone who has been influenced sometimes without even their knowledge. We had reason to believe that he had, in fact, been offered business deals that were  that would tend to influence him, business arrangements.

Unconscious collusion!

Basically, Simpsons story is that he considered Steele reliable, and Steele is responsible for the dossier. Simpson has little or nothing to add, if ones concern is whether the dossiers allegations are true. He refused to describe any efforts he may have made to determine whether Steeles anonymous Russian sources were trustworthy.

2) Simpson appeared voluntarily, and his lawyers asserted numerous objections, so that Simpson failed to answer many relevant questions. (Like, for example, who paid him for his anti-Trump research.) The objections strike me as frivolous; I never learned about the opposition researchers privilege when I was in law school.

3) Simpson describes without embarrassment how he shopped Steeles alleged dirt on Trump to various media outlets:

Q. So with the second one on page 8 of Exhibit 5, under the response to 18 Steeles attorneys state The journalists initially briefed at the end of September 2016 by the second Defendant and Fusion at Fusions instruction were from the New York Times, the Washington Post, Yahoo News, the New Yorker, and CNN. The second Defendant  that would be Mr. Steele  subsequently participated in further meetings at Fusions instruction with Fusion and the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Yahoo News which took place in mid-October 2016.  In addition, and again at Fusions instruction, in late October 2016 the second Defendant briefed the journalist from Mother Jones by Skype.  The briefings involved the disclosure of limited intelligence regarding indications of Russian interference in the U.S. election process and the possible coordination of members of Trumps campaign team and Russian government officials. To the best of your knowledge, is that a full and accurate account of all the news organizations with which Fusion and Mr. Steele shared information from the memoranda? A. Id say its largely right. Q. Are there any that have been omitted? A. Maybe, yeah.

Simpson essentially admitted that he peddled the fictions about Trump at the behest of Hillary Clintons campaign (even though he never identified that campaign as his client):

Q. Was part of the purpose of your investigation to share information with journalists? A. I think thats a fair statement.  As I said earlier, in any project, and that would include this one, the objective is to gather relevant information, and some of that information was gathered for other purposes and some of it was gathered for the possibility that it might be useful to the press. Q. Did your client instruct you to have these meetings? MR. LEVY: The answer to that question might implicate privilege or obligations that weve set forth.

4) When it came to the FBI, Simpson once again passed the buck to Steele. Steele proposed contacting the bureau, simply as a matter of civic duty:

Q. To clarify, you were saying his interactions with the FBI were not part of your project? A. They obviously grew out of the project, but as he explained it to me, you know, when you learn things in your daily life that raise national security considerations youre obligated to report them. So that wouldnt have anything to do with my clients goals or project.

Simpson doesnt seem to have participated in Steeles meetings with the FBI, but he agreed with Steele that Steele should take his dossier to the Bureau and try to interest them in it. Simpson also was involved in lobbying media outlets to press the FBI for statements on whether the Bureau was investigating Trumps purported connections with Russia. Steele and Simpson enlisted John McCain to make sure that the dossier reached the Bureaus highest levels:

He says he wants information to give to Senator McCain so that Senator McCain can ask questions about it at the FBI, with the leadership of the FBI. That was essentially  all we sort of wanted was for the government to do its job and we were concerned about whether the information that we provided previously had ever, you know, risen to the leadership level of the FBI. We simply just didnt know. It was our belief that Director Comey if he was aware  if he was made aware of this information would treat it seriously.

5) The lawyers representing Republicans on the Senate committee were very interested in another project that Fusion GPS carried out at the same time it was trying to smear Donald Trump on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC. This project was the Prevezon case, where Simpson did research on behalf of a Russian company called Prevezon, through Prevezons lawyers in the lawsuit. What is interesting about this is that the Russian lawyer for Prevezon was Natalia Veselnitskaya. As such, she was responsible for paying Fusion GPSs bills.

You may remember that Veselnitskaya was the Russian lawyer who met briefly with Donald Trump, Jr. and others in a conversation that Democrats have absurdly labeled as treasonous. It turns out that Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS had a far closer relationship with Veselnitskaya than Trump, Jr. did:

Q. Was it your understanding that the research you provided to Baker Hostetler would then be passed on to Ms. Veselnitskaya? A. To the extent that it was useful and interesting to her Im sure they did, yes.

Simpsons schedule for June 8 through 10, 2016, is interesting:

Q. You mentioned you had dinner with Ms. Veselnitskaya on June 8th and 10th of 2016. Were you generally aware of her trip to the United States in June? A. I was. She had trouble getting a visa and the lawyers  there was some drama over whether she could get a visa.  I remember that at the last minute she got a visa to come to this Appellate Court hearing on June 9th in New York. Q. And that hearing was on June 8th; is that correct? A. I believe it was June 9th. Q. Did you have any other information about Ms. Veselnitskayas itinerary or intended activities on this trip? A. No. I mean, I can tell you what I knew. I knew she was coming in I guess on the 8th. I dont have a clear recollection of the dinner, but I know  I believe we had a dinner. The problem is I had more than one. So I dont have a clear recollection of it. Anyway, I saw her the next day in court at this hearing and Im sure we exchanged greetings, but, as I say, she speaks Russian and I speak English.  Q. So you had dinner the 8th, saw her in court on the 9th; is that correct? A. Yes. Q. And dinner again on the 10th? A. In D.C.

Ms. Veselnitskaya found time in her busy schedule to meet briefly with Donald Trump, Jr.:

Q. It has widely been reported Ms. Veselnitskaya and Mr. Akhmetshin and others met with Donald Trump, Junior, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner on June 9th, 2016. Were you aware of this meeting beforehand? A. No. Q. It didnt come up at the dinner the night before? A. No. Q. When did you first become aware of the meeting? A. Around the time it broke in the New York Times. I was stunned.

No one asked why Simpson was stunned. He went on to acknowledge that Veselnitskaya may have wanted to convey to the Trump group information from the Prevezon case, in which case it could have come from him.

I dont think one can tell from the Simpson transcript itself what significance his relationship with Veselnitskaya has, but if it is a coincidence, it is a pretty remarkable one.

Taken as a whole, Simpsons statement is interesting, if you like that sort of thing. But it contains no earth-shaking revelations, and is consistent with what I believe to be true: that a Republican presidential contender, followed by the Clinton campaign and the DNC, paid Fusion GPS to try to dig up dirt on Donald Trump; that Fusion hired Christopher Steele to see what he could find in Russia; that Steele either concocted fables or was happy to pass on claims from anonymous (maybe non-existent) sources, some of which have proven indisputably false, while others are unverified; and that Simpson and Steele tried to help Hillary Clinton win the election by peddling their false stories to numerous left-leaning news outlets, and by trying to stimulate an FBI investigation, which they urged reporters to ask the FBI about. It is a sordid story, and one that deserves unequivocal condemnation from all points on the political spectrum.
Google has quietly inaugurated a system in which, when you search for a news site, they subjectively evaluate the site for you, including, in some cases, highly selective fact checks. I learned about this from the Daily Caller, which is incensed:

Google, the most powerful search engine in the world, is now displaying fact checks for conservative publications in its results. No prominent liberal site receives the same treatment. And not only is Googles fact-checking highly partisan  perhaps reflecting the sentiments of its leaders  it is also blatantly wrong, asserting sites made claims they demonstrably never made. When searching for a media outlet that leans right, like The Daily Caller (TheDC), Google gives users details on the sidebar, including what topics the site typically writes about, as well as a section titled Reviewed Claims.

***

[A] review of mainstream outlets, as well as other outlets associated with liberal and conservative audiences, shows that only conservative sites feature the highly misleading, subjective analysis.  Big name publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times are even given a column showcasing all of the awards they have earned over the years.

So what do you now see on Google if you search for Power Line? They feature, with pictures, three seemingly random posts we have done over the last day or two. For no apparent reason, they have a link that takes you to my author archive. They have a sidebar that features a blurb from left-leaning Wikipedia, along with Topics They Write About.

Note that they dont, as of today, have a fact check section for us. But this is where the mischief starts. As you scroll down, you are directed mostly to what leftists think of Power Line. First you get Wikipedia, then a Media Bias/Fact Check, followed by our Facebook page, which we dont really use and which gets very little traffic, and then the far-left Media Matters take on Power Line. Note that Media Matters says that I run Power Line, which is ridiculous. Im not sure Media Matters has ever once gotten anything right:

This is not what a Google search on Power Line would have yielded a week or two ago.

Google evidently is sponsoring web site evaluations by Media Bias/Fact Check. I havent yet figured out who these guys are, but this is how they describe Power Line. Click to enlarge:

I have said before that I dont mind being placed on the right; the question is, who is on the left? In other words, if someone says we are on the right, Fidel Castro was on the left and Paul Krugman is a centrist, we have a problem. But from what I have seen, MB/FC is pretty fair in its evaluations. We are in good company on the right, along with American Enterprise Institute, American Thinker, City Journal, Daily Caller, Federalist Society, Fox News, Heritage Foundation, National Review, PJ Media, Ricochet, The College Fix, Turning Point USA, Washington Free Beacon, and many more of our friends.

Who, then, is on the left? Black Lives Matter, CNN (!), Center for American Progress, Cosmopolitan, Daily Beast, Esquire Magazine, Gizmodo, Huffington Post, Media Matters, Ms. Magazine, MSNBC, New Republic, New Yorker, New York Magazine, People Magazine (!), Salon, Slate, and many more.

One can always quibble, but I think that is pretty fair.

Google has gone after some conservative sites much harder than Power Line; Gateway Pundit, for example.

We definitely need to keep an eye on this. There is no doubt that Google is a liberal organization that ruthlessly enforces leftism, where it can. Liberal companies that largely control the internet, like Google and Facebook, are obviously gearing up to meddle in the 2018 and 2020 election cycles on behalf of the Democratic Party. They are doing this by using fake news hysteriaeven though that term has been almost entirely co-opted by President Trumpas an excuse to steer people away from conservative web sites, and toward liberal ones. I suspect we will revisit this topic more than once between now and November.

In the meantime, if I were giving legal advice to Google, I would urge them to be careful. Google has monopoly market shares both in search and web advertising. If Google is misusing that monopoly power to advance a partisan political agendawhich, I think, it pretty clearly isthat could well be the basis for antitrust enforcement action. The obvious remedy would be to split Google into eight or ten different companies, in order to assure competition both in search and in web advertising. I would be surprised if that sort of remedy is not being contemplated right now in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. If it isnt, it should be.
Yesterday I posted 15 notes plus an afterthought on the transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee staff interview of Fusion GPS principal Glenn Simpson. I want briefly to round up my number of notes to 20.

16. The express terms under which Simpson testified do not appear in the transcript. One must infer them from the comments interjected by Simpsons lawyer at the interview. Certain subjects were off limits. One such subject was the identity of Simpsons client(s) on the Trump project. Now we know that Simpson retained Christopher Steele to tap his Russian resources for human intelligence on Trump (as Simpson styles it) on behalf of the Clinton presidential campaign, through GPS Fusion. At the time of the interview last year on August 22, Simpsons client remained deftly hidden behind the wall of the Perkins Coie law firm, the home of Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias. Reading the transcript, one must keep in mind Simpsons ardent efforts to keep the true nature of the project hidden.

17. In his testimony, Simpson presents the authorized or heroic version of Steeles work that appears in Howard Blums March 2017 Vanity Fair account. Moreover, in his New York Times op-ed column last week, Simpson says he did not inform Steele whom GPS Fusion worked for. Once Steele tapped into his Russian sources and learned what the Russians had on Trump, Steele set out as a free agent to save the republic by sharing his information with the FBI. This may be so, but I find it about as credible as Simpsons assertion that Steele had the superhuman power to distinguish fact from fiction when dealing with his sources. In the heroic version of the story presented in Simpsons testimony, Steele has messianic power undertakes his messianic mission.

18. It is almost unbelievable that at the time Simpson was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign he was also working with the BakerHostetler law firm on behalf of the Russian oligarch Denis Katsyv and Prevezon Holdings in support of their defense in the asset forfeiture/money laundering case brought by the United States. Simpsons work required him to dog Bill Browder, the well-known proponent of the Magnitsky Act. Indeed, as I understand it, Magnitsky originally uncovered the facts underlying the governments case against Prevezon. In the interview counsel asks Simpson the obvious question whether he understood his work on the Prevezon case principally to have benefited the Russian government (page 184). Suffice it to say that Simpsons labored answer (pages 185-186) does not enhance his credibility as a witness.

19. Business Insider recounts the Prevezon strand of Simpsons testimony pursued by Republican counsel during the interview and places it in its larger context here. See also Daily Beast stories here (December 2015, by Michael Weiss) and here (July 2017, by Harry Siegel) for helpful background on the governments case against Prevezon.

20. Simpson repeatedly testified that Steele broke off relations with the FBI upon the publication of the October 31 story by Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers Investigating Donald Trump, FBI sees no clear link to Russia. If the Times story was accurate, the FBI must have renewed its interest in the investigation in the immediate aftermath of President Trumps surprise victory on election day the following week.

Simpson to the contrary notwithstanding, David Harsanyis New York Post column observes that The Trump dossiers credibility is collapsing. Democrats and their media adjunct have their story and theyre sticking to it. I cant help but wonder whether the true nature of the FBI counterintelligence investigation and the collusion story manifested in the Clinton campaign will be revealed before Republicans lose their congressional majorities. When that happens, their investigations will be shut down by Democrats whose interest is confined to removing President Trump from office.
Having read the transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee interview of Fusion GPS principal Glenn Simpson by Senate Judiciary Committee staff, I want to post a few notes and observations on the transcript. The partially redacted transcript was posted online yesterday by Senator Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein posted the transcript here. The transcript runs 312 pages.

All we have is the transcript itself. Feinstein omitted exhibits and other matter related to the transcript. Mollie Hemingway provides her 10 takeaways in a good column at The Federalist. Here are my own, several of which overlap with Hemingways (and Johns in the adjacent post).

1. Simpson was threatened with a subpoena. Instead he appeared voluntarily under a written understanding regarding the parameters of the interview. He was not placed under oath. Rather, he was reminded that false statement to Congress are punishable under federal law. He was represented by counsel during the interview. Republican and Democratic committee lawyers took alternate one-hour turns questioning Simpson.

2. The transcript is of interest because of Simpsons role in retaining British former MI6 man Christopher Steele and procuring his preparation of the memos that make up the Steele Dossier for the Clinton campaign. The memos feature salacious allegations from anonymous Russian sources regarding Donald Trump and the Trump campaign.

3. We want to know whether the Steele Dossier was used by the FBI to support FISA applications for warrants that led to FBI surveillance on the Trump presidential campaign. Andrew McCarthys current NRO column on the Steele Dossier is must reading in this context. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has only now obtained the FISA warrant application and other related materials that he has sought since this past August. The Wall Street Journal noted editorially yesterday: House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes had threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in contempt if they refused to comply. Something tells me that the documents are unlikely to vindicate the FBI and the Department of Justice.

4. Simpson/Fusion GPS was retained by the general counsel of the Clinton presidential campaign to provide research on Trump. In his testimony Simpson quibbles about the use of the term opposition research to describe his work. His quibbles on this point do not point to his credibility as a witness.

5. Simpson in turn hired Steele in April/May 2016 to provide human intelligence on Trumps Russian connections. Simpson generated the memos that make up the Steele Dossier based on his conversations with Russian sources.

6. Why should those Russian sources be believed, rather than discounted as friends of Vladimir Putin volunteering disinformation? Simpson addresses this point repeatedly, mostly in response to questions posed by Democratic counsel. See, e.g., pages 89, 93, 95, 147, 148-149, 162, 235, 239, and 278.

7. Simpson credits Steeles expertise and superhuman powers to identify disinformation. He relates Steeles comments on the subject at page 239: What he said was disinformation is an issue in my profession, that is a central concern and that we are trained to spot disinformation, and if I believed this was disinformation or I had concerns about that I would tell you that and Im not telling you that. Im telling you that I dont believe this is disinformation. What is to be said? This is laughable.

8. From the time of his first memo in June 2016, Steele is alarmed by what his Russian sources tell him. Steele believes that the Russian government holds compromising information on Trump and that Trump is being blackmailed. He believes he must report his information to the FBI. Though Steele himself is a British citizen, is on a mission to save the republic. He arranges a meeting with the FBI (the name of the agent is redacted) the following month in Rome. According to Simpson, this has nothing to do with Steeles work for him and the Clinton campaign. See, e.g..g, pages 168, 225-226 (the point I was making earlier which was this was something that I considered to be something that Chris took on on his own based on his professional obligations and not something that was part of my project).

9. Steele met with the FBI to present his information again in mid- to late September 2016 (pages 171-172, 175). At this meeting, according to Simpson, Steele was told the FBI had verified some component of his (Steeles) reports through a source in the Trump campaign. However, the FBI had no source inside the Trump campaign. Simpsons reference was to George Papadoplouloss drunken musings to the Australian ambassador, subsequently reported by the ambassador to the FBI. Mollie Hemingway takes up this point, but it has been widely reported by others including CNN.

10. Simpson and Steele conducted off-the-record briefings on the Steele Dossier (the memos) in late September/early October 2016. Michael Isikoff picked up theor story for Yahoo News and David Corn for Mother Jones. At that time Simpson and Steele were pitching the FBI investigation and the FBI investigation figured prominently in their stories.

11. Republican counsel questioning Simpson focused mostly on Simpsons simultaneous work with the BakerHostetler law firm on behalf of the Russian company Prevezon in support of its defense of the money laundering/asset forfeiture case brought by the Untied States (in the case underlying the Magnitsky Act). Simpsons work with BakerHostetler brough him into contact with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya immediately before and after she met held the infamous meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. et al. at Trump Tower. Simpsons job was to provide research undermining the credibility of Bill Browder, the proponent of the Magnitsky Act in the United States and similar laws elsewhere.

12. As for his work with BakerHostetler, Simpson says (page 184): I was acting  lawyers hire me to do research for them, the research is their property or their clients property, its not mine. So if they want me to provide it to somebody else, its their information. This seems a more straightforward account than the one Simpson provides for Steeles work on Trump. The use of the Steele Dossier by the Clinton campaign is absent from Simpsons testimony.

13. Simpson presents himself as a master of the literature on Trump and Russia, but he asserts as a fact that the Republican Party changed its platform to benefit Russia at the GOP convention (page 170). In his Washington Examiner column this past November, Byron York characterized this proposition as one of the enduring misconceptions of the Trump-Russia affair.

14. Simpsons testimony should be read against his January 2 New York Times op-ed column (written with Peter Fritsch). I find Simpson to be a misleading spokesman for himself in the interview and his column. In the column, for example, Simpson asserts: We dont believe the Steele dossier was the trigger for the F.B.I.s investigation into Russian meddling. Reading the transcript of Simpsons testimony, however, one would reasonably conclude that Steele and his dossier were instrumental to the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign.

15. One of Simpsons attorneys emphasizes the sensitivity of Simpsons testimony. He asserts toward the end of the interview: Somebodys already been killed as a result of the publication of this dossier and no harm should come to anybody related to this honest work. (That honest is a red flag, like a politicians prefacing a statement frankly.) Now, however, Feinstein has released the transcript on Simpsons demand. My general observation on Simpson, his column, and his story is that they dont compute.

Quotable quote (page 239): [D]isinformation is an issue that Chris wrestles with, has wrestled with his entire life. So if he believed any of this was disinformation, he would have told us.

NOTE: Vanity Fair published what I call the authorized or heroic version of the story behind the dossier in Howard Blums Vanity Fair March 30 account How ex-spy Christopher Steele compiles his explosive Trump-Russia dossier. Toward the end of his account, on which he seems to have benefited from the assistance of Steele and/or Simpson, Blum writes: Oleg Erovinkina former F.S.B. general and a key aide to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister who now heads Rosneft, the giant Russian oil company, and whose name is scattered with incriminating innuendo through several memoswas found dead in his car the day after Christmas. I would apply a heavy discount to any such speculation on the cause of mysterious deaths in Russia (and a 100 percent discount to any such allegation in this context), but Erovinkin may well be the guy to whom Simpsons lawyer was referring. I meant to add this as number 16 to my notes above before I lost my train of thought.
On Monday, the Trump administration announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador who, without that status, will be illegal. The termination will take effect in 2019.

The El Salvadorans in question are those who were living illegally in the U.S. when earthquakes struck their country way back in 2001. The idea, as Mark Krikorian reminds us, was to hold off temporarily on sending them home (and give them work permits) until the effects of the natural disasters in El Salvador subsided.

Thus, contrary to claims by various liberal news outlets (e.g., Newsweek and Vox), this is not a refugee-like program for people fleeing natural disasters or civil strife. It is not, as Sen. Kamala Harris ignorantly stated, for people who rebuilt their lives in the U.S. after fleeing an earthquake

The beneficiaries of the TPS, illegal aliens to begin with, chose to ride their luck, hoping either that the temporary program would endure or that, if it ended, they could resume being illegal immigrants and avoid deportation (as most illegals do). They had no right to assume their TPS-protected status would continue forever.

Their protected status did continue for more than 16 years, with a 17th promised to them. Now that its coming to an end, they can either leave the U.S. or resume their status as illegal aliens, subject to deportation but not all that likely to be deported. (According to Krikorian, the U.S. deports about 20,000 Salvadorans a year. Even if that number doubles, most of those who lose their status will remain here for years).

The Trump administration made the right call. As its name tells us, Temporary Protected Status is temporary. It covers situations where extraordinary and temporary conditions mean that the country from which the immigrants came is unable to handle adequately [their] return.

As noted, we are returning approximately 20,000 Salvadorans per year. Thus, its hard to argue that El Salvador cant handle the return of these immigrants. But even if it couldnt this would not be due to extraordinary and temporary conditions. Rather, it would be due to the permanent situation in El Salvador.

The Washington Posts editors argue that ending TPS will hurt many and help no one. It will hurt many because El Salvadorans  some with children born in the U.S. and some with mortgages and businesses here  will be uprooted and because El Salvador will lose the money many of the immigrants send home. What is to be gained by imposing such hardship, the Post asks.

Note that the same argument applies to a great many illegal immigrants who didnt have TPS protection and have been in this country for more than a few years. They too may well have children born here, may well have mortgages or a business, and may well be sending money home. The Posts argument is a recipe for non-enforcement of our immigration laws which is probably what the paper prefers.

I dont accept the Posts premise that our laws can be applied as intended and as written only if a cost-benefit analysis so warrants. Its up to Congress to set immigration rules. If the Post thinks the rules cause more harm than good, it should encourage Congress to change the rules, rather than encouraging the executive to ignore them.

In any case, the Post ignores an obvious benefit to applying TPS as written and intended. The failure to do so undermines efforts to pass immigration reform.

Immigration reform deals follow a familiar pattern: Illegal immigrants get some form of legal status in exchange for statutory language that, if implemented, will discourage or prevent future illegal immigration. Unless those who insist on such statutory language can be confident that the language will be adhered to  rather than ignored on humanitarian grounds and/or ad hoc cost benefit analysis  these legislators have no reason to make such deals.

Sen. Tom Cotton made this point during the meeting President Trump held with congressional leaders this week. He said, pointedly (though Democrats declined to take his point) that its lack of trust that stands in the way of immigration deals such as the one Trump hopes will be reached on DACA.

The failure for years to apply TPS as written and intended is just the kind of thing that fuels distrust and stands in the way of future legislative fixes and deals. The hue-and-cry that accompanies Trumps decision finally to apply TPS correctly  especially the Posts claim that nothing is gained by doing so  should add to the distrust.
Today, during a news conference with the prime minister of Norway, reporters asked President Trump whether he will submit to an interview with Robert Mueller without preconditions. Trump responded: Ill speak to attorneys, well see what happens.

Trump went on to say:

For 11 months, theyve had this phony cloud over this administration, over our government, and it has hurt our government. When they have no collusion, and nobodys found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that youd even have an interview.

The New York Times calls Trumps answer a marked change from last June, when Mr. Trump. . .said he would 100 percent be willing to give a sworn statement to Mr. Mueller. I dont see a change, though. Trump could give a sworn statement to Mueller without doing an interview.

In any event, the situation has changed markedly since last June. Serious questions have been raised as to whether Muellers team of Trump-hating partisans is conducting a fair investigation. Moreover, the investigation has spilled over into areas Trump probably didnt anticipate.

The president seems to have understood Mueller to be investigating issues of Russian interference in the election and allegations of collusion between Trump and the Russians. Increasingly, though, it seems to be focusing on whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Muellers friend and comrade-in-arms, James Comey.

In addition, it may well be that Mueller is trying to set the president up for charges of lying to federal investigators, with the interview as his vehicle. In other words, Mueller may be laying a trap.

Under these circumstances, it makes sense that Trump is unwilling to commit to an interview, without preconditions, with Mueller and his team. Ultimately, he might agree to such an interview. Alternatively, he might, for example, agree to answer written questions, either on all topics or just on matters relating directly to claims of collusion.

In any event, Trump is best advised to keep his options open.
U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo wants the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to hold a public hearing in Cape May County on a recently released proposal to allow oil and natural gas exploration in the Atlantic Ocean.

Drilling in the Atlantic has been banned for decades.

In a letter to BOEM, LoBiondo, a longtime staunch opponent of drilling off the New Jersey coastline, said the proposal poses serious economic and environmental risks to the marine wildlife and fish populations that our commercial fishermen rely upon for their livelihood, and pristine state beaches that support our tourism industry.

The fishing and tourism industries together bring in about $45 billion per year, he said.

Last week, the Trump administration announced a plan to open offshore drilling in the Atlantic from Florida to Maine, as well as off California and in the Arctic.

Republican Gov. Chris Christie and LoBiondo, R-2nd, each issued statements in strong opposition to the plan, as did many Democrats, such as U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.

On Tuesday, the administration said it would not allow oil drilling off Florida, abruptly reversing course under pressure from Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

The administration said Scott had convinced them Floridas coastal tourism industry was singularly important to the state, needing special protection from the possibility of an oil spill.

Critics have accused Trump of favoring the state where he owns the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach and questioned why Floridas tourism industry is deemed more important than those of other states.

Trump White House revives push for oil, gas drilling in Atlantic After the Obama administration gave up opening parts of the Atlantic Ocean to oil and gas dr

In Wednesdays letter, LoBiondo called it imperative that BOEM hears from residents, businesses and local officials in communities along South Jerseys coast before moving forward with drilling in the Atlantic.

South Jerseyans concerns can only be properly voiced by those on the ground who are directly impacted by the administrations proposed plan, LoBiondo wrote.

LoBiondo announced on Election Day last November he would not seek re-election in 2018.

This summer he joined with local business leaders, environmental groups and elected officials in Avalon to rally against plans to proceed with seismic testing off the Jersey Shore, a precursor to drilling.

Opposition to drilling has long been a bipartisan issue in New Jersey. All say the states tourism and fishing industries are too important to risk.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  A township man who was arrested Dec. 29 after police found him carrying an assault firearm and ammunition will appear in court for a detention hearing Friday.

Thomas J. Turner Jr., 42, of Galloway, will appear before Atlantic County Superior Court Judge John R. Rauh.

Police found Turner wearing a black tactical vest and carrying a backpack with an assault firearm  specifically a .45 caliber Encom MP-45 assault pistol  along with a 30-round extended magazine, loaded with 17 bullets, on the 200 block of East White Horse Pike, police said in a news release.

Galloway man arrested while carrying assault weapon, police say GALLOWAY  A township man was arrested Friday after police found him carrying an assault fir

Turner also was allegedly in possession of 15 grams of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

Police said he was arrested on the following charges: possession of an assault firearm, possession of an assault firearm while in the course of committing a controlled dangerous substance offense, unlawful possession of an extended ammunition magazine, possession of Schedule I drugs (methamphetamine and heroin), possession with intent to distribute CDS.
MAYS LANDING  Authorities have moved Dr. James Kauffman to a jail outside Atlantic County over fears a Pagan gang leader was trying to kill him, authorities said Thursday.

According to court documents, Ferdinand Augello, charged with helping Kauffman kill his wife in May 2012, wanted the suspended doctor killed after his arrest in June.

On Thursday, Kauffman and Augello, as well as two of the six other Pagans members or associates implicated in the drug ring, appeared via video in Atlantic County Superior Court before Judge Bernard DeLury on charges of murder in the May 2012 death of April Kauffman and of operating a drug ring through Kauffmans practice.

Worried he could be implicated in April Kauffmans murder, Augello, 61, of Upper Township, ordered a hit on Kauffman inside the Atlantic County jail, according to a sworn affidavit.

In addition to the murder for hire of his wife and Pagan opioid drug ring, Kauffman also may have been involved in an ongoing health benefits fraud scheme, Tyner said Thursday.

Hes sort of a one-man crime spree, Tyner said.

Kauffman made his appearance from the Hudson County jail, where he had been taken for his safety.

Clad in blue and with scruffy white facial hair, Kauffman said very little during the brief courtroom appearance Thursday.

The courtroom was mostly empty except for a dozen news reporters and photographers. Kauffmans wife, Carol Weintraub, did not attend Thursdays proceeding.

Kauffmans attorney, Louis Barbone, of Jacobs and Barbone in Atlantic City, waived the reading of the charges, as did public defender Scott Sherwood for his clients Augello, Paul Pagano, 51, of Egg Harbor Township, and Tabitha Chapman, 35, of Absecon.

In addition to murder, both Kauffman and Augello face racketeering charges. Augello is also charged with conspiracy to commit the murder of James Kauffman. Pagano and Chapman are both charged with racketeering. A detention hearing for all four has been scheduled for Tuesday. Atlantic County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Seth Levy is representing the state.

Barbone maintained Kauffmans innocence after the court appearance Thursday, but said he didnt know anything more about the charges against his client.

You know more than we do at this point, Barbone told a crowd of reporters.

In a news conference Tuesday announcing the charges, Tyner said the doctors motive was to protect his drug ring after April Kauffman threatened divorce. Kauffman paid a hit man, identified as the now-deceased Francis Mulholland, of Villas, $20,000 to kill her, Tyner said.

Kauffman has been in jail since June, when he was arrested on weapons and obstruction charges after he pulled a gun and threatened to kill himself as police and federal agents attempted to execute a search warrant at his Ocean Heights Avenue medical office. He surrendered to authorities after a 45-minute standoff.

After Kauffmans court appearance Thursday, Tyner said the murder and racketeering charges will likely supersede the previous charges. Prosecutors will present the new charges to a grand jury for an indictment against Kauffman, Augello and the six others arrested in the murder-for-hire and drug ring, Tyner said.

He said the break in the 5-year-old unsolved murder was the result of just a lot of hard work.

Asked about a sealed decision to obtain DNA evidence from Kauffman issued by DeLury in May, Tyner demurred. He said there would be a plethora of evidence the state reveals during trial.

This case wasnt made based on DNA evidence, Tyner said.

Tyner said Francis Mulholland, the man paid to kill April Kauffman, was not associated with the investigation prior to Tyner coming into office in March. He said Mulhollands death in October 2013 was believed at the time to be due to an accidental drug overdose, but then indicated that might not be the case.

We dont know, Tyner said.

That case, he said, belongs to Lower Township because the death happened in that jurisdiction.

Tyner said the investigation in this case continues and more charges could come.

This is the beginning of a long process, he said.
On Friday, the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority faced an unprecedented 12 water main breaks that spewed drinking water into the streets and threatened to disrupt service to customers living in the area.

The breaks, which were still being fixed Wednesday, represent a growing trend in New Jersey and around the country of aging and crumbling infrastructure.

According to a comprehensive report published by Jersey Water Works, A water infrastructure crisis is brewing across the country and in New Jersey.

The report, published last month, said that while some of New Jerseys water systems are well-maintained, many are past their life expectancy and suffer from decades of underfunding. This can lead to water- and sewer-main breaks that can harm public health.

If theres an issue with water infrastructure anywhere in the country, it can also be found, in some form, in New Jersey, Larry Levine, a water program attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council and Jersey Water Works Steering Committee member, said in the report. These challenges also create an opportunity for New Jersey to lead. If we can solve these problems in New Jersey, we can show other states how to solve them, too.

A recent report card on the countrys infrastructure compiled by the American Society of Civil Engineers concluded the United States severely lacks funds to update and replace aging water systems that provide safe drinking water to millions of people.

The drinking water is delivered through 1 million miles of pipes across the country, according ASCE. Many of those pipes were laid in the early to mid20th century with a lifespan of 75 to 100 years.

Across the country, about 240,000 water main breaks every year waste about 6 billion gallons of treated water that could have been safely used for drinking or bathing.

Overall, the country received a D grade for its drinking water infrastructure.

New Jersey scored a C.

The ASCE estimates New Jersey alone needs $933 million in investment to keep up with demands over the next 20 years.

A $1 trillion investment is needed to maintain and expand service to meet demands over the next 25 years in the United States, according to ASCE.

New Jerseys water infrastructure has been held together patchwork-style for a long time, former Gov. James Florio said in the Jersey Water Works report. And while the costs of fixing the problem are high in the short term, the costs of doing nothing will be far higher in the long term.

The recent freezing weather much of the country has experienced may only exacerbate the problem.

In Atlantic City, the director of the Municipal Utilities Authority, Bruce Ward, said he could not remember a time when there were 12 breaks in one day.

In a huge week, we deal with three, Ward said last week. In the history of the staff and memory, we have never had as many as we have right now.

But beyond the city, the water infrastructure in Atlantic and Cape May counties held together well during the recent deep freeze.

Linda Gilmore, a spokeswoman for Atlantic County, said there was one water main break in Northfield, while Dale Foster, the Cape May County engineer, said he did not know of any breaks on county roads.

Chelsea Simkins, a spokeswoman for New Jersey American Water Co., said the infrastructure in the southern coastal region of New Jersey fared much better than other parts of the state.

That was helped by a combined $29 million in upgrades in recent years, including a new water tank in Upper Township and renovations in Ocean City, she said.
ATLANTIC CITY  Attorneys for the state and the city firefighters union will have two court-approved mediation sessions this month to try to resolve issues regarding salary cuts and a possible 10 to 12 more layoffs.

Both parties were back in court Wednesday, as Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez reviewed state-proposed staffing and salary cuts for the Fire Department in the ongoing case between International Association of Fire Fighters Local 198 and state.

In December, Mendez delayed ruling on a second round of budgetary cuts proposed by the state to hear the departments injunction request.

Mendez in March 2017 allowed the state to make changes to the firefighters contract, including changes to hourly scheduling and health-insurance coverage, and cut staff 25 percent and pay 20 percent.

The state, which took over the citys finances in November 2016, is looking to further reduce the department budget by 11.3 percent. According to statements in court, the new cuts would result in 10 to 12 department layoffs, reducing staffing to 180 members. If applied, layoffs would take effect Feb. 1.

IAFF Local 198 attorney Megan Mechak argued the proposed second round of salary cuts within the department would cause irreparable harm to the firefighters and their families.

Since 2010, the Fire Department has shrunk by 82 members through attrition and layoffs.

Mechak said the reduced staff causes an issue to public safety, with the department needing aid from neighboring departments and emergency medical response during a Jan. 4 fire at the Jeffries Tower senior apartments.

There is no context  the numbers given are the numbers favorable to the defendants (the state). There is reason to question those numbers, Mechak argued.

Initially, the Fire Department was looking at a 22.6 percent salary reduction, but the state Department of Community Affairs under Gov. Chris Christie agreed to absorb half of the $3.8 million cost.

State attorney Ron Israel argued the cuts to salary are needed as part of the financial plan for Atlantic City and that budgetary cuts were already made by the Police Department and the casinos.

What weve heard is everyone else should pay for this, Israel said.

Mendez concluded the hearing Wednesday by granting attorneys for the state and firefighters union two mediation sessions, on Jan. 19 and 26, in the courthouse conference room.

The good news is we will have a new administration in the city and state, said John Varallo, president of Local 198. But we are in court to fight having to cut 100 members of the Fire Department and 40 percent of wages.

Members of the Atlantic City and other local fire departments, as well as family, attended the Wednesday hearing.

Fire Chief Scott Evans attended the hearing but did not provide a comment.
No car needed, we went from zero to 60 on the thermometer this week! In a five day span, Atlantic City International Airport rose from negative 3 degrees on Sunday morning to a record breaking high of 62 degrees Thursday afternoon. This beats the old record of 61 degrees.

While needing five days to go from 0 to 60 feels like a Ford Pinto, in South Jersey, that is more Mustang than anything else.

How did we go from layers to leis (maybe I am being a bit ambitious with the Hawaiian lei)? The answer lies in the jet stream.

Last Sunday, and the prior 12 days of sub-freezing weather before that, had the jet stream well to our south. The jet stream separates polar air masses from tropical air masses. With the jet stream to the south, colder air can move in.

However, just because the jet stream is to our south does not mean that record cold temperatures happen each time. There needs to be a little something extra to make it as frigid as it that frigid, for that long.

In addition to looking at where the jet stream is, we needed to answer a few more questions. How far did the air travel before reaching us? If air travels from Western Canada to South Jersey over a matter of days, even the coldest airmass will moderate before it reaches us. However, this time, the laser beam of arctic air was directed right at us, as noted in the map below.

As a result, we were able to break nine cold temperature records over the course of the 12 day streak of sub-freezing temperatures. The negative 3 on Sunday morning was the most harsh of the stretch and was our coldest day since February of 2015. In addition, the stretch of temperatures below 32 degrees was the fourth longest of all-time.

The cold air moderated on January 3rd and 4th, but we were more focused on the Blizzard that brought 12 to 18 inches of snow for much of our region. However, we were "saved" by a reinforcing shot of polar air, straight from the Hudson Bay. This dropped us right back into record cold for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

So what changed in the past couple of days? The jet stream and the associated flow. Over time, the jet stream rose north over the Eastern U.S., changing our winds from northerly to southerly. On Thursday, the jet stream is located in Ontario and Quebec. It is also very amplified, or moving in a south to north direction. As a result, our winds are southwesterly aloft. Add in southwest winds around a high pressure in Bermuda and you get a great pairing for balmy temperatures.

On Friday, highs are projected in be in the 60s again. We keep our foot on the pedal, but rain will slow us down. By the time we get to Sunday, we will be dealing with another round of 32 and below weather.
ATLANTIC CITY  Three people were arrested Wednesday night, with real and fake handguns recovered in the process, police said.

At 11:09 p.m., Detective Peter Calabrese tried to talk to a group at Pennsylvania and Arctic avenues in reference to a robbery investigation.

A 17-year-old male began to walk away and then run. Calabrese chased the teen to a parking lot at the 1000 block of Arctic Avenue, where Officer George Mancuso apprehended him, police said.

During the apprehension, Shamera Marrero, 18, of Atlantic City, tried to interfere and pull Calabrese away, police said. Both the 17-year-old and Marrero were taken into custody. While searching the male, Marrero recovered a loaded handgun from his pants.

A third person, Kaleef Ardis, 19, of Atlantic City, was stopped by Officer Thomas Gilardi as he tried to enter an apartment complex. Ardis was arrested and a replica handgun and marijuana were found in his possession, police said. Marrero and Ardis both had active warrants.

The 17-year-old Atlantic City resident was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, obstruction of justice, resisting arrest and receiving stolen property. He was remanded to Harborfields Juvenile Detention Facility in Egg Harbor City.

Marrero was charged with obstruction of justice, resisting arrest and contempt of court.

Ardis was charged with unlawful possession of an imitation firearm, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and contempt of court. Both Marrero and Ardis were taken to the Atlantic County jail.
Atlantic City is expecting a lot from the campus Stockton University is building at its Black Horse Pike entrance  an economic boost, transformation of a neighborhood and cultural enrichment.

And as university officials promised, its also opening an entrance into higher education for disadvantaged local students.

Some of those officials told The Press editorial board last March they were already hearing from city residents for whom travel to the universitys Pomona campus was difficult.

Just before Christmas, the university and the state announced a new program to provide financial and academic assistance to 50 students, with recruitment heavily focused in Atlantic City and Pleasantville. Students who are aging out of foster care will also be sought.

The program and campus will be a gateway to opportunity for the young people who will be our regions future leaders, said Stockton President Harvey Kesselman.

The states Educational Opportunity Fund Board approved about $57,000 for the recruiting effort and to prepare the program to begin when the campus opens in the fall, with another $75,000 for its 2018-19 school year needs.

Stockton already has an EOF program for about 350 students on its main campus, and at 41 institutions statewide about 13,000 students participate. With median family income of just $27,179 for those students, the program often provides the only realistic path to higher education, supplementing aid available from the states Tuition Aid Grants and federal Pell Grants.

And it works: The six-year graduation rate for low-income EOF students is 55 percent, only slightly less than the national average graduation rate for all college students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The Stockton expansion started helping Atlantic City residents last summer when 15 of them completed a training program and landed jobs with contractors building the campus and South Jersey Gas headquarters. The free program was sponsored by Joseph Jingoli & Son and Atlantic City Development Corp. and administered by Friends in Action. A second Training to Hire program led to jobs working on the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City project.

This is all good.

Were confident many on the island and nearby will join thousands of students from elsewhere in seeing Stocktons Atlantic City campus as a way to better themselves and their lives.

The community should be reassured that this outreach effort is helping those who stand to benefit the most get in on the ground floor.
Viceroy Los Cabos is the brands first collaboration with Rodina Group, an investment firm specializing in hospitality, real estate, transportation and infrastructure across Mexico, who acquired the hotel in December 2017.

"This is an incredible opportunity to expand our presence in Mexico and to offer travelers a remarkable Viceroy experience in Los Cabos," said Bill Walshe, CEO, Viceroy Hotel Group. "It is a privilege to collaborate with such an accomplished partner as Rodina, who shares our vision to create an extraordinary new modern luxury resort experience in one of the world's most sought after destinations."

"Rodina is thrilled to bring the first Viceroy to Los Cabos, as the brand is perfectly suited for such a striking and progressive property. With every angle thoughtfully designed, Viceroy Los Cabos will emerge as a modern icon and truly unique destination in Los Cabos," said Felipe and Andres Chico, Managing Partners at Rodina.

New and Enhanced Offerings

Activating vibe through epic on-property experiences is a hallmark of the Viceroy brand. In collaboration with Al Arquitectura de Interiores, a celebrated design firm out of Guadalajara, Mexico, the renovations and updates to be revealed in the spring opening will include an energized arrival experience, the addition of a beach bar and beach pool, and an expanded, redesigned state-of-the-art fitness center and spa. Two of the four existing dining outlets will be structurally updated and re-concepted to provide spectacular dining and social options for guests and locals alike. Upon completion, Viceroy Los Cabos will feature 194 rooms, suites and villas, and 50 residences.

The resort amenities, including a cinema room for movie screenings and versatile meeting spaces, in addition to the new restaurants and bars, will establish Viceroy Los Cabos as the new energetic social hub in Los Cabos.

Celebrating Water and Local Surroundings

Viceroy Los Cabos is a beachfront resort, a canvas of architectural achievement, located in San Jose del Cabo on the outer rim of Baja California Sur. Built by skilled local artisans, the unparallelled design of Viceroy Los Cabos celebrates water as our most precious natural resource, which stands as a proud celebration of, and connection to, its location.

The resort creates many opportunities for guests to create memories that will last a lifetime: whale watching on the Pacific Ocean, sailing on the stunning bays of Los Cabos, laying on the pearl white sand beaches, swimming in the turquoise lagoon in La Paz, and marine park exploration on the pristine beaches of Cabo Pulmo Park, which cradle some of the world's largest coral reefs. Each will allow guests to experience the stunning bays of Los Cabos and ocean wonders that can only be found in the "World's Natural Aquarium."

Minutes away from downtown San Jose del Cabo, guests can take in the art walk of San Jose and its colonial architecture, explore multiple dining options, and discover local culture.

A Viceroy Milestone

Viceroy Hotel Group currently operates Viceroy Riviera Maya, a romantic luxury resort located on Playa del Carmen. Viceroy Los Cabos will be the second resort in the company's Mexican collection and an important part of Viceroy's aggressive and expansive growth strategy. In addition to Cabos, forthcoming openings over the coming years include Serbia, Argentina, Panama, Portugal and Vietnam.

For more information, please visit viceroyhotelsandresorts.com/loscabos.

About Viceroy Hotel Group

Viceroy Hotel Group inspires travelers with one-of-a-kind authentic lifestyle experiences that bring together provocative design and intuitive service in sought-after locations. A leader in modern luxury, Viceroy's vibe-led hospitality is guided by the brand promise "Remember to Live," an affirmation to create lifelong memories for each and every guest. Viceroy destinations are segmented into three distinct portfolio tiers to help travelers find exactly the kind of experience they're looking for. The Viceroy Icon Collection properties include epic hotels and resorts in Chicago, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Beverly Hills, Riviera Maya, Snowmass, and St. Lucia, with forthcoming openings in Algarve, Buenos Aires, Los Cabos, Panama, and Vietnam. The Viceroy Lifestyle Series hotels and resorts are found in attitude-led destinations including New York and Santa Monica, with a forthcoming opening in Serbia. The Urban Retreat Collection properties in San Francisco have an independent spirit and bold, eccentric personalities. Viceroy Hotel Group is a member of the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) DISCOVERY, a unique loyalty program offering exclusive benefits and experiences to its members at over 550 hotels around the world. For more information, visit www.viceroyhotelsandresorts.com. Follow Viceroy Hotel Group at facebook.com/viceroyhotelgroup and on Instagram and Twitter @viceroyhotels.

Contact: LFB Media Group 646-455-0042

Erin Brunner EBrunner@LFBMediaGroup.com

Priya Bhambri PBhambri@LFBMediaGroup.com

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SOURCE Viceroy Hotel Group
NEW YORK, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Tesla CEO Elon Musk in December made true his promise to build in South Australia the world's biggest lithium ion battery. "The world's largest lithium ion battery will be an important part of our energy mix, and it sends the clearest message that South Australia will be a leader renewable energy with battery storage," Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said in statement (http://nnw.fm/m2Lzh)." Musk's vow came after a challenge for Tesla to address power blackouts and energy shortages in South Australia. In tandem with Weatherill's enthusiasm over the success of the project, the achievement reveals a broader, global push to increase the use of lithium as a power source. Several companies are poised to scale up their production efforts and capitalize on the resulting global demand for lithium and cobalt, which is essential to lithium-ion battery operation. They include Standard Lithium Ltd. (OTC: STLHF) (TSX-V: SLL) (FRA: S5L) (STLHF Profile), Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE: SQM), NRG Metals, Inc. (TSX-V: NGZ), FMC Corp. (NYSE: FMC) and eCobalt Solutions, Inc. (TSX: ECS).



China Boosts Potential for Lithium Companies

China has the largest automotive industry in the world and it is estimated that cars running on combustion engines account for around 30 percent of the country's air pollution. The government's decision to phase out vehicles operating on fossil fuels has been welcomed by environmentalists.

The Chinese government aims to produce 7 million EVs and hybrid vehicles by 2025, and Goldman Sachs has estimated that China will account for 60 percent of all global EV sales by 2030.

China's plans may appear ambitious, but it already has two of the top five lithium-ion battery manufacturers in the world, BYD and CATL. Some critics have pointed out that lithium-ion batteries are heavy and expensive, accounting for 33 percent of the cost of EV manufacture. However, Bloomberg reports that the price of these batteries is decreasing and predicts that EVs will be as affordable as vehicles powered by combustion engines by 2022 (http://nnw.fm/8iRER). As a result, demand for lithium and cobalt is skyrocketing, paving the way for companies in the industry to expand operations and increase production of the two minerals.

Standard Lithium, Gears Up to Service Global Demand

Based in Vancouver, Canada, Standard Lithium Ltd. (OTCQX: STLHF) (TSX.V: SLL) (FRA: S5L) is focusing its efforts on developing existing large-scale lithium brine resources in the United States that can be brought quickly into production. To this end, the company is exploring and developing its California Lithium Project, which includes the Bristol Dry Lake and Cadiz Dry Lake lithium brine properties in the Mojave area of San Bernardino County in California. Standard Lithium has agreements in place with both of the regions permitted brine processor's, National Chloride Corporation of America and TETRA Technologies.

Under the recently announced agreement with TETRA Technologies, Inc., Standard Lithium has increased the project scope to roughly 48,000 acres of mixed private, patented and placer claim land in the Bristol Dry Lake and Cadiz Dry Lake basins that allow for exclusive lithium brine exploration and processing. This agreement marked an extension of Bristol Dry Lake's potential, and positioned Standard Lithium to fully leverage its working relationship with TETRA.



"Since day one we have recognized the bigger opportunity with respect to expanding the resource base and strengthening project economics at Bristol Dry Lake by securing the rights for lithium development over the entire basin. By inking an agreement with TETRA, the only other permitted operator in the area, we have now effectively achieved that. This is a significant and strategic move for Standard, but has only been made possible by the excellent relationships we have developed with the permitted brine operators in the region. Gaining access to the adjacent Cadiz Dry Lake operating project is an additional benefit to our relationship with TETRA," Standard Lithium CEO Robert Mintak noted in a press release announcing the deal (http://nnw.fm/4yD4U).



Part of the allure of the Bristol Dry Lake project in particular is that it is currently permitted for brine extraction and processing activities; has significant production infrastructure in place; and is serviced by major highways, power and a dedicated rail siding and loading spur. Located 20 km (just under 12.5 miles) southeast of Bristol Dry Lake is the Cadiz Dry Lake Property, of which three initial grab samples of brine wells showed lithium concentrations in pumped brine ranging between 112-139 mg/L.



"These concentrations from relatively shallow wells suggests that there is a potentially significant lithium brine deposit present in the Cadiz Dry Lake basin. Our technical team is currently performing due-diligence on all available data for the Cadiz Dry Lake basin and will be laying out a plan for new data collection over the coming months. Additional investigation of TETRA's properties in both Bristol Dry Lake and Cadiz Dry Lake will be performed concurrently with our existing resource definition program, and as such, we should be able to significantly expand our resource base as we move towards producing maiden lithium resource estimates for the Mojave projects," Standard Lithium president and COO Dr. Andy Robinson.



In a development updated issued in December 2017, Standard Lithium reported that six new separate evaporation ponds were installed on the Bristol Dry Lake Property, allowing the company to further assess the potential role of short-duration passive solar evaporation in processing the lithium brines encountered at the project.



Following previous work showing the possibility to concentrate brines from initial lithium concentrations of 146 mg/L to concentrations of 686 mg/L in roughly seven weeks, Standard Lithium is conducting additional evaporation tests to assess season variations and produce large volumes of pre-concentrated brine that will be shipped to the company's North American testing facilities for use in ongoing selective lithium extraction processing work. A bulk raw-brine sample from the Cadiz Dry Lake project will also be transported to the evaporation ponds to assess the pre-concentration of lithium brine from the project.

With official approval of the lithium brine sampling program at Bristol Dry Lake, Standard Lithium said it expects the development will be finished by the end of January.



The company's other significant project is its Smackover Lithium Brine Project. As announced earlier this week, Standard Lithium furthered its existing partnership with TETRA with an option agreement to acquire the rights to conduct exploration, production and lithium extraction activities in a highly productive area of Southern Arkansas' Smackover Formation.

According to the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, Arkansas produces on average more than 9 billion gallons of brine per year, mostly from the Smackover Formation. Standard Lithium's brine leases, which covers an area of up to 33,000 acres of brine leases. have extensive resource potential, with well-studied and documented geology and hydrogeology. According to the company, this makes the Smackover deposit one of the most promising in the lithium industry, which has the benefit of existing regional large-scale brine extraction, processing and brine re-injection facilities. Historical data from Standard Lithium's lease area indicates lithium content of 370-424 mg/L in these brines.



"The Company chose the Smackover Formation as a key development target, precisely because it combines a very large resource potential, with well-studied and documented geology and hydrogeology, along with a permitting regime that has a long history of approving operations that remove, process and re-inject massive volumes of brine. Combined with a wealth of existing infrastructure in the project area (power, rail, gas, water, trained workforce, cheap reagents etc.), this makes Standard Lithium's new opportunity in Southern Arkansas the perfect location to locate a modern lithium brine processing operation. Due to the wealth of already-available data from our new project area, we can start the process of compiling a maiden resource estimate for this large lease package extremely quickly, with a minimum of additional intrusive investigation," president and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Andy Robinson stated in the press release announcing the option agreement (http://nnw.fm/q1Pw8).



As Standard Lithium expands its project portfolio, management continues to invest in the company itself with the inclusion of industry professionals to its team.



In November 2017, Standard Lithium named Craig J. Brown, P. Eng. and a qualified Chemical Engineer, to its Scientific Advisory Council, as well as announced that that John E. Young, P. Eng. would join the company as senior corporate development officer.



Brown is widely respected as a hydrometallurgical expert and played a central role in the development of ion exchange technology. He has more than 45 years of experience in developing processes for the separation of a wide range of chemicals from aqueous solutions. The company intends to utilize Brown's expertise in selective ion-exchange and hydrometallurgical technologies to improve its lithium extraction processes. Standard Lithium also announced that it had begun test work on a new lithium-selective Ion Exchange resin that has been in development for some years by one of the largest suppliers of these resins in the world. This shows the company's commitment to expand its testing program to include cutting-edge technology in its drive to develop optimal process solutions for its lithium brine projects.



Young's mandate will be to head up the company's acquisition and development activities, while expanding and managing strategic partnerships and alliances, focusing on the southern U.S. region. He has more than 35 years of experience in reservoir engineering, economic evaluation, project development and property acquisition. As a registered professional engineer, Young holds a degree in petroleum engineering, as well as membership of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers. Previously, he held the position of director of business development for Legacy Reserves, LP.

Potential Comparable Companies

Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE: SQM): Headquartered in Santiago, Chile, SQM produces and markets industrial chemicals, specialty plant nutrients, potassium, iodine and derivatives, as well as lithium and derivatives. SQM is the world's largest lithium producer, supplying lithium carbonates, hydroxides and chlorides for a wide range of applications. Its lithium carbonate is used as electrochemical material in batteries, and lithium hydroxide for battery cathodes.

NRG Metals (TSX-V: NGZ): NRG Metals is an exploration company with a focus on lithium brine projects in Argentina. The company is drilling its Salar Escondito Lithium Project, a 29,000-hectare area that has shown results of 227ppm lithium. It is also evaluating the Hombre Muerto North Lithium Project, a 3,287-hectare site in Salta province. An Environmental Impact Study has been filed and the company has applied for permits to drill.

FMC Corp. (NYSE: FMC): Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, FMC Corporation is a company that provides solutions and products for applications in the global consumer, agricultural and industrial markets. Through its subsidiary, FMC Lithium, the company markets lithium for use in batteries, pharmaceuticals, polymers, glass, ceramics, greases and lubricants.

eCobalt Solutions (TSX: ECS): eCobalt is a Canadian company which focuses its cobalt producing operations on its mineral rights in Cobalt Camp, Ontario. The company has merged with CobalTech and Cobalt One, giving it control over 10,000 hectares of unconsolidated land for prospecting. The company is currently developing historic mines in this area, including the Keeley-Frontier, Silver Banner and Bellellen mines.

With the global demand for lithium and cobalt predicted to grow exponentially over the next two decades, companies such as Standard Lithium Ltd. (OTCQX: STLHF) (TSX.V: SLL) (FRA: S5L), Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE: SQM), NRG Metals, Inc. (TSXV: NGZ), FMC Corp. (NYSE: FMC) and eCobalt Solutions, Inc. (TSE: ECS) are uniquely positioned to expand exploration and production capabilities to establish themselves as leaders on the international lithium market.

For more information on Standard Lithium, visit Standard Lithium Ltd. (OTCQX: STLHF) (TSX.V: SLL) (FRA: S5L)

For a more in-depth look into Standard Lithium (TSX-V: SLL) (FRA: S5L) (OTCQX: STLHF) you can view the full report on Streetsignals.com.

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PARIS, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Carrefour, one of the global leaders in food retail, and Showroomprive, Europe's second-largest online private sales player, announced today the signing of a strategic agreement. In order to seal this partnership, Carrefour will acquire c. 17% of the share capital of Showroomprive from Conforama, a subsidiary of the Steinhoff group.

This partnership is part of the two groups' strategy of developing a leading omni-channel offering, and will notably cover such aspects as commercial, marketing, logistics and data.

Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour, declared: "This partnership is a new step in the acceleration of our digital strategy, in an omni-channel approach. It also allows Carrefour to enter the online private sales market and strengthen its offering. I am convinced of the quality of Showroomprive's management and the strong potential resulting from the operational cooperation between our two groups."

Thierry Petit and David Dayan, Co-Founders of Showroomprive, added: "We are pleased with this partnership with Carrefour. It allows us to enter a new stage after the agreement with Conforama, in partnership with one of the world's leading retailers. It allows us to continue building our omni-channel offering and opens up unprecedented opportunities."

Carrefour's equity investment in Showroomprive will take the form of an off-market acquisition of the block of shares owned by Conforama at price of 13.5 euros per share, for a total amount of c. 79 million euros.

An additional payment will be made by Carrefour to Conforama should Carrefour launch a takeover bid for Showroomprive within eighteen months of the completion of the transaction. This additional payment will be equal to the difference between the offer price per share made by Carrefour and the acquisition price (13.5 euros), multiplied by the number of shares sold by Conforama.

Upon completion of the transaction, Carrefour will replace Conforama in the current shareholders' agreement between the founders of Showroomprive and Conforama, under an agreement whose main terms[1] are identical to the existing pact between the founders and Conforama / Steinhoff. The founders will retain 27.17% of the capital and 40.42% of the voting rights. Carrefour will hold 16.86% of the capital and 13.67% of the voting rights.

This transaction is subject to the obtaining of a waiver by the Autorite des Marches Financiers exempting Carrefour from the obligation of launching a public offer.

[1] The shareholders' agreement contains provisions relating to (i) the composition of the board of directors (11 directors and one non-voting director, including five appointed by the founders among whom the chairman having a casting vote and one director and one non-voting director appointed by Carrefour, and 5 independent directors); (ii) an undertaking of the parties to maintain the current CEO and Co-CEO leadership; (iii) possible termination of the concert agreement in case of persistent disagreement on major strategic decisions, which could lead to the unwinding of the Carrefour investment or a tender offer; (iv) reciprocal standstill and lock-up undertakings subject to exceptions, and (v) share transfer provisions such as reciprocal right of first offer, reciprocal call options and undertaking to tender in case of public offer under certain price conditions.

This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire.

SOURCE showroomprive.com
Held on January 11 in Davao, the ceremony started at 10:00 a.m., the approximate time the fire broke out, and began with a prayer and a blessing, after which the families placed the names of their loved ones on memorial wreaths.

"On behalf of the entire Research Now SSI family, we express our profound sorrow over the passing of our 37 colleagues and offer our condolences and prayers to their family members and loved ones," Mr. Watson said.

He thanked the company's Davao employees for their courage and steadfastness. "Your strength and resilience serve as an inspiration to us during this difficult time," he said.

About Research Now SSI

Research Now SSI is the global leader in digital research data for better insights and business decisions. The company provides world-class research data solutions that enable better results for more than 3,500 market research, consulting, media, healthcare, and corporate clients. Research Now SSI operates globally with locations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, and is recognized as the quality, scale, and customer satisfaction leader in the market research industry. For more information, please go to www.researchnow.com and www.surveysampling.com.

Editors, for more information, contact:

Barbara Palmer

bpalmer@researchnow.com

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SOURCE Research Now Group, Inc.
"Sentient Energy's Grid Analytics System orchestrates the unified functioning of a group of intelligent monitoring solutions, and Sentient Energy's Ample Analytics leverage each solution's unique advantages," said Guhan Sriram R V, Research Analyst.

The system is comprised of the MM3 Intelligent Sensor, the ZM1 Zero Amperage Grid Monitor, and the Ample Analytics Platform. These will soon be joined by the UM3+ Monitor for underground electric distribution, which is expected to be announced in Q1 2018.

MM3 Intelligent Sensors combine high resolution current and e-field waveform capture, load logging, load current and fault magnitude measurement, as well as momentary and disturbance tracking. The GPS module provides precise location information and time stamps, while integrated communications modules for mesh and cellular networks connect the devices to the utility's operations center.

ZM1 Zero Amperage Grid Monitor makes MM3-like capabilities available at grid locations where no or low amperage is available to power monitoring devices, including laterals, and at the end of overhead feeder lines.

The Ample Analytics Platform collects and analyzes high-resolution, high-quality data related to disturbances and load in the lines as well as fault details. The results are made available to reliability, planning, and asset management engineers either via the Ample Analytics Suite's intuitive role-centric user interfaces or the end user's SCADA/DMS system. This enables more accurate decision-making.

The company's sensor solutions offer this high-resolution waveform and data capture from anywhere on the distribution grid. This includes both the overhead and underground distribution grid, which is a key differentiating feature of this system. The Grid Analytics System can also provide grid operators with real-time information related to two-way power flow and its direction that can help them more effectively manage the integration of distributed energy generation, such as solar photovoltaics

Sentient Energy customers can deploy individual components of the Grid Analytics System as stand-alone solutions or they can deploy them all together as a complete, fully integrated platform. This flexibility allows end users to match the solution to their needs. In addition, the solution scales to large numbers of sensors, exceeding 60,000 connected devices. All of the system's components can communicate through both cellular or AMI/DA mesh networks. To further improve its product's compatibility with utility communication networks, Sentient Energy partners with leading communication and network solution providers.

"Sentient Energy has designed future-ready grid monitoring and analytics solutions that minimize the frequency and duration of outages, identify locations that require the attention of utilities before problems occur, enable proactive corrective measures, and increase grid reliability," said Sriram. "The Sentient Energy Grid Analytics System will become especially valuable as more and more distributed energy resources are added to the grid."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed an innovative element in a product by leveraging leading-edge technologies. The award recognizes the value-added features/benefits of the product and the increased return on investment (ROI) it gives customers, which in turn raises customer acquisition and overall market penetration potential.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Sentient Energy

Sentient Energy makes power delivery safe, reliable, and solar ready. The company provides the industry's only Grid Analytics System that covers the entire distribution network with quickly deployed intelligent sensors and analytics that identify and analyze potential faults and other grid events. Sentient Energy leads the market with the largest mesh network line sensor deployments in North America, and partnerships with leading utility network providers including Silver Spring Networks, Landis + Gyr, and AT&T.

For more information, visit www.sentient-energy.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Samantha Park

P: 210.348.1001

F: 210.348.1003

E: Samantha.Park@frost.com

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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New Delhi, Jan 7 : In an initiative to promote clean energy, BSES, one of Delhi's two electricity distribution companies (discoms), on Sunday launched the country's first solar rooftop consumer aggregation programme for residential buildings to provide the installations at a single point for the entire apartment complex.

The sister discom BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd's (BRPL) "Solar City Initiative", designed to maximise rooftop solar power use in south and west Delhi, was launched at an event here by Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain.

"Taking its commitment to promote renewables to the next level, BRPL, in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) PACE-D and Indo-German Collaboration (GIZ) has launched an ambitious 'Solar City Initiative'," a BSES release said.

"Unlike conventional methods, under this programme, rooftop solar installations will be provided at a single point for the entire apartment complex."

In the first phase of the programme, around 150 residential societies will be targeted in the Dwarka area.

"Looking at the response, the programme will be expanded to other residential segments across BSES," it said.

Listing the benefits for consumers, the discom said a 1 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop system is expected to generate 4-5 kilowatt hours (kwh) of electricity per day, which corresponds to an average monthly saving on bills of about Rs 750 for a period of 25 years for single-point delivery consumers.

"Moreover, to set up the solar plant, a 30 per cent capital subsidy is provided by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy along with a Rs 2 per unit generation-based incentive allotted to a limited number of early projects by the Delhi government," it said.

Besides, the scheme would help BRPL in meeting its renewable purchase obligation, as well as minimise overloading issues in congested areas during the peak summer months, the statement said.

"It will also help us in achieving capex deferment for line replacement and unplanned grid up-gradation intermittently," it added.

BSES also announced that a portal has been launched as part of the initiative for online processing of rooftop solar applications, as well as a dedicated solar helpline for faster resolution of customer queries.
Social News 11/1









Soldiers and police block the scene of explosion.







Residents of ac oa and Mang Yang districts in the central highland province of Gia Lai have been evacuated after an explosion occured at a military bullet warehouse late Wednesday.



Soldiers at military camps around the area have also been evacuated.



According to local authorities, the explosion did not cause any casualty.



On Thursday morning, the local military command requested residents in the affected area to stay at home as a precautionary measure.



The incident is being investigated.



Litres of petrol seized in quality probe



Can Tho City police on Wednesday announced they were testing petrol samples of three local fuel providers, following a police bust seizing petroleum of questionable quality.



The police on the previous day caught red-handed a staff member of Van Nguyen 2 Petrol Company pumping some 6,000 litres of detergent solvent from a tanker into another one, which contained 3,000 litres of the solvent mixed with 3,000 litres of petrol.



The solvent was identified as Solmix industrial detergent.



The company manager, Nguyen Van Trung, failed to present official documents proving the origin of the liquid detergent and the petrol.



Busting another Van Nguyen warehouse, managed by Trungs father Nguyen Van Nguyen, the police found another thousands of litres of petrol without proper documents and thousands of litres more at a different petrol provider, Khai Ha.



Detergent is often added to petrol before it is brought into the market in order to reduce the buildup of deposits in engines. However, the use of detergent should be permitted by the authorities and the final petrol product must meet fuel standards.



Solmix detergent was found in a number of cases previously, where the petrol mixed with the detergent was sub-standard.



Programme provides health care to 6 million people



A community health care programme has provided free checkups, treatment and medicines to more than 6 million people in nearly 13,500 campaigns nationwide, heard a conference held in Ha Noi on Thursday to review its outcomes.



The 2014-17 programme, worth more than VN1.318 trillion (US$58.5 million), is aimed at mobilising resources and the participation of society towards humanitarian health checkups and treatment in an effort to provide primary health care to at least 1 million impoverished people yearly.



Deputy minister of health Nguyen Viet Tien said that the programme has contributed remarkably in providing primary health care services and medicines to needy people at the grassroots level, especially to the poor, disadvantaged people in island, mountainous and remote areas.



The programme, a good policy of the Party and the government, should be expanded in the country with new mechanisms to mobilise more human and financial resources from local and international communities, said Tien.



The programme, entitled Joining hands for community health, was implemented by the Viet Nam Red Cross Society in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defences General Political Department and the Viet Nam Young Physician Association.



Over the past four years, the programme has also organised 11,362 drives to provide checkups and consultations to nearly 3 million people and donated over 3.1 million gifts worth more than VN448 billion to poor and disadvantaged households.



In addition, it also organised 7,578 training courses to improve emergency aid skills to more than 341,000 people, provided charity meals to poor patients and donated cows, houses and money for heart surgeries to more than 7.7 million poor and needy people.



The programme mobilised the participation of more than 250,000 people, including 64,700 doctors and physicians from hospitals belonging to the ministries of health and defence and red cross members and volunteers.



Hoa Hao followers celebrate 98th birthday of the sects founder



The 98th birth anniversary of Hoa Hao Buddhism founder, Prophet Huynh Phu So, was celebrated at An Hoa temple, Phu My town, Phu Tan district, the southern province of An Giang, on January 11 (the 25th day of the 11th lunar month).



The event was attended by Head of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs Vu Chien Thang, representatives from the Ministry of Public Security, Military Zone 9 High Command and An Giang authorities, along with over 20,000 Hoa Hao Buddhism followers inside and outside the province.



Truong Hoang Trong, Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front  An Giang chapter, said that since it was recognised by the State, Hoa Hao Buddhism has upheld the patriotic tradition and promoted national unity.



In 2017, Hoa Hao Buddhism followers donated about 372 billion VND (16.3 million USD) to charity activities, contributing to the success in fulfilling socio-economic development tasks and building new-style rural areas.



Prophet Huynh Phu So was born on January 15, 1920 in Hoa Hao village, Chau Doc province (now An Giang province).



Hoa Hao Buddhism now has 391 executive committees in 17 cities and provinces and over 2 million followers nationwide, mostly in An Giang.



Volunteer medics help rural poor



Sixty two poor districts across the country lack a total of almost 600 doctors with specialisations in 15 different areas, including obstetrics, paediatrics, emergencies and infectious diseases.



This was revealed by Pham Van Tac, director of the Personnel Department under the Ministry of Health at a conference on Tuesday. The conference was held at the Ha Noi Medical University to present a group of seven young doctors who will work in those districts.



They are the second group of graduates to have done post graduate studies and been sent to rural areas.



The doctors activities are part of a project to send young medicos to work in poor districts and island areas. The project was approved by the ministry in 2013.



Under the project, young doctors who perform well at medical universities are asked to volunteer.



After being trained for two years in a medical speciality, the men practice in hospitals in poor areas for three years. Female doctors are asked to do two years..



The project, running since February 2013, aims to improve the number and quality of medical staff in disadvantaged areas. Volunteers are provided with priority conditions in terms of salary, allowance and working conditions during their missions - and acfter they complete them.



This time, the seven doctors will go to poor districts in Cao Bang, Lai Chau, Ha Giang and ien Bien provinces.



It is expected that by 2020, about 300-500 doctors will have helped out in poor remote areas.



At present, a total of 154 young doctors with a 10 different specialities are being trained.



In June last year, the ministry in troduced the first seven young doctors to Bac Kan, Lao Cai, ien Bien and Son La provinces.



Director Tac highly said he greatly appreciated their work so far. The graduates conducted difficult techniques and surgeries well, including endoscopies, appendectomies, ovary tumours, and ectopic pregnancy, said Tac.



Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien told the conference that the project was a great initiative by the health sector.



It was creating better health opportunities for poor people to access good quality health services, decrease overloading at central hospitals and prevent waste for patients, the community and society, she said.



HCM City continues administrative reforms



HCM City plans to improve its administrative procedures by using smartphone apps for tracking citizens submissions and forming working groups, according to Tran Vinh Tuyen, deputy chairman of HCM City Peoples Committee.



In a meeting on improving administrative procedures held on Tuesday (Jan 9), Tuyen said the city should focus on developing apps that could help people and businesses keep track of procedures more easily, as opposed to relying on the government website and other traditional means.



In a related matter, the city has formed interdisciplinary working groups to deal with investment proposals and projects more efficiently.



The meeting reviewed administrative reform in 2017 and its accomplishments, such as speeding up procedures for services like business registration and building certificates in addition to the use of more electronic documents rather than paper, which has saved the city billions of ong.



Several outstanding administrative units received awards at the meeting.



However, Tuyen noted that in 2017 around eight per cent of the citys administrative units still did not have plans to improve administrative procedures.



He said that such units need to improve their services this year, including dealing with applications more thoroughly by keeping applicants informed and processing applications more quickly, and listening to peoples feedback.



As for administrative reform, the city targets reaching a satisfactory level of 90 per cent, and completing more than 90 per cent of submitted applications on time.



UK vocational education providers to seek partnership in Vietnam



Leading providers of technical and vocational training and education from the United Kingdom will visit HCM City and Hanoi from January 15-18 to set up and extend partnerships with local companies, schools, colleges, universities and government organisations.



According to the British Embassy in Vietnam, the British delegation includes representatives from colleges, private training providers and companies specializing in providing business solutions such as professional development programmes, vocational qualifications, teacher training, courses with industry recognised accreditation and management consultancy.



With a young population and a dynamic business environment, Vietnam stands out as a country with great potential for partnership with the UK, which is a centre of excellence for technical and vocational training, said Ian Gibbons, British Consul General in HCM City and Director of the Department for International Trade in Vietnam.



Im confident that the partnerships established will endure and help equip Vietnams students, workers and companies with the 21st century knowledge and skills for them to prosper in the global marketplace, he stressed.



The Department for International Trade Vietnam, in cooperation with the Vietnam Directorate for Vocational Education and Training, will organise seminars in HCM City on January 15 and in Hanoi on January 17.



The seminars will offer opportunities to share the UKs expertise in technical and vocational training and education and introduce its technology and equipment in the fields of automotive, textile-garment and construction, hospitality, English, ICT and soft skills to local stakeholders.



In addition, B2B meetings with members of the delegation will also take place in both cities.



Thanh Hoa works to combat IUU fishing



After Vietnam received a yellow-card from the European Commission (EC) because of its failure to meet standards over illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the central province of Thanh Hoa is rushing off its feet to minimise IUU fishing activities in the locality.



Accordingly, the province has prioritised the popularisation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments Direction No.3727 on enhancing management over seafood exploitation and ensuring safety for fishermen and fishing vessels as well as the Governments Direction No.45 on actions in response to the ECs warning.



Inspections have been increased to address IUU fishing. Permanent revocation of fishing license is the most severe punishment meted out for ship owners and captains who take their vessels to illegally fish in foreign waters.



The local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development asks for the installation and operation of vessel monitoring system in fishing boats and orders captains to keep journals of seafood exploitation. It also carries out a database system which gathers information about fishing vessels, catching activities, fishermen, registration and licensing of fishing boats in the locality.



According to Nguyen Duc Cuong, head of the provincial Bureau of Aquatic Resources Exploitation and Protection, the agency has joined hands with the Directorate of Fisheries, local border guards and the peoples committees of coastal districts to organise 15 training courses on seas and islands, safety for fishermen and fishing vessels, food safety and protection of aquatic resources.



Also, it has delivered leaflets and hung banners to raise public awareness of aquatic resources safeguarding and food safety on fishing vessels.



Party committees responsibility for grassroots-level democracy urged



Politburo member Truong Thi Mai, head of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committees Commission for Mass Mobilisation Truong Thi Mai has requested raising responsibility of Party committees and authorities for exercising the regulations on democracy at grassroots level.



During a meeting in Hanoi on January 11 reviewing the exercise of grassroots-level democracy in 2017, Mai lauded improvements in administrative reform and settlement of complaints and denunciations in many localities.



She said lives in remote, mountainous and ethnic minority regions need to be improved via socio-economic development while relations between the Party committees, authorities, the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF), socio-political organisations and the people need to be stronger via dialogues.



Mai suggested strengthening the monitoring of responsibility of heads of units, adding that three inspection groups led by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, President of the VFF Central Committee Tran Thanh Man, and deputy head of the Commission for Mass Mobilisation Tran Thi Bich Thuy will oversee the exercise of democracy regulations in the southeast, northern border provinces, the Government Inspectorate, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour in the first half of this year.



In 2017, Party committees, authorities, VFF and socio-political organisations directed the enforcement of the Partys guidelines and State laws on democracy regulations at grassroots level, the Resolution adopted by the fourth plenum of the 12th National Party Congress and Decree No.05-CT/TW on strengthening corruption and wastefulness prevention and control, campaigns on developing new style rural areas and building cultural life.



Awareness of Party committees and authorities of democracy and democracy exercise has also been improved, bringing into full play the role, potential and creativity of people and encouraging them to join patriotic movements, and contributing to maintaining political stability and social order and building a pure and strong grassroots political system, heard the meeting.






Brussels, Jan 10 : Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will meet the European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini here on Thursday to discuss progress in implementing landmark nuclear deal Iran signed with six world powers in July 2015.

"The meeting will take place in the context of the ongoing work to ensure a full and continued implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," said a statement from Mogherini's office.

Britain's Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and his French and German counterparts Yves Le Drian and Sigmar Gabriel will also attend the meeting.

Gabriel told German public broadcaster ZDF that the recent anti-government protests in Iran would be on the agenda at the meeting with Zarif. The protests killed at least 21 people and led to the arrests of over 1,000 including 90 students.

Many observers believe the protests in Iran were led by the working class in protest over hardship caused by the country's economic woes. These woes persist despite the end of crippling sanctions under the 2015 deal to curb its atomic programme.
Washington, Jan 11 : US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Washington could "conceivably" re-enter into the global Paris climate agreement, from which he announced the withdrawal last year.

At a news conference with Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, Trump said: "We could conceivably go back in."

However, he insisted that Paris Agreement, which the international community signed in 2015 with the aim of combating climate change by limiting global temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius, was "a bad deal" and "very unfair" to the US.

"The Paris Accord really would have taken away our competitive edge, and we're not going to let that happen. I'm not going to let that happen," he added.

Trump's words may mean that his position was actually unchanged from a year ago.

Trump's decision in June last year to pull the United States out of the landmark global accord has sparked a wave of anger and dismay at home and also a chorus of disapproval abroad.
Ankara, Jan 11 : The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned Philip Kosnett, the US embassy charge d'affaires, over the current situation in Syria, a source in the ministry said.

The ministry On Tuesday also summoned the ambassadors of Russia and Iran to protest the Syria government's violations of de-escalation zone borders in Idlib, Xinhua reported.

As agreed in Astana talks by Turkey, Russia and Iran, Turkish military is currently deployed in Idlib to set up observation posts and monitor the implementation of de-escalation zones.

Speaking to reporters, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused Syria's Assad government of launching attacks on moderate opposition in Idlib, which "could damage the process of political resolution."

Turkey has repeatedly criticised Washington over its support for the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units militia, which Ankara views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
Geneva, Jan 11 : The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday said it's supporting Zambia in launching a vaccination campaign in the African country to help one million people against cholera.

The campaign was launched on Wednesday to vaccinate residents of Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, against cholera.

Two million doses of oral cholera vaccine from the Gavi-funded global stockpile were delivered to the southern African country in January, enough to immunise one million people, Xinhua reported.

According to Zambia's health authority, the campaign will bring the life-saving vaccine to the people who need it most.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease that can kill within hours if left untreated.

Since the start of the current outbreak in Zambia from early October 2017, the country's health authority has reported a total of 2,672 cases, with Lusaka alone accounting for 2,558 cases. Of the 63 deaths countrywide, 58 were from Lusaka.

While sporadic cases of cholera are regular occurrences in Zambia during the five-month rainy season, the number of cases this year has exceeded the average annual caseload.

The WHO is currently working with the Zambia National Public Health Institute to address the underlying causes of the cholera outbreak, including clean water provision, sanitation and health education on personal hygiene.

The agency is also helping authorities to track down cases, treat cholera patients and provide community health education.

The WHO recommends that vaccination against cholera be considered in emergencies and other high-risk scenarios, as planning is underway to vaccinate a further one million people living in known cholera hot spots across the country later this year.
Moscow, Jan 11 : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif reaffirmed their commitment to a multilateral deal on Iran's nuclear programme here on Wednesday.

They expressed willingness to continue to fulfil obligations under the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Xinhua reported.

"Possible disruption of the JCPOA's implementation due to Washington's actions would go against the task of maintaining international and regional security and stability and negatively affect multilateral efforts in the field of nuclear non-proliferation," they said in a joint statement.

The JCPOA was reached between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany, in July 2015.

Under the deal, Iran agrees to halt its nuclear weapon programme in exchange for economic aid and lifting of international sanctions.

However, in October 2017, US President Donald Trump called for de-certifying the agreement, alleging Iran had committed "multiple violations," which Tehran has denied.
Chicago, Jan 11 : After German automaker Volkswagen's Dieselgate scandal, it is now the US auto giant Ford Motor that was accused of emissions cheating in a bid to promote its diesel engine trucks.

A class action lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in Detroit in the state of Michigan, claiming Ford and German auto supplier Bosch of knowingly installing emissions-cheating software devices in 2011-2017 Ford 250 and 350 Super Duty diesel pickup trucks.

According to Hagens Berman law firm, affected pickups which drivers paid $8,400 more than the gasoline edition for higher fuel efficiency, could pollute the air with NOx (nitrogen oxide) at levels up to 50 times of legal limits, Xinhua reported.

However, the law firm said that Ford marketed and sold these trucks as the "cleanest Super Diesel ever," and said it used "proven technology and innovative Ford strategies to meet the latest federal emissions standards."

Hagens Berman hit Ford and Bosch with a total 58 counts of violations of state consumer laws, false advertising laws, deceptive trade laws as well as violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

It adding that "Ford did not act alone," but colluded with Bosch in an organised scheme to evade emissions requirements, for sake of profit.

Neither Ford nor Bosch have reacted to the accusations.
Washington, Jan 11 : The US administration has renamed the street the Russian embassy sits on after a murdered Russian opposition politician prompting criticism from Moscow with one its leaders labelling it a "dirty trick".

The Washington DC city council voted to rename the street outside Russia's embassy complex after Boris Nemtsov, who was shot outside the Kremlin in 2015, the BBC reported.

A statement from the city council said the decision to honour the "slain democracy activist" was passed unanimously.

The decision was specifically targeted at "the portion of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the Russian Embassy", according to the Washington council's statement.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted the leader of the nationalist LDPR party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as saying US authorities "specifically want to play dirty tricks in front of the Russian Embassy".

Another politician from the Communist Party Dmitry Novikov said: "The US authorities have long been absorbed in their own game of interfering in Russian internal affairs."

Nemtsov, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was shot in February 2015 while walking home from a restaurant in Moscow.

A small memorial near where he was killed has frequently been vandalised, or cleared away by street cleaners late at night, the BBC report said.

His daughter, Zhanna, travelled to Washington DC in early December to advocate for the name change.

She said: "The current Russian political regime wants to eradicate the memory of my father, since it believes - correctly - that symbols are important and that they can potentially facilitate and inspire change."

She said her father was "an open-minded patriot of Russia" who deserved to be commemorated.

"For now, we cannot do it in Russia because of unprecedented resistance on the part of the Russian authorities. But we have a chance to do it here - and here, it will be very difficult to dismantle," the BBC quoted her as saying.

In 2017, five Chechen men were convicted for Nemtsov's killing, but family and supporters of the slain politician believe the person who ordered the murder remains at large.

The Washington DC decision comes a day after Turkey similarly renamed the street the UAE embassy sits upon in Ankara, naming it after a military commander at the centre of a diplomatic spat.
New York, Jan 11 : In an emerging strategic transformation, India is now considering itself as maritime power and building up its navy to meet that challenge after having thought of itself for a long time as a land power, according to a former senior US diplomat who is a leading expert on South Asia.

India increasingly sees its role across the Indian Ocean as a "net provider of regional security", which is echoed by the US Secretaries of Defence and State when they talk about its role in the region, Alyssa Ayres, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia, said Wednesday.

"There is a transformation of the way the Indian Navy talks about the seas, from using the seas to securing the seas - this whole idea of New Delhi now playing a role in protecting the freedom of navigation as opposed to just the sealanes that the Indian Navy uses," she said.

Ayres, who is now a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of the recently-published "Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World", was speaking at the Asia Society here on "India 2018" a look at the year ahead.

When thinking about the strategic future there is concern about China's activities in East and Southeast Asia, she said.

As a result the US and India share an interest in ensuring that the sealanes remain open.

"India like the US is a vocal advocate of freedom of navigation," she said. "The US and India are both very focused on this issue."

"What you have seen in the last four-five months is an increasing convergence, where (President Donald) Trump's administration has picked up what the Indian, the Japanese and the Australian government talk about, a concept of the Indo-Pacific region," she said.

While the US traditionally spoke of the Asia Pacific region, the Australians, Japanese and Indian leaders had a broader concept of the Indo-Pacific region, Ayres said.

"The US is now using that same term (and) what that does is that it expands the field of reference, it places India in a much more central role," she said.

"It acknowledges the fact that India is a major defence partner in this larger (Indo-Pacific) region and that the US and India will continue to partner closely."

The Philippines Permanent Representative to the UN, Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., questioned the basis of an Indo-Pacific concept saying it was "nowhere comparable to Asia-Pacific relationship to western economies".

"I think the US focus on an Indian military alliance or relationship is really a distraction for the Chinese," he said. "The Indian Ocean is just too big a neck to choke. So the real problem really remains the straits and the South China Sea."

"Whatever is raised about the possibility of a Japan, Australia, India military combination to counter the Chinese concern, the usual reaction from the Philippines and the others is resentment," he said.

"We do not want to get involved in any quarrel with China that involves India."

"To get connected to India is really asking for trouble from China," he added.

Ayres said that the defence relations between Washington and New Delhi have grown through the last three US presidencies and Trump is continuing it.

A measure of the closeness can be seen in the joint military exercises they hold, she said.

"India now exercises more with the US than with any other partner and the talking point on the US side is that it exercises more with India than with any other non-NATO partner."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
Bengaluru, Jan 11 : An analysis of satellite images obtained over the last 17 years has revealed a striking observation of massive holes being formed in the fog over Delhi each year in the winter months of December and January.

A report in the journal Geophysical Research Letters published by the American Geophysical Union says "fog holes" are observed in urban areas globally -- especially over Delhi.

Dense and polluted fog in the Indo-Gangetic Plain blankets northern India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh every year during the winter months, severely disrupting air, rail and vehicular transportation.

Using 17 years of data from NASA's MODIS satellite, researchers Ritesh Gautam -- formerly Professor at IIT Bombay and now a scientist with the US Environmental Defense Fund in Washington -- and Manoj Singh of the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Dehradun, have derived a long-term climatological distribution of fog occurrences in Asia, Europe and the US.

"We found fog holes globally but the largest frequency and extent of fog holes is observed over Delhi," Gautam told this correspondent.

According to the report, "a strong statistically significant correlation" was found between urban heat islands and fog hole area over multiple fog-prone cities in the Po valley (Milan/Italy), North China Plain (Beijing, Tianjin) and California's central valley.

"The extent of fog holes appear highly correlated with city populations in fog-prevalent regions of Asia, Europe and the US and we find the largest extent of fog holes over Delhi," says the report.

"While air pollution is known to hasten fog formation, our findings suggest the urban heat island over Delhi causes the fog to burn off faster, causing massive holes," Gautam said.

The study found more than 90 occurrences of fog holes over Delhi during the winter months. An analysis of eight-year data (2009-2016) found that fog holes were the most frequent over Delhi with their formation in as many as 55 days during December-January.

"This apparent urban heat impact is characterised in sharp urban-rural gradients in surface temperatures and fog thickness," the report says.

"Urban heating seems to have already amplified the long-term fog decline in Europe and US and should be assessed over regions undergoing urban expansion, including India, where no previous linkages are reported between urban heating and fog."

The finding of fog holes contributes in general to the better understanding of fog dynamics over urban heat islands globally, but specifically over Delhi, where the air quality is at its worst in winter, impacting public health, the report says.

In addition to Delhi, in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, fog holes also appear frequently over Lahore, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala, says the report.

Satellite data analysis showed that 24-32 fog holes were formed over these five cities which are "urban hot spots distributed amidst green vegetated cover in Punjab".

According to the authors, this is the first study showing direct impact and evidence of urban hotspots on fog globally and specifically over Delhi.

The authors suggest that links between urbanisation and fog dynamics and its frequency should be assessed "to help better understand the relationships between fog, air pollution and urbanisation as well as help advance development of fog forecasting capabilities".

"In addition, our findings will also provide key information to the air/rail/vehicular transport sector in terms of timing and processes of fog dissipation," they add.

(K.S. Jayaraman is a veteran science journalist. He can be contacted at killugudi@hotmail.com )
New Delhi : Given the current market conditions in India for smartphones, it appears that Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder, was prophetic: He did not consider this country a significant opportunity.

Let's take a look at the Apple story since its entry into India in 2008. A lot has changed in the market -- changes that have been favourable for consumers and the industry but, perhaps, not so much for Apple.

In the decade since its arrival, almost all the segments -- barring the $100 to $200 segment -- have seen a decline in the competitive and price-sensitive Indian market. But what should concern the Cupertino-based iPhone-maker is the steep fall in the $400-and-above market.

In 2008 and 2009, this segment used to account for 30 per cent of the total smartphone shipments. From 2010 onwards, around the time domestic brands made their entry in the ring, helping to expand the sub-$100 category, the premium segment fell to half at 15 per cent.

Barring a spike in 2011, the $400-and-above market has been on the decline in terms of shipment contribution. In the period, whatever growth took place in the smartphone market, happened at the lower end of the price strata.

Since 2013, the $400-plus market has been in single digits, and this is obviously not a good sign for a premium brand like Apple in India -- even if the iPhone SE is taken into account, which is more of a mid-premium smartphone and is now being assembled in Bengaluru.

The big question now is: Has Apple's poor performance in India been on account of some loose ends in its strategy? Or is it merely because of the segment/s in which the Cupertino-based iPhone-maker operates?

Let us examine the market share of Apple in the segments it operates in.

Over its decade-long presence in the country, Apple has been operating in three price segments. Among these, $400-plus has been the staple where the tech giant has performed superbly.

From just over five per cent share of the segment in 2008, when Apple said 'Namaste' to India, it currently enjoys over 47 per cent share in the $400-and-above smartphone segment by units.

In terms of revenues, Apple has also seen consistent growth despite pressures like shrinking opportunities in the premium segment as well as falling average selling prices -- not the forget the "forced" downward movement to cater to the mid-premium segment.

In 2017, till September end, there has been a 21 per cent revenue decline compared to the calendar year 2016.

But then, Apple has witnessed good annual growth rates since 2010 -- its average annual revenue growth rate has been 116 per cent in its first decade of presence in India.

Both from the revenue as well as volume aspects, Apple has seen a consoling India story so far.

The real issue is the growth in the premium segment with several players, incluing from China, now offering devices. This segment is going to see some difficult times ahead owing to the fact that, after Jio surfaced on the landscape, the opportunity now shifts towards the entry-level players to let a user have his or her first smartphone experience.

In the era of "Desh Ka Smartphone" and "Mera Pehla Smartphone", it would be challenging for any premium smartphone brand, including Apple, to grow like in the past.

The overall declining growth in all price segments of smartphone over the last decade or so, Apple's consistent growth in revenues as well as its increasing growth in market share in the segment(s) it is present, has an interesting story to tell.

For Apple, revenues as well as its market standing is on the rise so far, as it faces the peculiar nature of the domestic market.

Was Jobs able to foresee this peculiarity of the Indian smartphone market or was his interpretation something different?

Whatever his interpretation, the impact for Apple is more or less the same.

(Faisal Kawoosa is the General Manager-Research & Consulting with CyberMedia Research. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at releases@cmrindia.com)
www.winkelman.com

The number of Lyme disease cases in the US alone have skyrocketed to epidemic proportions. According to the CDC, estimates vary between 300,000 to 1 million cases per year in the US alone. These frightening statistics do not include the multitude of undiagnosed or misdiagnosed cases that continue to go unreported. Yet, Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses such as Powassan, Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, to name just a few, are preventable with one caveat - awareness. Outdoor industry guru, Babe Winkelman, is taking the education challenge head-on in an effort to raise awareness about ticks and the dangerous illnesses they can carry via his Tick-Borne Illness Information Center. Winkelman, a 3-time Lyme disease survivor himself, whose daily office is the great outdoors, knows firsthand the debilitating effects of just one, tiny tick bite.

Winkelman started fishing and hunting on his Minnesota family farm at the age of 6 and hasnt stopped since. He and his family have built their careers on sharing the wonders of the outdoors to millions of viewers internationally via widely popular, award-winning television series such as Good Fishing and Outdoor Secrets. He first became aware of Lyme disease about thirty years ago and immediately began to educate himself about the symptoms and precautionary measures needed to stay protected in the outdoors. His educational efforts have never ceased. Throughout the past three decades Winkelman has heard hundreds of horrific personal stories from outdoor colleagues ravaged by Lyme disease.

Many of my outdoor industry friends and colleagues were misdiagnosed. By the time they found out that the true culprit for all of their painful symptoms was Lyme, they were in the midst of living hell, literally fighting for their lives, shares Winkelman. Others, such as one of my very own employees, lost their battle to Lyme.

Despite their fluency with the signs and symptoms of tick-borne illnesses, the Winkelman family contracted Lyme 6 times collectively. Most were caught swiftly and treated effectively. One case, however endured by Karlee Winkelman, was misdiagnosed. Daughter Karlees misdiagnosis became a potent impetus for Winkelman to leverage his reach, loyal following and professional network to raise awareness and reduce the suffering.

Thankfully, we caught Karlees case in time and she has fully recovered. Yet, if we had simply accepted the diagnosis, as so many do today, we have no doubt Karlee would be battling through a life with chronic Lyme. Karlees misdiagnosis was the final straw. I knew it was time to take greater action, explained Winkelman.

Babe Winkelmans Tick-Borne Illness Information Center collaborating partners include TickEase, Insect Shield Repellent Technology, Tick Encounter Resource Center, ProjectLyme, ThermaCELL, Coppe Healthcare Solutions, Laboratory of Medical Zoology, Dr. Steve Rich, and Dr. Thomas Mather, Bayer, Spectrum Brands, and Gamehide. This mix of Lyme-fluent health and medical experts, awareness advocates and brands offering the latest effective prevention tools and products is one large step towards protecting families from the ravages of tick-borne illness.

With fewer than fifty percent of people who contract Lyme recalling getting a tick bite or rash, and fifty to seventy percent of patients with Lyme receiving false negatives, Babe Winkelmans Tick-Borne Illness Information Center is a vital educational hub. The center provides detailed information on all tick-borne illnesses and associated symptoms, tick species and activity, prevention strategies and post tick-bite solutions to help protect families, outdoor workers, enthusiasts and even pets. Additionally, a rich resource section of vector-borne disease specialists is tailored specifically for those in the throngs of tick-borne illness and in need of support.

About Winkelman Productions

Babe Winkelman is an award-winning American sportsman and television producer, renown for educational television programs about hunting and fishing. His program Good Fishing was first syndicated internationally in the early 1980s. Winkelman today produces an additional program, Outdoor Secrets, which with Good Fishing, airs in the United States and internationally on channels such as CBS Sports, American Hero Channel, and Destination America, Pursuit and Wild TV. Over the years he produced the only Audio Cassette tape series teaching fishing, wrote a series of seven books, was the first to start a video tape series that taught fishing and produced nearly 100 different titles. Winkelman has served as spokesman for more Fortune 500 companies than any individual in the outdoors genre. Winkelman, along with his wife and five daughters, continues to inspire families to make memories while participating in outdoor adventures.

https://winkelman.com/

Awards and Recognition



1988: Babe Winkelman was inducted into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. A few years later, he was inducted into the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame.

1992: Winkelman was inducted into the Sports Legends Hall of Fame, a global event, alongside Evander Holyfield for boxing and Pete Rose for Baseball. He was one of a select few from the US and thirty from around the world, and the only outdoorsman to date ever to be inducted.

2015: Winkelman was inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame.

2007: Winkelman achieved an Excellence in Craft award by the Outdoor Writers association of America (OWAA), their most prestigious award for his work with television.

Production Awards: Babe Winkelman has earned widespread recognition for production excellence including awards from the New York Film Festival, Houston International Film Festival, Teddy and Addy Awards, and the Golden Moose.

2013: Babe and Kris Winkelman were nominated by Ottertail County as Conservationists of the Year for the state of Minnesota.

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Media contact:

Janine Robertson

Marketing/PR

Insect Shield Repellent Technology

janinerobertson(at)insectshield(dot)com

http://www.insectshield.com

Ph: 206 354-9093
To see this article, please visit the following webpage:

http://bit.ly/2AKSzmS

Encore Energy, Inc. has recently secured exclusive drilling rights to the JDH estate lease block(s) where thousands of acres are directly off-set to multiple areas of proven Berea oil production in Lawrence County, Kentucky. The Lawrence County Berea Oil play reportedly produces more than 20% of the state's annual oil production. The Berea is projected to produce and provide income for up to ~15 - 20 years or more. Encore is a proven operator in the Berea play and believes their projects will support hundreds of highly-skilled and high-paying jobs in Eastern Kentucky, long-term. Be sure to check out the Companys Investment Operations Due Diligence section online at http://www.encore-energy.com/Operations.html

Encore is currently making plans to drill the first eight (8) horizontal Berea well locations, said Joseph Hooper, Encores Executive Vice President and Director.

Oil and gas investments involve a high degree of risk and are suitable only for SEC defined accredited investors, industry participants and institutional investors who can afford the loss of their entire investment. No assurances can be made as it relates to production, reserves, income, timelines or any other estimates or projections.

For more information and to see if you qualify as an SEC defined accredited investor, please contact Joseph Hooper at (270) 842-1242, ext. 224 or by e-mail at Joseph.Hooper(at)encore-energy(dot)com

Assumptions, Disclaimer and Cautionary Statement: The information herein may contain forward-looking statements, and actual results may vary. Words such as "estimate", "will," "intend," "continue," "target," "expect," "achieve," "strategy," "future," "may," "goal," or other comparable words or phrases or the negative of those words, and other words of similar meaning indicate forward-looking statements and important factors which could affect actual results. Forward-looking statements are made based upon Management's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects upon Encore Energy, Inc. Oil and gas investments involve a high degree of risk, uncertainty and are only suitable for qualified Accredited (SEC Definition) investors who are sophisticated in making business decisions and can bear the financial loss of their entire investment, while delivering a turnkey profit to the Company for proving the prospect development, lease acquisition, drilling, completion, engineering and ongoing production operations. The Company does not provide tax advice and investors should seek the advice of their tax professional. Any tax and/or other information herein is provided for illustration purposes only and may include estimates that are uncertain and subject to change. It is impossible to accurately forecast profitability, production, reserves, income, expenses and timelines for any project. No assurances can be made as it relates to reserves, production, income, profit, prices, timelines and/or other estimates. Actual production and results are beyond the control of management. In the event that commercial production is achieved, it may take many years for the investor to recoup his or her investment. The Company's lease acreage position under is subject to change and includes acreage under lease, Farmout agreement, verbal agreement, renewals, expired terms and any other prospective acreage in which the Company has negotiated with the landowner the leasing of oil and gas rights, now or in the future, and the lease / mineral owner has leased or communicated their intent to lease there mineral lease rights to the Company. It is important for qualified investors to acknowledge the fact that the US government provides them with tax savings (100% IDC tax deduction) to mitigate or at least off-set some of the financial risk associated with domestic oil and gas investments. This is not an offer to sell or buy a security. An offer shall only be made pursuant to SEC Regulation D, Rule 506(c) by a private placement offering memorandum which further governed by the National Investment Securities Marketing Improvement Act of 1996 as it pertains to covered securities. This is not a private placement offering memorandum.
Dr. Bala Ganesh Gopurala joins The Oncology Institute of Hope and Innovation

Dr. Balaganesh Gopurala is a board certified hematologist that brings over 20 years of medical experience to The Oncology Institute of Hope and Innovation.

Dr. Gopurala began his undergraduate education in Andhra Pradesh India, completing a Bachelors of Science in Biological and Chemical Sciences at Sri Venkateswara University Chittoor in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. He then completed a Masters of Science in Biology and then went on to receive his Medical Degree from Sri Venkateswara University School of Medicine, where he graduated with honors. Dr. Gopurala completed his residency from Carraway Medical Center in Brimingham Alabama in Internal medicine and then fellowed at the Division of Hematology and Oncology, School of Medicine at the University of Alabama.

Dr. Gopurala has an extensive formal and supervisory teaching background. He has lead lectures and presented at lecture series including the topics of: Integrative Medicine, Preventive Oncology, Chronic Leukemia, Lung Cancer, Myeloproliferative Syndromes, Head and Neck Cancers, Myelodysplastic Syndromes, Breast Cancer, and Acute Leukemias. He stays current in research and has a number of Abstracts, Reviews, Book Chapters, and Symposium Publications. He has received a number of awards from both the United States and India. In 1984, he received the State Merit Scholarship Award for Outstanding Academic Performance from Sri Venkateswara University, and most recently, he was inducted into the International Association of Healthcare Professionals and 2015s Alabama's Top Oncologist from the International Association of Oncology.

Dr. Gopurala stays active in clinical research studies and continues to attend post graduate education.

Dr. Gopurala is fluent in Telugu.

Patient Care Philosophy:

Dr. Gopurala believes strong in educating his patient and providing them and their family with individualized treatment plans that are designed based on the type of tumor/disease, the patients wish, and social circumstance.
Eagle Roofing Products, the industry leader in concrete roof tile manufacturing and innovation, announced that they are an Alliance Sponsor for the 2018 Meritage reNEWable Living Home.

The project is a pioneering venture between Hanley Wood, the premier information, media, event, and strategic marketing services company serving the residential, commercial design and construction companies, and Meritage Homes, the eighth largest homebuilder in the United States. Designed with the homeowner in mind, the project features innovative design, engineering, materials science and construction practices that coalesces around transforming the idea of homeownership by delivering homes that renew, grow, change and adapt. The home will be unveiled at the 2018 National Association of Home Builders International Builders Show in Orlando, FL.

Meritage Homes specifically requested Eagles participation in the reNEWable Living Home to provide the concrete tile roof. Like all of Eagles products, the Bel Air Dark Charcoal concrete tile roof installed on the home is environmentally friendly, energy efficient, durable enough to last the life of the structure and tested to withstand the harshest of elements.

Lissette Pamplona, Director of Marketing, said in a statement, Eagle Roofing Products and Meritage Homes have a strong, long-standing relationship and we are honored, as a company, to have been asked to participate in this noteworthy initiative. At Eagle, we take great pride in the high-quality concrete roof tile we produce. She added, The superior performance properties our tile possesses, such as a Class A fire rating, the ability to withstand sustained winds of up to 180 mph and stand up to hail; in addition to the natural thermal resistance in the raw materials themselves that makes our tile inherently energy efficient  reducing energy consumption and utility costs, makes us the perfect fit to be a part of the reNEWable Living Home.

The Meritage reNEWable Living Home is located at The Estates at Parkside, a 111-home community ranging in price from $545,990 - $679,990 in Orlando, FL, a short drive from the Orlando Convention Center. BSB Design, led by Dan Swift, adapted the Granada elevation, a two-story 5,188 sq. ft. plan featuring 7 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, and 4 garages. The home emphasizes advanced features and technologies at a significantly reduced costa price point comparable to similar new homes that do not have those features. In keeping with Meritages brand promise of LIFE. BUILT. BETTER., the home will allow its residents to live bettermore comfortable, quieter, cleaner, safer and healthier.

Visit http://www.builderonline.com/renewable to stay up-to-date with the Meritage reNEWable Living Home project developments.

To learn more about Eagle Roofing Products, visit http://www.eagleroofing.com.

About Eagle Roofing Products

Eagle Roofing Products is a division of Burlingame Industries, a California based, privately held family organization that has been in the concrete roof tile industry for over 40 years. Founded in 1989 with five employees, Eagle has grown to four manufacturing plants, five design centers and a work force of 700 employees. As the largest USA made, USA owned concrete roof tile manufacturer in the United States, Eagle Roofing Products specializes in providing concrete tile roofing solutions for the building industry.

About Meritage Homes

Meritage Homes is the seventh-largest homebuilder in the United States, based on homes closed in 2015. Meritage Homes builds and sells single-family homes for first-time, move-up, luxury and active adult buyers across the Western, Southwestern and Southeastern United States. Meritage Homes builds in markets including Sacramento, San Francisco Bay area, southern coastal and Inland Empire markets in California; Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Phoenix/Scottsdale, Green Valley and Tucson, Arizona; Denver and Fort Collins, Colorado; Orlando, Tampa and south Florida; Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina; Greenville-Spartanburg and York County, South Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Meritage Homes has designed and built over 100,000 homes in its 31-year history, and has a reputation for its distinctive style, quality construction, and positive customer experience. Meritage Homes is the industry leader in energy-efficient homebuilding and has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence Award every year since 2013 for innovation and industry leadership in energy efficient homebuilding. For more information, visit http://www.meritagehomes.com.

About Hanley Wood

Hanley Wood is the premier company serving the information, media, and marketing needs of the residential, commercial design and construction industry. Utilizing the largest analytics and editorially driven Construction Industry Database, the company provides business intelligence and data-driven services. The company produces award-winning media, high-profile executive events, and strategic marketing solutions. To learn more, visit http://www.hanleywood.com.

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Within the pages of Randy Vescos new book, No Soul Left Behind: The Story of a Life Forever Changed, ($15.49, paperback, 9781545601457; $25.49, hardcover, 9781545601464; $7.99, e-book, 9781545601471) readers will discover the authors story of renewed spiritual growth. In his book largely written about his own life, Vesco recounts his experiences fighting against the flesh and how he found his way back to God.

Since God will stop at nothing to save our souls, we cant either, states the author. He will begin, or begin again, with us right where we are when we accept His grace. [No Soul Left Behind] is an in-depth look into the heart and mind of a modern-day prodigal son willing to do anything to be close to his Father, encountering Him in profound and life changing ways.

Randy Vesco is a husband and father with a passion for helping others on their walk with Jesus. He has earned degrees from Youngstown State University and Cleveland State University. He runs a consulting firm and is active in the Christian Business Owners Fellowship, a group dedicated to encouraging personal and professional operations that will glorify God.

Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 12,000 titles published to date. Retailers may order No Soul Left Behind through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors. The book is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.
National Institute of Whole Health Our whole health model of care is a key component of the VAs proposed future delivery system." Dr. David Shulkin

The National Institute of Whole Health (NIWH) congratulates the Veterans Administration Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation on embracing the visionary and innovative model of Whole Health to serve its members. NIWH celebrates the VAs commitment to Whole Health as the intrinsically appropriate template for patient healthcare. This person-centered model addresses and serves the needs of the whole person, in contrast to symptom-based medical treatments. This represents a significant shift to the highest standards for providing care for one of our most valuable resources - our soldiers and veterans.

In 1977, NIWH began pioneering the development and research of Whole Health and Whole Person Healthcare. Since 1980, NIWH has conducted studies at leading national hospitals and medical institutions to lay the foundation for a dynamic new model of healthcare. Today, NIWH is accredited by the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE) to provide patient education training, is a Whole Health course content provider, and conducts on-going hospital-based research on both Whole Health Education and advancing the practice of Whole Health. In the most recent Blue Cross Blue Shield-funded physician study, conducted by Michigan State University researchers, the NIWH model demonstrated a 27.5 - 35 % increase in both patient and physician satisfaction surveys.

Dr. David J. Shulkin, current Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in the March 17, 2016 publication of the New England Journal of Medicine, stated in his article Beyond the VA Crisis - Becoming a High-Performance Network, Our whole health model of care is a key component of the VAs proposed future delivery system. This model incorporates physical care with psychosocial care focused on the veterans personal health and life goals, aiming to provide personalized, proactive, patient-driven care through multidisciplinary teams of health professionals.

The NIWH research has established the multiple aspects of Whole Health, which are critical in addressing the Whole Person needs of each client. Dr. Georgianna Donadio, Director of NIWH, supports Dr. Shulkins assertion of multiple factors which are critical in addressing the causes and solutions for sustainable, self-directed health and wellness. NIWH is proud to be approved by the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide Whole Health trainings to over 3.5 million U.S. military spouses around the world.

Dr. Donadio states, It has been a privilege to labor these many decades in the field of Whole Health. It is profoundly gratifying to witness and participate in the development and growth of this truly innovative model of care. Its many inter-related parts serve to address all aspects of an individuals health and fully engage them in their own healing and health process.

National Institute of Whole Health -

Since its inception in 1977, the National Institute of Whole Health (NIWH) has held a compelling vision for American health care. Today, 41 years later, that vision has become a reality in mainstream medicine with the inclusion of chronic care coordination, whole health patient education and wellness advocacy. The recently updated, multi-award-winning, #1 national bestselling book Changing Behavior, documents the development and research of Whole Health Education at various Boston hospitals, which began in 1980. For more information, please visit http://www.niwh.org. Media Contact: Maureen Landry at 888-354-4325 or e-mail Maureen(at)niwh(dot)org.

Veterans Administration -

The VA Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation (OPCC&CT) works with VA leadership and health care providers to transform VAs health system from the traditional medical model, which focuses on treating specific issues, to a personalized, proactive, patient-driven model that promotes whole health for Veterans and their families. (https://www.va.gov/patientcenteredcare/)
Live theatre is a fantastic way to educate. The show goes beyond reading or other more passive methods of engaging kids.

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) and The National Theatre for Children (NTC) have partnered to educate and inspire Florida students and their families. From January 16 to March 9, professional actors from NTC will visit 74 elementary schools with live performances of Captain Wattage, sparking conversations on energy efficiency in classrooms throughout FPLs service area. The program will focus on:



What energy and electricity are

Uses of energy

Ways in which energy is wasted

How to conserve energy

The live program revolves around Captain Wattage, a superhero who discovers that the evil Vivica Voltage is wasting energy all over the city. With the help of student volunteers, as well as colorful characters like Iona Badge and Mrs. Ellie Mentry, Captain Wattage sets off to stop Vivica.

In addition to live performances, the program includes digital games and activities that align with the important concepts outlined in the live shows. FPL sponsors every aspect of the program, making the performances and materials a cost-free supplement to lessons in science, literacy and the arts.

Live theatre is a fantastic way to educate, says NTC president and founder Ward Eames. The show goes beyond reading or other more passive methods of engaging kids. These children are watching a story unfold right before their very eyes, with the two actors playing all sorts of characters. We dont lose the kids attention for a minute, because they get to respond and interact with the show. It really sticks with them.

For a complete list of schools and locations on the tour, contact Eddie Eames at eeames(at)ntccorporate(dot)com. For more information on The National Theatre for Children, visit: http://www.nationaltheatre.com.

Florida Power & Light Company

Florida Power & Light Company is the third-largest electric utility in the United States, serving approximately 5 million customer accounts or an estimated 10+ million people across nearly half of the state of Florida. FPL's typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is approximately 25 percent lower than the latest national average and, in 2016, was the lowest in Florida among reporting utilities for the seventh year in a row. FPL's nationally recognized service reliability is better than 99.98 percent, and its highly fuel-efficient power plant fleet is one of the cleanest among all utilities nationwide. The company received the top ranking in the southern U.S. among large electric providers, according to the J.D. Power 2016 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM, and was recognized in 2016 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Market Strategies International. A leading Florida employer with approximately 8,900 employees, FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra Energy, Inc., a clean energy company widely recognized for its efforts in sustainability, ethics and diversity, and has been ranked No. 1 in the electric and gas utilities industry in Fortune's 2017 list of "World's Most Admired Companies." NextEra Energy is also the parent company of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: http://www.NextEraEnergy.com, http://www.FPL.com, http://www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.

About The National Theatre for Children

NTC is a premium provider of educational programming with operations in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. We work directly between schools and clients to promote beneficial behaviors and life skills to students in grades K-12 on a local, regional and national level.

Our award-winning educational programs are provided free for schools and are customizable to accommodate specific messages and goals for clients. Through formats including live performance, in-class discussion, graphic novels, print curriculum, and digital games and activities, we present topics such as energy conservation, safety, financial literacy, STEM, water and environmental stewardship, and health and social responsibility in ways that engage and empower students. In doing so, we are helping our clients to be forces of change for students, parents and communities.

Visit http://www.NTCcorporate.com.
Attorney Mark A. Roseman of Hollywood, Florida was recently honored to receive the AV Preeminent designation by Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings. AV Preeminent is a significant rating accomplishment and a testament to the fact that a lawyers peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.

Roseman graduated from Dartmouth College with an undergraduate degree in history. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Boston University Law School.

Roseman is active in the community and supports several local organizations. He is a member of the Florida Bar, National Association of Elder Law Attorneys, Broward County Bar Association, Broward Coalition on Aging, Elder Services Resource Network, and National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings

The Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings help buyers of legal services identify, evaluate and select the most appropriate lawyer for a specific task at hand. Lawyer ratings serve as an objective indicator that a lawyer has the highest ethical standards and professional ability and are used by buyers of legal services to justify their hiring decisions.

Attorney Mark A. Roseman practices in the areas of Elder Law, Medicaid planning, Asset Protection, Wills, Probate, and Bankruptcy. He represents clients in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County in Florida. This includes Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Contact information:

MARK A. ROSEMAN, Esq.

Law Office of Mark A. Roseman

3325 Hollywood Boulevard Suite 308

Hollywood Florida 33021

Phone: (954) 963 - 8719

Fax: (954) 929 - 4420

http://www.roseman-elder-law.com

http://www.mark-roseman.com
David McCoy, President & CFO of First National Bank and Trust David has become a valued member of my executive management team. His vast experience in management, his leadership skills in financial and risk management, and his focus on business development and process improvement will help lead First National Bank and Trust into the future.

Steve Eldred, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of First National Bank and Trust Company (FNBT) is pleased to announce that David McCoy, CPA, has been promoted to President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and has been elected as the newest member of the Board of Directors of Centre1 Bancorp, Inc., the holding company of FNBT. Steve Eldred will continue as CEO and Chairman of the Board, and will remain active in guiding the strategic direction, business development, and corporate management policies of the bank.

As President and CFO, McCoy is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the bank, providing oversight for the sales teams, wealth management, human resources, information technology, marketing, and the internal loan and deposit operations teams. He will continue to be responsible for aligning financial goals and reporting with the banks strategic plan, assuring safe and sound risk management practices, leading the banks asset-liability committee, and communicating financial results to every team member at First National.

During his time at First National, David has proven himself to be a valued member of my executive management team, said Eldred. His vast experience in management, his leadership skills in financial and risk management, and his focus on business development and process improvement will help lead First National Bank and Trust into the future.

I am excited and honored that the Eldred family and the Board of Directors has asked me to serve the bank as President, and to succeed Steve Eldred, who served as President for 20 years, said McCoy. As the first non-Eldred family President after four generations, I am humbled for the opportunity to serve as President alongside Steve as he continues to provide leadership and strategic direction as Chairman and CEO. We are proud of the team we have assembled; they work diligently each and every day serving our customers and shareholders. We are looking forward to the continued success of this independently and family-owned community bank. As President, I look forward to continuing the legacy of First National Bank and Trust and our commitment to providing Sound Advice to meet the goals and needs of all the communities we serve.

McCoy joined the company in October 2016 as EVP and CFO. With over 30 years of banking and executive leadership experience, McCoy came to FNBT from The National Bank & Trust Company headquartered in Sycamore, Illinois where he was senior vice president (SVP) and CFO. He was director of risk management services for RSM McGladrey from 2005 to 2006, and was on the executive management team as SVP, CFO and enterprise risk management officer for Fifth Third Bank from 1993 to 2004.

McCoy earned an associates degree from Ohio Valley College in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and earned his bachelors degree in business administration from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He is licensed in Illinois as a certified public accountant (CPA), and belongs to the Illinois Society of CPAs and is a member of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). McCoy has completed many industry related courses, including the SNL Executive Program in Bank Financial Leadership through the University of Virginia.

McCoy and his wife, Kathy, are relocating to Beloit, Wisconsin, and have three grown children. Currently, McCoy serves as an elder for the Edgebrook Lane Church of Christ in Sycamore, Illinois, where he was also treasurer for the past 16 years and teaches Bible classes and lessons regularly. He is a former board member for the Northern Illinois College of Business, Belief Program for Building Ethical Leaders Using an Integrated Ethics Framework in Business and he frequently presented as a guest speaker. With an affinity for jazz music, McCoy also held several board-level positions for the non-profit group, St. Charles North Friends of Music.

While Steve Eldreds title has changed, his commitment and involvement with the bank, our customers and our communities we serve remains as strong ever. Eldred was born and raised in Beloit, Wisconsin and is the fourth generation of his family to lead the bank. He joined the company in 1981 and has served on the Board of Directors for Centre1 Bancorp since 1988. He was named President in 1998. He will continue to develop high-level strategies, make major corporate decisions, and as Chairman of the Board will act as the main point of communication between the board and the bank.

First National Bank and Trust Company is a family-owned, community bank headquartered in Beloit, Wisconsin. Chartered in 1882, First National Bank and Trust Company now serves nearly 30,000 households in 13 communities and 16 locations in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois with assets of approximately $1.2 billion. Commitment to full service banking, investments, asset management, exceptional service, and Sound Advice has positioned First National Bank and Trust Company as a Stateline leader in the industry. For additional information, visit https://www.bankatfirstnational.com.
IonField Systems announced the successful completion of the PlasmaKnife Microplate Cleaning System beta test and installation of a commercial release PlasmaKnife for regular use at AstraZenecas research facility in the UK.

Paul Hensley, CEO of IonField Systems commented, "We are very pleased that the beta test program validated the expectations both companies had for the PlasmaKnife to clean microplates to like new. Scientists from both companies contributed to developing what is a truly exceptionally performing product. IonField also extends thanks to the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health. Through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, NCATS supported the development of the PlasmaKnife."

Mark Wigglesworth, Director High Throughput Screening at AstraZeneca, said, "AstraZeneca are continually exploring new technologies that will help us improve our scientific processes and outcomes. Its been great to work with IonField Systems on this project, which will reduce long-term costs as well as plastic waste from our laboratories."

IonField is a great small business success story for NCATS, said Lili Portilla, M.P.A., program director for the NCATS SBIR program. NCATS staff identified a translational problem common in drug development and IonField developed a very elegant solution to clean and reuse these expensive microplates.

About IonField Systems

IonField is the premiere supplier of plasma-based cleaning systems to the Life Science Research market. Cleaning systems, like the TipCharger family of products and PlasmaKnife, restore previously used microplates and liquid transfer components (pipette tips and pin tools) to like new and ready for reuse multiple times. The PlasmaKnife Microplate Cleaning System and the TipCharger Systems are available for purchase directly from IonField in North America or through our distributors in the EU, Japan, Singapore, and China. Early in 2018, IonField will open its new Assay Analytics division to provide AI based analytic services that improve assay precision.
Partnering with the Special Olympics allows us to impact our community in a meaningful way, and our employees love it. We are thrilled to continue our relationship with the Special Olympics and look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together in 2018.

Career Step, an online provider of career-focused education and professional training, is pleased to announce that through the efforts of its employees, the company donated $15,000 to Special Olympics in 2017. The donation was earned by Career Steps approximately 175 employees on a per mile basis as they walked, biked or ran over the course of the year during monthly Workout Wednesday! (WoW!) events.

Workout Wednesday! is a way to encourage employees to get out of the office, enjoy our beautiful surroundings here in Utah and build stronger relationships with each other, said Steve Tober, Career Step President and CEO. Giving back to our community is a strong part of our culture, so it made sense to add a charitable component to this wellness program. It is always inspiring to see how enthusiastic everyone is about the program and how it leads to a meaningful donation for the Special Olympics.

Career Step holds WoW! events twice a month. Employees are encouraged to get out of the office to walk, bike or run with their co-workers during their lunch hour. They report their miles, which translate into a dollar amount for every mile they have traveled, and the company donates that amount to the Special Olympics. In 2017, the Career Step team put in approximately 1.200 miles.

Over the past 4 years, Career Step has partnered with the Special Olympics. In addition to financial donations through the WoW! program, Career Step employees also spend time volunteering at several Special Olympics events throughout the year in Utah.

At Career Step our mission is to make a difference in the lives our students, our employees, and our community, said Allen Miller, Career Step Vice President of People Strategy. Partnering with the Special Olympics allows us to impact our community in a meaningful way, and our employees love it. We are thrilled to continue our relationship with the Special Olympics and look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together in 2018.

For more information on Career Step, visit CareerStep.com or call 1-800-246-7837.

About Career Step

Career Step is an online provider of career-focused education and professional training. The company has trained over 100,000 students for new careers as well as more than 100,000 healthcare professionals through its various continuing education courses. More than 150 colleges and universities nationwide have partnered with Career Step, and the company provides training for several of the largest and most respected healthcare employers in the nation. Career Step is committed to helping students and practicing healthcare professionals alike gain the skills they need to be successful in the workplaceimproving lives, advancing careers and driving business results through education. More information can be found at http://www.careerstep.com or 1-800-246-7837.
Temecula Valley Celebrates 50th Anniversary We werent even doing it to be profitable; this was our fun project.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Temecula Valley Southern California Wine Country. Under the theme of The People, Passion and Perseverance, the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association (TVWA) and Visit Temecula Valley (VTV) will roll out a series of events and programs, including an intimate wine dinner among the vines and the launch of a commemorative wine, to celebrate the important milestone for the region throughout the entire year.

Temecula Valley wine country has a rich history dating all the way back to the 1800s when wine grapes were first planted in Temecula by the San Juan Capistrano padres, said TVWA Executive Director Krista Chaich. In the 50 years since the first commercial vineyard was planted here, the region has flourished despite some very real challenges. We are excited to share these remarkable stories about the passionate entrepreneurs and talented winemakers who have poured their hearts and souls into putting Temecula Valley on the global wine stage.

The 50th Anniversary will be celebrated throughout the year, through various activations, including:



A 50th Anniversary ticket package for the annual Temecula Valley Barrel Tasting event on January 27-28

Several social media campaigns, including a flashback photo feature, inviting visitors to share their historic pictures of Temecula Valley Wine Country using #cheersto50years

Celebrate Your 50th With Us!: Visitors who show ID or documentation indicating a 50th milestone (e.g. anniversary or birthday) will gain access to various wine country perks at participating wineries throughout the year

Launch of the Temecula Valley 50th Anniversary limited edition commemorative regional wine. Pre-orders of this bottling will be available for purchase in the coming months

A 50th Anniversary dinner among the vines preceding the annual CRUSH ~ A Wine and Culinary Showcase; 50 guests will dine with Temecula Valley winemakers in a celebration of both harvest and the regions history on Friday, September 28

The 50th Anniversary edition of the Temecula Valley Behind the Wine Bottle dinner series, slated to take place in select markets throughout the year

Special stay packages at select hotels to include wine tasting and hotel accommodations

Souvenir merchandise available for purchase at the Visitor Center in Old Town Temecula

The first modern commercial vineyard was planted in 1968 by the late Vincenzo Cilurzo and his wife Audrey. Temecula Valley received formal recognition as an American Viticultural Area in 1984, first as Temecula AVA with a subsequent name change to Temecula Valley AVA in 2004.

It was completely wide open and there werent any commercial [buildings]. The town of Temecula had about 200 people, said Audrey Cilurzo about purchasing that fateful plot of land with her husband back in the 1960s, in response to a newspaper ad promising Gentlemen Farming in Temecula. First we planted 25 acres of Chenin Blanc and 15 acres of Petite Sirah. We later sold that parcel, which is where Maurice Carrie Winery is today. There are still original vines there. We werent even doing it to be profitable; this was our fun project.

Temecula Valley now boasts over 50 licensed wineries, producing over 500,000 cases annually. Temecula Valley Wine Country hosted more than 1.7 million winery visits last year, contributing $78 million to the regional economy, and supporting 4,800 jobs, according to the 2016 economic impact report generated by research firm Dean Runyan Associates. Temecula Valley wines regularly receive scores of 90 and above by wine media, and the region has received thousands of domestic and international wine awards.

More information on these programs and regular updates about all Temecula Valley 50th Anniversary happenings can be found at http://www.temeculawines.org.

ABOUT TEMECULA VALLEY WINE COUNTRY

Located within a 60-minute drive from San Diego, Orange County, and Palm Springs, and within 90 minutes of Los Angeles, Temecula Valley is widely recognized as Temecula Valley Southern California Wine Country. The popular wine destination is southern Californias largest wine producing region by volume.

Both Visit Temecula Valley (VTV) and the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association (TVWA) are 501 (c) 6 nonprofit regional organizations. Primary responsibilities of VTV (VisitTemeculaValley.com) include promoting Temecula Valley as a year-round travel destination and advancing the Temecula Valley visitor economy. The TVWA (TemeculaWines.org) is dedicated to promoting the making and growing of quality wine and wine grapes in the Temecula Valley A.V.A. (American Viticulture Area).
The 2018 Black History Month New Orleans Literary Weekend will showcase eight authors, four guest speakers, one jazz band, and a stage play. This is an excellent opportunity for our New Orleans students to not only showcase their work, but also meet literary professionals from a variety of backgrounds.

Meet the World Image Solutions will host eight local and national bestselling authors Feb. 23-24 for two days of workshops, booksignings, music and theater during their Second Annual Black History Month New Orleans Literary Weekend.

This years event is going to be bigger than any other event weve done in 2017, said Rhonda M. Lawson, founder and president of Meet the World Image Solutions, LLC. We still plan to showcase Louisiana authors, but we also have authors and speakers flying in from as far as Los Angeles to be a part of this event. We are also working with the Orleans Parish School Board to better incorporate our youth.

The weekend will start with a free writers workshop at 11 a.m., Feb. 23 at the Norman Mayer Library at 3001 Gentilly Blvd. The workshop will include a panel discussion on writing tips and the relationship between literacy and African American history. Featured speakers will be motivational speaker Wil Cason and Felicia Young, CEO of Higher Minds of Education. Following the workshop, the authors will visit students at St. Marys Academy. A copy of each authors book will be donated to both the Norman Mayer and St. Marys Academy libraries. The signature event for the Literary Weekend will be a literary jazz brunch featuring the New Orleans Jazz Group Yisrael at 10:30 a.m., Feb. 24 at the Tombar Life Center, located at 1683 North Claiborne Avenue, New Orleans, LA, 70116. The brunch will feature Francheska Felder, CEO of SwagHer Magazine, and Rose Bratcher, New Orleans first African American Zen monk. Admission is $25 for the first 50 tickets, and $30 in advance. The price includes a gourmet meal and a free book.

The final event of the weekend will be the premiere of Cheatin in the Next Room: The Stageplay, which will take place at Xavier Universitys Administration Auditorium on the evening of Feb. 24. The play, directed by New Orleans veteran actors Rose Bratcher and Kirk Johnathan, is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Rhonda M. Lawson, and will star New Orleans actor and director Dominque McClellan, Clairica Lange, and Terreze Williams. Also featured will be Jeanette Scott, Teddo November, Amber Ned, Willie Lee, and Demetrius Bradley. Early bird tickets to see Cheatin in the Next Room: The Stageplay are sold out, but advance tickets are still on sale for $30. Group rates are also available.

I am so excited to have such an all-star cast for this performance, Lawson said. We have a perfect storm of established actors and newcomers who all bring something special to this story.

The participating authors for the 2018 Black History Month New Orleans Literary Weekend include Marvin Bryson, screenwriter and author of Expectancy: A Caregiver's Story of Navigating Family Issues Between Retirement and Transition, private chef and business owner Diana Riley, author of Cooking on Purpose: Life Lessons Learned from the Kitchen, inspirational author Felicia Brookins, author of Sister Nadeens Ways, inspirational author Lynette Edwards, author of Take Off the Mask, Keisha Lapsley, inspirational author, playwright and CEO of Inherited Kingdom Enterprises, inspirational author Brittany Lenore, author of Blind Faith, Paula Johnson Hutchinson, author and owner of Second to None Salon, and Jasiri Basel, technologist and author of 101 Things I Wish My Father Taught Me. Additional information on the Black History Month New Orleans Literary Weekend can be found on the Meet the World Image Solutions website or by calling 504-505-5894. Tickets for the literary brunch and stageplay are available on Eventbrite.

Lawson has already released the companys first eighth and ninth grade essay contest application, which can be found on the Meet the World Image Solutions website. One winner will be selected from each grade to receive $100 and scholarship materials sponsored by Higher Minds of Education, LLC. SwagHer Magazine, also an event sponsor, will also publish each winners essay on their website. The essay contest is open to students all over the New Orleans area. The deadline to enter is Feb. 9.

This is an excellent opportunity for our New Orleans students to not only showcase their work, but also meet literary professionals from a variety of backgrounds, Lawson added.

Meet the World Image Solutions, LLC is a boutique public relations firm that specializes in assisting small business, non-profit organizations, authors, and artists. It was founded Jan. 23, 2017 by author and U.S. Army veteran Rhonda M. Lawson as a vehicle to promote entrepreneurs with smaller advertising budgets. Since its founding, Meet the World has hosted two major literary events and airs Horizons With Meet the World Image Solutions, a literary talk show, on the New Orleans Talk Network each Wednesday at 7 pm CST.
The Raymond Group congratulates Jeff Lacourciere on his recent promotion to Chief Estimator of its San Diego region (Raymond-San Diego, Inc.). Jeff will be responsible for controlling Raymonds estimating capabilities and providing direction for all estimating activities in San Diego.

Jeff began with Raymond as a Senior Estimator in Southern California and has over 22 years of experience in the construction industry, of which 15 years are in estimating. Jeffs strong performance and excellent estimating ability combined with his detailed knowledge of construction and construction contracts will help him lead San Diegos estimating department and drive sales success for the San Diego division.

Notable projects that Jeff has completed for Raymond-Southern California, Inc. include the Guardians of the Galaxy attraction at Disney California Adventure and NBC Universal, Area 51 Production and Support Facility in Studio City.

About The Raymond Group:

The Raymond Group is a commercial, union subcontractor operating primarily throughout the Western United States. Established in 1936, Raymond is one of the wall and ceiling industrys leading full service, design-assist, specialty finish, and theming contractors. Raymond has offices in California and Nevada.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about our company, please feel free to contact Kim Yeager at (714) 771-7670 or by email at kim.yeager(at)RaymondGroup(dot)com.
Bryan Cipoletti was recently named president of Guardian Protection Services, the nation's 6th largest business and home security technologies provider Im looking forward to further engaging with the extremely talented management team already in place and to further leverage the synergies between Guardian and the other Armstrong companies.

Guardian Protection Services, the nations 6th largest provider of commercial and home security systems and technologies, is pleased to announce that Bryan Cipoletti will assume the role of President, effective immediately. Cipoletti was Chief Financial Officer at Armstrong, parent company of Guardian Protection Services, and had been serving in a dual role as Acting President at Guardian since May. Cipoletti has been with Armstrong for over 30 years and has held various executive and board positions with its affiliated companies.

Im excited to join this already great company in a more direct leadership role, Cipoletti commented about his appointment to the position at Guardian. Im looking forward to further engaging with the extremely talented management team already in place and to further leverage the synergies between Guardian and the other Armstrong companies. Having been a member of senior leadership at Armstrong, I am aware of the familys strong commitment to the ownership and growth objectives of Guardian. Leaving my position as CFO to take on this exciting new role is further evidence of my belief in that commitment. Cipoletti added, In the last eight months, I have had the opportunity to see great potential within Guardian and have already begun to work with the team to put initiatives in place that I believe will make us even better. I am excited about our vision for Guardian.

Cipoletti is a graduate of West Virginia University, with a B.S./B.A. in finance. He received an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining Armstrong in 1987, Cipoletti was a CPA with Deloitte Haskins + Sells in the Pittsburgh, Pa. office. He currently serves on the board of the American Cable Association and in 2013 was named Independent Financial Executive of the Year by Cablefax. Active in his community and church, Cipoletti is also on the board of the Lighthouse Foundation, a non-profit organization in Butler, Pa., which provides food, transitional housing and emergency shelter to those in need.

About Guardian Protection Services

Guardian Protection Services is one of the Armstrong Group of Companies and the nations 6th largest security systems company in the nation. Guardian provides security monitoring, along with smart home and business security services to over 300,000 subscribers throughout the United States. Monitoring of life and property has been the companys exclusive focus for more than 60 years. For more information, visit http://www.GuardianProtection.com.
We are deeply impressed by the spirit of Iranians to pursue freedom. Because of this, our team decided that SkyVPN will be completely free for Iranians from now on!

The Iranian officials have blocked Instagram and Telegram in their country this week. Now the government has banned almost all the social networking services - Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. Whats worse, there are many reports showing that the Iranian government has also restricted people to accessing thousands of websites of the Europe and the United States, especially the international media.

What's happening?  20 people died

Iran is in the throes of one of the largest anti-government protests in recent memory. During the course of this event, at least 20 people have died (through 2018/01/02). The protest started in Mashhad (the second largest city) as a small, local gathering about the economic problems that citizens were facing. Soon, though, it spread, and spread quickly, into other regions of the Iranian state.

How has the government reacted?  Block the network

On Sunday, an Iranian official said that although people had the right to demonstration and freedom of speech, he condemned the action as, "violence and destruction of public property." Meanwhile, the government blocked Instagram, Telegram and other social media apps and websites to prevent people from spreading the information and images of the protests across the country and around the world.

We are shocked and saddened by all that is happening in Iran. In the 21st century (aptly named The Information Age), everyone in the world should have the right to know about our world, share information with others, and enjoy the freedom of information, no matter where they live.

How the Iranians protect their freedom of information?  Use SkyVPN

One of the best methods to bypass internet restrictions is to use VPN. A VPN tool such as SkyVPN is now the must-have app for Iranians who want to stay informed and in-touch with others. SkyVPN is also popular in the United States where it is ranked #11 among productivity apps in the iOS Store (2017 Dec. 14). With SkyVPN, Iranians have a great opportunity to express what happened in their country these past few weeks. Whats more, they can reestablish connections with the countries around them, share information, express their feelings, exchange opinions with others, and find beauty in the world again.

What did SkyVPN Inc. do?  SkyVPN will be completely free for Iranians

Tens of thousands of Iranian citizens have downloaded SkyVPN daily since the protests began. A representative of SkyVPN had this to say:

We are deeply impressed by the spirit of Iranians to pursue freedom. Because of this, our team decided that SkyVPN will be completely free for Iranians from now on!

What is VPN?

A VPN, or virtual private network, extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data as if their computing device were directly connected to the private network. Applications running across the VPN may therefore benefit from the functionality, security, and management of the private network. With rapidly increasing restrictions and surveillance, VPN can be beneficial for many different users.

Here are the four main functions:

1. Gain access to restricted content.

2. Bypass web censorship and content surveillance.

3. Establish secure communication between sites.

4. Use public or hotel Wi-Fi securely.

About SkyVPN

SkyVPN is a VPN tool that allows you to access all apps and websites and protect your online privacy with the fastest VPN servers. Use it on your iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac or Windows.

Features of SkyVPN:

Surf anonymously and privately.

Easy, fast and stable.

Unlimited free VPN, no payment required.

Global VPN servers located around the world (U.S., U.K., Japan, H.K., and many more).

Available across multiple devices: Android, iPhone, iPod, iPad, Mac.

References

THE DAILY CALLER, Jan. 2, 2018, At Least 20 Dead As Iran Uprising Stretches Into Sixth Day

http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/02/at-least-20-dead-as-iran-uprising-stretches-into-sixth-day/

THE GUARDIAN, Jan. 2, 2018, Iran protests: how did they start and where are they heading?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/02/iran-protests-how-did-they-start-and-where-are-they-heading

USA TODAY, Jan. 2, 2018, Everything you need to know about the Iran protests

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/01/02/everything-you-need-know-iran-protests/995242001/
Entrepreneur 500 2018 Being named the top staffing franchise for seven years in a row is a huge accomplishment and a testament to the support that our company provides to our amazing franchisees. - Bob Funk, Express CEO

For the seventh consecutive year, Express Employment Professionals has been named the No. 1 staffing franchise in the U.S. by Entrepreneur Magazine as part of the magazine's 38th annual Franchise 500 list. The staffing giant is also among Entrepreneurs Top 100 companies.

"Being named the top staffing franchise for seven years in a row is a huge accomplishment and a testament to the support that our company provides to our amazing franchisees," said Bob Funk, CEO of Express and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. "Express is proud to offer entrepreneurs the chance to pursue their dreams of business ownership with the support of a proven system."

The rankings are based on financial strength and stability, growth rate and the number of years a company has been in business.

Additionally, Express has also been named one of the best franchises to buy among franchises with an investment level less than $150,000, according to Forbes ranking of Americas best franchises.

In 2018, Express celebrates its 35th anniversary and is within reach of having 800 franchise locations internationally. Ultimately, the company aims to have locations in 900 territories.

"Since the companys inception 35 years ago, we have continued to break records on our way to putting a million people to work annually," Funk said. "Express is providing hope through employment in a way that I only could have imagined when I helped create the company in 1983. And with our continued success, we look forward to leading the staffing industry for many years to come.

If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bob Funk to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena Karami, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966.

About Robert A. Funk

Robert A. Bob Funk is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the international staffing company has more than 790 franchises in the U.S., Canada and South Africa. Under his leadership, Express has put more than 6 million people to work worldwide. Funk served as Chairman of the Conference of Chairmen of the Federal Reserve and was also the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

About Express Employment Professionals

Express Employment Professionals puts people to work. It generated $3.3 billion in sales and employed a record 540,000 people in 2017. Its long-term goal is to put a million people to work annually. For more information, visit ExpressPros.com.
NetNumber today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Kevin Peters as president and chief executive officer effective February 1, 2018. Mr. Peters succeeds Mr. Brad Boston who has served as president and CEO since September 2013, and been an active member of the board of directors for nearly 16 years. Mr. Boston is retiring effective February 1, and will serve as Advisor to the Board.

Mr. Kevin Peters has served as Advisor to the NetNumber Board since June 2016. He brings in-depth knowledge of and relationships in the telecom market, having spent 28 years with AT&T in numerous leadership positions. Mr. Peters retired in 2014 as the executive vice president of global business customer service, in which he led the companys multinational customer service operation. He also has served as AT&Ts chief marketing officer for Business and as executive vice president for Global Network Operations, where he was responsible for the companys global IP and mobility networks. Mr. Peters has held numerous board and executive advisory positions across the global technology and telecoms industries.

Kevin is the right person to lead NetNumber to its next stage of growth, said Joe Farrelly, NetNumber chairman of the board. He understands the business and technical challenges operators face as he has spent his career leading the transformation and growth of one of the largest operators. As he has spent 18 months as an advisor to the NetNumber Board, Kevin has a deep understanding of our business and the strategies we are implementing. NetNumber is well-positioned to address the needs of the market, building on the companys strengths and growth trajectory honed under Brads leadership.

NetNumber has a technology approach unique to the market, and resulting strong momentum with customers and partners across the globe, said Mr. Peters. I am honored to join the leadership team and the dedicated employees of NetNumber to continue to disrupt the telecom market. As we add new applications to our TITAN platform, expand our Global Data Services offerings, and enhance our customer service capabilities, our mission to our customers remains unchanged and compelling.

Mr. Brad Boston will remain actively involved in the company as an advisor to the board of directors, and assist the company with long-term strategy and customer engagement.

NetNumber has been transforming the carrier network since its inception, continued Joe Farrelly. Under Brads leadership, NetNumber has transformed itself from a scrappy startup to a competitive force in the industry. Brad has led the company to capitalize on its technology innovations to create new business and operational approaches for carriers. NetNumber has grown its customer base, routes to market with partners, resulting revenue and visibility in the telecom industry.

It has been a privilege to lead NetNumber for the past several years and be part of the telecom industrys transformation to software, said Brad Boston. This is the perfect time for someone with Kevins experience to come in and expand on the momentum we have created thus far to build the next phase of the company. We have an incredibly talented, experienced and dedicated group of employees, and products that are unmatched in the industry in terms of capabilities and innovation. NetNumber is well positioned for significant ongoing growth and market penetration. I look forward to continuing to be engaged with NetNumber in an advisory capacity, and cheering on its success under Kevins leadership.

NetNumber will be exhibiting at MWC18 in Barcelona next month. If you would like to meet with Mr. Peters, contact kgibbons(at)netnumber(dot)com. Visit NetNumber in Hall 7, Stand #7D81 to learn more about NetNumber, and meet the leadership team and subject matter experts.

About NetNumber

NetNumber, Inc. brings 17 years of experience delivering innovative signaling control solutions that enable carriers to accelerate implementation of new services across multiple generations of networks, while dramatically simplifying the core network and reducing operating costs. Today, we are the leading provider of Centralized Signaling and Routing Control (CSRC) solutions to the global communications industry.
OptOut.TV enables viewers to easily opt out of audience-based targeting and provides a simple way for media companies and advertisers to ensure they are putting consumer privacy at the forefront.

Tru Optik, the audience intelligence and data-management platform at the forefront of Over-the-Top (OTT) and Connected TV (CTV), today announced the launch of OptOut.TV, a one-stop solution for consumers to opt out of audience-based targeting across the entire OTT ecosystem, including CTV. OptOut.TVs mission is to proactively bring a higher level of privacy control and an enhanced consumer experience to OTT. With the click of a button, consumers can now opt out of audience-based OTT targeting at the household level, not just at the individual device or publisher level.



OTT and CTV are the future of television, said Andre Swanston, CEO of Tru Optik. However if the right privacy controls arent addressed now, at the outset, the industry could be at risk. OptOut.TV enables viewers to easily opt out of audience-based targeting and provides a simple way for media companies and advertisers to ensure they are putting consumer privacy at the forefront.



Despite the rapid growth of OTT and CTV, until now, no industry association has provided consumers with a way to opt out of data-driven advanced TV targeting. The privacy controls on OTT devices have little or no impact on how OTT publishers and advertisers leverage households data for advertising purposes.

From major advertising technology platforms like Videology to leading consumer data companies like Alliant, dozens of the most respected and influential data companies, publishers and ad-tech platforms share Tru Optiks belief that consumer privacy across CTV is a priority, and have pledged to be compliant with OptOut.TV in 2018.



With the convergence of content across devices, we need to ensure that the same data standards apply, regardless of where a consumer is viewing, to employ truly screen-agnostic strategies, said Aleck Schleider, SVP of Client and Data Strategy, Videology. The launch of OptOut.TV, which offers consumers more advertising choices, brings CTV into closer alignment with digital media and will help to accelerate the growth of CTV by removing any additional barriers to its use.



At Alliant we take consumer data privacy very seriously. OptOut.TV provides us with a mechanism to assure we can meet the needs of consumers who do not want data to be used to target them across CTV/OTT, said Donna Hamilton, SVP of Product and Partnerships at Alliant Cooperative Solutions.



Swanston continued, Tru Optiks OTT Data Marketplace powers the majority of the programmatic audience-based advertising across CTV in the United States. So we felt it was our duty to work with our many partners to lead the charge in enabling consumer privacy. As the industry is poised for explosive growth in 2018, it is critical to ensure a positive experience for everyone involved in OTT  from the publishers to the advertisers and most importantly the consumers that are increasingly cutting the cord in favor of OTT/CTV.

About Tru Optik

Tru Optik is a digital media intelligence company providing audience insight and advertising solutions that empower brand marketers and media companies to fully monetize audience and consumer demand. Armed with advanced technology, the largest dataset of global over-the-top (OTT) media consumption, and unmatched focus, Tru Optik has built the only audience measurement and data-management platform that works across the entire OTT ecosystem, including Connected TV. Tru Optik is the preferred partner of many of the worlds largest media companies, brands, and agencies as they navigate the shift to OTT.



Tru Optik has adopted strong privacy protocols that include clear consumer opt out mechanisms, masking of all personally identifiable information and transparency regarding the data it collects and how that data is used by the Companys clients.
1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen Adolf Hitler would turn over in his grave if he knew that 10% of the sale of his car was donated to the Simon Wiesenthal Center -- an organization named for the worlds most famous Nazi hunter who brought more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice, said Rabbi Marvin Hier

On January 17th in Arizona, Worldwide Auctioneers will present the most historically significant automobile ever offered for public sale at its annual Scottsdale Auction, when a 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen goes under the hammer. One of just five surviving Offener Tourenwagens in private hands, this meticulously documented automobile was ordered by, built for and used by Adolf Hitler, tyrannical Chancellor of Nazi Germany and Fuhrer of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945. Ultimately seized by the U.S. Army in 1945, it is a definitive surviving symbol of Allied triumph over evil. The life of this Super Mercedes motorcar has been extensively chronicled in its accompanying documentation and across the media over the years, from its short but infamous service during the war through some seventy years beyond, where it was featured in several displays, parades and museums across the United States, and more recently within some of the worlds most significant and private collections. Having stated upon consignment that 10% of the sale price of the car would be donated to the furtherance of Holocaust education, Worldwide confirmed today that The Simon Wiesenthal Center will be the recipient of those charitable funds. The Center is an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and bigotry, preserving the memory and teaching the lessons of the Nazi Holocaust.

Presenting such a historically momentous artifact for sale obviously comes with serious responsibilities, said John Kruse, Worldwide Auctioneers Principal & Auctioneer. After considerable thought and research, we, on behalf of the seller, are honored to confirm that 10% of proceeds generated from the sale of this significant automobile will be donated to The Simon Wiesenthal Center, for the furtherance of its mission to confront racism, anti-Semitism and hatred and its commitment to educating future generations. We believe that such lessons have enormous relevance today, both here in the US and all around the globe.

Adolf Hitler would turn over in his grave if he knew that 10% of the sale of his car was donated to the Simon Wiesenthal Center -- an organization named for the worlds most famous Nazi hunter who brought more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of the Center. On a daily basis, the Center is on the frontlines confronting bigots and anti-Semites around the world. The Centers Jerusalem office, which for more than forty years has tracked Nazi war criminals around the world is currently assisting the German government in apprehending war criminals on new cases of war criminals who were members of the Nazi murder squads recently discovered living in Germany.



Through the Simon Wiesenthal Centers acclaimed Museum of Tolerance (MOT) in Los Angeles, more than 5.5 million visitors have been challenged to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts. The highlight of the Museum is meeting Holocaust Survivors who share their personal testimonies three times a day with visitors, students, educators and law enforcement professionals, and with people around the world via videoconference.

Unfortunately, in a few years, there will be no living Holocaust Survivors to speak in Museums. Consequently, through the Hope Lives Campaign, the MOT has begun videotaping their daily lectures so that future generations visiting the Museum will continue to be the beneficiaries of their eyewitness accounts.

The Wiesenthal Center's two-time Academy Award-winning documentary films on the Nazi Holocaust has been viewed by tens of millions of people around the world including on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and iTunes. Its traveling exhibitions, such as, The Courage to Remember has been exhibited on six continents and continues to be seen by millions of people around the world from Cuba to Kenya.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

Worldwide Auctioneers is honored to be able, on behalf of the seller, to contribute to such an outstanding cause. Other parties interested in making a donation and learning more about the Centers work and mission should contact Worldwide Auctioneers or The Simon Wiesenthal Center direct at 310-553-9036 or http://www.wiesenthal.com

The Scottsdale Auction is scheduled for Wednesday January 17 at 5pm. Full details are available online at worldwideauctioneers.com or by calling 1.260.925.6789. Worldwide Auctioneers provides primary services to collectors of classic and vintage automobiles, including the acquisition and sale of classic motorcars at auction, appraisal, private treaty sales, collection management, estate planning and consultancy. Worldwide Auctioneers' resources and expertise also extend to the valuation and transfer of significant assets such as real estate, antiques, fine art and high quality collectibles. Along with the Scottsdale Auction, the companys annual schedule comprises The Texas Classic Auction in Arlington in April, The Pacific Grove Auction, presented out on the Monterey Peninsula during Monterey Car Week in August and The Auburn Auction, held annually over Labor Day Weekend in Indiana, as well as stand-alone auctions of significant private collections.
Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) has selected DeafTax.com as its second business partner for the CSD Social Venture Fund (CSD SVF). DeafTax.com was founded in 2007 by owner Joshua R. Beal and is currently managed by Beal and Charles L. Sterling. The company provides tax preparation services to Deaf and hearing individuals, non-profits, trusts and small businesses throughout the United States.

The CSD SVF is the first-ever social impact fund and incubator for Deaf-owned businesses in the United States. CSD created this multi-million dollar fund in 2017 to help address the 70% unemployment and underemployment rate among Deaf Americans. The first CSD SVF business partner is Mozzeria, a Deaf-owned pizzeria.

The main purpose of the SVF is to cultivate greater opportunity and showcase success for the Deaf community, CSD CEO Christopher Soukup said. A big part of this process is identifying and meeting specific necessities within our community. There is a significant gap in accessible tax information and support for Deaf individuals. DeafTax.com is a clear leader in this industry and we are very pleased to be working with them to address this important need for our community.

DeafTax.com is a spin-off from Schwarz Financial Services, the oldest Deaf-owned tax preparation firm in the United States. DeafTax.com was established to meet the growing demand for tax preparation services among the Deaf community throughout the United States. With offices in Washington, D.C., and Honolulu, DeafTax.com works primarily with clients through videophone and email utilizing American Sign Language as the primary language for communication.

We are very honored to be recognized by CSD, said Beal. This support will allow us to expand our services to better serve more Deaf individuals and Deaf-owned businesses throughout the United States. This investment from the CSD SVF will help the Deaf community become more self-reliant through a greater understanding of taxes and procedures and ultimately help strengthen the Deaf communitys economic standing.

With the CSD SVF investment, DeafTax.com plans on developing an app for mobile devices; providing bookkeeping services for Deaf-owned businesses, nonprofits and organizations; and establishing a third office.

Key criteria for the CSD SVF include creating an impact and aligning with CSDs commitment to prosperity among Deaf people everywhere, having the potential to grow and be scalable, demonstrating leadership through a clear and far-reaching vision and offering innovative products and services that provide a unique spin on traditional approaches or are entirely new innovations.

Soukup also noted that one of the goals, and benefits, of the CSD SVF is the creation of jobs in as many sectors as possible. Expanding DeafTaxs services can lead to other professional opportunities within financial services such as financial advising, accounting, and so on. By partnering with DeafTax.com, we will improve the quality of information available to Deaf people regarding income tax and tax preparation, such as creating additional videos through CSD Learns.

To learn more about DeafTax.com please visit http://www.deaftax.com. More information on the CSD Social Venture Fund is available at http://www.csdsvf.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Alana Cowan

alanacowan5@gmail.com

973-809-4858

Brandi Rarus

VP of Public Relations, Engagement, and Policy

brarus@csd.org
BCG Attorney Search The 2017 legal market was one of the better legal markets on record ... the associate market was far healthier than it has been in a generation.

BCG Attorney Searchs much-awaited 2018 State of the American Lateral Law Firm Legal Market Report is now available. The annual BCG Attorney Search State of the American Lateral Law Firm Legal Market Report is one of BCGs signature contributions to the field of lateral legal hiring. It is produced each year from interview and placement data compiled by BCG recruiters and is the go to resource for law firms and attorney candidates seeking information about overall market trends and practice area strengths and weaknesses.

You can view the full Report here:

The BCG Attorney Search 2018 State of the American Lateral Law Firm Legal Market Report

BCG Attorney Search is one of the countrys premier legal search and placement firms. Founded in 2000 by Harrison Barnes, the company is headquartered in Malibu, California and has offices and legal recruiters in every major market throughout the country, including New York, D.C., Florida, Chicago, Texas, and California. The company also has a dedicated team of IT and data analytics professionals located in India who work around the clock gathering and synthesizing data related to the United States and international legal markets.

The 2018 Report covers over 30 practice areas, from mainstream practice areas like Corporate, Litigation, and Real Estate; to traditional niche practice areas like Healthcare, Employment, and Bankruptcy; to nontraditional niche practice areas like International Trade, Project Finance, and Patent.

Here are a few highlights from the 2018 Report:



The 2017 legal market was one of the better legal markets on record. BCG placed 30% more attorneys in 2017 than in 2016.

Both partner and associate markets were healthy in every part of the country, but the associate market was far healthier than it has been in a generation.

Litigation was surprisingly active in smaller to midsized law firms and slow in large firms; corporate generalist hiring was much less robust than it was in the previous years, but corporate finance was busier.

Niche practice areas remained very popular.

Millennials are showing unprecedented interest in smaller law firms and appear less concerned about compensation; many are simply quitting large law firms.

An entrepreneurial spirit is in the air and lots of new law firms are starting and becoming successful out of the gate.

Diversity is becoming ever-more important to law firms.

In addition to overall market trend observations, the 2018 State of the American Lateral Law Firm Legal Market Report gives a breakdown of percentages of placements and interviews made by BCG recruiters for various practice areas and how the 2017 numbers compared with those from 2016.

The 2018 Report rates individual practice areas according to their relative healthfrom very vibrant to sick or dying. According to the Report, as we move into 2018, Healthcare and Trusts and Estates are among the healthiest practice areas. Immigration and Intellectual Property Litigation are not doing well. Practice areas such as Employment, Antitrust, Patent, Finance, and Oil & Gas are all relatively healthy and vibrant.

View the full 2018 State of the American Lateral Law Firm Legal Market Report here.

About BCG Attorney Search:

BCG Attorney Search is a premier recruiting firm for experienced attorneys in the United States. Since the year 2000, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys with employers who were the best fit for individual candidates, and helped law firms and companies with their recruitment efforts. BCG Attorney Search has offices in the following 15 cities across the United States: Atlanta; Boston; Century City; Chicago; Houston; Irvine; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Malibu; Miami; New York; Palo Alto; San Francisco; Seattle; and Washington, DC. For more information about BCG Attorney Search, visit their website at https://www.bcgsearch.com.
Angela J. Keleher, MD, Director, Division of Breast Surgery, Allegheny Health Network

Allegheny Health Network (AHN) today announced the recruitment of breast surgical oncologist Angela J. Keleher, MD to serve as Director of its Division of Breast Surgery

At AHN Dr. Keleher will lead a team of experienced breast surgeons and patient navigators who collaborate with radiologists, oncologists, nurses and other medical professionals to treat thousands of patients every year at locations throughout the greater Pittsburgh region. The program offers patients access to the complete spectrum of advanced treatments for breast disease, including immunotherapy, targeted drug therapies and image guided radiation therapy, along with cutting-edge diagnostic techniques and a surgical options to suit every patient.

Dr. Keleher is a highly accomplished and talented cancer specialist, and we are thrilled to welcome her back to our organization in this important new leadership role, said Ngoc Thai, MD, PhD, Chair of AHNs Department of Surgery.

Dr. Keleher joins AHN from the Dyson Breast Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, where she served as director and oversaw a $4.2 million renovation and expansion project that transformed the program into an innovative, multi-disciplinary and patient-centered care model for patients. In her 10 years at Dyson, Dr. Keleher helped establish the Breast Center as a leading comprehensive resource that provides patients with every possible diagnostic and therapeutic option, from biopsy and surgery to leading-edge treatments through clinical trials.

Prior to her role at the Dyson Breast Center, Dr. Keleher was Chief of Breast Surgical Oncology at AHNs West Penn Hospital and assistant professor of surgery at Temple University School of Medicine.

Im excited to return to Pittsburgh to lead the breast surgery program at AHN, Dr. Keleher said. There is a new energy at AHN, a spirit of growth and innovation that builds on AHNs long history of groundbreaking breast cancer research and holistic patient care.

AHN is committed to the kind of multidisciplinary care that I believe is essential to securing the best outcomes for breast cancer patients. In addition, AHNs partnership with Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins is opening up a new world of clinical trials and collaboration with our fellow clinicians and researchers, Dr. Keleher said.

Dr. Keleher completed her clinical breast fellowship at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and her general surgery fellowship at West Penn. She earned her medical degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is certified by the American Board of Surgery, and is a member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons and the Society of Surgical Oncology. She has been named one of the Top Docs of the Hudson Valley every year since 2011.

Maximizing a patients comfort and convenient access to a full spectrum of leading-edge cancer care was central to my vision for the Dyson Breast Center, and will continue to guide my philosophy as leader of AHNs Division of Breast Surgery, Dr. Keleher said. We care for the total patient, and expect to build a life-long relationship that provides them with the best possible chance of a positive long-term outcome.

AHN and Highmark Health are investing more than $200 million in cancer care, including the construction of a new academic cancer center at Allegheny General Hospital, expansion of AHNs community-based cancer centers located throughout western Pennsylvania, upgrades of the breast center and cancer center at WPH, as well as a new cancer and imaging center at Forbes Hospital. The investment also includes a strengthening of AHNs relationship with Johns Hopkins, expanded access to clinical trials, recruitment of new oncologists and continued acquisition of new technologies.

We are excited to have a physician of Dr. Kelehers caliber join AHN as leader of our outstanding breast surgery practice, and look forward to seeing her build on AHNs legacy as a pioneer of practice-changing cancer treatments, said David Parda, MD, radiation oncologist and chair, AHN Cancer Institute. Dr. Keleher shares our philosophy of integrated, multidisciplinary collaborative care that is tailored to each patients individual needs.

The AHN Cancer Institute extends world-class expertise to patients through its seven hospitals and more than 50 Cancer Institute clinics across western Pennsylvania, Erie, West Virginia and Ohio. Certified by the American Society of Clinical Oncologys Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI), AHN is also the only regional cancer center accredited by the American College of Radiology and the National Accreditation Program for Breast Cancer. AHN hospitals achieved 97 to 98 percent compliance with best practices for cancer care  compared to just 90 percent statewide  as reported by the Commission on Cancers Cancer Program Practice Profile Reports.

AHN physicians are leaders in the nations largest breast cancer clinical trials group, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project. The NSABPs research changed breast cancer practice, establishing that lumpectomies plus radiation are as effective as mastectomies for cancer treatment, that tamoxifen and raloxifene prevent breast cancer in high risk patients and lower the risk of breast cancer recurrence; established hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, biologic therapy, radiation therapy, sentinel node biopsy, and genomic testing as standards of care that have dramatically improved cancer control and quality of life for breast cancer patients. Innovations by AHN clinicians/researchers also include pioneering the use of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) as a potential use for all liver cancers; AHN is further developing this technology, which improves cancer control and decreases the toxicity and length of radiation treatments, for patients with breast and other cancers.

About Allegheny Health Network

Allegheny Health Network, a Highmark Health Company, is a western Pennsylvania-based integrated healthcare system that serves patients from across a five state region that includes Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The Networks Cancer Institute offers a complete spectrum of oncology care, including access to state-of-the-art technologies and new therapies being explored in clinical cancer trials. The Networks radiation oncology program is the largest in the country and accredited American College of Radiology. AHN also has a formal affiliation with the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, one of the nations 41 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute, for research, medical education and clinical services.

To schedule an appointment with an AHN oncologist, please call 412.DOCTORS or visit http://www.ahn.org/find-a-doctor.
By implementing EAS Tag Recirculation, retailers achieve higher levels of security through precise tag placement on the garment, as well as far lower labor costs by eliminating in store or distribution center tagging.

TIC Group, located in Melbourne Australia, in a strategic partnership with ALL-TAG Corporation announces the addition of Tesco to its list of retailers benefitting from their EAS Tag Recirculation Program that allows the retailers to source tag their apparel at the apparel vendors location rather than at their stores or distribution centers. Tesco joins TICs ever-growing list to include companies such as Kohls.

Reusable EAS tags are shipped to apparel manufacturers anywhere in the world. The apparel manufacturers affix the EAS tags to garments before they are shipped to retail stores. The EAS Tags are removed in the retail stores at the point-of-sale, and they are collected and recovered by TIC Group and ALL-Tag. The EAS Tags are then sent to our processing center where they are inspected, repackaged and recirculated back to the apparel manufacturers for another source tagging Recirculation.

By implementing EAS Tag Recirculation, retailers achieve higher levels of security through precise tag placement on the garment, as well as far lower labor costs by eliminating in store or distribution center tagging. The combined companies have over 1,100 employees and operate 12 distribution and sorting centers throughout Europe, The Americas and Asia, commented Andy Gilbert, ALL-Tag V.P. of Sales.

About TIC Group

TIC Group, a Global Company operating on four continents, looks at the entire lifecycle of a product from post-production through to distribution, merchandising and eventually final disposition. This approach enables retailers and suppliers to drive down costs while maximizing the value of that product at each point within its lifecycle. TIC Groups Product Lifecycle Services include order processing, asset salvage and recovery, hanger design, hanger reuse; EAS tag reuse, Reverse Logistics management, freight management, in-store merchandising, product rework/ remanufacturing, asset recovery management, and customized software solutions.

About ALL-TAG

ALL-TAG manufacturers Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) products and services designed to help retailers protect their merchandise from shoplifting and fully support their source tagging vendors around the world. The company is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of Radio-Frequency (RF) and Accousto Magnetic (AM) anti-theft labels and tags that are fully compatible with Checkpoint and Sensormatic brand EAS Systems. ALL-TAG has been manufacturing RF Labels for source-taggers and retailers throughout the world since 1992, and the current manufacturing facility is located in Boca Raton, Florida. The company also has a sales and distribution centers in Hong Kong, Mexico and the United Kingdom to ensure timely deliveries to our many customers around the world.

For more information about EAS Tag Recirculation, The TIC Group or ALL-TAG Corporation, please visit http://all-tag.com/white-paper/
Our programs in new and emerging fields provide students who need options beyond traditional classroom learning with access to Stevens award-winning faculty and cutting-edge knowledge and practical skills to enhance their career goals.

Stevens Institute of Technology, an award-winning distance learning and education technology university, has placed high in four categories in the just-released U.S. News & World Report 2018 Best Online Programs rankings.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Stevens No. 47 in the nation for Best Online MBA Programs, up an extraordinary 31 spots from 78th in the 2017 edition. The School of Business at Stevens offers seven graduate degree programs, including its MBA, fully online. Additionally, Stevens is ranked 28th in the nation for "Best Online Graduate Business Programs (excluding MBA).

Stevens also ranked 23rd in the U.S. for "Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs," up from 39th in the 2017 edition. Stevens ranked 11th in the nation for Best Online Graduate Computer Information Technology Programs, up from 15th in the 2017 edition.

This recognition is a testament to the value that StevensOnline provides to its students, said Paul Easterling, Stevens assistant provost for graduate studies. Our programs in new and emerging fields provide students who need options beyond traditional classroom learning with access to Stevens award-winning faculty and cutting-edge knowledge and practical skills to enhance their career goals.

Computer science, software engineering, construction management, business intelligence & analytics, enterprise project management, and artificial intelligence are just some of the in-demand programs that StevensOnline provides for working professionals to make an impact on their career in a world that is firmly placed at the intersection of business and technology.

When categorized in the Mid-Atlantic region (New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and New York), Stevens online MBA program ranked 15th, while its graduate business programs (excluding MBA) ranked 6th. Stevens online graduate engineering programs ranked 6th and online graduate computer information technology programs ranked 7th.

Nearly 1,500 distance and online degree programs from public and private institutions were analyzed for U.S. News Best Online Program 2018 rankings, an increase of more than seven percent from the 2017 rankings.

During the fall 2017 semester, Stevens significantly expanded its online offerings with complete masters programs through StevensOnline, making it more convenient than ever for students to earn Stevens degrees in high-demand fields on their own schedules, whether they are just across the Hudson River or around the world. StevensOnline currently offers more than 125 online courses covering 17 master's degrees and 50 graduate certificates in engineering, management and computer science.

StevensOnline students follow the same curricula as their on-campus counterparts and study with the same Stevens faculty members, who are renowned educators, experts and researchers. StevensOnline is also focused on the student experience, which played a significant role in the universitys dramatic jumps in the rankings. Through Stevens Continuing and Professional Student Care Center distance students get access to the same services a campus student would need in registration, billing, deadlines and graduation requirements.

Stevens is ranked 69th overall in U.S. News' 2018 National Universities rankings, up from 71st in the previous year and 88th in 2011, making Stevens the second fastest-rising college in the nation among the top 100 national universities. Stevens was named as one of the top 25 "Most Innovative Schools" in the nation in U.S. News' Best Colleges 2018 rankings.

Learn more about StevensOnline.
Our product, Secure.Systems, is unmatched in the marketplace because its so easy to install and use, plus apps in the encrypted container have full application functionality for mobile device users.

SyncDog, Inc., the leading ISV for mobile application security, today announced they were named One of 2017s Best Small Companies to Watch by the Silicon Review. The Silicon Review is a trusted source of information for business professionals about the newest innovative solutions in technology.

We are proud to be a part of the Silicon Reviews award for the 30 Best Small Companies to Watch in 2017, said Jonas Gyllensvaan, founder and CEO of SyncDog. Our product, Secure.Systems, is unmatched in the marketplace because its so easy to install and use, plus apps in the encrypted container have full application functionality for mobile device users.

To read the full article on SyncDog click here.

The publication also features software vendors like Bullhorn, Brightcove, Inc., AppNeta, and Omninet. For a full list of the companies click here. The Silicon Review is a leading source for business technology professionals, sharing innovative enterprise solutions developed by established solution providers and upcoming enterprises, and is a neutral source for technology decision makers.

The Secure.Systems Workspace

The Secure.Systems workspace provides a secure application platform that encrypts and transports data between the enterprise and secure, sandboxed applications running on employees mobile devices. The workspace delivers a highly functional and easy app experience for users, and protects client enterprise networks with secure, partitioned FIPS 140-2 certified* container on both iOS and Android devices. Secure.Systems secures data both on the device and in transit using AES 256-bit encryption. A full suite of mobile-enabled productivity applications is available in the defense-grade container, including SharePoint, Enterprise Chat, Geo-location Services, DropBox, a Personal Information Management (PIM) suite, Office Suite, Office 365, File Sync, and Secure Mobile App Management & Development functions. Secure.Systems can be deployed via on-premise or through cloud-based managed service. For more information about SentinelSecure deployment via managed service please visit https://secure.systems. SyncDog offers a free 30-day trial of its secure work-space here.

About Silicon Review

According to the website, the publisher Silicon Review believes that there is no other platform that gives companies a heads up on the innovative solutions that startups are working on, what are the needs that haven't been met yet and more. The Silicon Review acts as a platform allowing high level enterprise executives to share their insights, which in turn helps the enterprise startup ecosystem help technology and business leaders with analysis on information technology trends and give a better understanding of the role that enterprise solutions play in achieving the business goals. For more information visit http://thesiliconreview.com/

About SyncDog, Inc.

SyncDog is the leading ISV for building mobile IT frameworks that extend enterprise app functionality to mobile devices while securing networks from mobile-endpoint threat. SyncDog Secure.Systems delivers an unimpeded, fully-functional mobile app experience that supports Microsoft OneDrive, Office 365, Skype for Business, and other Microsoft productivity apps within a NIST-certified, FIPS 140-2 workspace. The Secure.Systems mobile-app mobile workspace is ideal for organizations that want to deliver a rich mobile app experience across BYOD, CYOD, or other device policy. Secure.Systems can be deployed as managed service from https://secure.systems or as an on-premise solution.

Secure.Systems can be found on both the Microsoft Azure and MobileIron marketplace exchanges. For more information about SyncDog, please visit https://syncdog.com.
Tim Harris

Haute Residence welcomes broker, Tim Harris, to its invitation-only real estate network. As a Haute Residence partner, Harris is the sole real estate agent to represent the high-end market in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Harris real estate career began in 1989, when he established the then called T.W. Harris & Associates Limited. Five years later, he renamed the firm to Tradewinds Realty to better capture its identity and growth in the market.

Ever since then, Harris has become the premier real estate agent in Nova Scotia, which is famed for its waterfront properties and sailboat amenities. A resident of Chester for years, Harris expertise lies in luxury homes, oceanfront homes, island estates and large properties. Dedicated to Nova Scotia and its unique urban and natural characteristics, he frequently works with out-of-country brokers to enhance the international profile of the region.

Before venturing into real estate, Harris worked as construction manager for a prominent engineering firm in Montreal  a job, which often took him to the Eastern High Arctic. In 2005, Harris earned an MBA from Saint Marys University in Halifax.

Aside from a savvy real estate agent, Harris is an avid sailor, who is a founding member of the Chester Sailing Society and the 100 Bluenosers Who Care. He is also past Commodore of the Chester Yacht Club.

About Haute Residence:

Designed as a partnership-driven luxury real estate portal, Haute Residence connects its affluent readers with top real estate professionals, while offering the latest in real estate news, showcasing the worlds most extraordinary residences on the market and sharing expert advice from its knowledgeable and experienced real estate partners.

The invitation-only luxury real estate network, which partners with just one agent in every market, unites a distinguished collective of leading real estate agents and brokers and highlights the most extravagant properties in leading markets around the globe for affluent buyers, sellers, and real estate enthusiasts.

HauteResidence.com has grown to be the number one news source for million-dollar listings, high-end residential developments, celebrity real estate, and more.

Access all of this information and more by visiting: http://www.hauteresidence.com
Cruise Planners Continues Its Legacy as the No.1 Travel Franchise on Entrepreneurs Annual List Being the best in travel franchising for 15 consecutive years isnt just an honor, its a legacy, especially as we approach our 25th year of connecting people with a passion for travel and their dream careers, said Michelle Fee, CEO and founder of Cruise Planners.

Many people wait until retirement to travel the world, but smart business people are investing in the No.1 travel franchise to own, Cruise Planners, and traveling as part of their career. For 15 years, Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative, has ranked as the best travel franchise to own on Entrepreneurs Annual Franchise 500 list.

Being the best in travel franchising for 15 consecutive years isnt just an honor, its a legacy, especially as we approach our 25th year of connecting people with a passion for travel and their dream careers, said Michelle Fee, CEO and founder of Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative. Cruise Planners consistently blurs the boundary between franchisor and family and the meaningful relationships we have between our Home Office Team, franchisees, their clients and our partners  combined, of course, with the industrys most innovative technology and marketing  is the secret to how we continue to sizzle.

2017 was marked by many advances for the company, including a suite of technology all designed to provide highly efficient and targeted insight for franchise owners to market to and work with their clients. With all technology and marketing developments, Cruise Planners innovates with the franchisee in mine, providing high-tech solutions to strengthen the connection between travel agents and their clients. The most recent innovations include:



Alexa SkillsThe first-ever Artificial Intelligence for a travel franchise company was introduced by Cruise Planners and includes two voice-activated skills using Artificial Intelligence. One skill acts as a virtual personal assistant for Cruise Planners agents and the other is a hands-free way for customers to connect with their travel agent as they plan and countdown to their vacations.

CP MaxxCruise Planners next-generation booking and customer relationship management system for faster, streamlined results that Maxximizes business, efficiencies and profits

CP InsightsHighly-efficient and targeted insight for franchise owners to market and work with their clients to provide relevant marketing and customized travel offers.

CP ViewTool that curates data across the Cruise Planners network to anticipate client buying habits and target the right clients, leading to increased sales, brand credibility and stronger relationships.

Even as the travel industry has gone through changes over the past two decades and even as people questioned the relevancy of travel agents, Cruise Planners has consistently remained a top franchise opportunity, Fee said. Franchise owners can feel confident when choosing Cruise Planners as we arent just the best today, we were the best yesterday and we wont stop innovating to ensure we continue to be the best for decades to come.

About Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative

Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative, is the nations largest home-based travel agent franchise network in the travel industry. Cruise Planners operates a network of more than 1,800 franchise owners who independently book vacation and travel experiences for their clients. The Florida-based Home Office Team positions a nation-wide network of franchise owners for success by providing innovative marketing, booking and technology tools, as well as professional development and hands-on training with the industrys top executives. The company continues to be lauded and has been named the No.1 travel franchise by Entrepreneur magazine for 15 consecutive years. Cruise Planners was recently featured in Entrepreneur as one of the top 30 franchise innovators in technology, has been consistently named as one of the Top Women-Owned Businesses by the South Florida Business Journal, is on the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, has been ranked as the #1 travel franchise by Franchise Business Review for 6 years in a row, and was recognized as one of the Top Workplaces by the Sun Sentinel since it started ranking companies.

Headquartered in Coral Springs, Fla. since 1994, Cruise Planners has achieved top producer status with every major cruise line and land vendors including Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Holland America Line, MSC Cruises, Viking Cruises, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Travel Impressions and Sandals and Beaches Resorts. Accolades include numerous Magellan Awards from Travel Weekly and Travvy Awards from travAlliance media, American Express Travel Representative Excellence Award for 13 consecutive years (2004-2016). Cruise Planners is one of the Top 50 franchises for Veterans according to GI magazine, the Top Franchise Brand for Veterans according to Franchise Business Review, has been named one of the Top 25 franchises for African-Americans by Black Enterprise magazine and is a member of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association. Visit our website, http://www.cruiseplanners.com, for the full list of awards and honors or for more information.

Stay in Touch: Media can stay up-to-date with Cruise Planners by visiting our media room, following us on Twitter @Cruisitude or on Facebook. For additional information or to make reservations, vacationers should locate a travel advisor near them. For those interested in becoming a franchise owner, please visit the Cruise Planners franchise website.

Media Contact:

Caitlin Gardner, Director of Public Relations

Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative

CGardner(at)cruiseplanners(dot)com

954-344-8060
Gilbane Building Companys Linda Graves Honored for Building Stronger Communities

Gilbane Building Company is pleased to announce that Linda Graves has been honored with the Corporate Diversity Development and Advocacy Award by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).

Linda was recognized with this great honor during the Governors Conference on Minority Business Development held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The award recognizes Lindas leadership in championing and strengthening supplier diversity programs in various organizations and in the local Milwaukee community.

Linda is an industry leader, and it has been a great honor to partner with her over the years, said Adam Jelen, Gilbane Building Company Senior Vice President. Linda has a passion to build the community, both the workforce and local businesses, in a sustainable way. This recognition is a well-deserved honor. Congratulations to Linda!

A passionate community and industry advocate, Linda Graves serves as vice president and director of diversity and community affairs with Gilbane Building Company. She serves in this National leadership role positioning Gilbanes diversity and inclusion efforts as a comprehensive strategy to achieve business and workforce commitments. Linda works tirelessly on behalf of small and diverse businesses with the ability to rapidly assess opportunities and influence a shared sense of purpose.

For more than 18 years, Linda has actively supported the greater Milwaukee community through the African American Womens Fund Project (AAWFP) in partnership with The Womens Fund of Greater Milwaukee. AAWFP provides financial support to organizations that promote the well-being of African American women and girls in the greater Milwaukee area.

About Gilbane Building Company

Gilbane provides a full slate of construction and facilities-related services  from pre-construction planning and integrated consulting capabilities to comprehensive construction management, general contracting, design-build and facility management services  for clients across various markets. Founded in 1873 and still a privately held, family-owned company, Gilbane has 49 office locations around the world. For more information, visit http://www.gilbaneco.com.

For more than 30 years, Gilbanes Milwaukee office has served a wide variety of market sectors and clients throughout Wisconsin including Northwestern Mutual, Waukesha County Health and Human Services, Medical College of Wisconsin, Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, Schlitz Park and Schreiber Foods.
Garen Throneberry, Schumacher Clinical Partners, Division III President

Schumacher Clinical Partners (SCP) has announced the appointment of Garen Throneberry as Division III President. In this role, he will be responsible for SCPs Hospital Medicine services and oversee the companys relationship with a portfolio of clients and providers. In addition, Throneberry is leading the opening of a new SCP office in Tennessee.

Under the leadership of CEO Rich DAmaro, Throneberry will work alongside Division I President Jim Guidry, and Division II President Dr. Derik King. Throneberry joined SCP in May 2017 as Senior Vice President of Operations. He brings more than 20 years of experience in healthcare leadership and administration to his role at SCP.

As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, and SCPs geographical footprint expands, we will continue to adapt our operational structure to these new realities, said SCP CEO Rich DAmaro. The addition of another division president to lead a new base of operations near Nashville, a key healthcare hub, will improve efficiencies and further enhance our relationships with clients and providers.

The new office opened January 9, 2018, and is located in the Cool Springs Corporate Centre, 810 Crescent Centre Drive, Suite 560, Franklin, TN 37067.

For further details about SCP, you can visit http://www.schumacherclinical.com

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About Schumacher Clinical Partners

Schumacher Clinical Partners (SCP) is a privately held, physician-driven company dedicated to helping hospitals and providers focus on delivering high-quality patient care. As one of the nations largest and fastest-growing health care organizations, SCP partners with more than 7,200 providers to help care for 8 million+ patients annually with innovative, patient-centered solutions covering the entire continuum of care, including emergency medicine, hospital medicine, wellness programs and consulting services.
Jaime Hepp and Team - 2017 "The wise words of modern philosopher Mike Tyson rang in my ears... 'Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.'" - Jaime Hepp

TAG has been consistently named as a top employer in Orange County, CA by the OC Business Journal. 2017 brought the national spotlight to this thriving, young organization as one of "Best and Brightest Companies" in the United States.

Company President, Jaime Hepp, accepted the award, but he was quick to give all of the credit to the young leaders of the organization. When describing the synergistic culture of TAG, he presented an amazing story of the organization's experience during California's largest wildfire.

"We prepared all year long for our annual leadership retreat for 125 of our best leaders, administrators, and owners," said Jaime Hepp. "It seemed like everything was brilliantly planned, but the wise words of modern philosopher Mike Tyson rang in my ears during the beginning of our event: 'Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.' The Thomas Fire started the day before our year end retreat."

The Thomas Fire is now recorded as the largest wildfire in California's history - torching over 280,000 acres.

The group was planning on staying in Malibu for the retreat, however, the 100 acre fire in Ventura was starting to rage. Fire, smoke, evacuation orders - these were all things this group was going to have to deal with.

Part of TAG's culture is drenched with Stephen Covey's best seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. TAG employee, Brandon Kuey, described TAG's culture using Covey's teachings. "Synergy says that 1+1=3, maybe 4, maybe 1400. None of us are smarter than all of us. It was unbelievable to see how everyone came together and contributed during this crisis."

Everyone was asked to get back in to their small groups and "synergize" - come up with solutions and alternatives to some of the challenges (regarding physical and emotional safety, evacuation if this was required, drinking and driving, finding alternative places for 125 people to sleep, etc). Everyone's voices were heard. Everyone's concerns were heard. Everyone's opinions counted. When the group returned to talk things through, it became clear that they were not going to have their event in Malibu. The fires were simply too unpredictable, and they weren't willing to compromise people's safety.

A small group of leaders assembled to get in to intense problem solving mode. A clear challenge was in front of them as most hotels and airbnbs couldn't accommodate 125 people - especially considering they needed housing and food that evening.

"One plus one came out to one million." said Helen Davidov (one of TAG's top people). "I think we had twelve of us on phones and computers, and we continued to ask the managers of hotels that denied our request to provide us a potential solution. One contact lead to another that lead to another that eventually brought us to Disneyland. And of course at Disneyland - they took great care of our team. It was wonderful and it was a great example of why reputable organizations recognize us one of the best and brightest companies in the country."

TAG has received several awards over the years. Non profit organizations, such as the Boys and Girls Club and Operation Smile, have recognized TAG as community leaders. The LA and OC Business Journals have honored TAG with Top 10 Best Places to Work awards. This is now the second time TAG has been recognized on a national level as an organization with some of America's best and brightest people.

"I am lucky to be working with such a great group of people." said Jaime Hepp. "We value our customers obviously - just like every other company that's been in business for 10+ years. We go above and beyond the call of duty to value and honor the people INSIDE the organization as well. I think this is what makes us special."

"We appreciate this award, but please don't take any attention away from the firefighter that lost his life and the 1000+ homeowners and business owners that lost their properties during the Thomas Fire," said Jaime Hepp. "We were in panic, just like everyone else in LA. Thank God we chose to problem solve and stay out of harm's way. This crisis reminds us all of the heroes that willingly go in the heart of the problem to serve others."

TAG is a sales and marketing company in Orange, CA. TAG represents blue chip clients in the United States.
This festival will bring out the maker in all of us, encourage business for our members who provide products and services for creative consumers, and provide attendees with magical experiences that are vital to their creative expression. - Mark Hill, President & Chief Executive Officer, AFCI

The Association for Creative Industries (AFCI) is excited to announce In the MKNG, a unique festival unlike any other craft-related event in existence. People who love to create and craft will gather for the event that celebrates the art of making in its many forms on September 29-30, 2018 at Bethel Woods Center For The Arts in Bethel, New York. In the MKNG will feature new products and product sales, interactive demonstrations, arts and crafts workshops, celebrity creators, charity tents, food trucks, live music, and more.

In the MKNG was born out of a desire to inspire creativity on a new level across people of all ages and backgrounds, said Mark Hill, President & Chief Executive Officer, AFCI. Our research shows that participation in crafting is growing and is not exclusive to a specific gender or age. This festival will bring out the maker in all of us, encourage business for our members who provide products and services for creative consumers, and provide attendees with magical experiences that are vital to their creative expression.

The venue for In the MKNG, Bethel Woods Center For The Arts is located 90 miles from New York City at the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival. The 800-acre campus is known for hosting culturally-rich performances, popular artists, and community and educational programming.

Bethel Woods Center For The Arts mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals through the arts and humanities aligns with our motivation to help individuals embrace the universal creative process. Its history and close proximity to New York Citys prominent art community make Bethel Woods the perfect location for the inaugural In the MKNG creative festival, said Andria Gibbon, CEM, Vice President of Events & Education, AFCI.

Darlene Fedun, Chief Executive Officer, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts adds, In the MKING is a wonderful and unique addition to Bethel Woods festival season. Sullivan County has an incredible community of artisans and crafters who will enjoy the experience. It will also introduce new guests from across the region to our county and Bethel Woods. We are excited to host the event and anticipate great success.

Retailers and suppliers of creative arts products, charities, and pet organizations can become a vendor by completing the vendor application available at http://www.inthemkng.com or contacting sales(at)inthemkng(dot)com.

Tickets to attend will go on sale on June 1, 2018.

For more general information, visit http://www.inthemkng.com or email info(at)inthemkng(dot)com. For media inquiries, email press(at)inthemkng(dot)com.

ABOUT In the MKNG

In the MKNG is a festival inspiring and celebrating creativity across demographics and generations. Its a gathering of creatives and the general public, including makers themselves who share and sell their work there, celebrating the art of making in its many forms. The event is organized by the Association For Creative Industries and includes live demonstrations, interactive activities, charity involvement, food, live music and a lot of fun. Inspired by the phrase in the making, the event nods to the universal creative process  a project in development. Something with which every maker is acquainted; where the magic happens. Plus, all of us are ourselves in the making, constantly growing, learning and evolving. In the MKNG celebrates all of this. For more information about participating, visit http://www.inthemkng.com.

ABOUT BETHEL WOODS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts inspires, educates, and empowers individuals through the arts and humanities by presenting a diverse selection of culturally-rich performances, popular artists, and community and educational programming. Located 90 miles from New York City at the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel, NY, the lush 800-acre campus includes a Pavilion Stage amphitheater with seating for 15,000, an intimate 440-seat indoor Event Gallery, the award-winning Museum at Bethel Woods, and a Conservatory for arts education programming.

Through the in-depth study and exhibition of the social, political, and cultural events of the 1960s, as well as the preservation of the historic site of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, Bethel Woods educates individuals about the issues and lessons of the decade while inspiring a new generation to contribute positively to the world around them. The not-for-profit organization relies on the generous support of individuals, corporations, and foundations to develop and sustain programs that improve the quality of life in the region and beyond. For more information please visit http://www.BethelWoodsCenter.org.
PBS SoCal KOCE kicks off its annual student creativity season with an invitation to California students to enter two academic competitions to showcase their talents in the areas of writing and multi-media production. The 9th Annual PBS KIDS Writers Contest for students in kindergarten through third grade, and the 52nd Annual California Student Media Festival which accepts student work from kindergarten through twelfth grade, begin accepting entries on January 15.

We are delighted to continue the tradition of encouraging Californias young people to apply their creativity and technology skills to effective storytelling, because these skills will serve them well through school and their careers, said Jamie Annunzio Myers, COO and Vice President, Education and Community Engagement. The talent displayed by students who enter is remarkable, and is a reminder of the impact arts and technology education can have on our children.

PBS KIDS Writers Contest

The annual contest is a local initiative designed to promote the advancement of childrens literacy skills through hands-on, active learning. The PBS KIDS Writers Contest encourages children in grades K-3 to celebrate creativity and build literacy skills by writing and illustrating their own stories.

Submissions can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry or a prose story, and must include at least five colorful illustrations. Each submission will be judged by PBS SoCal education staff, and a panel of community partners, on the basis of creativity, originality, story structure, relevance, illustrations, and overall quality. First, second, and third place winners are selected for each grade level. New this year is a separate category for the best illustrations that accompany a story. The submission period is from January 15  May 4, 2018. Entry form and submission information is available at http://www.pbssocal.org/writerscontest.

PBS SoCal will host an Awards Ceremony to celebrate the winners of the contest and award certificates and prizes for their writing efforts in early June. Each winner will have the opportunity to read their stories to the assembled guests. The PBS KIDS Writers Contest is made possible in part by support from Thrivent Financial.

52nd Annual California Student Media Festival

The California Student Media Festival is the nations oldest student media festival, and celebrates the innovative and exceptional multimedia projects produced by students from throughout California. Each year more than 300 projects are entered into the festival.

Entries can be submitted in the following categories: Bilingual/Foreign Language, History/Social Studies, English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Fine and Performing Arts, Career and Technical Education, Science and Health, Journalism, and more.

Elementary and secondary teachers throughout the state are encouraged to enter their students work in the festival. The submission period is from January 15  April 2, 2018. Entry form and submission information is available at http://www.mediafestival.org.

More than 50 student awards, and four grand prizes, will be awarded to participating schools. In June an Academy Awards-like ceremony, open to the public, will honor all the students and teachers who participate in the program. The audience will view the winning entries and hear acceptance speeches by the student producers.

Over the past 20 years, the California Student Media Festival has awarded more than $145,000 to California schools. The California Student Media Festival is made possible thanks to a partnership between PBS SoCal and CUE.

About PBS SoCal

PBS SoCal KOCE is the home to PBS for Greater Los Angeles and Southern California. We deliver the full schedule of PBS programs, plus content that is for, about and by the people of Southern California. Our content is available free through four broadcast channels, at pbssocal.org, on our mobile apps, and via connected TV services. We provide the community with early education resources and cultural and educational experiences through partnerships, events and grassroots outreach. PBS SoCal has offices in Century City, Costa Mesa, and Los Angeles. Connect with us at pbssocal.org and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

About PBS KIDS

PBS KIDS, the number one educational media brand for kids, offers all children the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television, online, mobile and community-based programs. Kidscreen- and Webby-award winning pbskids.org provides engaging interactive content, including the PBS KIDS video player, now offering free streaming video accessible on computer- and mobile-device-based browsers. For more information on specific PBS KIDS content supporting literacy, science, math and more, visit pbs.org/pressroom, or follow PBS KIDS on Twitter and Facebook.

About CUE

Ed Tech Professional Development is at the core of CUE's work. We are passionate believers in advancing student achievement through technology. By providing Ed Tech professional development to schools, districts, and local educators on the infusion of emerging technologies, we can help better prepare students for college and careers ahead. | http://www.cue.org

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With our new interactive dining experiences this year, we're recognizing that Bay Area foodies are looking for more than just a delicious meal - they also care about the stories behind the recipe, the techniques of food preparation and about the neighborhoods the restaurant calls home.

Bay Area diners are marking their calendars for Oakland Restaurant Week, presented by Visit Oakland. From Thursday, January 11 through Sunday, January 21, 2018, 100 Oakland Restaurants will celebrate the largest and most diverse restaurant week in the region.

Now in its 8th year, the popular program runs over eleven days and two weekends for foodies to take full advantage of dining deals. Participating restaurants will offer prix fixe lunch and/or dinner menus at $10, $20, $30, $40 and $50 price points. The promotional prices reflect up to 25% off regular a la carte items.

In response to Oakland diners' desire to learn about the stories behind their food, Oakland Restaurant Week 2018 introduces new interactive dining experiences to the 2018 program.



Local Food Adventures, an East Bay walking food tour company, will offer their Rockridge and Grand Lake neighborhood food tours during the two ORW18 weekends.

SUN, JAN 14, 10AM - 3PM: Chef Demo and Free Tastings at the Jack London Square Farmers Market. The Visit Oakland Mobile Visitor Center will be at the Jack London Square Farmers Market to bring chef demonstrations and tastings to inspire shoppers for Oakland Restaurant Week.

Chef Demo from Terrace Room Restaurant & Bar's Executive Chef Jack Andrew

Free Samples from House of Chicken & Waffles

Flavors of Oakland cookbook authors Anya Ku and Elazar Sontag book signing

TUES, JAN 16, 6PM - 9PM: Dine with Leslie Sbrocco and Liam Mayclem at alaMar! Enjoy an evening at alaMar with Leslie Sbrocco, host of Check, Please! Bay Area and Taste This on PBS/KQED and Liam Mayclem, host of Foodie Chap on KCBS Radio. Savor hors d'oeuvres by Chef Nelson German paired with local wine and spirits.

WED, JAN 17, 6PM - 8PM: CORE Kitchen Tour, Class & Tasting. In partnership with Feastly, enjoy a tour of CORE kitchen, the world's first gluten free certified and plant-only restaurant. Every dish is made from 100% fruits and vegetables. No sugar and no additives of any kind. Learn about important food lessons and sample a menu of offerings from the CORE menu.

The Alameda County Community Food Bank returns as the Oakland Restaurant Week's non-profit partner. Proceeds from participating restaurants will be donated to the organization to help distribute fresh food within the region and battle child hunger within schools and our community. Visit Oakland will also be encouraging visitors on oaklandrestaurantweek.org to make a donation to the food bank.

"Oakland Restaurant Week continues to feed Bay Area diners with their appetite for delicious food and their thirst for knowledge of how their meal came to be," says Mark Everton, President & CEO of Visit Oakland. "With our new interactive dining experiences this year, we're recognizing that Bay Area foodies are looking for more than just a delicious meal - they also care about the stories behind the recipe, the techniques of food preparation and about the neighborhoods the restaurant calls home."

Complete restaurant lists, menus, and reservations are available on http://www.oaklandrestaurantweek.org. The list can be searched by neighborhood, cuisine, lunch or dinner offerings. Through a partnership with OpenTable, reservations (strongly recommended) can be made directly from the Oakland Restaurant Week page.

Oakland restaurants are part of a thriving hospitality industry in Oakland. Sales tax revenue from the restaurant and hotel spending category was the primary driver of growth as spending increased by 3.4% from 2015-16, signaling a strong trend in recreation and travel spending by residents and visitors alike. In 2016, Oakland visitors spent over $156 million on food and beverage alone. Restaurants generated $11.4M in local tax revenue. Oakland resident and visitor spending supported 2,145 jobs in the city and generated $59M in earnings for Oakland workers.

Oakland Restaurant Week is a part of California Restaurant Month, created by Visit California. The statewide event is a promotional initiative encouraging post-holiday travel to California during the month of January, which is typically a slow dining month after the holidays.

Dates and times of participation vary by restaurant. A la carte menus will also be available.

Join Oakland Restaurant Week on social media by following #ORW18.

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ABOUT VISIT OAKLAND

Visit Oakland is a non-profit organization marketing Oakland, California as a travel destination. Visit Oakland offers a wide variety of complimentary services and materials for travelers interested in visiting Oakland. For more information, check out http://www.visitoakland.com. Want to share the Oakland love with the world? Follow @visitoakland on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Onapsis Attendees will have the opportunity to hear directly from industry experts, Onapsis experts and their peers about how to make security an enabler instead of a roadblock in critical cloud and transformation projects.

Onapsis, the global experts in SAP and Oracle application cybersecurity and compliance, today announced the official launch of its 4th annual North American Roadshow Series. The Onapsis Roadshow Series has grown significantly this year and will now span across eight major cities to foster collaboration between InfoSec, Audit and ERP security industry professionals on cybersecurity best practices.

Each year we gather more feedback from the industry and our customers and incorporate that into our roadshow series. With digital transformation projects and cloud migrations on the forefront of many organizations agendas, Onapsis has partnered with customers and partners to learn success stories and will now share them with the market, said Mariano Nunez, CEO and co-Founder, Onapsis.

During this informative half-day event, attendees will have the opportunity to hear directly from industry experts, Onapsis experts and their peers about how to make security an enabler instead of a roadblock in critical cloud and transformation projects. Learn how to properly communicate with all project stakeholders to ensure visibility and secure migration of your most critical SAP and Oracle applications.

Additional topics will focus heavily on the upcoming GDPR compliance policy and how to ensure your ERP applications are compliant. With the enforcement date of May 2018 looming, many organizations are still struggling to determine if their SAP or Oracle ERP applications meet these new compliance mandates. Our roadshows will enable organizations to understand how to identify if their SAP or Oracle applications are applicable to GDPR and steps to take to ensure compliance, continued Mariano Nunez.

The 2018 Onapsis Roadshow Series will take place on the following dates and locations:

February 27, 2018: Houston, TX

March 1, 2018: Dallas, TX

March 6, 2018: New York, NY

March 8, 2018: Chicago, IL

March 13, 2018: Toronto, ON

March 15, 2018: Philadelphia, PA

March 20, 2018: San Francisco, CA

March 22, 2018: Los Angeles, CA

For more information, or to register to attend please visit: https://www.onapsis.com/roadshow-2018

About Onapsis

Onapsis cybersecurity solutions automate the monitoring and protection of your SAP and Oracle applications, keeping them compliant and safe from insider and outsider threats. As the proven market leader, global enterprises trust Onapsis to protect the essential information and processes that run their businesses.

Headquartered in Boston, MA, Onapsis serves over 200 customers including many of the Global 2000. Onapsis's solutions are also the de-facto standard for leading consulting and audit firms such as Accenture, Deloitte, E&Y, IBM, KPMG and PwC.

Onapsis solutions include the Onapsis Security Platform, which is the most widely-used SAP-certified cybersecurity solution on the market. Unlike generic security products, Onapsis's context-aware solutions deliver both preventative vulnerability and compliance controls, as well as real-time detection and incident response capabilities to reduce risks affecting critical business processes and data. Through open interfaces, the platform can be integrated with leading SIEM, GRC and network security products, seamlessly incorporating enterprise applications into existing vulnerability, risk and incident response management programs.

These solutions are powered by the Onapsis Research Labs, who continuously provide leading intelligence on security threats affecting SAP and Oracle enterprise applications. Experts at the Onapsis Research Labs were the first to lecture on SAP cyberattacks and have uncovered and helped fix hundreds of security vulnerabilities to-date affecting SAP Business Suite, SAP HANA, SAP Cloud and SAP Mobile applications, as well as Oracle JD Edwards and Oracle E-Business Suite platforms. Onapsis has been issued U.S. Patent No. 9,009,837 entitled Automated Security Assessment of Business-Critical Systems and Applications, which describes certain algorithms and capabilities behind the technology powering the Onapsis Security Platform. This patented technology is well known, industry wide, and has gained Onapsis recognition on the Deloitte Technology Top 500, as a Red Herring North America Top 100 company and a SINET 16 Innovator.

For more information, please visit http://www.onapsis.com, or connect with us on Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Onapsis and Onapsis Research Labs are registered trademarks of Onapsis, Inc. All other company or product names may be the registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Andrea and Justin Plackett, owners of A and J Limousine The limousine industry has changed quite a bit over the years and we are grateful to have been able to adjust with the times. Santa Barbara has been good to us and we thank our community for supporting our local business.

A and J Limousine is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. When we began in 2003, we both worked full-time jobs and never imagined we could grow this business into what it is today. The limousine industry has changed quite a bit over the years and we are grateful to have been able to adjust with the times. Santa Barbara has been good to us and we thank our community for supporting our local business, said Justin Plackett, owner of A and J Limousine.

Locally owned A and J Limousine offers limo and transportation service for weddings, wine tours or any occasion in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. It also provides airport service for Los Angeles International, Santa Barbara Airport and Burbank Airport.

During the course of its distinguished fifteen years in business, A and J Limousine, which started with just one limo, has won a plethora of awards. In 2013 and 2014 it won for Best Limo Service in the Santa Barbara News-Press Readers Choice Awards, and in 2015 was named runner-up in the Santa Barbara Independent for Best Limo Service in the Best of Santa Barbara.

(Our driver) was amazingly helpful in getting a wine tasting tour set up for my corporate retreat. He answered every question along the way, helped us decide on the perfect locations to visit on the tour and seamlessly navigated through last-minute changes, said client Natalie N. Kind, courteous and excellent customer service, A&J Limousine was a dream to work with.

About A and J Limousine

A and J Limousine offers luxury black car and limousine service for Santa Barbara and surrounding areas including Montecito, Goleta, Carpinteria, Santa Ynez and Ventura County, as well as all local airports. It specializes in wine tours, weddings, airport transfers, funeral service transportation, proms, birthdays, anniversaries, bachelor/bachelorette parties and executive/corporate transportation/accounts. For more information, please call (805) 683-7772, or visit http://www.aandjlimousine.com. A and J Limousine is located at 4067 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93110.

About the NALA

The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers through new media. As a single-agency source, the NALA helps businesses flourish in their local community. The NALAs mission is to promote a business relevant and newsworthy events and achievements, both online and through traditional media. The information and content in this article are not in conjunction with the views of the NALA. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361.
The new Q&A feature on our blog focuses on common questions by small business owners and marketers.

The JM Internet Group, a leader in online digital marketing training, is proud to announce the next in its question-and-answer (Q&A) series on common small business questions about digital marketing. The post is focused on the plain-speaking question of whether Google ads are worth the money. Phrased in more intellectual discourse, the post addresses the question of the possible ROI (Return on Investment) from Google AdWords.

"With our 2018 AdWords Workbook now released, we wanted to focus on the so-called 'featured snippet' or 'answer box' feature on Google search," explained Jason McDonald, Director of the JM Internet Group. "Accordingly, we are rolling out short answers on our blog to common questions. In this case we are focusing on the question of the return on investment or ROI from Google AdWords advertising for a small business."

To view the post answering the question, 'Are Google Ads Worth the Money?,' visit https://www.jm-seo.org/2018/01/google-ads-worth-money-yes-adwords-worth-depends/. The post answers the question by focusing on two issues. First, there's what an advertiser pays Google for the click. This is why it is called "cost per click" advertising. Second, there's the question of whether not only the clicks but also the actual conversions generated exceed the cost of the clicks. This is where the calculation of ROI comes in.

THE ADWORDS WORKBOOK 2018: A PATH TO ROI FOR SMALL BUSINESS MARKETERS

The JM Internet Group is committed to publishing step-by-step, hands on "workbooks" for small business owners and marketers. The new 2018 AdWords Workbook is an updated explanation of how to use Google AdWords for small business advertising. It uses the so-called "New AdWords Experience" and is very hard-nosed about the return on investment issue. For example, the book explains that savvy small business advertisers focus not on maximizing their clicks from Google but rather on maximizing their conversions, and minimizing the cost per conversion. Indeed, the book advocates an "attract/repel" strategy of writing online ads. The new, short blog post is an entry point for the small business advertiser to begin to dig deeper into the question of return on investment of digital advertising.

The AdWords Workbook is available on Amazon at https://goo.gl/e7uDMm. Those with questions can also reach out to the JM Internet Group to be put on the list for zero cost "review" copies of the book. It should be noted as well that the JM Internet Group publishes a popular list of the best books on Google AdWords at https://www.jm-seo.org/2017/06/adwords-books/.

ABOUT JM INTERNET GROUP

The JM Internet Group provides SEO, Social Media Marketing, and Google AdWords training and courses for busy marketers and businesspeople. Online search engine optimization training helps explain keywords, page tags, link building strategies and other techniques needed to climb to the top of search engine rankings for Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The teaching methodology is hands on, with live examples and discussions, taught from the convenience of each student's computer. It should be noted that the company maintains important book lists such as its list of the best SEO books at https://www.jm-seo.org/2015/05/best-seo-books/ and the best social media marketing books at https://www.jm-seo.org/2017/01/social-media-marketing-books-2017-list-best-books-social-media-marketers/.

Contact:

JM Internet Group, Media Relations

Web. https://www.jm-seo.org/

Email. jm(dot)internetgroup(at)gmail(dot)com
ACT for the future we need to see This is an ICO project with a working prototype. Change starts with communities, and ACT aims to disintermediate NGO and charity norms to fund those on the frontline directly.

ACT is a decentralized funding platform focused on supporting activists on the front line of fighting for the future that we need to see.

Since its successful pre-ICO in July last year, which raised 1200 ETH from 347 supporters, the team has been building five Ethereum smart contracts that govern the ACT platforms innovate token economic model. The two main parts of ACT  the ACT Curation Engine and the ACT App - are both now in prototype phase. The ACT Curation Engine crypto token called CE7 governs ETH rewards that curators receive for vetting proposal submitted to the platform  the process is completely decentralized and autonomous.

After a short vetting period of 3 days, the best proposals are automatically pushed to the ACT App where citizens have just 24 hours to vote on them. ACT votes costs 0.005 ETH each, and successful proposals are paid automatically by the smart contract from the proceeds. Following this stage, the platform generates a funding smart contract for the proposal that it's proponents can use to raise more funding directly.

The ACT platform is designed to be highly responsive to causes, and aims to be able to fund change, and perhaps even global citizen-led movements, at any speed and any scale. It wants to transform the NGO sector with its decentralized technology.

The team has forged alliances with activist groups in the USA, UK and Germany mainly fighting coal, oil and gas, and fracking abuses of the environment. These include the United Valleys Action Group in Wales, the famous Nanas in Yorkshire (think Grandmas shutting down fracking operations to save their Grandchildren), and Sunrise Youth Movement in the USA. The team is also in discussion with activists from tougher places such as Ukraine, Uganda, Vietnam, Cambodia, Venezuela and Iran about pilot projects for the ACT Alpha platform.

The published project roadmap sees ACT Alpha on the Ethereum mainnet after code audits of the current prototypes this March 2018. This contains the smart contracts ICO ETH proceeds will be stored. Holders of the CE7 token which can be acquired during the ICO happening now will hold the reigns with regards to which proposals are pushed to voting, and which are not.

The ACT project is a revolutionary blockchain-powered decentralization autonomous organization. It puts power in the hands of the people absolutely. If the world got on ACT no government, or corporate power would have the resources to oppose the aggregate resources and power of global citizens enabled through the ACT platform.

The ICO will span just three days from Jan 13th to Jan 16th at https://daoact.org/ico.
West End Bank, a customer-focused, community-driven Indiana-based bank, and Corserv, a company that empowers financial institutions to issue credit cards, signed an agreement that provides West End Bank business and consumer customers with Corservs suite of credit card products and services. As part of the multi-year agreement, Corserv will provide access to MasterCard credit card products that West End Bank will brand as its own, including cards that offer a variety of reward options such as cash-back.

No one knows our customers better than we do, enabling West End Bank to make informed credit card approval decisions and deliver the best products and services to our consumer, business and commercial customers, said Timothy R. Frame, President and Chief Executive Officer of West End Bank. Our partner Corserv provides self-service portals for our customers and bank employees, back office processing and proven credit underwriting strategies that allow West End Bank to confidently enter the credit card issuing business.

Corserv is proud to empower banks to fully participate in the profitable credit card issuing business, said Jerry Craft, CEO of Corserv. Our turn-key digital solution, which includes account opening, card servicing, fraud prevention, marketing, analytics and branch support, enables West End Bank to own their customer loans and control their relationships while achieving significant financial benefits for their bank.

For business customers, in addition to a low APR Business Platinum MasterCard and a Business Platinum Rewards MasterCard, West End Bank will offer Corservs Purchasing Card, which enables businesses to pay for authorized vendor purchases and travel with individual or consolidated statements and integration to expense reporting systems. Consumers will have a choice of a low APR Platinum MasterCard, a Platinum Rewards Card, or a World Rewards Card. The new credit card products were introduced to West End Bank customers in 2017.

About West End Bank, S.B.

Founded in 1894, West End Bank, S.B. is an Indiana-chartered savings bank that provides financial services to individuals, families and businesses through four banking offices located in the Indiana counties of Union and Wayne and seven additional limited service branches located within all Richmond Community Schools elementary schools and high school in Richmond, Indiana at which they provide financial literacy to students who assist in the branch operations. Investors may obtain additional information about West End Indiana Bancshares, Inc. and West End Bank, S.B. on the Internet at http://www.westendbank.com, under Investor Relations.

About Corserv

Corserv provides a turnkey credit card issuing program that enables financial institutions to deliver competitive, branded credit cards to consumer, business and commercial customers. Corservs secure hosted programs combine our credit, compliance and marketing expertise with our modern online solution  everything our clients need to quickly build a successful card-issuing business. Our financial institution clients can increase their earnings per share by owning their customer loans and benefitting from loan interest, interchange, fee income and economies of scale from Corservs client base. Most importantly, our clients control their credit card customer relationships. For more information, please visit http://www.corservsolutions.com

Contact for West End Bank

Susan Haskett, 765-598-5104, shaskett(at)westendbank.com

Contact for Corserv

David Luther, 404-822-8418, dluther(at)corservsolutions.com
JamesSuckling.com announces the Great Wines of Italy 2018 USA Tour in four cities across the United States, featuring Italys most sought-after wines from established prestigious brands, as well as select premium boutique estates. Producers from 180 participating wineries will be in attendance to pour some of their best wines at four walk-around tastings in New York, Miami, Beverly Hills, and San Francisco. All wines have been hand-picked by internationally renowned wine critic James Suckling for their quality and character, reaching top scores of 90 points and above on JamesSuckling.com, todays quintessential source for wine ratings and tasting notes.

The Great Wines of Italy 2018 tour will kick off in New York on March 6 at the IAC Building and will continue in Miami at the EAST Hotel (March 7). The tour will then move to the West Coast, stopping in Beverly Hills at The Montage (March 9) and concluding in San Francisco at the Presidio Golden Gate Club (March 11). Each event will run from 5:00pm to 8:00pm. Early bird consumer tickets (99 USD) are on sale now until February 10. After February 10, general admission tickets (120 USD) will be available. Discounted tickets are available for attendees 28 and under (60 USD). Tickets are free of charge for qualified members of the trade (registration required).

We just completed our Great Wines of Italy tour in Asia, and it was an incredible experience for everyone who attended in Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Phuket, said James Suckling. We are thrilled to continue this incredible series of master tastings in the United States in 2018. Each world-class Italian winery will showcase two of their top wines and new releases, providing wine enthusiasts with a genuine, personal tasting experience featuring the best Italy has to offer.

James Suckling is a renowned figure around the world for his wine expertise and distinct, modern style of communication. Forbes has called him one of the worlds most powerful wine critics.

Last years Great Wines of Italy USA Tour was a sold-out success, with a record 163 participating wineries across four cities and nearly 3,500 consumers and trade registered. A new record has been set this year with 180 participating wineries from all over the Italy, from the peaks of the Dolomites to the islands of Sicily. Many of the wines to be poured were included on James Sucklings recently released Top 100 Italian Wines of 2017 list.

For more information, tickets, and trade registration, please visit JamesSuckling.com. For press registration and inquiries, please contact Eleonore Podda (epodda@colangelopr.com) or Josh Zoland (jzoland(at)colangelopr.com) of Colangelo & Partners.

About JamesSuckling.com: JamesSuckling.com is a wine media platform and events company founded by esteemed journalist and wine critic James Suckling. The website provides a range of content, from tasting notes and videos to blogs and events that focus on the great wines of the world, including Italy, Bordeaux, Champagne, Australia, New Zealand, California, Chile, and Argentina. CEO and Editor James Suckling believes that todays wine drinker deserves more than just written reviews and criticism. They need to see with their own eyes the place, the people, and the rating process. James and his team of critics rate about 17,000 wines a year using the 100-point scale. JamesSuckling.com organizes more than a dozen events each year in cities across the United States and Asia for consumers and trade.
Genuine Health Group, the enterprise co-founded by healthcare entrepreneurs Joe Caruncho and Dr. Orlando Lopez-Fernandez, wrapped up its first year of operations with a major win. Its recently acquired accountable care organization, PremierMD ACO, was approved to operate as a Track One-Plus (Track 1+) ACO. The distinction means the ACO now qualifies as an advanced alternative payment model and makes its participating physicians eligible to earn up to a five percent bonus payment starting in 2019. In addition, as an advanced alternative payment model, its participating physicians are exempt from burdensome reporting required by the merit incentive-based payment system (MIPS), which is part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization ACT (MACRA).

Genuine Health purchased PremierMD ACO, which included mostly-Broward physicians, in June of last year. Since that time, Genuine has recruited a number of new physicians from Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and is in talks with doctors in other states who may also join.

Caruncho and Lopez-Fernandez started Genuine Health to capitalize on new health delivery models, like ACOs, that incentivize value-based care. By leveraging their experience delivering high-quality, low-cost medical care at the Medicare Advantage plan they ran, Preferred Care Partners, and by using advanced analytics, the company will be able to earn more revenue for keeping patients healthier. The ACO earns half of the amount it saves Medicare for the care its doctors deliver to patients. However, the financial upside requires the organization to assume some downside risk. So, in the event its costs for delivering care are more than Medicare benchmarks, it must reimburse a portion of the overage.

From the time we acquired PremierMD, we intended to transition our ACO to an alternative advanced payment model, said Joe Caruncho, president and CEO of Genuine Health Group. The Track 1+ model brings significant benefits to our participating physicians, and is an appealing first step as we wade into taking on greater financial risk for the care of Medicare beneficiaries assigned to our ACO.

Nationally, few ACOs  only about 5 percent  have opted to take on downside risk as a tradeoff for increased upside potential. Part of the hesitation is that these ACOs must demonstrate to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that they have capital on hand to pay losses if they miss performance targets. In addition, these organizations need to invest in data analytics tools, hire clinical staff and care coordinators, and make other operational changes to ensure quality outcomes.

The team at Genuine Health came to the table with the technology and experience to make sure our next phase epitomizes the concept of value-based care, said Dr. Victor Toledano, the president and founder of PremierACO. With our team of doctors and their leadership and resources, we will be a national model for how to deliver better healthcare at a lower cost.

For more information on Genuine Health Group, or to schedule an interview with Joe Caruncho, please contact Meieli Sawyer at 305-668-0070 or msawyer(at)weinbachgroup(dot)com.

About Genuine Health Group

Genuine Health Group is an analytics-driven healthcare company that assists physicians and health plans in successfully transitioning to value-based payment models.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Quinsigamond Community College (QCC) today were awarded a $4 million grant by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to create a comprehensive joint laboratory that will support the growth of the burgeoning integrated photonics industry across the Northeast, while also providing training and education to help build a skilled integrated photonics workforce in Central Massachusetts.

The grant, announced by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito at an event on the WPI campus, will fund a partnership between WPI and QCC for the launch of an AIM Photonics Academy Lab for Education & Application Prototypes (LEAP), a new facility that will support the development of this emerging advanced manufacturing sector.

Last year, MIT, home of AIM Photonics Academy, received state funding for the first LEAP facility, which has a focus on packaging. WPI and QCC will now establish the states second LEAP facility, with a focus on design and testing of integrated photonic devices, and on workforce development.

WPI and QCC are part of the American Institute for Manufacturing (AIM) Integrated Photonics. AIM Photonics is one of 14 public-private manufacturing innovation institutes focused on a wide range of technologies that was launched as part of a federal initiative to revitalize American manufacturing. WPI is a member of eight Manufacturing USA institutes, including AIM Photonics.

This exciting new endeavor in AIM Photonics will have a major impact on advancing photonics activities throughout the Northeast, said WPI President Laurie Leshin. As a highly specialized field with real growth potential, integrated photonics will also have a significant impact on the region through workforce development and economic expansion. Its especially gratifying for WPI to partner with Quinsigamond Community College, building on nearly a half century of collaboration on a variety of academic and industry initiatives in Worcester County.

QCC leaders also lauded the partnership. The collaboration between QCC and WPI combines the core strengths of both institutions in order to help drive the future of advanced manufacturing in the region through accelerated photonics innovation and workforce development and training, said QCC President Luis G. Pedraja. We must think beyond the confines of the past and look toward the future. LEAP is a giant step for the manufacturing and educational sectors in Central Massachusetts and beyond.

According to AIM Photonics, photons are the smallest unit of light, and photonics allow for faster transfer of data than traditional electronic circuits. The organization also notes that integrated photonics allow designers and manufacturers to put thousands of photonic componentssuch as lasers, detectors, wave guides, modulators, electronic controls, and optical interconnectstogether on a single chip, allowing capabilities that were not previously possible. Photonics technology is used in products such as flatscreen TVs, CD and DVD players, and autonomous vehicles.

Douglas Petkie, head of WPIs Department of Physics, who is serving as the WPI lead for AIM Photonics LEAP, said the state grant allows WPI to play an integral role in the photonics arena. Our vision is to have students, faculty members, and industry partners working in a space to move advanced manufacturing of integrated photonics forward, he said.

WPI and QCC will play key roles along the growing photonics corridor in the Northeast, which extends from MITs campus in Cambridge to New York. Specifically, Interstate-90 between Rochester, N.Y., and Boston will be a conduit that ties together elements of a vibrant education, research, and development ecosystem. It will also be a highway for innovation, as ideas become designs, and designs become hardware to be tested, refined, and released to meet the needs of industry.

WPI will be involved in the early stages in the photonics development lifecycle by facilitating the design of photonics-integrated circuits (PICs). Systems designed in the Central Massachusetts LEAP will be built at the AIM Photonics fabrication facility at SUNY-Polytechnic Institute in Albany, and packaged at the test, assembly, and packaging (TAP) facility in a former Eastman Kodak facility in Rochester. During the development cycle, prototypes of the PICs will return to WPI, where companies and students will use specialized equipment to perform characterization and reliability testing.

The regions integrated photonics workforce will also receive a boost from the partnership, which would give students and manufacturing workers access to equipment and specialized curricula to make them more proficient in photonics activities. The photonics lab space has not been finalized, but will be located on the WPI campus and will allow students, faculty, and industry partners to work collaboratively to move the science of photonics forward.

Were aiming to increase the technical competency of the workforce, said Petkie, and we think that this partnership will go a long way to making that a reality.

To learn more about WPIs integrated photonics initiatives, visit here.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI is one of the nations first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. WPI's talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university's innovative Global Projects Program. There are more than 40 WPI project centers throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.

About Quinsigamond Community College

Quinsigamond Community College is the most affordable higher education in Worcester County. As a regional leader in education and workforce development, QCC serves the diverse educational needs of Central Massachusetts by providing affordable, accessible, and high quality programming leading to transfer, career, and lifelong learning.

Contact:

Andy Baron, Associate Director of Public Relations

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Worcester, Massachusetts

508-831-5916, ajbaron(at)wpi(dot)edu
Q Link Wireless announces its ranking as an Inc. 5000 company, joining an elite group of businesses honored as the greatest, most innovative companies in the United States. The Inc. 5000 list, now in its 36th year, is an annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. Companies selected by Inc. lead the country in growth, job creation, and economic impact.

Were proud to join this innovative group of businesses, said Issa Asad, founder and CEO of Q Link Wireless. This is amazing company to be in  with creative geniuses, thought leaders, and top U.S. employers. I am flattered and humbled to be considered of the same ilk.

Q Link Wireless was listed in just over the top 20 percent of Inc. 5000 companies, placing at 1001. The companys three-year growth rings in at 432%, and 2016s revenue topped the charts at $102.8M. Q Link was also ranked by Inc. as a Top Telecommunications Company for its growth.

With calculations based on rapid growth, instead of size, companies like Q Link can celebrate achievements and still have huge goals, added Asad. This is a major milestone for us, and every team member served an integral part in reaching this point in our growth.

The Inc. 5000 list was first published in 1982 to recognize the nations fastest-growing businesses. Since the lists early years, many of the honored businesses have grown to become giants in their industry and include Dell, Microsoft, Pandora, LinkedIn, and Zillow.

Q Link has continued its impressive growth over the course of the year. In November 2017, the company announced that it received approval to provide free phone service in the state of Arkansas from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is the first license received by any company in more than five years, and following that, the FCC granted Q Link another new license to begin offering Lifeline service to residents of Hawaii in December 2017.

Q Link will add 25 new fulltime jobs at its headquarters in Dania Beach as a result of this recent development, increasing its local workforce by almost ten percent.

For more information about Q Link Wireless, or to schedule an interview with Issa Asad, please contact Meieli Sawyer at 305-668-0070 or msawyer(at)weinbachgroup.com.

About Q Link Wireless

Q Link Wireless, a Quadrant Holdings Company, is one of the nations leading providers of wireless voice and data service through the Lifeline Program. With nearly 2 million customers, Q Link is wirelessly connecting people to the world around them, regardless of their income.
The market for digital coins was under intense pressure Thursday morning amid reports that South Korea has a bill in the works to ban cryptocurrency trading.

"South Korea's justice minister said on Thursday the ministry is preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through its exchanges," Reuters reported.

That news was on the heels of a report that authorities were raiding cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.

A few officials from the National Tax Service raided our office this week, a representative of Coinone, a South Korean crypto exchange, told Reuters.

According to the Reuters report, South Korean authorities also were looking into Bithumb, another cryptocurrency exchange.

At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading down more than 9% at $13,458 a coin, according to data from Markets Insider. At one point, the entire cryptocurrency market was down more than $100 billion at $636 billion. It hit an all-time high of $830 billion earlier this month, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Still, some cryptocurrency enthusiasts saw the move as a positive sign for the market.

"If the Korean government takes a similarly aggressive stance to crypto exchanges as was taken in China, then we can likely expect to see a number of the major exchanges move to jurisdictions that have a clearer regulations," Sebastian Quinn-Watson, an executive at Blockchain Global, told Business Insider.

Chinese regulators began their own crack down on cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017. It was a move investors shook off after an intense sell-off.

"Japan is the likely beneficiary of this move," Quinn-Watson added. "End point, high quality, well-run exchanges will thrive and poorly-run exchanges will perish and the consumer and market will benefit."

South Korea has been a hot market for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, for instance, has traded at a more than 40% premium on exchanges in the country relative to US exchanges. According to Josiah Hernandez, chief strategy officer at Coinsource, that demand will make it hard for regulators to follow through on a full ban.

The news of the crackdown follows a Wall Street Journal report Monday that regulators in South Korea were preparing a wide-ranging inspection on six commercial banks that manage "virtual" bitcoin accounts. Virtual accounts, according to The Journal, are where investors can store fiat money when they buy or sell crypto.
Shares of MoneyGram, the second-largest money transfer company in the world,spiked as much 12.75% Thursday after the company said it had signed a partnership with Ripple to test using the companys XRP cryptocurrency to improve transfer settlement times and costs. XRP is climbing as well, spiking as much as 14%.

Last week, Western Union spiked on an unverified rumor that it planned to also use XRP. Ripple said in a tweet that it has signed three of the worlds five largest money transfer companies, but did not elaborate on which.

The payments problem doesnt just affect banks, it also affects companies like MoneyGram, which help people get money to the ones they care about, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a press release. By using a digital asset like XRP that settles in three seconds or less, our clients can move money as quickly as information.

XRP saw significant losses, down as much as 13%, Wednesday evening into Thursday morning on news South Korean regulators planned to crack down on cryptocurrency exchanges. But the token had begun to pare those losses after the Moneygram news, and was up 2.39% in the last 24 hours at the time of writing.

XRP powers Ripples XRapid cross-border payments for emerging markets product as well as its other liquidity and transfer services.

XRP is currently trading at $1.97, according to Markets Insider data, much lower than its high of $3.315 reached late last year. The cryptocurrency is still up 5517% over the past 12 months, but down 31% over the past week.

MoneyGram sent nearly $600 billion in cross-border payments in 2016, according to its website.
In March, Qantas will begin scheduled nonstop flights to London from its hub in Perth, Western Australia. The 17-hour-long, 9,008-mile flight is one of the longest in the world.

These flights are so long that pilots and flight attendants work on a rotating schedule, which means they need a place to sleep.

Most modern wide-body airliners used for long-haul international flights are equipped with crew-rest compartments.

To make this route possible, Australia's national airline ordered a fleet of eight brand-new Boeing 787-9s.

Business Insider got the chance to preview Qantas' first new Boeing 787-9 in October. As part of the tour, Qantas gave us access to the hidden crew-rest compartments located above the main passenger cabin. Since these are areas of the aircraft that are strictly off-limits to the flying public, we simply couldn't say no.

Here's a closer look at the pilot and flight attendant crew rests on board the Boeing 787-9.

Qantas took delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in October. As part of the delivery ceremony, members of the media were allowed to tour the brand new jet.

Here's a look at the Dreamliner's state-of-the-art glass cockpit. Turn around ...

And you'll see the hidden doorway to the pilot's rest compartment. Since the Qantas Dreamliner does not have a first-class cabin, the crew rest is located above the business-class seats at the front of the plane.

Climb up the stars and you'll find ...

Sleeping quarters for two pilots. Even though the Dreamliner requires only two pilots, airlines usually fly with four on its long-haul international routes, the main crew, and a relief crew.

Hidden at the rear of the Dreamliner's cabin is the flight attendants' crew rest. It's located above the main cabin between the economy-class section and the aft galley.

Like the pilots' compartment, you'll need to climb up a narrow corridor.

Once inside, you'll find a cozy little compartment with room for six.

Here's a look down at the stairs from the inside the compartment.

At the back of the compartment are three forward-facing beds.

There's also one bed on ...

Each side of the compartment.

At the front of the compartment is another bed.
Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip are not known for their wild public displays of affection, but the little they do show reveals a lot.

While the younger royals appear to be more comfortable with showing their down-to-earth sides to the public, it's understandable that the older generation is a little more stiff.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh marked their platinum wedding anniversary  an impressive 70 years of marriage  in November 2017. They've been through a lifetime of royal duties and, if the rumours are true, even affairs.

Yet the one thing that has never changed is their uncompromising commitment to one another.

Cobb told Good Housekeeping: "When you look beyond the royal formality of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth's public appearances, you clearly see Prince Philip's love and adoration for his Queen."

And the feeling appears to be mutual.

But according to Wood, being the Monarch and all, the Queen feels the need to assert her independence, and she is "always trying to be seen as her own person."

He naturally lets her take the lead, but he's never far behind.

They even have a special touch that isn't all about affection.

"This type of hand hold is seen time and time again," said Wood. "It's more formal than interlocking fingers but it's unique to them. It's their way of reassurance and comfort."

Although these days, she pointed out, the touch is also for practical reasons, as at 91 years old Her Majesty is not as strong as she once was. "In her older years, the Queen holds hands with the Prince for assistance as opposed to affection."

And the Prince is always dutifully ready and waiting. "He's constantly looking at the Queen to make sure that she's okay. He's completely in tune with her needs," Cobb added.

During public appearances, you'll often catch them engrossed in a private conversation, a feat for any couple after a lifetime of marriage.

And they really do seem to still share the look of love...
Republican Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri has been accused of taking a compromising photo of a woman with whom he has admitted to having an extramarital affair, an investigation by the local CBS affiliate KMOV revealed Wednesday. A lawyer for Greitens later pushed back, saying there was "no blackmail."

In reporting on the affair, KMOV cited an audio recording between the woman, whom it did not identify, and her husband at the time. In the recording, the woman reportedly said she met Greitens when he was a customer at a hair salon where she worked.

The ex-husband, who, according to KMOV, said he made the recording in 2015 without the woman's knowledge, said that the affair happened in March of that year and that Greitens "took a picture of my wife naked as blackmail." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which said it had also listened to the recording and interviewed the ex-husband, said the woman described herself in the recording as being blindfolded and partly undressed in the photo.

The Post-Dispatch said the woman turned down multiple interview requests, and KMOV said she declined to comment on the record.

"There is no worse person," the ex-husband said of Greitens, adding: "I think it's as bad as it gets. It's as bad as it gets when someone takes advantage of something."

In the recording, the woman reportedly said that her sexual encounter with Greitens was consensual and that Greitens later apologized and told her he had deleted the photo.

Greitens, who publicly acknowledged the affair on Wednesday, said in a joint statement with his wife, Sheena, that the affair took place "a few years ago," before his 2016 election, and that it was a "deeply personal mistake."

"Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately," the statement said, according to KMOV. "While we never would have wished for this pain in our marriage, or the pain that this has caused others, with God's mercy Sheena has forgiven and we have emerged stronger.

"We understand that there will be some people who cannot forgive  but for those who can find it in your heart, Eric asks for your forgiveness, and we are grateful for your love, your compassion, and your prayers."

James Bennett, Greitens' attorney, issued a statement saying that there were "multiple false allegations" in a KMOV report on the matter that aired on local television and that "there was no blackmail."

"The outrageous claims of improper conduct regarding these almost three-year-ago events are false," Bennett said.

Following the news, lawmakers expressed their disappointment asked him to step down from office.

"I'm calling on Governor Greitens to resign immediately and give Missouri the opportunity to restore some dignity to the governor's office," Democratic Missouri State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed tweeted.

"I am extremely disappointed in Governor Eric Greitens and that I believe he has hoodwinked us, the citizens of Missouri," Republican State Rep. Nate Walker said, according to a Missouri journalist. "Rumor had been circulating around the State Capitol earlier today that this was coming. I am not sure what Governor Greitens will do next  in my opinion he has broken the public trust. I may have more to say once the terrible shock of this sets further in."
President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act hours after the White House press secretary released a statement saying the administration supported the law and opposed an amendment that would impose limits on the government's surveillance authority.

"'House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,'" Trump tweeted, referring to a chyron earlier Thursday on "Fox & Friends," the Fox News morning show he often watches and praises for its coverage of him.

"This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?" he continued.

On the show, Judge Andrew Napolitano, a frequent Fox News contributor, said: "Mr. President, this is not the way to go. Spying is valid to find the foreign agents among us. But it's got to be based on suspicion and not an area code."

Trump's tweet appeared to contradict the statement that the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, released on Wednesday night signaling the administration's strong support for FISA  and specifically its Section 702, which allows the US government to track and collect the communications of foreigners overseas without a warrant.

The statement urged the House of Representatives to vote against the amendment to "preserve the useful role of FISA's Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the apparent contradiction.

The House just before noon on Thursday passed a bill to extend the warrantless-surveillance program, but it rejected the amendment.

Trump attempted to clarify his position a little more than an hour after his initial tweet.

"With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today's vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land," he tweeted. "We need it! Get smart!"

The end of a major battle  and the beginning of a new one

Following Trump's tweets, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, recommended the FISA bill be temporarily withdrawn.

"In light of the significant concerns that have been raised by members of our caucus, and in light of the irresponsible and inherently contradictory messages coming out of the White House today, I would recommend that we withdraw consideration of the bill today, to give us more time to address the privacy questions that have been raised, as well as to get a clear statement from the administration about their position on the bill," Schiff said on the House floor.

"I do this reluctantly  Section 702, I think, is among the most important of all of our surveillance programs," Schiff continued. "Nonetheless, I think the issues that have been raised will need more time to be resolved."

Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi echoed Schiff's calls for withdrawing the bill.

Schiff also said Trump's comments about Obama-era surveillance were "blatantly untrue."

"But they nonetheless cast an additional cloud over the debate today," he said. "A better course would be for us to defer consideration."

Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Trump's initial tweet about FISA was "irresponsible, untrue, and frankly it endangers our national security."

"FISA is something the President should have known about long before he turned on Fox this morning," Warner tweeted.

James Comey, the former FBI director, weighed in on the FISA debate as well.

"Thoughtful leaders on both sides of the aisle know FISA section 702 is a vital and carefully overseen tool to protect this country," he tweeted Thursday. "This isn't about politics. Congress must reauthorize it."

The House has been gearing up for a FISA fight since late December, when it was due to be reauthorized. Congress extended it to January 19, but the new bill has pitted House committees against each other  people working on the Intelligence and Judiciary committees have told Business Insider they've been "stuck in FISA hell" for weeks.

Nunes enters the fray

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, inserted a last-minute "unmasking" provision that would change the intelligence community's process for identifying US citizens caught up in foreign surveillance.

The provision, which was ultimately scrapped, threatened to derail the committee's FISA bill, two sources told Business Insider. The Daily Beast first reported on Nunes' efforts.

Nunes was forced to step aside from the committee's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election after he told reporters he had seen classified documents that raised questions about whether the Obama administration had improperly unmasked members of the Trump campaign. He was recently cleared by the House Ethics Committee, but he has continued to investigate potential improprieties by the Justice Department and FBI.

Section 702 of FISA came under scrutiny as the intelligence community began looking into Russia's election interference and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to sway the race in his favor.

Over the past year, Trump and his backers have characterized reports that detailed communications between Trump campaign associates and Russians before the election as evidence of illegal wiretapping. Trump also accused former President Barack Obama of ordering the unlawful wiretapping of Trump Tower during the campaign.

Neither the White House nor the US intelligence community can legally surveil US persons without cause. But under Section 702, the identities of Americans whom foreigners are speaking with or about may be included  but "masked"  in intelligence reports summarizing the communications.

Such was the case with Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser whose communications with Sergey Kislyak, who until last summer was Russia's ambassador to the US, were incidentally collected as part of routine intelligence-gathering while the US monitored Kislyak.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December to one count of making false statements to investigators about his contacts with Russians.

CNN also reported last September that the FBI obtained a FISA warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2016 to surveil Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman. He was previously monitored under a separate FISA authorization that began in 2014, the report said, as part of an investigation into US lobbying firms' undisclosed work for the Ukrainian government.

To obtain a warrant to surveil Manafort, investigators would have had to demonstrate to the court that there was probable cause to believe he was acting as an unlawful foreign agent.
Students at the University of Pennsylvania woke up to devastating news on Wednesday: Blaze Bernstein, a 19-year-old sophomore who had been reported missing for a week, had been found dead in a park in California.

The report came after a days-long search mission around the Borrego Park area in Bernstein's hometown of Lake Forest, where he was visiting family over winter break. Police announced they were investigating the death as a homicide.

For the university, it's the latest tragedy in a stretch that has been filled with them. Bernstein is the ninth UPenn student to die since the start of 2017, and the second in just two weeks, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

William Steinberg, an 18-year-old freshman, was one of the 10 American tourists killed in a plane crash in Costa Rica, an incident that made international headlines on Dec. 31.

UPenn's campus has also been plagued by suicides in recent years, bringing the issue of mental health to the forefront of the campus conversation. Fourteen UPenn students or faculty members have died by suicide since February 2013, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, including the recent suicides of senior Nick Moya and Ricardo Teles, who had recently been named a chairman at UPenn's dentistry school.

"I realize these losses have the potential to affect many, many members of our Penn family," she said, according to ABC News.
Gyankroma who was appointed by the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture as a part of the three-member team council which also includes Mark Okraku Mantey as President and Bibi Bright as Secretary is reported to have not been seen at the office of the council for months.

She has not been seen at the office for quite a long time, especially after the council got its new office at the Accra Tourism Expo Center a reliable source confirmed to the website.

Gyankroma has been a no-show at meetings relating to the Creative Arts Council at the Ministry for quite some time.

A source admitted that Gyankroma desertion of the Council started when the 3-member team faced some issues in getting an office and resources for its operations after its inauguration.

She is operating from her own office and clearly, it has nothing to do with the Council, especially when she does not show up for meetings the source stated.
Harriet Nambi, according to yabaleftonline.ng, accused 25-year-old Musa Batera of denying her sex since she gave birth through Caesarian section about two months ago.

The deceased, was reportedly a polygamous man with three wives and was the chairman of Kaliro district Boda Boda Association.

A neighbour of the family, Hasifa Babirye is reported to have told police that Nambi, a primary school teacher at Kaliro Town, told me that her husband was denying her sex yet she needed it. I asked her to wait since she had just been operated upon but she was obsessed.

She added I tried to ask her to give it time but she said she was going to harm him and when the husband returned, she stabbed him.

The suspect reportedly invited her deceased husband into their rented room where a fierce argument ensued, leading to the unfortunate death.
In a document sighted by Accra-based Citi FM, Rwanda formally wrote to Ghanas Ministry of Agriculture to take steps to prevent an outbreak.

In view of recent measures being taken by some African countries to mitigate the spread of Listeriosis, your ministries may be alerted to these actions to inform the formulation of appropriate preventive measures, the document warned.

Listeriosis is a food poisoning infection that can be contracted by eating contaminated foods.

The disease can be transmitted through the consumption of plant and animal products such as meat, dairy products, as well as fruits and vegetables.

It can cause miscarriage among pregnant women, premature delivery, serious infection to newborns, and even lead to stillbirth.

Rwanda has already banned the said food products from South Africa. The country announced the ban on the 19th of December, 2017 to prevent a possible spread of the disease.

The Republic of Rwanda insists that the ban remains indefinite until South Africa brings it under control the disease outbreak in the country.

Rwanda is, therefore, urging other countries to do same until the disease is completely eliminated from the continent.
The Auditor General has decided to exercise its mandate in auditing all state institutions, as per Article 187(2) of the 1992 Constitution to audit all state institutions.

A three-member committee has been set up to carry out the audit within a period of two weeks.

A letter addressed to the Director of GBC said the IGF of the state broadcaster between January 1993 and December 2017 will be audited.

The Auditor General has requested for the audit of the Internally Generated Funds (IGF) of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). The period of the audit covers January 1993 to December 2017, a section of the letter reads.

It added that management of GBC must fully corporate with the three-member committee, with the probe set to begin on January 15.

Ghanaians have been at war with the state broadcaster following a move to have citizens pay TV license fees.

Many citizens have expressed their displeasure with the move, especially after the Chairman of GBCs Governing Board, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Adow Obeng, earlier stated that special courts will be set up to prosecute those who refuse to pay.
The suspect, who has been identified as Fatima Jibril, was arrested by some patrons of the spot near the Osu beach.

The Crime Officer of the Osu District Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Richard Daplah, told the Daily Graphic that the childs mother said that Fatima came to her drinking spot and bought a shot of Castle Bridge liquor.

The drinking spot operators daughter was also playing around Fatima while she was having the drink. Fatima started playing with the little girl after some time. She then began to leave the spot with the child.

But patrons of the spot who knew the girl began questioning Fatima, who started fumbling and right after escaped the scene.

But she was chased by the patrons of the spot and handed over to the police.
The Kumasi Academy (KUMACA) was hit by an outbreak of HINI influenza Type A, also known as swine flu, in December last year, with the disease claiming four lives.

However, the Health Ministry has now declared the pandemic over, following weeks of trying to find a solution to the problem.

Currently there are no more new cases and the last case was reported on the 19th December, 2017. Having gone over two maximum incubation periods without any new reported case linked to the outbreak, we consider it appropriate to, and subsequently wish to declare the outbreak over on technical grounds.

The H1N1 outbreak in Kumasi Academy was a localized one and has since been controlled and declared over, the statement said.

It further stated that the Health Ministry and the Ghana Health Service have put in place measures to ensure that there are no future occurrences.

We have instituted and strengthened systems to prevent, detect cases early and respond to any future occurrences to mitigate negative impact. Lessons learnt have been used to enhance school health and surveillance systems for H1N1, other Influenza-like illnesses and all priority diseases strengthened in the school and nationwide, the statement added.

Below is the full statement:

An outbreak of Influenza-A H1N1 was confirmed in a secondary school Kumasi Academy (Senior High School) in Ashanti Region in December, 2017. Simultaneously, sporadic cases of meningitis were recorded in three secondary schools; one school in each from the Eastern, Northern and Upper East Regions.

The Influenza-A H1N1 outbreak in Kumasi Academy started on the 29th November 2017 and as of 31st December 2017, a total of 95 cases (suspected, probable and confirmed) including four (4) deaths have been reported.

The response actions towards the outbreak included: improved case management including the use of antiviral agents (Relenza and Tamiflu), enhanced surveillance, public education and vaccination against H1N1 pdm09; with coverage of over 90 % of the students and staff (teaching and non-teaching) population.

Currently there are no more new cases and the last case was reported on the 19th December, 2017. Having gone over two maximum incubation periods without any new reported case linked to the outbreak, we consider it appropriate to, and subsequently wish to declare the outbreak over on technical grounds.

The H1N1 outbreak in Kumasi Academy was a localized one and has since been controlled and declared over. We have instituted and strengthened systems to prevent, detect cases early and respond to any future occurrences to mitigate negative impact. Lessons learnt have been used to enhance school health and surveillance systems for H1N1, other Influenza-like illnesses and all priority diseases strengthened in the school and nationwide.

We wish to indicate that, the vaccination exercise was conducted free of charge to the relevant school population and frontline health providers. The focal nature of the outbreak did not require nationwide vaccination campaign.

We recommend to the general population to observe general preventive measures which include cough and sneezing etiquette, personal hygiene, handwashing with soap and water and use of hand sanitizers.

Individuals that experience symptoms of Influenza-like illness are requested to report immediately to the nearest health facility for the necessary investigations and treatment.

Signs and symptoms of Influenza A (H1N1) include the following: Fever and chills, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, headache, runny nose, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, fatigue (tiredness) and shortness of breath.

H1N1 can be prevented as follows: Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.

Encourage hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette of both people who are well and those who have any symptoms of H1N1. Wash your hands with soap under running water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Do best to practice personal and environmental hygiene (Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces at home, work or school, especially when someone is ill).

Report quickly to the nearest health facility. Do not self-medicate. In another development, attention of the Ghana Health Services has been drawn to a publication in sections of the media (Print, Electronic and Social Media) claiming the Vaccination for Influenza-A H1N1

Meningitis is being offered for sale to students and parents in some public health facilities across the country. The Ministry of Health / Ghana Health Service has initiated investigations into the allegations and the initial observations indicate that, the H1N1 vaccination exercise was conducted mainly for and restricted to the targeted school population and selected frontline health workers and was done free of charge. We further wish to state that, no H1N1 vaccines nor Meningitis vaccines have been given to any public health facility to be given to any other students.

Although the said publications could not give specific facilities that were charging for these vaccinations, it was highly speculated. In view of this, our Regional and District Directors of Health Services have been directed to investigate any complain of sale of vaccines that comes to their desk whether from the media or from a parent.
Speaking on Accra-based Starr FM, Rev Asante said although their sexual preference is illegal they must not be discriminated against in any way.

Love homosexuals but hate homosexuality.

I believe they can be helped psychologically. We shouldnt look at them as enemies or beasts. They have rights and are human beings. Its illegal and we cant condone it but we can help them, Rev Asante added.

His comments follow a recent report launched by Human Rights Watch which stated that LGBTs are treated as second-class citizens due to what it termed colonial-era laws that criminalize same-sex activity.

Human Rights Watch, therefore, asked what protection there is for members of the LGBT community. They also called on the government to legalise homosexuality in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Two police officers killed in Drobonso

However, Rev Asante cautioned the government not to bow to pressure from the international world to relax rules against them.
The court presided over by Kwaku Ansah, said it took the decision to commit the suspects to the High Court for full trial to begin due to the ample evidence presented by the prosecution.

The accused persons have been charged with murder. The trial which is expected to begin February 15, 2018 will see the prosecution calling fifteen witnesses as well as present fifty three different pieces of evidence in prosecuting their case.

The accused have also given the indication to call some witnesses.

Major Maxwell Mahama of the 5 Battalion of Infantry at Burma Camp in Accra who was on detachment duties at Diaso in the Central Region was lynched to death by the youth of the town.

The officer was on operational duties at the Alaska C&G Mining Company at Amenase Forest, near Diaso in the Central Region.

He was said to be jogging when some residents accused him of being part of a robbery gang that stormed Denkyira-Obuasi the previous day.
This is part of the AMAs demolition it started from Monday to remove illegal structures sited at unauthorized places within the metropolis.

The squatters were not happy with the exercise because they said they were not given enough time to relocate.

READ ALSO: Two police officers killed in Drobonso

They said they were only given a three-day notice to vacate the premises.

One of the squatters told Accra-based Citi FM that; "my problem is that I am a Ghanaian; Ive been here for some time now. They came today that they are about destroying our structures. They only told us three days ago that they will come and destroy our structures today. They should have given us about a month notice or two. This place is my business centre, theyve destroyed all my properties. If it is illegal, they should have barricaded the place, now Im stranded and I dont have anywhere to go.

The government should give us a proper place to stay. We dont have any place to go, another one added.

READ ALSO: Peace Council urges Ghanaians to love homosexuals

The Chief Executive of AMA, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, with support from metro guards and Police officers have since Monday been to a number of areas to demolish illegal structures.

Places they have visited include Central Business District, Kwame Nkrumah interchange, Tip-toe lane among other areas within the metropolis.
According to him, 80% of Nana Addo's appointees have failed to deliver.

Speaking on Accra-based Starr FM, he said "There are lots of sycophants around the president and the danger about it is that, it moves resources in the wrong direction."

"There are about 80% of sycophants around the President and with time, they will burnout like charcoal Because it will come to a time when they will need people who can deliver."

"I have been observing government and what I see is that things are being put in place and hopefully if we are patient, they will bear fruit [but] no minister stands out for me because I do not monitor them.

"I monitor how things are done collectively."

Sammy Crabbe suspended

He was suspended by the National Executive Committee of the NPP after he failed to appear before a Disciplinary Committee of the party to answer misconduct charges leveled against him by two members of the party.

He challenged the decision and said it was an act of lawlessness by "coup makers" who had thrown the party's long-held credentials to the dogs.

He proceeded to the Accra High Court months after his suspension to seek to annul the decision.

The case had the suspended chairman of the NPP, Paul Afoko testifying as a witness for the plaintiff. The Suspended General Secretary of the Party, Kwabena Agyepong, was in court in solidarity with the suspended Chairman who testified.
According to him, Ghanaians will be better served if the person chosen is fair-minded and has a good conscience.

President Akufo-Addo will soon appoint Ghanas first-ever Special Prosecutor after recently assenting to the Special Prosecutors Act passed by Parliament.

The President pushed for the creation of the new office in a bid to take the fight against corruption to a whole new level.

The Special Prosecutor is expected to take on all government and public officials who are involved in corrupt practices.

Many have given their opinion on the kind of person they expect to occupy the office of the Special Prosecutor, however, Kufour insists competence must not be the only factor.

According to him, whoever is to be appointed must be have a professional human touch as well as good conscience when dealing with matters.

I believe that we should pray that we get a good person  when I say good, I mean the person should be good not only as a competent lawyer but also a person with conscience, the former president said.

When youve got a professional with human feeling, a professional with human touch, with conscience, holding that that office, I tell you, it will make it definitely what we all want, so that corruption will be tackled objectively, not with biases: Because hes my party person, or hes from my village or my cousin or anything, but they will go at their work based on the law and also with conscience.
Majority of Ghanaians have said that they will vote for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) if elections were held today, the survey conducted by the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana revealed.

Out of some 5000 respondents interviewed in 250 electoral areas across the country, a total of 52.7% of Ghanaians said they will vote for the Akufo-Addo led government, while 33.1 percent say their votes will go for the NDC.

But the NDC Deputy General Secretary Koku Anyidohu believes that the survey period is inadequate to enable the researchers to arrive at such a result.

I dont doubt their intellectual acumen [but] things have changed [because] parliament reconvened in the cash-for-seat and there is a CHRAJ report indicting Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, he said in an interview with The Pulse on JOYNEWS channel on MultiTV Wednesday.

According to him, the party is strengthening its structures to ensure a defeat for Nana Akufo-Addo in 2020.

The NDC Deputy General further indicated that pollsters should be prepared for a surprise as it occurred in US with Donald Trump.

"Donald Trump lost all the polls but he won," Mr Anyidohu said.

The 5000 respondents in the recent survey were sampled in all ten regions. The organisers of the survey which was conducted late last year selected 250 electoral areas with at least 18 constituencies believed to be NDC stronghold and 14 constituencies believed to be NPP stronghold.

The respondents expressed satisfaction with the policy implementation by the government so far.

Their decision was also based mainly on the Free SHS Programme of the NPP with close to 77.6 percent indicating their support for the policy. This is in spite of some infrastructural challenges the policy faced when it was introduced.

The respondents also mentioned the fight against galamsey, restoration of the teachers and nursing trainee allowances as some of the striking policies of the government for which reason they would retain the NPP.

The survey further stated that 64.5 percent of the respondents were in favour of the implementation of the Office of the Special Prosecutor even though they raised concerns about the individual who will occupy the position and the extent of his or her neutrality.

The head of the Political Science department of the University of Ghana, Dr Bossman Asare said of the 5000 respondents 56% of them voted for the NPP and 36% for the NDC in the 2016 elections.
#FIFA World Cup Ghana coach 'happy' to see old pupil Son Heung-min in Qatar When South Korea and Ghana square off in their second Group H match of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this month, it will also set up a reunion for a coach and a former player o...
This is according to the Member of Parliament for Mion, Mohammed Abdul-Aziz, who believes Prof. Ocquaye has shown over the years that he clearly dislikes Dr. Nkrumah.

In an opinion piece published in the Daily Graphic, the Speaker argued that Ghanas Republic Day should be moved from the 1 of July to the 7 of January.

He explained that it is erroneous to use a date in Ghanas First Republic to mark the countrys Republic Day, whiles we are actually in the Fourth Republic.

According to him, the Fourth Republic began on January 7, 1993, when Jerry John Rawlings was sworn in as president, and that should be marked as Ghanas Republic Day.

However, responding to the Speakers proposition for a change in date, Minority MP Mohammed Abdul-Aziz said such calls only depict anti-Nkrumaism.

According to him, such moves are fueled by a motive to obliterate the achievements of Nkrumah.

Very akin to the Speaker of Parliament,his anti-Nkrumaism is very clear and at the least opportunity he will want to espouse those traits in him," Mr, Abdul-Aziz said on the AM Show, on Joy News channel.

We [Ghana] do not celebrate the 4th Republican constitution on July 1 but what we celebrate is the status of Ghana as a sovereign state when we achieved full independence on July 1, 1960.

All attempts to obliterate the achievements of Nkrumah will not succeed and at all times we will look at him in the face and say as a country we wont accept this, he added.

It must be noted that this is not the first time that Prof. Ocquaye has made such a controversial suggestion.

A few years ago the Speaker bitterly rejected moves by the then NDC government to name Nkrumah as Ghanas founder, and to subsequently declare his birthday, 21 September, a public holiday.

In his view, it is not appropriate to acknowledge Dr. Nkrumah as Ghanas sole founder when a host of others also fought for the country to achieve independence.
The stock market may be grinding out new high after new high, but one trader is remaining steadfast on the view that turbulence is right around the corner.

Just six weeks after rolling over a massive wager that the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, would surge from its subdued levels by January, the volatility vigilante has essentially extended that bet into February. The so-called rollover carries the same maximum potential payout as before: an eye-popping $262.5 million.

Known to some as the "VIX Elephant," the mystery investor has stubbornly clung to this trade since initiating it on July 21 of last year. That's involved a pair of rollovers on September 25 and December 1, and now January 11.

The trader has lost just $45 million since first making the trade, according to data compiled by Pravit Chintawongvanich, the head of derivatives strategy at Macro Risk Advisors. That pales in comparison to the possible payout, which could go a long way towards explaining the person's dogged persistence, according to another person familiar with the trade.

Still, it remains a risky trade, considering the VIX's recent tendency to trade near all-time lows. The so-called fear gauge is down 12% in 2018 after falling 21% last year, and continue to pile into the short-volatility trade

To fund it, the investor sold 262,500 VIX puts expiring in February with a strike price of 12.

The trader then used those proceeds to buy a VIX 1x2 call spread, which involves buying 262,500 VIX February calls with a strike price of 15 and selling 525,000 VIX February calls with a strike price of 25.

There are a couple of potential explanations for the trade. The first is that the trader decided the prolonged low-volatility environment would end in the next couple of months. While it seems as though it could stretch on forever, even the longest stretches of subdued price swings have eventually given way to fluctuations.

It's also possible the investor is simply hedging a similarly large bullish position on the US stock market. After all, the VIX trades inversely to the benchmark S&P 500 roughly 80% of the time, so a spike in the fear gauge would almost certainly accompany some weakness in equities.

And while this mystery trader is making waves with large bets, the person is not alone in wagering on a VIX spike. The trader known as 50 Cent  recently revealed to be affiliated with Ruffer LLP, a $20 billion investment fund based in London  rose to prominence with repeated bite-size volatility bets.
Nvidia graphics processing units are not, in fact, affected by the Spectre flaw present in nearly all computer, tablet, and phone CPUs, the company said on Wednesday.

This clarifies a blog post the company released late Tuesday that seemed to suggest that Nvidia's GPUs were affected by the Spectre flaw. The original blog post sent shares of Nvidia sliding in early trading Wednesday, and the company has since updated its post.

Nvidia told Markets Insider it has updated the display driver technology for many of its GPUs to help mitigate any issues from Spectre, and the original blog post meant to announce the updates, not suggest the company's GPUs were affected by the flaw.

Nvidia's shares ended the day up 0.78% higher at $223.68.

The Spectre and Meltdown flaws were originally discovered by Google engineers, and have sent computer makers scrambling to patch their hardware to protect against potential hacks. The vulnerabilities could allow for bad actors to have access to privileged data on a computer, even without the appropriate permissions.

The hacks are most worrisome for companies running cloud computing servers, as customers often rent time on the same machines, meaning hackers could spy on other customers' data being stored by cloud providers like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Nvidia's graphics cards often are used alongside traditional CPUs in these servers to speed up certain programs.
The Minister of Power Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola explained to reporters after the meeting that this road construction was in support of agricultural growth in the country.

"This is a major agrarian connectivity in support of our agricultural policies. The council approved that memorandum, the award was to the existing contractor who is already working on the Benue section so that we should have a seamless deployment of machines and materials to the site. We expect that this should be completed in 24 months. The contract sum is N5.44 billion," Fashola said.

On the breakdown of the project, he explained that "My Ministry handled one memo today and it was for the Ugbokolo section of the 9th Mile/Oturkpo road that links Enugu State to Benue State. The Benue section is already under construction, so, what we have just done is to award the 36 kilometers that connect the Enugu section to the road. It is a 7.2 meter width road and total rehabilitation of what is currently being done there."

Hadi Sirika who is the Minister of Aviation also said independent power supply to Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport was approved during the meeting.

He said: "As you are aware, we had challenges on our first day of work in 2018. The new terminal building at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport, which is called Chinese building, has the challenge of power, water, sewage."

"We have to find a way of dealing with those challenges; we are putting up an independent power system at the airport which has been approved by FEC. Subsequently, we will also tend to the challenges of water, sewage, apron, connectivity between the old and new airport and all the fire stations that are blocking the usage of the airport and perhaps also the control tower that is connecting the other side of the airport."
The 37-year-old is part of Trump's closest circle of White House aides, and he is an integral part of the Trump family through his marriage to the president's daughter Ivanka.

Although his background in Democratic politics would suggest that he is an unlikely figure for such a position, just like Trump, Kushner comes from a wealthy and influential New York family that made its money in real estate.

Kushner has made a name for himself in real-estate development, but he has now found himself in the crosshairs of the Trump-Russia investigation.

Here's how Kushner inherited his family's business legacy and rose to the top of American politics in the Trump era:

Kushner was born on January 10, 1981, in Livingston, New Jersey, to Seryl and Charles Kushner. Kushner's father was the son of Joseph Kushner, a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Novogrudok, Belarus.

Sources: ,

Kushner's father Charles is a powerful real-estate developer and major Democratic donor who founded Kushner Companies, a New York real-estate firm, in 1985.

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That same year, Jared's younger brother Joshua was born. He now is a partner at Thrive Capital, a health care startup.

Source:

After finishing high school in New Jersey, Kushner attended Harvard University, graduating in 2003 with a degree in government. Although there were reports at the time that Kushner's father had offered Harvard an endowment to boost his son's chances, his family denied these claims.

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In 2005, Charles Kushner was sentenced to a year in prison for tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering. Jared, who had already been managing real estate in college, took over his father's duties at Kushner Companies while he was in jail.

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Future New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was then a US attorney, was the one who prosecuted Charles Kushner. His father's trial convinced Jared to abandon his dream of becoming a prosecutor himself, and he threw himself into the family business.

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Kushner purchased the New York Observer newspaper in 2006, and after getting a dual JD-MBA from New York University in 2007, Kushner became the CEO of Kushner Companies in 2008. He bought a property in 2007 that became the largest single building transaction in the US.

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In 2009, Kushner married Ivanka Trump, whom he had been dating for two years. The couple wed in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Ivanka converted to Kushner's faith, Orthodox Judaism.

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Kushner had a prominent role in Trump's 2016 presidential campaign by way of his marriage to Ivanka, running Trump's digital, online and social-media efforts with help from Silicon Valley's elite.

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In July 2016, Kushner, along with Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, infamously met Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower. Trump Jr. later said he was promised "dirt" on former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton before the meeting.

Source:

In late 2016, Kushner also reportedly told the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak, that he was interested in setting up a communications back channel between Trump and Russia. Kislyak said he was taken aback by the suggestion.

Source:

After a rocky transition, Kushner assumed his role in the White House on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017. During his first year, Kushner has headed up Middle East peace talks and has at times been the butt of insults from former chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Sources:

Kushner had to testify before the congressional probe and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation about his contacts with Russian nationals. In November, he reportedly gave Mueller information about former White House national-security adviser Michael Flynn.

Sources: ,

Kushner is most likely the "senior member of the Trump transition team" that Flynn said had ordered him to contact Russian officials in his guilty plea. This might make Kushner one of the Mueller investigation's next targets.

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But things have gotten even more complicated for Kushner in the new year  Mueller is now reportedly investigating his efforts to get foreign backing for his family business during the presidential transition.

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In addition, as the scandal around former White House staff secretary Rob Porter's alleged domestic abuse mounted, it was revealed that Kushner, like Porter, was working under a temporary security clearance.

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Kushner finally lost his "top secret" clearance in late February  meaning now the White House calligrapher even has a higher clearance than he does.

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That same day, several other disastrous news stories broke. Four different countries were apparently seeking to manipulate Kushner, his company reportedly received massive loans from firms he had met with in the White House, and his right-hand man was leaving his post.

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Assailed on all sides, Kushner's predicaments look like they are only getting worse.
Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska filed a lawsuit Wednesday against President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, alleging that Manafort and his associate, Rick Gates, "vanished" $18.9 million that Deripaska's company gave to them to invest in a failed Ukrainian TV venture, called the "Black Sea Cable," in 2008.

The complaint was filed in a New York state court and is not the first time Deripaska has sued Manafort. His representatives also made similar claims in legal complaints filed in the Cayman Islands in 2014 and Virginia in 2015.

Per the lawsuit, Deripaska's company, Surf Horizon Ltd., gave Manafort and Gates nearly $19 million to purchase Black Sea Cable. As the economy dipped into a recession in the late 2000s, Surf recommended that Manafort and Gates sell Black Sea Cable, which they agreed to.

However, the complaint said, Manafort and Gates "took no steps to find a buyer for Black Sea Cable." After Surf repeatedly asked about the status of the investment, Gates said in an email that "efforts to sell Black Sea Cable were still underway."

Later, Deripaska learned that Surf did not own Black Sea Cable through the joint venture with Manafort and Gates, and "Surf had no knowledge that Black Sea Cable had been sold or transferred to another party."

The lawsuit relied, in part, on allegations that were outlined in special counsel Robert Mueller's office's indictment against Manafort and Gates, which was unsealed in late October.

Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty to 12 counts including money laundering, tax fraud, failure to register as foreign agents, and conspiracy against the US.

The indictment, Deripaska's lawsuit said, "provides detail regarding movement of funds from bank accounts in Cyprus to accounts in the United States controlled by Manafort and Gates."

"The dealings of Manafort and Gates with Surf mirror the pattern of corporate dealings alleged in the indictment," it continued.

Deripaska's company is seeking over $25 million in damages.

Last October, The Atlantic published several emails that appeared to show Manafort using his elevated role in the Trump campaign to resolve the dispute with Deripaska.

Manafort reportedly wrote an email to his associate, Russian-Ukrainian operative Konstantin Kilimnik, offering to give Deripaska "private briefings" about the campaign.

"I assume you have shown our friends my media coverage, right?" Manafort reportedly wrote to Kilimnik, who has suspected ties to Russian intelligence.

"Absolutely," replied Kilimnik. "Every article."

"How do we use to get whole," Manafort responded. "Has OVD operation seen?"

Former intelligence officials told Business Insider last year that Manafort was likely trying to repay his debt to Deripaska. Investigators have concluded that "OVD" was a reference to his full name: Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska.

Kilimnik reportedly told Manafort in a later email that he had been "sending everything to Victor, who has been forwarding the coverage directly to OVD." Victor was a senior aide to Deripaska, according to The Atlantic.
On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced that the state of Florida would be exempt from the Trump administration's new plan to open up offshore drilling, and the reversal has already drawn blowback.

Zinke said that the decision to exempt Florida from the expansion of offshore drilling came after discussions with Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

"I support the governor's position that Florida is unique and that its coasts are are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver," Zinke said in a statement announcing the decision.

The change in course comes less than a week after the new plan to open 98% of US offshore waters to drilling was rolled out. Environmental groups and lawmakers from a slew of states have expressed concerns about the environmental and economic impact of the move.

Democratic lawmakers in states along the coast, most of whom came out against the plan, were predictably incensed by the exemption for Florida.

"SecretaryZinke

Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper also blasted the turnaround, retweeting a video from the Interior Department in which Zinke announced the move with Scott, adding: "Is this thing on? I'll try again: Not Off Our Coast - RC."

In addition to Democrats, many Republicans have also decried the change by the Trump administration and the Florida exemption.

Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, who endorsed Trump in his run for president back in January 2016, said that he did not support the offshore drilling decision.

"I am opposed to offshore drilling off South Carolina's shore, I'm opposed to seismic testing off South Carolina's shore," McMaster told reporters. "Our tourism industry and glorious natural resources are beyond compare in the United States, they are a source of enormous economic growth and prosperity and we cannot take a chance with those resources, those industries, and that economy."

McMaster also said he will be taking "appropriate steps" to address the issue with Trump.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland also came out against the plan and said he would attempt to block the drilling.

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GOP Rep. Mark Sanford, whose district include parts of coastal South Carolina including Charleston, also derided the Florida exemption in an interview with CNN.

"If we can exempt Florida, based on as Secretary Zinke put it 'an unusually high degree of tourism reliance,' well then the same certainly ought to exist for South Carolina," Sanford said.

When asked if the exemption for Florida was a political favor for Scott, Sanford said "it certainty looks, smells, and feels that way."

"You have Florida, which obviously has incredibly electoral college consequences in presidential contests, all of a sudden being exempted in a way that other states might not be that are a little smaller in population count," Sanford told CNN.

Republican governors in other coastal states including New Hampshire and Massachusetts have previously come out against the new drilling plan.

At the same time, a number of Republicans are on board with the plan and believe it could help boost the economic prospects of the coastal states.
During a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Wednesday, President Donald Trump was asked about Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller's remarks about a "big-ass fight" coming in the future.

Trump didn't appear to be aware of Neller's remark  which had been delivered during an address to Marines stationed in Norway and first reported by Hope Hodge Seck of Military.com  saying, "Well, maybe he knows something that I don't know, OK?"

The president then spoke at length about the military buildup he plans to pursue, though there has been little concrete action on it. Trump also expressed satisfaction with the state of talks between North and South Korea.

"I would say this ... we have a very, very powerful military. We're getting more powerful by the month, by the day," Trump said. He said the US was ordering much of the same equipment Norway was ordering, "but in larger amounts, to put it mildly."

"We are building up out military to a point that we've never been before. We're also ... we were very much weakened over the last long period of time, but not with me," Trump said.

"No, I don't expect [war]. I think we're going to have ... because of strength, peace through strength. I think we're going to have a long period of peace. I hope we do."

He then turned to the subject of North Korea, saying there were "a lot of good talks" going on and that South Korean President Moon Jae-in's representatives "had a great, great meeting, and I had some very good feedback from that. So hopefully a lot of good things are going to work out."

"No, I think that we will have peace through strength. Our military will be stronger than it ever was in a very short period of time, and that's my opinion," Trump said. "That's not the general's opinion, but I think my opinion counts more right now."

Norway has become an important operating area for the Marines

During his December trip to Norway, Neller told Marines, "I hope I'm wrong, but there's a war coming" and suggested the US military could soon shift its focus from the Middle East and toward the Pacific and Russia.

Norway has become an important operating area for US Marines, who have deployed two rotational forces to the country over the past year. Those forces have done exercises with Norwegian forces, but Marines have long stationed equipment in the country. Moscow has found the Marines' recent presence in Norway particularly irksome.

Russia and the Pacific are two areas highlighted by Trump's national security strategy and home to three parts of the Defense Department's "4+1" framework: Russia, North Korea, and China (along with Iran and global terrorism).

Norway, along with other countries in Europe, has grown increasingly concerned with assertive Russian behavior in the region.

Like others in Europe, Oslo has boosted its defense spending, in part by shifting funds from cost-savings programs to military acquisitions. Some in Norway have questioned the government about its defense strategy.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Tuesday completed a stunning downfall in the span of just over 16 months, going from perhaps President Donald Trump's most trusted adviser to unemployed with bleak future prospects.

Bannon's fate came at the hands of his comments in Michael Wolff's bombshell book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." Bannon was strongly critical of Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner, and daughter Ivanka.

Over the past week, he has been cast aside by the administration he used to serve, jettisoned by his billionaire backers, and removed from his executive post at Breitbart News. The White House refused to accept his attempt at an apology, and the president has taken to referring to Bannon as "Sloppy Steve."

Bannon is in exile after occupying one of the top perches in American politics just months earlier. Where he goes from here, nobody knows.

"I think Bannon is probably frantically trying to create some kind of plan that allows him to save a little face," Kurt Bardella, a former spokesperson for Breitbart, told Business Insider in an email. "By all accounts he was unprepared and blindsided by the avalanche that buried him."

Bardella said he suspects Bannon "will do all that he can to try and reenter Trump's good graces."

"Trump the narcissist, will love the specter of a humbled Bannon trying to win him back over," he said. "Trump will resist at first, maybe even toy with Steve. But if a crisis engulfs the White House, which can happen at any moment, it would no surprise me if Bannon finds his way into Trump's outside kitchen cabinet."

Since departing the White House in August, Bannon has given a series of interviews that were troubling to the administration. Foremost was one he provided to Vanity Fair which was published last month. In it, Bannon cast blame on Kushner for the ongoing Russia probe. The report also speculated that Bannon would possibly seek the presidency in 2020 because he thought Trump had just a 30% chance of making it through his first term.

Bannon was reportedly soon warned to lay off Kushner or face Trump's wrath following the Vanity Fair article. Even before, however, Trump became "increasingly estranged" with Bannon after an embarrassing loss for the Republican Party in the Alabama Senate race. Bannon provided his full support to Roy Moore, the Republican nominee who was accused of pursuing sexual relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s. Trump eventually provided Moore with his support as the election reached its final days.

The Alabama race cemented the animosity between Bannon and his insurgent brand of right-wing politics and more establishment figures in the party. They are hoping that Bannon's recent flameout is one he will not be able to recover from politically.

"Given the spectacular failure of his Trojan Horse strategy to take down the Republican Party from within, I'd suggest he take a permanent vacation from politics," Brian McGuire, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, told Business Insider in an email. "Everyone, but especially our Republican president, would be a lot better off if he did."

But already, rumors have begun to circulate about what Bannon is plotting as his next move.

Washington almost always gives people a second chance

Three sources told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that Bannon intends to soon launch a "dark money" nonprofit with a focus on US foreign policy involving China and the Gulf region, immigration, and trade. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that Bannon told associates he plans to create a political operation in 2018 while hoping Trump will need him again.

In November, billionaire businessman Mark Cuban said he communicated with Bannon occasionally, and reports emerged that they had discussed Cuban's possible 2020 bid for the presidency.

At the time, Cuban told Business Insider in an email that he and Bannon "haven't talked" since a meeting the pair had at the King Cole Bar in New York City's St. Regis Hotel two weeks after Trump's election victory last fall. Cuban did not mention what the pair discussed then.

"We trade short texts every now and then but that's it," Cuban said. "All that said, I don't have a problem meeting and talking to him. If we want to get past all of this divisive tribalism, it's going to take someone talking to both sides and trying to find some common ground."

Cuban did not return an email from Business Insider on Wednesday when asked whether he had spoken with Bannon over the past week. Reached over email, Bannon did not answer whether he had any discussions with Cuban over the same span or if his next venture could in any way be related to Cuban's possible presidential bid.

Regardless of what Bannon's next move is, it's a safe bet that he won't be disappearing.
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Walmart is closing 63 Sam's Club stores across the US, the company told Business Insider on Thursday afternoon, after reports of abrupt store closings began to emerge.

The closings will impact about 9,400 employees, a Walmart official said.

In some cases, employees were not told their store had closed before showing up to work on Thursday. Those employees learned their store would be closing when they found the store's doors locked and a notice announcing the closing, Sam's Club workers told Business Insider. At some stores, employees were turned away by police officers.

Ten of the affected stores will be turned into e-commerce distribution centers, and employees of those stores will have the opportunity to reapply for positions at those locations, a Walmart official said.

The remaining stores will stay open for several weeks before closing permanently. All of the affected stores were scrubbed from the Sam's Club website on Thursday morning.

Sam's Club CEO John Furner notified employees of the closures in a company-wide email sent Thursday.

"After a thorough review, it became clear we had built clubs in some locations that impacted other clubs, and where population had not grown as anticipated," Furner said in the email. "We will be closing some clubs, and we notified them today. We'll convert some of them into eCommerce fulfillment centers  to better serve the growing number of members shopping with us online and continue scaling the SamsClub.com business."

Sam's Club membership fees  which cost $45 annually  will be refunded to customers affected by the closings, a Walmart official said.
Dropbox, the cloud-computing storage company most recently valued at $10 billion, has confidentially filed the paperwork for an initial public offering expected in the first half of the year, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

It would mark the first high-profile tech listing on this year's IPO calendar, coming on the heels of Snap's disappointing offering last year.

Uber, the highest-valued private tech company, is not expected to go public until 2019.

San Francisco-based Dropbox has been expected to go public since news reports surfaced last year that it had retained the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Bloomberg said JPMorgan Chase had also been tapped to serve as a lead underwriter on widely anticipated IPO.

Dropbox says more than 500 million people use its online software service, which is designed to let consumers and businesses save documents in the cloud and access them from any device.

The company says on its website that Dropbox for Business, the premium product considered its most important business, has 200,000 customers.

Dropbox declined to comment.

Cash is oxygen

Dropbox's financial results are not publicly known, but the company said last January that it was on track to generate $1 billion in revenue at an annual run rate.

CEO Drew Houston said in June 2016 that Dropbox was "cash flow positive," a gauge of financial health that Wall Street considers important. But t

The company's latest reported valuation of $10 billion came during a venture-capital funding round in 2014.

If the company were to go public at that valuation with $1 billion in revenue, it would fetch a 10x revenue multiple. Box, Dropbox's closest competitor in the enterprise business, had an 8x multiple during its 2015 IPO.

Dropbox has been steadily building out its senior management team as it moves toward a market debut, bringing on experienced hands like the former Google executive Dennis Woodside as its chief operating officer and the former Twitter product boss Todd Jackson as its head of product.
Recent Netflix original series "The End of the F***ing World" is one such program.

Acclaimed by both critics and fans, the British dark comedy recently won an enthusiastic endorsement from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who called it the "most engaging addictive original" in a long time.

To figure out which other Netflix original series were beloved by both groups, we turned to the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes to see which Netflix original shows scored at least an 85% "Fresh" rating with critics and audiences.

Excluding docu-series, talk shows, and kids shows, we ranked these series by averaging their critic and audience scores on the site, and we used critic scores to break any ties.

Here are 19 Netflix original shows that both critics and audiences love:

19. "Castlevania"  87%

Critic score: 85%

Audience score: 89%

Average score: 87%

Netflix description: ""

18. "W/ Bob and David"  87%

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 86%

Average score: 87%

17. "Anne with an E"  88%

Critic score:%

Audience score:%

Average score: 88%

Netflix description: "

16. "Orange Is The New Black"  89%

15. "Daredevil"  90.5%

Critic score:%

Audience score:%

Average score: 90.5%

Netflix description: "

14. "Narcos"  91%

Average score: 91%

13. "GLOW"  91%

Average score: 91%

12. "BoJack Horseman"  91.5%

11. "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"  91.5%

Critic score: 97%

10. "The Crown"  92%

Average score: 92%

9. "Love"  92%

Average score: 92%

8. "Jessica Jones"  93.5%

Critic score:%

Audience score:%

Average score: 93.5%

Netflix description: "

7. "Stranger Things"  94%

6. "American Vandal"  94%

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 91%

Average score: 94%

5. "Mindhunter"  95%

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 94%

Average score: 95%

4. "Alias Grace"  95%

Critic score: 99%

Audience score: 91%

Average score: 95%

3. "Master of None"  95%

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 90%

Average score: 95%

2. "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return"  96%

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 92%

Average score: 96%

returnsscientists

1. "The End of the F***ing World"  97%

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 94%
More than 100 business leaders signed a letter to the US Congress on Wednesday insisting that lawmakers promptly pass a law to protect Dreamers.

The letter was signed by a who's who of tech leaders including IBM CEO Ginni Rometty  who has been fervently championing this cause; Apple CEO Tim Cook; Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos; and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

A few from outside of tech also signed the letter such as Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson, Target CEO Brian Cornell and Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky.

Dreamers are the people covered by an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that granted work visas to about 800,000 people brought to the US illegally as children and who were raised in the country. President Trump ended the program, wanting Congress to pass a law that provided for a permanent fix for them. He gave Congress a March deadline. After that, without a law, Dreamers could be subject to deportation.

An important deadline is nearing

Earlier this month, three former secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security warned Congress in an open letter that the law must really be passed by mid-January. This would allow enough time for implementation before the March deadline.

Trump held a public meeting with Congressional leaders on Tuesday to try and push them along but they appear to be as deadlocked as ever. Congressional Republicans don't want to fix DACA until there's a plan to build a border wall.

During that meeting, when Trump appeared willing to work on a DACA bill that didn't include a provision for the wall, some of his biggest supporters grew publicly irate at him.

Meanwhile, Democrats don't want the wall or the estimated multi-billion dollar taxpayer expense to build it, and their supporters would grow irate with them if they compromised and agreed to it.

All of this left these CEOs feeling the need to speak out and urge lawmakers to action. Many of these companies employ Dreamers.

Here's the full text of the letter (emphasis ours).

Dear Speaker Ryan, Leader McConnell, Leader Schumer, and Leader Pelosi:

We write to urge Congress to act immediately and pass a permanent bipartisan legislative solution to enable Dreamers who are currently living, working, and contributing to our communities to continue doing so. The imminent termination of the DACA program is creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country.

It is critical that Congress act to pass legislation before January 19th. This window of action leaves only 45 days for implementation prior to March 5th. As a bipartisan group of former DHS secretaries recently wrote, it will take time for the agency to implement any program outlined by Congress, underscoring the absolute urgency of the January 19th deadline. In addition to causing a tremendous upheaval in the lives of DACA employees, failure to act in time will lead to businesses losing valuable talent, cause disruptions in the workforce, and will result in significant costs.

Studies by economists across the ideological spectrum have also determined that if Congress fails to act our economy could lose $215 billion in GDP.

We have seen time and again that the overwhelming majority of the American public of all political backgrounds agrees that we should protect Dreamers from deportation.
She might feature alongside Hollywood hot shots, Don Cheadle, Chris Pratt, Scarlett Johansson and others. Her name appeared on the cast lineup of the movie provided by IMDb, a reputed online database known for listing latest film projects.

Pulse reached out to Akindele, for a confirmation of this unconfirmed story but the actress has yet to respond. Pulse also reached out to her publicist who hasn't responded also.

Lagos which is home to Funke Akindele was featured in a "Captain America: Civil War" fighting scene, where some Marvel superheroes were involved in a battle.

If the report concerning the actress' involvement is true, it will be the first time a Nigerian-born actor will appear in a Hollywood superhero movie.

ALSO READ: Funke Akindele releases new posters for TV series
James is being prosecuted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for drug trafficking.

After his plea, the Prosecutor, Mr Jeremiah Aernan, urged the court to remand in prison pending a review of the case.

Consequently, Justice Rabiu Shagari remanded the accused and adjourned the case until Feb. 5 for a review of facts and sentence.

The prosecution had alleged that the accused committed the offence on Oct. 21, 2017.

Aernan said the accused was arrested following a tip-off on Victoria Island, Lagos.

According to him, 300 grammes of Cannabis were recovered from the accused and was arrested and charged to court.
The force men and four other suspects were arrested last Monday on the Akure/Owo Expressway in Emure Ile, in the Owo Local Government Area of the state.

The identities of the soldiers, who were paraded at the headquarters of the command in Akure on Wednesday, were not revealed.

But the other suspects were identified as Jacob Amos, Moses Aleka, Iliasu Suleiman and Jaiyeoba Ojo.

Speaking on the arrest, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Gbenga Adeyanju, said the suspects arrested following a tip-off.

He said, "Upon the receipt of the information that some boys were backing the highways in order to rob or kidnap, the DPO, SP Sanni Lasisi, and four others, swung into action. Along the line, one Jacob Amos was arrested and brought to the station for interrogation. He confessed to the crime.

"He later took the police to where members of the gang reside in Shagari village, Akure. On getting to the place, five of the robbers were arrested, while three escaped."

ALSO READ: Police officer caught on camera demanding bribe from Okadaman [Video]
Be selfish with your time, travel, explore fall in and out of love, be wild, be twenty-something!

Take this memorable trips and don't regret a thing!

ALSO READ: 5 Nigeria travel destinations for millennials

1. Ibiza

Hit the dance floor at the worlds largest nightclub, Privilege, party at Space as the sun rises over the Terrace.

If you like silence then go sit at the legendary Cafe del Mar watching the sunset over the Mediterranean.

But remember Ibiza is the party capital of the world if you are not ready to party do not go!

2. Adrenaline rush through New Zealand

Skydive out of planes, bungee jump off bridges, go glacier hiking and then finish your day off by relaxing in the vineyards.

New Zealand is also known as the adventure capital.

3. Backpack through West Africa with only your passport

ALSO READ: How to travel the world without quitting your day job

Thanks to Ecowas and the Visa on arrival thing Africans can backpack across West Africa with just a passport.

If you're trying to do it serious budget style, try spending more time in Nigeria and Ghana.

4. Go for a carnival in Rio De Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro has long been regarded as the Carnival capital of the world. There are over two million people per day on the streets and the type of energy that the city of Rio emits is just simply electrifying.

5. Take an African safari

For your 25th or 30th birthday consider going on a safari. You will learn so much about wild animals and see them up close too.

6. Jamaica

Because everybody wants to visit the birthplace of Bob Marley.

The country oozes happiness and chillness, so there is really no way you will not return with a rejuvenated spirit and state of mind.

7. Oktoberfest

ALSO READ: 5 ways to make an adventurous travel bucket list

Nothing beats free beer with loud music, dancing, cheer and new friends.

The Oktoberfest is a sixteen-day festival held each year in Munich, Bavaria, Germany during late September with fourteen massive tents.

8. Backpack across South Africa

Camp under the stars, lose a few days of your life to trance parties, canyon down waterfalls, hit the clubs in Cape Town, and swim with great white sharks.

Africa is the adventure of a lifetime.

9. Attend the Holi festival in India

Holi festival is also known as the festival of colours or the festival of love. of India to celebrate the beginning of Spring. It involves covering everyone in coloured powder and water!

10. Yacht week in Croatia
This development follows a mutual agreement to part ways with our former partners, the Renaissance Hotel group.

The responsibility of the management of Avalon Intercontinental to continue to serve its esteemed clientele with best global standards was top of mind in choosing new partners.

We are delighted to announce that effective today the Hotel formerly known as Renaissance Hotel Ikeja is now to be known and addressed as Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos Ikeja, part of the Avalon Hotel Collection owners of Protea Hotel Ikeja, Protea Hotel Victoria Island and Avalon Hotel, Offa, Kwara State.

The hotel is centrally located in Ikeja, the capital of the Lagos State, home to many corporate headquarters, government offices and large manufacturers.

It is situated on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Highway, a main highway linking Ikeja with the rest of Lagos.

The location of Radisson Blu Hotel Lagos Ikeja is also just a few km away from Murtala Muhammed International Airport and close to the suburbs cultural and tourist attractions.

The 155 room Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos Ikeja offers a choice of contemporary standard, deluxe and executive rooms and a range of ultra-stylish 1,2 and 3 bedroom suites.

All rooms carry a fresh and modern design with free High-Speed Wireless Internet.

The hotel has an extensive food and drinks offering with six different outlets. Guests can enjoy dining at the hotels all-day dining restaurant serving international and local cuisine, a steak house restaurant ready to calm a carnivorous craving, as well as a destination rooftop terrace and stylish lobby cafe.

Guests can also bask in the views from the pool terrace while sipping on a refreshing drink at the adjoining bar or play a game of pool in the afropolitan business class lounge. The hotel is also fitted with a luxurious state of the art spa.

The hotel has impressive meeting and events facilities encompassing an area of 2,047m2 and including a ballroom, expansive conference room capable of hosting over 400 guests and six meeting rooms with an adjoining business centre.

All meetings rooms are equipped with modern meeting technology and break-out area. Leisure facilities include a wellness spa, fully-equipped gym and swimming pool for travellers seeking to rejuvenate or maintain their fitness regime.

Throwing more light on this new development, Director of Legal at Avalon Intercontinental, owners of the hotel, Olaitan Tajudeen Salaudeen stated that both existing and potential customers are assured of boundless experiences from this new offering.

Our partnership with Radisson Blu is bound to provide a new lease of life within the property; our focus has and always will be on providing excellent services and an overall memorable guest experience

She emphasized that Avalon Intercontinental is excited about the new partnership as both parties share the same intrinsic values.
Justice Minister Park Sang-Ki said Seoul was preparing a bill to shut down the country's virtual coin exchanges, sending bitcoin and other virtual unit prices into a tailspin.

"The ministry is preparing legislation that basically bans any transactions based on a virtual currency through the trading floor," he told journalists.

Authorities had "grave concerns" over the craze and were "aiming to close virtual currency exchanges" in the country, he said.

"It has started to resemble gambling and speculation," Park added, citing the fact that bitcoin prices are higher in South Korea than globally -- the so-called "kimchi premium".

The hyper-wired South has emerged as a hotbed for cryptocurrency trading, accounting for some 20 percent of global bitcoin transactions -- about 10 times the country's share of the world economy.

A series of measures have failed to curb overheated virtual currency speculation in the country and Park said it would be "devastating if the bubble bursts".

His remarks sent bitcoin prices plunging 18 percent on South Korean exchange Bithumb, while ethereum slumped 23 percent.

Investors flooded the presidential Blue House website with hundreds of online petitions against the shutdown, which was swiftly reversed.

A shutdown was "one of the measures that have been prepared by the justice ministry", chief press secretary Yoon Young-Chan said in a statement, "but it is not a finalised decision".

Cryptocurrencies rapidly reversed course, with bitcoin climbing back to trade just 6.5 percent down, and ethereum off 12 percent.

'Blind speculation'

A representative of Bithumb, one of around 20 virtual currency exchanges in South Korea, said the company was watching developments closely.

"We're closely monitoring government moves. We have nothing further to say at this moment", she told AFP.

Bithumb was raided by tax authorities on Wednesday who inspected the company's documents.

On the same day financial authorities inspected six local banks that offered virtual accounts for corporate customers.

Last month Seoul banned its financial firms from dealing in virtual currencies.

Two weeks later, it announced a ban on opening anonymous cryptocurrency accounts and a crackdown on money laundering activities using them.

It has also warned most cryptocurrencies were being traded in South Korea at far higher prices than elsewhere in the world, blaming factors including "blind speculation".

An official at the Financial Supervisory Service, South Korea's top financial regulator, said closing local exchanges would represent a "very strong measure" against virtual coins and would "effectively suffocate" cryptocurrency transactions within the country.

But a cryptocurrency analyst said he was "sceptical" that the justice ministry' proposal would go into force because of strong market resistance.

A Chinese ban on virtual coin transactions in yuan ended up driving many investors underground, exposing them to greater risks, he said.

US billionaire investor Warren Buffet told CNBC on Wednesday the global craze over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies would meet a "bad ending".

"In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending," he said, but added: "When it happens or how or anything else, I don't know."
In an essay titled: impunity rides again through killer herdsmen, Soyinka called out the Muhammadu Buhariadministration for not doing enough to tackle the killer pastoralists.

Here are 7 take-aways from Soyinkas piece:

1. Nigeria is repeating the Boko Haram mistake with herdsmen

According to Soyinka, the Boko Haram insurgents were first seen as a harmless bunch of rag-tag persons fed up with the system.

"Boko Haram was a product of social inequities, they preached  one even chortled: We stand for justice, so we are all Boko Haram! We warned that  yes indeed  the inequities of society were indeed part of the story, but why do you close your eyes against other, and more critical malfunctions of the human mind, such as theocratic lunacy? Now it is happening again. The nation is being smothered in Vaseline when the diagnosis is so clearly  cancer! Soyinka wrote.

The Nobel Laureate called on the government to go hard on the killer herdsmen.

2. Like Buhari, like Jonathan

Here is how Soyinka puts it:

We have been here before  now, before is back with a vengeance. President Goodluck Jonathan refused to accept that marauders had carried off the nations daughters; President Muhammed Buhari and his government  including his Inspector-General of Police - in near identical denial, appear to believe those killer herdsmen who strike again and again at will from one corner of the nation to the other, are merely hot-tempered citizens whose scraps occasionally degenerate into communal clashes  I believe I have summarized him accurately.

The marauders are naughty children who can be admonished, paternalistically, into good neighbourly conduct. Sometimes of course, the killers were also said to be non-Nigerians after all. The contradictions are mind-boggling.

3. Soyinka tackles El-Rufai

There were stern words in his piece for Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai.

Soyinka thinks that like Buhari, El-Rufai has been making excuses for the herdsmen; most of whom have been identified as kinsmen of both leaders.

Read below and see for yourself:

"First the active policy of appeasement, then the language of endorsement. El Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, proudly announced that, on assuming office, he had raised a peace committee and successfully traced the herdsmen to locations outside Nigerian borders.

"He then made payments to them from state coffers to cure them of their homicidal urge which, according to these herdsmen, were reprisals for some ancient history and the loss of cattle through rustling. The public was up in arms against this astonishing revelation.

El Rufais comment then was: No life is more important than another. Today, that statement needs to be adjusted, to read perhaps  apologies to George Orwell: All lives are equal, but a cows is more equal than others.

4. Soyinka wonders why IPOB has been branded a terrorist outfit and the Miyetti Allah hasnt

Miyetti Allah is the umbrella organization to which all cattle herders belong.

Soyinka thinks the groupshould be proscribedlike the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB).

This question is now current, and justified: just when is terror? I am not aware that IPOB came anywhere close to this homicidal propensity and will to dominance before it was declared a terrorist organization. The international community rightly refused to go along with such an absurdity.

For the avoidance of doubt, let me state right here, and yet again, that IPOB leadership is its own worst enemy. It repels public empathy, indeed, I suspect that it deliberately cultivates an obnoxious image, especially among its internet mouthers who make rational discourse impossible.

However, as we pointed out at the time, the conduct of that movement, even at its most extreme, could by no means be reckoned as terrorism. By contrast, how do we categorize Miyetti? How do we assess a mental state that cannot distinguish between a stolen cow  which is always recoverable  and human life, which is not.

ALSO READ:

5 Soyinka rips into Agriculture minister Audu Ogbeh

Ogbeh came in for criticism for saying that the herdsmen crisis boils down to Nigerias inability to develop livestock farming.

After calling Ogbeh his good friend, Soyinka writes:

No, no, not so, Audu! It is true that I called upon the government a week ago to stop passing the buck over the petroleum situation. I assure you however that I never intended that a reverse policy should lead to exonerating  or appearing to exonerate  mass killers, rapists and economic saboteurs  saboteurs, since their conduct subverts the efforts of others to economically secure their own existence, drives other producers off their land in fear and terror.

6. Soyinka says the herdsmen issue should be dealt with decisively

Here are his words:

The warnings pile up, the distress signals have turned into a prolonged howl of despair and rage. The answer is not to be found in pietistic appeals to victims to avoid hate language and divisive attributions. The sustained, killing monologue of the herdsmen is what is at issue. It must be curbed, decisively and without further evasiveness.

"A peace meeting was called, attended by the state government and security agencies of the nation, including the Inspector General of Police. This group attended  according to reports - with AK47s and other weapons of mass intimidation visible under their garments. They were neither disarmed nor turned back. They freely admitted the killings but justified them by claims that they had lost their cattle to the host community".

7. Buhari is seeing the same ghosts Jonathan saw

According to Soyinka;Yes, Jonathan only saw ghosts when Boko Haram was already excising swathes of territory from the nation space and abducting school pupils. The ghosts of Jonathan seem poised to haunt the tenure of Mohammed Buhari.

Oh dear!
There have been widespread insinuations that Buhari has been soft on the killer herdsmen because most of them are his kinsmen.

Buhari is of the Fulani stock and boasts a cattle farm of his own.

This is what Femi Adesina said in response to those allegations:

Something that is disturbing that I have heard about, is linking those developments to the fact that a Fulani man is president and so, he is brooking such kind of evil acts.

I think that is very unkind. And I will try to back my position with statistics.

In 2013, particularly, there were nine cases of herdsmen invading communities in Benue state alone and more than 190 people were killed.

In 2014, there were about 16 of such tragic developments with more than 231 people killed. And then there was a change of government in May 2015. But between January and May 2015, there were six attacks which left about 335 people dead.

ALSO READ: 7 ways Nobel Laureate bashed Buhari over Fulani herdsmen

Now, the question is, during that period, did we have a Fulani president?

This is showing us that the issue of herdsmen attacking settlements, attacking farmers, attacking communities is pure criminality and it is something that government must deal with.

It is the duty of government to preserve the lives of the citizenry. It is the responsibility of government to maintain law and order and that this government is determined to do.

Therefore, let nobody say that all this is happening because we have a Fulani president.

We have had many Fulani presidents in the past and this issue of herders and local communities at loggerheads has predated this government.

But I will just like to appeal to Nigerians that the Muhammadu Buhari government is determined to crack this issue, is determined to get to the bottom of it and it will get done.

Our take:

Theres nothing fundamentally wrong with what Adesina said.

He is paid to defend his boss and thats exactly what he was doing in this instance.

The spokesperson also promised that the Buhari administration will deal with the crisis and halt the mass murder of innocent Nigeriansby rampaging pastoralists.

However, presidential spokespersons have to be a lot more proactive in their dealings. It is also not the right time for a presidential spokesperson to be harking back to a previous regime while striving to make a point.

The school of thought that suggests that Buhari is sympathetic to the cause of the herdsmenhas been there before pastoralists killed over 50 persons in the Agatu village of Benue State in 2016.

There have been several herdsmen killings since the Agatu massacre, with critics wondering why the attackers havent been prosecuted in consonance with the nations laws.

A decent presidency communication outfit would have responded to the allegations a lot earlier and not wait for the rumours to assume lives of their own before taking to Facebook.

Its the timing of Adesinas response and not the content therein, that should be questioned.
According to Bolori, Aminu snatched 7-year-old Aamir from her on the court premises and took him away after the Chief Magistrate, Kikelomo Ayeye, granted her full custody.

Bolori's counsel, Nwabuzor-Ethel Okoh, backed up her claim saying that Aminu had refused to hand over the boy after locking him in the car.

Okoh said, "The boy is not with us. He snatched the boy from the mother and spirited him away today (yesterday), even after the final ruling on custody earlier made by the court. We are now trying to get across to him and the boy.

"He snatched the boy from his mother and drove off. We never suspected anything like this was going to happen, otherwise I would have told the boys mom to drive away with her kids."

Bolori was granted full custody after Aminu failed to file a response to her application.

During Wednesday's ruling, Chief Magistrate Ayeye ordered Aminu to pay Bolori N250,000 monthly for the upkeep of the children.

The ruling read, "The respondent failed to file a response. In view of the deliberate absence of the respondent and his legal team, I am constrained to make these following orders in default of respondent's presence.

"In the best interest of the children to wit: Unmi Fatima Bolori is hereby granted full custody of Aamir Abubakar Sadiq Aminu Atiku (seven years) and Ameera Amina Atiku (nine years).

"The applicant is allowed to reside with the children at her residence at Katampe Extension, Abuja. The applicant is ordered to put the children in schools suited for their educational needs in Abuja.

"Access is granted to the respondent to visit his children in Abuja and request for the children to spend holidays with him. The respondent is ordered to pay monthly upkeep for the children in the amount of N250,000 monthly beginning January 2018.

"The respondent is ordered to effect medical insurance on each of the children."

Aminu and his legal team were not present in the courtroom for the ruling on Wednesday but arrived around 1pm and was seen laughing and playing with Aamir and his daughter, Ameera before the alleged abduction happened at 1:59 pm.

Aminu and Bolori got married in 2007, but separated in 2011.

History of court contempt
The governor disclosed this in Port Harcourt while presenting the 2018 Appropriation Bill to the legislature.

The governor announced that the state witnessed a 31 per cent shortfall in its targeted revenue for 2017.

Wike said that aggregate revenue receipts as at December 31, 2017 stood at N278.2 billion, representing only 69 per cent of total projected revenue.

This left us with a shortfall of over N192 billion in spite of the sharp shortfalls in revenue receipts.

We resisted the temptations of funding the budget through borrowing.

This is because it will make no economic sense to spend more than what we earned and plunge the state into unnecessary debts, he said.

ALSO READ: Governor Wike presents N470bn 2017 Golden Jubilee Budget

According to him, N155 billion, representing 63 per cent of actual receipts, has been spent on capital projects.

Wike said his administration had been able to efficiently utilise available resources to successfully deliver on verifiable projects.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, disclosed these in a video he posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday, January 10, 2018.

He described the opinions as "very unkind", adding that the President would never condone such heinous attacks on fellow human beings just because he is a Fulani man.

Adesina said, "Something that is disturbing that I have heard about it is linking those developments to the fact that a Fulani man is President and so, he is brooking such kind of evil acts.

"I think that is very unkind. And I will try to back my position with statistics.

"In 2013, particularly, there were nine cases of herdsmen invading communities in Benue state alone and more than 190 people were killed.

"In 2014, there were about 16 of such tragic developments with more than 231 people killed. And then there was a change of government in May 2015.

"But between January and May 2015, there were six attacks which left about 335 people dead.

"Now, the question is, during that period, did we have a Fulani president?"

The President's spokesman noted that the herdsmen attacking settlements is something that government must deal with.

He added, "It is the duty of government to preserve the lives of the citizenry. It is the responsibility of government to maintain law and order and that this government is determined to do.

"Therefore, let nobody say that all this is happening because we have a Fulani president.

"We have had many Fulani presidents in the past and this issue of herders and local communities at loggerheads has predated this government.

"But I will just like to appeal to Nigerians that the Muhammadu Buhari government is determined to crack this issue, is determined to get to the bottom of it and it will get done".
THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

'El-Zakzaky suffers stroke as health deteriorates'

The Leader of the Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, has suffered a stroke amid concern his health is taking a turn for the worse.

Buhari appoints Ahmed Abubakar as new DG for NIA

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Ahmed Rufai Abubakar as the Director General for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

Fayose holds security summit with hunters over killer herdsmen

Ekiti Governor Ayodele Fayose yesterday held an emergency security summit with hunters from the 16 local government areas of the state.

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VANGUARD NEWSPAPER

Benue killings: IGP, Idris apologises to Benue people over comments

The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris, Wednesday apologized to the people of Benue state over the comment he made, shortly after briefing President Muhamnadu Buhari on the Benue killings, that the killings in Benue state was as a fallout of a communal crisis.

Herdsmenve declared war on Nigeria  Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, said yesterday that herdsmen have declared war on Nigeria and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stop their activities without further evasiveness.

Zakzaky may die in detention  Shiites

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, yesterday, raised the alarm that their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El Zakzaky, who had been in detention for over two years, may die in government custody, following a deterioration of his health.

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THE PUNCH NEWSPAPER

Killings by herdsmen: Soyinka lambasts FG, death toll in Taraba rises

Renowned playwright, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says the Federal Government is responsible for the wanton killings perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen in the country.

Herdsmen killed over 756 in two years under Jonathan  Presidency

The Presidency on Wednesday said over 756 people were killed by herdsmen in two years under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Newly married man defiles six-year-old in Lagos

A newly married man, Francis Azukwo, is in trouble after he was arrested by the police in Lagos for allegedly defiling a six-year-old girl, Ngozi, in the Ikotun area of the state.

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THISDAY NEWSPAPER

Crude Oil Price Hits Three-Year High of $69

Crude oil prices hit new multi-year highs yesterday as production cuts led by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and healthy demand helped to balance the market, but analysts warned of possible overheating.

Herdsmen Have Declared War Against Nigeria, Soyinka Cries Out

Alarmed by the mounting death toll arising from the gruesome attacks allegedly perpetuated by armed herdsmen on communities in Benue and Taraba States, among other neighbouring states, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka yesterday cried out that the herdsmen have declared war against the nation, citing their serial attacks on innocent citizens.

Presidential Aide, Abubakar, Appointed NIA Chief

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Ahmed Rufai Abubakar as the new Director General for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

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BUSINESSDAY NEWSPAPER

DisCos record N196.23bn losses as operating costs soar

An examination of the financial statements of some of Nigerias electricity distribution companies (DisCos) indicate that they are veering dangerously close to full blown bankruptcy with reported losses of over N196.23 billion to end the 2016 financial year.

Nigeria economic outlook brightens as oil prices hit $69

Nigerias economy outlook brightened further this week as oil prices hit $69.

Private commodity exchanges seen boosting Nigeria agriculture
In a statement by his spokesman, Yusuph Olaniyonu, on Wednesday, January 10, 2018, Saraki mandated the Senate Adhoc Committee on Security to immediately resume sitting and work through the weekend to ensure that they have an interim report ready for the consideration of members upon resumption of plenary on Tuesday.

Saraki re-emphasized his belief that the killings are clear indications that the security architecture in the country has inherent faults and needs to be refurbished.

"I believe the sad situation in Benue state shows some fundamental faults in our security system. There is clear failure of intelligence gathering, analysis and response time. Our security agencies must be totally overhauled in terms of equipment, specialization, funding, training and staffing," Saraki said.

"This is the reason why in November, the Senate set up a special committee led by Senate Majority Leader, Ahmed Lawan to work with security agencies and review the entire system with a view to identifying what is required in terms of laws, process, procedure, funding and other necessities for us to have a solid security system which can be pro-active in identifying potential threats, responding to them on time and preventing any breach.

"We are quite aware of the fact that security is the first and prime responsibility of any government. That is why since early last week I have directed the Lawan committee to take into consideration the sad developments in Benue and Rivers in their deliberations. Now, we cannot wait for the time they planned to conclude their recommendations. They must fast track their schedule .

"They must sit through the weekend and get an interim report ready for the Senate when we resume plenary on Tuesday. We must immediately support the executive in solving this problem. We cannot afford shedding of blood and we are already moving into the election year with the potential for the aggravation or escalation of these problems. We must decisively resolve the problem of needless blood letting", Saraki noted.

Similarly, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state has blamed the killings in Benue state on thefailure of security agencies in the country.
According to Guardian, the detained Shiite leader can no longer stand for prayers, and is on the verge of losing his eyesight.

El-Zakzaky, 68, was arrested and detained in December 2015, following a violent clash in Zaria, Kaduna State, between members of his group and the Nigerian military.

The movement has accused the President Muhammadu Buhari administration of illegally holding its leaders and denying him of access to medical treatment.

"The health situation of the Sheikh has nosedived. He has suffered what turned out to be a stroke. But the authorities illegally detaining him have kept a blind eye to his dire situation," the IMN disclosed this at a press conference on Wednesday, January 10, 2018.

The spokesman for the group, Professor Abdullahi Danladi, also said El-Zakzaky has been hypertensive for over 10 years while accusing the Federal Government of insensitivity and negligence.

He said, "It emerged that his health condition suffered severe knocks in the past week, such that he was critically ill and in urgent need of the best medical attention possible. But the Buhari administration is negligent about it. He suffered slurred speech, weakness of the right side of the upper limb and general weakness of both lower limbs. Consequently, he has been unable to walk or even stand for the past week. The Sheikh is also known to have been hypertensive for more than 10 years."

On Wednesday, the police in Abuja reportedly arrested 52 members of the groupwho were protesting against the leader's detention.

They were said to have begun the demonstration from Garki Area 10 and headed towards Area 1 but stopped by armed security operatives at Moshood Abiola Road.

Reports said the police officers fired tear gas canisters, while some youths responded with stones.

ALSO READ: Court orders DSS to release El-Zakzaky, pay him N50M compensation

According to the FCT command spokesman, Anjuguri Manzah, petrol bombs and catapults were recovered from the protesters.

He said they used it "to attack police operatives and damage police operational vehicles."
The presidency announced this on twitter on Wednesday, January 10, 2018.

The attacks started in the wake of a new year as herdsmen slaughtered scores in Benue villages while follow-up attacks in the state and other states claimed more lives.

This sparked a public outcry with many calling on the Federal Government to take a decisive position in combating the crisis.

In reaction to the killings, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka said the herdsmen have declared war on Nigeria.

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to treat the crisis the same way former President Goodluck Jonathan did with the Boko Haram insurgency.

The president had ordered the Inspector-General of police, Ibrahim Idris to relocate to Benue, being the most affected state in the fresh crisis.

Idris had said there would be no need for military intervention in Benue, noting that it would be welcomed only when the police is overwhelmed.

ALSO READ: Buhari promises to bring killer herdsmen to justice

But in what looks like a clear message that Buhari is not shielding the Fulani herdsmen, the President ordered the military to move in.
"We're prepared for that possibility."

In the meantime, the official said, the government is moving ahead with plans to host US and Mexican trade negotiators in Montreal January 23-28.

The US, Canada and Mexico previously gave themselves a March deadline to finish talks.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland was in Washington to meet with senior US lawmakers and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Tuesday. Her office was not immediately available for comment.

Reports of NAFTA's possible demise, meanwhile, sent the Canadian and Mexican currencies tumbling, and the US dollar rising from Can$1.2432 at 1200 GMT to Can$1.2554 at around 2030 GMT.

In keeping with his campaign promise, Trump forced Canada and Mexico to sit down and renegotiate the 1994 trade pact, and said if a deal could not be reached he would withdraw the United States from NAFTA.

Since coming to office, the Trump administration has taken an increasingly protectionist stance in dealings with Canada and Mexico, for example, applying anti-dumping duties on imports of Canadian aircraft, softwood lumber and most recently newsprint.

Canada in response has filed a complaint to the WTO accusing Washington of breaching dozens of international trade rules.

The Canadian complaint pointed to a slew of US "measures relating to anti-dumping or countervailing duty investigations, reviews or other proceedings, which are inconsistent with its WTO obligations."
During a phone call with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-In, Trump expressed his openness to holding talks with Pyongyang "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances."

"The two leaders underscored the importance of continuing the maximum pressure campaign against North Korea," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders added in a statement that confirmed a South Korea account of the phone call.

Moon briefed Trump on his government's talks with a delegation from the North on Tuesday, which resulted in Pyongyang agreeing to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month, both sides said.

Trump also told Moon that Vice President Mike Pence would lead the US delegation to the Olympic Games, the White House said.

Pence "is attending to reinforce the strong US presence on the Korean peninsula and send a clear signal to the North Korean regime," a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On the trip, the US vice president will also "review ICBM defense systems" in Alaska, and visit allies in Japan, the official said.

North and South Korea held their first official dialogue in more than two years on Tuesday.

In a modest diplomatic breakthrough, Pyongyang -- which boycotted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul -- plans to send a large delegation to the February 9-25 Games.

North Korea and the Trump administration are in a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Speaking in Bulgarian at a presidency launch ceremony in Sofia, European Council President Tusk compared the history of the region to the fantasy swords-and-sex television drama Game of Thrones.

"The history of the Balkans is more dramatic and interesting than the screenplay of 'Game of Thrones', even if there are no dragons in it. We would all like it if the present and future of the Balkans were less like dramatic screenplays," Tusk said.

"Stability, security, prosperity -- this is what the people of the whole region deserve. And the EU's purpose is to help make this screenplay a reality," Tusk added.

Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia and Croatia have been the only countries from the region to have achieved EU accession to date.

Sofia hopes to use its EU presidency to reignite accession talks with Montenegro and Serbia, while helping Albania and Macedonia move closer to starting EU membership negotiations.

It will also host the first EU-Balkans summit in 15 years in May.

But the region, which also includes Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia, has increasingly become bogged down in local disputes and problems with graft and organised crime.

Russia meanwhile has stepped up efforts to reverse a series of setbacks in the region, including Montenegro joining NATO and Macedonia's government moving from a previous pro-Russian stance.
The 60-year-old kingpin, accused of running one of the world's biggest drug empires and who twice escaped prison in Mexico, was originally expected to go on trial in April.

But on Wednesday, federal judge Brian Cogan ordered lawyers to clear their calendars for a September trial, saying summer vacation schedules could reduce the jury pool for an August date.

On Monday, Cogan had delayed the latest pre-trial hearing from January 19 to February 15, after Guzman's lawyer demanded more time to review several hundred thousand pages of documents in the case.

Guzman has been held in solitary confinement in New York since being extradited to the United States a year ago.
The prosecution had previously rejected his request for release, but substitute judge Sergio Torres granted his release "on humanitarian grounds," the agency said.

The move comes after Timerman was prevented from boarding a flight to the United States late Tuesday after his visa was rejected.

Timerman -- a member of ex-president Cristina Kirchner's government from 2010-2015 -- was placed under house arrest in December accused of covering up Iranian involvement in a deadly 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center.

The 64-year-old former minister had obtained a permit from Argentina's justice ministry to travel to New York for treatment for cancer, which has confined him to a wheelchair.

But according to Argentine press reports, when his visa was checked at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza airport late Tuesday he was prevented from boarding the flight.

Kirchner's parliamentary group reacted angrily to the incident. "Timerman cannot enter the United States because his visa was revoked because of the preventive detention," the head of the bloc, Agustin Rossi wrote on Twitter.

He said Claudio Bonadio, the judge prosecuting Timerman, Kirchner and others for the alleged cover-up, was responsible.

Timerman was sentenced to house arrest rather than jail because of his health.

Kirchner herself enjoys parliamentary immunity from preventive detention through her senate seat.

"I have asked to be judged as quickly as possible. Preventing me from getting timely medical attention is like condemning me to death," Timerman wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times on December 20, in which he described himself as a "political prisoner."

"Argentina's Constitution does not permit the death penalty. But with a judge like this, that is little guarantee."

Bonadio believes Timerman, Kirchner and others covered up alleged Iranian involvement in the bombing by pushing for the signing of a pact with Iran, under which suspects could be questioned in Iran and not brought to Argentina.

The plan was formally approved by both houses of the Argentine Congress, but never ratified by Iran.

Nobody has been tried for the bombing, which killed 85 people.
Floodwater overwhelmed the south-facing slopes above the town of 9,000, northwest of Los Angeles, bursting the banks of a creek and sending massive rocks rolling into homes, according to emergency services.

"The sheriff's office can confirm 15 fatalities but is not able to provide additional details at this time," a spokesman for the county department said on its Twitter feed.

At least 25 other people were injured, authorities said, while first responders were able to airlift around 50 residents and rescue dozens more from the ground.

"Currently we are working to identify people who might still be trapped and isolated in areas that we have not been able to gain complete access to," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told CBS's "This Morning."

"We worked through the night and I'm happy to say we managed to get to some folk trapped in homes but otherwise safe."

He said that there was no way of telling how many people were still trapped, adding that some people had ignored evacuation orders.

Intensity

"I think most people are shocked at the extent of the damage and how big the impact was to the area. Although we knew this was coming, you couldn't help but be amazed at the intensity of the storm and the result of the mudslide and the water that cascaded down the hills."

The Santa Barbara County Fire Department said on its Twitter feed Tuesday it was using dogs to look for victims where multiple homes once stood in Montecito following the heavy rain.

The department posted pictures of rivers of mud flowing through neighborhoods, with homes collapsed, cars smashed up and turned onto their roofs and roads rendered impassible by fallen trees.

Roads were clogged throughout the region with mudflows shutting down more than 30 miles (50 kilometers) of the 101 Freeway on Tuesday and knocking a number of homes from their foundations.

The highest rainfall total was recorded at five inches (13 centimeters) in Ventura County, according to the National Weather Service Los Angeles.

Much of the affected area is land scorched by the massive Thomas fire several weeks ago, the second-largest wildfire in California's history, where there is no vegetation to soak up the excess water.

A evacuation order was issued in a section of the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, which was hit by a mudslide that pulled cars out of driveways and carried them downstream.

Power cuts

The slide also caused a "significant" gas leak, and repair efforts left homes on the street with no gas, electricity or water.

"There were many homes, about 40 to 45 homes, affected by it, a couple homes damaged," Burbank Fire Department Battalion Chief John Owings told local TV news channel KCAL9.

"We performed two physical rescues at approximately 7 o'clock this morning."

At Los Angeles International Airport, flooding forced the closure of the customs area in Terminal 2.

The rain was lighter in the desert than in coastal areas, but the downpour shattered a January 9 Palm Springs record of 1.13 inches set in 1980, according to the weather service.

The rain had all but vanished by Tuesday evening, but mandatory evacuations were still in place across the region due to the threat of additional mudslides.

"Any additional rain is going to push more mud down," Owings said.
Eight people flew back to Canada for medical care from a group of military doctors, but none were hospitalized and none are believed to have suffered any permanent damage.

Three diplomatic families, however, have chosen not to return to Cuba out of concern for their wellbeing.

People are getting sick and nobody has any idea why, the official said, describing the situation as unique in the world.

However, he said it does not warrant the closure of Canada's mission in Havana.

Ottawa said it also does not believe there are any risks for Canadian tourists in Cuba.

Briefing reporters on the case, the official said a whole-of-government investigation led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in collaboration with US and Cuban authorities was unable to confirm US suspicions of a sonic attack, or even that a single cause was to blame for the symptoms.

Those who were afflicted included global affairs, immigration and national defense staff at the embassy as well as their spouses and children.

The last two cases in August and December involved individuals who claimed to have sensed what they described as waves of pressure.

Unlike their American counterparts who suffered injuries resembling brain trauma, however, no Canadian envoy reported hearing any suspicious sound prior to falling ill. One Canadian described hearing a high pitched noise like a sheet of metal being flexed, but they did not suffer any sickness.

Canadian authorities are currently conducting an environmental assessment that includes air and water tests at its embassy and staff residences in Cuba -- but other leads have gone cold.

On Tuesday, in a hearing for the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, State Department officials said they would open a review board into their own handling of the case, but offered frustrated American lawmakers little in the way of answers.

Initially US officials suspected the Americans had been targeted by some sort of acoustic weapon, although in public senior officials were more cautious, speaking of "health attacks."
The left-wing opposition has spearheaded a protest campaign, insisting the elections were stolen from its candidate, former TV anchor Salvador Nasrallah.

The Honduran prosecutors' office has recorded 24 deaths in violence between the election date and December 28, including those of three police officers.

A spokesman, Yuri Mora, said "those that might have been committed by security forces are being investigated."

But Bertha Oliva, a rights activist, told AFP that up to December 31 there were 30 deaths. Since the beginning of this year, she said, "there have been more cases that we are documenting."

She added that one person was missing, and more than 1,000 people have been jailed for taking part in protests.

A military spokesman, Colonel Jorge Cerrato, told AFP his service had compiled no figures on the number of civilians killed in the protests.

He confirmed three police officers had died and said 114 police and soldiers were wounded by stones, sticks and at least one bullet.
"This tragic incident underscores the pressures and difficulties facing many refugees, who are becoming increasingly vulnerable and who -- in rare cases -- resort to such desperate acts," the agencies said in a joint statement.

"UN staff attended to the incident, provided first aid support and rushed him to the hospital where he is in a serious but stable condition."

Doctor Gabriel al-Saba told AFP that Zibou suffered third-degree burns over around a third of his body and will require at least two months of treatment.

Zibou's wife Nadia told AFP that the family, originally from the war-ravaged city of Aleppo, has been unable to support itself since UN aid they were receiving was cut off four months ago.

"We don't have money to eat, our debts have accumulated. My husband wasn't working, he spent most of his time looking for a job," she said.

Forced from their homeland by the brutal conflict that has torn Syrian apart, more than half of the roughly one million Syrians registered in Lebanon live in "extreme poverty", according to the UN.

The UN stopped supplying food and financial aid to some Syrian families several months ago to focus funds on the most deprived households.
The sources did not give any further detail.

Kosnett is currently the most senior American diplomat in Ankara after the departure late last year of the ambassador, John Bass. His replacement has yet to be named.

While the US views the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) militia as the most effective fighting force on the ground against Islamic State (IS) extremists, Ankara calls it a "terrorist" organisation linked to outlawed Kurdish militants in Turkey.

Turkey claims both the YPG and the PYD are a branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is proscribed as a "terror" organisation by Ankara, Washington and Brussels.

Relations between Washington and Ankara have been tense over multiple issues including a US decision last year to deliver weapons to the YPG.

But in November, Turkish officials said US President Donald Trump told them in a phone call that Washington would no longer supply arms to the YPG.

There is also tension over a US failure to extradite the Pennsylvania-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen whom Turkey says ordered the failed coup of July 2016, as well as the US conviction earlier this month of a Turkish banker over a scheme to help Iran avoid US actions.
A searing assessment released by Ben Cardin, top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, documented the extent of the Kremlin's "malign influence operations" including President Putin's meddling in the 2016 US election and western democracies.

Putin has spent some 20 years consolidating power, enriching himself and a tight circle of loyalists, and challenging European democracies and the foundation of the transatlantic US-European alliance, the report noted.

"Mr. Putin's Kremlin employs an asymmetric arsenal that includes military invasions, cyberattacks, disinformation, support for fringe political groups, and the weaponization of energy resources, organized crime, and corruption," Cardin wrote in a letter introducing the 200-page report.

"If the United States fails to work with urgency to address this complex and growing threat, the regime in Moscow will become further emboldened," he added. "It will continue to develop and refine its arsenal to use on democracies around the world, including against US elections in 2018 and 2020."

But it also levels fiery criticism at Trump, saying he is not committed to addressing the crisis.

"Never before in American history has so clear a threat to national security been so clearly ignored by a US president," the report stated.

"President Trump has been negligent in acknowledging and responding to the threat to US national security posed by Mr. Putin's meddling."

The report recommends actions Washington should take to neutralize Kremlin aggression, such as creating a high-level "fusion cell" to counter the threats, funding pro-democracy organizations in eastern Europe, expanding sanctions and freezing Kremlin-linked "dirty money."

The report was produced by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic staff.

The panel's Republican chairman Senator Bob Corker was aware that the minority report was being drafted but was not involved in its creation, his office said.

'No consequences'

The report landed at a time of heightened tensions in Washington over the ongoing investigation into Moscow's interference in US elections, and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the presidential race.

Special counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, is heading up an independent probe, but the White House recently declined to say whether Trump would agree to be interviewed by Mueller about possible links between Russian activities and the Trump campaign.

While congressional Republicans remain hostile to Putin, they appear loathe to antagonize the commander in chief, who brands as "fake news" any accusations of collusion.

Instead they express support for the three ongoing congressional probes that were launched last year.

Democrats have expressed frustration at the slow pace of the work, and concern that Russia may seek to meddle in this year's party primaries and the mid-term elections that follow in November.

"A year has gone by, and there have been no consequences whatsoever for those who attacked American democracy," Eliot Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, complained on Tuesday.

One theme that threads through the report is that European nations, notably the Nordic states and France, are countering Russian aggression more forcefully than the United States.
"In years to come, I think people will be shocked at how today we allow so much plastic to be produced needlessly," she said in London.

Changes to the tax system and charges on single-use plastic items such as takeaway containers would also be considered in the future, while plastic items such as cutlery would be removed from government offices, she said.

But Louise Edge, senior oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: "This announcement was billed as a major push to tackle our plastic problem but it looks more like a missed opportunity".

"The specific measures announced today don't match the scale of the environmental crisis we face," she said.

Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, the fourth-biggest party in parliament, said Britain should be "eliminating all avoidable plastic waste now -- a target of 2042 beggars belief".

The environmental plan is due to be reviewed every five years, a spokesman for the prime minister said.

The pro-EU group Open Britain warned that Brexit could threaten environmental ambitions because of the potential weakening of stringent EU regulation.

"When it comes to managing the growing stresses on the environment, Brexit poses a greater challenge than any other political development that has taken place in our lifetime," the group said.

May's former director of communications, Katie Perrior, wrote in The Times that the prime minister's enthusiasm for the environment "may not be insincere but it is certainly new".
During his first visit as UN chief, Guterres will meet with President Juan Manuel Santos, leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and representatives of the Catholic Church in Bogota, the UN spokesman said Wednesday.

He will travel to the department of Meta in central Colombia to visit a site set up for the reintegration of FARC combatants who have laid down their weapons under the historic 2016 peace deal.

Guterres' visit on Saturday and Sunday is to "support peace efforts" in Colombia, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Santos announced Wednesday that he had suspended peace talks with the country's last guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), following attacks.

Colombian authorities reported a grenade attack on a naval guard post that injured two people and a separate strike on an oil facility.

During a Security Council meeting to discuss Colombia, Britain and Sweden urged Colombia and the ELN to resume ceasefire talks as quickly as possible.

Colombian Vice-President Oscar Naranjo Trujillo told the council that "the government is not walking away from peace" and has called urgent talks to salvage the ceasefire.

Growing frustration

Addressing the council, UN envoy Jean Arnault expressed concern with the slow pace of the reintegration of 14,000 former FARC combatants into civilian life.

"The next few months must be the opportunity to 'turn the corner' as it were and establish what is still a fragile process on a more durable base," Arnault told the council.

In a report to the council last month, Guterres said that a "significant number" of FARC rebels "have joined illegal or dissident groups" as a result of a "growing frustration with the lack of opportunities".

So far, 11,362 former combatants have signed up to receive a one-time reintegration allowance of $670, the report said.
Idlib province is almost entirely controlled by a jihadist outfit known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) consisting mostly of fighters from a former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

The fighting has seen 99,569 civilians flee southern Idlib as well as north and northeastern parts of neighbouring Hama province between December 1 and January 9, said the UN's humanitarian coordination office UNOCHA.

"Heavy bombardment on many communities in southern and southeastern rural Idlib continued unabated, causing casualties and displacement among civilians and destruction of vital infrastructure," UNOCHA said in a statement.

The UN agency said the situation in Idlib was "extremely chaotic" with newly displaced people reportedly scattered across open areas.

"Due to the large numbers of people moving, many are left with no shelter, which could expose them to various risks, especially as the winter temperatures continue to drop," it added.

Ninety-six civilians, including 27 children, have been killed in Syrian or Russian air strikes on Idlib province since the start of the offensive, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The regime's goal is to retake the southeast of Idlib province in order to secure a route between Damascus and second city Aleppo, both under its control, according to the Observatory.

Its forces are now close to the military air base of Abu Duhur, their next target, the war monitor said.

More than 340,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Syrian war, which began in 2011 as the regime brutally crushed anti-government protests. Millions have been displaced.

On his first visit to Syria, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock met with Syrian authorities and travelled to the central city of Homs on Wednesday to see the impact of the conflict on civilians for himself.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Purdue University on Thursday (Jan. 11) announced the name of its new online public university for working adults  Purdue University Global. The name was approved by the Executive Committee of the Purdue University Board of Trustees and the Board of Trustees of Purdue NewU.

The name will become effective when the acquisition of Kaplan University by Purdue clears the last step in the approval process  review by the Higher Learning Commission, the regional accreditor for both Purdue University and Kaplan University, which is scheduled for Feb. 22.

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education in August voted unanimously to approve the acquisition. The U.S. Department of Education gave its approval in September with a stipulation that the institutions name include the word Purdue. The HLC, Department of Education and ICHE each requested notification of the official name in advance of the completion of the approval process and transaction closing.

The name was selected after extensive qualitative and quantitative research, which included input from faculty, staff, students and alumni of both institutions, as well as employers and other stakeholders.

Our campuses are typically named after the physical locations where they hold classes. Purdue University Global can be accessed from anywhere in the world, at any time, said Purdue President Mitch Daniels. The name proved appealing and meaningful to our various stakeholders  most importantly prospective students.

Purdue currently serves students on two levels: Through its flagship campus in West Lafayette, its two regional campuses in Fort Wayne and Northwest Indiana, as well as close to 6,000 science, engineering and technology students on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus. In addition, Purdue students can earn degrees at nine technology centers in communities across the state that are part of Purdue Polytechnic Institute. The new entity will become a third level in the Purdue system and will operate almost exclusively online.

Betty Vandenbosch, president of Kaplan University, who will become chancellor of Purdue University Global added, The name is respectful of Purdues exceptional reputation, but also distinct from Purdues other campuses.

The announcement follows several other actions since Purdue announced its decision last year to acquire Kaplan University from Kaplan Inc. In mid-June, trustees of the new university approved plans to offer a tuition discount of approximately 45 percent for Indiana resident students and free tuition for Purdue employees. In December, the board voted to approve a Statement of Ethical Principles and Pledge to Students, a code by which all Purdue University Global faculty, administrators, staff and support team members, as well as service partners, vendors, collaborators and others associates will be required to conduct themselves.

Additional information about todays announcement and more, including an FAQ, is available at www.PurdueNewU.org.

About Purdue University:

Purdue University, a top public research institution, offers higher education at its highest proven value. Committed to affordability, the university has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels. Committed to student success, Purdue is changing the student experience with greater focus on faculty-student interaction and creative use of technology. Committed to pursuing scientific discoveries and engineered solutions, Purdue has streamlined pathways for faculty and student innovators who have a vision for moving the world forward.

About Kaplan University:

Kaplan University, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, serves approximately 29,000 online and campus-based students. The university has 14 campuses and learning centers in Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Maryland, Maine, Missouri and Wisconsin. The university strives to help adult students by providing practical, student-centered education that prepares them for careers in some of the fastest growing industries. KU has been a leading innovator in higher education, including its pioneering role in delivering online degree programs, its long-time commitment to competency-based education linking mastery of discipline specific and professional competencies, and through its Research Pipeline designed to improve student learning and persistence by testing experimental interventions against empirical evidence. KUs Concord Law School offered the first fully online law degree.

About Kaplan Inc.:

Kaplan Inc. serves over 1 million students globally each year through its array of higher education, test preparation, professional education, English-language training and university preparation and offerings to individuals, institutions and businesses. Across its nearly 80-year history, first as small test-prep pioneer and then an early online education leader and now a global education provider, Kaplan has been recognized for expanding educational access and using technology and learning science innovations to continually improve outcomes for its students and partners. Kaplan has operations in over 30 countries, employs more than 15,000 full- and part-time professionals, and maintains relationships and partnerships with more than 1,000 school districts, colleges and universities, and over 2,600 corporations and businesses. Kaplan is a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC) and its largest division. For more information, please visit www.kaplan.com.
A Washington state port set a deadline for the developer of a controversial oil-by-rail terminal to have approvals in place or lose its lease, which would effectively kill plans to develop the largest such project in the U.S.

The Port of Vancouvers Board of Commissioners at its first meeting of the year Jan. 10 voted unanimously to set a deadline of March 31 for Vancouver Energy to have all permits and licenses in place for the terminal.

Failing that, the port will allow its rolling lease with developer Tesoro-Savage to expire, all but ending the project.

The port is served by Union Pacific, BNSF, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. The terminal would have loaded up to 360,000 barrels of crude oil per day onto ships bound for West Coast refineries, moving an additional four trains a day through the Columbia River Gorge.

The states Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council in December voted unanimously to reject the project. That gave Gov. Jay Inslee until mid-February to make a final decision.

Were obviously disappointed in the outcome and the vote, Vancouver Energy General Manager Jared Larrabee told Oregon Public Broadcasting. Were really at the point of evaluating what our options are going forward.

The report said that the room erupted in applause after the vote, as oil terminal opponents cheered the decision and held a rally in the parking lot.
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Royal Bank of Scotland appeals Russian courts ruling in $296-million lawsuit

MOSCOW, January 11 (RAPSI)  The Royal Bank of Scotland N.V. has filed an appeal with the Eighteenth Commercial Court of Appeals against a lower courts refusal to recover $296.6 million in debt from Chelyabinsk regional companies, the court documents read.

On November 30, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court ruled that the plaintiff missed the statute of limitation under Russian law, and dismissed the lawsuit.

This case is reviewed for the second time.

In May 2015, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court ruled to seize property of the defendants as part of the lawsuit. Regional companies were listed as guarantors in the contract signed between the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lavion Enterprises Ltd, a company registered at British Virgin Islands. In February 2016, the court recovered $296.6 million from the defendants.

In November 2016, the Eighteenth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the ruling to recover debt.

In March 2017, the Ural District Commercial Court ruled to review the case once more.
Cypriot company accuses Manafort of financial fraud

MOSCOW, January 11 (RAPSI)  The Surf Horizon Limited, a company registered in Cyprus and allegedly linked to Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, accused Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, and his partner Richard Gates, of fraud and fraudulent concealment, according to the court documents available to RAPSI.

The lawsuit reads that Manafort and Gates, who positioned themselves as specialists in doing business in Eastern Europe, in 2008 received $18.9 million from the Surf Horizon allocated for the purchase of the Black Sea Cable, several Ukrainian cable and internet companies. Also, the defendants were paid over $7 million in management fees.

Because of the world financial crisis, the Surf Horizon recommended to sell the Black Sea Cable. For several years Manafort and Gates told the Cypriot company that they are looking for a potential buyer. In 2010, they also assured that the Black Sea Cable was undergoing audit.

Later, both statements turned out to be false, the plaintiffs believe. In 2011, partnership of Surf Horizon and Manafort lost control over the Ukrainian asset, but the Cypriot company did not know that until 2015, when it conducted its own investigation into the matter. After the defendants were brought to U.S. court, they stated under oath that they had no control over the lawyer who acted as agent with custody of the bank records and had no access to relevant documents.

In May 2017, the Surf Horizon obtained new information through another court proceedings at Cyprus revealing that the price for purchase of the Black Sea Cable was set at $17.8 million instead of paid $18.9 million. According to the plaintiffs, Manafort and Gates divided the missing $1.1 million. In addition, it also became known that the abovementioned audit has never been held and that the defendants were guiding actions of their lawyers, the lawsuit reads.

The plaintiffs seek to recover $25 million from Manafort and Gates as punitive measures for fraud and negligence. They also seek to collect lost $1.1 million, losses from the investment caused by actions of the defendants and attorney fees.

Manafort is involved in high-profile investigation into alleged intervention of Russia into the U.S. Presidential election in 2016.
Russian cadet charged with plotting terror attack to undergo repeated sanity exam

ST. PETERSBURG, January 11 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov)  The Moscow District Military Court during its offsite hearing in St. Petersburg on Thursday ordered A.F. Mozhaisky's Military-Space Academys cadet Vadim Osipov, charged with preparing a terror attack in the academy, to undergo repeated mental examination, RAPSI correspondent reported from the courtroom.

Judges threw the results of the first medical evaluation conducted during investigation into question, and ruled that the defendants mental health should be reexamined.

Osipov stands charged with inducing to terrorism and preparing a terrorist attack.

Investigators believe that the cadet was involved in inducing and recruiting his course mates for terrorist activities and/or provided financial aid to terrorists. A book banned as extremist has been uploaded to his smartphone, according to investigators. Moreover, a copy book paper containing the barracks scheme and capture plan have been seized from him.

Osipov pleaded not guilty claiming that he discussed the St. Petersburg metro terror attack that occurred on April 3 and actions of security services with his course mates. The cadet stated that he had drawn the barracks scheme in order to think the safety system through and discuss shortcomings for self-education.

The A.F. Mozhaisky Military Space Academy is a military educational institution providing training for specialists of the Aerospace Forces and other types of the Armed Forces in 40 different military specialties.
Mari El Republics ex-head, his alleged accomplice to stay detained in bribery case

MOSCOW, January 11 (RAPSI)  Moscows Basmanny District Court on Thursday extended detention of ex-head of Russias Mari El Republic Leonid Markelov charged with receiving a large-scale bribe, and his alleged accomplice Natalia Kozhanova, the court's representative told RAPSI.

Markelov and Kozhanova will remain in jail until April 13.

According to the Investigative Committee, probe has been opened into Markelov and other persons in relation to alleged reception of bribes, giving a bribe and mediation in bribery. Investigators believe that Markelov has received a 235-million-ruble bribe from the head of Akashevskaya factory Nikolay Krivash for patronage and assistance in the property payment of funds provided by state support for development of the agricultural complex. Markelovs alleged accomplice, head manager of Telecompany 12 Region, Kozhanova is charged with mediation in bribery.

Markelov pleaded not guilty to receiving the bribe. According to the ex-head of Mari El, investigators are confused regarding figures related to the transfer of money between companies and individuals.

Markelov insisted that financial relations between the companies were related to the construction of a large agricultural holding. Former head of the region called himself a lobbyist, in a good sense of word who managed to attract 370 billion rubles ($6.4 billion) of investments into the dead region. He added that he could not influence transfer of government subsidies to the Akashevskaya factory.

On April 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted voluntary resignation of Markelov, who was governing the region for 16 years.
Human Rights Council applies to investigators over Memorial Chechnya Office heads arrest

MOSCOW, January 11 (RAPSI) - Chairman of Russias Presidential Council for Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov has requested the Investigative Committee to conduct pre-investigation probe into the arrest of the head of Chechen Republics office of Memorial NGO, Oyub Titiyev, the statement published on the advisory bodys website reads.

According to the Republics Interior Ministry, on January 9, police officers stopped Titiyevs car during a preventive control operation. As police officers searched the car, a package filled with a plant-based substance smelling of marihuana was found. The package was then sent for analysis while the head of the office was brought in for a medical examination.

Fedotov supposed that drugs might have been planted in the car because of Titiyevs human rights activity. He believes that there are grounds for launching two criminal cases: over the discovery and over an alleged planting of drugs.

Chechen Republics ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiyev stated earlier that police officers had not violated any laws.

Russias Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova is going to examine the situation, according to her press service.

The Council of Europes Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks wrote on his Twitter account on Wednesday that detention and prosecution of Oyub Titiev in Chechnya is very worrying signal and called for provision of necessary safeguards in the proceedings for the defendant.
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While the concerned property may be confiscated, a person indulging in such a transaction is liable to pay a fine up to 25 per cent of fair market value of the property

For scores of chartered accountants (CAs) and tax experts across the country, their phones did not stop ringing since Wednesday morning.

It all started off with an advertisement by the income-tax (I-T) department in leading national dailies on Wednesday, sensitising people about the pitfalls of entering into benami property transaction.

Many clients have expressed their concern and apprehensions around implementation of the Benami Transactions Act, said a Delhi-based CA, conceding he and his team have received at least a dozen-odd such enquiries in the course of the day. Similar was the case with many other tax experts.

Some experts said this could be a precursor to the government seeking more information from people about the ownership status of immovable properties.

The government may build a database of suspected benami properties before acting on them, said a tax consultant.

The advertisement titled Keep Away from Benami Transactions talks about the penal provisions if a person is caught purchasing or selling a benami property.

Citing the provisions of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, the advertisement said any person who abets and induces benami transaction is prosecutable and may face rigorous imprisonment up to seven years.

While the concerned property may be confiscated, a person indulging in such a transaction is liable to pay a fine up to 25 per cent of fair market value of the property, the advertisement added.

The move is in line with the governments concerted efforts to clampdown on black money, said Riaz Thingna, director, Grant Thornton.

Pavan Kumar Vijay, MD, Corporate Professionals, agreed that the issue of benami transactions has gone live.

I expect the next step would be to solicit information about such transactions from the people, he added.

Implementing the Act

* The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988, has been on the statute book for over 28 years, but is not operational * The Act was amended through the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016. Its provisions came into effect from November 1, 2016 * The amended law empowers I-T department to provisionally attach benami properties that can eventually be confiscated * A person found guilty is punishable with rigorous imprisonment from 1-7 years * The guilty is liable to a fine up to 25% of fair market value of the property

Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government is acquiring groundnut at Rs 4,500 per quintal; the market price is Rs 3,500 per quintal

A bumper groundnut crop in Gujarat has led to a steep fall in prices.

Consequently, farmers are holding on to stock, hoping that the government will acquire it at the minimum support price (MSP), which is higher than the market price.

This, in turn, has led to a shortfall of raw material for oil mills.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government is acquiring groundnut at Rs 4,500 per quintal; the market price is Rs 3,500 per quintal.

Till now, the government has acquired nearly 68,000 tonnes of groundnut, with Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel reiterating its decision to continue with the procurement.

Announced by the government in October last year, the procurement will be done in a staggered manner.

Hence, farmers are reluctant to sell at market prices lower than the MSP to oil mills," said B V Mehta, executive director, The Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA).

The SEA has estimated the kharif groundnut production in Gujarat this year is a record of sorts, at 3.14 million tonnes. In the last kharif season, it was 2.94 million tonnes.

Of this, roughly 50 per cent of produce has already been sold in the market by relatively small farmers who didn't have enough holding capacity.

With the government procurement also being marginal at over 68,000 tonnes, the rest of the produce is still being held by farmers.

"We hope prices will rise. However, mills have been crying foul that even at such low market rates of Rs 3,500 per quintal, procurement of raw material is hitting their margins, said Mansukhbhai Jamjibhai, a farmer in Rajkot district.

This bumper crop has been cultivated despite the acreage under groundnut production in the state going down marginally to 1.6 million hectares, from 1.64 million hectares last year.

"The situation for oil mills is likely to improve in the coming days, said SEAs Mehta.

Apart from bumper crop, there is an estimated 110,000 tonnes of carry-forward stock with Nafed, and about 50,000-60,000 tonnes with farmers and traders in the state.

Moreover, according to industry sources, the export of groundnut is expected to be lesser than last year, despite higher output even as export of groundnut oil might not find international market due to disparity.

Photograph: Reuters
The firm would require it to more than triple its CAGR of revenue to 18.5% for the next decade from 6%

Mukesh Ambanis ambitious target of getting Reliance Industries (RIL) into top 20 global companies would require it to more than triple its compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of revenue to 18.5 per cent for the next decade from 6 per cent in the past 10 years.

An analysis of the sales target looks like a feat that is achievable if it were to take the inorganic route.

Organically it would be little difficult to maintain CAGR of 18.5 per cent for net sales for 10 years because the energy business is cyclical, said G Chokkalingam, founder and managing director, Equinomics Research & Advisory.

Since a significant proportion of its revenue comes from oil refining, sale of fuel and petrochemicals, RILs revenue will spurt in times of high crude oil prices.

It will also see its revenue shoot up if there is exponential growth in retail and telecom.

RIL, with $45.5-billion revenue in 2016-17, is currently at the 271st position according to Bloombergs data for sales of global biggies.

While the list is topped by retailer WalMart with a turnover of $485.8 billion, 20th position is currently occupied by Anglo-Swiss trading and mining company Glencore PLC, with $152.9 billion annual sales.

According to Bloomberg data, in the past 10 years, the top 20 companies have together clocked average 5 per cent CAGR for sales.

Assuming the same growth rate, the 20th company could have an estimated $250-billion annual turnover in 10 years.

Inorganically RIL can achieve this target through diversification into value-added forward integration businesses of oil, gas and internet businesses, Chokkalingam said.

For instance, RIL can get into fertiliser business that requires natural gas as fuel. Given RILs ambition to increase gas production this could be helpful.

Also, though the firm is already into the petrochemical business based on oil derivatives, there is much more scope to expand businesses such as synthetic rubber to ride on increasing demand for automobiles.

Further, the companys launch of wireless telecom service Reliance Jio in September 2016 has created a platform that can be used for multiple businesses, including mobility solutions.

In the first half of 2017-18, the digital services business that comes under Jio contributed 3.2 per cent of the Rs 2.3 trillion gross revenue.

This is expected to have a big jump in terms of contribution to overall revenue of the company.

We also remain positive on the FTTH (fibre to the home) offering from Jio and expect the segment to represent 20 per cent of overall revenue in 5 years, said Nikhil Bhandari, analyst with Goldman Sachs in his report.

The company's refining business is currently the biggest contributor to its revenue, with 58.7 per cent share in the first half. Petrochemicals and organised retail are two other big segments with 23 per cent and 11.3 per cent share, respectively.

But, this is set to change with petrochemical business expected to have a much larger share. On Tuesday, the company commissioned its refinery off-gas cracker (ROGC) complex of 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity along with downstream plants and utilities.

This marked the end of the $16 billion refining and petrochemicals expansion plan that RIL embarked on in 2014.

Most investors were surprised by our conclusion that chemical will become the largest earnings contributor for RIL by FY19.

"We expect incremental Ebitda of $ 3 billion from the petchem segment in the next three years driven by higher volumes, favorable product exposure and improving cost structure, said Bhandari of Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs estimates RIL revenue to reach $75.4 billion in 2019-20, up from $45.5 billion in 2016-17.

This is an estimated 17 per cent CAGR for revenue, provided the rupee-dollar exchange rate remains at the current level.

Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
The two new markets are overwhelmingly dominated by US ride-hailing giant Uber, which has been able to edge out local start-ups

Homegrown cab aggregator Ola is planning to set up operations in Australia and New Zealand as it looks to explore new avenues for growth and play a part in investor Didi Chuxings plans to dominate the global ride-hailing ecosystem.

The Indian firm has set up teams in Dhaka and Colombo, setting the stage for its first overseas expansion.

As the company looks for new and larger markets to enter, Australia and New Zealand have firmly shown up on its radar, according to people familiar with the development.

The two new markets are overwhelmingly dominated by US ride-hailing giant Uber, which has been able to edge out local start-ups such as GoCatch.

Currently, Uber has a presence in 23 cities in Australia and New Zealand.

Uber has also been present in both Dhaka and Colombo for a while now, with Olas entry giving the first serious competition to the US firm.

When Business Standard sought comment from Ola on its Australia and New Zealand plans, the firm termed them as speculative.

We are committed to our mission of building mobility for a billion people, said a statement quoting an unnamed spokesperson.

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal had met London Mayor Sadiq Khan during his visit to India in December, signalling that the firm was interested in taking its business overseas.

However, a source told Business Standard that entering a market like London was off the charts, given its size and how deeply entrenched Uber already was.

You need deep pockets to enter London. The money can as well be used to go into other markets, said the person who did not want to be named.

Australia and New Zealand are far more feasible markets for Ola to enter.

Despite Ubers wide coverage, there continues to be space to grow as cities outside Sydney and Melbourne dont really figure high on the radar for growth.

Australia is also a market that favours ride hailing since the government made ride sharing legal back in 2015.

Olas move to grow beyond the boundaries of India came around the time the company was closing a massive $1.1 billion funding round that was led by Tencent and SoftBank.

While Uber controls a 20 per cent stake in Didi through the sale of its China unit to the company, and the two now share a common investor SoftBank, the Chinese ride-hailing giant doesnt seem to be giving up its global dreams.

Taxify, the Estonian counterpart of Ola also backed by Didi, marked its entry into the Australian market last month.

The company launched its service in Sydney and took a jab at Uber, saying its business model was based on fairness and transparency, helping it sign up 4,000 drivers in an extremely short span of time.

Earlier this month, Didi also made a strategic investment in 99 (formerly 99Taxis), Ubers biggest rival in Brazil.

99 claims it is the market leader in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, much like how Ola claims it is the leader in Indias ride-hailing space.

The investment was seen as a sign that the truce between Didi and Uber was over.

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters
To claim that Tamil Nadu was waiting for a messiah of the spiritual Rajini kind is misplaced, if not mischievous, says N Sathiya Moorthy.

IMAGE: Rajinikanth (centre) in Malaysia.

Photograph: Courtesy, @Rajini_FC on Twitter.

Independent of palpable and equally perceivable media enthusiasm, and not just in Tamil Nadu, superstar Rajinikanths post-dated announcement on entering direct politics with the assembly polls of 2021, a full three years from now, may not be as easy a walkover as is being predicted in some quarters.

To draw a parallel, it might be tougher for him than it was for fellow actor-politician, Vijaykanth, when he entered direct electoral politics with the launch of Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam in 2006.

As is known since the post-MGR polls of 1989, Tamil Nadu possibly has the highest number of swing voters, numbering as much as the total committed vote-share of all political parties put together. Since then, it is this swing voters who have decided the fate of elections and political parties, especially whenever it came to choosing the state government. They have alternated between the parent DMK and the breakaway AIADMK, and the assumption is that they had to settle for either of them want of a credible choice.

In context, Rajinikanth is being projected as that alternative to the Dravidian hegemony of state politics and elections since the historic elections of 1967, when the unified DMK trounced the well-entrenched ruling Congress party, also ensuring in successive polls that the latter kept losing voter-base from a very substantial 42 per cent then to around four per cent since.

The swing votes that constituted a substantial share of the presumed Congress voter base shifted to the anti-Establishment AIADMK founded by actor-politician M G Ramachandran in the post-Emergency, post-Kamaraj polls of 1977, and has since stayed there.

It is this vote, among others, that Rajinis brand of spiritual politics is supposed to garner.

But there is a rider.

Even in 1967, an acknowledged seven per cent vote-share of Rajajis Swatantra Party and other spiritual votes identified with the Muslim League and the Forward Bloc went to the anti-god DMK. Rajaji could be considered the spiritual politician of his time and with an identifiable political position and economic policy.

But when he shunned the DMK combine and joined hands with Kamaraj and the post-split Congress-0 in the subsequent 1971 elections, his spiritually-inclined voters seemingly stayed with DMK and possibly MGR, who was still a leading campaigner of the party.

Arguments thus galore for and against the spiritual constituency in Dravidian Tamil Nadu that Rajinikanths promised brand of politics could attract. Definitely, it is neither an one-off affair, nor a one-sided story. Yet, between 1967 and 2017, and further up to Rajinis promised 2021, there definitely are fewer and fewer anti-god votes than pro-god votes, if that is the terminology.

If the BJPs vote-share in the assembly elections is any indication, it has hovered at around 2-3 per cent in assembly elections, often adding up another five per cent from the swing votes pool for the partys prime ministerial candidates in Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998-99) and Narendra Modi in elections 2014, only to revert later to the standardised figure from the past.

One assumption is that the spiritual voters in the state would settle for a Dravidian ruler whom they could touch and feel in assembly polls, and the choice has often been the anti-DMK candidate, be it MGR first and Jayalalithaa, later. But then, these are also the so-called incorruptible sections of the electorate who voted on policies and programmes, with relative better insights into governance and governance issues -- and not just for names and faces.

Other facts also add up. Though Tamil Nadus youthful voters did not mind now --ailing DMK supremo M Karunanidhis age and hospitalisation at the height of elections 2009, giving due respect to and recognition for his vast and varied experience in politics and political administration, his wheel-chair bound status was among the causes for them to shun the party in successive elections in 2011 and 2014, though the 2G scam was also among the major causes for the partys electoral reversals.

In 2009, they also knew that Karunanidhi was not their prime ministerial candidate. In elections 2016, there was conclusive proof that a relatively youthful M K Stalin, Karunanidhis son and political heir, would be chief minister if the DMK-led combine was voted to power, and they gave the DMK a fighting chance.

The narrowest ever, one per cent vote-share gap between the victorious, incumbent AIADMK under chief minister Jayalalithaa, who was in Stalins age-group, and the latters DMK in elections 2016 should be an eye-opener for pollsters, pundits and crystal-gazers of Tamil Nadu politics and polls.

The results were evenly spread, with accusations of incumbency aiding the AIADMK to make (up) the numbers, all through. In other words, Tamil Nadu had settled for an alternative model of its own, and was possibly not looking for an alternative leader, the voter having been well aware of Karunanidhis age-related health issues and also Jayalalithaas equally worsening health condition, which was ignored closer to elections time -- only to become mortally sick, not long after becoming chief minister for a sixth time.

That way, even the post-Jaya, more controversial by-election to the RK Nagar assembly seat held by her should be as educative as any other. Barring irrigation-centred aspects of public policy and governmental programmes concerning heartland Tamil Nadu, RK Nagar is a lab test constituency in every other way, possibly including demographic distribution in terms of urbanisation (or lack of it), education, educated unemployed, roads, transport, power and drinking water situation, et al.

In terms of voter turnout, the 78 per cent recorded in RK Nagar 2017 was closer to the state figure of 75 per cent in elections 2016, when the constituency recorded 68 per cent for Jayalalithaas candidacy, and Chennai districts 61 per cent.

The interpretation that the constituency rejected Jayas ruling AIADMK in the 2017 bypoll and denied the natural alternative DMK even its security deposit, to claim that the state was waiting for a messiah of the spiritual Rajini kind is misplaced, if not mischievous.

Even attributing the poll results exclusively to the alleged voter bribe may not explain the outcome, even if it might justify the high victory margin and the way the DMK, purportedly undertaking a clean campaign, lost its security deposit. The explanation may lie elsewhere, though still not conclusive proof of any clear indicator to the future.

Even with a three-way split of the Dravidian votes, the RK Nagar bypoll is the closest to elections 2016, ensuring once again that there was no poll space for an outsider to assume a vacuum and seek to fill in.

The BJP was construed as making a vain and weak attempt, and the party candidate Karu Nagarajan, an electoral veteran of some kind, came from the Hindu-Nadar community, which has a substantial presence in the constituency. In the end, he got less than 1500 votes, half the NOTA votes (3000-plus) and nowhere near the victorious AIADMK rebel /Independent candidate, TTV Dinakarans 90,000.

If the shift in the traditional votes and those of the swing votes in favour of Dinakaran are seen as the creation of a vacuum, for a Rajinikanth to take away at will here, or for another aspiring actor-politician, Kamalahassan, to chip in there, it need not be that way, nor need it be as simple or simplistic as is being projected.

Instead, it could mean that even a Tamil Nadu alternative to Dravidian hegemony may well have to come from within the fold, and not outside, and that Dinakaran may be the one, already there. It happened with MGR and Jayalalithaa in their time, when the vacuum argument again came up, for the still-alive and relatively active Congress Opposition to stake its due claim.

Tamil Nadu will have an additional 60 lakh new and young voters in elections 2021, a generation that is in eternal hurry for the end (results), not necessarily the means and methods. Of them, 37 lakh voters would have tasted poll politics already in the parliamentary elections of 2019, from which Rajinikanth is still shying away from.

Even if he rushes in now, or later, he will be remembered for his continuing tentativeness, as against the decisiveness with which the present-day voters believe/remember the likes of Karunanidhi, MGR and Jayalalithaa, for. The earlier generation shunned an equally indecisive and possibly spiritual G K Moopanar in the 90s, and a new face in Vijaykanth, also owing to his indecision, bordering on bartering away the party in the coalition era.

The new generation voters of the upcoming twin polls are born into an era of economic reforms and the consequent global village with all its pluses and minuses -- just as an earlier generation prided itself on being the Independence generation.

But Rajinikanth, for all intent and purposes, is not seen as a man in a hurry in politics and public life, unlike in his fast-paced movies, with his own fast-paced body movements that had endeared him to an earlier generation of movie-goers.

This may also explain why less than 3,000 people, many of them from the greying generation of yesteryear fans, alone gathered to hear the superstar make his new years eve announcement on entering direct politics at a distant day, despite Rajini having given them a six-day notice when he began meeting them from December 26, 2017 -- and for which announcement his fans associations and staff would have prepared for at least for a month or two, if not more.

Better or worse, still, Rajinikanths decisive announcement on entering politics after a series of half-steps and mis-steps has only shown an indecisive and reluctant leader, who possibly is being pushed into the non-spiritual poll pool, supposedly by his BJP mentors at the Centre.

Whats more, if one were to go into a further analysis of the RK Nagar bypoll as a laboratory case for the rest of Tamil Nadu, the minorities moved away from the DMK to Dinakaran after Prime Minister Modi called on Karunanidhi, who has anyway been ailing for long, while the spiritual voters, if any, remained as divided as ever, and even then did not move towards the spiritual BJP, one bit.

N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and political analyst, is director, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter.
'The continuing crisis in agriculture, the inability of successive governments to provide secure jobs to millions of youths having varying degrees of skills, and fragmentation of politics have created a sense of despondency.'

In an e-mail interview with Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore, Shailendra Kharat -- assistant professor, politics department, Savitribai Phule Pune University -- offers insights into the radical churn taking place among the Dalits in the context of the Bhima Koregaon agitation; the possibility of a political alliance between the Dalits and Marathas, traditional foes in Maharashtra; the hurdles before Dalits to unite and emerge as a significant political bloc, and why there could be more clashes between the mainstream nationalism narrative and a counter narrative that might take shape because of the new-found Dalit assertion.

'The tale of the battle of Bhima Koregaon has been told through different historical accounts. However for Dalits, the issue is not whether their own account of participating in British army to cause the downfall of Peshwa rule is historically correct or not. For them, it is a 'memory' of their 'valour' against oppressive Peshwa rule that is significant.'

What were the reasons for the Dalit upsurge that we saw across Maharashtra after they were attacked January 1 in Bhima Koregaon?

The largely successful bandh witnessed throughout Maharahstra after the attacks signify that the attacks and the protests were not merely law and order problems, but they have deeper roots in the history and politics of the state.

One has to understand the reasons behind these protests at two levels.

One is the inter-relationship between the memory, Dalit assertion and nationalism. And second is the long-standing tension between the Dalit and Maratha caste groups in the state.

The tale of the battle of Bhima Koregaon has been told through different historical accounts. However for Dalits, the issue is not whether their own account of participating in the British army to cause the downfall of Peshwa rule is historically correct or not.

For them, it is a 'memory' of their 'valour' against oppressive Peshwa rule that is significant.

This 'memory' has given them confidence that was partly responsible in their fight against caste exploitation during the British period and after.

However, this narrative goes against the so-called mainstream nationalism that has considered the nationalist movement as a simple fight between British rule and the Indian people.

Even though the Congress came out of this simplistic definition of Indian nationalism, the present day agents of nationalism seem to have retained the naivety of this assumption.

Thus, the contemporary articulation of Indian nationalism is a heady mix of objectification of nation as mata (mother deity), leader (read Narendra D Modi) worship and majoritarian religious nationalism.

A section among these nationalists considers the Dalits' memory of siding with imperialist British rule and becoming a cause of the downfall of Peshwa rule as anti-national.

Therefore, they oppose this Dalit celebration of British triumph over oppressive Peshwa rule.

The larger point is about the nature of democratic politics in India.

One of the reasons behind the improbable success and sustenance of political democracy in India is that the country has a number of conflicting socio cultural identities. Also, no single social identity operates across the country.

Therefore it is not possible to base this country on any single social identity -- be it caste, religion or language.

This inherent secularism has prevented us from falling prey to an undemocratic regime of a singular social identity.

Political parties here need to build social alliances between various groups in order to win elections.

The BJP's promise of 'inclusive development' was supposed to be such an attempt. However, after coming to power, the party seems to have fallen prey to pressures from its core Hindutva ideology and organisations, and hence the increasing insecurity among religious minorities in India.

That Hindutva ideology is not only against religious minorities but also against the lower caste Dalits became clear in the Una and Rohith Vemula episodes.

The Bhima Koregaon attacks and agitations would further deepen this perception.

The multiple identities and conflicts are betrayed by one more angle involved in the Bhima Koregaon issue. This is the Wadhu Budruk episode (A memorial to Govind Gopal Gaikwad, or Ganpat Mahar, was attacked on December 29, 2017, three days ahead of the January 1, 2018 celebration of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.

Ganpat Mahar, Dalit lore emphasises, collected the severed body parts of Sambhaji (Shivaji's son), tortured to death by Aurangzeb, and cremated the body parts despite warnings from the Mughal emperor.

Some Marathas contest this Dalit claim and their narrative claims Sambhaji's body was cremated by fellow Marathas in 1689 and not by Ganpat Mahar).

The conflict at this village shows another social tension in the state: Between the Marathas and Dalits.

Like in many states of India, this is a story of simmering tension between the dominant/middle castes and Dalits. And the causes are also far too familiar.

The continuing crisis in agriculture in globalised Maharashtra, inability of successive governments to provide secure jobs to millions of youths having varying degrees of skills, and fragmentation of state politics have created a sense of despondency and restlessness among Marathas in the state.

Add to this, the upward mobility among sections of Dalits due to reservation policy enabling them to assert themselves at various levels.

This has resulted in an additional episode in the long-standing conflict between Dalits and Marathas in the countryside.

'Dalits have been at the receiving end of a number of social and economic hardships. And they are an assertive community. In a way, Bhima Koregaon was a trigger which unleashed their resentments against all such oppressions.'

Now that the Dalits too have become aggressive, as the Bhima Koregaon incident shows, how do you think will the conflict between these two nationalism narratives shape up in the days to come?

In all fairness to the BJP, it must be admitted that the party has been consistently trying to woo Dalit voters since 1990s.

It was also possible for the party to attract a large proportion of Dalit votes towards itself and away from the BSP (the Dalit-dominated Bahujan Samaj Party) in the UP (Uttar Pradesh) assembly elections last year.

One strategy that the BJP has adopted, apart from appropriating various symbols related to Dr Ambedkar, has been to enter into alliances with Dalit leaders and parties.

The BJP was able to do this without making any changes in its Hindu majoritarian ideology, without denouncing the caste system.

The party was successful in co-opting Dalit politics also because in the 1990s the latter started to base itself only on the agenda of representation.

This politics of social justice (by the Dalits) shied away from providing a deeper ideological alternative to the Hindu majoritarian worldview.

Actually Maharashtra has a long history of radical Dalit politics starting from (social reformer Jotiba) Phule and Dr Ambedkar.

In the post-Independence period, the Dalit Panthers provided a radical ideological edge to the movement.

The recent agitation around Bhima Koregaon was also supported by many radical Ambedkarite groups, some of which are social media-based.

However, as far as political intervention is concerned, Dalit politics is badly divided in various groups.

Also, the RPI (Republican Party of India), an important political party under (Union Minister) Ramdas Athavale's leadership has already gone under the wings of the BJP. Hence the current agitation may not get much traction in the sphere of parliamentary politics of the Dalits.

'If militant Hindu nationalism continues unabated, it is more likely that we would have more flashpoints between Dalits and Hindutva.'

Keeping politics out of this equation, do you think these conflicting nationalisms or ideologies that the Dalits and the Hindutva right wing espouse now will keep clashing with each other as Dalits too have begun to assert their identity?

Providing an ideological alternative to Hindu nationalism has been one aspect of those agitations.

There were other elements too such as conflict with the Marathas.

Also, there is a large section among Dalits who wants to concentrate on upward mobility and is not interested much in ideological finesse.

On the other hand, there are many social media and other Ambedkarite groups that espouse radical ideology.

The interplay between these forces will decide the nature of ideological position that Dalit assertion takes in the days to come.

On the other hand, if militant Hindu nationalism continues unabated, it is more likely that we would have more such flashpoints between Dalits and Hindutva.

Also, if the Modi government continues to fail in keeping its promise of economic development for all, the likelihood of more such clashes would increase.

'One does not see any abatement in the oppression against Dalits. There is a space for the emergence of a new Dalit leadership and Dalit politics in the country.'

Taking inspiration from the Bhima Koregaon incident do you see the Dalits asserting themselves more powerfully, politically and socially, in the coming days?

Dalits have been at the receiving end of a number of social and economic hardships. And they are an assertive community.

In a way, Bhima Koregaon was a trigger which unleashed their resentments against all such oppressions.

So, if issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination faced by Dalits are not done away with, we might see many such agitations by the Dalits in the future.

'This new Dalit agitation (Bhima Koregaon) has articulated the issue of nationalism only at the symbolic level. They need to come out with the details of an alternative nationalism that they seek to replace in the place of Hindu nationalism.'

Is the ground ripe for the emergence of a Mayawati-like Dalit political leaders in various Indian states?

In a sense, the BSP's failure in recent years has created a void of sorts in Dalit politics.

Also, there has been a lot of resentment among Dalits against the way in which Mayawati's politics was shaping up lately.

One does not see any abatement in the oppression against Dalits. There is a space for the emergence of a new Dalit leadership and Dalit politics in the country.

One can see that recently in the emergence of Jignesh Mewani (the activist Dalit leader who shot to fame after leading a mass agitation after the Una floggings in Gujarat and was later elected an MLA).

However, in order to become politically successful in the long run, this leadership has to put some hard work in building an organisation; and also carefully carve alliances with various like-minded social sections and political parties as Dalits are not numerically strong enough to do politics on their own.

'The latest of the challenges faced by the Marathas was a Brahmin becoming Maharashtra CM under BJP rule. So, some Dalit groups' slogan 'Peshwai hatao' and the fact that Bhima Koregaon's symbolism involves vanquishing Brahmin Peshwa rule must have made those disgruntled Marathas interested in the Dalit agitation.'

What does the coming together of Dalits and Marathas, as you suggest was visible during the Bhima Koregaon agitation, signify for Maharashtra politics?

One needs to understand the larger political context of this episode of Dalit-Maratha alliance.

The Marathas, who form around 25 per cent of state population, have been politically powerful in the state.

However, as pointed out earlier, the crisis in agriculture, the breakdown of the cooperative movement in the state, fragmentation of state politics -- all have contributed in challenging the political hegemony of th3e Marathas.

The latest of these challenges was a Brahmin becoming CM (chief minister) of the state under BJP rule.

So, some Dalit groups' slogan 'Peshwai hatao' and the fact that Bhima Koregaon's symbolism involves vanquishing Brahmin Peshwa rule must have made those disgruntled Marathas interested in the Dalit agitation.

Secondly, Maharashtra has a history of vibrant non-Brahmin politics in the pre-Independence period.

Yashwantrao Chavan's (The powerful Maratha leader who became Maharashtra's first chief minister in 1960 and later Union defence and finance ministers) Bahujan politics also entailed compromise between the ruling Marathas and Dalits, among other communities.

Especially for those who consider that Brahmins versus non-Brahmins is still the major contradiction in Maharashtrian society, this coming together is celebratory.

However, considering that the Maratha-Dalit contradiction is based on, among other things, concrete land relations in the countryside, this alliance seems tenuous.

Also, the fact that Maratha organisations have not yet rescinded their demand for removal of (cases filed against the community by Dalits under the) Atrocities Act, should be kept in mind.

So this alliance needs to negotiate a number of thorny issues before it leads to a modicum of success in the long run.

'The core ideology of Hindutva would always be antithetical to Dalit assertion as the Hindu religion has many elements that oppress Dalits at various levels.'

How do you think will the upper caste and right wing Hindutva organisations, that are not too comfortable with this new-found Dalit assertion, react now?

One could see contradictory forces operating on this front.

On the one hand, the Hindu nationalists have been trying to assimilate Dalits through various means as mentioned earlier. However, this assimilation has been at the level of giving representation to Dalits on various sources of power.

This also goes well with the post Mandal Dalit politics which has been largely about power sharing anyway.

However, the core ideology of Hindutva would always be antithetical to Dalit assertion as the Hindu religion has many elements that oppress Dalits at various levels.

Hindu nationalists have not rejected that core of Hindu religion.

Also, other subject like cow protection goes against Dalits as was witnessed in the Una incident.

This new Dalit agitation (Bhima Koregaon) has articulated the issue of nationalism only at the symbolic level.

They need to come out with the details of alternative nationalism that they seek to replace in the place of Hindu nationalism.

This nationalism, instead of merely appealing to emotions must also raise concrete, everyday, material issues such as employment.

Only that would enable Dalits to successfully present this alternative nationalism.

'It remains to be seen if Prakash Ambedkar can wean the not-so-dominant OBCs away from the BJP and Shiv Sena.'

Prakash Ambedkar has credited the success of the January 3 bandh to not only various Dalit factions coming together but also underlined the support of not-so-dominant other backward classes (OBCs) showing solidarity with the Dalits.

In this light do you see the ground shifting towards such unusual alliances in Maharashtra?

It is indeed a welcome signal if such an alliance has happened on the ground.

Prakash Ambedkar is a seasoned leader in trying to bring out such creative alliances as he had attempted that during the 1990s also.

Then it was done in the wake of the Mandal moment in state politics. The Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh had emerged out of that experiment only.

However, then it could not become successful beyond some districts and remained largely localised.

Also, the not-so-dominant OBCs that he is talking about are numerically small and scattered all over the state. Hence, it is a very complicated task to mobilise them.

It remains to be seen if Ambedkar is able to do so and wean them away from the BJP and Shiv Sena.

'To become successful in democratic politics in India, you need to simplify your message. But this oversimplification of Dr Ambedkar's thought means that 'Dalit ki beti' could become CM, but nothing changed for the poor and oppressed Dalits.'

Dalits, at times, have been socially as well as politically aggressive, but it is very rarely that one sees Dalits fighting for economic equality. What explains this?

This can be viewed at many levels. One, as I mentioned earlier, the post Mandal Dalit politics was mainly about getting representation in the educational, administrative and political power centres of the country.

This politics was happening in the wake of the emergence of the middle class among Dalits.

Apart from the Ambedkar Village Scheme that Mayawati launched when she was UP CM, there was no substantial economic agenda in the BSP's politics.

Kanshi Ram's reading of Dr Ambedkar entailed an overemphasis on political power. He used to say that Dr Ambedkar has identified political power as a master key of all other forms of power and that Dalits need to get hold of this master key.

For becoming successful in democratic politics in India, you need to simplify your message. But this oversimplification of Dr Ambedkar's thought means that 'Dalit ki beti' could become CM, but nothing changed for the poor and oppressed Dalits.

Also, at a broader level, post 1990s politics in India was all about identity politics; be it Hindutva or caste identity.

Hence, democratic politics remained centred around identities, sidelining economic issues from the same.

Second, actually in post Independence Maharashtra, some Dalit agitations did happen around economic issues.

Landless labourers' agitation under Dadasaheb Gaekwad's leadership brings a strong Marxist strand within the Dalit Panthers to mind. But these attempts either proved short lived or were plagued by internal conflict.

A section among the Dalit Panthers was for having cultural politics based on neo-Buddhism of Dr Ambedkar.

This faction used to view Marxism with suspicion, again a major misreading of Dr Ambedkar.

Last but not the least, the Left parties in India have traditionally shied away from taking up caste issues seriously. Hence (they are) not being able to organise Dalits. Lately, of course, the Left parties have lost their relevance in Indian politics.

These lacunae had serious consequence for Dalit politics.

This has led to Dalit politics not only becoming middle class centric but also single caste dominated.

So a perception is gaining ground among many Dalit castes that only a single dominant caste among Dalits has been cornering all the benefits of reservation and political power. Hence, demands for sub quotas within reservations for SCs (scheduled castes) by some Dalit castes.

'This kind of radical anti-Brahminical ideology and symbols are shared only by neo-Buddhists who were erstwhile Mahars in the state. The other Dalit castes do have Sanskritising aspirations in different proportions.'

Will Dalits play an important role in state as well as national politics in the run-up to the 2019 general election?

Will they be in a position to decide which party will form the national government as well as the Maharashtra government?

Dalits comprise about 17 percent of the population in the state and nationally. As I mentioned earlier, Maharashtra has a very rich history of Dalit movements.

Nationally, the BSP's political ascendancy in UP brought Dalit politics into prominence. However, due to many issues mentioned earlier, at present Dalit politics is in disarray. Only one agitation would not be able to resurrect it.

The groups involved in this agitation need to immerse themselves in the arduous task of building an organisation and ideology.

They also need to carefully identify the social and political forces with whom they would need to make alliances.

Also, a note of caution, especially in the wake of the Bhima Koregaon style alternative nationalist agitation, is in order.

This kind of radical anti Brahminical ideology and symbols are shared only by neo-Buddhists, who were erstwhile Mahars in the state. The other Dalit castes do have Sanskritising aspirations in different proportions.

The real challenge for radical Dalit politics would be to make alliances with such Dalit castes.

This process will not be easy as it would involve a lot of negotiations and compromises which are cornerstones of democratic politics in India.

Are Dalit organisations ready for this?

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted Ecuador citizenship on Thursday, after he spent more than five years living in London embassy.

The country's foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa confirmed that Assange was 'naturalised' as an Ecuadorean on December 12 at his request, according to The Independent.

Assange was granted political asylum in the London embassy about five-and-a-half years ago when Swedish prosecutors were investigating sex crime allegations against him.

The investigation was later dropped, but Assange had refused to leave the country.

He had claimed that he fears arrest over breaching his bail because he might be extradited to the United States.

Earlier this week, the United Kingdom had refused Ecuador's request that the former Australian citizen be given diplomatic status.

"The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter. Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," The Independent had reported
A three-member special investigation team headed by former Delhi high court judge Justice S N Dhingra was set up by the Supreme Court on Thursday to supervise further probe into 186 anti-Sikh riot cases

in which closure reports were filed earlier.

Besides Justice Dhingra, Abhishek Dular, a serving 2006 batch Indian Police Service officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, and retired IG rank officer Rajdeep Singh would be part of the SIT, which was asked by a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra to submit its status report in two months.

The matter will be heard next on March 19.

The top court zeroed in on the names after the Ministry of Home Affairs and counsel for petitioners G S Kahlon submitted that they have arrived at a consensus with regard to the persons who could be appointed in the fresh SIT.

The court had on Wednesday held that the previous SIT had not carried out further probe into these 186 cases in which closure reports were filed, and had directed setting up of a fresh SIT comprising a former high court judge and two police officers.

Large-scale riots had broken out in the national capital in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two Sikh security guards on the morning of October 31, 1984.

The violence had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone.

Justice Dhingra, who had retired from Delhi high court, had dealt with several high-profile cases including the 2001 Parliament Attack case as trial judge.

He was recently in the news for heading a one-man panel that probed Haryana land scam allegedly involving Robert Vadra, the son-in-law UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Justice Dhingra as the judge of the trial court had dealt with 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases and in about 16 cases, his judgment had resulted in conviction of accused persons.

An advocate, who has been associated with the cases, said Justice Dhingra as a trial court judge had in 1990s conducted the trial of a riots case in Trilokpuri area of East Delhi and had awarded death sentence to main accused Kishori Lal and another.

The high court had confirmed the death sentence on Kishori Lal which was later commuted to life by the Supreme Court.

The death sentence of another accused was commuted to life sentence by the high court itself.

Abhishek Dular, who served as Superintendent of Police in Shimla, is currently on central deputation with Central Bureau of Investigation and has probed the sensational Bulandsahar highway gang rape case.

Rajdeep Singh, the third member of the new SIT, was a 1979 batch IPS officer who recently retired as Special Director General of Border Security Force.

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, had yesterday said 'we have perused the report of the Supervisory Committee. On perusal of the same, we find that the SIT has not done further investigation in respect of 186 cases'.

It had said that with regard to the nature of cases, "It would be appropriate that a fresh SIT should be constituted for carrying on the further investigation."

The earlier supervisory body, which had submitted its final report, had comprised former apex court judges Justice J M Panchal and Justice K S P Radhakrishnan.

On August 16 last year, the apex court had appointed the supervisory panel to examine the SIT's decision to close 241 cases in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots matter.

The Centre had said that out of 250 riots cases which were probed by the SIT, closure reports were filed in 241. It had said nine cases were still being investigated by the SIT and two being probed by the CBI.

The apex court had on March 24, 2017, asked the Centre to place before it the files pertaining to the 199 anti-Sikh riots cases which the SIT set up earlier by the home ministry had decided to close.

The SIT was headed by Pramod Asthana, an IPS officer of 1986 batch, and had Rakesh Kapoor, a retired district and sessions judge, and Kumar Gyanesh, an additional deputy commissioner of Delhi Police, as its members.

Petitioner S Gurlad Singh Kahlon had earlier told the bench that a total of 293 riot-related cases were taken up for scrutiny by the earlier SIT which had decided to close 199 of them after scrutiny.

Kahlon, a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, had sought the court's direction for setting up another SIT to ensure speedy justice to the riot victims.
Seventeen people have died in Southern California mudslides and another 17 are missing.

IMAGE: Family members inspect the inside of a home covered in mud following the mudslides in Montecito, California, US. Photograph: Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department/Reuters

The death toll climbed to 17 on Wednesday as emergency workers pulled bodies from a river of knee-deep mud and continued to search grimy debris and ruins for the more than a dozen people still missing.

Officials say the deluge destroyed 100 houses and damaged 300 others after debris spread across a wide swath of Montecito -- a wealthy enclave of about 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles that is home to a number of high profile celebrities.

The debris was able to rush down on to the community because the hillside vegetation which would have ordinarily impeded it was stripped during the catastrophic wildfires last month.

IMAGE: A search dog looks for victims in damaged homes after a mudslide in Montecito, California, US. Photograph: Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department/Reuters

Residents have now started returning home to assess the damage to their properties.

Along Hot Springs Road, where at least two homes were carried off their foundations, bulldozers cleared muck and debris from areas already searched.

IMAGE: Emergency personnel search through debris and mud flow after the mudslide. Officials say the deluge destroyed 100 houses and damaged 300 others after debris spread across a wide swath of Montecito. Photograph: Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department/Reuters

Utility crews have begun the laborious task of repairing downed power lines and snapped telephone poles.

IMAGE: Abadoned cars stuck in flooded water on the freeway after the mudslide. Photograph: Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department/Reuters

Some 500 firefighters and other rescue workers continue the hard task of searching through the debris for survivors.

IMAGE: Some 500 firefighters and other rescue workers continue the hard task of searching through the debris for survivors. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
You dont have to be a nature-lover to appreciate these captivating shots taken from around the world.

The Natural History Museum has released its shortlist for its celebrated Peoples Choice Award.

This remarkable gallery of finalists was selected from almost 50,000 submissions from 92 countries. The Peoples Choice Award winner will be announced on February 13.

From birds bursting with colour to giraffes to fish were not used to seeing -- here are some of the pictures.

(Click on the photos for full-screen resolution)
Picking up the pieces won't be easy for the families of the missing fishermen.

More than the compensation, what they seek is closure, discovers A Ganesh Nadar in Kanyakumari, one of the districts worst affected by the cyclone fury.



Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

On November 30, 2017, a devastating cyclone ripped through southern Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the Lakshwadeep islands.

It destroyed everything in its path and took away numerous lives, leaving behind orphaned families and broken villages.

Five weeks later, the people who found themselves in Ockhi's way have yet to recover, like the residents of Toothoor, a fishing village on the west coast of Kanyakumari that is festooned with banners.

Some banners mourn the dead while others pray for those missing in Ockhi's wake.

The banners are all over the village, wherever you look.

A fisherman sits alone setting his net right; the net looks entangled in a hundred places as he patiently sorts it out.

Nearby, groups of fishermen play cards, their laughter and apparent normalcy hiding the innate sorrow the village feels over the missing.

Sons, brothers, husbands, fathers have been lost at sea.

Three mechanised boats carrying 15 fishermen each left this village and never returned.

Some fishermen went to sea in smaller boats, the wooden vallams.

On the night of November 29, two vallams left together with four fishermen on each boat, hoping to return the next night.

The next morning Ochki struck with all its fury.

Vijayamary was at home with her 17-year-old daughter when all hell broke loose.

Her husband A Alvery, 45, was on one of the vallams and she feared for his life.

Attempts to call him on his mobile phone were fruitless. Two days later, two of his companions were rescued by the coast guard off the Kerala coast.

When they came back to the village they told Vijayamary that Alvery was alive four hours before the coast guard arrived. But he collapsed and could no longer hold onto the logs that the fishermen were hanging onto.

By the time the fishermen were rescued by the coast guard, they had already spent 48 hours floating in the sea.

"They were lucky because of the speed at which the Kerala government started search operations -- a day after the disaster," says Nishant, Alvery's brother-in-law.

"The Tamil Nadu government could have started it (search operations) earlier, but they did not," Nishant complains, adding, "Their entire attention was on the RK Nagar election while the central government was busy with the Gujarat election."

"The inactivity of our (Tamil Nadu) government caused the most deaths," says Nishant.

His view is at odds with what Tamil Nadu Relief Commissioner Dr K Sathyagopal told me earlier: "On the 30th morning we evacuated thousands or the death toll would have been much higher."



IMAGE: A banner in Toothoor, Kanyakumari, announcing the names of the missing and dead fishermen. Photograph: A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com

Though news of Alvery's death reached his family a week later, the absence of a body kept their hope alive.

Much later, he was identified in the morgue at a hospital in Kozhikode, Kerala, by matching his DNA with that of his only daughter.

"We went with his daughter to fetch his body -- you can imagine that teenage girl's trauma," says Nishant. "We travelled 480 km by road to get him back. The cyclone had carried him that far."

Alvery was brought back to his village and buried on January 5, 2018.

Gilbert, who was on the same boat as Alvery, is still missing. The fishermen on the other vallams are considered to have died at sea.

The Kozhikode hospital told Alvery's family that they would get the death certificate after a month. Thereafter, the family will need to apply for a legal heir certificate and then approach the government for the promised Rs 20 lakh compensation for families of the dead.

"Within 48 hours of the application," Tamil Nadu Relief Commissioner Dr Sathyagopal had assured me, "We will give the compensation."

Four days after the burial, says Vijayamary, not a single government official has visited her.

She is not worried about the government compensation, she is sure it will come. What worries her is that Alvary's mother will also try to apply for the money.

"The money is for our daughter, I hope they give it to me," says the worried widow, sighing, "He has been fishing for 30 years, but couldn't survive this cyclone."

While the Tamil Nadu government says 200 fishermen are still missing, the fishermen in Toothoor give a much higher figure.

Father Churchill, who works with the fishing community, says around 221 fishermen are missing.

"13 are still missing from Toothoor, 42 from nearby Chinnathurai are missing, 150 from Vallavilai are missing -- and this estimate is only from this area," a fisherman in Toothoor points out.

On January 8 another body came back to Toothoor from Kozhikode. John owned one of the mechanised boats that had gone missing.

"There are 30 bodies in a Kozhikode hospital, 28 in a Thiruvananthapuram hospital still to be identified," says a fisherman. "We are waiting for the DNA tests for final closure."

Search operations still continue in the vast ocean. Cyclone Ockhi had scattered the boats as far as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Lakshwadeep. Two boats were said to have reached Oman in the Persian Gulf.

Meanwhile, a Class 11 student sits in her classroom staring out of the window at the vast ocean where her father used to fish to feed his family.

In his death he ensured that his family received enough money to educate her further, for her marriage and to settle down in life.

Rs 20 lakh is a huge amount for a fisherman's family in a tiny hamlet, but her tears convey that she would prefer her father over all the money in the world.
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Aetna reportedly has abandoned its plan to move its headquarters to New York City from Hartford, weeks after the insurer left open the question of relocating on the heels of a merger agreement with CVS Health based in Rhode Island.

Crains New York reported a $9.6 million incentive package for Aetna is no longer in effect after the company decided not to move forward with the relocation, citing the New York City Economic Development Corp. An Aetna spokesperson reiterated all Aetna locations will be evaluated as part of the integration planning process with CVS, in response to a query by Hearst Connecticut Media.

As previously reported by Hearst Connecticut Media, Aetna left unanswered in early December employees questions on whether it would complete the move, which at last report would cost the company $84 million to move some 250 of its nearly 6,000 Connecticut employees to the Chelsea district of New York City. Coupled with additional incentives from New York state, the Aetna incentive package totaled some $34 million.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasios office estimated last June the city would see $146 million in economic benefits as a result of the Aetna move, with CEO Mark Bertolini having stated the company would consider additional investments there.

New York Citys incentives were to have included $4.3 million to offset sales taxes Aetna would have owed in investing in the new headquarters; $3.8 million in property tax benefits over 10 years; and additional sales tax benefits and a business incentive rate discount over the same span valued at $1.5 million.

Last May, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy disclosed his prior overtures to match any other states incentives to keep Aetnas headquarters in Hartford, an offer the company did not take at the time.

Aetna ... is competing for programmers, designers and other talent  what I call intellectual capital  with the Googles and Facebooks of the world, said David Greenbaum, president of the New York division of Vornado Realty Trust, speaking during an August conference call on his companys efforts to develop the site that Aetna had chosen as its headquarters. Weve seen the same phenomenon in Chicago, where companies such as Allstate, Caterpillar and Conagra have moved to the market in part to rebrand themselves to recruit the best potential employees. As these old and new companies fight for the same talent pool, so too are they increasingly pursuing the same real estate.

Includes prior reporting by Ken Dixon.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
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ORANGE  More than 300 people will lose their jobs  and some area warehouse-club members potentially left in the lurch  when the Sams Club stores in Orange and Manchester close their doors Jan. 26.

Shoppers were confused Thursday morning when they arrived at the Sams Club on Boston Post Road to find it closed  and then said they were angry and felt betrayed after learning the wholesale warehouse would be closing permanently later this month without any notice.

Officials with Sams Club told the Connecticut Department of Labor Thursday they will close the warehouse club in those two locations later this month, in a move that will leave 306 people out of work.

The Orange store, which is located 2 Boston Post Road, employs 155 people, with the remainder of workers based out of the Manchester store, according to notice filed with the state Labor Department. State officials have not been notified of any plans to close the Newington location of Sams Club.

Both the Orange and Manchester stores were closed Thursday as officials with the Bentonville, Arkansas, company, which is a subsidiary of retail giant Walmart, notified the workers of their fate.

Hourly workers at the Manchester and Orange locations will leave the companys payroll on March 16, while the management team at both locations have until April 13. The Connecticut closings are part of a nationwide plan to close approximately 63 stores, according to Business Insider, a move that likely will result in the elimination of more than 11,000 jobs nationwide.

Company officials were not immediately available for comment, but the Sams Club Twitter account offered up a brief statement.

After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, weve decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy, the retailers Twitter account said Thursday afternoon. Closing clubs is never easy and were committed to working with impacted members and associates through this transition.

All the employees who lose their jobs will have the opportunity to apply for open positions at other Sams Clubs or Walmart facilities, according to a required WARN Notice notice sent to the state Department of Labor and the Orange first selectmans office.

The Sams Club closing are part of a seismic shift in the retail business driven by large numbers of consumers choosing to purchase goods online rather than go to bricks-and-mortar locations, according to Donald Klepper-Smith chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners.

The retail industry is as dynamic as Ive ever seen and I dont necessarily mean that in a good way, Klepper-Smith said.

David Cadden, a professor emeritus at Quinnipiac University's School of Business, said he was surprised by the closing. Cadden said warehouse clubs, along with luxury goods retailers, have been among the top performers in the retail business.

Sams Club is a members-only warehouse chain that sells groceries, electronics and home goods. It competes against Costco and BJs Wholesale Club, both of which are doing well, even in a tough retail environment, he said.

Cadden said the closings could be for strategic reasons.

Walmart has been fairly aggressive in acquiring e-commerce companies as it looks to compete with Amazon, he said. So it could be a move to free up some cash to make further acquisitions.

Another possibility, he said, is that Walmart could be seeking to avoid a showdown with the U.S. Justice Department over future anti-trust concerns the agency might have.

Customers who drove to Sams Club at 2 Boston Post Road Thursday found the store had closed without any notice. Customers who spoke to the New Haven Register said they felt betrayed and angry.

Within just a few minutes of shocked employees learning the news, word of the closings was quickly posted on Facebook, where customers expressed concern over membership fee refunds, especially for those who recently bought or renewed memberships.

Carlos Ibarra of West Haven said he was upset by the prospect of the Orange store closing permanently. Having just renewed his membership, he feels the store should have sent a letter or something similar in advance to let people know.

Loren Scarinzi of Orange was surprised by the news, saying the store is always open. She renewed her membership in December.

Im upset because that was $100, and [my husband and I] are moving, so we thought we would continue our membership in another state, she said.

Shoppers were not allowed in the Orange store Thursday  except to the pharmacy, to which they were escorted by a guard. One shopper said employees throughout the store were crying and said they had no idea about the closing.

One man, who did not want to identify himself, said his daughter works at the cafe in the Orange store, and he was speechless when she sent him a message saying the store was closing. The cafe was not open Thursday, he said.

I live right here, he said. This is my favorite store. I feel betrayed. ... How do you treat your customers like that?

Shaun Masslieno of Stamford said he has worked for Sams Club for about two years and said he is now feeling stressed about having to find a new job in just a few weeks.

[But] theres nothing I can do about it, he said.

Orange First Selectman Jim Zeoli said on Facebook that he has heard from many people who are unhappy about the closing.

The Big Box stores that were the demise of many small stores years ago are now feeling their own demise by online shopping, he wrote. I was told they are closing stores across the country. I had heard a few weeks ago that Walmarts biggest fear was Amazon.

In an email, Zeoli said the closing is a tragedy for all the employees that need jobs.

I am a member there and will be forced to go elsewhere also, Zeoli wrote.

Walmart on Thursday announced it is boosting its starting salary for employees to $11 an hour and handing out one-time cash bonuses, according to The Associated Press. Walmart says the wage increase benefits all hourly U.S. workers within its stores, including Sams Club, its website and logistics department, according to the AP.

One man outside the Orange store Thursday morning said he doesnt believe it was a coincidence that the announcement of Sams Club closures and Walmarts increase in its employees starting salary happened on the same day. As a former Walmart employee, he said, It sounds like a Walmart deal.

But both Cadden and Klepper-Smith said it is unlikely that the news about the increase in wages and benefits was a significant factor in the Sams Club closings.

Quite frankly, it was something that was overdue in order for them (Walmart) to compete for the best employees, Cadden said. They were losing workers to Costco and BJs. And Walmart was seeing significant turnover levels and a rise in absentee rates.

Klepper-Smith said the decision by Sams Club to close two Connecticut stores is indicative of the difficulties the states economy is having.

Connecticut has more people leaving the state than it is seeing moving in, he said, adding that 428 people are moving out of the state each week. Whats going on in retail right now is a shell game with retailers moving to where they think there consumers will be in the future, not where they are today.

Cadden said the closing of big box stores is problematic for Connecticut and other states where the economy is sluggish. Commercial landlords who are unwilling to subdivide big-box stores into smaller spaces are finding that their stores are remaining vacant, sometimes for years, he said

They really need to do whatever it takes to find new tenants, even if it means carving up the stores into smaller spaces, Cadden said. The longer one of these large space remains vacant, the less likely consumers are to seek the shopping center as whole as being a vibrant space. Its like the spread of gangrene.

Other retailers are looking to reduce their space levels. Cadden used Kohls as an example, saying the Wisconsin-based department store chain is looking to sublease some of the space in its larger stores to other retailers that might bring in more customers traffic, such as grocery store chains.

Klepper-Smith said one-stop shopping is becoming even more important to retailers who chose to keep their brick-and-mortar stores open.

As he made the comment, the economist was shopping in a Florida Walmart that he described as bigger then anything Ive ever seen.

It has a full grocery store and climate-controlled pods where people can pick-up what theyve ordered from Walmart online, Klepper-Smith said. They have a drive-through pharmacy and huge amounts of parking. But the grocery business is the key, because if you dont have what the consumer wants, theyre going to go elsewhere.
Your Business Plans Missing Link-Cybersecurity

TORRINGTON  Is your business prepared in the event of a cybersecurity breach? Now is the time to take stock of your cybersecurity health, including the importance of securing information through best cybersecurity practices; identifying your risk and the types of cyber threats; and learning best practices for guarding against cyber threats.

Edward Davis, President of Systems Support Group, Inc. will present the workshop on Jan. 16 at the Chamber offices from 8:30-10:30 a.m.

The fee is $25 per person. Register by calling 860-482-6586 or online at nwctchamberofcommerce.org/calendar.

Marketing in the Digital Era

Are your marketing efforts successful in growing your small business? Find out what topics and concepts you should consider when creating an effective small business marketing planmarket analysis, business differentiation, brand development, promotional options, internet and social media, etc. Seth Duke, Marketing Director of O&G Industries, a member of SCORE and a Certified Business Mentor will present the workshop on Jan. 26 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. at the Chamber. The fee is $25 per person. Register by calling 860-482-6586 or online at nwctchamberofcommerce.org/calendar.

KidsPlay offers parenting programs

Torrington  The Community Family Learning Center Resource Library at KidsPlay has added a number of new parenting titles for November: Early Start Potty Training by Linda Sonna; Baby Minds; Brain-Building Games your Baby Will Love by Linda Acredolo; Baby Sign Language Basics by Monta Briant; The Parents Guide to Speech and Language Problems by Debbie Feit; Late Talking Children; A Symptom or a Stage? by Stephen Camarata; and The Out-of-Sync Child has Fun; Activities for Kids with Sensory Processing Disorder by Carol Kranowitz. For information, Call or text: 860-800-CFLC or visit www.torringtoncflc.org.

Food bank seeks volunteers

TORRINGTON Friendly Hands Food Bank is looking for people to be part of its board of directors.

If interested, call Maureen Mo Hubert at 860-482-3338, Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or stop by Friendly Hands Food Bank on 50 King St,. Torrington.

Community project applications wanted

TORRINGTON  The Torrington Chapter of UNICO National will accepT applications for community projects until Jan. 31, 2018.

Community projects funds are made available to nonprofit and public agencies.

Applications and criteria can be obtained by mailing a request to John Ciesco at 199 Main St. Torrington, Ct. 06790, email ciesco@optonline.net or call 860-489-3660.

Operation Fuel offers winter energy assistance

Operation Fuel and its statewide network of fuel banks has begun its winter energy assistance program.

Operation Fuels statewide network of more than 100 fuel banks began taking applications on Dec. 1. Individuals who need energy assistance should call 211.

Now in its 40th year, Operation Fuel provides emergency energy assistance to lower- and moderate-income working families and individuals, the elderly, and disabled individuals who are in financial crisis.

For more information on Operation Fuel or to make a donation, go to www.operationfuel.org. Donations also can be sent to Operation Fuel, 75 Charter Oak Avenue, Suite 2-240, Hartford, CT. 06106.

Food pantry needs support

LITCHFIELD  An increasing number of residents come to The Food Pantry at St. Michaels Community House on the third Saturday of each month, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., where they can receive canned and packaged food, fresh bread, eggs and vegetables, and frozen meals.

The Pantry needs support, and invites donations of food, cash, and time. The church is always open, and you can drop off food donations any time in the north pews.

Contact St. Michaels at 860 567 9465, office@stmichaels-litchfield.org, and mail checks made out to St. Michaels, with Food Pantry on the memo line, to PO Box 248, Litchfield, CT 06759.

Great Decisions group forming at library

GOSHEN  The Goshen Public Library is hosting the Foreign Policy Association Great Decisions Series this year from January through April on alternate Mondays starting Jan. 22 at 4 p.m.

This years topics include: The waning of Pax Americana?; Russias foreign policy; China and America: the new geopolitical equation; Media and foreign policy; Turkey: a partner in crisis; U.S. global engagement and the military; South Africas fragile democracy; and Global health: progress and challenges.

This year we are also considering having a second group if there are interested participants who cannot make it to Mondays at 4 p.m., and those who are interested are asked to call and leave your name regarding a second group time.

Course books are published by the Foreign Policy Association. The library will ask for a donation of $20 to help defray the cost of the program. Each session will include a short video clip by subject specialists (produced by FPA) and group discussion time based on the articles that participants read prior to class. This is an excellent time to learn about current events and meet new people.

The Goshen Public Library has been serving the residents of Goshen and the surrounding communities since 1902. The library can be found at 42 North St., Goshen. Call to register for the class and to reserve a book at 860-491-3234. The complete list of class dates will be available at our website: www.goshenpublib.org.

Nature center to hold winter hike

WOODBURY  Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust is holding a winter hike on Saturday, Jan. 13 at the Van Vleck Sanctuary in Woodbury.

The cold winters of New England can be hard on us even with heated houses to keep us warm. Our wildlife is not as lucky as we are. Join naturalist Edward Boisits on this walk to learn ways the wildlife around us copes with the ice and snow.

The group will meet at 10 a.m. at the Flanders Studio parking lot which is located at the intersection of Flanders and Church Hill Roads in Woodbury. This will be about a two hour walk and appropriate for all skill levels. Please dress appropriately for the weather.

The hike is open to the public and free of charge, though donations that go towards Flanders programming always welcomed. Those interested may register online at www.flandersnaturecenter.org or call 203-263-3711, ext. 10, for more information.

Lourdes Gift Shop changes hours

LITCHFIELD  The Grotto Gift Shop at the Shrine of Lourdes in Litchfield, 50 Montfort Rd., Rte. 118,Litchfield will be open on weekends only starting Jan. 6 from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., weather permitting. A 30 percent discount will be given on selected Christmas items during this time. Regular hours will resume in March. For further information, call 860-567-1041 or email: lourdesshrinect@gmail.com.
Beijing and Phnom Penh on Thursday signed billions of dollars worth of agreements to improve Cambodias infrastructure, including a U.S. $2 billion deal to build a new expressway linking the capital with the coastal resort city of Sihanoukville.



The deals came at the end of a two-day visit to Cambodia by Chinese premier Li Keqiang, who had traveled to Phnom Penh for the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation forum, outlining Chinas plans to build dams along the Southeast Asian waterway.



Li met with his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between their two nations and oversaw the signing of 19 agreements that included funding for a new international airport in Phnom Penh, the construction of a national transmission line connecting Cambodia to Laos power grid, and a hospital.



The two nations also signed an agreement through which China will fund the construction of a 190-kilometer (120-mile) highway from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville that Cambodian Public Works and Transport Minister Sun Chanthol told the Associated Press will cost U.S. $2 billion and will take at least 44 months to complete after beginning construction this year.



China pledged support through a joint investment for the launch of Cambodias first communications satellite, the U.S. $150 million Techo 1 project, which Cambodian Minister of Post and Telecommunications Tram Iv Tek said will take at least three years to complete.



In exchange, Cambodia pledged to support Chinas international goals, including its claims to disputed territory in the South China Sea.



The two sides hailed the important and fruitful outcomes of the visit in a joint statement issued after the agreements were signed.



International influence



The slew of deals comes weeks after the U.S. and EU condemned the Cambodian governments targeting of the opposition ahead of a general election scheduled for July this year, which they said had called the legitimacy of the vote into question, withdrawing electoral support and placing trade agreements with the Southeast Asian nation under review.



Authorities arrested opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) chief Kem Sokha in September on charges of treason, and two months later the Supreme Court ruled to disband his party for allegedly planning a rebellion with backing from Washington, essentially eliminating any challenge to Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) ahead of the election this year.



Hun Sen has repeatedly stressed that his country does not need foreign governments to fund its elections, or international recognition of their legitimacy, saying acceptance by Cambodians is sufficient.



He has also said that he will continue to welcome aid from China, which is poised to overtake the U.S. as the worlds top foreign donor, and which is currently Cambodias largest international aid provider.



China typically offers aid to countries without many of the prerequisites that the U.S. and EU place on donations, such as improvements to human rights.



Cambodia has said China will provide various equipment for the July election, including ballot boxes and booths.



Last week, Chinese vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou said that in addition to being its largest source of international aid, China is also Cambodias largest source of foreign investment, its largest trade partner, and its largest source of foreign tourists.



China has provided Cambodia with millions of dollars in aid and investment in the past decade, grants Cambodia tariff-free status on hundreds of products, and has forgiven the countrys debt.



CPP warning



Also on Thursday, CPP spokesperson Sok Ey San warned CNRP officials to cease lobbying for international pressure on Cambodia to reinstate their party or further criminalize themselves under Cambodian law through rebellious acts against the government.



In a statement sent through the Telegram messaging app, Sok Ey San called Kem Sokhas daughter, Kem Monovithyaa CNRP permanent committee member who has been gathering support for her party from Western governmentsthe daughter of a rebel, whose campaign will not succeed.



In recent months, Kem Monovithya has attended a panel meeting with the U.S. and EU permanent missions to the United Nations, where she requested that Cambodias seat at the world body be withheld, called for economic sanctions against Cambodias government, and requested visa restrictions be put in place to punish Cambodian officials responsible for curbing democracy in the country.



In addition to condemning those activities, Sok Ey San slammed Kem Monovithya for urging senior U.S. State Department officials to freeze the assets of Cambodian officials who deposit money abroad and calling on Washington to pressure Japan to withdraw its electoral assistance to Cambodia.



Last week, Japanwhich along with the EU is the largest funder of Cambodias 2018 electionssaid it has no intention to pull its electoral aid ahead of this years elections.



Japan has already provided Cambodias National Election Commission (NEC) with computers to assist with the ballots and has faced criticism of its continued support from observers, such as New York-based Human Rights Watch.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
The Jinghong dam on the Mekong River in China's Yunnan province, upriver from Laos and other Southeast Asian countries, in an undated photo.

An action plan agreed by the leaders of China and five Southeast Asian neighbors to step up industrialization and urbanization in their common Mekong River region has sharpened longstanding concerns about the environmental damage from Chinese dam-building on the key water source.

Mekong-Lancang Cooperation forum, co-chaired by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and attended by leaders from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, wrapped up Wednesday with a Phnom Penh Declaration to promote greater cooperation in managing and utilizing river resources.

China, which refers to the Mekong as the Lancang, has built eight dams on the river since the 1990s and has a dozen or more planned or under construction on the 5,000 km (3,100 mile) river that originates on the Tibetan Plateau and empties into the South China Sea in Vietnam. Laos is also building a planning a series of dams to boost power generation.

While the action plan focuses very much on infrastructure development, leaders were paying less attention to the projects environmental impact, said Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaign Coordinator for the NGO International Rivers.

Environmental activists in Cambodia told RFAs Khmer Service they were concerned the six leaders overlooked threats to the livelihoods and food security of people who rely on the Mekong in a push to reap benefits from development. Some 60 million people rely on the river and its tributaries for food, water and transport.

I dont know what kind of development the summit focused on exactly to help improve the river populations basic needs in their daily living by improving or reducing poverty along the Mekong River. They did not address these issues, said environmental activist Chum Huot.

He said that residents of the Mekong basin have been hit by water course shifts, falling fish catches or flooding.

How can the government solve these problems and help river communities improve their incomes? They didnt address these issues.

Chinese influence seen expanding

A resident of a Mekong river village in Cambodias Stung Treng province, Sok Veasna, said a thousand families will be affected by the Lower Sesan 2 dam on the Sesan River, a major Mekong tributary.

We are concerned about development along the Mekong River without transparency and comprehensive studies, he told RFA.

The Lower Sesan 2 dam is merely one dam constructed on a tributary of the Mekong, the Sesan River, and yet it has had a huge impact. The Mekong River will see greater impact should such developers fail to carry out proper studies, research and analysis, added Sok Veasna.

Others voiced concerns that China and its interests would dominate the Mekong forum, deepening Beijings influence in a region of authoritarian governments.

The Mekong-Lancang Cooperation mechanism is good, Cambodian political analyst Lao Mong Hay told RFA.

Yet Im afraid China will take this opportunity to employ the Mekong River or its MLC cooperation mechanism as a pretext to further exert its influence so as to reap both economic and strategic benefits from the region.

Mong Hay said Chinas One-Road One-Belt initiative, under which most Mekong and related development plans fall, shows that China is trying to exert its influence throughout the whole of Asia and, in particular, Southeast Asia.

The China-led forum, set up in 2016, is seen by many in the region as a rival to the Mekong River Commission, which was formed in the 1950s but excludes China and Myanmar. It also competes with a 2009 U.S. program called the Lower Mekong Initiative, involving Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

Reported by RFA's Lao and Khmer Services. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
A court in Cambodias capital Phnom Penh sentenced a Cambodian woman to a one-year jail term on Thursday for posting a video on her Facebook page accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of ordering the murder more than a year ago of government critic Kem Ley.



Hin Van Sreypov, aged 37 and a former member of the now-banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, was also handed a one million riel (U.S. $249) fine following her conviction in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on a charge of incitement to commit a felony, according to local media reports.



No explanation of the charge or description of the felony she had allegedly attempted to incite was provided by authorities, the Cambodian newspaper Phnom Penh Post said in a Jan. 11 report.



Popular political commentator Kem Ley was gunned down in broad daylight in Phnom Penh on July 10, 2016, just days after discussing on an RFA Khmer call-in show a report by the London-based group Global Witness detailing the wealth of the family of Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for 32 years.



Authorities arrested Hin Van Sreyov, also known as Heng Leakhena, on July 12, 2017 at a local bus station after she posted an accusation of Hun Sens involvement in the murder on her Facebook page on July 9.



She had just attended a ceremony in the Tram Kak district of Cambodias Takeo province marking the first anniversary of Kem Leys death.



Though a former soldier was sentenced in March 2017 to life in prison for the crime, government involvement in Kem Leys slaying is still widely suspected, with at least one other Cambodian now serving time behind bars for asserting Hun Sens connection to the crime.



In August 2017, social and political commentator Kim Sok was sentenced to 18 months in prison on charges of defamation and incitement and ordered to pay hefty fines both to Hun Sen and to the countrys government, sources said in earlier reports.



Kim Sok was jailed on Feb. 17 after Hun Sen accused him of implying that his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) had orchestrated Kem Leys murder, though Kim Sok said that he had only been repeating what many Cambodians believe.



Rights groups frequently accuse Cambodias judiciary of lacking independence, saying the government seeks to limit freedom of expression by using the courts to stifle criticism of Hun Sen and the CPP.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Prosecutors in Vietnam on Thursday recommended lengthy prison sentences for a former oil executive and a recently dismissed senior Communist Party official at their trial on charges of corruption and economic mismanagement related to millions of dollars of losses to the energy and banking sectors.



Former Politburo member Dinh La Thang, 57, faces charges of economic mismanagement, causing losses of U.S. $35 million in oil company investments in Vietnams Ocean Bank, while former PetroVietnam Construction chairman Trinh Xuan Thanh, 51, is accused of embezzlement and losses of more than U.S. $150 million.



The Supreme Peoples Procuracy in Hanoi called for a life sentence for corruption and an additional 13-14 years in prison for intentional misconduct for Thanh, who Germany has accused Vietnam of kidnapping from a Berlin park and taking him home by force to face charges. Prosecutors could have sought a sentence of death for Thanh.



The procuracy also suggested 14-15 years in prison for misconduct for Thang, who is a former chairman of PetroVietnam and the most senior politician to face trial in decades in Vietnam, which has launched a crackdown on corruption in recent months that has netted dozens of former officials and bankers.



Thanh has denied accusations that he was responsible for cash bribes to officials, while Thang has said that a decision by former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the Politburo led to PetroVietnams losses.



The two men are among a group of 22 who were put on trial for charges of deliberate mismanagement, embezzlement, or both, as part of the crackdown, which has widened since general secretary of the Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong won a power struggle with Nguyen Tan Dung last year.



Members of the public said Thursday that the trial was an uncommon opportunity to see justice meted out to Vietnams elite, who they felt are rarely held accountable for their actions.



The members of the Politburo should be brought to court to clarify the case and to make sure that those who violated the law are punished, Ho Chi Minh City resident Tran Le Hoa said in a post on his Facebook page.



Another resident of Ho Chi Minh City, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, expressed frustration that 90 million Vietnamese people had to work so hard to pay taxes, which in the end went into the pockets of Thang and his accomplices.



Therefore, the trial against him and his collaborators makes me feel vindicated.



Deep connections



Observers told RFAs Vietnamese Service that Vietnams government is using the highly-publicized trial to send a message that it will not tolerate graft, and expected the fallout to be widespread.



Im sure that Vietnams Ministry of Information and Communications is allowing the foreign press to watch the trial  as part of their plan to use the media firstly to spread information, and secondly to advertise their anti-corruption campaign to the world, Ha Hoang Hop, a researcher at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, told RFAs Vietnamese Service.



Vo Van Tao, a Nha Trang-based independent journalist, said it was likely that there had been very sensitive statements at the trial which reporters were forced to delete.



Its going to be dramatic in the coming days when Thang reveals the names of all those connected to his case, including his superiors, and people in the government, he added.



Others suggested that while Thang deserves to be put to trial, he was merely a pawn in a larger power struggle, and that those who are directly responsible for the economic mismanagement will never have to answer for their actions.



What has happened to Thang makes me think of the idiom we reap what we sow, Binh Duong-based activist Nguyen Thien Nhan said.



Ultimately, I think what happened to him is the result of fighting among the different factions of the party.



Ho Chi Minh City-based rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh said Thangs statement that he was acting on decisions made by higher-level authorities is likely true.



Although Vietnams Politburo does not have any official legal status, it always intervenes in every decisioneven the governments most rudimentary economic policies, he said.



Unfortunately, the Politburo is untouchable when it comes to legal process.



Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Emily Peyman. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Todd P. Haymore, Virginias outgoing secretary of commerce and trade, will continue working in economic development as he moves back into the private sector after more than 10 years in state government.

The law firm Hunton & Williams LP has hired Haymore to lead a new practice group that will work with clients seeking business expansion and global trade opportunities.

Haymore, 48, who is not a lawyer but has a masters degree in business, will start work March 1 as managing director of the firms new Global Economic Development, Commerce and Government Relations Group. The practice group will be based in the firms Richmond office.

Hunton & Williams is a law firm I have long admired from my time in the private sector and public sector, and they have offered me an opportunity that was just too good to pass up, Haymore said Thursday morning.

This is a natural extension of what I have been doing in the public sector for the last 10 years, helping to drive more economic development and commerce opportunities right here in Virginia, he said.

Haymore has served in state government since 2007 for three governors, earning a reputation as a bipartisan advocate for economic development in Virginia.

He has served as Virginias secretary of commerce and trade since 2016 under Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

He previously served for six years as secretary of agriculture and forestry under McAuliffe, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor, Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Haymore was commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services from 2007 to 2010 under Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine.

Gov.-elect Ralph Northam this week chose Esther C. Lee, 43, vice chair of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, to serve as his secretary of commerce and trade. Haymore did not want to seek another appointment.

The pipeline of (economic development) projects that are waiting for Governor-elect Northam and Secretary-designee Lee is very impressive, Haymore said. I am really looking forward to turning that portfolio of projects over to them, and watching them get as many as possible to come to Virginia.

Before entering state government, Haymore was an executive in the tobacco leaf industry. He worked for Universal Corp., the Richmond-based global tobacco leaf merchant, from 1999 to 2007 and for Danville-based tobacco leaf company Dimon Inc. from 1998 to 1999.

From 1991 to 1997, he was a legislative assistant and communications director for then-U.S. Rep. L.F. Payne.

A native of Danville, Haymore received his undergraduate degree from the University of Richmond and a masters in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Given Todds leading role in facilitating economic development projects and international trade opportunities from positions in the private and public sectors, he has a deep understanding of the interface of business and government, Hunton & Williams Managing Partner Wally Martinez said in a statement from the firm. He has worked with hundreds of global companies and knows the challenges they face with local, state and federal government, and also on the international stage.

His leadership of our new Global Economic Development, Commerce and Government Relations Group will help our clients navigate the numerous challenges they face as they execute their economic development and expansion strategies.
A former teen gang member with a troubled upbringing was sentenced Wednesday to serve 20 years in prison for fatally shooting and trying to rob a Chesterfield County man in a botched drug robbery after the defendant and three accomplices traveled here from North Carolina.

Jamaria S. Chop Crawford, who was 16 at the time of the Nov. 1, 2016, killing, testified at his sentencing hearing in Chesterfield Circuit Court that he was very sorry for his action and felt like he was going down a very bad road, said his attorney, Russ Stone.

But Crawford, now 18, told the court that since hes been incarcerated, hes earned his GED and had plans for the future, Stone said.

He apologized to the (victims) family and said hes been giving counsel to his younger siblings on not to go down the road that he had chose to go down, Stone said.

The defense also provided evidence that Crawford had a very bad upbringing that involved being sexually abused twice as a child, at ages 4 and 10. He had been largely raised by his grandmother, who acknowledged that she was physically abused in front of him while he was being raised, Stone said.

Apparently taking into consideration Crawfords troubled past, Circuit Judge David E. Johnson sentenced Crawford to a total of 53 years in prison with 33 years suspended on convictions of second-degree murder, felony use of a firearm and attempted robbery in the slaying of Jon-Eric R. Schwarz V, 30.

The punishment was in the upper range of state sentencing guidelines calculated for the defendant, which called for an active prison term of 13 years and nine months at the low end, and 23 years at the high end.

Stone said he believes the judge definitely took into account Crawfords lamentable upbringing.

Judge Johnson did say at one point that he wished that he was able to give Mr. Crawford justice for the things that had occurred to him during his childhood, Stone said. He said he couldnt do that so he just has to deal with the case thats in front of him right now.

Although Crawford was identified as the gunman, he received a lower sentence than one of his co-defendants, Darrius A. FreshyBeatz Ellis, 22, who essentially devised the plan to drive to Chesterfield to find someone to rob of drugs and/or money, and urged Crawford and two other teen defendants to come along.

The four defendants ended up targeting Schwarz because he was once Ellis partner in selling marijuana in Chesterfield, but the two had a falling-out. Ellis formerly lived in Chesterfield and graduated from L.C. Bird High School.

Certainly what we were arguing to the judge is that even though Jamaria was the one who pulled the trigger, the reason all four of those young men went over to that place was because of a dispute that Darrius Ellis was having with Mr. Schwarz, Stone said. So essentially our argument was that Jamaria was the tool that Darrius Ellis was using.

Chesterfield prosecutor Ken Chitty made a similar observation at Ellis sentencing hearing in October, noting that Ellis let his three teenage accomplices do his dirty work for him. A different judge sentenced Ellis to serve 25 years in prison.

According to a summary of evidence, Ellis conferred with the three co-defendants in Salisbury, N.C., on Halloween 2016 in planning their impromptu trip to Virginia.

After arriving just before midnight and initially checking into a motel on Jefferson Davis Highway, the defendants drove to a residence in the 2700 block of Perlock Road, about a block from the victims home. They hung out there for about five hours with three teenage girls, one of whom was Ellis former girlfriend. The girls told Ellis where Schwarz was living.

While Ellis stayed behind, the girls and the three younger defendants made a series of trips to talk with Schwarz at a shed where he was living behind a residence in the 2900 block of Galena Avenue. The shed was furnished with such amenities as electricity, air conditioning, a television and furniture.

In the end, all four defendants piled into Ellis car and circled the neighborhood, with Ellis egging on Crawford to carry out their robbery plan.

They eventually stopped near Schwarzs shed. Crawford, Deashun Hargrave, 17, and Najee Palmer, 18, got out and as they approached the shed, Schwarz saw them, rose to his feet and began walking to the door. Thats when Crawford, carrying a handgun, opened fire, hitting Schwarz in the abdomen  severing his aorta.

Without obtaining any money or drugs, the four then fled back to North Carolina, where they were arrested eight days later. Police said all four were affiliated with the Grape Street Crips.

Hargrave and Palmer are expected to enter guilty pleas to similar charges on Jan. 25 and Feb. 13, respectively.
Police have arrested a 20-year-old Petersburg man in the shooting death of a 42-year-old Williamsburg resident, who was found dead just after midnight Thursday in Petersburg.

Killed was Elwood A. Humphries.

In a statement released late Thursday afternoon, Petersburg police said Anton B. Robinson, 20, had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Humphries' slaying. Robinson also was charged with using a firearm in the killing.

Police said they were summoned at 12:09 a.m. Thursday to Lakewood Drive at South Crater Road for a report of a shot fired.

Responding officers found the victim dead in the 3700 block of Westwood Drive.

Police said Robinson was arrested with the assistance from the Sussex County Sheriff's Office, the Emporia Police Department and Petersburg residents.

Authorities declined to provide any additional details, such as what connection, if any, the suspect had to the victim, or why the victim was in Petersburg.

"What we have released ... is all that we are releasing at this time," said Petersburg police spokesman Lt. Emanuel Chambliss. "Once more is available to be released it will be shared with all."
The first of four defendants to be tried in the 2016 Labor Day weekend killings of two young men at an illegal mansion party in the upscale community of Chesdin Landing was found guilty of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter Wednesday at the conclusion of a three-day jury trial.

A panel of six men and six women deliberated about five hours before also finding Devin D. Taylor, 22, guilty of using a firearm in the killing of one of the men and unlawfully shooting into the house where Marc Starkes, 24, of Amelia County, and Duval Turner Jr., 22, of Richmond, were fatally wounded on Sept. 4, 2016.

The jurors decided that Taylor was guilty of second-degree murder in Turners slaying, and of involuntary manslaughter in Starkes death.

After hearing additional evidence and deliberating 40 minutes more, the panel recommended Taylor serve 11 years for the murder count, five years for involuntary manslaughter, three years for use of a firearm and one year for shooting into the occupied house, for a total of 20 years. The maximum punishment for all four offenses is 58 years.

Formal sentencing was set for April 24.

Taylor had little to no visible reaction to the verdicts as Chesterfield County Circuit Judge Lynn Brice read them aloud from the bench.

Defense attorney Scott Miles said after the proceeding that Taylor and his family were disappointed with the decision and that his client is considering an appeal.

The decision may set the tone for how prosecutors proceed with the three other cases that are set to be tried in February and March.

A total of seven men were initially charged. Prosecutors for various reasons withdrew charges against four of them over the ensuing months but indicted an additional man in July.

Chief Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Ken Nickels, who prosecuted the case with Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Barbara Cooke, declined to comment after Wednesdays proceedings, citing the three other pending cases.

After the verdicts were returned, Cooke called the father and mother of Turner to testify about how their sons slaying has affected their lives.

We just moved down here to Virginia, (and) it hadnt been 30 days when this happened, said Turners mother, Tequa Banks. We thought it would be better for him. This is the worst thing I ever thought could happen.

I had (Duval) at a young age, and it was like we grew up together, she said. He was my best friend.

Duval Turner Sr. said hes doing his best to keep it together for the rest of my family.

Its going to be hard, he said. My life is in shambles right now.

Taylor was initially charged with second-degree murder of both men, as well as two counts of using a firearm in a felony and one count each of shooting into an occupied dwelling and participation in a criminal street gang. Prosecutors elected not to proceed with the gang offense, and jurors acquitted Taylor of one firearm charge.

In lieu of murder, jurors had the option of finding Taylor guilty of several lesser included offenses, including involuntary manslaughter, maliciously shooting into an occupied dwelling and unlawfully shooting into an occupied dwelling.

The killings garnered considerable attention during the 2016 Labor Day weekend and beyond because of the unusual circumstances. An estimated 300 young people from around the region had converged on the so-called party house after the event was broadcast on Instagram and other social media.

A party participant testified earlier this week that she collected admission from attendees as they arrived, and some of the proceeds were to pay for a DJ and three men dressed in black who served as security guards.

The party organizers did not have permission to use the upscale, 3,800-square-foot custom home, which was roughly 90 percent complete and being built for a family that planned to move in within 30 days.

The home apparently was randomly picked for what is known as a mansion party  well-organized, illegal events that take place across the country in high-end communities.

Taylor admitted in a police interview that during the party he fired a 9 mm pistol he had purchased hours earlier. But he insisted he shot only into the air and not at the house, where the victims were struck by gunfire.

Police recovered a magazine for the gun with seven rounds that Taylor admitted he lost outside the house after gunfire erupted around him. The gun was never recovered; Taylor claimed it had been stolen along with a .40-caliber pistol that he purchased in April 2016.

Since the gun was never found, state firearm experts were unable to match any of the 90 cartridge casings found at the house or the slugs removed from the victims bodies with Taylors weapon.

During this weeks trial, a state firearms examiner testified that at least 12 different guns, most of them 9 mm, were fired at or around the party house based on her analysis of the recovered cartridge casings. Other weapons fired included .40-caliber and .45-caliber semiautomatics.

Starkes was killed by a 9 mm round, while Turner died from a .40-caliber bullet.

Taylor initially told investigators that he did not see anyone fire weapons at or around the house. But in a subsequent interview that he requested, Taylor identified two men who he said he saw fire on a man at the house from the driveway.

Those men  Clayton Mollette Jr. and Tevon J. Todd  were eventually charged with murder, but charges against Todd were withdrawn by prosecutors in November because of the unavailability of witnesses.

State forensic experts determined that eight cartridge casings found outside the party house could be matched to a firearm that was recovered from Todds home; eight other casings were matched to a gun recovered from Kendric Hills home; and 15 casings were matched to a gun confiscated from Djion Bowles residence. Bowles is to be tried in February, Hill in March.
An Arizona man who defrauded a Richmond-based trade association he co-founded was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison.

Ronald Tully, 57, of Gilbert, Ariz., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Hannah Lauck, who also ordered him to make $833,599 in restitution to the Council of Independent Tobacco Manufacturers of America.

According to the government, the Richmond-based trade association, formed in 2003, represents the interests of independent manufacturers through lobbying of federal and state legislatures. The council is funded by membership dues paid by tobacco and tobacco product businesses, the U.S. attorneys office said.

Tully was a founder of the council and also one of its two primary operatives, but was not an employee or paid consultant. He managed the councils checkbook and bank account statements for which his employer, the National Tobacco Co., a council member business, paid him for his time and any expenses incurred while performing council work.

Tullys duties for the council included writing checks to cover its expenses. Prosecutors allege that Tully began defrauding the council by writing council checks payable to himself and later to a consulting company he created.

The money was allegedly deposited into accounts that Tully controlled and spent on personal expenses.
Inside the Pocahontas Building: hallway after hallway of beige office space, all similar in appearance, with a few dead ends.

Elevators do not always go where you think theyre going. The two ways in and out are on separate floors  G and 1. No one has had enough time to explore the basement B yet.

Even some senior Virginia General Assembly staffers got lost Wednesday in a confusing new place on an exciting day when they were reunited with people they have not seen in a year, along with plenty of newbies.

The Pocahontas Building was most recently the offices of the attorney general, which moved into the renovated Barbara Johns Building.

Virginia is about to demolish its old General Assembly Building to make way for a new one. The 14-story Pocahontas Building will be home to legislative staff members for the next four years, and a home for Virginias part-time lawmakers when theyre in Richmond.

How to describe the new locale?

Confusing, said Christie New Craig, a legislative assistant for 17 years who works for Sen. John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake.

Yes, Ive gotten lost, she said.

Trying to find a restroom was not easy. She meandered through multiple stairwells and found that some did not take her where she thought they would.

You can go inside a stairwell and get caught up, she said.

The building was not very crowded Wednesday. Capitol Police officers are readying, however, for Monday, when its gun lobby day and throngs of activists will fill the Pocahontas Building to talk to legislators.

Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, was among those exploring the building Wednesday.

Its been a while since I felt like a freshman in high school, she said.

Matt Rogers, legislative assistant to Sen. David Marsden, D-Fairfax, lucked out. His office is larger than that of freshman Del. Debra Rodman, D-Henrico, who did not fare well in the office space lottery and got the smallest office for a lawmaker in the building. (Rodmans office is not on the same floor as Senate offices.)

I couldnt ask for better, Rogers said. Its more space than I need. Right now, I dont have an intern.

While many assistants offices are windowless, Rogers has a decent view of the courtyard at the nearby SunTrust Building.

The former General Assembly Building had its own cafeteria, but now the official cafeteria for the state legislature is across Main Street in the SunTrust Building.

Jessie Williams, legislative assistant to Sen. Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack, checked it out Tuesday and Wednesday. She gives the food good reviews.

On Tuesday, she ordered a turkey, brie and apple panini and a small chicken Caesar salad. On Wednesday morning, she ordered a veggie omelet. Staffers will need to be careful crossing Main Street to get to the cafeteria. I jaywalked, Williams acknowledged.

One warning for legislative assistants, Williams noted: Because space is tight and theres less privacy, the chairs where lobbyists or others wait to talk to assistants and lawmakers are right outside their doors. Voices could carry.

Heres a positive thought about the Pocahontas: It smells clean, Williams said. Its not new, but it just smells like someone cleaned. The General Assembly Building never smelled clean.

That building, with an asbestos problem, was known to regulars as a germ factory.

Craig, the veteran assistant who could not find the restroom in the new building, said shes still happy to be back. Staffers become friends with others from either political party, and many have not seen each other in a year.

What I like about it? I come back to family here, Craig said.
In his final State of the Commonwealth speech, outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe urged the new-look General Assembly to build on the work done over the last four years and take seriously the message Virginia voters sent last year as Democrats swept all three statewide offices and made major gains in the legislature.

The people of Virginia, in their wisdom, have made significant changes to the composition of this General Assembly with a simple message in mind: Work together to get things done, McAuliffe told a joint session of the legislature in a 45-minute speech Wednesday night at the Capitol.

Chief among the opportunities for the reshaped General Assembly, McAuliffe said, is expanding Medicaid to nearly 400,000 uninsured, low-income Virginians.

Listen to the clear message the people of Virginia sent on Election Day, McAuliffe said. Put the politics aside. Its time to expand Medicaid in the commonwealth of Virginia.

McAuliffe will hand over the Executive Mansion to Gov.-elect Ralph Northam on Saturday, but according to Virginia traditions, the departing governor gives a going-away speech to members of the House of Delegates and the state Senate.

Though McAuliffe wont be around to push for legislation in the 2018 session, he crafted the two-year budget lawmakers will refine over the next 60 days. The final spending blueprint will, in many ways, lay out the parameters of how state government will function in the early stages of the Northam era.

Before McAuliffes speech even started, a line was forming for his post-speech party at the Executive Mansion, which was lit up with blue lights.

Reinforcing a key theme of his governorship, McAuliffe took a final victory lap over his record on economic development.

After announcing 1,100 others during his tenure, the governor revealed one more business project  the expansion of a metals manufacturing facility in Prince George County  that pushed total new capital investment during his tenure to more than $20 billion. McAuliffe went on to tout job-creation statistics and Virginias falling unemployment rate as proof of his economic successes.

Spotlighting another signature policy of his term, McAuliffe said his administration has now restored the voting rights of more than 173,000 felons, more than any other governor.

Every one of those Virginians represents the same story of hope for a better life that we saw play out just this past Election Day, as these men and women went to the polls, many of them for the first time in their lives, McAuliffe said.

One of the more unexpected moments of his term, McAuliffe said, was when Republican leaders tried to have him held in contempt during the 2016 legal battle over his executive actions on felons rights.

I think the fact that I was the first governor to receive such an honor only underscores what a truly historic four years this has been, McAuliffe said.

In a pre-packed Republican response to the speech, Sen. A. Benton Chafin Jr., R-Russell, and Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, said Virginias economy isnt nearly as rosy as McAuliffe portrays it. In general, Republicans have said theyre eager to move on from the McAuliffe era and start working with Northam, who, in contrast with McAuliffe, is coming into office with a low-key demeanor and statehouse experience.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday afternoon, newly elected House Speaker Kirk Cox said Northam works well with others and is willing to do things behind the scenes.

From the very beginning when Governor McAuliffe came in, it was sort of the boldness, the Rolodex, and maybe not the concern with detailed policy, Cox said.

Departing somewhat from his usual exuberance, McAuliffe said that if the executive order he signed on felon rights restoration was his proudest moment, the violent white nationalist rally last summer in Charlottesville was his lowest. He paused his speech to acknowledge the family members of the three people who died the day of the Aug. 12 rally: Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old activist killed when a white nationalist drove his car into a crowd, and two Virginia State Police officers  Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates  who died when their helicopter crashed.

McAuliffe went off his prepared script while talking about how close Bates had become with his family after spending three years in the governors Executive Protection Unit. McAuliffe said Bates was sending a care package to McAuliffes son, a Marine deployed in Iraq, with cigars, books and Irish whiskey.

I said, Berke, you cant send whiskey to someone in the U.S. military, let alone to a Muslim country, McAuliffe said. He said, Dont worry about it. Its in a Listerine bottle. Theyll never know.

Bringing back a joke he often tells about the unlikelihood of himself following in the footsteps of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, McAuliffe said he has loved every second of the job.
2014

Jan. 11: McAuliffe takes the oath as Virginia's 72nd governor, pledging to seek equal opportunity for all Virginians. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are among McAuliffe's friends attending the ceremony.

Taking office amid the gifts probe that hounded his predecessor, Bob McDonnell, the new governor signs an executive order that places a $100 gift limit on himself, his family, members of the administration and their families. He also signs a nondiscrimination order on state hiring that protects gays and  for the first time in state history, transgender Virginians.

Jan. 13: In an address to the General Assembly, McAuliffe urges quick work on Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, a goal in which he would be thwarted throughout his tenure.

Jan. 15: McAuliffe appoints longtime GOP strategist Boyd Marcus - who had endorsed his campaign - to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

Jan. 21: A federal grand jury indicts McDonnell and his wife, Maureen on counts related to gifts and loans from former Star Scientific CEO Jonnie R. Williams Sr.

Jan. 28: With Democrat Ralph Northam succeeding Republican Bill Bolling as lieutenant governor, Democrats take control of the evenly divided state Senate, relying on Northam's tie-breaking vote.

Feb. 13: U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen of Norfolk strikes down Virginia's 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

March 7: The GOP-led House of Delegates votes to kill McAuliffe's nomination of Marcus to the ABC board.

March 8: Citing disagreements on Medicaid, lawmakers adjourn without a budget agreement, but after enacting reforms to mental health laws, reducing the number of Standards of Learning tests and tweaking the state's ethics laws.

March 12: The LGBT Democrats of Virginia drop their opposition to Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, McAuliffe's pick to become chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia. Jones, a Baptist minister, faced some opposition because he had not endorsed same-sex marriage.

March 14: State officials shut down work on U.S. 460 expansion project approved by McDonnell's administration. More than $300 million had been spent on the project, but a wetlands issue was unresolved and construction had not begun.

March 24: The House of Delegates approves its own version of the state's two-year budget without Medicaid expansion and recesses.

April 8: Members of the House and Senate leave Richmond again without a budget.

April 18: McAuliffe announces he will shrink from five to three years the time violent felons must wait to seek reinstatement of their voting rights.

May 12: McAuliffe announces a review of regulations - adopted during McDonnell's administration - that require the state's existing first-trimester abortion clinics to meet construction standards for new hospitals. He begins an overhaul of 15-member Board of Health that will conduct the review.

June 9: State Sen. Phillip P. Puckett, D-Russell, announces his resignation, suddenly giving Republicans a 20-19 edge in the chamber. Puckett said he did not want his Senate service to impede his daughter's future as a judge. (Legislators elect judges.) Republicans had devised a plan to offer Puckett a senior staff job with the state's tobacco commission. Puckett did not pursue the position.

June 10: Dave Brat shocks U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the 7th District Republican primary.

June 12: Virginia Senate Republicans use their new majority to break the impasse and pass a two-year budget that thwarts McAuliffe's bid for Medicaid expansion.

June 18: Shandong Tranlin Paper Co., a Chinese company, announces it will make a $2 billion investment in an advanced manufacturing facility in Chesterfield County, creating an estimated 2,000 jobs by 2020.

June 19: McAuliffe says he will sign the budget, but veto a provision that seeks to tie his hands on Medicaid expansion.

June 23: Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, rules McAuliffe's veto of the budget provision unconstitutional and out of order. McAuliffe criticizes what he calls "a procedural gimmick."

July 30: McAuliffe tells WTOP radio he was "heartsick" about Cantor's defeat because Virginia lost a U.S. House majority leader and potential speaker of the House of Representatives.

Aug. 16: Facing a $2.4 billion revenue shortfall in the two-year state budget, McAuliffe calls for $346 million in spending cuts.

Aug. 21: McAuliffe establishes a task force to combat "startling and saddening" sexual violence on college campuses.

Sept. 2: McAuliffe says the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina would be "a game changer" for Virginia industry and homeowners that would "spur economic growth in all parts of the commonwealth."

Sept. 4: A Richmond jury convicts Bob McDonnell on 11 counts and convicts his wife, Maureen, on nine charges. (The trial judge would later toss out one of Maureen McDonnell's convictions.) McAuliffe says he and his wife, Dorothy, are praying for the McDonnells and that he was "deeply saddened by the events of the trial ... and the impact it has had on our commonwealth's reputation for honesty and clean government."

Sept. 13: McAuliffe and General Assembly leaders reach an agreement on cutting the two-year state budget in the face of an estimated $2.4 billion revenue shortfall.

Sept. 18: In a special session, lawmakers repair the state budget, but fail to resolve differences over how to provide health coverage to uninsured Virginians.

Oct. 2: The Washington Post reports that when Puckett was on the verge of quitting the state Senate in June, McAuliffe's chief of staff, Paul Reagan, left Puckett a voice-mail suggesting that the senator's daughter might get a top state job if Puckett stayed and backed McAuliffe on Medicaid expansion.

Oct. 3: Reagan apologizes for making the call, saying he exercised "poor judgment. McAuliffe says it was "inconsistent with the way I run my administration."

Oct. 6: Same-sex marriages begin in Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court clears the way by choosing not to hear appeals from three judicial circuits that sought to keep bans on same-sex unions in place.

Oct. 7: A federal court in Richmond tosses out the boundaries of Virginia's 3rd congressional district, saying it wrongly packs too many African-American voters into one district.

Nov. 4: U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., edges Republican Ed Gillespie.

Nov. 14: McAuliffe's ethics commission proposes tighter ethics laws, including a flat $250 limit on any type of gift received by public officials.

2015

Jan. 6: U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer sentences Bob McDonnell to two years in prison.

Jan. 14: In his State of the Commonwealth address, McAuliffe urges lawmakers to support expanded investment in his economic development efforts and renews his push for Medicaid expansion.

Jan. 19: McAuliffe is admitted to VCU Medical Center to drain fluid that had built up in his chest cavity. Over the Christmas holiday the governor had suffered seven broken ribs when thrown from a horse during a family sightseeing safari in Tanzania.

Jan. 20: Lawmakers confirm Martha Ketron, former state Sen. Phillip P. Puckett's daughter, for a full term as a juvenile court judge in Southwest Virginia. Democrats abstain from voting.

Feb. 20: Maureen McDonnell is sentenced to a year and a day.

Feb. 24: McAuliffe signs legislation to freeze Dominion's base rates until 2020 and stop the State Corporation Commission from conducting a comprehensive review of the company's earnings until 2022. The legislation also commits Dominion to build large solar energy facilities in the state by 2020.

The measure also freezes base rates and suspends reviews for Appalachian Power Co., which serves the western part of the state. Appalachian Power's next rate review will be in 2020.

Feb. 26: The General Assembly adopts a budget that includes a number of McAuliffe's top priorities, including $27 million for his economic deal-closing fund.

Feb. 27: The legislature wraps up its session a day early after backing an election-year ethics reform package. Among other things, the measure sets a $100 cap on gifts, but makes it per occurrence and not cumulative.

March 18: McAuliffe demands a probe after ABC special agents arrest Martese Johnson, a black University of Virginia student who could be seen on video with a bloody face as he screamed accusations of racism.

March 25: McAuliffe orders ABC to change its policing. He calls for immediate training on use of force, cultural diversity, community policing and dealing with youth.

March 26: McAuliffe signs a two-year, $99.7 billion budget for July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2016.

March 27: McAuliffe proposes changes to the ethics bill, seeking to make the $100 limit on gifts cumulative.

March 27: The Democratic Party of Virginia elects Susan Swecker as chairwoman of the state party to succeed Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones.

April 17: The legislature OKs ethics legislation with a $100 aggregate cap on gifts.

June 12: A Charlottesville judge accepts a prosecutor's recommendation to dismiss charges against U.Va. student Martese Johnson.

June 23: Days after the racially motivated slayings of nine churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., McAuliffe says the battle flag logo of the Sons of Confederate Veterans should be removed from Virginia specialty license plates.

June 26: McAuliffe joins Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, at a fundraiser in Fairfax County that raises $1 million for Virginia Democrats.

July 1: New laws taking effect include measures to improve coordination between campus police and local police on reports of sexual violence.

July 13: McAuliffe announces a revenue surplus, ensuring that state employees, college faculty and state-supported local government workers will get a 2 percent raise.

July 27: McAuliffe announces he has picked Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush to succeed retiring Virginia Supreme Court Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. McAuliffe gets to make the appointment - subject to lawmakers' confirmation - because Millette announced his retirement after the GOP-controlled legislature adjourned.

Aug. 17: Senate Democrats adjourn a special session on redistricting. The move leaves a new congressional map up to the courts, but sets up McAuliffe to appoint Roush to another stint on the state Supreme Court when her interim term expires in September.

Aug. 26: On live television, a disgruntled former employee of WDBJ-TV in Roanoke fatally shoots reporter Alison Parker and videographer Adam Ward at Smith Mountain Lake.

Oct. 1: Virginia executes Alfredo Prieto for the 1988 murders of Racheal A. Raver and Warren H. Fulton III, both 22, in Fairfax County. A DNA hit found Prieto when he was on California's death row.

Oct. 15: McAuliffe signs an executive order banning open carry of guns in executive branch offices.

Nov. 3: On election day Republicans retain a 21-19 majority in the state Senate, despite a spare-no-expense effort by McAuliffe to gain control of the chamber.

Nov. 5: McAuliffe downplays the Senate elections. "At the end of the day, it wasn't going to make a difference really one way or the other. I still only have 34 Democrats in the House of Delegates."

Dec. 9: McAuliffe presents a $2.4 billion bond plan, emphasizing higher education and research projects.

Dec. 10: McAuliffe proposes 2 percent raises for state employees and teachers, effective in July 2017.

Dec. 18: McAuliffe formally proposes a two-year budget that includes Medicaid expansion and $139 million meant to help Virginia school districts hire 2,500 new teachers. GOP leaders rule out Medicaid expansion.

2016

Jan. 3: McAuliffe leaves on a historic trip to Cuba to push Virginia products and companies.

Jan. 7: A three-judge panel in Richmond imposes a new Virginia congressional map. It confines the district of Rep. Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-3rd, to Hampton Roads and moves Richmond and Petersburg into the 4th District, making it a Democrat-leaning district.

Jan. 13: In his third State of the Commonwealth Address, McAuliffe calls on the legislature to work with him to boost the state's economy. He pledges to block efforts to curtail gay marriage, abortion rights or gun control.

Jan. 17: The Roanoke Times reports that Virginia and the Governor's Opportunity Fund spent $1.4 million on a failed business deal in Appomattox with a Chinese firm, underscoring insufficient oversight of state financial incentives for economic development.

Jan. 29: McAuliffe and Republican General Assembly leaders announce a deal on gun policy. In effect, it reverses Attorney General Mark R. Herring's move to sever concealed carry reciprocity agreements with more than two dozen states, but enacts a number of gun safety measures. Some gun safety advocates criticize the deal, including the parents of slain TV journalist Alison Parker.

Feb. 10: McAuliffe announces a compromise with a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers regarding tolls on Interstate 66. The deal will allow tolls on I-66 inside the Capital Beltway to pay for a host of transportation improvements.

Feb. 18: The Times-Dispatch reports that Virginia taxpayers would pick up a $2,435 food and drink tab for a luxury box at FedEx Field during a Jan. 10 Redskins playoff game, though a majority of the guests attended with no public purpose. Four of the 15 attendees represented businesses considering expansion in Virginia.

Feb. 25: McAuliffe assesses damage left by a deadly string of storms, including a tornado that killed three people in the town of Waverly in Sussex County. Storms were cited in two additional deaths elsewhere in Virginia.

Feb. 29: Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice A. Jones says he received "unqualified approval" from the state's newly created ethics council before accepting the use of a luxury suite offered by the Redskins at the January playoff game.

March 1: Donald Trump edges Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in Virginia's Republican presidential primary. Hillary Clinton swamps Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in the state's Democratic primary.

March 9: Virginia budget negotiators agree on a plan that provides a 3 percent raise for state employees and higher education faculty and a 2 percent pay raise for teachers and state-supported local employees. The spending plan also saves money by paying off an old debt on state pensions and reduces operating costs for public colleges and universities to help them keep down tuition.

March 10: General Assembly Republicans elect Court of Appeals Judge Stephen R. McCullough to a 12-year term on the Virginia Supreme Court, succeeding McAuliffe's interim appointee, Jane Roush. All but one Democrat abstain. McAuliffe blasts GOP lawmakers for "firing a qualified and nonpartisan Supreme Court justice for purely political reasons."

March 10: McAuliffe vetoes a bill that would prevent Virginia localities from taking down monuments to the Confederacy and other war-related memorials, saying it would bar communities from making their own decisions. (McAuliffe vetoes 32 bills in 2016, the most since Gov. Jim Gilmore vetoed 37 in 1998.)

March 11: The General Assembly approves a $2.1 billion bond agreement, passes a two-year $105 billion state budget and adjourns a day early.

March 21: Clerical missteps led up to the death of Jamycheal Mitchell, a mentally ill black man who was jailed in Portsmouth after stealing $5 worth of junk food and wasted away in his cell while awaiting a bed at a state mental hospital, according to a report by the department that regulates mental health care in Virginia.

March 31: Virginia State Trooper Chad P. Dermyer is fatally shot at Richmond's Greyhound bus station, where state police were conducting a training exercise. Officers return fire and kill his attacker.

April 8: Keith Allen Harward, 60, who served 33 years in prison for crimes he did not commit, is released from prison after the Virginia Supreme Court grants a writ of actual innocence and tosses out his convictions. Harward was wrongly imprisoned for the 1982 slaying of a Newport News man and the rape of his wife.

April 11: Faced with a shortage of lethal injection drugs, McAuliffe suggests maintaining the death penalty by allowing the state to acquire drugs in secret from unidentified pharmacies.

April 22: In a sweeping move, McAuliffe signs an executive order restoring the voting rights of an estimated 206,000 felons who have served their time, saying he sought to rectify the state's "long and sad history" of suppressing African-Americans' voting power. McAuliffe later calls it his "greatest day as governor."

April 26: GOP leaders say McAuliffe's order showed a "flagrant disregard" for the Virginia constitution.

May 23: CNN reports that the FBI is investigating McAuliffe over donations to his 2013 gubernatorial campaign. McAuliffe's office refers questions to Marc Elias, the lawyer for McAuliffe's 2013 campaign. Elias says contributions from Chinese businessman Wang Wenliang through his U.S. business - a focus of the probe according to CNN - were "completely lawful."

May 23: Republican legislators sue McAuliffe, asserting that his blanket rights restoration order exceeded his authority under the state Constitution, which says a governor may only restore rights on an individual basis.

June 3: McAuliffe calls his rights restoration order "a work in progress" after GOP leaders cite several examples of imprisoned, violent criminals mistakenly listed as having regained the right to vote and serve on juries. Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, calls it "a stunning level of incompetence and recklessness."

June 10: GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, at a Richmond Coliseum campaign rally, rips McAuliffe's rights restoration order, saying, "This whole thing with the prisoners (is) not sounding too good, right?"

June 27: The U.S. Supreme Court tosses out Bob McDonnell's 11 corruption convictions, narrowing what it called the government's "boundless" interpretation of federal bribery law.

June 29: McAuliffe tells WTOP radio he sees little need to try McDonnell again, saying, "It is time to move on."

July 22: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton picks U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., as her running mate.

July 22: On a 4-3 vote, the Supreme Court of Virginia strikes down McAuliffe's blanket executive order restoring voting rights to 206,000 felons, declaring it unconstitutional.

July 25: McAuliffe, in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention, reacts to the Supreme Court's ruling with defiance, challenging Republicans to earn the felons' votes. He tells Virginia delegates to the convention: "Game on."

Aug. 22: McAuliffe says he has restored the rights of 13,000 felons on a case-by-case basis.

Aug. 26: McAuliffe announces a $1.5 billion revenue shortfall in the state's two-year budget, imperiling planned pay increases for state workers.

Sept. 8: U.S. prosecutors move to drop their corruption case against Bob and Maureen McDonnell.

Oct. 17: GreenTech Automotive, the electric car company McAuliffe founded, blames bad publicity over the company's previous political connections for its failure to begin repaying a government loan in Mississippi. (McAuliffe stepped down as GreenTech's chairman in late 2012, during his second bid for governor.)

Nov. 8: Trump stuns Clinton, winning the presidential election. Clinton and Kaine carry Virginia. Levar Stoney, a former McAuliffe aide, is elected mayor of Richmond. State Sen. A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat, is elected to Congress in the 4th District.

Nov. 14: The legislature's watchdog agency warns that the Virginia Economic Development Partnership has left the state vulnerable to fraud by failing to establish policies for awarding incentive grants to new and expanding businesses or requiring them to perform to their requirements, despite giving out nearly $400 million in incentive grants over the past 10 years.

Nov. 21: State Health Commissioner Marissa J. Levine declares Virginia's opioid addiction crisis a public health emergency and issues an order making it easier to buy naloxone, a drug that treats overdoses.

Dec. 12: McAuliffe proposes sweeping changes in how the Virginia Economic Development Partnership is run, urging increases in gubernatorial authority and agency accountability.

2017

Jan. 11: In his State of the Commonwealth address opening a 46-day legislative session, McAuliffe stresses the bipartisanship of the previous three years and pushes anew for universal background checks on gun sales, a repeal of Virginia's photo ID law and enactment of some form of Medicaid expansion.

Jan. 18: Virginia executes Ricky Javon Gray for the murders of sisters Ruby Harvey and Stella Harvey in Richmond on New Year's Day 2006. The murder rampage of Gray and an accomplice also killed the girls' parents, Bryan and Kathryn Harvey; Gray's girlfriend, Ashley Baskerville; her mother, Mary Baskerville Tucker; and her stepfather, Percyell Tucker.

Jan. 25: GOP budget leaders propose a 3 percent raise for state workers and an additional boost of nearly $7,000 for Virginia State Police, which had lost hundreds of employees to retirement and resignation.

Jan. 28: At Washington Dulles International Airport, McAuliffe denounces Trump's order suspending the country's refugee program and indefinitely barring Syrians from entering the U.S.

Feb. 8: The GOP-controlled House refuses to reappoint State Inspector General June Jennings, accusing her office of failing to investigate the Jamycheal Mitchell case. McAuliffe criticizes the House GOP, saying Jennings and her office "bear absolutely zero responsibility" in the matter.

Feb. 25: The General Assembly concludes the legislative session, after passing a $107 billion, two-year budget that restores pay raises to public workers, invests in mental health services and protects education funding.

March 23: McAuliffe surpasses former Gov. Jim Gilmore's record number of vetoes. Gilmore issued 90 vetoes during his term from 1998-2002. (McAuliffe would finish his term with 120.)

April 5: Lawmakers fail to override any of McAuliffe's 40 vetoes, maintaining his perfect record, but his latest bid for Medicaid expansion dies on a party-line vote in the House of Delegates.

April 20: McAuliffe commutes to life without parole the death sentence of Ivan Teleguz in the 2001 murder for hire of his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Yvonne Sipe in Harrisonburg. McAuliffe says he believes Teleguz is guilty, but that the sentencing phase of his trial was "terribly flawed and unfair."

May 24: Citing the Jamycheal Mitchell case, McAuliffe ceremonially signs a bill strengthening oversight of Virginia's 60 local and regional jails.

May 26: Virginia State Police Special Agent Michael T. Walter is shot and killed in Richmond's Mosby Court public housing development while working on a joint initiative with city police.

June 13: In the primaries for governor, Ralph Northam comfortably beats Tom Perriello for the Democratic nomination and Ed Gillespie edges Corey Stewart for the Republican nod.

July 5: Mississippi's state auditor demands that GreenTech, the troubled electric car company that McAuliffe founded, repay nearly $6.4 million in public funds after the company failed to deliver on its promises to create jobs.

July 6: Virginia executes William C. Morva for the 2006 capital murders of unarmed hospital security guard Derrick McFarland and Montgomery County Sheriffs Deputy Eric Sutphin after escaping from custody on robbery charges.

July 8: A Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville ends in a confrontation between anti-racism protesters and police. Police fired tear gas canisters in an effort to disperse the crowd.

July 12: McAuliffe's administration reports that the state ended the fiscal year June 30 with a $132 million surplus.

July 12: The office of Mississippi's state auditor reports that GreenTech did not come close to creating the 350 jobs it promised and that it had shrunk to about 10 employees as of early 2017.

Aug. 11: Wielding tiki torches, hundreds of white nationalists rally in front of the University of Virginia Rotunda ahead of the next day's Unite the Right event in Charlottesville.

Aug. 12: The Unite the Right rally, which drew hundreds of white nationalists from around the country to Charlottesville devolves into violence and turns deadly. A white nationalist drives a car into counter protesters, killing Heather Heyer. A Virginia State Police helicopter helping law enforcement officers monitor the rally crashes in Albemarle County, killing Lt. H. Jay Cullen, the pilot, and trooper pilot Berke M.M. Bates.

Cullen had flown McAuliffe and first lady Dorothy McAuliffe around the state for more than three years. Bates was part of their Executive Protection Unit team. The governor and first lady say in a statement: "These heroes were part of our family and we are simply heartbroken."

McAuliffe addresses the white supremacists and white nationalists at a news conference in Charlottesville. "My message is clear: We are stronger than you. You have made our commonwealth stronger. You will not succeed. There is no place for you here. There is no place for you in America."

He will later call it his worst day as governor.

Aug. 16: Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, the Democratic nominee for governor, says Confederate statues "should be taken down and moved into museums." McAuliffe changes his position on letting such monuments stand and falls in line with Northam's position.

Aug. 21: McAuliffe says he "most likely" will seek legislation to take down the state-owned statue of Robert E. Lee on Richmond's Monument Avenue.

Aug. 25: The Times-Dispatch reports that Tranlin Inc. will repay $5 million to Virginia as the Chinese company resets its plans to build a paper products factory in Chesterfield.

Aug. 31: McAuliffe says on WRVA radio that fixing Richmond's schools should take priority over removing Confederate statues on Monument Avenue.

Sept. 16: About seven pro-Confederate demonstrators show up for a rally in Richmond that draws hundreds of counter protesters. The event ends with seven arrests - four for wearing masks in public - but no major clashes.

Oct. 5: McAuliffe announces that Facebook will build a $1 billion data center in eastern Henrico County.

Oct. 24: Tranlin Inc., the Chinese company behind the proposed $2 billion paper manufacturing plant in Chesterfield, fails to meet a deadline for repaying a $5 million incentive grant from the state.

Nov. 7: Northam tops Gillespie for governor, leading a Democratic sweep for lieutenant governor and attorney general. Democrats make a stunning 15-seat gain in the House of Delegates, leaving Republicans clinging to a 51-49 edge.

Nov. 20: McAuliffe says emergency rules have gone into effect for rallies at the Robert E. Lee statue on Richmond's Monument Avenue, ending a temporary ban on such demonstrations the governor proposed after the August violence in Charlottesville.

Nov. 28: A group of 32 Chinese nationals who invested in the electric car company McAuliffe founded sue him and other key figures in GreenTech Automotive, claiming they were lured into a "scam" by false pretenses. A spokeswoman for McAuliffe's political action committee says the suit is baseless and "has no merit whatsoever."

Dec. 1: A review of the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, commissioned by the city, finds dozens of missteps and failures. In one example, the report, prepared by former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy, finds that a Virginia State Police commander made an "off-plan" decision to keep state officers behind barricades instead of sending them into the streets to break up fights and make arrests.

Dec. 18: In his parting two-year budget proposal, McAuliffe again urges lawmakers to expand Medicaid, saying the state would see an estimated $421 million in savings.

Dec. 29: McAuliffe commutes to life in prison the death sentence of William Joseph Burns, a killer who had been found mentally incompetent to be executed. Burns was convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his 73-year-old mother-in-law, Tersey Elizabeth Cooley, in Shenandoah County.

2018

Jan. 10: In his final State of the Commonwealth address McAuliffe urges an increasingly diverse General Assembly to heed the message of the Nov. 7 election and work together to build on the work of his tenure. He says his administration has restored the voting rights of more than 173,000 felons, more than any other governor.
Gov. Terry McAuliffes official portrait was unveiled Wednesday in the Executive Mansion, where the artist who painted it said the style reflected the governor being relaxed and in charge.

The portrait by Gavin Glakas of Washington, D.C., shows McAuliffe in his office in the Patrick Henry Building holding a pen with an open notebook that Glakas said illustrates McAuliffes work to restore voting rights to felons who have served their terms.

McAuliffe was flanked by first lady Dorothy McAuliffe and other family members  including brothers John, Joe and Tom  for the unveiling. Chief of staff Paul Reagan introduced the governor to a crowd of onlookers as Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, Attorney General Mark Herring and members of McAuliffes Cabinet stood nearby cheering.

Theres more room up here, folks! McAuliffe beckoned, waving people inside.

Glakas said he was honored to spend time with the McAuliffes in preparation for the portrait. While most subjects are shy or self-conscious while posing, McAuliffe was perfectly at ease, Glakas said, drawing laughter.

Glakas decided to set the portrait in McAuliffes workday office. A tanker ship on display illustrates McAuliffes dedication to jobs and the port, and an F-18 fighter jet shows his support for the armed services, Glakas said.

And, because McAuliffe once wrestled an alligator in a stunt to raise $15,000 for President Jimmy Carters re-election campaign, Glakas included a tiny one, visible in the bottom right-hand corner.

You have to be looking for it to find it but theres a little alligator, the artist said.

McAuliffe thanked his wife and family, Northam and Herring, agency heads, and the greatest Cabinet thats ever been put together in the history of the commonwealth.

There is no I in team, he said. We have totally transformed the commonwealth of Virginia. We are a different state, folks, than we were four years ago.

Portraits of Virginias governors are displayed in the Capitol.

McAuliffe said working with Glakas was a great experience. Youve done a great job and I thank you. This is not an easy process to do.
Students and staff at Ferrum College have been told they can resume normal activities after they were asked to shelter in place in response to a false report of shots fired near the campus Thursday morning, according to tweets posted to the college's Twitter account.
Virginia has accepted a $270 million offer from Transurban, the Australian company that manages express lanes on Interstates 495 and 95, to extend the tolled I-95 express lanes 10 miles south to Fredericksburg.

State officials say the 10 miles of new reversible lanes, which will run from state Route 610 to U.S. Route 17 North, will improve traffic flow in one of the most congested spots in the country.

The project, announced Wednesday by outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne, also includes seven new bridge structures, new express-lane access points and other improvements.

INRIX Roadway Analytics, a global transportation data company, dubbed I-95 between Washington and U.S. 17 in Stafford the worst single traffic hot spot in the country.

This deal will not require any upfront taxpayer investment for construction and will provide $277 million by the time the express lanes are open that will be invested in the corridor to advance critical transportation projects, McAuliffe said in a statement.

Transurban will pay for the extension and make two payments to the state: $45 million at the financial close of the deal and $232 million when the lanes become operational, expected in 2022.

That payment will also help finance the construction of a replacement for the existing I-95 northbound crossing of the Rappahannock River, Layne said.

The tolls on the lanes will be all electronic and will feature the same dynamic pricing as the existing lanes, in which tolls climb higher as usage increases. That feature, which also exists on the Interstate 66 express lanes, has drawn fire from some drivers, who have seen tolls exceed $40 during certain times.

Its always a choice, said Layne, who will become secretary of finance in Gov.-elect Ralph Northams administration. Theres always a free alternative. You dont have to pay a toll if you dont want to. You can stay in the free lanes, or you can carpool and get in the express lanes.

Mike McGurk, a Transurban spokesman, said his company anticipates that tolls on the extension will average between 50 cents and a dollar per mile.

As of Dec. 6, he said, the highest price drivers have paid on the existing I-95 express lanes was $46.25, a spike sparked by a crash on the express lanes themselves. Just 10 vehicles paid that toll.

Last summer, Transurban said the average toll on its I-495 express lanes was $5.77. For I-95, it was $8.46.

Today, nearly 8 in 10 drivers in the D.C. region believe the 495 and 95 express lanes benefit the area, the company said. Most customers spend more money on one tank of gas than they do on express lanes tolls during an entire month.

Also on Wednesday, Virginias Commonwealth Transportation Board awarded a contract worth $101.6 million to Wagman Heavy Civil Inc., of Dinwiddie County, for another project in the area centered around I-95. The work includes a new southbound bridge over the Rappahannock River parallel to the existing I-95 bridge and three new general-purpose lanes for 6 miles in the current median beginning just north of Exit 133 and ending 1.2 miles south of Exit 130.

The project will provide local traffic with additional lanes to travel between U.S. 17 and state Route 3 without merging into the interstates general-purpose lanes and also replace bridges that carry I-95 north and south over U.S. 17.
President Donald Trump has kicked Stephen Bannon off the Trump train once and for all. Good for him. Now he should kick off a few more noxious passengers whom Bannon brought along  the racists and anti-Semites of the alt-right whom Bannon promoted and who are like an albatross around Trumps neck, dragging down his presidency.

Trump should be extremely popular today. Under his leadership, the economy is entering what is expected to be its third straight quarter of economic growth above 3 percent. Unemployment is at a 17-year low, consumer confidence is high, and the stock market is soaring. He has enacted historic tax and regulatory reform, put conservative judges on the federal bench, and driven the Islamic State from its caliphate. With this record, he should be riding high in the polls and expanding his base.

Yet Trumps support is contracting, not expanding. After his inauguration, Trump enjoyed a 41 percent approval rating and 46 percent disapproval, according to the FiveThirtyEight average of polls. Today, Trumps approval has dipped 3 points to 38 percent, while his disapproval has skyrocketed 10 points to 56 percent.

Why is that? Because, despite a booming economy and the presidents slate of achievements, many Americans are uncomfortable with Trump. There are lots of reasons for that discomfort, many of them self-inflicted wounds. But a big reason is Trumps perceived association with the alt-right  an association that is largely due to Trumps now-ended association with Bannon.

The alt-right is a fringe movement, and it would have stayed on the fringes but for Bannon. In the 1960s, William F. Buckley Jr. and his magazine National Review excommunicated the fringe right  the John Birch Society  from the respectable right. But Bannon and his Breitbart website did the opposite, bringing the alt-right into the political mainstream through his association with Trump.

At the GOP convention that nominated Trump, Bannon declared proudly that he had made Breitbart the platform for the alt-right. He published pieces that praised, among others, white nationalist Richard Spencer as one of the movements leaders  the same Richard Spencer who led an alt-right audience (many with arms raised in a Nazi salute) in chants of Hail Trump! and helped organize the torch-carrying neo-Nazi mob that descended on Charlottesville in August.

At the White House, Bannon wreaked havoc from within, leaking like a sieve and giving Trump horrible strategic advice. It was Bannon who reportedly urged Trump to double down on his many sides equivocation after Charlottesville. After being fired and returning to Breitbart, Bannon wreaked havoc from without, backing alleged sexual predator Roy Moore in Alabama and alt-right candidates such as Paul Nehlen  a virulent anti-Semite who refers to his critics as shekels-for-hire  to challenge House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. On Tuesday, Bannon left Breitbart, where he had been executive chairman since 2012.

Trumps association with Bannon has been a disaster for his presidency and the conservative cause. Trump said: Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than 30 years by Republicans. Steve doesnt represent my base  hes only in it for himself.

Trump is right. The men and women of this country who delivered his victory are not racists, and they are not part of Bannons alt-right movement. The steel workers who lost their jobs because of Chinas illegal dumping, the factory workers who lost their jobs as manufacturing plants moved across the border, and the coal miners who lost their jobs due to environmental regulations voted for Trump despite the alt-right, not because of it. Trumps reluctance to disassociate himself from the inhabitants of the alt-rights swamps has hurt him. Many Americans who might otherwise embrace Trump based on his record of achievement are unwilling to say Im a Trump supporter because of it.

Trump must denounce the alt-right for one simple reason: because it has embraced him. Trump was factually correct that there was violence on both sides in Charlottesville, but only one side claimed to be acting in his name. And it still does. Which is why America needs to hear the president say: These bigots are not part of my movement. They dont represent me. I dont want their support, and I dont want their votes.

Trump has denounced the alt-left. Yet, as Spencer pointed out gleefully after Charlottesville, Trump has never denounced the Alt-Right. Nor will he. Prove him wrong, Mr. President.
America desperately wanted this book. America desperately needed it, too.

Thats why Fire and Fury, by journalist Michael Wolff, which purported to be a fly-on-the-wall, inside view of life in the Trump White House, shot to No. 1 on Amazon.com last week after Donald Trumps lawyers tried to suppress it. Its why bookstores had to back order.

Unfortunately, Wolff did not deliver the book he promised. Granted, Fire and Fury is juicy as a summer peach, filled with gossipy takedowns of pretty much every boldface name in Trump Land. Anthony Scaramucci emerges as a shameless self-promoter, Kellyanne Conway as an antagonistic drama queen addicted to cable news cameras.

Trump himself, we are told, has a volcanic temper, a toddlers restraint, and likes to be in bed by 6:30, scarfing down cheeseburgers while monitoring cable news on three televisions and calling his billionaire friends to complain when CNN hurts his feelings.

And yes, Steve Bannons all over everything. Hes quoted on the record calling Ivanka Trump dumb as a brick and her brother, Donald Jr., treasonous (though hes tried to walk back the latter assessment).

The book is entertaining. Too bad its not always true.

For example, Wolff reports a snub of the president by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell that a McConnell aide says never happened. Wolff has reporter Mark Berman breakfasting in a hotel restaurant Berman says hes never been to. He misidentifies a nominee to Trumps Cabinet. Theres more, but you get the point.

Look, everybody makes mistakes. But this many of them suggests a reportorial sloppiness that cannot be wished away or ignored.

The sad part is, whatever his fact-checking failures, the consensus among Washington reporters seems to be that Wolff gets it exactly right in his overarching portrait of a chaotic, dysfunctional White House where the inept and the inexperienced are led by the unqualified. But because his credibility is so banged up, that bit of accuracy will be easy for Trump defenders to dismiss.

Yours truly had hoped this book would answer a nagging question about Trumps White House: What should we make of these people? When they turn reality inside out like a sock, when they stand before calamity and assure us there is no calamity, when they insist Trump is a misunderstood genius whose only problem is our failure to see his greatness, are they lying to us  or to themselves?

The former would make them fools. The latter would make them something worse.

The book America wanted and needed might have answered that question. The book America got gives a media-hating president a new cudgel with which to batter honest reporters seeking to unearth inconvenient truths.

Not that even a factually impeccable book would have told us much we dont know. We already know that where Lincoln had a team of rivals, Trump has a team of incompetents. We already know that the biggest incompetent is the self-described stable genius himself, who once said he had no idea being president would be so hard.

But a book organizes what you know in linear form. Theres something about seeing it laid out in black and white, authoritatively analyzed and indexed, that affirms, confirms, and makes it official.

Thats the book we want. Thats the book America needs. But that book has yet to be published.

Where have you gone, Bob Woodward? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, introduced a bill to Congress Wednesday that could open the door for so-called dreamers to apply for visas and includes increased spending for border security.

The bill, titled Securing Americas Future Act, would provide $30 billion to bolster security, including building President Donald Trumps border wall, hiring 5,000 border patrol agents and 5,000 customs officers and the construction of additional ports of entry.

The bill includes language that makes Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, extending visa applications to so-called dreamers who came to the United States as undocumented children.

The bill, though, does not include many of the attributes desired by vocal dreamer activists. Goodlattes legislation would not allow for a path to permanent citizenship for DACA beneficiaries as its written now. National media outlets reported the bill is unlikely to be passed by the Senate in its current form.

Activist dreamers arent satisfied with this type of plan, said Juan de la Rosa, a Virginia Tech graduate and DACA beneficiary who still lives and works in Blacksburg.

Since Trumps election, DACA has been a program thats over, de la Rosa said. A permanent way to protect DACA recipients and provide a path to citizenship is necessary, he said.

But a bill that also includes building a wall and limiting immigration is not the answer he and other activists are looking for, he said.

For now, de la Rosa said, the holding pattern continues as DACA recipients wait and see what will happen. But they will continue to lobby their legislators as they have over the last year.

A lot of it is waiting to see what Congress and the executive branch is going to say, de la Rosa said. But for myself and other undocumented youth it isnt going to be a passive wait.

Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the bill alongside Republican leaders of several other House committees and subcommittees related to immigration and national security.

This carefully crafted legislation, which is aligned with the White Houses immigration priorities, combines enforcement measures and increased border security to enhance public safety, ensure the door remains open to law-abiding immigrants, and restore the rule of law, Goodlatte said in a written statement.

The introduction comes after a nationally televised meeting with Trump and members of Congress on the future of immigration Tuesday. During that meeting, Trump called for Congress to find a solution for dreamers waiting in limbo after Trump ended the program.

The status of DACA beneficiaries has been in limbo since Obama left office. Though, an appeals court ruled this week that benefits from the order must stay in place for now.

Goodlattes bill addresses four issues, according to a news release from his office:

Border security. The bill provides funding to build a wall and hire agents at the border.

The visa lottery. The bill would stipulate that green cards no longer be awarded by random lottery. The visa program would entirely prioritize skills of people entering the country.

Chain migration. The bill would prevent people from sponsoring visas for extended family members.

DACA. The bill would make DACA permanent law rather than just an executive order. That would allow beneficiaries of the law to receive three-year renewable legal status.

The bill is also filled with other immigration items on Trumps wish list, including a proposal to allow the Justice Department to withhold grant funding to so-called sanctuary cities. It would reduce legal immigration levels by 25 percent.
In his final State of the Commonwealth speech, outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe urged the new-look General Assembly to build on the work done over the last four years and take seriously the message Virginia voters sent last year as Democrats swept all three statewide offices and made major gains in the legislature.

The people of Virginia, in their wisdom, have made significant changes to the composition of this General Assembly with a simple message in mind: work together to get things done, McAuliffe told a joint session of the legislature in a 45-minute speech Wednesday night at the Capitol.

Chief among the opportunities for the reshaped General Assembly, McAuliffe said, is expanding Medicaid to nearly 400,000 uninsured, low-income Virginians.

Listen to the clear message the people of Virginia sent on Election Day, McAuliffe said. Put the politics aside. Its time to expand Medicaid in the commonwealth of Virginia.

McAuliffe will hand over the Executive Mansion to Gov.-elect Ralph Northam on Saturday, but according to Virginia traditions, the departing governor gives a going-away speech to members of the House of Delegates and the state Senate. Though McAuliffe wont be around to push for legislation in the 2018 session, he crafted the two-year budget lawmakers will refine over the next 60 days. The final spending blueprint will, in many ways, lay out the parameters of how state government will function in the early stages of the Northam era.

Before McAuliffes speech even started, a line was forming for his post-speech party at the Executive Mansion, which was lit up with blue lights.

Reinforcing a key theme of his governorship, McAuliffe took a final victory lap over his record on economic development. After announcing 1,100 others during his tenure, the governor unveiled one more business project  the expansion of a metals manufacturing facility in Prince George County  that pushed total new capital investment during his tenure to more than $20 billion. McAuliffe went on to tout job-creation statistics and Virginias falling unemployment rate as proof of his economic successes.

Spotlighting another signature policy of his term, McAuliffe said his administration has now restored the voting rights of more than 173,000 felons, more than any other governor.

Every one of those Virginians represents the same story of hope for a better life that we saw play out just this past election day, as these men and women went to the polls, many of them for the first time in their lives, McAuliffe said.

One of the more unexpected moments of his term, McAuliffe said, was when Republican leaders tried to have him held in contempt during the 2016 legal battle over his executive actions on felons rights.

I think the fact that I was the first governor to receive such an honor only underscores what a truly historic four years this has been, McAuliffe said.

In a pre-packed Republican response to the speech, Sen. Ben Chafin , R-Russell, and Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, said Virginias economy isnt nearly as rosy as McAuliffe portrays it. In general, Republicans have said theyre eager to move on from the McAuliffe era and start working with Northam, who, in contrast with McAuliffe, is coming into office with a low-key demeanor and statehouse experience.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday afternoon, newly elected House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, said Northam works well with others and is willing to do things behind the scenes.

From the very beginning when Governor McAuliffe came in, it was sort of the boldness, the Rolodex, and maybe not the concern with detailed policy, Cox said.

Departing somewhat from his usual exuberance, McAuliffe said that if the executive order he signed on felon rights restoration was his proudest moment, the violent white nationalist rally last summer in Charlottesville was his lowest. He paused his speech to acknowledge the family members of the three people who died the day of the Aug. 12 rally: Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old activist killed when a white nationalist drove his car into a crowd, and two Virginia State Police officers  Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates  who died when their helicopter crashed.

McAuliffe went off his prepared script while talking about how close Bates had become with his family after spending three years in the governors Executive Protection Unit. McAuliffe said Bates was sending a care package to McAuliffes son, a Marine in Iraq, with cigars, books and Irish whiskey.

I said Berke, you cant send whiskey to someone in the U.S. military, let alone to a Muslim country, McAuliffe said. He said Dont worry about it. Its in a Listerine bottle. Theyll never know.

Bringing back a joke he often tells about the unlikelihood of himself following in the footsteps of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, McAuliffe said he has loved every second of the job.

At the heart of that joke is a statement about the singular privilege it is to be the chief executive of a commonwealth with the people, the resources, the history, and the potential that ours has, McAuliffe said.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe was in Craig County last Friday for no other reason than to say he had been there.

In the morning, the governor was in Giles County to announce that a new manufacturer will open shop in Glen Lyn, creating 83 new jobs. Thats the sort of thing governors always like to announce.

In the afternoon, the governor was in Clifton Forge, where he toured the recently-opened Masonic Theatre thats been a beneficiary of state funding, and in Covington, where he got a briefing on the Alleghany Highlands attempt to create a drone industry. Thats also the sort of thing governors tend to do.

In between, McAuliffe was in New Castle (population 153) where his itinerary consisted of looking at the countys LOVE sign, one of a series of art installations around the state playing off the Virginia Is For Lovers slogan. He also dropped in on the Old Brick Hotel, a local historical site.

The governor had no ribbons to cut. He had no announcements to make. He was simply a tourist. So why was he there? McAuliffe was very up front about why he made time in his schedule to visit Craig (and Alleghany County, too): He hadnt been there yet, and before he leaves office on Saturday he wants to be able to claim he had visited every county and city in the state.

How unusual is this? Memories differ. Local historians in Craig County believe McAuliffe was the first sitting governor to visit their county since Jim Price, who served from 1938 to 1942. Its thought that Price came to crown Miss Craig County at the county fair, possibly at the behest of the local state senator  back in the days when there actually was a state legislator from Craig County.

Acting on the Russian proverb popularized by Ronald Reagan trust but verify, weve attempted to verify that and . . . well, it might actually be true. Lots of candidates have visited Craig in the course of their campaigns, but an actual sitting governor? Thats harder to document. Aides to George Allen and Tim Kaine remember their bosses visiting Craig County  but no one can quite remember whether it was during their campaigns, or when they were governor, or later when they were in the U.S. Senate. Its been awhile since Gov. Price was in the news, so the thought that McAuliffe has done something not done since Prices time appeals to our sense of history.

(Its worth noting that Price was a fairly progressive governor for his day. He was the rare Virginia governor of that era who was not beholden to the political machine of U.S. Sen. Harry Byrd, and used his governorship to advocate for Social Security benefits and the inclusion of African-Americans in the military. Thats likely why you dont see any statues to Price around; he didnt fit the narrative of the Byrd Machine. But we digress.)

Kudos to McAuliffe. Its doubtful the insight he gleaned from his brief visit to Craig County will help inform the final week of his governorship, but its the thought that counts.

We like to pose thought experiments, so here are several that come to mind.

* Should governors be required to visit every city and county during their term? Thats superficially appealing but easy to poke holes in. Sorry, I cant make that trip to Seattle to lobby for Amazons second headquarters; Ive got to check off my Craig County box next week. I guess well just have to let those 50,000 jobs go somewhere else. Maybe take a rain check? Or, to avoid that, how about this:

* Should governors be required to visit every city and county before they take office? Right now, the state Constitution requires only that governors be at least 30, and a resident of and registered voter in Virginia for five years. Should we add a passport-like requirement that potential governors have to document theyve been in each of the states 95 counties and 38 independent cities? (Bear with us now; were trying to make a point here, not propose some regulatory agency to monitor candidate schedules.)

In reality, many candidates for governor have already done such a statewide visitation. It takes a long time to run for statewide office, sometimes years, so a lot of those visits to remote counties happens when the general public isnt really paying attention.

To that extent, Virginia politicians do better than national ones. Richard Nixon made a big deal in 1960 of vowing to visit every state. Alaska and Hawaii had just been added, so this was his way of showcasing a Republican achievement. Politically, that turned out to be not such a good move. It meant that Nixon wound up spending a lot of time in small states that were sure to vote Republican when he might have been better off devoting more time to bigger, swing states. Its notable that no candidate since then has made the same 50-state pledge.

As a thought experiment, though, heres a different argument for requiring Virginia governors to visit every city and county, either before or after they take office. The more urban Virginia becomes, the less rural localities matter. This would be a way to counter that trend.

Were also seeing a trend of non-Virginia figures entering Virginia politics, as one D.C. pol after another decides to take advantage of his or her residence in Northern Virginia. McAuliffe was a national figure before he was a state one. So was Ed Gillespie, the unsuccessful Republican candidate last fall. Before them, we had Oliver North, Jim Miller and Elmo Zumwalt as statewide candidates who basically parachuted in from Washington. Well surely have more in the future. Former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina and talk show host Laura Ingraham were mentioned for awhile as possible U.S. Senate candidates this year. They all probably know more about Newcastle, England, than New Castle, Virginia.

Passing through Craig County and looking at some tourist sites doesnt transform someone into an expert on the issues the county faces, but there is something to be said for making sure candidates understand the enormous distances involved in rural Virginia. From Richmond, New Castle may look pretty close to Roanoke and it is  until you have to drive over the mountains to get there.

Perhaps what we need to do is to ask all future candidates: So, have you been to every city and county yet? If not, why not? And, perhaps more tellingly, can you name which ones you havent been to yet?

We might even call it The McAuliffe Rule.
New Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa has been asked by a local businessman Lovemore Kurotwi to help him recover $17 million seized by the State when his company, Canadile Miners, was allegedly pushed out of the Marange diamond fields by former Mines minister Obert Mpofu.

The businessman, according to a NewsDay report, said his company lost $3,6 million cash, 1,4 million carats of diamonds and mining equipment worth $14 million which he invested in Marange.

"We were given this concession in partnership with Marange Resources, a government mining company under the auspices of ZMDC (Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation). In fact, ZMDC guaranteed the partnership," said Kurotwi.

"However, as is on record, former Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu asked me for a bribe of $10 million. Upon my refusal to give him this bribe, minister Mpofu caused my arrest on unfounded allegations of fraud. Again, as is now public knowledge, I was acquitted by the courts of law for these trumped-up charges."

Mpofu, who was now the countrys home affairs minister and in charge of the police, had previously denied the allegations levelled against him saying that Kurotwi was poor to even afford a bottle of water.

Kurotwi said he had evidence to back up his claims and pleaded with Mnangagwa to help him facilitate "restitution of our assets as stated".

His previous appeal to former President Robert Mugabe fell on deaf ears.

Mnangagwa had been preaching against corruption, a move that has seen some former ministers being dragged to the court.

However, the arrests made so far were allegedly of ministers who were part of a faction led by the wife of Mugabe who was ousted last November in a de-facto military coup.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




Angolan police will this year expand their efforts to combat the illegal exploitation of diamonds in the Bie region, according to a government official.

Jornal de Angola quoted deputy minister of the interior ministry in Bie, Commissioner Antonio Gimbe, as saying that police raids would be constantly conducted throughout the year to stop illegal diamond mining.

He indicated that much of the unlawful mining was conducted by illegal immigrants who were mainly found in the municipalities of Cuemba, Chitembo, Andulo and Nharea where the diggers achieve easy profits with the exploitation and illicit marketing of diamonds.

Angolan authorities recently deported 4,766 illegal immigrants who were mining diamonds illegally in Cambulo, Lunda Norte Province.

More than 20,000 illegal diamond miners were said to have left the country on a voluntary basis last year.

Illegal diamond mining had been a source of headache for Angolan officials despite efforts to put the practice to an end.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




Russias FAS will consider complaint about the terms of the auction for gas assets of ALROSA

11 january 2018 News

(INTERFAX.RU)  Russias Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) will consider the complaint filed by Rosneft regarding the terms of the auction for the acquisition of gas assets held by ALROSA, in which the regulator sees signs of restricted competition.

"The complaint will be considered on January 15, 2018," the official website of the regulator reads.

"According to the documentation, the initial price of the auction is 30 billion rubles, the money deposit is set at 21 billion rubles, the date of paying the deposit is January 10, 2018, the date of summarizing the results of the auction is February 19, 2018. The FAS of Russia will examine the requirements contained in the auction documentation for violations of the law on the protection of competition," the statement said. In addition, the FAS will assess the size of the money deposit to be made to participate in the auction and the timing of its payment as a possible barrier to the participants.

"The deadlines set by ALROSA for applications will also be examined for compliance with the terms necessary to obtain the preliminary consent of the antimonopoly authority for the transaction in the context of monitoring the economic concentration and in accordance with the law on foreign investments in strategic business entities, the statement said.

It notes that the FAS will not disregard the arguments of Rosneft that ALROSA does not disclose information about the ultimate beneficiary companies, creating an advantage for certain potential bidders.

ALROSA is selling Geotransgaz and Urengoy Gas Company owned by Cyprus-based Maretiom Investments and Velarion Investments.

The sale is carried out "as is" and ALROSA does not undertake to provide customers with guarantees regarding the absence of financial, tax, legal and other risks in respect of Maretiom and Velarion, as well as regarding the obligations of these companies.

Earlier, the Federal Antimonopoly Service informed that NOVATEK and Gazprombank, as well as three offshoots of Rosneft (RN-Holding, RN-Gaz and Bashneft) applied to take part in the auction for the gas assets of ALROSA. Meanwhile, in the run-up to the auction Mikhail Leontiev, Press Secretary of Rosneft said that Rosneft will not participate in the auction for the sale of gas assets of ALROSA on the terms proposed by the diamond mining company.

According to Interfax, the Investment Committee of Rosneft convened on Wednesday considered the oil companys possible participation in the announced auction for the sale of gas assets of ALROSA. After the consideration, it was decided not to take part in the auction, the statement posted on the Rosneft website said.






Shmuel Schnitzer has stepped down from the post of Chairman of the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI). The Board of Directors has stated its appreciation for his years of service as Chairman of IDI and as a leader of the diamond industry says to a press note from IDI.

The IDI Board released a statement saying, The Board of Directors of the Israel Diamond Institute would like to thank Shmuel Schnitzer for his substantial contribution to this institution since becoming Chairman in February 2016. Over a public career spanning several decades, Shmuel Schnitzer has made an immense impact on the Israeli Diamond Industry and on the diamond industry around the world.

The Board also announced that Boaz Moldawsky had been appointed Acting Chairman. Moldawsky, a second-generation diamantaire, is active in public service to the industry, serving as Deputy President of the Israel Diamond Exchange, Chairman of the Finance Committee and a member of the board of the Israel Diamond Manufacturers Association.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished
The Moscow International Competition "Russian Diamond Line" launched in 2008 by the Jewellery Review Magazine as a platform for bringing new names worthy of recognition to the world level of jewellery design summed up its results. The awards received at jewellery design contests are a prerequisite for the creation of a brand and promoting it on international markets. The winners of the Russian Diamond Line are regular winners at international competitions getting top rates at major jewellery exhibitions. The best Russian brands will form the basis for the exposition to be presented by Russian national pavilions in Hong Kong, Basel and Las Vegas and will receive subsidies from the Russian Export Center as a matter of priority. A distinctive feature of Russian Diamond Line-2017 was the wide geography of participants and winners. By tradition, the best works have been named in four nominations, including Exclusive, Gold Series, Special Diploma of Jury and Grand Prix.

Exclusive

The Butterfly ring made by Moiseikin Jewellery House (Yekaterinburg)

The Anastasia earrings made by Alexandra Neskreba (Moscow)

The "Spring Flower" earrings made by Nikolay Romanov (Nizhny Tagil)

The "Ocean" ring made by Dmitry Kotlyarevsky (Moscow)

The Moon River earrings and ring made by BOGARTA (Kostroma)

Gold Series

Ring "Marilyn Monroe". Larisa Zolotova (St. Petersburg)

Earrings and a ring from the collection "Fern". LEO TOTTI (Togliatti)

Ring from the collection "Curvature of space". "Russian Crafts" (Yaroslavl)

Ring "Night Flower". Beavers (Novosibirsk)

Collection "Eco". KU & KU (Kostroma)

Special Diploma of Jury

The Jumanji ring made by Galina Konyaeva (Voronezh) - for using unconventional stones and mastery of performance

Grand Prix

The "Plisetskaya. Dedication" suspension from the Ballet. Premiere Collection made by SASONKO Jewellery House (St. Petersburg) - for harmonious design, author's interpretation of the theme and impeccable performance.






File photo/OmniTRAX

OmniTRAX, Inc., Board Chairman Edmond Harris is resigning after being named executive vice president of operations at CSX Corporation (CSX).

OmniTRAX said the company thanks Harris for his dedication during the past four years he was chairman.

Ed Harris has been a great advocate of our transformation from a short line rail company to a comprehensive transportation and logistics service provider, providing insight and connections from his more than 40 years in the industry, said Kevin Shuba, CEO of OmniTRAX. Well miss his wisdom, but look forward to collaborating with him in his new role at CSX.

OmniTRAX said it experienced rapid growth under Harris guidance.

Revenues are up 48 percent and casualty spending is down 78 percent since Harris joined the company in 2014.

Im proud of the performance OmniTRAX experienced during my tenure, with the scheduled model we put in place resulting in an 18-point improvement in the operating ratio while improving safety across the business, Harris said. We also saw growth within the organization through conscious railroading, diversification and a strong management team.

Harris joined OmniTRAX with more than 35 years of railroad industry experience, the company said.

He has also served as a board director for Universal Rail Services and as a senior advisor to Global Infrastructure Partners, an independent fund that invests in infrastructure assets.

Ed brought a level of professionalism and knowhow to OmniTRAX that has helped us attain or surpass our goals on practically every measurement, said Pat Broe, founder and CEO of The Broe Group, of which an OmniTRAX is an affiliate. We wish him success in his venture at CSX.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is celebrating the completion of the state's largest program of rail infrastructure improvements after seven years.

The Piedmont Improvement Program (PIP) is intended to enhance safety, reliability and efficiency for both freight and passenger rail service operating between Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C.

The project scope entailed more than 40 rail projects were completed, which included the following:

Constructing 13 new bridges over or under highways to prevent train/vehicle collisions

Laying 27 miles of double track between Greensboro and Charlotte, making the route between both cities now double track

Closing nearly 40 street-level roadway crossings to improve safety

Additional locomotives and railcars for the Piedmont train service

Improvements to four train stations between Cary and Kannapolis

The Piedmont Improvement Program has put our state on the right path for the future by not only improving connectivity for passenger customers, but also serving as a catalyst for economic improvement through freight rail service, locally and nationally, said NCDOT Chief Deputy Secretary David Howard. Additionally, modernization of the corridor allows for increased freight service along the line to better accommodate growing freight traffic while lightening the load on our states highways.

Jason Orthner, manager of design and construction, oversaw the PIP work. He called the program a significant investment in the states transportation system in its highest population areas.

We have prepared the corridor for additional freight and passenger train services and opportunities, Orthner said. That leads to greater economic development along the corridor, as well as improved safety by the removal of grade crossing and the enhancement of warning devices and signal systems. It really sets the corridor up for the continued growth in North Carolina.

NCDOT said it began a series of railroad and highway construction projects and enhancements in 2010 with an understanding of the significance of railroads to North Carolinas infrastructure and economy.

The program also allows for the start of two new daily round trips on the Piedmont passenger line, NCDOT said, adding that passengers will be able to travel on five trains each way between Raleigh and Charlotte.

The robust program entailed some challenges, Orthner said, as can be expected with most long-term projects.

Some of the biggest challenges included the number of stakeholders involved, Orthner explained. We really had to work with multiple railroads and their requirements to both develop and construct the program.

He said the corridor along which the program took place is owned by the North Carolina Railroad Company, and Norfolk Southern and CSX Corporation are operators within that corridor, as well.

The way we overcame that challenge was through close coordination, he said. We had regular meetings, we had established processes for reviewing both design and construction items. The result was a successful program.

The first new round trip along the Piedmont route is set to begin this Spring, the department said.

The Federal Railroad Administration awarded the state a $520 million grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support the projects, NCDOT noted.

NCDOT thanks the following partners for their assistance in the programs success:

North Carolina General Assembly

Federal Railroad Administration

Municipalities: Burlington, Cary, Charlotte, China Grove, Durham, Greensboro, Harrisburg, High Point, Landis, Morrisville, Raleigh, Salisbury

North Carolina Railroad Company

Norfolk Southern Railway

CSX Transportation

Amtrak

North Carolina Association of General Contractors

North Carolina Chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies

A full project list and video detailing the PIP is available on NCDOTs website.
Australia will on Thursday release November numbers for retail sales, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Retail sales are expected to add a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent on month, slowing from 0.5 percent in October.

Japan will see preliminary November results for its leading and coincident indexes. The leading index is expected to see a score of 108.6, up from 106.5 in October. The coincident is pegged at 117.9, up from 116.4 a month earlier.

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Repeatedly declaring that there was "no collusion" between his presidential campaign and Russia, President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller would not be necessary.

Trump was asked about reports that his lawyers are anticipating a request from Mueller for an interview with the president during a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

In response, Trump said numerous times that there was "no collusion" between his campaign and Russia and claimed there has been no evidence of collusion.

"When they have no collusion, and nobody has found any collusion on any level, it seems unlikely that you will even have an interview," Trump added.

Trump went so far as to assert that the only collusion with the Russians was on the side of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

During the wide-ranging press conference, Trump was also asked about comments he made during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Tuesday regarding immigration reform.

Trump indicated during the meeting that he would be willing to accept a "clean" bill to provide protections for young illegal immigrants brought to the country as children.

However, Trump stressed during the press conference that a bill addressing protections for the illegal immigrants known as Dreamers must include funding for his controversial border wall.

(Photo: Michael Vadon)

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Business News
Media baron Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. is reportedly in talks to buy about 10 local television stations from Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.

According to Financial Times, the company was in final stage of negotiations to buy about 10 local television stations. However, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Last month, Fox had agreed to sell certain of its assets Walt Disney for about $52.4 billion. Under the deal, Disney will acquire 21st Century Fox, including the Twentieth Century Fox Film and Television studios, along with cable and international TV businesses.

Following the deal with Disney, 21st Century Fox will separate the Fox Broadcasting network and stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2 and Big Ten Network into a newly listed company that will be spun off to its shareholders.

For Sinclair, the sale of 10 local stations will help them approval from regulators for its proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media, which would make it the largest U.S. TV station owner.

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Business News
Whirlpool Corp.(WHR) said that it will incur about $80 million in charges as result of a restructuring of its Embraco compressor , which is expected to cut about 500 jobs.

As part of the restructuring, the company will cease operations at Embraco's facility in Turin, Italy in 2018, and concentrating the assembly of compressors in other facilities.

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Business News
National accounts data from Germany is due on Thursday, headlining a light day for the European economic news.

At 3.00 am ET, Spain's INE publishes industrial production figures for November. Production is forecast to climb 3.3 percent on year, slower than October's 4.1 percent increase.

Also, the Czech Statistical Office is set to release retail sales data. Sales are forecast to grow 3.6 percent on year, following the 7 percent increase in October.

At 4.00 am ET, Germany's Destatis is slated to issue full year GDP data for 2017. The is forecast to expand 2.4 percent compared to 1.9 percent in 2016.

In the meantime, Italy's retail sales data for November is due. Economists expect sales to climb 1 percent on month, in contrast to a 1 percent fall in October.

At 4.30 am ET, the Bank of England is scheduled to issue credit conditions survey.

At 5.00 am ET, Eurozone industrial output figures are due. Production is expected to grow 0.8 percent on month, faster than October's 0.2 percent increase.

Also, Greece unemployment data is due for October.

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Wolters Kluwer N.V. (WTKWY.PK), a Dutch information services and solutions provider, announced Thursday that its Health division has signed an agreement to divest ProVation Medical, its procedure documentation and order set management software , to Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. for $180 million or about 150 million euros in cash.

The divestment reflects the division's increasing focus on supporting healthcare providers in delivering improved patient outcomes by offering a broad and cohesive suite of products.

ProVation Medical is the U.S. market-leader in gastroenterology procedure documentation software and is also a major supplier of order sets to hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. The business had revenues of 65 million euros in 2016 and has approximately 200 employees.

It was in 2006 that Wolters Kluwer acquired ProVation Medical, which provides medical documentation, coding and workflow solutions to hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers in the United States.

Completion of the divestment is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to take several months.

Assuming completion, Wolters Kluwer intends to deploy the proceeds of the divestment towards additional share repurchases in order to mitigate the expected earnings dilution.

Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clearlake, and Prashant Mehrotra, Partner of Clearlake, said, "We are excited to welcome ProVation as a new platform investment into the Clearlake portfolio. The business has a strong reputation among its customer base for providing mission critical software with the highest degree of customer satisfaction. We are committed to investing in the business and partnering with the ProVation team to help drive the next phase of growth."

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Business News
The Pentagon's comptroller told Congress that the first-ever full-scale audit of the Defense Department has begun.

A comprehensive audit of the Defense Department's assets is important for reform, for Congress and for the taxpayer, David L. Norquist said at a meeting of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

Defense is the largest department in the US executive branch and has assets around the world.

The extensive process will cost about $367 million in 2018 and an additional $551 million to fix problems identified by the auditors, according to him.

While the department has auditors looking at various contracts or processes, "this is the first time the department will undergo a full financial statement audit," he said.

Defense Secretary James Mattis and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan are fully behind this effort, Norquist told the committee.

This audit will verify the count, location and condition of military equipment and real property.

There will be 1,200 financial statement auditors assessing the books and records to develop a true account of the state of the department. It will take time to pass all the process and system changes necessary to pass the audit and get a so-called "clean opinion," he said. He noted that it took the Department of Homeland Security -- a much smaller and newer agency -- 10 years to get a clean audit.

An audit will improve accountability, the comptroller said, noting that, for example, an initial Army audit found that 39 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were not properly recorded in the property system. "The Air Force identified 478 structures and buildings at 12 installations that were not in its real property system," he added.

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Business News
Rihanna took some time out to travel to her home island of Barbados for the funeral of her cousin Tavon Alleyne earlier this week. The 21-year-old man was murdered on the island over the holidays and a 23-year-old fellow Bajan has been arrested for the crime.

Riri was photographed wearing a white gown with dark black lipstick at the funeral, which she later deemed a "celebration" of his life:

"Sleep well buddy . . we are at peace knowing you're in a better place than we are. We will always have a void without you, but we will never stop loving you," she wrote via Twitter after the funeral. "Hope you were happy with your going away celebration today."

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Entertainment News
(Agencia CMA Latam) - Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) and ArcelorMittal increased steel prices sold to distributors by around 12%, said Carlos Loureiro, chairman of the Brazilian Institute of Steel Distributors (Inda). CSN's adjustment was defined on January 5, while ArcelorMittal's came into effect on January 3.

In an interview with Agencia CMA, Loureiro said there was information that Usiminas should soon track its competitors' move.

"Usiminas is studying [a price rise], and there is an expectation that there will be some increase next week," he said.

Steelmakers are under pressure of rising raw material costs, such as iron ore, and the stronger prices of steel in China.

"There was an expectation at the end of last year that steel prices would fall, but they are holding up, and there are already those who think there is room for them to climb higher," Loureiro noted.

Usiminas faces additional pressure from steel plate costs, which have also remained very high. The company buys plates to supply the unit in Cubatao (SP).

Steelmakers had already increased steel prices to the automotive industry earlier this year. CSN confirmed a 23% adjustment for automakers, and from 18% to 23% for other industry sectors. The deal with automakers is annual.

CSN declined to comment on the price increase for distributors. Usiminas has not responded to contacts so far.

According to INDA's chairman, the distributors have suffered more than industries with the increase in steel prices, but there was a reduction in the difference between the sale prices for the sector and the other segments. In December, Loureiro said that the distribution network would only accept new increases if they were also applied to the other customers of steelmakers.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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Ukraine to test components of a powerful Indian rocket engine The Yuzhmash production plant in Ukraine prepares to begin a series of firings testing critical parts of a large rocket engine intended for India's next-generation heavy launcher. Although it was built entirely in India, the prospective engine was originally designed in Ukraine under designation RD-810. Previous chapter: Mayak launcher A version of the RD-810 engine circa 2013 designed to gimble around one axis. The RD-810 engine at a glance: Oxidizer Liquid oxygen Fuel Kerosene Thrust at sea level 194.2 tons Thrust in vacuum 211.3 tons Specific impulse at sea level 303.6 seconds Specific impulse in vacuum 330.3 seconds Engine mass 2,350*/2,500** kilograms Number of burns in flight 1 Propellant component ratio 2.65 Combustion chamber pressure 192.7 kilograms per square centimeter Gimbal angle in one or two axis Burn time ~140 seconds Length 4,015 millimeters Nozzle diameter 1,450 millimeters From the publisher: Pace of our development depends primarily on the level of support from our readers! Developing RD-810 The RD-810 was developed at KB Yuzhnoe in today's city of Dnipro, Ukraine, as an equivalent of the Russian RD-191 engine, but using a more conservative engineering approach. Like the RD-191, this one-chamber engine with a thrust of around 200 tons, was intended for the first stage of a new-generation space launcher, however it was designed to operate at a lower, and thus safer, internal pressure than that accepted in its Russian counterpart. The propulsion division at KB Yuzhnoe was able to take on the project of such a scale and complexity thanks to its most recent experience with the engines for the second stage of the Zenit rocket, including the RD-120 and RD-8. The RD-810 belongs to the so-called staged combustion cycle engines, which first ignite their propellant mix inside a special gas generator (also known as pre-burner). The resulting hot gas is used to drive the engine's turbine and then it is directed into the main combustion chamber. The RD-810 was designed for a single firing during the operation of a typical first stage, starting on the ground and lasting slightly more than two minutes. The engine could operate in two modes: burning at full thrust for 135 seconds and then switching to a lower thrust for the final six seconds before the separation of the first stage. (809) In the course of its development, several versions of the RD-810 were designed, with the main difference being its gimbal mechanism with either one- or two-axis steering. Foreign roles for RD-810 Over the years, various roles were proposed for RD-810, including replacing the Russian RD-171 on the Ukrainian-built Zenit rocket and propelling Ukraine's new-generation Mayak launcher. A four-engine cluster, dubbed RD-810M, was designed to fit into the aft section of a potential space booster with a diameter 3.9 meters, matching the caliber of the Zenit rocket. Each RD-810 was expected to gimbal up to six degrees around one axis, allowing the four-engine cluster to fully steer the rocket. Because none of the indigenous programs could be adequately funded, Ukraine sought to bring the RD-810 design to the international market. Along with several other Ukrainian designs, the RD-810 was proposed for the American super-heavy rocket developed under the Space Launch System, SLS, program. However, despite qualifying RD-810 as in high degree of readiness, American space officials did not seriously consider Ukrainian engines for the SLS project. Indian version In 2005, Ukraine agreed to provide India with designs for the RD-810 engine and, on Nov. 20, 2006, the Indian Space Research Organization, ISRO, awarded a contract to KB Yuzhnoe for a project code-named Jasmine, which officially started the development of the RD-810. In India, the RD-810-based engine was dubbed SCE-200, which stood for "semi-cryogenic," indicating the use of kerosene fuel, which can be stored at regular temperatures, and liquid oxygen, which requires cryogenic conditions to stay in liquid form. The "200" in the designation denoted its thrust of 200 tons. ISRO planned to install the SCE-200 engine on the modified core stage of the GSLV Mark 3 rocket replacing the older propulsion system. It would boost the payload capacity of the rocket to the geostationary transfer orbit from four to six tons. Later, four similar engines could propel a new-generation rocket, which could deliver up to 10 tons to the same orbit without the help of strap-on boosters. In addition to assisting with the design of the engine, KB Yuzhnoe also advised ISRO on the development of the prospective launch vehicle itself. RD-810 for Antares In September 2013, KB Yuzhnoe proposed the RD-810 engine for the US Antares rocket developed at Orbital ATK. The company promised to begin deliveries of the engine in 5.5 years at a price tug of $500 million. However, Orbital chose the Russian RD-181 engine for the project. As of 2014, KB Yuzhnoe had produced the full set of design documentation required for the production and testing of the RD-810 engine. (809) According to industry sources, India then re-issued the blueprints for the engine according to its own standards and, possibly, introduced some modifications. In the meantime, KB Yuzhnoe decided to stop further development of the RD-810 engine inside Ukraine, focusing instead its limited resources on the more powerful RD-815 design, which could potentially be promising on the US market. Testing RD-810 Aerial view of the propulsion testing facility at the Yuzhmash plant in Dnipro, Ukraine. In 2017, Indian specialists returned to Ukraine to test fire the actual hardware, which had been built in India within the Jasmine project. According to industry sources, the Ukrainian Yuzhmash factory was contracted to test, not the entire engine, but its critical components, including its gas generator and a turbopump, which had all been manufactured in India. If the firings, apparently planned to be completed by 2019, validated the quality of the Indian manufacturing methods, the fully assembled engine, including the combustion chamber and the nozzle, would be tested at the yet-to-be completed bench facility at Mahendragiri, India.

The proposed architecture of the SLS rocket propelled by Ukrainian-built boosters and RD-810 and RD-815 engines. Credit: KB Yuzhnoe The four-engine cluster known as RD-810M could produce 844 tons of thrust. Credit: KB Yuzhnoe Depiction of the RD-810 engine circa 2014. Credit: KB Yuzhnoe RD-810-based SCE-200 engine could eventually propel the core stage of India's GSLV Mark-3 rocket. Click to enlarge. Copyright  2008 Anatoly Zak
Report: 33 Yemeni civilians killed, injured in Wednesday Saudi aggression airstrikes





SANAA, Jan 11 (Saba)  A total of 33 civilians were killed and wounded, Including children and women, in several airstrikes launched by US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition warplanes, including cluster bombs, on several Yemeni provinces over the past day, according to the reports combined by Saba on Thursday.



In northern province of Saada, 12 civilians were killed and another one was injured when an aggression plane waged a strike on a popular market, while five other civilians were killed when two airstrikes targeted a car in Kutaf district.



Also in Saada, two children were killed and three other children and a man were injured in an airstrike on a house in Mahjar area of Baqem district. Another child and two women were injured in an airstrike waged on another house at the same district.



Two more children were killed, three others wounded and two houses were destroyed in airstrikes on Teshdan area of Ghamer border district.



Also in Ghamer, three aggression airstrikes waged on Kahlan camp of Ghor area as the enemy missile and artillery forces shelled the area.



A civilian from nearby Shada district was killed in attack by Saudi border guards.



In the capital Sanaa, the aggression warplanes launched 32 strikes, dropping cluster bombs, on Dhula-Hamdan area west of the capital, causing huge damage to residents' houses and farms.



In central province of Marib, the warplanes launched two strikes on Serwah district.



Meanwhile, the Saudi artillery shelling hit residents houses and farms in several areas of Serwah district of Marib.



In the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, the aggression warplanes launched three airstrikes on a farm in al-Tuhaita district.







Writing by Sameera Al-mahdi, Editing by Zak

Saba

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[12/January/2018]
India for the first time confirmed on Thursday that National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart Nasir Khan Janjua in Bangkok last month with a focus on how to fight terror and end cross-border terrorism.

"Yes, I agree talks took place. I also agree that the issue is of terrorism. Talks were held on how to rid this region of the scourge of terrorism, how to ensure that terrorism doesn't affect this region. I think we raised the issue of cross-border terrorism (with Pakistan) in those talks," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He was answering queries about media reports on the meeting between Doval and Janjua in Bangkok on December 26 -- a day after the mother and wife of retired Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav met him in Islamabad and were subjected to humiliation by Pakistani authorities and a section of the press.

The spokesperson de-linked the meeting between the NSAs from the stalled India-Pakistan dialogue process and said it was a part of operational level engagement between the two countries.

"The dialogue process between India and Pakistan... We have said talks and terror cannot go together. But apart from that, there are other dialogue mechanisms that take place between India and Pakistan like talks at DGMO level, talks between BSF and Pakistan Rangers, there is a regular mechanism. Likewise, talks between NSAs is a part of operational level talks."

He said while India believed that "terror and talks cannot go together but talks on terror can definitely go ahead".

Asked if more such meetings between the NSAs were scheduled, Kumar said "these operational-level mechanisms do take place... but we don't announce these meeting. As and when these meetings take place, you will get to know."

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Vacant posts in city government hospitals have become a new flashpoint between Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister ' title=' Chief Minister '>Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, with both blaming each other for the delay in making appointments.

On Thursday, Baijal told Kejriwal that he was surprised that the Chief Minister ' title=' Chief Minister '>Chief Minister has raised questions regarding filling up of vacant posts with retired personnel as Kejriwal himself had chaired a meeting wherein the decision was taken.

Baijal was referring to a letter by Kejriwal earlier this week, in which the latter said that 2,169 posts were lying vacant in hospitals as there were not enough retired personnel available.

Kejriwal also said that the decision to fill the posts only with retired personnel was taken with Baijal's approval and that the elected government was kept in the dark about the decision.

"I am surprised as to why the hiring was limited to retired people... I would also be grateful if necessary directions are issued to all officers to stop hiding files from the elected government," Kejriwal wrote.

On Thursday, Baijal wrote back to the Chief Minister, expressing his surprise over his letter.

"The proposal for engagement of retired employees against existing vacancies was moved by the Health and Family Welfare Department in pursuance of directions of the Chief Minister, in the meeting convened under his chairmanship on August 8, 2017. The minutes of that meeting were also issued by the CM Office. Therefore, it is surprising that the Chief Minister ' title=' Chief Minister '>Chief Minister has now raised questions regarding the filling up of vacant posts with retired personnel," a statement from Baijal's office said.

Baijal also said that the appointment of retired people was an interim measure whereas regular recruitment is the only sustainable solution.
Hundreds of people blocked roads and shut down markets for a second day on Thursday to protest the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in the city of Kasur in Pakistan's Punjab province.

The protests against police inaction erupted on Wednesday with two demonstrators killed in clashes with the police.

"The situation is tense, but under control," Kasur police spokesperson Mohamed Usman told Efe news agency.

The protests started a day after the body of the girl, who had gone missing last week, was found in a garbage dump.

The minor was being looked after by her uncle while her parents were away on 'Umrah' pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Preliminary examination of her body revealed she was sexually abused before she was killed, and led to widespread outrage in Kasur, a city that has witnessed several incidents of child abuse in recent years, including seven recent cases.

As reports of the rape and murder hit the headlines, some of the protestors went on a rampage and clashed with the police demanding public execution of the killer of the seven-year-old.

Another police spokesperson, Khalid Iqbal, said complaints have been registered against three policemen over the death of the protestors on Wednesday.

The demonstrators were among a group that allegedly tried to attack the offices of the city's Deputy Commissioner, to which the police had responded by opening fire.

Iqbal said that the search for the girl's killer was underway although so far they have had no credible lead.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited the parents of the girl on Thursday and promised them that the guilty will be brought to justice.

In August 2015, it was discovered that 19 minors were recorded on video and photographed by a network of 17 people in Ganda Singh Wala, which falls in Kasur area.

In April 2016, an anti-terrorism court had sentenced the two accused to life imprisonment.

In March 2016, Pakistan passed a law against sexual abuse of minors and child pornography, making it punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Lifes a struggle but we must keep working hard.

So says Lolo Tofele, 42, from the village of Vailele-uta.

Mr. Tofele is a father of four children with two attending school and the other two still at home. Mr. Tofele says life has been tough for him and his family.

We are struggling here so bad in terms of money because my wife and I dont have regular jobs to support our family, he said.

We earn money by selling koko esi, Samoan cocoa and vegetables in our small canteen.

Because we dont earn that much around here in our place, we just eat anything that is available for us in our plantation and then a cup of tea.

Mr. Tofele said electricity supply was good except for water.

We already have water connection here for our house, but the problem is that we hardly have water around here.

It was off for three days ago up until today (yesterday). So thats why we are grateful for the rain now because it provides us with water.

The electricity is not a problem here because we have an electrical wire connected to our house. The pots out there are used for collecting rainwater.

Mr. Tofele also shared about their familys financial status.

Ive got to be honest that here in our small family, we dont have that much, as long as our four kids get to have something good, then that will do.

School will kick off again soon and I am not looking forward to that because I will also need money.

My canteen is also closed because school is on break and the only way I earn money right now is by selling a few crops.

Mr. Tofele says their house is not safe, especially when were into the cyclone season.

This was the only house I could afford when we decided to move here.

Ive been thinking of repairing it, but I dont have the money for it.

Life is really hard for us because we live in a small hut with my family and we struggle with money and water issues as well.

If you are willing to help Mr. Tofeles family, they can be contacted on mobile phone number 7759322.
The key to cope with the daily financial burden is to work together as a family.

Such is the belief of father of three, Petelo Moli, 67, from the village of Magiagi, while referring to the expensive cost of living in Samoa.

Mr. Moli says life is already hard for Samoans.

Life is hard if you think about the cost of living we have here now in Samoa, he told the Village Voice team yesterday.

The prices of products are all increasing and are becoming unaffordable for most people here.

For my family, my wife is the only person who works to support our family, and I am out here to work on our plantation for food.

For me, this is the only way I know that will help us with the increasing cost of living.

We need to work together as a family, if there are some who are employed, those who are not can work the land, in this way we can help support our family.

In his opinion, cost of living in Samoa has considerably changed compared to the past.

Back then, you could use $100 for the whole week compared to now, you can only use it for one day given the price of products we have today.

Right now it is really hard for any family to consume meat, such as lamb because its expensive.

Mr. Moli adds his two daughters overseas at times helps with their familys financial income.

For us here, we can survive with whatever we have, especially from what we have here in our plantation.

In Samoa we always have our family obligations and thats when my daughters step in to help us.

We already know how tough life is in Samoa today; the only thing for us to do is to work together with everyone in our families.

Money does not only come from working in offices, our land is also a source of income.
The International Press Institute and the Samoa Observer hosted a special screening of The Post at the Apollo Cinemas last night, to promote the value of press freedom in Samoa and around the world. The writer spoke at the event and this is what he said:

Deputy Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mataafa

Cabinet Ministers,

Members of Parliament,

Chief Justice and Members of the Judiciary,

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Heads of Government Departments and Private Companies,

Samoa Observers business partners, readers,

Ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the International Press Institute (I.P.I) and the Samoa Observer Newspaper Group, Id like to welcome you all tonight to this celebration of Press Freedom, and the critical role of the free media in our lives.

In this day and age, issues of media freedom and how far such freedom can be stretched are sensitive matters, especially given the added dynamic of social media and how that is changing the fragmented media landscape.

Tonight we are not here to discuss social media and new types of media.

We are here for the premier of a Steven Spielberg film called The Post which is about the core principles of journalism and the impact it can have when the media is allowed to perform its role in a democracy.

Set in the 1970s, The Post which features stars such as Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, is a movie that chronicles The Washington Posts historic struggle to get its hands on, and then publish -- against the wishes of President Nixon and the White House -- the findings of what have become known as Pentagon Papers.

For the uninitiated, the papers were filled with, as one columnist recently described, explosive, innocence-ending stuff.

Whats more interesting is that the Papers proved in black-and-white that Americas leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, had been systematically lying to the public for decades, about the scope of the Vietnam War.

I will stop there because I want you to enjoy the rest of the movie and hopefully later you might be able to share your views with us about the story.

You will find in the film that there are a lot of issues, we believe, are very relevant to what is happening in the world  and Samoa to an extent.

There is the ongoing struggle between a feisty independent newspaper and a very powerful government, there are critical commercial decisions to be made (which many of you in the business community can identify with), the issue of gender equality and the strength of the woman is highlighted, and so much more.

Tonight, we are here, as part of our role to promote Press freedom and how critical it is in Samoa, to celebrate the work of a very powerful and influential woman, Katharine Graham.

Ms. Graham was the Publisher of The Washington Post at a crucial time in its history, when it unveiled the Watergate scandal, which ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. This story has been well told and we will not go into any further details.

So what does this have to do with Samoa and what we are doing here?

Let me finish with a little story I believe is relevant to our gathering.

While all that was happening during the Nixon era, just down the road from The Washington Post Office, was a small bookshop called, The Globe Books, where a young man from Samoa, Sano Malifa, was working.

Mr. Malifa was so inspired by the events from that time; he returned to Samoa eight years later and started the Samoa Observer.

Through hard work and by the grace of God, the Samoa Observer is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.

Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, is part of the build up to our official celebration, which will be held later this year.

Now they talk about life and events coming around full circle.

After his own tears, blood and struggles with issues of Press Freedom in Samoa, in year 2000, Savea Sano Malifa returned to Boston, U.S.A. Accompanied by the Publisher, Muliaga Jean Ash, Savea was honoured as one of fifty I.P.I. World Press Freedom Heroes.

He shared the same honour and the same stage with, Katharine Graham.

The Bible tell us that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by God.

I think, God, in all his wisdom and sovereignty, has a great sense of humour. Here is a Samoan from a tiny dot in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, being in Washington DC in the 70s.

He could have been anywhere else and yet there he was, strategically placed by God Almighty, just a few blocks down the road from the Office of the Washington Post, where Katharine Graham was making decisions, similar to what Gatoaitele Savea would later be making in Samoa, in his own journey.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Tonight also, speaking from Vienna, Austria, is Barbara Trionfi, the Executive Director of the International Press Institute (IPI).

The I.P.I is a global organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of press freedom and improving journalistic practices. Founded in 1950, the I.P.I. has members in over 120 countries. Samoa is a member of the I.P.I. and the only Pacific country in the organization.

Ms. Trionfi will highlight for us the value of accurate, fair and diverse journalistic sources in order to be able to develop informed opinions and allow people to make informed decisions.

On that note, please fill your glass, and join me to celebrate the critical role of Press Freedom in our lives. Lets also pay tribute to the work of Katharine Graham and our very own, Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa.

Have a wonderful evening, God bless!
Dear Editor,

The re-introduction of the Criminal Libel law in my own view is a conspiracy theory.

I arrived to that conclusion because I believe; the reason why Prime Minister Tuilaepa defamed Unasa and the people of the protest march as explained in the first part of this discussion is because he left out himself to be an exception from the Criminal Libel laws control because he is the Prime Minister.

That is going to be the same situation for all government leaders. Conspiracy serves only the satisfaction of people who planned the conspiracy. It undermines the right purpose of the law or the laws control for everyone without any exception. Therefore the Prime Ministers and government leaders special door according to the conspiracy is already closed from the laws control.

However, when one door is closed, the other one opens. The conspiracy opens another door of opportunity for criticisms and challenges. That is the door for people who are not afraid to criticize and challenge the Prime Minister and other government leaders for the wrong things they have been doing to our country. That situation is the Prime Ministers fault.

That situation too is the reason why the Prime Minister did not know that the re-introduction of the Criminal Libel law is going to come around at him and hit him first. That means his words about the Criminal Libel law and defamation he did to Unasa and others reveals his double standard and hypocrisy. The other side he was not aware about is that the re-introduction of the Criminal Libel Law will play a huge part for the uncovering of political disasters and untruths about the Constitution of Samoa. The information that he gave about the Criminal Libel law are the great leads for the uncovering of political disasters and untruths about the Constitution of Samoa.

This is one of the parts of the information I was referring to. Samoa Observer 23 December 2017 (P.M. defends Criminal Libel law) Prime Minister Tuilaepa said the problem is when reporters add their opinions to the facts. I dont know about you Mr. Editor but I believe Prime Minister Tuilaepa is correct. The real problem the Prime Minister was talking about is [when opinions are added to the facts] or [the problem is when opinions are added to the facts].

Because I understand that the Prime Minister is correct about that situation therefore I took that situation [the problem is when opinions are added to the facts] in a good way and used it on a small research about the Prime Ministers opinions on the Constitutional Amendments about Christianity and the foundation of Samoa as well as the opinions of the Prime Minister about the Constitution of Samoa in relation to mortgages and customary land.

The definitions of the word opinion I prefer to use in this discussions in relation to the opinions of the Prime Minister are interpretation and judgment. The fact the Prime Minister has added his opinions to the Constitution of Samoa. To make things easier for us to understand Im just quoting here below the Prime Ministers opinions from news report by Samoa Observer and Savali with my responses after each quotation. As understandable, my responses are my own opinions and my opinions are focusing mainly on the truth and the context of the Constitution of Samoa.

The readers according to our freedom, can create their own opinions, make their own judgments and draw their own conclusions if they dont agree. Our agreements and disagreements are very important for deciding of truth and for maintaining of hope for a special day in future to resolve all problems that have been created by the Prime Minister and the H.R.P.P party. That special moment will put our beloved country right back to the right place it should be and then the voice of our country will certainly be treated again as first priority as it used to be for its foundation and its possessions.

Prime Minister Tuilaepas first interpretation - Samoa Observer 21 May 2016 (P.M. pushes ahead with Constitution amendment) Looking at the Constitution as it stands today, Tuilaepa said the preamble only talks about Christianity and Samoan traditions but that carries no weight. The Preamble of the Constitution reads: Whereas the Leaders of Western Samoa have declared that Western Samoa should be an Independent State based on Christian principles and Samoan customs and tradition

My response  If the preamble only talks about Christianity and Samoan traditions but carries no weight according to Tuilaepa, then what else more the preamble must have in order for the preamble to carry a weight according to the purpose of the specific declaration about the foundation of Samoa and according to the purpose of the preamble? According to this small part of the declaration as quoted after this sentence, it covers all fundamental principles and genuine guidelines. IN THE HOLY NAME OF GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, THE EVER LOVING. WHEREAS sovereignty over the Universe belongs to the Omnipresent God alone, and the authority to be exercised by the people of Samoa within the limits prescribed by Gods commandments is a sacred heritage. WHEREAS the Leaders of Samoa have declared that Samoa should be an Independent State based on Christian principles and Samoan custom and tradition

It covers everything that should be contained in the declaration on the preamble of the Constitution of Samoa such as the clause Whereas, Gods sovereignty over the universe, the authority of the people of Samoa is limited according to Gods commandment, the peoples authority is a sacred heritage, the group (Leaders) that framed the Constitution, the Leaders declaration and the foundation of Samoa (Western Samoa should be an Independent State based on Christian principles and Samoan customs and tradition). So what is the meaning of no weight according to Tuilaepas interpretation and judgment of the preamble? If it is inadequate it shouldnt be repealed but just added few more contents to the declaration on the preamble according to the preambles purposes and then cite more clarifications about that declaration within the body of the Constitution. That action solves the problem of no weight or inadequate.

Because that small part as quoted above of the Constitution is already repealed therefore, the Prime Minister and H.R.P.P must do the same repealing move to oath declaration and the list of Leaders who framed the Constitution that is still on the preamble. There is no purpose or weight or meaning of the oath and that list anymore on the preamble because the declaration about Gods sovereignty and the Leaders declaration that was framed by those Leaders are already repealed from the preamble. Therefore, the Prime Minister and H.R.P.P must repeal that list as well and replace it with the list of members of the H.R.P.P. because they have twisted the whole thing and changed the meaning of the whole thing in order to suit just the Prime Ministers and H.R.P.Ps purposes.

Prime Minister Tuilaepas second interpretation - Samoa Observer 09 June 2017 (Freedom of religion not threatened: A.G.) When the Bill was introduced, Prime Minister Tuilaepa said the Constitutions reference to Christianity was only in the Preamble. This was inadequate, he said. Inadequate in terms of how Samoa as a Christian State is not included in the body of the Constitution. Instead it is in the cover and the preamble of the Constitution, not within the body of the Constitution. This shows that it is not part of the Constitution. This does not stand in Court as it is not included in the body of the Constitution.

Tuilaepa said he understood the main reason it wasnt included in the body of the Constitution then was because there were no religious wars in Samoa when the Constitution was initially written. He said that perhaps our ancestors were not thinking about it at the time. This means that we have been misled all these years. And every time we say that Samoa is founded on God because it is in within our Constitution, God mustve had a good laugh and thought that we have been fooling him. And it has been more than 50 years since we have been fooling God, because this is not in the body of our Constitution.

My response  My first impression of the Prime Ministers opinions is misleading and weak. He must understand better because he has been in government for more than twenty years. The biggest mistake that was made by Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi about the Constitution of Samoa was making of a wrong assumption from a colonized minds perspective that the Preamble of the Constitution of Samoa is not a part of the Samoas own law and Samoas own Constitution. The Prime Ministers assumption that was made from the role of Prime Minister does not make his opinions or his claim to be correct. The preamble of the Constitution of Samoa is part of the law and the Constitution. I can prove my point in two ways. First one is by common sense.

The Second one is from the context of the Constitution. By common sense, how can he say that something was framed and validated by the Leaders of Samoa does not stand in the Court that was started and established by the same Leaders at the first year of Independent? Therefore the Prime Ministers assumption is absolutely not right in Samoa only. His assumption is the right meaning of preamble in countries that colonized Samoa according to the histories of those countries.

The context of the Constitution and the basic structure of the Constitution is the other crystal clear evidence. Our history is different from the countries that colonized Samoa. We have our own customs and tradition. We accepted, respected and followed Christianity and Christian principles for a very long time before colonization. We fought against colonization to defend Christianity, our customs, tradition, and our lands and we won because of the power of Christianity. So we are not colonized. We the indigenous people of Samoa are taking control of our own lands with our own freedom.

The people of Samoa surviving now days including our Churches are living evidences to prove to the Prime Minister that the Preamble of the Constitution of Samoa is part of the law and the Constitution. Those are historical events and historical facts can be cited from the Leaders declaration about Christianity and the foundation of Samoa that is on the cover and the preamble of the Constitution if we do an analysis of each phrases of the Leaders declaration.

Therefore we can confirm that truth from the perspectives of the Leaders who framed the Constitution according to the context and the basic structure of the Constitution. And the truth is that the Preamble of the Constitution of Samoa is part of Samoas own law and Samoas own Constitution.

Also, because of the fact according to the original that there is no recitation of the declaration about Christianity and the foundation of Samoa that is on the Preamble within the body or in the body of the Constitution therefore, that situation of no recitation of Christianity and the foundation of Samoa in the body of the Constitution is the other strong evidence about the Preamble as part of the law and the Constitution of Samoa.

I believe, the reason why is because of the simple reason that Christianity is about what we are and who we are. Thats us since 1830. The framers of the Constitution were all Christians. They framed the Constitution for our Independent on that basis.

Because of that reason, therefore, there was nothing to be proved or to be defended about Christianity in the body of the Constitution of Samoa when the framers framed the Constitution. As signaled before, the people of Samoa became as Christians since 1830 and the people of Samoa have lived their lives as Christians according to Christianity since that time until now. Accordingly, Prime Minister Tuilaepas wrong accusation about misled that he pointed directly to our Leaders that framed the Constitution of Samoa is unfounded. Also, Samoa did not at any time fool God according to Prime Minister Tuilaepas wrong assumption.

It is already proved, it was him the only person and the first Christian leader as a Prime Minister who fooled God by misleading our country with his intentional misleading interpretations in order to impose tax on what that has been forbidden by God, the taxing of Church Ministers earnings. He was able to execute that pagan kind of agenda because the declarations that stops him from doing that inappropriate actions has been already repealed from the preamble of the Constitution for that main purpose.

Now, the true Christians will have to go through obstacles after obstacle and after obstacles if they wanted to resolve that issue from now on. More clarification for that situation is explained very clearly by a loyal supporter of Prime Minister Tuilaepa known as PS Jeffrey on Samoa Observer. I am not against PS Jeffreys comments but I am just using his comments for clarification of my point.

PS Jeffrey commented about an Editorial by Samoa Observer on 04 July 2017 (Samoa Founded on Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi of Lepa?) Pretty sure at least one HRPP MP voted against the tax the pastors (and HOS) bill. Could be others. Anyway,

1. The christian state constitutional amendment really means that all state functions will be done in the christian religion. For example, state funerals and all formal state occasions. Legally, someone could in theory have sued the government in future about the separation of church and state in school and on state occasions and they might have won if the christian thing was only in the preamble. So just to be sure, the amendment was put in the body of the constitution. That is now water-tight. Nobody can sue and hope to win now.

2. Pastors are not a protected species. They are citizens who serve a very important role in Samoan society but they are still only citizens who use the roads, the schools, the hospitals etc.

Therefore in 1962 the first year of independence, the declaration about Christianity and the foundation of Samoa on the cover and the Preamble is just an acknowledgement of the God of Samoa that the Independent State of Samoa is founded on and the acknowledgement of what the Independent State of Samoa should be based upon (Christian principles and Samoan customs and tradition).

Our Leaders have made it that way and approved it that way in order to be followed and respected according to those ways. Those ways have stood legally in Samoa for more than 50 years until Prime Minister Tuilaepa changes the Constitution of Samoa. There is no confusion or contradiction between the cover, the preamble and within the body of the Constitution. I can only agree with the Prime Ministers interpretation and judgment on the basis of confusion and contradiction.

Prime Minister Tuilaepas third interpretation  Savali Newspaper 09 Feb 2017 (Customary land and hot air) And when asked to comment, Tuilaepa said that he will respond with facts and not fiction. Fact one. Customary lands cannot be sold or mortgaged according to Article 102 of the Constitution of Samoa, said the Prime Minister However, customary land can only be leased or licensed under the Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965.

Customary lands could also be taken for public purpose under the Taking of Land Act 1964. If Government wants to allow customary land to be sold or mortgaged, then it must first amend Article 102. The only way to amend Article 102 is a two thirds majority of Parliament approval and by holding a public referendum, continued Tuilaepa.

My response  Without the tofa mamao and utaga loloto of the four wise Chiefs of Samoa who upsets Prime Minister Tuilaepas secret plans about customary land with their complaints that was lodged to ADB, Samoas customary land would have been already in big trouble right now. He just came up with those informations publicly when he was caught by the investigation that was launched by ADB according to the complaints by the four wise Chiefs.

As a result of the upset situation, the government rushed in making of necessary amendments to Acts relate to customary land in order to cover up their wrong doings. Thanks also for the push back by the S.S.I.G. One day in the near future, Samoa will see the right reason why those people have sacrificed their lives for the protest march to voice the forgotten voice of Samoa in order to save our customary land.

The whole situation as explained by the Savali Newspaper is all about Tuilaepas power and the governments power. Tuilaepa has left out the voice of Samoa and rights of the people of Samoa according to the declaration on the Preamble of the original of the Constitution of Samoa. If he wants to talk about facts then he must follow the right order or the right structure of facts.

He is interesting only on parts of the Constitution where powers of government are being highlighted. As I said before, if he wants to talk about facts, he must follow the right order or the right structure of facts. That is, he must tell the truth about why the right order and the right structure of facts have been affected by the Constitutional Amendments No. 2.

He must tell the truth why it is necessary for the government to own Samoa and to be ruled over by the mighty power of the Prime Minister according to the Constitutional Amendment No. 2. He must tell the truth why he muddles everything in order to hide his plans about customary land from the public that are not in line with the explanation of the Constitution he provided to Savali.

Before, I used to trust our government 100%. However, since the government established a new law that is against Christianity and since the division had occurred among our people like the division between the government and some of the people of our country over our customary land, that whole situation about the trusting of our government has been changed completely.

Therefore the reliability, the validity and the trustworthiness of the governments interpretation should never be trusted any more.The governments misleading interpretation has led to so many confusions between Acts.

Lastly, the saddest thing about the whole situation as already explained in this second part is that the Prime Minister was already aware about what he has been doing was wrong.

So the Prime Minister has been misleading the interpretations of the constitution to convince Samoa in order to accomplish the goals of his agenda. His own opinions he added to the facts speak the truth about the Prime Ministers behavior. That is the side he was not aware of about the re-introduction of the Criminal Libel Law.

The re-introduction of the Criminal Libel law was playing a huge part for the uncovering of political disasters and untruths about the Constitution of Samoa.

Nanai Malonuu Lealaiauloto Nofoaiga

Samoa
The driver of a pick up truck had a lucky escape yesterday after the Holden vehicle he was driving veered off the road and crashed into the village pool at Tufuiopa.

According to an eyewitness, Jadyn Ualesi, the person who drove the car was test-driving the vehicle.

The vehicle was speeding, she told the Samoa Observer yesterday.

It came down from where Island Rock Company is and it couldnt stop on time to slow down at the curve and it went straight in the pool.

The thing is, the vehicle is serviced and I think the guy who was behind the wheel took it to test drive the car.

Ms. Ualesi said the driver was not hurt.

Once the car was in the pool, the driver came out right away, she said.

He walked up to his dads friends house next to the pool.

Its not the first this has happened at the same pool at Tufuiopa.

As a matter of fact, this is the third time this has happened where cars crashed inside this pool.

Lucky the driver was not hurt, but the luckiest part is that nobody was in the pool.

This pool is usually full of young kids and people nearby who come and take a swim and it would have been a disaster if there were people in the pool.

It was not possible to get a comment from the Police yesterday.
The Office of the Electoral Commissioner has responded to queries concerning several proposed changes to the Electoral Act review.

These recommended changes include new seats for Faleata, Vaimauga, Leauvaa stand alone, Salamumu to Safata.

In an email to the Samoa Observer, Faimalo Mathew Lemisio said the matters were before Cabinet for deliberation.

I wish to inform your good self that all amendments being proposed to the Electoral Act 1963, the Constitutional Act 1963 and the Constitution of Samoa, are all in draft form and are now being deliberated by Cabinet as we put together this response," Faimalo said.

He was also asked about the online registration introduced to cater for seasonal workers, expats, scholarship students, elderly above 65 years of age and people living with disabilities.

We are not introducing online voting nor are we introducing online registration, he adds.

What we are looking at as a possibility for registration, is how you submit your registration application.

Rather than physically coming to the office to fill in a form, we are looking at avenues where a new voter can just download an application form, fill in the necessary information, attach a photo then email it to us, or send it through mail.

That application will not be completed until that voter comes to our Office before the closure of roll to take his or her biometric information.

But at least, the bulk of the process had been attended to.

This will be ideal for our scholarship students and seasonal workers etc.

In saying all that, we can confirm that our project for electronic voting and counting is now part of the process going into the 2021 General Elections.

This project, worth around $5 million tala is part of O.E.C.s strategic goals, in our Strategic Plan 2016-2021, ensuring the progressive evolution of our electoral systems and processes.

This new system will include registration and scanning equipment, electronic ballot boxes which include counting equipment and human resource capacity building for a period of three years, culminating in the 2021 General Elections.

According to Faimalo, O.E.C. will have an aggressive public awareness programme on how this new system works.

This includes mock elections every six months in selected constituencies, administering of elections for local organisations, so far we have administered elections for the Chamber of Commerce, National University of Samoas Student Body and Red Cross.

He was also asked on whether Oo were to be removed and momoli and transfer 10 years with exception and also, if it was true that there would no longer be any special booths set up across certain places in the country for Savaii people residing in Upolu to cast their votes.

Faimalo replied these cannot be confirmed until Cabinet makes a final decision on the set up of electoral boundaries because there were six different options submitted to Cabinet for their consideration.

However, a government official, who wished to remain anonymous, said the Electoral Act amendments on the review of electoral boundaries will have three seats Faleata, three seats Vaimauga, Leauvaa stand alone, Salamumu to Safata.

And also online registration introduced to cater for seasonal workers, expats, scholarship students, elderly above 65 and people with disabilities.

Oo are to be removed and momoli and transfer 10 years with exception and there will be no more special booths, if you are to register in Savaii, you go to Savaii and cast your vote and no more urban seats.
Allegations that a prison guard was in a drinking session with a prisoner at the Tanugamalala Post is being investigated by the Ministry of Prisons and Correction Services.

This was confirmed by Ministry of Prisons and Correction Services Assistant Commissioner, Ulugia Niuia Aumua, in response to questions from the Samoa Observer.

Sources within the prison told the Samoa Observer that it was during the holidays that the alleged incident occurred.

This happened during the holiday season.

The prison guard was caught with the prisoner at a store in Tanugamalala and thats when the issue came to light, given the prisoner was not at the post, but at a public area.

An investigation was launched and the prison guard was questioned along with the prisoner.

The prison guard was placed on leave, however not long after, he was called to come back to work, said the source inside the Prison Services.

The source in jail told the Samoa Observer the prison guard in question is on employment probationary term given that he hasnt been working that long.

Ulugia said in response: Of any incident in our organisation as with other government departments, any allegation is just that until a proper inquiry is conducted.

There has been an allegation and our inquiry is nearly completed.

Asked as to whether the prison guard is on leave, Ulugia declined to comment.

Regrettably, your other questions cannot be answered at this stage while the inquiry is continuing.

Minister of Prisons and Correction, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt, told the Samoa Observer that alcohol is not allowed on any of the Prisons premises.

And this is unacceptable and reckless.

I will look into this, said the Minister.
A concerned citizen has voiced her displeasure with how her mail was handled by the Samoa Post Office.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer yesterday under the condition of anonymity, the unhappy member of the public explained that when she received her post card from Australia, it was already opened.

She added another issue was that the Christmas card was sent through the mail on December 8th, 2017, and was only received last week.

She claimed that has happened before to her.

It led to her and her family halting all use of the mail service to send or receive important documents or items.

And now this.

This is what I received last week, the concerned citizen explained, showing the letter.

It arrived like this. It was sent on the 8th of December last year and we just got it last week and when we got it, it was all torn up and wrapped in this plastic bag.

It says over here received open in Apia, initial Mark, Witness  Whoever. They cannot do that. I didnt sort of put this inside, I received it like this.

This is a big thing; you read a lot of things about the Post Office. The first issue is that they opened it and then they put it inside and stapled it, the second issue is that it arrived very late.

The unhappy citizen explained that the same issue happened to her two years ago, her trust for S.P.O. withered away.

So what we did before with our credit card and other important mail, we mail it to New Zealand before we bring it back, she said.

We dont want to bring it over here anymore because we dont get the mail. We dont want to get mails delivered here anymore.

But this is from my cousin in Australia who always sends Christmas cards every year. And I thought where is this years Christmas card because this time we didnt receive anything.

Now that we actually did get it, it has already been opened.

She added she suspects people opened up the mail hoping to find money.

I think at one time they found that people have been opening mail at the place where they store all the mail and then throw away the envelopes, she said.

This has happened to me before, two years ago, which is why we refuse to send important items through the mail now.

This is not done in Australia, it is done here or where they store the mail here.

I think the only reason they do this is that they think that there is money inside. So they open it and try.

Attempts to contact the C.E.O. of the Samoa Post Office for a comment were unsuccessful. An official at the office said she was not available.
The new Saint Peter Chanel Primary School is set to open on the 12th of next month.

The school will be accommodated in the compound that was occupied by the Catholic Combined College at Moamoa.

The Chanel Old Students Association (C.O.S.A.) has embarked on a project to establish a primary school that will become the feeder school for St. Peter Chanel College at Moamoa in the near future.

For this year, the classes will be from Year 1 to Year 8 with an intake of 25 students per class and being a privately managed school, the standard of services will be equivalent to primary schools with similar management models.

This is part of a long-term strategy to restore the status of Chanel College to the level when it was originally conceived.

The initiative is supported by the Archbishop, the head of the Catholic Arch Diocese of Samoa and Tokelau, who is also an old student of Chanel College.

Four new staff members have been appointed and have started work for the preparation of the new school year and there will be additional appointments depending on the school roll.

The committee is quite pleased with the calibre of the new staff members and are confident the school will provide the quality of services required.

The new principal for the school is Tepora Tooa Tu, Deputy Prinicipal is Makerita Salainaoloa Tuimavave with Sister Monika Vaipuna Tofilau and Jenny Bennet as teachers.

School Principal, Mrs. Tooa Tu is a qualified primary trained teacher with a total of 22 years teaching experience. She has taught a variety of levels from Year 2 to Year 8.

Of the 22 years, 11 years were served in New Zealand and 11 teaching years in Victoria, Australia.

Mrs. Tooa Tu has extensive experience in leadership which has been applied in team leader, lead teacher and co-ordinator roles in the areas of team management, curriculum design and outdoor education. She has led teams in Years 3/4, Years 5/6 and Years 7/8.

She has also co-ordinated camp programmes for middle and senior primary year levels.

Mrs. Tooa Tu has a Diploma in English, Mathematics and Social Studies and Diploma in Teaching English As Second Language and has undertaken study in bilingual education which was applied to her role as Samoan Bilingual Co-ordinator for Year 1 to Year 8 Bilingual Unit.

Shes born in Samoa with most of her education and life spent in New Zealand.

She is from the villages of Savaia, Lefaga in Upolu and Siufaga, Faga in Savaii and is married with three children.

Deputy Principal, Mrs. Tuimavave has a wealth of teaching experience both in Primary and Secondary levels having taught in Honolulu, Hawaii, Daly City and Sacramento, California USA, Philippines and Samoa. She also worked with children with disabilities after working for an Inclusive Education Support Program in Samoa. She is capable of working with children with learning complications, especially those with visual impairment and intellectual disabilities.

She is a former principal of Ah Mu Academy and her most recent posting was with Don Bosco College, Salelologa, Savaii.

Mrs. Tuimavave holds a Bachelors Degree in Secondary and Values Education from the Immaculate Conception University, Philippines. She also holds a Bachelors Degree in Administration of Justice from the Community College of Daly City, a Bachelors Degree in Criminology at the University of San Francisco, California, U.S.A. and a certificate in Administration, Human Development and English As a Foreign Language Assessment from the University of Maryland, U.S.A.

She hails from the villages of Laulii/Tafuna, Am. Samoa, Savalalo, Falefa and Sataua. She is married with two children.

Ms. Bennet has a wealth of teaching experience, having taught at St Marys College as well as at the University of the South Pacific where she was a full time facilitator for the College of Foundation Studies at Alafua Campus and, more recently, a Graduate Assistant for the Faculty of Arts, Law and Education in Fiji.

She is passionate about teaching young children and with her training in Early Childhood Development, Developmental Psychology, educational programming for students with learning disabilities and curriculum development, she is well equipped to facilitate a high quality and enjoyable learning experience at the primary school level. She is also a published author who emphasises literacy as a key to educational success.

Ms. Bennet holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education, Literature and Language and has recently completed writing her Masters thesis in literature.

Shes from the villages of Aleisa, Manase and Safotu and has two young daughters.

Sister Monika is a trained teacher who has had a variety of working experiences in the fields of teaching, spiritual and pastoral education.

She was a former principal of Logoipulotu College and more recently was a senior teacher at Don Bosco, Salelologa, Savaii.

Her overseas experiences include teaching attachments in New Zealand, Australia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bangkok and Ireland. Sister Monika belongs to a Catholic International Religious Congregation called Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions based at Moamoa with its centre in Rome and regional office in New Zealand.

Sister Monika has the ability to relate and work with different people in whatever kinds of circumstances. She is the eldest of four sisters and five brothers and she hails from the village of Iva, Savaii.

Additional property has been granted by the Archbishop for this project so that the school has adequate space for activities.

Apart from classrooms and bathrooms, the school will also have a computer learning unit, and facilities for students to have lunch, full size rugby field for various sporting activities, a canteen that will provide appropriate food and other items, a chapel and an administration unit.

The steering committee behind this initiative is chaired by Monsignor Etuale Etuale, the Administrator of the Catholic Church in Samoa assisted by the president of the Chanel Old Students Association, Tamaseu Leni Warren.

The Committee will hand over this project to a Board of Trustees who will oversee the governance of the school, in collaboration with the principal and staff.

The board will be represented by key stakeholders including appropriate representation by the parents.

For queries please contact telephone numbers: 725-1161 or 725-2881.
The Samoa Observer and the International Press Institute (I.P.I.) rolled out the red carpet for a special premiere of Steven Spielbergs movie, The Post, at Apollo Cinemas last night.

The movie, starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, details Katharine Grahams struggles as the Publisher of The Washington Post during the Watergate scandal.

It highlights the importance of press freedom and the critical role played by the free media in democracy.

Deputy Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mataafa was among a host of Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament at the event.

They were joined by the Chief Justice, his Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu, members of the diplomatic corps, government leaders and representatives of the business community.

The evening was part of the Samoa Observers 40th Anniversary events, with the official celebration scheduled for later this year.

The Editor of the Samoa Observer, Mataafa Keni Lesa, spoke about the significance of the movie and the connection to the Samoa Observer.

While all that was happening during the Nixon era, just down the road from The Washington Post Office, was a small bookshop called, The Globe Books, where a young man from Samoa, Sano Malifa, was working, Mataafa said.

Mr. Malifa was so inspired by the events from that time; he returned to Samoa eight years later and started the Samoa Observer. Through hard work and by the grace of God, the Samoa Observer is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.

Now they talk about life and events coming around full circle.

"After his own tears, blood and struggles with issues of Press Freedom in Samoa, in year 2000, Savea Sano Malifa returned to Boston, U.S.A. Accompanied by the Publisher, Muliaga Jean Ash, Savea was honoured as one of fifty I.P.I. World Press Freedom Heroes.

"He shared the same honour and the same stage with, Katharine Graham. (read Mataafas remarks on page 13).

In a video message from Vienna, Austria, the Executive Director of I.P.I, Barbara Trionfi, paid tribute to both Katharine Graham and Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa.

In honouring I.P.I. World Press Freedom Heroes in the year 2000, Katherine Graham, also an IPI Hero and whose commitment to journalistic integrity and courage is shown in the film The Post, said: The Heroes of the I.P.I. demonstrate that in spite of every obstacle and every constraint the truth ultimately prevails and is made known.

Today, as the information landscape is increasingly fragmented, the value of quality, independent, public interest journalism is greater than ever.

People need accurate, fair and diverse journalistic sources in order to be able to develop informed opinions, participate in the public debate and so contribute to democratic governance. That is why, today more than ever, we must cherish press freedom.
Target will take over the former Wangs restaurant building on University Avenue in North Park with a 35,200-square-foot-store meant to reflect the character of the neighborhood, the retailer said Thursday.

The store, a much smaller version of Targets big-box variety, is slated to open in November with a custom mix of beauty, apparel, toys, household goods and grocery items. The location, which will employ approximately 50 workers, will also come with a CVS pharmacy and will support online order pickup.

Wangs, a Chinese restaurant, has been closed since May of 2015.

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Previously called TargetExpress, these smaller-format locations  pared down from Targets sprawling 135,000 square-foot suburban venues  have become increasingly popular to the retailer as it seeks to develop a stronger presence in close-packed communities outside of city centers.

Target is on track to operate 130 small-format stores by the end of 2019.

Even with its scaled-down footprint, Target isnt always a welcome neighbor in San Diegos densest suburban communities. In August, the retailer came up against opposition from residents in Ocean Beach as it worked to negotiate a lease for a small-format location on Newport Avenue. Two years prior, the company also riled up members of the South Park community with a mini Target location at the intersection of Fern and Grape streets. Despite the controversy, that store opened in Oct. of 2015.

As for the North Park venue, Target said it has met with Councilman Chris Ward and community associations in hopes of better tailoring the store to areas specific needs.

Business

jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin
In a unanimous vote, state regulators agreed Thursday to a plan that will see the closing of the last nuclear energy power plant in California.

The Diablo Canyon nuclear facility will begin shutdown operations starting in 2024.

The power plants operator, Pacific Gas & Electric, says the facility will soon become an economic liability for the company because of dramatic changes in the states energy landscape.

Critics of the shutdown say it will lead to the use of more natural gas in the states power grid.

Environmental groups hailed the vote but want assurances that greenhouse gas emissions will not rise as a result.

Heres the full story:

The last remaining nuclear power plant in California will begin shutting down operations in six years after state regulators Thursday unanimously approved a plan outlining details of the closure.

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We chart a new energy future by phasing out nuclear power here in California, California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker said before the 5-0 vote to shut down the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County. We agree the time has come.

The decision comes after the plants operator, Pacific Gas & Electric, announced an agreement in 2016 with a collection of environmental and labor groups to shutter the plant that has delivered electricity since 1985.

The utility said Diablo Canyon would not be economically feasible to run because of changes in Californias power grid  specifically, the growth of renewable energy sources, increased energy-efficiency measures and the migration of more customers from traditional utilities to community choice aggregation (CCA) for their local electricity needs.

Diablo Canyon was the states last nuclear plant after the San Onofre plant was closed in January 2012 after a small amount of radiation leaked from newly-installed replacement steam generators.

While California will soon have no nuclear plants in operation, there are 99 nuclear reactors operating in the United States.

Under Thursdays decision, Unit 1 will close in 2024, and Unit 2 is scheduled for retirement in 2025, the years the federal licenses for the respective units expire.

Located on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Luis Obispo County, Diablo Canyon generates almost 18,000 gigawatt-hours of power each year, powering 1.7 million homes.

According to the most recent figures from the California Energy Commission, nuclear power accounted for 9.18 percent of the states power mix, without producing greenhouse gases.

Supporters of nuclear energy said closing Diablo Canyon will cause the state to use more natural gas  a fossil fuel  in order to replace the electricity generated by the plant.

Im sorely disappointed the CPUC has neglected the ratepayers and the environment, said Gene Nelson, government liaison with Californians for Green Nuclear Power. Solar and wind cannot be counted on Theyre subject to random interruptions.

Environmental groups hailed the decision, which was expected after 17 months of filings and debate among parties in the CPUC review, but they were also concerned about what type of energy sources will be used to replace generation from Diablo.

We really have to make sure that as were phasing out and getting rid of our nuclear power were not replacing it with dirty and dangerous fossil fuels like natural gas and that were moving to a 100 percent, clean, renewable economy, said Dan Jacobson, state director of Los Angeles-based Environment California.

Commissioners expressed confidence that wont happen.

Theres no retreat from our strong commitment to our GHG (greenhouse gas) reduction goals, commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen said.

As for which types of clean energy sources should be procured, commissioners left that up to an Integrated Resource Plan the CPUC has established for long-term power purchases.

Commissioners approved a proposed decision outlined by a CPUC administrative law judge that would give PG&E less money than it wanted to keep staff and retrain the plants 1,500 employees as Diablo Canyon gets decommissioned.

PG&E wanted $363.4 million but the commission reduced that to $222.6 million. PG&E will receive $18.6 million from ratepayers for costs associated with licensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

A number of parties in the case, as well as PG&E, proposed $85 million to compensate the community surrounding the plant for the loss of tax dollars that would accompany the closure of the facility.

But while commissioners acknowledged the plants economic effect on the area, they said questions involving tax dollars are the responsibility of the state Legislature to address.

We are very disappointed that this program was not approved, PG&E spokesman Blair Jones said, adding the utility will meet with the parties it worked with in 2016 to determine what do next.

Commissioner Liane Randolph said the decision to close Diablo Canyon would not pose a threat to reliable power in California.

The ruling moves California away from the era of nuclear power and toward an era of zero-carbon, renewable energy, Randolph said.

Critics of the decision to close Diablo Canyon note that greenhouse gas emissions in the state went up after the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station went offline. In-state generation of natural gas jumped from from 45.4 percent in 2011 to 61.1 percent in 2012.

In the most recent numbers from the California Energy Commission, in-state generation of natural gas was at 49.86 percent in 2016.

Commissioner Carla Peterman said the Diablo Canyon case offers policymakers a much smoother path to avoiding an increase in fossil-fuel energy sources. While San Onofre was abruptly shut down, Diablo Canyon will not begin to close for another six years.

We have tools available now that we didnt have several years ago, Peterman said.

CPUC decided in November 2014 on a plan that charged San Onofre customers $3.3 billion of the estimated $4.7 billion in costs related to the premature closing of the plant.

But it was later revealed that then-CPUC President Michael Peevey crafted the specifics of the deal in a secret meeting at a hotel in Poland with an executive with San Onofre operator Southern California Edison.

This week, it was revealed that utility executives and consumer advocates appear to have settled a long-running dispute over premature closure costs. Neither side would discuss terms and the agreement requires commission approval.

Michael Shellenberger, an advocate of nuclear energy and the president of the Berkeley-based research group Environmental Progress, said the details of what happened at San Onofre should have been resolved before the CPUC approved the closing of Diablo Canyon.

Ratepayers are at risk of losing over $3 billion in the San Onofre ripoff, said Shellenberger, who is running for governor of California as a third-party candidate and has pledged to reform the CPUC. Carbon emissions will go up if they close Diablo.

This story has been updated to add details of Thursdays vote and quotes from Liane Randolph, Carla Peterman and Michael Shellenberger.

Business

rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski

ALSO

Will natural gas go up when Diablo goes down?

More setbacks for the nuclear power industry

Nuclears unlikely apostle
The San Diego Symphonys proposed permanent bayfront stage complex was approved at the Port of San Diegos board meeting on Tuesday.

Why it matters: The $45 million project would create whats being called a new, iconic landmark on the downtown waterfront and nearly double the capacity of the Summer Pops open-air concerts  now called Bayside Summer Nights  to 10,000. But it would also permanently privatize a third of an acre of prime public parkland.

What happened this week: The port board approved a final environmental impact report and an amendment to the ports master plan needed to accommodate the project. The board also endorsed a binding letter of intent with the symphony.

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Opposition: There was none. But Garry Bonelli, the port commissioner who represents Coronado, said hed like the symphony to tinker with its proposal to address noise and access to the water. Specifically, he asked the symphony to consider ending concerts at 10 or 10:30 p.m., instead of 11. He also asked for a makeover of the bayfront at that location, where rocky landscaping currently makes it hard for people to dip their feet in the water.

Whats next: The California Coastal Commission will need to rule on the project. The earliest it would go to the state board is this summer, a port spokeswoman said. The Coastal Commission has already raised questions about the proposal, including how the port would replace the park land.

Some of the details:

The new venue would host an increased number of shows, going from 37 paid events to 110. The biggest increase is in non-symphony events.

A 2.3-acre lawn for seating will be made of synthetic turf  the first allowed use of fake grass by the Port of San Diego.

The project means a loss of 61 trees at Embarcadero Marina Park South, but new public bathrooms, renovated basketball courts and a public viewing platform that some have dubbed the sunset steps.

The symphony has played its summer concerts at a May-to-September temporary stage on the site since 2004.

RELATED: New Summer Pops bayfront venue would seat 2x more people 

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jen.steele@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @jensteeley
Airbnb enjoyed robust growth last year in California, with hosts welcoming 40 percent more guests to their homes than in 2016.

Leading the way was Los Angeles, with 1.4 million guest arrivals  more than 2- times San Diegos 537,000 visitors staying overnight in Airbnb rentals, the company reported Wednesday.

San Diego ranked No. 2 in the state in guest arrivals, but was third in host income, just behind San Francisco. Together, the states three largest cities account for nearly half the revenues Airbnb hosts took in last year.

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Statewide, Airbnb hosts earned more than $1.4 billion last year from renting out rooms and entire homes to some 7 million guests. Thats up from the 5 million visitors who booked temporary lodging on the home-sharing platform in 2016.

Not surprisingly, California leads all other states in guest arrivals, followed by Florida and then New York, Airbnb said.

We are committed to sharing information about key markets while protecting our hosts and guests privacy, said Airbnb press secretary Jasmine Mora. These numbers show that more and more people are choosing Airbnb to travel, whether its for business or family travel. 

The new data, which is gradually being released for each state, comes as elected leaders in both Los Angeles and San Diego continue to wrestle with how to regulate the meteoric growth of short-term vacation rentals.

In December, San Diegos City Council appeared close to resolving the long-running debate over how to rein in the proliferation of vacation rentals but ultimately reached a stalemate. City leaders are expected to revisit the issue this year.

Airbnb points out that it has reached agreements over the last several years with 37 cities in the state to collect and remit taxes on behalf of its hosts. Of the top 10 cities in the state with the most Airbnb activity, five still do not have agreements with Airbnb, although most are small towns, with the exception of Anaheim.

Business

lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-2251

Twitter: @loriweisberg
CARLSBAD

Free workshops

The North San Diego Small Business Development Center offers these free workshops at 2075 Las Palmas Drive:

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Government Contracting in a Day, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday. How to find your buyer, what certifications are available, how to write a proposal.

Email Marketing, 1 to 3 p.m. Jan. 18: Tips to increase email deliverability and open rates, write good headlines and content, and strategies to get high-quality customers.

Register at sdsbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events?cal=1.

Curley joins firm

Peter Curley is joining NextWave Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that specializes in technology commercialization. He will lead their tech scouting at universities and research institutes nationwide, focusing on Southern California schools. He was a former director and adviser for Imprimatur Capital, a United Kingdom-based venture capital firm. Visit nextwave.vc.

ESCONDIDO

Open house

The Escondido Chamber of Commerce hosts an open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the office, 720 N. Broadway. Free to chamber members and prospective members. Call (760) 745-2125 or email claudine@escondidochamber.org.

Plates for 8 lunch

Network with fellow Chamber of Commerce members at a Plates for 8 event from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at Jalapeno Grill & Cantina, 503 W. Grand Ave. Register at https://escondido.chambermaster.com/eventregistration/register/3312. Members pay for individual lunch.

FALLBROOK

Chamber expo

The Fallbrook Chamber Businese Expo will be from 2 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Pala Mesa Resort, 2001 Old Highway 395. The free event will feature light appetizers, cash bar and networking. Aquaterra Restaurant will offer a 25 percent dining discount for all expo attendees that day. Call (760) 728-5845.

OCEANSIDE

Raising capital

The San Diego & Imperial Small Business Development Center Networks Connecting with Capital Expo is from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 19 at council chambers, 300 N. Coast Highway. Registration is at 8:30 a.m. Learn what it takes to raise capital and how to access it from traditional and nontraditional lenders. Register at sdivsbdc.org.

Publishing how-to

Book Publishing 1-2-3 with editor Laurie Gibson will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Oceanside Public Library, 330 N. Coast Highway. Get tips to connect with editors and agents, and ideas on book promotion. Call (760) 435-5600.

SOLANA BEACH

Cybercrime talk

The San Diego Coastal Chamber of Commerce hosts San Diego County Sheriffs Sgt. Mark Varnaus presentation on cybercrime at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday at the Fish Market Restaurant, 640 Via de la Valle. Topics include threats, the Internet of Things, ransomware and Bitcoin. Lunch prices vary. For tickets, visit bit.ly/2BcmhGs.

VALLEY CENTER

Register now for gala

Register by Monday for the installation and awards gala of the Valley Center Chamber of Commerce, A Night at Monte Carlo, on Jan. 27 at Harrahs Resort Southern California. Hors doeuvres and cocktails at 5 p.m., dinner and program at 6 p.m. Cost is $50 members, $75 nonmembers. Register to vcchamber.com/events.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
PHOTO: The Avocado Belles Chapter of the Red Hat Ladies Society held an annual luncheon at Fallbrooks historic 1896 Reche Schoolhouse. The gathering, coordinated by Marianne Dickey, included a tour of the schoolhouse and presentation by Tom Frew, Fallbrook Historical Society board member and docent. Established in 1997, the Red Hat Ladies Society includes more than 40,000 chapters in the United States and 30 other countries. The chapter, consisting of nearly 20 members, is led by Queen Mum Beverly Griffith. Pictured are participants in the schoolhouse. Call (760) 723-4125.

CARLSBAD

Free Photoshop workshop at center

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The Carlsbad Senior Center will offer a free Photoshop Elements  The Organizer workshop from 10 to 11:15 a.m. Wednesday for adults ages 50 and older. Instructor Mike McMahon will demonstrate the use of star ratings, albums, slideshows and tools the program offers. Participants will learn how to put Photoshop Elements to work for their photos. Call (760) 602-4650.

ESCONDIDO

Pygmalion showing weekends at Playhouse

Patio Playhouse Community and Youth Theater presents Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. Phonetics Professor Henry Higgins believes that through strict teaching in language and deportment he can transform a lowly flower girl into a duchess. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Jan. 28 at Patio Playhouse Theater, 116 S. Kalmia St. The production is directed by Steve Murdock and produced by Jennifer McKenna. Attendees can donate pet food or toys to benefit the San Diego Humane Society and its San Diego, Oceanside and Escondido campuses. Tickets cost $18; $15 for seniors, students and military; and $10 for ages 16 and younger. Group rates are available for groups of 10 or more. Call (760) 746-6669 or visit patioplayhouse.com.

Retired teachers to hold brunch meeting

The California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA) holds a monthly membership brunch from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Cocina del Charro, 890 W. Valley Parkway. The program will feature a speaker from the Valley Center-Pauma Union School District. Cost is $15 per person. Guests are welcome. New members are admitted free for their first brunch. Visit div63.calrta.org.

FALLBROOK

Computer classes offered for seniors

The Foundation for Senior Care will sponsor a series of computer classes and workshops taught by volunteer computer technicians at the Crestview Estates Clubhouse. Four workshops are offered Monday and Jan. 18: Taking & Managing Photos on Your Smartphone, Google Maps, Online Safety and Social Media. Cost is $5 for each two-hour workshop. Also, four classes are offered: Using Windows 10, Android Smart Phone & Tablet, iPad & iPhone and Introduction to Computers/Basic. Classes start Jan. 22 and are four weeks long, meeting for two hours once a week. Cost is $40. Class size is limited and fills up quickly. Registration is open until Friday for workshops and Jan. 21 for classes. Register from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the foundation, 135 S. Mission Road. Call (760) 723-7570 or visit seniorcarecomputerlearningcenter.org.

OCEANSIDE

Birding in Morocco topic of presentation

A free presentation on the diversity of birding in Morocco will be led by Gary Nunn at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Buena Vista Audubon Nature Center, 2202 S. Coast Highway, The program begins at 7 p.m. after social time. Call (760) 439-2473.

Second public scoping meeting on EIR slated

The city of Oceanside will conduct a second public scoping meeting on the Environmental Impact Report for the North River Farms Planned Development at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Melba Bishop Recreation Center, 5306 N. River Road. A previous scoping meeting was held Dec.13. Due to the recent Lilac fire, the city scheduled a second meeting to allow those affected by the fire an additional opportunity to participate in the scoping process. The response period will be extended an additional two weeks concluding on Jan. 30. Visit www.ci.oceanside.ca.us/gov/dev/planning/agendas.asp or call (760) 435-3563.

POWAY

Training offered

for English tutors

The Laubach Literacy Council of San Diego County is looking for volunteers to tutor English as a Second Language. A two-day tutor-training workshop will be conducted from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m Saturdays, Jan. 20 and 27, in the Community Room at the Poway Library, 13137 Poway Road. No prior experience as a tutor is required. The nonprofit, volunteer-based Laubach Literacy Council has been providing free English tutors since 1961 throughout San Diego County. Register by Friday at laubachsandiego.org/volunteer.htm. For more information, email jeannette.moyer@gmail.com.

SAN MARCOS

Dine and Discover program for seniors

The city of San Marcos hosts the ongoing series Dine and Discover at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Senior Activity Center, 111 Richmar Ave. Participants will have lunch while listening to a presentation by Sarah Macdonald, city communications officer. Learn about the citys branding campaign and gain a better understanding of the Communications Department. Reservations are due at least one day in advance. Cost of lunch for guests 60 and older is a $4 suggested donation and a $5 fee for guests younger than 60. For more information or to RSVP, call (760) 744-5535 or visit san-marcos.net.

VISTA

Workshop on classical music appreciation

A free classical music appreciation presentation is offered from 1 to 3:15 p.m. Wednesday for community members interested in learning to listen to, appreciate and enjoy classical music. Presentations include state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment. The workshop, hosted by Hank Presutti, is at the Gloria McClellan Senior Center, 1400 Vale Terrace Drive. No registration is required. Call (760)643-5288 or email luigibeethoven@cox.net.

Send us your Community News

If your nonprofit would like to submit calendar listings for events, or photos of events that have happened recently, please email northcounty@sduniontribune.com.

Include the name of the group, date and time of event, address, cost and contact information for readers.

Photos must be sent in jpeg form, with the names of those in the photo from left to right.
Conway Elementary School in the Escondido Union School District is one of 18 schools nationwide chosen for a $5,000 grant from EL Education. The grant will support documentation of the way EL Education, a nonprofit that works with 150 schools serving diverse populations, is helping students learn.

Working with EL Education, Conways fourth-grade teachers created a project in 2017, Protecting and Serving Our Local Watershed, which explores the impact of humans and shows how to become better environmental stewards. That project led to Conway being one of the first eight not 18, there was an initial group of 8 schools chosen from among 50 EL Education schools to be part of EL Educations Better World Project group.

The Better World Project will showcase projects at those 18 schools as national models for the positive changes theyre making in their communities.

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The recognition is a milestone for Conway, one of the lowest-performing schools in EUSD for a significant amount of years, said Principal Cristina Meglich. A lot had happened in Escondido  growth, reboundarying, changes in demographics  in a short period of time. EUSD was really looking to change its image and figure out how to better serve students.

Conway has been working with EL Education for several years to revamp the way it educates students, said Meglich. Initial funding for the first three years came from a district grant of $100,000 per year. This year, the EUSD board approved $48,000 to fund the annual contract.

EL Education, formerly Expeditionary Learning, was created more than 25 years ago by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, working with Outward Bound. It uses a research-based approach and focuses on having students master rigorous content, develop positive character, and produce high-quality work, according to its website.

Meglich says she has seen a noticeable difference in the students, who meet for 20 minutes at the beginning and end of each day to discuss issues as part of the new approach. We want students to be in charge of their own learning, she said.

That doesnt mean ignoring state standards. The students set goals based on those standards, said Meglich. For example, They will identify their reading level, and what they need to work on next. The school has hit its educational targets two years running, she added, and the fifth-graders pretty much doubled their scores in math and language arts.

A big part of EL Educations approach is character development. At Conway, that means emphasis on the schools EPIC norms  Excellence, Perseverance, Integrity and Compassion. Every Friday, the students reflect on their learning for the week, and give themselves a score, said Meglich.

Behavioral problems have fallen significantly, she added: Suspensions went from 18 to four last year. That character piece is essential to what theyre doing.

Parental engagement has increased, she said. A recent event had a 90 percent parental attendance rate  far above previous norms. Students are communicating the importance of them (parents) coming and understanding what is going on at the school, she said.

The EL Education Better World Project grants will document how students are learning. Videos of school projects will become instructional models for other schools. A video will also document the changes at Conway.

Adam Krusi-Thom of EL Education is working with Conway teachers. My job is to help teachers do these things, and bring the community in. Thats what the Better World Project gives to the community  the kids get a sense of something greater than themselves.

Education Manager Simon Breen of The Escondido Creek Conservancy inspects two-week-old trout with Conway Elementary fourth-graders Ezekiel Acosta and Karla Gonzalez in 2017. (Charlie Neuman/U-T file photo )

North County campuses become schools of trout 

Fourth-grade teachers Steve Palomino, Lana Brady and Bonnie Diamond designed Conways project, which explores the local watershed with the help of the Escondido Creek Conservancy.

The citys cement culverts have degraded the creeks water quality so it can no longer support trout, said Diamond. So we are able to introduce to the kids what the ramifications of humans are on the creek. Biology, geology, pollution and other related subjects are investigated.

Students raised trout fingerlings from eggs and released them into Miramar Lake in February. Learning about the trouts development was the focus of the fourth-grade expedition, a broad learning theme that integrated reading, writing, science and math.

Education Manager Simon Breen of The Escondido Creek Conservancy speaks to Conway fourth-graders in 2017. Clockwise from top left: Bianca Martinez, Osvaldo Gonzalez, Jocelyn Toled and Lydia Scott. (Charlie Neuman/UT file photo )

Students wrote letters and presented their findings to city officials. They created a field guide, they made informative trading cards, said Brady. There is more buy-in. The students are excited about something and actually feel like they have a voice. Its giving them real-world skills  talking to adults.

Added Diamond, They question, What is my role, and how can I change a minus to a plus? 

The teachers are happy about the recognition from EL Education. When you look at how many schools were involved here  for our school to be chosen? said Diamond. Added Brady, Most of the other EL schools are charters with smaller student bodies.

Meglich says her goal is for Conway to become an EL Education-credentialed school, similar to an IB (international baccalaureate) school. That will take four to five years of implementation and annual review.

To say its rigorous is an understatement, she said. The planning is unlike anything Ive ever experienced, but thats what makes it meaningful to students. Its something that they care about.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
Eighteen months after the Spanish tapas bar Cesar opened in Rancho Santa Fe, its owners have rebranded the eatery as a seasonal American restaurant.

On Jan. 5, married owners Richard Mazzera and Terumi Shibata-Mazzera revamped the outlets decor and renamed it Table Food + Drink. The restaurants recently hired chef has unveiled a menu of more casual American fare.

Shibata-Mazzera said last week that the name change was the final step of a months-long transformation of the restaurant that began last year.

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Although the Spanish menu was popular with fans of the couples original Cesar location in Northern California, it was too limited for Rancho Santa Fe locals looking for a neighborhood hangout. Over time, the couple kept adding American dishes to the menu until it no longer resembled the original Cesar.

At one point, it was half and half and nobody was happy, she said. It was like lukewarm water. We had to go one way or the other and figure out who we are.

Richard Mazzera and some former partners opened the original Cesar tapas bar in Berkeley 20 years ago. The Spanish small plates menu was developed by Mazzera and former chef Maggie Pond. In 2004, the restaurants cookbook Cesar: Recipes from a Tapas Bar was chosen by Food & Wine Magazine as one of the years 10 best cookbooks.

When Mazzera and his wife and partner Shibata-Mazzera relocated to San Diego County two years ago, they opened a second location of Cesar in Rancho Santa Fes Del Rayo Village shopping center.

Because the Ranch community has so few nearby places to eat, customers constantly asked the couple to diversify the menu so they could dine there more frequently.

Once the decision was made to change the name, the owners also decided to refresh the interior with new high-top tables near the bar, new upholstered banquette seating in the dining room and new artwork on the walls.

Last August, the couple hired chef Jon Hearnsberger, whose background includes stints at several San Francisco restaurants, including Mecca, Bix and Anchor Oyster Bar.

Shibata-Mazzera said some of the most popular dishes Hearnsberger has introduced are the Southern buttermilk-fried Marys chicken, mini fish burgers with arugula and dirty aioli, panko-crusted Petrale sole and old-fashioned desserts like bananas foster and chocolate-and-sour-cherry bread pudding. Hes also introduced a weekend brunch with build-your-own pancakes and eggs Benedict.

Since the changeover, Shibata-Mazzera said business has been strong. More than 180 customers turned out on reopening day last Friday.

Because customers have a strong affinity for some of the newer dishes, she said some will become permanent menu additions and other dishes will be swapped out for seasonal ingredients every couple of months.

And for the old fans of Cesar, theres still a touch of Spain on the menu.

We still have our sangria, she said. and we may offer the paella as a special sometimes.

Table Food + Drink

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays. Closed Mondays.

Where: Del Rayo Village, 16089 San Dieguito Road, Rancho Santa Fe

Online: tablefooddrink.com

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com
The hospitality group behind Havana 1920, the new Cuban restaurant/bar in the Gaslamp Quarter, is named GBOD, an acronym for Go Big or Die.

The 3-year-old San Diego restaurant companys fearless business philosophy has happily paid off with a string of successful ethnic eateries. But they were merely the appetizer for Havana 1920, GBODs biggest shoot-for-the-moon enterprise yet.

Havana 1920 is the passion project of Chief Operating Officer Joe Santos. Hes the grandson of Cuban immigrants, and the restaurants pastel-colored walls, historical decor, menu and classic cocktails are a love letter to his family and the traditional dishes he grew up eating.

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Havana 1920 has been in my head for the longest time, well before I started working in restaurants, said Santos, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where his grandparents settled after leaving Cuba in the mid-1950s.

Manager Andrew Walsh said no expense has been spared in re-creating the look, flavor and ambience of Havana in 1920. Thats the year U.S. Prohibition laws sent thousands of thirsty Americans winging their way south for rum drinks and the tropical lifestyle later popularized by island transplant Ernest Hemingway.

The exterior of newly opened Havana 1920 is painted in the pastel colors common on Cuban storefronts. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune )

The 80-seat venue resembles a 20s-era Havana home, with a quick-service market on the ground floor (look for the hand-painted city mural with the Santos family house) and homespun tables with mismatched chairs in the upstairs dining room, which customers reach by climbing a Cubana airlines stairwell lined with antique plane tickets and travel posters.

There are Cuban license plates (pre- and post-Castro), antique Cuban cigar boxes and rum bottles, historic posters and family heirlooms. On weekend nights, theres live Cuban music.

By the bar, theres a video floor showing Cuban films and a table with an inlaid wood map of the isles. Behind the bar, mixologist Ryan Andrew has a machine that crushes island-grown sugar cane to mix with some of the venues more than 150 varieties of fine and rare Caribbean rum.

The dining room in Havana 1920 is meant to re-create the look and feel of the homespun decor of restaurants in Cuba in 1920. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune )

Chef Anthony Porras menu is what Santos calls the anti-fusion food of Cuba. Except for some Spanish influences, Cuban cuisine has changed very little over the past century. There are classic Cubano sandwiches, yucca fries and plantain snacks, croquetas, citrus-marinated chicken and cafecitos (espresso brewed with brown sugar granules).

The greatest compliment we can get is when people come in and say our food tastes just like their grandmother used to make, Santos said.

GBOD is a partnership of brothers Ray and Patrick Davoudi, Santos and Aleko Achtipes. Their first Gaslamp project was Meze Greek Fusion in 2014. Their underground speakeasy, Prohibition, is directly beneath Havana 1920, and right next door is El Chingon, which has a Mexican Revolution theme. The group also owns the Greek-inspired Saganaki by Meze at Liberty Station.

Havana 1920 restaurants ropa vieja is inspired by the stewed beef dish that is one of the most popular meals in Cuba. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune )

Santos said hes grateful his partners let him go all in on Havana 1920, which is one of San Diegos only classic Cuban restaurants. Its a risk to serve such simple food in the high-rent Gaslamp district, but Santos is optimistic.

This was such a passion project for us that even if we break even, well be happy, he said. We took a chance because we believed in it.

Three signature dishes at Havana 1920:

Empanadas: Traditional, Spanish-influenced fried pastries, served with two dipping sauces: mojo criollo (garlic, olive oil and citrus juice) and Havana royale (ketchup and mayonnaise). To get the right crunch and sweetness, Havana 1920 flies its pastry dough in from a Cuban bakery in L.A.

Sandwich Cubano: The classic hot sandwich made with slow-roasted pork, Swiss cheese, yellow mustard and pickles on Cuban bread thats flown in weekly from Miami.

Ropa Vieja: Cubas national dish of stewed beef, tomato sauce, peppers, onions and spices. The name is Spanish for old clothes because the slow-cooked dish resembles shredded fabric.

Havana 1920

Where: 548 Fifth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter

Phone: (619) 501-1919

Online: havana1920.com

A rustic display case in Havana 1920 restaurant features rare Cuban rums and other historical items. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune )

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com. Twitter: @pamkragen
Terri Swanson lives at the Crossing apartment community, a transit-oriented development adjacent to the Anaheim Canyon Metrolink Station.

Swanson and her husband moved to the complex in June so she could take a Metrolink train to Orange Station, from which she walks to her administrative assistant job at Chapman Universitys Attallah College of Educational Studies.

Thats the main reason we decided to live there, Swanson said.

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The Anaheim community rents a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment for $1,743 to $2,072 per month, according to the buildings website.

Swanson said she usually sees one other passenger get on her morning train while employees disembark on their way to Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Anaheim Medical Center or the PacifiCenter office park. Her husband uses his car to commute to work.

I see other cars leaving all the time, she said.

The Southern California Assn. of Governments encourages city governments to offer incentives for residential development, especially affordable housing, near transit hubs to alleviate traffic on some of the most congested freeways in the country.

Since transit-oriented development is a land-use issue, the Orange County Transportation Authority does not take a policy stance on the practice, said Eric Carpenter, an OCTA spokesman.

OCTA does, of course, encourage people to use public transportation, including the Metrolink rail system as an alternative to getting behind the wheel and adding congestion to our crowded freeways, Carpenter said.

In 2016, Anaheim adopted the Canyon Specific Plan, which rezoned commercial properties on both sides of Anaheim Canyon Station as a transit-oriented area that could include workforce housing.

OCTA plans to start construction in 2019 on a second track and platform at the Anaheim Canyon Station. The new platform will be on the same side as the Crossing apartments, allowing residents to board trains without crossing tracks.

From July to November 2017, a daily average of 338 Metrolink riders boarded at the Anaheim Canyon Station on weekdays. In that same time, a daily average of 1,614 riders boarded in Fullerton, 862 riders boarded in Santa Ana and 711 riders boarded in Orange.

While transit-oriented living at apartment buildings such as the Crossing may not be incredibly popular now, public officials such as Placentia City Administrator Damien Arrula say Orange Countys demand for this type of housing will increase as the 91 Freeway becomes even more crowded.

Arrula spearheaded Placentias role in a planned Metrolink station and a 246-space parking structure in the citys historic downtown. OCTA plans to advertise for bids on the stations construction in late April or early May. Placentia will be the first new station on the Union Station-to-Riverside line in a decade.

As city employees its our job to serve the community and to plan for the needs of our citizens, residents and visitors, and to support our local economy, Arrula said.

The low vacancy rate among industrial or commercial properties can make it expensive for developers to purchase and redevelop them as high-density housing. Arrula said cities and developers who miss opportunities to build workforce housing run the risk of higher land costs in the future. This could translate into higher rents.

Placentia plans to sell a parcel that formerly held a deteriorating packinghouse to a developer for a future transit-oriented development. Its preparing to request proposals from developers interested in acquiring the site.

To capitalize on this planned transportation hub, the Placentia City Council approved dual plans to encourage redevelopment of the industrial properties south of the BNSF railroad and revitalization of buildings in its historic downtown.

Another common strategy in transit-oriented development is to build parking structures so people can drive from their homes, park in a structure, and take trains to downtown Los Angeles, the Inland Empire or south Orange County.

Construction crews are excavating space for underground parking at the site of a future parking structure near the Metrolink station in Old Towne Orange. The structure is also expected to serve as desperately needed nighttime parking for merchants.

In 2016, Chapman Crafted Beer opened its brewery and tasting room next to the site of the future parking structure. Once the structure is done, Chapman Crafted co-owner Wil Dee plans to work with the city to transform an alley on the side of his building into a paseo that will allow pedestrians to walk unimpeded to the train station.

With the temporary loss of a public parking lot, Chapman Crafteds customers have to park a little farther, but the long-term benefits to business owners, residents and train riders will be huge, Dee said.

As far as the structure goes, its a long time coming, he said. Its fantastic for the city to be able to partner with OCTA to get the parking.

Langhorne writes for Times Community News.
Grant Davis, director of the California Water Resources Department, was replaced Wednesday just days after an independent investigation of the Oroville dam spillway incident last year found that a flawed safety culture contributed to the disaster.

The agency said Gov. Jerry Brown replaced Davis with Karla Nemeth, who has been deputy secretary and senior advisor for water policy at the California Natural Resources Agency since 2014. The announcement was made by Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, who oversees the water department.

This new team will help the state better prepare for ever-greater challenges to our infrastructure and flood management systems, and ensure that California is doing everything possible to ensure dam and flood safety, Laird said.

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Davis took over the department only last summer, after the spillway incident in February. He came from the Sonoma County Water Agency, where he will return to serve as general manager, the department said.

An independent panel of experts said the department is insular, beset by complacency and a flawed safety culture. It failed to recognize for decades warning signs that the spillway had design and construction defects, which ultimately caused it to break apart in February after the Feather River was swollen by rains. It caused the evacuation of 188,000 people living nearby.

Davis exit was part of a larger restructuring at the department, a likely response to both the spillway incident and some of the findings of investigators that faulted its safety culture. Outside engineering experts speculated that a housecleaning could occur at the department to help bring a rapid change to its culture.

The department created three deputy directors, one specifically focused on safety and flood management, led by Eric Koch, a Department of Water Resources veteran. The department said that was consistent with the investigators recommendations.

The two others include deputies for water management and environmental issues; and one for sustainable ground water management, a job that went to an existing department deputy director since 2014.

In a news release by the Sonoma County Water Agency, Davis praised Brown. This is going to be a very important year in California for water, Davis said. I am confident that the governor and the state are on a solid pathway forward.

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @rvartabedian

UPDATES:

5:45 p.m.: This article was updated to include news that the department will install three deputy directions, including one specifically focused on safety and flood management.

This article was originally published at 2:40 p.m.
Its a mystery within a mystery. How does the San Diego Natural History Museum play into a White River Monster story airing Thursday about bewildered residents of the town of Newport, Ark.?

Nine months ago, San Diego travel writer Maggie Espinosa was contacted by the Travel Channels Mysteries at the Museum directors to help produce tomorrow nights episode, which airs at 10 p.m.

For years there had been occasional sightings of a huge gray, mysterious creature lurking beneath the surface in the White River. There also were reports of strange footprints and occasional eerie, unexplainable booming or bellowing sounds that further puzzled and frightened Newport residents.

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In 1973, a fisherman captured a hazy and unidentifiable image of the monster. It was was described as wide as a car and as long as three cars, says Espinosa, former president of the San Diego Press Club.

As the legend grew and fear mounted, town leaders passed a regulation forbidding harassment or interaction with the monster. In 1973, Espinosa said a fence was built along the banks of the river where it had been spotted to protect those on land, and the area was referred to as the White River Monster Refuge.

As concern reached fever pitch, an expert in identifying hidden creatures, who had headed the official Loch Ness monster search in the Scottish Highlands, was called in to investigate.

Cryptozoologist Roy P. Mackal ruled out such possibilities as submerged boulders or wreckage from a ship that rose and sank with the changing currents.

His probe, in fact, led the Travel Channel series producers to the San Diego Natural History Museum. In its collection is a two-foot-long skull of a sea mammal that Mackal concluded was similar to the one terrorizing the tiny Arkansas town.

The creature was never captured, so the mystery still endures, but Mackal was so convinced he had hit upon the answer that he wrote a book explaining his theory.

Espinosa explores more details about the legendary beast on the Jan.11 show hosted by Don Wildman.

Darkest Hour producer Lisa Bruce, l to r, director Joe Wright, Golden Globe-winning star Gary Oldman and producer Douglas Urbanski attended the Palm Springs International Film Festival Talking Pictures Screenings on Jan. 3, 2018. (Vivien Killilea / Getty Images for Palm Springs International Film Festival )

Stage credits: As British actor Gary Oldman accepted the Golden Globe Sunday for his portrayal of Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, former Coronado resident Lisa Bruce was among those he publicly thanked.

Bruce, one of the films producers, had premiered Darkest Hour at the Coronado Island Film Festival last November before its national debut. She grew up in Coronado, and her family still resides there.

She has a good track record. The previous year, she had screened her film, The Theory of Everything, during the festival. It later was nominated for five Academy Awards, and Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking.

Anniversary present: Instead of a lifeline to the city, the San Diego River seems to be an afterthought, an irritant when it floods, blocking roads and shopping center access, and a hideaway for the tents and sleeping bags of the homeless.

Nearly 250 years ago, though, the river was a beacon for Native Americans and Spanish settlers, who used it for drinking, farming and raising livestock.

Tom Fetter, board president of the San Diego History Center, wants to emphasize the key role the San Diego River played in our citys establishment. An effort to rejuvenate the Junipero Serra Museum atop the presidio, which had many more visitors before the history center collection and operations moved to more spacious location in Balboa Park, has been slowly taking shape.

The center just received an $800,000 grant from the San Diego River Conservancy to create an exhibit telling the story of our namesake river and its historical significance.

After all, the presidio marks the birthplace in 1769 of the first mission in what is now California.

The center is working to raise the remaining $150,000 needed to complete its project. Bill Lawrence, History Center executive director, hopes to have the Serra Museum exhibit plus a new n ADA-accessible parking area complete before the citys 250th birthday celebration in 2019.

diane.bell@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1518

Twitter: @dianebellSD

Facebook: dianebell.news
A young man considered to be the highest-ranking Mexican cartel leader to self-surrender to the United States pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court Wednesday to a scheme to distribute and import methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine to the U.S., authorities said.

Damaso Lopez-Serrano, 29, is believed to be the godson of Sinaloa drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. In his plea, Lopez-Serrano admitted to being a leader within the cartel, acting as a major coordinator of moving drugs into the U.S., successfully importing tonage quantities of narcotics across the border. He also admitted to possessing guns for his cartel duties.

Lopez-Serrano faces a mandatory sentence of at least 10 years in prison, and he has agreed to forfeit $1 million in cash.

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Lopez-Serrano, also known as Mini Lic, gets his nickname from his father, Damaso Lopez Nunez, also known as El Licenciado. The father, also reputed to be in the cartels leadership, is in Mexican custody awaiting extradition to the U.S.

Lopez-Serrano pleaded guilty to all charges in the San Diego indictment, as well as to a cocaine distribution conspiracy charge out of Virginia that also names his father.

Lopez-Serrano presented himself to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Calexico West Port of Entry on July 27. News reports out of Mexico said Mexican authorities had been hunting for him in Mexicali at the time.

Lopez-Serrano, who once enjoyed a close relationship with Guzmans sons, was said to be in the middle of a power struggle within the cartel after his father fought them for control of the organization.

The guilty plea is part of a massive assault on the Sinaloa cartel by the U.S. Attorneys Office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and agencies around the country. The investigation began in 2011 into what was at the time believed to be a small-scale drug distribution cell in National City and Chula Vista. It was discovered the drugs were being supplied by the cartel and the case opened wide. More than 125 people have been charged, including the cartels top leadership tier.

Guzmans co-leader of the cartel, Ismael El Mayo Zambada Garcia, is charged in the initial indictment, as well as two of his four sons  one of whom is in Mexican custody pending extradition to the U.S. One of Guzmans sons is also charged.

Guzman is awaiting trial in New York on drug trafficking charges.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
A drifter charged with stabbing a homeless man, bashing in his skull, then setting him on fire along the San Diego River last year could face the death penalty, a judge ruled Wednesday.

At the end of a one-day preliminary hearing, Sergio Padilla Chavez, 26, was ordered to stand trial on charges of first-degree murder, with a special-circumstance allegation that the murder was committed during an arson.

The district attorney will make the decision on whether to seek the death penalty at some future time, as Chavezs trial draws closer, Deputy District Attorney Kyle Sutterley said.

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Jose Hernandez, 63, died more than six weeks after the July 4 attack at his camp along the river bottom in Grantville, near a Kaiser medical clinic off San Diego Mission Road.

Hernandez died of pneumonia on Aug. 19, but the cause of his death was determined to be complications from blunt head trauma, a forensic pathologist testified Wednesday.

Dr. Vivian Snyder said Hernandez suffered skull fractures, burns over 15 percent of his body, and a scissors stab wound in his torso that caused him to be hospitalized for weeks, leading to the pneumonia.

A San Diego police officer testified that after Chavez was arrested near the scene of the fire, he made a statement in Spanish that he had lit the man on fire.

A detective testified that Chavez and Hernandez, who camped near each other, had been drinking beer and smoking crystal meth for hours before the 9 p.m. assault.

Chavez told the detective that he showed his mothers photo to Hernandez, saying she had died in a car crash when he was 8 years old. He said Hernandez made a crack, saying with a serious face, Oh, I killed her, followed by other uncomplimentary comments.

The comments may have enraged Chavez. Sutterley said Chavez followed Hernandez inside his tent, stabbed him, got a rock and hit him on the head, then tossed a wooden pallet on top of the older mans tent.

He used a can of aerosol deodorant as a torch, igniting the spray over the pallet, Sutterley said.

Friends of Hernandez from other homeless encampments saw the flames and ran to help, dragging him out of the incinerated tent. The friends testified that they yelled for help. One man said he doused most of the flames with a water bottle and by urinating on them.

At the end of the day, Superior Court Judge Sharon Majors-Lewis found there was sufficient evidence against Chavez for him to stand trial.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepard
Santee School District has paid out more than $46,000 in legal settlements involving a liquid bleach spill at an East County community center that sickened dozens of students and adults at a nearby school, according to district records.

Deputies, medics and a hazardous materials team responded in October 2015 to Rio Seco Elementary School in Santee after students complained about a chemical smell and feeling a burning sensation in their eyes.

Four adults and 77 students at the school were treated for eye irritation, nausea and shortness of breath. They were later transported to nearby hospitals as a precaution, officials said.

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Investigators located the source of the problem at Cameron Family YMCA, a facility with a swimming pool that is less than half of a mile east of Rio Seco.

U-T Watchdog learned of the payments by making a request under the California Public Records Act for information about claims against the district.

Karl Christensen, the districts assistant superintendent of business services, said the district opted to have its insurance pay for parents hospital and medical transport bills while it sought reimbursement from the YMCA.

This provided parents with a quicker reimbursement for costs that were beyond their control, Christensen said. The costs varied depending upon actual bills submitted by parents.

The payments made to 47 individuals averaged $842 and ranged from $30 to $2,700. More than half received $1,000 or more in bodily or personal injury payments.

Christensen said the district paid $2,450 in legal expenses for all claims related to the spill.

A news release issued by Santee School District said officials arrived to the scene about 8 a.m. and determined that the spill was not a public health risk three hours later. Classes resumed as normal, but parents were allowed to check out their child early.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the gas or vapors of liquid bleach and chorine are heavier than air and will spread across the ground. Hazardous concentrations may develop quickly in poorly-ventilated or low-lying areas.

Mild symptoms of chemical inhalation include a burning sensation in the eyes, nose and throat, coughing, blurred vision, shortness of breath, chest discomfort and nausea.

Courtney Pendleton, a spokeswoman for the YMCA of San Diego County, released the following statement:

The safety of children, members, staff and volunteers are of the utmost importance and the number one priority at any YMCA of San Diego County facility. We are proud of and deeply respect the trust people place in the YMCA.

The YMCA sincerely regrets the accident that occurred in October 2015 and the resulting impact on the community and the environment.

However, like many organizations, the YMCA of San Diego County unfortunately cannot comment on pending litigation until it is fully resolved.

The YMCA of San Diego County has taken this matter seriously and continues to actively pursue and evaluate different mechanisms to ensure these situations are not repeated.

Information about the basis of each claim is limited. The records include other claims filed with the district for injuries or damages to personal property that occurred on school property.

The incident description for all claims involving the liquid bleach spill are identical.

YMCA adjacent to school site Rio Seco had liquid bleach spill, records say. Several students transported by ambulance to 6 different hospitals.

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Dreamer and immigration attorney Dulce Garcia said she won a small victory when a judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration late Tuesday from stopping a program that protected young unauthorized immigrants like her from deportation.

After merging five cases, including Garcias, that sued the Trump administration over the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Judge William Alsup ordered the administration to renew the two-year permits that allow hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to work in the U.S. without fear of deportation while the combined case proceeds to trial.

Alsup did not require the administration to accept new applications.

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I think weve taken power away from the President and power away from the alt-right, Garcia said. It lets them know were not afraid, and were going to be fighting this.

In September, six days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a phase out of the DACA program, Garcia joined five other dreamers in a lawsuit against the administration.

My first thought was precisely that, that we should sue, Garcia said. Luckily, other people were thinking the same thing, too.

Other entities, like the state of California and the University of California system, sued as well. Garcias case is the only one with named DACA recipients.

The Trump administration has vowed to appeal Alsups decision.

It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts, President Donald Trump tweeted.

Former U.S. attorney Peter Nunez, who chairs an immigration restrictionist think tank, also criticized the court, saying the federal judiciary has lost its way.

Garcia said she is not worried whether her court case will end up like those of Trumps travel ban, tossed around by a roller coaster of appeals and new orders.

I feel like I experience that two to three times a day anyway, she said, describing the alternating hope and frustration she felt listening to Tuesdays meeting on immigration legislation between the President and members of Congress.

Garcia encouraged DACA recipients with expired or expiring permits to renew them as soon as possible, in case an appeal changes the ruling.

One woman who wouldve lost her permit next month reached out to Garcia after the decision.

God is great, Garcia recalled the woman telling her.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for issuing permits, as of Wednesday afternoon, had not yet updated its online instructions for the program.

DACA is ending, it said in red letters toward the top of the web page.

USCIS will provide information on this as it becomes available, said Maria Upson, spokeswoman for USCIS, when asked about guidance for DACA recipients.

Some have speculated in the day since the judges decision whether it would affect Congresss negotiations over a more permanent solution for dreamers.

Garcia said shed discussed this worry with other dreamers, and she dismissed concerns that Congress would no longer feel the need to act with urgency.

She said that even with extensive campaigning from advocates, some members of Congress werent feeling the urgency anyway.

They went on their holiday vacations and didnt care whether people were deportable at that time, she said.

She hoped that the courts decision could help Democrats stand firmly against increased immigration enforcement measures that Trump has requested in exchange for a bill for dreamers.

Our fight is not over, Garcia said. Whether its on the hill or in the courts, its still very much pending.

After the Trump administration ended the DACA program, Garcia dove into activism, campaigning for a way to stay in the U.S. for both herself and her peers.

She flew to Washington to lobby Congress. She held protests in downtown San Diego, in one case shutting down an intersection during rush hour. She fasted for days to get the attention of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

She called out any politician  no matter which side of the aisle they stood on  who didnt seem to her to be standing firmly enough for dreamers.

And she pursued the lawsuit, spending hours with attorneys from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, trying to explain the layers of emotions she felt and what the repercussions of the end of DACA would be.

The conversations required her to be vulnerable, she said, so that people who hadnt experienced something like the end of DACA could understand her reality.

Garcia, now 34, came to the U.S. when she was four years old. She worked several jobs as she made her way through a bachelors degree and then law school before getting a DACA permit in 2014.

In her declaration submitted to the court, she described how she cried when she heard former President Barack Obama announce the start of the program.

Those emotions, she said, were the same mixture of of joy and disbelief that she felt when she heard the judges decision Tuesday night.

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kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter
A 44-year-old Chula Vista woman who was fatally injured when her SUV was struck by a Border Patrol vehicle in a Chula Vista intersection was identified as 44-year-old Maria C. Webb of Chula Vista.

Webb died early Tuesday at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego about an hour after the crash, which happened at 12:34 a.m. at the rain-soaked intersection of Otay Lakes Road and Hunte Parkway, according to police and the county Medical Examiners Office.

Webb died from multiple blunt force injuries. The Border Patrol agent, whose identity was not released, was on duty and driving an agency vehicle when he suffered minor injuries in the crash, Chula Vista police Lt. Miriam Foxx said.

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Authorities have not said what caused the vehicles to collide, including whether Webb or the Border Patrol agent ran a red light.

Webb was driving a Pontiac Aztek southbound on Hunte Parkway when her SUV was broadsided by the Border Patrol SUV, which was eastbound on Otay Lakes Road, the medical examiners office said. Webbs Aztek overturned at least once.

When paramedics arrived, the woman had no pulse and she was rushed to the hospital as paramedics tried to save her life, the medical examiners office said. The aggressive life-saving efforts continued at the hospital, but doctors pronounced her dead at 1:42 a.m.

Alcohol was not considered a factor in the crash, which was still under investigation. Anyone with information about the collision is asked to call the Chula Vista Police Department at (619) 691-5151.

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com
After a year of demonstrations targeting U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a couple hundred protesters threw the congressman a tongue-in-cheek retirement party outside his Vista office Wednesday to celebrate his decision not to run for re-election.

Some danced, sang and hugged  one woman wore a party hat  during the hastily organized rally a few hours after the nine-term Republican congressman announced his decision.

Its a great day, demonstrator Janetha Long said to another attendee. The 73-year-old Oceanside resident said she had been to a handful of weekly rallies and came out Wednesday because its important to celebrate.

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With upbeat music and even a cake, it was a jubilant moment for the protesters, many of whom have gathered nearly every Tuesday outside Issas office for about a year, pushing back against the policies of President Donald Trump and targeting Issa, who endorsed Trump.

The rallies started with just a couple dozen concerned local residents. Within a few months, they attracted hundreds, many of them waving signs on issues from health care to immigration to Russian meddling in the election. Eventually, political operatives piggybacked on the movement, with an eye toward flipping the congressional seat from red to blue.

1 / 12 Linda Breen (left) hugs Lauren Kornit with her dog Manhattan before the start of rally celebrating Congressman Darrell Issas announcement he will not seek re-election. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 12 Many people broke into dance during the rally celebrating Congressman Darrell Issas announcement. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 12 Misty OHealy runs with her sign celebrating Issas announcement he will not seek re-election. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 12 Lenore Greiner waves flags celebrating the announcement. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 12 The crowd of people chanted outside district offices to a rally and celebrate. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 12 Organizer Ellen Montanari greets crowd members on arrival. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 12 Organizer Ellen Montanari chants with the crowd. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 12 The crowd cheers outside district offices to celebrate Congressman Darrell Issas announcement he will not seek re-election. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 12 The crowd waves goodbye. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 12 The crowd of people gathered outside district offices chants. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 12 Organizers cut a cake celebrating Congressman Darrell Issas announcement. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 12 Organizer Ellen Montanari chants with the crowd celebrating Congressman Darrell Issas announcement he will not seek re-election. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Many of the rally regulars were on hand for Wednesdays event, which drew a crowd of upwards of 250 people. Rally leaders put the attendance count at more than 400.

Rally organizer Ellen Montanari  who said she was speechless when she heard the retirement news  said she believes the weekly demonstrations played a big role in Issas decision to not run again.

Guess who is responsible for it? Every single one of you, Montanari told the cheering crowd.

Calvin Moore, the congressmans spokesman, rejected the notion that the rallies were a factor in the congressmans decision.

Absolutely not  and if they think so, they are delusional, Moore said in a phone interview. Hes had 18 years of success and its time to move on to the next chapter.

Earlier in the day, Issa issued a statement that while his time representing the 49th District will be coming to an end, I will continue advocating on behalf of the causes that are most important to me, advancing public policy where I believe I can make a true and lasting difference, and continuing the fight to make our incredible nation an even better place to call home.

Issa was first elected to Congress in 2000. In November 2016, the Republican won re-election to the 49th District by a razor-thin margin, just 1,621 votes, in what was the countrys closest congressional race that day. As for the presidential race, the district voted for Hillary Clinton.

About a year ago, demonstrators initially planned to gather outside Issas office every Tuesday during the first 100 days of the Trump administration. But by the time 100 days had passed, the attendees didnt want to stop, and the events continued, routinely drawing a couple hundred protesters each week.

The rallies also drew counter-protesters  though far fewer in number  a few complaints and even a bit of controversy during a battle over where demonstrators could stand and how loud they could get.

They were also spectacles at times, with protesters dressing up as zombies one week, and inflating a 20-foot-tall chicken another week. In March, attendees held a die-in in which people lied on the ground and used signs protesting proposed changes to health care as grave markers.

On Halloween, billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer  heading a campaign to impeach the president  was a guest speaker.

The future of the rallies is unclear. Montanari said that while today we celebrate, rally organizers planned to meet about their next steps. She noted two areas of focus, including continuing to hold Issas feet to the fire until his term expires, and to push for a Democrat to replace him.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
Answering an urgent call for rescue choppers, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew from San Diego helped pluck a family of five  and two dogs  from the roof of a home inundated by a mudslide in Montecito.

It was one of two Coast Guard MD-60 Jayhawks sent from here Tuesday, joining helicopters from other agencies, that helped evacuate residents in Santa Barbara County when rainstorms triggered dangerous flooding and debris flows in areas burned in the Thomas fire.

Officials say at least 15 people died in the mudslides, which destroyed about 100 homes.

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Emergency officials put the call out to agencies with helicopters to help, including Coast Guard units in San Diego and Point Mugu in Ventura County.

It was just a case where It got so bad so quick, Coast Guard spokesman Joel Guzman said. It was almost overwhelming for rescuers. They required additional assets to get as many people out as quickly as possible.

Firefighters going door-to-door came across a family that had sought refuge in the attic of their single-story home after waves of water and mud broke through the windows and doors.

The San Diego-based copter hovered about 100 feet above the home and lowered a rescue basket manned by two rescue swimmers, Petty Officer 3rd Class Billy Arrison and Petty Officer 2nd Class Erin Custer.

The crew decided to pluck family members from the roof, one or two at a time, starting with the baby and her mother. A 3-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy and the childrens father also were rescued.

The mom was definitely the most nervous and panicked. She was like, the rest of my kids, my kids,  Arrison said. She was really worried about the baby, but she was completely fine once they were (inside).

After getting family members on board, rescuers turned their attention to the familys two dogs.

Arrison hoped they might be a small breed, like a terrier. It turned out one was a Rottweiler and the other was a pit bull  each weighing about 100 pounds.

The helicopter pilot said it was OK, as long as the animals had a good temperament  so first the Rottweiler and then the pit bull were hoisted up in the basket, each with a swimmer holding them.

After getting everyone into the helicopter, the mother seemed relieved, Arrison said, while the father, who was sitting on the floor taking care of the dogs, had a look of despair on his face.

He was like, Thank you, thank you, guys,  Arrison said. They were very thankful we were there, even though everything they had, as far as their house and possessions, were just wiped out and engulfed in this mess.

The mission was different than the water rescues the Coast Guard usually does, but Guzman said crews were happy to help.

With the Coast Guard, we are always ready to respond whenever lives need saving, he said.

A search-and-rescue team made up of San Diego and Heartland firefighters headed to Santa Barbara on Wednesday to help look for those who remain missing.

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com
A woman was shot in the Casa de Oro area of Spring Valley Wednesday night, a sheriffs official said.

The shooting occurred just blocks away from where a man was fatally shot last week. Investigators have not said whether the two incidents are related.

Wednesdays shooting was reported on South Bonita Street near Bright Street about 10:35 p.m. The injured woman was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, said sheriffs Sgt. Kotaro Murashige.

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On Jan. 4, a man was shot and killed in an apparent fight in the parking lot of an Albertsons grocery store  also on South Bonita Street.

The victim in that shooting has not been identified.

Sheriffs detectives are asking anyone with information about Wednesdays incident to call the departments investigations unit at (619) 660-7090, or after hours at (858) 565-5200.

Twitter: @LAWinkley

(619) 293-1546

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com
Three-plus years after state regulators permitted Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to start charging consumers billions of dollars for the failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant, utility executives and consumer advocates appear to have settled a long-running dispute over premature closure costs.

In a joint filing to the California Public Utilities Commission, key parties alerted regulators that mediation efforts paid off.

The parties wish to make the following procedural communication, Edison lawyer Henry Weissmann wrote to Judge Darcie Houck. The parties have continued their mediated settlement discussions and anticipate serving a notice of settlement conference pursuant to Rule 12.1(b) within 15 days.

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Parties that signed off on the notice included Edison, SDG&E, the Utility Reform Network, the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, Citizens Oversight, and the utilities commissions Office of Ratepayer Advocates.

Holding a settlement conference is the last step before announcing terms of a deal. The meetings allow other interested parties to weigh in on a proposal before it is submitted to the commission for approval.

Similar negotiations between Edison and TURN led to an agreement in 2014 that was approved by regulators later that year. But other groups complained they were shut out of the discussions and in 2015 it was disclosed that a framework for the deal had been outlined at an undisclosed meeting in Warsaw, Poland, in 2013.

San Diego attorney Michael Aguirre, who represents ratepayer Ruth Henricks and the Citizens Oversight advocacy group, sued the commission over its 2014 vote to allow the utilities to charge customers $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion in costs related to the San Onofre plant closure.

He said Wednesday a new deal is all but formalized.

There are several procedural steps that have to be taken and the public will come to understand the terms as we are permitted to disclose them under the rules, Aguirre said. Im looking forward to the time to discuss in greater detail the terms and conditions of the settlement.

Edison issued a brief statement saying it was among several parties to reach a preliminary agreement in the San Onofre case.

Southern California Edison, along with other parties in the San Onofre nuclear plant closure proceeding, today advised a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge of their intent to serve notice of a settlement conference within 15 days, spokeswoman Maureen Brown wrote in an email.

The company also alerted investors to the development through a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, although the five-page document warns shareholders that a decision is not final.

There is no assurance that a settlement agreement will be signed, or if it is signed that it will be approved by the CPUC, the SEC filing states. Furthermore, even if a settlement agreement is signed, Southern California Edison Company cannot predict when the CPUC will reach a decision about its approval or disapproval.

It is not clear how the settlement might affect a criminal investigation of the utilities commission, which has been under scrutiny by the Attorney Generals Office for its handling of the San Onofre plant failure and other proceedings. Backchannel dealings between regulators and utility executives are under review.

Also unclear is the agreements impact on a series of lawsuits Aguirre filed as a result of the San Onofre case, including a review by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and a state lawsuit seeking access to scores of San Onofre-related emails to and from the Governors Office.

The conceptual agreement comes after earlier mediation efforts failed to secure a deal last summer.

Even though neither side would discuss terms, the tentative deal likely involves suspending millions of dollars Edison and SDG&E have been charging customers every month under the 2014 commission decision.

The nuclear plant north of Oceanside leaked a small amount of radiation in January 2012, months after a steam generator replacement project was supposed to add decades to the life of the facility.

The settlement adopted by commissioners in 2014 effectively ended an investigation into what caused the plant breakdown. Last year, amid a looming federal court review and continuing criticism, the commission agreed to reconsider the division of costs.

According to Edison, the utility already recovered more than $1.1 billion from ratepayers for the San Onofre breakdown.

SDG&E, which owns 20 percent of the shuttered nuclear plant, collected a proportionate amount of money from its customers.

Aguirre has been trying to stop those charges for years, through the commission, the courts and mediation.

Last summer, as the last round of mediation fizzled, he filed a motion requesting regulators suspend the monthly collections due to an improper meeting between Edison and former commission president Michael Peevey.

Aguirre said the private 2013 meeting in Warsaw, Poland, where Peevey and then-Edison executive Stephen Pickett sketched out a framework for settling the San Onofre costs at a hotel bar, was illegal and violated the due process rights of his clients.

The plant has not been used or useful to utility customers since January 2012, he wrote in the June filing. There can be no more profiteering from this plant.

Edison disclosed the Poland meeting nearly two years later than required by commission rules  days after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that criminal investigators found the Warsaw meeting notes during a search of Peeveys Los Angeles area home in early 2015.

The commission fined Edison $16.7 million for 10 separate violations related to the Warsaw meeting.

The announcement Wednesday came two days after regulators released a revised schedule for the San Onofre proceeding that called for new hearings in April. If the deal is approved, that proceeding would likely be vacated.

Utility officials were anxious to avoid a fresh round of hearings because the $680 million steam generator replacement project that led to the shutdown was never deemed a reasonable project even though the plant owners were permitted to start charging customers for their investment.

Given the circumstances now before the commission, we have serious concerns as to whether the (2014) settlement meets the requirements of Rule 12.1(d), the Monday ruling said. We therefore will conduct the reasonableness review that the commission reserved the right to conduct.

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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald
Re Coalition launches ballot measure (Jan. 9): However well-intentioned this may be, it is setting itself up for failure.

These are three separate issues: homelessness, road repair and convention center expansion.

San Diego voters have definite opinions on each subject; they should be individually dealt with for funding and execution.

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J.L. Ravetti

San Carlos

--    --

The 2018 ballot will be crowded with a number of contentious issues and political races. Wed like to hear your opinions on them at letters@sduniontribune.com.

--    --

My hope is that the U-T will revisit the cost-benefits of convention center expansion  something that should be evaluated and decided on its own and not in tandem with homeless/affordable housing proposals.

In addition to hearing from the self-interest driven coalition, I recommend Heyward Sanders Convention Center Follies (2014) for some research and insights. He discusses the forces behind big-city convention center development and the promises that have proven false in cities across the country. (FYI, Professor Sanders is not well-regarded by the convention folks).

Our homeless and affordable housing issues are without question a public policy priority. Ironically, when the City Council adopted the San Diego Housing Trust Fund ordinance in 1990, the transient occupancy tax was a significant funding source (to be later eliminated under pressure from the hotel/tourist interests). A $685 million convention center expansion for more Comic-Cons? That needs some real and unbiased justification.

Evan E. Becker

Point Loma

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.
So after months of congressional hearings of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Republicans first real action is to request opening a criminal investigation into Christopher Steele, the man behind the dossier. Talk about killing the messenger. Thats like shooting the doctor because he tells you that you have cancer.

This should give you a glimpse of what will happen if the GOP eliminates the bias  i.e., removing any Democrats from Robert Muellers investigation or appointing a new special prosecutor.

What will it take for them to see the light? History will not be kind to these enablers and deniers who are willing to put up with literally anything to remain in power.

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Chris Fite

Spring Valley

There used to be a time when Democrats loved Republicans. Why cant we all get along? The problem is simply leadership. Long since gone.

Rodgers T. Smith

El Cajon

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

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When it comes to our democracy, there will always be forces that will try to weaken it for political gain. Consider the recent lawsuit filed against the City of Poway that also challenges the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA), a landmark law that expands on the federal Voting Rights Act.

Last November, Poways former mayor, Don Higginson, sued the city because of its decision to elect council members by neighborhood districts rather than citywide.

Poway did away with its at-large elections system  a system notorious for diluting the voting power of people of color, such as Latinos, Asians and African-Americans. In its place, it implemented the fairer, more representative district-based elections, which help underrepresented groups of people elect folks from their communities who better understand their wants and needs.

The lawsuit also targets the constitutionality of the CVRA. That challenge should be of concern to all Californians because it seeks to make it easier to disenfranchise voters.

Enacted in 2001, the CVRA seeks to shield voters from having their votes diluted in one-size-fits-all electoral systems.

In recent years, dozens of cities and school boards have opted to switch to district-based elections. Some jurisdictions have done so in response to legal action.

Others have done so because local officials understand that district-based elections provide better representation for diverse neighborhoods and ensure all residents have a voice in local government.

The change from at-large to district-based elections has historically led to an uptick in voter registration. That means more eligible voters have faith their vote counts.

Politics aside, we can all agree that our democracy is better off when more people participate in the civic process, as well as when our elected officials are more accountable to the residents they represent.

The lawsuit is also bad news for Poway, where years of at-large local elections have resulted in south Poway being historically underrepresented on the City Council compared to the wealthier north side of town.

Unbalanced political representation weakens the relationship between the government and its citizens, creates voter apathy and disenfranchises voters.

District-based elections, however, would be an important step in ensuring that voters of all races in smaller, unrepresented neighborhoods would have someone from their community on the council. This helps level the political playing field, strengthens our civic process and gets more people involved in our democracy.

The CVRA has yielded just this effect in other cities. In Merced, the at-large City Council included no one who lived south of the railroad tracks that bisect the city. After converting to district-based elections following the threat of a CVRA lawsuit, Merceds council now has multiple districts with a majority of their population south of the tracks, ensuring representation on the council from a previously unrepresented, large portion of Merced.

Poway is a great place to live and one that is growing more diverse by the day.

Recently, a supermarket that is catering to Middle Eastern and Asian taste buds opened next to a Target store. That supermarket is one of several businesses that serve residents of diverse backgrounds. If the business community can be more representative of the changing demographics of Poway, why shouldnt our government?

Unfortunately, some Poway politicians oppose the changes that will help ensure that our electoral system is truly representative of the people that live here.

Fortunately, civil rights organizations such as MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) are willing to step in and protect voters from being disenfranchised, and I am more than willing to join them to help protect our democracy.

I am seeking to join the lawsuit as an intervenor to make sure the voices of all Poway residents are heard and considered. As this legal process moves forward, its vital that we have different perspectives on issues that can influence the civic process for generations to come, in Poway and beyond.

This is the moment to step up and protect my right to have my vote count, as well as that of others who benefit from the CVRA.

We need to make our democracy stronger, not weaker.

Soto, a staffer at Alliance San Diego, is a Poway resident.
As Laurel Thatcher Ulrich once said, Well-behaved women seldom make history. This collection of Saturday Evening Post images is a paean to strong women making a difference.

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As Laurel Thatcher Ulrich once said, Well-behaved women seldom make history. This collection of Saturday Evening Post images is a paean to strong women making a difference.

This cover illustrated a short story called The Noose. The cowgirl at the center of the story, Fan Blondell, was already aware of her power, too, and walked among the rough men of her acquaintance with the step of an Amazonian queen, unafraid, unabashed.

In the short story, The Swastika by Robert W. Chambers, stenographer Miss Grey turns out to have deeper knowledge and more intrigue than her employer expected. J.C. Leyendecker, one of the Posts most highly regarded artists, created this Egyptian-themed cover to illustrate the story.

Artist Joe De Mers illustrated Her Big Moment by Lee McGiffin. In it, four accomplished women return to their college reunion. De Mers captures the sleek glamour of the 1950s.

This illustration accompanies a short story called Petticoat Empire by Edith Embury. In the story, Nathalie Wyman is a film producer: She was the boss, the genius. No one ever disagreed with her  not if he wanted to keep his job.

Artist Coby Whitmore was well known for his illustrations of confident women. This woman looks like she has already picked out her 1952 model, and will be shortly driving it off the showroom floor. It comes as no surprise that Whitmore had a fascination with cars. In the early 1950s, he designed the Fitch-Whitmore Le Mans Special with racecar driver John Fitch.

Boldness comes in all shapes and sizes; sometimes it means doing what you believe even when those around you dont quite understand.

No gallery of bold women would be complete without Norman Rockwells beloved Rosie the Riveter. The model was Mary Doyle Keefe, a 19-year-old phone operator in Arlington, Vermont. During World War II, Rosie the Riveter toured the country raising money for the war bond drive. I was very pleased that they could make all this money for the war. Keefe said. I am proud of this painting. Its a symbol of what the women did for the war, to do their part.

After her husband died, Ellen Pyle turned to painting to support her family. Her sister-in-law sent three of Ellens illustrations to The Saturday Evening Post in 1922, two of which were immediately selected by The Posts famous editor, George Horace Lorimer. Over the course of the next decade-and-a-half, Pyle completed 40 covers for The Saturday Evening Post, including this archer.

The American Red Cross Motor Corps were a group of women who aided the U.S. military in transporting troops and supplies during World War I. These women did everything from running canteens and military hospitals to caring for patients of the 1918 flu pandemic.

Artist Neysa McMein was involved in the war efforts during World War I, travelling through Europe with Dorothy Parker to entertain the troops. She painted a number of wartime covers, including this pilot.
Freedom and justice for all

MLK Weekend celebration explores mass incarceration in the U.S. with film event

"Rikers: An American Jail" is a documentary film from Bill Moyers that aims to understand the human toll of mass incarceration in the United States. The screening of this film takes place at 6 p.m., Jan. 18 in the School of Law.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination, and the University of South Carolinas Black Law Students Association intends to mark the occasion with a film screening and community forum. As part of the universitys MLK Weekend, the event will feature a screening of the documentary film Rikers: An American Jail, followed by an opportunity to discuss the film and its broader implications with a panel of experts.

For more than 20 years, BLSA has organized an annual panel event to honor the legacy of Kings work. With the milestone year, the MLK Weekend steering committee and BLSA President Lashawnda Woods-Roberts believed it was a good time to give the traditional event a twist.

This year, we will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King through film and discourse to address the injustices surrounding mass incarceration in America, says Woods-Roberts. We are very excited to have former Rikers inmate, Rev. Benny Custodio, serve on the panel to provide a firsthand account of his time at Rikers and the challenges he faced after returning to society. The panel ranges in age and experience, so we are anxious to hear from and speak with these eclectic community advocates and scholars.

Also serving on the panel are I.S. Leevy Johnson, former South Carolina representative and current criminal defense attorney; Henrie Monteith Treadwell, Carolina alumna and internationally recognized public health expert; Jerry Blasingame, former South Carolina prison inmate and current executive director of Soteria Community Development Corporation; Seth Stoughton, university law professor and policing scholar; and Aaron Greene, Black Law Students Association social action chair. WIS-TV news anchor Judi Gatson will moderate and law professor Derek Black will present remarks to contextualize the film, which explores the human crisis and toll of mass incarceration in the U.S.

Woods-Roberts cited a quote from King as inspiration and direction for the event: Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerous structured dams that block the flow of social progress, adding that this event will address the parallels between his message during the 20th century civil rights struggle and those of today.

I think attendees will leave this event with a wealth of knowledge about mass incarceration in this state and nation, and ways to stand against injustice that has no place in our criminal justice system, Woods-Roberts says.

If you're going

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 6 p.m., Thursday (Jan. 18) in the Honorable Karen J. Williams Courtroom in the new School of Law building. Light refreshments will be served between the film and the forum. Visit the universitys MLK celebration online to see the other events in the weekend series.

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FLORENCE, S.C.  While the vast majority of the Pee Dee area will not be directly affected by Dominion Energys purchase of SCANA, there could be some changes if the deal were fail to go through.

Dominion Energy, a Richmond, Virginia-based company, announced an agreement last week to merge with SCANA Corporation in a deal totaling $14.6 billion. The agreement came in wake of SCANA falling into debt accumulated by two failed nuclear plants in Fairfield County.

Chet G. Wade, vice president of corporate communications for Dominion Energy, said the company is trying to offer the best certainty for the state of South Carolina with the merger.

We are trying to give the best certainty a company can rely on, Wade said. This, in turn, helps stabilize things here in South Carolina. What we want is for these employees and customers to have their lives go back to normal, and thats our goal through this process.

South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) is a subsidiary of SCANA. Dominion Energy has offered to pay $1.3 billion in cash payments to SCE&G electric customers, which amounts to approximately $1,000 for the average customer, and a 5 percent rate reduction.

The company also said that the SCE&G headquarters will remain in South Carolina and that it will put $1 million annually into local charities to strengthen community partnerships for the next five years.

SCE&G customers still would be charged higher electricity bills to pay off debt for the two abandoned, unfinished nuclear reactors over the next 20 years. Wade said Dominion Energy is trying to do whats in the best interest of the employees, customers and stockholders at the same time.

These are uncertain times for all parties involved, Wade said. We can promise you that we wont be perfect, but we are putting our best foot forward. We believe in South Carolina and are committed to being a reliable partner that it can count on. We want to look after the customers, the employees and the stockholders, and to do that, this is the best deal that we could come up with.

The Pee Dee is largely powered by Duke Energy or Pee Dee Electric Cooperative, so most local residents will not be directly affected by the proposal. However, Wade said if the deal were to not go through, it could create uncertainties that would affect everyone who uses SCE&G natural gas.

A lot of people wont necessarily be affected directly, Wade said. Here in the Pee Dee, we know that most people are not a stockholder, but our goal for these people is that life stays the same. If something were to happen and this doesnt go through, it puts a lot of things in jeopardy, and no one wants that. What we want is for gas rates and things of that nature to stay the same and, maybe, move forward to better rates in the future. It would also affect those employees who work the gas lines here in the Pee Dee.

For it to be approved, two-thirds of SCANA stockholders would have to vote in favor of the agreement.

The State reported that the S.C. legislature's approval is not necessary for Dominion to buy SCANA, but lawmakers could repeal a 2007 law that allows SCANA to charge customers for the abandoned nuclear reactors, and that would kill the deal.

We are telling everyone to take their time, Wade said. Were not trying to sell an empty bill of goods. We know theres still going to be hardships, but this is the best deal we can put forward. We know its a lot, and we are telling everyone to do their research, look at our proposal and make the best decision based off that.

Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell is expected to present the deal to the S.C. Houses V.C. Summer committee, which was formed to look into the failed nuclear project, on Wednesday.
The technology group said in a press release it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Petrocity, to develop a harbour tug design based on its HY Tug, which features hybrid propulsion and energy storage using batteries. No financial details were disclosed.

Petrocity is the parent company of a new port facility being built in Sao Mateus in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo. The prime consideration is to maximise the ecological operational sustainability of the vessel since the environmental demands of the new port are among the most stringent in the world.

The Wartsila HYTug will change the landscape of the tugboat market as battery usage significantly increases environmental sustainability and operational efficiency, while at the same time greatly reducing operating costs. It represents further evidence of Wartsilas leadership position in sustainable and energy efficient technologies, said Marine Solutions' sales manager, Mario Barbosa.

Green port operations are completely aligned with Petrocitys corporate philosophy and values. We look forward to working with Wartsila in developing the kind of harbour tug that meets the criteria that have been established for this project. This will be the first of many others in a huge logistics project which aims at the regional integration of the Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais and Bahia states. It represents a definitive guarantee of the interiorization of the economy in the north of Espirito Santo, said Petrocity ceo Jose Roberto.

The new hybrid vessel features a very distinctive outlook while providing the power and manoeuvrability for practical tug operations. The overall design has been optimised for low hull resistance, high towing and escort performance, efficient sea-keeping, crew safety and comfort, as well as for easy maintenance.
The ship builder said in a stock market announcement that its Yangzijiang Shipping unit was setting up Yangzijiang Taihua Shipping with several strategic partners with an initial capital investment of $1,100.

The company would be engaged in the leasing and chartering of vessels, it said. Most major shipyards in China also have finance or leasing arms affiliated with them.

Yanzijiang will take a 49.45% stake while the remaining 50.55% equity interest will be held by several strategic partners, whom it did not disclose. The group however noted that Yangzijiang Taihua Shipping is considered a subsidiary by virtue of its control over the composition of the latters board of directors.

The group said it believes the new subsidiary will be able to help it better position itself in the shipbuilding industry when opportunities arise amid the current trend of consolidation.

Yangzijiang raised over $150m from a rights issue in August.
Plaza Lanes

42001 Ann Arbor Rd E, Plymouth, Michigan 48170

Saturday, March 31, 12:30p.m. to 3:30p.m.

If you like bowling and want to support a cause look no further. This event includes two games of bowling, shoe rental, and pizza. This event costs $15, is cash only and you must register directly through email. All proceeds go to the Michigan Humane Society.

Lolly By Golly Sweet Shoppe

3728 Monroe St, Dearborn, Michigan 48124

Friday, March 30, 2p.m. to 6p.m.

Before you break out those Easter baskets come take a picture with the titular holiday bunny. This free event is family friendly. Special deals on Easter baskets and other holiday items will be offered.

Rochester Hills Public Library

500 Olde Towne Road, Rochester, Michigan 48307

Saturday, March 30, 9:30a.m. to 1:30p.m.

Come to this workshop to get gain important information on this subject to gain awareness. The documentary The Hunting Ground will also be shown. Lunch and discussion will follow. This is a free event.

Total Sports Farmington - Soccer

22777 Farmington Rd, Farmington, Michigan 48336

Saturday, March 31, 10a.m. to 12p.m.

This is a fun Easter style event for the whole family. This event features food, activities and several Easter egg hunts for different age groups. General admission is $8 plus fees.

John Cowley & Sons

33338 Grand River Ave, Farmington, Michigan 48336

Friday, March 30, 9:30p.m. to 1:30a.m.

For some serious fun come to John Cowley & Sons to see the band Serious Jack perform. This band performs music from the 1960s all the way to recent music and explores genres from rock, country, pop, and funk. Its never too close to the holidays to rock out. This event is free excluding food and drinks.

Troy Community Center

3179 Livernois Rd, Troy, Michigan 48083

Saturday, March 31, 9:30a.m. to 12:30p.m.

Start your Easter off early the right way with this event. This event has it all for the family: crafts, a bounce house, free popcorn, the indoor swimming pool, the Easter egg hunt and pictures with the Easter Bunny. This event cost $10 for Troy residents, $12 for non-residents, and you must register online.

Zeke's Rock And Roll BBQ

240 W 9 Mile Rd, Ferndale, Michigan 48220

Friday, March 30, 9p.m. to 2a.m.

Hip-hop and Punk Rock meet for a night in Ferndale for those with broad music tastes. This event features full sets played by the punk-centric Kovax and Knifin Around and full Hip-hop performances from Genghis Ganj and Goldzilla & Eddie Logix. This event costs $5.

St. Michael Lutheran Church of Canton

7000 N Sheldon Rd, Canton, Michigan 48187

Saturday, March 31, 9:30a.m. to 11:30p.m.
avb

Consumers Credit Union

CRB

CSM Group

Eckert Wordell

Edwards Garment

Fabri-Kal

Landscape Forms

LVM Capital Management

Miller-Davis Company

Mol-Son, LLC

SalesPage Technologies, LLC

Schupan & Sons

Southwest Michigan First

Tekna, Inc.

TowerPinkster

Treystar Holdings

Western Diversified Plastics

Eighteen Southwest Michigan companies will hire 23 interns this year with the support of the Monroe-Brown Foundation and Southwest Michigan First.Engineering, financial planning, human resources, marketing, architecture, construction, and product management are some of the fields which will be offering 2018 summer internships.Interns will work at their respective companies for a minimum of 400 hours between May and September. The internships are typically full-time for 10 weeks but can be customized to fit the needs of the individual companies and interns.The Monroe-Brown Internship Program provides interns with $3,000 in scholarship funding for college, an hourly wage paid by the employer, and resume-building career experience. The internships often result in job placement upon graduation for the students who fill them.We are grateful to the Monroe-Brown Foundation for its commitment to supporting internships, a key way for our communitys leaders to give the next generation hands-on experience working at great companies in our region, says Ron Kitchens, chief executive officer and senior partner of Southwest Michigan First.The program is open to incoming juniors, seniors and graduate students at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, Davenport University (Kalamazoo Campus only), Michigan State University, University of Michigan and second-year students at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. Students attending Michigan State University and the University of Michigan must have graduated from a high school in the greater Kalamazoo area."The Monroe-Brown Foundation is dedicated to helping higher education students thrive as they become permanent contributors to Southwest Michigans workforce," says Robert M. Brown, Jr., president of the Monroe-Brown Foundation.Available internships, applications and further program details can be found here . Internship applications are due Wednesday, Feb, 28, 2018.Companies participating in the Monroe-Brown Internship Program in 2018 are:
Battle Creek and Kalamazoo will be among communities across the United States that will be part of the second annual National Day of Racial Healing on Jan. 16. The day offers an opportunity for people, organizations and communities nationwide to call for racial healing, bring people together in their common humanity and take collective action to create a more just and equitable world.In Battle Creek, community members will gather at key intersections throughout the, holding heart-shaped signs (to be provided to participants) to remind people that love is the foundation for changing hearts and minds. The demonstration from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. will highlight the importance of love by engaging the heart of all people as a first step in working toward racial healing. (You can call (269) 979-2945 or send an email to BattleCreekTRHT@gmail.com to become involved.)High school students from throughout the Battle Creek area will fill the W.K. Kellogg Auditorium for an interactive art and music experience from 12:30 to 2 p.m. intended to reinforce common humanity and celebrate the differences that make the community vibrant."Bringing students from area high schools together is a beginning for a youth community healing effort  youth have always had leadership roles in the nations transformative efforts, says La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "As we celebrate the second annual National Day of Racial Healing, there is no other place Id rather be than with our young people in Battle Creek."The event's organizers say, "Youth are an important part of a community's efforts to bridge the divides and it is essential to elevate their voice in a community's collective efforts to transform its future."This event will include a blessing by the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, a welcome from WKKF President and CEO La June Montgomery Tabron, and performances by national and local artists. This experience will equip and engage students in the process to heal and transform our community.And the City of Battle Creek will issue a proclamation to recognize the National Day of Racial Healing and to support ongoing work in an effort to heal the wounds created by racial, ethnic and religious bias and build an equitable and just Battle Creek.Meanwhile, in Kalamazoo, the Kalamazoo TRHT partnership is getting input from people across the community who arent usually "at the table" to lift those voices and perspectives up to help inform our local TRHT vision  in partnership with Rootead KYDnet , Douglass Community Association, Welcoming Michigan, and others. There will be more of these types of activates in the future.The Kalamazoo Community Foundation also has a number of ideas for people who want to be part of the work being done Jan. 16 and beyond. One idea is to have a conversation. Anyone can have a conversation about racism with their family, friends, or in their workplace. Businesses, organizations, and individuals can hang a poster in a visible place to show support for the day. Posters can be picked up from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation on Thursday, Jan. 11 and Friday, Jan. 12 between 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at Kalamazoo Community Foundation, 402 E. Michigan Ave.Those in Kalamazoo also can attend an event. There will be free public events hosted by the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College (205 Monroe St., Kalamazoo) on Jan. 16. Details and updates can be found here  Reclaiming Native History and Culture film and discussion 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Workshop led by nationally-renowned organizer, educator, and curator Mariame Kaba 5 8 p.m.RSVP for either by emailing RSVP to acsjl@kzoo.edu Sources: Kalamazoo Community Foundation; and Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Battle Creek
On a recent Sunday afternoon, Brad Loomis could be found installing internet service to a new customer. Hed already put in his usual shift that day at his restaurant, Station 702.Installing internet service is part of his latest business, Aeron Wireless . Its a service thats ideal for cord cutters  those who are cutting their expensive cable connections for other options. Usually, Loomis has an installer do that work. But he saves money when he has time and can do it himself. The restaurant at the intersection of three neighborhoods  Douglas, Northside, and Stuart  opened in the fall of 2014. I was working full-time putting a restaurant together, Loomis says. And after the restaurant opened, I no longer had anything occupying the other half of my time, he says with a laugh.That gave Loomis the opportunity to delve into the issue of the lack of local competition among internet service providers and pursue his idea to provide internet connectivity to the neighborhood. At first, he investigated fiber optics options. I ran into roadblock after roadblock, hurdle after hurdle, and I really became aware of how difficult it really is to get anywhere with fiber.His breakthrough came when he learned about Wireless Internet Service Providers , better known as WISPs. It's not very common in this area. But out West, it is extremely common and the reason why is there's not a lot of existing infrastructure out West. No telephone poles, no fiber running underground, or anything like that. And it occurred to me that by transmitting wirelessly I could avoid all the hurdles and roadblocks of right-of-way access, pole access, and so forth.He goes on to explain, What I had to do was I had to purchase the resell rights from an upstream supplier. What that means is if you have internet service with somebody you can't just say, Here, everybody. You can use this. Loomis laughs. Somebody will get very mad about that. So I had to buy the rights along with a big enough  call it a pipe  to handle the amount of bandwidth to satisfy a certain number of users. So the initial upfront costs can be very heavy for me, which is a big reason that I'm in such a small geographic area.As he did his legwork two-and-a-half years ago he drove around studying the fiber optic that was already in place. My wife hated that when I was driving my eyes weren't on the road. The first step was learning how to distinguish fiber optic from other wires on utility poles, then look at the affixed tags to determine who owns what fiber optic.That was the easy part. Then it's chasing down the owners of said fiber optic and seeing what kind of resale rights and bandwidth costs there are. And I just got extremely fortunate and lucky with the provider, the upstream provider, the partner that I have. They gave me a sweetheart deal. And their sweetheart deal has allowed me to offer a good deal to my customers, as well.He set the WISP up for six months at no cost for a number of neighbors in the Douglas neighborhood. That showed him what worked, and what didnt. Actually, the first six months went really well and then I started charging. And we've been doing that ever since.Instead of complicated packages, the service provides broadband speed in two tiers, 100 megabits per second, and 50 megabits per second.Most of those connected to the internet through Aeron Wireless learned about it either by word-of-mouth or from the door hangers he has left up and down the streets. And before you get excited and give him a call asking for the connection, right now, service is available to a very tiny part of Kalamazoo -- 700 of the 900 homes in the Douglas neighborhood. His next move will be to provide service to the remaining 200 homes there. Loomis says he currently serves 4.5 percent of the 700 homes for which service is currently available.Because he operates the small business by himself and he also has a restaurant to run, Loomis has kept it small by design. He currently is exploring expansion options, however.I chose the Douglas neighborhood because I was formerly a resident there and I know it well, Loomis says. I know all the streets, and some of the wireless challenges, such as hills and trees. The next areas I'm considering are the Northside, due to the proximity (to the Douglas neighborhood); Vine neighborhood, due to the demographics, mostly students who would be primarily cord cutters; and then the Edison neighborhood because I live there and it'd be nice not to have to pay the cable company, he says with a laugh. But also my neighbors are likeminded and they would also like to have a locally owned internet provider, especially if it's right next door to them.WISPs use fixed wireless broadband technology to deliver the same high speeds and service of traditional broadband providers but it is delivered wirelessly as opposed to through buried cables. So when people hear of wireless internet connectivity, they have perceptions of, Oh, it's like my mobile data on my cell phone or, Oh, it's wi-fi. Its not either of those.The technical term is a fixed wireless internet service. It transmits from a terrestrial tower to an antenna on your roof. What this does is allows us to control both ends of the equation. So I can place your rooftop antenna in the ideal spot (to receive the transmissions) and then we use a wire to bring it into your house. And the managed wi-fi router is the device that then takes the internet off of the wire that was brought in to your house and allows you to use your devices.Because this is internet service only its best for those on internet-use extremes  heavy and light users. Heavy internet users who want the most for the least amount of money, such a gamers, and light internet users who are paying too much for their internet service for the amount of time they use it, such as those who need only basic email and some browsing.People that are interested in traditional cable packages, or landlines, or things like that won't benefit from using this kind of service. Now, that's not to say that it can't be done. That's just not what I'm looking to provide.I'm not looking to provide for everybody, he continues. I'm just looking to be the alternative. And I know there's a lot of people that still need to have their pay TV or their landlines. That's perfectly acceptable.By providing only internet service he also avoids the legal and regulatory minefields that come with offering television and telephone service. He also wants potential customers to know that he does not store any data beyond your address and IP address, which he has a legal requirement to keep.Another service that Aeron Wireless provides (since were already on your roof) is placing a TV antenna so you can pick up the local television channels. And we'll do that for the cost of the television antenna, Loomis says.As might be expected with an internet service provider, after installation all customer contact is done online. To ask for tech support customers can text or email the company a support ticket. Payments also are all done online. Its another way to reduce the cost of providing our services, Loomis says.He has been able to keep overhead costs primarily limited to the cost of resell rights and the bandwidth provided to customers.If going from creating omelets, pancakes, and sandwiches to connecting a neighborhood to the internet seems like an unlikely combination for all-in-a-days work consider that in high school, in a pre-internet era, Loomis became certified as a computer network engineer and thought he was going work with computers throughout his life. He also had a job as a dishwasher when he was 16 that continued through high school.During his senior year the idea of looking at a computer screen all day had lost its appeal. Which is hilarious because that's what I do anyway. He came to Western Michigan University and majored in sociology. I was going to save the world. And I still have a little bit of that ambition. Until he learned he needed a Masters degree to move ahead in sociology.Then I was going to college. I was still working in restaurants. And I was getting promotions. I became a restaurant manager, decided to switch my major (from social work). That's when I decided I wanted to be a restaurant owner. Loomis went on to get 14 years experience in food service, including experience at Stryker World Headquarters, Kalamazoo College, Zoetis, Pfizer, and Kellogg. He also served as chef for Kalamazoo Valley Community College and worked at Creative Dining Services before opening the neighborhood restaurant.I kind of lost focus on the whole internet activity, that aspect of it for a very long time.When Loomis was in high school, his computer teacher was convinced that transmitting data over wireless networks would be the future.I was not having it, Loomis says. I wasn't interested. I thought everything was going to be wires, fiber optics, and I was extremely wrong. He laughs. And I completely flipped and have done a 180.And in that flip, a business that may be riding the wave of the future of the internet is growing in Kalamazoo.Kathy Jennings is the managing editor of Southwest Michigans Second Wave. She is a freelance writer and editor
Press Release

January 11, 2018 Sen. Bam: Fast track financial assistance for poor families Senator Bam Aquino renewed his call to the government to hasten the implementation of the cash transfer program to help 10 million poor Filipino families bear the effects of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) on the prices of goods and services. "Kung talagang seryoso tayong gawing positibo ang epekto ng TRAIN sa ekonomiya at sa lahat ng kababayan natin, itong programang ito na tutulong sa 10 million Filipinos - 10 million Filipino families, should be in place at the soonest possible time," Sen. Bam said in a television interview. Sen. Bam pointed out that the funds needed for the cash transfer program was already included in the 2018 budget and the exact date of its implementation is the only issue. "Hopefully, the Departments of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Finance (DOF) will speed up the process. Sana huwag nang patagalin ang programang ito, gawin nila as fast as they can, and as efficiently as possible," Sen. Bam emphasized. Based on the recommendation by the DOF, the law provides a cash grant of P200 a month to poor families on the first year. The monthly financial assistance will be increased to P300 for the second and third year to help cover the increase in prices of basic goods. During the measure's period of amendments in the Senate, Sen. Bam pushed for the immediate implementation of the financial assistance program to help poor Filipinos absorb the expected increase in the prices of goods and services. However, Sen. Bam's proposal was not accepted, prompting the senator to vote against its ratification. "Without a cash transfer program in place, poor Filipinos will bear the brunt of the increase in prices of goods and services due to the TRAIN," Sen. Bam emphasized. Also, Sen. Bam called on the government to be transparent in the selection and disbursement of the cash transfer program. "Aside from ensuring that it will be implemented at the soonest possible time, the government must conduct its rollout without any political patronage or accommodation," added Sen. Bam.
Press Release

January 11, 2018 GRACE POE ON MODE OF AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION Given the extent of the proposed changes in the Constitution, I maintain that having a constitutional convention (concon) is the best and most acceptable mode to take, even if it appears impractical to some. In a concon, revisions to the highest law of the land is tackled with transparency, debated upon by the experts, and shall be decided ultimately by the people and not just those in Congress. However, should my fellow senators collectively decide to agree to a constitutional assembly, I support the position of Sen. Ping Lacson that the bicameral congress should vote separately as was actually intended by the framers of the charter. Any move for a literal interpretation that would obliterate the relevance of the entire Senate by the 300-member lower House in the voting must be rejected for being contrary to spirit of the 1987 Constitution.
Within minutes of a San Francisco federal judges order barring the Trump administration from ending a program that protected nearly 700,000 immigrants from deportation, attorney Marissa Montes phone was inundated with text messages and calls from clients.

When can I come in? Can I come in tomorrow? Can I file an application tomorrow? asked one client, whose protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, is scheduled to end in March.

Its a question Montes, co-director of the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic in Los Angeles, and other advocates and attorneys fielded all Wednesday, a day after U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the federal government to continue the program for undocumented immigrants who were 16 or younger when they arrived in this country.

Alsups order would allow those who had DACA status as of September to apply for renewals of their two-year protection from deportation and access to work permits. The judge said the Trump administration had offered no reasonable explanation for ending a program that young undocumented immigrants have relied on to stay in the U.S. legally since then-President Barack Obama implemented it in 2012.

Alsup told the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency to post reasonable public notice that it will resume receiving renewal applications and prescribe a process consistent with this order.

However, agency officials said Wednesday they had no information on a process for DACA recipients to apply for renewals. The agencys website said Wednesday that its DACA page is under review and that more information is forthcoming.

President Trump ordered the program rescinded in September and allowed for a short period for those who had permits expiring before March 5 to apply for renewals. It has stopped processing new applications since.

The only answer that Montes and others working with DACA recipients could offer Wednesday was to wait and see.

When the eager client who wanted to act Wednesday contacted her, Montes said, I had to tell him yes, the moment the application becomes available, youll be the first client, youll be able to come in. But right now theres not much we can do.

She added, Its going to take the government a little bit of time.

It will take longer if the Trump administration appeals the order, as seems likely. A spokesman for the Justice Department insisted after Alsups ruling that Obama had illegally circumvented Congress to create the exemption and that the government was acting within its lawful authority in deciding to wind down DACA in an orderly manner.

The Trump administration looks forward to vindicating its position in further litigation, said spokesman Devin OMalley.

Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, said that in the immediate aftermath, today, nothing changes for DACA recipients. Theyre still in an uncertain holding pattern. Its not clear what reasonable time means in the order.

Leon Rodriguez, who headed the Citizenship and Immigration Services agency from 2014 to 2016, said it wouldnt take the government long to begin renewals if it has to do so.

The machinery of adjudicating these applications is in place, Rodriguez said. It probably will need to be expanded given the potential volume as a result of this ruling.

Rodriguez pointed out that the agency recently accepted a batch of nearly 2,000 renewal applications that were delayed in the mail around the time of Trumps September cutoff. That shows an ability of the agency to just do it, he said.

Nearly 13,000 DACA recipients are scheduled to lose their protections in March, and another 19,000 will hit their deadlines in April and May, according to the government.

Advocates like Maciel Jacques, legal services program manager at Catholic Charities of the East Bay, are keeping a close eye on what happens next. The agency has contacted its clients to inform them of the ruling, and plans to hold clinics to help people apply for renewals once more information is made available.

Ana Rodriguez, 26, is facing expiration of her DACA protection in October. Rodriguez, who lives in Union City and works at a day care center, has been avoiding news coverage of negotiations over any potential solutions for DACA recipients.

Im scared, said Rodriguez, who came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 7. Its hard to watch.

The past year, she said, has been like a roller-coaster as she waits to see what her future holds. On Wednesday morning, she and her sister, also a DACA recipient, began texting about the ruling.

This is so great! her sister said.

I know, Rodriguez responded. But we still have to wait and see what will happen next.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz
Hilly Rose, a pioneer of talk radio, who spent his decades-long career chatting with everybody from politicians to pet psychics, died Dec. 27 from natural causes. He was 91.

Roses career in radio, which would eventually see him inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame, started early. His first jobs were as a child actor on radio shows in the 1940s. Eventually he found himself in San Francisco, where he hosted one of the first talk radio programs for KCBS. Rose moved to Los Angeles, where he was perhaps best known for his show Open Phone Forum, which was broadcast by KFI. His career also saw him guest host Coast to Coast and frequently step in for Larry King.

Producers who worked with him said he could get governors and senators on the phone in a moments notice, but he also relished inviting psychics, UFO experts and other offbeat characters into his studio.

Margo Bart, who worked as Roses producer in the early 70s, remembered coming aboard his show only to realize how much air time they had to fill. Roses show ran Monday through Saturday, midnight to 4 a.m.

Just think about that, she said.

The workweek was generally reserved for serious news. Bart remembered how easy it was to line up interviews with politicians and other news makers because Rose was always thoughtful.

He was a good, knowledgeable, prepared interviewer, she said. He was a very highly regarded person in the Southland.

On Saturdays, however, Rose liked to mix it up. Bart recalled one night when he decided to bring a pet psychic into the studio.

We had all kinds of animals in the station, she said. You would not believe the number of people who brought their pets in to have them read. (Bart, in fact, brought in her own cat.)

The time slot, though unconventional, ended up being a treasure.

Theres a whole world that happens at night, Bart said. Theres just a whole world out there and he tapped into that. And it was very powerful.

After Bart left as producer, Roses wife, Mary Rose, took over the production duties. She said those years were the most fun I ever had in my life. She, too, had been a journalism student, and as much as people might remember Hilly Roses playful talks with astrologers and paranormal experts, she also remembered the serious way in which he approached reporting.

I think he got great enjoyment out of informing people, especially about politics, Mary Rose said. He was always adamant that the opposing voice go first; to do otherwise, hed say, was not good radio and people dont learn anything.

Rose, his wife said, liked to think of his programs as town hall meetings, places to explore ideas and air them publicly.

There are three sides to every story, your side, my side and the truth in between, she remembered him saying.

His interests were diverse and so were the subjects he covered, Mary Rose said.

He was an incredibly bright, bright man. ... You couldnt really put him in one little niche. In the late 70s, he published a book about his chosen profession, the aptly titled But Thats Not What I Called About.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Roses voice  which Mary Rose described as a gorgeous set of pipes, the most wonderful, just very lovely  reached thousands and thousands of listeners each night and many more throughout the years. He hosted programs on a number of stations in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, including one of the very first talk radio shows on Sirius Radio Network.

Over the years, Rose became a mentor and friend to many, including Harvey Levin, the founder of TMZ, who in 1979 began working for him as Levin was just starting to make his move into broadcast.

It was a critical time for me, Levin said. Hilly Rose is one of the great and biggest influences in my life. I never would have had a career in broadcasting if it werent for Hilly.

In a field where people could be sharp-elbowed, Rose took Levin and others under his wing as a matter of course. He didnt believe in broadcast as a zero-sum game in which there was not room for everybodys success, Levin said.

He was a great man, a smart man, a kind man. He was always willing to share what he knew with others.

Rose, who was again a resident of San Francisco when he died, is survived by his wife, Mary; daughter, Patricia Sweeney; sons Roger and Adam; and six grandchildren. His son Judd Rose, a television news reporter, died in 2000. A private memorial for family and friends is scheduled for Sunday.

Ryan Kost is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkost@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @RyanKost
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A nationwide immigration raid targeting 7-Eleven convenience stores included six Bay Area cities, immigration officials announced Wednesday.

Napa, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa, Suisun City, Petaluma and Sebastopol were among the areas inspected by Immigration Customs Enforcement officers to ensure that businesses are operating with employees who have proper work authorization, according to a statement released by ICE. Agents served notices of inspection to the majority of stores, giving employers three days to provide proof that employees have a right to work in the U.S., while 21 individuals were arrested nationwide.

ICE called the investigation a follow-up to ensure the chain is complying with federal law following a 2013 case in which nine 7-Eleven owners were arrested on charges of wire fraud, identity theft and employing unauthorized immigrants.

One owner was at large until his arrest in November. The remaining owners pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay more than $2.6 million in restitution for wage theft.

Now Playing: 7-Eleven Faces Illegal Immigrant Employment Crackdown Almost 100 7-Eleven locations were targeted by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Wednesday. The operation is one of the biggest against an employer under The Trump Administration. Across 17 states, store employees were audited and interviewed and there were 21 arrests of individuals suspected of being in the country illegally. 7-Eleven released a statement to the Washington Post in response to the raids. 7-Eleven, Washington Post Video: Wibbitz

The operation reflects the immigration crackdown under the Trump administration, which has increased arrests by 40 percent from the previous administration and pledged to spend billions of dollars on a wall along the Mexico border.

While the raids were clearly coordinated on a national level, it appears ICE kept Bay Area law enforcement agencies in the dark. In Santa Clara County, Sheriffs Office spokesman Sgt. Rich Glennon said the agency had no information on this ICE operation whatsoever.

Sheriffs offices in Napa and Sonoma counties also said ICE gave no notice to their agencies.

Lt. Ed Crosby, a spokesman for the Petaluma Police Department, said he only learned of ICE activity in his area from the morning radio. Federal agencies are not required to contact local law enforcement, and the department has no record of ICE having called to notify them.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

We like it when they do, for obvious reasons, Crosby said. Its just good etiquette and good sense to do it.

James Schwab, a spokesman for ICEs San Francisco bureau, did not release information on the states where 7-Eleven employees were detained, but ICE officers targeted 7-Eleven locations in Washington, D.C., Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

The company released a statement noting that it requires all of its locations to comply with state, local and federal laws, and franchises found to be violating the law have had their agreements terminated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno
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A measure to raise Bay Area bridge tolls to $9 on the Bay Bridge and $8 on others over several years took a major step forward Wednesday when a key transportation committee unanimously recommended putting it before voters in June.

The Bay Area Toll Authority Oversight Committee unanimously voted in favor of the regional measure, which would increase tolls over six years, with $1 hikes in 2019, 2022 and 2025, if voters in the nine Bay Area counties approve it. The money would go toward three-dozen much-needed regional public transportation and roadway improvements.

But to get before voters, the recommendation will need approval from the full Bay Area Toll Authority, which usually follows the committees lead. A vote is expect Jan. 24.

Now Playing: The five worst commutes in the Bay Area (in reverse order) as derived from Caltrans traffic data and estimates of the number of hours annually that drivers spend creeping along at speeds below 35 mph. Video: Martin do Nascimento

This is not an easy decision of this commission, said James Spering, a committee member representing Solano County. I think everybody knows that. Its going to be a campaign that has a lot of controversy. ... We have a responsibility to look at 5, 10, 15 years down the road. These are projects the public is demanding.

If the authority gives the measure the go-ahead, the Board of Supervisors in each of the nine affected counties will make the final vote to place it on each countys ballot for June 5 as Regional Measure 3. If it passes, the toll hikes will affect only drivers on the Bay Areas seven state-owned bridges. The Golden Gate Bridge would be excluded. Commuters who cross two bridges to get to their destination would receive a 50 percent discount on their second crossing if they have a FasTrak pass.

CURRENT BRIDGE TOLLS BAY BRIDGE: $6 for a normal 2-axle vehicle GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE: $7.75 w/o FastTrak *GGB not included in the proposal RICHMOND-SAN RAFAEL BRIDGE: $5 SAN MATEO-HAYWARD BRIDGE: $5 DUIMBARTON BRIDGE: $5 CARQUINEZ BRIDGE: $5 BENICIA-MARTINEZ BRIDGE: $5 ANTIOCH BRIDGE: $5 See More Collapse

The measure already seems to have some headwind. In polling in November and December, a majority of the 4,151 likely voters surveyed said they favored the measure. The hybrid phone/Internet survey was conducted by EMC Research of Oakland.

To become law, the measure would require a simple region-wide majority of those who cast ballots. In all, the toll increase would raise about $4.5 billion over 30 years to pay for expanding public transportation, including BART extensions to Berryessa, San Jose and Santa Clara, and easing traffic choke points on key highways like the Novato Narrows and the Dumbarton Bridge corridor, among other things.

Youve got a tremendously eager public, said Michael Cunningham, senior vice president of policy for the Bay Area Council, a nine-county business organization. The polls show that. Every one of our lives confirms this point. The public is desperate for public transportation solutions.

Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, agreed.

The Bay Area is a jobs machine, he said. That comes with some congestion in the bridge corridors. We think people are interested in getting that solved.

For roadways, funding from the measure would be directed at expanding the Bay Areas express lane project, which converts carpool lanes into shared carpool-toll lanes for solo drivers who want to buy their way in. Interchanges at Interstate 690-Highway 4 in Martinez, I-680 and Highway 84 near Sunol and Highways 101 and 92 in San Mateo also would be upgraded.

The measure also includes a proposal to create an inspector general whose job would be to examine BART finances and operations.

Committeeman Alfredo Pedroza, who represents Napa County, said it was important to stress the $1-plus-$1-plus-$1 model to voters to avoid sticker shock.

It was interesting waking up in the morning for the past three days and seeing there would be a $3 increase in bridge tolls, he said. Its making sure we get the messaging right. Its phased over time, and this is a good step and investment in infrastructure.

Whether or not the measure turns out to be controversial, its important to move it forward, Spering said. He compared it to Regional Measure 2  which voters approved in 2004  raising bridge tolls by $1.

At the time, that took a lot of courage, and a lot of us took a lot of flak for supporting it, but it was the right thing to do, Spering said. Regional Measure 3 will be very similar. It really has an impact on the economy of the Bay Area and the social structure of the Bay Area.

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter:

@LizzieJohnsonnn
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The most important new book about the dangers of Donald Trumps presidency is getting the least attention at the moment.

Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic, by respected conservative author David Frum, offers a persuasive and detailed account of how Trump is undermining American institutions, including the presidency itself. Its never going to compete with Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury for incendiary anecdotes and speculation about Trumps fitness for the highest office in the land, or the intellect of his favorite daughter or patriotism of his namesake son.

Neither is it going to encounter any questions about the thoroughness or methodology of Frums reporting. His attributions are meticulous, his footnotes are extensive, his willingness to call out deviations from his conservative brethren is commendable.

MORE REVIEWS: Read The Chronicle's take on 'Fire and Fury'

Therein lies the power and credibility of Frums conclusions. They are supported by verifiable facts, grounded in historical context, devoid of ideological hue. A senior editor at the Atlantic, he is a former special assistant and speechwriter for President George W. Bush and an alumnus of right-of-center think tanks.

Trumpocracy is a must-read for Americans who are in denial about the threat to democracy posed by a president absorbed in narcissism and recklessly indifferent to the institutions and norms of ethics and propriety that have sustained the great American experiment for 2 centuries.

Frum does not attempt to psychoanalyze Trump, but the author pointedly identifies his shortcomings, especially his one-way view of loyalty. It helps explain why the Trump White House has been beset by so many leaks, a sense of betrayal that is underscored by the biting anecdotes of the Wolff book.

Everyone who entered the Trump administration for nonselfish motives would sooner or later find himself or herself betrayed by a president who demanded loyalty in its most servile form, but who never returned it, Frum writes.

Frums analysis of the Trump administratfiion is at its sharpest, and most disturbing, when he details its potential lasting damage.

ALSO READ: 'Fire and Fury' breaks bestseller record

Trump is one by one disabling the federal governments inhibitions against corruption, he writes. Frum noted how Trumps firing of 46 U.S. attorneys  while not in itself unusual for a new administration  was followed by prolonged vacancies as the president sought personal loyalists. Frum cites Trumps repeated calls for criminal proceedings against his vanquished opponent, Hillary Clinton, which may be coming to fruition, according to recent stories. Frum notes the nepotism of putting daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, in key positions with such little regard for conflict-of-interest concerns.

As for Trumps contemptuous approach to institutions, Frum makes an excellent point: The national security apparatus is supposed to be subordinate to the civilian commander in chief. Yet Trump, with his erratic behavior and dismissive approach, has given abundant reasons for the Department of Defense, CIA and National Security Agency to distrust him. Will that change, or will his presidency be considered a one-off? The answer could be ominous.

Bureaucracies always yearn to escape political control, and the national security agencies are the most powerful, autonomous, and well-funded bureaucracies within the American state. Trump has given them powerful and righteous motives to emancipate themselves. Will they ever again fully resume the uncomfortable subordination that may feel by the 2020s like a relic from a different and bygone era.

VIDEO: Readers scramble for copies of Wolff's fiery book on Trump

Frum also devotes a chapter to Trumps caustic relationship with the news media.

What Donald Trump wants is more bias, not less; more fake news, not less, Frum writes. What he demands from the media is not objectivity, but complicity.

Frum also reserves particular condemnation for the Republicans who looked the other way at Trumps failings, or ignored the voluminous evidence that Russia had meddled on his behalf in the 2016 election.

A president beholden to Russia had been installed in the Oval Office: the most successful foreign espionage attempt against the United States in the nations history, Frum writes. And from beginning to end, the presidents political party rallied to protect him  and itself  from investigation, exposure, and consequences.

Its essential to note that Frum has not undergone an ideological metamorphosis. He remains a devoted conservative who, painfully, voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 because of his concerns about Trumps persona and preparedness. He does not believe that the principles of conservatism have gone astray, but that too many conservatives followed a false prophet in 2016  repelling a generation of young people who might otherwise have been drawn to the ideals of individual liberty and less government.

Trump has imprinted upon his party his own prejudices, corruption and ignorance, Frum writes. Republican candidates will pay a price for that legacy for years and decades ahead.

Yet Frum also expresses cause for hope in his final chapter.

But of all the gifts of Trump, the best is ... the surge in civic spirit that has moved Americans since the ominous night of Nov. 8, 2016. It is as if millions of people awoke the next morning to the realization, I must become a better citizen.

Trumpocracy is a sober but ultimately uplifting reminder that its not only Democrats who are feeling that way.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicles editorial page editor. Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnDiazChron

Trumpocracy

The Corruption of the American Republic

By David Frum

(Harper; 301 pages; $25.99)
BP will shell out $102 million to the state of California more than five years after an employee blew the whistle on the companys alleged scheme to overcharge the Golden State for natural gas.

On Thursday, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Burlingame law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy announced the agreement, calling it the largest whistle-blower settlement in California history involving an oil company.

BP was accused of overcharging local jurisdictions, public agencies and universities for natural gas over the course of a decade by selling the state exotic financial derivative products. The reported overcharges were brought to light by former BP employee Chris Schroen, who filed a lawsuit under the protection of the California False Claims Act, which allows private citizens to file suit to expose nonpublic fraud against the government.

BP thought it could get away with providing false and misleading information in order to line its own pockets, Becerra said. Today, we send a clear message: cheating the People of California will cost you more than its worth.

Niall McCarthy, the lead attorney for Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, credited Schroen and other whistle-blowers for protecting taxpayers in a time when the defrauding of government has become a growth industry.

While Trump is allowing oil companies to drill off the California coast, this oil company was stopped from drilling Californias pocketbook, McCarthy said.

Brett Clanton, a spokesman for BP, disputed the attorney general and McCarthys characterization of the settlement in a statement.

As BP has stated consistently, the states allegations were entirely without merit, Clanton said. BP strongly believes it honestly and fairly met its obligations under its contracts with the state. The states Department of General Services confirmed its agreement to the terms of each transaction, and the state never attempted to exercise its right to seek price quotes from alternative suppliers as a result of any price provided by BP.

But given the cost of protracted litigation and the unpredictability of outcomes at trial, BP has agreed to this compromise settlement for an amount well below what the state demanded in its complaint. We believe resolving this dispute in this manner is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders.

The settlement comes as a four-week jury trial was scheduled to begin this week in San Francisco.

Josh Koehn is a San Francisco Chronicle assistant metro editor. Email: josh.koehn@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @josh_koehn
Amid budget cuts and layoffs, the Oakland school board has voted to give itself a raise, with trustees calling it a token increase to acknowledge their work.

The board voted 5-2 on Monday to raise their pay by $39 a month apiece, to $826.

There is a difficulty of asking for schools to cut and then asking for the boards pay increase, said board member Roseann Torres. However, it is very small and it is symbolic. Definitely Im in support of it.

It will be the first raise for board members since 2010.

The raise comes amid a fiscal crisis in the Oakland Unified School District that has resulted in staffing and spending reductions, including $5 million in cuts at school sites and $4 million at the central office.

District officials plan to eliminate dozens of administrative positions, while schools have been forced to eliminate spending on supplies and lay off substitute teachers who were permanently assigned to certain schools.

Parents and teachers staged protests in December over the cuts and have criticized the board for what they called its inadequate oversight of the budget.

I do not believe this board has been doing their job to the best of their abilities and putting in the actual hard work of making sure you understood the budget, said Kim Davis, a parent activist with Parents United for Public Schools. To give yourselves a raise after this performance is shocking.

Board members Jody London and Nina Senn voted against the raise.

After the bruising past several months that we have just experienced and just the grief and the anger that is in our schools and in our community, it would very much send the wrong signal right now to approve any increase for ourselves, London said.

London and Senn said they were considering rejecting the raise or, if that adds to administrative costs, donating the increase to their local schools.

COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.

I am considering turning it down because it sends the wrong message at this time, Senn said.

The raise puts Oakland board members well above their San Francisco counterparts, who make $500 per month and serve 58,000 students, about 20,000 more than Oakland.

In addition, Oakland school board members are eligible for full health benefits for themselves and their families, which costs the district an estimated $22,000 annually.

The five board members said the job often requires more than 20 hours of work each week.

This is a lot of sacrifice and work, said board member Jumoke Hinton-Hodge.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
Ryan Stone/New York Times

The Trump administrations threat to encircle the nation with a necklace of offshore oil rigs was conspicuously short on rationale to begin with in an era of plentiful energy and gathering environmental risk. Now its own authors have robbed it of any remaining shred of coherence.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced Tuesday that one state, and one state only, will be exempt from the administrations quest for energy dominance. And it happens to be the politically pivotal home of President Trumps gaudy Southern White House.
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WASHINGTON  Members of Congress in both parties said Wednesday that a ruling by a federal judge barring the Trump administration from ending protections for young immigrants who came to the country as children will not stop them from working toward a Jan. 19 deadline on a permanent deal to grant legal status for the Dreamers.

The nationwide injunction late Tuesday against the administrations termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, arrived only hours after President Trump had convened a meeting at the White House urging lawmakers in both parties to craft a permanent legal fix for the young immigrants.

All of a sudden, were coming to a place where now weve got some issues to focus on and some public statements from both sides where people seem to be coming out of their corners and actually coming to some middle ground, said Rep. David Valadao, a Kings County Republican who has been pushing legislation to help the Dreamers for years.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted Wednesday, Let me be VERY clear: this ruling last night in no way diminishes the urgency of resolving the DACA issue.

The No.2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, also said the court ruling will not slow negotiations. I think we ought to proceed and address this as soon as we can, he said.

Trump ended the DACA program in September and gave Congress until March 5 to provide permanent status for nearly 700,000 immigrants who were under age 16 when they arrived in the country illegally. About a third of DACA recipients live in California, and an estimated 15,000 have already lost their legal status because they were barred from renewing it.

The Obama administration created the program in 2012 after Congress refused to act, allowing the young immigrants to work, go to school and go about their lives, if they made their status known to the government. U.S. District Judge William Alsups nationwide injunction left the program in place.

With the Trump administration promising a swift appeal, members of both parties expressed concern that a higher court could ultimately rule against them and are in agreement that Congress must legislate a permanent solution.

Although Tuesdays White House meeting left several issues muddled, lawmakers on both sides said they had agreed to negotiate four items: legal status for young immigrants, enhanced border security, limits on family-based migration, which allows immigrants to sponsor their relatives for visas, and the diversity visa lottery, which admits 50,000 immigrants at random each year from countries that traditionally have not sent large numbers of immigrants to the United States.

Valadao said that after months of talks in Congress going nowhere, the meeting helped limit the negotiations, and marked clear movement by Trump, who relented on his insistence on a physical wall along the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico, and by Democrats, who said they would acquiesce to tougher border security.

Trumps insistence on a wall, albeit one that skirts mountains and rivers, continues to be a sticking point. Large sections of walls and fences have already been built at the border, and could be extended or refurbished and called a wall.

What it really comes down to is will the president accept the bill that doesnt have something he can call a wall, and would Democrats accept any bill that had anything the president can call a wall, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors restrictions on immigration.

California Sen. Kamala Harris, who has been pressing her Democratic colleagues to insist on a clean DACA solution, said she understands the need for border security, but the idea of a wall is ridiculous.

Harris said spending $18 billion that the administration has requested for a wall is basically the fulfillment of a campaign promise without any real basis in merit. She said other border security items would be smarter. Looking at upgrading technology, absolutely, Harris said. But not $18 billion to build a wall that has absolutely no relevance to the highest priorities of our country.

Democrats are under intense pressure to force the issue before the government runs out of money Jan. 19, but aides said their party, especially the 10 Senate Democrats facing re-election next year in states Trump won, also do not want to be blamed for shutting down the government over the Dreamers.

Carolyn Lochhead is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: clochhead@sfchronicle.com
When GOP Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa announced this week that they wouldnt seek re-election, Democrats might have assumed their attempt to retake the House had gotten easier.

Yet, the composition of their Southern California districts  districts won by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential contest and targeted by the national Democratic Party in the 2018 midterm elections  makes that less than likely. The two retirements might have even strengthened the GOPs hand.

Thats because even though Clinton beat Trump there, voters in those districts rarely vote for Democrats. And even though there is a lot of grassroots energy driven by opposition to Trump in Orange County, Democrats dont have a strong record of turnout in years when theres no presidential race.

There was always a bit of irrational exuberance by Democrats who believed that they would easily win any of these Republican-held districts, said Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data, which provides voter information to campaigns and pollsters in both parties.

Still, Democrats believe they caught their second huge break this week when Issa unexpectedly announced Wednesday he would not seek re-election. Even though Issa is one of Congress wealthiest members, he was facing several well-funded Democratic opponents and a virulent strain of opposition to Trump in California.

While my service to Californias 49th District will be coming to an end, I will continue advocating on behalf of the causes that are most important to me, advancing public policy where I believe I can make a true and lasting difference, and continuing the fight to make our incredible nation an even better place to call home, Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), said.

That came two days after Royce, R-Fullerton (Orange County), a 13-term incumbent, announced he wouldnt seek re-election, giving Democrats a chance to win another rapidly changing district that Clinton won in 2016. It buoyed Democrats hoping to recapture Congress by flipping 24 GOP-held seats  10 of those are California targets.

But just because the incumbent is gone doesnt mean those seats will be easy pickups for Democrats. In some way, the task might be even harder, analysts said.

Ever since the states congressional districts were redrawn in 2012 to reflect the latest census, Issas and Royces districts have been politically red islands in Californias politically blue ocean.

While it is true that Hillary Clinton beat Trump in those districts, no Democrat has won anything there ever, said Darry Sragow, publisher of the nonpartisan California Target Book, a compendium of statistics on Californias political districts. So the notion that somehow now that this is firm Democratic territory is just not true.

Take Issas district, for example. Even though he won re-election by only 1,621 votes in 2016, it has long backed GOP candidates.

In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney defeated President Barack Obama there. In 2014, Republican gubernatorial nominee Neel Kashkari  who had never held public office  defeated incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown by 10 points there. In the U.S. Senate race that year, Republican Elizabeth Emken  also a political newcomer  beat incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein by seven points, Sragow said.

Theres a similar history in Royces district, where Romney, Kashkari and Emken all bucked statewide trends and won.

Thats not to say that the Democrats do not have a chance to win, Sragow said. But with both Royce and now Issa, youre talking about districts that are very favorable to Republicans.

What is helpful to Democrats in those districts is that demographics are changing rapidly in their favor, particularly in Royces district, where once predominantly white, Republican Orange County has changed under his feet.

Now, 24 percent of the registered voters are Latino and 21 percent are Asian American. Roughly 80 percent of Latinos and more than half of Asian Americans support Democratic candidates, analysts say.

However, turnout among young voters and Latinos has been historically lower in non-presidential election years, Mitchell said.

We hear about all this enthusiasm, Mitchell said. But the big question is, Will those voters turn out? A lot of those predictions of a big turnout are based on nothing more than pollsters intuition and wishful thinking. Its not based on the historical data.

There is another unknown for Republicans: While it is usually better to run as an incumbent  better name recognition and more money to spend  it might not be an advantage this year, particularly in California. GOP incumbents will be forced to defend President Trumps policies, many of which are unpopular in California, particularly those related to the environment, immigration and the new tax law.

Already, several Republicans  including some current and former officeholders  have announced their candidacies. In Royces district, former California Assemblywoman Young Kim, R-Fullerton (Orange County) is running, and Royce has endorsed Kim, his former congressional staff member.

In Issas district, Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, R-Oceanside (San Diego County), announced Wednesday that he would seek the seat, as did Diane Harkey, a member of the state Board of Equalization and former member of the Assembly.

They have not been in Washington, said Jack Pandol, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. They have the freedom to run their own campaigns and define who they are. At the same time, they have served in public office.

That distinction doesnt matter to Democrats.

We are going to continue to hold all Republicans responsible for the national Republican agenda, said Drew Godinich, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Yet even after this weeks GOP retirements, Godinich acknowledged, We know its still going to be a tough fight here.

What is different from past years is that Democrats have several well-funded candidates running in both Issas and Royces districts. Several are political newcomers. But even though some are well-funded, they come without any natural constituencies.

Some analysts say there are too many Democratic candidates running. That means they could split the primary vote and then perhaps no Democrat would make the top two finishers in the June 5 primary who would advance to the general election in November. If thats the case, Godinich said, the DCCC reserves the right to get involved in the Democratic primary and support one candidate.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
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Finally, someone has come up with a solution to that eternal cooking quandary: flipping through a stack of cookbooks, picking out just the right recipe, then cursing to ourselves. If only we had bought that $700 centrifuge!

Dan Mills, a former programmer at Mozilla and Creative Commons, is preparing to open Tinker Kitchen in the Mission District, the first maker space in the country for ambitious, science-minded cooks.

Projected to open in spring, Tinker Kitchen will have a centrifuge (of course), not to mention a combi oven (if you knew what it was, youd want one), a chocolate-tempering machine and a pasta extruder. Mills said he is still searching for an affordable rotary evaporator, whatever that might be. Ambitious cooks will have access to the sophisticated gadgets by renting time or taking classes.

The Bay Area has been the U.S. center of an international maker movement since Maker Media in San Francisco began Maker Faires in 2006. The maker space concept works well because we are social, Make magazine executive editor Mike Senese said.

They like to work on projects together, to share ideas and gain inspiration, he said. As we move into the future, and as technology advances to pretty incredible points, the best way to get access to these is through a communal space.

A San Francisco chain of maker spaces called TechShop, which housed equipment such as laser cutters and metal lathes for members to use for projects, filed for bankruptcy in the fall, but independent biohacker labs and hacker spaces continue to proliferate, both around the Bay Area and across the United States.

Tinker Kitchen simply translates the idea into a commercial kitchen. Mills said he came up with the concept in 2015 while puzzling over how to store yet another new high-tech cooking appliance hed purchased in his living room. Im a nerd, so I go deep on the science of these things, he said.

He thought it would be easy to set up. All I need to do is find a space and buy a bunch of kitchen gadgets, he said to himself. That was three years, and $450,000 of his and his familys money, ago.

Today, hes finishing the floors on his 1,700-square-foot space on 22nd Street near the Mission Mercado farmers market, a few blocks away from Mission Streets Civic Kitchen, a new cooking school that just opened. Pallets of insanely expensive machines are on their way to Tinker. The health department has been consulted.

Mills envisions Tinker Kitchen as a space where the curious can pay $25 per day to cook in the space, or they can sign up for a class, and the truly committed can buy a monthly all-access pass for $125. There should be room for four to five groups to work on projects at a time, as well as a dining room area for guests to consume any consumables.

The space will include a regular six-burner stove and, thankfully for everyone, someone to wash the dishes.

While overtly science-geek cooking faded from restaurants at the beginning of the current decade, techniques embraced by chefs at that time, such as sous-vide cooking and creative dehydrating, continue to entrance project-oriented home cooks, who appreciate learning the physics of meat alongside the workings of their pressure cooker.

Tinker Space is designed for the kind of cook who owns several immersion circulators and stained copies of J. Kenji Lopez-Alts The Food Lab cookbook and Modernist Cooking at Home. The kind of person who has removed the smoke detector from the kitchen because it interferes with home coffee roasting. Tinker Space may be peak San Francisco. It might also be fun.

Im trying to create a community of people who come back and back to the space, Mills said. Perhaps theyll swap liquid nitrogen ice cream recipes. Maybe theyll cook for one another.

Maker spaces are generative spaces, he said.

Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jonkauffman
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Californias last nuclear power plant has sparked heated protests since before its opening decades ago.

After reading the news that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. plans to close the Diablo Canyon plant in San Luis Obispo County, I headed for The Chronicles archive in search of stories and photos that would help shed light on the plants controversial history.

The earliest article mentioning Diablo Canyon was on a proposal to build a plant at the site in 1966, with the Sierra Club approving of the location as a mutually agreeable spot for Californias next clean, modern nuclear power plant.

Sound surprising? Well, PG&Es first choice was the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, north of Pismo Beach. Environmental resistance to that plan had built quickly, with critics decrying the vanishing beauty of California.

Years later, when the Diablo Canyon plant was nearly complete, more protests would arise after the discovery of the Hosgri earthquake fault. A growing anti-nuclear movement  fueled by the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania and the opening of The China Syndrome movie on a nuclear plant coverup  helped the demonstrations gain strength.

Major anti-Diablo Canyon protests in San Francisco and attempts to blockade the plants gates and occupy its grounds would become common stories splashed across TV newscasts and the papers front page.

After 15 years of planning and construction, including a major redesign to increase safety in light of the faults discovery, a key federal ruling gave PG&E the authority for low-level operation of the plant. This ruling, as noted in The Chronicle, would set the stage for what would be the largest anti-nuclear civil disobedience campaign in the nations history.

The Abalone Alliance, a group of more than a dozen environmental organizations, received permission from a landowner to set up a base camp on 65 acres near the plant. Protesters practiced fence-climbing and were trained in nonviolent, noncooperation techniques. For nearly two weeks in September 1981, thousands of demonstrators would attempt to block the gates, leading to the arrest of 1,400 protesters.

A week later, embarrassed PG&E officials would disclose that engineers used the wrong blueprints when installing the plants earthquake safety improvements, and operations were delayed once again.

After repairs and legal challenges, PG&E would finally receive permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to begin operation, and after further legal challenges, would get permission to fire up the plant on Oct. 30, 1984.

By mid-December 1984, the plant would be at 50 percent capacity, and in 1986 it set records for consistency and productivity. In 2007 discussions took place on ending the states ban on new nuclear plants and making nuclear a greater energy source. In 2009, PG&E also started the process of renewing Diablo Canyons licenses.

Then, everything changed. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake caused the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown in Japan, and cheaper fuel sources gained traction. PG&E would change course, developments that are poised to lead to the plants closing, decades after the first protests.

Bill Van Niekerken is the library director of The San Francisco Chronicle, where he has worked since 1985. In his weekly column, From the Archive, he explores the depths of The Chronicles vast photography archive in search of interesting historical tales related to the city by the bay.
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The Pacific Ocean, which loses few arguments, won another one on Thursday in Pacifica.

A giant yellow excavator gobbled up a cozy two-bedroom cliffside house, the last one on the west side of the imperiled 500 block of Esplanade Avenue, and spat out the pieces in a neat pile to be hauled off to the dump.

The former homeowners stood and watched, dry-eyed. Rage and disbelief were long gone. Months ago, they had moved on to the final stage of the grieving process  acceptance. Its all thats left when your opponent is the largest body of water on Earth.

Its hard to give up the dream, but what can you do? said Melissa McConnell as, precisely at 8 a.m., the excavator claw reached out for its first bite, a large mouthful of garage.

The demolition of 532 Esplanade Ave. was the end of a nine-year struggle for McConnell and her husband, Tom Wilson, who stood across the street while the demolition team did its work. Their house, like a dozen others to the south and the large apartment complex to the north, had fallen victim to the storms and high seas that in recent years ate away the cliffside on the ocean side of the street.

Two years ago, half their backyard fell into the sea. The couple hired a contractor to lift up the entire house and move it 20 feet inland. That didnt work. The ocean laughed it off  and also the construction of a rock wall at the bottom of the cliff  and kept on coming. The couple tried to find a nearby empty lot to move the entire house to, but that didnt pencil out.

So McConnell and Wilson sold their home to the city of Pacifica and dropped by on Thursday to watch the final scene play out.

Now Playing: After the Pacific Ocean eroded the hillside under a house on Esplanade Avenue, a wrecking crew arrived to finish the job. Video: SFChronicle

The man running the excavator, Andy Stich, said demolishing things is what you do in the demolition business and he could not afford the luxury of sympathy.

Is it hard to tear up someones dream? Stich asked aloud. I dont think about that. Some dreams come out well and some dont. This house is returning to nature. Thats how it is.

His main concern, Stich said, was keeping his eye on what he was doing to prevent the excavator, with him inside, from falling over the cliff edge and into the sea like McConnells backyard.

Neighbors watched. Some realized that, with the house gone, they now had oceanfront views. Others wondered how long their new oceanfront views would last.

You cant stop nature, said Daniel Francois, who lives across the street and who knows the excavators could one day come for his house, too.

Ive seen a lot of houses disappear, he said. Everything is a matter of time around here. Five years? Fifty years? Its a very strong possibility.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud crunch, the sound of the excavator ripping through his former neighbors kitchen.

Oh, my Lord, said McConnell. There goes the sliding glass door. There goes the kitchen backsplash. It was so beautiful. Iridescent turquoise.

It takes a lot less time to knock a house down than to put one up. Within half an hour, the fence, garage, bathroom and kitchen were gobbled up. There was a break in the action when the excavator broke a hydraulic line and had to be fixed. After it returned to action, the living room and bedrooms were history.

By mid-morning, nothing remained but a pile of boards, wires, drywall and memories. The only place the house still existed were in the pictures on McConnells mobile phone, courtesy of an online real estate service.

She looked at them for a long time. One photo showed the view from the bathroom window. The closest neighbor to the west being Japan, McConnell revealed that she never felt the need to wear any clothes when standing in front of that window after a shower. With the bathroom window gone, along with the bathroom, it was safe enough to tell all.

The excavator, its job done, fell silent. The police reopened the street. The neighbors went home to ponder.

McConnell looked at the pictures of her house. She hugged her husband, and her husband hugged back. The two of them said they would pick out a few redwood beams from the detritus and incorporate them into their new home, wherever and whenever that might be. For now, theyre living in Contra Costa County.

McConnell took a final check of her mobile phone. The online broker, she noted, was listing it as off market.

You can say that again, said McConnell.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  An Arizona man celebrated for the humanity that was showcased in his photographs of people across the Colorado Plateau and the world has died.

John Running died Sunday of complications from a brain tumor at his Flagstaff home, said his daughter, Raechel Running. He was 77.

His love of people, places and their cultures took him down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, to Mexico to photograph the Tarahumara and across the U.S. to highlight what he saw as injustices against Native Americans. He photographed children near the sea in Trinidad and honored another photographer with pictures of farmers, fishermen, homemakers and children in Scotland.

Running briefly aspired to be a geologist before pawning a 12-gauge shotgun his father gave him on his 12th birthday to buy a camera while working in the New Mexico oil fields. He honed photography while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, developing photos under the cover of a blanket in his bunk. He analyzed lunar images with the U.S. Geological Survey, produced training films for astronauts and, in 1967, won a photography contest in Flagstaff, where he had moved with his first wife, Helen. The two met while Running was stationed in Trinidad and had two children  Raechel and John Paul.

Throughout decades, Running mentored aspiring photographers at his downtown Flagstaff studio, which closed a few years ago. He was known for intimate portraits of Navajos and Hopis who were displaced from each others land in one of the largest relocation efforts in U.S. history. He saw a similar story line in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and traveled there with Sue Bennett, a photographer who became his romantic partner, to document peoples lives.

Runnings photos also became album covers for Canyon Records, an independent label specializing in Native American music. Owner Robert Doyle said Running was the only photographer he would hire for more than 15 years because he was confident Running understood tribal culture and reservation life, he was generous and people felt comfortable around him.

Part of the Canyon mission was to present our artists not as ethnic artists but as human beings, for people to take away their ethnic lens, Doyle said. Thats one thing I learned from John was to discard the ethnic lens, to see people, the humanity, the individual.

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1939, Running made his first trip to the Southwest as a Boy Scout in his teenage years. He later graduated from Northern Arizona University in 1969 with an anthropology degree.

His photos of cowboys, women bodybuilders, corporate executives and pow wows landed in annual reports, calendars, advertisements, magazines and books. Running donated his collection to Northern Arizona Universitys Cline Library in 2014  some 20 million images, archivist Jonathan Pringle said. Some of the collection is digitized, including a timeline of Runnings life and journal entries.

The library is hopeful the collection will give people a glimpse of the work that went into Runnings photos.

Im always really optimistic that they want to dig a little deeper and learn about the context, Pringle said. And there is such strength in his pictures.

Navajos from Big Mountain who have resisted efforts to relocate from Hopi land were among Runnings most consistent subjects. Percy Deal grew up there and said Running and his first wife were interested in Navajo womens connection to sheep, wool and weaving.

But as they learned more about an inter-tribal land dispute that forced thousands to be displaced, Running photographed the families through generations  some of whom would show up in Runnings downtown Flagstaff studio looking for him or images of relatives  and became family. The studio also hosted Navajo weaving workshops.

Raechel Running said her mothers own heritage, gentle nature and a shared vision for cultural diversity, environmental stewardship and understanding helped her father in tribal communities. The couple split when Running became involved with Bennett, who died in 2003.

John Running married jeweler and rock climber, Shelley Claude, in 2012.

No formal memorial services are planned. Doyle said he plans to honor Runnings work by adding it to a traveling museum exhibit on Canyon Records.

Raechel Running said she was in a thrift shop in Tucson the day before her father died when she spotted a book with a photo of a Hopi maiden on the binding. She knew immediately it was her fathers for the same reasons she recognized a photo of a Navajo woman at an anti-war demonstration in San Francisco years ago  the light in the eyes, the dignity of the people.

In death we get to reclaim his light, she said.

Felicia Fonseca is an Associated Press writer.
City officials are investigating after a GardaWorld armored vehicle crashed into a tree on a San Francisco sidewalk Tuesday afternoon.

San Francisco resident John Entwistle captured the incident on private security cameras positioned outside his home at 17th and Sanchez streets. The footage shows the GardaWorld truck, a vehicle manned by armed guards to transport cash and other valuables, driving down a protected bike lane before colliding with a Victorian box tree on the sidewalk.

Entwistle told SFGATE he witnessed the aftermath of the incident and confronted the men operating the vehicle.

"They said they had just stumbled upon a tree that had fallen," Entwistle said. After reviewing footage from the security camera, which Entwistle says he installed "in the interest of traffic safety," the longtime city resident filed a report with 311, and a crew arrived shortly thereafter to remove the fallen tree.

San Francisco Public Works is investigating the incident to determine whether the driver was at fault, said department spokesperson Rachel Gordon.

Either Public Works or the city attorney's office will be in touch with GardaWorld, Gordon said.

The cost to replace and establish a tree is set at $1,973 a year, Gordon said, and the city can leverage an additional $1,973 fine.

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GardaWorld spokesperson Heather McAlister told SFGATE the company is investigating the incident and "will take all disciplinary measures to address it," in addition to covering all damages incurred if found to be at fault.

According to Entwistle, who has lived on 17th Street for five years, the tract of roadway outside his home is prone to accidents, especially involving cyclists.

"There used to be a lot of people getting hurt out here," he said. "It was an unending succession of broken arms."

The city installed plastic safe-hit posts on 17th in December, said Entwistle, imploring the city to take additional protective measures.

"If the bike lane was better marked, maybe people wouldn't be driving in it," he said.

SFMTA said concrete barriers for the north side of the street have been approved and will be installed later this year.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.
Priscilla Elder, who worked on the home front in the shipyards in Richmond during World War II and was known as a local "Rosie," died Sunday at her home in Tara Hills. She was 97.

Elder trained and worked as an electrician at the Kaiser shipyard, and was part of a generation of women who took up industrial jobs as men were drafted to fight in the war. Years after her time working as an electrician, Elder later became an advocate and voice in preserving the history of the Richmond Rosies, as they came to be called, volunteering at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historic Park that opened near the very same shipyard she worked in during her 20s.

Up until this past fall, she was one of five Rosies who showed up at the park each Friday as part of a "Rosie Meet and Greet," speaking to visitors and groups.

"She was very dedicated and wanted to help the park," said lead Park Ranger Elizabeth Tucker of Elder. "She wanted to make sure that the younger generations learned about the Rosie the Riveters, as well as the whole World War II era and how people came together and really worked to overcome great odds at that time."

Elder was born in Iowa in 1920, the daughter of Italian immigrant parents and the third of 11 children. Elder's family was already drawn into World War II by the time she turned 22, with her brother Tony a gunner's mate on the USS Dewey and her other brother Fred in the Army Medical Corps. Elder's husband Donald was drafted and served in Europe shortly after the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor, serving under Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army in Europe.

Elder's sister, Carmella, urged the younger Elder to join her in Richmond to work with her as an electrician, saying there was a need for war workers. Elder made the cross-country move with her 2-year-old son, later followed by her twin sister, and the two joined Carmella and became electricians. Elder worked on wiring circuit-boxes that were installed on troop transports and helped manage the tool bin, where workers checked out tools.

Elder lived for a time in Richmond, near her sister Carmella, while working at the Kaiser shipyard before making the move to San Francisco, where she lived just blocks away from Golden Gate Park on Fell Street. She worked in Richmond until the end of the war, then moved back to Iowa before her husband was official discharged from the military. In 1955, nearly a decade after the end of the war, Elder and her husband returned to California, which she fallen in love with during her time working in the state, according to friends.

The couple moved into their longtime family home in Tara Hills in 1965, and Elder worked a number of various jobs, then earned her GED and license in cosmetology when she was 40 years old, according to park volunteer  and "Rosie Helper" and coordinator  Tammy Brumley.

It wasn't until after Elder's retirement that she became involved in the resurgence of interest in the Rosie the Riveter movement. Tucker and Marian Wynn, another Rosie docent, both encouraged Elder to work with them, with Elder attending a few Rosie events before volunteering. Elder worked with the park even before the visitor center opened, according to Brumley, helping in the office or doing interviews with newspapers.

"She was just so easygoing and she loved being able to visit with people and tell her story about what she did during the war," said Brumley. "She, like a lot of those ladies, just didn't think that anything they did was very special  everybody seemed to have a war job. But [Priscilla] really came out of her shell once the Rosies in general came out."

Once the visitor center opened, Elder was part of a group of Rosies who spoke with visitors about their experiences working in the shipyards and during wartime. Although the group did not know one another prior to their volunteer work, Brumley said the group met through the park and became very close, going to lunch together and talking on the phone. The group also traveled and spoke at various events, the biggest being a 2014 trip to the White House, where they met then-President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with other politicians.

"It was beyond her wildest dreams to imagine herself doing all these visits with our top elected officials that she really admired so much," Brumley recalled of the trip.

"[The park] just opened the door to things she just never could have imagined herself doing," Brumley added.

Elder was also noted to be a generous artist. According to Tucker, Elder had painted 80 momento porcelain dishes by hand for her fellow volunteers in 2016, adorning each dish with a rose and an arrowhead (the National Park Service's symbol) to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the park service.

Elder worked with the park for 10 years, but recently stopped attending the Friday Meet and Greets in the fall as her health declined. Brumley stated that Elder was a "loyal and dedicated person," while Tucker called Elder "a grandmother to all of us" at the park.

Elder's husband, Donald, passed away in 2011 after 71 years of marriage. There will be no memorial service, and she will be laid to rest with Donald at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon.

Elder is survived by one son, Charles, of Arizona.
Recommendations of recent books from the staffs of a rotating list of Bay Area independent bookstores. This weeks list is from Copperfields Books, Montgomery Village, 775 Village Court, Santa Rosa. (707) 578-8938. www.copperfieldsbooks.com/santa-rosa

The Unmade World, by Steve Yarbrough: Yarbrough paints a complex, heartbreakingly tender story that starts with a hint of a crime novel but turns into something else entirely. Characters affected by a terrible accident struggle to find their way in situations where efforts to reverse the paths they are on are almost beyond hope.

The City of Brass, by S.A. Chakraborty: A fantasy novel that is smart and fun with engaging central characters, a strong female lead and the intrigue of being set entirely in the ancient Islamic world. The first of a projected trilogy.

Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado: No wonder this debut collection of short stories was a finalist for the National Book Award. Machado explores in some of the most daring and remarkable ways the female experience.

Elmet, by Fiona Mozley: Another surprise of a debut, Elmet is a powerful story about a quiet and loving father raising two children off the grid in rural England while confronted by a landowner affronted by the fathers lack of obsequiousness toward him.

Nonfiction

The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, by Masha Gessen: An extraordinary look inside present-day Russia from the perspective of several families whose dreams are no different than most but whose challenges are almost beyond belief in terms of how the state affects nearly every aspect of their lives.

The People of the Sea, by David Thomson: In this classic in the vein of Bill Bryson (decades before him) and easily as funny and charming, Thomson traveled around coastal Ireland in the 1950s asking people about folklore.

Cannabis for Chronic Pain, by Rav Ivker: The title says it all  this is not about getting stoned, it is about how helpful marijuana in various forms can be medically.

Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff: Theres no particular new reveal here, yet the overwhelming evidence of a chaotic and mismanaged White House makes for a riveting read.
Private debt collectors cost the IRS $20 million in the past fiscal year but brought in only $6.7 million in back taxes, the agencys taxpayer advocate reported Wednesday. That was less than 1 percent of the amount assigned for collection.

Whats more, private contractors in some cases were paid 25 percent commissions on collections that the IRS made without their help, according to the annual report by Nina Olson, who heads the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent office within the IRS.

The IRS excuses hardship cases from collection efforts to ensure that households can still pay for basic living expenses, but the private collectors apparently are not following those rules. An analysis of the collections by the advocates office found that 45 percent were from taxpayers whose incomes fell below the minimum threshold, including those who received Social Security disability payments.

Autos

Ford sued in

diesel scandal

Ford Motor Co. rigged at least 500,000 heavy-duty trucks to beat emissions tests, drivers claimed in a lawsuit, adding to the tally of carmakers linked to diesel-cheating allegations worldwide that started in 2015 with Volkswagen AG.

Fords F-250 and F-350 Super Duty diesel pickups are spewing emissions as much as 50 times the legal limit for nitrogen oxide pollutants, according to the complaint. The trucks sold from 2011 to 2017 cost $8,400 more than their gasoline-fueled counterparts, the filing alleges.

All Ford vehicles, including those with diesel engines, comply with all U.S. EPA and CARB emissions regulations, Ford spokesman Daniel Barbosa said in an email. Ford vehicles do not have defeat devices. We will defend ourselves against these baseless claims.

Ford marketed the trucks as the cleanest super diesel ever, while the lawyer behind the suit said they should have been called Super Dirty.

U.S. Senate

Key questions

over iPhone

The chairman of the U.S. Senates commerce committee wants Apple to lift the veil on its once-secret slowdown of older iPhones.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., issued his request for more information in a letter sent Tuesday to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Among other things, Thune wants to know if Apple made any effort to notify its customers that its recent software updates would make several types of iPhones released before 2017 slow down when their batteries weakened.

Thune also asked Apple whether it considered replacing the batteries for free, instead of the current discounted charge of $29 that it began offering in late December after acknowledging how its updates affected older iPhones.

Thune demanded a response by Jan. 23. Apple declined to comment.

Economy

$80.2 billion

Fed payment

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday the payments it will make to the federal government based on its 2017 operations will drop to $80.2 billion, down 12.3 percent from 2016.

It will be the second year that the payments have declined, although they still remain about three times higher than the level in effect before 2008, when the Fed began a huge expansion of its bond holdings.

After covering its own operating costs, the Fed sends the Treasury its remaining profits each year, money that is used to lower the deficit.

Chronicle News Services
WASHINGTON  Canada has filed a sweeping trade case against the United States at the World Trade Organization, lobbing a diplomatic grenade at the Trump administrations America First approach amid an increasingly embattled trade relationship between the long-standing North American allies.

The trade case could exacerbate tensions between the two nations as they wrestle with trade disputes and attempts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canadas case challenges the United States use of tariffs to punish unfair trade practices and protect its markets, saying those actions violate World Trade Organization rules.

The case could expand into a multinational trade dispute given that Canada, a champion of global agreements, filed it in a way that allows other countries to join. The 37-page document outlines numerous problematic trade actions that it says the U.S. has taken against China, South Korea, Japan and Germany.

The case, filed Dec. 20 and made public Wednesday, centers on the punitive tariffs that the U.S. imposes when it finds other countries guilty of subsidizing their products or of selling them abroad at unfairly low prices, a practice known as dumping. The U.S. has lost cases in the World Trade Organization over this system, which differs substantially from that of many countries.

Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, called Canadas action a broad and ill-advised attack on the U.S. trade system.

U.S. trade remedies ensure that trade is fair by counteracting dumping or subsidies that are injuring U.S. workers, farmers and manufacturers, he said in a statement Wednesday. Canadas claims are unfounded and could only lower U.S. confidence that Canada is committed to mutually beneficial trade.

Canada has borne the brunt of several U.S. trade actions, including a decades-long dispute over lumber and recent cases against Bombardier airplanes and Canadian newsprint.

There are now billions of dollars of Canadian exports to the U.S. that are potentially subject to these restrictions, said Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Thats what this dispute is all about.

The case could take years to work its way through the World Trade Organization, Bown said, but could eventually help Canada combat the types of trade actions the U.S. is increasingly bringing. It could also help Canada protect itself if the U.S. withdraws from NAFTA or significantly alters key parts of the trade pact that provide an important channel for Canada to appeal trade disputes between the countries.

In a statement, Canadas foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said the World Trade Organization filing was linked to a long-running dispute over Canadian lumber exports.

This WTO action is part of our broader litigation to defend the hundreds of thousands of good, middle-class forestry jobs across our country, she said. We continue to engage our American counterparts to encourage them to come to a durable negotiated agreement on softwood lumber.

Many of the Trump administrations trade advisers, including Lighthizer, are staunch defenders of the U.S. system for combatting dumping and foreign subsidies. Lighthizer brought such trade cases against foreign actors for decades as a lawyer for the steel industry, and he has criticized the World Trade Organization for interfering in what he sees as the United States efforts to enforce its own laws.

Todd Tucker, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, an economic research organization in New York, criticized Canadas case as misguided, arguing that it might increase opposition within the U.S. to the World Trade Organization. The global group, which works to reduce trade barriers and resolve disputes among its members, is increasingly being viewed with skepticism by the U.S., which had long been its biggest advocate.

Ana Swanson and Ian Austen are New York Times writers.
The splashy neon logos and beachy vibe of brands Billabong and Quiksilver ruled the U.S. fashion scene in the 1990s and early 2000s, when teens across the country wanted to channel surfer culture.

In time, the boom subsided, and American teens moved on to the next big trend. Now with the acquisition of Australias Billabong International, Huntington Beach surfwear and active apparel company Boardriders  owner of the Quiksilver brand, which has fewer stores than in its heyday  is looking to tap global interest in the action-sports lifestyle.

Together, the two companies combined generate less than 40 percent of revenue from North America, said Dave Tanner, managing director at Oaktree Capital Management and chief turnaround officer at Boardriders. Oaktree is the private companys controlling shareholder. Tanner will become Boardriders CEO once the deal closes.

Japan is one of the biggest growth markets for the company, which also does strong business in Russia, Brazil, Latin America and Mexico, he said.

Including debt, the deal is valued at $315 million and is expected to close by July. Boardriders will unite Quiksilver, Roxy, DC Shoes, Billabong, Element and RVCA.

Analysts said the company will need to manage the consolidation of the two organizations, while making operations run smoothly. Tanner said the global action-sports community is tight-knit; many employees have previously worked at competitors. He said Boardriders will focus on preserving brand autonomy and creativity.

We want these brands, on some level, to compete with each other, Tanner said. Thats what keeps things fresh and keeps things interesting for consumers.

The Billabong acquisition comes almost 2 years after Quiksilver Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing a deterioration of its U.S. business. After emerging from bankruptcy in February 2016, the company was majority-owned by Oaktree.

Since then, Tanner said, the company has been dramatically restructured and returned to profitability. He said the company has invested in e-commerce and digital growth.

We got that turnaround to the point that we knew we were in a good spot before we made this acquisition, he said. This is all about integrating the companies in a thoughtful fashion over the next few years to make sure were building on the strong platform we have already at Boardriders.

In March, Quiksilver was renamed Boardriders to reflect the firms full range of action-sports brands, the company said at the time.

Boardriders private ownership works in its favor, said Jeff Harbaugh, president of action-sports and youth culture consulting firm Jeff Harbaugh & Associates. Companies must set themselves apart by their marketing, brand and distribution, he said. Public companies come under pressure to expand distribution.

Samantha Masunaga is a Los Angeles Times writer.
Two Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed massive and mandatory fines for data breaches at Equifax and other credit reporting companies, starting at $100 for each consumer whose sensitive information is compromised.

The bill from Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Mark Warner of Virginia would add a $50 fine for each additional piece of compromised personally identifiable information for each consumer. The penalties would double in cases where the credit reporting firm did not comply with federal data security standards or failed to notify officials of the breach in a timely manner.

If the legislation had been in place when Equifax had a data breach last year that exposed the Social Security numbers and birth dates of as many as 145.5 million Americans, Equifax would have faced a fine of at least $1.5 billion, the senators said.

The bill, called the Data Breach and Compensation Act, would direct the Federal Trade Commission to funnel half of any fine to compensate affected consumers. The agency could levy fines of as much as 75 percent of the credit reporting companys gross revenue from the prior year.

Our bill imposes massive and mandatory penalties for data breaches at companies like Equifax  and provides robust compensation for affected consumers  which will put money back into peoples pockets and help stop these kinds of breaches from happening again, Warren said.

The Equifax data breach, made public in September, sparked bipartisan outrage, partly because the hack took place after the company failed for several months to fix a software flaw that federal officials had warned about in March.

Equifax also bungled the aftermath of the breach, waiting nearly six weeks to notify the public after learning of the hack and then initially making people give up their right to sue if they wanted free credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Equifax later backtracked on that requirement.

CEO Richard Smith stepped down after the breach was disclosed, and lawmakers slammed him in congressional hearings last fall.

The bill from Warren and Warner is among several proposed in the wake of the Equifax breach, including one from a top House Republican that would stop credit reporting companies from using Social Security numbers to verify peoples identities.

In todays information economy, data is an enormous asset, Warner said Wednesday. But if companies like Equifax cant properly safeguard the enormous amounts of highly sensitive data they are collecting and centralizing, then they shouldnt be collecting it in the first place.

Despite the outrage, none of the bills has been approved by either chamber of Congress.

A bipartisan financial regulatory bill that passed the Senate Banking Committee last month would allow people to freeze and unfreeze their files with credit reporting companies and would require free credit monitoring for active-duty members of the military.

The bill from Warren and Warner shows the lawmakers are still angry about the Equifax breach, said Jaret Seiberg, a Washington policy analyst with brokerage and investment bank Cowen & Co.

The legislation is unlikely to be enacted, but makes it more difficult for credit reporting companies to soften the credit freeze requirements in the bipartisan bill that passed the Senate Banking Committee, Seiberg said in a research report.

Consumer and privacy advocates praised the new legislation, which also would create a cybersecurity office at the Federal Trade Commission to conduct annual inspections of credit reporting companies.

Ed Mierzwinski, federal consumer program director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said the bill will ensure that credit bureaus protect your information as if you actually mattered to them and it will both punish them and compensate you when they fail to do so.

Jim Puzzanghera is a Los Angeles Times writer.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Courtesy of Chhay family / / Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 San Francisco Police Department / / Show More Show Less 5 of 5









Human remains found in a Hayward warehouse last summer were confirmed as those of a San Francisco man who disappeared eight months ago, police said Wednesday.

San Francisco investigators said Piseth Chhay, 46, who drove for the online taxi service Uber and whose disappearance in May prompted an exhaustive search by friends and family, was the victim of a homicide.
Two men manufactured weapons to kill a fellow inmate in the main exercise yard of Folsom Prison, authorities said Thursday.

Devlin Stringfellow, 48, died around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday when two other prisoners assaulted him with inmate manufactured weapons, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The attack in the maximum security prison subsided when staff approached, auhtorities said, and Stringfellow was taken to the clinic, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2:50 p.m.

The suspects, Jacob Kober, 29, and Stephen Dunckhurst, 49, were each placed in the prisons segregation unit following the attack, authorities said.

Stringfellow was transferred to the prison from Los Angeles County in 2014. He was serving a six-year prison sentence for possession of a controlled substance for sale, carrying a concealed dagger and assault with force.

He was expected to be released in June 2020.

Kober is serving out an 80-year sentence, with the possibility of parole, for first-degree murder charges. He came to the prison from Alameda County in 2015.

Dunckhurst arrived in Folsom in 2005 for second-degree robbery charges in Shasta County. He served three years before another conviction in 2010, when he was sentenced to a minimum of 33 years to life for vehicle theft and possessing a deadly weapon made by a prisoner.

California State Prison, Sacramento is a maximum-security prison that houses approximately 2,100 general population inmates and employs about 1,700 people.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
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A Petaluma man was arrested for allegedly attempting to smother his wife with a pillow before helping her hang herself at a Bodega Bay hotel, authorities said.

David Clement, 64, was booked at the Sonoma County Jail on Wednesday on felony charges of attempted murder and aiding in a suicide, said Sgt. Spencer Crum of the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office.

Deputies responded about 7:30 a.m. to the parking lot of Inn at the Tides, a hotel on the 800 block of Highway 1, after Clement called 911 and said his wife hanged herself from a tree, Crum said.

When deputies arrived, they discovered Debra Bales, 52, suspended by a rope, and pronounced her dead.

Detectives determined that the couple came to Bodega Bay three days earlier with the intent of ending Bales life. She was not terminally ill but had experienced chronic pain after weaning off opioid medication, Crum said. Authorities said Clement also attempted to kill his wife in three separate instances by smothering her with a pillow.

When those attempts were unsuccessful, they came out to Bodega Bay to end her life, Crum said.

Detectives concluded that Clement fastened the rope to the tree near their hotel room and tied knots to help Bales in her suicide, Crum said, adding that Clement cooperated with the investigation.

Clements bail has been set at $1 million and he is expected to appear in a Sonoma County court at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Its one of those really weird, strange ones, Crum said. Its very unfortunate for all involved.
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The campaign to recall a judge who issued what many considered a light sentence to a former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault cleared its first hurdle Thursday.

Recall organizers, led by Stanford law Professor Michele Dauber, filed a petition and nearly 100,000 signatures with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters in San Jose to place a measure on the June ballot to recall Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky.

If successful, it would be the first recall of a California judge in 87 years.

In June 2016, Persky sentenced former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman by a dumpster outside of a fraternity party on the college campus, resulting in a national outcry that Turner received special treatment. Prosecutors had argued that Turner should spend six years in state prison, but Persky gave him six months in county jail. He ended up being released in three.

Now Playing: Brock Turner, who served three months in jail for sexual assault, is appealing his conviction, and looking for a retrial. Video: Time

While Persky became a prominent public figure after the Turner decision, the recall campaign has attempted to demonstrate a pattern of judicial bias that extends beyond Turners case.

Weve been out literally every day, rain or shine, walking precincts for every single community from Stanford to Gilroy, talking to voters about sexual assault and the need to make sure that victims of sexual assault and especially victims from marginalized communities are treated fairly, Dauber told The Chronicle.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Dauber listed a series of cases in which she believed Perskys handling of sexual assault cases had been too lenient, including a 2011 civil trial on the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old high school girl by members of the De Anza Community College baseball team. Persky allowed defendants to show photos of the victim wearing a revealing outfit to the jury.

The voters of our county are saying loud and clear that they will hold Judge Persky accountable for his pattern of bias in favor of athletes and other privileged offenders who commit sex crimes and violence against women, Dauber said.

After serving half of his sentence, Turner was required to register as a sex offender after moving back home with his family in Ohio. He recently appealed his conviction, arguing that he didnt receive a fair trial.

To qualify for Junes election, the Persky recall campaign was required to turn in 58,634 valid signatures by Feb. 2. Organizers submitted a petition with 94,518 signatures that filled 11 boxes outside of the Registrar of Voters office, which now has 30 days to verify them.

We are very confident that we are going to have thousands more than we need to qualify, Dauber said.

The number of signatures needed to hold a recall for a judge is not based on the percentage of registered voters. Rather, it relies on 20 percent of signatures to come from people who voted in the previous judicial election, according to the Registrar of Voters.

Persky has tried several times to block the recall effort. In August 2017, his attorneys filed a successful motion to halt the campaigns signature gathering. The temporary restraining order prevented the collection of signatures for a 12-day period.

Despite the fact that Persky was elected by Santa Clara County voters, his attorneys have argued that the judge is a state official and that the procedure for removing him should be overseen by the secretary of state, not the county Registrar of Voters.

Elizabeth Pipkin, an attorney for Persky, wrote in an email that she believes the recall campaign has not complied with the California Constitution.

In law and in practice, judges are state officers, Pipkin said. Therefore, they deserve the same protections as all California state officers who are subject to recall.

Persky based Turners jail sentence on a recommendation from the county probation department. The judge noted that prison would have a severe impact on the former Stanford swimmer.

The petition to place the recall on the ballot is only the first step in the campaign to push out Persky, Dauber said. If the recall is placed on the ballot, voters also will be asked to select a candidate to fill Perskys seat on the bench. Cindy Hendrickson, an assistant district attorney for Santa Clara County, is the only candidate to date who has filed papers.

On Thursday, Dauber framed the recall effort in historical context by describing the first successful recall effort in California history.

In 1913, the womens clubs of San Francisco, much like we have done here, banded together to recall a judge named Charles Weller for lenient decisions on sexual assault, she said.

Dauber also noted the national momentum of the current #MeToo movement.

Women are standing up and refusing to accept the normalization of harassment and abuse by privileged men, and the movement runs all the way from Hollywood to Silicon Valley to media to politics to the legal profession, Dauber said, expressing support for Hendrickson.

Perskys ruling  along with the publication of a gut-wrenching letter the victim read in court during Turners sentencing hearing  prompted former Vice President Joe Biden to write an open letter to the victim noting that she is a warrior who has been failed by many people and institutions.

Sarah Ravani and Sophie Haigney are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com, sophie.haigney@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani, @SophieHaigney
For the fifth year in a row, violent crime in Oakland dropped, reaching levels not seen in more than a decade.

Oakland officials are lauding a decrease last year in robberies, killings and other crimes that have precipitously declined over the past five years from a peak in 2012. Violent crime overall, which lumps together homicides, assaults, rapes and robberies, dipped 5 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to the citys numbers.

Mayor Libby Schaaf, whose re-election campaign has spotlighted the improved public safety statistics, pointed out that 2017 saw the second-lowest number of killings in the city  72  since the national record-keeping system began in 1985. The lowest tally came in 1999, when 60 people were killed.

City police leaders attributed the drop in 2017 to a community program that, among other goals, seeks to intervene in gang disputes and help troubled youths before they commit shootings.

I can tell you, the last five years, weve seen an enormous paradigm shift in regards to how we police and are part of this community, said Capt. Ersie Joyner III, commander of the unit that administers the program, Ceasefire, which launched at the end of 2012. No longer are the days of doing random police work. We have a laser focus on trying to identify, using data, the individuals who are most at risk for being involved in gun violence or being engaged in gun violence.

The Police Department also celebrated a continual drop in use-of-force incidents in each of the past five years. That number decreased by 75 percent between 2012 and 2017.

Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, now a year on the job, said the numbers proved heavy-handed force by officers isnt needed to bring down crime. The department has emphasized de-escalation techniques, she said, so that use-of-force becomes unnecessary or as nominal as possible.

Oaklands rate of violent crime  approximately 1.3 cases per 100 residents  is now roughly on par with where it was in the early- to mid-2000s. It had peaked around the recession, decreased, then crested again in 2012, according to data submitted annually to the FBI.

Nearly every category of crime in Oakland was down last year, according to the Police Departments numbers, with the big exception of auto burglaries. Those were up 25 percent from their five-year average. San Francisco saw a similar jump in car break-ins.

Last year, according to Capt. Roland Holmgren of the criminal investigations division, the department cleared 71 percent of homicides  about 10 percentage points higher than the national average. The figure represents the rate at which police arrest and obtain charges for suspects.

Some of those cases were killings that happened in past years but were solved in 2017, which count toward the years number of cases considered cleared. Its possible for a department to have a clearance rate of more than 100 percent for that reason.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov
Darkest Hour: Gary Oldman gives the performance of his career as Winston Churchill, fighting to rally his country and inspire a war Cabinet bent on surrender, in this dramatic study of a crucial month during World War II. If Oldman doesnt win an Oscar for this, something is very wrong around here. Rated PG-13. 125 minutes.

 Mick LaSalle

I, Tonya: Craig Gillespie delvers a tonally brilliant mix of caustic comedy and genuine pathos in this uncompromising story of Tonya Harding, an Olympic skater implicated in a conspiracy to maim her chief rival. Featuring standout performances from Robbie, as Harding, and Allison Janney, as her terrifying mother, this is one of the best of 2017. Rated R. 121 minutes.

 Mick LaSalle

The Post: This story of the Washington Posts risky decision to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971 sags in places but is lifted by the performances of Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks (as Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee, respectively) and by director Steven Spielbergs clear intention to relate the attempted suppression of journalism in the 1970s to similar efforts being made today. Rated PG-13. 115 minutes.

 Mick LaSalle
In the aftermath of recent allegations of sexual misconduct and assault, conductor Charles Dutoit will resign immediately as artistic director and principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London organization announced.

The 81-year-old Swiss-born conductor had been scheduled to step down in October 2019.
WASHINGTON  Opposition to the Trump administrations plan to expand offshore drilling is mounting as Democrats from coastal states accuse President Trump of punishing states with Democratic leaders and a second Republican governor asks to withdraw his state from the plan.

Democrats said Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke were being hypocritical by agreeing to a request by Floridas Republican governor to withdraw from the drilling plan, but not making the same accommodation to states with Democratic governors.

California Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) said on Twitter that his state, like Florida, has hundreds of miles of beautiful coastline and a governor who wants to keep it that way. Or is that not enough for blue states?

If local voices matter, why havent they excluded Virginia? asked Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. Is it because the governor of Florida is a Republican and the Virginia governor is a Democrat?

The complaints came as South Carolinas Republican governor said Wednesday he is seeking an exemption from the proposed drilling expansion, a move that will test the relationship between Trump and one of his earliest supporters.

Gov. Henry McMaster told reporters that risks associated with drilling pose a serious threat to South Carolinas lush coastline and $20 billion tourism industry.

We cannot afford to take a chance with the beauty, the majesty and the economic value and vitality of our wonderful coastline in South Carolina, McMaster said.

In Virginia, GOP Rep. Scott Taylor joined Kaine and Gov.-elect Ralph Northam in opposing the drilling plan. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., called Trumps plan a complete non-starter.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said on Twitter that the only science @SecretaryZinke follows is political science. Hell reverse course to protect fellow Republicans in Florida, but not to protect coastlines and jobs across the rest of the country? Totally unacceptable.

Heather Swift, a spokeswoman for Zinke, accused Kaine and other Democrats of taking cheap shots at her boss.

The secretary has said since day one that he is interested in the local voice. If those governors would like to request meetings with the secretary, they are absolutely welcome to do so, she said. Their criticism is empty pandering.

Matthew Daly is an Associated Press writer.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  After a tumultuous few months in which numerous lawmakers have been accused of sexual misconduct, a majority of state legislatures across the country are considering strengthening sexual harassment policies that have gone unheeded or unchanged for years.

A 50-state review by The Associated Press found that almost all legislative chambers now have at least some type of written sexual harassment policy, though they vary widely, and many are placing a greater emphasis on preventing and punishing sexual misconduct as they convene for their 2018 sessions.

This week alone, lawmakers in Arizona, Idaho and Rhode Island underwent detailed training about sexual harassment, some for the first time.

Yet about a third of all legislative chambers do not require lawmakers to receive training about what constitutes sexual harassment, how to report it and what consequences it carries, the review found.

The AP also found that only a minority of legislative bodies conduct external investigations into complaints, with most others entrusting lawmakers or staff to look into allegations against colleagues. That has contributed to a culture in some capitols in which the targets of sexual harassment have been reluctant to come forward with complaints  until recently.

Lawmakers around the country have said its now time to take concrete steps to change that culture.

Lets treat all women  regardless of their background, their age, their political affiliation, their role in the process  as ladies, as we would like anybody to treat our wives, our daughters, mothers, sisters, said J.D. Mesnard, the Republican who heads the Arizona state House, where lawmakers took part in mandated sexual harassment training this week.

In the past year, at least 14 legislators in 10 states have resigned from office following accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct, according to the APs review. At least 16 others in more than a dozen states have faced other repercussions, such as the voluntary or forced removal from legislative leadership positions. Some others remain defiant in the face of ongoing investigations into sexual harassment complaints.

In Kentucky, the acting House speaker has appointed a committee to devise a formal system to address workplace complaints. That comes after former Speaker Jeff Hoover resigned his leadership post following revelations that he had paid to keep a sexual harassment settlement secret.

David A. Lieb is an Associated Press writer.
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration cleared the way Thursday for states to impose work requirements on many Americans who depend on Medicaid, the mammoth government health insurance program for the poor.

The much-anticipated move  which was strongly condemned by patient advocates, physicians and consumer groups  would mark the first time in the programs half-century history that the government will require people to work in exchange for health coverage. In states that decide to impose the new requirement, it is widely expected to shrink Medicaid rolls.

The new plan sets the stage for a potentially long and contentious legal battle over the shape and purpose of a health program that more than 70 million Americans now depend on.

The administration outlined the work-requirement plan in a letter to state Medicaid officials that indicates the administrations willingness to grant state requests to impose requirements on working-age, non-disabled Medicaid beneficiaries.

Medicaid needs to be more flexible so that states can best address the needs of this population, said Seema Verma, who oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs at the Department of Health and Human Services and has long called for putting new requirements on Medicaid patients, including charging them more for their care.

Many patient advocates note that a small fraction of the people covered by Medicaid are of working age, non-disabled and currently unemployed. The main impact of the rules will be to subject poor people to stacks of paperwork that will drive some to drop coverage, the critics say.

Medicaid was designed as a health care program, to provide vulnerable members of our society with access to care they badly need, said Dr. Jack Ende, president of the American College of Physicians.

Other groups criticizing the Trump administrations plans included Public Citizen, Families USA and the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society.

The administration is nonetheless expected to quickly approve requests from as many as 10 states, all but one of which has a Republican governor.

The states are: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin.

In California, 13 million people  about a third of the states population  are enrolled in Medi-Cal, the states Medicaid program.

California is not considering imposing work requirements on Medi-Cal beneficiaries. This is not an option we are considering, said Jennifer Kent, director of the Department of Health Care Services, which administers Med-Cal.

Noam N. Levey is a Los Angeles Times writer. Chronicle staff writer Catherine Ho contributed to this report.
A San Francisco man and Communist activist who was arrested for burning a flag at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland is suing the Ohio city, police, and the conspiracy theory-mongering site Infowars.

The suit, filed in federal court in Cleveland on Thursday, alleges the man was arrested on false pretenses and his free speech rights violated after two men affiliated with Infowars claimed he hit them during the flag-burning protest at the convention.
Weather nerds, brace yourselves: NASA just released satellite images of the recent snowfall in the Sahara Desert.

News reports out of Algeria revealed that about 15 inches of snow covered the crests of tall, ruddy sand dunes and mountain peaks near the town of Ain Sefra near the Moroccan border after a freak winter storm.
Beach Blanket Babylon Steve Silvers effervescent revue of send-ups and showstoppers in which Snow White looks for love in an onslaught of pop-culture lampoons and fantastic hats. Ongoing. $25-$130. Club Fugazi, 678 Green St., S.F. (415) 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com.R. Hurwitt

Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets Dread piles up early and thickly in this nightmarish, carnivalesque fairy tale at Shotgun Players, with text by William S. Burroughs and music and lyrics by Tom Waits. But director Mark Jackson doesnt always find new frontiers to take that feeling, even as the sheer artistic integrity, the thoughtfulness with which he constructs every aspect of a moment musters a sublime sensory power of its own. Ends next Sun. One hour, 55 minutes. $25-$40. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org.

L. Janiak

In Event of Moon Disaster Mugwumpin's poetic piece sows from the germ of a specific, historical moment of doubt  would Apollo 11 astronauts return from the moon?  a kind of ever-expanding dread about our place in the cosmos and how little we can control. But the foreboding is leavened by moments of comedy, sweetness and sheer beauty, especially by video designers Wolfgang Lancelot Wachalovsky and Darl Andrew Packard, whose four walls of projections might so destabilize you as to briefly conjure the effects of anti-gravity. Through Jan. 28. 80 minutes. $15-$25. Z Below, 470 Florida St., S.F. (415) 626-0453. www.zspace.org. L. Janiak

The Kipling Hotel Subtitled True Misadventures of the Electric Pink 80s, Don Reeds autobiographical sequel to his long-running East 14th details his adventures as a UCLA student working in a residential hotel. The shape-shifting Reeds portraits of elderly residents, fellow students and others are hilarious, but the show lacks a unifying story. Through Jan. 27. $20-$100. The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., S.F. (415) 282-3055. www.themarsh.org.com.R. Hurwitt

The Magic Bus Antenna Theater presents Chris Hardmans magical mystery tour through the hippie 60s and the Beat and Cold War past, on a bus ride through the city. Veterans of the era might nitpick, but its hard to resist the old clips and 60s music. Ongoing. $40-$59. Meet at Union Square, Geary Street, S.F. (855) 969-6244. www.magicbussf.com.R. Hurwitt

Marrakech Magic Theater Jay Alexander's mien throughout his card tricks, mind reading, number games and feats of extraordinary coincidence is that of a nerd with overweening enthusiasm  enthusiasm you can't help but share. And descending the venue's mysterious steps into an all-arabesque lounge (with drinks and appetizers available for purchase) for preshow close-up magic and then entering a tiny jewel box theater for the actual show are experiences in and of themselves. Ongoing. 90 minutes. $45. Marrakech Magic Theater, 419 OFarrell St., S.F. www.sanfranciscomagictheater.com. L. Janiak

The Speakeasy Its Sleep No More without the masks in this walk-through, Prohibition-era theater experience; audiences can play craps and blackjack, sneak through secret passages, quaff period cocktails, take in a dance at a cabaret, then spy on those dancers in their dressing room, via a two-way mirror. A feast for the theatrically adventurous  dont try to get in without period attire of your own  The Speakeasy deserves to be a fixture in the Bay Area theater scene. Ongoing. Three hours, 30 minutes. $85-$130. Secret venue near North Beach and Chinatown, S.F. www.thespeakeasysf.com. L. Janiak

Watch on the Rhine Politics supposedly drive Lillian Hellmans 1941 drama pitting fascism against anti-fascism, but mostly the characters in Berkeley Reps production spend an incomprehensible amount of time idly riffling through the mail or obsessing about when breakfast will be served. Ends today. Two hours, 30 minutes. $30-$97, subject to change. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org. L. Janiak

Not reviewed

Avenue Q New Conservatory Theatre Center presents the story of a recent college grad named Princeton who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. Ends next Sun. $35-$60. New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Ave., S.F. (415) 861-8972. nctcsf.org

BATS Improv Improvised comedy ranging from sketch to full-evening works. Theatresports: One Night Stands, a team improvisational challenge where the audience chooses the winner. 8 p.m. Fridays through Jan. 26; Split Decision, An improvised work based on what if decisions made by the audience. 8 p.m. Saturdays through Jan. 27. $17-$20. Bayfront Theatre, Building B, Fort Mason, S.F. (415) 474-8935. www.improv.org

The Birthday Party ACT presents Harold Pinters classic drama about the arrival of two unsettling strangers in an English seaside town. Through Feb. 4. $15-$110. ACTs Geary Theater, 415 Geary St., S.F. (415) 749-2228. act-sf.org

Dear Dad ACT presents comedian Louie Andersons stage adaptation of his best-selling memoir. 7:30 p.m. Wed through Sat.; 2 p.m. Today. $25-$55. Strand Theater, 1127 Market St., S.F. (415) 749-2228. act-sf.org

Diva or Die Burlesque A voyeuristic journey allowing the audience a sensuous peek at the bold women and times of burlesque. 8:30 p.m. Sat. and third Saturday of every month. $15. Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy St., S.F. www.theexit.org/diva-3

Enemy of the People Actors Ensemble of Berkeley presents Henry Millers adaptation of Henrik Ibsens parable about the costs of of the truth telling the story of a doctor determined to expose a towns shameful secret. Through Jan. 27. $15-$20. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 649-5999. aeofberkeley.org

A Fatal Step The Marsh presents Jill Vices solo dramedy turning the tables on film noir tropes by telling the story from the perspective of the femme fatale rather than the detective. 8 p.m. Thursdays and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays, Thurs. through March 3. $20-$100. The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., S.F. (415) 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

My Way Cinnabar Theater presents David Grapes and Todd Olsons musical tribute to Frank Sinatra. Ends today. $25-$38. Cinnabar Theater, 3333 Petaluma Blvd., Petaluma. www.cinnabartheater.org/my-way-a-musical-tribute-to-frank-sinatra

Latin Standards Brava Theater Center presents Marga Gomezs loving, funny and true story of perseverance and creative addiction passed down from immigrant father to lesbian daughter. Through Jan. 28. $20-$35. Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St., S.F. www.brava.org

Man of La Mancha The hit musical adaptation of Cervantes Don Quixote. Through Feb. 17. $30-$49. Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter St., S.F. (415) 798-2682. www.custommade.org

Megabytes! The Musical AWAT Productions presents Morris Bobrows world premiere musical comedy revue looking at how we navigate technology in our lives. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Fri.-March 3.. $25-$36. Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter St., S.F. (800) 838-3006. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3114509

My Stroke of Luck The Marsh presents Diane Barnes solo piece recounting her experience of having a stroke and her path to recovery. Through Feb. 3. $20-$100. The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., S.F. (415) 282-0355. www.themarsh.org

Old MacDonald Beyond the Farm Bay Area Childrens Theatres interactive theatrical experience for babies and toddlers follows Old MacDonald as she bids farewell to her beloved farm animals and sails away to learn more about life in the city. Through March 18 at BACT Theatre Center, 2055 Center St., Berkeley. $15. (510) 296-4433. www.bactheatre.org

Our Great Tchaikovsky TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents Hershey Felders solo portrayal of Russian composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Through Feb. 11. $45-$105. Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. (650) 463-1960. theatreworks.org

Roald Dahls Willy Wonka Bay Area Childrens Theatre presents Roald Dahls story specially written for young audiences and featuring the catchy tunes from the original Gene Wilder movie. Through Jan. 21 at Childrens Creativity Museum, 221 Fourth St., S.F. $15-$27. (510) 296-4433. www.bactheatre.org

Sondheim on Sondheim 3Below Theatres & Lounge present a look at the life, career and process of the famed composer. Thurs.-Feb. 4. $41-$58. 3Below Theaters and Lounge, 288 S. Second St., San Jose. (408) 404-7711. 3belowtheaters.com/events/ sondheim-on-sondheim-3

Un-Scripted Theater Improvised Comedy Dash Improv, an hour of improvised comedy. 10 p.m. Saturdays, ongoing. $10. 533 Sutter St., S.F. (415) 332-8738. www.un-scripted.com
After sharing a series of social media posts of her friends and family bidding farewell to her Florida vacation home, Rosie O'Donnell sold the estate in West Palm Beach for $5 million.

The home, which was initially listed in December 2016 for $6 million, is just 6 miles from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago. It's possible her not-so-private feelings about her high-profile neighbor were behind her decision to take a discount on the mansion's price.

But based on the sweet photos O'Donnell recently shared on social media, the house was a special place where her family made plenty of happy memories.

Built in 1957 and extensively remodeled and updated over the years, the mansion has five bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms. It comes with a one-bedroom, one-bathroom guesthouse, which the listing says is "ideal for nanny or boat captain."

The 1-acre property has 178 feet of water frontage and a deep-water dock. There's a fire pit out back that's perfect for hanging out and watching the boats cruise by.

Backyard with fire pit realtor.com

And here's O'Donnell herself looking relaxed and cozy by the fire pit just before the new year, surrounded by kids' toys.

https://twitter.com/Rosie/status/947224815957573632

Inside, the home has a bright (and huge!) family room.

Family room realtor.com

Here's a recent photo O'Donnell shared of one of her kiddos curled up with a tablet on the family room floor.

https://twitter.com/Rosie/status/947251064222486528

Most family fun eventually ends up in the kitchen, and this home has a comfy space made for congregating with friends and family.

Kitchen realtor.com

O'Donnell also shared a photo of the kitchen filled with friends and family on New Year's Eve with an inspirational message to kick off 2018.

https://twitter.com/Rosie/status/947653488527511553

When you don't care to swim in the ocean, there's a waterfront pool right in the backyard.

Pool realtor.com

O'Donnell also tweeted a photo of a girl and her dog enjoying a sunny New Year's Day in the same pool.

https://twitter.com/Rosie/status/947842825869250560

O'Donnell and her family seem genuinely sad to let the home go. This caption on Instagram says it all.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bda2KM0HGss/

The O'Donnell clan still has plenty of places to call home. According to Variety, the "SMILF" co-star, "View" co-host, and outspoken activist holds a large real estate portfolio. In July 2017, she bought an $8 million New York City penthouse triplex, and she owns homes in the New York City area and in South Nyack.

The post Rosie O'Donnell Sells West Palm Beach Home Filled With Family Memories appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
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1 Adoption ban: Ethiopian lawmakers have approved a ban on foreign adoptions amid concerns about mistreatment of children overseas. The approval came after rare heated debate as some lawmakers worried that the East African nation does not have enough child care centers to handle the effects of the ban. Ethiopia had been among the top 10 countries for adoptions in the United States, according to State Department figures released last year. Actress Angelina Jolie is among the people who have adopted a child from the country. But the death in the U.S. in 2011 of an Ethiopia-born girl, with her adoptive mother convicted of homicide by abuse, led to an outcry back home, with Ethiopia that year reducing foreign adoptions by 90 percent.

2 Tunisia protests: Tunisian authorities say 237 people were arrested, and dozens of others injured across the country in recent days as violent protests against government-imposed price hikes spread to more cities and regions. The Interior ministry said Wednesday those arrested took part in looting, thefts and arson. Some blocked roads and targeted police stations, municipal depots, stores and banks. A protester died on Monday. The current protests followed a new budget law raising fuel prices and taxes on many products and services to reduce the countrys annual deficit.
HONG KONG  Michael Wolffs book about the Trump administration has been getting mixed reviews from critics and others, but its finding fulsome praise in one corner: North Korean state media, which says the books popularity foretells Trumps political demise.

The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, has apparently made its way to the so-called hermit kingdom, giving more ammunition to a North Korean government already in a raging propaganda war with President Trump.

The anti-Trump book is sweeping all over the world so Trump is being massively humiliated worldwide, said a commentary in the countrys Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which is run by the ruling Workers Party.

The book has sold so well in the United States  29,000 hardcover copies the first weekend  that retailers are having trouble keeping it in stock, and digital and audio sales have topped 350,000. Pirated copies of the book are already circulating online in Asia.

Rodong Sinmun said those sales figures were no surprise, given the worldwide enmity toward Trump, who has belittled the countrys leader, Kim Jong Un, as Little Rocket Man and suggested that the dictators nuclear button is too small.

Voices calling for the impeachment of Trump are on the rise not only in the United States but also abroad, the commentary said. Since the book was published, it has triggered a debate on whether Trump is qualified to be president, even in Western Europe.

Trump has derided the book and its author, and has threatened legal action to halt its publication, a warning the publisher, Henry Holt and Co., brushed off while moving up the books publication date.

The book portrays Trump as inattentive, surrounded by aides who belittle his intelligence and capabilities, and describes the president as presiding over a dysfunctional White House. The administration has characterized the book as a complete fantasy full of tabloid gossip.

Oddly, the North through its commentary was praising a book whose title may be rooted in Trumps threat to annihilate the country. In August, Trump warned he would unleash fire and fury against North Korea if it ever endangered the United States.

Gerry Mullany is a New York Times writer.
-/AFP/Getty Images

GAJAH MAKMUR, Indonesia  This small agricultural village in the hills of Sumatra island, in the province of Bengkulu, is a testament to happy days in human-elephant relations: When the village  whose name translates to Prosperous Elephant  was founded in 1991, residents nursed an injured wild elephant back to health until it one day disappeared into the forest, never to be seen again.

But when wild elephants raided, villagers organized into brigades and used everything they could gather  pots and pans, a megaphone  to scare off the rampaging giants, forcing them to a palm oil plantation elsewhere.
New Zealand log exports hit a new record last year, underscoring the concerns of local manufacturers that the country is sending too many unprocessed logs overseas, posing a threat for local timber supply in the future and undermining the goal to add more value to exports.

The country exported $2.41 billion of softwood logs in the first 11 months of last year, surpassing all previous records for any full calendar year, according to the latest Statistics New Zealand figures. Data for the full year will be released on Jan. 30.

New Zealand is experiencing strong demand for logs from China, which has clamped down on harvesting its own forests and reduced tariffs on imported logs to meet demand in its local market. In the first 11 months of 2017, New Zealand exported $1.81 billion of logs to China, above the level for any full calendar year and accounting for 75 percent of softwood exports.

Increased shipments of raw logs goes against the aim of successive governments to add more value to commodities and riles the wood processing sector, which says more manufacturing needs to be done at home to sustain the local industry. It says an uptick in demand for wooden housing could see supply having to be met from overseas if the current situation prevails.

Prior to the election, the wood industry, representing New Zealands third-largest export commodity group, was annoyed at the lack of attention it received from the Ministry for Primary Industries which it felt was more focused on food safety, agriculture, horticulture and biosecurity of the border. Forestry, it was felt, was at the bottom of the MPI pile and fronted by junior ministers and officials.

The industry starts this year in a more upbeat mood with the new coalition governments commitment to re-establish the Forest Service, plant more trees, focus on regional economic development, require greater scrutiny of overseas investment in forestry, and improve the Emissions Trading Scheme for forestry amid industry concerns that foresters couldnt compete with rival land users such as dairy farmers under the current system.

We are certainly on the radar now with the government very much pushing in the right direction. The whole industry has a much higher profile now, said Jon Tanner, chief executive of the Wood Processors & Manufacturers Association of New Zealand. Forestry worldwide has to have the hand of government.

While government initiatives gave the industry more optimism about the long-term future, Tanner said uncertainty remained around the shorter term issue for the domestic market of more unprocessed logs heading overseas.

We are still very concerned about the competition in the market right now and where that is going and how that is going to be regulated and tackled, he said. We have got a major problem in the set up of the market. We have got a lot of logs being exported, and its being increased.

The demand out of China, all the pundits are saying, its just only going to increase.

Other wood exporting countries such as Canada and Russia support their local industries while Chinese wood manufacturers benefit from subsidies, creating an uneven playing field for New Zealand processors, according to the WPMA which would like to see the government take a complaint to the World Trade Organisation.

Tanner said the WPMA was contacted by its counterparts in Australia late last year who were starting to experience a similar problem of increasing log exports to China.

(BusinessDesk)

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Federated Farmers vice-president Andrew Hoggard says farmers should pay backpackers market rates if they want to keep a handy pool of casual labour and avoid volunteer workers.

The Employment Relations Authority ruled an organic farm near Christchurch breached worker rights by paying them $120 a week plus providing food and lodging irrespective of the hours worked, and claiming they were volunteers after a Labour Inspectorate investigation. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said in a statement that thousands of people had been exploited at the farm, working up to 40 hours a week and often as hired out labour at a profit for Robinwood Farms director and shareholder Julia Osselton.

Fed Farmers' Hoggard has drawn on backpackers to fill in on his farms, saying they're a handy resource for plugging gaps, however he's sceptical of farmers using volunteer work.

"They're often bloody good kids, keen to travel and experience things, but you've got to pay them for the work they do - giving them experience isn't payment," Hoggard said. "At the moment we've got a good pool of seasonal staff who can fill in at times, but if people start to abuse it, it gets harder and you could lose that."

The ERA ruled Robinwood Farms has to pay two former employees $2,600 each that they were owed, and broader penalties of up to $20,000 per person per breach are still under discussion, MBIE said.

Osselton claimed the workers were WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) on a cultural exchange, although Labour Inspectorate Stu Lumsden said that wasn't the case. WWOOF NZ said the farm isn't registered with the official group and had asked Osselton not to pitch her farm as such.

WWOOF NZ is part of an international network where host farmers offer food and accommodation in exchange for volunteer work by travellers often interested in learning about organic farming. The local organisation currently has about 10,000 WWOOFers, largely from Europe, the US and Australia, and that number has been relatively stable for the past couple of years, it said in an emailed statement.

Robinwood characterises itself as a WWOOFing farm on its Facebook page, something WWOOF NZ has sought to have removed.

(BusinessDesk)

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PGG Wrighston's independent directors have reconvened a committee to monitor the Overseas Investment Office's review of controlling shareholder Agria Corp's 'good character' status.

The committee, comprised of Bruce Irvine, John Nichol and Ronald Seah, was first set up early last year to consider the implications of Agria's delisting from the New York Stock Exchange and an ensuing probe by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Irvine said in a statement that the committee had been aware the OIO was monitoring the matter and confirmed the 'good character' probe with the government agency yesterday.

"A spokesperson for Agria has also commented that it has always made full disclosure to the OIO and will continue to assist the OIO with any inquiries," Irvine said. The committee will keep monitoring matters and "update the market if there are any material developments that may require disclosure and consideration by PGW shareholders."

Agria indirectly owns 50.2 percent of Wrightson through Agria (Singapore). It was delisted from the NYSE in January last year after the stock market operator found evidence the company's managers were inflating the share price to meet the minimum requirement, while the SEC subpoenaed Agria in December 2015 over the firm's Chinese operations.

Wrightson shares last traded at 57 cents and have gained 12 percent over the past year.

(BusinessDesk)

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Justice Alexander Jeong, a borough resident seen in this 2007 file photo, has been assigned to the Criminal Term bench of state Supreme Court, St. George. (Staten Island Advance)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Narcotics Part of state Supreme Court, St. George, is being eliminated 15 months after its inception, the Advance has learned -- a development the district attorney views as a blow to his office's efforts to battle Staten Island's drug epidemic.

District Attorney Michael E. McMahon had vigorously lobbied for the Narcotics Part, created in October 2016 for felony cases in which defendants were accused of drug sale or possession with the intent to sell. He said then it would speed up dispositions and get dealers off the street, while diverting addicts into treatment programs.

Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration (OCA), said the move is designed to re-allocate the court's resources more efficiently. The Narcotics Part operated part-time, typically Monday through Wednesday, and mainly in the morning.

McMahon called the decision "rash."

"I am deeply dismayed by the sudden and unexpected announcement that the Narcotics Part will be disbanded. Staten Island is in the throes of a devastating opioid and heroin epidemic, and we have one of the worst fatality rates in the country," McMahon said in a statement.

"One of the key strategies was requesting that Staten Island be treated like the other boroughs and have a dedicated Narcotics Part to provide the resources and focus necessary to divert those individuals who are addicted into treatment, and to prosecute those who are charged with dealing deadly poisons to our citizens," he continued. "Disbanding Part N when every other borough in the city has its own Narcotics Part is just another example of Staten Island not receiving its fair share of resources."

OCA: WON'T AFFECT SERVICES

Chalfen said the restructuring won't affect any services which the Narcotics Part had offered defendants.

The part's current cases will be distributed among the sitting judges in the Criminal Term, and new drug cases will be disseminated accordingly after arraignment.

"We're well aware of the opioid issue in Richmond County, as well as in the city, state and country," said Chalfen. "This is about the efficiency of the operation, not the services rendered in a particular case. We recognize the importance of these services. Nothing's being taken away, we're just re-allocating resources. We believe it's more efficient to eliminate the part and redistribute the cases."

Under the re-jiggering, Justice Charles Troia, who was presiding over Part N, will return to the Civil Term of state Supreme Court, St. George, full-time. Troia also heard civil cases.

A full-time judge was needed in the Civil Term due to a judicial transfer and a retirement, Chalfen said.

Justice Alexander Jeong, a Staten Island resident, will be added to the Criminal Term bench in state Supreme Court, St. George.

He joins Justices Stephen J. Rooney, William E. Garnett, Mario F. Mattei and Wayne Ozzi.

Jeong, 50, had been presiding in a Criminal Part of Brooklyn state Supreme Court and also served as deputy administrative judge of New York City Criminal Court.

Chalfen said the changes result from OCA's annual state- and citywide re-evaluation of staffing and personnel needs.

MCMAHON: NARCOTICS PART 'HUGE SUCCESS'

But McMahon contends Part N had been "a huge success" since its inception.

"By our calculations, over 340 felony filings have been handled in this part since October 2016, and there have been approximately 150 dispositions," said McMahon. "Moreover, there have been over 3,600 court appearances. Compared to the other parts, these numbers are impressive, even more so when you consider that Part N functions part-time only two or three days a week."

"I sincerely hope OCA reconsiders this rash decision and that we can work together in our continued mission to combat the drug epidemic on all fronts," said McMahon.

Some defense lawyers, however, had expressed reservations about the Narcotics Part from the get-go.

While supporting the idea of getting addicts into treatment, they feared the court wouldn't differentiate between those defendants selling small amounts drugs to support their habit and main suppliers and dealers.

Several reiterated those views on Thursday.

"I don't think Part N was really fostering treatment that much," said Thomas Reilly, a Great Kills-based criminal defense lawyer and former prosecutor. "It seems sentences were a lot harsher. It seems like the D.A.'s office is treating users like dealers. Only time will tell if (disbanding Part N) is going to work better for the people of Staten Island."

Mark J. Fonte, a St. George-based criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, said he welcomes Part N's scuttling.

"There's no necessity for a dedicated Narcotics Part," said Fonte. "Staten Island is blessed with the finest judiciary who are more than capable of handling these complex narcotics cases. Judge Jeong will be an awesome addition to the current judiciary on the Island."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Swedish furniture giant Ikea has signed a lease to open a 975,000-square-foot warehouse distribution center in Matrix Global Logistics Park in Bloomfield.

The international company has been engaged in negotiations since last year to occupy the first building constructed at the 200-acre Matrix Global Logistics Park Staten Island.

"As we expand across the country and grow our online presence, we want to ensure we have sufficient warehouse capacity to support the efficient and timely delivery and shipment of products to our customers," said Lars Petersson, IKEA U.S. president, noting the distribution center should be open sometime in late 2018.

"Our goal is to increase accessibility to IKEA products, and a new fulfillment center in Staten Island will help us meet the home furnishing needs of our customers in the New York metropolitan area," he added.

Joseph S. Taylor, president and CEO of the Cranbury, N.J.-based Matrix Development Group said the warehouse that Ikea will be leasing was built on speculation.

"This building was built entirely on spec. Ikea is a great company," said Taylor.

Said Borough President James Oddo, who has been proponent of the project: "We promised that the 'jobs coast' would attract major companies, and we are watching that promise come to fruition. Each of these announcements means new job opportunities for Staten Islanders. Thank you again to Joe Taylor and his team at Matrix for making their historic investment on our West Shore that has so far attracted Amazon and IKEA, along with the new jobs they will create."



200 JOBS TO BE CREATED

The fulfillment center at Matrix Global Logistics Park will focus on delivering items to customers who order products online or purchase larger items at an IKEA store, according to the company.

The site will be operated by CEVA Logistics, and the project will create approximately 200 jobs. CEVA Logistics is a global leader in supply chain operations that is currently working with IKEA at customer distribution centers in the U.K.

With nearly 1,000 suppliers in 50 countries, IKEA traditionally transports products globally to its stores through regional distribution centers.

"This customer fulfillment center and others in the future will augment the current U.S. distribution strategy and enhance IKEA's ability to ensure product availability for customers shopping in-store or online," said Ikea in a written statement.

$33.2 MILLION PROJECT



In its application to city Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), Ikea said the total development cost is $33.2 million and would create jobs with salaries ranging from $16 per hour to $65 per hour.

There are more than 300 IKEA stores in 38 countries, including 37 in the U.S. .

AMAZON ALREADY SIGNED

The $100 million, 855,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center -- expected to employ 2,250 people -- will be open for business on Staten Island's West Shore sometime this year.

It has been estimated that when fully leased Matrix Global Logistics Park will employ more than 4,000 people.

CONSTRUCTION ONGOING

Matrix is about to embark on construction of a 450,000-square-foot building that is also being built on speculation.

"We are talking to a number of different potential users for this building," said Taylor, noting there is also a fourth warehouse in the plans for the Global Logistic Park.

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- With St. John Villa Academy announcing Tuesday it will close its doors for good at the end of the school year, hundreds of students are left scrambling to determine their academic futures.

Parents of St. John Villa Academy High School students received a letter Wednesday afternoon stating that a meeting will take place next week to discuss future school options for their ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade students.

"I know that the news you received yesterday about our school closing is a shock and very difficult to handle. It is just as devastating for the Sisters, administration, and faculty here at the school. I want to assure you that we will do whatever it takes to assist you and your daughter in finding a new school for September 2018," the letter began.

According to the correspondence, representatives from St. John Villa Academy recently met with principals of other Staten Island Catholic high schools, and are confident that they will be able to find a place for their students at one of the borough's Catholic high schools.

The information meeting for both parents and students will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 16. Grades 9 and 10 will meet at 5:30 p.m., with Grade 11 meeting at 7 p.m.

According to the letter, Principal Antonia Zuffante will provide all the necessary information for families looking to continue their education at Catholic or public high schools.

Since the school announced its closure on Tuesday, students and parents have been struggling to determine their best course of action going forward.

"So far the experience has been very upsetting, emotional, confusing, since the news came as a complete shock with no warning or evidence of this happening," said one parent of a freshman at the school.

The parent, who asked to remain anonymous, is hoping that the meeting will offer some clarity on the next steps in finding a new school.

"I hope to find out the process to transfer her to a new school -- the paperwork and procedures, and whether or not her current partial scholarship will apply in a new school," the parent said.

Though not yet sure of definitive plans, the parent says she hopes her child will be able to attend one of the neighboring Catholic schools, namely Notre Dame Academy or St. Joseph Hill Academy.

"The choices are somewhat limited because she prefers an all-girls environment, not co-ed such as Moore or St. Joseph by-the-Sea -- and geographically and logistically, Sea is too far," said the parent.

The biggest concern for the family is whether or not the student's partial scholarship will carry over to their new school.

"I know the other alternative Catholic schools offer similar qualities in terms of strong education, Catholic faith instruction, college prep and guidance, discipline, and extracurricular activities, but the scholarship being accepted at another school is a huge decision-maker for us," the parent said.
NEW YORK -- New York City police have arrested 18 people, including two councilmen, in protests over the detention of a prominent immigration activist.

The demonstrations outside a federal building in Manhattan were over the detention of Ravi Ragbir, a citizen of Trinidad who has been fighting deportation after a fraud conviction.

His lawyer, Alina Das, says Ragbir was handcuffed Thursday during a scheduled check-in with immigration officials.

Federal officials did not immediately answer questions about his status.

Police arrested demonstrators who sat in the street and blocked an ambulance, thinking Ragbir was inside. City Councilmen Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumanne Williams, both Democrats, were among those arrested.

Rodriguez posted a picture of his arrest on Twitter with the message, "This is NOT how you treat people who are protesting for Human Rights."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Despite city Department of Education regulations requiring classrooms to be kept at 68 degrees, two Staten Island schools remained operational this month despite being without heat during freezing temperatures.

This is because, while the thermostat can't be set below 68, if there is a temporary concern with the heating system, principals can make the decision to remain in the school until heat is restored, according to a DOE spokesman.

"We're dedicated to providing every student with a safe and comfortable learning environment," said Michael Aciman, spokesman for the Department of Education (DOE). "We take these matters extremely seriously, monitor boilers around the clock, and work tirelessly to ensure all heating issues are addressed as quickly as possible."

Curtis High School and PS 37 both had heating outages this month after boilers at both schools temporarily lost fuel suction, according to the DOE. Heat was restored within the same day and relocation of students was not necessary.

When a school is without heat, there is ongoing communication between the principal of the school, Division of School Facilities and School Safety. There are discussions regarding the timeline for heat restoration and whether additional actions, such as a relocation, are necessary.

At PS 37, a District 75 school, students and staff endured lack of heat twice this month -- on Wednesday, Jan. 3, and again this past Wednesday -- at the school's main site, located at 15 Fairfield St. in Great Kills.

Students in the borough's District 75 schools are either on the autism spectrum, have significant cognitive delays, are severely emotionally challenged, sensory impaired and/or multiply disabled.

Students were forced to wear their winter coats and wrap up in blankets to keep warm, according to a worker at the school.

One parent said she received a letter from PS 37 on Monday that, while the heat at the school was running at full capacity at that time, the school was colder than normal in the early morning due to unseasonably cold temperatures. The letter suggested parents have their children wear layers to keep warm during school hours.

On Monday, Curtis High School students reported the St. George school was without heat. One student at the school, which is located at 105 Hamilton Ave., said the heat wasn't on at the school since arrival.

The student said people in the school were walking around wearing their coats, hats and gloves.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Max Rose, a Democratic candidate looking to unseat Republican Rep. Daniel Donovan in New York's 11th congressional district, has been named to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC) Red-to-Blue Program.

Rose is one of only 18 candidates thus far named to the competitive program, which provides strategic guidance, staff resources and candidate training. Red-to-Blue also introduces candidates to Democratic supporters to help with fundraising efforts and provides organizational support.

"As a U.S. Army combat veteran, Infantry Company Commander in the National Guard and nonprofit executive, Max Rose has dedicated his life to serving America and giving back to New York City," DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Lujan said in a statement. Lujan also called Rose "one of the strongest challengers in the country."

The DCCC cited Rose's engagement with grassroots organization, fundraising, and campaign organization.

Rose, a Purple Heart recipient, raised more than $320,000 in the third quarter campaign finance filing period, which accounts for July through September.

"We are proud to be recognized as one of the top campaigns in the country and we're just getting started," said Rose. "When this campaign launched in August, the pundits didn't think this race would be competitive, but the people on Staten Island and in South Brooklyn knew better.

"They're sick and tired of broken promises and a government that no longer works for them," Rose continued. "They want someone with the courage to lead and the guts to fight like hell for them. That's what this campaign is all about and that will never change."

Rose is one of five Democrats hoping to challenge Donovan after June's Democratic primary.

Donovan himself is facing a primary challenge from Michael Grimm, who held the seat for two terms before stepping down in late 2014 before going to jail for tax fraud.

The former congressman spent eight months in federal prison beginning in 2015 after pleading guilty to a single count of tax fraud related to a Manhattan health food restaurant he co-owned before taking office.

Grimm has called the prosecution politically motivated.

"Politically corrupt (former Attorney General) Loretta Lynch led the charge against me," Grimm said at a campaign rally in October.

He added, tongue-in-cheek, "They routinely investigate delivery boys on bicycles, you know that."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- State Sen. Jeff Klein, leader of the Independent Democratic Conference, and Sen. Diane Savino called reporters Wednesday to preemptively deny allegations from a former IDC staffer who told the Huffington Post that Klein forcibly kissed her in 2015.

"I want to be crystal clear," said Klein, whose group caucuses and shares power with the state Senate Republicans. "This alleged incident never happened, nor did anything inappropriate happen in any fashion that evening. Period."

Savino, Klein's longtime partner, said she was with Klein, along with about 10 other IDC staffers, the day of the alleged incident.

"This never occurred," Savino said.

"We are ready to participate in any and all investigations," Savino later added.

In an article published by the Huffington Post, Erica Vladimer, 30, alleged Klein "shoved his tongue" down her throat at Justin's, a local bar in Albany, in the early morning of April 1, 2015, after the state budget was passed.

Vladimer worked for Klein from 2013 to 2015, starting as a fellow and later becoming a policy analyst and counsel for the IDC. Vladimer said that she also worked on education budgets and volunteered for his 2014 campaign, the Huffington Post reported.

Vladimer alleged that the two went outside to smoke a cigarette and that Klein grabbed her head and forcibly kissed her after she briefly looked over her shoulder.

"I pulled away and I said, 'Senator, absolutely not,'" Vladimer told the Huffington Post. "And he looked at me and said, with this stupid little grin on his face, 'What? What?' Like he was being coy, almost trying to flirt and play a game."

Vladimer said she then went back into the bar and was initially worried that Klein's girlfriend, Savino, may have seen them.

"I will never forget the first thought in my head was, 'Oh my God, did Savino see that? Because if she did, my life is over,'" she told the Huffington Post.

Klein hired a law firm to conduct interviews concerning the allegation and shared the findings with reporters in a memo.

Both Klein and Savino said they recalled an "unusual" interaction with Vladimer in which she asked Klein to her family's home for Passover Seder, according to the memo, which was the product of 10 interviews with present and former staff.

The memo details that Klein went out to have a cigarette in front of a large window in front of the bar and that Vladimer joined him. Klein said he didn't kiss Vladimer and staffers interviewed for the memo said they didn't see Klein kiss Vladimer.

Vladimer told the Huffington Post that after being unable to maintain her composure, she left the bar and went to her friend's house at 4 a.m. and told her friend and her friend's fiance about the incident while crying.

Vladimer said she never filed a compliant because she blamed herself at the time.

Vladimer told the news outlet that she wasn't seeking for Klein to leave office, but wants the senator "to step up."

"As a leader of a very powerful conference in the New York state legislature, he has the ability to effectuate change,'' she said. "We have the Senate Dems, who put out legislative packages on sexual harassment, and the governor saying he's going to discuss proposals." Vladimer was referring to Cuomo's promise to address sexual harassment in the upcoming legislative session.

"What's the IDC going to do? What's the GOP going to do?" she asked.

Klein told reporters that he would not step down as leader of the IDC.

According to meeting minutes from a Nov. 20 meeting of the Richmond County Democrats, Savino replied that sexual assault and harassment claims are more frequent in the state Assembly than the state Senate.

Referring to rules passed in the Assembly, Savino said she considers such rules to be unnecessary and thinks men need to be brought up in a way that teaches respect for women, and girls need more empowering role models while growing up. Savino also denounces the state Assembly for policies she believes, "do more to protect abusers than victims," according to minutes that summarized her statement.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The more than 1,500 Staten Island eighth-graders hoping to attend Catholic high school, who took the Test for Admission to Catholic Schools (TACHS) exam in November, have been waiting anxiously for a letter to inform them whether they received an offer for admission.

Traditionally, this is the week Staten Island's Catholic high schools -- along with other schools in the New York Archdiocese -- simultaneously mail admission letters to would-be freshmen.

However, this year, the traditional letter has become a thing of the past for many, as schools have expanded their notification methods, using email, phone calls, text messages -- and even video.

Students who took the test in November had their test scores sent to three schools, ranked in order of preference. The announced closure of St. John Villa Academy in Arrochar has made this an especially tense time for some.

Eighth-graders are notified by each school to which they applied, either offering them a seat in the fall, or not. In some cases, they may be told they have been put on a waiting list for admission. They may also find out if they received a scholarship.

St. Joseph Hill Academy, Arrochar, sent an email linking to a YouTube video that reads, "Congratulations and welcome to St. Joseph Hill Academy's Class of 2022!" The video was produced by the school's Summit Production Club.

Parents reported St. Joseph by-the-Sea sent text messages, emails and phone calls.

"We have the ability to notify the students via email and text, so why make everyone wait for the Post Office?" said Rev. Michael Reilly, principal of St. Joseph by the Sea. "In the past, we have had students receive acceptance packets at all different times, with some receiving them as much as a week after they were mailed."

The school's Facebook page alerted students that the notifications were sent out in the afternoon, and would be followed by traditional letters in the mail.

Welcome to the Class of 2022 - email notification launched at 3PM - snail-mail sent this morning. Posted by St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School on Wednesday, January 10, 2018

"We sent emails, text messages, and robo-calls along with traditional acceptance packages in the mail," Reilly said. "This way, if we had a bad email address or a bad phone number, everyone would know where they stood all at the same time. I think it is much better for families to know, rather than to try and wonder why they did not receive a packet."

Notre Dame Academy sent an email, and Moore Catholic High School sent an email and phone message to accepted students.

For students who listed Monsignor Farrell High School and St. Peter's Boys High School, parents said they have not yet received any acceptance notice through a form of online communication.

For eighth-graders who placed Villa as a choice on the TACHS exam, the school sent an email on Wednesday with details and options for students to be re-examined by other Staten Island high school principals if they meet criteria for acceptance or waitlist.

Students who receive an admissions offer from more than one of their three schools must respond to each school, though they may only say "yes" to one. As students reply, seats are opened to other students on waiting lists.
Staten Island Advance Photo

The legendary Procter and Gamble factory in Port Ivory was world renowned.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Huge Staten Island factories were an integral part of borough roots and were responsible for the manufacture of various products that serviced all of New York City and beyond.

Factories or manufacturing plants as they were also referred, were usually situated on industrial sites and consisted of a series of buildings on a huge complex where workers manufactured goods or operated machines processing one product into another. They arose with the introduction of machinery during the Industrial Revolution when space requirements became too great for cottage industry or workshops.

Today  though many of those early factories are gone  they've been replaced by modern factories with large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production.

Let's take a look back at some of S.I.'s most iconic factories.

Up first: Procter and Gamble opened its factory in Port Ivory in 1907 and produced more than one million cases of Ivory and Lenox soap bars a year. For more than 80 years, the P&G plant produced soap and detergent which was shipped around the nation.

In 1991 the plant closed for good after 84 years of operation.

Here, Anthony Marciano checks high-speed packing line for synthetic detergents, in Procter & Gamble's Port Ivory plant. August, 1958.

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Staten island Advance | Jan Somma-Hammel

Sadly, the Procter & Gamble plant closed for good in 1991.

The area on Richmond Terrace became locally known as Port Ivory after Ivory soap, one of the best-known products from Procter & Gamble, which operated a factory at the site from 1907 until 1991, when the soap making operation was moved to Mexico.

As a result, the end of Richmond Terrace even became a tourist attraction.

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Courtesy Hugh Powell Collection

Bethlehem Steel Corp. provided a number of jobs for Staten Islanders searching for work during decades past.

The Bethlehem Steel Corp. was a steel and shipbuiding company that began operations in 1904 and was America's second-largest steel producer and largest shipbuilder.

It traces its roots trace back to 1857 with the establishment of the Bethlehem Iron Company also known as Bethlehem Iron Works.

The Bethlehem Steel Corp. was among the largest employers for years on Richmond Terrace in Mariners Harbor. It's closed its ship-building plant on Richmond Terrace in 1960. However, the propeller plant and foundry continue to operate on Davidson Street, closing in 1971.

Pictured: Bethlehem Steelworks, Mariners Harbor, 1962.

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Staten Island Advance | Steve Zaffarano

Staten Island was home to Wrigley Spearmint gum.

The building located at 191 Edgewater St. was built around 1917 and the site where gum base for William Wrigley Co.'s Juicy Fruit and Spearmint gums was made early last century.

Dr. Dreyfus, a local chemist involved in the manufacture of rubber, developed the synthetic gum base to replace chicle, the natural tropical substance, as the base for gum and was the person credited for producing the substance for Wrigley.

While there has been much discussion of the origin of modern chewing gum, Staten Island was involved in its development. In 1949, the plant closed and the twin smokestacks were demolished on May 6, 1986.

Pictured: Smokestack demolition at the turn-of-the-century Wrigley warehouse in Clifton. Photo from May 6, 1986.

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Staten Island Advance | Frank J Johns

Sedutto's ice cream was synonymous with flavor and quality.

The Sedutto Ice Cream Co., founded in 1922, established its Island roots in the 1930s, relocating from Manhattan to Port Richmond.

Originally owned by the family that gave its name to the ice cream, the business was sold in 1969 to Susan and Alfred Amplo. Following her husband's death in 1979, Mrs. Amplo sold the ice cream parlor to the Moudatsos family, Unger's relatives. Nineteen years later, the store changed hands again, acquired by B&G Corp., which sold it to Charlie Kim in 2004.

The New Dorp location had been the site of a Sedutto's ice cream parlor for about 60

Dec. 10, 1996: Sedutto's building on Richmond Terrace. (Staten Island Advance/Frank J. Johns)

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Staten Island Advance | Tony Carrannante

The inside of the former Sedutto ice cream plant in Port Richmond.

Sedutto's was a virtual household name on Staten Island. First as a factory plant and also a retail store on New Dorp Lane. And though it changed management a few times, it always maintained its greatness.

Here, Anthony Abato works at Sedutto's ice Cream Factory in Port Richmond in July 1981.

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Staten Island Advance | Frank J Johns

The famous Sedutto's ice cream could be purchased in store and was also available in restaurants

Seduttos foreman Danny Sanza checks on the tortoni line at the plant in August of 1983. Assembly lines were families sights in factories and plants.

Always available were an extensive line of flavored ice cream, as well as cakes, special occasion cakes and those that were available as special orders.

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Staten Island Advance | Frank J. Johns

Various types of paper and wrapping paper was manufactured at the former DeJonge Paper Co.

The DeJonge Paper Factory, an imposing industrial property located alongside the railroad and Tompkins Avenue in Rosebank, was sold to two different owners in 2004, including builders who planned to construct 63 houses on a vacant and residentially zoned portion of the site.

After trying for more than a year to market the old factory building at 330 Tompkins Ave. to one buyer, broker Gary Mayzlin of Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates in Brooklyn advised the owners to subdivide the seven-acre site, originally one tax lot with two different zonings. The building sits on a little more than an acre of industrial land, but the rear of the tax lot was zoned for residential uses.

After the property was subdivided, American Self-Storage, already a tenant, purchased the building for $5.1 million.

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Staten Island Advance | Jim Sulley

The S.S. White Dental Factory was the largest maker of dental equipment in the world.

Aerial view of the S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Co., Princes Bay. The factory started around 1860. which sat at the very end of Seguine Avenue. It closed in 1972.

The site, which stretches 1,900 feet along the Raritan Bay shoreline, housed S.S. White plant from 1865 to 1972.

In the 1890s, S.S. White was the largest employer on the Island, with 425 workers. By 1927, the horseshoe of 14 interconnected, four-story brick buildings had become the largest maker of dental equipment in the world, with 1,900 workers.

When the S.S. White plant left Staten Island's South Shore in 1972, it marked the end of an industry that had operated in the borough for more than a century.

During the 1980s it was transformed into a mall, known as the Prince's Bay Trade Mart.

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Third-Party-Submitted

Breweries took Staten Island by storm during its early days.

Commercial breweries were established on Staten Island in the 1850s with one of the first named the Constanz Brewery  established by August Schmidt in 1852.

In 1875, it became the Monroe Eckstein's Brewery and continued to operate on Manor Road opposite the current location of the Todt Hill Houses.

After the brewery closed, the Janssen Dairy occupied the site with the horse-drawn milk wagon being replaced by trucks.

However, milkmen still made their door-to-door deliveries.

Today the property is a mini mall at the intersection of Manor Road and Schmidts Lane. Although the main building is no longer present, much of the original architecture can still be seen.

Pictured: Monroe Eckstein's Brewery, Castleton Corners. (From the collecton of the New York Public Library)

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Balthasar Kreischer was a popular name in manufacturing on Staten Island

Around 1858, German immigrant, Balthasar Kreischer, discovered valuable kaolin (clay) beds on Staten Island's South Shore in an area that is known as Charleston today.

He would then purchase a great deal of land in the area and built a large factory called The New York Fire-Brick and Staten Island Clay Retort Works and homes for his employees.

Back then the factories turned out 3,500,000 fire-bricks a year.

The thriving village became known as Kreischerville.

Eventually, demand for the factory's products decreased and production was reduced in 1906.

In 1931 the land and buildings were sold at an auction and after World War II, the area became known as Charleston, the name of the local post office.

Today the factory site is home to "The Tides," a waterfront residential community.

Pictured: An etching of the Kreischer Brick Works, circa 1870. (Courtesy of the Staten Island Museum.)

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Staff-Shot

The community of Travis was once known as Lincoleumville

The community of Travis was once called "Linoleumville" because it was the site of one of our nation's first linoleum factories.



In 1873, the American Linoleum Company acquired 300 acres in the area to build the nation's first linoleum factory.



Many skilled English immigrants arrived to work in the factory, which employed 700 workers by the early 20th century, half the local population. When the plant closed in 1931 residents overwhelmingly chose to rename the community Travis, a name that was in keeping with the area's long history.



The community was also at one time known as Travisville, after Col. Jacob Travis, who resided there before the Civil War.

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Staten Island Advance | Irving Silverstein

The Atlantic Salt Company has had a heavier than usual demand for salt this season

Located along our North Shore waterfront, Atlantic Salt, which provides public safety road salt for winter de-icing to public works departments and institutions of New York City, New York State, and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, is a branch of the family-owned Eastern Salt Co. headquartered in Lowell, Mass.

The president is Shelagh Mahoney, whose father, Leo, 81, and uncles Dave and Dan founded the business in 1955. The company has steadily grown through the years.

Atlantic Salt employs more than 150 at its site during the winter, when it is most active providing salt to de-ice roads along the Eastern seaboard. It stores about 350,000 tons of salt at the New Brighton site.

Pictured: Trucks load up on salt at Atlantic Salt Inc. on Richmond Terrace in New Brighton

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Photo by Barry G. Schwartz

The Atlantic Salt Company was once called the United States Gypsum Company

Pyrobar tiles, once a product in wide use for fireproofing commercial buildings, lie in a heap at the west end of the U.S. Gypsum Company plant in New Brighton. It shut down operations on July 25, 1976 and is now the home of Atlantic Salt Company.

Have any vintage photos of Staten Island to share? Feel free to post them in the comments section, or email them to benanti@siadvance.com.

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Third-Party-Submitted

The Weissglass history on Staten Island started in 1899, when Weissglass' grandfather, Julius, moved his family to Egbertville from Manhattan.

In 1933, Julius built a bottling and pasteurization plant in Mariners Harbor, and eventually his three sons  including Charles, Weissglass' father  took over operation of the Weissglass-Gold Seal Dairy Corp.

The Island plant closed in 1975, and the business shifted to Queens. It was sold in 1979.

The Weissglass Dairy plant where milk was delivered raw and processed to be delivered door to door. (Weissglass family photo)

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For the first couples to be married in Canberra following the legalisation of same-sex marriage, it is having the chance to say their vows while surrounded by family and friends that is most important. Sally and Kara Bromley will be the first couple to wed in Canberra on Saturday at the National Carillon, in front of about 100 family and friends. The pair, from Jerrabomberra, say that they are excited and proud to be the first couple to be married in the ACT, although that wasn't their aim when they picked the date. Read Sally Whyte's story here. 'May the Phoenix rise again': Canberra rallies behind pub The Phoenix publican Netti Vonthethoff, and Shane Rattenbury MLA. Photo: Jamila Toderas Credit:Jamila Toderas

Ben Drysdale's music career began on the boards of the Phoenix pub on Canberra's East Row. He even named his band, East Row Rabble, after the "community of misfits and weirdos" that have called the popular Civic venue home for more than 25 years. On Saturday, that rabble will band together for a last-ditch music fundraiser to keep the iconic bar open after a string of financial setbacks. Last week, the bar announced it was in danger of bankruptcy, revealing details of a long-running stoush with its landlord. Read Sherryn Groch's story here.

How new technology is turning glasses into minicomputers Roy Daniell is one of the first people in the ACT to try out the OrCam MyEye. Photo: Jamila Toderas Credit:Jamila Toderas Roy Daniell was just 10 years old when he was diagnosed with rod-cone dystrophy, an eye condition that leads to gradual blindness. Now he's one of the first Canberrans to use new technology, the OrCam MyEye, that turns his glasses into a minicomputer, scanning and reading information for him. "By the time I was in year 10 at school, I couldn't read normal text and basically I've had a large blank spot in the middle of my vision ever since," Mr Daniell said.

Read about it here. ICYMI: On a mission Barry Armstead wearing the steel Iron Man suit he made in his shed at home in Canberra. Credit:Rohan Thomson While some of you might have been away during the Christmas and New Year break, I was working on this little project that was published late last year about a man named Barry Armstead and his alter ego. So in case you missed it, meet Canberra's very own Iron Man, a project that took Barry more than five years to complete.
For the first couples to be married in Canberra following the legalisation of same-sex marriage, it is having the chance to say their vows while surrounded by family and friends that is most important.

Sally and Kara Bromley will be the first couple to wed in Canberra on Saturday at the National Carillon, in front of about 100 family members and friends. The pair, from Jerrabomberra, said they were excited and proud to be the first couple to be married in the ACT, although that wasn't their aim when they picked the date.

The Bromleys will be followed by Greg Ralph and Jo Chua, who will be married in their backyard in Campbell on Sunday. Mr Ralph, a public servant, and Dr Chua, a doctor, chose the date - January 14 - as it is exactly 12 years since they held a civil union ceremony in Britain when they were living there.

Sally and Kara held a commitment ceremony in May last year, but said it was still important to them to be able to make their relationship official under Australian law.
Social media giant Facebook has launched a new product called "Today in" that aims to push local news and information to those with a profile on the platform.

Its understood this will be in addition to local news that already appears in Facebook's News Feed and on publishers' pages.

Facebook has launched a new feature called 'Today in'. Credit:Facebook

The feature is being tested initially across six US cities: New Orleans, Louisiana; Little Rock, Arkansas; Billings, Montana; Peoria, Illinois; Olympia, Washington and Binghamton, New York.

It will include community updates, group discussions and local events, along with a local news component.
Don't just take my word for that. "All these private valuations are fake ... It's all on paper, it's all a myth", Bill Gurley, a widely respected US venture capitalist, and an early backer of Facebook and Uber, famously said in 2015. Start-up valuations have also been described by Bloomberg as "fuzzy", "insane" and "kind of made up". It is difficult to succinctly explain why, but here is an attempt. Venture capital firms that back start-ups typically demand provisions to limit their downside risk.

After all, investing in start-ups is risky. Most of them (anywhere from 60 to 90 per cent, depending upon who you listen to) end up failing. Common protections VCs get when investing in start-ups include "liquidation preferences" that, in the event of a sale or float or wind-up, ensure they get paid back before anyone else; and "ratchets" that entitle them to more shares if a certain return threshold isn't achieved. So, while the sale of a small percentage of a company at a certain price may imply a big valuation, the reality is much more complicated. In any case, "unicorn" status is coveted by start-ups for a few reasons. It's a powerful tool for recruitment - the battle for talent in the tech industry is fierce. It's also a good, easy news story to tell.

Canva's raising was picked up by various outlets, here and abroad, some of which don't normally cover the field. Hey, it's three days after the fact, and I'm still writing about it here. The upshot is that many people (potential users) who hadn't heard of the service before, will have now. Well played. Achieving a high valuation from investors, though, is not without risks. It exposes a private company to the possibility of a dreaded "down round" in future. "That's definitely a risk," Blackbird Ventures partner Rick Baker, one of Canva's earliest backers, told me this week. "But it's one we were obviously willing to take."

Seven "unicorns" suffered this fate last year - you could say they had their horns ripped off. They were sold, or had to raise money, at valuations below the $US1 billion mark. At least one, Jawbone, a maker of wireless speakers and fitness trackers, went out of business. For Canva, the prospect of this would seem remote. Sure, the company is yet to turn an annual profit. In the most recent financial year, it lost $3 million, and it generated just $24 million in revenue. But a start-up losing money in the early years of its existence is not unusual.

And Canva claims it turned cashflow positive last year, and has been so for four straight months. Its revenue is said to be growing at triple-digit rates, and it's mostly recurring, something investors salivate over. Its cost of acquiring customers is said to be extremely low (it doesn't spend much on marketing, and has grown through word of mouth), as are its churn rates (the percentage of subscribers quitting). I could dive further into the weeds of the metrics used to value software companies here, but the reality is this: some very smart people are deeply psyched about the company's potential. They could be wrong. If the company continues on its current trajectory, they will be right.
Gualtiero Marchesi, who has died aged 87, was probably the most influential and revered chef in Italy; considered responsible for making its native cooking credible as haute cuisine, his was the first restaurant in Italy to be awarded three Michelin stars - though he later handed them back in a high-profile spat with the gastronomic organisation.

In 1977, Italian fine dining was moribund, rooted still in a domestic tradition which valued quantity over a quality in any case unpredictable. Marchesi's opening that year in Milan of his first restaurant was to prove perhaps the greatest catalyst to change in the national palate since Pellegrino Artusi gathered recipes from the different regions into the first truly Italian cookbook 85 years earlier.

Gualtiero Marchesi. Credit:Foto Carra

Marchesi was a cerebral rather than an instinctive chef (a word he disdained, preferring cook). His main inspiration was nouvelle cuisine. In France its aim had been to make the sauce-laden cooking lighter, and Marchesi adapted its principles to concentrate on the essence of Italian dishes. Taste was for him "a melody composed only of the necessary notes". He also insisted on seasonality, on the central importance of the freshness and proper preparation of ingredients, and on the presentation of food so that it enhanced the culinary experience.

The result, said one critic, was to "deprovincialise" Italian recipes. Within a year of opening, Marchesi had won his first Michelin star. A second followed the next year and the third in 1985.
The real story is, of course, that it is much harder for Tasmanian kids to make it in Tasmania than on the mainland. There are plenty of skilled jobs but it's a tiny state, so fewer opportunities. To hack it in Tasmania requires an unusual combination of skills  and may be why Tasmanians, more than any other Australians, are more likely to be doing multiple jobs at any one time.

That's the premise of the series, that gentle Daniel, bullied at school, is forced to move back home with his mum, Barbara, the local real estate agent, because he didn't have the skills to achieve glory in the big smoke.

But I'm in Tasmania for the first time in five years partly because of the ABC series, set in the "fictional" town of Rosehaven, where Daniel McCallum (played by Luke McGregor) has returned because he couldn't hack it on the mainland.

Rosehaven stars Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor. Credit:ABC

Pro vice-chancellor at the University of Tasmania, and the bloke in charge of community partnerships and regional development for the university, David Adams, has another name for the Lukes of Tasmania. They are the regional returnees, who've been to the mainland and overseas and now recognise there is no better place than their home state. They long to return to the hills and the rivers, to the endless sky and raspberries and scallops, to the best beer* in the world. I'm sincerely hoping that in series three of Rosehaven, Grace, Daniel and Emma will set up a bed-and-breakfast, just like the rest of Tasmania, which is bursting with tourism beyond the fabulous David Walsh and his even more fabulous Museum of Old and New Art.

Tasmanians are making their own wealth beyond MONA, but whether the tourism boom is sustainable is the question that sustains Adams, whether it can have the scope and scale required to support the state through its transition from mining and logging. Right now, it is many cottage industries, based in those cottages from the Tarkine Wilderness to the south of Bruny Island, from wildlife tours to cheese makers, from ceramics workshops to folk festivals. The industry is hugely seasonal and the impact on workers is that their jobs are being casualised rapidly. Cherry pickers in summer can become apple pickers in autumn, but it's much harder for those working directly with tourists to have jobs when summer's over and we've all returned to our work.

As Adams puts it: "The tourism industry is multiple cottage industries which are cumulatively more than the sum of its parts."

Those who are employed or engaged in the tourism industry  from bird guides to cruise operators  are acutely aware of the fragile state of the industry. Some say Tourism Tasmania doesn't support tiny operators in the way it should. Others repeatedly criticise the logging and mining industries and one in particular described what Gunns did to Tasmania as akin to rape. I'm surprised by how political my tour guides have been, but then again I'm appalled by the gouged quarries and the vast tracts of land with piles of matchstick trees. Those more closely engaged with the environment appear to be more closely engaged with the politics, but away from the natural, others are making their own niches in the boom.
John Young, who has died aged 87, was the longest-serving NASA astronaut, making two flights to the Moon and piloting the first test flight of the Space Shuttle; he also advocated making contingency plans for the partial evacuation of the Earth in the event of a threatened asteroid collision.

By the time he was due to command Apollo 16 in April 1972, the Soviet Union's Lunokhod robot was exploring the Sea of Rains and sending back thousands of pictures as well as soil analyses. Doubts were expressed as to whether the cost of a fifth American moon landing was justified, and the astronauts themselves wanted to counter such misgivings by landing in the rugged Aristarchus area near the lunar south pole.

Commander John Young (left) and Pilot Robert Crippen, take a break from their intensive training schedule to pose for pictures on the flight deck of the space shuttle Columbia at the Kennedy Space Center in 1980. Credit:AP

NASA chiefs thought this was too risky, and Young and his companions, Ken Mattingly and Charlie Duke, had to be content with aiming at the mountainous Descartes region, which geologists hoped - in vain - would prove to be volcanic.

It was just as well, for the flight was plagued with mechanical problems. On arrival, the separated command and lunar modules were ordered to keep circling the Moon while Mission Control decided whether they should make an emergency return to Earth using the lunar module as a lifeboat.
The NSW Department of Education is conducting a review of selective schools. The minister favours opening them up to local enrolments to make them more inclusive. The equity benefits of this have been highlighted but my experience suggests if it also reduces the "pressure cooker" effect of selective schools and promotes a more realistic view of ATAR results, it may be beneficial for the mental health of students.

I went to Sydney Boys High School. Only the top performers of the Selective High School Placement Test at the end of primary school have that opportunity. My memories of primary school involved a lot of private tutoring and extra-curricular homework, after school and on Saturdays. It was the norm, at least among my peer group.

However, I struggled with after-school tutoring, which taught advanced subjects often one to two years ahead of my school grade. I was top of my class in school, almost effortlessly so. But the focus from my parents and my peer group was not on my achievements at school, but where I fell short during tutoring.

I was not confident when I completed the Selective School Placement Test. When I received my results, my raw scores weren't great. But my weighted school grades and my test scores provided me with the leverage I needed to gain entry into Sydney Boys High. It felt like a miracle.
When the Australian Research Council awarded its funding plans in mid-2017, one recipient of the highly competitive seven-year grants was the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.

While building on the work of the previous Climate System Science centre, the new hub represents more than a name change.

The death of half of the Great Barrier Reef's corals during two summers  according to preliminary estimates  probably failed to interrupt barbecue banter for most Australians. Credit:AAP

The centre  grouping leading scientists from the Australian National University, Monash, Melbourne, and Tasmania universities  is the first in the world "with an unambiguous focus on the science behind climate extremes", according to its director, Professor Andy Pitman.

The Turnbull government and particularly Simon Birmingham, as the responsible minister, deserve credit for increasing the centre's capacity by 10 per cent over its predecessor  presumably against the views of a rump within the Coalition that denies climate change is a serious threat.
Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg concedes Australia's greenhouse gas pollution continued to soar last year, confirming that more than a decade of climate policy bickering has failed to curb harmful emissions.

Official data shows Australia's annual emissions have risen for the fourth year running. They were up by 0.7 per cent in the year to June 2017, to 550 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said the government's national energy guarantee, announced in October, was "the most effective way" to cut emissions. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The alarming figures come ahead of a critical few months for the Turnbull government as it seeks to convince the states and territories to sign off on its signature climate policy, the national energy guarantee  a measure that Labor says will fail to sufficiently rein in emissions.

The data, released last month, also casts serious doubt on Australia's ability to meet its international obligations under the Paris climate accord.
There is a portrait in the corner, where the one of noted racist President Jackson used to be, courtesy of the last President. It's of the late Maya Angelou, and the inscription below reads, "Oh child, you can fly like an eagle, or you can rest in the deep cave of your thoughts, but you can not do both and accomplish your Father's work." Which, yeah, seems fitting.

OK. So Winfrey has begun. "My fellow Americans, here is what I know for sure:

"I'm reaching out to you today from the seat of my soul; a place of comfort, great honour, and deep peace, to inform you that Vice President  and the sister I never had, (even though I did have a sister but she was wack)  Gayle King and I snuck into congress at 3am to pass a new bill, the result of which, I must inform you, means ... You get full coverage healthcare! And you get full coverage healthcare! And you get full-coverage healthcare!"

Hold on, there's an old lady coming into view now, she's trying to hug Winfrey, who has cut her off at the pass and is clasping her hands at a distance. OK, she's put her arm around her now.

"This, my fellow Americans, is my teacher from the third grade, Mrs Sally Pimble. Mrs Pimble  can somebody get her a tissue?  Mrs Pimble has been a teacher for 60 years, and in 2018 she lost her health care.
The article was a first-person essay under the headline "I Started the Media Men List: My Name Is Moira Donegan." Donegan, who wrote that she had graduated from college in 2013, began by explaining that she was the person who had first "collected a range of rumours and allegations of sexual misconduct, much of it violent, by men in magazines and publishing." She added, "The anonymous, crowdsourced document was a first attempt at solving what has seemed like an intractable problem: how women can protect ourselves from sexual harassment and assault." After acknowledging that the list had its pitfalls and made many people uncomfortable, she explained that she had never expected it to gain the attention of people beyond the group of women in media who were its intended audience.

But as more and more women added their own names and descriptions of inappropriate behaviour to it, the list began to circulate far and wide. It was mentioned in an article on BuzzFeed and a version was posted on Reddit. "I had imagined a document that would assemble the collective, unspoken knowledge of sexual misconduct that was shared by the women in my circles: What I got instead was a much broader reckoning with abuses of power that spanned an industry," Donegan wrote. It is likely that the Harper's article, which had yet to reach its final version Wednesday, will be revised to reflect Donegan's revealing herself as the person who created what became an important document at a time when powerful men in the media and other fields have been called out and punished not only for instances of alleged rape and sexual assault but also for modes of behaviour that seemed acceptable in workplaces just a decade ago. Hours before the publication of Donegan's story on The Cut, Roiphe said that she herself did not know the identity of the person who had started the list and added, "I would never put in the creator of the list if they didn't want to be named." Giulia Melucci, a spokeswoman for Harper's, said, "We're not going to tell the steps of the editing process." Through a spokeswoman, James Marcus, the editor of Harper's, declined to comment.

An email exchange obtained by The New York Times shows that, during the editing process, a Harper's fact checker contacted a person said to be a creator of the list and said the article identified her as someone "widely believed" to be one of the people behind it. Harper's said that the fact-checking email exchange did not mean the name was ever meant to be included in the final version. "Fact-checking is part of reporting," Melucci said. Roiphe added, "I would not have mentioned it without her approval. I want to be clear on that." Claims that Roiphe's article would identify someone behind the list appeared on social media around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, when Dayna Tortorici, the editor of n+1 magazine, tweeted that "a legacy print magazine is planning to publish a piece 'outing' the woman." Tortorici went on to encourage the publication, which she did not identify, not to publish names. "The risk of doxxing is high," Tortorici wrote, referring to the practice of online critics publishing people's personal, private information against their ideological opponents without their consent. "It's not the right thing to do."

Soon afterward, Nicole Cliffe, the founding co-editor of the now defunct feminist blog The Toast, retweeted Tortorici's post. Cliffe added, in later Twitter posts of her own, that Roiphe was writing her article for the March issue of Harper's and implored magazine writers to pull their work from the general interest monthly as a protest. She said on Twitter that she would pay the writers the amount they were owed for their articles and help shepherd them toward other publications. By Wednesday afternoon, Cliffe, who declined to comment for this article, had pledged to pay more than $19,000 to reporters who had pulled their stories from Harper's, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.. Since the first social media posts about the Harper's article appeared Tuesday afternoon, Roiphe has undergone something of a trial by Twitter, with numerous insults hurled her way. Roiphe said she was not surprised by how people were responding to her on social media. "It's a little ironic," she said, "because I do address in the piece exactly the sort of Twitter hysteria that we are seeing here."
Isn't it nice to be desired? Isn't it nice to be lovely? Feminism would have you believe otherwise, but real women know better. Real women  women who are professional leaders, with money, class, privilege, white skin, and the kind of power to demand they be paid an equal salary  know that there's nothing bad about being propositioned clumsily or rubbed up against on the Metro.

So co-signs Catherine Deneuve who, along with 99 other prominent French women whose names appear on an open letter about the #MeToo movement published in Le Monde , is just sick to the back teeth of this hysterical feminism and the bone it has to pick with men, all of whom are lovely, and passionate, and desire lovely things with a passion.

"Just like in the good old witch-hunt days, what we are once again witnessing here is puritanism in the name of a so-called greater good, claiming to promote the liberation and protection of women, only to enslave them to a status of eternal victim and reduce them to defenseless preys of male chauvinist demons."

Catherine Deneuve is one of 100 women to denounce the #MeToo movement. Credit:Shutterstock

The chief complaint of the letter's five French authors (Sarah Chiche, Catherine Millet, Catherine Robbe-Grillet, Peggy Sastre and Abnousse Shalmani) seems to be that the #MeToo movement has gone too far, and any men who have so much as glanced at a woman across the span of their whole lives are now being rounded up and locked in cages. This is, of course, one hundred per cent true and not at all a paranoid overreaction in keeping with the kind of hyperbole normally propagated by the laughably named men's rights movement.

Roughly 30 years ago, when feminists first began drafting plans to stage the world's most slow-burning collusion against men, it was decided that large scale farms would be built to imprison all of the men whose lives we would gleefully ruin. We could kill them of course, but then where would we harvest sperm for the next generation of women? Besides, we're not monsters; we just wear comfortable shoes.

Until this morning, I was a feminist. I had completed the 13 tasks necessary to be inducted into the Coven that controls all of the world's finances and governments (the real Illuminati) and was well on my way to achieving High Priestess status. But, after reading the French perspective, I've been convinced to turn my back on the movement I once recognised as life-saving. As the letter reads, "Philosopher Ruwen Ogien defended the freedom to offend as essential to artistic creation. In the same way, we defend a freedom to bother as indispensable to sexual freedom."

Firstly, what woman doesn't love having a male philosopher quoted at them as evidence that they're wrong? I'll tell you who. The same women ("feminists") who don't love being bothered on the street or in the workplace, in the home or at school. The dried up, sexless old bats (oh yes, I see their true faces now!) who would seek to criminalise a man just for trapping a female subordinate in his office and masturbating in front of her while she tries to vomit discreetly in the corner, who would actually have a man fired from his place of employment just because he sent unsolicited photographs of his penis to someone 20 years younger than him and told her all the things he'd like to do with it. Doesn't that sound nice? A little clumsy maybe, but hardly a reinforcement of structural inequality and power differentials in a volatile workplace where nobody can afford to upset the boss.
But the regime is still restricted to small public companies, while the vast majority of start-ups and family companies are private. Legislation to extend the rules to proprietary companies is before Parliament, with other bills dominating the legislative agenda in recent months.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission granted licences to seven platforms on Thursday: Big Start, Billfolda, Birchal Financial Services, Equitise, Global Funding Partners, IQX Investment Services and On-Market Bookbuilds.

Start-ups and small businesses finally have the ability to raise money from the general public in exchange for a stake in the company after the regulator approved the first batch of equity crowdfunding platforms.

"It's great to finally see Australian start-ups have the capability to raise funds in return for equity, it's been a long time coming," Ms Parker said. "There's more work to do to make sure it's as competitive as other global markets, but it's a step in the right direction."

Crowdfunding emerged about 10 years ago, with platforms such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Pozible that enable creators to raise money for a project from the public. Typically they would offer rewards, ranging from a simple "thank you" to a full-scale product.

Equity crowdfunding - or crowd-sourced equity funding as it's officially known in Australia - is a similar concept except the supporters are investors who are given a stake in the business. It has been legalised for several years in many countries overseas, including New Zealand, the United States, Britain and Italy.

On paper Australia gave retail investors access to equity crowdfunding in late September, but it's taken until now for ASIC to grant the first licences to intermediary platforms. The companies raising money through the platforms must be limited by shares with less than $25 million in assets.

The law lets eligible companies source up to $5 million a year through crowd-sourced equity funding and small investors put in as much as $10,000 a year in each company. Birchal, a sister platform to Pozible, is letting investors start with as little as $50.
The Home Affairs department has defended a decision to outsource 250 call centre jobs to international IT firm Datacom after unions trashed the move as a risk to service quality and security of personal information.

Immigration services based in Britain, Canada and Sydney will move to a Datacom hub in Adelaide in a decision Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says will reduce wait times, but the Community and Public Sector Union says the three-year contract will devastate workers and give the government less value for more money.

Peter Dutton announced the Home Affairs department's contract with Datacom on Wednesday. Credit:Andrew Meares

Home Affairs said the decision would not cause 250 job losses, and that it was working to redeploy staff.
A 67-year-old man is alive thanks to a quick response by lifeguards and paramedics after he was pulled unconscious from the water at Merewether Beach near Newcastle.

The man was found face-down in the water and pulled from the surf by lifeguards. Four ambulance crews were present.

The man was rescued from the surf at Merewether Beach. Credit:Quentin Jones

The man had gone into cardiac arrest and, after CPR was performed at the beach, he was rushed to John Hunter Hospital in a critical condition.

A spokeswoman from Hunter New England Health later said he was in a serious condition.
The southside versus northside debate will likely continue to rage on without a satisfying conclusion, but at least data can confirm the undeniable bias in Brisbane.

Census figures show people living north of Brisbane River were more likely to stay within their comfort zone rather than switch sides, and vice versa for the southsiders.

Census data confirms many Brisbane residents shy away from moving to the other side of the river. Credit:Robert Rough RNR

The Brisbane North ABS statistical area covers Eagle Farm to Brighton, Brisbane South stretches from Cannon Hill to Drewvale, Brisbane East covers Wynnum to Redland Bay and Brisbane West includes suburbs such as Indooroopilly, Moggill and Ferny Grove.

If you lived in Brisbane's northern suburbs in 2015 and moved to another house or unit, you were most likely to still be king or queen of the north in 2016.
Premier Daniel Andrews has rubbished suggestions Victorians are scared to eat out due to gang violence, saying he dined out several times during his break.



Returning to work after taking leave in the New Year, Mr Andrews said there had been some nasty criminal incidents recently but expressed confidence that Victoria Police was "turning this around".



"We can be confident they are the best police force in the nation," he said.



Mr Andrews confirmed he had spoken to Police Commissioner Graham Ashton, who had asked for a national crime database to be rolled out in Victoria.



The Premier said police would be given the resources they need.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said last week that some Victorians were scared to go out to restaurants for fear of being followed by African street gangs, angering many people in the community who accused him of whipping up hysteria.



"I think Mr Dutton's comments were designed to get a rise out of people," Mr Andrews said. "They were designed to be as controversial as possible.

"I don't know how often he spends time in Melbourne. He's always welcome to come and have dinner..."

Mr Andrews said he had referred to recent criminal activity as "gang crime".
'You should be ashamed': Meat supply stolen from Ont. food bank

People in Canada are becoming low class

Missing meat at an Ontario food bank has left volunteers worried about how they will feed more than two dozen families in need.Anne Silvey, director of the Helping Hand Food Bank in Brantford, said she returned after the holidays to find more than 18 kilograms of ground beef, three turkeys and two hams missing from the freezer.She has some strong words for those responsible.You should be ashamed of yourself because its children and underprivileged people that are going hungry because of your greed, Silvey told CTV Barrie on Wednesday.The theft means 26 local families may have to go without some of the protein they rely on the food bank to provide.They will probably feel the same way I do; sick to the stomach that anybody could be that low, Silvey said.Keys to the food bank are believed to have gone missing between Dec. 21 and Dec. 28. Police are investigating the incident.Weve got people in the community that are going to take advantage of an organization that does such fantastic work in the community, and someone has gone in and theyve kind of destroyed their efforts, said South Simcoe Police Sgt. Todd Ferrier.The Helping Hand Food Bank is hoping new donations will help replace what has been lost. The food banks website says cash and cheques are accepted in addition to food items.
An alleged barefoot armed robber has been charged by police over a service station hold-up in Melbourne's south-east that ended with a luxury car being smashed into other vehicles.

Police were called to the intersection of Elizabeth Street and the South Gippsland Highway in Cranbourne North about 1.20pm on Sunday, following reports a man wielding a handgun had robbed a convenience store and fled with an undisclosed sum of cash.

A barefoot armed robber alleged to have held up a service station in Melbourne's south-east before he smashed a luxury car into other vehicles has been charged by police. Credit:Jason South

The man allegedly left the scene in a Mercedes-Benz, which was later involved in a collision with two cars on Hallam Road.

He is then accused of dumping the damaged car on Coral Drive, Hampton Park before fleeing the scene by foot.
His children range from 11 years of age to 42, while his grandchildren are between 18 months and 18 years.

"It's probably a bit strange for them," Mr Bell said, adding that it was fortunate his kids were all "good friends".

Ian Bell and wife Vicky (centre) with his children (from left to right): Byron, Blake, Shannon, Jason, Jarrad, William, Carissa and Devin, with Chloe and Trent in front.

Ian Bell, who has five adult children from his first marriage and six children from his second, says his children and 11 grandchildren - many of whom are the same age - all get along.

Family vacations seem more like school excursions for the Bell family, who need a fleet of minivans, cars and motorbikes to transport their 22 children and grandchildren.

He, his second wife Vicky and the six children from his second marriage all live in Park Orchards, in Melbourne's east, where three-quarters of the homes have four or more bedrooms.

"We chose this area to be close to family," said Mr Bell, who has lived in the area for more than 26 years.

He and Vicky didn't plan on having such a large family but are glad that they did.

"I was a bit shocked every time she rang me to say she was pregnant," Mr Bell said. "But we love kids, so there wasn't any issue with it."



Mr Bell's family size is a rarity in Victoria - just 11,104 of the 994,557 families with children in Victoria have five or more kids, the most recent census data shows.





About 1.5 million adult women in Victoria have given birth to at least one child, while almost 800,000 were childless in 2016. The most common number of children per mother is two, although there are 81,246 women who have given birth to five or more kids.



But family sizes have been decreasing in recent years, and Victoria's fertility rate in 2016 was 1.8 babies per woman, below the replacement rate.



Anne Hollonds, director at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, said one reason there has been a decline in family sizes is due to women pushing back plans for their first child.
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson has confirmed discussions are still under way with regard to acquiring a new state-of-the-art police helicopter.

It comes as the WA Coroner handed down findings this week in the cases of six people who died in police pursuits.

The force's two current helicopters are both different models.

State Coroner Ros Fogliani recommended in her findings the Police Airwing be "allocated greater resources for the acquisition and operation" of an additional helicopter.

Ms Fogliani oversaw the inquest of the six people who died in five police pursuit crashes between 2012 and 2014.
As paramedics pulled 18-year-old Steve Mourish from a car crash wreckage, he wailed repeatedly, "I'm sorry, I've killed my brother".

The Perth teenager had moments earlier been involved in a high speed chase with police - at times reaching speeds of up to 155 kilometres an hour in a 70 kilometre zone as his friend, 16-year-old Jack Meier, sat in the passenger seat.

Jack Raymond Meier was killed in a crash in Kewdale. Credit:WA Police, Lara Wilson

Mr Mourish was high on cannabis and the Holden Commodore he was driving was stolen.

As he sped down Abernethy Road in Kewdale, he ran a red light at the intersection of Kewdale Road.
Tributes have poured in from the students, colleagues and friends of a Rockingham deputy principal who died after he went missing on a prospecting trip in WA's mid west.

Rockingham Senior High School deputy principal Justin Davies had been camping with his two sons 24 kilometres east of Cue when he failed to return to camp at 6pm on Monday.

Mr Davies was well loved in the school community. Credit:WA Police

WA Police and SES personnel searched for Mr Davies for nearly two days following his disappearance.

On Wednesday, WA Police confirmed they found the 48-year-old's body under a tree about 2.5 kilometres from his camp.
First he targeted Australia Post in Myaree at 2.30am. Covering his face and wearing gloves, he and others forced open the front doors and stole a TV, tablets and a mobile phone. Less than an hour later the group used a trolley to force entry at Liquor Shed in Jandakot, stealing $2,700 worth of alcohol and then $7000 worth of items from Cash Converters Port Kennedy. His last stop would be a house in Success, which the group broke into by cutting the security mesh off a door. Their spree came to an abrupt end, however, after the home owner awoke and chased them away. Less than a month later, seemingly undeterred, Malcolm and friends planned another crime spree using the same method  steal a car and use it days later in spree of night-time burglaries.

First they ram raided a motorcycle store then they broke into a jewellers and another Cash Converters. Malcolm was arrested and charged in October over the sprees, but claimed he was too drunk to remember details of the incidents. In December, Malcolm  in company with a 13-year-old boy, 15-year-old boy and 22-year-old man again stole a car from a Subiaco house and used it to break into a Victoria Park liquor store, Cash Converters in Osborne Park, Rebel Sport in Myaree and Cockburn Ice Arena. Police spotted the stolen car he was driving around 5am and gave chase, with Malcolm reaching speeds of up to 120 kilometres an hour, driving over a footpath and two metre high embankment to evade police before eventually jumping out the car and fleeing on foot. On Wednesday, the now 16-year-old appeared in Perth Children's Court via video link from Banksia Hill Detention Centre with a rap sheet 28 charges long.

He had already spent 35 days in custody after being arrested days after his latest spree. Magistrate Timothy Schwass heard how Malcolm had managed to stay out of trouble while living with his grandmother but had - according to the state prosecuting lawyer - suddenly "gone off the rails". His lawyer Annie O'Neill said Malcolm was likely influenced in part by his father's criminal history, with his crime spree creating a connection to his dad, who he told psychologists he was proud of. "No wonder he turned to a group of his cousins where he feels he belongs," she said. "When these young people steal property... they do tend to share it around with other people that should know better.

"There are some people out there who are not living up to their role keeping their kids in check." Magistrate Schwass heard Malcolm had "no role models". A psychological report prepared for his sentencing revealed the teenager was intelligent but when speaking about his offending he seemed proud and boastful. The prosecuting lawyer said the state supported Malcolm being given a chance to rehabilitate himself and get back on track with his education. "All of a sudden he has gone from very little contact (with police), to contact of the serious kind," she said.

"The state does not oppose his detention being served in the community." Magistrate Schwass told Malcolm his actions showed little regard for others. "You have a choice... you're intelligent, you've got a family there that will support you to get an education and whatever job you want," he said. "If you choose to live the glamorous life  as you see it  of your father ... that's where you will go (detention). "Make the most of your intelligence."
Moscow: The Kremlin dismissed a US allegation it was meddling in Mexican politics ahead of a presidential election there as unfounded.

Moscow was responding to comments made by US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in a December 15 video clip in which he said there were "initial signs" that Russia was interfering in the Mexican poll.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto talk at the G-20 summit in Hamburg in July. Credit:JOHN MACDOUGALL

McMaster did not elaborate on how Russia was seeking to influence the July ballot when Mexico is due to elect a new president to succeed Enrique Pena Nieto.

Some analysts see frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist former mayor of Mexico City, as the Kremlin's favourite given positive coverage he has received from Kremlin-backed media outlets like Sputnik and RT.
In landmark 11-hour peace talks this week, North and South Korea agreed that the North would send a team to compete in next month's Winter Olympics in PyeongChang

Lieutenant-General I.B. Chun told the Westminster-based think tank Policy Exchange that, while his heart hoped the talks would lead to peace, every indication was that "we have a long way to go".

London: The world needs to "prepare ourselves for the worst", a recently-retired South Korean general has warned, despite hopes that tensions between North and South Korea could thaw following recent talks.

Retired South Korean General I.B. Chun says the world needs to prepare for the worst with North Korea. Credit:Latika Bourke

But North Korea said it would not discuss its nuclear weapons because they were aimed only at the United States and not its "brethren" in South Korea, or Russia or China, showing that a diplomatic breakthrough to the global crisis remained far off.

Chun is also a former national security adviser to South Korea's President Moon Jae-in when he was running for office. He first gained prominence in 1983 when as a young lieutenant he was credited with saving the life of a senior general during a terrorist bombing in Burma. Later, he became one of the most senior contact points for US military commanders in South Korea.

When asked by Fairfax Media if the first talks in two years signalled any material change, Chun said his 39 years of military experience had taught him that South Korea needed to be ready because often the only proven pathway to peace is war.

"You must seek peace but at the same time prepare ourselves for the worst," he said.
PORT ST. MAARTEN:--- Silversea Cruises, another boutique cruise luxury cruise line, returns to the destination with Silver Wind on Thursday, January 11 during the evening hours and staying until January 12. Port St. Maarten Management welcomes the commitment by Silversea Cruises to the destination and welcomes its return since the September 2017 hurricanes.

Silver Wind, a small sized-ship has a passenger capacity of 296, and a crew complement of 222. The vessel received a refurbishment in 2017.

Since its inception in the early 90s, Silversea Cruises has been recognized as the gold standard in luxury cruising, acclaimed both for its legendary European lifestyle and global reach of destinations. The cruise line was the brainchild of Antonio Lefebvre dOvidio, a respected Italian jurist and maritime law professor.

His idea was to create a new class of elite vessels designed with more space for fewer guests and with the highest levels of personalized service. Lefebvres maritime background led to his involvement in shipping and eventually the cruise industry.

Today, Silversea Cruises owns and operates eight luxury cruise ships from 100 to 540 guests, along with a global portfolio of itineraries to all seven continents and over 900 destinations worldwide. The cruise lines headquarters are based in Monaco, and the company maintains branch offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia.

With the debut of luxury cruise ship Silver Explorer in 2008, Silversea introduced expedition cruising  Silversea style, adding yet another unique niche in the luxury cruise market. Now more intrepid travelers could experience adventurous voyages to the most remote regions of the planet while enjoying Silverseas brand of signature distinctions, including ocean-view suites, a superb culinary experience, and an incomparable level of service with a crew to guest ratio of nearly one to one.

Along with both polar extremes, Silverseas three expedition ships sail to the islands of Oceania, Southeast Asia, the Russian Far East, Australias remote Kimberley Coast, Central and South America (including the Galapagos Islands), and the exotic western coast of Africa.

Port St. Maarten Press Release
A single LEGO brick may not seem that impressive, but when thousands of the colorful bricks are meticulously placed together, works of art can be formed.

Thats exactly what renowned contemporary artist Nathan Sawaya has done, and his LEGO creations are featured in The Art of the Brick.

Sawayas global touring exhibition is currently on display at The Capitol District, 225 N. 12th St. (corner of N. 12th and Capitol Avenue) in downtown Omaha. The Art of the Brick will remain on display through Feb. 19.

Art of the Brick is said to be the largest display of LEGO art ever to come to Nebraska. The collection features more than 85 creations, including notable original pieces as well as re-imagined versions of some of the worlds most famous art masterpieces such as Van Goghs Starry Night and Da Vincis Moa Lisa.

The exhibition also features an innovative multimedia collection of LEGO-infused, hyper-realistic photography produced in collaboration with award-winning artist Dean West.

Sawaya was previously a New York City corporate lawyer. His creations, constructed from countless individual LEGO pieces, were built from standard bricks beginning as early as 2002.

Hours of The Art of the Brick are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The last tickets are sold one hour prior to closing.

Admission is $15.50 for adults, $10.50 for children ages 3-12 and $14.50 for seniors, military and students. Family four packs are $42 (must include two childrens tickets).

A sample of the creations visitors can see at the exhibition are:

Crayons: The display of giant crayons features 4,449 pieces.

Dinosaur Skeleton: This large dinosaur creation is made up of 80,020 pieces. This is one of the largest sculptures I have ever made. It took an entire summer to build and nearly drove me crazy trying to make it work, Sawaya said.

Pencil Fun: Many times larger than an actual pencil, Pencil Fun was created using 9,800 bricks and stands 6-feet tall.

Pop-Up Book: A castle stands tall in this piece which features 19,822 bricks.

My Boy: This blue and grey sculpture was created with 22,590 bricks. My boy is based on a sad story that my parents told me, Sawaya said in the piece description. After telling me, I began to work immediately on this sculpture, which I completed almost two months later.

Green Torso: The human shape was created with 8,905 bricks. I never tire of creating human shapes out of the squared edges of LEGO bricks, Sawaya said. I can get the shapes just right, the curve of an arm, the hunch of the shoulders. But the bricks break up the lines beautifully, pixelating the form, and giving it an extra dimension.

Yellow: The 11,014-piece creation is probably my best-known piece, Sawaya said.

Trapped: This creation is made of 23,678 pieces. There was nothing wrong with being a lawyer, but I always knew there was another me, an Artist Me, lurking inside. Then one day I decided to let the Artist in me out, and I never looked back, Sawaya said.

Starry Night: The LEGO brick replica of this famous painting by Vincent Van Gogh was created using 3,493 pieces and is a 1:1 scale.

Mask Construction: This creation is made up of 19,145 pieces. Here I wanted to show the viewer a more in-depth look at the building process, step-by-step, Sawaya said.

Skulls: The four skulls, which feature 12,444 pieces, took over three weeks to complete.
Fremont Police is asking for the public's help in regard to locating a man who was reported missing Wednesday.

At approximately 1 p.m., FPD received a report of a missing person.

Eugene M. Deane, 59, of Fremont was last seen at his home Tuesday, Fremont Police reported. Deane is described as being 5-foot, 4-inches tall and weighing approximately 170 pounds; having brown hair and brown eyes.

Police said it's believed that Deane is driving a red 1999 Ford Ranger pickup with Nebraska commercial license plates 5-6090A.

At this time, police say that foul play is not suspected and anybody with information regarding the whereabouts of this individual is being asked to contact the FPD at 402-727-2677.
(University Health System) Sutherland Springs shooting victim Ryland Ward takes his ride home in a firetruck after his release from the hospital, Jan. 11, 2018.(SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas) -- A little boy who was shot in the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church massacre arrived home Thursday -- riding through town on a firetruck -- after more than two months in the hospital.



On Nov. 5, a gunman stormed the rural First Baptist Church, leaving 26 dead, according to police, who have included an unborn child in the death count. The attack was deemed the worst mass shooting in Texas history.



Among the injured was now-6-year-old Ryland Ward, who was shot several times.



Volunteer firefighter Rusty Duncan was a first responder that day, and he told ABC News he was the one who found Ryland and pulled him to safety.



Once he rushed inside the church, he went through the aisles and "started checking for people's pulses," Duncan said. "That's where Ryland's hand reached out from under his stepmom and grabbed my pant leg. I rolled her over and grabbed him and started running outside with him."



"As soon as we got him outside, his dad [Chris Ward] ran up to me and said, 'They killed my baby.' "And I told his dad, 'No, he's not dead, he's still alive,'" Duncan said. "Unfortunately his wife and two girls were actually gone."



Chris Ward's wife and Ryland's stepmother, Joann Lookingbill Ward, was among the dead, as well as Joann Lookingbill Ward's daughters, Brooke Bryanne Ward, 5, and Emily Garcia, 7.



Ryland was rushed to the hospital and soon the young boy's mother reached out to Duncan, the firefighter said.



"I met with her and talked to her then I was actually able to go to the hospital and see him for the first time," about a week after the shooting, Duncan said.



"He was heavily sedated," Duncan said, going through "surgery after surgery."



Duncan said he continued to visit the little boy at the hospital, including this week.



"He's doing great," Duncan said. "He walked for me for the first time. Of course with my help, but he walked."



Ryland's grandmother, Sandy Ward, told ABC News that Ryland is trying to walk but keeps dragging his left foot and he also has limited use of his hip.



"He's a character," Duncan said. "This little boy has the best fighting spirit I've ever seen out of anybody in my entire life. He's kept me going this whole time. Even when I was giving up ... just thinking about him and being around him makes me smile."



According to University Hospital, Ryland was the facility's final patient from the Sutherland Springs shooting.



"It's just a miracle he survived and is doing as well as he is," Sandy Ward said on Wednesday. "We're just excited to get him to come home."



On Thursday, Ryland was discharged from the hospital and was treated with a special ride home in a firetruck.



Sutherland Springs community members gathered in wait, holding signs including "Welcome home handsome" and "Yay buddy."



"Welcome home!" they screamed as the police escort -- and finally the firetruck carrying Ryland -- arrived in town.



"Just happy the Lord brought him home and he's doing good," one emotional Sutherland Springs resident told ABC San Antonio affiliate KSAT. "Total joy. This is our town, this is our family."



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
A revised gubernatorial tax reduction plan focusing increased attention on property tax relief was tossed into the legislative ring Wednesday, prompting more sparring than slugging from some state senators who reacted warily to the evolving proposal.

Although the revised plan is more likely than not to attract majority support in the Legislature, it faces a struggle to gain final enactment.

Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, chairman of the Legislatures Revenue Committee, described the proposal as a work in progress, which he will attempt to guide to enactment along a clear, but very narrow, path to success that will require 33 votes.

Thats the number required to break a filibuster in the 49-member Legislature.

Were going to have some nips and tucks along the way, Smith said, but it will be recognizable at the end.

The plan seeks to provide increased property tax reduction by restructuring the states current property tax credit fund into a new, refundable income tax credit available only to owner-occupied households in Nebraska and agricultural landowners who live in the state.

Those property owners would receive a credit on their state income taxes equal to 10 percent of the tax bill on their home or farm. The credit for homeowners would be capped at $230.

Additional property tax relief would be pumped into the program in the future any years when state revenue exceeds revenue forecasts.

Personal and corporate income tax rates would also be reduced under the new tax proposal:

The top personal rate  paid on income of more than $29,830 for single taxpayers and $59,660 for couples  would drop from 6.84 percent to 6.75 percent in 2019, then to 6.69 percent in 2020.

And the top corporate rate  paid on income of more than $100,000  would drop from 7.81 percent to 6.75 percent in 2019, then to 6.69 percent in 2020.

The proposal will replace the governors previous tax plan (LB461) that was trapped by a filibuster last year.

Its time to pull agriculture and nonagriculture interests together for the common good, Smith said during an interview.

We have to find a path to unite their interests and make Nebraska more attractive for business to want to expand in the state.

The new bill would provide greater certainty for property tax relief, Smith said.

Property tax relief grows as the economy grows, he said.

Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, sponsor of a competing proposal (LB829) that would provide $1.1 billion in property tax relief through state income tax credits and refunds equal to 50 percent of local school property taxes paid, deferred reaction to the governors new plan until hes had an opportunity to study it more.

I havent seen the bill, he said. Ill look at it.

The Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation, an influential player in the property tax arena, said it was encouraged by the governors increased emphasis on property tax relief, but still open to an initiative proposal that would be submitted to Nebraska voters on the November general election ballot if the Legislature does not enact Erdmans bill.

We will keep all options on the table for our members, including a ballot measure that would give Nebraskans the opportunity to vote and demonstrate their desire for property tax relief, Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson said.

Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha said hed like to see the Legislature also consider some opportunities to increase revenue without hiking tax rates as it struggles with a revenue shortfall.

One way would be to collect state sales taxes already owed by Nebraskans for purchases on the internet, he said.

Krist, a former Republican who will be a third-party candidate for governor in November challenging the Republican governors re-election, said the Ricketts administration has not moved to try to collect that revenue at a time when state government is experiencing fiscal distress.

In addition, Krist said, the Legislature should be open to elimination of some sales tax exemptions and give-away programs to meet the states fundamental budget needs.

Sen. Burke Harr of Omaha, a member of the Revenue Committee, said he was pleased to see Ricketts appear to be much more conciliatory and less partisan in his State of the State address to the Legislature.

I think the tax plan is introductory, he said. I believe hes willing to work more on common ground. He realizes there have to be compromises.

Harr, a Democrat in the nonpartisan Legislature, enthusiastically agreed with the governors stated priority of workforce development as one of his 2018 legislative initiatives.

Ricketts included a proposal for an additional $10 million in workforce development funding over the next two years as part of his State of the State address.

During a briefing with news media Tuesday night previewing his speech, Ricketts said he expects the revenue trigger built into his tax bill could result in increased property tax relief six out of 10 years.

Ricketts said we are still talking with supporters of the alternative billion-dollar property tax relief proposal to seek agreement.

Maybe were not there yet, he said, but if we can come to agreement with agriculture, they might not see a need for the initiative.

Smith said he will schedule a series of meetings to focus on strategy and develop working coalitions to prepare the ground for consideration of the revised tax plan later this session.
Baltimore MD (SPX) Jan 10, 2018





How far away is that galaxy? Our entire understanding of the universe is based on knowing the distances to other galaxies, yet this seemingly-simple question turns out to be fiendishly difficult to ... more

Johannesburg, South Africa (SPX) Jan 10, 2018





In 2013, researchers announced that a pebble found in south-west Egypt, was definitely not from Earth. By 2015, other research teams had announced that the 'Hypatia' stone was not part of any known ... more

La Jolla, CA (SPX) Jan 09, 2018





Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a fascinating new theory for how life on Earth may have begun. Their experiments, described in the journal Nature Communication ... more

St Andrews UK (SPX) Jan 09, 2018





Finding past or present microbial life on Mars would without doubt be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. And in just two years' time, there's a big opportunity to do so, with tw ... more

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 09, 2018





Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is positioned upstream of a fork in the flow channels. Over the holiday ... more

Las Vegas (AFP) Jan 8, 2018





After a rollercoaster year for the tech world, many industry leaders are looking to the cutting edge for salvation. ... more

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jan 09, 2018


A partnership with Keene Memorial Library and the Nebraska Department of Labor Office is benefiting those who are unemployed, underemployed or seeking additional information about what jobs are available in the greater Fremont area.

The partnership was established as a result of the Workforce Development Office closing in Fremont, said Elisa Cruz, circulation manager at Keene Memorial Library. During summer 2017, Tom Prescott, workforce coordinator for the Nebraska Department of Labor, reached out to Cruz with the idea of hosting job force assistance in Fremont.

Tom got a hold of us during the summer, and at the time we were super busy with summer reading, but he told us that he was interested in starting a program here in Fremont, Cruz said during a Thursday interview with the Tribune. After summer reading was done we were able to make it work with scheduling, and it started in August.

Every other Wednesday  the next session is Jan. 17  Prescott meets with area residents in Keene Memorial Librarys East Building and discusses various aspects of entering and keeping a job in the workplace.

Sessions are available in both English and Spanish and run from 11 a.m. through 3 p.m. Sessions are free of charged and on a walk-in basis. Anybody with questions regarding job force assistance is encouraged to contact Cruz at 402-727-4002, or by emailing her at elisa.cruz@fremontne.gov.

He (Prescott) is certified and trained to help people find jobs, she said. He teaches people how to build resumes, how to fill out job applications online, lets them know who is hiring locally and all that sort of stuff.

Cruz said that at first it was a bit difficult getting people through the doors of the East Building, 1030 N. Broad St., but once more information started circulating about the provided service more interested residents started attending.

Its been a really good thing  just so helpful, Cruz said. We used to have an office here and it closed, and then people in Fremont who are unemployed and dont have much money werent able to get to Omaha to receive help.

  This has been a really good service because we dont have enough staff to sit down with people and help them with these types of things, and so for Tom to come to our library and provide this to our community and to our patrons on our behalf is magnificent.
Its no secret that flu season is in full swing, and with flu activity currently occurring across the state, area residents are being reminded to get flu shots and to practice good hygiene to avoid contracting the influenza virus.

According to the Three Rivers Public Health Department, flu activity is currently occurring at a widespread level across the state of Nebraska. So far this flu season there have been 62 laboratory confirmed influenza cases in the district counties of Dodge, Saunders, and Washington.

In the past week and a half or two weeks the number of cases has increased tremendously, so we are what is considered widespread at a state level, Terra Uhing, executive director of Three Rivers Public Health Department, said. It is higher than it was last year at this time.

Three Rivers also does weekly surveillance with long term care facilities, hospitals, and schools for influenza like illnesses to track the flu activity level in the district. According to the department, there has been one reported outbreak at a long-term care facility in the district.

Of the 62 laboratory confirmed influenza cases in the district, 53 were confirmed to be influenza A (H3N2), and 9 were influenza B.In the past H3N2-predominant seasons have been associated with greater severity, especially among young children and adults.

The main one they are seeing is the H3N2 strain and that strain is known to make people pretty sick, Uhing said. So a lot of people wonder if they should still go get a flu shot, and that is still the number one best way to protect themselves from getting the flu.

Those at high risk for flu related complications are people 65 years or older, people with chronic medical conditions, pregnant women, and young children.

When you are getting flu shots another key aspect to remember is that it is not just for you and your family it is for those that are a high risk of complications so that would be pregnant women, those young children who cannot get the flu shot, and more importantly those with immune compromised systems, Uhing said. So at the end of the day all of those factors go into trying to keep our communities healthy.

Those who havent received a flu shot this season are encouraged to contact their local healthcare provider to check for availability. Three Rivers still has a plentiful supply of vaccine; those interested are asked to contact them at (402) 727-5396.

We have flu shots, some of the pharmacies have flu shots as well as medical providers, but it is not necessarily about where they go to get their flu shot, just as long as they go and get a flu shot, Uhing said.

According to Uhing, those who are currently experiences flu symptoms, especially a fever, should avoid getting the flu shot but even those who already had the flu and are no longer showing symptoms should still get the shot.

Because of the flu we have going on right now, even if they think they have had influenza and if they are not running a temperature and showing symptoms I would still go ahead and get the flu shot, she said. Who knows how many times we are going to see influenza this year and especially with what we are seeing right now, there is a lot of illness out there. It has peaked quite a bit before when it typically peaks so that makes me wonder if we are not going to see an extended flu season.

Along with receiving a flu shot, good health habits and simple hygiene practices can go a long way toward preventing the flu and other illnesses such as the common cold.
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"I swear to God that I didn't push anyone into the water. I could have died myself," said Mohamed K., from Mali.

"What they are saying is simply not true. Even my own cousin is dead," said Baptiste N., from the Ivory Coast.

"It wasn't me. The rubber raft had lost air in the front, and the people who were sitting there fell into the water at some point," said Kaba S., from the Ivory Coast.

Essentially, their version is: Yes, it was like a battle, but it was a battle over safe places to sit, not a battle over religion. The boat had sprung a leak and there wasn't enough space - and people fell overboard. According to this version of the story, it was simply an ordinary refugee drama, nothing less, but also nothing more.

But after the hearings, the examining magistrates concluded that the statements by the witnesses were convincing and largely consistent with one another. "Every victim was attacked and beaten before being thrown overboard," reads the report from the evidentiary hearing. There was "no acute threat to life." There was "a single motive" behind the "multiple premeditated killings," namely "hatred of people who practice a different religion."

The description of the alleged murderers sounds merciless. The "large number of victims" and the fact that they "cold-bloodedly looked on as people drowned" suggested a "contempt for human life and the total inability to control their own impulses." The defendants are described as people with a "compulsive urge to commit violent crimes." According to the report, the accused posed a considerable flight risk, and there was an acute possibility that they would commit the same crimes again.

Unambiguous statements. But are they fair?

People who work with refugees, including aid workers, activists and members of the clergy, question these assessments. They believe that the notion of "jihad in a rubber raft" is a dangerous and misguided theory. Conflicts among refugees are relatively common, they say, and sometimes the conflicts are about religion, but refugees tend to stick together in the boats.

'In a Bad Way'

After months of investigations, the results of which filled hundreds of pages of court files, the trial in criminal case 7209/2015 began in February 2016 and ultimately lasted more than a year. Day after day, the defendants sat in their cages, listening to the words of their 11 attorneys. Throughout the trial, it appeared that they did not fully grasp that they could face the ultimate punishment: life in prison. A bitter irony for these young Africans, who had believed that they were fleeing to freedom.

Their lead defense attorney, Giuseppe Brancato, 40, regularly visited the 15 defendants in prison. He brought them clothes and comforted them, but that was all he could do. "They're in a bad way," said the lawyer, adding that he was afraid they might hurt themselves.

Brancato, with a narrow face, soft features and nervous hands, is an up-and-coming attorney. He wasn't eager to take on the case, and he cursed it many on several occasions. To him, he says, it felt like a war crimes tribunal.

But why the trial? Because, as the attorney puts it, lawyers and politicians in Rome and Palermo wanted to add "fuel to the fire" with this case. Were there Islamists on board the rubber raft? He doesn't believe there were. His clients, he said, were ordinary men, not fanatics.

To prepare for his closing argument, Brancato watched the film "Life of Pi." Supposing that people actually did drown, isn't it possible, he asked, that the witnesses had only seen the violence in their fantasies, in order to help cope with their experiences? In other words, isn't it easier, even more human, to believe in the version involving God, with men killing in the name of God, than in the version in which there is no God, in which people turn into beasts to stay alive?

There is probably no place more godless than a sinking ship on the high seas. And one God is supposed to have been responsible for that - even two? "I find that hard to believe," the attorney said with a hint of a smile.

While a rescue ship was unloading yet another thousand refugees in the harbor, Brancato delivered his closing argument. In his fiery but polished speech, he described the dramatic hours on the high seas. He took apart the method the police officers used to identify the presumed perpetrators, by showing the exhausted passengers the same group of photos again and again. He dissected the approach taken by the investigative judges, who applied pressure and kept asking the same amateurish questions: "Who did you see? When exactly was that? Do you believe in Allah?"

Not a Crime?

The attorney described two worlds that had collided, two languages, English and French, and two cultures that were foreign to one another.

Brancato also asked questions: What does it mean that one of the victims is a Muslim and one of the defendants is a Christian? Doesn't this torpedo the theory of a religious war? And why did all the crimes take place after dark? The attorney argued that it was self-defense. It was certainly true that terrible things had happened on board, he said, but there was absolutely no proof of any premeditated killings or of "jihad in a rubber raft." The passengers were exhausted, and everyone had tried to save himself. As terrible as this may have been, it was not a crime.

In eight cases, the court complied with the defense's request, granting an acquittal. Since then, the eight men who walked to Palermo during the night have been hiding in a refugee hostel run by monks. In order to obtain a temporary residence permit, they would have to go to the police station in Palermo, but they are afraid to do so, says Brancato.

Seven defendants, however, will remain in prison after being sentenced to 18 years for manslaughter. Witnesses had seen them giving orders in the boat, biting and beating people, and pushing them into the water. They have been held at the high-security prison in Palermo for two-and-a-half years, and they are becoming increasingly desperate. Since it became clear that the case would be appealed at the beginning of this year, and that the public prosecutor's office might request an increase of the sentence to life imprisonment, Brancato has been receiving handwritten letters of entreaty almost daily.

"I can't sleep anymore. I am beside myself with fear," one of the convicted men writes. "Please don't let us down!"

"I didn't throw anyone overboard," another one writes. "I am, as you know, Avvocato, not a bad person, but merely a castaway searching for a little happiness in Italy."

Three of the six witnesses still live in Corleone in rooms behind closed curtains, and they too seem imprisoned. They are under enormous pressure. They say that God did not save them for nothing. "He expects us to do something with our lives." They believe last spring's verdict was too lenient. "Your justice system is so complicated," one of them says. "I had expected more justice. I am disappointed."

Criminal case 7209/2015 is one that can be turned over again and again. But it cannot be solved. And it is a case where there are no winners, only losers.
This is a trailer for Deep State.









It is Fox Networks Group's first regional scripted commission for Europe and Africa and is expected to air in more than 50 countries on Fox. The eight episode series stars Mark Strong, Alistair Petrie (Genius, The Night Manager), Anastasia Griffith (Royal Pains, Damages), Amelia Bullmore (Happy Valley), Kingsley Ben-Adir (King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword), Pip Torrens (The Crown) and Fares Fares (Tyrant), Karima McAdams, Joe Dempsie and Lyne Renee.





Jeff Ford, SVP, Content Development and Sara Johnson, VP, Scripted Drama, Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa said:





Were thrilled to welcome Deep State to our schedules. As FNGs first regionally scripted commission, Deep State is built on our Hollywood heritage and were so proud of what weve created alongside the talented team at Endor Productions. We cant wait for audiences to experience the show and only hope they love it as much as we do.





Executive Producer Hilary Bevan Jones added:





Deep State is an exhilarating and emotional thriller underscored by an intensely topical and relevant subject matter and were excited to unveil the first trailer and new images in anticipation of the series launch in the spring. I couldnt be more excited to share Deep State with Foxs viewers in the UK. Check out the video below to see what made the list.





It will begin airing on April 5th. Check out the synopsis and trailer below.





"Set in Britain, the U.S., Iran, Lebanon and France, the story centers on the merciless reality of the spy world in which an increasingly rare conscience can get you, and the ones you love, killed."
Algiers, Jan 11, 2018 (SPS) - The National Algerian Committee of Solidarity with the Sahrawi People (CNASPS) hailed Wednesday, with great satisfaction, the conclusions of the Advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Wathelet, who said that the fisheries agreement concluded between the European Union and Morocco is invalid, said the Committee in a communique.

The CNASPS hailed this new and resounding victory of the Sahrawi people whose legitimate demands are recognized and reaffirmed, for the second time in a year, by the highest legal authority of the European Union which, without appeal, declares the illegitimacy of this situation, restores Sahrawis in their sovereignty on their wealth, in their inalienable right to dignity, freedom and independence, and which recognizes Sahrawi peoples right to self-determination, stating the Moroccan occupation and the confirmed violation of international law.

The CNASPS and all the support committees of the International Movement of Solidarity with the Sahrawi people remain vigilant with the effective, concrete and fast implementation of the CJEUs decision, by delaying the stalling tactics and the shaky compromises that aim for the non-implementation of these decisions, and which do not honour their authors of accomplice countries, unworthy of the European space, matrix of the respect for the law, the practice of democracy and the constant promotion of human rights, added the statement.

For Advocate General Wathelet, the EU-Morocco a fisheries agreement is invalid because it applies to Western Sahara and its adjacent waters: by concluding this agreement, the European Union violated its obligation to respect the Sahrawi peoples right to self-determination and not to recognize an illegal situation resulting from breach of that right and has not put in place the safeguard necessary to ensure that the exploitation of the natural resources of Western Sahara is for the benefit of the people of that territory.SPS

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Chahed El-Hafed (Sahrawi refugee camps) Jan 11, 2018 (SPS)- President of Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and Secretary General of Frente POLISARIO, Brahim Gali, on Wednesday called on the European Union (EU) to abide by the ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on EU-Morocco fisheries agreement, signed in 2014, and declared "invalid" by the ECJ Prosecuting Attorney Melchior Wathelet.

In his closing address at the annual conference of Sahrawi diplomatic corps, President Gali underlined the various successes achieved by the Sahrawi cause in the judicial and legal fields, especially on the European scene.

In this regard, he called on the EU member states to abide by the ECJ ruling.

On 21 December 2016, the ECJ ruled that no trade or association agreement with Morocco could be applied to the territory of Western Sahara, since Western Sahara is not part of the kingdom of Morocco.

Gali denounced the plundering of the natural resources of Western Sahara by Morocco, and urged the EU "to assume its legal and moral responsibilities for a just, democratic and lasting solution to the conflict by abiding to the ECJ ruling," said the Sahrawi news agency (SPS), quoting the Sahrawi president.

He also urged the European Commission to stop unjustified attempts to ignore the ruling, especially regarding the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement, which should not include the territorial waters of Western Sahara, he insisted.

"Western Sahara and Morocco are two separate countries, thus, including Sahrawi waters in the trade agreement constitutes a blatant violation of the ECJ ruling, European law and international law," he added.

Gali hailed "Sahrawi people's resistance and struggle in the occupied territories for independence despite the repression and blockade."

"This peaceful resistance and the issues of human rights and natural resources are at the centre of the Sahrawi diplomatic action to defend Sahrawi cause and expose Morocco's violations," he stressed.SPS

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President Donald Trump expressed frustration behind closed doors with people coming to the US from "shithole countries," The Washington Post reported Thursday.

"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to the Post, which cited two people briefed on the Thursday Oval Office meeting with lawmakers.

When lawmakers in the meeting floated restoring Temporary Protected Status for some immigrants, Trump grew frustrated and shocked the lawmakers with his "shithole" comment in reference to African countries and Haiti, according to the Post.

Trump then suggested the US should bring in more people from countries like Norway, the report said.

A person briefed on the meeting told CNN that Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin was running through a proposal listing countries that would be covered by TPS protections in exchange for ending the visa lottery. The person said when Durbin got to Haiti, Trump began to ask why we want people from Haiti in the US and asked why we want more Africans.

The President then said, according to this person, why do we want all these people from "shithole countries" coming here -- and added that the US should get more people from countries like Norway.

Reached for comment about the article, White House spokesperson Raj Shah did not deny the "shithole" remark, but instead said in a statement that Trump "is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation."

The source told CNN that White House adviser Stephen Miller was at the meeting, and White House chief of staff John Kelly attended part but probably not all of the meeting.

The Trump administration late last year announced it would end the TPS designation for Haiti, a move that could affect tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants. Likewise, the Department of Homeland Security on Monday announced it would end protections more than 200,000 Salvadorans, and on Thursday the White House rejected a bipartisan immigration proposal, including a fix for people protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Geekologie has shut down.

Thank you to everybody.

Now go be happy.
INDEPENDENCE | Attorneys for reality TV star Chris Soules have renewed their push to drop leaving-the-scene charges in connection with an April crash that killed an Aurora farmer.

Last week, Judge Andrea Dryer threw out a motion to dismiss the charge, a felony that carries up to five years in prison upon conviction, leaving the case on the docket headed toward trial.

On Wednesday, defense attorney Gina Messamer filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider the ruling.

In the motion, the defense argued that Iowas hit-and-run law is ambiguous and said the court should follow a due process standard by resolving the ambiguity in favor of the defendant.

The court acknowledged that the first sentence of Iowa Code 321.263(2) cannot be interpreted to require all surviving drivers involved in a fatal accident to remain at the scene endlessly, because that is unreasonable, Messamer wrote. In other words, the court recognized that the plain language of Iowa Code 321.263(2) (is) ambiguous.

The defense has argued that Soules, 36, shouldnt be charged because he called 911 from the scene, identified himself to dispatchers and attempted to aid farmer Kenneth Mosher, 66, until medics arrived.

Prosecutors said Soules left before law enforcement showed up and then refused to exit his rural Arlington home until authorities had obtained a search warrant.

The crash happened on April 24 on Slater Avenue north of Aurora. Authorities said Soules was traveling south and rear ended Moshers tractor.

Trial in the matter had been scheduled for Jan. 18, but the date has been postponed, and attorneys for both sides will meet on Jan. 29 to determine a new date. Dryer said in court records the trial will begin before May 7.
DES MOINES | Sen. Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said Wednesday she hopes to have a bill moving in committee next week that sets the level of state aid to schools for fiscal 2019. Gov. Kim Reynolds made a budget proposal this week that sought an extra $54 million, or 1.5 percent, for K-12 school districts.

The governors plan also sought to give schools more flexibility to use as they see fit another $35 million in categorical funding that are earmarked for reducing class sizes. Sinclair said the education funding decision will be made in the sessions first 30 days but the money is dependent on legislative action to first deal with a projected $34.7 million shortfall in the current budget year that ends June 30.

Rep. Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls, chairman of the House Education Committee, said he does not sense support for the governors proposal to move back the timetable for paying back $111 million borrowed from reserves to balance last years budget, which would mean paying the final $55 million installment in fiscal 2020.

I think there are a lot of people in this body who would like to pay back those dollars quicker so we might not have the available dollars to get to the $54 million, he said. I think it will be tough to get to that number but we shall see.

Rep. Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said it would be premature to say that anything has been finalized but House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, during a taping of Iowa Public Televisions Iowa Press show, said it would be the goal of House Republicans to fund the governors education proposals.

I think were sure going to find a way to do that, absolutely, the Upmeyer said.

IOWA FUEL PRICES RISE: The price of retail fuel in Iowa rose four cents this week to $2.45 per gallon, according to survey data issued Wednesday by the state Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Retail diesel prices in Iowa rose two cents to $2.89 per gallon.

According to AAA, Iowas price for unleaded gasoline was nine cents a gallon higher than one year ago but was lower than the national average on Tuesday of $2.49 per gallon. Retail diesel prices in Iowa one year ago averaged $2.50. The current average diesel price nationally is $2.91 per gallon.

Turning to heating fuels, propane prices are a penny higher than last weeks price for a statewide average of $1.50 per gallon. Home heating oil prices rose two cents from last weeks figures, ending with a statewide average of $2.43, while natural gas prices fell 11 cents and ended the week at $2.90/MMbtu.

MASTER MATRIX: Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement on Wednesday called upon county boards of supervisors to re-adopt the Construction Evaluation Resolution by Jan. 31 in order to use the state Department of Revenues Master Matrix for 2018.

CCI officials say the Master Matrix is one of the few ways counties and citizens can weigh in on the construction of large-scale commercial animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in their communities. Supervisors are required to re-adopt the Master Matrix every single year, otherwise they will be unable to recommend siting denial of CAFOs that may raise objections within their county.

As of Jan. 9, 29 counties had passed it, according to DNR records. Sen. David Johnson, an Ocheyedan independent, has filed a bill this session (Senate File 2009) that would establish a master matrix advisory committee to evaluate the use and value of the DNRs master matrix and the process of evaluating and approving or disapproving applications to establish or expand large-scale confinement feeding operations for livestock.
Clyde Baird, who graduated from high school in Broadwater in 1962, was working at Johnson Cashway in Gering when he got a letter from the President of the United States.

I got a draft notice, he said. My oldest brother had been in the Marines. I called the Marine recruiter and asked how long I had to sign up for to join the Marines. I was told three years. I said, Well, I will just to go the Army for two years. I ended up in the Marine Corps anyway.

Baird is unsure how he was assigned to the Marines.

I have no idea how they decided that, he said. There were six of us from this area that ended up in the Marines. We all went through basic training together. One of them ended up in the same place in Vietnam, but we got separated there.

Baird described his duty stations.

When I was in Vietnam, it was at the Chulai Depot, he said. The Navy had a big dock there. They would bring supplies in by ship, and we would haul it into the camps and air strips. I hauled a lot of defoliant to the air strips. Today it is known as Agent Orange. I also hauled food, c-rations, concertina wire, bombs, ammunition  anything and everything that was necessary. I was in Vietnam for 13 months.

After Vietnam, Baird went to Barstol, California.

I was an MP (military police) there, he said. I was an MP part of the time in Vietnam. When we werent hauling supplies in convoys, we worked as MPs in the villages. It was an experience. We did not work 8 to 5, 9 to 12 or whatever. When a ship came in, we hauled supplies until it was empty. When hauled to the airstrip, you would lay down in the seat of the truck and sleep until they could get you unloaded. Then you would drive back for another load. You would haul until you were done.

Baird participated on one large operation.

I think it was called Operation Colorado, he said. It was one major convoy. We went from Chulai to the DMZ. I had a truck load of concertina wire. We hauled a lot of different supplies. It took us about a week to get there and back. The roads were not like the interstate. Pretty near all of them that we drove on were dirt. There were a lot of ruts and holes in them.

Baird described the truck that he drove.

I drove an M-36, which is like the deuce and a half, but it had a 6-foot longer box on it, he said. It rode a whole lot better, and I could haul twice as much with it.

Life in Vietnam was not without hazards for Baird.

I ran over a landmine. It blew the back end out of the truck, he said. I got a few scrapes, bruises, and bumps, but that is all. It destroyed the truck. I hit the landmine with the rear duels. It was a big surprise. I wasnt expecting it after 10 to 20 trucks had already gone through. If I had been the first one in line, I wouldnt have thought so much about it. It was on the side of the road.

Bairds unit suffered losses in Vietnam.

There was one kid in our outfit that covered a grenade thrown by the enemy with his helmet and fell on it. It killed him. He gave his life to save 20 others, he said. All he got was a purple heart. Nowadays he would get a medal of honor. You couldnt let the Vietnamese children get close to a truck. The children would take a grenade, pull the pin out of it, wrap electrical tape around it, and put it in your gas tank. The gas would slowly weaken the tape until it came off, and boom it would go. These were 6 and 8 year old kids. They did not know what they were doing, but were doing what they were told.

Baird got to take a boat trip while he was in Vietnam.

They loaded up our whole unit with all of our trucks onto a ship, he said. We sailed to Okinawa where our trucks were repaired or replaced with new ones. We then loaded back up and sailed back to Vietnam.

Baird was not drafted until he was 22.

I was a little older than the other Marines with me, he said. Most of them got a real sobering experience when we got to Vietnam. We went over on a commercial airliner. When we landed at Da Nang, we got off the jet, and we went to get on a C-130 to take us on to Chulai. Before we could get on the C-130, there were bodies in body bags that we had to help unload. That brought you right up to it real quick. There was no way to ease into it. It made us aware of how serious it was right away.

Baird finished his enlistment as an MP in California.

I worked the main gate a lot. We also helped to raise and lower the flag, he said. On holidays, we had a large flag we had to raise and lower. We had to take it to the firehall to fold it.

Baird came back to this area after he got out.

The first thing I did was get a job at a ranch by Agate, he said. I got completely away from everybody. It gave me some time to back down. I needed to think about things. I worked up there for about six months. I then worked for the gas company for 38 years.

Baird continues to live in Gering in his retirement.
A man was arrested last month in western Nebraska for attempting to buy sex with someone he thought was 15 years old. Due to a recent change in law, he could be prosecuted for sex trafficking of a minor.

Is he really a sex trafficker? Federal human trafficking law says, yes. And since Aug. 24, 2017, Nebraska law also treats buyers as traffickers. The Unicameral also increased the penalty of this crime to a sentence of 20 years to life. All who consider buying sex should be on notice  the State of Nebraska is reinforcing its resolve to expose and prosecute commercial sex with minors and other sex-trafficking victims. The buyers are now as vulnerable to arrest and prosecution as the sellers.

Heres the reality  sex trafficking has historically been a profitable crime with low risk and high demand. Lately, however, these dynamics are changing in Nebraska.

For one, the risk of getting caught is increasing due to the focus of law enforcement across the state and the heightened vigilance of Nebraskans. If someone sees signs of human trafficking, they should call 888-373-7888 to report it. Regional teams of the Nebraska Human Trafficking Task Force now meet regularly to address human trafficking in their local communities and conduct operations to stop this crime. This new statewide approach complements the good work of the FBI-led Omaha Child Exploitation Task Force, which has addressed this crime in the Omaha area for years.

And it is working.

This past summer, Douglas County District Court sentenced Anthony Swindle to a minimum of 180 years after a jury found him guilty of crimes, including selling a 15-year-old for sex.

The crime now carries more risk; yet it is still lucrative. There is considerable demand for minors, fueled by the internet and the dark web, which brings a profit to those offering minors for sale.

The Unicameral acted and now soliciting (buying sex with) a minor is sex trafficking, a Class IB felony, which carries a potential prison sentence of 20 years to life. This is designed to drive down demand. It makes buyers think twice before buying sex with those who might be minors or with those who might be offered for sex against their will. But it will only work as a deterrent if Nebraskans and visitors to our state know about this penalty.

The word is spreading. Arrests like the one last month are sending the message.

This week in the Capitol Rotunda, we are introducing another way to spread the message. We are launching the Demand An End ad campaign, warning buyers they are not as invisible as they think. Lets loudly proclaim to those living and entering our state from border to border  buying sex with a minor is not only immoral, but it also carries significant criminal penalties.

Ultimately, we want to dissuade buyers, drive down and then end the demand. Together, lets make sex trafficking less profitable as well as more risky for traffickers. During our watch  lets Demand an End.
Poop is on the mind of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and will be decided on by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Jan. 22. If the court decides to enforce a mandate on the books, the nasty smell will reach all the way to western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming.

The mandate, reported on by our own Spike Jordan, in Sundays Farm & Ranch would require cow-calf producers (ranchers big and small) to report the air emissions from manure to the EPA.

I can see it now, ranchers on constant watch day and night, following their herds up and down rugged pastures. When a cow, her calf or a bull decides to poop, they would rush in to monitor the nasty emissions, record it and watch for the next defecation.

Such a mandate could be a job creator, at least for the EPA. The government agency would have to hire an army of people to fan out across the nation to monitor the ranchers, collect the reports, file them, write up reports and manage the whole program.

Then you have the problem of paying for these new jobs. Though no one is proposing it, it would only make sense Congress would have to impose a poop tax to cover the costs.

Ranchers could pay the tax based on the nastiness of the smell from their livestocks poop. But why stop with ranchers? Doesnt the poop from other animals also have a negative impact on our climate? So why not impose the mandate across the board?

Every animal owner, including the citizens living in the concrete jungles of New York, Dallas and Los Angeles could be mandated to record and report the air emissions from their dogs and cats. Only fair, dont you think?

Imagine the possibilities, especially if you would add a poop tax. We could be looking at a surefire way to eliminate that ever climbing national debt.

This is not a progressive or liberal mandate, but a plain and simply stupid mandate that highlights the waste of time and money. Obviously, it was thought up by some do-gooders who have never been outside their concrete jungle, never been on a ranch or dealt with a cow-calf herd.

To burden hardworking Americans with such foolish regulations is ridiculous. On Jan. 22, the court should not kick this mandate down the road; they should throw it into the toilet and flush it once and for all.

*****

On a separate issue, credit needs to be given to President Donald Trump on talks between South and North Korea. Trump has been lambasted for his Twitter attacks on North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un.

Some of them have gotten me to laugh, but they have also worried me.

However, South Koreas President Moon Jae-in said President Trump deserves big credit" for Tuesdays talks between South and North Korea, according to the BBC. The talks resulted in an announcement saying North Korea will send a delegation to the Winter Olympics next month in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Is North Korea giving up their nuclear arsenal? No, but it could be a start.

*****

On a more local issue, the Torrington City Council should take a hard look at the way they hire their chief of police. In a story in Wednesdays Star-Herald Mark Gaschler reported that the chief is appointed by the council on a one-year contract.

That is a tough job to do in any city across the county, big or small, on any length of contract. The pressure is high and if you or one of your officers give a ticket or arrest someone, whether they deserve it or not, the chief can oftentimes expect angry calls.

The chief needs a contract assuring them they can do their job and not have to play to politics, otherwise you will continue to struggle to find a new chief.

*****

Between cow poop, praise for our president and a brief encouragement for local change, Im at the end of my ramblings. So until next week, dont worry about keeping track of the poop for now and, hopefully, we can stop with the nonsensical regulations.
CEDAR FALLS  A Cedar Falls woman accused of medicating her 7-year-old daughter with marijuana has been sentenced to probation.

Samara Anne Houston, 35, pleaded guilty to delivery of marijuana, and on Thursday Judge Stephen Clarke formalized the plea agreement that sentenced her to five years in prison, but suspended it and gave her two to five years of probation.

She also is expected to plead guilty to a misdemeanor child endangerment charge in connection with the same investigation.

Clarke noted corrections officials also recommended probation.

Fines were suspended, but Houston will face a 180-day drivers license suspension.

Houston had admitted to providing marijuana to her daughter -- apparently without consulting a doctor -- but a hair test was negative for marijuana, said Assistant County Attorney Jeremy Westendorf.

The test, however, was positive for methamphetamine, he said. He said it was unclear how meth had entered the girls system.

Clarke noted the child has been removed from Houstons care, and there is a restraining order that allows the mother to see the child with visits supervised by the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Defense attorney Brian Johnson told the court Houston has mental health issues and has been obtaining treatment.

According to court records, school officials contacted DHS in January 2017 over concerns Houston had been smoking marijuana with her daughter.

When approached by DHS workers, Houston initially denied providing marijuana to the child but then said the child smoked marijuana about once a month.

The defendant also stated that she did not see anything wrong with what she was doing because she believed the marijuana helps her daughter, who she stated is special needs, police wrote in court records seeking charges against Houston.

Police seized marijuana from the home, record state.

Houston was arrested for child endangerment in January, and authorities filed the felony charge in May. In October, while awaiting the outcome of the charges, Waterloo police arrested Houston during a traffic stop where officers found a glass pipe containing meth, according to court records.
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CLEAR LAKE | A Clear Lake man has been arrested after police said he assaulted a women he knew, held her against her will and threw cell phones out the window to prevent a 911 call Friday.

Justin Tyler Post, 22, was charged with misdemeanor domestic abuse assault-first offense, false imprisonment, violation of a no-contact order and obstruction of emergency communications.

Police say Post grabbed, bit and caused other visible injuries to the woman before 7 p.m. Friday at a home in 1100 block of Buddy Holly Place in Clear Lake.

Court documents say after assaulting the woman, Post held her against her will in the bathroom of the residence by sitting in front of the door, not allowing her to leave.

Post is also accused of taking cell phones from two other people in the house and throwing them outside into the snow when he was made aware the people were going to call police, court documents say.

Post was arrested and booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail Tuesday morning, where he is being held on a $2,300 bond.

He is scheduled to appear in Cerro Gordo County District Court Jan. 19 for the assault and false imprisonment charges.

A non-jury trial for obstructing emergency communications is set for July 10.

 Courtney Fiorini
MASON CITY | A Mason City man is accused of breaking into the Holcim Cement plant three times this week and stealing copper wiring.

Justin Laroy Dutcher, 40, was arrested by Mason City police about 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning as he was leaving the plant, 1840 N. Federal Ave.

He had in his possession electrical wire and components that were identified as belonging to the business, Mason City Police Lt. Rich Jensen said in a statement.

Police said in a news release Dutcher entered the property around 4 a.m. Thursday, where he is accused of cutting and removing copper electrical wiring, switches and bus panels.

He was found in possession of those materials, as well as pliers, screwdrivers, wire cutters and an inductive amplifier, which is used to detect voltage in wires, police said.

The property was identified by Holcim employees and shoe prints in the snow matched that of the defendant, court documents said.

Dutcher was initially charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing and possession of burglary tools. Two additional charges of felony third-degree burglary were filed in connection with two other burglaries at Holcim Sunday and Monday.

According to court documents, Dutcher is accused of cutting and removing approximately $2,000 worth of copper wiring, electric panel bus bars and other electrical materials.

Officers collected evidence at the scene identifying the defendant, the criminal complaint said.

Dutcher is being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail on a $12,000 bond. No court date has been set.

The Holcim plant stopped production in 2009. Company officials say it is not closed but remains "mothballed," leaving open the possibility that it might reopen in the future.
Kinloch's municipal court dissolved at the beginning of the month and is being transferred to St. Louis County Associate Court starting next month.

The next court date for Kinloch municipal cases will be at 2 p.m. Feb. 13 before St. Louis Associate Circuit Judge Mary Ott. It was not clear if the decision to move to St. Louis County is permanent or temporary during construction of Kinloch's new city hall at 5825 Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard. A recorded message at Kinloch's municipal court asks residents for patience as the city transitions to its new building.
MASON CITY | Mason City police are searching for a man who they say eluded officers Tuesday morning and abandoned a vehicle.

Police say officers attempted to stop a Volkswagen Passat about 6:18 a.m. Tuesday near 16th Street and South Federal Avenue.

The driver allegedly refused to stop, police said, increasing speeds as he headed north through Mason City.

Police terminated the pursuit due to concerns over increasing speeds and motorists safety, Capt. Mike McKelvey said Wednesday.

Officers later found the vehicle abandoned in the 1600 block of North Carolina Place.

The driver apparently fled on foot eastbound, McKelvey said. Police followed the tracks in the snow until the suspect started traveling on sidewalks or streets, leaving no tracks, and avoided capture.

The investigation is ongoing. Police have not identified the male driver but are looking for information on him and where he might be located.

Those with information should contact the Mason City Police Department at 641-421-3636.

 Courtney Fiorini
ST. LOUIS  Dana Wallace, a blind St. Louis man whose first-degree murder trial resulted in a hung jury last month, pleaded guilty Thursday to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action.

Wallace, 28, stood trial last month on the murder charge, along with armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse charges. A jury found Wallace guilty of abandoning a corpse but wasnt unanimous on the other counts. Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer declared a mistrial.

On Thursday, Ohmer sentenced Wallace to seven years in prison, following terms of a plea deal.

On Sept. 4, 2014, Wallace was in the front passenger seat of a parked Toyota Camry in the 1700 block of North 20th Street when Darnell Chilli Robinson, 24, who was behind the wheel, was shot four times in the head and died. Wallace on Thursday admitted to encouraging his cousin to kill Robinson in retaliation for a break-in at another mans apartment the day before.

Robinsons relatives were disgusted by the plea agreement.

Ive never been so ashamed of being an American in my life, Robinsons sister Ashley Spraggins told the judge regarding the plea deal. Its disgusting.

Robinsons mother Angela Spraggins told Wallace she would never forgive him because Wallace and her son were once close friends.

When you took my sons life, you took my life, she told Wallace.  This is not right, and everyone in this courtroom knows its not right.

Wallace said in court he was blinded by a bullet to the head in 2008; his apology to Robinsons family in court was met with dismissive sneers.

The judge told Robinsons family he understood their grief but said no sentence could quell their pain. He said the plea and sentence were a fair resolution to a challenging case that a jury could not decide.

None of us really know what happened in that car, Ohmer said. No time is enough. I certainly understand this, but its the best we can do under the circumstances. Its an imperfect world and an imperfect system, but there is some measure of justice.

Wallaces cousin, Bryant Evans, 23, was in the back seat during the shooting. Evans testified at trial last month that he killed Robinson but previously claimed Wallace had fatally shot him.

After the shooting, Evans and Wallace got out of the car with Evans carrying what authorities believe was a gun wrapped in a jacket. Surveillance video showed Evans and Wallace getting into a Dodge Durango, which returned to Robinsons car. Another man, Dylan Irizarry, got out of the Durango with a can of gasoline, set the car on fire and ran off. Prosecutors said Robinsons body was burned beyond recognition.

Bryant pleaded guilty in August to second-degree murder and other counts and received a 20-year term.

Robinson was a father of four boys and two girls, installed floors for a living and had had attended Stillman College in Alabama, relatives said. His sister started a custom cookie business in his memory: She named it Chilli Sprinkles.
ST. LOUIS  A man shot Tuesday night in St. Louis has died at a hospital.

James Woods, 25, was shot about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Vandeventer and Evans avenues, police said. Officers called to the shooting found him in a car with gunshot wounds.

He was taken to a hospital and was in critical and unstable condition. He later was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said Thursday.

Woods lived in the 8600 block of Partridge Avenue in St. Louis, police said.

Authorities asked anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-8477.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and his wife, Sheena Greitens, issued an extraordinary statement late Wednesday acknowledging that he had an extramarital affair in the past and that the couple has dealt with this together honestly and privately.

The statement came as a St. Louis television station aired a segment alleging that, during that affair, Greitens took a compromising photograph of the woman and threatened to publicize it if she exposed him. The statement from Greitens and his wife didnt address that part of the allegation.

Greitens attorney, James F. Bennett, issued a statement denying the blackmail allegation.

There was no blackmail, and that claim is false, Bennett said. This personal matter has been addressed by the Governor and Mrs. Greitens privately years ago when it happened. The outrageous claims of improper conduct regarding these almost three-year-ago events are false.

On Thursday morning, Bennett added via email: "No violence. No picture taken. No threat of blackmail."

The bizarre turn of events came just hours after Greitens delivered his second State of the State speech in Jefferson City.

KMOV (Channel 4), in its report, quoted the former husband of the woman who allegedly had the affair with Greitens. The station did not quote the woman in its story, nor did it name the woman or her husband.

The station played portions of an audio recording that the then-husband says he made in March 2015, surreptitiously, of his then-wife confessing to a sexual encounter with Greitens days earlier.

The Post-Dispatch also has possession of the audio and has interviewed the ex-husband. The newspaper had previously decided against writing a story based solely on the husband and the audio recording, because the woman in question has consistently declined to be interviewed. However, Greitens public acknowledgment of an affair made it necessary to revisit that decision.

Youre never going to mention my name, otherwise this picture will be everywhere, Greitens told the woman, she claims on the audio. She is heard telling her then-husband that Greitens made the statement after he took a photo while she was bound, blindfolded and partly undressed during a sexual encounter at Greitens St. Louis home in March 2015. That was about a month after his first public statements confirming he was considering a political run.

The ex-husband said the woman had been Greitens hair stylist before he ran for governor in 2016. The woman claims in the audio recording that initial flirtation grew into an affair that became physically intimate for the first time on the morning of March 21, 2015, when she went to Greitens home in the Central West End.

The woman claims in the audio that they went into Greitens basement, where he bound her to a piece of exercise equipment with some kind of tape, put a blindfold on her and began partly undressing her and touching her.

That part of the encounter was consensual, she indicates in the audio, but the alleged taking of the photograph wasnt. She said in the audio that she wasnt aware he was doing it until she saw a flash of light through the blindfold, followed by his alleged verbal threat.

During most of 2015, as the alleged affair was underway, Greitens was publicly discussing his plans to get into politics. He confirmed his interest in running for an unspecified statewide office in a written statement given to the media in February 2015  less than a month before the alleged sexual blackmail episode took place.

On Oct. 20, 2015  three weeks after Greitens filed papers formally starting his 2016 campaign for governor  the woman sent an email to an account that contains Greitens name. Its the same email account Greitens listed in setting up a political website he used in his gubernatorial campaign.

Eric, Im asking you to please consider all who are involved and the circumstances around us, the woman wrote in the email, which the Post-Dispatch obtained. I need you to not book at the salon anymore. This isnt fair to me, nor anyone close to us. Please respect me and my wishes. I need to move forward in my life as I know you are doing as well. Take care.

The womans ex-husband, in statements to the Post-Dispatch in the past two weeks, laid blame for the collapse of his marriage largely on Greitens.

Throughout that summer  the power of manipulation that Mr. Greitens had over my wife had become undeniable, he said in the written statements, which were provided through his attorney, Albert Watkins. Yes, the affair between (his wife) and Mr. Greitens was the main reason for the irreparability of our marriage.

Organizations that work with victims of sexual violence stress that consent has to be ongoing, even in established personal or romantic relationships. A person can also revoke his or her consent at any point during a sexual encounter, even after giving consent in the past.

Someone can start to do something sexual and change their mind about the next step, said Terri Poore, policy director of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence. That needs to be respected by the other party.

Taking an explicit photo of someone without his or her permission can violate consent given earlier, Poore said, because consent means consciously and knowingly agreeing to the action at hand.

If you introduce threats or coercion or power imbalances, you arent dealing in the realm of consent anymore, she said.

The joint statement issued by Greitens and his wife read:

A few years ago, before Eric was elected Governor, there was a time when he was unfaithful in our marriage. This was a deeply personal mistake. Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately. While we never would have wished for this pain in our marriage, or the pain that this has caused others, with Gods mercy Sheena has forgiven and we have emerged stronger. He understand that there will be some people who cannot forgive  but for those who can find it in your heart, Eric asks for your forgiveness, and we are grateful for your love, your compassion, and your prayers.

Sheena Greitens also released a separate statement, which read:

We have a loving marriage and an awesome family; anything beyond that is between us and God. I want the media and those who wish to peddle gossip to stay away from me and my children.

In Gov. Greitens speech Wednesday night, Sheena Greitens was among several people he thanked at the start. He also recognized her efforts to ease child adoptions across state lines.

Last month, Missouri officially joined the National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise, to make adoption easier across state lines, he said. I want to give a special thank you for her hard work on this issue, to the first lady of the state of Missouri, and my wife, Sheena Greitens.

The revelation of the affair and the related allegations hit Greitens as his political star has been rising, with national attention from conservative media outlets and politicians in other states who have viewed the 43-year-old former Navy SEAL and bestselling author as part of the Republican Partys future.

Greitens, whose first marriage ended in divorce, is a former Democrat who has mixed brains and brawn throughout his public life, but one consistent element to him has been ambition. As the Post-Dispatch has previously reported, he was reserving website names with variations of Greitens for President years before his first political campaign, for governor, in 2016.

A top Missouri House Democrat said the affair Greitens had acknowledged undermines his credibility.

With the governors reliance on secretive dark money, his alleged destruction of public records, and overall lack of transparency, deception has been a key part of Eric Greitens administration, said House Assistant Minority Leader Gina Mitten, D-Richmond Heights. This story further undermines his credibility.

Democratic state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed of St. Louis took to Twitter to call on Greitens to resign:
JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Eric Greitens outlined a limited agenda Wednesday, calling on lawmakers to make Missouri a friendlier state to foster children, veterans and businesses.

In his second State of the State speech, the Republican chief executive highlighted the states low unemployment rate of 3.4 percent and legislation that helped bring a steel manufacturing facility to Sedalia.

We are bringing good quality jobs back to Missouri, Greitens said in the 30-minute address.

Greitens said he was pushing for 20 legislative initiatives that are designed to help children, including one that would help foster children get access to bank accounts.

Tonight, I want to ask the members of this body to do something straightforward: Put politics on hold. Set any differences you may have with one another, or with me, to the side. These are children. These are kids, Greitens said.

He stressed his administrations emphasis on removing regulations in an attempt to make it easier to start businesses and get jobs. He said efforts underway since his first day in office had resulted in officials identifying 33,000 regulatory requirements that should be stricken from the books.

Regulations like these that waste money, waste time, are outdated and irrelevant, had been building up for too long, Greitens said.

And the governor, a former Navy SEAL, said he wanted a change in law allowing military spouses who have licenses to do certain types of jobs in other states to be able to use them when they are stationed in Missouri.

He also wants to set up a veterans hiring preference law.

Most states in our country have done this. Its time for Missouri to do the same, Greitens said.

Although Republicans control the governors office and both chambers of the Legislature, ongoing tension between Greitens and GOP lawmakers threatens to derail some of his initiatives.

Part of the strain comes from the governors adversarial tone as a self-described outsider who rails against career politicians. He has also angered some by installing allies on the state Board of Education in order to fire school Commissioner Margie Vandeven, before they were confirmed by the Senate.

Greitens also raised eyebrows last year when he announced plans to offer state employees a paid family leave program despite not having legislative approval to spend the money.

Among his intra-party adversaries is Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, who is in his final year in office. Schaaf has threatened to use his filibuster power to block proposals he dislikes. And Sen. Gary Romine, R-Farmington, has said he will use his filibuster power to block the governors school board appointees.

Among the issues that could face an uphill climb is tax reform.

Although the governor steered clear of discussing his plans for the budget on Wednesday, he said he would present a tax overhaul plan next week. He provided no details.

It is the boldest state tax reform in America, Greitens said. In 2018, I want this body to cut taxes for the people of Missouri and to cut taxes for businesses that create jobs.

Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, rated the governors performance as incomplete, given Greitens lack of specifics and the speechs brevity.

I heard 16 of them, said Engler, a long-time lawmaker. That was the shortest.

There really wasnt a lot of meat, Engler said. Whos against children? Whos against paying less tax? But, yet, the reality is how are you going to cut taxes and be able to fund education?

The governor also asked members of the Senate to approve a ban on gifts from lobbyists to the Legislature.

The House has already given first-round approval to tighter limits on gifts, but the issue has historically stalled in the upper chamber. Senators have said Greitens himself is less than ethical because of his secrecy when it comes to political spending.

Greitens nonetheless challenged lawmakers to quit taking gifts.

I call on every member of the Legislature to join me in a pledge not to accept any gift from lobbyists, Greitens said.

Greitens also touted efforts designed to shrink government, including selling state airplanes and ending the printing of the state budget. He also called on lawmakers to act on legislation to eliminate hundreds of unnecessary boards and commissions.

We pay attention to dollars and we pay attention to cents because we remember: Every single dollar this government spends was earned by the hard work of a Missourian, Greitens said.

The speech won accolades from House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, who said he agreed with Greitens efforts to bring jobs to Missouri.

Our shared agenda to reform our tax system and reduce unnecessary regulations are important steps in making this a reality, Richardson said.

Democrats, who sit in the minority in both chambers, decried the lack of a budget proposal in the speech.

It is important for Missourians to know how the governor wants to spend their money, and it is unfortunate that he didnt see fit to share his priorities with you tonight, said House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty, D-Kansas City.

Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, said she didnt hear anything about the major crises facing the state, such as a lack of funding for education and health care.

That was deplorable, she said of the speech. Our education system is crumbling. No conversation about that.

Rep. Alan Green, D-Florissant, questioned what part of the state budget would not be funded if taxes are reduced.

Where are you going to get those cuts? he said.

Sky Chadde and Jack Suntrup of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this story.
JEFFERSON CITY  St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner will launch a criminal investigation into accusations engulfing Gov. Eric Greitens, she announced Thursday afternoon.

Greitens acknowledgment Wednesday of an extramarital affair  and denial of possible blackmail  shook the GOP-controlled state capital on Thursday.

While GOP legislative leaders limited their statements to expressions of concern and requests that Greitens be honest about what happened, a bipartisan chorus of senators called on Attorney General Josh Hawley, a Republican, to investigate.

The seriousness of this allegation and the implications it will have on the integrity of our state government are deeply disturbing, their letter said.

Missouri statutes clearly outlaw non-consensual photos; 'blackmail' issue is less clear Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has admitted having an extramarital affair, but he vehemently denies the explosive related allegation: that he sna

But a spokeswoman for Hawley said Gardner has jurisdiction. In a statement, Gardner said she would launch an investigation.

The alleged incident occurred at Greitens home in the Central West End.

The serious allegations against Missouri Governor Eric Greitens are very troubling. After further consideration, I have decided to launch a formal investigation, Gardner said.

It is essential for residents of the City of St. Louis and our state to have confidence in their leaders. They must know that the Office of the Circuit Attorney will hold public officials accountable in the same manner as any other resident of our city. Both parties and the people of St. Louis deserve a thorough investigation of these allegations.

Greitens attorney, James Bennett, called the allegations false and said they are being advanced by the governors political adversaries.

The governor is very confident he will be cleared in any investigation. This is a three-year-old personal matter that presents no matters of public or legal interest. The facts will prove that fully, Bennett said.

The scandal has the potential to upend the political career of the ex-Navy SEAL Greitens, who elbowed his way past Missouris political establishment in 2016 to assume the states top job. His out-of-state travel, ambition and aptitude for fundraising indicate aspirations beyond Missouris borders.

The frenzy in Jefferson City was triggered Wednesday night by a story on St. Louis television station KMOV (Channel 4). It quoted a man who provided a recording of his then-wife telling him that Greitens had partially undressed her, taped her to exercise equipment, took her photo and then threatened to release the photo if she ever told anyone about the encounter.

Youre never going to mention my name, Greitens told the woman, according to her account on the recording. Otherwise, this picture will be everywhere.

In the recorded account, the woman objects only after Greitens made that comment and began kissing her. On the recording, the woman says she told Greitens: You need to stop. I dont want this. I dont want this. I dont want this. Greitens then stopped and backed off, the woman said on the recording.

Audio: Woman describes encounter with Greitens A man says he recorded his then-wife describing an encounter with Eric Greitens in March 2015. WARNING: Contains graphic details.

The Post-Dispatch had obtained the same recording and had interviewed the man. The newspaper did not initially publish his story because the woman declined to respond to interview requests. The television report and the governors statement prompted the Post-Dispatch to revisit that decision.

Greitens on Wednesday night confessed to having an affair, but denied through his lawyer that he took a photo, threatened the woman with releasing it or was ever violent with her.

Bennett, of the St. Louis firm of Dowd Bennett, said his client is considering a lawsuit in response to the stunning accusations. He said Greitens was not using taxpayer dollars to assemble his legal team. He added that A New Missouri, a pro-Greitens nonprofit that doesnt have to disclose donations, also wasnt funding his legal team.

In addition to denying any charges of blackmail, Bennett said: Any allegation of violence is completely false. It never happened. There was never any violence. This was a consensual relationship that lasted multiple months and was years ago before Eric was elected governor.

The political fallout was nonetheless immediate and widespread.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner of neighboring Illinois  a $100,000 contributor to Greitens  withdrew a TV ad that featured Greitens and other Republicans, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

The Washington Examiner reported that Greitens included his wife, Sheena Greitens, on a conference call with donors to deny some of the allegations against him and to assure them he was committed to continuing in office.

Greitens is slated to speak in Las Vegas in February to the Republican Jewish Coalition. That invitation still stands, the organizations executive director said Thursday.

Eric is family to the RJC and as such our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family during this difficult time, Matt Brooks said, in a statement released by the group. Regarding his attendance at our meeting in Las Vegas, that is a decision that he and his wife will have to make in the coming weeks as they figure out how best to move forward.

Investigation announced

Loree Anne Paradise, deputy chief of staff for Hawley, said in a statement that jurisdiction in this case rests with the local prosecuting attorney.

There were no indications that anyone other than Gardner would investigate. Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman John Hotz said no investigation was underway. U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen would not confirm nor deny any investigation. Nor would Rebecca Wu, a spokeswoman for the FBIs St. Louis office.

Lawmakers said they want answers, and it appeared likely they would start their own probe.

There are many questions still left unanswered, said Senate Minority Leader Gina Walsh of Bellefontaine Neighbors and Sen. Shalonn Kiki Curls of Kansas City.

Allegations of extortion, coercion, or threats of violence must be investigated by the proper authorities, they said. People accused of these egregious acts do not get to waive off the scrutiny of law enforcement simply because they are in a position of power; and victims of these crimes deserve our full support.

The House on Thursday morning gathered in a formal session, only to adjourn after a few minutes. Members did not take expected action on any measures, including a proposal to restrict lobbyist gifts, which is a key part of Greitens agenda to clean up Jefferson City.

It was unclear whether the abbreviated workday had to do with the impending inclement weather, the red-hot scandal, some other reason or a combination.

Before that session, House Republicans huddled behind closed doors in a basement hearing room in the Capitol.

We talked about the fact that there are two families who have been impacted negatively, said Rep. Jean Evans, R-Manchester. Everybody was obviously disappointed  at a minimum  for him having an affair.

On the other allegations: Were still learning, and at this point we can only make judgments on things based on what we know to be fact and not hearsay, she said, referencing the accusation of a compromising photo being taken without consent.

In Washington, Missouris congressional delegation largely stayed quiet.

But in Jefferson City, statements trickled in all day from Republicans, Democrats and interest groups. Some simply expressed concern about the allegations and the hope that Greitens would be forthright, some called for investigations, and others insinuated that the governor should resign. Some went all the way, demanding his resignation.

The Legislature must hold our states top elected official to a higher standard, state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, said on Twitter. That is why I am asking all of the women in the General Assembly to join me in calling for the Governors resignation.

She also called Greitens a homewrecker on the Senate floor.

Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, said in a tweet he supported the bipartisan quest urging Hawley to probe the allegation of blackmail.

He said if the allegation was true, he would urge the governor to resign.

Around 9 a.m. Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty, D-Kansas City, said it was too early to call on the governor to resign.

I think the allegations against the governor are very disturbing, she said. We are very concerned about that. But at this point in time, you know, I think our concerns are with his family and I think we just need to wait and see.

Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, said Greitens should do the right thing if the allegations are true, though he would not clarify what that would be.

If your readers cant figure that out, then you need to get new readers, Engler said. If its not (true), then he needs to fight it.

A spokeswoman for Lt. Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, said he would comment on the scandal in the coming days. Parson would become governor if Greitens resigns or is otherwise forced from office.

Sen. Rob Schaaf, a St. Joseph Republican who is one of Greitens most vocal critics, had this to say on Twitter Wednesday night: Stick a fork in him.

Kevin McDermott, Chuck Raasch, Sky Chadde and Robert Patrick, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.
MASON CITY | Mason City's Cabin Coffee Co. was packed Wednesday afternoon with North Iowans and local politicians wanting to hear Gov. Kim Reynolds summarize her Condition of the State address from Tuesday.

Reynolds highlighted the importance of education statewide, along with assisting K-12 students with job training outside of the traditional K-12 format.

"We want children to know at the earliest age they have options," she said in a speech to the approximately 35 people in attendance.

Both Reynolds and Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg noted there is great opportunity for job growth statewide, with hundreds of jobs being added in several small towns.

Several in attendance questioned Reynolds about her proposed budget, and the negative impact it could have on different sectors. One woman asked about how mental health facilities would continue to assist those in need, despite a shortage of beds.

Reynolds answered that the shortage isn't the problem, but rather better allocating resources.

"It's not really a shortage of beds," Reynolds responded. "It's the type of beds."

In an interview with reporters after her speech, she questioned Democrats who weren't happy with where the state is headed, noting Iowa is a great place to work and live, and that job growth is evident.

She also addressed the fact that her current budget proposes $1.81 million in cuts to community colleges, which could hurt institutions like North Iowa Area Community College.
A previous version of this story had an incorrect number of municipalities in St. Louis County. If Mackenzie and Hanley Hills were to be dissolved, the number would be 87.

HANLEY HILLS  This north St. Louis County community of about 2,000 people is the latest municipality facing a push to disincorporate, with a handful of residents saying they are fed up with dysfunction and deterioration.

Those residents say problems abound. Two members of this villages board of trustees have been removed from office in the past year because they had felony convictions and could not legally serve.

Several streets are crumbling, and the $1.5 million cost to fix them is equal to two years of the citys entire budget.

The housing stock  typically two-bedroom bungalows built in the 1940s and 50s  is deteriorating and rapidly changing from owner-occupied homes to rental units. A resident recently complained that a vacant house was being used for drug deals. Residents are moving in and out so fast its hard to keep track of neighbors.

Thomas Rusan, 61, and his wife, Kim Rusan, 59, say Hanley Hills is barely recognizable as the stable bedroom community they moved to 30 years ago. And they dont think the village government is doing enough to stop the slide.

With temperatures warming up this week, the Rusans have been going door to door with a petition for Hanley Hills to shut down. They need signatures from one-quarter of the villages roughly 1,300 registered voters to put the disincorporation proposition on a future ballot.

If they succeed, Hanley Hills could be second in line to vote on disincorporation; voters in the south St. Louis village of Mackenzie will vote on disincorporation in April. If both municipalities were to disappear, St. Louis County would be down to 87 municipalities.

The couple delivered a letter addressing their concerns to each of the villages 950 homes, and organized a meeting to discuss their effort on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at St. Vincent Community Center, 7335 St. Charles Rock Road.

The Rusans have lived in Hanley Hills for 30 years, and each has served on the villages board of trustees. The current board chairwoman, Diana White, said the board as a whole did not support the disincorporation effort, although individual members might.

She said residents were satisfied with how the nine-member board was trying to improve the community. Anyone with questions or concerns should address the board at a village meeting, she said.

Hanley Hills has few places to turn to raise money. Property values have plummeted, putting stress on the villages ability to increase revenue through real estate taxes.

The municipal court brought in $32,000 in 2016, according to the most recent data available  about one-third of the revenue it generated in 2013, before a region-wide focus on abusive municipal courts.

Hanley Hills has been around since 1948, said Kim Rusan. So I dont think that anyone will forget us, but if they do its not because of the disincorporation, it would simply be because it has turned into all rental properties.

As recently as 2000, four out of five homes in the village were owner-occupied. Thomas Rusan said he remembered neighbors planting flowers, beautifying their properties and competing for the villages house of the month contest.

But the villages aging housing stock of typically 1,000-square-foot bungalows has steadily been converted to rental units. The number of renter-occupied homes doubled between 2010 and 2016, according to the U.S. Census, and is approaching half of the villages homes.

About a quarter of the villages residents were below the poverty line in 2012; four years later it was one-third, according to Census estimates.

There have been problems with village leaders. Last May, County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch filed suit to remove Stanley Taylor from Hanley Hills trustee board because Taylor was a convicted felon.

Taylor was sentenced on Oct. 24, 1986 to six months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. The petition says that in addition to prison time, Taylor received five years of probation.

Taylor had previously served as trustee and board chairman in the mid-2000s.

Last May, another trustee, Charles Cleveland, was removed from office after authorities found that in 1993 he had been sentenced to 16 years in prison for dealing cocaine, court records say. Cleveland also was sentenced to five years in state prison in 1978 for stealing.

But the village continues to pay Cleveland $500 a month to work as a code enforcement officer, a fact that bothers some Hanley Hills residents.

I wont have him on my property, said Matt Jepson, 51, a village resident who signed the petition on Wednesday.

Cleveland told a reporter the focus on him was unfair.

I served my time, he said. I do more in my community than anyone in my community.

White, the chairwoman, said she was doing the best she could. She acknowledged that the city had leadership problems in the past but said it was on the right track now. The disincorporation effort seemed underhanded to her.

The answer is to work in unity, she said.
Las Vegas, CES - HERE Technologies, a global leader in mapping and location services, today announced that it will broaden its collaboration with Baidu to power Baidu Maps with indoor map data for outside of China.



HERE has already powered Baidu Maps' desktop and mobile services in South East Asia outside of China for the last three years. Last year this support was extended to more than 150 countries worldwide. In 87 of those countries, this coverage will now also include maps for shopping malls, hospitals, universities, stadiums, museums, airports and train stations powered by HERE Venue Maps.

Enriched with HERE Venue Maps, Baidu Maps will give people access to maps of venues with 2D and 3D floor plans. This means they can easily find their way around a complex venue, know where they are at any given time, and route to their favorite location inside a venue. HERE currently has nearly 15,000 public venue maps in 87 countries, covering over 100,000 buildings in all.

Baidu Maps has more than 350 million active users globally, and has expanded its map service with the support of HERE to accommodate the growing number of Chinese visitors to Europe and other parts of the world outside of Asia.

Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE Technologies, said: "Truly comprehensive map coverage is not just about the road network. Our expanding Reality Index extends to worldwide venues and beyond to create the world's first digital representation of the physical world. It's great that we can now also support tourists, particularly from China, on their global travels with our high-quality maps for venues. We're looking forward to exploring further opportunities in our partnership with Baidu in the future."



Media Enquiries

HERE media relations

James Etheridge

+49 151 1004 1241

james.etheridge@here.com



Dr. Sebastian Kurme

+49 173 515 3549

sebastian.kurme@here.com



Jordan Stark

+1 312 316 4537

jordan.stark@here.com



About HERE Technologies

HERE, the Open Location Platform company, enables people, enterprises and cities to harness the power of location. By making sense of the world through the lens of location we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes - from helping a city manage its infrastructure or an enterprise optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely. To learn more about HERE, including our new generation of cloud-based location platform services, visit http://360.here.com and www.here.com
CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX-V:BBI) Blackbird Energy Inc. (Blackbird or the Company) is pleased to announce the date and location of its 2018 Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders and the grant of stock options to its officers and directors.



2018 Annual and Special Meeting

Blackbird is pleased to announce that its 2018 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders will be held on March 7, 2018 at 2 P.M. in the Grand Lecture Theatre at the Metropolitan Conference Centre, 333 4th Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta (the Meeting).

A management information circular and related meeting materials will be mailed to Blackbird registered shareholders on January 30, 2018 and will be available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Shareholders who are unable to attend the Meeting in person will be able to listen to the conference call and concurrently view a live webcast presentation of the Meeting. The dial-in and log-in information for the conference call and webcast will be made available on Blackbird's website at www.blackbirdenergyinc.com one week prior to the Meeting.

Stock Option Grant

Blackbird has granted 8,414,384 stock options (Options) to its officers and directors at an exercise price of $0.33 per share. The Options have been granted pursuant to Blackbirds 10.0% rolling stock option plan and will expire five years from the date of grant. One third of the Options will vest immediately, one third of the Options will vest on January 10, 2019, and the final third of the Options will vest on January 10, 2020.

Subsequent to this stock option grant, Blackbird will have a total of 43,203,040 Options outstanding, representing approximately 5.8% of its issued and outstanding common shares. As a result, Blackbird has a substantial number of unallocated options that are available for grant. The Company has taken this conservative approach of maintaining these positions to minimize dilution, ensure option availability for future strategic allocations, and thereby enhance shareholder value.

About Blackbird

Blackbird Energy Inc. is a highly innovative oil and gas exploration and development company focused on the condensate and liquids-rich Montney fairway at Elmworth, near Grande Prairie, Alberta.

For more information, please view our Corporate Presentation at www.blackbirdenergyinc.com or contact:

Blackbird Energy Inc.

Garth Braun

Chairman, CEO, and President

(403) 500-5550

gbraun@blackbirdenergyinc.com

Karen Minton

Chief Financial Officer

(403) 699-9929 Ext. 111

kminton@blackbirdenergyinc.com

Allan Dixon

Manager, Business Development

(403) 699-9929 Ext. 103

adixon@blackbirdenergyinc.com

Advisories

THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE INC. HAS NEITHER APPROVED NOR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENTS OF THIS PRESS RELEASE. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VR Resources Ltd. (TSX.V:VRR) (FSE:5VR), the "Company", or VR, is pleased to report the highlights of the 2017 exploration program on the Companys Danbo property, and expansion of the property size by 50% as a result. The Danbo property is located along the northern margin of the Walker Lane Belt in western Nevada, in a setting analogous to the nearby Round Mountain gold mine and past-producing Paradise Peak epithermal gold deposit.

Highlights illustrated by maps, sections and field photographs included with this news release and posted on the Companys website www.vrr.ca/news include:

35 of 81 surface grab samples returned > 1 g/t gold . Select samples spanning the system include:



- 9.1 g/t Au and 16.9 g/t Ag from the northern end;

- 53.3 g/t Au and 55 g/t Ag from the north-central area;

- 33.9 g/t Au and 158 g/t Ag from south-central area;

- 9.9 g/t Au and 29.8 g/t Ag from the southern end;





. Select samples spanning the system include: - 9.1 g/t Au and 16.9 g/t Ag from the northern end; from the north-central area; from south-central area; - 9.9 g/t Au and 29.8 g/t Ag from the southern end; Three parallel epithermal quartz vein sets are mapped at surface for 1.3 kilometres along strike, within an associated geochemical footprint 1.5 kilometers long by 1.1 kilometres wide based on soil geochemistry and an airborne hyperspectral survey used to map alteration minerals





for within an associated geochemical footprint on soil geochemistry and an airborne hyperspectral survey used to map alteration minerals Gold mineralization spans a minimum of 107 vertical metres within the exposed hydrothermal system;





within the exposed hydrothermal system; An increase in property size by 50% to 38 claims covering 627 acres (254 ha).





The gold grade at Danbo consistently increases with increasing depth into the hydrothermal system. This relationship confirms the grade potential along the entire 1.5 km strike length of the epithermal vein system, below fertile but low grade veins exposed at high toporgraphic elevations at either end of the system. Silver is consistently present in gold-bearing quartz vein samples from throughout the system at Danbo.

Commenting on the news today, VRs CEO Dr. Gunning reiterated: Field work in 2017 has reinforced our conviction with regard to both the lateral extent and gold-silver grades of the epithermal vein system at Danbo. Despite the prospective regional setting of Danbo along the northern margin of the Walker Lane and proximity to known Tertiary volcanic hosted gold systems such as Round Mountain and Paradise Peak, it has never been tested by diamond drilling; Danbo thus provides for an unusual discovery-based value creation potential for our shareholders, and is now firmly established in our exploration planning for 2018.

VR will initiate the drill permitting process at Danbo in Q1 2018. Road access both to and within the property will facilitate cost-effective drilling. VR will also evaluate the utility of high resolution geophysical surveys such as electromagnetic (EM) or induced polarization (IP) to map sulfide-bearing quartz veins in the sub-surface as a guide to prioritizing drill targets.

Geologic Setting : Quartz veins at Danbo are hosted in a sub-horizontal Tertiary pyroclastic sequence of rhyolite lapilli tuff and ash flow tuff. Four sub-horizontal geological units are mapped, with no evidence of major faults. Individual veins are centimetres to decimetres wide, with metre-scale zones of quartz vein breccias observed in the central part of the property. Most veins exhibit white weathering argillic alteration halos. Drusy quartz in open space is nearly ubiquitous at Danbo. Bladed quartz after carbonate forms veins at high elevation at the north and south end of the property, and provide evidence of hydrothermal boiling high in the epithermal vein system. Banded, colloform vein textures are observed only in the central and topographically lowest part of the property where the deepest observed parts of the epithermal system are exposed; higher gold grades are typically obtained from these veins which are interpreted to represent the deepest parts of the exposed vein system. Quartz veins commonly contain trace to 1%, fine grained sulfide minerals as disseminated grains.

Additional information is available on the Danbo project page on the Companys website at www.vrr.ca.

About the Danbo Property

The Danbo property is located in Nye County in west-central Nevada, approximately 50 kilometres north and east of Tonopah. Cost effective exploration is afforded by road access to the property on Highway 82, with actively used historic ranch and mine roads throughout the property, and connecting it to the highway.

The Danbo property is a contiguous block of 38 claims covering 627 acres (254 hectares). The property is on federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and part of the Toiyabe National Forest, managed by the federal Forest Service. There is no privately-owned land within the property. The property is outside of BLMs broadly defined area of sage grouse protection.

The property is owned 100% by VR, registered to the Companys wholly-owned, Nevada-registered US subsidiary Renntiger Resources USA Ltd. There is a standard royalty on 8 core claims. There are no underlying annual lease payments on the property, nor are there any joint venture or carried interests on the property.

The Danbo property is located along the northern margin of the Walker Lane mineral belt in central Nevada. It occurs in an extensional, Tertiary-aged rhyolite volcanic centre analogous to the setting of the nearby Round Mountain gold mine currently in production, and the past producing Paradise Peak gold mine operated by FMC Mining Corp. between 1986 and 1994. The potential for VR is to be the first company to fully evaluate and diamond drill test the 1,500 metre strike length of the low-sulfidation, gold bearing epithermal quartz vein system exposed at surface at Danbo.

Technical Information

Rock samples for geochemistry are submitted to the ALS Global facilities in Reno, Nevada, with final analytical work completed at the ALS laboratories located in Vancouver, BC., including ICP-MS analyses for base metals and trace elements, and gold determination by atomic absorption assay.

Technical information for this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101, and reviewed on behalf of the Company by Dr. Michael Gunning P.Geo., a non-independent Qualified Person.

About VR Resources

VR Resources Ltd. (VR) is a new listing in the junior exploration space (TSX.V:VRR) (Frankfurt:5VR). The diverse experience and proven track record of its Board in early-stage exploration and discovery is the foundation of VR. The Company is focused on exploring large copper-gold mineral systems in the western United States. VR is the continuance of 4 years of active exploration in Nevada by a Vancouver-based private exploration company. VR is well financed for its exploration strategy. VR owns its exploration assets outright, and will evaluate new opportunities on an ongoing basis, whether by staking or acquisition.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Michael H. Gunning

_____________________________

Dr. Michael H. Gunning, PhD, PGeo

President & CEO

For general information please use the following:

Website: www.vrr.ca Renmark Financial Communications Inc .

Email: info@vrr.ca Barry Mire, Account Manager for VR:

Phone: 604-262-1104 E-mail: bmire@renmarkfinancial.com

Tel.: (416) 644-2020 or (514) 939-3989

Website: www.renmarkfinancial.com

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions or are those which, by their nature, refer to future events. Forward looking statements in this release include but are not limited to: grade potential along the entire 1.5 km strike length of the vein system; offers the potential for discovery-based value creation; This relationship confirms the grade potential along the entire 1.5 km strike length of the vein system.

Although the Company believes that the use of such statements is reasonable, there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative.

The Companys public disclosure filings are available at www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in Policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d4172939-2d0a-4468-8bfd-c7c5b9f6aae7
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A website that caters to pet owners searching rehabs that are pet friendly completed another resource page for their readers. Many people who are searching for help who own a dog search online drug rehab allows dogs to find a location that will accept them and the dog into treatment.



Rehabs that allow dogs have different stipulations in order for them to accept a patient with their dog. Current paperwork and up-to-date shots for the dog are usually needed to ensure the dog is safe for the treatment center.

Once the patient and their dog enter into treatment, they will begin with the detoxification process. Dogs can help with the anxiety that is brought on by the detox portion of treatment, and this is why many dog owners would like their pets to accompany them. The alcohol or drug detox usually lasts up to 7 days, but can go longer depending on the substance.

After detox has been completed the patient and their dog can begin to attend therapy during their residential inpatient care. There are numerous studies that show that pets help people during these types of treatments because of the love and support they offer their owners.

Once all the inpatient care is completed and the person has successfully completed their program they can look to find a sober living that allows dogs. This way they can continue to live in a structured environment with their dog, and continue to attend any therapy or meetings needed for long term recovery.

Finding a rehab that allows dogs is not an easy task, addicts that are seeking these types of centers can search the directory on Rehabsthatallowpets.com which can assist them in finding pet friendly rehabs. Learn more by speaking with an addiction specialist.

Author: Kevin Leonard

Organization: RehabsThatAllowPets.com

Address: 402 West Broadway, #400, San Diego, CA 92101

Phone: 888-325-2454

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/186bb0a1-b059-4e40-87a9-0fdc3f1c6830
TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Optimal IdM, a leading provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions, today announced it has been named Best Multifactor Authentication Solution of the 2017 Government Security News (GSN) Homeland Security Awards (HSA) Program under the Cyber Security Products and Solutions category.



Announced in January of 2018, the 9th annual award programs judging in this category is based on a combination of client organization, technological innovation or improvement, filling a recognized government IT security need and flexibility of a solution to meet current and future organizational needs.

According to Lead Judge, Chuck Brooks, Each year the quality and scope of the submissions makes it more difficult to judge. They are all deserving. There are no inferior security products or services that I evaluated  they are all stellar. The approaches and methods sometimes differ among the entries and that is largely because they are highly focused on their specific client needs. As to the government entries, these submissions exemplify the best in public/private cooperation. Government is moving rapidly into the digital era and integrating technologies, processes and accordingly new mandates of their government agencies and programs.

The Optimal Authentication Service (OAS) from Optimal IdM is a multi-factor authentication-as-a-service offering that allows customers to implement a variety of MFA solutions using their existing web and non-web applications. As a MFA service, OAS helps prevent phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks by delivering push notifications to a users registered mobile device which optionally works with fingerprint enabled systems. OAS includes time-based one-time password (TOTP) and traditional one-time passcodes (OTP) that can be sent via short message service (SMS), email or voice calls. Each can be used as a stand-alone option or in conjunction with a complete IAM program. The service can also be used to provide passwordless access to applications by leveraging mobile device push authentication.

We are honored to be acknowledged as the industrys best technology for multifactor authentication solutions, said John Maring, COO & Managing Partner of Optimal IdM. The HSA award inspires us to continue to set the standard for innovative and affordable multifactor solutions, as well as deliver superior customer service.

Optimal IdM was also recently positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Niche Players quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Access Management, Worldwide, named a Leader in KuppingerCole Leadership Compass Identity as a Service: Single Sign-On to the Cloud Report, and featured on the Best Identity Management Solutions list of 2017 by PC Magazine. Optimal IdM received 4 stars and an editor rating of Excellent.

About Optimal IdM

Optimal IdM is a global provider of innovative and affordable identity access management solutions. Optimal IdM partners with clients to provide comprehensive, fully customizable enterprise level solutions that meet the specific security and scalability needs of their organizations. Optimal IdM offers its solutions both on premise and in the cloud as a 100% managed service offering. Customers include Fortune 1000 companies, as well as federal, state and local government agencies all over the world. Founded in 2005, Optimal IdM is privately held and has been profitable in every quarter since inception. Visit www.optimalidm.com for more information.

Media Contact:

Dan Chmielewski

Madison Alexander PR

714-832-8716

949-231-2965

dchm@madisonalexanderpr.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/519a1031-e4b2-44b1-a7ea-5070f6bf4e9e




Russian English Latvian

A court in the Netherlands has confirmed the right of the Russian Federation to use the vodka trademarks Stolichnaya, Stoli and Moskovskaya in the Benelux countries, but this will not have any effect on the output or sales volumes of Latvias largest producer of alcoholic beverages, Latvijas Balzams. Central export markets for the products have not changed  the United States, Italy, Spain, the UK, Canada and Greece.

Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya brand beverages have not been sold in the Benelux countries since 2015, and in provisional terms the court ruling would affect a very small part of our business, maybe just 1% or so of output, says Latvijas Balzams board chairman Intars Geidans. For that reason, the ruling will not affect Latvijas Balzams operations. Well follow along with the further development of the case, and the SPI Group will appeal the ruling before the Dutch Supreme Court.

As has been reported in the past, there has been a dispute for several years now between the Russian state-owned Soyuzplodoimport company and the SPI Group, which includes the Amber Beverage Group in Latvia. That, in turn, is the leading shareholder in the Latvijas Balzams joint stock company. Over the course of 13 years of court proceedings, the companies have proven unable to divide up rights to the vodka trademarks.

The Dutch approach to this case has been markedly different to that of courts in other developed countries. To illustrate, the Dutch decision comes shortly after three significant victories for SPI in Brazil, the United States and Australia. On October 31, 2017  the Federal Court of Appeal in Brazil confirmed SPIs ownership of the Stolichnaya trademarks; the decision was unanimous, and came after several interlocutory decisions in SPIs favor, including at the Superior Court of Justices level, and after the Federal Court of Rio de Janeiros March 2016 ruling in SPIs favor on the merits. In the United States, the case before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was stayed November 3, 2017, due to a failure to produce documents from the Russian Federation. On November 20, 2017, the case before the Federal Court of Australia was also stayed due to a failure to produce documents from the Russian Federation; if that failure is not remedied within a certain time period, the case will be subject to dismissal.

Latvijas Balzams wishes to point out once again that the ruling of the court at the Hague only applies to the sale of Stolichnaya, Stoli and Moskovskaya brand beverages in the Benelux countries. Apart from those three countries, the SPI Group and its allies have registered trademarks in more than 180 countries.

Further information:
TORONTO, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Perseverance. Tenacity. Determination. These are just some of the words associated with the more than one in five Canadians born abroad and now call Canada home. For the past decade, the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards have highlighted stories of success and inspiration made by Canadian immigrants who have demonstrated incredible contributions and achievements in their communities and for the country.



Calling all inspiring immigrants!

Is there an inspiring newcomer in your life? Do they have a story that should be heard and celebrated across Canada? Canadian Immigrant and Royal Bank of Canada are now calling on nominations for the 10th annual RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards. With 2018 being the 10th anniversary, over 250 inspirational immigrants will have been recognized by this awards program over the last decade.

The awards program is presented by Canadian Immigrant, a national multimedia platform to help immigrants settle and succeed in Canada and has been proudly supported by founding and title sponsor Royal Bank of Canada since 2009. The 2018 winners will be in good company. Past winners include two former Governor Generals of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson and Michaelle Jean, national broadcaster Ian Hanomansing, star chef Vikram Vij, entrepreneur/film producer Ajay Virmani, and ballerina Chan Hon Goh, to name just a few.

This is a very special year for the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards, said Margaret Jetelina, editor of Canadian Immigrant. Recognizing the contributions that immigrants make to Canada is important as our countrys population becomes more diverse than ever. Each year, the RBC Top 25 winners are very diverse in professional background and ancestry, but one thing they all have in common is a deep desire to give back to their adopted country. This will also be the fourth year that sponsor RBC selects one of the winners for the RBC Entrepreneur Award and the second year for the Youth Award, which recognizes the achievements of young immigrants (between 15 and 30) who are making a difference in their adopted country through achievement and/or service, and show great potential as long-term nation builders. Similar to our RBC Entrepreneur Award, the Youth Award will be an additional honour given to one of the RBC Top 25 winners. No special application process required.

Whats New?

Brand new this year is the Settlement Agency Award. Canadian Immigrant and RBC want to recognize the amazing work immigrant settlement agencies are doing to help newcomers integrate and succeed in Canada. Concurrent with the RBC Top 25 campaign, we invite nominations from across the country for the top immigrant settlement agencies in your community. A shortlist will be posted at www.canadianimmigrant.ca/rbctop25 for an online voting process. One agency will be selected to receive the Settlement Agency Award for 2018.

These awards celebrate the significant contributions Canadian immigrants have made in communities across Canada, said Ivy Chiu, Senior Director, Newcomer Strategy, RBC. As we reflect on the amazing achievements weve seen over the past 10 years, we can look ahead and be proud of all that we have accomplished together, and all that we will in years to come.

Eligibility

A nominee can be anyone who has immigrated to Canada and has since contributed to the success and uplifting of this country and/or its people. Achievements can be either professional or personal. Nominees must hold landed immigrant (permanent resident) or citizen status in Canada, and must reside in Canada.

Nomination Process

Nominations can be made by visiting canadianimmigrant.ca/rbctop25 until February 26, 2018, 11:59 pm EST. A distinguished panel of judges made up of past winners will review all nominees and present a list of 75 finalists who will be announced in March, after which all Canadians can vote for their favourite nominees.

The 25 winners will be announced in June 2018 in print and online at canadianimmigrant.ca. Winners will also receive a commemorative plaque and $500 toward a charity of their choice provided by RBC. Media partners include Toronto Star, Metro and Sing Tao.

About Canadian Immigrant

Attracting more than 400,000 readers each month and over 100,000 visitors a month online, Canadian Immigrant is a national multimedia platform to help immigrants succeed in Canada, with content, resources and events on careers, education and settlement. Canadian Immigrant is the producer of the cross-country Career, Education and Settlement Immigrant Fairs. Canadian Immigrant is a division of Metroland Media Group, a dynamic media company with more than 100 community and daily newspapers in print and online, as well as innovative websites including wheels.ca, goldbook.ca, flyerland.ca and localwork.ca.

About RBC

Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 80,000 employees who bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canadas biggest bank, and one of the largest in the world based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our 16 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 35 other countries. For more information, please visit rbc.com.

We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at rbc.com/community-sustainability.

For more information, contact:

Canadian Immigrant

Madelaine Gileadi, 416-516-0205, mgileadi@metroland.com

RBC

Sophie Connor, 647-823-4790, sophie.connor@rbc.com
A woman who obtained stolen goods and accidentally sold the items back to their owner has escaped jail time.

Louise Surgenor, 23, appeared at Tauranga District Court on Wednesday facing a number of charges for obtaining and attempting to sell stolen goods.

The charges relate to around $5000 of stolen property.

Judge David Cameron described the incident as an unusual one.

Once obtained, some of the items were then sold on TradeMe to their original owner.

He says the owner had at the time already claimed insurance on the stolen items.

It is a serious offence not only to obtain stolen goods, but to then sell them on as well.

In this instance, you have managed to sell those goods on to the person whom they belong to.

You say you were unaware at the time that was the owner of the goods and have indicated that you are very remorseful.

After meeting and speaking with the owner you say they are a very nice person.

He asked the woman to take into account the seriousness of her offending.

This is a charge which usually results in people going to jail.

He ordered she pay reparation costs of $500 directly to the owner to cover insurance excess costs and serve 60 hours community work.
Dallas TX, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Bayport International Holdings, Inc. (OTC PINK: BAYP) is pleased to unveil its new cannabis technology platform, www.Ecannago.com. The platform remains under construction, but the new platform will allow cannabis companies to have a wide array of tools to list, advertise, market, and sell their brand of products. Ecannago will provide companies another with another method to interact and gain awareness with cannabis consumers.

Once completed, Ecannago platform will join Bayports flagship cannabis technology asset, Weedwiser.com. Managements primary objective in the immediate future is to complete development and launch of the Ecannago platform and Weedwisers ecommerce addition. Developers continue to make progress every day and additional information will be announced shortly.

The announcement comes just one day after the Vermont State legislature becomes the first in the nation to legalize recreational cannabis. Unlike the other eight states that have legalized recreational cannabis through ballot measures, the Vermont State legislature approved a bill that is expected to be signed by Governor Phil Scott.

Vermonts major move could soon inspire other state legislatures to follow suit. In fact, similar legalization bills are scheduled to be introduced in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Keep in mind we are also less than two weeks into Californias new recreational cannabis system. State governments are responding to the overwhelming shift in cannabis support among its constituents. According to a recent Gallup poll, 64% of Americans said they supported legalizing cannabis.

Bayport continues to watch the cannabis legalization movement and the potential opportunities that become available. Management is very pleased with the way the companys vision is coming together, as its cannabis tech ecosystem continues to expand.

About Bayport International Holdings, Inc. (OTC PINK: BAYP):

Bayport International Holdings, Inc. is a holding company active within the cannabis technology industry. Through its Weedwiser.com and Ecannago.com digital platforms, the company seeks to be a leader in the emerging cannabis technology industry. Furthermore, the company is currently evaluating acquisitions within the industry. Learn more about the company by visiting http://www.weedwiser.com, www.ecannago.com and www.baypcanna.com.

Safe Harbor

This release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements appear in a number of places in this release and include all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of Bayport International Holdings, its directors or its officers with respect to, among other things: (i) financing plans; (ii) trends affecting its financial condition or results of operations; (iii) growth strategy and operating strategy. The words "may," "would," "will," "expect," "estimate," "can," "believe," "potential" and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Bayport International Holding's ability to control, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. More information about the potential factors that could affect the business and financial results is and will be included in Bayport International Holding's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Police have released the name of the woman who was killed following a crash near Pohlen Road, Waikato on Sunday.

She is 38-year-old Jocelyn Irene Williams of Hastings.

Jocelyn died following a single vehicle crash on State Highway 27 near Matamata.

Two children who were travelling in the car at the time were critically injured in the crash.

A man who was also in the car at the time was reported as being in a serious condition.

Our condolences are extended to the family and friends of Jocelyn, says a police media spokesperson.
Creative Bay of Plenty general manager Lena Kovac has resigned, stepping into the vacant role of funding and empowerment advisor for the organisation.

In a statement released by Creative Bay of Plenty, Lena cites a need to spend more time with her young family as the principle reason for the change.

Funding and empowerment advisor Meg Davis has been appointed to the general manager role following a compelling presentation to the CBOP Board in which she outlined her vision for the organisation and for arts and culture in Tauranga and the Western Bay.

Meg has significant experience developing cultural engagement initiatives in the corporate sector and has built strong relationships in the community since she joined CBOP in June.

Creative Bay of Plenty board of trustees chair Michelle Whitmore says they are very excited about the new appointments as they ensure the organisation is poised to implement the Arts and Culture Strategy in 2018.

We anticipate that extra resource will be added to implement some key actions of the A & C strategy, but this will be addressed once we have had feedback from the community consultation process on our Long Term Plan submission which begins in March, she says.

We are excited to begin 2018 as we embark on delivering the vision for our region to build on its established base as a hub of creativity and innovation - a place where residents interact with art and culture every day.
A $10,000 funding boost for surf lifeguards on Western Bay beaches this summer has helped bridge the funding gap for weekly patrols, says Western Bay Mayor Garry Webber.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council lifted its annual funding for the Surf Life Saving New Zealand lifeguards to $92,642, enabling 14 paid professional lifeguards to be on duty during the week at Waihi Beach, Bowentown, Maketu and Pukehina throughout the peak holiday season from December through most of January.

They are part of a national charity representing 74 Surf Lifesaving Clubs in New Zealand that patrol more than 80 locations. The additional lifeguards will patrol during the week, while weekend patrols are covered by volunteer lifeguards.

Tauranga City Council contributes $180,000 to the service on Mount Maunganui, Omanu and Papamoa beaches.

"As a nation we rely heavily on a mainly volunteer-based lifeguard service to keep people from harm. The lifeguards work through all weathers and conditions to ensure our beaches are as safe as possible, says Gary.

The Council funding extends the professional mid-week lifeguard service to tie in with the volunteer weekend guards to provide full week lifeguard patrols for the public.

Eastern Regional Manager for SLSNZ, Chris Emmett, says local council funding is critical to sustain the level of service needed through the busiest time of summer.

"The Western Bay beaches are getting busier every year and we work really hard to keep our level of service high, says Chris.

"While our lifeguards provide a lifeline for swimmers, the support from councils is a lifeline for Surf Lifesaving New Zealand. Their funding is spent almost entirely on the lifeguards wages. Without this support we would not be able to sustain this level of service during week days.
Welcome to passengers from the Sun Princess, which is due to sail out at 5.30pm.

Today is a perfect day to go fishing off a local wharf.

In todays weather forecast we are expecting morning and evening cloud with the chance of a shower, otherwise fine. A mild northerly should be developing afternoon.

Its a one-clothing layer day today with a high of 25 and an overnight low of 20 degrees. Humidity is 92%.

Low tide is at 10am, and high tide is at 4.10pm. Sea temperature is a 20 degrees. Theres an average sea swell of .5m. For you surfers, just a heads up that theres a bit of swell coming on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Sunset tonight is at 8.36pm.

If youre going fishing today the best fish bite times are between 8.30 and 10.30pm.

This day in NZ history in 1954 Queen Elizabeth II opened Parliament. A crowd of 50,000 greeted Queen Elizabeth II, resplendent in her coronation gown, when she opened a special session of the New Zealand Parliament in its centennial year.

In world history on this day in 1872 Russian Grand Duke Alexis went on a buffalo hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. In 1879 the British-Zulu War began. In 1908 a wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In 1940 Soviet bombers raided cities in Finland. In 1982 Peking protested the sale of U.S. planes to Taiwan. In 1998 nineteen European nations agreed to prohibit human cloning. In 2010 an earthquake in Haiti killed an estimated 316,000 people.

Today is the birthday John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. Born in 1737, he said "The more people who own little businesses of their own, the safer our country will be, and the better off its cities and towns; for the people who have a stake in their country and their community are its best citizens.

To get involved in activities across the Bay please check out our Whats On page.

Have a great day!
Dublin, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Pesticide Registration in Viet Nam 2017" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.



Viet Nam imports pesticides from over 50 countries and regions, the imported pesticide situation is stable at around 160 million tons/year, equivalent to 825-860 million USD. The importation increased rapidly in 2016, as imports in the first 9 months of 2016 were equivalent to 90+ percent both of the total value and volume of 2015.

This report is the only report in English offering advice and guidance on how to get product approval and navigate the complex regulatory procedures, and who to contact in Viet Nam.

Key Topics Covered:



Executive summary



Chapter 1: Introduction of Viet Nam Agriculture and Pesticide Market

1.1 Soils and Topography of Viet Nam

1.1.1 North-eastern Region

1.1.2 Northeast Hoang Lien Son Region

1.1.3 The North-west (Tay Bac Region)

1.1.4 Northern Central Region

1.1.5 Central Southern Coastal Region

1.1.6 North-west Delta Region

1.1.7 Tay Nguyen Region

1.1.8 The South-eastern Region

1.1.9 Mekong Delta Region

1.2 Climate and Agro-Ecological Zones

1.2.1 North-eastern Region

1.2.2 Northeast Hoang Lien Son Region

1.2.3 The North-west (Tay Bac Region)

1.2.4 Northern Central Region

1.2.5 Central Southern Coastal Region

1.2.6 North-west Delta Region

1.2.7 Tay Nguyen Region

1.2.8 The South-eastern Region

1.2.9 Mekong Delta Region

1.3 Crops Distribution in Viet Nam

1.4 Crop Distribution in Viet Nam

1.5 Main Pests

1.6 Challenge for agriculture in Viet Nam

1.7 Agricultural development strategy until 2020

1.8 Imported Pesticides Situation in Viet Nam



Chapter 2: Pesticide Industry History of Viet Nam

2.1 Stage one: before 1957

2.2 Stage two: 1957-1990

2.3 Stage three: 1990-now



Chapter 3: Pesticides Regulatory Authorities of Viet Nam

3.1 Plant Protection Department

3.1.1 The responsibilities of pesticide management

3.1.2 The responsibilities of pesticide testing

3.1.3 The responsibilities of pesticide production management

3.1.4 The responsibilities of import and export management

3.1.5 The responsibilities of pesticide quality control

3.1.6 The responsibilities of pesticide conformity management

3.1.7 The responsibilities of pesticide advertising management

3.1.8 The responsibilities of pesticide application management

3.2 Pesticide Registration Agency



Chapter 4: Legal Framework of Pesticide Registration of Viet Nam

4.1 Legal System for Pesticide Registrations

4.2 Pesticide Definition



Chapter 5: Pesticide Product Registration of Viet Nam

5.1 General provisions on pesticide product registration

5.1.1 General principles on pesticide product registration

5.1.2 Pesticide products banned for registration in Viet Nam

5.1.3 Restricted pesticide products

5.1.4 Registration procedure

5.2 Issuance, reissuance of pesticide testing

5.2.1 General principles of issuance of the permit for pesticide testing

5.2.2 Application, process and procedures for issuance of the testing permit used as a necessary document submitted to apply for the official registration

5.2.3 Documentation included in the application, process and procedure for issuance of the testing permit used as a necessary document to apply for the supplemental registration

5.2.4 Documentation included in the application, process and procedure for reissuance of the testing permit

5.3 Issuance, reissuance and renewal of the certificate of pesticide product registration

5.3.1 Application, process and procedure for issuance of the Certificate of pesticide product registration

5.3.2 Application, process and procedure for renewal of the Certificate of pesticide product registration

5.3.3 Application, process and procedure for reissuance of the Certificate of pesticide product registration in case of being lost, damaged or containing errors

5.3.4 Application, process and procedure for reissuance of the Certificate of pesticide product registration in case of change made to commercial names, information concerning organizations or individuals applying for registration



Chapter 6: Pesticide Product Testing of Viet Nam

6.1 General principles of pesticide product testing

6.2 Testing process

6.3 Guidance on conditions that pesticide testing organizations must meet to conduct pesticide product testing



Chapter 7: Pesticide Product's Technical Documents of Viet Nam

7.1 Requirements for format of the technical documents

7.2 Requirements for content of the technical documents

7.3 Technical document for pesticide registration



Chapter 8: Pesticide Quality Control of Viet Nam

8.1 Basis for quality inspection

8.2 Regulatory inspection of imported pesticide product quality

8.3 Application, process for State inspection of imported pesticide product quality

8.4 Complaint handling and imposition of penalty for violations arising in the regulatory inspection of imported pesticide product quality

8.5 Responsibilities of the conformity assessment organization

8.6 Responsibilities of importers of pesticide products

8.7 Regulatory quality inspection of pesticide products circulated in the market



Chapter 9: Recall and Eradication Pesticide Product of Viet Nam

9.1 Process for compulsory recall of pesticide products

9.2 Authority to grant the decision on compulsory recall of pesticide products



Chapter 10: Pesticide Label of Viet Nam

10.1 General principles of pesticide product labels

10.1.1 Principles of pesticide product labeling

10.1.2 Position, size of labels mounted on pesticide products

10.1.3 Color, presentation of texts, symbols and images used on the pesticide product label

10.1.4 Presentation language

10.1.5 Contents printed on the pesticide product label

10.2 Compulsory contents printed on the pesticide product label

10.2.1 Compulsory contents printed on the formulated pesticide product label

10.2.2 Secondary pesticide product label

10.2.3 Compulsory contents printed on the technical pesticides

10.3 Pesticide product labeling method

10.3.1 Method of printing compulsory contents on the pesticide product label



Chapter 11: Analysis on Current Registrations of Viet Nam

11.1 Permissible plant protection substances in Viet Nam

11.2 Plant protection substances banned in Viet Nam

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d7n9q9/pesticide?w=12




A three-year-old boy from Marbella died on Sunday after being run over by a car in the Azalea shopping centre car park in San Pedro. Four young British men aged between 20 and 24, on holiday in Marbella, were travelling in the car that ran over the boy as it reversed out of a parking space. The 24-year-old driver was breathalysed and no alcohol was detected. However, drug test results have revealed traces of cocaine in his saliva.

The tourists had briefly parked their rental car, a Hyundai Tucson, in the car park in order to retrieve a cap that had blown into the street, and the young boy was going to the shopping centre with his grandmother, who had just parked. The boy, who is French, had just got out the car as the British driver began leaving the parking space.

Related news Three-year-old boy dies after being run over in a car park in San Pedro

The emergency services were called at 2.10pm and paramedics attended to the toddler in the car park. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do to save his life and he was eventually proclaimed dead at the scene.

This accident has delivered a tough blow to the local Jewish community that the victims family belongs to.

The DrugTest which was used to confirm the drivers consumption of cocaine can only detect drug use 24 to 48 hours prior to the test so there is currently no evidence that the driver was under the influence of narcotics at the time of the incident. He did not show any physical signs of recent drug use. Therefore, the results of the test will be sent to a laboratory to assess the time of consumption more accurately.

The driver has been interrogated as part of the polices ongoing investigation into a possible case of negligent manslaughter.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shipt, a leading online grocery marketplace, today announced that it will launch service in new markets across the state of Texas. Beginning January 18, 2018, Shipt will begin offering home delivery from H-E-B stores in Abilene, Brownsville, McAllen, the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro area, and the Midland/Odessa metro area.



Shipt originally launched its partnership with H-E-B in San Antonio in May of 2016, and has since expanded to service 14 markets in Texas. To celebrate the expansion, new Shipt members who sign up prior to the launch in these areas will receive $50 off an annual membership (normally $99).

In the past year, weve seen tremendous growth with H-E-B, an incredible partner and beloved retailer in the state of Texas. Together, our latest expansion brings the simplicity and convenience of grocery delivery to more families across the state, said Bill Smith, founder and CEO of Shipt. Moving into the new year, we are as committed as ever to serving our retail partners, including H-E-B. We plan to continue expanding rapidly across the country to bring the magic of Shipt to as many families as possible.

Shipts marketplace will deliver the full selection of items from H-E-B, giving customers the ability to browse their local stores aisles online, and access to various categories featuring healthy ingredients, seasonal selections, and inspiration for quick, easy meals.

We continue to expand services with Shipt to reach even more H-E-B customers throughout Texas, providing them with a new way to access the quality produce and products H-E-B is known for, said Paul Tepfenhart, Group Vice President of Omnichannel Retail for H-E-B. This expansion marks our continued commitment to serving communities across our great state.

Shipt connects members with a community of Shoppers who handpick their items and deliver them as soon as one hour after the order is placed. Leading up to the expansion, Shipt plans to grow their network of Shoppers, who are responsible for ensuring complete, accurate fulfillments of each order. To apply to be a Shipt Shopper, visit Shipt.com and click Get Paid to Shop.



About Shipt

Shipt, the nation's fastest growing online grocery marketplace, works with leading retailers and local stores to deliver groceries via a community of shoppers and a convenient app. Since its founding in 2014, Shipt has been rapidly expanding and now offers quality, personalized grocery delivery to over 30 million households in more than 70 markets across the country. Shipt offers unlimited grocery deliveries to members for $99 per year. The company currently has offices in Birmingham, AL, and San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit Shipt.com.

About H-E-B

H-E-B, with sales of more than $24.6 billion, operates more than 390 stores in Texas and Mexico. Known for its innovation and community service, H-E-B celebrated its 110th anniversary in 2015. Recognized for its fresh food, quality products, convenient services, and a commitment to environmental responsibility and sustainability, H-E-B strives to provide the best customer experience at everyday low prices. Based in San Antonio, H-E-B employs more than 106,000 Partners in Texas and Mexico and serves millions of customers in more than 300 communities. For more information, visit heb.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: press@shipt.com | (205) 799-4698
Jim Bishop, chairman of the local unit of the Salvation Army, reported that the Smyth County Red Kettle Drive brought in $52,410.88, approximately $2,500 more than the annual goal of $50,000 and the amount raised during the 2016 campaign.

The annual Salvation Army campaign gets under way in Smyth County the Thursday after Thanksgiving and ends on Christmas Eve, a total of about 25 days. Kettles are not manned on Sundays. Between 300 and 350 volunteers are needed to ring the bell and man the kettles at several locations throughout the county.

Bishop pointed out that the local VFW post has been supportive and active in the red kettle drive for many years.

The VFW is a big part of our success. They support us wholeheartedly. They are bell ringers and members of the Salvation Army and they provide us with a place to store the kettles when they are not in use and a place for us to meet when we need to. They also provide the food for the bell ringers dinner, Bishop said.

Most of the donations come from local people, including less fortunate people who still want to and manage to give, Bishop said.

All of the money goes to help the people in Smyth County. Most of it goes for utilities and food. We help anybody thats in need. The money we collect doesnt go out of Smyth County, Bishop said.

I would like to thank all the volunteers that stand out in the wind and cold and man the kettles, the team leaders that get people to ring the bells, the young people that get involved, especially those at Atkins Elementary and the staff who raised approximately $1,000 this year, and the generosity of the people of Smyth County. We have one of the most dedicated groups of people that, year after year, they do this and with a smile, he said.

Bishop has been active in the Salvation Army and the local VFW post for many years. He became involved with the local red kettle drive when he moved back to the area after over 20 years of service in the U.S. Navy and Army followed by a successful civilian career teaching in the prison system and operating his own electrician business. Bishop agreed to take on the duties of chairing the local drive in 2016.

Although the red kettle drive has ended, the Salvation Army accepts donations all year long. Checks can be mailed to the Salvation Army at P.O. Box 133, Marion, VA 24354 at any time.

Anyone needing assistance can call 276-783-8785 from 12-4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Isodiol International Inc. (CSE:ISOL) (OTC:ISOLF) (FSE:LB6A.F) (the Company or Isodiol), a global Bioactive Phytoceutical innovator specializing in the development of pharmaceutical and wellness products, is pleased to announce that it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Nuuvera Holdings Limited (TSXV:NUU), a global cannabis company founded on Canadian principles, and built with the whole world in mind.



Isodiol and Nuuvera have agreed to import 99%+ pure, bioactive pharma-grade cannabidiol ('CBD') isolate into Canada from Isodiols GMP-certified production facility in the United Kingdom. The product, certified as a pharmaceutical-grade, will be imported into Canada through Nuuveras subsidiary, ARA - Avanti Rx Analytics Inc. ("Avanti"), a Health Canada GMP-certified laboratory holding a dealer license under the Narcotic Control Regulations and Office of Controlled Substances.

Since establishing Isodiol, we have focused on developing and marketing the highest quality, raw material for use in a range of proprietary, pharma grade nutritional and health related remedies, said CEO of Isodiol, Marcos Agramont. We are very pleased that our new partner, Nuuvera, which brings to the table extensive knowledge and expertise in the fields of quality control, cannabis extraction, purification, product development and R&D, shares Isodiols vision for an industry built upon quality, consistency, safety, and ultimately, efficacy. Isodiol and Nuuvera are at the global forefront of innovation in the cannabis industry, and the ability to import to Canada is truly ground-breaking for both companies.

This agreement marks a meaningful step in Nuuvera executing its strategy to utilize its extensive international operational and production base, built upon a network of GMP-certified analytical testing, extraction, cannabinoid purification, and product formulation facilities, to enhance Canadas standing as a global leader in this important, emerging sector, said Lorne Abony, Chief Executive Officer of Nuuvera. This agreement is prescient and truly ground-breaking in leading the way to providing the best quality and variety of cannabis products to Canadians and in demonstrating Canadian foresight and leadership in setting the standard for cannabis-related health remedies globally.

Under the LOI terms, Nuuvera will import to Canada a Isodiols CBD isolate and conduct analytical testing in its Toronto-area laboratory to ensure that the product conforms to Isodiols rigorous product specifications. Nuuvera intends, ultimately, to import up to 30,000 kg of CBD isolate per month for the purposes of R&D, product formulation and production of pharma-grade derivative products. Through its licensed subsidiaries, Nuuvera intends to then sell such products in Canada and via export to appropriately licensed international medical cannabis jurisdictions.

Upon successful initial import and product testing, Nuuvera and Isodiol intend to execute a Definitive Supply Agreement, the terms of which are already substantively agreed upon. The activities contemplated by the LOI remain subject to applicable regulatory approvals, including those from Health Canada and the TSX Venture Exchange.

For more information on Isodiol, please visit www.isodiol.com

For more information on Nuuvera, please visit www.nuuvera.com

About Isodiol International Inc.

Isodiol International Inc. is the market leader in pharmaceutical grade phytochemical compounds and the industry leader in the manufacturing and development of phytoceutical consumer products.

Isodiol is the pioneer of many firsts for the cannabis industry including commercialization of 99%+ pure, bioactive pharmaceutical grade cannabinoids, micro-encapsulations, and nanotechnology for the highest quality consumable and topical skin care products.

Isodiol's growth strategy includes the development of over-the-counter and pharmaceutical drugs, expanding its phytoceutical portfolio and will aggressively continue international expansion into Latin America, Asia and Europe.

About Nuuvera Holdings Limited

Nuuvera Holdings Limited is a global cannabis company founded on Canadian principles, and built with the whole world in mind. Nuuvera is currently working with partners in Germany, Israel and Italy, and is exploring opportunities in several other countries, to develop commercial production and global distribution of medical grade cannabis in legalized markets. Through its subsidiaries, ARA  Avanti Rx Analytics Inc. and Avalon Pharmaceutical Inc., Nuuvera holds a Dealer License (GMP) under the Narcotic Control Regulations and Office of Controlled Substances. Nuuvera is currently in the final stages of the Health Canada review process to become a Licensed Producer of medical marijuana under the ACMPR, and has recently received its letter to build approval.

Join Us On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/isodiol/

Twitter: @isodiol

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Marcos Agramont , CEO & Director

INVESTOR RELATIONS:

Ir@isodiol.com

www.isodiol.com

MEDIA CONTACT:

Carrie Booze

North 6th Agency

212-334-9753 ext.142

Isodiol@n6a.com

Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future the Companys business, its product offerings and plans for sales and marketing. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Company's products and plan will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation, and does not intend, to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and makes no reference to profitability based on sales reported. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release.
IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Identillect Technologies Corp. (the "Company" or "Identillect") (TSX-V:ID) (OTCQB:IDTLF) (Frankfurt:8ID), a trusted leading provider of HIPAA compliant email security, announced today Community Dental Partners, Inc. (CDP) has selected Delivery Trust to secure the email communications of the dental practices they support nation-wide.



CDP actively supports the dental community by providing much needed division of labor in the running of back end dental practice processes. CDP takes a unique approach to improve the efficiency by facilitating the compliance, financial and administrative aspects of the practices they support. Ryan Meyer, IT Director of CDP states, Our aim is to enable doctors to focus on what they do best, patient care, leaving the time-consuming and complex backend operations to our team of professionals. Leveraging Identillects Delivery Trust for secure, compliant communications aligns perfectly with our mission to streamline and simplify technical and compliance requirements for dental practices.

As pointed out in a recent Dental IQ article, dental offices make for highly attractive targets for hackers and cybercriminals due to the belief they generally lack online security. Todd Sexton, CEO of Identillect comments, Over 14 thousand dental practices in North America are leveraging external support to help them meet demanding cybersecurity and compliance needs. CDP plays a crucial role in the success of the practices they support and understands the need for HIPAA compliant security software like Delivery Trust. Identillect is well positioned to assist entities such as CDP to meet demanding compliance needs as they aim to best serve the practices they support.

The dental industry continues to be a rising segment of the medical community, with 249 million Americans receiving dental benefits yearly, spending more than $124.4 billion in 2016. They have seen a significant rise in data breaches based on the enormous amount of medical information being distributed on a yearly basis and therefore are spending greater amounts of their budget to contain this problem. This will be a trend expected to continue in the next several years to come.

About Community Dental Partners

CDP, established in 2010, was designed for dentists by dentists who recognized the need to partner with responsible business experts. CDPs leadership team is comprised of some of the most respected authorities in the industry working together to enhance the lives of their dentist partners. The mission of CDP is to uplift the dental industry and preserve the independence, opportunity and contribution of dentists though their unique dentist partnership model. Working in concert with clinical and business experts, CDP provides dentists with the highest level of guidance, technology, resources, and relationships so they can enhance their clinical skills and expand business growth.

About Identillect

Identillect Technologies is the leading provider of email encryption service Delivery Trust, empowering enterprises of all sizes to protect their business and their clients critical information against cyber security attacks.

Delivery Trust is an award-winning, multi-platform plug-in, which gives users complete control of their emails, for one low price. One simple integration complies with all regulations and most importantly provides peace of mind.

For more information, or your free trial, please visit www.identillect.com

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of:

IDENTILLECT TECHNOLOGIES CORP.

Todd Sexton

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (949) 468-7878

Email: todd.sexton@identillect.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward-looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.




SCOTTSDALE, Az., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northsight Capital Inc. ("NCAP") has completed its acquisition of Crush Mobile, LLC (www.CrushMobileApps.com). Crush Mobile, with approximately nine hundred thousand members, has developed a group of dating sites with a presence in the Latino, Israeli and African American communities. With Crush now a part of Northsights growing media group, Crush will also be incorporating into its dating applications suite Northsight's "Joint Lovers" dating app, which will concentrate on the Cannabis space.



There are an estimated 50 million people in the U.S. that have tried online dating. The online dating industry generates total combined revenues of an estimated $1.7 billion. Crush Mobile has one of the leading dating apps targeting the Jewish, Latino and African American communities, giving millennials an efficient way to form meaningful relationships. Crush's targeted apps have among the most advanced chat features of all dating apps on the market. Crush Mobile's white label technology allows for seamless and customizable replication into a wide community of specific apps with built-in monetization potential, which presents new opportunities for both users and advertisers.

Crush's management team has previously developed several well-known and successful social media sites, and has vast experience in startup growth, mobile software, lead generation, and brand and marketing expertise. This combined knowledge and experience should facilitate advancing NCAP's media platform to revenues and profitability.

Following the closing, the Crush Mobile management team will initially become consultants and part of day-to-day operations of NCAP. Crush Mobile agreed to waive the condition that NCAP raise $500,000 prior to closing.

Northsight is currently seeking additional acquisitions in the Cannabis Media space and will announce them if and when they occur.

ItayKoren, Chairman, Crush Mobile, and future Chairman, Northsight Capital, stated: "We are thrilled to be joining such a great partner. Crush Mobile brands' technology and management team together with NCAP's significant media platform will help create a unique entity, well-positioned to benefit from increased resources and improved financial strength. Together, we can leverage the strengths of each company to scale, grow and provide an exceptional user experience."

John Venners, NCAP EVP and Director stated: "Crush Mobile provides strong management, a robust technology platform and a large community of users, all of which should enable the combined company to build a compelling media, branding and advertising platform in the cannabis space."

About Crush Mobile Apps

Crush Mobile revolutionizes the way millennials connect for long-term dating by uniting them based on demographics. Crush Mobile helps singles find love through demographically targeted apps for iPhone and Android for specific audiences such as Jewish, Latino and African American. Crush's white label technology allows for easy replication into a wide range of niche apps that help users of a similar background find, chat and meet with their Crushes. By having an umbrella and demographically targeted platforms, Crush generates higher retention and user value while still capturing the overall market size. Crush's targeted apps with built-in monetization potential present new opportunities for both users and advertisers.

About Northsight Capital, Inc.

Northsight Capital, Inc. ("NCAP") is comprised of a portfolio of online marijuana-related websites developed and operated by the company. These sites incorporate many aspects of the marijuana industry. The company provides its audience with a means to stay informed on the industry's most cutting-edge marijuana-related innovations and legislation. The company's most dynamic concept, Weed Depot, provides consumers with a geo-targeted map directory of medical and recreational dispensaries, head shops, doctors, attorneys and more within the marijuana industry. The Weed Depot app can be downloaded for free at the iTunes Store and Google Play. Weed Depot has an entire platform of content suited for every aspect of advertising and marketing to consumers from all businesses in the cannabis industry.

The company's 420 careers is a leading job site in the Cannabis space with 2,000 to 3,000 visitors a day and approximately 1 million page views per month.

Northsight's current websites include:

www.Weeddepot.com

www.420careers.com

www.MJBizwire.com

www.MarijuanaRecipes.com

RateMyStrain.com

Wikiweed.com

MarijuanaMD.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

Various statements in this release, including those that express a belief, expectation or intention, may be considered "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from projected results. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. The forward-looking statements may include projections and estimates concerning the timing and success of specific projects or transactions. Forward-looking statements may also include projections and estimates concerning our future operating results and financial condition. When we use the words "will," "believe," "intend," "expect," "may," "should," "anticipate," "could," "estimate," "plan," "predict," "project," or their negatives, or other similar expressions, the statements which include those words are usually forward-looking statements. When we describe strategy that involves risks or uncertainties, we are making forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release; we disclaim any obligation to update these statements. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and assumptions about future events. While our management considers these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks, contingencies and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control.

John Venners, 480-385-3800

Info@NorthsightCapital.com

SOURCE: Uptick Newswire
Smelling a partner's scent from clothing may help reduce stress levels, a new psychological study finds. However, smelling a stranger's clothing results in opposite effect.

Smelling A Partner's Scent May Help Reduce Stress

In the new study, researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada attempted to examine the psychological effects of smelling t-shirts that were worn by romantic partners or strangers.

The researchers took in 96 opposite-sex couples and instructed the male participants among them to wear a clean t-shirt each for 24 hours without putting on any perfumes or deodorants.

The researchers also told the male participants to not smoke and consume foods that would otherwise alter the scent of their bodies. After the 24-hour period, the researchers then froze the worn t-shirts in order to preserve their scent.

Then, the researchers gave two t-shirts each to the female participants to smell. One of the t-shirts either belonged to a partner or to a stranger and the other one was not worn. The researchers did not inform the women about which t-shirts they were giving them.

Also, they selected women as their main subjects in the study because they have the tendency to have a stronger sense of smell than men.

Stress Test

The researchers later instructed the women to undergo a stress test that included a mock job interview, a math task, and also answer questions related to their stress levels.

The women also provided the researchers with saliva samples in order to calculate the levels of their cortisol.

The Results

According to the results of the study, the researchers found that women who smelled their partner's t-shirt felt calmer and less stressed before and after they underwent the stress test.

In other words, they found that smelling a partner's clothing was related to lower levels of the stress hormone known as cortisol in women's blood.

They also found that the women who smelled their partner's t-shirt and managed to recognize the familiar smell also had lower levels of cortisol. According to the researchers, this suggests that the benefits of smelling a partner's scent are much more effective when women know what they are smelling.

A Stranger's Scent Produces The Opposite Effect

Smelling a stranger's scent, on the other hand, had left the female participants with higher levels of cortisol throughout the stress test, the researchers discovered.

This could be related to how humans fear strangers especially strange men, said Marlise Hofer, who is the lead author of the study and a graduate student at the University of British Columbia's department of psychology.

The research was published on Jan. 3 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An infectious strain of canine influenza virus that caused a major outbreak in Asia and some parts of the United States has now reached Canadian territory.

On Monday, two dogs in Ontario were confirmed by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit to be infected with H3N2. Two other dogs exhibited similar symptoms but their test results are not yet available.

All four dogs originated from South Korea, although they were imported through the United States. They were already manifesting signs of respiratory distress the day after they arrived in Canada.

Unfortunately, the infected dogs were able to come in contact with a few canines before being put under quarantine. The disease has yet to spread in Canada but alarmed pet owners have raised their concerns over a potential human infection.

H3N2 Could Evolve Into New Influenza Virus Affecting Humans

Officials assure that H3N2 alone has no known human risks. However, it is entirely possible for the virus to mutate into a new strain that could infect humans. This will only occur if an affected canine is exposed to a human influenza virus, and the two strains combine.

"It's pretty unlikely to happen, but that's the main public health concern," says Scott Weese, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College.

Weese's claim is echoed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which warns that a combined strain will easily create an outbreak as humans have little immunity against new influenza viruses.

Because of this threat, the CDC and its partners are closely monitoring the canine influenza H3N8 and H3N2 viruses in the United States.

AVMA Recommends Veterinary Support For Dogs With Symptoms Of H3N2

The H3N2 virus is spread through respiratory secretions produced through coughing, barking, salivating, or sneezing. It can also be transmitted indirectly through objects such as food and water bowls, collars, and leashes, or through humans who came in contact with infected canines.

This strain can remain viable for up to 48 hours on surfaces, 24 hours on clothing, and 12 hours on human hands. To reduce the risk transmission, the American Veterinary Medical Association recommends implementation of disinfection protocols such as frequent hand washing. Infected pets must also be kept in isolation for at least four weeks.

Pet owners who suspect their pets to be infected are advised to seek immediate veterinary assistance as only an expert can determine the appropriate course of treatment. Most canines recover within two to three weeks when medication is supplemented by good husbandry and proper nutrition.

Expert Says Symptoms Of Canine Influenza Are Hard To Diagnose

Dog flu cannot be diagnosed only through its symptoms as they are similar to common respiratory infections. To confirm whether a pet is infected with H3N2 or not, blood testing is required.

"It's a flu-like illness. It gives them fever, they feel pretty run down, they get a cough which is often the most remarkable sign. In most dogs that's it. It runs its course," says Weese.

Delaying treatment could lead to permanent respiratory damage. A dog owner in St. Louis, Missouri reports procrastinating veterinary support because she thought her pets only had a kennel cough.

After examination, they were diagnosed with canine influenza and underwent weeks of treatment. Her dogs recovered but one retained irreversible throat damage, while another contracted a permanent respiratory disease.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
TORONTO, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. (GLH or the Company) (CSE:GLH) (OTCQB:GLDFF), a leading cannabis oil solutions company built around recognized brands, today announced the appointment of Jackson and Company as its new independent auditor. The appointment will be effective for the 2017 financial year.



Jackson & Company Chartered Professional Accountants, is located in downtown Vancouver. It provides professional audit, accounting, and taxation services to small, large and mid-size private and public companies across BC and Canada-wide. The decision to change auditors was made following an extensive review involving a number of accounting firms, and was not the result of any disagreement with the Companys former auditor Grant Thornton LLP on any matter of accounting principle, financial statement disclosures or auditing scope or procedure.

Jackson & Company is one of the few auditors that has extensive experience working with public cannabis companies and we look forward to their support maintaining independent oversight of the annual financial statements of Golden Leaf. The Company and the Board of Directors would like to extend their thanks to Grant Thorton LLP for their auditing services to date, commented William Simpson, CEO of Golden Leaf Holdings.

A notice of change of auditor and related documents will be filed by the Company on SEDAR in due course.

To be added to the distribution list please email GLH@kcsa.com with GLH in the subject line.

About Golden Leaf Holdings

Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd., a Canadian company with operations in Portland, Oregon, is one of the largest cannabis oil and solution providers in North America, and a leading cannabis products company built around recognized brands. Golden Leaf Holdings cultivates, extracts and manufactures and distributes its products through its branded Chalice Farm retail dispensaries, as well as through third party dispensaries. Golden Leaf leverages a strong management team with cannabis and food industry experience to complement its expertise in extracting, refining and selling cannabis oil. Visit http://goldenleafholdings.com/ to learn more.

Investor Relations:

Steve Silver / Phil Carlson

GLH@kcsa.com

212-896-1220 / 212-896-1233

Media Relations:

Anne Donohoe / Anne Szustek

KCSA Strategic Communications

adonohoe@kcsa.com/aszustek@kcsa.com

212-896-1265 / 212-896-1210

Company:

William Simpson

Chief Executive Officer

Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd.

503-477-7626

William@chalicefarms.com
The Zuma mission satellite is not lost or missing in action according to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX. The company defended the performance of the Falcon 9 in response to media reports that the mission was a failure and that the spy satellite it launched fell into the ocean.

The satellite launch initiated by SpaceX on January 7 was the company's third classified mission for the United States government. After several delays, the Zuma took off from the Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida last Sunday.

The two-hour primary launch was livestreamed on the internet. As usual with classified government payload missions, the launch's livestream was cut off before the separation of the nose cone and the deployment of the satellite.

Amid speculations of a failed mission, SpaceX announced that the Falcon 9 performed properly but did not announce a successful launch nor made further comments whether the payload has reached its destination.

What Really Happened After The Launch?

After the Sunday launch, there have been uncertainties surrounding Zuma, further fueling speculations that the mission either had a problem or failed and the spacecraft has been lost in space.

Media reports cited anonymous U.S. government officials familiar with the launch confirming that the Zuma mission failed. The second stage booster section of the Falcon 9 reportedly failed and the satellite and the rocket's second stage plummeted into the Indian Ocean after it was launched into orbit.

However, SpaceX issued a statement clarifying what had transpired during the launch.

"For clarity: after review of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night. If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will report it immediately. Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false. Due to the classified nature of the payload, no further comment is possible," says SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell.

In May 2017, SpaceX managed to recover the first stage of a rocket that it used to launch a classified U.S. reconnaissance satellite.

All Scheduled Launches To Proceed

While experts believe that a setback of the Zuma mission could be a real threat to the future of Elon Musk's space technology business, SpaceX said its future launches would go on as scheduled, including the much-anticipated launch and maiden flight of Falcon Heavy.

"Since the data reviewed so far indicates that no design, operational or other changes are needed, we do not anticipate any impact on the upcoming launch schedule," added Shotwell.

Strange Sky Spiral Images Believed To Be The Missing Zuma

Meanwhile, the internet is speculating that the photo of an ethereal spiral in the night sky taken by Dutch pilot Peter Horstink might be the missing upper part of the Falcon 9 rocket.

Horstink captured the image of what appears to be a greenish and blue spiral from his aircraft as he flew 35,000 feet above the Earth's surface over Khartoum City in Sudan. The photo was shared on Twitter by satellite tracker Marco Langbroek.

The maker of the billion-dollar Zuma spy satellite, defense contractor Northrop Grumman, refused to comment on the plight of its missing satellite.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Apple is still under fire after it recently revealed that it deliberately throttles iPhones' performance, and now the U.S. government is questioning the company about this practice.

It's no big secret that iPhones are not exactly cheap, and paying a small fortune for a smartphone only to end up with a sluggish performance has understandably angered many users.

Apple iPhone Slowdown

Apple has explained that it throttled the performance of older iPhones to make up for their aging batteries and avoid random shutdowns. Disgruntled customers, however, argued that this practice in fact aimed to force them to upgrade sooner than they would have if Apple hadn't slowed down the devices' performance.

A number of lawsuits against Apple claim the same and argue that the company should have been more transparent about the whole matter. If customers knew about this, they might have chosen to replace their handset's battery rather than purchase a new smartphone altogether.

Moreover, the company also received great criticism because it decided to come clean only after a Reddit user revealed evidence of CPU throttling. Otherwise, Apple might have never disclosed this practice. Apple apologized for not being more transparent and tried to make up for its mishap.

After stirring great controversy with its reveal, Apple discounted iPhone battery replacements from $79 to $29 to make amends. The measure might be too small to make up for the whole matter, however, and the company is now under investigation in its home country, as well as abroad.

Apple Questioned Over iPhone Slowdown

Just a couple of days after the French government launched an investigation into Apple's practice of throttling iPhones' performance, the U.S. government is now interested in learning more about this matter as well.

On Tuesday, Jan. 9, U.S. Senator John Thune sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, asking for more details about the company's policy to slow down older smartphones, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In the letter, Thune asked Apple to detail how it tracked customer complaints related to iPhone performance, and whether it considered offering rebates for customers who replaced their handset's battery at full price, before the $50 discount.

Thune also points out that Apple's solutions, especially the $50 discount on iPhone battery replacements, have sparked further criticism as some customers feel the replacements should have been free, considering the deliberate iPhone slowdown. The senator has asked Apple to offer a response to these questions by Jan. 23.

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Flu-related deaths seem to be piling up, and news of a 21-year-old bodybuilder who died of flu complications just days after he started feeling ill seem unreal.

This is shaping up as the worst flu season in a good while, with California particularly affected, but other regions nationwide have registered severe flu cases as well.

Young Bodybuilder Dies Of Flu Complications

Kyler Baughman from Pennsylvania was a healthy young man leading an active lifestyle, going to the gym frequently, and studying to become a personal trainer. He started feeling slightly ill on Dec. 23, experiencing a mild cough and a runny nose, but nobody anticipated just how bad things would get.

"He looked rundown and had a bit of a snotty nose," says his mother, Beverly Baughman.

He spent Christmas celebrating with his family and returned to work on Tuesday, Dec. 26, trying to ignore the flu symptoms. He was not feeling well, however, so he got back home early. Olivia Marcanio, Kyler's fiancee, says that he laid down to rest, complaining of chest pain from a cough.

"I think he thought, 'I just got the flu, I'll be alright. I'll go rest a little bit,'" adds his mother.

Flu Complications Develop Rapidly

Within just a couple of days, however, Kyler started feeling worse, spiking a fever on and off. His state rapidly deteriorated and he was rushed to an emergency room in Westmoreland County on Wednesday, Dec. 27. He was then rushed to Pittsburgh's UPMC Presbyterian hospital, where he died less than 24 hours later.

According to his mother, he died of flu complications. The flu caused a septic shock, which in turn, led to organ failure that claimed his life just five days after he started feeling ill. His family says that he did not get a flu shot.

"It doesn't seem real," his mother says.

Don't Ignore Flu Symptoms

Following the unexpected death of their son, the Baughmans are urging everybody to take flu symptoms more seriously and get treatment as soon as possible. His mother adds that Kyler probably ignored his flu thinking that it would just go away on its own. She says that many people make this mistake, but they should "pay more attention to their bodies" instead of ignoring the symptoms when they get sick.

This flu season has been especially tough, with ERs packed nationwide, and many pharmacies running out of flu medicines. The epidemic keeps spreading at a rapid pace, making more victims each day.

To help reduce the spread of flu viruses, the CDC advises people to cover their mouths when sneezing or coughing, wash their hands frequently, and stay home if they're feeling sick. People who suspect they have the flu should seek medical assistance within 48 hours of when they started feeling ill as the treatment is most effective within this timeframe.

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It's a new year, which means new beginnings and job opportunities. In 2018, business and technology continue to dominate some of the best jobs available today in America.

In fact, jobs that require a wide variety of STEM skills (science, technology, engineering, and math) happened to take over U.S. News & World Report latest survey of 2018 Best Technology Jobs.

Best Highest Paying Jobs In Business And Technology For 2018

The best highest paying jobs in the survey for technology positions available, include Software Developer (#1 spot, 253,400 job openings), Information Security Analyst (#2 spot, 28,4000 job openings), IT Manager (#3 spot, 43,800 job openings), Computer Systems Analyst (#4 spot, 53,000 job openings), and Computer Network Architect (#5 spot, 10,400 job openings).

Financial Manager (#17 spot, 108,400 job openings), Financial Advisor (#19 spot, 39,300 job openings), and Business Operations Manager (#20 spot, 205,900 jobs) also made the 2018 Best Jobs list, as it's necessary to have problem-solving skills in various jobs across business and technology industries.

Major tech companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla are always looking to hire Software Developers, Information Security Analysts, and IT Managers.

Software Developers have the potential to make an average salary of $100,800, followed by IT Manager ($135,800) and Information Security Analyst at $92,60 annually.

Engineers And Software Developers Are Changing The Job Market

"Technology is the backbone of many of our jobs across the board this year," said Kim Castro, executive editor at U.S. News in a statement. "Nearly every type of company is looking for people who can analyze and interpret data to solve problems. This technological boom is creating new opportunities for statisticians, engineers and software developers - these workers are developing the algorithms that are rapidly changing the global job market."

Lastly, the report shows that this is the first time that jobs in health care haven't made the 2018 best jobs in technology. Though, health care makes a mark on the list due to offering high salaries and low unemployment rates, according to U.S. News & World Reports survey.

How did the U.S. News & World Report gather data for the best highest paying jobs in business and technology for 2018? The company gathered data from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics to see some of the best jobs in America. Jobs are then scored by various measures, including median salary, employment rate, future job prospects, stress level and work-life balance.

Do you plan to get a new job in business or technology in 2018? Let us know in the comment section below.

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At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, Huawei CEO Richard Yu had something more to say than just showcasing the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, going off script by the end of his keynote.

It's not a stretch to believe that this stems from the falling-out of the deal between the company and AT&T to sell Huawei phones in the United States through a carrier.

CES 2018 was supposed to be the event that marked the entry of the world's third-largest smartphone maker into the U.S. market, but at the last minute, AT&T backed out of the agreement and left the Chinese brand all on its own to fend for itself in the local mobile scene, which is hard to penetrate without any form of carrier support.

Huawei CEO Blasts US Carriers

After the Huawei Mate 10 Pro presentation, Yu pulled up a slide that read "Something I Want To Share." He then proceeded to explain that if Huawei products weren't readily available, it's a "big loss" for not only the company itself and carriers but also for the consumers "because they don't have the best choice for devices."

"We win the trust of the Chinese carriers, we win the trust of the emerging markets ... and also, we win the trust of the global carriers, all the European and Japanese carriers. We are serving over 70 million people worldwide. We've proven our quality. We've proven our privacy and security protection," he said.

This seems like it was all unplanned too. As Vlad Savov of The Verge points out, the teleprompters were blank, meaning that it's likely an impromptu speech.

Why Did AT&T Back Out?

According to The New York Times, AT&T faced political pressure to go through with the deal with Huawei, with the concern of Congress being in "Chinese espionage." It should be noted that the letter the news outlet reviewed didn't specifically mention AT&T, but reports of the two companies inking an agreement have been widespread long before this development.

Verizon is also under the same pressure as AT&T, according to Android Police.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro US Availability

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro will still be available as an unlocked device in the United States, and it's going to be up for preorder starting on Feb. 4 and hit the shelves on Feb. 18 with a $799 price tag.

Interestingly, Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot has just been named as the company's brand ambassador or Chief Experience Officer.

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WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PDTI (CSE:PDTI) today announced that they were mentioned by name in the latest leading dental 3D printing research report titled 3D Printing in Dentistry 2018 issued by SmarTech Publishing, the leading industry analysis firm for the 3D printing industry.



Mr. Erik Siegmund, President stated "We are honored to have received a name mention in the report. We are one of only three companies mentioned by name in this prestigious publication. I am greatly encouraged by the recognition we have gained on the world stage amongst all the other dental implant companies."

SmarTech is encouraged by the efforts of a particular group of innovative dental implant solutions companies, to include Preferred Dental Implants, who are taking steps to further the acceptance of 3D printing technologies in the fast-growing area of implantology commented Scott Dunham, SmarTechs Vice President of Research and primary author of the study. Print technologies have already had a massive impact on the dental prosthetics market, but as demand for implant-supported restorations grows worldwide, it will be up to companies like Preferred Dental to bring the potential benefits of 3D printing to dental practitioners, and ultimately to patients.

For details on how to access the full research report visit, https://www.smartechpublishing.com/reports/3d-printing-in-dentistry-2018-a-ten-year-forecast-and-opportunity-analysis

About SmarTech Market Publishing:

SmarTech Publishing is the leading industry analysis firm dedicated entirely to covering trends and market opportunity forecasting to the 3D printing and additive manufacturing industry. Its client roster includes all major players in the printing industry spanning North America, Europe, and Asia. Since 2013 SmarTech has created nearly a dozen research report series which are now considered required reading for stakeholders in various areas of the 3D printing industry.

Lawrence Gasman

President

SmarTech Markets Publishing, LLC

Info@smartechpublishing.com

www.smartechpublishing.com

About PDTI

Preferred Dental technologies Inc. (PDTI) has been established to advance development and commercialization of various evolutionary and disruptive technologies in the dental implant industry.

MISSION  INNOVATIVE & PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR THE DENTAL INDUSTRY

Visit: www.preferreddentalimplant.com

www.prefdent.com

On behalf of Preferred Dental Technologies Inc.

Erik Siegmund

Chief Executive Officer

Email: info@preferreddentalimplant.com

Tel: 204.691.3722

www.prefdent.com

This news release may contain forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts.

Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release may include, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Neither The Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of The Canadian Securities Exchange accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Discovery Communications is to relocate its global headquarters from Silver Spring, Maryland, to New York City in 2019.

If the companys acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive goes through, Discovery will also establish a National Operations Headquarters at Scripps current campus in Knoxville, Tennessee.



The company will maintain its Maryland Network Hub and Northern Virginia Technology Hub.

The media industry is rapidly evolving, increasingly global, more consumer focused and more multi-platform and Discovery must evolve with it, said David Zaslav, Discoverys President and CEO, in announcing the changes first to employees this morning. The decision to move our global headquarters from its founding home is one we do not make lightly. We remain unwavering in our support of the Maryland and Greater Washington, DC area and we thank the leadership of the State of Maryland, Montgomery County and, most importantly, our employees for their cooperation and understanding as we make this important next step for the long-term success of Discovery.



Discovery says the move to a New York HQ is to take advantage of the proximity to business, investment and production partners in New York. The new HQ will bring together all current Discovery and, pending closing of the transaction, Scripps employees currently located across several different facilities in New York in a new Global Headquarters. Planning for the space and location in New York is underway with an anticipated move to a new building by the second half of 2019.





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Sarasota, FL, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zion Market Research has published a new report titled Global Business Intelligence Market by Mobile BI, Cloud BI, and Other Applications: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, and Forecast, 2015-2021. According to the report, the global business intelligence market accounted USD 16.33 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach USD 26.50 billion by 2021, growing at a CAGR of around 8.4% between 2016 and 2021.

Business Intelligence defined as the process of analyzing huge volumes of enterprise data usually stored in large databases such as data warehouses. BI detects the hidden trends and patterns in data, track the business performance and assist the business users to make improved decisions based on real-time data. From a marketing standpoint, Business Intelligence can be described as a strategic management tool that can support executives and business users to make improved decisions that are necessary for day to day operations, tactical and strategic planning.

Browse through 18 Tables & 23 Figures spread over 110 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Business Intelligence Market by Cloud BI, Mobile BI, and Other Deployments: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2015  2021.

Request Free Sample copy of Global Business Intelligence Market Report @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/business-intelligence-market

Applying BI to each of department like (Marketing, HR, Payroll, CRP etc) can provide ultimate flexible analysis of raw data. BI provides end to end approach to store and present data. For example, Companies can compare their respective revenues per quarter or month with peers, so that they can retrospect there strategic decisions or policies. Business intelligence helps companies understand their customers. This is possibly the most important reason for business intelligence.

A good business intelligence tool will allow employees to gain imminent into key marketing questions such as who are best customers, how sales can be increased through new sell opportunities, or what products are trending. With business, intelligence tool companies can plan marketing campaigns accordingly based on real data. Business Intelligence helps companies make better decisions. Other drivers are like the software will improve the visibility of processes and make it possible to identify any areas that need development.

Browse the full "Global Business Intelligence Market by Cloud BI, Mobile BI, and Other Deployments: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2015  2021" report at https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/business-intelligence-market



By type segment, the mobile BI (MBI) segment accounted for more than 20% of the global Business Intelligence market in 2015. Mobile BI enables the mobile workforce to get business insights by analyzing data with the help of applications for mobile and smart devices. The growing smartphone adoption is likely to appear as a key driver for this segment during the forecast period. Mobile business intelligence is software that extends desktop business intelligence (BI) applications so that they can be used on a mobile device. MBI applications optimize traditional BI reports so they can be viewed easily on small screen. It is ideal for displaying key performance indicators (KPIs) and alerts on small screens with simple charts, graphs, and sparklines. An additional advantage of MBI is that it allows data that is captured by the mobile device to be incorporated on-the-fly so that reports are currents and mobile workers can make informed decisions in real time.

By deployment segment, the on-premise segment accounted for 86% of the market share in 2015. However, this segment is projected to witness a decline in its shares by the end of the forecast period. In this segment, software is installed on the server of an enterprise. It requires more protection but is highly secure and easy to manage.

Inquire more about this report before purchase @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/inquiry/business-intelligence-market

North America is expected to be the largest market for BI due to major growth in the market. It accounted for around 56% of the markets share globally. The Asia Pacific is expected to manifest high-growth over the foreseeable future due to rapid industrialization in the region and growing number of start-ups focusing on smartphone application development. Major industry participants in this include Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Microstrategy, GoodData, Targit, SAS, SAP, and Tableau Software among others.

Request customized copy of report @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/custom/151

Business Intelligence Market: Technology Segment Analysis

Mobile BI

Cloud BI

Social BI

Business Intelligence Market: Deployment Segment Analysis

Cloud BI

On-Premises BI

Business Intelligence Market: Region Segment Analysis

North America The U.S.

Europe The UK France Germany

The Asia Pacific China Japan India

Latin America Brazil

The Middle East & Africa

Related Reports:

Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/building-information-modeling-market

Test Automation Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/test-automation-market

Marketing Analytics Software Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/marketing-analytics-software-market

Personal Cloud Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/personal-cloud-market

Mobile Entertainment Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/mobile-entertainment-market

About Us:

Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting-edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the clients needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.

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The Abbeville City Marshal officer who sparked national outrage for arresting a Vermilion Parish school teacher Monday night after publicly criticizing the superintendent at a meeting was previously accused of using excessive force against a 62-year-old man in poor health.

The revelation comes as the middle-school English teacher, Deyshia Hargrave, spoke for the first time about the incident, which has received national network news coverage and spread like wildfire on social media. Hargrave said in a video statement that she is appalled at this, and you should be too. She urged those watching to speak out against what she said was a violation of her first-amendment rights, even if they werent directly involved.

[EXCLUSIVE: City Marshal who arrested Vermilion teacher was accused of excessive force in 2012]

This particular issue directly involved me, directly involved my students, my fellow educators and support staff, cafeteria workers, citizens outside of the school system even. So I chose to speak out, Hargrave said. Im hoping that you choose to speak out after seeing what happened to me, and you dont let it become an intimidation to you, you let it be your strength.

+4 Watch: Vermilion Parish teacher speaks out about arrest, aftermath, her reaction The Vermilion Parish teacher who was arrested this week after raising questions at a School Board meeting spoke out Wednesday in a video poste

A 12-minute video of Hargraves arrest and preceding events had been seen more than two million times as of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, and was shown on major network news shows.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said he supports an investigation into the incident during his monthly call-in radio show on Wednesday.

"I didn't see anything that warranted that type of action," Edwards said. "That was terribly unfortunate, and it should not have happened."

Can't see video below? Click here.

+2 Our Views: Vermilion teacher's civil liberties abused, showcasing Acadiana for wrong reasons Middle-school teacher Deyshia Hargrave probably gave the lesson of her life on Monday when she rose during a Vermilion Parish School Board mee
The one thing Deyshia Hargrave wants to come as a result of her removal and subsequent arrest after asking a question about teacher salaries a
The Vermilion Parish teacher who was arrested after she spoke out about teacher pay at a school board meeting says she hopes the ordeal prompts others to get more involved in education.

In an interview that aired Thursday morning on NBC, Deyshia Hargrave said it's sad that a woman "has to be forcibly, violently removed" from a school board meeting "for people to start caring."

Can't see video below? Click here.

Hargrave said she hopes teachers and others outside of schools become more involved in education.

After going back to work Wednesday, Hargrave said she wasn't sure how her students, fifth and sixth graders, would react. But she told NBC that they were fine with it.

"They're fine, so I'm fine," she said.

+2 City marshal who arrested Vermilion teacher was accused of excessive force in 2012 The Abbeville City Marshal officer who sparked national outrage for arresting a Vermilion Parish school teacher Monday night after publicly cr

Vermilion Parish Schools Superintendent Jerome Puyau told NBC he doesn't support his employees being arrested but added that "a person has to follow the rules."

Hargrave also said in the interview that she wants an apology from the marshal and the superintendent.

School Board President Anthony Fontana told NBC that no one ordered the city marshal to remove Hargrave from the meeting, but that he agreed with the officer's actions.

"He was ushering her out of the board meeting, and she resisted," Fontana said.

+6 No charges for Vermilion teacher cuffed after questioning boss's raise; supporters say it's not over The arrest of a teacher who had just been kicked out of a Vermilion Parish School Board meeting Monday after criticizing a vote to give the su

A local prosecutor says he won't pursue charges against her.

Can't see video? Click here.
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. (the "Company" or "Abattis") (CSE:ATT) (OTC:ATTBF) is pleased to announce that, further to its news releases dated December 22, 2017, it has entered into a definitive agreement (the Definitive Agreement) to acquire (the Acquisition) Green Tree Therapeutics Corporation (GTT, Green Tree or GT Therapeutics Corporation).



GTTs brands are currently sold in a wide variety of brick and mortar locations across North America, including wholesale channels. The Green Tree acquisition will bring Abattis 10 unique branded SKUs and a series of marketing, licensing, and technology rights. Upon closing of the Acquisition, products within the Green Tree brand will made available through Abattiss wholly-owned subsidiary Vergence Naturals Ltd. (Vergence).

Abattis has always seen Green Tree as a perfect fit to merge with existing products within our marketing wing in Vergence, stated Rob Abenante, President and CEO of Abattis. Acquiring GTT will complement our retail offerings through Vergence and provide a solid entry point into the vaporizers market.

Moving forward within Abattis, Green Tree will continue to be engaged in expanding its product offerings for alternate cannabis products, including capsules, and lotions.

The key to this deal is our gained access to retail through integrating GTTs products, including the Green Tree brand of vaporizers, which are renowned for their ability to deliver the therapeutic benefits of CBD and THC extracts, added Mr. Abenante. In addition, Abattis is pleased to take on GTTs sales and marketing staff that are trained with valuable cannabis knowledge and ancillary products.

Considering the state of the capital markets and, in particular, the strength of the equity markets for cannabis companies, the parties decided to re-negotiate the terms of the Acquisition as previously disclosed. Accordingly, the parties have agreed that, pursuant to the Definitive Agreement, Abattis will issue an aggregate of 15,000,000 common shares of the Company (each, a Share) to the former shareholders of Green Tree. In addition, in exchange for the right to acquire Green Tree, which right was previously held by Winston Resources Inc. (Winston), Abattis will also issue 15,000,000 Shares to Winston upon closing of the Acquisition.

None of the securities issued pursuant to the Acquisition have been or will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, or any state securities laws, and any securities issued pursuant to the Acquisition are anticipated to be issued in reliance upon available exemptions from such registration requirements and applicable exemptions under state securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any of the securities in the United States.

About Abattis Bioceuticals Corp.

Abattis is a life sciences and biotechnology company which aggregates, integrates, and invests in cannabis technologies and biotechnology services for the legal cannabis industry developing in Canada. The Company has successfully developed and licensed natural health products, medicines, extractions, and ingredients for the biologics, nutraceutical, bioceutical, and cosmetic markets. The Company is also seeking to acquire exclusive intellectual property rights to agricultural technologies to be employed in extraction and processing of botanical ingredients and compounds. The Company follows strict standard operating protocols, and adheres to the applicable laws of Canada and foreign jurisdictions. Further information can be found on Abattiss website at www.abattis.com .

About Vergence Naturals Ltd.

Vergence Naturals is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abattis, based in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The Vergence team are bioceutical marketing specialists focused on health products to penetrate the fast-growing market for natural, safe and effective natural products that meet unmet wellness needs. Further information can be found on Vergences website at www.vergencenaturals.com/ .

About Green Tree Therapeutics

GTT owns a brand of vaporizers currently sold in a wide variety of brick and mortar locations, including medical and adult use dispensaries across North America, and it is also engaged in the expansion of its product offerings for alternate cannabis products, including capsules, oils, and lotions. GTTs vaporizers are believed to provide therapeutic benefits through the delivery of beneficial CBD and THC extracts, and a system for rapid absorption for the quick delivery of cannabinoids. Further information can be found on GTTs website at www.greentreetherapeutics.com .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,

ABATTIS BIOCEUTICALS CORP,

Rob Abenante"

Robert Abenante, President & CEO

For more information, please visit the Company's website at: www.abattis.com or www.northernvinelabs.com

For inquiries, please contact the Company at (604) 674-8232 or at news@abattis.com.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

This press release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", intends, "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include statements regarding: the Acquisition, including as to the terms and expected benefits thereof; that the Acquisition will complement the Companys retail offerings and provide a solid entry point into the vaporizers market; the expected integration of the Green Tree product line under Vergence and the Green Tree sales and marketing stuff under Abattis; and the expansion of Green Trees future product offerings. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including: that the Acquisition will not complete as contemplated or at all; that the expected benefits of the Acquisition will not be realized; that the Acquisition will not complement the Companys retail offerings or provide a solid entry point into the vaporizers market; that Green Tree will not be integrated under Vergence as contemplated or at all; that Green Trees staff will not be integrated under Abattis as contemplated or at all; that Green Tree will not expand its future product offerings; that the Company will not be able to execute its proposed business plan in the time required or at all due to regulatory, financial or other issues; that the Companys competitors may develop competing technologies; changes in regulatory requirements; and other factors beyond the Companys control. Additional risk factors are included in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis, available under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements are made as at the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, where because of new information, future events or results, or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.
Louisiana is developing a proposal to impose work requirements on certain adult Medicaid recipients, as the Trump administration announced Thursday it will allow states to enact such provisions.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said his administration is "actively working" on the concept, which would require federal approval. The Democratic governor talked of the proposal broadly in a speech Monday as part of a list of legislative agenda items, and he repeated his intention in a statement Thursday.

The details of what Louisiana is crafting  and how many low-income people in Louisiana's $12.5 billion Medicaid program it would affect  aren't clear.

Edwards said he wants the work requirements to be "reasonable," with exceptions for people in school or training programs. He said Louisiana has hired a consulting firm that helped develop a similar work requirement proposal for Kentucky, which is awaiting a federal decision.

"We're looking at people who are able-bodied, and it has to accommodate those who are in work training or education," he said. "We're looking for a requirement that actually make sense."

Because Medicaid is a government-financed health insurance program with shared expenses between the state and federal governments, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has to agree to enact such work requirements.

On Thursday, the federal agency offered a road map for states seeking support for waivers imposing the requirements. After the announcement, Edwards issued a statement saying his administration will use the new guidance to "continue developing a Louisiana-specific program for our Medicaid program as we go forward."

The governor's proposal to enact work requirements caught some off-guard, since Edwards administration officials with the state health department previously expressed concern about similar suggestions.

Critics of Medicaid work requirements say they can penalize poor people who may be unable to find employment and could lose lifesaving health insurance.

The Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates for low- to moderate-income families, said many nonworking Medicaid recipients have circumstances that make it difficult for them to work. Bumping people out of the Medicaid program could end up driving up uninsured costs that fall on hospitals, health providers and the state, the organization says.

In Louisiana, Medicaid covers 1.6 million people, about one-third of the state's population, including newborns, pregnant women, elderly nursing home residents, people with developmental disabilities and, through the Medicaid expansion, hundreds of thousands of working-age adults.

The federal guidelines say the administration would consider work requirements for "able-bodied, working-age" Medicaid recipients. States could require alternatives to work, including volunteering, caregiving, education, job training and treatment for a substance abuse problem.

The guidance said states should exclude pregnant women, disabled people and the elderly and take into account hardships for people in areas with high unemployment, or for people caring for children or elderly relatives.

State legislative efforts to try to enact Medicaid work requirements have been unable to gain traction. State Sen. Sharon Hewitt, a Slidell Republican, proposed the idea last year, but it went nowhere amid worries raised by the state health department and others about forcing people off Medicaid rolls.
Gov. John Bel Edwards and House Republicans find themselves yet again in a game of who will blink first as the window narrows to avoid the looming fiscal cliff.

Both sides want more details from the other and have loudly complained in recent days about not getting information they want from the opposing side.

The state faces about a $1 billion budget shortfall when temporary tax measures expire on June 30.

House GOP Caucus Chair Lance Harris, of Alexandria, released a statement Wednesday saying he was "disappointed" in Edwards and House Democrats.

"The taxpayers of the state deserve more than general talking points and vague concepts," he said. "It is shocking to see so many of our Democratic colleagues blindly following the governor without knowing any specifics of his plan, what will be in the bill or what the impact will be to families and businesses.

"Maybe they believe you have to pass the bill to know what's in it," he added, alluding to a 2010 quote from Democrat Nancy Pelosi in Congress that is often mocked by Republicans.

Just a day earlier, House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Reynolds, of Minden, expressed his disappointment in the GOP leaders, who he said showed up to a meeting this week with no proposals of their own.

"Unfortunately, those leading our Republican colleagues showed up to the meeting empty-handed, without any idea, speculation or estimate as to how many of their own members - a majority in our body - would support the proposals which have now been vetted in the media, the public, a Republican-led study group, as well as the Legislature, for over two years," Reynolds said in a statement Tuesday. "After all, we are left with the same options they have rejected time and time again while also refusing to make the cuts they know will hurt our people, the only alternative to finding real solutions."

Edwards set a Jan. 19 deadline for both sides to come together with a plan so that he can call a special session in February to shore up the state's finances. He now says that's flexible, but there is a natural deadline tied to the start of the regular session on March 12. The governor must give at least a week's notice before a special session can begin.

Lawmakers cannot take up most tax measures during the regular session this year, prompting the need for a session outside of it. But they will still be tasked with crafting an annual state budget to begin July 1.

A still outstanding shortfall would mean cuts to state agencies and services. Edwards will provide an overview on Jan. 19 of his executive budget proposal, which must be balanced to the current projections, so it will show just what those cuts could look like.

Edwards recently released a two-page overview of his revenue-generating proposals, but Harris said Republicans want more details, including how much revenue each proposal would bring in and an analysis of the financial impact of each.

"Hopefully we'll get the details on Jan. 19, like (Edwards) promised," Harris said.

Meanwhile, Reynolds argued the Republicans, who have generally spoke of more cuts to state government, are the ones being skimpy on details.

"We can no longer pretend our Republican colleagues are attempting to do the peoples business when they show up to meetings without having even a simple head-count of the opinions of their own members," he said.

Edwards addressed the stalemate during his monthly radio show on Wednesday.

"At this point, I don't see a lot of reason to be optimistic," he said of ongoing meetings with House leaders.

But he stressed his preference to hold a February special session. Without one, he said he doesn't think that the Legislature will pass a budget, prompting the need for a special session after the regular session ends on June 4 and before the new budget cycle starts July 1.

"There's not a good reason to wait," Edwards said. "The options won't be any different."
President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd at the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
I find recent articles in the Advocate concerning the horrendous traffic issues in Baton Rouge amusing. State DOTD secretary, Shawn Wilson, blames the problem on the failure to nearly double gas taxes on all Louisiana drivers, but the answer is very obvious to all Jefferson Parish drivers. Tolls! We paid tolls on the GNO bridges, connecting Jefferson to Orleans parishes, for decades. We are still paying ever-increasing tolls on the Causeway Bridge between Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes.

The only route to Grand Isle, located in Jefferson Parish, is across a toll bridge in Leesville. Plans are in the works to replace the Belle Chasse tunnel and bridge, connecting Jefferson Parish with lower Plaquemines Parish, with a new toll bridge. There is no denying another bridge across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge is needed, but why are residents of other parishes, Jefferson Parish in particular, so honored to have to foot the bill on their own?

David Palmisano

retired communications worker

Marrero
Conservative Christian legal warrior Kyle Duncan and Chief U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt were nominated Thursday to the 5th U.S. Circ
Deonca Kennedy was arrested in the 2016 fatal shooting of her 3-year-old grandson after a gun underneath her pillow discharged while they were sleeping, police say.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QMC Quantum Minerals Corp., (TSX.V:QMC) (FRANKFURT:3LQ) (OTC PINK:QMCQF) (QMC or "the Company"). QMC is pleased to provide the following update on exploration activities at its 100% owned Irgon Lithium Mine Project, S.E. Manitoba.



NEW CLAIMS ACQUIRED

The company has acquired, through staking, an additional 9 contiguous mineral claims which increases the number of claims comprising the property to 13 and the area extent of the Irgon Lithium Mine Property to encompass 6,538 acres (2,647 hectares) from 1,729 acres (700 hectares) an increase of 378%.

REGIONAL EXPLORATION

Numerous pegmatite dikes, in addition to the main Irgon Dike, are known to exist on the Irgon Lithium Mine Property. Two major dikes, located south of Cat Lake that have undergone exploration in the past are the Mapetre Dike and the Central Dike. Both were explored in the late 1970s by the Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada (TANCO) which focused solely on their tantalum-bearing potential. At the time, TANCO appears to have had no interest in the lithium potential of these dikes. The Central Dike is also reported (Cerny et al, 1981, pg. 97) to host cesium-bearing biotite mineralization (to 0.57% Cs 2 O) along the pegmatite contact with the host rock. The Mapetre and Central Dikes will be evaluated by QMC during the upcoming field season.

Three additional dikes on the property that have been recently sampled by QMC as part of its regional re-sampling program, targeting pegmatite dikes that reported lithium assay results during the 2011 exploration program, has now been completed. Twenty-five grab samples were obtained from these dikes and all have been shipped to SGS Lakefield for analysis. To date, assay results have not been received.

Requested assay analysis of all channel and grab samples currently delivered to, and received by SGS Labs in Lakefield, Ontario consists of sodium peroxide fusion, ICP-AES and ICP MS scans for 56 elements including Li, Ta, Nb, Cs, Rb and Be; all elements which may potentially be found within the Winnipeg River area rare element-bearing pegmatites.

HISTORICAL RESOURCE

Between 1953-1954, the Lithium Corporation of Canada Limited drilled 25 holes into the Irgon Dike and subsequently reported a historical resource estimate of 1.2 million tons grading 1.51% Li 2 0 over a strike length of 365 meters and to a depth of 213 meters (Northern Miner, Vol. 41, no.19, Aug. 4, 1955, p.3). This historical resource is documented in a 1956 Assessment Report by B. B. Bannatyne for the Lithium Corporation of Canada Ltd. (Manitoba Assessment Report No. 94932). This historical estimate is believed to be based on reasonable assumptions and neither the company nor the QP have any reason to contest the documents relevance and reliability. The ongoing detailed channel sampling and a subsequent drill program will be required to update this historical resource to current NI 43-101 standards. Historic metallurgical tests reported an 87% recovery from which a concentrate averaging 5.9% Li 2 O was obtained. During this historical 1950 era work program, a complete mining plant was installed on site designed to

process 500 tons of ore per day and in addition, a three-compartment shaft was sunk to a depth of 74 meters. On the 61-metre level, lateral development was extended off the shaft for a total of 366 meters of drifting from which six crosscuts transected the dike. The work was suspended in 1957, awaiting a more favourable market for lithium oxides and at this time the mine buildings were removed.

The mineral reserve cited above is presented as a historical estimate and uses historical terminology which does not conform to current NI43-101 standards. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Although the historical estimates are believed to be based on reasonable assumptions, they were calculated prior to the implementation of National Instrument 43-101. These historical estimates do not meet current standards as defined under sections 1.2 and 1.3 of NI 43-101; consequently, the issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves.

Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Bruce E. Goad, P. Geo. who is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About the Company

QMC is a British Columbia based company engaged in the business of acquisition, exploration and development of resource properties. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious, base, rare metal and resource properties of merit. The Companys properties include the Irgon Lithium Mine project two VMS properties, the Rocky Lake and Rocky-Namew known collectively as the Namew Lake District Project. Currently, all of the companys properties are located in Manitoba.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of

QMC QUANTUM MINERALS CORP.

Balraj Mann

Balraj Mann

President and Chief Executive Officer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Tel: (604) 601-2018

email: info@qmcminerals.com

web: www.qmcminerals.com
Gill: Despite La.'s crumbling roads and bridges, politicians won't do anything to fix problem

Gill: Despite La.'s crumbling roads and bridges, politicians won't do anything to fix problem
Collection Talk: Bold Women in Print. Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll. National Library of Australia, Conference Room, Level 4, Tuesday, January 16, 12.30pm. Free admission. Bookings: nla.gov.au.

Writing isn't an easy profession at the best of times. For women in the early 20th century, it was even harder to break into print and stay there. Three women who rose to the challenge are the subject of a Collection Talk at the National Library of Australia next week.

Dr Grace Blakely-Carroll in front of the Bold Women in Print exhibition at the National Library of Australia. Credit:NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA

Henry Handel Richardson, Miles Franklin and Christina Stead will be the subjects of Bold Women in Print, given by Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll, curator, exhibitions, at the National Library of Australia. She completed her doctorate at the Australian National University on the female artist and spiritualist Christian Waller last year. This will be her first public talk at the library.

"It's based on a display in the Treasures Gallery and the reason these three were selected is they were among the best writers of the period," Blakeley-Carroll says.
The 78-Storey Treehouse. By Richard Tulloch, adapted from the book by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton. Directed by Liesel Badorrek. January 24 and 25, various times. $29-$39. The Gruffalo. Adapted from the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. January 27 and 28, various times. Both shows:$29-$39, The Canberra Theatre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 62752700.

Samuel Welsh feels something of a heavy responsibility. In his first professional role since graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, the 23-year-old actor is playing the lead role in The 78-Storey Treehouse. It's based on the sixth volume in the popular "Treehouse" series of children's books by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton.

Samuel Welsh in The 78-Storey Treehouse. Credit:Heidrun Lohr

Being a fan of Griffiths' earlier books like The Day My Bum Went Psycho from his own childhood _ "They're just wild" - Welsh is acutely aware of what a well-established phenomenon the author is, and he's playing "Andy" on stage in this new production.

"You've got to do justice to what they expect Andy to be," the actor, originally from Port Macquarie, says. But as well as the audience, he wanted its creator to be happy.
A fourth-generation family owned confectionery business is bringing the iconic Violet Crumble chocolate bar back into Australian hands after striking a deal with Swiss food giant Nestle.

Adelaide-based Robern Menz will buy the Violet Crumble brand and its associated intellectual property, plant and equipment for an undisclosed sum.

It already produces more than 100 products including Menz FruChocs, Crown Mints and JeliChocs at its Adelaide factory, which will begin manufacturing Violet Crumbles in the coming months.

Robern Menz is as old as the chocolate bar itself. The Robern business traces its origins back to 1908, when Walter Sims opened his first grocery store in Unley, an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide.
A Queensland Indigenous woman sacked two days after filing an official complaint about racism is taking a government-funded domestic violence organisation to the workplace watchdog.

Case manager Samantha Cooper had worked for the Centre Against Domestic Abuse in the Moreton Bay region, north of Brisbane, since March, running a pilot program aimed at helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

After six months of alleged racial discrimination, and several stated attempts to deal with the issues more informally, she filed an official complaint on November 27 outlining a long list of alleged incidents.

The 25-year-old had been described as going walkabout, told she was quite pretty for an Aboriginal and asked if she had ever met a real Aboriginal person, she claimed.
Tamper-resistant oxycodone tablets have not made a dent in Australia's dangerous dependence on prescription opioids, a major study shows.

The findings are a stark reminder that injecting users are not the main game when it comes to combating Australia's burgeoning opioid misuse. Pain and drug experts say inappropriate prescribing is at the heart of Australia's addiction to the painkillers.

The tamper-resistant formulations were introduced in Australia in April 2014 in response to growing concerns people were crushing and dissolving the tablets to snort or inject the potent opioid.

The tablets contain a polymer, making them hard and plastic-like, as well as a hydrogelling agent. The tablets can't be crushed into a fine powder, and rather than dissolving in water, they form a thick gel.
A koala found screwed to a post in south-east Queensland shows signs of head trauma but its cause of death will not be known until late Thursday at the earliest, authorities say.

Crucially, the RSPCA has been unable to definitively say the native animal was dead before it was secured to the gazebo in a Sunshine Coast hinterland park, where it was found on Wednesday.

A council worker told Koala Rescue Queensland he found this koala screwed to the pole in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Credit:Koala Rescue Queensland

Theres some injuries there but of course you don't know whether or not that was after the koala was already dead or whether it was still alive, RPSCA spokesman Michael Beatty said.

Mr Beatty confirmed the RSPCA had taken custody of the body, which would be taken to the organisations animal care campus at Wacol for an autopsy to be performed, hopefully on Thursday afternoon.
Queensland high-rise developer Susan Menso says she will fight an allegation she stalked a Workplace Health and Safety Officer.

Ms Menso appeared briefly in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday after being charged by police in December 2017 with one count of unlawful stalking.

Queensland high-rise developer Susan Menso leaves the Brisbane Magistrates Court. Credit:AAP

It is alleged Ms Menso stalked Ian David Williamson on an unknown date between November 2015 and September 2017 at Kangaroo Point.

Outside court, Ms Menso told reporters she would defend the allegation.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says Premier Daniel Andrews should consider resigning if he does not admit Victoria has a problem with African gang violence and commit to solutions.

The pair exchanged barbs on Thursday amid the ongoing political furore over street violence, sparked by Mr Dutton's claim last week that some Victorians were scared to eat out because of gangs.

Mr Andrews scorned those suggestions and invited Mr Dutton to join him for dinner at a restaurant, an offer quickly rejected by the Turnbull government minister.

"He can offer to shout me dinner all he likes, but all it is is a distraction," Mr Dutton told Sky News on Thursday night.
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AbacusNext, the industry leading end-to-end Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) platform for the professional services market, is proud to announce that Abacus Payment Exchange (APX) has been voted a TL NewsWire Top 10 Product of 2017. APX ranked third overall and first among payment processors, establishing it as the preferred choice of law firms for receiving credit card and ACH payments.



APX is an integrated payment solution that gives lawyers the ability to streamline invoicing and payment processes. Available as a stand-alone processor or a fully integrated part of AbacusNexts award winning case management applications, AbacusLaw and Amicus Attorney, APX provides lawyers and legal professionals a single platform to track time, generate invoices, and get paid the same day.

AbacusNext has a 34-year history of serving the legal community, and this recognition from TL NewsWire only underscores our deep commitment to our clients and continued innovation of our products, Alessandra Lezama, CEO of AbacusNext. Were grateful to the readers of TL NewsWire and TechnoLawyer, whose enthusiasm for Abacus Payment Exchange made this award possible.

"The TL NewsWire Top Products Awards of 2017 represent the most compelling offerings by the legal industry's most innovative technology companies," said Neil Squillante, Founder and Publisher of TechnoLawyer. "APX's streamlined approach to credit card payments simplifies transaction fees and cuts processing time, taking the guesswork out of getting paid.

TL NewsWire, published by TechnoLawyer, is a popular legal resource that produces critically-acclaimed email newsletters for lawyers and legal professionals that cover new legal technology products and services. TL NewsWire reviews include a link to the website of the product being reviewed, and its the number of click-throughs from these links that determine reader interest and the rankings for TL NewsWires Top Products Awards.

TL NewsWire Top Products Announcement:

https://medium.com/@technolawyer/ee1bb282a846

The original TL NewsWire review of APX:

https://www.abacusnext.com/sites/default/files/apx-2017.pdf

About TL NewsWire

So many products, so little time. Each issue of TL NewsWire reports on and links to several hot new products and services of interest to law firms and legal departments. The innovative structure of TL NewsWires articles, which feature sections such as In One Sentence and The Killer Feature, enable lawyers and law office administrators like you to quickly understand the function of each product, and zero in on its most important attributes. Learn more at technolawyer.com/tlnewswire.

About AbacusNext

As the largest Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) provider for the professional services sector, AbacusNext helps legal and accounting professionals achieve ultimate success and peace of mind through the delivery of a complete suite of compliance-ready technology solutions designed to support a secure and cloud-enabled practice at a cost they can afford. Our portfolio of turnkey solutions includes hardware, software and infrastructure on a pay as you go model; Practice Management, Client Resource Management (CRM), Payment Processing, Email, Desktop as a Service (DaaS) and Managed IT.

Headquartered in San Diego, California, and backed by private investment with Providence Equity, AbacusNext delivers products and services to over 500,000 businesses worldwide. To sign up or learn more visit AbacusNext.com.

About Providence Equity

Providence is a premier global asset management firm with $45 billion in assets under management across complementary private equity and credit businesses. Providence pioneered a sector-focused approach to private equity investing with the vision that a dedicated team of industry experts could build exceptional companies of enduring value. Since the firm's inception in 1989, Providence has invested in more than 150 companies and is the leading equity investment firm focused on the media, communications, education and information industries. Providence is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, and has offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Delhi. For more information, please visit www.provequity.com.




The former Melbourne City councillor who alleges lord mayor Robert Doyle sexually harassed and indecently assaulted her has threatened the Herald Sun with defamation, after a series of articles her lawyer says are "victim blaming" and "intended to discredit" her.

Lawyers for Tessa Sullivan wrote to Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston on Wednesday, saying recent articles  including a front-page story with a photo of Ms Sullivan in a bikini  perpetuate a culture of "discrediting women by the way they present themselves".

Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle. Credit:AAP

They said the articles amount to "a campaign to influence public perception" to benefit Cr Doyle.

News Corp Australia, the owner of the Herald Sun, denied defaming Ms Sullivan. A spokeswoman said on Thursday that the company stood by the newspaper's reporting, saying the coverage had been "balanced and in the public interest".
A group of men dubbed a "pack of hyenas" are wanted by police after a vicious, unprovoked bashing at a pub in Melbourne's north-west.

Victim Tony McDonald, 55, spent five days in hospital with injuries including a broken nose and a jaw broken in three places after he was attacked at the Union Hotel in Ascot Vale in August last year.

Tony was viciously assaulted at a pub in Melbourne last August.

Crime Stoppers has released CCTV footage showing at least five men grabbing Mr McDonald at the entrance of the hotel - surrounding him before one of them repeatedly punches him in the face. The group then followed he and his brother John outside, continuing to punch and kick him.

The Essendon resident, who suffered post-concussion, dizzy spells and headaches after the attack, can't remember what happened, but John McDonald said the group of men had been yelling abuse at passing patrons including his brother.
Jade Hameister, 16, is the youngest person to complete the Polar Hat Trick.

She's only 16, but Melbourne schoolgirl Jade Hameister is breaking records in Antarctica.

The teen arrived at the South Pole after a gruelling 37-day journey and is the youngest to complete the polar hat-trick but is also the first woman to set a new route through Kansas Glacier from the Amundsen Coast of Antarctica.

"The one (record) I think is really special is the first woman to set a new route to the South Pole, and that's kind of the one that I keep bringing up, the rest of them I'm not really fussed," she said.

The 'rest of them' includes, at age 14, becoming the youngest to ski to the North Pole from anywhere outside the last degree of latitude, resulting in her being awarded Australian Geographic Society's Young Adventurer of the Year.
While the word recession is being floated in the real estate market in the eastern states, here in the west all the talk is about recovery, movement and employment possibilities.

So if you're looking to invest in a property or buy a new home this year, here's my top eight picks for Perth suburbs with the best potential for growth.



Dianella

The major attraction is it's 8km from the Perth CBD with a good supply of post war dwellings available on subdivisible blocks. The average sale price dropped by 4.6 per cent in 2017, leaving the median sale for a house at $591,000. There is still an opportunity to purchase some amazing houses with all the bells and whistles including fantastic city views, for between $1 million and $2 million. This year the Dianella Educational Precinct was developed, providing a positive change and innovative opportunities for students, teachers, parents/carers and the surrounding community.

Luxury homes are still being sold at competitive rates in Applecross.

53 SHANNON ROAD, Dianella. Credit:Passmore Real Estate





Wembley Downs

This suburb has it all location wise. Close proximity to great schools, shops, parks and Floreat and City Beach. A great lifestyle suburb with a good smattering of retro homes on large family blocks. A home in this suburb will give you a Western Suburbs address with all the trimmings at an affordable price.



Murdoch

"Hidden Gem" describes this suburb perfectly. The only basic problem is the lack of stock available - the average homeowner in Murdoch lives in their home for 15 years. According to the recent REIWA sales records the highest price sold in the suburb over the last 12 month is $820,000. Many homes are becoming too big for the empty nester owners and will soon be placed on the market. The area has great schools, universities, hospitals, shops and a good rail link.



Morley

A very affordable area, and although the suburb has had a good run of land subdivisions the median price for a house is still $491,000, with a recent price drop of 6.5 per cent for the year, making it a suburb to consider. Morley has good connectivity to the airport and the city.



Hilton

Has an eclectic mixture of weatherboard, fibro and brick dwellings on large blocks of land. With approximately a five minute drive to the central business district of Fremantle and the Indian Ocean, the positive growth from nearby suburbs such as O'Connor and Samson give hope to the rise of Hilton. The Fremantle Council has also agreed to give the Hilton town centre an upgrade which will be a positive influence in the area.



Balcatta

This is another suburb that is low in stock, as many of the residents stay in their homes for a number of years. Prices have increased in Stirling making this the next one to grow. Many might be impressed to drive down Donnington Street and streets surrounding to see the newly built multi-million dollar homes with city views. Balcatta Senior High school is getting upgraded, which will draw young families back to the suburb.



Applecross

An affluent riverside suburb bound by the Canning Highway and the river and home to the South Perth Yacht Club. The suburb has a strong commercial base as well as a gorgeous residential aspect and the area has a mixture of homes that would cater for buyers at all levels. Although the REIWA statistics indicate an increase of 10.1 per cent in this suburb, if you are in the market for a luxury home with easy access to good schools, then this is a suburb to consider. Homes are still being sold at competitive rates in this suburb.
Phnom Penh: An Australian woman arrested at Phnom Penh airport has been charged with drug trafficking by Cambodian authorities.

Ve Thi Tran, 37, was taken into custody on Saturday after allegedly trying to smuggle almost two kilograms of heroin in her luggage as she was checking in to go back to Australia via Hong Kong.

Australian Federal Police played a key role in the arrest of 39-year-old Ve Thi Tran, far left, on Saturday morning as she was about to fly to Australia via Hong Kong.

The arrest followed a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police.

Tran was charged on Wednesday at Phnom Penh Municipal Court with "unlawful keeping, transporting or trafficking of narcotics substances" according article 40 of Cambodia's law on drug control, said In Song, bureau chief at the Interior Ministry's anti-drug department.
Washington: Female Democratic politicians are working to keep the spotlight on the issue of sexual harassment by inviting their colleagues to wear black to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on January 30.

Led by California Democrat Jackie Speier, the protest seeks to call attention to abuses of power in the workplace that affect women and other vulnerable groups. It draws inspiration from the recent Golden Globe Awards, where women wore black to highlight the problem of sexual harassment in Hollywood.

Democrat Jackie Speier, left, has called for women to wear black to Donald Trump's State of the Union address. Credit:J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE

"This is a culture change that is sweeping the country and Congress is embracing it," Speier said in a written statement.

Capitol Hill also was inundated late last year with allegations of sexual harassment by lawmakers and senior aides, prompting a debate over how best to hold offenders accountable. Speier is the author of a bill to strengthen victims' rights in the reporting and mediation process, and lawmakers are in talks about how to pursue reforms.
Seoul: North Korea has praised American author Michael Wolff's controversial book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, taking pleasure from it's jaw-dropping account of chaos and dysfunction under President Donald Trump.

The North's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, says the book's sales reflect what it calls "rapidly surging anti-Trump sentiments in the international community".

It says the book's popularity "foretells Trump's political demise."

"The anti-Trump book is sweeping all over the world so Trump is being massively humiliated worldwide," said the piece. "Voices calling for the impeachment of Trump are on the rise not only in the United States but also abroad."
Washington: President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon will be interviewed next week by a US House of Representatives committee investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The interview behind closed doors on Tuesday with the House Intelligence Committee will focus on Bannon's time on the campaign, not the transition or his time in the White House, the source said.

Bannon's appearance comes as many Democrats worry that Trump's fellow Republicans are seeking to stall or shut down congressional probes of Russia and the 2016 election. It gives investigators a chance to talk to someone who spent months as one of Trump's closest advisers.

Although Bannon was fired from his White House position by Trump in August, he had been a close Trump associate since he joined the Trump campaign and helped the political novice defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
TICKERS: VLC; VLCJF

Source: Streetwise Reports (1/11/18)

It's been full speed ahead for this TSX.V-listed gold explorer in Bulgaria, and the drill bit is showing results.



Velocity Minerals Ltd. (VLC:TSX.V) began drilling its Rozino gold project in southeastern Bulgaria in August, and has now drilled more than 7,000 meters. The company's most recently released drill results show diamond drill hole RDD-040 returning "144.7m grading 1.52g/t gold, including 24.0m grading 4.05 g/t gold."

"This is the thickest continuous drill intersection ever returned from the property averaging greater than 1.0g/t gold," the company noted. Assay results have expanded the near-surface mineralization beyond the Main Zone to the East and North Zones.

"Velocity's shares look set to turn higher soon."  Clive Maund

Keith Henderson, Velocity's president and CEO, stated, "Exploration at East Zone has been particularly successful with hole RDD-040 intersecting continuous high-grade gold mineralization from surface over a 144-meter drill intersection. The most recently completed drilling at Rozino has stepped beyond Main Zone, seeking to define additional zones of near-surface mineralization at North Zone and East Zone."

Henderson also noted that "since closing the acquisition of Bulgarian assets in late July 2017, Velocity has rapidly advanced the project and based on positive results added a second rig in October to complete more than 7,000m in total. Our stated aim has been to define potentially open-pittable epithermal gold mineralization and the program has clearly met that objective."

The Rozino project is located about 20 kilometers from Ada Tepa, which Dundee Precious Metals is developing.

"With 7,000m of drilling completed, we anticipate conducting another 7,000 to 10,000m of drilling, which will enable us to release a preliminary economic assessment (PEA). Our option agreement grants us 70% of the project upon delivery of the PEA, which we hope to complete by late summer," Henderson told Streetwise Reports.

"Velocity closed a successful financing at the end of September."  Clive Maund

"We are delivering on what we've said we were going to do," Henderson said. "We've drilled and have gotten really good results. The results at Rozino point to near-surface gold mineralization, which makes the project potentially open-pittable. We will continue to release drill results as we receive them."

Technical analyst Clive Maund charted Velocity Minerals on CliveMaund.com on Jan. 10 and noted "the stock looks cheap here, as it looks set to reverse to the upside soon." Another positive factor to take into consideration, Maund stated, "is that the company closed a successful financing at the end of September, making it less likely that there will be another one soon."

Maund concluded that "Velocity Minerals is close to a cyclical low and looks set to turn higher soon." The stock, he said, is 'completely 'off the radar' so the emphasis is on quiet accumulation without the expectation that it will go roaring up 2 days after we buy it. Nevertheless, once the trend reverses it could make good percentage gains from here."

Want to read more Gold Report articles like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you'll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent articles and interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Streetwise Interviews page.

Disclosure:

1) Patrice Fusillo compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise reports as an employee. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Streetwise Reports does not accept stock in exchange for its services. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with Velocity Minerals.

3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Velocity Minerals, a company mentioned in this article.

CliveMaund.com Disclosure:

The above represents the opinion and analysis of Mr Maund, based on data available to him, at the time of writing. Mr. Maund's opinions are his own, and are not a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell securities. Mr. Maund is an independent analyst who receives no compensation of any kind from any groups, individuals or corporations mentioned in his reports. As trading and investing in any financial markets may involve serious risk of loss, Mr. Maund recommends that you consult with a qualified investment advisor, one licensed by appropriate regulatory agencies in your legal jurisdiction and do your own due diligence and research when making any kind of a transaction with financial ramifications. Although a qualified and experienced stockmarket analyst, Clive Maund is not a Registered Securities Advisor. Therefore Mr. Maund's opinions on the market and stocks can only be construed as a solicitation to buy and sell securities when they are subject to the prior approval and endorsement of a Registered Securities Advisor operating in accordance with the appropriate regulations in your area of jurisdiction. Mr. Maund does not own shares of Velocity Minerals.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Starcore International Mines Ltd. (TSX:SAM) (the Company ) is pleased to announce that it has engaged Global Kompas (GK) to undertake a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) of the Santa Fe Project (Santa Fe property) located in Sinaloa, Mexico.



We believe that moving ahead with a PEA is the next step to demonstrating value to our shareholders and a quintessential step in our due diligence process, said Robert Eadie, CEO and President of Starcore. Our goal is to identify the economic viability of an underground operation and the processing of material on our property.

The Santa Fe property was previously optioned by another company that completed two exploration programs, with the most recent one in 2014, and concluded with no mineral resources but the discovery of multiple veins and mineral ore shoots. GK will complete the technical study with a mineral resource estimation prepared in accordance with 43-101 standards that will allow several operating scenarios.

Global Kompas understands that Starcore has entered into a Letter of Intent (LOI) as announced on November 21, 2017 to acquire the Santa Fe Project. Details of the property and the press release can be viewed here.

About Global Kompas

Global Kompas professionals come from the geology, metallurgy, mining engineering and environment fields of expertise, who are guided by the principles of Integrity, competence and Independence. The GK team is fully familiarized with the NI 43-101 requirements. Both individually and as a team, GK has extensive experience in exploration and mining acquired in the mining private sector, including major and junior companies around the world. Besides its group of professionals, GK has a support staff in its offices in Seville (Spain) and Durango (Mexico).

About Starcore

Starcore is engaged in exploring, extracting and processing gold and silver through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Compania Minera Pena de Bernal, S.A. de C.V., which owns the San Martin mine in Queretaro, Mexico, and Altiplano Gold Silver, S.A. de C.V., which operates the newly commissioned Altiplano Concentrate Processing Plant located in Matehuala, Mexico. The Company is a public reporting issuer on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Company is also engaged in owning, acquiring, exploiting, exploring and evaluating mineral properties, and either joint venturing or developing these properties further. The Company has interests in properties which are exclusively located in North America.

ON BEHALF OF STARCORE INTERNATIONAL

MINES LTD.

Signed Robert Eadie

Robert Eadie, President and Chief Executive Officer

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

EVAN EADIE

Investor Relations

Telephone: (604) 602-4935 x230

Toll Free: 1-866-602-4935

This news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements may reflect managements current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Companys control. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed nor does it accept responsibility

for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...
Monday 05 September, 2016 Reliable information reaching Biafra writers desk has it that the life of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indi...
MOORESVILLE, N.C., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biz Technology Solutions (BTS), a full-service technology solutions provider for medium to large organizations throughout the Southeastern United States, today announced its recent partnership with Enghouse Interactive, a leading developer of a comprehensive portfolio of contact center software and services.



BTS and Enghouse will work hand-in-hand to offer diverse services, aimed at a target demographic, to provide customers with a more comprehensive communications solution using Microsofts Skype for Business and the Enghouse quality management solutions.

I am very excited about this new partnership with Enghouse Interactive, said President of BTS, Mike Chouffani. While we offer our customers a unified communications solution, we now have a complete communications service offering for SMB and enterprise organizations who need an agile platform to interact with customers.

Many times, BTS customers need both a communications center and a managed services solution, in order to help reach their customer service goals. This was the perfect opportunity for Enghouse to bring their product portfolio to BTS for a partnership that would provide the rest of the solution, fulfilling an underlying need for their customer base.

Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Enghouse Interactive, David Crook, added, Providing customers with choice and control is a driving factor for Enghouse Interactive, and this partnership reflects that mission. We are thrilled to be working with BTS, a company that shares our customer-first mantra and that is known for supporting businesses with the communications technology they need to deliver an exceptional customer experience.

ABOUT BIZ TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, INC.

Biz Technology Solutions, Inc. (BTS), headquartered in Charlotte, NC, provides full-service technology solutions for medium to large organizations. Along with first-rate customer service, we offer business-critical services including technology consulting, IT professional services, custom software development and IT managed services. Our system analysts and engineers also bring extensive experience to the rapidly advancing areas of technology, design, implementation and management. We can help you implement information technology initiatives to support the long-term objectives of your organization. Plus, we'll lower costs of operations and risks while increasing competitiveness and profits. For more information, visit www.biztechnologysolutions.com.

ABOUT ENGHOUSE INTERACTIVE



Enghouse Interactive (www.enghouseinteractive.com) delivers technology and expertise to maximize the value of every customer interaction. The company develops a comprehensive portfolio of customer interaction management solutions. Core technologies include contact center, attendant console, predictive outbound dialer, knowledge management, IVR and call recording solutions that support any telephony environment, on premise or in the cloud. Enghouse Interactive has thousands of customers worldwide, supported by a global network of partners and more than 1500 dedicated staff across the companys international operations.

Enghouse Interactive is a subsidiary of Enghouse Systems Limited, a software and services company traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol ENGH. Founded in 1984, Enghouse Systems is a consistently profitable company, which has grown both organically and through the acquisition of well-regarded specialists including AndTek, Arc, CosmoCom, Datapulse, IAT, IT Sonix, Presence Technology, Reitek, Safeharbor, Syntellect, Telrex, Trio, Voxtron and Zeacom. Learn more at http://www.enghouseinteractive.com/.

CONTACT

Mostafa Razzak

JMRConnect (for Enghouse Interactive)

202-904-2048

m.razzak@jmrconnect.net




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Albany New York, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Increasing stringency of environmental protection agencies in curbing the production of solvent-based coatings owing to the high emission of VOCs has driven manufacturers of industrial paints towards adopting waterborne coatings. While waterborne coatings arent solvent-free, the presence of co-solvents which contain low concentrations of VOCs isnt constraining manufacturers from procuring environmental compliance. Companies such as PPG, Sherwin Williams, AkzoNobel, RPM, BASF, Valspar, and Axalta are recognized as global leaders in production of waterborne coatings. According to a forecast study developed by Transparency Market Research, these companies are expected to remain active in instrumenting the expansion of the global waterborne coating market for the near future.

The study offers an exclusive forecast and in-depth analysis on how the global demand for waterborne coating will shape up during the assessment period, 2017-2026. Key findings from the report reveal that by the end of 2026, more than 4.5 million tons of waterborne coating are likely to be sold globally. Over the forecast period, the global waterborne coating market is assessed to expand at a moderate CAGR of 3.9%.

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The study has analyzed a slew of factors influencing the dynamics of the global waterborne coating market, some of which include: Complexities in procurement of raw polymer materials and liquefying agents for production of waterborne coating, Rising challenges for manufacturers in increasing the production capacities while exhibiting absolute environmental compliance, An upsurge in painting applications across residential, commercial, and industrial settings, Recent scientific studies propelling the advancements in creating high-performance waterborne coatings through the use of new thermosetting polymer.

Waterborne Coatings made of PU Materials to Register Highest Sales during 2017-2026

Key advantages of polyurethane materials with respect to providing resistance against changing temperatures, being waterproof, and exhibiting high-level protection from physical abrasion will continue to drive their use in the global waterborne coating production landscape. In 2017, more than 1.2 million tons of waterborne coatings sold in the global market were made from polyurethane. The report further reveals that the global sales of epoxy-based waterborne coatings will continue to gain considerable traction over the forecast period.

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Increasing Demand for Waterborne Coating Primers in General Industrial Applications

The study finds primers as a top-selling product segment in the global waterborne coating market. By the end of 2026, more than 2.1 million tons of waterborne coating primers are expected to be sold globally. The report also estimates that the largest share of waterborne coatings sold globally during the forecast period will be used for general industrial applications. From coating the floorings of manufacturing plant to providing surface protection for industrial equipment, components and machineries, the general industrial applications of waterborne coatings are expected to register a global volume CAGR of 4.3% during the forecast period.

APEJ to Represent Largest Market for Waterborne Coatings through 2026

Favorable industrial regulations and easy procurement of raw polymerizing and liquefying agents will render the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) as lucrative for large-scale manufacturing of waterborne coatings. A majority of companies operating in the global waterborne coating market will be eyeing for extending their presence in countries such as China, India, and South Korea. By the end of forecast period, the APEJ waterborne coating market is poised to dominate the global market volumes by accounting for a share of over 45%.

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About Us

Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.

Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. (TSX:CGG) (HKEx:2099) (the Company or China Gold International Resources) is pleased to announce that the Company has reached commercial production at Jiama Mines Phase II, Series I expansion (Series I) effective December 31, 2017. As a result, the ore processing capacity at the Jiama Mine has been increased to 28,000 tonnes per day (tpd) from the previous capacity of 6,000 tpd.



Construction of the Jiama Mines Phase II, Series II (Series II) is now complete and development and production testing is currently underway. The Company expects Series II, which will add an additional 22,000 tpd, to achieve commercial production in mid- 2019.

Achieving commercial production at Series I is a major milestone for China Gold and the Jiama team, stated Mr. Bing Liu, CEO and Executive Director. "With the hard work, dedication and commitment of our local team and the strong support and leadership of management, we are now focused on Series II and continuing to ramp up the operation."



About China Gold International Resources



China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada and operates both profitable and growing mines, the CSH Gold Mine in Inner Mongolia, and the Jiama Copper-Gold Polymetallic Mine in Tibet Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. The Companys objective is to continue to build shareholder value by growing production at its current mining operations, expanding its resource base, and aggressively acquiring and developing new projects internationally. The Company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:CGG) and the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEx:2099).



For further information on China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd., please refer to its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com or contact Tel: 604-609-0598, Email: info@chinagoldintl.com, Website: www.chinagoldintl.com.



Cautionary Note About Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information regarding China Gold International Resources contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements may include estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Although China Gold International Resources believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. China Gold International Resources cautions that actual performance will be affected by a number of factors, most of which are beyond its control, and that future events and results may vary substantially from what China Gold International Resources currently foresees. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration results, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. The forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The information contained herein is stated as of the current date and subject to change after that date.
A 47-year-old Hearne man pleaded guilty this week to two counts of arson resulting in death in connection to the January 2016 fire that killed his ex-girlfriend and her teen daughter.

According to Robertson County District Attorney Coty Siegert, William Alex Davenport will spend 20 years in prison on the arson charges. He will be eligible for parole in five years.

Wanda Vinton, 34, and her 15-year-old daughter, Cheyenne, had just moved into their home on Sycamore Street in Hearne the day before their deaths. On the night of Jan. 15, 2016, their home went up in flames, leaving them trapped inside. Davenport was Vinton's ex-boyfriend, with whom she had split five days before the deadly blaze.

Davenport was set to stand trial next week but pleaded guilty to two counts of arson in the 82nd District Court in Robertson County on Monday. Davenport had been charged with arson resulting in death and with murder, both first-degree felonies punishable by up to 99 years in prison.

Siegert told The Eagle that although Davenport was charged with murder, a conviction on that charge likely would have been difficult to obtain.

"With murder, you would have to prove he lit the fire with the intent to kill," Siegert said. "With arson, you have to prove that he started a fire. The defense could argue that he wasn't trying to kill [Wanda and Cheyenne], but use the fire to force them out of their new house and back into his house."

Davenport's plea deal includes two 20-year prison sentences to be served concurrently. Siegert said that given the nature of the crime, it's unlikely he will be granted parole.

"The immediate family was included in all phases of this case from beginning to end," Siegert wrote in an email to The Eagle on Wednesday. "I understand this was a very tragic situation, and I am sympathetic to the family's feelings.

In discussions with the family, it was clear that they wanted Davenport's death," he continued. "I endeavored to explain that this was not a death penalty case, and no amount of time would make them feel good about their loss. As such, I worked to ensure that the family would have closure in seeing ... Davenport take responsibility for his actions."
Local authorities are searching for a 24-year-old man who was reported missing by his family on Sunday and whose vehicle was found in College Station on Wednesday afternoon.

A Facebook post seeking information on Randy Robyler has been shared more than 11,000 times. The post states that Roblyer has a serious medical condition and was last seen Sunday afternoon after he finished his shift at work in College Station.

Bryan police spokeswoman Officer Kelley McKethan confirmed authorities are looking for Roblyer, but because he is neither a child nor elderly, no Amber Alert or Silver Alert can be issued. Roblyer's name has been entered in Bryan police's missing person's database.

Just after 3 p.m., College Station officers located Robyler's truck off of William D. Fitch Parkway near Carter Creek. Authorities were using drones, a Department of Public Safety helicopter and dogs from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Wednesday night to search the woods near where the truck was found. According to Lt. Craig Anderson of the College Station Police Department, as of 8:30 p.m., authorities had found no sign of Robyler.

Anyone with information is asked to call Bryan police at 979-209-5301.
Area hospitals say they're at or near capacity due to an influx of patients with the flu or flulike illnesses -- but people who need care will still be seen.

Sara Mendez, health education and promotion director for the Brazos County Health Department, said Wednesday that 1,481 flu cases and 294 cases of flulike illnesses were reported in December. She said that spike is comparable to the number seen during the entirety of the 2016-17 flu season, when there were 1,461 flu cases reported to the department. Some local hospitals report that they've felt the strain, too.

Dr. Kia Parsi, chief medical officer and interim chief executive officer for CHI St. Joseph Health, said Wednesday that the Bryan hospital, which has 236 beds, is at or near capacity because of the high number of patients coming in with flulike symptoms.

"It appears to be a pretty heavy flu season. The entire state of Texas has been hit pretty hard, and the Brazos Valley is no exception," Parsi said. "All the health care facilities in our community are at or near capacity."

While CHI St. Joseph's beds have been staying close to full, capacity changes hour by hour as patients check out. The situation is frequently fluctuating, Parsi said, but patients who visit the emergency room experiencing flulike symptoms will be cared for. Patients are encouraged to call or visit primary care providers, emergency clinics and freestanding emergency rooms first, though, before coming to the hospital.

"If you need to go to the ER, we are open 24/7, and we are committed to providing care for all the individuals that are in our community," Parsi said. "Our emergency room is open at the hospital, and we're taking admissions as we speak, but there are some log jams, and wait times will be longer than they are at other times of the year."

At Baylor Scott & White Health in College Station, infectious disease specialist Dr. Seth Sullivan described a similarly busy scenario at the 143-bed hospital. While they're both hospitals at or near capacity, the doctors said full hospitals aren't entirely unusual for winter months, when flu and respiratory illnesses are more common. But Sullivan said the sickest patients are seen first in the emergency room, so wait times may be long.

Sullivan added that many people have been showing up to the emergency room at Baylor Scott & White with several family members, which is concerning for a number of reasons.

"They could be exposed [to the flu], but also it further crowds these emergency rooms that have been very crowded these past couple of week," Sullivan said. "That's another thing I think that's important, is that we bring only who's necessary to the ER."

The other two area hospitals, College Station Medical Center and The Physicians Centre in Bryan, did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday about their capacity levels. But the officials from Baylor Scott & White Health and CHI St. Joseph said the hospitals are monitoring the situation and are equipped to handle the influx of patients.

"It doesn't look like the flu has slowed down, and we may not have reached our peak yet," Parsi said. "We don't expect this to slow down in the next few days, more likely not even in the next few weeks. ... We have to be vigilant and ready, not just to take care of the patients now, but how we can plan for down the road. We really try to look at all of our resources not just in Bryan-College Station, but throughout our regional system for how to prepare for a very busy flu season."

Sullivan said Baylor Scott & White is also prepared for this type of scenario, and the hospital is prudent in monitoring capacity and the resources that are being used.

Brazos County Judge Duane Peters -- who, as the top county official, is in charge of emergency management for the area -- said he doesn't recall local hospitals ever being this full.

"We're concerned, but certainly don't want to sound the alarm since it's manageable right now," Peters said.

Also worrisome is the potential for the health situation to worsen as Texas A&M University and Blinn College resume classes next week, bringing tens of thousands back to Bryan-College Station.

"It could be that the next wave of the flu is worse than this one," Peters said, adding that he's been meeting with emergency management officials and will continue to keep tabs on the problem.

He said Wednesday that there's no arrangement in place for how to proceed if all four area hospitals are filled to capacity, other than to refer residents to hospitals around the Brazos Valley.

"We'll be talking about that Plan B in the coming days, I'm sure," he said.

Sullivan expressed some optimism Wednesday that the situation may improve soon, pointing to numbers from the health department. Last week, 276 flu cases were reported to the department, compared to 464 the week before and 644 for the week ending Dec. 23.

"Hopefully that trend continues, but we can never predict what's going to happen," Sullivan said, adding that people who still have not received a flu vaccine should do so.

All of the health officials stressed the importance of flu prevention. Mendez, with the health department, said people who have the flu or a flulike illness should isolate themselves and stay home from work and school. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people stay home for at least 24 hours after their fever is gone, which should occur without the use of fever-reducing medicine.

"Most of the time people feel bad enough that they don't want to go anyway, but with schools starting this week and everything else, people are wanting to get back into a routine," Mendez said. "Stay home if you're sick."

The health department recommends people visit urgent care or their primary care providers if they experience flulike symptoms including fever, body aches, coughing or a sore threat. Antivirals may be prescribed within the first 48 hours of the onset of symptoms. Mendez said people may consider visiting a hospital if they're experiencing complications from the flu such as severe dehydration, shortness of breath or a high fever.

The CDC has considered the flu "widespread" in Texas since mid-December.
Tammy Kishino, 55, passed away on Saturday, January 6, 2018, at her home near College Station surrounded by the love of her family. A visitation will begin at 1 pm, on Saturday, January 13, 2018 with the service beginning at 2 pm, at Victory United Pentecostal Church, 13107 State Highway 30, College Station. Interment will follow in Bethel Cemetery on Hardy Weedon Road. Celebrant, Dawn Wakefield will officiate services. Life Tribute Services are in the care of Callaway-Jones Funeral and Cremation Centers Bryan-College Station.

Tammy was born to Gerald and Judith Lichty Manning, on April 20, 1962 in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. She grew up as a part of a Marine Corps family, and graduated from Twenty-Nine Palms High School as Miss Twenty-Nine Palms. Ashley and Tammy met in Southern California, married, and moved to the Houston, Clear Lake area in 1989. In 2007, Tammy and Ashley purchased a home and land in the country near College Station, and it was here that Tammy's love of animals and the country flourished. She raised, rescued and acquired an assortment of horses, dogs, donkeys, ducks and chickens, tenderly caring for all of them. Recently diagnosed with cancer, she maintained a positive attitude. She passed away while walking about her property admiring the many gifts of life she was blessed with, surrounded by those she loved. Her true joys in life are her husband and three children.
November 5, 1922 - January 8, 2018

Hazel Lorraine Moody McLain, lovingly called "Nana" by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren or "Aunt Lorraine" by a multitude of nieces and nephews, went home to be with our Lord on January 6, 2018 at the age of 95. Lorraine joined her loving husband, J.M. McLain, six sisters and three brothers in their heavenly home.

A gathering of family and friends will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 pm Friday, January 12, 2018, at Lindley-Robertson-Holt Funeral Home of Navasota. A celebration of her life will take place 10:00 am Saturday, January 13, 2018, at First Baptist Church of Navasota, 309 Church St. Services will be presided over by Rev. Clyde Larrabee and Rev. Henry Sanders. Interment will follow in Erwin Cemetery in Piedmont, Texas.

Serving as pallbearers are Kurt Burr, Andy McLain, David Bingham, Billy Binford, Phillip Arrington, Tommy Gergeni, Bobby Oliver, Randy Robertson and Gregg Karr.

Lorraine was born in Piedmont, Texas on November 5, 1922 to Hazel (O'Brien) Moody and O.H. Moody. She was the sixth child born of "Momma Moody" and "Daddy Moody". Lorraine graduated from Navasota High School in 1940 and attended Sam Houston State Teachers College. In the midst of WWII, Lorraine married her High School sweetheart, J.M McLain on September 25, 1942 just before he deployed to Italy to fly B-25 Bombers during WWII. Lorraine was married to J.M. for 63 years when he passed away.

Lorraine is survived by four children; Martha Jo McLain-Lucas and her husband, Larry Lucas of Atlanta, GA., Minnie Gail McLain of Willis, TX, Mike and Charlotte McLain of Weatherford, TX and Judge Tuck Moody McLain and wife, Linda Meekins McLain of Navasota, TX. Lorraine is also survived by 11 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

After the war, Lorraine and J.M made their homes in numerous Texas cities including Bryan, Austin, Spring, Navasota, Houston, and Georgetown. After her husband died, Lorraine made her home in Willis, TX on Lake Conroe where she lived with her daughter, Gail McLain.

In every town she lived, Lorraine immediately formed a bond with a church of Believers, where she would pour out her heart, soul and resources. Lorraine took the "Great Commission" to heart and spread the Gospel at every opportunity. Over the years, Lorraine had the opportunity to travel throughout the world including several trips to the Holy Land, Mexico, South America, the Caribbean and Russia. Lorraine used each of these trips as opportunities to spread Christ's love by word of mouth, and once by "smuggling" Bibles into a communist country. At home, Lorraine taught Sunday school, sang in various church choirs, held in-home Bible studies, participated in AGLOW fellowships and had a "puppet ministry".

Lorraine not only spread the Gospel through teaching, she lived and exhibited the very embodiment of a "Christ follower." She led by example with an unwavering faith. She had a heart that "heard" God and she fearlessly acted on His word. She shared her faith in church, on the street, in her home, whether to perfect strangers or to her own family. She believed in the power of prayer and would not hesitate to stop whatever she was doing to pray for a friend or relative.

Aside from her love of the Lord, nothing meant more to Lorraine than her family. She was proud of her family's heritage, and made sure her children knew their family's history. Her greatest vacations always included family gatherings and reunions. Her closest friends were her sisters, her brothers and their spouses. For over 30 years, she served as the Matriarch of the "New Braunfels Family Reunion" where more than a hundred of her descendants gathered together each year, for food, fun, floating and family.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations to any or all of the following organizations. All 3 of have been close to Lorraine's heart for many years.

The Gathering Place - The Gathering Place at First Methodist Conroe, 4308 W Davis, Conroe TX 77304 and put Lorraine McLain in the note portion of your check. Lorraine loved this memory care ministry and attended faithfully from 2013-2017. As her caregiver, I found them when I was lost and unprepared for the journey before me. They trained me, loved me, prepared me and prayed for me.

Young Life - Lorraine's grandson-in-love, Stephen Mueller, serves and works diligently in this ministry and she has been a faithful contributor for years. Missions and outreach were her heart. When she could no longer GO into all the World, she Sent. ON LINE -https://giving.younglife.org/s/ search area number and enter "xd104" which is the Latin America Development fund or mail to Young Life Latin AmericaDevelopment-XD104, 5305 Ankara Court, Austin, TX 78730-2585.

Faith in Practice - Faith in Practice is an ecumenical Christian medical mission serving the poor in Guatemala. Lorraine donated to and her daughter, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters have been actively supporting and serving in this organization for many years. https://www.faithinpractice.org/ways-give to give online, by mail or phone from this page.

You are invited to sign the guestbook and leave condolences for the family at www.lindleyrobertsonholt.com.
Bryan police are searching for a man who was reported missing by his family on Sunday.

A Facebook post seeking information on Randy Robyler has been shared almost 11,000 times. The post states that Roblyer has a serious medical condition and was last seen Sunday afternoon after he finished his shift at work.

Bryan police spokeswoman Officer Kelley McKethan confirmed authorities are looking for Roblyer, but because he is not a child nor elderly, no Amber Alert or Silver Alert can be issued. Roblyers name has been entered in Bryan polices missing persons database.

According to McKethan, a truck believed to belong to Robyler was found on William D. Fitch Parkway on Wednesday afternoon. A Department of Public Safety helicopter and dogs from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are searching the woods near where the truck was found.

Anyone with information is asked to call Bryan police at 979-209-5301.
SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Predictive Technology Group, Inc. (OTCPINK:PRED) announces that Dr. John C. Nelson, M.D., M.P.H. will join the Predictive Technology Group Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Nelson, an obstetrician and gynecologist from Salt Lake City, Utah, brings a wealth of experience to PRED. Predictive Technology Group, Inc., specializes in genetic testing, diagnostics, and therapeutic products to advance precision medicine.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/90c41a92-58f7-4099-a391-1f181c3e251e

Dr. Nelson served as President of the American Medical Association, Salt Lake County Medical Society, and the Utah Medical Association. Also, he chaired the Finance and Planning Committee of the World Medical Association. He served on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as on the advisory committee for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). As a spokesperson for the American Medical Association Alliance, he lectured on detecting and preventing interpersonal violence. Dr. Nelson became a charter member of the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission (ProPAC), now known as MedPAC.

Dr. Nelson received numerous awards, among which are the Alumnus of the Year at Utah State University, the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Utah School of Medicine, the Emeritus Merit of Honor Award from the University of Utah Alumni Association, and the Light of Learning Award from the Utah Department of Education. As a founding co-chair of the Commission to End Healthcare Disparities, Dr. Nelson received a Lifetime Service Award from the National Medical Association.

Dr. Nelsons civic involvement includes time on the advisory committee of the local Boys and Girls Club of Salt Lake City, the Christmas Box House board, and the board of Operation Kids.

As PRED continues to advance its growth, Dr. Nelsons vast medical, scientific, and business knowledge and experience brings a valued addition to the Companys advisory team.

About Predictive Technology Group, Inc.

Predictive Technology Group, Inc. (OTCPINK:PRED), a Salt Lake City, UT based Life-Sciences Holding company formed in 2013, aims to revolutionize patient care through predictive data analytics, novel gene-based diagnostics, and companion therapeutics through its wholly owned subsidiaries Predictive Therapeutics and Predictive Biotech. Its subsidiary companies currently focus on four main categories: Endometriosis, Scoliosis, Degenerative Disc Disease and Regenerative Tissue Products. PRED continues to explore the possibilities for additional disease identification and treatment categories in its integrated, registered laboratories. PRED subsidiaries use genetic and other information as cornerstones in the development of new diagnostics that assess a persons risk of illness and therapeutic products designed to identify, prevent and treat diseases more effectively; www.predictivetechnologygroup.com, www.predrx.com and www.predbiotech.com.

For more information about Predictive Technology Group, Inc. and the release, contact Rich Kaiser, Investor Relations, YES INTERNATIONAL, 757-306-6090 and yes@yesinternational.com.

Forward-Looking Statements - To the extent any statements made in this release contain information that is not historical, these statements are essentially forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the difficulty of predicting FDA approvals, acceptance and demand for new vaccines and other pharmaceutical products, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development and launch, reliance on key strategic alliances, availability of raw materials, availability of additional intellectual property rights, availability of future financing sources, the regulatory environment, and other risks the Company may identify from time to time in the future.

Contact:

Rich Kaiser

Investor Relations

757-306-6090
Making a return to our two favourite summer locations, Mount Maunganui and Nelson in early January 2023, we've got whiff of the first release lineup and me oh my, yes boy
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TURBO, ANTIOQUIA, Colombia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Genesis Electronics Group, Inc. (aka Cacique Mining) (OTC-Pink:GEGI) announces has begun initial negotiations with AngloGold Ashanti for one specific mining title in Colombia. The business model of Genesis Electronics Group, Inc., sister company of Inca Worldwide (aka QED-Connect) (OTC-Pink:QEDN), looks for specific projects that have all geological preliminaries concluded and are ready to start production within the following six to 12 months.



The concession contract (# FAF-14C) from Anglo Gold Ashanti (with an area of 1,424,542 hectares, signed on June 29, 2007, and located in Las Vega and Almaguer Cauca) is of special interest for Cacique Mining. This mining area dates back to the Spanish conquistadors of 1551, when the town of Almaguer was founded by Alfono De Fuenmayor only 49 years after Christopher Columbus reached Panama on his fourth voyage looking for the mystical city of El Dorado. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Fourth_voyage

The area was mined for several centuries, but the superstition of the local miners, associated with the earthquakes of 1740 and 1765, closed the mines. Just before they closed, one of the mines in the area had over 2,000 Indians and Africans extracting over 30,000 pesos of gold monthly. Each peso, or real (R.1), had 3.383 grams of gold, for a total monthly production of 101.49 kilos of goldequivalent to $4,284,389.20 USD per month in 1765.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_of_Colombia#1622%E2%80%931756_Cob_coinage_(macuquina)

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaguer

Security in these areas has, of course, been an issue for decades, but with the work of GMS (Green Mine Solutions SAS) and the substitution contracts (currently with more than 366 coca leaves farmers in Cauca, which is expected to be expanded to over 3,000 farmers) offers us the possibility to work in the area hand in hand with the farmers, providing security for both the mining and agriculture projects.

AngloGold Ashanti is the third largest producer of gold in the world, and they are the largest holder of mining titles in Colombia with properties such as La Colosa, which has more than 29 million ounces of gold, making it one of the top 11 largest mining projects in the world. However, because of security concerns and without the ability to work with the agriculture communities doing crop substitution, AngloGold Ashanti has not been able to obtain the environmental permits required to start the project.

https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/mining/anglogold-ashanti-suspends-colombias-us2bn-la-colosa-project/

http://www.anglogoldashanticolombia.com/noticia/esperamos-que-la-colosa-tenga-licencia-ambiental-en-2020/

John Alan Naisbitt, now board member of Cacique Mining, also had the same problem at the Gramalote project. During his work as general manager of Gramalote, he contacted Cacique Minings Kate Bahnsen to begin planting Sacha Inchi around the areas of Gramalote. But before the planting even had a chance to begin, Mr. Naisbitt left the project. Gramalote is now a joint venture between AngloGold Ashanti and B2Gold. This project has more than six million tons of gold, but still has not been able to obtain the environmental licenses needed. http://www.b2gold.com/projects/development/gramalote/

Based on stories like these, Ms. Bahnsen highlights the real value of Cacique Minings two-pronged thrust with Inca Worldwide by stating, Our goal is to work with the communities first, providing jobs in crop substitution, while we look for potential mining titles. After we locate them and finish our due diligence, we contact the holders of the titles. Having the communities happy and on our side is a key factor in obtaining the environmental licenses necessary in Colombia. And major mining companies in Colombia are beginning to recognize the value we bring.

Contact information: info@caciquemining.co

About Cacique Mining

The Gomez Plata project is a gallery project. Cacique Mining Inc. and Green Mine Solutions have entered into an agreement with Inca Worldwide to grow Sacha Inchi on the land above the mine.

www.caciquemining.co

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements:

Our public communications and SEC filings may contain "forward-looking statements"  that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "see," "will," "would," or "target."

Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to various degrees, uncertain, such as statements about our announced plan to reduce the size of our financial-services businesses, including expected cash and non-cash charges associated with this plan and earnings per share of QED retained businesses (Verticals); expected income; earnings per share; revenues; organic growth; growth and productivity associated with our Digital business; margins; cost structure; restructuring charges; acquisition-related synergies; cash flows; returns on capital and investment; capital expenditures, capital allocation or capital structure; and dividends.
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Comedian James Judd  known to many as a radio personality on NPRs Snap Judgment  brings his Funny Stories to the Palace Theatre, in Stamford, on Thursday, Jan. 11.

A former member of The Groundlings in Los Angeles and the New Faces at the Hollywood Improv, James has worked on numerous projects, including a critically acclaimed solo show and television appearances on Star Search and Evening at the Improv, according to his bio.
Small business owners know that a primary condition for expansion is their ability to attract and select great talent. But what many of them might ignore is that lack of compliance with the federal government employment verification form -- the I-9 -- could represent a serious threat to their business's profitability and, worse, its survival:

As proof, we need only look at Wednesday's immigration raids against 98 7-Eleven franchise stores, resulting in 21 arrests of suspected illegal aliens.

Related: A First-Generation American Entrepreneur Reflects on the Immigration Proposal That Would Have Barred His Parents

A big factor here is the I-9's rapidly changing regulations. Last year, 2017, was a dynamic period for ICE, or the federal agency known as Immigration & Customs Enforcement. A series of changes to I-9 rules in the last six months of the year opened the door to potential legal trouble for thousands of small businesses that are unprepared for the new compliance requirements.

What you need to know

Employers are responsible for verifying the identity and employment authorization of each person they hire. Noncompliance with those verification requirements is a civil violation that's as serious as knowingly hiring or continuing to employ an unauthorized alien here in the United States. It can also result in heavy fines and penalties.

In November of 2016, a new "smart" online Form I-9 version was released, aimed at minimizing the rate of errors/omissions and ensuring a higher rate of employer compliance. In July 2017, a newly revised Form I-9 was issued, which became mandatory on Sept. 18, 2017.

New and higher penalties were also implemented: As of August of 2016, fines for all Form I-9 compliance violations had doubled from their previous levels. Those fines now range from $110 to $1,100 per violation up to a range of $216 to $2,156 -- not per individual form, but per error or omission on that form.

Indeed, ICEs regulations allow a fine for each error on an I-9; and the agency can also fine a company based upon its percentage of I-9s containing substantive or uncorrected technical errors.

Federal oversight has tightened.

More than ever before, small business owners and their HR managers should be devoting considerable time and resources to conduct extensive self-audits in anticipation of any Form I-9 audit by ICE, which can occur with as little as a three-day notice. This burden of staying up to date with all applicable Form I-9 policy changes has become a real challenge. And small businesses can be hit hard for administrative errors and technical violations, rather than for just substantive ones.

An example? Buffalo Transportation Co, a small business providing transportation services for individuals traveling to medical appointments, paid the price for lack of compliance on one of these technical points. The employer had failed to fill out Form I-9s at the time of hire for any of its 54 employees and was audited by ICE.

According to federal law, Section 1 of the I-9 must be completed no later than the first day of employment, and Section 2 must be completed within three days of the first date of employment.

ICE issued the company a $109,000 fine (reduced to $75,000 after its appeal to an administrative law judge). Buffalo Transportation's argument, before the Second Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, that the violation was only a technical one, rather than a substantive one, was rejected, in late 2016. In fact, ICE has since amended its regulations to remove the distinction between technical and substantive violations, thereby eliminating the good faith defense.

In the same violations context, Hartmann Studios was recently hit with a fine in excess of $600,000, primarily for failing to sign I-9 forms at the time they were completed. ICE also levied a $400,000 fine against Panda Express in July 2017 for I-9 violations.

Big fines can mean devastation.

Penalties of this magnitude, levied against a small business, can lead to utter devastation.

And there's no relief in sight: The government is only expected to intensify its spotlight on employers, in search of multiple violations per form. Most experts expect this ncrease in light of the Trump administrations focus on enforcement of immigration laws. Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan recently issued a directive to increase the level of Homeland Security and Immigration (HIS) enforcement by four to five times.

Related: 3 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Protect Employees From Trump's Immigration Executive Order

And ICE is ramping up its ranks in response: The agency's current 6,000 enforcement officers and 6,000 special agents are reportedly going to increase in number by an additional 10,000 mandated officers and agents, to support an expected exponential increase in audits and enforcements.

What small businesses and startups can/should do.

What should you do? Here are some tips to protect your company against I-9-related penalties. First, remember:

Section 1 of I-9 must be completed by each employee at the time of hire, defined as the period of time after the job offer has been accepted and before the end of the employees first day of active employment.

Section 2 must be completed within three business days of the date of hire.

The instruction document and List of Acceptable Documents (page 3 of the Form I-9) should be made available to employees at the time they complete Section 1 of the form.

Employees are free to choose which legal documents they submit to establish their identity and eligibility to work in the United States. They must present original, unexpired documents in person to the company representative completing Section 2 of the I-9.

I-9s should also be stored in a secure location separate from personnel files. If photocopies of documents are made, they should be retained with the I-9s and presented during an investigation or audit by an authorized agency.

Completed I-9s must be retained for as long as an individual is employed. I-9s for employees who have separated must be retained for three years after the date of hire (first day of work for pay) or one year after the date employment ends, whichever is later.

Businesses, moreover, should ensure that electronic I-9 data is correctly input and fully compliant with the regulations. ICE can ask for an Excel spreadsheet to review I-9 and E-verify data. Data that is incorrectly entered or appears illogical can lead to hefty penalties.

For independent contractors, meanwhile, an I-9 is a must.

Overall, the best way to minimize your company's liability is to conduct I-9 periodic internal audits and, when necessary, to follow specific (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) procedures for correcting errors or omissions.

Related: How to Avoid Regulatory Fire in the Gig Economy

Audits should be conducted by someone knowledgeable about immigration, I-9 requirements and USCIS rules, to ensure that your immigration compliance program meets the objectives set forth in the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Significant reductions in corporate liability are available when isolated misconduct occurs, but a generally effective compliance program is in place.

Related:

Are You in Compliance With the Revised Form I-9? Violations Pose a Threat to Your Business.

ICE Audit: Are You and Your Employees at Risk?

#7 Challenges Faced by Immigrant Entrepreneurs



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


WILTON  What began as a dream for a solar-powered school system in Wilton is rapidly becoming a reality.

Nearly two years after taking its first significant strides toward solar dependency in its schools, Wilton has taken one more step toward a solar future by securing backing to install a solar array at Cider Mill School, which is the only school in Wilton without a plan for solar panels.

With solar imminent at Cider Mill, the town estimates that approximately 25 percent of the overall energy consumption in its schools will now be accounted for by renewable energies  a significant feat in the eyes of one of the initiatives largest proponents.

The Town of Wilton is a recognized Clean Energy community in Connecticut, having successfully achieved the Gold Standard in 2017 for its energy reduction activities. Now, with the advent of putting solar panels on municipal buildings, the Wilton Energy Commission has helped Wilton work toward a vision of being the most environmentally-friendly and sustainable town in Connecticut  all while saving the town monies in utility bills and providing a cleaner healthier environment, Debra Thompson-Van, chairperson of the towns Energy Commission, said.

The solar transition at Cider Mill  like those of the towns other three schools, as well as the Wilton Library  is made possible by a Zero-Emission Renewable Energy Credit (ZREC), which would make the switch more economically feasible for the town. First Selectman Lynne Vanderslice temporarily secured the tax credit at the Dec. 4 meeting of the Board of Selectmen by submitting a $802.95 refundable surety bond to the Green Bank.

Though the contract with the Connecticut Green Bank is still being negotiated by the town, Wilton has qualified for a small-sized ZREC for a 100-kilowatt system to be installed on Cider Mills roof. Under the credit, the Green Bank credits each kilowatt generated by Cider Mills new system at $103.95.

The tax credit for Cider Mill is the lowest secured by the town, behind Wilton Highs $110 per kilowatt. The largest ZRECs for the town were for Miller-Driscoll and Middlebrook schools with tax credits worth $125 per kilowatt.

Though the details of the Cider Mill contract are still being negotiated, the final deal will be rolled into the pre-existing agreement for the towns three other schools with the Green Bank and contractor Kingspan Energy.

The Cider Mill deal will mark a new pinnacle in the towns progression towards a greener future. In under two years, the town has outlined a plan to minimize its schools impacts on both the town budget and the environment.

With Cider Mills installation alone, the town expects savings of around $9,000 per year over 25 years, according to the towns solar consultant, Mark Robbins of MHR Development.

In total, Facilities Director Chris Burney estimates that the town could save anywhere between $1.1 million to $2.3 million over at 25-year span, once all the schools are finally equipped with solar.

Though the town may not apply for more ZRECs until all its current solar projects are completed, Thompson-Van said that the future may hold more solar installations yet, so long as the Green Bank continues to offer its tax credits.

Burney said that the town hopes to complete the installations of solar panels on Middlebrook and Miller-Driscoll by spring 2018. The Wilton High and Cider Mill projects could also be completed as early as fall 2018.

When those projects are done, who knows? Maybe we can qualify for more ZRECs and equip the schools with even more solar panels, said Thompson-Van.
During a visit to the Law Enforcement Center on Wednesday, the members of Youth Leadership Tomorrow were introduced to deadly weapons, such as an M4 rifle.

They also learned about weapons that are less lethal, such as pepperballs and beanbags.

The education came as part of a visit with the Grand Island Police Departments tactical response team.

Officer Ryan Todd, a member of the response team, showed the group pepperball launchers and a beanbag launcher. The latter is basically a 12-gauge shotgun.

Among other things, pepperballs are meant to elicit pain compliance. A pepperball is an irritant. Police refer to the substance as OC, which stands for oleoresin capsicum. It is derived from pepper plant oil. Police refer to such weapons as chemical munitions.

If you get hit by a pepperball, Its going to hurt, and its going to hurt really bad, Todd said.

OC is not flammable, the officers said, so theres no danger of burning a house down.

The Youth Leadership Tomorrow group spent the day at the Law Enforcement Center, Fire Station No. 1 and the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center.

The group numbered 35 people at the Law Enforcement Center. The students, who are all juniors, attend six of the seven Hall County high schools. The only school not represented was Heartland Lutheran.

The other members of the tactical response team speaking to the group were Sgt. Dean Kottwitz and Officer Wade Bentley.

The tactical team responds when there is a known threat in a certain area, Kottwitz said. The groups goal is to contain the threat and keep it away from the public, Todd said. In bringing new members aboard, Kottwitz said, the group looks for people who make good decisions under pressure.

Kottwitz, who is the supervisor, is one of 15 members of the tactical response team. The group averages eight to 10 calls a year.

Need for the team varies. One year well be called two or three times a month, Wade said. They might be needed only three or four times the following year.

Wade is in charge of the teams sniper/reconnaissance detachment. In addition to handling rifles, those officers relay information to the people closer to the scene.

Sometimes, members of the tactical response team have to stand for hours in one place. The equipment is heavy, and the officers sometimes have to hold a shield for an extended period. When temperatures are cold, team members rotate. If officers get cold and tired, their focus goes away, Wade said. Sometimes, the Nebraska State Patrol comes in to help.

Some members of the Youth Leadership Tomorrow team tried on the equipment.

The first student to don the equipment was Brittany Kennedy of Doniphan-Trumbull. As she stood there wearing a bullet-resistant vest and holding a rifle, she said shed have to work out because its heavy. In an interview, she said she didnt think shed be that cold because I felt pretty warm.

Grace McDonald of Centura also learned that protecting the public can be a weighty experience. If you fall in the water in this thing, are you going to drown? she asked.

The officers displayed a heavy piece of equipment that is used to ram doors down.

Basically, this is a big key, Wade said of the hefty object. We dont have to have a key to get in.

Its a master key, said Sgt. Todd Dvorak, whos in charge of training, recruitment and retention.

Before the tactical response team spoke to the students, Dvorak talked about everything that goes into hiring a police officer.

McDonald said the talks were eye-opening. They gave her new insight into the leadership that law enforcement demonstrates in the community, she said.

On a practical level, McDonald admitted that the vest she wore was heavy. Dont step on a scale with that thing, she said.

Melinda Kebeli of Grand Island Senior High said it was nice to know what police have to go through to keep the city safe. She was impressed by the psychological, physical and background checks candidates have to go through.

Kebeli said the equipment was interesting and also scary.

One thing Kebeli doesnt want is a pepperball in your face. I think that would be very painful to experience, she said.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) presented Alectra Utilities with the associations Emergency Assistance Award for its outstanding work assisting customers impacted by Hurricane Irma in September 2017.



The award is presented to EEI member companies to recognize an outstanding response in assisting other electric companies in power restoration efforts after service has been disrupted by severe weather conditions or other natural events. The winners were chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process, and the awards were presented during EEIs Winter Board and CEO Meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona.

When disaster impacts a region, electric companies from across the nation are called on to assist impacted companies in need  mutual assistance is a hallmark of our industry, said EEI President Tom Kuhn. When Hurricane Irma struck, Alectra Utilities answered the call to help. Alectra Utilities assistance to restore service to impacted customers is a terrific example of mutual assistance in action.

The damage caused by Hurricane Irma resulted in tremendous hardship for millions of people in the southeastern United States. The restoration of electricity service was essential to storm recovery efforts and Alectra was proud to assist local utilities by providing powerline crews and equipment, said Brian Bentz, President and CEO of Alectra Inc. Mutual assistance following extreme weather events is a testament to the high level of cooperation continuously being demonstrated within the electricity industry.

About Edison Electric Institute

EEI is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. Our members provide electricity for 220 million Americans, and operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As a whole, the electric power industry supports more than 7 million jobs in communities across the United States. In addition to our U.S. members, EEI has more than 60 international electric companies as International Members, and hundreds of industry suppliers and related organizations as Associate Members.

About Alectras Family of Companies

Alectras family of energy companies distributes electricity to nearly one million customers in Ontarios Greater Golden Horseshoe Area and provides innovative energy solutions to these and thousands more across Ontario. The Alectra family of companies includes Alectra Inc., Alectra Utilities Corporation and Alectra Energy Solutions

Media Contact: John Friesen, Manager, External Communications john.friesen@alectrautilities.com | Telephone: 905.741.5578 | 24/7 Media Line: 1.833.MEDIALN

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/24b7c879-4727-4190-a551-383d9ea38abe
Gov. Pete Ricketts says the state of the state of Nebraska is strong and growing, but that it also faces challenges ahead.

Ricketts delivered a speech on the state of the state during a stop at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport Wednesday afternoon as part of his annual State of the State fly-around.

In his press conference Wednesday afternoon, Ricketts said Nebraska has seen a tremendous amount of growth last year. He said Nebraska won the governors cup for the most economic development projects per capita of any state in the country. In fact, Ricketts said, Nebraska has more economic development projects last year than Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota combined.

Forbes also ranked Nebraska the fourth-best state in the nation for business. Ricketts said Nebraska also moved up seven spots in Chief Executive magazines ranking of best states to do business. He added Nebraska is seeing investment from companies such as Cargill, Facebook, Hudl and Novomynes. In sum, Ricketts said the total investment from these companies was over $1 billion.

My administration is working to warp the speed of business to be able to help make those investments, he said. We continue to find ways to become more effective, more efficient and more customer focused.

As an example of this, Ricketts said his administration worked to reduce the nurse licensing processing time from 96 days in Nov. 2015, to an average of 30 days in Dec. 2017.

We are helping people get connected with jobs more quickly to help them get into the workforce faster, he said.

Last summer, Ricketts said he signed an executive order ordering all state agencies to come forward with additional steps to cut regulatory red tape. The recommendations came back to him in November. On Wednesday, Ricketts said Sen. John Murante of Gretna planned to introduce a bill to further help the state eliminate unnecessary red tape.

While the state had its positive achievements this past year, Ricketts said the state also faces challenges. The first challenge, he said, is dealing with the budget.

Our revenues continue to fall below the expectations of the forecast board, Ricketts said. In October, the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board met and reduced our revenue forecast by about $223 million  $100 million this year and $123 million the next year. When we started out the fiscal year, we had $34 million less in revenue over last year. We know weve got work to do to close that budget gap.

Ricketts added that on Wednesday, he recommended the legislature make budget adjustments that would bring the budget into balance without raising taxes. He said this adds about $103 million in production and about $22 million in money transfers from cash funds. An additional $108 million will go out from the cash reserve.

Ricketts said he is also recommending additional investments. He said a big one is to child welfare and public assistance.

We are at about nine percent annually as far as the number of kids in the states child welfare system. That is heartbreaking, Ricketts said. We are up about 485 kids that are coming to our system. We have to take care of our kids.

Ricketts is recommending an additional $35 million to child welfare and public assistance this year and next year. He said that in the first seven months of 2017, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services reported parents using methamphetamine were a factor in one of every three removals of children from their homes in Nebraska.

Ricketts plans to form a task force to look into the cause of why this is going on, as well as other contributing factors, to address the disturbing trend Nebraska is seeing in child welfare.

The legislature and the governor have worked together to be able to provide over $840 million in property tax relief over four years, Ricketts said. However, he said he has heard stories of work still needing to be done.

This fall, Ricketts said he was approached by a farmer who told him about how high property taxes drove him to sell his farm, leave Nebraska and move to Missouri. He added stories like this have inspired him to make property tax relief his top priority as governor.

Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion planned to introduce the Nebraska Property Tax Cuts and Opportunity Act on Wednesday, which Ricketts said will serve as the framework for delivering tax relief this legislative session.

This will work to take existing tax credits and from into two new refundable tax credits based on state taxes  one for agriculture and one for home owners, he said. What this will allow us to do is take those existing tax credits and make sure we are focusing on Nebraskans and not absentee landowners. It also allows for us to increase that tax credit in future years as we continue to control spending and all revenues afloat.

Ricketts added the state is starting off with a 10 percent credit on property taxes paid for agriculture and up to a 10 percent tax credit for home owners.

We will put a $230 cap on that so that will help concentrate those dollars at the valuation of your average Nebraska home, he said. Then, we have a trigger to be able to take that out in future years as those revenues are growing.

Ricketts added that over the next 10 years, the state expects the bill to provide more than $4 billion in property tax relief to ag producers and home owners. He said the proposed bill also provides an additional $10 million over two years for workforce development.

In addition to Grand Island, Ricketts also spoke in North Platte and Scottsbluff as part of his State of the State fly-around.
A Grand Island man was killed Wednesday in a two-vehicle collision north of Grand Island, the Hall County Sheriffs Department said Thursday in a press release.

Dustin Shaw, 28, of Grand Island was killed in the accident, the sheriffs department said.

The press release says at approximately 4:54 p.m. Wednesday Hall County deputies were dispatched to the intersection of 1R Road and 90th Road. Upon arrival it was found that there was a two vehicle collision.

Preliminary investigation revealed that a 2004 Chevrolet Impala being driven by Shaw was traveling eastbound on 1R Road and failed to stop at the stop sign, the sheriffs department said. Shaw then struck a northbound 2015 GMC pickup being operated by Richard Hickman, 38, of Dannebrog.

Both vehicles came to rest off the roadway with the Impala overturning and coming to rest on its top. Shaw had to be extricated from the vehicle. Shaw was transported to CHI Health St. Francis where he was pronounced dead. Hickman was transported to CHI Health St. Francis with non-life threatening injuries.

Hickman was using restraints at the time of the accident. It is still being investigated to determine if Shaw was restrained and what other contributing factors may be involved.

The Hall County Sheriff Department continues to reconstruct the accident and is being assisted at the scene by the Nebraska State Patrol.
Police/Sheriff

Anyone with information about any crime in the state may call the Grand Island-Hall County Crime Stoppers, (308) 381-8822. Callers will remain anonymous.

A reward of up to $1,000 will be paid after law enforcement agencies have determined the seriousness of the crime and the usefulness of the information.

Inmate custody status can be obtained by calling the VINE hotline at (877) NE 4 VINE or by visiting www.vinelink.com. Information is available 24 hours a day.

If you see a crime happening, call the Grand Island-Hall County Emergency Center  911.

Grand Island Police

The following felonies were reported:

- Jeyelhy Manriquez was arrested after he was observed driving at the intersection of 10th and Sycamore streets Tuesday night. A traffic stop was conducted because he is known to have a suspended license. He was arrested for driving during suspension, no proof of insurance and possession of a controlled substance.

- A 21-year-old male reported being sexually assaulted within city limits Dec. 2. The investigation is ongoing.

- Swanson Plumbing reported a burglary from a construction site at 588 S. Stuhr Road between Dec. 27 and Jan. 9.

- Kevin Gunn reported a burglary to a garage at 2320 W. Fifth St. on Tuesday night.

Hall County Sheriff

Law enforcement arrested three people on warrants in three cases. There were 32 calls for service.

For more information visit www.hallcountyne.gov and click on the sheriff link.

- Zuheir Taleb reported a burglary at 11772 S. Highway 11 in Wood River. The burlary happened at 2 a.m. Jan. 1. A male subject was arrested.

Court report

Hall County District Court

- Natalia B. Ramos, 26, Grand Island, theft by receiving stolen property totaling $0 to $500, second offense, sentenced to 270 days in jail with credit for 105 days served.

Hall County Court

- Anderson Georges, 21, Wildwood, Fla., was charged with delivery, dispensing, distribution, manufacture or possession of a controlled substance  Schedule 1, 2, 3 and having no drug tax stamp, both on Tuesday. Preliminary hearing set for 1:30 p.m. Feb. 6.

- William B. Richman, 34, Salt Lake City, Utah, was charged with first-degree criminal trespass, criminal mischief totaling $500 to $1,500, unlawful acts relating to drugs, first-offense resisting arrest, obstructing a peace officer and possession of a controlled substance, all on Wednesday. Preliminary hearing set for 2 p.m. Feb. 6.

Driving Under the Influence  Luis A. Garcia Jr., 25, Wood River, second-offense DUI, $500 fine, 30 days in jail with credit for two days served, drivers license revoked 18 months. Also guilty of driving under suspension before reinstatement, $200 fine; Susan K. Marshall, 67, Omaha, DUI-blood, first offense, $500 fine, six months probation, drivers license revoked 60 days.

Correction

Service awards at CCC

John Brooks, Laura Bulas and Michele Schroer recently were honored for 30 years of service to Central Community College-Hastings.

The number of years each has worked was incorrect in a news item in the Sunday, Jan. 7, edition of The Independent.
In 2018, the Saint Louis Art Museum will be the first North American art museum to tell the epic story of one of the greatest finds in the history of underwater archaeology, a story that revealed two lost cities of ancient Egypt submerged under the Mediterranean Sea for over a thousand years. World-renowned underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio and his team discovered these submerged worlds uncovering stunning ancient religious, ceremonial, and commercial artifacts, which has led to a greater understanding of life during the age of pharaohs.

More than 200 of these authentic artifacts, including three colossal 16-foot sculptures of a pharaoh, a queen, and a god will be on view. Objects range from the colossal sculptures to precious gold coins and jewelry, bronze vessels, objects inscribed in the ancient Egyptian or Greek languages, and statues from the sunken and forgotten ancient cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus. They will be seen alongside ancient Egyptian artifacts from museums in Cairo and Alexandria, many of which have never been on view in the United States.

The exhibition is curated by Franck Goddio. The presentation in St. Louis is co-curated by Lisa Cakmak, the associate curator of ancient art.

Before the founding of Alexandria in 331 BC, Thonis-Heracleion (the Egyptian and Greek names of the city) was the primary port of entry to Egypt for all ships coming from the Greek world. It was also an important religious center. The nearby city of Canopus, often mentioned by classical authors and religious leaders, was famous for its temples, and was believed to be sites of miraculous healing. However, prior to their discovery in 2000, no trace of either city had been found. Many wondered, were these cities real or merely myth?

Franck Goddios discovery revealed that the cities were indeed real, and had lay at the mouth of the Nile, 30 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, for more than 1200 years. Their submersion was completed in the 8th century, possibly by an earthquake, or other upheavals, some associated with tidal waves. This, combined with the unstable sediment on which the cities were built, ultimately led to their demise.

In 1933, a Royal Air Force pilot spotted dark shadows in the water of Aboukir Bay in the Mediterranean Sea, leading to the discovery of several objects from Canopus dating from the Ptolemaic Period. Six decades later, Franck Goddio and the European Institute for Underwater Archeology (IEASM,) in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities, began research to determine the location and topography of the currently submerged ancient zones of the eastern harbor of Alexandria and of Aboukir Bay. Utilizing sophisticated technical equipment Goddio and his team were able to locate, map, and excavate parts of Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion and confirm that the region had indeed once been an important center of trade and site of religious pilgrimage. The excavation has also helped scholars understand the Mysteries of Osiris, an annual festival that commemorated one of Egypts most important mythsthe murder and resurrection of the god Osiris.

A team of underwater archaeologists, led by Goddio, continues to tirelessly explore the submerged land off the Mediterranean coast. This ambitious 25-year-long project covers a vast area the size of Paris and brings to light findings of antiquities of considerable importance, transforming our understanding of the extensive exchange of goods and ideas between Egypt and its Mediterranean neighbors.

Excavations are carried out under the supervision of both the IEASM and the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities. The archaeological work of Franck Goddio has been supported since 1996 by the Hilti Foundation.

The exhibition will run from March 25 through Sept. 9.

The Saint Louis Art Museum is located in Forest Park.

For more information or to purchase tickets to this exhibition, visit www.slam.org.
The Mother Jones Heritage Project has unveiled an important historical marker and exhibit on Illinois labor history.

Dedicated during a Dec. 11 ceremony, the marker is located on I-55 southbound at the busy Coalfield Rest Area (mile marker 65), about 15 miles south of Springfield on a stretch of the interstate that is also alongside historic Route 66. Both the marker and exhibit highlight the important role of Illinois coal miners and their heroine, Mother Jones, a Cork-born Irish immigrant.

Brian OBrien, Irelands Consul General to Chicago and the Midwest USA, joined the dedication festivities. Together with Brigid Duffy, a representative of the Chicago Irish American Heritage Center, he also made a wreath presentation at Mother Jones Monument in Mt. Olive. OBrien expressed his gratitude to Mt. Olive for cherishing the memory of Mary Harris Mother Jones, who chose to be buried there in tribute to the role of ordinary people in changing history.

Northern Illinois University history professor Rosemary Feurer, who serves as director of the Mother Jones Heritage Project, said the new marker is intended to draw attention to the vital history that exists in what might seem like an ordinary stretch of the interstate highway.

The marker and indoor exhibit at the Coalfield Rest Area pay tribute to the role of Illinois coal miners and highlight how miners and their families fought for the eight-hour day, against child labor, for a living wage and against wage theft.

Their 1897 march for a living wage was not only a major point in Illinois history, but was also a major catalyst for the longest, most sustained set of strike marches across the nation by U.S. workers, Feurer said. As we celebrate Illinois Bicentennial, lets keep in mind the role that immigrant and African-American workers had in transforming Illinois.

Consul General OBrien translated Mother Jones most well-known quote, Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living, into Irish Gaelic, to great applause from the dedication audience. He said the exhibit and marker will allow future generations to reflect on this great Cork-born activist who should not be forgotten either in Ireland or in the United States.

OBrien noted that while Illinois residents will be celebrating their Bicentennial, Ireland is celebrating its Centenary.

One of the key figures of Irelands 1916 Easter Rising that established our country was James Connolly, who was for a time in the United States and became friends with Mother Jones, he said, adding the connection to the Centenary history is important to Ireland.

OBrien said Ireland is trying to live by values that Mother Jones would endorse, those of human rights and diversity. He also applauded the growing ties between the Spirit of Mother Jones Cork Festival and the Mother Jones Heritage Project.

Feurer announced during the dedication that Illinois Humanities had recently awarded the organization a grant to produce Stories from the Coalfields to accompany the marker and indoor exhibit.

Others speaking at the dedication included William Kelly, executive director of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway; William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society; Mike Matejka of the Illinois Labor History Society; Alimyon Allen of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbins office; and Amy Rueff of the Illinois AFL-CIO.
My latest stop has been on my bucket list for awhile  Als Italian Beef.

This is a Chicago landmark and I was indeed fired up to check it out. There are 11 locations of this classic in Chicagoland now. I guess its become somewhat of a chain, but still centrally located. You have to travel to suburban Chicago to check it out.

I was in Chicago for work recently and had the pleasure of visiting the location at 2804 N. Western Ave. in Chicago. Its located on a small island on the corner of two busy streets. It was an adventure fitting into the small parking lot, but I was on a mission and wasnt going to let it deter me.

With a menu highlighted by Italian beef, Italian sausage, tamales and potatoes how can you not be fired up? Maybe my cardiovascular system wasnt as fired up, but my brain and stomach overruled it.

Once inside it had a fast food feel to it. You walk to the counter to order and then slide down to the other end to wait for your food. Theres a large fountain soda island in the middle of the joint for you to get your own drinks and there are a plethora of booths sprinkled throughout for patrons.

As for my order, I had to go with Als bread and butter  the Italian beef. I went with the regular and ordered it dry for $6.75. You can also get the little beef, the big beef, or get extra beef, too.

When ordering you have to be specific if you want it dry, wet or dipped. Dry means you get a fair amount of gravy, or au jus, on your beef, but none on the bread. Wet has the meat swimming in au jus and dipped means they take the bread and all and dump it in the sauce to where everything is saturated.

I still had to work and wasnt in the mood to have to shower after my meal, so I went dry.

Dont get me wrong, dry still gives you plenty of the delectable sauce on your beef.

I went with sweet peppers on my sandwich, too. Theres hot giardiniera available also and the choice of provolone, cheddar or American cheese. I didnt go with any cheese on mine.

I will admit ordering the sandwich dry left the French bread a little dry, but the beef and peppers more than made up for it. The meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender and the two giant peppers slapped on the top of the beef had a great sweet taste.

I also had to go with a side, so I chose a small order of loaded French fries. They were blanketed with cheddar cheese, bacon, green onions and sour cream. They were fresh-cut fries with the skin still on them and owned a sensational flavor. All of the fixings made it delicious and of course it warmed my heart because it was absolutely chock full of crumbly bacon.

I wanted to try the loaded tamales, but was nervous about the later repercussions with having to work. The tamale boats at Als are smothered in chili, shredded cheddar cheese and onions.

There are plenty of options at Als. Id like to try their char-grilled Italian sausage, or even better the combo beef and sausage whenever I make it back. There are also Polish sausage choices, hot dogs, burgers and chicken sandwiches.

For those wanting to keep it a little healthier Als also has salads available. The Als old Chicago chopped salad looked interesting. It consists of mixed lettuce, tomato, bacon, carrots, pasta, red cabbage, gorgonzola cheese, scallions, chicken and balsamic vinaigrette.

To check out the whole Als menu and learn a little about their rich history which dates back to 1938, visit www.alsbeef.com.

It was just a great experience, awesome tasting classic Chicago fare. I will definitely return when I get a chance. If youre in Chicago anytime soon I recommend Als Italian Beef as a place to visit when you gotta eat.
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Linkedin Retno LP Marsudi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 08:00 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0b12e6 3 Opinion Indonesian-foreign-policy,diplomacy,international-relations,Indo-Pacific,Asia-Pacific,geopolitics,Rakhine,Rohingya-people,#RohingyaCrisis,Myanmar,#Myanmar,Jerusalem,#Jerusalem,ASEAN,IORA,#ASEAN Free

Indonesias diplomacy has been at full speed since the very first day of 2018. I have just returned from Davao City, Philippines. Symbolically, on Jan. 3, I handed over 300 Indonesian passports to persons of Indonesian descent, who have been living for decades in the Philippines without a defined legal citizenship.

Our Consulate General, with the Philippines and the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, have listed 8,745 persons of Indonesian descent in Southern Philippines. Among them, 2,425 people have been given the Certificate of Indonesian Citizenship (SPKI).

The lengthy collecting and validating of data is needed to ensure maximum protection for citizens living abroad. With the Philippines we agreed to enhance cooperation particularly to improve education in Islamic schools in Indonesia and the Southern Philippines.

Read also: [Full text] Indonesia: Partner for peace, security, prosperity

On Jan. 5, I inaugurated the groundbreaking event for the construction of the new ASEAN Secretariat building so that the Secretariat will be able to perform its tasks well in the next 50 years.

Also on Jan. 5 I received Indian Foreign Minister (Sushma Swaraj). We agreed to strengthen our strategic partnership, including in the Indo-Pacific.

Approaching the end of the year, the world was shocked by an attempt to alter the international status quo on Jerusalem. Indonesias position on Palestine is clear, firm, and consistent in line with our Constitutional mandate.

Indonesias contribution to world peace is also carried out in Afghanistan. We will intensify cooperation through scholarships, police training, infrastructure, ulema exchange programs, and women empowerment. Indonesia also had the honor to receive the visit by President M. Ashraf Ghani, the High Peace Council, and the First Lady of Afghanistan in 2017.

Indonesia also witnessed with concern the crisis in Rakhine state, Myanmar. Indonesia has been the driving force behind the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Center in Rakhine. We welcome the repatriation arrangement between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Following the occupation of Marawi by terrorist groups., we initiated a trilateral meeting to strengthen cooperation in defense, countering radicalism and terrorism. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of ASEANs establishment. Achievements included the ASEAN- China agreement on the Framework of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

Indonesias diplomacy was fortified not only in the Pacific Ocean but also in the Indian Ocean.

Strengthening cooperation in the Indian Ocean Rim was a priority during Indonesias chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). After 20 years of its establishment, an IORA Summit was held for the first time in Jakarta last March. The resulting Jakarta Concord reinforced members commitment to uphold the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as the main norm in maintaining peace and stability in the Indian Ocean region, and the IORA Action Plan.

Indonesia also intensified its campaign for candidacy as a non permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for 2019-2020. Indonesia ranks ninth out of 125 peacekeeping troop contributing countries.

Advancing democracy has been carried out through the Bali Democracy Forum (BDF), referred by others as an international forum discussing democracy without finger pointing. A breakthrough was the BDF Chapter Tunis.

Indonesias commitment to strengthen the South-South and Triangular Cooperation was also fortified in 2017. At least 31 countries in Asia, Africa, and South Pacific have become Indonesias partners including in food security and micro-finance.

Indonesia has strengthened engagement in the Pacific through trainings and humanitarian assistance, especially during natural disasters.

South-South and other technical cooperation shall be strengthened through a single agency  Indonesian Aid  tasked to deliver our international assistance, with an initial budget of Rp 1 trillion.

As part of economic diplomacy, Trade Expo Indonesia 2017 yielded a total transaction of US$1.4 billion or a 37.36 percent increase compared to last years transaction. With stakeholders, including with the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries, Indonesia intensifies efforts to counter the black campaign and promote sustainable palm oil. In trade and economic cooperation, Indonesia signed 78 agreements in 2017.

The Foreign Ministrys innovation includes the Treaty Room website, containing every single international agreement signed since Indonesias independence.

In protecting citizens abroad the government has exerted tremendous efforts to ensure the states presence for all citizens.

In safeguarding sovereignty, throughout 2017, we conducted 35 boundary demarcations. Progress included ratification of a maritime boundary agreement between Indonesia and Singapore; and ratification of the Exclusive Economic Zone boundary agreement between Indonesia and the Philippines. Now, in 2018, many countries are backtracking from international commitments. Therefore, we need to keep on developing partnerships to respect international law and multilateralism, to avoid the mighty takes all.

With other Southeast Asian countries at the crossroads of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, we must continue to be the prominent player in the creation of a regional architecture. Indonesia also wants peace, stability, prosperity in the Indian and Pacific Oceans Rims or the Indo-Pacific.

Therefore Indonesia will continue to contribute to strong positive cooperation in the IndoPacific, instead of one based on suspicion. Indonesia will work with countries in the region, to develop an Indo-Pacific cooperation umbrella to support confidence-building measures and cooperation; and enhance a habit of dialogue.

This regional architecture will be built through a building blocks approach, including intensifying cooperation in strategic fields and creating new growth centers in the Indian Ocean region.

Strategic steps and focuses of foreign policy in 2018 include:

First, in strengthening ASEAN unity and centrality, Indonesia will fully support the chairmanship of Singapore in ASEAN.

Indonesia shall strive for ASEAN and China to be able to produce a practical and effective Code of Conduct for stability and security of the South China Sea.

More transnational crimes requires better legal cooperation in ASEAN. Thus Indonesia will push for an ASEAN Extradition Treaty.

Second, Indonesia will enhance its peace and humanitarian diplomacy. Third, Indonesia will ensure the successful hosting of important events including the Asian Games and the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.

Fourth, Indonesia will intensify its campaign for candidacy to be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2019-2020 period. Fifth, we shall intensify boundary delimitation negotiations. Sixth, the Foreign Ministry will launch SafeTravel app for overseas citizens.

Seventh, Indonesia will intensify trade and economic cooperation negotiations. Priorities for conclusion include the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union, Turkey and Australia.

Eighth, we will strengthen the combatting of transnational crimes, including human trafficking, illegal fishing, illegal drugs, and countering radicalism and terrorism.

The above is an abridged version of Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudis annual press statement of Jan. 9. Read the complete speech here.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Resverlogix Corp. (Resverlogix or the "Company") (TSX:RVX) and the Resverlogix BETonMACE Clinical Steering Committee (CSC), represented by Professor Kausik Ray (Chair), are pleased to announce the FDA acceptance of the Companys Phase 3 BETonMACE trial Protocol amendments.



On behalf of all members of the BETonMACE CSC, Professor Kausik Ray welcomed the addition of US-based sites to the ongoing cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes trial, BETonMACE. The BETonMACE trial will now be expanded beyond Europe, Asia and South America to a fourth continent  North America with the addition of the United States. Prof. Ray commented, The addition of the United States is timely as we plan to conduct a Sample Size Recalculation Analysis ('SSRA') later in the first half of 2018. BETonMACE is currently targeted to include 2,400 participants to yield 250 MACE events and this number may be increased if required. Enrolling patients from the major regions of the world will provide evidence of generalizability in different healthcare systems and in different populations should apabetalone show improvement in cardiovascular outcomes. The FDA acceptance of the BETonMACE trial in US centers is an important milestone in the development of this compound.

Further, Mr. Donald McCaffrey, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "I am extremely pleased with the continued progress of the BETonMACE trial. We have already enrolled over 2,200 patients and expanding territories and potentially number of patients beyond 2,400 may be beneficial in several ways, scientifically and commercially. BETonMACE top line data is still planned to be available around the end of 2018.

About BETonMACE and the Clinical Steering Committee

The CSC is responsible for oversight and strategic direction for the Companys Phase 3 BETonMACE trial. The BETonMACE study, Effect of RVX-208 on Time to Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events (MACE) in High-Risk Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Subjects with Coronary Artery Disease, commenced in October 2015. The study is a large international multicenter, double-blind, randomized, parallel group, placebo-controlled clinical trial to determine whether treatment with apabetalone in combination with rosuvastatin or atorvastatin increases the time to MACE compared to treatment with rosuvastatin or atorvastatin alone. The primary endpoint of the BETonMACE trial is designed to show a relative risk reduction of MACE, narrowly defined as a single composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. The study is an event-based trial and will continue until at least 250 MACE events have occurred.

The study will ultimately contain at least 2,400 patients in 14 participating countries.

Members of the CSC include:

Professor Kausik Ray (Chair), BSC (HONS), MBCHB, MD, MPHIL (CANTAB), FACC, FAHA, FESC, FRCP - Imperial College London, London, UK.

Dr. Henry N. Ginsberg, MD, FAHA - Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY.

Dr. Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, MD, MPH, PHD, FAAP, FACP, FASN, FAHA, FNKF - UC Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, CA.

Professor Stephen J. Nicholls, MBBS, PHD - University of Adelaide, Adelaide, AUS.

Dr. Gregory G. Schwartz, MD, PHD - University of Colorado, Denver, CO.

Dr. Peter P. Toth, MD, PHD, FAAFP, FICA, FAHA, FNLA, FCCP, FACC - University of Illinois School of Medicine, Chicago, IL.; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.

About Resverlogix

Resverlogix is developing apabetalone (RVX-208), a first-in-class, small molecule that is a selective BET (bromodomain and extra-terminal) inhibitor. BET bromodomain inhibition is an epigenetic mechanism that can regulate disease-causing genes. Apabetalone is the first and only BET inhibitor selective for the second bromodomain (BD2) within the BET protein called BRD4. This selective inhibition of apabetalone on BD2 produces a specific set of biological effects with potentially important benefits for patients with high-risk cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes mellitus (DM), chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal disease treated with hemodialysis, neurodegenerative disease, Fabry disease, peripheral artery disease and other orphan diseases, while maintaining a well described safety profile. Apabetalone is the only selective BET bromodomain inhibitor in human clinical trials. Apabetalone is currently being studied in a Phase 3 trial, BETonMACE, in high-risk CVD patients with type 2 DM and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and is expected to be initiated in a Phase 2a kidney dialysis trial designed to evaluate biomarker changes and safety parameters in up to 30 patients with end-stage renal disease treated with hemodialysis.

Resverlogix common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:RVX).

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/resverlogix_rvx

This news release may contain certain forward-looking information as defined under applicable Canadian securities legislation, that are not based on historical fact, including without limitation statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "plans", "intends", "will", "should", "expects", "continue", "estimate", "forecasts" and other similar expressions. In particular, this news release includes forward looking information relating to the enrollment of US patients in BETonMACE, the estimated availability of top line data from the BETonMACE clinical trial, the Company's Phase 3 clinical trial and the potential role of apabetalone in the treatment of CVD, DM, chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal disease treated with hemodialysis, neurodegenerative disease, Fabry disease, peripheral artery disease and other Orphan diseases. Our actual results, events or developments could be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We can give no assurance that any of the events or expectations will occur or be realized. By their nature, forward- looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions and risk factors including those discussed in our Annual Information Form and most recent MD&A which are incorporated herein by reference and are available through SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.



For further information please contact:
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Linkedin Alfred Bayle (Inquirer.net/Asia News Network)  Thu, January 11, 2018 15:35 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0c4f17 2 Science & Tech Consumer-Electronics-Show,CES,Las-Vegas,technology,exhibition,power-outage Free

The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas experienced one of the least expected occurrences in the tech conventions historya power outage.

There is an isolated power outage at the Las Vegas Convention Center. We are working hard to resolve this and appreciate your patience.  CES (@CES) January 10, 2018

According to a statement from CES organizers, power went out at around 11:15 in the morning on Jan. 10. Affected areas included the Central and South Hall bridge meeting rooms of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Authorities were able to restore power within minutes of the report. Their initial investigation pointed to condensation caused by recent heavy rainfall which affected a transformer.

During the brief power outage, tweets about the event started trending with the hashtag #CESBlackout. Some poked fun at the ironic loss of power in a gadget show.

This would be me at every booth when the power went out. #CESBLACKOUT pic.twitter.com/osdZBfz1nQ  Lamarr Wilson (@LamarrWilson) January 10, 2018

Even tech giant Intel joined in on the fun.

Meanwhile, Canon capitalized on the opportunity to demonstrate their cameras low-light shooting capability.

The #CESblackout has nothing on the ME20F-SH that features a 35mm full frame CMOS sensor with an equivalent sensitivity in excess of 4,000,000 ISO, enabling us to capture video in near darkness. #CES2018 #VisionariesWelcome pic.twitter.com/asRcGVHu3b  Canon USA Imaging (@CanonUSAimaging) January 10, 2018

Read also: Forget the self-driving car, meet the self-driving suitcase

Others pointed at the irony of people being outraged at the loss of power in a convention center while people in Puerto Rico continued to live without electricity for four months and counting.

This is America:



Outrage as tech toy convention in Las Vegas loses power.



Puerto Rico- half of population still without power after four months, and no one cares.#CESblackout pic.twitter.com/hAqxEjX7YX  Mike Sington (@MikeSington) January 10, 2018

In those few moments of darkness, the title of most popular gadget may have fallen on the humble flashlight.

No matter what, the Energizer bunny just kept on going.

@Energizer is still going! Come to booth #12000 for light to avoid the #cesblackout pic.twitter.com/R82jwvL1UT  Jasco Products (@JascoProducts) January 10, 2018

Topics :

This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
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Linkedin A. Kurniawan Ulung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 09:20 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0b44ac 4 Art & Culture Heri-Dono,artist,#artist,Indonesian-artists,local-artists,contemporary-art,indonesia-contemporary-art-and-design Free

From being a university dropout to becoming one of Indonesias most internationally recognized contemporary artists, Heri Dono is the epitome of a true storyteller unafraid to swim against the tide.

For Heri Dono, United States President Donald Trump is like Bagong, a character in Javanese mythology portrayed in wayang (shadow puppet) plays.



Bagong is direct in speech and if he makes mistake, it still sounds hilarious, the 57-year-old said.



The US presidential election in 2016 grabbed Heris attention because it reminded him of chaotic political scenes in Gotham City in the Batman comic books. He then created two black-colored puppets depicting Trump and Hillary Clinton.

The puppets were on display during a group exhibition titled nDalang (Puppeteer), held in at the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) cultural center in Central Jakarta in November.

Heri is arguably one of Indonesias most seminal artists. In the early 1990s, he made history as the first Indonesian to break into the global art scene. Having held over 50 solo exhibitions and participated in over 216 group exhibitions at home and abroad since 1982, he is known for artworks presenting strong criticisms of violence, and social and political turmoil in Indonesia.



In 1996, he raised eyebrows within the New Order regime with his installation Blooming in Arms, which depicts the story behind the 1965 massacre of alleged supporters of the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Upon returning to Indonesia after living in the United Kingdom, he was arrested and interrogated for three days.



Heri became even more vocal after the fall of former president Soeharto.

For example, he created the installation The Palace Guards, which questions whether Indonesia is truly independent. The work comprises three statues depicting Soeharto, founding president Sukarno and Army general Soedirman.

The Palace Guards by Heri Dono (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

During the nDalang exhibition, he also showcased a wayang puppet depicting Soeharto.

For him, the era of Soeharto is no different from the age of colonialism, because power was held by the military with the support of political elites. Although Soehartos regime is over, discrimination against minority groups and religious intolerance still remains.



Many people are still confused about the definition of tolerance. It is understood [as a definition], but has yet to reach the peoples hearts, he said.



Heri compares practicing tolerance to playing gamelan (traditional Javanese orchestra), in which where different instruments are played in harmony. He regrets that gamelan is no longer taught in many schools.



The artist learned to be critical through favorite folklores that are also thick in sociopolitical commentaries, such as Cerita Panji (Panji Stories), a collection of heroic stories about Raden Inu Kertapati and Dewi Sekartaji during the Kediri Kingdom dating from the 13th century.



Heri said his passion for painting emerged early in his childhood. His father, who served as the adjutant of president Sukarno in the 1960s, used to bring him to Bogor Palace, where he would be mesmerized by the collection of world-class paintings and statues on display.



At school, he told his elementary school teacher that he wanted to be a painter.

My friends laughed at me. Unlike me, they wanted to be a doctor, pilot or architect, said.



In 1980, Heri managed to realize his dream to study at the Yogyakarta-based Indonesian Academy of Arts (ASRI), which was the first fine arts campus in the country and is now known as the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI). However, seven years later, he decided not to finish his studies.



My parents were sad. They wanted me to have a [university] degree, he said, adding that he believed an artist did not need to have a certificate or a degree to work.



Heri said he took full responsibility for his decisions, saying that being a dropout was not a big deal for him. The fifth child among seven siblings, he conceded that he was considered the naughtiest and least successful child in his family. The image did not discourage him, but was rather liberating.



Because I was deemed unsuccessful, I felt no burden in my life. I regret nothing, he said, then laughed when recounting that he had failed fifth grade for frequently skipping school.



He liked to play in the rice fields during school hours, he said, adding that his parents did not scold him because they didnt want him to run away from home.

From being a university dropout to becoming one of Indonesias most internationally recognized contemporary artists, Heri Dono is the epitome of a true storyteller unafraid to swim against the tide. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

In high school, he continued to skip class because he liked to do other things as head of the student body organization (OSIS). He would also receive bad grades in art class because his drawings often contradicted the instructions of his teacher. In his final high school report, he got a 4 in art.



My teachers even threatened to give me score of 3 if I still refused to follow their instructions, which meant I wouldnt graduate. I told them I was not afraid, he recalled.



As a talented artist, Heri has been awarded numerous art distinctions, including the UNESCO Prize at the Shanghai Biennale in 2000. For him, learning is a lifelong process that can be conducted anywhere. Even though he is considered a successful artist today, he said he would never stop learning.



He recalled that his parents were surprised after learning about his exhibition and lecture at Oxford University in the UK in 1995.



They wondered how a dropout could speak about art at Oxford University, he said.



For aspiring artists who want to have an international career, Heri advises them to have a deep understanding of not only global issues but also history, culture and the countrys traditions.



To go international, we do not need to change our identity. If we have character, we will be seen as unique by artists from other countries, because we do not try to imitate them, he said. We should stop thinking that [Indonesia] is always being left behind and that other countries are always better. We are great because we have a rich culture.
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Linkedin Nedi Putra AW (The Jakarta Post) Malang  Thu, January 11, 2018 09:03 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0b3edf 4 Art & Culture Sukarno,Indonesian-movies,local-movie,film,Liburan-Seniman,#film,#movies,#1965Tragedy,history Free

This historic movie, produced by prominent Indonesian director Usmar Ismail and previously unseen by the public, is now available digitally.

Legendary film director Usmar Ismail was known for his phenomenal work, such as Tiga Dara (Three Sisters) and Lewat Djam Malam (After the Curfew). He was also prolific, having made more than 30 movies from 1949 until his death in 1971.



One of his films, Liburan Seniman (Artists Holidays), might be lesser known as it had not been released to the public. It was recently screened in Malang, East Java, where a number of film buffs watched it for the first time.



Based on his own 1944 drama, the film was produced in 1965, a dark year in Indonesias history. The 1965 communist purge involved the murder of six high-ranking Army generals followed by the mass killing of hundreds of thousands of sympathizers of the now-defunct Indonesia Communist Party (PKI).



Liburan Seniman featured the 10th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference at Senayan Stadium in Jakarta as its setting. The film is about an author named Suromo (Sukarno M. Noor) who tries to present an artistic creation conveying the message of the peoples suffering on the silver screen, an idea spurred by a speech by former president Sukarno.



Other characters in the film include a painter named Rutaf (Rachmat Hidayat) and a film director named Kadjiman (Menzano). The three meet while collaborating with a Bank Dagang Negara employee, who is also a fighter with an interest in art, played by Aedy Moward.

Victimized: FX Domini BB Hera, a history researcher from the Brawijaya University in Malang, East Java, stands in front of a scene showing former deputy prime minister Subandrio. (Sinematek/File)

FX Domini BB Hera, a history researcher from the Brawijaya University in Malang said apart from being played by popular stars, including Tiga Daras Mieke Widjaja, Liburan Seniman is steeped in the spirit of nationalism.



It presents a period when Indonesia had a deep cosmopolitan ambience, complete with footage from the anniversary of the Asian-African Conference, which imparts the spirit of the event to the present generation, he said.



The film, with fairly high political leanings, served as Usmar Ismails attempt to implement the teachings of Sukarno. Unlike the movie, the play version of the story had been shown to the public several times.



Following the 1965 upheaval, the movie [fell into obscurity], with minimal data and even no posters, except for only a brief synopsis, he revealed.



Domini drew attention to a point that maybe the reason why this film had never been accessible to the public.



Theres footage showing Subandrio, then the deputy prime minister, present at the celebration with a number of foreign delegates, he said.

Subandrio, also a foreign minister and an influential politician who was close to Sukarno, indeed faced a tragic fate when a year later, he was sentenced to death under the New Order regime. The sentence was eventually reduced to life in prison, and after serving 30 years, he was released in 1995.



In my view, Liburan Seniman doesnt literally mean artists holidaying for pleasure, but it implies a condition in which an artistic idea has its freedom of manifestation, including the adoption of the message of peoples suffering as its theme, Domini said.

A conversation: Rachmat Hidayat plays Rutaf in a scene with actress Mila Karmila. (Sinematek/File)

Meanwhile, Aji Prasetyo, a member of the Malang chapter of Nahdlatul Ulamas Indonesian Muslim Artist and Cultural Activist Organization (Lesbumi NU), saw this film as a statement that art could be a response to the nations problems.



Usmar Ismail was formerly the general chairman of Lesbumi, so his work proved that at that time not only the [left-wing] Peoples Cultural Institute [Lekra] had a revolutionary concept, he said.



Aji added that the movie was considered potentially dangerous by certain parties as it encouraged many countries to free themselves of colonization.



He described Sukarno as being fully aware that art could be utilized as a means to achieve national aspirations due to its effect on the public mindset.

European flavor: The film has many Western touches, such as the poster of a German automobile in the background. (Sinematek/File)

The triumph of art and culture will be followed by victory in politics, economics and other areas, stressed Aji.



Sadly, however, the film ended after 110 minutes and without end credits, leaving its ending unclear. According to Subi, a preserver from the Indonesian Film Center Foundation, the abrupt ending was because Sinematek, an institute that archives Indonesian films, could not locate the final reel of the movie.



Moreover, the film was found edited in its original negative rather than its positive, so the question remains whether or not [the final cut] had ever been circulated, Subi said.



Subis foundation has the mission of preserving Indonesias audiovisual heritage and providing public access to them. This film is only one of hundreds of documentaries already stored digitally for easy access.



Subi said the film has succeeded in representing some important elements of Indonesias situation, especially in the film industry and economic sector. He hoped such films could reach broader audiences and encourage discussions from different perspectives.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 16:44 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0c7cb5 1 City motorcycle-ban,revocation,judicial-review Free

The Greater Jakarta Transportation Agency (BPTJ) is urging the Jakarta administration to file a judicial review challenging the Supreme Court ruling to lift the ban on motorcycles on the citys main thoroughfares.

BPTJ chairman Bambang Prihartono said the motorcycle ban was effective in reducing traffic congestion from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Jl. MH Thamrin to Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat in Central Jakarta.

The policy to ban motorcycles was issued following academic studies and did not violate any laws, he said.

The BPTJ would urge the Jakarta administration to file a judicial review in an upcoming meeting, Bambang said.

It is the Jakarta administration that has the authority to file a judicial review, Bambang said on Tuesday as quoted by tempo.co.

He added that the BPTJ could only give recommendations on how to manage the flow of traffic in Greater Jakarta and that it was up to the administration to take action.

The policy should be expanded to apply to other roads in order to encourage motorcyclists to use public transportation, Bambang said.

Motorcycles contribute to 70 percent of road accidents," he added. (cal)
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam  Thu, January 11, 2018 08:37 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0b32a6 1 National khat,narcotics,Batam,smuggling Free

Personnel at the Batam Customs and Excise office in Riau Islands province have arrested a woman named Yatrika Faradiba for allegedly being involved in smuggling 55 kilograms of khat leaves, a flowering shrub classified as a drug, from Ethiopia to Batam.

Yatrika was arrested at the Batam post office upon receiving the package of khat, also known as Arabian tea, on Monday. The leaves were allegedly ordered by a refugee from Yemen who resided in Malaysia, said the head of the Custom and Excise office, Susilla Brata.

Raw materials used for ecstasy pills allegedly would be brought to Malaysia later, he added.

The delivery was discovered on Dec. 30 when customs personnel at the Pasar Baru post office in Jakarta detected the 55 kg of illegal leaves from heading to Batam from Ethiopia.

We then followed the delivery until the recipient picked up the package in the post office in Batam, Susila said on Wednesday.

He explained that Yatrika allegedly was paid 1,500 ringgit (US$375) for receiving the package and then taking it to Malaysia based on the order by the Yemen national.

Susilas office had handed over the case to the police for further investigation.

Yatrika told officials that there had been 11 deliveries of khat from Ethiopia to Batam.

Meanwhile, Narcotics Division director at the Riau Islands Police Sr. Comr. Yani Sudarto said khat, containing the major psychoactive component cathinone, is illegal in Indonesia and is included in category I of drugs as stipulated in the Narcotics Law, and carries a maximum penalty of death.

Topics : khat narcotics Batam smuggling
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 10:17 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0b5c3a 1 Business Kadin,boat-explosion,Luhut-Binsar-Pandjaitan,jusuf-kalla Free

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has expressed its support for Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan and Vice President Jusuf Kallas call to put an end to the illegal boat-sinking policy.

"There's should be a limit [for the boat-sinking policy]. Besides, it can contributes to sea pollution," said Kadin deputy chairman of fisheries and maritime,Yugi Prayanto, in a press conference on Wednesday.

Luhut previously said foreign fishing boats understood the countrys tough stance on illegal fishing. He called on the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry to instead focus on aquaculture to boost production and exports.

Read also: Susi insists on continuing her ship-sinking policy

The boat-sinking policy enforced by Minister Susi Pudjiastuti is based on Law No. 45/2009 on fisheries. The latest statement from the ministry said more than 300 vessels had been sunk.

Yugi also suggested that the government use the illegal ships for the benefit of local fisherman, whether for daily usage or allowing them to sell the parts for cash. "We can give the ships to local fisherman," he said.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said fisheries exports in 2014 reached 1.3 million ton, dropping to 1.1 million in 2015 and further sliding to 1.07 million ton the following year.

Meanwhile, Susi insists on continuing to sink ships found guilty of operating illegally in Indonesian waters. (srs/bbn)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, Central Java  Thu, January 11, 2018 23:29 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d3072 1 Politics Karanganyar,CentralJava,2018-regional-election,regional-elections Free

The Karanganyar regency election this year is at risk of having only one candidate pair running in the race.

The sole candidate pair is incumbent regent Juliyatmono and his running mate Robert Christanto, who are supported by 39 out of 45 seats at the the Karanganyar Legislative Council (DPRD). The six remaining seats belong to the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which in 2013 supported Juliyatmono with the Golkar Party.

In 2018, the Juliyatmono-Robert pair is supported by Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Democratic Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN), Hanura, and Gerindra.

This arrangement made it impossible for the PKS to propose a candidate because they would need at least nine seats. They would need to form a coalition, but other parties have declared their support for Juliyatmono and Robert.

Initially, PAN and Gerindra were going to form a coalition with the PKS. They later decided to join the main coalition. The door has also closed for proposing for an independent candidate because nobody had passed the General Elections Commissions (KPU) requirements.

We are only granting the citizens wish for Juliyatmono and Robert to win the election, campaign team member Sumanto said.

Incumbent deputy regent Rohadi Widodo said he had accepted that he could not join the 2018 race.

My team has put forth so much effort, but we could not find a running mate by the end. We have accepted that we are not able to run for the 2018 election. I will finish my duty as deputy regent." (nmn/ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 16:34 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0c7151 1 National Education-and-Culture-Ministry,USBN,elementary-schools,ElementaryEducation,junior-high-schools,senior-high-schools,Muhadjir-Effendy,UN,national-exam Free

The Education and Culture Ministry is set to standardize examinations at elementary schools across the country this year, following a similar policy implemented at junior high schools (SMP), senior high schools (SMA) and vocational schools (SMK) in 2017.

The standardized national school examination (USBN) is one of two key criteria  the other being the national examination (UN)  for students to graduate.

Education and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said the USBN was expected to gradually replace regular school exams at schools of all levels.

While the content of school exams was previously designed by the Education and Culture Ministry and provincial education agencies, the USBN requires the participation of teachers in determining the content of exams.

They can help shape the examination materials via the Teacher Working Group (KKG) in districts of provinces across the country.

The goal is to end the current habit of teachers, who tend to depend on the Education and Culture Ministry and education agencies in devising materials for their students. They need to develop such competency to improve themselves, said Muhadjir on Wednesday.

The ministrys director general of elementary and secondary education, Hamid Muhammad, said the ministry would contribute 25 percent of total questions asked in school exams.

Teachers will be given a guideline to design the rest of the exam contents, which comprises multiple choice questions and four or five essay assignments.

The USBN in elementary schools will be conducted in three subjects: mathematics, science and Indonesian. In secondary education, the USBN will cover all subjects, said Hamid. (vla/ebf)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11 2018

The Jakarta Police traffic directorate has proposed applying the odd-even license plate policy to motorcycles from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Jl. MH Thamrin to Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat in Central Jakarta. The idea is for the odd-even policy to replace the ban on motorcycles from entering the thoroughfares from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The Supreme Court recently found in favor of a petition from motorcyclists on lifting the ban and ruled that the regulation contravened the 1999 Human Rights Law, as public roads should be accessible to all.

Our suggestion to the governor before revoking the [motorcycle ban] is to issue a decree to limit the number of motorcycles [entering the area] through the odd-even policy, as has been enforced on four-wheeled vehicles, Jakarta Police traffic division chief Sr. Comr. Halim Pagarra said Wednesday during a discussion on traffic management, as reported by kompas.com.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 12:18 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0ba6c3 1 City immigration,foreigners,passport Free

Authorities have arrested 42 Nigerian and Ugandan nationals for immigration violations in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta on Wednesday, with the majority reportedly failing to present their passports and other legal documentation.

The arrests were made during the Joint Immigration Operation of the North Jakarta Immigration Office and the North Jakarta Foreigner Oversight Team (Timpora).

Immigration division head Agus Widjaja of the North Jakarta Immigration Office said that of those arrested at a budget hotel, 40 were Nigerians and two were Ugandans, including two women.

Only eight people had passports with them, [...] while the other 34 could not show their documents, Agus said as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com on Thurday.

He added that his office still needed to verify the documents, and that it would pursue an investigation into the companies or individuals that had sponsored the foreign nationals.

We are also investigating whether or not they entered Indonesia through legal ports, he said.

One of the arrested Nigerians, Chris Ihouma, said he came to Indonesia to work. His visa, however, had apparently had expired on August 2017.

I did not report [that my visa had expired], as I did not have the chance and I needed to eat, I needed to work, he said.

Agus said many foreigners preferred these days to stay at budget hotels rather than apartments, and that his team would intensify coordinated surveillance on budget hotels, especially in North Jakarta.

During the raid, immigration authorities also seized laptops, cell phones, hotel receipts and other items belonging to the arrested foreigners. (gis)

Topics : immigration foreigners passport
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chem-Dry, the worlds largest carpet and floor cleaning franchise, is continuing its successful international expansion in Africa and across the globe with a recent master franchise agreement in Morocco.



Globally, we are the largest floor cleaning brand, and were still growing, says Joe Manuszak, Vice President of International Development for Chem-Dry. We see significant growth in regions with burgeoning middle-class populations. Our expansion into Morocco builds on the momentum we see across Africa.

Over the past 30 years, Chem-Dry has successfully proven itself in markets everywhere from Southeast Asia to the Caribbean and has seen huge success in Africa with master franchise agreements in place in Egypt, Angola, Libya, Tanzania, Guyana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and now Morocco.

Moroccan entrepreneur Sidi Mohamed El Khallaki purchased the rights to Morocco and has the right to open over 40 new franchise locations across the country.

Were honored to have secured the rights to Chem-Dry for Morocco, and we are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration as we grow, said El Khallaki. Casablanca, Lez and Marrakesh have all experienced growth, with large numbers of new hotels open and Chem-Dry is a good solution for floor, rug and upholstery cleaning."

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The Chem-Dry business model works in global markets with rapidly growing middle-class populations, said Joe Manuszak, Vice President of International Development. As income levels and prosperity grow, so does demand for home services and cleaning businesses.

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Linkedin (AFP) New Delhi  Thu, January 11, 2018 07:50 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0b0d7a 2 Politics India,Sikh-massacre,inquiry,politics,Court Free

India is to reopen nearly 200 unsolved cases associated with a frenzied massacre of Sikhs in 1984 that left nearly 3,000 dead, mainly in the capital New Delhi.

The Supreme Court said Wednesday it would task a new three-member panel with "reinvestigating" 186 cases previously closed by police into the deadly mob violence directed against the Sikh minority.

The carnage erupted just hours after then prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, and lasted three days with Sikhs raped and murdered, and their homes and businesses torched.

Few have been brought to justice over the massacre, with government-appointed commissions in the past failing to prosecute more than a handful of minor cases.

Gandhi, also the Congress leader at the time, was shot dead after ordering Indian troops to storm the Golden Temple -- Sikhism's holiest shrine in northern Punjab state -- to flush out separatists from the minority faith holed up inside.

Sikh leaders say the death toll from the pogrom that followed far exceeded the official figure of 3,000, and accuse Congress leaders of fanning the violence that saw Sikhs dragged from their homes and burned alive.

The new investigative panel will be headed by a retired high court judge and assisted by former and serving senior police officials.

The decision to reopen the historic cases was "good news for the victims who have been waiting for justice for the last 33 years," said lawyer HS Phoolka, representing the victims.

India's top investigating agency had blamed senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for inciting the mobs, but he was acquitted by a court in 2013.
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Linkedin Michel MOUTOT (AFP) Paris  Thu, January 11, 2018 06:40 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0aff11 2 World Islamic-State,caliphate,online-audience,dark-web Free

On the brink of defeat in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State group has been taking refuge in its "virtual caliphate" -- but even online, experts say it is in decline.

Back in 2015, when the jihadists held territory the size of Italy, they also commanded a huge digital presence, flooding the web with slick propaganda lionizing their fighters and romanticising life under their rule.

Today, with many of the top IS leaders either dead or on the run, what remains of the group's once-sophisticated propaganda machine is also a shadow of its former self.

Their media centers destroyed, remaining propagandists find themselves struggling to maintain an internet connection while battling surveillance from international intelligence services.

The extremist group is less and less vocal on the web, largely leaving supporters whom it cannot control to speak in its name.

"It's almost as if someone has pressed the mute button on the Islamic State," said Charlie Winter, a researcher at King's College London who has been studying IS communications for years.

Between November 8 and 9 the group even went completely silent for a full 24 hours in what Winter said was an "unprecedented" break from social media.

In 2015, when IS was ruling over roughly seven million people in Iraq and Syria, its propagandists produced "content from 38 different media offices from West Africa to Afghanistan", Winter said.

But by December, more than three-quarters of these outlets had been "almost totally silenced," he added.

Albert Ford, a researcher at US think-tank New America who has studied the exodus of foreign fighters to join IS, also said the group's media output was "falling off considerably".

"Fewer places to get information, fewer ways to upload it," he said.

- Pushed to the 'dark web' -

Back in March as Iraqi forces were ousting IS from their long-held bastion Mosul, an AFP journalist was able to pick through the wreckage of what was once a radical media center.

Between the burnt walls of the villa in an upscale part of the city were the remains of computers, printers and broadcasting equipment.

In the months before and since, the US-led military coalition fighting IS has repeatedly announced the deaths of senior IS communications officers, usually in air strikes.

Among them was the top strategist and spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, killed in a US strike in northern Syria in August 2016.

These days IS propagandists mostly use the web to encourage supporters to launch attacks on their own initiative, with the much-weakened group unable to play a direct hand in organizing them.

These calls are often issued via the "deep web", a heavily encrypted part of the internet which is almost impossible to regulate, or the Telegram app.

Winter said he had seen a trend emerging of posts seeking to cultivate a sense of nostalgia among supporters for the height of the group's power.

By portraying events three years ago a "golden age" stolen by "the enemies of Islam", IS is hoping to convince new recruits that such times could come again if they join the cause, Winter said.

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism specialist at Georgetown University in Washington, said the principal danger of IS now lies in what he calls "enabled attackers".

A recruit such as this would have "no previous ties to terrorist organizations," Hoffman said.

"But he is furnished very specific targeting instructions and intelligence in order to better facilitate and ensure the success of his attack."

Such wannabe jihadists need to look no further than the internet for abundant advice that has been available online for years -- and will merely pop up again after any attempt to remove it.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 12:01 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0b9880 4 Business Jokowi,SusiPudjiastuti,Luhut-Binsar-Pandjaitan,JusufKalla,illegal-fishing,sinking-boat Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo supports Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiasti's boat-sinking policy.

The sinking is a form of law enforcement. It is to show that we do not tolerate illegal fishing, said Jokowi in Jakarta on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan called on Susi to stop the implementation of the policy as the government had sunk more than 360 ships since the crack down started in 2015.

Jokowi said any policy introduced by the minister was in the best interest of the people.

Meanwhile, Susi said her policy was based on instruction from President Jokowi. Pak Jokowi ordered us hand down tough punishments. Therefore, we implemented the ruling stipulated in Law No. 45/2009 on fisheries, she said.

Jokowi, however, also told Susi that the ministry should focus more on increasing the maritime sectors contribution to the economy. Therefore, I told Ibu Susi to concentrate on the manufacturing of fishery products for export because our exports [in this sector] have decreased, the President added. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 19:48 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0cf858 1 City drug-abuse,low-cost-apartment,eviction Free

Residents of the Cipinang Besar Selatan low-cost apartments in East Jakarta were evicted Wednesday based on allegations of drug use.

Two apartment management employees, Rudi and Amsori, and resident Denny were evicted based on allegations they consumed methamphetamine and amphetamine in November 2017.

Furthermore, Rudis parents were also evicted, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) said in a press release on Thursday.

LBH Jakarta assistant public defender Charlie Meidino Albajili said the institute condemned the city administrations eviction policy. The action against drug users should be based on criminal law procedures. The eviction of the families goes against family members housing rights, he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Since yesterday [Wednesday], the evicted residents have been sleeping near a warung [stall] on the basement floor. If they still havent found a place to sleep for tonight, LBH will help them, he said.

Rudi and Amsori were evicted despite having undergone a rehabilitation process.

Rudi said he reported the case to Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno.

He told me to send a letter, but so far there has not been a response yet, Rudi told kompas.com on Wednesday. (dpk)
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan, North Sumatra  Thu, January 11, 2018 21:13 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d22f7 1 National North-Sumatra,illegal-fishing,maritime-affairs-and-fisheries-ministry,SusiPudjiastuti,Belawan,Deli-Serdang Free

The North Sumatran Fishermen Alliance (ANSU) is supporting the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministrys policy to sink foreign-flagged vessels caught fishing illegally in Indonesian waters.

ANSU secretary Leonardo Marbun said the policy to sink illegal boats must continue to be implemented because not only were foreign fishermen stealing Indonesias resources, they were also breaching the countrys sovereignty.

The territory is ours but it is the foreigners who have the power over it. Where is our sovereignty? Leonardo told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Thats why we support the ministry's policy to keep sinking illegal fishing boats.

Leonardo went on to say local fishermen were benefiting from the policy. Foreign fishing boats that used to enter North Sumatran waters in Batubara, Belawan and Deli Serdang have not been seen again.

There used to be fishing boats from Thailand and Vietnam in North Sumatran waters. Since the ministry implemented the boat-sinking policy, they have become afraid to enter our territory, he said. Traditional fishermen no longer have to compete against them.

However, Leonardo admitted that the policy had not yet had a significant impact on the fishermens catches because there were vessels that still used trawls that could trap massive amounts of fish.

Trawls are also the enemies of traditional fishermen and need to be banned, he said. (nmn/ebf)
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Linkedin Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura, Papua  Thu, January 11, 2018 21:59 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d2ca4 1 Politics Papua,Papua-elections,Papua-gubernatorial-election,papua-priest,religious-figures Free

Eighty-seven religious clerics from all over Papua held on Thursday a joint prayer, after which they began a 30-hour fast in order to ensure a peaceful atmosphere in the province for the upcoming regional elections.

The religious leaders gathered at Sahid Hotel to pray and begin to fast, starting from noon on Thursday until 6 p.m. local time the next day, when they will break fast together.

Muslim, Christian, Catholic, Hindu and Buddhist clerics will pray and fast for 30 hours, said Papua Interfaith Communication Forum (FKUB) chairman and Catholic priest Lipiyus Biniluk.

He said this event was the first one to be held in Papua that was aimed at ensuring peace during the upcoming regional elections. Papuan residents are also encouraged to perform their prayers, he added.

We, religious clerics, have spared time and energy to ask for Gods intervention to ensure a peaceful Papua election,Lipiyus said.

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar, who attended the opening of the interfaith prayer session said that clerics played an important role in creating a safe and comfortable atmosphere prior to and during the election period.

We need to make an effort to create the peaceful atmosphere we desire. We cannot let ourselves be distracted by temporary political interests, he said.

Aside from the Papua gubernatorial election, seven regencies will hold elections to appoint regional heads. They include Biak, Mimika and Jayawijaya. (nmn/ebf)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11 2018

State-owned port operator PT Pelindo II has earmarked Rp 2 trillion (US$140 million) from its capital expenditure (capex) this year to take part in a bidding for Patimban port operatorship.

Located in Subang, West Java, the port development, worth $3 billion in total, is one of the flagship projects between Indonesia and long-time major investor Japan.

For 2018, Pelindo II has allocated Rp 11.4 trillion in capex, all of which will be sourced internally.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 21:12 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d1cfb 1 Business Pos-Indonesia,logistics-holding,Rini-Soemarno Free

State-owned postal service firm PT Pos Indonesia president director Gilarsi Wahju Setijono has expressed support for the State-owned Enterprises Ministry's plan to establish a state-owned logistics holding firm.

Previously State-owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno said the logistics holding SOE would be supported by a number of SOEs like the National Logistics Agency (Bulok) and PT Pos Indonesia as well as subsidies of airport operators.

Gilarsi said such a firm would be competitive as it would benefit from the shared use of logistics infrastructure owned by each firm.

He said, as an example, that the holding could make us of the the planned cargo village infrastructure development set to be constructed by state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II (AP II) at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

The firm would benefit from the shared use of such a facility. That is why we have to collaborate, Gilarsi said in Jakarta on Wednesday, referring to the facility to be developed on a 90-hectare plot of land and scheduled to begin operation in 2019.

Exchange of know-how, competence and resources owned by the companies that would join the holding firm would be another advantage.

However, he said the holding firm should consider the different business characteristics of each firm.

He gave the example of PT Pos, which is focused mainly on last mile deliveries, which uses small vehicles. "It is different from the firms that deliver bulky items by using big trucks," he added. (srs/bbn)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Thu, January 11 2018

State-owned weapons manufacturer PT Pindad is aiming for Rp 2.9 trillion (US$203 million) in revenue this year, said Pindad president director Abraham Mose in Bandung on Tuesday.

He said the company had booked net profit of Rp 53 billion in 2017.

This year, the company aimed to obtain 30 percent of its revenue from its industrial products.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 19:22 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0cd883 1 Business fishing-ship-sinking-policy,Susi-Pujiastuti,SriMulyaniIndrawati Free

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani has offered Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti help in managing confiscated fishing ships if they are turned into state assets rather than destroyed.

We will fully support the management [of the ships], said Sri Mulyani in Jakarta on Thursday in response to controversy about the policy of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry to sink fishing vessels used for poaching  a policy Susi considers in line with Law No. 45/2009 on fisheries.

Sri Mulyani said she was now waiting for Susis policy ideas on how to deal with the confiscated ships.

So far, Susi has been ordering the destruction of all confiscated fishing vessels if their crew members were found guilty of catching fish illegally in Indonesian waters. More than 360 ships have been destroyed since the tough measure was introduced in 2015.

Both Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan have called on Susi to stop the sinking policy.

Sri Mulyani said the confiscated ships would be of greater use to the country if they became state assets, particularly to help fishermen imcrease their production.

The most important aspect is that the ships can improve the economic activities of the people, particularly fishermen, she said, adding that the production of the fishery sector could be increased. (bbn)
NOVI, Mich., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Learning Care Group is opening a window for parents into their childs school day with real-time photos, videos and updates anytime, anywhere. The early childhood education leader is ensuring that families enrolled at its preschools nationwide feel as close to their children as possible during school hours through brightwheel  a groundbreaking software platform featured on ABCs Shark Tank.

Teachers and school management at Childtime, Childrens Courtyard, Creative Kids Learning Center, Everbrook Academy, La Petite Academy, and Tutor Time schools are now using the innovative app to update parents about major milestones, timely messages and special moments.

At Learning Care Group, we know that communicating with parents as partners is at the heart of a fantastic customer experience, said Mark Bierley, President and Chief Operating Officer, Learning Care Group. Were proud to team with brightwheel to connect with families throughout the day as we share the wow moments, learning updates and important reminders with real-time, secure and private communications.

With the easy-to-use brightwheel mobile app, parents at Learning Care Group schools can opt to receive custom notifications, including:

photos

videos

updates on learning experiences throughout the day

updates on the daily menu and food eaten

diaper change information

nap start and end times

kudos and amazing moments captured by the teacher

Staff members can send brightwheel alerts to communicate emergencies to a parent. Families and school staff also may send and receive short messages. Updates are private, visible only to the authorized family members and any of their chosen recipients.

Brightwheel is designed specifically for early education  giving families a personal connection to their childs day while freeing up more one-on-one time for educators to spend with students, said Dave Vasen, founder and CEO of brightwheel. Were thrilled to partner with Learning Care Group in offering our technology as part of their commitment to individualized service and care.

Brightwheel was featured during Season 7 of ABCs critically acclaimed Emmy Award-winning reality series Shark Tank, as Vasen pitched the platform and secured the backing of investors Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca. Tune in to ABC on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018 at 9 p.m. EST/ 8 p.m. CST to see the follow-up appearance with brightwheel and the Learning Care Group team.

About Learning Care Group

Learning Care Group is a leader in early childhood education, with nearly 50 years of experience in inspiring children to love learning. Headquartered in Novi, Mich., the company provides early education and care for children ages 6 weeks to 12 years through seven unique brands: The Childrens Courtyard, Childtime Learning Centers, Creative Kids Learning Centers, Everbrook Academy, La Petite Academy, Montessori Unlimited, and Tutor Time Child Care/Learning Centers. It operates more than 900 schools (corporate and franchise) across 36 states, the District of Columbia and internationally, and has a capacity to serve more than 130,000 children. Learning Care Groups proprietary School Readiness Pathway supports the development of the academic and social skills needed for a smooth transition to elementary school. For more information, please visit www.learningcaregroup.com

About brightwheel

Brightwheel is the first all-in-one software platform for preschools, childcare providers, camps, and afterschool programs. Brightwheel helps teachers manage their day and communicate with parents, gives parents deeper insight into what their children are learning, and automates the process of managing operations for administrators. The platform has been shown to save teachers and administrators up to an hour per day, while improving parent satisfaction and giving them a closer connection to their child's learning. It is the fastest growing platform in early education, used across thousands of locations globally. Learn more at www.mybrightwheel.com/.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0700a6bc-1bb7-46f7-925a-c2ffad08f13a
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 21:01 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d0f64 1 City drug-dealer,shooting,Malaysia Free

The Jakarta Police have shot dead a Malaysian citizen that allegedly smuggled crystal methamphetamine from Medan in North Sumatra to Jakarta, together with an Indonesian national.

Police said on Thursday that the foreigner had been shot in the Pantai Indah Kapuk area of North Jakarta on Monday while attacking police in a bid to escape from custody.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said in a statement on Thursday that the alleged smugglers had received the drugs from another foreigner, who was on the polices most wanted list, in Medan on Dec. 28.

Police, after receiving a tip-off from residents, arrested the Indonesian at Boutique Hotel in Grogol Petamburan, West Jakarta, on Jan. 3.

The officers found 10 packages of drugs, each containing 1 kilogram of crystal meth, inside a black backpack, Argo said.

On the same day, police arrested the Malaysian in the parking area of Pullman Hotel, Central Park, Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta.

They brought the suspect to North Jakarta on Monday to help locate another member of the drug dealing network in Pantai Indah Kapuk.

During the investigation, the suspect had attacked the police officers, Argo said.

In response, police had shot him and taken his body to the National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, Argo added.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 09:47 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0b4d9c 1 City Transjabodetabek,Tangerang,jakarta Free

The Transjabodetabek Premium bus service between TangCity mall in Tangerang, Banten and ITC Kuningan mall in South Jakarta commenced a trial period of 10 buses on Wednesday, following similar services to some of the capital's other satellite cities.

Greater Jakarta Transportation Agency (BPTJ) head Bambang Prihartono said the buses were expected to help reduce traffic.

This new transportation service should attract people to use public transportation instead of private vehicles. We hope this program can contribute to reducing traffic in the long term, said Bambang.

TangCity mall building manager Wina Andiyan applauded the bus service. She said the bus could help visitors to reach TangCity easily, as the mall is one of the most popular shopping destinations for Greater Jakarta residents.

The ten buses operate from 05.00 a.m to 08.00 p.m. The buses are scheduled every 30 minutes with a promotional tariff of Rp 20,000 (US$ 1.49) during the trial period. (gis)

Topics : Transjabodetabek Tangerang jakarta
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, January 12 2018

As motorcyclists have started to crowd Jl. MH Thamrin and Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, following the revocation of a ban preventing them from accessing the citys thoroughfares, authorities are considering implementing new traffic policies to prevent congestion.

The revocation of the ban definitely affects traffic conditions along the roads. But we should follow the rules. What we can do is organize those roads with a new system, especially since those roads represent the face of Jakarta, Jakarta Transportation Agency head Andri Yansyah told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

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Linkedin Safrin La Batu and Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, January 12 2018

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has insisted on continuing its policy of sinking foreign vessels found poaching over Indonesian waters despite a growing chorus of critics who say the ministry needs to shift focus toward revitalizing the countrys dwindling fisheries industry.

The policy on sinking has been in the spotlight since Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan recently requested that Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti end the policy and instead focus on increasing exports of fisheries products.

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Linkedin Winda A. Charmila (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, January 12 2018

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced a mother on Thursday, who had been found guilty of taking benefits from fund-raising activities meant for her ill son.

The panel of judges sentenced Ria Yanti, a mother from Sangatta, East Kalimantan, to eight months and 15 days, as she was convicted of violating Article 88 and Article 76 of the 2014 Child Protection Law.

Presiding judge Ibnu Basuki said the defendant used others donations intended to help treat her son for other purposes.

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Manila, Philippines  Thu, January 11, 2018 20:26 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d09f1 2 SE Asia vaccination,dengue,Philippines,Sanofi-Pasteur Free

The Philippines said Thursday that some of the 14 children who died after receiving a controversial vaccine showed signs of "severe dengue", as investigators probe the drug whose use was suspended due to health concerns.

More than 830,000 Filipino schoolchildren were injected with Sanofi's Dengvaxia vaccine last year in the world's first public dengue immunization program.

But the country stopped the sale and distribution of Dengvaxia last month after Sanofi warned the vaccine could worsen symptoms for people who had not previously been infected with the virus.

Philippine authorities are also pursuing criminal and public health safety investigations into any links between the drug and the deaths of 14 schoolchildren who died months after being vaccinated.

"The findings of the forensic pathologists are consistent with severe dengue or dengue shock syndrome," Health Secretary Francisco Duque told ABS-CBN television, referring to the results of autopsies on some of the deceased children.

Duque also said he had asked Sanofi to refund around 1.5 billion pesos ($30 million) worth of unused vaccines.

Officials at the government's Public Attorney's Office (PAO), which has been conducting autopsies on some of the dead children, have been trying to build a criminal case by proving the deaths were linked to the vaccine.

The health department has also commissioned independent experts to pursue a separate inquiry in the interest of public health and safety, though the results of this study have not been disclosed.

"They may or may not be investigating the same cases or deaths and would be using different methods of investigation," Health Undersecretary Eric Tayag told AFP.

Sanofi said in a statement on Thursday that it was "saddened" to learn of the deaths of the children.

"Up to this date, there has been no death established to have been causally linked to the dengue vaccine, not even among the 40,000 people involved in the clinical trials conducted across 15 countries," the statement added.

In November last year, the French company released findings of a new study that showed Dengvaxia could lead to severe infections for vaccinated people who caught dengue for the first time.

The disclosure triggered a public furore, with some parents blaming the vaccine for their children's deaths and a number of legislators accusing the government of endangering public health.

Dengue, a mosquito-borne illness, is a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in some Asian and Latin American countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Read also: Dengue vaccine not deadly: Sanofi
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Thu, January 11, 2018 19:47 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0cebcd 2 SE Asia Trade,security,Indonesia,Malaysia Free

Pirate attacks worldwide fell to their lowest level in over two decades last year, the International Maritime Bureau said, but more than doubled in the Philippines while African trouble spots remained dangerous.

A total of 180 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships were recorded last year, the lowest number since 1995 and down from 191 in 2016, the bureau said in its annual report.

Some countries such as Indonesia, the world's biggest archipelago nation, saw a drop in incidents, with 43 attacks in its waters last year, down more than half in the past two years.

However a handful of countries witnessed a steady climb in attacks.

Read also: Navy arrests 15 alleged pirates in Singapore Strait

Twenty-two incidents were recorded in the Philippines, a jump from 10 in 2016, with most of them low-level attacks on vessels anchored at Manila and Batangas, south of the capital, the country's two busiest ports.

There were also kidnappings of crew in the southern Philippines, the bureau said. Islamic militants have been increasingly targeting seafarers in the strife-torn region, abducting them and demanding ransoms for their release.

The number of attacks in Bangladesh jumped three-fold to 11 in 2017, with most in Chittagong, the country's busiest port.

The Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa remained an attack hotspot in 2017. Out of 16 incidents of vessels being fired on reported worldwide last year, seven occurred in the gulf.

There were 10 incidents of kidnapping involving 65 crew members in or around waters off Nigeria, which lies next to the Gulf of Guinea, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based IMB's report, which was released Wednesday.

Waters off Somalia remained dangerous, with nine incidents recorded last year, up from two in 2016.

A dramatic attack on a container ship far off the Somali coast saw pirates firing rockets at the vessel after a failed attempt to board it.

"This dramatic incident... demonstrates that Somali pirates retain the capability and intent to launch attacks against merchant vessels hundreds of miles from their coastline," said IMB director Pottengal Mukundan.

Topics : Trade security Indonesia Malaysia
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Linkedin Yuan Shenggao (China Daily/Asia News Network)  Thu, January 11, 2018 18:34 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0cc051 2 News Beijing,tourism,China,Visa Free

The start of a 144-hour visa-free waiver policy for international travelers to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province will create a boom in local tourism, industry insiders said.

The visa waiver, which came into effect on Dec. 28, allows foreign nationals from 53 countries a stay of up to six days in the three areas during international transfer - doubling the length of the previous waiver.

A British tourist applying for a 144-hour stay at Beijing Capital International Airport's Terminal 3 said the city had many must-see attractions and the new policy enabled plenty of time to learn about the local culture.

The tourist told China Radio International that Beijing was on his itinerary this time round, but he expected to take advantage of the waiver for tours in Tianjin and Hebei on future visits.

Tourism industry insiders said that since Beijing began its 72-hour visa-free policy in January 2013, the capital has become hugely popular with overseas travelers.

More than 100,000 visitors to Beijing had benefited from it by the end of November, or about 20,000 on average a year, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development.

Read also: New visa rules in China streamline process for top foreign talent

Government data showed that Beijing received more than 4.16 million inbound visits in 2016, nearly 3.55 million of them from abroad. As a result, tourism revenue for 2016 surged to $5.07 billion, up 10.1 percent year-on-year.

Compared with its predecessor, the latest policy has extended in time and geographical reach, allowing visits beyond the capital to nearby Tianjin and Hebei province.

The waiver is expected to draw more foreign tourists to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and serve as an added incentive to fuel growth in the local market, Yu Qianqian, deputy director of the tourism commission, told a news conference in late December.

The commission said it is encouraging local travel service providers to design products tailor-made to the visa-free transit policy, ranging from one-day to six-day packages, in a bid to showcase the region's rich tourism resources.

At a meeting in early December, tourism authorities in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei decided to develop five integrated tourism development demonstration areas by the end of 2020.

Topics : Beijing tourism China Visa

Topics :

This article appeared on the China Daily newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, January 11, 2018 08:26 1772 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0b297b 4 Activities jakarta,walking,tour,#Jakarta,local-destination,Jakarta-walking-tour,JKT-good-guide,travel,travel-guide,#travel Free

The mention of vacationing in Jakarta would likely think of such places as the National Monument (Monas), Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta or Ancol Dreamland in the north. But the capital has a lot more to offer than those popular tourist spots.



To introduce the hidden attractions of the city, whose history spans more than four centuries, a group of local tour organizers have developed itineraries that they believe are sure to attract foreign and domestic tourists alike.



Jakarta Walking Tour founder Farid Mardhiyanto conceded that he had initially targeted foreign tourists as his main market. But as his business progressed, he noticed that many of the walking tour participants are from Greater Jakarta.



As a result, the agency now offers two tour packages: regular and weekend.



In the regular package, participants will walk through various historic destinations, such as Kota Tua, China Town and the City Center.

Read also: Jakpost guide to Glodok

Also available are culinary tours for both visitors and residents to sample the abundant offerings of Indonesias culinary delights and night walking tours of Kota Tua.



The weekend package, meanwhile, consists of museum trips and visits to several well-known shopping destinations in Jakarta, such as Manggarai and the Blok M department store in the south, and Pasar Baru and Thamrin in Central Jakarta.



Most of the local participants prefer the weekend tour package, Farid said.



To join a pay-as-you-wish city tour, interested participants can register at the Jakarta Walking Tour website: jakartagoodguide.wordpress.com.



Fellow tour organizer Ira Lathief, who founded the Jakarta Food Traveler culinary tour last year, lauded Farids efforts, saying she had created the tour to introduce Indonesian food to foreigners.



However, I quickly realized that there are many Jakartans who dont have a good impression of their own city, said the journalist-turned-tour guide.



I decided to add more routes that are unpopular with Jakartans, so I can show them that there are many interesting things you can find in this city.



For Rp 150,000 (US$10.50), travelers can have a taste of local traditional dishes, while learning about the citys history.



One of the participants of Jakarta Walking Tour, Calvin Budianto, said he joined the activity out of curiosity after coming across the agencys Instagram account @jakartawalkingtour.

Read also: Six Indonesian mountain peaks to climb this New Year

Though the 23-year-old has spent most of his life in Jakarta, he conceded that he still had a lot to learn about his hometowns history.



There are a lot of interesting facts about Jakarta that I didnt get to learn at school, he said.



During his experience walking through Kota Tua over the weekend, Calvin said the tour guide offered a plethora of interesting information about every landmark or building his group came across.



The tour also brought him to the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) shipyard, Tongkol village and Sunda Kelapa Port.



I was impressed by the tour guides knowledge about every nook and cranny of Kota Tua, Calvin said.



An avid participant of Jakarta Food Traveler, Roisya Rosidiana, 40, said she joined the culinary trip to learn more about Jakarta and to meet new people.



Aside from making a lot of new friends, I also got to learn about the citys history, which is very interesting, said Roisya, who recently moved to the capital from Malang, East Java.



According to Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency data, more than 35 million domestic tourists and about 2.4 million international tourists visited Jakarta last year. (dpk)
FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree GVC Holdings plc (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 10 January, 2018 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" YES, Ladbrokes Coral Group plc

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:



Euro 0.01 ordinary



Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



1,567,000 0.5162 5,643,080 1.8590 (3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL: 1,567,000 0.5162 5,643,080 1.8590

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale



Number of securities Price per unit





(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit Euro 0.01 ordinary CFD Increasing a short position 70,500 9.4929 GBP

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit





(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



NONE





(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none" NONE









(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO

Date of disclosure: 11 January, 2018 Contact name: James Gange Telephone number: 212-446-4029

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.
Representatives of the Chinese American Planning Council (CPC) and the Gotham Organization, a New York City-based developer, outlined plans last night for a huge new project on the site of Beth Hamedrash Hagadol (BHH), the fire-ravaged Norfolk Street synagogue.

During the presentation before Community Board 3s land use committee, Gothams Bryan Kelly said the project at 50-60 Norfolk St. would consist of two towers (10 and 30 stories), 488 apartments (including 188 affordable units), a large new facility for CPCs social service programs, a new synagogue space for Beth Hamedrash Hagadol and neighborhood retail. We reported many of these details in a story published yesterday.

The most interesting part of last nights discussion concerned the citys announcement earlier this week of the Norfolk Street housing plan, and the clumsy/deceptive effort by the mayors office to link it to Rivington House.

On Tuesday, the de Blasio administration reneged on a promise made in September of 2016 to create 100 units of senior housing in a new project at 30 Pike St. The commitment had been part of the mayors efforts to make up for the bungling of deed restrictions at Rivington House, the former Lower East Side nursing home now in the hands of luxury condo developers.

The unwelcome news was delivered in a press release that also detailed plans to add 60 nursing home beds at Gouverneur Health and to support Gothams proposal to create 88 apartments for low-income seniors on Norfolk Street. The press release read, in part, The affordable homes and health care for seniors fills a commitment made by the Mayor to replace services lost in the wake of the Rivington House nursing home closure in 2015.

At last nights meeting, CB3 member Lisa Kaplan said, We got word day before yesterday that a project that had been promised to us on Pike Street, that the affordable units were now part of (the Norfolk Street project). It looks to me like you were already planning to do senior housing and the project that we were promised on Pike Street just went up in smoke. Tell me that Im wrong, and why Im wrong.

Kelly, Gothams executive vice president for development, responded, I cant speak to that (Pike Street) development because its out of Gothams purview, but what I can say is that CPC and Gotham have always talked about the idea of (possibly) including senior affordable housing in our development.

Our ability to work out site control with the BHH synagogue has allowed us to identify a footprint where were able to create the senior affordable apartments, said Kelly. Gotham began working with CPC and the synagogues leadership before the May 2017 fire that destroyed much of the historic Jewish site. After the fire, they hammered out a proposal for the senior building, incorporating remnants from the burned out synagogue. Gotham has been overseeing the demolition of destabilized portions of the shul.

This past fall, Kelly said, we were approached by the city to ask whether we would consider an even more robust program for senior affordable housing City Hall, through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, has been willing to commit $25-30 million to create 40% affordable housing on this site Initially, Gotham and CPC had intended to build 30% affordable housing in the project. The citys financial commitment, Kelly explained, allowed them to up the affordable component to 40%.

But Alan Gerson, CPCs attorney, told board members that Rivington House was never brought up by anyone in the administration. From the very beginning, said Gerson, before we selected Gotham, CPC expressed in the Request for Proposals a clear interest and preference in maximizing affordability, including affordability for senior housing. He added, We didnt learn about the change of the Pike Street project until just about when you learned about it. Our negotiation with the city was for maximum support, period, the end.

At another point, MyPhuong Chung, chair of the land use committee, voiced her own concerns. I had a huge concern about the Rivington House linkage that the press has been making, she asserted. Now I understand that youre not involved in that and that the city didnt come to you and say, Hey, in exchange for Rivington House can you up the affordability or increase the units?

She then went on to blame the local media for the misconception, ignoring the city administrations role in disseminating misleading information in its Tuesday press release. Im very glad to hear that, said Chung, because its kind of how the press has been portraying it.

She concluded by saying, I just want to make very clear that our community is in dire need of senior housing, and that adding senior housing to any project does not make up for Rivington House. That was a 200-bed skilled nursing facility. That is a totally different loss (beyond) what any senior housing could ever fulfill.

Other notes from last nights presentation:

CPC and Beth Hamedrash Hagadol will own their community spaces. Gotham will have a long-term lease on CPCs property, but the non-profit organization will retain ownership of that, as well. Lease payments will help support Chinese American Planning Councils local programs.

The project will include 20,000 square feet of retail on Broome St. (half at ground level, half in the basement). The developer will not lease space in the project to a big box retailer.

The developers said historic elements from the synagogue are being removed with care for possible future use. The Landmarks Preservation Commission is overseeing the partial demolition.

CPCs 40,000 square foot space will house administrative office plus social service programs. Currently, CPC maintains separate offices on Eldridge and Elizabeth streets.

Dattner Architects, the same firm behind the senior rental building on Essex Crossing site 6, will be designing the new project. One major goal is activating Broome Street, between Norfolk and Suffolk Street, and essentially making the project seamless with the surrounding Essex Crossing buildings.

The site is currently zoned R-8 and is part of a Large-Scale Residential Development Plan. Gotham is seeking to create a new master plan and upzone the parcel to R-9-1. The proposal must go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, and there will be an environmental review. The Landmarks Commission also must sign off on the development plan.
French English

OTTAWA, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The CLC is congratulating thousands of part-time Ontario college workers and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) on an historic victory in the struggle to improve the lives of precarious workers.



In what has been the largest organizing drive in Canadas history, more than 4,000 part-time Ontario college support staff cast their ballots last year. But an 18-month legal fight launched by the College Employer Council meant the ballot boxes remained sealed until today, when the Ontario Labour Relations Board counted the ballots, resulting in a clear victory for the union: 84 percent of those who cast ballots voted to join OPSEU.

The win means that an estimated 20,000 part-time college support staff, mostly women, including many who work 24 hours or less a week, will join OPSEU and have union representation for the first time.

Despite facing a myriad of obstacles, these workers were steadfast. They understood that the only way to improve their working conditions, and win on important issues like equal pay for equal work, was to form a union, said CLC President Hassan Yussuff.

This is a crucial victory for these college workers, and an inspiring example for all of those in todays precarious workforce working part-time, on contract or in temporary positions, he added.

OPSEUs president, Warren (Smokey) Thomas, said he was looking forward to representing his newest members.

These workers have laid the foundation for a brighter future for all workersnot only in Ontario, but across the country. We are proud to be their union, said Thomas.

For more information, please contact:

Chantal St-Denis

CLC Communications

cstdenis@clc-ctc.ca

613-355-1962
Before this, visitors were recommended to donate a certain figure but it was not required for entrence to the museum. The Met has one of the largest art collections in the world. It is currently home to two million works from Greek to Byzantine galleries, and from artists such as Rembrandt to Van Gogh.Residents and students of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey will still continue to donate an amount of their choice, but other tourists will have to pay an entry fee of 18 ($25). This cost will allow each guest entrance into its other venues  the Met Breur and the Cloisters  for three days after payment. The charge will come into effect on March 1st and it is hoped it will help maintain the operating costs of the art museum. It is estimated that it will create an extra 8.1 million ($11 million) in revenue to help the annual operation cost of 225 million ($305 million). In recent years more visitors have chosen not to pay the full suggested donation fee, which was $25 for adults, $17 for seniors, and $12 for students. The president of the museum, Daniel Weiss said: In 2004, 63 per cent of those who came paid the full recommended price. In 2017, that is 17 per cent. Effectively the policy is failing. When the museum was established in 1870, it was founded under the notion that the museum be free for most days. In 1970, a pay-as-you-wish system was established. In 2013 the museum was criticised for misleading the public into believing the recommended donation was infact required by listing recommended in smaller print below the prices. The Met was the fifth most visited museum in the world in 2016, and was the second most visited art museum after The Louvre in Paris. It is the largest art museum in the United States. Compared to other museums, the Met will be expensive to visit, with The Louvre in Paris charging 13 (15) whereas the National Gallery in London is free for visitors will charges applying to certain exhibitions.
To get the most out of the wonders of Californian coastal town of Monterey youll be needing a place to stay that sets you up right in the heart of the action.

That place is the Portola Hotel & Spa, allowing exploration of the city and the surrounding areas with ease.

Set in historic Old Monterey the hotel backs onto the Marina and the famous Fishermans Wharf, and opens up spectacular coastal walks and beaches all within a few minutes walk.

The history of the area is available in same complex as the hotel with the Custom House Museum and Pacific House Museum available to delve into the area's local history.

Heading along the coast within 20 minutes walk you can reach the famous Cannery Row area with its sought after shopping, drinking and dining experiences. The area is also home to the world-famous Monterey Aquarium.

In another direction, a few minutes also opens up the centre of Monterey town which has a laid back vibe but incredible boutique shopping, great cafes and quality bars such as the Alvarado Street Brewery, selling a range of their own-brewed beers and incredible bar food.

The location also puts Portola in the best possible position to drive out to explore nearby must-see sites such as Carmel by the Sea (an exclusive and cute enclave with incredible independent shopping experiences and great beaches) and the breathtaking beauty of the coast along Highway One and Big Sur.

The Hotel offers a map that shows you exactly how to get to the 17-mile Drive, which for its $10 entry to the route crams the best drive into such a short distance. Read more about our experience on this drive HERE.

If you are stuck for suggestions ask in the hotel for guidance, as they will be able to direct to the best things to suit your plans.

But with the hotel itself you may find that you dont want to venture out. As a waterfront property many of the rooms offer exceptional views, with our own room looking out over the Marina and Del Monte beach across the roof-tops. Perfect for sunrises and sunsets and a tranquil way to start the day!

If that tranquil feeling is what you want from your stay the hotel comes complete with its own spa, the Spa on the Plaza, the largest day spa on Monterey County, offering treatments, massages and a state-of-the-art fitness centre.

If food and drink is more your thing on holiday, Portola has you covered as well. Our meal in Jacks Monterey was the best we had in the city. The restaurant, run by acclaimed chef Danny Abbruzzese, offers a fresh take on Californian cuisine from local ingredients in classy surrounds just off the hotel's foyer.

Service was quick and courteous, and the quality of the food made the not-exactly-cheap bill more than worth the cost. You get what you pay for and Jacks delivered. If the bill is worrying you, just over-indulge in their brilliant house cocktails and forget your worries.

Craft beer brewing has become a real thing in the US and Portola offers its own take on this trend with the attached Peter Bs Brewpub, which has the stereotypical vibe of a casual American bar but with Portola's own award-winning craft beer on tap.

Your Californian journey deserves luxury, relaxation and great food (and drink) and it more than deserves a visit to wonderful Monterey. In that case it deserves a stay at Portola, which gives you all you could need right in the heart of this must visit city.
Yet at an event designed to honour both film and television, it seems unfair to only highlight the directors of the silver screen.

The Golden Globes is unique amongst Americas largest media awards, because it combines television and film categories in one event. Whilst it would be unreasonable to expect the Golden Globes to cover as many categories as the Oscars and Emmys combined, some parity between the two mediums should be attempted. Television, so often seen as the bratty relative of film, has had its own renaissance in the last twenty years. Ever since The Sopranos ushered in a wave of challenging new series, television has been increasingly considered on a par with its cinematic sibling. There are countless episodes of 2017 television that are as dramatically compelling as the films of the five Best Director nominees. Take Daniel Sackheims Chicanery, for example, a decisive courtroom instalment of Better Call Saul that paints a subtle picture of brotherly betrayal. Times Arrow, a devastating episode of Bojack Horseman, singles out director Aaron Long for praise as much as Spielberg or Scott. Hell, any episode of Jean-Marc Vallees Big Little Lies could be nominated, so beautifully does the series capture the abuse and violence at the heart of an elite Californian town.With increasing budgets and an emphasis on stylistic innovation, television offers a chance for directors to experiment with long-form storytelling. 2017s television directors have grabbed that opportunity with both hands. David Slades American Gods episodes back up the shows weirdness with stunning visuals, making its leprechaun brawls and sex with deities convincing and real. The experimental cinematography of Legions six directors creates a visual melange, showcasing an aesthetic ambition that is unparalleled in mainstream film. Like cinema, television suffers from its oversaturation of white male directors. Yet as in film, women and people of colour are creating extraordinary, powerful art. Melina Matsoukas, best known for directing Beyonces Formation video, directed some of the finest episodes of Master of None and Insecure in 2017. Reed Moranos Late, an exemplary episode of The Handmaids Tale, is the most brutal and unforgettable hour of television youll see all year. At the other end of the spectrum, Erin Ehrlichs season opener for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend provided some of the series funniest, catchiest musical numbers. The sheer number of directors who work in both film and television should highlight the mediums prestige and potential. Barry Jenkins, fresh from his Oscar-winning drama Moonlight, helped convey a pivotal moment in Dear White Peoples first season through his direction. David Finchers return to television with Mindhunter proved that his distinctive style translates equally well to the smaller screen. In a year when David Lynch produced eighteen hours of ethereal, nightmarish brilliance with Twin Peaks: The Return, the power of televisions storytelling cannot be denied. If we are truly living in a golden age of television, an era where its performances can be deemed equal to those in cinema, then the same validation must be extended to the mediums directors. Without the tireless efforts of televisions directors, the mediums newfound prestige would not exist. At next years Golden Globes, I hope to see television directors honoured alongside the elite of cinema.
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Range Energy Resources Inc. (Range or the Company) (CSE:RGO) (FWB:YGK) announced today that, Gas Plus Khalakan (GPK), the sole contractor of the Khalakan PSC in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, issued an end 2017 operations update regarding the Shewashan field.



The GPK operations update is repeated below and can be found at the NewAges website: http://www.newafricanglobalenergy.com/media/related-news

Oil Sales:

Total payments received by GPK for oil sales now amount to $9.0 million representing 190,115 barrels of GPK entitlement oil sold through to the end of September 2017. Sales from October to December has been invoiced through the traditional operating procedures in place with the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources.

Oil Production:

In total, cumulative field production to date exceeds 1,300,000 barrels of oil. Current total field production is 1,000 barrels per day. Total oil production for the 3rd quarter 2017 was 81,207 barrels and 422,027 barrels have been produced in 2017, up to and including 1 December 2017.

These amounts are significantly below that required to meet forecast annual production targets and break-even economics. There are two main reasons for this lower production. Firstly, water production rates in the Qamchuga formation have limited oil production rates. The Qamchuqa formation is heavily fractured and many of these fractures are connected to the aquifer. Secondly, production rates from the Shiranish and Kometan reservoirs have been limited, due to these formations having a tight matrix, with their fracture network being not as developed and extensive as in the Qamchuqa reservoir. GPK continues to recomplete the four Shewashan wells to limit water production in the Qamchuga and stimulate the Kometan and Shiranish reservoirs to facilitate greater production rates. This activity is summarized below:

Shewashan #1:

Current production rate: 350 bopd and <5% water cut from the Qamchuqa reservoir. Recompletion plans include: perforation and acid stimulation of the Kometan reservoir.

Shewashan #2:

Current production rate: 650 bopd and low water cut from the Kometan reservoir. Recompletion plans include: Larger acid stimulation in the Kometan to increase the production from perforated intervals (45m) and a possible propped hydraulic frac in the Shiranish reservoir which has yet to be tried in the field.

Shewashan #3:

Current production rate: 200 bopd and 30% water cut from Kometan formation. Recompletion plans include: isolation of the Qamchuqa reservoir to reduce the water production and further stimulation of the Kometan reservoir.

Shewashan #4:

Currently producing at low, water free oil rates on a small (12/64) choke from the Kometan. This well produced initially from the Qamchuqa reservoir but due to high water production it was recompleted and stimulated in the Kometan reservoir. Recompletion plans include: much larger acid fracturing on the Kometan or alternatively this well is also a candidate for a propped hydraulic frac in the Shiranish reservoir.

2018 Production Forecast:

The production forecast for 2018 is 665,400 barrels of which 1,800 barrels per day is the forecasted average for the first half of 2018.

2018 Budget:

The Gross 2018 Operating Budget is $20.8 million, which includes the fixed and variable costs for production, as well as recompletion activity to increase production rates.

Expenditure by quarter is as follows:

Jan-Mar

$000 Apr-June

$000 July-Sep

$000 Oct-Dec

$000 TOTAL PSC BUDGET 5,045 5,045 5,369 5,369

Breakeven field economics are estimated at 2,152 barrels per day, at an assumed Brent price of $50.00/barrel reducing to 1,761 barrels per day at an assumed Brent price of $60/barrel.

Reserve Report:

GPK has engaged DeGolyer & MacNaughton to revise the 2017 Reserve Audit. This study commenced in November and is expected to be delivered in March 2018.

The Company is a 24.95% indirect shareholder of GPK through its ownership of 49.9% of the shares of New Age Alzarooni 2 Limited (NAAZ2). NAAZ2 owns 50% of the shares of GPK.

Production rates and quantities, reserves and resources, both projected and historical are provided in this release according to disclosures provided by GPK. Range expects GPK to utilize reporting procedures that are in compliance with the COGE Handbook standards and NI 51-101 (National Instrument Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities).

The Company also announced that it does not plan to proceed with the cash call it received for the month of November and December to fund the current drilling program, and it does not plan to do so in the foreseeable future. Future capital calls will be dependent upon the Companys ability to raise additional capital and successful operations in the field.

For further information on Range Energy Resources Inc., please visit the Companys web site at www.rangeenergyresources.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors:

Toufic Chahine

Chairman

Tel: 604-688-9600

Fax: 604-687-3141

Email: range@rangeenergyresources.com

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed to include forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words expects, plans, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, projects, potential and similar expressions, or that events or conditions will, would, may, could or should occur. Although Range Energy believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Range Energys management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Range Energy Resources Inc. undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that managements beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.




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FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: Majedie Asset Management Limited (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):



The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:



Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree



TESCO PLC (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:



For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 10 January 2018 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?



If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" No





2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:



ORD 5P



Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 304,419,678 3.72 (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



(3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL:



304,419,678



3.72

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale



Number of securities Price per unit ORD 5P Purchase 1,791,203 212.1892

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description



e.g. CFD Nature of dealing



e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit





(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type



e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description



e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit





(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing



e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:



Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



None





(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:



(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or



(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:



If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



None





(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO

Date of disclosure: 11 January 2018 Contact name: Matthew Hambly Telephone number: 0207 618 3900

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.




GLENDALE, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Health Data Vision, Inc. (HDVI), announced today that Health New England is contracting with HDVI for its medical record retrieval and abstraction services as of December 2017.



HDVI leverages its Medical Record Collection System (MRCS) platform, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, to support Health New Englands critical Quality and HEDIS initiatives in a year-round collection effort to increase process efficiencies.

Health New England needed a vendor for the HEDIS Hybrid 2018 season that can get them up-and-running quickly on a full-service basis, and yet offer flexibility to leverage more of their in-house resources over time using MRCS as a self-service platform.

MRCS allows customers to control their timeline, provides real-time visibility and full transparency into all medical record retrieval and abstraction results, as well as, manage internal and external SLAs. Additionally, HDVIs MRRV Audit Wizard significantly reduces time spent preparing and submitting an audit.

HDVIs experienced Provider Service Representatives and Abstractors reduce the burden of in-house retrieval and review, with numerous options for getting medical records in the door, including its proprietary Secure Virtual Print (SVP), which eliminates paper and provider abrasion.

With a shift to value-based care, health plans are investing more in Quality Improvement and HEDIS, said Jay Ackerman, CEO of HDVI, Our mission is to provide companies such as Health New England with the technology to confidently manage these critical and time-sensitive cycles.

We are fortunate to partner with HDVI in support of our goal to continually improve our HEDIS scores and STAR ratings. With MRCS, we have confidence that this new process will support our business goals, said Frank Namukangula, Quality & 5 STAR Ratings Manager at Health New England.

About HDVI

Health Data Vision, Inc., a leader in the medical record retrieval and review (MRR) industry serving customers across the U.S., empowers health plans to take control of their Quality / HEDIS and Risk Adjustment initiatives to improve quality of care and revenue performance. With its licensable MRCS SaaS platform and proprietary Secure Virtual Print that supports paperless electronic medical record collection, customers and partners can manage projects with either full-service or in-house resources, or using a collaborative model. Learn more at healthdatavision.com or call (866) 969-3222.

About Health New England

Based in Springfield, Massachusetts, Health New England is a non-profit health plan serving members in Massachusetts and Connecticut. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Baystate Health, Health New England offers a range of health care plans to employer groups and individuals in the commercial, Medicaid and Medicare markets. Visit www.healthnewengland.com for more information.




DENVER, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Down Syndrome Foundation announced today that it has translated important prenatal testing information into Icelandic and provided the resource to the Icelandic Down Syndrome Association. The translation is a first step to support the associations efforts in providing accurate information about Down syndrome to pregnant women and families in Iceland.



Global and the National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC) offered to provide the translation of their recently published Prenatal Testing & Information About Down Syndrome following a CBS news report in August about the termination rates of Down syndrome pregnancies in Iceland.



According to the report, Since prenatal screening tests were introduced in Iceland in the early 2000s, the vast majority of women -- close to 100 percent -- who received a positive test for Down syndrome terminated their pregnancy. In actuality, from 2007 to 2015, nearly 85% of pregnant women opted for Down syndrome screening and, of those who received an amniocentesis resulting in a positive test result for Down syndrome, 100% terminated.



The best available statistics in the U.S. are that an estimated 67 percent of women who receive an amniocentesis resulting in a positive test result for Down syndrome choose to terminate their pregnancies. But more than 95 percent of pregnant women dont even elect to receive an amniocentesis.



The high termination rates in Iceland are alarming, said Michelle Sie Whitten, President and CEO of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation. Every woman and every pregnancy is unique, but every woman should be given the facts including examples of how people with Down syndrome can and are contributing to society and reaching their potential. In the U.S. the situation is very different than Iceland  there is actually a population explosion of people with Down syndrome because of increased births and a more than doubling of the lifespan. Our problem is that funding for research and medical care has declined precipitously over the last two decades and we need to change that.



Global has been such a great partner to work with on our prenatal testing pamphlet and we are so pleased to offer it in Icelandic, said David Tolleson, Executive Director of the NDSC. The NDSC is offering scholarships to families from Iceland to attend our national convention in July of this year, and we believe it will serve as a great resource for people from Iceland to bring some best practices back to their country. We also look forward to learning from our colleagues in Iceland.



We appreciate Global and NDSC for extending support to the Down syndrome community in Iceland. Their generosity and moral support is very important for a small society as ours. And how wonderful to be part of this larger Down syndrome family, all sharing the same beliefs and hopes for people with Down syndrome, said the Icelandic Down Syndrome Association President, Thordis Ingadottir.



Watch C-Span cover the 5-minute testimony of Global Down Syndrome Foundations Quincy Jones Award Advocate, Frank Stephens, about Iceland and the future of people with Down syndrome.



Below are several trends associated with Down syndrome based on data in the United States:

Population  ranges between 230,000-430,000

Live Births  have increased to 1 in 691 today from 1 in 1,000 in 2002

Lifespan  There have been great strides in medical care and lifespan has more than doubled to 60 years from 28 years in the 1980s

Low Government Funding  Despite being the leading cause of developmental delay in the U.S. and the world, Down syndrome is one of the least funded genetic conditions by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has been since 2001.

Education - By law, people with Down syndrome must be provided a free, appropriate education through their public school system.

Societal Trends - A small but growing number of people with Down syndrome are choosing to live independently, participate in post-secondary education or college programs, and get married.

For the most current, accurate information and resources associated with people with Down syndrome visit www.globaldownsyndrome.org/facts.

###

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7eb18f8d-e64e-4adb-9a66-d5bee29f97b3
Biden asks Supreme Court to intervene on student loan forgiveness plan

It's the third time President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness effort has come to the Supreme Court. It may not be the last.
MIAMI, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE -- Miami-based United Blockchain Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of United American Corp ("UnitedCorp") (OTC:UAMA), announced today that it has acquired a second data center facility in the West Island area of Montreal, Quebec, Canada and will become an operation of its mining division as Blockchain Data Centers Inc.



For more information visit: www.blockchaindatacenters.com

The leased space, which is fully built out with companys owned facilities, is currently in operation and ready to start hosting GPU-based mining servers and has an estimated capacity of +100 servers, which is subject to overall air conditioning and ventilation performance. Mining servers will soon be available for sale to individuals and commercial entities and mining operations will be managed by Blockchain Data Centers on their behalf on a shared revenue basis. This approach will provide anyone or any organization a simple option to have their own mining business operated in a professional environment.

As announced yesterday, UnitedCorp recently completed experimental test on its own custom built designed 13 GPU-based Ethereum mining rig, and has successfully completed a full 30 day uninterrupted hashing rate of 400 Mega Hash per second (400 MHash/s) in precise over clock calibration.

The total amount of Ether (Ethereum or ETH) tokens mined using an independent third party mining pool, was 2 ETHER TOKENS over 31 continuous days with current Ethereum network difficulty during the period of November 21 to December 22. The total revenue in USD is estimated at US$2,225 per mining rig based on the current value of an ETH.

The power draw of the rig was on average 1,492 watts or 1.492 kW/h resulting in an estimated cost of electricity of approximately US$50 per month based on undiscounted power rates. The total cost of each rig including assembly is estimated at US$8,000 with 13 GPUs.

UnitedCorp will operate its business divisions and subsidiaries in 3 groups:

United Blockchain Corp for the development of its proprietary BlockNUM blockchain network and cryptographically-based distributed ledger mining facilities;

Social Media Posting Gateway  iFramed patented technologies operations, licensing and enforcement actions against social media alleged infringers including but not limited to Snap Inc;

And wireless and fix telecom operation with its 3G/4G 850 MHz wireless license and network with global operation of its proprietary Smartphone-over-IP Cloud Spectrum iPCS technology

About United American Corp

Established in 1992, United American Corp is a Florida-based development and management company focusing on telecommunications, social media and blockchain network technologies.

For more information, visit: www.unitedcorp.com

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Companys actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors that may be beyond the Companys control. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Companys management on the date the statements are made, and the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances in managements expectations or opinions change.

Source:

United American Corp

Contact:

Jenna Trevor-Deutsch

Investor Relations

investorrelations@unitedcorp.com

604 398 5000 ext: 109




Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

The US Army Corps of Engineers announced a contract opportunity today for two architect-engineer firms to perform work in the Pacific Ocean Division Area of Responsibility. These indefinite delivery task order contracts share an award ceiling of $18 million depending upon the number of tasks ordered throughout the potential five-year period of performance. To be considered eligible firms must submit required materials by February 12, 2018.

The environmental planning and engineering services requested range from preparation of documents, to engineering work to develop federal water resources. Contractors should be familiar with a handful of environmental acts and how they relate to the Pacific Ocean Division Area of Responsibility, a region stretching across the ocean from the Far East to Alaska.

With headquarters in Hawaii, geographic preference could be given to firms that are closer to the area. Regardless of the firms location however, they should demonstrate their ability to understand local conditions in the place of performance. This includes understanding the physical environment, local engineering criteria and local construction methods and market conditions.

The required documents for this phase of the solicitation demonstrate specialized experience and professional qualifications. To be considered eligible firms need to present at least eight completed projects in the last five years which demonstrate technical competency for this work. The firms management and ability to monitor the quality of their work will be considered so, a plan for quality control should be submitted as well.

Submissions in the proper format can be sent to the US Army Corps of Engineers in Honolulu. Adherence to project schedules and following guidelines is critical to the government. Potential contractors should read the full solicitation for complete details. All businesses must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) to be considered. Third-party assistance is available to accurately and quickly complete SAM.

US Federal Contractor Registration (USFCR), the worlds largest third-party government registration firm, assists companies who would like to submit offers to the government. USFCR has simplified every part of the federal acquisition process from an entity's registration in SAM, to their bid training, proposal writing and website development. USFCR pioneered the Advanced Procurement Portal (APP) which ties together a live feed of government opportunities with a list of active federal buyers and vendors. APP trains its users to submit the best possible bids and encourages relationship building with it's easy-to-use CRM. This service is perfect for businesses, organizations, institutions and agencies that are new to government contracting and lack resources, or are well-established in the federal sector and looking for further efficiency.
Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State, speaks to members of the Democratic Town Committee on Monday night.


remaining of

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TORONTO, January 11, 2018 /Marketwired/ - Dalradian Resources Inc. (TSX:DNA; AIM:DALR) ("Dalradian" or the "Company") announces that Michael Barton has been appointed as a non-executive director of the Company, as Orion Mine Finance Fund II LLP's ("Orion") designated nominee, effective immediately.

Patrick F.N. Anderson, Dalradian's President and CEO, commented:

"We are delighted to welcome Mike Barton to our Board. He is well known in the London and broader financial markets, having served on the boards of many listed mining companies. Dalradian will benefit from his extensive experience in mine project finance and development as we continue to advance our high-grade Curraghinalt gold project through permitting and project financing."

Michael Barton is a Portfolio Manager at Orion, a mining-focused investment business with approximately $3.7 billion under management (at December 31, 2017) that provides flexible capital investment solutions to mining companies in the base and precious metals sector. Orion has demonstrated capability in debt, equity, and production-linked investments, such as streams, offtakes and royalties. Prior to Orion, Mr. Barton was Chief Executive Officer of Pala Investments, a mining-focused investment company. Mr. Barton held various positions at Pala Investments, having joined Pala shortly after its formation. At Pala, Mr. Barton was responsible for all aspects of strategy development, deal origination, investment management and portfolio management across a broad portfolio of investment types, including public equity, private equity, debt, convertible debt, royalties and product streams. Before joining Pala, Mr. Barton was Vice President at Hatch Corporate Finance (now HCF International Advisers), a mining and metals-focused corporate finance boutique. Mr. Barton holds a First Class Honours degree in Geography from the University of Leicester. He is a qualified chartered accountant (ICAEW).

In terms of the appointment of Michael Barton (aged 38) to the board, there is no further information that is required to be disclosed pursuant to Schedule 2 paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies, save for the following:

Current directorships/partnerships: Orion Resource Partners (UK) LLP, ORP Investment (UK II) LLP, Mitchell Drilling Pty Limited.

Past directorships/partnerships (past five years): Pala Investments Limited, Sierra Rutile Limited, Concord Resources Limited, Kore Potash Limited, Hana Mining Ltd, Nevada Copper Corp., Peninsula Energy Limited, WDS Limited, 8926549 Canada Inc., Datamine Investments Limited, Tamzamdex LLP.

Mr. Barton is indirectly interested in approximately 0.009% of the issued share capital of Dalradian through his indirect holding in Orion.

About Dalradian Resources Inc.

Dalradian Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration and development company that is focused on advancing its high-grade Curraghinalt Gold Project located in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The Curraghinalt Project is in permitting, with exploration ongoing to build on the positive feasibility study released in January 2017.

For more information:

Marla Gale

Vice President Communications

+1 416 583 5600

investor@dalradian.com

Grant Thornton UK LLP (Nominated Adviser)

Philip Secrett / Richard Tonthat

+44 (0)20 7383 5100

Canaccord Genuity Limited (Broker)

Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor / Martin Davison

+44 (0)20 7523 8000

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to future financial or operating performance of the Company and its subsidiaries and its mineral project, the future price of metals, test work and confirming results from work performed to date, the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, the realization of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital, operating and exploration expenditures, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, costs and timing of future exploration, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of mining operations, environmental risks, reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims, limitations of insurance coverage, the timing and possible outcome of pending regulatory matters and the realization of the expected production, economics and mine life of the Curraghinalt gold deposit.

Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "plans," "expects," "is expected," "budget," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and are based on various assumptions, such as continued political stability in Northern Ireland, that permits required for Dalradian's operations will be obtained in a timely basis in order to permit Dalradian to proceed on schedule with its planned exploration and mine development, construction and production programs, that skilled personnel and contractors will be available as Dalradian's operations commence and continue to grow towards production and mining operations, that the price of gold will be at levels that render the Dalradian's mineral project economic, that the Company will be able to continue raising the necessary capital to finance its operations and realize on mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates and current mine plans, that the assumptions contained in the Company's Technical Report dated January 25, 2017 are accurate and complete and that a permitting application for mine construction will be approved .

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Dalradian to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current and future exploration activities; the actual results of reclamation activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; meeting various expected cost estimates; changes in project parameters and/or economic assessments as plans continue to be refined; future prices of metals; possible variations of mineral grade or recovery rates; the risk that actual costs may exceed estimated costs; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2016 dated March 23, 2017.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Mengo Hospital was founded in1897 in Kampala, and is the oldest hospital in Uganda. It currently serves asan urban community hospital that provides modern medical care. Mengo Hospitalprovides comprehensive care including radiology, obstetrics, dentistry,orthopedics, and surgery. Additionally, Mengo Hospital provides criticaltraining and education to health professionals through its various programs inmidwifery and nursing, health sciences, and laboratory technology. MengoHospital also has a dedicated research and development team that works to findnew solutions to health issues in Uganda.
Verma Co. Limited, startedoperations in 2004 under the vision and insight of Mr. Raj Kumar Verma. With aproud association with Bajaj Auto Ltd, as a distributor, Verma Co. Limited hasyielded excellent and recognizable results as a company. Through the years wehave built a reputation of providing the highest quality and acceptance inUganda. The company has grown to achieve sales and service milestones under therespectful and highly esteemed guidance of Bajaj Auto. The company also boostsa strong association with Local mechanics, in the form of Multi FranchiseService outlets. This association is the key to satisfy service and spare demandsof the vehicles on road.
M-KOPA Solar, headquartered inNairobi, Kenya, is the global leader of pay-as-you-go energy foroff-grid customers. Since its commerciallaunch in October 2012, M-KOPA has connected more than 150,000 homes in Kenya,Uganda and Tanzania to solar power, and is now adding over 600 new homes eachday. The success of M-KOPA (M= mobile, KOPA= to borrow) stems from making solarproducts affordable to low-income households on a pay-per-use installment plan.Customers acquire solar systems for a small deposit and then purchase dailyusage credits for US $0.45, or less than the price of traditionalkerosene lighting. After one year ofpayments customers own their solar systems outright and can upgrade to morepower. All revenues are collected in real-time via mobile money systems (suchas M-PESA in Kenya) and embedded GSM sensors in each solar system allow M-KOPAto monitor real time performance and regulate usage based upon payments. This connected design means that M-KOPA isprocessing vast amounts of data (i.e. over 10,000 mobile payments per day) viathe companys proprietary cloud platform, M-KOPAnet. M-KOPA has been recognizedfor its pioneering business mode and scale, notably winning the 2015
Patnaik's close aides say that to understand him, one has to understand his empathy

By Pratul Sharma/Photos Sanjay Ahlawat
Washington, DC, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ricardo Salinas support to the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program has facilitated the participation of more than 1,000 program beneficiaries, including 200 Ricardo Salinas Scholarship awardees since the fund's inception in 2015. Within the past three years, the Ricardo Salinas Scholarship has expanded Latinos access to conversations shaping policy and practice across the country and around the world.

The Aspen Institute gathers leaders from around the globe and across disciplines to engage in deep and insightful discussion on the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and address the challenges of our times. The participants are able to engage with world-renowned thought leaders, content, and cross-sector networks of influencers and decision makers to expand their leadership skills and networks.

Scholars represent a diverse cross-section of Latinos in the US. They are emerging leaders as well as seasoned professionals and they work in a variety of sectors ranging from academia to social entrepreneurship. Scholars have come from 40 different cities in the US and have participated in more than 50 different programs, seminars, and convenings at the Aspen Institute.

I am struck by how meaningful and powerful my experience was. Without the support of the Ricardo Salinas Scholarship, I would not have been able to participate," reflected Estefania Perez-Luna, Americorps member at Public Allies, and Ricardo Salinas Scholar who participated in the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund Convening in Aspen, Colorado.

"The purpose of the scholarship is to provide opportunities for Latinos in the United States, ensuring they have a seat at the table." said Ricardo Salinas, president and founder of Grupo Salinas. "We are proud of the scholars contributions to the Aspen Institute programs and the impact in their communities when they apply what they've learned."

The Ricardo Salinas Scholarship aims to increase the participation of Latinos in the Aspen Institutes public events, policy roundtables, leadership seminars and other convenings. In doing so, it provides access to leadership opportunities, networks and social capital.

How to apply

Candidates should identify a program of interest from the offerings on the Aspen Institute website, reach out to the appropriate point of contact, and mention their potential eligibility for the Ricardo Salinas Scholarship. If the candidate is a good fit, then the program applies for the scholarship on the candidates behalf. The scholarship is managed by the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program, and a committee makes the final selection based on established criteria. Nominations are accepted on a rolling basis, and the committee meets to review and select scholars three times a year.

For more details on scholarship eligibility and nomination process, please visit https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/latinos-and-society-program/ricardo-salinas-foundation-scholarship/

The Ricardo Salinas Scholarships have been the single most impactful program for opening up access for Latinos to Aspen Institute programs and thereby expanding perspectives, and building leadership skills and networks, said Abigail Golden-Vazquez, Vice President and Executive Director, Latinos and Society Program.

The Aspen Institute founded the Latinos and Society Program in 2015, with support from Ricardo Salinas, to provide a place for Latinos and non-Latinos to learn about their shared future and jointly explore solutions to the challenges of our times. Its vision is to foster a more informed citizenry and promote the engagement of all people in securing a prosperous and inclusive future for America. This policy program convenes diverse audiences and subject matter experts to advance three important policy areas, civic participations, economic advancement and educational opportunity. The program is also connecting a pipeline of Latino leaders to Institute programs, fostering collaboration, and strengthening their networks. To learn more, follow @AspenLatinos, or visit AspenInstitute.org/policy-work/latinos-society

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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6d3713ff-c243-45b3-b72e-738b6c02db61
On Lal Bahadur Shastri's 52nd death anniversary on Thursday, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri announced he has roped in veteran actors Naseeruddin Shah and Mithun Chakraborty for a movie on the former Prime Minister's controversial death.

The investigative thriller film is titled The Tashkent Files.

"A film on the biggest cover-up of a free India required that we work with great actors with credibility. Both Naseer and Mithunda are multiple-time National Award winners. It is a privilege to work with such involved and passionate actors of our times," said Agnihotri.

The movie will have two sides to the narrative and its story is a crowd-sourced idea, read a statement issued on behalf of the makers.

On Thursday, Agnihotri tweeted: "On this day, our second PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri died mysteriously in Tashkent. Was it heart attack or poison? Even after 52 years, the truth of the biggest cover-up of free India has been denied to his family, followers, citizens. After years of research, I present 'The Tashkent Files'."

The director will cast a prominent actor for the role of Shastri. The announcement will happen soon. The film goes on floors next week.

Shastri died in Tashkent, then in the Soviet Union, soon after signing a peace pact with Pakistani rulers to end the 1965 India-Pakistan war.
An MLA of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) courted controversy on Thursday by calling Kashmiri militants "martyrs" and "brothers," batting for talks with separatists and cautioning against glorifying killing of terrorists.

Less than a week ago, a senior PDP party spokesman said there was no bar on condoling the deaths of militants.

"Terrorists, who are from Kashmir are martyrs. Yes, they are our brothers. They are our children," Aijaz Ahmed, an MLA from from South Kashmir's Wachi, said in Jammu, adding, "Some of them are minors of the age of 14 who don't even know what they are doing. We should not glorify the killing of terrorists. It is our collective failure."

He said they are children, who have gone down the wrong track, and should be counselled and brought back.

"We should desist from glorifying the killings of 200 militants. Nearly 1 lakh people have been killed due to militancy in all these years. Let us bat for talks," Ahmed said outside the Assembly in Jammu.

He urged the Centre's special representative for Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, to talk to everybody in the state. "He should talk to separatists and militants in Kashmir too," he said.

Ahmed sympathised with the security personnel killed in the state, saying, "We feel sad when our security forces are martyred as well. We should sympathise with the parents of jawans and with the parents of terrorists as well. We want to stop this bloodshed."

Asked about the recent incident when militants hurled a grenade on his residence, the PDP MLA said, "we believe in India and they believe in something else that is why I was attacked. It is a difference of ideology."
The BJP has warned that its activists would court mass arrest on Friday across Karnataka to protest recent remarks by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in which he allegedly said the BJP and RSS had terrorists in their ranks.

The BJP's Karnataka general secretary Shobha Karandlaje said the party's activists would launch protests in support of the RSS. The BJP has demanded apologies from Siddaramaiah and KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao over the issue. The BJP has also threatened to file a defamation suit against Siddaramaiah.

On Thursday, Siddaramaiah appeared to soften his stance on the controversy, claiming that he was referring to Hindutva terror when speaking of terrorists.

The controversy points to the heightened rhetoric in the state, which is due to go to elections in the coming months. Earlier this week, BJP president Amit Shah termed the Karnataka government as being 'anti-Hindu' for allegedly being soft on Islamic extremist groups.

Prior to that, Siddaramaiah and his Uttar Pradesh counterpart, Yogi Adityanath, engaged in a war of words on Twitter. The BJP is attempting to consolidate the 'Hindu' vote to counter Siddaramaiah's strategy of engaging distinct caste and ethnic groups such as the Lingayats.
Even while displaying most symbols of authority of his mentor, the late AIADMK supreme leader Jayalalithaa, current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswamy (EPS) seems to have just that, and not her more famous charisma.

This apart, at his assuming of office, EPS suffered from inherent incumbency inherited from Amma, which is a political burden, not a strength as often misunderstood and the likes of which Jaya and her own mentor, the late M.G. Ramachandran (MGR), did not have to suffer while consolidating their hold over the party and the larger electorate.

From having all his ministers and officials line up in a long row of chairs with their backs to the wooden walls of his Secretariat room to having the chief secretary and others at all his public functions and official meetings, EPS is following the Jaya example of holding a court from a throne, muted to the present-day democratic norms as against the kings and queens of yore.

In between, during his short-lived third term as chief minister, Edappadis present-day deputy O. Panneerselvam (OPS) held official meetings at a round table, and let top officials do their job where their presence was not required by his side.

Like his DMK rival M. Karunanidhi, the OPS model ensured that officials could find time to push files for faster decisions and made the common man feel that they had access to their chief minister, after all. If filmy popularity and public adulation flowing from their populist government schemes worked to the advantage of both MGR and Jayalalithaa, much of the criticism associated with their governments performance flowed from a public perception of slow decision making, caused by such inherent, yet avoidable, disadvantages of the leaders choice.

On the political front, too, EPS would like to be seen as a tough cookie, both by the voter and party cadre alike. On issues like the ongoing transport workers strike in the state, he has remained unyielding to opposition suggestions for him to talk to the workers directly, and taking such other tough measures that do not befit a chief minister still finding his feet. In political and administrative spheres, where a chief ministers job is much more than that of a senior minister, which experience and expertise he alone possessed at the inception of his government.

Sense of insecurity

On the political/party front, EPS began going after dissenters from within his native district region and community from day one, thus pushing the likes of former ministers S. Semmalai and E. Ponnuswamy into the waiting hands of rival OPS, who is now a suspecting comrade-at-arms. In doing so, EPS reminded one only of the political behaviour of Janata Dal prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, whose first act after assuming office was to have his mentor-turned-rival, the late Ramakrishna Hegde, thrown out of the party in his native Karnataka.

If anything, EPS inherent, as well as inherited, sense of insecurity at inception gave an early foothold to the OPS faction in EPS western districts, where his Vellalar Gounder community have been staunch AIADMK loyalists since MGRs time.

In the caste-dominated party politics, where OPS Mukkulathore community had held all the trump cards close to their chestssince the days of Jayalalithaas disgraced and jailed live-in confidante V K Sasikala Natarajanit was saying a lot.

If during the post-Jaya split era, EPS gave extra voice to one-time veteran Dindigul Srinivasan, a Mukkulathore in lesser right, by ranking him number two in the Cabinet, the re-entry of OPS has meant that the likes of Srinivasan have either fallen silent, or have been silenced by circumstances that many of them reportedly feel to be claustrophobic just now.

More recently, EPS has had his own native political mentor, and senior one-time top Jaya aide, in K.A. Sengottiyan, replaced as party chairperson. He has been forced to restore the Jaya-era title to septuagenarian E Madhusudhanan, then belonging to the OPS faction, in whose name the Election Commission (E) restored the AIADMKs prestigious Two Leaves symbol on the very eve of the much-delayed and once-cancelled byelection for Jayas R.K. Nagar Assembly seat.

Madusudhanan came a distant second to T.T.V. Dhinakaran, Sasikalas nephew and AIADMK rebel, dubbed an independent as per EC norms, in R.K. Nagar. Madusudhanan has since reportedly taken up a case against senior EPS ministerial aide, D. Jayakumar, who overnight became the factions self-appointed spokesman, taking on not only the OPS faction when they were apart but also political newcomers like actor Kamal Haasan, handing over a case against the government and the party, where none possibly existed.

Which way the court verdict?

If the EC order on the symbol case went in favour of the reunited EPS-OPS faction, rival factions are awaiting the Madras High Court verdict on Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal first disqualifying and later declaring as vacant the seats held by 18 MLAs identified with the Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction.

The Speakers order came despite the HC specifically holding that the very disqualification of these MLAs under the anti-defection law cannot be enforced until the final disposal of the casewhich could well go up to the Supreme Court, in due course. So could the EC order on the symbol issue if the Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction decides to still stake a claim on the party in place of a post-R.K. Nagar rethink on the wisdom of floating a party of their own, possibly with his victorious pressure cooker symbol as their future mascot, too.

If in the absence of these 18 MLAs, the EPS government could claim a legislative majority, despite their acknowledged EC figure putting the same at 111 in a House of 234 in the pre-R.K. Nagar situation, the ruling partys position may face a reversal if the courts restore their membership on merit.

At the same time, the ruling party is faced with a disqualification situation of its own kind, what with the official DMK Assembly whip, R Sakkarapani, pointing to the violation of AIADMK whip by the 12 OPS faction MLAs, before reunification on the trust vote that was sought and obtained by EPS after taking over and as per the directions of then acting governor, C. Vidyasagar Rao.

This apart, the DMK is also faced with a situation in which Dhanapal has initiated privilege moves against 21 of the party's MLAs in a total of 89, from a total alliance figure of 98, including eight of the Congress, its ally, from the 2016 elections.

Living on borrowed time

For all intents and purposes, the EPS government is living on borrowed time, but can still hope to pull through at least up to the point until the pending HC cases are finally disposed of by the Supreme Court.

It is a time-consuming process but then, when Dhinakaran staged a walkout from the Assembly during the ongoing, short-duration maiden session of 2018, at least two of the ruling party members were seen slipping out of the House, though without declaring their intentionbut giving substance to the formers claims of having sleeper cells across the aisle.

The opposition parties, led by DMKs M.K. Stalin, leader of the opposition, walked out of the house after loud protests, when new Governor Banwarilal Purohit began reading out his annual address, citing the EC figure of 111 MLAs support for the government, and charged that the governor was backing a minority government so very openly without directing them to a floor test.

The DMK in particular has taken exception to the governor flouting established constitutional norms by holding review meetings with district administrators every now and again. Sections within the AIADMK too claim in private that it was in possible preparation for a term of governors rule in the state, depending of course on which way the court orders in the disqualification cases may go.

It is in this background that the EPS government seems to be enjoying a Pyrrhic legislative majority at least until its real strength is proved in real terms and in real time. Lest the powers-that-be should mistake the frustrated silence of the majority as the inevitable backing for them, they may be misreading the ground situation, especially if court verdicts were to go against them.

Worse still for the government and the party, EPS began with biting off more than he could chew. On the government front, pretending to have a legislative majority and presenting himself to be a right and rightful successor of Jayalalithaa does not have too many backers.

In the party, though he is named only as the joint coordinator, with OPS as the coordinator, with Madhusudhanan still as the figure-head chairperson of the reunified AIADMK, EPS stamp of disapproval more than approval is seen across the boardespecially in the sacking and side-lining of real and perceived dissidents.

It is a dangerous game the chief minister seems to be playing long before stabilising his leadership vis-a-vis the electorally successful Dhinakaran faction in the cadres' mind, and the DMK-led opposition's mind inside the House.

Given the piled-up issues of policy decisions and programme implementation inherited also from the Jaya era, incumbency can become a burden for EPS, both during elections and without them, too. Against this, both MGR and Jaya were in the opposition when they came to consolidate their political positions within the party, founded by the former.

Anti-incumbency against the ruling DMK rival of their times became a boon for them both. In EPS case, incumbency, instead, too, could become a bane, despite the government expanding populist schemes from the past. These were mentioned in the governors address and are expected to be followed up most likely in the budget.

Approval and disapproval

This apart, EPS lacks name recognition of the kind that both MGR and Jayalalithaa brought with their leadership, going beyond their filmy popularity.

MGR was associated with the DMK for long when he broke away and floated the AIADMK. Jayalalithaa, though seen as MGRs female costar in many box-office hits, was also into active politics under his tutelage for nearly a decade before going on to succeed him after his death, following an early split and reunification in the party.

EPS now has had a split and reunification, but not his predecessors' popularity and face recognition.

That may still go to Dhinakaran, and for all wrong reasons, maybe, but then he has also displayed the kind of confidence that only Jaya had shown in recent memory, though she, like EPS now and MGR at the inception of the AIADMK, was tentative at best.

For now, EPS is adopting the famed carrot-and-stick policy. Even as he is seeking to cleanse the party of Dhinakaran elements on the organisational wing in the post-R.K. Nagar phase, he is also trying to consolidate his perceived hold over the legislative wing. Apart from keeping the Dhinakaran camp under check through disqualification despite court orders and thus keeping further dissensions under possible check, in the ongoing session of the state assembly, as deputy chief minister and house leader, OPS moved a resolution for nearly doubling the salaries of MLAs from Rs 55,000 per month to Rs 1.05 lakh.

The DMK-led opposition staged a walkout, protesting against the move, saying the very same government was denying what was due to the striking transport employees across the stateand created legislative hisotry of kind in the state, when the partys Leader of opposition, M.K. Stalin, declared that it did not say that it members were contributing the hiked part of their pay to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund. But then, through all these consolidation move and the like, no one is talking about the OPS faction or leadership other than to use OPS stamp of approval, but not to address those of his camps disapproval(s). That is saying a lot, every which way.

(The writer is Director, Chennai Chapter of Observer Research Foundation, the multi-disciplinary Indian public-policy think-tank, headquartered in New Delhi.)
It will be compelling for the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre to present a people-oriented budget for 2018-19 even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces major challenges in the New Year.

For one, there are no fewer than eight Assembly elections scheduled for this year, followed by the general elections in the first half of next year.

With growth estimates lower than projected, amid worrying data on agriculture, the RSS, as the ideologue of the saffron party, has warned the political leadership that the twin issues of farm distress and galloping unemployment could be the main pressure points.

This comes at a time when the saffron brigade's win for a sixth successive time in the Gujarat Assembly elections recently was nothing much to rave about. While the BJP's win was not in doubt in the home state of Modi as well as his confidant and party president Amit Shah, they had to settle for 99 seats, which was 16 fewer than the party's tally of 115 in 2012.

Shah had, however, pitched for 150 seats in the 182-member Assembly, which his own party leaders felt was being highly overambitious.

The RSS has drawn attention to the twin issues of farm distress and galloping unemployment as the main pressure points. It emphasised the BJP was in trouble in Gujarat because of the simmering anger in rural areas, particularly the disgruntlement among the educated youth. It attributed the current state of affairs to the ruling party's faulty economic policies, warning that without expeditious corrective measures, the situation could worsen.

The RSS also warned that matters could get worse in the ensuing Assembly elections, besides casting its shadow in next year's general elections. That is some food for thought for the prime minister who has charted a remarkable winning streak so far. It is widely believed a second term as the prime minister is in Modi's grasp as the opposition is nowhere near getting its act together at this juncture.

While the BJP enjoys a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha, it is handicapped in the Rajya Sabha as the NDA continues to be in a minority and its efforts to rummage the numbers has proved to be in vain.

With less than five months remaining for the Assembly poll in Karnataka, the party brass has already begun drawing up its strategy in this crucial southern state where the Congress is at the helm of affairs.

It is the lone southern state where the saffron party has held the reins of power; the BJP is also keen on enlarging its presence particularly in Tamil Nadu, which is gripped with political uncertainty.

The five southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, along with the lone Union Territory of Puducherry, account for 130 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

Assembly elections are also due this year in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh among others where anti-incumbency against the ruling BJP can pose problems.

It is in this context that the saffron brigade wants to enlarge its poor arithmetic in the south to offset the possible losses in the north, which had facilitated Modi becoming the prime minister in May 2014.

In the 43 months that Modi has been the head of government, the BJP has managed to remain several steps ahead of the Congress, which has been found wanting because of its organisation being in a shambles.

The Grand Old party lacks leaders having a mass base in the states. The all-powerful Congress high command must accept responsibility for its high handedness and peremptory style of functioning, throwing the party in disarray.

The baton of Congress president has passed on to the Nehru-Gandhi scion, Rahul Gandhi, after an extended apprenticeship. Rahul has to enthuse the Congress rank and file to get it firing. The challenge is daunting.

Delaying the dynastic accession might have been counter-productive.

The outcome of the crucial Assembly elections in Gujarat was a pointer to the prime minister's honeymoon with the people taking a hit. In the last two to three decades, it has been invariably seen that the head of government's popularity begins taking a dip sharply on completing 36-42 months in office.

There is no doubt that the Modi-Shah duo have worked in tandem and have blazed a winning trail with few parallels. The BJP is in power in 19 states with saffron splashed across the India map.

The Congress has been in the dumps over the last three-and-a-half years. It is in power only in Punjab and Karnataka, in terms of major states.

Rahul needs to think out of the box in revitalising the party organisation as well as catching the people's imagination.

The focus should be on evolving policies focussing on why the Modi government's much-touted aache din aane wale hain pitch has bombed so far.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday was given a honorary D.Litt degree by Calcutta University even when the Calcutta High Court is hearing whether to accept a suit by a former educationalist challenging the decision of the university senate to confer the honorary degree to her.

On Wednesday, the Calcutta High Court division bench ruled, Whether she (chief minister) is fit to be given the D.Litt will be dependent on the order of the court.

Calcutta University, however, gave away the degree to Banerjee at its convocation at Nazrul Hall in South Kolkata.

Chancellor of the University, Keshari Nath Tripathy, who is also the Governor of West Bengal, gave away the D.Litt to Banerjee.

The controversy has resulted because she was the first serving chief minister of West Bengal to be given the degree. Two other chief ministers had received the degree but not while being in office.

They are Bidhan Chandra Roy, who received it in 1944, eight years before he became chief minister, and Jyoti Basu in 2007, almost eight years after he left his job.

The chief minister said she did not want to come to take the degree seeing the controversy.

But my education minister, Parthada, coaxed me to come here. I also felt I was not fit to receive it. But I am proud that the senate has found me eligible. Dont worry, I will not use it, said Banerjee after receiving the award.

In last two times, Banerjee did not attend the convocation ceremony despite being invited by the university.

Its not only most unethical, but against the basic principle and values of such an old university. Its unprecedented and not consistent with the law of the university, said Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee, advocate of the Ranjugopal Mukherjee, former vice chancellor of the North Bengal University.

The chief minister not only received the degree but also gave out many other awards for students and other experts including former governor of West Bengal, M.K. Narayan, while the chancellor looked on.

Calcutta Universitys advocate in the Calcutta High Court, Saktinath Mukherjee, told the court, The court cannot decide on Calcutta Universitys decision on whom to give awards.
Jigar Sanghvi and Kripesh Sanghvi, '1 Above' pub co-owners wanted in connection with the December 29 Kamala Mills fire that claimed 14 lives, were arrested on Wednesday, police said.

A third co-owner, Abhijeet Mankar too has been arrested hours after the Sanghvi brothers were nabbed, according to media reports.

The Sanghvi brothers, who were on the run since the incident, were arrested from Andheri area in Mumbai, additional commissioner of police S Jaikumar told PTI.

The police had already arrested Vishal Kariya, a hotelier, for allegedly giving shelter to the Sanghvi brothers and Mankarowners of the '1 Above' pub.

ALSO READ: Mumbai blames civic body for Kamala Mills tragedy; calls demolition drive eyewash

The trio have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other offences under the Indian Penal Code. Police had also announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information about their whereabouts.

On December 29, fire had swept through the '1 Above' and adjacent Mojo's Bistro resto pub in Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai, resulting in the death of 14 people
Israel is looking at enhancing trade ties with India in a major way. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins his six days visit to India on January 14, he will be accompanied by a large business delegation. Series of business events have been lined up as Netanyahu makes a return visit after PM Narendra Modi visited Israel last year.

Currently trade between the two countries is around 5 billion US dollars, of which three billions is for exports.

Netanyahu and Modi will participate in business events in Delhi and Ahmedabad, while the former will participate in separate business event in Mumbai. During this hectic schedule, Netanyahu is also visiting Agra to see Taj Mahal. In Delhi, both the prime ministers will hold bilateral dialogue and later attend a CEO forum and business event. Netanyahu will attend the annual Raisina Dialogue, a geopolitical conference in Delhi.

Modi will then take his counterpart to visit Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat. Like trademark PM events, there will be roadshow from airport to the Sabarmati Ashram. Modi, along with Japanese premier Shinzo Abe, had held a joint roadshow in September.

There will be a business meet in Gujarat. Netanyahu will also visit Centre of Excellence in Vadrad and inaugurate a Centre of Excellence for date palms in Bhuj via video conference. They will also visit the innovation centre.

But his engagements in Mumbai are likely to create a buzz. The visiting dignitary will meet the Jewish community leaders. It was in Mumbai that Chabad house had come under attack during the terror attacks in 2008. Israeli PM will woo Bollywood in a 'Shalom Bollywood' event. This is being done to invite the Bollywood to shoot films in Israel.

Netanyahu's visit comes in the wake of India voting against the US in the United Nations over it recognising Jerusalem as its capital. But booming relations between India and Israel would overlook them, sources said.
In a homecoming of sorts, former Maharashtra BJP MP Nana F. Patole has rejoined the Congress, a month after quitting his Lok Sabha membership from Bhandara-Gondiya, it was announced on Thursday.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi formally welcomed Patole into the party in the presence of Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan and leader of opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.

A party leader in Mumbai said he is likely to contest the next Lok Sabha elections from the same constituency in Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra as a Congress candidate.

Elected on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket in the 2014 Parliament elections, Patole had given a shock defeat to Nationalist Congress Party strongman and former union minister Praful Patel.

While Patole rode on the wave of farmers' angst against the erstwhile UPA government to win the Lok Sabha elections, he later rebelled and became a bitter critic of the ruling BJP-led NDA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for ignoring the cause of the farmers and going back on their pre-poll promises.

Finally, on the eve of the recent Gujarat assembly elections, he quit the BJP and his Lok Sabha membership on December 8, and bided his time amid speculation he would return to the Congress.

Since the past one month he spent his time touring his parliamentary constituency, meeting his activists and supporters before joining the Congress, the formal announcement of which was made on Thursday.

Born in a farmer's family, the 54-year old Patole was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative assembly for three consecutive terms since 1999 and was elevated as a deputy party leader in the legislature before he suddenly defected to the BJP before the 2014 elections.
BOISE, Idaho, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Albertsons Companies today announced that its popular Own Brands label, O Organics, has become a $1 billion brand, a major milestone for one of the nations largest brands of USDA-certified organic products.



Everyone should have the opportunity to go organic  whether you are selectively choosing a few organic products or you have fully embraced eating organics, said Geoff White, President of Albertsons Companies Own Brands. Thats why we offer such a wide assortment of O Organics products, from fresh fruits and vegetables to wholesome dairy and meats, cereals, snacks and more. We are honored that customers love our O Organics, and have made it not only the top-selling organic brand in our stores, but also a $1 billion brand.



O Organics are available exclusively at Albertsons Companies stores. The line features more than 1,000 products for customers to choose from, all of which are USDA certified organic and carry the USDA certified organic seal. In the most recent year, O Organics added about 200 new products and grew sales more than 15%. In 2018, the company expects to introduce 500 or more new products under the O Organics line, from produce, dairy and meats, to deli, snacks and baby items.



We are passionate about offering great-tasting and high-quality products to the neighborhoods we serve, White said. Introducing new and certified organic products for every eating occasion is a great example of how we are constantly delivering and staying ahead of consumer trends.



The brand was launched in 2005 to make organic products available to more people at a great value. Albertsons Companies manufactures a number of O Organics products, including yogurt, salsa, ice cream, milk, pasta sauce and sandwich bread.



Albertsons Companies has three other billion-dollar brands: Signature SELECT, Signature Cafe, and Lucerne. The companys brand portfolio includes more than 10,000 high-quality products that are 100% guaranteed or your money back. In FY2016, Albertsons Companies Own Brands achieved nearly $11 billion in sales. Albertsons Companies Own Brands are created and tested at the companys California innovation hub, the Culinary Kitchen and Technical Center.



About Albertsons Companies

Albertsons Companies is one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States, with both a strong local presence and national scale. We operate stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia under 20 well-known banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen and Carrs, as well as meal kit company Plated based in New York City. Albertsons Companies is committed to helping people across the country live better lives by making a meaningful difference, neighborhood by neighborhood. In 2016 alone, along with the Albertsons Companies Foundation, the company gave nearly $300 million in food and financial support. These efforts helped millions of people in the areas of hunger relief, education, cancer research and treatment, programs for people with disabilities and veterans outreach.



Important Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our perspectives and expectations, are forward looking statements. The words expect, believe, estimate, intend, plan and similar expressions, when related to the Company and its subsidiaries, indicate forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the current view of management and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on various assumptions and factors, including general economic, market, industry and operational factors. Any changes to these assumptions or factors may lead to practical results different from current expectations. Excessive reliance should not be placed on those statements. Forward-looking statements relate only to the date they were made, and the Company and its subsidiaries undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/269a46ae-c152-47bf-ba49-5f116ead400c

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/26e8429e-a04d-40ca-8a8f-90f87bb5202d
Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said "not an inch" of land would be given for Navy housing in south Mumbai, wondering why all their personnel here want to stay in this posh area when they should be at Pakistan border.

Gadkari, who is the minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, made the remark while voicing his disappointment at the Navy's objection to a floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai, where a floating hotel and seaplane service are planned.

The remark was made at a public event in Mumbai in the presence of Western Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Girish Luthra.

"Actually, Navy is needed at the borders from where terrorists sneak in. Why does everyone (in the Navy) want to stay in South Mumbai? They (Navy) had come to me, asking for a plot (of land). I will not give even an inch of land. Please don't come to me again," Gadkari said.

"Everyone wants to build quarters and flats on south Mumbai's prime land. We do respect you (Navy), but you should go to the Pakistan border and do patrolling."

A few important and senior officials can stay in Mumbai, Gadkari said, adding that land on the eastern seafront being jointly developed by the state-run Mumbai Port Trust and the Maharashtra government, would be utilised only for the benefit of local citizens.

South Mumbai is home to a sizeable presence of the Navy and houses the headquarters of the Western Naval Command, as well as the naval residential quarters at Navy Nagar in Colaba.

Berths for naval ships are close to the Port Trust assets used by merchant ships. Over a period time, a lot of cargo handling has moved out of the Mumbai Port, one of the oldest ports in the country.

"I heard that you (Navy) gave a stay to the floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill, despite it getting the high court's nod," Gadkari said.

Claiming that stopping such developmental work has become a habit, Gadkari wondered what has the Navy got to do with the Malabar Hill area which is primarily a private residential zone also having official residences of Maharashtra governor and chief minister.

"Where is the Navy at Malabar Hill? There is no Navy at Malabar Hill and the Navy has nothing to do in the area," Gadkari said and invited the Navy for talks to resolve the issue.

Gadkari said he chairs a committee for stalled infrastructure projects, adding that projects are cleared "as soon as they come on the agenda".

"We are the government. The Navy and the Defence Ministry are not the government," he added.
On January 9, the body of Zainab a 7-year-old was discovered among a pile of trash at Shahbaz road, Kasur, in Pakistan. The girl had gone to a religious tuition on January 4 and had gone missing from there. A missing person's report was filed on January 5 and her body was recovered on January 9.

Zainab was staying with her maternal aunt as her parents had been in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage), according to her family, and she had been living with a maternal aunt.

Post morten reports revealed that the child had been raped before being killed. This is the 12th such case within the two-kilometer radius of the city in the past year. The incident has ignited anger among residents of Kasur. Protests have erupted with citizens casuing a complete shutdown of the city. There has been widespread outrage on social media as well over police's perceived inaction.



Two people have been killed due to gun shots fired in the air during protests. Though policemen too have opened fire, it has not been clear whethere the deaths were caused by policemen or the protesters.

The provincial government, Punjab CM, Senate, chief justice of Pakistan and the army chief have taken of the case. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that, "People need to keep their emotions in check and not aggravate the situation. Zainab's parents maintian that they will not bury her body until justice is served.
US President Donald Trump has signed a legislation that will grant $9 million to the Customs and Border Protection to fight trafficking of opioid analgesics, entering the US from Mexico and Canada.



The initiative is specifically aimed at ending the trafficking of fentanyl, a white powder analgesic 30-50 times more powerful than heroin and usually used to treat cancer, although in recent years, criminal groups have used it to increase the potency of heroin.



The drug traffickers "are using our postal system and they're killing our people," Trump said on January 10 while signing the bill in the Oval Office, accompanied by Vice President, Mike Pence, and 17 legislators from both parties, the media reported.



According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), fentanyl is manufactured in China but enters US territory across the borders with Mexico and Canada, where the drug arrives by postal mail and in very small quantities, making it very difficult to detect.



Trump said that the new bill is "a significant step forward" in the fight against fentanyl, a substance which, according to him, is so dangerous that it has killed police sniffing dogs.



Read more: Trump declares opioids public health emergency in US



"Even dogs die from the scent," Trump said, adding that "nobody has ever seen anything like this."



The law that Trump signed on January 10 stipulates that the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must have portable chemical screening devices at ports of entry and at mail facilities.



Specifically, the legislation grants $9 million to the CBP to purchase hundreds of such devices as well as laboratory equipment.



The bill was passed in the House of Representatives with 412 votes in favour and only 3 against, and it subsequently received the unanimous support from the Senate.



Over the past six years, drug overdose deaths have become the most common cause of violent death in the US, over and above road traffic accidents or weapons.



According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016.



Fentanyl is directly linked to more than 700 deaths between the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2015, according to the latest data from the DEA.
On a summer morning in a desolate corner of Iraqs western desert, Jim Mattis learned hed narrowly evaded an assassination attempt.

A Sunni Arab man had been caught planting a bomb on a road shortly before Mattis and his small team of Marines passed by. Told the captured insurgent spoke English, Mattis decided to talk to him.

After Mattis offered a cigarette and coffee, the man said he tried to kill the general and his fellow Marines because he resented the foreigner soldiers in his land. Mattis said he understood the sentiment but assured the insurgent he was headed for Abu Ghraib, the infamous U.S.-run prison. What happened next explains the point of the story.

General, the man asked Mattis, if I am a model prisoner do you think someday I could emigrate to America?

In Mattis telling, this insurgents question showed he felt the power of Americas inspiration. It was a reminder of the value of national unity.

Mattis, now the Pentagon boss and perhaps the most admired member of President Donald Trumps Cabinet, is a storyteller. And at no time do the tales flow more easily than when hes among the breed he identifies with most closely  the men and women of the military.

The anecdote about the Iraqi insurgent, and other stories he recounted during a series of troop visits shortly before Christmas, are told with purpose.

I bring this up to you, my fine young sailors, because I want you to remember that on our worst day were still the best going, and were counting on you to take us to the next level, he said. Weve never been satisfied with where Americas at. Were always prone to looking at the bad things, the things that arent working right. Thats good. Its healthy, so long as we then roll up our sleeves and work together, together, together, to make it better.

The stories tend to be snippets of Mattis personal history, including moments he believes illustrate the deeper meaning of military service.

On a trip last month to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and three domestic military installations, Mattis revealed himself in ways rarely seen in Washington, where he has studiously maintained a low public profile. With no news media in attendance except one Associated Press reporter, Mattis made clear during his troop visits that he had not come to lecture or to trade on his status as a retired four-star general.

Lets just shoot the breeze for a few minutes, he said at one point.

Another time he opened with: My name is Mattis, and I work at the Department of Defense.

Mattis used stories to emphasize that todays uncertain world means every military member needs to be ready to fight at a moments notice.

He recalled the words of a Marine sergeant major when Mattis was just two years into his career:

Every week in the fleet Marine force is your last week of peace, the sergeant major said. If you dont go into every week thinking like this, youre going to have a sick feeling in the bottom of your stomach when your NCOs (non-commissioned officers) knock on your door and say, Get up. Get your gear on. Were leaving.'

By leaving, Mattis meant departing for war.

A recurring Mattis theme is that the military operates in a fundamentally unpredictable world. He recalled how he was hiking with his Marines in the Sierra Nevada in August 1990 when he got word to report with his men to the nearest civilian airport. Iraqs Saddam Hussein had just invaded Kuwait, and the Marines were needed to hold the line in Saudi Arabia.

In an exchange with Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Mattis recalled sitting in the back of a room at the Pentagon in June 2001 while senior political appointees of the new George W. Bush administration fired questions at a military briefer about where they should expect to see the most worrisome security threats. At one point, Mattis said, the briefer said confidently that amid all the uncertainty, the one place the U.S. definitely would not be fighting was Afghanistan.

Five and a half months later, I was shivering in Afghanistan, Mattis said, referring to his role as commander of Task Force 58, a special group that landed in southern Afghanistan aboard helicopters flown from Navy ships in the Arabian Sea to attack the Taliban in and around Kandahar.

Regardless how much they resonate with his young audience, Mattis stories illustrate how he sees his military experience as a way to connect with troops who often feel distant from their political leaders. They also are a reminder Mattis boss is one of the most politically divisive figures in recent history.

Speaking to troops and family members at an outdoor movie theater at Guantanamo, Mattis pointed directly to the political battles.

Im so happy to be in Guantanamo that I could cry right now, to be out of Washington, he said, adding jokingly that he wouldnt mind spending the rest of his tenure away from the capital. He said as soon as he gets back in the company of uniformed troops, he is reminded of why the military can set a standard for civility.

Our country needs you, he said, and not just because of the militarys firepower. Its also the example you set for the country at a time it needs good role models; it needs to look at an organization that doesnt care what gender you are, it doesnt care what religion you are, it doesnt care what ethnic group you are. Its an organization that can work together.

(AP)
DENVER, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NanoSphere Health Sciences Inc. (CSE:NSHS) (NanoSphere) is pleased to announce that it has been nominated for the National Cannabis Industry Associations Excellence in Technology Award in Infused Products and Extraction. This award goes to a NCIA member who has developed new technology that will have a lasting impact on the industry. Also, effective today, NanoSpheres OTC ticker code NSHSF has been approved for use.



It comes as no surprise to us that our technology is being recognized for its market disruption, said Dr. Richard Kaufman, Chief Science Officer at NanoSphere. We are proud of our achievements so far in the nanoparticle delivery space and look forward to advancing our technology with new applications and new markets.

NanoSphere is commercializing its disruptive, next-generation nanoparticle cannabis delivery system platforms under the brand Evolve Formulas. In July 2017, Evolve launched its acclaimed NanoSerum product for the recreational and medical cannabis markets in Colorado. NanoSerum, which has made major market inroads in less than six months of sale, is the first clinically tested transdermal cannabis product to relieve pain in minutes.

NanoSphere Chairman and CEO Robert Sutton added, As our company is opened to the investor marketplace, more and more consumers will discover our technology. The re-order rate of our NanoSerum product is testament to its quality and effectiveness.

The award-winning Evolve is available in over 70 accounts throughout Colorado. NanoSphere expects to expand its fast-growing network with manufacturers and operators in several states to license our technology and bring the Evolve brand to new U.S. markets, and to build on that success by further introducing new product applications. Each product application will deliver a unique pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile of cannabinoid activity and therapeutic applications.

About NanoSphere

NanoSphere Health Sciences LLC, a wholly owned operating subsidiary of the Company, is a biotechnology firm specializing in the creation of the NanoSphere Delivery System, a revolutionary platform using nanotechnology in the biodelivery of supplements, nutraceuticals and over-the-counter medications for the cannabis, pharmaceutical and animal health industries, and beyond. The patent-pending NanoSphere Delivery System represents one of the most important developments for advancing the non-invasive and user-friendly delivery of biological agents in over 25 years. For more information on NanoSphere, please visit http://www.nanospherehealth.com .

On behalf of the Board

David Sutton, President and COO

720.520.4283

dsutton@nanospherehealth.com

PR Contact:

Kate Wells, Chief Marketing Officer

NanoSphere Health Sciences, LLC

Direct: 720-528-4437

Mobile: 303-324-7358

E-mail: kwells@nanospherehealth.com

Investor Contact:

Victor Goncalves, Executive Vice President

Mobile: 204-997-5517

E-mail: vgoncalves@nanospherehealth.com

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statement Caution

This news release includes forward looking statements that are subject to assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Statements in this news release which are not purely historical are forward looking statements, including without limitation any statements concerning the Company's intentions, plans, estimates, expectations or beliefs regarding the future. Although the Company believes that any forward looking statements in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such forward looking statements will prove to be accurate. The Company cautions readers that all forward looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Company's future operations and business prospects, are based on assumptions none of which can be assured, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward looking statements. Readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Any forward looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual events or results could or do differ from those projected in the forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Lowered limits: From 1 July 2018, speed limits on two-lane highways not separated by a guardrail will be reduced from 90kmh to 80

The French government is lowering speed limits on all two-lane highways from 90 kilometres an hour (56mph) to 80kmh (50mph) after an alarming rise in road deaths in the last three years.

The limit reduction, which will be introduced from July 1, means all motorists heading over the channel for a summer getaway need to be extra vigilant of their speed to avoid receiving a fine of up to 750 (650).

The move came after road deaths in the country soared to nearly 3,500 in 2016, with 55 per cent of those - accounting for 1,911 victims - taking place on two-lane routes with no separating guardrail that make up around 250,000 miles of the the country's road network.

It means that almost twice as many individuals are killed on routes in France than in the UK (1,792) - and more people died in 2016 on two-lane French roads than all highway types in Britain.

Of the fatalities on the secondary French roads in 2016, 32 per cent were caused by 'excessive or inappropriate' speed, the figures showed.

In a bid to reduce the number of victims, the government said a 10kmh speed reduction on these roads would save between 350 and 500 lives a year.

Speaking after a meeting with the French road safety council, prime minister Edouard Philippe said on Tuesday: 'Unsafe roads are not inevitable.

'Lowering speeds reduces the number of accidents, as well as the severity of these accidents.'

Casualties on French roads have been rising since 2014, after the figures dropped to a historic low of 3,268 deaths in 2013.

And the recent increases look set to continue into 2017, where the toll was up 0.9 per cent in the first 11 months of the year.

The French government said a 10kmh speed reduction to 80mph on 250,000 miles of secondary roads would save between 350 and 500 lives a year

Speaking on Tuesday, French prime minister Edouard Philippe (centre) said: 'Unsafe roads are not inevitable'

According to the official statistics, some 105 people were killed on roads during the Christmas holiday period of 2016, suggesting that last year's casualty stats will cement a fourth successive year of rising victim numbers.

RAC European driving spokesman Simon Williams said that action needed to be taken, though the changes won't be popular among native motorists who might see the changes as cash cows for the government.

'How effective this will be very much depends on the level of compliance from motorists and, naturally, the level of police enforcement,' he said.

'There are, of course, accusations from French motoring groups that this is not about road safety at all, but about raising extra money from motorists through fines.'

UK drivers clocked over the limit on these roads can face on-to-spot fines of up to 750 (650). Under new EU rules introduced last year, British motorists can also be pursued for unpaid fines even once they've returned home

Some 1,911 people died on these this type of road in France last year, which make up around 250,000 of the entire highway network

On the spot fines for speeding in France can reach as much as 750 (650), and as of last year UK drivers caught by speed cameras can be traced home and issued with unpaid penalties.

EU governments now have access to vehicle ownership records held by other countries, which are then used to prosecute offences carried out in foreign-registered cars.

However, the 'one-way' rule prevents British police from being able to pursue European motorists captured exceeding the limit by cameras in the UK.

'British drivers visiting France making longer journeys are unlikely to experience too much impact as the majority of those miles will probably be driven on bigger, faster roads,' Williams added.

'British drivers will, however, clearly have to get used to driving 10mph slower on A and B roads than they would at home otherwise their visits may prove expensive.

'Arguably, holidaymakers should not be that affected by slower journeys as they should not be in as much of a rush as locals who may well have to get used to slightly longer journey times,' he said.

A recent trial in the UK to kerb accident rates by reducing speed limits from 30mph to 20mph in built up areas backfired, according to figures released in December.

Bath and North East Somerset Council spent 871,000 converting the zones only for the stats to show that the rate of people killed or seriously injured went up in seven out of the 13 areas in the 12 months after they were installed.

The rise was blamed on pedestrians being 'less diligent' when crossing the roads.
Horse sale: Steinhoff ex-chief Markus Jooste

Poundland owner Steinhoff, whose ex-chief Markus Jooste, 56, I reported is offloading his collection of thoroughbred racehorses, is selling its Gulfstream G550 private jet for 18million.

A recent accountancy scandal has left the once-mighty South African company struggling to stay liquid after 10billion was wiped off its value.

The writer Robert Louis Stevenson claimed sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.

Offcuts from yesterday's Dominic Chappell/BHS trial: Porky Dominic arrived without a tie  no way to impress a judge.

A farcical moment occurred when he appeared not to know his own age. After stating he was 50, he then said: 'I'm terribly sorry. Birthdays don't mean much to me. I am actually 51.'

Berkshire Hathaway's appointment of Ajit Jain as vice-chairman is seen as further evidence Warren Buffett views his Indian-born insurance operations chief as his successor.

Like Buffett, 11million-a-year Ajit, 66, is surprisingly parsimonious. Unlike cousin Anshu, 55, who as boss of Deutsche Bank travelled on a 6,000-an-hour jet and lavished staff with Aston Martins.

Business minister Greg Clark's meeting with Peugeot over job cuts at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant yesterday hardly inspired confidence.

When they met last year, Clark declared discussions, Neville Chamberlain-style, 'constructive and reassuring'. Some 650 jobs swiftly went.

Jeremy Hunt's refusal to budge during this week's Cabinet reshuffle meant that the Prime Minister was forced to keep hapless Gregster in his post. Might Larry the Downing Street Cat have been preferable?

Donald Trump's attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos in a fortnight usurps France's president, Emmanuel Macron, 40, as the star draw.

We must hope Trump is not accompanied by his pouty wife, Melania, 47, whose stylish presence threatens to overshadow France's evergreen first lady, Brigitte, 64. Otherwise baby-faced Macron may find himself banished to his room, sans diner.
Goldmans European leader Richard Gnodde meets the PM and Chancellor today

A top Goldman Sachs banker meets the Prime Minister and Chancellor today  after months of opposition to Brexit by his boss.

Goldmans European leader Richard Gnodde will be among 15 City leaders to sit down with Theresa May and Philip Hammond to discuss Londons future outside the EU. It is likely to be a difficult meeting because of the implacable opposition to the referendum result by Gnoddes boss, Lloyd Blankfein.

Goldmans Twitter feed was more conciliatory last night, saying: Pleased to see the PM and hear her views on how we can keep the City a vibrant centre of finance.
Online Orders in November were 32 per cent higher than a month later

FRIDAY FIESTA Black Friday discounts saw November overtake December as the biggest month of the year for online sales in 2017, according to data by Optimove.

Orders in November were 32 per cent higher than a month later.

GOLD PRODUCTION Gold miner Centamin produced 544,658 ounces of gold during 2017, above guidance of 540,000 ounces.

POWER DEAL Fuel cell maker Ceres Power has signed a deal with an unnamed manufacturer to develop power systems that generate low-carbon power on-site, cutting reliance on infrastructure networks. It is Horsham-based Ceres' fifth partnership in two years.

LICENCE OK Miner Bacanora Minerals' German subsidiary has been granted an exploration licence covering 295 hectares of a previously mined lithium deposit.

TRADING APPOINTMENT Tesco's former head of clothing, Richard Jones, has joined Debenhams as its trading director.

DATING SWOOP China tech firm Kunlun Group has bought gay dating app Grindr. It already owned 60 per cent, and reportedly paid 112million.

SWISS BLISS The Swiss central bank made a 41billion profit last year thanks to its investments in foreign stocks and bonds  more than the profits at tech titan Apple and equivalent to 8 per cent of the country's total economic output.

TITAN RECORD Investors have poured a record 200million into the Octopus Titan fund, the biggest sum raised in one go by a venture capital trust, taking its total value to more than 600million.

INSURER BACKED Insurance market Lloyd's of London is set for a boost as broker Peel Hunt said it has 'turned a corner' and should do well when business policies come up for renewal in the US.

PENSIONS GROWING Pension funds have clocked up six straight years of growth thanks to surging markets, according to research done by the Moneyfacts website.

The average retirement scheme rose 10.5 per cent last year, after growth of 15.7 per cent in 2016.

SAVINGS SURGE Savers are piling into City stock-pickers  Liontrust has banked 571million in the last quarter of 2017, and rival Premier Asset Management sucked in 236million in the same period.
CLEARWATER, Fla., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In continuation of their campaign for a safe Clearwater, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VMs) of Florida will carry out a record-breaking 500-man community cleanup on February 10th 2018 in the Greenwood neighborhood. Neighbors are invited to participate and enjoy a BBQ after the cleanup.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/32a59ce3-7b3f-4ac5-80cf-7ebc94705798

This planet is ours and we need to take care of it, said Glendy Goodsell, Executive Director of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Florida. Ms. Goodsell noted that the cleanup and campaign to make a safe Clearwater is underscored by the Broken Windows theory. Social scientist James Wilson and criminologist George Kelling proposed in 1982 that disorder (broken windows) and incivility within a community are linked to subsequent occurrences of serious crime.

The VMs have been cleaning up Greenwood since 2015 and in coordination with police and neighborhood leaders have noted a subsequent 60% drop in crime.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers:

Motivated by the words of Scientology Founder, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology Volunteer Ministers has responded to every major disaster worldwide since 2001. Their Florida chapter played a leading role in relief efforts following the World Trade Center tragedy in New York, the South Asian 2004 tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake and more recently Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.

The organization opened a new center at 101 N Fort Harrison Ave in downtown Clearwater, Florida on July 11th 2015. The center further provides free training in the 19 subjects of The Scientology Handbook to help individuals learn the skills to overcome day-to-day problems and challenges. To find out more about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers call 727-467-6965, email glendy@volunteerministers.org or log on to www.volunteerministers.org.

Contact:

Glendy Goodsell

(727) 244  3984
MBABANE  The Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) will pay nearly E650 000 for evaluation of King Mswati III International Airport.



A Swazi company, Christian Amoako & Co Pty Ltd, has already undergone evaluation and stands to be granted the tender for the evaluation in an exercise which SWACAA claims is a standard procedure.



When asked what had prompted SWACAA to undertake the evaluation process of the airport, Senior Communications Officer Makhosazana Simelane said: As an ISO certified organisation this is standard procedure.



In addition SWACAA is required by International Aviation rules to insure aviation infrastructure used by the public.

Actual current values are required by insurers to set the premiums. Furthermore, best practice requires that every four years such an evaluation must be done.



In terms of how the evaluation would help improve efficiency of the service offered at the airport, Simelane disclosed that SWACAA was ISO certified for maintenance of efficiency in operations.

She explained that one part of operations was the assessment of the value of the airport infrastructure. Simelane pointed out that this would further guide how much it would be set aside for maintenance of the airport.



Quizzed as to when the evaluation was expected to start, Simelane clarified that as soon the 10 days has elapsed, a contract to engage the company would be signed and then work begins.
MBABANE  Swaziland continues to lose out on over E100 million worth of exports that could easily be absorbed by the European Union (EU) due to non- adherence to international food safety standards.



On top of the food safety standards, the country loses out on improving exports by up to nearly 20 per cent that could foster economic development due to the lack of including sufficient regulatory, legislative and institutional capacity.



Yash Ramkolowan, who addressed the Economics Association of Swaziland (ECAS) on behalf of the Global Economic Governance (GEG) Africa, explained that non-tariff measures were the bigger barrier to accessing EU market.

He mentioned that many of these measures could only be addressed by ensuring sufficient regulatory, legislative and institutional capacity in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) / Mozambique.



He said this included but not limited to, ensuring that standards / health and safety bodies were applying up to date regulations in terms of pest control (and that these were aligned with international standards).



Utilising safeguard and infant industry measures for identified priority sectors would require that SACU / Mozambique have clearly defined industrial policy objectives and capacity to implement, Ramkolowan advised.



For the region as a whole, Ramkolowan said cross-country sector opportunities included: fruit and vegetable products; food, beverages, tobacco; chemical products (such as ethanol), textiles and clothing;

For Swaziland, product opportunities concentrated in chemicals, food and beverages and textiles and clothing sectors, Ramkolowan clarified.
MBABANE  Is it possible that the charismatic Gawuzelas Crossover show made a sum of E1 million in one night?



The question most people have been asking themselves after the success of the Umlilo/Swazi Mobile Crossover Gospel Music Festival, is just how much money was made. The show held on December 31 last year at the Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre, saw just over 20 000 gospel music lovers attending, and with each paying E50 at the gate. Total this up and it gives you E1 million.



The attendance figures were confirmed at just over 20 000 , judging by the sold tickets. This year the show was sponsored by Swazi Mobile, hence the new name Umlilo/Swazi Mobile Crossover. Other partners included Amandla Financial services. The show featured local and South African gospel music artists which included the queen of South African Gospel music, Rebecca Malope and Tshwane Gospel Mass Choir.



The crossover is an annual event hosted by Umlilo Music, a company under the directorship of Mduduzi Simelane of Mduduzi Nezinceku Zamagagwugawu. Some of the tickets to the show were sold earlier as the organisers had arrangements of pre-sale tickets.

Mduduzi Gawuzela Simelane made it clear that the event was not about money but it was about bringing the nation together to pray as the year begins.



He said the event comes with expenses, some of which cannot be disclosed, which need a lot of money.

It should be clear that the reason why I do not want to talk about money is simply because this event is not about money, he said.

He added, Every year, the nation has to come together and pray. For me, it is all about that and nothing more,
YOU shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. This is one quote from the Christianity Holy Book. Christianity is one of the subjects that government forced on the people of the country last year.

Despite acting against the Constitution, government went on to force it on the people and decided to spend a shocking E20 million of taxpayers money to implement its plan. I wonder, though, if government knows this quote which is found in the book that the children have to read and know.



We are further told that the truth has a way of coming out. No matter how hard one tries to hide it; it has a way of coming out. Who would have thought that we would one day know that the Judiciary sometimes advertises posts, yet it already had people in mind to fill those posts? The Judiciary employs magistrates in the country. What we know is that it did the right thing and advertised the post so that the process would be fair and every qualifying Swazi have an opportunity. Surely there were a number of people who applied and I mean, people who qualified and were willing to fill the posts.



What was the response of the Judiciary to all these applicants? It was a devastating response that the applicants had not qualified. What we did not know is that by advertising, the Judiciary was just saving face. It already knew who it wanted to engage for the posts. They did not anticipate that one of the people they earmarked for the posts was going to expose the whole thing. Now we know that adverts by the Judiciary do not necessarily mean that the applications will be considered.

Looking at this makes me more worried. How many people were employed the same way? Were the judges who were appointed interested in the posts or someone decided to engage those people whom he or she liked? Should we be confident at the justice that is administered in our courts? The appointments of magistrates that have gone wrong have given us some truth in what is happening in the Judiciary and I therefore anticipate another judicial crisis in the country soon.



The strike by the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) workers also left me thinking. Government recently gave salary raises to some senior officials while telling others that there is no money. While still shocked by that and the justification of doing it, then followed the strike by SRA workers. The workers are saying senior management of the parastatal were given salary raises and therefore, they also want a piece of the cake. Then there was resistance in giving them a meaningful raise. What this revealed to me is that government was willing to please those in high positions and ignore those in the lower levels. Basically, government is telling us that to it, some people are better than others. What worried me most was that we were then told that during the strike, a lot of money was collected than when the employees are not on strike. I wonder if this is not propaganda that will come back to haunt those who issued such information. I say this because this means the workers are failing to do their jobs and the management is doing a better job as they collected more.

We have budgets every year and they also cater for the health of the country. We also have the budget that caters for drugs in our hospitals. What happened though is that we were then told that there was a problem of drugs in our hospitals. Government, especially the Ministry of Health, came out to tell the nation that there were no drug shortages in the country and all was well in our hospitals. Information though was coming out that government was failing to pay its suppliers, hence the shortage.

We took what government was saying as the truth. What followed next was a problem with the Phalala Fund. Patients were suffering and dying with no assistance because government could not take them to South Africa anymore. The problem was with money that was not being paid to the hospitals in South Africa. Government then came out to admit that there were problems with payments. This to me revealed that something is wrong with the finances at the Ministry of Health. This therefore clarified why there was an outcry of drug shortages in hospitals. So the truth came out in a way that we had not thought of. Government should stop playing hide and seek with its people because the truth always has a way of coming out. It should just state the facts as they are and not hide them. This will set them free and have nothing to hide and try to do cover ups. The truth will set them free.
Sir,



Please allow me to expose SNATs deliberate silence pertaining the welfare of contract teachers in Swaziland. Despite doing the same work and having the same qualifications as teachers on permanent employment, contract teachers are the most exploited professionals, with no one taking a keen interest in their affairs, yet SNAT claims to be fighting for the welfare of all teachers.



What a fallacy and veiled lie this is! Among the many things that the union fights for teachers are the following: (1) COLA, (2) housing allowance, (3) home to duty travelling allowance, (4) medical aid, (5) HoD allowance, (6) notch increments, etc. But do not be fooled. Apart from COLA, which affects all civil servants, SNAT engages government on these issues not for all teachers but only for permanent teachers. The exploited contract teachers are excluded from all known allowances and benefits, as if their contribution to the educational system of the country is different from that of permanent teachers.



SNAT, a body that should have stood up to prevent this evil injustice from happening in the first place, has turned a blind eye and deaf ears on the plight of these hard-working but highly exploited teachers.



The Ministry of Education, through TSC, stopped notch increments for contract teachers at the beginning of this decade but left it to be enjoyed by permanent teachers only, as if these teachers teach a special group of learners different from those taught by contract teachers. Year after year contract teachers are stuck at notch 1, while they can only envy their colleagues with the same qualifications and doing the same job but on permanent employment; have their salaries doubled and tripled in notch increments each year.

The ministrys removal of notches from this voiceless group of teachers was to save some money so that officials in the ministry could have a floating fund for parties, hotel bills, luncheons and beer, including allowances during their many workshops. But this is done at the expense of professional contract teachers and their families and SNAT knows about this thing. But because its agenda is only for a chosen group of teachers, it has decided to ignore and pretend the injustice does not exist.



Government awards travelling allowances to only teachers on permanent employment and has denied contract teachers this well deserved allowance, as if the earlier group is the only one that incurs expenses when travelling from home to work. SNAT knows all about this. Why is it silent?

A housing allowance is another benefit only awarded to this selected group of teachers (permanent) and those on contract (exploited teachers) are denied, as if they live in trees and caves with their families where they dont pay rent, and only permanent teachers live in houses and apartments.

You might even think the input of these voiceless exploited teachers to the educational system does not matter. SNAT knows about this injustice too but we have never heard it raise its voice to question government or the Ministry of Education. Who will stand up for the exploited contract teachers if not SNAT? SNAT should wake up from its deep slumber and start questioning government on these issues and many others, such as the hardship allowance and investigate why some of these incentives were removed from contract teachers in early 2000. It does not make sense to have two groups of professional teachers who have the same qualifications and doing the same job but rewarded differently. Justice delayed is justice denied.



Exploited teacher
CLEARWATER, Fla., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On January 6th, a celebration was held in honor of the Day of the Epiphany in Downtown Clearwater. Hosted by the Puerto Rican restaurant La Fondita de Leo, the event brought several thousand members of the Puerto Rican community to downtown to enjoy food, music and good company. People covered the street, mingled on the sidewalks and dozens of curious visitors stepped into the Scientology Information Center for the first time.



I didnt know Scientology was about the mind, spirit and life. Fascinating! said one woman who brought her whole family into the center to watch the informational videos.

I wasnt aware that the Church of Scientology was involved with the disaster relief in Puerto Rico. Ill look them up when I arrive to Puerto Rico. Thank you for the information, said another visitor who gave his first name as Cisco.

Cisco had explained his familys struggle in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria to Amber Skjelset, the Scientology Information Center Manager. Amber provided him with information on what the Scientology Volunteer Ministers are doing in Bayamon, Puerto Rico to assist families with food, water and other resources since Hurricane Maria took its toll.

The Scientology Information Center has over 400 videos in several audio-visual displays, each in multiple languages, making for a comprehensive self-guided tour that allows one to come to their own personal understanding of what Scientology is, as an all-denominational religion.

Skjelset said, The festivities were right outside the front door and the spirit of the celebration was wonderful. It was an honor to share the day  the Epiphany  with the community.

For more information about the Scientology Information Center, the Church of Scientologys social betterment programs and tools please call the manager at 727-467-6966 or via e-mail amber@cos.flag.org.

The Scientology Information Center:

The Scientology Information Center, located in the Historic Clearwater Building in downtown Clearwater, opened on July 11, 2015, and currently houses a gallery of audiovisual displays with some 400 videos. The Center is open to all and provides a self-guided tour showing basic Scientology beliefs, Churches around the world, ongoing social programs and the life of L. Ron Hubbard, Scientologys founder. For more information please visit www.scientology-fso.org or www.volunteerministers.org

Contact Amber Skjelset

(727) 467-6966

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/db39d299-47fc-4459-9d75-966350c44562
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ALBANY -- An Albany man, arrested last year for allegedly forcing beer down his dog's throat, smashed a window at the offices of News 10 ABC because he believed the TV station was holding his dogs, police said.

The station had aired a story about the September arrest of Robert Caserta, 46.
CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shaw Communications Inc. (Shaw) (TSX:SJR.B) (TSX:SJR.PR.A) (TSX:SJR.PR.B) (NYSE:SJR) (TSXV:SJR.A) announced that, at its annual general meeting held earlier today, the resolutions proposed in Shaws proxy circular were carried.

The detailed results from the annual general meeting are as follows.

1. Election of each of the following fifteen nominees as directors of the Corporation (by ballot): Votes For Votes Withheld # % # % Peter J. Bissonnette 19,984,551 >99.99 350 - Adrian I. Burns 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Richard R. Green 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Lynda Haverstock 19,984,462 >99.99 439 - Gregg Keating 19,984,851 >99.99 50 - Michael W. OBrien 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Paul K. Pew 19,984,901 100.00 - - Jeffrey C. Royer 19,984,862 >99.99 39 - Bradley S. Shaw 19,984,901 100.00 - - JR Shaw 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Mike Sievert 19,984,901 100.00 - - JC Sparkman 19,984,462 >99.99 439 - Carl E. Vogel 19,984,862 >99.99 39 - Sheila C. Weatherill 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Willard H. Yuill 19,984,512 >99.99 389 -

2. Appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as auditors of the Corporation (by show of hands  proxy result shown): Votes For Votes Withheld # % # % 19,934,227 100 - -

About Shaw Communications Inc.

Shaw Communications Inc. is a leading Canadian connectivity company. The Wireline division consists of Consumer and Business services. Consumer serves residential customers with broadband Internet, Shaw Go WiFi, video and digital phone. Business provides business customers with Internet, data, WiFi, digital phone, and video services. The Wireless division provides wireless voice and data services through an expanding and improving mobile wireless network infrastructure.

Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (Symbol: TSX - SJR.B, SJR.PR.A, SJR.PR.B, NYSE  SJR, and TSXV  SJR.A). For more information, please visit www.shaw.ca.

For further information, please contact:

Shaw Investor Relations investor.relations@sjrb.ca
Time, in its many incarnations, is Fred Hersch's elusive topic in his new memoir "Good Things Happen Slowly" (Crown Archetype). Hersch is an acclaimed jazz pianist and composer and he's got a dramatic and heartening story to tell. Along the way he also provides a generous introduction to the jazz scene and the mindset of its practitioners.

Hersch came of age at the start of a new era when jazz was gaining academic respect and becoming a part of conservatory training. Gunther Schuller was the pioneer of this as president of the New England Conservatory, where Hersch, a Cincinnati native, enrolled in 1975.

Despite the prestigious imprimatur, his application process retained the looseness of jazz. Hersch took it upon himself to drive to Boston and search the corridors of Jordan Hall for pianist Jaki Byard, who was head of the jazz program. After introducing himself and complimenting Byard's recording, Hersch requested an audition. Byard said he could spare 15 minutes. Hersch sat down and played a few numbers and was immediately accepted for enrollment.

Hersch also learned his trade by hanging out at clubs and asking to sit in with some of the greats. After listening to Hersch play "Autumn Leaves," saxophonist Jimmy McGary took him backstage and put on the LP "Ellington at Newport." After one cut, McGary lifted up the needle of the record player, looked Hersch in the eye and declared, "That's time." He told Hersch that he had to have time and know some more tunes. After that encounter, Hersch bought every LP he could find that had "Autumn Leaves" and he studied and compared each artist's approach.

In writing about jazz, Hersch repeatedly emphasizes the magic and uniqueness of improvisation and he describes countless nights at clubs, in particular the Village Vanguard. Though he was becoming "one of the cats," finding his own musical voice still took years of exploration and a reservoir of confidence. Joe Henderson, another saxophonist, gave him a rule of thumb for both music and life: "If you feel it, it's right. If you think it, it's probably not right."

Long after completing graduate school in Boston and settling in Manhattan, Hersch sought out piano instruction from Sophia Rosoff. She taught the Abbey Whiteside method, which emphasizes a grounded and full body approach to the keyboard, as opposed to piano playing being only so much finger work. Rosoff told him to never use the term "practice," but instead to say "experiment." That advice rang especially true to an improviser.

It was in 1975 at a club called Barbara's that Hersch first earned money for a gig. His take was $7. "It was the sweetest money I ever made," Hersch writes.

The late '70s was a legendary time in New York history. City services were failing but real estate was cheap. That meant artists could afford space and had a level of freedom to pursue their livelihoods. Hersch was there and he writes of living in a converted loft space that was filled with noxious fumes from the trash piling up outside due to the sanitation strike.

As a gay man, Hersch went from enjoying the licentious freedoms of '70s to facing the health crisis of the early '80s. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984, about eight years before any effective treatments were available.

A terminal illness means time cut short. It prompted Hersch to pursue music "with fierce urgency." He released three albums in 1989 alone. He also came out publicly as a gay man living with AIDS. That was a double whammy in the macho world of jazz.

"I knew I was coming out about it all for the right reasons," he writes, "and though it took a lot of energy, I saw the opportunity to make a difference, to put a face on something that, frankly, people were scared of."

By the mid-'90s, Hersch had, at one time or another, been on all 15 medications that were approved for treatment of AIDS. He beat the odds and lived through the darkest times of the epidemic. But, like other long-term survivors, he has faced unforeseen challenges.

After he pulled out of a frightening bout of dementia in late 2007, his doctor called Hersch a "Lazarus patient." Months later, following a taxing Asian concert tour, Hersch was in critical condition. His body was so weak he was ultimately put into a medically induced coma for two months.

Hersch writes of eight dreams he had while he was in the prolonged time-out from normal life. In one of the visions, he and Thelonious Monk are beside each other in cages. A man bursts onto the scene, turns on bright lights and demands that they each write a tune. The first one to finish gets released.

While monitoring Hersch's progress, including his being weaned off a respirator, his doctor offered the following bits of wisdom: "Good things happen slowly," and "bad things happen fast."

After going from intensive care to a rehab facility and finally back to the loft he shared with his partner, Hersch phoned up the Village Vanguard and asked when there was an opening on the stage. With little more than a week's preparation, he pulled together a trio and made a quiet comeback. The classical impresario Charles Hamlen described the evening's set as "the most moving music I had ever heard in my life."

Today, Hersch, 62, is back at the top of his game. His website lists a string of dates around the country during the next six months, plus a three-night stint at the Cotton Club in Tokyo.

Hersch's collaborator on "Good Things Happen Slowly" was David Hajdu, a jazz scholar and author. Hajdu offered an addendum to the book's title: "Good things often last."

Hersch's classical side

Pianist Eunbi Kim performs eight selections by Hersch on "A House of Many Rooms: New Concert Music by Fred Hersch," from Albany Records. During much of Kim's program it would be impossible to have guessed that the composer was a jazz artist. The writing is detailed and idiomatic and is beautifully performed with liquid elegance.

The major work here is a set of variations on a theme from Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. In his liner notes, Hersch points out that the form is familiar turf because jazz artists are constantly making up variations on famous themes. Hersch makes the melody race and dance and lumber along.

In his Nocturne for the Left Hand Alone, Hersch tackles the chorinho, a Brazilian genre that combines vernacular swagger and classical refinement. Not so convincing are the selections that started as jazz improvisations and eventually got written down. The material is less dense in musical ideas, the emotional content rather watered down as well. It's as if a slice of improvisation was frozen in time and is calling out for Hersch's grace and imagination to enliven it.

Joseph Dalton is a freelance writer based in Troy.
MOREAU -- Firefighters remained on the scene of a house fire on Route 9 early Friday evening, after responding to the blaze in the morning, according to Jeff Reisner, the desk officer at the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators continued to search for the cause of the fire that displaced an adult and 16-year-old child. The American Red Cross provided emergency aid to the two people, in the form of cash to cover food, clothing and temporary housing, according to Kimmy Venter, a spokeswoman for the organization.
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SCHENECTADY  For the third straight year, a city police sergeant made the most money in the city in 2017  with an overtime pay well above his base salary.

Sgt. Jeffrey McCutcheon, who has a decade on the force, earned a total of $186,873 during the year, a combination of his $82,417 annual base pay, $93,786 for overtime and other pay, according to city payroll records obtained by the Times Union under a Freedom of Information Act request.

"After 10 years of working here, I still enjoy coming to work," said McCutcheon Wednesday, adding that most of the extra hours he spends on the job are responding to patrol calls and not in a supervisory capacity as a sergeant. "I find my job interesting and challenging so I don't mind giving up free time to fill vacant spots on patrol."

McCutcheon, 39, who is single and doesn't have any children, explained that patrol officers and then detectives get first crack at available overtime hours.

He is third in line to bid on the overtime.

Still, the lawman's total take-home pay for last year is down from the $198,217 he grossed in 2016, an amount that included 2 years of retroactive pay, roughly between $15,000 and $20,000, that resulted from a contract settlement that year.

The median household income in Schenectady is $41,243.

Eight of the top 10 highest-paid city workers are in the police department.

Like McCutcheon, Patrolman Peter Mullen at the No. 3 spot collected more money  $88,500  working overtime than his $74,924 base pay. His total compensation was $172,713.

Lt. Mark McCracken, who had been the department's public information officer, was the second highest paid municipal employee, grossing $183,137.

Rounding out the top five were Fire Chief Raymond Senecal at $163,260 and the late Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett, who earned $162,055, which includes a lump sum payout of $61,497. Bennett, a retired State Police superintendent who led the city's police and fire department for a decade, died of cancer in August.

In some cases, the police officers' compensation included payment for longevity, working holidays and a special holiday and insurance buyout, as in the case of Police Chief Eric Clifford. He received a $7,252 insurance buyout that increased his earnings to $151,194, which put him ninth on the list.

Clifford said Wednesday that McCutcheon "worked shifts when we were short and nobody else wanted to work."

The chief also said that the department was down 14 officers, which "equated to openings in our patrol division that we had to hire overtime for to backfill."

"Ultimately, there was no additional cost to the taxpayer," he added. "The compensation was simply shifted from paying officers' salaries and benefits to paying some officers overtime compensation."

He also said the majority of last year's overtime cost stemmed from the high profile police probe into the 2016 shooting death of Charles Dembrosky, 49, in Schenectady's Bellevue neighborhood.

Two men from Delaware and a third from Schenectady are awaiting trial in with what police and prosecutors have said was a murder-for-hire plot for insurance money.

The trio, who are being held in jail, have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The department is poised to hire 14 more police officers, who will be sworn in Friday morning by Mayor Gary McCarthy at a City Hall ceremony before they begin training at the police academy. The higher than usual recruiting class is to make up for the half-dozen Schenectady cops who will join the county's street crime task force.

If they all get through the academy, the department's strength would be 161 officers, said Clifford.

City Councilman Vince Riggi said Tuesday he hopes the addition of the news officers to the police force, coupled with the street crime task force will reduce overtime and make police more visible in high crime areas and throughout Schenectady.

Asked about the overtime, McCarthy said the cost of running the police department is expensive but that crime is down.

He also said that when people have an emergency and call the police, they expect a quick response.

"The cost of fringe benefits are in such a state now that a lot of times, overtime is cheaper than hiring a new cop," said McCarthy, who earned $99,700 in 2017. "I'm happy with the service that's being delivered and I continue to challenge them to do better."
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An Arizona man flew into Stewarts Airport believing he was going to collect a check for nearly $300,000, state troopers said. Instead, he was arrested and charged with two felonies for allegedly selling forged artwork to a Wallkill dealer.

An art auction house dealer called State Police in November after discovering he may have sold forged Tom Wesselmann and Andy Warhol artwork. The dealer, who police did not identify, said he had bought the artwork from Gerrell Roberts, 39, of Buckeye, Ariz. Roberts allegedly told the dealer the work was part of his familys collection.
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The chair of the Saratoga County Republican Committee will be stepping down to take a job in Washington D.C.

Steve Bulger, formerly a district director for Congressman Chris Gibson, has been named the regional administrator of Region II of the Small Business Administration. Announced Thursday by the SBA Administrator Linda McMahon, Bulger will be responsible for managing and overseeing the agency's lending, economic development and procurement programs in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"I am very pleased that Steve is in place to help support me and the President in serving as a voice and go-to resource for our nation's 30 million small businesses," McMahon said. "In his new position, I will rely on him heavily as we move forward in 2018 and beyond and look forward to working closely with him on issues and concerns that are most important to the small businesses in his region."

Bulger, a Clifton Park resident, was named GOP chair for the county in September 2016, replacing John Herrick. Roger Schiera, the Republican commissioner of the Saratoga County Board of Elections, has stepped in as the acting chair. He said in September the committee will elect its officers including the chair.

At this point, Schiera said, no one has made any appeals to become chair.

Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett said Bulger's departure is a loss for the county Republicans.

"Steve has always been a tremendous leader," Barrett said. "He was a steadfast volunteer at various levels. I always enjoyed working with him. I will definitely miss him here in Saratoga County."

Malta Supervisor Vincent DeLucia said Bulger was a great county chair.

"He followed in a long line of great chairpersons," DeLucia said. "I wish him the best."

But not all in the Republican party appreciated Bulger, who was known for his spending. During the first six months in 2017, he spent more than the committee spend in the previous six years. Some candidates felt that he was investing in too many consultants and lawyers and not enough in the campaigns themselves.

Bulger, who did not return a call on Thursday, defended his spending as "investment in the future."

"Saratoga has experienced unprecedented growth and opportunity in recent years, and it is incumbent upon the Committee to ensure we have the right elected leaders to best serve our residents and make this a place New Yorkers want to work, live, and raise a family," he said in July.

During his short tenure, county Republicans did not gain any more ground. Although the GOP did lose a few seats to Democrats in Malta, Ballston Spa and Schuylerville, Republican officials still dominate leadership in every corner of the county.
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COHOES  Cohoes Mayor Shawn Morse on Thursday claimed that the recent arrest of a city resident who has called for his resignation was based on repeated phone calls and text messages the man allegedly sent to Morse's cousin.

The mayor's statements, however, were contradicted by police reports that were filed in City Court following Jeffrey S. Bagley's arrest last Friday on a non-criminal charge of harassment, which is a violation.

Morse, in an interview on WGDJ-1300 AM radio, also claimed the arrest of 52-year-old Bagley "has nothing to do with Facebook" messages that Bagley exchanged with the complainant, Barbara J. Borden, 47, who is Morse's cousin.

"We have a young woman who files a complaint because shes scared for her life or whatever reason she feels she needs to file a complaint," Morse said. "And this whole story becomes about Shawn Morse."

The complaint filed by police does not indicate there were any phone calls or mobile-text messages exchanged between Bagley and Borden. Rather, it states the alleged harassment began at 11:40 p.m. on Dec. 12, which was the date and time that Bagley had an exchange with Borden on Facebook, records show.

More for you In Facebook post, Morse seeks forgiveness

"I have what they want he needs to apologize and step down. Shawn does NOT scare me," Bagley wrote to Borden using a Facebook messaging system.

Borden, according to the post, responded: "He has done a lot for the city."

"It doesn't matter you know the truth as well as I do as long as he is there the city is at a stand-still," Bagley answered.

In a subsequent exchange on Facebook two days later, Borden messaged Bagley: "Do not call or text me anymore."

Bagley responded: "Not a problem Butter Cup."

"Stop texting me and calling me," Borden wrote back to Bagley, in a Facebook message that was time-stamped at 9:51 a.m. on Dec. 15. The police report indicates the "messaging" that prompted Bagley's arrest ended at 9:52 a.m. on Dec. 15.

Bagley provided a copy of his itemized cell phone records for December, and they do not show any calls exchanged between his mobile phone and Borden's mobile phone.

The mayor also claimed that Bagley has "19 arrests for harassing people." But arrest records indicate Bagley was arrested twice for harassment in the late 1990s. One of the charges was dismissed and the second was reduced to a contempt charge.

Morse referred comment to the Cohoes police when contacted by the Times Union earlier this week. On Thursday, he did not immediately respond to a question about his comments during the radio interview. He told the radio station that Borden "did not file a complaint about Facebook, she filed a complaint about him calling her on her personal phone and continuing to call her and text her and call her and text her after she asked him to stop."

Bagley, who is friends with Morse's wife, Brenda, was arrested by three city police officers last Friday. The police arrested Bagley at his city residence and were armed with a warrant signed by City Court Judge Andra Ackerman.

Borden hung up the telephone when contacted by the Times Union this week.

Cohoes police Chief William Heslin confirmed Thursday that city police took steps to arrest Bagley after Borden filed a complaint on Dec. 15 alleging he had sent her messages through Facebook after she asked him to stop.

"In this case here, Im sure he feels he was wrongly accused. All we know are the facts that were conveyed to us by Barbara Borden," Heslin said. "If it's dismissed, again, it's not our concern. We did our job."

Bagley was taken from his home to the police station Friday afternoon and released after being given an appearance ticket. The ticket was signed by Sgt. Anthony Pucci, who is friends with Morse.

On Nov. 11, the day after Morse's wife called 911 and told a dispatcher that her husband had grabbed her by the neck and thrown her to the ground, Pucci and his brother, Cohoes police Capt. Todd Pucci, went to the Rivers Casino with Morse and his wife.

Documents filed in City Court indicate Borden requested an order of protection, which would prohibit Bagley from contacting her, but one has not been issued. Bagley was ordered to appear in City Court on Jan. 30.

The State Police and other law enforcement agencies are continuing to investigate the domestic abuse allegations made by Brenda Morse when she called 911 in November. Shawn Morse denied grabbing or "hitting" his wife. He also denied the abuse allegations in prior years made by two other women he dated.

Bagley has been outspoken on Facebook posts about his opinion that Morse should resign because of the abuse allegations.

Morse on Wednesday posted a broad apology to his constituents, asking for "forgiveness" without citing any specific misdeeds.

"I would like to take a second and say, if I hurt anyone, embarrassed anyone, caused embarrassment to our City in any way, I ask for your FORGIVENESS!" Morse wrote in the Facebook post.

"I have never been challenged like this in my life, I have never been embarrassed like this in my Life, I have never felt shame like this in my life, and sadly, my family has been the biggest victim."

"In the end, you will Judge me, that I understand," he continued. "You will have to believe me or what has been written about me by a news paper that doesn't know me at all. You will have to make a decision about my future. So, in the end, I will work as hard as possible to make that decision an easy one!"
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Washington

Opposition to the Trump administration's plan to expand offshore drilling mounted Wednesday as Democrats from coastal states accused President Donald Trump of punishing states with Democratic leaders and a second Republican governor asked to withdraw his state from the plan.

Democrats said Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke were being hypocritical by agreeing to a request by Florida's Republican governor to withdraw from the drilling plan, but not making the same accommodation to states with Democratic governors.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California said on Twitter that his state, "like Florida, has hundreds of miles of beautiful coastline and a governor who wants to keep it that way. Or is that not enough for blue states?"

"If local voices matter why haven't they excluded Virginia?" asked Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. "Is it because the governor of Florida is a Republican and the Virginia governor is a Democrat?"

The complaints came as South Carolina's Republican governor said he wants an exemption. Gov. Henry McMaster said drilling risks seriously threaten his state's lush coastline and $20 billion tourism industry.

"We cannot afford to take a chance with the beauty, the majesty and the economic value and vitality of our wonderful coastline in South Carolina," McMaster said.

Opposition to drilling is bipartisan within South Carolina's congressional delegation: All three House members who represent the state's 190 miles of coastline told The Associated Press they are against the expansion plan. Two of the three are Republicans, including Rep. Mark Sanford, a former governor who said Zinke had set a precedent by honoring Florida's request for an exemption.

"What's good for the goose is good for the gander," Sanford said.

In Virginia, GOP Rep. Scott Taylor joined Kaine and Gov.-elect Ralph Northam in opposing the drilling plan. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., called Trump's plan "a complete non-starter."

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said on Twitter that "the only science @SecretaryZinke follows is political science. He'll reverse course to protect fellow Republicans in Florida, but not to protect coastlines and jobs across the rest of the country?"

Heather Swift, a spokeswoman for Zinke, accused Kaine and other Democrats of taking cheap shots at her boss.

"The secretary has said since day one that he is interested in the local voice. If those governors would like to request meetings with the secretary, they are absolutely welcome to do so," she said. "Their criticism is empty pandering."
Here's one list we really don't want to be on. Orkin just released its ranking of 2018's top bed bug cities, and after a brief absence, Albany is once again on the list.

Some of the other cities new on the list include New Orleans, Flint, MI and Dallas, which made its appearance in the top 10.
Remember the Great Yogurt Debate of 2014? How about the Wood Frog Debacle of 2015? We're wondering if, this year, the state legislature will consider a new state symbol.

If a measure does get to the floor, it should be quite a show.
Queen Cutlery, at 507 Chestnut St., announced on its Facebook page, Wednesday, that it has closed due to issues with cash flow. The plants employees were furloughed while its parent company, Daniels Family Cutlery Corp., goes through a period of reorganization.
[January 11, 2018] SysAid Recognized as a Leader in the Israel Tech Scene by G2 Crowd

BOSTON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SysAid, a leading provider of help desk and IT service management (ITSM) solutions, has been recognized as one of the top five B2B software companies in Israel by G2 Crowd. Today, SysAid serves more than 10,000 organizations in over 140 countries. Verified users gave SysAid strong marks for customer satisfaction and indicated a high likelihood of recommending the platform. Founded in 2002, SysAid was among the early companies that built Israel's reputation for innovative software and technology. The solution integrates all the essentials of IT service including ITSM, Help Desk, IT Asset Management, and Analytics. SysAid led the movement to cloud-based ITSM and continues to push the frontiers with sophisticated analytics, integrations, and automations. Over 100,000 sysadmins currently use SysAid to provide IT service, with more than 50 percent of SysAid's customer base located in North America. The company recently opened a new office in Toronto, Canada to better support these users. SysAid also provides global support coverage from its US office in Boston, as well as offices in Brazil, Australia, and Romania. The G2 Crowd reviews reflect SysAid's commitment to helping sysadmins excel at their work. SysAid's Automated Ticket Routing technology earned a 97 percent satisfaction rating from users, while its Ticket Notifications system garnered a 90 percent rating. Overall, reviews from 69 verifiedusers placed SysAid among the top five B2B tech companies in Israel. SysAid also ranks as a Leader in the G2 Crowd Grid for Service Desk.



"We're proud to represent the community of innovators and entrepreneurs who have made Israel one of the most prolific tech scenes in the world," said Sarah Lahav, CEO of SysAid. "We congratulate the other honorees and thank our users for sharing their experiences with SysAid." SysAid's G2 Crowd ranking builds upon a strong track record of accolades from analysts and users. Info-Tech Research Group recently named SysAid the 2017-18 Champion of Service Desk Software. In 2017, SysAid also ranked #3 in Capterra's list of the Top 20 Most Popular ITSM Software and was named a Master in the FrontRunners Quadrant for Help Desk Software.

G2 Crowd's "State of B2B Israel Tech" report recognized SysAid and 17 other SaaS companies as the leaders of Israel's tech scene. Overall, the report covered 60 companies representing over $350,000,000 in VC funding and 3 IPO exits. Read the full report to see how SysAid is contributing to the state of the B2B Israeli tech scene. About SysAid Technologies

Founded in 2002, SysAid Technologies Ltd. partners with IT professionals to make their work easier. The company provides IT service management (ITSM) solutions to more than 10,000 customers in 140 countries. From small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, IT departments use SysAid to deliver better service. Available in 42 languages as a cloud-based or on-premises solution, SysAid combines all the essential IT tools in one simple and clever platform. For more information, please visit www.sysaid.com. -Join more than 180,000 IT professionals in the SysAid Community

-Follow SysAid on Twitter @Joe_the_IT_Guy and @SysAid Contact: Lindsey Pugh, 847.415.9306, [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sysaid-recognized-as-a-leader-in-the-israel-tech-scene-by-g2-crowd-300581062.html SOURCE SysAid Technologies Ltd.

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[January 10, 2018] AHF Blasts New House Committee Report on 340B Drug Discount Program: 'A Solution in Search of a Problem'

Drug pricing advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today blasted Congressional leadership over a new report unfairly criticizing the 340B Drug Pricing Program issued today by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR). The report was prodded by deep-pocketed Pharma lobbyists as part of Pharma's relentless attack on the 340B drug discount program. "This report and related efforts by Congress to revamp the 340B drug pricing program at Big Pharma's behest is a solution in search of a problem and must be called out," said Michael Weinstein, Presient of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "AHF is disappointed that Congressional leadership is buying into Pharma's false narrative on the 340B program-a federally-administered drug discount program that costs the government and taxpayers nothing-and which has worked successfully for over twenty-five years to allow nonprofits and hospitals to provide more care and services to the needy. This report was created to provide a 'justification' to fix what isn't broken. Members of Congress-and their constituents-should know this is a program that works, that works well and needs no overhaul or 'reform,' particularly one guided by greedy drug companies and their lobbyists and friends in Congress."



About the 340B Program The 340B program was enacted by Congress as part of the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 to allow designated safety net medical providers, called "covered entities," to purchase prescription outpatient drugs directly from pharmaceutical manufacturers at discounted prices. As a discount program, 340B costs federal taxpayers and the government nothing. Congress itself expressed that the goal of the program is "to enable [covered entities] to stretch scarce Federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services."1

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 855,000 individuals in 39 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook (News - Alert): www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us @aidshealthcare. For more information, visit www.let340B.org. _____________________________ 1 House Report No. 102-384(II), September 22, 1992, Page 12. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180110006303/en/

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[January 10, 2018] Kirby McInerney LLP Commences Investigation on Behalf of Intel Corporation Investors

Kirby McInerney LLP ("KM") announces an investigation on behalf of Intel (News - Alert) Corporation ("Intel" or the "Company") (NYSE:INTC) investors concerning possible violations of federal securities laws by the Company and its officers. On January 2, 2018, post-market, news outlets reported that Intel's processor chips contain a significant design flaw that may compromise device security. According to Business Insider, the updates that are necessary to fix this vulnerability will likely result in device performance slowdown of "up to 30%." Additionally, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has admitted that Google (News - Alert) notified the Company about the flaw "a couple months ago." On this news, the Company's share price fell from $46.85 to $45.26 (a decline of $1.59). The price coninued to fall on January 4, 2018, to $44.43 (a decline of $0.83).



If you purchased or otherwise acquired shares of Intel since September 30, 2017, and would like more information pertaining to the investigation, please contact Thomas W. Elrod, Esq. of Kirby McInerney LLP at (212) 371-6600, or by email at [email protected], or by filling out this contact form to discuss your rights without any cost to you. Kirby McInerney LLP is a New York-based plaintiffs' law firm concentrating in securities, antitrust, whistleblower, and consumer litigation. The firm's efforts on behalf of shareholders in securities litigation have resulted in recoveries totaling billions of dollars, and the firm's achievements and quality of service have been chronicled in numerous published decisions. Additional information about the firm can be found at Kirby McInerney LLP's website: www.kmllp.com.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180110006341/en/

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[January 11, 2018] AdEngage Makes Speedjet Aviation and Gulf Aviation Academy Expand in India With 1000% R.O.I From Social Media Marketing

MUMBAI, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Speedjet Aviation and Gulf Aviation Academy (India) Expands in Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Mumbai In 2015, AdEngage understood that the major problem faced by Speedjet Aviation Academy (An Aviation Training Academy Offering Courses Like Cabin Crew, Pilot, Ground Staff Training in India and Bahrain) was people's perception towards Aviation careers majorly Cabin Crew and Ground Staff. Other than the training course fee being a challenge, the mentality of parents towards these careers was raw and uninformative. Hence, the agency launched two back-to-back scholarship programs named as UDAAN in 2015-16 and IASP (Indian Aviation Scholarship Program) in 2017 to not only allow deserving students get an opportunity to fulfill their dreams but also creates confidence among the students and parents that career in Aviation is a real thing and requires good qualification and responsibilities. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/627439/AdEngage_Logo.jpg )

Gone are the days when social media marketing was more to do with brand building. Today, brands demand much more from a marketing agency and most of the time the only marketing activity that excites them is the one which brings them business. Here's where AdEngage (earlier known as Make My Brand Social) comes into the picture with an assurance of high performance focused on both organic-paid marketing and rand building on social and other digital platforms.



First month of the campaign and boom; there were 600+ interested students willing to join Speedjet Aviation. From a small set-up in Mumbai, Speedjet Aviation themselves affiliated with Gulf Aviation Academy and training centers opening at multiple new locations in India and can now proudly call themselves as one of the fastest growing Aviation Training company in India. "UDAAN and IASP have had a huge impact on us. Using these campaigns, we have been able to offer scholarships to the deserving students, which in turn has helped them make their careers in Aviation, which would have been difficult for them without the financial aid offered using these programs," says Captain Dharamraj Shukla, Director Speedjet Aviation Academy and Gulf Aviation Academy (India).

Nitish Sharma, General Manager, Speedjet Aviation and Gulf Aviation Academy (India) further adds, "We would love to create more digital resources to enhance overall training and business generation along with creating new offline marketing plans with AdEngage's team." "We're happy to add value to all our clients, including Speedjet Aviation Academy. They're more like a family to our team now. UDAAN and IASP are indeed a game-changing idea in a sector not widely advertised and we're quite happy to be a part of their success. The industry is ever-changing and we all have to adapt to marketing techniques that generates business," says MD & CEO - Pancham Banerji, AdEngage. "It's important that marketing agencies, especially digital marketing agencies, understand the value of performance over only creativity and create the right balance of both for their clients. As per our experience, Indian clients have a business-first approach on digital marketing and we envision that this will become one of the major agency selection parameters in the near future. Speedjet, our baby continues to grow as we predict a minimum 3000%-4000% R.O.I Y.O.Y for the company," says Operation Director - Namrata Banerji, AdEngage. About AdEngage AdEngage is recognized as one of the most promising digital marketing agency in India for niche and performance focused marketing and advertising. AdEngage has also been recognized as the Most Valued Digital Marketing Company in India in 2016 for its proven capabilities in building brand image and fetching maximum ROI to its clients. AdEngages nonpareil service portfolio encompasses strategic business and marketing consultancy, creative services, advanced digital analytics, SEO & PPC, mobile app development and marketing as well as comprehensive web development, software & IT services.

Media Contact:

Pancham Banerji

[email protected]

+91-9769651904

CEO, AdEngage





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[January 11, 2018] Mind-Controlled Industrial Robot: BrainCo Debuts Cutting-Edge BMI Technologies at CES 2018

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BrainCo, a brain-machine interface (BMI) startup incubated in the Harvard Innovation Lab, revealed a BMI integrated robotic arm at CES 2018, gaining attention from a variety of news sources. BMI technology allows direct communications between the human brains and external devices. Since its inception in the early 1920s, this technology has gradually matured over the past 100 years and has gained support from governments around the world. In 2013, the Obama administration announced The White House BRAIN Initiative to encourage BMI research. Later on, the EU, China, Japan and other countries have all proposed their own plans to support brain science and BMI research. In the early 2000s, the capital markets started to enter this field to commercialize the scientific discoveries being made. In 2017, two major tech gurus made investments and established their existence in the world of BMI. In March 2017, Elon Musk announced his investment in the establishment of a BMI company called Neuralink to focus on developing invasive BMI applications. Also in 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, invested in a team called Building 8 to study BMI technologies such as brain typing. And, on Jan. 4, 2018, BMI technology made the front cover of Economist with a feature article called The Next Frontier: When Thoughts Control Machines. It describes this cutting-edge technology as a transformative one that can change the way people live in the future. BrainCo develops brain-machine inteface (BMI) hardware and software platform technologies. These convert brain signals into digital signals and let users better understand their focus abilities. It can also provide users with neurofeedback training techniques to develop their brain's potential. These technologies are currently applied in the education and healthcare fields. For the first time ever, a BMI company has brought a brainwave-based education software platform to market. BrainCo has already sold tens of thousands of devices with its first order.



BrainCo's BrainRobotics team is currently developing the world's most affordable AI-driven prosthetic hand. Traditional prostheses have an integrated design that is vulnerable to damage. To solve this problem, BrainRobotics is developing a modular mechanical design. It allows users to easily replace only the broken components without having to purchase an entirely new hand. Such modular designs significantly reduce the cost of using prosthetic hands and make this high-tech product much more accessible to amputees around the world. While traditional prosthetics cost tens of thousands of dollars, the BrainRobotics hand has a price target under $5,000. BrainCo has been listed as one of the world's top BMI companies and has been covered by leading news outlets such as Forbes and CB Insights. The founder and CEO of BrainCo Bicheng Han has also been regarded as one of the top five innovators in the BMI field alongside Elon Musk.

Contact: [email protected] Related Images image1.jpg

A Journalist Experiencing a Brain-Controlled Industrial Robot image2.jpg

Double Amputee Athlete Mincheng Ni Wears BrainRobotics' Smart Prosthetic Hand and Interacts with Sophia, the World's First Robot Citizen from Saudi Arabia image3.jpg

BrainCo's BMI Demos Attracting Large Crowds at CES 2018 image4.jpg

BrainRobotics' Smart Prosthetic Hand Drawing Attention at CES 2018 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mind-controlled-industrial-robot-brainco-debuts-cutting-edge-bmi-technologies-at-ces-2018-300581256.html SOURCE BrainCo

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[January 11, 2018] NANOBIOTIX partners with the Providence Cancer Institute to run immunotherapeutic preclinical research in pancreatic cancers

NANOBIOTIX PARTNERS WITH THE PROVIDENCE CANCER INSTITUTE TO RUN IMMUNOTHERAPEUTIC PRECLINICAL RESEARCH IN PANCREATIC CANCERS Paris, France and Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, January 11, 2018 - NANOBIOTIX (Euronext: NANO - ISIN: FR0011341205), a late clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to the treatment of cancer, today announced it will begin a pre-clinical collaboration with Providence Cancer Institute to study Nanobiotix's lead product, NBTXR3, a first-in-class nanoparticle designed for direct injection into cancerous tumors and activation by radiotherapy. The collaboration with Providence Cancer Institute, located at the Robert W. Franz Cancer Center in Portland, Ore., one of the world's leading oncological research centers, will provide essential preclinical data on the ability of NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy to induce an antitumoral immune response. This is an in-depth study into the early immunologic mechanisms, triggered by nanoparticles activated by radiotherapy compared to radiotherapy alone, and their impact on tumor control, survival and metastasis spreading. Marka R. Crittenden, M.D., Ph.D., radiation oncologist and director of Translational Radiation Research at the Robert W. Franz Cancer Center will lead the program. "Promising pre-clinical data suggests that nanoparticles combined with radiotherapy enhance tumor-specific immune responses and lead to an abscopal response, priming a patient's immune system to attack cancer cells outside of the radiotherapy target area," she said. "Furthermore, we are absolutely delighted to partner with Nanobiotix to advance our research on this phenomenon and the role NBTXR3 can play in immuno-oncology." The collaboration between Providence and Nanobiotix will take place over the course of one year, and will evaluate the use of NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy in pancreatic cancer models (in vitro and in vivo). Pancreatic cancer is a disease with a substantial unmet medical need, poor response to standard of care and is the third leading cause of cancer mortality in both men and women in the United State. Pancreatic cancers have a non-immunogenic tumor microenvironnement, known as "cold tumors", and often have a poor response rate to immunotherapies. The results of this joint program will enable the potential to explore future use of NBTXR3 in immuno-oncology as well as its potential to control metastatic disease. In parallel, the Company has received the approval of its Investigational New Drug (IND) and will launch its first clinical trial combining NBTXR3 with immune checkpoint inhibitors in the U.S. with a multi-arm trial targeting a sub-population of advanced lung cancer patients and head and neck cancer patients. Nanobiotix's immuno-oncology combination program opens the door to new developments, potential new indications and important value creation opportunities. ***



About Providence Cancer Institute Providence Cancer Institute, a part of Providence Health & Services, offers the latest in cancer services, including diagnostic, treatment, prevention, education, support and internationally-renowned research. Located within the Robert W. Franz Cancer Center in Portland, Ore., Providence Cancer Institute is home to the Earle A. Chiles Reseach Institute, a world-class research facility for cancer immunotherapy, a specialized field of study focused on triggering the immune system to fight cancer. Visit www.providenceoregon.org/cancer to learn more.



About NBTXR3 NBTXR3 is an injectable aqueous suspension of hafnium oxide nanoparticles designed as an innovative therapeutic agent for the treatment of solid tumors, currently in clinical development by Nanobiotix.

Once injected intratumorally, NBTXR3 can deposit high energy within tumors only when activated by an ionizing radiation source, notably radiotherapy. Upon activation, the high energy radiation is physically designed to kill the tumor cells by triggering DNA damage and cell destruction and improve clinical outcomes. Promising results indicate that NBTXR3 activity could be applicable across solid tumors triggering immunogenic cell death, leading to an immune response, reinforcing a local and potentially systemic effect, and contributing to transform "cold" tumors into "hot" tumors. NBTXR3's major characteristics are represented by a high degree of biocompatibility, one single administration before and during the whole therapy and the ability to fit into current standards of radiotherapy care. NBTXR3 entered clinical development in 2011 in a Phase I/II with patients suffering from advanced soft tissue sarcoma of the extremities and is currently in the final stages of its subsequent phase II/III. In parallel, it is currently being tested in numerous Phase I/II clinical trials with patients suffering from locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity or oropharynx (head and neck), liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastasis), locally advanced or unresectable rectal cancer in combination with chemotherapy, head and neck cancer in combination with concurrent chemotherapy, and prostate adenocarcinoma. About NANOBIOTIX: www.nanobiotix.com Nanobiotix (Euronext: NANO / ISIN: FR0011341205) is a late clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering novel approaches for the treatment of cancer. The Company's first-in-class, proprietary technology, NanoXray, enhances radiotherapy energy with a view to providing a new, more efficient treatment for cancer patients. NanoXray products are compatible with current radiotherapy treatments and are meant to treat potentially a wide variety of solid tumors including soft tissue sarcoma, head and neck cancers, liver cancers, prostate cancer, breast cancer, glioblastoma, etc., via multiple routes of administration. NBTXR3 is being evaluated in: soft tissue sarcoma (STS), head and neck cancers, prostate cancer, and liver cancers (primary and metastases). Additionally, head and neck cancer and rectal cancer trials led by Nanobiotix's Taiwanese partner, PharmaEngine, are underway in the Asia Pacific region. The Company started a new preclinical research program in Immuno-oncology with its lead product NBTXR3, which could have the potential to bring a new dimension to cancer immunotherapies. Nanobiotix is listed on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris (ISIN: FR0011341205, Euronext ticker: NANO, Bloomberg: NANO: FP). The Company's Headquarters is based in Paris, France, with a U.S. affiliate in Cambridge, MA. Contact Nanobiotix



Sarah Gaubert

Director, Communications & Public Affairs

+33 (0)1 40 26 07 55

[email protected] /

[email protected]







Noel Kurdi

Director, Investor Relations

+1 (646) 241-4400

[email protected] / [email protected] Media relations Nanobiotix

France - Springbok Consultants

Marina Rosoff

+33 (0)6 71 58 00 34

[email protected]



United States - RooneyPartners

Marion Janic

+1 (212) 223-4017

[email protected] Providence Cancer Institute

Jean Powell Marks

+1 (503) 215-6433

[email protected] Disclaimer This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Nanobiotix and its business. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that Nanobiotix considers to be reasonable. However, there can be no assurance that the estimates contained in such forward-looking statements will be verified, which estimates are subject to numerous risks including the risks set forth in the reference document of Nanobiotix filed with the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorite des Marches Financiers) under number D.17-0470 on April 28, 2017 (a copy of which is available on www.nanobiotix.com) and to the development of economic conditions, financial markets and the markets in which Nanobiotix operates. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to risks not yet known to Nanobiotix or not currently considered material by Nanobiotix. The occurrence of all or part of such risks could cause actual results, financial conditions, performance or achievements of Nanobiotix to be materially different from such forward-looking statements. This press release and the information that it contains do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe for, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for, Nanobiotix shares in any country. At the moment NBTXR3 does not bear a CE mark and is not permitted to be placed on the market or put into service until NBTXR3 has obtained a CE mark.

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[January 11, 2018] Free Tickets Available by February 14 for Interop & Cloud Connect China 2018

SHANGHAI, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As an influential leading event in IT industry, Interop & Cloud Connect China, organized by UBM China, will be held twice in different cities in 2018, which will meet the pluralistic needs of different end-users. Interop & Cloud Connect China 2018 will take place respectively on May 9-11 in Shanghai Int'l Convention Center and on September 27-29 in Zhengzhou Int'l Convention and Exhibition Center. Now, tickets for the Shanghai event are available for free before February 14, 2018. People who sign up for the event can save up to $500. Cloud Computing is considered as the most subversive innovations of information and science technology in 21st century, which has propelled the development of related technologies over the past ten years such as big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, etc. After the application in social networking, E-commerce, games, video and other sectors, the cloud computing technology has penetrated into other popular industries such as government administration, finance, manufacture and healthcare. The establishment of various cloud platforms for enterprises and industries has accelerated the revolution of industry informatization. In the meantime, the government attaches great importance and the development of cloud computing industry. It is worth mentioning that there will be more diversified deliberated industrial forums benefiting nd-users from finance, education and healthcare sector, which will also boost the cloud computing applications.



The participants will not only have opportunities to see the latest technologies and products from nearly 60 exhibitors displayed at the exhibition area, but also have chance to learn the cutting-edge cloud computing trends and application cases brought by top-tier international speakers at simultaneous forums such as "Global Tech Innovation Summit", "Enterprise CIO Forum", "Start-up Showcase", "AI Leadership Summit", "Data Management & Analytics", "DevOps", "Security & Compliance", "Women Leadership", "Financial Technology: Key Trends & Applications", "Smart Education", "Smart Healthcare", etc. On the other hand, attendees will be provided with an on-site matchmaking service that is more helpful for business communication. Attendees are allowed to log in the online matchmaking system and send out appointments to whoever they want to meet at certain time before the show begins.

Register now and get free tickets for Shanghai event of Interop & Cloud Connect China 2018:

http://www.ubmconlinereg.com/CLOUD18/en/?source=pressprnewswire0111 Or sign up for the exhibition area:

http://www.ubmconlinereg.com/CLOUD18/exhibitionen/?source=pressprnewswire0111 Moreover, the Advisory Board of Interop & Cloud Connect China 2018 is accepting proposals for the Shanghai event before January 19. Anyone who is interested in sharing ideas about cloud computing, big data and other technologies with thousands of CIO, CTO, IT developers and technicians is welcomed to submit speech proposals. The Advisory Board will pick out the most appropriate topics for attendees. Please click the following link to know more about "Call for Submission":

http://www.cloudconnectevent.cn/en-us/Call-for-Submission Last but not least, IT providers are lucky to showcase technologies or products at Interop & Cloud Connect China 2018 with the most preferential prices before February 14. So contact the organizer now and get the customized sponsorship package. Contact the organizer:

http://www.cloudconnectevent.cn/en-us/2017-sponsorship-manual Catch up with the updates of Interop & Cloud Connect China 2018:

http://www.cloudconnectevent.cn/en-us/index Media contact: Daisy Xu, +86-21-6157-7245 Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180111/2029483-1-a

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180111/2029483-1-b SOURCE UBM China

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[January 11, 2018] AnyMind Group enters human resource industry with TalentMind

SINGAPORE, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AnyMind Group, an organization that aims to transform industries through artificial intelligence, has announced today the launch of TalentMind, a new business unit with a proprietary AI-driven recruiting software that streamlines and enhances the recruitment and hiring process. Human resource professionals can tap on natural language processing (NLP), profile analysis and machine learning to screen, analyze and match prospects to businesses. The integrated platform will be launched across four phases: ? Phase 1: TalentMind Screening - Leverage social media and resume data to determine a prospect's cultural fit and personality through candidate profiles ? Phase 2: TalentMind Analytics - Analyze the abilities and personalities of top performers across an organization and develop custom hiring models that evolve in real-time ? Phase 3: TalentMind Sourcing - Engage with candidates directly on the platform ? Phase 4: TalentMind Matching - Candidate-to-company matching based on organizational hiring and talent models After a prospect registers for a profile on the TalentMind platform, recruiters and human resource professionals are able to utilize data from the prospect's social media platforms and resum to better understand the person's behavioral and personality traits, role competency and skills.



Leveraging on learning algorithms, a human resource professional can develop customized hiring models that are optimized in real-time, based on candidate pick up and acceptance rate, existing company culture and core competencies of high-performing staff within the organization. The AI engine will be further enhanced under the supervision of newly appointed advisor to AnyMind Group, Masayasu Morita, CEO, Founder and President of Hitomedia, inc. These hiring models will also be used to match candidates to organizations, allowing companies to find the candidate who best fits with hiring requirements and organizational culture.

Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder of AnyMind Group said: "We scaled our headcount very quickly the past 20 months and found areas in the hiring process that could have been optimized. Our human resource team has now integrated TalentMind into their workflow and have used the platform to bring in an additional team for this expanded vertical." The TalentMind Platform is powered by a similar AI-driven matching engine that is being used by sister company, CastingAsia, for influencer marketing. "We are already utilising our AI engines to drive the matching of social media influencers to brands and are now scaling it into the human resource industry. Ultimately, we want to enable professionals to make smarter decisions with a suite of AI-driven solutions across business lines," said Sogo. Since starting operations in April 2016 as AdAsia Holdings, the now 21-month-old AnyMind Group has expanded into 10 offices in nine countries with over 250 staff, and is aiming to expand into 15 offices across 14 countries with a headcount of 400 by the end of 2018. About AnyMind Group AnyMind Group was formed in January 2018 and is the parent company of AdAsia Holdings, TalentMind and CastingAsia. Along with a proprietary AI-driven matching engine, AnyMind Group aims to provide industries, businesses and professionals with a suite of solutions to enable greater efficiency and scale. Headquartered in Singapore, AnyMind Group has 10 offices in 9 countries with over 250 staff. About TalentMind TalentMind is a human resource technology company that leverages on artificial intelligence to enable recruiters and human resource professionals to streamline the recruitment process. The TalentMind software is powered by machine learning to discover qualified candidates, conduct higher quality interviews and make data-driven hiring decisions - providing businesses with the best fit candidates for a role and business culture. Media Contact: Chris Lu

Senior Regional Manager, Communications

[email protected]

+65 6386 7368 Winston Zhang

Communications Executive

[email protected]

+65 6386 7368 Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180111/2030378-2LOGO SOURCE AnyMind Group

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[January 11, 2018] Voice assistants set to revolutionize commerce and become a dominant mode of consumer interaction in the next three years

NEW YORK and PARIS, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Capgemini's Digital Transformation Institute has today released a new report titled, "Conversational Commerce: Why Consumers Are Embracing Voice Assistants in Their Lives," which highlights how consumers are using voice assistants and the opportunities this creates for businesses to connect with their customers. The report, which surveyed more than 5,000 consumers in the U.S., UK, France and Germany, found that voice assistants will become a dominant mode of consumer interaction over the next three years, with shoppers who use the technology willing to spend 500 percent more than they currently do via this mode of interaction. Voice assistants will revolutionize ecommerce

Consumers are developing a strong preference for interacting with companies via voice assistants. The research found that today around a quarter (24 percent) of respondents would rather use a voice assistant than a website. However, in the next three years, this figure will rise to 40 percent. Close to a third  31 percent - said they will prefer a voice assistant interaction to visiting a shop or a bank branch, compared to 20 percent today. Voice assistant users are currently spending three percent of their total consumer expenditure via voice assistants, but this is expected to increase to 18 percent in the next three years, reducing share of physical stores (45 percent) and websites (37 percent). While streaming music and seeking information remain the most popular usages for voice assistants today, over a third of respondents (35 percent) have also used them to buy products such as groceries, homecare and clothes. Currently, 28 percent of users have already used a voice assistant to make a payment or send money, but 44 percent of users have expressed interest in using voice assistants for banking transactions as more smart speakers enable functions such as credit card payments via voice. Consumer are highly satisfied by the voice assistant experience





Consumers who use voice assistants are very positive about their experience, with 71 percent being satisfied with their voice assistant. In particular, 52 percent of consumers cite convenience, the ability to do things hands-free (48 percent), and automation of routine shopping tasks (41 percent) as the biggest reasons why they prefer using voice assistants over mobile apps and websites. The ability for the voice assistant to understand their human user is also critical; 81 percent of users want the voice assistant to understand their diction and accent. The report also revealed that voice assistants are most popular among 33-45 year olds, while close to one in five (17 percent) have an annual pre-tax household income of more than $100K.

Voice assistants will yield concrete benefits for retailers and brands

Brands who provide good voice assistant experiences will generate more business and positive word-of-mouth communication. The report found that 37 percent of voice assistant users would share a positive experience with friends and family, and even 28 percent of current non-users would want to transact more frequently with a brand following a positive experience. This equates to serious potential financial gain, as consumers are willing to spend five percent more with a brand following a good experience with a voice assistant. Mark Taylor, Chief Experience Officer, Digital Customer Experience practice, at Capgemini said, "Voice assistants will completely revolutionize how brands and consumers interact with each other. What makes voice assistants so exciting is that they are woven into the fabric of our lives, offering a simplicity and richness of interaction that consumers have never experienced before. Brands that are able to capitalize on the huge consumer appetite around voice assistants will not only build closer relationships with their customers, but create significant growth opportunities for themselves." Research Methodology

Capgemini's Digital Transformation Institute surveyed over 5,000 consumers in the U.S., the UK, France and Germany. The quantitative research was complemented with focus group discussions with consumers from each country, conducted virtually. The survey - as well as the focus group discussions - had a healthy mix of demographics and user/non-user persona. A copy of the report can be downloaded here. About Capgemini

A global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, Capgemini is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients' opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organizations to realize their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. Capgemini is driven by the conviction that the business value of technology comes from and through people. It is a multicultural company of 200,000 team members in over 40 countries. The Group reported 2016 global revenues of EUR 12.5 billion. Visit us at www.capgemini.com. People matter, results count. About the Digital Transformation Institute

The Digital Transformation Institute is Capgemini's in-house think-tank on all things digital. The Institute publishes research on the impact of digital technologies on large traditional businesses. The team draws on the worldwide network of Capgemini experts and works closely with academic and technology partners. The Institute has dedicated research centers in India, the United Kingdom and the United States. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/voice-assistants-set-to-revolutionize-commerce-and-become-a-dominant-mode-of-consumer-interaction-in-the-next-three-years-300581152.html SOURCE Capgemini

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[January 11, 2018] SIME Dx Completes EU Horizon 2020 Project Promising Improved Care for Millions of Premature Babies

Project Delivers Strong Clinical Data, IP and Prototype of Rapid Neonatal Lung Maturity Test



LONDON, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SIME Dx, a digital molecular medicine company developing point-of-care diagnostics, has announced the completion of a 2 year EU Horizon 2020 project. The project has significantly accelerated company progress, culminating in the publication of clinical data validating a rapid Lung Maturity Test (LMT), an engineering prototype and new IP. The 2.86 million funding enabled SIME Dx to overcome technical challenges, and prepared the company for further clinical trials, regulatory approval, commercialisation and expansion into China. LMT rapidly diagnoses neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS), the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in premature babies. Although early surfactant treatment can help prevent the onset and impact of RDS, prophylactic treatment has been shown to be harmful and only necessary in half of all pre-term babies. LMT could allow screening of all pre-term babies for RDS risk; addressing an annual global market of over $1 billion, and significantly improving clinical outcomes for millions of babies worldwide. "SIME Dx joined the first cohort of the Phase II SME Instrument, a scheme which aims to support radical new products that have the potential for rapid growth at global levels," explained Bernd Reichert, Head of Unit 'SMEs in Horizon 2020' at European Agency for SMEs. "The LMT project was an opportunity for us to support an innovative business that tackles a serious unmet medical need. The success of the project will hep improve neonatal respiratory care, save lives and reduce healthcare costs."



The British-Danish company converged photonics, machine learning and medical science to develop a reagent-free Digital Molecular Diagnostics (DMDx) platform. DMDx measures multiple biomarkers simultaneously from a single fluid sample in real time  a truly transformative approach to diagnostics. The first DMDx platform application is LMT, a screening test which is performed on small volumes of gastric fluid (aspirate) routinely suctioned at birth. Infra-red spectroscopic analysis of the gastric fluid with machine learning algorithms, determines which babies could benefit from early and preventative surfactant treatment minutes after birth.

"Over the last 2 years the support of the European Horizon 2020 programme has helped us to bring together leading European companies and universities with strong expertise in the fields of engineering, cloud-based machine learning and most importantly, neonatology. We have been working closely with neonatal key opinion leaders around the world to develop a test that will change the standard of care," stated Povl Verder, CEO of SIME Dx. "Last year, in collaboration with Holbaek University Hospital (Region Zealand, Denmark) and several neonatal intensive care units in Denmark, Sweden and the UK, we published strong clinical data demonstrating the efficacy of LMT. We are currently completing a further clinical trial which we expected to finish in the first half of 2018." Alongside the project's clinical achievements, SIME Dx developed a LMT prototype device in partnership with medical engineering specialists Integrated Technologies Limited, and collaborated with Microsoft as part of the Microsoft Accelerator Programme to build a cloud-based machine learning platform on Azure. The successful completion of the project has enabled SIME Dx to significantly advance LMT, and fast-tracked the company for investment and commercialisation. SIME Dx is now accelerating product development and planning further clinical trials in Europe and China. This project was funded by the EU Horizon2020 Phase II SME instrument, project number 666668. About SIME Dx

SIME Dx is a digital molecular medicine company developing novel point of care diagnostics. Our digital platform, DMDx, analyses a single fluid sample for multiple biomarkers simultaneously and in real-time. Delivering precise diagnostic results to clinicians in critical moments. Our technology converges photonics, machine learning and medical science to enable preventative medicine. Developed by world-renowned scientists, the first DMDx application is a Lung Maturity Test (LMT) for premature babies used to help neonatologists diagnose Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) minutes after birth. SIME Dx is a London (UK) and Holbaek (Denmark) based company part-funded through the EU Horizon2020 Phase II initiative (project number 666668) and a Microsoft Ventures alumnus. Further information can be found at www.simedx.com. Contact SIME Dx

Povl Verder

CEO

+44 20 7193 8041

[email protected] Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/627338/SIME_Dx_Logo.jpg

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[January 11, 2018] Purple's WiFi and Analytics Solution - McDonald's Is Lovin' It

MANCHESTER, England, January 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hamburger giant, McDonald's, has rolled out WiFi analytics across its sites in Belgium as part of a three-year contract with Purple, Cisco Meraki and Socialspot. McDonald's Belgium is using hyper-targeted marketing features within the Purple platform to deliver personalised communications, promotions and micro-surveys. Capturing and analysing data from multiple sources enables the brand to build customers' profiles and segment campaigns effectively, achieving goals such as: improved customer experience and engagement, and increased loyalty. Purple's cloud-based solution has been introduced across 80 restaurants over the last three-months, with almost 400,000 people accessing WiFi via Facebook or a 'one-click' feature. Users have been redirected to a multilingual survey page, to provide valuable, real-time feedback. Carlo Dei Cont, IT Infrastructure Lead for McDonald' Belgium, says: "We chose Purple's solution because it facilitates personalised customer interactions, the impact of which can be measured in real-time. We can optimize each communication to ensure customer experience continually improves. In addition, the API integration is seamless with our systems and onboarding experiences can be customized to complement our campaigns. The WiFi login process has also allowed us to point users to our new mobile application, stimulating a significant increase in downloads."



Another important feature, which ensures safe, secure and family-friendly WiFi, is Purple's content filtering system. This automatically blocks URLs on the IWF watchlist to safeguard young people from inappropriate content. Kristof Vanonckelen IT & Digital Director for McDonald's Belgium, says: "We pride ourselves on bringing families together in our restaurants, so Purple's content filtering is vital." Commenting on the deployment of Purple at McDonald's Belgium, Jonas Dekkers, Co-founder of Socialspot, said: "I look forward to helping McDonald's use Purple's fantastic platform to optimize customer experience, drive loyalty, and further transform their restaurants."

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple, said: "We'll be working with Socialspot to ensure that McDonald's Belgium maximises ROI from the WiFi network and analytics. Purple gives them an advantage over competitors, helping them to inform business decisions and communications to the mutual benefit of their brand and consumers." Purple, the intelligent spaces company, combines WiFi analytics, location and presence analytics and social WiFi to create valuable insights into consumer behaviour within venues. Connecting over 32 million users and 540 million devices in 125 countries, Purple's partners operate across the leisure, retail, hospitality, transport, smart city and healthcare sectors. https://purple.ai/ Lloyd Gofton - [email protected] - +44(0)7919-353-484

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[January 11, 2018] Premier Biomedical and HealthWarehouse Team Up to Fight Opioid Pain Medication Abuse

JACKSON CENTER, Pa., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier Biomedical, Inc. (OTC:BIEI) announced the signing of an agreement with HealthWarehouse.com, Inc. (OTC:HEWA) to market, sell and distribute Premiers topical pain relief products. HealthWarehouse.com is the nations largest on-line distributor of prescription and over-the-counter drugs and health supplements. This augments Premiers existing internet sales through their website, www.painreliefmeds.com, and other direct outlets announced in earlier press releases. The agreement covers not only Premiers existing five pain relief products, but also those planned for the future. The deal also includes the right of HealthWarehouse.com to advertise these products in their catalogs.

Premier Biomedicals existing topical pain relief products include a 96-hour topical skin patch, oil-based and water-based roll-ons, an oil-based spray and the newly introduced oil-based ointment. All of Premiers products are made from all-natural, non-GMO, solvent- and pesticide-free ingredients. Joe Peters, CEO of HealthWarehouse.com, Inc., stated, People suffering with pain desperately need an alternative to opioid treatment. HealthWarehouse acts as an advocate to help consumers make their health conditions more manageable by increasing the accessibility of prescription and OTC products through lower prices and online access. Premier Biomedicals complete line of pain relief products provides an affordable, high quality, pain relief alternative to our customer base. William A. Hartman, President & CEO of Premier Biomedical, Inc., stated, We are very excited that we have been able to secure HealthWarehouse as a partner to provide these opioid alternative pain relief products to a much wider customer base. Once peopletry our products, they will agree that they outperform every other competitive product in relieving pain and suffering, without the dangerous and addictive side-effects associated with opioids.



Hartman continued, This represents a significant increase in our business potential, and we look forward to an expansion of sales now, and in the future. For more information please contact:

William A. Hartman

President and CEO

Premier Biomedical, Inc.

Pain Relief Meds

(724) 633-7033

[email protected]

www.premierbiomedical.com/

About HealthWarehouse

HealthWarehouse.com, Inc. (OTC:HEWA) is a trusted VIPPS (Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites) accredited online pharmacy based in Florence, Kentucky. The Company is focused on the growing out-of-pocket prescription market, which has grown to over $80 billion. With a mission to provide affordable healthcare to every American by focusing on technology that is revolutionizing prescription delivery, HealthWarehouse.com has become the largest VIPPS accredited online pharmacy in the United States. HealthWarehouse.com is licensed in all 50 states and only sells drugs that are FDA approved and legal for sale in the United States. Visit HealthWarehouse.com online at http://www.HealthWarehouse.com. About Premier Biomedical, Inc.

Premier Biomedical, Inc. (OTC:BIEI) is a research-based publicly traded company that intends to discover and develop medical treatments for a wide range of diseases in humans. Premier has obtained, via exclusive license agreements, the technology behind three granted US Patents, multiple pending provisional patents, and a PCT Europe National Patent. Founded in 2010, Premier has partnered with the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). In 2016, the company began developing a line of all-natural pain relief products which they began selling in early 2017 to address the rising opioid addiction problem. The company's R&D efforts are centered in El Paso, TX, and their business offices are in Western Pennsylvania. The Company is a fully-reporting issuer whose common stock trades on the OTC marketplace maintained by OTC Markets Group, Inc. under the ticker symbol "BIEI."For more information please visit our website: http://www.premierbiomedical.com/. Safe Harbor Notice

Certain statements contained herein are forward-looking statements (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Premier Biomedical, Inc. cautions that statements, and assumptions made in this news release constitute forward-looking statements and makes no guarantee of future performance. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the time statements are made. These statements may address issues that involve significant risks, uncertainties, estimates made by management. Actual results could differ materially from current projections or implied results. Premier Biomedical, Inc. undertakes no obligation to revise these statements following the date of this news release. Source: Uptick Newswire

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[January 11, 2018] Golden Leaf Holdings Announcement of Jackson & Company as New Independent Auditor

TORONTO, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. (GLH or the Company) (CSE:GLH) (OTCQB:GLDFF), a leading cannabis oil solutions company built around recognized brands, today announced the appointment of Jackson and Company as its new independent auditor. The appointment will be effective for the 2017 financial year.

Jackson & Company Chartered Professional Accountants, is located in downtown Vancouver. It provides professional audit, accounting, and taxation services to small, large and mid-size private and public companies across BC and Canada-wide. The decision to change auditors was made following an extensive review involving a number of accounting firms, and was not the result of any disagreement with the Companys former auditor Grant Thornton LLP on any matter of accounting principle, financial statement disclosures or auditing scope or procedure. Jackson & Company is one of the few auditors that has extensive experience working with public cannabis companies and we look forward to their support maintaining independent oversight of the annual financial statements of Golden Leaf. The Company and the Board of Dirctors would like to extend their thanks to Grant Thorton LLP for their auditing services to date, commented William Simpson, CEO of Golden Leaf Holdings.



A notice of change of auditor and related documents will be filed by the Company on SEDAR in due course. To be added to the distribution list please email [email protected] with GLH in the subject line.

About Golden Leaf Holdings Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd., a Canadian company with operations in Portland, Oregon, is one of the largest cannabis oil and solution providers in North America, and a leading cannabis products company built around recognized brands. Golden Leaf Holdings cultivates, extracts and manufactures and distributes its products through its branded Chalice Farm retail dispensaries, as well as through third party dispensaries. Golden Leaf leverages a strong management team with cannabis and food industry experience to complement its expertise in extracting, refining and selling cannabis oil. Visit http://goldenleafholdings.com/ to learn more. Investor Relations:

Steve Silver / Phil Carlson

[email protected]

212-896-1220 / 212-896-1233 Media Relations:

Anne Donohoe / Anne Szustek

KCSA Strategic Communications

[email protected]/[email protected]

212-896-1265 / 212-896-1210 Company:

William Simpson

Chief Executive Officer

Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd.

503-477-7626

[email protected]

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[January 11, 2018] Apttus Announces Investment from IBM

SAN MATEO, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Apttus, the global leader in Quote-to-Cash and Contract Lifecycle Management solutions utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), today announced that IBM joined multiple investors in Apttus' Series E funding . Apttus plans to use this investment to further its plan to deliver AI-based business solutions to customers around the world within enterprise processes such as revenue generation and management of commercial relationships. "We are thrilled that IBM has joined our roster of Tier 1 investors and we look forward to taking the relationship between our two companies to the next level through a technology partnership," said Kirk Krappe, Chairman and CEO of Apttus. "We also look forward to delivering our AI-driven Quote-to-Cash and Contract Management solutions to IBM's globl customer base."



"IBM is dedicated to fueling innovation and advancing how AI is implemented across industries through strategic investments and collaborations," said George Ugras, managing director, IBM Ventures. "Through this investment in Apttus, we aim to encourage creativity and entrepreneurial spirit that will drive IBM AI and cloud technologies into new applications and enterprises." With Apttus' Max, the first applied AI for Quote-to-Cash applications, and the Apttus Intelligent Cloud, an advanced hybrid cloud that is revolutionizing Quote-to-Cash and Contract Lifecycle Management for enterprise customers, Apttus is utilizing state-of-the-art technologies in its portfolio, and will soon integrate IBM Cloud and Watson capabilities, as well as other IBM technologies and services.

For more information about IBM Ventures: https://www.ibm.com/midmarket/us/en/venturedevelopment/ About Apttus

Apttus is a Silicon Valley-based global provider of the Intelligent Middle Office platform allowing enterprises to automate and optimize their most critical revenue and commercial relationship management processes. Apttus is powered by the Apttus Intelligent Cloud, a hybrid-cloud platform utilizing the most advanced technologies from Salesforce, Microsoft and IBM. Analysts rank Apttus as the global gold standard for Quote-to-Cash (QTC) and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions. Apttus' innovations include Max, the company's Applied Artificial Intelligence that enables enterprises to achieve superior business outcomes. Apttus partners with a world-class ecosystem. Apttus customers include hundreds of the world's mid-sized organizations and the who's who of the Global 1000. Press Contact: Alex Cohen

[email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/apttus-announces-investment-from-ibm-300581188.html SOURCE Apttus

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[January 11, 2018] Nexthink Launches Nexthink Incident Management Connector

BOSTON, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nexthink, a leader in end-user experience management software for enterprises, today announced Nexthink Incident Management Connector, a connector to the Now Platform, that enables instant remediation of endpoint incidences, faster Meantime to Resolution (MTTR), greater endpoint visibility and improved IT governance.

As a ServiceNow partner, Nexthinks most recent integration now enables IT operations teams to better address the productivity needs of business consumers. Nexthink Incident Management Connector enables IT staff to pre-empt major incidences, helping to reduce the reporting of such incidences by up to 35 percent; predict the probable causes and resolution times by 60 percent; and proactively identify end users that have been or could be impacted by the problems. With the new integration, first-level support staff are empowered to resolve issues without the need for costly and complex ticket escalations. Even in the most advanced organizations, end users lose more than 20 minutes of time each day because of computer issues, resulting in lost productivity for the business and lost credibility for IT, said Samuele Gantner, VP Products, Nexthink. Our new connector for ServiceNow addresses these challenges, providing not only complete visibility into endpoint devices, but also the ability to remediate issues with one click. Typically, when an incident is created within ServiceNow, it is associated with an end user and his or her endpoint device. Nexthinks connector provides real-time performance, security metrics and configuration status details, providing complete visibility and the ability to remdiate the issue in real time.



In addition to the availability of Nexthink Incident Management Connector, Nexthink offers a CMDB connector for ServiceNow. This integration automates change requests and incident management to proactively improve the user experience with Configuration Management Database (CMDB) updates. Our help desk customers are challenged with the need to be more process driven and efficient, while still putting the customer first and improving his/her experience, so its critical that they have quick and easy access to relevant information regarding impacted devices and the means to resolve them, said Gantner. With the integration provided by Nexthink Incident Management Connector, our customers will be able to not only automate the discovery of IT assets and relationships, but to also reduce call center tickets by taking instant remedial action in real time, added Gantner.

Nexthink Incident Management Connector offers the following key features: Automatic Discovery of Device Information: Enables support agents and operations teams to immediately identify all endpoint devices used by the call center caller. Information, such as machine names, is easily accessible to speed up incident processing.

Enables support agents and operations teams to immediately identify all endpoint devices used by the call center caller. Information, such as machine names, is easily accessible to speed up incident processing. Real-Time Device Scoring Dashboard: Enables IT to instantly pinpoint critical problems. The dashboards traffic light graphics provide instant visuals to help IT identify what is happening on affected endpoints and prioritize activities.

Enables IT to instantly pinpoint critical problems. The dashboards traffic light graphics provide instant visuals to help IT identify what is happening on affected endpoints and prioritize activities. Rapid Device Integration: Provides IT with all the information they need about a particular endpoint device for fast investigations in real time, directly from the Device Properties tab on the console. The information is customizable so that IT can determine what device properties it needs in order to take fast action.

Provides IT with all the information they need about a particular endpoint device for fast investigations in real time, directly from the Device Properties tab on the console. The information is customizable so that IT can determine what device properties it needs in order to take fast action. One-Click Remediation: After identifying specific problems related to end-user devices from a call center Level-One checklist, the solution enables support staff to automatically remediate directly from the console instantly. Nexthink Incident Management Connector is available on the ServiceNow Store. About Nexthink

Nexthink provides digital experience management for the enterprise. Leading global companies know that satisfied employees generate more satisfied customers. With Nexthink, organizations can deliver consumer-grade experiences to their employees to increase satisfaction and productivity. Nexthink combines data collection, monitoring, analysis, remediation, intelligence and communication, to engage with employees and gather the right context for continuous optimization. Nexthink is privately held with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and U.S. headquarters in Boston, Mass. Learn more at nexthink.com. Media contacts: Linda Pendergast-Savage Pendergast Consulting [email protected] 508-224-7905

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[January 11, 2018] Sentient Energy is Recognized with Frost & Sullivan's 2017 North American New Product Innovation Award

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /CNW/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the distribution grid monitoring industry, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Sentient Energy with the 2017 North American New Product Innovation Award for its Grid Analytics System. It offers high resolution sensing, monitoring, analytics, real-time alerts, and utility-favored communication solutions with highly scalable options for utilities. "Sentient Energy's Grid Analytics System orchestrates the unified functioning of a group of intelligent monitoring solutions, and Sentient Energy's Ample Analytics leverage each solution's unique advantages," said Guhan Sriram R V, Research Analyst. The system is comprised of the MM3 Intelligent Sensor, the ZM1 Zero Amperage Grid Monitor, and the Ample Analytics Platform. These will soon be joined by the UM3+ Monitor for underground electric distribution, which is expected to be announced in Q1 2018. MM3 Intelligent Sensors combine high resolution current and e-field waveform capture, load logging, load current and fault magnitude measurement, as well as momentary and disturbance tracking. The GPS module provides precise location information and time stamps, while integrated communications modules for mesh and cellular networks connect the devices to the utility's operations center.

ZM1 Zero Amperage Grid Monitor makes MM3-like capabilities available at grid locations where no or low amperage is available to power monitoring devices, including laterals, and at the end of overhead feeder lines.

The Ample Analytics Platform collects and analyzes high-resolution, high-quality data related to disturbances and load in the lines as well as fault details. The results are made available to reliability, planning, and asset management engineers either via the Ample Analytics Suite's intuitive role-centric user interfaces or the end user's SCADA/DMS system. This enables more accurate decision-making. The company's sensor solutions offer this high-resolution waveform and data capture fom anywhere on the distribution grid. This includes both the overhead and underground distribution grid, which is a key differentiating feature of this system. The Grid Analytics System can also provide grid operators with real-time information related to two-way power flow and its direction that can help them more effectively manage the integration of distributed energy generation, such as solar photovoltaics



Sentient Energy customers can deploy individual components of the Grid Analytics System as stand-alone solutions or they can deploy them all together as a complete, fully integrated platform. This flexibility allows end users to match the solution to their needs. In addition, the solution scales to large numbers of sensors, exceeding 60,000 connected devices. All of the system's components can communicate through both cellular or AMI/DA mesh networks. To further improve its product's compatibility with utility communication networks, Sentient Energy partners with leading communication and network solution providers. "Sentient Energy has designed future-ready grid monitoring and analytics solutions that minimize the frequency and duration of outages, identify locations that require the attention of utilities before problems occur, enable proactive corrective measures, and increase grid reliability," said Sriram. "The Sentient Energy Grid Analytics System will become especially valuable as more and more distributed energy resources are added to the grid."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed an innovative element in a product by leveraging leading-edge technologies. The award recognizes the value-added features/benefits of the product and the increased return on investment (ROI) it gives customers, which in turn raises customer acquisition and overall market penetration potential. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry. About Sentient Energy Sentient Energy makes power delivery safe, reliable, and solar ready. The company provides the industry's only Grid Analytics System that covers the entire distribution network with quickly deployed intelligent sensors and analytics that identify and analyze potential faults and other grid events. Sentient Energy leads the market with the largest mesh network line sensor deployments in North America, and partnerships with leading utility network providers including Silver Spring Networks, Landis + Gyr, and AT&T. For more information, visit www.sentient-energy.com. About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion. Contact:

Samantha Park

P: 210.348.1001

F: 210.348.1003

E: [email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sentient-energy-is-recognized-with-frost--sullivans-2017-north-american-new-product-innovation-award-300581436.html SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

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[January 11, 2018] Envestnet | Yodlee Deploys WANdisco Fusion to Enable a Live Upgrade of Major Cloudera Releases

SAN RAMON, California, Jan. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WANdisco (LSE: WAND), the live data company, announced today that Envestnet | Yodlee, a leading data aggregation and data analytics platform powering dynamic, cloud-based innovation for digital financial services, used live data platform, WANdisco Fusion, to perform a live upgrade of major releases from Cloudera: CDH 4.4 to CDH 5.7. Envestnet | Yodlee evaluated several leading market solutions for an external upgrade service and found WANdisco Fusion was the only solution that would enable an upgrade with no downtime, no business disruption and guaranteed data consistency. WANdisco ensured their existing CDH 4.4 environment stayed fully operational during the upgrade to CDH 5.7 enabling the validation of all existing customizations and thorough testing prior to going live. Jeff Schulte, Vice President of Oprations at Envestnet | Yodlee said:



"We deal with over 80 million financial transactions a day with over 20 million active users. Our customers expect their data to be accurate and always available. WANdisco Fusion was the only solution that made this possible when we upgraded to a new version of our Cloudera production system. WANdisco Fusion works flawlessly on Cloudera. It was a very stress-free process." David Richards, CEO and Co-Founder of WANdisco said:

"Our work with Envestnet |Yodlee demonstrates that with our patented technology our customers can upgrade and migrate systems seamlessly while maintaining strict service level agreements across operations. This reinforces our belief that our live data platform is the only solution that can enable organizations to move large volumes of critical data without any data inconsistencies, downtime or service disruption  something many thought was impossible." About WANdisco WANdisco is shaping the future of data infrastructure with its groundbreaking Live Data platform, enabling companies to put all their data to work for the business  all the time, at any scale. WANdisco makes data always available, always accurate, and always protected, delivering hyperscale economics to support exponential data growth with the same IT budget. With significant OEM relationships with IBM and Dell EMC and go-to-market partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle and other industry titans  as well as hundreds of customers among the Global 2000  WANdisco is igniting a Live Data movement worldwide. Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edZxMcr1XYs

Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/626762/WANdisco_Logo.jpg

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[January 11, 2018] Sgsco strengthens global position in package design and pre-media industry with acquisition of Diadeis

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Graphics Inc. (together with its global affiliates, "sgsco") announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire the Diadeis Group ("Diadeis"), a leading global package design and pre-media company. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Sgsco and Diadeis, as established leaders in end-to-end design-to-print services, will together become a world leader in package design, digital art file and image carrier services. Their complementary combined geographic footprint and talent base represents nearly 80 offices and more than 4,500 employees across Europe, North America, South and Central America, Africa and Asia. "By integrating our operational breadth and depth, and increasing our global scale we can provide unparalleled quality and service to our valued customers," said Aidan Tracey, CEO of sgsco. "We share a vision that the digital art files that were historically used only for physical packaging are now also central to winning in an omnichannel retail environment. Ensuring that key brand visual assets are synchronized across the physical and digital shelf is critical to where the industry is headed, and we intend to lead the way." With over 70 years of pre-media experience, sgsco has made significant recent investments in global innovation, image carriers, pre-media, 3D CGI, design, and e-commerce. Diadeis' additional footprint and apacity presents an opportunity to expand the company's overall pre-media and digital services to better meet global demand.



"This is a true win-win-win for everyone involved  our clients, employees, and company," said Jean-Charles Morisseau, Chairman of Diadeis. "There is a mutual respect for what each organization has accomplished over the years and I am confident this will ensure many more years of future success." Diadeis' management team will all be joining sgsco, and Jean-Charles Morisseau and Guillaume Postel, CEO of Diadeis, will both assume executive roles at sgsco to assure the successful integration of the two firms, while also helping to drive results for clients.

About sgsco

Sgsco is a global digital enterprise built to help brands win at the Moment of Sale. With more than 70 years of expertise in end-to-end design-to-print graphics services, sgsco is a world leader in package design, digital art file creation, and image carrier production. As a global collective of companies and talent, sgsco provides tailored, innovative packaging solutions, production, printing and leading-edge technology for many of the world's top consumer packaged goods, pharma and retail brands. With 3,900 professionals worldwide, sgsco is well positioned to help clients navigate the increasingly fragmented sales and marketing environments for their brands. To learn more, visit www.sgsco.com. About Diadeis

Diadeis is a global design and production agency specializing in expanding and evolving a brand's identity. As one of the world's leading production agencies, Diadeis offers a full suite of services, ranging from creative services, packaging artwork and prepress, print management, POS / POP, creative retouching, e-commerce as well as digital workflow solutions. Diadeis has many global partnerships with iconic global brands. Diadeis' global footprint helps them manage brand equity across all regions and cultures. Diadeis currently has offices located in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East and provides services to clients all over the world. Diadeis' culture is driven by innovation, and continues to drive innovative thinking in the packaging design industry, as well as its clients. For more information please visit www.diadeis.com Media Contact:

BlueSky Communications

Julie McCarthy, [email protected], 416-788-8515

Federica Maraboli [email protected], 647-228-3844

Byrne PR

Patrick Barry, [email protected], 314-540-3865 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sgsco-strengthens-global-position-in-package-design-and-pre-media-industry-with-acquisition-of-diadeis-300581587.html SOURCE sgsco

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[January 11, 2018] Entrepreneurs and Technology Companies to Benefit from Enhanced Acceleration Programs

Accelerate Okanagan to expand programs targeting clean technology, indigenous entrepreneurs and communities in rural British Columbia KELOWNA, BC, Jan. 11, 2018 /CNW/ - Clean technology companies, Indigenous entrepreneurs and communities in rural British Columbia will get help turning business ideas into reality thanks to an investment by the Government of Canada. Stephen Fuhr, Member of Parliament for Kelowna-Lake Country, announced $473,000 in funding to support Accelerate Okanagan to scale up their programming while expanding their services to target new communities. Accelerate Okanagan's mission is to give new and growing technology-driven businesses the mentorships and connections they need to thrive through programs like Startup Basics and RevUp. With this funding, Accelerate Okanagan will be able to expand these two programs while adding a focus on clean technology and Indigenous entrepreneurs. The funding will also help Accelerate Okanagan extending these programs into Kamloops, Nanaimo, and Prince George. The funding will also support an increased emphasis on clean technology at Metabridge. 2018  an annual retreat that connects Canadian technology companies with peers in Silicon Valley. By attracting clean technology entrepreneurs to this event, more local companies will benefit from exposure to global entrepreneurs and venture capital. In 2015, the Okanagan technology industry contributed $1.3 billion to the overall Okanagan economy. By continuing to support and grow the technology sector in Kelowna and other communities, this funding will assist Accelerate Okanagan to further the Government of Canada's priorities of supporting Indigenous economic growth, clean technology entrepreneurs and innovation.



Quick Facts Startup Basics was developed for early stage entrepreneurs and career-changes and provides participants with the tools and resources to accelerate their idea to the next stage.

was developed for early stage entrepreneurs and career-changes and provides participants with the tools and resources to accelerate their idea to the next stage. RevUP is a six month program designed to help technology companies with scaling and rapid growth issues. Quotes



"Innovation and technology have the potential to drive our economy and create well-paying jobs for all Canadians. By expanding their services across British Columbia, Accelerate Okanagan is helping more people  especially those who live in rural and Indigenous communities  to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into economic success stories." - Stephen Fuhr, Member of Parliament for Kelowna-Lake Country on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. "I strongly believe that mentorship programs are key to the successful growth of any company and critical in creating a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem. Through this initiative, our mentorship programs will now have greater reach and impact and this will ensure we continue to build a strong future for Canada's economy." - Raghwa Gopal, CEO, Accelerate Okanagan Additional Links $2.1M boosts Okanagan's high-tech sector

boosts Okanagan's high-tech sector Okanagan Technology Sector to Grow Thanks to Government of Canada Support

Accelerate Okanagan Website Stay Connected Follow us on Twitter: @ISED_CA, @WD_Canada

WD Homepage

WD Toll-Free Number: 1-888-338-WEST (9378)

TTY (telecommunications device for the hearing impaired): 1-877-303-3388 IF THERE IS A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN ANY PRINTED VERSION AND THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, THE ELECTRONIC VERSION WILL PREVAIL SOURCE Western Economic Diversification Canada

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[January 11, 2018] Fellow, Inc. To Showcase The Integration Of Inventory Management Solutions With Microsoft Azure At NRF

BURLINGAME, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fellow, Inc., a leader in inventory optimization and shelf intelligence, today announced it will work with Microsoft at NRF to demonstrate its solutions to digitize the retail industry. Fellow's software solutions, powered by Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI, provide retailers with enhanced insight into their offline stores and full integration into the retailer's core IT systems. Fellow utilizes fully autonomous robots for scanning shelves utilizing computer vision. Fellow's artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms work with current IT infrastructure systems to solve the challenges retailers face with their inventory management, tackle price changes and auditing, as well as ensure good planogram ompliance. The Fellow solution is very effective at digitizing offline retail stores and has already shown excellent ROI within the first months of integration. Fellow's solutions have already been deployed at multiple locations with top retail chains, including Lowe's Home Improvement and BevMo.



"We're excited to be working with Microsoft core products over the last few years, and we are excited to keep working closely with our customers to keep solving the inventory challenges they face every day," said Marco Mascorro, CEO and Co-Founder of Fellow, Inc. Shish Shridhar, Microsoft's Director of Data Insights, Retail Industry said, "We're pleased to see Fellow benefit from the productivity and intelligence of Microsoft Azure. Through its integration with Azure and Microsoft Power BI, Fellow's retail solutions benefit our mutual customers with enhanced operational insight and efficiency."

About Fellow, Inc.:

Fellow, Inc. (fellowrobots.com) is a privately held Silicon Valley company, based in Burlingame, CA, focused on producing advanced inventory management solutions. Fellow works closely with its corporate partners and customers to bring solutions that empower the retail workforce. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fellow-inc-to-showcase-the-integration-of-inventory-management-solutions-with-microsoft-azure-at-nrf-300581608.html SOURCE Fellow, Inc.

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[January 11, 2018] Transamerica partners with Tata Consultancy Services to transform its insurance and annuities administration

BALTIMORE, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Transamerica today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to transform the administration of Transamerica's insurance and annuity business lines in the U.S. The partnership enables Transamerica to accelerate the enhancement of its digital capabilities and the modernization of its platforms to service its customers in all lines of business. The agreement, a multi-year partnership with more than USD 2 billion of revenues to TCS, is expected to be completed by the second quarter 2018. This agreement is expected to lead to annual run-rate expense savings for Transamerica of approximately USD 70 million initially, growing to USD 100 million over time. The majority of these expense savings is expected to benefit underlying earnings. Total transition and conversion charges are estimated to amount to approximately USD 280 million, and these amounts will be recorded in non-underlying earnings. The majority of these charges are expected to be recorded over the first three years of the agreement, with approximately USD 100 million of transition and conversion charges reflected in the first half of 2018. TCS will administer Transamerica's life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance and workplace voluntary benefits products and take on administration of over 10 million policies. In addition, Transamerica is considering entering into a similar servicing and administration arrangement for its long term care customers. Any forthcoming decision would be announced separately. Transamerica will continue administration and servicing of its retirement plans, IRAs, Advice Center, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and stable value solutions on existing platforms. This decision supports execution of Transamerica's customer centric strategy and focus on sustainable growth. "Transamerica continues to put our customers at the forefront of everything we do. I'm very excited to embark on this partnership with TCS, whose transformation and technology innovation capabilities will supplement our focus on improving our customers' experience in a digitally enabled way. This supports meaningful growth in all business lines  including insurance and annuities  and advances our competitive positioning. TCS was carefully selected because of its significant, ongoing investments in technology and its expertise in the insurance and annuity industry," said Mark Mullin, Transamerica President & Chief Executive Officer. "TCS' core competencies complement ours. TCS will provide valuable administration and quality customer service, and Transamerica will continue to engage with our customers, clients, and advisors in ways that are most meaningful to them by utilizing our digital engagement platforms and by developing new solutions that help people save, protect, invest and retire." All of the Transamerica employees currently supporting these business lines and whose roles are in scope will be offered positions by TCS, helping to ensure a consistently excellent experience for Transamerica customers. The transition will affect approximately 2,200 current Transamerica employees. Transferring employees will be given the opportunity to remain in the same U.S. cities where they are currently based. Founded in 1968, TCS is a leading global IT services, digital, consulting, operations and business solutions company that has operated in the U.S. for more than 40 years. It offers deep expertise in the insurance sector and works with more than 100 insurers today, including six of the world's top 10 insurance companies. TCS will expand its existing relationship with Transamerica under this transaction, and will locate in Transamerica's current offices in various U.S. cities. The agreement between Transamerica and TCS represents a notable expansion of TCS' insurance business in the U.S., and the company plans to establish its new North American insurance hub for business operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as part of its plan to make a significant investment in the region. "TCS continuously invests in the latest technologies, local talent and U.S. facilities to help leading U.S. companies adapt to rapidly evolving customer demands. This agreement marks TCS' entry into a highly specialized U.S. Insurance Third Party Administration marketplace and will establish TCS BaNCS as a formidable digital platform for the U.S. insurance industry, following its stellar global track record over the past decade," said Suresh Muthuswami, President and Global Head, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Platforms, at TCS. "TCS has partnered with its global insurance clients in their transformation journeys and played an integral role in their growth. We have enabled improved speed-to-market, customer engagement and cognitive operations through our innovative technology services, the TCS BaNCS agile and digital platform, and our unmatched industry expertise. TCS is proud to partner with Transamerica in its ongoing transformation to enhance its customer experience, and looks forward to welcoming their current employees for new careers at TCS." TCS has invested nearly USD 3 billion in the U.S. over the past three years and is among the top two job creators in IT services in the U.S. It is also one of America's 50 most community-minded organizations, engaging nearly two million Americans through its extensive nationwide STEM education programs, academic partnerships and endowments to schools such as Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell Tech and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. About Transamerica

With a history that dates back more than 100 years, Transamerica is recognized as a leading provider of life insurance, retirement and investment solutions, serving millions of customers throughout the United States. Recognizing the necessity of health and wellness in order to enhance the prospects for a lifetime of financial security, Transamerica's dedicated professionals work to help people take the steps necessary to live better today so they can worry less about tomorrow. Transamerica serves nearly every customer segment, providing a broad range of quality life insurance and investment products, individual and group pension plans, as well as asset management services. In 2016, Transamerica fulfilled its promises to customers, paying more than USD 7.2 billion in insurance and annuity benefits, including return of annuity premiums paid by the customer. Transamerica's corporate headquarters is located in Baltimore, Maryland, with other major operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Transamerica is part of the Aegon group of companies. Based in the Netherlands, Aegon is one of the world's largest providers of life insurance, pension solutions and asset management products, operating in more than 20 markets worldwide. For the full year of 2016, Aegon managed USD 784 billion in revenue generating investments. For more information, visit www.transamerica.com. About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, digital, consulting, operations and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPS, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model (GNDM), recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India's largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 389,000 of the world's best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $17.58 billion for year ended March 31, 2017 and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and the NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. For more information, visit www.tcs.com.







Media inquiries





Transamerica TCS Julie Quinlan Ben Trounson 303-383-5923 646-313-4594 [email protected] [email protected]

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/transamerica-partners-with-tata-consultancy-services-to-transform-its-insurance-and-annuities-administration-300581697.html SOURCE Transamerica

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[January 11, 2018]

Shaw Announces AGM Vote Results

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shaw Communications Inc. (Shaw) (TSX:SJR.B) (TSX:SJR.PR.A) (TSX:SJR.PR.B) (NYSE:SJR) (TSXV:SJR.A) announced that, at its annual general meeting held earlier today, the resolutions proposed in Shaws proxy circular were carried.

The detailed results from the annual general meeting are as follows.

1. Election of each of the following fifteen nominees as directors of the Corporation (by ballot): Votes For Votes Withheld # % # % Peter J. Bissonnette 19,984,551 >99.99 350 - Adrian I. Burns 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Richard R. Green 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Lynda Haverstock 19,984,462 >99.99 439 - Gregg Keating 19,984,851 >99.99 50 - Michael W. OBrien 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Paul K. Pew 19,984,901 100.00 - - Jeffrey C. Royer 19,984,862 >99.99 39 - Bradley S. Shaw 19,984,901 100.00 - - JR Shaw 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Mike Sievert 19,984,901 100.00 - - JC Sparkman 19,984,462 >99.99 439 - Carl E. Vogel 19,984,862 >99.99 39 - Sheila C. Weatherill 19,984,512 >99.99 389 - Willard H. Yuill 19,984,512 >99.99 389 -







2. Appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as auditors of the Corporation (by show of hands  proxy result shown): Votes For Votes Withheld # % # % 19,934,227 100 - -

About Shaw Communications Inc.

Shaw Communications Inc. is a leading Canadian connectivity company. The Wireline division consists of Consumer and Business services. Consumer serves residential customers with broadband Internet, Shaw Go WiFi, video and digital phone. Business provides business customers with Internet, data, WiFi, digital phone, and video services. The Wireless division provides wireless voice and data services through an expanding and improving mobile wireless network infrastructure.

Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (Symbol: TSX - SJR.B, SJR.PR.A, SJR.PR.B, NYSE  SJR, and TSXV  SJR.A). For more information, please visit www.shaw.ca.

For further information, please contact:

Shaw Investor Relations [email protected]
Governor Eric Greitens on Wednesday night confirmed to News 4 he had an extramarital affair, an admission a months-long News 4 investigation prompted.





In a recording obtained by News 4, a woman says she had a sexual encounter with Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and that he tried to blackmail her to keep the encounter quiet.





The details were provided to News 4 by the womans ex-husband, claiming the sexual relationship happened between his now ex-wife and Greitens in March 2015. News 4 is not naming the woman and she has not made an on-the-record comment about the story.





According to the ex-husband, the recording was made just days after Greitens and the womans first sexual encounter. And also that Greitens took a photograph during the encounter to use as blackmail according to the ex-husband ...

Missouri Guv & Wife: "A few years ago, before Eric was elected Governor, there was a time when he was unfaithful in our marriage. This was a deeply personal mistake. Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately. While we never would have wished for this pain in our marriage, or the pain that this has caused others, with Gods mercy Sheena has forgiven and we have emerged stronger. We understand that there will be some people who cannot forgive  but for those who can find it in your heart, Eric asks for your forgiveness, and we are grateful for your love, your compassion, and your prayers."





Sheena Greitens added:





"We have a loving marriage and an awesome family; anything beyond that is between us and God. I want the media and those who wish to peddle gossip to stay away from me and my children."

"Claims that Greitens may the most corrupt state executive in the nation were already well supported, but today's reports bring him down to a level most wouldn't have expected from a Navy SEAL who was believed to have a bright future in the national Republican party. Greitens has spent an unusual amount of time outside Missouri attending national fundraisers and meeting with party leaders in Washington DC.





"Upon learning of the news, Jackson County Democratic Committee Chairman Paul Wrabec said "Eric Greitens has been modeling himself very clearly after Donald Trump since he entered the race for Governor in 2015. He has shown little respect for the office he holds or for the rule of law. Even I wouldn't have expected he would extend his mirroring of Trump to affairs and blackmail. This is a sad day for Missouri and possibly a permanent stain on the office of the Governor." He added that Jefferson City remains a toxic environment for ethics, both political and personal.





"Greitens delivered his second State of the State address earlier this evening, failing to propose a budget for the second year."

Over the weekend he was. . . Now Guv Eric Greitens is just another disgraced politico confronting some very nasty charges.Checkit:Deets:###########More . . .Now, the MSM spin is that he had the affairbut that's mostly political garbage given that. . .Originally posted at 10:02. . . Keeping for the morning because this is hilarious.Developing . . .
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - A man is in custody as police investigate his wife's death after her body was found in Raymore, Missouri. On Monday, Jan. 8, Overland Park police went to the 8000 block of Perry Street on a domestic disturbance. When officers arrived, they spoke with Robert Harris about the disturbance.
Campaign finance reports show Colyer, a Republican, raised $632,068 in 2017. In campaign finance reports filed Wednesday, Kobach reported raising $354,732. Two other GOP candidates, Wichita businessman Willis Hartman and Kansas Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer, reported having more money but both men made substantial personal contributions to their campaigns.





Greg Orman, a Johnson County businessman who is running as an independent, reported raising $452,931, mostly from outside contributions.

AFTER HE FAILED PREZ TRUMP WITH A CANCELED VOTER FRAUD COMMISSION AND THE MAINSTREAM GOP IS POLITELY IGNORING HIM . . . IS KANSAS SECSTATE KRIS KOBACH, IRONICALLY, A MAN WITHOUT A POLITICAL COUNTRY???

Establishment Republicans are speaking loudly with their wallets and backing a safe choice in Lt. Guv Colyer rather than the controversial alt-right SecState Kris Kobach for Governor.Take a look . . .Deets:Accordingly . . .You decide . . .
Something Winter This Way Comes

Winter weather advisory in place for Kansas City until Thursday afternoon A winter weather advisory is in place for the Kansas City metro area until 3 p.m. Thursday. The advisory was issued due to the potential for slick conditions during the morning rush hour. The heaviest of the snow should be in far northwest Missouri, with some locations seeing up to three inches.

Like It Or Not: Show-Me Guv Greitens Leading Missouri To Lower Taxes

Greitens calls for more cuts in taxes, more trims in state government Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens used his State of the State address Wednesday to announce a proposal to cut state taxes this year, even as the state budget is still adjusting to earlier state and federal tax cuts that are just now going into effect.

Kansas Swatting Suspect Keeps Trolling

L.A. man held in deadly Kansas 'swatting' case now wanted in Canada over similar hoax call to cops A Los Angeles man accused of making a hoax phone call that caused a fatal police shooting in Kansas is now wanted in Canada for a similar alleged "swatting" call made a week before. Calgary police have issued arrest warrants for Tyler Rai Barriss, 25, accusing him of targeting the home of a young woman he contacted online on Dec.

Newsflash: Raytown Is A Dump

Raytown, Kansas City residents frustrated with illegal dumping Residents say as soon as the mess is cleaned - more appears.

JoCo Creeper 2nd Charge

Man who pleaded guilty to raping Johnson County sheriff's deputy charged in second rape case A man who pleaded guilty to raping a Johnson County Sheriff's deputy has now been charged in connection to a 2016 rape at an Independence apartment complex William Luth, 25, has been charged with first-degree rape or attempted rape. Court records state that two men broke into an apartment complex in Independence on Feb.

Keep Students Safe From Stranger Danger

Strange man approaches three young students KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Parents at Gracemor Elementary in the North Kansas City School District were put on alert Wednesday. In a letter sent home to parents, the school said a strange man approached three students as they walked to school Wednesday morning.

KCMO Taxpayer High Society Party

City Hall hosts first 'Meet the Artist' reception of 2018 next week The city of Lee's Summit will host its first "Meet the Artist" reception of 2018 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Jan. 18 in the lobby of City Hall, 220 S.E. Green Street. From January until mid-April, the work of a local artist, Eric Doucette, will be on display at City Hall.

Tonight we're inspired byto stay hyperlocal and check some of the top Kansas City news links for the overnight . . .And this is thefor right now . . .
Greece is one of the top destinations in the world for religious tourism

AP reports from Athens that lawmakers in Greece are set to limit the powers of Islamic courts operating in a border region that is home to a 100,000-strong Muslim minority.

Backed by parliaments strongest political parties, the draft law is set to be voted on later Tuesday. The proposal aims to scrap rules dating back more than 90 years ago and which refer many civil cases involving members of the Muslim community to Sharia law courts. The new legislation will give Greek courts priority in all cases.

The changes  considered long overdue by many Greek legal experts  come after a complaint to the Council of Europes Court of Human Rights over an inheritance dispute by a Muslim woman who lives in the northeastern Greek city of Komotini.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Nitin Madhav License: CC-BY-SA

Source: thenationalherald.com
The QIC Group said that its Bermuda based reinsurance subsidiary, Qatar Reinsurance Company (Qatar Re) has been authorised to carry out certain regulated activities in the UK from its branch office in London.



The QIC Group said that its Bermuda based reinsurance subsidiary, Qatar Reinsurance Company (Qatar Re) has been authorised by Qatar Central Bank and the UK regulator Prudential Regulation Authority to carry out certain regulated activities in the UK from its branch office in London.



This is a strategically important addition of the QIC Group global platform. QIC through QatarRe has existing branches in Zurich, Singapore and Dubai. QIC global presence also includes another UK based insurance vehicle, Antares which operates on the London Lloyds Market and QIC Europe Limited (QEL) based in Malta.



Khalifa Al Subaey, QIC Group president and CEO said: This development is an important step in the QIC Group growth strategy that was approved by the Board in 2012. The UK branch office, therefore, positions QatarRe with an opportunity to grow its UK based portfolio in an essential reinsurance market.



Gunther Saacke, Qatar Res CEO, said: We are very pleased with Qatar Res authorisation in the UK. London is the leading global hub for specialty and wholesale insurance. Therefore, a local underwriting presence is almost imperative for any aspiring global reinsurer. This is particularly true for Qatar Re as proximity to our clients and brokers is one of our proven value drivers.



For Qatar Re, Britain is a major market of growing importance. Only a few days ago, we announced the acquisition, subject to regulatory approvals, of Markerstudy Groups Gibraltar-based insurance companies which underwrite more than 5 per cent of the UK motor insurance market, generating annual premiums of about GBP750 million ($1 billion), Saacke added.  TradeArabia News Service
More than 1,100 representatives of governments from 150 countries will meet in Abu Dhabi, UAE to attend the Eighth Assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), taking place on January 13-14.



As the worlds principal platform for international cooperation on renewable energy, the Assembly will provide strategic guidance to the work of the Agency for the next four years and position it to play a key role in driving the global energy transformation.



As renewable energy costs decline, technology advances and deployment accelerates around the world, we are entering a new age of energy transformation, with renewable energy becoming a significant driver of economic growth, job creation, and socioeconomic development while also addressing climate change and reducing air pollution, said Irena director-general Adnan Z Amin.



At the Irena Assembly, our global membership will set the direction of the Agency in the coming years and chart a roadmap for the energy system of the future  a future that will be increasingly decarbonised, decentralised and digitalized, he added.



Since 2013, more than $1 trillion has been invested in renewables globally and today the industry accounts for nearly 10 million jobs worldwide. As countries, cities and corporates drive progress towards a low-carbon energy system, the Assembly will take stock of progress in renewables deployment, and the decarbonisation of the electricity system as well as end-use sectors such as heating, cooling and transportation.



President of the Assembly, and Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining for Uruguay, Carolina Cosse, said: "Uruguay is honoured to preside over the eighth session of the Assembly of Irena, an organisation that plays a central role in promoting renewable energy worldwide. Uruguay is proof that high shares of variable renewable energy can be successfully integrated into the energy mix.



Just last year, 97 per cent of our electricity was generated by renewables, out of which 35 per cent came from wind, and over 60 per cent of our primary mix is renewable  mainly based on the use of biofuels.



This year marks our fifth without the need to import power, as well as increasing our exports to neighbouring countries. Our next challenge is to move forward on electric transportation and I believe Uruguay is ready to be the next regional platform where this technology can be developed and implemented, Cosse added.



Highlights of this years Assembly include:



 Release of the Agencys report on renewable energy power generation costs, tracking the degree to which costs competitiveness of renewable energy has entered an era of competitive advantage based on its strong business case.



 Two high-level Ministerial Roundtables will identify concrete ways to accelerate investment in renewable energy and explore innovations and synergies between transport sector electrification and renewable energy.



 Launch of the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation which will examine how growing renewables deployment will impact geopolitical dynamics.



 A two-day meeting of international legislators on renewable energy policy-making, including a day-long event with the UAE Federal National Council, which will discuss the role of renewables in advancing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in addressing climate change.



 A high-level ministerial event that will seek to improve the capacity of small island developing states to develop and finance renewable energy projects.



 Programmatic discussions will also take place on a range of topics including renewable energy policy, geothermal energy, scaling up solar PV, bioenergy for sustainable development, and renewable energy in the context of sustainable development and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement on climate.



 Finally, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development and Irena will announce the recipients of funding allocated through the Irena/ADFD Project Facility.



Irena will also hold a one-of-a-kind art exhibition called Visions of Sustainability. Renowned sound artist Bill Fontana will present multimedia works on renewable energy created especially for the event, and sustainability thought leader William McDonough and initiator and pilot of Solar Impulse Bertrand Piccard will share their visions for a sustainable future. - TradeArabia News Service
Sheraton Dubai Creek Hotel & Towers has appointed Joseph Yohannan as chef de cuisine for its popular Indian restaurant, Ashiana.



Yohannan, who has been with the hotel since early 2014, will now redirect his focus to rejuvenate Ashiana essence.



Chef Joseph has been an integral part for our team for four years and perfectly understands the ethos and culture of the brand. His experience and unmatched knowledge of Indian cuisine will add a delectable touch to Ashianas flavours, said Stephan Vanden Auweele, area general manager, Sheraton Dubai Creek Hotel & Towers.



Born and bought up in Kerala, India, Yohannan was always inspired by the art of cooking. Since an early age, helping his mother in the kitchen was his favourite pastime. While regularly visiting the vegetables market taught him how to choose quality ingredients, assisting his mother with cooking engrained the little nuances of fine cooking. Yohannan further strengthened his culinary interests by pursing a diploma in culinary management after which he started working in a reputed luxury hotel chain Taj group in 2001. Following an intensive three-year stint, he joined Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort, Fujairah. His career growth took him back to India briefly after which he returned to the Middle East to work with leading luxury hotel brands such as Taj Sheba Hotel and Movenpick Resort & Spa in Yemen between 2007 and 2010. He then moved to Dubai to work for prestigious brands like Le Meridien Mina Seyahi and Westin Mina Seyahi before joining Sheraton Dubai Creek Hotel & Towers.



Bringing years of diverse and rich culinary know-how, Yohannan is all set to welcome guests to Ashiana. - TradeArabia News Service


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Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : THE PERFECT VENUE FOR YOUR CORPORATE TRAVEL IN THAILAND Industry: Accommodation

Recent times has seen a sudden boom in tourism of Thailand as it has become a most welcoming country for corporate travel



(TRAVPR.COM) ITALY - January 11th, 2018 - Recent times has seen a sudden boom in tourism of Thailand as it has become a most welcoming country for corporate travel. According to the survey, it has come across that 30% of business travelers consider Thailand as the most hospitable country and best as far as its cuisine delights are considered. Business trips are the ideal way to get to know a new city and explore a new culture. Hence it is essential as what is the destination one traveling for its next corporate travel. Thailand as a destination has become a hotbed for business travelers to connect with customers and business prospects alongside feeling satisfied by its trips. Few reasons which make Thailand a welcoming destination for corporate travel is: Luxury suite or villas which has views of the sea, imagine strolling in white sand and diving into the crystalline waters. In short, its beaches are heavenly experiences in itself.

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Tribune News Service

Mohali, January 10

Two months after a 17-year-old minor girl was raped and murdered in Mohali, the police claimed to have cracked the case with the arrest of three persons, including two women.

The accused have been identified as Sheela, her daughter Pooja, both hailing from Uttar Pradesh, and an aide Makhan, a native of Bihar.

Police officials said another accused, Rahoon, was absconding and a police party had gone to Bihar to arrest him, where he was reportedly hiding. Speaking to mediapersons, Mohali SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal said the accused were well-known to the the victims family and they had committed the crime to take revenge.

The SSP said: The accused have confessed that they committed the crime out of personal enmity. One of the accused, Sheela, said she suspected victims fathers involvement in the death of her husband, who had died in UP in an accident. Sheela and Pooja stay in Mataur, in close vicinity of the victims house, and hail from the same village in UP as the victim.

He said that during investigation, the police had even brought the auto-driver, who was accused in the gang-rape of a 21-year-old in Chandigarh, on a production warrant for questioning.

Police sources said call detail record (CDR) led to the arrest of the accused.

A police official said, The analysis of mobile tower dump led us to the accused. The tower location of mobile phones of the accused, on the day of the incident, were of the same spot in Sector 69, where the victims body was found, he said.

Sources said during questioning, Sheela revealed that to avenge her husband Ram Niwass death, she sought the assistance of Rahoon, with whom she had developed close relations, and another aide, Makhan.

Police said on November 9, when the victim was returning from her job in the evening, Sheela and her daughter Pooja intercepted the victim and took her to a deserted forest area in Sector 69 opposite Mayo Hospital, on the pretext of collecting firewood.

When the victim went into the bushes, Rahoon and his friend Makhan, who were present at the spot, smothered her face and then raped her.

Sources said the accused then stabbed the victim with a knife five times in the abdomen and stomach and killed her. Police have recovered victims clothes and the knife which was used to commit the murder.

A case has been registered against the accused under Sections 363 (punishment for kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage), 302 (punishment for murder), 376-D (gang rape), 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and Sections 4/5 of the POCSO Act. The victim, who worked as a caretaker at an advocates house in Sector 69, went missing on November 9. In his complaint at the Phase VIII police station, the victims brother had stated that his sister had not returned from her workplace.

On November 14, the victims mutilated and maggot-infected body was recovered from bushes in a deserted area opposite Mayo Hospital in Sector 69. As per a CCTV camera recording in the vicinity, the victim was seen leaving the area at 4:28 pm.

A tea vendor, Vinod, who had gone to the bushes to answer natures call, had noticed the decaying body and informed the PCR.

The case

The minor victim, who worked as a caretaker at an advocates house in Sector 69, went missing on November 9. In his complaint at the Phase VIII police station, the victims brother had stated that his sister had not returned from her workplace. On November 14, the victims mutilated and maggot-infected body was recovered from bushes in a deserted area opposite Mayo Hospital in Sector 69.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 10

A local court held a 30-year-old man guilty of raping a widow and mother of two children on the pretext of marriage. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow.

The victim had met the convict, Rajinder Kumar, in 2007 at her office in Sector 17 where she worked as a data entry operator. The victims husband had passed away in 2005.

As per her complaint, she was raped first in September 2008 and later, on several occasions. It was alleged that Kumar impregnated her twice following which she had to get abortion done. However, Kumar went to Dubai with another woman and settled there.

When the victim came to know about it, she lodged a complaint against him on January 8, 2015, at the Sector 11 police station. Kumar was arrested on August 20, 2016, from the Amritsar airport when he returned to India.

His counsel claimed that Kumar was implicated as there were multiple contradictions in the victims statements.

The then SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill had written to the UT Home Secretary to involve the Ministry of External Affairs to get the accused extradited. The defence counsel had stated that he had gone to Dubai to earn a livelihood even as it had emerged that he was living there with his wife.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 10

Prof RS Loyal (59) of the Department of Geology at Panjab University died of a massive cardiac arrest in Rajgarh (Rajasthan), about 170 km from Hisar. He was on his way to Bikaner on a field trip along with 30 students of MSc (first year) of the department.

According to Prof Naveen Chaudhri, chairperson of the Department of Geology, Professor Loyal complained of chest pain in the morning at a hotel in Rajgarh and a private doctor was called. By the time, the doctor examined him, he was unconscious. He was rushed to a government hospital there where he was declared brought dead, said Professor Chaudhri.

Professor Loyal was to retire in March this year. He did his MSc and PhD from the Department of Geology. He was working in the field of paleontology. He started teaching at the PU in 1982. His brother Prof Surinder Singh, who retired from the Department of History, left for Rajgarh to bring back his body. The students will come back on Thursday.

Professor Loyal is survived by two daughters and wife Maninder Kaur, a lawyer at the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

He was a living encyclopedia. He loved teaching and was a knowledgeable person, said Professor Chaudhri.

Professor Loyals father also retired from the PU as a botany professor.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 10

Ritu Jain, a jewellery designer, who, along with her daughter and servant, was present in the house in Sector 33 when the robbery took place, was injured after she tried to fight the robbers. One of the robbers hit Ritu on her face with a pistol butt. Her 32-year-old daughter tried to lock the robbers in the backyard. The robbery took place in less than 20 minutes.

Four robbers, with their faces covered, had looted jewellery at gunpoint from a businessmans house yesterday evening. The loss of jewellery is estimated to be around Rs 1.5 crore.

Before entering the house, the robbers drugged the pet dog after which it fell unconscious. The main door was locked from inside. The robbers entered the house from a side entrance adjacent to the main door. First of all, two armed miscreants entered the house who were seen by my daughter, who was in the kitchen. She tried to run, but fell on the floor; the servant, who was also in the kitchen, managed to run towards the backyard and was followed by the two robbers, said Ajit Jain, the owner of the house.

He said on seeing the robbers running behind the servant, she locked them outside. However, in the meantime, two other robbers entered the house and took her hostage. They then unlocked the door to let the other two locked outside come in.

Sources said the robbers caught Ritu from her neck. She resisted following which she was hit by the butt of a pistol. The robbers took everyones mobile phones.

The sources said while one of the robbers kept all three hostage, two other collected the jewellery. One of the robbers asked for the keys of the safe from the complainants daughter and transferred the jewellery in a bag, the sources said.

According to the victims, all four miscreants were carrying weapons. In the meantime, the complainants driver and watchman also reached the house, who were also taken hostage.

All five victims were then locked in one room after which the accused escaped from the spot in a Santro car which was parked outside the house. The accused also took the DVR of the CCTV cameras along.

While the robbers had taken mobile phones, they forgot to take the drivers mobile phone with the help of which Ajit Jain was informed about the robbery, who further informed the police.

The sources said the assailants were slim and were wearing normal clothes.

Driver, watchman also taken hostage

The driver and watchman had gone to Sector 22. When they reached home, they were also taken hostage. The robbers were inside the house when driver Ashwani and watchman Bhagwan Dass returned. As soon the driver entered the house, the robbers took him hostage. The watchman turned back and tried to escape, but the robbers brought him back.

Cops arrived late, alleges Complainant

Ajit Jain, who informed the police at 7.39 pm, alleged that the police did not arrive on time. Only one cop reached the house at 8.10 pm, he alleged. Later by 8.30 pm, police officials started reaching the house. It is shocking that such an incident has been reported from Chandigarh. The incident has exposed police failure, he said.

Police suspect insiders role

Police sources said there was a strong suspicion that some insider or former employee of the jeweller was involved in the robbery as the assailants knew that the jewellery was lying in the safe. The dog was also drugged, which clearly indicates that the assailants knew about the dog and had come prepared.
MG Devasahayam

MG Devasahayam

A former bureaucrat

AN FIR has been against Rachna Khaira, a reporter of The Tribune, by the Delhi Police. The offence is her expose of a massive Aadhaar fraud in which, for a small sum of money made to a payment bank, an agent of a private group allegedly created a gateway to access details contained in an individual's Aadhaar card.

Coming under criticism, the UIDAI spokesperson has offered a specious argument that it was "duty bound" to disclose all the details of the case and name everyone who is an active participant in the chain of events leading to commission of the crime. According to him, the UIDAI's act of filing an FIR should not be viewed as targeting the media or the whistleblowers or 'shooting the messenger.' But he said nothing about the core question that is agitating the minds of everyone: how safe is Aadhaar and what is the agenda behind its mad pursuit by the powers-that-be?

Commenting on this episode, the newspaper's Editor-in-Chief said: "The Aadhaar is not a misconceived project, but its security and impregnability are yet to be fully assured." I beg to differ. Aadhaar, as is being pursued in India, is one of the most misconceived and autocratic project ever conceived and implemented. First and foremost, the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (the 'Aadhaar Act') was itself a fraud on the people and Parliament since it was introduced and passed as a money Bill in the Lok Sabha without referring it to the Rajya Sabha.

Once this fraudulent act was completed, Aadhaar was rammed down the throat of everyone despite a clear order of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on October 15, 2015: "We will also make it clear that the Aadhaar card scheme is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by this Court one way or the other." This 'decision by the court' is still pending, but the state, in total defiance, has been spreading terror and panic to coerce the citizens to obtain Aadhaar card and link it to every conceivable purpose/service, including public distribution system, old-age pension, NREGA, healthcare, LPG supply, disaster relief, bank account, income tax return, mobile phones, school admission and even birth and death certificates.

This is being done despite the fact that millions of citizens will be denied their right to access many of these essential public services. It is already evident that making it compulsory in food distribution in some states has excluded many needy and deserving citizens without cause.

Besides, Aadhaar allows for unprecedented surveillance of every citizen and massive invasion of privacy. It can be used by governments at different levels to target all kinds of dissent. Because it enables data-sharing even by private companies, it renders all citizens vulnerable to identity theft, fraud, cyber piracy, data breaches and other uses of their personal data with very serious security implications.

This is precisely what was exposed in The Tribune and the response of UIDAI was typical of an autocratic state  deny the message and shoot the messenger! For the government and its minions, Aadhaar is infallible because it is high-tech and anyone questioning it commits blasphemy and is anti-national.

It is the same mindset that dominates Election Commission of India (ECI) when electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being increasingly questioned. The integrity of EVMs has been challenged from the time they were introduced in 1999. It flared up in 2009 soon after the UPA's victory in the parliamentary elections. The most articulated opposition to the EVM came from those aligned to the BJP.

The grounds on which EVMs were trashed were: the whole world has discarded similar EVMs; their use is unconstitutional and illegal; EVM software and hardware are not safe; EVMs are sitting ducks; insider fraud, storing and counting are concerns; ECI is clueless on technology and there is trust deficit.

But the ECI dismissed it all by just saying that the EVM technology is infallible.

When the EVMs were challenged after the 2017 assembly elections in UP, Uttarakand and Punjab, the ECI again dismissed them, claiming infallibility. The commission challenged the political parties to prove that the EVMs are tamperable and set the date as June 3, 2017. This came to be known as EVM 'hackathon'. This much-hyped 'challenge' turned out to be a damp squib since the ECI refused to give the access code and share the memory and battery number of machines!

This time around, the ECI had already fortified itself with a stringent mandamus in favour of EVMs and gag order against its criticism from the Uttarakhand High Court which unilaterally certified that EVMs are not hackable and tamperable, because they use some of the most sophisticated technological features. The gag order barred all political parties, individuals, media and even social media networks from criticising the use of EVMs. The Chief Election Commissioner claimed one-sided victory in the non-event and declared that the issue of tamperability "stands closed". When criticism persisted, the ECI moved the government, seeking contempt powers to prosecute the dissenters. All these came handy when the issue cropped up again after the recent Gujarat elections to summarily discard all discordant voices using the shield of 'infallibility'!

The Emergency of the 1970s is considered as the darkest period for India's democracy. This is how civil rights stalwart Rajni Kothari described the state of affairs then: "It was a state off-limits, a government that hijacked the whole edifice of the state, a ruling party and leader who in effect treated the state as their personal estate. It was the imposition of a highly concentrated apparatus of power on a fundamentally federal society and the turning over of this centralized apparatus for personal power and aggrandizement. It was one big swoop overtaking the whole country spreading a psychosis of fear and terror."

Are things any different now? They are a shade worse. With these two instruments of 'infallible' technology  Aadhaar and EVM  before long, democracy might get replaced with autocracy!

(Views are personal)
Maj-Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

Maj-Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

For India, Nepal is geo-strategically the most important country, the crown jewel of the Indian subcontinent and the buffer between India and China through which pass the main avenues to the strategic Indo-Gangetic plains  India's heartland. King Prithvi Narayan Shah, founder of the modern Nepal, had called Nepal a yam between two boulders. Traditionally, Nepal has both swayed with the wind and maintained equidistance in its relations with its neighbours.

The intensity of India-China proxy war in the region picked up with Prime Minister Modi taking power. Having a China-friendly government in Nepal is breaking India's bastion. After softly needling China on clarifying the Line of Actual Control, confronting PLA along LAC and giving a long rope to the Dalai Lama, including his visit to Tawang, in 2015, a Beijing think tank thinking aloud said China would punish India. One of the likely places for retribution is Nepal where India has been the dominant power since decolonisation, a privileged position Beijing has envied.

India has had a hand in every major political change in Nepal  dethroning Ranas and restoring monarchy; introducing multiparty democracy; brokering the deal between political parties, Maoists and the monarchy; and ironically, dismantling monarchy.

The only transformation in which India was outmanoeuvred by the Nepalese political class was in drafting the new constitution and provincial mapmaking, reflecting India's failure in enabling the Indian-origin Madhesis of the Terai plains (derogatorily called Indian agents) to be duly and proportionately empowered in an inclusive constitution. But dominance of the hill people  the Khas-Aryas  has prevailed and India was presented a fait accompli. Instead of gracefully welcoming the constitution, indelicate and inelegant measures were adopted in unsuccessfully enforcing constitutional change which led to the infamous India-inspired Madhesi-executed blockade which caused immense hardship for the Nepalese people and fuelled unprecedented anti-India sentiment and ultra-nationalism. The blockade also pushed the leftist KP Oli government towards China, which joyfully grasped the moment.

Meanwhile, Prachanda-led Maoists, the flagbearers of the transformation of Nepal from constitutional monarchy to a secular, democratic and inclusive republic, having lost ground finally joined the India-supported Nepali Congress-led government hoping to cut their rival leftist Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) party to size and emerging as the numero uno leftist party. In dislodging the Left government, which included the Maoists, New Delhi saw an opportunity to teach the China-backed Oli a lesson. Prachanda once sold on China, but after being out of power for seven years, admitted that India was more important for Nepal than China. He would later switch sides to stay in power.

Initially, when the Maoists were waging war against monarchy, Beijing treated the Maoists with scorn. It would mock them as anti-state rebels, miscreants and hijackers of Mao's fair name. Once Prachanda came to power, China announced eloquently that we have now rediscovered the ideological affinities with Maoists. The election after the civil war, won by the Maoists supported by the mainstream left parties, was a turning point in China-Nepal relations, the former jettisoning its policy of non-interference in internal affairs of Nepal. China spread its tentacles across Nepal, politically, culturally and economically as it enlarged its strategic space.

So, when India first tried to break up the Oli-Prachanda coalition in the early 2016, Beijing formed a phalanx of resistance, but months later, Prachanda on being offered premiership by the Nepali Congress, deserted Oli and aligned withthe India-backed Nepali Congress led by Sher Bahadur Deuba. Soon, Prachanda would again change his mind. In one of the only secrets kept in the history of modern Nepal, the Leftists the UML and Maoists  encouraged by China had worked underground and established a Left alliance to fight the provincial and federal elections as allies even as Maoists were in government. Prachanda ditched Nepali Congress and India by returning to Oli.

The Left Alliance won not only the national elections but also six out of seven provinces where it will form the government. Earlier, in 2017, it had won the local government elections held after two decades. Everything in Nepal seems to be going for the UML: the people, media, anti-India nationalism and China's deep pockets. Soon after the civil war, India began losing the plot, unable to fully unify the pro-India Nepali Congress and the Madhesis and keep them together. The geopolitical landscape had changed so drastically beyond India's comprehension that it continued to rely on its antiquated roti-beti-khoon mantra. Even Modi's magic moments of 2014 in Nepal of veni,vidi, vici were lost.

Next month, Oli or Prachanda will head the first Left alliance government with China's backing. Fortunately, the constitution bars any no-confidence motion being presented for the first two years which will allow the two parties to work on their merger and ensure a measure of political stability. This would subordinate the Maoists who fought the civil war and spearheaded the revolutionary agenda to the UML, a bitter pill to swallow for the agents of change. India has, for the present, lost its bastion in the Himalayas, trying to preserve its Madhesi leverage with a 'half-baked' plan that lost the goodwill of the majority hill Nepalis and fuel was added to fire through inept diplomatese. But kingmaker Prachanda's penchant for surprise is still around.

For India, Nepal is the first casualty in its Neighbourhood First policy, a rap that the Chinese will relish.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 11

Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal issued instructions to the Chief Secretary of the Delhi Government and Principal Secretary of Health Department to look into the issues of vacant posts in hospitals and other departments.

This has been said by the LG in a letter addressed to the Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal. This is in reference with the Chief Ministers letter in which he had questioned the decision to hire retired personnel to fill vacant posts in the hospitals.

The vacancies in the government hospitals have been pending for a long time and he had already got an action plan prepared to fill these vacancies not only in the Health Department, but also in the entire Delhi Government, the LG said.

He further said the Health Department has informed that requisitions had already been sent to DSSSB and UPSC to fill the vacancies.

As far as vacancies of promotional posts are concerned, the department has been directed to hold all requisite Departmental Promotional Committee meetings by March end.

The proposal for engagement of retired employees against existing vacancies was moved by the Health and Family Welfare Department in pursuance of directions of the Chief Minister, in the meeting convened under his chairmanship in August last year. The minutes of that meeting were also issued by the Chief Minister office.

Therefore, it is surprising that now the Chief Minister has raised questions regarding the filling of vacant posts with retired personnel, the LG said.

He further stated that the engagement of retired personnel is purely an interim measure to meet the shortages.

Regular recruitment alone is a sustainable solution for provision of quality healthcare services to the residents.
Washington, January 11

The US immigration authorities raided nearly 100 7-Eleven stores, largely owned by Indian-Americans, arrested more than 21 people and warned businesses against employing illegal immigrants.

The nation-wide crackdown is said to be part of the effort of the Trump administration to warn businesses against hiring illegal immigrants.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose officials carried out the raid in 18 States and the District of Columbia, arrested more than 21 people.

But the ICE did not identify the nationalities of those arrested.

A large number of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the US are owned by Indian-Americans.

"Today's actions send a strong message to US businesses that hire and employ an illegal workforce: ICE will enforce the law, and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable," said Thomas D Homan, ICE Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director.

"Businesses that hire illegal workers are a pull factor for illegal immigration and we are working hard to remove this magnet. ICE will continue its efforts to protect jobs for American workers by eliminating unfair competitive advantages for companies that exploit illegal immigration," Homan said.

The ICE did not release any further details. News reports said that no charges against businesses were filed yesterday, but during the raid its official interviewed store owners and its employees.

The 21 employees from various stores arrested on charges of being illegal now face deportation.

In a statement, 7-Eleven Inc said its stores operate independently on a franchisee basis but they are required to adhere to all federal and local laws. The company has more than 8,600 stores across the country.

"7-Eleven takes compliance with immigration laws seriously and has terminated the franchise agreements of franchisees convicted of violating these laws," the Dallas- headquartered company said in a statement.

In the coming days, the ICE is expected to carry out more similar raids across the country as part of the Trump administration's efforts against illegal immigrants in the country.

After Trump entered the White House, the ICE has intensified its efforts against illegal immigrants. PTI
Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, January 11

Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Karan Dev Kamboj today played the Good Samaritan by extending prompt assistance to an accident victim on the GT Road here.

Kamboj, who was on the way to Chandigarh, noticed an injured person lying near the Mini Zoo in Pipli. Kamboj stopped his convoy and directed his security personnel to rush the victim to hospital. The person was lying unconscious on the highway and bleeding profusely. A police security vehicle piloting the convoy was deputed by the minister to attend the victim.

A resident of Ismailabad, the victim had sustained multiple injuries after his scooter was hit by an unidentified vehicle. The victim was taken to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Civil Hospital here.
Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, January 11

The district has improved its sex ratio at birth ranking, notching the top position in 2017. Figures available up to November 17 show that sex ratio at birth (SRB) was 945 girls against 1,000 boys last year.

Panipat was at the fifth spot in 2016 with sex ratio of 912. The district is notorious for skewed sex ratio. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme from Panipat on January 22, 2015.

Throughout 2017, Panipat maintained sex ratio at birth almost above 900. It was 961 in January, 1,073 in February, 993 in March, 925 in April, 926 in May, 906 in June, 967 in July, 913 in August, 982 in September, 926 in October and 891 in November and 949 in December, the sources said.

Sources in the Health Department said sex ratio at birth in the district was 822 in 2011, 834 in 2012, 851 in 2013, 892 in 2014, 892 in 2015 and 912 in 2016.

Throughout last year, Panipat maintained sex ratio at birth almost above 900. It was 961 in January, 1,073 in February, 993 in March, 925 in April, 926 in May, 906 in June, 967 in July, 913 in August, 982 in September, 926 in October and 891 in November and 949 in December, the sources said.

As per the data available up to November 17, Yamunanagar is at the second spot with 938 girls per 1,000 boys followed by Sonepat (936).

Dr Sudhir Batra, Deputy Civil Surgeon, said: In the past two years, the Health Department had conducted 19 raids under the PC-PNDT Act and 36 raids under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, Dr Batra said.

Deputy Commissioner Chander Shekhar Khare said, A target of 950 girls per 1,000 boys has been set under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme. With the efforts of the department, the district is close to achieving the target.

The department made efforts to educate residents and kept a check on violators of the PC-PNDT Act, the DC added.
New Delhi, January 11

A 26-year-old PhD student of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) here, who had gone missing from the JNU campus a few days ago, returned to his Ghaziabad home on Thursday after a trip to Patna, the police said.

Mukul Jain, enrolled in IGNOUs Life Sciences course, had been missing since January 8.

Jain returned today and told police that he had gone to Patna to take a holy dip in the Ganga river.

A senior police officer said that Jain was depressed after a break-up with his girlfriend. He left for Patna from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, leaving behind his mobile phone and ATM card in the JNU lab, the officer added.

Jain had gone to meet his research adviser on the JNU campus, police said.  PTI
New Delhi, January 11

The BJP on Thursday sought to draw a parallel between Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Hafiz Saeed, the founder of terror outfit LeT, saying the Congress leader in his attack on the BJP and the RSS echoed Saeeds views.

Desperation and frustration of Siddaramaiah is evident. For vote bank politics, he is making senseless charges against the BJP and the RSS, and echoing views of Hafiz Saeed who considers India, BJP, RSS terrorists, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said, seeking his apology.

He wondered if the Congress leader would join Saeeds new party after polls. Pakistan-based Saeed had recently announced to launch his own political party.

Raos attack at the Karnataka Chief Minister came after the latter called the BJP and the RSS Hindu extremists.

The BJP has been making a strong bid to dethrone him from power. Its president Amit Shah had yesterday accused the state government of pursuing anti-Hindu policies.

Rao also tweeted Saeeds comments in which he had called the BJP and the RSS terrorist outfits to claim that Siddaramaiah echoed his views.

Siddaramaiah had yesterday alleged that the BJP and the RSS had terrorists among their ranks.

Speaking to reporters today, Siddaramaiah said, I had said they are Hindutva terrorists. I am also a Hindu, but Im a Hindu with humanity, they are Hindus without humanity. That is the difference between me and... (them).

Look at these statements, one by Hafiz Saeed & the other by Siddaramaiah. Karnataka CM is echoing views of Hafiz Saeed. Uncannily similar thinking or deliberate attempt to divert focus from misgovernance? CM should apologise, Rao of the BJP said.  PTI
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 11

Following an accident two days ago, the Army has suspended the use of Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH), Dhruv, for slither down operations by its troops.

Slithering down is a technique by which troops are inserted into an operation and they have to come down from the helicopter using a special rope that is attached to the body of the helicopter through a contraption.

The twin-engined Dhruv, a sturdy machine--some 200 of these are in useis produced by Ministry of Defence (MoD)-owned public sector giant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Top sources confirmed to the Tribune on Thursday: Slithering operations have been suspended till the cause of accident is known. The Army is suspecting material failurein simple terms a fault with the material and its sturdiness on the copter.

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On January 9, three para-commandos were injured, one of them seriously, while practising slithering operations at the New Delhi parade ground. The contraption fitted on to the helicopter had broken off.

The HAL, headquartered at Bengaluru, produces 22-24 advanced light helicopters (ALH), the Dhruv, annually and some 200 of these are flying; however, the requirement is huge. Other than the Army, the IAF and the Navy also use the ALH.

In September 2017, two senior Army officers had a narrow escape when an Army Aviation helicopter carrying them crash-landed in Eastern Ladakh. The copter crashed at location close to the Line of Actual control (LAC), the de facto boundary with China.

Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps Lt Gen SK Upadhyay and the Division Commander of the Karu-based 3 Infantry Division Maj Gen Savneet Singh were on board the copter.

The crash occurred near the area called Hot springs. India is making a new road between Hot springs and Marsimkla. The location was north of the Pangong Tso (lake).
New Delhi, January 11

India on Thursday said National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (retd) last month in Thailand, noting that talks on terror can go ahead.

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Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters that the focus of the "operational-level talks" was "cross-border terror" and ways to ensure the elimination of terrorism from the region.

"India and Pakistan have a dialogue process and we have said terror and talks cannot go together. However, there are other dialogue mechanisms like at the DGMO level or between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers.

"Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of operational-level talks. We have said terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead," Kumar said.

The meeting between the two NSAs took place in Thailand nearly three weeks ago.  PTI
Jerusalem, January 11

Israel will invest USD 68.6 million to boost cooperation with India in areas like tourism, technology, agriculture and innovation over a period of four years, a senior official here has said ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus high-profile India visit next week.

The commitment is in addition to the India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund of USD 40 million over five years with equal contribution from both sides that has already been agreed between the two sides, Deputy Director General of Israels Foreign Ministry, Gilad Cohen, told PTI.

Netanyahu will be leading a high-profile delegation comprising 130 businessmen from 102 Israeli companies drawn from areas like agriculture, water, cyber security, health care and security on his four-day trip to India starting January 14.

It will be the second visit by an Israeli Prime Minister to India after a gap of 15 years since Ariel Sharon visited New Delhi in 2003. The visit comes merely six months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Jewish state, becoming the first Indian premier to do so.

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Several MoUs, including in the fields of oil and gas, renewable energy, amended protocol for airports, cyber security, co-production of films and documentaries will be signed between the two sides.

Israels Saare Tzedek hospital would be signing an agreement with Indias Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well.

Informed sources here said this related to sharing of knowledge in the field of homoeopathy and ayurveda that had been gaining popularity in Israel over the last few years.

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology would also be signing an agreement with Ministry of Science and Technology, sources here said.

Reciprocating the warm reception extended to him by Netanyahu, Modi is likely to spend a lot of time with his Israeli counterpart during the trip.

Netanyahu accompanied Modi almost throughout his three-day trip in July of last year, an honour generally reserved for Presidents of Israels close ally, the United States.

The Indian Prime Minister will be hosting a private dinner for Netanyahu on January 14 after his arrival in New Delhi. The Israeli leader would be meeting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj the same day.

The Israeli Prime Minister would be formally welcomed the next day at the Rashtrapari Bhawan following which he would lay a wreath at Rajghat.

He would then participate in a dialogue at Hyderabad House which will also include a one-on-one discussion with Modi. Meetings with President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu are also scheduled for Monday.

Netanyahu, accompanied by wife Sara, would be travelling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal on Tuesday and return to Delhi to participate in the Raisina Dialogue.

Modi would accompany Netanyahu to Gujarat on Wednesday where he will be welcomed in the same fashion as Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was with a roadshow in Ahmadabad.

The roadshow is said to be an 8-km drive from the airport to the Sabarmati Ashram. The two leaders will also witness several innovative technologies in the field of water, agriculture and health at iCreate and visit a Centre of Excellence.

Netanyahu would arrive in Mumbai on Wednesday in the evening where he would meet the Indian Jewish community.

A packed schedule on Thursday for the Israeli Prime Minister in Mumbai would include a power breakfast with Indian business leaders, a business seminar, attending two memorial services for the victims of the Mumbai terror attacks at the Taj hotel and Nariman House and finally a gala event with Bollywood actors, directors and producers. PTI
Bijay Sankar Bora

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, January 11

Mounted vigil against banned militant outfits operating in the Northeast ahead of the Republic Day paid rich dividend today as one of the most wanted leaders of the Garo rebel group, Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) from Meghalaya, was killed by the police.

The police informed that the self-styled deputy commander in chief of the GNLA which is suspected to have base in Bangladesh and be operating in close coordination with the banned ULFA (Independent), was gunned down by Meghalaya police commandos during an early morning encounter in forest area of East Garo Hills district of the hill state.

The slain militant leader was identified as Matchallang M Sangma alias Vietnam.

A team of police commandos from East Garo Hills swooped down on a GNLA camp near Baweduragre village at the break of dawn and engaged the rebels in heavy exchange of fire for quite some time before the rebels retreated deep inside the jungle.

A search of the site after the gun battle led the police team to recover the body of the outfits deputy commander in-chief Matchallang, who was identified through the ID card recovered from his body.

Matchallang who was one of the most wanted rebels in the region, was notorious as a dreaded killer and had gunned down Orget Sangma, a village elder from Dambuk on August 2 last year.

Matchallang was also responsible for the murder of GNLA cadre Kamdak and former finance secretary of the outfit Rakkam D Shira at the orders of outfits chief commander Sohan D Shira.

The slain militant leader was also responsible for the abduction of two village heads  one from Rongdim Awe in South Garo Hills and another from Reangdim in West Khasi Hills last year.

Police also recovered one AK-56 assault rifle along with a magazine, live ammunitions, huge number of empty cartridges, 3 kg of gelatin sticks, Chinese grenades, GNLA demand pads and receipt books, seals, printers, Bangladeshi currency notes, Claymore box for IEDs and personal diaries among others.

A search of nearby villages was also on for any GNLA cadres who might have been injured and taken refuge among villagers.

Meanwhile, security forces have intensified operation against rebels belonging to the NSCN-K and ULFA (I) in southern Arunachal Pradesh areas bordering Myanmar following inputs that rebels might try to sneak into eastern Assam areas to strike terror before Republic Day.
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 11

In an unprecedented attack on the defence services, Union Minister for Shipping and Transport Nitin Gadkari on Thursday hit out at the naval top brass for refusing permission for the construction of a floating hotel, or floatel, and a private jetty on the Arabian Sea.

Gadkari said the construction of the floatel and the jetty near the base of Malabar Hill did not pose any security risk. What has the Navy to do with Malabar Hill? They should be guarding the countrys borders. You should be going to the Pakistani border and do patrolling, Gadkari said at the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the International Cruise Terminal here. Among those who present on the occasion included Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, Chief, Western Naval Command.

Incidentally, the site of the proposed floating hotel and the jetty for it are located just a few km from where Kasab and his fellow terrorists from Pakistan landed on November 26, 2008.

Continuing with his harangue against the naval authorities, Gadkari alleged that the men in white were after the minister to allot plots of land for construction of housing for them. These navy officers wanted a plot of land to build houses in South Mumbai. I will not give you even one inch of land. Why do you want to build houses in South Mumbai? I will not entertain you, he said.

Gadkari went on to say that he headed a committee to clear stalled infrastructure projects and would push for the construction of the floating jetty and hotel when the project comes to him for clearance. We are the government. The Navy and the defence ministry are not the government, he added.

The Navy and the Coast Guard had earlier refused to give the green signal to the little-known private company, Rashmi Development Private Ltd, to build a floating hotel in the Arabian Sea and construct a floating jetty near Malabar Hill to offer seaplane services and ferry tourists to the floatel. Both the agencies had warned of security threats to several vital installations should private companies and foreigners were allowed access to the coast.

Gadkari, as Union minister for shipping and transport, is aggressively pushing for the construction of tourism-based infrastructure along the coast of Maharashtra.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 11

Two convicts in the OP Jindal Global University rape case may be sent back to jail as the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay arrest warrants issued against them.

Convicts Hardik Sikri and Karan Chhabra were given 20-year imprisonment after being held found guilty of raping a fellow student in 2013.

A Bench headed by Justice SA Bobde wondered how they remained in custody during the trial and were released after being found guilty of rape and sentenced to 20-year prison term.

It is one of those rare cases where these men were behind the bar when the trial was on but they were released after they were held guilty of the offence. This was the first time they were released. This alone should be ground enough to reconsider the High Court order, the Bench noted.

However, it went soft on third convict Vikas Garg who was given only a seven-year jail term as it stayed his arrest till January 18 when the matter will be taken up for further hearing.

There is a sea of difference in what he did and what the other two did, it said.

The trio was convicted by a Sonepat court in May last year. The case hit headlines after the Punjab and Haryana High Court in September 2017 questioned the credibility of the victims testimony and talked of her promiscuity and sexual encounters in its bail order.

It would be a travesty if these young minds are confined to jail for an inordinate(ly) long period of time which would deprive them of their education, opportunity to redeem themselves and be a part of the society as normal beings, the High Court had said.

The top court was surprised to know that all the three convicts had been freed. How can that be? We will take the main accused back (into custody). It cannot be that all of you (convicts) are free, the Bench said.

The top court had earlier stayed the High Courts order releasing the three convicts on bail. Thereafter, a district court in Sonepat issued warrants against them. They have now challenged the warrants before the top court.
New Delhi, January 11

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday held productive talks with her Maldivian counterpart Mohamed Asim amidst a strain in bilateral ties over a number of issues, including the signing of an FTA between Maldives and China.

Swaraj met Mohamed Asim, Foreign Minister and Special Envoy of the President of Maldives. Both had productive discussions to strengthen bilateral relationship keeping in mind India first policy of Maldives and our policy of Neighbourhood first, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

It is understood that the Maldivian leader reiterated that Maldives would not undertake any activity which would harm Indian interests and it would also be conveyed that the country was sensitive to Indias concerns over peace and security in the Indian Ocean region.

India had already made it clear that it expected that as a close and friendly neighbour, the island nation would be sensitive to its concerns in keeping with its India First policy. The Indian statement had come in response to a query on Maldives-China free trade agreement (FTA). PTI
Dharamsala, January 11

Tibetan "Prime Minister-in-exile" Lobsang Sangay on Thursday cautioned New Delhi against China's deceptive policies, warning that what happened to Tibet could happen to India as well.

"The Doklam stand-off and the repeated cross-border incursion of Chinese soldiers into Indian territories is a sign of China's expansionist mindset," he told reporters here.

He said India should be wary of China's belligerent attitude.

Taking about developing airfields and road networks by China along the border with India, he asked India to be cautious.

"To understand the Doklam face-off, you have to look at China's 'right hand palm and five fingers' strategy.

"Chinese leader Mao Zedong described Tibet as the right hand palm while Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal and Arunachal Pradesh as five fingers.

"Because the Chinese were not stopped when they were occupying Tibet in 1959, they have now got emboldened to move towards five fingers. Had Tibet's capture been prevented, incidents like Doklam would never took place," Sangay told IANS.

Sangay, who is also the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) President, said India was now progressing towards becoming "a number one country" under the leadership Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Stressing upon the need to develop a Buddhist religious tourist circuit, he said India was the land of Buddha and there were 600-700 million Buddhists in the world.

"Even if only .01 per cent Buddhists come to India to visit Buddhist monasteries and spend am average $1,000, India can earn $6 billion per year," said Sangay.

The Central Tibetan Administration is based in this Himachal Pradesh town where the spiritual leader the Dalai Lama also resides.

Sangay highlighted the Dalai Lama's commitment to the revival of ancient Indian values, particularly the Nalanda school of thought.

The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing China in 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule over Tibet. The government-in-exile is based in Dharamsala but is not recognized by any country.

IANS
Chandigarh, January 11

British Deputy High Commissioner Andrew Ayre today said the issue of beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, who is wanted in India, has nothing to do with the UK government as the matter is in court.

When asked about the UK territory being used as sanctuary by Indian legal offenders, he said, The issue has nothing to do with the government. It is to do with the legal system. Politicians cannot do much. They can only change the law.

Ayre said, There have to be some checks and balances. Judiciary and legal system are separate from the governments. Citing the robust system for extradition, he said if someone from North Korea seeks asylum, should we send him back, he asked.

Mallya, 61-year-old liquor baron, is wanted in India on charges of fraud and money-laundering amounting to around Rs9,000 crore. He was arrested by the Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant in April, 2017, and at present, has been out on bail on a bond of 650,000 pounds. A Delhi court on January 4 had declared him a proclaimed offender for evading summons in a FERA violation case.  TNS
Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 11

US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster on Thursday batted for India-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and for the strong partnership to transform into a durable one.

Delivering his inaugural policy speech at think tank Carnegie India, Juster laid out five key pillars to achieve this  defense and counter-terrorism, economic and commercial relations, energy and environment, sustainable and inclusive development and regional cooperation.

Juster sought expansion of the bilateral military exercises into a multi-service one to enhance the ease of working.

India and the United States already conduct a robust series of bilateral exercises. While these have been increasingly realistic single-service scenarios, it is time to consider a multi-service exercise, perhaps focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, he said.

He emphasised that the United States is more than just another supplier for India.

Perhaps in the next year we can announce major agreements enabling cooperation in areas such as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance platforms, fighter aircraft production and the co-development of next generation systems, including a future vertical lift platform or Advanced Technology Ground Combat Vehicles, he added.

Juster expressed concerns at persistent trade deficit with India and interestingly argued that India could become an alternative hub for US business in the Indo-Pacific region against China.

A number of US companies have reported increasing difficulties conducting business in the largest market in the region  China. Accordingly, some companies are downgrading their operations there, while others are looking with great interest at alternative markets, said the envoy.

A final point with regard to this pillar is that a strategic view of our economic relationship could eventually lead to a roadmap for a US-India Free Trade Agreement, advocated the ambassador.

However, he cautioned that economic sphere that is today an area of cooperation could become cause of irritation too in ties.

Responding to a question, Juster denied reports that there would be self deportation of some 7,50,000 H1B visa holders waiting for green cards.

That is not under consideration in this review. We are looking more broadly and prospectively how are our various categories of visas working and do they need to be refined, he replied.

Juster whose relationship with India began in 2001 as Under Secretary Commerce said US continues to talk to international partners for Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Re-emphasising Indias role as a leading power in Indo-Pacific, he stressed like-minded countries such as Japan and Australia should work together to ensure free and open region, where rule of law and democratic principles are reflected in a rules-based order and sovereignty and territorial integrity respected.

He also hoped for Indias increased economic development assistance in Afghanistan and sought to work with India to counter terrorism.

To a question he replied Pakistan has not done all it could do to eliminate safe havens of terror and Trump administration has zero tolerance to cross-border terrorism.
Faridabad, January 11

A 32-week pregnant woman died allegedly due to complications after giving birth to a stillborn at Faridabad's Asian Hospital.

The family has alleged medical negligence and are demanding an investigation. To add to their woes, the family was handed over a bill of Rs 18 lakh for a 22-day treatment.

The woman's parents said that after three days of admission at the hospital's ICU, doctors diagnosed her with typhoid and shifted her out to the general ward.

The woman's father, Sitaram, said, "My daughter complained of stomach pain in the next morning. The doctors came in the morning and checked her. They then told me that she was seven months pregnant. I told the doctors that they should deliver the baby now. But, they told me that it was only a case of stomach pain and said that they would give injections to stop the delivery of the baby."

When the family members insisted, the doctors operated on the woman, she gave birth to a stillborn child, claimed the woman's father.

The woman's father also alleged that the hospital demanded six lakh rupees from him, even as he had paid over 10 lakhs to the hospital for the treatment.

The hospital authorities, however, refuted the claims of alleged medical negligence.

Dr Ramesh Chandna, the Chairman Quality and Safety of Asian Hospital, said, "She was 32-week pregnant and had fever for 8-10 days. We suspected typhoid and began treatment in the ICU. Unfortunately, her child couldn't survive. We found she had a perforated intestine. We closely monitored her condition. A surgery was done, but sadly, we couldn't save her." On being asked about the claims of inflated food bill, Dr Chandana clarified, "It wasn't required to give her food. She was being given IV drips and fluids for her condition to stabilise. I don't know how this happened. All billing works are done here and are cross-checked as well." ANI
New Delhi, January 10

Former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar (69), who is serving life term in connection with a 1984 riots case, today urged the Delhi High Court not to conduct a retrial in the cases in which he had been acquitted.

Khokhar was responding to the High Courts March 29, 2017, decision ordering a reinvestigation and retrial of five riots cases against him and others.

A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Anu Malhotra had sought to know from them why it should not order a reinvestigation and retrial as they had faced allegations of horrifying crimes against humanity.

Khokhar, who is currently behind bars in another riots case, claimed that he had never indulged in any criminal activity.

Rather, he helped the riot victims at a later stage. He had been named by the complainant after a long period, which is an afterthought. He had no role to play in the riots committed by an unruly mob, an affidavit said. Khokhar was produced before the court from the Tihar Jail here.

It said when a group of 200-500 people attacked a house, it was very hard to recognise a single person in the mob. The reinvestigation/retrial of cases in which he had been acquitted by the trial court will affect his whole life. He has already been arrested and sent behind bars, released on bail and thereafter faced trial, the affidavit said.

Urging the court to take a lenient view, he said no fruitful purpose would be served by reopening old cases which had resulted in his acquittal due to the non-appearance of prosecution witnesses.  PTI

SAD hails new SIT for 186 cases

Chandigarh: Sukhbir Singh Badal, SAD chief, on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to constitute a fresh Special Investigation Team (SIT) to monitor a probe into 186 anti-Sikh riot cases. The victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots were unable to get justice for 33 years, the former deputy CM said. It was of utmost importance to speed up the investigation and bring the guilty to book, he added. TNS
Patiala, January 10

Three hitmen and aides of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi were arrested from Jodhpur by a team of the district police. Their interrogation has revealed that a deputy jail superintendent and a youth leader were on their hit list.

The accused have been identified as Ravinderpal Singh Raju Ghora, Prem Kumar Bablu and Raju Ram. Their detailed questioning will be done once they reached Patiala. But we have got some serious details after their initial grilling, said SP (Investigation) Harvinder Virk.

The police have recovered imported weapons, a car and some cash from them. An FIR has been registered against them at Rajpura police station. Two of their aides Gursewak Bunty of Chandigarh and Sukhwinder Singh managed to flee.

Sources confirmed that Ravinderpal had attacked rival gangster Vicky Gounder in Ropar jail a few years ago.

They were targeting a deputy jail superintendent as the officer had dealt strictly with Bishnoi inside the jail. A youth leader who recently came to limelight after facing allegations that he used money power to rise in politics was also on their radar, a source said.

Lawrence was last week taken to Jodhpur from Faridkot on production warrant in a murder case. He was produced in the court on Friday where he had reportedly threatened to kill actor Salman Khan.  TNS
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 10

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today cleared 1.15 lakh more debt-waiver cases amounting to Rs 580 crore, to be disbursed to farmers across the state before January 31.

The announcement was made after a high-level meeting, chaired by the Chief Minister, which reviewed the progress of the implementation of the farm debt-waiver scheme, formally launched by the state government on January 7 with the disbursement of waiver certificates to nearly 47,000 farmers from five districts.

With the completion of disbursement of waiver certificates to these 1.15 lakh farmers, the state government would cover 1.6 lakh small and marginal farmers with a loan amount of Rs 748 crore.

Taking a serious note of resentment among the intended beneficiaries being left out, the officials concerned were directed to ensure that the disbursement process is handled smoothly and no eligible farmer is left out. The Chief Minister also instructed the officials to ensure rectification of any technical errors, such as names being misspelt, and plug any loopholes that might obstruct the efficient implementation of the scheme at any stage.

Captain Amarinder made it clear that no lapses in this regard would be tolerated.

In the first phase, the government is waiving loans taken from cooperative institutions, for which 5.63 lakh farmers have been identified for the relief to the tune of Rs 2,700 crore. The entire process would be completed in four phases, with commercial private and nationalised banks to be covered after the cooperative loans. Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh, Rural Development Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Health Minister Brahm Mohindra also attended the meeting.
Tribune News Service

Sangrur, January 10

Five days after suspected robbers fired at a woman who was seven months pregnant, leading to an abortion, the Moonak police have arrested her husband, Sandip Singh (24), and his two friends for plotting and executing the attack.

Sandip, a resident of Banga village, had claimed that he and his wife, Rimpa Rani (26), were returning home from Ratta Khera village (Fatehabad, Haryana) on January 5 when they were attacked near the Ghaggar bridge by motorcycle-borne robbers. He had stated that the assailants, whose faces were covered, looted money and gold from his wife and fired at her before fleeing.

Mandeep Sidhu, SSP, said: During our investigation, it came to light that Sandip wanted to kill his wife so that he could marry his paramour. He asked his friends, Rajat (23) and Surinder (20), to shoot her with a pistol provided by him. Since both used to borrow money from him, they agreed. As per the plan, Sandip stopped his Swift car near the bridge to enable the duo to commit the crime.

The police have recovered the pistol, a cartridge, Rs 8,000 and a gold ring.

Sandip is pursuing graduation, Rajat dropped out after Class XII and Surinder is doing a diploma course. Sandip and Rimpa had got married a year ago.

Moonak is only 3 km from crime scene, yet Sandip took his wife to Tohana, over 20 km away, driving his car slowly so that she might bleed to death on the way, the SSP added.

A case has been registered under Sections 302 (murder), 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the IPC. Rimpa is under treatment at a Hisar hospital.

Her father, Shamsher Singh, a resident of Ratta Khera village, said, Sandip must be hanged as he was responsible for the death of his unborn child. We are yet to tell our daughter that her husband got it done.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 10

Akal Takht has asked former Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD) head Charanjit Singh Chadha to appear during the clergys meeting scheduled for January 23.

Chadha was removed from the presidents post after a video clip showing him in a compromising position with a woman principal of a CKD-run school went viral. Later, he was booked on the charge of sexual harassment on the principals complaint.

The CKD executive body has called its General House meeting on February 6. The agenda would be to take a final call on Chadhas continuation in the body, said CKD honorary secretary Narinder Singh Khurana.

Hearing on bail plea today

The anticipatory bail plea by Chadha will be heard tomorrow. It was earlier listed for today, but the court adjourned it for a day for want of requisite papers.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Inspector General of Police, has demanded case records to carry on the investigation.

Three FIRs were registered in the case  first at Jalandhar police station by Chadha regarding his alleged blackmailing by certain people; second against Chadha and his deceased son Inderpreet Singh Chadha at the Airport police station in a case of sexual harassment; and the third by Inderpreets son Prabhpreet Singh against the woman complainant in the second case and 10 others for abetting his fathers suicide.

Chadha was on interim bail till January 10, which was granted to allow him to attend the cremation and last rites of his son.

Advocate Anandeshwar Gautam said the records of all three cases had been sent to Chandigarh for the SIT probe. The authorities could not produce requisite documents in the court today. Hence, the court adjourned the case for a day, he said.

In a related development, the bail plea of a local politician named in the third FIR was dismissed today.
Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 11

As inputs from across the country pour in at The Tribune office following the report exposing illegal access to Aadhaar data, it is becoming increasingly clear that not only have there been multiple breaches in the past but also the authorities have been well-aware of those. Arrests were made, investigations carried out. Yet, breaches continued.

Edit: Virtual ID for Aadhaar

FM had admitted to 20 bank frauds

Refused Aadhaar nine times, farmer at wits end

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), with the help of the Uttar Pradesh Police, had busted a statewide network in Kushinagar district in June last year and arrested six persons selling pirated software for Rs 500 to Rs 2,500 to empanelled agents under the Aadhaar Common Services Centre Scheme. Using this access, many of these empanelled agents were creating multiple login IDs for village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) hired by them.

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The district police at a press conference held after the arrests had claimed that the software was able to bypass security features, such as login ID, password and GPS location verifier.

On December 22 last year, Shiv Sena MP Anil Desai had asked in the Rajya Sabha whether anyone had been arrested for cloning fingerprints to subvert Aadhaars biometric security. In response, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology Alphons Kannanthanam had said:

Two FlRs have been filed for allegedly attempting to breach the biometric authentication process of operators. In this regard, FIR No. 396 dated 2/6/l7 was filed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in police station Padrona Kotwali in the district of Kushinagar. Another FlR No. 0361 dated 2/6/l7 was filed by the UIDAI in Kotwali police station in the district of Deoria against the culprits. Accused persons were arrested for attempting the crime.

It was, perhaps, in response to such breaches that the UIDAI subsequently had cancelled the access for VLEs. Yet, as we now know, VLEs were able to buy illegal access all over again.

Investigations have also revealed that while systems outsourced to private agencies to create other documents, such as passport, require the identity documents to be verified by a government official, that was not the case with Aadhaar cards. Private operators had the authority to verify the documents, such as identity and residence proof. As a consequence, people who should not have been able to get Aadhaar cards were also able to procure these in fake names.

One case was reported in Bhubaneswar in July last year, where a 22-year-old woman was arrested. She confessed that her name was Zeboo Asalina and hailed from Tashkent in Uzbekistan. However, an Aadhaar card was found in her possession which showed her as Duniya Khan, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi.

In a case in Lucknow in September last year, the UP Police arrested 10 members of a gang who were reported to have bypassed the security mechanisms set up by the UIDAI. The gang then allegedly used a complex method to clone fingerprints of UIDAI centre operators to log into the Aadhaar website and carry out fake enrolments.
New Delhi, January 11

The Supreme Court has directed the Uttarakhand Government to appoint the state ombudsman within three months after the passage of the Lokayukta Bill in the Assembly.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud considered the submission of the state government that it has already introduced a new Lokayukta Bill in the Assembly, which is likely to be cleared in the upcoming session.

The Bench asked the state to appoint the Lokayukta after the passage of the new law and disposed of a PIL filed by Delhi BJP spokesperson and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

Upadhyay had said the Uttarakhand Lokayukta Act, 2011, was one of the best and effective measures which was unanimously passed by the Assembly in 2011.

This writ petition is being filed...for the implementation of the Uttarakhand Lokayukta Act, 2011.

Uttarakhand is without a Lokayukta since September 2013, while more than 700 complaints related to corruption are pending, his plea said.

The apex court had on August 12 last year sought a response from the state government on the PIL seeking a direction to it to appoint the Lokayukta.

The Uttarakhand law brings the CM, all ministers, all legislators and all government servants under the ambit of the Lokayukta with a provision of punishment up to life imprisonment and forfeiture of property, the plea said.

Former chief ministers, ministers, MLAs and retired officials also come under its purview, it added. PTI
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 11

Former CM Harish Rawat today said the suicide by a transporter at the BJP office here should open everyones eyes to the impact of demonetisation and the GST on the lower-middle class.

Prakash Pandey, a resident of Haldwani, had consumed poison in front of state Agriculture Minister Subodh Uniyal last week during a Janata Darbar programme and had recounted his story before him.

Harish Rawat, while addressing mediapersons at the Congress Headquarters here today, said both the government and the Opposition should come together to discuss the dangerous impact of these measures. He said the lower-middle class in the state had weak economic foundations and was the most vulnerable to such steps.

Rawat demanded that the Uttarakhand Government should conduct a study on the impact of note ban and the GST. He alleged that development had come to a standstill in the state. Whenever the issue is raised by the Opposition, the current dispensation begins chanting about empty coffers, he said.
Quito/London, January 11

Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been sheltering at its London embassy for five years to avoid arrest, Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa announced on Thursday.

Espinosa told a press conference in Quito that Assange, an Australian, became an Ecuadoran citizen on December 12.

As a result, she said Ecuador had asked London to recognise Assange as a diplomat, which would give him immunity from arrest, a request Britain has refused.

Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition to the US, was denied diplomatic status by the UK Government.

The anti-secrecy groups chief has been based at the Ecuador Embassy in central London since 2012 after he lost appeals against sexual assault charges in Sweden.

The request for diplomatic status was made on behalf of the 46-year-old campaigner by the Ecuadorean government, which has reportedly issued a passport to the Australian national after he had sought political asylum from the South American country five and a half years ago.

The Government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter, said a spokesperson for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice, the spokesperson added.

According to media reports from Ecuador earlier this week, Assange has been registered to the province of Pichincha, which covers the capital Quito.

The public database of the countrys internal revenue service indicates that the travel document was delivered to Assange on December 21, indicating that the country is preparing for the campaigners exit from his London hideout.

Ecuador Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa has said that the country is seeking a neutral third-party nations mediation to revolve what she described as an untenable situation.

While the grant of a passport has not been officially confirmed, it is seen as part of a process to get Assange out of the UK by giving him a role at the embassy that confers diplomatic immunity.

The rape allegation against the computer programmer had followed a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm in 2010.

Assange has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the sex was consensual and that the case was politically motivated to get him extradited to the US over massive Wikileaks dumps of secret US military reports that year.

Swedish prosecutors have since dropped their investigation into the allegations but Assange still faces arrest by Scotland Yard for breaching bail conditions if he steps outside the embassy.

Assange also fears he will be extradited to the US if he leaves the building over a sealed indictment ordering his arrest.

A United Nations panel had concluded in 2016 that Assange was under arbitrary detention. But the British Government has maintained he must face justice in UK courts over his breach of bail conditions.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous sources.  AFP/PTI
Brussels, January 11

Britain, France and Germany made a joint plea to Donald Trump on Thursday to uphold a pact stopping Iran getting nuclear weapons, a day before the US President is expected to decide whether to re-impose sanctions in a move likely to sink the deal.

In sharp contrast to Trumps view that the 2015 pact was the worst deal ever negotiated, the foreign ministers of the three countries and the EUs top diplomat said there was no alternative to it and that sanctions should remain lifted.

We agree on this approach, we want to protect (the deal) against every possible decision that might undermine it, Germanys Sigmar Gabriel said alongside his French and British counterparts and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini after meeting Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

It is absolutely necessary to have this to prevent the development of nuclear weapons at a time when other parts of the world are discussing how to get them, Gabriel said.

The meeting in Brussels was choreographed to send a message to Washington before Trump is due to decide whether to re-impose oil sanctions lifted under the deal. If that happens, Iran has said it would no longer be bound by the pact and could return to producing enriched uranium.

Zarif tweeted that the meeting had shown a strong consensus that Iran was complying with the pact, had the right to enjoy its economic benefits and any move that undermines (it) is unacceptable.

E3 (Germany, France and Britain) and EU fully aware that Irans continued compliance (is) conditioned on full compliance by the US, Zarif added.

European countries have benefited from renewed trade with Iran as sanctions have been lifted, while U.S. companies are still largely barred from doing business with the Islamic Republic due to other sanctions unrelated to the nuclear issue.

The deal is working. It is delivering on its main goal which means keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check and under close surveillance, Mogherini said.

Trump formally rejected the deal in October, although the United States has not yet pulled out.  Reuters
Bangkok, January 11

A retired Japanese crime boss has been arrested in Thailand ending more than 14 years on the run after photos of his 'Yakuza' tattoos and a missing little finger went viral.

The fugitive, Shigeharu Shirai, 72, was arrested by a SWAT team on Wednesday in the sleepy central Thai market town of Lopburi while he was out shopping.

Japanese authorities have called for his arrest over an alleged role in the shooting of a rival in Japan in 2003, after which he fled to Thailand, married a Thai woman and drifted into a seemingly peaceful retirement.

That was until a Thai local posted some photos of the diminutive, frail-looking retiree playing a street side checkers game with his intricate gang tattoos on full show and a missing little finger yakuza members often slice off the tip of a finger to atone for an offence.

The photos were shared more than 10,000 times online and caught the attention of Japanese police, who asked the Thai authorities to move in.

"The suspect admitted that he was the leader of the Yakuza sub-gang Kodokai," Thai police spokesman General Wirachai Songmetta said, referring to an affiliate of Japan's largest yakuza gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi.

The yakuza emerged in the chaos of post-war Japan turning into multi-billion-dollar criminal organisations involved in everything from gambling, drugs and prostitution to loan sharking, protection rackets and white-collar crime.

They were long tolerated as a necessary evil to keep order on the streets and getting things done quickly  however dubious the means.

Unlike the Italian Mafia or Chinese triads, yakuza are not illegal and each group has its own headquarters in full view of police.

Shigeharu Shirai stands accused of shooting dead the boss of a rival faction for which seven other members of his gang were caught and imprisoned for between 12 and 17 years.

"The suspect has not confessed to murder but has admitted that the victim used to bully him," the Thai police spokesman added.

The mobster boss kept a "low profile" during his stay in Thailand, police said, receiving money two or three times each year from a visiting Japanese man.

With no passport or visa, he was officially arrested for entering Thailand illegally and will be extradited to face prosecution in Japan.  AFP.
London: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition to the US, was on Thursday denied diplomatic status by the UK. The request for diplomatic status was made on behalf of Assange by Ecuador, which has reportedly issued a passport to the Australian national after he had sought political asylum from the South American country five years ago. PTI
A man accused of pointing a gun at loss-prevention officers in a Kohls store on Monday was arrested Wednesday.

Tulsa Police detectives said Christopher Casto, 32, was taken into custody and booked into the Tulsa Jail.

Police said Casto was detained Monday by company officers at the store near 71st Street and Garnett Road on allegations that he was trying to steal a speaker. When they took him to an office, he pulled a gun, pointed it at the employees and fled, police said.

A search of Castos vehicle revealed a small-caliber silver semi-automatic pistol that matched the description of the gun pointed at the employees, police reported. Casto was booked into the Tulsa Jail about 4:20 p.m. Wednesday. His bail was set at $44,000.
A man was hospitalized after being dragged by a vehicle during a domestic dispute on Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Police were called about 4:30 p.m. to the 5900 block of North Elgin Avenue, where a father and son reportedly were involved in a dispute.

The son, who was driving a pickup, backed the vehicle up with his father reportedly holding onto it from the outside, police said.

The father was dragged by the vehicle at least 20 feet, police said.

The son left the area, and police were trying to locate him, police said. The vehicle was described only as a red Chevrolet pickup.

The father was taken to a hospital. His condition was not available Wednesday night.
Ten of Wyandotte Public Schools buses and a truck were severely damaged by an overnight fire, forcing cancellation of classes Thursday and Friday.

Wyandotte Fire Chief Jodi Francisco said the blaze destroyed the districts bus barn in addition to damaging the vehicles.

Troy Gray, superintendent of the school district, said the fire devastated our fleet. Its left us kind of in a bind.

The Fire Department received the call at 10:57 p.m. Wednesday, and firefighters were at the scene within two minutes, Gray said. A check of surveillance images showed flames as early as 10:30 p.m., he added.

The blaze was contained around 2 a.m., Francisco said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, and the State Fire Marshals Office was investigating.

We have a bus barn full of buses with fuel, so it complicates the investigation, State Fire Marshal supervisor Terry Ferrel said.

The school had a fleet of 15 buses. Gray said at least nine are needed, as about 450 students depend on them for daily transportation.

The rural Ottawa County district covers about 160 square miles, he said.

Gray said other area schools in northeastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri have reached out to lend their support.

I received phone calls from everywhere this morning, he said. Several schools called to see what they could do to help, and Seneca (Missouri) and Miami (school districts) are donating buses to use.

The Caney school district in Kansas held an emergency board meeting Thursday and approved donating a bus it seldom uses, Gray said.

They surplused the bus this morning, and theyre driving it over today, he said.

Because of that support, classes will resume Tuesday, after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on Monday.

Gray said the support from other schools makes you happy youre not alone.

Our most important job right now is to get the kids back in school, he said.

The cost of replacing the fleet and the bus barn will be about $1 million, Gray said.

School officials first announced the class cancellation early Thursday on the districts Facebook page.

Wyandotte is about 90 miles northeast of Tulsa near the Missouri border.
The mother of two brothers convicted in a fatal hit-and-run has pleaded guilty to accessory charges and other counts that could bring a sentence of up to 22 years in prison.

Gage Shriver, 21, and 23-year-old Dakota Shriver received 25-year prison sentences after being convicted of first-degree manslaughter and second-degree murder, respectively.

The charges stem from a June 5, 2015, crash that left pedestrians Noelle New dead and Maranda Talley, her friend, severely injured.

The Shriver brothers mother, Dorothea Butanda, was charged as an accessory based on claims that she attempted to conceal her sons involvement from police.

She pleaded guilty to four counts in Rogers County District Court on Thursday: accessory after the fact to second-degree murder, accessory to leaving the scene of a fatality accident, accessory to leaving the scene of an injury accident and obstructing an officer.

Butanda could face a sentence of up to 22 years, according to District Attorneys Office spokeswoman Michelle Lowry.

Authorities said New and Talley had been lying on the side of the road for more than two hours before the Shriver brothers revisited the crash site with Butanda and called 911.

New and Talley were hit by the truck while walking to a QuikTrip store in Verdigris around 3:30 a.m.

Gage Shriver struck the teenagers with his pickup truck at Gordon Road and Oklahoma 266 shortly after being punched by Dakota Shriver in what the older sibling said was an attempt to strike first during a heated argument amplified by intoxication.

Gage Shriver, who was 19 at the time, had a 0.023 percent blood alcohol concentration several hours afterward, which met the legal threshold for him to be deemed as driving under the influence.

Butanda, who is scheduled to be sentenced April 3, is free on personal recognizance.
OKLAHOMA CITY  More than half of the respondents to a poll released Wednesday believe that education funding should be increased, even if it means raising taxes.

The poll was commissioned by the Oklahoma Education Association and was conducted by Harstad Strategic Research Inc., based in Colorado.

The results are based on 502 random telephone interviews among likely voters in the November 2018 Oklahoma elections. It was conducted Dec. 7-12.

Some 56 percent said they would support increasing funding even if it means a tax hike.

Applying the poll results to the larger population, 85 percent of Oklahomans think teacher pay in the state falls a little short, somewhat short or far short.

Voters were asked about an initiative petition that seeks to raise the gross production tax to 7 percent from 2 percent on new wells to fund a teacher pay raise.

The proposal, State Question 795, drew a legal challenge from the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association on Wednesday.

The oil and natural gas industry is the largest tax payer in Oklahoma, said Tim Wigley, OIPA president. No one comes close. That makes you the largest supporter of public education and teachers.

It is ludicrous to imply that the industry does not support education, he said. It is equally ludicrous to expect one industry to carry that burden.

Supporters of State Question 795 say it would fund a $4,000-a-year teacher pay raise and provide additional money for early childhood education programs.

Survey interviewers indicated that the raise would be $5,000 because the poll was created before a raise amount had been settled upon, said Doug Folks, an OEA spokesman.

Some 32 percent of respondents said they would definitely vote yes, while 37 percent said probably and 2 percent were leaning toward a yes vote.

Some 92 percent of respondents rated the Oklahoma Legislature fair to poor on having the right approach to funding public schools. Some 87 percent of respondents rated Gov. Mary Fallin as fair to poor in her approach to funding public schools.

Voters understand this Legislature has failed miserably in its duty to provide the necessary investments in education to make Oklahoma the state it should be, said Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest.

What is clear to me is voters understand who is responsible for the education funding crisis and subsequent teacher shortage, and they want better for Oklahoma school children.
Two employees of the town of Warner resigned after a recording was made public of the men allegedly making racist comments about Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The resignations of employees Joe Swimmer and Matt McClean were announced during a town hall meeting Wednesday evening, attendees told the Tulsa World.

In the recording, two men are heard talking about receiving a day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday. One of the men in the recording says, Im not celebrating n----- day.

Another man responds, saying, Well, we can just call it J-E-R Day  James Earl Ray, referring to the man who assassinated King.

Michael Wittmer, who works in the towns street maintenance department, recorded the conversation Monday and provided the audio to local online news organization Muskogee Now. Wittmer identified Swimmer and McClean as the men speaking in the recording.

He also supplied the audio to the Tulsa World.

I thought it was real disrespectful, Wittmer told the World. He said King was someone who lost (his) life fighting for something he believed in.

It dont matter what color or what race you are, he said.

Wittmer said he witnessed similar comments throughout his eight years working for the town.

Rev. Rodger Cutler, who is president of the Muskogee NAACP branch, was one of many locals who called for the employees terminations after the recording was released.

As a citizen of Oklahoma, I was outraged and appalled that this type of behavior is still going on and tolerated in our city governments, Cutler said. It is appearing to be a trend thats going on throughout this state.

As a civil rights leader in the community, he said he felt compelled to look further into the incident and ensure it wasnt swept under the rug.

City of Warner officials reportedly hosted the town hall meeting in response to the recording. Cutler, who attended the gathering, said they went into executive session for about 17 minutes before publicly addressing the resignations and promising an investigation into the incident.

Cutler said he is pleased with the immediate outcome but added that he hopes the city looks into whether the former employees ever discriminated against persons of color. He also believes their supervisors need to be investigated.

If (the comments) have been going on for some time, then that means some higher-ups knew about it and only did something about it because of the recording, he said. Our feeling is that perhaps there are some higher-ups who need to be looked at, as well.

Warner town manager Johnny Lewis did not return a phone call Thursday. Multiple phone calls to the Warner city office went unanswered.
Frustrated by a legislative budget impasse that has stalled state progress, a statewide coalition of Oklahoma business and civic leaders proposed a comprehensive solution Thursday that would increase state revenues, fund $5,000 teacher pay raises and alter the structure of state and county government.

The proposal calls for raising gross production, motor fuel and cigarette taxes, while eliminating certain individual income tax deductions and loopholes.

The business leaders said their willingness to support the proposed revenue hikes is directly tied to lawmakers' willingness to vote for $5,000 teacher pay increases and embrace 10 reforms to the structure of state and county government, many of which also would require the public's approval through votes on constitutional amendments.

Everyone will be a "little irritated" by some of the revenue raising measures, acknowledged Larry Nichols, founder and chairman emeritus of Devon Energy Corp., who is one of the coalition members.

Ultimately, however, Nichols said he hopes that both the Legislature and public will conclude that if they accept the coalition's proposal as a package deal, most people will end up paying a little more, but the state will be a better place to live.

"It's a carefully balanced package," he said. "We in the business community spent a lot of time working on it."

The coalition includes dozens of Oklahoma's most influential citizens, including Harold Hamm, chief executive officer of Continental Resources; Clay Bennett, a member of the ownership group for the Oklahoma City Thunder; David Rainbolt, executive chairman of BancFirst Corp.; Mike Turpen, a former Oklahoma attorney general; Gary Pierson, president and chief executive officer of The Oklahoma Publishing Co.; Bill Masterson Jr., president and publisher of the Tulsa World Media Co., Phil Albert, president Pelco Structural, Claremore; Enid; and Tucker Link, chairman, OSU/A&M Board of Regents, Finley.

Key revenue producing measures backed by the coalition include:

 Raise the state's cigarette tax by $1.50 a pack, which would be projected to bring in about $243.9 million during the first full year the tax would be in place.

 Raise the starting gross production tax for all wells currently taxed at 2 percent to 4 percent and raise the starting gross production tax for all future wells to 4 percent, all wells move from 4 percent to 7 percent after 36 months which is projected to raise $133 million during the first full year of operation.

 Eliminate certain income tax deductions and tax loopholes while modernizing the tax code, which is projected to raise about $175 million.

 Increase the state motor fuels tax on diesel and gasoline by six cents a gallon to raise about $170.4 million.

To help ferret out waste in state government, the coalition is asking for the creation of an independent budget office to scrutinize state agency budgets and spending, and also find synergies across government functions.

Coalition members also want voters in each county to be able to select their own form of county government rather than requiring each county to be governed by a panel of three county commissioners. The proposed change is commonly referred to as home rule.

The coalition noted that much of the current budget impasse can be attributed to lawmakers inability to pass tax increases because of a constitutional amendment that requires revenue raising measures to be approved by 75 percent of legislators in both the House and Senate.

The coalition would like the Legislature to seek another vote of the people on whether to lower that threshold to 60 percent.

Nichols said coalition members believe that these and other proposed changes, listed in an accompanying story, would get the state back on the right track.

Nichols urged lawmakers to embrace the coalition's proposals as a package and not try to cherry pick one or two ideas.

He said the coalition's proposals enjoy widespread and growing support in Oklahoma's business and civic community, but many members would not support specific revenue-raising measures if presented as stand-alone proposals.

Nichols cited the coalition's support for raising the starting gross production tax rate to 4 percent as a proposal that he would not support as a stand-alone measure.

"As a stand-alone, I hate it," Nichols said. "As a stand-alone provision, it is not good for the state to increase the gross production tax."

However, when the proposal is made as part of a package that calls for meaningful pay raises for teachers, requires other Oklahomans to pay their fair share of tax increases, resolves the state budget impasse and requires meaningful reforms to the structure of state government, "that's a package we'll pay for," he said.

"That will allow the state Legislature next year or later this year in the regular session to go work on real problems and not spend all of this session bogged down in the same problems they were last session," he said.

Nichols said the coalition was created "spontaneously" in early December by state business and civic leaders who were experiencing a growing frustration over the gridlock in the Legislature and its inability to produce a balanced budget, get pay increases for teachers and meet the state's needs, in general.

"It's an amorphous group," Nichols said of the coalition. "There is no leader. We don't have a president. It's a self-directed group."

Governance and education reforms that Step Up Oklahoma wants the Legislature to approve or submit to voters in exchange for their support for a package of revenue raising measures:

1) Lower the supermajority threshold required in the Legislature to pass revenue raising measures to 60 percent from the current 75 percent.

2) Establish a reliable Budget Stabilization Fund that would be structured similar to an endowment where the income generated by the fund could be used to cushion the budget during economic downturns. The principal could not be invaded, so it is different from the Rainy Day Fund.

3) Require the passage of line-item budgets with effective legislative oversight.

4) Revise term limits for state legislators so they can serve a total of 16 years in the House, Senate or combination of the two legislative bodies. The new limits would not apply to anyone currently in office.

5) Grant the governor direct appointment power over agency directors for the largest eight state agencies and dissolve agency boards. Also included are the labor commissioner, secretary of education and corporation commissioners.

6) Require the governor and lieutenant governor to run on the same ticket to encourage collaboration.

7) Change the process by which Supreme Court vacancies are filled to attract the largest yet diversified pool of qualified candidates.

8) Create an independent budget office to assist with gaining interagency efficiencies and help ferret out waste, fraud and abuse.

9) Grant voters at the county level the authority to structure the form and makeup of their county governments to meet their local needs.

10) Revise the state budget to reflect all sources of revenue rather than just the amount to be appropriated.

11) Increase the pay of principals and teachers statewide.

Revenue-raising measures:

 Raise the state's cigarette tax by $1.50 a pack, which would be projected to bring in about $243.9 million during the first full year the tax would be in place.

 Raise the starting gross production tax for all wells currently taxed at 2 percent to 4 percent and raise the starting gross production tax for all future wells to 4 percent for 36 months and then tax at 7 percent, which is projected to raise $133 million during the first full year of operation.

 Eliminate certain income tax deductions and tax loopholes while modernizing the tax code, which is projected to raise about $175 million.

 Increase the state motor fuels tax on diesel and gasoline by six cents a gallon to raise about $170.4 million.

 Tax little cigars the same way as cigarettes and levy an additional 10 percent tax on chewing tobacco, which is projected to raise about $12.9 million

 Raise an additional $15 million through a wind generation tax.

 Cap the transferability and cash refundability for coal, wind and railroad tax credits to raise $18 million.

 Allow Indian casinos to use balls and dice in their craps and roulette games, which is projected to increase the state's exclusivity fees by about $22 million.

Total revenue raised: About $790.2 million
UNC Group Joins Multi-University Effort to Establish Hearing Conservation Program in Guatemala

January 10, 2018

Above: UNC graduate students Jennifer Ruths (left) and Ashley Stumpf place dosimeters on workers to measure sound levels at a sugar mill in Guatemala.

A group of faculty and students led by University of Northern Colorado Professor Deanna Meinke implemented a hearing conservation program at a sugar mill in Guatemala last month.

Meinke, UNC graduate students Jennifer Ruths and Ashley Stumpf, and Colorado State University graduate student Grant Erlandson spent a week in Guatemala to teach about the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss. The effort included implementing best practices in the hearing conservation program at the work site of the Pantaleon sugar mill.

At the site, the group performed over 50 noise dosimetry measurements of sound exposure on workers and taught a four-day Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation certification course to doctors and nurses from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras.

The mill workers were wearing hearing protection well from observation, Meinke said. In the future, we will help the plant set up annual hearing tests for the workers and perhaps be able to test how well the earplugs are fitting/attenuating the noise and if they are sufficient for the noise levels that we measured this time.

The first effort was to identify who needs to be enrolled in the Hearing Loss Prevention Program at the plant (noise measurement, noise control, annual hearing tests, hearing protection use, training).

Lee Newman, director of the Center for Health, Work & Environment at the University of Colorado, invited Meinke and her students to collaborate on the project. Hes collaborating on several other projects to improve worker health, including efforts to improve the health, nutrition and water quality for sugar cane workers.

This truly was a multi-university effort that brought together students from audiology, industrial hygiene and public health, Meinke said.



Members of the team that traveled to Guatemala pose with workers at the Pantaleon sugar mill. From to right to left: Ashley Stumpf, Jennifer Ruths, Grant Erlandson, and Deanna Meinke. Photo courtesy Deanna Meinke.
Central African refugees, exiled across the river, long for home

Over 60,000 refugees from Central African Republic have fled across the Ubangi River to the northwestern part of Democratic Republic of the Congo since fighting erupted in May. But in Kpapko, a refugee settlement not far from the town of Mobayi-Mbongo, food and water are in short supply. Kpapko's inhabitants face uncertainty and are largely dependent on the river for survival.
UNHCR staff and local authorities assist recently arrived Cameroonians seeking refuge in Obanliku, south-east Nigeria, October 2017.  UNHCR/Hanson Ghandi Tamfu

ABUJA, Nigeria  The UNHCR Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Antonio Jose Canhandula, conducted a fact-finding mission to Benue state, North Central and Cross River state, South-South Nigeria from 8 to 10th January, 2018, where he interacted with Cameroonian refugees in the Abande, Kwande Local Government Area (LGA), Utanga and Amana in Obanliku LGA.

The Representative held meetings with state government and traditional leaders, and he expressed UNHCRs commitment to work closely with local authorities to provide assistance to the Cameroonian refugees without neglecting the host communities.

We are committed to working with the Government of Nigeria to ensure that we provide a safe community environment for Cameroonian refugees and their host communities in Benue and Cross River states, said Canhandula. As such, our recommendation is that the refugees should be moved away from the border per international standards," he added.

UNHCR's immediate priority is to work together with the State Emergency Management Agency in the spirit of the 2016 New York Declaration, to create temporary camps, pending identification, with a long-term view to explore avenues that should allow refugees to live in host communities, gain access to opportunities where they can become more self-reliant and contribute to the local economy, thus fuelling the development of the communities hosting them, he explained.

Since October last year, UNHCR has seen a steady increase in the number of people predominately from Cameroons Anglophone region who have fled their homes for their own safety to Cross River and Benue states in Nigeria. Regarding the number of Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, the UNHCR Representative noted that 8,050 refugees have been registered, mainly in Cross River state. Many more have not been registered.

In the meantime, together with the National Commission for Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, UNHCR will continue biometric registration for new arrivals in Cross River and Benue states.

I would like to express my appreciation to the Government of Nigeria for the support shown so far and appreciate the efforts of the state authorities for the relief assistance provided to those arriving, said Canhandula, This, he added, is a critical life-saving measure for many that arrive empty handed.

Many of these refugees are women, children and the elderly, and they are currently being hosted by locals in Nigerian communities near the border with Cameroon. Those that have managed to cross the border into Nigeria have passed through several unofficial entry points.

The situation could worsen if a solution to the crisis in Cameroons Anglophone region is not quickly found. UNHCR is concerned that as the crisis in Cameroon continues and the government adopts extra security measures, more asylum seekers will arrive. Political dialogue is also needed, as it will help end the current crisis.

Media Contacts:
Faheemah, now 82 and largely bedridden, fled from Iraq to Lebanon with her grandson and other family members.  UNHCR/Matthew Saltmarsh

BEIRUT, Lebanon  In the hardscrabble Beirut suburb of Sad al Baoushriye, the narrow apartment rented by the Yousifs, a family of refugees from northern Iraq, is shrouded in sorrow.

The Yousifs were forced to flee the Nineveh region near Mosul in Iraq in 2015 amid a wave of reprisals against Christians and minorities, and persecution by extremists. The family of seven, who span three generations, first moved to Erbil. Then, still feeling vulnerable, they travelled on to Lebanon, with little more than memories.

Though the security worries have diminished, life in exile has itself been fraught. Soon after escaping from Iraq, Mirna, the mother, suffered another loss  her husband, Munzer, died in Beirut of natural causes. The four children, aged between 12 and 22, who are still with her in Lebanon, were left without a father.

First my son had to leave Iraq as he was being forced to go and fight, then we followed. It was too dangerous to stay, Mirna told UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, during a visit to the apartment alongside an Iraqi volunteer from the Catholic NGO Caritas, a UNHCR partner.

As she spoke, Mirna rustled around for a photo printout of the former family home, now just pockmarked walls encasing bricks, dust and twisted metal fragments. Weve lost our home. It was completely destroyed. What have we got to go back to?

A photo of the Yousif's former house in northern Iraq, destroyed during sectarian fighting.  UNHCR/Matthew Saltmarsh

As well as keeping the immediate family together, Mirna has to care for her bereaved parents-in-law. Her mother-in-law, Faheemah, 82, is nearly blind and almost entirely bedridden, having suffered a stroke and other complications; her swollen legs only carry her from bed to bathroom, when assisted. The cost of medication has stretched family finances to breaking point.

Her father-in-law, Gorgis, 83, sometimes leaves the apartment but generally ventures no further than the local church or a plastic chair in the ground-floor car park, from where he surveys the street through glassy eyes.

Weve lost our home. It was completely destroyed. What have we got to go back to?

During the visit, Gorgis broke into a mournful Chaldean chant that appeared to an outsider to be a lament for home, and perhaps the familys current plight.

Dreams of the future are mostly on hold. The familys daily preoccupation, like that of so many other refugees, is financial. The apartment that they rent in Beiruts poor quarter costs US$700 a month. Food, utilities, medicine and other costs add hundreds more to monthly outgoings. UNHCR cash assistance helps cover some of this, but it is far from sufficient.

That means the two older children, Michael and Media, 22 and 18 respectively, have to work menial jobs in Beirut to keep the family afloat. Hence their prospects are dimming  something that is a preoccupation for refugee parents the world over.

Mirna Yousif sits in the apartment in Beirut where she cares for her four children, aged 12 to 22, as well as her husband's ailing parents.  UNHCR/Matthew Saltmarsh

Mirna's mother-in-law, Faheemah, 82, and father-in-law, Gorgis, 83, have a hard time leaving the apartment in Beirut due to their health.  UNHCR/Matthew Saltmarsh

Iraqi refugees in Lebanon attend a day centre in Beirut run by the charity Caritas.  UNHCR/Matthew Saltmarsh

Iraqi refugees in Lebanon attend a day centre in Beirut run by the charity Caritas.  UNHCR/Matthew Saltmarsh

As fighting continues in parts of northern Iraq after extremists were pushed from Mosul last year, many of those forced to flee  like the Yousifs  have abandoned hope of returning home, fearing sectarian tension may endure, and are looking at a protracted exile, or moving on to other countries under UNHCR resettlement programmes, though places are few and reserved for the most vulnerable.

Earlier in the day, at a weekly therapy and discussion session for Iraqi refugees run by Caritas, dozens of Iraqi Christian refugees spoke over black tea about the pain of limbo. It is a life of frustration at best, often leaving psychological scars.

I feel Im living on borrowed time, said Laith, a man in his 60s. I want to provide for my kids, but I cant. My son used to be top of his class in Iraq. Now hes a labourer.

Among the daily challenges cited by Laith and other Iraqi Christians at the session were depression, health issues, lost opportunities for their children and financial hardship. Most expressed a desire to move on to a new life elsewhere, if possible.

I feel Im living on borrowed time. I want to provide for my kids, but I cant.

A study published by the World Council of Churches and Norwegian Church Aid indicates that sectarian feelings in Iraq had become deeply ingrained and warned that the defeat of extremists alone will not solve these underlying dangers or ensure that minorities return to their place of origin. It stressed the need to keep providing flexible and sufficient humanitarian funding in Iraq.

The diaspora is spread wide: Last year there were nearly 260,000 Iraqi refugees registered in Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

A number of refugees at the Caritas session said they felt more at ease in Lebanon, partly because of its large Christian community.

Although the conditions here are extremely difficult, the most important thing is that we feel safe, said Josephine, an Iraqi mother whose son was an engineer in Iraq. He now gets small jobs in Lebanon, and earns no more than US$400 a month.

Minorities in Iraq have been especially affected by recent violence, not least Ninevehs Christians. In all country offices, UNHCR has measures to ensure that all asylum-seekers, regardless of their religion or background, have access to its services.

Indeed, the Agency assists all refugee communities  including religious minorities  to register, including via mobile registration units, trained outreach teams and help desks in areas where these groups are concentrated.

Back in Beirut, one thing that provides a constant for the Yousifs is the local church, where most of the family joins other Iraqi Christians to pray for better times.

Gorgis, the father-in-law, worries about the familys future while they are in limbo. Every day I ask God to help us, he said, his voice cracking as he fought back tears.

Visit UNHCR Lebanon website
Syria: UN rights chief condemns spike in civilian casualties

United Nations, Jan 11 (UNI) The United Nations human rights chief has condemned an upsurge in civilian casualties in Eastern Ghouta in Syria amid the recent escalation in airstrikes and ground-based attacks by Government forces and their allies, noting that at least 85 civilians have been killed since 31 December.

The suffering of the people of Syria knows no end, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on Wednesday, noting that residential areas in Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of the nation's capital, Damascus, are being hit day and night by strikes from the ground and the air, forcing civilians to hide in basements.

He stressed that all parties are obliged under international law to distinguish between lawful military targets and civilians and civilian objects.

Since 31 December, at least 85 civilians, including 21 women and 30 children, have been killed and at least 183 injured in Eastern Ghouta, where at least 390,000 civilians have been living under siege for four years, according to information gathered by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

On 9 January, airstrikes and ground-based strikes hit a residential area in opposition-controlled Hamourya, reportedly killing at least 13 civilians. The previous day, two airstrikes and simultaneous ground-based strikes on a residential area near a market in the opposition-held town of Duma reportedly killed 12 civilians.

Armed opposition groups also continue to fire rockets into residential areas in Government-controlled Damascus. On 4 January, a rocket fired into Old Damascus hit the vicinity of a bakery, reportedly killing a woman and injuring 13 other civilians.

The High Commissioner also noted that the failure to evacuate urgent medical cases from Eastern Ghouta runs contrary to its international humanitarian law obligations to collect, care for, and take measures to evacuate the sick and wounded.

In Idlib, ground attacks and airstrikes have escalated as a rapidly-moving Government offensive gains momentum, jeopardizing the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians, said Mr Zeid, noting that an explosion on 7 January reportedly killed 28 civilians.

Both Eastern Ghouta and Idlib are considered de-escalation areas brokered in May by Iran, Russia and Turkey under the Astana process, with the stated aim to put a prompt end to violence and improve the humanitarian situation.

I repeat my call for the parties to ensure strict adherence to international law including by ensuring the protection of civilians from the effects of hostilities and to allow unhindered access by humanitarian agencies to provide badly needed aid, said Mr Zeid.

UNi XC-SNU 0928
HEINLE , Timothy, age 69, of Helena, passed away Jan. 9, 2018. Services are pending at this time and will be announced once they are completed. Please visit www.aswfuneralhome.com to offer a condolence to the family or share a memory of Timothy.

HALL , Arthur J. "Art," age 82, of Helena, passed away Dec. 26, 2017. A Memorial Service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, 2018, at Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home, 3750 N. Montana Ave., with a reception to follow. Memorials are suggested to St. Peters Cancer Fund, Compassus Hospice or to donors choice. Please visit www.aswfuneralhome.com to offer a condolence to the family or to share a memory of Art.

BINION, Ashley, age 32, of Helena, passed away Jan. 7, 2018. Visitation will begin at 12 p.m. with the family to receive friends from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 15, at Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home, 3750 N. Montana Ave. A memorial service celebrating Ashleys life will be held at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16, at the funeral home. A reception will follow the service in social hall of the funeral home. In lieu of flowers Ashleys parents (Randy and Sue Wilke) would like memorials in Ashleys name made to the YWCA of Helena, P.O. Box 518, Helena, MT 59624 or to an organization of the donors choice. Please visit www.aswfuneralhome.com to offer a condolence to the family or to share a memory of Ashley.
Presentation on UW Science Initiative Jan. 17 in Rock Springs

A leading University of Wyoming faculty member and a graduate student are scheduled to speak about UWs Science Initiative at a Rock Springs Kiwanis Club meeting Wednesday, Jan. 17.

Danny Dale, professor in the Department Physics and Astronomy, and astronomy Ph.D. student Jessica Sutter will discuss the initiative that aims to revolutionize scientific education and discovery in Wyoming.

The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. at the Outlaw Inn.

Dale, former head of the UW Department of Physics and Astronomy who is now associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, regularly visits the states high schools, junior high schools and middle schools, with a focus on student recruitment by sharing various science lessons with students and explaining how UW undergraduates are involved in cutting-edge research internships.

Sutter, from Portland, Ore., is researching galaxies nearby to our own Milky Way, particularly to determine how far away these galaxies are actually located.

The Science Initiative, initiated by Gov. Matt Mead and the Legislature in 2014, is an effort to enable world-class research and education related to pillars of Wyomings present and future economy. Through life and data sciences research that impacts areas including mineral extraction, agriculture, tourism, resource management and high technology, the initiative will impact Wyomings economy and give UW students a leading-edge skill set.

The Wyoming Research Scholars Program, one of the components of the Science Initiative, provides scholarships for undergraduates to study and conduct research with top UW researchers.

Central to the Science Initiative is construction of a $100 million facility at the northwest end of the UW campus, featuring flexible laboratories for interdisciplinary science research; the Center for Advanced Scientific Imaging; state-of-the-art greenhouses for plant research; a 200-seat active-learning classroom; and student collaboration areas to foster science innovation.

Mead, who describes the facility as a unique research and teaching environment that will transform interdisciplinary research and education, has recommended that the 2018 Legislature release $100 million previously appropriated for the project.


From hosting the Rat Pack to housing Vegas first telephone, the historic Golden Gate Hotel & Casino will celebrate 112 years of service in Las Vegas this Saturday, January 13. Founded in 1906, the iconic property invites guests to a commemorative celebration, which will include free champagne for visitors who join its One Card loyalty program; $25 match play; and special Birthday Cake shots for 99 cents  a nod to the original shrimp cocktail price.

It has been an honor to be a part of the influential evolution of Golden Gate in Downtown Las Vegas, said CEO Derek Stevens. We are grateful for how Golden Gate has paved the way for new properties such as our neighboring 18 Fremont project, and we are thrilled to see its continuous adaption to the community.

Golden Gate has celebrated some of the most colorful moments in Vegas history, spanning the roaring 20s, the prohibition era and now the 21st century. Sharing its birth year with other momentous occasions, here are other notable events and facts that happened in 1906:

The Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad was built.

The population of Las Vegas was only 30.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

President Theodore Roosevelt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating peace in the Russo-Japanese War.

The average life expectancy in the United States was 47.

The first animated cartoon was copyrighted.

The Chicago White Sox win their First World Series by defeating their crosstown rival Chicago Cubs on October 14.

90 percent of all doctors had no college education.
The Iranian oil tanker was on its way to South Korea when it collided with the CF Crystal. (Photo: AFP)

Cleanup and rescue ships have faced toxic fumes, rain and windy conditions as they scrambled to find survivors and avoid a massive oil slick since Saturday's incident.

The Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tonnes of light crude oil, has been in flames since colliding with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai.

Experts had warned that a spill of the Panamanian-flagged 274-metre tanker's cargo could spell environmental catastrophe as authorities said the ship could explode or sink.

But China's transport ministry said in a statement that as of Tuesday, "no large-scale oil spills were found on the sea surface" where the search is being conducted around the stricken vessel, which continued to burn.

The oil from the tanker is condensate oil that is expected to quickly evaporate upon hitting the water, with "very little residue on the water's surface", the ministry said.

A simulation test also found that less than one per cent of oil content would remain on the sea surface five hours after a condensate oil leak.

Thirteen search-and-rescue vessels are continuing to look for missing crew members within 900 square nautical miles of the tanker, the ministry said.

But weather conditions are unfavourable, with "overcast and rainy weather", strong winds and waves.

Of the 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis on the Sanchi's crew, only one body has so far been found.

The oil tanker was on its way to South Korea when it collided with the CF Crystal, which was transporting grain to mainland China. The Crystal's 21 Chinese crew members were all rescued.

The Sanchi belongs to the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), Iran's petroleum ministry said, and was transporting the oil to South Korea's Hanwha Total. The ship and its cargo were insured, a statement said.

This is the second accident in less than two years involving a tanker owned by the NITC.

In August 2016, an Iranian supertanker and a container ship collided in the Singapore Strait, causing damage to both vessels but no injuries or pollution.
Local lenders are in the midst of a delicate juggling act

Last week, the State Bank said the government insisted on 25 per cent credit growth this year, indicating that more cash will be injected into the recovering economy in the coming months.



The governments target is to lower interest rates to support economic growth. The State Bank expects local lenders to cut deposit rates from 11 to 10 per cent per year and lending rates from 13 to 12 per cent per year within the next one or two months, said Nguyen Van Binh, deputy governor of the State Bank.



Local banks total outstanding credits by the end of June expanded by 11.36 per cent from the end of 2009, while total deposits grew by 14.64 per cent, according to the latest State Bank data.



Credit growth is on track to reach a full-year target of 25 per cent fuelling the countrys efforts to secure an economic growth of 6.5 per cent in 2010. In the first half of 2009, credit and deposit growth hit 17.01 and 16.2 per cent respectively.



At the moment, local lenders are still cutting deposit rates step-by-step closer to 11 per cent per year. VietBank offers the highest interest rate at most terms at 11.2 per cent per year applied from July 13. Meanwhile, from July 9, Military Bank also set maximum deposit rates at 11.2 per cent per year.



Previously, larger banks such as Vietcombank, ACB or Maritime Bank have lowered deposit rates to 11.1-11.2 per cent per year. A Vietcombank official said that deposit rate cutting was a sensitive move and normally banks must do it in many small steps.



If the depositors do not find lower interest rates attractive enough, they shift to other investment channels, then sometimes we have to raise deposit rates right back, said the Vietcombank official.



Stock market brokerage firm VinaSecurities said that the process of lowering interest rates was time-consuming with at least three interest groups involved in each purpose.



The first phase of agreeing to a deposit rate level at 11.2 per cent, per year was apparently achieved. Then the next phase will be arriving at a lending rate. We remain hopeful that this can be entirely resolved in a month or so. Then credit could begin flowing more freely into the economy and the stock market as well, it said.

By Thai Thao
Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of leading private firm Vingroup, continues topping the table of the 10 richest people on the national bourse.

As of December 29, 2017, the final trading session of the year, Vuongs total asset value reached VND119.2 trillion ($5.4 billion)  significantly higher than the VND30.4 trillion ($1.4 billion) he amassed by the same point the year prior.

Most of Vuongs assets are with Vingroup (ticker code: VIC). The companys management report for the first half of 2017 revealed that Vuong held nearly 724 million Vingroup shares (27.5 per cent of the companys chartered capital). Meanwhile, Vietnam Investment Group JSC  of which Vuong holds a nearly 93 per cent stake  itself manages more than 880 million Vingroup shares (33.4 per cent). Vuong thus, directly or otherwise, holds 1.54 billion Vingroup shares  which are valued at VND119.2 trillion ($5.4 billion).

Throughout 2017, Vingroup stocks value rose by nearly 90 per cent to reach around VND77,000 ($3.50) per share in 2017s last trading session.

Beside core operations in the likes of real estate, tourism, and retail, in 2017 Vingroup expanded considerably with the VinFast mega auto manufacturing complex project now under construction in the port city of Haiphong, and in a record $740 million stock sale in Vincom Retail, a subsidiary of Vingroup.

The same year, Vingroup surpassed major auto manufacturing and assembling company Truong Hai Auto Corporation to become Vietnams largest private business on the VNR500 table.

Coming second on 2017s richest on the Vietnamese bourse table is Trinh Van Quyet, chairman of the board at private real estate developer FLC Group.

By the end of 2017, the total stock asset value under Quyets direct ownership reached VND58.9 trillion ($2.7 billion), an excess of VND25 trillion ($1.1 billion) compared to the end of 2016.

Quyet currently owns more than 318.5 million FLC Faros shares, over 135 million of FLCs, and 2.63 million of Artexs.

FLC Faros, assuming the role of both developer and contractor, reportedly owns a portfolio of construction projects with total value of about VND20 trillion ($914 million).

According to Vietnam Reports tables Profit500 and VNR500, in 2017 FLC Faros was among both the 500 most profitable businesses, and the 500 largest businesses, in Vietnam.

The third-, fourth-, and fifth-richest shareholders on the Vietnamese bourse, respectively, are Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of fledgling budget carrier Vietjet, Tran Dinh Long, chairman of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG), and Ho Xuan Nang, chairman of the board at Vicostone (ticker code: VCS), the largest manufacturer of artificial stone in Vietnam.

The total stock asset value under Thaos direct and indirect ownership reached VND24.7 trillion ($1.1 billion) as 2017 drew to a close. The value of her stock is expected to go up further, as commercial lender HDBank  for which Thao acts a deputy standing chairwoman  made its debut on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange last week.

On Forbes October 2017 table of the richest people in the world, Thao came in at 55th  10 places above former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The former is the only woman from Vietnam and Southeast Asia with assets of more than $1 billion.

Meanwhile, Tran Dinh Long currently owns upwards of 382 million HPG shares, the total value of which  around VND18 trillion ($812 million)  nearly doubled as HPG stocks price jumped by almost 100 per cent in 2017.

Vicostones Ho Xuan Nang has amassed a total stock asset value of VND13 trillion ($603 million). With profits exceeding VND1.1 trillion ($50 million) in 2017, Vicostone has joined the club of businesses counting trillions in annual profits.

Pham Thu Huong, Vingroups deputy chairwoman and spouse of first-placed Pham Nhat Vuong, came in sixth with more than 124.8 million Vingroup shares, valued at VND10 trillion ($438.6 million).

In seventh is Bui Thanh Nhon, chairman of major Ho Chi Minh City-based real estate developer Novaland (NVL). His NVL shares are about 146 million, an equivalent of VND9.5 trillion ($431 million) in value.

Pham Thuy Hang, younger sister of Pham Thu Huong, comes in eighth, owning around 83 million Vingroup shares, with a total asset value of VND6.4 trillion ($293 million).

In ninth is Nguyen Duc Tai, chairman and CEO of The Gioi Di Dong JSC, Vietnams largest distribution chain of mobile phones and home appliances  holding around 46.4 million The Gioi Di Dong shares, valued at VND6 trillion ($267.5 million) in total.

The tenth-richest stockholder is Vu Thi Hien, the spouse of fourth-ranked Tran Dinh Long, holding more than 110 million HPG shares worth more than VND5.1 trillion ($235.3 million) worth.
This photo taken on January 14, 2016, shows work by French artist Jacques Rival on show as part of the lumiere light festival in London, which the British capital will host again this month. - AFP Photo

Lumiere London, organised by the culture charity Artichoke, is returning to the city two years after its launch, running from January 18 to 21, organisers said in a statement on Tuesday.

Some streets will be pedestrianised for the occasion of "an extraordinary and immersive nocturnal art exhibition of light and sound," organisers said.

St Jamess Churchyard in Piccadilly will host an installation entitled My Light is Your Light  a tribute to Syrian refugees created by Alaa Minawi, who worked for three years as an interpreter for refugees.

On the South Bank of the River Thames, visitors will see images of dancers projected onto a dance studio and a series of 40 glowing gates along the waterfront.

There will also be a canopy of luminous spheres floating above Trafalgar Square and a psychedelic installation above the Oxford Circus road junction.

Lumiere London is seen as a way of showing off the capitals rich cultural life and drawing tourists during a traditionally quiet season.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was expecting millions of extra visitors and voiced hope that it would "transform the city and offer new perspectives on the capitals iconic architecture, streets and landmarks".
AFP/File | New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced plans to divest the city's pension fund of fossil fuel investments

While other cities in Europe and the United States have already taken similar steps, New York hailed its move as significant as it is the biggest metropolis in the country. The city suffered billions of dollars of damage in Hurricane Sandy.

New York's US$189 billion pension fund - held for city employees such as police officers, teachers and firefighters - currently has around US$5 billion in securities of more than 190 fossil fuel companies, officials said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said staff will instruct fund trustees to start analysing ways to divest responsibly from fossil fuel over the next five years, in a process that officials warned would not be easy and that would take time.

"New York City is standing up for future generations by becoming the first major US city to divest our pension funds from fossil fuels," de Blasio.

US President Donald Trump inflamed the world last year by announcing that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, setting off a crescendo of efforts by Democrat-run cities and states to shrink the country's carbon footprint.

A report issued at UN talks last November said those efforts would not fully counteract Trump's decision to reverse climate policies and promote fossil fuel use.

In December, the United States did not attend international climate talks in Paris, at which countries announced they were boosting investment in green energy and divesting from fossil fuels.

New York, home to 8.5 million residents and the US financial capital, is a bastion of opposition to Trump.

The city has filed a federal lawsuit seeking damages from BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell to help compensate its $20 billion plan to protect the city, economy and public services from the effects of climate change.

De Blasio drew comparisons between oil companies and the tobacco industry, which knowingly profited out of a habit they knew to be harmful.

COURTS 'NOT THE ANSWER'

"New York City is taking on these five giants because they are the central actors, they are the first ones responsible for this crisis, and they should not get away with it anymore," de Blasio told reporters.

"As climate change continues to worsen, it's up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient," he added.

Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell issued statements calling the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions a global issue that required more sweeping action than lawsuits.

BP and ConocoPhillips declined to comment.

"Climate change is a complex societal challenge that should be addressed through sound government policy and cultural change to drive low-carbon choices for businesses and consumers, not by the courts," said a spokesperson for Shell.

Hurricane Sandy paralyzed New York in 2012, causing nine-foot (three-metre) floods across coastal New York and New Jersey, and an estimated US$71 billion in damage.

A study published by researchers last October warned that rising sea levels from man-made climate change could prompt catastrophic flooding in New York as frequently as once every five years by 2030 to 2045.

Last month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also unveiled plans to divest state pension funds from fossil fuel investments.

In June 2016, the largest public pension fund in the US capital Washington said it had successfully purged its US$6.4 billion fund of all direct holdings in fossil fuels.

Later that year, global movement DivestInvest said funds held by institutions and individuals committed to divesting from fossil fuel had reached US$5.2 trillion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits his election campaign office in Moscow. Putin, who is widely expected to win a fourth term in the March election, promised on Wednesday to hike the minimum wage. (Photo: AFP/Alexey Druzhinin)

Speaking to workers at a factory in Tver, northwest of Moscow, Putin said the long-expected hike of the minimum wage to the so-called subsistence level, or poverty line, will happen in May, quicker than previously planned.

A person needs to earn at least the subsistence level "to have a chance to live on this wage, and if that's not the case it is not normal," said Putin, who is widely expected to win in the election on Mar 18.

He said he proposed increasing the minimum wage on May 1 of this year.

Currently the minimum wage in Russia is 9,489 roubles a month (US$166), while the poverty line is at 11,163 roubles a month (US$196).

The change would affect "about four million people," Putin said.

In a highly choreographed visit, Putin also said he would look into expediting building a bridge in the city across the Volga River and acted surprised when one worker offered to help in his presidential campaign.

"I didn't expect that. Thank you very much," Putin told the worker.

Factory workers are traditionally portrayed as the core of Putin's support base, and it was at another factory, the GAZ automaker, where he announced last month that he would seek reelection.

The Russian economy has been hit hard in recent years by falling oil prices and sanctions imposed against Moscow by the West. While the economy has come out of recession, it has not led to an increase in quality of life.

Real incomes decreased last year by 1.4 per cent according to the state statistics agency. Over 20.3 million Russians are living in poverty according official figures released last month.
An enthusiastic property market has seen correlating growth in stock prices, Photo: Le Toan

Sky-high prices

2018 is expected to be a good year for real estate stocks in Vietnam as investors make their way back to an industry that has been troubled with oversupply, price bubbles, and rampant speculation.

One catalyst for this revival is low valuation, according to Truong Hien Phuong, director at the Ho Chi Minh City Branch of KIS Vietnam Securities. Phuong pointed out that the price-per-earnings ratio of real estate stock now stands below 10, which is much below the Vietnamese average of 17 or 18. Savvy investors could make use of this opportunity to purchase stock at low prices.

Indeed, some investors have already noted this and taken action, causing a boom in stock prices. According to figures released by KIS Vietnam Securities, in 2017, more than 80 per cent of real estate stocks have risen by at least 50 per cent in market value, some by 200 per cent.

In notable cases, Dat Xanh Groups (DXG) stock increased by 95 per cent; Van Phat Hung Corporation (VPH) grew by 96 per cent; Thu Duc House (TDH) rose by 87 per cent; FLC Corporation (FLC) increased by 31 per cent; and Nam Long Group (NLG) expanded by 54 per cent.

The number of listed companies in the real estate sector increased from 11 to 57 at the end of last year, the KIS report shows.

Long-term appeal

However, low prices alone are not enough. The majority of investors will only buy into cheap stocks if they believe in the growth potential of the companies issuing these shares. In this case, real estate firms in Vietnam must have strong prospects to retain their long-term appeal.

This growth potential seems likely to be fulfilled. Economist Bui Quang Tin said that the real estate industry is now backed by several supporting factors, including the countrys good macro-economics, a stable interest margin, and an increasing amount of inbound foreign capital. These are necessary for the sectors sustainable growth.

The economy is on the right track, individuals savings are bigger, which supports the growth of real estate firms. And unlike before, real estate developers are now offering more suitable products to the market, making them easier to sell, said Tin.

He believed that stocks of leading developers will continue their winning streak in 2018.

Vietnams growing middle class and rapid urbanisation are also cited as aiding realty growth, as noted in a recent report by Vu Huu Dien, fund manager at Dragon Capital. In 2017, the percentage of real estate stock in Dragon Capitals Vietnam Enterprise Investment Limited (VEIL) increased from 13 to 17.6 per cent. This is partly attributable to the strong performances of current holdings, and VEILs participation in the share sales of major developers like IDICO and Becamex IDC.

Last month, Dragon Capital also became Hai Phat Investment JSCs strategic partner with a 15 per cent stake purchase. At the same time, other two undisclosed foreign funds were reported to have engaged in three stock purchases with the real estate field Van Phu Invest.

Real estate is also an industry of focus in 2018 for VinaCapitals main fund Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF), as the investor believes that this sector will benefit from Vietnams ongoing urbanisation and economic growth. VOF used to invest directly in real estate projects, but has now switched to a more indirect approach by buying into listed firms in property.

Opportunities are not for everyone

It is important to note that despite the sectors rosy perspective, not all firms in real estate will become diamonds in investors eyes. The attention will be reserved for companies with a wide land fund, strong experience, and good business development capacity, said Savills Vietnams investment director Su Ngoc Khuong.

Firms engaging in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) may also attract the attention of investors. Khuong highlighted that stocks of Quoc Cuong Gia Lai JSC have increased by 300 per cent and Phat Dat Real Estate Development JSC boomed by 187 per cent after both companies conducted M&As and developed projects on their own.

When the acquiring projects are eyed by major domestic and foreign firms, companies with big land banks would be at the greatest advantage. In the current busy M&A scene, with sellers dominating the market, those with land banks are in the best position, Khuong said.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc last week issued Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP on key tasks and solutions to implementing the countrys socio-economic development plan for 2018. The resolution states, A committee to manage state capital in enterprises will be established this year.

During a recent teleconference between the government, ministries, and localities, Phuc stressed that this committee, which represents ownership of enterprises state capital, will be founded in 2018s first quarter, in order to more effectively supervise and manage state capital and assets, and to create a more transparent business climate.

The Ministry of Planning and Investments drafted plan to establish this committee was submitted to the government a long time ago, following many discussions and conferences.

It will be a new agency, with personnel to be newly recruited. Some personnel will come from relevant ministries, Phan Duc Hieu, vice head of the Central Institute for Economic Management, which directly drafted the plan, told VIR. We hope the new committee will help the government to control state capital in enterprises with greater ease.

The committee will not manage state-owned enterprises (SOEs) performance, instead purely looking at their state capital and assets. All enterprises will continue operating under the law and report their operational results to their relevant sector-specialised bodies such as finance, banking, environment, and industry and trade.

The committee will take over state stakes in 30 economic groups and corporations, whose total capital and assets are valued at about $227.3 billion, equivalent to Vietnams GDP in 2017.

Sebastian Eckardt, lead economist for the World Bank in Vietnam, told VIR that the establishment of the committee is a positive initiative. He added that it not only reflects good corporate governance practices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for SOE management, but also the potential to contribute to the governments ultimate objective of enhancing performance and productivity in the SOE sector and the economy more broadly.

According to Eckardt, separating ownership and regulatory functions is important for two main reasons. First, it mitigates potential conflicts of interest in sectors where the state operates as an owner and a regulator, and can help level the playing field and enhance competition between enterprises, regardless of their ownership. Second, having a dedicated ownership agency also allows the government to professionalise the management of its assets and ensure value maximisation and performance while reducing potential fiscal risks.

Commenting on the establishment of the government-run committee, Aaron Batten, country economist from Asian Development Banks Vietnam resident mission, told VIR that if established, the committee should target a number of key objectives, such as enhancing the accountability of SOEs and developing a clear line of responsibility with the centralised body and SOEs objectives, and ensuring SOE reform is subject to clear targets and performance evaluations.

The agency should also be focused on limiting political interference in the management of SOEs, and on professionalising and empowering boards of directors to operate on a commercial basis, added Batten.

The agency should also promote merit-based appointments within SOEs, including good incentives and environment to recruit and retain full-time, specialised, and skilled individuals, Batten said. Furthermore, the agency should oblige SOEs to improve corporate governance arrangements, including providing data and information in a timely manner to the board, the centralised co-ordinating body, and the public.
Foreign tourists in Hue

The guidebook includes illustrations of dos and donts. It encourages tourists to respect local traditions, behave in a civilized manner, protect historical relics, support the disabled, elderly, pregnant women and children, and to queue up when using public services or joining activities at public places.

Thua Thien Hue houses Hue city, which was the imperial capital of Vietnam for hundreds of years. Hue is home to five heritages recognised by UNESCO, namely the Hue ancient citadel relic complex  a World Cultural Heritage site; Nha Nhac (Hue royal court music)  an intangible cultural heritage item; Nguyen Dynastys wood blocks  a documentary heritage item; Nguyen Dynastys Chau ban (royal administrative documents)  part of the Asia-Pacific Register of UNESCOs Memory of the World Programme; and literature on Hue royal architecture - a documentary heritage.

In 2017, the total number of tourists to Hue rose 16 percent to 3.8 million, contributing to the local tourism revenue of over 320 billion VND (14 million USD).

In 2018, the provincial tourism sector hopes to welcome between 4-4.2 million visitors, of which foreigners make up of 40-45 percent, up 10 percent and 12 percent from 2017, respectively, generating 4-4.2 trillion VND (176 million-184.8 million USD).
Assad's forces have upped efforts in the last days to impose control over Idlib and the Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus, the two last rebel bastions in Syria. (Photo: AFP/Omar Haj Kadour)

Ankara has been working closely with Russia and Iran to end the Syrian conflict over the last months but has stepped up pressure on Moscow and Tehran as the bombardments on Idlib intensified amid fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Russia wants to bring all the parties in the Syrian conflict together for a conference in its Black Sea resort of Sochi at the end of this month but the tensions with Ankara are proving a major obstacle.

"Iran and Russia should fulfil their responsibility. If you are guarantors - and you (Iran and Russia) are - they should stop the regime," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the official Anadolu news agency.

Cavusoglu said 95 per cent of the violations in Idlib were carried out by the regime and the groups backing the regime.

Idlib province is almost entirely controlled by anti-government forces that are dominated by a jihadist outfit known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) consisting mostly of former fighters from the Al-Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate.

'SCEPTICAL ON SOCHI'

Ankara has supported the anti-Assad opposition throughout the almost seven-year Syrian civil war while Russia and Iran have backed President Bashar al-Assad.

However, despite the differences, Turkey had teamed up with the two other powers in a bid to bring a lasting peace to Syria, even though analysts have long warned the three-way alliance is highly brittle.

In the biggest public flare-up of tensions with Moscow and Tehran in months, Ankara summoned the Russian and Iranian ambassadors over the Idlib bombing.

Assad's forces have upped efforts in the last days to impose control over Idlib and the Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus, the two last rebel bastions in Syria.

But in the meantime, Russia is hoping to hold a Syria peace congress in Sochi on Jan 29-30 with the particular aim of setting up a new constitution for post-war Syria.

But Turkey says it will boycott any talks involving Syrian Kurdish militia the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG), which controls much of northeast Syria but Ankara views as a terror group and offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

A previous attempt in November to convene talks in Sochi failed due to disagreements between the prospective participants, in particular Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We have said we will not be in any environment ... where the YPG is present," said Cavusoglu. A Turkish foreign ministry official told AFP that Ankara's attendance at the talks had not been decided.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday "intense contacts" were in progress between Russia, Iran and Turkey in order to draw up the list of participants.

With Iran and Russia themselves not always seeing eye to eye, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks Wednesday in Moscow with Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Both men emphasised the importance of the Sochi talks, with Zarif saying "we want to move together in the same direction".

"Sochi has failed to land twice and there is still not a lot of clarity about who will go," said one European diplomat, asking not to be named.

"There is a risk it will involve the wrong people at the wrong time," the diplomat added.

Aron Lund, a fellow with The Century Foundation, said: "Russian attempts to smuggle PKK-linked Kurdish groups into the Sochi talks are going to provoke Erdogan, and so he'll push all the buttons he can to stop that".

'LETTER WARNING TURKEY'

Alexei Malashenko, Research Director of the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute, said that Russia, Turkey and Iran all had different interests in the Syria conflict.

"Yet all three have an interest in a consensus. So they are damned to a consensus," Malashenko, one of the leading Russian experts on the Middle East, told AFP.

Russia is also angered by attacks on the Russian naval base of Tartus and its air base at Hmeimim in Syria last week by drones which Moscow says were sent from Idlib province.

The Russian Kommersant daily said seven military planes were "practically destroyed" but the defence ministry rejected the report.

The ministry has written to Turkish army chief Hulusi Akar and intelligence supremo Hakan Fidan to insist that the terms of a ceasefire are upheld, the defence ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda said.

A likely future sticking point between Russia and Turkey is also the fate of Assad, who Ankara has vehemently opposed throughout the conflict and Erdogan last month described as a "terrorist".
The US rescinds an administrative review of the anti-dumping duty order on steel nails from Viet Nam. - Photo kinhtedothi.vn

The review was meant for nails manufactured in Viet Nam between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017.

On September 13 last year, DOC published in the Federal Register a notice of initiation of an administrative review covering each of the 19 producers or exporters named by Mid Continent Steel and Wire, Inc. in its July 31 review request.

However, on September 28, the petitioner withdrew its review request for each of the 19 companies. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(1), DOC will rescind an administrative review, in whole or in part, if the party, or parties, that requested a review withdraws the request within 90 days of the publication of the notice of initiation of the requested review.

As MidContinent Steel and Wire, Inc. withdrew its request for review by the 90-day deadline, and no other party had requested an administrative review of this order, the department has decided to rescind the review.

DOC will instruct US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess the countervailing duties on all appropriate entries at rates equal to the cash deposit of estimated anti-dumping duties required at the time of entry, or withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption, during the period.

DOC plans to issue guidelines to calculate duties for CBP within 15 days of publication in the Federal Register.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the multinational holding company founded by Macon County Sheriff Howard Buffetts father, is promoting the two top candidates to eventually replace CEO Warren Buffett to its board.

The elder Buffett, 87, and Berkshire's 94-year-old Vice Chairman Charlie Munger will retain their positions on the board, which is expanding to 14 members from 12. But Greg Abel and Ajit Jain will also become vice chairmen and take on more duties.

Warren Buffett said on CNBC Wednesday the new board members are "part of a movement toward succession over time."

He said the move isn't due to any looming concerns, saying he's in "remarkably good health." Yet he says Abel and Jain are the right choices as potential successors.

"They've both got Berkshire in their blood," he said.

Warren Buffett in 2011 told 60 Minutes that he wants Howard Buffett to become non-executive chairman after he dies, an unpaid position in which Howard would not direct the strategy of the multibillion dollar investment firm.

Howard Buffett is a director for Berkshire Hathaway. He moved to Decatur in the 1990s to serve in an executive positions for Archer Daniels Midland Co. He has since headquartered his foundation here and donated millions to the community.

He also was a long-time volunteer for the Macon County Sheriffs Office before being named to fill the position after the retiring Tom Schneider.

Berkshire, based in Omaha, owns more than 90 companies in a variety of industries, including electric utilities, retail jewelers, insurance and BNSF railroad. The conglomerate also holds major investments in companies such as Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, American Express and Apple.

For years, Warren Buffett has said Berkshire had identified several internal CEO candidates who could replace him. He had refused to name them, but investors who follow Berkshire had long included Jain and Abel on their short lists.

This move makes the succession plan clear for investors, said Andy Kilpatrick, who has followed Berkshire for years while writing and updating "Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett."

"Now if something happens, they're right there," Kilpatrick said.

Abel, who leads Berkshire Hathaway's utility unit, will now oversee all of the conglomerate's non-insurance business operations. Jain will oversee all of Berkshire's insurance operations. He currently serves as executive vice president of National Indemnity Co.

Warren Buffett shot down the idea that Abel and Jain would share the CEO post once he's no longer running the company, saying there would be one person in the position but not saying who it would potentially be.

The company is extremely decentralized with the subsidiaries largely running themselves on a daily basis. Warren Buffett's primary role as CEO is to decide where to invest Berkshire's cash  either in its own companies, acquisitions or outside investments  and manage the executives who lead the subsidiaries.

Berkshire has grown to employ roughly 370,000 people, but only 25 of those work at the conglomerate's headquarters in Omaha.
DECATUR  The Sams Club store in Decatur is not among those closing across the country, its manager said Thursday.

Business Insider reported Thursday that Walmart is closing 63 Sams Club stores. Local media outlets in multiple states reported the closures, which in some cases were so sudden that employees found out when they showed up to work.

Reached by phone Thursday, Decatur store manager Ben Needham confirmed that the Decatur Sam's Club at 4334 N. Prospect Dr. wasnt among them.

On Twitter, the company responded to queries by saying, "After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, we've decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy."

The closures come the same day that Walmart said it would boost the starting salary for U.S. workers to $11 an hour and handing out one-time cash bonuses. The company cited tax legislation that will help it save money, but the moves also reflect the tight labor market in which employers are competing for workers.

The world's largest retailer said the moves, which also include expanded parental leave benefits, will affect more than a million hourly workers in the U.S. Employees previously started at $9 an hour, with a bump up to $10 after completing a training program. Its rival Target had raised its minimum hourly wage to $11 in October, and said it would raise wages to $15 by the end of 2020.

"Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Thursday. President Donald Trump cheered the announcement with a tweet, saying, "Great news, as a result of our TAX CUTS & JOBS ACT!"

Dozens of other companies have announced worker bonuses following the passage of the Republican tax plan. Large employers also have been under pressure to boost benefits for workers because unemployment rates are at historic lows, allowing job seekers to be pickier.

But low unemployment has meant that retailers have had trouble attracting and keeping talented workers, experts said. And there's more competition from online retailers, which typically pay warehouse employees who pack and ship orders more than stores pay. Job postings at an Amazon warehouse in Ohio, for example, offer a starting pay of $14.50 an hour.

"This is about the evolution of retail," said Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute. "The rise of e-commerce is leading to higher wages."

Walmart said the wage increase benefits all hourly U.S. workers at its stores, including Sam's Club.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
NEW YORK  When the temperature in New York plunged, so did revenue at Tanya Lim's dog-walking service.

Many of Lim's clients were among the people who decided to work from home because of the cold, so they didn't need her services. On a day when she and her three fellow dog-walkers would normally have had 15 pets to walk, Play Pals NYC had none. One of Lim's staffers made some cat-sitting visits, but all their other appointments were canceled.

"The first week after the holidays usually everyone is back working, but we're not," said Lim, who didn't charge for the cancellations.

The severe cold and snow over the past few weeks hurt many small businesses. Restaurants and retailers were among those that suffered the most because few people wanted to go out, according to Planalytics, a company that analyzes the impact of weather on businesses. It's true that severe winter weather can be a moneymaker for some businesses like plumbers and heating repair companies. But many businesses found it harder to operate  cities like Philadelphia, Detroit and Charlotte, North Carolina, had their coldest first week of January ever. Chicago's average temperature was 18 degrees lower than usual, and Atlanta's was 15 degrees below normal.

Even on days when Lim's company wasn't getting hit by cancellations, it was too cold to take dogs on walks of between 30 and 60 minutes. The shorter walks also meant less revenue, as fees are based on how much time a walker spends with a pooch. What helped Lim's overall cash flow was that her cat-sitting business had soared during the holidays while many people were away.

Snow and ice are rare in Charleston, South Carolina, but they caused the cancellation of events including a conference that Karen Moran expected to cater. Moran, owner of Sweet Lulu's Bakery & Cocktail Caravan, also wasn't able to make deliveries because bridges and roads were closed. She estimates that she lost $10,000 in revenue.

"Canceling that kind of big corporate event kind of does us in," she said. "We're not starting the new year off with our normal big push."

The weather can wreak havoc with a company's products as well as its operations. Soon after Linda Parry Murphy's company shipped bottles of a new fruit and/or herb-flavored beverage called Agroposta to customers, emails started arriving: The liquid had frozen and the bottles burst in transit.

It was part of a learning curve for Murphy. Her company, Product Launchers, imports Agroposta from Croatia and had shipped it from Pennsylvania to online customers and executives at Safeway stores, which plans to start selling the beverage later this year. Murphy and her team have now found ways to insulate cold-weather shipments, and the good news is that the shipments to Safeway were just samples.

But, Murphy says, "it was not a great first impression."

A layer of ice in northern Florida brought calls as well as complications to Bulldog Adjusters, whose employees inspect houses for damage so homeowners can file for insurance claims. The ice contributed to leaks inside people's homes, but the ice was a hazard in terms of getting adjusters onto ladders and roofs, marketing director Rosie Faulkner said.

"One adjuster went up there and he said, 'I can't do this. I'm going to slip and fall,'" she said.

The company brought in drones with cameras. But in some cases, the ice meant they couldn't get clear enough pictures of roof damage. The company advised homeowners to take whatever pictures they could of the damage inside their homes, but roof shots had to wait for the ice to melt.

The Mr. Rooter plumbing franchise in Tallahassee, Florida, hadn't gotten any calls from homeowners with frozen pipes in nine years of business before this latest spell, dispatcher Judy Matthews said. But it has been so cold that the franchise had about 30 calls for help, either because pipes burst or devices called backflow preventers failed as the temperature dropped.

"We're getting calls in the middle of the night," Matthews said. The manager and six technicians have worked longer hours than usual to make the repairs.

Bad weather slowed business dramatically at the Gotham Bar and Grill in Manhattan. On a Saturday night, it expects to serve 250 to 300 diners. On the Saturday night in the midst of the arctic weather, it had 201, managing partner Bret Csencsitz said. When it snowed last Thursday, there were 21 diners for lunch instead of the usual 60, and 80 for dinner.

The restaurant can withstand some dips in cash flow from a few days' cold snap in January. More worrisome would be a similar drop in business during February, when many diners are out of town on vacation, Csencsitz said. But the restaurant's staff sees their income from tips fall, so the Gotham looks to make it up to them.

"We look at what an average day is, and make sure everyone receives a similar amount," Csencsitz said.

Not even the promise of a hot drink had many of Marine Park Coffee's customers braving the cold. The tiny four-month-old shop in Brooklyn saw its revenue fall by more than a third as single-digit temperatures kept even the regulars away, owner Jhonn Thomassen said. When it snowed last week, with drifts of more than a foot in some spots, he had just 12 customers in the time he expected to have 50.

"It has been a little bit of a surprise. You do associate warm coffee as a way to combat the cold weather," he said. But Thomassen figures a cold snap can give him a chance to do some planning and bookkeeping.

"It's downtime I can use to brainstorm or use for other business needs," he said.
On 5 January 2018, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, received his Turkish homologue Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Elysee.

Ankaras position: this meeting should allow Turkey to strengthen its links with the European Union. It will bypass its current practice of channelling its relations through its traditional partner, Germany, with which relations are now strained.

Key point: Ankara hoped to reach an agreement with Paris on its future plans. The United Kingdom had tasked Turkey with managing the presence of the jihadists, which are now funded by Qatar. President Erdogan is aiming to fulfil two objectives of his foreign policy:

 First: obtain the support of the Kemaist Nationalists by applying the national oath of Ottoman Parliament; the reason for which the Turkish army is illegally occupying North Cyprus, North Syria and Northern Iraq [1].

 Concurrently: continue the wars through the jihadists, shifting the centre of fighting from Syria to the Horn of Africa and the Arab peninsula. This is why in the course of the past six months, Erdogan has discreetly led 1,500 soldiers to Somalia and 35,000 to Qatar. He is moving others to Sudan and is getting ready to do the same thing in Djibouti.

Pariss position: to re-establish mutual commitments, secretly taken in 2011, by Juppe and Davutoglu with London giving the go ahead. Above all, to establish a new State in the North of Syria to which Turkey would be able to expel its Kurds [2]. This agreement had been unilaterally set aside by President Holland after the battle of Ain al-Arab (the Syrian city referred to as Kobani in keeping with Nato terminology), provoking a strong reaction from Turkey: the attacks perpetrated by Daesh, on 13 November 2015 [3]. This plan is not necessarily contradictory to the current options of the United Kingdom and Turkey.

Knowing full well how reluctant Parliament would be to embark on such a venture, President Macron has chosen to ensure that there is no other option. How? opening in advance a second file.

The Return of the Jihadists

On 4 January 2018, the Secretary of State and Spokesperson for the French Government, Benjamin Griveaux, was interviewed by Jean-Jacques Bourdin on RMC and BFM TV. Benjamin declared that the jihadists made prisoners in Syria by the international coalition against Daesh (that is, by the troops commanded by the Pentagon) will be able to stand trial in the North of Syria if the judicial institutions can guarantee a fair process: where the rights of the accused are respected.

Benjamin Grivaux used to work with Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Now, he is very close to Emmanuel Macron and participated throughout the Macron electoral campaign. Bens wife, a lawyer, drafted the legal part of Macrons programme when he was standing as a presidential candidate.

Not long after, the same journalist, Jean-Jacques Bourdin interviewed in Paris Khaled Issa, a representative of the Rojava. The latter confirmed that his government is ready to try jihadists who are French nationals. At the end of a sentence, he let the cat out of the bag, announcing that the final decision aut punire aut dedere, would be taken not by France but by a global court for all jihadists whatever their nationality.

The following day, on 5 January, the same Jean-Jacques Bourdin, interviewed the Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet. She declares: there is no state out there that we recognize, but there are some local authorities, and we can accept that they can proceed with judicial proceedings.

During these three interviews, never, absolutely never, did Jean-Jacques Bourdin ask his guests if the decisions that could be announced in the Rojava would be recognized by the French Courts (Non bis in idem). Unless they were recognized, the defendants would have to be retried and could be sentenced for a second time for the same crime if they returned to France.

When Jean-Jacques Bourdin interviewed the Minister of Justice, he questioned her on other matters. He surprised the public by raising points on which the Chancellery had not for the time being communicated. He did not specify how he had access to this confidential information.

Jean-Jacques Bourdin is the husband of Anne Nivat, a war correspondent, no friend to Russia and notoriously close to the General Management of Foreign Intelligence (DGSE). BFM TV belongs to the businessmen Patrick Drahi and Bruno Ledoux. The latter had kindly provided premises for the Rojava to set up a base in Paris.

Benjamin Griveaux and Nicole Belloubet have taken care to avoid responding to journalists questions by using the words Kurd, Kurdistan and Rojava. They are only evoking the authorities (sic) of the North of Syria.

Towards a violation characterized by the Law

If Rojava were to decide to try the French, it would violate the following:

 the bilateral treaty between Syria and France which recognizes the jurisdiction of the Syrian Arab Republic as the only legitimate one on Syrian territory.

 the European Convention on Human Rights and Safeguarding Fundamental Liberties.

 art 6 provides that in order for justice to be equitable, the first thing you need is a court established by the law and a decision that can be enforced. As the Rojava does not have prisons, the options would be a not-guilty verdict or a conviction sanctioned by the death penalty (which does not exist in the countries of the Council of Europe). Of course, nothing will prevent recourse to other punishments and to discreetly recycle the accused so that they are fighting within other theatres of operation.

 its article 7 encapsulates the principle that you cannot convict someone of a crime (crimen), less still inflict a punishment (poenam) on them, unless there is a law (lex) which authorizes such action (Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege). As we write, there is no Kurdish Penal Code.

 Art 7 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, located in the preamble of the French Constitution, requires that those who request, expedite or enforce or have enforced arbitrary orders must be punished.

 the French Constitution:

 Art 55 provides that bilateral treaties regularly applied by the other signatory parties continue to be in force in France. This is the case with the bilateral treaties between France and Syria.

 Art 68 places criminal responsibility on the members of the government and the President of the Republic for any failure to execute their duties which is clearly incompatible with the exercise of its mandate.

Scrubbing out witnesses

Prior to committing themselves to a path that it knows to be flagrantly contrary to the Law, the French government has used the media to generate a phobia of the return of the jihadists. However, no other country affected by the same phenomenon has started a conversation on this theme. Nothing distinguishes these accused from other assassins that the ordinary courts have penal jurisdiction over and which normally sentence them.

Public opinion has been blinded; the government is trying to shirk off its own responsibility and its predecessors. Some of the detainees cannot but help bringing up during public hearings, their links with the DGSE and the role of the Minister of the Armies in this war.

The Phillippe Macron government is also following the footsteps of previous governments [4]. We remember for example how the Sarkozy-Fillon government managed to wash away the testimonies of French soldiers freed by Syria in the context of a peace accord with the Islamic Emirate of Baba Amr. Not a single French media has published this information, despite articles in the Arab media, in March 2012, when the French military soldiers captured by the Syrian troops were handed over to Admiral Edouard Guillaud at the Syrian Lebanese border.

Towards the automatic recognition of the Rojava

The principle of res judicata [translators note: a matter that has already been ruled upon] ensured that the Rojava was automatically recognized as a sovereign and independent state.

Historically, the Kurds are a nomadic people. They are like the Gypsies in Europe, only a warlike version. They roam about in the valley of the Euphrates and can eventually cross the North of what currently is Syria [5]. At the end of the Ottoman Empire, some groups of Kurds were recruited to participate in exterminating the Christians in general and the Armenians specifically [6]. The reward for carrying out these crimes: they receive the lands of the Armenians that they had massacred and they settled themselves there. During the French colonization, the Kurds belonging to the tribe of the Millis had been recruited to wipe out Arab nationalism in Raqqa and Aleppo, then they left Syria when it became independent.

The Rojava had been created on Arab territory where the Kurds have only established a continuous presence since the repression where they were collectively victims during the Turkish civil war in the 1980s. The Christian and Muslim Arab populations had lived there and had been expelled from there during the war against Syria. Now the Kurds were preventing them from returning there as citizens.

The Rojava was then placed in the hands of the PYD. This was a Kurdish party that was formerly of pro-Soviet Marxist-Lenin ideology, but made a sudden turn and switched to being anarchist and pro-US [7]. Despite the claims of its communicators, it retains a highly structured hierarchy, a totalitarian cult of its founder and an iron will. The best one can say is that there is parity in the positions of responsibility. They are occupied simultaneously by a man and a woman. This new organization is applied also to the general staff whereas the women are rare in this militia; in any event, more rare than in the mixed armies of the region, Tsahal and the Syrian Arab Army.

In 2013, the Pentagon had forecast supporting the French-Turkish plan in the context of remodelling the enlarged Middle East. It would have simultaneously organized the creation of a Sunnistan straddling Iraq and Syria (see Robin Wrights map). However, it abandoned these two plans when President Trump decided to eliminate Daesh, no longer considering the Kurdish question as a justification for GIs being in Syria. So, it will be necessary to also bring the United States back to the initial plan.

Furthermore, having taken into account Israels failure last year to create another Kurdish state, this time in the North of Iraq [8], Paris and Ankara must anticipate the opposition of Iran, Iraq and Syria and more generally, almost the entire Arab world.

In 2011 Ankara was proactively pursuing its desire to create pseudo Kurd state in the North of Syria. It is now opposed to it, if the new entity is sponsored by the United States (which has tried to assassinate President Erdogan three times and funded a Kurdish party to make him lose his majority in Parliament). During this joint press conference with President Macron, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had indicated its red line: to rule out any possibility for the PKK  that France is also qualifying as a terrorist organization  creating a corridor permitting it to import arms from the Mediterranean towards Anatolia in the South East. From there, the issues are limited to ensuring that the conflicts between the PKK and the Rojava provoke a clean break and that the new state does not have access to the Mediterranean as had been forecast in the initial plan.
The articles on Voltaire Network may be freely reproduced provided the source is cited, their integrity is respected and they are not used for commercial purposes (license CC BY-NC-ND).

Source: Venezuela : democracy to the test of unconventional war, Current Concerns (Switzerland) , Voltaire Network, 11 January 2018, www.voltairenet.org/article199353.html
NEW YORK  After allegations of sexual misconduct circulated on social media about James Franco, the actor told late-night host Stephen Colbert that the "the things I heard on Twitter are not accurate."

The allegations against Franco were prompted in part by Franco's best actor in a comedy or musical win Sunday at the Golden Globes for his film "The Disaster Artist." At the ceremony, Franco wore a pin supporting the "Time's Up" initiative for gender equality in Hollywood.

Actress Violet Paley said on Twitter that Franco pushed her head toward his groin in a car, and filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan claimed a $100-a-day contract she signed to perform nudity in a film of Franco's was exploitive. Actress Ally Sheedy also said in a since-deleted tweet that Franco was an example of why she left the movie business.

"I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done," Franco told Colbert. "The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn't have a voice for so long, so I don't want to shut them down in any way. I think that it's a good thing and I support it."

Franco's appearance Tuesday on CBS' "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" came hours after The New York Times canceled a public event scheduled Wednesday that was intended to feature "The Disaster Artist" director and star and his brother and co-star, Dave Franco, discussing the movie with a Times reporter.

The Times said in a statement that it had canceled the event "given the controversy surrounding recent allegations."

The scrutiny comes at a delicate moment for Franco, a contender for a best-actor Academy Awards nomination. Voting for the Oscar nominations ends Friday.

Franco said he had "no idea" why Sheedy, whom he directed in a 2014 off-Broadway play, was upset. "I had nothing but a great time with her," he said. But in reference to other behavior, he said, "If there's restitution to be made, I will make it."

"I'm here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it's off, and I'm completely willing and want to," he said.

In 2014, Instagram messages showed Franco apparently trying to hit on a 17-year-old Scottish fan. Afterward Franco said he was "embarrassed" and said social media is "tricky." ''I used bad judgment and I learned my lesson," the actor said then.

Franco also attended the National Board of Review Awards gala in New York City on Tuesday to present his film's adapted screenplay award. He didn't comment on the allegations at the ceremony. An email seeking comment from his publicist wasn't immediately returned.

Franco is scheduled to appear on NBC's "Late Night With Seth Meyers" on Wednesday.
Cultural Development Programme  Youth Arts Jamboree

Gibraltar Cultural Services, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Youth, has today launched the Youth Arts Jamboree, a cultural development programme dedicated to young people.

The activities offered in the programme are all geared for children and young people aged between 4 and 24 years old.

The Jamboree will be held from the 12th February to the 10th March 2018. Activities will include the reintroduction of school visits to the historic City Hall, led by Her Worship the Mayor Kaiane Aldorino Lopez, and a poetry jam led by Tanya Santini and Jonathan Teuma. Other events will include the established art, dance and music competitions as well as the World Book Day celebrations.

The Jamboree will culminate with a Youth Open Day organised by GCS and the Gibraltar Youth Service. The Open Day will be a cultural and youth providers fair where organisations can highlight what they can offer our youth. Some of these will include: the Scouts Movement, the Duke of Edinburghs Award, Childline, the Gibraltar National Dance Organisation, Gibraltar Academy for Music and Performing Arts and the Gibraltar Museum. The Open Day will also involve youth performances and interactive workshops. The organisers are very grateful to Gibtelecom for sponsoring part of the event.

The Minister for Culture and Youth, the Hon Steven Linares, commenting on the launch, said: It gives me great pleasure to present the full and varied development programme that has been produced by Gibraltar Cultural Services with the support of the Gibraltar Youth Service. The aim of the Jamboree is to invest in young people, to get more of our youth involved in the community, give them a voice and in turn celebrate their achievements.

It is imperative that we invest in our youth so that we can have more young people in cultural activities and that as a community, we can celebrate young peoples artistic and cultural achievements.

I look forward to the participation of many of our youth in this unique Jamboree.

CEO Designate at Gibraltar Cultural Services, Seamus Byrne, said: GCS are delighted to be able to present this development programme for HM Government of Gibraltar. We hope that this is the start of a cultural revolution that will ensure we create cultural awareness amongst our youth, so that we produce the cultural, youth and heritage leaders of the future.

We need more young people involved in photography, fine arts, drama, architecture and many other genres of the Humanities spectrum. GCS believes that the Youth Arts Jamboree initiative, will become a very important development programme for Gibraltar, as it will provide a platform that will contribute to our communitys cultural growth.
Youth Arts Jamboree - Programme of Events

Programme of Events for the Youth Arts Jamboree which was announced today by Gibraltar Cultural Services and will be taking place between 12th February and 10th March.



Monday 12th to Friday 16th February 10am to 3pm

School Open Days to the City Hall and Mayors Parlour

Organised by the Mayoral Office and the Ministry of Culture City Hall

Invitation Only

Every Monday to Friday as from 12th February 3.45pm to 5.15pm

Arts and Crafts Workshops by Teresa Moore

Organised under the umbrella of the Gibraltar Arts & Crafts Association for young people aged 4 to 8 years

For further information please contact 54006059

Every Tuesday as from 13th February 3.45pm to 5.15pm

Arts and Crafts Workshops by Kate Davies

Organised under the umbrella of the Gibraltar Arts & Crafts Association for young people aged 7 to 12 years

For further information please contact 54018012

Every Tuesday as from 13th February 4pm to 6pm

Gorhams Cave

Organised by the Gibraltar Museum

Viewing platform at Europa Advance Battery

Learn about the World Heritage Site and life during the Palaeolithic period directly from the Museums Education Officers

By appointment only.

Bookings and for further information please contact Paulette at the Gibraltar Museum on 20074289 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Every Wednesday as from 14th February 4pm to 5.30pm

Arts and Crafts Workshops by Michelle Stagnetto

Organised under the umbrella of the Gibraltar Arts & Crafts Association For young people aged 7 to 12 years

For further information please contact 54013125

Every Thursday as from 15th February 3.45pm to 5.15pm

Arts and Crafts Workshops by Kate Davies

Organised under the umbrella of the Gibraltar Arts & Crafts Association For young people aged 7 to 12 years

For further information please contact 54018012

Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th February 7pm

16th Gibraltar International Dance Festival

Organised by M.O Productions (Charity No. 265)

John Mackintosh Hall Theatre

Tickets Priced at 8 and 10

Tickets on sale as from Friday 2nd February 2018 at On Pointe Dance Shop in Casemates Square

For further information please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Every Saturday as from 17th February 4pm to 6pm

Responsible Caving

Organised by the Gibraltar Museum for young people aged 16 and over

Learn about Geology, History, Heritage, wildlife, abseiling and cave rescues directly from the Museums Caving unit

By appointment only

For further information please contact Paulette at the Gibraltar Museum on 20074289 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tuesday 20th to Saturday 24th February 7pm

13th Gibraltar Festival for Young Musicians

Organised by the Gibraltar Academy of Music and Performing Arts (GAMPA)

John Mackintosh Hall Theatre

Tickets Prices at 5 for the session and can be purchased at the entrance of the event Tickets priced at 12 for the Gala Night will be on sale a week prior to the event

For further information please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Monday 26th February 2017 5pm to 6.30pm

Withams Cemetery

An educational visit to this heritage site with hands on activities to beautify the area Organised by the Gibraltar Heritage Trust with the visit led by Dr Keith Farrell

For further information please telephone 20042844 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

6.30pm

Young Artists Exhibition

Organised by Gibraltar Cultural Services on behalf of the Ministry of Culture John Mackintosh Hall Galleries

Official Opening & Prize Giving

Invitation Only

Tuesday 27th February to Friday 9th March 9am to 9.30pm

Young Artists Exhibition

John Mackintosh Hall Galleries Entrance Free

MARCH

Thursday 1st March 9am to 6pm

World Book Day

Organised by Gibraltar Cultural Services on behalf of the Ministry of Culture

John Mackintosh Hall

Featuring a public performance at the Theatre at 4.30pm; childrens activities, book fair and much more

For further information please contact GCS Facilities Department on 20075669 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th March 10am to 3pm

Poetry Jam

Organised by Gibraltar Cultural Services and Jonathan Teuma

Central Hall

To register please contact Tanya Santini on 20067236 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Saturday 10th March 10am to 5pm

Youth Open Day

Organised by Gibraltar Cultural Services and the Gibraltar Youth Service

Central Hall

An informational arts celebration for children, young people and their families. A special day featuring an Arts Providers fair, youth performances and activities, interactive workshops, amongst others.

Entrance Free

For further information please contact GCS Events Department on 20067236 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Photo: Netflix

There is much to fear in Black Mirror, but one scene in particular keeps me up at night. Its not the quadrupedal monstrosity of Metalhead, nor the image of making love to a swine from The National Anthem. Its not the bees (not the bees!) of Hated in the Nation, and its not the man-spider of Playtest. Its visually innocuous and devoid of jump-scares or hideous beasts. Its just a human turning a dial.

At the conclusion of 2014s White Christmas, Rafe Spalls Potter sits alone in a snowbound cabin. After being egged on by Jon Hamms Matt, Potter admits to a murder and we discover that he isnt Potter, exactly; he is a sentient virtual copy known as a cookie. The cabin was a simulation and Matt had been sent in to extract a confession. Heres the scary trick: Time is subjective in the simulation, so whoevers in control can make the cookie feel as though theyre spending any amount of time trapped there. The police arent particularly fond of Potter, and as one of them is about to leave for Christmas break, he turns a dial on a computer screen to make it so the imprisoned man will live through 1,000 years for every real-world minute. Given how long the officer will be out of the office, that means millions of years of utter solitude before he might  might  be granted the sweet mercy of death.

Then the cop delivers what is arguably the most chilling line in the whole of Black Mirror: Theres a proper sentence.

But Jesus, is it? Even for a law-breaking misanthrope, thats immeasurably harsh. What can virtual Potter do? Hes just lines of code, after all. He has no mode of recourse. Hes trapped at the mercy of a criminal-justice system that regards him as subhuman; hes a victim of a law-enforcement officer who tortures him out of spite. The episode closes with Potter screaming in lonely agony while the saccharine strains of Wizzards I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday blare from a radio in the simulation. Imagine Guantanamo Bay as designed by Apple, multiply the worst isolation youve ever felt by the length of time between now and the era of the cavemen, and youll have a weak sense of what has been done.

The scene is made all the more remarkable by the fact that its not alone: Human beings are trapped in unending simulations on a regular basis in Black Mirror. Indeed, its one of the shows most common recurring motifs, appearing in no fewer than four episodes and reinforcing the idea that the show is set in a grim shared universe. In depicting that concept over and over, series creator Charlie Brooker and co-showrunner Annabel Jones make one of the most subversive and visceral arguments for prison reform that television has ever seen.

Such an argument is vital for American viewers in 2018. As has been documented time and time again, the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world, both by percentage of the national population and absolute number of prisoners. The school-to-prison pipeline is alive and well, funneling kids  disproportionately ones of color and/or from low-income backgrounds  into cells. Once imprisoned, forced isolation is all too common: According to a 2015 study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly 20 percent of state and federal prison inmates and 18 percent of local jail inmates had spent time in restrictive housing, including disciplinary or administrative segregation or solitary confinement. Experts compare harsh labor within prisons to slavery. Thats all on top of the indefinite detention in Gitmo of those accused of terrorism  a practice President Trump has repeatedly said he wants to expand.

And yet, when we hear these facts, they roll off of our backs and we think about whats for lunch. Perhaps part of the problem is how difficult it is to make prison seem excruciating in fiction, especially television, without alienating an audience. Shows about incarceration certainly dont depict it as pleasant, but they have to show a fair bit of camaraderie in order to keep viewers coming back for more. (Here, Black Mirror has an advantage in that its stories are stand-alones. Anything especially terrible will be over by episodes end, freeing you up for something fresh in the next installment.) Even Orange Is the New Black, with its salient and bold critiques of the criminal-justice system, can go long stretches without reminding you of the sheer awfulness and trapped monotony of jailed life.

The incarceration metaphors in Black Mirror, however, are pure agony. In this season fours Black Museum, we meet a sadistic, tech-savvy carny named Rolo who runs an attraction wherein visitors can execute a cookie of a convicted murderer named Clayton. He was innocent of the crime, but that doesnt matter much to profit-hungry Rolo. Much like Potter, the Clayton we see isnt regarded as human; hes just a computer program, so Rolo can get away with putting him through the horror of death by electrocution repeatedly, only to have him rebooted to do it all over again. But perhaps even more frightening than the executions is the fact that every time Clayton gets the chair, another copy of his consciousness is made  this one of his moment of electrified death  stored in a commemorative key chain that the visitor can take home. Just consider for a moment what its like for those miniature Claytons to be stuck in horror-Tamagotchis for all eternity.

Like a prisoner with a life sentence, hes not dying, but we have to ask: Is that categorically better than what he is experiencing? There is no rehabilitation for him, just raw punishment for ever and ever, amen. The fact that Clayton is a black man and some of his paying killers are rich white supremacists only cements the metaphor: As Ashley Nkadi of The Root points out, were not just seeing a vision of prison cruelty, but of the commodification of black pain that often comes out of injustice. Black Museum has been divisive among viewers (our own rankings called it the shows fourth-worst episode), but if for that reason alone, it should be a rallying cry for prison reform.

So, too, should the depictions of trapped virtual copies that, unlike Potter and Clayton, have nothing explicitly to do with law enforcement. In Black Museum, we see another cookie, that of a dead woman whose consciousness is uploaded first into her husbands mind and then into a childs stuffed animal. In White Christmas, the first cookie we meet has no charges against her  shes merely a copy of a rich lady who wants a version of herself to run her smart home. In USS Callister, we follow a spaceship-crew of facsimiles formed by a narcissistic game programmer, all of them fully aware of their past lives and unable to die or escape.

But perhaps the most potent critique of the way our society treats prisoners comes at the conclusion of season twos White Bear. The episode envisions a day in the life of a woman who wakes up with no memory of her past and journeys through a world gone wrong, where people film her on phones while she tries to escape certain death. Only at the end do we find that it was all a setup: The woman was an accomplice to a young girls murder  a crime that the woman filmed  and her sentence was to experience this via dolorosa and be mind-wiped afterward, only to go through it all over again the next day. Her cruel fate is celebrated by a vengeful public, and people line up in droves to watch her go through it in person. Its prison as spectator sport.

The key here is that were given no reason to believe shes innocent. In all likelihood, she did participate in a heinous crime. The average person would understandably want to see her pay a debt to society. But all too often, we look at criminal justice as a binary: If someone is innocent, they should walk free; if theyre guilty, they should suffer, and almost no suffering is too bad for the worst crimes. Even if were in the minority of people who oppose the death penalty, how much do we know about nonlethal methods of punishment? We may say were against torture, but we dont think too hard about whether solitary confinement is tantamount to it. We believe the punishment should fit the crime, but we dont spend much time worrying about whether that actually happens  or if a better approach might be to focus less on punishment and more on rehabilitation.

When we see these characters suffer on Black Mirror, we feel a tightness in our stomachs because we can recognize the dread of being stuck in a never-ending loop. Its a brilliant way to engage a viewer who has no immediate experience of incarceration, because it hits us with something familiar: Many of us cant necessarily relate to jail, but we can relate to loneliness and boredom. When forced to imagine the worst loneliness and boredom weve ever experienced  an extended kind of torture that lasts until the stars burn out  we clench up. This is Black Mirror at the height of its powers: It relates to your own life just enough to draw you in, then disorients you just enough that you can see real injustice more clearly.
Weinstein. Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

The alleged crimes of Harvey Weinstein are so vast and span so many decades that they cant be documented in a single film. Variety reports that Britains Channel 4 has ordered its own Weinstein documentary rivaling another film previously announced by the BBC. Theirs will take a closer look at Weinsteins power over the British film industry and how he allegedly abused it. British police are currently investigating multiple accusations of sexual assault against the mogul, ranging from incidents that date back to the 1980s to as recently as 2015. The BBC has called its own doc the definitive account on Weinstein that will look at his downfall both in Britain and abroad, and feature interviews with industry figures as well as lawyers and journalists directly involved with the scandal. The BBC doc is also expected to include interviews with accusers who have not previously come forward. Both films are expected to air this year, with the BBCs set for a theatrical release.
Gillian Anderson. Photo: Neilson Barnard/NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images via Getty Images

At an event today for the Television Critics Association, Gillian Anderson extinguished any remaining hopes that she would change her mind about returning to the role of Dana Scully on The X-Files. The actress said multiple times last year that the currently airing 11th season would be her last, and reiterated her position at the TCAs, saying definitively, Its time for me to hang up Scullys hat. It just is. But are you, like, really sure, Ms. Anderson? Im finished and thats the end of that, she added, which does sound extremely clear and final, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Theres lots of things that I want to do in my life and in my career, Anderson told the audience, and its been an extraordinary opportunity and extraordinary character and I am hugely grateful. One of the things Anderson does not want in her life, however, is a second season of the Starz show American Gods.

Near the end of last year, showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green announced they were leaving the series amidst creative differences with producers, and Anderson said today, Im not doing any more American Gods. Given the many faces Andersons Media god assumed in the first season, the character turning into an entirely different person wouldnt exactly be jarring as far as continuity goes. But unfortunately for Gods and X-Files, there can only be one Gillian Anderson.
migrant crisis

What Happens When You House More Than 1,000 Refugees on a Cruise Ship?

What Happens When You House 1,300 Refugees on a Cruise Ship?
Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Photo by Getty Images

On a freezing Monday night, a dozen New Yorkers gathered in the basement of a used bookstore. Thick stacks of letters from prisoners all over the country were piled on a worn wooden table. I read sometimes 2-3 books a day in here, with nothing else to do, one inmate, who had requested books by Tom Clancy and Robert Jordan, had written. Another wanted to read about anti-gravitational propulsion and how to unlock our Third Eye, among a wide range of subjects. I try to read everything I can about science to occupy my mind/manage my stress, but Ive noticed there arent many science books at the library here, hed observed. Reading is very strong in my cell, wrote a third, who asked for anything related to spaceships, pirates, knights or fantasy.

Lisa Davidson, a professor of linguistics at NYU and a volunteer with Books Through Bars, a group that has sent close to 100,000 books to inmates in 40 states since 1996, scrutinized the fantasy shelf. Two to three nights a week, members gather to read letters, select books, and mail them off. If I were in prison I would really want a service like this too, Davidson said, fingering the spine of A Crown of Swords, the seventh book from Jordans Wheel of Time series. Its so uncontroversial, she continued. Everyone supports education and reading books. Who doesnt want that? So why would you restrict access to this thing thats universally considered a positive?

As Davidson, and her fellow volunteers at Books Through Bars, see it, thats exactly what the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has done. As the result of a policy rolled out last month, inmates can only receive packages from a list of six Department of Correctionsapproved vendors. Despite its 22 years of operation, and a stellar record, Books Through Bars was not included among the approved vendors, nor were any other of the similar programs that operate throughout the country. Under the new rule, inmates families will also be banned from sending packages of any sort  not only books, but also fresh fruits and vegetables. The department says the policy, which is currently a pilot program at just three correctional facilities, was put in place to prevent contraband from entering prisons.

Ive had a serious escalation in the number of drug overdoses in the last few years, so this literally is a matter of health and well-being and safety, Anthony J. Annucci, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision acting commissioner, told Vulture. Anything that can come in from a non-approved vendor obviously raises that risk. My job is to make sure every inmate, when they are released, is released safe and healthy and returned to their family.

Although the DOCCS doesnt track how much contraband comes in through books specifically, Annucci said that between 2013 and 2017, contraband coming in through the package room increased by 64 percent. He disputed the notion that the new policy will limit inmates access to books, explaining that the prison libraries should be able to accommodate any inmate requests, and if that fails, inmates can go to one of the approved vendors and order directly from there.

Keri Blakinger, a reporter at the Houston Chronicle who served two years in one of the prisons participating in the new pilot program, is skeptical about the new program. When she was locked up, she read about 30 books a month, and she estimates that she found only a quarter of them in her prison library. Even the best-stocked prison library wont let inmates keep books indefinitely. The books that proved the most important to Blakinger were the ones that she was sent from the outside and, therefore, allowed to keep. There are books I read again and again, poetry I zeroed in on. I read Invictus for the first time in prison. I read it again and again to remind myself that I could make it through everything, through solitary confinement, though medical problems, through not being there for all the joys and sorrows my friends and family were going through on the outside, Blakinger wrote in an email. Some people like to read Bibles or 12-step books daily. For me it was poetry, it was crosswords, it was Infinite Jest, it was No Horizon Is So Far. I was able to read from them daily because I was allowed to keep them in my cell.

Pollack said that many of the books inmates request most often are best sellers everywhere: Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, Machiavellis The Prince and Howard Zinns A Peoples History of the United States. The New Jim Crow is popular, as is The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

The approved vendors in the pilot program have a decent selection of books, but theyre not free, as they are when requested from Books Through Bars. (The first five vendors in the program had a paltry selection that mostly consisted of coloring books, romance novels, and puzzles; the department has since added a sixth vendor with a wider array of novels and nonfiction.) The first 12 books of the Wheel of Time series, for example, are available on one of the approved vendor sites for a total of $79.96. According to Caroline Hsu, a staff attorney with Legal Aids Prisoners Rights Project, a price like that would be prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of inmates. People in prison make cents on the hour, she said. The question is, how much time and how many hoops does a person have to jump through to get the book that they want? How many barriers are there before it becomes not really access at all?

Hsu added that Legal Aid is currently assessing whether or not we need to go to court over the new policy. People have the right to read, she said.

At Books Through Bars, the volunteers often receive letters that are stamped with the word indigent, which means that the inmate sending the letter couldnt afford their own stamp. Offering to sell books for ten bucks a pop doesnt help when people are not able to afford 47 cents for posting a letter, said Seth Pollack, a Books Through Bars volunteer, while weighing a pair of zombie titles on a scale. (Most prisons place restrictions on the weight of packages coming in.)

On Tuesday night, Books Through Bars received their first letter from a facility in the pilot program that they wont be able to fill. I recently got in touch with someone from the New York Public Library, the inmate wrote. The person told me to write to you. He was hoping to find a copy of Hip Hop Files: Photographs 1979 to 1984. I really hope you have it.

Update: On Friday, Governor Cuomo directed the Department of Corrections to rescind the flawed program. In a tweet, he said: Concerns from families need to be addressed, while we redouble efforts to fight prison contraband.
Photo: Slate

It was all so fun, said Jacob Weisberg, the host of Slates Trumpcast, during a recent episode. It was a comedy that played out on a national stage. Weisberg was talking about the Nixon-era Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, the notorious blemish on American history involving a crime, a presidential cover-up, a constitutional crisis, an unraveling society, and fiery, furious tension between president and press. He may well be right, though I wouldnt know. I barely existed as a concept when Watergate played itself out, and much of what I know about Watergate comes from a few movies, recollections passed down from older people, and the myriad references deployed in mainstream reporting. (Which includes, notably, the energetic utilization of -gate as a suffix for many a modern political brouhaha.) On the occasion that I have sifted through media and literature about the scandal, fun isnt a thing that automatically jumps out at me. With the distance of time and vicarious experience, the whole thing just seemed like a giant shitstorm, one the country was barely lucky enough to survive.

Anyway, Weisberg was remarking upon Slow Burn, a new limited series podcast from Slate, which endeavors to convey a sense of just what it was like to live through Watergate. Led by Slate staff writer Leon Neyfakh and producer Andrew Parsons, the podcast is a sturdy product of deep research, archival tape, and contemporary interview recordings. Which is to say, Slow Burn is a dense listen, though it never really feels that way. Slow Burn goes down easy despite its hefty portent. Its constantly surprising. Its addictive for the right kind of casual history nerd. Its smart in its composition.

The podcast unfolds somewhat chronologically, with each episode dropping listeners in various spots across the timeline. Every edition functions well as a stand-alone story, though, of course, the point is to situate them within the broader Watergate developments at play. Neyfakh and Parsons do a good job unearthing a sprawling cast of compelling characters that carry the historical narrative forward  from the socialite wife of a complicit attorney general to a segregationist senator to an unconventional couple involved in turning a Senate hearing into prime-time television.

Slow Burn has a pleasantly simple and deliberate construction. The show is mostly built on the scaffolding of Neyfakhs workmanlike narration, which does most of the heavy lifting, with the occasional inclusion of relevant archival recordings whose scratchy textures are instantly transporting. Even more pleasant is the writings constant utilization of a one-two punch oscillating between vivid portraits of (often tragic) people and dispensing sumptuous details that effectively convey a sense of living in the era. Nowhere is this pleasure more present than in the first episode, Martha, which tells the story of Martha Mitchell, wife of Nixon attorney general John Mitchell, a tragic figure who was kidnapped, drugged, and locked up in a hotel room in an attempt to stop her from leaking the conspiracy to the public. Martha remains the shows standout entry  it made my Best Podcast Episodes list last year  not only because its the best example of that one-two punch, but also because its a startling reminder that living, breathing people who once directly experienced now-historical moments often fade in the long tail of cultural memory.

It should be noted that Slow Burn isnt just a solid exercise in the history podcast genre. The project was developed with a more timely concern in mind, which is to ask: How can the past help us understand the present? Examining parallels between the Nixon and Trump eras has been a well-trod journalistic enterprise since the dawn of the current presidential administration, but aside from one pretty forced evocation of Anthony Scaramucci early on, the podcast has been hands-off in making those connections, opting instead to focus on the storytelling and let the parallels do the work themselves. And there are so many parallels to be made: the attacks on the press, the madness of the White House, the centrality of media platforms in litigating the conflict, the performative debates over whether the public actually gives a shit about any of this. It occurs to me that the density of these parallels only poses a further challenge for the audience: to discern what is truly a historical echo and what is merely politically evergreen.

With Trump on its mind, Slow Burn additionally serves as yet another entry into the ever-growing genre of Trump-themed podcasts. And what a packed genre it is: Since the last presidential election cycle, the category has steadily expanded into farthest reaches of the space between the news, political, and polling podcasts for which Trump is the necessary precondition of stories and the seemingly endless variation of more niche constructions. Running a basic search query on the Apple Podcast app pulls back an insane snapshot of offerings: Versus Trump, The Trump Survival Guide Podcast, The Trump Report, Trump on Earth, Can He Do That?, What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law, The Trump Scorecard, etc. etc. etc. (And those dont even touch the weirder ones. In a recent piece for Politico magazine, Jaime Fuller spent time sifting through some of the more unconventional Trump-themed podcast designs, including a now-defunct project that feeds Trump tweets through a Kylo Ren voice filter. If you can dream it, the internet provides.)

Set against all those options, Slow Burn makes for a refreshingly satisfying peer. Many, if not most, of these Trump-themed podcasts tend to be anchored by a literal relationship to the current moment, and the mass gravitation toward that same direction has somewhat doomed the genre to a certain redundancy. After all, there is a diminishing marginal utility to the consumption of each successive take on the latest Trumpian hubbub. Past a certain point, the whole listening enterprise begs a question of existential futility: What are we even doing here? In comparison, bolstered by its historical view, indirect approach, and depth of reach, Slow Burn comes off feeling like a meal in a sea of snacks.

That is not to say I feel completely good about the podcast. My unease is largely tied up in the broader enterprise of attempting to build a bridge between Watergate and the current presidential drama. I cant but feel such projects are variations on the same, to borrow phrase used to describe the recent Michael Wolff book, liberal catnip. Sure, the parallels are fascinating to observe, but do they really extend beyond descriptive observation? Do they actually provide any value in interpreting how this moment will end? Furthermore, what are we saying when some of us fixate on that scandal within the context of the present? If its something along the lines of We prevailed over something like this once, well prevail again, that isnt sufficient. To think that is to at least partially subscribe to a belief that just because history rhymes, it will likely repeat. That seems more wrong than true. After all, so many things had to go right for Nixon to eventually leave office, a fact pointed out in the fourth episode, A Very Successful Cover-Up, and there are no guarantees those same things will go right this time around.

Weisbergs comment at the top of this review makes me wonder: Will we ever look back at all of this and find it funny? The answer, of course, is contingent on whether we survive it all. Here in the present, we wake every morning to a giant shitstorm of our own. For a broad cross-section of people, tomorrow is an uncertainty that variates based on the hour. Will there be a nuclear war with North Korea? Will we still have a free press? Will the system of checks and balances be corrupted irreversibly? Will the electoral maps be gerrymandered into oblivion? Here in the present, it will take a conclusion, and a lot more time, before this waking tragedy turns into a memory of comedy. I only hope we make it through to the point when we can find the fun.

Then again, Sean Spicer hiding in the bushes was pretty fucking hilarious. You can find Slow Burn here.
From Boca to Milan back to Franklin Lakes, weve finally made it to the RHONJ season finale. Siggy recently announced that she wont return to the show next year. After enduring her exhausting villain edit this season, I, for one, am relieved to know that I wont have to spend another 12-plus hours of my life watching her get offended, again and again, by Margaret. I can only imagine how the Sig feels.

While theyre out shopping for a prom tux, Joshua reveals to Siggy that hes decided on Penn State by selecting a navy-blue tie. She is over the moon, threatening to visit every weekend. (Sidebar: Penn State people are obsessed with Penn State. My dad is one of them. In my parents house, you will find Penn State blankets, Penn State mugs, a sign that says Happy Valley, at least one illustrated map of State College, and zero difficult conversations about Jerry Sandusky.) Siggy tells the camera that shes come to accept that college wont end her relationship with her son.

To celebrate Teresas birthday, Melissa, Joe, and their kids come over with wine and a zebra-print fondant cake. They jump out and shout surprise! at her when she arrives home. Not to be a literal party pooper (literal in that were talking about a party, not in that Im pooping), but in what world is this a surprise? The Gorgas parked their massive SUV directly in front of the house. Teresa plans to visit Joe at the prison that weekend, for the first time in seven or eight months  since before her mother passed away. Joe Gorga posits in a confessional that shes afraid to show Joe how angry she is.

A few days later, she loads up two of her non-Gia daughters (I dont know which two, and Im not necessarily sure she does, either) for the drive to Fort Dix. She wants the girls to hear that their father is sorry for letting them all down. Obviously, no cameras were allowed inside; this isnt Into the Abyss. Meanwhile, Melissa and Joe go decor shopping at Jonathan Adler, which is where Margaret requested all her gifts for her Studio 54themed 50th birthday party be purchased. (How have I made it this far into this recap without mentioning Margarets Studio 54themed 50th birthday party?) As they wait for Teresa to join them, Joe and Melissa speculate as to whether their brother-in-law apologized. She sounds like shes going to walk, Melissa says of the tenuous state of their union. Teresa finally arrives. Lo and behold, Joe did apologize, out loud, and everyone cried. Ill never let anything happen like this again, he promised. All is well, and their marriage is in every way fixed forever. Congrats!

Not to be, again, a literal party pooper (dont worry, still not pooping), but wouldnt Studio 54 have been an even better theme for a 54th birthday party? The numerical disparity doesnt seem to faze Margaret, glammed out for the occasion in a bright white halter mermaid gown, glitter eye shadow, and floor-sweeping fake lashes. In her backyard, she has installed a graveyard of disco balls, a concept that everyone accepts as if it were a thing, although I am pretty sure is not. The long-awaited ballroom renovation isnt done done in time for the party (looking at you, Super Joe), but her party planner nevertheless mocks it up in fine fashion, with dramatic black-and-white striped flooring and, most importantly, four enormous portraits of Margaret lining the walls. Thats just seven short of the number of Siggy photos hanging inside the entryway to her place in Boca!

Margaret isnt going to disinvite Siggy, even though she obviously doesnt want her there. Siggy isnt going to turn down Margarets invite, even though she obviously doesnt want to be there. But come party time, Siggy is nowhere to be seen, which is to say the evening gets off to a wonderful start, in a whirl of sequins and jumpsuits. Margaret makes a grand entrance on a (fake) horse that requires eight people to drag inside. Its not long before a rumor makes its way through the grapevine: Siggy is in the hospital. Hearing this, Danielle rolls her eyes up at the jeweled triangle currently decorating her forehead. Apparently, she fell on her way to the party. She has a swollen, almost a broken ankle, says Dolores, not exactly helping to up the pity-winning drama factor. Melissa, too, is a little skeptical that Siggy just happened to injure herself on the way to an event she is undoubtedly dreading. But soon enough, Siggy is liveblogging her various X-rays and CT scans in texts to everyone but Margaret.

Cut to Siggy and Michael Campanella leaving the emergency room. Her heel missed a step, she explains, and she fell down a total of 18 stairs. (Cut to flashback footage of her miserably groaning at the bottom of said stairs, which strikes me as a little unnecessary.) Now, she has a sprained ankle and a badly bruised arm in a sling. Siggy insists she has no choice but to take the party by storm, given the reports of shit-talking shes heard from Dolores. And so with one foot in a furry slipper, the other in medical walking boot, Siggy defiantly arrives at Studio 50. Fake horse, shmake horse  thats an entrance. Teresa optimistically interprets Siggys better-late-than-never appearance as proof that shes willing to work on her relationship with Margaret, when in fact this is simply proof that Siggy will never, ever admit defeat.

In front of her host, Siggy declares that didnt want to come to the party at all. Margaret takes exception to this, and brings up her snubbing of Marge Sr. I dont want to be friends! is Siggys thoughtful, measured response. I came here to be with Teresa and Melissa. Margaret suggests she fucking leave, which seems appropriate. Even Dolores acknowledges that Siggy is, well, not in the right frame of mind for this event. She and Teresa escort their banged-up, loopy friend home.

And so this is the way season eight ends: Not with a bang, but a sprained ankle.
Photo: Getty Images

At the Golden Globe awards ceremony on Sunday night, while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement, Oprah Winfrey used her enormous platform and oratory skills to shine light on a little-known historical figure whod died at the end of December: Recy Taylor. Taylor was a black woman who, in 1944, was kidnapped and gang-raped by a group of white men while she was coming home from church. The men threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone. But Taylor immediately began sharing exactly what had happened to her, both with her family and local law enforcement. And though there was abundant evidence, the men were never charged. Even so, Taylor pursued the case, risking her life and property.

Taylors case caught the attention of the black press and a pre-bus-boycott Rosa Parks, then at the NAACP, who came to Taylors hometown of Abbeville, Alabama, to advocate for justice. Justice was unfortunately never found. Filmmaker Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story) recently made a documentary about Taylors horrific assault and her bravery in speaking out called The Rape of Recy Taylor. The film was released just three weeks before Taylors death at the age of 97. Vulture caught up with Buirski a few days after the Globes to talk about the Oprah effect, the choice she made to use race films in her documentary, and her rush to make the film before Taylors passing.

Were you surprised to see Recy Taylors name mentioned in such a prominent way at the Golden Globes on Sunday night?

I was thrilled. But there was a part of me that wasnt surprised. Because [Oprah Winfrey] said, there is someone you should know from history, leading into it. And when she said it, I was thinking there is only one person who would warrant this kind of attention, in light of the climate that were in and the movement that is developing. If were talking about a historical person, this is the person we should be talking about. So, when she said her name, there was a part of me that said, finally. It just felt inevitable. But thats not to say I wasnt thrilled and jumping up and down.

And how did Recy Taylor first come to your attention?

I read a book called At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle McGuire. She spends the first few chapters of that book on Recy Taylor and her relationship with Rosa Parks. As soon as I read it, I was absolutely committed to making the movie. My producer and I literally ran down to Abbeville to interview her, and her brother and sister, almost a week later. We understood how old she was, and we committed ourselves immediately to doing it, without any money or anything. We just had to do it.

Was this before 2011, when the state of Alabama issued a public apology to her?

No, I only started working on it in 2015. Heres another case where this apology was issued and then shes forgotten again. This is a woman who has been unrecognized for such a long time. After the grand jury hearings that did not indict the rapists, she was basically forgotten by the organization that had been championing her cause. They moved on to others, which was understandable. But she got left, as they say, in the dustbin of history. And her brother, Robert, has made it his mission in life to not let that happen, to make sure that no one forgets who Recy Taylor is. He helped the woman who was writing the book, and he got very involved with helping with the film.

You said in another interview that you hoped the film would help drive a reckoning beyond the apology. What did you mean by that exactly?

I think what were talking about is that more people, not just the legislators from Alabama, appreciate the profound trauma and crime that took place in September of 1944 in Abbeville. They should be incredibly moved by what [Taylor] went through and by her courage to speak up. And to understand that what happened to her, happened to many. Thats where the reckoning has to come. Its not only supporting Recy Taylor, but understanding how systemic this was and how many African-American women have gone through this for decades.

The footage you used from African-American films from that time, or race films [cheap films made with all-black casts for black audiences in the early 20th century] was very effective for that.

Thank you.

So how did you come to the decision to use those films?

Well, actually, you answered that question by asking it, right after we started talking about how it was happening to many women. Thats the answer. I realized that we needed to express that [it was happening to many women]. And I didnt just want to express that with [a talking head] telling me that, I wanted to express it visually and symbolically. And these race films spoke to me. They became beautiful symbols, in a way, of what had happened to other women. Theres almost a biblical quality about the aesthetic of those films  I thought people would then begin to appreciate the exhaustive number of women that were affected by this terrible brutality.

I have another formal question. You mentioned Robert, Recys brother, and hes used very prominently in the film, but you made the decision to not show Recy until the end of the film, which gives the effect of showing that she outlived her attackers  which is quite remarkable. But what made you decide to hold that reveal till the end?

It kind of happened almost inadvertently. What you just said, the effect it had, was something that ratified the necessity to do that, because she was ailing and she wasnt able to speak to us very much. So that interview at the end was very short; we didnt have very much. Now, there has been other footage of her and other interviews with her, but we wanted this to be more personal, so we wanted it to be our interview. And since she wasnt available and able to speak to us that much, once we cut the film and we put that at the end, we realized how effective it was. Sometimes these things happen by chance. It just felt like the right thing once we looked at it that way, thats what we felt we had achieved: making us feel that she had outlived all these people.

I see. Are the other interviews from documentaries? I believe yours is the first?

No, no, when she got the apology there were a couple of small interviews with her, but no other documentaries on her. Can I just go back [to the previous question]? As far as footage, we had the family movies, we saw her at a different age, we have the photographs, so I hope she still has a presence in movie. And we thread her voice through the film. It was just the actual contemporary footage that had to be curtailed.

And Im sure your footage of her was probably some of the last footage of her since she died so recently.

It is. Theres nothing else after that.

Wow. And I know this is sort of a difficult question, but did you feel a special pressure making this as a white woman, telling the story of two prominent black women?

I knew that for some black women there might have been concern about a white woman telling it, but overall everyone has been extremely receptive to this movie and just so happy it was made. I approached it as a white woman who has tremendous empathy and responsibility to tell these stories, that are really American stories, not just race stories. However, I also appreciate the fact that I cannot tell the story the way an African-American woman would tell it, so I understand Im bringing a different dimension to the story. And Im hoping that the story gets told again by everybody.

Like Loving. You made the documentary The Loving Story and then somebody else made the fiction film Loving.

Yes, yes, thats right. Basically, everyone who tells the story brings their own dimension to the story, whatever their ethnic background, whatever their religious background, somehow that gets worked into the fabric of the film, very often unconsciously. But I think it helps these stories that should be told again and again, for them to be told by different people.

By a black woman next, for instance!

Oh, I hope! Absolutely. But theres another thing to keep in mind, and that is that sometimes when youve lived it, and this is a painful thing to have lived, sometimes its hard to tell that story. Im not saying that black women shouldnt tell it; Im sure they will tell it. But I can imagine for some, they might not want to go there. I, for instance, dont tell stories about the Jewish Holocaust. I am a Jewish white woman who has heard so many stories from relatives and people I grew up with, that its something that would probably be too painful for me to talk about. Im not saying thats the only reason I tell the story and a black woman hasnt. I know black women will tell the story and they should. But I feel there could be an element of that; it wasnt news to them. White women, to understand how many black women were raped in the Deep South in the 20s, 30s, 40s  ever since the Civil War basically  that with somewhat new for me.

Recy Taylor. Photo: The Orchard

I noticed in looking at your career that youve obviously made films about civil rights but also about somewhat reluctant activists, or average people who become activists.

Yes! Im aware of it when its happening, but I dont set out to do it. I was certainly aware of the relationship between Mildred Loving and Recy Taylor. They are, to me, such noble heroes. Because they didnt set out to change history, but they responded to what happened to them with such principle and such nobility, that history would change.

And thats often how we think of Rosa Parks, as someone who refused to get to the back of the bus. But your film highlights how, no, she was a professional activist.

Thats right!

Was that new to you in researching this?

Not totally new to me, because I had done enough reading about Rosa Parks in the past to know she had been an activist, but I knew it was going to be new for most people. It wasnt until I got involved with this story that I realized that she played a specific role with Recy Taylor or about rape. One of the things to keep in mind is much of the activism at that time dealt with voting rights and those broader issues, but most of the women at the time were very involved with assault, because it was happening so frequently. Again, that to me is one of the great reveals in the film. This was happening frequently enough that you had women like Rosa Parks and others who were focused on working with these women and trying to help them. That was a very important theme in the film.

So, you were making this film before the Weinstein allegations and everything thats happened afterwards. What do you think is the lesson or invigorating effect of this film at this moment?

I think its a reminder that it takes enormous courage to speak up, but some women have been speaking up for a long time.

Whats really remarkable to me is it didnt even seem like a choice to Recy, at least the way you present it. She had no other choice, she had to speak the truth.

And thats what she says. She actually used those words; she had to speak it. I think that comes from the fact that there is no shame for her. Thats another thing that ties her to the African-American women who were molested at that time: They knew this was systemic. They knew this came from a sense of entitlement that white men had, that it came from slavery, that this was part of the heritage of being a black woman in the days, and they didnt feel they done anything to generate this. That sense of shame that women often have after being abused? I dont know about you, but Ive certainly gone through things like that. I dont think Recy Taylor felt that. I think she had the strength of her family, the strength of her religion, and most importantly she knew she hadnt done anything wrong.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
NEW YORK  Are you a royal desperado, in that binge watching kind of way?

The House of Windsor, under that and other grand names, has provided five British monarchs to date, but it took you a quick minute to breeze through the recently released second season of "The Crown" on Netflix. And the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle isn't until May 19, for heaven's sake.

Word is the third season of "The Crown" won't be released until 2019, so what's a royal obsessive to do in the interim? Some ideas on what to read and watch while you wait:

A coronation

The Smithsonian Channel will mark the 65th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on Jan. 14 with a rare TV appearance by the queen herself in a new documentary about her big day, aptly titled "The Coronation." The 91-year-old monarch has a look back at the King Edward crown she wore only once, a solid gold, 5-pound ornament made in 1660 with 440 jewels. The documentary, to be shown in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, is a partnership with the BBC and Australia's ABC.

"Victoria"

How about some appointment TV for the second season of this Masterpiece series that began in 2016? Season 2 begins on Jan. 14 and a third season has been confirmed. The show so far has focused on the early days of Queen Victoria's reign. It stars Jenna Coleman as the young and angsty Victoria and Tom Hughes as the curt but cute Prince Albert. Most Americans know the show as a PBS series, but each season has aired in the United Kingdom on ITV before hitting the states. There's plenty of "Upstairs Downstairs" drama and oddly amusing one-liners to make it all worthwhile.

House of Windsor

"Diana, in Her Own Words," ''Empire of the Tsars," ''Prince Philip: The Plot to Make a King," ''Elizabeth at 90: A Family Tribute," ''The Royals" and "The Royal House of Windsor" are all available on Netflix. Love them or hate them. Just know that the mix of drama and documentary is there for you. The first season of the "The Royal House of Windsor," a Channel 4 doc in the United Kingdom, includes interviews and archival footage that jibes nicely with events covered in "The Crown." It begins during World War I as the family navigates anti-German sentiment and rebrands as Windsor from previous family names of German descent on the paternal side.

Interested in time hopping? There's the Showtime series "The Tudors," available on Netflix. It stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and covers the tumultuous 16th-century court of King Henry VIII. And there's "Reign," a vivid drama originally on the CW that spans the rise of Mary, Queen of Scots. It's also on Netflix. Plenty of sex and political intrigue there. Just sayin'.

Latest from the big screen

If you feel like big and fresh film productions, find "Dunkirk" and "Darkest Hour." They've got you covered on World War II England. In the latter, Winston Churchill (this one played by the recent Golden Globe-winning Gary Oldman and Gary Oldman's movie prosthetics) is newly appointed as prime minister and must decide to fight or negotiate with Adolf Hitler. The gritty "Dunkirk" puts viewers on the beach and in the heart of peril as the famous evacuation during fierce battle unfolds in the French town of Dunkirk.

Out in 2017 and still to be had on demand is "Victoria & Abdul," a follow-up to Judy Dench's star turn in the 1997 "Mrs. Brown." Both feature Dench as a sad Queen Victoria.

What to read

There's an official companion book to "The Crown." Written by British historian Robert Lacey, "The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 1" covers 1947 through 1955. For all those viewers of the series who found themselves Wikipedia-ing and YouTube-ing real events depicted on the show, this book will be dessert. In addition to production and cast details, the book includes loads of photos and fact-checking. More volumes are expected. Look up Lacey for other royal matter he has taken on.

One could get lost in the reading options spanning the family's branches, generations and real-life drama, all offering different tones and levels of credibility.

One book, described by the Sunday Telegraph as possessing a "bouncy charm," is "Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage," by Gyles Brandreth  who, according to Amazon, has met all the principal players, quotes no anonymous sources, has known the Duke of Edinburgh for 25 years and interviewed him. The book came out in paperback in 2016.

Going way back, if you're up for a bit of literary controversy, pick up "The Royals" and take in provocateur Kitty Kelley's 1997 look at behind-the-scenes Buckingham Palace.

Take a Prince Charles time out with a fresh look at the life of the oldest heir to the throne in more than 300 years with "Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life," by Sally Bedell Smith. It's out in paperback and includes the years after the death of Diana and his marriage to Camilla.

What to dip into online

The New York Times website recaps each episode of "The Crown" in text stories, but it goes the extra mile. Through the miracle of hyperlinks and its own "Times Machine" function, the site links wanderers to the paper's original reporting  and its original pages in PDFs detailing numerous actual events covered in the series.

The History Channel  being, well, the History Channel  is all over "The Crown." Its website, History.com, is a palooza of fact-checking and other period reportage spanning the private life of Queen Elizabeth II to the Suez crisis and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. There are side-by-side period photos of key scenes and characters, including Netflix queen Claire Foy smack next to the actual queen in the same pose. There are links galore to British Pathe and other archival video. And there are book and other citations for your next fix.
Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace. Photo: FX Networks.

Though one might think it would be flattering to have your family members played by Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez, the Versaces are no fans of the upcoming season of American Crime Story. On Monday, the family issued a statement criticizing the upcoming season, saying, The Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace, and slamming the book on which it is based, Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth. This TV series should only be considered as a work of fiction, the family wrote.

This, however, has not stopped the drama from escalating. After producer Ryan Murphy defended the series on Tuesday, insisting that it is not a work of fiction, the Versace family put out a second, longer statement on Wednesday condemning both the series and the bogus book Vulgar Favors. The company producing the series claims it is relying on a book by Maureen Orth, but the Orth book itself is full of gossip and speculation, the family wrote. Orth never received any information from the Versace family and she has no basis to make claims about the intimate personal life of Gianni Versace or other family members. In the new statement, the family criticizes one point of fact in specific, saying that Orth makes assertions about Gianni Versaces medical condition based on a person who claims he reviewed a post-mortem test result, but she admits it would have been illegal for the person to have reviewed the report in the first place (if it existed at all). The phrase medical condition is a reference to Orths claim in Vulgar Favors that Gianni Versace was HIV positive at the time of his death. American Crime Story also depicts Gianni as HIV positive and has the character seek treatment in one episode.

In his previous defense of the series, Ryan Murphy stood by Orths reporting. Versace is based on a non-fiction book by Maureen Orth that has been discussed and dissected and vetted for close to 20 years, he explained. She worked for Vanity Fair. Maureen Orth is an impeccable reporter and we stand by her reporting. Our show is based on her reporting so, in that way, it is not a work of fiction, its a work of non-fiction obviously with docudrama elements. Were not making a documentary. In a surreal twist, Murphy also added that Donatella Versace sent Penelope Cruz, who plays her in the series, a flower arrangement to say good luck before the Golden Globes this Sunday. It might be awkward the next time they see each other.
Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images for Coachella

Its true that Radiohead hasnt yet filed a lawsuit demanding royalties from Lana Del Rey for allegedly copying Creep in Get Free, the album closer from Del Reys recent Lust for Life. Yet its unlikely that Lana Del Rey would tweet about the prospect of being sued by Radiohead unless it were a serious possibility. Its undeniably true that, though lovely, Get Free is no Blurred Lines or Uptown Funk. Even if the chord progression in the verse sections of both it and Creep are parallel and music law makes a successful lawsuit plausible or even likely, the royalties to be gleaned, relative to the wealth of both parties, would be minor at best, making pettiness on the part of Thom Yorke & Co. the leading if not primary motive in this whole weird affair. Potential or real, win or lose, the lawsuit is a bad idea; youd have to look back to Metallica suing Napster to find a case that sunk the plaintiffs image with comparable speed. Which leads us to ask: Couldnt Radiohead just do something  else? In the absence of any real substance in the issue, we compiled a series of things the band could do that would be smarter than suing Lana Del Rey.

Sue Coldplay.

Infringement-wise, mirroring a few chords from Creep, a mewling Anglo-grunge hit whose tone Radiohead did everything not to repeat, is nothing compared to the heist pulled off by Coldplay. Chris Martins band took everything pop-compatible in Radioheads sound and ran with it all the way to the bank. Though music law wont mandate an actual payout, Radiohead deserves a fraction of every dollar Coldplay has made since their debut.

Go to California and eat some grass.

Rampaging fires, sexual-assault scandals, and predacious nerd orgies aside, California remains the most beautiful region in the English-speaking world, and all that beauty is sure to come through extra colorful when influenced by marijuana, which is legal in the Golden State, and extremely legal especially for rich Europeans like, I dont know, Radiohead? Were not saying Radiohead has fallen off in recent years, but if they were, a thick dose of tetrahydrocannibinol might be just the ticket to restore their flagging creative spirits.

Form a supergroup with other titans of 90s beta male rock.

More of a comment than a question, but given that weve heard everything that Radiohead and Weezer and the Smashing Pumpkins are ever going to say on the passive fantasies, agonies, and ecstasies of being a guy looking enviously at, and retreating into seclusion from, the world populated by more assertive men, machines, and women who wont look back at them, would it really be such a bad idea for them to join together and pool their old ideas? Yorke revisiting Today, Corgan covering In My Garage, Cuomo doing High and Dry  its nice to imagine, but given the way these guys are, theyll probably just imagine it without making it happen.

Learn to surf.

Surfing is vigorous fun, and it dramatically improves your skin tone. This shouldnt be read as implying that Radiohead is a gang of pasty Brits inclined toward fragile, miserymongering music, but then again it shouldnt not.

Buy a castle in Scotland.

For whatever reason, investing in Scottish real estate has long held great appeal for wealthy English natives. Its not just aristocrats, either: Paul McCartney has owned a picturesque farm property on a southwestern peninsula for over 50 years, and even wrote a hit song about it, complete with bagpipes. (To be fair, Paul  sorry, Sir Paul  is now an aristocrat.) Given that a Beatle has already paved the way, no one will look sideways if Radiohead buys a mist-enshrouded castle and records a Scottish-sounding album there. They could probably be knighted, too, and no one would care.

Sue Taylor Swift.

Prior to the release of their last album, 2016s A Moon-Shaped Pool, Radiohead deleted all their previous posts on social media; prior to the release of her last album, 2017s Reputation, Taylor Swift deleted all her previous posts on social media. Coincidence? Maybe, but if chords are fair game for a lawsuit, then why not publicity strategies? Though theyd surely fail to carry the case against Taylors legion of attorneys, at least theyd gain some indie cred by punching up.

Disband, take a break, then get back together.

In the later 90s, Radiohead nearly broke up under the pressure of newfound fame. To their credit, they stuck it out and channeled their internecine strife into lasting albums. Some two decades later, it seems likely that the band could use a break. The most interesting music being made by its members isnt being made within the band; its lead guitarist Jonny Greenwoods scores for Paul Thomas Anderson films, beginning with the score for There Will Be Blood. Giving all five members time to branch out individually seems like the surest way to revitalize their output as a collective.

Sue themselves.

If Coldplay was the band that profited the most by doing less effective renditions of Radiohead in the aughts, the band that profited the most by doing less effective renditions of Radiohead in the current decade is Radiohead.

Remember that time they let people pay what they wanted for an album.

It was only a decade ago that Radiohead released an album for download online and let fans pay whatever sum of cash they deemed fit: 2007s In Rainbows ended up making the band more money than they would have normally; since it was also a superb album, Radiohead ended up garnering an inordinate level of critical and popular goodwill while making solid bank. It looked good then, but it looks kind of hypocritical when contrasted with the legal tug-of-war the band is indulging in presently.

Listen closely to Lana Del Rey, and her fans.

Though its doubtful that Radiohead at this point would be able to learn anything from Lana Del Rey, that hardly means that listening to her music would be a waste of time. Shes wicked smart and sings beautifully about violent male power and feminine myth  whats not to like? Certainly paying attention to her music would make it easier to start inferring that shes built a fan base teeming with the kind of smart women ill-inclined toward Radiohead, a band theyre likely, through experience, to associate with men who think theyre smarter than they are. Rhetorical clashes between Radiohead stans and Lana zealots will not be battles that end well for the former party; the bands reputation will be punctured past the point of all repair. In short, the more one hears what Lana Del Rey communicates with her music, the more one realizes how terrible of an idea suing Lana Del Rey would be.

Do less.

Because, unlike Radiohead, doing less is underrated.
Photo: Getty Images

Who the hell is Vicky Krieps, and where did she find the nerve to be so damn good? These are the questions you might be asking yourself while watching the new Paul Thomas Anderson film Phantom Thread, where Krieps holds her own and then some against the most formidable scene partner imaginable, three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis. In the sly period drama, 34-year-old Krieps plays Alma, a waitress who is swept up in the life of meticulous couturier Reynolds Woodcock (Day-Lewis). He expects her to assent to his domestic demands, as the lovers before her have done, but Alma is formidable in her own right and Krieps brings an implacability to their confrontations thats truly astonishing. When the two go head-to-head, you truly cant guess who will triumph, and last month in Los Angeles, the Luxembourg-born Krieps told us how she managed to find that inner strength.

Ive heard that when you taped an audition for the film, you didnt know what the project was, or even that the director was Paul Thomas Anderson.

They sent me an extract from the text, just some lines of Alma put together, but it didnt say anything on it about what kind of movie it was. I did have a very strong connection to the words and to the way she was speaking: It was a woman talking to a man, like as if Alma was talking to Reynolds, and you could tell that there was something not so easy in the relationship. You could tell that there was adulation for him, but at the same time, an insecurity. It said in the lines, Is he going to throw me off the cliff at any moment? It was a woman in love with a man who she cannot place, and she cannot hold him, she cannot own him.

So you sent in this audition tape, expecting nothing in particular. What happened next?

It was my agent who called me and said, The directors very happy with the tape, and she was very excited  I could tell in her voice, because shes usually not. And she said, Hes asking to have your phone number, and I said, Yeah, whatever, you can give him my phone number. And she goes silent for a long while, and then she said, Vicky, sorry, but do you know what were talking about? And then I said, No, no, its true. I forgot the name of the director. Whats the name of him again? Because I thought it was some student film or something, and she said, Paul Thomas Anderson, and then she said the names of the movies and of course I realized it then and I was very surprised and overwhelmed.

Maybe that took the pressure off your first audition! I presume that Paul called you next?

I was walking on the side of a lake out of Berlin  we have beautiful lakes out of Berlin  and suddenly this number with a plus-one appears on my phone, which I think is the first time ever a plus-one called me. I always remember that was the moment where I realized something is different now, you know? Then we talked on the phone and it was a very nice conversation. He said he was trying to get to Berlin, because he was going there anyway for some music stuff, so we met in Berlin, we read the script, and then he said, Come to London. I went to London and I read the script once with Daniel and Paul, and thats when they decided they would ask me to play Alma.

When you were going to London to read with Paul and Daniel, how did you feel?

I was very nervous. It felt like that was the real audition, and I guess it was, in a way. I was with my aunt who lives in London, and I said, I have this audition. Its very important. And she said, Vicky, I will buy you a shirt. You need a nice shirt. The way she was talking about it was like if you were going for a job interview, you know what I mean?

Its funny to hear this from your perspective because when I asked Paul whether you were ever nervous, he said he was never able to detect that from you.

[Laughs.] Yeah.

The whole situation is not unlike what your character goes through: Youre thrown into this unfamiliar, intimidating environment and somehow you need to find the strength to hold your own. How did you do it?

Thats a very good question. I think one thing I did was to follow my intuition, which I always do, and Alma does too. I knew I would be working with Daniel Day-Lewis, and you just have to say the name and everyone goes ,Oh my God! I knew I would meet someone who would be so out of the ordinary that I couldnt prepare for it, so I tried to take my weakness and make it my strength. I tried to know even even less than what I know, I tried to be even less than who I was, and I think this is where Alma gets her strength. I went into this space where I could be completely empty, because if you manage to be present in the moment, all you have to do is listen and answer and then you become very strong, because nothing scares you anymore. What makes us afraid or weak, I think, is when we have these expectations and we go, I will have to be good because I am the actress in this movie and he is this Hollywood director, oh my God! I just emptied my head of all of this thinking and tried to be very focused and empty, actually, and then there was no fear.

Do you remember what you shot on your first day?

Yes, very much. Its not in the movie anymore, but the movie used to begin with a church where Reynolds would discover Alma by chance, and it was so weird and so scary. Because we didnt have trailers, I was sitting in this little pub somewhere in the English countryside knowing, Okay, this is my first day, my first scene. Then I got a letter from [Day-Lewis as] Reynolds, and flowers, and it was just too much. I did exactly what I just told you now: I just went very quiet and very small. I became this creature that doesnt need much and doesnt have much. She just is, and tries to just be.

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What was it like once you were finally seated opposite Daniel in a scene and had that back and forth?

Its a very intense energy, yet very kind, warm, and loving. Its almost like meeting someone from an ancient tribe from somewhere far away, you know? You can feel his huge heart inside, which is so warm and loving, but still, it has the glow of something outerworldly.

On There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson actually replaced the original actor hed cast opposite Daniel Day-Lewis. Were you aware of that?

I wasnt. This is so interesting!

Its probably better that you found out after you finished filming!

There was a point when I realized that if I was too scared or wouldnt have been up to the job, they would have probably just pulled me out. Which, in the end, is a good thing to know.

How did Paul make space for you to find the character?

I think he gives you a lot of confidence and freedom. He trusts you. Hes like, You are my Alma now, so you tell me. He really gives you the freedom to speak for the character, and this gives you the ability to then go further, because whatever you will say will be right. And then also, there was the set. The set was the most quiet set Ive ever, ever been in. You could hear a needle drop, and it was like this every day. For three months, every day the set was like a sacred place, like a church almost. And I think by doing this, Paul invites all the magical things that can happen when you pay attention, you know?

That strength that you found in Alma, that ability to be present and to let all of the other voices go  is that something that now you can bring into your real life?

Yeah, I think so. I watch the movie now and I go, I cannot really believe that I was taking this for three months, every day. I was taking it with my head up high, and I wouldnt fall, so after the movie, I had to find some way to get back to my life. I wouldnt say I was lost, but I made a big, big journey with a big boat far out on the ocean.

So how did you reconnect with yourself?

I found meditation. It was more out of pure desperation, I just started to wake up at 5 and sit for one hour and suddenly, day after day, piece by piece, I could really feel I was coming back into me.

After all that time spent on the film, now youre out there promoting it, often alongside Daniel, who was in character the entire time you were shooting. What is it like to get to know him outside of that experience?

Its very interesting. Its nice, and its a relief.

Does it feel like you almost have to become acquainted with this new person?

No, because every actor is in his character. You find them in the character and ultimately its the person himself speaking through the character, so it doesnt feel like I have to make a new acquaintance. But it was a very positive surprise. It was almost like a relief to see this so much younger person in there. Hes so much younger and so much more alive.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Logan Paul. Photo: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images for Rolling Stone

YouTube has finally announced disciplinary measures it will take against Logan Paul for the video he posted on New Years Eve of a dead man hanging in Japans Aokigahara Forest. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the vlogger will no longer appear in the fourth season of the YouTube Red series Foursome, and the future of The Thinning: New World Order (a sequel to his Red starring vehicle The Thinning from 2016) has now become uncertain. A YouTube spokesperson also said in a statement that his new Originals are on hold. The most immediate dollars-and-cents impact on Paul, though, will be his channels removal from the Google Preferred advertising program, which allows the platforms top creators to take in more revenue by letting brands sell against their content. This is the same type of reprimand that YouTube levied against the massively popular personality PewDiePie, who was penalized after posting anti-Semitic content on his channel.

YouTube had been slow to issue a substantial response to Pauls distressing video, which he removed after taking heavy criticism. (He also apologized and then announced a hiatus to take time and reflect.) First came a statement offering condolences to the deceased mans family, and then came a series of tweets from yesterday that acknowledged their lack of action regarding Paul, without including any kind of apology for the delay and saying only that they were looking at further consequences for Paul. It sounds like the ad demotion and the pause of Pauls projects are the aforementioned consequences, but considering how PewDiePie has tacked on a few million more subscribers since having his wrists slapped by YouTube (he is now approaching 60 million), the real impact on Pauls vlog will only be made clear over time.
DECATUR  The Decatur man accused of climbing into a strangers car while wearing a Chicago Cubs hat and a surgical mask and then punching the driver in the head will be examined by a doctor to see if he is fit to stand trial.

Tyler J. Kirkwood, 32, appeared in custody in Macon County Circuit Court on Wednesday where his defense attorney, David Ellison, made a motion for the mental health examination. Macon County States Attorney Jay Scott raised no objection.

Judge Phoebe Bowers granted the motion and scheduled a status hearing for Jan. 24 to allow time for a doctor to examine Kirkwood and make a report.

Kirkwood has yet to enter a plea to a charge of aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony punishable by two to five years in prison if convicted. A sworn police affidavit said that on the night of Dec. 20 he suddenly climbed into the backseat of a 58-year-old mans car as he was getting ready to drive away from a downtown Decatur parking lot.

The driver immediately jumped out of his car, followed by Kirkwood, and when the driver asked him what he wanted. ... Tyler stated, I thought you wanted me in the car... and then punched him in the face two times, the affidavit said.

The driver, bleeding from the nose, fought back by kicking Kirkwood in the crotch, and said his assailant took off running. Police arrested Kirkwood a short time later, and patrol officers said he was talking nonsense, claiming to be suffering from caffeine-itus.
DECATUR  A Decatur woman, angry at her 80-year-old male roommate, dumped a pot of hot beans over his head and inflicted second-degree burns that needed hospital treatment, prosecutors said.

An arraignment hearing was held in Macon County Circuit Court on Wednesday for defendant Kikia L. Fullenwider, 42. Police said she dumped the beans because she was angry that he would not get off the phone fast enough.

Judge Phoebe Bowers said there was enough evidence to arraign Fullenwider in the Dec. 28 incident, which happened at the mans home in the 1300 block of East Sedgwick Street.

Fullenwider, represented by attorney David Ellison, pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated domestic battery and two counts of domestic battery.

Police officer Randy Clem testified that he had arrived at the mans home to find cooling beans splattered all over him and where he had been sitting.

His clothing was wet and there was steam arising off his clothing? asked Macon County States Attorney, Jay Scott. Yes, said Clem.

Bowers allotted the case for a pretrial hearing Feb. 27 and placed the case on the trial call of Judge Thomas Griffith. Fullenwider remains in the Macon County Jail in lieu of posting $1,000 bond.
The Waco Stars Square Dance Club will start New Dancer Mainstream Square Dance Lessons at 7 p.m. Monday at Allemande Hall, 106 Westlake Drive in Speegleville.

There is no cost for the first two lessons, and the cost for remaining lessons is $3.

Call or text 715-2749 or email Wendellmr662@gmail.com for more information.

Black Gospel Restoration

Baylor Professor Robert Darden will share a portion of his Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at 11 a.m. Sunday as part the of Church Under the Bridge worship service on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The church meets under the Interstate 35 overpass at South Fourth Street. Everyone is welcome.

Pro-Life Waco

Pro-Life Waco will have its Second Sunday Ecumenical luncheon and meeting at noon Sunday at the St. Marys parish hall, 1424 Columbus Ave.

An Italian buffet luncheon will be served throughout the noon hour for $3. Lunch is free for children and first-time attendees. The meeting will encourage participation in the upcoming 40 Days for Life Prayer Vigil at the new Planned Parenthood.

For more information, contact John Pisciotta at 644-0407 or email prolifewaco@gmail.com.

Archeological Society

Central Texas Archeological Society will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Mayborn Museum.

Guest speaker Cynthia Valle will present her research on a Busycon Columella (whelk shell) gorget found in a rockshelter in Coryell County. Of particular interest will be the possible trade routes that brought the shell to Central Texas. Valle participated in the dig through her studies at Baylor University. The public is invited to attend.

Healthy Pet Clinic

The Animal Birth Control Clinic, 3238 Clay Ave., is having a Healthy Pet Clinic from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

Lifetime registration microchips, feline vaccinations, distempter/parvo vaccinations, heartworm tests, rabies vaccinations, flea control, and heartworm prevention will be available. Prices can be found at www.animalbirthcontrol.org.
As a fearsome weapon, the Bowie knife recently donated to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum speaks for itself.

It is 17 inches long, with a bison horn hilt and a sturdy high carbon steel blade featuring the Texas clip characteristic of knives made famous by James Bowie, the Alamo hero.

But a closer look at the silverwork on the knifes scabbard gives a tantalizing sign of its true significance. Engraved in a flowery script are the words: R.P. Bowie to Capt. Wm. Y. Lacey.

That would appear to be Rezin Pleasant Bowie, Jims big brother, who helped popularize the Bowie knife in the 1830s and was known for giving them as gifts. William Lacey, or Lacy, is obscure today but accompanied Jim Bowie in his rambles around Texas and later served as a Texas revolutionary soldier, a Texas Ranger and mayor of Palestine.

The knife and a folder full of research on it arrived at the museum in December in a FedEx box from Rudolph W. Gleichman, a Pennsylvania arms collector. Ranger museum officials want to continue researching its authenticity but say it is potentially a marquee artifact for their collection. It will likely go on display this spring.

It was a nice Christmas gift for Waco, museum director Byron Johnson said. It would be very significant given his association with his brother and the fact that its inscribed to someone who was a Texas Ranger. That makes it very worthwhile for us. I would say it will be one of the treasures we have in the museum.

Johnson said the authenticity of the knife may never be proven, but so far he sees no reason to doubt it.

Gleichman, a former insurance underwriter who served as president of the Maryland Arms Collectors Association, spent about $400 for the knife in 1982.

I bought the thing in the parking lot of a gun show from a picker, Gleichman said. I saw it for what I thought it was, an important item. I spent a year researching it.  It turned out the gentleman who owned the knife was an intimate friend of the Bowie family. Everything seemed to fall into place.

Gleichman collected opinions of silversmiths and knife experts and published descriptions of the knife in arms collecting publications. Around 1988, he also showed it to Gaines DeGraffenreid, founding director of Wacos Ranger museum, who was impressed and hinted that the museum would like to acquire it.

Now 91, Gleichman decided he was ready to part with his treasures.

I dont need money per se, he said. I just thought it would be wonderful since the gentleman who owned it was an important person who had a relationship with the Bowie family, it would be nice to give it to the museum that authenticates and collects these things.  Its a treasure for anyones collection.

Johnson said the knifes story may end up like a lot of forensics investigations, based on circumstantial evidence.

He said the artifact has all the marks of a Bowie knife manufactured in the 1830s, when the knife became popular across the frontier. He said the knife is undated but may precede Jim Bowies death at the Alamo in 1836.

Johnson said it would not be unusual to find a forged inscription on a Bowie knife, but it seems unlikely that a forger would have chosen William Lacy as the recipient.

Theres only about half a dozen historians who have heard of William Lacy, he said.

William Lacy, a Kentucky native, moved to San Augustine, Texas, with his father in 1830, according to the 1881 Encyclopedia of the New West.

He was about 18 in 1834, when he headed out to the Tarrant County area with Jim Bowie to prospect for gold.

By this time Bowie and his knife were already a legend thanks to the notorious Sandbar Fight on Sept. 19, 1827, across the Mississippi River from Natchez. Bowie, who was a second to one party in a duel, ended up being attacked himself by the other party. Using a large hunting knife, he reputedly killed one opponent, badly wounded another and was hospitalized for a shot to the lung.

Bowie family lore holds that R.P. Bowie had invented the knife several years earlier on their plantation in Louisiana after Jims encounter with a rogue bull. The handle guard was intended to keep the blade from slipping and injuring the hand.

The knife became popular throughout the country immediately after the Sandbar fight, and R.P. Bowie had blades forged in Louisiana and Pennsylvania. Four other knives that R.P. Bowie inscribed as gifts to friends are known to exist.

Jim Bowie moved into Texas in 1830 to snap up land grants from the Mexican government and hunt for gold.

During the Texas Revolution in 1835-36, he won lasting fame as a military leader, dying in the siege of the Alamo in San Antonio.

Lacy briefly served as a captain in the revolution, then went on to organize Texas Ranger militias in East Texas in 1837. He surveyed parts of East Texas and went on to become a prosperous landowner and mayor in Palestine after the Civil War. He died in 1892.

In later life he remembered Jim Bowie as a gentleman with no trace whatever of the border ruffian that these same wild tales have handed down to us.

Nothing is known of what happened to the knife before or after Lacys death, if in fact it belonged to him.

Gleichman said that mystery has always been an intriguing part of owning the knife.

Ive looked at it a million times and said, If you could just tell me your background history, what youve been through, he said. Thats one of the things that just grabs you.
Wilton Lanning, the longtime owner of Padgitts, founding president of the Dr Pepper Museum and W.W. Clements Free Enterprise Institute, and a Waco historian, died of a sudden illness Wednesday at 81.

Retired State District Judge George Allen was a longtime friend of Lannings and said they went to lunch together on an almost weekly basis. Allen praised Lanning for his community activism and his dedication to the development of the Dr Pepper Museum and W.W. Clements Free Enterprise Institute.

Wilton was a good friend, Allen said. We met in 1952 at Waco High School in Mrs. Barkleys algebra class and we graduated from high school together in 1955. Wilton went to Baylor, and I went to A&M and we were on the same deer lease for 25 years. We went to lunch on Thursday, and he was telling me about writing a story for your newspaper about Doris Miller and his parents. He was a good friend, and I will miss him.

Lanning, a Baylor University graduate, was the longtime owner of Padgitts until his retirement in 2005. He helped found the Dr Pepper Museum and W.W. Clements Free Enterprise Institute. A bronze plaque honoring Lanning and the late W.W. Foots Clements was unveiled at the museum in 2014 to commemorate their work in establishing the facility. The museum opened to the public in 1991.

Lanning was also a member of the Tribune-Herald Board of Contributors.

Waco Assistant Police Chief Robert Lanning, Wilton Lannings son, said he appreciates all the kind words and thoughts for him and his family.

Tentative funeral plans include a visitation from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Dr Pepper Museum. The funeral is tentatively planned for 2 p.m. Sunday at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church, 1300 Columbus Ave. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home in Waco.

He was the finest man Ive ever known, Robert Lanning said. He was a kind, gentle and ethical man and he was a tireless cheerleader for the city of Waco, for his family and for the Lord.

Wilton Lanning had a dream for the Dr Pepper Museum and made it happen, said Jack N. McKinney, executive director at the museum.

There was an abandoned bottling facility in the downtown area, a downtown area that was considerably different than it is today, run-down and blighted, McKinney said. The building itself was in very poor condition. He took it upon himself to approach the leadership of Dr Pepper and form a partnership with them to build a nonprofit museum to commemorate the history.

The museum started humbly, though a first-day opening attracted more than 10,000 people, he said. The museum has grown over the years and attracted more than 141,000 visitors last year, McKinney said. He has been with the organization 18 years.

He liked to think that we started a lot of the reconstruction of downtown on Mary Street there, McKinney said. He was so proud that we were ready for that influx in the downtown. Sometimes people will say, Gee, werent you lucky that the Gaineses and Magnolia moved in a couple blocks from you? He would say, Theres luck, and theres being ready for opportunity. We were ready.

As a leader, Lanning was unmatched, McKinney said.

Lanning was an Eagle Scout and was honored with a Silver Eagle Award in 2016 for his longtime service to Waco and devotion to scouting. At the time, Lanning said he remembered working with his troop in the days after the 1953 Waco tornado.

He was a founder of the 10-2-4 Collectors Club, which is now a national organization for collectors of Dr Pepper memorabilia, McKinney said. Lanning was also recognized as one of six Rotary Club of Waco members who celebrated 50 years of membership in the organization in 2015.

He was one of a kind, McKinney said.

Lanning was noted for his knowledge of Wacos history. He spent much of his retirement with the Waco Business League, said David Lacy, president of Community Bank and Trust. The league awarded Lanning its Lifetime Achievement Award about a year ago. Lanning was also a former chairman of the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce.

Wilton invested his retirement years in giving more than he had before, which was considerable, Lacy said. Weve all lost a very close friend. He was a wonderful man. He cared deeply about this city and this community.

Lacy said he remembers being a customer at Padgitts when Lanning worked there.

The thing that just exuded from Wilton was his love and respect for our city and all that it stood for, he said. He had a great memory and could recollect key moments in our citys history very well and had the ability to articulate that.

Lannings death is a big loss to the community, said Jim Turner, former Baylor University regent and former owner of the Dallas-based Dr Pepper Bottling Co. of Texas. Turner owned the building that houses the Dr Pepper Museum until it was donated to the museum.

He was one of the community volunteers who helped make the Dr Pepper Museum possible, Turner said. I would describe him as a crusader for the cause. He was our go-to guy when we needed help with anything. The museum now is going gangbusters, helped by all the other things going on downtown. It has become a stalwart of the free enterprise system.

But above all, Lanning was a fun person to be around, Turner said.

Lanning played an instrumental role in preserving the citys history, said Don Davis, former executive director of the Historic Waco Foundation.

Wilton was an amazing resource for any of the history of Waco. He knew things about Waco and about Wacoans that a lot of people didnt know, Davis said.

Lanning was an active supporter of anything that would improve the city, Davis said.

He was always positive, Davis said. We dealt with many situations that were not positive at times, and he always had a positive outlook and a positive spin on it.

Everyone will miss him, Davis said.
Reverend Robert Kobler will officiate a graveside service at Waco Memorial Park, 1:00 p.m., Friday, January 12, 2018, interment will follow. Visitation will be held two hours prior to the service in the Mausoleum Chapel at Waco Memorial Park.

Dorothy was born in Clifton to Herbert and Antonie Stoerner and grew up in Central Texas. She graduated from Waco High School. At age 16, she married Clatus G. Hoffman, while he was on furlough from World War II. They had two weeks together before Clatus returned to Europe; she would not see him for two years. They were married until his death in 1997.
First, I thank Congressman Bill Flores for his Dec. 30 column detailing and defending how the recently passed tax-reform law helps you. His expertise as a CPA and a businessman is not in question. I appreciate the columns intent, which was to provide real information to constituents in a public forum that allows us to read and to respond. That has not been the case in the telephone town halls or in his office policy to delete most critical comments to posts on his Facebook page about the tax plan. In the Waco Trib, then, we can have a dialogue.

Second, the tax cuts for the average American family  those whom he defines as making $73,000 for a family of four  will indeed be a help to many families. I appreciate greatly the concern for working families who, as he notes, have not been able to set aside more than $400 in many cases. As he says, many of those individuals and families have experienced little to no growth in their take-home pay during the 2006-2016 time period. During that time, income inequality grew at the fastest rate in decades, while those families were left behind and saddled with higher health-care costs and higher costs of living. Amen! Almost every single economist and working-class family would agree.

But that lack of cash reserves and the growing inequality of incomes is not mentioned in the rest of the article. Tax savings for working-class families will, the congressman notes, be used to help meet everyday living expenses, perhaps giving some measure of relief to those who live paycheck to paycheck. Nor does Congressman Flores mention that (1) inequality has been growing for a much longer period than the last 10 years, under Republican presidents as well as Democratic; (2) Republicans have resisted almost every single effort to raise the minimum wage; (3) the Affordable Care Act was one major effort to deal with higher health-care costs, along with the expansion of Medicaid, and we know what Flores and other Republicans have tried to do with that aid to many families (which comes in at much more than $1,600-$2,000 in tax savings under the new plan; and, finally, (4) these vaunted tax cuts for middle-class families will expire in about eight years. Then theres the pesky statistic that the median household income in McLennan County is $42,687, a level at which tax savings will be lower because the incomes are significantly lower.

Thus, who really does Republican tax reform help in the long run? Answer: primarily people who do not work for hourly wages and people whose income comes more from investment than it does from salary or wages. Whats more, many of the tax cuts for these people do not expire at the end of 10 years, so that for many in those categories, their annual tax savings are far beyond the total annual wages or salary of that typical American family who makes $73,000. Current breaks for people who make their living off investments were maintained and in some cases expanded, such as carried interest on investments that is not taxed in the year its earned. Thats a break the average working family, especially those with less than $400 set aside, will never see.

Most constituents in this district, Id wager, would love to see a second column by Congressman Flores on how tax reform helps those he does not mention, especially those making more than $400,000 a year. I suspect quite a few professional couples in McLennan County have combined salaries falling between that average $73,000 (or $77,000, the level at which the 22 percent tax rate kicks in) and $400,000 (the new top level for the 32 percent tax rate.) My wife and I are in that group. We probably could have, and should have, been asked to pay more. There are some new limits that he could mention in this second article, such as limiting mortgage interest deductions, but every single analysis I have seen, including those by such conservative sources as Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, will tell you that the people whom this tax-reform bill really helps are the donor class, i.e., those who can afford to give a lot of money in campaign contributions. These are the alternative facts  and in this case, theyre true.

There are multiple other issues with the way the column is framed. For instance, it is not universally accepted that tax reform and tax cuts simply generate higher growth. Look to Kansas for a catastrophic example. And tax reform that did generate higher growth, such as that under President Reagan (as the congressman accurately notes), came following a long bipartisan process. But then Reagan also raised taxes because of concerns about the deficit, which the GOP seems to conveniently forget. Congressman Flores tries to defend the tax-bill legislative process in November and December. Yet only Republicans insist this was not a rush job. And the House and Senate committees that crafted the bill did so in a process that was anything but bipartisan. In fact, the mystery and secrecy led to votes before many said they had a chance to read the whole bill, much less hold hearings on it. Consider Republican Sen. Bob Corkers late vote switch and his supposedly learning still later last-minute additions meant real-estate investors such as him would get even bigger breaks: I had not read it.

Congressman Flores insists that claims this GOP tax-reform bill will negatively impact Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and increased deficits are categorically false. If so, why did follow-up stories then report House Speaker Paul Ryan and others now want to reform those very programs, beginning by calling them the pejorative term of welfare. The higher deficits will put pressure on the budget reconciliation processes where there are already voices crying for cutbacks in those programs to pay for higher defense spending.

Flores cites a U.S. Department of Treasury report that says our new 21st century tax code will generate reduced federal deficits of approximately $300 billion over the next 10 years. Did the widely publicized $1.4 trillion deficit price tag for the reform (on top of current annual deficits) suddenly disappear? Congressman Flores did not say that the Treasury Department report released on Dec. 11 was one page long. Even the Business Insider called it bizarre. No economics student at the Baylor University School of Business would get by with that as an example of good work.

We should indeed celebrate the ways that the tax-reform law will help those to whom the article is addressed. The problem, as famous radio commentator Paul Harvey used to say, is the rest of the story. That bigger story is who the tax-reform act really helps. The much wiser course would have been to focus on a corporate tax reduction where there probably could have been some bipartisan consensus, evaluate its impact and then work later on income and investment taxes. It is indeed unfortunate when those of us who already have more than half the pie decide that we are entitled to even bigger portions.
When the president suggested that he could envision a limited nuclear war with our communist adversary, critics were horrified and appalled while the regime called his remarks dangerous madness.

The president in question was not Donald Trump. It was Ronald Reagan, who in his first year in office raised the possibility the United States and the Soviet Union could survive an exchange of tactical nuclear weapons. That same year Richard Pipes, Reagans director of East European and Soviet affairs on the National Security Council, told The Post he thought the probability of nuclear war was about 40 percent. These remarks sent a signal to Moscow that Reagan was not like those who came before him. He did not want war, but he would not shy from one if provoked.

That message was received. In 1981, then-KGB chief and future Soviet leader Yuri Andropov declared at a major KGB conference that Reagan was actively preparing for war and that a nuclear first strike was possible. Two years later, Margaret Thatcher shared intelligence from KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky (who was working for the British) that Russian officials were increasingly convinced Reagan was getting ready for a nuclear first strike and was running drills to prepare for it. Indeed, NATO did carry out an exercise for a nuclear exchange  Able Archer 83  which included planes taxiing onto runways with realistic dummy nuclear warheads. Again, Reagan did not disabuse the Soviets of the notion. Quite the opposite: The next year he joked when testing his microphone before his weekly radio address, We begin bombing in five minutes. The belief by Soviet leaders that Reagan might just be crazy enough to push the nuclear button constrained Soviet behavior and helped make possible a peaceful end to the Cold War.

Now Trump is trying to send a similar message to the North Korean regime. His recent tweet telling Pyongyang that his nuclear button is much bigger & more powerful than Kim Jong-uns was neither unstable nor stupid. To the contrary, it was part of an intentional campaign designed to get North Korea to understand that Trump, unlike his predecessors, is willing to use force to stop Pyongyang from threatening American cities.

For decades, the North Koreans have believed that they are untouchable because they can incinerate Seoul with conventional weapons. Now, they are on a crash course to develop and deploy the capability to incinerate U.S. cities with nuclear weapons. They think the pursuit of these weapons is making them even safer. Trump is trying to convince them the opposite is true. The best chance to prevent such a use of force is if North Korea receives and believes this message. So wed all better hope that Trump succeeds.

On Fox News Sunday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo underscored Trumps message, declaring that We want the regime to understand that, unlike before, we are intent on resolving this and it is our firm conviction that resolving this diplomatically is the correct answer but that this administration is prepared to do what it takes to assure that people in Los Angeles, in Denver, in New York are not held at risk from Kim Jong-un having a nuclear weapon.

All those in the perpetual outrage machine who are calling Trump a madman for his tweet are also inadvertently helping him send that message to Pyongyang  just as Reagans critics helped convince Moscow that he was a madman.

Are Trumps threats of military action a bluff? No. As national security adviser H.R. McMaster recently explained, Trump is not going to allow this murderous, rogue regime to threaten the United States with the most destructive weapons on the planet. Trump tweeted in August that Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong-un will find another path!

This does not mean nuclear war. If North Korea persists in testing, it could involve a targeted military strike taking out Pyongyangs ballistic missile and nuclear facilities. Furthermore, as my American Enterprise Institute colleague Oriana Skylar Mastro recently pointed out, Kim understands that a second Korean War would end with his demise and therefore he has incentives to avoid such escalation. 

Trumps tweets are intended to prevent us from getting to that point. They are not only entirely rational but also strategically smart. Lets hope his critics keep questioning his sanity, because it can only help convince Kim that Trump is serious.
ASHLAND  In a report to the Ashland City Council, officials from the Ashland Rescue Department reported progress on their quest to provide advanced life support service and plans to improve communication methods.

Mike Meyer, rescue captain, and Chad Hart, maintenance officer, spoke to during the city councils Jan. 4 meeting. Meyer said the departments fundraising campaign is well ahead of its goal to raise $75,000 to transition from basic life support to advanced life support.

When I came to you three months ago and said this is going to take a year, weve reached our goal, our money goal, he told the council.

Advanced life support provides treatment care for patients in emergencies before definitive care is obtained, Meyer said. Expanded training and equipment will mean patients suffering from a number of different illnesses and trauma can be evaluated and possibly treated before reaching the hospital.

As Ive stated before, at least a minimum of 40 percent of all our calls should have a benefit from an ALS evaluation, he said.

The department has been purchasing equipment since funds started coming in last October after the department launched its fundraising campaign.

I think weve purchased almost all of our equipment already, Meyer said.

One last piece of equipment on the shopping list is a second hydraulic cot lift. Meyer said one of the departments two units has a lift, but they would like to have another for the second squad in order to eliminate potential for back injury by department members.

The medications needed for advanced life support are also on their way. Meyer said they are working with Ashland Pharmacy to dispense the medications so they will not have to stock as much at the station and so the medications do not expire before they are used, thus reducing waste.

The department is getting ready for an inspection on Jan. 16 ahead of final approval.

We are on the schedule to be voted on and on the agenda for the state to approve us in March, Meyer said.

With the transition to advanced life support well on its way, the department is now looking to improve other areas of its service. Plans are underway to improve the emergency alert system used to notify members of calls.

Meyer said the system put in place by Saunders County dispatch has several issues. The mobile phone app IamResponding is supposed to send out an alert to department members that a call has gone out for the rescue squad. However, Meyer said the messages are often delayed, sometimes by several hours.

Someone I know is hurt or needs medical attention, I want them there now, I dont want them being alerted later, he said.

The system relies on the dispatcher to receive the rescue call and then enter it into a computer-aided dispatch, which then transfers it to the IamResponding system, where the dispatcher has to press go to send it to the rescue department. The app then sends a message to the department members, Hart explained.

There are several factors that contribute to the communication issues, Meyer said, including whether or not dispatch, cell service, cell phone carrier and the app are functioning properly.

And to have all four working correctly, that doesnt happen a lot, he said.

One of the main issues is that not all of the county dispatchers use the app.

Ive talked until Im blue in my face to the dispatch supervisor about training and what we can do to help make this better, Hart said. We still end up missing calls.

As a way to prevent communication problems, Meyer and Hart have proposed purchasing two-way radios and pagers as backup to the IamResponding app.

Because while technology is great, its never going to beat the two-way radio or even the one-way pager, Hart said.

However, the cost for new two-way radios is $300,000 for both the rescue and fire departments in Ashland, Meyer said. So they are pricing used radios to be paid for with funds raised for the advanced life support transition.

The statistics for 2017 showed Ashland Rescue responded to 311 medical calls, Meyer said. The minimum number of hours put in by members was around 1,200 last year, which is just over half of the amount of hours spent on a full-time job, he added.

Mayor Rick Grauerholz remarked that 311 medical calls is a significant amount for a city the size of Ashland.

That is a lot more than other communities, he said.

The mayor went on to express the gratitude of the council to the rescue department members.

Tell the rest of your crew on behalf of the people sitting up here, thank you for what youre doing, he said.
ASHLAND  Kristi Smith started 2018 off with a bang by buying out the local medical clinic.

Smith purchased the Midlands Family Urgent Care operation from owner James Dean on Jan. 1, renaming it Real Life Health and opening up the next day. The building is owned by the Ashland Community Medical Clinic Fund board of directors.

Smith has been the nurse practitioner at the clinic since it opened last June. Prior to that, she worked for Dean at his Papillion office.

Buying the business took a leap of faith for Smith, who asked for prayers, support and encouragement on social media last month before making the decision.

Ive always wanted my own clinic, said Smith.

Initially, Smith looked at leaving Midlands Family Urgent Care and opening another clinic in Ashland. But she realized that the community could not support two clinics. Thats when she approached Dean, who agreed to the buyout.

One of the major changes Smith is making with her new clinic is the change from an urgent care clinic to a primary care clinic.

Midlands offered urgent care, which is for illnesses or injuries that require immediate care but are not serious enough for emergency room treatment. Smith said urgent care was not what Ashland needed.

A town this size needs a primary care clinic, she said. Thats a reality.

The switch to primary care will save patients money, Smith said. Insurance pays less for urgent care services, putting more of the financial burden back on the patient.

We are primary care so copays are primary care copays, she added.

Smith is expanding beyond simple primary care to integrative care that will include holistic, individualized medicine.

The reality is traditional medicine is cookie cutter. It expects everyone to act the same. We know thats not true, she said.

Smiths approach will include examining the medicines being taken by a patient, as well as their hormone, vitamin and mineral levels if needed.

Our goal is to find the cause and not just treat the symptoms, she said.

Real Life Healths services can include treatment like bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and weight loss therapy.

Smith also provides aesthetic and anti-aging services such as Botox, microdermabrasion and will soon offer laser hair removal. These services are offered in Lincoln and Omaha, but Smith said she can do them cheaper and in Ashland, a convenience for her customers.

Smith said many local residents have told her they are happy the clinic is in the hands of a hometown caregiver. She grew up in Ashland and enjoys being able to care for people she has known all of her life.

Its a blessing, she said.

Smith has worked in health care for 25 years, including 17 years as a registered nurse and nurse aide. She has also been an assistant professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University and continues as an adjunct professor at other schools.

Smith transitioned to nurse practitioner, which is a registered nurse with advanced education and clinical experience.

Nurse practitioners are not required to practice under a supervising physician, unlike physicians assistants.

A nurse practitioner can do anything a physician can do except sign one piece of paper for Medicare, Smith said.

Nurse practitioners have been in existence for about 20 years and came about due to a shortage of family physicians, especially in underserved rural areas where nurse practitioners feel right at home, Smith said.

We fill in those gaps in those needed areas, she added.

Smith has kept the same staff she hired under Midlands Family Urgent Care. That includes Carol Woolridge in the office and Lori Wendt and Amy Smith, who work as medical assistants/limited radiology. Amy Smith is her daughter and is finishing medical assisting school in March.

Hours at the clinic have changed with the transition to the new owner.

The clinic is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The previous operator offered Saturday hours, but Smith said they did not see many patients on that day, so she chose not to be open on the weekend.

It doesnt make sense to be open for one or two patients, she said.

The clinic is by appointment only, but Smith said same-day appointments are possible. The phone number for the clinic remains the same  402-944-2201.

We do work very hard to make same day or next day appointments if you call by noon, she said.

The clinic will take all insurance except Tricare and offers a monthly membership fee service called Direct Primary Care for uninsured patients.
CHICAGO  Two teenage boys who pleaded guilty in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl that was streamed live on Facebook have been sentenced to five years of probation.

In a plea deal with Cook County, prosecutors, the teens pleaded guilty to child pornography in November.

The victim, now 16, and her mother looked on from the rear of the courtroom as Judge Patricia Mendoza sentenced the boys on Wednesday. Both teens were originally charged with aggravated sexual assault and manufacturing and dissemination of child pornography.

At the time of the crime last March, authorities said as many as six males assaulted the victim.

Police said the assault was watched live by about 40 viewers, none of whom called authorities to report the attack.
Outside the mammoth Google Assistant booth at the CES tech show in Las Vegas, live, human "assistants"were handing out short surveys on the experience. One question asked "Have you seen the ads for Google Assistant on billboards, casinos, the monorail, and busses in Las Vegas?" Another: "Have you seen Google Assistant everywhere at CES?"

I answered yes to both. Google is unavoidable at CES 2018, and every few minutes you hear the distinctive bloop of the assistant firing up, from demos on the stands and in ads from every speaker.

'Hey Google' may as well be the official slogan of this year's CES. Credit:Peter Wells

It's a stark contrast to last year, where every other booth had Amazon's Alexa on show. The company's Echo smart speaker continues to dominate sales, with around 76 per cent of the US market, but Google is making up ground in the States, and selling in markets where Amazon isn't available. But at CES, Google is coming out with all guns blazing.

Assistant is moving into televisions from LG , Sony, Hisense and TCL, and into sound bars, speakers and headphones from Sony, LG, Bose, and Jabra.
An astonishing backflip by the State government will see WA's School of the Air remain open.

In an announcement on Thursday, Premier Mark McGowan and Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery explained a reversal of their education cuts would also mean Northam Residential College will remain open, and funding for Gifted and Talented programs in schools will be maintained.

Premier Mark McGowan has announced a raft of reversals to education cuts.

Intake into the Level 3 classroom teacher program will no longer be put on hold.

"We realise we took it too far when it comes to education services and we now need to get the balance right," the Premier said.
Activist Caroline De Haas wrote the letter which was published on the Radio France website Franceinfo. She said the Le Monde group were like an embarrassing colleague or tiring uncle who does not understand what is happening. As soon as equality advances, even half a millimetre, good souls immediately alert us to the fact that we risk going too far, the letter said. In France, every day, hundreds of thousands of women are victims of harassment. Loading Accepting insults against women means allowing violence the (Le Monde) signatories deliberately confuse a relationship of seduction, based on respect and pleasure, with one of violence.

Many of them are often quick to denounce sexism when it comes from men in working class neighbourhoods. But a hand on the ass from men in their own milieu, according to them, is just exercising a right to bother women. Ms De Haas said her first reaction when reading the Le Monde letter had been sadness. Some people dont want the old world, the ancient world to go away, she said. But if you say sexual aggression or harassment is not bad, or not a big issue, the message you send to all victims is that its not very important and you send a message to the guy that its not a problem. There is no line between seduction and harassment, she said, and it was wrong to even put them on the same spectrum. Loading

I dont think its a difference of degree, it is not the same thing, she said. Harassment is not a seduction, its something else. Its violence. She said she felt it was important to respond to the Le Monde letter because it was being discussed in homes and workplaces across the country, and it was important to write the alternative argument, to expose and explain its stereotypes. But she said she did not believe the Le Monde letter would have a lasting impact. In France, the #MeToo movement is known as #BalanceTonPorc, which translates as call out your pig. Coined by journalist Sandra Muller, this tactic encouraged women to name their harassers. BalanceTonPorc and MeToo (is) something irreversible, Ms De Haas said. This wave is so important, so incredible, so crazy that its not possible to come back. We are the majority, we are the silent millions of people in the world.

The Le Monde article began by insisting it was not condoning rape or sexual violence. The Harvey Weinstein revelations had led to a legitimate awareness of sexual violence against women, particularly in the workplace where women men abuse their power, it said. But #MeToo had transformed into a campaign of denunciations in the press and social networks against men with no opportunity to defend themselves, it said. One co-signer was Elizabeth Levy, a journalist, essayist and editor of Causeur magazine. Levy opposed #BalanceTonPorc from the outset, writing in October last year that it was an ideological gadget that disguised denunciation as an act of courage.

She said on Wednesday that she did not believe the movement was really about seeking justice. Explain how you get justice by forgetting all the rules of justice? she said. She was fed up with hearing that women are victims, that we are living with suffering all the time, she said. The #MeToo and #BalanceTonPorc movement was transforming every woman into a victim. Most of BalanceTonPorc  say he grabbed my leg, he touched my ass, Ms Levy said. Ok, it can happen and its very bad but do you have to spend the next 10 years thinking of that trauma? After 10 years, must the man who said you have big tits lose his job? Of course pressure at work, or rape or violence is not acceptable. But if someone touched you in the Metro (subway), ok its very unpleasant but should I feel humiliated by that? Come on.
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. Bruce Rauner emerged Wednesday from a weeklong stay at a military veterans' home beset by a deadly Legionnaires' outbreak and announced the state will replace the plumbing at the sprawling, 130-year-old site.

The first-term Republican told reporters that cutting-edge water distribution will quickly advance his goal of "zero risk" of Legionnaires' at the Illinois Veterans' Home in Quincy, where the disease has contributed to the deaths of 13 residents since 2015 and sickened dozens more veterans and staff members.

"The goal is, latest technology on material, latest technology on water flow," Rauner said. "We do not want any places where any water could be standing for any period of time."

Rauner also said he will assemble a group of experts to determine whether a state-of-the-art dorm should be built and whether a safer groundwater source is available for the home.

Quincy, 285 miles southwest of Chicago, draws from the Mississippi River. Surface water tends to be warmer and more accessible to Legionella bacteria, Rauner said.

Legionnaires' is a severe form of pneumonia caused by water-borne bacteria which can sicken those who inhale infected vapor. Erica Jeffries, Rauner's director of veterans' affairs, told a legislative committee on Tuesday that replacing the plumbing would cost up to $30 million.

She said opinions differ on such a plan's viability because digging could loosen Legionella bacteria in the soil or in the old pipes, although Rauner said one option is laying a parallel plumbing system which leaves the old one in place but doesn't intersect it.

Finally, Rauner said the Quincy hospital has agreed to return results on Legionnaires' tests within hours, instead of the days the Illinois Department of Public Health has had to wait previously.

And he said filters to trap the bacteria will be tested on faucets in coming weeks, a recommendation in the latest report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Aerators have been placed only on shower heads and sprayers that tend to distribute more water vapor.

Rauner faces not only stiff Democratic opposition in his hopes for a November re-election, but a primary challenge March 20 from a conservative lawmaker.

With criticism mounting after a lawsuit was filed against the state by 11 families of stricken veterans, Rauner took a room at the home Jan. 3. He said Wednesday he ate all but two weekend lunches at the facility that's home to more than 300 mostly skilled-nursing residents, and joked with one resident present about how he repeatedly "crushed" Rauner at the board game Connect 4.

"I've taken every shower here, drunk the water from the sinks as well as other sources and I've had a great time with our veterans and staff," Rauner said.

But Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Cullerton, a Villa Park Democrat, issued a statement Wednesday saying that he's visited Quincy and "it didn't take me staying there for a week" to understand the situation's gravity.

"The governor and his administration need to quickly outline their capital plan to begin action and implement a strong strategy to provide our veterans the best possible care and service," said Cullerton, who plans more hearings on the issue.

Rauner said his visit was largely motivated by suggestions, including from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, that the 200-acre facility be shuttered after the initial 2015 epidemic claimed 12 lives, came back in 2016 to make more ill, and again returned last summer, with another veteran succumbing in the fall.

Durbin toured the home last weekend and reversed his opinion on closure, promising to leverage federal Veterans' Administration funding to help.
The term Marx coined stuck and has led to some confusion about why markets actually work.

by James Davenport

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

One of the most disappointing things I face as a college professor is the lack of understanding most students have regarding capitalism. The simple fact is, despite its importance to our daily lives, relatively few people have a strong grasp of what causes economic growth and why markets are so central to continuously rising standards of living.

In my teaching, I have encountered several myths or misperceptions about capitalism from students as well as individuals outside the classroom. Dispelling these myths has become a focus of much of my teaching.

Myth #1: Capitalism Was Created

One of the most pervasive misunderstandings about capitalism is the idea that it was created by someone. Some of this can be attributed to the language used to describe Adam Smiths role in explaining the market process. The common reference to Smith as the father of modern economics can lead people to assume that he in some way created the market system. It is also not unreasonable to conclude that, since socialism is generally reliant on planning, many would assume that capitalism is as well.

Markets arise out of our human qualities.However, as Friedrich Hayek explained, the market system is not really created as much as it is a system that evolves out of human interaction and discovery. Similar to language, the market economy was not created by a single individual or group but evolved over a long period based on the interactions of many people. The rules and institutions which support the market economy arose from these interactions.

This notion of a spontaneous order emerging out of the individual actions of millions of people, and the discovery of rules and institutions that will facilitate the continual progress of this order, may be the most important aspect of capitalism. It succeeds because it arises out of humanity itself.

Unlike socialism, which attempts to impose rules and institutions regardless of their conformity to human nature or desires, markets arise out of our human qualities. And the rules and institutions that facilitate the ability of markets to perform are discovered as we discover ourselves and in the way we interact with one another.

Myth #2: Capitalism Creates Poverty

This may be the most pernicious of all the misunderstandings I encounter regarding markets. The idea that absent market capitalism would create greater shared wealth within society continues to permeate the thinking of a great deal of people. This is despite mounting evidence that, as markets are used by more and more countries, global poverty is steadily decreasing.

All developed countries have market-based economies.Importantly, the evidence is clear that this decline in poverty has happened as countries have come to embrace market capitalism as the way forward  especially China and India. As other countries see the success of these two previously very poor countries and begin following their lead, we can expect to see poverty in the rest of the developing world significantly reduced as well.

In the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith explained how markets, by continuously expanding the range of goods and services to an ever-increasing number of people, would produce what he called universal opulence. However, since Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels first launched their frontal assault on capitalism, many intellectuals, entertainers, and even politicians have embraced the idea that capitalism causes poverty, or at least prevents people from escaping it, and more disturbingly, that socialism leads to greater prosperity for the masses.

Its not surprising, then, that these ideas filter down to the public-at-large. But this idea that capitalism leads to poverty for the masses while socialism leads to their prosperity is exactly opposite to all the evidence we have.

All developed countries have market-based economies. Those developing countries seeing the greatest growth have adopted market principles. Contrast this with countries that have fully adopted socialism, such as Venezuela or North Korea. It is troubling that incoming students do not understand this.

Myth #3: Capitalism Is about Capital

The underlying foundation of capitalism is human freedom.The term capitalism was coined by Marx as a pejorative towards market-based economies. The term stuck and has led to some confusion about why markets actually work. As economic historian Deidre McCloskey has noted, people at all times have attempted to amass capital (land, resources, and money). But those collective attempts didnt lead to the type of society-wide economic growth we have seen since 1800.

The underlying foundation of capitalism is human freedom. As Adam Smith recognized, when individuals are permitted to pursue their self-interest through markets, they are amazingly good at finding ways of bettering not only themselves but society as well.

Equally important, as economist Joseph Schumpeter explained, out of this freedom arises a continuous process of improvement  what he called creative destruction. It is this constant innovation  discovering and bringing to market new products and services, finding ways of improving existing products and services, and finding more efficient ways to create these products and services  that truly drives economic growth and increases standards of living.

The fact is, while the accumulation of capital is a feature of a market economy, its certainly not exclusive to it. It is individual freedom and the innovation that arises from it that drives the engine of capitalism.

Myth #4: Capitalism Creates Winners and Losers

While it is true that some individuals and firms succeed while others do not in capitalism, this also is hardly an exclusive feature of markets. All economic systems have some individuals who succeed and others who fail in one form or another.

Over the long run, society in its entirety benefits as a result of markets. However, capitalism is different in this regard in two important ways. First, capitalism increases the number of winners. Unlike other systems, capitalism reduces the barriers to entry into market activity for larger numbers of individuals. The resulting competition provides greater opportunities for success (both great and small) than in any other system.

Second, over the long run, society in its entirety benefits as a result of markets. This is because markets, as mentioned above, bring more goods and services within reach of more people than any other system.

Markets also produce products and services that improve our lives in ways that our ancestors could never have dreamed. Just consider all the things that exist today, that didnt a mere thirty years ago. The simple fact is that today even the poorest modern Americans have more goods and services at their disposal than kings and queens did just two hundred years ago.

So, although individual firms may fail, and individual people may not gain great wealth, the fact is that, over the long-run, we all win by enjoying better living standards than previous generations.

We Need Better Education

If the United States is going to continue to see its economy grow and the living standards of its citizens improve, it is important that students are taught the basics of the economic system that has allowed them to experience Adam Smiths universal opulence. Without this basic knowledge, they're easily led to believe the myths Ive mentioned and to vote for politicians and policies that will ultimately undermine the very system that has made their lives significantly better than their ancestors, as well as better than most of their contemporaries across the globe.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jan. 10, 2018 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 10, 2018 | 11:48 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A Louisville man got arrested on his birthday on warrants from his hometown and on drug charges.



A joint investigation between the McCracken County Sheriffs Department, Deputy US Marshals and the Marshall County Sheriffs Office identified 47-year-old Claude Johnson as a supplier of methamphetamine in a recent drug investigation. Detectives learned that Johnson was wanted out of Louisville as a parole absconder and there was a bench warrant for his arrest for failing to appear on a recent meth possession charge.



McCracken County detectives learned that Johnson was at Lourdes Hospital through surveillance, and arrested him just before 8 pm as he was getting into a vehicle. A search of the vehicle led to the seizure of 129 grams of meth with an estimated street value of $12,000. He faces charges of trafficking in methamphetamine 2nd or subsequent offense, and possession of drug paraphernalia.



Police say Johnson has an extensive criminal history with five prior convictions for trafficking in methamphetamine. He received a 19-year prison sentence in 2014, but was later released on parole. Johnson had absconded parole after being arrested again in Louisville.



Johnson was arrested and transported to the McCracken County Regional Jail.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jan. 10, 2018 | FRANKFORT, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 10, 2018 | 06:05 PM | FRANKFORT, KY

A Kentucky House committee on Wednesday approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Gerald Watkins that would toughen the penalty for people who attempt to murder a police officer or firefighter.



Watkins posted a Facebook photo of himself Wednesday afternoon with two Covington Police Dept. detectives, the President of the Kentucky Sheriffs Association, and the President of the Kentucky Firefighters. The photo was taken after the bill passed through committee on a unanimous vote.



The measure would require suspects to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence before being eligible for probation or parole. Watkins said if there is no serious injury, current law requires the suspect to serve only a minimum of 20 percent of the sentence.



Several police officers and firefighters testified on behalf of the bill,



Pendleton County Sheriff Craig Peoples said, "We believe that this bill is important for law enforcement across the Commonwealth, due to the day and age of the attacks that we're getting from citizens or criminals across the state. We feel that this is important to set a precedence, and let criminals know that it's not time to have open season on law enforcement officers."



The bill now goes to the full House.
North Korea test-fires missile with range to strike all of U.S.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jan. 10, 2018 | MURRAY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 10, 2018 | 12:26 PM | MURRAY, KY

Three people were arrested Sunday afternoon on assault charges after an altercation at a Murray apartment complex.



The Murray Police Department says officers responded shortly after 2 p.m. to a report of a large fight at an apartment on Transit Way. Upon arrival officers located and spoke with the victim, who had noticeable injuries. She told officers some individuals sent her a threat and were waiting for her to leave the apartment. When she came outside the people who were waiting began attacking her, one of them hitting her with a silver object.



Officers said the suspects were gone by the time they arrived on scene. They later located 20-year-old Brianna Norsworthy in a field behind the apartments. She reportedly tried to get into a vehicle and flee, but officers were able to arrest her. They also arrested the two other suspects who were in the vehicle, 25-year-old Jeanae Smith and 26-year-old Taneshia Foster. Police said Norsworthy had a concealed revolver tucked in the waistband of her pants.



All three suspects were charged with assault. Norsworthy was also charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon.
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Buy a ticket to see a show by Cirque du Soleil and you're expecting flawless performances and top-notch production values. OVO, which premiered in Montreal in 2009 as a big top show and has been touring in its new arena incarnation since 2016, certainly delivers on both.

Inspired by the world of insects, with a live score evocative of writer and director Deborah Colker's native Brazil, it's a supremely polished piece of work. A cast of nearly 50 bend, balance and fly their way through a two-hour show that's rich in ooooh aaaaah moments. Ants foot-juggle giant slices of kiwi, a spider unicycles upsidedown on a swinging slack wire, and a troupe of scarab beetles swing each other hand-to-hand high in the air above the Royal Albert Hall stage.

Liz Vandal's costumes are works of art in their own right, not just beautiful to look at but also serving, in a couple of places, to exalt an otherwise merely impressive performance to something really unusual. Kyle Cragle's 'Dragonfly' handbalancing act is a case in point  the acrobat demonstrates masterful control on the handstand canes but it's the visual effect of the dragonfly wings that adorn his legs that takes this act to the next level.

There's wonderful humour in the physical antics of Sergyi Rysenko's Creatura, a sort of giant slinky that boogies along to the samba-influenced music of composer Berna Ceppas. Elsewhere though, the laughs are sadly lacking, Francois-Guillaume Leblanc, Gerard Regitschnig and Neiva Nascimento making for a very peculiar trio of bug clowns.

They're capable performers but the comedy is so broad, and the tone so poorly judged  why Colker opted to include a plot line relying on sexual jealousy and objectification of the one named female character is mystifying  that these scenes fall flat. A mimed fight drawing on a piece of brilliant sound design by Jonathan Deans is one of the few instances in which this threesome really entertains.

Aside from these bizarre narrative scenes, the pacing is spot on. Colker, who comes to Cirque du Soleil from the dance world, knows when to keep acts short and sweet and when to let them breathe. Marjorie Nantel's 'Cocoon', a tantalisingly brief aerial performance on silks, segues beautifully into Catherine Audy and Alexis Trudel's 'Butterflies', a flying act that is dizzying to watch.

As always with Cirque du Soleil, it's a joy to see such a large company of acrobats, aerialists and jugglers  not to mention the live band  at the top of their game. If only the story side of things wasn't such a disappointment.

OVO runs at the Royal Albert Hall until 4 March.
HENDERSONVILLE STORE NOT ON THE LIST: SAM'S CLUB CLOSING DOZENS, PERHAPS HUNDREDS, OF STORES

WHILE WALMART RAISES MINIMUM WAGE TO $11.00

Sam's Club closing dozens of stores

Sam's Club, the membership warehouse owned by retail giant Walmart, is shutting down or converting 63 stores, a Walmart official confirmed Thursday.

HERE'S A LIST OF STORES BEING CLOSED PROVIDED BY BUSINESS INSIDER:

Here's a list of closings rounded up from local media reports and Sam's Club employees who contacted Business Insider. The list will be updated as we learn of additional locations.

8801 Old Seward Hwy, Anchorage, AK 99515

1074 N Muldoon Rd, Anchorage, AK 99504

48 College Rd, Fairbanks, AK 99701

3900 Grants Mill Rd, Irondale, AL 35210

2425 E Florence Blvd, Casa Grande, AZ 85194

5757 E State Route 69, Prescott Valley, AZ 86314

1375 S Arizona Ave, Chandler, AZ 85286

15255 N Northsight Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85260

3360 El Camino Ave, Sacramento, CA 95821

17835 Gale Ave, City of Industry, CA 91748

12540 Beach Blvd, Stanton, CA 90680

12920 Foothill Blvd, Sylmar, CA 91342

69 Pavilions Dr, Manchester, CT 06042

2 Boston Post Rd, Orange, CT 06477

355 FL-436, Fern Park, FL 32730

5135 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33611

2994 Turner Hill Rd, Lithonia, GA 30038

501 N Randall Rd, Batavia, IL 60510

21430 S Cicero Ave, Matteson, IL 60443

6600 44th Ave, Moline, IL 61265

808 S Illinois Rte 59, Naperville, IL 60540

900 S Barrington Rd, Streamwood, IL 60107

1055 McHenry Rd, Wheeling, IL 60090

460 S Weber Rd, Romeoville, IL 60446

3015 W 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46268

10859 E Washington St, Indianapolis, IN 46229

4024 Elkhart Rd #1, Goshen, IN 46526

9598 Cortana Pl, Baton Rouge, LA 70815

9750 Reisterstown Rd, Owings Mills, MD 21117

1 Tobias Boland Way, Worcester, MA 01607

340 E. Edgewood Boulevard, Lansing, MI 48911

32625 Northwestern Hwy, Farmington Hills, MI 48334

3745 Louisiana Ave S, St Louis Park, MN 55426

2800 27th Ave S, Moorhead, MN 56560

11 Batchelder Rd, Seabrook, NH 03874

81 International Dr S, Budd Lake, NJ 07828

1900 E Linden Ave, Linden, NJ 07036

301 Nassau Park Boulevard, Princeton, NJ 08540

2649 Erie Blvd E, Syracuse, NY 13224

720 Fairmount Ave, Jamestown, NY 14701

700 Elmridge Center Dr, Rochester, NY 14626

1600 Marketplace Dr, Rochester, NY 14623

5085 Dawn Dr, Lumberton, NC 28360

1101 Shiloh Glenn Dr, Morrisville, NC 27560

4825 Marburg Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45209

9570 Fields Ertel Rd, Loveland, OH 45140

1145 Carr 2, Bo Florida Afuera, Barceloneta, 00617, Puerto Rico

Carr 830, Bayamon, Puerto Rico, 00957

Carr 3 Km 82 Bo Junquitos, Humacao, 00741, Puerto Rico

615 Old Hickory Blvd, Nashville, TN 37209

1805 Getwell Rd, Memphis, TN 38111

1615 S Loop W, Houston, TX 77054

13331 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77077

22296 Market Place Dr, New Caney, TX 77357

12919 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX 78216

741 E Little Creek Rd, Norfolk, VA 23518

4571 S Laburnum Ave, Richmond, VA 23231

901 S Grady Way, Renton, WA 98057

1101 Outlet Collection Way, Auburn, WA 98001

7050 Watts Rd, Madison, WI 53719

1540 S 108th St, West Allis, WI 53214

13550 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133

Of those locations, about 50 will be going out of business for good. Roughly 10 of those locations are closing their doors as soon as Thursday, while the remainder will be shuttered over the next three to four weeks, the Walmart official said.

Additionally, about 10 to 12 Sam's Club stores are slated to be closed temporarily as the retailer converts them to regional distributional centers to help ramp up its ability to fulfill online purchases. While those stores will reopen in a new role, workers previously employed at those locations are not necessarily guaranteed a role in the new positions.

Walmart piloted delivering groceries right into customers'

Walmart piloted delivering groceries right into customers' refrigerators, one of the creative ideas retailers rolled out in 2017. (Photo: SAUL LOEB, AFP/Getty Images)

In a note, Sam's Club president and CEO John Furner said that there were stores hindering business at other locations, or that were operating in areas that were not seeing the population growth that had been expected.

"Weve decided to right-size our fleet and better align our locations with our strategy,'' he wrote. "We will be closing some clubs, and we notified them today. Well convert some of them into eCommerce fulfillment centers - to better serve the growing number of members shopping with us online and continue scaling the SamsClub.com business.''

News of the closures began to slowly trickle out Thursday. Notices filed with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development revealed that three Sam's Club stores in Indiana would be shutting down, while news outlets across the U.S. began reporting possible closures in cities from Memphis to Atlanta to Houston.

Walmart is doing what their competitor Amazon can't do, throw holiday parties. Buzz60

The company would not immediately say the specific locations that will be affected by the closures, or the number of employees that would be impacted. But at the three Indiana locations, 419 employees will be affected according to state filings. And in his note, Furner confirmed that the first of the stores to transition into a distribution center will be in Memphis.

Furner said that the company would try "to place as many associates as possible in new roles at nearby locations.''

The entire retail landscape has been upended by the rise of Amazon and the growing shift by consumers to shopping online. Though warehouses like Sam's Club and Costco have a steady revenue stream fueled by the fees paid by their members, they are also having to adjust to an environment in which customers can buy groceries, electronics and other products from a growing array of e-commerce and brick and mortar retailers.

Though Walmart reported that Sam's Club's sales rose 4.4% in the most recently completed quarter, Furner says that the store closures will free up resources that can be focused on bolstering its website as well as in-store technology. There are also plans to improve the club's fresh food offerings, overall product selection and its private label Member's Mark.

The closures came the same day that Walmart said it would lift the hourly minimum wage in the U.S. to $11 and giving out bonuses of up to $1,000.
KOMO(SEATTLE) -- Timmy Brodigan, 16, was critically injured in a deadly Amtrak train derailment in Washington state last month, but the teenager, currently paralyzed, said he is thankful to be alive.



I kind of just wanted to thank the people that saved my life, Brodigan said in an interview with ABC affiliate KOMO on Wednesday. I really really appreciate it. I really do. Thats what I want to thank the most. The people that saved my life.



Brodigan was on board Amtrak train #501 on Dec. 18, traveling to visit his cousins in Oregon, when the train derailed near Dupont, Washington, killing three people and injuring dozens more.



The train was reportedly traveling 80 mph in a 30-mph zone when it veered off of an overpass and onto a busy highway below, authorities said.



Speaking from his hospital bed in the intensive care unit of the Seattle Childrens Hospital in Washington, Brodigan said he could barely recall the details of the crash.



I woke up with the train wobbling. And after that, I just dont remember anything after that, Brodigan said. I blanked out.



The teens parents, Robyn and Michael Brodigan, said a good Samaritan found their son in the trains wreckage and alerted first responders. He was badly bruised and hanging upside down near a window of the train, they said.



Now, nearly 30 days later, Timmy Brodigan is slowly recovering, but hes still suffering from a broken neck, fractured ribs, a head contusion and several other injuries, according to KOMO.



He is mostly paralyzed and requires a ventilator to breathe, but he said he is grateful to all the people who helped to save his life.



He also thanked everyone whos donated to a Gofundme campaign, created on his behalf, to help with his recovery. It had raised about $59,000 as of Thursday morning.



Its meant a lot to me, Timmy Brodigan said. Thank you everyone. Everyone whos been a part of this.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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Scott Resnick, right, published his data analysis on Medium using numbers from the financial data firm Pitchbook.
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Morning briefing: Wisconsin prison guards facing possible charges on allegations of breaking teen's arm and leaving him naked in cell for hours
The first tie vote in Winona County history developed in the election of 1861 when a canvass of votes cast for the office of sheriff failed to determine a winner in the contest between Lynch R. King and E. T. Williams.

A game of euchre was played to break the tie and King was declared the winner. Williams appealed the election to the District Court but the election of King, who served for eight consecutive years, was sustained.

In the winter following his election, Sheriff King receive notice from Buffalo County authorities in Wisconsin that people from Winona were crossing the river and stealing wood growing on the Mississippi River low lands and islands in Buffalo County.

The sheriff and the posse drove the woodchoppers back to Winona but the ax wielding crews returned in force, chased the sheriff and his posse away and recovered their teams and sleigh.

During his years in office Sheriff King was lauded frequently for his careful sleuthing, persistence in tracking down criminals and the admirable arrest record he established.

He also was noted, however, for the bad luck he experienced in escaping prisoners.

A newspaper article remark that the sheriff was good at catching prisoners but not so good at keeping them.

The blame could not be placed entirely on the sheriff, however, for he still had no county jail in Winona in which to confine prisoners.

A newspaper editorial of that day pointed out that the sheriff was reluctant to make arrests, even when a gang of rowdies assaulted him one night when he attempted to break up a fight, because he had no place to keep a prisoner once he was in custody.

At the time, persons charged with more serious offenses were held in the county jail at Wabasha.

On March 11, 1861, The Board of County commissioners met and authorizef the construction of a county courthouse and jail.

An allocation of $6,000 was made for the project and the city council, the same night, approved an appropriation of $375 toward the purchase of the lot if the county would let the city use the jail in return.

A site at Washington and Third Street, slightly east of where the courthouse now stands, was selected in the contract for construction was let April 16 for $4,500.

Sheriff Kings term in office wouldve been far less trying  but certainly less interesting  had he not encountered the gorilla man.

The exaggerated title was given by local residents and the newspapers of the day to a colorful and frequent lawbreaker, John Walker.

The sheriff had his first dealings with Walker soon after he was named to the office and for the next three years Walkers hit-and-run brushes with the sheriff constituted one of the most amazing chapters in the story of law-enforcement in Winona County.

It was in the spring of 1861 that the residents of Pleasant Valley were terrorized for about three weeks by a night prowlers visit to their homes to steal anything of value that he could carry off.

Sheriff King, from descriptions given him of the midnight thief, suspected that it was Walker, a huge man who had a record of prowling.

When Walker heard that he was suspected of the thieving, he boasted loudly that no man dared try to arrest him. One who was unimpressed by these boasts was Deputy Sheriff Lewis who heard of Walkers whereabouts, walked up to him and placed him under arrest. Walker drew a knife but was promptly disarmed and handcuffed and turned over to Sheriff King who locked him up in the city jail. This was during the period when the county had no facilities for holding prisoners.

Walker found the city jail to be no challenge at all, and several days later, on March 21, he made good the first escape from the city jail.

Sheriff King hit the trail and not long after overtook Walker and returned his prisoner to the jail  this time on a charge of stealing a watch. He was bound over for trial but  just to prove that his first escape was no fluke  walked out of the jail again on June 24, this time with the help of outside persons.

One night sometime later, under cover of a severe electrical storm, theives entered the Laird, Norton Lumber Company offices, filled the keyhole of the safe with gunpowder and, while thunder crashed, blew the door off.

They made off with $400 in gold and $100 in currency and Sheriff Kings first suspect was the recently escaped Walker and his gang.

As soon as it was light enough to travel, the sheriff set out on horseback in an effort to find the safe blowers.

About six miles from home he came upon fresh horse tracks and suddenly saw a group of ruffians hiding in the brush.

With the surly looking group of men was a large woman wearing a sunbonnet.

The gang threatened the sheriff and dared to him to come close, but Sheriff King merely sat on his horse, appraising the group and paying particular attention to the woman.

Suddenly the sheriff leapt from his horse, grappled with the woman and, in the struggle that ensued, her sunbonnet and skirt came off, revealing her to actually be the sheriffs former prisoner, John Walker.

Stripped of his disguise, Walker was handcuffed and returned to the city jail. Sheriff King, however, was not going to gamble with another escape so he bound the prisoner in chains and took him to the jail at St. Anthony for confinement.

A new Winona County Jail was completed in the fall of 1862 and now that he had facilities for keeping prisoners here, Sheriff King was told that he would have to bring Walker back to Winona for confinement here. Walker, E. Y. Hall, a counterfeiter, and a third man held for a Fourth of July stabbing were the first prisoners to be lodged in the new jail.

Sheriff King came to the jail one morning in November of that year and found that the assault suspect was the only occupant. Walker and the counterfeiter, he learned, had somehow managed to steal a jail key while they were out of their cells for exercise and escaped wearing their hand cuffs.

King again tracked them down, took them into custody and returned them to the jail.

A month later, while the sheriff was out of the city, Walker rushed the jailer when he brought dinner to the cell block and the old gorilla man was on the loose again. At this point. the sheriff was beginning to regret that he had returned Walker to the city when the new jail was built.

About seven months later, on Aug. 27, 1863, Sheriff King received a tip that Walker was employed as a cook on the steamboat Pomeroy which was docked at La Crosse. The sheriff rode his horse to La Crosse, walked aboard the boat and found Walker asleep in his bunk.

The sheriff slipped on the handcuffs, returned the prisoner to Winona aboard the steamboat Steele and, this time, managed to keep him locked up until he was tried and sentenced to a year in the Stillwater prison on Sept. 29.
State Debate: How to get Donald Trump act presidential? Call him unhinged, says Dominique Paul Noth
To help employers in southeast Minnesota find skilled, well-educated employees in manufacturing, health care and information technology, a new scholarship program has been developed to encourage students to get a college education in these fields.

Thanks to the Minnesota Workforce Development Scholarship program, Minnesota State College Southeast will be able to award 16 $2,500 scholarships to qualifying students who are starting college in fall of 2018. The deadline for to apply for the scholarship is March 1, 2018.

These scholarships are targeted to new students entering the college in high-growth, high-demand careers. Examples of such programs at MSC Southeast include industrial technology, practical nursing and cyber & information security.

While the scholarships are intended to recruit new high school graduates, non-traditional students (such as adults re-entering the workforce or changing careers) are also eligible for the scholarships.

Prospective students must apply online for admission to MSC Southeast with a fall start in one of the career program areas listed below. Then they must fill out and submit an application form for the scholarship by the March 1 deadline. To download the application form, go to www.southeastmn.edu/scholarships.

Students must be enrolled for at least nine credits per semester. The scholarship can apply to tuition for classes used for a degree, diploma or certificate (minimum 18 credits).

Students ust maintain a cumulative 2.0 GPA and funds will be distributed in two installments of $1,250 in the fall 2018 and spring 2019 semesters.

Scholarship awards will be announced on March 30, 2018.

The eligible programs at MSC Southeast include CNC machine tool, industrial technology, welding, massage therapist, medical laboratory technician, medical support careers, nursing, cyber and information technology, network administration and technology and software development and support.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens admitted to having an extramarital affair, but denied blackmailing the woman with a nude photo, which was alleged to have been taken without her consent.

CNN affiliate KMOV published a report Wednesday after a months-long investigation into Greitens, a rising star in the Republican Party.

The governor and his wife, Sheena Greitens, released a joint statement late Wednesday that said years before he had been elected governor, "there was a time when he was unfaithful in our marriage."

"This was a deeply personal mistake. Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately. While we never would have wished for this pain in our marriage, or the pain that this has caused others, with God's mercy Sheena has forgiven and we have emerged stronger," according to the couple's statement.

KMOV aired parts of a recording of a woman telling her then-husband about a consensual sexual encounter she had with Greitens in 2015, before he became governor.

The woman's now ex-husband recorded their personal conversation without her knowledge.

In it, the woman said she went to Greiten's house where the sexual encounter took place, and that he had taken a photo of her while she was blindfolded. "You're never going to mention my name, otherwise there will be pictures of me [the woman] everywhere," she recalled Greitens telling her, in the recording.

In the recorded conversation, the woman said Greitens apologized afterward and told her he deleted the picture, KMOV reported.

"He took a picture of my wife naked as blackmail. There is no worse person," the ex-husband told the station.

Greiten's lawyer, James Bennett, denied there was any blackmail.

"There was no blackmail and that claim is false," Bennett said. "This personal matter has been addressed by the Governor and Mrs. Greitens privately years ago when it happened. The outrageous claims of improper conduct regarding these almost three-year-ago events are false."

Bennett said the TV station didn't make the recording or the transcript available to them before it ran on air and said its story "contained multiple false allegations."

"The claim that this nearly three-year-old story has generated or should generate law enforcement interest is completely false," he said.

Bennett also told CNN the woman did not sign a non-disclosure agreement and did not request one. Asked whether the governor has been previously accused of misconduct by anyone else other than this woman in question, Bennett responded: "No."

KMOV's story didn't identify the woman and her now ex-husband. They divorced in 2016, according to the station. The woman also didn't make an on-the-record comment to the station.

When asked whether Greitens had ever made a settlement with the woman, Bennett said: "There has been no claim. No settlement. No settlement agreement."

The news of the extramarital affair came on the same night that Greitens delivered the State of the State speech.

Greitens and his wife said in their joint statement late Wednesday: "We understand that there will be some people who cannot forgive -- but for those who can find it in your heart, Eric asks for your forgiveness, and we are grateful for your love, your compassion, and your prayers."

Greitens became governor in 2017 after campaigning as a political outsider, former Navy Seal, husband and father. He and his wife married in 2011 and have two children.

"We have a loving marriage and an awesome family; anything beyond that is between us and God," said Sheena Greitens, in an additional statement. "I want the media and those who wish to peddle gossip to stay away from me and my children."

CNN's MJ Lee contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump on Thursday complicated a closely coordinated effort between his administration and congressional Republican leadership on a six-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, otherwise known as FISA.

"'House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.' This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?" Trump tweeted.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNN's request for clarification on whether the President supports the bill, on which it has been working closely with congressional Republican leadership to secure the votes for reauthorization.

Trump attempted to clean up the confusion surrounding his tweet later Thursday morning, writing, "With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today's vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!"

Trump has been critical of "unmasking," a term used to describe revealing identities of Americans who were communicating with foreign officials under surveillance by the US intelligence community.

On Tuesday, the White House issued a statement of support for the bill, saying that Section 702 "is vital to keeping the nation safe" and that reauthorizing the bill before its expiration "is a top priority of the administration."

Section 702, which allows the intelligence community to monitor foreign communications, is set to expire January 19. Critics of the program argue that it allocws the warrantless collection of US citizens' private information.

The dossier to which Trump referred is an opposition research document that was compiled on him during the election, and it includes unverified allegations that the Russian government has compromising personal and financial information about the President.

CNN has reported that the FBI in 2016 used the dossier as part of the justification to win approval from the secret court that oversees FISA to secretly monitor a Trump associate.

The secret court that oversees FISA also authorized the surveillance of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but it is not clear that was active during his time on the campaign. The first FISA authorization predated the dossier as the investigation began back in 2014.

There is no evidence they were poorly surveilled, as Trump claimed in his tweet. All the actions were approved by the court.

Trump's initial message came shortly after Fox legal analyst Andrew Napolitano appeared on "Fox & Friends" and urged the President not to back FISA reauthorization. Trump appeared to quote the on-air banner used during the segment in his tweet.

Sensitive issue on Capitol Hill

The reauthorization is potentially a politically fraught issue on Capitol Hill, and the House is expected to vote on the bill later Thursday.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called House Speaker Paul Ryan and urged him to pull the bill in light of the President's tweet and send it back to committee, a senior Democratic source told CNN, though she announced shortly thereafter that she would support the bill.

In a CNN interview on Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who frequently champions civil liberties issues, threatened to filibuster the reauthorization, citing privacy concerns.

The President called Paul after he sent his first tweet, a senior Paul aide said.

Paul is part of a bipartisan group in favor of the USA Rights amendment, which makes major changes to the program, including prohibiting the use of information collected incidentally on Americans without a warrant under the FISA 702 statute, except in case of emergency.

The President told Paul that he supports the "USA Rights" amendment on Thursday, the aide said, but press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement Wednesday evening announcing strong opposition, saying it "would re-establish the walls between intelligence and law enforcement that our country knocked down following the attacks of 9/11 in order to increase information sharing and improve our national security."

Former FBI Director James Comey weighed in on the issue, tweeting, "Thoughtful leaders on both sides of the aisle know FISA section 702 is a vital and carefully overseen tool to protect this country. This isn't about politics. Congress must reauthorize it."

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz, Evan Perez, Phil Mattingly, David Wright, Deirdre Walsh, Ashley Killough and Joe Johns contributed to this report.
Nearly 15 percent of Wisconsin lobbyists apparently tried to influence lawmakers and other state officials in 2017 without being authorized to do so, according to a new state report.

The lobbyists and lobbying groups that may have violated the authorization requirement were not named in the report. It was issued Thursday by the state Ethics Commission, which recently completed a wide-ranging audit on which it was based.

Its not yet clear what consequences could be in store for lobbyists and lobbying groups tagged in the audit.

The report says commissioners are still developing a standard process to offer settlements to pay fines for this type of violation. After thats done, commissioners will deliberate regarding the specific action appropriate for each apparent violation discovered in this audit, the report says.

Commission administrator Brian Bell said the lobbyists and lobbying groups are not named in the report because they should be able to present their side of the story to the commission first. If a lobbyist could show they tried in good faith to obtain authorization but, for some reason, couldnt do so, that would be taken into account, he said.

If in fact there was not a violation, we dont want to falsely tarnish their reputation, Bell said.

The sweeping audit looked at all lobbyists and lobbying groups in the state. Of the 539 lobbyists licensed in Wisconsin during the first six months of 2017, 78  or 14 percent of all lobbyists  apparently engaged in unauthorized lobbying, according to the report.

Of the states 691 registered principals, or interest groups that employ the lobbyists, during that period, 74  or 10 percent  apparently engaged in unauthorized lobbying.

The commission plans to send letters to all of the lobbyists and lobbying groups found to be in apparent violation, inviting them to respond and explain, according to the report.

Bell cast the audit as an escalation of its enforcement work in lobbying, which it oversees in addition to campaign finance and lobbying. Bell said it should ensure the public and Legislature are on notice, who is lobbying and who theyre lobbying on behalf of.

Mike Wittenwyler, an attorney representing the Association of Wisconsin Lobbyists, said its not clear if all of the instances flagged in the report are actual violations of the requirement. Wittenwyler also said that since the information in the audit was culled from recurring reports that lobbyists are required to submit to the commission, it shows there likely was no intent by lobbyists or lobbying groups to evade disclosure requirements.

Stealth lobbying is not the intent here, Wittenwyler told commissioners Thursday.

Professional lobbyists  those who, for pay from an interest group, seek to influence lawmakers and other public officials on matters of policy  must obtain licenses from the Ethics Commission. The groups and businesses for whom they lobby, known as lobbying principals, also must register with the commission and authorize each of the lobbyists working on their behalf.

The latter step, authorization, was the focus of the audit. People whose jobs include lobbying, as well as other duties, must be authorized to lobby after theyve made five lobbying communications with legislators or administration officials. For those whose duties are limited to lobbying, the requirement kicks in before they make any lobbying communications, according to the report.
The bipartisan state Ethics Commission has made a public show of support for its administrator, Brian Bell, as Republican legislative leaders are vowing to force him out later this month.

The commission, made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, cast a formal, unanimous vote of confidence in Bell at their meeting Thursday.

GOP lawmakers have made a similar threat to oust the administrator of the state Elections Commission, Michael Haas  who also has the support of that bipartisan commission.

State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says he will hold a Senate vote Jan. 23 to reject their confirmations. Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, also has rejected calls from the commissions to hold public hearings on the administrators performance.

The Republican legislative leaders have said the problem with Bell and Haas is that both are former employees of the now-defunct Government Accountability Board and there is concern about partisan influence leftover from that agency. The GAB was nonpartisan, led by retired judges.

Bell, asked by commissioners at a Thursday meeting why he left the accountability board, said he departed it in 2014 in part because I didnt necessarily always agree with how things operated.

I didnt feel there were enough policies and procedures in place to ensure objectivity and consistency, Bell said in a subsequent interview.

Democratic commissioner Jeralyn Wendelberger said she doesnt understand what concerns about partisanship apply to Bell.

We still are in the dark as to those allegations, Wendelberger said.

Wendelberger advocated the commission holding its own hearing on Bell if the Senate wont. Republican commissioner Pat Strachota said that while she supports Bell, shes not sure what would be accomplished by a hearing because the final word on confirmation is in the Senate.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Fitzgerald last month called on Haas and Bell to resign. Vos, asked Thursday why they needed to go, said for a sizable chunk of the electorate and especially of elected officials, they question the ability of folks who arent taking responsibility for what actually occurred during the GAB fiasco to now be the ones with their thumb on the scale as to what is right and what is wrong in our elections and ethics process.

I just felt it would be easier to kind of wipe the slate clean, Vos said.

The Republican lawmakers call for Bell and Haas to resign came immediately after Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel released a sweeping report on a probe of leaked records from a now-shuttered secret investigation into Gov. Scott Walkers 2012 recall campaign. The backlash from that so-called John Doe investigation was what led to the dissolution of the accountability board.

The Attorney Generals report recommended disciplinary action for nine public officials  none of whom are Bell or Haas.

Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said in a letter made public Thursday that he will oppose Bells confirmation, in part, because of the report. Nass said it raises questions about the extent to which Bell cooperated with the Attorney Generals probe, and about how he stored records left over from the accountability board.

Bell last month took the unusual step of asking the commission to investigate him in response to allegations that he is partisan.

Nass, in the letter, said attorney Patrick Fiedler contacted Nass and informed him that he had been hired as an investigator by the commission regarding an ethics inquiry of Mr. Bell. Fiedler formerly was a federal prosecutor, state Department of Corrections secretary and Dane County Circuit Court judge for 18 years.
Portage Community Schools will have an early release today due to expected weather conditions. Students will be let out at 12:30 p.m. with buses leaving School Road at 1 p.m.
Walmart said Thursday it is closing the Madison Sams Club warehouse store and 62 more around the country  a move that seems sure to cost jobs  on the same day the company announced it was boosting its starting salary for U.S. workers and handing out one-time bonuses to others.

A company official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the decision publicly said about 10 of the stores are being repurposed into e-commerce distribution centers. He said it was too early to say how many people would lose their jobs since some will be placed at other Walmart locations or be rehired to the e-commerce sites.

Many would-be customers of the Madison store at 7050 Watts Road learned of the closing when they arrived in the rain Thursday to find the doors locked and signs saying the store was closed, would reopen on Friday and then close permanently on Jan. 26.

Im questioning why, said Cathy Atherton, of Madison, a Sams Club member for 10 years, after finding out the store was closed. I hope everyone is OK. It shocks me that there wasnt any warning.

Wisconsin is home to 12 Sams Club stores, including one in Janesville, but West Allis was the only other Wisconsin store believed to be closing.

Tyler Tichenor, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, said Thursday that his agency had not received any notices from Walmart on Sams Club closings in the state but said there are some instances where exceptions are allowed under state law. Those include unforeseeable business circumstances and financial difficulties, according to DWD.

We dont know whether it meets one of those exceptions, Tichenor said. If the company feels they meet one of those exceptions, they wont file that notice.

The closing of the 106,000-square-foot Madison Sams Club will leave a void on the property that is adjacent to the Beltline and also home to a 110,000-square-foot Walmart store. Both opened in 1988.

On Twitter, Sams Club responded to queries by saying, After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, weve decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy.

Evolution of retail

Walmart had earlier cited tax legislation that will save it money in announcing the higher hourly wages, one-time bonuses and expanded parental benefits that will affect more than a million hourly workers in the U.S.

Rising wages reflect a generally tight labor market. The conversion of stores to e-commerce sites also illustrates how companies are trying to leverage their store locations to better compete against Amazon as shopping moves online.

Online retailers typically pay warehouse employees who pack and ship orders more than store jobs pay. Job postings at an Amazon warehouse in Ohio, for example, offer a starting pay of $14.50 an hour.

This is about the evolution of retail, said Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute. The rise of e-commerce is leading to higher wages.

Large employers also have been under pressure to boost benefits for workers because unemployment rates are at historic lows, allowing job seekers to be pickier.

But low unemployment has meant that retailers have had trouble attracting and keeping talented workers, experts said. Walmart employees previously started at $9 an hour, with a bump up to $10 after completing a training program. Target had raised its minimum hourly wage to $11 in October, and said it would raise wages to $15 by the end of 2020.

They raised the minimum wage because they have to, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moodys Analytics, said. The labor market is tight and getting tighter.

Walmart, which reported annual revenue of nearly $486 billion in the previous fiscal year, said the wage increases will cost it an additional $300 million in the next fiscal year. The bonuses will cost it about $400 million in this fiscal year, which ends on Jan. 31.

The wage increases will make a big difference to Walmarts lowest-paid associates but do not yet match Targets commitment to raise pay to $15 an hour, said the Organization United for Respect at Walmart.

Trump: Great news

Walmart joins dozens of other companies including American Airlines, AT&T and Bank of America that have announced $1,000 worker payouts following the passage of the Republican tax plan that slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The companies say the bonuses theyve announced are a way to share some of their bounty with their workers, though in some cases its a very small percentage of their gains, and are less valuable to employees than permanent pay raises.

Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S., Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Thursday. President Donald Trump cheered the announcement with a tweet, saying, Great news, as a result of our TAX CUTS & JOBS ACT!

Walmart has invested $2.7 billion in higher wages and training for workers to lower turnover and make the shopping experience more appealing. It has done well and strengthened its hand in online retail as many other retailers have struggled.

The company said the wage increase benefits all hourly U.S. workers at its stores, including Sams Club. Hourly employees at its websites, distribution centers and its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, will benefit from the wage increase. The one-time bonus between $200 and $1,000 will be given to Walmart employees who wont receive a pay raise. The bonus is based on length of service, with workers with at least 20 years qualifying for $1,000. In all, Walmart employs 2.3 million people around the world, 1.5 million of whom are in the U.S.

Parental leave has been another area in which retailers including Target and Ikea have been trying to offer better benefits. Walmart on Thursday promised full-time hourly U.S. employees 10 weeks of paid maternity leave and six weeks of paid parental leave. Before, full-time hourly workers received 50 percent of their pay for leave. Salaried employees, who already had 10 weeks paid maternity leave, will receive more paid parental leave.

Maternal and paternal benefits can keep younger workers at the company longer, said Craig Rowley, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry Hay Group, a human resources consulting firm.

For the first time, Walmart also promised to help with adoptions, offering full-time hourly and salaried workers $5,000 per child that can be used for expenses such as adoption agency fees, translation fees and legal or court costs.

Wisconsin State Journal reporter Barry Adams and AP Business writers Michelle Chapman in Newark, New Jersey, Joyce Rosenberg in New York and Chris Rugaber in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Tackling global crime networks

Interview with Lord Peter Hain about his efforts to bring British banks to justice for their alleged involvement in state capture.

Lord Peter Hain tabled a series of allegations in the UKs House of Lords relating to the possible role of British banks in alleged money laundering and illicit financial transactions centred around South Africas President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family.

In the House of Lords you said the illicit transactions were part of a flagrant robbery of South African taxpayers. What do you mean by this?

As I explained in my speech, the Guptas, a family from India that relocated to South African have, with the connivance of the South African Presidency been getting government contracts and allegedly thereby robbing taxpayers of billions.

On regular visits to South Africa  most recently last month  I have been stunned by the systemic transnational financial network facilitated by the Guptas and the presidential family, the Zumas. If there had been more proactive and genuine cooperation between the multi-jurisdictional law enforcement agencies  and within and between the banks, which have been moving money for the alleged Gupta/Zuma laundering network  the devastation wrought on South Africa could have been significantly reduced. And perhaps, the financial institutions involved would have been better able to mitigate their exposure.

So does it point to South Africans benefiting from the illicit transactions?

I had delivered by hand to Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, printouts of transactions, and named a British bank concerned. I asked that he again refers these to the UKs Serious Fraud Office, the National Crime Agency and the Financial Conduct Authority for investigation.

This information allegedly shows illegal transfers of funds from South Africa made by the Gupta family over the last few years from their South African accounts to accounts held in Dubai and Hong Kong. Many of the transactions are legitimate. But many certainly are not.

The illicit transactions were flagged internally in the bank concerned as suspicious. But I am reliably informed that the bank was told by the UK headquarters to ignore it. That is an iniquitous breach of legal banking practice in the UK, which I trust ministers would never countenance. It is also an incitement to money laundering. This has self-evidently occurred in this case, sanctioned by a British bank, as part of the flagrant robbery of South African taxpayers. They have lost millions of pounds and many billions of their local currency, the rand.

Was there a specific event that triggered your request to the Chancellor?

I was asked by senior African National Congress figures and stalwarts to do this. My relationships with them go back more than half a century when we stood shoulder to shoulder fighting apartheid.

As before, my latest information has been supplied by South African whistleblowers deep inside the system who are disgusted by the corruption at the heart of the state.

What do you hope to achieve?

There are disturbing questions around the complicity  witting or unwitting  of UK global financial institutions in the Gupta/Zuma transnational network. There are also disturbing questions about these institutions willful blindness to the reality that the laundering process often necessitates financial systems with lax regulation and controls. Unless we urgently find ways to leverage our respective capabilities to coordinate and influence action between the law enforcement and banking sectors we cannot win this battle. This coordination needs to happen domestically here in the UK as well as globally.

Unless we use the opportunity to crack down meaningfully, those who want to break the law will always be one step ahead. We must therefore get the international authorities to close down any money laundering networks.

As someone who fought against apartheid, how do you feel about having to take up a campaign against the countrys democratically elected government?

Having been active along with my brave parents in the anti-apartheid struggle its painful for me to witness corruption within a monopoly capital elite around Zumas family and their close associates the Gupta brothers.

But we should look closer to home, here in the UK. The complicity of our financial institutions in this, as well as the responsibility of law enforcers and regulators in all the concerned jurisdictions, should make government ministers and parliamentarians hang their heads in shame. Just as they were complicit in sustaining apartheid, so today they are complicit in sustaining the corrupt power elite in South Africa which is now betraying the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid struggle.

Winning the war against financial crime will require coordination, influence, action and accountability between multi-jurisdictional law enforcement agencies. The success of criminal networks also relies on the action or inaction  and cooperation or non-cooperation  of the relevant law enforcement authorities.

Lord Peter Hain was a vocal anti-apartheid activist born in South Africa but who grew up in the UK. He is a visiting adjunct professor at the Wits Business School. This article was first published in The Conversation Africa  www.theconversation.com/africa

Read more about capital in the context of political economy, monopoly capital, corruption and ownership in the third issue of Wits' new research magazine, CURIOSITY.
Shoppers don't walk counter-clockwise, parking is hassle-free and, despite its relatively small size, the market guarantees both variety and intimacy.

It doesn't take long to peruse the vendors that set up each Saturday for the MadWest Winter Farmers Market in the gymnasium of the Lussier Community Education Center, 55 S. Gammon Road. But for those in search of locally raised pork, eggs and chicken, handcrafted soaps, tortillas, biscotti and even pizza, the small market provides an opportunity for shoppers to become even more acquainted with the vendors who staff their tables from 8 a.m. to noon.

And for those who come to sell their goods, the market, located next door to Jefferson Middle School, provides a unique outlet to sell to customers at a time of year when access to farmers markets is limited.

"It's a little bit harder to get people here," said Erica Solis, who along with partner Joel Helge was selling soaps, tanned goat hides and pork and lamb meat from their Emancipation Acres farm near Stoughton. "But I will say that the people that come want to be here. So it's maybe less people, but those that come are motivated to buy something."

At the Jan. 6 market, Solis and Helge were among 11 vendors at the market -- along with Moldy Jam, an improvisational bluegrass band that strummed, blew, fiddled and pounded away in the center's lobby.

The offerings included Sitka Salmon Shares; beef, chicken and other meats from Sugar River Farm near Belleville; brats made with sheep meat from Observatory Hill Farm in the town of Montrose; and organic, traditional Mexican-style corn tortillas and sopas from Tortillas Los Angeles in Madison. Bauman's Natural Meats & Catering from Markesan even offered up samples of its pizza made with locally grown ingredients.

Julie Karpus was set up with a table full of her line of Truli Julie biscotti. She sells her products in the spring, summer and fall at farmers markets at Hilldale Shopping Center, Elver Park, Monroe Street and Verona, and they are on the shelves of Willy Street Co-op's three locations and a few coffee shops.

She has been at the Lussier Center since early November and sees it as another way to market her products to current and even a few new customers. Karpus started making biscotti in Chicago in 2013, but when her husband took a job in the Madison area, she took a year off before relaunching the business in 2016. She uses a commercial kitchen in the Badger Prairie Needs Network facility in Verona.

"It's an outlet for my repeat, hardcore, biscotti-loving customers to find me," Karpus said of the winter market. "All of my customers that buy weekly, they have found me here so I can count on them every Saturday."

The market had been managed by vendors for about its first five years, but this is the first year the market is being managed by the Lussier Center as part of its community outreach programming. At the Jan. 6 market, the lone vegetable vendor was on vacation, so there were no potatoes, carrots or other types of winter-stock vegetables.

While the offerings can change from week to week, the primary challenge is getting customers to find the market, which draws an average of 12 to 14 vendors a week.

"It's providing a community service of bringing farmers out into a warm place so members of our community can actually come out and talk directly to the people that are growing or raising their food," said Lauren Schultz, the market manager. "It's not like you're going Downtown and making a day of it. People come out here specifically to buy, and they're planning ahead."
With an outlet of the Madison pizza-and-salad favorite Ians so close by, its a good thing Village Pizza, which opened in mid-October on the campus section of University Avenue, is doing so much more than pizza. And its in that so much more category where it shines.

Brothers Arturo Ruiz and Berna Cazares transformed the former Bobs Copy Shop into Village Pizza and did a commendable job, remodeling the 2,500-square-foot space, and putting together a menu that offers plenty of appetizers, sandwiches and pastas, in addition to pizza.

The real revelation here is something we ordered on a whim once we finished dinner. Its not on the menu the restaurant has on its website, and is easy to overlook on the paper menu, where it kind of floats above the appetizers and could get lumped in with them.

Its a dessert called sweetbites ($6.49), little parallelograms, mostly, and some triangles, of fried dough covered with powdered sugar, which taste like small beignets. The enormous box of bites came with a container of chocolate dipping sauce.

Both appetizers we ordered were also deep-fried. The young man who took our order at the counter agreed to let us get a half order of cheese curds ($6.99) and a half order of fried mushrooms, since they were the same price.

It turned out to be a great idea because the mushrooms were excellent and different from any others Ive had. The huge portobellos were sliced in half, thickly breaded, and fried to a crisp. They came with an excellent marinara for dipping.

The curds were also good: small and salty and with just the right amount of crust. The Caesar salad ($6) was also worth ordering. It was well dressed with crisp romaine lettuce, plenty of Parmesan, and small, tasty croutons.

The menu offers nine sandwiches, five pastas, fried chicken and barbecued ribs. I enjoyed the chicken wrap ($6.49) with grilled chicken (theres also a fried option) inside a fresh herbed tortilla with lettuce, tomato, avocado, bacon and a light amount of ranch sauce.

Turns out the pizza was the weakest link, even though it was loaded with toppings. Our harvest pizza was $17.49 for 14 inches and $18.49 for 18 inches, making me wonder why anyone would get the small one when the large was only $1 more. The vegetarian pizza looked great with plenty of tomatoes, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, green pepper slices, onions, spinach and black olives, and a generous amount of cheese.

Crust options are thin, double dough (with dough on the bottom and the top), deep dish and gluten-free. We went with the regular thin crust, which came out partly charred. That could have been overlooked had the pizza had more flavor, but the tomato sauce was oddly bland.

The menu promised green olives and it came with black ones. Green olives are more distinctive and couldve perked up the pie. Red pepper flakes helped somewhat.

Ive never had a Rosatis Pizza, even though the Chicago-area chain has been in Madison for 18 years. Ruiz compares his pizzas to Rosatis, since he worked at Rosatis on Madisons East Side for about seven years and more recently for two years at the West Side location. He said his pizzas have a different style of dough and different ingredients.

Ruiz, whos from Mexico City and has been in Madison 17 years, has also cooked for two years at Great Dane Hilldale, managed a McDonalds location, and spent six months at the Icon on State Street. Ruizs brother/partner Cazares worked as a chef at Masons Eatery & Pub in Kenosha.

We visited on a quiet New Years Day for dinner, and the restaurant seemed to be doing a steady delivery business on a frigid night. The room has a casual, college look to it, with all the visual impact coming from the fun, swirly tomato logo painted on the main wall. Across from it are murals of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum in Rome and canals in Venice.

The main discovery at Village Pizza were those delicious sweetbites. The box held dozens of pieces and was five times more than we needed, so I took the rest with me. No sooner did I get comfortable at home than I began thinking about these delicious bites  and I snacked on them for days.

So much for New Years resolutions.




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Russia's floating power plant meets construction standards

11 January 2018

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Russian State Expert Examination Board (Glavgosexpertiza) has announced that the floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov meets construction standards. The authority said on 9 December it had approved the project in Russia's northernmost city of Pevek that is being funded by Rosenergoatom, the nuclear power plant operator subsidiary of Rosatom.

The Akademik Lomonosov (Image: Rosenergoatom)

Currently moored at the Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in Saint Petersburg, Akademik Lomonosov houses two 35 MW KLT-40S nuclear reactors, similar to those used in Russia's nuclear-powered ice breakers.

"Having examined the materials submitted, Glavgosexpertiza has reached the conclusion that the design documentation and the results of engineering surveys on the facility comply with technical regulations and other established requirements," Glavgosexpertiza and Rosenergoatom said in identical statements. "The project's design documentation concurs with previously conducted engineering surveys," they added. Glavgosexpertiza has also "determined that the estimated cost of the project is sound", they said.

Russia's "unified energy system" covers about 15% of its territory and the use of nuclear energy is the "most optimal way" to provide heat and energy to remote areas, which occupy about half of the territory of the Russian Federation, they said.

The keel of Academik Lomonosov was laid in April 2007 at Sevmash in Severodvinsk, but in August 2008 Rosatom cancelled the contract - apparently due to the military workload at Sevmash - and transferred it to the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg, which has experience in building nuclear icebreakers. New keel-laying took place in May 2009 and the 21,500 tonne hull - 144 metres long, 30 m wide - was launched at the end of June 2010. The two 35 MWe KLT-40S reactors were installed in October 2013.

Ships carrying cargo to support Akademik Lomonosov arrived at the port of Pevek, in the Chukotka district of Russia, in October last year. The plant is to be towed to Murmansk in May, be loaded with fuel in October and commissioned in November next year.

The plant is intended to replace the outgoing capacity of the Bilibino nuclear power plant in the Chukotka district. The first Bilibino unit is scheduled to be shut down in 2019 and the whole plant will be shut down in 2021.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Each week, were pulling a classic recipe out of the State Journal archives and sharing it here as it was originally printed years ago. Remember, ingredients and cooking techniques change over time so you may want to make some adjustments when trying out a classic recipe.

This weeks recipe took honorable mention in the State Journals not from scratch category in 1974 and was submitted by Mrs. Ruth T. Wahl of Madison.

Make-ahead leftover bake

1 16-ounce can applesauce

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

 of an 8-ounce package of bread stuffing mix

2 to 2  cups cut-up cooked turkey, chicken, or ham

1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

Paprika

Combine applesauce and soup. Prepare stuffing mix according to package directions. Place half of meat in bottom of 2-quart casserole. Add half of prepared stuffing. Top with all of spinach, then with half of soup mixture. Add layers of remaining meat, stuffing and soup mixture. (If desired, refrigerate at this point.)

Bake in moderate (350 F) oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until bubbly. Sprinkle generously with paprika.
A mother hired a nanny and allowed her to babysit 2 children while she was out of the home.

However, the mother was called to a murder scene that left her home a bloody mess and her older child traumatized.

According to police in Zimbabwe, 35-years-old Munyaradzi Moyo followed his wife on her first day of her new job as a nanny.

At about 2:00 p.m., he went into the home and viciously stabbed his wife, Nomsa Mvere, 25, in front of her employers son.

The 6-year-old child was gagged while the 3-year-old was sleeping. Moyo then tried to use a cord to strangle himself but it snapped. He then used a cloth to hang himself.

Neighbors told police that they came to the home after hearing someone screaming for help. They tried to get into the home, but the door was locked from the inside.

The neighbors were eventually able to make their way inside, but it was too late. The nanny died from her stab wounds and her husband was found hanging.

Thankfully, the kids were not physically injured.

Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Precious Simango said that they are investigating the incident and they are trying to determine a motive for the callous murder.

The womans employer, who was identified as MaPhiri, said she was at a doctors appointment when she received the call about the incident. She rushed home to find the horrific scene.

Itas really traumatizing to leave your house and be ordered

to come back to find pools of blood just after a few hours of absence, MaPhiri said.

MaPhiri added that Mvere started work the morning of the incident and she was well. She did not seem to me like someone who was troubled.
Investigators are trying to figure out why a naked man ripped out a urinal form a bars toilet and ran with it into the woods, according to police in Florida.

The City of Tallahassee Police Department said that on Tuesday, officers were called to a restaurant due to the naked man who was damaging property.

When officers arrived, they discovered that the restaurant was flooded as the naked man went into the bathroom and ripped the urinal off the wall.

When the suspect was confronted by the angry and wet employees at around 11:00 p.m., he did exactly what any person who has ripped a urinal off the wall does, police said.

He ran into the woods naked to avoid capture.

Video of the suspect was turned over to the officers so members of the Criminal Investigations Bureau could study it.

The bar was identified as the Millers Ale House located on Apalachee Parkway.

The suspect, who was only identified as a 20-year-old man, is facing a charge of criminal mischief.
Councillors clash over budget cut proposals  impossible decisions to come later this year

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Jan 11th, 2018

A war of words broke out between Executive Board members and opposition councillors this week, who clashed over proposed cuts to local services.

Councillors had been debating the revenue budget plans before they go to full council for further discussion in February.

Addressing the Executive Board on Tuesday, Council Leader Mark Pritchard said he was pleased with the level of engagement in the recent Difficult Decisions consultation, with 3,800 people responding and having their say.

He also explained that the consultation responses and scrutiny committee feedback had been considered to help enable a safe and balanced budget for the next two years.

Clr Pritchard all the departments are getting an increase except finance, adds it was close to going to schools and asking for serious cuts. Points finger to Welsh Gov / Westminster in terms of budget settlements etc.  Wrexham.com (@wrexham) January 9, 2018

The revenue budget was seconded by Lead Member for Environment and Transport, Cllr David A Bithell, who added: As the lead member said it has been a difficult consultation process, but I think the budget sets out some clear objectives and supports adult social care and schools.

There are still some difficult decisions to be made but I am happy to second the recommendations as outlined in the report.

But Cllr Marc Jones said there were still problems with the budget proposals despite Executive Board members listening with at least one ear to the strong consultation process and scrutiny process.

He also raised concerns that schools could be forced to axe teaching and teaching assistant jobs due to the financial pressures they face.

He added a pointed attack at some of his fellow councillors: My concern overall is the young, the disabled and elderly will have to pay full whack and I dont think thats fair when the people in front and behind me are not paying their full whack. Its saying you are going to take a hit and we are going to take a pay rise, that to me is completely immoral.

I think we have to be very clear that councillors should take the lead and Im going to be suggesting at full council that we as councillors take that lead and show leadership.

We should look to cut the members of the Executive Board members to seven, trim the mayors budget, we should not be taking this years pay rise or next years pay rise, and we should pay for own iPads.

His comments were met with a round of applause from individuals sat in the public gallery.

Clr Wynn says Council is softening the blow in the budget & up to schools themselves to work up their own budgets on how/if cuts will be dealt with. He recognises 80% of costs are salaries, and if cuts to be made, likely staff.  Wrexham.com (@wrexham) January 9, 2018

Lead Member for Education, Cllr Phil Wynn stated that he had been equally as concerned as to how schools manage, but fortunately the local authority has put money in to soften the blow.

Cllr Pritchard described it as a fantastic story, although noting that the budget was tight due to UK and Welsh Government decisions: We went for consultation and the schools were dreading it, me and the board were not happy. We were told it was the budget at the time and we had a better settlement than we thought.

Would I have wanted more? Lots more, but we have to work with what weve got.

We were close to going into schools and asking them to make serious savings because we didnt know what money we were having.

Cllr Alun Jenkins described some as the proposals put forward as unpalatable and suggested that next years budget consultation is called impossible decisions.

However he also challenged proposals to increase Council Tax to 3.9 per cent, suggesting that a rise to 5 per cent would give a buffer for the coming years.

Cllr Pritchard defended the 3.9 per cent increase, saying it is a sensible setting for Wrexham.

Cllr Pritchard talking about public feedback on country park proposals, says he had 1-2am phone calls saying we were going to remove the animals and do terrible things to them   Wrexham.com (@wrexham) January 9, 2018

One of the main budget proposals questioned during the meeting was suggested cuts to PCSO funding. During the Difficult Decisions consultation it had been proposed that Wrexham Council cut their share of the PCSO funding by 100 per cent over the next two years.

However this has since been changed, with a 70k in 2018/19 and 70k cut in 2019/20, rather than scrapping the funding altogether in that timeframe.

But Cllr Pritchard pointed out that it was a mixed bag of responses to the PCSO proposals, stating that it was around 50/50 in favour of keeping the funding and reducing the funding, voicing some critical opinions put forward on PCSOs.

However Cllr Pritchards comments were challenged by Cllr Harper, who said: Looking at the public consultation on PCSOs, the top response was that they are needed, under than was with the amount of antisocial behaviour and that more PCSOs are required.

The vast majority are very positive. Only 46 responses that said they are not effective.

She added: The response from public wasnt 50/50, it was overwhelmingly supportive.

Cllr Jones also suggested that members of the board could vote on taking the PCSO cut from their own wards.

Cllr Hugh Jones reiterated that they have taken the publics feedback on board and will only be taking 70,000 out of the budget over the next two years.

He said: The primary responsibility for police services lies with the Police and Crime Commissioners, they have the power to raise the necessary funds for policing.

Having regard to the issues in Wrexham and having listened to the public, we will uniquely part fund PCSOs and we will continue to do that.

We are working with North Wales Police to try and achieve a revised policing model. But I come back to the prime responsibility for funding the police service comes with the Police and Crime Commissioner.

It was suggested by some opposition members that councillors and Executive Board members could go further in their roles to make savings, with Cllr Harper stating that it has hard to have a moral authority as a board without taking a hit themselves.

She said: Youre asking local people to put their hands in pockets but youre not will to do it yourself with councillor pay rises and Executive Board members, again with the issue of iPads as a device given to councillors instead of reams of paper raised.

She added: I am sure other professions such as teachers would find them useful as well. The fact is other professions have to pay for technology, I cant see why councillors are an exemption.

Cllr Pritchard hit back at the comments and said that leadership is about listening to people and not enforcing things on them, adding that not everyone can be right on everything.

He continued: Before the election you ran a campaign on iPads, I think you were wrong on it.

You mustnt want to impose everything on everyone as you morally think we should pay for them.

Some members feel they have a right to an iPad as it comes as part of the job. We save thousands on iPads from printing and ink and waste.

Why would you want to have everything printed when you have have 99 per cent electronically, read it and it doesnt produce waste.

Cllr Wynn was keen to have his say, angrily pointing out a Plaid Cymru led council up the coast: As leading light in Plaid Cymru you criticise Wrexham Council for having 10 members, yet youre silent on Gwynedd which has 10 members.

Whats good for the goose is good for the gander. Its double standards you want to score political points.

With the proposed introduction of parking charges for Blue Badge holders and country park visitors also on the agenda this week, one suggestion put forward by Cllr Bryan Apsley was that councillors contributed 3 a visit to their own car parking, which they are currently entitled to for free.

However Cllr Jones pointed out that 3 a visit for councillor car parking would penalise those who are more effective and turn up compared to the members who turn up for 11 per cent of the time for meetings.

Cllr Pritchard used the opportunity to make reference to the recent pay review carried out by the Independent Renumeration Panel which has put forward a 200 pay increase for all councillors.

He continued: If any member doesnt want to take the money, they can contact finance department and can have it removed from the salaries or expenses. I dont want to force anything on anybody.

Some members are fortunate and are better of financially than others.

Some may want not want to hand it and give it to their local charities. I personally give mine to charity.

For yourselves to continually go on about expenses, I personally think it is personal attack and bordering on the line of bullying.

Commenting on how hed only used a minute of the allocated five minute speaking time, Cllr Apsley hit back at the council leaders comments, stating: I believe the lead member is totally out of order to mention bullying.

If anyone is bullying here this morning, it was the response from Cllr Pritchard.

As that exchange appeared to be heading rapidly downhill the acting chairman Cllr Jones stepped in and moved the meeting along.

Amid the bickering there was also praise for some changes to some of the budget proposals, including the reconsideration of scrapping the bonus payments, which had come under criticism by scrutiny committee members just before Christmas.

It had been proposed that a 4 a day bonus payment offered to some vulnerable people as part of the councils Day and Work Opportunities scheme was to be scrapped to make savings of 26,000.

However it was confirmed last week that the plans to scrap the 4 a day payment had been withdrawn by the administration.

Welcoming the change of heart, Cllr Cameron thanked for the board for listening to the feedback and queried if all workers eligible to the 4 payment will now be in receipt of it  as there was an inequitable situation where people on the same scheme would be getting either all or nothing of the payment depending on when they had started.

Lead Member Health and Adult Social Care, Cllr Joan Lowe said she also felt strongly about the proposal that had been put forward and confirmed that payment will now be across the board, a position slightly at odds with her previously offered solution to the inequality issue  scrapping the payment for all.

Cllr Geoff Lowe voices concern over cuts to country parks inferring could be convenient if that resulted in disrepair & therefore creating handy building sites. Clr Bithell replies new model is based around sustainable protection for them, no intention to sell off our parks  Wrexham.com (@wrexham) January 9, 2018

Cllr Derek Wright ask specifically if animals at Ty Mawr be adversely affected in any way. Clr Bithell corrects misinformation says animals currently there will not be adversely affected & we will continue to have animals there  Wrexham.com (@wrexham) January 9, 2018

The nine members of the Executive Board present at the meeting voted unanimously in favour to press ahead with the proposed budget cuts, with all 52 councillors having the opportunity to vote on whether the recommendations are finalised at Februarys Full Council.

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 21st February where no doubt alternative budget proposals will be put forward by opposition councillors and further debate on the cuts will take place.

You can read our meeting report on the proposed introduction for Blue Badge holders and country park visitors, here.
Today begins a week-long blood drive and friendly competition between firefighters and police officers in Madison.

The Never Forget: Battle of the Badges Blood Drive is designed to increase blood donations in the Madison area. Today's event runs through 1 p.m. at the Madison Police Training Center, 5702 Femrite Dr. Donors are asked to specify which for which department they are donating.

Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are preferred. To sign up go to www.redcrossblood.org and use the sponsor code Public Safety.

Those who can not give today can still be counted in the Battle of the Badges by donating through September 19 at the American Red Cross East Donor Center, 2109 Zeier Road or the American Red Cross West Donor Center, 4860 Sheboygan Ave.
North Wales Police launch new drone flying squad

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Jan 11th, 2018

North Wales Police have unveiled their new weapon in their fight against crime with the launch of their Drone Unit.

Capturing high quality video and still images, police say the drones will be used to assist with searches for missing people, road traffic collision investigations, major crime incidents and event planning and management.

15 police officers and staff members have completed their Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) training which involved passing a theory exam and practical flight test. A number of Drone Spotters, who are there to assist the Drone pilots, have also been trained across the region.

All officers and staff who have been trained have undertaken this as an additional skill to their everyday duties and who can be called upon if the drones are required.

The two drones, which have police livery and can also be equipped with a thermal imaging camera, have already been used to search for missing people and investigate crime.

Inspector Craig Jones from the Forces Operational Planning Unit said the drones will positively inform decision making and allow officers to gain vital information, quickly and safely.

The drones have a downlink which means officers on the ground can see live footage captured by the drone in the air, continued Craig.

One recent example of this was the fire at the Gateway to Wales Hotel in Deeside (pictured above) where we assisted colleagues from the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service.

We have been evaluating the drones over the last few months and we very much hope that we will be able to further develop the use of this technology in the near future.

Drones have been trialled within the force since late 2017  however an agreement is in place for North Wales that also allows fire and rescue service incident commanders to consider the deployment of drones.

Senior Operations Manager at North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, Stuart Millington said: The opportunity to see an arial moving image that shows hotspots utilising thermal imaging capabilities is a significantly useful tool in order to resolve operational incidents.

Deputy Chief Constable Gareth Pritchard added: The drones offer a highly cost effective approach to help assist our officers. Being able to launch a drone in the air in a few minutes could help save lives and secure vital evidence if a crime was in progress.

More information about North Wales Police and its use of drones can be found  here.
The following statement was sent by award-winning Australian journalist and documentarian John Pilger in support of the upcoming webinar, Organizing resistance to Internet censorship: An online discussion with Chris Hedges and David North. Pilgers documentaries include The Quiet Mutiny (1970), Year Zero (1979), Utopia (2013) and, most recently, The Coming War on China (2016), on US aggression in Asia.

The webinar featuring Hedges and North will be held Tuesday, January 16, at 7:00 p.m. EST. For more information and to register, click here.

As a journalist and filmmaker who has long navigated the mainstream, I offer my support to this important discussion between Chris Hedges and David North.

Something has changed. Although the media was always a loose extension of capital power, it is now almost fully integrated. Dissent once tolerated in the mainstream has regressed to a metaphoric underground as liberal capitalism moves toward a form of corporate dictatorship. This is an historic shift, with journalists policing the perimeters of the new order: witness the anti-Russia hysteria and the #MeToo witch-hunts, especially in liberal newspapers such as the Guardian and the New York Times. With independent journalists ejected from the mainstream, the world wide web remains the vital source of serious disclosure and evidence-based analysis: true journalism.

Sites such as wikileaks.org, wsws.org, consortiumnews.com, globalresearch.ca, democracynow.org and counterpunch.org are increasingly targeted as offensive by Google and other giants; and the filtering and limiting of Google searches of these sites is rank censorship. These are not marginal sources, but crucial for people trying to make sense of a world in which science and technology have advanced remarkably while mainstream democratic politics have regressed to the extremism of class warfare and incessant warmongering.

The perverse contrivance of fake news is part of this, as is Russia-gate. The broadcaster RTwhich often does the job the western liberal media has abandonedwould have been destroyed had it not been backed by a powerful government. The same might be said of Julian Assange had he not demonstrated extraordinary resilience and courage and won the backing of a small, brave government. The matter is urgent; voices must be raised! I urge my colleagues to break their silence.
A Madison man, charged with defrauding a parcel delivery insurer out of more than $360,000 by filing false insurance claims on phantom packages, was arrested Thursday by federal authorities.

Scott Reaston, 40, an Australian who lives in Madison, was indicted last week in U.S. District Court, but the indictment remained under seal until his arrest Thursday morning outside a business in Madison, U.S. Attorneys Office spokeswoman Myra Longfield said.

Reaston appeared briefly in court Thursday, but will be back in court Friday for a hearing to determine whether hell remain in custody while his case is pending after prosecutors requested that he be held.

The indictment alleges that Reaston submitted, under various names, $480,000 worth of claims to a St. Louis company called Brown & Brown of Missouri Inc., which offers a shipping insurance plan called the Parcel Insurance Plan (PIP). The insurance claims were for cellphones Reaston claimed to have sold online through Amazon Marketplace that were lost, damaged or shorted during delivery to customers.

The claims requested payment from PIP for the purported cost of the phones. PIP sent payments to Reaston totaling $364,183, according to the indictment.

Reaston is charged with seven counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering. The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service.

As part of the scheme, the indictment alleges, Reaston sent PIP counterfeit documents to substantiate the claims, including counterfeit invoices from cellphone retailers as proof of cost of the phones and counterfeit Amazon Marketplace purchase orders as proof of the sales. The indictment also states that Reaston fabricated email messages between himself and purported customers in which those customers wrote that they did not receive the cellphones they had ordered.

The money that Reaston received from PIP was deposited into the bank account of a person with whom Reaston was living, then transferred into Reastons own accounts or given to him by check. Reaston had told the roommate, the indictment states, that he was using the roommates name to sell phones and that certain customers had complained about not receiving the phones. He told the roommate that the money was insurance payments for the lost phones.

Reaston made the transactions between February 2013 and July 2015, while living in California and in Madison. He used two aliases for the transactions, and while living in Madison, he also used the names of his two roommates.

Reaston purchased PIP shipping insurance through the web postage retailer Stamps.com, which gives its customers the ability to buy PIP shipping insurance, according to the indictment.

Reaston faces up to 20 years in prison on each mail and wire fraud charge and up to 10 years in prison on each money laundering charge.
An East Side resident who stopped to get her computer from home took a little too long inside, as she watched someone drive away in her Jeep a few moments later.

The car theft happened at about 8:30 p.m. on Pinewood Court, Madison police said.

The 22-year-old woman told police she decided to leave her Jeep Liberty Sport running and unlocked as she ran inside.

"When she came back out, she saw her Jeep pulling away, with a thief in the driver seat," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain.

The car theft is the latest in a string of numerous car thefts in the Madison area this winter, with many of stolen vehicles left unlocked and running by drivers wanting to get their vehicles warmed up.

Madison police started a social media campaign called #NightlyLockup around Thanksgiving, to get people to lock their cars and to keep valuables secure, and the number of break-ins dropped, but the actual theft of vehicles does not appear to have declined.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee man is facing upgraded charges for a stolen gun after investigators discovered he was documented member of a local gang.

Lawrence Andrews was taken into custody by a U.S. Marshal's Office deputy on Tuesday for outstanding warrants related to grand theft of a firearm and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.

Law enforcement first came in contact with Andrews back in November 2017 when they responded to a battery incident in the 2800 block of Tartary Drive.

Andrews was a suspect in the case and was being arrested. When searched him, they found a stolen gun and bullets in his pants.

At the time, Andrews was only charged with carrying a concealed firearm. On Nov. 28 he was charged with grand theft of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

However, further investigation revealed that Andrews was a documented member of a local "hybrid gang" known as Hit Squad. Hybrid gangs are usually local, street gangs with loose organizational structure and leadership.

Due to the revelation, Andrews' charges were upgraded with "gang enhancement," meaning the penalty for the charges could be more severe.

He remains in the Leon County Detention Center on a $35,000 bond.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A candlelight vigil is scheduled for two FAMU students who were killed in a car crash over the weekend.

The community is invited to gather at the Eternal Flame at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in memory of 20-year-old Aniya Brown of Bensenville, Illinois and 19-year-old Alfred Motlow III, of Memphis, Tennessee

Brown and Motlow were among three who were killed in a car accident in Shelby County, Tennessee on Jan. 5.

Both students were sophomores majoring in engineering.

Guests are asked to arrive at the vigil early.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - Legislation to prohibit credit reporting agencies from charging fees to consumers for placing or removing a security freeze on a credit report passed its first committee Wednesday.

The bill, which was approved by the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee, would eliminate fees of up to $10 that are charged when a data breach victim wants to temporarily freeze a credit report.

During a news conference at the state capitol in support of the measure, Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam said the fee is an added hassle for someone who has had their identity stolen.

Its the elimination of an additional burden," said Adam Putnam, R- Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services. "So, youre victimized once by having your identity stolen, and then you have to pay to clean up the mess that a criminal made in your life.

Bill supporters say widespread data breaches at major companies continue to happen regularly across the country, and the fees imposed by credit reporting agencies create barriers toward fixing compromised credit reports.

If passed by the full legislature and signed into law, the measure would take effect on July 1st, 2018 and Florida would join Indiana, South Carolina, Maine, and North Carolina in not allowing the fee.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee man is facing drug charges for possession of meth with intent to sell.

Michael Ansley was arrested Tuesday by a Leon County deputy who noticed Ansley was driving with an expired tag.

Court documents show that during the arrest Ansley admitted to having fake and real meth in the car.

Deputies say he also had drug tools and money from a previous sale.

Bond is set at $12,000.

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VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) - Kendrick Johnson's mom, Jackie, led a candlelight prayer vigil

commememorating the loss of her 17-year-old son.

His grandmother, Barbara English says the family is trying to move forward after five years of not knowing what happened to her grandson.

At first the Georgia Bureau of Investigation autopsy ruled Johnson's cause of death as "accidental, positional asphyxia," or strangling. But Johnson's parents didn't believe it.

They paid for their own autopsy, which said their son had died from blunt force trauma.

Authorities say Johnson's body showed no injuries when it was discovered rolled up in a wrestling mat in the gym.

Investigators believe he went to a rolled up mat to retrieve a shoe, but could not get out.

But the Johnson's questioned that theory.

"It was very upsetting to find out my cousin was murdered at school, because school is suppose to be a safe place for kids," a person said.

For 14-year-old Chante Williams, she struggles with grasping the idea that her cousin died at Lowndes High, but recalls fond memories with her cousin at last night's vigil.

"It means a lot to me because it seems like he is still with us and it just makes me happy to remember my cousin by what he was before he was killed at Lowndes High."

Now so many questions and not enough answers remain.

Johnson's 19-year-old cousin, Juwan Harris, along with many family members want answers to Johnson's death. wers.

Harris wants to keep fighting for Johnson.

The Johnson family is also hosting a peace walk and rally this Saturday at 10 a.m. at Lowndes High School.

MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL First Alert Weather app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for additional local news and hourly updates.
VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) - Valdosta Police are investigating an armed robbery in the 1900 block of North Ashley Street.

The Valdosta Police Department say the robbery occurred at a business in the 1900 Block of North Ashley Street.

They say it happened around 11:40 a.m.

An armed African-American male, only described as being approximately 55 and wearing all black clothing, came into a business Rosco Clothing demanding money.

After receiving it, the man left the business with an undisclosed amount of cash and left the scene.

No injuries have been reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-10 16:13:16|Editor: Jiaxin

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SEOUL, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The jobless rate among South Korean youths aged 15-29 hit a record yearly high in 2017, with the number of those unemployed topping 1 million, a government report showed Wednesday.

The youth unemployment rate stood at 9.9 percent in 2017, according to Statistics Korea. It was the highest since the statistical agency began compiling the relevant data in 2000.

The number of youths employed was 435,000 in 2017, equaling to the figure in 2016 and the highest since 2000.

The sentiment jobless rate for the younger generation reached a whopping 22.7 percent in 2017, up 0.7 percentage points from the previous year.

The official unemployment rate refers to those who are immediately available for work, but fail to get a job in the past four weeks despite efforts to actively seek a job.

The sentiment rate adds those who are too discouraged to seek a job, those who work part-time against their will to work full-time and those who prepare to get a job after college graduation to the official jobless rate.

The sentiment rate began to be compiled in January 2015 to more accurately reflect labor market conditions.

Jobless rate for all generations stood at 3.7 percent in 2017, unchanged from the previous year.

The number of those unemployed reached 1,028,000 in 2017, topping 1 million for the second consecutive year. It was the highest since the statistical agency began compiling the relevant date according to the current standard in 2000.

It was attributed to an increase in the number of the unemployed among those aged 25-29, in their 30s and 60s or higher.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office in May last year, vowed to make all-out efforts to create jobs, but those efforts had yet to take effect.

Moon said in his first New Year's press conference earlier in the day that his government's top priority was creating decent jobs, reiterating his pledge to foster growth through job creation.

Job creation theoretically leads to more household income, which boosts private consumption. More consumption leads to higher corporate earnings, which can result in more employment by companies.

President Moon implemented a supplementary budget plan to create jobs in the second half of last year, vowing to increase employment in the public sector and encourage private companies to hire more workers by providing subsidies.

Meanwhile, the number of those employed totaled 26,552,000 in 2017, up 317,000 from the previous year.

It was up from an employment of 299,000 in 2016, but it stayed below the creations of 337,000 jobs in 2015 and 533,000 jobs in 2014 respectively.

Manufacturers hired 4,469,000 workers in 2017, down 0.3 percent from the prior year. Those working at construction companies gained 6.2 percent last year, with those in the healthcare and social welfare sector growing 3.3 percent.

The economically inactive population, or those aged above 15 minus the sum of those employed and unemployed, was 16,171,000 in 2017, slightly up 2,000 from the previous year.

Those who were economically inactive for childcare and schooling reduced last year, but the so-called "take-a-rest" group increased 6.5 percent.

The group refers to those who replied that they took a rest during a job survey period. It is important as the group can include those who are unemployed and too discouraged to search for work for an extended period of time.

Discouraged workers, who were too discouraged to seek a job, reached 483,000 in 2017, up 36,000 from the prior year.

The hiring rate rose 0.3 percentage points over the year to 60.7 percent in 2017. The OECD-method employment rate for those aged 15-64 gained 0.5 percentage points to touch a record yearly high of 66.6 percent.

The hiring rate gauges the percentage of working people to the working-age population, or those aged above 15. The employment rate is used as an alternative to jobless rate, and the government sets its long-term target at 70 percent.
Wisconsin school administrators need to get tougher on violent students, a Republican lawmaker said Thursday as he defended his bill that would allow teachers to demand student suspensions and require principals to report violent students to police.

Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt, R-Fond du Lac, led off a public hearing on the bill before the Assembly Judiciary Committee. He acknowledged his bill has generated intense opposition  16 groups have registered against the measure with no groups in support  but he said teachers find themselves in danger too often and something has to be done.

He pointed to a U.S. Department of Education survey that found 13.7 percent of Wisconsin teachers said they were threatened during the 2011-2012 school year, the third highest rate in the nation that year. He also noted the survey found 11.3 percent of Wisconsin teachers said they were assaulted that same year, the nations highest rate.

Administrators have gotten too soft on students as they pursue a failed social justice agenda, Thiesfeldt said. He blamed the trend on guidelines the Obama administration issued in 2014 urging schools to take a gentler approach toward disciplining minorities.

School safety  its not just for kids, Thiesfeldt said. Negative behavior without consequences promotes more negative behavior.

The hearing room was packed with people waiting to speak about the bill. Before the proceeding began, groups Wisconsin Family Ties, Disability Rights Wisconsin and Kids Forward held a news conference to rail against it. They warned the bill would lead to more suspensions and increase student contact with police without getting at any of the root problems that spur students to act out.

This bill offers no additional resources or new approaches to improving classroom safety by addressing student behaviors, teaching conflict resolution strategies, or providing more support for students who are struggling, said Kids Forward Executive Director Ken Taylor. Instead it supports the false narrative that students are dangerous and further criminalizes their behavior.

Under the bill, police would have to notify the school when they take a student into custody for a violent crime before the next school day begins. School administrators also would have to notify the students teachers as soon as possible. Both of those provisions are departures from current state law, which requires all juvenile criminal records to be automatically sealed.

The proposal would allow teachers to ask school boards to suspend students if administrators wont do it and clarify that teachers have a right to inspect a students behavioral records.

Teachers also would be allowed to end their contracts without penalty if a student attacks them. Principals or administrators would have to notify police within 24 hours of learning that a student has committed an assault or other violent crime at school or at a school activity if an adult victim or witness requests it.

Nicole Weigel, of Wisconsin Dells, told The Associated Press while she was waiting to address the committee that her 11-year-old son, Caleb, is autistic and that police have removed him from school at least twice, leaving him traumatized. In one instance, he barricaded himself in a bathroom and plugged up a toilet; in another he got agitated after a teacher refused to let him take a break when he became frustrated with a math problem, she said.

We need to be teaching kids to understand their feelings, she said. They dont know how to handle them.

Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, grilled Thiesfeldt for nearly an hour, complaining the bill isnt based on data or best practices. She questioned why the proposal doesnt provide funding for more aides for special-needs children and smaller classes. She also predicted the bill would lead to more minority students landing in serious trouble.

Thiesfeldt, a former teacher, said he doesnt care about students race. He acknowledged the bill doesnt address the causes of students problems but it does offer a practical way to improve safety.

Im trying to get us back to the basics here, he said, and get our schools to understand you have to deal with these problems as they occur.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-10 19:54:14|Editor: Jiaxin

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DUBLIN, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The economic growth rate of Ireland in 2017 is likely to beat the 4.3 percent forecast, a senior official said here on Tuesday.

Paschal Donohoe, Irish Finance Minister, told a press briefing that the 4.3 percent forecast earlier made by his ministry for the country's economic growth rate in 2017 is likely to be surpassed.

This will make Ireland the European Union's best performing economy for the past four consecutive years, said the minister.

Despite this, the minister warned that the Irish economy could witness a consistent slowdown in growth rate in the coming few years due to a number of factors including Brexit impact and changes to corporate tax rates internationally.

According to a report unveiled the press briefing, the Irish economic growth rate will first slow down to 3.5 percent in 2018 from last year's estimated 4.3 percent, then further slide to 3.2 percent in the next year. The economic growth rate of the country will only stand at 2.8 percent in 2020 and 2.6 percent in 2021, said the report.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 00:45:46|Editor: Yang Yi

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File photo shows an aircraft of Chinese Air Force in a training. Air Force of the People's Liberation Army of China has carried out real combat training, with the involvement of the J-20 stealth fighter and the Y-20 military transport aircraft, according to a military statement. Several new fighter jets including the J-16, J-10C and H-6K bombers were also included in the training. The training is aimed at improving the air force's capability to win battles. (Xinhua/Chen Qingshun)

BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Air Force of the People's Liberation Army of China has carried out real combat training, with the involvement of the J-20 stealth fighter and the Y-20 military transport aircraft, according to a military statement.

The J-20, China's fourth-generation medium and long-range fighter jet, made its maiden flight in 2011 and was officially commissioned into military service in September 2017.

Several new fighter jets including the J-16, J-10C and H-6K bombers were also included in the training, the statement said.

The training is aimed at improving the air force's capability to win battles, it said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 01:10:50|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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OTTAWA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Canada has launched a wide-ranging trade complaint against the United States over the U.S. anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Canadian exports, according to Canada's WTO filing released Wednesday.

Canada said U.S. broke the WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement, the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes.

Canada cited almost 200 examples of alleged U.S. wrongdoing, almost all of them concerning other trading partners, including India, Brazil and the European Union.

The 32-page complaint homed in on technical details of the U.S. trade rulebook, ranging from the U.S. treatment of export controls to the use of retroactive duties and split decisions by the six-member U.S. International Trade Commission.

The U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duties are punitive tariffs to restrict imports that are unfairly priced or subsidised to beat the competition.

Such tariffs are allowed under WTO rules but they are subject to strict conditions.

The United States has upset Canada by slapping punitive tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber exports, leading to a challenge by Canada at the WTO and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 01:20:55|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Jamil Bhatti

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Economists and businessmen have termed Pakistan's recent decision to use the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, as a foreign currency for denominating foreign currency transactions in the country as a great historical step.

They also said that the decision would ease pressure on the country's foreign currency exchange reserves in U.S. dollars and facilitate transactions for trade and investment activities.

In a press release on Jan. 2, the State Bank of Pakistan said the Chinese yuan is now an approved foreign currency at par with other international currencies such as U.S. dollar, euro and Japanese yen. It also said that both the public and private sector enterprises can freely choose the currency for bilateral trade and investment activities.

Hafiz Pasha, vice chairman of the Institute for Public Policy, said the decision is timely and ideal because the country's economic relationship with its largest trade partner China is growing at a fast pace and most of the country's foreign investment is coming from China.

The professor believed that usage of yuan will facilitate Chinese companies coming to Pakistan for investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a project aimed at promoting cooperative initiatives and projects including regional connectivity, financial cooperation, information network infrastructure, energy cooperation, industries, agricultural development, poverty alleviation, and tourism.

Terming yuan as a strong international currency, Pasha also believed that Pakistan will be able to arrange swap funds from China in yuan in the future under a bilateral agreement, which will become the basis for Pakistan's financing and reduce pressure on the country in terms of foreign exchange reserves.

The business community in Pakistan hailed the decision, saying that it will absolutely help the Pakistani side simplify trade with China.

Chairman of Pak-China Business and Investment Promotion Council Amanullah Khan said the factors of the strong Chinese economy and the yuan's stability will also remove several concerns of Pakistani businesses which are afraid of rupee fluctuation against the U.S. dollar.

"This new policy means Pakistani and Chinese banks will be able to open import letters of credit in yuan in the future," said the chairman, adding "Chinese companies investing in CPEC projects will bring in yuan-denominated funds and remit back their profits and dividends also in yuan instead of other foreign currencies, thus helping Pakistan lessen pressure on its foreign currency account in U.S. dollar and stabilize its rate."

Khan hoped that non-Chinese companies participating in the CPEC projects will also follow the course to use yuan as the principal currency.

"Yuan doesn't go up and down like other major currencies. So, if any country has reserves in yuan, the likelihood of any loss in value is going to be less because it is a strong currency and is marching to become even stronger. Not just Pakistan, several other countries of Africa and Latin America have also started using the Chinese yuan," said Pasha.

Pasha expressed his belief that yuan will become a strong international currency because China is one of the largest traders in the world as well as one of the largest investors abroad.

Declaring its inclusion in the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket as a big leap for yuan which earned it the status of a global reserve currency, Amanullah Khan said the development is a big success for the Chinese government as "it was a confirmation of the success of China's economic development and results of the reform and opening up of the financial sector."

The expert said several countries in the world are eager to reduce their over-dependence on other currencies and in such a situation there will be an emerging big gap which only yuan can fill.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 01:30:59|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- UN human rights experts on Wednesday welcomed the announcement that power cuts imposed on Gaza for the past six months are being lifted, but cautioned much more must be done to alleviate the human suffering in Gaza.

They issued a statement noting that at the request of the Palestinian Authority, Israel on Jan. 7 began to resupply Gaza with 50 megawatts (MW) of power, which it had suspended in June last year.

"This restoration of the pre-June 2017 levels of electricity will ease the suffering of the two million inhabitants of Gaza," said the UN Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Michael Lynk. "Over the past six months, Gazans have had access to power for only approximately four hours daily, and often less."

He said, however, that more is needed to ease the plight of Gazans, calling on Israel, the Palestinian Authority, as well the authorities in Gaza, to restore the conditions to allow a full supply of electricity to all the inhabitants there.

"We also urge Israel, the occupying power, to end its decade-long blockade of Gaza," Lynk said.

The electricity cut left homes without power to run basic appliances; workplaces were closed or reduced their productive hours; hospitals were shuttered and health care services were significantly reduced.

The UN expert also noted that hospital operating theaters dependent on generators and Gaza's sewerage plant could not operate, resulting in more than 100 million liters of raw sewage being dumped daily into the Mediterranean.

"Deprivation of electricity and other basic services essential to a life of dignity and well-being violates the right to housing," said Leilani Farha, the Special Rapporteur on the right to housing. "This deprivation of power amounts to collective punishment of the Gazan population. This is illegal under international law."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 02:21:11|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Protesters shout slogans during a demonstration against auctions of foreclosed properties outside a court in Athens, Greece, on Jan. 10, 2018. Hundreds of protesters "besieged" courts and notaries' offices here on Wednesday in order to block auctions of foreclosed properties. Under a draft bill on the prior actions required to complete Greece's third program review, which will be voted in parliament next week, auctions of foreclosed properties will be carried out only electronically as of Feb. 21. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

ATHENS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of protesters "besieged" courts and notaries' offices here on Wednesday in order to block auctions of foreclosed properties.

Under a draft bill on the prior actions required to complete Greece's third program review, which will be voted in parliament next week, auctions of foreclosed properties will be carried out only electronically as of Feb. 21.

The government turned to e-auctions to get around protests which have obstructed procedures since 2016 in order to facilitate banks to reduce nonperforming loans and meet bailout targets.

Under the third Greek bailout, which expires this summer, Greek banks must settle one out of three bad loans by 2020, meaning non-performing loans should be reduced by some 30 billion euros (36 billion U.S. dollars).

Although the Association of Notaries of Athens, Piraeus and Aegean Islands postponed with an announcement on Tuesday the next auctions in courts to January 31, Leftist parties and labor unions members gathered outside courthouses again to protest.

Demonstrators warned that they will continue blocking in any way possible home repossessions for debts as low as 500 euros.

Panagiotis Lafazanis, a former minister of the ruling SYRIZA party, who broke away and formed a new party in the summer of 2015 after the signing of the third bailout, warned he intended to turn to hackers to block the online auctions.

The office his Leftist Popular Union (LAE) party rents in central Athens was electronically auctioned on Wednesday, he told media during a protest outside an Athens court.

According to the Association of Notaries of Athens, Piraeus and Aegean Islands, there were over 3,000 auctions of foreclosed properties scheduled so far in Athens alone in 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 04:11:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The announcement that U.S. President Donald Trump is to attend the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos this year has created a buzz of surprise and uncertainty in Switzerland.

Announcing that Trump will attend the Jan. 23-26 meeting in Davos-Klosters, the WEF said, "The engagement of the [U.S.] President will allow participants to get a direct perspective on U.S. political and economic priorities."

Switzerland's leading newspaper, the Neue Zuricher Zeitung (NZZ), noted that "quite unequivocally" the WEF forum runs against Trump's policies, which the newspaper said seek to "restrict free trade, and see environmental protection as excessive."

The NZZ said it does not view the U.S. president's presence at the annual forum in Switzerland as "a departure from Trump's inward-looking, anti-globalist economic policy."

The theme of this year's meeting is "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World" and the Swiss daily newspaper Tages Anzeiger carried a heading noting that this clashes with Trump's "America First" policy.

It said, however, his presence is an opportunity for Swiss leaders to engage with their American counterparts.

Le Temps, another leading Swiss Newspaper in the French-speaking parts of the country, noted that, "The arrival of the highly protectionist U.S. president at the open market trade forum has surprised Swiss observers, and it poses a security challenge."

Trump will be only the second U.S. president to attend Davos after the then U.S. President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Swiss President Alain Berset said he is interested in talking with Trump at Davos.

At the WEF, Trump wants to "do business," said Martin Naville, head of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, speaking on the Swiss national television channel SRF. "Trump wants to be the center of attention at this WEF," and in Davos, he will come to "show what America can do."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 04:31:46|Editor: Zhou Xin

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MADRID, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The two main Catalan separatist parties Together for Catalonia (Junts per Catalonia - JpC) and the Republican Left (ERC) have reached an agreement that aims to see former Carles Puigdemont re-elected as leader of the region in northeast Spain.

A spokesman for JpC confirmed that the two parties aim to "move forward with this new parliamentary term with Puigdemont as the president".

JpC won 34 seats in the Dec. 21 regional elections, while ERC won 32 with the radical separatists CUP claiming 4 seats to give pro-Catalan independence forces a majority in the 150 seats Catalan Assembly.

However, it remains to be seen just how Puigdemont could be re-invested as Catalan leader less than three months after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy temporarily suspended Catalan autonomy and Puigdemont sought exile in Belgium.

He faces charges of sedition, rebellion, disobedience and misuse of public funds in Spain in the wake of the independence referendum on October 1st and the unilateral declaration of independence in the region on October 27th.

Consequently Puigdemont faces arrest and almost certain imprisonment if he returns to Spain and as in the case of his former deputy leader, Oriol Junqueras (who has spent over two months in prison), it would be unlikely the Spanish Supreme Court would grant him bail.

JpC and ERC have said they are investigating how Puigdemont could be invested with the possibility that he could do so by videoconference be mentioned as an option along with his speech being read by another JpC deputy.

However, another issue is that although separatists have a majority, the rules of the Catalan assembly dictate that deputies cannot delegate their vote and with Puigdemont in Belgium and Junqueras and other elected deputies either in jail or in exile and in theory unable to vote, that majority effectively vanishes.

The assembly has been convened for its first sitting on Jan. 17 and how that issue and the question of Puigdemont's return as the region's leader are eventually resolved are still to therefore be decided.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 04:56:59|Editor: Lu Hui

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French police officers work outside the Ritz in Paris, France on Jan. 10, 2018. Three suspects have been arrested by French police for an armed robbery that happened Wednesday afternoon at the famous Ritz Hotel in central Paris, according to local police. (Xinhua/Theo Duval)

PARIS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Three suspects have been arrested by French police for an armed robbery that happened Wednesday afternoon at the famous Ritz Hotel in central Paris, according to local police.

The Paris police department announced the information on its official Twitter, adding that two other suspects are still on the run.

The robbery happened around 6:30 p.m. (1730 GMT), in which the gang of five smashed the window of a jewelry store at the hotel with axes, and looted the pieces on display.

The loot is estimated to be worth more than 4.5 million euros (5.38 million U.S. dollars), said local media.

It remains unclear if any of the jewelry has been recovered.

Three men were arrested as the robbery was interrupted by police officers on patrol, while the other two escaped on a scooter, media reports quoted police source as saying.

Further investigations are underway.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 05:37:19|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa (L to R) attend a joint press conference at the southern European Union nations meeting in Rome, Italy, Jan. 10, 2018. A summit of seven southern European countries took place in the Italian capital on Wednesday, tackling key issues for the EU in 2018 such as growth, economic and financial reforms, and migration policies. (Xinhua/Alberto Lingria)

ROME, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- A summit of seven southern European countries took place in the Italian capital on Wednesday, tackling key issues for the EU in 2018 such as growth, economic and financial reforms, and migration policies.

The summit of the seven -- altogether known as the "EU Med Group" - involved the heads of states and governments of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, and Cyprus.

Much of their talks focused on the economic challenges awaiting the EU in the near future, and on the best ways to strengthen the bloc's response capacity.

The seven acknowledged the EU was back on a path of growth at the beginning of 2018, after a decade of financial crisis. "Further steps to complete the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) are necessary to achieve more sustainable and balanced growth, competitiveness, quality employment and convergence," they said in a joint declaration.

The group called for the completion and strengthening of the banking union as well, and for establishing "a common backstop to the Single Resolution Fund and a European Deposit Insurance Scheme, in line with the need to combine the objectives of risk sharing and risk reduction."

Migration was also high on the agenda of the seven, since southern EU countries have been on the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis, bearing the largest burden in terms of arrivals and transits.

In latest years, they have repeatedly called for the migrant and refugee inflows to be redistributed more evenly across the EU. Yet, a EU relocation and resettlement scheme involving quotas -- introduced by the European Commission in May 2015 -- has never been fully implemented for the hostility of other partners.

"The management of migration flows will be a fundamental challenge for the EU in the years to come, and the Southern EU countries are particularly concerned and affected," the Group stressed in the declaration."Our fundamental role and burden of protecting those borders must be acknowledged and shared by the EU."

The summit was the fourth for the EU Med Group, since it was informally created in 2013. It held an opening summit in September 2016 in Greece, and then met in Lisbon and Madrid in January and April 2017 respectively.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 06:22:32|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CHICAGO, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and the Chicago History Museum will increase their admission fees starting from February 1, 2018, and the Chicago Park District Board has endorsed the increases Wednesday.

After the increase, Chicagoans aged 12 and up will pay 16.95 dollars per person to enter the Museum of Science and Industry, as against current 15 dollars, while the fee for Chicago children aged 3 to 11 dropped slightly from 10 dollars to 9.95 dollars.

For adults living outside Chicago, the fee will be increased from 18 dollars to 21.95 dollars; and for children living outside the city, the fee will be increased from 11 dollars to 12.95 dollars.

The rule of free entry for children under three will remain.

For the Chicago History Museum, the admission fee for Chicago adults will increase from 14 dollars to 17 dollars; and for tourists from outside the city, from 16 dollars to 19 dollars.

But the Chicago History Museum will extend its free admission to Illinois teens, and children aged 12 and under can get in for free. Chicago History Museum currently charges children aged 13 to 18 12 dollars if they lived in the city and 14 dollars if they didn't.

Revenue generated by admission fees increases will help pay for operating expenses at museums, Chicago Tribune reported.

The last time for the Museum of Science and Industry to increase admission fee was in 2013; and for the Chicago History Museum, in 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 07:37:45|Editor: Zhou Xin

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Wednesday welcomed the progress in the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and voiced dismay over peace prospects with regard to the smaller leftist rebel group of the National Liberation Army (ELN).

In a press statement, the Security Council was upbeat about the peace process with FARC.

"The members of the Security Council welcomed the leadership and continued commitment of the parties and the positive developments over the past three months, including the transformation of FARC from an armed group into a political party, and urged continued momentum toward full implementation of the peace agreement, including the full political, legal and socioeconomic reincorporation of FARC (combatants)," said the statement.

The council members echoed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' concern about increased insecurity in some of the areas affected by the conflict, welcomed the important efforts by the Colombian government to address these concerns, as well as steps to address other issues including access to land, and looked forward to their swift implementation, it said.

The Security Council, however, remained concerned over peace prospects with regard to the ELN.

A temporary cease-fire with the Colombian government expired on Tuesday. The two delegations are in new round of talks in Quito, Ecuador, for a way forward.

The council regretted Wednesday's renewed attack by the ELN on oil pipelines and expressed the hope that the government and the rebel group would resume work to agree on a renewal and strengthening of the temporary cease-fire, in order to prevent a return to conflict and protect the humanitarian gains achieved over the past three months.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 09:23:00|Editor: Lu Hui

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Ri Son-gwon (L), chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), shakes hands with South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon at Peace House, a South Korean building in the truce village of Panmunjom, Jan. 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Newsis)

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Wednesday welcomed the latest interactions on the Korean Peninsula, but remained adamant in upholding sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"Members of the (Security) Council welcomed the latest steps and communications that have occurred between the DPRK and the Republic of Korea," Kazakh ambassador to the United Nations Kairat Umarov, who serves as the rotating president of the Security Council for this month, told reporters after closed-door consultations of the council.

"Members of the council noted that such initial dialogue between the two Korean states can open possibilities for confidence and trust building on the Korean Peninsula, to reduce tensions and drive toward de-nuclearization," he said.

They expressed the hope that such interactions will indeed lead to the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, he said.

Despite the positive development, the Security Council would not budge on sanctions against the DPRK for its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated that the DPRK and all other member states should comprehensively and strictly implement all relevant resolutions of the Security Council," said Umarov.

The DPRK and South Korea on Tuesday started high-level talks, the first in about two years, at the truce village of Panmunjom that straddles the heavily guarded border between the two neighbors.

A joint press release issued after the dialogue said the DPRK had agreed to send a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics to kick off in February in South Korea's eastern county of Pyeongchang, and the 2018 Paralympics in March.

Seoul and Pyongyang also agreed to hold a separate dialogue between their military authorities after agreeing that they should make joint efforts to ease military tensions and create a peaceful environment on the Korean Peninsula, among others.

The DPRK also reopened a military hotline with South Korea across the western border Tuesday during the inter-Korean high-level talks.

The Security Council has adopted 10 resolutions containing sanctions against the DPRK since 2006.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 09:48:04|Editor: Yang Yi

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PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will pay an official visit to Cambodia on Thursday, which is expected to further enhance bilateral ties between the two countries.

The year of 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Cambodia. Forged and cultivated by the two countries' leaders over the past several decades, the friendship between the two countries has yielded fruitful outcomes in various fields.

FREQUENT HIGH-LEVEL EXCHANGES

In 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a successful visit to Cambodia, which took the China-Cambodia comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level.

Since then, the relationship between the two countries has entered into a fast track of development.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen met with Xi in Beijing on Dec. 1, 2017, while attending the Communist Party of China in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting.

During the meeting, Xi said that the China-Cambodia ties are currently at the best period in history, citing enhanced political trust, expanded cooperation and cultural exchanges.

Xi also expressed support for Cambodia's efforts to maintain development and stability, adding that China expects to boost cooperation with Cambodia in defense, law-enforcement and security as well as other areas.

In a signed article published on Tuesday in the Khmer Times, a leading English-language newspaper in Cambodia, Premier Li said "I look forward to renewing China-Cambodia friendship during my upcoming official visit to Cambodia at the invitation of Prime Minister Hun Sen."

Li stressed that he expects stronger Lancang-Mekong cooperation and more progress in China-Cambodia relations.

The Chinese premier attended the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting on Wednesday.

The LMC comprises six countries, namely Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Hailing the fruitful results in cooperation, Li said in his signed article that the LMC has grown into a sub-regional cooperation framework with great potential and vitality. "(It) is not only conducive to narrowing the development gap within ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and advancing ASEAN integration, but also enriches South-South cooperation and efforts to foster a more open, inclusive and balanced economic globalization that benefits all."

The friendly cooperation between China and Cambodia and within the LMC framework is oriented to promoting economic development, particularly to bettering people's lives, Li said.

FRUITFUL OUTCOMES

"The great friendship spanning more than half a century between King Father Norodom Sihanouk and Chinese leaders has become a legend in the history of China-Cambodia and even international exchanges," Li said in his signed article.

"Today, the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, named in memory of the late King Father, is seeing booming growth, attracting more than 100 companies from China and other countries and creating nearly 20,000 jobs for the local community. Like many other collaborative projects between the two countries, it stands as a symbol of renewed China-Cambodia friendship by delivering real benefits to the people," he said.

In December last year, China provided 7.3 million U.S. dollars from the LMC Special Fund to Cambodia for carrying out a variety of projects, which cover such areas as agriculture, tourism, technology, public health, education, air inter-connectivity, cultural exchanges and so on.

According to Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo, as of October 2017, China has been the biggest source of foreign investment for Cambodia, with the agreed investment amount to Cambodia standing at 12.57 billion dollars which accounts for 36.4 percent of the country's total foreign investment.

The development of the bilateral ties has greatly contributed to the social and economic development of Cambodia.

"The Cambodia-China trade volume has rapidly increased -- averagely 26 percent per year -- in the last 10 years," Hun Sen said on April 11, 2017, during the release ceremony of the Cambodian edition of the book "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China."

He attributed the high growth to good relations and cooperation between the two countries.

Meanwhile, within the LMC mechanism, China and Cambodia have greatly contributed to the establishment of international law-enforcement cooperation in joint crackdown on cross-border crimes in the Lancang-Mekong area.

Since 2011, law-enforcement agencies of the six countries have pursued 65 joint patrols and four joint operations against drug trafficking, smashing 39,000 drug cases and rescuing 120 civilian vessels.

Originating from the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in southwest China, the river is called the Lancang River in China and the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 10:03:08|Editor: Lu Hui

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (3rd L) attends the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 10, 2018. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Li Keqiang co-chaired the meeting, which also brought together Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Myanmar Vice President U Myint Swe. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

by Fei Liena, Lu Juan, Mao Pengfei

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Leaders' Meeting approved a Five-year Action Plan (2018-2022) here on late Wednesday, charting the course for the LMC's development into the next decade.

With a theme of "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development," the meeting gathered leaders of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to discuss such issues as connectivity, water management and industrial production capacity.

As an important mechanism along the Lancang-Mekong River sub-region, the LMC mechanism has been focusing on sustainable development and pragmatic cooperation in the sub-region and serving as an important platform for implementing the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Five-year Action Plan is the first of its kind since the establishment of the LMC mechanism, and will serve as a guideline for LMC's future development in the next five years.

According to the plan, by synergizing the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 as well as the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 and visions of other Mekong sub-regional cooperation mechanisms, the LMC is moving towards a new sub-regional cooperation mechanism with unique features, which will support the ASEAN Community building and regional integration process, and promote the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The plan sets the years 2018 and 2019 to be the "foundation-laying" stage, when emphasis should be laid on strengthening sectorial cooperation planning and implementing small- and medium-sized cooperation projects.

The 2020-2022 period will be the consolidation and expansion stage, when member countries will further strengthen the cooperation in the five priority areas of connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources, agriculture and poverty reduction, and may explore new cooperation areas.

Under the development goals and principles, the action plan sets guidelines for LMC member countries to cooperate in a wide range of areas including political and security, economy and sustainable development, social and cultural cooperation, and supporting system, with a view to "contributing to the economic and social development of sub-regional countries, enhancing well-being of the people, narrowing the development gap within the region and building a Community of Shared Future of Peace and Prosperity among Lancang-Mekong Countries."

Since its official launch in March 2016, the LMC mechanism has fast grown, with many fruitful results yielded, including a multi-layer cooperative mechanism ranging from the leaders' meeting to work groups. Most of the 45 Early Harvest Projects identified at the First LMC Leaders' Meeting and the 13 initiatives put forward by China have been completed or made substantial progress.

The LMC Special Fund set up by China is in full swing and will continue to offer financial support for 132 projects of LMC member countries. Two-thirds of China's concessional loans have been granted to the five Mekong countries for more than 20 infrastructure and industrial projects.

Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism is like the engine of a high-speed train, pushing the cooperation between China and five Mekong countries into "the age of high-speed rail," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said at the leaders' meeting.

According to Li, China is now the largest trading partner of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, and the second largest trading partner of Laos. In 2017, the trade volume between China and the five Mekong countries reached 220 billion U.S. dollars, up 16 percent from 2016. China's total investment in the five countries has exceeded 42 billion U.S. dollars, with a growth rate of more than 20 percent in 2017.

The LMC mechanism has established a "3+5" mechanism of cooperation, referring to the three cooperation pillars, political and security issues, economic and sustainable development, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and the five key priority areas of connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources, and agriculture and poverty reduction.

Premier Li suggested that, on the basis of the "3+5" mechanism, LMC member countries should expand cooperation in broader areas such as digital economy, environmental protection, customs and youth, to gradually form a cooperation framework of "3+5+X".

The first LMC leaders' meeting was held in Sanya of southern China's Hainan province in March 2016, at which the goal of building a community of shared future of peace and prosperity for the LMC countries was endorsed.

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwestern China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.

Related:

Spotlight: China makes five proposals on securing shared future for Lancang-Mekong nations
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 10:53:16|Editor: Zhou Xin

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Wednesday welcomed the progress in the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and voiced dismay over peace prospects with regard to the smaller leftist rebel group of the National Liberation Army (ELN).

In a press statement, the Security Council was upbeat about the peace process with FARC.

"The members of the Security Council welcomed the leadership and continued commitment of the parties and the positive developments over the past three months, including the transformation of FARC from an armed group into a political party, and urged continued momentum toward full implementation of the peace agreement, including the full political, legal and socioeconomic reincorporation of FARC (combatants)," said the statement.

The council members echoed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' concern about increased insecurity in some of the areas affected by the conflict with FARC, welcomed the important efforts by the Colombian government to address these concerns, as well as steps to address other issues including access to land, and looked forward to their swift implementation, it said.

The Security Council, however, remained concerned about the peace prospects with regard to the ELN.

A temporary cease-fire between the Colombian government and the ELN expired on Tuesday. The two delegations are in new talks in Quito, Ecuador, for a way forward.

The council regretted Wednesday's renewed attacks by the ELN on oil pipelines and expressed the hope that the government and the rebel group would resume work to agree on a renewal and strengthening of the temporary cease-fire, in order to prevent a return to conflict and protect the humanitarian gains achieved over the past three months.

Jean Arnault, head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, said Wednesday that the prospects of peace with the ELN remains uncertain as a temporary cease-fire has expired and the ELN leadership has not shown enough political will.

"The ELN has voiced very strong reservations on the implementation of the temporary cease-fire and the humanitarian commitments attached to it. And while the ELN leadership has proposed the negotiation of a stronger cease-fire, they have remained silent on their posture after the end of the temporary cease-fire yesterday," Arnault told the Security Council.

Barely 24 hours have elapsed since the government and ELN delegations have resumed their talks in Quito. It is therefore still too early to predict the outcome, both at the ground level, or at the negotiating table, said Arnault, who was briefing the Security Council on the mission's work in the first 90 days.

The UN Verification Mission in Colombia, mandated by the Security Council, began operations on Sept. 26, 2017. The mission, which succeeds a UN mission of unarmed observers to monitor and verify a cease-fire between the Colombian government and FARC, is tasked to verify the reintegration of FARC fighters and also to observe the temporary cease-fire with the ELN.

Arnault was cautiously optimistic about the developments with regard to FARC, noting that both the Colombian government and the FARC leadership remain committed to carrying forward the peace process despite the many difficulties in the past few months.

"Much is still needed to keep the process on track and make it stronger. But with this political will, the appropriate resources and a sustained effort, much can be accomplished," he told the Security Council.

Arnault was heartened by the long-term deployment of security forces in about 600 of the more vulnerable rural districts in the areas most affected by the conflict, including the districts where community leaders, human rights defenders, promoters of coca substitution and land restitution advocates have been assassinated.

"It is difficult to overestimate the importance of that decision in our view. Control of territory by the state is inseparable from (a) permanent physical presence of state institutions in those areas. An occasional presence is bound to leave the old or new illegal power structure intact," he said.

One of the specific objectives of the deployment is to pave the way for more proactive social and economic support by civilian state institutions, he stressed.

The disposal of FARC arms caches has resumed under the responsibility of the military and with the cooperation of former FARC combatants, he reported.

The Colombian government and FARC struck a peace deal in August 2016 after four years of negotiations in Havana, Cuba, ending a five-decade-long conflict in the South American country.

UN chief Guterres will travel to Colombia on Saturday for an official visit to the country to support peace efforts, Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday.

Guterres will meet with President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon and officials of the government and armed forces, as well as with the leadership of FARC and the Catholic Church.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 10:58:18|Editor: Yang Yi

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PARIS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Economic, cultural and strategic breakthroughs have been made in the relationship between Beijing and Paris following French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to China, which concluded Wednesday, a French specialist in international relations has said.

"Besides agreements in such strategic sectors as nuclear power, electricity and aeronautics signed Tuesday between China and France, it should be noted that breakthroughs have been made in areas that go beyond the traditional fields of cooperation and other perspectives been have opened up," Emmanuel Dupuy, president of the Institute for European Prospective and Security, told Xinhua in an interview.

During his three-day visit to China, the French president not only visited the Forbidden City and the Terracotta Warriors, but also witnessed the signing of a number of significant business agreements by French and Chinese enterprises in various sectors.

Dupuy attributed the success of Macron's visit to "good timing," as he was the first European leader to visit China after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, who "reaps the benefits of an entirely favorable agenda."

The expert underlined a memorandum signed by French power group New Areva and China National Nuclear Corporation on a multi-billion-euro project to build a Chinese reprocessing plant for used nuclear materials.

The new project, along with China's two Taishan reactors built together with New Areva, shows that the France-China cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy can be very productive, he said.

The partnership in the agri-food sector is particularly beneficial to China, France and the European Union, since China is the largest importer of European agricultural products, and accounts for 10 percent of the world's arable land and is home to 20 percent of the world's population, Dupuy added.

In the retail sector alone, French companies in China cover a wide range of businesses, from luxury group LVMH to sporting goods supplier Decathlon and grocery retailers such as Auchan and Carrefour.

Expanding cooperation in e-commerce could to be the next step, after Chinese online retail giants JD.com and Alibaba announced during Macron's visit that they would sell more French products on their platforms and create logistic centers in France.

"These are very clear signs of mutual interests of the two countries in this booming sector," said Dupuy.

He noted progress in bilateral cultural cooperation, including plans to bring France's iconic Pompidou Center for Contemporary Art to Shanghai, and to carry out joint archaeological projects. "More French politicians are interested in China, but the dynamism doesn't only exist at the state level. The cooperation between France and China now involves many actors," said the expert.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 11:03:18|Editor: Yang Yi

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by Nguon Sovan, Lu Juan, Fei Liena

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said the country highly values the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting and the visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to Cambodia.

Cambodia hosted the second LMC leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday and will welcome Premier Li on Thursday.

In a written interview with Xinhua on Wednewday, Prak Sokhonn said the LMC leaders' meeting was very important for Cambodia as it presented a unique opportunity for Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, as a co-founding leader, to invite his colleagues from China and the other four Mekong countries to chart the future course of the LMC into the next decade.

He said Cambodia, as the host nation, has chosen the theme of the meeting as "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development."

"It is quite understandable why the spirit behind the establishment of the LMC is peace and development," he said. "Cambodia and the other five countries share the same source of water, the source of life even, Lancang for the China's part and Mekong for the other downstream countries, and as such it is imperative to work together to ensure a common destiny of shared security and prosperity."

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwestern China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.

The minister said that without peace, there is no security and no development, let alone prosperity.

Prak Sokhonn said the evolving global and regional dynamics are at a critical juncture with threats and challenges, which no one single country could hope to tackle.

"When it comes to cross-boundary environmental challenges and non-traditional security threats facing the Mekong sub-region, a very strong political will and mutual trust among the LMC countries are required," he said.

The minister added that on the other side, many priority areas of cooperation need to be addressed by the six LMC countries in order to unleash and realize the enormous development potentials of the sub-region.

The LMC, launched in March 2016, focuses on three pillars - political and security issues, economic and sustainable development, and social and cultural cooperation, and five priority areas of connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management and agriculture, and poverty reduction.

The minister said the outcomes of the meeting will be instrumental to narrowing the existing development gap in the Mekong sub-region and will accelerate the ASEAN Community building.

"On a grander scale, I believe that the LMC could be considered as a new model of South-South cooperation that supports the LMC member countries to deliver economic prosperity to its people under the framework of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Prak Sokhonn said.

He said the Lancang-Mekong region is well-known for its strategic location and economic dynamics, as well as wealth of traditions, cultures and local values, the diversity of which presents complementary potentials and strengths that can be harnessed for the collective benefit of the LMC countries.

"That is why I am of the view that this 2nd LMC leaders' summit will consolidate all the political and security, economic, and socio-cultural cooperation so as to ensure greater contributions to upholding regional and global stability, sustainable development and prosperity for the sub-region," Prak Sokhonn said.

Speaking about the Sino-Cambodian relations, the minister said that he was proud to attest that it was a model of friendly co-existence and close cooperation.

"The visit of Premier Li Keqiang is another milestone in reinforcing the centuries-old relationship between our two countries," he said. "His visit coinciding with the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Cambodia-China diplomatic relations provides an extra gust of wind to accelerate the momentum in the Cambodia-China strategic relations."

He said that with the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation well in place since 2010, the two countries have spared no efforts to promote all-dimensional, wide-ranging and in-depth development of the relations with full respect for each other's core interest, common aspiration for peace, stability and development and well-being of the two peoples.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 11:08:19|Editor: Yang Yi

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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The western U.S. city of Los Angeles welcomed record 1.1 million Chinese visitors in 2017, the authorities said Wednesday.

This was heard at an event at the Los Angeles international airport as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board President & CEO Ernest Wooden Jr. announced that the city of L.A. welcomed a record number of visitors in 2017 for the seventh consecutive year.

"As our number one overseas international market, China once again played a significant role in achieving our seventh consecutive year of record tourism in Los Angeles with 1.1 million visitors," said Wooden.

"In the last year, we expanded our marketing efforts there with the opening of our fourth tourism office expanding our footprint southwest to Chengdu and we will continue to seek new opportunities there to grow our market share," he told Xinhua.

"We also teamed with our partners Los Angeles World Airports to secure direct air service from under-served second-tier cities like Shenzhen and Xiamen, where there is enormous opportunity for growth," he said.

"We are forecasting strong growth from China for the foreseeable future and will continue to promote Los Angeles to ensure it remains a top destination of choice for all Chinese travelers," he added.

Los Angeles had become the first ever U.S. city destination to receive more than one million Chinese visitors in one year, according to a report released by Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board in January 2017.

It's a big success for the city to attract a steadily growing stream of Chinese visitors with a 6 percent year-over-year increase in 2017.

At the event, the two Los Angeles tourism promoters said that Los Angeles welcomed 48.3 million visitors in 2017, a new record for the seventh consecutive year.

The record figure is 1.0 million visitors higher than 2016's total, an increase of 2.2 percent, driven by an all-time high 41.2 million domestic visitors and an all-time high 7.1 million international visitors.

"The expansion of our travel and tourism sector tells the story of a city whose moment has arrived -- and we will continue pushing forward as we expand our role on the world stage, and prepare to welcome the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028," said Garcetti.

Los Angeles tourism authorities launched an initiative called "Everyone is Welcome" in 2017 which reinforced the city's cultural diversity and inclusivity.

Tourism is among the largest and healthiest contributors to the Los Angeles economy, supporting more than 517,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector last year.

Visitors are expected to generate at least 300 million U.S. dollars in transient occupancy tax collections for Los Angeles in 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 11:23:22|Editor: Zhou Xin

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PARIS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Close to 10 years after its first edition, a fully updated International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education was published on Wednesday by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) based in Paris.

It's the latest move of UNESCO to encourage quality comprehensive sexuality education to promote health and well-being, respect for human rights and gender equality.

Based on a review of the current status of sexuality education around the world and drawing on best practices in various regions, this new edition of Technical Guidance was produced in collaboration with other UN institutions such as UNAIDS, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and is designed to assist education policy makers in all countries in designing accurate and age-appropriate curricula for children and young people.

In some parts of the world, two out of three girls reported that they had no idea of what was happening to them when they began menstruating or during pregnancy. Childbirth complications are the second cause of death among the girls aged between 15 and 19, noted UNESCO.

The publication notably demonstrates that quality comprehensive sexuality education could provide information and guidance to young people about the transition from childhood to adulthood and the physical, social and emotional challenges they face.

Providing a comprehensive set of key concepts, topics and illustrative learning objectives to guide development of locally-adapted sexuality education program for learners aged 5 to 18+, the Technical Guidance also empowers children and young people to lead healthy, safe and productive lives.

"Based on the latest scientific evidence, the International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education reaffirms the position of sexuality education within a framework of human rights and gender equality," said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.

The guidance, which "promotes structured learning about sexuality and relationships in a manner that is positive and centered on the best interest of the young person", could enable "national authorities to design comprehensive curricula that will have a positive impact on young people's health and well-being", she stressed.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 11:23:22|Editor: Lu Hui

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by Tao Jun, Thanh Xuan, Bui Long

HANOI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- "China's initiatives and activeness have so far contributed to boosting practical cooperation in the Mekong-Lancang framework," a Vietnamese scholar stated recently.

"Vietnam welcomes and highly appreciates the initiatives and goodwill cooperation of China, not only in the bilateral framework but also in Mekong-Lancang and ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) -China frameworks," Tran Viet Thai, deputy general director of the Institute for Foreign Strategic Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, told Xinhua.

At a recent ministerial meeting in the Chinese province of Yunnan, China proposed to help downstream Mekong countries, including Vietnam, improve their management, supervision and regulation capacity.

"This will create conditions for the countries to better manage Mekong water resources in their territories, provide better supervision and make for more effective use of their water resources," Thai commented.

Vietnam and China have put forward coordinated initiatives to help accelerate the implementation of China's initiatives and cooperation between China and the downstream Mekong countries, he said, adding that Vietnam proposed the establishment of a hotline to provide more timely and effective information.

Under the current Mekong-Lancang cooperation framework, cooperation on sustainable water resources management is one of five focal cooperation fields.

Due to differences between upstream and downstream countries, sustainable and balanced water resources management is particularly crucial and essential to all the countries, the Vietnamese scholar said.

Besides water resources cooperation, the Mekong-Lancang cooperation framework has other cooperation fields such as human resources training, production and infrastructure connectivity.

"Projects in the early harvest list have scored positive achievements and made important contribution to cooperation between ASEAN and China," Thai stated.

Therefore, in the long term, the Mekong-Lancang cooperation will focus not only on water issues but also on other fields which will benefit all sides, such as production connectivity, human resources training and agricultural development.

"These fields offer many opportunities and potentials for cooperation," he said.

The second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Leaders' Meeting was held in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on Wednesday, with the theme of "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development." The meeting gathered leaders from China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.

The meeting concluded on the same day with the approval of a Five-year Action Plan (2018-2022), the first of its kind since the establishment of the LMC mechanism, and will serve as a guideline for LMC's future development in the coming years.

Originating from the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in southwest China, the river is called Lancang in China and Mekong as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, before emptying into the sea.

More than 326 million people live along the 4,880-km-long waterway, which flows through an area of more than 795,000 square kilometers.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 11:28:24|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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NEW YORK, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is now the world's richest man, not just at present, but of all time.

Both Bloomberg and Forbes have put Bezos on top of their billionaire lists. Bloomberg said Bezos' net worth reached 106 billion U.S. dollars while Forbes put it at 105 billion as of Wednesday.

The previous record was held by Microsoft founder Bill Gates with 100 billion in 1999.

The majority of Bezos' net worth comes from the 78.9 million shares of Amazon stock he owns. Shares of Amazon (AMZN) climbed nearly 57 percent in 2017.

The Seattle-based corporation managed to make up 89 percent of online spending among major retailers in the five-week period beginning on Thanksgiving, according to an analysis of transaction data by Earnest Research in New York.

Bill Gates now still sits on the No. 2 post on both of the fortune lists with roughly 92 billion dollars. Some argue that if not for his significant charitable contributions, Gates would still be worth far more than Bezos.

According to Bloomberg, Gates has given away almost 700 million Microsoft shares, worth 61.8 billion dollars at today's value, as well as 2.9 billion of cash since 1996.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 11:38:25|Editor: Lu Hui

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KABUL, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) terror group have been attempting to strengthen their grip and boost their presence in militancy-plagued Afghanistan, local analysts have warned.

"Since the defeat of IS fighters in Iraq and Syria, the hardliner group is obviously focusing on subverting the war-battered Afghanistan where many more militant groups have already been fighting to gain ground to implement their hostile future plans," Mukhtar Pidram, a political analyst, told Xinhua.

According to analysts, Afghanistan which has seen increasing insurgency by the Taliban continue for more than 10 years is a suitable ground for the IS loyalists to establish their fiefdom and regroup its fighters.

Hundreds of thousands of IS fighters have fled Iraq and Syria after their defeat couple of months ago and countless numbers of them have chosen war-ravaged Afghanistan as a proper place to continue their so-called Jihad or holy war, Pidram, who is a senior journalist and head of a local news agency Hushdar, said.

Pidram also predicted that continued instability in Afghanistan would also facilitate the fanatic IS fighters' movement to central Asian states in an effort to destabilize the whole region.

"The Afghan government and its security forces are not strong enough to defeat the IS insurgents like the Iraqi and Syrian forces did on the battleground," the analyst stated.

Pidram warned that poor security on Afghan borders with the central Asian states would pave the way for the IS militants to "easily shift their activities" to central Asian countries bordering Afghanistan.

The IS outfit, which emerged in the Achin district in the eastern Nangarhar province in early 2015, has spread its network to neighboring Haska Mina, Khogyani, Achin, Pachiragam districts and other areas, even though the government forces have been fighting the ultra-extremist group.

According to a statement from the Afghan Defense Ministry, the security forces had conducted hundreds of crackdowns against IS militants elsewhere in the war-battered country in 2017, killing more than 1,900 militants including 69 commanders.

Several senior commanders, including Abu Sayyed, Abu Abdullah and Shiekh Abdul Hasib, were also among those killed during the operations, the ministry confirmed in the statement released recently.

More than 270 militants affiliated with the IS had been injured and 17 more arrested in operations against IS across the country last year, the defense ministry contended.

The Afghan media have also suggested presence of foreign nationals among IS militants operating in Afghanistan.

Citing local officials, the media reported recently that foreign militants from Qatar, Uzbekistan, France, Tajikistan and some other countries have been fighting alongside IS fighters against government forces in the Darzab and Qush Tepa districts in the northern Jawzjan province.

"If the activities of the IS groups go unchecked in Afghanistan it will destabilize the whole region," another analyst Khan Mohammad Daneshjo warned.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 11:38:26|Editor: Lu Hui

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by Muhammad Tahir

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani security experts have defended the government's decision to suspend defense and intelligence cooperation with the United States after the U.S. suspended all security assistance to Pakistan following U.S. President Donald Trump's serious charges against the country.

Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan Tuesday said in Islamabad that Pakistan has suspended defense and intelligence cooperation with the United States amid growing tensions over the U.S. suspension of military aid to Pakistan.

Defense experts think the U.S. allegations and halt to military aid have forced the Pakistani government to use its leverage as it has this option, in view of the growing U.S. pressure and its use of the blame game.

Ijaz Awan, a retired major general in the Pakistani military, argued that the U.S. has pursued a policy of "coercion" towards Pakistan and that the approach of pressure tactics will be counterproductive.

"Pakistan has the right to use available options if the U.S. takes such measures against Pakistan and I think the government has come up with a mature response so far," Awan told Xinhua on Wednesday when asked about Pakistan's decision to suspend defense and intelligence cooperation.

"Pakistan has not run out of options but it should take more steps if the U.S. keeps on taking action against Pakistan," he added. He said there is currently a large trust gap between Pakistan and the U.S., and misperception on several issues including the fact that the conflict in Afghanistan could not be easily be resolved.

The already tense relations between the U.S. and Pakistan further deteriorated after Donald Trump wrote on Twitter on Jan. 1, that Pakistan "gives safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help."

He had also claimed that the "United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools."

Days after the controversial tweet, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced that Washington would withhold 255 million U.S. dollars in assistance to Pakistan from the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) fund, which is used to provide military equipment and training to friendly countries.

Reports also suggested that the U.S. decision to block aid to Pakistan could affect about 2 billion U.S. dollars worth of assistance.

For its part, Pakistan insists that anti-terror operations have been run "largely from its own resources, with costs amounting to more than 120 billion U.S. dollars in 15 years."

Public accusations by Trump and other U.S. officials were not taken well in Pakistan and political watchers and senior media personnel have slammed the U.S. move.

Munir Ahmad, Op-Ed Writer at the Daily Times newspaper said Trump's tweet vilifying Pakistan is a terribly strange message that shows the frustration of a person who heads a drowning super power.

"The United States has tuned Afghanistan into another Vietnam as it needs a scapegoat. Pakistan could apparently help serve this objective of the U.S. with the latter's lame accusations. But, everyone in the U.S. knows from their hearts that the U.S. cannot dump Pakistan's sacrifices for the so-called war against terrorism," Munir told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Pakistani leaders also disagreed with Trump's notion about assistance to Pakistan and insisted that the money had been paid for the facilities Pakistan had provided to the U.S. to transport supplies to foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Islamabad had earlier showed restraint despite allegations by the U.S. leaders and aid suspension but the defense minister's statement could be seen an indication that his country will be forced to make decision in its national interests.

Pakistan's defense minister had stated that Pakistan has not yet closed the air and ground networks of communication for the transportation of U.S. supplies to their troops in Afghanistan.

This is still a goodwill gesture by Pakistan at a time when the U.S. and its allies are still facing serious security challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan's security cooperation is vital to the U.S. success in Afghanistan.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 11:53:29|Editor: Lu Hui

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HANOI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- An ammunition depot of a tank-armored vehicle brigade in Vietnam's central highlands region exploded on Wednesday night, causing no casualties, local media reported on Thursday.

The big explosion in Dak Doa district, Gia Lai province, frightened many local residents, making them run away from home, online newspaper VnExpress reported.

The depot is far from barracks, and 2 km away from residential areas, but many residents and soldiers were evacuated to ensure safety.

Dak Doa authorities launched an investigation into the explosion Thursday.

On Jan. 3 in northern Bac Ninh province, a warehouse of a local scrap collector, which was full of old bullets, exploded, killing two kids. The collector has been charged with illegally purchasing and storing bullets.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 12:28:34|Editor: Lu Hui

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CANBERRA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A 33-year-old U.S. tourist has been found dead on a popular hiking trail in Australia's Northern Territory (NT).

The Californian man, who has not yet been named, was found dead on Wednesday evening after he took a wrong turn while hiking the popular Larapinta Trail, 10 km west of Alice Springs in Central Australia, authorities confirmed on Thursday.

NT Police Senior Sergeant Michael Potts said that the man had climbed Mount Sonder, the NT's fourth highest peak, with a companion before separating on the descent.

"NT Police from Southern Command with the assistance of Park Rangers responded to the call and initiated a search," Potts told reporters on Thursday.

"At 5:00 pm (Wednesday) night, the man was located deceased at the base of Mount Sonder.

"Investigations are ongoing, however police do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death."

The 40-year-old companion and the deceased man were descending the mountain when the 33-year-old ran off on his own and took a wrong turn.

"His partner made it back to the Redbank Gorge carpark and raised the alarm, but unfortunately the 33 year-old didn't arrive and his body was eventually located about 400 metres down the track where he'd turned the wrong way," Duty Superintendent Rob Burgoyne said.

"It was about three hours from when he was last seen and when his body was found."

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) recorded temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius in Alice Springs on Wednesday making for dangerous hiking conditions.

"We do know he had water with him, but he did do a very foolish thing in that he apparently ran away from his companion after the descent," Burgoyne said.

"It wouldn't be a terribly advisable thing to do in 40-degree heat to actually sprint away."

The American tourist is the second person to die while hiking in Central Australia in 2018 after a man from Adelaide was struck by lighting and killed at King's Canyon, 235 kilometers south-west of Larapinta, on New Year's Day.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 12:28:36|Editor: Lu Hui

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CANBERRA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Leading Australian scientists on Thursday departed on a journey to launch deep-sea robots in the Southern Ocean to study the effects of climate change.

A team of researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) set sail on the research vessel Investigator on Thursday to deploy 11 deep-sea Argo floats near Antarctica.

The team of autonomous robots will provide scientists with year-round data from depths of up to 5,000 meters, 3,000 meters deeper than researchers have ever been in the Southern Ocean.

Steve Rintoul, Voyage Chief Scientist, said the data gathered would provide an insight into the southern hemisphere's ability to absorb heat and carbon dioxide.

"The world's climate is strongly influenced by the oceans, and the vast Southern Ocean plays a major role in how climate variability and change will play out in future decades," Rintoul said in a media release on Thursday.

"We already know that the Southern Ocean makes important contributions to global sea level change through taking up more heat than any other ocean on Earth and through influencing how fast the Antarctic Ice Sheet loses mass.

"To understand this system we need comprehensive and continuous measurements over a huge area of ocean, which has been very difficult in the past."

The 11 Argo model floats were supplied by research institute in the U.S., France and Japan.

"It's the first time these next-generation deep water Argo floats will be deployed near Antarctica. By providing year-round measurements through the full ocean depth, the floats will fill a massive data gap for the climate research community," Rintoul said.

The voyage will also be used by scientists from the CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to study the interaction between aerosols and clouds.

"The Southern Ocean region is the cloudiest place on Earth, yet we don't understand why these clouds are different from clouds in other regions, the lack of pollution over this remote region is a possible explanation, which we will explore with these unprecedented observations," BoM Project Leader Alain Protat said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 12:38:38|Editor: Lu Hui

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda announced Wednesday an investment of 1.6 billion U.S. dollars for their new joint manufacturing plant in southeastern U.S. state of Alabama.

The plant, to be built in the city of Huntsville, is expected to open in 2021 and is capable of making 300,000 cars a year while creating up to 4,000 jobs, the two companies said.

Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp., said he was confident that the plant would be a "built-in-America success story."

The joint plant will be the company's 11th U.S. manufacturing facility and represents its continued commitment in the country.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey noted that the two companies' plan "will expand innovative automotive manufacturing," adding that "We are proud that this partnership puts Alabama on the forefront of technology in this dynamic global industry."

Alabama is the fifth largest producer of cars and light trucks in the United States. With more than 150 Tier one and two automotive suppliers as well as automakers, there are approximately 57,000 automotive manufacturing jobs in the state.

The two Japanese automakers announced in August that they would build a new joint plant in the United States. In the fall out of the announcement,about a dozen of U.S. states were in hot pursuit to win the project.

Toyota said the new plant had nothing to do with pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who criticized the automaker in January last year for setting up a new plant in Mexico to make cars for the North American market.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 12:48:39|Editor: Lu Hui

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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- There were no reports of casualties or severe damage yet as one of the strongest earthquakes in recent records to hit the Caribbean region struck late Tuesday off the northern coast of Honduras, triggering warnings of tsunami which didn't materialize.

The epicenter of the tremor, striking at 10:51 p.m. local time (0251 GMT Wednesday) and measuring 7.6 magnitude, was registered in the sea about 125 miles (202 km) north-northeast of Barra Patuca, Honduras, and 188 miles (303 km) southwest of George Town, Cayman Islands.

The United States Geological Service (USGS) feared that the quake's effect could amplify since it was a shallow one occurring at about 6 miles (10 km) below.

However, there have been no reports of serious damage on land in Honduras, only some cracks in homes in Colon and Atlantida provinces along the northern coast and Olancho in the east, according to media reports.

The Honduran authorities said shaking had been felt across much of the Central American nation.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said on Twitter that the country had activated the emergency system and asked people to remain calm. He also suggested that people "follow all instructions" by Honduras' Permanent Commission of Contingencies, known as COPECO.

The USGS marked the earthquake by reference to Honduras' Great Swan Island, which is some 25 miles (44 km) away from the epicenter.

The country has a small navy post stationed on the unpopulated island and it is not known to what extent the military facilities there have been affected.

Following the earthquake, the COPECO issued a 12-hour tsunami warning for Honduras' four coastal and island provinces, including Gracias a Dios, Colon, Atlantida and Islas de la Bahia, according to the agency's official Twitter account.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued its first tsunami alert about half an hour after the quake hit, saying waves reaching 0.3 to 1 meters above the tide level were possible for some coasts of Belize, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Cayman Islands and Jamaica.

The warning lasted for a little more than an hour until the Center said there was no longer a tsunami threat from this earthquake and stopped the updates.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 12:53:41|Editor: Zhou Xin

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he saw "a lot of good energy" from the inter-Korean talks on Tuesday, the first of its kind over the past two years.

"A lot of good talks are going on right now, a lot of good energy. I see a lot of good energy. I like it very much what I am seeing," Trump told reporters at the White House, during a joint press conference with visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, when asked about current situation in the Korean Peninsula.

"Hopefully a lot of good things are going to work out," he added.

Trump's recent remarks have shelved his often-bellicose rhetoric on Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Since he took office last January, the Trump administration has resorted to hawkish and threatening rhetoric against the DPRK, and sent warships and conducted joint military drills with South Korea.

Such moves, plus the DPRK's several missile or nuclear tests, have sent the situation on the Korean Peninsula to a simmering extent.

Trump soften his stance over the peninsula security situation on Saturday, saying he is willing to talk with Kim and supports the talks between the two Koreas three days later.

However, he added that any talks will come with prerequisites.

According to a White House statement, Trump, in a phone call on Wednesday morning with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, said he would be open to talks "at the appropriate time and under the right circumstances."

The DPRK and South Korea started high-level talks on Tuesday at the truce village of Panmunjom that straddles the heavily guarded border between the two neighbors.

A joint press release issued after the dialogue said the DPRK had agreed to send a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics to kick off in February in South Korea's eastern county of Pyeongchang, and the 2018 Paralympics in March.

Seoul and Pyongyang also agreed to hold a separate dialogue between their military authorities after agreeing that they should make joint efforts to ease military tensions and create a peaceful environment on the Korean Peninsula, among others.
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Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 12:58:42|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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CARACAS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Tomas Lucena, a member of Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly (ANC), was murdered on Wednesday, Delcy Rodriguez, president of the top legislative body, informed.

The victim was the ANC member representing northwest Trujillo state.

"We condemn the vile assassination of the constituent for Trujillo, Tomas Lucena. We express our condolences to his parents, wife, children and friends," Rodriguez posted on Twitter.

Rodriguez said that the assassination is under investigation.

Those "responsible for this reprehensible crime will be punished," said Rodriguez, adding that "nothing will stop the constituent assembly and its defense of Venezuela."

According to local media, the Public Ministry has yet to issue a statement on the killing, but Trujillo Gov. Henry Rangel Silva said Lucena "was intercepted by men on a motorcycle" who fired on him.

The controversial legislative body, constituted to draft a new Constitution, has come under fire from the country's right-wing parties, which allege the ANC usurps the power of the National Assembly (Congress), where the conservatives hold an absolute majority.

The ruling socialist party proposed to set up the ANC as a way to overcome the political deadlock that has plagued Venezuela since President Nicolas Maduro was elected president with a slight lead over his right-wing rival.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 13:13:45|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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HOUSTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Houston's housing market hit a new high for home sales in 2017, besting the previous year's record by 3.5 percent amid an unexpectedly strong rebound after Hurricane Harvey, according to a report released on Wednesday.

By the end of December buyers had closed on 79,117 single-family homes across the Houston area, the fourth largest city in the United States, representing 23 billion U.S. dollars, said the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR).

The average sales price of single-family homes for the year 2017 was 291,340 dollars, up 2.9 percent from 2016, and the median price was 229,900 dollars, up 3.8 percent. The strongest sales performance took place among homes priced between 250,000 and 500,000 dollars.

"No one could ever have imagined 2017 turning out to be a record-setting year for the Houston real estate market, which had weathered the effects of the energy slump only to have Harvey strike such a devastating blow," HAR chair Kenya Burrell-VanWormer said in a statement.

"We know that many are still working tirelessly to rebuild their lives after Harvey, but overall, this clearly illustrates the incredible resilience of the people and the economy of Houston, Texas," she added.

While the Houston's economy is expected to grow this year, with some projections showing the area creating 75,000 jobs, the property market faces headwinds.

The supply of available homes, which had begun moving to more sustainable levels earlier this year, has fallen off considerably since Harvey. Changes in the federal tax policy may also have a negative influence on the market.

Harvey blew ashore on Aug. 25, 2017 as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and damaging nearly 200,000 homes.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 13:18:48|Editor: Zhou Xin

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Norway to meet the 2 percent of GDP defense spending bar, something he repeatedly urged other U.S. allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

"I encourage Norway to follow through on its commitment to meet the 2 percent of GDP defense spending obligation," said Trump during a joint press conference at the White House with visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

"So that together, we can confront the full range of threats facing our nations. And I believe Norway will get there quite soon," he added.

In response, Solberg noted that Norway is "already number two in NATO after the U.S. in terms of per capita defense spending."

"And we are making significant investments to further strengthen our defense," she added.

Since taking office, Trump has been complaining about the NATO members who did not meet the mandated defense spending target of 2 percent of GDP. During his trip to Europe in May, he bluntly chided the leaders of some NATO members, saying many of them "owe massive amounts of money" to the alliance.

Trump's critique, along with his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, has frustrated U.S. allies on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Until mid 2017, only five of NATO's 29 members met the bloc's spending guidelines, with Lithuania and Latvia expected to reach the target in 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 13:23:51|Editor: Zhou Xin

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ISLAMABAD, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The rape and killing of a seven-year-old girl has sparked nationwide outrage in Pakistan, local media reported on Wednesday.

Zainab, who lived in the city of Kasur in Punjab province, was kidnapped by a mysterious man on Jan. 5 on her way to a tuition center, CCTV footage showed. Her body was discovered in a dumpster about a mile from her home four days later.

Her parents had traveled to Saudi Arabia to perform their pilgrimage and the child was living with her aunts.

The initial autopsy report indicated that the girl was strangled to death after being raped multiple times, according to a report by daily newspaper Pakistan Today.

Police say DNA recovered from Zainab's body suggests the perpetrator might be a family acquaintance.

Many have voiced their anger on social media at this crime, which, as Pakistan Today terms it, has become a "norm" in Kasur. In the past two years, there have been at least 12 similar child murders in the city.

Riot erupted on Wednesday as protesters took to the street in various parts of Kasur to denounce the alleged inaction by the authorities in child abduction and murders. At least two were fatally shot and several others were injured, according to the reports.

Zainab's father said the girl won't be buried till her killer is found and brought to justice.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 13:28:51|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BRASILIA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Federal Police said Wednesday it has ruled out foul play in the death last year of a top judge overseeing the country's biggest corruption case ever.

Teori Zavascki, a Supreme Federal Court (STF) judge in charge of Operation Car Wash, a wide-reaching investigation into graft at the highest levels of the Brazilian government, died last January when a small plane with him on board plunged into the ocean.

Evidence suggests the crash was caused by human error, not sabotage, said Rubens Maleiner, the police commissioner in charge of the investigation, who met with STF chief justice Carmen Lucia to present the results of the police report.

"The possibility of an intentional act against the flight was quite explored through various forensic tests and diverse investigative measures, and nothing to that effect was found," Maleiner told Lucia.

"On the contrary, the elements we have so far all point to an unintentional, tragic, unfortunate ending for the flight," Maleiner said.

According to Maleiner, investigators believe there was an human error in maneuvering the aircraft toward the landing strip in Paraty, a small coastal town and popular tourist destination in Rio de Janeiro State.

The plane crash on Jan. 19 that killed everyone on board, including three other passengers and the pilot, immediately sparked suspicion from the public.

Investigations into the case have been conducted separately by the Federal Police, the Brazilian Air Force and the Federal Prosecution Office. All three probes are still inconclusive.

"The investigation continues, it's always important to remember that. Anything we say here is provisional. It can eventually be modified, but it (the investigation) is at a very advanced stage," Maleiner said.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (3rd L) attends the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said the country highly values the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting and the visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to Cambodia.

Cambodia hosted the second LMC leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday and will welcome Premier Li on Thursday.

In a written interview with Xinhua on Wednewday, Prak Sokhonn said the LMC leaders' meeting was very important for Cambodia as it presented a unique opportunity for Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, as a co-founding leader, to invite his colleagues from China and the other four Mekong countries to chart the future course of the LMC into the next decade.

He said Cambodia, as the host nation, has chosen the theme of the meeting as "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development."

"It is quite understandable why the spirit behind the establishment of the LMC is peace and development," he said. "Cambodia and the other five countries share the same source of water, the source of life even, Lancang for the China's part and Mekong for the other downstream countries, and as such it is imperative to work together to ensure a common destiny of shared security and prosperity."

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwestern China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.

The minister said that without peace, there is no security and no development, let alone prosperity.

Prak Sokhonn said the evolving global and regional dynamics are at a critical juncture with threats and challenges, which no one single country could hope to tackle.

"When it comes to cross-boundary environmental challenges and non-traditional security threats facing the Mekong sub-region, a very strong political will and mutual trust among the LMC countries are required," he said.

The minister added that on the other side, many priority areas of cooperation need to be addressed by the six LMC countries in order to unleash and realize the enormous development potentials of the sub-region.

The LMC, launched in March 2016, focuses on three pillars - political and security issues, economic and sustainable development, and social and cultural cooperation, and five priority areas of connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management and agriculture, and poverty reduction.

The minister said the outcomes of the meeting will be instrumental to narrowing the existing development gap in the Mekong sub-region and will accelerate the ASEAN Community building.

"On a grander scale, I believe that the LMC could be considered as a new model of South-South cooperation that supports the LMC member countries to deliver economic prosperity to its people under the framework of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Prak Sokhonn said.

He said the Lancang-Mekong region is well-known for its strategic location and economic dynamics, as well as wealth of traditions, cultures and local values, the diversity of which presents complementary potentials and strengths that can be harnessed for the collective benefit of the LMC countries.

"That is why I am of the view that this 2nd LMC leaders' summit will consolidate all the political and security, economic, and socio-cultural cooperation so as to ensure greater contributions to upholding regional and global stability, sustainable development and prosperity for the sub-region," Prak Sokhonn said.

Speaking about the Sino-Cambodian relations, the minister said that he was proud to attest that it was a model of friendly co-existence and close cooperation.

"The visit of Premier Li Keqiang is another milestone in reinforcing the centuries-old relationship between our two countries," he said. "His visit coinciding with the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Cambodia-China diplomatic relations provides an extra gust of wind to accelerate the momentum in the Cambodia-China strategic relations."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 13:43:54|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- At least nine people died allegedly after consuming food at a relative's home in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said Thursday.

The incident took place at village Thal Khurd of Barabanki district, about 61 km east of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh.

"Nine people died at Lucknow's Trauma Centre after being brought here. The people had consumed food at their relative's place in Thal Khurd village of Barabanki," a police official in Lucknow said. "The bodies have been sent for postmortem."

Reports said the deceased (hailing from different villages) on Tuesday night had assembled at a relative's place for a family celebration, where they consumed food and home-made liquor.

Local administration have taken cognizance of the deaths and sent teams to the Thal Khurd village to investigate it.

"Authorities have rushed to the spot and are investigating the reason behind the death of nine people," a local official said. "We are investigating the matter and details would be disclosed after proper verification."

Authorities however are not pointing at the home-made liquor and said they would issue the statement only after the availability of post-mortem report.

"It's too early to say anything," a police official said. "Let the post-mortem report comes in, everything will get clear."

As per a new law which was passed by the Uttar Pradesh assembly earlier this month. people dealing in illicit or spurious liquor in state may face death penalty or life imprisonment.

Last year 18 people were killed and over a dozen sickened due to consumption of spurious liquor in Azamgarh district of the state.

Spurious alcohol deaths are often reported in India, where people often drink cheap country made bootleg liquor.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 14:19:00|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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KUALA LUMPUR, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's palm industry continues to face challenges after its December palm oil stockpiles rose to the highest level in two years.

Malaysian Palm Oil Board's (MPOB) data showed Wednesday that palm oil stockpile rose 6.97 percent month-on-month to 2.73 million tons in December 2017, the highest level since December 2015.

While the market is hopeful of the high inventory to shrink with the recent suspension of crude palm oil (CPO) export taxes to boost Malaysia's palm oil demand, some analysts see limited impacts from the measure.

"The (export taxes suspension) announcement may spur demand in price-sensitive markets such as India, Pakistan and China, but this is balanced by a recovering production outlook and strengthening ringgit," Kenanga Research's analyst Voon Yee Ping said in her report Thursday.

Voon also said she has yet to see a strong positive price impact on palm oil recent days, as this coincided with a continued strengthening of the ringgit to 4.00 against the U.S. dollars as of Jan. 10, from 4.05 as of end-2017.

CPO prices stood at 2,544 ringgit (637.8 U.S. dollars) per ton as of Jan. 10, according to MPOB, falling 22.26 percent when compared with the average price of 3,268 ringgit in January last year.

Voon expects CPO prices to continue trading sideways in the near term with CPO price to trend between 2,370 to 2,575 ringgit per ton in the first quarter, based on unchanged soya bean oil (SBO) discount of 60 U.S. dollars per ton and crude oil premium of 100 U.S. dollars per ton.

Voon expects Malaysia's palm stocks to remain flat at 2.71 million tonnes in January. Although the palm production may decline on wet weather and seasonal downtrend, she foresees palm demand to soften on lesser availability and slightly narrower discount between SBO and CPO.

In 2017, Malaysia's palm production rose 15 percent year-on-year to 19.9 million tons, but exports grew only 7 percent to 16.56 million tons.

Malaysian government on Monday suspended palm oil export taxes for three months to increase the competitiveness of Malaysian palm oil.

TA Securities' analyst Angeline Chin is also not overly optimistic on the tax removal as it would mostly benefit upstream players and negative for downstream players.

Concurring with Voon, Chin sees the recent appreciation in ringgit against U.S. dollar would tend to eliminate the pricing advantage, which would make the local CPO less competitive in the export space.

Meanwhile, although analysts expect Malaysia's CPO exports to China to pick up ahead of the Chinese New Year celebration, they do not see Malaysia's palm oil industry competitiveness to increase against Indonesia.

"Following the CPO export taxes suspension, Malaysia may gain more exports in terms of CPO, but it may also loss its exports in terms of refinery products," said RHB Institute's analyst Hoe Lee Leong.

She sees Indonesia remains more competitive than Malaysia in terms of refinery products.

Although China's intake of Malaysia palm oil has increased slightly, BIMB Securities Research's analyst Noorhayati Maamor also said, Malaysia is still losing its market share to Indonesia.

In comparison, China intake of Indonesian palm oil from January to October 2017 surged 29 percent year-on-year to 2.89 million tons.

"We are of the view that this momentum would continue up to Jan 2018 as China is believed to stock up its palm oil requirement ahead of Lunar New Year Celebration," Noorhayati added.

Malaysia's palm oil exports to China grew 1.87 percent year-on-year to 1.92 million tons in 2017. China was the third biggest buyer for Malaysian palm oil products after India and the European Union (EU) countries, accounted for 11.9 percent of the total export volume.

Last year, Malaysia's palm oil exports to India and EU fell 28.35 percent and 3.29 percent to 2.02 and 1.99 million tons respectively.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 14:34:03|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BANGKOK, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A former head of Japan's Yakuza gang who had lived in a hideout in central Thailand for more than a decade was finally arrested on charges of murdering a fellow gangster, police said on Thursday.

The Japanese murder suspect, identified as Shineharu Shirai, was known as the former head of Yamaguchi Yakuza organized crime racket who allegedly killed his rival in Japan in 2003.

The 74-year-old was arrested on Wednesday by the police while visiting a market in downtown Lopburi province, 145 km north of Bangkok.

The suspect quietly slipped into Thailand in 2005 and found a house to live in Lopburi, the police said.

Shineharu had lived with a Thai wife in Lopburi but separated himself from her a few years ago and had been secretly given some money from an unknown source on monthly basis, the police said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 14:54:09|Editor: Jiaxin

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Photo taken on Jan. 10, 2018 shows a house destroyed by boulders and mudflow in Montecito, Santa Barbara, the United States. At least 17 people, including children, were killed and scores of homes destroyed as mudslides hit Southern California, still reeling from the impact of devastating wildfires, local authorities said Wednesday. (Xinhua/Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department)

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 people, including children, were killed and scores of homes destroyed as mudslides hit Southern California, still reeling from the impact of devastating wildfires, local authorities said Wednesday.

A strong winter storm hammered the region on the U.S. West Coast Monday, bringing in heavy downpours and triggering deadly mudflows before dawn on Tuesday.

As heavy rains lashed the charred hillsides of Santa Barbara County Tuesday, rivers of mud and massive boulders crashed into residential neighborhoods, leaving more than a dozen dead and several injured.

Hundreds of firefighters and others are still searching for survivors in the mud and wreckage. The authorities said about 75 percent of the devastated area has been searched.

Three people were rescued Wednesday while two more bodies were discovered, raising the toll to 17, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.

The names of the dead have not yet been officially released.

Thirteen people are still missing, officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard said they used helicopters Tuesday to rescue people from rooftops.

Most of the Southern California deaths occurred in and around Montecito, a wealthy enclave of about 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles.

TV footage from local media showed toppled trees and swept-away cars in the Montecito area. Multiple houses were ripped out from their foundations.

An evacuation order was issued recently near the burnt-down areas of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

Santa Barbara authorities had also put up an interactive map on the county's official website, showing the areas most at risk for flash floods and debris flows. Residents could key in their address and see the position of their house relative to the flood zones.

But only an estimated 10 to 15 percent in the mandatory evacuation area heeded the warning, the authorities said.

Just a few weeks earlier, the area had suffered wind-driven wildfires, including Thomas Fire, the largest wildfire on record in the state.

The raging fires not only burnt things aboveground but also physically altered the ground itself.
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Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 14:59:14|Editor: Zhou Xin

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KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Five personnel of Afghan Local Police (ALP) were killed and two others wounded following a brutal attack from the Taliban militants in the country's troubled northern province of Kunduz, a local official said Thursday.

"The incident took place in Archi, a restive district on the outskirts of the provincial capital Kunduz city Wednesday night, after Taliban stormed ALP checkpoints, triggering clashes lasting for hours," district administrative Chief Nasruddin Nazari told Xinhua.

The injured were shifted to a hospital in Kunduz city.

The government established the ALP, or community police, in 2010 to protect villages and districts around the country where army and police have limited presence.

Several militants were also killed and wounded during the gun battle, but their number could not be exactly specified as the militants evacuated their casualties after the fighting, according to Nazari.

The Afghan security forces' casualties have risen since the beginning of 2015 when Afghan soldiers and police assumed full responsibilities of security from the U.S. and NATO troops.

The Taliban had not still commented on the report.
NAIROBI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 180 incidents of maritime piracy and armed robbery were reported in 2017, the lowest annual number of incidents since 1995 when 188 reports were received, a global maritime body has said.

The latest report released in London on Wednesday by the International Chamber of Commerce's International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reveals that pirates boarded 136 vessels in 2017, while there were 22 attempted attacks, 16 vessels fired upon and six vessels hijacked.

Despite the fall, the global maritime body cautioned foreign vessels/masters not to be complacent as they transit the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

"Although the number of attacks is down this year in comparison with last year, the Gulf of Guinea and the waters around Nigeria remain a threat to seafarers. The Nigerian authorities have intervened in a number of incidents helping to prevent incidents from escalating," said Pottengal Mukundan, Director of IMB.

According to IMB, in 15 separate incidents, 91 crew members were taken hostage and 75 were kidnapped from their vessels in 13 other incidents. Three crew members were killed in 2017 and six injured.

In 2016, a total of 191 incidents were reported, with 150 vessels boarded and 151 crew members taken hostage.

The report also called on shipmasters to follow the industry's Best Management Practices and continue to remain vigilant as they sail through waters off Somalia.

The report said nine incidents were recorded off Somalia in 2017, up from two in 2016. In November, a container ship was attacked by armed pirates approximately 280 nautical miles east of Somali capital Mogadishu.

The pirates, unable to board the vessel due to the ship's evasive maneuvering fired two RPG rockets, both of which missed, before retreating.

The IMB said six Somali pirates were subsequently detained by European Union Naval Force, transferred to the Seychelles and charged with "committing an act of piracy" where they face up to 30 years' imprisonment, if convicted.

"This dramatic incident, alongside our 2017 figures, demonstrates that Somali pirates retain the capability and intent to launch attacks against merchant vessels hundreds of miles from their coastline," Mukundan said.

According to IMB, there were 36 reported incidents in the Gulf of Guinea last year with no vessels hijacked in this area and 10 incidents of kidnapping involving 65 crew members in or around Nigerian waters. Globally 16 vessels reported being fired upon -- including seven in the Gulf of Guinea.

The drop in piracy incidents is however a relief to shipping companies using the Indian Ocean that had in previous years been the target of pirates, often paying heavy ransom to secure release of their vehicles and the crew.

The African maritime industry, along the Indian Ocean had until 2013 been greatly affected by piracy that raised the costs of shipping as insurance companies and private ship security companies increased their premiums to mitigate the risks.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 15:09:16|Editor: Lifang

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HEFEI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A woman was fined 2,000 yuan (around 300 U.S. dollars) for "obstructing the operation of train service" in east China's Anhui Province, local authorities said Wednesday.

According to the Sina Weibo account of Anhui's Railway Police, a woman surnamed Luo tried to stop a high-speed train from leaving by blocking its door with her body on Friday.

Luo claimed that she had to wait for her husband and refused to step aside as conductors tried to make her move.

The incident happened in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, when the G1747 train was set to leave for Guangzhou in Guangdong Province.

Though Luo's husband successfully boarded the train, her behavior caused the delay of the train departure and has sparked an outcry in China after a video clip went viral online.

Luo, a teacher at a primary school in Luyang District, was also suspended from her job Tuesday.

Some web users criticized the woman's disrespect for the rules, while others questioned the station staff's decision to let the family on board.

A commentary published by the People's Daily said that if someone breaks the rules, law enforcement must be strict, or else it is an act of connivance that will damage the public interest.
A man sits next to a dead lion at a village in Opuwo, north-western Namibia, Feb. 13, 2016. The man gunned down the lion after it killed a bull, a dog and left a cow wounded in Opuwo. (Xinhua/Nampa)

WINDHOEK, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A pride of lions implicated in the killing of more than 200 small livestock in Nov. 2017 and relocated to the Erongo region, west of Namibia, will be moved again after some farmers raised concerns.

Environment ministry spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said Wednesday that the decision to relocate the lions to Etosha National Park is to avoid any further public concerns.

Muyunda said in a statement that the environment ministry takes issues of human-wildlife conflict management seriously.

"Our lion conflict reduction management strategies include capture and translocation to other areas where it is deemed that the animal will not cause conflict with people," Muyunda said.

He said should rogue animals continue to cause problems, then they can be destroyed or put up for trophy hunting.

Although the pride of eight lions has not caused any problems in their new habitat, their presence has caused some small livestock farmers discomfort.

Muyunda said if the human-wildlife management is not addressed appropriately with the necessary understanding and respect, it can harm if not destroy conservation efforts and tourism benefits for the country.

"We recognize this threat, and in this regard, we have finalized the review of the National Policy on Human-Wildlife Conflict Management which has been approved, in principle, by Cabinet and will now be presented to Parliament," Muyunda said.

The lions were relocated from the Torra Conservancy in Kunene region, north-west of Namibia about 400 kilometers from Windhoek in Nov. 2017 after they had killed more than 200 small livestock.

According to Muyunda, the lions attacked the small livestock after the first rainfall in the Kunene area that caused some prey to drift away.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 15:29:21|Editor: Lifang

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KATHMANDU, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- More than 31,800 households in Terai region, which was affected by one of the worst floods in August last year, will receive Chinese aid, according to UNDP Nepal on Wednesday.

The assistance has been provided under the framework of the Chinese South-South cooperation assistance fund and will be implemented by UNDP Nepal.

The China aid comes in response to the extensive damage and displacement caused by the floods in the country's southern part. A post-flood assessment conducted by the government of Nepal found that 1.7 million people were affected by the disaster.

According to the statement, the project will work in close coordination with the government of Nepal's Flood Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Project housed under the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA).

"Government of Nepal would like to thank the People's Republic of China for providing crucial post-flood recovery support to the affected people of Nepal," Dr. Suman Kumar Karna, project chief at Flood Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Project in NRA was quoted as saying in the statement.

The heaviest rainfall had resulted in widespread flooding across 35 districts, taking the lives of 160 people, destroying over 43,000 houses, partially damaging 192,000 houses, and displacing over 21,000 families.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 15:49:24|Editor: Jiaxin

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KABUL, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Finland has contributed 2 million euro (around 2.4 million U.S. dollars) to a UNICEF program to provide Afghan children and families with safe water, sanitation and hygiene, said a statement Thursday.

"The flexible grant is part of Finland's continued commitment to Afghanistan and follows a previous grant of similar size that provided gender-separated toilets, handwashing facilities and menstrual hygiene management that benefited almost 55,000 students in 102 schools," said the statement issued by UNICEF, or the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund here.

"Improvements in water and sanitation facilities in schools have a positive impact on attendance, quality of learning and well-being of students, especially girls," the statement read.

"We are happy to continue supporting the UNICEF water, sanitation and hygiene programme that provides concrete results for women and children in line with National Priorities." Hannu Ripatti, ambassador of Finland to Afghanistan, was quoted in the statement as saying.

"Through encouraging handwashing with soap in schools, and the use of clean water and sanitary environments, we can help to prevent diarrhea and the subsequent onset or worsening of stunting and malnutrition," Adele Khodr, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, said in the statement.

Washing hands with soap can reduce diarrhea by up to 42 percent and is one of the most cost effective ways to prevent cases, Khodr noted.

More than 9.5 million Afghan children with around 40 percent of them girls attend 15,000 schools across the country while over 3.5 million school age children have no access to education due to poverty, conflicts and insurgency, according to education officials.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 15:54:26|Editor: Jiaxin

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TIKRIT, Iraq, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Two people have died of contagious swine flu, also known as influenza A/H1N1, in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, a medical source said on Thursday.

"We have many cases suspected to be infected with swine flu in the province, especially in the town of Balad, some 80 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, two of them have died," Dr. Khalid Burhan, deputy head of health department of Salahudin province, told Xinhua.

"We have sent samples taken from the suspected cases to the Central laboratory of Public Health in Baghdad, and the cases were proved swine flu," Burhan said.

Burhan did not say how many cases are registered in the province, but he described the situation as "dangerous if the government would not take necessary precautions."

H1N1 influenza is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease with symptoms generally including upper respiratory problems, but the airborne illness can cause severe pneumonia and even death.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 16:24:30|Editor: Lifang

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PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and Cambodia on Thursday jointly called on related parties to adopt at an early date the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea to make it a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.

The two sides issued the call in a joint communique released after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang concluded an official visit to Cambodia.

Both countries are delighted to see that the situation in the South China Sea remains steady and continues to improve, said the communique.

It urged related parties to comprehensively and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea, deepen pragmatic maritime cooperation, promote consultations on the texts of the COC in the South China Sea in an effort to adopt the document at an early date based on negotiated consensus.

The DOC, signed here in 2002 by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, stipulates that the parties concerned shall resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 16:39:32|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's book retail sales totaled 80.3 billion yuan (12.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, up 14.55 percent year on year, said a report issued at the Beijing Book Fair, which opened on Thursday.

Sales through online channels grew by 25.82 percent year on year, and brick-and-mortar book shops also saw sales increase by 2.33 percent due to China's efforts to encourage people to read, the report said.

Children's books took a share of 24.64 percent of the book sales nationwide, making it the category with the biggest contribution to the total sales growth, it said.

The Beijing Book Fair was first held in 1987 and is hosted by the Publishers Association of China and the Books and Periodicals Distribution Association of China.

This year's book fair attracted 736 exhibitors and will host more than 180 cultural events, including forums.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 17:04:37|Editor: Jiaxin

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by Julia Pierrepont III

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The streets of Montecito in Santa Barbara Country in the western U.S. state of California resembled a battlefield Wednesday, choked with mud, downed trees, snapped utility poles, crumpled cars and crushed houses.

People moved wearily through the cement-like slurry, picking through the rubble of their homes, looking for missing loved ones, some just staring into space.

Nearly 3,400 residents in Montecito are without water or power, and over 300 are trapped in their homes Wednesday morning as first responders scramble to conduct rescue work in the wake of the devastating flash floods and deadly mudslides, which left at least 15 dead, 25 injured, and dozens missing, confirmed County spokeswoman Yaneris Muniz.

This affluent, upscale community near the famed San Ysidro Ranch with its sprawling, multimillion dollar homes and lush rolling lawns was previously best known as site of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy's honeymoon with his bride, Jackie Bouvier, in 1953, and for its current celebrity residents comedy TV Talk show host, Ellen Degeneres; 4-time Golden Globe acting nominee, Rob Lowe; and media mogul, Oprah Winfrey.

Local resident, Kristin Denault, was jerked awake in the middle of the night when Santa Barbara's emergency bulletin alarm system blared from her cellphone. She told Xinhua, "It was scary. We are all reeling. It's hard to believe tragedy has struck again so soon after the fires."

Well before dawn early Tuesday morning, a thundering juggernaut of unstoppable mud and debris swept down upon the sleeping community from the Santa Ynez Mountains above them, crushing everything in its path. It swept entire homes off their foundations and carried them away in a tumult of mud, boulders and debris -- along with the unsuspecting residents.

Residents lucky enough to be spared reported hearing rumblings just before the onslaught that sounded like an earthquake, but were actually the sound of a deadly, roaring curtain of mud and debris descending upon them powerful enough to propel massive boulders the size of trucks along with it.

A local resident said, "It looked like a World War One battlefield."

Just 2 days after her triumphant speech on Sunday that rallied America to embrace the TimesUp movement to end sexual misconduct and gender inequality in America, Oprah woke up to witness the devastation that spared her own home but forced her neighbors to be airlifted to safely escape a raging gas fire that consumed their property.

Oprah tweeted Tuesday: " What a day! Praying for our community again in Santa Barbara. Woke up to this blazing gas fire ... Helicopters rescuing my neighbors. Looking for missing persons. 13 lives lost."

Ellen Degeneres posted a photo of the flooded 101 highway near her home, with the caption, "This is not a river. This is the 101 Freeway in my neighborhood right now. Montecito needs your love and support."

Rob Lowe added, "Mourning the dead in our little town tonight. Praying for the survivors and preparing for whatever may come."

The hills below which the luxury homes nestled had been stripped of the stabilizing groundcover by the massive brushfires that roared virtually unchecked through the same upscale neighborhood just four weeks ago. The charred and compromised hillsides could not withstand the relentless, pounding rain that turned the rootless soil to slush. They finally eroded into deadly mudslides that struck the community unawares.

Public Information Officer Mike Eliason of the Santa Barbara Fire Department told Xinhua that residents are "overwhelmed by the double tragedy of first the Thomas fire that devastated the area in early December and now this." They are asking themselves why their ordinarily safe and serene neighborhood should now be at such odds with nature.

"It's devastating," said one exhausted resident, her face streaked with dirt. "Happening just after the fire makes it all seem... apocalyptic."

But there is some cause for hope.

Nearly 450 first responders and government officials and 14 rescue choppers flooded into the area to help bring order to the chaos. They coordinated widespread efforts on several fronts to rescue survivors, protect the population from downed electrical lines, put out raging gas fires from ruptured gas lines and clear debris from local roads, and funnel evacuees into the local Red Cross Evacuation Center.

The Coast Guard, called in for their expertise in handling water-related crises, managed to save a family of five trapped in the debris of their ruined home in Carpenteria by an eight-foot sea of sludge that blocked their escape by land. A mother, her newborn baby and other children, were pulled out of the collapsing house via the roof and airlifted to safety.

Another miraculous rescue was successfully carried out by the Santa Barbara County Fire and Rescue Team, with the help of their trusty search dog, a yellow labrador named Reilly, who discovered 14-year old Lauren Canton, nearly buried alive in sludge in the wreckage of her family home. Her father and brother are still missing and are feared to have perished in the deluge.

"I thought I was dead," the mud-soaked teen rasped to a rescue-worker.

Local resident Robert Riskin was not so lucky as he doggedly slogged through the knee-deep sludge and wreckage, desperately searching for his missing mother, whose home was one of those that had been carried away in the dead of night.

A distraught Riskin told GMA news, "I've been searching and calling, but... I just hope it was fast and she's not hurting..."

With 15 confirmed dead, four casualties hospitalized in critical condition, another 21 injured and an estimated two dozen still unaccounted for, the courageous first responders continue to tirelessly comb the wreckage for other survivors. But given the sheer scope of the devastation, hope is waning that a chance remains to find any of the missing residents alive.

"But," Denault told Xinhua, "Santa Barbara is a strong community where people really come together to help in any way they can. We will get through this."
Map of dark matter, measured through weak lensing with Science Verification Data (DES Collaboration). One new discovery enabled by the data set is the detection of roughly a dozen new streams of stars around our Milky Way. Our home galaxy is surrounded by a massive halo of dark matter, which exerts a powerful gravitational pull on smaller, nearby galaxies. The Milky Way grows by pulling in, ripping apart and absorbing these smaller systems. As stars are torn away, they form streams across the sky that can be detected using the Dark Energy Camera. Even so, stellar streams are extremely difficult to find since they are composed of relatively few stars spread out over a large area of sky. Its exciting that we found so many stellar streams, said astrophysicist Alex Drlica-Wagner of Fermilab. We can use these streams to measure the amount, distribution, and clumpiness of dark matter in the Milky Way. Studies of stellar streams will help constrain the fundamental properties of dark matter. Prior to the new discoveries by DES, only about two dozen stellar streams had been discovered. Many of them were found by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a precursor to the Dark Energy Survey. The effort to detect new stellar streams in the Dark Energy Survey was led by University of Chicago graduate student Nora Shipp. Were interested in these streams because they teach us about the formation and structure of the Milky Way and its dark matter halo. Stellar streams give us a snapshot of a larger galaxy being built out of smaller ones, said Shipp. These discoveries are possible because DES is the widest, deepest and best-calibrated survey out there. Other DES work concerns quasars, the supermassive black holes in the the middle of many galaxies. While the black holes themselves give off almost no light, a huge surrounding disk of inspiraling material can make quasars some of the brightest objects in the universe. It was long thought that these massive disks could only change slowly and would be stable for thousands or even millions of years. But recently, astronomers began noticing that some rare quasars became brighter or dimmer by factors of 2 or even 10 in only a few years. Dr. Nick Rumbaugh and Prof. Yue Shen at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign used DES data to study for these Extremely Variable Quasars. They identified 977 quasars with massive luminosity changes that occurred in only fifteen years or less. Their work suggests than many if not most quasars routinely undergo such wild changes. Whats more, it suggests that this variability is a normal part of a quasars life cycle and not due to a passing galactic cloud obscuring the quasar or a star suddenly slamming into the black hole. Currently in its fifth year of observation, DES plans one more major public data release after the survey is completed. The second release will be the same one eighth of the sky but much deeper and more detailed. This work is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 17:09:38|Editor: Jiaxin

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TOKYO, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower Thursday as a comparatively firm yen against the U.S. dollar dented exporter issues amid concern the Bank of Japan (BOJ) may taper its monetary stimulus program.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 77.77 points, or 0.33 percent, from Wednesday to end the day at 23,710.43.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 4.02 points, or 0.21 percent, to close at 1,888.09.

Technical analysts here said that buying from overseas investors was notably lower owing to the yen's firm tone against the U.S. dollar.

Exporters, in particular, rely on a weak yen to lift profit outlooks and yields when repatriated. A weaker yen versus other major currencies also boosts exporters' competitiveness in overseas markets.

Market strategists also said that investors were concerned Thursday about speculation the BOJ might begin to taper its quantitative easing measures.

On Tuesday, the central bank in its market operation reduced its purchases of long-term government bonds.

This triggered speculation the BOJ might be considering tapering its easing measures, as has been the case with other major central banks, although there were no further reductions in the bank's bond buying on Thursday, analysts noted.

By the close of play, food, transportation equipment and precision instrument-linked issues comprised those that declined the most, and falling issues beat rising ones by 986 to 976 on the First Section, with 101 ending the day unchanged.

On the main section on Thursday, 1,582.83 million shares changed hands, dropping from Wednesday's volume of 1,592.60 million shares.

The turnover on the penultimate trading day of the week came to 2,802.1 billion yen (25.07 billion U.S. dollars).
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 17:24:43|Editor: Jiaxin

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NAIROBI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Kenya Airways on Thursday kick started the process of operationalizing direct flights to New York which will commence on Oct. 28.

Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Sebastian Mikosz told a media briefing in Nairobi that they will begin selling tickets for the inaugural flight on Thursday.

"This is an exciting moment for us. It fits within our strategy to attract corporate and high-end tourism traffic from the world to Kenya and Africa. We are honored to contribute to the economic growth of Kenya and East Africa," Mikosz said.

The national carrier has already fulfilled one of the three requirements by the United States government to operate non-stop flights to New York city. "We hope to complete the other tasks in the next ten months," he added.

Kenya Airways will become the first airline to offer a non-stop flight between East Africa and the United States of America. The airline already serves Africa, Europe, Middle-East, Indian sub-continent and Asia.

Kenya Airways flight will be the fastest connection from East Africa to New York, with 15 hours duration eastbound and 14 hours westbound and will be operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Kenya Airways Chairman Michael Joseph said that the flights will symbolize the comeback for the airline that has been making losses for the past few years.

"But we expect the destination to contribute up to ten percent of all revenue in 2019," Joseph said. The national airline is currently in talks with U.S.-based Delta Airlines for a code sharing agreement in 2019 in order to expand its destinations in the U.S.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 17:34:45|Editor: Jiaxin

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TEHRAN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Several strong quakes have shaken western Iran in the past two hours following the 5.6-Richter scale earthquake that jolted Soomar city in western Kermanshah province on Thursday, Seismological Center reported.

Two after-shakes of 5.4-magnitude and one 5-magnitude quake shook Soomar on Thursday.

Besides, an after-shake of 5.4-magnitude jolted Zarneh region in Iran's Ilam province.

People in Kermanshah and Soomar cities rushed to the streets in panic as the temblors hit, local media reported.

The tremors have caused no casualties so far and assessment teams have been dispatched to Soomar, Zarneh region and the suburban villages.

At least 600 Iranians died in a 7.3-magnitude earthquake that hit the Kermanshah province on Nov. 12 last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 17:44:47|Editor: Jiaxin

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YAOUNDE, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed in an attack Wednesday night in Cameroon's Far North region, with the terror group Boko Haram suspected of being behind it, local sources told Xinhua Thursday.

The attack occurred in the Kolofata subdivision in the north, bordering the group's base in Nigeria. It was thought to be related to the group's efforts to grab food from the local population as their food supplies are said to be running out.

"We knew that their food stocks have been exhausted for months," a traditional chief in Kolofata, who declined to be named, told Xinhua. "One should expect such incursions from time to time."

The same night, Boko Haram members also raided several villages near the Mayo Moskota subdivision, causing the villagers to take refuge in the border city of Nguetchewe, where Cameroonian troops have been deployed.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 17:54:49|Editor: Jiaxin

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DUBAI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Thursday that he expected a sharp rise in oil demand in 2018.

Suhail Al-Mazrouei, the OPEC president and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) minister of energy, said on Twitter that he expects 2018 to be "a year of strong oil demand."

"OPEC will only take drastic actions when there is a crisis, otherwise it will not step in to change normal economic market conditions," he added.

On Wednesday, oil price surged to a near three-year high when one barrel (159 liters) reached 69.23 U.S. dollars, but the price has dropped slightly since then.

OPEC and its partners on Nov. 30, 2017 agreed to extend the output cut till the end of 2018, nine months longer than the previous agreement.

"We are moving to an environment of lesser geopolitical impact and more market fundamental drivers on oil price," said the OPEC president.

In 2016, the OPEC countries reached an agreement in Vienna to reduce daily oil production during the first half of 2017 to boost global oil prices. The agreement was also supported by 11 non-OPEC states. In late May, the parties to the deal agreed to extend the accord until the end of March 2018.

OPEC is proud in the output cut deal and the role it is playing in ensuring the stability of global market, said Mazrouei.

Asked if he expects all OPEC states and non-OPEC member Russia to stick to the agreement, Mazrouei said "my expectation is that compliance with production cuts will continue and remain strong."

He added that he expects "Saudi Arabia to keep its promise and to go public of its state-run energy giant Saudi Aramco in 2018."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 17:54:49|Editor: Jiaxin

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VIENTIANE, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The tradition for women to start a family while still in their teens could hamper government's efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2020 and Sustainable Development Goals by 2025, local daily Vientiane Times on Thursday quoted a senior Lao official as saying.

Deputy Director of the Lao National Center for Maternal and Child Health, Kobkeo Souphanthong, told the daily this week that even though most women get married and have children later than in the past, traditional beliefs mean that some ethnic women in rural areas of the northern Lao provinces get married at a very young age.

"Getting pregnant at a young age is not good for the health of the mother or her baby. This is because girls may not know how to care for themselves during pregnancy," said Kobkeo.

In addition, girls may not have enough money to buy nutritious food for the proper development of their baby during pregnancy, and the baby could be at risk of being born prematurely.

Most girls who marry young and become pregnant also drop out of school to take care of their baby.

Another downside of teenage pregnancies is that some young mothers would rather spend time having fun with their friends instead of taking care of their children, the doctor added.

Kobkeo said it was better for girls to wait until they are at least 18 before having a baby so that their body is sufficiently developed, reported the Lao daily on Thursday.

And as an adult, a woman may be better informed about a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy.

To make sure that young women learn about the problems caused by early pregnancy, doctors from the National Center for Maternal and Child Health will continue to provide information to communities that practise traditional beliefs.

"We will explain the negative impacts of getting pregnant at a young age to both women and men in the target group," said Kobkeo, adding that women who marry before turning 18 will be advised to use birth control methods until they are older and can make a well-informed decision to have a baby.

All pregnant women should have at least four checkups before delivery at provincial or district hospitals, dispensaries or nearby health service network facilities that can now be found anywhere in the country.

Kobkeo said she wants all involved sectors, including the media and community leaders, to encourage girls to postpone marriage and pregnancy until they are at least 18.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 17:59:50|Editor: Jiaxin

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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- A Southern California college campus has been closed after reports of firing Wednesday, with police searching for the shooter.

There were no reports of any injuries.

The gunfire was reported near the campus of California State University in San Bernardino, 100 km east of the Los Angeles downtown.

The university made an announcement on its website: "Reports of shots fired near Visual Arts Building and Parking Structure West. Shelter in place. Do not try to leave campus. Do not call police dispatch at this time."

Local police closed the campus, which has about 20,000 students, and are searching it building by building.

"Police are making progress in clearing buildings, but please be patient and continue to shelter in place until police clear your building. More information to follow," the latest alert on the university's website said.

Kimberly Cheng, a reporter with Los Angeles television station KTLA, tweeted that the San Bernardino Police Department told her that there was no active shooter.

" ... Something struck a building on north side of campus. They're not sure yet what caused it," Cheng tweeted.

Many students complained on social media that since the building doors had no locks, they felt unsafe. Some of them had fled the buildings.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 18:04:51|Editor: Jiaxin

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PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and Cambodia have pledged to further promote pragmatic cooperation in a series of areas, according to a joint communique released after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang concluded an official visit to Cambodia on Thursday.

The two sides decided to accelerate the effective alignment of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and China's 13th Five-Year Plan with Cambodia's national development strategy and Industrial Development Policy (2015-2025), while promoting cooperation in production capacity and investment, said the communique.

The committees on economic and trade cooperation of the two governments should guide enterprises of the two countries to carry out long-term win-win cooperation in various forms, it said, adding that bilateral trade should be promoted to reach the goal of 6 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

China will expand its imports from Cambodia, said the communique.

"China welcomes the Cambodian government and enterprises to participate in the first China International Import Expo," it said.

The expo will be held in November 2018 in Shanghai.

China welcomes more Cambodian agricultural products that meet China's inspection and quarantine standards and consumers' demands to enter into the Chinese market, it said.

China will help Cambodia realize development in traffic engineering, hydraulic engineering, mine clearance, education and health, it said, adding that China will actively promote the construction of projects such as Cambodia-China Friendship Preah Kossamak Hospital and Tboung Khmum Provincial Hospital.

China supports competitive and reliable Chinese enterprises in enhancing cooperation with Cambodia in infrastructure, agriculture, water resources, energy, telecommunications, industry and tourism, said the communique.

China will continue to build and operate the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) and actively participate in the construction of a high-speed way linking the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville port and a new airport in Siem Reap, a popular resort town in northwestern Cambodia.

The SSEZ, jointly established by China and Cambodia in 2008, is the biggest special economic zone in Cambodia. It has attracted more than 100 companies from China and other countries and created nearly 20,000 jobs for the local community.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 18:09:52|Editor: Jiaxin

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DOHA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Qatar is seeking international arbitration to end the blockade imposed by three of its Gulf neighbours and Egypt, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported Thursday morning.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lulwah al-Khater made the announcement on Wednesday, days after a UN report said the Saudi-led blockade on Qatar is "arbitrary and negatively impacting the people of the region."

"The report of UN technical mission from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) which has come from a neutral international body is satisfactory, comprehensive and has included important points," al-Khater was cited by QNA as saying.

The spokesperson said the UN report proved that the Saudi-led blockade were only directed at Qatari government. She also said that Qatar is still hoping to resolve the crisis through dialogue and diplomatic channels.

In June, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing terrorism. Qatar has denied all the charges.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 18:14:52|Editor: Jiaxin

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's major retail sales enterprises enjoyed strong sales last year as the country's stabilizing economy spurred consumption, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Thursday.

The total sales volume of 2,700 major retail enterprises surveyed rose 4.6 percent year on year in 2017, up 3 percentage points from a year earlier, MOC spokesperson Gao Feng told a press briefing.

Sales volume through e-commerce last year surged 26.8 percent year on year, up 3.2 percentage points from 2016, said Gao.

Profitability of retail enterprises improved in 2017 with operating profits of surveyed enterprises rising 8 percent year on year, up 6.5 percentage points from 2016.

Booming retail sales are behind China's stabilizing economy, which grew 6.9 percent in the first three quarters of 2017.

China is trying to shift its economy toward a growth model driven more by consumer spending, innovation and services while weaning it off over-reliance on exports and investment.

Gao predicted retail enterprises will see a booming year in 2018, supported by continued industry restructuring and upgrades as well as technological innovation.
CHICAGO - In a major upset, the Central Committee of the Chicago Republican Party voted 17 to 3 with 2 abstentions to back conservative challenger State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) over incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner. The vote took place Wednesday evening at a general meeting of the city's Republican ward committeemen.

"It's almost unheard of for a regular Republican organization to fail to endorse an incumbent governor," said Chicago GOP Chairman Chris Cleveland. "The people in the room felt that Rauner had betrayed them."

UPDATE: Rep. Ives has since issued a response to the Chicago GOP endorsement: I am proud to have won the confidence of the Chicago GOP. They are warriors for transparency and small government reforms in a city run almost exclusively by the Chicago Machine. Their bold advocacy will be critical to stoking the revolt, so that we can deliver the conservative reforms Illinoisans were promised in 2014, before Governor Rauners wholesale betrayal of the GOP."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 18:34:56|Editor: Yurou

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COLOMBO, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government has lifted a ban on selling alcohol to women and prohibiting women from working in places where alcohol is manufactured or sold, the Ministry of Mass Media and Finance said Thursday.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera signed an excise notification gazette extraordinary under the Excise Ordinance, revoking the ban.

"Amended the schedule in the Excise Notification No.666 of the Gazette Extraordinary of 1979 to now allow females over 18 years to purchase alcohol legally and also to be employed in licensed premises without prior approval from Excise Commissioner," Samaraweera said.

According to a Sri Lankan law passed in the early 1950s, any alcoholic drink, including wine, could not be sold to women and women were not allowed to work in any alcoholic manufacturing outlets or retail stores.

Under the new law, women will no longer require the approval of the state's excise commissioner in order to work or drink "in licensed premises", including restaurants.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 18:44:58|Editor: Yurou

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ISTANBUL, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- As the European Union makes it increasingly clear that it does not want Turkey to join the 28-nation bloc, analysts feel Ankara will have to settle for a looser partnership with the union rather than a full membership.

"It is highly likely that Turkey will say yes to a privileged partnership," said Faruk Sen, president of the Istanbul-based Turkish European Foundation for Education and Scientific Studies.

"I don't think Turkey has any other options," he added.

Ankara's membership negotiations with the EU have been de facto suspended for the past couple of years as bilateral ties remain strained.

The so-called privileged partnership model denies Ankara full membership while offering it, as many expect, privileged ties with the EU, roughly as Britain would have following its exit from the bloc.

Most recently, some EU leaders said the union should end hypocrisy toward Turkey by making clear that it would not be admitted as a full member.

"Given the current picture, Turkey hardly has any chance of becoming a full EU member," said Sen.

Noting EU countries have been calling for transforming ties with Ankara into a model of privileged partnership, Sen anticipated that the EU would propose to Turkey a privileged partnership in its upcoming meetings.

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited France, a EU heavyweight, in a bid to warm up frosty relations with Europe.

His French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, suggested at a joint press conference that Ankara should give up its ambition of joining the EU and agree instead to a lesser model of partnership.

In addition, the French president said Turkey should not expect any new chapters to be opened in its accession talks with the EU, arguing that Ankara's violations of the rule of law is a major roadblock.

Erdogan said in response that Ankara would not "beg" to be admitted into the EU, complaining about the bloc's discrimination against Turkey as a candidate country.

Last October, the Turkish leader said Turkey did not need the EU but it would not be the one to break off ties with the union.

"As things stand, Turkey does not stand any chance of joining the EU," Can Baydarol, deputy chairman of the Ankara-based European Union and Global Research Association, told Xinhua.

Noting there are indications that the EU will propose a model of partnership with Turkey similar to that with Britain, Baydarol said Ankara would accept it on condition that Turkey keep the rights bestowed by the original agreement signed in 1963.

Turkey inked its first deal with the European Economic Community, the EU's predecessor, in 1963, under which Turkey was offered the prospect of becoming a full member of the community.

Europe wants, as Macron revealed at his joint press conference with Erdogan, to keep Turkey anchored in Europe without granting it a full-member status.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said last month that the EU should make a special deal with Turkey, suggesting the so-called privileged partnership model, as his country took over the union's rotating presidency on Jan. 1 for a six-month period.

Germany, a leading EU country, has long promoted the idea of a privileged partnership with Turkey, a proposal rejected insistently by Ankara so far.

Both Sen and Baydarol expected Germany to lift its veto on updating the Customs Union deal between Turkey and the EU, for which Ankara has long been pushing.

The EU budget for the years from 2021 to 2027 also reveals that the bloc does not have the intention of granting Turkey a full-member status at least until 2027. In the budget accepted last month, the union allocates some 42 billion euros for Ukraine but no more than 23 billion euros for Turkey.

The figures reveal EU's intention to put pro-Western Ukraine on the path of full membership while it is not the case for Turkey, said Sen.

The bloc has long sharply criticized Ankara for its crackdown on dissidents, growing authoritarianism and violations of the rule of law. Bilateral ties have soured in particular after Turkey survived a coup bid in July 2016, as a state of emergency has been imposed in the country ever since.

Neither Turkey's democracy nor the economic and political situation in the EU promises Ankara's integration into the bloc in the short run, said Baydarol.

Ankara applied to join the EU in 1987 and started in 2005 the accession negotiations for full membership.

As a Muslim country, Turkey feels it has been kept in the EU's waiting room for too long, since those former Soviet-bloc countries applied for EU membership only in the 1990s but were admitted years ago.

In a model of privileged partnership, Turkey should demand bigger funds from the EU and the right for its citizens who find jobs in a EU country to settle there, Sen said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 19:15:06|Editor: Yurou

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MANILA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Philippine supporters of Filipino women forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II are drumming up public support to keep a statue memorializing the "comfort women" in the Philippines amidst Japan's mounting pressure to take it down.

An alliance of Filipino women GABRIELA and Lila Pilipina (League of Filipino Women) urged the Philippine government to ignore Japan's request to remove the seven-feet bronze sculpture, depicting a blindfold, grieving woman in Maria Clara traditional Filipiniana gown, who stands along Manila's busy Roxas Boulevard since being unveiled in December.

GABRIELA is at the forefront of the Filipino women's struggle for freedom and democracy while Lila Pilipina is an organization of wartime sex slaves.

Both groups have been demanding justice on behalf of the aging "comfort women" in the country - an official apology from the Japanese government, just compensation, and inclusion of the "comfort women" issue in Japan's historical accounts and textbooks.

Knocking down the statue would be a setback in the victims' long struggle for justice, according to GABRIELA secretary general Joms Salvador.

"If the Philippine government gives in to (Japan's demand to remove) the statue, it will be a setback on the struggle for justice," Salvador told a forum on Thursday, saying the sculpture means more than a statue.

"It has significance in our history, in our stand on the issue about 'comfort women' and the wartime atrocities of the Japanese government. If we allow the statue to crumble, we also allow the struggle for justice to crumble," she said.

Salvador called on the public to keep pressure on the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte not to cave in to the Japanese government's demand.

"The issue of the 'comfort women' is a national issue that involves our national identity. How do we stand as a nation in recognizing the dignity of our people if our government does not assert this stance? We, the Filipino people, should continue to fight (for justice) and demand official apology from the Japanese government," Salvador said.

Already, Salvador said GABRIELA has sent a letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) telling the DFA to keep the statue. The group also plans to write a letter to Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada to urge the city council to make a resolution supporting the statue.

Estrada lauded the erection of the statue in his city.

"GABRIELA joined historians and civic organizations in delivering a message to the Japanese foreign ministry officials to desist from exerting influence over Duterte's diplomats (to remove) a statue that honors the Filipino 'comfort women' who were captured and raped by imperial occupation forces," Salvador said.

She added, "This public discussion is one important undertaking. If there is no public support and clamor over an issue, the policy makers will just sit on the issue. so we call on the public - individuals, academic institutions, historians, advocates, to also write a letter of concern, support letter, petitions (and the like), to show our government and concerned agencies to stand (its ground) on the issue."

Lawmaker Arlene Brosas of the GABRIELA Women's PartyList said taking down the statue "will be painful for the lolas."

Lola is a tagalog word which means grandmothers. Philippine "comfort women" are called Lolas. "The statue is a symbol of their struggle. That's a direct hit on them if the statue is removed," she said.

"Only a few of the Lolas, who courageously came out to share their experience, remain alive now," Brosas said.

Both Salvador and Brosas lamented that the former "comfort women" are now sickly and "on their twilight age."

Only about 20 of the more than 200 Filipino women, coerced into living in brothels to serve as sex workers for the Japanese imperial army during the war, are still alive. Many of the survivors, in their 80s, can no longer go out to speak because of frail health.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 19:25:08|Editor: Yurou

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JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-three militants were killed and 14 others arrested following an operation in Nangarhar province, east of Afghanistan, Wednesday night, said the provincial government on Thursday.

"Special Operations Forces of National Directorate of Security (NDS) raided two Taliban hideouts in Soordog locality, Khogyani district Wednesday night. As a result 23 militants were killed and 14 others arrested," it said in a statement.

The NDS is the country's primary intelligence agency.

Those among the killed were four Taliban divisional commanders named Qari Edayatullah, Khalid, Qari Khalid and Ismail, the statement said, adding three vehicles, four motorbikes, and explosive materials were destroyed.

The security forces also seized 18 rounds of weapons after the raid.

Taliban militant group fighting the government confirmed the incident. Zabiullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, told local media that eight Taliban fighters lost their lives in Khogyani overnight.

He claimed a mosque and several houses were destroyed by security forces' airstrikes which also inflicted casualties among the villagers in the mountainous district.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 19:35:10|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday that China has always supported the improvement of relations between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as their reconciliation and cooperation.

In a telephone conversation with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, Xi said China supports the two sides in promoting inter-Korean dialogue and exchanges to gradually advance the settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 19:55:17|Editor: Lifang

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URUMQI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Crude oil imports from Kazakhstan to China through a transnational pipeline hit a new record high last year, PetroChina West Pipeline Company said Thursday.

The China-Kazakhstan pipeline carried 12.3 million tonnes of crude oil into the world's second-largest economy in 2017, up 23.2 percent year on year, the pipeline operator said.

The crude oil production cuts by OPEC members in early 2017 drove up crude prices, and oil producers in Kazakhstan then increased exports, it said.

The pipeline runs more than 2,800 kilometers from the city of Atyrau to Atasu in Kazakhstan via the Alataw pass in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical Company, one of China's major petrochemical producers. It became operational in 2006.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:00:19|Editor: Lifang

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), addresses the second plenary session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 11, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping on Thursday called for heroism and resolution to cope with the complexity the Party faces in governing the nation.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks at the second plenary session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC.

He said that "the Party itself and its members have gone through essential and profound changes," which required higher quality of Party management and enhanced political and organizational functions of Party organs.

"We should push forward the campaign with heroism that takes the bull by the horns and a fighting spirit that never steps aside in face of an enemy," he said.

Safeguarding the authority of CPC Central Committee and under its centralized and unified leadership, the CPC should develop itself into a vigorous Marxist ruling party that is always riding with the trend of times, supported by the people, brave in self-reform and survives all challenges and hardship, he said.

The CPC will not only foster faith among its members but also introduce institutional measures, not only address specific problems but also make top-down designs, Xi said.

Senior Party members should be subject to higher and more rigorous standards and placed under tighter scrutiny, though all Party members should follow the rules, he said.

Noting that senior officials should fulfill their duties fully and responsibly, Xi stressed that they should show strong commitment in bearing their political responsibilities and will be held accountable if failing them.

While exercising strict governance, the Party will try its best to discover problems as early as possible, to prevent officials from making mistakes and encourage them to actively perform their duties, he said.

Party's internal supervision will function well with assistance from the public, Xi said, promising smooth channels for ordinary people to advise on Party management and inform against misbehaved officials.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:05:20|Editor: Jiaxin

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BRUSSELS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- European top diplomats Thursday reasserted their commitments to Iran nuclear deal, sending an unflagging message to Washington, as the White House is set to decide whether to reimpose sanctions against Tehran.

Speaking to the press following a meeting with their Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and foreign ministers of France, Germany, Britain, expressed their common views to uphold the hardly-wrought deal.

On Oct. 13, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he had decided to decertify Iran's compliance with the Iran nuclear deal reached in 2015.

His move did not pull the United States out of the deal but triggered a 60-day window for Congress to decide whether to reimpose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, even it means violating the deal on the U.S. side. In the past two months, the U.S. Congress did not come up with any resolution to reimpose sanctions.

With no action from Congress, the ball was passed back to Trump, who should decide on Friday if he would like to waive energy sanctions on Iran.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:05:21|Editor: Lifang

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SHANGHAI, Jan. 11(Xinhua) -- Two items from the Acropolis Museum were put on display on Thursday at the Shanghai Museum for the exhibition "Treasures from the Acropolis Museum," which runs until April 8.

They are a marble statue of a Kore (520-510 BC), one of the most beautiful and well-preserved sculptures of the Acropolis, which retains traces of its old colors, and a red-figure Lekanis Lid with a Dionysian scene (350-325 BC).

"Behind the two items, we have displayed a picture of the Acropolis site to create a better visiting experience," said Yang Zhigang, curator of the Shanghai Museum, at the exhibition's opening ceremony.

The Athenian exhibits are part of a cultural exchange program, as the Acropolis Museum displayed two Shanghai Museum treasures from October 2017 to April 2018.

The Shanghai Museum signed a cooperation agreement with the Acropolis Museum in December 2015. This exchange of items between the two museums is the first of many steps outlined in their cultural exchange agreement.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:10:24|Editor: Lifang

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Meng Xiangfeng (C), deputy director of the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, introduces the 19th CPC National Congress held in October 2017, in Manila, the Philippines, Jan. 11, 2018. Headed by Meng Xiangfeng, a Chinese delegation wrapped up its three-day visit to the Philippines Thursday, briefing President Rodrigo Duterte on the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the CPC. (Xinhua/Yuan Mengchen)

MANILA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese delegation wrapped up its three-day visit to the Philippines Thursday, briefing President Rodrigo Duterte on the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The delegation, headed by Meng Xiangfeng, deputy director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, met with Duterte, who is also chairman of the Philippines' ruling PDP-Laban (Democratic Party -- Power of the Nation) party, other political leaders and people from various communities. The briefings were conducted in capital Manila and Davao city.

The attendees hailed the achievements and significance of the congress, especially the global significance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which was a highlight of the congress.

They also lauded the actions taken by the CPC to comprehensively strengthen discipline in the party. They said they are willing to learn from China's experience of governing the country and deepen the bilateral relationship to benefit the two peoples.

The 19th CPC National Congress, held in Beijing in October, drew the blueprint for China's development in the next 30-plus years. At the first plenum of the 19th CPC Central Committee, Chinese President Xi Jinping was re-elected as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
Last summer, legal representatives won a preliminary injunction to stop enforcement of the new law. Thursday, twenty-three Illinois pregnancy centers filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra.

WASHINGTON  Pregnancy centers in Illinois are not acquiescing to a new state law requiring them to share abortion information with interested expectant mothers.

The centers' brief defends their right to not promote abortion and a womans right to choose life for her unborn child. The NIFLA v. Becerra case out of California deals with whether the government can force pro-life pregnancy care centers to provide free advertising for the abortion industry. The Illinois centers contend that they, like the California centers, are also being targeted by state efforts to force them to provide pro-abortion information to those who come to them for support.

In July 2017 an Illinois Federal District Court granted several pro-life pregnancy centers a preliminary injunction stopping Illinois efforts to enforce a recent amendment to the Healthcare Right of Conscience Act which forces pro-life medical professionals to promote the benefits of abortion and inform women where they can obtain an abortion. California enacted a similar law called the Reproductive FACT Act which is at issue in NIFLA v. Becerra.

Attorney Noel W. Sterett of Mauck & Baker, LLC, who represents the twenty-three pregnancy centers before the Supreme Court, said The government has no business forcing pro-life doctors and pregnancy care centers to operate as referral agents for the abortion industry. A law that targets medical professionals because of their pro-life views and right of conscience is unconstitutional and unethical.

"There are thousands of pregnancy centers across the country that work to ensure that women are not burdened by fear, financial concerns, or lack of information about their pregnancy," the group's statement said.

In 2017, the twenty three Illinois pregnancy centers represented in the brief served provided over 14,000 women with free pregnancy services and support including free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parenting classes, baby clothes and other material assistance.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:15:26|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China will take necessary measures to protect Chinese enterprises' interests if the United States sticks to unilateral protectionist trade practices, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

The U.S. trade investigation targeting China is based on its own laws and regulations and will compromise the international trade framework, Gao Feng, a spokesperson of the ministry, said at a press conference in response to a U.S. Section 301 investigation into Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer launched late last year.

Gao pointed out that the trade imbalance between the two countries is mainly a result of different economic structures, industrial competitiveness and international division of labor, and China has never sought a trade surplus as the flow of trade is determined by the market.

China saw a trade surplus of over 251 billion U.S. dollars with the United States in the first 11 months of last year, up 9.7 percent year on year, but the growth of imports from the United States outpaced that of exports, according to Gao.

China will release trade data for December and the whole year of 2017 on Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:25:28|Editor: Lifang

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PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and Cambodia have vowed to promote their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new era, according to a joint communique released after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang concluded his visit to Cambodia on Thursday.

The two countries vowed to cement high-level exchanges and strategic communication and make full play of the role of China-Cambodia Inter-Governmental Coordination Committee to guide bilateral cooperation in various areas, said the communique.

The two sides decided to accelerate the effective alignment of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and China's 13th Five-Year Plan with Cambodia's national development strategy and Industrial Development Policy (2015-2025), while promoting cooperation in production capacity and investment, said the communique.

The committees on economic and trade cooperation of the two governments should guide enterprises of the two countries to carry out long-term win-win cooperation in various forms, it said, adding that bilateral trade should be promoted to reach the goal of 6 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

China will expand its imports from Cambodia, said the communique.

"China welcomes the Cambodian government and enterprises to participate in the first China International Import Expo," it said.

The expo will be held in November 2018 in Shanghai.

China welcomes more Cambodian agricultural products that meet China's inspection and quarantine standards and consumers' demands to enter the Chinese market, it said.

China will help Cambodia realize development in traffic engineering, hydraulic engineering, mine clearance, education and health, it said, adding that China will actively promote the construction of projects such as Cambodia-China Friendship Preah Kossamak Hospital and Tboung Khmum Provincial Hospital.

China supports competitive and reliable Chinese enterprises in enhancing cooperation with Cambodia in infrastructure, agriculture, water resources, energy, telecommunications, industry and tourism, said the communique.

China will continue to build and operate the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) and actively participate in the construction of a high-speed way linking the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville port and a new airport in Siem Reap, a popular resort town in northwestern Cambodia.

The SSEZ, jointly established by China and Cambodia in 2008, is the biggest special economic zone in Cambodia. It has attracted more than 100 companies from China and other countries and created nearly 20,000 jobs for the local community.

Besides, China and Cambodia agreed to maintain exchanges between armed forces and law enforcement departments and boost cooperation in training and education, medical equipment, multilateral security, drug control, law enforcement capability building as well as fight against cross-border crimes, human trafficking, telecommunication fraud and terrorism, said the communique.

Both countries pledged to make good preparation for celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Cambodia this year, to enhance scientific, educational and cultural cooperation, and beef up understanding and friendship between the two peoples, especially between the youths of the two countries, according to the communique.

China will offer more Chinese government scholarships for Cambodians and help train Cambodian talents. Cambodia will continue to support the operation of organizations like the Chinese cultural center and the Confucius Institute, it said.

Both sides promised to support stronger roles of their friendly associations, think tanks, press and non-governmental organizations to cement people-to-people exchanges, said the communique.

They vowed to realize the goal of 2 million Chinese tourists visiting Cambodia in 2020, according to the communique, adding that China will continue to support protection and restoration of Cambodia's cultural heritages such as Angkor Wat and Preah Vihear temple.

In addition, China and Cambodia will enhance coordination within the framework of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and China-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) cooperation to jointly build a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future and make more contributions to safeguarding stability, development and prosperity in the region and the world.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:25:28|Editor: Jiaxin

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ISLAMABAD, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Protests have erupted in Pakistan after a six-year-old girl was raped and killed by unknown men in Pakistan's east Kasur city, local reports said Thursday.

The minor girl, Zainab, was on her way to seminary when she was kidnapped by the unknown men on Jan. 4, a few meters away from her house in Kasur, a city located in the country's east Punjab province.

The girl's family alleged that they tried to file a complaint in a local police station, but the cops failed to cooperate with them.

"We provided them CCTV footage of the kidnapping incident to the police, but they did not pay much attention to it," Zainab's uncle said.

The CCTV footage, which went viral on social media, shows the alleged kidnapper walking by a street, holding the girl's hand.

Five days after the kidnapping, on Jan. 9, the girl's body was found on a garbage heap in the city, and the autopsy revealed that she was raped before being strangled to death.

Riots erupted across Kasur on Wednesday with protestors chanting slogans against police and seeking justice for Zainab.

Two protestors were killed and two others injured during the clashes with police, while the Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif ordered to suspend and arrest the cops who opened fire at the mob.

The chief minister also ordered an inquiry into the incident and paid a visit to the minor's house to express his condolence.

The incident was widely reported by local media, and people across the country took to social media to condemn the crime.

Meanwhile, the police issued a sketch of the alleged culprit by judging his facial features from the CCTV footage, and kicked off an investigation and search operation in the area.

The girl's father, who was in Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage when the incident happened, appealed to the country's chief justice and army chief to provide justice to his late daughter.

Responding to the bereaved father's appeal, Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa condemned the incident and directed military to support civil administration for arresting the culprits and "bringing them to exemplary justice," the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the mouthpiece of Pakistani army, said in a statement.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar took a suo motu action against the incident and sought report from the relevant officials of the Punjab police within 24 hours.

Leaders of all political parties condemned the incident and sought justice for the minor girl.

Medico Legal Officer Quratulain Attique at the District Headquarters Hospital, where the autopsy was performed, said that this was the fourth such incidence they have witnessed in the last seven months.

Local TV channel Dawn said that it was the 12th incident of raping and killing of minors in the 2 km radius of the city over the past year.

Police believes that one man or gang is involved in all such incidents.

Earlier in 2015, a group of pedophiles was busted in Kasur for carrying out sexual misconduct with at least 280 minors. The men had been abducting and raping the children since 2009, under the nose of local police in the area, until the news was broken by media.

The families of the affected kids said that the kidnappers had blackmailed them and even sold video clips and images showing them assaulting their children, online.

According to data compiled by NGO Sahil last year, about 11 cases of child sexual abuse are reported from across the country everyday.

According to Pakistan's law, whoever commits rape of minor or person with mental or physical disability shall be punished with death or imprisonment of life.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:50:39|Editor: Lifang

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), addresses the second plenary session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 11, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Thursday called for more anti-corruption efforts to "fundamentally improve the political ecosystem of the Party."

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the second plenary session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC.

He said governance of the Party should focus on upholding and strengthening Party leadership and upholding the authority and the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee.

All-round efforts should see the Party's political building enhanced, its theory strengthened, its organizations consolidated, its conduct improved, and its discipline enforced, with institution building incorporated into every aspect of Party building, Xi said.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the CPC's leadership is a must for the country to advance its great cause, Xi said, demanding deepening the full and strict governance over the Party.

Xi required measures to address both the symptoms and root causes of corruption to secure a sweeping victory in the fight against corruption.

"Measures targeting the root causes must be consolidated while those to cure the symptoms must be vigorously wielded," Xi said.

He said strict Party governance should be expanded to the grassroots level and work should be done together with the crackdown on mafia-style gang crime to uproot both the gangs and the "protective umbrellas" above them.

He also called for more international cooperation in the anti-corruption field.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:50:40|Editor: Jiaxin

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ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday underscored the need to further strengthen socio-economic relations, with due emphasis given to finance, investment and employment sectors.

The two countries made the commitment as part of the visit of Ethiopia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Workneh Gebeyehu, to UAE.

The United Arab Emirates has pledged to support Ethiopia's economic growth during the meeting between Gebeyehu and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the UAE, Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to a statement issued by Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ethiopia and UAE further hailed the success of bilateral cooperation in the area of finance and emphasized the need to scale up collective endeavors so as to realize pledges into a realistic time table, it was noted.

Cooperation in the financial sector is the latest commitment made by the two countries as part of Gebeyehu's visit to the Middle East country.

The two countries have also announced the agreement to expedite the signing of overseas labor agreement and the need to fast-track the signing of labor agreement that was being discussed for over two years.

According to Gebeyehu, the signing of the agreement "will create a viable legal framework for protection and safety of workers."

UAE is one of the major Middle Eastern destinations of Ethiopian migrants in search for jobs.

Gebeyehu, during his stay in UAE, has also met with the Ethiopian community in UAE and briefed private sector representatives concerning investment and business opportunities in the east African country.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:55:41|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday that China has always supported the improvement of relations between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as their reconciliation and cooperation.

In a telephone conversation with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, Xi said China supports the two sides in promoting inter-Korean dialogue and exchanges to gradually advance the settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue.

Currently, challenges and opportunities co-exist on the Korean Peninsula, Xi said, expressing the hope that the PyeongChang Winter Olympics will not only bring about opportunities for inter-Korean dialogue, but also help improve the situation on the peninsula.

Xi said China is willing to enhance communication and cooperation with all sides concerned, including South Korea, to pursue a positive outcome of the situation.

For his part, Moon said his country attaches great importance to China's important role in solving the dilemma on the Korean Peninsula, and appreciates China's support for inter-Korean dialogue and efforts to push for settlement through dialogue and safeguard peace and stability on the peninsula.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:55:41|Editor: Jiaxin

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JUBA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The South Sudanese government and the main rebel group on Thursday denied holding political detainees and prisoners of war after a 14-day deadline for release of detained persons elapsed last week.

According to the cessation of hostilities agreement signed between the government and several rebel groups in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Dec. 21 last year, all parties agreed to release political detainees and prisoners of war and hand them to the International Committee of the Red Cross within 14 days.

The agreement also called on the warring parties to surrender children enlisted or recruited in their ranks to the UN children's agency UNICEF in the stipulated period.

Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said there are no political detainees or prisoners of war in the East African country after President Salva Kiir pardoned political detainees last year.

"We have no political detainees in the country. You cannot release someone that you have not arrested," Ateny said.

Lam Paul Gabriel, Sudan People's Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) deputy military spokesperson, said the rebel movement had been releasing prisoners because they don't have facilities to keep them.

However, Lam alleged that the government is still keeping several opposition figures in detention.

"It should be noted that the SPLA-IO has been constantly releasing political detainees whenever captured due to continued aggression from government that was putting their lives in danger," Lam said.

South Sudan has been embroiled in four years of conflict that has taken a devastating toll on the people, creating one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 between the rival leaders under UN pressure led to the establishment of a transitional unity government in April 2016, but was shattered by renewed fighting in July 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:55:41|Editor: Jiaxin

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COLOMBO, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, and the Countess of Wessex will arrive in Sri Lanka at the end of this month to attend the 70th anniversary of the country's independence on Feb. 4, the British High Commission in Colombo said in a statement Thursday.

The royal couple will represent Queen Elizabeth II at the anniversary celebrations.

They will meet participants in "the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award" and young Sri Lankans selected as Queen's Young Leaders, an initiative to recognize and celebrate exceptional young people across the Commonwealth.

Prince Edward is the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The Earl and Countess support the queen in her official duties and undertake many public engagements each year in support of a wide range of charities and non-governmental organizations.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:00:42|Editor: Jiaxin

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By Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli navy plays a major role in the country's defense, although it has enjoyed less of the limelight that other units in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have.

The navy is the smallest unit of the IDF, with tens of marine vessels at service.

But it is responsible for protecting Israel's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and is also tasked with safeguarding newly found natural gas reserves and curbing potential threats from the Gaza Strip in the south of the country and Lebanon in the north.

"We face unique threats in our unique environment," a senior Israeli navy commander told Xinhua exclusively.

At the end of 2010, large natural gas reserves were found off Israel's coast, marking a strategic change for the energy-dependent nation.

The discovery also marks the beginning of a new job for the navy - protecting the oil rigs which could easily become a target for many of the country's hostile neighbors.

"The potential damage to the economy is huge," said the senior officer. "We are learning from other navies on how to protect gas rigs but we also have to develop our own concept."

Israel, which has purchased corvette warships from Germany, has reportedly changed their design in order to enhance its missile defense abilities.

According to the senior commander, the corvettes will be tasked with protecting the rigs around the clock.

Some of the vessels are armed with the "Protector," an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) developed to launch ammunition and conduct surveillance and interception missions.

"We have built a concept of layers on how to defend the gas rigs - navy, air force, intelligence and protection on board the gas rigs," the officer told Xinhua.

Late last year, the navy tested a missile interceptor system - Tamir Adir - aiming at shooting down short-range missiles. According to the IDF spokesperson, the test was successful.

Similar to other units in the army, the navy has realized it needs to look outwards in order to develop.

"The trend in the world is to work in coalitions. So we are expanding our exercises, to do not only bilateral exercises, but also multilateral ones... you can learn more and do more," said the senior commander.

The Israeli navy holds regular drills with its U.S., Greek, Italian and Cypriot counterparts. There is also cooperation with NATO.

While the Mediterranean is a favorable path for many refugees from the Middle East to flee to Europe, they do not pass through Israel's territorial waters - leaving the navy to sit out on this thorny matter.

But the waters of the Gaza Strip are different.

Israel left the territory in 2005 but retained control of the waters citing security concerns. Navy patrol boats are often seen off the Gaza coast.

In recent years, the Israeli navy has allowed for the expansion of the fishing area during high seasons.

"We have to maintain the balance all the time," the senior commander told Xinhua. "We know it is very important for them to fish, for their economy. They need it - on one hand. On the other hand, they are smuggling weapons and parts for building rockets."

Israel, together with Egypt, has imposed a strict land, air and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip from 2007, when Hamas took over the enclave. Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, is continuously arming itself for the next confrontation with Israel. The two sides fought their last war in 2014.

In addition to the corvettes, Israel has also purchased submarines from Germany. The last of the six vessels purchased is expected to be delivered later this year. This will give the small country unprecedented maritime forces.

The submarine deal with Germany was marred by controversy and a criminal investigation against officials close to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over suspected corruption and bribery in the multi-million-dollar transaction.

According to foreign media reports, the navy is tasked with the country's nuclear second-strike capabilities. Such a strike would be carried out by a submarine. Israel has never confirmed it possesses nuclear weapons.

Once receiving the submarines, the Israeli army fits it with its own combat systems, making them operational.

"We have a lot of knowledge, it is all our planning, tailor-made for us. We prefer not to be dependent on anyone," said the senior navy officer.

With a variety of tasks, the Israeli navy has maintained a relatively small but highly sophisticated force. Its elite units are known in the country for their rigorous and highly intense training.

"We have to secure our borders, because in minutes our enemies will be on our shores, in our power plants and on our gas rigs," the senior navy commander summarized.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:00:42|Editor: Jiaxin

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BUDAPEST, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian President Janos Ader called the general elections for April 8 in a official statement published here on Thursday.

The elections will be held in one single turn, and Hungarians will have the chance to give Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a third consecutive term in office.

During the last elections, Orban' s Fidesz Party and its partner KDNP won about 45 percent of the vote, which translated into 133 of the 199 seats of the national assembly.

This meant that the Fidesz retained its qualified 2/3 majority of the Parliament, enabling the party to alter the Constitution. But because of a defeat in a by-election in 2015, Fidesz lost its super majority.

Orban, known as a hardliner in immigration policies, is likely to win the elections against every poll.

The opposition is divided, the strongest party is the radical Jobbik, followed by the MSZP (Socialist), and other smaller left and green formations.

A party must obtain 5 percent of the vote to enter the parliament.
It is telling that California led the charge against smoking tobacco, since it is harmful and shortens the working life of taxpayers (the state loses money it never earned). Now the harmful effects of smoking pot are ignored in the case of marijuana, as well as the resulting intoxication and probable addiction.

Local authorities in states which recently authorized recreational use of marijuana, including California and Colorado, threaten to defy AG Jeff Sessions return to enforcing drug laws on the federal level. Sessions revoked the Cole memorandum , issued by Eric Holder, which instructed federal attorneys to ignore violations involving marijuana made legal under these statutes. According to the Obama administrations, anti-marijuana laws unfairly targeted African Americans.

Federal warnings about Cigarette and Pot Smoking

Most Americans know that it was in1964 that the Surgeon General Report on Smoking and Health alerted the nation to the health risk of smoking which transformed the issue cigarette smoking from one of individual and consumer choice, to one of epidemiology, public health, and risk for smokers and non-smokers alike. Confirmed by pathologists and laboratory scientists was the statistical relationship of smoking especially to lung cancer. In 1965, Congress required all cigarette packages distributed in the United States to carry a health warning, and since 1970 this warning is made in the name of the Surgeon General. In 1969, cigarette advertising on television and radio was banned, effective September. 1970.

Even though there are medical cannabis laws in 46 states, cannabis is still illegal under federal law. The federal government regulates drugs through the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) (21 U.S.C.  811) in 1970. As it is, according to the CSA, Cannabis (marijuana) is treated as a schedule 1 controlled substance, such as cocaine and heroin, for which there is no legal use. Although marijuana smoking is not associated with lung cancer, marijuana use has a wide range of effects, both physical and mental such as breathing problems, increased heart rate which put older people and those with heart problems at a higher risk of heart attacks. When using marijuana begins as a teenager, the drug may impair thinking, memory, and learning functions and affect how the brain builds connections between the areas necessary for these functions. This article about the drug facts of marijuana demands to be read.

We heard similar arguments around the start of the 20th century of how a new pain killing drug invented by C. R. Alder Wright in 1874, which did not have the addicting properties of morphine. The new drug was called heroin, much marijuana is now being presented to relieve pain without addiction.

Celebration by Revelers Premature?

The revelers celebrating the new state laws and opposing the DOJ may be premature. The supreme court has long held that federal laws supersede state law where a conflict occurs. The Supremacy Clause is a clause within Article VI of the U.S. Constitution which dictates that federal law is the "supreme law of the land." Somehow Democrats who have decried state supremacy for decades now embrace the new secession from federal authority by claiming since our Constitution doesn't define the use of marijuana, it is up to the states to regulate it, which is set forth in the Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) to the United States Constitution.

There are some unintended consequences:

Users of illegal drugs (under federal regulations) cannot purchase a firearm

They cannot be in possession of a firearm or ammunition while in possession or under the influence of illegal drugs

They cannot work for a defense contractor, federal agency nor pharmaceutical manufacturer, to name a few.

They cannot join nor remain in the armed forces

In some states, they cannot qualify for financial aid, including medicaid or unemployment (proposed)

Nearly 80% of Colorado drivers involved in accidents test positive for marijuana (THC) Only about 13% partake on a regular basis.

We can be fairly sure that the 9th Circuit Court will side with California under the 10th Amendment in their ruling. Since the above list involves interstate commerce, which is safely in the hands of the DOJ and congress, the silver lining may be that the rest of us will be safer on the streets and sleep more soundly if pot-heads cant be policemen; own or possess firearms; work for hospitals, pharmaceutical companies or the defense industry; or join or remain the the armed forces.

Will Illinois Choose Pot Before Jobs?

As Joe Biver wrote in his article for Illinois Family Action on January 8, 2018, Will Illinois Choose Pot Before Jobs?:

In a high tax state thats bankrupt and losing residents and jobs, one might think that our government officials would have better things to do than legalizing marijuana for recreational use. And one would be wrong. Especially when taxing marijuana is seen as yet another source of revenue for their almost bankrupt tax coffers.

Voters in Cook County, Illinois, however, will get the chance to vote on a non-binding question in the upcoming March primary on whether recreational marijuana should be legalized, when on December 14. 2017, Cook County commissioners voted unanimously to put the advisory referendum on the ballot. Referendum questions are used to gauge support for an issue to help state lawmakers decide whether to pursue the issue with formal legislation in Springfield. It stands to reason that because Cook County has 40% of the state's population, the vote coming from Cook County during a legislative session could influence state lawmakers.



Do Illinois lawmakers really need much influencing? The legalization of recreational marijuana was being addressed even before House Bill 1, known as the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, was signed into law by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on August 01, 2013 with an effective date of January 01, 2014. HB 1 established a patient registry program, to protect the registered qualifying patients and their registered appointed caregivers, from arrest, prosecution, or denial of any right or privilege. It also includes provisions for cultivation centers and dispensing organizations

Findings of Democrat Patrick Kennedy Should Be Taken Seriously about What is Happening in Colorado and Oregon

Of importance to Illinoisans is a very revealing article written by Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Massachusetts Democrat U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, that warns those in New Jersey about the dangers inherent in the legalization issue which is currently being debated in New Jersey. Detailed in Kennedys opinion piece in the New Jersey Ledger is that serious problems have been experienced by Washington State and Colorado, two states that have legalized recreational marijuana, namely:

"States with legal marijuana are witnessing increased use among youth and doubled rates of fatal driving crashes. These states have also failed to shore up state budget shortfalls with marijuana taxes; continue to see a thriving illegal black market; and are experiencing unabated sales of alcohol, despite campaign promises from advocates stating that marijuana would be a "safer" alternative.

The Colorado Springs Gazette, because Colorado's problems are so evident after five years, has recognized the legalization as an embarrassing cautionary tale.

In Illinois a lagging economy and job creation urgently needs to be addressed, not the legalization of marijuana. Does potential abuse and addiction really rate as high as profiting from addiction?

A Message for Legislators: Did You Know?

Because marijuana dealers cant use banks, they cant take checks or credit cards either. That means cash, only cash, and a lot of it, even in small stores. With easy cash comes the likelihood of robbery. Since you cant have a firearm and possess illegal drugs (under federal law), you have no means by which to defend yourself (hard enough in California anyway). Mexican gangs are chafing at the loss of income, and have already been involved in robbing licensed dealerships in Colorado and Oregon.

Legislators who are calling for recreational use of marijuana in their states disregard the fact that the amount of THC in marijuana has been increasing steadily over the past few decades. For a person who's new to marijuana use, this may mean exposure to higher THC levels with a greater chance of a harmful reaction. Higher THC levels may explain the rise in emergency room visits involving marijuana use.

In the 1920s, gangland murders filled the newspapers along with sensational photos. Legal marijuana may be a saving grace for Illinois and other states to save our failing print media.

So why the rush to legalize marijuana? In the words of Deep Throat to reporter Bob Woodward, Follow the money. There are billions of dollars at stake in profits and more important, as taxes, enough to hold the interest of influential investors and politicians alike.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:05:43|Editor: Lifang

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PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has announced that China will provide another 7 billion yuan (1.08 billion U.S. dollars) of government concessional loans within the framework of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC).

Li made the pledge here Wednesday at the second LMC leaders' meeting, where he also announced the setup of a 5-billion-dollar credit line for supporting production capacity and equipment manufacturing cooperation among Lancang-Mekong countries, according to a statement released Thursday.

The new offer came after China supplied other Lancang-Mekong countries with 10 billion yuan (1.54 billion dollars) of concessional loans, 5 billion dollars of export credit and 5 billion dollars for capacity cooperation in more than 20 infrastructure and industry projects, Li said.

The deficit that China holds with Mekong countries on farm product trade will not prevent China from importing more, Li said, adding that protectionism is China's last choice.

With a theme of "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development," the meeting brings leaders of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the table on such issues as connectivity, water management and industrial production capacity.

China is the largest trading partner of Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand and the second largest of Laos. Bilateral trade between China and the five riparian countries totaled 220 billion dollars in 2017, up 16 percent year on year.

Some 80 percent of China's rice imports are from Mekong countries. Their fruit exports to China have increased at 21 percent annually over the past decade.

Initiated by China in 2014, the framework spans connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, and agriculture and poverty reduction, benefiting dozens of millions of people living on the waterway.

The first LMC leaders' meeting was held in Sanya of China's Hainan Province in March 2016, when the goal of building a community of shared future of peace and prosperity for the LMC countries was endorsed.

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwest China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:15:46|Editor: Lifang

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PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to continue to provide assistance for Cambodia to the best of its ability, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Thursday.

Li made the remarks when meeting with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni.

"China will continue to support Cambodia's efforts to develop economy, improve people's livelihood and safeguard stability," said the premier.

The river of China-Cambodia friendship runs a long course from a remote source with the two peoples sharing deep friendly feelings, said Li, noting that leaders of older generations of the two countries made historic contributions to developing the bilateral ties.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's successful visit to Cambodia in 2016 brought bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership to a new level, Li said.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Cambodia this year, China will start from a new point to cooperate with Cambodia for the continuous development of bilateral relations, he said.

"It is believed that the development of the China-Cambodia comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership will better benefit the two peoples," Li said.

For his part, Sihamoni said Cambodia appreciates the Chinese government's long-term support for its economic and social development.

He said Li's visit to Cambodia is significant as it has consolidated the bilateral traditional friendship and deepened the bilateral cooperation in a variety of areas.

"The Cambodian people will never forget the Chinese people's friendship and will stand together with the Chinese people forever," said Sihamoni, while expressing his hope that the Cambodia-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership will witness further development.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:20:48|Editor: Lifang

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XI'AN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Villagers in northwest China's Shaanxi Province held a funeral on Thursday for Mszusaki Hideko, a 89-year-old Japanese war orphan who spent most of her life in China.

Mszusaki Hideko died on Jan. 6 in Leijiadong Village, Zhulinguan Township of Danfeng County in Shaanxi. Her stepson and other villagers arranged a funeral on Wednesday, said Bai Qiyan, a village official.

Hideko was born in 1929 in Fukuoka, Japan. She was an only child and her father was a fisherman, said Xing Weilin, a township official.

Hideko's mother died when she was 11. Unwilling to stay with her stepmother, she came to China in 1942 with her aunt and uncle to live in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province in the northeast.

Hideko adopted Wang Yulan as her Chinese name. After the Japanese army surrendered in 1945, she stayed in China. She had four marriages, the last one was with Li Mingtang in 1976 in Danfeng County, Xing said.

Wang had no children. She had a stepson, Xing said.

In 2005, her relatives in Japan sent people to China to ascertain her documents. She and her husband traveled to Japan and stayed with her cousin.

"She hardly spoke any Japanese. She had to speak through an interpreter with her cousin. No one knows why she would not stay in her home country," Xing said.

"Hideko had good relations with other villagers. She cooked well, and whenever there were banquets in the village, she would volunteer to help," said her neighbor who gave his name as Li.

Japanese started a war in China in 1931. Before that, it sent many citizens to the northeastern part of China. More than 4,000 Japanese children were left in China after Japan's defeat in 1945, mostly in the northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, as well as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They were taken care of by Chinese foster parents.

"Hideko used to told me she was a Japanese 'guizi' or devil. She never hurt anyone and she was no devil at all, just another victim of the war," said Bai.

"If there were no war, she could have had another life. Now we bury and lay her to rest her like we do with any other Chinese citizen," Bai said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:25:49|Editor: Liangyu

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A bus goes through the Stinson Parade Bridge during the opening ceremony of the China-aided projects for Stinson Parade Bridge and Vatuwaqa Bridge, in Suva, Fiji, on Jan. 11, 2018. Two China-aided bridges in the Fijian capital city were open to traffic Thursday following the hard work by hundreds of workers from both countries. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing)

by Xinhua writer Zhang Yongxing

SUVA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Thursday is a very special day for both Fiji and China as the two China-aided bridges in the Fijian capital city of Suva were open to traffic following the hard work by hundreds of workers from both countries.

The Stinson Parade Bridge in downtown Suva and the Vatuwaqa Bridge in the eastern part of the city are aid projects funded by China and constructed by China Railway 14th Bureau Group Co., Ltd (CRCC14).

Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who led a group of cabinet ministers, Charge d'Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Fiji Gu Yu and representatives from the CRCC14 attended on Thursday a grand ceremony to celebrate the opening of the bridges.

Bainimarama praised China for its support to Fiji, including the two new bridges that he said would ease the traffic congestion, make Fijians' life easier and better, and serve the Fijian economy.

"Today is a very special day, as we open two major bridges in the greater Suva area that have been completely re-imagined and re-engineered to serve a modern, growing, ambitious nation," he said.

"I'd like to thank the government of China for agreeing to partner with my government in funding and constructing the upgrade of both of these new bridges," he said.

The prime minister stressed that both bridges, along with the accompanying drainage, footpaths and traffic safety facilities, were built to international standards. Both the bridges meet the high standard of 50 tonnes gross weight capacity and 14 ton axle loading. The pile foundation of the bridges penetrated nearly 50 meters into the seabed rock.

For his part, Gu Yu extended his warmest congratulations to the completion of the new bridges.

He said the Chinese government and people are always standing firmly together with developing countries including Fiji, committed to offering true assistance and sincere support to them without any political conditions, and are devoted to promoting the construction of a new type of international relations of equality, mutual-respect and win-win cooperation.

Gu sees the new bridges as "bridges of brotherhood" that showcase the friendship between the Fijians and Chinese people.

He noted that during the construction, all the 600 Fijian workers and 40 Chinese workers worked together and learned from each other, saying that Fijian workers not only learned construction skills from Chinese workers, but also learned the Chinese language to communicate with their Chinese colleagues.

The new bridges are also "bridges of development" which showcase the cooperation between the two sides, he said, adding that they are also "bridges of future" which reflect the cooperation between China and Fiji in addressing climate change and in building a community of shared future for mankind.

Su Weihong, executive director of CRCC14 International Engineering company, and project director Zhang Zihui were both very happy to see the completion of the two bridges as scheduled.

"We are very happy to build the bridges for Fiji which has profound traditional friendship with our country. As developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, our two countries share similar developing tasks and extensive common interests," they said.

"As Chinese company, we are proud of doing something like building the bridges to help promote the friendship between the two peoples and make contributions to the Belt and Road initiative."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:30:51|Editor: Jiaxin

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KHARTOUM, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Sudan on Thursday officially announced that there are potential security threats from Egypt and Eritrea on eastern Sudanese borders.

"The meeting of the Leadership Office of the (ruling) National Congress Party (NCP) has directed for continuation of security arrangements on Sudan's eastern borders after receiving information on potential security threats from Egypt and Eritrea at Sawa area," Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, NCP's Deputy Chairman, said in a statement.

Sudan announced early this week the closure of its eastern border with Eritrea and deployed thousands of troops along the border area.

Earlier news reports pointed out that Egyptian military reinforcements have reportedly arrived in Eritrea's military base of Sawa.

On Jan. 4, Sudan said it decided to recall its ambassador to Egypt for consultations.

Relations between Egypt and Sudan have been tense over the past years on various issues, including their difference over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam which Ethiopia is building on the main sources of the Nile River.

The two countries also have a territorial dispute over the border region of Halayeb and Shalateen, which are currently under Egyptian control.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:35:54|Editor: Jiaxin

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DAMASCUS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- An array of rebel groups in northern Syria unleashed a major counter-offensive on Thursday to foil a Syrian military campaign in the northwestern province of Idlib, following significant advance of the government forces in that key rebel bastion.

The counter-offensive was unleashed by two rebel operation parts: the first consisted of the Turkey-backed Ahrar al-Sham, Jaish al-Ezzah, the Turkistan Party, and Nour Addien al-Zinki, while the second is formed of Jaish al-Naser, the Free Idlib Army, the Elite Forces and the Second Army rebels, opposition activists reported.

The al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (LLC) refused to join the two rebel operation parts, and decided to fight the Syrian army alone, according to the report.

The wide-scale counter-attack aims to foil the advance of the Syrian army and restore areas taken by the army in the northeastern countryside of Hama province in central Syria and the southeastern countryside of Idlib province in northwestern Syria.

Their major goal is to drive back the Syrian army from the strategic Abu al-Duhur air base in the southeastern countryside of Idlib, whose falling will deal a big blow to the rebels in Idlib as well as in the southern countryside of Aleppo province in northern Syria.

In their counter-offensive Thursday, the rebels captured the towns of Khwein, Atshan Abu Omar, and Um Khalakhel from the Syrian army.

Activists posted two videos on Thursday, the first purports to show a number of Syrian soldiers taken captives by the rebels when they stormed Khalakhel, while the second one showed a warplane crashing over Idlib countryside.

The activists said the warplane belonged to the Syrian army.

Activists said the Syrian government forces' offensive and advance in Idlib has united the rebel factions to confront it, which could undermine the armed insurgency in Syria as Idlib is the major gathering point and rebel bastion in Syria, following the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) late last year.

A day earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group said the Syrian army entered the southern part of Abu al-Duhur air base, adding that clashes were taking place inside the compound.

Now, an intense military showdown is taking place in the countryside of Idlib and Hama, a military source told Xinhua, adding that it is difficult for the rebels to capture over 120 towns taken by the army in both Hama and Idlib since the Syrian army unleashed their attack in both countrysides two weeks ago.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:35:56|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday urged Japan to stop making trouble over the Diaoyu Islands issue.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks at a daily press briefing.

Lu said that two ships of Japan's maritime self-defense force had earlier Thursday entered the Contiguous Zone of Chiwei Islet, which belongs to China's Diaoyu Islands. The ships have since left the area after tracking and surveillance by the Chinese navy.

"Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands have always been an inherent part of Chinese territory," said Lu. "Japan's relevant actions cannot change the fact that Diaoyu Islands belong to China and cannot shake China's determination to safeguard its territorial sovereignty."

China urges Japan to take concrete measures to improve bilateral ties, and meet China half-way in line with the four-point principled consensus reached in 2014, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:40:56|Editor: Jiaxin

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ISTANBUL, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish coast guard on Thursday rescued 41 illegal migrants after their inflatable boat sank off Turkey's Aegean coast.

The accident happened near Foca district in the western province of Izmir. All the migrants aboard were rescued, according to the coast guard.

The migrants include 13 Afghans, eight Syrians, six Angolans, six Sierra Leoneans, three Eritreans, two Malians, one Iraqi, one Somali and one Comoran, the statement said, adding they are believed to have tried to sneak into a Greek island.

The Aegean Sea was a favored route for illegal migrants seeking to reach European countries via Turkey, but a deal signed between Turkey and the European Union in March 2016 has reduced the flow of illegal migration through this route.

The Turkish coast guard data suggested that the number of illegal migrants via Turkey was 21,937 in 2017, down from over 37,000 in 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:45:57|Editor: Jiaxin

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- India on Thursday welcomed the recent talks between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), saying it believed in reunification and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.

"India supports efforts to establish peace, stability, reconciliation, de-nuclearization, and reunification of Korean peninsula through dialogue and diplomacy," said India's ministry of external affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar.

"We hope that the engagement between the two countries will help in reducing tensions, and take the way for lasting peace and reconciliation in Korean peninsula," he said while addressing the press in New Delhi.

The DPRK and South Korea started high-level talks on Tuesday at the truce village of Panmunjom that straddles the heavily guarded border between the two neighbors.

A joint press release issued after the dialogue said the DPRK had agreed to send a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics to kick off in February in South Korea's eastern county of Pyeongchang, and the 2018 Paralympics in March.

Seoul and Pyongyang also agreed to hold a separate dialogue between their military authorities after agreeing that they should make joint efforts to ease military tensions and create a peaceful environment on the Korean Peninsula, among others.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:45:57|Editor: Jiaxin

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NAIROBI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday travelled to South Africa on a three-day official visit aimed at boosting bilateral ties between the two countries.

The State House in a statement issued before Kenyatta's departure said the Kenyan leader will hold talks with his host, South African President Jacob Zuma on a wide range of areas including trade, security and infrastructure development.

"During the talks this afternoon, President Kenyatta and President Zuma will seek to review the progress in the implementation of earlier signed agreements and explore new areas to deepen the fraternal ties between Kenya and South Africa," State House said.

Kenyatta's discussion with Zuma will focus on bridging the balance of trade which is currently highly in favor of South Africa.

The presidency said the two leaders will also explore areas geared towards increasing consultations on global issues that would be enhanced by increased contacts at the highest bilateral level.

Kenyatta is also expected to meet Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who succeeded Zuma last month as party leader of the ruling African National Congress.

"He will also meet Johannesburg business community; and the Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen South Africa, Thomas Schaefer, who set up an assembling plant in Kenya in December 2016," it said.

In October 2016, President Zuma made a historic State visit to Kenya which witnessed the signing of multiple agreements and Memoranda of Understanding in various sectors concerning cooperation in defense, investment, biodiversity and travel.
Keynote speaker Mike Gallagher energized Ives' supporters, saying, "It's time. It's time for the Illinois GOP to do what we've done nationally. I'm ecstatic [about Jeanne Ives]."

The GOP primary race for governor is heating up in Illinois. Wednesday, over 250 supporters gathered in support of State Rep. Jeanne Ives, who is challenging incumbent governor Bruce Rauner. If Wednesday's event was any indication of Ives' growing support, the governor could have a race on his hands leading up to March 20th.

Governor Rauner upset much of the Republican base signing into law legislation that conflicted with the GOP platform.

Ives' fundraiser was a luncheon at the Westin Hotel in Lombard, Illinois. The featured speaker was radio talk show host Mike Gallagher, heard locally on WIND 560-AM. Gallagher spoke highly of Ives and President Donald Trump during his remarks.

The lunch was co-hosted by major donors Vince Kolber, Barb and Bill Dixon, and Tom Sodeika from Precision Payroll of America. Checks five digit checks to the Ives campaign has also been written by Otto Engineering Tom Roeser, Chicago Bears' owner Virginia McCaskey, and Digitech Principal Brian Timpone, among others.

Supporters also met Ives' running mate former State Rep. Rich Morthland.

The state party primary election will be Tuesday, March 20, 2018.

Illinois Democrats will have a contested and crowded primary the same day between J.B. Pritzker, Chris Kennedy, Dan Biss, Bob Daiber, Terry Getz, Robert Marshall, and Tio Hardiman.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:50:59|Editor: Jiaxin

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DUBAI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Gulf state United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the western military coalition North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) discussed options to improve their existing cooperation, UAE state news agency WAM reported on Thursday.

The discussion was between Major General Falah Al-Qahtani, assistant under-secretary for Policy and Strategic Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Defense, and a visiting delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on Wednesday, the report said.

The meeting in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi tackled ways to improve bilateral military cooperation "in various fields in terms of enhancing regional security and stability," the Emirati news agency said.

The two parties also discussed coordination and strategic cooperation with regard to a number of "regional and international issues of common concern."

In 2011, the UAE Air Force participated for the first time in the seven-month lasting NATO campaign against the Libyan government force under then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The UAE Armed Forces source for most of their military hardware from NATO member states such as the United States, Britain, Germany and France.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 21:56:00|Editor: Jiaxin

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TEHRAN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were injured in several strong earthquakes in the western Iranian provinces of Kermanshah and Ilam on Thursday, state IRIB TV reported.

In the successive quakes, a number of old houses were also destroyed, the report said.

The strong quakes, ranging between 5.0-5.6 magnitude, shook western Iran on Thursday.

The first tremor jolted Soomar city in Kermanshah province, followed by two aftershocks of 5.4-magnitude and 5-magnitude.

Besides, a 5.4-magnitude quake jolted Zarneh region in Iran's Ilam province.

People in Kermanshah and Soomar cities rushed to the streets in panic as the temblors hit, local media reported.

Schools were closed in Ilam province and the exam programs of the universities were also cancelled in the province.

At least 600 Iranians died in a 7.3-magnitude earthquake that hit the Kermanshah province on Nov. 12 last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:01:01|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China welcomes all efforts to ease the situation on the Korean Peninsular and bring the issue back on the right track of dialogue, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The remarks came after a telephone conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and President of Republic of Korea (ROK) Moon Jae-in on Wednesday, in which Trump said he would be open to talks at an appropriate time and under the right situation if the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) wanted them.

"We have noticed relevant reports," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a routine press briefing, saying recent moves between the DPRK and the ROK had drawn close attention from the international community.

Noting the United States and the DPRK were directly concerned parties on the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue, Lu stressed that China hoped the two countries would move in same direction and "take a meaningful step" on dialogue and contact.

"The Chinese side is willing to continue its efforts in pushing the issue back to the right track of settlement through dialogue and consultation," Lu added.

The DPRK and the ROK on Tuesday held an inter-governmental dialogue at the truce village of Panmunjom in the highly militarized zone dividing the peninsula, the first of its kind in two years.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:06:03|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's defense ministry has expressed strong discontent with Japanese efforts to sensationalize a legitimate action by the Chinese navy, according to the information office of the ministry Thursday.

The remarks were in response to a claim from Japan that a Chinese vessel had entered the waters of the contiguous zone outside the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands.

According to the office, on Thursday morning two vessels of the Japanese maritime self-defense force entered the contiguous zone on the northeast of the Chiwei Islet of China's Diaoyu Islands, to which China's missile frigate Yiyang immediately reacted by tracking and monitoring vessels in the area.

The Japanese vessels have now left the aforementioned contiguous zone, the office said.

"The Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets have always been an inherent part of Chinese territory, thus the activities of Chinese vessel in the waters are totally legitimate," the office noted. "The Chinese military will continue to firmly defend China's territorial sovereignty and security interests by all means necessary."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:11:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen (L) holds a welcoming ceremony for Chinese Premier Li Keqiang prior to their talks in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 11, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged here Thursday to build a community of shared future with Cambodia that is of strategic significance.

Li made the pledge in his talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

Li attended the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh and paid an official visit to Cambodia from Jan. 10-11.

Calling the two countries close neighbors with profound friendship, Li said China always respects Cambodia's sovereignty and independence, and supports the country to stick to a development path with Cambodian characteristics.

China hopes to take the opportunity of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the bilateral diplomatic ties this year to cement high-level contacts, substantial cooperation in various areas and cultural exchanges, he said.

The Chinese premier vowed to offer assistance for Cambodia's economic development as well as improvement of people's livelihood and to jointly build a community of shared future that is of strategic significance.

China expects to align its development strategy with Cambodia, and take the opportunity of the Belt and Road Initiative to facilitate bilateral capacity and investment cooperation, he said.

Li said China is willing to work with Cambodia to make good arrangement for celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the bilateral diplomatic ties and strengthen the bilateral cooperation in the areas of economic zones, infrastructure building, tourism, agriculture and deep processing of agricultural products.

Hailing the second LMC leaders' meeting as fruitful, Li said China expects to maintain close coordination with Cambodia within the frameworks of LMC as well as China-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) cooperation and to contribute to regional development and prosperity.

For his part, Hun Sen said Premier Li's visit would consolidate the bilateral friendship and boost the two countries' comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership to a new stage.

Calling China a friendly cooperation partner of Cambodia, Hun Sen hailed the high-level political trust, vigorous cooperation and people's friendship between the two countries.

Cambodia appreciates China's firm support and help over the years, and wishes Chinese people to realize their Two Centenary Goals at an early date, he said.

Hun Sen expressed satisfaction over the progress in major bilateral projects in such areas as highway, port and economic zones, vowing to boost stronger cooperation in infrastructure, agriculture, tourism and people's livelihood.

It is a consensus of the Cambodian government and people to consolidate and develop friendship with China, he said, vowing firm support for China on issues regarding its core interest.

After their talks, Li and Hun Sen witnessed the signing of 19 bilateral cooperative documents regarding the areas of politics, economy, trade, public health, forestry, agriculture and culture.

During his stay in Phnom Penh, Li also met with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. The two countries issued a joint communique on deepening bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in a new era.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:16:05|Editor: Jiaxin

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ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- As the Pan-African bloc dedicates the year 2018 as an Anti-Corruption Year, the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has reiterated the call for collaborated efforts to address the scourge of corruption on the African continent.

In a statement on Thursday, Mahamat called on AU member states, regional economic communities (RECs), AU organs, as well as civil society organizations, citizens, and all other stakeholders to work together, in 2018 and beyond, towards lifting the burden of corruption out of the lives of Africans affected, particularly the poor and marginalized groups in the society.

Mahamat underlined the need to exert more efforts despite ongoing activities to address the problem.

By declaring 2018 the African Anti-Corruption Year, the AU policy making organs have given a strong push forward in the collective efforts by the pan-African bloc towards a peaceful and secure Africa.

"Corruption kills," said the Chairperson of the AU Commission. "Corruption is an endemic that affects people's daily lives, from poorly built roads, to unequal access to healthcare and medicine, to crime and violence in our communities and across borders, to political choices distorted by money and greed among other societal ills." he said.

A lot has been done over the last 15 years since the adoption of the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, and governments and non-state actors have raised awareness of the devastating effects of corruption on human rights, civil and political rights, social and economic rights alike, according to the Chairperson.

They have mounted advocacy campaigns to influence national, regional, continental and global agendas demanding for systemic change, he noted in the statement.

Working with a wide range of partners, they have adhered to globally accepted anti-corruption standards, developed innovative tools / approaches and carried out research to deepen the collective understanding of corruption and its many ugly facets, said the Chairperson, emphasizing that a lot more still remains to be done.

The 3oth AU summit will be held from 22 to 29 January in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa under the theme "Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa's Transformation."
The picture shows the flags of Turkey, France and the European Union during a joint press conference of the French and Turkish presidents on Jan. 5, 2018 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AFP photo)

ISTANBUL, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- As the European Union makes it increasingly clear that it does not want Turkey to join the 28-nation bloc, analysts feel Ankara will have to settle for a looser partnership with the union rather than a full membership.

"It is highly likely that Turkey will say yes to a privileged partnership," said Faruk Sen, president of the Istanbul-based Turkish European Foundation for Education and Scientific Studies.

"I don't think Turkey has any other options," he added.

Ankara's membership negotiations with the EU have been de facto suspended for the past couple of years as bilateral ties remain strained.

The so-called privileged partnership model denies Ankara full membership while offering it, as many expect, privileged ties with the EU, roughly as Britain would have following its exit from the bloc.

Most recently, some EU leaders said the union should end hypocrisy toward Turkey by making clear that it would not be admitted as a full member.

"Given the current picture, Turkey hardly has any chance of becoming a full EU member," said Sen.

Noting EU countries have been calling for transforming ties with Ankara into a model of privileged partnership, Sen anticipated that the EU would propose to Turkey a privileged partnership in its upcoming meetings.

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited France, a EU heavyweight, in a bid to warm up frosty relations with Europe.

His French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, suggested at a joint press conference that Ankara should give up its ambition of joining the EU and agree instead to a lesser model of partnership.

In addition, the French president said Turkey should not expect any new chapters to be opened in its accession talks with the EU, arguing that Ankara's violations of the rule of law is a major roadblock.

Erdogan said in response that Ankara would not "beg" to be admitted into the EU, complaining about the bloc's discrimination against Turkey as a candidate country.

Last October, the Turkish leader said Turkey did not need the EU but it would not be the one to break off ties with the union.

"As things stand, Turkey does not stand any chance of joining the EU," Can Baydarol, deputy chairman of the Ankara-based European Union and Global Research Association, told Xinhua.

Noting there are indications that the EU will propose a model of partnership with Turkey similar to that with Britain, Baydarol said Ankara would accept it on condition that Turkey keep the rights bestowed by the original agreement signed in 1963.

Turkey inked its first deal with the European Economic Community, the EU's predecessor, in 1963, under which Turkey was offered the prospect of becoming a full member of the community.

Europe wants, as Macron revealed at his joint press conference with Erdogan, to keep Turkey anchored in Europe without granting it a full-member status.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said last month that the EU should make a special deal with Turkey, suggesting the so-called privileged partnership model, as his country took over the union's rotating presidency on Jan. 1 for a six-month period.

Germany, a leading EU country, has long promoted the idea of a privileged partnership with Turkey, a proposal rejected insistently by Ankara so far.

Both Sen and Baydarol expected Germany to lift its veto on updating the Customs Union deal between Turkey and the EU, for which Ankara has long been pushing.

The EU budget for the years from 2021 to 2027 also reveals that the bloc does not have the intention of granting Turkey a full-member status at least until 2027. In the budget accepted last month, the union allocates some 42 billion euros for Ukraine but no more than 23 billion euros for Turkey.

The figures reveal EU's intention to put pro-Western Ukraine on the path of full membership while it is not the case for Turkey, said Sen.

The bloc has long sharply criticized Ankara for its crackdown on dissidents, growing authoritarianism and violations of the rule of law. Bilateral ties have soured in particular after Turkey survived a coup bid in July 2016, as a state of emergency has been imposed in the country ever since.

Neither Turkey's democracy nor the economic and political situation in the EU promises Ankara's integration into the bloc in the short run, said Baydarol.

Ankara applied to join the EU in 1987 and started in 2005 the accession negotiations for full membership.

As a Muslim country, Turkey feels it has been kept in the EU's waiting room for too long, since those former Soviet-bloc countries applied for EU membership only in the 1990s but were admitted years ago.

In a model of privileged partnership, Turkey should demand bigger funds from the EU and the right for its citizens who find jobs in a EU country to settle there, Sen said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:31:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MOSCOW, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Russia reserves the right to retaliate against Moldova's new law on restricting TV and radio programs by Russian media, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

"We note with regret that this act of outright discrimination against Russian media is yet another anti-Russia move by the ruling parliamentary majority in Chisinau," the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to a transcript published by the ministry.

On Wednesday, the Moldovan parliament approved a law on amendments to the code on television and radio broadcasting, introducing bans in Moldovan news, information-analytical, political and military TV and radio programs made by media outlets from foreign countries that have not ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, including Russia.

The enactment of the law shows that Moldova "is moving further away from democratic norms and towards totalitarian methods of dealing with alternative views," Zakharova said.

"We confirm our commitment to the generally recognized principle of reciprocity in international relations and retain the right to take retaliatory measures," she said.

Moldova is a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:36:12|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday expressed opposition and concerns over rising protectionism in the Untied States after two high-profile planned deals were blocked citing security concerns.

"We've noticed recently that protectionist voices have been on the rise in the United States, and sometimes these voices have even prevailed," Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng said.

Gao made the statement in response to a reported failed deal by Chinese tech company Huawei in the United States

China is against trade protectionism in any form, and hopes the United States will meet China halfway to promote healthy and stable Sino-U.S. economic ties, he added.

News reports said earlier this week that Huawei's planned deal with U.S. telecom carrier AT&T to sell its smartphones in the United States had suffered a setback.

Last week, U.S. authorities rejected a merger by China's Ant Financial and U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc. over national security concerns.

"As far as the Ant Financial case is concerned, we are sorry to see that normal business investment and mergers made by a Chinese enterprise in the U.S. were once again blocked due to so-called national security reasons," said Gao.

"We do not oppose normal security review by relevant countries over foreign investment, but we are concerned about acts that set up a glass door and swing door to restrict foreign investment citing national security," Gao said.

"It is our hope that relevant countries take concrete measures to create a just, fair, open and predictable investment environment for enterprises, including Chinese companies," Gao added.

China encourages its firms to "go global," as long as it is reasonable and legal, and to conduct investment and merger businesses, Gao said.

"This is derived from both the needs of enterprises themselves and the needs of China's development, and it is also in line with the law of the market economy," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:36:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KIEV, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed and seven others injured in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, which marked the highest daily casualty toll in the conflict since the fresh ceasefire, reports from the conflicting parties showed Thursday.

The press service of the government military operation in eastern regions said on Facebook that three soldiers of the Ukrainian army were killed and four others wounded while performing combat tasks in the conflict area.

The Ukrainian army has accused pro-independence rebels of using banned weapons, including mortars and heavy machine guns, during their attacks on the government positions.

Meanwhile, the rebel-run DAN news agency, citing the insurgent operation command, accused the government of using artillery for the first time since the ceasefire came into force.

Three civilians -- two young men and an elderly woman -- were wounded in the attacks on the non-government controlled areas in the past day, the news agency said.

There were no reports of casualties among the representatives of the anti-government armed groups.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine started in April 2014 and has killed more than 10,000 people so far.

On Dec. 20, 2017, the Trilateral Contact Group for settling the Ukraine crisis reached an agreement for a ceasefire starting from Dec. 23 for civilians to be able to celebrate the winter holidays.

More than 30 previous rounds of truce attempts have failed, with the two sides accusing each other of ceasefire violations.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:41:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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by Xinhua writers Jin Jing, Zhang Jiawei

LONDON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Internet "cannot be a values-free area" and the government needs to closely collaborate with tech companies to counter online illegality and ensure cyber security, said Robert Hannigan, former director of Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

The Internet was a brilliant invention, but it "cannot be an area where illegality is allowed to simply exist in a way that it wouldn't be in the real world," said Hannigan, also a columnist for the Financial Times, who stepped down from Britain's intelligence agency GCHQ last January.

According to a survey of more than 3,000 professionals in Britain, Germany and the United States, 57 percent of firms in these countries have experienced at least one cyber attack in 2016 with an average cost of 102,000 U.S. dollars for large companies and 22,000 dollars for small ones.

The costs of cyber attacks are rising, and public awareness -- especially among small businesses -- is still falling short in this regard, said Hannigan, special advisor on cyber security for Hiscox, an underwriter at the Lloyd's of London insurance market.

Meanwhile, online illegal activities cost way beyond just money. Last year, Britain suffered five terrorist attacks which killed more than 30 people, with nine other attacks having been prevented, according to British domestic intelligence service MI5.

In a recent interview, British Security Minister Ben Wallace accused such tech firms as Facebook and Google of being "ruthless profiteers," blasting their inaction on combating online extremism with radicalized messages widely spread via their platforms.

"We know what radicalizes them and we know that a lot of material on the Internet is doing that job. So we have to act quickly" before it's impossible to get everything back, said Hannigan.

The former intelligence director called for the immediate removal of extreme materials and isolation of offending sites without waiting for legislation, courts or proposed fines, which will inevitably be protracted and ineffective.

Although it is impossible to completely wipe out such content, but if it is more difficult for people to access such content, particularly young men who are especially vulnerable to being radicalized, this would help prevent terrorism, said Hannigan.

Meanwhile, the former intelligence director warned against fake news and irresponsible use of social media, which are distorting the public understanding of complex issues.

"On the one hand we want free discussion and availability of material and freedom of expression, but at the same time there has to be some limits," he said, noting that rules for social media and cyberspace are still to be established and enforced.

A stake-holder coalition of multiple parties such as the government, tech companies and civil society should work together to agree on what is acceptable in cyberspace and impose limits of online material, he added.

The British government is considering an "extremist" tax on social media and tech giants to cover the rising cost for law enforcement agencies to police radicalized material in cyberspace, Wallace suggested.

Hannigan said he would prefer the tech companies act themselves as they are better at it and quicker with their technology. If they can't or won't, however, governments will have to act through fines, legislation, or taxation, he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:46:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAPE TOWN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Amid growing uncertainty over free higher education, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) pledged on Thursday to ensure an integrated approach to managing financial aid for students qualified for free tuition.

"This will be our most crucial time of the year as we define the new ways of work and ensure an integrated approach to managing financial aid for our current beneficiaries and FTEN (first time entry) students," the NSFAS said.

The agency issued the statement as chaos was unfolding at a number of universities where students from poor and working-class families were scrambling to get access to free education. At a college in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, six people were injured, one of them seriously, following a stampede ahead of registration on Thursday morning.

In a bid to alleviate concerns, NSFAS spokesperson Kagisho Mamabolo said FTEN students who have been allocated space but haven't applied directly to the NSFAS will be assisted.

However, applicants have to supply the institution with mandatory documentation such as identity documentation of parent, legal guardian or spouse and proof of income, said Mamabolo.

Those students who haven't applied to the institution of higher learning and have also not applied to the NSFAS during the registration period will be assisted through the Department of Higher Education and Training's Central Applications Clearing House and are advised to register on this platform, Mamabolo said.

In December, President Jacob Zuma announced that the government would introduce free higher education and training for poor and working-class undergraduate students at public universities, starting in 2018.

Zuma has been criticized for making the "reckless" announcement without an accompanying implementation strategy and roll-out timeline.

The Finance Ministry said last week that it did not have the money to pay the billions of rand needed to fund free higher education

The NSFAS did not say whether it has enough money to make up for the shortfall but pledged that it will work on reviewing its business model to implement the changes for the 2018 academic year and beyond.

"We have worked tirelessly to improve our systems, working closely with universities, TVET (technical vocational education and training) colleges and Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) for 2018 and will adjust our systems to deal with the extended financial aid and the expected increase in the number of students who now qualify for financial assistance," Mamabolo.

The NSFAS, funded by the government, has provided financial assistance to more than three million beneficiaries since its establishment in 1991.

The agency was retained as the administrator of financial aid for poor and working-class South African students after Zuma made the announcement on free higher education.

The agency has already assessed 80 percent of the applications using the new criteria and will be communicating outcomes to all applicants from January 12, 2018, according to Mamabolo.

These outcomes will be made upon confirmation of institutional admission offers, he said.

"We are liaising and exchanging information with DHET in order to assist prospective students who have been offered a place at the university or TVET College in order to provide financial assistance," Mamabolo said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 22:51:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIYADH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia plans to summon nationals living abroad involved in corruption cases in cooperation with states they are living in, the Sabq local online news reported on Thursday.

The Attorney General Shaikh Saud Al Mujab asserted that anti-corruption efforts would continue and suspects in corruption cases who fled the country would be brought back through international arrest warrants after enough evidence are collected against them.

The suspects are part of the biggest corruption case in Saudi Arabia that caused the arrest of 159 individuals including princes and sitting and former ministers in November 2017.

And some 376 bank accounts of the detainees or related persons were frozen. Majority of those arrestees were released after accepting the settlement.

Mujab said that the cases against the suspects weren't only related to money but also to exploitation of power.

Tough measures against high profile individuals are one of many steps Saudi Arabia has been taken to initiative solid economic and social reforms, such as allowing women to drive.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:06:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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PYONGYANG, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Thursday called on South Korea to work with it to defuse military tension and remove the danger of war from the Korean Peninsula to achieve national unity and reunification.

The official daily Rodong Sinmun said in an article that it would not be possible to remove the distrust and conflict between the north and south, nor would it be possible to embark on the path to reunification as long as the military tension mounts.

"It is the consistent stand and will of the DPRK to fail the outsiders' aggression moves and safeguard the well-being of the fellow countrymen and defend the peace of the country," said the daily.

The DPRK and South Korea on Tuesday held the first high-level talks in around two years in the truce village of Panmunjom, achieving a number of agreements ranging from cooperation in the PyeongChang Olympics to taking measures to ease tensions on the peninsula.

The inter-Korean peace efforts have won support from the majority of the international community members, and the United Nations Security Council also expressed pleasure over a possible detente on the Korean Peninsula.

The daily said Pyongyang will "strive hard to defend the peace on the Korean Peninsula and security of the nation," while accusing the United States of "not hoping for the Korean nation getting reconciled and reunified."

"The arms buildup and the large-scale joint military exercises with foreign forces aimed at threatening and invading the other partners are key factors straining the military tension between the north and the south, and driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to unpredictable phase of danger," said the official daily Workers' Party of Korea.

It expressed confidence that the north and south can "certainly avert a war and defuse the tension on the Korean Peninsula if they make up their mind to."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:11:29|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), addresses the second plenary session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 11, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Thursday called for more anti-corruption efforts to "fundamentally improve the political ecosystem of the Party."

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the second plenary session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC.

"All-round efforts should see the Party's political building enhanced, its theory strengthened, its organizations consolidated, its conduct improved, and its discipline enforced, with institution building incorporated into every aspect of Party building," Xi said. "Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the CPC's leadership is a must for the country to advance its great cause."

"FIGHTING SPIRIT"

Xi said that "the Party itself and its members have gone through essential and profound changes," which required higher quality of Party management and enhanced political and organizational functions of Party organs.

"We should push forward the campaign with heroism, and takes the bull by the horns with a fighting spirit that never steps aside in face of an enemy," he said.

"Senior Party members should be subject to higher and more rigorous standards and placed under tighter scrutiny, though all Party members should follow the rules," he said.

Noting that senior officials should fulfill their duties fully and responsibly, Xi stressed that they should show strong commitment in bearing their political responsibilities and will be held accountable if failing them.

LOYALTY

Xi asked CPC officials to remain loyal to the Party "at any time, and under any circumstance."

Xi said Party officials should "always be reliable, align themselves to the Party's central leadership in thinking and deeds, follow the Party's instructions and fulfil their responsibilities."

"Decisions and plans made by the CPC Central Committee should be implemented in full, by each and every Party organization," Xi said.

VIGILANCE ON HEDONISM, EXTRAVAGANCE

Xi warned against the resurfacing of undesirable work styles -- formalities for formalities' sake, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance.

He demanded close monitoring to spot hedonism and extravagance in new forms and asked heads of Party committees and governments at each level to assume overall responsibility for correcting the behaviors of formalities for formalities' sake and bureaucratism.

To maintain close ties with the people, Xi said Party officials should "resolutely oppose privilege-seeking and work with and among the people to resolve their pressing concerns."

SWEEPING VICTORY AGAINST GRAFT

Xi required measures to address both the symptoms and root causes of corruption to secure a "sweeping victory in the fight against corruption."

"Measures targeting the root causes must be consolidated while those to cure the symptoms must be vigorously wielded," Xi said.

He said strict Party governance should be expanded to the grassroots level and work should be done together with the crackdown on gang crime to uproot both the gangs and the "protective umbrellas" above them.

He also called for more international cooperation in the anti-corruption field.

"Those who work in disciplinary agencies must discipline themselves first," Xi stressed.

He urged all discipline inspection and supervision organs to follow higher standards and stricter discipline, and called on their staff to be loyal, resolute, responsible and maintain discipline and law, ensuring that the power bestowed by the Party and the people would not be abused.

Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng also attended the plenary session.

Zhao Leji, head of the CCDI and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the conference and delivered a work report on behalf of the CCDI standing committee.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:11:30|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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KATHMANDU, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- More than 31,800 households in southern Nepal's Terai region, which was affected by severe floods in August last year, will receive humanitarian aid from China, according to an agreement signed here Thursday.

The agreement was signed by Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Nepal Country Director Renaud Meyer.

"We hope that we could help the flood affected people to get back to their normal lives," Yu said.

She noted that the Chinese government has already provided assistance to Nepal for disaster relief right after the massive floods last year.

The Chinese aid comes in response to the extensive damage and displacement caused by the floods in the country's southern part. A post-flood assessment conducted by the government of Nepal found that 1.7 million people were affected by the disaster.

The China funded project will be implemented by the UNDP and is expected to complete within three months. The project will be effective from early next week.

Meyer told Xinhua that "We are very happy to partner with China and receive the generous contribution for the recovery of people after the floods. We are very grateful for their willingness to provide additional funding to the work that UNDP has been doing."

Meyer said since the people in Terai region are severely affected by poverty, the project will enable them to resume their work while the children will be able to get back to schools.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:16:33|Editor: Mengjie

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and five Mekong River countries have huge potential for economic and trade cooperation, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

Trade between China and the five Mekong countries, which include Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, has seen rapid growth, MOC spokesperson Gao Feng said at a press conference.

"In the first 11 months of 2017, the trade volume between China and the Mekong countries reached 200.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 16 percent year on year, higher than the overall growth rate of China's foreign trade, indicating huge potential," Gao said.

China is increasing investment in Mekong countries, with direct investment in the non-financial sector up 25 percent year on year to reach 3.2 billion U.S. dollars, according to Gao.

China is the largest source of foreign investment for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and the third and fourth-biggest source for Thailand and Vietnam in 2017, respectively, said Gao.

Chinese enterprises have also made progress in constructing economic and trade cooperation zones in as well as infrastructure cooperation with the Mekong countries, according to Gao.

"China is Cambodia's biggest trading partner and largest source of imports, and the value of bilateral trade reached 5.27 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of 2017, achieving the annual goal of 5 billion U.S. dollars set by leaders of the two countries in advance," Gao said.

As the largest source of foreign investment for Cambodia, China's investment reached 12.57 billion U.S. dollars by the end of October last year, accounting for more than one-third of the country's total, data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia showed.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended Wednesday the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Cambodia, which approved a five-year action plan (2018-2022), charting the course for the LMC's development into the next decade.

Initiated by China in 2014, the LMC framework spans connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, and agriculture and poverty reduction.

The first LMC leaders' meeting was held in Sanya of China's Hainan Province in March 2016. The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwestern China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.
Photo taken on Dec. 22, 2017 shows the United Nations Security Council voting on a resolution on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at the UN headquarters in New York. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Wednesday welcomed the latest interactions on the Korean Peninsula, but remained adamant in upholding sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"Members of the (Security) Council welcomed the latest steps and communications that have occurred between the DPRK and the Republic of Korea," Kazakh ambassador to the United Nations Kairat Umarov, who serves as the rotating president of the Security Council for this month, told reporters after closed-door consultations of the council.

"Members of the council noted that such initial dialogue between the two Korean states can open possibilities for confidence and trust building on the Korean Peninsula, to reduce tensions and drive toward de-nuclearization," he said.

They expressed the hope that such interactions will indeed lead to the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, he said.

Despite the positive development, the Security Council would not budge on sanctions against the DPRK for its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated that the DPRK and all other member states should comprehensively and strictly implement all relevant resolutions of the Security Council," said Umarov.

The DPRK and South Korea on Tuesday started high-level talks, the first in about two years, at the truce village of Panmunjom that straddles the heavily guarded border between the two neighbors.

A joint press release issued after the dialogue said the DPRK had agreed to send a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics to kick off in February in South Korea's eastern county of Pyeongchang, and the 2018 Paralympics in March.

Seoul and Pyongyang also agreed to hold a separate dialogue between their military authorities after agreeing that they should make joint efforts to ease military tensions and create a peaceful environment on the Korean Peninsula, among others.

The DPRK also reopened a military hotline with South Korea across the western border Tuesday during the inter-Korean high-level talks.

The Security Council has adopted 10 resolutions containing sanctions against the DPRK since 2006.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:21:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SKOPJE, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- After several months of discussions and debates, Macedonia's parliament Thursday adopted with votes of 69 MPs the law on use of languages.

The debate on the law on languages started on Sept. 5, 2017 at the parliamentary committee on European affairs.Two months later, the parliamentary majority endorsed the need to pass the law.

It is aimed at extending the official use of the Albanian language across the country.

The law was the key condition set by the ethnic Albanian parties here to enter a coalition with the ruling Social Democratic Union (SDSM) of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

However, the law sparked much criticism from the former ruling VMRO-DPMNE party, which has accused Zaev of making too many concessions to his Albanian partners and threatening Macedonia's national interests.

The opposition party VMRO-DPMNE was against the law, describing it as unconstitutional and discriminatory against the Macedonian languages and the remaining languages spoken by the citizens in Macedonia.

For this reason, it didn't attend the voting and made clear its stance against it.

But, ruling SDSM and ethnic Albanian parties, part of the coalition, have told the press here that the law would mainly ease communication.

Zaev said in Parliament that the law on languages was in compliance with the Constitution and was designed to advance some practical needs of the citizens.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:26:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (3rd L) attends the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 10, 2018. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Li Keqiang co-chaired the meeting, which also brought together Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Myanmar Vice President U Myint Swe. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Promoting fair and equal cooperation and sustainable development, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) is expected to offer a new path in sub-regional development.

Echoing the concept of "building a community with a shared future for mankind," the LMC is a sub-regional cooperation mechanism connecting six countries along the river, Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Originating from the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in southwest China, the river is called the Lancang River in China, and the Mekong River when it flows through the other five countries before emptying into the sea.

In the second LMC Leaders' Meeting Wednesday in Phnom Penh, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang applauded the LMC progress and said a defining LMC culture featuring equality, sincerity, mutual assistance and kinship had been established.

WIN-WIN COOPERATION

Li said that with progress and results delivered daily, monthly and annually, a truly remarkable LMC speed had been created.

Proposed by China in 2014, most of the LMC's 45 Early Harvest Projects and 13 Initiatives have already been completed or recorded substantive progress.

The first batch of projects of the LMC Special Fund have also been completed, and other funding pledges that China has made are being steadily honored.

The construction of the Kunming-Bangkok Road, China-Laos Railway, China-Thailand Railway, Long Jiang Industrial Park in Vietnam, Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone of Laos, Sihanoukville Special Economy Zone in Cambodia are underway, as are several other projects

"China is willing to work with others to strengthen the LMC as China benefits from regional stability and its neighbors are beneficiaries of China's economic vitality," the premier said.

INNOVATIVE MECHANISM

With six developing countries involved, the LMC put its focus on their common interest in development and people's livelihood.

The LMC highlights areas in connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, agriculture and poverty reduction.

"These key areas that the LMC work on are in line with the current development needs of the region, which are more feasible than simply adopting existing practice from other cooperation mechanisms," said Zhong Feiteng, an international relations expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Drinking from the same Lancang-Mekong river, the six riparian countries share a love of nature.

The LMC mechanism has so far set up the Water Resources Cooperation Center, Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Center and the Global Mekong River Studies Center to protect water resources and the regional environment.

From March to May 2016, China also helped with relieving drought in downriver countries by releasing water from a dam in China.

Lu Guangsheng with Yunnan University said China's emphasis on the balance between development and environmental protection would help transfer the economies of other countries in a greener and low-carbon direction.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:41:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KHARTOUM, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) on Thursday urged the Sudanese government to allow freedom of expression for citizens protesting against price rises.

"The ambassadors of the resident EU embassies in Sudan are following closely the protests across the country and the detention of a number of political leaders," said the EU Delegation to Sudan in a statement.

"We consider it crucial that people are permitted to exercise their right to freedom of expression, including freedom of the media and of political participation," it added.

The EU also urged the protesters to express their opinions peacefully.

The bloc further voiced commitment to a stable, democratic and prosperous future for Sudan, noting that it would continue its work with all the stakeholders with this objective firmly in mind.

A number of Sudanese cities have been witnessing protests against the rise in prices of necessary commodities, particularly bread.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:41:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LISBON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- In 2017, 25 percent of all houses sold in Portugal were bought by foreigners, the Association of Portuguese Real Estate Promoters and Agents (APEMIP) revealed on Thursday.

The biggest buyers were the French, president of APEMIP Luis Lima, told the Diario de Noticias newspaper.

House prices shot up by as much as 35 percent in Lisbon and 29 percent in Porto in 2017. But they are still cheap compared to other European cities, hence their attraction to foreign buyers.

Despite the price hikes, the number of house sales climbed by between 25 and 30 percent in 2017. By APEMIP's calculations, 152,000 houses were sold over the course of the year, some 23,500 more than in 2016.

The APEMIP expects these trends to continue in 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:41:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- BAIC BJEV, the new energy vehicle arm of the Beijing-based automaker BAIC Motor, will introduce self-driving vehicles in 2019.

Zheng Gang, general manager of BAIC BJEV told Xinhua that the prototype would be tested in Beijing soon and be on the market by the end of this year.

BAIC BJEV has a cooperation agreement with Baidu to develop autopilot technology.

Sales of new energy vehicles in China in 2013 stood at 17,600 units. The figure soared to 609,000 units in the first 11 months of 2017.

China is the world's largest auto market and also the fastest-growing market for new energy vehicles.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 23:51:45|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- India Thursday said that it held national security advisor-level talks with Pakistan in Thailand last month.

The Indian External Affairs Ministry said that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart Nasir Khan Janjua in Bangkok in December last year, confirming to media reports about such talks.

"Talks were held on how to rid this region of the scourge of terrorism, how to ensure that terrorism doesn't affect this region. I think we raised the issue of cross-border terrorism (with Pakistan) in those talks," Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told the media in Delhi.

India and Pakistan have fought at least three major wars over the disputed territory of Kashmir, which both countries claim in full.

Talks between the two countries have been stalled on a number of occasions, one being after an attack on an Indian Air Force base in 2016. India blamed Pakistani militants for the attack, but Islamabad denied the claim.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:01:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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URUMQI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The 19 airports in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region welcomed more than 30 million passengers in 2017, a record high.

The figure indicated annual growth of more than 14 percent compared with 2016, according to the region's civil aviation administration.

The airports also handled about 188,000 tonnes of cargo and mail and 359,000 flights last year.

The opening of more flight routes contributed to passenger growth at the region's airports.

Xinjiang's civil aviation market is burgeoning. The number of passengers using Xinjiang airports exceeded 10 million in 2010 and 20 million in 2014.

Xinjiang invested about 3.15 billion yuan (480 million U.S. dollars) to build and expand airports last year, up 230 percent year on year.

Currently, 49 airlines in Xinjiang operate 257 air routes connecting the regional capital Urumqi with 73 domestic cities and 24 overseas cities.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:01:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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VILNIUS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's population decreased by nearly 40,000 last year, leaving the Baltic country with 2.81 million residents, Statistics Lithuania announced Thursday.

Lithuania's population decreased by 37,800 or 1.3 percent in 2017, the agency said, adding emigration remains the main reason behind the decline.

Some 29,300 people arrived in Lithuania last year, a 45.5 percent increase from 2016. Returning emigrants accounted for 64.2 percent of people who arrived to Lithuania in 2017.

Due to large-scale emigration and other negative demographic trends, Lithuania's population decreased by 883,600, or 24 percent, since 1990.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:01:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LONDON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A bid by the Ecuador government to resolve the deadlock over WikiLeaks founder who holed up in their London embassy, suffered a setback Thursday.

The British Foreign Office turned down a request to grant diplomatic status to Julian Assange, who has lived at the embassy since 2012. It would have enabled him to walk out of the embassy without fear of arrest.

The Australian computer programmer and the founder of WikiLeaks is unable to leave the building as he would face immediate arrest by police.

Assange had been wanted on assault claims in Sweden, but that case against him has been dropped. He originally sought sanctuary in the embassy, fearing that if he was sent to Sweden he would be extradited to the United States over the Wikileaks case.

Police say he will be arrested if he leaves the embassy in Knightsbridge for failing to surrender to the British court in 2012. Assange has been holed up in the embassy since then, unable to leave the building in six years.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Assange to leave the embassy to face justice."

Media reports in Britain quoted Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa responding to the decision, as saying: "No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the co-operation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out."

In London, media reports said the British government has also refused to guarantee that Assange will not be extradited to the United States where he could face charges for his role in releasing classified documents.

He came to international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaked sensitive documents. It prompted the U.S. government to launch a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks, at the same time asking and allied nations for assistance.

His stay in the Ecuador embassy has been reported to have cost the Metropolitan Police in London several million U.S. dollars in police presence outside the embassy.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:21:51|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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VILNIUS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. bombers and personnel are to attend a joint military exercise in Lithuanian skies this week, announced the U.S. embassy in Lithuania on Thursday and confirmed the Lithuanian Defense Ministry.

According to the embassy's announcement, the joint U.S. and Lithuania air force exercise will be attended by the aircraft and personnel from the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. The training is aimed at improving interoperability between the U.S. and Lithuanian forces.

The Lithuanian defense ministry confirmed in an announcement that the joint military exercise takes place on Thursday and Friday in Kazlu Ruda training site, southern Lithuania.

"The exercise which will be attended by the U.S. bombers and Lithuanian Army air attack command group will train to ensure communication between the U.S. and Lithuanian soldiers, coordination, readiness to conduct high skilled tasks," said the Lithuanian Defense Ministry.

The embassy and the ministry didn't disclose more details in terms of the number of aircraft and models that attend the joint training.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:26:54|Editor: pengying

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The body of Palestinian teenager Amir Abu Musaid is seen at al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, after he was shot dead in clashes with Israeli troops along the Gaza border, on Jan. 11, 2018. Two Palestinians were killed and 10 others wounded on Thursday during clashes with Israeli troops, local sources said. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar)

GAZA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Two Palestinians were killed and 10 others wounded on Thursday during clashes with Israeli troops, local sources said.

Ashraf al Qedra, spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza, said in a text message sent to reporters, that a Palestinian young man was killed and five others wounded by Israeli troops' gunfire near the border between eastern Gaza and Israel.

Eyewitnesses and paramedics said dozens of Palestinian demonstrators gathered near the borders east of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, and then clashed with Israeli army forces stationed there.

Protestors waved Palestinian flags and threw stones at the soldiers, who fought back with tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition, they said.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old Palestinian teenager was killed and five others wounded in clashes with Israeli forces on Thursday evening in the village of Iraq Borin near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a short text message.

Tension between Israelis and Palestinians has spiked since last December when U.S. President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and decided to move embassy to the holy city.

Since then, around 15 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 others injured during protests, demonstrations and clashes with Israeli army.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:26:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A new round of smog will affect Beijing and neighboring provinces from Friday, data from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center showed Thursday.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Shandong, Shanxi, Henan provinces will be hardest hit from Jan. 12 to 17.

Beijing and Tianjin issued orange alerts Thursday for air pollution in the coming days, advising children and the elderly to stay indoors, certain construction activities be suspended and heavy-duty vehicles be pulled off the road.

The alert, the second highest level, will come into effect in Beijing from Saturday and last until Monday, said the city's air pollution emergency response office.

From Jan. 13 to 15, parts of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, southern Shanxi, western Shandong as well as northern Henan are forecast to see severe air pollution, with the density of PM2.5, the major air pollutant, estimated to exceed 250 micrograms per cubic meter of air, said the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The air will gradually improve on Jan. 16, but worsen again the next day. The smog will be dispersed when a cold front arrives on Jan. 18, the ministry said.

According to the local air pollution emergency response plan, an orange alert should be issued when the average air quality index is forecast to exceed 200 for three consecutive days and one of those days is forecast to be over 300.

Under China's four-tier warning system, red is the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:57:04|Editor: Mengjie

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MOGADISHU, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency said Thursday it has voluntarily repatriated 110,913 Somali refugees from six countries since the return exercise begun in December 2014.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in its December update that 75,297 refugees returned to Somalia from Kenya and 34,990 from Yemen.

It said some 626 refugees were repatriated from other countries of asylum, including Djibouti, Eritrea and Tunisia.

In December, 1,596 Somali refugees have returned to the strife-torn African nation, according to the UNHCR.

Experts say the political and security stabilization in Somalia, along with growing pressures in hosting countries, calls for renewed efforts to find durable solutions for Somali refugees.

The UN agency said return movement in December was assisted by air from Kenya and sea from Yemen.

"Return convoys from Kenya to Somalia remain temporarily suspended due to impassable roads made by rains and currently insecurity in return areas in Somalia," it said.

More than 2 million Somalis have been displaced in one of the world's most protracted humanitarian crises that has now entered its third decade.

An estimated 1.1 million people are internally displaced (IDPs) within Somalia and nearly 900,000 became refugees in the region.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:57:04|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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KIGALI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Financial experts discussed progress of implementing a decision of the African Union (AU) on self-financing in the Rwandan capital city Kigali on Thursday.

It's time for Africa to put in place clear financial management and accountability principles that would make AU a self-financing and sustaining body, Bureau of the Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission's deputy chief of staff Fareed Kwesi Arthur told a two-day technical experts meeting.

The technical meeting, under the theme "financing the African Union - the Africa we want," will be followed by a meeting of the AU's Committee of Ten Ministers of Finance (F10) responsible for the financing of AU on Saturday.

"It is important for the AU leaders to show the continent and partners that self-financing of AU is not just about being independent from external partners, but is considered as a step towards ensuring that African states are responsible for decisions agreed on by the AU," Arthur said.

AU heads of state and government adopted "Financing of the Union" decision during the 27th AU Summit held in Kigali in July 2016. The decision directs all AU member states to implement a 0.2 percent levy on eligible imports for financing the union.

The levy is expected to be derived from 0.2 percent of the value of the eligible goods imported into a member state of AU from a non-member state.

The levy was scheduled to be applicable and be instituted in 2017 to finance 100 percent operational budget, 75 percent program budget and 25 percent budget of peace support operations of AU as well as any other expenditure of the union that may be determined by the AU assembly, the supreme organ of the union.

As of December 2017, 20 member states were at various stages of implementing the decision, said a statement issued by the Rwandan finance ministry on Thursday. Fourteen among them -- Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Chad, Djibouti, Guinea, Sudan, Morocco, Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Gabon, Cameroon, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire -- had already started collecting from the levy and deposited the funds at an account dedicated for AU opened with the central banks, it said.

Ghana, Benin, Malawi and Senegal have initiated internal legal and administrative processes to allow implementation of the decision.

Despite their national economic and legal constraints, Mauritius and Seychelles have also indicated full commitment to the principles of financing the union, said the statement.

The meeting on Saturday will be a follow-up to the one held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last August, according to the Rwandan finance ministry.

It is expected to consider and adopt the technical documents that have been developed pursuant to recommendations made in Addis Ababa. It will also review the draft decisions to be presented to the assembly of heads of state and government of AU later this month in Addis Ababa.

The F10 members are Algeria and Egypt representing northern Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia representing eastern Africa, Chad and Republic of the Congo representing central Africa, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire representing western Africa, and South Africa and Botswana representing southern Africa.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:57:05|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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by Stefania Fumo

ROME, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Italy and France are at work on a new bilateral treaty that will give a fresh impulse to the European Union as a whole, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni announced at a joint press conference here Thursday.

The new accord, to be named the Quirinal Treaty after the Quirinal Palace where Italy's president lives and works, will lead to a stronger, more united EU -- the only antidote to nationalism and populism, the two leaders said.

They announced that a high-level working group has been set up to draft the treaty covering industrial, trade, and cultural relations."We had 80 billion euros (96.3 billion U.S. dollars) worth of trade with France this year and we are each other's second-largest trading partner," Gentiloni pointed out during their hour-long televised press conference.

The new treaty will be "a creative contribution" to the EU, which has returned to growth after a decade-long downturn and where the "positive macroeconomic numbers must translate into jobs and well-being," the center-left Italian leader said.

The treaty aims at building "a more sovereign, democratic and united Europe," Macron echoed.

Both leaders stressed that the EU must complete its economic and banking union and come up with common defense, security, and migration policies.

"The EU has a fundamental role to play in the world at large -- in fighting climate change, in combating terrorism, and in the defense of liberties," Gentiloni said. "I think the only thing we cannot tell European citizens is that the migration crisis will be over any time soon," he added.

It may take years for the situation to calm down, Gentiloni said. People will continue to abandon their homelands in search of better lives as long as drastic economic inequalities exist between the two continents. This is why long-term investments in Africa are key, the Italian leader said.

Meanwhile, "we must transform the migration from Africa from a completely illegal phenomenon run by criminal organizations into a flow to be managed in an organized, legal, and humane way," he said.

Macron backed him up, calling for common EU regulations on asylum, reception, repatriations as well as common border defense. "We must stabilize a critical situation -- one that far from being left behind, is likely to continue," the French leader said.

He said France faced a "record" 100,000 asylum requests last year, and that while the right to asylum is enshrined in the French constitution, it is a "conditional" right.

Claims must be processed much faster and those who are rejected must be swiftly repatriated, Macron said, adding that on the external front, the priorities are stabilizing Libya and fighting the traffickers, who deal not only in migrants but also in arms and drugs.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 01:32:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KIEV, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Kiev will prioritize the security and humanitarian issues at this year's meetings of the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas, a Ukrainian government official said on Thursday.

"Our key tasks for 2018 are the implementation of the security and the humanitarian provisions," Irina Gerashchenko, a representative of the Ukrainian government in the humanitarian subgroup of the Contact Group, wrote on Facebook.

Among the main areas in focus for Kiev, she listed the comprehensive ceasefire, the release of all hostages, the intensification of the search for missing persons and the withdrawal of weapons from the contact line.

Besides, during the talks of the Contact Group, the Ukrainian government will insist on resuming the work of Zolote checkpoint, a key checkpoint to civilian traffic in Lugansk region, Gerashchenko said.

The trilateral contact group is a group of representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that was formed as means to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the armed conflict in the Donbas region.

Representatives of pro-independence insurgents also participate in the meetings of the group.

Thanks to the efforts of the diplomatic body, more than 30 rounds of ceasefire were established in Donbas, helping to ease hostilities and reduce casualties in the almost four-year-old conflict.

Besides, the Contact Group, which usually meets in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, has assisted in carrying out several prisoner swaps between the conflicting parties.

The conflict between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents in eastern Ukraine has been raging since April 2014, claiming some 10,000 lives.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 01:32:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- An Ethiopian court on Thursday sentenced Bekele Gerba, former deputy head of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), to six months in jail for contempt of court.

The Ethiopia Federal High Court jailed Gerba along with three others who were given similar sentence on the same charge.

Local media Radio Fana said the defendants were given the sentences after vocally objecting to the court's decision to reject a defense request compelling senior government officials to testify as witnesses.

Gerba has been in jail for about two years over terrorism charges relating to allegations of instigating unrest in Ethiopia's largest regional state Oromia.

OFC is the main opposition party to the ruling coalition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in the restive central Oromia regional state.

Oromia has seen large anti-government protests by ethnic Oromos since the end of 2015, leaving hundreds of dead.

A martial law declared in October 2016 was lifted in August in 2017, but deadly protests renewed starting October in Oromia. Release of Oromo opposition leaders, including Gerba, was among demands posed by the protesters.

Oromos, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group making up a third of the country's population of 100 million, have complained of decades of economic, political and social marginalization by successive governments.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 01:37:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (3rd L) attends the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 10, 2018. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Li Keqiang co-chaired the meeting, which also brought together Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Myanmar Vice President U Myint Swe. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China eyes stronger ties with the other five countries along the Lancang-Mekong river, pledging new loans, medical aids and scholarships to its neighbors.

At the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting here on Wednesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced that China will provide another 7 billion yuan (1.08 billion U.S. dollars) in government concessional loans to Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

He also announced the setup of a 5-billion-dollar credit line for supporting production capacity and equipment manufacturing cooperation among the Lancang-Mekong countries.

The new offer came after China supplied the five riparian countries with 10 billion yuan (1.54 billion dollars) of concessional loans, 5 billion dollars of export credit and 5 billion dollars for capacity cooperation in more than 20 infrastructure and industry projects, Li said.

The deficit that China holds with the Mekong countries on farm product trade will not prevent China from importing more, Li said, adding that protectionism is China's last choice.

With a theme of "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development," Wednesday's meeting brought leaders of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the table on such issues as connectivity, water management and industrial production capacity.

China is the largest trading partner of Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand and the second largest of Laos. Bilateral trade between China and the five riparian countries totaled 220 billion dollars in 2017, up 16 percent year on year.

Some 80 percent of China's rice imports are from the Mekong countries. Their fruit exports to China have increased at 21 percent annually over the past decade.

China is the largest source of foreign investment for Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, and the third and fourth-biggest source for Thailand and Vietnam in 2017, respectively, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.

Meanwhile, China is willing to offer free medical treatment for major diseases, such as cataract and heart attack, and oral surgery in the Mekong nations, and to launch 100 medical aid projects in the next three years.

China will step up cooperation with the Mekong countries in prevention and control of infectious diseases, carry out cross-border projects on prevention and control of such diseases, and build a network for malaria elimination.

Over the past two years, more than 12,000 students from the Mekong nations received scholarships from the Chinese government. Over 3,000 personnel went to China for training programs.

In 2018, China will offer short-term training and in-service education for 2,000 people from the Mekong countries and 100 four-year scholarships for undergraduates.

As an important mechanism along the Lancang-Mekong river sub-region, the LMC mechanism has been focusing on sustainable development and pragmatic cooperation in the sub-region and serving as an important platform for implementing the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

Initiated by China in 2014, the framework spans connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, and agriculture and poverty reduction, benefiting dozens of millions of people living on the waterway.

The LMC mechanism has produced better-than-expected progress over the past two years as the countries moved forward with the principle of equality and inclusiveness and put development as a priority.

With progress and results delivered daily, monthly and annually, the Chinese premier said a truly remarkable LMC speed had been created, and a defining LMC culture featuring equality, sincerity, mutual assistance and kinship had been established.

The first LMC leaders' meeting was held in Sanya of China's Hainan province in March 2016, at which the goal of building a community of shared future of peace and prosperity for the LMC countries was endorsed.

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwestern China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 01:42:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SANAA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's dominant Houthi movement said it fired on Thursday a ballistic missile toward a military airport in Saudi border province of Najran, Saba news agency reported.

The missile targeted the military airport of Apache helicopters at the Saudi Special Forces Camp in Najran, Houthis said in a statement without providing further details.

The Saudi-owned satellite TV channel Al Arabiya, however, reported that Saudi air defenses intercepted the missile and destroyed it over Najran.

It is the fifth long-range ballistic missile attack by the Yemeni Houthi rebels on the neighboring oil-rich Gulf state in two months.

On Wednesday, Houthi rebels threatened to cut off the Red Sea shipping line if the Saudi-led coalition forces keep advancing toward the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, according to Houthi-controlled Saba agency.

On Dec. 19, 2017, the Houthi movement fired a ballistic missile toward the royal palace in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

Saudi state news agency said the missile was intercepted and destroyed, causing no casualties.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia led a military coalition of Arab forces, backed by the United States, to intervene in Yemen's conflict to back the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has launched thousands of airstrikes on the Houthis, in attempts to roll back rebel gains and reinstate Hadi in the capital Sanna.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and pushed the country to the brink of mass famine.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 02:12:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAMASCUS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A visiting UN humanitarian affairs official on Thursday expressed here worries about the fate of besieged civilians in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta countryside of the capital Damascus and other hotspots in the war-torn country.

In a press conference Thursday evening, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock, said he is concerned about the fate of besieged people in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region, a rebel-held region under siege, where military operations have recently intensified between the government forces and the armed militants.

Lowcock also mentioned the civilian causalities caused by the rebel mortar shelling on residential areas inside Damascus, as well as the people in the northwestern province of Idlib, where another military campaign is ongoing.

"I am particularly concerned about the fate of the besieged people of Eastern Ghouta. I am also concerned about reports of continuous shelling from Eastern Ghouta into Damascus city, with consequent civilian casualties. I also deeply worried about civilians affected by the upsurge in violence in Idlib...," he said.

Meanwhile, the UN official said he had detailed and open discussions with the Syrian government about the crisis and what more needs to be done to reduce the humanitarian suffering.

"On the basis of these discussions, I am hoping soon to see a number of positive developments enabling us to sustain and improve the aid effort this year," the official said.

In terms of funding, Lowcock said the UN humanitarian response plan for Syria is one of the world's largest sustained emergency aid efforts, adding that the donations they received in 2017 totaled at 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, suggesting that more fund is needed in 2018.

He said his organization is seeking 3.5 billion U.S. dollars from donors to meet the needs of more than 13 million people in all parts of Syria in 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 02:12:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TRIPOLI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A Libyan senior official said on Thursday that the military and security authorities pledged to provide the safe return for the internally displaced people of the Tawergha in early February.

"Gen. Mohamed Haddad, commander of the Central Military Region, has pledged to implement the agreement (between the cities of Misurata and Tawargha) and secure the return with available possibilities," Yousif Abu-Bakr Jalala, the minister of State for Displaced and Migrants Affairs, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

The interior minister has ordered Misurata Security Directorate to enable the implementation of the plan to secure the return of the displaced persons, he said.

"So far, four intensive meetings were held in addition to side meetings. We are well aware that the time is very short to prepare and arrange the return of Tawerghan refugees to their city, which needs constant action," said Jalala, who is also the head of the government's committee to follow up the implementation of the return of Tawerghans.

"We organized a visit to Tawergha in the past few days with a number of ministers and heads of service organizations to assess the needs and prepare the city for its residents again. We are currently working on the completion of the first phase, a gradual return throughout the year," noted Jalala.

During the 2011 uprising, some residents of Tawergha allied with the forces of former leader Muammar Gaddafi to fight the rebels of the nearby city of Misurata.

After Gaddafi's regime was toppled, those residents, accused by Misurata of actively participating in the fight against them, fled their homes to other cities in Libya. Since then, they have been internally displaced.

In August 2016, representatives of Tawergha and Misurata cities signed a UN-sponsored draft reconciliation agreement to allow the nearly 40,000 Tawerghan refugees to return home.

UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj recently announced that Tawerghans will start returning home in February.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 02:17:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TRIPOLI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Thursday urged the international community to partially lift the arms embargo on Libya.

Serraj made the remarks during his visit to the Libyan naval vessel Abo-Auf in the capital Tripoli, which returned to service after maintenance.

"The prime minister said efforts have not stopped to persuade the international community to partially lift the arms embargo on the Coast Guards, Border Control Guards, Anti-Terrorism Force, and Presidential Guards, so these services can play their role effectively," the prime minister's media office said in a statement.

"The prime minister praised the performance and efforts of the naval officers to secure our maritime borders and combat human trafficking and smugglers, despite difficult circumstances and lack of resources," the statement added.

Serraj also called on naval leaders to develop short and long-term plans for the urgent needs of the navy.

Libya's divided eastern and western authorities have been demanding the lift of the arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council since February 2011.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 02:17:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIYADH, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Saudi air defence intercepted on Thursday a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militias on border city Najran, Al Arabiya local news reported.

The forces also intercepted a missile that targeted Najran last week in which it caused a minor damage to private property of one citizen, while no injuries reported.

The spokesperson of the Saudi-led coalition, Colonel Turki al-Maliki, highlighted that the previous attack caused a minor damage to private property of one citizen, while no injuries reported. He described the incident of a hostile attack and accused Iran of continuing to back Houthi militias.

He renewed his call for the international community to take more serious and effective steps to "stop the Iranian violations of the continuing smuggling and transfer of ballistic missiles and weapons to terrorist groups and outlaws in Yemen."

Saudi Arabia has been leading a war against Houthis in Yemen since 2015 that led to hundreds of deaths among armed groups and civilians.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 02:27:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TIRANA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The official Tirana hailed Thursday Macedonia's parliament decision to adopt the law on use of languages which allows a wider use of Albanian language across Macedonia.

The President of Albania Ilir Meta said that adoption of this law was an important act not only for Albanians living in Macedonia, but also for the country's European future.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama considered such development as a historical achievement for Albanians, adding that this was an event which made Macedonia more democratic and stronger.

The head of the Albanian opposition, Lulzim Basha considered this voting as an important step forward in the advancement of the Albanian language in Macedonia.

Adoption of the law on the use of languages in Macedonia made the headlines in Albania, being considered as a sensitive issue.

According to Albania's foreign minister Ditmir Bushati, this law guarantees a better and fairer access to public services and makes Albanians more involved in good governing.

"This is a foundation stone for a better and safer Euro-Atlantic future for our neighbor that the Albanians of Macedonia have always supported," Bushati said in a press release.

Macedonian parliament adopted the languages law only with votes of majority since the opposition led by VMRO-DPMNE considered such law as unconstitutional.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 02:27:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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AMMAN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Jordan on Thursday underlined the need for continued support to UNRWA so it can continue to provide services to the Palestinian refugees, state-run Petra news agency reported.

At a meeting with UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl, Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi said it was important for UNRWA to continue providing services in all fields of health, education and relief support.

The minister said it was the duty of the entire international community to support UNRWA until the plight of the Palestinian refugees is resolved in line with the international legitimacy resolutions.

The two sides also discussed financial challenges facing the agency, saying it was important for the international community to provide funding for the UN agency to face challenges, as the U.S. recently announced plans to reduce aid to UNRWA.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 02:52:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Swiss government is to ban the common practice in restaurants of boiling live lobsters as part of an overall animal protection reform, Swiss media reported Thursday.

"Live crustaceans, including lobster, may no longer be transported on ice or in ice water," the government said, explaining the new addition to the animal welfare law.

"Aquatic species must always be kept in their natural environment. Crustaceans must now be stunned before they are killed," states the new law which will take effect in March, Swiss news agency SDA reported.

The cabinet statement said it must be assumed that these animals are sentient and therefore must not be allowed to suffer unnecessarily.

A similar law came into effect in neighboring Italy recently, Swissinfo reported.

But not all Swiss agree with the government on its new ban.

"Do they suffer?" the French-language daily Le Matin asked on Thursday. "We doubt it," it said with a picture of a juicy red cooked lobster on its page.

The new law also strengthens the protection of dogs by cracking down on illegal puppy farms and outlawing automatic devices that punish dogs for barking.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 03:02:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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VIENNA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Europe's largest motorcycle manufacturer KTM has reported a 17-percent increase in motorcycles sold in 2017, reaching a record 239,000, it said on Thursday.

The company, based in Mattighofen in Austria, said the result has seen it expand on its position as the market leader in Europe.

It also marks the seventh-consecutive year it has set new records in its sales figures.

The company said it hopes to maintain this sales momentum in 2018, with the introduction of its Husqvarna line, and its new two-cylinder 790 Duke motorcycle.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 03:02:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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VIENNA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The number of asylum applications made in Austria has seen a sharp 43 percent decline in 2017, falling from 42,285 to 24,296, officials revealed at a press conference Thursday.

The number of asylum applications being processed also saw a strong decline, halving from 64,000 to 31,500 last year.

Head of the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) Wolfgang Taucher was joined by Interior Minister Herbert Kickl in presenting the latest asylum report.

Taucher said the declining figures show that the effects of the migration crisis in Europe that begun in 2015 has been overcome. Of the 155,000 applications made since then, about 80 percent have now been processed.

He noted that there has also been an increased trend toward denied asylum outcomes.

The goal for 2018 will be to bring the number of asylum applications being processed to under 15,000 by May, and also to increase the number of repatriations. These numbered 11,974 last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 03:27:43|Editor: Liangyu

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by Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- When natural gas reserves were discovered off the shores of Israel, it was a turning point for the country.

In a neighborhood where it is largely isolated politically, Israel had always been energy dependent.

Now, not only was it able to supply its own needs, there was enough excess to go around. But in the not so friendly environment it is situated in, will economics overcome politics? Will realpolitik lead Israel's foes to overlook disagreements on issues that have divided the Middle East for decades?

Probably not.

"The power of energy to influence politics, which was a powerful force in the 1970s, is much weaker these days, for better or for worse," Prof. Eyal Winter told Xinhua. "Despite Israel's recent discovery (of gas), it will not be able to change the policy towards Israel in the Arab world and beyond."

Winter, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a Silverzweig Professor of Economics who specializes in political economics and the Middle East.

In the 1970s, Arab states that exported oil imposed embargo on countries they perceived as supportive of Israel during the 1973 war that was fought in the region. The effect was global and immediate. It also highlighted Israel's dependence.

In 2009, when the gas was discovered, it was a change of course for the small state.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Energy, there are enough reserves to allow export of 7 BCM (Billion cubic meters) a year, while still retaining enough gas to supply its own needs for the coming decades.

But are Israel's neighbors, not its greatest fans, interested in its gas? Does Israel need to aim farther away in order to export the sought-after resource?

One successful example of cooperation is the deal between American firm Nobel Energy, the company conducting the gas exploration and production off Israel's shores, and the Jordanian state-owned electric company NEPCO.

The deal was signed in 2016. Jordan and Israel have had diplomatic relations since 1994. Tumulus at times, even recently, the relations between the two countries have not stood in the way of the deal.

According to a paper published by Oded Eran, a former Israeli ambassador to Jordan and a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at the Tel Aviv University, the agreement proves "that the sides can reach understandings and perhaps full agreements in many areas, and these can create a positive environment, even if they are not substitutes for political agreements."

Amir Foster, head of Strategy and Research at the Israeli Association of Oil and Gas Exploration Industries, believes once agreements and pipelines are in place, political turmoil does not have a negative effect.

"It is much more durable than we think," Foster told Xinhua. "Energy is a stabilizer. Political obstacles exist until there is an actual pipeline, an actual deal. Once that is in place and all the money has been invested, you do not shut down a pipe because of diplomatic incidents."

Indeed, oil which Israel exports mostly from former Soviet Nations in pipes passing through Turkey, kept on coming despite a severe deterioration in Israel-Turkey relations.

But will this work both ways?

"If the country importing from Israel has an alternative source, then a deterioration in the political situation will lead that country to the alternative option," Winter explained. Dependence here is the key.

Prof. Winter notes that the exponential technological advancements in recent years in the field of gas exploration will most likely result in finding more natural gas in the Mediterranean, not necessarily in Israeli territorial waters. This means Israel is currently enjoying a momentum in the ability to export gas, but it might be a short one. It needs to strike while the iron is hot in order to make enjoy the profit.

Late last year, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Cyprus, Greece and Italy on the laying of an underwater gas pipeline from Israel to Italy to be completed in 2025. This will allow Israel to export gas to the Europe, a friendlier market to Israel than its hostile neighborhood.

"As soon as the economic issues take precedent and there is an understanding that there is a mutual interest that everyone can benefit from, naturally this will tone down conflicts," Foster told Xinhua.

"Commerce can improve relations," agreed Winter.

In the reality of the Middle East, it is doubtful that energy trade will bring peace, it may help maintain whatever agreements already exist. Clearly, though, Israel's position has changed.

"Israel's energy card has switched from a burden to an advantage," said Foster.

While Israel has been relieved of the vulnerable position of being completely energy dependent on outside sources, it cannot assume this will translate into political support from former foes or hostile neighbors.

"It would be a grave mistake for Israel to use (the gas exports) as a condition for political support," said Prof. Winter.

Largely isolated in the international arena, Israel is on the lookout for countries who will support it at forums such as the UN General Assembly where it is often outnumbered. So far, no gas pipeline has solved that issue. But Israel's trauma of past energy isolation and dependency has been erased, making it a more confident player in the arena.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 03:57:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian political parties that are negotiating on the country's anti-terrorism law on Thursday agreed to hear the ruling party's response to their proposal regarding the law.

The opposition political parties have tabled a proposal to amend the law, saying it is against the country's constitution and major international human right proclamations.

They have also demanded more clarity in the law's terms and requested explanation on the progress of the decisions to release some imprisoned politicians.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, together with leaders of the four member parties of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), recently announced that the Ethiopian government will drop charges and free imprisoned politicians.

Desalegn, who stressed that the latest move would promote unity, reconciliation and dialogue among Ethiopians, also disclosed that the government will shut down a notorious detention center known as Maekelawi.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:02:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAPE TOWN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Newly elected African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday called for an end to infighting within the party.

Ramaphosa was speaking as the South Africa's ruling party was preparing to celebrate its 106th anniversary on Saturday in East London, Eastern Cape Province.

"We must end infighting amongst ANC members. We, as the leadership, must be united and we must speak with one voice," Ramaphosa said after visiting the home of late President Nelson Mandela in Qunu.

Ramaphosa took advantege of the visit to stress the importance of strengthening unity within the ANC.

If infighting within the ANC is not put to an end, the country can not move forward, he said.

This was the second time in the past few days that Ramaphosa has called for unity within the ANC.

On January 8, Ramaphosa said the ANC should now rid itself of factionalism after its elective conference in December, at which he was elected ANC president.

"Contestation is now over and the winner was the African National Congress," Ramaphosa said during a visit to KwaZulu-Natal Province, where he faced the strogest opposition in the run-up to the ANC elective conference.

Ramaphosa's repeated calls for ANC unity was seen as an indication that the party was dogged by deep divisions.

The party is reportedly divided over the fate of President Jacob Zuma, with some leaders calling for his removal and others against the move.

A process reportedly has been initiated to persuade Zuma to resign "gracefully."

Newly elected ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule confirmed on Wednesday that Ramaphosa had been meeting and engaging Zuma.

Although Magashule did not disclose the details, the talks were believed to be part of the process of persuading Zuma to resign.

South African MPs are currently deliberating the formulation of rules to regulate the removal of a sitting president.

Once the rules are formulated, a process to impeach Zuma is expected to be initiated.

Parliament said on Wednesday the draft rules would be ready in two weeks' time.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:12:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ANKARA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that two jailed journalists be released, saying their rights were violated when in custody.

Some Turkish lawyers and experts said the ruling could set a positive precedent for other journalists detained under state of emergency since July 2016.

Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay, jailed for more than a year amid purges of media members following the failed coup attempt in July 2016, were accused of "links to terrorist groups" and "attempting to overthrow the government." They have denied all the charges.

On Wednesday, Turkish Journalist Association called on the government to free the 145 imprisoned journalists, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Many of the jailed reporters are charged with propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) or the networks of U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of masterminding the 2016 coup attempt.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:27:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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by Justice Lee Adoboe

ACCRA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Ghana have raised their level of alertness following reports of listeriosis food poisoning in South Africa, a statement said Thursday.

The statement signed by Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Minister of Health, noted with concern the reports of the outbreak of listeriosis, caused by bacteria listeria monocytogenes, in South Africa.

The bacteria can contaminate dairy products, vegetable and fruits. The disease is serious but preventable and treatable.

"In view of the public health concern and to avoid a similar outbreak here in Ghana the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) is monitoring the situation and has increased surveillance on meat, dairy, vegetable and fruit products from South Africa to ensure that they are not contaminated," the statement said.

The import of fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products from South Africa to Ghana is of significant quantity.

The statement assured Ghanaians there was no cause for alarm as authorities would continue to monitor imports from South Africa.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:32:57|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ANKARA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Syrian government's ongoing offensive in Idlib province will be a test for the alliance of Russia, Iran and Turkey, three regional powers that support different actors on the battlefield.

Recent Idlib offensive of the regime, with support of Russia and Iran, escalated tension between the three countries, which were able to successfully calm down clashes through the Astana process.

Syrian regime's forces have increased military operations recently to impose control over Idlib and the Eastern Ghouta, the last two rebel bastions in Syria.

Turkey protested the Syrian regime's advance into the rebel- stronghold on the grounds that regime troops are targeting moderate opposition in Idlib, arguing that the move undermined prospects of an upcoming meeting in Black Sea resort Sochi on Jan. 29-30, where the regime and opposition groups will seek peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry separately summoned Russian and Iranian ambassadors in Ankara on Tuesday and warned its partners for violation of Astana deal in a bid to stop the regime's attack on "moderate opposition" forces in northern province of Idlib, where "de-escalation zone" was declared by three guarantor powers.

"Russia and Iran must stop the Syrian regime. They should realize their duties as guarantor countries," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.

"What I am seeing here is the use of the presence of al Nusra and HTS as an excuse to attack civilians and the moderate opposition," he stated.

Russia and Iran have backed Syrian regime while Turkey has supported its foes, but, despite the differences, they struck a deal in 2017 to set up de-escalation zones in Syria, helping reduce fighting.

Turkey has became the guarantor of some "moderate" rebel groups, while Iran and Russia is responsible for the acts of Syrian government.

Ankara and Moscow have many times not been seeing eye to eye on Syrian conflict since they have different interests in the region.

Turkey is irked with Russia for inviting Syrian Kurdish militia, the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG), which controls much of northeast Syria but is viewed by Ankara as a terror group and offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), to the planned meeting in Sochi.

Russia failed to convene the gathering over Turkey's objection about YPG's participation. Parties are still carrying on talks for the list of participants.

Elaborating on Ankara's concerns on the recent offensive in Idlib, Turkey is concerned on three negative outcomes, a Turkish official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The Syrian regime's attacks on "moderate opposition" could cause throwback to Russian initiated national dialogue meeting in Sochi, because the talks aim peace negotiations also with those rebel groups, said the official.

Furthermore, the offensive could lead to collapse of Astana process and eventually the hardly established cease-fire in de-escalation zones.

The official also pointed at the fact that fresh conflict in northern Syria could trigger more displacement on its southern border. Ankara considers the regime offensive, supported by Iran-backed militias and Russian air power, aims to recover more territory from the rebels.

For the Russian part, Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces run in Hmeymim base in Syria repelled a series of drone attacks Saturday. The drones were sent from Idlib, an area controlled by so-called "moderate opposition" units, the Russian defence ministry's official newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda said Wednesday.

The ministry has written to the chiefs of the Turkish army and intelligence service to insist that the terms of a cease-fire are upheld, the newspaper said.

Russia will continue constructive cooperation with Turkey for Syrian course, but it will not give up fighting against terrorist groups such as al-Nusra, Russia's Izvestiya newspaper reported Thursday quoting anonymous Russian officials.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, spearheaded by the former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria that was known as the al-Nusra Front, is mainly dominating in Idlib.

On Thursday, Moscow attempted to ease the strain with Ankara as President Vladimir Putin said the attack at Russian air base was a provocation, aimed at undermining Russia's relations with its partners, including Turkey.

"Firstly, these are provocations aimed at the collapse of the earlier reached agreements. Secondly, that is also an attempt to destroy our relations with partners, Turkey and Iran. We clearly understand that, and therefore we will show solidarity," Russian media quoted Putin as saying.

"Russia and Assad try to find excuses to clear Idlib from rebels, even makes ones up if necessary. This puts Russia against Turkey more frequently," according to Deniz Zeyrek, daily Hurriyet columnist.

Recalling that Ankara was not able to build dialogue with the U.S. because of Washington's support to Syrian Kurdish militia, Turkey's leverage in Syria would weaken if it also looses cooperation with Russia, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:32:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SOFIA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria's six-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) was officially launched here on Thursday evening at a special ceremony attended by the highest local and EU officials.

"Europe is too big to be monolithic but too small to be divided," Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said at the ceremony held in the Ivan Vazov National Theatre.

Therefore, the motto of Bulgaria's EU Presidency is "United We Stand Strong", Radev said.

Bulgaria has taken up the Presidency in a difficult time, he said.

"I am convinced that when the problems affect everyone, the key is in realism and solidarity efforts," Radev said.

Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, said it is a good thing that one of the priorities of the Bulgarian presidency is the future of the Western Balkans.

"Who, if not you -- the descendants of Spartacus, the inheritors of the oldest European statehood, you, who never ever lost a flag in any battle -- would be better placed to rise to this important and exceptionally difficult task, that is to renew the European perspective for the whole of the region," Tusk said.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov underlined that many questions would be asked and many answers given during the next six months on issues such as EU's cohesion policy, cyber security, common European defense, migration crisis, and providing a hope for EU membership to the peoples of the Western Balkans.

For his part, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, said that Bulgarian Presidency is taking place at a crucial moment when the EU has to carry out a number of initiatives in the interests of its citizens and shape its future.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Borissov could lead Europe and build bridges, Juncker said.

The President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, who also held a speech at the ceremony, said the motto of Bulgaria's EU Presidency "summarizes, in four simple words, our common endeavour for the coming six months: Together we must tackle the many challenges ahead of us and make Europe fit for the future. Together we must continue our reflection on how to improve our Union, to make it more efficient, more democratic and closer to our citizens, especially to the younger generations."

The ceremony, attended by a total of 780 guests, also featured performances of the anthems of Bulgaria and the EU, as well traditional Bulgarian songs and dances.

Meanwhile, near the building of the National Theatre, the visitors enjoyed an interactive exhibition portraying Bulgaria's long history, magnificent architectural monuments, natural beauty and iconic artistic masterpieces.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:32:59|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa speaks during a press conference in Quito, capital of Ecuador, on Jan. 11, 2018. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted Ecuadorian citizenship, Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said on Thursday. (Xinhua/Santiago Armas)

QUITO, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted Ecuadorian citizenship, Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said on Thursday.

Assange, who has been holed up at Ecuador's embassy in London for five and a half years, "filed for naturalization on Sept. 16, 2017," and met the all the requisites, Espinosa told reporters at a press conference here.

Assange was eligible to become a naturalized Ecuadorian citizen based on his time under the jurisdiction and protection of Ecuador, said Espinoza, adding "naturalization was granted on Dec. 12, 2017," by the Ecuadorian government.

On Wednesday, local media reported the Australian-born Assange was now a naturalized Ecuadorean, but the news was not officially confirmed until now.

Ecuador, under then president Rafael Correa, granted Assange political asylum at its embassy in August 2012, after the activist argued he was the target of political persecution.

According to Assange and his legal team, accusations of sexual wrongdoing against him by two Swedish citizens were a ruse to extradite him to Sweden for eventual handover to the United States.

The accusations led Assange to take refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy and file for political asylum. He has been trapped there ever since.

After three years in virtual captivity, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention announced in 2015 that Assange's de facto imprisonment was unlawful. It called for his immediate release and ruled both Sweden and Britain pay compensation for having illegally detained him. To date, the ruling has had no effect.

The WikiLeaks website gained fame after it released thousands of confidential diplomatic cables showing U.S. manipulation of foreign governments and video footage of a U.S. military strike on civilians in Iraq, angering Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the headquarters of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency in Moscow, Russia, on June 8, 2016. (Xinhua/SPUTNIK)

MOSCOW, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Russia reserves the right to retaliate against Moldova's new law on restricting TV and radio programs by Russian media, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

"We note with regret that this act of outright discrimination against Russian media is yet another anti-Russia move by the ruling parliamentary majority in Chisinau," the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to a transcript published by the ministry.

On Wednesday, the Moldovan parliament approved a law on amendments to the code on television and radio broadcasting, introducing bans in Moldovan news, information-analytical, political and military TV and radio programs made by media outlets from foreign countries that have not ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, including Russia.

The enactment of the law shows that Moldova "is moving further away from democratic norms and towards totalitarian methods of dealing with alternative views," Zakharova said.

"We confirm our commitment to the generally recognized principle of reciprocity in international relations and retain the right to take retaliatory measures," she said.

Moldova is a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:38:01|Editor: Yurou

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This photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department shows damage from a mudflow in a chapel in Montecito, the United States, Jan. 11, 2018. Eight people are still missing in deadly mudslides that have claimed 17 lives so far in Santa Barbara County in the western U.S. state of California, local authorities said Thursday. (Xinhua/Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department)

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Eight people are still missing in deadly mudslides that have claimed 17 lives so far in Santa Barbara County in the western U.S. state of California, local authorities said Thursday.

"The correct number of missing is down to eight," Mike Eliason, a public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, told Xinhua in a phone interview.

The correction came after an early Thursday update that raised the missing to 48 in the mudslides triggered by heavy rains just weeks after major wildfires scorched the area.

"The number of confirmed deaths is 17, and the number of injured confirmed is 28. Four of the 28 injured are in critical condition at a local hospital," Eliason said.

A strong winter storm hammered the region on the U.S. West Coast on Monday, bringing heavy downpours and sending mud and debris into residential neighborhoods before dawn on Tuesday.

In Santa Barbara County, a total of 100 homes were destroyed and 300 homes damaged by the mudslides, Eliason said, adding that eight commercial properties were also destroyed and 20 damaged.

"Rescue crews have managed to clear the roadways to free the 300 residence that have been trapped since Tuesday in Romero Canyon," Eliason added.

Rescue efforts are fully mobilized, he said, adding that there are now 683 rescue workers, up from 450 on Wednesday, involved in the disaster relief efforts.

"The weather is very favorable for all continued rescue efforts, and we are all still very hopeful that other trapped people will be found alive by the hardworking crews," he said.

Most of the deaths occurred in and around Montecito, a wealthy enclave of about 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles, as homes were wiped away by mudflows after devastating wildfires left charred hillsides without vegetation cover to hold the deluge.

Some homes and businesses in the area still have no power and water service. The Montecito Water District will continue to distribute emergency water for local residents in need of water on Thursday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:43:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday voiced concern over the security situation in West Africa and the Sahel region, particularly the threat of terrorism and violent extremism.

"Council members expressed their concern over remaining security challenges, including the threat of terrorism and violent extremism, as and when conducive to, terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel regions and their linkages to transnational organized crime," Kazakh ambassador to the United Nations Kairat Umarov, who serves as the president of the Security Council for this month, told reporters after closed-door consultations of the council.

The council members stressed the need to combat terrorism, including efforts to address conditions conducive to its spread, said Umarov.

They welcomed international efforts to mobilize support for the joint military force of the five Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

They expressed concern over widespread food insecurity, forced displacement and adverse effects of climate change and ecological changes that have negative impacts on the stability of the region, and called on the international community to support the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance for the population in need in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel regions.

The Sahel is the northernmost part of sub-Saharan Africa, a vast belt stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:48:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MOSCOW, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Armed Forces said Thursday it was concerned over the emerging threat of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) used by terrorists after recent drone attacks on Russia's military bases in Syria.

On January 6, terrorists attempted to attack Russia's Hmeymim and Tartus military bases in Syria with 13 drones, seven of which were destroyed by Russian air defense systems and six others were captured by its electronic warfare means, according to Maj. Gen. Alexander Novikov who heads the department of the UAV system of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

"The drones used by the militants to strike the facilities of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria...were applied for the first time," he said.

After a detailed assessment of the captured drones, specialists established that homemade production of such drones is only possible when there are assembly schemes and necessary components previously tested for numerous times, and also requires specialized knowledge and practical experience in assembling and using such devices in a single system, Novikov said.

"The creation of drones of this class is impossible in handcraft conditions. Their development and use involved specialists who have received special training in countries producing and using systems with unmanned aerial vehicles," he said.

According to Novikov, terrorists started using foreign-made drones in 2016, but those drones were primitive and mainly for the use of reconnaissance.

In the light of the results of the assessment, the general warned of the possibility of the use of UAV for terrorist purposes across the world.

"The fact that terrorists received the technology to assemble and program the drones from abroad shows that the threat is not limited in Syria. Similar deadly drones can be used by terrorists in other countries and not only against military targets," he said.

It requires joint work at the international level and appropriate measures to neutralize the threat, Novikov said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:53:05|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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VANCOUVER, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Canada's British Columbia's Premier John Horgan and top ministers from his new provincial government are preparing for a 10-day trade trip to China, Japan and South Korea beginning on Jan. 20 this year.

The trade mission marks the first such trip to Asia since the New Democrat Party formed a coalition government with the B.C. Green Party after the provincial election last summer.

The new government says the trip will provide a chance to build rapport with their Asian counterparts and to promote B.C.'s tourism industry and wood products.

Horgan will be joined on the trip by Bruce Ralston, minister of jobs, trade and technology, and George Chow, minister of state for trade.

Lisa Beare, B.C.'s minister of tourism, arts and culture, will join the delegation on the China portion of the trip.

In China, the top priorities are to build up a rapport with government officials and business leaders while promoting B.C. tourism and wood products, said Chow, in an interview with Xinhua this week.

"What needs to go right is that we meet as many people as we can," Chow said. "We have to discuss trade issues so that we can actually promote our products, as well as learn what they can sell to us as well."

Chow said they will spend the first day of the trip in Guangdong Province and then two-and-a-half days in Beijing.

"We will actively promote tourism in Guangdong because we know a large number of visitors are coming to B.C.) from that province," he said.

"I think that's important - not just the hard goods that we're trading - but we're also trading on soft goods, which is cultural exchanges and tourism," he said.

Chow said they will also have the chance to speak with the Canadian ambassador to China in Beijing.

"We have a lot to offer in terms of our products, agricultural products and our clean energy technology, and even our lumber," he said.

"I think there is a great opportunity to use wood (in China) as a finishing material to help to offset using brick as a way of finishing interiors," Chow said. "When you make brick, it's very energy intensive and it also produces a lot of greenhouse gases, and the wood could actually help in terms of insulation value and actually decrease energy requirements."

The trip comes amid rising concerns in Canada over U.S. President Donald Trump' s continued threats to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

On that front, Chow said the B.C. government remains hopeful the Canadian trade delegates can work out a new deal with the U.S. and Mexico.

"But if not, I think this is why we're looking to other markets," Chow said. "We're now realizing that looking across the Pacific is really the way to go in terms of diversifying our positions."

Chow said he is expecting a "very intense" trip that could kick-off a lasting relationship between his government and counterparts in China, Japan and South Korea. "We need to have a persistent presence in Asia in order to promote trade and to be successful at it," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 04:53:06|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Protesters dressed as detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp rally to demand the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp outside the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Jan. 11, 2018. Dozens of Activists held a rally here on Thursday to protest against the Guantanamo Bay detention camp while urging an end to "indefinite detention." (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Activists held a rally here on Thursday to protest against the Guantanamo Bay detention camp while urging an end to "indefinite detention."

At Lafayette Square in front of the White House, some protesters were wearing orange jumpsuits and bags over their heads as others were holding banners that carry slogans urging the closure of the prison and an end to indefinite detention.

Their protests marked the 16th anniversary of the first prisoners arriving at the U.S. facility, set up on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in southeast Cuba in 2002 as part of the U.S. war on terror.

Former President Barack Obama tried to close the facility, but thwarted by Congress. Forty-one prisoners remain in detention.

Late last month, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis visited the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to meet troops, but he did not tour the detention camp.

It was the first trip to the base by a sitting Pentagon chief in almost 16 years since Donald Rumsfeld visited Guantanamo in early 2002.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 05:18:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAMASCUS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army forces on Thursday foiled a major offensive by militant groups on military positions in the northwestern province of Idlib, state news agency SANA reported, as the foreign ministry denied any targeting of hospitals during a wide-scale military campaign in that key rebel bastion.

The rebels' attacks on several military positions in the southern countryside of Idlib and the nearby northern countryside of Hama province in central Syria have failed, SANA said.

It added that the Syrian forces have fought intense battles against the militant groups, including the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), in both countrysides over the past few hours.

Earlier in the day, an array of rebel groups in northern Syria unleashed a major counter-offensive to foil a Syrian military campaign in Idlib, following a significant advance of the government forces in that key rebel bastion.

The counter-offensive was unleashed by two rebel operation parts: the first consisted of the Turkey-backed Ahrar al-Sham, Jaish al-Ezzah, the Turkistan Party, and Nour Addien al-Zinki, while the second is formed of Jaish al-Naser, the Free Idlib Army, the Elite Forces and the Second Army rebels, opposition activists reported.

The al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (LLC) refused to join the two rebel operation parts, and decided to fight the Syrian army alone, according to the report.

The wide-scale counter-attack aims to foil the advance of the Syrian army and restore areas taken by the army in the northeastern countryside of Hama province in central Syria and the southeastern countryside of Idlib province in northwestern Syria.

Their major goal is to drive back the Syrian army from the strategic Abu al-Duhur air base in the southeastern countryside of Idlib, whose falling will deal a big blow to the rebels in Idlib as well as in the southern countryside of Aleppo province in northern Syria.

In their counter-offensive Thursday, the rebels captured the towns of Khwein, Atshan Abu Omar, and Um Khalakhel from the Syrian army.

Activists posted two videos on Thursday, the first purports to show a number of Syrian soldiers taken captives by the rebels when they stormed Khalakhel, while the second one showed a warplane crashing over Idlib countryside.

The activists said the warplane belonged to the Syrian army.

Activists said the Syrian government forces' offensive and advance in Idlib has united the rebel factions to confront it, which could undermine the armed insurgency in Syria as Idlib is the major gathering point and rebel bastion in Syria, following the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) late last year.

A day earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group said the Syrian army entered the southern part of Abu al-Duhur air base, adding that clashes were taking place inside the compound.

Now, an intense military showdown is taking place in the countryside of Idlib and Hama, a military source told Xinhua, adding that it is difficult for the rebels to capture over 120 towns taken by the army in both Hama and Idlib since the Syrian army unleashed their attack in both countrysides two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Foreign Ministry denied claims by the French Foreign Ministry about the Syrian army's targeting of hospitals and civilians during the military campaign in Idlib.

In a statement, the ministry expressed astonishment over the "French Foreign Ministry's persistence in carrying out the misleading campaign of the French public opinion toward what is happening in Syria and using the humanitarian side as a pretext to do so."

The stance of the French Foreign Ministry has proven to be based on "ignorance" of what is happening in the countrysides of Hama and Idlib, the Syrian ministry said, adding that the Syrian army is fighting the LLC, which was previously known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

The ministry concluded by saying that France, whose people have suffered from the terrorism, should have its diplomats take clear stances regarding terrorism.

The Observatory said Thursday that 96 civilians have been killed since the military campaign on Idlib and Hama countrysides started on Dec.25.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 05:28:13|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday asked governments to treat migration as a positive global phenomenon and refrain from setting up barriers to legal international migration.

"Let me emphasize: migration is a positive global phenomenon. It powers economic growth, reduces inequalities, connects diverse societies and helps us ride the demographic waves of population growth and decline," Guterres told an informal meeting of the UN General Assembly, which is working on a Global Compact on Migration, an intergovernmentally negotiated agreement toward safe, orderly and regular international migration.

Migrants make a major contribution to international development -- both by their work and by sending remittances to their home countries, he said, noting that remittances added up to nearly 600 billion U.S. dollars last year, three times more than all development aid.

States need to strengthen the rule of law underpinning how they manage and protect migrants -- for the benefit of their economies, their societies and migrants themselves. Authorities that erect major obstacles to migration, or place severe restrictions on migrants' work opportunities, inflict needless economic self-harm, as they impose barriers to having their labor needs met in an orderly and legal fashion, he said.

"Worse still, they unintentionally encourage illegal migration. Aspiring migrants, denied legal pathways to travel, inevitably fall back on irregular methods. This not only puts them in vulnerable positions, but also undermines governments' authority itself."

The best way to end the stigma of illegality and abuse around migrants is, in fact, for governments to put in place more legal pathways for migration, he said. "This will remove incentives for individuals to break the rules, while better meeting the needs of markets for foreign labor. It will also aid in efforts to clamp down on smugglers and traffickers and to assist their victims."

Migration is also a source of political tensions and human tragedies, said the secretary-general. "The majority of migrants live and work legally. Unfortuantely, others live in the shadows, unprotected by the law and unable to contribute fully to society. And a desperate minority put their lives at risk to enter countries where they face suspicion and abuse."

Globally, migration remains poorly managed, he said. The impact can be seen in the humanitarian crises affecting people on the move, and in the human rights violations suffered by those living in slavery or enduring degrading working conditions. It can be seen, too, in the political impact of public perception that wrongly sees migration as out of control.

The consequences include increased mistrust and policies aimed more at stopping than facilitating human movement, said the secretary-general. "The fundamental challenge is to maximize the benefits of this orderly, productive form of migration while stamping out the abuses and prejudice that make life hell for a minority of migrants."

"I call for us to focus on the overwhelming positives of migration and to use facts not prejudice as the basis for addressing its challenges. Above all, I urge a respectful discourse that places our collective humanity at the center of the debate."

At the same time, development cooperation policies must take human mobility into account, he said, it is essential to provide more opportunities for people to be able to live in dignity in their own countries and regions. "Migration should be an act of hope, not despair."

He stressed the need to address the mixed flows of refugees and migrants. "What happens all too often with these movements represents a humanitarian tragedy and an abdication of our human rights commitments. They are reflective of acute policy failures: of emergency response, of conflict prevention, of good governance, of development, and of international solidarity."

"I call for greater international cooperation to remove those failures and to protect vulnerable migrants," he said. "In parallel, we must re-establish the integrity of the refugee protection regime in line with international law."

Guterres urged all member states to engage openly and actively in the negotiations ahead.

His presence at the General Assembly meeting was to launch his report titled "Making Migration Work for All," his input to the drafting of the global compact.

The General Assembly will hold an intergovernmental conference on migration in Morocco later this year with a view to adopting the global compact.

Guterres sees the adoption of the compact as "one of our most important collective priorities for 2018."

"We have an opportunity to fashion, for the first time, a truly global response to migration. It is an opportunity to maximize the contribution that millions of migrants are already making to our societies and to agree on a set of actions to ensure that the rights of all migrants are fully respected," he told the General Assembly meeting.

As a blow to the global initiative, U.S. President Donald Trump decided in early December to end his country's participation in negotiations for the Global Compact on Migration, on the grounds that the initiative was inconsistent with U.S. immigration and refugee policies and his administration's immigration principles.

The United States is home to the largest number of international migrants in the world.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 05:48:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Palestine has joined Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), the Information Office of the UN at Geneva said Thursday.

Thus it has become the 94th High Contracting Party to the Protocol, the Office said, adding that it also joined the framework Convention in 2015 along with Protocol I on Non-Detectable Fragments and Protocol III on Incendiary Weapons.

Mouayed Saleh, President-designate of the 2018 Conference of the High Contracting Parties to Protocol V, welcomed the news of the Palestine's accession.

"I warmly welcome the States of Palestine's accession to CCW Protocol V and encourage more States to consider acceding to the Convention and its Protocols. I also invite those States that have yet to join to participate in the work of the Convention as observers," Saleh stated.

The purpose of the Convention and its Protocols is to ban or restrict the use of specific types of weapons that are considered to cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants or to affect civilians indiscriminately.

Protocol V establishes that States which participate in armed conflict have a responsibility to assist with the clearance of explosive remnants of war resulting from the conflict.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 05:48:24|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RABAT, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan police seized on Thursday 74 capsules filled with 1.395 kg of cocaine in the stomach of a Nigerian national at Morocco's Casablanca Airport.

The banned substance was extracted from the suspected drug trafficker at Ibn Rochd University Hospital, the police said in a statement.

The Nigerian national was arrested on his arrival in the Casablanca Airport on a flight from Brazil's Sao Paulo, the statement added.

The suspect was remanded in police custody pending the investigation under the supervision of the public prosecutor.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 05:48:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HAVANA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Cuban government will put into force a tax on the idleness of agricultural and forestry lands in the second semester of this year, as part of the efforts to increase the food production in the country.

Vladimir Regueiro, director of Revenue Policy of the Ministry of Finance and Prices (MFP), said that it is not a collection measure, but an instrument to encourage putting the land to produce, as cited on Thursday by the daily "Granma."

Regueiro informed that its gradual application is included in the Law 113 of the Tax System and requires the creation of technical and organizational conditions based on the controls of the land, the evaluation of its quality and level of exploitation.

The islands government owns 80 percent of the land and leases most of it to farmers and cooperatives. The rest is owned by private family farmers and their cooperatives.

He explained that the fixed amount to pay can be 180, 135, 90 and 45 pesos per hectare (equal to U.S. dollars), according to the category of the land, classified as first, second, third and fourth category.

The income collected from this tax will be used to develop the country's agricultural programs, stressed Regueiro.

Idle lands are considered those that are insufficiently used or not in agricultural, livestock or forestry production, except the land needed to rest, in order to rotate crops or covered with marabou, weeds or invasive plants, cleared out the official.

Cuba imports around 80 percent of the food to meet its domestic needs at a cost of about 2 billion U.S. dollars a year, mainly cereals and grains, and other items such as milk powder and chicken.

Since taking office in 2008 President Raul Castro considered food production as a "strategic sector" and convenes to produce in the country "everything that could be collected in our land."

In that sense he has implemented a package of measures to stimulate the interest in agriculture, such as delivering over a million of hectares of idle lands, providing bank loans with low interests to farmers, and diminishing taxes.

According to recent data from the Ministry of Agriculture, the country has an agricultural area of 6, 342,418 hectares, but around a million hectares are still idle, which represents 16 percent of the total.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 05:58:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday voiced concern over the security situation in West Africa and the Sahel region, particularly the threat of terrorism and violent extremism.

"Council members expressed their concern over remaining security challenges, including the threat of terrorism and violent extremism, as and when conducive to, terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel regions and their linkages to transnational organized crime," Kazakh ambassador to the United Nations Kairat Umarov, who serves as the president of the Secruity Council for this month, told reporters after closed-door consultations of the council.

The council members stressed the need to combat terrorism, including efforts to address conditions conducive to its spread, said Umarov.

They welcomed international efforts to mobilize support for the joint military force of the five Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

They expressed concern over widespread food insecurity, forced displacement and adverse effects of climate change and ecological changes that have negative impacts on the stability of the region, and called on the international community to support the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance for the population in need in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel regions.

The Sahel is the northernmost part of sub-Saharan Africa, a vast belt stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea.

Briefing the Security Council, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the UN secretary-general's special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, said that despite continuous progress, notably regarding democratic and peaceful political transitions, the security situation in the regions remains a matter of grave concern.

In Mali, terrorists launched a complex attack on the UN mission's positions in Kidal, resulting in the death of a peacekeeper. Two separate attacks on security posts were also registered in Burkina Faso near the Malian border, he said.

In the Sahel, the five countries have made significant progress with regard to their joint military force, Chambas noted.

The United Nations continues to pioneer the sustaining peace approach in the Gambia and Burkina Faso to ensure lasting peace and the consolidation of these young democracies, he said.

After the successful democratic elections in Liberia, Chambas said further attention now needs to be paid to forthcoming elections in Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 06:03:29|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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PARIS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday held talks with U.S. President Donald Trump via telephone, in which they discussed issues related to Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to the Elysee Palace.

In his conversation with Trump, Macron reiterated "the determination of France to support the strict implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and the importance of it being respected by all signatories," the president's office said in a press release.

"The proper implementation of the agreement should be accompanied by a strengthened dialogue with Iran on its ballistic program and its regional policy, in order to guarantee improved stability in the Middle East," it quoted Macron as saying.

In addition, Macron hailed the recent talks between DPRK and South Korea as "a positive signal".

"The continuation of the firm policy of the United Nations Security Council will bring about a political solution and move towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," the French president told his U.S. counterpart.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 06:18:32|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Thursday welcomed the latest report by UN chief on migration and urged world leaders to act to stop death, despair and abuse along migration trails.

"We are happy to see that the safety and dignity of all migrants -- of all people -- are prominent in the report," IFRC President Francesco Rocca said in a statement.

"It is our hope now that governments will adopt a Global Compact on Migration that delivers tangible, time-bound and compassionate outcomes for all migrants, regardless of their status," he said.

He added that the violence, abuse and death that people face when migrating are "preventable", stressing that migrants have the same human rights as everyone else.

"All people migrating should have unfettered access to essential services and humanitarian aid, as well as special protections for those most at risk, especially unaccompanied children," he highlighted.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday launched his report on migration in New York titled "Making Migration Work for All".

In the report, the UN chief showed his vision for constructive international cooperation on migration, and urged governments to treat migration as a positive global phenomenon and refrain from setting up barriers to legal international migration.
A file photo taken on September 10, 2016 shows the Independence square in Kiev, Ukraine. (Xinhua/Sputnik)

KIEV, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian authorities plan to invest about 11.4 billion U.S. dollars in the road infrastructure by 2023, local media reported Thursday, citing a government roadmap on roads upgrade.

The government's Conception of Road Infrastructure Development, which was published by the RBC-Ukraine online media outlet, said that about 55 percent of the sum will be allocated from the state budget.

Within the next five years, the Ukrainian authorities plan to modernize some 9,100 km of highways and build or completely renovate about 1,000 km of other roads.

The document said that the roads modernization will spur the Ukrainian economy, boost the country's transit potential and create 55,000 jobs.

According to the Ukrainian traffic authorities, the East European country has about 170,000 kilometers of roads, with more than half of them are in need of major renewal.

Last year, two Chinese companies, the private Xinjiang Communications Construction Group Co., Ltd. and the state-owned Sinohydro Corporation Ltd., won tenders to modernize three key highways in western, northern and central Ukraine.

The road upgrading projects carried out by the Chinese companies will start later this year.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 06:23:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A woman was bitten by a sea lion when she was swimming in the waters at San Francisco's Aquatic Park in westen U.S. Thursday in the fourth similar attack in about one month, the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) said.

The SFFD said in a Facebook post that it "responded to a reported sea lion attack at Aquatic Park. The responding SFFD Units located an adult female who was being cared for by a retired SFFD Paramedic on the shore."

It said the woman suffered a knee injury and a retired paramedic who was also swimming in the same area helped the victim back to shore where she received first-aid care.

An eye-witness said he saw the woman bleeding badly when she got out of the water.

Similar attacks occurred last month when two swimmers were bitten by sea lions in separate incidents.

In another attack on Dec. 15, a male swimmer suffered a "severe bite" on his thigh and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital.

The latest sea lion attack forced the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park to close the swimming spot for five days.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 06:23:33|Editor: Liangyu

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Yu Bing, a pipa (a four-stringed Chinese lute) player, performs Chinese music theater "Overload" at Asia Society in New York city, Jan. 11, 2018. Chinese music theater "Overload", a music-focused, interdisciplinary performance, was staged on Wednesday and Thursday at Asia Society in New York City. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

NEW YORK, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese music theater "Overload" was staged on Thursday at Asia Society in New York city.

The music theater is a music-focused, interdisciplinary performance created by Pipa (a four-stringed Chinese lute) player Yu Bing, who is joined by an ensemble of some of the most talented young musicians in China, playing both Chinese and western instruments.

"Overload," inspired by two traditional Chinese Pipa masterpieces: Ambush on All Sides and King Chu Doffs His Armor, tells the life story of Chinese warlord Xiang Yu and uses music to explore his inner world at different moments of his life.

Unlike other film and traditional Chinese opera adaptations, "Overlord" avoids focusing on retelling the whole life story of Xiang Yu. Instead it attempts to find the humanity inside this complex figure, which is often been portrayed as a ruthless leader, a notorious killer and a gruesome enemy.

"By exploring what Xiang Yu was thinking and feeling in the important moments of his life through music, what we really want to present are the emotions everybody goes through in daily life, such as happiness, anger, sadness, and panic," said Yu.

He said his team added contemporary vocabulary to traditional Chinese music when arranging it. When playing the Ambush on All Sides, the ensemble makes special emphasize on people shouting and creaming, and drum beating, in order to zoom in on brutality of the war.

When asked whether traditional Chinese music and ancient Chinese story would be difficult for foreigners to understand, Yu said, "Music knows no borders and emotions are universal."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 06:28:34|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ALGIERS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Tamazight-speaking community in Algeria were celebrating in joy their new year known as Yennayer after the government has finally recognized it as a public holiday.

This decision was taken on December 27 last year by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during a cabinet meeting devoted to the adoption of the budget law 2018.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced Yennayer a paid nonworking day on 12 January, indicated a statement from the President Office.

Yennayer is celebrated in Algeria and elsewhere in the North African region, including in Morocco, Tunisia and Libya.

Berber community, more known as Imazighen (free man), are celebrating Yennayer as the beginning of the agrarian calendar for the new year of 2968 corresponding to January 12 of the Gregorian calender.

The origin of the Amazigh calendar is still ambiguous, as some say it bears it origin from the day the Amazigh king Chachnaq was enthroned a pharaoh, after defeating Ramses III in 950 BC. Others say it is linked to an agrarian calendar.

But one thing is sure that the Berber community devote this day to showcase their rich cultural and artistic heritage, including through their traditional food, clothes and music.

On the eve of the festival, families, either Amazigh or Arab, gather convivially around traditional dinner hoping that the new year would be prosperous.

The Amazigh language and culture and the celebration of Yennayer are actually not specific to Algeria. The Imazighen community still inhabit today Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Mali and Niger. They also exist in the Canary Islands in Spain, in the oasis of Siwa in Egypt and also in northern Burkina Faso.

The recognition of the Amazigh language and identity as a constant of the Algerian nation, beside Arabic and Islam, as well as the consecration of Yennayer as a national public holiday, have been among the main claims of the civil rights movement in Algeria since the 1980s.

Progress has been made gradually, as the government decided to open the teaching of Tamazight since 1995, in 38 out of 48 Algerian provinces. For its part, the national media landscape has been strengthened by the launch of programs in Tamazight language, including the opening of TV channel broadcasting solely in Tamazight.

In 2016, Tamazight was established as a national and official language in the new constitution, after it was recognized as a national language in 2002.

Linguists and Berber militants admit that the promotion of Tamazight still has a long way to go, as they believe that the establishment of the Berber Academy of Algeria would extremely boost the process. Tamazight is also expected in the coming years to be taught in all the schools over Algeria, while official documents and statements have started being issued in this ancestral language.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with heads of Russian print media and news agencies in Moscow, Russia on January 11, 2018. (KREMLIN PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The recent attempted attacks by drones on Russia's military bases in Syria was a provocation aimed at destroying previous agreements and damaging relations between Russia, Turkey and Iran, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

"We know who they are, who paid who for this provocation and what the actual sum was...This kind of incidents...are provocations aimed at destroying previous agreements," Putin said at a meeting with heads of Russian print media and news agencies.

On Saturday, terrorists attempted to attack Russia's Hmeymim and Tartus military bases in Syria with 13 drones, which were either captured or destroyed by Russian servicemen.

The drone attack was also conducted in the purpose of undermining Russia's relations with Turkey and Iran, which are all guarantor states of the Syrian ceasefire regime, Putin said.

He stressed that the Turks, who control the Syrian province of Idlib from where the drones had been sent, were not involved in the attack.

According to the president, the drones were disguised as improvised devices while in fact involving high-tech elements.

"As for these attacks, they were undoubtedly well prepared. We know when and where these aerial vehicles were handed over (to the terrorists) and how many of them there were. These aerial vehicles were made to look like homemade. But it is absolutely obvious that some high-tech equipment was used," Putin said.

Moscow has taken additional measures to ensure the security of its military facilities in Syria, Putin added.

Earlier in the day, the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces released the results of the assessment of the captured drones in the attack, saying that the development and use of the drones required assembly schemes and necessary components previously tested for numerous times and involved "specialists who have received special training in countries producing and using systems with unmanned aerial vehicles."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 07:26:11|Editor: Liangyu

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A child is treated by a doctor at Beijing Children's Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 11, 2018. China's health authority has urged strengthened monitoring and treatment in face of the current influenza outbreak. The National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) in a circular asked medical organs at all levels to reserve enough antiviral medicines, and allocate medical resources and equipment such as respirators and monitors for timely treatment of severe cases. The commission also demanded close monitoring of the mutation of flu virus strains, and suggested schools have daily check-ups for students. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)
Once again it is time for reflections and resolutions. For China, which sailed through a difficult year safe and sound, and with government promises of a more efficient and open economy, the country is ready to start a new journey.
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YORK  The first court appearance  in York County -- for Barbara Jiron, 70, who is involved in what has been called the Christmas pot case, has been postponed for one week. She was initially scheduled to appear on Wednesday, Jan. 10. She is now scheduled to appear with her husband, Patrick, 80, on Wednesday, Jan. 17.

Her appearance here was continued after she and her husband were arrested in Lancaster County on Tuesday.

The California couple was first charged in late December when they were found to be in possession of 60 pounds of high grade marijuana estimated to have a street value of $336,000. This stop was initiated by York County Sheriffs deputies on Interstate 80 in York County.

At that time, the couple indicated that they did not know it was illegal to transport marijuana in Nebraska and that they were on their way to Vermont to give the marijuana away as Christmas presents.

Barbara Jiron was cited and not taken into custody due to health issues, according to York County Sheriffs Lt. Paul Vrbka.

Patrick Jiron was arrested and soon after posted 10 percent of his $100,000 bond.

This week, they were arrested again in western Lancaster County on Interstate 80. Lancaster County sheriffs deputies stopped the couples westbound pickup truck, saying it was following another vehicle too closely, according to Lancaster County Sheriffs Sgt. Jason Mayo.

A deputy made the stop, and their daughter was driving, Mayo said. A K-9 (service dog) was deployed and alerted to the presence of drugs.

A search of the couples 2016 Toyota Tacoma turned up a little over $18,000 in cash that tested positive for a strong odor of marijuana, Mayo said. The couple signed whats known as an abandonment form stating they do not claim the money as their own, he said.

The Jirons were booked into the Lancaster County Jail. Each paid 10 percent of $2,500 bail and was released. Their daughter, a Vermont resident, was not arrested.

A court hearing was scheduled in Lancaster County for Wednesday, Jan. 10.
York Police Department

 Monday at 9:22 a.m., report of a dog running loose on S. Hutchins Ave.

 Monday at 10:16 a.m., received information regarding a vulnerable adult.

 Monday at 10:45 a.m., report that someone was being physically harassed on N. Grant Ave.

 Monday at 1:12 p.m., report of a medical emergency on N. Lincoln Ave.

 Monday at 1:35 p.m., and 1:48 p.m., reports of dogs running loose.

 Monday at 3:28 p.m., report of physical harassment.

 Monday at 4:18 p.m., report of a parking complaint on S. Lincoln Ave.

 Monday at 5:26 p.m., report of a theft on Holen Ave.

 Monday at 6:18 p.m., received information regarding controlled substances.

 Monday at 6:58 p.m., report of suspicious activity on E. 19th St.

 Monday at 7:54 p.m., report of a probation violation on N. Grant Ave.

 Monday at 8:54 p.m., report that a dog was running loose on N. Platte Ave.

 Monday at 9:24 p.m., report that someone was drinking in public.

 Monday at 11:05 p.m., report of a parking complaint on N. Nebraska Ave.

 Tuesday at 11:49 a.m., report of a traffic-related situation on N. Lincoln Ave.

 Tuesday at 1:09 p.m., assisted the fire department on N. Division Ave., regarding an anhydrous leak.

 Tuesday at 1:38 p.m., report of a traffic-related situation on N. Platte Ave.

 Tuesday at 2:50 p.m., report of a medical emergency on N. Lincoln Ave.

 Tuesday at 4:32 p.m., report of a traffic-related situation on N. Platte Ave.

 Tuesday at 5:10 p.m., report of a theft on W. Eighth St.

 Tuesday at 5:57 p.m., report of a domestic dispute on N. Grant Ave.

 Tuesday at 7:12 p.m., report of a juvenile-related situation on N. Pennsylvania Ave.

 Wednesday at 2:28 a.m., report of suspicious activity on N. Grant Ave.

 Wednesday at 2:50 a.m., report of suspicious activity on S. Lincoln Ave.

 Wednesday at 2:54 a.m., checked on the welfare of a pedestrian on W. 11th St.

York County Sheriffs Department

 Tuesday at 7:13 a.m., assisted a motorist in the York area.

 Tuesday at noon, assisted a motorist.

 Tuesday at 12:50 p.m., report of traffic offenses.

 Tuesday at 2:46 p.m., report of a medical emergency in the York area.

 Tuesday at 2:55 p.m., report of a dog running loose in the York area.

 Tuesday at 4 p.m., report of suspicious activity in the Benedict area.

 Tuesday at 5:15 p.m., report of a domestic dispute in the McCool area.

 Tuesday at 6:53 p.m., report of suspicious activity in the Gresham area.

 Tuesday at 8:22 p.m., report of a juvenile-related situation in the York area.
This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism.

We hope you are equally as excited as us.

This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers.

Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited.

In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy.

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As a homeowner, you probably already know that you should be working to maintain your home. But, chances are, you Read More
Cum tin vedetele Postul Craciunului? Carmen Bruma si Sofia Vicoveanca, sfaturi pe care le poti urma si tu

A inceput postul Craciunului, asa ca timp de 40 de zile toti credinciosii vor incerca sa fie mai buni, mai smeriti si mai atenti cu meniul, pentru ca vor fi nevoiti sa lase deoparte [citeste mai departe]
Mumbai: Sanjay Leela Bhansalis upcoming film starring Deepika Padukone (as Rani Padmavati), Shahid Kapoor (as Maharawal Ratan Singh) and Ranveer Singh (as Alauddin Khilji) has been officially retitled Padmaavat. The official Twitter handle of the film has been changed to @filmpadmaavat. Bhansali's film (initially titled Padmavati ) was slated to hit the silverscreen on December 1 last year.

But the producers of the mega-budget film decided to postpone its release after several Rajput organisations landed on the streets across the nation to protest against the film. Moreover, the film hadnt received a certificate for screening from the Central Board of Film Certification.

The long-drawn battle between the makers of the film and the CBFC ended on December 28 last year after the CBFC decided to give U/A certificate to the period drama.

There were reports suggesting that the CBFC had recommended 300 cuts but the makers refuted rumours by calling them baseless.

Now, the makers of the controversial film have issued a statement to clarify their position and announce the release date.

Brushing aside reports that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had suggested 300 cuts, the producers Wednesday said only five "modifications" were recommended by the censor board which they have accepted and implemented.

"We appreciate the balanced and considered approach that CBFC has taken to address this situation. They had suggested five modifications," Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd said in a statement issued here on January 10.

The modifications suggested by the CBFC comprised changing the disclaimer, assigning title Padmaavat and amending Ghoomar song.

"Change the disclaimer to one that clearly does not claim historical accuracy. The title is to be changed from Padmavati to Padmaavat as the filmmakers have attributed their creative source as the fictional poem Padmaavat and not history.

"Modifications to the song Ghoomar to make the depiction befitting to the character being portrayed. Modifications to the incorrect/misleading reference to historical places. Addition of a disclaimer which clearly makes the point that the film in no manner subscribes to the practice of Sati or seeks to glorify it," the statement said.

It said the Bhansali Productions and Viacom18 Motion Pictures, as producers, have accepted and have made all the above changes.

We believe that these changes are in line with the filmic depiction of the story we wanted to tell. We firmly deny all speculation on extensive cuts to the film and want to reiterate that only the above changes and disclaimers (as) per guidance of the CBFC have been made. We have full faith in the CBFC and in the transparent, fair and inclusive process that has been followed," it said.

The film which is now slated to release on January 25 also stars Aditi Rao Hydari, Jim Sarbh, Anupriya Goenka and Raza Murad in pivotal roles.

The CBFC has given the nod for the release but the state government of Rajasthan has decided to ban Padmaavat. The Rajput Karni Sena protesting against the film threatened that it will impose a "public curfew" in theatres if the controversial movie is released.

The group reiterated its demand for a "complete ban" on the film. Its leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi alleged that history was being tinkered with and there was no room for a compromise with the filmmakers on the issue.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's directorial venture Padmaavat (earlier, Padmavati) has been surrounded by controversies ever since its inception. The movie was recently cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) which suggested some modifications after massive protests by Rajput community stalled the film release.

However, as per latest reports, Karni Sena President Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi has now threatened to gherao the CBFC office on January 12, 2018.

Targetting the Censor Board and its decision to release the film, Sukhdev said, "The CBFC which has been running ever since the time of Britishers doesn't know how to work."

The Karni Sena also demands the resignation of Prasoon Joshi, the chairman of Central Board of Film Certification.

"From the past one and a half year, we have been talking peacefully but now it is time to take up the path of aggression", said Sukhdev.

The number of people coming forward to gherao the CBFC office in Mumbai is expected to be in thousands or even lakhs for that matter.Reportedly, the Karni Sena members are planning to gherao the CBFC office at around 11:00 am.

The members of the Karni Sena want a complete ban of the film Padmaavat. They have maintained that removing the 'i' from the title isn't enough.

The Rajput outfit had first expressed concern after Ranveer Singh -- one of the three lead actors of the movie -- made a casual statement back in July 2016. He was reportedly asked if he was playing the role of a villain in the film, and he had said that he could go two notches beyond playing the role of a villain if he was given two intimate scenes with the film's leading lady Deepika Padukone.

This led to questioning whether the movie showcases any intimacy between Khilji and Rani Padmavati. Subsequently, activists of Karni Sena even assaulted Bhansali on the film's set in Jaipur and another set in Kolhapur was vandalised.

Bhansali and Viacom18 Pictures have been facing numerous hurdles in releasing the movie which, the director has said, is based on 16th-century Indian Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi's epic poem Padmavat.

The censor board gave it the green signal with a U/A certification in consultation with a three-member advisory panel.

Dismissing it as hogwash, Kalvi questioned why it was shown to three people when there was talk about having a nine-member panel.
New Delhi: Bilal Ahmad Kawa, a suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist, wanted for his alleged role in 2000 Red Fort terror attack case, was on Thursday sent to a 10-day police remand by a Delhi court.

Bilal was apprehended by the Special Cell of Delhi Police and Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), in a joint operation at the Delhi airport on Wednesday night.

The 37-year-old Bilal was apprehended after the Gujarat ATS got a tip-off regarding his movement from Srinagar to Delhi.

On December 22, 2000, terrorists linked to LeT had sneaked into the Red Fort and opened indiscriminate fire on the guards of the 7th battalion of Rajputana Rifles, killing three persons, including a civilian.

The terrorists had managed to flee through the Fort's rear wall.

Earlier, terrorist Mohammad Arif alias Ashfaq, who was convicted in the case, had been awarded death sentence.

(With ANI inputs)
New Delhi: Retired justice Shiv Narayan Dhingra will head the new committee that will re-investigate 186 closed cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Retired IAS officer Rajdeep Singh and IPS officer Avishek Dullar will be other two members of the committee that will re-investigate the cases.

The committee has been directed to file an interim report within two months in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court yesterday ordered a re-investigation of 186 cases that were closed earlier by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The court will hear the matter next on March 19.

(With ANI inputs)
Ghaziabad: In a shocking case, a seven-year-old boy died on Thursday after being brutally beaten up in Ghaziabad.

The boy was allegedly beaten up in the school premises.

The parents the boy have claimed that the child was beaten up at school. The school principal has however denied all allegations.

7-year-old student of a #Ghaziabad school passes away at a hospital in Delhi. Family alleges it happened because he was beaten up at school, principal of the school denies allegations. Police probe underway. pic.twitter.com/8GcvxWQ6tz  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 11, 2018

The police have launched an investigation into the case.

On September 8, 2017, seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur was found murdered with his throat slit, inside the Ryan Internation School in Gurugram. Two months later, a 16-year-old Class 11 student of the same school was arrested for the crime. The incident had sparked a massive outrage across the country, with several safety-related rules being introduced by the Centre in schools.

In another case, a 10-year-old child died after allegedly after falling down at G D Goenka Public School in Indirapuram in August, 2017, Tuesday.
New Delhi: The Election Commission is expected to announce on Friday dates for ensuing assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

According to reports, the full team of the Election Commission had already visited the three states to make a final assessment.

A four-member EC team led by Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain had visited Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya and held a series of meetings with the leaders of various political parties and asked them to make all preparations in place for the upcoming assembly polls.

Reports quoted an official source as saying that the poll watchdog is likely to make a formal announcement on Friday.

The five-year term of the state assemblies in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, with 60 seats each, would expire on March 6, 13, and 14, respectively.

The Left Front rules in Tripura, Congress holds power in Meghalaya, while the Naga Peoples Front-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland rules in Nagaland.

The Democratic Alliance is supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Jerusalem: Not disheartened by India's vote against Israel at the UN General Assembly on the issue of Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed hope that bilateral ties would receive a further boost during his milestone visit to the country.

India in December voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the US for its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Netanyahu, who would be leaving for India on January 14, said: "Well I would have preferred a different vote to be frank but I don't think it materially changes the tremendous flowering of relations between India and Israel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also visited the Jewish state in July, becoming the first Indian premier to do so.

"I think everybody can see that. Prime Minister Modi's visit was a very important milestone in that. My visit to India is the other one," Netanyahu said addressing the Government

Press Office's annual end-of-year reception for the foreign press corps yesterday.

When asked about the impact of India's recent decision to cancel a half a billion dollars defence deal related to development of spike antitank guided missiles, the Israeli leader said, "I think you are going to see an expansion of economic and other ties regardless of this or that deal".

Pointing towards the tremendous strengthening of ties on all fronts, Netanyahu expressed optimism saying, "overtime I hope I will see a reflection of that more often in the voting of India in international forums.

"It does not nullify the fact that with India, with other countries in Latin America and Africa there is a tremendous increase of relations on all fronts," the Israeli Prime Minister noted.

"It just takes longer on the international front," he stressed.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had a narrow escape on Thursday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders were going in a helicopter to attend an event in Mira Road near Mumbai.

The helicopter was slated to land on a school premises, but while landing, the pilot spotted a wire and pulled the chopper back. He landed the chopper safely at a nearby spot.

This is not the first time that Fadnavis has escaped helicopter mishaps.

In July 2017, Fadnavis helicopter had escaped an accident.

His chopper also had a crash landing in Latur in May 2017. In the same month, his helicopter failed to take off at Gadchiroli in Maharashtra due to technical fault.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium has recommended the name of senior advocate Indu Malhotra as the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as a judge of the apex court, sources said today.

Along with her, Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K M Joseph, who was part of the bench which in 2016 had quashed the imposition of President's Rule in the state, has also been cleared for elevation to the apex court.

At a meeting held on January 10, the collegium also recommended the name of Justice Sheo Kumar Singh-I, presently an Additional Judge, for appointment as a Permanent Judge of the Allahabad High Court.

Justice Joseph was appointed as Permanent Judge of the Kerala High Court in 2004 and later transferred to Uttarakhand High Court where he assumed charge in 2014 as Chief Justice.

Malhotra, who was designated as a senior advocate in 2007, would be the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as a judge of the top court, instead of being elevated from a high court.

She will be the seventh woman judge since independence to make it to the Supreme Court. At present, Justice R Banumathi is the lone woman judge in the apex court.

Since Independence, only six women judges have made it to the apex court as judges and the first appointment was of Justice M Fathima Beevi in 1989, 39 years after the setting up of the Supreme Court in 1950.

Justice Fathima Beevi was elevated to the apex court after her retirement as judge of the Kerala High Court. After serving the top court till April 29, 1992, she was later appointed as the Governor of Tamil Nadu.

The second woman judge in the Supreme Court was Justice Sujata V Manohar who started her career as a judge from the Bombay High Court and rose to become the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court. She was elevated to the apex court where she remained from November 8, 1994 till August 27, 1999.

Justice Ruma Pal followed Manohar after a gap of almost five months and became the longest-serving woman judge from January 28, 2000 to June 2, 2006.

After her retirement, it took four years to appoint the next woman judge. Justice Gyan Sudha Misra was elevated to the Supreme Court from Jharkhand High Court where she was the Chief Justice. Her tenure in the apex court was from April 30, 2010 to April 27, 2014.

During her stint, she was joined by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, who served the apex court between September 13, 2011 to October 29, 2014. These two judges also created a history by holding the court together as an all-women bench for a day in 2013.

Justice Banumathi, who at present is the only sitting woman judge, had joined on August 13, 2014 and would retire on July 19, 2020.

In the 67-year history of the Supreme Court, there have been only two occasions when it has had two sitting women judges together, the first being Justices Misra and Desai and later Justices Desai and Banumathi.

The Collegium is headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and has four senior-most judges of the apex court -- Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.
New Delhi: Aijaz Ahmed Pir, a People's Democratic Party (PDP) MLA, courted controversy on Thursday when he said terrorism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir are martyrs.

Speaking to members of the press, Pir said that many militants active in the state are minors and are not aware of the consequences of their action. "Terrorists who are from Kashmir are martyrs, they are our brothers," said Pir. "Some of them are minors who don't even know what they are doing. We should not celebrate the killing of terrorists. It is our collective failure."

Pir however also sympathised with security personnel killed in the battle against terrorism. "We feel sad when our security forces are martyred as well. We should sympathize with parents of security jawans and with parents of terrorists as well," he said.

His comments, however, drew a sharp reaction from BJP which is in alliance with PDP in the state. "Terrorists and separatists are enemies of Kashmir, Kashmiris, development and peace. How can they be someone's brother?" asked Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti a day earlier had said that her government is working on convincing youth in the state to not go astray. "Young boys get glorified by taking arms in their hand and uploading the picture on social media sites. My effort is that the local militants should get back," she had said. The PDP chief also thanked parents who, she said, are increasingly playing an active role in ensuring their children do not take up arms. "We are thankful to the parents who are appealing to their wards to return from the path of militancy. Many a youth had returned and we are not harassing them. We are happy that they are coming back."

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre and the Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments to set up three separate committees to exclusively deal with any "unpredictable" disaster that may occur at the site of the over 180-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, however, clarified that the proposed panels would only deal with the disaster aspect of the dam situated in Kerala.

It made clear that the issues relating to safety and life span of the historic dam would continue to be dealt with by an existing panel, which was set up following the five-judge Constitution bench verdict in 2014.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by Kerala-based Russel Joy, seeking a direction to authorities concerned that a study be conducted by international experts on the issue of safety and life span of the dam.

He has also sought decommissioning of the dam on the ground that it has become too old and the right to life of persons residing in the downstream area has been infringed.

Over three million residents who live near the dam are in constant fear that any disaster may hit them in the near future.

The bench considered the plea and disposed it after directing the three governments to set up separate panels to deal with any impending disaster.
Here's a quick look at the top news of the day:

Pakistani Army runs for cover, ISI worried with India's strong response to border firing: Report

The ISI is finding it extremely difficult to execute its anti-India agenda in the wake of a deadly response from the Indian security forces. Read more



Salman gets escorted to home by cops after threat disrupts shoot in Mumbai

Producer Ramesh Taurani has reportedly beefed up security cover on the sets of Race 3. Read more



Former election commissioner TN Seshan lives in an old age home in Chennai

T N Seshan, former Chief Election Commissioner who is credited for reforming the electoral polity in India, is currently living in an old age home in Chennai. Read more



Padmaavat Row: Karni Sena to gherao CBFC office

As per latest reports, Karni Sena President Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi has now threatened to gherao the CBFC office on January 12, 2018. Read more



Defiant Pakistan suspends intel-military ties with US, says 'don't threaten or intimidate'

The statement comes days after Trump administration blocked the $255 million military aid. Read more



UIDAI allows Airtel Aadhaar-based verification till March 31

To avoid a repeat of Bharti Airtel-type fiasco, the UIDAI last month directed banks to seek an explicit consent of the beneficiary before changing the account to which the government subsidy is being remitted. Read more


New Delhi: A swift and strong response from the Indian Army and the Border Security Force (BSF) to the cross-border firing has forced the Pakistani troops to 'run for cover' and left its notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) worried about the growing casualties of its officers and jawans.

According to the inputs gathered by the intelligence agencies and accessed by the Zee Media, the ISI is finding it extremely difficult to execute its anti-India agenda in the wake of a deadly response from the Indian security forces.

Significantly, heightened border monitoring and aerial surveillance by the Indian security forces has further forced Pakistan's notorious Border Action Team (BAT) to shelve its plan to carry out lethal sniper attacks targeting the Indian troops and border outposts.

This comes in the wake of reports that the Indian Army killed at least 138 Pakistan Army personnel in 2017 in tactical operations and retaliatory cross-border firings along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

The ISI top brass recently held a secret meeting in Rawalpindi with the senior Pakistani Army officers and the bosses of several terrorist outfits to chalk out a strategy to counter the Indian response.

It has also come to light that during the meeting, the LeT and other terror outfits expressed grave concerns over the heavy loss suffered by them due to the counter-terror operations launched by the Indian Armed in the Kashmir Valley.

The ISI and the Pakistani Army is also reportedly worried about the scale and ferocity of the Indian response after every attack on its border outpost and troops by the Pakistan Rangers at Line of Control and the International Border.

The ISI has reasons to worry especially after the Indian Army's surgical strikes against suspected militants along the Line of Control in September 2016 during which several terror base camps were completely destroyed.

Given a complete freedom by the Narendra Modi government, the Indian Army and BSF are hitting back at will from every spot the Pakistanis have targeted.

The volume and intensity of Indias return fire is much higher than the usual calibrated response the Pakistanis have come to expect, and that's what the ISI is worried about.

Indian forces are systematically targeting infrastructure and force deployment nodes on the other side.

The damage on the other side is so high that Pakistan, according to an internal report sent to South Block by the Indian mission in Islamabad, is ducking for cover.

Moreover, to give a befitting reply to Pakistan, the BSF has recently launched ''Operation Arjun'' and targeting farms and residences of retired Pakistan Army, ISI and Pakistan Rangers officers alongside the Indian border.

The operation is being seen as BSF's strong response to Pakistan's tactic of firing on civilians, shelling villages along the border, and use of snipers to kill jawans.

The BSF's action includes targeting farms and residences of retired Pakistan Army, ISI and Pakistan Rangers officers who have been allotted land near the Indian border so that they can guide infiltration and provide logistical help in anti-India operations, according to a report.

Meanwhile, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had, on many occasions, too warned that the Indian troops will conduct another surgical strike, whenever the situation warrants.

(With Agency inputs)
NEW DELHI: Hours after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari accused the Indian Navy of "creating roadblocks" in development projects of Mumbai, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala slammed the minister for insulting the Navy and questioning their valour and dedication.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader wrote:

Shameful & Unacceptable!



Ex BJP President & Union Minister, Nitin Gadkari insults Indian Navy, questions their valour and dedication.



Pseudo-Nationalist BJP now wants to issue certificates of loyalty to Indias armed forces. https://t.co/Rm9B4WAdPR  Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) January 11, 2018

The Road, Shipping and Transport minister on Thursday launched an attack on the Indian Navy for opposing the plans of a floating jetty at Mumbai's Nariman Point.

"What does the Navy have to do with Malabar Hill (in south Mumbai). They should be guarding the borders of the country," Gadkari said while speaking at a function in Mumbai.

''Navy is needed at the borders, from where terrorists come, why does everyone (in Navy) want to live in South Mumbai,' he added.

Gadkari went on to say "not an inch" of land would be given to Navy to build flats or quarters in the area.

"We respect you, but you should go to the Pakistan border... Land on the eastern seafront is being developed by the state government and Mumbai Port Trust which will be for the benefit of local citizens," Gadkari added.
New Delhi: At a time when India has very nearly forgotten that most humble Prime Minister that India has had since independence, a man who was tough, a man who could have changed this country and guided it to its destiny, a man who died soon after signing an accord in Tashkent in January of 1966 - Lal Bahadur Shastri, each year, I mourn quietly and remember that fateful night when the telephone rang in my hotel room at the dead of night and the caller at the other end announced " Your Prime Minister is Dead".

Please come down as soon as you can. I was stunned - could not believe - the words that came out of my mouth, "they killed him". Who were they and why did I say that I have wondered ever since.

There were no special planes those days like Air India One these days for Prime Ministers.

Shastriji and his entourage, both official and media men like me, flew on the commercial Air India flight that was diverted to Tashkent to cover what was supposed to be historic talks between India and Pakistan mediated by the then Soviet Union.



The Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union was then at its peak.

Following the terrible defeat that India had suffered at China's hands in its border war in 1962, it had been a dream for Gen Ayub Khan of Pakistan to wrest Jammu and Kashmir, which he thought he could easily do with the Indian Army still equipped with World War 2 weaponry and his forces armed to the teeth with the latest American weapons.

Little did he realise that Nehru before his death had done his best to re-equip the defence forces and keep Ayub Khan at bay diplomatically while he did so.

With Nehru's passing away in May 1964, Ayub did not think much of diminutive Shastriji. He began his adventure in the Raan of Kutch and seeing success in an area devoid of any earlier military confrontation, he then began his Operation Gibraltar in Kashmir hoping to wrest that state quickly.

Ayub's adventure failed when he found a man of steel in India's Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who ordered his army to attack mainland Pakistan. For the first time in its history post independence, India crossed its borders to attack another nation.

Soon, we were deep inside Pakistan. I covered that war on the outskirts of Sialkot in Pakistan and then reached the Ichhogil Canal outside Lahore when a cease-fire was called.

In the meanwhile, the Indian Army had wrested the strategic Haji Pir Pass in Kashmir, which I climbed with the Indian Army as it advanced. Pakistan had suffered a humiliating defeat. Ayub's Presidency was now under threat.

Hoping to wean away Pakistan from the United States, the Soviet Union, a friend of India intervened and made India agree to negotiate a settlement with Pakistan. Thus came about the Tashkent talks, something that the Prime Minister and his Defence Minister YB Chavan were not very keen on at that time.

But South Block's mandarins succeeded in convincing them, and India agreed to hold talks in Tashkent.

It was freezing cold in the month of January in Tashkent, temperatures were well below zero. The weather was harsh and it was not good for Shastriji's health, yet he was there with his Defence Minister YB Chavan and Foreign Minister Sardar Swarn Singh and a whole lot of senior civil and military officials.

The talks proceeded as expected. India refusing to cede any territory in Kashmir. However, we could clearly see the pressure that the Soviet Union was putting on India to relent.

Those days journalists did not face a kind of restrictive access that is faced by them these days. Men like me had complete access to the 'Dacha' of the Prime Minister and could see what was going on.

As the talks stalled, I distinctly remember Soviet Foreign Minister Alexei Kosygin arriving at Shashtriji's 'dacha'. We were all, of course, outside in the lawns with both Ministers YB Chavan and Sardar Swarn Singh also there. Kosygin made a beeline for Swarn Singh and took him aside. I heard Kosygin distinctly asking Swarn Singh to get the agreement signed. In his suave and polite way, Swarn Singh replied some words to the effect "how can I impose my opinion on him, he decides."

Kosygin left after a while - disappointed.

A day later, we knew that the talks had failed. Shastriji was willing to vacate mainland Pakistani areas that India had captured, but was not willing to vacate any territory of Kashmir retaken by India.

Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India. Pakistan wanted the strategic Haji Pir back along with other areas lost by it. The Indian Army was firmly against Haji Pir being ceded as it is the route from where infiltration takes place into Kashmir.

With Shastriji unwilling to concede and pressure mounting on him, the Indian delegation announced that it was going back. On 10th January, we all went out for shopping as talks had been abandoned and the next day we were scheduled to fly out.

Suddenly hordes of Soviet information officials came rushing to the market areas to announce that an accord was to be signed and asked all of us to get back to the venue.

None of us could believe what had happened in the intervening period. What were the pressures worked on India?

The Tashkent Accord was concluded - India had ceded the Haji Pir Pass along with all other territories it had captured. A victory was now turned into status quo ante.

At the evening reception held by the Soviets, this author and NS Thapa of the Films Division walked up to Shastriji to request him if we could come to the dacha, later on, to get some shots of him at work.

It was around ten at night, or maybe a little later, that we reached Shastriji's Dacha and the famous silhouette shots of him pacing up and down inside his Dacha were filmed apart from few others. Shastri looked very tired and lost.

Coming back to the hotel and then receiving that call in the dead of night seems so long away. Next day, as we stood in the open and in freezing temperatures waiting for the body to arrive, the ministers had worked out special flights to take the body and the delegation back.

To constant enquiry as to what happened and who was there when he died sadly one heard that even the security officer of Shastriji was not around in the Dacha, nor was his doctor and that India's second Prime Minister had died of a massive heart attack in the arms of a Soviet guard outside his room! Why?

What were the pressures put on the Prime Minister of India that claimed his life? Was it the Soviet Union's ploy to win Pakistan away from the United States in its Cold War that killed Shastriji? Who were the mandarins at the Foreign Office who carried out the Soviet Union's wishes to pressure the Prime Minister to sign?

The mystery remains because no one has seen till today any archive papers of Indian delegations inner talks at Tashkent. Have those documents been destroyed? No one tells. The mystery continues.

The author of this article is the Chairman of ANI, Mr Prem Prakash.
Washington: The United States Administration of President Donald Trump has warned Americans to exercise maximum caution while travelling to India due to a spurt in crime and terrorism.

The advisory has been issued by the US State Department, which asked the American citizens to avoid going to Jammu and Kashmir except for the Buddhist-dominated region of Ladakh.

The State Department had on Wednesday launched improvements on sharing information with US travellers to provide clear, timely and reliable safety and security information.

"Exercise increased caution in India due to crime and terrorism. Some areas have increased risk," the State Department advisory said.

It asked Americans not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir (except Ladakh region and its capital Leh) due to terrorism and civil unrest.

It also warned of potential armed conflict within 10 km of the India-Pakistan border in the state.

"The Indian authorities report rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. Violent crime, such as sexual assault, has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations," the advisory said.

"Terrorist or armed groups are active in East Central India, primarily in rural areas," the advisory said, referring to the armed Naxalites.

"Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets and shopping malls and local government facilities,'''it said.

"The US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens in rural areas from eastern Maharashtra and northern Telangana through western West Bengal as US government employees must obtain special authorization to travel to these areas," it said.

The advisory further suggested that Americans desiring to visit India must not travel alone, particularly if they were women.

"US citizens who travel abroad should always have a contingency plan for emergency situations,'' the advisory said.

"Due to the fluid nature of the threat, all US government travellers to states with Naxalite activity must receive special authorization from the US Consulate responsible for the area to be visited. US officials travelling only to the capital cities in these states do not need prior authorization," it added.

(With IANS inputs)
New Delhi: India's first-all women sailing crew recently encountered a menacing storm en route Falkland Islands but displayed exemplary courage and skill to navigate their way to safety.

The Indian Navy released a video of the team of six women naval officers who encountered a storm on the Pacific Islands. The video sends shivers down the spine as the women can be seen masterfully steering a swaying their 17-metre yacht - INSV Tarini, under the battering rain.

#WATCH: 6 women naval officers on INSV Tarini, trained at Ocean Sailing Node, brave their way through a storm in the Pacific Ocean while on the way to Falkland Islands (08.01.2018) (Source: Indian Navy) pic.twitter.com/j3uAm7b8bS  ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018

The team - under Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, had left India from Goa for their historic journey in September of last year. The team has already made stops in Australia and New Zealand, and will next make stops at Falkland Islands and South Africa before their scheduled return in March.

The women had told members of the Indian press during the flag-off ceremony that they wish to inspire other women to achieve their dreams even if it seemed impossible. They also said they want to instill a spirit of adventure in every Indian through their epic journey.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, party general secretaries and senior leaders on Thursday evening in the national capital.

The PM will also host a dinner for his party colleagues.

The meeting comes ahead of crucial Assembly elections, which would be held in 2018.

Karnataka, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tripura and Chhattisgarh will go to polls this year.

While Tripura and Meghalaya are expected to witness polls in February, Karnataka will go to polls in May 2018.

According to sources, the Prime Minister will discuss about the political scenario in different states. Besides, he will also discuss the status of different government schemes. The loopholes and highlights of different schemes will also be discussed.

Meanwhile, reports said that the BJP is expected to target those voters, who were born in year 2000. It is estimated that such voters are more than 2 crore in numbers. The social media team of the BJP is working hard to woo these first time voters in Lok Sabha elections.

A mobile application will also be brought for the purpose. The name of the app is expected to be Millennium Vote Campaign and is slated to be launched on January 18.

Reports said that the app will not just add new voters, but will also provide them information on voter identity card.

Notably, in his last Mann Ki Baat radio show episode, PM Modi had talked about youngsters who will become eligible to vote in 2018.

"We welcome those born in the 21st century to the democratic system as they will become eligible voters," he had said.

Asking the youngsters to take part in the political system, he encouraged them to take a lead in making mock Parliaments to discuss issues. "We can have mock Parliaments in our districts, where we discuss how to make development a mass movement and transform India. The New India Youth must take a lead in this," he said.
New Delhi: The BJP today sought to draw a parallel between Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Hafiz Saeed, the founder of terror outfit LeT, saying the Congress leader in his attack on the BJP and the RSS echoed Saeed's views.

"Desperation and frustration of Siddaramaiah is evident. For vote bank politics, he is making senseless charges against the BJP and the RSS, and echoing views of Hafiz Saeed who considers India, BJP, RSS terrorists," BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said, seeking his apology.

He wondered if the Congress leader would join Saeed's new party after polls. Pakistan-based Saeed had recently announced to launch his own political party.

Rao's attack at the Karnataka chief minister after the latter called the BJP and the RSS "Hindu extremists".

The BJP has been making a strong bid to dethrone him from power. Its president Amit Shah had yesterday accused the state government of pursuing anti-Hindu policies.

Rao also tweeted Saeed's comments in which he had called the BJP and the RSS "terrorist outfits" to claim that Siddaramaiah echoed his views.

Siddaramaiah had yesterday alleged that the BJP and the RSS had terrorists among their ranks.

Speaking to reporters today, Siddaramaiah said, "I had said they are Hindutva terrorists. I am also a Hindu, but I'm a Hindu with humanity, they are Hindus without humanity. That is the difference between me and... (them)."

"Look at these statements, one by Hafiz Saeed & the other by Siddaramaiah. Karnataka CM is echoing views of Hafiz Saeed. Uncannily similar thinking or deliberate attempt to divert focus from misgovernance? CM should apologise," Rao of the BJP said.
KOCHI: The Kerala Police have arrested three Rohingya refugees on charges of committing robbery in Ernakulam district of the state.

The police also recovered all the stolen valuables from them.

More details awaited.
Mumbai: Three owners of '1 Above' pub who were arrested by the Mumbai Police in connection with the devastating fire at the Kamala Mills Compound on December 29 were on Thursday remanded to police custody till January 17.

The three pub owners - Jigar Sanghvi, Kripesh Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar  were produced before the Bhoiwada Court today.

The Sanghvis and their partner Abhijeet Mankar were absconding till they were arrested by the Mumbai Police on Wednesday.

They had gone underground after they were charged with culpable homicide in connection with the Kamala Mills Compound fire mishap that left 14 people dead and several injured.

Earlier on Saturday, the Mumbai Police had arrested Yug K Pathak, the son of a retired DGP-rank IPS officer and the co-owner of The Mojo's Bistro, one of the two restro-bars where the massive blaze took place on December 29.

Prior to Pathak's arrest, two managers of '1 Above' pub Kevin Bawa and Lisbon Lopez were also arrested in connection with the fire tragedy.

An offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under sections 304, 337, 338, 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the three owners of '1 Above' at the NM Joshi Marg Police Station following the incident.

Earlier on December 31, the police arrested two relatives of the absconding Sanghavi duo - uncle Rakesh Sanghavi and cousin Aditya Sanghavi - for giving shelter to the co-owners of 1Above pub, Kripesh Sanghavi and Jigar Sanghavi, against whom a reward was announced.

The uncle-cousin (Rakesh Sanghavi and Aditya Sanghavi) were produced before the Bhoiwada Court and released on a bail of Rs 25,000.

Mumbai's fire department, in its report, said that a lit charcoal used in a hookah at Mojo's Bistro Restaurant caused the blaze, which then spread to '1 Above' pub.

The department further claimed that Mojo's Bistro pub could not produce the required documents required to run a pub.

Juhu-based hotelier Vishal Kariya was arrested for sheltering three owners of 1 Above pub.

(With Agency inputs)
MUMBAI: The absconding owners of 1 Above restaurant Jigar Sanghvi, Kripesh Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar have been arrested by the Mumbai Police in connection with the Kamala Mills Compound fire tragedy.

The Sanghvis and their partner Abhijeet Mankar had gone underground after police charged them with culpable homicide.

Earlier, the police on Saturday arrested Yug K Pathak, the son of a retired DGP-rank IPS officer and the co-owner of The Mojo's Bistro, where 14 people were killed in a fire on December 29.

Prior to Pathak's arrest, two managers of '1 Above' pub Kevin Bawa and Lisbon Lopez were also arrested in connection with the fire tragedy.

Meanwhile, the police on Thursday seized a car of one of Mojo's Bistro owners Yug Tuli from his grandfather's house in Hyderabad. Tuli is one of the owners of Mojo's Bistro, the pub where the deadly December 29 fire broke out. On Wednesday, a CCTV grab showed him along with his wife at the Hyderabad airport.

Car of one of Mojo's Bistro owners Yug Tuli has been seized from his grandfather's house in Hyderabad #KamalaMillsFire pic.twitter.com/noFRvjl3bT January 11, 2018

An offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under sections 304, 337, 338, 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the three owners of '1 Above' at the NM Joshi Marg police station following the incident.

Earlier on December 31, the police arrested two relatives of the absconding Sanghavi duo - uncle Rakesh Sanghavi and cousin Aditya Sanghavi - for giving shelter to the co-owners of 1Above pub, Kripesh Sanghavi and Jigar Sanghavi, against whom a reward was announced.

The uncle-cousin (Rakesh Sanghavi and Aditya Sanghavi) were produced before the Bhoiwada Court and released on a bail of Rs 25,000.

Mumbai's fire department, in its report, said that a lit charcoal used in a hookah at Mojo's Bistro Restaurant caused the blaze, which then spread to '1 Above' pub.

The department further claimed that Mojo's Bistro pub could not produce the required documents required to run a pub.

Juhu-based hotelier Vishal Kariya was arrested for sheltering three owners of 1 Above pub. The Mumbai Police have recovered a high-end car of accused Abhijeet Mankar from the Juhu residence of Kariya and picked him up for questioning.
Mumbai: Indian TV hottie and Bollywood hunk Karan Kundra is all set to get closer to his fan base. Wondering how? Well, he has launched his mobile application that will give his fans a platform to connect with him easily.

Never before an app has been customised to keep fans on the top of the list and Karan has designed his App to be extremely fan friendly. Karans app is a way to be connected with his fans 24/7.

The app has a dedicated interactive LIVE stream corner which enables a 2 way LIVE with his fans, he along with his fans can send each other a variety of gifts from the gift store. Not to mention a VOD platform with the option of a paywall.

For the first time in India, Karans app will enable him & his fans send each other personalised birthday greetings. Say its your girlfriends birthday & she really like Karan, you can go to the app, type a message & request a personalised greeting from Karan.

Fans who keep liking/commenting are in a treat as Karan along with all other app users can see the top fans in a dedicated corner

Karans app is an amalgamation of a social network along with an OTT platform with LIVE capabilities.

The app will soon have a 360 corner, where custom made 360 content around Karan would be made live as well.

The app is built on ARMS app builder platform. With ARMS, a celebrity can own the I.P - which is the first in the industry, the platform, the rights, and most importantly - the control and monetization of the fan base & content around the world.

App built on world-class armsprime platform

App to have custom made interactive LIVE & VOD platform

App to show REALTIME status of when Karan was last LIVE on the app

Features like Group chat, Fan finder, AI & AR Capabilities

Take a selfie with Karan Kundrra instantly via the app

App is Karans entry into owning his digital assets & providing his fans a tailor made digital experience

Speaking on the same, Karan said Am very excited for this project, with so much clutter on social media, an app is a perfect way to stay in touch dedicatedly with my fans. There are some very cool features we have planned for the coming months ,I hope all my fans enjoy the entire experience

Sonu Lakhwani-Proprietor of Wingman Talent Management(the company managing Karan) had an interesting take, Throughout an actors public life, he really never owns anything except for co-productions/royalties, with this app & such initiatives, we are creating a monetizable digital asset for the actor throughout & beyond his days of stardom.

Anshul Gupta Founder & Director of Razr Media, Luxembourg (the company behind the app) said, The way clutter is increasing on social & other platforms, the future calls for personalisation in this age of netflix. Karan has 10MN fans in his social universe, through his app we plan to consolidate audience on one single platform & offer niche content to dedicated fans. We have combined the power of social & OTT together as an offering. If you see the design too, its very colourful, jovial, totally as per his personality.

The app is available on the Google Playstore as well as the Apple play store.

Heres how you can find it  Search - The Karan Kundrra official App
Washington DC: Studio mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused by many top Hollywood actresses of sexual misconduct, was filmed getting assaulted at a Paradise Valley restaurant in Arizona. According to TMZ, the disgraced producer was dining at Elements, a restaurant at the Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort in Scottsdale, when he was approached by two men.

One of the men walked up to Weinstein and slapped him in the face twice before telling him, "you're a piece of s***." According to the report, Weinstein was having dinner, when a patron asked for a photograph. Weinstein declined, and when he got up to leave after dinner, the man who'd asked for the photo told his friend to record what happened next.

Meanwhile, Weinstein's representatives have issued a statement and said that the report done by TMZ is not accurate
New Delhi: Bollywood's desi Greek God, Hrithik Roshan turned a year older on January 10 and to make the occasion a special one, the actor hosted a grand bash at his Mumbai residence.

The superstar turned host for the night which saw a bevy of close friends marking their attendance. Also, former wife Sussanne Khan attended the party at Hrithik's residence and the two reportedly chatted for long.

Former brother-in-law Zayed Khan, actress Sonali Bendre with director hubby Goldie Behl, Kunal Kapoor and wife Naina Bachchan were also present at the do. Papa Rakesh Roshan possibly gave the best birthday gift to the 44-year-old superstar.

The veteran filmmaker announced his next major project Krrish 4 with son Hrithik as the lead. The makers will be back with Krrish 4the fourth part of the successful franchise whose original happens to be Koi Mil Gaya. He tweeted:

Today is perhaps the best day to make the release day of Krrish 4 official. Christmas 2020 it is. A gift for all of you on Hrithiks birthday. Happy birthday @iHrithik  Rakesh Roshan (@RakeshRoshan_N) January 10, 2018

Hrithik perhaps couldn't have got a better birthday gift than Krrish 4 announcement. Right? All the Hrithik fans can now be excited about the project which will hit the screens on Christmas 2020.

Although it's still two years time before the film sees the light of the day, now it will be interesting to see who plays the female lead in the film. Krrish 3 was directed by Rakesh Roshan and starred Hrithik Roshan, Vivek Oberoi, Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut.
New Delhi: Veteran actress Neetu Kapoor is an avid Instagrammer and we love it! She often shared adorable family pictures, keeping her fans upbeat about the latest happenings.

The noted actress took to Instagram recently and shared a cutesy picture of Ranbir Kapoor chilling with his niece Samara Sahni. You will not be able to take your eyes off the photoit's that adorable!

In fact, her caption perfectly explains the essence of the click. She wrote: Deep thinkers #lovethem #cuteness #funnight.

Riddhima Kapoor Sahni's little munchkin Samara is quite camera friendly and has often been spotted at family get-togethers happily posing for the shutterbugs.

In fact, mommy Riddhima previously shared some really funny videos of Samara on her social media account which are too cute to miss.

On the professional front, Ranbir is currently shooting for Ayan Mukerji's Brahmastrathe first part of the trilogy produced by Karan Johar. It stars Alia Bhatt and Amitabh Bachchan in the lead roles.
Mumbai: A man named Lawrence Bishnoi had reportedly threatened to kill Bollywood actor Salman Khan after he had made an appearance before the Jodhpur court in connection with the black buck case recently.

According to a DNA report, the threat came a day after Salman had visited Jodhpur and Bishnoi too was produced before the same court amidst heavy security.

A Mumbai Mirror report said that on Tuesday over a dozen policemen rushed to the sets of his upcoming film Race 3 to inform him about a few men who had entered the premises. The actor was then safely escorted to his Bandra residence.

"The police arrived at the Race 3 set in Film City and told Salman and producer Ramesh Taurani that the shoot had to be stopped immediately as the actor needed to head home as soon as possible. Salman was escorted in another car by six cops, while his own car was driven back to his residence by another group of cops, the tabloid quoted a source as saying.

This is not the first time a threat has been issued against Salman or a member of his family, and the actor is often spotted about town without security or even his bodyguard, Shera, but anticipating an unprecedented attack, he has been asked to be extra safe, a senior inspector revealed.

Producer Ramesh Taurani has reportedly beefed up security cover on the sets of the film.
Mumbai: Actor Zareen Khan says she prefers to do meatier roles in small movies rather than being a prop in a big budget multi-starrer.

The actor made her Bollywood debut with "Veer" and then went on to work in films like "Housefull 2" but of late she has done smaller projects such as "Hate Story 3", "Aksar 2" and her upcoming release "1921".

"Rather than being a prop in a film with big actors, I would love to do a meatier and more meaningful role in a film that does not feature a big actor. Though I do not judge an actor or a film on these levels," she told PTI.

The actor said the big projects that she did in the beginning of her career did not benefit her much.

"'Housefull 2' was a big film but it was a multi-starrer and I was one of the four girls, so I couldn't cash in on it completely. In 'Ready' it was just a song. 'Veer' was a dream debut, unfortunately the film did not do well.

"I received flak for looking like somebody else (she was called a Katrina Kaif look-alike) and the weight and all. Somehow, it did not work for me."

Her next release is Vikram Bhatt's horror flick "1921" and she says, horror films have to be made intelligently.

"When Vikram makes a horror film, he has logic and reasoning to it. He doesn't do things for the heck of it."
About Me

I'm a patent lawyer located in central New Jersey. I have a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, where I studied graphite intercalation compounds at the Center for Materials Research. I worked at Exxon Corporate Research in areas ranging from engine deposits through coal and petroleum to fullerenes. An article that I wrote in The Trademark Reporter, 1994, 84, 379-407 on color trademarks was cited by Supreme Court in Qualitex v. Jacobson, 514 US 159 (1995) and the methodology was adopted in the Capri case in N.D. Ill. An article that I wrote on DNA profiling was cited by the Colorado Supreme Court (Shreck case) and a Florida appellate court (Brim case). I was interviewed by NHK-TV about the Jan-Hendrik Schon affair. I am developing ipABC, an entity that combines rigorous IP analytics with study of business models, to optimize utilization of intellectual property. I can be reached at C8AsF5 at yahoo.com.

View my complete profile
Most of us are familiar with Section 80C under Income Tax Act as it help us in claiming Rs 1.50 lakh from our total income, but do you know there is Section 80G which also has similar provisons.



Under Section 80G, tax exemptions can be claimed by everyone, irrespective of the taxpayer being an individual, company, or a partnership firm.



Not only this, even NRIs are eligible to claim benefits under Section 80G, as it has nothing to do with Mutual Funds, Home loans or Insurance.



The government introduced Section 80G to motivate Indian citizens to donate by providing them income tax relief. Once a person donates any amount, he or she is eligible to claim the amount donated as deduction when he/she files income tax return.



Under IT Act, Section 80G is available for contributions made to certain relief funds and charitable institutions.

Here's what you need to know. Amount of deduction under Section 80G, as per Indiafilings.com and ClearTax.



Donations with 100% deduction

Under this category, one can enjoy 100% tax deduction and are not subject to any qualification limit being met.

Schemes that qualify for 100% deduction are - National Defence Fund, Prime Ministers National Relief Fund, The National Foundation for Communal Harmony, and National/State Blood Transfusion Council.

Donations with 50% deduction

50% tax deduction can be claimed if donations are made under trusts like Prime Ministers Drought Relief Fund, National Childrens Fund and Indira Gandhi Memorial Fund.

Click here to read the full story.
New Delhi: Housing sales fell 6 percent in Delhi-NCR last year, lowest since 2010, at 37,653 units while prices fell by 2 percent due to demand slowdown and impact of new realty law RERA and GST, according to property consultant Knight Frank India.

The launches of new homes in Delhi-NCR declined by 56 percent to 11,726 units in 2017, which resulted in fall in number of unsold inventories by 13 percent to 1,66,831 units.

Housing sales and launches stood at 40,005 units and 26,734 units, respectively.

"The year 2017 brought no cheer to the NCR residential market as launches and sales dwindled further due to slow sales velocity and policy initiatives such as Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 and the Goods and Services Tax (GST)," Knight Frank India Executive Director ? North Mudassir Zaidi told reporters here.

The RERA came into force from May 2017, while the GST was launched in July last year.

With trickling sales and sharp drop in launches, he said the unsold inventories in NCR have come down, still it would take more than four years to clear the unsold stocks.

Zaidi said the average BSP (basic selling price) has come down by 2 percent during 2017.

"Affordability and deep discounts in the range of 10?15 percent have driven majority of the sales thus hinting at NCR slowly turning into a buyers' market," he added.

Asked about price outlook in NCR this year, Zaidi said the rate for ready to move in may firm up but prices for under construction projects will remain stable.

On sales, he said it would be around 35,000-40,000 units in 2018.

Zaidi said the market will recover slowly and gradually over the next 2-3 years.

Knight Frank report also highlighted that the share of affordable homes among new projects rose from 53 percent in 2016 to 83 percent in 2017 indicating developers' focus towards properties within Rs 50 lakh price bracket. Sops from the Haryana government have been a key driver.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed the bail plea of a middleman, arrested in Election Commission bribery case allegedly involving 'sidelined' AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran.

'Middleman' Sukesh Chandrashekhar was arrested in April 2017 and has been denied bail once by the high court and thrice by the trial court.

Under the chargesheet, he has been accused of taking money from Dhinakaran to bribe the EC officials to get the AIADMK's two leaves symbol for the faction led by the former general secretary of the AIADMK, V Sasikala.

The charges against Chandrashekar include forgery of valuable security, forgery for purpose of cheating, using the forged document as genuine and possessing a forged document, intending to use it as genuine, personating a public servant and criminal conspiracy.

Earlier, prosecutor Hiren Sharma opposed Chandrashekhar's bail plea saying three more cases have been registered against him while he was in custody and there are a total of 24 FIRs lodged against him.

Sharma had contended that the conduct of the accused showed he had no respect for the law. He also claimed that the accused had made a call to the trial court judge, hearing the case, impersonating as a person from a Supreme Court judge's office and asked her to release him on bail.

The call was traced to a constable's phone while Chandrashekhar was in custody, the prosecutor argued.

In December, the Delhi Police filed a supplementary chargesheet against Dhinakaran in the bribery case and charged him with criminal conspiracy and indulging in corruption.

Dhinakaran, who was not mentioned as an accused in the chargesheet filed by the police in July this year, has now been accused of offences under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC, besides taking gratification by corrupt or illegal means to influence public servant under Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act).
Chennai: Hundreds of commuters struggled to reach places in Tamil Nadu as the indefinite strike called by transport unions, demanding a pay hike among other things, entered the eighth day on Thursday.

Though the transport department has roped in temporary drivers to resume services in the state, the fleet of buses has not been running at its maximum capacity. Amidst the ongoing statewide strike, there were also reports of special buses being arranged for the MLAs.

Earlier on Sunday, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) working president MK Stalin urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy to initiate talks with transport employees and take suitable actions to end the ongoing strike in the state.

On its third day, Tamil Nadu Transport Minister MR Vijayabaskar had appealed to bus employees to return to work. The strike, following the failure of talks on wage revision and clearance of pending dues with Vijayabaskar, was declared on Thursday.

Transport workers have been demanding for a pay revision to Rs 30,000; however, the authorities have only agreed to pay them Rs 24,400 per month.
New Delhi: With Bigg Boss 11 racing towards a closure, all eyes all set on who will lift the trophy? After Akash Dadlani's mid-week eviction last night, the top four finalists are Shilpa Shinde, Hina Khan, Vikas Gupta and Puneesh Sharma respectively.

While the first three are celebrities, Puneesh happens to be a commoner. But wait, that was before the show started. Each and every contestant this season gave something unique and interesting to the show and got stardom in return.

Each of the four finalists has amassed a huge fan followingall thanks to Bigg Boss 11 and the never-ending controversies these celebs court. Now, each one of them has a fan army to call out for votes and make the best one win the show.

While fans are divided between Shilpa Shinde and Hina Khanthe Telly celeb majority wants Vikas Gupta to win the show. From Kishwer Merchant, Kamya Punjabi, Prince Narula to Suyyash Raiall support Vikas.

In fact, another prominent name who has joined the bandwagon happens to be former Bigg Boss 7 winner Gauahar Khan. She took to Twitter and extended her support to Vikas.

She wrote:

Chalo bol dete hain.... hope @lostboy54 wins #biggboss11 .. the person who played the game like a game .. no nautanki just real !!! #VikasDeservesTheWin  Gauahar Khan (@GAUAHAR_KHAN) January 11, 2018

So not just the fans, even celebs are divided on whom to support for Bigg Boss 11 winner. Out of the four finalists, who are you rooting for?

Bigg Boss 11 grand finale will take place on January 14, 2018, and besides Salman Khan hosting the show, Akshay Kumar too will be present on stage to promote his upcoming venture Padman.

Padman is hitting the screens on January 25, 2018.
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked for a report on Special Court Judge Shivpal Singh's claim that prior to Lalu Prasad Yadav's sentencing in the fodder scam case, he "got phone calls from RJD chief's men".

However, the judge had not clarified as to who made these calls to him.

Taking not of the matter, Adityanath has ordered Jhansi Commissioner to probe the matter and asked for a report at the earliest.

In a huge setback to the RJD, its supremo Lalu Prasad was on January 6 sentenced to three-and-a-half-years jail in a fodder scam case.

The court convicted Lalu Prasad and 15 others on December 23 in the case relating to the multi-million-rupee scam.

The sentences range from three-and-a-half-years to seven years imprisonment. The maximum fine imposed was Rs 10 lakh, slapped on three convicts including Jagdish Sharma, former Public Accounts Committee chairman, while they and three others got the seven years in jail too. Thre remaining nine were also sentenced to three and half years in jail.

The CBI court had acquitted another former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and five others in the case, relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 84.5 lakh from the Deoghar district treasury between 1990 and 1994 in then undivided Bihar.

Lalu Prasad was the Chief Minister of the undivided state from 1990 to 1997.

Convicted in another fodder scam case in 2013, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment and is on bail.

He was facing a total five cases in the fodder scam and the judgment in two more cases are likely to be pronounced within one month.

The multi-million-fodder scam surfaced in 1996 and at directive of Patna High Court, the investigation was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). When Lalu Prasad moved the Supreme Court against high court order, the SC ordered the Patna High Court to monitor the investigation.

Lalu Prasad had to step down as Chief Minister post in 1997 following his arrest in the scam.

A total of 62 cases were filed by the CBI and majority of them were transferred Ranchi after Jharkhand was carved out from Bihar in 2000. The special CBI court has delivered judgment in 48 cases and several politicians, bureaucrats and others have been convicted.
Kolkata: The ruling Trinamool Congress has come under sharp criticism from the Congress and the Left for toeing a "soft Hindutva" line, a move that the BJP has described as an attempt to arrest the consolidation of Hindu votes in favour of the saffron party.

The TMC, in its defence, said that the BJP doesn't have a copyright to Hindutva.

"What the BJP is preaching is not Hinduism. They just want to divide the society. We want to take along all communities and religion and move forward," a senior TMC leader said.

The issue came to the fore in the wake of the TMC organising a "Brahmin convention" in Birbhum district earlier this week. Thousands of priests were felicitated at the programme and each of them was given a copy of Bhagavad Gita, a shawl and pictures of Sri Ramakrishna and Ma Sarada.

The Congress and the Left parties alleged that the recent surge in the BJP's vote share in the state byelections has forced the TMC to practise "soft Hindutva" and woo the Hindu voters.

Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Abdul Mannan said, "Politics driven by religious compulsion is a dangerous trend and will destroy the communal harmony of the state in the long run."

The state CPI(M) leadership also expressed apprehensions that the "competitive communalism practised by the TMC and the BJP" in Bengal may have dangerous consequences.

"The TMC is feeding minority fundamentalism whereas the BJP is feeding majority communalism. Now the TMC is trying to beat the BJP in its own game of Hindutva with an image makeover," CPM MLA Sujan Chakrabarty said.

Since the party came to power in 2011, the TMC was accused by the BJP of appeasing the Muslim community which comprises around 30 per cent of the total electorate in the state. Various decisions by the TMC government such as allowances to imams and muzzeins were seen as an attempt to appease the minorities.

Senior TMC leader and MP Saugata Roy said working for various communities "is part of the TMC's policy" and it has nothing to do with appeasing a particular community.

"It has nothing to do with appeasing anyone. The TMC stands for secularism," Roy told PTI.

When asked about the TMC organising the Brahmin convention, Roy said, "This is an isolated incident. You should not draw any conclusion from it."

TMC's Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal, the prime organiser of the Brahmin convention, had said the programme was arranged to highlight the "misinterpretations" of Hinduism by the BJP and discuss what the Hindu religion stood for.

"The BJP doesn't have a copyright to Hindutva," another TMC leader said.

The BJP state leadership, however, said the fear of consolidation of Hindu votes under it has forced the TMC to change its political line.

"From the rise in our party's vote share in last few bypolls, the TMC has understood that Hindus are uniting under the BJP's leadership. That is why they are now trying to please the Hindus," BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the TMC had realised that it would no longer be able to win elections just by appeasing the Muslims and was trying to woo Hindus with an "image makeover".
ISLAMABAD: Deciding to suspend all intelligence and military cooperation with the United States, Pakistan on Thursday said that the White House must end it's threatening and intimidating attitude towards the country.

The statement comes days after Trump administration blocked the $255 million military aid to Pakistan.

Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir says intelligence and military cooperation with the United States has been suspended after its froze military assistance to Pakistan.#Pakistan has fulfilled its responsibilities in war against terror and will continue efforts to maintain peace. pic.twitter.com/xuLNYgRLrj  Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) January 11, 2018

Alluding to its role in eliminating Al-Qaeda, Pakistan government tweeted:

Defence Minister said in order to achieve the targets, #UnitedStates should revive the strategic dialogue with #Pakistan and avoid threatening or intimidating attitude against it.

He said Al-Qaeda was eliminated from the region due to #Pakistan's cooperation with #UnitedStates. pic.twitter.com/Sv4SR8wob4  Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) January 11, 2018

Instead of weeding out terror-related activities from home soil, Pakistan has now trained its guns on India and Afghanistan.

Accusing India of contributing towards internal instability, Pakistan said that Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has an active network in their country.

The Foreign diplomats were shown evidence of an Indian campaign of unprecedented ceasefire violations, provocations and insinuations including terrorism in the form of IED attacks against innocent civilians on the Pakistan side at LoC and the Working Boundary. pic.twitter.com/3ehIuWyumO January 11, 2018



In further alleged that most terrorist activities are being carried out from Afghan soil and that the same elements are creating unrest situation in the country.

Over the last two days, Pakistan's top civil-military leadership has been briefing international envoys on counter-terrorism efforts taken by the country in the last 16 years.

Addressing the convoys, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that Pakistan has fought war on terror with its own resources and suffered hugely in terms of human and economic losses. Government has taken a clear and unanimous stance over US leadership's statements, which has been appreciated and acknowledged by the world.

Prime Minister reiterated that there are neither any safe havens for any terrorist outfit in Pakistan,nor any attack took place from Pakistan on #Afghanistan soil.#Pakistan has deployed about 250,000 troops on its western border & completely dismantled all hideouts of terrorists pic.twitter.com/1OaiUwUCaB  Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) January 11, 2018

Lat month, the United States froze a $255-million military aid to Pakistan, accusing the country of resorting to lies and deceit and providing "safe haven" to terrorists in return for $33 billion aid over the last 15 years.
New Delhi: Pakistan has not done enough to eliminate safe havens for terrorists on its soil, new US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster said on Thursday even as he described India as "a leading power in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond".

"I don't think we can have civilian security in Afghanistan and Pakistan if Pakistan does not contribute positively to that," Juster said in response to a question after delivering his first policy address on "India-US Relations: Building a Durable Relationship for the 21st Century" organised by the US Embassy and the Carnegie India think tank.

He said the major reason behind the suspension of US security assistance to Pakistan "is because we feel they have not done all that they could to try and eliminate terror sanctuaries in Pakistan that are contributing to the unrest in Afghanistan".

"We have made it clear we will not tolerate terrorism, cross-border terrorism or any form of terrorism or safe havens of any type."

Juster said that the US works closely with India in various ways, including information sharing, that are related to terrorism beyond just what is happening in Afghanistan.

He also lauded India for its role in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan and said both India and the US have a shared interest in the stability and security in Afghanistan and its long-term growth both and also to prevent it from being a haven for terrorist organisations.

Stating that both India and the US bring different capabilities to this process, he said: "We feel India has made a substantial investment in economic development of Afghnaistan, be it a hydroielctric plant, be it training in India of Afghan military personnel and students. And we would like to see India continue that economic development assistance."

In his address, the Ambassador shared values and common interests inform the vision of both India and the US for the Indo-Pacific region, encompasses the world's largest and fastest-growing economies and its most populous nations.

"As the U.S. National Security Strategy recognizes, India is a leading power in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond," he stated. "For India and the United States, the Indo-Pacific is vital to the security and prosperity of our people as well as others."

Juster said that both India and the US want to together ensure a free and open region, where the rule of law and democratic principles are reflected in a rules-based order; promote respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; guarantee freedom of navigation, overflight, and commerce, and other lawful uses of the sea; ensure that territorial and maritime disputes are resolved peacefully, consistent with international law; promote economic connectivity through private sector-led growth, free and fair trade, the use of responsible debt-financing practices, and the transparent development of infrastructure; and together, want to preserve regional stability and security, prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and eliminate the scourge of terrorism.

"The US-India strategic partnership is designed to strengthen both countries and to have a beneficial impact on this region," he emphasised.

Juster, an old India hand who played a key role in the India-US civil nuclear agreement, said that "it is now time to make sure that the strategic partnership is a durable partnership".

"The longstanding commitment of the United States to a free, secure, and open Indo-Pacific has underpinned the stability and remarkable economic rise of this region -- to the benefit of all of us," he stateed.

"The United States will remain committed to this region -- as we are to the rules-based international order -- because our future is inextricably linked to it.

"We welcome India's leadership with us in this venture -- as partners bolstered by conviction and working with like-minded nations on a regional architecture to ensure that the Indo-Pacific -- in the words of Secretary of State Tillerson -- is increasingly a place of peace, stability, and growing prosperity, rather than one of disorder, conflict, and predatory economic policy."

In his address, Juster also touched upon the five pillars that can provide the framework for durable partnership between New Delhi and Washington: defence and counter-terrorism; economic and commercial relations; energy and environment; science, technology and health; and regional cooperation.
Amid straining ties with Pakistan, the United States on Wednesday updated its threat assessment for the country and cautioned its citizens headed here to 'reconsider travel'.

While the new assessment was not just for Pakistan, the US State Department in its advisory put Pakistan in the third category while many of its regions like Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) were put under the most dangerous fourth category. The US warned its citizens that terrorist groups here remain active and could attack with little or no warning.



The US regularly updates its threat advisory which puts countries around the world in one of four categories based on threat perception and how swiftly aid can be provided to American citizens. India is placed in the second category which advises US citizens to "exercise increased caution due to crime and terrorism."

While ties with India remain robust, US' relations with Pakistan have nosedived in recent months. The Americans have accused Pakistan of not doing enough to crackdown on home-grown terror outfits, and have even stopped military aid. Pakistan too has hit back and said it has suffered greatly in the war on terror. Pakistan's Defence Minister on Wednesday said military and intelligence cooperation with the US has been suspended.
Rob M.

The East Coast is being crushed by a blizzard as I write this. Winter has arrived on the back of 70 mph winds, bringing record coastal flooding and piles of snow along for the ride. Along the Eastern Seaboard, over 4,000 flights have been canceled and 2,000 delayed. In Boston, a historically high tide has brought frigid ocean water rolling through the streets. In Florida, Iguanas are falling out of trees, frozen solid by the arctic blast and piling up next to the lawn chairs and swimming pools like discarded lizard-sicles.

The sudden weirdness is caused, they say, by a weather pattern known as a bomb cyclone. It happens when a mass of warm air meets a mass of cold air, and the rotation of the earth causes a cyclonic effect, causing barometric pressure to drop and pushing cold air into the country from the northeast.

I can feel my staunchly guarded agnosticism being tested as half the nation is seemingly punished by the hand of an angry and unreasonable god. Is it a coincidence that the storm worked up immediately after Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo about cannabis policy for the Department of Justice? As a reporter, I have to say that the facts just aren't in, yet.

But I wouldn't be surprised. Sessions' memo has shaken the entire American media machine, it seems. Every outlet is currently screaming and pulling out their hair over the whole damn thing. My phone started ringing Thursday morning and I was wading through panicked voices wondering if the dispensaries were going to be open Friday.

Exactly the type of confusion that old codger wanted, I'm sure.

The memo doesn't change any laws or alter the federal legality of cannabis. What it does is reverse a policy dictated by the Cole Memorandum, a document drafted by former Deputy Attorney General James Cole that instructed federal prosecutors in states where cannabis is legal to only intervene if the local government failed to implement certain policies like preventing distribution to minors, creating laws that prevent driving while under cannabis' influence, keeping cannabis from crossing into states where it isn't legal and other stipulations.

In a statement, the DOJ said the memo was announcing a return to the rule of law and the rescission of previous guidance documents. In it, Sessions instructs prosecutors and law enforcement officials to follow the well-established principles that govern all federal prosecutions  These principles require federal prosecutors deciding which cases to prosecute to weigh all relevant considerations, including federal law enforcement priorities set by the attorney general, the seriousness of the crime, the deterrent effect of criminal prosecution, and the cumulative impact of particular crimes on the community [italics mine].

In effect, this is untying the hands of federal prosecutors and allowing them to begin prosecuting cannabis cases in states where it's legal if they so choose. Does that mean they will? Not necessarily, but if I was trying to open a cannabis shop in California right now, I'd be plenty nervous.

Butlucky for usthe memo has no effect on New Mexico's medical program, seeing as how the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment still blocks the DOJ from using any funds to go after medical cannabis. The people who are actually in trouble here are the citizens of states where its been fully legalized for recreational uselike Colorado, Washington and California. Now it seems their freedom to enjoy the fruits of democracy will hinge on a few prosecutors' senses of social duty.

But the memo will most certainly have some effect on our state. At the very least, it sends the clear message that Sessions is serious about keeping recreational cannabis illegal, making it that much harder to convince anyone on the fence that New Mexico should legalize this year. And the constant reminders from the DOJ that we're all just a pen stroke away from serving prison sentences isn't helping the industry's already sketchy footing when it comes to attracting investment and support.

What's good about all this is the bipartisan support for cannabis that's been seen in response to the news. Within hours, a whole gang of potential Democratic nominees for the next presidential election publicly blasted Sessions for the move, as chronicled by The Washington Post. And even leaders of the GOP, possibly smelling the turn of public opinion, have turned against him, pointing out that it's completely contrary to President Trump's supposed support of states' rightsa political talking point that carried serious weight for Republicans during the 2016 election.

And something to keep an eye on will be the Trump administration's reaction to this over the coming weeks. It's being said that taking such drastic steps to counter popular opinion could cost the next election for the GOP, and in an interview with CNN, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said Trump was being betrayed by Sessions. Compound that with recent calls from prominent Republicans for Sessions to resign over his mishandling of investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and we might not be hearing too much from Sessions anymore.

Soon, the Trump administration will start claiming that Sessions is on a personal vendetta against cannabis, and that it runs contrary to Trump's selfless efforts to protect states rights et cetera, et cetera. And the end result: An entire party scared shitless of working against cannabis. I hope, I hope.

Personally: The whole shebang has left me feeling particularly wounded, since I promised myself I'd stop talking about the little gremlin so much. My wife has taken to calling him my boyfriend, and it irks me something fierce.
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
With the 2017/2018 fall season half over, the Big Four networks have been surprisingly reluctant to cancel bad or underperforming shows. ABC, for example, yanked the well-reviewed sitcom The Mayor from its schedule on Jan. 4, leaving four unaired episodesbut has yet to officially label it canceled. Last year the Alphabet Net also banished Shonda Rhimes goofy Shakespeare melodrama Still Star-Crossed and the Kyra Sedgewick-led kidnap drama Ten Days in the Valley to Saturdays, allowing them to quietly vanish without further comment. CBS, for its part, pulled the heavily hyped sitcom Me, Myself & I from its schedule after 6 eps, while its app-based crime drama Wisdom of the Crowd suspended production after 13 episodes (cause star Jeremy Piven was accused of sexual harassment). The CW declined a full season pickup of military drama Valor and will allow it to expire after burning off all 13 episodes.

But even those few merciful deaths leave room for some new midseason replacements. So what does early 2018 have in store for us, network TV-wise? Lets see!

FOXFOX opened the gates early on musical competition The Four, airline sitcom LA to Vegas and emergency services drama 9-1-1. The only thing left is The Resident (Jan. 21), which will, hopefully, fill TVs glaring lack of medical dramas in primetime.

NBCA.P. Bio (Feb. 1) is a sitcom about a philosophy scholar stuck teaching high school biology. Good Girls (Feb. 26) is a drama about three suburban moms (Christina Hendricks, Rhetta, Mae Whitman) who decide to make ends meet by robbing banks. In addition to medical dramas, TV evidently lacks sufficient musical dramas, as well, which is where Rise (March 13) comes in. Its basically Glee, but based on a true story. Genius Junior (March 18) is a game show with kids.

CBSHow could CBS possibly improve Big Brotherother than offer up Celebrity Big Brother (Feb. 7)? Based on the nonfiction book The Year of Living Biblically, the sitcom Living Biblically (Feb. 26) follows a married film critic who decides to live an entire year according to the frequently contradictory strictures of the Bible. Instinct (March 11) looks like just another police proceduralexcept it stars Alan Cumming and is based on a book by James Patterson.

ABCHoping to capitalize on some Winter Olympics love, The Bachelor Winter Games (Feb. 13) finds former Bachelor contestants competing in assorted winter sports. Deception (March 11) is another drama in which wacky people magically solve crimes for the police. This one features a retired Las Vegas illusionist. American Idol (March 11) isnt precisely new. But it does have a new batch of judges (Katy Perry!) and a new network. Weve already added doctors and cops, so its time to add lawyers to the primetime mix with For the People (March 13). Although it lacks a name, the Untitled Greys Anatomy Spinoff (March 22) will be about firefighters. Sexy firefighters, no doubt. After more than 10 years off the air, ABC revives sitcom standard Roseanne (March 27). Jenna Fischer and Oliver Hudson star as a divorced couple in Splitting Up Together (March 27), a remake of the Danish sitcom Bedre Skitt End Aldrig. Zach Braff headlines the sitcom Alex, Inc. (March 28), based on Alex Blumbergs podcast about trying to launch a startup company. The Crossing (April 2) is an ambitious-sounding sci-fi drama about illegal immigrantswho come not from South of the Border, but from 250 years in the future.
Eric Williams Photography

Little Bear Coffee Co. has been open for just shy of two weeks when I walk in on a Wednesday afternoon, and its packed. The space is brightly lit and welcoming, with a dramatic neon LB sign at the back of the bar that draws your eye immediately. There are pastries from Swiss Alps, the Albuquerque-based European bakery, displayed in a glass case and a shelf full of records and merch from Hi-Phy Records, the local vinyl pop-up shop. Theres a man behind the counter making a pourover; he grins and welcomes me warmly.

This turns out to be Isaiah Jaramillo, one of two managers at the new Northeast Heights area coffee shop. One of the owners of the shop, Isaac Fox, is sitting on the other side of the counter, working on a laptop. I interrupt both of them at their work to ask a few questions about the shop, and theyre both accommodating.

Fox and his brother own real estate throughout the Albuquerque area, but bought the 2632 Pennsylvania Street location with a new venture in mind: craft coffee, something theyd both been passionate about for years. But they knew they needed to bring some more hands-on experience into the fold to manage the place, which is where Jaramillo and his co-manager James Harper came in. Jaramillo has years of experience working at Starbucks, and Harper is a Humble Coffee alumnus.

But experience wasnt the only thing in mind when the team began hiring baristas, Jaramillo says: Wed rather teach people to be good baristas than teach them to be good people. In other words, to pass the cut you had to be a people person first, and a coffee person second. Its a quality that Jaramillo and Fox have themselvesas we sat and talked, people repeatedly approached them for a hug or a handshake. These guys are well-liked.

Their hope is that that lack of pretension will be obvious to the clientelethey want Little Bear to be a comfortable space for people who arent coffee nerds, folks who dont know the difference between a V60 and a Chemex. They also hope to help make them into coffee nerds with classes on brewing techniques and coffee culture in the future.

Other plans for Little Bears future? We definitely want to start roasting our own coffee, says Fox. Currently theyre brewing coffee roasted by Prismatic, a local roaster and coffee shop, and Corvus, a roaster based in Denver, but they plan to switch out coffees bi-monthly or so until they get their own roastery up and running.

They also plan to host local artists in the spaceboth visual artists who can hang their work throughout the shop (currently, James Harpers artwork is on display) and musicians who can play in the back of the shop. More surprisingly, they also want to serve coffee at popular Sandia trailheads on weekend mornings and have camping trips in the warmer months. We love the outdoors, says Fox, and we want to incorporate that love in what were doing here.

Despite the growing number of third-wave coffee shops in Albuquerque, Fox and Jaramillo dont see their shop as competition to places like Humble and Prismatic. We love those shops, we want to support them says Fox, who picked the location partly because its miles away from any other similar coffee shops. The Heights area was ready for this.

He seems to be right. The sun is going down when I leave Little Bear, and the foot traffic in and out of the shop doesnt seem to be slowing. But this place is still fresh and novelafter two weeks, the place is largely patronized by friends of the owners, curious coffee nerds and Yelp vultures. Lets hope that Albuquerques seemingly endless desire for good coffee keeps those doors moving.
Dateline: Thailand

Social media users in Thailand are buzzing over a new plastic surgery fadpenis whitening. A Bangkok clinic is claiming that it performs its penis whitening service to around 100 men a month. A manager for the Skin and Laser department at Lelux Hospital told reporters last week that the clinic began offering the treatment last year when a patient came to them with a complaint about dark parts on his genitalia. According to the manager, doctors at the clinic perform the service on three to four clients a day. Although whitening or bleaching skin is not an uncommon practice around the world, Thailand has come under fire in recent years over skin lightening ads that seem to illustrate the country's obsession with lighter skin, causing accusations of racism to abound. One ad in particular caused a stir in 2016 when it depicted a light-skinned model whose expression worsens as her skin color is digitally turned black. A voice states, Just being white, you will win. The penis whitening service costs around $620 for five sessions. The same clinic made headlines last year when it began offering surgery for 3D vaginas which takes unwanted fat from the patient's body and injects it into their mons pubis to make the area more plump.

Dateline: Spain

An airline passenger upset over delays opened a plane's emergency exit and walked out onto the wing. According to witnesses, a man taking a Ryanair flight from London to Malaga told his fellow passengers that he was going via the wing while waiting to be let off the plane delayed on the tarmac. He then forced his way out through an emergency exit and went out onto the wing with his luggage. Video footage of the incident was captured by another passenger which shows the man setting down his luggage on the wing before sitting on the ledge to wait. A number of onlookers can be heard laughing from inside the cabin. At least one other passenger claims the man was suffering from an apparent asthma attack and had stopped cooperating with security. Airport authorities eventually convinced him to get back on board, where he was held until local police could arrive to arrest him. Authorities say the man's plane was held up for an hour during departure and had been further delayed for about 30 minutes on arrival. The man is expected to pay a fine.

Dateline: Russia

A woman accidentally fell into a sewer and discovered a missing boy who was on the verge of dying. Last month, a number of volunteers began searching for a missing 10-year-old boy in Tatarstan, Russia. While searching for the boy during a blizzard, Gulia Yarullinahead of the Cheremshan District's Civil Protection Directorate reportedly fell into an open sewage manhole after she failed to notice it. To her surprise, she found the missing boy asleep in the sewer. She told reporters that, at first, she thought he was dead, and started screaming. The sound woke the boy up, and he also began screaming, according to Yarullina. She said he cheered up once she explained that she had been looking for him. She called for help and the boy was rushed to a hospital and treated for hypothermia. According to the boy, he had fallen in the sewer while sledging and had exhausted himself calling for help. He decided to go to sleep and laid down. Authorities later said the boy could have died within an hour if Yarullina hadn't stumbled upon him. She is currently recovering from a back injury she suffered during the fall.

Dateline: India

A man who was arrested for making a bomb threat at a Mumbai airport claims he was misheard while saying Bombay. Vinod Moorjani was accused by Mumbai International Airport authorities of saying bomb hai [there is a bomb] during a phone call last week. Moorjani claims the the incident was a misunderstanding and he was only trying to ask about the status of his flight to New Delhi, leaving from Mumbaiwhich used to be called Bombay. However, Sahar police officials say they believe Moorjani was attempting to disrupt flight schedules so he wouldn't miss a flight to Rome from Delhi if his plane from Mumbai was delayed. He was arrested for criminal intimidation and intent to cause fear or alarm to public. In court,his lawyer argued that Moorjani had only asked about the status of his flight, and that his words had been misunderstood by the operator. As to claims that Moorjani had hung up directly after making the alleged bomb threat, the attorney told the court that a disturbance on the line had caused the phone to disconnect. Police allege CCTV footage shows Moorjani making the telephone call in a phone booth at the airport. He was reportedly scheduled to travel from Mumbai to Delhi and take a connecting flight to Rome en route to Virginia. His final judgment has yet to be determined.
Letters

First Control the Media

Dear Alibi,

The most dangerous threat to our free society is a system of communication media which is clearly biased.

Once media has become the mouthpiece of one ideology, one political faction, there is no way we can know the truth. We are then bombarded with propaganda, a distortion of facts designed to lead us to a conclusion which in no way represents the truth.

If you are constantly hearing, seeing and reading these half-truths (sometimes not even half), you have to wonder why someone is afraid for us to know what is really going on.

The way most dictators take control of a country is by first controlling the media and thereby inundating the people with their lies and distortions.

If we want to maintain our freedoms as established by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, we must recognize what has happened to our free and independent press and make it our first order of business to seek the truth.

A media which is no longer truly independent is a huge red flagand it is waving in our faces.
PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Newscity APS to Redesign Three Schools In response to an ultimatum given by the state's Public Education Department, Albuquerque Public Schools announced it will be reorganizing the structure of three local schools. Los Padillas, Whittier and Hawthorne elementary schools have all received five or six F grades for their performance from PED and have been targeted for more rigorous interventions (MRI) by the department. All 3 schools scored below 10 percent proficiency in math and 25 percent or less proficiency in reading. Last month, PED gave these three schools and Dulce Elementary in Dulcethe worst ranked schools in the statea list of options going forward: provide novel learning techniques as a magnet school, significantly restructure, relaunch as a charter school or close permanently. APS officials responded in a letter to PED last month that they would be restructuring the three schools in their jurisdiction. The MRI schools were told to decide on their action plan by Jan. 9. Full plans must be submitted to PED by Feb. 12. The American Federation of Teachers New Mexico, a teachers' union, released a statement in December which spoke against PED's tactics, saying they are blaming and shaming students and teachers while ignoring systemic issues.

EPA to Prioritize San Mateo Creek Basin Cleanup Regulators with the Environmental Protection Agency are looking to add a western New Mexico creek basin to a list of cleanup priorities. The San Mateo Creek Basin in McKinley and Cibola counties makes up around 321 square miles within the Rio San Jose drainage basin. Authorities with the EPA sent a letter to the New Mexico Environment Department in November, claiming to have found evidence that water from a number of legacy uranium mines was discharged into San Mateo Creek and has impacted private drinking water wells. Authorities believe it could potentially impact public water supplies and are seeking agreement with state and local government to add the basin to the federal Superfund National Priorities List, which denotes toxic cleanup sites across the nation that have the highest priority for the EPA.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of transportation, communication and information technologies notified that the Vardenyats Pass is difficult to pass due to a snowstorm.

The ministry told ARMENPRESS that foggy conditions are reported in the roads of Noyemberyan, with 20-40 meters visibility.

All roads and highways of inter-state and republican significance are open.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. Tourist visits to Artsakh increased by 41% in 2017 compared to 2016. The same figure compared to 2015 increased by nearly 30%, Artak Grigoryan  head of Tourism department at Artsakhs ministry of culture, youth affairs and tourism, told Armenpress.

We also compare the figures with that of 2015 since it is known that we had a decline in the field of tourism in 2016. When we talk about the increase in tourist visits, to say that it is only thanks to the work carried out in 2017, is not correct. This result is thanks to the active campaign of the recent years, he said.

The geography of tourists expands every year. In terms of the number of visitors Russian tourists are leading, which is followed by the citizens of US, France, Iran and etc.

The research conducted by Artsakhs tourism information centers shows that tourists are interested in the main tourism sites. In particular, there is an increase in tourist visits to Stepanakert, Shushi, Gandzasar and Tigranakert.

We plan to participate in international exhibitions. This year we expect increase in visits from Russia since we have targeted this market. We also work on the European direction, Artak Grigoryan said.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. US President Donald Trump says it is better to cooperate with Russia than to be enemies.

During a joint press conference with Norways PM Erna Sulberg in the White House in Washington, President Trump said: I believe it is far better to cooperate with Moscow. I want to say that it is better to cooperate with other countries, TASS reports.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. The military insurance fund has issued compensations to 37 families of servicemen in 2017.

10 servicemen who have been handicapped during combat duty, and families of 27 fallen servicemen received compensations.

Families of fallen soldiers received a lump sum of 10 million drams, and will further receive 200-300 thousand drams monthly.

Servicemen who were handicapped and are classified as 1st degree disabled will also receive 10 million and monthly 200-250 thousand, while 2nd degree disabled servicemen will receive 5 million and monthly 100-150 thousand.

Overall, the fund had collected 5 billion 827 million 982 thousand 595 drams in 2017, while compensations totaled 388 million 500 thousand drams.

In addition to the 1000 drams which are collected from every employed citizen, donations have also been made to the fund.

Majority of donations were made from Armenia  70 million 913 thousand drams, from France  7 million 279 thousand, Cyprus  4 million 810 thousand, Russia  2 million 850 thousand, Canada  2 million 514 thousand, Romania  1 million 83 thousand, Switzerland  518 thousand, Qatar  298 thousand etc.

Donations were made from other countries as well, for example the US, Germany, Denmark, Korea, Great Britain, Slovakia, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Oman.

12 million drams was donated by the Presidential Staff of Armenia, 3 million 168 thousand by Haypost CJSC, and 3 million drams from an anonymous person.

MP Karen Karapetyan donated 5 million 557 thousand 360 drams, and Rosgostrakh Armenia and Ingo Armenia Insurance Companies donated 1 million drams for five times.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. The United States calls on the Iranian authorities to release all those arrested during the recent anti-governmental protests, reports Armenpress.

The United States urges to immediately release all political prisoners in Iran, including those who suffered from the recent protests, the White Houses statement says.

The statement says the Trump administration is deeply concerned over the arrests of thousands of citizens in Iran for participating in the peaceful protests last week.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. US President Donald Trump said his country could return to the Paris climate agreement it withdrew in summer of 2017, RIA Novosti reports.

It was a bad deal for the US But we could conceivably go back in, Trump said.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. It is already several years that many Armenian prefer to spend New Year holidays mostly in Arab countries.

Several tourism agencies told ARMENPRESS that Dubai and Egypt remain a top destination for Armenians, like during the previous years.

First of all there are direct flights to these directions, it is warm and relatively affordable, tour operators said.

UAE and Egypt are followed by Thailand, Italy and Czech Republic.

Many foreigners also preferred to spend the holidays in Armenia, with the statistics remaining the same  visits from Russia are the majority. Philippines comes next.

Tour operators said Russian citizens spend an average of 23 thousand rubles in Yerevan, whereas holidays outside the city are a bit pricier. Russians mainly prefer Tsakhkadzor. Armenia attracts foreign tourists with the eco food, nature and affordability. The visa waiver also facilitated the entry for Russians, tour operators said.

But as other agencies mentioned, Armenia attracts tourists not only during holidays.

They not only celebrate New Year here, but also visit museums, cultural and historic locations, Karine Davoyan, director of the union of tour operators said.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. A new methodology is proposed for accurately calculating the number of tourists visiting Armenia, their citizenship, age and other additional information.

Mekhak Apresyan  first vice president of the State Tourism Committee, gave an interview to Armenpress, talking about the draft decision of the government on Actions to improve tourism statistics methodology in the Republic of Armenia.

The tourism statistics in Armenia currently is being done in accordance with the methodology of the UN World Tourism Organization and our current law. We propose to apply Frontier Electronic Management Information System. With the help of a computer program, as well as the cooperation with the concerned public administration authorities we will have a more improved statistical system on the number of incoming and outgoing tourist visits to Armenia by more than 95% accuracy, he said, adding that, in addition to the number of tourists, accurate information will also provided about their citizenship, age, gender and double visits.

The system scans and registers the passports of all persons who passed the border.

Mekhak Apresyan said by the current methodology a statistical research of international visits is being conducted, surveys are being held at all border check points, and based on this it is determined what percentage of visitors comprise the tourists. However, the results based on the research are not so accurate. We will get the number of tourists by 95% accuracy thanks to this new method. However, this new system will not allow to check from where the tourists are coming, but, this will be clarified by the research results, Apresyan said.

Having accurate information about tourists is a very important point for the development and implementation of the state policy. Conducting right statistics will contribute to assessing the tourism impact on Armenias economy for the benefit of stable territorial economic development, increase of national income and living standards of the people in Armenia.

At the moment the draft is at the stage of public discussion. Apresyan said the leadership attaches importance to the system and it is under the Presidents control. The draft is submitted at edraf.am in order to know the public opinion. Later also taking into account the proposals it will be submitted for discussion. The method is expected to be tested in 2018.

The functions of receiving accurate statistical information will be conducted by the National Statistical Service, and the ministry of economic development and investments will provide with the server of necessary capacity and computer program.

Anna Grigoryan
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. After the NK 2016 April violence the little bit of confidence that was there is now challenged, Gunther Bachler  Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus said in an interview.

Its interesting that for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict we have some principles about final status on the table, but no real negotiation architecture, he said.

The recent meeting of the presidents of Armenia and of Azerbaijan in Geneva is of course important and to some extent encouraging, he added, but stressed that only the bilateral meeting of the presidents will not automatically restore the negotiations process.

The 2014 OSCE Swiss Chairmanship developed a non-paper on a structured negotiation process with all elements and details of a full-fledged negotiation process; we have presented it repeatedly to succeeding Chairmanships and all the people involved, and maybe one day they will use it. Also, last year, under the German OSCE Chairmanship, we spent quite some time, first of all to develop the idea of strengthening the monitoring mission of the Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office on the Conflict Dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference. There was agreement between the presidents in St. Petersburg, but it has not yet been implemented. It is a very small mission monitoring the Line of Contact and state border of Armenia and Azerbaijan; we speak about an increase from six to thirteen international staff, he said.

He stressed that in 2017 the Austrian chairmanship has developed this concept more and certain progress has been seen in this issue recently, therefore the prospects of implementation seem realistic for 2018.

At the same time we also drafted a non-paper on a mechanism for investigating ceasefire violations, another confidence-building measure that has yet to be implemented, he said.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. The government of Armenia has approved two bills which will temporarily ban the import of vehicles with right-sided steering wheels. The bill also allows the right of use of these vehicles for owners of right-sided steering wheel cars until April 1, 2018.

During todays Cabinet meeting, the minister of transportation, communication and IT Vahan Martirosyan mentioned that according to the law right-hand traffic (RHT) is defined in Armenia, and all traffic regulations are set in compliance.

The minister says right-side steering wheel cars pose dangers for traffic safety. It contains risks of traffic collisions.

The minister cited data from traffic police and insurance companies, that the number of right-side steering wheel cars in accidents is higher by nearly 28%.

Vice PM, minister of international economic integration and reforms Vache Gabrielyan said the numbers relate to at least 39 percent, because this data refers to only cars registered in insurance companies.

The number will be higher if we look at the total number of cars in Armenia, he said.

Gabrielyan said in order to complete this initiative legislative restrictions are necessary for imports, and requested to present a bill which will be presented to the parliament immediately.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. Border agents of the Bagratashen checkpoint detained a 39 year old foreign citizen on January 10.

The Police HQ told ARMENPRESS the 39 year old citizen was wanted by Belgium Interpol since December 22, 2017 for armed assault.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. The foreign relations committee of the Armenian parliament held an extraordinary session to debate the ratification of the agreement about mutual civilian visits between Armenia and Tajikistan.

Deputy FM Shavarsh Kocharyan said the document is rather standard and implies a visa free travel regime for citizens of Armenia and Tajikistan.

Members of the committee unanimously voted for the bill to be debated at the plenary session of the parliament.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. The US State Department has introduced a new travel warning system for its citizens. The new system defined all countries in four categories.

The US State Department has included Azerbaijan among countries containing terrorist threats, with heightened warnings.

The system categorizes Armenia among countries with no special warnings.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. The new meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan is scheduled in mid-January, Armenian deputy foreign minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters in the parliament, adding that at the moment he cannot provide information on the meeting dates and place. The meeting is scheduled in mid-January, but the foreign ministry cannot provide information about the exact date and place, the deputy FM said, reports Armenpress.

Asked whether the meeting of presidents is possible after the ministers meeting, the deputy FM said: As of now this issue is not being discussed yet.

He stated that at the moment its very difficult to speak about the progress in the negotiations over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. Its difficult to talk about a progress since there is no trust environment between the sides. It absolutely doesnt exist. We all witnessed different statements that are in line with Armenias foreign political positions according to which it is necessary to install the mechanisms that will form that environment, the deputy minister said.

According to him, among the aforementioned conditions the priority is the maintenance of the ceasefire regime. Deputy FM Kocharyan emphasized that the meetings first of all aim at solving this issue which will also reduce the tension in the line of contact. We again have losses, there are still shots, but, nevertheless, such meetings contribute to reducing the level of this tension, he added.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. The European Integration Affairs committee of the Armenian Parliament debated on January 11 the draft statement titled On Condemning the Genocide Acts Against the Yazidi People in Terrorist Controlled Areas of Iraq.

Ruling party MP Rustam Makhmudyan, the rapporteur, stressed that this bill proposes specific actions.

This is an attitude towards the Yazidi people, the state, statehood. We have called on all political forces to join this statement, because this is the attitude of every Armenian, he said, reminding that the genocidal acts against the Yazidis are still ongoing to some extent.

Naira Zohrabyan, chairman of the committee, said this is a very important initiative, and this issue was raised also back in the previous parliament convocation.

She stressed that it is unclear why this issue was delayed from one session to the other and wasnt passed.

If you reach a consensus with the political majority in the faction to stipulate it, what numerous international structures have recognized as genocide, the Tsarukyan faction will be in favor, she said.

MP Samvel Farmanyan found it noteworthy that the Armenian people, who were victim of genocide, have moral and political obligation to proceed from genocide condemnation stances.

Both the foreign relations committee and the European Integration affairs committee issued a positive conclusion for the bill, which will be included in the parliamentary session agenda.
YEREVAN, 11 JANUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 11 January, USD exchange rate down by 0.44 drams to 484.31 drams. EUR exchange rate stood at 578.65 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.01 drams to 8.50 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 0.64 drams to 653.38 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 117.70 drams to 20549.73 drams. Silver price up by 1.01 drams to 266.81 drams. Platinum price down by 29.31 drams to 15103.8 drams.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. During the working meeting with the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Chairman of the State Revenue Committee Vardan Harutyunyan briefed President Sargsyan on tax revenue performance of 2017, reforms in the committee aimed at raising the ratio of tax-GDP and improvement of the business environment, creation of favorable conditions for investments and increase of transparency.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Armenian Presidents Office, the SRC Chairman presented the priorities of the committee for 2018, the works to be done to meet the regulations of the new Tax Code, as well as the expected results.

The process of Meghri checkpoint modernization program was also presented at the meeting.

The President of the Republic tasked to continue the works to ensure the revenues in line with the budget without hampering the normal operation of businesses. Serzh Sargsyan also tasked to mainly focus on the checks of documents to identify risky businesses, continue increasing the transparency of tax and customs bodies, pay special attention to the simplification of tax procedures and decrease of time demanded.

Serzh Sargsyan also tasked to put into operation the E-platform as soon as possible, which will give an opportunity to make the formulations electronically minimizing interactions between tax bodies and businessmen.

The President also tasked to ensure the implementation of the modernization and reconstruction works of Meghri checkpoint, completing the modernization works of the state border of Armenia. The SRC was also tasked to continue works aimed at improving ratings given by international organizations for tax and customs procedures.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. Starting from January 1, 2018 any vehicle produced in or imported to the Eurasian Economic Union, including trucks and buses, will meet the 5th environmental class (Euro-5). ARMENPRESS reports this will allow reducing harmful substances 1.5 fold from new transport vehicles.

Apart from environmental results, coming into force stricter norms will foster production of modern transport vehicles and application of new technologies for engine production.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. The Republican Party of Armenia has not still launched an official discussion on the candidate of the president. The ruling party is still in the stage of preliminary discussions, RPA spokesperson, Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov told the reporters after the Executive Body meeting of the party. Before the nomination of candidates of the president of Armenia the parliament has to nominate and elect 5 members of the Supreme Court Council. We will do that during February and the discussions will start during the next week. We have not yet started any official discussion on the presidents candidate. Maybe we will start it next week, ARMENPRESS reports Sharmazanov saying.

He assured that discussions on the candidate of the president will kick off in January. When the discussions start, we will announce about that, Eduard Sharmazanov said.

He added that they will nominate a candidate for the presidents post someone with serious biography and high reputation.

To the question if the RPA observes the candidacy of the President of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Gagik Harutyunyan, Sharmazanov answered, Gagik Harutyunyan has refused that he has sich a desire and we respect his decision.
BURBANK, Calif.Surfboards, beach towels and sunglasses abounded in the CalExotics booth at the winter ANME Founders Show, which wrapped up last night amid the first real rain California has seen this winter. Nichole Grossman, marketing manager at the pleasure product giant, laughed as she handed over a white beach towel and confessed that she and the rest of the team had envisioned attendees lying around on the towels by the pool at the Marriott Burbank Airport. But not today. The pool was deserted as rain cascaded down most of the day. We jinxed it, she said wryly.

The beach paraphernaliaincluding full-size custom boards made by Anderson Surfboardswas part of the promo for California Dreaming, the newest vibrator collection from CalExotics. Its a set of three styles, all dual stims but each one is a little bit different. We have the Venice Vixen, the San Francisco Sweetheart and the Beverly Hills Bunny, Grossman said.

The rabbit-style vibes are operated by three buttons: one to control ten vibrations in the stimulator, another to operate speeds on specialized functions in the shaft, and one simple panic button in case the user wants to shut it all down at once. The Venice version has a vibrating shaft; San Francisco features a come hither motion at the tip to hit the G-spot; Beverly Hills is equipped with rotating beadsand all three come with a one-year warranty. Retailers will be interested to note the point-of-purchase display, and there are branded shelves as well.

California Dreaming wont ship until later in 2018, but several items are available this month. First are new styles in the Mini Marvels collection, which feature the bright colors and saucy illustrations that made the line a winner for Outstanding Packaging at the 2017 O Awards. Its been such a success for us, Grossman said. We added two styles. The Lover is a bendable massager. We also have the Teasera handheld massager. In addition, there is a new point-of-purchase display featuring the same illustrations. Our artist did a really great job, Grossman said.

Also shipping this month are two products for men that are additions to the Cheap Thrills stroker line. Called the Good Time and the Steamy Affair, these are gender-neutral styles made out of the same lifelike PureSkin material that feature a non-anatomical opening.

Continuing to create a unified presentation for its product categories, CalExotics debuted new packaging for its Kegel exercisers. And there are also two new models that offer a welcome twist. Both are rechargeable, and available in two weights: starter and advanced. One is hot fuschia, the other deep purple. But whats great about these is that the on-off button is on the retrieval cord, Grossman said, noting that this means users dont have to turn the balls on before inserting them. The cord is reinforced at the base of the ball with an ABS ring, and the on-off button lights up.

Kegel balls and other items have also been added to the Dr. Laura Berman line. Shes always done really well for us in the sexual wellness space because of her name and her credibility, Grossman said. The additions include two dilator kits: one silicone set with three sizes and one vibrating set with two sizes.

In addition to the new California Dreaming collection, there are also several additions to other vibrator collections. Onethe Rechargeable Miracle Massageris shipping this month. A discreetly designed wand-style vibe, it offers 10 functions and is so powerful its crazy, Grossman enthused.

The Personality Vibeseasy to operate and attractively pricedhave three new versions with different stimulators. Whats also unique about these is the placement of the beads. Its lower down on the shaft to really stimulate the entrance of the vaginal canal, Grossman noted. And then you obviously have the G-spot at the tip and the clitoral stimulator. Its really going to be a party down there.

Other vibes with special function include the Extreme Thruster, which expands to double the length of all of our thrusting vibes, she added. Its got all the bells and whistles. The long thrust is whats going to sell this product.

Speaking of long, the new Silicone Panty Pleaser offers an extended range of up to 33 feet with its remote controller. You can give it to the neighbor, Grossman joked.

And finally, there are two new Venus Butterfly models with remotes. In addition to the butterfly-shaped stimulator that covers the vulva, these are equipped with insertable shaftsincluding one model that offers that alluring come-hither motion, also controlled by the remote.

Penis owners certainly wont be overlooked by CalExotics in 2018. First off, there are two new pumps in the Optimum series: the Magic Pump and the Automatic Smart Pump. The Magic Pump is manually operated while the other operates with the push of a button, but both deliver intense suction. The cylinder is clear so the user can see the growth. And the Smart Pump features an exercise mode that squeezes and lets go in intervals.

Other products of interest to men are the Silicone Rocking Probe, with a shaft that produces the come-hither motion to stimulate the prostate, and the Silicone Pegging Probe, which is non-threatening, a great introductory toy, Grossman points out.

For men who pine for a bigger penis, CalExotics is adding a stretching device to increase length. Also in the wearable extender category is a model that features nubs inside, adding sensation for the wearer, as well as the PPA (Prosthetic Penile Attachment), designed for men with erectile dysfunction.

Speaking of strap-ons, the Her Royal Harness collection will see the addition of the Countess and the Empressboth crotchless designs. And the entire collection will also be available in boxes as well as on hangers. And the purple, non-anatomical Me Too probe has a new modelthe Rumblerwhich stimulates the wearer and comes equipped with matching purple silicone straps that can be trimmed for an optimum fit.

Other items of note to the LGBT community are additions to CalExotics packer lineincluding the STP (Stand to Pee), made of firm but foldable siliconeand a new FTM stroker for use by trans men.

Adjacent to the CalExotics booth was a smaller space for its sister brand Jopen. Though there were no new items from Jopen, Grossman said the brand was still going strong with the Amour collection, introduced at the last show. Were producing it as fast as we can get it out. For the upcoming Valentines holiday, its the perfect gift.

Next door to CalExotics was Nasstoys, also a founderthe five manufacturers who created ANME (read more about current offerings from Doc Johnson, Pipedream and Topco here). Publicist Denise Kraft ran through the latest from the East Coastbased pleasure product company. The most exciting is the Infinitt collection, with five items that are all rechargeable, waterproof and made of soft silicone.

The Contoured Massager, available in pink or purple, can be used in various ways, both externally and internally. And Kraft said that one ANME attendee had pointed out earlier in the day that when turned one direction it would serve nicely as a prostate stimulator.

The second item in the Infinitt collection, the Tongue Massager, is aptly named. In size and shape it mimics its namesake, with tiny pleasure nubs along the surfaceand it also replicates its motion, with back-and-forth licking action in varying speeds.

The other items in the collection offer one of the hottest sensations around these days: suction. The Suction Massager One features a suction cup on the step of a rabbit-style vibe; Suction Massager Two and Suction Massager Three are dual-stim variations, both available in purple or pink. The packaging features the products showcased on an uncluttered black background, creating an upscale look that will look great on displaybut expect these intriguing toys to leap off the shelves pretty quickly.

Showcased next to the Infinitt collection were new rabbit-style vibes in the Energize Her Bunny line, which are offered in both rechargeable and battery-operated models, to suit both consumer preferences.

Other notable additions are the Intense Bullets, packing a lot of power into a small size for her pleasure. For him, theres the Mack Tuff Blowjob Vibe and the Commander Electric Pumpwhich lives up to its name with its commanding appearance.

Just down the hall from Nasstoys was the Xgen Products booth, which also had plenty of news to share. The Fredericks of Hollywood collection continued to grow, with the addition of new vibrator models. And for the guys, Zolo added the Pocket Stroker. Discreet and transportable, it comes in three styles: lime green with a ribbed texture, bright blue with a beaded texture, and clear with a realistic channel. Full-size, vibrating versions of the stroker come in the same colors with Original, Backdoor and The Girlfriend interior textures.

For those who prefer basic black exteriors and sleeves with anatomically correct orifices, there are also plenty of models to choose from, depending on preference: The Perfect Deep Throat, The Perfect Backdoor and the double-ended DP Stroker.

Also new to the Zolo range: the BlowPro, with automated action to simulated a blowjob, and the Zeppelin, a black obelisk that vibrates and rotates.

But the biggest news is the introduction of the Couples Rabbita U-shaped vibe officially licensed product by We-Vibe and branded by The Rabbit Company. A small vibe designed to be worn during intercourse, it looks akin to the basic We-Vibe shape but also includes two rabbit ears on the external end to stimulate the clitoris and an internal end that is grooved to better accommodate the penis. The Rabbit Company just recently moved its distribution to Xgen Products, and this is a great beginning for the new relationship.

A nice rendition of the ever-popular rabbit design could be found at the Impulse Novelties booth. The rechargeable silicone Kate Duo G offers 10 speeds and functions, its soft and flexible form comes in either turquoise with a hot-pink accent on the finger handle, or hot pink with a turquoise accent.

Another new development is the stylish new black-and-white packaging on the Black Door collection, which was redesigned along with the Closet Collection to conserve space on retail shelves.

There to show off the products were rep Lorrie Klein, who has been with Impulse for about a year, and newcomer Maria Sandoval, who is bilingual and can assist Spanish-speaking clients. Klein was excited about one thing in particular: a full array of products in the popular Amie line of tiny but mighty vibrators. She noted that the battery-operated vibesavailable in bright pink, turquoise and deep purplehave been selling like crazy. The ball-like handle rests comfortably in the hand, the the petite size makes them great for travel. We have yet to keep it on the shelves. It keeps getting blown out, Klein said.

Also on AVNs agenda at the show was to stop by the Boneyard Toys booth to get a look at the Daisy. The follow-up to the O Award-winning Skwert, the Daisy turns any twist-top into an on-the-go douche bottle. Also worthy of note was the opportunity to touch the new steel-colored Nutball. This metal-colored silicone ring will be rolling out later in the year, and one touch is all a consumer needs to see how smooth and silky this silicone feels. Fortunately, the Nutball is packaged with an opening so consumers can do just that. Also offering more touchy-feely appeal are the Ass Ballz, anal beads available in three sizes. They are displayed loose, without packaging, which gives consumers a chance to really experience the product.

An intriguing sensation could be found at the Fun Factory booth, where the Volta was displayed on a pedestal. Featuring a looped handle with a short shaft topped by two pointed tips, the Volta is designed for pinpoint stimulation when using just the tips, or it can be spread apart to cover both the clit and the vaginal openingor be used along the sensitive underside of the penis. The Volta comes in three colors: turquoise, blackberry and screaming-bright orange.

Directly across the aisle from Fun Factory was Stockroom, with many new bondage items on display that are now shipping. The new items are very fashion-forward, with the Passion cuffs and collar featuring black leather accented with red corset lacing, and the Stupid Cute Bondage Line, in pale pink leather with heart-shaped locks on the collars. On the other end of the style spectrum is the Dragon Tail Whip in deceptively soft suede.

Other exhibitors were situated in the Ballroom, off the main lobby at the Marriott. The first to catch the eye is Wicked Sensual Carepartly because Wicked contract star Jessica Drake was in attendance. Marketing wizard Carrie Smith was there as well, talking up the benefits of two new products: Jelle Chill and Jelle Heat. Both anal lubricants, they offer cooling and heating sensationsbut Smith quickly assured that the effects are not as strong as in the intense Ultra heating and warming lubricants. Red clover creates the heat in Jelle Heat, she explained, noting that it also acts as an antispasmodic. Its the most gentle heating product from Wicked. Like the original Jelle, its a thicker water-based lubricant that really stays put. Both products will ship in February.

Other big booths in the Ballroom included NS Novelties, showing, among many other offerings, its new Inya line, the Shi/Shi Sugar/Sugar (a followup to the Shi/Shi Union, created by her, for her) and the glow-in-the-dark Firefly collection.

In the Evolved Novelties exhibit space, the latest development was splashed across one of the biggest banners at the show. Were gonna need a bigger booth, the headline read, promoting the Infinite Thrusting Sex Machine. The pleasure toy features a white handle topped by a deep purple shaft that thrusts in and out, quietly and smoothly, to double the penetration of the shaft.

Next door was System JO, which again was offering chair massages to grateful attendees. With attractive POS displays and pop-up bannerswhich company rep Natalie Wilburn says are available to retailersthe display plugged an enhanced formula for the 12Volt clitoral stimulant and the PROlonger Spray for men, which offers a maximum-strength dosage of lidocaine to prevent premature ejaculation.

System JO is also testing out a lube with a new cotton candy flavor, and showing prototypes of some bath bombs in the DONA by JO line, which will be coming out in July. I think 2018 is going to be our year for new production, Wilburn said.

Pictured above, from left: California Dreaming display at the CalExotics booth, Boneyard's Nutball, and new Jelle lubes from Wicked Sensual Care.

If you missed ANME, catch some of these products at the AVN Novelty Expo, taking place Jan. 24-26. Nasstoys, Topco, Xgen Products, Impulse Novelties and Boneyard Toys are just a few of the exhibitors at the pleasure products show. For information, visit NoveltyExpo.com.
FRANKFURT, DEEllen Stagg is one of this country's best-known photographers of the nude female body. Her interest in photography began in high school in 1994, and by her junior year in college, she'd already acquired an agentbut it wasn't until she met adult actress (and fetishist) Justine Joli in 2005 that Stagg realized that the subject she was most interested in shooting was eroticism. Through Joli, Stagg was able to connect to other women in the adult industry. Stagg found it easy to create nude art with these pros, and started staggstreet.com. This site brought clients such as Penthouse and Playboy, a documentary on IFC.com, art shows around the world and more.

Fast-forward to 2018, and Goliath Books has released Stagg's latest volume of sexy nude women, the Dirty Girl Collection, an even hotter follow-up to her 2010 coffee-table volume Stagg Street, both of which contain plenty of images of porn stars au naturel and in sexy lingerie. This latest offering contains 420 photographs in 320 pages shot over the past ten years, and once again features Justine Joli along with nearly 50 other adult stars like Heather Vandeven, Jelena Jensen and Charlotte Stokely.

"Staggs images showcase confident females who are wild and rampant in front of the camera," a Goliath spokesperson stated, "true to the traditional style of American erotic photography. An expression of freedom and liberty, attributes that burn inside of all us. Nothing is off-limits in this truly enticing, daring and provocative collection."

The volume was the recipient of the 2017 AltPorn Awards' award for Best Photography Book, and is currently available from Goliath Books here.
Europes chief Brexit negotiator is to receive a loaf of sourdough today (11 January) after a Darlington bakery found out there was no bread in a hamper of British goods delivered to the politician.

French MP Michel Barnier received a selection of food and drink from Brexit campaigners at a meeting yesterday (10 January).

However, The Great Northern Bakehouse, based on Morton Park, was alarmed to learn that bread was not among the selection of British produce, which included Marmite, PG Tips, Dorset cheese, Hendricks Gin and Fortnum & Mason piccalilli.

It was a great to see a delegation of British MEPS giving Monsieur Barnier a taste of British products. Weve got lots to be proud of in this country and we should be telling people about what we do and what we make, said Mark Dexter, one of the bakerys owners.

But we were alarmed when British bread failed to make the shortlist. We think handmade artisan British breads are outstanding and we think Monsieur Barnier should know that too. Thats why were sending him one of our loaves.

The sourdough in question picked up a bronze award in the Brook Food Sourdough round at the Tiptree World Bread Awards in October. The Great Northern Bakehouse, which has been trading for just over a year, supplies handmade bread and cakes to hotels, restaurants and cafes across the north east and North Yorkshire.

We can count a Michelin-starred restaurant among out clientele, so we hope Monsieur Barnier recognises quality when he sees it, added Dexter.

The bread will be delivered to the politician alongside a tongue-in-cheek letter (see below).
The Democrat leadership has made constant, profound and incredible pronouncements that one's supportive vote for Republicans is tantamount to surrendering Democracy forever. Understanding their sincere thinking in their extreme position: How will you still vote on this election day?

Democrat; because the continuance of this Democracy from the existential threat of extreme Republicans is paramount.

Republican; the process of having a choice is the democratic method within what so called "Democracy" does exists.
Okay, thank you very much. And I want to thank Secretary Shulkin, Secretary Nielsen, and Deputy Secretary Shanahan for joining us as we take yet another historic step to make sure our incredible veterans - and that they're taking care of - that they're being taken care of in a proper manner. So important.We want them to get the highest care and the care that they so richly deserve, and I've been working very hard on that with David and with everybody. It's something that is a top priority.We're also honored to be joined by Acting National Director of Suicide Prevention, Dr. Franklin, and three veterans who now work supporting their fellow veterans at the VA - all experts and tremendous people.We've already made tremendous strides in delivering for our veterans, including passage of long-awaited veterans accountability legislation - one of the things I'm most proud of.For many years, they tried to pass veterans accountability and they couldn't do it; they failed. And after almost 40 years, we got it passed. And now when somebody doesn't do the job over at the VA, we fire that person. When somebody is bad to our great veterans, even statistically bad, we fire those people - get them out and go after them.And we have a creation of a 24-hour veterans hotline. And these were two of my campaign promises. But getting to me - getting the veterans accountability legislation passed, done through the House, through the Senate, and I signed it was a big moment for the veterans.In a few moments, we'll sign a new executive order that directs the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs to develop, in the next 60 days, a joint action plan for improving the availability of lifesaving mental health services for our veterans. A lot of focus on our veterans, and they're the people we should be focusing on, along with everybody else. But we really put a very great deal of focus on our veterans. Great, great people.The joint action plan will describe concrete actions we must take to ensure every single veteran who needs mental health and suicide prevention services will receive them immediately upon their separation from military service. They get out of the military, and they had nobody to talk to, nobody to speak to. And it's been a very sad situation, but we're taking care of them.We will not rest until all of America's great veterans receive the care they've earned through their incredible service and sacrifice to our country. And, again, I want to thank David Shulkin. I want to thank everybody behind me and everybody on that side of the room for having done such an incredible job.I'm honored to be at the forefront of the greatest strides ever made at the VA for our veterans, and it's not even close. And it has been so adjudged.So thank you all very much, I appreciate it. Thank you.We just had a very good meeting, I might add, on DACA, and I think the results are going to be terrific. But we had a very good meeting.I will sign this. And, David, who am I giving this pen to? How about David? We give it to David, right? Is that all right?That would be great.So this is supporting our veterans during their transition from uniformed service to civilian life, taking some of their difficulty away.(The executive order is signed.) (Applause.)THE PRESIDENT: This to me is a very important bill. Thank you. (Applause.) I think this should go to David.Thank you.You're doing a great job. We appreciate you.Thank you.Thank you very much. Go ahead, please.Mr. President, as you know, at the Department of Veterans Affairs, preventing veteran suicide is our top priority, and something you talked about in the campaign and you and I have talked about many times since. Twenty veterans a day are taking their life through a suicide - something that's just totally unacceptable.So under your leadership, with this executive order, we're taking an unprecedented action today in that we will be covering all separating military members who are transitioning into civilian life - 100 percent of them - with the mental health benefit for 12 months.And here are the important reasons. What you may not know is, is that that 12-month period after you leave service is the highest risk for suicide. Almost one and a half to two times highest risk in that first twelve months when you leave the service.And currently, up until your executive order, only 40 percent of those servicemembers had coverage in the VA to get mental health. Now 100 percent will have that coverage, and it's the full array of services that the Department of Defense and the Department of Veteran Affairs will be able to provide in terms of mental health coverage.I just want to thank Secretary Nielsen, Deputy Secretary Shanahan, Secretary Mattis, of course. Under your leadership, we've all come together. And with the Office of American Innovation and the Domestic Policy Office, you've brought together everything that will allow us to do this in the next 60 days.So starting March 9th, this is a reality for our country's veterans that they will have this mental health coverage. So thank you very much.Thank you very much. I'm very happy to have helped, and I think our veterans, above all else, are happy. They are - the strides that we've made at the VA have been - I don't know if they've been reported very much. You could tell me better than me. I haven't seen as much as we should see, but I will tell you every time I talk to somebody, they're thanking us - all of us as a group - for what we've done for the Veterans Administration.Thank you all very much for being here. Thank you. Thank you.White House 
President Donald Trump's claims about voter fraud are preposterous. No credible evidence suggests that millions of people cast illegal ballots, or that candidates who outpoll rivals by several percentage points can accomplish that by fraud under modern election administration.Now that I've completed the requisite throat-clearing, I have a question for progressive readers: does the recent contest for control of the Virginia House of Delegates make you even a little bit uncomfortable?Thanks primarily to the prevailing anti-Trump political winds, Virginia Democrats did very well in November. Their net gain of 15 GOP-held seats put them just one seat away from a tie and a likely power-sharing deal in the Virginia House.That seat might have been won by Democrat Shelly Simonds in a Newport News-centered district. After the election-night tally showed her just 10 votes behind incumbent Republican David Yancey, Simonds sought a recount. It put her ahead by a single ballot. Republicans then successfully challenged that ballot in court.The resulting tie was settled by drawing a name out of a bowl. Yancey got the luck of the draw . The GOP retained control of the legislative chamber, however unimpressively.Tied elections aren't unknown in North Carolina. As The Charlotte Observer recently reported , tied municipal races in Alleghany County, Sampson County, and Mecklenburg County have been resolved by chance in recent memory. If we broaden the category a bit to include races settled by dozens or hundreds of votes, there are many more cases in municipal, county, and even legislative races.For that matter, who can forget the 2000 Florida recounts? A few hundred ballots separated George W. Bush and Al Gore in a state with enough electoral votes to sway the presidential race. Complaints about hanging chads, butterfly ballots, and premature media calls depressing turnout in the Florida panhandle weren't the only relevant controversies. Another was illegal voting, either by felons or by snowbirds and students with residences in multiple states.Over the years, North Carolina has implemented a number of policies to deter illegal voting. Still, after 2016 the State Board of Elections conducted an audit that found 508 votes cast that shouldn't have counted. Most involved felons whose right to vote had not yet been restored. But there were also 41 substantiated cases of votes by non-citizens, 24 substantiated cases of double-voting, and two substantiated cases of impersonation fraud, one in person and one by absentee ballot.Some activists claimed this post-election audit proved that additional measures to ensure election integrity were unneeded. Their reasoning was faulty. The audit established a floor, not a ceiling, for illegal votes cast.Impersonation fraud, for example, is likely done most of the time by people voting on behalf of their relatives, as was the case with the two substantiated cases in 2016. But such an audit can catch that only if the titular voters are deceased. What about voting on behalf of shut-ins or relatives with mental disabilities? Rules for both absentee and in-person voting need to be stricter to deter that.Residency fraud also merits more attention, and could be better policed in part by voter-ID requirements. If people with living quarters in multiple states - be they retirees, professionals, or students - want to make North Carolina their residence for the purposes of voting, they should be required to possess a state-issued ID as an indication of their true intention. (Most are already required by state law to have North Carolina driver's licenses, if they want to operate a vehicle in the state for more than a few weeks, although they don't always realize that.)If you think election-integrity initiatives are nothing more than a Republican plot to suppress the vote, you should know that downplaying rare but potentially consequential cases of voter fraud only strengthens the resolve of those who favor voter-ID laws and the like, as a new Public Opinion Quarterly study confirms. A more productive response would be to work with Republicans to implement a low-cost insurance policy against fraudulent electoral outcomes.
I think my positions are going to be what the people in this room come up with. I am very much reliant on the people in this room. I know most of the people on both sides, have a lot of respect for the people on both sides, and what I approve is going to be very much reliant on what the people in this room come to me with.

On Tuesday, President Trump completely undercut Democratic arguments that he is an insane child, holding a bipartisan discussion at the White House over the Congressional version of President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Overall, Trump looked presidential rather than petulant; he even hijacked Low-Energy Jeb!'s line, stating that he wanted to push a "bill of love" by week's end.Trump did slip up once, when pressed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) about whether he would support a clean DACA bill - a bill that would legalize status for the so-called DREAMers without funding a border wall or providing curbs on chain migration; Trump endorsed the idea, before walking it back at the behest of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).All of this was rather hard to pin down during the actual discussion. Trump lacks fluency with the language of DACA and legislation more broadly, leading to this awkward exchange But overall, Trump made clear that his position was relatively simple: in exchange for DACA, he wanted funding for his border wall, an end to the visa lottery, and an end to chain migration; the Congress could then move onto comprehensive immigration reform.This has to be Trump's position; once DACA is off the table, the Democrats have no leverage to give on anything. They might as well sit around waiting for Trump to fail. But because of the urgency for DREAMers, Democrats now have an incentive to come to the table.In the end, though, Trump isn't interested in vetoing anything. He'll sign whatever Congress brings him, and this press exchange was meant to highlight just that. He even said as much:Don't look for Trump to provide a ton of leadership here. He's already signaled his willingness to give away the store by re-instituting DACA if Congress doesn't reach a deal by March.But demonstrating policy expertise wasn't the point of the exercise. The point was to tamp down extreme talk about his fitness for office. He accomplished that, even if he puzzled his immigration hawk supporters in the process. And those immigration hawk allies should know by now that Trump isn't going to lead on policy - he's going to be led. Their best hope for good policy lies with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), not in the Oval Office.
Tom Campbell

You don't have to be a meteorologist to understand that the gathering storm clouds are threatening the 2018 elections. The high-pressure system at the genesis of this storm is the result of redistricting.Following the 2010 census all states were required to draw new lines for congressional and legislative districts so as to comply with the shifts in population. The 2011 North Carolina redistricting plans for both congress and the legislature have faced court challenges and federal courts have declared them each unconstitutional, ordered new maps drawn and then declared the redrawn maps to be unconstitutional.This week a three-judge panel of federal judges told lawmakers to go back for a third time and redraw the maps for our 13 congressional seats. In 2016 the judges declared the districts were racially gerrymandered; now they say they are gerrymandered to be too partisan and ordered the legislature to redraw them within the next two weeks, while also saying they would concurrently hire a "special master" to undertake the task.Another three-judge panel, in the Covington case, met the first week in January to determine whether legislative maps redrawn by our General Assembly comply or if they will accept maps that drawn by the "special master" they retained.Adding further drama to the impending storm is legislative action that threatens to redistrict court districts in our state. Lawmakers have already suspended judicial primary elections in 2018 and that decision is being challenged in court for its constitutionality.Here's the impending storm watch. How can candidates decide whether or not to run for elective office if they don't know in which districts they live and are qualified to run? The time for making those decisions and formulating plans for a campaign is bearing down on them. Five weeks from now, on Monday February 12th the filing period for candidates to run in 2018 is due to open, closing Friday, February 28th. Primary elections are now scheduled to be held Tuesday, May 8th.It is theoretically possible for both courts to issue decisions on these cases in enough time for candidates to meet filing deadline requirements, but you can bet that whatever decisions are reached will immediately be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, creating further uncertainty, possible delays or challenges about election validity.There were rumors floating around Raleigh last week that the legislature might delay primary elections and that might make sense, but the dates we've heard for rescheduled primaries is August or even September. There's nothing magic about holding primaries in May, in fact some believe there is too much time between our primaries and general election dates. But there needs to be sufficient time between the primary and general election dates to allow winners to raise money and conduct a vigorous November campaigns. We experienced a similar situation following the 2000 census, when finally the court drew new districts, forcing primaries to be postponed. Summer turnout numbers were disappointing.We've had three elections since the contested 2011 districts were drawn and this needs to be the last one under our current system. It is time our legislators did the right thing and created an independent redistricting commission to draw maps following the 2020 census. They have plenty of time to get it right.
The North Carolina House and Senate convene today in Special Session at noon to take up a variety of topics. It was initially hoped that this would be a short session. However recent events are leading many to believe it may last longer than expected. A few topics lawmakers are likely to address include:A three panel of federal judges recently ruled North Carolina's redistricting proposal for thirteen U.S. Congressional Districts as "unconstitutional" because the districts constituted "partisan gerrymandering." The Court gave lawmakers until January 29th to fix the problem. The legal process has dragged on for months and is now close to the time when candidates must declare their intention to run. Whether these realities expedite the process, only time will tell.Lawmakers are expected to develop new maps for judicial election districts and local district attorneys. The House approved some maps in October. However, Senate proposals to replace head-to-head elections with appointment and retention elections still need to be approved.Probably one of the less controversial subjects that lawmakers will address. Lawmakers will hopefully act on approving a backlog of appointments for state boards and commissions for Governor Roy Cooper, as well as for House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Phil Berger.In response to the state's response to the GenX chemical spill in Bladen County, House Republicans and Senators want the legislature to direct State health and environmental officials to study the effects of unregulated chemicals in drinking water statewide. Passing the study may be the easy part. The difficult part may be deciding whether to back the testing bill with money (how much?) and equipment, something Governor Cooper is advocating.Public school advocates are pressing lawmakers to develop a proposal to address the concern that class size requirements will result in the loss of music and art teachers. A committee of lawmakers is currently working on a solution. Still, it doesn't sound like the legislation is likely to be taken up before the May session.As with most special sessions, other topics may be added and the timing is open-ended. In this case, the flexibility may work to help the legislature hone in on a number of complex subjects like redistricting and judicial selection. Such sentiments are counterbalanced by the fact that 2018 is an election year and lawmakers want to campaign, raise money and be in session only as long as it takes to get their business done and then leave.How that happens - and when - are questions we are all waiting to see answered.
The Public Schools of Robeson County voted unanimously Jan. 9 to approve Southside Ashpole Elementary School for transfer to the Innovative School District.Southside Ashpole will contract with a school operator for five years starting in the 2018-19 school year. At the end of the contract, the elementary school will transfer back to the school district.Eric Hall, the ISD superintendent, says in a news release.Legislators approved the program in 2016 and require a total of five schools to be chosen for the ISD. Two schools will be chosen next year; the last two the following year. The goal is improving school performance through awarding greater flexibility not typically afforded traditional public schools.The ISD is in the process of choosing a school operator for Southside Ashpole. Only two education management organizations are in the running: The Romine Group and Achievement for All Children. SchoolWorks, an education consulting group, is reviewing the applications and is expected to finish evaluations between Jan. 15 and Feb. 1.Southside Ashpole was chosen in November as the first school transferred to the ISD because of its low school performance and lack of growth. For the 2016-17 school year, Southside Ashpole had a grade level performance of 18.4 percent and has received an F for school performance for the past three years. More than 80 percent of students at Southside Ashpole are economically disadvantaged.The Public Schools of Robeson County was given the choice of either approving the transfer or closing the school by Feb. 1.For a moment it appeared the board would close the school when the Public Schools of Robeson County on Nov. 9 issued a joint resolution with the Robeson County Board of Commissioners denouncing the ISD.Since then the Robeson County Board of Commissioners has said it never signed off on the joint resolution. Furthermore, with an unanimous vote approving the transfer, it appears the Public Schools of Robeson County no longer opposes the ISD.Hall said.
Statement from the Press Secretary on Libya's Successful Destruction of its Chemical Weapons Stockpile

Statement from the Press Secretary on Immigration Legislation

Statement by the Press Secretary on Iran Protests

The following are statements made by the White House Press Secretary from January 10-11, 2018.The United States congratulates Libya for destroying the last remnants of its Qadhafi-era chemical weapons stockpile and satisfying its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention. We also gratefully recognize the key contributions of Denmark, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Finland, Italy, Malta, France, and Spain, and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, in ensuring the proper destruction of these dangerous chemicals and protecting the integrity of the Convention. This achievement demonstrates the great progress the international community can make when all nations work together. There is more work to do. The United States calls on Syria to eliminate all chemical weapons, to dismantle fully its chemical weapons program, and to ensure that these weapons can no longer be used against the Syrian people.President Donald J. Trump is grateful to Chairman Goodlatte, Chairman McCaul, Congressman Labrador, and Congresswoman McSally for introducing immigration legislation that would accomplish the President's core priorities for the American people. The President looks forward to advancing legislation that secures the border, ends chain migration, cancels the visa lottery, and addresses the status of the DACA population in a responsible fashion.The Trump Administration is deeply concerned by reports that the Iranian regime has imprisoned thousands of Iranian citizens in the past week for engaging in peaceful protests. Further reports that the regime has tortured or killed some of these demonstrators while in detention are even more disturbing. We will not remain silent as the Iranian dictatorship represses the basic rights of its citizens and will hold Iran's leaders accountable for any violations. The protesters in Iran are expressing legitimate grievances, including demanding an end to their government's oppression, corruption, and waste of national resources on military adventurism. Iran's regime claims to support democracy, but when its own people express their aspirations for better lives and an end to injustice, it once again shows its true brutal nature. The United States calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners in Iran, including the victims of the most recent crackdown.White House 
The European Safety Agency has approved Italian manufacturer Tecnams two seat P2008JC piston single. First delivery is due to go to Polish flight training academy Bartolini Air, which has ordered seven of the type.

Viking Airs sister company Pacific Sky Aviation has won Transport Canada level-D approval for a Twin Otter Series 400 full-flight simulator. The TRU Simulation sim should be online by mid-February.

British Pilatus PC-12 distributor Oriens Aviation has acquired Avalon Aero's business aircraft MRO facility at Londons Biggin Hill airport. There are now more than 200 PC-12s in Europe.

Flying Colours Corporation has started work on a five year paint contract with MHI Canada Aerospace Inc. Flying Colours will paint 40 Bombardier Global 5000/6000 center fuselages at its Ontario facility each year. The firm has invested over $1 million constructing a new, dedicated paintshop.

Luxaviation UK, has added a Cessna Citation XLS+ to its fleet , which is available for charter services and will be based at London Luton Airport, and
 Juniorearned her career first Big Ten Women's Track Athlete of the Week, announced by the league on Wednesday.The Carmel, Ind. native won the 800m run in the Indiana vs. Tennessee Duals with the time of 2:10.46. Harris nabbed the No. 3 spot in the country with her performance.At the Hoosier Open, Harris won the mile race with the time of 4:52.55, which is currently has her in the No. 5 spot in the country.Harris and the Hoosiers will travel to Nutter Field House in Lexington, Ky. this weekend to compete in the Kentucky Invitational on Friday, January 12 and Saturday, January 13.For complete coverage of everything Indiana track and field and cross country, make sure to follow the teams via Twitter Facebook and Instagram #GoIU


Shoaib Ahmed is a Bangladeshi asylum seeker whom ICE has imprisoned in the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, a private prison run by CoreCivic (formerly the notorious Corrections Corporation of America, where he has been placed in solitary confinement  a form of torture  for refusing "voluntary" labor.

Ahmed had not been paid for earlier work and was overheard by a guard saying "no work tomorrow." He was placed in solitary confinement for ten days. CoreCivic is being sued for putting California detainees into solitary confinement for 30 days or more for refusing "voluntary" labor.

Ahmed is held with no human contact in a locked, soundproof room, and is permitted one hour a day in a small cage in the prison yard, in handcuffs. A CoreCivic spokesman denies that this constitutes solitary confinement.



ICE provided The Intercept with few specifics regarding Ahmed's case but stated that the "use of restrictive housing in ICE detention facilities is exceedingly rare, but at times necessary, to ensure the safety of staff and individuals in a facility." ICE has said that, apart from personal housekeeping, immigrant detainees work only on a voluntary basis. When Ahmed was placed in the Stewart isolation cell, he had been locked in ICE detention for well over a year. While his prolonged time in captivity represented hardship for Ahmed, his presence offered a source of cheap labor for CoreCivic. Ahmed said that he worked for 50 cents per hour as a cook in the dining hall kitchen primarily to afford long-distance calls to his family in Bangladesh.



Private Prison Continues to Send ICE Detainees to Solitary Confinement for Refusing Voluntary Labor [Spencer Woodman/The Intercept]

(Image: Jmiller291, CC-BY)
The short, weird political career of Eric Greitens  a former Navy Seal and onetime Democrat turned secrecy-cloaked Republican and the youngest Governor ever elected in Missouri  may be at its end.



He has admitted to having an extramarital affair with his former hairdresser, whose ex-husband claims the Governor used threats of publication of a trove of compromising sexual photos to ensure her silence.





This has given ammunition to his Republican political foes who resent his use of a dark-money PAC whose secret donors financed a smear campaign against Senator Rob Schaaf.

Between the scandal, his unpopularity with state Democrats (Greitens just rammed through anti-union "right to work" rules) and his own bad odor with his own party, Greitens's political career may not be long for this world.



Rosenbaum: There had been rumors about this particular allegation for weeks. Greitens made a lot of Republican and Democratic enemies since he launched his gubernatorial bid. One of his main talking points was that Jefferson City politicians were "corrupt" and he was going to be the guy to clean things up. And since taking office, he's made some public policy moves that have deeply upset the state's elected leaders  such as shutting down a popular tax incentive to cultivate low-income housing. His campaign staffers set up a politically-active nonprofit that doesn't disclose its donors that attacked Republican senators, which is unprecedented. Needless to say, this is probably why not many people are sticking up for him at this early juncture.



Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is in 'serious' danger of losing his job [Chris Cillizza/CNN]
In northern Russia, a man who really wanted some booze drove an armored personnel carrier through a shop window, crashing into the store, then exited his vehicle and climbed through the wreckage to steal a bottle of wine. I know this will shock you, but he was drunk.

The incident took place in Apatity, Russia on Wednesday morning. Images first appeared on Russian social media site HBinform.ru, on this random bystander's twitter, and video (which is quite something to behold) at ria.ru.

      ,      . pic.twitter.com/dHsBAbOh8D   ? (@engineer_37) January 10, 2018

The thirsty gentleman pilfered the vehicle from a "privately-run motorsport training ground nearby," reported Reuters. He drove it through a forest and into the small town which is situated just south of the Arctic circle.

He's in his late twenties, and did not resist arrest.

From Reuters:
This is not a joke. This is a real thing that the President of the United States did today.

President Trump on Wednesday blurted out something shocking about the pending immigration deal which protects people from Haiti and some African countries. At a White House meeting, he demanded to know why he should accept immigrants who come from "shithole countries," rather than (white) people from places like Norway. The New York Times and other credible news organizations posted this news just now, citing people with direct knowledge of the conversation.

Yep.

Snip:

Mr. Trump's remarks left members of Congress attending the meeting in the Cabinet Room alarmed and mystified. They were there discussing an emerging bipartisan deal to give legal status to immigrants illegally brought to the United States as children, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity without authorization to discuss the explosive proceedings of the private meeting. When Mr. Trump heard that Haitians were among those who would benefit, he asked if they could be left out of the plan, according to the people familiar with the conversation, asking, "Why do we want people from Haiti here?"

This should not come as a surprise. Never forget, he's the son of a fascist, racist, KKK-loving asshole.

His 'shithole' comments today hearken last year's doozy from an Oval Office meeting with Cabinet officials and administration aides

where he complained about admitting Haitians to the country, complaining that they all had AIDS, as well as Nigerians, who he said would never go back to their "huts," according to officials who heard the statements in person or were briefed on the remarks by people who did. The White House vehemently denied last month that Mr. Trump made those remarks.

Read the whole article, and weep.


Wednesdbury Oak Academy in the West Midlands is an "academy school," similar to a US charter school  a publicly funded, privately operated school, which, theory goes, is able to "experiment" with new educational techniques, by deviating from the standard curriculum, rejecting students on the basis of selection criteria, and hiring teachers without formal qualifications.



The school solicited 6 contributions from parents to contribute to the cost of new playground apparatus. Contributions from the parents of 80 children out of the 450 who attend the school sent in money. When the school purchased the new equipment, the playground was segregated, with the children whose parents contributed the 6 able to play anywhere, but the remaining majority of children were barred from playing in the area with the new equipment.





The school has a higher-than-average number of children who attract the "pupil premium," paid to schools by the government based on the number of very poor children who attend.

The head teacher of the school, Maria Bull, blamed the segregation on a "parent council initiative" and expressed outrage at the negative comments she'd received since the news of the income-based playground segregation broke. She likened the new equipment to after-school clubs, which are optional and require a cash payment by pupils' families to use.

Academy schools have been controversial since their launch, with scandals ranging from exorbitant salaries being paid to administrations, the teaching of "young Earth creationism" at public expense, unqualified and untrained teachers teaching upper-level mathematics. Academy schools are also able to deny parents the customary degree of oversight into their administration, and hire nonunionised teachers. In addition, the selective nature of academy schools means that they can cream off all the children in the area who have no identified learning or behavioural difficulties, leaving the state schools with a student body who are disproportionately struggling, and forcing parents of children entering the system to choose between a state school where virtually all the students have some form of difficulty, or an opaque, privately owned academy school that is free to hire unqualified teachers at sub-par wages.

The children at Wednesbury Oak Academy range from 3 to 11 years old.

The Labour MP for West Bromwich West, Adrian Bailey, blamed government cuts that had left schools in the area "facing financial crisis". He said: "Schools should not be put in a position where they are forced to approach parents for contributions for equipment that would usually be paid for using the school's mainstream budget. "Inevitably, this results in some parents being unable to contribute. This is especially true in a lower income area like Sandwell, leading to a culture of social division and resentment, impacting on the ability of pupils to learn. "All children should have equal access to education, including to equipment and facilities. This case is just one example of the consequences of government cuts to school funding." The school's headteacher, Maria Bull, defended the scheme, saying none of the parents were unable to afford the 6 contribution. According to the school's Ofsted report, which grades it as outstanding, "a far higher proportion of pupils than average attract the pupil premium", which is paid for pupils eligible for free school meals and those in the care of the local authority.

West Midlands school accused of segregating children in playground [Kevin Rawlinson/The Guardian]

(via Naked Capitalism)
CHARLESTON -- Anthony R. Burkert, 39, of Urbana, formerly of Charleston, passed away Tuesday, January 9, 2018.

The funeral service honoring his life will be held at 2:00 p.m. Monday, January 15, 2018 at the Harper-Swickard Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Roselawn Cemetery, Charleston. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service.

Anthony was born November 30, 1978 at Mattoon, Illinois, son of Brenda (Fiscus) and Reiner Burkert. He is survived by his grandfather: Glenn Donley of Charleston. He was preceded in death by his parents, grandmother: Bessie Donley; and uncle: Billy Fiscus.

Anthony loved music. He played the guitar and banjo. Anthony worked as a freelance photographer.
Last month, Renee Thole, a white middle school teacher in Mason, Ohio, told 13-year-old black student Nathan Agee-Bell, in front of the entire class, that if he didn't pay more attention to his work, his friends would form a mob and lynch him. Apparently Nathan told the teacher the comment was racist and she questioned why he would think such a thing. Nathan waited a month to report the incident to his mother because of fear of retribution. From Cincinnati.com:

Mason Schools spokeswoman Tracey Carson confirmed the incident occurred in teacher Renee Thole's classroom.





"As educators, sometimes we mess up. And clearly that happened here," Carson said.





The spokeswoman declined to say if the teacher was disciplined, but said the district "investigated, documented, and set expectations for (the) future."



Agee-Bell asked officials to remove her son from the social studies class, which they did.





Thole would apologize in class for offending Nathan and said she didn't have harmful intentions. But (Nathan's mom Tanisha) Agee-Bell said she never explained to the largely white class why she was wrong.





Carson said the teacher misspoke and felt awful



Agee-Bell said she planned to speak during a school board meeting Tuesday night, but was asked by officials to talk privately afterward instead. She said that conversation lasted five minutes.





In it, Agee-Bell said officials thanked her for coming and said they take race issues seriously.



"I don't believe them," she said afterward.
News / National

by Staff reporter

MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's intimation of a possible imminent retirement from active politics is stoking tensions in the party, as rival camps have started bickering on whether he should bow out immediately or continue leading the fracturing opposition party.Mr Tsvangirai's spokesperson Mr Luke Tamborinyoka yesterday accused party spokesman Mr Obert Gutu of encroaching into his turf after the latter sought to dismiss a statement from the party leader that hinted he could step down. Mr Tsvangirai's announcement on Monday followed his disclosure over a year ago that he had been diagnosed of cancer of the colon, for which he is undergoing regular medical treatment and check-ups in South Africa.Mr Tamborinyoka posted a scathing attack, thought to be aimed at Mr Gutu on social media site, Facebook, accusing him of usurping his responsibilities as Mr Tsvangirai's spokesman. "President Morgan Tsvangirai speaks for himself, as he did through his statement on Monday or through his official spokesperson, as happened after he met with President Mnangagwa last Friday," said Mr Tamborinyoka."Any other channel parroting a purported MT (Morgan Tsvangirai) position is the black market. And the black market is not only unofficial, but illegal." On Tuesday, Mr Gutu had indicated that a national organising and election directorate meeting chaired by acting president Engineer Elias Mudzuri had made it clear that Mr Tsvangirai was not retiring."Contrary to recent Press reports that suggested that President Tsvangirai will soon be stepping down from the leadership of the party, the fact of the matter is that President Tsvangirai remains the leader of the MDC and he is the MDC presidential candidate for the 2018 elections," said Mr Gutu in the statement.The meeting was snubbed by senior party officials including co-vice presidents Advocate Nelson Chamisa and Ms Thokozani Khupe  individuals believed to be pushing for Mr Tsvangirai to hand over the baton to someone else for health reasons. Sources in the party said Adv Chamisa and other party officials like deputy national treasurer Mr Chalton Hwende snubbed the meeting which they felt would scupper their plans. Adv Chamisa dismissed the assertions yesterday."It was a cluster meeting which is chaired by Eng Mudzuri," he said. "I am responsible for policy, while Ms Khupe is responsible for administration and Parliament. You are getting it all wrong; there was no obligation for me to attend because issues discussed fell in the purview of Eng Mudzuri." He declined to comment on the tiff between Mr Gutu and Mr Tamborinyoka. Another source in the party differed with Adv Chamisa."Adv Chamisa is directly responsible for candidate selection and ordinarily he should have attended the election directorate meeting," said a national executive member of the party. "Tsvangirai has specifically tasked him to be in charge of candidate selection. His failure to attend such a meeting raises eyebrows." Another source said Eng Mudzuri's camp was of the view that the letter from Mr Tsvangirai was written by their rival camp in their bid to push for their favoured successor."You will realise that Mr Tsvangirai is not well," said the source. "Eng Mudzuri's camp, where Mr Gutu belongs, is of the view that the letter was conceived and written by Luke (Tamborinyoka) and his cohorts."You will realise that just before its release, Tamborinyoka issued a teaser showing how excited he was advising people of an imminent release of a letter purportedly from Mr Tsvangirai and 10 minutes later it was published. Clearly, the idea did not emanate from Mr Tsvangirai."
News / National

by Staff reporter

Government will continue paying Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers who are already employed but has frozen the recruitment of more teachers for such classes, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Professor Paul Mavima has said.Prof Mavima dismissed claims of policy inconsistency in Government, saying Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa indicated that Treasury did not have the resources to recruit an additional 6 000 teachers.He said schools could recruit more teachers through School Development Committees.The latest announcement puts paid to speculation that Minister Chinamasa wanted to stop paying salaries for ECD teachers."Let me say that there is no policy inconsistency with ourselves and the Finance Ministry," he said. "The teachers who are in stream continue to be supported by Treasury."We needed to recruit additional teachers for ECD, almost 6 000 of them, but Treasury indicated that at this particular point in time, we do not have fiscal space to do that."The Ministry of Finance has committed to pay as soon as the fiscal space permits and that is when we are going to allow for the recruitment of the additional teachers."Prof Mavima was responding to questions without notice posed by Glen View North legislator (MDC-T) Fani Munengami, as well as Chegutu West National Assembly member Dexter Nduna (Zanu-PF).Prof Mavima emphasised that schools should not turn away pupils for non-payment of fees and other levies but should arrange for payment plans.Schools, he said, should not withhold results, as well as turn away vulnerable children under the Basic Education Assistence Module for non-payment."We are bound by our Constitution to respect the right of the learner to education so on that basis no school is supposed to turn back any learner for non-payment," said Prof Mavima.Separately, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Mr July Moyo said Government was in the process of regularising some of the unplanned settlements in urban areas.Houses constructed in wetlands, including those located where there is no reticulation or water services, he said, will be reviewed first.He said land barons will be brought to book.
News / National

by Staff reporter

FOUR suspected poachers, believed to be Zimbabweans, appeared before the Tshilwavhusiku Magistrates' Court outside Makhado, South Africa, charged with possession of an unlicenced firearm and ammunition, conspiracy to commit poaching and trespassing, South African Police Services (Saps) spokesmen for Limpopo Province, Moatshe Ngoepe, has confirmed.Trymore Dube, Clinton Sithole, Clever Ndlovu and Raymond Mthombeni were arrested in South Africa after being found with a firearm and poaching-related tools."They have since appeared before the Tshilwavhusiku Magistrates' Court and were denied bail. They were remanded to January 25, 2018 to allow for further investigations," Ngoepe said.A special police unit acting on information pounced on the four, when they were headed for game farms across the Limpopo River from Zimbabwe.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The 315th Politburo meeting and the second to be chaired by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in his new capacity also resolved party elections will be held from the cell to provincial level.The pronouncement was made by the new Political Commissar of Zanu-PF Rtd Lieutenant General Engelbert Rugeje.Rtd Lieutenant General Rugeje has made it clear that all the organs of the party should be alive and vibrant and actively participate in the voter registration and subsequent polling process to ensure that Zanu-PF wins resoundingly in the forthcoming harmonised elections.He has made it clear that leaders should be in touch with the party from the cell to branch, district and provincial levels to ensure all familiarise and appreciate the party's ideology.Other reports were also heard from Patrick Chinamasa, Rtd Air Chief Marshal Perrence Shiri on the state of agriculture, Dr Mike Bimha on escalating prices of commodities locally and the three tier pricing system, from the principal of the Chitepo College of Ideology Munyaradzi Machacha and the President and First Secretary's welcome remarks.
Opinion / Columnist

Thank you comrade Whitlaw Mugwiji for yet another thoughtful and thought provoking article, "Even with full stomachs, democracy struggle continues". See News Day opinion section for the full article."I have no doubt that Mnangagwa will address our economic challenges but he too, like Deng, will not level the electoral playing field. Even if he wanted, the army has invested a lot in deposing Mugabe, so they will not easily hand over power to the opposition," you wrote."Wabaya gudo nukanwa!" (You have hit the nail on the head!) as one would say in Shona.People are forgetting that the thugs behind the 14 November, 2017 military coup are the same individual in the shadowy Junta, the Joint Operations Command, comprising Commander Chiwenga and the posse of generals and other security chefs headed by none other than Mnangagwa himself, stage the 2008 coup to stop Tsvangirai and MDC taking over power after Mugabe and Zanu PF was defeated in that year's March election. It is no exaggeration to say the Junta is the one that had masterminded and executed all the vote rigging, political thuggery and the wholesale looting to raise the billions of dollars to bankroll all those party activities.Robert Mugabe owed his 37 years in power to JOC.Mugabe would have enjoyed his life-long ambition to be life-President if he had not threatened to wrestle power from JOC members and hand it over to his wife and her G40 friends. The coup, nicknamed Operation Restore Legacy, was about restoring absolute tyrannical power back into the hands of JOC members.After a life-time of corruption, rigging elections, political thuggery and staging coups to make sure that all political power remains in the hands of JOC members, it is therefore unthinkable that they would risk losing it by conceding to the holding of free, fair and credible elections."They (coup plotters) will not easily hand over power to the opposition," you said. I would venture to say, they will never ever hand over power to the opposition. Never ever!"Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Igotonga!" (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! And rule!) was the first President Mnangagwa told his fellow Zanu PF coup plotters and hardliners on his return from SA after the coup. He has since rewarded his coup plotters and fellow Junta members by appointing them into powerful and influential positions. They are clearly enjoying their new found powers and flexing their political muscles as VP, Minister or whatever.Can you imagine P Shiri or C Chiwenga being told he his lost his contested seat in the upcoming elections and the two gentlemen walking quietly into the sunset! I cannot image that.However much many people were genuinely pleased to see the back of Robert Mugabe the fact of the matter is the coup that forced him out was illegal. To make matters worse for President Mnangagwa and his coup plotters, the coup was just one out of the string of the many illegal acts they have masterminded and executed in the last 37 years all for selfish political gain. The coup was just the latest such treasonous act and, again, for selfish political gain.One of the main causes of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is that the international community, funders and would-be foreign investors were shying away from Zimbabwe because it was being seen as a lawless nation ruled by thugs. Removing Mugabe, the tyrant was a positive development but removing him in a coup was the inauspicious start the regime did not want.Yes, the regime will gain the lost legitimacy if it can hold free, fair and credible elections and now it turns out it cannot do that either because the coup plotters, who are having a real taste of absolute political power, will not risk losing it in a free and fair election."Rest assured that Mnangagwa's eye is on the economy, but never forget that his other eye is on power retention. For this new administration, everything else is secondary to these two primary objectives," continued Mugwiji."Our struggle for democracy continues unabated. Hopefully in this new era, we will conduct it on full stomachs."You are wrong there my friend, we will not be demanding democratic reforms with full stomachs! Whatever economic recovery President Mugabe achieves it will not go beyond the artificial glass-celling set by his regime's failure to hold free and fair elections, proof that Zanu PF is still a party of lawless thugs. No one is keen to do business in a country ruled by with lawless thugs, we know this already; it is just too risky!President Mnangagwa regime's political and economic success or failure will depend on whether or not it can accomplish the impossible act of eating its cake and keeping it; it can hold free elections to shake-off its lawless thugs tag earned from their Mugabe days and still hang on to absolute power. The failure to hold free and fair elections is the regime Achilles heel!
Opinion / Columnist

As the fascinating MDC-T succession race herds towards its climax, it's sad that it has been worsened by the emergence of a tribal dimension and gender discrimination among other issues.The fact that MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai recently hinted that he would soon resign as that party president should not be ignored, but should act as a fresh episode in paving way for a new character, with new ideas in steering the wheels of that opposition political party.Its high time MDC-T officials consider a woman president, in the person of its deputy president, Thokozani Khupe. If this is the 19th year that Khupe has worked closely with Tsvangirai, it is now time to reward her, hence creating an opportunity to have a woman leader at Harvest House.Firstly, women are more collaborative, thus they are more inclined towards modern leadership, which is consultative in problem-solving and not just trying to assert a kind of hierarchical power like their male counterparts. Although men may also employ this sort of leadership but it is implemented differently by women.Elevating Khupe to the position of president in the MDC-T ahead of her two male counterparts, Elias Mudziri and Nelson Chamisa, can be both effective and popular. The fact that women politicians are more open minded means Khupe is able to turn the fortunes of the MDC-T.The battle to succeed Tsvangirai has been destroyed unity and team work within the MDC-T. Already, there are notable factions in that party. Succession plots between Chamisa and Mudzuri are thickening fast in that opposition party as the rival factions ponder their next move in the event that Tsvangirai finally exits the grand political stage.It is unfortunate that Mudzuri and Chamisa think that they are superior to Khupe and can be better leaders than her.In fact, Khupe is more senior to the two male deputies. There is nowhere in the MDC-T constitution where it is written that the president of that part has to be a man. In that vein, Khupe should stand her ground in this succession battle.Appointing Chamisa or Mudzuri to succeed Tsvangirai is nothing but a sign of tribal discrimination within that opposition outfit. Both Chamisa and Mudzuri come from Masvingo Province in the same district whilst Khupe is from Matabeleland. The MDC-T has always been sidelining people from Matabeleland and this is unacceptable in the political arena.Remember at one point, Khupe and her allies, MDC-T National Chairman, Lovemore Moyo and MDC-T deputy organizing Secretary Abednico Bhebhe, all from Matabeleland, were once labeled as tribalists because they had aired views which are different from those of their accusers the issue of formation of MDC Alliance. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that electing a woman president in the MDC-T simply makes good sense. It really makes sense since there are few women in that politicians in that party and it also aids to the diversity of ideas which later leads to better outcomes.Besides the issue of tribalism, chances that Chamisa can succeed Tsvangirai are very limited, considering his alleged relations with the members of the revolutionary party, ZANU-PF.Previous reports from the media had it that Chamisa, who runs a fleet of trucks was once contracted to ferry milk from the former President Robert Mugabe's dairy farm, Gushungo Dairies. It was also noted that the MDC-T deputy is in constant business dealings with the former first family while some sectors within that opposition party claimed that Chamisa has strong links with some officials from the ruling party, a thing which is against the will of many MDC-T members.In 2002, Mudzuri was elected to a four year term as Mayor of Harare. However, he was dismissed from his job on allegations of misconduct, gross insubordination and mismanagement of public funds. Although some MDC-T officials are behind his political elevation, it would not be wiser for Mudzuri to succeed Tsvangirai, considering his tainted background.
Opinion / Columnist

I stayed late to listen to the 04.30 am UK time Thursday 11 January 2018 BBC HardTalk interview of Professor Jonathan Moyo. To say I was very, very, disappointed is an understatement, I used it complete with the superlatives only because there no other way to express my feeling  the limitations are with the language.HardTalk, as the name of the programme implies, is supposed to ask the hard question and get to the heart of the matter. I therefore expected Zaniah Badawi, the BBC interviewer, to drive home the point that Zimbabwe's 15 th November 2017 military coup had become a necessary evil because there was no other way of removing then President Robert Mugabe from power. Here are some of the hard questions she should have asked:Professor Moyo, are you denying that President Mugabe had failed to hold free, fair and credible elections in all his 37 years in power?Is it not true that the 15 November coup was the second after the de facto coup staged in 2008 to stop Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party taking power after Mugabe and Zanu PF was defeated in the March vote?Professor Moyo and former President Mugabe talk of rule of law and constitutionalism only when it suits you but ignore it to pursue your no regime change agenda. SADC forced Mugabe and Zanu PF to go into the 2008 to 2013 GNU on the understanding Zimbabwe will implement democratic reforms designed to restore the ordinary Zimbabweans' freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections.Sadly, not even one of these reforms were implemented. It was President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party that has systematically eroded the people's freedoms and rights since independence and now the regime is undermining all efforts to restore them. You, yourself, Professor Moyo has even publicly boasted that "You can't expect us to reform ourselves out of power!" Are you saying Zanu PF has the right to rig elections, stage coups, etc. to stay in power?So, you and your G40 friends have seen nothing wrong with vote rigging and military coup per se, the only reason you are condemning the 15 November 2017 coup is because you were the victims?Professor Jonathan Moyo is "one of the most hated man in Zimbabwe", Ms Badawi said in her introduction but, as the interviewee, he was as slippery as a catfish, she soon learned. She tried to remind Moyo that Mugabe's legacy was the 90% mass unemployment, abject poverty that has  of the people living on US$ 5.00 or less a day, etc. He dismissed that as a "challenge" not a legacy!According to Oxford dictionary a legacy "is a gift left in a will; something handed down by a predecessor". So, after 37 years of corrupt, vote rigging, staged coups and murderous oppression Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs are handing today's generation an impoverished nation whose economy is in total meltdown after decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption ruled by lawless thugs.Most of the interview was taken up by Moyo giving details of how he and his colleague, Saviour Kasukuwere escaped under the very nose of Chiwenga's armed hit-squard!Professor Moyo went town about the regime now in Harare being "illegal led by thugs", of course it is illegal and Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and the rest are thugs but then so was the Mugabe regime. Zanu PF was a party of lawless and ruthless thugs before the slip, this is a characterisation the splinter factions will take with them wherever they go. It saves the pot's purpose to call the pan black and so it will call the pan black.Letting Jonathan Moyo escape is the biggest blunder the Mnangagwa faction has ever made because he knows a lot of dirty stuff about Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and many, many others in the regime's coup-plotters cabinet! Moyo is on the run for his life from his erstwhile for thugs, he knows that they are ruthless and there will not be kissing and making up if they catch him. His mission is to do everything in his power to make life as uncomfortable for them as he can; he will be leaking a lot of their dirty past, of that we can be certain.For the record, Professor Moyo, it was not the 15 November 2017 military coup that made Zimbabwe "a banana republic", as you claimed. The country has been a banana republic all along. The coup was just one event in a string of other similar cases of lawlessness and thuggery that have made Zimbabwe a pariah state ruled by the filthy rich but ruthless and oppressive few robbing the majority blind of their wealth, freedom, human rights, hopes and their very humanity.
Opinion / Columnist

For views and comments, email vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk

LATELY, there has been increased detention of Zimbabweans in the UK with the aim of deporting them. Detentions and enforced removals of Zimbabweans from the UK have risen sharply in recent times with the Home Office accused of deliberately targeting Zimbabwean nationals.The UK is not even complying with its own laws and just detaining people, seeking to forcefully remove them from the country.The Home Office has refused to give figures, but maintains it is targeting 'illegal immigrants'. The Home Office claims the unwarranted removals is not for Zimbabweans only but even for members of the European Union (EU).Celia Clarke, director of the legal charity Bail for Immigration Detainees (BiD), said: "If other European countries were targeting British expats in this way, there would be justified outrage."During Theresa May's Brexit speech in Florence last year, she offered to write legal protections for EU and foreign citizens living in Britain into the exit treaty."The warm sentiments expressed in the Prime Minister's Florence speech are at odds with the actions of the Home Office officials who appear to be riding roughshod over foreign citizens' rights to free movement," said Clarke."The Government has a callous disregard for Zimbabwean nationals' rights to live and work in the UK." Zimbabwean nationals are being detained despite having committed no crime.BiD said Zimbabwean citizens were being detained and facing deportation for relatively minor crimes, such as driving offences.The organisation also said many Zimbabwean nationals are not being given the opportunity to mount a legal challenge.If their lawyers launch a judicial review, they are normally sanctioned or reported for wasting time. Their human rights are being trampled and breached by the so-called champions of 'human rights'.Yet the e-mail sent by the EU's Brexit negotiating team, following a complaint by BiD over the detention and treatment of EU nationals, points out that Britain still has to fully comply with EU obligations."EU law continues to apply to the full to the UK and in the UK until it is no longer a member," officials state.But this is only for the EU members and no one gives a hoot about the Zimbabweans being detained, harassed and denied legal access.The prohibition of appeal beyond upper tribunal has been the most dictatorial act by the UK.The 'rule of law', as they preach it, is absent.Dr Marvelous Ncube, a Zimbabwean lawyer in the UK, said the arrests were abrupt and unnecessary."We also have instances where the father of a family has been suddenly arrested and faces deportation while the wife and children remain in the UK without sustainable livelihood support, with other financial commitments such as unpaid mortgages," he said.Among a flurry of recent cases reported to BiD is that of a 26-year-old Zimbabwean national who had been living in the UK since he was 13 and was working legally.He committed two driving offences which led to a 36-week custodial sentence, and upon release from prison, was detained and deported.Another Zimbabwean young man who was on reporting conditions was detained on reporting. He was not served with any document but just bundled roughly to the detention centre. He is not a flight risk; his crime is that he is not British.Lawyers are being intimidated by the courts; if the court feels that your judicial review application is frivolous, they just castigate you.There is no legal reasoning but a plot to assist the Home Office to deport people without due process. A Zimbabwean young man was attacked by some thugs.He called the police for help but claims that, rather than pursuing the alleged attackers, officers took him to Colnbrook immigration removal centre in Harmondsworth, West London, where he has been ever since. He has committed no criminal offence in the UK and has worked throughout his stay.Other cases include a number of Zimbabwean students currently held in Lincolnshire's Morton Hall immigration centre with one, according to a BiD legal official, detained on reporting while the other has 'clear mental health problems'.Last week the same official met a Zimbabwean with mental health problems who had been detained for three months despite having no criminal record.Another family had their front door smashed and the mother handcuffed in front of the children then bundled to a detention centre.Zimbabwean immigrants who are still waiting for their documents to be sorted are treated is obnoxious and totally flabbergasting, deeply depressing and knee-shaking manner.The way Britain is treating Zimbabweans here is inhuman and indeed dictatorial.It is irrational, unfair and surely unlawful.
Black Widow Is Probably Getting Her Own Marvel Film

Trending News: A Fan-Favorite Marvel Character May Finally Get Her Own Movie

Long Story Short

It's not yet official, but we may get a heaping helping of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow.

Long Story

Its probably about five years late but better late than never, I guess.

Variety reports that one of the biggest recent complaints of Marvel fans is being answered, with the studio looking to push on with a standalone Black Widow film starring Scarlett Johansson. Finally.

Johansson first starred as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 all the way back in 2010. Ever since, fans of the franchise have been calling for her to get her own film. Its taken the actor to appear in six subsequent releases for the studio to finally move forward with the project.

Marvel

Variety reports that its the imminent end of the latest phase of Marvel films that is encouraging the studio to push the button. But, really, should it have taken this long? At a time when were discussing the patriarchy and pay gap that exists in Hollywood almost every other day, a character like Black Widow played by an actor such as Johansson being put on the back burner fees particularly egregious, in some ways. Then again, only Iron Man, Thor, Captain America (and soon, Black Panther) have gotten solo films in this phase of the MCU. Either way, a Black Widow movie would be a welcome addition.

This May 2016 piece from Vanity Fair summed up the frustration at the contortions Marvel boss Kevin Feige seemed to be putting himself through to avoid committing to a Black Widow film.

Fair warning: the film doesnt technically have a green light. But it does have a writer (Jac Schaeffer signing on to pen the script), and thats not too far off. The up-and-coming Schaeffers career has benefitted from the patronage of Anne Hathaway, who signed her to write Nasty Women, her female-centric take on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Marvels focus on its male characters finally ends later this year with Brie Larson starring in Captain Marvel. A Black Widow film likely wouldnt arrive for at least a couple of years. Still, this is a victory for long suffering fans of the studio.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

The question remains: why so much hesitation over the years about a dedicated Black Widow film?

Drop This Fact

Emily Blunt was originally cast as Black Widow for Iron Man 2 but had to drop out after scheduling conflicts with Gullivers Travels.
The world faces the prospect of more tension with China over trade, security and human rights after Xi Jinping awarded himself another five-year term as leader of the ruling Communist Party and called for self-reliance in technology, a stronger military and protection of core interests abroad. At a party congress, Xi gave no sign of plans to change the "zero-COVID strategy that has frustrated Chinas public and disrupted business and trade. He called for faster military development and announced no change in policies that strain relations with Washington and Asian neighbors. Xi is tightening control at home and trying to use Chinas economic heft to increase its influence abroad.
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..Israel Hayom..11 January '18..At the time of this writing, it was still unclear whether terrorists released within the framework of the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange were involved, directly or indirectly, in the shooting murder of Rabbi Shevach Raziel on Tuesday, but it will not be surprising whatsoever if this is revealed to be the case. In recent years in general, and over the past few months in particular, the Shin Bet security agency has thwarted dozens of terrorist attacks directed by a cohort of those released terrorists, who were exiled to Gaza and "seized" the Hamas leadership. Hamas in Gaza is trying, almost openly, to orchestrate terrorist attacks across Judea and Samaria.Time and again throughout the years Israel has suffered the effects of exchange deals and goodwill gestures involving the release of Palestinian security prisoners, even if they involve exile to Gaza or abroad. At each of these junctures, Israel has deluded itself into thinking this time will be different, but time after time it becomes painfully evident that once a murderer always a murderer, and that once a terrorist always a terrorist. Around half of the nearly 14,000 terrorists Israel has set free since 1985 have returned in one form or another to the cycle of terror. Hundreds of Israelis have been murdered or wounded by released terrorists. Hundreds more attacks were prevented.The First Intifada was put into motion by those released in the Jibril deal in 1985. Thousands of the terrorists freed between 1993 and 1999 took part in the Second Intifada, when hundreds of Israelis were murdered. Dozens of the terrorists released in the Elhanan Tannenbaum deal in 2004 murdered more than 40 Israelis. Now it's the turn of those released in the Schalit deal to attack, murder, shoot, maim and plan attacks. Many people (including this writer) sounded the alarm in advance. It's such a shame we were right.Three of the most infamous Hamas leaders that left a trail of blood in their wake were first incarcerated for Israel: Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was released in the Jibril deal; Salah Shehadeh was released in 2000; and Abdullah Qawasmeh, banished to Lebanon in 1992. Saleh Arouri, who was banished from Israel in a bizarre deal instead of being arrested and jailed, is responsible for orchestrating numerous terrorist attacks, including the abduction and murder of three Israeli teens in 2014 after several years as head of "Hamas abroad"  from where he directed terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria.Arouri in the meantime has ascended to the upper echelon of Hamas' hierarchy as deputy to Ismail Haniyeh, while the group's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was also released in the Schalit exchange. Sinwar was freed along with prominent terrorists Husam Badran, Tawfik Abu Naim and Zaher al-Jabarin. This cohort presently controls Hamas' murderous leadership in Gaza. Terrorists freed in the Schalit deal have thus far murdered (or been involved in the murders) of Rabbi Michael Mark, Malachi Rosenfeld, Baruch Mizrahi, Danny Gonen and the three teenagers abducted in Gush Etzion, Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel.Every Israeli government has sinned by releasing terrorists who returned to murderous activities. The High Court of Justice's hands are also unclean because it has authorized these deals and gestures. Beyond the terrible immorality involved in any release of terrorists  beyond the humiliation, scorn for the law and court's rulings  we are faced with the bitter truth: Letting terrorists free perhaps brings home one or a handful of soldiers, and sometimes their bodies. They are extremely dear to our hearts. But always, without fail, freeing terrorists comes at an exceedingly heavier cost with countless more victims.Every one of these deals and goodwill gesture pours more fuel on the terrorist fire and significantly contributes, whether directly or indirectly, to the next attack, murder or abduction. It practically invites them. We must remember this when we again find ourselves, Heaven forbid, in a situation where we are pressured to free terrorists. We must stop referring to them as "security prisoners" and quickly ensure that they no longer receive salaries  from the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas (to whom Israel still transfers funds)  for their crimes. This is a cold, cruel and agonizing calculation which every government, in its responsibility to the safety and security of its citizens, must make and adhere to in the future.
Research

Stackable Credentials May Not Boost Earnings

Stacking of credentials is gaining a toehold. In the last year, for example, MOOC providers edX and Coursera have added the ability to stack courses and pathways within their platforms to support various "MicroMasters" programs being offered by member institutions. And the Manufacturing Institute is supporting a bunch of states in their work to align education and career pathways with a manufacturing skills certification system that allows for stackable certifications. Yet a new report from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) has suggested that while a college degree or a certificate has an impact on earnings, the impact of stackable credentials is still iffy.

In "Stackable Credentials: Do They Have Labor Market Value?" authors Thomas Bailey, CCRC director and professor of economics and education at Teachers College in Columbia University, and Clive Belfield, a professor of economics at City University of New York's Queens College, analyzed national, survey and college-system-level datasets to answer the question: Do stackable credentials have economic value, especially for "middle skill workers"?

The researchers used a U.S. Department of Labor definition for the concept: Stackable credentials are "part of a sequence of credentials that can be accumulated over time and move an individual along a career pathway or up a career ladder." The concept promises several benefits. First, it can help the student gain a credential with market value in less time that he or she would take to earn a degree. Second, by methodically stacking course credits, a student might opt to pursue a degree in the future in the same field. Third, stackable credentials can help tie college more closely to the labor market by making college awards "shorter, more clearly vocational and integrated, as well as more accessible" to those with work experience.

However, the bottom line doesn't add up. According to the report, stackable credentials "show only weakly positive and inconsistent gains from these award combinations." The returns are "indistinguishable" from what's gained by having just a single postsecondary credentials, the researchers found.

Those findings come with caveats. The calculations are imprecise and can really only offer a "general picture" of the earning impact of stackable credentials. There are challenges in figuring out how awards were linked, so the researchers didn't bother. To get around that, they defined a stack of credentials as a "postsecondary certificate plus another award."

Also, they emphasized, the estimated earnings gains from stackable credentials could be imprecise. "Few college students stack awards, the motives for stacking are unknown and, notably, the number of stacked awards depends on whether general vocational awards are included."

Plus, the researchers acknowledged that they had to "cast a wide net" across the data, which covered "different groups of workers at different stages of their working careers" to calculate the findings.

More research is needed, the report concluded. For example, there may be "opportunity costs" related to the lost income students would face in going after stacked credentials, which would offset any earnings gains they might enjoy from an additional award.

Costs also come into question. Paying the tuition and fees for a stack of credits could be pricier than simply pursuing a four-year degree, particularly if the credits aren't transferable.

On the college front, institutions may see high costs related to the "complex articulation or curriculum requirements" or management of stackable credentials. Students going into these programs may not be eligible for public tuition assistance, which could slow the growth of such programs.

Also at question is the labor market itself, which may view stackable credentials with disdain "relative to degrees."

Where could stackable credentials find a future? Possibly among "marginal or displaced workers" seeking jobs alongside college-educated people.

The report is openly available on the CCRC website.
Happy Birthday Julio R. Eiroa!

Today, Julio R. Eiroa, the patriarch of the Eiroa family and tobacco industry icon, celebrates his 80th birthday. Last year, as a part of my visit to the operations of the JRE Tobacco Farm and JRE Tobacco, I also had a chance to meet Julio R. Eiroa. In this final installment, I recap my visit with Mr. Eiroa.





In my eight years working in the cigar media, Ive been afforded the opportunity to meet the people behind many of the cigar brands that we all know and enjoy. There are plenty of great personalities, and some of these personalities are icons. Some of these icons are even legends. Julio R. Eiroa is one of those legends and I was honored to spend some time with him at his base of operations in Honduras last year. Today, Mr. Eiroa turns 80 years young.

Julio R. Eiroa was born in Cuba on January 11, 1938, in San Juan y Martinez, Cuba, located in the Pinar del Rio region. He actually emigrated from Cuba on two separate occasions. The first time was in 1957 for being considered a troublemaker by the Batista government. After returning to Cuba, he was forced to leave again following the aftermath of the Cuban revolution. He also served in the U.S. military, spending time in Korea and being a part of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

Following the Cuban Embargo, many cigar factories in the U.S. had to look for new sources for tobacco. Mr. Eiroa would team up with Angel Oliva in Honduras to grow Cuban-seed tobacco to replace the embargoed Cuban tobacco. Eventually, Mr. Eiroa would set out on his own, and buy up some farms and build a growing operation.

He would face challenges  including some partnerships that went bad and a plane crash that would take him out of the growing side of the business for many years. When left with tobacco surpluses prior to the cigar boom of the 1990s, he moved into the production side of the business. He would eventually acquire Camacho Cigars from Simon Camacho. Julios son Christian Eiroa later got involved, building Camacho into one of the most successful brands in the history of the cigar business. In 2008, Christian would sell Camacho to Davidoff. However, the farms were not a part of that sale.

Christian would work for Davidoff for some time before launching his own company C.L.E. Cigar Company  to which the Eiroa Tobacco Farms have continued to supply tobacco. After Julio Eiroas non-compete ended, he returned to cigar manufacturing. He created three brands: Aladino, Rancho Luna, and Tatascan. These brands would be put under a new venture called JRE Tobacco. Mr. Eiroa brought in his son Justo to help him with the overall operations. In previous installments, I covered my visit to tobacco the agricultural and manufacturing operations. It was during that visit that I got to meet and spend time with Julio R. Eiroa.

There are many other achievements that occurred during his 50+ plus years in the tobacco business. Along the way, Mr. Eiroa and his farms became one of the big suppliers of candela wrapper. He also re-introduced Authentic Corojo back into the market. And lets not forget being the first in the tobacco business to implement the Bayer CropScience program of agricultural practices into his entire operation.

My own journey to meeting Mr. Eiroa can be traced back to shortly after JRE Tobacco Company was launched back in 2016. I had decided to reach out to Justo Eiroa and see if I could learn more about the venture. Justo had only joined his father with JRE Tobacco a few months earlier, but I found someone who was an incredibly passionate about not only what he was building, but his father and familys legacy. As I started covering JRE Tobacco from a media standpoint, my relationship with Justo continued to strengthen. By the end of last year, Justo had invited me to come down to Honduras and visit the operation.

There arent many people who can boast a bio or resume like Julio R. Eiroa. Because Mr. Eiroa spends most of his time in Honduras, he hasnt been interviewed as much as others in the industry. In fact, I had not seen any online media interviews of Mr. Eiroa. I knew this would provide an incredible opportunity for me.

Mr. Eiroa and his son Justo opened their home to me. Their generosity and kindness were second to none. While the days in which I visited the farm and the factory would start early (8am), Mr. Eiroa beat everyone else out the door each and every day. He would get into his Geo Tracker and drive out to the farms and oversee what was going on out there. He then would head over to the factory later in the morning or early in the afternoon. While the farm and the factory are for all practical purposes adjacent to each other, this is by no means a small operation. I can attest personally I was exhausted on each of the days I toured the facility, yet Mr. Eiroa seemed to pull it off with ease.

When it came to having a conversation about his long career in the cigar industry, Mr. Eiroa was an open book  placing no parameters on our discussion. His legendary career is something he is very proud of. It is a career that was not without challenges along the way  which he was very candid about in our discussion.

Our conversation occurred in the front office of the Las Lomas factory. It was adorned with pictures of not only the farm, but some classic vehicles and even one of a prominent television journalist.

Below are excerpts of the conversation (while its a video link, its audio only) I had with Mr. Eiroa and his son Justo at the Las Lomas factory. Mr. Eiroa takes us back through his amazing journey that started in Cuba to where we are today. As you will see this is not only an insightful, but candid conversation. Toward the end of our discussion, the Eiroas began to pick my brain on some of the current industry trends and challenges.

Mr. Eiroas experience and vision came out very clear during my visit to JREs operations at the familys Tobacco Farm and the Las Lomas factory. Be sure to check out our previous installments that made up this special Feature Story series we have delivered to you.

Part 1: A Visit to the JRE Tobacco Company Operations: Part 1-The Corojo Farm

Part 2: A Visit to the JRE Tobacco Company Operations: Part 2-The Agriculture and Curing Operations

Part 3: A Visit to the JRE Tobacco Company Operations: Part 3-The Factory Operations

Also check out our special feature: Bayer CropScience a Daily Best Practice of Eiroa Operations

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop
THURSDAY, Jan. 11, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Trying to put a dent in the ongoing opioid addiction crisis, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday slapped strict new restrictions on the use of opioid-containing cold and cough products by kids.

These prescription medicines involve any that include codeine or oxycodone, the FDA said.

"After safety labeling changes are made, these products will no longer be indicated for use to treat cough in any pediatric population and will be labeled for use only in adults aged 18 years and older," the FDA said in a news release.

The newly updated Boxed Warning on these medicines will also warn adult users "about the risks of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose and death, and slowed or difficult breathing that can result from exposure to codeine or hydrocodone," the agency added.

"Given the epidemic of opioid addiction, we're concerned about unnecessary exposure to opioids, especially in young children. We know that any exposure to opioid drugs can lead to future addiction. It's become clear that the use of prescription, opioid-containing medicines to treat cough and cold in children comes with serious risks that don't justify their use in this vulnerable population," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in the news release.

"It's critical that we protect children from unnecessary exposure to prescription cough medicines containing codeine or hydrocodone," he added. "At the same time we're taking steps to help reassure parents that treating the common cough and cold is possible without using opioid-containing products."

The move comes after a 2017 decision by the FDA to add its strongest warning -- a "contraindication" -- to labeling for prescription products containing codeine. That labeling restricted use to children aged 12 and over "due to a specific risk of ultra-rapid metabolism in certain patients," the FDA explained.

The new rules announced Thursday were "based on an extensive review of available data and expert advice," the agency said.

They go much further than the 2017 labeling rules -- restricting use of codeine-containing products to everyone under the age of 18, and including cough-and-cold products that contain a second drug, the opioid oxycodone.

In any case, there's little that can or should be done to ease most children's cough and colds, the FDA said.

"Experts indicated that although some pediatric cough symptoms do require treatment, cough due to a cold or upper respiratory infection typically does not require treatment," the agency said. "Moreover, the risks of using prescription opioid cough products in children of all ages generally outweigh the potential benefits."

The FDA pointed to known side effects of opioid medications, including "drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, constipation, shortness of breath and headache."

One physician who's dealt with the aftermath of opioid overuse applauded the move.

"It's commendable that the FDA is acting to expand safety use labeling not only for children and teens, but adults as well," said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

"The opioid epidemic has many origins, but can begin with exposure to [opioids] at young ages," he said. "We know that some children and teens may, in fact, develop a predilection for the 'high' the prescription cough syrups deliver, and subsequently attempt to deceive parents and health care providers regarding the severity of their symptoms to obtain such a prescription."

So what's the advice for parents who may be using these medicines for their child already? According to the FDA, they should talk to their child's doctor about alternative therapies.

It's always important to read medicine labeling, too -- even if it's not obtained by prescription.

"Caregivers should also read labels on non-prescription cough and cold products," the FDA said, because "some products sold over-the-counter in a few states may contain codeine or may not be appropriate for young children."

More information

There's more about this issue at the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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New York, January 10, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Pakistani authorities to investigate todays attempted abduction of journalist Taha Siddiqui, and prosecute the perpetrators.

Siddiqui, the Pakistani bureau chief for the New Delhi-based television channel World Is One News, was in Islamabad on his way to the airport when 10 to 12 men stopped his car on the highway, beat him, and threatened him. The group of men then attempted to abduct the journalist, according to Siddiqui, who spoke at a press conference, and gave interviews to news outlets.

A Pakistani national, Siddiqui has been a vocal critic of Pakistans military, and several months ago complained of being harassed by the countrys security service, Reuters reported.

This brazen attempt to abduct journalist Taha Siddiqui on a busy highway in broad daylight suggests the perpetrators have no fear of facing any consequences, said Steven Butler, CPJs Asia program coordinator. Pakistani authorities must end these lawless attacks against journalists and freedom of expression.

Speaking at a press conference at the National Press Club in Islamabad today, Siddiqui said he was traveling to the airport in a taxi at around 8 a.m. when a car overtook his taxi, forcing it to stop. Four men in plains clothes got out of the car, carrying rifles and a pistol. Siddiqui said at first he thought it was a road rage incident. One of the men asked Siddiqui, What do you think of yourself, do you think youre somebody? Siddiqui said he then realized that it was an abduction attempt.

Siddiqui said the men hit and pushed him with their hands and threatened multiple times to shoot him. The journalist said that vehicles were passing during the attack, including a military ranger who saw him and kept moving.

As he was trying to escape from the taxi, Siddiqui said he noticed another car of men had arrived and blocked off the surrounding area.

The journalist said he eventually managed to get out of the car, ran into oncoming traffic, and jumped in a taxi. The journalist then hid in ditches along the Islamabad highway before he made it to a service road. He then took another taxi to Koral Police Station where he filed a First Information Report (FIR), a police document filed at the start of an investigation in Pakistan, according to Siddiqui.

Mustafa Tanveer, police superintendent, confirmed Siddiqui approached police after the attack, according to Dawn. CPJ was unable to determine if police registered the FIR, which they have to do before conducting an investigation.

Siddiqui said he believed his attackers knew that he was on his way to the airport, and had orchestrated this assault because they knew it would take longer for people to realize he was missing as he was supposed to be in transit.

The journalist said his attackers spoke to him in both Urdu and English and were well-organized. Given past cases of abductions, Siddiqui said he suspected that state authorities were behind the attempt, but did not have proof and asked police to investigate. Siddiqui left his passport, luggage, and phone in the taxi when he escaped, and none of them have been recovered, according to the journalist.

The spokesperson for Pakistans intelligence service did not respond to a request for comment about the attack on Siddiqui from the Associated Press.

CPJ was unable to reach Islamabads Koral police precinct, where Siddiqui said he filed the FIR, for comment.

Im still in shock, I dont know how I escaped, Siddiqui said during the press conference. I think the idea is to silence meWhen they were trying to take me away I would rather have wanted them to shoot me because I dont want to be a missing personso that people can see what they do when you stand up for a cause here, for freedom of speech here.

In May 2017, CPJ called on Pakistans Federal Investigation Agency to stop harassing Siddiqui, after he received a summons for questioning at its counter-terrorism department. The summons arrived despite a decision by the Islamabad High Court restraining the agency from harassing Siddiqui.
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New York, January 10, 2018The Yemeni government should allow the Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera to immediately reopen its Taiz office, and permit journalists in Yemen to do their jobs unencumbered, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Soldiers acting on orders from the Taiz Governorate Security Committee closed the office yesterday, according to Saeed Thabit Saeed, director of Al-Jazeera in Yemen.

A video posted on Al-Jazeera Yemens Facebook page shows men with guns dressed in military fatigues and red berets bearing the Yemeni military insignia at the channels Taiz bureau. Saeed told CPJ the group showed up, and demanded that the office close.

The Taiz Security Committee said in a statement, which Al-Jazeera later published in an abridged format, that it ordered the Taiz offices to close because of the channels alleged attempts to create divisions between legitimate authorities, referring to the Aden-based government, and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which supports the government. The committee also cited Al-Jazeeras negative coverage of the Yemeni Armys campaign against the Ansar Allah movement, commonly known as the Houthis, as a reason for the bureaus closure.

Yemens journalists are already operating in unprecedented danger, and international journalists have very little access to the country, CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said from Washington, D.C. For authorities to stop an international outlet in a frontline city from broadcasting is tantamount to silencing the countrys few remaining voices, and mirrors the practices long seen in Houthi-controlled areas. Authorities must immediately allow Al-Jazeeras journalists in Taiz to resume work.

The Taiz security directorate media office did not immediately respond to CPJs request for comment. CPJ was unable to locate contact information for the Taiz security committee.

Saeed told CPJ that, based on multiple sources, he believes the closure is a result of pressure from the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both of which support the internationally recognized government based in Aden and its allies.

CPJ was unable to confirm Saeeds allegation.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington DC and the Ministry of Defense in Riyadh did not immediately respond to requests for comment, sent via email and the ministrys website respectively. A phone call to the UAE Embassy in Washington DCs media office was not immediately returned.

Saudi Arabia closed Al-Jazeeras bureau in the kingdom last year following a diplomatic dispute between Qatar and several other countries in the region. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, along with Bahrain and Egypt, blocked Al Jazeeras website in their countries, alleging that the broadcaster is an arm of the Qatari state, according to news reports.

Saeed said that authorities have only closed the channels Taiz office, but bureaus throughout territory controlled by the Yemeni government have received threats from unknown sources.

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition of other Arab states and Senegal in a military coalition against the Houthi movement, which controls territory in the countrys North and West as well as the capital Sanaa. Until last year, the group also controlled Taiz. The coalition, which receives arms and assistance such as mid-air refueling from the U.S., has killed a number of journalists since it began bombing Yemen in 2015, CPJ has documented.

At least two journalists were killed in Yemen in 2017, both in Taiz, and Houthi forces continue to detain and target independent journalists operating in areas under their control. Additionally, the Saudi-led coalition has barred nearly all international journalists from entering the country, including a crew for the U.S. television show 60 Minutes in November 2017, CBS reported.
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CHARLESTON -- The defense attorney of the teenager accused in the Sept. 20 Mattoon High School shooting is expected to make a motion to place the boy in a different facility.

A court hearing took place Thursday to address the case involving the accused teen, Josiah Lyons. At the hearing, Lyons' attorney, Ed Piraino of Champaign, indicated he will file a motion to find a placement for Lyons other than in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice detention facility.

Piraino also signaled that the psychiatrist, Lawrence Jeckel, who was tasked with completing a mental health evaluation for the boy would be willing to offer testimony that would pertain to that motion.

Previously, Jeckel was granted records of Lyons for his mental health evaluation of the boy. As previously reported, the evaluation will address the possibility of insanity at the time of the incident, whether the boy is a risk to himself or others, and if he is able to understand and help with his case.

State's Attorney Brian Bower said a different facility would provide different treatment options for the boy.

A motion has not been filed, so a specific request of a facility was not touched on in the hearing.

The hearing was continued to Feb. 2. Bower and Piraino agreed to this court date during the hearing before Circuit Judge Matt Sullivan, who is presiding over the case.

Lyons, 14, was an MHS freshman at the time of the Sept. 20 shooting in the school's cafeteria. Another boy, who reportedly was not the actual target, was shot during the incident before the shooter was subdued, according to authorities' accounts. The boy was hit in the upper chest, but accounts indicate that he is recovering from his wounds.

In juvenile court, Lyons is charged with aggravated battery with a firearm. It's a felony offense that could lead to his being held in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice until the age of 21.

According to information presented during a previous hearing and from authorities, Lyons allegedly started to aim the gun at a girl but MHS teacher Angie McQueen grabbed him by the arm and the shot hit the other student instead. More shots were fired into the cafeteria's ceiling before McQueen and Mattoon police school resource officer Kasey Alexander subdued the boy, according to the accounts.

Some sources have indicated that bullying might have been the motivation for the shooting, however, officials involved in the investigation have not released information regarding any possible motive. Authorities have not said how the boy was able to bring the gun inside the school.

The suspect is a juvenile, but the JG-TC has opted at this time to use his name, as his identity has been widely disseminated and already made public.
Thanks to a frenzied December on Capitol Hill, 2017 will be known as the year of tax reform. But political developments in several blue states may mean that tax relief is significantly clawed back. Massachusetts and New Jersey are currently considering millionaires taxes, which would significantly increase top rates and spark a race to the top for revenue at a time when the federal government is actively lowering rates.

To states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts with red-hot liberal resentment over tax reform, a millionaires tax might seem like necessary progressive corrective action. Hidden behind the rhetoric, though, is a flimsy case for states trying to raise taxes on the wealthy. Instead of helping out the middle class, a millionaires tax will result in an exodus from the state, squeezing out opportunities for working Americans.

State lawmakers with blue electorates often experience generous program funding promises that conflict with balanced-budget requirements. When faced with expanding spending and shrinking revenues, large tax increases are the go-to policy option. Prominent millionaires respond to these proposals by threatening to leave, and research shows that the well-to-do regularly follow through on these promises. Despite inter-state migration by upper-income groups being lower than average, nearly all of the migration that does happen in top brackets has to do with tax changes.

Researchers at Stanford University and the Treasury Department estimate that a 10 percent increase in taxes causes a 1 percent bump in migration, assuming no change in any other policy. This implies that typical levels of tax migration would still result in a net increase of revenue for a state looking to raise taxes on top earners. But it does mean that the bounty is not as great as some state lawmakers would like to imagine. Shifts in executive compensation sources make the payoff to state governments even smaller.

The ultimate destination for the remaining pool of money that does get into state coffers depends on the state. New York States experience offers a cautionary tale of what happens when transparency and accountability take a back seat to special interests. In 2009, then-Governor Paterson and state lawmakers urged a temporary 8.97 percent tax on individuals earning over one million (or couples earning over two million) to shore up funding through the end of the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009.

This new rate proved to be anything but temporary and is still on the books (albeit slightly lowered to 8.82 percent) following a two-year extension signed into law last year. The $3.5 billion annual revenue pads wasteful spending in Albany, as costs balloon for expensive infrastructure projects and waste at Albany agencies. Meanwhile, lawmakers have proven incapable of clamping down on record shortfalls.

Californias experience with a millionaires tax is only slightly less terrible. A 1 percent surtax on incomes above $1 million, implemented in 2004, is specifically designated for the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), which funds counseling and rehab services for at-risk, low-income populations. But despite the transparency over the funding, per-person program costs have ballooned and the state has presented no data attesting to the efficacy of the program.

This does not mean that there are no praiseworthy program results; some statistical findings suggest that increased mental health efforts have led to a decline in emergency room usage and decreases in other government spending. But if the program recoups around 85 percent of costs, as some studies suggest, then a millionaires tax is not necessary. If California clamped down on some of the rampant waste found in infrastructure line-items, payments for mental health would be possible and set the state up for long-run budgetary savings. Better yet, Sacramento could fund specific programs via charitable donations as a way for taxpayers to get around the new state and local deduction cap.

If New Jersey and Massachusetts approve new millionaires taxes, it is difficult to predict how much will be raised and where these funds will ultimately wind up. But if New York and California are any guide, income surtaxes will be destructive. When it comes to higher taxation, interstate migration is just the tip of the iceberg. Higher-tax states, for instance, see less innovative activity and scientific research according to an analysis by economists at the Federal Reserve and UC Berkeley. Any benefits of millionaires taxes do not make up for the economic and social toll caused by fewer innovative activities and correspondingly lower job creation.

In the midst of game-changing federal reforms and widespread blue resentment, scapegoating the rich is a proven political strategy. But millionaires taxes make for terrible governance and dubious benefits.

Ross Marchand is the director of policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

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Enrique Abuin has confessed to killing Diana Quer, but claims it was an accident. OSCAR CORRAL

Diana Quer, a Madrid teenager who went missing in August 2016, was strangled according to a preliminary autopsy report.

The finding rules out the possibility that she was accidentally hit by a car, as her alleged killer, Jose Enrique Abuin, aka El Chicle, has maintained ever since his arrest last month, said SER radio station.

Diana Quer's mother with a poster of her missing daughter. Gtres

Medical examiners were unable to determine at this time whether the killer used his hands or a cable tie such as the one that was still holding the 18-year-olds hands together when the body was found on December 31.

Abuins lawyer, Ramon Sierra, said a few days ago that the autopsy report would determine whether he continues to represent his client or not.

A second attempt

Following his arrest, Abuin led the police to Diana Quers body, which was at the bottom of a water deposit inside an abandoned warehouse in Rianxo, a town in the northwestern region of Galicia. Despite initially confessing that he had strangled her after trying to rape her, Abuin later said that he had accidentally hit her with his car.

Abuin was caught after attempting to abduct another woman last month in a nearby town; the victim fought back and two passersby came to her rescue. Abuin had already been a main suspect in the Diana Quer investigation, but the case had been shelved in April for lack of conclusive evidence.

Quer had been spending her summer vacation in the Galician town of A Pobra de Caraminal with her family when she went missing on the night of August 21, 2016, as she was walking alone on a deserted street during the local fiestas. Her disappearance triggered a massive search operation that yielded no results. The teens family was subjected to intense public scrutiny by the media, which had a field day with stories of family fights and reports by people claiming to have seen the youth anywhere from Spain to Romania.

Diana Quers remains will be buried on Thursday in Madrid.

English version by Susana Urra.
Former Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont. PAU BARRENA (AFP)

Catalonias two main pro-independence parties have hammered out part of the deal that could see them forming a new government in the region, but the question of who will become regional premier, or more precisely how, remains a sticking point in negotiations.

Representatives of PDeCAT, the party of former Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont, and the Republican Catalan Left (ERC) met on Tuesday in Brussels to draw up details of a plan that could see them control the new Catalan parliament.

The ERC now finds itself backed into a corner by an inflexible Puigdemont with the January 17 constituent session now less than a week away

The two parties jointly won 66 seats in the 135-seat regional chamber in a snap election called by Madrid for December 21 after the central government had used emergency powers under article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to dismiss the Catalan executive over its defiance of Constitutional Court rulings to unilaterally declare independence.

If the PDeCAT and the ERC can agree on a deal to share power  a deal that would also depend on the cooperation of the radical leftist CUP party, which is intent on a hardline approach to the independence issue  they will be in a position to control the regional parliament, even though the staunchly anti-independence party Ciudadanos was the most-voted party in the election.

On Tuesday in Brussels, Puigdemont and ERC secretary general Marta Rovira agreed on the terms for the parliament's Mesa (the permanent board of officers which includes the key speaker position), but talks stalled over the issue of the premiership.

Madrid says it will appeal to the Constitutional Court if pro-independence parties attempt a remote investiture

Puigdemont, whose Junts per Catalunya group picked up more seats than the ERC, is demanding to be remotely sworn in as the new premier, given that faces arrest on possible rebellion and sedition charges over his role in the recent Catalan independence push should he return to Spain.

This remote appointment could take place via video conference or by having someone speak on Puigdemonts behalf in the regional parliament. But such a move is unprecedented and would require a change to Catalan parliamentary regulations. The ERC, for their part, have refused to discount the possibility of such a move, but have yet to approve it either. Instead, they are falling back on the need to get legal advice on the issue.

In a corner

The ERC now finds itself backed into a corner by an inflexible Puigdemont with the January 17 constituent session now less than a week away. The party feels it is being held responsible by its pro-independence ally for his reelection to the regions top job, and so far its only defense is that its lawyers will have the final say.

On Monday, ERC deputy Roger Torrent stated that parliamentary lawyers were ultimately responsible for assessing the legality of an investiture via Skype. There are technical and judicial aspects that it is not up to the ERC to evaluate. It is up to the lawyers to define how parliamentary laws are interpreted, he said.

The ERC has insisted it still backs the former presidents bid for the premiership but has also stated it is unwilling to support changes to parliamentary procedures which are likely to end up being blocked by the Constitutional Court.

Madrid to appeal

The Spanish government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said it will block any attempt to invest a Catalan premier where the candidate is not actually present in the regional parliament, regardless of whether the attempt involves video conferencing or a proxy speaking on behalf of Puigdemont.

Madrid says any moves by the ERC and PdeCAT to attempt to change parliamentary rules to allow either of the above options are not possible ,and that it will appeal to the Constitutional Court if it sees any sign of legal irregularities in the appointment of the new regional president.

But the government has ruled out the possibility of using emergency powers under Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution after earlier deeming that use of those powers to intervene in decisions of the regional chamber could be unconstitutional.

English version by George Mills.
Pablo Iglesias addressing Congress in November. Julian Rojas

Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Spains anti-austerity Podemos party, is nowhere to be seen. His last public appearance was on December 20, when he showed up at an event in Valencia to support victims of the Francisco Franco regime.

Ever since then, the secretary generals public communications have been confined to the social media and to hosting his television program, Fort Apache.

Iglesias is the only one of Spains main party leaders who has not made a public appearance to discuss the outcome of the Catalan elections of December 21, when Podemos ran in coalition with Catalunya en Comu and lost three seats and 40,000 votes compared with the September 2015 elections.

Podemos position on the Catalan conflict was the most sensible one in a polarized context

Noelia Vera, co-spokeswoman

When the heads of other parliamentary groups were away on vacation, Iglesias was in Congress to present climate change legislation [on December 15], said Podemos organization secretary Pablo Echenique on Wednesday, in a bid to downplay Iglesias prolonged absence. Podemos is a collective project, and sometimes it is Iglesias who makes a public appearance, and others it is I or [party co-spokeswoman] Noelia Vera. There is no mystery to it.

Podemos congressional speaker, Irene Montero, has also come out in Iglesias defense, saying that he has not failed to show up at any time, despite the three weeks absence. She added that Podemos representatives are an ensemble cast and a pool of spokespeople, and may thus fill in for one another.

But Iglesias absence is all the more noteworthy in light of the fact that the heads of other leading parties  Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party (PP), Pedro Sanchez of the Socialist Party (PSOE) and Albert Rivera of Ciudadanos  all made public appearances the day after the Catalan elections, and did so again at later dates.

Iglesias is not scheduled to appear in public until Saturday, when he will present a report summarizing the partys milestones in 2017 and the challenges up ahead. Podemos is facing the most challenging moment of its four-year existence, with surveys showing eroding voter support.

The clash of identities and the territorial question do not create a favorable framework for our own approach to issues, admitted Rafael Mayoral, the secretary for civil society and popular movement affairs at Podemos.

The media barrier

The outcome in Catalonia was not what we would have liked, said Echenique. We always go out there to win. Weve lost three seats and a certain percentage of votes, but its not a great variation.

Podemos, which was unaligned with either the separatist or pro-unity parties in Catalonia, obtained 320,000 votes on December 21, representing 7.45% of the total.

Pablo Echenique and Noelia Vera of Podemos. EFE

Despite the poor performance, co-spokeswoman Noelia Vera said that Podemos position on the Catalan conflict was the most sensible one in a polarized context.

We feel that in the midterm, a position like ours is the only way out. It does not seem sensible to change, she added. Vera also rejected the notion that the partys strategy in Catalonia may negatively affect subsequent local and regional elections elsewhere in Spain.

Echenique blamed the media for part of Podemos communication problems. It is enormously difficult, in a polarized context like the Catalan issue, to get ones messages across to citizens. This job is not entirely up to us, it also depends on journalists, on the subjects that are of legitimate interest to the media and to the other political actors.

We have been unable to overcome this communication barrier, added Echenique.

English version by Susana Urra.
MATTOON (JG-TC) -- Police officers recently made arrests regarding incidents at County Market, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart.

A Mattoon Police Department press release reported that Lisa C. Rohe, 47, of Pekin was arrested on charges of obstructing a police officer and aggravated battery to an officer at 3:46 a.m. Sunday in the 2000 block of Western Avenue.

Police officers were called to County Market to remove Rohe, who was allegedly being disorderly and refusing to leave. The charges alleges that Rohe refused to cooperate with police and to provide them with pertinent information. The charges further allege that Rohe continued to obstruct and resist officers while being placed in a squad car, and that she spat in the face of an officer. She was taken to the Coles County jail.

In other matters, Ashton A. Eady, 28, of Harvey was arrested on four counts of forgery at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday in the 1300 block of Charleston Avenue. Eady allegedly traveled from Chicago to Walgreens and CVS in Mattoon on Tuesday and attempted to get fake prescriptions filled at each location. Eady also allegedly did this at CVS and Walmart in Mattoon on Saturday. Eady was taken to the jail.

Nicholas J. Blakemore, 34, of Mattoon was arrested for the offense of theft at 12:08 p.m. Tuesday at the Mattoon police station. The charge alleges that Blakemore entered County Market on Jan. 1 and stole numerous cartons of cigarettes from there. He was taken to the jail.

Leroy J. Konop, 27, of Mattoon, was arrested on charges of possession of methamphetamine and obstruction of justice at 3:08 p.m. Monday in the 2300 block of Marion Avenue. The charges allege that Konop was operating a vehicle that was stopped by police and was in possession of meth at the time. Konop also allegedly broke a glass smoking device that was in the vehicle in an attempt to destroy evidence. He was taken to the jail.
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Alexei Druzhinin (AP)

A US report by congressional Democrats has condemned Russian interference in the Catalan independence referendum on October 1, 2017. The report, presented on Wednesday by Democratic staff on the US Senate foreign relations committee, affirmed that there was evidence that Kremlin-run news outlets like RT and Sputnik, reinforced by bots and fake social media accounts, carried out a disinformation campaign during the referendum. The report provides an overview of Russias destabilization campaigns in different countries in Europe and the West, and follows on from a committee meeting that took place in November.

The referendum ... showed that Spain is a growing target of the Kremlins malign influence operations US Congressional report

The referendum was driven by decades-long domestic political, cultural, and economic issues, but it also presented Moscow with an opportunity to promote an outcome that would weaken a major EU state, reads the report. It added that "While the referendum did not result in Catalonias independence from Spain, it showed that Spain is a growing target of the Kremlins malign influence operations."

The Democrats, referencing EL PAIS investigations, maintain that there is widespread evidence that the Russian government promoted the publication of news and articles against the Spanish government and in favor of the independence movement. The day of the referendum, Twitter profiles controlled by Russian agents increased post volume by 2,000%  with all the tweets pushing for independence. RT and other news agencies deny these accusations.

According to the report, the objective of Russias recent interference was to destabilize the European Union and European countries, which are supposedly Vladimir Putins main political rivals. Russia also targeted Brexit and the French and German presidential elections. Beyond this, the report suggests the Kremlins actions in Spain were also aimed at increasing the presence of Russian companies in Catalonia and filling the whole left by the large number of companies which left the region as a response to the political crisis. The report argues Catalonia was seen as a base Russia could use to access other parts of the European continent.

Twitter profiles controlled by Russian agents increased post volume by 2,000% on the day of the referendum

In terms of Spain, the report also outlines the role of the Russian mafia and its efforts to influence Catalan political organizations through money laundering, bribes and illegal funding. According to an investigation by the non-profit investigative journalism association ProPublica cited in the report, from the 1990s on agents linked to Putin have settled in Spain and led organized crime operations, most of them in Catalonia. Over the decades, they have successfully convinced businesspeople and politicians to promote the pro-independence agenda. As an example, the Democrats point to the case of Xavier Crespo, a former deputy of the Catalan nationalist electoral alliance Convergence and Union (Convergencia i Unio), was sentenced in 2015 for providing favors to Russian mafia chief Andrei Petrov in exchange for goods and 270,000.

The first evidence in the United States of Russian interference came to light in the US elections won by Donald Trump. The CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies confirmed that Russia tried to interfere in numerous instances and launched an online campaign to influence the election results in favor of Trump. Almost a year later, Russias plot still casts a shadow on Washington as Robert Mueller-led investigations continue into whether Trumps team collaborated with the Kremlin. With this latest report, the Democrats hope to pressure Republicans to take measures against Russian interference in the lead-up to the US congressional and midterm elections in November.

English version by Melissa Kitson.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:

Italy will support the work of the OSCE Minsk Group to find a definitive solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict ,OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Italys Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said at the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Jan.11.

"Our attention will remain high and unchanged on all of the protracted conflicts," he added.

The minister noted that as the 2018 OSCE Chair, Italy intends to intensify the dialogue between the OSCE countries within the framework of the OSCE chairmanship, which is one of the key principles.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry has commented on the countrys inclusion in the US State Department list of countries where there is threat of terrorism.

The ministry said in a message that Azerbaijan strongly condemns all forms and manifestations of terrorism.

It is very surprising that the US included Azerbaijan in this category, whereas in recent years, the tourist inflow has increased by 24 percent in the country, the number of foreign citizens arriving in Azerbaijan has exceeded 2.7 million people, the country held the first European Games, 4th Islamic Solidarity Games, the Formula 1 race, events on intercultural and interfaith dialogue and other high-level prestigious political, economic, sporting and cultural events, said the ministry in its message.

Along with these events, meetings between the chiefs of the General Staff of the United States and Russia, the heads of NATO military committee and the chief of the General Staff of Russia were held in Azerbaijan, says the message.

Along with other factors, the holding of such prestigious events by Azerbaijan is related to ensuring high-level stability, security and public order in the country, according to the message.

The Azerbaijani government fully controls the security situation and the operational situation in the country, excluding the Azerbaijani territories occupied by the Armenian armed forces. The continuation of occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia continues to be the main threat to peace and security in the region, said the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

The US State Department has prepared recommendations for informing American tourists about the safety risks when traveling to foreign countries. Azerbaijan is included in the second category of countries with risk for American tourists, in other words, in the list of countries, visiting which tourists must be extremely cautious.
Details added (first version posted on 13:20)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry has commented on the countrys inclusion in the US State Department list of countries where there is threat of terrorism.

The ministry said in a message that Azerbaijan strongly condemns all forms and manifestations of terrorism.

It is very surprising that the US included Azerbaijan in this category, whereas in recent years, the tourist inflow has increased by 24 percent in the country, the number of foreign citizens arriving in Azerbaijan has exceeded 2.7 million people, the country held the first European Games, 4th Islamic Solidarity Games, the Formula 1 race, events on intercultural and interfaith dialogue and other high-level prestigious political, economic, sporting and cultural events, said the ministry in its message.

Along with these events, meetings between the chiefs of the General Staff of the United States and Russia, the heads of NATO military committee and the chief of the General Staff of Russia were held in Azerbaijan, says the message.

Along with other factors, the holding of such prestigious events by Azerbaijan is related to ensuring high-level stability, security and public order in the country, according to the message.

The Azerbaijani government fully controls the security situation and the operational situation in the country, excluding the Azerbaijani territories occupied by the Armenian armed forces. The continuation of occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia continues to be the main threat to peace and security in the region, said the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

The US State Department has prepared recommendations for informing American tourists about the safety risks when traveling to foreign countries. Azerbaijan is included in the second category of countries with risk for American tourists, in other words, in the list of countries, visiting which tourists must be extremely cautious.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

Azerbaijan supports the intention of the Italian OSCE Chairmanship to promote meaningful dialogue on matters related to the politico-military dimension.

The Azerbaijani delegation announced about it in its statement in response to Chairperson-in-Office, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano at the OSCE special permanent council meeting in Vienna on Jan.11.

The delegation noted that Azerbaijan highly values the willingness of Italy to take the responsibility of chairing the organization at this challenging period.

We extend our full support to its open, transparent and inclusive approach based on joint ownership of all participating States. Our Italian colleagues can count on active and constructive engagement of the Azerbaijani Delegation in implementing the Chairmanships agenda, the Azerbaijani mission said.

The mission further stressed that Italy takes the helm of the Chairmanship against the backdrop of erosion of rules-based European security order accompanied by increased complexity of threats and challenges.

At this critical juncture, full adherence to the OSCE principles and commitments by all participating States is the prerequisite to restore the Spirit of Helsinki for building an effective pan-European cooperative and indivisible security system, the mission said.

Existing conflicts deprives millions of people of their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. Their plight can be effectively addressed only through restoration of justice and rule of law on the basis of full respect for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of internationally recognized borders of states affected by the conflicts. Double standards applied by some states impairs the efforts to achieve peaceful solution of the conflicts, the mission said, adding that Azerbaijan supports the intention of the Italian Chairmanship to promote meaningful dialogue on matters related to the politico-military dimension.

For that aim, the mission added, the Structured Dialogue needs to be continued in line with its mandate identified in the Hamburg Declaration avoiding any premature narrowing of its scope.

In this context, we encourage the Italian Chairmanship to ensure that risks and challenges emanating from existing conflicts are adequately taken into account in designing the Structured Dialogue process in 2018, the mission said.

The Azerbaijani mission also welcomed the intention of the Italian Chairmanship to focus on such topics as development of human capital, promotion of good governance and digital economy, which are also among the priorities of the Government of Azerbaijan.

We strongly support the focus of the Italian Chairmanship on countering all forms of racism, xenophobia, intolerance and discrimination including those based on religious grounds. Azerbaijan as a strong proponent of multiculturalism and inter-cultural dialogue remains ready to support Chairmanships initiatives, in this regard, the mission concluded.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

In 2017, Heydar Aliyev International Airport  the main air gate of Azerbaijans capital - hit a new record. In 2017 4.06 million passengers were served. It exceeded last year's figure by 23 percent.

In 2017 a total of 55 airlines carried out regular and charter flights. Heydar Aliyev International Airport welcomed 8 new air carriers - Air Arabia, Wataniya Airways, ISR Air, Mahan Air, Jazeera Airways, IrAero, Ikar (PegasFly brand) and Azerbaijans first low-cost airline Buta Airways.

During this period Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) carried 2.2 million passengers, while Buta Airways  92,000 passengers. At the same time, 114,000 passengers were registered on transit flights, while 50,000 passengers - on charter flights.

85 percent of passengers were carried by international flights. 46 percent of the total international traffic of the airport accounted for Azerbaijan Airlines and Buta Airways, 54 percent - foreign air carriers.

Top ten most popular international destinations included Moscow, Istanbul, Dubai, Kiev, Tehran, Antalya, Tbilisi, Baghdad, Doha and St. Petersburg. 2.52 million passengers traveled to these destinations.

The new airport terminal of Heydar Aliyev Airport (Terminal 1) was put into operation in April 2014. Its total area is 65,000 square meters.

Heydar Aliyev International Airport was awarded the category of "4 stars" by the Skytrax, which is influential British consulting company specializing in the study of the quality of services provided by various airlines and airports worldwide.

In March 2017 Baku Heydar Aliyev Airport was named the best airport among airports of Russia and CIS countries for the level of the provided services, being awarded the prestigious Skytrax World Airport Awards.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

Introduction of best practices in the banking sector, further strengthening of the market positions of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), the widespread use of innovative banking technologies are the main strategic goals of the new stage of the banks development, the IBA said in a message.

In 2016-2017, intensive processes of financial and institutional improvement were taking place in the IBA, the message said. The bank expresses its deep gratitude to all those who contributed to its improvement, including customers and media representatives.

The bank started its activity on Jan. 10, 1992 and today is the largest in the South Caucasus region in terms of assets volume.

On the day of its 26th anniversary, IBA also announced its financial results for 2017. The bank successfully switched to a new stage of development, having completed the process of financial improvement and voluntary restructuring of liabilities in foreign currency.

Consistent measures aimed at the financial improvement of the IBA, including the measures to increase profitability and quality of service, optimize costs, significantly strengthened the capital position of the bank, the message noted. As a result, the regulatory capital of the bank increased to 525 million manats, while the capital adequacy ratio reached 18 percent, exceeding the regulatory requirement by 1.8 times.

As of the end of 2017, the banks assets amounted to 8.69 billion manats, liabilities - 7.75 billion manats, and balance capital - 0.94 billion manats. The loan and deposit portfolio amounted to 1.8 billion manats and 5.1 billion manats, respectively.

(1.7001 manats = 1 USD on Jan. 11)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

Azerbaijans total currency reserves grew by over 13 percent, Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers chaired by President Ilham Aliyev dedicated to the results of socioeconomic development of the country in 2017 and future objectives.

The minister noted that Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover for 11 months of 2017 amounted to $21.8 billion, which is 12 percent more than in the same period of 2016.

Exports of goods grew 19 percent and exceeded $14 billion, the minister said. One should especially note that exports of non-oil products increased by 24 percent. Overall trade surplus amounted to more than $6 billion, and as a result, the countrys total currency reserves grew by $4.5 billion or 13.3 percent since the beginning of 2017.

Sharifov added that the revenues and expenditures of the state budget for 2017 were executed by 98 percent compared to the approved forecast and amounted to 16.447 billion manats and 17.588 billion manats, respectively.

He noted that despite the budget revenues were 736 million manats less than the forecast volume, the expenditures of budget organizations were fully covered at the expense of approved state budget expenditures, adding that several factors contributed to this.

Thus, customs revenues were 16 percent or 359 million manats more than the forecast volume, also additional volumes of government short-term bonds were sold on the domestic market and efficiency of public spending was increased, he said.

The deficit of the state budget was 34 million manats less than the approved upper limit, he noted. Positive dynamics was observed during execution of the consolidated budget. If the consolidated budget deficit was forecast at 7.6 billion manats or 11.1 percent of GDP, it amounted to one billion manats or 1.5 percent of GDP in 2017.
100 years ago, Jan. 11, 1918

NEOGA -- The mad dog scare has not abated in this vicinity since the first case came up about Dec. 28. Several dogs have been stricken and died with what has every appearance of being rabies, says the Neoga News. On Dec. 7, a scotch collie belonging to John McClory, south of Trowbridge, showed symptoms. Before she left home she bit several hogs and a calf. About 10 days afterward, the calf died and four of the hogs have since died. The dog also appeared in Neoga on Dec. 8 and is known to have bitten several dogs, four of which have developed rabies and died... WASHINGTON -- The woman suffrage constitutional amendment bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives last night by a vote of 274-136. The victors had not a single vote to spare. Two-thirds of 440 is 273 1/3. But the House parliamentarian ruled that the clerks could not split a man into any fraction. Galleries crowded with women burst into a salvo of applause such as the chamber has not heard in years. The U.S. Senate is expected to take up the matter next month.

50 years ago, 1968

MATTOON -- Mr. and Mrs. James Phipps of Mattoon today received official notification that their son, Warrant Officer James L. (Larry) Phipps, 24, has been listed as missing in action in Vietnam. The Phipps were visited by a U.S. Army representative who told them their son had been listed as missing since Jan. 9. WO Phipps, a helicopter pilot, has been in the Army for five years and in Vietnam since October. He is a 1962 graduate of Mattoon High School. He recently was featured in this newspaper in a story about getting together with his cousin, Marine Cpl. Ronald Henderson of Mattoon on Christmas Day in Vietnam... MATTOON -- Burglars, hacking and chipping away a steel encased concrete door last night, took an estimated $500 from a safe in the Construction Materials Co. building at 312 S. 21st St. Police theorize at least two people were involved in the burglary discovered at 1 a.m. today bgy policemen on patrol.

25 years ago, 1993

MATTOON -- The first substantial snowfall of winter fell throughout Saturday night and yesterday morning. About 4  inches of snow fell in Mattoon, reported Central Illinois Public Service Co. Area law enforcement agencies reported a few weather-related accidents but none with injuries. The snow sent young people out sledding, snowmobiling, building snowmen and other winter activities CHARLESTON -- Postmaster Donna Fox admits that drive-up mailboxes on Jefferson Avenue just north of the post office are a problem. But after a total of seven boxes placed in the alley behind the post office were damaged by vehicles or vandals, Fox said the boxes had to be moved back to the street, even though they impede traffic. We ran out of mailboxes, she explained CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Joseph E. Orndorff, son of Eugene and Virginia Orndorff of Mattoon, has been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent Office in Washington. Orndorff is the president of Scrip-Safe Security Products, located in Cincinnati. The patented invention is a security printing process used to prevent and detect paper document forgeries and unauthorized paper document reproductions. Orndorff has a bachelors degree from Millikin University and masters degree from Eastern Illinois University.

100 years ago, Jan. 12, 1918

MATTOON -- Mattoon is storm bound. Nothing is coming in. Nothing is going out. It is colder than it has been for 25 years, the temperature having dropped overnight to 19 degrees below zero. Neither the Big Four nor Illinois Central operated any of their trains through here last night. All of the Big Four's wires west of Mattoon are down. All of the Illinois Central's wires from Mattoon to Champaign are down. The Interurban cars are running between Mattoon and Charleston on schedule... MATTOON -- The Mattoon Merchants Association has guaranteed the Loudon Packing Co., now controlled by Armour & Co., Chicago, a planting of from 500 to 600 acres of tomatoes to make it possible to operate the local plant year-round. In the event the desired acreage is not secured, the Mattoon plant will be moved to Washington, Ind. The government wants all the tomatoes it can get. The Loudon Co. agrees to pay $15 a ton for tomatoes, this being an increase of $7 a ton over last year.

50 years ago, 1968

WINDSOR -- Ruins of a shop and storage building on the Neal-Cooper Grain Co. property in Windsor continued to smolder this morning after fire struck the building late last night. An isolated section of the 50- by 100-foot structure continued to burn this morning and oil stored in the facility reportedly exploded twice without causing additional damage. Carl Cooper, president of the company, said today the cause of the fire is undetermined. Attempts to arrive at an estimate of the damage were being made this morning. Firefighters from Windsor, Strasburg and Shelbyville were on the scene early this morning... ARCOLA -- Douglas County authorities are investigating the death yesterday of an Arcola High School janitor. Frank A. Clark, 56, was found unconscious in the furnace room of the school and suffering from a blow to the head on Tuesday. He was taken home and then transferred to Jarman Hospital in Tuscola where he died at 5 p.m. yesterday... MATTOON -- Approximately 12 accidents a week were reported and investigated by Mattoon police but there were no traffic fatalities in the city in 1967. There were 606 accidents reported and 565 traffic tickets issued in the city last year, according to Mattoon police statistics. The report also listed major crimes in Mattoon with burglary at the top of the list with an average of three every two weeks.City police also answered 5,223 calls last year, an average of 14 per day.

25 years ago, 1993

MATTOON -- A test plot at Lake Land College produced 240 bushels of corn per acre last fall. Dawn Thomson, farm manager for LLC, said 1992 was a record year in several ways, including an average of 200-plus bushels of corn per acre. Thomson told the Lake Land Board of Trustees last night that the farm this year showed a profit of about $32,000 CHARLESTON -- While some people wiped snow off their cars Sunday, others saw snow drifts where their snows were once parked. The Charleston Police Department towed 44 vehicles late Saturday night and early Sunday because they were parked along the city snow removal routes. The cost to retrieve the cars was $35 to $45, said Bob Bartley of Bartleys Garage. When there is snow accumulation of more than 2 inches, the city has the authority to put snow routes into effect. Charleston received about 4 inches of snow over the weekend MATTOON -- Lora Nicole White, daughter of Sandie and Mark White of Charleston, was the first baby born at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in 1993. She was born at 10:59 a.m. Jan. 2. She received a savings bond from the hospital presented by Marsha Blair, assistant vice president, nursing, and Vicki Clark, director of obstetrics.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

Agrarians of the Novosibirsk region of Russia plan to arrange grain supplies to Azerbaijan, TASS news agency reported citing the press service of the regions government.

Grain is also planned to be supplied to Iran, China, Mongolia and Turkey.

Reportedly, such grain supplies were not carried out before.

Grain from the Novosibirsk region is supplied by grain express trains  special trains that allow reducing the time of delivery of cargo and increasing the turnover of wagons.

It was previously reported that the Novosibirsk region was included in the list of priority regions, for the transportation of grain from which Russian Railways will provide subsidies.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF) will hold a regular auction on leasing the property of two liquidated banks on Feb. 13, the ADIF said in a message posted on its website.

Two non-residential premises belonging to Texnikabank OJSC, and one non-residential premise belonging to United Credit Bank OJSC will be put up for the auction.

The starting monthly cost of renting non-residential premises of Texnikabank is 1,250 manats and 1,650 manats, and the starting monthly cost of renting an office of United Credit Bank located in Masalli city is 4,550 manats.

Licenses of the two banks were revoked in 2016 as they didnt meet the minimum capital requirement of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (50 million manats) and didnt fulfill obligations to creditors.

The ADIF has been operating since August 13, 2007.

(1.7001 manats = 1 USD on Jan. 11)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

Kazakhstan attracted more than $15 billion worth of direct foreign investment during nine months of 2017, said the Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan Timur Suleimenov, during the meeting of the government.

He added that this figure illustrates a 5.3 percent increase, compared to the same period of 2016, Kazakh media reported.

"The level of investments from the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, in turn, increased by 40.8 percent to $935.1 million (during the mentioned period), which is 5.9 percent. This is an indicator that we create comfortable conditions for business throughout the EEU," the minister said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Once the third airport in Istanbul is commissioned, Ataturk Airport will continue to operate, but, it will only receive planes of heads of state, said Ahmet Arslan, minister of transport, maritime affairs and communications, Turkish media reported Jan. 11.

An exhibition center will also operate at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, he noted.

Touching upon the implementation of the third Istanbul airport project, Arslan noted that presently, the airport is 78 percent ready.

Construction of terminals has been completed at the third airport and all systems have been tested, the minister said.

Arslan noted that two emergency runways will also be created at the third airport.

Test flights will be launched at the third airport in February. Construction of a parking lot designed for 30,000 cars at the airport will be completed in the same month.

The third airport is being built near the Lake Terkos in northern Istanbul. Initially, it will serve 90 million passengers a year. The first phase of the airport will be commissioned on Oct. 29, 2018. After commissioning, the number of flight destinations in Turkey will increase from 282 to 350. The new airport will annually serve about 200 million passengers.

About 300 passenger and service elevators will be installed at Istanbuls third airport.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci has called on citizens to refrain from using cryptocurrencies, the Economy Ministry said in a message Jan. 11.

There are many reasons that make it necessary to refrain from using cryptocurrencies, Zeybekci noted.

Cryptocurrencies have no economic basis, and this creates risks in their use, Zeybekci said.

On Dec. 12, 2017, the Turkish media reported that the Istanbul Stock Exchange may issue its own cryptocurrency named BISTcoin.

Previously, Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu, deputy chairman of the National Movement Party (MHP) of Turkey, called on the authorities to create a cryptocurrency exchange for trading bitcoins.

Tanrikulu believes the creation of a cryptocurrency exchange is in the interests of Turkey.

He noted that there are already a number of companies and hotels in Turkey where it is possible to conduct financial transactions using cryptocurrencies.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Jan. 11

By Mammad Dashdemirov  Trend:

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has banned the countrys Central Bank from participating in the management of commercial banks, through its share in their authorized capital and as part of supervisory boards, the Central Bank told Trend Jan. 11.

To date, the Central Bank owns a stake in Halyk Bank in the amount of 49 percent of its authorized capital and Microcreditbank - 13 percent. Those assets will be transferred to the Ministry of Finance upon the presidents decision.

As of October 1, 2017, Halyk Bank ranked seventh in Uzbekistan in terms of assets and sixth in terms of capitalization. In particular, the bank's assets increased by 27.3 percent to 5.6 trillion soums, capital - by 66.3 percent to 923 billion soums in January-September 2017. The banks net profit increased 1.8 times and amounted to 137 billion soums.

By the end of the third quarter of 2017, Microcreditbank ranked 12th among the Uzbek banks in terms of assets and 9th in terms of capitalization.

To date, the Uzbek banking system consists of 28 commercial banks, including 3 state banks, 12 joint-stock commercial banks, 8 private banks and 5 banks with foreign capital.

(8.139 UZS = $1 on Jan. 11)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

Uzbekistan intends to shift to three-year budget planning system in the years to come, First Deputy Economy Minister of Uzbekistan Mubin Mirzayev said at a meeting of the International Press Club on Jan.11.

He said that presently the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy are developing a draft of the medium-term budget.

"We plan to prepare at least a two-year budget for a three-year period from 2019 to 2021, and then we will move on to a three-year financial document that will be submitted to the Parliament," he said.

In the 2018- state budget, the GDP is expected to reach 290.6 trillion soums, the GDP deflator - 14.1 percent, the consumer price index - 12.4 - 13.4 percent.

The state budget expenditures are socially oriented. In 2018, expenditures on the social sphere will amount to 34.7 trillion soums, or 55.7 percent of total expenditures.

He also commented on the adjustments made after the criticism of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, adding that the state budget kept its surplus after corrections.

Mirzayev said that the revenue structure has been changed in the new version of the financial document, however, due to the adjustment of the revenue and expenditure parts, the surplus in the budget practically hasn't changed.

In the original version of the state budget for 2018, a surplus was set at 0.02 percent of GDP or 59 billion soums. For the first time in recent years, it was positive, since most of the previous budgets were approved with a deficit of 1 percent.

The upper house of the Parliament approved it on Dec. 20, 2017, but the president refused to sign it.

The head of state approved a new version of the document on Dec.29 after the adjustment.

The official exchange rate for Jan. 11 is 8139.00 UZS / USD
State-owned Azer Turk Bank starts a new campaign on January 11.

The Bank always considers customer satisfaction as the priority and will continue to gladden its customers with new campaigns this year. The first campaign is for the clients, who plan to travel soon. These clients can get a free MasterCard Gold by approaching Azer Turk Bank, opening a card account in any currency and replenishing it for a minimum amount of 500 AZN/USD/EUR. Those clients, who make 1 000, 10 000, 20 000 AZN/USD/EUR card account replenishments, will get free MasterCard Platinum, Visa Infinite, and MasterCard World Elite accordingly.

Azer Turk Bank offers opportunity to order plastic cards online, so there is no need to approach the Banks office. No prepayments are applied for online orders. All payments are made after the card is ready, while picking it up in the Banks branch.

The state owns 75 percent of shares of Azer Turk Bank, operating in Azerbaijan for 22 years. More information about the Bank, its service network, products and services is available at www.azerturkbank.az, the Banks corporate pages at social networks or at 945 Call Center.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Arda Arkun has been appointed as chairman of the Board of Directors of PASHA Bank Georgia, a subsidiary of Azerbaijans PASHA Bank OJSC in Georgia, a source in the financial market told Trend Jan. 11.

The source said that the new head of the Board of Directors will take up duties in February.

Shahin Mammadov, who currently serves on this position, will start working at PASHA Holding since February 2018. He will serve as director of business support and deputy executive director at the Holding.

PASHA Bank Georgia told Trend that currently, the bank is in the process of transferring responsibilities, which will be completed by the end of the month.

PASHA Bank was established in June 2007 and its Georgian subsidiary has been operating since February 2013.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree to amend the Law on Banks, extending the period for voluntary restructuring of banks obligations.

Currently, the period for voluntary restructuring of liabilities of banks is 180 days. However, banks can extend the period by additional 90 days with the permission of financial regulator, the Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

The new amendments extend this additional period from 90 to 180 days. At the same time, the number of requests for extending the restructuring period may be unlimited.

The amendments also affect those restructuring processes that began before the adoption of the amendments.
I havent met this candidate yet, but suddenly his face is everywhere. He appeared on the CBS News website on my computer last week. Now every time I read the news, there he is! On a glossy, full page flyer in yesterdays mail, there he is again! I doubt he really uses gonna three times in one sentence, and suspect some Chicago marketing whiz thinks thats how they need to talk to us. Liberty Principles PAC is spending a lot of money for this candidate in order to buy the election. This big money has corrupted our democracy. I encourage voters NOT to be bought by PACs & slick packaging of candidates in this or any race. Do some homework. Find out what all the candidates want to do when elected & what theyve done in the past. Dont just vote one way because thats the way you always vote. Both parties are NOT the same parties they were 30 years ago. Dissatisfaction with government is fixed by informed citizens who vote. Our chance is coming soon.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

Buyers missions will be organized in Azerbaijan and up to 30,000 manats will be allocated for analysis of potential sales markets.

This is stipulated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs decree on making amendments to the "Procedure for determination and regulation of the mechanism of paying a part of the expenditures through the state budget, the organization of export missions to foreign countries, review of the situation in foreign markets and marketing activity, promotion of the Made in Azerbaijan brand in foreign markets, obtaining certificates and patents in connection with exports, research programs and export development projects by local companies in foreign countries".

The amendments envisage the introduction of a new concept - buyers missions. Buyers missions are organized for purchase of Azerbaijani non-oil products by a foreigner who is engaged in the import of goods or their distribution.

Only 10 people can join a buyers mission and the period of their stay in the country must not exceed six days. In each mission only one person can represent a buyer.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy covers the expenses of the buyers mission members stay in the country, which also include the fee for rental premises where meetings are held, fees for translation services, as well as fees for transportation within the country (except for taxi).

According to the decree, the amount given to legal entities and individuals for the analysis of foreign markets increases from 20,000 manats to 30,000 manats.

Moreover, the number of export missions, which can be organized with participation of Azerbaijani entrepreneurs during one calendar year, increases from 10 to 25. The number of international fairs and exhibitions, in which Azerbaijani businessmen can take part during one calendar year by using one exhibition stand, increases from 5 to 10.

Entrepreneurs who take part in international exhibitions and fairs on individual basis will receive financial support in the amount of 50 percent of all expenses necessary for participation, including rental fee, exhibition stand costs, transportation fee and others. The maximum amount of such support must not exceed 10,000 manats. Up until now, only 30 percent of expenses not exceeding 5,000 manats have been covered.

At the same time, exporters will be able to apply for support to obtain an international certificate from Feb. 1 within 60 days annually.

The cost of support must not exceed 60,000 manats and must account for no more than 50 percent of the total expenses.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Around 167 kilometers of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) route in Albania has been cleared, said Albanian Minister of Infrastructure and Energy Damian Gjiknuri on Twitter.

To date, pipes have been laid on 135 kilometers of TAPs Albanian route and 116 kilometers of the pipelines route in the country have been restored to original condition, he added.

TAP worth 4.5 billion euros is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.

The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italys south.

TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers).

TAPs shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering allocation of 500 million euros loan for TAP project. Aside from EBRD, the European Investment Bank (EIB) will also discuss the allocation of 1.5 billion euros loan for TAP in February.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The contract for construction of new units as part of modernization of Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev is planned to be signed in the first quarter of 2018, advisor to vice-president on strategic development at Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR Teymur Aliyev told Trend.

Two tenders were launched simultaneously for selecting EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractors as part of modernization of Baku Refinery. The first tender to select m (engineering, procurement and construction management) contractor for units subject to reconstruction was completed and a contract was signed with Spanish Tecnicas Reunidas on Dec.19, 2017, he said.

Aliyev noted that the second tender for selecting EPC contractor for construction of new units is close to completion.

It is planned to sign the contract in the first quarter of 2018, he added.

The cost of the contract with Spanish engineering company Tecnicas Reunidas, is about $800 million.

The contract includes implementation of work to modernize main technological units of diesel and gasoline blocks, modification and expansion of related economic facilities, as well as coordination of activity under the contract with the refinery and other contractors.

The Baku Oil Refinerys modernization will be completed in 2021. The refinerys processing capacity will be increased from 6 to 7.5 million tons of oil per year.

SOCAR announced the liquidation of Azneftyag oil refinery and its merger with the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery in 2015. This decision was made as part of the work to improve and optimize SOCAR's structure.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

It is absolutely wrong to draw parallels between OPEC and Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), said GECF secretary general Yury Sentyurin.

He pointed out that GECF has never set tasks related to the development of a common export policy of member countries.

The GECF advocates the interests of producers by using "soft power", thats to say by popularizing natural gas, he told Neftegazovaya Vertikal magazine.

At the same time, the organization has potential to facilitate the export of natural gas, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), without using non-market methods, according to Sentyurin.

For example, the organization can develop a mechanism of swap supplies or mutual settlements for member countries, which would partially reduce transportation costs for our exporting companies, he added.

Further, talking about oil-indexed price mechanism, GECFs secretary general said that oil-indexed gas contracts allow to avoid price volatility. It is beneficial both for suppliers, who need to plan long-term investments in production and for buyers, he added.

GECF is an international governmental organization which provides the framework for exchanging experience and information among member countries. GECF is a gathering of the worlds leading gas producers and was set up as international governmental organization with the objective to increase the level of coordination and strengthen the collaboration among member countries.

The member countries of the Forum are: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman and Peru have the status of observer members.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

The level of oil production in Kazakhstan in 2018 shouldnt be less than the level reached in 2017, said the Minister of Economy of Kazakhstan Timur Suleimenov at the meeting of the government on January 11.

"Firstly, we can all congratulate and say thanks to our oil industry workers, since 86.2 million tons is a record volume of oil production in our country's history. This achievement significantly helped us to reach 4 percent of GDP growth in 2017. This year our colleagues from the Ministry of Energy plan to extract approximately the same volume and, maybe, even slightly higher. The Ministry of Energy will have specific figures when specifying the macro forecast," the minister said told journalists.

As for the forecast of oil prices, Suleimenov referred to the official macro forecast - $45 per barrel.
Details added (first version posted on 15:10)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council will be held Feb.15 in Baku, said Azerbaijans Ministry of Energy.

Invitation letters were sent to relevant countries and several international financial institutions. The program and agenda of the ministerial meeting are being prepared, said a message from the ministry.

Earlier, Trend learned from the US Department of State that Acting Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the US Department of State Sue Saarnio will take part in the event.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.



As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic will visit Azerbaijan, Trend learned from the European Commission.

He will take part in the upcoming meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Consultative Council to be held in Baku Feb.15.

Earlier, the US Department of State official told Trend that Acting Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Sue Saarnio will attend the event.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.



As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

More than 480,000 people visited Azerbaijan's historical and cultural reserves in 2017, the country's Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a message Jan. 11.

According to the message, the Gobustan State Historical and Artistic Reserve was the most visited one among Azerbaijani citizens and foreign tourists.

Thus, 80,126 people, including 39,561 foreign tourists, visited the reserve in 2017. More than 65,000 tourists visited the reserve in 2016.

Moreover, 30,751 people visited the Ateshgah Temple State Historical Architectural Reserve in 2017, 25 346 of them are foreign tourists, mainly from Russia and Arab countries.

In 2017, 63,574 people also visited the Yanardag Historical-Cultural and Natural Reserve, 54,717 of them accounted for foreign tourists from Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and other countries.

In 2017, 77,856 people visited the Guba Genocide Memorial Complex, 56,742 people - the Yukhari Bash State Historical-Architectural Reserve in Shaki, 40,182 people - the Lahij State Historical and Cultural Reserve (Ismayilli), 25,850 people - the Kish Historical and Architectural Reserve in Shaki and 20,700 people - Zagatala State Reserve.

Meanwhile, 356,000 people visited Azerbaijans cultural and historical reserves in 2016 and 486,273 people, including 166,153 foreign citizens, in 2017.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Jan. 11

By Mammad Dashdemirov  Trend:

There are a number of serious problems in the armed forces of Uzbekistan, said President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at a recent meeting of the Security Council in Tashkent.

"During the year, I was analyzing the combat readiness of the armed forces, observing exercises, talking to the servicemen and listening to the officials reports, the president said. Thus, a number of serious systemic problems were revealed.

He added that Uzbekistan - realizing the seriousness of existing problems in such an important area as the security and defense capability of the country - adopted the Defense Doctrine, which reflects the main directions and modern approaches to development of armed forces.

The provisions of the Defense Doctrine must not remain on paper, it is necessary to implement them, the president said. For this purpose, a permanent parliamentary supervision must be ensured.

The meeting also paid special attention to development of the country's defense industry, the training of highly qualified personnel, the social protection of servicemen, and in particular, the provision of officers with housing.

More than 500 servicemen were provided with apartments in new houses within a short period, the president said.

"But the work in this direction must intensify and at least 1,500 families of servicemen must be provided with apartments annually.
Kazakhstan did not permit 30 tons of persimmons, the Comstock worm -quarantine objects were found in them, Kabar with reference to the press service of the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture reported.

In the period from Jan. 1 to Jan. 5 of this year, during inspection of these imported products to Kazakhstan, violations of the countrys legislation and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in the field of plant quarantine were revealed.

Quarantine products were returned to Kyrgyzstan.
Thursday, January 11, 2018 ART Boondoggle Gets Readers Fuming; They Rage, Vent And Joke Over Epic Mismanagement, Plus: NM Water Wars And Latest Heinrich Senate Ranking



Joe, there may be an upside to the ART fiasco. ABQ Mayors seem to get this inexplicable compulsion to build transit systems. Marty Chavez wanted a streetcar and Berry almost got his electric bus. Perhaps theres something in the water at City Hall. Confronting the ART fiasco may enable Mayor Keller to get the public-transportation bug out of his system, kind of like a vaccination. He certainly will find things to build during his term, as mayors do, but probably will stay away from fanciful transit projects.



Longtime reader Mick writes:



How about a list of the contractors on the (F)ART project? And maybe a list of Mayor RJ's campaign contributors. Might be interesting. And where have RJ's directors landed after fleeing from City Hall? I'm just askin'.

Reader John writes:



Hello Joe, here is my two cents on ART. The contractors should be sued into bankruptcy, the design engineers sued, the project engineer for the city fired, the project mgr. for the city fired and the project inspectors for the city fired. All those who patted themselves on the back for how well the project was proceeding should be fired. But as we all know none of this will happen and all of us who said "told you so" will pick up the tab for this gross incompetence. Last word, Joe: MOVIDA!



Melanie Majors writes:



Joe, Why is the city advertising ART on billboards? Saw it on one of those electronic billboards when coming into town. Central is Open and the big ART logo.



They may have to take that down soon, Melanie, because at least two of the ART intersections need to be reconfigured, according to the city, and that is going to cause more traffic headaches on Central.



Abinash Achrekar MD writes:



My wife and I are professionals with a young son living downtown. I'm a professor of Cardiology at the University. We are so frustrated with the year of construction that has resulted in a loss of businesses and continuity in our community due to ART. My wife had a fantastic idea and I was curious of your thoughts.



At least the Stations from Old Town to East Nob Hill could be turned into small parquitos--little parks that have been experimented with in cities like Salt Lake City and Denver. One of the ART bus lanes could be used for bike traffic and maybe the other for pedestrians. In fact the city may be able to rent the space to little coffee pagodas or tiny restaurants that one sees in cities like Austin.



No kidding? Interesting. . . .



Reader Bruce Shah scores the city council:



Joe - Gotta love our City Council as they run from the ART mess like a cat from the litter box. Particularly the oh-so-statesman-like Ken Sanchez. Perhaps we can "claw back" their salaries for failing to remotely exercise any oversight? And, while we are at it, see about eliminating the Berry/Perry pensions.



For the record, City Councilor Klarissa Pena opposed the project as did Dan Lewis who is no longer on the council.



Reader John Gniady writes of his contact with electric car manufacturer Tesla:



While Im sure you need another project like a new hole in your head, this strikes me as a nice new market for Tesla. As Im sure youre aware, the city of Albuquerque embarked on the first all-electric rapid transit corridor in the US about a year ago. With construction almost complete, theres only one little problem, the electric buses dont work. Thats where Tesla comes in like a white knight to save the day.



While its a tad early to give up on the original bus contractor, a Chinese company with a dubious name Build Your Dreams, that time is not that far away. As I see it, the electric drive train for Teslas newly announced semi-truck would be ideal. If there is anything I can do to facilitate this, dont hesitate to ask. And I work for free :)



WATER WARS



An environmental reporter



Of the four parties, New Mexico was the only one to have a private attorney stand before the mahogany bench. Marcus Rael Jr. of Robles, Rael & Anaya in Albuquerque represented New Mexico; his former law partner, the New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, watched from the gallery. Rael may be politically connected, but hes not a water attorney. And until Monday, he also lacked experience before the high court.



The



SENATE RANKING



At the top of the '18 NM ticket, DC's Inside Elections



The ranking is not surprising, considering no NM US Senator has lost a re-election bid since 1982 when Jack Schmitt was ousted by Democrat Jeff Bingaman.



This is the home of New Mexico politics.







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( c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2018 It is one of the most outrageous publicly financed boondoggles in city history--perhaps state history--so it's no wonder readers are fuming over the revelations about the incompetence that surrounds ART, the now stalled ABQ Central Avenue rapid bus project that the city has spent $135 million on. No need for further ado, Vox Populi is rarin' to go and Jim McClure starts us off:They may have to take that down soon, Melanie, because at least two of the ART intersections need to be reconfigured, according to the city, and that is going to cause more traffic headaches on Central.No kidding? Interesting. . . .For the record, City Councilor Klarissa Pena opposed the project as did Dan Lewis who is no longer on the council.An environmental reporter took a bite out of the representation the state has hired in a New Mexico-Texas landmark water rights case that was heard before the US Supreme Court this week:before the high court.The Robles, Rael and Anaya firm is indeed politically connected, handling many cases for state and local governments. Dem State Auditor candidate and recent ABQ mayoral contender Brian Colon is associated with the firm. The state has so far spent $15 million on staff and legal fees in this critical water battle with Texas.At the top of the '18 NM ticket, DC's Inside Elections ranks the US Senate race here "solid Democrat." Sen. Martin Heinrich is seeking a second, six year term. Republican Contractor Mick Rich is the sole GOP contender.The ranking is not surprising, considering no NM US Senator has lost a re-election bid since 1982 when Jack Schmitt was ousted by Democrat Jeff Bingaman.This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com) Links HOME

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The State Tax Service of the Kyrgyz Republic launched a campaign to receive the Unified Tax Declaration for 2017, Kabar with reference to the press service of the State Tax Service reported.

The next tax declaration campaign, which starts annually from the beginning of the year, will be held in two stages: till 1 March - legal entities and till 1 April - individuals must report to the tax authorities on the income received for the previous year, as well as provide information on economic activities, property and land.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Jan. 11

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov at a working meeting demanded to ensure the high level of international motor rally from Amul to Khazar, the Watan newspaper reported.

Amul is the ancient name of the Amu Darya River, and Khazar is the ancient name of the Caspian Sea.

The issue of holding events dedicated to the motto of 2018  Turkmenistan  heart of the Great Silk Road was discussed at the meeting.
Britain, France and Germany called on Donald Trump on Thursday to uphold a pact curbing Irans nuclear ambitions on the eve of a sanctions ruling by the US president they fear could torpedo an accord he has relentlessly criticized, Reuters reports.

Hailed by its admirers as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. It was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union.

The US Congress requires the president to periodically certify Irans compliance and issue a waiver to allow US sanctions to remain suspended. The next deadline is on Friday.

In sharp contrast to Trumps view that the 2015 pact was the worst deal ever negotiated, the foreign ministers of the three countries and the EU top diplomat said there was no alternative to it and that sanctions should remain lifted.

We agree on this approach, we want to protect [the deal] against every possible decision that might undermine it, Germanys Sigmar Gabriel said alongside his French and British counterparts and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini after meeting Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

It is absolutely necessary to have this to prevent the development of nuclear weapons at a time when other parts of the world are discussing how to get them, Gabriel said, later specifically mentioning North Korea in his remarks.

Trumps choice comes at a delicate time for Irans government, which faced protests over economic hardships and corruption that are linked to frustration among younger Iranians who hoped to see more benefits from the lifting of sanctions.

The meeting in Brussels was choreographed to send a message to Washington before Trump is due to decide whether to re-impose oil sanctions lifted under the deal. If that happens, Iran has said it would no longer be bound by the pact and could return to producing enriched uranium.

Zarif tweeted that the Brussels meeting had shown a strong consensus that Iran was complying with the pact, had the right to enjoy its economic benefits and any move that undermines [it] is unacceptable.

E3 [Germany, France and Britain] and EU [are] fully aware that Irans continued compliance [is] conditioned on full compliance by the US, Zarif added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

A fresh round of talks between Iran and the EU on implementation of the nuclear deal started at the European External Action Service in Brussels, Belgium Jan. 11.

Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, as well as the foreign ministers of E3 countries - Jean-Yves Le Drian of France, Sigmar Gabriel of Germany, and Boris Johnson of the UK  are attending the meeting which takes part in the context of the ongoing work to ensure a full and continued implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka nuclear deal), Irans media reported.

Before the session, Zarif held a meeting with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The top Iranian diplomat is also scheduled to meet with deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Belgium, Didier Reynders. The meeting will reportedly cover the JCPOA implementation as well.

Earlier on Jan. 11, Zarif met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, where he lauded Russias role in the conclusion and implementation of the nuclear deal signed in 2015 between Tehran and the six world powers.

He said that Iran, Russia and other parties to the JCPOA needed to closely coordinate efforts to make sure that the implementation of the deal was seriously pursued.

The top Iranian diplomat said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had verified Irans commitment to the deal on numerous occasions, but a certain party to the JCPOA had failed to fulfill its commitments under the deal, an apparent reference to the US.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Kamila Aliyeva - Trend:

The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which is set to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia, could have potential economic and geopolitical significance in the future, Eugene Chausovsky, Senior Analyst at Stratfor, told Azernews.

Once it is fully operationalized, the INSTC project can significantly reduce the transit times and costs of goods that are being traded between the relevant countries. It can also serve as a conduit to strengthen overall ties between the member-states, particularly Russia and Iran, while potentially reducing their economic ties and exposure to the West, he said.



The importance of the project is yet to be determined and will immensely depend on the extent to which it is effective in terms of increasing trade turnover between the participating countries, Chausovsky noted.



Currently, it takes more than 40 days for goods to travel from India to Russia. However, after the launch of INSTC, transportation would be completed in less than 25 days, thereby cutting down timeframe by 30-40 percent.

The trade turnover between the primary countries of the North-South corridor - Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and India - is relatively small compared to other trade corridor projects, such as China's One Belt One Road (OBOR) project, he explained.

The expert considers that even smaller projects, such as the recently inaugurated Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, are ahead of the INSTC in terms of their operationalization.

If it does succeed in increasing trade and economic linkages between the parties involved, it can have a significant impact in shaping the geopolitical alignment and trajectories of the participating states, he added.

The International North-South Transport Corridor, a 7,200 kilometer-long freight route connecting India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia via ship, rail and road, is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. The main objective of the INSTC is to provide an alternative to the traditional routes carried out by sea through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea.

At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo per year through the corridor and more than 10 million tons of cargo in the future.

The corridor is expected to bring huge benefits to the Azerbaijani budget. The route enjoys several advantages compared to other transport corridors, as it is considered to be more profitable for each parameter than other alternative routes, including reduction of the distance and delivery time two or threefold.

The corridor project has made a big step recently. In February 2016, Iran began construction of the Qazvin-Rasht and Astara (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) railroad sections.

The Astara-Astara railway, as well as a station and cargo terminals in Iranian Astara were expected to be put into operation on December 25, but then this was postponed to January 2018. Azerbaijan will use railway facilities in Iranian Astara for at least 15 years.

For the Rasht-Astara railway - the longest section on the line between Iranian cities - Azerbaijan has allocated a $500 million loan for Iran to finance its construction. Construction will begin in the first half 2018. The opening of the 164-kilometer section is planned for 2020, making it possible to travel from Baku to Nakhchivan by train.

In December 2017, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved the granting of a loan for implementation of the North-South Transport Corridor Project. ADB itself will issue $400 million, and the French Development Agency (FDA) will provide another $175 million in co-financing.

The route is expected to be fully put into operation in two-three years. Meanwhile, cargo transportation along the North-South corridor for three quarters of 2017 exceeded 4.7 million tons, which is 21.6 percent higher than in the same period of 2016.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project certainly represents a very positive development for infrastructure integration across South and Central Asia, as it would strengthen the energy security of both supplying (Turkmenistan) and purchasing states (India, Pakistan), Luca Anceschi, an expert of the British University of Glasgow with a focus on Central Asia, told Azernews.

The pipelines importance for the region is also related to a potential stabilization of Afghanistan and its economy, which may greatly benefit from the transit fees associated with TAPI development, he said.

However, despite its regional importance, the project remains unfeasible due to financial constraints more than to security concerns related to its Afghan sectors, according to the expert.

Anceschi believes that this pipeline project is not likely to be implemented unless Turkmenistan opens up consortium membership to foreign companies granting in turn upstream stakes on onshore gas fields.

Turkmenistan started to construct its TAPI section in December 2015. The foundation laying ceremony for the Afghan section of the TAPI gas pipeline is planned to be held in the second half of February 2018.

Earlier, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Japanese government expressed their interest in financing TAPI.

The Islamic Development Bank has already allocated a loan worth $700 million for Turkmenistan to construct its TAPI section.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Azer Ahmadbayli  Trend:

For almost 40 years the Islamic Republic has been going through a number of survival tests. Now, the next stage of testing its endurance is coming. The examiner is President Trump, who should decide in a couple of days whether to destroy the Iran nuclear agreement and revive the sanctions regime or not.

The opinions of readers and experts are divided again between "Trump will kill the deal" and "he will not". To answer the question, no need to exaggerate value of words, but assess the facts.

When it comes to distinguishing between rhetoric and facts, they are sometimes mistaken for one another.

For instance, a statement of the French President Macron that support of protests in Iran by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia could instigate a war, is rhetoric. Words of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be wiped from Earth were rhetoric too. But presence of militants, associated with Iran, in the vicinity of Syria-Israeli border is not rhetoric and could lead to real war.

President Trump likes rhetoric, but sometimes his words turn into action. He is about to decide on Irans compliance with the nuclear deal, and whether to waive Iran sanctions that should confirm the US compliance to the deal.

It looks like Trump will decertify the nuclear deal once again, or abolish the certification procedure at all, as Iran ignored all US directives to abandon its malign and aggressive activities since the last assessment, and there is no sense to decertify it over and over again.

Trump is in the lead, as he has already taken up favorable position when he announced that it [the agreement] is under continuous review and our participation can be canceled by me as President at any time.

It means that any time frames and/or fixed dates turn to be meaningless to a larger extent, and Iran should expect to hear bad news any minute, which, in turn, increases pressure on Tehran.

Instead of certification procedure, Trump will focus on the renewal of sanctions waivers, which is much more crucial, as it concerns multiple economic relations of a large number of Irans trade partners. But for the moment it seems that Trump is going to take a short brake and keep the waivers for a while.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Associated Press during his interview last week that the White House is working with lawmakers on a legislative fix that could allow the U.S. to remain in the Iran nuclear deal.

The president said he is either going to fix it or cancel it, Tillerson said. We are in the process of trying to deliver on the promise he made to fix it, Tillerson noted.

This implies that we give you another chance to step back and agree to our terms.

But whatever the legislative fix contains, its clear that for Iran it will be a choice between bad and really bad, and will be rejected.

To answer the question if Trump will cancel the nuclear deal or not, we should also remember his other words, that the deal, in its current form, threatens the US national security. It involves inter alia the security of Israel and control over the entire Persian Gulf region.

Iran, as it is seen from Washington, continues to pose a serious threat to both. So the answer may be - if the current conditions remain unchanged - Trump will cancel the deal in the end, even without looking back at his European allies. And Tehran knows it.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11

By Rashid Shirinov - Trend:

The roar of guns is the sound that strikes fear in the hearts of all people. Unfortunately, civilians living near the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia have to hear this terrible sound daily over the past almost 30 years.

Not a day goes by without Armenias ceasefire breaking and provocations with the use of large-caliber machine guns, mortars and other weapons on the frontline. Moreover, the Armenian troops constantly shell Azerbaijani settlements located in the frontline regions, thus threatening the lives of peaceful Azerbaijani citizens living there.

This needless tension in the conflict zone would be long finished if the authorities of Armenia, responsible for the outbreak of the Nagorno-Karabakh war with Azerbaijan, preferred substantive diplomatic talks to guns. But this does not happen, and therefore the conflict is still ongoing.

Today the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are, unfortunately, still far from solving the existing contradictions, says Georgy Fyodorov, a well-known Russian expert.

But this is the main condition for the settlement of the problem existing between Baku and Yerevan, the expert believes.

Fyodorov, who is the President of the Aspect Center for Social and Political Studies, made the remarks in his interview with Azernews, while commenting on the outcomes of 2017 in terms of solving the prolonged Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In 2017, there were provocations and shelling in the Nagorno-Karabakh zone, and as a result, there was a real threat of escalation of tension, he noted.

Armenia, that occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, constantly stages provocations on the frontline, frequently targeting civilians. One of the most terrible provocations committed by Armenians on the frontline in 2017 took place in early July. Using mortars and grenade launchers, the Armenian armed forces shelled the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijans Fuzuli region. This provocation took lives of two Azerbaijani civilians living in the village  of a woman and of her two-year-old granddaughter.

Fyodorov also shared his expectations from the upcoming meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in connection with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Of course, the very fact of discussing problematic issues in the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan at a high level should be welcomed. However, this does not mean that the meeting of the two countries foreign ministers will produce new points of contact, said Fyodorov.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

Standard of living of Armenian citizens in 2018 is expected to be lower than in 2017, economist Artak Manukyan told Armenian media.

He pointed to the rise in prices for such goods as cigarettes, alcohol, gasoline, chicken, etc. as one of the reasons for the decrease of the standard of living.

Payments on the mandatory funded pension system, which will enter into force on July 1, 2018, will further aggravate the situation, he said.

No increase is observed in pensions and salaries, and this proves that no attempts are made to ensure decent life and well-being of Armenian citizens, he added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

Trend:

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that the government of Armenia should pay 2,000 euros to Aleksandr Arzumanyan, former Armenian foreign minister, ambassador to Denmark, plus any tax that may be chargeable, in respect of non-pecuniary damage as well as 500 euros in respect of costs and expenses, the ECHR website reports.

Arzumanyan alleged, in particular, that the domestic courts had failed to provide relevant and sufficient reasons for his detention in May 2007, when he was leader of Civil Disobedience movement.

Arzumanyan was arrested on charges of money laundering in the same year. A few months later, he was released and filed a lawsuit with the ECHR.

The court decided to satisfy his application. According to the judgment, there was a violation of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to liberty and security/entitlement to trial within a reasonable time or to release pending trial).

In 2008, Arzumanyan was head of the election campaign of the first president of the country Levon Ter-Petrosyan. He was arrested after the March 1 mass protests in Yerevan following the presidential election, and was released under amnesty.
In 2018, NATO will assess the progress of states aspiring to become a member of the organization, including Georgia, James Appathurai NATO Secretary Generals Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia said, Agenda reports.

Appathurai told Georgian Public Broadcasters First Channel that NATO will continue working on bringing aspiring countries further into the fold of the alliance.

Georgia already has all the mechanisms needed for NATO membership The alliance has positively assessed Georgian reforms. NATO-member states acknowledge and respect Georgias contribution to international security, Appathurai said.

He further noted that by the upcoming NATO Summit scheduled for this July, it will have become clearer how NATO and Georgia should move forward.

Appathurai said the Government of Georgia has put forward several areas in which cooperation on Black Sea security issues could be strengthened.

Unfortunately, the situation in Georgia has not changed a lot as borderisation continues Russia is again violating international legislation and neglects its responsibilities, Appathurai said.

He said the alliance is concerned about the situation. To decrease risks and increase transparency, military coordination has been improved, which will bring more benefit to the Euro-Atlantic space.
Explosions rocked a stricken Iranian oil tanker in the East China Sea on Wednesday, forcing maritime authorities to suspend firefighting and rescue efforts as a blaze raged on the vessel for the fourth day after a collision with a freight ship, Fox News reported.

The explosion on the Sanchi's bow was the latest setback in the multinational effort to extinguish the blaze and forced rescue vessels to move to a safe distance, China's Ministry of Transport said. It was not immediately known if the explosion was large enough to cause the ship to sink.

Earlier in the day, an official with South Koreas Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries told Reuters the oil tanker could burn for as long as a month.

We believe flames would last for two weeks or a month considering previous cases of oil tank accidents, Park Sung-Dong said.

The Sanchi was carrying nearly 1 million barrels of ultra-light oil when it collided Saturday evening with a freighter 160 miles off the coast and caught fire. The cause of the collision remains unclear.

Intense flames, bad weather and poor visibility have hampered rescue efforts in the following days. Rescues have also faced the threat of poisonous fumes from the hulking wreck.

Rescuers on Tuesday found a body believed to be a sailor from the Iranian-operated tanker, while a search continued for 31 other missing crew members.The Iranian company who owns the ship said there is still hope of finding survivors.

A spokesman for National Iranian Tanker Co. told The Associated Press in Tehran rescuers "likely" will find survivors.

"Since the vessel's engine room is not directly affected by the fire and is about [46 feet] under water, there is still hope," spokesman Mohsen Bahrami said late Tuesday. "We are persistently working to put out the fire and rescue possible survivors."

Mahmoud Abuli Ghasemabadi, the brother of missing Iranian sailor Ehasan Abuli Ghasemabadi, told the AP he and other families remained hopeful for good news.

"I ask countries that are in that region and can offer any assistance to help us deal with this situation as soon as possible," Ghasemabadi said.

It's the second collision for a ship from the National Iranian Tanker Co. in less than a year and a half. In August 2016, one of its tankers collided with a Swiss container ship in the Singapore Strait, damaging both ships but causing no injuries or oil spill.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

A total of 20,000 tons of heroin were confiscated in Turkey in 2017, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said, Turkish media reported Jan. 11.

This shows that Turkey is facing a great risk and must tighten the fight against drug addiction, he noted.

Soylu added that during 2016, 520 people died from drug overdose in Turkey, and in 2017, the death toll reached 1,020 people.

The death toll from drug overdose is growing every year, Soylu said.

On Jan. 9, 2018, a police drug bust resulted in confiscation of some 500 kilograms of drugs. Heroin accounted for 150 kilograms of the total confiscated drugs.

The minimum age of Turkish citizens who started using drugs is 13 years old, the average age  36 years old, the maximum age - 65 years old.

Thus, 2.9 percent of the country's population account for drug addicts aged 15-24, 2.8 percent - those aged 25-44, 2.3 percent - drug addicts aged 45-64.

Some 18 percent of the total number of people arrested in the country in 2016 accounted for drug dealers.

More than 300,000 people have been detained in Istanbul for using and selling drugs over the past four years.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
South Korea's sole aircraft manufacturer, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), on January 8 began delivery of its advanced T-50 Golden Eagle lead-in fighter trainers to Thailand's air force, Sputnik reported.

The modernization of Bangkok's air force officially kicked off this week, in spite of lingering challenges and budget constraints, with two of the first batch of four T-50s reportedly leaving Seoul for Bangkok. The jets are set to replace the soon-to-be-decommissioned Aero L-39 Albatros trainers, which the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) has been using for the last two decades and which come with high maintenance costs.

The Thai military government under Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has demonstrated eagerness to boost the country's defense capabilities since coming to power following a coup in May 2014.

Soon after the government approved the RTAF's plan to procure a total of 16 T-50 fighter trainers, KAI received two separate orders from Thailand to build four T-50TH trainer jets worth $110 million in September 2015 and eight T-50TH jets valued at $260 million in July last year.

"It will only bring more damage if we provide insufficient training [to pilots]," Chan-ocha said, as cited by Thai daily newspaper The Nation. He added that the deal was proof that Thailand was not "bound by any party when it comes to hardware purchase," referencing remarks made after Bangkok's purchase of three Chinese submarines in April.

The T-50 Golden Eagle is an advanced jet trainer developed and manufactured by KAI, powered by one General Electric F404 afterburning turbofan and featuring a maximum speed of Mach 1.5 and a service ceiling of 14,000 m.

In addition to supplying Thailand, KAI has delivered an order of 12 FA-50-variant aircraft ordered by the Philippines, 16 T-50 aircraft to Indonesia and six of a total order of 24 FA-50s to Iraq. Since 2011, the manufacturer has exported 64 T-50s worth around $2.9 billion and is pushing for exports in other markets as well.
Britain could lose almost 500,000 jobs and 50 billion pounds ($67.41 billion) investment over the next 12 years if it fails to agree a trade deal with the European Union, according a report commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Reuters reports.

Cambridge Econometrics, an economics consultancy, looked at five different Brexit scenarios, from the hardest to the softest form of Brexit, and broke down the economic impact on nine industries, from construction to finance.

The study said that in a no-deal scenario, the industry that fares the worst will be financial and professional services, with as many as 119,000 fewer jobs nationwide.

If the Government continue to mishandle the negotiations we could be heading for a lost decade of lower growth and lower employment, Khan said. Ministers are fast running out of time to turn the negotiations around.

Britain and the EU will soon begin the much harder task of defining their future trading relationship, after settling the broad terms of their divorce settlement last month.

A stand-off between Britain and the EU over the future access to single market for Londons vast financial services industry is shaping up to be one of the key Brexit battlegrounds before Britain is due to leave the bloc in March 2019.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin explicitly warned Thursday that the US would pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement if the administration doesn't get what it wants in current renegotiations, Washington Examiner reported.

"We expect that will be renegotiated, or we'll pull out," he told reporters during a Thursday White House briefing. It was the first explicit threat from a top administration official tied directly to the ongoing talks.

The sixth round of negotiations among the US, Canada, and Mexico regarding the 1993 trade deal are scheduled to begin Jan. 23 in Montreal.

President Trump, a longtime critic of NAFTA, has threatened to pull the US out of the deal, and was reportedly on the verge of signing an executive order to do so last April. He was talked out of it by top Cabinet secretaries and the leaders of Canada and Mexico on the promise that an updated version of the deal could be reached.

The NAFTA renegotiations have been strained. Canadian and Mexican officials rejected US demands to change the rules for determining when a product can be labeled as "made in America" or "made in the USA.," arguing that the changes would damage the auto industry, whose supply chain is spread throughout the continent, according to an official with knowledge of the talks. The administration is also pushing to add an end date to NAFTA as well as to allow countries to opt out of its investment dispute settlement system, changes the trading partners also object to.

Canadian officials on Wednesday told Reuters they are increasingly convinced that Trump would pull the US out of NAFTA, while Mexican officials said the country would pull out of the free-trade deal if the US does.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey will no longer fulfill the demands of the United States on the extradition of terrorists, the Turkish media quoted the countrys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying on Jan. 11.

Erdogan said that Turkey has extradited 12 terrorists at the request of the US so far, but the US authorities have not extradited Fethullah Gulen, leader of the FETO terrorist organization, and there can be no question about meeting the US demands.

On July 15 evening, 2016, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed.

The death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 250 people, and more than 2,000 people were wounded.

The Turkish authorities accuse the leader of the Hizmet movement, Fethullah Gulen, of involvement in an attempted military coup and demand the US to extradite him.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the US is trying Turkeys patience by supporting and arming terrorists from the YPG (Kurdish People's Protection Units) and the PYD (Kurdish Democratic Union Party).

Erdogan noted that Turkey is not a state that will quietly observe the events taking place at its borders, Turkish media reported Jan. 11.

The president noted that Turkey has the right and the necessary forces to expand military operations in Syria against YPG and PYD terrorist groups.

On Jan. 10, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the main disagreements between Turkey and the US are related to the fact that Washington is arming the Syrian wings of the PKK - PYD and YPG - and has not yet fulfilled Ankaras demand on extradition of the leader of FETO terrorist organization.

Earlier, Cavusoglu said the country doesnt rule out a new military operation against YPG and PYD in Afrin. On Oct. 25, 2017, President Erdogan said that a new military operation may be held in Afrin.

Turkey has been moving military equipment to its border with Syria since June 21, 2017. Military equipment is being deployed in Turkeys south-central province of Kilis, which borders Syrian territories controlled by the YPG and the PYD.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkeys Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Vancouver to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of Canada and the US, titled Peace and Stability on the Korean Peninsula, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a message Jan. 11.

Cavusoglu will visit Canada on Jan. 15-16, according to the message.

The message says that Cavusoglu will also have bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Canada and the US to discuss regional issues and bilateral relations.

Negotiations between Pyongyang and Seoul started for the first time since 2015 in Panmunjom village on the border of North and South Korea.

The idea of negotiations was immediately supported by US President Donald Trump. The Pentagon announced on Jan. 4 that the joint military exercises planned for early 2018 by Washington and Seoul have been postponed and will be held only after the Paralympic Games in March.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Mass food poisoning of schoolchildren occurred in the Hakkari province in the southeast of Turkey, Turkish media reported Jan. 11.

A total of 176 schoolchildren were poisoned. All of them were hospitalized.

A criminal case has been launched into the incident, investigation is underway.
The Nebraska Legislature rejected a bill Thursday that would prohibit the sale and trade of ivory in Nebraska, and that mirrors federal provisions that do the same.

The bill (LB39) went down 19-9 on first-round voting, with 12 senators present but not voting. Nine senators were excused, some of them probably because of the weather.

Omaha Sen. Burke Harr introduced the bill because he thought the state should make a statement that it was against poaching and the illegal sale of ivory from elephants, rhinos and mammoths, he said. Some girls from his children's elementary school had asked for the bill.

"It's already illegal. We were just adding a local law enforcement angle to it," Harr said after the vote. Now, only federal law applies to the issue in Nebraska.

A list of exceptions to the proposed ivory sale ban were provided in the bill, including firearms, knives, or musical instruments containing ivory, if the ivory is less than 20 percent of its volume, is a fixed or integral component, or the owner has historical documentation showing it was created before 1975.

Harr said the bill had the support of the National Rifle Association.

The bill had advanced from the Judiciary Committee on a 5-3 vote, with Sens. Steve Halloran, Roy Baker and Bob Krist voting not to send the bill to the full Legislature.

During debate, Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard said the bill shouldn't have "seen the light of day." Halloran said the bill targeted owners of legally obtained ivory, instead of poachers, smugglers and black-market profiteers.

The bill did not go after law-abiding citizens, Harr said, but folks already violating federal law.

"This is not controversial," Harr told senators. "President Trump in November reaffirmed his support for this ban on ivory. Michael Savage  who thought I would be (citing) Michael Savage as an authority figure, but here I am  says this is a good thing to ban ivory. Laura Ingraham says it's good to ban ivory sales."

Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte called it "feel-good legislation," a local mandate that could add to prison crowding, and a headache for local law enforcement.

"How many rhinos live in Nebraska? How many elephants live in Nebraska?" Groene said. "I'm missing that, too."

Sen. Paul Schumacher said he was beginning to like the bill more and more.

"Because it was just pointed out to me that this bill protects RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) and that there's a small herd that live in this room that really need protection," he said.
KYODO NEWS - Jan 11, 2018 - 13:57 | All

The chief of Japan's nuclear regulator said Thursday water at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that contains radioactive tritium even after being treated should be released into the sea after dilution.

"We will face a new challenge if a decision (about the release) is not made within this year," Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa told a local mayor, referring to the more than 1 million tons of coolant water and groundwater that has accumulated at the facility crippled by the 2011 disaster triggered by a devastating quake and tsunami.

As local fishermen are worried about the negative impact from the water discharge, the Japanese government and Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. have not made a final decision on the treated water, which is currently stored in tanks.

In his meeting with Yukiei Matsumoto, mayor of Naraha town near the Fukushima plant, Fuketa said, "It is scientifically clear that there will be no influence to marine products or to the environment" following the water release.

The nuclear regulator chief underlined the need for the government and Tepco to quickly make a decision, saying, "It will take two or three years to prepare for the water release into the sea."

At the Fukushima plant, toxic water is building up partly because groundwater is seeping into the reactor buildings to mix with water made radioactive in the process of cooling the damaged reactors.

Such contaminated water is treated to remove radioactive materials but tritium, a radioactive substance considered relatively harmless to humans, remains in the filtered water as it is difficult to separate even after passing through a treatment process.

At other nuclear power plants, tritium-containing water is routinely dumped into the sea after it is diluted. The regulator has been calling for the release of the water after diluting it to a density lower than standards set by law.

With limited storage space for water tanks, observers warn tritium could start leaking from the Fukushima plant.

On March 11, 2011, tsunami inundated the six-reactor plant, located on ground 10 meters above sea level, and flooded the power supply facilities.

Reactor cooling systems were crippled and the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors suffered fuel meltdowns in the world's worst nuclear catastrophe since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
When Joshua Daskin traveled to Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park in 2012, the park and the iconic large animals that roamed it were returning from the brink of extinction. Gorongosa, among Africa's most spectacular wildlife preserves until the 1970s, had been devastated by an anti-colonial war of liberation followed by a ghastly 15-year civil war - a one-two punch that exterminated more than 90 percent of the park's wildlife.

The park's violent past intrigued Daskin, then a first-year Princeton graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology. As he explored the savannas and grasslands of Gorongosa with his advisor, Robert Pringle, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, the two researchers discussed whether similar wildlife declines might have occurred across Africa during the many conflicts of the 20th century. If so, they wondered how severe the impacts had been, and if animals generally retain the capacity to rebound like those in Gorongosa had, or if war was a human pressure that most animals just couldn't withstand.

After years of examining conflict in Africa's protected areas, Daskin and Pringle reported in the journal Nature Jan. 10 that war has been a consistent factor in the decades-long decline of large mammals in Africa. Populations that were stable in peaceful areas needed only a slight increase in conflict frequency to begin a downward spiral. But, the researchers report, while wildlife populations declined in conflict areas, they rarely collapsed to the point where recovery was impossible.

The study found that more than 70 percent of Africa's protected areas were touched by war between 1946 and 2010, an era during which the overthrow of European colonial rule was followed in many countries by violent post-colonial power struggles. Elephants, hippos, giraffes, and other large mammals perished as combatants and hungry citizens hunted animals for meat and for marketable commodities such as ivory.

Nonetheless, said Daskin, who completed the study as part of his doctoral dissertation at Princeton, the findings show that even those protected areas most severely affected by conflict remain promising candidates for conservation and rehabilitation efforts. The study was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI).

"We hope our data and conclusions will help in the effort to prioritize these areas for attention and funding from their governments and from international NGOs," said Daskin, now a Donnelley Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. "We're presenting evidence that although mammal populations decline in war zones, they don't often go extinct. With the right policies and resources, it should often be possible to reverse the declines and restore functional ecosystems, even in historically conflict-prone areas."

The study was needed to establish a general scientific expectation about how conflict typically affects wildlife populations, said Pringle, who is associated faculty in PEI. "It wasn't obvious to us in advance that conflict would have negative effects on wildlife populations," Pringle said. "Different studies of different places at different times have found both positive and negative effects of conflict on biodiversity, but the overall net effect had never been measured." For instance, previous research has shown that animal populations have increased in contested regions such as the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and rural Zimbabwe during that country's Bush War of 1964-1979.

Daskin and Pringle, however, found that with few exceptions, frequent conflict resulted in a downward trend among large-animal populations. No other factor they evaluated exhibited the same consistent effect. There was no statistically detectable effect on wildlife trajectories from mining, urban development, corruption, drought, or even the intensity of the conflict as measured by the number of human battle fatalities.

"This enabled us to make some educated guesses about what the underlying mechanisms might be," Daskin said. "Most of the effects of conflict on wildlife populations seem to be due to knock-on socioeconomic effects that degrade the institutional capacity for biodiversity conservation, or the collective societal ability to prioritize and pay for it."

Hugh Possingham, the Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy, concurred that social structures ultimately determine the fate of animals and protected areas. Possingham had no role in the research but is familiar with it and has published on related topics.

"The most surprising finding is the strength of the relationship between the presence of conflict and declines in large mammals," Possingham said. "One might have imagined that the magnitude or scale of conflict would be the driver, but the mere presence of conflict seems to be a strong predictor in its own right.

"This is unusual and useful," he continued. "It suggests to me that any sort of conflict needs to be avoided, even if it's at a low level, and such conflicts may be indicative of broader social and institutional problems that are the primary drivers of mammal declines. Bottom line -- to stop threats such as bushmeat hunting, governance really has to be strong."

Daskin and Pringle found that 71 percent of Africa's protected areas experienced one or more conflicts from 1946 to 2010. For a quarter of these areas, wars occurred for an average of nine or more years. Several large nations experienced an average of 20 or more years of conflict per protected area, including Chad, Namibia and Sudan (before it split into Sudan and South Sudan in 2011).

To conduct the analysis, Daskin drew from nearly 500 sources to find estimates of a specific animal species' abundance from at least two years between 1946 and 2010. He compared those estimates in order to calculate the change in population density during a given time interval. Daskin then used a series of databases to identify how many conflicts overlapped with each of Africa's protected areas during the study interval. In the end, the researchers examined the trends of 253 animal populations representing 36 species, ranging from antelopes to elephants, in 126 protected areas across 19 countries.

"No one else had made the effort to assemble conflict data across this range of parks and make them talk with the wildlife data," Daskin said. "These data were all freely available, but not always highly accessible."

Gorongosa, the park in Mozambique that originally inspired the study, exemplifies the thrust of the findings, Daskin and Pringle said. From 1977 to 1992, government soldiers, anti-government militias, and refugees alternately fought in or fled through the park. For years after the war, displaced and dispossessed residents hunted wildlife. By the early 2000s, the elephant population had crashed by more than 75 percent, while successive aerial counts found that buffalo, hippo, wildebeest, and zebra numbers were hovering in the single or double digits.

Yet, none of these animal populations disappeared completely. Since 2004, wildlife in Gorongosa have rebounded to 80 percent of their total pre-war abundance. Park staff, the Mozambican government and the nonprofit Gorongosa Restoration Project have worked with neighboring communities to nurture the remnant animal populations by suppressing illegal hunting and creating educational and employment opportunities for villagers within the park.

"Our results show that the case of Gorongosa could be general," said Pringle, who serves on the board of the Gorongosa Project. "Gorongosa is as close as you can come to wiping out a whole fauna without extinguishing it, and even there we're seeing that we can rehabilitate wildlife populations and regrow a functional ecosystem. That suggests that the other high-conflict sites in our study can, at least in principle, also be rehabilitated."

Pringle and Daskin emphasized in their paper that wildlife recovery rests in the hands of local people. "I would love to see conservation and humanitarian organizations collaborate on post-conflict relief work," Pringle said. "Long-term recovery hinges on the health and hopefulness of the people, and healthy environments catalyze human health and hope. It's a positive-feedback loop."

When people have a personal and economic stake in a thriving ecosystem, they embrace protective behaviors such as preventing poaching and monitoring wildlife, Possingham said. "This publication confirms the philosophy behind that approach," he said.

"In any area where large-mammal protection is a concern, one has to get the people-side of the conservation initiative sorted -- establishing alternative livelihoods, law and order, education, anti-corruption, etc. -- at the same time as taking habitat-protection and anti-poaching actions on the ground," he said. "If you don't tackle the ultimate drivers such as a breakdown of civil society, then taking action on the ground and investing in park management might not work."

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The paper, "Warfare and wildlife declines in Africa's protected areas," was published online by Nature Jan. 10. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (grant nos. DEB-1501306, DEB-1355122 and DEB-1457697) and the Princeton Environmental Institute's Grand Challenges program (project title: "Ecosystem Spatial Pattern and Development Opportunities in African Rangelands").
A novel tuberculosis pathogen, Mycobacterium mungi, closely related to human TB, infects and kills banded mongooses through a surprising route -- olfactory communication. Now, a detailed investigation published in the journal Veterinary Pathology provides a window into how this deadly disease moves between mongooses and within the mongoose host.

The team, led by Kathleen Alexander, a professor of wildlife conservation in Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment, identified a unique pathological presentation for this tuberculosis pathogen.

Infected anal gland secretions are sniffed or used to mark other mongooses, allowing this tuberculosis pathogen to invade the mongoose host through breaks in the skin or nose. This is the first case of a pathogen being transmitted through olfactory communication networks.

"Mongooses use anal gland secretions to communicate essential information to each other that is fundamental to the survival of their social group," said Alexander. "Our findings highlight the amazing ability of a pathogen to evolve and exploit the behavior of a species to increase transmission, and this has critical implications to our understanding of TB."

From 1999 to 2017, Alexander and her team examined 62 mongooses infected with tuberculosis and found that the most infected areas of the body were the lymph nodes, spleen, and anal glands.

"Given the character and distribution of lesions, we think that the pathogen spreads through the blood, the lymphatic system, or both upon entering the mongoose host," said Claire Sanderson, a research associate in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment.

By using histopathology, the researchers were able to look for microscopic evidence of tuberculosis lesions in formalin-fixed tissues and organs from banded mongooses in their long-term study site.

"This large-scale investigation provides a clear picture of how this unique tuberculosis pathogen infects and kills the mongoose host," said co-author Mark C. Williams of the University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, South Africa.

"Tuberculosis generally infects a susceptible host through a pulmonary or oral transmission route. But this pathogen has a unique pathological presentation arising from its environmental transmission route," said co-author Mitchell Palmer of the Bacterial Diseases of Livestock Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, Ames, Iowa.

"Banded mongooses live in close-knit groups and sleep in small underground dens, circumstances ideal for aerosol transmission of tuberculosis organisms and yet, lesions with this pathogen were only found in the lung of banded mongooses in late stages of the disease, if at all," said Alexander, who is also affiliated with Virginia Tech's Fralin Life Science Institute.

Infection by the M. mungi pathogen threatens the survival of smaller mongoose troops. Alexander's team has recently sequenced the M. mungi genome -- the only known tuberculosis species not to be successfully cultured in vitro. By comparing the genome of M. mungi to other M. tuberculosis complex pathogens, Alexander and her team hope to find clues as to how this pathogen evolved such a unique transmission and pathological presentations.

"This organism is very closely related to human TB but can be transmitted through the environment. This provides an exciting opportunity to understand TB organisms and their potential for change, providing critical insight possibly into the biology of human TB pathogens," said Alexander.

Mongoose are a territorial species and would have limited contact with members of another troop, limiting pathogen spread. Transmission of the pathogen through olfactory secretions circumvents this barrier, allowing M. mungi to spread through the population. The first recorded M. mungi outbreak in mongoose populations in northeastern Botswana and northwest Zimbabwe occurred in 1999 and was reported in Mbio.

"This discovery changes the manner in which we must think about sociality, olfactory communication, and infectious disease spread," said Alexander.

###

Other members of the research team include Peter N. Laver of the University of Capetown, South Africa; Carly Kanipe of Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine; Michelle Larsen of the Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and Suelee Robbe-Austerman of the Diagnostic Bacteriology Laboratory, National Veterinary Services Laboratories, Ames, Iowa.

The work was supported by both the Morris Animal Foundation and the National Science Foundation as part of the joint National Science Foundation-National Institutes of Health-U.S. Department of Agriculture Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program.

Alexander, a wildlife veterinarian and co-founder of the Center for Conservation of African Resources: Animals, Communities, and Land Use (CARACAL) in Botswana, directs her research program at exploring and understanding the factors that influence the emergence and persistence of novel and re-emerging diseases at the human-wildlife-environment interface.
(LOS ANGELES)  U.S. immigration agents descended on dozens of 7-Eleven stores before dawn Wednesday to open employment audits and interview workers in what officials described as the largest operation against an employer under Donald Trumps presidency.

Agents targeted about 100 stores nationwide, broadening an investigation that began with a 4-year-old case against a franchisee on New Yorks Long Island. The audits could lead to criminal charges or fines over the stores hiring practices.

The action appears to open a new front in Trumps sharp expansion of immigration enforcement, which has already brought a 40 percent increase in deportation arrests and plans to spend billions of dollars on a border wall with Mexico. Hardliners have been pressing for a tougher stance on employers.

Derek Benner, a top official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Associated Press that Wednesdays operation was the first of many and a harbinger of whats to come for employers. He said there would be more employment audits and investigations, though there is no numerical goal.

This is what were gearing up for this year and what youre going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters. From there, we will look at whether these cases warrant an administrative posture or criminal investigation, said Benner, acting head of ICEs Homeland Security Investigations, which oversees cases against employers.

Its not going to be limited to large companies or any particular industry, big medium and small, he said. Its going to be inclusive of everything that we see out there.

7-Eleven Stores Inc., based in Irving, Texas, with more than 8,600 stores in the U.S., didnt immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Though agents arrested 21 people suspected of being in the country illegally during Wednesdays sweep, the action was aimed squarely at management.

Illegal hiring is rarely prosecuted, partly because investigations are time-consuming and convictions are difficult to achieve because employers can claim they were duped by fraudulent documents or intermediaries. Administrative fines are discounted by some as a business cost.

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George W. Bushs administration aggressively pursued criminal investigations against employers in its final years with dramatic pre-dawn shows of force and large numbers of worker arrests. In 2008, agents arrived by helicopter at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and detained nearly 400 workers. Last month, Trump commuted the 27-year prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, former chief executive of what was the nations largest kosher meatpacking operation.

Barack Obamas administration more than doubled employer audits to more than 3,100 a year in 2013, shunning Bushs flashier approach. John Sandweg, an acting ICE director under Obama, said significant fines instilled fear in employers and draining resources from other enforcement priorities.

Trump is pursuing its own kind of unique strategy tied to its broader emphasis on fighting illegal immigration, including enforcement on the border, Benner said. Some workers may get arrested in the operations but authorities are targeting employers because they are job magnets for people to come to the country illegally.

We need to make sure that employers are on notice that we are going to come out and ensure that theyre being compliant, Benner said For those that dont, were going to take some very aggressive steps in terms of criminal investigations to make sure that we address them and hold them accountable.

Wednesdays operation resulted from a 2013 investigation that resulted in charges against nine 7-Eleven franchisees and managers in New York and Virginia. Eight have pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay more than $2.6 million in back wages, and the ninth was arrested in November.

In the 2013 investigations, managers used more than 25 stolen identities to employ at least 115 people in the country illegally, knowing they could pay below minimum wage, according to court documents. The documents say 7-Eleven corporate office does automated payroll, requiring franchisees provide employee names and Social Security numbers to pay workers through direct deposit or check.

The 7-Eleven stores served on Wednesday will be required to produce documents showing they required work authorization, which Benner said will become more common. Audits may lead to criminal charges or administrative penalties.

In Los Angeles Koreatown, seven agents arriving in three unmarked cars closed a store for 20 minutes to explain the audit to the only employee there, a clerk with a valid green card. Agents, wearing blue jackets marked ICE, told arriving customers that the store was closed briefly for a federal inspection. A driver delivering cases of beer was told to wait in the parking lot.

The manager was in Bangladesh and the owner, reached by phone, told the clerk to accept whatever documents were served. Agents said they would return Tuesday for employment records they requested.

Neither 7-Eleven nor was its parent company, Seven & i Holding Co. based in Tokyo, was charged in that case.

Just as the IRS performs audits of people all the time of their tax returns, the same purpose here is to ensure a culture of compliance in this area, he said.
Jan 11 (Reuters) - The tussle between Alcoa Corp and union workers escalated on Thursday after the aluminum producer locked them out of its smelter in Becancour, Quebec as an old contract expired at midnight and talks on a new agreement failed.

The collective agreement for 1,030 unionized workers expired at 11:59 EST (0459 GMT) Wednesday, which gave workers the right to strike and Alcoa the right to lock them out, the United Steelworkers had said.

The union at the ABI smelter rejected Alcoa's proposal which included a two-tier pension plan that was less favorable to new workers and demanded concessions on seniority rights, but had said they were ready to negotiate further.

"Rather than returning to the bargaining table, ABI has gone even further with its heavy-handed tactics, locking out employees without warning in the middle of the night," Clement Masse, president of Steelworkers Local 9700, said in a statement on Thursday. (http://bit.ly/2D0JoDQ)

The union's employees would remain locked out of the facility until further notice, Alcoa said in a statement.

Alcoa owns 74.95 percent of the ABI smelter, with Rio Tinto Alcan, owing the rest. It produces 430,000 metric tonnes of aluminum annually. (Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
Flight Attendants at the gate waiting to board

American Airlines

American Airlines announced on Tuesday that Land's End will make its new uniforms.

Some of the airline's employees have claimed that its current uniforms have made them sick.

American Airlines previously said the new uniforms will be made from different fabrics.

After American Airlines gave employees new uniforms in September 2016, employees began to claim that the uniforms were giving them headaches and making them break out in hives. The uniform update was the first the company had introduced in almost 30 years.

Though the airline claimed the uniforms were safe, in June 2017 the company said it would begin looking for a supplier to replace the controversial uniforms. On Tuesday, the company announced that Land's End would make the new uniforms, according to CNN.

CNN reports that American Airlines plans to begin testing the uniforms in October 2018 and roll them out to 51,000 employees in late 2019.

The airline has previously said that the uniforms will be made from different fabrics.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), a union that represents flight attendants, previously claimed it had received over 3,500 reports of "suspected reactions" by union members from the controversial uniforms, which were made by American Airlines and Twin Hill. American Airlines previously said it had received 14 reports from flight attendants about the uniforms.

NOW WATCH: We talked to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman about tax reform, Trump, and bitcoin

See Also:

SEE ALSO: American Airlines apologizes for accusing pro basketball players of theft and forcing them off the plane
Domino's Pizza, Inc. DPZ is currently one of the top-performing stocks in the restaurant space and a rise in share price and strong fundamentals signal its bullish run.

Therefore, if you havent taken advantage of the share price appreciation yet, its time you add the stock to your portfolio.

Why an Attractive Pick?

Price Performance: A glimpse of the companys price trend reveals that the stock has had an impressive run on the bourse in the last year. Domino's has returned 24.2%, which compares favorably with the industrys gain of 19.9%.

The price surge seems to the result of strong investor optimism around the stock, given Dominos brand recognition, and it continues to ride on various sales boosting and digital initiatives.

Dominos ranks as the second-largest pizza chain in the world. It is the market leader in the delivery segment in the United States and ranks second in the carry-out segment. Dominos posted the 26th consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales domestically in the third quarter of 2017. The company has enhanced its brand strength through marketing affiliations with the likes of The Coca-Cola Company and others.

Dominos continues to boost sales through regular limited time offers (LTO), new product launches and remodeling efforts. It is also investing heavily in technology-driven initiatives to drive sales. These initiatives include the companys digital loyalty program -- Piece of the Pie Rewards, various ordering apps and platforms (Google Home, Facebook Messenger, Apple Watch, Amazon Echo, Twitter) and anywhere ordering platform innovation, to name a few.

Domino's Pizza Inc Revenue (TTM)

Domino's Pizza Inc Revenue (TTM) | Domino's Pizza Inc Quote

The company continues to ramp up its worldwide digital participation with 25 markets now utilizing its global online ordering platform and more than 70% of stores outside the United States using its proprietary point-of-sale system  Domino's PULSE. Digital leadership is helping the company expand its brand in the domestic market as well as overseas.

Story continues

Solid Rank & VGM Score: Domino's carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and has a VGM Score of B. Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 offer the best investment opportunities for investors. Thus, the company appears to be a compelling investment proposition at the moment.

Northward Estimate Revisions: Four estimates for 2018 moved north over the past 60 days versus no southward revisions, reflecting analysts confidence in the company. Over the same period, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 increased 3%. This is encouraging ahead of the earnings season.

We believe that the companys refranchising strategy will continue to facilitate earnings per share growth by reducing capital requirements. In addition, free cash flow continues to grow, thus allowing reinvestment for increasing brand recognition and shareholder return. Dominos has a wide franchise network, both domestically and internationally that helps it reduce ownership of restaurants and focus more on re-franchising.

Positive Earnings Surprise History: Domino's has an impressive earnings surprise history. The company outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing four quarters, delivering a positive average earnings surprise of 6.11%.

In fact, the companys earnings have surpassed the consensus estimate in each of the last 13 quarters. Given the various initiatives to boost growth, the stock seems to have a decent upside potential.

Strong Growth Prospects: Arguably, earnings growth is of utmost importance for determining a stocks potential as surging profit levels often indicate solid prospects (and stock price gains). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings of $7.16 reflects year-over-year growth of 23.9%. The stock has long-term expected earnings per share growth rate of 14.5%.

This strong earnings growth prospect is justified given that the companys international growth continues to be strong and diversified across markets, driven by exceptional unit level economics.

Other Picks

Some other stocks in the restaurant space worth considering include Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. CBRL and McDonald's Corporation MCD, all carrying a Zacks Rank #2 . You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Darden, Cracker Barrel and McDonald's 2018 earnings are expected to improve 13.4%, 13.3% and 9.9%, respectively.

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Billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC on Wednesday the recent craze over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies won't end well. "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending ," the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) said. "When it happens or how or anything else, I don't know," he added in an interview on CNBC's " Squawk Box " from Omaha, Nebraska. "If I could buy a five-year put on every one of the cryptocurrencies, I'd be glad to do it but I would never short a dime's worth." Also on the show, Buffett's right-hand man, Charlie Munger, also blasted frothiness in bitcoin  and in venture capital funding. Earlier Wednesday, the Omaha-based conglomerate announced the appointment of two new vice chairs. Gregory Abel, 55, will be vice chair of non-insurance businesses. Ajit Jain, 66, will be vice chair of insurance operations. Buffett said he would not take a short position on bitcoin futures. "We don't own any, we're not short any, we'll never have a position in them," he said.

"I get into enough trouble with things I think I know something about," he added. "Why in the world should I take a long or short position in something I don't know anything about." Exchange operators such as CME Group and Cboe Global Markets have opened their platforms to allow bitcoin futures trading. The price of bitcoin declined 3.69 percent to $13,907 Wednesday, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. The digital currency is up more than 1,500 percent in the past 12 months. Buffett's comments came a day after J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon backpedaled his earlier criticisms of cryptocurrencies. In September, Dimon called bitcoin a fraud. Reuters contributed to this report. Read more from CNBC's interview with billionaire investor Warren Buffett: Warren Buffett: 'I feel terrific,' and moves toward succession are not related to my health Warren Buffett says 'huge' corporate tax cut is 'not baked in' stock market WATCH: Iconic investor Warren Buffett on bitcoin, his health and the state of markets



More From CNBC


Jan 10 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett said on Wednesday he will never invest in cryptocurrencies.

"I can say almost with certainty that cryptocurrencies will come to a bad end," Buffett told CNBC in an interview.

Buffett's comments come a day after JPMorgan & Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said he regrets calling bitcoin a fraud, referring to comments he made at a banking conference in September.

Bitcoin has taken the investing world by storm, surging to a high of more than $19,000 and created a divide on Wall Street about whether it is a legitimate financial instrument.

Bitcoin was down around 3 percent at $13,981.53. (Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
The Canadian dollar (Exchange: USDCAD) and the country's stocks fell on Wednesday on the back of a report that says President Donald Trump could pull the U.S. out of NAFTA. The Mexican peso also fell. The loonie fell to trade down 0.6 percent against its U.S. counterpart. The iShares MSCI Canada exchange-traded fund (EWC (NYSE Arca: EWC) ), which tracks Canadian stocks, closed 1 percent lower. Reuters reported, citing two Canadian government sources, that Canada is increasingly convinced that Trump will pull the U.S. out of the trade agreement . The news agency also said Canada plans to stay on the negotiating table even if Trump pulls out of NAFTA. The report added that trade between the two countries would continue, however. Trump railed against NAFTA during his 2016 presidential campaign. In June 2016, he called the trade deal the "worst" in history . But pulling out of the trade deal could disrupt interconnections established by industries in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The Mexican peso (Exchange: MXN=) declined 0.5 percent against the greenback after the report was released. Also falling were shares of General Motors and Kansas City Southern, which hit session lows in the U.S. stock market. The Canadian dollar (Exchange: USDCAD) and the country's stocks fell on Wednesday on the back of a report that says President Donald Trump could pull the U.S. out of NAFTA. The Mexican peso also fell. The loonie fell to trade down 0.6 percent against its U.S. counterpart. The iShares MSCI Canada exchange-traded fund (EWC (NYSE Arca: EWC) ), which tracks Canadian stocks, closed 1 percent lower. Reuters reported, citing two Canadian government sources, that Canada is increasingly convinced that Trump will pull the U.S. out of the trade agreement . The news agency also said Canada plans to stay on the negotiating table even if Trump pulls out of NAFTA. The report added that trade between the two countries would continue, however. Trump railed against NAFTA during his 2016 presidential campaign. In June 2016, he called the trade deal the "worst" in history . But pulling out of the trade deal could disrupt interconnections established by industries in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The Mexican peso (Exchange: MXN=) declined 0.5 percent against the greenback after the report was released. Also falling were shares of General Motors and Kansas City Southern, which hit session lows in the U.S. stock market.



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Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, who is leading the charge for major property tax relief legislation, rejected Gov. Pete Ricketts' new tax reduction plan Thursday, describing it as "fantasy" and "an illusion" in terms of providing meaningful property tax reduction.

Erdman said he will proceed with his own bill (LB829) that would sharply reduce property taxes next year, and he's prepared to take the issue to the voters in November with an initiative proposal if the Legislature fails to act.

After a day of studying the governor's proposed tax reduction package, which has been revised to add a layer of increased attention to property tax relief, Erdman said: "I'm not all impressed with it."

"I don't think his proposal is enough and not soon enough," he said.

In terms of immediate, substantial property tax relief, Erdman said, "it does absolutely zero."

The revised gubernatorial plan, which will be sponsored by Revenue Committee Chairman Jim Smith of Papillion, was unveiled Wednesday in the governor's State of the State address to the Legislature.

The proposal would provide a first round of increased property tax reduction by restructuring the state's current property tax credit fund into a new refundable income tax credit available only to owner-occupied households in Nebraska and agricultural landowners and producers who live in the state.

Additional property tax relief would be pumped into the program in the future whenever state revenue exceeds revenue forecasts.

The governor's tax package also proposes personal and corporate income tax reductions.

The Erdman bill would provide an immediate $1.1 billion in property tax relief through state income tax credits and refunds equal to 50 percent of property taxes paid to local schools.

If that bill fails to win enactment in the Legislature, an initiative petition drive, which is about to be launched by Reform for Nebraska's Future, expects to gather sufficient signatures to place the issue on the November general election ballot for the voters to decide.

While the focus has been on the property tax load borne by agriculture and rural Nebraska, Erdman said urban homeowners are also beginning to express their support for his property tax relief plan.

Responding to concerns about the cost of providing the estimated $1.1 billion in property tax relief contained in his proposal, Erdman said: "My job is to bring this legislation forward, not to say how to pay for it. That's up to the Legislature."

Trent Fellers of Lincoln, executive director of Reform for Nebraska's Future, has said one possible source could be elimination of some of the $4 billion in state sales tax exemptions in place.

"We may have given away too many tax advantages," Erdman suggested, "while not taking care of the people who brought us to the dance."

It's also possible that "we can live with less (in state government) if we have to," he said, and make additional efforts to "streamline government."

The problem that needs to be addressed now is a property tax load that has become unbearable, he said.

"Let's fix it," he added.
Signage for Carphone Warehouse is seen at a retail park in London, Britain, March 30, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's information regulator said on Wednesday it had fined Carphone Warehouse (DC.L) 400,000 pounds after a 2015 cyber attack exposed the personal data of more than 3 million customers.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the electrical goods and mobile phone retailer, owned by Dixons Carphone, left its systems vulnerable by failing to update its software and carry out routine testing.

"A company as large, well-resourced and established as Carphone Warehouse should have been actively assessing its data security systems, and ensuring systems were robust and not vulnerable to such attacks," Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said in a statement, adding that the fine was one of the biggest that the ICO had issued.

"Carphone Warehouse should be at the top of its game when it comes to cyber-security and it is concerning that the systemic failures we found related to rudimentary, commonplace measures."

Cyberattackers used valid login details to access Carphone Warehouse's system through an out-of-date version of content platform Wordpress, the ICO said.

The compromised personal data included names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, marital status and, for more than 18,000 customers, their historical payment card details.

Records for some employees of the retailer were also compromised, although the Commissioner said there was no evidence of identity theft as a result of the attack.

A spokesman for Carphone Warehouse said the company had co-operated fully with the investigation and accepted the ICO's decision.

"We moved quickly at the time to secure our systems, to put in place additional security measures and to inform the ICO and potentially affected customers and colleagues," the spokesman said.

"Since the attack in 2015 we have worked extensively with cyber security experts to improve and upgrade our security systems and processes."

(Reporting by Kate Holton and Alistair Smout, Editing by Stephen Addison)
Carphone Warehouse joins TalkTalk in being the only companies hit with a 400,000 ICO fine - Marina Imperi

To face a 400,000 fine for exposing customers' personal details to hackers once might be considered misfortune. But for Sir Charles Dunstone, who was today hit with his second record penalty from data protection watchdogs, it is beginning to look like carelessness.

Carphone Warehouse was handed the fine after a cyber attack exposed the personal details of more than 3m of its customers and staff in 2015, when Sir Charles was its chairman.

It is just the second company to receive a fine that large from the Information Commissioners Office, the other culprit being TalkTalk, which was spun out of Carphone Warehouse in 2010, and whose board is also helmed by the billionaire entrepreneur.

The ICO said Carphone Warehouses failure to secure its systems allowed hackers to gain access to names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, marital status and, for more than 18,000 customers, historical payment card details.

Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, said: Carphone Warehouse should be at the top of its game when it comes to cyber-security, and it is concerning that the systemic failures we found related to rudimentary, commonplace measures.

The ICO said it found multiple inadequacies in Carphone Warehouses data security practices and that the company had failed to take adequate steps to protect customer information, neglecting to update important software and not carrying out routine security checks.

Carphone Warehouse will only have to pay 320,000 of the fine, as there is a 20pc discount for early payment.

Companies that break data protection rules currently face a fine of up to 500,000. That will rise to 20m (17.8m) or 4pc of global annual revenues, whichever is higher, once the new Europe-wide General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) come into force later this year.

A spokesman for the company said it was sorry for any distress caused by the incident.

We accept todays decision by the ICO and have co-operated fully throughout its investigation into the illegal cyberattack on a specific system within one of Carphone Warehouses UK divisions in 2015," he said.

As the ICO notes in its report, we moved quickly at the time to secure our systems, to put in place additional security measures and to inform the ICO and potentially affected customers and colleagues.

Shares in Dixons Carphone, the company created by Carphone Warehouses merger with Dixons Retail in 2014, were down 0.8pc at 202p in afternoon trade.
For the most part, CES has a well-earned reputation as a tech company public relations bonanza. Speakers get on stage and flaunt their latest smartphone invention or rollable TV screen.

Most of these speeches are delivered by the playbook, with very little deviation. But this year Richard Yu, the CEO of Huaweis consumer products division, threw some major shade at AT&T during his keynote speech.

This wasnt totally unfounded though. This Monday The Wall Street Journal reported that AT&T abruptly backed out of a deal to sell Huawei newest phone, the Mate 10 Pro. Their reason, U.S. lawmakers expressed concerned about potential ties between Huawei and the Chinese government.

Right before the end of his presentation, Yu flipped to a slide that read Something I want to Share and minced no words.

LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 05, 2017: CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group Richard Yu.

Everybody knows that in the US market that over 90 percent of smartphones are sold by carrier channels, said the CEO. Its a big loss for us, and also for carriers, but the more big loss is for consumers because consumers dont have the best choice.

Not signing this deal with AT&T wont completely knock Huawei out of the U.S. market, but the Mate 10 Pro wont sell anywhere near as well as they anticipated. Consumers will still be able to get their hands on Huaweis newest smartphone by purchasing an unlocked one online, but AT&T stores will not be carrying it.

The success of this deal would have rocketed Huawei to tech stardom, as theyre already the third largest smartphone vendor in the world. The Chinese telecommunications firm has been suspected of working closely with the countrys government in the past past. Yu didnt hold back when it came to expressing his frustration.

We win the trust of the Chinese carriers, we win the trust of the emerging markets and also we win the trust of the global carriers, all the European and Japanese carriers, he said. We are serving over 70 million people worldwide. Weve proven our quality, weve proven our privacy and security protection.

Story continues

As ever, CES remains the only place to geek out over all your favorite tech and watch some real-time company drama.

Photos via Getty Images / Ethan Miller, Getty Images / David Becker

Photos via Getty Images / Ethan Miller, Getty Images / David Becker

Written by Danny Paez

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The world may not be ending for digital currencies after all. South Korea's Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said on Thursday that a bill is being prepared to ban all cryptocurrency trading on the country's exchanges, which drove digital currency prices sharply lower. The price of bitcoin tumbled more than 12 percent from its day's high following Park's remarks, according to Coinbase data. The cryptocurrency then rallied more than 7 percent off its low after Reuters reported South Korea's presidential office said the ban plan "had not yet been finalized" and is just one of the things being considered. After the 7 percent comeback, bitcoin was down 5 percent Thursday, according to Coinbase.The news agency added a ban bill "could take months or even years" to pass the country's legislative body.Industry experts said fears over the South Korean ban proposal are overblown.Cedric Jeanson, founder and CEO of BitSpread, one of the largest digital currency market makers in the world, downplayed the developments in the Asian country."It is understandable why the authorities are acting in Korea, which is different to other digital currency markets in several respects. Prices of digital currencies there are much higher than the rest of the world because of local circumstances," he said. "Developments like this should be seen in the broader context of the continued evolution and development of digital currencies globally."Jeanson explained the authorities in Korea are making sure the country's digital currency exchanges have the "proper AML/KYC customer identification, and suitable cyber-security, tax reporting procedures and accounting.""It is also natural to align the requirements of digital currency exchanges with the requirements of online financial platforms by regulators, as the trading nature of the activity is similar," he added.South Korea is one of the major cryptocurrency trading markets. It accounts for between 6 and 12 percent of bitcoin trading, according to industry website CryptoCompare. "In both China and South Korea, what they are doing, they are bringing operations, exchanges and mines, into regulatory compliance. They are not shutting everything down," Malachi Salcido, CEO of bitcoin mining company Salcido Enterprises said on CNBC's " Power Lunch " Thursday. "They are shutting people down [people] that are skirting the system ... tax evading. The things they should be doing. The industry is growing up." Digital currency fund manager Brian Kelly predicts South Korea's moves will just be another bump in the road for the relentless rise of cryptocurrencies."The ultimate outcome in Korea is still unclear, but if they move to regulate similar to Japan then it would be very positive for crypto," Kelly wrote in an email. "The change in the market over the last few months is that the incremental buyer is US investors and Korea has become less of a driver." Ripple's cryptocurrency XRP also surged off its low as much as 15 percent after it announced it is teaming up with U.S. money transfer giant MoneyGram. XRP is up 3 percent Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap.  CNBC's Jeff Cox and Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.WATCH: Here's why every industry should be looking at blockchain The world may not be ending for digital currencies after all. South Korea's Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said on Thursday that a bill is being prepared to ban all cryptocurrency trading on the country's exchanges, which drove digital currency prices sharply lower. The price of bitcoin tumbled more than 12 percent from its day's high following Park's remarks, according to Coinbase data. The cryptocurrency then rallied more than 7 percent off its low after Reuters reported South Korea's presidential office said the ban plan "had not yet been finalized" and is just one of the things being considered. After the 7 percent comeback, bitcoin was down 5 percent Thursday, according to Coinbase. The news agency added a ban bill "could take months or even years" to pass the country's legislative body. Industry experts said fears over the South Korean ban proposal are overblown. Cedric Jeanson, founder and CEO of BitSpread, one of the largest digital currency market makers in the world, downplayed the developments in the Asian country. "It is understandable why the authorities are acting in Korea, which is different to other digital currency markets in several respects. Prices of digital currencies there are much higher than the rest of the world because of local circumstances," he said. "Developments like this should be seen in the broader context of the continued evolution and development of digital currencies globally." Jeanson explained the authorities in Korea are making sure the country's digital currency exchanges have the "proper AML/KYC customer identification, and suitable cyber-security, tax reporting procedures and accounting." "It is also natural to align the requirements of digital currency exchanges with the requirements of online financial platforms by regulators, as the trading nature of the activity is similar," he added. South Korea is one of the major cryptocurrency trading markets. It accounts for between 6 and 12 percent of bitcoin trading, according to industry website CryptoCompare. "In both China and South Korea, what they are doing, they are bringing operations, exchanges and mines, into regulatory compliance. They are not shutting everything down," Malachi Salcido, CEO of bitcoin mining company Salcido Enterprises said on CNBC's " Power Lunch " Thursday. "They are shutting people down [people] that are skirting the system ... tax evading. The things they should be doing. The industry is growing up." Digital currency fund manager Brian Kelly predicts South Korea's moves will just be another bump in the road for the relentless rise of cryptocurrencies. "The ultimate outcome in Korea is still unclear, but if they move to regulate similar to Japan then it would be very positive for crypto," Kelly wrote in an email. "The change in the market over the last few months is that the incremental buyer is US investors and Korea has become less of a driver." Ripple's cryptocurrency XRP also surged off its low as much as 15 percent after it announced it is teaming up with U.S. money transfer giant MoneyGram. XRP is up 3 percent Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap.  CNBC's Jeff Cox and Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report. WATCH: Here's why every industry should be looking at blockchain



More From CNBC


Ive attended innumerable keynote addresses by top executives at technology conferences, but never a talk quite like the one Ford CEO Jim Hackett gave Tuesday morning at the annual CES conference in Las Vegas.

Most CEOs preside over whiz-bang demos with snazzy slides and the occasional celebrity to wow the nerds. Hackett instead cut an avuncular figure in a cardigan sweater vest, sat quietly and a bit hunched over on a tall chair, and shared his vision of the future of transportation.

That vision is bold if incredibly risky. It acknowledges that for all the genius of Henry Ford, whose groundbreaking business processes gave the world the freedom of the open road, his cars also brought parking lots, congestion, pollution, decrepit town centers and worse. By enabling one kind of freedom we restricted another, said Hackett, sounding very much like the corporate intellectual he is but also a bold radical, willing to speak truth to the power of his own adopted industry.

Hacketts future relies not so much on cars as transportation systems. Indeed, thats the word top executive Jim Farley used to describe Fords aspirations. Were stressing a systems-based approach, said Farley, based on building an open-source operating system for transportation available to all companies and also a network of services that stresses Fords industrial-grade vehicles. Said Farley: Any time youre not carrying goods or people in this business youre not making money.

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Farley hinted at one concrete snippet of news: This quarter Ford will begin testing its self-driving network concepthe called it Fords new business modelin an unnamed city. It will build on insights from Fords existing delivery partnership with Dominos Pizza and also will include a new initiative with San Francisco delivery startup Postmates.

If Farley and other Ford executives brought the broad outlines of the plan, Hackett is responsible for the ideas. He namechecked a variety of thinkers influencing his new-age concepts, including Janette Sadik-Khan, a transportation advisor to Michael Bloomberg; Designer Alex McDowell of the World Building Institute; and Geoffrey West, the complex systems theorist at the Santa Fe Institute. He brought onstage the Harvard ethicist Michael Sandel to conduct a Socratic exercise with the entire audience.

Story continues

These arent the names most frequently referenced at a CES keynote.

Hackett noted hes been on the job 220 days. As during the previous 219including last fall, when I profiled Hackett in Fortunethe Ford CEO managed not to discuss how all this will affect the bottom line. Thats appropriate and forgivable at CES, an event meant to muse on the future. But I couldnt help thinking that Hackett better hope theres no recession any time soon. His vision might not survive one.

NEWSWORTHY

Get outta my dreams. Speaking of the future of the auto industry, Renault, Nissan Motor, and Mitsubishi Motors said they would invest up to $1 billion over five years in startups working on electric and self-driving cars, connectivity and artificial intelligence. Ionic Materials, a Massachusetts-based company working on cobalt-free solid-state batteries, got the first investment.

Chatty Cathy. Toyota said Tuesday that it plans to embed Amazons Alexa voice-controlled digital assistant in some of its Toyota and Lexus models this year. Some Toyota models currently use Apples Siri to control simple tasks liking making a phone call, but the Alexa feature will have the capability to give directions, read news, or even control Internet-connected home devices, the company said.

Are you kidding me? A bunch of tiny companies like Long Blockchain (formerly called Long Island Iced Tea) have seen huge stock price jumps after claiming to get involved in digital currency technologies. Now faded photo star Kodak is trying the same move. The company said it would create KodakCoin, a currency aimed at helping photographers better control image rights. And Kodaks stock? It more than doubled to $6.80.

Cloudy forecast. Five months worth of confidential user data from Snapchat leaked to the Daily Beast showed some possible growth problems for the popular messaging service. Usage of the apps new maps feature has declined and chatting dominating over the posting of stories, the news site reported.

Better forecast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it completed a massive upgrade to the supercomputers that take in weather data from around the world and churn out forecasts. The agencys two supercomputer sites now have the power to calculate 8.4 petaflops, or quadrillions of calculations per second.

Streaming merger. Akamai Technologies, which runs a vast network to help companies distribute online content, is exploring strategic alternatives and may be sold, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Activist investor fund Elliott Management, which bought a 6.5% stake in the company, has been pressuring for such a move.

Pentagon papers. The Washington Post is doing just fine despite the continued pressure on media advertising. The paper owned by Jeff Bezos was profitable for a second year in a row and digital subscriptions more than tripled from last year, publisher Fred Ryan said in an email to the staff that was obtained by Axios.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Amid the criticism of Apple over kids excessive use of smartphones, a movement had already arisen among some in Silicon Valley to curb the ubiquitous mobile devices. Tripp Mickle in the Wall Street Journal explores the concerns and strategies of the anti-iPhone crowd. Some are trying to attack the problem from within, with specialized apps:

A handful of developers have responded to rising smartphone use by introducing apps designed to help curtail time on devices, including Checky, which tracks how often users unlock a device, and Menthal, which provides a scorecard for device usage. Alex Markowetz, who co-founded Menthal, said Apple should already offer a similar time-spent measurement on the iPhone because customers increasingly want to protect their most important assets: time and intellect. Thats the one resource you should be willing to pay for to look after, Mr. Markowetz said.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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No, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Has Not Changed His Stance on Bitcoin By Robert Hackett

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Circuit City Wants to Make a Comeback Online By Tom Huddleston Jr.

BEFORE YOU GO

The pictures and videos of the snowfall that happened this week in the Sahara desert are magnificent. Some of the coverage may have been hyperbolic, however. Its rare, but its not that rare, Rein Haarsma, a climate researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, tells the New York Times. There is exceptional weather at all places, and this did not happen because of climate change.
Domino's Pizza, Inc. DPZ recently announced that its president and chief executive officer, Patrick Doyle will step down on Jun 30.

Richard Allison, currently president of Dominos International, will take charge as the new CEO. Dominos also promoted Russell Weiner, currently president of Domino's USA, to the newly-created position of chief operating officer and president of the Americas. Allison and Weiner will take on their new roles on Jul 1, 2018.

Doyle Turned Dominos into a Leader in Digital Ordering

Doyle has been instrumental in Dominos turnaround. He successfully helmed initiatives for taste enhancement of its key product, and investments in technology and promotions that helped the company regain market share and become a leader in digital ordering.

Under his leadership, Dominos has opened more than 5,500 stores, launched the brand in several new countries, and become a well-performing stock. Domino's has returned a whopping 82.3% in the last two years, outperforming the industrys gain of 18.8%. Shares however sank 3.2% since the day the company announced the news (Jan 9).

Doyle said that he has been successful in achieving the objectives of making Dominos the leading pizza company, enhancing the return on investment for franchisees, and putting an efficient leadership team in place. He added that he will leave knowing that Dominos is in great hands.

Domino's Pizza Inc Revenue (TTM)

Domino's Pizza Inc Revenue (TTM) | Domino's Pizza Inc Quote

Allison May Ramp up International Push

Allison is taking up responsibilities when Dominos like most other U.S. restaurant chains is grappling with a challenging industry backdrop.

Since Allison has been overseeing the international business, the expansion of which is one of Dominos counter strategies against the downsides troubling it, we expect that the company will intensify its push to expedite its presence in high-growth international markets under his leadership.

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Notably, Dominos international growth continues to be strong and diversified across markets, driven by exceptional unit level economics. The company opened 964 net new stores in international markets in the trailing four quarters and had 8,943 stores outside the United States as of the last reported quarter.

Dominos carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Other Picks

Some other stocks in the restaurant space worth considering include Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. CBRL and McDonald's Corporation MCD, all carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Darden, Cracker Barrel and McDonald's 2018 earnings are expected to improve 13.9%, 13.3% and 9.9%, respectively.

Wall Streets Next Amazon

Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. Its a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.

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From Good Housekeeping

Sam's Club is closing 63 stores across the country, but many employees didn't know until they showed up to work, Business Insider reports.

"After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, we've decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy," Sam's Club said on Twitter in response to customers who asked about the store closures. The company did not respond to CBS News' request for a comment, and did not elaborate on how many stores would be closed and when.

Sam's Club CEO John Furner confirmed the closings in an email to employees. "After a thorough review, it became clear we had built clubs in some locations that impacted other clubs, and where population had not grown as anticipated," he said. "We've decided to right-size our fleet and better align our locations with our strategy."

According to Business Insider, 10 of the locations will be turned into e-commerce distribution centers, and workers at those locations can re-apply for jobs at the redesigned facilities; the first facility to get that redesign will be in Memphis. So far, closures have been reported in Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The news of Sam's Club locations closing comes on the same day as its parent company, Walmart, made headlines after raising the minimum wage for its workers to $11 an hour, expanding parental leave benefits, and offering a one-time bonus of up to $1,000 to eligible folks who have worked for the company for at least two years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would allow the United States government to penalize Equifax and its peers with large fines for major cyber attacks and return that money to affected Americans.

The Data Breach Prevention and Compensation Act would grant the Federal Trade Commission authority to fine credit-reporting agencies, like TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, $100 for each consumer whose personal information is stolen in a security breach and $50 for each additional piece of personal information compromised.

Massive data breaches like the Equifax hack cannot be the new normal. Introduced a bill with @SenWarren today to penalize companies that fail to protect your private data from hackers. pic.twitter.com/bxDEvInxWz  Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) January 10, 2018

Our bill imposes massive and mandatory penalties for data breaches at companies like Equifax  and provides robust compensation for affected consumers  which will put money back into peoples pockets and help stop these kinds of breaches from happening again, Warren said in a statement.

Although the FTC launched an investigation into the Equifax data breach in September, it remains to be seen whether the company will be ordered to pay fines.

If this policy had been in place during the Equifax hack in September 2017 that affected 145 million Americans, the credit-reporting agency would have paid an estimated $1.5 billion in fines. The proposed bill ensures that half the money paid to the federal government is returned to those affected by the breach.

The bill proposes a cap on total fines based on the credit-reporting agencys revenue, but the total penalty can be increased if basic cybersecurity practices werent followed.

If companies like Equifax cant properly safeguard the enormous amounts of highly sensitive data they are collecting and centralizing, then they shouldnt be collecting it in the first place, Warner said in a statement.

Despite the scale and frequency of recent hacks, including Equifax, Yahoo, Sony, Home Depot, and Target among others, lawmakers have not passed legislation to address the problem. Fortune has previously reported that for many of these companies, the cost of mishandling sensitive consumer data was less than 2% of sales for one year.
Sen. John Lowe of Kearney thought he had the 33 votes needed Wednesday to stop a filibuster on his motorcycle helmet repeal bill.

Monday, debate had closed after three hours and Speaker Jim Scheer agreed to allow more debate and a vote Wednesday. Those two days, when senators have time to reconsider, were the death knell.

Wednesday, senators voted 30-15 on a motion to stop debate, and the bill (LB368) is now dead for this session. Helmets will continue to be required for Nebraska motorcycle riders and those passing through the state.

Omaha Sen. Robert Hilkemann, who led the opposition to the bill, said he knew the vote would be close. In the end, senators voted in favor of safety and people's lives, he said.

"I get the whole thing with the liberty thing, but the fact is that when people ride motorcycles with a helmet they ride with more safety than when they do not have that helmet in place," he said.

Lowe questioned during a short debate whether government should allow people to make their own choices, even if their choices could lead to bad outcomes. Nebraskans have enough common sense to decide what risks they are willing to take, he said.

"I believe this to be a quote by Ronald Reagan: Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves," he said.

Lowe said it's possible he could bring the repeal bill back next year.
This July 21, 2012, file photo shows signage at the corporate headquarters of Equifax Inc. in Atlanta.

Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday that establishes financial penalties on credit reporting agencies, like Equifax (NYSE:EFX), for each piece of consumer information that is compromised during a cyberattack.

The Data Breach Prevention and Compensation Act, sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), would grant the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the power to fine credit agencies $100 for every piece of consumer data illegally accessed by unauthorized third parties, tacking on $50, per consumer, for each additional data point revealed.

If an agency fails to fully comply with federal notification standards after a breach has occurred, the financial penalties would automatically double and increase to a maximum of 75% of the agencys gross revenue. Many viewed Equifaxs response to its massive data breach, which compromised the personally identifiable information of more than 145 million Americans, as not only unpunctual, but also woefully inadequate: After discovering in late-July that millions of consumer accounts had been compromised, it failed to notify the public until Sept. 7.

The big credit bureaus collect and sell vast amounts of your personal information without your permission and without your control  [This bill] will ensure that credit bureaus protect your information as if you actually mattered to them and it will both punish them and compensate you when they fail to do so," consumer advocacy group U.S. PIRG said in a statement.

Aside from the financial penalties on companies, the bill would also require the FTC to use 50% of the penalties it collected to compensate consumers.

Warren and Warner propose the establishment of an Office of Cybersecurity at the FTC to help the agency oversee security practices at credit reporting agencies and to help carry out all of these responsibilities.

The bill is not the first introduced by Wall Street firebrand Warren in the wake of the Equifax breach. The first has not yet made it to the Senate floor.

Story continues

Equifax declined to comment directly on the new legislation, redirecting FOX Business request to a third party organization representing all three credit agencies.

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Foreigners hoping to adopt children from Africa will have to strike Ethiopia off their list.

The countrys parliament has pulled the plug on international adoptions by foreigners in a bid to protect children from possible abuse by their new parents. That possibility was highlighted in 2012 when, in a grim trial, an American couple were jailed for the death of their adopted 13-year old Ethiopian daughter. The couple was found to have beaten and starved the girl, who they had adopted in 2008. (She died in 2011.)

International adoptions from Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa have been long-running but they seem to have gained popularity as major celebrities, including Hollywood and stars Mary-Louise Parker, Angelina Jolie and pop veteran Madonna adopted African children. But the popularity of adoptions has also raised fears over the possibility exploiting the process for human trafficking. In 2016, Denmark banned adoptions from Ethiopia, claiming a lack of data on the origins of children adopted from the country could facilitate trafficking. Some other countries have also set up more stringent rules for the international adoption process. The US suspended adoptions from Ethiopia last March.

Instead of letting foreigners adopt them, Ethiopias parliament says vulnerable children should be catered to by states children services. However, there are doubts over the sustainability of that arrangement.

The bans on adoptions have adversely affected US-based adoption agencies which process thousands of adoption requests. Between 1999 and 2016, a total of 15,317 Ethiopian children were adopted in the US, according to data from the US department of state. But with business starting to slow down some agencies have been forced to shut up shop.

Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief  the most important and interesting news from across the continent, in your inbox.

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By Michel Rose

BEIJING (Reuters) - Europe should be more united in protecting strategic assets from foreign takeovers if it wants Beijing's respect, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday as he wrapped up a visit to China that brought no eye-catching trade deals.

The 40-year-old has deployed a mix of charm and threats on his first state visit since taking office in May. Accompanied by 50 business leaders, he has sought to recalibrate bilateral relations and narrow a gaping trade deficit.

As president, Macron has pushed for the EU to screen foreign investments in its strategic sectors and, signalling French annoyance at China's reluctance to open some of its domestic markets, that issue has been a focal point of the three-day visit.

On Wednesday, he sounded a warning to less wealthy EU states that have taken a softer line due to their perceived reliance on Chinese investment.

"Europe has often shown itself divided about China," Macron told representatives of the French community in Beijing. "And China wont respect a continent, a power, when some member states let their doors freely open."

CHINA SURGE

Foreign direct investment in the European Union traced back to mainland China has surged in recent years, to a record 35 billion euros ($42 billion) in 2016 from 1.6 billion euros in 2010, according to the Mercator Institute for China Studies.

France, like Germany, has generally welcomed Chinese investment as a boost to its economy and an opportunity to expand into fast-growing Asian markets.

But the euro zone's top two economies have been reluctant to cede control of strategic assets, notably in transport, defence, telecoms, tech and engineering - sectors in which China's footprint is expanding fast.

The EU hopes negotiations on an investment pact with China will reach a "decisive stage" this year, the bloc's ambassador to China said separately, calling on Beijing to honour a pledge to open its economy to the world.

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Macron did not say which EU countries he thought should needed to shield their assets more vigorously but, after struggling under strict austerity rules imposed by its European partners, Greece for one has embraced China's cash.

It sold a majority stake in Piraeus port, the country's largest, to China's COSCO Shipping in 2016. The port has been referred to as the "dragon head" of China's new Silk Road into Europe, a network of rail and shipping links designed to whisk commodities and goods between China and Europe.

"China, which is a great power, does not respect a country that sells its essential infrastructures to the lowest bidder," Macron said.

PLAYING A LONGER GAME?

In Xian, an eastern departure point for the ancient Silk Road, Macron said on Monday that China's equivalent modern-day "Belt and Road" trade initiative could not be one way -- a clear suggestion that Europe expected to be able to sell into China just as smoothly.

Yet two days later he concluded his trip without securing any major deals.

Airbus, he announced, would soon finalise a contract for 184 narrow-body jets, while nuclear group Areva failed to finalise a decade of negotiations with a contract to build a fuel reprocessing plant, securing only another protocol agreement.

French officials said they were not disappointed, pointing to a sales contract for CFM jet engines by France's Safran and General Electric, and the lifting of a Chinese embargo on French beef, among other deals.

Macron, who travelled with senior executives from Airbus, BNP Paribas, AccorHotels, EDF and LVMH, played down the absence of blockbuster deals. He said other countries had trumpeted big figures in the past that masked more modest realities.

"I dont want to give the impression that we made this trip to obtain as many contracts as possible," Macron told reporters.

"We have secured unprecedented openings ... which are the result of much hard work."

Jean Pierre Cabestan, professor of political science at Hong Kong Baptist University, said while France would like a larger share of the market, Macron was playing a longer game.

"Macron's visit was to set new rules," Cabestan said. "The idea wasn't we should expect results, because we're laying the ground to make our relationship more sound, more balanced."

($1 = 0.8344 euros)

(Reporting by Michel Rose; additional reporting by Philip Wen in Beijing and John Ruwitch in Shanghai; Writing by Richard Lough; editing by John Stonestreet)
French stores sold potentially contaminated baby milk products despite having been ordered to take them off their shelves (AFP Photo/GUILLAUME SOUVANT)

Paris (AFP) - France said Thursday there has been a "major dysfunction" in a recall of baby milk after stores sold potentially contaminated products despite having been ordered to take them off their shelves.

French President Emmanuel Macron added his voice to calls for those responsible to be punished.

Lactalis, one of the world's largest producers of dairy products, in December issued a recall of all products made at its factory in Craon, northwest France, after discovering salmonella bacteria at the site.

But several French retailers admitted this week that they had continued to sell the manufacturer's affected products even after the ban.

"This is a major dysfunction in the withdrawal and recall by the operators who bear the responsibility," French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told a news conference.

Supermarket chain Carrefour said Wednesday it had sold 434 boxes of baby milk produced by Lactalis that should have been withdrawn and Systeme-U admitted to selling 384 boxes. Earlier Leclerc said it had sold 984 affected Lactalis products since the recall and Auchan 52.

Hypermarket chain Casino, which also owns the Franprix and Geant franchises, was the latest to come forward on Thursday, saying it had sold a total of 363 items covered by the recall.

- 'Unacceptable behaviour' -

Industrial leaders, intermediaries and retailers must now "shed all possible light on the failings that they discovered and assure us that none of the products concerned are still on the market or in stores," Travert said.

He said no date to lift the ban could be set "while we have not exactly and precisely identified the source of the contamination, and before it has not been clearly identified and removed," Travert said.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday that the anti-fraud unit DGCCRF would undertake 2,500 additional checks next week.

He also summoned retail industry leaders to his ministry later on Thursday, and said he would meet on Friday with Lactalis managers who had been "found lacking".

Story continues

"The state... had to take over from a company that failed to act, one which is solely responsible for the quality and safety of its products," Le Maire said.

But on Thursday Lactalis spokesman Michel Nalet said the company had "worked in perfect collaboration with state agencies" since the start of the crisis in December.

The firm also apologised again to parents of the children who have fallen ill.

The head of the Leclerc supermarket chain, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, also looked to pin blame on French "state services".

"The new situation confirms that the failure is systemic and not just sector-wide," he said on his blog on Thursday.

- 'Punishment' -

President Macron said that "if punishment is required, then there will be punishment".

Speaking at a news conference in Rome, Macron also said that "yes, the French state is able to ensure food security", adding that he had himself asked his finance minister to summon industry representatives.

Last week, a report said that French food safety inspectors failed to detect salmonella contamination at the Lactalis facility three months before the company carried out the recall.

Officials from the food safety department carried out a routine inspection of the site in September and gave it a clean bill of health, the Canard Enchaine investigative weekly reported.

It was only in December, after around 30 infants fed Lactalis milk had fallen ill, that the health ministry sounded the alarm.

Officials from the national anti-fraud bureau swooped on the factory on December 2 and found the assembly line where milk is transformed into powder to be contaminated.

Lactalis is blaming the contamination on renovation work and issued two major recalls covering all production from the site dating back to February 15, 2017.

- Sick infants -

The plant has been at a standstill since December 8 and said Thursday it put 250 of its 327 staff on shorter working hours until at least early next month.

Salmonella symptoms include severe diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vomiting. The illness, caused by intestinal bacteria from farm animals, is especially dangerous for the very young and elderly because it can cause severe dehydration.

At least 35 infants in France have now been diagnosed with salmonella poisoning.

The product recall, which included the Picot and Milumel brands, affected consumers in countries as far afield as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Britain and Sudan, underlining the company's global reach and the difficulty in tracing all the potentially at-risk powder.

Lactalis is under investigation over the affair and could face charges of causing involuntary injuries and endangering the lives of others.
FILE PHOTO: The nose cone of an Airbus A380 is seen next to the tail fin of an Airbus A320 at the Farnborough Airshow 2012 in southern England July 10, 2012. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo

By Michel Rose

BEIJING (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said a contract with China for 184 Airbus A320 narrow-body jets would be finalised soon and that his country also had ambitions to sell A350 and A380 planes to China in coming weeks or months.

The potential A320 order, which had not been previously announced, would be worth more than $18 billion at list prices.

"On the order for 184 A320s, it's something that will be finalised shortly," Macron said during his state visit to China, adding it was confirmed to him by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"And we also have ambitions on A350 and A380 mid-range and large carriers in the weeks or months to come," Macron said.

The A320s would be delivered in 2019 and 2020, a French presidency official said on condition of anonymity.

Ahead of Macron's trip, sources had told Reuters that Airbus was in talks about an order for 100 or more jets. New jet orders have historically featured during such tours by French leaders.

While no deal has been finalised over the current official visit, Macron said China had assured him it would respect market-share parity between Airbus and Boeing.

China regularly splits large orders between Europe and the United States to cope with its fast-expanding airline traffic, but the momentum has recently been with rival Boeing, which sold 300 jets during a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump last year.

China, however, placed a large order for 140 Airbus jets during a visit to Germany by Xi last July.

Airbus signed a provisional deal on Tuesday to boost the number of A320 family jets assembled in Tianjin to six a month by 2020 from four at present.

Airbus declined to comment on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Michel Rose and Beijing Monitoring Desk; additional reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Stephen Coates)
The prized $1.6 billion car factory awarded to Alabama by Toyota Motor and Mazda Motor could be an even bigger win than expected, as the site's size leaves plenty of room for future expansions.

The 2,500-acre Huntsville location announced Wednesday is more than twice as big as the 1,100 acres the partners targeted initially, according to Bob Carter, Toyota's sales chief for North America.

"We always like to have plans and options for the future," Carter said, when asked if the bigger parcel is intended to accommodate expansions. He said the company has no additional announcements to make at this time.

Read: Takata's Huge Airbag Problem Is Getting Even Worse as Toyota Recalls 600,000 Cars

The Japanese automakers had been narrowing the list of possible locations for months before choosing the site that's just 14 miles from Toyota's nearby engine plant. The final location in the mostly non-unionized South also came with tax credits, abatements and training worth $370 million, according to Jerry Underwood, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Commerce. The factory is expected to create 4,000 new jobs.

The city of Huntsville will vote on additional incentives Thursday, Underwood said. The details haven't been finalized, but the combined total will be less than the $1 billion in incentives that Toyota and Mazda had targeted at the beginning of the process, he said.

'Congratulations Alabama!'

"Good news: Toyota and Mazda announce giant new Huntsville, Alabama, plant which will produce over 300,000 cars and SUV's a year and employ 4000 people," U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted. "Companies are coming back to the U.S. in a very big way. Congratulations Alabama!"

A workforce already well-versed in the automotive industry also helped contribute to the site selection. The Huntsville area has 50,000 auto-related jobs, Toyota's Carter said, calling the new plant an "additive to an already-robust manufacturing sector in northern Alabama."

Story continues

Read: Amazons Alexa Is Coming to Some Toyota and Lexus Cars

The shared factory set to open in 2021 is the only new auto assembly plant to be announced under Trump, who has pressured Toyota and other carmakers to make more of their vehicles in the U.S. It will be Toyota's 11th assembly plant in the U.S.  its biggest market  and Mazda's first. Mazda will produce crossovers alongside Toyota Corolla compact cars at the joint facility.

Big Autoland

Once the factory begins output, the state will pass Kentucky to become the South's biggest automaker, a forecast from IHS Markit shows. The following year, it will edge out Indiana to become No. 2 in the country, behind only Detroit's home state.

Alabama ranked 44th out of 48 mainland U.S. states in overall manufacturing costs last year, contributing to its appeal, said John Boyd, a site selection specialist based in Princeton, New Jersey, who didn't work on this deal. Alabama and its neighbors have also pioneered the development of state-run worker training programs, he said.

"The center of gravity for the U.S. auto industry is in the Southeast right now," he said. "The Toyota-Mazda announcement really puts an exclamation point on this."

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
Huawei consumer business chief Richard Yu speaks about the Mate 10 Pro phone during a keynote address at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN) (AFP)

China warned on Thursday that American protectionism was on the rise after congressional documents showed that Chinese tech giant Huawei's designs on the US market were causing national security concerns in Washington.

Huawei, which appeared to lose a deal with AT&T that would have given it an improved foothold in the US handset market, faced criticism from US lawmakers over its intellectual property protection and its ties to Chinese intelligence, according to a letter seen by AFP this week.

The letter, signed by 18 members of the House and Senate intelligence panels, expressed concerns first voiced in 2013 by congressional investigators.

The document said that later information obtained by the panels "only reinforces our concerns regarding Huawei and Chinese espionage".

The letter dated December 20 was sent to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with copies to the Justice Department, FBI, CIA and Department of Homeland Security.

It added that the FCC should receive intelligence briefings "on the threat Huawei and other Chinese technology companies pose".

China's ministry of commerce hit back on Thursday, defending the proposed Huawei-AT&T link-up as "purely business".

"We have noticed that the voice of trade protectionism is rising in the United States and gaining the upper hand," ministry spokesman Gao Feng told a news conference in Beijing.

"I would like to stress that opposing protectionism has already become the general consensus of the international community. China firmly opposes any form of trade or investment protectionism."

Huawei has become the world's third largest smartphone maker but its US presence has been limited by a lack of agreements with wireless carriers, which sell most devices.

The company's consumer business chief Richard Yu was a keynote speaker Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where an expected announcement with AT&T failed to materialise.

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Yu did not directly address the Congressional concerns but said it was a "big loss" for Huawei and consumers that it would not be selling in the US through carrier channels.

A potential agreement with another major wireless carrier, Verizon, was also in jeopardy, according to media reports.

A Huawei spokesman declined comment.

The company said in a written statement that it would release new products to US consumers as unlocked devices through retail channels, reaching a smaller market.

"At the same time, we believe that US consumers deserve equal opportunity and the choice to enjoy the best technology and more smartphone options through more channels... At Huawei, privacy and security are always our first priority," it said.

Last week Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese internet titan Alibaba, had to abandon a $1.2 billion deal to buy US remittances firm MoneyGram after failing to get approval from regulators in Washington.

The decision dealt a blow to Alibaba boss Jack Ma's push into the world's biggest financial market.

Gao, the commerce ministry spokesman, expressed "regret" over the collapsed MoneyGram deal.

He called on Washington to help "strengthen cooperation and act in the same direction as China to create a more open, transparent and convenient" trade environment.

However, foreign businesses operating in China routinely complain of an array of market-protecting barriers, a trend that Western trade lobbies say has worsened since Chinese President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.

burs-dma/amu
The health care sector in the U.S. was unsurprisingly the leader in job gains in the last month of 2017, according to data reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

However, no occupation in the industry could win the first place spot on U.S. News & World Reports latest ranking of the best overall jobs for 2018.

Most likely due to the ever-increasing demand and reliance on technology worldwide, software developer took the No. 1 spot, marking the first year since 2015 that a health care job did not top the list. Other tech jobs that made the list include information security analyst (No. 32), IT manager (No. 42) and computer systems analyst (No. 46) due to the high-demand for problem-solving skills in technology and data analytics across most industries today.

Nearly every type of company is looking for people who can analyze and interpret data to solve problems, said Kim Castro, executive editor at U.S. News. This technological boom is creating new opportunities for statisticians, engineers and software developers these workers are developing the algorithms that are rapidly changing the global job market.

Still, jobs in the health care sector dominated the list due to their high salaries, low unemployment rates and the predicted growth within the job market in the years to come due to the demand for doctors, nurses and medical support workers across the nation. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the health care field is expected to grow by 18% by 2026, which would add 2.3 million new jobsmore than in any other industry. Dentist, physician assistant, nurse practitioner and orthodontist fill out the rest of the top five spots on the best jobs list, in that order.

Moreover, the majority of best-paying jobs can be found in the health care industry. With an average salary of nearly $270,000, anesthesiologist takes the top spot, followed by surgeon (nearly $253,000) and obstetrician and gynecologist (roughly $234,300), respectively.

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In the business community, the top five jobs were: Statistician, actuary, mathematician, cost estimator and business operations manager, in that order.

Meanwhile, the three of the top five best-paying cities were in CaliforniaSan Francisco, San Jose and San Rafael, respectivelywhile New York, N.Y. and Anchorage, Alaska rounded out the list.

U.S. News calculated the best jobs ranking by taking data from the BLS to identify jobs with the greatest hiring demand, using seven component measures to score the occupations. These include 10-year growth volume, 10-year growth percentage, median salary, employment rate, future job prospects, stress level and work-life balance.

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Call him the businessman governor. Or maybe Governor Businessman.

Nebraskas CEO, Gov. Pete Ricketts, now in the last year of his first term, touted the state's accomplishments in growing the economy while shrinking its government during his State of the State address Wednesday.

Heaping praise on both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Ricketts struck a conciliatory tone as he introduced his plans to push more state budget cuts and rework tax policy, which he says will spur growth while providing relief to farmers, ranchers and homeowners alike.

In the spirit of cooperation, we come together each year to accomplish the priorities that matter most to Nebraskans, Ricketts said during his fourth annual address.

Our work together is helping to grow our state and keep Nebraska the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family, he said while addressing the Legislature and state employees gathered in the George W. Norris Legislative Chamber.

Individuals and businesses from across the U.S. are taking note, Ricketts said. Last year, Nebraska recorded record levels of employment  1 million nonfarm jobs  while also the lowest unemployment rate  2.7 percent  since 1999.

Nebraskas population also inched higher in 2017, topping 1.92 million people for the first time, the governor added.

Ricketts attributed the growth to international trade partnerships, growing investments in Nebraskas workforce and transformations to state government in the form of slowed growth and greater efficiency to citizens  what he calls a more customer-focused approach.

He heralded Nebraska being awarded the Governors Cup, a top award from Site Selection magazine bestowed on the state with the most economic development projects per capita, and pointed to high rankings for Nebraskas business climate by Forbes and Chief Executive magazine.

Folks, this matters, because when companies move here and invest, they create job opportunities for people, he said.

Ricketts credited those opportunities as the result of work done by lawmakers in crafting policies friendly to new businesses  cutting regulations, making licenses easier to obtain  and for the states ambassadors reaching beyond U.S. borders to open new trade possibilities.

Trade missions to Canada, China, Japan, Denmark and elsewhere have spurred growth on the Great Plains, Ricketts said.

A trip to Canada in August helped snag a small plant for Agri-Plastics in Sidney that has created 20 jobs, Ricketts said, while the Denmark-based Novozymes launched a new investment in Blair after state leaders visited.

Ricketts introduced Eric Jones, a production worker at Kawasaki who landed a spot in the plants new aerospace division in Lincoln  a move the governor said was supported by a 2015 trade mission to Japan.

Eric told me Kawasaki is great for Lincoln, Ricketts said. Besides the good-paying jobs and investment, Kawasaki supports local charities and uses local vendors.

From the ranchlands of western Nebraska, Ricketts said beef has found a new destination after a 14-year hiatus: China. Im excited to report that over half the American beef in China now comes from Nebraska, Ricketts said.

Other ag commodities are also finding new markets worldwide, Ricketts said, which are being opened by efforts from the Department of Agriculture and Department of Economic Development.

U.S. companies, too, have sought investments in Nebraska, the so-called Silicon Prairie. Ricketts pointed to a 970,000-square-foot facility under construction to serve as a data center for Facebook in Papillion, and a Costco chicken processing operation in Fremont.

Ricketts said his 2018 priorities will seek to create more opportunities for businesses to invest in Nebraska while also providing much-sought tax relief to Nebraska landowners and homeowners living in the state.

His threefold plan includes restructuring existing property tax credits into a new tax credit for Nebraskans and not absentee landowners, which the governor said would provide $4 billion in property tax relief over the next decade.

Next, Ricketts plan will reduce property tax rates incrementally if the states growth exceeds revenue projections by the states forecasting board. The plan uses existing tax credits to achieve a permanent reduction in the states individual and corporate tax rates.

Right now, 90 percent of individual income taxes paid by Nebraskans are at that top rate, and 90 percent of Nebraska businesses pay at the top individual rate, he said.

The third and final part of the plan, injecting $10 million into workforce development programs offered by the state over the next two years, would also be a boon to businesses looking to locate in the state, he said.

We have our work cut out for us, but I have no doubt we are up to the challenge, he said. Nebraskans expect results.

To help balance the budget with those proposed cuts, Ricketts proposed slowing state spending from a 0.6 percent increase this year to 0.2 percent next year.

His decrease calls for across-the-board spending cuts, with the caveat they wont touch state aid to K-12 schools, investments into the Department of Corrections, which include nearly $6 million to build 100 new prison beds, or aid to the states population of developmentally disabled individuals.

Receiving 33 votes to get those priorities onto his desk for signing is going to take a bipartisan effort, however. Ricketts praised lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle for their efforts last year to bring him many great things.

Ricketts urged the Legislature to once again roll up our sleeves and get the job done in cutting red tape, balancing the budget and delivering tax relief.

We have our work cut out for us, but I have no doubt were up to the challenge, he said.
A man uses his laptop next to Lenovo's logos during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2016. REUTERS/Albert Gea

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Lenovo Group Ltd said on Wednesday it expected to make a one-off charge of $400 million for nine months ended in December due to a reassessment of U.S. deferred tax assets.

The adjustment to be reflected in the financial results is of a non-cash nature, and the company does not expect it to have any material effect on its operation or cash-flow position, the PC maker said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse.

Lenovo, a unit of Legend Holdings, said U.S. corporate tax cuts would "positively impact" future earnings of its U.S. operations in the long-term.

Lenovo will announce third-quarter results on Feb. 1.

Tax reforms signed into law in December lower the income tax rate for U.S. companies to 21 percent from 35 percent.

(Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Stephen Coates)
London-based CityStasher is building what it calls an 'Airbnb for luggage', a network of brick and mortar businesses across Europe that will store your luggage for a few hours after you have checked out or are waiting to check into your travel accommodation.

To help with this mission, CityStasher has raised $1.1 million in seed funding in a round led by VentureFriends, with participation from Howzat Partners, Charlotte Street Capital, and various angel investors. One of those is Big Yellow Storage CEO James Gibson, who was also an earlier backer of the startup.

The problem the young company wants to solve is that having to carry around luggage can often stop you enjoying part of your day when travelling, time that is otherwise wasted. "If youve ever been forced out of your Airbnb at 10am, you may be familiar with the issue," co-founder Anthony Collias tells me.

"Luggage gets in the way of your travels and we want to help travellers make the most of their time. Dragging luggage is tiring and a lot of venues now-a-days outright ban bringing in your bag (museums, stadiums, etc)".

For the businesses that list on CityStasher's marketplace -- dubbed "StashPoints" -- the upside is being able to monetise otherwise empty space, as well as getting more people through the door.

"Brick and mortar businesses are desperately in need of new revenue streams," says Collias. "As such, it made sense to us to build a network of businesses who can store these bags safely and bringing these two groups together. It brings revenue and footfall to the shops whilst providing a needed service to travellers!"

Collias describes CityStasher's typical customers as young people in their 20s and 30s, travelling to Europe and staying in Airbnbs. "When their check-in times are late or check-out times early, they leave bags with us whilst they explore their chosen destination for a few more hours".

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He stays the startup is also seeing families leaving big buggies or rucksacks whilst they visit tourist attractions, particularly at its Paris and London StashPoints. Other users include business travellers and some local residents running errands.

The company started off competing against station facilities, which Collias says charge as much as 12.50 per day in London, but has more recently seen startups tackling the same problem.

Already claiming 200 StashPoints in locations across the U.K., Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin, CityStasher plans to use the new funding to launch in five more countries in 2018 and is already set to begin hosting trials with some major budget hotel chains.

"We have the best coverage in the U.K. and our service works out comfortably cheaper per hour than competitors in almost every city. This convenience and price advantage really appeals to the young, travelling, Airbnb generation," adds the CityStasher co-founder.
A strong earthquake struck the Caribbean Tuesday evening, according to the United States Geological Survey.Originally assessed as a magnitude 7.8, the quake was later downgraded to 7.6 by authorities.A tsunami advisory was in effect for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after the quake, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, but subsequent model forecasts indicated no tsunami threat to those areas. Hazardous tsunami waves were originally deemed "possible" for coasts of Jamaica, Mexico, Honduras, Cuba, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala and more  but U.S. authorities subsequently concluded there was no such threat to the region.The earthquake rattled windows in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa roughly 323 miles to the east, but no damage was immediately reported.It was also lightly felt in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo north of Honduras, according to Mexico's civil protection director.This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.CNBC's Ted Kemp and Reuters contributed to this report. A strong earthquake struck the Caribbean Tuesday evening, according to the United States Geological Survey. Originally assessed as a magnitude 7.8, the quake was later downgraded to 7.6 by authorities. A tsunami advisory was in effect for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after the quake, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, but subsequent model forecasts indicated no tsunami threat to those areas. Hazardous tsunami waves were originally deemed "possible" for coasts of Jamaica, Mexico, Honduras, Cuba, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala and more  but U.S. authorities subsequently concluded there was no such threat to the region. The earthquake rattled windows in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa roughly 323 miles to the east, but no damage was immediately reported. It was also lightly felt in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo north of Honduras, according to Mexico's civil protection director. This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates. CNBC's Ted Kemp and Reuters contributed to this report.



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argentina soccer fans smile

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Bitcoin mining could use more electricity in 2018 than Argentina, Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients Wednesday. It could also use more energy than electric vehicle power demand in 2025.

The cryptocurrency could make up 0.6% of the worlds consumption in 2018 and force utility stocks to adapt.



Energy needed to mine bitcoin could be more than is used by the entire country of Argentina in 2018, Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients Wednesday.

"We project this consumption to be greater in 2018 than Electric Vehicle power demand in 2025, yet this level is still far from being material to utility power demand" analysts at the bank said. "Will this and other blockchain technologies become increasingly more important over time (and push thoughts away from Electric Vehicles? Potentially, but we would expect these new technologies to take time to develop."

The bank estimates power for bitcoin mining, which has already been estimated to use more than 159 countries in 2017, will make up 0.6% of global demand, which is not likely to have any impact on utility stocks just yet.

Screen Shot 2018 01 10 at 10.42.30 AM

Morgan Stanley Research

"To successfully mine a coin (add to the blockchain ledger) requires a large amount of computational and therefore energy use, given the "proof of work" system that this deploys, the bank said. "This is 0.2% of the world's consumption currently. According to blockchain.info, Bitcoin accounts for c.62% of the cryptocurrency market,and so the total energy usage for cryptocurrencies is therefore likely higher than this."

Bitcoin miners have already flocked to areas of the world where electricity and labor are cheap, like China and South Korea, but the bank warns that this could be impacted by regulation, much like has happened in South Korea this week.

Miners have reportedly begun to flee China as the authoritarian country clamps down even tighter with rules on cryptocurrency trading and mining. The move could increase bitcoin transaction times, which can often take more than 10 minutes.

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Still, there are plenty of places left where bitcoin mining can be lucrative, Morgan Stanley says, like the midwest and northwest US  and it could even fuel new renewable energy efforts.

"Bitcoin demand may represent a new business opportunity for renewable energy developers. The ultimate question is whether this could be a positive for the global utility sector, the bank said. "Big Oil is also moving in to renewables (and have much larger balance sheets). And ICOs could mean new entrants raising capital to enter the market."

Bitcoin had an explosive year in 2017, rising over 1400%  but its gains have slowed to just 5% since the start of 2018.

Follow the price of bitcoin in real-time on Markets Insider here>>

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Thursday, January 11, 2018

What to watch today

On Thursday, investors will have a muted economic schedule with the weekly report on initial jobless claims serving as the big highlight while earnings out of Delta Air Lines (DAL) will punctuate the corporate earnings schedule.

Read More

Top news

South Korea plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, rattles market: South Koreas government said on Thursday it plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, sending bitcoin prices plummeting and throwing the virtual coin market into turmoil as the nations police and tax authorities raided local exchanges on alleged tax evasion. [Reuters]

Xerox in talks for deal with Japans Fujifilm: Xerox Corp (XRX), under pressure to find new growth sources amid shrinking demand for its printer and copier business, is in talks for a deal with Japanese camera maker Fujifilm Holdings that could include a change in control of Xerox, the Wall Street Journal reported. [Reuters]

Toyota plant puts foreign car makers on path to pass Detroit in US production: Toyota Motor Corp.s (TM) announcement Wednesday of Alabama as the home for a shared factory with Mazda Motor Corp. (MZDAY) highlights a major shift in U.S. vehicle manufacturing: Foreign auto companies soon will build more cars and trucks in America than the Detroit giants. [The Wall Street Journal]

Immigration agents descend on 7-Eleven stores in 17 states: Seven immigration agents filed into a 7-Eleven store before dawn Wednesday, waited for people to go through the checkout line and told arriving customers and a driver delivering beer to wait outside. A federal inspection was underway, they said. The well-rehearsed scene, executed with quiet efficiency in Los Angeles Koreatown, played out at about 100 7-Eleven stores in 17 states and the District of Columbia, a rolling operation that officials called the largest immigration action against an employer under Donald Trumps presidency. [AP]

Yahoo Finance from CES 2018:

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For more coverage of CES 2018, go to Yahoo Finances tech page all week

For more of the latest news, go to Yahoo Finance

A firefighter stands on the roof of a house submerged in mud and rocks Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Montecito, Calif. Anxious family members awaited word on loved ones Wednesday as rescue crews searched grimy debris and ruins for more than a dozen people missing after mudslides in Southern California destroyed houses, swept cars to the beach and left more than a dozen victims dead. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Yahoo Finance Originals

How Obama left immigrants vulnerable to Trump

Trumps tax bill will make 2018 a wild year for divorce

Elizabeth Warrens bill would thrash Equifax for another data breach

Why bitcoin mining sucks up so much electricity



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In this Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, file photo, an F-35 jet arrives at its new operational base at Hill Air Force Base, in northern Utah. Airbus and Boeing will again hog the spotlight at the Paris Air Show with their battle for ever-larger slices of the lucrative pie in the sky.

Another country is making a major investment in American businesses under President Donald Trump.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg announced on Wednesday the country would purchase 52 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), calling it the countrys largest, single public investment ever, as well as P-8 maritime aircraft from Boeing (NYSE:BA).

The American economy is doing well and our economic relations are flourishing, and thats to the benefit of both countries, Solberg said during a joint press conference with Trump. Norway remains and ally and a friend that you can count on in the future.

A spokesperson for Boeing told FOX Business the company is "looking forward to working with Norway to help meet their maritime patrol needs with the P-8."

Solberg also announced Norway would purchase new submarines and investments in intelligence capability and army assets.

Norway, along with most other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has failed to spend at least 2% of its GDP on defense, as outlined by the alliance. Trump has called on the fellow countries to increase defense spending, going so far as to say its not fair to the U.S., during a NATO summit in Brussels in May.

I encourage Norway to follow through on its commitment to meet the 2% of GDP defense spending obligation so that together we can confront the full range of threats facing our nations, Trump said on Wednesday, adding that he believes the country will reach the goal quite soon.

The deal with Norway isnt the first time a foreign country has entered an agreement with the U.S., or has expressed interest in American companies, under the Trump administration. Singapores flag carrier, Singapore Airlines, announced in late October it would buy $13.8 billion worth of Boeing 777-9 and 787-10 aircraft.

During a meeting at the White House with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras earlier that month, Trump said the European country was interested in buying Boeing jets, as well as potentially upgrading its fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter aircraft.

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Malaysias Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, while speaking with the president at the White House in September, said the country intended to have its flag-carrying airline purchase more Boeing aircraft, as part of its effort to help strengthen the U.S. economy.

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- By Jacob Maslow





Shares of Alaska Airlines (ALK) were unshaken by news that Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock to neutral, but the airline carrier may be facing a bumpy road ahead.

Tax reform is expected to give business travel a boost this year, which should bump up shares of the country"s top airlines. But some airlines will benefit more than others. Alaska is one of the carriers that won"t benefit much from the changes.





Bank of America analyst Andrew Didora said Alaska Airlines is "an exceptionally well-run airline," but its focus on domestic travel may hurt its performance this year.

Alaska"s focus on domestic travel isn"t the only problem it"s facing. This month, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines will start operating under a single operating certificate. That means the FAA will now consider Alaska Air and Virgin a single airline.

The merging of the two brands may be good and bad for Alaska. Until April, consumers will still be able to purchase tickets through Virgin"s website. After that, customers will be redirected to Alaska"s website for booking.

Until the transition occurs, most consumers will still recognize the companies as two separate brands. That may be a good thing in the short-term, as Virgin America is now the target of a wrongful death lawsuit.

The family of a 93-year-old man who died on a Virgin America plane has filed the lawsuit, claiming negligence by the flight staff caused the man"s death.

The man, Romulo C. Valdez, was on a five-hour flight from San Francisco to Boston when the trouble began. Valdez woke up his daughter three hours after takeoff to tell her he needed oxygen from the tank he brought. The man also had a pacemaker and a medical condition that required an oxygen tank for travel.

Valdez became unresponsive as his daughter struggled to get the tank from the overhead compartment and connect the oxygen tubes in the dark plane. Flight attendants, she said, offered little assistance and did not check if there was a doctor on board.

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The daughter fell into a panicked state, and flight attendants intervened, but their efforts were ineffective.

In cases like this, victims are usually taken to a nearby emergency room. "Within a few hours after you are injured you have accumulated thousands of dollars in medical bills," said The Law Office of Kevin P. Justen. The family said the lawsuit was filed to draw attention to the way her father was treated. They are seeking $75,000 in damages.

The suit may not put much of a dent in Virgin"s bottom line, but it could generate negative press coverage that could affect the stock in the long run.

Merger and domestic travel issues are two things potential investors should consider before buying shares in Alaska Airlines. But on the technical side of things, Alaska Airlines has a lot going for it. The stock is priced right, it"s growing quickly, has higher liquidity and typically has good sentiment signals. The biggest concern will be the effects of the new tax reform measures. Domestic travel is expected to take a hit while business travel is expected to increase. This could negatively affect the airline"s performance this year.

Disclosure: The author does not have any stake in the listed equities.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






Crude oil prices stay near 3-year highs

Investing.com - Crude prices were largely unchanged near recent highs in early dealings on Thursday, drawing support from a report showing U.S. crude stockpiles declined for an eighth straight week.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures tacked on 2 cents to $63.59 a barrel by 3:40AM ET (0840GMT), after gaining 1% a day earlier. It rose to its highest since Dec. 2014 at $63.67 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., were at $69.13 a barrel, down 7 cents from their last close. The contract edged up 0.6% in the prior session after rallying to its best level since May 2015 at $69.37.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report Wednesday that crude oil inventories fell by 4.9 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 5. That compared with analysts' expectations for a decline of 3.9 million barrels.

Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 419.5 million barrels as of last week, slightly below the five-year average of just over 420 million barrels.

The report also showed that U.S. crude oil production fell by 290,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.49 million bpd.

Oil prices have added around 13% since early December, benefiting from production cut efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia. The producers agreed in December to extend current oil output cuts until the end of 2018.

The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.

In other energy trading, gasoline futures dipped 0.1%, to $1.831 a gallon, while heating oil shed 0.1% to $2.078 a gallon.

Natural gas futures jumped 2.4 cents, or 0.8%, to $2.930 per million British thermal units, as traders looked ahead to weekly storage data due later in the global day amid expectations for a withdrawal of 318 billion cubic feet.

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That would surpass the record draw of 287 billion cubic feet in the week ended Jan. 10, 2014. The five-year average change for the week is a decline of 170 billion cubic feet.

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Major cryptocurrencies including bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) , ripple (Exchange: XRP.BS=) and ethereum (Exchange: ETH=) took a hammering Thursday following the news that South Korea could be preparing to ban trading in digital coins . At 7:25 a.m. London time, bitcoin was down nearly 6 percent, while ethereum fell over 11 percent and ripple took a 9 percent tumble, versus their price a day ago, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. Many of those coins began to pare losses later in the morning. Ripple was up nearly a tenth of a percent by 8:10 a.m. London time.South Korean Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said Thursday that the ministry is "basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges."At around 4.50 a.m. London time, a few minutes after news, over $106 billion of value was wiped off of the entire cryptocurrency market when compared to the market capitalization at the beginning of the day on Thursday. It has since pared some of those losses. This fall in prices comes after two major cryptocurrencies hit record highs. Ripple hit an all-time high of $3.84 on January 4 . It has fallen over 50 percent since then as of 8:00 a.m. London time on Thursday. South Korea is one of the major cryptocurrency trading markets. It accounts for somewhere in the region of 6 percent to 12 percent of bitcoin trading, according to industry website CryptoCompare. For ethereum, this figure is higher at around 14 percent. Ripple buying in the South Korean won can be as high as 33 percent, depending on the day.The country's government did not give concrete details about any potential new legislation. Reuters reported that the proposed ban on cryptocurrency trading was announced after "enough discussion" with other government agencies including the nation's Finance Ministry and financial regulators.Major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are often traded at a premium on South Korean exchanges, meaning that they are at a higher price versus other exchanges in the U.S. or Europe for example. Earlier this week, industry data provider CoinMarketCap even removed some South Korean exchanges from the way it calculates the prices of cryptocurrencies, citing "extreme divergence in prices from the rest of the world."Regulators are taking a keener interest in the cryptocurrency world. Reuters reported Thursday that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing next month with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.Major business figures also continue to pour water cold water on cryptocurrencies. "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending," Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told CNBC Wednesday . WATCH: Bitcoin could be the biggest bubble in history  here's how Major cryptocurrencies including bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) , ripple (Exchange: XRP.BS=) and ethereum (Exchange: ETH=) took a hammering Thursday following the news that South Korea could be preparing to ban trading in digital coins . At 7:25 a.m. London time, bitcoin was down nearly 6 percent, while ethereum fell over 11 percent and ripple took a 9 percent tumble, versus their price a day ago, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. Many of those coins began to pare losses later in the morning. Ripple was up nearly a tenth of a percent by 8:10 a.m. London time. South Korean Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said Thursday that the ministry is "basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges." At around 4.50 a.m. London time, a few minutes after news, over $106 billion of value was wiped off of the entire cryptocurrency market when compared to the market capitalization at the beginning of the day on Thursday. It has since pared some of those losses. This fall in prices comes after two major cryptocurrencies hit record highs. Ripple hit an all-time high of $3.84 on January 4 . It has fallen over 50 percent since then as of 8:00 a.m. London time on Thursday. South Korea is one of the major cryptocurrency trading markets. It accounts for somewhere in the region of 6 percent to 12 percent of bitcoin trading, according to industry website CryptoCompare. For ethereum, this figure is higher at around 14 percent. Ripple buying in the South Korean won can be as high as 33 percent, depending on the day. The country's government did not give concrete details about any potential new legislation. Reuters reported that the proposed ban on cryptocurrency trading was announced after "enough discussion" with other government agencies including the nation's Finance Ministry and financial regulators. Major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are often traded at a premium on South Korean exchanges, meaning that they are at a higher price versus other exchanges in the U.S. or Europe for example. Earlier this week, industry data provider CoinMarketCap even removed some South Korean exchanges from the way it calculates the prices of cryptocurrencies, citing "extreme divergence in prices from the rest of the world." Regulators are taking a keener interest in the cryptocurrency world. Reuters reported Thursday that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing next month with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Major business figures also continue to pour water cold water on cryptocurrencies. "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending," Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told CNBC Wednesday . WATCH: Bitcoin could be the biggest bubble in history  here's how



More From CNBC


A successful investor understands the importance of retaining well-performing stocks in the portfolio at the right time. Notably, indicators of a stocks bullish run include a rise in share price and strong fundamentals.

International Business Machines Corp IBM is one such technology stock that has been on healthy growth trajectory, of late. The companys shares have returned 12.1% in the past three months, substantially outperforming the 10.3% rally of the industry.

Lets delve deeper and take a look at some of the factors aiding the performance.

Positive Earnings Surprise History

IBM has an impressive earnings surprise history. The company outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing four quarters, delivering a positive average earnings surprise of 3.4%.

Further, it has a long-term expected EPS growth rate of 4.95%.

Valuation Looks Impressive

On the valuation front too, the stock looks attractive. The company currently trades at a forward P/E multiple of 11.8x, significantly lower than the industrys average of 74.4x. The ratio, which is obtained by dividing a stocks current market price with its historical or estimated earnings, measures how much an investor needs to shell out per dollar of earnings. Consequently, the lower the P/E of a stock, the better it is for a value investor.

Other Driving Factors

IBM is involved in a number of Blockchain initiatives as the technology gains rapid mainstream adoption. The company is currently the dominant player in the blockchain market. Recently, CNBC quoted Juniper Research, which placed IBM above Microsoft Corporation in blockchain-related advancements.

The company uses hyperledger technology for its blockchain applications and is also a key member of the Hyperledger committee. This enables the company to gain access to prior notification of any changes in the underlying infrastructure.

IBM has been winning significant deals in recent times. The company has struck bank guarantee deals with ANZ and Westpac as well as a multi-line insurance contract with American International Group and Standard Chartered PLC.

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It has also inked a deal with global food suppliers and another one with automobile manufacturer, ZF Friedrichshafen to enhance its Car e-Wallet technology.

This apart, IBM is also focusing on cloud computing which is evident from the fact that it continues to open data centers aggressively. Globally, the company owns 60 data centers across 19 countries.

The cloud computing market bodes well for IBM. Most recently, Forbes mentioned that the cloud computing market will be worth $162 billion in 2020 from $67 billion in 2015, at a CAGR of 19%.

IBM remains focused on solidifying footprint in the market, which is evident from expanding data centers. The company recently opened data centers (two in London, one in San Jose and one in Sydney) that are equipped with the required cloud infrastructure to help clients develop cognitive artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT).

We believe this will improve IBMs competitive position in the cloud computing market currently dominated by Amazons Web Services and Microsoft Corp.

Risks Remain

However, IBM is having a tough time, given the ongoing and heavily time-consuming business model transition to cloud. Further, sluggish IT spending particularly on on-premise and data center hardware and foreign exchange volatility remain concerns.

Moreover, intensifying competition in most of the markets is a major concern.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

IBM currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector include Applied Materials, Inc. AMAT, NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and Broadcom Limited AVGO, all sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Applied Materials, NVIDIA and Broadcom have a long-term expected EPS growth rate of 12.7%, 10.3% and 13.8%, respectively.

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Reports indicate that Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the Russia collusion investigation, will soon formally notify the White House legal team of his intent to seek an interview with the president. And its no secret that legal advisers to Donald Trump are privately advocating for any talks to be limited in scope, obviating potential exposure for the president.

Some, as former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi has mused, speculate that an in-person interview could be employed to push some buttons. The Trump legal team would predictably counter with a request to submit written answers to proffered questionsa typical ploy to ensure that hired legal minds craft infallible responses.

But if the president is innocent of collusion with the Russians to influence the 2016 election, as he has repeatedly and demonstratively proclaimed, why should an interview be of any concern?

From the perspective of an experienced FBI investigator, someone familiar with these legal processes and chess-like maneuverings, I think Trumps attorneys are acutely aware of this. And Muellers team has much to gain from the interview. If it is proven that Trump lies to the FBI or lies under oath, he can be criminally charged. He may also inadvertently provide additional leads to the investigative team, or assist the prosecution in shoring up potential weak portions of their case. He may also unwittingly provide details of a heretofore unforeseen crime, or implicate family members or associates in same.

As the investigation has mechanically churned forward to this point, many in the media have remained intractably fixated on the proceedings, confident that, right around the corner, the final and most damning piece of footwear is inevitably about to drop on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

But, I share the view of a growing chorus of bipartisan legal experts who have begun to voice their consensus that we may have seen the best available hand already played by the special prosecutor. What we have so far is a criminal information filed against Trumps short-lived campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and an associate, Rick Gates. The charges included allegations of conspiracy and money laundering, and were unrelated to the short time Manafort worked within the Trump campaign.

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Then there were the guilty pleas of one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn and peripheral campaign consultant, George Papadopoulos. Both pled guilty to lying to the FBI.

So, for those keeping scoreno guilty pleas to an underlying scheme. Thats critically important. Manafort and Gates may be shady businessmen and guilty of a slew of loathsome white-collar criminal activities. But from what we know now, none of it was related to the president. Flynn and Papadopoulos only pled guilty to lying to FBI agentsnot to an actual crime itself.

If there was collusion, I believe that Mueller would have had two of Trumps highest-level inner-circle folks (Manafort and Flynn) plead guilty to something with more exposure. To what end would the special prosecutor plead out those closest to the president to unrelated crimes and process crimes (criminal conduct related to the investigation of a crime), which makes someone considerably less appealing to use as a witness down the road? Trial judges will then instruct juries that they may question the credibility of witness testimony from anyone who has already pled guilty to lying.

Speculation that Manafort and Papadopoulos are cooperating with the investigation may be accurate. But you typically plead guilty to a top charge. They didnt. And theres no evidence to indicate Mueller has yet detected one.

But Trumps potential exposure goes beyond collusion. And even if his attorneys limit any line of questioning, this doesnt preclude the special prosecutor from prying into Trumps finances and digging into his real estate holdingsthings that have nothing to do with the Russia case.

Could it be conceivable that after Trump meets with the special prosecutor team, he may ultimately be charged with some form of obstruction of justiceas broadly defined as that statute can beor maybe even a violation of tax laws related to business dealings from a bygone era?

Absolutely. But in my humble opinion, he wont be indicted on charges related to conspiring with the Kremlin to tilt an election.

If Trump elects to talk to Muellers team, the best advice Trumps attorneys could provide him would be, of course, to tell the truth. And then, he should demand to be treated in the exact same irregular manner as was Hillary Clinton during the 2015-2016 investigation into her private server by the FBI and the Obama administrations DOJ.

Ultimately, that may prove to be his best insurance policy.

James A. Gagliano, a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent, is a professor at St. Johns University and serves as a CNN Law Enforcement Analyst.
By Chen Aizhu

BEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) - South Africa will stick with China's Sinopec Corp as the preferred contender to buy Chevron's assets in South Africa and Botswana after it made a fresh commitment to future investments in the country, the Chinese oil major said on Thursday.

State-owned Sinopec is competing for the assets with commodities trader and miner Glencore, which swooped in last October with a $973 million bid following delays to Sinopec's original agreement.

Asia's largest refiner said in a statement that South Africa's Competition Commission had recommended transaction with Sinopec be approved with certain conditions.

"As part of the approval process, Sinopec has engaged in substantive and constructive discussions with the Economic Development Department to ensure that its strategy in South Africa is aligned with the EDD's policy on industrial and economic development," Sinopec said.

Chevron has a 75 percent stake in the assets, which include a 100,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery in Cape Town, a lubricants plant in Durban and 820 petrol stations and other oil storage facilities. It also includes 220 convenience stores across South Africa and Botswana.

Glencore stepped in after local shareholders, who hold the remaining 25 percent, exercised pre-emption rights following delays to the Sinopec deal.

"Sinopec was thrown into a confusion after local shareholders exercised preemptive rights ... but then the company was advised by the government to proceed with regulatory procedures," said a Beijing-based source with direct knowledge of the matter.

A final decision from the Competition Tribunal was expected in March or April, the source said.

Sinopec has given additional commitments to the government, including investments over five years post acquisition to upgrade the Cape Town refinery into a world-class plant.

The Chinese firm also pledged to develop the fuel marketing business by introducing small and black-owned business as fuel retailers.

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"The South African competition committee was convinced that Sinopec has the solid industry expertise equipped with state-of-art refining technology, as well as financial power," said the source.

Sinopec said it will also establish a development fund targetted at small and black-owned businesses thus increasing the level of local procurement of goods and services.

Glencore's bid was aimed at securing the trader its first refining asset since it ventured into downstream investments.

The remaining 25 percent stake will stay with a consortium of Black Economic Empowerment shareholders and an employee trust.

Winning the deal would mark a second major refinery investment for Sinopec as the state oil major looks to expand overseas amid a saturated domestic market. Sinopec owns a stake in the Yanbu refinery in Saudi Arabia controlled by Saudi Aramco. (Reporting by Chen Aizhu; editing by Richard Pullin)
The price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped significantly today off the back of 'news' that South Korea's government might ban trading exchanges.

As ever in the world of crypto, the slightest ripple of information can be taken out of context, and that appears to be the case here.

Reuters reported comments from Korean Justice Minister Park Sang-ki who said claimed his ministry "is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges" following "enough discussion" with a range of government agencies, including the finance ministry.

As Reuters itself points out, any draft legislation would require the approval of parliament which could take months, if not years. Even if that were to happen, the timing seems off with local elections upcoming this year and bitcoin, ethereum and other coins hugely popular among young people in Korea.

Looking back just weeks, today's quotes also fly in the face of previous comments from the government's financial regulators, which had said that it plans to prevent minors, foreigners and institutions from owning and trading cryptocurrency.

Nonetheless, with Korea being the world's largest trader of bitcoin on a country basis, the scare was enough to spread fear and move the market. The price of bitcoin lowered to $13,126, according to Coindesk, that's the lowest since December 30. The price later rebounded as context was added to the minister's comments.

Exchanges themselves don't seem to be too moved by the minister's apparent intention. TechCrunch spoke to sources at two Korea-based exchanges both of whom dismissed the comments are politicking from one branch of the government.

TechCrunch understands that the government has been in contact with prominent exchanges to gather information, while -- as reported by Reuters -- it has visited some exchanges. According to Reuters, some visits were based on looking into the tax situation of exchanges which has led to suggestions that unregistered exchanges may be banned.

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To sum the situation up, hours after Park Sang-ki's comments, a representative of President Moon Jae-in told Korean media [link in Korean] that the Justice Ministry's position does not reflect that of the entire government.

So -- tl;dr -- we're no closer to knowing exactly what steps Korea will take to regulate bitcoin exchanges.

Korea bans Bitcoin FUD is the new China bans Bitcoin FUD.   Charlie Lee [LTC] (@SatoshiLite) January 11, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Disclosure: The author owns small amounts of cryptocurrency, including bitcoin.
The South Korean government is looking to shut the cryptomarkets. Is this the end of the road? Will other governments follow suit? Regulatory risk is certainly key and the cryptomarkets are far from free from government and central bank influence.

Its been a rough ride for the cryptocurrencies at the turn of the year and it looks like its going to get a little tougher before there is any improvement in market conditions.

The major cryptocurrencies have seen heavy selling pressure through the morning and its all been down to the South Korean government, which has continued to plague the cryptocurrencies since the end of last year.

Going back to the rallies across the cryptocurrencies in December, much of the gains were attributed to the increased trading activity in South Korea. Both Ripple and Litecoin were beneficiaries, with the pair managing to break through to record high levels through much of the 2nd half of December.

Things have shifted at the turn of the year however and its come down to regulatory risk. If investors were of the view that the cryptomarkets were free and clear of government and central bank oversight, they have been clearly mistaken and, while certain governments have been embracing, others have not.

The market is in its infancy and there is no common ground amongst the G7 or G20 on how to handle cryptocurrencies, so its each to their own and the South Korean government is certainly not aligned with the Japanese government, when it comes to Asia.

Concerns over cyber-theft may well be the governments motivation, with frequent reports of the North Korean government steeling cryptocurrencies a major concern, as the North looks to build its nuclear capabilities and ruffle the feathers of the South and the West.

Suggested Articles

Looking at current valuations, there will be a temptation for investors to jump in and take advantage of the recent declines, with Bitcoin down at sub-$14,000 and Ripple sitting at $1.6476. The argument could be that if things were really that bad then Ethereum would have also followed up with a sizeable loss. The difference here is that Ethereums gains didnt come in mid to late December, of the back of rising demand from South Korea. Ethereums gains came in spite of the initial reports of the South Korean government looking to clamp down on the cryptomarkets, which makes Ethereum less sensitive to the news.

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How the cryptos will fare through the remainder of the day remains to be seen, but with Cboe Bitcoin futures down at $13,740 for January expiry and with Bitcoin currently down 7.09% to $13,835, theres not much wriggle room for the crypto and the other majors to look to move ahead on.

We are unlikely to get any comments from the South Korean government that could shift sentiment through the rest of the day, with the raiding of exchanges and investigations into South Korean banks, not to mention the Justice Departments intentions to introduce legislation to ban the trading of cryptocurrencies all quite dire for the markets.

Unless there is a U-turn, things are likely to go from bad to worse until the exchanges find a way to circumvent the system and provide the platforms in other jurisdictions, away from the purview of the South Korean government.

Its testing times and investors will be hoping that the anti-cryptocurrency movement does not spread to other major crypto-centres. While there is no news of such a scenario, as we have seen with the South Korean government, the decision can be spontaneous and thats never good for a market.

Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

More From FXEMPIRE:
department of state sign seal

Reuters/Joshua Roberts

The State Department has announced a major change to how it issues travel advisories.

This is the first major change to the advisory system in more than a decade.

The change comes in response to ongoing confusion over the old system.



The US Department of State today announced a new system for issuing travel advisories to Americans. Under the new system, every country in the world will have a standing advisory with a numerical level, ranging from 1 to 4, to indicate whether there are any safety concerns. If a country is ranked at a level two  "exercise increased caution"  or above, the score will be accompanied by a reason for the increased risk.

The change comes in response to persistent general confusion over the meaning of warnings issued under the previous system, according to a State Department spokesperson. Under that system, the department would issue either a "travel alert" or a "travel warning" when it deemed prudent, which generally included a briefing as to the reason.

But, the difference between the two types of advisory was not always clear. While alerts were generally shorter-term or related to specific events, and warnings were intended to be stronger, the new system is designed to provide additional clarity and guidance.

The levels are as follows, as described in a fact sheet shared by the State Department:

Level 1 - Exercise Normal Precautions: This is the lowest advisory level for safety and security risk. There is some risk in any international travel. Conditions in other countries may differ from those in the United States and may change at any time.

Level 2 - Exercise Increased Caution: Be aware of heightened risks to safety and security. The Department of State provides additional advice for travelers in these areas in the Travel Advisory. Conditions in any country may change at any time.

Level 3 - Reconsider Travel: Avoid travel due to serious risks to safety and security. The Department of State provides additional advice for travelers in these areas in the Travel Advisory. Conditions in any country may change at any time.

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Level 4 - Do Not Travel: This is the highest advisory level due to greater likelihood of life-threatening risks. During an emergency, the U.S. government may have very limited ability to provide assistance. The Department of State advises that U.S. citizens not travel to the country or leave as soon as it is safe to do so. The Department of State provides additional advice for travelers in these areas in the Travel Advisory. Conditions in any country may change at any time.

To check each country's level, you can visit a newly updated State Department Travel Advisory website. There's also a color-coordinated map that you can browse.

Some examples of countries listed at level two at the time of publication include Mexico, due to crime in certain areas, and the United Kingdom, due to elevated risks of terrorism. Level three countries include Russia, due to civil unrest in certain areas, and Venezuela, due to crime and a limited ability of the US to provide assistance to citizens. Level four countries include Iraq, Iran, and Libya.

NOW WATCH: We talked to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman about tax reform, Trump, and bitcoin

See Also:

SEE ALSO: US airlines have said goodbye to the 747  but these foreign airlines still fly the iconic plane
The Toyota logo is shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 30, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

By David Shepardson and Bernie Woodall

(Reuters) - Alabama will be the site of a new $1.6 billion Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp auto plant, a victory for President Donald Trump who had prodded manufacturers to build new U.S. facilities and threatened tariffs on foreign production, sources said on Tuesday.

The plant, which will employ up to 4,000 people and produce about 300,000 vehicles a year, will be located in Huntsville, Alabama, and is a boon for the state, where Toyota has a large engine plant and an existing network of automotive suppliers.

A formal announcement by company and state officials is expected on Wednesday in Montgomery, sources briefed on the matter said.

The new plant --in a state Trump won by 28 points in 2016 -- could be a political boost to the Republican president, who has urged automakers to build plants in the United States and add jobs. The companies said they expect the plant to open in 2021.

Trump tweeted in March he wanted "new plants to be built here for cars sold here." The White House did not immediately comment on Tuesday.

The announcement also comes at a time of declining U.S. auto industry sales, so it could exacerbate overcapacity and add pressure to cut prices. U.S. new vehicle sales fell 2 percent in 2017, after hitting an all-time record high in 2016, and are expected to fall further in 2018.

Details of an anticipated tax and incentive package for the investment were not yet known. It has been reported the companies sought at least $1 billion in incentives.

A Toyota spokesman declined to comment, except to say an announcement was expected soon. A Mazda spokeswoman also declined to comment.

In recent months, the companies had narrowed their choices down to sites in Alabama and North Carolina.

Local media last month said the leading site under consideration was in northern Alabama's Limestone County, near Toyota's large engine plant in Huntsville. In September Toyota announced a $106 million technology upgrade for the Huntsville plant.

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A Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville website for the "Huntsville Mega Site" touts the fact it has been "certified as development-ready." The commerce chamber, local and state officials declined to comment on Tuesday on plans for the plant.

A year ago, President-elect Trump criticized Toyota and threatened hefty tariffs against the Japanese automaker if it built its Corolla sedan for the U.S. market in Mexico.

"Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax," Trump posted on Twitter in early 2017.

Toyota and Mazda announced plans for a new plant in August. Toyota said it would shift production of Corollas from Canada to the new venture rather than in Guanajuato, and would build Tacoma pickups in Mexico instead. Mazda plans to build new crossover SUVs at the plant.

Trump praised the joint venture announcement, saying in August on Twitter: "Toyota & Mazda to build a new $1.6B plant here in the U.S.A. and create 4K new American jobs. A great investment in American manufacturing!"

In October, Toyota said it would scale back investment in a planned plant in Mexico by 30 percent to $700 million and cut planned annual capacity in half to 100,000 vehicles as it shuffles its production plans to meet market demands.

Toyota has 10 U.S. plants in eight states in an arc running from West Virginia through Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.Toyota and Mazda announced a capital alliance in August and are exploring joint development of technologies for the basic structure of competitive electric vehicles.

Over the last 30 years Toyota, along with German and Asian automakers, has built a second auto industry in the United States, rivalling the operations of the Detroit Three automakers in size and employment, but with newer, and fewer unionized, plants.

States covet auto assembly plants because they typically pay above-average wages and spin off jobs at suppliers and service companies. Southern U.S. states have the advantage of good transportation infrastructure, business-friendly regulators and generally anti-union politicians.

The Alabama Department of Commerce shows 150 of the large automotive suppliers operate in the state, providing the logistical strength that Kristin Dziczek, a researcher at the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan, said helped land the plant.

Dziczek said that Alabama in 2017 was tied for fifth among U.S. states in auto production, at 9 percent with Tennessee. It was behind Michigan at 19 percent; Indiana at 12 percent, Kentucky at 11 percent; and Ohio at 10 percent.

"The impact of an auto assembly plant extends beyond its immediate economic impact, and that's why states offer robust incentives," said Dennis Cuneo, a site-selection consultant and former Toyota executive. "It creates a halo effect that in turn helps attract other projects."

Alabama spent an estimated $250 million to woo Daimler AG's (DAIGn.DE) Mercedes-Benz to put an auto plant in Tuscaloosa two decades ago.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Additional reporting by Nick Carey in Detroit; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (L) participates in a new conference with Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp officials during the announcement that they will build a $1.6 billion joint assembly plant in Alabama in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. January 10, 2018. REUTERS/David Shepardson

By David Shepardson

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp announced on Wednesday they will build a $1.6 billion joint assembly plant in Alabama that will employ up to 4,000 workers, a boost for President Donald Trump, who wants automakers to expand U.S. production.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda and Mazda President and Chief Executive Officer Masamichi Kogai joined Alabama Governor Kay Ivey in Montgomery at an event to announce the decision.

"Welcome to sweet home Alabama," Ivey said to the two executives, after saying that the anticipated 4,000 workers at the plant to be built in Huntsville would earn an average of $50,000 a year.

The plant will produce 300,000 vehicles a year and should open on a 2,500-acre former cotton field in 2021, about 14 miles from Toyotas engine plant in Huntsville.

Toyota plans to build Corolla cars at the plant, while Mazda will build crossover SUVs.

"Together, I am confident we will create yet another 'Built in America' success story," Toyoda said.

Alabama will provide tax incentives. Officials said the state tax incentives were worth $370 million, but they did not disclose how much the local incentives were worth.

But with U.S. auto industry sales are declining, the new plant could exacerbate overcapacity and add pressure to cut prices. U.S. new vehicle sales fell 2 percent in 2017, after hitting a record high in 2016, and are expected to fall further in 2018.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said the plant will "provide jobs for decades to come for Huntsville and Alabama. It vaults Alabama to the top as an industry leader in producing the next generation of cars that will power our nation."

Among U.S. states, Alabama is already the fifth largest producer of cars and light trucks. The state has more than 150 major auto suppliers and 57,000 automotive manufacturing jobs.

Two decades ago, Alabama spent an estimated $250 million to woo Daimler AGs Mercedes-Benz to put an auto plant in Tuscaloosa, sparking the birth of auto production in the state.

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In September, Daimler said it would invest $1 billion to expand its Alabama Mercedes-Benz plant to start building electric sport-utility vehicles there from about 2020.

Alabama is also home to assembly plants operated by Honda Motor Co and Hyundai Motor Co. A Kia Motors Corp assembly plant operates near the Alabama border in Georgia.

Mazda and Toyota said they still need approvals and authorization by antitrust agencies for the new joint venture. They announced a capital alliance in August and plans to jointly develop technology for electric vehicles.

Trump tweeted in March that he wanted "new plants to be built here for cars sold here." Many automakers have announced expansions of facilities or new jobs but no other new U.S. auto plants have been announced.

A year ago, shortly before his inauguration, Trump criticized Toyota and threatened hefty tariffs against the Japanese automaker if it built its Corolla sedan for the U.S. market in Mexico.

In announcing plans for a new plant in August, Toyota said it would shift production of Corollas from Canada to the new venture rather than in Guanajuato and would build Tacoma pickups in Mexico instead.

Toyota North America chief executive Jim Lentz said in an interview on Wednesday that pressure from Trump was not a factor in the decision to build the plant. "These plants are going to live 30, 50 years plus and we have to make good business decisions," he said.

Lentz said it makes sense to build Corollas because Toyota needs the volume even in a declining car market. He called the $800 million investment a "bargain" to get the additional volume.

Toyota hopes to break ground this spring after initially getting more than 100 proposed sites from 22 states. "It was a daunting task," Lentz said.

In October, Toyota said it would scale back investment in a planned plant in Mexico by 30 percent to $700 million and cut planned annual capacity in half to 100,000 vehicles as it shuffles its production plans to meet market demands.

Over the last 30 years Toyota and other automakers from Germany and other parts of Asia have built a second auto industry in the United States. Its size and employment rivals operations of the Detroit Three automakers, but with newer plants and fewer unionized workers.

U.S. states covet auto assembly plants because they typically pay above-average wages and spin off jobs at suppliers and service companies. Southern states have been home to the majority of new auto production by German and Asian automakers. These states generally have good transportation infrastructure, business-friendly regulators and anti-union politicians.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by David Gregorio and Leslie Adler)
A Lancaster County jury spent nearly two days deliberating before finding a 26-year-old Lincoln man guilty of sexually assaulting a fellow college student in his car in 2016.

Sami Mrza said what happened in his car early Nov. 13, 2016, was consensual and that when the woman said to stop he did.

That's not how the now 20-year-old woman described it.

She told police that she had asked Mrza, who she knew from a nursing class at Southeast Community College, if he wanted to get dinner, then suggested they go cruise O Street after they ate and the restaurant was going to close.

They got in his car, but they didn't go cruising.

She told police he immediately started hugging and kissing her and wouldn't let go.

"I kept telling him to stop, and he wouldn't stop," she said tearfully in a recorded interview.

Defense attorney Kurt Leffler pointed out in closing arguments Monday how her story changed when she talked to police 45 minutes later and she admitted she had told Mrza she liked things at the start.

"We're not suggesting she's a liar," Leffler said of her inconsistencies. "She's a person who got into a situation ... and it kind of spun out of control on her."

But the woman said she told Mrza she didn't want this when he put his hand down her pants. She said she asked him to stop, but he pushed her head down to perform a sex act on him, saying they weren't doing anything wrong.

"She was scared, and she thought he was going to hurt her if she didn't comply," Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Charlie Byrd told the jury.

She ultimately got out and ran to her car. She drove around, then called a friend and her mom, then called police.

In texts, Mrza told her he was sorry and asked her not to be mad.

A police officer who interviewed him used a sympathetic technique, saying he understood. She had kissed him and made him think she wanted to, "but there comes a time that no means no and you have to stop," the officer said. "Sounds like you just couldn't control yourself."

"Yes, it was like that," Mrza said.

He said when she told him to stop he did stop, just not right away.

On Wednesday morning, the jury found Mrza guilty of first-degree sexual assault.

Mrza, who is from Iraq and had been in the U.S. for just two years when this happened, faces up to 50 years at his sentencing next month. He also is likely to be deported after serving his sentence.
White House energy ally and coal baron Robert Murray on Wednesday sharply criticized a five-member U.S. commission that regulates energy and includes four Trump appointees. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday rejected a rule proposed by Energy Secretary Rick Perry that would have subsidized coal and nuclear power plants in parts of the United States. "That does not sit with me well," the chairman and CEO of Murray Energy told CNBC's "Power Lunch." The rule would have benefited power generators that Murray counts as customers, and he has been accused of helping to develop the proposal. Murray accused the two Democratic commissioners, Richard Glick and Cheryl LaFleur, of political bias, saying they will never support coal or nuclear power. Two of the Republicans who voted against Perry's proposal, Chairman Kevin McIntyre and Robert Powelson, "are wrong in their decision and it needs to be overturned," he said. A spokesperson for FERC declined to respond. FERC is an independent government agency that regulates interstate transport of oil and natural gas and electric power transmission. It has a long-standing reputation as a highly technocratic, non-partisan organization. Perry asked FERC in September to create a rule that would compensate plants that keep 90 days of supply on site  primarily coal and nuclear facilities  arguing this so-called baseload energy is necessary to keep the U.S. grid resilient.

"There is no ask here for a subsidy for coal," Murray said. "It's to pay the coal-fired generators and the nuclear electricity generators for having the capacity in the grid to keep the lights on." Murray noted that during the recent "bomb cyclone" and cold snap that followed, higher power demand pushed natural gas prices to $175 per million British thermal unit  60 times their typical level. However, that statistic is misleading. Prices only spiked to that level in one area of New York, according to Jacob Meisel, chief weather analyst at Bespoke Weather Services. Power prices did rise in many parts of the United States, he said, particularly in New England, where there is limited natural gas pipeline capacity. During extreme cold, home heating competes with power plants for natural gas supplies. But in New England, oil-fired plants played a much greater role than coal plants in making up for increased power demand during the cold snap. Oil provided more then 30 percent of power during the period, while coal units supplied 4-6 percent. There were no grid reliability issues during the recent cold spell in PJM Interconnection, which operates the the grid and power markets in 13 Eastern states and Washington DC, according to a spokesperson. "Unit outages across fuel types were manageable and there were sufficient reserves and no emergency procedures needed," Susan Buehler, chief communications officer at PJM, told CNBC. On Tuesday, The New York Times published a story on Murray's influence over Trump's energy policy. The report resurfaced accusations by environmental groups that Murray hand-delivered the coal and nuclear subsidy proposal to Perry. Murray denies that charge. @SenWhitehouse: MUST READ: This is a very important look into the influence Murray Energy Corporation has over the Trump Administration. Murray Energy made a wish list, and @realDonaldTrump is granting its wishes. The groups pointed to wording in a memo Murray gave to Perry during a meeting in March, first revealed last month in photographs seen by In These Times. The investigative reporting website noted the wording closely resembles text from Perry's proposal to FERC: Immediate action needs to be taken to require organized power markets to value fuel security, fuel diversity, and ancillary services that only base load generating assets, especially coal plants, can provide  Murray Energy memo Immediate action is necessary to ensure fair compensation in order to stop the imminent loss of generators with on-site fuel supplies, and thereby preserve the benefits of generation diversity and avoid the severe consequences that additional shut-downs would have on the electric grid  Energy Department Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule propsal In a comment to FERC, the environmental groups said another part of Perry's proposal also resembled Murray's memo. "These photographs documenting Murray's request to DOE in language that mirrors the language ultimately used in the Proposal adds to the weight of evidence that the Proposal aims to benefit select companies rather than achieve legitimate statutory aims," the groups said. Murray responded in a letter to FERC, saying the comment was "composed solely of lies, mistruths, and reckless and inaccurate speculation." Like President Donald Trump , Murray has called global warming a hoax . The consensus among climate scientists is that climate change is real and primarily caused by carbon dioxide emissions from human activity, including burning coal at power plants.



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President Donald Trump has multiple opportunities to scrap the Iran nuclear agreement in the coming days, and the energy market will be watching for signs that his patience with an accord he calls the "worst deal ever" is wearing thin. That 2015 deal  President Barack Obama 's signature foreign policy achievement  lifted crippling sanctions against Iran in exchange for the regime accepting limits on its nuclear program and allowing international inspectors into the country. But the deal's structure has made it something of a recurring ticking time bomb in the age of Trump. The sitting U.S. president has to agree to suspend sanctions every 120 to 180 days. Starting Friday, Trump faces several deadlines to suspend key sanctions against Iran . He reluctantly waived sanctions last summer, but this is the first time he'll have to do so since telling Congress in October that the nuclear deal is no longer in the country's national security interest. Meanwhile, Congress has not delivered legislation to modify the deal that some lawmakers hoped would be ready by now. That puts the president in the position of having to extend sanctions relief to Iran under the terms of a deal he disavowed three months ago. If Trump refuses to waive the sanctions, it could trigger the collapse of the nuclear deal and put the United States on a diplomatic collision course with France, Germany, China, Russia and the U.K., which also negotiated the accord. It could also disrupt oil supplies from Iran, OPEC's third-largest producer, and potentially free the regime to pursue a nuclear weapon.The administration expects to announce on Friday whether it will continue suspending sanctions. Trump has not yet made a final decision, a National Security Council spokesperson told CNBC.'Bleak' prospects for nuclear deal this yearSeveral analysts say Trump is likely to keep the deal alive this week, but the outlook for the accord remains murky beyond this month."The prognosis for the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018 also looks fairly bleak, and the persistent threat of a U.S. sanctions snapback could curtail foreign investment in the Iranian energy sector and imperil output expansion plans," Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said in a recent research note.Croft lists a potential collapse of the deal as a key risk to oil markets this year. Since sanctions were lifted in 2016, Iran's oil output has risen by about 1 million barrels per day to about 3.8 million bpd. The loss of Iranian exports would likely push up oil prices.Refusing to grant the waivers is Trump's most direct path to blowing up the deal. It would reimpose far-reaching sanctions that could hobble Iran's energy industry, sever it from the international financial system and put a chill on foreign investment into the country.Risk consultancy Eurasia Group gives the deal a 55 percent chance of surviving Trump's first term but says it's safe for now. The firm believes Trump will issue the waivers this week but will once again refuse to certify the deal to Congress, which he must do every 90 days under U.S. law. The next deadline for certification is also this week. Trump's rejection of the deal in October opened a 60-day window for Congress to restore sanctions under a 2015 law. Rather than take that road, lawmakers began to work on legislation that would address parts of the deal the Trump administration opposes . Ball in Senate's court That effort by Congress is the main reason Trump won't kill the deal, according to Eurasia Group. The campaign is being led by Sens. Bob Corker , R-Tenn., and Ben Cardin , D-Md., the top lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Republican Iran hawk Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. "Over the next few months, this bill has a decent chance, even though getting Cotton and Cardin together on anything will be tough," Eurasia Group Chairman Cliff Kupchan said in a briefing. Right now, the plan has not advanced much beyond the framework Corker introduced in October. Corker confirmed last week that no legislation is imminent . It's also uncertain Democrats will accept a pillar of Corker's outline: making the Iran nuclear deal essentially permanent. That would be unacceptable to Iran and faces significant opposition from the other parties to the deal.Republicans are opposed to the deal in part because the limits that it places on Iran's uranium enrichment and access to equipment are scheduled to expire. Corker's outline calls for eliminating these so-called "sunset provisions" and automatically restoring sanctions if Iran comes within one year of being able to make a nuclear weapon.Richard Nephew, the lead sanctions expert for the U.S. team that negotiated the nuclear deal, also believes Trump will waive the sanctions this week, but says it's possible he will give senators a deadline, perhaps until the end of the year, to deliver a legislative option."From a market perspective, such a redline would continue to chill investment in Iran and reduce Iran's incentive to continue to abide by the terms of the" deal, he said in a briefing for Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, where he is now a senior research scholar."There may be energy market implications, though probably not in terms of immediate Iranian oil and gas supply," he said. President Donald Trump has multiple opportunities to scrap the Iran nuclear agreement in the coming days, and the energy market will be watching for signs that his patience with an accord he calls the "worst deal ever" is wearing thin. That 2015 deal  President Barack Obama 's signature foreign policy achievement  lifted crippling sanctions against Iran in exchange for the regime accepting limits on its nuclear program and allowing international inspectors into the country. But the deal's structure has made it something of a recurring ticking time bomb in the age of Trump. The sitting U.S. president has to agree to suspend sanctions every 120 to 180 days. Starting Friday, Trump faces several deadlines to suspend key sanctions against Iran . He reluctantly waived sanctions last summer, but this is the first time he'll have to do so since telling Congress in October that the nuclear deal is no longer in the country's national security interest. Meanwhile, Congress has not delivered legislation to modify the deal that some lawmakers hoped would be ready by now. That puts the president in the position of having to extend sanctions relief to Iran under the terms of a deal he disavowed three months ago. If Trump refuses to waive the sanctions, it could trigger the collapse of the nuclear deal and put the United States on a diplomatic collision course with France, Germany, China, Russia and the U.K., which also negotiated the accord. It could also disrupt oil supplies from Iran, OPEC's third-largest producer, and potentially free the regime to pursue a nuclear weapon. The administration expects to announce on Friday whether it will continue suspending sanctions. Trump has not yet made a final decision, a National Security Council spokesperson told CNBC. 'Bleak' prospects for nuclear deal this year Several analysts say Trump is likely to keep the deal alive this week, but the outlook for the accord remains murky beyond this month. "The prognosis for the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018 also looks fairly bleak, and the persistent threat of a U.S. sanctions snapback could curtail foreign investment in the Iranian energy sector and imperil output expansion plans," Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said in a recent research note. Croft lists a potential collapse of the deal as a key risk to oil markets this year. Since sanctions were lifted in 2016, Iran's oil output has risen by about 1 million barrels per day to about 3.8 million bpd. The loss of Iranian exports would likely push up oil prices. Refusing to grant the waivers is Trump's most direct path to blowing up the deal. It would reimpose far-reaching sanctions that could hobble Iran's energy industry, sever it from the international financial system and put a chill on foreign investment into the country. Risk consultancy Eurasia Group gives the deal a 55 percent chance of surviving Trump's first term but says it's safe for now. The firm believes Trump will issue the waivers this week but will once again refuse to certify the deal to Congress, which he must do every 90 days under U.S. law. The next deadline for certification is also this week. Trump's rejection of the deal in October opened a 60-day window for Congress to restore sanctions under a 2015 law. Rather than take that road, lawmakers began to work on legislation that would address parts of the deal the Trump administration opposes . Ball in Senate's court That effort by Congress is the main reason Trump won't kill the deal, according to Eurasia Group. The campaign is being led by Sens. Bob Corker , R-Tenn., and Ben Cardin , D-Md., the top lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Republican Iran hawk Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. "Over the next few months, this bill has a decent chance, even though getting Cotton and Cardin together on anything will be tough," Eurasia Group Chairman Cliff Kupchan said in a briefing. Right now, the plan has not advanced much beyond the framework Corker introduced in October. Corker confirmed last week that no legislation is imminent . It's also uncertain Democrats will accept a pillar of Corker's outline: making the Iran nuclear deal essentially permanent. That would be unacceptable to Iran and faces significant opposition from the other parties to the deal. Republicans are opposed to the deal in part because the limits that it places on Iran's uranium enrichment and access to equipment are scheduled to expire. Corker's outline calls for eliminating these so-called "sunset provisions" and automatically restoring sanctions if Iran comes within one year of being able to make a nuclear weapon. Richard Nephew, the lead sanctions expert for the U.S. team that negotiated the nuclear deal, also believes Trump will waive the sanctions this week, but says it's possible he will give senators a deadline, perhaps until the end of the year, to deliver a legislative option. "From a market perspective, such a redline would continue to chill investment in Iran and reduce Iran's incentive to continue to abide by the terms of the" deal, he said in a briefing for Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, where he is now a senior research scholar. "There may be energy market implications, though probably not in terms of immediate Iranian oil and gas supply," he said.



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Your paycheck will probably be getting bigger soon.

The IRS has issued the first set of guidelines determining how every Americans paycheck will change following the tax-cut bill President Trump signed in late December. The guidelines go to employers and payroll processors, which will then adjust the amount of tax withheld from workers paychecks.

Yahoo Finance ran the numbers and found a net drop in tax withheld in each of 11 income categories we examined. That means paychecks would get larger in each of those income categories. For a worker earning $60,000, which is roughly the national median income, the net savings would be $112 per month, or $1,344 per year.

This table shows how federal tax withholdings on a semi-monthly paycheck for a married worker are likely to change from 2017 to 2018:

Source: IRS, Yahoo Finance

This is a simplified analysis that doesnt account for pre-tax deductions of other provisions that affect many workers take-home pay. Its also important to note that the increase in net pay that shows up on all 2018 paychecks wont necessarily be the same thing as the total change in a workers tax bill for 2018. The Trump tax law changed many things. One of those changes was the withholding tables, which determine what tax rate applies to what level of income. The new law lowers the tax bracket for many (but not all) workers, which is why many peoples paychecks will get larger.

But the law also axed some key tax breaks, such as the personal exemption, while doubling the standard deduction for most people. For families with fewer than three dependent kids, thats probably a net gain. But for larger families it could push up their taxable income and their total tax bill. The law also caps the total amount of allowed deductions for state and local taxes at $10,000, which will amount to a big hit for some taxpayers with high income, property or school taxes at the state and local level.

Deductions arent automatically taken into account when employers set the amount of federal tax withheld from paychecks, which is why some workers ask their companies to withhold more or less than the recommended amount, which theyre still allowed to do. Some experts worry that mistakes by the IRS or employers could lead some taxpayers to underpay in 2018 and end up with too little taken out of their checks in 2018 to cover their total tax bill.

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Employers are likely to start changing the tax withholdings by mid-February, which means workers will see the change in their paychecks within weeks. Republicans who passed the tax bill, with no support from Democrats, hope voters will reward GOP politicians for their largesse when midterm elections arrive next November. But Democrats are sure to point out that some wealthy earners will save millions while the middle-class tax cuts are modest. Voters will have to decide how much they like free money.

Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Encrypted communication available.

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Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman

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President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that any bill to protect hundreds of thousands of young immigrants should include funding for a border wall, sparking more confusion after contradictory statements in recent days. "It's got to include the wall. ... Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall it doesn't work," the president said at a joint White House news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. At a Tuesday meeting with bipartisan lawmakers, Trump signaled that he would sign any legislative solution to shield the undocumented immigrants that Congress passes . Democrats and many Republicans do not want to authorize federal funds to build Trump's proposed physical barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump ended the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in September with a six-month delay. Under the administration's plan, DACA would end March 5 unless Congress can pass the protections into law.

A judge's decision Tuesday night to temporarily block Trump's move to end DACA complicates that timeline. A bipartisan working group of senators met Wednesday afternoon to try to hash out an agreement on legislation. Republicans want increased border security measures in exchange for DACA protections. Earlier in the day, working group member Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., told reporters that the senators are "very close" to having legislation they can release. On Wednesday afternoon, several House Republicans released an immigration bill that they called a "starting point." It would put DACA into law but also fund the border wall and end so-called chain migration. The legislation takes a more conservative stance than a Senate bill likely would. Democratic leaders want to tie DACA to a must-pass government spending bill. Congress faces a Jan. 19 deadline to avert a government shutdown. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he wanted to pass the two pieces of legislation separately. Passing DACA protections into law has broad bipartisan support, though disagreement remains over what measures should go with it. Many major American companies have also pushed for Congress to protect the undocumented immigrants .

WATCH: Trump says we'll do immigration reform in steps



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Speculation is rife that the trade tension between the U.S. and China will increase this year. These signs have already started to build up in the space with the spate of news.

If US-China Relations Turn Bitter, Buy These ETFs to Profit

Source: Shutterstock

First, the latest Blomberg report states that China may slow down, or even stop, the purchase of U.S. government bonds, citing that U.S. debt has become less attractive than other assets. Since China is the biggest buyer of U.S. sovereign bonds holding $1.2 trillion of U.S. debt, the action could lead to a broad sell-off in the equity markets. However, Chinas regulator called it a possibly fake news and denied the report.

Secondly, Chinese media criticized the recent passage of two bills by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee aimed at bolstering the critical U.S.-Taiwan partnership. The Global Times, a nationalistic arm of the Communist Party media apparatus states Beijings diplomatic retaliations toward Washington will come from all sides. Since 1979, Washington has cut off diplomatic ties with the government in Taipei under the One China policy, which recognizes the East Asian island as part of China.

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Further, the United States has blocked two Chinese high-profile deals over national security concerns. One is Ant Financials $1.2 billion purchase of transfer firm MoneyGram International and the other is the Huawei Technologies deal with U.S. carrier AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) to sell its smartphones in the United States. The back-to-back Chinese investment setback in a week has threatened China-U.S. trade ties.

The move came as the Trump administration is gearing up for new trade penalties against China in the coming weeks, including potential tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and punitive actions against China arising from an investigation into Beijings alleged theft of intellectual property. The United Sates is also mulling to impose tariff or import duties on Chinese solar panels and washing machines manufactured in China and its neighbors. If this happens, this would lead to retaliatory measures from Beijing, indicating the beginning of a trade war with implications for the entire world trading system.

Story continues

Against such a backdrop, investors could stash their cash in the following ETFs that offer stability or even profit as U.S.-China relations continues to unfold.

SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:GLD)

Gold is often viewed as a store of value and hedge against market turmoil. The product tracking this bullion like GLD could be an interesting pick in the current market turbulence. The fund tracks the price of gold bullion measured in U.S. dollars, and kept in London under the custody of HSBC Bank USA.

It is the ultra-popular gold ETF with AUM of $35.3 billion and heavy volume of nearly 7 million shares a day. It charges 40 bps in fees per year from investors and has a Zacks ETF Rank #3 (Hold) with a Medium risk outlook.

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT)

The products tracking the long end of the yield curve often provide a safe haven. TLT provides exposure to long-term Treasury bonds by tracking the ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index. It is one of the most popular and liquid ETFs in the bond space with AUM of $6.9 billion and average daily volume of more than 8 million shares.

Expense ratio comes in at 0.15%. Holding 33 securities in its basket, the fund focuses on the top credit rating bonds with average maturity of 25.86 years and effective duration of 17.56 years. The fund has an unfavorable Zacks ETF Rank #4 (Sell) with a High risk outlook.

Guggenheim CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (NYSEARCA:FXY)

Yen is considered a safe-haven currency in times of uncertainty. Investors could tap this via FXY, which appears a great way to play a future rise in the yen relative to the U.S. dollar. It tracks the movement of the yen relative to the U.S. dollar, net of the Trust expenses, which are expected to be paid from the interest earned on the deposited Japanese yen.

The fund charges 40 bps a year in fees and sees a good volume of roughly 99,000 shares per day. The product has accumulated $105.9 million in its asset base and has a Zacks ETF Rank #3 with a Medium risk outlook.

ProShares Short FTSE China 50 (NYSEARCA:YXI)

A fund like YXI that offers to pay the opposite of the return of a Chinese benchmark will likely make profits if the trade situation worsens. This ETF delivers the inverse return of the FTSE China 50 Index, which offers exposure to the 50 largest and most-liquid Chinese stocks listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The fund has accumulated $4.6 million in its asset base and trades in a light volume of 2,000 shares a day on average. Expense ratio comes in at 0.95%.

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The post If US-China Relations Turn Bitter, Buy These ETFs to Profit appeared first on InvestorPlace.
Walmart will raise the minimum wage for its US employees to $11 an hour by February, pay $1,000 bonuses, and expand maternity leave, moves affecting more than a million workers that were made possible by the tax cuts approved last month (AFP Photo/JOE RAEDLE) (GETTY/AFP)

New York (AFP) - Walmart announced Thursday it will raise the minimum wage for US workers to $11 an hour and pay bonuses, but announced plans to close 63 Sam's Club stores in the US.

Owned by Walmart, Sam's Club is a chain of membership-only warehouse stores that offer discounted prices. Up to 12 of the shuttered Sam's Club stores would be converted into warehouses for e-commerce, the company said in a news release.

The wage increase starting in February elevates base starting pay from the current $9 an hour, and Walmart also said it would pay employees a one-time bonus of up to $1,000, expand parental and maternity leave programs and provide financial assistance to employees adopting children.

The new employee benefits will affect more than one million employees at Walmart US, Sam's Club, in e-commerce and other departments, Walmart said.

Walmart executives said they were able to boost employee benefits following the tax reform, which cut US corporate taxes from 35 to 21 percent.

The lowest starting pay for Walmart workers previously was $9 an hour, increasing to $10 after 90 days following completion of a training program. But a company spokesman told AFP the starting wage for all workers now will be at least $11.

American Airlines, AT&T and Wells Fargo have been among the companies that have given bonuses or awarded pay increases in recent weeks.

Skeptics have said these initiatives represent a pittance compared with the profit gains expected from lower tax rates, some of which is expected to go to higher executive pay, shareholder payouts and share buybacks.

Walmart announced the pay raise early Thursday and touted the announcement on its Twitter feed with a group of smiling employees giving a thumbs up.

Walmart's pay hike was also highlighted on Twitter by Ivanka Trump and touted by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during a White House briefing.

But the news was soon overshadowed by reports around the country about Sam's. In some cases, employees learned of the closures only Thursday when they showed up for work and found the store shut, according to local news reports in Texas and some other states.

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The chain will close three stores in the Indianapolis, Indiana area on January 26, affecting a total of 419 workers, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Other states set to see closures included Arizona, Illinois and Tennessee, according to local news reports.

Sam's employees affected by the closures will receive the bonus announced by Walmart Thursday, 60 days of pay and potentially additional severance.

"We need great people to help lead us into the future and we hope that many of them will stay with the company at either a local store or club," said Sam's Club president John Furner.

"Change is never easy, but we're making these decisions as part of running a healthy business."
Warren Buffett is coming closer to naming a successor at Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A). It remains to be seen whether the company will lose its lustre without the Oracle of Omaha. Buffett named Gregory Abel, 55, and Ajit Jain, 66, to the company's board on Wednesday. Abel will serve as vice chairman of non-insurance business, while Jain will serve as vice chair of insurance operations. The appointments are "part of a movement to succession over time," Buffett told CNBC in an exclusive interview . The legendary investor's departure would put the company into unchartered territory for retail investors. Buffett took the company over in 1965 and has overseen its growth ever since . The 87-year-old businessman currently serves as chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway alongside vice chairman Charlie Munger, 94. The Omaha-based conglomerate employs tens of thousands in a variety of businesses including insurance, mobile housing and industrial concerns. Buffett said on Wednesday that he is in "remarkably good health." "I feel terrific. I love what I do. I can't wait to go to the office in the morning," he said. "There's nothing I'd rather be doing." Buffett said he will notify Berkshire's board and shareholders if he experiences any health issues. Berkshire's board already knows who would take over if something happened to him, he said on Wednesday.

"Probably no other company on earth has this kind of make up where you have someone who has essentially been running the company for 50 years," said Paul Schatz, president of Heritage Capital in Woodbridge, Connecticut. Buffett himself could not repeat his investment track record with the level of assets the company now has, according to Schatz. That will pose a challenge for his successors. "They can do a great job, but there is no chance they will come close to the record he compiled over the last 50 years," Schatz said. "The assets are just too big." Schatz predicts there would be some changes to the company's stock, which is sold in two classes, with Buffett's departure. "Once Warren and Charlie are gone, there will be intense pressure to start paying a dividend," he said. The chart below shows how Berkshire Hathaway's less expensive shares have fared against the S&P 500 index over the past five years. (Click on graphic to enlarge.) Mark S. Germain, founder and CEO of Beacon Wealth Management in Hackensack, New Jersey, said he still sees Berkshire Hathaway as a promising investment. "The brain power of Berkshire Hathaway has not been diminished by adding more brain power," Germain said. "The key players are still there." Still, if a sudden management change were to happen and Buffett was no longer at the company, Germain said he would put the company on watch. "We put the buying of that particular investment opportunity on hold until we have time to evaluate," Germain said. "It doesn't mean you go and sell everything." Germain said he thinks Buffett has made plans for Berkshire Hathway with the same long-term focus he applies to his investments. "If I could pick someone to have been mentored by, it would be Warren Buffett," Germain said. "Exactly as he looks for companies, he wants his company to be managed in the same fashion." More from Personal Finance: If you own bitcoin, Buffett's cryptocurrency predictions are scaryThis expense could have already eaten up your tax refundHow to know whether your business qualifies for that 20 percent tax break WATCH: Charlie Munger on Greg Abel and Ajit Jain



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Two California men were arrested after Nebraska state troopers found 526 pounds of marijuana inside their truck during a Wednesday night traffic stop on Interstate 80.

Robert P. Rahon, 27, of Sacramento, and Felice M. Giorgetti, 38, of Huntington Beach, were headed east in a truck near the Beaver Crossing exit at about 11 p.m. when a trooper pulled them over for failing to signal a turn and having improper lighting, Patrol spokesman Cody Thomas said.

During the stop, the troopers had a police dog sniff the truck and it indicated the odor of drugs coming from the rear of the vehicle, Thomas said in a news release.

Troopers searched the truck and found 17 boxes containing marijuana, which they estimated to be worth $1.5 million, Thomas said.

Rahon and Giorgetti were taken to the Seward County jail on suspicion of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and no drug tax stamp.
On Wednesday, Warren Buffett appointed Gregory Abel and Ajit Jain to the Berkshire Hathaway board as vice chairs, hinting that one of them is the most likely candidate to eventually take over. Buffett told CNBC that this is "part of a movement to succession over time," although both the billionaire and his partner Charlie Munger will continue in their respective roles and be in charge of significant investment decisions for the company. This isn't the first time that the 87-year-old has dropped hints about the future of his company. At the Berkshire Hathaway 2017 Annual Shareholders Meeting Buffett shared one key qualification he's looking for in Berkshire's next CEO: The new boss shouldn't be in it for the money . "I actually would hope that we have somebody that's ... already very rich  which they should be if they've been working a long time  and really is not motivated by whether they have 10 times as much money than they and their families can need or a 100 times as much," he said.Ideally, Buffett said, his successor "might even wish to perhaps set an example by engaging for something far lower than actually what you could say their true market value is."Although he said he couldn't blame a CEO for wanting to be paid market value, if the new boss chose to go that route, the company would likely "pay them a very modest amount and then have an option, which increased in striking price annually."As Buffett went on to explain, this strategy would keep the CEO's compensation in line with how the company is doing and reflect the same surges the shareholders feel. Buffett, along with longtime business partner Charlie Munger, also discussed compensation consultants , who advise corporate boards on how to best pay employees. Neither Buffett nor Munger is a fan. "I have avoided all my life compensation consultants. I hardly can find the words to express my contempt," Munger said.Buffett agreed. "If the board hires a compensation consultant after I go, I will come back  mad," he said.It seems clear that Buffett and Munger want their future CEO to be motivated by passion, the work and the good of the company  not a paycheck. This is an updated version of a previously published article . Don't miss : Warren Buffett just won a $1 million betand highlighted one of the best ways to grow wealth Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook ! On Wednesday, Warren Buffett appointed Gregory Abel and Ajit Jain to the Berkshire Hathaway board as vice chairs, hinting that one of them is the most likely candidate to eventually take over. Buffett told CNBC that this is "part of a movement to succession over time," although both the billionaire and his partner Charlie Munger will continue in their respective roles and be in charge of significant investment decisions for the company. This isn't the first time that the 87-year-old has dropped hints about the future of his company. At the Berkshire Hathaway 2017 Annual Shareholders Meeting Buffett shared one key qualification he's looking for in Berkshire's next CEO: The new boss shouldn't be in it for the money . "I actually would hope that we have somebody that's ... already very rich  which they should be if they've been working a long time  and really is not motivated by whether they have 10 times as much money than they and their families can need or a 100 times as much," he said. Ideally, Buffett said, his successor "might even wish to perhaps set an example by engaging for something far lower than actually what you could say their true market value is." Although he said he couldn't blame a CEO for wanting to be paid market value, if the new boss chose to go that route, the company would likely "pay them a very modest amount and then have an option, which increased in striking price annually." As Buffett went on to explain, this strategy would keep the CEO's compensation in line with how the company is doing and reflect the same surges the shareholders feel. Buffett, along with longtime business partner Charlie Munger, also discussed compensation consultants , who advise corporate boards on how to best pay employees. Neither Buffett nor Munger is a fan. "I have avoided all my life compensation consultants. I hardly can find the words to express my contempt," Munger said. Buffett agreed. "If the board hires a compensation consultant after I go, I will come back  mad," he said. It seems clear that Buffett and Munger want their future CEO to be motivated by passion, the work and the good of the company  not a paycheck. This is an updated version of a previously published article . Don't miss : Warren Buffett just won a $1 million betand highlighted one of the best ways to grow wealth Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook !



More From CNBC


Heres a look at some of the companies the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you today.

Xerox (XRX) is in talks with Japanese camera maker Fujifilm. According to the Wall Street Journal, Fujifilm would not fully takeover the copier company, but there would be leadership changes at Xerox. Activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns nearly 10% of Xerox, has said the company needs a shakeup in order to boost revenue and launch new products.

We now know why Toyota (TM) and Mazda decided to open up shop in Alabama. The state offered a tax incentive package of more than $370M to the Japanese automakers. Included in the deal are tax credits of up to 1.5% over the next 10 years and an annual cash rebate of up to 3%.

Ford (F) says it will make automatic emergency brakes standard on two key 2019 models. Emergency brakes are already installed in 56% to Toyotas 2017 fleet and 30% of Hondas fleet. Overall, 20 carmakers have agreed to equip virtually all their vehicles with the tech by 2022.

Didi Chuxing is driving on to Ubers turf south of the border. Ubers Chinese ride-hailing rival is advertising for jobs in Mexico. Uber recently doubled down on its efforts in Mexico to create a stronghold after Didi drove it out of China in 2016.
The New York City government is attempting to shift the costs of bracing the city for climate change onto the worlds five largest publicly traded oil companies, which it claims have done nearly all they could to create this existential threat.

A lawsuit filed to the Southern District of New York Tuesday claims that BP, Chevron cvx , Conoco-Phillips cop , ExxonMobil xom , and Royal Dutch Shell rds-a with creating 11% of all greenhouse gases, the Washington Post reports. It also claims the companies were aware of their impacts on climate and tried to obfuscate the truth.

For more on climate change, watch Fortunes video:

This is not the first time U.S. localities have tried to apply financial pressure to polluters.

In 2017, the California cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz, and Imperial Beach, as well as Santa Cruz county, Marin County, and San Mateo County attempted to sue oil majors over climate change damages, citing a theory called public nuisance. Those suits, however, have reportedly failed to make headway.

Read more: How Climate Change Will Transform the Way We Live

Michael Burger, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, told the Post that New Yorks lawsuit was significant because it brought the legal challenge beyond California. The involvement of other jurisdictions, he said, might, see adequate pressure applied to these companies to inspire action on climate change.
Afghan officials say the countrys president has issued pardons to 75 prisoners loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a warlord who signed a peace deal with the Kabul government in 2016.

The 75 pardoned convicts were released on January 11 from the Pul-e-Charkhi prison east of Kabul, prison press officer Shah Mir Amirpoor said.

Under the 2016 agreement, President Ashraf Ghani agreed to release the followers of Hekmatyar in an effort to encourage insurgent groups to lay down their arms.

The release has been delayed for months. Human rights groups criticized Kabul for agreeing to the move that allowed prisoners suspected of being involved in attacks on civilians to go free.

An initial group of 55 prisoners were released in May 2017.

Hekmatyar battled U.S. and Afghan forces after the U.S. invasion in 2001 and was known as the "Butcher of Kabul" for actions during the countrys civil war of the 1990s.

The deal gave him and his followers immunity for past deeds and gave them full political rights.

The United Nations in 2017 removed Hekmatyars name from its sanctions list.

Nadir Afghan, a spokesman for Hekmatyar's Hizb-i Islami party, claims that more than 2,200 party members remain in jail in Afghanistan.

Other warlords have been reluctant to sign on to the deal offered by Ghani.

With reporting by AP and Tolo News
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has tried to rescue his partys government in the restive southwestern province of Balochistan.

But his January 8 visit to the provincial capital, Quetta, couldnt salvage the administration of Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri.

On January 9, the provinces most senior elected official resigned from his post hours before the provincial assembly was scheduled to vote on a no-confidence motion put forward by his former allies and opposition members.

Zehris fate was sealed after a majority among the 21 lawmakers from his Pakistans Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) party revolted and joined efforts to oust him. Abbasi reportedly advised Zehri to resign once it became apparent he had lost majority backing in Balochistans 65-member assembly.

Abbasi told Pakistans independent Capital TV on January 10 that in an effort to find out what prompted PML-N lawmakers to move against a coalition administration headed by a leader from their party, he discovered many had not acted on their own volition.

People told me about being pressured by intelligence agencies. Some people told me about receiving phone calls [from intelligence operatives], Abbasi said. Someone said they saw people [lawmakers] confined to compounds where vehicles of the FC (Frontier Corps) were parked," he added while naming a paramilitary organization that is tasked with border security, counterterrorism and aiding the government with law and order in Balochistan.

The Pakistani leader says his administration is now investigating the alleged political engineering by the countrys secret services.

I have asked the interior minister to find out who ordered the FC to be there and whether intelligence agents made calls [to lawmakers] to pressure them, he said. Such things are not acceptable and are not good for democracy.

Two major intelligence agencies report to the prime minister. While civilian leaders typically control the Intelligence Bureau, they have had tough luck with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), where most of the top leaders and staff hail from the military.

Over the past three decades, Pakistani politicians have frequently accused the ISI of orchestrating the rise and fall of political leaders, their administrations, and political parties.

Nawaz Sharif, Abbasis predecessor and the PML-N leader, has frequently accused the powerful military establishment of arranging his ouster from office in July, when the countrys apex court removed him from office over undeclared assets.

Secret telephone calls and deals should not be used to tie our hands, Sharif told journalists on January 3 in a subtle reference to alleged attempts by the security services to undermine his partys administration. Democracy should be given a chance to grow in the country.

Abbasi agrees, and says that stunts such as the alleged machinations in Balochistan cast a dark shadow over democracy in Pakistan, where civilian administrations have rarely completed their terms and are often accused of corruption and incompetence.

Our democracy has suffered because of this, and we should avoid it, he said.

While Pakistans spy services dont usually speak to the media, military leaders and public relations officials have denied being involved in attempts to undermine representative rule.

Last month, current top soldier Qamar Javed Bajwa reportedly offered to resign if it was established that his organization was involved in orchestrating anti-government unrest that blocked parts of the capital, Islamabad, for weeks.

"There is no threat to democracy from the Pakistan Army, [but] there could be a threat to democracy if its [democracy's] requirements are not being met," military spokesman Asif Ghafoor told journalists in October. "I want to add that there needs to be stability. The government needs to continue, and an established democratic system needs to continue."

Abbasi, however, doesnt seem convinced. He said that in a political career spanning three decades he has seen dozens of episodes of elected governments being undermined.

We need to learn our lessons and do things to benefit our country and contribute to its welfare, he said.
Protesters have rallied in several Pakistani cities amid widespread public outrage over the rape and killing of a 8-year-old girl.

Lawyers and the women's wing of the religious Jamaat-e-Islami party marched through the northern city of Peshawar on January 11, while activists in the capital, Islamabad, also called for police to find and prosecute the killer of Zainab Ansari.

In Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province, dozens of protesters blocked a major road.

The rallies come a day after angry protesters attacked a police station in the town of Kasur in Punjab Province on January 10, resulting in the deaths of two people. The Punjab government said four police officers and two civil defense personnel who allegedly opened fire at the demonstrators were arrested.

Ansaris body was found in a garbage bin in Kasur on January 9, four days after she was reported missing. Markets in the town remained shut on January 11.

The case drew widespread outrage in Pakistan and attracted the attention of the country's civilian and military leadership.

The chief minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, visited Ansari's parents on January 11 to assure them that justice would be done, a provincial government spokesman said.

Sharif also announced 10 million rupees ($90,000) for anyone giving information about the kidnapper, spokesman Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan told Reuters.

Speaking after meeting with the Punjab chief minister, the father of the girl criticized police for being slow to respond when his daughter went missing.

A police official was quoted as saying that 26 people were in custody and being questioned.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa, and Dawn
Re: With American cryptanalysts breaking the Japanese code, the Japanese I [ #permalink

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Nearly 30 years ago  during the summer  Marty Ramirez and his wife bought their home about a block from Northeast High School.

Then when school started I thought, Oh, my goodness, he says.

For years, Ramirez and other area residents have dealt with students  more than the population of some rural Nebraska towns  descending on the streets and sidewalks near their homes before and after school. Groups of students have always picked spots to hang out, sometimes loitering on neighbors yards, leaving cigarette butts, damaging property.

Its gotten better over the years, and its gotten worse.

Now, according to several neighbors who came to the Lincoln Board of Education meeting Tuesday to ask for help, its gotten significantly worse.

Some residents, nearly all of them retirees, feel theyre being held hostage by students who congregate along Huntington Avenue near 63rd Street, Ramirez told the board.

Its escalated to a crisis situation, he said.

It's a perennial problem for schools such as Northeast, Southeast and Lincoln High that are in residential neighborhoods. Southeast neighbors have, in the past, been vocal about similar concerns.

But Ramirez said his concern is for the homes on streets near Northeast, where groups of students hang out, smoke, leave cigarette butts and other trash. They sit in residents driveways, drink alcohol and have urinated on residents property, the neighbors said. Some taunt neighbors and have grown increasingly confrontational.

Some neighbors are afraid to go outside, and one property owner has put his rental properties up for sale, residents said.

School officials and the school resource officer said theyve worked hard to try to alleviate issues in the neighborhood, and not all the young people who gather are students. Some have been kicked out or no longer attend, but gather to see friends.

And not all the students cause problems.

I think at every school we have a group of students that probably smoke and would like to have the opportunity to be out of class once in a while, said Principal Kurt Glathar. Its not a group of students who decided to go out and make the neighborhood miserable.

Problems lessened some years ago, after school officials worked with police and city officials to have a bus stop moved from 63rd and Huntington to a corner on school property.

Since then its worked quite well, Glathar said. Weve been able to monitor the bus stop.

Ramirez said that did help for a while  after one incident with about 70 students blocking traffic near the bus stop  but eventually kids migrated to the middle of the block on 63rd Street, near where a student lives and out of view of the high school.

After school each day two Northeast administrators walk the block and a half to the area to monitor the activity.

Lincoln Police Officer Nate Hill, a 1992 graduate of Northeast and the school resource officer there, said hes worked hard to reduce problems.

Most kids who gather are good ones who do what he asks and dont cause problems, though there are exceptions, he said.

Hill parks his cruiser along Huntington around lunchtime. He has issued tickets for littering or alcohol possession, has gotten to know the kids and their schedules and will tell them to get back to school if theyre skipping class. He responds to neighbors calls and even gave one neighbor his cell phone number.

He wants to do whatever he can so neighbors don't feel terrorized, but said he also has responsibilities inside the school.

I feel like (the residents) get more attention than most neighborhoods in Lincoln, he said. For me to dedicate one to two hours a day, thats a lot of time.

Overall, he said, he feels like the situation has improved, although a confrontation that occurred after a residents home was egged seems to have escalated tensions.

Residents say problems have grown, and while they appreciate Hills efforts, the problems happen when he cant be there.

Bob Kirkpatrick, who's lived in the area for many years and whose kids attended Northeast, said kids drive down the street with their tires peeling and block his driveway, sit in the driveway and sometimes drink. Some of the kids are nice, he said, and will move if he asks. Others cause more trouble  and one resident was threatened after he asked kids to move.

We need to do something, he said at the meeting. Im not scared, but some of the neighbors are. That shouldnt happen. I hope we can do something.

A small group of kids gathered around a car in the area after school Tuesday said some kids who gather there cause problems, but most dont  and some have tried to help.

Zachary Jacoby, a Northeast senior, said hes taken a shop broom to sweep up cigarette butts in the area.

It was getting old  there were too many cigarette butts, he said. This aint the ghetto, so it shouldnt look like it.

Kathy Danek, who represents northeast Lincoln on the school board, said she'll organize a meeting of neighbors, school administrators, City Council members and students to address the issue.

Ramirez said hes especially concerned about the stress and mental anguish for retirees who live in the neighborhood and can't enjoy their homes, yards and retirement. That's unfair to them, he said.

The principal is trying and the police have been good, but it seems the polices hands are tied  we can report, but kids are gone before they arrive. Its not that they havent tried, but something has to be done.
New York, Jan 11 (JEN): The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) celebrated its 70th anniversary on Wednesday with a high-level seminar at its headquarters in Santiago, Chile, reaffirming its commitment to working for the dignity and well-being of all the region's inhabitants.

This new anniversary gives us the opportunity to revitalize our mission and reaffirm our commitment to the values that underpin our daily work, ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena told the seminar.

Now is the time to grow to be more equal, and be more equal to grow. We must break with the culture of privileges, which is manifested in tax evasion and avoidance as well as in illicit capital flows. Equality strengthens democracy and helps in the provision of public goods, she added.

ECLAC is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations. It was founded with the purpose of contributing to the economic development of Latin America, coordinating actions directed towards this end, and reinforcing economic ties among countries and with other nations of the world.

The former Executive Secretaries of ECLAC Enrique Iglesias (1972-1985), Gert Rosenthal (1988-1997), Jose Antonio Ocampo (1998-2003) and Jose Luis Machinea (2003-2008) also spoke at the seminar.

Iglesias recalled the difficult years during the 1970s that ECLAC's leadership had to face, above all in its relationship with the host country, when even the organization's very existence was threatened.

ECLAC was the first institution created to think about development problems in their comprehensiveness, based on direct knowledge of the realities in the countries that it serves, he said.

Moving toward the future, ECLAC must prepare itself for a new world dominated by technological transformations, climate change and growing unsatisfied social demands, while also continuing to fight for greater equality, which has been the central theme of this institution throughout its history, he added.

Meanwhile, Rosenthal stressed the need for the organization to adapt to new times and realities. ECLAC must 'accommodate itself' to these changes and it has the tools to do so, he emphasized.

For his part, Ocampo reviewed the importance of the Commission's contributions in five specific areas: the fiscal compact and macroeconomic management vis-a-vis capital movements; productive development in open economies, which emphasized the relevance of integration and technological development; social development, which placed rights-based social policies as the top priority; the reincorporation of issues related to environmental sustainability in all its main reports; and participation in international debates.

ECLAC is on Wednesday the principal research center in the entire UN system. No other organization compares to it, above all in terms of the quality of its analyses, said Ocampo, who held high-level posts in other international institutions over the course of his professional career.

Machinea recalled that Raul Prebisch, a renowned Argentine economist who was ECLAC's main inspiration and its second Executive Secretary (1950-1963), had an extraordinary vocation for development issues.

He knew how to maintain his intellectual autonomy, was the first person to defend the application of counter-cyclical policies and constantly sought to have analysis and action interact, Machinea said.

Moving toward the future, Latin America and the Caribbean will need integration more than ever and to continue fomenting a productive transformation with equality, he said.

The main risk currently is the global uncertainty in which we live: there are threats of a new financial crisis which, on top of protectionist trends and xenophobia, could have grave consequences. In the region we must save during the good years and insist on counter-cyclical policies that allow us to better confront future difficulties, he added.

The commemoration of ECLAC's 70 years in existence will continue throughout 2018 with different events to be held both in Santiago as well as at the institution's other headquarters.

Photo: Carlos Vera/ECLAC


Kabul, Jan 11 (IBNS) : At least 20 Taliban insurgents, including four of their commanders, were killed during a special night operation conducted in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

Local Khaama Press quoted a statement released by the governors office in Nangarhar as saying that the operation was conducted late on Wednesday night in Khogyani district.

The statement further added that the Special Forces of the Afghan Intelligence (National Directorate of Security) carried out raids on two compounds of the Taliban in Surdag area.

The provincial government also added that the Taliban commanders killed during the operation have been identified as Qari Hedayatullah who was also famous as Mudasir, Qari Khalid and Ismail.

The Afghan security forces also detained fourteen suspects during the operation and are currently in custody of the intelligence operatives for further investigations.

The statement by Nangarhars office also added that three vehicles, four motorcycles, seven landmines, twelve remote controls, and some explosives were also destroyed during the operation.

The anti-government armed militant groups including the Taliban insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.

The Afghan security forces continue to their counter-terrorism operations in Nangarhar province where the anti-government armed militants are continuously attempting to expand their foothold and insurgency activities.
The biggest threat to the Iranian regime is the opposition  the opposition by the people to the Iranian regime, but also the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the main member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a coalition of opposition groups.

The Iranian regime refuses to believe that the people are capable and have the will to take to the streets on such a large scale. State-media is saying that the driving force is the PMOI/MEK. On 29th December, an imam at Friday prayers in Mashhad said that the United States and the PMOI/MEK had organised the public unrest. Two days later, numerous news outlets including Fars News Agency which has links to the IRGC, Dolat-e-Bahar website which has links to the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Daneshju News Agency, Tasnim News Agency which has links to the IRGCs Quds Force, and Resalat daily which has links to the Supreme Leaders faction, all blamed the PMOI/MEK for the widespread discontent in the country.

Secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said in an interview with the al-Mayadeen TV network that the PMOI/MEK is behind the Saudi scenario and that the regime will retaliate. Dolat-e-Bahar website said that the orders for the uprising were given by the evil triangle- Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom. He said that the plan was implemented by the PMOI/MEK and paid for by Saudi Arabia.

On 1st January, Fox News found out that the Supreme Leader, political leaders and the head of Irans security forces had gathered to discuss how to deal with the protesters.

The Iranian regime is trying its best to contain the protests. It knows that the whole world is watching, so it is not taking the same brutal approach that it took in 2009. Nevertheless, there have been reports of dozens of deaths and it has been estimated that more than 1,000 people have been arrested.

The brave people of Iran are continuing their protests because they know that the situation has reached a point of no return. No amount of reform in the government is going to change the very nature of it  corrupt. The young people have no job prospects and their futures are bleak.

The international community is starting to realise this is the case too. President Donald Trump has posted a series of messages on Twitter with regards to his support for the people of Iran and he mentioned the corruption in the regime.

The US Mission to the UN also tweeted a quote by Nikki Haley: Human rights are not the gift of governments. They are the inalienable right of the people themselves The Iranian regime is now on notice. The world will be watching what you do.
A spokesman for the prosecutors office said authorities will continue to examine on a legal basis whether Shahroudi was guilty of crimes against humanity during his decade overseeing an estimated 2,000 executions as the head of Irans justice ministry, regardless of whether he leaves or stays in the country.

The Iranian opposition movement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), says that Shahroudi, together with his six-member entourage, wanted to fly back to Tehran on Thursday.

German politician Volker Beck discusses the complaint he filed against the Iranian cleric in an interview that is reproduced in part below:

Q: You have filed a complaint against Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahroudi , stating that the top Iranian cleric was guilty of murder and crimes against humanity. What led you to take this action?

Volker Beck: I have read press reports about him. I know that he is responsible for overseeing scores of death sentences when he led Irans justice ministry. (Editors note: Shahroudi served as head of Irans justice ministry from 1999 to 2009. During this period, an estimated 2,000 Iranian prisoners, including many minors, were executed.)

This should not be left unpunished. Germany should not be a haven for criminals. Thats why I filed a complaint against him with the office of Germanys federal prosecutor. I also wonder how a man like Shahroudi could even get a German visa.

Q: Is Shahroudi the only politician from an authoritarian country who came to Germany to receive medical treatment here?

Beck: No, unfortunately not. I spent many years in the human rights committee of the German Bundestag and we have repeatedly argued with the government, and also with the Office of the Public Prosecutor General, about the application of the penal code to cases involving crimes against humanity. Such cases have to be investigated. And people who commit such crimes need to know that there are no safe havens for them in this world.

Q: What is the probability that Ayatollah Shahroudi will be held accountable in Germany?

Beck: I do not know about his current status and whether the federal government had promised him immunity or not. If so, that would be legally flawed, as he is not a member of the Iranian government, but rather only an official and travelled in his private capacity. I cannot weigh in on that issue.

Q; Many critics in Iran accuse Germany of only being interested in economic cooperation with Iran and less of looking at the situation of human rights. What is your take on this?

Beck: I was in Iran once, in 2006. I then met many people, spoke to members of parliament and to members of various religious communities as well as Islamic foundations. I spoke to them about human rights. I formed my own impressions. As part of my work in the human rights committee, I have always followed closely developments in Iran.

Beck contonued, Iran is simply one of the countries that  unlike Saudi Arabia  has signed the human rights charter of the United Nations, which is positive in the first place. But on the other hand, Iran is also a country that does not comply, for example, with the use of the death penalty. For instance, the country imposes the death penalty on minors.

In any case, the pact only allows the death penalty for the most serious crimes and not for homosexuality or offenses that are not punishable in most countries of the world.

Germany should make it clear that, on the one hand, we are meeting our contractual obligations toward Iran in connection with the nuclear deal, if Tehran adheres to the treaty. But on the other hand, we must make it clear that we are not looking the other way when it concerns issues such as the suppression of Iranian civil society, the lack of religious freedom, the persecution of women who do not want to live or act as the the ayatollahs wish.

And I would like to ask the German government for more clarity here. I understand that we have to cooperate with foreign nations, even if we reject their form of government and rule. Thats how foreign policy is made. But still, one can take a clear position.

I also have the impression that more priority has been assigned to economic relations and other issues. And I think thats a mistake; its a mistake with Iran and its a mistake in the case of Saudi Arabia.
Under the terms of congressional acceptance of that agreement, the president is required to certify every 90 days that the continued suspension of economic sanctions against the Islamic Republics nuclear program are both justified and in the national security interest of the United States. Trump was apparently compelled by his national security team to sign off on that certification when he faced the first two deadlines as president. But he refused to follow the same advice in October, even though the International Atomic Energy Agency continued to report that Iran was living up to its essential obligations under the JCPOA.

Trump stopped short of declaring a US withdrawal from the deal, however, and instead punted the issue to Congress, initiating a 60-day review period during which American lawmakers could decide whether to re-impose sanctions. At the end of that period, Congress had taken no action and the established protocol for American participation in the JCPOA continued unaltered. It has now been nearly 90 days since Trumps October 13 decertification, and he is scheduled to report on Iranian compliance and American national security issues once again on Friday.

The administrations decision on this point will be immediately followed by deadlines for the reauthorization of JCPOA-related sanctions waivers, starting on Friday and continuing through Wednesday. The president is required to take action on these waivers as well as on the JCPOA itself. As CNBC put it in a report earlier in the week, this presents Trump with multiple opportunities to scrap the nuclear deal. Nevertheless, the report concluded that the JCPOA would probably survive those trials, even though its long-term prospects remain uncertain.

One thing that may influence Trumps decision-making on both compliance certification and sanctions waivers is a meeting that took place last week between representatives of the White House and the Senate to discuss the JCPOA and broader US strategies toward the Islamic Republic. The meeting followed up on Trumps warning that he would use presidential authority to cancel or undermine the deal if American lawmakers and their European partners did not take measures to strengthen its provisions and its enforcement.

The US cannot unilaterally alter the JCPOA, which was negotiated among Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and Germany. But Congress can change the standards for ongoing American implementation, and last weeks meeting focused on a bill that might codify the US governments rejection of controversial elements of the deal, like the sunset provisions that allow restrictions on the Iranian nuclear program to be lifted after approximately 15 years.

The prospective bill might also eliminate the every-90-day certification requirement, according to Reuters. This would presumably save President Trump from continuing to either defy his own views of the JCPOA or court international condemnation by decertifying it, only to take little or no further action against it.

However, CNBC reports that there has been little progress on this bill since it was first outlined in October, around the time of Trumps decertification announcement. The resulting absence of desired modifications to the deal may prove to be frustrating to the White House. But at the same time, the lack of progress prevents Trump from having a serious alternative to the existing agreement which he can present to European partners.

As the BBC reported on Thursday, those reporters reiterated their support for the JCPOA just ahead of Trumps latest decisions on it. Specifically, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the UK weighed in on the deal after a meeting in Brussels with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson insisted that the JCPOA has been successful in preventing Irans progress toward a nuclear weapon, but he also challenged the Trump administration to come up with a better alternative.

The BBC also quoted Mogherini as saying the agreement has been delivering on its main goal. No doubt this view is reinforced by the IAEAs determinations that Iran has been maintaining the agreed-upon restrictions, although many critics of the deal have responded to such claims by highlighting nuclear inspectors lack of access to Iranian military sites. In any event, Trumps decertification announcement in October focused not on the main goal of forestalling Iranian nuclear activities but on broader goal that was reiterated by Mogherini on Thursday when she said the deal was making the world safer.

The Trump administration explained that the Iranians were violating the spirit of the JCPOA through such activities as their test-firing of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and their continued intervention into regional conflicts, often with a specific eye toward undermining Western interests.

The preamble of the JCPOA announces that its signatories expect it to contribute to global peace and security, but the ongoing implementation of the agreement has been taking place against the backdrop of an escalating war of words, particularly between Tehran and the White House. This conflict has been given new focus by the anticipation of Trumps latest decisions, to which the Iranians responded with preemptive threats.

Agence France Presse reported on Monday that Iranian officials had warned the international community to be prepared for American withdrawal, adding that the Islamic Republic was already prepared for any scenario. The report added that Bahram Qasemi, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said that Tehran had already planned a heavy response for any action the US takes against the continued implementation of the JCPOA. Xinhua News Agency added that Majid Takht Ravanchi, Irans deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs, had warned of a response that would be rapid and a surprise to the United States.

Also on Monday, Reuters noted that Iranian authorities had declared they would reconsider their cooperation with the IAEA even if the US acted in a purely unilateral fashion to undermine the deal. And according to CNBC, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran specifically warned that it could increase uranium enrichment in response to a negative decision by the Trump administration. In previous comments, the AEOI and other Iranian authorities have insisted that they are in a position to not only resume full-scale enrichment but also to do so at a level far above what they had achieved by the time the JCPOA went into effect.

But it is not clear that comments from the likes of Qasemi and Ravanchi refer only to the resumption of voluntarily suspended nuclear activities, especially given that they are directed more specifically at the US. Indeed, these comments immediately preceded similarly vague threats from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, unrelated to the nuclear deal. Elaborating upon his claim that recent nationwide protests in the Islamic Republic had been orchestrated by foreign infiltrators, Khamenei accused the US of doing harm to the Iranian nation and warned that American interests will have an answer.
As President Trump is making key decisions about sanctioning Tehran over the 2015 nuclear deal, the US House of Representatives voted 415-2 to support anti-government protesters in Iran in a show of overwhelming bipartisan consensus.

A resolution condemning the regimes web censorship and the response by the Revolutionary Guards was also backed by the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce.

We all face a clear choice: stand with the protesters  who demand the basic rights and opportunities enjoyed in free societies  or stand with their oppressors  who steal the wealth of a great nation to enrich themselves and to fund violence abroad, said Royce, who added, These brave men and women are standing up against the Revolutionary Guards violent intervention in Syria and Lebanon. We must join them in demanding an end to the single greatest source of instability in the Middle East.

Royce also weighed in on a congressional law to target those responsible for human rights violations during the crackdown, and another one to push the corrupt Revolutionary Guards out of the Iranian economy.

As well, House Speaker Paul Ryan used Twitter to speak in support of the Iranian peoples right to protest their brutal regime.

At the House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on January 10th that he chaired, Royce said, With the leadership of this committee, Congress has used sanctions to marshal Americas economic might against threats to our national security. Last August, we enacted tough new sanctions on three regimes  North Korea, Russia and Iran  that continue to undermine global stability. The House has also passed sanctions to crack down on Hezbollahs use of drug trafficking and other criminal activities to fund its terror. With this hearing, the committee will review the implementation and enforcement of these efforts by agencies including the Departments of Treasury, State, Commerce, and Justice.

On nearly a daily basis, Trump tweeted his support of Iranian protesters during the peak of the rallies.

Deadlines related to the Iran nuclear deal begin late this week. According to State Department spokesman Steve Goldstein, Trump must make decisions regarding whether to re-impose oil sanctions lifted under the 2015 deal. Goldstein also told journalists that ahead of these decisions, Trump is expected to meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at the White House later in the week.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that foreign attempts to turn legitimate protests into an insurgency had failed.

The regime appears to be confident that it has quashed unrest that spread to more than 80 cities. The enemy now repeatedly makes moves and they are defeated each time, Khamenei said, according to state media. Its because of the resistance, because of the strong populist and national dam.
An important issue that sets this apart from the previous nationwide protests in 2009 and 1999 is the reference made by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to the party behind these rallies. While Tehran pointing fingers at Washington, London, Israel and the Saudis is not new, Khamenei made a statement in which he pointed to the Iranian opposition Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The significance of this is that it may be an indication of the regimes real concerns.

According to Reuters, As well as Washington and London, Khamenei blamed the violence on Israel, exiled dissident group Peoples Mujahedin of Iran and a wealthy government in the Gulf, a probable reference to Irans regional rival, Saudi Arabia.

In his article for Forbes, Heshmat Alavi writes, This recent wave of protests is setting the grounds with new sets of rules and understandings. Displayed below, are what Alavi indicates as these new rules and understandings:

1) The Iranian people no longer fear in expressing their true feelings, seen in the nationwide slogan of Death to Khamenei. Such a brave measure in the past would bear the potential of earning you a heavy prison term, if not a death sentence.

Once the Islamic Republics greatest taboo, chanting Death to Khamenei is now the norm in #Iran. Southern schoolkids chant against regimes Supreme Leader. Doesnt take a genius to work out Khameneis approval rating among parents in the city  via #MEK activists. #IranProtests

 M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) 2:58 PM  Jan 8, 2018

2) Unlike previous uprisings, these demonstrations are mushrooming across the country, reaching over 130 cities and towns, according to activists. Places less heard of before, such as Izeh, Dorud, Shahin Shahr and etc. are now seen leading the growing wave of protests. Brave demonstrators are threatening the regimes very pillars to an extent that security forces have opened fire and killed dozens of protesters, arresting thousands, according to reports.

3) From the second day of this uprising protesters have shown their overcoming of prior fears through responding to the security forces attacks and quelling. State vehicles, motorcycles, makeshift police stations and other facilities are being set ablaze by protesters in response to the regimes unbridled crackdown.
This is whats trending today

Activists are denouncing French film star Catherine Deneuve and other women for an open letter they published this week in the newspaper Le Monde.

The letter sharply criticized the #metoo campaign. The movement began in October with accusations of sexual wrongdoing against American movie producer Harvey Weinstein. The accusations led to his dismissal from the company he founded.

In the months since, more people have come forward with abuse accusations against men in powerful positions across many industries.

Deneuve and more than 100 other French women signed the letter. It said the movement had become a public trial, in which the accused were not given a chance to defend themselves. And it said the movement is powered by a hatred of men.

The women also argue in the letter that the movement represses sexual freedom and serves those who see women as separate beings, children with the appearance of adults, demanding to be protected.

The letter begins with the statement that rape is a crime. But the letter also argues that it is not a crime to touch a womans knee, try to steal a kiss, talk about intimate things during a work meal, or send sexually charged messages to women who did not return their interest.

Social media responses to the letter have been mixed.

Actor Asia Argento, who has accused Weinstein of rape, was dismissive on Twitter. She wrote: Catherine Deneuve and other French women tell the world how their interiorized misogyny has lobotomized them to the point of no return.

But in answer to Argento, Twitter user Claire Fox wrote: "Bravo Denueuve, who speaks for those many women told to shut up by the sisterhood for daring to worry about a witch-hunt atmosphere."

A witch hunt is the act of unfairly punishing people who are accused of having opinions that some consider to be dangerous or evil.

On Wednesday, several French womens rights activists dismissed the letter. The activists wrote on the website Franceinfotv that Deneuve and the others who signed the letter are making sexual violence appear normal.

And thats whats trending today.

I'm Caty Weaver.

Caty Weaver adapted this report for Learning English based on Associated Press reports. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

repress - v. to not allow yourself to do or express (something)

intimate - n. involving sex or sexual relations

interiorize - v. to make interior; to make a part of one's own inner being.

misogyny - n  dislike of, or prejudice against women.

lobotomize - v. to undergo an operation in which part of the brain is cut in order to treat some mental disorders

bravo - interjection. used to express approval of a performance
The Philippines and Indonesia are working together to stop supporters of the Islamic State terror group from entering the Philippines.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi recently met with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in the southern city of Davao for talks.

The discussion centered on Islamic State sympathizers in Indonesia going to the Philippines to join anti-government fighters.

Duterte and the Indonesian foreign minister agreed to additional cooperation in stopping terrorism. The website of the presidents office said they also discussed maritime security.

Indonesia is mainly a Muslim country. It has so-called sleeper cells of people who sympathize with the Islamic State. The extremist group has mainly been driven out of bases in Iraq and Syria.

The U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group says that in 2016 Islamic State, or IS, picked a Filipino rebel as its leader in Southeast Asia. Reports, however, say that he was recently killed.

Some Indonesian sympathizers worked with Filipino rebels in a five-month war in the southern Philippines last year.

Philippine officials believe that Indonesians and also Malaysians went to the southern island Mindanao at that time. They are believed to have supported local rebels who sympathize with the Islamic State group. That fighting in the Philippines killed at least 1,127 people, including more than 900 militants.

In October, Philippine troops declared victory over the Maute Group of Muslim rebels. The group had declared allegiance to Islamic State, which is also referred to as ISIS.

A police spokesman in Jakarta told reporters that at least 38 Indonesians were helping Philippine rebels as of last June. That is one month after fighting broke out in the Philippine city of Marawi.

Bibhu Routray is a visiting security and counter-terrorism professor at Murdoch University in Australia. He says some of the 40 to 50 foreign rebel supporters in Marawi had traveled from Indonesia to fight for Islamic State after the group called for volunteers.

Thirty Indonesians got there from Syria and it is believed they were sent by Islamic State, Routray said. He added that on their return home they went through the Philippines. He said this suggests that Islamic State sent them to fight in Marawi.

The Indonesian government said in November it would support the Philippine efforts to stop Islamic State in Marawi. In June, the same government had sent 119 police officers and 200 special forces to Sulawesi Island to help the army stop terrorists.

Philippine officials have warned against new Muslim rebel violence in Mindanao although they say Marawi is under control.

Eduardo Araral is an associate professor at the National University of Singapore. He said, I think its logical that Indonesia should always keep its guards up, because they know for a fact that their main sleeper cells around Indonesia are waiting for opportunities to come.

About 20 Muslim rebel groups operate in Mindanao. The large island is rich in resources by economically poor.

People there say the majority Catholic country has taken a lopsided share of resources although there are many Muslims on the island.

Violence has killed about 120,000 people on Mindanao since the 1960s.

The Straits Times of Singapore online newspaper reports that Islamic State sleeper cells operate in most Indonesian provinces.

The extremist Islamic group East Indonesia Mujaheedin recruits young people on Sulawesi Island. It has promised to support Islamic State.

Experts say there is a lack of security patrols in the Celebes Sea. The body of water south of Mindanao and east of Borneo.

But Indonesia and the Philippines do have reached maritime agreements before.

They signed an agreement in 2014 after twenty years of talks on formal boundaries around their economic zones in the Celebes Sea.

Im Susan Shand

Ralph Jennings reported this story for VOA News. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

Maritime  adj. of or relating to sailing on the sea or doing business (such as trading) by sea

Sleeper cell  n. group of sympathizers in hiding

Allegiance - n. loyalty to a person, country, group, etc.

Resource  n. something that a country has and can use to increase its wealth

Lopsided  adj. uneven or unequal

Recruits v. to get someone to join a group, service or company

Patrols n. a group of people, vehicles, etc., that go through an area to make sure that it is safe


South Korea said on Thursday it plans to ban trading of cryptocurrency, including the popular bitcoin.

The announcement sent bitcoin prices much lower and created unrest in the cryptocurrency market.

Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said the government was preparing a bill to ban trading of the virtual money on South Korean currency exchanges.

He said, There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and the justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges.

The price of bitcoin in South Korea dropped as much as 21 percent immediately after the ministers comments.

Around the world, one bitcoin was valued at about $14,000 on Thursday, January 11. Over the past year, the price moved from less than $1,000 in January 2017 to a high of $19,000 last month.

Bitcoin is different from national currencies, which are supported by governments and national banks. It is stored as a line of computer code. It is not printed on paper or something you can hold.

Bitcoin is similar to real money because you can spend it without using your real identity, as you do with a credit card. People who want to buy and sell things anonymously like bitcoin.

Exchanges of bitcoin in South Korea

By Thursday afternoon, more than 55,000 South Koreans called on the government to stop the proposed ban.

After the price drop, the South Korean presidents office said a ban on cryptocurrency exchanges had yet to be finalized. It said the ban was one of the measures being considered.

A press official at the justice ministry said the proposed ban on cryptocurrency trading came after enough discussion with finance ministry and financial officials.

Once a bill is written, legislation for a ban of virtual coin trading still requires a majority of the vote in the National Assembly. It is a process that could take months or even years.

Mun Chong-hyun, chief analyst at EST Security, told Reuters the ban will make trading difficult here, but not impossible.

Mun added, Keen traders, especially hackers, will find it tough to cash out their gains from virtual coin investments in Korea but they can go overseas, for example, Japan.

Park Nok-sun is a cryptocurrency expert at NH Investment & Securities. Park said Some officials are pushing for stronger and stronger regulations because they only see more (investors) jumping in, not out.

South Korean officials are worried that the rising value has fueled huge demand for cryptocurrency in the country. They fear college students and housewives are hoping to get rich quick by investing. They likened it to a game of chance.

The news of South Koreas proposed ban came as governments around the world are looking to control the trading of cryptocurrencies.

Im Jonathan Evans.

The Reuters news agency reported this story. Hai Do adapted the report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

cryptocurrency - n. money that only exists electronically

virtual - adj. existing or occurring on computers or on the internet

anonymously - adv. not named or identified

analyst - n. a person who study or analyze something

hacker - n. a person who secretly gets access to a computer system in order to get information, cause damage, etc.
The local government in Washington, D.C. has approved plans to rename one of the citys streets after Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

The street is in front of the Russian embassy to the United States. Nemtsov, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was killed in 2015.

Time magazine reports that Russian lawmakers have criticized the plan.

On January 9, the Council of the District of Columbia passed a measure called the Boris Nemtsov Plaza Designation Act. Every member of the council voted to approve the renaming of the street "on an emergency basis."

The measure renames the part of Wisconsin Avenue that is home to the Russian Embassy in honor of the opposition leader. Boris Nemtsov was a reformist politician and fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Nemtsov was shot and killed nearly three years ago on a bridge in Moscow.

A change coming at a tense time

D.C. officials are seeking permission from the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Homeland Security before they make the change. Council officials said that a ceremony to set up a plaque honoring Nemtsov has been set for the third anniversary of his death on February 27.

Federal legislation to rename the area along Wisconsin Avenue was first proposed in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in 2017. The proposal has yet to be approved.

The Senate bill states that the address of the property containing the embassy, the Russian ambassadors home and consulate would be changed to 1 Boris Nemtsov Plaza.

In the past, Russian officials have expressed opposition to the renaming. However, Dimitry Peskov, a government spokesman, said it is the decision of the D.C. officials for how to name the street in front of the embassy.

"This is a prerogative of the city authorities, he said, while noting it comes at a time when relations between the two countries have been tense. Russias state-operated TASS news agency reported his comments.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports that Nemtsov supporters set up an unofficial memorial in his honor on the bridge where he was shot dead. But it has been repeatedly damaged or removed by unknown individuals.

Last September, a plaque honoring Nemtsov was placed on the Moscow building where the opposition leader lived. But city officials declared the plaque illegal. It was removed after less than one week by a pro-government activist group.

In June, a Moscow court found five men from Russia's North Caucasus area of Chechnya guilty of Nemtsov's murder. It sentenced them to prison for terms between 11 to 20 years.

However, Nemtsovs relatives and other contacts believe the killing had been ordered at a higher level. They say there will be no justice until the person or people who ordered his murdered are identified and brought to trial.

Symbols can create change

Last month, Nemtsovs daughter Zhanna Nemtsova spoke at a public hearing in Washington. She told D.C. council members that Putin's government wanted to completely remove the memory of her father. She said the Kremlin believes correctly that symbols are important and can sometimes incite change.

"This explains the nervous reaction from the Russian Foreign Ministry when they first heard of the Washington, D.C., [street-naming] initiative," Nemtsova said.

Im Lucija Millonig.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on this story. Phil Dierking adapted the story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Do you think streets in front of Embassys should be named after political activists? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

consulate  n. a diplomatic office

initiative  n. the power to act or take charge before others do.

plaque  n. a piece of metal or wood with writing on it

prerogative  n. a special right or power

symbol  n. something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship or ties

address  n. a place where you can contact or communicate with an individual or organization
Dril-Quip, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. The company's principal products include subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipes, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, diverters, and safety valves, as well as downhole tools. It also provides technical advisory services, and rework and reconditioning services, as well as rental and purchase of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products; and downhole tools comprise of liner hangers, production packers, safety valves, and specialty downhole tools that are used to hang-off and seal casing into a previously installed casing string in the well bore. The company's products are used to explore for oil and gas from offshore drilling rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs; and for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms, tension leg platforms, and Spars, as well as moored vessels, such as floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels. It sells its products directly through its sales personnel, independent sales agents, and representatives to integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Penske Automotive Group, Inc., a diversified transportation services company, operates automotive and commercial truck dealerships. The company operates through four segments: Retail Automotive, Retail Commercial Truck, Other, and Non-Automotive Investments. It operates dealerships under franchise agreements with various automotive manufacturers and distributors. The company engages in the sale of new and used motor vehicles, and related products and services comprise vehicle and collision repair services, as well as placement of finance and lease contracts, third-party insurance products, and other aftermarket products; and wholesale of parts. It also operates a heavy and medium duty truck dealership, which offers Freightliner and Western Star branded trucks, as well as a range of used trucks, and maintenance and repair services. In addition, it imports and distributes Western Star heavy-duty trucks, MAN heavy and medium duty trucks, buses, and Dennis Eagle refuse collection vehicles with associated parts in Australia, New Zealand, and portions of the Pacific. Further, the company distributes diesel and gas engines, and power systems. The company operates 320 retail automotive franchises, including 146 franchises located in the United States and 174 franchises located outside of the United States; 23 CarShop used vehicle dealerships in the United States and the United Kingdom; and 37 commercial truck dealerships in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, Utah, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, and Oregon, as well as Canada. Penske Automotive Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, and markets biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, neuroscience, and covid-19 diseases. The company's products include Revlimid, an oral immunomodulatory drug for the treatment of multiple myeloma; Eliquis, an oral inhibitor for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in NVAF, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for anti-cancer indications; Pomalyst/Imnovid indicated for patients with multiple myeloma; and Orencia for adult patients with active RA and psoriatic arthritis. It also provides Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia; Yervoy for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; Abraxane, a protein-bound chemotherapy product; Reblozyl for the treatment of anemia in adult patients with beta thalassemia; and Empliciti for the treatment of multiple myeloma. In addition, the company offers Zeposia to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis; Breyanzi, a CD19-directed genetically modified autologous T cell immunotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma; Inrebic, an oral kinase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of adult patients with myelofibrosis; and Onureg for the treatment of adult patients with AML. It sells products to wholesalers, distributors, pharmacies, retailers, hospitals, clinics, and government agencies. The company was formerly known as Bristol-Myers Company. The company was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
BlackBerry Limited provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Cybersecurity, IoT, and Licensing and Other. The company offers BlackBerry Cyber Suite, which provides Cylance AI and machine learning-based cybersecurity solutions, including BlackBerry Protect, an EPP and available MTD solution; BlackBerry Optics, an EDR solution that provides visibility into and prevention of malicious activity; BlackBerry Guard, a managed detection and response solution; BlackBerry Gateway, an AI-empowered ZTNA solution; and BlackBerry Persona, a UEBA solution that provides authentication by validating user identity in real time. It also provides BlackBerry Spark Unified Endpoint Management Suite, such as BlackBerry UEM, a central software component of its secure communications platform; BlackBerry Dynamics that provides a development platform and secure container for mobile applications; BlackBerry AtHoc and BlackBerry Alert secure and networked critical event management solutions; and SecuSUITE for Government, a multi-OS voice and text messaging solution, as well as BBM Enterprise, an enterprise-grade secure instant messaging solution. In addition, the company offers BlackBerry QNX, which provides Neutrino operating system and BlackBerry QNX CAR platform, and other products; BlackBerry QNX, an embedded system solution; BlackBerry Jarvis, a cloud-based binary static application security testing platform; BlackBerry Certicom cryptography and management products, and BlackBerry Radar asset monitoring solution; and BlackBerry IVY, an intelligent vehicle data platform, as well as enterprise and cybersecurity consulting services. Further, it is involved in the patent licensing and legacy service access fees business. As of February 28, 2022, it owned approximately 38,000 worldwide patents and applications. BlackBerry Limited was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Waterloo, Canada.
Brookdale Senior Living Inc. owns, manages, and operates senior living communities in the United States. It operates in three segments: Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care, and Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs). The Independent Living segment owns or leases communities comprising independent and assisted living units in a single community that are primarily designed for middle to upper income seniors. The Assisted Living and Memory Care segment owns or leases communities consisting of freestanding multi-story communities and freestanding single-story communities, which offer housing and 24-hour assistance with activities of daily living for the Company's residents. This segment also operates memory care communities for residents with Alzheimer's and other dementias. The CCRCs segment owns or leases communities that provides various living arrangements, such as independent and assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing; and services to accommodate various levels of physical ability and healthcare needs. It also manages communities on behalf of others. As of December 31, 2021, the company owned 347 communities, leased 299 communities, and managed 33 communities on behalf of others. Brookdale Senior Living Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.
NCI Building Systems, Inc. designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets metal products for the nonresidential construction industry in North America. It operates in four segments: Engineered Building Systems, Metal Components, Insulated Metal Panels, and Metal Coil Coating. The Engineered Building Systems segment offers engineered structural members and panels; and self-storage building systems under the Metallic, Mid-West Steel, A & S, All American, Mesco, Star, Ceco, Robertson, Garco, Heritage, and SteelBuilding.com brands to builders, general contractors, developers, and end users directly, as well as through private label companies. The Metal Components segment provides metal roof and wall systems, metal partitions, metal trims, doors, and other related accessories for use in new construction, and repair and retrofit applications; roll-up doors; and interior and exterior walk doors under the MBCI, American Building Components, Eco-ficient, Metal Depots, and Doors and Buildings Components brands to manufacturers, contractors, subcontractors, distributors, lumberyards, cooperative buying groups, and other customers. The Insulated Metal Panels segment offers insulated metal panels for architectural, commercial, industrial, and cold storage end-market applications under the Metl-Span and CENTRIA brands. The Metal Coil Coating segment engages in cleaning, treating, and painting flat-rolled metals in coil form, as well as in slitting and/or embossing the metal, before the metal is fabricated for use by industrial users. It also cleans, treats, and coats heavy and light gauge metal coils for use in construction products, heating and air conditioning systems, water heaters, lighting fixtures, ceiling grids, office furniture, appliances, and other products; and provides toll coating and painted metal package services under the Metal Coaters and Metal Prep brands. NCI Building Systems, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Banco Santander-Chile, together with its subsidiaries, provides commercial and retail banking products and services in Chile. It operates through Retail Banking, Middle-Market, Corporate Investment Banking, and Corporate Activities segments. The company offers debit and credit cards, checking accounts, and savings products; consumer, automobile, commercial, mortgage, and government-guaranteed loans; and Chilean peso and foreign currency denominated loans to finance various commercial transactions, trade, foreign currency forward contracts, and credit lines, as well as mortgage financing services. It also provides mutual funds, insurance and securities brokerage, foreign exchange, financial leasing, factoring, financial consulting and advisory, investment management, foreign trade, treasury, and transactional services, as well as specialized services to finance projects for the real estate industry. In addition, the company offers short-term financing and fund raising, and brokerage services, as well as derivatives, securitization, and other tailor-made products. It serves individuals, small to middle-sized entities, companies, and large corporations, as well as universities, government entities, and local and regional governments. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 326 branches, which include 220 under the Santander brand name, 14 under the Select brand name, 7 specialized branches for the middle market, and 22 as auxiliary and payment centers, as well as 1,338 ATMs, including depository ATMs. Banco Santander-Chile was incorporated in 1977 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
The following companies are subsidiares of Lennar: 360 Developers LLC, Alliance Financial Services Inc., Ann Arundel Farms Ltd., Aquaterra Utilities Inc., Arbor Mill Veteran Project 2018 LLC, Asbury Woods L.L.C., Astoria Options LLC, Autumn Creek Development Ltd., Aylon LLC, Azusa Associates LLC, B2 Milpitas LLC, BB Investment Holdings LLC, BCI Properties LLC, BMR Communities LLC, BMR Construction Inc., BMTD LLC, BPH I LLC, Bainebridge 249 LLC, Bay Colony Expansion 369 Ltd., Bellagio Lennar LLC, Belle Meade LEN Holdings LLC, Belle Meade Partners LLC, Black Mountain Ranch LLC, Blue Horizons Estates LLC, Bonterra Lennar LLC, Bramalea California Inc., Bressi Gardenlane LLC, Breton Park Lennar LLC, CAP IL 1 LLC, CL Ventures LLC, CML INACTIVE LLC, CML-MO HAF LLC, CML-MO HAF PARKING LLC, CP Block 6aS LLC, CP Block 8aS LLC, CP Block 9aS LLC, CP Center Apartments LLC, CP Center Garage LLC, CP Red Oak Partners Ltd., CP Vertical Development Co. 1 LLC, CP/HPS Development Co. GP LLC, CP/HPS Development Co.-C LLC, CPFE LLC, CPHP Development LLC, CalAtlantic Financial Services Inc., CalAtlantic Group, CalAtlantic Group Inc., CalAtlantic Homes of Arizona Inc., CalAtlantic Homes of Georgia Inc., CalAtlantic Homes of Texas Inc., CalAtlantic Homes of Washington Inc., CalAtlantic Mortgage Inc., CalAtlantic National Title Solutions LLC, CalAtlantic Title Agency LLC, CalAtlantic Title Group LLC, CalAtlantic Title Inc., CalAtlantic Title LLC, CalAtlantic Title of Maryland Inc., Camarillo Village Park LLC, Cambria L.L.C., Candlestick Retail Member LLC, Cardiovascular Medical Specialists LLC, Carolina Blue LLC, Carson 175 LLC, Cary Woods LLC, Casa Marina Development LLC, Central Park West Holdings LLC, Cherrytree II LLC, Club Bonterra Lennar LLC, Coco Palm 82 LLC, Colonial Heritage LLC, Columbia National Risk Retention Group Inc., Commonwealth Incentive Fee LLC, Concord Station LLP, Coventry L.L.C., Creekside Crossing L.L.C., Crest at Fondren Investor LLC, DBJ Holdings LLC, DCA Financial LLC, DTC Holdings of Florida LLC, Darcy-Joliet L.L.C., Durrell 33 LLC, EL Ventures LLC, EV LLC, Eagle Bend Commercial LLC, Eagle Home Mortgage LLC, Estates Seven LLC, Evergreen Village LLC, F&R QVI Home Investments USA LLC, FLORDADE LLC, Faria Preserve LLC, Fidelity Guaranty and Acceptance Corp., Fidelity Land LLC, Fox-Maple Associates LLC, Friendswood Development Company LLC, GDI MANAGER LLC, Garco Investments LLC, Greystone Construction Inc., Greystone Homes of Nevada Inc., Greystone Nevada Holdings LLC, Greystone Nevada LLC, Greywall Club L.L.C., HCC Investors LLC, HPS Development Co. LP, HPS Vertical Development Co. LLC, HPS Vertical Development Co.-B LP, HPS Vertical Development Co.-D/E LLC, HPS1 Block 1 LLC, HPS1 Block 48-1A LLC, HPS1 Block 48-1B LLC, HPS1 Block 48-2A LLC, HPS1 Block 48-2B LLC, HPS1 Block 48-3A LLC, HPS1 Block 48-3B LLC, HPS1 Block 50 LLC, HPS1 Block 51 LLC, HPS1 Block 52 LLC, HPS1 Block 53 LLC, HPS1 Block 54 LLC, HPS1 Block 55 LLC, HPS1 Block 56/57 LLC, HSP Arizona Inc., HTC Golf Club LLC, Hammocks Lennar LLC, Harbor Highlands Group LLC, Harveston LLC, Haverton L.L.C., Heathcote Commons LLC, Heritage Pkwy East Holdings LLC, Heritage of Auburn Hills L.L.C., Hewitts Landing Trustee LLC, Hingham Properties LLC, Huntley Venture L.L.C., Inactive Companies LLC, Independence L.L.C., Independence Orlando LLC, Isles at Bayshore Club LLC, KMC Real Estate Investors LLC, Kendall Hammocks Commercial LLC, Kentuckiana Medical Center LLC, Kingman Lennar LLC, LB/L  Duc III Antioch 330 LLC, LCD Asante LLC, LCI Downtown Doral Investor LLC, LCI North DeKalb Investor GP LLC, LCI North DeKalb 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The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers a range of skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, cleansing devices, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools. The company also provides fragrance products in various forms comprising eau de parfum sprays and colognes, as well as lotions, powders, creams, candles, and soaps; and hair care products that include shampoos, conditioners, styling products, treatment, finishing sprays, and hair color products, as well as sells ancillary products and services. It offers its products under the Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, MAC, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Smashbox, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, GLAMGLOW, Kilian Paris, Too Faced, Dr. Jart+, DECIEM, and The Ordinary brands. The company sells its products through department stores, specialty-multi retailers, upscale perfumeries and pharmacies, and salons and spas; freestanding stores; its own and authorized retailer websites; third-party online malls; stores in airports; and duty-free shops. The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Leaders of nations along Southeast Asias Mekong River gathered yesterday in the Cambodian capital amid a push by China to build more dams that are altering the water flow and have raised environmental concerns.

The meeting is chaired by Cambodias Prime Minister Hun Sen and Chinas Premier Li Keqiang, who are joined by leaders from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar.

The stated goal of the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation forum, which was created by China in 2015, is to promote sustainable development and boost the quality of life for the millions of people living in the Mekong sub-region.

Known as the Lancang in China, the Mekong River is vital to Southeast Asia, where more than 60 million people rely on it and its tributaries for food, water and transport.

The worlds 12th-longest river, the Mekong runs nearly 5,000 kilometers from the Tibetan Plateau and down into mainland Southeast Asia before emptying into the South China Sea in Vietnam. The rivers basin is home to up to 1,700 fish species, making it the most diverse basin after the Amazon and Congo.

Yet the river is also another potential source of regional tensions due to an increasing number of hydroelectric projects that are altering the flow and raising concerns of ecological damage. Vietnam, already locked in conflict with Beijing over territory in the South China Sea, says it is at particular risk of adverse effects.

China is the driving force behind many of the projects, having already built eight dams on the river since the 1990s and currently building or planning more than a dozen more. Laos is home to most of the dams planned for the rivers lower stretch.

China is also seeking to have parts or the river dredged or rapids cleared so that large cargo ships can navigate. Environmentalists have warned this could have dire consequences on the ecosystem.

In the two years since the forums establishment, China has set aside billions of dollars to support 45 projects including water resource research centers and cooperation on connectivity projects, industrial capacity, border trade, agriculture and poverty alleviation.

The forum is seen as a rival to the Mekong River Commission, which has been around for more than 60 years but excludes China and Myanmar. AP
The Algerian government has blamed Islamic extremists for the deaths of more than 100 people, who were killed when two villages were attacked.

The latest violence follows a series of massacres in north-west Algeria since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

It is thought the attacks happened shortly after evening prayers. Homemade bombs were thrown into a cinema in Sidi Ahmed and a mosque in nearby Haouche Sahraoui, in the so-called triangle of death, south of the capital Algiers.

Survivors have said that people trying to escape the bombings were shot and attacked with knives, swords and axes. Since the end of December 1997, more than 800 people have been killed in villages and mountain hamlets. Last week more than 400 people were reportedly killed in a single attack and thousands of people have been fleeing the area.

Survivors have said that whole families were rounded up and either hacked or burned to death.

There is some speculation that the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which is accused of the massacres, may have shifted its operations outside urban centers as the result of pressure from the security forces.

One of the GIAs chiefs has recently been quoted by the media as saying that isolated villages should arm themselves or take refuge in larger, better-protected towns.

Very little is known about the GIA except that it espouses extremist interpretations of Islam which it uses to justify the acts of violence.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference has condemned the massacres, saying that such acts were categorically forbidden by Islam.

The Algerian government has angrily rejected any suggestions that the security forces have been involved in the massacres.

January marks the sixth anniversary of a military coup, the dissolution of the National Peoples Assembly and the introduction of a state of emergency.

This led to the cancellation of general elections and the disbanding of the main opposition party, the Islamic Salvation Front, which was certain to win the vote.

A violent insurgency against the coup has claimed the lives of between 60,000 and 80,000 people.

Recent violence has drawn concern from the world community and the US State Department has called for an international inquiry into the massacres. This has been rejected by the Algerian government who say it would give credence to the idea that Islamist extremists were not the only ones involved.

But a European Union fact-finding mission is expected in Algiers in the next ten days.

Courtesy BBC News

In context

The final number of dead was much higher than first reports suggested. Newspaper reports, after gathering statements from survivors, put the figure at 400  many of them women and children.

Villagers also said that around 30 girls had disappeared after the attacks, as had happened in previous massacres.

The struggle between the military and insurgents has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people.

In 1999 a referendum approved a law on civil concord, and an amnesty led to many insurgents laying down their arms and being pardoned by the government.

Thousands of militants were freed from prison by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who took office in 1999 and was re-elected in a landslide victory in 2004.

A general amnesty is now being considered for Algerians implicated in violence and murder since 1992.

Many Algerians say Mr. Bouteflika has brought security to the country, but some human rights campaigners say that abuses and torture by the security forces continue.

Since 1992, 7,000 Islamic prisoners arrested during the violent upheaval are reported to have disappeared.
Bosnian Serbs celebrated a banned statehood holiday Tuesday in stubborn defiance of the west and their non-Serb compatriots, but with tacit backing from Russia.

A handful of international guests attended the celebration in Banja Luka, the largest city in the Serb-run part of Bosnia, Republika Srpska. They included Serbias interior and defense ministers, as well as Anatoly Bibilov, president of Georgias breakaway province of South Ossetia.

The guests flanked Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik at a podium to watch a parade by police officers armed with automatic weapons, Bosnian War veterans, and members of sport clubs and rescue services. Closing the procession were Serb members of the Night Wolves, a Russian motorcycle club that staunchly supports President Vladimir Putin.

The January 9 holiday commemorates the date in 1992 when Bosnian Serbs declared the creation of an exclusively Serb state in multi-ethnic Bosnia. Backed by Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, the act ignited the countrys fratricidal 1992-95 war.

After the war, which claimed 100,000 lives and left 2.2 million people displaced, Republika Srpska became a semi- autonomous region of Bosnia. Non-Serbs who returned to their homes there view the holiday as a celebration of the expulsions and violence they suffered.

Addressing several thousand people who lined the street cheering Tuesdays parade, Dodik said Serbs had two states  Republika Srpska and Serbia  which would always support each other and wish to become one.

Dodik, who has repeatedly stated that the Serbs long-term goal is secession from the rest of Bosnia, often boasts of Russias support for his hard-line policies and efforts to keep Bosnia from establishing closer ties with the West.

Bosnias constitutional court banned the Serb statehood holiday in 2015, but Bosnian Serbs have refused to accept the ruling. Their defiance led the United States to impose sanctions on Dodik last year, while European diplomats and EU representatives in Bosnia have stopped meeting with him.

However, Dodik insisted Tuesday that he has many international friends and backers.

We have many friends and we are proud of them..We have friends in Russia and China, he said, going on to list Austrias right-wing Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache as a great friend.

Over the past few years, Dodik has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at least five times. Many fear the apparent Russian support for his destabilizing policies is part of Moscows effort to strengthen its foothold in Europe and could have devastating impacts on the conflict-prone Balkans region.

Doubling down on his anti-West and pro-Russia rhetoric, Dodik encouraged Bosnian Serb lawmakers in October to pass a non-binding resolution opposing Bosnias stated goal of joining NATO.

Membership in the military alliance is a goal supported by the Muslim Bosniaks and Croats who account for over 65 percent of the countrys population. AP
An explosion rocked a stricken oil tanker off the coast of Shanghai yesterday, forcing maritime authorities to suspend firefighting and rescue efforts, Chinese officials said.

Chinas ministry of transport said rescue vessels withdrew to a safe distance after the explosion on the Sanchis bow, the latest setback in the multinational effort to extinguish the burning wreck and find more than 30 missing crewmembers.

The ship is still on fire, the ministry said. Chinese officials have previously warned that the tanker could explode and sink, possibly triggering an environmental disaster.

The Sanchi was carrying nearly 1 million barrels of condensate, a type of gassy, ultra-light oil, when it collided Saturday evening with a freighter 257 kilometers (160 miles) off the coast and caught fire. Intense flames, bad weather and poor visibility have hampered rescue efforts.

The entire crew of the Panamanian-registered Sanchi  30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis  went missing after its collision with the Chinese freighter CF Crystal. The cause of the collision remains unclear.

Rescuers on Tuesday found a body believed to be a sailor from the Iranian- operated tanker, while a search continued for the 31 other missing crew members.

The National Iranian Tanker Co., the Sanchis operator, said Tuesday there was a chance that survivors were trapped in the ships engine room.

Since the vessels engine room is not directly affected by the fire and is about 14 meters under water, there is still hope, NITC spokesman Mohsen Bahrami told The Associated Press. AP
A debate proposed at the start of the legislature by lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong was finally held yesterday on the consequences of Typhoon Hato. Similar to a debate held last week, the responsibilities of government officials in the wake of the catastrophe were discussed.

We have to ascertain responsibilities! said Ng, referring both to the executive as well as at a political level.

The Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, and the interim director of the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG), Raymond Tam, remarked that the government has already assumed new responsibilities and has begun taking concrete measures to tackle the issues at hand.

Wong said, We draft plans [for the] short, mid and long-term. And one plan for the short-term that I can say has already been concluded is to improve the services of Civil Protection through buying several [pieces of] equipment We already concluded this, he said. Tam then continued, stating that the SMG would pay attention to key factors in storms; not only strong wind levels but also any rise in the tides. In such a way, SMG could guarantee that, [In the future] we will issue [a] timely warning.

In one of the very few new measures advanced by the Security Chief at yesterdays session, Wong said that in addition to acquiring any the equipment that was lacking during the Hatos rescue operations, SMG will also broadcast SMS messages to media outlets and install megaphones in vehicles that would circulate around the city to transmit information to the population.

Tam also said that the government is changing two executive orders that will add two more categories for typhoon severity (strong typhoon and super strong typhoon), add two new levels for storm surge warnings (from three to five), and increase the frequency of the wind analysis procedure from every hour to every 10 minutes.

Tam also reaffirmed that the new typhoon approaching warnings will give three hours notice from now on.

Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosario then replied to a question of lawmaker Au Kam San, saying we will raise our electricity production by resorting to Natural Gas plants in Ka Ho. I believe we should have this system in operation during this year.

Lawmakers Pereira Coutinho, Au Kam San and Ho Ion San, questioned the government about the responsibilities of senior officials.

Wong, the director of the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau, Eddie Kou, and the Secretary noted in response that a committee had already been created and had already presented its report, which stated that some people had violated their duties and that the appropriate disciplinary procedures had been followed.

Replying to Pereira Coutinhos doubts about the retirement of the former director Fong Soi Kun, Kou replied that the law establishes that every civil servant with over 30 years of service and over 55 years of age can request early retirement submitting a request more than 90 days prior to the retirement date.

Not satisfied with the explanation, Coutinho said, Put[ting] all the blame on the [former] director of the SMG is an unacceptable escape, adding, The report of CCAC (Committee Against Corruption) pointed out the problems about which I had warned before and the Secretary [for Transport and Public Works] didnt care at the time and continues to not to care now.

As for Ho, he noted that the current disciplinary measures that apply to Civil Servants involve their removal from their duties, with a potential suspension from salary earning for four years. The lawmaker considered these unfit. Kou replied, the government on the policy address for 2018 had said already that it would regulate in different ways the evaluation from the Civil Servants. We are reviewing this regime to see if there is a margin to improve it.

Questioning a different issue were the lawmakers from the Workers Association, Ella Lei and Leong Sun Iok, who were asking about a mechanism to be established regarding rules for the non-circulation of people during severe storms, specifically preventing them from going to work.

Leong further reminded the room that the Labor Law does not establish anything on this matter.

This fact was acknowledged by both secretaries, while Wong said, rules do not force the suspension from work of private entities and we do not have a way to force them to do that.

Rosario stated, In fact, thats the situation. All we can do is to recommend that people do not leave their houses, when that is possible.

Lei remarked that such lack of rules is a threat to the safety [of the workers]. If the public services and the schools can stop, the government should think about this for the others [private entities] too, noting that during and in the aftermath of Hato, many workers were forced to go to their jobs but upon arrival there was no electricity or water supply and many just stayed there seated without doing anything, thus further urging the government to create a mechanism to respond to these situations.

In the end, lawmaker Ng showed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the debate, calling for more accountability of the Chief Executive (CE). The government continues to say that the CE was there coordinating, but the feeling of the population is different. The CE should say what he really did, what instructions [were] provided and if the Public Services followed such decisions. He must justify [his actions] to society because there are many inconsistencies [in this case].
U.S. telecoms carrier AT&T has dropped plans to sell Chinese brand Huaweis smartphones in the United States, dealing a setback to the No. 3 global phone makers expansion plans, according to news reports.

The Wall Street Journal, which reported the development Tuesday, gave no reason for AT&T Inc.s decision. The South China Morning Post said Huawei Technologiess vice president for consumer business, Richard Yu, confirmed the move in a text message to the newspaper and wrote, We have been harmed again.

Yu told AP in December the company would announce smartphone sales through a U.S. carrier this week. Huawei sells some models in U.S. electronics stores and online but has a minimal share of an American market in which most sales are through carriers.

Ahead of the planned announcement, Huawei had issued a statement that said, Over the past five years Huawei has proven itself by delivering premium devices with integrity globally and in the U.S. market. On Tuesday Huawei will introduce new products to the U.S. market, including availability.

Huawei, the worlds biggest maker of network gear used by phone companies, suffered a setback in the U.S. market when a congressional report in October 2013 said it was a security risk and warned telecom carriers not to use its equipment.

Globally, the companys handset business trails Samsung and Apple by shipments. But it leads in China, the biggest market, and says it expects to ship a total of 150 million units this year.

Huaweis shipments rose 16.1 percent in the latest quarter over a year earlier to 39.1 million handsets, ahead of Apples 2.6 percent growth to sales of 46.7 million, according to IDC. Samsung sales expanded 9.5 percent to 83.3 million units.

In his comments in December, Yu rejected the U.S. security complaints as politically motivated or possibly an attempt by competitors to keep it out of the market.

They are lying, said Yu. We are a company that really cares about cybersecurity and privacy protection. We do a lot better than the other vendors. AP
Lawmaker Sulu Sou filed an appeal to the Court of Second Instance (TSI) last week for the annulment of his suspension from the Legislative Assembly.

First and foremost, Sou and his lawyer, Jorge Menezes, accused the Legislative Assembly (AL) and its main bodies of having overstepped a series of procedures, disregarding the Basic Law, the general law and the House Rules in order to suspend the lawmaker  elected by universal suffrage  on December 4, 2017.

In a document of 60-odd pages, the defence chronicles all the facts and procedures that led to the AL plenary session that voted in favor of the suspension of Sulu Sou  28 votes for and four against.

The lawmaker contends that five decisions and deliberations made by the President, the board and the plenary of the AL violated the rules of procedure and fundamental rights of the appellant.

The appeal, reviewed by the Times, noted that, It is not a request for the Court [of Second Instance] to replace the AL itself or even to appreciate the substance of the matter. Instead it requests the court to investigate and deliberate on the legality of the acts that supported and originated the Plenary Deliberation.

Sulu Sou is appealing against the plenary deliberation of December 4 which decided for the suspension of his mandate. The defence accuses the legislative body of denying Sou his fundamental right to address the plenary and to vote on a matter of public interest, without a previous deliberation from the same Plenary that there was a conflict of interests.

The appellant says that, according to the law, only the plenary of the AL has the right to decide on this matter. In this case, the declaration of conflict was deliberated by the board of the AL in violation of the Statutory Rules.

The deliberation of the AL Board (Nov 21, 2017) which determined that the appellant lawmaker was in a situation of conflicting interests lacks competence and, therefore, results in its own annulment and in the annulment of the Plenary Deliberation [which suspended Sou].

Sous lawyer contends that the whole process suffers from gross irregularities and a deficient interpretation of the law, starting with the Committee of Rules and Mandates that led to unprecedented decisions by the AL and its president.

The AL President denied lawmaker Sulu Sou the right to defend himself, saying he ceased to benefit from the said right, invoking a conflict of interests.

This is certainly a unique case in the history of the MSAR: an interested party could be the subject of an unfavourable decision without having the right to defend himself, the appeal states.

In his appeal, Sulu Sou said he should have had the fundamental right to participate autonomously in the debate and the vote regarding the suspension of his mandate, because it was a case of public interest. A fundamental right can only be restricted by law, as per Article 40 of the Basic Law and the general law. The conflict of interest only applies in cases where there is a personal interest involved.

The various bodies of the AL that dealt with this case contend that Sous suspension is a matter of the personal sphere, hence he should not participate. If it was indeed a matter of the personal sphere, there would be [a] conflict of interests, for example, if a lawmaker who owns a casino wanted to participate in a discussion about legislation of the casino industry, the document reads.

This action is supported by numerous court cases in the MSAR and relevant legal literature, mostly from experts in Portugal and Spain.

For the appellant, the President of the AL violated a subjective fundamental, sacred right of Public Law, and was inconsiderate of the public interest of the citizens represented [by Sou], giving a repressive image of the legislative body of the MSAR in the House where those rights should be upheld.

The Legislative Assembly voted for the suspension of Sous mandate at the request of the Court of First Instance to lift his parliamentary immunity. He will stand trial next Tuesday for an alleged act of civil disobedience during a demonstration. Jorge Menezes is the defendants attorney.

A duty to appeal

In a message shared on his social media page, lawmaker Sulu Sou argued that it was his duty to appeal the plenary decision to suspend him in early December.

Sou argued that it was his duty to appeal the decision  not only in the interest of elucidating relevant legal viewpoints to serve as a reference for future similar proceedings  but also to enhance the dignity of the Legislative Assembly and of the Rule of Law.

Sou recalled concerns raised by himself and several other legislators  notably fellow lawmaker Pereira Coutinho  on the legality of the December 4 vote proceedings.

Several illegalities were detected in the proceeding of suspension, including the guarantee of my right to be heard, wrote Sou. I believe it would be appropriate that a judicial body, which we believe to be entitled to, clarify the legal matters involved.

The 26-year-old also stressed the importance of the judicial ruling, given the almost unprecedented nature of the suspension.

I fully understand that it is the first time after the handover of sovereignty, and the second time ever that proceedings for a deliberation on the suspension of a legislators mandate take place. The application and interpretation of related legal provisions may not be entirely clear-cut, and we all lack the experience of their actual implementation. DB
MALAYSIAs government said yesterday it will pay U.S. company Ocean Infinity up to USD70 million if it can find the wreckage or black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 within three months, in a renewed bid to solve the planes disappearance nearly four years ago.

MYANMARs military acknowledged yesterday that its security forces and Buddhist villagers killed 10 Rohingya Muslims whose bodies were found in a mass grave in a village in troubled Rakhine state.

THAILANDs foreign minister admitted that former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who fled the country last year to evade a prison sentence, is in Britain after photos surfaced online apparently showing Yingluck in London.

PAKISTAN A mob angered over the recent rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl attacked a police station and a nearby government building in eastern Punjab province yesterday, triggering clashes that left at least two people dead and several injured.

SRI LANKA Lawmakers exchanged blows in Parliament yesterday during a debate over alleged corruption in a bond issue that has marred the reputation of a government elected on a platform of good governance.

ISRAELs embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a new scandal after a recording emerged of his 26-year-old stay-at-home son joyriding at taxpayer expense to Tel Aviv strip clubs and bragging about how his father pushed through a controversial gas deal.

RUSSIA A new U.S. report by Senate Democrats warns of deepening Russian interference throughout Europe and concludes that even as some Western democracies have responded with aggressive countermeasures, President Donald Trump has offered no strategic plan to bolster their efforts.

GREECE Anti-austerity protesters in Greece have reached the entrance of the prime ministers official residence, as demonstrations intensify against a new austerity bill due to be voted in parliament next week.

BRITAIN-GERMANY Two senior British officials urged Germany yesterday to support a post-Brexit deal that protects the important financial services sector and doesnt hamper trade with unnecessary red tape.

PANAMA Thousands of people have turned out in Panama City to protest corruption on the anniversary of a 1964 demonstration that sparked the movement for wresting control of the Panama Canal from the United States.
Law, Politics and Society

Friday 18 November 2022

Locking up kids has serious mental health impacts and contributes to further reoffending

There needs to be substantive change in how young people who come in contact with the justice system are treated
A robot baby was used to determine how much biological material crawling infants stir up from carpets by a research team led by Brandon E. Boor, an assistant professor at Purdue University. They found that crawling children breathe in four times what an adult would breathe in walking across the same floor. Credit: Purdue University

When babies crawl, their movement across floors, especially carpeted surfaces, kicks up high levels of dirt, skin cells, bacteria, pollen, and fungal spores, a new study has found. The infants inhale a dose of bio bits in their lungs that is four times (per kilogram of body mass) what an adult would breathe walking across the same floor.

As alarming as that sounds, lead researcher Brandon Boor of Purdue University is quick to add that this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

"We are interested in the biological material an infant inhales, especially during their first year of life when they are crawling. Many studies have shown that inhalation exposure to microbes and allergen-carrying particles in that portion of life plays a significant role in both the development of, and protection from, asthma and allergic diseases," Boor says. "There are studies that have shown that being exposed to a high diversity and concentration of biological materials may reduce the prevalence of asthma and allergies later in life."

Scientists have previously done studies to determine how much dirt and biological material is kicked up and resuspended into the air when an adult walks indoors, but this is the first study to look at what happens with infants and their unique forms of locomotion.

Human babies are the only mammals that can't get up and walk soon after being born. Elephants, giraffes, horses, all can take a few wobbly steps soon after they enter the world, but it's months before a human can claim the same accomplishment.

(Anthropologist David Tracer of the University of Colorado has suggested that based on studies of indigenous cultures, crawling is not necessary for human development. In fact, he has suggested, it only became common once people began living in structures with wooden floors.)

As babies roll, slide and crawl on the floor, their movements stir up more particulates into the air, and their mouths and nostrils are much closer to the floor where the concentrations are greater. This is countered somewhat by the fact that babies tend to move in much shorter bursts of activity than do older children or adults.

To study just how much of the floor debris babies breathe, the research team built a robotic crawling baby (which is much less adorable than the real thing) and tested it crawling on actual carpet samples they had removed from homes. Then the researchers measured and analyzed the particulates in the breathing zone.

Credit: Purdue University

"We used state-of-the-art aerosol instrumentation to track the biological particles floating in the air around the infant in real-time, second by second. The instrument uses lasers to cause biological material to fluoresce. Most bacterial cells, fungal spores, and pollen particles are fluorescent, so they can be reliably distinguished from non-biological material in the air," Boor says. "We also worked with a microbiology group at Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare, which conducted DNA-based analysis of the microbes we collected onto filters."

The researchers found that a concentrated cloud of resuspended particles forms around the Pig-Pen wannabes, and that the concentrations around them can be as much as 20 times greater than the levels of material higher in the room.

Moreover, infants' bodies aren't as good at blocking this dust storm, Boor says.

"For an adult, a significant portion of the biological particles are removed in the upper respiratory system, in the nostrils and throat. But for very young children, they more often breathe through their mouths, and a significant fraction is deposited in the lower airwaysthe tracheobronchial and pulmonary regions. The particles make it to the deepest regions of their lungs."

Counterintuitively, perhaps, this may be just what nature intended.

In the late 1980s, British epidemiologist David Strachan was the first to propose the "hygiene hypothesis," which says that too clean of an environment may suppress the development of the immune system. Allergists also sometimes refer to this as "the farming effect."

"Exposure to certain bacterial and fungal species can result in the development of asthma, but numerous studies have shown that when an infant is exposed to a very high diversity of microbes, at a high concentration, they can have a lower rate of asthma later in life. Such exposures act to stimulate and challenge your immune system," Boor says.

In Western societies, infants spend nearly all of their time indoors, where indoor dust resuspension may contribute significantly to their respiratory encounters with biological material.

"While our research established new methods for infant microbial exposure assessment, much remains to be discovered," Boor says. "I hope to continue to work with microbiologists and immunologists to better understand the role of indoor air microbes and allergens on early-childhood health."

More information: Tianren Wu et al. Infant and Adult Inhalation Exposure to Resuspended Biological Particulate Matter, Environmental Science & Technology (2017). Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology Tianren Wu et al. Infant and Adult Inhalation Exposure to Resuspended Biological Particulate Matter,(2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b04183
(HealthDay)Injecting a calcium-based cement into the bones of some people with knee or hip pain could help them avoid joint replacement surgery, Ohio State University doctors say.

The calcium phosphate cement flows into the spongy inside portion of the bone, filling in microfractures and other damaged areas, and it hardens in about 10 minutes' time, said Dr. Kelton Vasileff, an orthopedic surgeon at the university's Wexner Medical Center.

The cement braces the bruised or injured joint bone from the inside, Vasileff explained, and eventually is replaced by new bone as part of the body's natural healing process.

The procedure, called subchondroplasty, has been available to people with knee problems for years, Vasileff said. Now he and his colleagues are testing to see whether hip patients also can benefit from it.

It is much less invasive than a knee or hip replacement, and typically is performed on an outpatient basis, Vasileff said.

The procedure involves a smaller incision than joint replacement surgery, so there's less risk of infection, and a quicker recovery time that means fewer of the side effects associated with being bedridden, Vasileff said.

However, subchondroplasty is only feasible in a narrow range of patients. Those with full-blown bone-on-bone arthritis or joint pain caused by damage to the cartilage and ligaments will get little to no relief from the procedure, Vasileff said.

"People who have significant arthritis where the cartilage itself is damaged and thinned, this isn't going to fix the arthritis," Vasileff said. "But there are some people who may have some issues with the bone and mild arthritis. In these patients who might otherwise have needed a knee or hip replacement to deal with that, this could be an alternative."

Software engineer Ben Wallace underwent subchondroplasty in November to help shore up a damaged hip.

"The end of September I noticed I was really struggling to move around my left leg very well," said Wallace, who lives in Columbus, Ohio. Imaging scans revealed a hip in very bad shape, with a misshapen femur.

A five-hour surgery cleaned up the femur and bolstered the bone with cement.

"It's been going really great. I'm better than what they expected. One week after surgery I was off the crutches, walking on my own," Wallace said.

"I figured I'm going to have a fake hip in there at the age of 30, which was very depressing," Wallace explained. "The fact I was able to keep all my bones and joints in there was quite a surprise."

Subchondroplasty has shown solid potential, but orthopedic surgeon Dr. Matthew Hepinstall is concerned that it might be "oversold" to desperate patients who want to avoid joint replacement surgery.

"The claims that are being made are not evidence-based yet, although they are intellectually appealing," said Hepinstall. He is associate director of the Center for Joint Preservation & Reconstruction at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City.

"It's just important not to oversell this," he added.

The best candidates for the procedure are patients who still have some cartilage protecting their joint, but have somehow "overloaded" and injured the bone, causing swelling and pain, Hepinstall said.

"If you inject this substance into the bone, you're basically providing internal support, a scaffold protecting the bone. That can theoretically reduce bone pain," Hepinstall noted.

"The appealing thing about it is instead of going in and resurfacing a damaged joint, you're injecting something to help the bone, but keeping the patient's own anatomy," Hepinstall continued.

"But there's a very narrow window of patients who are good ideal candidates for this, who basically have a real overload of their bone causing severe enough pain to warrant a surgical procedure, but also have healthy enough cartilage that doing something about the bone swelling is going to alleviate the majority of their pain," he stressed.

"We don't want to send the message to people who have bone-on-bone, with big bone spurs and limited range of motion that they're all of a sudden going to get relief from injecting a little bit of cement into their bone," Hepinstall said. "This is for people who have basically a normal joint that has normal range of motion and normal stability, just a little thinning of the cartilage."

More information: Kelton Vasileff, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, Wexner Medical Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Matthew Hepinstall, M.D., associate director, Center for Joint Preservation & Reconstruction, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Ben Wallace, Columbus, Ohio Kelton Vasileff, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, Wexner Medical Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Matthew Hepinstall, M.D., associate director, Center for Joint Preservation & Reconstruction, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Ben Wallace, Columbus, Ohio For more on knee pain, visit the Arthritis Foundation.

Copyright  2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
There is growing awareness of the need for family law reform.

Children who grow up in fatherless homes are more likely to use drugs and alcohol, engage in juvenile delinquency, have long-term physical and mental health problems, have lower life expectancies and have lower educational attainment.

Judges are the single biggest cause of fatherlessness. Every year, defective child custody decisions hurt thousands of Nebraska children. Based on Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services data, we estimate these decisions cost Nebraska taxpayers more than $500 million every year.

If parents divorce or separate, research shows that shared parenting arrangements generally provide better outcomes for children of all ages across a wide range of emotional, behavioral and physical health measures. Shared parenting arrangements are those in which children live with each parent at least 35 percent of the time. Even if parents are in high conflict, most children still benefit from shared parenting if they have loving, meaningful relationships with their parents.

Our judges have shown some improvement in recent years. Last November, the Nebraska Court of Appeals ordered a trial judge to adopt a week-on/week-off parenting plan. Consistent with the research, the court held that modifying custody to a week on/week off parenting schedule is in the childrens best interests.

A month earlier, the Court of Appeals affirmed a parenting plan that involved two children, including one with special needs; a mother who was a nurse with specialized training and a flexible work schedule; and a father who traveled frequently for work. In response to these facts, the trial judge created a 10-day/four-day schedule for the special needs child and a week-on/week-off schedule for the second child.

A year earlier, the Court of Appeals reversed a cookie-cutter, every-other-weekend schedule and ordered the trial judge to more equally divide the parenting time.

Every-other weekend plans are problematic because the child has less than half the minimum recommended parenting time with the non-custodial parent. This case involved a firefighter father who lived only a mile from the mother and could exercise significant parenting time. The appeals court held awarding [the father] only two weekends of parenting time per month  was an abuse of discretion by the trial judge.

Unfortunately, progress has been uneven.

Last month, the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed a decision that rewarded a parent who engaged in parental alienation. Among other things, this case involved a parental child abduction, a name change of the child to eliminate all references to the targeted parent and complete denial of access to the child. Another affirmed a decision that refused to remove two teenage girls from the home of their mother and stepfather, a registered sex offender who served four years in prison for molesting a teenage stepdaughter from a previous relationship.

In the last two months, the Court of Appeals has three times affirmed cookie-cutter, every-other-weekend parenting plans. In one such case, the court affirmed a decision that gave a father an every-other-weekend parenting schedule despite the fact he lived less than a mile from the mother in a small town. The trial judge in this case was the same judge who earlier refused to remove the teenaged girls from the home of their sex offender step-father.

In addition, the trial judge who was reversed in the firefighter case has resisted the Court of Appeals order. He stalled six months before creating a new parenting plan and, when he finally did so, gave the father only 30 percent of the parenting time, far less than what the appeals court ordered.

These cases are consistent with evidence that shows certain judges consistently favor mothers in their decisions instead of applying the facts in an unbiased, evidence-based manner that is in the best interests of children.

What can be done? First, the state should collect and publish parenting time data, by judge, in every child custody case. DHHS already collects related data in these cases, so this would add one additional question to an existing questionnaire.

Second, judges who consistently make biased or defective decisions should be barred from hearing child custody cases and should be accountable to the same extent as other government employees.

Finally, the state should adopt parenting time guidelines that reflect the best available research and direct judges to equalize the parenting time of both parents whenever possible.
PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer's disease. Credit: public domain

To the roughly 400 clinical trials that have tested some experimental treatment for Alzheimer's disease and come up short, we can now add three more.

An experimental drug called idalopirdine failed to help people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease in a trio of trials that involved 2,525 patients in 34 countries. Not only did the drug fail to bring about any meaningful change in cognitive tests that are widely used in diagnosing and tracking the progress of the disease, it also failed to cause significant improvements in general measures of daily function among those taking it at any of three tested doses.

Those are relatively modest goalsnot to reverse Alzheimer's disease or block its progress, but simply to slow the loss of function in those who have it. Even that, it turns out, is a humbling challenge.

The failure of idalopirdine, reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, probably marks the unraveling of an approach to Alzheimer's treatment that has long looked promising.

The experimental drug largely acted to increase the supply of the brain chemical serotonin, which, among other things, regulates mood, sleep and appetite, and ebbs in those with Alzheimer's disease. Idalopirdine also acts on four other neural transmitters that are affected by Alzheimer's: glutamate, norepinephrine, acetylcholine and dopamine.

The drug had looked promising in earlier clinical trials that focused largely on safety. But after 24 weeks, subjects with Alzheimer's who got idalopirdine fared no better than those who got a sham drug.

The disappointing results follow the failure, reported last fall, of intepirdine, another experimental drug that acted on many of the same brain systems as idalopirdine.

Subjects in both trials also took donepezil (long marketed as Aricept) or another Alzheimer's drug in the same class. Researchers had hoped that the combination therapy might boost the action of several different neurotransmitter systems at once to improve mental function in Alzheimer's patients.

Lundbeck, the publicly traded Danish pharmaceutical company that was developing idalopirdine, told investors last year that it would not be asking the Food & Drug Administration to evaluate the drug for the U.S. market. That would have been the next step if the phase 3 trials had succeeded.

As researchers and government officials have focused on ambitious efforts to reverse or even cure Alzheimer's, doctors have appealed for therapies that will at least improve the lives of the 5.5 million Americans already living with the disease.

Yet the new results underscore the diabolical challenge of merely slowing Alzheimer's disease once its behavioral symptoms become evident, according to Dr. David A. Bennett, a neurologist and director of Rush University's Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago.

Given the millions of Americans already afflicted, "better symptomatic therapies must continue to be pursued," Bennett wrote in an editorial also published in JAMA. "However, from a public health perspective, delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease dementia is the most effective approach to reduce the overall human and economic toll of the disease."

That, he wrote, will require earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's among a broader range of people, including people with no outward sign of dementia. And those in the disease's earliest phases will need to be enrolled in clinical trials of preventive strategies faster, and in larger numbers.

A public hungry for quick fixes and streamlined drug development had better get patient, Bennett added. Citing a recent exploration of why so many Alzheimer's disease drugs fail, he noted that treatments that could halt or reverse Alzheimer's might need to be tested for five to 10 years for an effect to be detected. Currently, few such trials last for more than three years.

And maybe, Bennett added, we're not seeing that we're on a trajectoryalbeit a long oneto eventual success.

"Given the series of failures in rigorous attempts to develop an effective treatment for Alzheimer disease, it may seem difficult to be optimistic," he wrote. "Yet lessons from the past century paint a different picture."

With a request for $100 million in added funds for cancer research in 1971, President Richard Nixon began a process of investment and discovery that has brought forth treatments for cancer that were beyond imagination at the time. In 2011, President Barack Obama launched the National Alzheimer's Project Act with an initial investment of $50 million. By 2017, federal research on Alzheimer's disease had reached $1.4 billion.

"It is just a matter of time before that knowledge is translated into effective strategies for the treatment and prevention" of Alzheimer's, Bennett wrote.

And none too soon: The Alzheimer's Association estimates that an American is newly diagnosed with the disease every 66 seconds.

2018 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Quitting smoking is among the top New Year's resolutions, but is notoriously difficult to do and often requires multiple attempts and strategies.

A growing body of research points to using a harm minimization approach for smoking cessation. Harm minimization recognizes that while quitting smoking altogether is ideal, reducing exposure to harmful cigarette smoke by switching to safer nicotine products like e-cigarettes is beneficial.

A new article publishing in the forthcoming volume of the Annual Review of Public Health focuses on harm minimization and smoking cessation, with alternative nicotine products like e-cigarettes emerging as a promising avenue for people who want to quit smoking. Compared with vaping, smoking is much more harmful and prematurely kills over half of lifetime smokers.

"Studies show that if most current American smokers switched to vaping e-cigarettes over the next 10 years, there could be as many as 6.6 million fewer premature deaths and 86.7 million fewer life years would be lost," said David Abrams, PhD, professor of social and behavioral sciences at NYU College of Global Public Health and the article's lead author.

"The safest course is to stop smoking or, better, never to start. But a harm minimization approach recognizes that demanding absolute perfection is often counterproductive and that, when a harmful behavior cannot be eliminated, we can still dramatically reduce adverse health consequences."

Correcting Misconceptions About Nicotine

When people smoke cigarettes, they consume nicotine in a lethal mix of carbon monoxide and 70 known cancer-causing chemicals; contrary to what some may believe, however, nicotine causes little if any of the health harms of smoking. The toxic smoke inhaled is the culprit and is the overwhelming cause of tobacco-related disease and death.

Many alternative nicotine products have been developed-including e-cigarettes and nicotine gums, patches, and lozenges-that do not burn tobacco and are therefore substantially less harmful.

The authors call for the correction of mistaken beliefs that vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking cigarettes. Most reviews of toxicological, clinical, and epidemiological evidence show that the chemicals found in e-cigarettes are far fewer and well below levels seen in cigarette smoke. In fact, the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom and other systematic reviews of all the evidence to date estimate that e-cigarettes are about 95 percent less harmful than smoking.

E-cigarettes in the "Sweet Spot"

What makes someone use-and continue to use-different nicotine products? In addition to considering the harm they can cause, the authors also consider the appeal and satisfaction of products containing nicotine.

Cigarettes are the most appealing, most addictive, and most toxic of all nicotine products, while nicotine replacement therapies like gum or patches are lowest in harm, but are expensive and less appealing to consumers.

E-cigarettes fall into a "sweet spot" of high appeal and satisfaction, but low harm, making them a promising tool for smoking cessation or switching for smokers who want to use nicotine but want to safely avoid deadly smoke. As evidence of their appeal, e-cigarettes are now used more often than nicotine replacement therapies when smokers try to quit in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

"A smoker who finds an e-cigarette that is enjoyable can switch. Successful switchers have either switched quickly or slowly after a period of both vaping and cutting back on smoking and by trying a flavor other than tobacco," Abrams said.

The Future of Harm Minimization and Smoking Cessation

The U.S. government is taking notice of the evidence on harm minimization. In July 2017, the Food and Drug Administration announced a major shift in its tobacco strategy, including recognizing the role of less harmful products, such as e-cigarettes, for smokers who want a satisfying alternative to smoking cigarettes. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said, "Nicotine, though not benign, is not directly responsible for the tobacco-caused cancer, lung disease and heart disease that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans each year."

"Alternative nicotine delivery systems, such as e-cigarettes, have the potential to disrupt the 120-year dominance of the cigarette and challenge the field on how the tobacco pandemic could be reversed if nicotine is decoupled from lethal inhaled smoke," added Abrams. "E-cigarettes could provide a means to compete with, and even replace, cigarette use, saving more lives more rapidly than previously possible."

More information: David B. Abrams et al. Harm Minimization and Tobacco Control: Reframing Societal Views of Nicotine Use to Rapidly Save Lives, Annual Review of Public Health (2018). David B. Abrams et al. Harm Minimization and Tobacco Control: Reframing Societal Views of Nicotine Use to Rapidly Save Lives,(2018). DOI: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040617-013849
Roughly one third of all older patients age 65 and older visiting emergency departments nationwide are admitted to the hospital. But an emergency department program focused on geriatric transitional care has reduced the risk of unnecessary admission of older patients at Northwestern Medicine by 33 percent, according to a new study from Northwestern Univeristy, Mount Sinai Medical Center and St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center.

It's important to reduce hospitalization of older patients because hospital admissions can increase their risk of delirium, infection and falls, the study authors said. During and after hospitalization, many older adults experience a loss of independence and a decline in functional ability and quality of life.

"With this program, we have created an otherwise non-existent safety net for this vulnerable population," said Dr. Scott Dresden, co-author on the paper and assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We wanted to ensure that we weren't just discharging older patients from the emergency department only to be hospitalized again relatively quickly after something preventable like a fall."

In the study, nurses who were focused specifically on geriatric care determined if emergency department patients aged 65 and older were experiencing mental or physical decline, if they were having trouble caring for themselves at home and if they had medical complexities common in older adults.

Sometimes these patients would be moved out of the busy emergency department to a less active floor that had quieter rooms with doors, TVs and natural lighting that were more comfortable for older patients. The patients received follow-up calls after being discharged and were offered appointments with social workers, if necessary.

Patients visiting the emergency department who received specialized care were admitted to the hospital 36 percent of the time whereas patients who did not receive the specialized care were admitted 53 percent of the time. The study was published Jan. 10 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The research was the result of the Geriatric Emergency Department Innovations (GEDI) program introduced at the three hospitals in 2013. The goal of the program was to reduce the need to hospitalize older patients after an emergency department visit and to prevent revisits and readmissions.

The program has allowed all three institutions to learn more about this older population and how to address their needs without needing to admit them to the hospital, said Dresden, director of the GEDI department at Northwestern Medicine.

Northwestern's program staffs one or two GEDI nurses, one pharmacist and a social worker every weekday between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. The nurses assess older patients who come into the emergency department to determine if they are candidates for the GEDI program. If a patient qualifies, he or she receives a one-on-one visit from the GEDI nurse to discuss everything from their medical state and if they've visited the emergency department in the last 30 days to their support system at home and how they get their groceries.

GEDI nurses ask a series of questions, such as "Who is the current president of the United States?" and "What was your mother's maiden name?," to determine the patient's cognitive state. As part of the program, patients will receive follow-up calls after being discharged from the emergency department and might receive counseling from a social worker. They will sometimes get transferred directly to a nursing home if the GEDI nurse determines it is the best course of action.

Northwestern's GEDI program has space outside the emergency department where GEDI patients sometimes get transferred. Rooms on this floor have non-glare, non-slip floors, doors instead of curtains, and TVs and windows, which the emergency room does not have. But Dresden said the most unique and beneficial part of the program is the dedicated GEDI team, not the physical space.

"This program is a model that other hospitals can easily adopt because they don't have to build a separate space," Dresden said.

The authors hope many other hospitals will see the benefit of creating a geriatric-specific program in their own space.

More information: Ula Hwang et al, Geriatric Emergency Department Innovations: Transitional Care Nurses and Hospital Use, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (2018). Journal information: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Ula Hwang et al, Geriatric Emergency Department Innovations: Transitional Care Nurses and Hospital Use,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/jgs.15235
Kidney specialists face increasing work demands, high rates of burnout, and declining interest in nephrology as a career. A group of articles publishing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) sheds light on how that these factors threaten to reduce job satisfaction and impair the delivery of high-quality care to patients with kidney diseases.

In an introductory article, Ian de Boer, MD, MS (University of Washington, Seattle) notes that there are no quick or easy solutions, but there are certain fundamental issues and specific steps that the nephrology community should consider. "Stimulating job satisfaction and attracting the best physicians to nephrology require change at many levels, including health systems, practice implementation, personal approaches to work-life balance, and fellowship training," he said.

In the first article, Amy Williams, MD (Mayo Clinic of Medicine) notes that half of surveyed nephrologists experience burnout. Dr. Williams stresses that individual physicians cannot tackle burnout alone: healthcare systems, academic institutions and organizations, including dialysis organizations, must improve work environments, influence policy and support physicians' wellbeing at all career stages.

A second article by John Roberts MD, MS, MEd (Duke University Medical Center) states that nephrology training is at a crossroads, and it is critical to move away from overwork, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization for residents and physicians and to instead consider constructing the practice of nephrology in a healthier way that considers how each individual is motivated to make the best career decision not only for personal interests but also for their health and family responsibilities.

In the third article by Mitchell Rosner, MD (University of Virginia Health System) and Jeffrey Berns, MD (Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania), experts propose a series of measures that can lead to meaningful improvement in the professional lives of nephrologists. These measures can be divided into those that focus on fellowship training, practice transformation, creating a stronger community of nephrologists, stimulating the cognitive aspects of practice, and enhancing the clinical scope of practice of nephrology.

"Our hope at CJASN is that these insightful articles will provide a constructive platform to discuss the issues facing nephrology today and the concrete steps we can take as a field to improve careers in nephrology," said Dr. de Boer.

More information: "Introduction: Nephrology at a Crossroads," "Transforming Nephrology," "Addressing Physician Burnout in Nephrology," Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (2018). Journal information: Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology "Introduction: Nephrology at a Crossroads," "Transforming Nephrology," "Addressing Physician Burnout in Nephrology,"(2018).
New guidelines for managing recurrent pituitary tumours identify the drug temozolomide, as first line chemotherapy treatment. The guidelines, published in the European Journal of Endocrinology and produced by the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE), include a series of recommendations aimed at improving survival rates and quality of life for patients, through early identification of tumours and more effective treatment strategies.

The pituitary gland, located in the base of the skull, produces hormones that control many bodily processes, including metabolism, growth and reproduction. Pituitary tumours occur in approximately 1/1000 of the worldwide population and are rarely fatal. Approximately 10 to 15 percent of pituitary tumours can be considered aggressive, as they are resistant to conventional treatment or are prone to recurrence after treatment. This can cause harmful effects, including headaches, peripheral vision loss, hearing loss, and motor impairment. In some rare cases, pituitary tumours can become cancerous, leading to most patients dying within a year after the tumour starts spreading to other parts of the body. Originally used to treat a type of fast-growing brain cancer, temozolomide has recently been suggested as a potential treatment for aggressive and malignant pituitary tumours; however its effectiveness had not been thoroughly assessed.

The new guidelines are based on a systematic review of the existing literature on aggressive pituitary tumours, which found that temozolomide treatment was effective in stopping or slowing tumour growth. Following this finding, the guidelines recommend this drug as first line chemotherapy treatment after failure of conventional methods, such as radiation therapy or surgery. The guidelines also recommend that patients should be managed by a multidisciplinary team of experts, and suggest new diagnostic criteria to enable early identification of aggressive tumours.

"The rarity of the condition, the absence of controlled trials and the limited data from the literature underlined the need for clinical guidance", states Professor Gerald Raverot, from the Cancer Research Centre of Lyon and the University of Lyon, and chair of the guideline working group. Professor Raverot adds, "Although further clinical trials are needed to confirm the beneficial effects of temozolomide, these new recommendations should enable doctors to better assess the risks to patients and to identify the best treatment for individual patients."

Professor Raverot says, "Researchers and clinicians should combine efforts to establish an international register for aggressive pituitary tumours, to assess how they are diagnosed, study their progression and investigate new therapeutic options."

More information: Gerald Raverot et al. European Society of Endocrinology Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of aggressive pituitary tumours and carcinomas, European Journal of Endocrinology (2017). Journal information: European Journal of Endocrinology Gerald Raverot et al. European Society of Endocrinology Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of aggressive pituitary tumours and carcinomas,(2017). DOI: 10.1530/EJE-17-0796

Provided by European Society of Endocrinology
(HealthDay)Hepatic fat accumulation may play a causal role in chronic liver disease, according to a study published online Dec. 27 in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

Paola Dongiovanni, from the Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Policlinico Milano in Italy, and colleagues examined whether the accumulation of hepatic fat has a causal role in determining liver damage and insulin resistance. A Mendelian randomization analysis was performed using risk alleles and a polygenic risk score for hepatic fat. Complementary cohorts of at-risk individuals and individuals from the general population were assessed: 1,515 from the liver biopsy cohort (LBC), 3,329 from the Swedish Obese Subjects Study (SOS), and 4,570 from the Dallas Heart Study.

The researchers found that there was an epidemiologic correlation for hepatic fat with liver damage, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. The effect of genetic variants on liver damage was proportional to their impact on the accumulation of hepatic fat. In the LBC, genetically determined hepatic fat was correlated with aminotransferase and with inflammation, ballooning, and fibrosis. The causal correlation between hepatic fat and fibrosis was independent of disease activity in the LBC. In the LBC and SOS, genetically determined hepatic steatosis was correlated with insulin resistance; the correlation depended on the severity of liver damage.

"These data suggest that long-term hepatic fat accumulation plays a causal role in the development of chronic liver disease," the authors write.

One author disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Copyright  2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Graduate student Veneta Qendro, left, and David Han, professor of cell biology at UConn Health, are part of a team of researchers developing a technology that can identify which patients will respond to immunotherapy, with the goal of extending the benefits of the treatment to a wider group of patients. Credit: Office of the Vice President for Research

Immunotherapies are promising in theory, but often not in practice. In fact according to experts, they actually only work 10 percent of the time in the treatment of cancer  at best. Yet, while immunotherapy drugs may only help a minority of patients, those who do respond often do extremely well. As a result, many scientists are working to tap into the treatment's benefits for a wider group of patients.

A team of researchers from UConn Health is among this group of scientists. They are developing a diagnostic and monitoring tool that can evaluate whether a patient suffering from cancer will respond to immunotherapy, before treatment even starts.

In a recent issue of Proteomics, lead author Veneta Qendro, a graduate student in vascular biology, David Han, associate professor of cell biology, and team describe their platform technology, known as a Genomics Driven Immunoproteomics or GDI, which allows rapid identification of personalized tumor mutation profiles that are recognized by cancer patients' own immune system. This new immune assessment tool has the potential to offer more effective treatment options for some of the most aggressive cancer cases.

"While immunotherapy holds incredible promise, it's currently like going into battle with high tech weapons wearing a blindfold," explains Qendro. "In patients who respond well, the outcomes are really significant, but without the personalized information about a specific patient and their unique mutations that invoke immune response, we're just crossing our fingers and hoping it works. Using GDI helps make a more informed decision about what will be successful, and provides a map to adjust care for better results."

To remove the immunotherapy blindfold, the technology identifies molecular and genetic insights about the unique immune response of an individual patient. Using a process called deep sequencing of high-frequency cancer genes by which the same region is analyzed multiple times, the UConn Health team identified variants found in 15 cancer patients that then served as a template to design a patient-specific peptide diagnostic tool. When incubated with blood from a cancer patient, the tool  also known as a microarray chip  indicates whether that patient's immune system is producing any antibodies to attack against the mutation. It also shows which antibodies respond to which tumor mutations.

If there is no response, which is the case for the majority of patients receiving immunotherapies, clinicians can consider changing course and suggest alternative treatment options. If there is a response, both physicians and patients enter into a treatment plan knowing they are using the right weapon to battle the disease. Knowing whether patients will respond to treatment before it begins not only increases the likelihood of eradicating the disease, it also saves precious time, limits the occurrence of adverse side effects, and reduces costs for unnecessary and often painful therapies and procedures.

Patients screened using GDI whose immune systems do not produce antibodies against their disease could also benefit from the technology.

"Imagine two patients have the same mutation, but one is exhibiting an immune response with certain antibodies and the other has no response at all," explains Han. "We can use the knowledge gained from the first patient to develop an immunotherapy that should theoretically have a higher chance of success in the second patient. It's another example of how removing the blindfold could increase the impact of these treatments."

While Qendro and Han are excited about the benefits their technology provides as a diagnostic and predictive tool, their big picture goal is to use the data collected from screenings to create a library of mutations and corresponding antibodies that work against them. With that information, they could develop personalized immunotherapy vaccines and antibody therapeutics to work with individual patients' immune responses. Using these therapies in combination with other courses of care, such as checkpoint inhibitors, would help attack the disease from several fronts, the researchers say.

How to Reach Patients

Han and Qendro are exploring several options to advance the technology to the market where it can help patients and physicians. The pair recently formed a startup, Hans Health Inc., and have licensed the technology to pursue commercialization opportunities.

"Every day there is a wealth of technologies coming out of UConn and UConn Health labs that could improve the lives of citizens in our state," says Radenka Maric, UConn's vice president for research. "The University is committed to supporting faculty and student entrepreneurs through educational programming, patent and licensing expertise, seed funding, and industry mentorships to help early-stage ideas move beyond the lab, join the ranks of other successful Connecticut startups, and have an impact in our communities and our state economy."

Qendro has taken the lead role in efforts to commercialize the technology as CEO of Hans Health Inc. She has participated in several entrepreneurship programs at UConn, such as the University's NSF I-Corps site Accelerate UConn, the CCEI Summer Fellowship, and the Wolff New Venture Competition, to take on this complex mission while continuing her scientific research and doctoral studies. She and Han credit these programs with giving them valuable training to think like entrepreneurs as well as scientists.

For approximately 15 weeks, Qendro and the other would-be entrepreneurs in the Accelerate UConn and CCEI Summer Fellowship programs spent hours in the classroom and in the field, conducting interviews with potential customers. The goal was to understand the customer, channels, pricing, and other parts of the business model before actually launching a business.

"Most of my peers do not typically get this kind of training during their studies, knowing that our expertise is primarily focused on biological research," says Qendro. "But entrepreneurship and innovation programs like Accelerate UConn are incredibly helpful tools for researchers who have the willingness, but lack the knowledge to transition these ideas to the marketplace. Participating not only familiarized me with a lot of new concepts from the business world, but also equipped me with the right skills to help further advance our technology so it can reach patients, provide valuable insights, and guide actionable options."

Teams that successfully complete Accelerate UConn are much better positioned to succeed as entrepreneurs in the future, says UConn professor of business and CCEI faculty director, Timothy Folta. "One of the most potent criticisms of university technology commercialization is that technologists do not have a good understanding about whether customers really want their technology because they are enamored with it. Accelerate UConn aims to correct this bias."

Although their day jobs keep them busy, Han and Qendro are excited about the future of Hans Health and the potential impact their innovation could have for patients suffering from cancer. This past summer, they submitted a provisional patent application and licensed the technology from UConn through their startup. They expect to complete the prototype of their diagnostic kit by March 2018, and will then begin seeking partnerships with molecular information or pharmaceutical companies interested in genomic profiling assays.

More information: Veneta Qendro et al. Discovery of putative breast cancer antigens using an integrative platform of genomics-driven immunoproteomics, Proteomics (2017). Journal information: Proteomics Veneta Qendro et al. Discovery of putative breast cancer antigens using an integrative platform of genomics-driven immunoproteomics,(2017). DOI: 10.1002/pmic.201600318
Professor Bjorn Strander, Sahlgrenksa Academy, Sweden. Credit: Malin Arnesson

The impression that foreign-born women in Sweden more often are excluded from gynecological cancer screening needs to be reconsidered. A study from Sahlgrenska Academy, published in the journal PLOS One, makes it clear that foreign-born women participate to the same extent as women born in Sweden with a corresponding educational level and income.

"This came as a surprise to us. The difference in participation disappeared in large immigrant populations, such as those from the Middle East and Latin America, when women with the same socioeconomic status were compared with Swedish-born women," says Bjorn Strander, gynecologist and lead researcher in the study.

"For other immigrant groups - from Europe, for example - the difference decreased significantly. This may mean that the differences in participation do not depend as much on culture and language comprehension as we might have imagined, but rather that social inequality is the main reason," he says.

In Sweden women are offered regular gynecological cancer screening with the aim of early detection and treatment of cell changes that can lead to cervical cancer. This organized screening has been going on since the 1960s and has led to a sharp reduction in the number of cancer cases.

The current study examines background factors among women in Sweden who have chosen to participate in the screenings and those who failed to do so. The study is the largest of its kind in the world, with combined registry data on a total of 581,008 women. It has been done in collaboration with researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

That women with higher education and income participated more often was less sensational than the fact that country of birth in itself often was not a factor. Another result is the great importance of where in Sweden the women lived. County councils such as Dalarna, Kalmar and Vasternorrland had a significantly lower proportion of non-participants than Kronoberg, Skane, Stockholm and Uppsala, for example.

"Since we could compensate for differences in population structure by making statistical adjustments for income, education, country of birth and other factors, this indicates that the way county councils have organized activities has great significance," says Bjorn Strander.

Bjorn, who also chairs the national working team for prevention of cervical cancer, emphasizes that many county councils are actively engaged in encouraging participation in screening.

He believes that the ongoing transition to a new national health care program for gynecological cancer screening - with flexible rescheduling of appointments, more notices and phone calls to those who fail to respond, opportunities for self-testing at home, more telephone advice and so on - will raise participation rates.

"When the care program is introduced in the county councils, it will be easier for many women to participate and the differences across the country will even out," says Bjorn.

More information: Gudrun Broberg et al, Socio-economic and demographic determinants affecting participation in the Swedish cervical screening program: A population-based case-control study, PLOS ONE (2018). Journal information: PLoS ONE Gudrun Broberg et al, Socio-economic and demographic determinants affecting participation in the Swedish cervical screening program: A population-based case-control study,(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190171
Poland's parliament rejected proposals to ease strict abortion restrictions Wednesday, a year after tens of thousands of black-clad women flooded the streets to prevent the Catholic country from adopting harsher laws.

The Polish legislature, which is controlled by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, also signalled a willingness to further tighten the legislation, which is already some of the most restrictive in Europe.

Lawmakers voted down one draft bill that would have liberalised the law while also sending for further consideration a separate proposal to prohibit the procedure for foetuses with deformities, which critics say would amount to a total abortion ban.

Current legislation, passed in 1993, bans all abortions except in cases of rape or incest, if the pregnancy poses a health risk to the mother or if the foetus is severely deformed.

There are around 1,000 legally performed abortions a year in the country of 38 million people, though women's groups estimate that 100,000 to 150,000 procedures are performed illegally or abroad.

According to Kaja Godek, one of the initiators of the "Zatrzymaj aborcje" (Stop Abortion) proposal, deformation of the foetus was the reason behind 96 percent of the legal abortions carried out in Poland in 2016.

It is thought the proposed ban on this type of procedure has a good chance of passing.

'Eugenic abortion'

Over 100 protesters on both sides of the abortion divide rallied in front of parliament during the debate.

"I'm thinking very seriously about emigrating. I really like my country, but the political climate has changed so much that I can not imagine giving birth and raising my children here," Kamila Radecjka, 32, told AFP.

Around 15 activists favouring the ban projected images of the bloody bodies of aborted foetuses on a large screen with the sound of crying babies blaring from loudspeakers.

"Abortion is the killing of an innocent child," said activist Maciej Wiewiorka.

Activists want to ban what they call "eugenic abortion", or terminations carried out to eliminate foetuses with deformities, such as in pregnancies where Down syndrome has been detected during pre-natal screening.

Godek told AFP that her group's proposal was signed by 830,000 people in two months.

President Andrzej Duda, who is close to the Catholic Church, vowed in November to sign the initiative into law if it is adopted "in order to abolish the right to kill children with Down syndrome".

The proposal is less restrictive than the one that was scrapped after tens of thousands of women dressed in black across the country in 2016.

That initiative, which was tabled by the ultra-conservative Ordo Iuris association, called for jail sentences of up to five years for doctors and others taking part in illegal abortions, including the women themselvesthough judges could waive their punishment.

'Huge suffering'

Parliament's vote late Wednesday rejected the "Let's Save Women 2017" citizen's initiative to liberalise the abortion law.

The draft had sought to allow abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy for psychological and social reasons, as well as providing over-the-counter access to the morning-after pill.

"We never expected PiS deputies to behave differently," said Barbara Nowacka, a left-wing politician and women's rights activist who presented the pro-choice initiative in parliament

"What's worse is that they are going to work on a draft law that forces women to... give birth to beings that are very often destined to die in huge suffering," Nowicka said of the draft that seeks to ban abortion of deformed foetuses.

Since coming to power in 2015, the PiS government has put an end to public funding for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and made the morning-after pill prescription-only.

Women's rights groups also point to the fact that many doctors and even entire hospitals use a conscience clause to avoid carrying out legal abortions.

According to the Federation for Women and Family Planning, only 47 Polish hospitals carried out legal abortions in 2016, or 10 percent of all of the authorised establishments.

 2018 AFP
Credit: American Heart Association

Strokes can be disabling, leaving survivors to confront many challenges during their recovery. Now, a new Asian study shows survivors are at higher risk for attempting suicide, especially if they are younger, less affluent and have a physically demanding job.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 2 million people in Taiwan between 2000 and 2010. They found that by the end of 2011, stroke patients were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as people who had not had a stroke.

The findings, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, mirror results of similar studies on Western populations.

The new study is significant because it is one of the few that focuses on the connection between stroke and suicide attempts in Asia, according to neurologist Dr. Bruce Ovbiagele, professor and chairman of neurology at the Medical University of South Carolina, who was not involved in the study.

The study found that 1,925 peopleor 0.13 percentof the more than 1.4 million Taiwanese who didn't have a stroke attempted suicide. That compared to suicide attempts among 2,140, or 0.3 percent, of 713,690 stroke patients.

Ovbiagele noted, however, that one of the study's weaknesses is that it doesn't discuss the severity of the strokes.

Among stroke patients overall, suicide attempts were more common among people who had their stroke before age 50, manual laborers and those earning a low income.

The high cost of recovering from a stroke may explain why low-income workers would be more likely to attempt suicide, according to the study.

"Health-related rehabilitation services are often insufficiently funded and provided in many respects, particularly in Asian and developing societies," the researchers wrote.

Ovbiagele said many stroke patients have lingering physical or psychological effects, which might especially depress a manual laborer who couldn't continue to work or a younger person facing a lifetime of limitations.

Doctors also aren't sure whether the stroke itself sets off a physical reaction that can lead patients to become depressed or suicidal.

"The biological mechanism by which individuals with stroke become more prone to depression and suicidal ideation is unclear, but likely involves changes in neurotransmitters, cortisol levels and cerebral blood flow," said Dr. Amytis Towfighi, a vascular neurologist at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.

"Post-stroke depression is complex and likely involves a combination of biological and psychosocial factors," said Towfighi, who chaired a committee that wrote last year's scientific statement from the American Heart Association about depression after stroke. She was not involved in the new study.

Regardless of the factors at play, post-stroke depression is vastly underdiagnosed, said Ovbiagele, who also coauthored the AHA statement and is chair of the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2018 program committee.

"The patient or caregiver often has to complain about it or the doctor has to routinely look out for it," he said. "Since a substantial number of stroke patients subsequently develop depression, ideally this would be an important issue for clinicians to think of and address in appropriate patients after a stroke."

More information: Tomor Harnod et al. Risk of Suicide Attempt in Poststroke Patients: A PopulationBased Cohort Study, Journal of the American Heart Association (2018). Journal information: Journal of the American Heart Association Tomor Harnod et al. Risk of Suicide Attempt in Poststroke Patients: A PopulationBased Cohort Study,(2018). DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.117.007830
Nebraska has scores of sales tax exemptions, including on purchases of aviation fuel, bullion and lottery tickets.

Theres room for one more to that list: Adding feminine hygiene products among these tax-exempt items is a no-brainer.

The state now has the opportunity to make this needed change for women following the introduction of a bill, LB798, by Omaha Sen. Mike McDonnell. His legislation merely adds five lines to Nebraska Code, exempting feminine hygiene products from sales and use taxes and defining these items.

Nebraska is the latest state to pursue this worthy battle of removing tampons and other related products from sales taxes.

The Tax Foundation reports that, in 2016, 13 states and the District of Columbia saw efforts that would specifically exempt feminine hygiene products from their statewide sales taxes. In all, nine states have adopted plans to stop subjecting these items to sales taxes, joining five states that levy no sales tax.

Though the term tampon tax is widely known and used to address this situation, it doesnt provide the most accurate explanation of these items actual tax standing.

No specific tax governs feminine hygiene products; theyre covered under standard sales tax laws. Any move to end the tampon tax, therefore, is just to exempt them from the same sales taxes at the register when consumers buy, say, tissues or toilet paper at the grocery store or pharmacy.

Some states officially classify tampons as luxury products, despite these items obvious necessity to women, in their state code. Were happy to report Nebraska is not one of them.

Its also worth noting that the timing for a bill that would divert revenue from state coffers is less than ideal in a session where lawmakers must close a $173 million shortfall. But the cost of this proposal represents a fraction of a drop in the bucket.

McDonnells legislation, the first proposal ever to address this exemption before the Legislature, isnt yet accompanied by a fiscal note, which would estimate the revenue decline. His office didnt yet have a specific figure, either, when contacted by the Journal Star.

Nebraska, though, has millions fewer residents and a significantly lower cost of living than two states with such projections for tax revenues that would be lost by exempting feminine hygiene products from sales taxes: California ($20 million) and New York ($10 million).

More than 53 million women live in states where feminine hygiene products aren't subject to state sales taxes. But nearly 109 million  including 945,000 in Nebraska  dont.

To have an item this essential for women saddled with a sales tax burden borne exclusively by women makes little sense. Feminine hygiene products are worthy of joining Nebraskas list of exempted products, and McDonnells bill provides a proper, timely vehicle for such simple, yet necessary, reform to take place.
It contains potentially lifesaving stem cells that can treat a host of blood-based cancers and other diseases. Yet the blood found in newborns' umbilical cords is almost always discarded as medical waste, rather than banked for future needs.

A two-year study of expectant mothers in Milan, Italy, however has found that cord blood donations increased significantly when parents received information about the procedure and "prompts" to indicate their interest in donating at both early and late stages of their pregnancies.

"We more than doubled the number of cord blood units that were collected. We learned a lot and we did a little bit of good too so that feels nice," said Nicola Lacetera, an applied economist at the University of Toronto Mississauga, who is also cross-appointed to the UofT's Rotman School of Management and one of the study's four authors. Prof. Lacetera is also a Chief Scientist with the Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR) centre. He conducted the study with Daniela Grieco of Bocconi University, Mario Macis of Johns Hopkins University and Daniela Di Martino of Opedale Buzzi, Milan.

It is the first randomized control study to apply behavioural science "nudging" techniques to cord blood donation. A nudge uses knowledge of human psychology to create a low-key, non-coercive intervention that makes it easier for people to take positive actions they support, but may find hard to do.

People may not donate their baby's cord blood even if they'd like to because they procrastinatesuch as putting off the required paperwork to allow the donationor are overwhelmed by the myriad of decisions and plans parents have to make closer to baby's arrival , among other reasons. Parents may also store their baby's cord blood in a private bank, but this is banned in Italy, where the study took place.

The study conditions included no information given about cord blood donation, and information provided early in the pregnancy or late. This could be combined with asking expectant parents about their intention to donate, and, in the case of the early-informed condition, a third-trimester reminder about their intention, plus an opportunity to change it.

The combination with the most nudges had the highest donation rate: just over 21 per cent of women who received donation information early in their pregnancy, an opportunity to signal their intention, followed by a third-trimester reminder and revision opportunity successfully donated. This compared to donations from 2.7 percent of women who received no information and 11.4 percent of women who received it only in their third trimester.

All told, out of 850 expectant mothers, some 57 cord blood donations were made when nudging was used, compared to 18 to 20 without the intervention.

As positive as these numbers are, the study says donations could have been doubled by the removal of organizational and institutional barriers, such as a lack of staff to perform the cord blood collection and inflexible operating hours at the blood bank.

Cord blood donation is a relatively recent option, which may be another reason why so few people do it. Canada opened its first national public cord blood bank in Ottawa in 2013. The Milano Cord Blood Bank, where donations in the study were stored, opened in 1993. Italy's public cord blood donation rate is about one percent. In the U.S., the rate of cord blood donation of any kind is believed to be below five percent.
"We believe this technology has the potential to transform the field of brain mapping and epilepsy surgery. Our patients will no longer require multiple days of hospitalization to record their habitual seizures, but rather can have a single intra-operative procedure to localize epileptic brain tissue that can then be immediately resected." -- Dr. Greg Worrell, Mayo Clinic Credit: Mayo Clinic

Epilepsya condition that affects an estimated 65 million people worldwidecan be a difficult condition to treat. A team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Mayo Clinic have developed a method with the potential to significantly improve the accuracy and reduce the cost and time needed to identify regions of the brain causing epilepsy.

Using probabilistic modeling and artificial intelligence techniques based on real data from patients suffering from epilepsy, Yogatheesan Varatharajah and Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. Greg Worrell developed a model to identify seizure generating brain regions using only non-seizure data. The new approach has the potential to decrease the time of an epilepsy procedure from days or weeks to just a couple of hours.

It has been long appreciated that the epileptic brain regions responsible for seizures generate abnormal activity even when a patient is not having a seizure. It is similar to the sparks that occur before a fire ignites. Worrell and Varatharajah investigated this further.

"When we looked at the data the doctors were collecting, we examined the abnormal activity and using sophisticated machine learning techniques, we were able to actually predict where the seizures were coming from," said Varatharajah, a PhD student in electrical and computer engineering at the Coordinated Science Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"This gave us the idea of utilizing our probabilistic modeling expertise in epilepsy procedures to identify the seizure-generating regions without having to look at the brain activity during the seizures, which typically requires recording brain activity for days to weeks to capture the patients' typical seizures," he said.

As many as 30 percent of people who suffer from epilepsy don't respond to any kind of drug treatment. For those people, surgery to remove the area of the brain causing the seizures is one of their only solutions.

To locate the seizure-generating brain region, surgeons typically implant sensors directly on the brain to monitor the brain activity during seizures. The problem is that this procedure requires patients to have seizuresand it may take days or weeks for one to occur.

"This is a very time-consuming and a costly procedure," said Varatharajah, who is advised by CSL and ECE Professor Ravishankar Iyer. "And it can also be a very traumatic experience for the patients, who have to go through two back-to-back brain surgeries and suffer another seizure."

Varatharajah and his colleagues have proposed a vastly difference experience. Using electroencephalography (EEG) data from the brain sensors, the team analyzed non-seizure activity from 80 patients with epilepsy. To test their accuracy, they compared their results to the seizure EEG data and surgery outcomes from patients.

"We wanted to develop a method to localize seizure-generating regions within just two hours in the ICU," said Varatharajah. "Without encountering a seizure."

If approved for clinical use, patients would undergo surgery to place electrodes on the brain, and thenduring the same procedurethe team's algorithms would collect and analyze EEG data for just two hours to determine the seizure-inducing brain region, allowing the doctors to evaluate results and make a decision about removing the area.

The technology, which the team is continuing to develop, is being patented by Mayo Clinic, and they are evaluating the possibility of using it in clinical practice. This collaborative work was made possible by the Illinois-Mayo Alliance and was published in the conference proceedings for the 2017 Neural Information Processing Systems conference in December 2017.

"We believe this technology has the potential to transform the field of brain mapping and epilepsy surgery," said Dr. Greg Worrell. "Our patients will no longer require multiple days of hospitalization to record their habitual seizures, but rather can have a single intra-operative procedure to localize epileptic brain tissue that can then be immediately resected."
YEREVAN.  A total of 1,172,402 tourists visited Armenia in the first nine months of 2017, whereas the number of visitors to neighboring Georgia exceeded 7,500,000 people.

According to official data by the National Statistical Service of Armenia, 19.7 percent of tourists visiting Armenia during that time period were Russian citizens, 15.7 percent were from Iran, 14.6 percentfrom the United States, and those who visited Armenia from EU countries made up 21.4 percent.

Solely 2.8 percent came to Armenia from Georgia, whereas according to Georgian official data, Armenian citizensa total of 1,718,016 peoplewere the foreigners who most visited Georgia in the year past.

As a result, Armenian citizens have gone ahead of Azerbaijanis in the tourism industry of Georgia.

To note, a total of 2,500,000 tourists visited Azerbaijan in 2017.
Global energy industry is at turning point

Lagarde says ECB may have to slow growth to control inflation

Orban: Europe is drawn into war

Australia prefers US nuclear submarines despite French criticism

Terrorist group detained in Iran

Dodon released from house arrest in Moldova

Soldier who carelessly kills colleague arrested in Armenia

Armenian Defense Ministry denies reports on shooting at Azerbaijani positions

Criminal case opened over injury of Armenian soldier

Tehran denies Washington's statement about supplying explosives to Yemen

Foreign Ministry: Azerbaijani President keeps threatening Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian population

Kamala Harris says US is committed to Asia for the long term

Iranian authorities impose sanctions on French carmakers

Armenian Security Council Secretary and Indian PM's Advisor discuss security cooperation

Artsakh MFA replies to Baku: Any discussions will be acceptable only if the principle of equality is maintained

Macron hopes for resumption of talks between Ukraine and Russia

Prosecutor General's Office: Azerbaijan makes every effort to terrorize peaceful population of Artsakh

Armenian and Georgian heads of parliamentary committees sign memorandum on cooperation

Prime Minister of India: Cryptocurrencies are used to finance and recruit terrorists

Macron: China plays an important role in the context of pressure on Russia

Garibashvili: If 'Ukrainian government allies' were in power in Georgia, they would 'turn country into training ground'

Jerusalem Post: Azerbaijan is the first state with a Shiite majority to open an embassy in Israel

Participation of GeoProMining in state subvention projects in Armenia reaches 1 billion 700 million drams

Azerbaijan to open embassy in Tel Aviv and office in Ramallah

Russia and China switch to settlements in national currencies for energy supplies

'Gazprom' begins supplying gas to Azerbaijan under new contract with SOCAR

CNN: US is running out of weapons and ammunition to transfer to Ukraine

Kyiv residents are recommended to stock up on water and food

Sweden: Explosions that damaged Nord Stream pipelines were caused by 'gross sabotage'

Macron calls US, China 'big elephants'

Azerbaijan carries out tactical maneuvers

Azerbaijani Armed Forces shell villager working in fields of Artsakh village of Hatsi

Erdogan and Putin discuss grain deal

Politico: Viktor Orban has taken the EU hostage

Turkey expects to start work on the gas hub in early 2023

Kremlin confirms Putin's visit to Yerevan

Expert: Armenia becomes one of the main auto exporters to Russia

Turkish court arrests 17 suspects in connection with Istanbul street bombing

Mishustin and Aliyev meet in Baku

Nikol Pashinyan is questioned as witness

CSTO Collective Security Council to discuss joint assistance measures for Armenia

Republican congressmen introduce resolution calling for audit of funds sent to Ukraine

Biden caught using 'cheat sheet' with instructions on where to sit and when to speak

Armenia to receive loan of 100 million and $100 million to finance budget: Agreements are signed

Azerbaijan plans to open embassy in Israel

Cavusoglu accuses U.S. and EU of pressure and threats against members of TDT

Hungary: EU wants new sanctions to somehow justify its flawed decisions

Armenian CC President and Ambassador of Poland discuss cooperation issues

RBC TV channel does not publish interview with Ruben Vardanyan because of Azeri threats

Armenian Central Election Commission representatives to monitor presidential election in Kazakhstan

Pope reiterates Vatican's readiness to mediate between Moscow, Kyiv

Newspaper: Deputies from ruling party go on another 'voyage'

Cavusoglu calls incident in Poland 'accident'

Biden administration says Saudi prince has immunity in lawsuit over Khashoggi murder

Marukyan reminds Aliyev: The UN, OSCE and EU do not deal with the 'internal matter'

Azerbaijani MP demands 'serious conversation with adherents of Iranian influence in Azerbaijan'

Inflation in Japan accelerates to 40-year high

Seoul and Riyadh sign $30 billion investment agreements

North Korea launches intercontinental ballistic missile that lands near Japan

FBI: U.S. concerned about China 'setting up' unauthorized 'police stations' in U.S. cities

Indian drunk man wrapps python around his neck and almost dies from strangulation

Finland to spend 139 million euros on building border fence with Russia

Politico: Ukraine warned allies it may not recover from new Russian attacks on energy systems

Singapore to not take sides in geopolitical conflicts

Boris Johnson paid 276,000 to speak to US insurers

Prime Minister of Finland: Europe is now too reliant on Chinese technology

Turkey to require insurance from oil tankers when passing through its waters

EU to provide Ukraine with generators and kits to repair power grids

Turkey sentences sect founder to 8,658 years in prison

Xi Jinping urges world to abandon any Cold War mentality

Aliyev rules out talks with Artsakh State Minister

FP: Ukraine's appetite for weapons depletes Western stocks

Putin and Aliyev discuss energy cooperation

Armenian financial technologies to enter international market: VISA and Idram sign memorandum in Yerevan

Incident in Poland causes disagreement between Kyiv and West

Mark Milley urges Kyiv and Moscow to find political solution: Chances of military victory are unlikely

New NATO Secretary General to be announced at Vilnius summit in 2023

Finnish Defense Ministry announces largest batch of military aid to Ukraine

Pashinyan receives Ukrainian businessmen of Armenian origin

Armenian soldier wounded in Azerbaijani shooting

Erdogan: Turkey-Israel relations entered a new phase of development

Mishustin: Cooperation between Moscow and Baku has become truly strategic and allied

Igor Khovaev to visit Baku

Mishustin arrives in Baku

Russian Foreign Ministry: South Caucasus is a strategic transport hub for Eurasia

U.S. general lays flowers at eternal flame at Armenian Genocide memorial

Republicans stand for same-sex marriage rights

Pallone says US State Department should not hesitate to speak about Azerbaijani aggression

Aliyev refuses to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh and threatens Armenia with new aggression

Greek minister doesn't get off plane to meet head of Libya's presidential council

Sergey Lavrov to visit Yerevan

Lebanese parliament fails to elect president of country

Kremlin on Zelenskyy's proposal to hold 'public' talks

National Assembly Speaker: Armenia is extremely interested in establishing strategic relations with Georgia

Canada provides additional military aid to Ukraine

Representatives of defense agencies of CSTO countries discuss crisis response issues

Armenian Defense Minister and American General discuss defense cooperation

Tehran accuses Israel and West of trying to organize civil war in Iran

Oppositionist: No guarantees that war with Azerbaijan can be avoided

Issue of biometric passports to Armenian citizens is temporarily suspended
RACINE  The first steps of Regency Malls planned rebirth are underway.

This week the malls owner, Hull Property Group, is starting its long-anticipated interior renovations at Regency. The Augusta, Ga., company bought the mall in late 2016 for $9.5 million with the intention of turning it around  Hulls specialty.

Regency Mall, which opened in 1981, has about 700,000 enclosed square feet on 76 acres. It is what Hull executives and owner Jim Hull call a failed mall.

HPG has more than 40 years of experience in retail real estate. It has a history of acquiring and repositioning underperforming enclosed malls and shopping centers in small- to mid-size markets. HPG owns 30 regionally enclosed malls in 13 states and 15 shopping centers.

Part of HPGs revitalization strategy for malls is to spend millions of dollars on what the company calls sacrificial investments in each failed mall to transform the interiors and greatly modify the exteriors.

The first step, now underway at Regency is to hide the jail-like vacant storefronts covered by metal caging. HPG replaces those stretches with solid walls which are then covered with murals; historic, iconic community photos; quotes and inspirational messages and so on.

The new walls will have architectural flourishes such as chair rail, crown molding and wainscoting, said John Mulherin, Hull vice president for government relations. He promised a finished, first-class look.

On Wednesday, workers from Milwaukee-based Four Brothers Construction were laboring to replace vacant storefronts in the malls west end. They will work their way from the west end to the east end.

Last year, HPG executives had hoped to begin renovations in September. But first the City of Racine created a tax-increment district that encompasses the mall and some of the surrounding retail zone, to help with the areas rehabilitation. Next, HPG had to work out a development agreement with the city. Then bids for the work came in too high, and the project had to be rebid.

By then the holiday shopping season had begun, and Hull had to wait until after Jan. 1 to start renovations.

Obviously, we want to start renovations and get to our (revitalization) model as soon as possible, Mulherin said this week.  Were excited that were able to get it going.

American Eagle closing

The interior mall renovations start in the wake of a rash of recent store and kiosk closings at Regency  all but one by HPGs choosing. The exception is American Eagle Outfitters, a national chain store that will close its Racine location Monday. A clerk at the store said the closing was a corporate decision; the company did not respond to a request for comment or explanation.

Mulherin said Hull absolutely would have kept American Eagle in the fold if it could have. Sustainable success will be with national, branded stores, he said.

All the other recent or upcoming closings at Regency have been decisions by the malls owners and part of Hulls mall revitalization strategy: Ancient Horizons, a jewelry and gift store; Body 360, a piercing shop; On the Go, a convenience store; New Image, a hair salon; a vitamin B-12 shots store; Jewel Time; and a Metro PCS kiosk.

And A1 Accessories is moving from a kiosk to a mall storefront.

In any of our malls, we believe in the orchestration of a certain look and feel, Mulherin explained. Important to that look are long lines of sight, because Hull believes that makes female shoppers feel safer.

So, we need to eliminate all visual blockers, Mulherin said. Consequently, the company systematically removes all kiosks as their leases expire. Wherever conceivable, we want to move them into an in-line store, he said.

Other tenants, Mulherin continued, through no fault of their own  just dont comport with what were trying to accomplish: a fashion-based mall.

Other considerations involved in removing certain mall tenants include sales per square foot and how they are merchandised, Mulherin said.

Unfortunately, there are some stores that dont meet those criteria of a good, first-class look, he said.

Despite American Eagle Outfitters imminent departure, Mulherin said there will come a time when HPG will try to bring the store back to Regency.

If we had been able to do this (renovation work) a year ago, I would like to think we would have been able to save American Eagle and some others, Mulherin said. They didnt have a lot of lease time left.

Next renovation steps

In addition to replacing vacant storefronts with new walls, the next steps in the interior renovations will be installing new ceilings, Mulherin said. From those they will drop in pendant lighting that will reflect off the ceiling and back down to create a consistent lighting.

HPG will also put in carpet. It gives you that warmth that youre looking for, Mulherin said. The company uses carpet squares that can easily be replaced after spills and such.

HPG will also redo all of the bathrooms. Mulherin estimated the interior makeover will take about 10 to 12 weeks, with much of the work being performed at night.

That will be followed in spring by the start of about 12 weeks of exterior construction including dramatically redesigning the entrances. We beef them up, give them some verticality, some prominence, Mulherin said. Pavers may be added outside the doors to make it very welcoming.

The whole point is to orchestrate a new look and feel that gives momentum, Mulherin said.

Thats the expensive but easy part, he said about the coming physical transformation.

The tough part is finding the new tenants.

But Mulherin said with Foxconn Technology Group planning to build a new, $10 billion manufacturing campus in Mount Pleasant, HPG thinks that bodes well for the mall here.

Will we dominate again like (Regency) did in 82? Mulherin asked rhetorically. Absolutely not. But we think we can be competitive. We can be viable, we can be relevant again.
YEREVAN.  According to the police and insurance companies data, the number of accidents in Armenia involving cars with a right-hand steering wheel is 28 percent more, and the number of injured in these accidents is about 39 percent more, which is a very high number.

The Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies of Armenia, Vahan Martirosyan, stated the aforesaid at Thursdays Cabinet meeting of the government. He noted this as he introduced the bill, according to which the import, registration, and operation of vehicles with a right-hand steering wheel shall be banned in Armenia, as of April 1.

Therefore the travel of cars with a right-hand steering system poses a danger to road traffic safety [in Armenia], Martirosyan added, in particular.

He noted, however, that such automobiles that are imported into Armenia before April 1 can still be operated, registered, sold, etc. in the country.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Economic Integration and Reforms, Vache Gabrielyan, in turn, noted that there is also a need for legislative restrictions on such imports.

Please prepare a relevant bill and submit it to the government, so that we submit it to the National Assembly, he added.
YEREVAN.  At Thursdays Cabinet meeting, the government of Armenia approved the 2018-2021 plan for the sale of the precious items in the government reserve fund.

The Minister of Finance, Vardan Aramyan, introduced the respective draft decision.

In the ministers words, the precious stones and state treasures have not been sold since 1996, and as a result, quite a large number of jewelry has accumulated in the government reserve fund, and they are losing their relevance and value, over time.

Besides, storing these goods is too costly, Aramyan added. For that reason, there is a need to organize public auctions to sell the loose reserves of the reserve fund [of the Armenian government].

As a result of the implementation of this plan, the state treasury of Armenia will get high-liquidity bullions, which do not lose their value.
YEREVAN.  The driver of a vehicle involved in a fatal crash that claimed lives of two police officers in Yerevan was arrested.

Sargis Vardanyan has been charged with violation of traffic rules which caused death of a person and escaping the site of road accident.

After colliding with the police car, the BMW X6 had crashed into a roadside billboard and ended up on the pavement, whereas its driver fled the scene. Police officer A. Davtyan was killed at the site, while another officer Kh. Gasparyan has been taken to medical center where he died several hours later.

Two passengers of BMW were injured, Armenian investigation committee said in a statement. According to some reports, Vardanyan is a son of a crime boss.
The Italian Chairmanship of OSCE will focus on resolution of all protracted conflicts in the OSCE area.

These are extremely complex times as far as security in the OSCE area is concerned. Recently, in our region, the crisis in and around Ukraine has called into question the very principles on which the OSCE is based. Furthermore, we shall keep our focus on all the major protracted conflicts and their impact on the life of civilian populations, in Georgia or concerning Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdniestria, program of the Italian Chairmanship reads.

When representing Italys priorities in Vienna, Foreign Minister, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Angelino Alfano said they will support the work of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group to find definitive agreed solution to this conflict.
YORKVILLE  The Aging and Disability Resource Center of Racine County, 14200 Washington Ave., works with adults with disabilities from age 17 and older, older adults and caregivers, and can help people identify their need(s), sort through options and help them understand their choices. All of this is at no cost.
Britain, France and Germany called on Donald Trump on Thursday to uphold a pact curbing Irans nuclear ambitions on the eve of a sanctions ruling by the U.S. president they fear could torpedo an accord he has relentlessly criticized.

Hailed by its admirers as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. It was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union.

In sharp contrast to Trumps view that the 2015 pact was the worst deal ever negotiated, the foreign ministers of the three countries and the EUs top diplomat said there was no alternative to it and that sanctions should remain lifted.

We agree on this approach, we want to protect (the deal) against every possible decision that might undermine it, Germanys Sigmar Gabriel said alongside his French and British counterparts and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini after meeting Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

It is absolutely necessary to have this to prevent the development of nuclear weapons at a time when other parts of the world are discussing how to get them, Gabriel said, later specifically mentioning North Korea in his remarks.

Trumps choice comes at a delicate time for Irans government, which faced protests over economic hardships and corruption that are linked to frustration among younger Iranians who hoped to see more benefits from the lifting of sanctions.

The deal is working. It is delivering on its main goal which means keeping the Iranian nuclear program in check and under close surveillance, Mogherini said, adding that the International Atomic Energy Agency had shown in nine reports that Iran is meeting its commitments.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the pact was also a way for Iran to show it was a good neighbour in the region by complying.
RACINE PUBLIC LIBRARY

RACINE  The Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St., is offering these programs:

The library welcomes youth in grades one to eight to take part in the Milwaukee Bucks Reading Challenge. Children who read at least 250 pages will be eligible for a complimentary ticket offer to a select Bucks home game. Children who read at least 500 pages will have their name entered into a drawing for an autographed Milwaukee Bucks basketball. Forms are available at the main library and bookmobile and must be turned in at either location by Feb. 5.

Book Br@ts: Book Discussion Group, for third-graders, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16. Sign up at the Youth Services Desk or call Anne Callaghan at 262-636-9245.

Minecraft Open Lab, 5-6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17. Register by calling 262-636-9217 or visit the Adult Services Desk.

Repair Cafe, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20. People may bring things that do not work, are broken or need repair (DVD player, toaster, table, sweater, etc.). Hosted by the Friends of the Racine Public Library Inc. Register at friends@rplfriends.org.

Between You and Me Book Group, 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8. The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America from the Age of the Pullman Porters to the Age of Obama by Ethan Michaeli will be discussed. Sponsored by Coming Together Racine to read books about racism and race relations together and discuss views. The group meets on the second Thursday of the month.

Teen Reads Book Club, for youth in grades six to 12, 4:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29. Alternate History will be discussed. Register by Jan. 22.

For more information or to register for a program, call the library at 262-636-9245 or go to www.racinelibrary.info, unless otherwise listed.

WATERFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY

WATERFORD  The Waterford Public Library, 101 N. River St., is offering these free events:

Building Blocks Storytime, 5:30-5:15 p.m. Mondays, Jan. 15-Feb. 19. Books and musical activities will engage parents and children ages 5 and younger.

Adult Coloring & Crafts, 6-7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15. Coloring sheets will be provided. People can bring a craft to work on.

Reading to Chester, 4:30-5:15 p.m. Wednesdays, Jan. 17 and Feb. 21. Individual children and/or families can sign up for one 15-minute block of time. Participants will read to Chester, a friendly cairn terrier/dachshund mix. The signup sheet is in the childrens area.

Afternoon Movie for Adults, 1-3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18. Register in advance. Call or visit library for movie title.

A valid library card is required. For more information, call 262-534-3988 or go to www.waterford.lib.wi.us.

BURLINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

BURLINGTON  Tom Kipp, head of Cardinal Stritch Universitys Career Education Program, will be administering the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the Burlington Public Library, 166 E. Jefferson St. Visitors will be able to see how their personality impacts their career and happiness. This is a free program. Visit the library or call 262-342-1130 to register.

ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY

ROCHESTER  These free story times featuring stories, songs, counting, STEM and crafts will be held Jan. 15-17 and Jan. 22 at the Rochester Public Library, 208 W. Spring St.:

Mondays & Wednesdays  Toddler Time (ages 3 and younger), 10:30 a.m.

Tuesdays  Preschool Story Time (ages 3-5), 10:30 a.m.
YORKVILLE  The public is invited to an open house meeting with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation concerning Highway 20 and bridge rehabilitation.

The meeting was set to discuss proposed improvements to rehabilitate segments of the road, as well as bridges along the highway, within Racine County between Interstate 94 and Highway 45.

No formal presentations will be made at the meeting, which is set for 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Jan. 18 at the Ives Grove county building, 14200 Washington Ave. Project plans, location maps and other exhibits will be on display to illustrate the work, according to a press release from WisDOT. People are encouraged to ask questions and provide feedback.

The proposals are focused on three structures that need to be either rehabilitated or replaced, the release states. Two are proposed to be replaced with single-span bridges. The third is proposed for a deck replacement.

Roadway approaches leading to the structures will also be reconstructed, according to the release, which may include rebuilding the intersection of Highway 20 and 53rd Drive to current standards. It could also include evaluating alternatives for the east Highway 20 and Old Yorkville Road intersection.

More information is available from Project Manager Cynthia Flower at 262-548-5949. Written comments can also be mailed to WisDOT, 141 NW Barstow St., P.O. Box 798, Waukesha, WI 53187.

The meeting will take place at Racine County Public Works and Development Services Office, 14200 Washington Ave., in Sturtevant.

Bids wanted

WisDOT is also requesting bids for work on Highway 20, which the department wants to assign in February so that work can begin in March. The work is expected to improve the roads condition ahead of the anticipated increase in use near the Foxconn development site, as well as the I-94 reconstruction.

This work will include resurfacing about 2  miles of Highway 20 between I-94 and Highway H, according to a press release

The project is expected to be completed in May. It will be coordinated with the ongoing frontage road work along I-94, a release states.
RACINE  The Wisconsin Legislature in 2017 endured a grueling budget fight, gave approval of the Foxconn Technology Group incentive package and provided increases to education funding  to name a few highlights. Now, going into 2018, Republican lawmakers are looking to pass an ambitious agenda.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, stopped by The Journal Times Editorial Board on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming session.

Vos said the Legislature is going to be very aggressive on welfare reforms including food stamps, BadgerCare and housing assistance.

If you are able-bodied and youre getting benefits, we certainly dont want to cut off your benefits; we want to give you more of a chance to earn a wage so you dont need them, Vos said.

Currently, once an individual reaches 100 percent of the federal poverty level, benefits are cut off.

What Vos is looking to do in the state Assembly is having a tiered system to allow benefits to be phased out over time for individuals who get work but still need some assistance.

Last year, Vos established a task force to look at improving the foster care system. With opioid addiction continuing to be an issue, children with addicted parents are often caught moving in and out of foster care.

We have to do something with foster care because its directly tied to this huge opioid crisis, Vos said.

Vos added that the bipartisan task force is preparing 13 bills to improve foster care including some that may attract younger couples to consider being foster parents and helping pay for some of the foster childs costs.

I thought the answer was going to be more money, Vos said.

Instead he heard that foster parents would rather have funding for onetime expenses, like braces for their foster children, for instance.

I thought it was a great idea, he said.

Affordable housing and health care

Creating more affordable housing has landed on the Assemblys radar.

Vos said officials have been working on two bills to give aid to those looking for shelter or building apartments and houses.

It is a huge problem in a lot of parts of the state, Vos said about finding affordable housing.

Another issue is developing affordable housing and one bill looks to give aid to those looking to develop properties.

Vos said these properties would be for what he sees as traditional housing that middle income families can afford.

Other topics being taken up by the Assembly are association health care, which could allow groups like Racine Area Manufacturers and Commerce to offer health care to its members, and increasing funding for a marketing campaign to attract young people to the state because we dont have enough young people.

Drivers license gone for life

On the State Senate side, Wanggaard said hes going to focus on human trafficking.

We are becoming a central point for that in the Racine, Kenosha, Milwaukee area, Wanggaard said, adding that as of the end of November there have been 400 arrests of sexual predators in the state.

Wanggaard said hes working on a bill that would help law enforcement search hotels where human trafficking is occurring.

One piece of legislation that will likely get a lot of attention is Wanggaards proposal to fight drunken driving.

Wanggaard looks to pass a four strikes bill that would take away driver licenses for life for anyone convicted of two OWI charges in addition to two other OWI incidents, like causing injury by intoxicated use.

If the number reaches four and youre driving, youre going to go to jail and its going to be a $2,500 fine and your license is gone for life, Wanggaard said. This will get their attention.

Wanggaard said if an individual did get his or her license taken away, that person can become eligible to reapply to get it back by going 10 years without any incidents and meeting other criteria, but basically your license is gone for life.
Leave it in 2016

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Honestly, Julian could fucking get it.

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i've always wondered if anyone else was weirdly attracted to him lol.

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what is this from lol

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lmao this gif is amazing and so many possible uses for it

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I never thought Id see the day where a TPB gif gets used on here

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Ughhhhh what cesspool did this woman crawl up out of and why cant she go back?

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She needs to disappear with Lena Dunham.

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@God make it happen

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Let this finally be the year!

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lena doesn't have black friends, so they probably won't disappear together.

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Eaux @ her still having a platform which allows her to sell merch.

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Second sentence in and I already see that "link in bio" so no. Is she selling the shirts so she can make some money since no one is hiring her trifling ass?

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Edited at 2018-01-11 12:21 am (UTC) this made me kinda cringe in embarrassment for her omg.

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dont be racist, please refer by her real name nkechi amare diallo

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lol

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She still exists?

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hey nkechi, hey. shut the fuck up.

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wait...I thought the poster above was joking, did she...did she really say this was her name??

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she changed her name, iirc

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Ugh...



Has his parents said anything about this? I would love to know how this happened because at first I was on the train of how the fuck could his parents allow this but then I saw someone on Facebook I know point out that when her daughter did a shoot, the company owns the rights to the photos and can use her photos for multiple ads of different things. I just hope thats what happened.

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yeah his mom was like "making issues out of nothing. no big deal"

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she got her check.

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the link says the mother is from Sweden. i wonder if that influences her flop opinion.

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https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdya7YFlg9G/?tagged=terrymango



Mom Of Black H&M Model Emerges From Sunken Place, Says Ad Wasnt Racist



http://hiphopwired.com/741248/mom-of-black-hm-model-emerges-from-sunken-place-says-ad-wasnt-racist/



Edited at 2018-01-11 12:41 am (UTC) yeah we need to get over itMom Of Black H&M Model Emerges From Sunken Place, Says Ad Wasnt Racist

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I was actually thinking that was the situation. Sometimes when you're online shopping and you see 1 shirt with different colors or phrases you can tell the model just wore 1 shirt and then they shopped the other variations. Apparently that's not happened to this little boy though :(





Ugh, what an idiot mother.

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She already changed it lol

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Jeez

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How are you going to argue for poverty while wearing a sweater many cant actually afford? This is like those feminism shirts from Dior. Those were $800. This is why I truly cant take celebs seriously. All this shit reeks of capitalism.



Edited at 2018-01-11 01:06 pm (UTC)

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in venezuelan socialism you can be a rich bitch if you wearing a bunch of Charmin Ultra Strong rolls for only $23.

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does that mean people can't discuss poverty online because many can't actually afford a computer and internet? your logic is a bit flawed.

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valid point

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lol what? so all people who care about poverty have to shop at the dollar store for their clothes and live in shacks on the ride of the road?



you can have money, spend money, and still care and advocate against poverty.



what a dumb take.

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I mean, tbh, it's not celebrities fault that they're out of touch, sometimes.

Growing up, it was completely normal for me to be handed my parent's debit card, or a wad of cash and go shopping, and I had no idea that other kids didn't have that. I would spend $20 on snacks at the movies, and my friends would be deciding if they could get a soda or popcorn...and I had no idea why. (This is like pre-teen years, so shush.) If you spend long enough being rich, you lose touch with the opposite lifestyle, and a ~measly~ $380 doesn't seem like much. Especially in comparison to a $5000 gown, like she's saying.

On the flip side, you have celebrities like Britney Spears telling their sons $20 per week is a lot for an allowance. But, she also grew up dirt poor.

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What does feminism have to do with a price tag? It's really NOT the same argument.



I could say "Holding a 15,000,000 dollar luncheon for starving children in Ethiopia".....

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She tried too hard to be quirky and edgy, and it backfired.

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carmine what have you done to bring attention to poverty/sexism get out of here

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Oh come on. Its a tacky look, but worse than an expensive gown with no message at all? It didnt need to be so expensive but damn can we stop looking for every single little reason to come for the way women try to support the movement, and instead start holding men accountable for not even trying.

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ia

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agreed

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mte

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i agree

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mte

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Thank you.

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Exactly. If a man wore this, he'd be praised all over the place for being SO brave to speak out. With a woman, it's yet another way to criticize her clothes. smh.

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A fucking men.

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ia

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uh idk. there is definitely a point where the pile of critiques are self-defeating and even misogynistic in nature, but it's also necessary to hold rich white women to account. it's not about 'cancelling' her or anything but a luxury 'poverty is sexist' shirt is simply stupid.

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this

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Seriously. Thank you.

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ia can we pls have even more posts about* men not being shit lmao



we've had plenty of the opposite



Edited at 2018-01-11 07:20 pm (UTC)

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This. We'll tear women to pieces for trying to help in ways that don't work for us personally, but men get eternal passes.

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yeah

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makes me think of "this is what a feminist looks like shirts" that were made in a sweatshop by underpaid female workers

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which is why i'm hoping the price tag is high because clothing that is sustainably and ethically made tend to be more costly.



it would be equally problematic if she wore a cheap $5 h&m sweatshop made shirt.

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that makes sense

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i think she sources vintage sweaters and then has a couple of employees/friends that help her hand-stitch them.

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I agree.



If this sweater was produced in the USA and their employees were paid a livable wage. Then by all means, charge 350 for this sweater.

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If the workers who made this shirt werent exploited and are paid a fair wage, Im fine with it. Its not ideal but if its not hurting anybody its okay in my book.

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she's a rich celebrity. do they expect her to show up in clothes from walmart?? smh

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donating $100 of each purchase



wonder how many people bought one.

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https://linguafranca.nyc/collections/the-resistance-series



these are all really ugly these are all really ugly

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"oprah for pres"



lmfao cringe

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good god.. liberals can sure do the most

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I don't have my glasses on so I read the 'resist' one as 'racist' and I'm was scandalized for a second.

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i kind of want the "science not fiction" one

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lmao those are all fucking terrible and embarrassing.



the "poverty is sexist" shirt wore by connie had a good message though, despite also being ugly.

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its the font tbh, i can't take the horrible script

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1. Go the charity shop.

2. Get yourself an ugly plain sweater.

3. Then grab some embroidery thread which I promise you is probably in a pile somewhere in that same charity shop.

4. Write out your message like "fuck paying $380 for something I can make in half an hour" with a marker.

5. Embroider over your handwriting



(Optional) Add glitter glue over embroidery thread for that extra fab look.



Congrats, you now have your own weird ugly sweater and actually donated to a charity without trying.

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Apart from anything else, the placement of the text bothers me; its too high up imo.

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Like she said, a designer gown would have been far more expensive and made no statement at all. At least she did something beyond the other celebs who scrambled to have a flashy black dress designed so they could pat themselves on the back for supporting "the movement".



Not to mention this twitter dude is a conservative asshat who, judging by his recent feed, celebrates in workplaces getting raided and random people deported and whose profile reads "I trigger Hollywood elites". Can we stop letting every fool ass man with a keyboard undermine women who at the very least are doing SOMETHING, however misguided and out of touch?

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hollywood is beyond parody

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absolutely

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*Reese Witherspoon voice* its beyond

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Ok fine, whatever.



But what does the statement mean? Idgi.

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women don't have equal/as many opportunities as men and that inequality is worse in poorer countries. i think a big part of the movement is helping girls get an education.

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poverty disproportionately affects women more than it affects men. women are often more likely to be in poverty, are more likely to be single parents with children in poverty, etc, etc, etc.

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Petty bullshit. People just don't want to confront the message because for ~some reason bringing up how class intersects with other issues makes rich liberals uncomfortable.

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would have been great if the press took this opportunity to instigate an actual conversation about the intersection between gender-related & economic oppression. but nope let's just take this chance to morally litigate an individual woman, great

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mfte

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what else is new

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you realize that the criticism of this shirt is in fact part of that conversation though? luxury fashion lines and overpriced clothing are part of that gendered economic oppression.

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that is absolutely not why people are dragging her, and you know it.

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mte

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honestly

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The sweater was stitched by hand in the US, according their website. Add to the the price of decent cashmere and the price of $280 ($380 minus the donation) isn't all that unreasonable for what it is.



It clearly falls into the ethical gap of "not exploiting foreign workers slaving away for pennies" and "too expensive for an average American". Maybe instead of pissing on Britton, one needs to acknowledge the fact that we, on average, can't consume the way we currently do, while paying everyone in the world a decent wage/good working conditions.



Edited at 2018-01-11 02:03 pm (UTC)

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Perfect comment.

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It's sad bc even products you pay a bit more for are often packing in quality. Companies clearly want you to have to keep buying/replacing and it shouldn't be necessary.

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Seriously, what matters is that the people who made it were paid a living wage. This isnt a $100000 designer gown made in a sweatshop

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Bingo. Our current obsession with consumption is also driving climate change, which will again disproportionately affect poorer nations and communities. The vicious cycle viciously cycles on!

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yup

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Exactly. The objections to it reek of Trump-supporter-esque, reactionary faux-populism honestly.

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well said

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end post

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Correct response.



It's different than spending $280 for something that was produced in a sweatshop.

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bless this comment

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This so much.

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This comment and all the replies.



Winning thread.

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Aritzia sells 100% cashmere sweaters for around $200 that aren't bought by celebrities so I also don't think this is as crazy as some people think, especially with her being a celebrity and it involving a donation. Maybe people are judging it because it looks cheaper to them but that's not the point. As long as Connie isn't promoting the brand like other people should buy this sweater to ~join the movement, which is not what she's doing.

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TY for bringing sense into this. Americans have this idea that anything expensive that they can get cheap knockoffs of isn't "worth" the price tag. They don't take into consideration material costs or labor.

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spot on

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i wouldn't buy it at that price but i don't see the problem. people in the twitter comments being all 'you could have just donated that money' and 'sell it for $10 so more of us can afford it' are silly. she made a statement with the jumper and probably encouraged others to donate/check out the organisation.

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Nnnnn

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Cardi B is QUAKINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG



Edited at 2018-01-11 03:58 pm (UTC)

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I ended up liking this song after a few listens

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Ive only heard it a handful of times. I was thinking this era was going to be a radio flop. Enter payola.

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I like Taylor but...this entire era is just coasting on her name and payola deals because shes not streaming or selling well at all.

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I wonder if it's because of her music or because of her lack of promo.

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I'd say she's selling "well", it's just that you can see the signs of the beginning of the end for her.



I think the public is over her shtick at this point. Much like the Kardashians. No one has time for their nonsense anymore.

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Oddly my radio station that i listen to at work never plays it. And they are all about those big name stars and their overplayed songs.

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idc i love this song lol the 'oooooooo, aaaaaaaaa' is going to be embarrassing to watch her actually do but everything comes at a price

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Those parts wouldn't be so awkward if she possessed at least an iota of natural swagger.

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mte

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She'll do those same awkward side rolls or wtvr from Are You Ready 4 It

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I want to know who that backup dancer was...

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the music video for this is just coming out now? Is she okay?

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she just shot it and she isn't okay but it's okay to not be okay

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She's dumb AF because this era is already in total free-fall for the general public, she should have released this right before Christmas.

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and lol the video looks like forgettable generic trash, so much for that 2nd number one.

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That's a good point. A lot of this album's issues seem to come from her lyrical incoherence.

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getaway car could do this tbh





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and putting aside how she will never top Blank Space, lbrand putting aside how #problematic Wildest Dreams is, it really is a perfect music video - it stuck to a consistent theme & aesthetic that related to the song and followed a straightforward storyline. I think part of the issue with her recent singles have been that there isn't really a cohesive narrative within the lyrics themselves so it's hard to really extract a good plot for the video from them. Look What You Made Me Do was pretty good but since then her #edginess has been a bit played out tbh

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I wonder if this video will fare better than the other three. LWYMMD had a strong start but it didn't have actual longevity and the others weren't even a blip on the radar. She can afford to waste all that money, but...

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i think LWYMMD really spoke to the fact that she's waaaaaaay too aware/obsessed with the deep recesses of her fandom. only people who were already obsessed with her (good or bad) would know and/or care about the references in the video. everyone else was like "K, so?"

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i doubt it will. it will possibly have a great first week and then everyone will go back to not caring about her.



LWYMMD is truly a flop tbh. especially for her standards. it had an out of this world first week but it was literally a minor blip in the radar from there on.

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It's funny how people here are deluded into thinking somehow Taylor is this major pop artist (especially this era) when her cultural impact in 2017 was almost zero and her songs have been doing so poorly. Ed Sheeran is far from my favorite anything, but I imagine Taylor Swift stans think her new era is what Sheeran's was last year (viral and continued success, hits, international relevancy, etc.).



Actually, I lie. Her music had zero cultural impact, but her Nazi-sympathizing and apolitical ways surely got their time to shine.

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.... have there been three?



look what you made me do.... the weird robot one... hwat other one.

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I think this will do really well. a feat with Future and Ed, it will get a lot of plays.

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it's been on the radio for months now, if it was gonna blow up it would have by now.

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Mte. It'll do well on YouTube too.

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If this becomes a hit, it will be Ugly Ginger's doing, which is all kinds of funny and ironic.

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I doubt it. It's flopping on Spotify despite getting huge radio exposure. Plus, Max Martin pop is a really outdated sound (especially in the US, which is much more urban-leaning).



It'll probably get boosted with the video release but I doubt it'll have any long-term success.

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Definitely

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Ed is so damn random.

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This song is garbage. Hope that video is cute tho.

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apparently the juice box says "end game"

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girl pls..

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Actor Johnathon Schaech: I Was Molested by Director Franco Zeffirelli https://t.co/uC0cN0VTpf  People (@people) January 11, 2018

Actor Johnathon Schaech is accusing director Franco Zeffirelli of molesting him when they filmed their 1993 movie 'Sparrow.'[Then], one night, I think it was when we were at a hotel in Sicily and my costar wasnt there, he told me he was coming to my room. This time he had managed to get a keyThere was a moment where I was telling him No and he told me, We have to. I remember his breath smelling of Scotch. And this is the whole thing, and you hear it from the women who are opening up now about their own experiences with abuse: Theres a moment where, even though you are taught to be charming and have sex appeal as an actor, a line is crossed and everything changes. When someone crosses that line, when someone preys on you, theres a panic that sets in. Thats what Franco did. He crossed that boundary and I felt as though I left my body. He molested me in my bed. He put his hands in places that I couldnt even imagine and he did things that I am not proud of. But its not my fault. His pants never came off but I can [still] see him fumbling with his belt. He attempted to give me oral sex. I just remember being like, God, please no. Im OK, Im OK. I did nothing. I just lay there in bed. It felt like 4 hours but it was probably like 30 seconds, I was vulnerable. I didnt scream and yell. I didnt physically stop him, and it took me 25 years to answer the question why not. Theres a moment when someone is being violated by a predator where it is a clear form of violence that creates trauma in the body. We have a fight or flight response. People say they leave their bodies and thats what I did. When it was obvious Franco wasnt getting what he wanted that night, he just left. He never tried to touch me again. I told him not to come near me again. He never said anything about it. For the predator who crosses the line they think that its OK.The whole thing at the source
oh CHRIST this is going to be WILD i CANNOT WAIT

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this is gonna be great for the one season he's on it before he's fired

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lol yes!

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One season is all we need!

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My first thought.

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Pretty much

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lol yep

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LMAO I came to say this except he would quit

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lol yup

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Sad truth.

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I doubt he will last that long

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My first thought tbh it will be incredible for a few months

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Lmfao HALLLPPPP

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I WANT TO BE SO EXCITED BUT GDI BRYAN YOU CAN'T STAY ON A SHOW TO SAVE YOUR FCKN L I F E



I'm so conflicted UGH



Edited at 2018-01-11 10:17 pm (UTC)

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But at least the content will definitely cover like a good 5 seasons assuming its not cancelled or someone jumps ship.



It actually would be perfect for cable imo. Hopefully they get it on a channel that will not shy away from sex and violence in an obviously classy kind of way.

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Seriously my heart literally flipped because all I could think was "OMG he's gonna make it so PRETTY and PERF"



Quite frankly, I'm more worried about who tf they'll cast. My heart belongs so much to the original trio!

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I can't stand his style tbh. I don't want this.

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ia plus anything he touches is doomed

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STOP THE MADNESS, FULLER! ILU, but I can't take anymore heartbreak.

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So I assume one queerbaity but beautiful season, then he fucks off and leaves the show in the lurch?

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I'm wondering if this is the real reason he bailed on American Gods.

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I don't know if Bryan Fuller could follow through on something with a gun being held to his head.

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Personally, I think it is. Sounds like his dream adaptation. Sucks AG was shafted in the process, it really was a nice show.

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Lettuce pray.

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Pre production might provide more drama than the actual show i am quivering

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lmaooo i want the drama now.

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... and I'm here for all of that.

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I'M ON BOARD

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yessss, Id prefer to have one amazing season thats super sexy and stylized than several 'okayish' seasons. Super interested what he will do with it! Cast better be hot but I trust him with that.

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Had no idea who this was so I googled and DAMN I would so want him as one of the vampires.

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OH MY GOD. THIS PRETTY BOY. <3



I've been watching Kurt Seyit and Sura on Netlix and my eyes are just everywhere when it comes to him. I want to see his pretty face in Hollywood. :'(

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I can't see anyone but Tom as Lestat. Like...I can't even THINK of a casting idea that would be good.

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I would die DIE for Rupert Friend to be cast as Lestat. Oh god, it would be so right.

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Well tbf at the time 0 ppl thought Tom would be good

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i think that harry lloyd could do well

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I think so, too!!

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Same!! I'm sure they can cast someone perfectly competent but Tom's Louis will always have my heart. When I think of Lestat I think of his "there's still life in the old lady yet!" and Tom Cruise sitting on a coffin.

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He was perfect as Lestat.

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By far his best role. Iconic.

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yeah this is a valid concern

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This is gonna be a visually stunning homoerotic hot mess and I'm here for it.

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Stop letting this nigga make shows

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This made me laugh SO HARD!

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why? he's wonderful and all his shows are amazing, wtf.

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Flu Widespread in California, State Officials Urge Vaccination

For the week ending Dec. 30, 2017, which was the most recent report available as of Jan. 9, there had been 27 flu-associated deaths in persons under 65 years of age reported to CDPH. But because only influenza deaths in persons less than 65 years are reported to CDPH, the total number of deaths due to influenza is higher, according to the agency.

The California Department of Public Health warned residents Jan. 9 that flu activity in California is both widespread and at levels usually seen at the peak of the influenza season; the state's health officials are urging Californians to get vaccinated if they haven't already done that.

For the week ending Dec. 30, 2017, which was the most recent report available as of Jan. 9, there had been 27 flu-associated deaths in persons under 65 years of age reported to CDPH. But because only influenza deaths in persons less than 65 years are reported to CDPH, the total number of deaths due to influenza is higher, according to the agency.

"With the increase in influenza impacting many communities across the entire state, it is important to get a flu shot now if you have not done so already," said CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith. "Although influenza season usually peaks between December and February, flu activity can occur as late as May, which means it is not too late to get vaccinated."

It takes about two weeks after vaccination for the body to respond fully, and flu vaccine effectiveness varies for the different strains and year by year. Data will be available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February 2018 about vaccine effectiveness. "Vaccination will prevent infection in a large number of cases. If disease does occur after vaccination, the vaccine can reduce the severity of flu symptoms," Smith said. "Getting the flu shot is still the best way to protect yourself and others from flu."

People at high risk for serious flu-related complications that can lead to hospitalization and even death include pregnant women; children younger than 5, and especially children younger than 2; people 65 years of age and older; and people who have certain medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, and heart disease.

To stop the spread of flu and other respiratory illnesses, the department recommends that you:

Stay home while sick and limit contact with others

Cover your cough or sneeze with your sleeve or a disposable tissue

Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth

The CDPH flu website is a good source for information.
Oklahoma Voting on Medical Marijuana June 26

If approved by voters, the measure would permit doctors to recommend a patient who is at least 18 years old for a state-issued medical marijuana license.

Oklahoma voters will decide in a special election June 26 whether to legalize use of medical marijuana in their state. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin last week filed an executive proclamation placing State Question 788 on the June 26 primary election ballot; her other option was to place the issue on the November general election ballot.

Supporters of an initiative petition asking voters to legalize medical marijuana gathered enough signatures in 2016 to schedule a statewide referendum on the measure. "Backers of this proposal to legalize medical marijuana followed procedures and gathered the more than 66,000 required signatures to submit the issue to a vote of the people," Fallin said. "I'm fulfilling my duty as governor to decide when that election will occur this year."

If approved by voters, the measure would permit doctors to recommend a patient who is at least 18 years old for a state-issued medical marijuana license. A license holder would be allowed to legally possess up to 3 ounces of the drug, six mature plants, and six seedlings, but these limits could be increased by individual counties or cities.
Phuket, 11 January 2018  To celebrate the New Year and welcome the first month in 2018, La Gritta, an Italian restaurant at Amari Phuket, presents the Kitchen meets Bar promotion, a perfect combination of five creative menus paired with five cool beverages for a sumptuous dinner. Guests can savour a refreshing aperitif matched with a mixed antipasto, sea bass and beef carpaccio, roasted foie gras and slow-cooked beef.

Antipasto Misto di Finocchiona e Salame Felino Gorgonzola e Pecorino Toscano

Antipasto, mix of finocchio and Felino salami, paired with Negroni beverage

Price: 780 THB++ with beverage and 580 THB++ without beverage

Carpaccio di Spigola Marinata Agli Agrumi

Sea bass carpaccio with citrus juice, paired with Spritz beverage

Price: 720 THB++ with beverage and 520 THB++ without beverage

Carpaccio di Manzo

Beef carpaccio, paired with Bellini beverage

Price: 790 THB++ with beverage and 490 THB++ without beverage

Foie Gras Grigliato

Roasted foie gras in salsa Madeira sauce, paired with Rossini beverage

Price: 890 THB++ with beverage and 690 THB++ without beverage

Brasato di Manzo al Barolo con Pure di Patate

Slow-cooked beef with Italian herbs and Barolo red wine, and mashed potatoes, paired with Americano beverage

Price: 680 THB++ with beverage and 480 THB++ without beverage

This promotion is available throughout January 2018.

All prices are subject to a 10% service charge and 7% VAT. Terms and conditions apply.

For more information and reservations, please contact +66 (0) 7634 0112, email lagritta@amari.com,

or visit www.lagritta.com and https://www.facebook.com/LaGrittaPhuket.

Address: Amari Phuket, 2 Muen-ngern Road, Patong Beach, Kathu, Phuket 83150, Thailand
Scientists have produced a series of papers designed to improve research on conservation and the environment.

A group of researchers, led by the University of Exeter, have contributed to a special issue of the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution to examine commonly used social science techniques and provide a checklist for scientists to follow.

Traditional conservation biology has been dominated by quantitative data (measured in numbers) but today it frequently relies on qualitative methods such as interviews and focus group discussions.

The aim of the special issue is to help researchers decide which techniques are most appropriate for their study, and improve the "methodological rigour" of these techniques.

"Qualitative techniques are an important part of the curriculum for most undergraduate, graduate and doctoral studies in biodiversity conservation and the environment," said Dr Nibedita Mukherjee, of the University of Exeter, who coordinated the special issue of the journal.

"Yet the application of these techniques is often flawed or badly reported."

Dr Mukherjee, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall, added: "In putting together this special issue, we urge greater collaboration across the disciplines within conservation, incorporating rigorous use of qualitative methods.

"We envisage a future in which conservation scientists test, modify and improve these techniques, so that they become even more relevant and widely used."

The five papers in the special issue include one which examines the use of interviews as part of research into conservation decision-making.

It found that researchers do not always justify their use of interviews, or report on their use fully enough for readers to make informed judgements.

"While interview-based research might not always be reproducible, we should still leave the reader in no doubt about what was done," said lead author Dr David Rose, formerly of the University of Cambridge but now at the University of East Anglia.

Another paper looked at the use of focus groups. Lead author Tobias Nyumba, from the University of Cambridge, said focus groups are often used but many researchers are "not particularly keen on the process, from planning, execution, analysis to reporting.

"This paper is, therefore, a must read if focus groups must form part of your research toolkit," he said.

A third paper looked at the nominal group technique (NGT).

Lead author Dr Jean Huge said: "While conservation conflicts are on the rise worldwide, NGT provides a simple yet systematic approach to prioritise management options and could help reduce conflict."

This could inform the choice of criteria in the MultiCriteria Decision Analysis as observed by Dr Blal Adem Esmail in his paper.
The SPARCS space telescope is CubeSat that will be built at ASU out of six cubical modules, each about four inches on a side. The plan is for students to be involved the design and construction of the spacecraft to provide educational and training opportunities to become future engineers, scientists, and mission leaders. Credit: Arizona State University

In 2021, a spacecraft the size of a Cheerios box will carry a small telescope into Earth orbit on an unusual mission. Its task is to monitor the flares and sunspots of small stars to assess how habitable the space environment is for planets orbiting them.

The spacecraft, known as the Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat, or SPARCS for short, is a new NASA-funded space telescope. The mission, including spacecraft design, integration and resulting science, is led by Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE).

"This is a mission to the borderland of astrophysics and astrobiology," said Evgenya Shkolnik, assistant professor in SESE and principal investigator for the SPARCS mission. "We're going to study the habitability and high-energy environment around stars that we call M dwarfs."

She announced the mission Jan. 10, 2018, at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society, in Washington, D.C.

The stars that SPARCS will focus on are small, dim, and cool by comparison to the sun. Having less than half the sun's size and temperature, they shine with barely one percent its brightness.

The choice of target stars for SPARCS might seem counterintuitive. If astronomers are looking for exoplanets in habitable environments, why bother with stars that are so different from the sun? An answer lies in the numbers.

To start with, M dwarfs are exceedingly common. They make up three-quarters of all the stars in our Milky Way galaxy, outnumbering sun-like stars 20 to 1.

Astronomers have discovered that essentially every M dwarf star has at least one planet orbiting it, and about one system in four has a rocky planet located in the star's habitable zone. This is the potentially life-friendly region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for life as we know it, and liquid water could exist on the planet's surface.

Because M dwarfs are so plentiful, astronomers estimate that our galaxy alone contains roughly 40 billionthat's billion with a Brocky planets in habitable zones around their stars. This means that most of the habitable-zone planets in our galaxy orbit M dwarfs. In fact, the nearest one, dubbed Proxima b, lies just 4.2 light-years away, which is on our doorstep in astronomical terms.

So as astronomers begin to explore the environment of exoplanets that dwell in other stars' habitable zones, M dwarf stars figure large in the search.

Taking the pulse of active stars

According to Shkolnik, while M dwarf stars are small and cool, they are more active than the sun, with flares and other outbursts that shoot powerful radiation into space around them. But no one knows exactly how active these small stars are. Over its one-year nominal mission, SPARCS will stare at target stars for weeks at a time in hopes of solving the puzzle.

The heart of the SPARCS spacecraft will be a telescope with a diameter of 9 centimeters, or 3.6 inches, plus a camera with two ultraviolet-sensitive detectors to be developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Both the telescope and camera will be optimized for observations using ultraviolet light, which strongly affects the planet's atmosphere and its potential to harbor life on the surface.

"People have been monitoring M dwarfs as best they can in visible light. But the stars' strongest flares occur mainly in the ultraviolet, which Earth's atmosphere mostly blocks," Shkolnik said.

Although the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope can view stars at ultraviolet wavelengths unhindered, its overcrowded observing schedule would let it dedicate only the briefest of efforts to M dwarfs.

"Hubble provides us with lots of detail on a few stars over a short time. But for understanding their activity we need long looks at many stars instead of snapshots of a few," said Shkolnik.

The closest exoplanet to Earth is Proxima b, just 4.2 light-years away. Proxima b orbits a red dwarf star, one of billions in the Milky Way galaxy. Because red dwarfs are commonly accompanied by planetary systems, such stars are the target for a new ASU-led space telescope mission which will determine the habitability of the space environment for any exoplanets that orbit them. Credit: European Southern Observatory

Capturing lengthy observations of M dwarfs will let astronomers study how stellar activity affects planets that orbit the star.

"Not only are M dwarfs more active than the sun when they are old, they remain more active for longer," Shkolnik said. "By the time it was 10 million years old, the sun had become much less active and it has been decreasing steadily ever since. But M dwarfs can remain active for 300 to 600 million years, with some of the smallest M stars flaring often essentially forever."

Build local, fly global

SPARCS will follow in the footsteps of other space instruments and probes originating from SESE. Already on its way to asteroid Bennu (arrival August 2018) is the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES).

In the pipeline are the Phoenix CubeSat (built by an all-student team to study the local climate effects of cities on Earth), LunaH-Map (to measure lunar hydrogen as a proxy for water), the Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (to seek temperature anomalies on Jupiter's moon Europa), the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer (to measure surface properties among Jupiter's family of trojan asteroids), and Psyche, a mission to study an asteroid made wholly of nickel and iron.

Like LunaH-Map, SPARCS is a CubeSat built of six cubical units, each about four inches on a side. These are joined to make a spacecraft two units wide by three long in what is termed a 6U spacecraft. Solar power panels extend like wings from one end.

"In size and shape, SPARCS most resembles a family-size box of Cheerios," Shkolnik said.

The spacecraft will contain three major systemsthe telescope, the camera, and the operational and science software. Along with Shkolnik, SESE astronomers Paul Scowen, Daniel Jacobs, and Judd Bowman will oversee the development of the telescope and camera, plus the software and the systems engineering to pull it all together.

The telescope uses a mirror system with coatings optimized for ultraviolet light. Together with the camera, the system can measure very small changes in the brightness of M dwarf stars to carry out the primary science of the mission. The instrument will be tested and calibrated at ASU in preparation for flight before being integrated into the rest of the spacecraft.

"We'll have limited radio communications with SPARCS, so we plan to do quite a bit of data processing on board using the central computer," said Jacobs. "We'll be writing that software here at ASU, using a prototype of the spacecraft and camera to test our code."

After launch, Jacobs said the team will do science operations at ASU, connecting up to SPARCS via a global ground station network.

A key part of the mission plan, Shkolnik said, is to involve graduate and undergraduate students in various roles. This will give them with educational and training opportunities to become future engineers, scientists, and mission leaders.

"The fast pace for developmentfrom lab to launch might be as short as a couple of yearsworks well with student timescales," Shkolnik said. "They can work on it, start to finish, in the time they're here at ASU."

Small package, big science

Joining ASU in the SPARCS mission are scientists from the University of Washington, the University of Arizona, Lowell Observatory, the SouthWest Research Institute, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"The SPARCS mission will show how, with the right technology, small space telescopes can answer big science questions," Shkolnik said.

These include, she said, "How likely is it that we humans are alone in the universe? Where should we look for habitable planets? And can we find a new and more fruitful understanding of what makes an exoplanet system habitable?"
The British government will extend a charge on plastic bags to all businesses and encourage supermarkets to introduce plastic-free aisles

Campaigners on Thursday criticised British Prime Minister Theresa May's plan to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste within 25 years, calling it a "missed opportunity" that lacked the necessary urgency.

The government will extend a charge on plastic bags to all businesses and encourage supermarkets to introduce plastic-free aisles, May said in speech.

"In years to come, I think people will be shocked at how today we allow so much plastic to be produced needlessly," she said in London.

Changes to the tax system and charges on single-use plastic items such as takeaway containers would also be considered in the future, while plastic items such as cutlery would be removed from government offices, she said.

But Louise Edge, senior oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: "This announcement was billed as a major push to tackle our plastic problem but it looks more like a missed opportunity".

"The specific measures announced today don't match the scale of the environmental crisis we face," she said.

Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, the fourth-biggest party in parliament, said Britain should be "eliminating all avoidable plastic waste nowa target of 2042 beggars belief".

The environmental plan is due to be reviewed every five years, a spokesman for the prime minister said.

The pro-EU group Open Britain warned that Brexit could threaten environmental ambitions because of the potential weakening of stringent EU regulation.

"When it comes to managing the growing stresses on the environment, Brexit poses a greater challenge than any other political development that has taken place in our lifetime," the group said.

May's former director of communications, Katie Perrior, wrote in The Times that the prime minister's enthusiasm for the environment "may not be insincere but it is certainly new".

May "is desperate for the good headlines," she said.

 2018 AFP
An artist's impression of PicSat in orbit around the Earth. PicSat rendering  Lesia / Observatoire de Paris; Background image T. Pesquet ESA / NASA.

France is set to launch a champagne box-sized mini satellite into Earth orbit on Friday to study a mysterious, juvenile planet system in our Milky Way galaxy, mission controllers said.

The PicSat orbiter's target is the massive star Beta Pictoris, some 60 light years from Earth in the southern constellation of Pictor (The Painter's Easel), and its planet Beta Pictoris ba gassy giant.

Built at the Paris Observatory's LESIA laboratory, with European backing, PicSat is due to be launched in the early-morning hours of Friday on an Indian PSLV rocket.

It will orbit our planet at an altitude of some 500 kilometres (310 miles), hoping to learn more about Beta Pictoris b by observing the next time it transits its host star, appearing as a dot on the bright surface as seen from Earth's perspective.

This once-in-18-year transit is expected some time in 2018, mission leader Sylvestre Lacour, an astrophysicist at France's CNRS research institute, told AFP.

"We are not 100-percent sure that the transit will happen" during PicSat's one-year lifetime, he said, as "the orbit of Beta Pictoris b is not well-known."

If not, "we will observe other, secondary objects orbiting the star."

By measuring how much light a planet blocks out as it transits its star, astronomers can glean details about its size and the composition of its atmosphere.

PicSat measures 10x10x30 centimetres (4x4x12 inches), "the size of a champagne box", said Lacour.

System manager Lester David puts the PicSAT Flight model in its launch pod for testing on the vibration table in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

Planet in a spin

It comes equipped with a telescope for fact-gathering, and solar panels to power all its systems. Weighing in at 3.5 kilogrammes (7.7 pounds), the satellite's power consumption is a mere 5 W, similar to that of an economical light bulb.

Discovered in 1984, Beta Pictoris has a mass about 1.8 times that of our Sun.

It is young in astronomical termsonly about 20 million years old compared to the Sun's 4.5 billion years.

It is surrounded by a huge disc of gas and dustthe materials from which planets, asteroids and comets are formedmaking it an ideal subject for studying the mechanism by which solar systems evolve.

Beta Pictoris b is about 16 times larger and 3,000 times more massive than Earth, with days lasting about eight hours. It orbits its star at a distance eight times that of Earth to the Sun.

In 2014, scientists said it spins at a breakneck speed of some 25 kilometres per second (90,000 kph or 56,000 miles per hour).

 2018 AFP
The Iranian oil tanker was on its way to South Korea when it collided with the CF Crystal

Chinese authorities battling a blaze aboard an Iranian oil tanker said Wednesday no major spill has been detected, but an explosion had forced firefighting vessels temporarily to suspend work.

One body has been found but 31 sailors from the Sanchimainly Iraniansremained missing four days after it collided with a freighter off Shanghai.

The tanker owner said it was hopeful that some or all of the crew members were in a safe part of the vessel and would be rescued.

Cleanup and rescue ships have faced toxic fumes, rain and windy conditions as they scrambled to find survivors and avoid a massive oil slick since Saturday's incident.

The Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tonnes of light crude oil, has been in flames since colliding with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai.

Experts had warned that a spill of the Panamanian-flagged 274-metre (899-foot) tanker's cargo could spell environmental catastrophe, as authorities said the ship could explode or sink.

But China's transport ministry said in a statement that as of 6:00 pm Tuesday, "no large-scale oil spills were found on the sea surface" where the search is being conducted around the stricken vessel, which continued to burn.

The oil from the tanker is condensate that is expected quickly to evaporate upon hitting the water, with "very little residue on the water's surface", the ministry said.

A simulation test also found that less than one percent of oil content would remain on the sea surface five hours after a condensate oil leak.

Thirteen vessels are still searching for missing crew members within 900 square nautical miles of the tanker, according to the ministry.

It said a Japanese vessel had joined the firefighting efforts and ships were attempting to use foam to extinguish the blaze, but the measures had "not had the anticipated effect".

The ships temporarily halted work Wednesday afternoon after they were forced back by an explosion, the ministry added.

Weather conditions are also unfavourable, with "overcast and rainy weather", strong winds and waves.

'Our priority is lives'

Of the 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis on the Sanchi's crew, only one body has so far been found.

"Our priority is the lives of the crew," said Mohsen Bahrami, a spokesman for the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) which operates the country's fleet of oil tankers.

"We still hope that at least some of themand I hope allare inside a protected part of the tanker," he said on Iranian state television.

"There is a good possibility that people are still alive," he added, while indicating that he had no solid information.

"We do not have the same priorities as the Chinese: they think first about the environment and prefer that the whole load burns, because it is a fishing area with a lot of fish", Bahrami said.

The oil tanker was on its way to South Korea when it collided with the CF Crystal, which was transporting grain to mainland China. The Crystal's 21 Chinese crew members were all rescued.

The Sanchi was transporting the oil to South Korea's Hanwha Total, Iran's petroleum ministry said. The ship and its cargo were insured.

This is the second accident in less than two years involving a tanker owned by the NITC.

In August 2016 an Iranian supertanker and a container ship collided in the Singapore Strait, causing damage to both vessels but no injuries or pollution.

 2018 AFP
Artists visualization of the K2-138 system, the first multi-planet system discovered by citizen scientists. The central star is slightly smaller and cooler than our sun. The five known planets are all between the size of Earth and Neptune; planet b may potentially be rocky, but planets c, d, e, and f likely contain large amounts of ice and gas. All five planets have orbital periods shorter than 13 days and are all incredibly hot, ranging from 800 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In its search for exoplanetsplanets outside of our solar systemNASA's Kepler telescope trails behind Earth, measuring the brightness of stars that may potentially host planets. The instrument identifies potential planets around other stars by looking for dips in the brightness of the stars that occur when planets cross in front of, or transit, them. Typically, computer programs flag the stars with these brightness dips, then astronomers look at each one and decide whether or not they truly could host a planet candidate.

Over the three years of the K2 mission, 287,309 stars have been observed, and tens of thousands more roll in every few months. So how do astronomers sift through all that data?

Enter the Exoplanet Explorers citizen scientist project, developed by UC Santa Cruz astronomer Ian Crossfield and Caltech staff scientist Jessie Christiansen. Exoplanet Explorers is hosted on Zooniverse, an online platform for crowdsourcing research.

"People anywhere can log on and learn what real signals from exoplanets look like, and then look through actual data collected from the Kepler telescope to vote on whether or not to classify a given signal as a transit, or just noise," says Christiansen. "We have each potential transit signal looked at by a minimum of 10 people, and each needs a minimum of 90 percent of 'yes' votes to be considered for further characterization."

In early April, just two weeks after the initial prototype of Exoplanet Explorers was set up on Zooniverse, it was featured in a three-day event on the ABC Australia television series Stargazing Live. In the first 48 hours after the project was introduced, Exoplanet Explorers received over 2 million classifications from more than 10,000 users. Included in that search was a brand-new dataset from the K2 missionthe reincarnation of the primary Kepler mission, ended three years ago. K2 has a whole new field of view and crop of stars around which to search for planets. No professional astronomer had yet looked through this dataset, called C12.

Back in California, Crossfield and Christiansen joined NASA astronomer Geert Barentsen, who was in Australia, in examining results as they came in. Using the depth of the transit curve and the periodicity with which it appears, they made estimates for how large the potential planet is and how close it orbits to its star. On the second night of the show, the researchers discussed the demographics of the planet candidates found so far44 Jupiter-sized planets, 72 Neptune-sized, 44 Earth-sized, and 53 so-called Super Earth's, which are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.

Artist's concept of a top-down view of the K2-138 system discovered by citizen scientists, showing the orbits and relative sizes of the five known planets. Orbital periods of the five planets, shown to scale, fall close to a series of 3:2 mean motion resonances. This indicates that the planets orbiting K2-138, which likely formed much farther away from the star, migrated inward slowly and smoothly. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"We wanted to find a new classification that would be exciting to announce on the final night, so we were originally combing through the planet candidates to find a planet in the habitable zonethe region around a star where liquid water could exist," says Christiansen. "But those can take a while to validate, to make sure that it really is a real planet and not a false alarm. So, we decided to look for a multi-planet system because it's very hard to get an accidental false signal of several planets."

After this decision, Barentsen left to get a cup of tea. By the time he returned, Christiansen had sorted the crowdsourced data to find a star with multiple transits and discovered a star with four planets orbiting it. Three of the four planets had 100 percent "yes" votes from over 10 people, and the remaining one had 92 percent "yes" votes. This is the first multi-planet system of exoplanets discovered entirely by crowdsourcing.

After the discovery was announced on Stargazing Live, Christiansen and her colleagues continued to study and characterize the system, dubbed K2-138. They statistically validated the set of planet signals as being "extremely likely," according to Christiansen, to be signals from true planets. They also found that the planets are orbiting in an interesting mathematical relationship called a resonance, in which each planet takes almost exactly 50 percent longer to orbit the star than the next planet further in. The researchers also found a fifth planet on the same chain of resonances, and hints of a sixth planet as well. A paper describing the system has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.

This is the only system with a chain of unbroken resonances in this configuration, and may provide clues to theorists looking to unlock the mysteries of planet formation and migration.

"The clockwork-like orbital architecture of this planetary system is keenly reminiscent of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter," says Konstantin Batygin, assistant professor of planetary science and Van Nuys Page Scholar, who was not involved with the study. "Orbital commensurabilities among planets are fundamentally fragile, so the present-day configuration of the K2-138 planets clearly points to a rather gentle and laminar formation environment of these distant worlds."

"Some current theories suggest that planets form by a chaotic scattering of rock and gas and other material in the early stages of the planetary system's life. However, these theories are unlikely to result in such a closely packed, orderly system as K2-138," says Christiansen. "What's exciting is that we found this unusual system with the help of the general public."

The paper is titled "The K2-138 system: A Near-Resonant Chain of Five Sub-Neptune Planets Discovered by Citizen Scientists."

More information: Jessie L. Christiansen et al. The K2-138 System: A Near-resonant Chain of Five Sub-Neptune Planets Discovered by Citizen Scientists, The Astronomical Journal (2018). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa9be0 Journal information: Astronomical Journal
Buddhist and mural painting in Mogao Grottoes No. 206. Credit: Science China Press

Mogao Grottoes is located in the western end of the Hexi Corridor along the ancient Silk Road in Dunhuang, China. From 366 to 1368 AD, a large group of Buddha caves were constructed that consists of 735 caves, 45,000 m2 mural paintings, and 2,415 argillaceous painted sculptures. It was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1987. Until now, most mural paintings at Mogao Grottoes have been dated by directly referring to the mural texts or historical documents. However, the ages of some are undetermined due to the lack of reference materials or the disagreement of art experts in paintings.

The drawing style of mural paintings changed throughout history, and the drawing style can be determined and quantified through painting data. By formulating the problem of mural dating into a problem of drawing-style classification, a new dating method is developed by encoding the drawing styles with visual codes learned through deep learning. This new method successfully determined the creation era of six mural paintings at Mogao Grottoes.

This new research work is led by Qingquan Li from Shenzhen University, just accepted by Science China Information Sciences, under the title "Dating ancient paintings from Mogao Grottoes using deeply learnt visual codes."

With the help of experts from Dunhuang Research Academia, seven mural paintings from two grottos (No. 205 and No. 206) were chosen as the research objects for this research. For grotto No. 205, two main drawing styles were declared by Dunhuang artists, which were the Peak Tang and the Middle Tang. Experts guess that the grotto No. 205 was originally constructed in the Early Tang or Peak Tang, but the construction was handicapped by wars of the Anshi Rebellion for about 50 years, and then the construction was succeeded in the Middle Tang. However, until now, there was no scientific or quantitative study to support these declarations. For grotto No. 206, painting styles are controversial between the Sui's and Early Tang's (see Figure 1). Specifically, for the two Guanyin paintings on the west wall of grotto No. 205, Mr. Wen-Jie Duan, a highly respected former President of DunHuang Research Academia, dated them into Peak Tang, while Mr. Hui-Min Wang, a distinguished expert in Archaeology Institute of Dunhuang Research Academia, dated it into Early Tang.

To reveal the creation era of these paintings, Qin Zou, a researcher from Wuhan University, collected 3860 mural paintings from 194 different grottoes with determined creation-era labels, and used data augmenting to form a training set of over 50,000 images. To find the era-discriminative visual codes in these paintings, the authors constructed a deep convolution neural network and classified these painting images into the right eras. Based on the classification model, a dating method was built and applied to date the seven paintings.

Six of the new dating results were approved by experts from Dunhuang Research Academy. "These dating results are correct and the method is great," Mr. Hui-Min Wang said. However, the deep learning method dated the painting "Peacock King" in grotto No. 205 into Middle Tang Dynasty, while Hui-Min Wang dated it into Wudai Dynasty, which brings up a new research topic to the community.

"To the best of our knowledge," wrote the five researchers, "this work represents the first account of a scientific and quantitative manner to support the era prediction and reduce the uncertainties in dating ancient paintings by using deep learning."

More information: Dating ancient paintings of Mogao Grottoes using deeply learnt visual codes, DOI: 10.1007/s11432-017-9308-x
Credit: University of Texas at Dallas

Recent spikes in homicide rates across the nation have been attributed to causes ranging from civil unrest to the opioid epidemic, but new UT Dallas research published in the journal Homicide Studies found a much simpler explanation: The increases follow predictable fluctuations in rates over the past 55 years.

"If you look at the trends over time, you can often see ups and downs of that magnitude," said Dr. Andrew Wheeler, assistant professor of criminology in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences.

The rise and fall in homicide rates suggest that long-term factors such as segregation and/or concentrated poverty play a more important role in the increases, said Dr. Tomislav V. Kovandzic, associate professor of criminology and co-author of the study.

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to short-term spikes, as they mayif not addressedcontribute to a city's long-term homicide level," Kovandzic said. "But it does mean policymakers and journalists could be missing the forest for the trees if they insist on focusing on the here and now."

The U.S. homicide rate5.3 homicides per 100,000 residentsclimbed nearly 12 percent from 2014 to 2015, one of the largest increases in decades, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report. It rose nearly 8 percent from 2015 to 2016. The numbers have generated headlines, raised concerns and led to speculation about the causes.

Trends in homicide rates are typically calculated by comparing the percentage change from one year to the next. But the UT Dallas study cautions that this method can create a distorted picture.

Researchers used a data analysis technique called funnel charts to compare homicide rates between cities with different populations, based on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data from 1960 to 2015. They found that the increased homicide rates in many cities stayed within predicted levels based on past year-to-year changes.

Wheeler and Kovandzic used another data analysis techniquetime series fan chartsto examine trends in each city over time. In most cities, the recent increased homicide rates were still much lower than rates in the early 1980s and 1990s. In others, high homicide rates were nothing new. For example, cities including St. Louis and Baltimore had experienced high homicide rates for decades.

In 2015, the homicide rate in Milwaukee was one of the nation's highest at 24.3 per 100,000 residents. The study found that the predicted rate for the city would likely fall between eight and 23 homicides per 100,000 residents based on rates before 2015. As a result, the increase was only slightly more than what could have been predicted based on Milwaukee's history.

The study also questions theories about homicide increases in some cities. For example, some attribute the rise in homicide rates in Chicago and Baltimore to decreases in police stops and arrests that resulted from civil rights litigation. But the authors point out that New York City, which also has experienced decreases in stops and arrests, has not seen increased homicide rates.

Understanding expected changes in homicide rates over a longer period of time can prevent the media, policymakers and the public from misinterpreting fluctuations, Wheeler said.

"We hope that this information can illustrate that homicide rates are volatile, so it's important to consider the size of a city and historic levels of homicide when analyzing homicide rates," Wheeler said. "Researchers focusing only on very recent homicide trends are likely to overestimate the effect of recent events."
The abrupt reversal came days after officials announced a proposal to allow drilling in virtually all coastal waters

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would not allow oil drilling off the coast of Florida after pressure from the state's Republican governor.

The abrupt reversal came days after officials announced a proposal to allow drilling in virtually all coastal waters, drawing immediate criticism from environmentalists.

Republican Governor Rick Scott of Florida was among the early critics of the plan that is part of President Donald Trump's "energy dominance" focus, saying oil drilling threatened Florida's natural resources, an issue that has long had bipartisan support.

Interior secretary Ryan Zinke announced the move on Twitter, saying: "I support the governor's position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.

"As a result... I am removing Florida from consideration from any new oil and gas platforms."

The program "proposes the largest number of lease sales in US history," and opens 98 percent of recoverable oil and gas reserves in federally-controlled waters to development, according to the Interior Department.

While offshore drilling is defended as a vital source of jobs and economic development in a few states like Texas and Louisiana, many other parts of the country have vigorously fought drilling due to environmental hazards and the importance of tourism to their local economies.

Republican governors including Maryland's Larry Hogan and South Carolina's Henry McMaster have balked at offshore drilling, while the practice is anathema in Democratic-leaning California and northeastern states.

California's attorney general Xavier Becerra immediately demanded a similar exemption for his state.

"California is also 'unique' & our 'coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.'" he tweeted.

"Our 'local and state voice' is firmly opposed to any and all offshore drilling. If that's your standard, we, too, should be removed from your list. Immediately."

 2018 AFP
Flowchart identifying the key players responsible for policy changes within science. As shown, the initiation of a crisis can induce change through several mechanisms. Prominent among these are changes in policy recommendations from government funding sources, in addition to policy changes at journals, universities, and independent funding agencies. Credit: Science Advances (2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701427

A trio of researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden is calling for a change in how researchers self-report in research papers. Specifically, they are suggesting publishing the gender of the researcher, because gender can impact the outcome of a research effort. In their Review paper published on the open access site Science Advances, Colin Chapman, Christian Benedict and Helgi Schioth suggest that revealing gender as part of paper publication could improve the reproducibility problem.

According to the authors, there is a replication crisis in the work being done by researchers and documented in scientific journals. They note further that some research has uncovered the source of the problem, but there is still a lot of work to do. They believe one part of the problem is the failure of the research community to address the problem of gender impact on research results, particularly those involved in three areas of human research: mind, body and behavior. While the topic might sound sexist, or even perhaps a swipe at female researchers, the authors note that skewing can go both ways.

Prior research has shown, for example, that if a female researcher administers an IQ test to volunteers, the results will skew higher than if they are administered by a male researcher. There is also evidence indicating that male volunteers given a drug to test efficacy at pain reduction, will report less pain if the researchers administering the drug are female than if they are male. Similar discrepancies exist in problem solving and behavioral studies. And, the authors note, it is not all in our minds. Even lab animals have been found to respond differently to test medications or in behavioral studies depending on administration by male or female researchers.

For these reasons, the authors argue that the time has come for authors of research papers to include the gender of the researchers as part of the author information. That way, if another team wishes to replicate the results of an experiment, they might have better luck doing so. They even go so far as to suggest that journals that publish scientific papers require gender to be included as a standard part of research reporting.

More information: Colin D. Chapman et al. Experimenter gender and replicability in science, Science Advances (2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701427 Abstract

There is a replication crisis spreading through the annals of scientific inquiry. Although some work has been carried out to uncover the roots of this issue, much remains unanswered. With this in mind, this paper investigates how the gender of the experimenter may affect experimental findings. Clinical trials are regularly carried out without any report of the experimenter's gender and with dubious knowledge of its influence. Consequently, significant biases caused by the experimenter's gender may lead researchers to conclude that therapeutics or other interventions are either overtreating or undertreating a variety of conditions. Bearing this in mind, this policy paper emphasizes the importance of reporting and controlling for experimenter gender in future research. As backdrop, it explores what we know about the role of experimenter gender in influencing laboratory results, suggests possible mechanisms, and suggests future areas of inquiry. Journal information: Science Advances

 2018 Phys.org
his Hubble Space Telescope image of a sparkling jewel box full of stars captures the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. Aging red giant stars coexist with their more plentiful younger cousins, the smaller, white, Sun-like stars, in this crowded region of our galaxys ancient central hub, or bulge. Most of the bright blue stars in the image are probably recently formed stars located in the foreground, in the galaxy's disk. Astronomers studied 10,000 of these Sun-like stars in archival Hubble images over a nine-year period to unearth clues to our galaxys evolution. The study reveals that the Milky Ways bulge is a dynamic environment of variously aged stars zipping around at different speeds, like travelers bustling about a busy airport. The researchers found that the motions of bulge stars are different, depending on a stars chemical composition. Stars richer in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium have less disordered motions, but are orbiting around the galactic center faster than older stars that are deficient in heavier elements. The image is a composite of exposures taken in near-infrared and visible light with Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3. The observations are part of two Hubble surveys: the Galactic Bulge Treasury Program and the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search. The center of our galaxy is about 26,000 light-years away. Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Clarkson (University of Michigan-Dearborn), and A. Calamida and K. Sahu (STScI)

For many years, astronomers had a simple view of our Milky Way's central hub, or bulge, as a quiescent place composed of old stars, the earliest homesteaders of our galaxy.

However, because the inner Milky Way is such a crowded environment, it has always been a challenge to disentangle stellar motions to probe the bulge in detail.

Now, a new analysis of about 10,000 normal Sun-like stars in the bulge reveals that our galaxy's hub is a dynamic environment of stars of various ages zipping around at different speeds, like travelers bustling about a busy airport. This conclusion is based on nine years' worth of archival data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The Hubble study of this complicated, chaotic heart of our Milky Way may provide new clues to the evolution of our galaxy, said researchers.

The research team, led by Will Clarkson of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, found that the motions of bulge stars are different, depending on a star's chemical composition. Stars richer in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium have less disordered motions, but are orbiting around the galactic center faster than older stars that are deficient in heavier elements.

"There are many theories describing the formation of our galaxy and central bulge," said Annalisa Calamida of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, a member of the Hubble research team. "Some say the bulge formed when the galaxy first formed about 13 billion years ago. In this case, all bulge stars should be old and share a similar motion. But others think the bulge formed later in the galaxy's lifetime, slowly evolving after the first generations of stars were born. In this scenario, some of the stars in the bulge might be younger, with their chemical composition enriched in heavier elements expelled from the death of previous generations of stars, and they should show a different motion compared to the older stars. The stars in our study are showing characteristics of both models. Therefore, this analysis can help us in understanding the bulge's origin."

The vast edge-on stretch of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is seen intersecting the night sky above the silhouetted Rocky Mountains in this photograph. The Milky Way noticeably widens at lower right. This wider area is the central hub, or bulge, of our galaxy. Peering into a very narrow region of the core, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to study the compositions and motions of 10,000 Sun-like stars, as seen in the inset Hubble image. The analysis reveals that our galaxy's bulge is an unexpectedly dynamic environment of stars of various ages zipping around at different speeds, like travelers bustling about a busy airport. The study yields important new clues to the complexity of the central bulge and our Milky Way's evolution over billions of years. The Hubble image is a composite of exposures taken in near-infrared and visible light with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. The observations are part of two Hubble surveys: the Galactic Bulge Treasury Program and the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search. The center of our galaxy is 26,000 light-years away. Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)

The astronomers divided the stars by their chemical compositions and then compared the motions of each group. They determined the stars' chemical content by studying their colors and divided them in two main groups according to their heavy-element (iron) abundance. The chemically enriched stars are moving twice as fast as the other population.

"By analyzing nine years' worth of data in the archive and improving our analysis techniques, we have made a clear, robust detection of the differences in the motion for chemically deficient and chemically enriched Sun-like stars," Clarkson said. "We hope to continue our analysis, which will allow us to make a three-dimensional chart of the rich chemical and dynamical complexity of the populations in the bulge."

The astronomers based their analysis on Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 data from two Hubble surveys: the Wide Field Camera 3 Galactic Bulge Treasury Program and the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search. Sets of spectra from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile were used to help estimate the chemical compositions of stars.

Currently, only Hubble has sharp enough resolution to simultaneously measure the motions of thousands of Sun-like stars at the the galaxy bulge's distance from Earth. The center of our galaxy is about 26,000 light-years away. "Before this analysis, the motions of these stars was not known," said team member Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute. "You need a long time baseline to accurately measure the positions and the motions of these faint stars."

The team studied Sun-like stars because they are so abundant and easily within Hubble's reach. Previous observations looked at brighter, aging red giant stars, which are not as plentiful because they represent a brief episode in a star's lifetime. "Hubble gave us a narrow, pencil-beam view of the galaxy's core, but we are seeing thousands more stars than those spotted in earlier studies," Calamida said. The Milky Way's bulge is roughly one-tenth the diameter of our pancake-shaped galaxy. "We next plan to extend our analysis to do additional observations along different sight-lines, which will allow us to make a three-dimensional probe of the rich complexity of the populations in the bulge," Clarkson added.

The researchers said that this work is also an important pathfinder for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to probe the archaeology of the Milky Way. Scheduled for launch in 2019, Webb is expected to more deeply probe stellar populations in the Milky Way bulge.

The research team will present its findings Thursday, Jan. 11, at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.
This image is part of a Hubble Space Telescope survey for low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and planets in the Orion Nebula. Each symbol identifies a pair of objects, which can be seen in the symbols center as a single dot of light. Special image processing techniques were used to separate the starlight into a pair of objects. The thicker inner circle represents the primary body, and the thinner outer circle indicates the companion. The circles are color-coded: Red for a planet; orange for a brown dwarf; and yellow for a star. Located in the upper left corner is a planet-planet pair in the absence of a parent star. In the middle of the right side is a pair of brown dwarfs. The portion of the Orion Nebula measures roughly 4 by 3 light-years. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Strampelli (STScI)

Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to peer deep into the vast stellar nursery called the Orion Nebula, astronomers searched for small, faint bodies. What they found was the largest population yet of brown dwarfsobjects that are more massive than planets but do not shine like stars. Researchers identified 17 brown dwarf companions to red dwarf stars, one brown dwarf pair, and one brown dwarf with a planetary companion. They also found three giant planets, including a binary system where two planets orbit each other in the absence of a parent star. This survey could only be done with Hubble's exceptional resolution and infrared sensitivity.

In an unprecedented deep survey for small, faint objects in the Orion Nebula, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered the largest known population of brown dwarfs sprinkled among newborn stars. Looking in the vicinity of the survey stars, researchers not only found several very-low-mass brown dwarf companions, but also three giant planets. They even found an example of binary planets where two planets orbit each other in the absence of a parent star.

Brown dwarfs are a strange class of celestial object that have masses so low that their cores never become hot enough to sustain nuclear fusion, which powers stars. Instead, brown dwarfs cool and fade as they age. Despite their low mass, brown dwarfs provide important clues to understanding how stars and planets form, and may be among the most common objects in our Milky Way galaxy.

Located 1,350 light-years away, the Orion Nebula is a relatively nearby laboratory for studying the star formation process across a wide range, from opulent giant stars to diminutive red dwarf stars and elusive, faint brown dwarfs.

This survey could only be done with Hubble's exceptional resolution and infrared sensitivity.

Because brown dwarfs are colder than stars, astronomers used Hubble to identify them by the presence of water in their atmospheres. "These are so cold that water vapor forms," explained team lead Massimo Robberto of the Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. "Water is a signature of substellar objects. It's an amazing and very clear mark. As the masses get smaller, the stars become redder and fainter, and you need to view them in the infrared. And in infrared light, the most prominent feature is water."

But hot water vapor in the atmosphere of brown dwarfs cannot be easily seen from Earth's surface, due to the absorbing effects of water vapor in our own atmosphere. Fortunately, Hubble is up above the atmosphere and has near-infrared vision that can easily spot water on distant worlds.

This image shows the central portion of the Orion Nebula, where the Hubble Space Telescope was used to conduct a survey for low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and planets. Each symbol identifies a pair of objects, which can be seen as a single dot of light in the symbols center. The thicker inner circle represents the primary body, and the thinner outer circle indicates the companion. The circles are color-coded: Red for a planet; orange for a brown dwarf; and yellow for a star. Adjacent to each symbol is a pair of Hubble images. The picture on the left is the original image of the primary and companion. The image on the left shows the companion only, with the primary object digitally subtracted through a special image processing technique that separates the images of the objects into binary pairs. The portion of the Orion Nebula measures roughly 4 by 3 light-years. Credit: NASA , ESA, and G. Strampelli (STScI)

The Hubble team identified 1,200 candidate reddish stars. They found that the stars split into two distinct populations: those with water, and those without. The bright ones with water were confirmed to be faint red dwarfs. The multitude of fainter water-rich, free-floating brown dwarfs and planets within the Orion nebula are all new discoveries. Many stars without water were also detected, and these are background stars in the Milky Way. Their light was reddened by passing through interstellar dust, and therefore not relevant to the team's study.

The team also looked for fainter, binary companions to these 1,200 reddish stars. Because they are so close to their primary stars, these companions are nearly impossible to discover using standard observing methods. But by using a unique, high-contrast imaging technique developed by Laurent Pueyo at the Space Telescope Science Institute, astronomers were able to resolve faint images of a large number of candidate companions.

This first analysis did not allow Hubble astronomers to determine whether these objects orbit the brighter star or if their proximity in the Hubble image is a result of chance alignment. As a consequence, they are classified as candidates for now. However, the presence of water in their atmospheres indicates that most of them cannot be misaligned stars in the galactic background, and thus must be brown dwarfs or exoplanet companions.

In all, the team found 17 candidate brown dwarf companions to red dwarf stars, one brown dwarf pair, and one brown dwarf with a planetary companion. The study also identified three potential planetary mass companions: one associated to a red dwarf, one to a brown dwarf, and one to another planet.

"We experimented with a method, high-contrast imaging post processing, that astronomers have been relying on for years. We usually use it to look for very faint planets in the close vicinity of nearby stars, by painstakingly observing them one by one," said Pueyo. "This time around, we decided to combine our algorithms with the ultra-stability of Hubble to inspect the vicinity of hundreds of very young stars in every single exposure obtained by the Orion survey. It turns out that even if we do not reach the deepest sensitivity for a single star, the sheer volume of our sample allowed us to obtain an unprecedented statistical snapshot of young exoplanets and brown dwarf companions in Orion."

Combining the two unique techniques, imaging in the water filters and high-contrast image processing, the survey provided an unbiased sample of newly formed low-mass sources, both dispersed in the field and companions of other low-mass objects. "We could reprocess the entire Hubble archive and try to find jewels there," Robberto said.

The team will present its results Thursday, Jan. 11, at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.

Finding the signatures of low-mass stars and their companions will become much more efficient with the launch of NASA's infrared-sensitive James Webb Space Telescope in 2019.
India's biggest IT sourcing firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursday reported a 3.6 percent fall in quarterly earnings due to falling demand for its banking and financial services.

The software giant said net profit for the three months to December 31 fell to 65.31 billion rupees ($1.03 billion) from 67.78 billion rupees a year earlier.

A Bloomberg survey of 19 analysts had forecast the Mumbai-based company would reduce its earnings to 65.52 billion rupees.

However, TCS chief Rajesh Gopinathan said the software giant was well placed for stronger growth ahead after the company bagged a $2.25 billion outsourcing contract from television rating measurement firm Nielsen.

India's $150-billion IT sector has long been one of its flagship industries but is facing upheaval in the face of automation, a failure to keep up with new technologies and US President Donald Trump's threat to clamp down on visas.

The sector has made India a top business destination by offering software development and information technology, engineering and design and other services.

TCS reported quarterly revenue of 309.04 billion rupees. The firms's shares fell by nearly one percent in the closing hours of trade.

Rival Infosys is due to release its quarterly results on Friday.

 2018 AFP
Deltour in March had received a six-month suspended jail sentence with a 1,500-euro fine.

A Luxembourg court on Thursday overturnedon human rights groundsthe verdict against a "LuxLeaks" whistleblower who was convicted of leaking thousands of documents that revealed tax breaks for multinational firms.

Luxembourg's highest court rejected the conviction against former PricewaterhouseCoopers employee Antoine Deltour, who in March had received a reduced six-month suspended jail sentence with a 1,500-euro fine.

The LuxLeaks scandal erupted in 2014 and sparked a major global push against generous deals handed to multinationals, which grew even stronger with new revelations such as the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers Leaks.

"Today is a victory," Deltour said as he left the courtroom.

The court "has clearly indicated towards a favourable outcome here in Luxembourg," he added.

The sentence against Deltour's colleague Raphael Halet, who received a 1,000-euro fine after an appeal, was however upheld as the court said that he did not fit the whistleblower definition.

The blockbuster leak revealed the huge tax breaks that tiny EU nation Luxembourg offered international firms including Apple, IKEA and Pepsi, at a time when Jean-Claude Juncker, now head of the European Commission, was prime minister.

The tiny EU country's highest appeal court said Deltour was wrongly accused as he should have been fully recognised as a whistleblower as defined by the European Court of Human Rights.

An appeal court will now hold a fresh trial with new judges tasked to decide a very limited part of Deltour's case, Luxembourg's highest court said in a statement.

"This decision is a significant step in the protection of whistleblowers in Europe," Deltour's lawyer William Bourdon told AFP.

"For the first time in Europe, a high court recognises the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights," he said.

'Small step'

Several NGOs demonstrated at the opening of the court proceeding and had called for the case's dismissal.

"This is a small step for tax justice, as we await a big step: when companies will be on the dock rather than whistleblowers," said Manon Aubry of Oxfam France.

Deltour was accused of stealing documents from the database of the accounting firm before he left in 2010, revealing highly sensitive business secrets.

The documents later became the basis of a 2012 story by journalist Edouard Perrin on state-owned France 2 television but it stayed under the international radar until the LuxLeaks document dump.

Perrin was earlier cleared of charges of being an accomplice.

The LuxLeaks and subsequent scandals have together forced the EU to take tougher action against tax-avoiding companies.

 2018 AFP
"Where the Millennials Will Take Us: A New Generation Wrestles with the Gender Structure" by Barbara Risman, UIC professor of sociology and distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences. Credit: Oxford University

Some research suggests that millennials are pushing boundaries by not only rejecting traditional distinctions between the sexes, both at home and at work, but also refusing to accept gender categories altogether.

Other studies indicate millennials are idealizing traditional roles where stay-at-home moms are primarily responsible for children.

A forthcoming book from a University of Illinois at Chicago sociologist shows that both are true, so don't expect to find one typical millennial.

"Where the Millennials Will Take Us: A New Generation Wrestles with the Gender Structure" details feedback from more than 100 life history interviews with a gender and ethnically diverse group of millennials that includes transgender and gender queer youth.

Using her theory of gender as a social structure, Barbara Risman, UIC professor of sociology and distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences, provides insight into the minds of today's young adults to uncover the strategies they use to negotiate the unsettled gender norms and expectations facing their generation.

Beyond how gender is embodied by many individuals, she reports on its influences in daily life and its entrenchment within the organization of workplaces, politics and ideology.

"I found that the fear of being stigmatized for challenging old gender stereotypes is still widespread, but far more among young men than women," Risman said. "Still, nearly everyone felt the powerful constraint of gender stereotypes when it came to how to display their bodiesfrom the clothes they wore to the mannerisms they used; to what they weighed and where they had muscle."

The interviews show how dramatically the gender structure still constrains life in America, according to Risman, who is an executive officer of the Council on Contemporary Families, a national organization.

"Both men and women, and those who reject being so labeled, all know the presumptions that come with being female or male: the expectations that women be pretty, supportive and nice, and the expectations that men avoid anything that is considered feminine," she explained. "It is not that all, or even most, millennials always meet gendered expectations, but they face consequences for not doing so."

The millennial generation may not inspire a new wave of feminism in spite of the emergence of gender "rebels" who reject categories altogether, but Risman doesn't foresee a retreat to 1950s ideals either.

"Some millennials may be ambivalent about how far to push the gender revolution, but this is not your grandparents' ambivalence," she said. "In my research, what was very clear is that even millennials who make traditional choices are unlikely to accept a political agenda that penalizes people who do not."

The book concludes with Risman's call for a fourth wave of feminism to eliminate not only sexism but also the gender structure itself.

"To achieve a more just society we must overcome gender expectations entirely, so that none of us are constrained by expectations simply because of the sex category to which we were assigned," she said. "Nor should any business assume that some people have caretaking responsibilities and some do not. If women are not expected to care for the young and the old, then we all must be, and workplaces have to change to make that possible."

Risman, who received the American Sociological Association's 2011 award for public understanding of sociology, is author of "Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition" and co-editor of "Families As They Really Are," an edited textbook featuring a collection of research studies on how families function in everyday life.

She is spending the spring semester as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
NICER's mirror assemblies concentrate X-rays onto silicon detectors to gather data that probes the interior makeup of neutron stars, including those that appear to flash regularly, called pulsars. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Keith Gendreau

In a technology first, a team of NASA engineers has demonstrated fully autonomous X-ray navigation in spacea capability that could revolutionize NASA's ability in the future to pilot robotic spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system and beyond.

The demonstration, which the team carried out with an experiment called Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology, or SEXTANT, showed that millisecond pulsars could be used to accurately determine the location of an object moving at thousands of miles per hour in spacesimilar to how the Global Positioning System, widely known as GPS, provides positioning, navigation, and timing services to users on Earth with its constellation of 24 operating satellites.

"This demonstration is a breakthrough for future deep space exploration," said SEXTANT Project Manager Jason Mitchell, an aerospace technologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "As the first to demonstrate X-ray navigation fully autonomously and in real-time in space, we are now leading the way."

This technology provides a new option for deep space navigation that could work in concert with existing spacecraft-based radio and optical systems.

Although it could take a few years to mature an X-ray navigation system practical for use on deep-space spacecraft, the fact that NASA engineers proved it could be done bodes well for future interplanetary space travel. Such a system provides a new option for spacecraft to autonomously determine their locations outside the currently used Earth-based global navigation networks because pulsars are accessible in virtually every conceivable flight regime, from low-Earth to deepest space.

Exploiting NICER Telescopes

The SEXTANT technology demonstration, which NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate had funded under its Game Changing Program, took advantage of the 52 X-ray telescopes and silicon-drift detectors that make up NASA's Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer, or NICER. Since its successful deployment as an external attached payload on the International Space Station in June, it has trained its optics on some of the most unusual objects in the universe.

"We're doing very cool science and using the space station as a platform to execute that science, which in turn enables X-ray navigation," said Goddard's Keith Gendreau, the principal investigator for NICER, who presented the findings Thursday, Jan. 11, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. "The technology will help humanity navigate and explore the galaxy."

This animation shows how NICER scans the sky and highlights the mission's main features. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NICER, an observatory about the size of a washing machine, currently is studying neutron stars and their rapidly pulsating cohort, called pulsars. Although these stellar oddities emit radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, observing in the X-ray band offers the greatest insights into these unusual, incredibly dense celestial objects, which, if compressed any further, would collapse completely into black holes. Just one teaspoonful of neutron star matter would weigh a billion tons on Earth.

Although NICER is studying all types of neutron stars, the SEXTANT experiment is focused on observations of pulsars. Radiation emanating from their powerful magnetic fields is swept around much like a lighthouse. The narrow beams are seen as flashes of light when they sweep across our line of sight. With these predictable pulsations, pulsars can provide high-precision timing information similar to the atomic-clock signals supplied through the GPS system.

Veteran's Day Demonstration

In the SEXTANT demonstration that occurred over the Veteran's Day holiday in 2017, the SEXTANT team selected four millisecond pulsar targetsJ0218+4232, B1821-24, J0030+0451, and J0437-4715and directed NICER to orient itself so it could detect X-rays within their sweeping beams of light. The millisecond pulsars used by SEXTANT are so stable that their pulse arrival times can be predicted to accuracies of microseconds for years into the future.

During the two-day experiment, the payload generated 78 measurements to get timing data, which the SEXTANT experiment fed into its specially developed onboard algorithms to autonomously stitch together a navigational solution that revealed the location of NICER in its orbit around Earth as a space station payload. The team compared that solution against location data gathered by NICER's onboard GPS receiver.

"For the onboard measurements to be meaningful, we needed to develop a model that predicted the arrival times using ground-based observations provided by our collaborators at radio telescopes around the world," said Paul Ray, a SEXTANT co-investigator with the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory. "The difference between the measurement and the model prediction is what gives us our navigation information."

The goal was to demonstrate that the system could locate NICER within a 10-mile radius as the space station sped around Earth at slightly more than 17,500 mph. Within eight hours of starting the experiment on November 9, the system converged on a location within the targeted range of 10 miles and remained well below that threshold for the rest of the experiment, Mitchell said. In fact, "a good portion" of the data showed positions that were accurate to within three miles.

"This was much faster than the two weeks we allotted for the experiment," said SEXTANT System Architect Luke Winternitz, who works at Goddard. "We had indications that our system would work, but the weekend experiment finally demonstrated the system's ability to work autonomously."

This illustration shows the NICER mission at work aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Although the ubiquitously used GPS system is accurate to within a few feet for Earth-bound users, this level of accuracy is not necessary when navigating to the far reaches of the solar system where distances between objects measure in the millions of miles. "In deep space, we hope to reach accuracies in the hundreds of feet," Mitchell said.

Next Steps and the Future

Now that the team has demonstrated the system, Winternitz said the team will focus on updating and fine-tuning both flight and ground software in preparation for a second experiment later in 2018. The ultimate goal, which may take years to realize, would be to develop detectors and other hardware to make pulsar-based navigation readily available on future spacecraft. To advance the technology for operational use, teams will focus on reducing the size, weight, and power requirements and improving the sensitivity of the instruments. The SEXTANT team now also is discussing the possible application of X-ray navigation to support human spaceflight, Mitchell added.

If an interplanetary mission to the moons of Jupiter or Saturn were equipped with such a navigational device, for example, it would be able to calculate its location autonomously, for long periods of time without communicating with Earth.

Mitchell said that GPS is not an option for these far-flung missions because its signal weakens quickly as one travels beyond the GPS satellite network around Earth.

"This successful demonstration firmly establishes the viability of X-ray pulsar navigation as a new autonomous navigation capability. We have shown that a mature version of this technology could enhance deep-space exploration anywhere within the solar system and beyond," Mitchell said. "It is an awesome technology first."

NICER is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA's Explorers program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the SEXTANT component of the mission through its Game Changing Development Program.
Thousands of stars glitter in the black skies above the bone-dry desert of the Atacama in northern Chile. Credit: Universe Today

There's nothing an astronomer  whether professional or amateur  loves more than a clear dark night sky away from the city lights. Outside the glare and glow and cloud cover that most of us experience every day, the night sky comes alive with a life of its own.

Thousands upon countless thousands of glittering jewels  each individual star a pinprick of light set against the velvet-smooth blackness of the deeper void. The arching band of the Milky Way, itself host to billions more stars so far away that we can only see their combined light from our vantage point. The familiar constellations, proudly showing their true character, drawing the eye and the mind to the ancient tales spun about them.

There are few places left in the world to see the sky as our ancestors did; to gaze in wonder at the celestial dome and feel the weight of billions of years of cosmic history hanging above us. Thankfully the International Dark Sky Association is working to preserve what's left of the true night sky, and they've rightfully marked northern Chile to preserve for posterity.

There, the Elqui Valley and the Atacama Desert host night skies impossible to see elsewhere. Away from cities, tucked between the Pacific coast and the high peaks of the Andes, the dry desert air and high elevations make for some of the best observing grounds you can find on Earth.

The ESOs Paranal Observatory sits proudly above the Atacama desert. Credit: Universe Today

Professional astronomers have taken advantage of this unique climate, constructing massive telescopes and vast arrays on the desolate mountain tops. From the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to the ESO's Paranal Observatory, Chile is one of the most astronomically productive countries in the world, enabling us to peer into the hearts of galaxies and across the vast reaches of the universe itself.

But the beauty of the Chilean desert sky isn't reserved solely for professional use. In the past decades specialized resorts have sprung up across the Elqui and Atacama regions, allowing skywatching junkies, enthusiasts, and dreamers to sit in awe under the bowl of the heavens.

I'm personally incredibly passionate about sharing the wonders of astronomy, so that's why I created AstroTours to let people from around the world experience science for themselves. And as soon as I got the company off the ground, I set my sights squarely on the Atacama.

The open-air observatory of the Alto Atacama resort provides a unique stargazing opportunity. Credit: Universe Today

In December 2018 I'm leading a small group to the Atacama, one of the driest places on Earth, so that every night we can sit in the open-air observatories (there's no need for a dome to block out light pollution here!) and enjoy the night sky in all its splendor. During the day we'll explore the alien and otherworldly nature of the Atacama itself, from the desiccated salt flats to the relaxing hot springs. It's all based at the Alto Atacama resort, tucked in the quiet town of San Pedro, Chile.

Source Universe Today
Figure 1: L. nigricans in Iwata, Nishimuro County, Wakayama prefecture. The flowers never bloom, but the plant still fruits . Credit: Kobe University

A flower identified as Lecanorchis nigricans has been revealed to be a different identity, Lecanorchis nigricans var. patipetala. Both species are self-pollinating, but the flowers of the true L. nigricans never open.

The findings were made by Associate Professor SUETSUGU Kenji (Kobe University), FUKUNAGA Hirokazu (independent botanical researcher), SHIMAOKA Chie and Professor SAWA Shinichiro (both Kumamoto University). The research was published in the online edition of Phytokeys on January 10.

Some plants have evolved to be parasites, feeding off host fungi. These plants are known as mycoheterotrophs. They don't photosynthesize, so they only show themselves above ground for brief periods when fruiting or in flower. This makes them hard to find and classify, and the true identities of many species remain a mystery. Professor Suetsugu works with other researchers to document mycoheterotrophic plants in Japan.

Professor Suetsugu's research team noticed that L. nigricans (found in Japan's Miyagi prefecture and Kochi prefecture) bears fruit without blooming at all. The flower has spatula-shaped purple-tipped petals that don't branch. From these characteristics the team were able to identify it as L. nigricans or a close relative. However, the species known as L. nigricans is documented as having flowers that fully open. This open-flower (chasmogamous) L. nigricans is found in many parts of Japan.

Figure 2: L. nigricans var. patipetala in Kochi city, Haruno. The flowers open fully. Credit: Kobe University

L. nigricans was first discovered in 1931 by HONDA Masatsugu in Japan's Wakayama prefecture. In the plant description, he wrote "The flowers are not open, and the petals are connected to form a cylindrical tube." From this description, it seems that the original L. nigricans did not bloom (cleistogamous). Professor Suetsugu's team went to the place where L. nigricans was first discovered and verified that the species of L. nigricans in this region never opens its flowers (fig. 1). In other words, the original L. nigricans is the variety that does not bloom. After further examination, the team found that this variety has other features that distinguish it from the open-flower L. nigricans: the closed-flower variety has smaller flowers, the colored area of the petals is larger, and the hairs at the end of the petals are branched.

So what should we call the more common open-flower variety, if it is not L. nigricans? In 1981, SAWA Yutaka presented the open-flowering variety found in Kochi prefecture as L. nigricans var. patipetala. However, his description of the plant was very brief, and it was hard to go against the general assumption that L. nigricans is an open-flowering plant.

L. nigricans var. patipetala is generally the more common variety in Japan (in Kochi prefecture the closed-flower L. nigricans is more common). This may have led to the widely-held misconception that the L. nigricans var. patipetala is L. nigricans. It is now clear that the species discovered by SAWA Yutaka is the same as the open-flower L. nigricans in other locations (see fig. 2).

As well as abandoning photosynthesis, the L. nigricans also self-pollinates  its flowers remain buds until they fall. Non-photosynthesizing plants such as L. nigricans often grow on the dark forest floor, an environment that bees and butterflies rarely visit. Because of this, L. nigricans and L. nigricans var. patipetala are both self-pollinating species. L. nigricans may have stopped opening its flowers because this used up too many resources. Similar evolutionary patterns are occurring in other mycoheterotrophic plants.

"When plants give up photosynthesis, this changes their relationship with other organisms, such as the insects who may pollinate them," comments Professor Suetsugu. "Through taxonomic and ecological research on mycoheterotrophs, I will continue to study the changes that take place when plants make the extreme decision to abandon photosynthesis."

More information: Kenji Suetsugu et al. The taxonomic identity of three varieties of Lecanorchis nigricans (Vanilleae, Vanilloideae, Orchidaceae) in Japan, PhytoKeys (2018). DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.92.21657 Journal information: PhytoKeys
Airport space crunch hits Alpines flying plans

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) has denied issuing air operators certificate (AOC) to now-defunct Alpine Air that plans to take to the skies again.
This passenger pigeon specimen is found at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's University Museum. There are specimens everywhere, but passenger pigeons died out in the wild more than a century ago. Credit: Per Gustav Thingstad, NTNU

Why do species die out? This is the overarching question being asked by many leading researchers. Knowing more about what leads to a species becoming extinct could enable researchers to do something about it. The passenger pigeon is a famous example, and the species has been studied extensively.

The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was once found in huge numbers in North America. Records tell of passing flocks that darkened the skies for several days at a time. The species may have peaked at 5 billion individuals. A more conservative estimate is 3 billion.

Within a short time, the species disappeared completely. "Given the huge size of the population, it's simply amazing that the species disappeared so quickly," says Tom Gilbert, a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Centre for GeoGenetics and an adjunct professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

The human role

The history of the passenger pigeon is interesting, partly because it can tell us something about how and why species become extinct. Native Americans also relied on passenger pigeons for food. But at least in parts of the passenger pigeons' range, people had learned to harvest the species at a sustainable level that didn't threaten to eradicate it.

It was common in some parts of North America to only eat young pigeons that were hunted at night, since this did not seem to scare away the adult birds or prevent them from re-nesting. But starting around 1500, more aggressive Europeans came to the continent. The hunt for passenger pigeons grew and culminated in a massive hunt for the species throughout the 1800s, before the species finally collapsed and disappeared.

So were the Europeans then really the ones to blame for the collapse? In 2014, a study in published in the scientific journal PNAS strongly suggested that humans were simply the final straw in destroying a species that was already vulnerable and headed to oblivion. The researchers asserted that despite their enormous numbers, the passenger pigeons were already in trouble. The population of the species varied greatly, similar to lemmings, but over a longer period of time.

When the Europeans arrived, the species was already in a strong decline. The population was plummeting long before Europeans arrived, and perhaps Europeans even contributed to a short-term increase in numbers. Studies of the genetic variation of the species using an investigative method called PSMC formed the background for these assertions.

All of an individual's chromosomes and genes are found in a single genome, and this genome is unique to each individual, except in the case of identical twins or species like termites, where the individuals are largely identical clones.

Here is the crux of the matter: The PSMC method can use the information in the genes of a single individual of a species to map the history of the species. Thus, the species developed over many generations, and researchers can estimate how many individuals there were at any given time, all based on a single genome. Using this method, researchers found that the number of passenger pigeons was in free fall, even before the arrival of the Europeans.

Although the species might not have become extinct, it would have shrunk significantly in any case, maybe to only a few hundred thousand individuals. People were just the final factor in their demise. We may have pushed the passenger pigeons off the cliff, but the species was already on its way there.

According to the researchers behind the study in PNAS, it wasn't just the Europeans' fault. It sounds almost too good to be true that they could come up with something so definitive based on information from just one or a few individuals. And in this case it isat least according to a new study that has recently been published in the journal Science.

Ineffective for passenger pigeons

The problem is that the PSMC method can't be used on passenger pigeons. The new research in Science provides completely different results. Leading molecular biologist Beth Shapiro is the main author of the Science article, and Tom Gilbert is one of the study's contributors.

PSMC is based on the assumption that genetic variations occur relatively evenly all along the chromosomes that constitute the genome. That is, genetic changes are equally likely to occur at the ends of a chromosome as in the middle. But this turns out not to be the case for this species. "Passenger pigeons don't have the variation patterns that we'd expect, because of the strong selection on genes that appear to have been important throughout the species' history. So it doesn't work to use PSMC in this case," said Gilbert.

In passenger pigeons, most of the genetic diversity was found at the ends of the chromosome. The middle of the chromosome showed little variation from one generation to the next as a result of the selection on these genes. This fact may not sound revolutionary, but it yields completely different results when reading the history of the species based on the genome of a single individual.

Researchers have to take into account that variations are greatest in certain parts of the chromosome rather than evenly distributed throughout. This makes the PSMC method unusable in this context. The researchers behind the article in Science didn't use the PSMC method. Instead, they used mitochondrial DNA from 41 passenger pigeons as their starting point.

Mitochondrial DNA is a distinct, separate inheritance found in certain cellular organelles called mitochondria. Regular DNA is a combination of the inheritance from the father and mother. But mitochondrial DNA is only transmitted from the mother. Variations in mitochondrial DNA also occur due to mutations, and happen relatively consistently over time. This is a different point of departure for understanding how a species develops over time, and the results can be quite different from those generated using the PSMC method.

In addition, the study presented in Science analysed the entire genomes from four passenger pigeons and compared them with two genomes from band-tailed pigeons (Patagioenas fasciata), one of the closest relatives of the passenger pigeon. The final result was that the new study produced completely different answers about the passenger pigeons and why the species met its demise.

Genetic diversity

The new study is interesting for several reasons. It reports on the genetic diversity of the passenger pigeon, but also supports an entirely different explanation for the species' extinction. Scientists previously believed that the larger the population of a species is, the more genetically diverse it will be. But this theory has turned out to be wrong, as the recent passenger pigeon research has shown.

According to the article in Science, the large population size appears to have enabled passenger pigeons to adapt and evolve more quickly, and thus remove harmful mutations. In species with fewer individuals, chance can cause a less beneficial mutation to persist, but chance plays less of a role in species with greater numbers of individuals.

"Mutations that provide a major evolutionary benefit would spread rapidly," says Gilbert.

The fact that beneficial mutations became incredibly dominant so quickly simply led to the disappearance of other genetic variants. This led to the genetic diversity in the passenger pigeon being surprisingly low in relation to the number of individuals. This may have made the species more vulnerable to changes. But that was not why the passenger pigeon died out.

"The passenger pigeon died out because of people," says Gilbert.

The passenger pigeon wasn't in trouble prior to European arrival in North America. Nothing suggests that the species was struggling in any way. Perhaps this isn't that surprising. In the 19th century, passenger pigeons were so numerous that there were contests to shoot as many of them as possible during a certain period of time. In one competition, the winner had shot 30,000 birds.

If nothing else, the story of the passenger pigeon has contributed to a greater understanding that even prolific species can become extinct.

The large grasshopper Melanoplus spretus from the western United States suffered the same fate. It went from a population of several trillion to zero in a few decades, possibly because farmers destroyed its breeding grounds. In Norway and across the whole of the North Atlantic, the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) died out after people harvested them in large numbers.

People ate passenger pigeons in huge amounts, but they were also killed because they were perceived as a threat to agriculture. As Europeans migrated across North America, they thinned out and eliminated the large forests that the pigeons depended on. The pigeons lived primarily on acorns. As the species was already dying out, 250,000 birdsthe last big flockwere shot on a single day in 1896. That same year, the last passenger pigeon was observed in Louisiana. It was also shot.

The pigeons were probably dependent on a large flock size to reproduce. Their instincts didn't work when only a few individuals remained here and there. The last passenger pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.
The perception that success requires being a "born genius" may discourage girls and women from pursuing certain academic fields. Credit: Shutterstock.com

Why do large gender disparities exist in certain fields but not others? Research suggests that many factors perpetuate gender disparities, including implicit and explicit biases, a lack of role models and quality mentoringand broad stereotypes about gender roles.

NSF-funded researchers are investigating how beliefs about what it takes to succeed in scientific fields may drive career trajectories. These "field-specific beliefs" could play an important role in making women feel welcomed or excluded.

"If we want a world where talented women aren't needlessly discouraged from pursuing many prestigious and rewarding careers, we need to think more carefully about the career messages we send to women and girls," said Andrei Cimpian, professor of psychology at New York University.

Disparities across fields

From physics and math to philosophy, a perception persists in certain fields that success requires being a "born genius." This perception is less common in other fields, like biology and medicine, where hard work and perseverance are viewed as the key to success. The emphasis on genius in certain fields likely poses an obstacle to the career advancement of women. This is because, in society, a gender stereotype associates "brilliance" and "genius" with men.

For a 2015 study published in the journal Science, Cimpian and Sarah-Jane Leslie, professor of philosophy at Princeton University, led a team that surveyed nearly 2,000 faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows from across 30 academic fields. They found that fields where brilliance or raw intelligence are deemed to be integral to success were the same fields where women have the lowest participation.

"We found academic fields that emphasized the need for raw brilliance were more likely to endorse the claim that women are less well suited than men to be top scholars in the field, and that such fields are less welcoming to women," says Cimpian.

Stereotypes develop early, affect career trajectories

In a second study published in Science in 2017, Leslie, Cimpian and Lin Bian, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, explored the development of stereotypes related to brilliance in young children. They found that by the age of 6, girls were already less likely than boys to associate being "really, really smart" with their own gender, and they were more likely to avoid activities that were described as being intended for people who were "really, really smart."

In their latest study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Leslie, Cimpian and Bian were joined by Mary Murphy, professor of psychology at Indiana University, to assess whether messages about brilliance differentially affect women's interest in certain fields.

In a series of six experiments, the researchers found that women were less interested in fields, careers and other opportunities when their descriptions focused on the importance of innate talent, as compared to descriptions focused on dedication and persistence.

The researchers also asked questions about the roles played by belongingthe feeling of being comfortable or accepted in an environmentand anxiety when it comes to interest in certain fields and opportunities. Their findings suggest that women often expect to feel anxious about how others will perceive them, and also feel that they wouldn't belong in groups where opportunities are framed in terms of brilliance.

"Many people gravitate to fields where they feel they will fit in, where they believe their skills and talents will be appreciated," Cimpian said. "My worry is that many talented women are looking elsewhere because they don't believe they would fit in with others in fields that revere brilliance."

While the researchers focused on gender disparities, field-specific beliefs may also play a role in racial disparities within academic fields. Many underrepresented minorities are targeted by negative stereotypes about their intellectual abilities, as shown in decades of social psychology research.

"This research gives us a more complete understanding of why disparities in certain fields are so hard to overcome. Research like this has the potential to help us design better programs in schools and organizations, programs that can increase the involvement of underrepresented groups in STEM and ultimately improve our national STEM capabilities," said David Moore, Developmental Sciences program director in NSF's Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate.
Arcs, rings and spirals appear in the debris disk around the star HD 141569A. The black region in the center is caused by a mask that blocks direct light from the star. This image incorporates observations made in June and August 2015 using the Hubble Space Telescope's STIS instrument. Credit: NASA/Hubble/Konishi et al. 2016

When exoplanet scientists first spotted patterns in disks of dust and gas around young stars, they thought newly formed planets might be the cause. But a recent NASA study cautions that there may be another explanationone that doesn't involve planets at all.

Exoplanet hunters watch stars for a few telltale signs that there might be planets in orbit, like changes in the color and brightness of the starlight. For young stars, which are often surrounded by disks of dust and gas, scientists look for patterns in the debrissuch as rings, arcs and spiralsthat might be caused by an orbiting world.

"We're exploring what we think is the leading alternative contender to the planet hypothesis, which is that the dust and gas in the disk form the patterns when they get hit by ultraviolet light," said Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Kuchner presented the findings of the new study on Thursday, Jan. 11, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. A paper describing the results has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal.

When high-energy UV starlight hits dust grains, it strips away electrons. Those electrons collide with and heat nearby gas. As the gas warms, its pressure increases and it traps more dust, which in turn heats more gas. The resulting cycle, called the photoelectric instability (PeI), can work in tandem with other forces to create some of the features astronomers have previously associated with planets in debris disks.

Kuchner and his colleagues designed computer simulations to better understand these effects. The research was led by Alexander Richert, a doctoral student at Penn State in University Park, Pennsylvania, and includes Wladimir Lyra, a professor of astronomy at California State University, Northridge and research associate at NASA's Jet Propulstion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The simulations were run on the Discover supercomputing cluster at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation at Goddard.

In 2013, Lyra and Kuchner suggested that PeI could explain the narrow rings seen in some disks. Their model also predicted that some disks would have arcs, or incomplete rings, which were first directly observed in 2016.

Astronomers thought patterns spotted in disks around young stars could be planetary signposts. But is there another explanation? A new simulation performed on NASA's Discover supercomputing cluster shows how the dust and gas in the disk could form those patterns  no planets needed. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

"People very often model these systems with planets, but if you want to know what a disk with a planet looks like, you first have to know what a disk looks like without a planet," Richert said.

Richert is lead author on the new study, which builds on Lyra and Kuchner's previous simulations by including an additional new factor: radiation pressure, a force caused by starlight striking dust grains.

Light exerts a minute physical force on everything it encounters. This radiation pressure propels solar sails and helps direct comet tails so they always point away from the Sun. The same force can push dust into highly eccentric orbits, and even blow some of the smaller grains out of the disk entirely.

The researchers modeled how radiation pressure and PeI work together to affect the movement of dust and gas. They also found that the two forces manifest different patterns depending on the physical properties of the dust and gas.

The 2013 simulations of PeI revealed how dust and gas interact to create rings and arcs, like those observed around the real star HD 141569A. With the inclusion of radiation pressure, the 2017 models show how these two factors can create spirals like those also observed around the same star. While planets can also cause these patterns, the new models show scientists should avoid jumping to conclusions.

"Carl Sagan used to say extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," Lyra said. "I feel we are sometimes too quick to jump to the idea that the structures we see are caused by planets. That is what I consider an extraordinary claim. We need to rule out everything else before we claim that."

Kuchner and his colleagues said they would continue to factor other parameters into their simulations, like turbulence and different types of dust and gas. They also intend to model how these factors might contribute to pattern formation around different types of stars.

More information: The interplay between radiation pressure and the photoelectric instability in optically thin disks of gas and dust arXiv:1709.07982 [astro-ph.EP] arxiv.org/abs/1709.07982 Journal information: Astrophysical Journal

Provided by NASA
Does social media coverage of fatal police-citizen incidents act as a virtual contagion? If a member of the public is killed by police, does it lead to future violence against law enforcement? Conversely, if an officer is killed in the line of duty, does it lead to future violence against citizens?

These are some of the questions raised in a new study published today in the scientific journal PLOS ONE by Seattle University faculty William Parkin and Matthew Hickman in the Department of Criminal Justice, Vladimir Bejan in the Department of Economics, and Veronica Pozo, Department of Applied Economics faculty at Utah State University. The research explores relationships between law enforcement killed in the line of duty, fatal use of force incidents and social media activity related to the Black Lives Matter movement. The researchers wanted to know if, at the national level, there is any empirical evidence of retaliation on the part of police or citizens for fatalities occurring in either group. At the same time they wanted to understand the influence, if any, of social media attention to tensions between the two.

Key findings

The study found evidence that when an officer was killed in the line of duty, there was retaliatory violence against citizens by police on the same day. However, the relationship was different when comparing minorities and non-minorities. Specifically, an unexpected increase in the number of officers killed was associated with an increase in the number of minorities killed, but a decrease in the number of non-minorities killed. While the study cannot speak to whether the shootings were justifiable, the findings could signal a racially biased reaction to public killings of police.

The study also found evidence that an unexpected rise in fatal shootings of non-minorities by police were associated with an increase in fatal shootings of police during the same day. But fatal shootings of minority citizens by police were associated with a decrease in fatal shootings of police. These effects were statistically significant, but not as strong as the impacts of increases in officer line-of-duty deaths described above.

Importantly, all of the relationships described held steady while controlling for the daily number of Black Lives Matter-related tweets. These tweets could support or oppose the movement and might have nothing to do with fatal police-citizen violence. The tweets were a proxy for how much attention the topic received on any given day.

"Black Lives Matter-related tweets were associated with increases in both the numbers of minorities and law enforcement officers killed," Pozo says. "This implies that social media can rapidly spread a negative message and act as a contagion."

An uptick in Black Lives Matter-related tweets was associated with increases in fatal shootings of minority citizens, but not non-minorities. The effect of Black Lives Matter-related tweets on officer fatalities was also statistically significant, but not as strong as the effect on minority fatalities.

"Our study provides strong initial evidence of an increase in deaths of minority citizens by law enforcement following an unexpected increase in officers killed in the line of duty," says Parkin. "It also provides initial evidence that unexpected increases in social media posts highlighting the conflict between law enforcement and minority groups are associated with an increased risk of fatal contacts between the two."

Explaining these relationships

One theory that can help explain the findings is called "terror management theory." This psychological theory suggests that when an individual's mortality becomes either consciously or subconsciously salient, they are more likely to defend the dominant worldview. They will react positively to persons associated with "in groups"social groups with which an individual identifiesof that perspective. They will also react negatively to persons associated with "out groups"social groups with which an individual does not identify.

If police are made aware of the line-of-duty deaths of fellow officers, which the researchers argue is a form of priming, it may alter how they interact with individuals associated with perceived "out groups," such as the Black Lives Matter movement. Law enforcement officers would tend to view non-minority citizens as part of the "in group." and minority citizens as part of the out group. Engaging differently with members of the "out group" during contacts, compared to the "in group," could explain the opposite relationship in the deaths of minority versus non-minority citizens after an officer is killed in the line of duty.

Parsing the data

Researchers looked at nearly two years of daily data, from January 2015 to September 2016. The data was drawn from the Officer Down Memorial Page, The Washington Post's police shootings database and Twitter. The data was disaggregated on two different categories to understand whether the frequency of fatal use of force incidents varied based on the race or ethnicity of citizens killed (white non-Hispanics and minorities).

The models looked at whether an unexpected increase in any of the variables was significantly associated with a future change in other variables. For example, an unexpected increase in "fatal shootings of police" is defined as more than the average daily murders (by one standard deviation). The models allowed researchers to predict the number of citizens killed by police, as well as the number of Black Lives Matter-related tweets up to seven days following this unexpected incident.

More information: Vladimir Bejan et al. Primed for death: Law enforcement-citizen homicides, social media, and retaliatory violence, PLOS ONE (2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190571 Journal information: PLoS ONE
Sandia National Laboratories geophysicists Danny Bowman, left, and Sarah Albert display an infrasound sensor and the box used to protect the sensors from the extreme temperatures experienced by balloons that take the sensors twice as high as commercial jets fly. Credit: Randy Montoya

Sheets of plastic similar to that used for garbage bags, packing tape, some string, a little charcoal dust and a white shoebox-size box are more than odds and ends. These are the supplies Danny Bowman, a Sandia National Laboratories geophysicist, needs to build a solar-powered hot air balloon for detecting infrasound.

Infrasound is sound of very low frequencies, below 20 hertz, which is lower than humans can hear. African elephants produce infrasound for long-distance communication at around 15 hertz. For comparison, a bumblebee's buzz is typically 150 hertz and humans hear in the range of 20 to 20,000 hertz.

Last July, a fleet of five solar-powered balloons reached a height of 13 to 15 miles, twice as high as commercial jets, and detected the infrasound from a test explosion. This experiment was funded by Sandia's Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. Bowman presented the results at the American Geophysical Union conference in December. The results will be published soon.

Infrasound is important because it's one of the verification technologies the U.S. and the international community use to monitor explosions, including those caused by nuclear tests. Traditionally, infrasound is detected by ground-based sensor arrays, which don't cover the open ocean and can be muddled by other noises, such as the wind. Bowman said air conditioners are also a common source of infrasound noise.

"The stratosphere is much less noisy so you can detect events of interest to science and national security from greater distances," said Bowman. The stratosphere is the atmospheric layer from about 5 miles to 31 miles above the ground.

Inexpensive hot air balloons fly all day

A solar-powered hot air balloon takes three hours for Bowman and fellow geophysicist Sarah Albert to make, and uses about $50 worth of materials, not including the reusable infrasound sensor or GPS tracker. The charcoal dust helps heat up the air inside the balloon, providing lift, without requiring helium gas, a nonrenewable resource.

The balloons can even be launched on partly cloudy days, said Albert. They stay up in the stratosphere all day and come down after the sun sets. This "guaranteed termination mechanism" is both a pro and con, said Bowman.

It's a fool-proof way to bring down the balloons, the sensors and the data they have collected. On the other hand, longer flights would be useful. During the Arctic summer, the balloons could fly for weeks, but the team also is working on balloons that can stay aloft at night.

For future experiments, Bowman is interested in a balloon design with an insulator on the top surface of the balloon and absorber on the bottom, so it absorbs heat from the Earth to allow it to keep flying at night.

A Sandia National Laboratories solar-powered hot air balloon taking flight bears sensors including a GPS tracker and reusable infrasound sensor. Credit: Sandia National Laboratories

Multiple sensors determine location

The most important aspect of this experiment is that the five balloons formed a 3-D array of sensors, said Albert. One sensor can hear a sound, but cannot provide any location information. Albert said, "My mom is deaf in one ear so it's hard for her to tell where a sound is coming from." Having two ears allows animals to determine the source of a sound.

Five microphones in an array, as in this experiment or ground-based sensor arrays, provide the same informationthe direction from which the sound wave comes. Researchers coordinate the information from multiple arrays to triangulate the source of the sound.

Calculating where the sound wave is coming from can be a challenge when each sensor in the array is moving relative to each other and the source, said Bowman. A lot of computational algorithms assume stationary sensors, so the team needed to adapt them to include GPS information.

Future use in treaty monitoring and solar system exploration

Bowman has proposed flying balloon-borne infrasound sensors as a part of the next series of the National Nuclear Security Administration's Source Physics Experiment project. This project develops new and improved, physics-based approaches for monitoring underground nuclear explosions.

In addition to potential treaty monitoring and national security uses, Bowman and Albert hope to fly hot air balloons in non-terrestrial experiments.

Bowman is assisting a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory project to explore the possibility of using balloon-borne infrasound sensors on Venus to listen for Venus-quakes. Venus is similar to Earth in mass, but is geologically very different with no apparent plate tectonics.

Another possibility the team is exploring is flying infrasound sensors on Jupiter. Jupiter is a gas giant with open scientific questions about its internal structure and geology that infrasound could help answer. "We're still decades out from an actual mission," said Bowman. "But I'm excited to see how far it will go."

The results from Bowman's prior research test flying individual infrasound sensors on balloons were published in Geophysical Research Letters and more recently in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Bowman said, "This is a really exciting new area of research. Balloon-borne infrasound sensors will never replace ground-based acoustic arrays, but I think it can augment them. And the most exciting thing is flying in the atmospheres of other planets and what we can learn from them."
The first Long March 5 rocket being rolled out for launch at Wenchang in late October 2016. Credit: Su Dong/China Daily

It's no secret that China's growth in the past few decades has been reflected in space. In addition to the country's growing economic power and international influence, it has also made some very impressive strides in terms of its space program. This includes the development of the Long March rocket family, the deployment of their first space station, and the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP)  aka. the Chang'e program.

Given all that, one would not be surprised to learn that China has some big plans for 2018. But as the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced last Tuesday (on January 2nd, 2018), they intend to double the number of launches they conducted in 2017. In total, the CASC plans to mount over 40 launches, which will include the Long March 5 returning to flight, the Chang'e 4 mission, and the deployment of multiple satellites.

In 2017, China hoped to conduct around 30 launches, which would consist of the launch of a new Tianzhoui-1 cargo craft to the Tiangong-2 space lab and the deployment of the Chang'e 5 lunar sample return mission. However, the latter mission was postponed after the Long March 5 rocket that would have carried it to space failed during launch. As such, the Chang'e 5 mission is now expected to launch next year.

That failed launch also pushed back the next flight of Long March 5, which had conducted its maiden flight in November of 2016. In the end, China closed the year with 18 launches, which was four less than the national record it set in 2016  22 launches. It also came in third behind the United States with 29 launches (all of which were successful) and Russia's 20 launches (19 of which were successful).

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) conference that took place on Jan. 2nd, 2018. Credit: spacechina.com

Looking to not be left behind again, the CASC hopes to mount 35 launches in 2018. Meanwhile, the China Aerospace Science Industry Corporation (CASIC)  a defense contractor, missile maker and sister company of CASC  will carry out a number of missions through its subsidiary, ExPace. These will include four Kuaizhou-1A rocket launches in one week and the maiden flight of the larger Kuaizhou-11 rocket.

In addition, Landspace Technology  a Beijing-based private aerospace company  is also expected to debut its LandSpace-1 rocket this year. In January of 2017, Landspace signed a contract with Denmark-based satellite manufacturer GOMspace to become the first Chinese company to develop its own commercial rockets that would provide services to the international marketplace.

But of course, the highlights of this year's launches will be the Long March 5's return to service, and the launch of the Chang'e 4 mission. Unlike the previous Chang'e missions, Chang'e 4 will be China's first attempt to mount a lunar mission that involves a soft landing. The mission will consist of a relay orbiter, a lander and a rover, the primary purpose of which will be to explore the geology of the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

For decades, this basin has been a source of fascination for scientists; and in recent years, multiple missions have confirmed the existence of water ice in the region. Determining the extent of the water ice is one of the main focuses of the rover mission component. However, the lander will also to be equipped with an aluminum case filled with insects and plants that will test the effects of lunar gravity on terrestrial organisms.

Chinas Change 4 mission will land on the far side of the Moon and conduct studies on the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Credit: NASA Goddard

These studies will play a key role in China's long-term plans to mount crewed missions to the Moon, and the possible construction of a lunar outpost. In recent years, China has indicated that it may be working with the European Space Agency to create this outpost, which the ESA has described as an "international Moon village" that will be the spiritual successor to the ISS.

The proposed launch of the Long March 5 is also expected to be a major event. As China's largest and most powerful launch vehicle, this rocket will be responsible for launching heavy satellites, modules of the future Chinese space station, and eventual interplanetary missions. These include crewed missions to Mars, which China hopes to mount between the 2040s and 2060s.

According to the GB times, no details about the Long March 5's return to flight mission were revealed, but there have apparently been indications that it will involve the large Dongfanghong-5 (DFH-5) satellite bus. In addition, no mentions have been made of when the Long March 5B will begin conducting missions to low Earth orbit (LEO), though this remains a possibility for either 2018 or 2019.

Other expected missions of note include the deployment of more than 10 Beidou GNSS satellites  which are basically the Chinese version of GPS satellites  to medium Earth orbits (MEOs). A number of other satellites will be sent into orbit, ranging from Earth and ocean observation to weather and telecommunications satellites. All in all, 2018 will be a very busy year for the Chinese space program!

The second flight of the Long March 5 lifting off from Wenchang on July 2nd, 2017. Credit: CNS

One of the hallmarks of the modern space age is the way in which emerging powers are taking part like never before. This of course includes China, whose presence in space has mirrored their rise in terms of global affairs. At the same time, the Indian Space Research Organization (IRSO), the European Space Agency, JAXA, the Canadian Space Agency, the South African Space Agency, and many others have been making their presence felt as well.

In short, space exploration is no longer the province of two major superpowers. And in the future, when crewed interplanetary missions and (fingers crossed!) the creation of colonies on other planets becomes a reality, it will likely entail a huge degree of international cooperation and public-private partnerships.

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Transport pathways of clean, continental air masses from the north and polluted, maritime air masses from the south are given by trajectory (colored lines) and meteorological (colored shading) analyses. Credit: Advances in Atmospheric Sciences

Not all aerosols are made equally. Sea salt and some types of wild fire smoke can take flight to create clouds and, eventually, rain, while other aerosols, such as mineral dust, do not work as well. Scientists are beginning to understand exactly how these different particles influence cloud formation and resulting precipitation over land and sea.

Researchers from Texas A&M University and the University of Arizona published their latest study in Advances of Atmospheric Sciences. "Certain aerosol types can become cloud condensation nuclei and their number concentration can dictate cloud behavior," said Timothy Logan, an instructional assistant professor in the department of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University and an author on the paper. "The dependence on aerosol type is the key to understanding under which conditions clouds will develop as well as how much precipitation comes from them."

Logan and his team previously studied aerosols over the ocean and their ability to seed clouds as surface cloud condensation nuclei, which determine precipitation type and duration. In this paper, they compare those results with data collected over the Great Plains, a landlocked strip bisecting the United States.

Aerosols not only act as cloud condensation nuclei, but they can also enhance or limit the concentration of the cloud condensation nuclei. This concentration influences the lifetime, thickness and brightness of clouds, as well as resulting precipitation. Known as the aerosol indirect effect, this relationship may be just as damaging as the aerosol direct effect, in which aerosols fill the atmosphere and block the sun. Previous research tends to rely on the number, rather than the type, of cloud concentration nuclei, according to Logan.

"Aerosol type does matter when it comes to the aerosol indirect effect and should be taken into account when modeling aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions rather than solely using the [number concentration]," Logan said.

Beyond formation, the researchers examined how clouds move, crossing from ocean to land. Logan noted wind patterns are capable of transporting aerosols hundreds to thousands of kilometers away from their source regions.

Using ground and space observational techniques, the team plans to conduct a long-term observational study and model the behavioral sensitivity between aerosols, clouds, and precipitation, with a focus on air masses that transport aerosols to regions where clouds and precipitation develop.

"Certain aerosol and air mass types are dominant during certain times of the year and exhibit a seasonal pattern," Logan said. "This pattern can be used to determine the magnitude of the [aerosol indirect effect], as well as the distribution of precipitation over land and ocean with respect to climate change."

More information: Timothy Logan et al, Aerosol properties and their impacts on surface CCN at the ARM Southern Great Plains site during the 2011 Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2018). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-017-7033-2
Eriauchenius milajaneae (pictured above) is one of the 18 new species of pelican spiders from Madagascar described by the scientists. This species was named after Wood's daughter, and is known only from one remote mountain in the southeast of Madagascar. Wood made a field expedition to this mountain to find this spider in 2008 but was unsuccessful. So far, this species is only known from two females and one juvenile held in museum collections. Credit: Hannah Wood, Smithsonian

In 1854, a curious-looking spider was found preserved in 50 million-year-old amber. With an elongated neck-like structure and long mouthparts that protruded from the "head" like an angled beak, the arachnid bore a striking resemblance to a tiny pelican. A few decades later when living pelican spiders were discovered in Madagascar, arachnologists learned that their behavior is as unusual as their appearance, but because these spiders live in remote parts of the world they remained largely unstudieduntil recently.

At the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, curator of arachnids and myriapods Hannah Wood has examined and analyzed hundreds of pelican spiders both in the field in Madagascar and through study of pelican spiders preserved in museum collections. Her analysis, focused on spiders of the Eriauchenius and Madagascarchaea genera, sorted the spiders she studied into 26 different species18 of which have never before been described. Wood and colleague Nikolaj Scharff of the University of Copenhagen describe all 26 pelican spider species in the Jan. 11 issue of the journal Zookeys.

Wood says pelican spiders are well known among arachnologists not only for their unusual appearance, but also for the way they use their long "necks" and jaw-like mouthparts to prey on other spiders. "These spiders attest to the unique biology that diversified in Madagascar," she said.

Pelican spiders are active hunters, prowling the forest at night and following long silk draglines that lead them to their spider prey. When a pelican spider finds a victim, it swiftly reaches out and impales it on its long, fang-tipped "jaws," or chelicerae. Then it holds the capture away from its body, keeping itself safe from potential counterattacks, until the victim dies.

At the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, curator of arachnids and myriapods Hannah Wood has examined and analyzed hundreds of pelican spiders in the field in Madagascar and through study of pelican spiders preserved in museum collections. Her analysis, focused on spiders of the Eriauchenius and Madagascarchaea genera, sorted the spiders she studied into 26 different species--18 of which have never before been described. The spiders Wood personally collected, including holotypes (the exemplar specimens) for several of the new species, will join the U.S. National Entomological Collection at the Smithsonian (pictured above), the second-largest insect collection in the world, where they will be preserved and accessible for further research by scientists across the globe. Credit: Smithsonian

Today's pelican spiders are "living fossils," Wood saysremarkably similar to species found preserved in the fossil record from as long as 165 million years ago. Because the living spiders were found after their ancestors had been uncovered in the fossil record and presumed extinct, they can be considered a "Lazarus" taxon. In addition to Madagascar, modern-day pelican spiders have been found in South Africa and Australiaa distribution pattern that suggests their ancestors were dispersed to these landmasses when the Earth's supercontinent Pangaea began to break up around 175 million years ago.

Madagascar is home to vast numbers of plant and animal species that exist only on the island, but until recently, only a few species of pelican spiders had been documented there. In 2000, the California Academy of Sciences launched a massive arthropod inventory in Madagascar, collecting spiders, insects and other invertebrates from all over the island.

Wood used those collections, along with specimens from other museums and spiders that she collected during her own field work in Madagascar, to conduct her study. Her detailed observations and measurements of hundreds of specimens led to the identification of 18 new speciesbut Wood says there are almost certainly more to be discovered. As field workers continue to collect specimens across Madagascar, "I think there's going to be a lot more species that haven't yet been described or documented," she said.

Pelican spiders are beautiful and iconic Madagascan spiders. They have a bizarre appearance, with a long "neck" and chelicerae ("jaws") that are used to prey on other spiders from a distance. This pelican spider (pictured above, bottom) is dangling its spider prey (top) upside-down using its chelicerae after capturing it. These spiders also occur in Australia and South Africa; however, the species with the longest "necks" occur in Madagascar. All of the pelican spiders that Wood described live only in Madagascar, an island whose tremendous biodiversity is currently threatened by widespread deforestation. The new species add to scientists' understanding of that biodiversity, and will help Wood investigate how pelican spiders' unusual traits have evolved and diversified over time. They also highlight the case for conserving what remains of Madagascar's forests and the biodiversity they contain, she says. Credit: Nikolaj Scharff

The spiders Wood personally collected, including holotypes (the exemplar specimens) for several of the new species, will join the U.S. National Entomological Collection at the Smithsonian, the second-largest insect collection in the world, where they will be preserved and accessible for further research by scientists across the globe.

All of the pelican spiders that Wood described live only in Madagascar, an island whose tremendous biodiversity is currently threatened by widespread deforestation. The new species add to scientists' understanding of that biodiversity, and will help Wood investigate how pelican spiders' unusual traits have evolved and diversified over time. They also highlight the case for conserving what remains of Madagascar's forests and the biodiversity they contain, she says.

More information: Hannah M. Wood et al, A review of the Madagascan pelican spiders of the genera Eriauchenius O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1881 and Madagascarchaea gen. n. (Araneae, Archaeidae), ZooKeys (2018). DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.727.20222 Journal information: ZooKeys

Provided by Smithsonian
Credit: Swiss National Science Foundation

Deep in a swamp in the Russian republic of Tuva, SNSF-funded archaeologist Gino Caspari has discovered an undisturbed Scythian burial mound. All the evidence suggests that this is not only the largest Scythian princely tomb in South Siberia, but also the earliest  and that it may be harbouring some outstandingly well-preserved treasures.

Gino Caspari made the most significant find in his career to date not with a shovel, but at a computer. A recipient of Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) funding, archaeologist Caspari discovered a circular structure on high-resolution satellite images of the Uyuk River valley (Siberia) on his computer screen. An initial trial dig carried out this summer by the Bern University scientist together with the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Hermitage Museum confirmed his suspicion: the structure is a kurgan, a Scythian princely tomb.

Looking back at the beginnings

Working with a Swiss-Russian team, Caspari was able to prove that the burial moundreferred to as Tunnug 1 (or Arzhan 0) - was similar in construction to the kurgan Arzhan 1 located only ten kilometres away to the northeast. Arzhan 1 had long been regarded as the earliest Scythian princely tomb in the region, which is also known as the "Siberian Valley of Kings" owing to the numerous kurgans found there. The earliest princely tombs consist of a stone packing with a circular arrangement of chambers. The walls of the chambers are made of larch logs. Scythian burial objects typically include weapons, horse's harnesses and objects decorated in the so-called animal style.

Wooden beams found by Caspari during the test excavation date back to the 9th century BC, predating Arzhan 1, which was built at the turn of the 9th to the 8th century BC and excavated in the 1970s. "We have a great opportunity here," says a delighted Caspari, commenting on the results of the trial dig published in the current issue of Archaeological Research in Asia.

"Archaeological methods have become considerably more sophisticated since the 1970s. Today we have completely different ways of examining material to find out more about the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age," remarks the SNSF-funded researcher. He also stresses that the way we look at prehistoric times is changing radically thanks to genetics, isotope analysis and geophysical methods as well as developments in geographic information systems and remote sensing.

Protective armour of ice

The Arzhan 0 burial mound is in an inaccessible location amid swampy terrain, which also makes it harder for grave robbers to reach. "The kurgan is five arduous hours by off-road vehicle from the nearest settlement," Caspari points out. As it may never have been disturbed, it could contain similar treasures to Arzhan 2. Between 2001 and 2004, a German team of archaeologists discovered an undisturbed burial chamber in Arzhan 2 containing the richest collection of burial artefacts ever found in the Eurasian steppe. Over a thousand gold objects had been placed with the two corpses in the tomb's main chamber, in addition to magnificently adorned weapons, pots and horses with exquisite harnesses. Made of solid gold, the necklace of the Scythian prince from Arzhan 2 weighs 2 kilos alone. But the date of the burial is put at the 7th century BC, i.e. well into the Iron Age.

The climatic characteristics of the Siberian soil add to Caspari's hopes. In the Uyuk Valley, the permafrost layer largely begins just a few metres below the surface. Everything above that thaws in summer, and organic material rots. However, beneath the thick stone packing of the kurgans, the rays of sunlight are unable to thaw out the soil. "Very rarely ice lenses form directly beneath the kurgans," explains Caspari. The ice prevents the decay of organic matter and preserves sensitive material. Caspari is expecting further finds to be unearthed in the course of the project: "If we're lucky, we might even find some well-preserved wood carvings or carpets under the stones, or perhaps an ice mummy."

More information: Gino Caspari et al. Tunnug 1 (Arzhan 0)  an early Scythian kurgan in Tuva Republic, Russia, Archaeological Research in Asia (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.ara.2017.11.001
An electronic toy-maker has agreed to pay $650,000 to settle charges from the Federal Trade Commission that it collected personal information on hundreds of thousands of children without their parents knowing.

VTech Electronics, whose North American operations are based in Arlington Heights, Ill., says it did notify parents and the allegations are based on technical provisions of a children's privacy law.

The company also allegedly failed to protect the data it collected, allowing a hacker to gain access in late 2015, according to the complaint.

The children's privacy case was FTC's first involving internet-connected toys, said Tom Pahl, acting director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. It shines a light on the growing market, which is expected to reach $15.5 billion by 2022, up from an estimated $4.9 billion in 2017, according to a report from England-based Juniper Research.

"(This) sends a message to parents," Pahl said. "Parents should read a company's privacy practices, make sure that companies get their permission to collect their children's information and be aware of their other rights."

Hong Kong-based VTech makes toys such as smart watches and handheld smart devices for kids.

The FTC alleges that the Kid Connect app used with some of VTech's toys collected information on children without notifying parents or getting their consent. That practice is required for children under age 13 by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

VTech also collected information from parents via its online platform Learning Lodge Navigator, where the Kid Connect app was available for download. As of November 2015, parents had registered and created accounts with Learning Lodge for almost 3 million children, including about 638,000 Kid Connect accounts.

VTech spokeswoman Kaleigh Steinorth said the company did give notice and get parents' consent and designed Kid Connect in a way that ensured parents knew how the system worked and what information would be collected.

The allegations were based on technical requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act regarding how parents must be notified "and how companies must verify that the consenting person is the parent," she said in an email. "We have taken steps to ensure compliance with these technical requirements," Steinorth said.

The Consumers Union, a nonprofit organization that does product testing and research, has asked the FTC to look into privacy and security concerns related to smart and connected toys.

"Parents have a right to know and a right to choose how their children's personal data is collected," Katie McInnis, technology policy counsel for Consumers Union, said in a statement.

The FTC launched its investigation in late 2015 after the hacker gained access to VTech's networks, exposing the information, photos and audio of Kid Connect users. The FTC also alleged that VTech falsely stated in its privacy policy that personal information would be encrypted when it was not.

As part of the settlement, VTech is required to put a data security system in place that will be subject to independent audits for 20 years.

"There's not a consistent practice over time of companies making sure they are always staying one step ahead of the hackers," Pahl said. This settlement will help "to make sure that kind of program they develop is in place and works."

2018 Chicago Tribune

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Cold claims three more lives in Tarai

Cold wave continued to take its toll in several Tarai districts on Wednesday as well. Three more deaths caused by cold wave were reported in Rautahat and Saptari districts.
Invisible thieves

Recent cyber-attacks have shown that Nepali banks need to keep up with technology
Verifone and Alipay Simplify Payment Acceptance for Chinese Tourists at Lacoste Stores

NEW YORK (January 11, 2018)  NRF Retails BIG Show Booth #3345  Retailers are looking for ways to enhance the shopping experience and attract more of the approximately 3 million Chinese tourists who visit the U.S. each year. To help retailers around the world support these traveling consumers who spent a total of $33 billion in 2016 just in the U.S., Verifone (NYSE: PAY) and Alipay announced today that they have expanded their global partnership to enable select Lacoste U.S. stores to accept Alipay.

As Alipays exclusive partner for Lacoste, the French, sport-inspired lifestyle brand, Verifone facilitates Alipays QR code payments on the Verifone e355 mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) solution. Designed to accept alternative payments like Alipay and other digital payment methods, Verifone offers a rich and interactive mobile pay solution that gives retail personnel the freedom to help and check out customers from anywhere in the store.

We take pride in appealing to international customers and continue to use innovative technology to improve the customer experience in our boutiques, said Joelle Grunberg, President and CEO of LACOSTE North and Central America. With Verifone, we now offer Chinese customers the comfort of being able to use a familiar payment method in our U.S. stores.

Chinese travelers love brands like Lacoste and we are thrilled to partner with Verifone to simplify their checkout experience at select Lacoste stores nationwide said Souheil Badran, President, Alipay Americas. Through Alipay, Lacoste stores will reduce payment and language barriers these travelers encounter at the register and ensure they have the most positive in-store experience during their visit.

Verifone is committed to helping retailers accommodate international shoppers with secure and familiar checkout experiences, said Richard Char, SVP, Global Business and Corporate Development, Verifone. Lacoste is a premium brand popular with Chinese shoppers and we aim to further bolster Lacostes global appeal, reputation, and growth by enabling acceptance of alternative payments like Alipay.

Verifone and Alipay began partnering in 2016 to enable merchants in Europe and North America with Alipay acceptance in stores, driving brand visibility, traffic and sales through its in-app marketing tool. With Verifones mobile point-of-sale, retailers can accept Alipay in stores and implement marketing campaigns targeting Chinese consumers who use the Alipay app.

For more information on how Verifone enables alternative payment acceptance, please visit booth #3345 at NRF in New York City, where visiting Chinese travelers can use Alipay in 14,000 taxis.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for VeriFone Systems, Inc.

This press release includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on managements current expectations or beliefs and on currently available competitive, financial and economic data and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors, and other risks and uncertainties affecting the operation of the business of VeriFone Systems, Inc., including many factors beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those associated with: successful rollout of our Alipay acceptance solution in Lacoste stores, execution of our strategic plan and business initiatives and whether the expected benefits of our plan and initiatives are achieved, short product cycles and rapidly changing technologies, our ability to maintain competitive leadership position with respect to our payment solution offerings, our assumptions, judgments and estimates regarding the impact on our business of the continued uncertainty in the global economic environment and financial markets, our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses into our business and operations, our ability to protect against fraud, the status of our relationship with and condition of third parties such as our contract manufacturers, distributors and key suppliers upon whom we rely in the conduct of our business, our dependence on a limited number of customers, the conduct of our business and operations internationally, our ability to effectively hedge our exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, and our dependence on a limited number of key employees. For a further list and description of the risks and uncertainties affecting the operations of our business, see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We may also provide material information about us on our investor relations website atwww.ir.verifone.com, in company press releases and in social media postings. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date such statements are made. Verifone is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise.

About Lacoste

For LACOSTE, Life is a Beautiful Sport!

Since the very first polo was created in 1933, LACOSTE relies on its authentic sportive roots to spring optimism and elegance on the world thanks to a unique and original lifestyle for women, men and children. With a vision to be the leading player in the premium casual wear market, the Crocodile brand is today present in 120 countries through a selective distribution network. Two LACOSTE items are sold every second in the world. As an international group gathering 10,000 women and men, LACOSTE offers a complete range of products: apparel, leather goods, fragrances, footwear, eyewear, home wear, watches and underwear, all of them being elaborated in the most qualitative, responsible and ethical way. In 2016, the brand garnered a turnover of more than 2 billion euros. For more information:www.lacoste.com

About Alipay

Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the worlds largest mobile and online payment platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently has over 520 million active Chinese users and over 200 financial institution partners in China. Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China. Over 10 million brick-and-mortar merchants now accept Alipay across China. Alipays in-store payment service covers more than 37 countries and regions across the world, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 24 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 250 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay currently supports 27 currencies. Follow us on Twitter @antfinancial and @alipay.

About Verifone

Verifone is transforming every day transactions into new and engaging opportunities for merchants and consumers at the last inch of payments and commerce. Powered by a growing footprint of more than 30 million devices in more than 150 countries, our people are trusted experts working with the worlds best-known retail brands, financial institutions, and payment providers. Verifone is connecting more products to an integrated solutions platform to better meet the evolving needs of our clients and partners. Built on a 35-year history of uncompromised security, we are committed to consistently solving the most complex payment challenges.

Other Point of Sale News
Note that this only concerns my own imagery posted here, not imagery by others which I post with permission (the latter are clearly indicated as such in the subscripts)!

Excerpt from United Nations resolution 2222 (XXI)

Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies





In order to promote international co-operation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, States Parties to the Treaty conducting activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, agree to inform the Secretary-General of the United Nations as well as the public and the international scientific community, to the greatest extent feasible and practicable, of the nature, conduct, locations and results of such activities. On receiving the said information, the Secretary-General of the United Nations should be prepared to disseminate it immediately and effectively.


A rare bird belonging to the eastern periphery of Indonesia, eastern Australia as well as Papua New Guinea flaunts feathers that are so dark that they hold the capability of absorbing around 99.96 percent of light. The black feathers of these birds are so black that it closely resembles the eternal darkness of black hole. This is a characteristic present in the male variety of the bird of paradise. When looked straight up, the feathers resemble a curtain of darkness present in two-dimension.

The lead co-author and scientist of the study, Dakota McCoy, explains in a report provided for Science Alert that this dark black color of the bird is a response to attract the female gender for the purpose of mating. The findings of this study were first jotted down on the website Nature.com.

The female sex of this species is generally a dull-brown colored bird. The male bird attracts its opposite sex through a ritual involving rigorous dancing and singing. The ornamental black color along with some blue feathers, look mesmerizing when the bird progresses with its ritual to mate with the female.

The female examines the display of feathers and chooses to mate with the male with the best ornamental show. These super black feathers look like an optical illusion if you observe it from a straight point of view. The dancing routine ensures that the male displays his darkest feathers to attract the female for a possible mating ritual.

The blue colored feathers lined along with the black ones are fewer in number. However, the blue looks shiny and glowing as the bird dances with its black feathers open which reflects very minimum light. If the blue colored feathers do not look good enough, the female is most likely to reject the potential suitor.

Now, as the female selects a suitor with only the darkest black feather, after numerous generations, the present birds have a selection of feathers that can easily be compared with the blackest material known to mankind which is black silicon or Vantablack. The researchers studied the feathers under a microscope and found that the same differed greatly in comparison to average down feathers. The microscopic arrangement of the feather resembled the bottle brush trees or coral reefs that prefer a tightly packed pattern. This contributes to efficient encapsulation of light with a jagged as well as the complex surface.

The feathers function in a similar fashion seen in the black silicon. The dark color visible on the feathers doesnt just emerge from the color or pigmentation but also from the materials uneven surface. This phenomenon is termed as structural absorption. This is just the opposite of what a mirror does while reflecting light. The structural absorption process is so effectual that upon painting a coat of gold dust, which is an extremely reflective material, over the surface, the material retains its pitch black color. The structural arrangement of the feathers negates the effects of the gold dust.
With science under siege in 2017, scientists regrouped and fought back: 5 essential reads

Posted on 11 January 2018 by Guest Author

by Maggie Villiger, Science + Technology Editor, The Conversation

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

2017 may well be remembered as the year of alternative facts and fake news. Truth took a hit, and experts seemed to lose the publics trust. Scientists felt under siege as the Trump administration purged information from government websites, appointed inexperienced or adversarial individuals to science-related posts and left important advisory positions empty. Researchers braced for cuts to federally funded science.

So where did that leave science and its supporters? Here we spotlight five stories from our archive that show how scholars took stock of where scientists stand in this new climate and various ways to consider the value their research holds for society.

1. A risk to standing up for science

In April, the March for Science mobilized more than a million protesters worldwide to push back against what they saw as attacks on science and evidence-based policy. But some people in the research community worried about a downside to scientists being perceived as advocates.

Emily Vraga, assistant professor in political communication at George Mason University, put the conundrum this way:

On one hand, scientists have relevant expertise to contribute to conversations about public policy. On the other hand, scientists who advocate may risk losing the trust of the public.

Maintaining that trust is imperative for scientists, both to be able to communicate public risks appropriately and to preserve public funding for research, she wrote.

Vraga and her colleagues research suggests that scientists dont lose credibility when they advocate for policies based on their expertise. But theres a distinction to be made between advocacy and mere partisanship  statements motivated by the science are received differently than if theyre perceived as driven by political beliefs.

2. Rhetorical tools at the ready

Peter Cedric Rock Smith, CC BY-NC-ND

With the feeling that theres a war on science afoot, savvy scientists are thinking about how to defend their work. University of Washington professor of communication Leah Ceccarelli says they can look toward the field of rhetoric for help in how to get their messages across. She writes:

Before dismissing this recommendation as a perverse appeal to slink into the mud or take up the corrupted weapons of the enemy, keep in mind that in academia, rhetoric does not mean rank falsehoods, or mere words over substance.

Its about building persuasive arguments, built on solid foundations, she says. Rhetoricians study effective communication  and theyre happy to open their toolbox to scientists.

Indeed, the science of science communication is becoming a hot area of inquiry, as practitioners investigate and disseminate various techniques for effectively spreading accurate scientific information.

3. What you miss out on when science gets cut

Scientists are always scrambling to secure funding for their research, and during the first year of the Trump administration, it seemed science projects were consistently on the budget chopping block.

Christopher Keane, the vice president for research at Washington State University, made the case that federal funding for science ultimately revs up regional economies, particularly when scholars within academia join forces with entrepreneurs in the private sector:

Thousands of companies can trace their roots to federally funded university research. And since the majority of federally funded research takes place at Americas research universities  often in concert with federal labs and private research partners  these spinoff companies are often located in their local communities all across the country.

4. Slashing science projects hurts workers

Ohio State University economist Bruce Weinberg described how a unique data set allowed him and his colleagues to actually follow the money on federally funded scientific research. Using administrative data, they were able to identify everyone paid to work on a research project, not just the few who appear as authors on any culminating journal articles.

This is valuable because were able to identify students and staff, who may be less likely to author papers than faculty and postdocs but who turn out to be an important part of the workforce on funded research projects. Its like taking into account everyone who works in a particular store, not just the manager and owner.

The majority of people employed on research projects turn out to be somewhere in the training pipeline, whether undergraduates, graduate students or postdocs.

And to do all that work, Weinberg points out, labs need to purchase everything from computers and software, to reagents, medical imaging equipment or telescopes, even to lab mice and rats. Cut the federal funding for science and the economic effects will ripple out far beyond just university science buildings.

5. Basic research powers later patents

Skeptics may wonder: Whats the big deal? So we take a few years off from funding some basic research. Does basic research really matter? As Northwestern Universitys Benjamin F. Jones and Mohammad Ahmadpoor put it, the:

ivory tower view of academic endeavors suggests that science is an isolated activity that rarely pays off in practical application. Related is the idea that marketplace innovation rarely relies on the work of universities or government labs.

But is that right? To find out if basic research actually does lead to usable practical advances, they designed a study to investigate the links between patentable inventions and scientific research. Jones and Ahmadpoor created a social network style map, which connects patents and science papers using the reference citations in each. They found that:

Among research articles that receive at least one citation, a full 80 percent could be linked forward to a future patent. Meanwhile, 61 percent of patents linked backward to at least one research article.

Its impossible to predict which basic research projects will be important in the marketplace, but they wrote that a very high share of scientific research does link forward to usable practical advances. Most of the linkages are indirect, showing the manifold and unexpected ways in which basic research can ultimately pay off.
I was attracted to an employee. I really want to be really careful about that language because a huge part of the problem is a culture of feeling things that you think are unique and significant because they are happening to you and saying things like I had feelings for and I fell for and all these things. The most clinical way I can put it in fessing up to my crimes is that I was attracted to a writer that I had power over because I was a showrunner, and I knew enough to know that these feelings were bad news. That was easy enough to know. I knew that they ran the risk of undercutting peoples faith in my judgement, her faith in her talent, the other writers respect for me, the entire production, the audience. I knew that I wasnt doing anybody any favors by feeling these things, and so I did the cowardly, easiest, laziest thing you could do with feelings like that, and I didnt deal with them. And in not dealing with them, I made everybody else deal with them. Especially her.

Flirty, creepy. Everything other than overt enough to constitute betraying your live-in girlfriend to whom youre going home every night whos actually smart enough and respectful enough to ask you, Do you have feelings for that young writer that youre talking about, that youre paying all this attention to? and saying to her, No, because the trick is, if you lie to yourself, you can lie to everybody. Its really easy.

And so thats what I continued to do, telling myself and anybody that threatened to confront me with it that if you thought what I was doing was creepy or flirty or unprofessional, then its because you were the sexist. You were jealous. I was supporting this person, Im a mentor. Im a feminist. Its your problem, not mine, that youre the one whos seeing things through that lens. And so I let myself keep doing it.

Its not as if this person didnt repeatedly communicate to me the idea that what I was doing was divesting her of a recourse to integrity. I just didnt hear it because it didnt profit me to hear it, and this was, after all, happening to me. And so after a season of playing it that way, I broke up with my girlfriend, who I had lied to the whole time, while lying to myself. Lied to her about why I was breaking up with her, because I thought that would make having inappropriate feelings for a co-worker appropriate, if I wasnt involved.

I want you to be the one to examine this every step of the way and decide for yourself where Im making mistakes. I dont want to explain to you what Ive learned. I want you to look at this and I want it to sound relatively unremarkable to you, because thats the danger.

I broke up with my girlfriend, then I went full-steam into creeping on my employee. Now I wasnt in danger of being a bad person, and then after that season I got overt about my feelings because it was wrapped and said I love you, and she said the same thing shed been saying the entire time in one language or another: Please, dont you understand that focusing on me like this, liking me like this, preferring me like this, I cant say no to it, and when you do it, it makes me unable to know whether Im good at my job.

And because I finally got to the point where I said to her, I love you, because thats what I thought it was, when you target somebody for two years and was therefore rejected that way, I was humiliated, and so I continued to do the cowardly thing and continued to do the selfish thing. Now I wanted to teach her a lesson. I wanted to show her that if she didnt like being liked in that way, then, oh boy, she should get over herself. After all, if youre just gonna be a writer, then this is how just writers get treated. And that was probably the darkest of it all. Im gonna assume that when she tweets about it and refers to trauma that thats probably it, because I drank. I took pills. I crushed on her and resented her for not reciprocating it, and the entire time I was the one writing her paychecks and in control of whether she stayed or went and whether she felt good about herself or not, and said horrible things. Just treated her cruelly, pointedly. Things that I would never, ever, ever have done if she had been male and if I had never had those feelings for her. And I lied to myself the entire time about it, and I lost my job. I ruined my show. I betrayed the audience. I destroyed everything, and I damaged her internal compass.

And I moved on. And I never did it before, and I will never do it again, but I certainly wouldnt have been able to do it if I had any respect for women on a fundamental level. I was thinking about them as different creatures. I was thinking about the ones that I liked as having some special role in my life, and I did it all by not thinking about it.

So I just wanna say, in addition to obviously being sorry, but thats really not the important thing, I wanna say I did it by not thinking about it, and I got away with it by not thinking about it. And if she hadnt mentioned something on Twitter, I wouldve continued to not have to think about it, although I did walk around with my stomach in knots about it, but I wouldnt have had to talk about it.

The last and most important thing I can say is just: Think about it. No matter who you are at work, no matter where youre working, no matter what field youre in, no matter what position you have over or under or side by side with somebody, just think about it. You gotta, because if you dont think about it, youre gonna get away with not thinking about it, and you can cause a lot of damage that is technically legal and hurts everybody. And I think that were living in a good time right now, because were not gonna get away with it anymore. And if we can make it a normal part of our culture that we think about it and possibly talk about it, then maybe we can get to a better place where that stuff doesnt happen. So thats it. Please dont hurt her. Please dont make this worse on anybody but me, and lets move on. Im bad at ending things.
This post is part of Outward, Slates home for coverage of LGBTQ life, thought, and culture. Read more here.

Im a bisexual woman. Like many others, I spent many years feeling not gay enough to be part of the LGBTQ community. I only attended my first Pride last year11 years after realizing my bi identity. I constantly feel guilty for what some people call passing privilegeappearing straight and avoiding blatant homophobiawhich bi people know is not a privilege at all. I long for acceptance in a community of queer people, because I am queer people. But I carry around one giant roadblock to being embraced in LGBTQ spaces: My partner is a cisgender heterosexual white man.

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While many LGBTQ people pay lip service to bisexual validity regardless of who we sleep with, date, or commit our lives to, Ive found actual acceptance lacking in practiceif only by accident. Consider my recent experience with the Madison, Wisconsin-based DJ collective Queer Pressure, which sometimes hosts queer-exclusive events. I asked if my boyfriend would be able to come to one of their queer-only events and was told he could not if he didnt identify as queer.

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When I followed up for this article, the collectives co-founder Sarah Akawa explained that the collective is not a fixed entity. It tailors events based on its communitys response, and has found the queer-only events are super special to people. Akawa (who uses gender-neutral pronouns they/them) said queer-only spaces are important because in them, you can get a break from needing to be vigilant about the people around you, that you wont get stupid questions like, Whos the guy in the relationship? They added that queer spaces allow us to curate our own beautiful queer utopia, even if its just for a night.

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I love this sentiment. But queer spaces can be far from utopian when youre not the right kind of queer. Akawa said Queer Pressure doesnt often have to turn people away from queer-only events. Invites explicitly state when an event is for queer-identifying people only, and people self-select and respect that. They also reiterated if a queer person has a non-queer partner, that partner may not attend, as it is a queer-only event. As for our place in the LGBTQ community, Akawa told me, Bi+ people are under the queer umbrella and they are welcome and embraced at Queer Pressure.

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Yes, Im welcomeas long as I check my straight half at the door? A queer space that says Im only welcome without my partner isnt welcoming all of me. Its no better than the rest of the world that blissfully ignores my queerness as long as Ive got a man on my arm. Im finally free to be gaybut at the expense of who I actually am. Embracing bisexuality means embracing a community that includes straight people, because we fall in love with them all the timeand they with us, which, you could argue, puts them in a queer relationship.

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So what is the purveyor of a safe space to do? As if to prove a point about inclusivity, an LGBTQ-friendly Meetup group in Tampa, Florida, gave me an almost opposite reply to the same question I asked Queer Pressure. The organizer of Gay Friends of St. Pete and Tampa said simply, EVERYONE is welcome and [inclusion is] the reason the group was created.

This simple answer is the one Id expect from groups whose purpose is to empower marginalized people. Its the one that makes me feel welcome as I am without judging me by my seemingly straight relationship. Instead of focusing on keeping straight people out of your space, focus on welcoming queer people into it. Thats as simple as replacing queer people only with LGBTQ-friendly or all people welcome, or adding and those who love them. Or just hang a rainbow flag over your doorit sends the right message and adds a decorative flare.

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New York City comedian Dash Kwiatkowski, who identifies as queer, has been told bisexuality doesnt exist and that hes just greedyin a gay bar. He says, especially now with the country the way it is, everyone marginalized needs to sort of band together  I think we have to figure out how to be on the same side right now. I understand the desire to put up walls that make it clear: This is our space. But pay attention to who your walls actually keep out. Not everyone out there is the enemyand some of them really need to be inside with you.

Queer spaces are so important because, honestly, were not safe in the world, says Kwiatkowski. I live in a fairly progressive city, and I still catch looks and get yelled at for wearing makeup or clothes with rainbow flags. Having a place that I know is safe and friendly  is a huge relief and can help when I feel alone.

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If you need to create an exclusive space, I encourage you to be flexible about it, and be cautious of bi erasure and exclusion. (Its subtle, so if youre not bi, listen to us!) Understand that to be bisexual can mean to share life with a straight person. Put yourself in my shoes, and consider how youd feel if your partner were excluded from any part of your life for any reason. Then treat my partner and me the way youd want your relationship to be treated.

Editors Note: The Queer Pressure collective wishes to clarify that, in addition to hosting exclusively queer events, they throw many parties open to straight/cis allies as well. According to Sarah Akawa, of 32 events in the past year, 29 were open to all while three were queer-only. They have published a response to this piece here.
Today in Conservative Media is a daily roundup of the biggest stories in the right-wing press.

A day after President Trump let news cameras roll on a bipartisan meeting at the White House with congressional leaders on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA, questions lingered into Wednesday about what exactly the president agreed to in the meeting. DACA, which is set to expire in March, allows undocumented immigrants who came to the country as young children and have a clean record to remain in the U.S. The program is now being used as a bargaining chip by the administration to secure funding to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Or is it? That was the White House line going into the meeting Tuesday, but during the meeting, Trump appeared to agree with Democratic Sen. Diane Feinsteins suggestion that the two issues be dealt with separately, before the Republican leadership leapt in to try to clarify.

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What did the White House and lawmakers agree to? Its not clear, Michael Warren wrote in the Weekly Standard. Whatever confusion there was seems to have been hammered out after the press left the room, according to the White House. Warren also noted that the open-door setting was, in the end, good for Trump. [T]he public was able to see Trump preside over an extended negotiation, making the presidents case for his own stability, if not necessarily his genius, Warren wrote.

Breitbart did its part to clear up any confusion on the presidents position by leading with the headline: No. No. No.Donald Trump Says He Wont Sign DACA Deal Without Wall Funding. At National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru wondered how the White House was going to walk back the impression that president had had a change of heart on DACA, but, he noted, new all-caps White Houseissued talking points seemed to do the trick: ANY DEAL ON DACA MUST END CHAIN MIGRATION, ELIMINATE THE VISA LOTTERY, AND FULLY SECURE THE BORDER, INCLUDING WITH A WALL. Along with new talking points, the Daily Callers Saagar Enjeti pointed out that during a press conference with the Norwegian prime minister Wednesday, President Donald Trump repeated his insistence that any permanent deal to codify the DACA program into law has to include funding for a border wall.

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In related DACA news, Josh Blackman is appalled in National Review that a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to leave the DACA program in place, noting that the Obama administration determined the program to be legal, but the Trump administration came to the opposite conclusion. [I]n the Bizarro World we find ourselves in, a federal judge has now informed the Trump administration that it must keep DACA in effect. The order, Blackman said, has all the aesthetics of a judicial decision but is, at heart, an amateur act of punditry. Once again, the judiciary has attempted to shackle President Trump from making his own judgments about how to exercise his own power, he wrote. The Supreme Court has reversed Judge Alsups outlandish rulings on DACA before. And it will do so again.

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The post-Bannon era at Breitbart still had conservative commentators trying to divine lessons from the former Trump strategists fall. The Weekly Standards Jonathan Last circled back to address the question: Why did Breitbart choose Trump over Bannon? It makes sense, Last wrote, that Republicans in Washington ultimately came around to the president, seeing him as an empty vessel with which to enact their agenda, but what surprised Last is that Breitbartthe ideological brainchild of Steve Bannonchose Trump too.

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Historically, print publications are centered around ideas. Thats why they exist. It seems strangemore than strange, reallythat when push came to shove, Breitbart picked the president and the corporate tax cut and DACA renewal over the ideas of Steve Bannon. It makes no sense. Unless, that is, the animating idea of the Breitbart wing of conservatism isnt actually nationalist-populism. Its just power. And then it all makes perfect sense: For Breitbart, power is their big idea.

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National Reviews Kevin Williamson urges Mitt Romney to do it, that is, jump in the race for the Utah Senate seat Orrin Hatch is vacating. Williamson playfully notes Romney has run for the Senate before and did so in the deep blue state of Massachusetts where people are nuts. This is Utah. These people are nice, he jokes, before getting to the heart of case for Romney to run: The Republican Party has become what it once despised and needs saving.
Ncell gets green light to repatriate dividends

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has okayed privately owned telecom operator Ncell to repatriate dividends totalling Rs7.6 billion from the profits of the fiscal year 2015-16. The central bank gave the green light to Ncell after the Supreme Court cleared the way.
Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, who endorsed Trump in his run for president back in January 2016, said that he did not support the offshore drilling decision.

I am opposed to offshore drilling off South Carolinas shore, Im opposed to seismic testing off South Carolinas shore, McMaster told reporters. Our tourism industry and glorious natural resources are beyond compare in the United States, they are a source of enormous economic growth and prosperity and we cannot take a chance with those resources, those industries, and that economy.
President Trump on the prospect of an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller: 'We'll see what happens' https://t.co/HZMhJc2hZC pic.twitter.com/i1fIxXsSiO  The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) January 10, 2018

During a press conference Wednesday, President Trump would not commit to sitting down to do an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, instead calling the situation unlikely. When asked about his willingness to cooperate with the investigation by speaking directly to Mueller, Trump gave a meandering two-minute answer that somehow referenced the Electoral College before offering an elusive response. Well see what happens, Trump said. When they have no collusion, and nobodys found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that youd even have an interview.

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Trumps hedge on his personal cooperation comes just days after NBC News reported that Mueller informed Trumps lawyers in December that he will likely pursue an interview with the president, although no formal request nor date has been set. Trumps legal team would likely try to control the circumstances under which such an interaction would take place. If the president refuses a voluntary interview, Mueller could then try to compel him with a grand jury subpoena.

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Trumps latest statements run counter to his previously stated willingness to meet with Mueller. In June, Trump went so far as to say he was 100 percent willing to testify under oath about his conversation with then-FBI Director James Comey. NBC News reported earlier this week that the talks between the special counsels office and Trumps lawyers were taking a collaborative approach. That is a reminder that the nature of Trumps participation is a negotiated matter, at least initially. That could make Trumps recent hedge a strategic tactic more than a change of heart, where hes setting the bar low for what hes willing to give in terms of cooperation in order to influence the terms of the final agreement.
Guantanamos symbolism has shifted fundamentally over the three presidential administrations that it has been used as an island prison. Its worth reconsidering that historyand what it means in the present context of a president who has openly stated his animus toward Muslimson the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the prisons opening. If the United States is ever to move past the moral and legal morass of what it has done and continues to do at that prison, it must acknowledge these realities.

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That is why on Thursday, the Center for Constitutional Rightsof which I am the legal directorand other lawyers have filed new habeas corpus petitions on behalf of 11 men who have been detained in Guantanamo, most of them for the past 15 years, without charge or trial.

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For the early years of the George W. Bush administration, Guantanamo Bay took its place as the crown jewel of the imperial BushCheney war on terror, and all the corresponding chaos, incompetence, cruelty, and illegality that attended the era. Bush administration officials chose this naval stationexpropriated from Cuba nearly 100 years earlierfor detention operations specifically in order to avoid the jurisdiction of U.S. courts and thereforein a dramatic break from historical military practicedeny the 790 men and boys brought there the protections of any law. The Bush administration sought to justify its dramatic cooption of executive power and gross distortion of international law by claiming that all detainees were the worst of the worst and defying any attempts at judicial review of the legality of this experiment in incommunicado detention and corresponding torture and degrading treatment.

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But between the time CCR filed the first habeas petition on behalf of British and Australian detainees in 2002 and the 2008 election, the narrative fundamentally changed. The Supreme Court four times rejected the Bush administrations assertion of executive prerogative, and an understanding emerged that the vast majority of the detainees were far from the hardened killers that were being held up as exemplars. More likely, they were individuals in the wrong place at the wrong time, or who had been sold for Donald Rumsfeldconceived bounties. Both of the main party candidates in the 2008 presidential election called for Guantanamos closure. Over those six years, the iconography of the orange Gitmo jumpsuit was transformed from a muscular projection of BushCheney determination to an international symbol of cruelty and lawlessness.

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Which seemed to lead inexorably to President Obamas pledge to close the prison within a year of taking office. After all, Obama was, to his supporters, an enlightened constitutional law scholar who could eloquently articulate the dangers of military overreach and promise of an American leadership that respected human rights. But as with much of his presidency, Guantanamo ultimately came to symbolize a distance between eloquence and action. Most of the 241 detainees Obama inherited languished at the prison. Several, like Adnan Latif, the emergent face of indefinite detention, took their own lives out of despair. During this era, the courts took a drastically different approach given Obamas asserted commitment to release detainees expeditiously and responsibly. Ultimately, though, 41 men were still left at the prison by the time he left office.

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Guantanamo has always been a prison exclusively for Muslim men and boys. That realitylike so many other ugly ones that have emerged in the past yearis no longer subtext. Unlike his two predecessors, who together released nearly 750 detainees, President Trump has effectively pledged to release none and even to load it up with some bad dudes. Any Trump decision to detain will not be based on individual circumstances like conduct or status of a detainee, nor is it based on any tailored national security deliberation: It is solely a product of executive hubris and animus. Just as Guantanamo was symbolic of the Bush administrations muscular but misguided response to terrorism, for Trump it represents the beachhead for his explicitly Islamophobic worldview and that of the political movement he leads.

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Guantanamo has always been a prison exclusively for Muslim men and boys.

Trumps view of the prison will never accommodate reason or law; it must be seen as inextricably connected to his statements vowing a complete shutdown of Muslims into the United States. He has also argued that Muslims inherently suffer from a sickness; equated religious equality with committing suicide; and described Islam a religion that categorically hates us. Circulating a false story about Gen. John Pershing, Trump twice suggested that Muslim terrorist suspects should be shot by bullets dipped in pigs blood. He took little time to suggest that the accused Muslim killer who took eight lives on the West Side Highway of New York last year should be denominated an enemy combatant and subject to military law, while not questioning once whether any of the spate of white male mass killers should similarly be treated outside the criminal process. (Ultimately, he backed a criminal trial in that case.)

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Thirteen of the remaining 41 Guantanamo prisoners are stuck in military commissions proceedings that have been a legal quagmire from the beginning, five had actually been cleared for release by the Obama administration as they posed no security threat, and the remaining 23 languish as forever detainees. Many of the men left in Guantanamo are aging, sick, or suffering the devastating psychological or physiological consequences of indefinite detention in a remote prison camp where they have endured brutal conditions designed to break them, and where the aura of forever hangs heavier than ever before. Our new legal filings argue that Trumps diktat about detaineestinged as it is with anti-Muslim biascannot stand, and that absent judicial intervention of the kind undertaken during the Bush administration many of the detainees may never leave Guantanamo alive, let alone ever having been charged with a crime. They cannot justly be detained forever in connection to a war that may never end.

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In our constitutional system, the courts must respondas they have in the iterative Muslim ban cases and the transgender troops banaggressively to executive overreach, when lives and liberty are at stake. In so doing, the courts must also change the legal narrative that has governed Guantanamo for more than a decade. Courts and commentators have been too willing to accommodate the experimental legal logic of Guantanamo for this set of Muslim prisoners. Under this logic, individuals can be detained, without charge, for the duration of a conflict without foreseeable end. That has always been a flawed presumption, and those who promoted that logic under a seemingly responsible President Obama will see it willfully distorted by the malicious new president.

Still, in this fraught constitutional environment, Guantanamo actually still matters. It presents the courts with an opportunity to affirm a simple but fundamental constitutional principle: all individuals, including Muslim prisoners, must either be charged with a crime or released. Life sentences should not be handed out based on executive say-so, no matter who the executive is.
Theres a long history of governments in exile, from the leaders of Nazi-occupied countries that set up shop in London during World War II to the opposition Syrian Interim Government based in Turkey. But these were groups trying to overthrow their countries current leaders, not run the day-to-day business of their homelands. Nobodys ever pulled off something like what Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is now attempting: governing a place without being physically present in it.

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Puigdemont, leader of the separatist Catalan Democratic Party, fled to Belgium in October to avoid arrest on charges of rebellion following his governments decision to unilaterally declare independence from Spain after a controversial referendum.

The Spanish government, which did not recognize the results of the vote, assumed direct control over the region and dissolved its government, calling for new elections. The Spanish government was betting that after the chaos of the past few months, voters in the politically divided region would elect anti-independence parties and end the dangerous standoff. That didnt happen: Separatist parties again won a narrow majority in the Catalan Parliament.

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On Tuesday, the victorious parties agreed to once again elect Puigdemont as regional president. The problem is if he sets foot in Spain, he will be arrested. Traditionally, the leader would appear in person in parliament present himself and his program for a vote. But Puigdemonts backers say theres no reason he cant do that through a delegate or via Skype. But the issue isnt just his swearing-in. Given that Spain is unlikely to drop the charges against Puigdemont any time soon, hell have to keep governing via Skype and email indefinitely.

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His opponents, not surprisingly, find this ridiculous. Its evident that for governing Catalonia you have to be in Catalonia, you cant do that via WhatsApp or as a hologram, said Ines Arrimadas, leader of the anti-independence Ciutadans party.

Nowadays, political leaders can do a large percentage of their jobs without being present. In 2010, when Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was stranded in New York by the Icelandic volcano eruption, his government publicized the fact that the was continuing to do his job remotely on a just-introduced device called an iPad.

But governing is more than just communicating with colleagues or even giving speeches. Catalonia is a politically divided region facing its most serious political crisis in decades, a crisis thatwhether or not you support independencehes largely responsible for creating. Those who are already skeptical of the risky course hes put the region on are not likely to be mollified by a president on the run from the law who exists in his home region as only a spectral, digital presence.

Perhaps the government should invest in one of those telepresence robots Edward Snowden uses to get around.
Instead of adopting the largest education reform in the past 25 years, the Education Ministry quickly made several changes to its operation in late 2017.

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Education reform has been buried and the critics have been removed, is how the Initiative of Slovak Teachers, the organiser of several strikes calling for improving the conditions in the education system, responded to the latest changes at the Education Ministry.

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Under the original plan, the ministry was expected to start working on implementing the necessary changes in education reform at the end of last year. Instead, Education Minister Martina Lubyova has postponed the beginning of some processes, after she called the document, titled Learning Slovakia, inapplicable in practice.

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Read also: The education minister unexpectedly dissolved analytical institute Read more

Moreover, she adopted several other changes concerning the operation of her department at the end of last year, particularly the changes in her and the state secretaries powers and the dissolution of the Institute of Education Policy (IVP), the ministrys analytical body.

The decision, whose aim, in the ministrys words, was to make the operation more efficient, strengthen the analytical body and reduce the number of administration employees, met with critical responses from the opposition, teachers associations and experts. They point to the fact that they have not been discussed enough.

Moreover, they took place during the Christmas holiday, which is neither standard process nor right timing for increasing the quality of any organisations operation, Renata Hall, head of the To Da Rozum (Learning Makes Sense) project, told The Slovak Spectator.
At the same time, graft scandals will continue to erode approval ratings for conventional parties, paving the way for fringe parties and protest groups to gain influence, according to the BMI Research analysis.

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Slovakias official political line will remain supportive of further European integration. This will imply some compromise on sensitive issues and further distance from other eastern European peers.

While this stronger pro-EU stance will be backed by a rebound in pro-EU sentiment across the population, graft scandals will continue to erode approval ratings for conventional parties, paving the way for fringe parties and protest groups to gain influence, BMI Research, a division of the Fitch Group, wrote in its recently published political risk analysis.

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Support for integration

In late October 2017, Slovakias three highest representatives, President Andrej Kiska, Prime Minister Robert Fico Smer, and Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party), signed a declaration pledging to maintain a pro-European and pro-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) path.

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Read also: Fico: Slovakia is a pro-European island in Central Europe Read more

In the meantime, the countrys Foreign Affairs Ministry has launched a new initiative aimed at raising public awareness on the importance and benefits of the countrys membership in the EU and NATO.

All these efforts reflect Slovakias willingness to be part of a core group of European countries amid increasingly realistic prospects of a two-speed bloc, the BMI Research analysis reads. In order to achieve this goal, we expect Slovakia will continue to compromise on some sensitive issues.

Differences from its neighbours

After initial opposition, Slovakia approved tighter rules on posted workers in October, a reform that will limit EU companies ability to temporarily post employees to other member states without abiding by all local labour laws afforded to native workers (providing bonuses, overtime, etc.).

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Unlike its eastern European peers, Slovakia has also somewhat softened its anti-immigration stance, the report reads. While the government continues to reassure its citizens that it will remain determined to resist large-scale immigration, it has adopted some EU-mandated measures and has provided some concrete proposals to cope with the migration crisis.

Against this backdrop, in December the European Commission decided to take Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to court for refusing migrant quotas, but not Slovakia, the report points out.

Overall, Slovakia will remain a pro-European island amongst increasingly eurosceptic neighbouring peers, BMI Research wrote. With Poland and Hungary promoting an illiberal form of democracy, and with the election victory of populist Andrej Babis in the Czech Republic, which suggests that Prague may follow the lead of Budapest and Warsaw, Slovakia will further distance itself from the other Visegrad Four members.

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Read also: EU takes Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to court for refusing refugee quotas but not Slovakia Read more

Despite recent disappointments at the EU level, namely the rejection of Bratislava as the new host of the European Medicines Agency, and the resignation of Finance Minister Peter Kazimir from the race for the Eurogroup leadership, the analysis expects Slovakia will push to strengthen its image in the bloc, particularly by focusing on topics where it can add the most value.

Impact of regional elections

The Slovak governments pro-EU stance will also be supported by a rebound in pro-EU sentiment across the population, putting the country against the trend of far-right gains in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic over recent months.

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Read also: Regional elections show the door to the far right Read more

This comeback was evidenced by the results of the regional elections held in November 2017, the report reads, reminding of the major blow far-right Peoples Party  Our Slovakia (LSNS) suffered.

The report stresses that the regional elections, which were portrayed as a referendum on extremism and on euroscepticism, saw a turnout of about 30 percent, far higher than the average level for Slovak regional elections.

Emergence of new parties

Beyond highlighting the repudiation for extremisms, the regional elections pinpoint a rising dissatisfaction with established parties, the analysis reads, referring to the fact that Smer, which lost four of the six regional governor posts it controlled after the 2013 regional elections, mostly to candidates of non-parliament parties.

Moreover, rising public anger over graft scandals linked to mainstream parties will help fringe parties and protest groups gain further ground, thus beginning to reshape the political landscape, according to the report.
The statements were condemned by both Slovak culture minister and the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

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Slovakias Culture Minister Marek Madaric (Smer) and the Foreign Affairs Ministry have condemned recent statements by Czech President Milos Zeman, who has criticised reform communist leader Alexander Dubcek.

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Dubcek was one of the main forces of the 1968 reform movement known as the Prague Spring. In August 1968 he was forced to sign the Moscow Protocol that started the normalisation process in then Czechoslovakia.

Why in 1968 there was only one brave person, Frantisek Kriegel, and why the other ones soiled their pants from fear? Zeman asked in his speech delivered on the occasion of initiating celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of Czechoslovakia's establishment and the 25th anniversary of the independent Czech Republic's creation.

By saying that first these idols became speakers of the Federal Assembly, then they became ambassadors to Turkey, and then lost even this post he clearly referred to Dubcek, who was trying to build a humane socialism before the Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia, the Sme daily reported.

During the first years of normalisation there was a rule, if I translate it into a polite phrase, that I have to stay in my post or there will be an even bigger bastard than myself, Zeman said, adding that this resulted in a deep demoralisation of Czechoslovakia. Hope returned only in November 1989.

Apart from Zeman, several Czech dissidents criticised Dubcek in a documentary by Czech Television released on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the invasion, Sme reported.

Slovak ministries critical

We consider the statements by the Czech president inappropriate, said Peter Susko, spokesperson for the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry, as quoted by Sme.

The statements do not correspond with the unbiased evaluation of Dubceks role and are at odds with the aim of using the anniversaries to strengthen relations between the Czechs and Slovaks, he added.

Slovak Culture Minister Marek Madaric was also critical.

We respect Alexander Dubcek because he enabled the reform and democratisation process in the beginning of the 60s, Madaric said, as quoted by Sme.
The castle continues its transformation.

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More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

The ruins of Plavec Castle in the Presov Region, whose reconstruction started four years ago, is gradually changing its image.

Until now, it was known for its four-storey tower, but now weve completed the construction of two big defence towers, which are bigger in size in the ground plan than the first one, said Martin Sarossy, the reconstructions coordinator, as quoted by the SITA newswire.

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The towers were situated more under the ground than above. They managed to uncover and reconstruct them, he added.

The castle becoming gradually accessible

The restorers continue in uncovering the castles underground.

Were gradually making the underground floor of the southeastern bastions accessible, with preserved embrasures and the original floor, Sarossy said, as quoted by SITA.

The original height of the room where the floor is located remains a mystery. Currently, it is 1.5 metres high.

Thanks to the previous reconstruction work, the castle interiors opened to the public for the first time during the summer. Visitors could see historic images and castle models, SITA reported.

The castle is already among one of the best accessible in eastern Slovakia. It is possible to park one's car very close to the castle gate. It is situated close to the castle route that connects Stara Lubovna Castle with Muszyna in Poland and Kamenicky Castle near Sabinov.

The unemployed helped with reconstruction

Plavec Castle passed into ruins nearly 150 years ago. The current reconstruction project is also financed by the Culture Ministry, and is offering job to the unemployed. Last year, 20 unemployed people were working there.

I hope the castles reconstruction will continue since the Culture Ministry has confirmed the programme for hiring the unemployed will continue for another three years, Sarossy said, as quoted by SITA.
The line serves the large Slovak community living in Rajka

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The resumed train line between Bratislava and the Hungarian village of Rajka enjoys the high interest of travellers. The usage of trains has already reached 60 percent. The Slovak Transport Ministry resumed this line after almost 10 years last December to better interconnect the neighbouring regions and strengthen Bratislavas suburban transport.

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After one month of operation I can conclude with delight that this was the correct decision, said Arpad Ersek, Transport Minister, as cited in the press release. People want to travel by train and not spend their precious time, for example, in traffic jams. This is the reason why we will further support more environment-friendly rail transport and the opportunities it provides.

Rajka is located about 25 km from Bratislava and only a few kilometres beyond the Slovak-Hungarian border. In recent years plenty of Slovaks have moved to this village. In 2015 out of the 4,500 citizens 2,500 were Slovaks.

The rail line connecting Bratislava and Rajka via Petrzalka and Rusovce in Slovakia resumed on December 10. Trains are running on this line during peak hours to satisfy the exceptional interest in this kind of transport. In total there are five return trains on this line.

The line is simultaneously part of the integrated transport system of the Bratislava Region, which makes it even more attractive. Within this scheme people can travel on a single ticket on regional trains and buses as well use city public transport.

Rajka is also served by a bus line from the Bratislava Transport company (DPB). Buses from the 801 line run on the Rusovce-Rajka route each hour while during peak hours they go every 30 minutes.
Nepal Media Society demands Sumargi to show proof

Nepal Media Society (NMS) has said that its serious attention has been drawn towards the complaint registered at the Kathmandu District Administration Office by Ajeya Raj Sumargi, claiming that he has security threat from Chairman and Managing Director of Kantipur Media Group Kailash Sirohiya.
Former SIS member Kosik confirmed for the Sme daily in December that he was a member of the commando that kidnapped the presidents son.

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Former SIS member Lubos Kosik made this statement in the African country of Mali, where he is reportedly incarcerated.

In the statement, published by the Sme daily on January 10, he confirmed the role of former SIS director Ivan Lexa in the abduction and other criminal activities the Meciar-era secret service has been suspected of.

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The Malian police detained Kosik in November 2016 based on an international warrant. He fled Slovakia after the court sentenced him to 14 years in prison in the case of falsifying promissory notes for his former business partner Lubomir Farenzena.

Slovakia requested the extradition of Kosik from Mali, but the authorities have not reacted yet.

Here is the full text from the statement:

My statement will be about SIS activities, for which I worked under then director Ivan Lexa.

I am aware of all the legal consequences. I am not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Nobody has forced me to do anything.

First, I want to respond to the claims of former SIS member Michal Hrbacek about the abduction of Michal Kovac, Jr. that were published in the Novy Cas daily in the past. He said that the activities of every secret service in the world are directed by its director. I agree with that. At the time of my work for SIS from 1995  1998 the director was Ivan Lexa.

Read also:

Read also: Planned murder of a witness. The little known secret service scandal Read more

He was thus aware of all the steps and methods of SIS members.

The deputy director of SIS was Jaroslav Svechota, through whom Lexa conveyed orders to his subordinates (Svechota died in 2004, ed. note). As undercover agents we were not directly employed at SIS, so we could only have received orders from the director, since we were unknown to other SIS members. Undercover agents could thus only receive assignments from Svechota based on Lexas orders.

Michal Hrbacek received a direct order from Lexa to put together a group with high morals who would be able to perform any activities for SIS. Hrbacek did put together such a group.

Read also:

Read also: Ex intelligence employee: Lexa oversaw the 1995 abduction Read more

Today I am in the position of being accused of abducting the presidents son. So I want to make a public statement on the matter, and I also want to testify in front of a judge. As a defendant, I have the legal right to defend myself by any means, while the law does not specify what by any means signifies.

I have interpreted it so that I left my homeland and I decided to testify about criminal activities against my former superiors, Michal Hrbacek and Ivan Lexa.

They are people in a high position in society. My departure from Slovakia was also necessary because they wanted to eliminate me, and not just physically. Their aim was to close me up in a prison and silence me that way, preventing me from speaking up about their criminal activities.

My sentence in the case of promissory notes contains many procedural errors. My attorney will thus turn to the Constitutional Court and I will await the ruling.

I want to say that as a citizen I am legally obliged to testify about criminal activities, particularly when grave crimes are concerned, like the preparation of a murder, a murder itself, or crimes against the state.

Read also:

Read also: Meciar's amnesties? Slovak youth don't know what they are Read more

The truth is that Michal Hrbacek received orders from Jaroslav Svechota by phone and everything was directed by Ivan Lexa. He knew about every step of the SIS members during the abduction. As I said before, nothing was allowed without knowledge of the SIS director.

If I said in the interview with the Sme daily last December that the orders came from Jaroslav Svechota and I never received any order directly from Ivan Lexa, I stand by that claim.

I received no direct orders from Lexa. The operative activities were performed on-site by operatives. Svechota was in the vicinity, to oversee the entire assignment from another car. SIS director Lexa issued orders from his office.
Tension between Kiska and Smer continues.

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video //www.sme.sk/vp/36408/

These top three stories from Slovakia are a selection of headlines from a weekly overview in pdf and audio format that subscribers of The Slovak Spectator receive directly in their inboxes every Thursday morning.

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Tension between the ruling Smer and President Andrej Kiska continues also in 2018. In an interview for the Vasarnap weekly, Kiska stated that Interior Minister Robert Kalinak is abusing the National Criminal Agency by attempting to discredit him . The minister, however, rebuffed the presidents claims and said Kiska is only trying to cover up his own mistakes.

The Greenway company launched a new charger for e-cars in Bratislava. It is the only one of its kind in central and eastern Europe. The technology is available in two 50kW quick charging stations supported by a battery that can store 52kW of energy with a capacity of 60kW, and as result, this charge can better utilize local network capacities. Take a look at other possibilities to recharge your e-car in the city too.

Slovak actor Marian Labuda, labelled the most talented of his generation, passed away in Bratislava on January 5 at the age of 73. You might have seen him in the My Sweet Little Village movie from the eighties.

Below you can listen to all the headlines from Last Week in Slovakia published on January 10.
The low-cost airline operates dozens routes from Bratislava.

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The low-cost airline Ryanair is continuing to change its cabin bag policy. As of Monday, January 15th, only priority boarding customers will be allowed to bring two carry-on bags on the aircraft.

This new policy is fair, will speed up boarding and will eliminate any risk of Ryanair flights being delayed because of too many bags being brought on board, said Ryanairs Kenny Jacobs as cited in the airlines press release.

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The airline informs that customers can still enjoy the two free bag allowance, but from January 15 only priority boarding customers will be allowed to bring two carry-on bags into the cabin of the aircraft. All other customers can bring one smaller carry-on bag on board, while their second, bigger, wheelie bag will be placed in the hold, free of charge, at the boarding gate.

Jacobs recalled that Ryanair has already cut its checked-in bag fee and increased the checked-bag size allowance. The check-in bag allowance has increased from 15 kg to 20 kg for all bags and the standard check-in bag fee has been cut from /35 to /25 for standard luggage of up to 20 kg.

Ryanair flies from Bratislava to 31 destinations including London, Manchester, Brussels, Burgas, Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Tel Aviv and Madrid.
The US Department of State wants to provide travellers with clear, timely, and reliable information.

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Slovakia is a safe country and people travelling there need only take normal precautions. This stems from the recent update of how the US Department of State shares information with US travellers on January 10th.

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These improvements will provide US citizens with clear, timely, and reliable safety and security information worldwide, the US State Department reported on its website.

Under the new system, every country will have its own Travel Advisory, providing levels of advice ranking from 1 to 4.

Slovakia is in the Level 1 category, which means that travellers should exercise normal precautions.

This is the lowest advisory level for safety and security risk, the State Department informed. There is some risk in any international travel. Conditions in other countries may differ from those in the United States and may change at any time.

As well as Slovakia, Australia, Canada, Austria and the Czech Republic are in this group.

What is the new system like?

The Travel Advisories for each country replace previous Travel Warnings and Travel Alerts.

While we will issue an overall Travel Advisory level for every country, levels of advice may vary for specific locations or areas within a country, the US Department of State clarified.

Level 2 in the new system means Exercise Increased Caution. The State Department recommends travellers to be aware of heightened risks to safety and security. Currently, countries like Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are listed here.

The Level 3 category indicates that people should Reconsider Travel and means that travellers should avoid their journey due to serious risks to safety and security. The US Department of State lists Honduras, Haiti and Turkey in this category.

The Department of State does not recommend travelling to Level 4 category countries. They have the highest advisory level due to the greater likelihood of life-threatening risks.

During an emergency, the US government may be limited in their ability to provide assistance, the Department of State wrote, adding that it advises US citizens not to travel to such countries or to leave as soon as it is safe to do so.

This category includes countries like Iran, North Korea, Iraq and Syria.
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 following companies are subsidiares of NRG Energy: 3279405 Nova Scotia Company, 3283764 Nova Scotia Company, 7549709 Canada Inc., 7644868 Canada Inc., 7711565 Canada Inc., AC Solar Holdings LLC, Ace Energy Inc., Agua Caliente Borrower 1 LLC, Agua Caliente Solar Holdings LLC, Agua Caliente Solar LLC, Allied Home Warranty GP LLC, Allied Warranty LLC, Arthur Kill Gas Turbines LLC, Arthur Kill Power LLC, Astoria Gas Turbine Power LLC, Bayou Cove Peaking Power LLC, Beheer-en Beleggingsmaatschappij Plogema B.V., Berrians I Gas Turbine Power LLC, BidURenergy Inc., Big Cajun I Peaking Power LLC, Bluewater Wind Delaware LLC, Bluewater Wind Maryland LLC, Bluewater Wind New Jersey Energy LLC, Boquillas Wind LLC, Cabrillo Power I LLC, Cabrillo Power II LLC, Camino Energy LLC, Carbon Management Solutions LLC, Carlsbad Energy Center LLC, Carlsbad Energy Holdings LLC, Chester Energy LLC, Chickahominy River Energy Corp., Cirro Energy Services Inc., Cirro Group Inc., Citizens Power Holdings One LLC, Commonwealth Atlantic Power LLC, Connecticut Jet Power LLC, Cottonwood Development LLC, Cottonwood Energy Company LP, Cottonwood Generating Partners I LLC, Cottonwood Generating Partners II LLC, Cottonwood Generating Partners III LLC, Cottonwood Technology Partners LP, Delaware Power Development LLC, Devon Power LLC, Doga Enerji Uretim Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Doga Isi Satis Hizmetleri Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Doga Isletme ve Bakim Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Dunkirk Gas Corporation, Dunkirk Power LLC, EHI Development Fund LLC, EME Eastern Holdings LLC, EVgo Services LLC, Eastern Sierra Energy Company LLC, Ecokap Power LLC, El Segundo Energy Center II LLC, El Segundo Power II LLC, El Segundo Power LLC, Elkhorn Ridge Wind II LLC, Energy Alternatives Wholesale LLC, Energy Choice Solutions LLC, Energy Curtailment Specialists, Energy Plus Holdings LLC, Energy Plus Natural Gas LLC, Energy Protection Insurance Company, Everything Energy LLC, Forward Home Security LLC, GCP Funding Company LLC, GenOn Energy, Geostellar Inc., Gladstone Power Station Joint Venture, Goal Zero, Goal Zero Europe GmbH, Goal Zero LLC, Granite II Holding LLC, Granite Power Partners II L.P., Green Mountain Energy, Green Mountain Energy Company, Green Mountain Energy Sun Club, Gregory Partners LLC, Gregory Power Partners LLC, Hanover Energy Company, Huntley IGCC LLC, Huntley Power LLC, Independence Energy Alliance LLC, Independence Energy Group LLC, Independence Energy Natural Gas LLC, Indian River Operations Inc., Indian River Power LLC, Intellastar LLC, Ivanpah Master Holdings LLC, Ivanpah Project I Holdings LLC, Ivanpah Project II Holdings LLC, Ivanpah Project III Holdings LLC, James River Power LLC, Kaufman Cogen LP, LSP-Nelson Energy LLC, Long Beach Generation LLC, Long Beach Peakers LLC, Long Beach Power LLC, Louisiana Generating LLC, MEC Esenyurt B.V., MEC San Pascual B.V., Maplekey UK Finance Limited, Maplekey UK Limited, Meriden Gas Turbines LLC, Middletown Power LLC, Midway-Sunset Cogeneration Company, Midwest Finance Company LLC, Midwest Generation EME LLC, Midwest Generation Holdings I LLC, Midwest Generation Holdings II LLC, Midwest Generation LLC, Midwest Generation Procurement Services LLC, Midwest Peaker Holdings LLC, Mission Bingham Lake Wind LLC, Mission Del Cielo LLC, Mission Energy Construction Services LLC, Mission Energy Holdings International LLC, Mission Energy Wales LLC, Mission Funding Zeta LLC, Mission Midway-Sunset Holdings LLC, Mission Midwest Coal LLC, Mission Minnesota Wind LLC, Mission Watson Holdings LLC, Mission Wind Boquillas LLC, Mission Wind New Mexico II LLC, Mission Wind Owaissa LLC, Mission Wind Pinnacle LLC, Mission del Sol LLC, Montville IGCC LLC, Montville Power LLC, NEO Chester-Gen LLC, NEO Corporation, NRG Acquisition Holdings Inc., NRG Advisory Services LLC, NRG Affiliate Services Inc., NRG Alexandria LLC, NRG Arroyo Nogales LLC, NRG Arthur Kill Operations Inc., NRG Asia-Pacific Ltd., NRG Astoria Gas Turbine Operations Inc., NRG Astoria Power LLC, NRG Audrain Generating LLC, NRG Audrain Holding LLC, NRG Bayou Cove LLC, NRG Berrians East Development LLC, NRG Bluewater Holdings LLC, NRG Bluewater Wind Massachusetts LLC, NRG Bourbonnais Equipment LLC, NRG Bourbonnais LLC, NRG Brazoria Energy LLC, NRG Business Services LLC, NRG CTA Holdings LLC, NRG Cabrillo Power Operations Inc., NRG Cadillac Inc., NRG Cadillac Operations Inc., NRG California Peaker Operations LLC, NRG Capital II LLC, NRG Carbon 360 LLC, NRG Cedar Bayou Development Company LLC, NRG Chalk Point CT LLC, NRG CleanTech Investments LLC, NRG Coal Development Company LLC, NRG ComLease LLC, NRG Common Stock Finance I LLC, NRG Common Stock Finance II LLC, NRG Connected Home LLC, NRG Connecticut Affiliate Services Inc., NRG Connecticut Peaking Development LLC, NRG Construction LLC, NRG Cottonwood Tenant LLC, NRG Curtailment Solutions Canada Inc., NRG Curtailment Solutions Inc., NRG DG Development LLC, NRG Development Company Inc., NRG Devon Operations Inc., NRG Dispatch Services LLC, NRG Distributed Energy Resources Holdings LLC, NRG Distributed Generation PR LLC, NRG Dunkirk Operations Inc., NRG ECOKAP Holdings LLC, NRG ESA Joint Development LLC, NRG El Segundo Operations Inc., NRG Energy Center Eagles LLC, NRG Energy Center Oxnard LLC, NRG Energy Fuel LLC, NRG Energy Fuel Services LLC, NRG Energy Gas & Wind Holdings Inc., NRG Energy Holdings II Inc., NRG Energy Holdings Inc., NRG Energy Inc., NRG Energy Labor Services LLC, NRG Energy Petroleum LLC, NRG Energy Services Group LLC, NRG Energy Services International Inc., NRG Energy Services LLC, NRG Equipment Company LLC, NRG Fuel Cell CA1 LLC, NRG Fuel Resources LLC, NRG Fuel Transportation LLC, NRG GTL Holdings LLC, NRG Gas Development Company LLC, NRG Generation Holdings Inc., NRG Gladstone Operating Services Pty Ltd, NRG Granite Acquisition LLC, NRG Greenco LLC, NRG HQ DG LLC, NRG Holding Leasing Vehicle 7 LLC, NRG Home & Business Solutions LLC, NRG Home Services LLC, NRG Home Solutions LLC, NRG Home Solutions Product LLC, NRG Homer City Services LLC, NRG Huntley Operations Inc., NRG Identity Protect LLC, NRG Ilion LP LLC, NRG Ilion Limited Partnership, NRG Independence Solar LLC, NRG International LLC, NRG Kaufman LLC, NRG Latin America Inc., NRG Lease Co LLC, NRG Lease Development LLC, NRG Limestone 3 LLC, NRG Maintenance Services LLC, NRG Mesquite LLC, NRG Mextrans Inc., NRG MidAtlantic Affiliate Services Inc., NRG MidCon Development LLC, NRG Middletown Operations Inc., NRG Middletown Repowering LLC, NRG Midwest Holdings LLC, NRG Midwest II LLC, NRG Montville Operations Inc., NRG NE Development LLC, NRG Nelson Turbines LLC, NRG New Roads Holdings LLC, NRG NewGen LLC, NRG North Central Operations Inc., NRG Northeast Affiliate Services Inc., NRG Norwalk Harbor Operations Inc., NRG Ohio Pipeline Company LLC, NRG Operating Services Inc., NRG Oswego Harbor Power Operations Inc., NRG Oxbow Holdings LLC, NRG PacGen Inc., NRG Peaker Finance Company LLC, NRG Portable Power LLC, NRG Potrero Development LLC, NRG Power Marketing LLC, NRG Procurement Company LLC, NRG Project Company LLC, NRG Reliability Solutions LLC, NRG Renter's Protection LLC, NRG Repowering Holdings LLC, NRG Residential Solar Solutions LLC, NRG Residential Solar Solutions Leasing II LLC, NRG Retail LLC, NRG Retail Northeast LLC, NRG Rockford Acquisition LLC, NRG Rockford Equipment II LLC, NRG Rockford Equipment LLC, NRG Saguaro Operations Inc., NRG Security LLC, NRG Services Corporation, NRG Sherbino LLC, NRG SimplySmart Solutions LLC, NRG Solar Arrowhead LLC, NRG Solar CVSR Holdings 2 LLC, NRG Solar Dandan LLC, NRG Solar Guam LLC, NRG Solar Ivanpah LLC, NRG Solar Ring LLC, NRG Solar SC Stadium LLC, NRG Solar Sunrise LLC, NRG South Central Affiliate Services Inc., NRG South Central Generating LLC, NRG South Central Operations Inc., NRG South Texas LP, NRG Sterlington Power LLC, NRG Storage Fabrication & Delivery LLC, NRG Storage on Demand NY LLC, NRG SunCap Leasing I LLC, NRG Telogia Power LLC, NRG Texas C&I Supply LLC, NRG Texas Gregory LLC, NRG Texas Holding Inc., NRG Texas LLC, NRG Texas Power LLC, NRG Texas Retail LLC, NRG Trading Advisors LLC, NRG Transmission Holdings LLC, NRG ULC Parent Inc., NRG Victoria I Pty Ltd, NRG Warranty Services LLC, NRG West Coast LLC, NRG Western Affiliate Services Inc., NRG Wind Development Company LLC, NRG Wind Force LLC, NRG Wind LLC, NRG dGen Advisory Services LLC, NRGenerating German Holdings GmbH, NRGenerating International B.V., NRGenerating Luxembourg (No. 1) S.a.r.l., NRGenerating Luxembourg (No. 2) S.a.r.l., New Genco GP LLC, New Jersey Power Development LLC, Norwalk Power LLC, O'Brien Cogeneration Inc. II, ONSITE Energy Inc., One Block Off The Grid Inc., Oswego Harbor Power LLC, Pacific Generation Company, Petra Nova CCS I LLC, Petra Nova Holdings LLC, Petra Nova LLC, Petra Nova Parish Holdings LLC, Petra Nova Power I LLC, Pure Energies Group, Pure Energies Group ULC, Pure Energies Installation Inc., Pure Energies Solar Services Inc., Pure Group Inc., RDI Consulting LLC, RERH Holdings LLC, Reliant Charitable Foundation, Reliant Energy, Reliant Energy Northeast LLC, Reliant Energy Power Supply LLC, Reliant Energy Retail Holdings LLC, Reliant Energy Retail Services LLC, Restoration Design LLC, Roof Diagnostics Solar Holdings LLC, Roof Diagnostics Solar and Electric LLC, Roof Diagnostics Solar and Electric of NY LLC, Saguaro Power Company a Limited Partnership, Saguaro Power LLC, San Gabriel Energy LLC, San Joaquin Energy LLC, San Juan Energy LLC, San Pascual Cogeneration Company International B.V., Sherbino I Wind Farm LLC, Solar Partners I LLC, Solar Partners II LLC, Solar Partners VIII LLC, Solar Power Partners, Solar Pure Energies ULC, Somerset Operations Inc., Somerset Power LLC, South Texas Wind LLC, Station A LLC, Sunrise Power Company LLC, Sunshine State Power (No. 2) B.V., Sunshine State Power B.V., TCV Pipeline LLC, Tacoma Energy Recovery Company, Taloga Wind II LLC, Texas Coastal Ventures LLC, Texas Genco GP LLC, Texas Genco Holdings, Texas Genco Holdings Inc., Texas Genco LP LLC, Texas Genco Services LP, US Retailers LLC, Valle Del Sol Energy LLC, Vienna Operations Inc., Vienna Power LLC, WCP (Generation) Holdings LLC, Watson Cogeneration Company, West Coast Power LLC, XOOM Alberta Holdings LLC, XOOM British Columbia Holdings LLC, XOOM Energy BC ULC, XOOM Energy California LLC, XOOM Energy Canada ULC, XOOM Energy Connecticut LLC, XOOM Energy Delaware LLC, XOOM Energy Georgia LLC, XOOM Energy Global Holdings LLC, XOOM Energy Illinois LLC, XOOM Energy Indiana LLC, XOOM Energy Kentucky LLC, XOOM Energy LLC, XOOM Energy Maine LLC, XOOM Energy Maryland LLC, XOOM Energy Massachusetts LLC, XOOM Energy Michigan LLC, XOOM Energy New Hampshire LLC, XOOM Energy New Jersey LLC, XOOM Energy New York LLC, XOOM Energy ONT ULC, XOOM Energy Ohio LLC, XOOM Energy Pennsylvania LLC, XOOM Energy Rhode Island LLC, XOOM Energy Texas LLC, XOOM Energy Virginia LLC, XOOM Energy Washington D.C. LLC, XOOM Ontario Holdings LLC, XOOM Solar LLC, and eV2g LLC.

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YPF Sociedad Anonima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. The company's upstream operations include the exploration, development, and production of crude oil, natural gas, and NGLs. Its downstream operations include the refining, marketing, transportation, and distribution of oil, petroleum products, petroleum derivatives, petrochemicals, LPG, and bio-fuels, as well as in gas separation, natural gas distribution operations, and power generation. As of December 31, 2021, it had interests in 119 oil and gas fields; approximately 643 million barrels (mmbbl) of oil; and approximately 2,447 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas. It also had a retail distribution network of 1,654 YPF-branded service stations; and 18 exploration permits. In addition, the company owns and operates three refineries with combined annual refining capacity of approximately 120 mmbbl; approximately 2,800 kilometers of crude oil pipelines with approximately 640,000 barrels of aggregate daily transportation capacity of refined products; and crude oil tankage of approximately 7 mmbbl, as well as maintains terminal facilities at five Argentine ports. Further, it participates in 21 power generation plants with an aggregate installed capacity of 3,091 megawatts; offers diesel, fertilizers, lubricants, phytosanitary products, and ensiling bags; and supplies diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, coal, asphalts, paraffin, and sulfur, CO2, decanted oil, and aromatic extract. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The answer is blowing in the wind

Wind power generated 43.4 percent of electricity consumed in Denmark last year, a new record for the Nordic nation which aims to rely on renewables for half of its energy needs by 2030, authorities said Thursday.

"Denmark is on track to surpassing its EU energy targets" which is to have at least 50 percent of its energy needs supplied by renewable resources by 2030, against a current one third, and a zero-fossil fuel energy by 2050, the Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate said in a statement.

"With the wind power production record, Denmark places a green flag on the world map," Danish energy minister Lars Lilleholt said.

"We have managed to accommodate large amounts of wind power and other green sources of energy, while maintaining high security of supply," he added.

Anticipating more records in the coming years, Denmark is developing new offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea and North Sea.

The nation imports its additional electricity needs from Norway (hydropower), Sweden (nuclear power) and Germany (solar). It intends to store up its wind and solar energy to guarantee security of supply on less windy and cloudy days.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) praised Denmark's fast transition to renewable energy in a November report, saying the country had become a "world leader in decarbonisation" in two decades.

Scandinavia's southernmost nation, long dependent on energy imports, started to reduce its coal-fired plants in the late 1970s and invested heavily in wind power.

Denmark, which produces both oil and gas and was a net exporter of energy in the late 1990s, is now 90 percent self-sufficient.

 2018 AFP
SC orders probe into CJ Parajulis papers

The contempt of court case against Dr Govinda KC took a new turn on Wednesday with the Supreme Court (SC) decision to investigate the authenticity of citizenship document and education certificates of Chief Justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli.
Teaching with AR & VR

Making Virtual Reality a Reality in Today's Classrooms

The market for virtual reality applications is growing at a rapid pace, and is expected to double in the next five years (Bolkan, 2017). As the cost of equipment falls and schools have greater access to technology, there is great interest in virtual reality as an educational tool. A small but growing group of educators have started to integrate virtual reality in their classrooms, with promising results (Castaneda, Cechony & Bautista, 2017). We reached out to teachers and administrators who are currently using virtual reality in their classrooms to hear their perspectives and practical strategies for infusing this resource into their classrooms.

Teachers have creative ideas for how to incorporate immersive education in current classrooms: how to select activities, how to set up the classroom, how to get support during the activity and how to transport devices. Teachers also shared their ideas for future applications of VR, including how to deepen the learning experience and to expand the reach of these technologies to a greater population of students.

Here we share three vignettes of three different approaches: a social studies class in a suburban school district, a district-wide perspective from an urban school district and a class designed entirely around understanding and implementing VR for other classrooms. We also share how we are using these ideas to inform our own project in designing a collaborative immersive virtual reality educational game for introductory high school biology.

Exploring the World from Within the Classroom Walls

Part of learning about immigration in Melinda Lohan's high school classroom in Medfield, MA is a virtual visit to both Ellis Island and Angel Island. "Most of my students have been to Ellis Island, but most haven't been to Angel Island", Lohan explained, "They can see two entry points for immigration and how it has changed based on the current political climate."

Lohan has been using virtual field trips in her class for three years, after being introduced to the experiences during a digital learning day sponsored by the technology specialists in Medfield. Students use their own phones during the activity, and the school supplies the viewers. Initially, there was some turbulence. "The first time I tried it, it was totally a disaster. The WiFi didn't work, the students could not get set up.."Now she asks her students to download the field trip app to their phones on the first day of school as a homework assignment and asks the students to keep the application on their phone or accessible in the cloud for easy access. "The more you can set up in advance, the easier it will be."

Using a flipped classroom model, Lohan's students watch her lectures on YouTube and do their notes at home, which gives them time to focus on activities during class. She provides guiding questions to keep them focused on the learning objective but lets students choose how they watch the virtual reality field trips. "There is a lot of movement in the field trips and so they can get dizzy. I let them do what they want  stand, sit, lie down on the floor. I also have a screen so they can mirror a phone for the group in case the WiFi cuts out." Lohan's experience with virtual field trips is evident when she quickly adds, "I make sure to tell the students to turn off their notifications before they share their screen with anyone. Once I didn't tell the kids to turn off their notification, and a snapchat came up while we were looking at one student's phone. She was mortified. So, now I always remind them at the start of class." The school helpdesk, staffed by high school students, also provides support if the WiFi is variable or the devices are not working properly.

Lohan has found many ways to weave the field trips to her curriculum. Students virtually visit the Tenement Museum when they talk about Industrialization and visit the Normandy Beaches and the Holocaust Museum when they do their unit on World War II. The field trips turn social studies into an active learning experience, and her students are eager to try them out. Lohan is also strategic about how often she uses virtual field trips in her unit plans. "The kids love them. However, I think whenever you do something too frequently the students get immune to it. We don't go on a field trip every chapter. If you do it every single time then it's not as engaging."

Thinking ahead, Lohan would love to have students be able to make and test critical decisions in history. "I'd like them to be able to make decisions that could change history. To decide on whether or not you're going to have the draft or what you're factories are going to look like. I wish they had access not only to view but also to create. That's when they learn the most  not by looking at someone else's work, but by creating their own".

Coordinating Cross-District Logistics

An elementary student in Fitchburg MA views a virtual field trip during class.

For the last two years, Eileen Spinney and Chris Turner have helped teachers integrate virtual reality into their classrooms in Fitchburg, MA. Eileen is the district director of instructional/informational technology, and Chris is the district data/instruction/professional learning technologist. The experience of integrating virtual reality lessons in eight different schools ranging from elementary to high school has made them masters of logistics. "We have a pack of 30 phones and smaller packs of five phones that are district resources," Spinney explained. "We have kits and containers that Chris has designed, and they are pretty mobile." One challenge they have faced sharing the equipment across multiple classes is keeping the devices charged. To address this issue, Turner repurposed photography carrying cases into portable "tech tubs" complete with rapid charging cords so the devices can be charged easily and compactly in between classes. Spinney adds "We schedule times to charge the devices."

Before class, they set up the devices on a counter or table and get the screens lit up and on the school's WiFi network. Once the teacher's laptop is activated, they distribute the devices table by table. Different age ranges pose different challenges. In the middle and high school, teachers see multiple classes, so they can set up the equipment in one classroom. In the elementary school, the virtual reality equipment moves from class to class since classes are self-contained. Once the devices are transported, distributing 30 devices to eager elementary students can be a challenge, so volunteer parents and district Title I Parent Liaison Eva Kelly also help the teachers in class. Turner and Spinney have also created smaller sets of devices. FPS Assistant Superintendent Paula Giaquinto explained, "We've had most success with the smaller groups. We have about five to six students interacting with the VR where others are rotating through centers or other aligned, academic activities they are involved with."
Scores of GrabBike drivers in Ho Chi Minh City launched a strike on Wednesday to show their dissatisfaction with the higher commission ratio applied by the ride-hailing service from this year.

The on-strike drivers turned off their app and flocked to Grab Vietnams Ho Chi Minh City head office in District 10, but no agreement was reached between the company and its drivers.

One driver, Thanh, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that Grab Vietnam hiked the commission ratio, which it calls an app usage fee, from 20 percent to 23.6 percent on January 1.

GrabBike is the motorbike taxi service, locally known as xe om, owned and operated by Grab, which also offers taxi-like GrabCar and shipping service GrabExpress.

Like other ride-sharing apps, Grab splits the revenue earned from each ride with its drivers, who it refers to as partners.

The new app usage fee means GrabBike drivers will have to pay Grab Vietnam 23.6 percent of the fare for each ride he or she completes.

This is unreasonably high and we have decided to go on strike to show our protest against the new policy, Thanh told Tuoi Tre.

Hundreds of drivers gathered at the Sala urban area on Tran Nao Street in District 2 before heading to the District 10 office at 10:00 am.

Grab Vietnam representatives invited the angered drivers to a private meeting room, but those who returned from the talks said nothing was resolved.

The ride-sharing service told drivers that it will solve the problem on a case-by-case basis, and any further complaints will be addressed next week.

Of course, the drivers left the strike disappointed.

Higher fee to cover tax?

Grab Vietnam said it has had to elevate its commission ratio to fulfill personal income tax obligations for its partners.

Drivers are supposed to pay taxes on the 80 percent of revenue they receive from each ride. With a tax rate of 4.5 percent, this translates into 3.6 percent of the total fare.

This means that for every ride, a driver will now have 20 percent of the revenue deducted as payment for the app using fee, and an additional 3.6 percent for personal income tax coverage.

As part of its support policy, Grab Vietnam sometimes gives cash bonus or monetary support to drivers who have excellent performance or who work during rush or late-night hours.

The company said this support, based on driver revenue, is now subject to a one percent tax deduction, and other bonuses have a ten percent deductible.

This is a double whammy for drivers, as Grab has significantly reduced such support for us, a GrabBike driver named Nguyen Tuan told Tuoi Tre.

While the bonuses decreased, the share we have to pay Grab for each ride just rose, putting us in a hard place, he said.

If [Grab] refuses to reduce the commission ratio, we will switch to [working for] other apps.

Striking GrabBike drivers are seen in Ho Chi Minh City on January 10, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Grab Vietnam said the new policy does not mean all drivers will have to pay taxes.

The company said a driver will have to pay the tax if he makes more than VND100 million (US$4,405) a year, or VND8.3 million ($366) a month.

Grab Vietnam will now temporarily deduct the tax payment from drivers revenue beforehand.

By the end of every month, if drivers total earning, including revenue and bonuses, is below the VND8.3 million threshold, they will be refunded the temporarily deducted tax payment by the tenth day of the following month, according to the company.

If the drivers make more than that benchmark, the temporary deduction will become official tax payment.

The explanation does not please the drivers, who say it is unreasonable to mandate the upfront deduction.

The current ride fare is already dirt cheap and the higher commission ratio only puts more pressure on us drivers, Tuan said.

This is not to mention that Grab Vietnam continues to recruit new drivers, increasingly making the market more crowded.

For instance, it costs only VND33,000, or less than $1.5, to travel the 7km route from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Tan Binh District.

Tuan also revealed that drivers now have to pay VND400,000 ($17) to buy a GrabBike uniform, as well as a VND20,000 app maintenance fee, both of which used to be free.

We could not understand why Grab set the commission ratio too high, while we have to cover all expenses, from fuel and mobile data to bike maintenance and repairs, Tuan said.

There have been instances where conventional motorbike taxi drivers resorted to violence against GrabBike drivers.

Grab made its Vietnam debut in 2014, launching in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Since then, the Malaysia-based company has adjusted its registered capital five times, totaling VND20 billion as of March 2017, according to Vietnams finance ministry.

In 2014, Grab Vietnam logged losses of VND51.6 billion ($2.27 million).

The company managed to take that number to VND441.8 billion ($19.46 million) and VND444.7 billion ($19.59 million) in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

The finance ministry attributed the steep losses to massive marketing expenses and service prices set deliberately low to undercut conventional taxi operators.

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The announcement was made Wednesday by Beer Group board chairman Koh Poh Tiong at a launch ceremony for several new Sabeco product lines.

Tiongs vision for the company includes an objective to increase the brewers Vietnam market share from 40 percent to 50 percent.

The chairman added that reaching the goal will be aided by opening new export channels to Singapore and Thailand.

Thai Beverage (Thai Bev), through a local unit, won the rights to buy a majority stake worth US$4.84 billion in Vietnams top brewer Sabeco in an auction last year that marked the countrys biggest-ever privatization of a state-owned company.

Thai Bev emerged as the only buyer for the 54 percent stake in Sabeco through its subsidiary, Vietnam Beverage Co. Ltd., after global brewing groups opted to pass on the auction.

Vo Thanh Ha, board chairman of Sabeco, predicted at Wednesdays launch that Sabeco will be faced with many challenges in the short and long terms as competitors focus their efforts on carving out increased market shares in Vietnams mushrooming beer scene.

Sabeco sold a total of 1.75 billion liters of beer in 2017.

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Read what is in the news today, January 11:

Politics

-- Leaders of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and China agreed on Wednesday to reinforce security, trade and environmental cooperation as they met in the Cambodian capital of Phom Penh for the second Lancang Mekong Cooperation (MLC).

Society

-- The southern cities of Can Tho and Vung Tau will soon have their own book streets where readers can find their favorite books while attending regular cultural events, according to recent proposals by the local governments.

-- Six brand-new trains with a combined 90 carriages have been put to use by the Vietnam Railways Corporation at a cost of around VND957 billion (US$42.16 million) to improve railroad capacity during the upcoming travel season in February.

-- A fire that broke out at solar farm in south-central Khanh Hoa Province on Wednesday afternoon led to the complete destruction of 32,000 solar panels, with damages amounting to VND30 billion ($1.32 million).

-- The south-central province of Khanh Hoa will spend over $76 million bringing its 110kV power line underground in a South Korea-assisted project to improve the appeal of Nha Trang City, the provincial capital.

-- The administration of Ho Chi Minh City is mulling over a plan to allow a part of its sidewalks to be used for other purposes, such as parking and selling street food, to strike a balance between urban order and the actual need of its citizens.

-- The Bui Vien Walking Street in downtown Ho Chi Minh City might be expanded in both space and opening hours, according to a proposal by the administration of District 1 after it has taken into account the initial success of the pilot street.

-- An ammunition supply warehouse of a military brigade in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai exploded late Wednesday leading to a mass evacuation of local residents out of the danger zone, with no casualties reported so far.

Business

-- Koh Poh Tiong, board chairman of Thailands Beer Group, an indirect but wholly-owned unit of Thai Beverage that had gained control of Vietnams brewer Sabeco through an auction last year, has set his target for Sabeco to sell up to two billion liters of beer a year starting 2018.

-- Drivers contracted by ride-hailing service Grab in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday flocked to the headquarters of the company in District 10 to voice their objection to a recent raise in the percentage of their earnings that must be handed to the company, from 20 percent to 23.6 percent.

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How many more heart-breaking cases of child abuse make headlines in Vietnam before sufficient and efficient measures are in place to tackle the countrys chronic domestic problems?

With no plausible solutions in sight, the growing number of media stories detailing shocking cases of children being physically, sexually, and psychologically abused by parents, caretakers, teachers and people of acquaintance continues to pull at Vietnams heartstrings.

In early December 2017, Tran Hoai Nam, a Hanoi resident, was arrested by police for spending a year physically abusing his ten-year-old son, resulting in scaring and injuries across the young boys body.

An initial police investigation found that Nam regularly kicked his son in the ribs and beat the child with clothes hangers and spoons.

The father also admitted to beating his child though he chose to put the blame on the boys mischievous behavior.

As if the story was not already a disgusting tale of underreported domestic violence in the country, it only got worse when police discovered that the other adult responsible for the child, the boys stepmother, also took part in the beatings. She was not home at the time of Nams arrest.

Photos released showing the childs body peppered with wounds, scars, and fractured ribs sent a wave of anger through the public.

The boy lost 20kg after a year of continuous beatings at the hands of his father. Photo: Supplied

Yet this is not an isolated case.

Only one day after Nams arrest, police in Dong Anh, a district on the outskirts of Hanoi, told local media they were investigating a case involving another father abusing his nine-year-old son.

The father later told police that he only beat his son once, claiming the other wounds were just boils and abscesses.

Wounds spread across the nine-year-olds body. Photo: Supplied

The two cases wrapped up 2017, a year full of tear-jerking headlines exposing heinous acts carried out by those whom children are meant to depend upon, trust, and love.

Considering those two cases came hot on the heels of four equally shameful situations in November, it does not look as if the problem is set to subside.

The history of child abuse in Vietnam, particularly at daycares and kindergartens, in recent years is equally shocking.

A UNICEF report in 2014 showed that nearly 75 percent of children aged 2-14 in Vietnam have been violently abused by parents, caretakers, or other family members at least once.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs, more than 2,000 children in Vietnam are abused every year.

Data gathered by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper shows that over 1,000 children are raped and 100 are murdered annually.

Local lawmaker Dang Thi Phuong Thao believes that these statistics are only the tip of the ice berg, citing an uncountable number of cases that go unreported or unprosecuted due to a lack of evidence.

Children are at risk of being sexually, physically, and psychologically abused at home by family members, parents, and caretakers.

It is not uncommon to hear reports of drunken fathers violently beating their sons and daughters, or parents scolding their children with rude and offensive words, hampering their psychological development.

At school, children can fall victim to bullying by friends, or physical and sexual abuse by teachers or school guards.

In April 2016, a teacher at an elementary school in Sa Pa in northern Vietnam was taken into police custody for allegedly conducting lewd acts with a fifth grader at his school.

In December last year, police in the southern province of An Giang also launched legal proceedings against a P.E. teacher, who was denounced by parents as having sexually abused at least ten fourth and fifth graders at his school.

Earlier in October 2017, Lang Thanh Duan, a school guard in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak was prosecuted for raping five 11-year-old schoolgirls and one nine-year-old student between 2015 and 2017.

Dang Hoa Nam, head of the Children Department under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, says that the severity of child abuse cases in Vietnam is getting more and more complicated and worrying every year.

Children of all ages are being physically and sexually abused at home and school by different actors, most of whom, sadly, are family members, teachers, and friends, he said at an event in December.

In June 2014, after statistics that 75 percent of Vietnamese children are victims of child abuse were published, Hanoi-based Dan Viet (Vietnamese People) newspaper polled local parents and found out that most of them supported a spare the rod and spoil the child method of parenting.

The respondents believed that beating unruly children does not necessarily equate to violence.

The most common excuse given by many Vietnamese parents is, I have the right to beat my own child.

Nguyen Huy Tung, a Hanoi resident, told Dan Viet that he beats his son to educate him to behave better.

This is for his own sake and should never be called violence, he asserted.

Parents who make these excuses should be aware of the fact that abused children may suffer from mental health problems or prolonged psychological issues, according to doctor Nguyen Van Dung, deputy head of the mental health department at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi.

Victims of child abuse tend to become less confident, uncommunicative, and constantly anxious, the doctor said.

In the longer term, these symptoms may lead to negative consequences such as short-tempered, rude and violent characteristics.

Children who fall victim to or witness acts of physical abuse tend to grow up without a sense of mental well-being which may affect their behavior later in life.

There are studies showing that many criminals had a tough and lonely childhood during which they were physically abused or mistreated, Nguyen Cong Hieu, deputy director of a children service consulting center under the Children Department, said.

According to the Law on Children which took effect in June 2017, Vietnam now has as many as 17 entities tasked with protecting, caring for, and supporting children, from the Peoples Court and Peoples Procuracy at central and local levels to the lawmaking National Assembly, ministries, and various centers and organizations.

In December, the Committee for Children Protection was established, with Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam serving as chairman and top leaders within the ministerial ranks among its officials.

111 is the hotline for children protection in Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre

However, whenever a case of child abuse is brought to light by the public or the media, most of these entities respond solely by expressing anger rather than implementing practical solutions.

Nguyen Van Anh, director of the Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender, Family, Women and Adolescents, has called on responsible agencies to stop talking and start doing.

Its high time we stopped talking and started protecting children for real, she said.

Sharing her view, lawmaker Dang Thi Phuong Thao also called for real, practical action to be taken to end child abuse in Vietnam.

Abusing innocent children, who have no power to protect themselves, deserves to be condemned a thousand times more than other victims as it makes a lifelong impact on them, she said.

Several solutions have been proposed in the wake of a series of child maltreatment cases in late 2017, but whether or not they work remains to be seen.

Tran Ngoc Long, headmaster of a high school in the southern province of Dong Nai, proposed at a meeting held by the education ministry on December 12 that Vietnam should make all kindergartens tuition-free to curb the problem.

Long said many recently reported cases of child abuse occurred at privately-run daycares or schools, so free-of-charge public schools could potentially keep children safer.

On December 17, the administration of Binh Hung Hoa Ward in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City held a dialogue on child maltreatment, attracting more than 400 teachers, daycare owners and workers, and staff from three public schools, 11 private institutions, and 53 daycares in the locale.

The event sought to raise awareness of child abuse and solicit solutions to stop the phenomenon from insiders.

The Ho Chi Minh City education department has advised the municipal administration to encourage local kindergartens to install CCTV cameras to give parents better oversight of their children.

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Grab and Uber will now be prohibited from using 13 streets in Hanoi during certain times of day, as part of the citys efforts to reduce rush hour congestion.

The municipal Department of Transport has posted signs prohibiting cars with less than nine seats and operating as paid passenger transport vehicles from 13 routes during the morning commute from 6:00 am to 9:00 am and the evening commute from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

Rideshare vehicles, such as Grab and Uber, are expected to be hit hardest by the ban.

The 13 affected streets include Hoang Hoa Tham, Mai Xuan Thuong, Giang Vo, Lang Ha, Le Van Luong, Truong Chinh, Kham Thien, Hang Bai, Phu Doan, Cau Giay, Xuan Thuy, Giai Phong, and the Chuong Duong Bridge traveling toward the city center.

It is indeed difficult for competent authorities to identify when cars are being operated under transport contracts, Vu Van Vien, director of the Hanoi transport department, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

A recent draft decree by the Ministry of Transport stated that cars from Grab and Uber must display company logos on their front and back windows.

These logos can be used to help traffic police officers tell the difference, Vien stated.

If drivers intentionally remove a logo to drive on prohibited streets, they will be fined for both violations, the official continued.

The prohibition reflects local authorities determination in alleviating traffic congestion during rush hour, he elaborated.

The ban is not permanent, Vien added, stating that it will be removed from routes where gridlock is reduced and applied to streets where congestion is exacerbated.

A similar ban was imposed last August on taxis in the capital in order to minimize rush hour congestion.

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The explosions started around 10:00 pm at an ammunition warehouse belonging of Armored Tank Brigade 273, stationed in Kdang Commune, Dak Doa District in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, a local resident living more than two kilometers from the explosions, said she was preparing for bed when a series of violent bangs shook her house like an earthquake.

When I got outside, I saw a large column of black and red smoke rising from the military base, Nga recalled.

I grabbed what I could, put my kid on the motorbike, and drove as far as possible to escape the explosions. They lasted for at least 40 minutes. I felt as if the glass inside my house would shatter, she said.

Three fire trucks were deployed to the incident but were unable to move within a kilometer of the facility due to safety reasons.

Traffic police officers block an access road leading to the site of the explosions at a military ammunition warehouse in Gia Lai Province. Photo: Tuoi Tre

By 1:00 am on Thursday, a perimeter had been set around the warehouse to prevent onlookers from getting too close to the danger zone, according to Colonel Le Xuan Hoa, commander of Gia Lai Provinces Military Command.

Authorities have evacuated local residents and soldiers stationed at nearby bases, Hoa said.

Le Viet Tham, chairman of Dak Doa District, said at 12:30 am on Thursday that a report of the damage will not be made available until all evacuation and firefighting efforts have been completed.

No casualties had been reported by 3:40 am the same day.

Ama Rinh, a local living approximately five kilometers from the explosions, said local villagers ran for their lives upon hearing the blasts and waited nearly an hour after the commotion died down before returning home.

It was a frightening experience, but everyone I know is unharmed, Rinh said.

Authorities evacuate local residents living close to the explosions at a military ammunition warehouse in Gia Lai Province. Clip: Tuoi Tre

Authorities evacuate local residents living close to the explosions at a military ammunition warehouse in Gia Lai Province. Clip: Tuoi Tre

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Six convicted in MBBS question paper leakage case

The Special Court on Thursday convicted six people on charge of leaking question paper of MBBS entrance examination conducted two years ago in Goldengate College, Kathmandu.
Anybody would think Tom Ballard has found his TV calling.

After a string of dalliances with Can of Worms, Agony, Q&A, The Project, Reality Check and First Contact, he finally has his own comedy vehicle Tonightly with Tom Ballard.

When it launched in early December, Ballard came bursting out of the gates, with so much bravado I wondered if it could be sustained. Given the ABC Comedy show is briefed with tackling daily news I decided to wait before reviewing. Its still early days, but boy the signs are encouraging.

The young Ballard is in his element as the snarky, Gen Y host of this 30 minute takedown. Half the show is his opening monologue, a limitless whiteboard of topics, delivered with various degrees of anger, cynicism, puzzlement, shouting and social observation.

This week he has tackled African gang violence, Japans Suicide Forest, Home Ownership, Centrelink, Oprah for President, Smashed Avocados and The Ghan. In fact he wished he had the ratings for The Ghan instead of the 70,000 or so he is attracting. Understandable.

I dont know why Im talking to this, nobodys watching, he joked at one point.

This week he has had to comment on the Craig McLachlan allegations, cleverly done by inserting Ballards own face into a Doctor Blake Mysteries scene, with all the editing speed of Christopher Plummer replacing Kevin Spacey.

Channel Seven I am available. reshoot everything that has Craig in it and put me in there!

There are plenty of news shots and clips of reactionary media thanks to the Daily Mail, Nine News Now and more. Ballard knows he only has to run these and stand back with a raised eyebrow for desired effect. Out of context, they do the humour all on their own.

Bravely using dramatic pauses, Ballards delivery is straight out of Late Night 101, nicely balancing an intimacy with the home viewer, but playing to an obviously tiny studio crowd. He also only draws upon his sexuality honestly, such as a coy nod to Chris Hemsworth, which neither highlights, nor avoids.

That leaves the rest of the show for desk-bound chats with his select contributors and to throw to pre-recorded stuff. Things are less-even from this point with Bridie Connells segments sometimes too long, but Greg Larsen hitting some bulls eye targets.

Larsens interview with Mark Latham about his campaign to Save Australia Day was so dipped in irony I couldnt tell if Latham was in on the gag or not. It didnt matter. I was laughing at Latham on the ABC whilst hearing his negative whines about the leftist-ABC he was appearing on. And Larsen was agreeing.

Greta Lee Jackson also weighs in with sketch material to added effect. Ballard also ran an interview with UK comedian Jimmy Carr which probably offended. You get the feeling he wants to offend you at least once a week.

If I have any early criticism, it is the prolific F-bombs dropped throughout the show. Not because I am offended by them, but because they distract. Yes I get that its cool to swear on ABC because you can, but language is better used for dramatic effect. If the audience is just waiting for the next one to drop, there is a risk we miss whats being said in between.

Where other daily comedy shows have had mixed success, Tonightly is delivering. Much of this is due to its confident host.

As is the nature of such territory, I hope it gets enough shows under its belt before the first outrage threatens to derail it.

Tonightly with Tom Ballard airs 9pm weeknights on ABC Comedy.
British network UKTV has picked up Doctor Doctor starring Rodger Corser.

Known as The Heart Guy, it will begin airing on UKTV channel Drama in April. It has previously sold to Sky Deutschland for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The series, produced by FremantleMedia owned Easy Tiger, is back for a third season on Nine this year.

It joins other titles on the network such as historical drama The White Princess and medical drama Mercy Street.

Source: C21
Sumargi firms laundered Rs9b into Nepal: Govt report

Controversial businessman Ajeya Raj Sumargi and firms affiliated to him have brought around Rs9 billion illegally to Nepal through suspicious companies based in tax havens, signalling involvement in shady business deals.
Hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer AFC Energy shares rocketed after the company unveiled its new brand identity to mark its transformation from a research and development-focused technology outfit and into a commercial company providing large-scale industrial applications.

The company's share price had more than doubled since mid-June when it announced the receipt of a 2.052m net cash payment from the European Union's Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking as a part of the POWER-UP programme.

AFC Energy was focused on large-scale stationary alkaline fuel-cell applications, such as that recently demonstrated at Air Products' industrial gas plant in Stade, Germany, which in turn accepts hydrogen from Dow Chemical.

Surrey-based AFC had also signed MoUs in three of its key regions, including the Middle East (Dubai), South-East Asia (Thailand) and northeast Asia (South Korea), according to the company.

Included in its new brand identity were a new logo and website, with the latter having been launched on the same day of the announcement.

As if 15:16 BST shares in AFC were 22.50% higher to 24.50p giving the firm a market capitalisation of 74.24m.
Initial tests of the project confirmed a potential source of natural pozzolan for use in cement and concrete mixtures. The company said further mineralogical and process tests are underway.

Meanwhile, EP Minerals, LLC has been granted a permit for a programme of drilling and trenching on the Country Line Diatomite Project. Sunrise will be entitled to receive an initial payment of $450,000 if EP Minerals wishes to continue its lease on the project after 2 June 2017.

Chairman Patrick Cheetham said: "We are pleased to be reporting positive progress at our Pozz Ash Project, and to see an active work programme being undertaken by EP Minerals at the County Line Diatomite Project where we look forward to the prospect of advance royalty income from the middle of next year, should their results justify continuation of the lease agreement."

Shares fell 3.41% to 0.213p at 1517 BST.
UML chair: Deuba govt trying to prolong tenure

CPN-UML Chairperson KP Sharma Oli has left for Thailand on Wednesday for a follow-up on his medical treatment.
These were the movements in some of the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:

Longer-term Gilts showed exemplary stability on Wednesday despite a another day characterised by outsized volatility in the US Treasury market.

The US Treasury market was rocked early in the session by a Bloomberg report according to which officials in Beijing had recommended that the government slow or stop buying US sovereign debt, due to its falling appeal versus other investments and trade frictions between the two nations.

That saw the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note jump to 2.60%, which was just three basis points shy of its 2017 highs.

On Tuesday, US 10-year yields jumped by seven basis points to 2.55% as the Bank of Japan surprised many observers by paring back the size of its quantitative easing programme.

In the background, Janus Henderson Group strategist Bill Gross took to his Twitter feed to call an end to the 'bull' market in Treasuries, pointing out how five and 10-year US Treasuries had broken through 25-year trend lines, although he would later tell Bloomberg he only expected a "mild" bear market.

However, some analysts, like those at Capital Economics, brushed off the impact of the Bloomberg report.

China had in fact not been buying US debt for the better part of the last few years, they said.

Furthermore, due to its crawling -peg versus the Greenback, they in fact had little choice when it came to the composition of their country's FX reserves.
Bookmakers say Britain would reverse 2016 vote to leave

Former UKIP leader and Brexit architect Nigel Farage called for a second referendum on EU membership on Thursday, claiming Britain would repeat its decision to leave.

Farage, marginalised after 2016's referendum, has recently intensified efforts to rally support for a no-deal Brexit as Britain's negotiators flounder with just over a year to go before the UK leaves the bloc.

He took a swipe at the trio of anti-Brexiters, former Labour prime minister Tony Blair, Labour minister Andrew Adonis and the ex-Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, accusing them of whinging and whining.

My mind is actually changing on all this. What is for certain is that the Cleggs, the Blairs, the Adonises will never, ever, ever give up, Farage told British TV.

So maybe, just maybe, Im reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum on EU membership  unless you want to have a multiple choice referendum, which would confuse people. I think that if we had a second referendum on EU membership we would kill it off for a generation."

The percentage that would vote to leave next time would be very much bigger than it was last time round. And we may just finish the whole thing off. And Blair can disappear off into total obscurity.

Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said there would be no second referendum.

Bookmakers suggested Farage's latest attempt to put himself back in the spotlight might backfire spectacularly.

Paddy Power said the UK was 4/7 odds-on to vote remain if the Brexit re-vote takes place. The bookie was offering 11/8 on another 'leave' decision.

It also cut odds of a second EU referendum to 5/1 from 10/1.

Nigel Farage has opened a big old can of worms with this one  but no bigger than the Brexit multipack he cracked open for the UK. His suggestion of a second EU Referendum is only going to increase the pressure on Theresa May to green light a re-vote. If she did, we think the UK would change its mind, a Paddy Power spokesman said.

Ladbrokes said a second vote was "unlikely". It was offering 5/1 on a the chance the nation would go to the polls again before the end of 2019.

"At 11/8 it is more likely that no deal will have been agreed before 1 April, 2019," Ladbrokes said.

It was also offering 7/2 for the UK to be a full member of EU on 1 Jan, 2020.
Bitcoin's value dived 13.5% on Thursday after South Korean officials revealed the nation was planning to ban trading of the cryptocurrency.

News of the ban came shortly after authorities raided several cryptocurrency exchanges over allegations of tax evasions, as South Korea, one of Bitcoin's biggest and earliest adopters, attempted to crackdown on the use of the coin.

"There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and [the] justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges," justice minister Park Sang-ki said.

Bitcoin fell from $14,890 at 0000 GMT on Thursday to $13,745 as of 1400 GMT.

Once a bill had been drafted, legislation for an outright ban of all virtual coin trading within South Korea would then require a majority vote from the 297 members of the National Assembly, something that could take months or even years.

Neil Wilson, a senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said, "South Korea's curveball has blown Bitcoin back down, with BTC slumping as much as 14% before paring losses. Such swings are fairly commonplace, however, so its worth looking at whether this move by the South Korean government is simply another minor road bump to be sped over, or is something far more serious for the crypto boom."

"In short, the world's third-largest crypto market plans to ban all trading in Bitcoin etc. Weve seen South Korea get more nervous about the amount of speculation but this 'nuclear option' was a little surprising, particularly as there were reports this week that South Korea was seeking to work with Japan and China on crypto trading rules," he added.
Canada has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against the US, claiming it has broken international trade rules.

The complaint challenges the US governments use of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties as well as how it investigates products for subsidies and below-cost sales.

The complaint has been filed just days ahead of a crucial round of talks over US efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Canada has cited almost 200 examples of alleged US wrongdoing that date back to 1996, with most of them concerning other countries such as China, India, Brazil and the European Union.

The 32-paged complaint included US treatment of export controls, use of retroactive duties and biased decisions by the US International Trade Commission.

Canadas complaint mainly targets a process deployed frequently by the US under the Trump administration, which has embraced protectionist measures regarding trade.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the complaint was in response to the "unfair and unwarranted" US duties against Canada's softwood lumber producers and it aims to defend forestry jobs.

"We continue to engage our American counterparts to encourage them to come to a durable negotiated agreement on softwood lumber," Freeland said in an emailed statement.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, called Canada's WTO filing "a broad and ill-advised attack on the US trade remedies system."

He said: "Canada's claims are unfounded and could only lower US confidence that Canada is committed to mutually beneficial trade."

He said that the complaint would primarily benefit other countries and not Canada. He argues that it could result in damages to the Canadian trade.

"The flood of imports from China and other countries would negatively impact billions of dollars in Canadian exports to the United States, including nearly $9bn in exports of steel and aluminum products and more than $2.5bn in exports of wood and paper products," he said.

The US will have to try and settle the complaint in 60 days and if its not resolved in that time it is subject to adjudication by a WTO panel. US Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross is confident the US will win the adjudication.

"These cases were conducted in an open and transparent manner in accordance with the applicable laws, regulations, and administrative practices to ensure a full and fair review of the facts," he said.
International students spending supports local UK economies with an average of 102,000 per student, new research has found.

The Higher Education Policy Institute carried out a study into the 231,065 international students that began their studies in the UK in 2015/16.

A total benefit to the UK amounted to an average EU student contributing approximately 87,000 to the UK, with an average total benefit from a non-EU student of 102,000.

This means that for every 15 EU students and 11 non-EU students 1m worth of net economic impact is generated for the UK economy, the report said.

The UK greatly benefits from the overseas students since the costs created by them are minimal compared to the money they are spending in the country.

An average EU-domiciled student requires 19,000 from the government and the non-EU average student needs approximately 7,000. In total, the 231,065 students cost the UK 2.3bn.

The main country of origin of foreign students is China, with 62,105 first-year students entering higher education in the UK in 2015/16. The next two countries with more students arriving to the UK are the United States (10.545) and India (9.095).

The institute argued that the UK should have a different more positive approach to students from overseas and have special immigration policies applied to them.

International students bring economic benefits to the UK that are worth ten times the costs of hosting them," Nick Hillman, director of HEPI said.

Trying to persuade the Home Office that international students nearly always benefit the UK can feel like banging ones head against a brick wall.

We now implore ministers and civil servants as well as the Migration Advisory Committee to take this new evidence with the seriousness that it merits.
FTSE 250 recruiter Hays posted a jump in second-quarter net fees on Thursday on the back of growth in its international businesses.

In an update for the quarter ended 31 December, the company said net fees rose 13% overall on a like-for-like basis, with the international businesses, which now represent around 76% of group net fees, contributing the most.

In Asia Pacific, net fees increased 16% on a LFL basis, while Continental Europe & Rest of World saw a 17% rise.

It was a very different story in the UK & Ireland, however, where net fees nudged up just 1%. The private sector business in the UK & Ireland grew 4%, while public sector markets remained tough, with net fees down 8%.

Overall group consultant headcount was up 3% in the quarter and up 13% year-on-year.

Chief executive Alistair Cox said: We have delivered another strong quarter of broad-based growth with net fees up 13% and 24 of our 33 countries delivering double-digit growth. Performance in Continental Europe was excellent, led by Germany, our largest business, which grew by 19% and where we continued to materially invest in consultant headcount. Australia delivered another strong, market-leading performance and in Asia we delivered excellent growth. In the UK our business remained stable overall.

Whilst activity levels at the start of the New Year will be an important driver of the group's second half performance, we continue to see strong trading conditions in the vast majority of our international markets. Our diverse and balanced global business, together with our highly experienced management teams and our strong balance sheet means we are well-positioned to capitalise on the many clear growth opportunities we currently see in most of our markets, while maximising earnings and cash along the way.

At 0803 GMT, the shares were up 1.2% to 190.60p.
Over the 13 weeks to 30 December, M&S food LFL sales fell 0.4% in what the group blamed on the "ongoing trading pressures continued in the lead up to Christmas as consumer spending and choices reflected tighter budgets", though other supermarket groups seemed to do much better.

Clothing and home sales fell 2.8% on a LFL basis as chief executive Steve Rowe held off from discounting in the "very promotional" market and did not participate in Black Friday, which saw revenue grow both in-store and online over the weeks leading up to Christmas.

However, the impact of an "unseasonal October" resulted in an overall revenue general merchandise decline and meant more stock was carried into the December sale.

Group sales of 3.17bn were down 0.1%, as online sales grew 3.0% to 309m but international tumbled 9.8% also to 309m.

Full year profit guidance from management remained unchanged, however, with Rowe having already lowered the market's sights in November's interim results. This time he said: "M&S had a mixed quarter with better Christmas trading in both businesses going some way to offset a weak clothing market in October and ongoing underperformance in our food like-for-like sales."

For the full year, the group is forecast to deliver profit before tax of 579.6m and earnings per share of 27.84p, according to a consensus of analysts collated by Factset.

Steve Rowe says food business suffered weakness in areas where there wasnt an M&S plus - e.g. more commodity items like Brussels sprouts  Ashley Armstrong (@AArmstrong_says) January 11, 2018

This isnt just any retail decline, this is an M&S one," quipped Neil Wilson, analyst at ETX Capital, adding that "there could be serious question marks over Steve Rowes turnaround strategy".

Consensus was actually for a slighter worse set of results so he suggested shares could creep higher on Thursday with plenty of the shares being shorted by hedge funds.

"Nevertheless there is no repackaging these figures as anything short of very disappointing," Wilson said, with food a concern after being an "easy win" for years.

"Other grocers registered solid increases and crucially may be eating into M&Ss premium niche  we have seen strong performances for Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tescos premium ranges. And Waitrose  probably its closest apples-to-apples rival in food  saw LFL sales +1.5%."
Exploration and production company Premier Oil saw production increase 5% last year after first oil from its Catcher area field development in the North Sea began on schedule and under budget.

Premier raised group production to 75,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the calendar year at an average operational expenditure of $16.50 per barrel.

With Catcher production planned to ramp up to a peak gross production of 60,000 boepd during the first half of the current trading year, Premier issued its 2018 production guidance to be roughly 80,000-85,000 boepd across the whole group.

Premier reported progress on its next generation of growth projects such as BIGP, Tolmount, Sea Lion and Tuna, as well as making a "world class" oil discovery off the coast of Mexico in Zama.

The London-based firm reported an estimated total capex of $305m, below its revised guidance of $325m.

After completing a comprehensive refinancing programme, Premier had dropped net debt down to $2.7bn at the end of the calendar year and held a positive free cash flow, thanks in part to its successful disposal programme, which included offloading its Wytch Farm interests to Perenco, generating more than $200m of cash receipts throughout the year.

Tony Durrant, chief executive, said, "First oil from Catcher and the completion of the Wytch Farm disposal completed a highly successful year for Premier which included our world-class exploration success with the Zama discovery."

"As Catcher builds up to 60,000 boepd, 2018 will bring higher production and cash flow, continuing the debt reduction programme. Alongside this, our portfolio of future projects is being progressed for selective investment and further growth," he added.

As of 0840 GMT, Premier shares had dropped 4.19% to 94.37p, having more than doubled in the past six months.
As a generation of baby boomers near retirement, aging issues and planning to care for a growing number of seniors involves a number of academic disciplines. To that end, the University of North Georgia (UNG) recently approved the founding of the Center for Healthy Aging to be established on UNGs Gainesville Campus.

The mission of the UNG Center for Healthy Aging is to provide a community-based organization that will provide quality education and services to older adults in the north Georgia region. The center will foster the development of UNG students and faculty by encouraging scholarly inquiry and service through mentorship and partnership with aging adults in the north Georgia community.

The center's goals are to promote wellness and disease prevention through active research and intervention in older adults; promote leadership through partnerships and mentorships between UNG students and faculty and older adult community leaders; foster an environment of healthy aging through service and research with community partners serving the older adult community; and influence healthy aging through innovative programs and research that address the physical, social, psychological, environmental, and spiritual needs of the target population.

"I am excited about the synergy that will be created by having an interdisciplinary center that brings together our academic programs from several colleges and our community partners for a holistic approach to healthy aging," said Dr. Chaudron Gille, vice provost of Academic Affairs at UNG.

Two of UNG's core values are engagement and service and the UNG Center for Healthy Aging will serve as a direct reflection of those as well as a commitment to improving the lives of community members.

Several years ago, UNG went through an academic strategic planning process, which identified services and programs for older adults as an area of growth and opportunity. The Center of Healthy Aging builds upon successful programs in nursing, physical therapy, human services and delivery administration, and kinesiology as well as the universitys strong network of community partnerships.

"This center further underscores the commitment of UNG to serving the people in its entire 30 county service area, including Lumpkin County, and provides the opportunity for faculty and students to engage in community service involving seniors," said Dr. Teresa Conner-Kerr, dean of UNGs College of Health Sciences and Professions.

Once the center's funding is secured, a director and administrative assistant will be hired and each of the UNG colleges working interprofessionally (College of Arts and Letters, College of Education and College of Health Sciences and Professions) will have a representative working with the center director.

During its first year, the Center for Healthy Aging's main focus will be to develop a strategic plan that aligns with UNG's mission, including a community assessment in the areas where UNG has a campus. It is the goal of the center to address the unique needs of senior adults in each of the communities by offering programs and services that promote healthy aging.
People tend to dread public speaking even more than they fear dying, according to a study finding that inspired comedian Jerry Seinfeld to quip, This means, to the average person, if you go to a funeral, youre better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

Virginia Tech community members will have the opportunity to try to overcome at least one of those fears during the spring semester, when the Center for Communicating Science will offer a series of free workshops intended to help faculty, students, and staff sharpen their skills in connecting with a range of audiences.

One of the workshop leaders, Gregory Justice, an associate professor in the School of Performing Arts, will teach methods for overcoming stage fright. His techniques include standing on the balls of the feet while talking, maintaining a high level of vocal energy to the end of each sentence, and doing relaxation exercises, as a tense throat can restrict oxygen to the brain, leading to the loss of a train of thought.

Were thrilled to be able to offer workshops with a great group of experts on an array of topics that help people not only communicate science, but also connect across differences, said Patricia Raun, director of the Center for Communicating Science.

Raun, who is also a theater professor in the School of Performing Arts, will join Carrie Kroehler, the centers associate director, in leading a workshop that uses improvisation games and exercises to help participants forge connections and communicate ideas. In addition, Kroehler will teach a seminar on creating science stories for children.

Several of the centers faculty fellows will lead workshops as well. Elizabeth Allen will demonstrate techniques for turning data into storytelling; Meaghan Dee, who is also chair of visual communication design in the School of Visual Arts, will offer tips on communicating through graphic design; Anne Hilborn will explore social media platforms as science communication tools; and Cassandra Hockman will teach workshops on crafting media releases, responding to reporters, and writing for general audiences.

One of the goals of the workshop series is to build community, said Kroehler. We want to bring together people who are skilled at or enthusiastic about communicating science  or both!

Registration is now open for the individual workshops, which will take place beginning Jan. 17 in Newman Library or the Graduate Life Center on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. Please note that each session has limited slots available.

The Center for Communicating Science is supported by the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment; the Graduate School; the School of Performing Arts; and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Founded just under a year ago, the center has already held two Nutshell Games, a competition for graduate student researchers; hosted German Fulbright Fellows in collaboration with the Cranwell International Center; and conducted dozens of workshops both on and off campus.

In everything we do, Raun said, we hope were helping people learn to be more personal, direct, spontaneous, and responsive in communicating.

Related Links:

New center focuses on the art of communicating science effectively

Commanding attention
Phantom Thread is a perfect film, but that doesnt make it a good movie. Satisfying moviegoing experiences all depend on what you want: absolute technical mastery of every punctilious detail of filmmaking and, in this case, a gorgeous British period setting to make Merchant-Ivory fans swoon? Or a spellbinding story with characters you care for and about, even if theyre appalling people?

These characters are tantalizingly intriguing, which makes it all the more exasperating that director Paul Thomas Anderson is so stingy about plot and character exploration. In his last role ever, the mad Method actor Daniel Day-Lewis (who is inexplicably retiring from film at age 60) plays Reynolds Woodcock, designer of exquisite clothes for rich women in 1950s London. He lives for his work in a sumptuous townhouse thats a character in itself, full of genius seamstresses executing his artistic visions (and the actors are all real seamstresses, some of them experts from the Victoria and Albert Museum). As he glides down voluptuously curvy stairways to plunge into the agony and the ecstasy of creation, the camera's swoop is as butter-smooth as the polished handrails.

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His partner and business manager is his sister, Cyril (Lesley Manville, who steals every scene from Day-Lewis and is enjoying a career upsurge at 61). Her character is inspired by Judith Andersons Mrs. Danvers in Alfred Hitchcocks Rebecca, whos creepily close to her employer Laurence Olivier and cruel to his new squeeze Joan Fontaine. But Cyril isnt simply crazy like Mrs. Danvers. Shes a rationalist, looking after Reynolds affairs, including the awkward matter of getting rid of a girl once she peeves Reynolds by demanding a relationship of him (or asking anything at all, or buttering her toast too loudly). Cyril pays the girls off with a Reynolds Woodcock dress as she ushers them out of the claustrophobic townhouse were all trapped in.

Then in comes somebody who shakes things up. Reynolds next girl is Alma (Vicky Krieps), no wilting Joan Fontaine but a young waitress from Luxembourg orphaned and exiled by World War II. Cyril is skeptical, protective of her brother, who bonded with her during their neglected childhoods. (Manville and Day-Lewis invented this backstory for themselves during filming, making their characters less thin.)

But Alma  whose name is an allusion to Hitchcocks wife and constant collaborator  eventually impresses Cyril by sometimes standing up to Reynolds outrageous demands. Alma loves being his model and lover (we guess; there are no romance scenes ), but pushes him for a normal relationship more willfully than previous girls. She poisons him mildly, to make him dependent on her. Manville says Reynolds knows shes poisoning him, and rather enjoys being babied. He gets better fast, and their relationship heats up. If this were a normal movie, this would be a spoiler, but courtship by poisoning is no big deal and has scant consequence. Its just another odd thing people take in stride in the House of Woodcock.
An individual 401(k) account is often a workers primary retirement savings vehicle, especially given that many companies have shut down or frozen their traditional defined benefit pension plans. Employees can contribute up to $18,500 a year in 2018 into their companys 401(k) plan, while those 50 and older can put in up to $24,500 a year. These investments grow tax-free until they are withdrawn, and employers typically match a percentage, essentially providing workers free money.

But many employees dont take full advantage of company-sponsored 401(k) plans or the matches and the amount people save often isnt large enough for them to retire comfortably.

An October 2017 study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that only about half of households have 401(k) or Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). Among adults 55 to 64 who have these accounts, the average balance was just $135,000 in 2016.

So adding to a workers retirement savings is considered a smart move. Its nice to see this happening, says Center for Retirement Research director Alicia Munnell, who suggests that companies should provide even more post-tax reform profits to employees. Anything that can be done to increase retirement savings rates is obviously good for workers, she says.

Gregg Levinson, a senior retirement consultant with benefits advisor Willis Towers Watson, doubts many companies will provide employees similar post-tax reform retirement gifts.



Its a lot more expensive proposition than a one-time bonus, but will provide employers with quite a bit of goodwill." Levinson says. When you increase a match, it also becomes an entitlement. If theres a financial crisis or the economy sours, they may have to pull back on contributions.

Here are a few large employers that have announced sweetened 401(k) plans.

Visa. The credit card company currently matches 200 percent of an employees 401(k) contribution  up to 3 percent of the workers pay. In March, Visa will increase the match to up to 5 percent. Company spokeswoman Amanda Pires says the higher match addresses the critical importance of building a retirement nest egg.

Aflac. The insurer is doubling its 401(k) match from 50 percent to 100 percent on up to 4 percent of an employees salary. Its also making a one-time, $500 payment to workers retirement accounts.

SunTrust Banks. The Atlanta-based financial services company will make a one-time, 1 percent additional contribution to employee 401(k) accounts. The March 15 payment is based on 2017 salary and incentive pay. If they dont have a 401(k) account, well set one up for them, says spokeswoman Sue Mallino. The banks current dollar-for-dollar contributions match on up to 6 percent of pay remains unchanged.

Western Alliance Bancorporation. The Phoenix-based bank operator and financial services provider will increase its 50 percent 401(k) match to 75 percent on up to 6 percent of salary.

Nationwide. The Ohio-based insurer is increasing its 50 percent match on the first 6 percent of employee contributions to 50 percent on the first 7 percent of employee contributions.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump threw his weight behind the Olympics-inspired diplomatic opening with North Korea, telling South Koreas leader Wednesday that the U.S. was open to talks with Kim Jong Uns government under the right circumstances.

A White House statement said Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in still agreed on the importance of continuing the maximum pressure campaign against North Korea over its development of nuclear weapons  the U.S.-led barrage of international sanctions that is starting to bite the Norths meager economy.

But South Koreas presidential office also said Trump told Moon to let North Korea understand that there will be no military action of any kind while the two Koreas continue to hold dialogue, the Yonhap news agency reported. On Tuesday, the two Koreas held their first talks in two years and agreed on the Norths participation in the Winter Olympics being held in the South next month.

The prospects of resolving decades-old tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula remain deeply uncertain. North Korea has shown no willingness to discuss its nuclear weapons which pose an emerging threat to the American mainland, and it has stuck to its tough stance toward Washington while it tries to woo the South. The newspaper of the ruling party on Tuesday called Trump a lunatic and said the U.S. needs to accept North Korea is now a nuclear power.

But the thaw between North and South, which have also restored a military hotline, provides a diplomatic opening after months of escalating tensions that have fueled fears of war.

President Trump expressed his openness to holding talks between the United States and North Korea at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances, the White House statement said.

Trump also told Moon that Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence will lead the U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics, scheduled for Feb. 9-25 in Pyeongchang. Pence will stop in Alaska to review intercontinental ballistic missile defense systems and in Japan, stressing the U.S. commitment to stability in the region.

Speaking later Wednesday, Trump claimed his administrations pressure campaign had prompted the North Koreans to negotiate with the South, and recounted Moon as telling him the initial meeting was extremely good. He voiced cautious hopes for diplomatic success that would benefit not just the United States but the wider world. He played down fears of war.

We have certainly problems with North Korea, Trump said at a news conference. A lot of good talks are going on right now. A lot of good energy. I see a lot of good energy. I like it very much what Im seeing  hopefully a lot of good things are going to work out.

Moon has been supportive of the pressure campaign but has long advocated engagement with Pyongyang. He told reporters in Seoul Wednesday that hes open to meeting with Kim to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff, although he said the success of such a summit must be guaranteed before the meeting can be realized.

Trump has previously scoffed at the futility of talking with the North, but when the inter-Korean dialogue was proposed last week he claimed credit and declared in a tweet, talks are a good thing. The White House said Moon had briefed Trump on the outcomes of the North-South talks on Tuesday, and thanked President Trump for his influential leadership in making the talks possible.

A National Security Council spokesman, who was not authorized to be quoted by name and requested anonymity, said Trump assured Moon that press reports suggesting the U.S. was considering imminent, unilateral military actions against North Korea were false. Yonhap reported that Moons chief press secretary, Yoon Young-chan, said Trump also offered assurance that military force would not happen while the two Koreas continue to talk.

The U.S. retains 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the adversaries in a state of war for the past six decades.

The prospect of military confrontation has been magnified in the past year as Trump and Kim have traded bellicose rhetoric and crude insults, as the North has conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation and three tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles that now put the U.S. mainland in North Koreas range.

Resorting to force is widely viewed as very risky. A pre-emptive U.S. attack could provoke a devastating retaliation by North Korea against the South, whose capital Seoul lies with the range of North Korean artillery and rockets.
U.S. Supreme Court justices suggested they may give states broader latitude to purge their voting databases of people who might have moved, as the court heard arguments Wednesday in an Ohio case that could shape who gets to cast ballots in the November election.

Justice Stephen Breyer hinted he might join his more conservative colleagues in voting to uphold an Ohio system that uses non-voting as a factor in deciding which people to remove from the rolls. Breyer questioned whether states have enough other tools to purge people who have moved away or died in far-away places.

What are they supposed to do? he asked. Is Rhode Island supposed to look at the Tasmanian voting records or hospital records?

Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the courts swing vote, said states are aiming to protect the voter roll from people that have moved. Two other Republican appointees, Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, asked no questions during the hour-long session, leaving some uncertainty about the ultimate outcome.

The case has become a proxy for the highly partisan fight over the countrys election rules. Republicans are calling for stepped-up efforts to prevent voter fraud, while Democrats say those moves are a thinly veiled campaign to stop liberals and minorities from casting ballots.

Nineteen states use voter inactivity in the process of purging their databases, though only a handful make non-voting as central as Ohio does. Rules in Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania are among those that could be affected by the case.

Under the disputed procedure, Ohio mails notices to people who havent voted in two years, asking them to confirm that they still live at that address. If someone doesnt respond and then doesnt vote during the next four years, the state removes the person.

An Ohio voter and two interest groups say the procedure violates the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, more commonly known as the Motor Voter law. The challengers point to a provision in the federal law that bars states from removing anyone by reason of the persons failure to vote.

The lawyer for the challengers, Paul Smith, said about 70 percent of the people who received notices in 2011 simply threw them away and didnt return them to the elections office.

And when you dont get the notice back, what that tells you is absolutely nothing about whether the person has moved, Smith said.

Chief Justice John Roberts disagreed.

It doesnt tell them nothing, he said. It tells them that they did not respond to a notice that says youre going to lose the registration if you dont vote through the two years, two elections.

Smith said 20 percent of people sent back the forms, and the Post Office returned 10 percent as undeliverable.

Ohio Solicitor Eric Murphy said Congress had adopted a compromise that left a lot of room for states in our federal system to adopt the procedures that are best in that state.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the Ohio procedure would have a disproportionate impact on racial minorities and homeless people and was part of a broader movement that has reduced turnout in parts of the state.

Places like Cleveland have very, very, very long lines of voters trying to vote, she said. All of these impediments result in large numbers of people not voting in certain spots in the state.

Sotomayor also said people have a right not to vote. That idea drew pushback from Roberts, who suggested the U.S. might benefit from a law like the one in Australia requiring people to vote.

The challengers say officials have far better tools to identify voters who have moved. States can use change-of-address forms filed with the U.S. Postal Service, as well as government tax records, census lists and motor-vehicle department databases, the challengers say.

Ohio has a separate procedure for removing people who file change-of-address forms with the Postal Service.

Breyer aimed all of his questions at Smith, the challengers lawyer. The justice said the case might come down to an empirical question about exactly what happens when the notices are mailed.

There might be surveys about how many people throw everything in the wastebasket, Breyer said. I confess to doing that sometimes.

The Trump administration is supporting Ohio, saying the Motor Voter law requires states to adequately notify nonvoters before they are purged but doesnt prohibit the use of voting history altogether.

A divided federal appeals court blocked the Ohio procedure and let about 7,500 state residents cast ballots in 2016, even though theyd previously been struck from the list of eligible voters.
SANTA FE  Teachers unions, an affiliate of the American Cancer Society and other nonprofit groups plan to make their case again this year for a tax increase on cigarettes and other tobacco products.

They say New Mexico could generate tens of millions in new revenue  and discourage smoking, especially among teens  by raising taxes by $1.50 a pack and an equivalent amount on electronic cigarettes.

The tax on a pack of cigarettes would climb from $1.66 to $3.16.

Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, however, remains an obstacle. She has repeatedly warned lawmakers that she wont support a tax increase. And a House committee rejected a similar proposal last year.

Sen. Howie Morales, a Silver City Democrat and candidate for lieutenant governor, has filed a proposal, Senate Bill 25, that would increase the cigarette tax and dedicate the extra revenue to schools.

Supporters say the price increase would prompt people to quit smoking and discourage youngsters from taking it up in the first place.

This is the No. 1 way to do that, said Rep. Liz Thomson, an Albuquerque Democrat who will propose similar legislation in the House.

Revenue estimates from the tax increase range from $42 million to $89 million a year.

New GOP chief: The state Republican Party has a new executive director  Ryan Gleason, former chief of staff to then-House Speaker Don Tripp.

In recent legislative sessions, Gleason has been heavily involved in the push to overhaul and simplify New Mexicos tax code.

He has a policy background, with experience as an aide to then-U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici and stints in the New Mexico departments of Taxation and Revenue and Finance and Administration.

The Republican Party also announced the hiring of Deputy Executive Director Michael Horanburg; James Clarke, director of political strategy; Finance Director Dominic Pacheco; and spokesman Greg Blair.

Amendments: State Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales, will ask his colleagues this session to adopt a pair of constitutional amendments that would tap into New Mexicos permanents funds to make about $100 million a year available for public safety and behavioral health programs.

A 13-member board would consider how to dole out the money, taking a holistic view of the criminal justice system, he said.

Weve never looked at crime the way Im talking about, Ely said.

The legislation would need approval by voters and Congress, he said. It would create a new pool of money by allowing the state to withdraw an extra 0.5 percent from the land grant and severance tax permanent funds.

Dan McKay: dmckay@abqjournal.com
A new $26 million memory care unit at the New Mexico State Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences, which celebrated its grand opening in November, has yet to house any veterans.

Mitchell Lawrence, director of the Healthcare Coordination Division of the states Department of Veterans Services, told an Albuquerque audience at a quarterly public meeting Wednesday that staffing problems are to blame.

Truth or Consequences is a great place to visit, but trying to get individuals to come down there and live and actually staff that facility is a little difficult, Lawrence said.

The 59 beds at the new building are to be filled by residents now in the 135-bed home next door in the old Carrie Tingley Childrens Hospital, opening up more room for everyone.

The $26 million facility features private rooms, a movie theater and small neighborhoods that reduce the institutional feel nursing homes often have.

The DVS held rapid-hire events in Truth or Consequences but is still struggling to fill certified nursing assistant positions, Lawrence said.

Seventeen CNAs still need to be hired before it can open.

Weve already cleaned out all that we can find in Truth or Consequences, but when youre making $9 an hour  a lot of people arent willing to uproot themselves from Las Cruces and move to Truth or Consequences and provide that care, Lawrence said.

That care involves dressing, bathing, toilet assistance and feeding residents. Some of those positions, such as basic nursing aide, pay as little as $16,245 a year, according to the job listing.

Emilee Cantrell, spokeswoman for the State Personnel Office, said via email the agency is working with DVS to initiate salary increases at the State Veterans Home.

This will help attract new employees and retain existing employees at the location, Cantrell wrote.

In the meantime, Lawrence said, theyve extended the search for employees to other areas.

He said theyre working with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to possibly provide free rides to the facility  an hour and 10 minutes each way  for employees living in Las Cruces.
Police arrested a supply room employee for Albuquerque Ambulance Tuesday in connection with the theft of dozens of pieces medical equipment, some of which were sold on Ebay for thousands of dollars.

According to an affidavit filed in Metropolitan Court, 33-year-old Jerimeice Johns is charged with embezzlement and receiving stolen property.

Police say they were alerted to the theft after a patient came into Presbyterian hospital wearing a pulse oximeter in late December.

Nurses treating the patient recognized the device and knew it belonged to Albuquerque Ambulance, a detective wrote in the complaint.

A supervisor at Presbyterian found out the patients mother had bought the device on Ebay months after it was checked out by an Albuquerque Ambulance employee and never returned, according to the complaint.

Police say the Albuquerque Ambulance deputy chief found that the Ebay seller yousave365, identified later as Johns, also had several other medical instruments for sale identical to those used by the company.

At the time of his arrest, Johns was employed by Albuquerque Ambulance as a logistics shift leader in the supply room, according to the complaint.

A statement released by Albuquerque Ambulance on Wednesday said the company has strict policies and procedures in place that address employee conduct.

Employee theft is unacceptable and results in termination, the statement read.

According to the complaint, an internal audit found that 87 pieces of equipment were missing from the supply room.

Police say the selling history for yousave365 contained 52 medical instruments, seven of which had already sold for over $4,000.

We take our obligations to the communities we serve very seriously, the companys statement read. We are grateful to the Albuquerque Police Department for their willingness and ability to assist us.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

More New Mexico students are taking rigorous Advanced Placement classes than ever before, according to data released by the state Public Education Department on Wednesday.

PED reported that 19,526 students enrolled in AP classes in 2017.

And these students took roughly 17,000 AP exams during 2017, up from 15,700 in 2016 and 10,500 in 2010.

Students are also succeeding on the difficult college-level tests at a higher rate  about 6,000 AP exams were passed in 2017, a 38 percent increase compared to 2010.

Gov. Susana Martinez celebrated the progress Wednesday during a news conference at Rio Rancho High, one of the states top performers in AP classes.

Im so proud of our students for stepping up and taking some of the most challenging high school courses possible, Martinez said. When our students succeed in Advanced Placement classes, they show that they can succeed in a college classroom. New Mexico students are once again proving that when we set high standards and give them challenging opportunities, they will always rise to the occasion.

AP courses give high school students a chance to earn college credits in a wide variety of subjects, potentially reducing the time and money it takes to finish a college degree.

At an average of more than $200 per credit hour, New Mexico students AP classes could save them as much as $4.26 million in college tuition costs.

Anna Smith, a Rio Rancho High senior, has already taken seven AP classes, and shes enrolled in three more this year: statistics, macroeconomics and physics.

In the summer, she will move to Massachusetts to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which offered her a generous scholarship.

Advanced Placement classes have really allowed me to think outside the box, she said. Ive had the opportunity to get many college credits, and these advanced placement classes look good to colleges and universities.

Smith said she benefitted from the states test fee assistance program, which cuts the cost of an AP exam from $93 to $3 for students with financial need.

Last year, 4,707 New Mexico students, nearly half of all AP exam takers, received reduced price tests.

PED has recommended doubling the state investment in the fee waivers from $865,000 to $1.7 million.

In total, the state allocated more than $10 million last year to support AP programs across New Mexico.

Additionally, New Mexico now offers more AP teacher training, and is expanding online AP course offerings to boost rural students access.

Its all about improving student outcomes and making a difference in students lives, said PED Secretary-designate Christopher Ruszkowski. The fact that we are a state here in New Mexico that is increasing access to Advanced Placement and increasing success  the number of kids earning 3s (passing test scores) or better  is something very, very, very few states in the country have been able to pull off.

Ruszkowski complimented the governor for stepping up to cover AP test fees after the federal government discontinued its own fee waiver program in 2016. Within 24 hours, Martinez had found funding to maintain the $3 test price for low-income students, Ruszkowski said.

I believe she (Martinez) is the finest public education governor in the country, he said. Its an honor to work for a governor who doesnt just talk about raising the bar, and talk about setting high expectations. She actually sets the high expectations in everything that we do at the Public Education Department.
SANTA FE  The Santa Fe City Council sent a message to state lawmakers who will be in the capital city next week for the start of the 2018 legislative session that it supports the idea of allowing retired police officers to return to work and still collect retirement benefits.

The council voted 7 to 1 in favor of a resolution supporting passage of state legislation to change a state policy that has been in place since 2010.

The resolution states that Santa Fe has had difficulty filling an average of 20 positions allowed by the budget and hasnt been in a position to add 10 additional officers after it annexed a chunk of land from the county in 2014. It also states that Albuquerque, a city against which it competes to recruit police officers, is seeking 400 officers.

Councilor Chris Rivera, who co-sponsored the resolution with Ron Trujillo, said that when larger police departments accept lateral transfers from other jurisdictions, it has a trickle down effect on smaller departments.

Were always short and will continue to be short until we do something about it, added Trujillo.

Councilor Joseph Maestas cast the lone vote against the proposal. Despite assurances from deputy chiefs that the Santa Fe police union supported the idea, Maestas said he doubted rank-and-file officers would favor rehiring retirees because it could affect the career path of younger cops.

Such legislation might suit Albuquerque, but not Santa Fe, he said.

Several attempts in the Legislature have been made in recent years to restore the policy that allowed for so-called double dipping, but they have been defeated by Democrats. The practice of allowing government employees to draw both pensions and salaries was banned by the state eight years ago due to concerns that it was hurting New Mexicos public retirement systems and stifling upward promotion.

The Santa Fe resolution also states that FBI statistics showed an increase in violent crime and property crime in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and across the state between 2015 and 2016, and that violence against police officers has discouraged people from seeking jobs as officers. Allowing retired officers to go back to work and still collect PERA benefits would help to ease the shortfall that Santa Fe and many other communities across the state are facing, the resolution states.

In announcing her tough-on-crime legislative priorities for the upcoming session, Gov. Susana Martinez said last week that she would support such legislation.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

The company accused by city officials of providing substandard buses and charging stations for the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project and failing to meet its contractual obligations said Wednesday that its working overtime to resolve the issues.

Our team in California and the team we have on the ground in Albuquerque will address every identified issue and deliver the world class buses we are known for, Macy Neshati, senior vice president with BYD America, said in a statement late Wednesday. Taxpayers will not pay a dime until we do.

The company, also known as Build Your Dreams, issued a lengthy statement in response to revelations made Tuesday by Mayor Tim Keller and Lawrence Rael, the citys chief operating officer.

During a news conference at City Hall, Keller and Rael outlined a series of problems with the controversial project that will keep ART from launching for the foreseeable future. Those issues include numerous problems with the nine 60-foot articulated battery electric buses that have been delivered and the companys failure to deliver an additional 11 buses by the Oct. 4 date set forth in the contract.

Rael also detailed many of the problems with ART during a separate conference call with the Journals editorial board.

Neshati said in his statement that BYD is working closely with a city inspector who has been working at the companys California plant since production began to review each bus before it is delivered.

He said the company knows there are issues with the schedule and with items identified by the city and added that the company is working to address those issues.

BYD is committed to manufacturing and delivering world-class electric vehicles with cutting-edge battery technologies, Neshati said. And where weve fallen short with ART, we will put the resources in place to make it right. Our commitment is simple: any concerns that the city has will be fixed, and we wont rest until weve exceeded the citys expectations.

Rick DeReyes, a spokesman for the city, said the inspector referred to by BYD is actually a city contractor monitoring the construction of the ART buses. But he said that doesnt mean the inspector is able to see everything that happens with production at every moment.

Nevertheless, the city welcomed BYDs pledge to fix the problems.

The city of Albuquerque is equally committed to resolving the issues with the buses and chargers with BYD America, and were looking forward to getting the job done right, DeReyes said.

Among the problems outlined by the city:

 The buses have not gone through the certification process in Altoona, Pa., which is required for the city to be reimbursed for them by the federal government. Rael said one of the ART buses put through the certification process didnt pass.

 Some of the buses cant be charged because the charging system doesnt work.

 Axles on the buses are leaking oil.

 A third-party certification officer wouldnt certify the chargers that have been installed. The chargers themselves are not operable because theyve used what looks like Chinese equipment and probably a different standard for how they built these boxes, Rael said.

 Fully charged batteries on the buses are supposed to last for 275 miles, but testing the city has done indicates the charge is good for only 200 miles, which means the city will need additional buses for ART unless that problem is resolved.

 Roughly 23 to 24 issues have been detected with each of the buses, although not all of the problems are major. They include things like inconsistency in the locations of restraint belts used to keep wheelchairs locked in place and cracking and separation with the battery cages that house the bus batteries.

While the company didnt dispute most of the findings, it did point out that the same types of chargers are being used in other cities.

Our buses will be approved by the Federal Transportation Administration when Altoona testing recommences, and our charging infrastructure will comply with the citys requirements, Neshati said. These units are currently functioning in Albuquerque as they are in states such as California, Washington, Oregon and others.

Rael also had noted that the city under Richard Berrys administration had rented generators to charge bus batteries. He said the Keller administration stopped that practice when an inspector advised them that using generators could compromise the warranty on the equipment.

But BYD noted that all of its buses require the use of generator power for transit from the factory to communities where they will be used.

No warranty will be compromised should the city of Albuquerque choose to continue charging with on-site generators, the statement said.

A Chinese company, BYD launched its California operation in 2011 after Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway purchased a minority stake in the company. BYD calls itself the worlds leading manufacturer of electric buses.

ART has been billed as a project that will turn Central Avenue into a rapid transit corridor with a nine-mile stretch of bus-only lanes and bus stations. The project  and associated utility and road work  comes with a $135 million price tag.

The city has been banking on $75 million from the Federal Transit Administrations Capital Investment Program for the project, but that funding agreement has not yet been signed.

ART will be the first of its kind, all-electric bus rapid transit in the U.S. In November, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy awarded ART its Gold Standard for Bus Rapid Transit systems.

During Tuesdays press conference, Keller and Rael also talked about design and construction problems along the ART corridor.
WASHINGTON  The unceasing debate over Ivanka Trump is whether she is a clueless enabler or a savvy troll, jabbing her father with sly tweets. Whatever the answer to the Ivanka Trump riddle, whether she is a dupe or a nettle, it has become obvious that she serves no useful role in this administration. She has failed to temper any of her fathers worst instincts  of temperament or of ideology. So these days, she mostly deserves ignoring.

Mostly. But her Monday night tweet praising Oprah Winfreys Golden Globes speech merits attention  actually, it merits derision  if only because it is such a classic of the Ivanka Trump genre, so brazenly heedless of her fathers behavior and her own complicity.

Just saw @Oprahs empowering & inspiring speech at last nights #GoldenGlobes, Ivanka Trump tweeted. Lets all come together, women & men, & say #TIMESUP.

Oh yes, lets.

How dare she.

For too long, Winfrey said, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those (abusive) men. But their time is up. Their time is up.

Daughters want to respect their fathers, to believe the best of even the most flawed, so perhaps Ivanka Trump gets a bit of a pass when it comes to the allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault involving her own father. Even if the stories are multiple and consistent. Even if they are paired with the Access Hollywood tape. Even if the president dismissed the women as liars too unattractive to merit his attention  and then did not follow through with his threatened lawsuits.

But how, how, can Ivanka Trump justify her you go, girl Oprah cheerleading with her silence about her fathers endorsement of accused child molester Roy Moore, the failed Republican Senate candidate in Alabama?

Early on after The Washington Post reported the allegations against Moore, when the official position of the Trump White House was that the conduct was disqualifying if true, Ivanka Trump told The Associated Press that there is a special place in hell for people who prey on children, adding, Ive yet to see a valid explanation, and I have no reason to doubt the victims accounts.

After which the White House decided that a Senate seat was worth a credibly accused child molester after all, and the president went all-in for Moore. From Ivanka Trump, silence. There is a special place in hell for people who prey on children, but theres room for those who overlook such conduct for partisan advantage and for those who tacitly condone such amorality.

And who then seek to position themselves as champions of the very victims whose concerns they have been happy to minimize or ignore. Spare us the lets come together feel-good-isms, the trite adjectives  empowering, inspiring  the empty hashtags.

Ivanka, #TimesUp.

E-mail: ruthmarcus@washpost.com. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.
The hysteria that the Justice Departments decision to actually follow federal law and clamp down on legal marijuana will affect New Mexicos medical cannabis program would seem to be more smoke than fire.

That said, its long past time for Congress to update laws governing the use of pot  whether that involves a policy overhaul in which the drug is regulated at the federal level or whether Congress decides to give states the power to decide their own marijuana policies.

As the Journals Washington correspondent Michael Coleman reported on Sunday, no one is seriously predicting that the DOJ under Attorney General Jeff Sessions will prosecute people for using medical marijuana in ways consistent with state law. That is almost certainly true even if federal legislation that prohibits using federal tax dollars for enforcement against medical marijuana users isnt renewed.

The same cant be said for states that have charged ahead with legalizing recreational pot use for a combination of philosophical and financial reasons  despite the fact that by federal law marijuana is still a Schedule 1 drug under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. Those states have done so at their own peril and with optimism that the federal government would continue to look the other way.

The laws on the books can, indeed, be inconvenient.

The Journal has long supported the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes, particularly for cancer patients and others with serious health issues. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that it is highly effective for pain, nausea and other maladies.

That said, there are questions about a program that has rapidly expanded to cover a much broader range of health issues, including PTSD. The state now has about 43,000 people enrolled in medical marijuana programs  a number likely to go much higher with the inevitable marketing that goes with the burgeoning investment in the medical pot industry.

We may not be far from the California model of a few years ago with sidewalk hawkers trying to funnel pedestrians to street-side doctors with the creative (or stoned) pitch that its time to get legal and fly like the eagle. California is one of a few states that have gone to wide open sales, although many local governments have opted out.

Meanwhile, anecdotal evidence is all we have because the federal government, regardless of who has controlled Congress or the White House, has blocked research to determine the benefits and side effects of marijuana. In fact, it is the only Schedule 1 drug that the Drug Enforcement Administration prohibits from being produced by private laboratories for scientific research  even though studies have been allowed for other Schedule 1 drugs, including LSD and heroin.

It makes little sense for the Justice Department to wade into this swamp, especially given polls showing that a strong majority of Americans favor decriminalization in general  although Sessions has long been a marijuana critic and has called it only slightly less awful than heroin.

That criticism is ironic, given that one of the strongest anecdotal arguments favoring medical marijuana is that it is a far better pain relief alternative than the highly addictive prescription opioids that are killing many Americans and fueling crime as addicts have turned to illegal heroin steal to support their habits.

But the silver lining here is that perhaps the move by Sessions will force a resolution to a long-standing problem in federal law.

Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican from Colorado, where voters have legalized recreational pot use, lashed out at the policy change, and one advocate said it could result in Congress taking a renewed interest in passing really comprehensive legislation that would allow states to determine their own marijuana policies without federal interference.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said he was in the states rights camp on the issue.

Whether the country is better served by federal uniformity or a patchwork of state-to-state laws is an open question. There are good arguments for both.

The only unacceptable solution is the status quo.

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.
BERLIN (AP)  A prominent member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party was slightly injured in a traffic accident in the early hours of Thursday morning as she headed back to Berlin for talks about the formation of a new government.

Police told news agency dpa that Saarland governor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's official car crashed into a truck on the autobahn just outside Berlin at about 4:30 a.m.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, her driver and two bodyguards were taken to a hospital in Potsdam.

Saarland state government spokeswoman Anne Funk said Kramp-Karrenbauer was only slightly hurt. Police said the other three weren't seriously hurt either.

Kramp-Karrenbauer is a member of the negotiating team for Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union in talks on a possible new government that entered their final round Thursday.

The governor wrote on Twitter that she is being kept in the hospital overnight for observation and hopes to be discharged Friday.

The 55-year-old had returned to Saarbruecken, the state capital close to the French border, for a New Year reception on Wednesday evening.

There was no late flight to Berlin, so Kramp-Karrenbauer took the car for the 700-kilometer (435-mile) trip back to the capital.

The cause of the accident wasn't immediately clear.

 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
FORT COLLINS, Colo.  Colorado officials say the states campaign to curb impaired driving turned out more than 10,000 arrests in 2017.

The Coloradoan reported Wednesday that the arrests were made during 14 enforcement periods, which are increased patrols that coincide with holidays and public events.

The state Department of Transportation says that in total, 10,359 drivers were arrested during the enforcement periods. In 2016, 7,279 drivers were arrested during 12 enforcement periods.

The department estimates that 226 people died in alcohol-related crashes in Colorado during 2017.

Col. Matthew Packard, chief of the Colorado State Patrol, said about one-third of Colorados traffic fatalities last year involved impaired drivers.

___

Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, http://www.coloradoan.com
LAHORE, Pakistan  The father of an 8-year-old Pakistani girl whose rape and killing shocked the nation accused the police on Thursday of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing in eastern Punjab province.

The father, Anees Ansari, who was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife at the time of his daughters disappearance, spoke after meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Sharif travelled to the city of Kasur to visit the family hours after Ansari returned home from Saudi Arabia to attend his daughters funeral Wednesday.

The girl, Zainab Ansari, disappeared last week while going to a nearby home for Quranic studies and her body was found in a Kasur waste-yard on Tuesday.

Her murder sparked clashes Wednesday between angry Kasur residents and police after protesters enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city. Two people were killed and three others were wounded in the clashes.

Sharif, who had assured Zainabs father that justice would be done, also fired Kasurs police chief over negligence in the case, according to a Punjab government statement Thursday. Three police officers were arrested for opening fire at the mob instead of into the air during Wednesdays clashes.

Zainabs killing, which has drawn wide public outcry, prompted dozens of civil society activists to rally on Thursday in the city of Lahore. A similar rally took place Wednesday in the port city of Karachi.

Pakistans Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and champion for female education, tweeted Wednesday she was heartbroken about Zainabs tragic fate and demanded action against the killer.
GREENVILLE, Texas  Law enforcement documents say the mother of a baby reported dead at North Texas gas station originally told police her daughter died on the way home from a trip to Oklahoma.

A Greenville police arrest complaint released Thursday identifies the nearly 2-month-old girl as Alexiana Stevenson. Autopsy results are pending. Police have said they believe the baby died at her mothers Greenville residence and the body was moved.

Police documents say Stephanie Flynn on Monday called 911 from a gas station to report her baby died in the vehicle while driving home from Hugo, Oklahoma.

The mother and her sister, Shawn Flynn, were arrested later Monday on evidence tampering charges for allegedly moving the corpse. Police say both acknowledged they didnt travel to Oklahoma.

Greenville police declined further comment Thursday.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  When Eric Greitens sought Missouris highest office in 2016, his resume seemed hard to top: former Navy SEAL, former Rhodes scholar and founder of a veterans charity. Most important, he said during the campaign, was his role as a proud husband and father.

On Thursday, the square-jawed Republican governor fought allegations that he photographed his hairdresser naked while having an affair with her and threatened to publicize the image if she spoke about their relationship. The top prosecutor in St. Louis quickly launched an investigation. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers asked the attorney general to investigate as well.

Greitens acknowledged being unfaithful in his marriage but denied taking any naked photos and blackmailing the woman to stay quiet.

The governor and his wife released a statement late Wednesday after St. Louis television station KMOV aired a bombshell report that he had a sexual relationship with the hairdresser in 2015. The report included allegations from the womans ex-husband, who secretly recorded a conversation with his ex-wife discussing the affair.

The affair was a deeply personal mistake, the Greitens statement said. Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately.

Grietens, 43, has been seen as a rising star in GOP political circles. During the campaign, he cast himself as an outsider going up against a career politician, the states Democratic attorney general. He barely hid his higher ambitions and reserved the web address ericgreitensforpresident.com years ago.

Through his attorney, the governor also denied an allegation from the ex-husband that Greitens slapped the woman, saying any accusation of violence is completely false.

The woman involved did not comment on the record to the TV station, which did not name her. But her ex-husband, who also was not named, provided the audio recording to KMOV. On the recording, the woman gave details about a sexual encounter she says she had with Greitens in March 2015 at his St. Louis home. The woman did not know her then-husband was recording their conversation.

The Associated Press learned her identity Thursday, but chose not to identify the woman because she could not be reached for comment. She did not return a call to the salon where she works, and an AP reporter who went there was told the hairdresser was not working.

The alleged encounter came after Greitens created a committee to explore a bid for governor but before he officially announced his candidacy. She said on the tape that he invited her downstairs at his home because he wanted to show her how to do a proper pull-up.

She said: I knew he was being sexual, and I still let him. And he used some sort of tape, I dont know what it was, and taped my hands to these rings and then put a blindfold on me.

She said she later realized he took a photo of her.

I saw a flash through the blindfold and he said, Youre never going to mention my name.'

A bipartisan group of state senators signed a letter asking the attorney general to investigate. Attorney General Josh Hawleys office said it would defer to local prosecutors, as required by state law.

The letter signed by both Democrats and Republicans called the allegations deeply disturbing and said a swift investigation was necessary to avoid having the matter overpower the 2018 legislative session.

GOP leaders in the Missouri Senate released a joint statement urging Greitens to be honest and forthright. At least two Democratic state lawmakers called on the governor to resign.

The Legislature adjourned Thursday for the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Lawmakers were not scheduled to return until Tuesday.

Months after the affair, the hairdresser sent Greitens an email asking him to stop booking appointments at the salon.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the email was sent Oct. 20, 2015, three weeks after Greitens filed papers formally starting his 2016 gubernatorial campaign. It was sent to the same account that Greitens listed on a website he used in the campaign.

The newspaper did not say how it obtained the email.

She asked Greitens, whom she called by his first name, to please consider all who are involved and the circumstances around us. She said returning to the salon isnt fair to me, nor anyone close to us and that she needed to move forward.

The lawyer for the ex-husband said the FBI has contacted him several times since October 2016 about the affair. Attorney Al Watkins said the agency has spoken to him about the affair and the blackmail allegations. He did not say if the ex-husband has also heard from the FBI.

A spokeswoman for the FBIs St. Louis office said the agency could not confirm or deny that it was investigating.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, a Democrat, initially said that no criminal complaint had been filed against Greitens and no evidence of a crime presented to her office. But after further consideration, she said, she concluded that an investigation is necessary.

Greitens attorney, Jim Bennett, said the governor was very confident he will be cleared in any investigation. This is a three-year-old personal matter that presents no matters of public or legal interest. The facts will prove that fully.

Sheena Greitens is an assistant professor in the political science department at the University of Missouri and co-director of the universitys Institute for Korean Studies. Much of her research focuses on China and North Korea.

The Greitens married in 2011 and have two young sons. The governor was married once before and divorced in 2003.

Watkins said his client and the woman who had the affair tried to reconcile but that the relationship with Greitens continued for several months and caused their breakup.

The ex-husband told KMOV that he believed the story would eventually be made public and he wanted to protect his family.

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Associated Press writers David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.

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The amount that Amazon is paying the state in gross receipts taxes  and even the circumstances under which it agreed to do so  is a matter of mystery, but a legislative staffer has come up with a ballpark number.

The best guess appears to be that Amazon will pay $10 millon to $30 million a year to New Mexico in gross receipts taxes, said Jon Clark, chief economist of the state Legislative Finance Committee.

Given the limited data available, its hard to estimate an accurate ballpark number, Clark said.

An Amazon spokeswoman, when asked to provide a figure, said only, We dont have anything to share on this right now, but I will let you know if that changes.

Nor would the state Taxation and Revenue Department disclose the amount of taxes or any agreement with Amazon about paying them. Spokesman Ben Cloutier cited state law requiring confidentiality of tax returns.

The department announced in April that it would begin collecting gross receipts taxes on Amazons New Mexico sales. New Mexico was among the last states in which the online giant agreed to start paying the taxes.

Seattle-based Amazon had for years avoided collecting taxes in states like New Mexico where it does not maintain a physical presence, something many argued gave it an unfair advantage over traditional retailers.

Other online retailers, such as Target and Walmart, have had to tax online purchases because they operate stores within the state.

However, theres a loophole in Amazons tax payments. With the exception of Washington state, the company does not collect taxes on the millions of independent merchants, or marketplace sellers, who sell their products through the Amazon website.

Those sales make up an increasing share of Amazons retail business, with third-party merchants expected to account for roughly 70 percent of the estimated $340.71 billion of merchandise bought on Amazon last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

For that reason, Clark said, Amazons gross receipts payments to New Mexico might be more toward the lower range of his $10 million to $30 million estimate.

Clark said the LFC based its estimate on Amazons national sales, apportioned on a per-capita basis. Staffers also accounted for the differential in real disposable income, because New Mexico is among the poorest states in the nation.

The issue of third party sales might be settled if the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear a case stemming from South Dakotas efforts to tax online sales, said Max Behlke, with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

A high court ruling could overturn a previous decision requiring retailers have a physical presence before a state can collect sales taxes from them.

Such a ruling could mean tens of millions of dollars for New Mexico, Behlke said.
Saul is back in Albuquerque.

Production is underway for the fourth season of AMCs drama Better Call Saul.

According to the New Mexico Film Office, production has begun around the city.

In fact, Patrick Fabian, who plays Howard Hamlin in the show, took to Twitter for a photo with Bob Odenkirk, Peter Gould, Michael Mando, Vince Gilligan and Rhea Seehorn. In the photo, Fabian says The Gangs (almost) All Here.

The production will employ 150 New Mexico crew members, 50 to 100 principal actors and about 1,500 people for background talent, the film office said. It is housed at Albuquerque Studios.

Were proud to welcome this incredible production team back for a fourth season of Better Call Saul,' said Film Office Director Nick Maniatis. Over the last three seasons, Sony has proven to be an excellent partner with the state of New Mexico as we continue growing and diversifying our economy, and we look forward to the continued success of our partnership.

Better Call Saul is a Breaking Bad prequel, focusing on the evolution of the popular Saul Goodman before he became Walter Whites lawyer. The acclaimed series has been nominated for 23 Emmy Awards over the course of its run.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller welcomed the show back for its fourth season.

We are big fans and appreciate not only the economic impact of the show, but also getting to play a role in what has become a cultural phenomenon, Keller said. Welcome back and thank you!

The show is expected to be back on the air in September on AMC.

Also Thursday, the film office announced that New Mexico will share double billing with New York on the HBO drama series, Succession. Production will wrap at the end of January.

Succession follows the Roy family, Logan Roy and his four adult children, who control one of the biggest media and entertainment conglomerates in the world. It tracks family members as they grapple with what the future will hold as their aging father begins to take a step back from the company.

The series stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Hiam Abbass, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin

According to the film office, the production will employ 89 New Mexico crew members and about 75 people as background talent.
Berger Paints India Limited, the second largest paint company in India today announced the launch of their new ad campaign around WeatherCoat Longlife Exterior Paint specifically for the Kerala market.

This new ad campaign is strategically made to match up to the outlook of Malayalis. The story revolves around a simple fact that every Malayali loves his/her stateand strongly feels the urge to keep alive the regional spirit. Through the product, Berger Paints has subtly touched upon the local culture and added a flavour to the Kerala palette for Malayali consumers. The concept of a beautiful home and colorful glamorous walls go hand in hand to make the journey of our lives brighter. The TVC is beautifully built on a famous Kerala folk song Kantha Njanum Varam which is associated with the traditional local annual festival Thrissur Pooram. Thus, this has a direct connect with the local audience who can relate to the temple festival. The film has been directed by award winning film director Martin Prakkat, and it features celebrities like Renji Panicker & Alencier Ley Lopez thus highlighting the aspirational factor.

The main objective behind launching this new TVC is to promote WeatherCoat Longlife Luxury Exterior Paint as a product, which not only has the functional benefit to cater to all weather conditions of Kerala, but also to satisfy the aspirational needs of a home owner in Kerala.

Commenting on the concept, Mr. Sudhir Nair, General Manager, Marketing, Berger Paints India Limited, said The new TV commercial harps on the idea of keeping up the aspirational outlook of the Malayalis and providing with a quality product which offers ultimate protection under extreme weather conditions. The product is not only everlasting but has an unmatched sheen, which gives protection against fungal and algal growth. After a lot of technological development and innovation we have come up with such a unique product which perfectly suits the requirement of the Kerala consumers.

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After the success of first digital ad campaign, Kent RO Systems Ltd., one of the renowned healthcare brands in India, launched another heartwarming video showcasing the love bond shared between a son and his parents. The social video #Razaai of Kent RO has already crossed over 8.7 million views on facebook, Instagram, youtube and other famous platforms. This video is part of KENT ROs digital campaign which was launched in September, focusing on creating real life video stories.

Commenting on the importance of digital media in the brands over media plan, Dr. Mahesh Gupta, Chairman, KENT RO Systems Ltd said, "KENT RO perceived as a trend setter brand in the ad and marketing industry. So this pace will continue in digital as well. The brand will go viral at every possible platform in a structure way and the beginning has been done. The company will be coming up with a series of digital ad campaigns. As increasing focus on digital marketing, online campaigns and social media will help us access the millennial that are going to drive strong trends of consumption in the coming times."





Conceptualized by Jigsaw Pictures, the one-minute video ad highlights the fact/necessity of a water purifier in one's home in a balanced, unaggressive and natural manner correctly brings up the emotions of the viewers who are appreciating the video for its sheer simplicity and relevance. The central theme of the campaign revolves around the relationship between a son and his parents.

The ad starts with the husband asking his wife the reason that why she does not want to have medicine. Son listens to the conversation and gets a glass of water from KENT Water Purifier and says Dawai nahi khaogi toh theek kaise hogi? Fir Raju ki mummy or rohan ki mummy apse zyada strong ho jayegi! Or log kya kahenge Dabbu ki mummy Rajeshwari to kitni kamzor nikli ..Chalo jaldi dawai kha lo nahi toh Doctor aa jayenge injection lagane. His mother sweetly mocks at him saying Cartoon Kahin ke. The ad ends with the message 100% Pure aapke pyaar ki tarah #toughlove. The film has clocked 8.7 million views on the brands Facebook Page in three weeks.

The brand is now all set to create digital powered experiential marketing ad campaigns that will create buzz and take the brands to multiple touch-points. The company will come up with a series of 5-6 digital ads of its different range. The brand is not only interested in engaging with its curious targeted customer folk but is working towards building a brand using digital medium as its newest marketing tool.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KentROSystemsLtd/videos/2124865750873526/
Ruchita Sharma joined the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council as the Executive Director, Promotions, Marketing and Business Development. She has over 20 years of experience spread across Marketing, Operations and Communications.

Speaking about her new role at GJEPC, Ruchita Sharma said, A robust Promotion and Marketing ecosystem is vital for the growth of the Indian gem & jewellery export sector. Over the years, GJEPC has done an excellent job to take this industry to the current stature that it enjoys today through its various promotional activities globally, including participation in international exhibitions, organizing Buyer-seller meets (BSMs), etc. Our focus would be to give maximum mileage by enhancing our reach in the existing markets and tapping new ones, thus furthering the growth of industry.

Chief Executive Director Mr. Sabyasachi Ray said, We are happy to have Ruchita Sharma, who has in-depth luxury and premium experience in emerging markets. I am sure that with kind of expertise she comes with, the promotional and business development activates of the council will get a boost in the coming days.

In the past, Ruchita has worked closely with family run global organizations such as Swarovski, Salvatore Ferragamo, Oberoi Hotels and Resorts, Taj Hotels Palaces and Resorts. Ruchita understands what makes family businesses successful in emerging markets, maintaining their brand values and ethos and profitability.

Ruchita was named among 50 most talented Retail professionals of India by CMO Council as well as 50 Most Talented CMOs of India by World Marketing Congress. She has represented India at India Business Forum at London Business School and other prestigious luxury platforms as well as curated roundtables of Luxury in depth discussions with Altagamma and Comite Colbert MOU with Indian chamber of commerce FICCI which fetched Make in India business worth US$ 20 million. Apart from that, she is an avid traveler and freelance writer. Her book Ultimate Luxury in association with American Express was released in November 2008.

At GJEPC, Ruchita will be responsible for National Events, International Events, Promotions Marketing & Business Development, Logistics, International ventures.

Ruchita is an IIM, Ahmedabad - Essec Paris Luxury Management Graduate; Paris, (Ahmedabad 2010), she completed her MBA in Marketing from Amity, Noida, India 2001; an English literature Graduate from Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi. 1995; she has also done a tourism major from IATA-Geneva.
Eleven campaigns for brands, including Ariel, Channel 4, Extra Gum, Fanta, Ford, and Gillette, are winners of the Effective Channel Integration category of the global WARC Media Awards 2017, recognising communications planning which has made a positive impact on business results.

One Grand Prix, two Golds, three Silvers and five Bronzes as well as three Special Awards for particular areas of expertise have been awarded in the Effective Channel Integration category, which sets out to show how sophisticated communications architecture helped boost campaign effectiveness.

UK broadcaster Channel 4s promotion and coverage of the 2016 Rio Paralympics, through the inspirational campaign Media that can! (aka Were The Superhumans), has won the Grand Prix.

As the official UK broadcaster of the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, Channel 4 needed an integrated promotional campaign that would create a groundswell of support. The marketing focus offered the opportunity to start a conversation about disability and to change public attitudes towards it.

Agencies OMD and 4creative created Channel 4s most accessible campaign, pushing media partnerships to their limit and a smart cross-platform video strategy, from Facebook AI technology delivering Facebook ads for those with sight loss to audio-enabled posters and a Snapchat filter used by over 250,000 young British people.

The inclusive campaign got one in every two British people tuning into Paralympic sports, and is studied in UK schools as an example of best-in-class diversity marketing as well as used by the United Nations as part of an international initiative for persons with disability.

Commenting on the Grand Prix winner, jury member Dominique Touchaud, Global Brand Strategist & Associate Brand Director, Procter & Gamble, said, It created emotions beyond results that even surpassed the London 2012 Meet The Superhumans campaign that had already set such a high standard. From a media strategy standpoint, I truly appreciate how they thought of the context (focused on the parathletes disability) to pick up the media and design the creative.

One Gold has been awarded to Energy BBDO, United States, for Unwrapping a love story for Mars Wrigleys Extra Gum, which accelerated its growth in the US by building emotional equity through a short film.

The second Gold went to FP7/DXB, UAE, for The dullest ad in history for the least active kids in history  a provocative campaign about the importance of outdoor play for children created for Unilevers laundry detergent brand OMO to increase sales in the Middle East.

Commenting on the winners, Jury Chair Charlie Chappell, Head of Media at The Hershey Company, said, This diverse selection of winners from across the globe represents the most effective channel integration strategies that we have ever seen through the WARC awards. These campaigns are paving the way for the future and continue to drive change and conversation across the media landscape.

MediaCom Communications India secured a Bronze for its Bachelor of Shaving initiative done for P&Gs Gillette.

The winners of Effective Channel Integration category are:

Grand Prix

Media that can!  Channel 4  OMD, 4creative  United Kingdom+ Cross-Channel Measurement Special Award

Gold

The dullest ad in history for the least active kids in history  OMO  Unilever  FP7/  United Arab Emirates+ POE Special Award

Unwrapping a love story  Extra Gum  Mars Wrigley  Energy BBDO  United States

Silver

Made Possible By Melbourne  University of Melbourne  McCann Melbourne  Australia

Fanta Relaunch  Fanta  Coca-Cola Company  UM Sydney, Ogilvy  Australia, New Zealand

The Bic 4 Colour Champenships  Bic  McCann Melbourne  Australia, New Zealand

Bronze

Using integration to win the game of snakes and ladders  Ford KA+  Ford  GTB  Europe+ Path-to-Purchase Special Award

Finding the Party-Tray People  HORMEL Gatherings Party Trays  Hormel Foods  Barefoot Proximity  United States

Bachelor of Shaving  Gillette India  Procter & Gamble  MediaCom Communications India  India

The Great "Hand Me Up"  Ariel  Procter & Gamble  Mediacom Connections Israel, Stern Ariely Communication  Israel

Declaration Descendants  Ancestry  Droga5  North America

The winners of the Effective Use of Tech, Effective Use of Partnerships & Sponsorships and Best Use of Data categories will be announced shortly.
Witness to Indias transformative journey from a mere $330 billion economy in 1994 to a major $2.2 trillion global economy in 2017, Universal Consulting has kickstarted the new year by revamping itself and has been renamed as UC Strategy. The 23-year old Indian strategy consulting firm based in Mumbai focuses on strategy creation and strategy execution in Life Sciences, MedTech, Agribusiness & Food, Industrials and Banking & Financial Services. Complementing the new name is also a completely fresh brand identity, which goes from logo and signage right down till the website and presentation templates.

UC Strategy got on board Hyphen, a brand engagement product agency, to develop its logo and identity as it moved into its third decade. The Hyphen team was reliable and responsive in its approach to developing the logo and evolved it to appropriately reflect the intrinsic characteristics of our firm, as well as balancing it with the competitive dynamics of the marketplace. They always presented their unique point of view and worked with us to converge it into a seamless brand concept. We enjoyed the process of working with the creative and professional Hyphen Team, said Jay P Desai, Founder & Managing Director, Universal Consulting India Pvt Ltd.

Going forward Universal consulting wanted to focus the new direction for the firm in it's core strength of strategic consulting. Desai shared, "We didnt want to highlight the execution part of consulting which is primarily legwork, rather we wanted to take the high ground with strategic consulting, which is our core competency. We have developed a name with our clients as well as with new business, about having a deep understanding in the Indian consulting space, specializing in Indian consumer/market insights. Therefore, we decided that our new identity must also reflect this obvious change in the organizations outlook very emphatically in the new identity.

Commenting on the rebranding exercise,said, When we were asked to become design consultants for Indias top consultancy firm, which is an advisor to the biggest brands in India, we had to dig deep and find a brand attribute that was so uniquely ours that we could use it to forge an identity that can only be our trademark. The brand pyramid consulting tool that is a uniquely used by Universal Consulting became the focal point in the new logo that we created. And the logo itself was a simple, no-nonsense, efficient logo which conveyed the serious quantum of work done by UC.

He added, As the brand, itself was trying to redefine itself into the strategic part more than the operations part of consulting, we also suggested a snappy name change, which made the task easy as well as shortened the name: UC Strategy. Kudos to the client team for supporting this bold and confident step of changing the name itself. This made the impact of the identity even more effective.

When quizzed on any learnings from the past that were implemented during the process, Sankhe quipped, From our collective experience in Brand Design and identity schemes we knew that the simpler the logo is, the more impactful it is. Given the stature and scope of work that the brand operates in, we decided that the logo needed to be a no-frills, very efficient identity which doesnt succumb to the fads or the trends in design. In this case we took two important decisions and the client supported us in both the decisions whole-heartedly. First, and this was a big recommendation, was to change the name from Universal consulting to UCSTRATEGY to communicate in no uncertain terms our intent to drive our imagery towards strategic consulting. And secondly, while developing a classic logo that will stand the test of time, we decided to use the shape of the triangle pyramid strategy tool which, is embedded in our brand truth, has become synonymous with all our strategic planning work. These two decisions have really contributed in making a sharp, focussed and impactful identity that stands toe-to-toe with the BIG 4 of consulting strategic firms worldwide.

Touted as Indias largest indigenous consulting firm, UC Strategy houses a team of around 60 people and has worked with 350 multinational and Indian companies, accomplishing 940 cases for them.
We can help you make sense of the agribusiness industry, extending from chemicals and fertilizers used as inputs into agriculture, to the commodities, food and by-products that are an output to farming, with policy and regulation applied at every step of the value chain.
January 10, 2018

CAIRO  Parliament is set to consider amendments to Egypt's citizenship law. The country's administrative courts approved the amendments Dec. 18, and parliament is expected to vote on them.

Opponents say the amendments, which involve the revocation of citizenship, can be interpreted so broadly as to include peaceful protests, free speech and activism, and they could be used to harass and restrict journalists.

Egyptian courts are buzzing with cases against the regime's political opponents  including former Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei  alleging espionage and endangering national security. On Dec. 10, Cairo Criminal Court added the names of 161 Muslim Brotherhood members to its list of terrorists. The new amendments could deprive them all of Egyptian citizenship.

Deposed and imprisoned former President Mohammed Morsi also could be affected. An administrative court is awaiting a legal opinion from the State Commissioners Committee on a proposal to withdraw Morsis citizenship. Morsi has been convicted of espionage and leaking government documents relating to national security and the armed forces to Qatar. Under the new amendments, these charges would be sufficient to strip Morsi of his citizenship.

Also, on Jan. 4, parliament member Atef Abdel-Jawad called for revoking the citizenship of Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, for having visited Israel to lecture at Tel Aviv University. Jawad described the visit as direct normalization with the "Zionist entity" and a great betrayal.

According to the Project on Middle East Democracy, "Revocation of citizenship means the annulment of certain rights ensured by the Egyptian constitution, including access to employment, health care, education, subsidized food and other governmental services. It also means severe or complete restrictions on travel, the loss of status in society and the severing of practical and emotional ties with ones homeland."

Some constitutional experts believe the new amendments are contrary to the constitution. One such expert is Fathi Sorour, a criminal law professor at Cairo University and former speaker of the People's Assembly, which used to be the lower house of Egypt's now-unicameral parliament.

Withdrawing nationality in accordance with the amendments  is tantamount to a death sentence against the defendants. The affected person will become stateless and thus nonexistent, Sorour said at a Dec. 20 seminar called The Legal Confrontation of Terrorism before the British University of Egypt's law faculty.

If the amendments are approved, the Council of Ministers will be able to strip citizenship from anyone convicted in Egypt of a crime against state security, whether the crime took place in Egypt or abroad, regardless of whether the person was born in Egypt or naturalized. This includes anyone who the court finds is even affiliated with any group deemed to threaten national security or seeking to undermine public order.

Also, under the amendments, the government could strip citizenship from anyone who was naturalized and stops residing in Egypt for two consecutive years without an excuse accepted by the interior minister. The proposals also would increase the period during which Egyptian citizenship may be withdrawn from a foreigner who acquired it by naturalization or marriage from five years to 10.

Some observers see the amendments as designed to harass opponents of the current regime, whether in Egypt or abroad, mainly those believed to be part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Others feel the amendments are legitimate and come within the framework of warding off any attempt to endanger the countrys security and stability.

Lawyer and human rights activist Tariq al-Awadi told Al-Monitor, The amendments  aim to tighten the grip on all opposition [groups] in Egypt. This is not limited to the Muslim Brotherhood, but includes all groups opposed to the current regime's policies.

He added, Dozens of lawsuits are filed against the symbols of the Islamic movements on charges of terrorism, stirring chaos and espionage. This includes the charge of espionage leveled against former President Mohammed Morsi. This means that Morsi and all the defendants in these lawsuits  who are detained in Egyptian prisons  will be denied Egyptian nationality once judicial rulings against them are issued."

Awadi said, Unfortunately, the new amendments contain general and loose terms that have no explanation in Egyptian law and are subject to interpretation at the states sole discretion. For example, there is no exact definition for harming the state public order or undermining the social order. Those phrases could be interpreted to include unlicensed protests, he said.

Abla al-Hawari, a member of the parliamentary Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, told Al-Monitor the amendments also neglect to outline "how the state will deal with Egyptians" once their citizenship is revoked.

Citizenship is a legal relationship between the citizen and the state. This relationship entails political, economic and social rights and duties; revoking citizenship would completely end this relationship. Citizens stripped of their nationality would lose the right to vote or to run or hold positions in the state. These people will be denied government health care, education and all government services.

Hawari emphasized that the amendments don't address whether revocations might also apply to a person's dependents. "If the children were studying at government schools and were deprived of their citizenship, they would be expelled from their schools.

Constitutional jurist Noor Farahat said in a Sept. 21 post on Facebook, "Any reasonable person with [even] a limited understanding of the constitution would know that [these] amendments are contrary to the constitution," which says citizenship is a right for everyone born to Egyptian parents.
January 11, 2018

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Turkey will not extradite any more suspects to the United States until Washington hands over the Muslim preacher who is accused of masterminding the failed 2016 military coup.

The ultimatum, delivered today during a meeting of administrators at the presidential palace in Ankara, is a further sign of the meltdown between the two NATO allies.

Erdogan said, We have given the United States 12 terrorists so far, but they have not given us back the one we want. They made up excuses from thin air. Erdogan was referring to Fethullah Gulen, the secretive Sunni cleric who has been living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999 and is a permanent resident of the United States.

Erdogan warned, If youre not giving him to us, then sorry, but from now on whenever you ask us for another terrorist, for as long as I hold office, you will not get them. If Erdogan sticks to his threat he will effectively scotch a 1979 treaty between the United States and Turkey on extradition and mutual assistance in criminal matters that has been in force since 1981.

Turkey says it has provided reams of evidence proving Gulens culpability but has apparently failed to sway US officials, who in private say that while Gulen and his disciples may have had every motive to want to overthrow Erdogan, there is no smoking gun. None of this is news to Erdogan, so it remains unclear why he decided to up the ante.

Erdogans salvos come ahead of a trip by Jonathan Cohen, the US deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs covering Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, to Ankara that is due to kick off Jan. 23. Cohen will take part in a first meeting of the newly established bilateral Joint Coordination Committee bringing together diplomats and justice officials from both sides.

A high-level US official told Al-Monitor that Cohen will discuss the wrongful detention of Turkish employees at US missions in Turkey and several American citizens over their alleged links to Gulen.

The official was referring, among others, to Metin Topuz, a Turkish national and veteran Drug Enforcement Agency liaison officer at the US Consulate in Istanbul who was arrested in October on charges that he was linked to Gulen. Hamza Ulucay, a translator at the US Consulate in Adana, has been in jail since February 2017 over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.

The Turkish authorities had intended to detain a second Istanbul Consulate employee together with Topuz. When the police failed to locate him, they detained his wife and daughter.

Amid the continued detention since October 2016 of the US pastor Andrew Brunson over the outlandish charges that he too was seeking to overthrow the government, Washington decided to take retaliatory action a year later, stopping visa services for Turkish citizens at all of its missions in Turkey.

Washingtons decision to resume services shortly thereafter came as a surprise because none of the consulate employees has been freed. Nor has Brunson, despite growing anger over his plight on Capitol Hill.

In a Dec. 28 statement, Washington said it had decided to end the visa ban because the Turkish government had provided assurances that its local employees would not be arrested for actions linked to their work. The move was seen as something of a capitulation.

There was widespread speculation that Washington reversed its decision on the grounds that it affected thousands of ordinary Turks who were not responsible for their governments actions. US officials dealing with Turkey were divided from the outset on how far the visa sanctions should go.

An administration source familiar with how the visa saga unfolded denied reports that Philip Kosnett, then the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Ankara, had opposed the halting of visa services. He initiated them and kept them in place, the source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

In a further twist, sources familiar with the administration's policymaking told Al-Monitor that should Turkey not free the consulate employees and Brunson, Washington will likely introduce targeted visa bans for Turkish officials. Cohen is likely to deliver this message during his trip, the sources claimed.

Further tensions loom with the punitive fines likely to be slapped on Turkeys state-owned Halkbank over its role in a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade US sanctions against Iran. On Jan. 4, a New York federal court found Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla guilty over his alleged role in the affair. Erdogan described the verdict as a political coup attempt. The jury is expected to deliver a final sentence for the imprisoned Turkish official in April.
January 11, 2018

On Jan. 9, the Israeli Defense Ministry published the total cash stipends in 2017 that the Palestinian Authority (PA) dispensed to the families of Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israel and to the families of Palestinian assailants either wounded or killed in the course of terror acts against Israel. The information was published as part of a legislative bill proposed by Knesset member Elazar Stern of Yesh Atid. The bill is aimed to prevent the PA from extending cash stipends to terrorists and their families. The government supports the bill.

According to the proposed law, at the end of every year, the defense minister will bring a report to the security Cabinet summarizing the cash stipends that the PA gives to terrorists and their families. This sum will then be deducted from the funds that the PA receives from Israel.

Stern began to collect data and promote the bill simultaneously with the advancement of the Taylor Force Act in the United States. The US act is being advanced by the father of a young man, an American citizen named Taylor Force, who was murdered by a Palestinian when he visited Israel in March 2016. The Taylor Force Act states that the United States will halt its monetary aid to the PA as long as the PA pays stipends to the families of terrorists.

Israel has a tool that is even faster and more efficient in regards to the PA: It can deduct monies from the tax revenues it collects and then transfers to the Palestinians. If and when Stern's bill is ratified in the Knesset, Israel will be able to deduct the sums that the defense ministry claims were paid by the PA to families of terrorists.

If the data appearing in the defense ministrys publication is precise (the data was amassed by Israels security system  the Shin Bet, the Israel Defense Forces, the police, the Israel Prison Service and the Justice Ministry), then the PA allots more than 1.2 billion shekels (about $350 million) a year to Palestinian convicts, or 7 percent of its budget.

According to the released figures, the PA paid more than 550 million shekels ($160 million) to prisoners and released prisoners and about 687 million shekels ($200 million) to families of suicide terrorists and to injured terrorists in 2017. A terrorist who carries out a terror act in Israel and receives a long prison sentence (20-35 years) "privileges" his family to receive stipends of about 10,000 shekels ($2,900) a month throughout his life. If he is married with children, the sum is even higher. For the sake of comparison, the average salary in the West Bank is about 2,000 shekels ($584) a month and the average salary in the Gaza Strip is only about 700 shekels ($204) a month.

Unmarried Palestinian prisoners who are imprisoned for three to five years receive stipends of 2,000 shekels a month. A married prisoner receives an additional 300 shekels ($87). And if he has children, he receives a supplement of 50 shekels ($15) per child. Prisoners who reside in Jerusalem receive an additional 300 shekels, and Arab prisoners who live in Israel and carry out attacks on Israeli targets receive a supplement of 500 shekels ($146) a month.

After the figures were released, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that the terror "price list" proves that the PA encourages terror attacks and clearly rewards the perpetrators of terror attacks on a sliding scale based on the severity of the attack. He said, "The moment the payments are set based on the severity of the crime and the prison sentence, namely that those who murder and are sentenced to life receive a lot more, this is [tantamount to] funding terror attacks against Israelis." According to Liberman, this clearly demonstrates how the PA supports terror. Education Minister Naftali Bennett also spoke about this issue at the funeral of Rabbi Raziel Shevah, who was murdered in a drive-by shooting Jan. 9. Bennett called for convening the security Cabinet and halting the stipends that Israel transfers to the PA which, he said, encourages the murder of Jews.

This is the first time that the scope of the PA's stipends to the families of prisoners and those who commit terror acts was released to the public. However, Qadura Fares, the head of the PA Prisoners' Club in the West Bank, claims that the sums in question are baseless and intended only to cause the collapse of the PA and the fall of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Fares told Al-Monitor that Fatah activists do not release information regarding the sums of money that are paid. In fact, he says, there is no permanent, agreed-upon tariff, because the stipends vary from one family to another.

Fares' assessment was that "discontinuation of the stipends to Palestinian fighters would be an act of suicide," and that Abbas could never allow himself to carry out such a move. "The day that he stops the payments, he'll fall," Fares ruled.

People in Israel view these stipends as the underwriting of terror. It should be noted that prisoners identified with Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad do not receive stipends from the PA, but from their own organizations. According to data published by B'Tselem on Jan. 3, about 6,000 Palestinian prisoners are incarcerated in Israeli prisons today. That figure includes those imprisoned for life who are not affiliated with any organization, such as Hakim and Amjad Awad, who murdered the Fogel family in 2011. The Awad family receives about 10,000 shekels every month, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry.

A Fatah official told Al-Monitor that the timing of the Israeli legislative bill and Israel's intention to cut the PA's budget by use of data that he calls "fraudulent and unfounded" is designed to harm the PA. Talking on condition of anonymity, the official said that Liberman consistently tries to inflict harm on Abbas, whom he hates, while adopting a policy of restraint vis-a-vis Gaza. The Fatah official said that is because Liberman desires to replace Abbas with "another Palestinian personality." The Fatah official may be referring to former Fatah senior member Mohammed Dahlan. Rumors had floated in the past that Liberman preferred Dahlan as Palestinian president instead of Abbas.

Many senior Fatah officials ascribe a series of conspiracy theories to Israel and the United States. Be that as it may, while Israel and the United States view the Taylor Force Act and Knesset member Stern's proposed law as defensive, justified and necessary actions, the Palestinians interpret these as a plot against the PA and especially against the man who heads it, Mahmoud Abbas.
January 10, 2018

The myriad armed groups in Iraq are constantly emerging, merging and dividing. The list is as mutable as everything else in the country. Get ready to add some more names.

Iraqi security sources told Al-Hayat on Dec. 18 that a new group has formed called Khawbakhsh, which is Kurdish for volunteers.

The group calls for the "liberation" of Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato from the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which recaptured those areas from Kurdish forces in October. Khawbakhsh has been accused of shelling houses Dec. 5 and targeting federal forces.

This development came in tandem with news about recently formed anti-Shiite armed forces in the areas surrounding Tuz Khormato, numbering about 1,000 and lending credence to forecasts that new armed groups would emerge after the Islamic State was defeated in Iraq.

These developments have led Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to order a special operation in Kirkuk to confront the increasing terrorism in the province. On Jan. 3, before an operation that day, he acknowledged the ongoing security challenges in Iraq, despite the pronouncement of victory over IS last month. Following Abadi's statement, Iraqi security forces conducted several raids against suspected sleeper cells in the provinces of Kirkuk and Diyala and the city of Mosul.

Parliament member Jassem Mohammed Jaafar told Al-Monitor, The so-called Khawbakhsh group consists of several armed groups headed by Koran Jawhar and Jawhar Kajagji, who are close to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [PUK], as well as gunmen living off oil theft and blocking roads." The PUK, however, has denied denied that Jawhar has any status in the party.

Jaafar, whose State of Law Coalition has close ties to the prime minister, added, "All of them are Kurds who receive direct support from the government of Erbil, where the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is based. The groups main goal is to undermine security in Tuz Khormato and the disputed areas, to force non-Kurds out and prepare to restore Kurdish influence."

However, PUK parliament members have rejected Jaafars statements, saying they consider them part of a systematic campaign targeting Kurds in south Kirkuk that includes bombing their houses and arresting them arbitrarily.

An informed Kurdish source who asked not to be named told Al-Monitor, The Khawbakhsh group has protected the Kurds against the Arabs and the Turkmens in Tuz Khormato and the disputed areas in Kirkuk since the Kurds were displaced by PMU-affiliated Turkmen and Arab groups.

Kurdish forces arrested hundreds of IS soldiers, but none have been handed over to federal forces or tried in the region.

The PMU launched military campaigns in mid-December in the mountains overlooking Tuz Khormato, according to PMU leader Mohammed Mahdi al-Biyati. Khawbakhsh includes former members of IS, mostly Kurds, who reorganized in a group that upholds their ideology and style in terrorizing society, Biyati told Al-Monitor.

However, Biyati does not believe those groups pose as great a threat as IS, as the PMU has gained a great deal of experience and competence in dealing with such organizations. Nevertheless, Khawbakhsh and similar groups could still spread to other areas such as Diyala province to the south.

Security analyst Fadel Abu Raghif told Al-Monitor, The emergence of these groups coincided with two separate events: the defeat of IS in Mosul and other areas it had occupied since 2014, and the recapture of Kirkuk from the Kurds by the Iraqi army and the PMU on Oct. 16.

He added, Preliminary estimates indicate that the number of fighters in these groups is still limited. Their speeches are incoherent and their activities do not suggest they are in control."

Abbas al-Adrawi, a researcher in the Hamorabi Center for Strategic and Security Studies, told Al-Monitor, These groups, including Khawbakhsh, are fighting in unstable areas. They include Naqshbandi fighters and the remnants of Saddam [Hussein]s army, as well as drug-smuggling gangs.

Adrawi explained why he believes the number of such fighters is increasing: Many IS elements turned themselves in to the Kurdish forces without fighting in the military operations during the liberation of Mosul, Sinjar, Tal Afar and Hawija. Today, those fighters are being rehabilitated and deployed on the front lines to face the federal forces, or sent to [help] form and join the Khawbakhsh group, which takes orders and support from the Kurdish military leadership."

Kurdish writer Shaal Mal Adel Salim has a different view. Khawbakhsh and other similar groups include fighters from the areas affected by the policies of the Baghdad-based central government and the violence employed by the Iraqi army and the PMU in Kirkuk and the areas from which the Kurdish peshmerga forces withdrew, Salim told Al-Monitor.

Many of those people felt abandoned when the peshmerga  the armed forces of Iraqi Kurdistan  pulled out as central government forces arrived in October to take back the disputed territory in response to the KRG holding an independence referendum in September against Baghdad's wishes. The disputed territory is land the Kurds had won in battles against IS.

Salim refused to call these citizen-fighters terrorists. They make up a group of armed volunteers who announced the resistance after the withdrawal of the peshmerga forces from their areas, which they considered a betrayal," he said. "They believe it is their duty to defend their land and people after the federal authority took control of their Kurdish areas."

Ministry of Interior spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said the threat from these new armed groups has been exaggerated.

Some parties who are taking advantage of what is happening are being hyperbolic when it comes to these groups and their influence on the ground," he told Al-Monitor. He declined to discuss the real number of these groups and the extent of their geographical spread, saying that information is classified. He did say, The intelligence services have determined the size of the group and the extent of the threat they pose. The security forces have begun to deal with them.

Armed groups like Khawbakhsh will continue to emerge and be active in Iraq until the political, social and economic causes behind them are addressed.
January 11, 2018

While hundreds of demonstrators shouted slogans on Dec. 11 against US President Donald Trump in front of the Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances to Al-Aqsa, Khadija Khweis and her friend Hanadi al-Halawani were flipping pots of maqluba to serve to the protesters. In the last 12 months, this traditional food, also called the dish of victory, has become a part of the Palestinian protests.

Every Sunday throughout December, when people of Jerusalem held demonstrations to protest Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, they would bring large pots of maqluba, which literally means upside down in Arabic, and eat it under the eyes of the Israeli police. The flipping of the pots as the cooks shouted Allahu Akbar became a ritual, and the dish also came to be called by both the Palestinians and the Israelis as the dish of spite.

Halawani told Al-Monitor, During the sit-in against Trumps decision at the Damascus Gate, I made sure to serve maqluba, a popular Palestinian national dish, to the young protesters as a way to underline that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine, with all its people, food and culture. People are now keen to have maqluba every week with their families in Al-Aqsas squares as a kind of tradition and custom to guard the mosque.

Maqluba is very popular among Palestinian housewives, as it is an easy way to cook a complete meal with meat, rice and vegetables. Meat is placed at the bottom of a pot. Then a layer of vegetables, often diced eggplant, for which the dish is also called bazenjaniyah, bazenjan being Arabic for eggplant. The final layer is rice perfumed with spices. All of this is cooked on a stove. Before serving, the pot is flipped over so that the rice is at the bottom. It is served with yoghurt or a salad on the side. On the Palestinian coast, fish is used instead of chicken or red meat, and onions replace eggplant. There, the dish is called fish maqluba or sayadiyah.

According to popular accounts, when Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, conquered Jerusalem in 1187, Jerusalemites served the dish to him and his soldiers. In the local stories, it was Saladin who renamed what was then called bazenjaniyah as maqluba.

The idea to serve maqluba at Al-Aqsa first came to Halawani during the holy month of Ramadan in 2015, when the Israeli police expelled her from the mosque and banned her along with several other women from entering the mosque for six months. Halawani is one of the Mourabitoun, the self-appointed guardians of Al-Aqsa, and used to work there as a Quran teacher.

Halawani told Al-Monitor that during Ramadan in 2017, she prepared maqluba in addition to stuffed grape leaves and zucchinis and invited her friends from the expelled Mourabitoun, her relatives and children to eat suhur, the pre-dawn meal, in front of Bab al-Silsila, another of Al-Aqsa's gates, under the watchful eye of the Israeli police.

In 2017, there were many such gatherings organized by activists on social media. Most of the events took place during Ramadan in June, when Halawani and her friend Khweis, also a Mourabitoun, invited Jerusalemites over social media to join them for suhur in Al-Aqsas squares.

Last August, after the Battle of the Gates, when Israel closed the entrance to Al-Aqsa and installed metal detectors after three Palestinians killed two Israeli police officers (near the Lion's Gate), just outside the mosque, hundreds of Jerusalemites came to the mosque for a major event called Maqluba in Al-Aqsa.

The maqluba events were not welcomed by the Israeli forces. The Israeli police broke into Halawanis house in Jerusalem and arrested her on Sept. 17, a few days after she posted the event on social networking sites, inviting people to eat together in front of Al-Aqsa on Sept. 21, which marked the Muslim New Year.

On Nov. 16, the Israeli police barred both Halawani and Khweis from entering Al-Aqsa for six months.

Halawani said, When I was interrogated, Israeli police officers asked me what the goal was behind the Facebook invitation to gather and eat maqluba in Al-Aqsa. They were upset, as I do not fight with weapons but with new creative ideas that shook the occupying Israeli forces. They were indeed shocked that a dish could bring so many people together and encourage them to gather at the Damascus Gate.

She went on, The true maqluba is not made with rice, chicken and vegetables but with steadfastness, persistence and perseverance and with shouts and cheers when flipped upside down.

Khweis told Al-Monitor, The goal behind eating maqluba in Al-Aqsa is to mobilize and gather Palestinians there, even if just to eat or to have children play. This is our response to Israels policies on Al-Aqsa and the attempts to remove us from it.

She added, During our interrogation  they presented pictures of us that were taken while we were flipping the pots and distributing plates to the people who were shouting and chanting.

Eating maqluba seems set to remain a prominent feature of the sit-ins in Jerusalem and protests elsewhere, as it not only brings Palestinians together but serves as a symbol of their heritage and culture. The trend has spread to Jordanians as well, and they also flipped pots in front of the US Embassy in Amman during the protests there against Trumps decision.
January 11, 2018

The 80-plus members of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) who are expected to convene for a two-day meeting Jan. 14 in Ramallah face potentially monumental choices. Yet, on the eve of this crucial meeting, nothing resembling consensus can be discerned. The choices range from dissolving the Palestinian Authority (PA) to ending security cooperation with Israel to withdrawing Palestinian recognition of Israel to the declaration of Palestine as a state under occupation. Each choice has its advantages and disadvantages, its supporters and opponents.

While the location of the meeting has been set, two logistical unknowns remain. They are whether Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives will attend (either as full members or in a symbolic manner) and whether members unable to reach Ramallah (whether from Gaza or from outside of Palestine) will be able to participate via video conferencing.

Press reports have suggested that Hamas will participate symbolically as it did, along with Islamic Jihad, in the last PCC meeting, held in March 2015. Both organizations have been officially invited by the secretariat of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the highest body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Hani Almasri, a well-respected Palestinian pundit and former director general of Masarat  The Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies, feels strongly about the need for meeting and for using video conferencing. Almasri said PCC meetings should be held more regularly and that it is crucial to deliver a message of unity among the Palestinian people regardless of where they live.

For a column published Jan. 9 on the Wattan website, Almasri wrote, Between holding the PCC under the clutches of the occupation or holding it outside, the best combined option is to hold it inside but use the video conferencing option, similar to how the Palestinian Legislative Council was allowing members from Ramallah and Gaza to participate in deliberations.

The last PCC meeting was held three years ago, at which time members decided to have regular meetings, every three months. PLO officials have not indicated why such meetings have not been held.

While the attendees and the logistics are a sign of the PLO's seriousness, the issue facing delegates will be how to respond to US President Donald Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and what direction the Palestinian leadership should take.

For PLO Executive Committee member Tayseer Khaled, the point of departure for the meeting must be to honor previous resolutions. In a Dec. 26 Arab News report, Khaled is quoted as saying of the 2015 meeting, It was decided to end our connection with the Oslo Accords and the security coordination with Israel, but this has not happened.

Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad, Fatah spokesman for international affairs, told Al-Monitor, In the beginning of the PCC meeting, it is expected that members will discuss the matter of withdrawing recognition of Israel as a reaction to the US decision on Jerusalem.

In 1993, the PLO and Israel agreed to mutual recognition. The move gave Israel legitimacy, but the PLO not so much. Members of PLO factions remained in jail for membership in a terrorist organization, and in March this year, Israel declared the Amman-based Palestinian National Fund, essentially the PLOs treasury, a terrorist organization.

In a Jan. 7 column on the PCC meeting, Nasser Laham, a Palestinian television commentator and editor-in-chief of Maan News, called for suing the United States for violating international law and argued that every Arab state should expel the US ambassador. In addition, he wrote, the Palestinians should end security coordination with the Israelis.

Nabil Amer, a Fatah leader, believes that such an escalation would be a mistake. Speaking to Raya FM radio in on Ramallah Jan. 8, Amer said such moves would be painful for the Palestinian people. I dont add my voice to the calls for escalation, he said. Any such escalation will be costly. We have boycotted meetings with the US, that was a good decision and that is enough.

Even the left-wing Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) was critical of the voices of escalation. Senior ideologue Iyad Joudeh wrote Jan. 3 in the DFLPs flagship publication, al-Houria, It is illogical to dissolve the PA, because Israel has been doing its utmost to weaken it, because it knows that the PA is the nucleus of the Palestinian state. We should think logically and retain our national accomplishments.

Oraib Rantawi, director of Al Quds Center for Political Studies, also argued in a Dec. 15 column in the Jordanian daily Ad-Dustour that there is no realistic option of voluntarily dissolving the PA and giving the Israelis the keys to the West Bank. Rantawi believes such issues require deep and serious thought because Israel's reaction would be brutal.

Whatever decision the Palestinian people take, it is highly unlikely that Israel will allow the PA to continue if the latter decides to move to the popular resistance option and end security coordination, Rantawi wrote. At such time, Tel Aviv will assassinate the PA in the same way it did the PAs founder and first head Yasser Arafat.

The Palestinian leadership will indeed be confronted with some tough decisions when it meets. It needs a show of unity and resilience, but must also be careful not to burn all its bridges. Any choices made would likely have a major impact on the trajectory of the Palestinian struggle, so that could mean the leadership will delay any major decisions with the intention of putting them before the PNC.
January 10, 2018

Iran responded to the groundswell of protests that emerged in the new year by clamping down on popular social media and messaging apps used by Iranian demonstrators to organize. But the United States has also complicated protesters efforts with sanctions that have hindered protesters ability to communicate and mobilize online.

Now a coalition of advocacy groups that support better ties with Tehran have forged an unlikely alliance with Iran hawks in Congress to try to rectify the chilling effect that US sanctions have had on US technology firms. Together, they are urging the Donald Trump administration to provide greater flexibility for US companies to provide social media and digital platforms to Iranian citizens.

Activists were notably successful in persuading Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the chairman and top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and enthusiastic proponents of the Iran sanctions regime, to include language to that effect in legislation denouncing Tehrans crackdown against the protesters. The nonbinding resolution, which passed the House 415-2 Tuesday, now encourages the administration to expedite the license of communications technology to Iran to improve the ability of the Iranian people to speak freely, and calls on companies to reject requests by the regime to cut off the Iranian people from social media and other communications platforms.

The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans in a press statement claimed credit for successfully lobbying lawmakers for including the technology exemption language. A House aide confirmed that account.

Treasury has the authority to do this, Morad Ghorban, the director of government affairs and policy for the alliance, told Al-Monitor. What Congress can do through legislation and letters and things like that is encourage Treasury to review this stuff and issue new licenses.

"Iranians are protesting their government  and theyre using technology to organize and communicate to the world, Ghorban added. The Iranian government is trying to shut down avenues where people are doing exactly that, so it makes sense now more than ever for the US government to help the people of Iran organize to counter surveillance and communicate to the world.

The Barack Obama administration issued a general license in 2014 allowing US companies to provide social media, networking and software services to Iranian users. However, the coalition believes that since Trumps election, Apple and Google have become wary that the Obama-era license does not give them adequate legal leeway to allow Iranian users to access their products.

Collin Anderson, a public policy adviser for the Iranian Americans alliance, told Al-Monitor that the Trump administrations more hawkish posture on Iran has made US technology companies more hesitant to take advantage of existing exemptions that allow the businesses to provide telecommunications and other software services in Iran.

General licenses can be revoked and they can be revoked pretty quickly, so theres no assurance that the general license in this hawkish administration is going to be around for a while, Anderson said. So the worst-case scenario is we go through all this trouble, we open up all these services, we do the right thing, and the general license is revoked.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has steadily consolidated control over online communications in Iran to the point where Tehran was able to briefly cut off Iranians access to the internet when the protests erupted late last month. Iran has also blocked access to Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, Instagram and other social media sites in a bid to inhibit protesters ability to communicate and organize. Signal, which is widely regarded as the most secure encrypted messaging app, is also banned.

Ironically, US sanctions against the regime have further constrained protesters ability to mobilize as more than 100 commonly used apps and other software made by US companies are currently unavailable for use by the Iranian public. For instance, US companies have declined to provide messaging and communication apps such as Gmail, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger and Periscope to Iranians out of fear of US legal repercussions.

The sanctions also limit Iranians access to the latest versions of anti-virus software, leaving journalists and activists at the mercy of state-sponsored hackers.

Advocacy groups such as the Iranian Americans alliance, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, the National Iranian American Council and others have also expressed concern to the Trump administration that sanctions have prompted companies such as Apple and Google to stop providing support for apps made by Iranian citizens over the past year. The recent wave of protests has only made the problem more acute.

Dovish advocacy groups have also found unlikely allies in the Senate.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., penned a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week requesting that they work with US technology firms to ensure that protesters have access to the tools they need to let their voices be heard.

Assuring US technology companies that they are not violating US sanctions would go a long way toward ensuring that Iranians are able to freely protest their government, Rubio and Menendez said.

The advocacy groups wrote a similar letter to Mnuchin and Tillerson in October. However, the coalition went a step further than Rubio and Menendez and beseeched the Trump administration to provide more sanctions exemptions for digital services in Iran.

Apple and Google appear to have deleted mobile applications ('apps') developed by Iranian users from their respective mobile application stores ('app stores'), the coalition wrote. These events are an impediment to the free flow of information and private entrepreneurship independent of the government of Iran. We are concerned that the actions by Apple and Google were mandated by current US sanctions laws and regulations.

The disappearance of popular apps created by young Iranian developers and previously made accessible to Iranian users has created shockwaves amongst Iranians online  a potent feeling that they are being unfairly punished for the seemingly perpetual geopolitical dispute between their government and the government of the United States, the letter added.

Anderson said that while the Treasury Department clearly names certain software such as Adobe Flash that companies can make available in Iran, the Obama-era general license may not allow them to publish Iranian-made apps on their platforms.

In the case of Iranian-developed applications, the thing to keep in mind is that while theres pushback from civil society, I think Google and Facebook are most likely correct in their analysis that these are not covered by general licenses, Anderson told Al-Monitor. [The general license] allows for the export of service tools to Iranians. It doesnt allow commercial services and the impact of Iranians hosting applications might actually be an import of services, not an export.

Neither Apple nor Google responded to Al-Monitors inquiries as to why they have blocked Iranian-made apps and restricted certain products. The Treasury Department also declined to comment about whether it is doing anything to ensure that US technology firms are allowing Iranians to access their apps and software.
Today I want to bring you my guide to where to travel for winter sun. If youre tired of of the cold and dark, these warm-weather getaways are perfect for you. Theyll make you forget about the grey skies and remember how nice it is to feel the sun on your skin and see the blue skies around you.

Where to Travel for Winter Sun

I dont know about you, but cold weather isnt my thing. I realize this sounds odd coming from someone who chooses to live in London, but its the truth. Even when I lived in San Francisco I used to escape to Hawaii for Christmas.

So over the years Ive gotten good at finding warm pockets in the cooler months. If youre wondering where to travel for winter sun, today I want to share 10 of my favorite destinations with you.

From South America to Asia, Africa to the Caribbean, Ive discovered some amazing places in my quest for seasonal warmth.

Ive traveled to all of these destinations in winter and can personally vouch for them. So whether youre searching for a city or a beach, theres a perfect place for you.

1. St Lucia

If islands are your thing, St Lucia is hard to beat. I fell in love with the islands natural beautythe green mountain peaks are stunningand postcard-perfect beaches as soon as I arrived.

Which is to say nothing of the delicious seafood and friendly locals. St Lucia is famous for chocolate, too, so its a great place to indulge your sweet tooth.

2. Cape Town, South Africa

If youre more of a city person, Cape Town is where to travel for winter sun. The city won me over with its bright colors, dramatic topography, and penguinsyes, penguins.

Theres also beautiful wine country in nearby Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and the Worcester Wine Route. Add to that beaches galore, and it makes a great place for all-around good living.

3. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

If youre wondering where to travel for winter sun in South America, Rio de Janeiro is just the place.

Not only does it have some of the worlds most famous beaches and a big New Years Eve party, but also rich culture, beautiful mountains, and iconic landmarks. And lets not forget Carnival.

4. Madagascar

If you want to get way off the beaten path, Madagascar is where to travel for winter sun. From Andilana Beach to Tsarabanjina, there are a lot of great places here.

With everything from baobab trees to lemurs, white-sand beaches to turquoise water, this island nation has a great blend of natural highlights and opportunities for escapism.

5. Antigua

Another island thats worth seeking out in the cooler months is Antigua. This Caribbean beauty is said to have a beach for every day of the year, and from what Ive seen theyre all spectacular.

Whether you want to learn to sail or spend all day sunbathing, eat seafood or explore historic harbors, there are a lot of great things to do in Antigua. Trust me. Ive been to Antigua a number of times and cant wait to go back.

6. Langkawi, Malaysia

Over in Asia, Langkawi is a winter sun seekers paradise. In addition to the picture-pretty beaches, the island has monkeys galore and lots of natural beauty to discover. The spas are amazing, too.

If youre wondering where to travel for winter sun in Asia, this is a great bet.

7. Sunshine Coast, Australia

Down under, Australias Sunshine Coast says it in the name. This part of Queensland is where to travel for winter sun in the Antipodes.

Coastal gems like Noosa offer everything from good shopping to great walking trails, and the Eumundi Markets are some of the biggest and best artisan markets Ive ever been to.

8. Sri Lanka

Back in Asia, Sri Lanka is one of my favorite places to combine sun worshiping and cultural immersion. The capital of Colombo is a great place to start a trip to this island nation.

Then after getting a beach fix at coastal spots like Unawatuna and Galle, I like to head inland for tea estates, temples in Kandy, and elephants.

9. San Diego, California

In my home state, San Franciscos chilly winters can easily be remedied by a trip south to San Diego. Its where to travel for winter sun in California.

This beach city is the perfect place to surf, shop, and stuff myself full of Mexican food (with an emphasis on stuffing myself full of Mexican food).

Add to that a picturesque old town, the fun Gaslamp Quarter, and a world-class zoo, and theres a lot of excitement to be had.

10. St Croix, USVI

Back in the Caribbean, St Croix is one of my favorite places to travel for winter sun. Located in the U.S. Virgin Islands, its guaranteed to have warm weather in the cooler months.

Theres a lot to do in St Croix in the winter, too. From kayaking to snorkeling, hiking, shopping, and dining, the island offers a great mix of activities. I spent 5 days in St Croix and enjoyed all of them.

And thats to say nothing of beaches. If you want to lie out and work on your winter tan, there are lots of stretches of sand where you can do just that.

Places to Travel for Winter Sun

There are more places I could add to this list, but I hope its given you a good start if youre wondering where to travel for winter sun.

Im always looking for my next warm-weather getaway, so there will be more winter travel destinations on the blog soon.

New here? Join thousands of others and subscribe to the A Lady in London blog via email or Bloglovin.

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Facebook has tapped the former chief of Googles Allo and Duo services, Amit Fulay, as its new head of product. Fulay announced his transition to the social networking giant via his Twitter account, marking a culmination of his more than seven years of service at the Mountain View, California-based company. At Google, Fulay served as the lead for real time communications products from August 2010, overseeing a variety of solutions including Allo, Duo, Hangouts, and WebRTC, among others. It remains unclear what Fulays responsibility will be at Facebook, though the social networking site is expected to issue an official announcement over the next few days. For its part, Google has also yet to announce its new head of product, with the search giant likely to shed light on the matter shortly.

While working at Google, Fulay made several contributions to the development of various products under his oversight. In June last year, Fulay announced an update to Google Allo that would allow users to make calls using Google Duo right from their chats, adding that Google Allo would also begin letting users to put stickers on their photos shared with others while inside an Allo chat. Several weeks later, Fulay took to his Twitter account again to announce that Allo was coming to desktop PCs. In May last year, Fulay also revealed the addition of chat backup, link preview and group incognito mode to the messaging service. The backup feature was meant to help users restore messages on Allo when necessary. The link preview feature was designed to allow users to view a glimpse of a link when its pasted in a chat.

Prior to joining Google, Fulay served as director of product management at Jambool, the company behind Social Gold which the search giant acquired in 2010. For the uninitiated, Social Gold is a virtual economy platform that provides a method for monetizing social network applications. Before that, he was a senior lead program manager for cloud services at Microsoft Corporation from January 2009 to January 2010. Earlier in his career with the software titan, Fulay also served as a lead program manager for Microsoft adCenter between February 2007 to and December 2008, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The lead engineer of Google Duo has suggested that a number of new features will be coming to the app. Google initially announced Duo back at Google I/O 2016, where it was revealed alongside messaging client Allo. Eventually, the two apps launched a few months after but, despite an initial peak in interest, they havent proved to be as popular as expected. However, this could all be about to change for Duo, as Duos lead engineer, Justin Uberti, just suggested that new features are coming.

In terms of competition, Duo competes directly with the likes of Skype and Facetime, as well as WhatsApps video call feature, but it, unfortunately, lacks a number of highly-requested extras, despite the app boasting over 100 million Play Store downloads. Thanks to a tweet sent out by Uberti, though, it appears this lack of features could be coming to an end, something that would put the app on par with its competitors. Among the features suggested to be coming soon is the ability to have group video calls, something its biggest competitor, Skype, has boasted for years. Not only this, but it appears Google is actively working towards bringing the app to the millions of ChromeOS users, as well as improving the overall call quality. Lastly, and perhaps one of the most requested features, is a web client, much like the one Skype offers PC users. Now, it is worth noting that these features have not been confirmed by Google itself, but with the recent announcement of the Smart Display platform, which is intended to compete with Amazons Echo Show, Google Duo is set to form a fundamental part of it. After all, each of the devices announced so far includes a front-facing camera designed with video calls made through the app in mind. However, Smart Display devices will not only make use of Google Duo. In fact, the new devices will be heavily centered around Google Assistant, with voice commands expected to play an important role in using them.

Google is yet to confirm if or when any of these listed Duo features will become available to consumers, but considering Smart Display devices are set for summer releases, its likely that the features will coincide with the release of the devices in the hope of pushing more consumers onto the video calling platform.
Sister companies JVC and Kenwood are demonstrating their latest Android Auto car infotainment systems at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. JVC is showcasing two solutions  the KW-V940BW equipped with a DVD player, and the KW-M845BW thats advertised as mech-less because it lacks playback capabilities through mechanical mediums. On the other hand, Kenwood has introduced three solutions including the DVD-enabled DX995S featuring on-board navigation by Garmin along with an alternative lacking navigation called the DDX9905, and the mech-less DMX905S equipped with a larger display. All of these infotainment systems are compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and through the WebLink platform, every one of these solutions offers drivers access to applications such as Waze, YouTube, and Yelp.

Starting off with JVCs lineup, both infotainment systems are equipped with a 6.8-inch display that can be digitally adjusted to deliver improved viewing angles. The panels also offer touch controls and the ability to adjust the volume and skip tracks by swiping the screen. When combined with the JVC Remote smartphone application, users can control either one of these solutions remotely and change their sound settings, sources, and other specifications. Up to five people can also connect to the systems and stream music through their smartphones using the JVC Streaming DJ service. Lastly, both the KW-V940BW and KW-M845BW offer Bluetooth connectivity allowing two smartphones to connect simultaneously, and have a built-in input mechanism for rear vehicle cameras. The DVD-enabled JVC KW-V940BW will launch with a price tag of $699.95, whereas the mech-less KW-M845BW will be available for $599.95.

Meanwhile, Kenwood is launching three new solutions with prices ranging from $850 to $1,500. The top of the range is the DX995S featuring DVD playback and a 6.8-inch display, along with on-board navigation provided by Garmin. Theres also the DDX9905 which offers the same characteristics sans navigation and will retail for $1,100. Lastly, the $850 DMX905S is a mech-less alternative without on-board navigation, and because it lacks DVD innards, it can accommodate a slightly larger 6.95-inch SD display. They are all compatible with Android Auto offering access to the Google Assistant and can connect to the platform wirelessly. The Kenwood WebLink smartphone application expands the infotainment systems capabilities with a library of third-party apps thats continuously expanding. All new models are equipped with two inputs for rear cameras as well as a proprietary DRV-N520 high-resolution dash camera and safety system able to record incidents based on user preferences. According to Kenwood, the three solutions were designed as a standalone upgrade to existing audio systems and can connect to either two sets of speakers with internal amplification, or act as a central hub for amplifiers, subwoofers, and the like. Both JVC and Kenwood are currently showcasing their latest solutions at CES 2018 and will begin retailing them in the coming months.
At CES 2017, NVIDIA debuted the new SHIELD TV, but also the Spot. Which was basically a Google Home you could plug into your wall. That means it had the Google Assistant baked in, which was a great idea, and it was really the first non-Google device to be announced with the Google Assistant. The only thing is, it never actually launched. A year later, we are still left wondering where it is. Well, at CES, we spoke with NVIDIA, and were informed that the company is still working hard on the Spot with Google and do expect to release it in the future. Though, there was no specific date given.

NVIDIA and Google are working together on the Spot and are focusing on polishing it up, so that the user experience is a great one. NVIDIA did mention to us that the main delay in the Spot was the fact that Google Assistant made its way over to the NVIDIA SHIELD TV, so the two teams had then decided to work on polishing the experience on the big screen before moving over to the Spot. So its not available yet, but they do expect it to come in the near future.

Speaking of Google Assistant on the NVIDIA SHIELD TV, the company has been demoing a number of new features for the SHIELD TV, which mostly involve SmartThings. Allowing you to control different things from the remote on your SHIELD TV, which does have a microphone for Google Assistant. But also the new routines feature. It works with the SHIELD TV as well, allowing you to say something like Good Morning to the Assistant, and it can automatically start your day for you by turning on the lights, opening the blinds and even getting your coffee ready, if you have a compatible coffee maker.

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So the NVIDIA Spot isnt coming just yet, and we really still have no idea when it is coming, but it should be coming soon. At least that is what NVIDIA wants us to believe. It may eventually launch under a different name, depending on how long it is before it is available for purchase. But it should still be a pretty interesting device, especially for those that are big Google Assistant and NVIDIA SHIELD TV users.
Philips Hue lights will sync with PCs through a new app that the company plans to launch later this year, called Hue Sync. Announced during CES 2018 this week, Philips opened up with a little bit of detail about the upcoming application in its growing effort to expand the Hue ecosystem and the compatibility with its smart home lighting solutions. Hue Sync is an app which is expected to launch in the second quarter of this year so while it isnt quite available yet for owners of Hue lights, Philips promises some pretty interesting features for the app once it does launch.

The main goal of the new app will be to allow users to have a more immersive experience with the content that theyre interacting with on their computers. This is not too unlike the announcement made by Razer and Philips just yesterday that will see the Philips Hue lights integrate with Razers Chroma lighting-equipped gear, though it might not be as in-depth. With the Hue Sync app, the colors of whatever is on screen will be scanned by the app and that will be relayed to the lights, so whether youre watching a movie or playing a game you can still have a more immersive experience even if you dont have any Razer gear that comes with Chroma lighting as the lights will match the scene of your content. As mentioned though, the Chroma integration will be more advanced as specific profiles for games are going to be created which can change the color of the Hue lights to match the colors of the lights on keyboards and other Razer gear as opposed to just the colors that are on screen.

In addition to movies and games the Hue Sync app will also create immersive light scripts for music being played on the computer as well. Philips also states that the app will be compatible with both Windows 10 PCs and Mac PCs running on macOS High Sierra. Just like with the Razer Chroma integration users of the Hue Sync app will need the Hue V2 Bridge, as well as the Hue color smart bulbs to get everything looking nice.
Samsungs millimeter wave-based technology thats currently being tested as part of the companys 5G trials with Verizon is working much better than expected, according to Magnus Ojert, the companys VP and General Manager of the Verizon account. While speaking to FierceWireless, Mr. Ojert admitted he was originally skeptical about the potential of mmWave implementations in the context of the fifth generation of mobile networks but ended up being convinced in the viability of such an approach after a number of successful trials. Following extensive testing efforts, Samsung already managed to come up with an effective end-to-end solution covering everything from building 5G sites to allowing users to easily connect to operational infrastructure, the executive suggested.

A particularly successful aspect of the trial highlighted by Mr. Ojert was the tech giants ability to come up with a reliable system that isnt affected by weather conditions. According to Verizon, the speeds recorded in the later test beds didnt decline due to any precipitation like they did on some of the original testing sites. According to Mr. Ojert, Samsungs mmWave tech played a large role in ensuring that consistency as it allowed the signal to bounce off of buildings and end up in areas where direct coverage would have otherwise been impossible, thus proving its worth in yet another connectivity aspect.

Earlier this month, Samsung announced Verizon awarded it a supply contract for its first consumer-ready 5G Fixed Wireless Access service set to be released in the second half of the year in Sacramento, California. While not a truly wireless solution, the tech is described as the first commercial step toward it and is also understood to be Verizons attempt to recoup a portion of its significant 5G investments earlier than shareholders expected. Verizon is planning to start deploying a real 5G network starting next year, whereas AT&T recently claimed it will do so before the end of 2018, albeit its yet to provide any actual details on the matter. 5G networks should be commercialized in the United States on a national level by 2020, whereas first 5G-enabled smartphones should start hitting the market no later than early next year, according to most estimates.
Samsungs future smartphones will come with unlocked FM Chips. For a number of years now, manufacturers have locked off the hardware inside of their smartphones, even if they are capable of receiving FM radio signals, forcing users to stream instead. Now, however, NextRadio has confirmed that Samsung will be the latest manufacturer to unlock the chip in its upcoming smartphones, in partnership with them.

Because of this move from Samsung, owners of future devices will now be able to use the NextRadio app as intended in order to listen to radio stations, while also using less data and battery due to the lack of streaming requirements. NextRadios President Paul Brenner was also full of praise for the South Korean company, stating that the company should be lauded for its decision. Samsung is yet to confirm which of its devices will be the first to feature an unlocked FM Chip, but with its next flagship  expected to be called the Galaxy S9  officially confirmed to debut at MWC 2018 in Barcelona next month, its likely that Samsung could debut the new feature on the device. Speaking of features, for those who dont know, Samsungs upcoming Galaxy S9 is expected to come with wide range of them. Although the overall design is set to resemble that of the Galaxy S8 line, the bottom bezel will be even slimmer, while the internals and camera department will also be receiving an upgrade. On the inside, Qualcomms Snapdragon 845 will likely power the device in the US, alongside 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. he Galaxy S9 Plus variant will feature a dual-camera setup, much like the one featured on the Galaxy Note 8, albeit in a new vertical setup, which will also see the fingerprint scanner move below the camera sensors.

No matter when Samsung debuts the new unlocked FM chips on its smartphones, the Seoul-based company follows in the steps of its close neighbor LG, and competitors Motorola and Alcatel, who have all announced that they will also be unlocking FM chips in their devices. The decision is so far limited to US and Canada variants, but Samsung could bring the unlocked chip to other variants across the globe in the future if the decision proves popular enough.
The Russian Federation and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have signed an agreement to collaborate on manufacturing of Russian-originated trucks and utility vehicles under license. The deal is expected to benefit from newly eased tax rules introduced by the governments of Russia and Vietnam in an effort to increase the volume of trade between the countries.



Russian-made Kamaz military truck of Vietnamese. (Picture source soha.vn)

"The inter-government protocol, signed on December 27, 2017 in Hanoi, mainly focuses on the localized production of commercial trucks but also covers specialized vehicles for military applications. Under the protocol, Russian truck manufacturers, including KAMAZ and UAZ, will be required to transfer technologies and skills to Vietnam to facilitate production and localized maintenance support," according military experrts. "The two sides will also look to penetrate export markets in Southeast Asia," they add.

In accordance with the agreement signed by Vietnam's Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Konstantin Vnukov, Hanoi will import both unassembled kits and drive-ready trucks from Russia. "The document says that in 2018-2022, Vietnam will allow Vietnamese-Russian joint ventures [JV] to import 2,550 completely built-up cars and 13,500 sets of auto spare parts without tariff," the People's Army Newspaper said, citing the VNA news agency. Local media did not specify the type of sets to be bought; however, they are believed to be knocked-down kits for local assembling. It is noteworthy that Russian-Vietnamese JVs will be established to handle manufacturing processes.



Russian-made Kamaz-43253 military truck of Vietnamese. (Picture source soha.vn)

"The new protocol was signed a year after KAMAZ, which has a strong presence in Vietnam, announced plans to expand in the country in a bid to meet growing demand in commercial and military markets. The companys effort, in part, is geared towards addressing the growing influence in Vietnam of Chinese vehicle manufacturers," the specialists of IHS Jane's point out.

It is noteworthy that KAMAZ is shoring up its presence on the markets of South Asian countries including Vietnam. In February, CEO of the company Sergei Kogogin in an interview with the TASS news agency mentioned a plan to export 6,500 trucks in 2017, 4.8% more than in 2016. "In 2016, we produced 6,200 automobiles for export, and the plan for this year [2017] envisages manufacturing of 6,500 automobiles [for export]," Kogogin said at the Russian Investment Forum that was held from February 27-28, 2017 in Sochi. He also mentioned Vietnam as a primary customer for the KAMAZ trucks.

In January 2017, CEO said that 1,855 automobiles (or nearly 20% of the company's exports) had been delivered to Vietnam in 2016. He also named Cambodia and Laos as potential customers for the KAMAZ automobiles.

Therefore, the company is planning to shore up its presence on the local market. The licensed manufacturing of the KAMAZ trucks in Vietnam dates back to 2003, when joint stock company (JSC) VMIC (Vinacomin Motor Industry Joint Stock Company), a JV between KAMAZ and the state-owned Vinacomin group, was established. "KAMAZ also operates another JV in the country, [namely] Kamaz-V-Itasco Automobile that provides military maintenance and support," the analysts of IHS Jane's say. They point out that KAMAZ is believed to have delivered about 4,500 military trucks to the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), including KAMAZ-4326, KAMAZ-43253, KAMAZ-5350 and KAMAZ-6350 automobiles. The PAVN is known to use several types of systems (namely, artillery and command-and-control (C2) vehicles) that are based on the aforementioned KAMAZ trucks.

At present, Vietnam's military operates ZiL and Ural platforms, in particular, early variants of the Ural-4320 and the ZiL-157. While the serviceability of the Vietnamese Ural-4320s is believed to be at a relatively high level, the legacy ZiL trucks will be replaced at an early date due to their obsolescence.

 Copyright 2018 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Bird & Bird has expanded its capabilities in Hungary by hiring a team of two partners, three senior counsel and 15 lawyers from Weil, Gotshal and Manges.Weils Budapest office will close on 1st February 2018 but the firm will have an ongoing cooperation with the new Bird & Bird team.Bird & Bird opened its Hungarian office 10 years ago and has a strong focus on Intellectual Property, Tech & Comms, Dispute Resolution and Data Protection; while the Weil team will add experience of Corporate, Commercial, Dispute Resolution, Regulatory and Finance work.Hogan Lovells has appointed Leopold von Gerlach as the chair of its board from 1st May 2018.The Hamburg-based partner takes over from Londons Nicholas Cheffings who will have completed two terms in the role. The firms board oversees its ethos and standards and comprises 12 members. The chair can serve up to two three-year terms.Von Gerlach is an IP infringement specialist whose clients include some of the worlds most famous names such as The LEGO Group, Citi, eBay, PayPal, Estee Lauder and Gibson Brands.Growing litigation financer Burford Capital has announced that it more than tripled its new investment commitments in 2017 from the previous year.The firm, which operates in multiple markets and has recently made a significant push into the Asia Pacific market, made $1.3 billion in new commitments in 2017.We are delighted with the growth of the business in 2017. The new commitments made during the year have the potential to generate significant future income in the years to come and reflect a robust legal finance market that Burford continues to lead, said Christopher Bogart, Burfords Chief Executive Officer.The firms Asia Pacific chief Quentin Pak recently gave Australasian Lawyer his insights into the arbitration funding market.
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Love for Iceland is a website that tries to promote many of the aspects of one of our favorite countries. From the first moment we were aware of all the many visual possibilities for a project of this topic, so the main challenge was to present the text content in a friendly way so the navigation wasn't too tedious.

Main challenge: make a visually attractive site with a lot of information

Generally websites with lots of information have classic blog structures so our goal was to make it less conventional. We wanted to make something creative where the usability wasn't penalized, so we focused all our attention on the navigation, making an interface where the user could access all the content easily.

We explored the way mobile apps work, showing the sections and its contents with lateral interactions keeping the user on the same page, not refreshing it, and having all the elements animate in a responsive and fluid manner.

We tried to make users navigate all the content in a responsive and fluid way, so the user experience isn't affected by all the content the website has.

Design Approach

One of the biggest possibilities of this project was to show the amazing photography of the country so we decided from the first moment to make a design with full screen backgrounds and big headers.

Our designer had recently traveled to Iceland so we used some of the photos he took, but we mainly got the visual contents from Unsplash because there was so much to choose from. We also wanted to give an homogeneous look to the site so we applied a grey filter to the photos.

We decided to choose a typography with a lot of personality because it would make the big amount of content more friendly and readable. We liked Abril Fatface, a serif font that looks elegant on big sizes, but the legibility would have been bad on smaller texts, so for those small paragraphs we chose PlayFair, an elegant font that works well in smaller formats.

Our initial final design followed current minimalist trends and had flat backgrounds, but when we had the website developed we decided to change them. Using different and subtle textures instead of flat colors as backgrounds the website had more personality, and it was a minor change that wouldn't have a noticeable effect on other important parts like the preloads or the smooth animations so we decided to do it.

Initial and final backgrounds.

We decided to use a texture that looked like ice from the glaciers and even lava from the volcanos.

Lava / Ice / Texture with 5% opacity.

Technical Approach

To get an experience similar to an app we made the content appear as soon as the user clicks on a link, avoiding in-between preloads and reducing the wait time. To make that possible we developed a preload system in the background that anticipates where the user could access and has all the content preloaded and ready to show it.

Up to this point the technological part wasn't really special so we thought about adding some small details that would enrich the experience. We added some small ice/dust particles to the backgrounds that the user could interact with. Also we applied a displacement map to the backgrounds when a section is accessed that conceptually simulates the movement of lava.

With these organic effects the website seemed more alive and closer to the atmosphere of the country we were talking about.

One of the problems we detected with the app-like way of showing content was FPS drops when a new image was decoded and shown on the viewport. To prevent this from happening we had to come up with some pretty weird techniques.

For example when the user clicks on a link, before anything animates, we insert the images on the DOM with 0.0001 opacity so they are invisible to the user, then we move them to the viewport to force the image decode, then after some milliseconds we place them on their initial positions and finally show them with the rest of the content. All of this happens very quickly so the user cannot perceive it.

Tools used

Wordpress REST API, Node, Webpack, Javascript with Babel, SASS, PIXI, GLSL.

Company Info

Twenty Two Degrees (22) is a web design and creativity studio based in Madrid. We focus on new ways to create and develop innovative projects. Even though our main focus is digital projects we also offer other design services like branding.
11 January 2018 14:23 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The hard economic situation and low social conditions in Armenia have long been the reason for the populations poor living standards. For dozens of years people were leaving the country because of this, and this trend continued in 2017 as well.

Armenian demographer Artak Markosyan has recently told local media that as many as 13,500 people emigrated from Armenia during the first nine months of 2017.

He said that in 2016 alone, 22,000 Armenian citizens were granted citizenship of Russia, and 19,000 people received a residence permit. In addition, many Armenians leave for European countries and the U.S. The data for 2017 has not yet been summarized, but there is definitely no downward trend in the exodus of Armenias population.

Markosyan noted that the number of people leaving the country is huge, and if there is emigration in the country, this means that the country has a problem and people no longer see their future in this country.

Since the 1990s, Armenian citizens have been leaving abroad for work, but in recent years the number of people leaving for permanent residence has increased in the total migration balance," he said, noting that since 2007 this balance is red in Armenia.

Among the three South Caucasian countries, Armenia has the highest emigration rate, which indicates that during their life in this country, people face many problems and eventually have no other choice but to leave abroad.

If this pace continues, more serious consequences will show up in the next 5-6 years. This is why we need a comprehensive approach, says the Armenian demographer.

Every responsible government would long ago started serious actions to stop the crisis in the countrys demographics, but the Armenian authorities turn a blind eye to the problem. During one of his speeches in 2017, the Armenian president said that the government plans to bring the countrys population to four million, that is, to increase it by more than one million, by 2040. However, given that the exodus rate is not decreasing yet, these words remain idle talking.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
11 January 2018 10:16 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 125 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on January 11.

Armenians were using sniper rifles.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
11 January 2018 13:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

Last year, the real estate market of Azerbaijan had a growth trend in comparison with previous years, which will continue in the first quarters of 2018, the general director of the consulting company MBA Group, an expert in real estate Nusret Ibrahimov told Day.az.

The estimates of the economist show that there was an increase in activity of the real estate market in the previous year, prices fell by 3.46 percent.

Compared with the previous years 2015-2016 this is a positive indicator, which shows stabilization of the real estate market due to the restoration of activity in the banking sector, the issuance of loans on the mortgage line, as well as progress in the construction sector. There is a demolition of old and construction of new houses in this segment, which on the whole positively affects the state of the real estate market. In 2017, the housing market experienced a relative decline in prices, while in the car market the prices rose by more than 12 percent, said the expert, explaining that this was caused by the growth of customs duties on the import of cars from abroad.

In his opinion, the price increase for both apartments and cars will continue in 2018. In the automobile market this will be especially clear in the first quarter of this year, as the proportion of cars entering the market will increase as they enter the country, which will ultimately affect the average market price as a whole.

Ibrahimov also noted that favorable conditions of mortgage lending to housing will increase the purchasing power of the countrys population.

As for the housing segment, this year the rise in prices for this type of property will again affect the activation of mortgage lending volumes, developments in the banking sector. The growth of money supply in this segment of the market will reach 4 percent this year, he said.

Today, the share of the construction sector in Azerbaijans GDP amounts to about 10 percent.

The government plans to achieve a GDP growth by 249 million manats ($146.47 million) until 2020, through the implementation of measures envisaged in the Strategic Road Map for the development of housing provision at a reasonable price.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
11 January 2018 12:37 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

The number of those applying to Azerbaijans employment agencies decreased by 1.7 times in 2017, Salim Muslumov, the minister of labor and social protection of the population, said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers chaired by President Ilham Aliyev dedicated to the results of socioeconomic development of the country in 2017 and future objectives.

He said that stability was maintained in the countrys labor market, where 111,000 young people entered in 2017.

Last year, the number of registered labor contracts increased by 44,700 people, he said. The Commission for the Regulation and Coordination of Labor Relations played an important role in this. Reduction in the number of applications to the employment agencies is one of the indicators of stabilization in the labor market. Thus, if 204,000 appeals were made to the employment agencies in 2016, their number decreased by 1.7 times in 2017 and amounted to 118,000.

Muslumov noted that the positive trends in the labor market have led to an increase in fees for compulsory social insurance.

The volume of social payments in the non-oil sector amounted to 1.338 billion manats ($791 million) in 2017, which is 10.8 percent or 130 million manats ($76 million) more than in 2016, he said. The budget forecast was executed by 103 percent. The volume of revenues allowed timely financing of expenses for pensions and social payments in the amount of 3.4 billion manats ($2.01 billion)

The minister added that as a result of the reforms carried out last year, the pension system was cleared of non-insurance elements, liabilities of the pension and insurance system were completely separated from the state budget liabilities, the open account principle was applied in the individual accounting system and the working pensioners were given the opportunity to increase their pension every 72 months by using funds accumulated in their personal accounts.

In six months (since the amendments to the legislation were made), 17,430 people used this right and their monthly pensions have increased by an average of 146 manats ($86), which means that additional 2.5 million manats ($1.4 million) are spent monthly for the payment of these increments to pensions, he said.

A continuous increase in participation rate has been demonstrated in the labor market of Azerbaijan. The increasing participation rate is related with high spillover effects from the energy sector on other sectors of the economy, such as the construction and service industries, as well as an increase in self-employment activities of small landowners and small to medium-sized businesses.

The country is the worlds number 17 in Labor market efficiency pillar, in terms of the efficient use of talent, outclassing Israel, Ireland, Belgium, Austria and Estonia, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Unemployment rate in Azerbaijan is 5 percent, while the poverty level equals to 5.3 percent.

In 2016, some 56,631 unemployed and job seeker citizens were provided with suitable jobs by the State Employment Service under the Labor Ministry. Roughly 36.2 percent of them, as well as 27 percent out of 1,147 people involved in paid public works, were young people.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
11 January 2018 16:48 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

Azerbaijan, a country with a rich culture and centuries-old history, has variety of architectural monuments and sights. The country is literally full of sights with artistic value.

Historical and cultural reserves of Azerbaijan have a special place among such attractions. Reserves under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism create extensive opportunities for the development of cultural tourism in the country.

Gobustan National Historical and Artistic Reserve occupies the leading position among the places most visited by the local and foreign tourists. In 2017, some 80,126 tourists arrived to see Gobustan, 39,561 of which were the citizens of foreign countries. Foreign visitors have come from over 20 countries, including Turkey, Iran, Russia, Germany, England, Pakistan, China, USA, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Arab countries. It should be noted that more than 65,000 tourists visited the reserve in 2016.

One of the reasons for the growing interest of tourists to Gobustan that has always attracted the tourists is the conditions created here. The museum complex, commissioned in 2011 at the Gobustan Reserve and included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, meets the most up-to-date world-class standards. The complex won the 2013 Museum of the Year in Europe competition.

The State Historical-Architectural Reserve Ateshgah Temple, Remembrance of ancient history and ancient religious beliefs, was also among the most attractive places of the country. After conservation work carried out, the number of tourists visiting the place is increasing every year. Last year the number of tourists visiting Ateshgah was 30,751, 25,346 of which were foreigners. The main share of those who visited Ateshgah made up the tourists coming from Russia and Arab countries.

In 2017, a great number of tourists visited the State Historical-Cultural and Natural Reserve of Yanardag. During the year 54,717 out of 63,574 people were foreign tourists. The place was visited by the tourists coming from Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and other countries.

Cultural reserves and historical sites operating in the regions of the country have attracted many visitors throughout the year.

Last year, 77,856 tourists visited Guba Genocide Memorial Complex and 56,742 tourists visited the State Historical-Architectural Reserve Yukhari Bash in Sheki. Some 40,182 people visited Lahij State Historical and Cultural Reserve (in Ismayilli), 25,850 tourists came to see Kish Historical-Architectural Reserve (in Sheki) and 20,700 people visited the Zagatala Historical and Cultural Reserve.

In 2016, some 356,000 tourists visited the historical and cultural sites, while in 2017 this figure reached 486,233, a considerable share, namely, 166,153 of which fall on foreign citizens.

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11 January 2018 14:59 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Italy will continue to support the work of the OSCE Minsk Group to find a definitive solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Italy's Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said.

He made the remarks at the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on January 11.

Our attention will remain high and unchanged on all of the protracted conflicts, the minister said.

He also noted that during its chairmanship at OSCE in 2018, Italy intends to intensify the dialogue between the OSCE member states, which is one of the key principles.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

Meanwhile, the OSCE Minsk Group, created in 1990s to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, is still working on the issue. It is co-chaired by France, the Russian Federation, and the United States. It is also noteworthy that Italy, chairing the OSCE this year, is one of the permanent members of the Minsk Group.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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11 January 2018 09:52 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The year 2018 will be successful in terms of industrial and agricultural development in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev said.

He made the statement at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of socioeconomic development of the country in 2017 and future objectives on Jan. 10.

The Head of State noted that practical steps are being taken to create industrial parks. The president noted that the Neftchala Industrial District was put into operation last year, while Hajigabul, Masalli and Sabirabad industrial sites are under construction.

"Opening of the first plant in the Mingechevir Light Industry Park is expected this year. The work at Sumgait Chemical Industry Park is very successful. Four new enterprises were opened and foundation of three enterprises was laid in late 2017. I am sure that they will be launched this year or early next year. Thus, the number of residents of the Sumgayit Chemical Industry Park has reached 15 and the volume of investment to be invested is $ 2.7 billion, which is a good result, and the $ 2.7 billion investment is a big figure, President Aliyev said.

President Aliyev expressed confidence that 2018 would be a remarkable year for industrial development: "It is planned to open ten new carpet factories, so the number of carpet factories should reach 20 by the end of this year. This means thousands of jobs. Particularly, women are working in these factories. They are nice jobs created for women, where they can show their knowledge and talent, and create good financial opportunities for themselves and for our country. Their products create wonderful opportunities for our countrys export potential and promotion of the Azerbaijani carpet in the world. That's why it is planned to open ten new factories this year, he said.

The head of state also expressed his confidence that the year 2018 will be successful for the development of agriculture: "Last year, the agriculture sector increased by 4.1 percent. This is a good indicator. Also, we are dealing with food security issues, and we develop the traditional technical field of agriculture. I have to note that Davos World Economic Forum has made a calculation over the food security, and Azerbaijan is ranked the 57th place in terms of food security index. This is a good indicator. Additional measures will be taken in the field of food security, in particular, grain production, so that to reduce dependence on imports and increase the volume of export-oriented products as in 2017, President Aliyev said.

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11 January 2018 09:50 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev said that work on reduction of the foreign public debt should be carried out in the coming years.

He made the statement at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of socioeconomic development of the country in 2017 and future objectives on January 10.

"We should work to increase the revenues of the State Oil Fund. Overall, our currency reserves, the State Oil Fund's foreign exchange reserves are increasing year by year. This, of course, will allow us to allocate funds for important projects of the country and ensure economic stability. The amount and increase of the currency reserves give us economic independence and we are not dependent on any financial institution. We take loans. But, I should also note that we need to follow a more serious policy on loans, the President said.

The President noted that work on the reduction of the foreign public debt should be carried out in the years to come. "Today our foreign debt is at a reasonable level. However, I have set a task not to increase but reduce the foreign debt, President Aliyev said.

Increasing currency reserves give us economic independence. As I have said, we ourselves issue credit and we are not dependent on foreign loans. Even at the very low price of oil, we did not allow any delay in financing the Southern Gas Corridor, which is of strategic importance to the country, and almost certainly this project is about to complete. Thus, the high level of foreign exchange reserves strengthens economic independence. This, in turn, strengthens our political independence, he said.

Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan is one of those countries that pursue an independent policy.

"The number of such countries is not so many, especially this is not peculiar to countries with not so big population and territory. However, we are on the path of independence and our free and independent life is superior to us. That is why our economic potential is necessary not just for the solution of economic issues. Our economic potential increases our political power, strengthens our position in the region, and allows us to define and implement the long-term strategy of our country. Of course, our economic power has played a major role in financing the Southern Gas Corridor, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, North-South projects and other key projects. We have borrowed foreign loans for the implementation of major strategic projects. But if we had not had a very strong economic situation, we would not have been able to get these loans, and we well remember that there were not many willing to lend us loans when we had not money. As we have grown up economically, the resources of the Oil Fund have started to grow, then the number of those desiring to lend us increased, and we are already making the choice.

In short, the level of our external debt should decline. This year's budget provides for repaying foreign debt. The main task is not to borrow foreign loans to the less important projects. We only need to borrow foreign loans for technologically important projects. Otherwise, it is not right to get a loan from abroad for the construction of a building or any other project that we can do using own capacities, President Aliyev said.

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11 January 2018 10:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan's non-oil exports grew by 24 percent in 2017.

He made the statement at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of socioeconomic development of the country in 2017 and future objectives on January 10.

The head of state noted that the country's export potential is growing. "In 2017, exports grew by 19 percent and non-oil exports increased by 24 percent. This is the result of the relevant work. The number of population is increasing. The population grows by at least 100,000 people a year. Consumption is increasing, the number of tourists is increasing. Last year, the country received almost 500,000 tourists more than in 2016. This, naturally, increases consumption. Nevertheless, our non-oil exports, including the export of food products, are growing rapidly. The growth of the non-oil sector by 24 percent during the year is the result of the work done," President Aliyev said.

The head of state noted that imports grew by about one percent, and this is natural. "Because, Azerbaijan, first of all, meets its demand at even larger volumes through domestic production, on the other hand, the purchasing power of citizens increases. So, I believe that the preservation of imports at a stable level is our greatest achievement. The positive surplus of trade balance is $6.2 billion. Economists are well aware that this is an excellent indicator. I am confident that the difference will be even greater in this and subsequent years. This is one of the very important factors for improving the macroeconomic situation, and keeping the stable rate of the manat," said Ilham Aliyev.

The President stressed that the major economic indicators are very positive.

"I think that every country can be proud of such results, and we are proud that we accomplished 2017 with such excellent indicators. The development of the regions was constantly in the spotlight. In the past year I visited over 30 regions. As part of these visits new enterprises were opened and foundation of new enterprises was laid, and I was informed about the situation in the regions. I visit the regions every year and I can say that I visited almost half of the regions last year. Of course this is very important for me, since I review the situation on the ground and give relevant instructions.

I know what is important for citizens residing in these regions. Of course, it is also very important for strengthening the discipline, because I have repeatedly visited every region of Azerbaijan and personally supervise the implementation of these instructions," the head of state said.

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11 January 2018 10:28 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev said that the total number of ASAN Service centers will reach 15 this year.

He made the statement at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of socioeconomic development of the country in 2017 and future objectives on January 10.

Three ASAN Service centers will open this year in Mingachevir, Imishli and Shaki cities. This will bring the total number of ASAN Service centers to 15, the President said.

The head of state added that he gave instructions to build ASAN Service centers in five cities. They will probably be inaugurated in 2019. So in a year we will have 20 ASAN Service centers, he said.

The President said that ASAN Service centers have received about 20 million requests so far, adding that the project marked a breakthrough in the public service sector.

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11 January 2018 10:31 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijan dynamically and successfully developed in 2017, Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev said.

He made the statement at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of socioeconomic development of the country in 2017 and future objectives on January 10.

President Aliyev stressed that the results achieved in all spheres of life have made a great contribution to the overall development of the country. The Azerbaijani people lived under conditions of stability and security in 2017.

"Today, risks, threats, bloody conflicts and confrontations are widespread in different parts of the world. In a word, the risks are rising in the world, and it seems that these trends will continue," the head of state said, adding that the world community is in worry as it is facing such an issue.

President Aliyev said that stability, security and normal living are ensured in Azerbaijan. Taking into account the complex geopolitical situation in the present world, the results achieved in this area in Azerbaijan are highly appreciated.

President Ilham Aliyev emphasized that no country can develop without stability. This is axiom. We have seen this repeatedly in recent history. When the stability is broken, the development stops, the country's economy declines and investment stops. In short, stability is a prerequisite for the development of each country. In Azerbaijan, the source of stability is the people of Azerbaijan, its will and, at the same time, our policy. Because, our policy is based on national interests, our national interests are superior to us. The security, stability, economic and social development of our country and its growing role in the international arena are the guarantors of stability, the President said.

"I am confident that these positive trends will intensify in Azerbaijan in 2018. The people-authority union is the key condition for our success and the people-authority unity is obvious today. The basis of our successful policy is the support of the people. The strengthening of these positive trends, of course, will ensure long-term and sustainable development of our country, "the head of state said.

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11 January 2018 11:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree to provide grants to the citizens of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member-states for their education at Azerbaijan's universities.

According to the decree, a program of educational grants is being created this year to provide education in preparatory courses and on bachelor's, master's, doctoral, basic medical and residency levels.

The grants will cover tuition fees, visa fee, registration fee, fee for accommodation in dormitories or rental apartments, daily meal, provision with educational materials, transportation fee (except for taxi), utilities, medical care and visits to the native country once a year at Azerbaijans expense.

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11 January 2018 16:57 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

January 11 is marked as Day of Reserves and National Parks. By the 1997 initiative of the Biodiversity Conservation Center and the World Wildlife Fund, this date began to be celebrated.

The 2017 year is announced to be a Year of Specially Protected Areas and a Year of Ecology.

Environmental protection problems are always at the center of attention of the Azerbaijan government.

The country's nine national parks, 11 state parks and 24 state reserves are home to a wide variety of wildlife including eagles, gazelles, bears, wolves, deer, and wild boar.

Total protected areas amount to 10.3 percent of Azerbaijan's land mass, including 3.7 percent of national parks.

Goygyol State Reserve was first in Azerbaijan. The reserve was established in 1925 in order to protect and study ecologic systems of middle mountainous, forest and partly subalpine areas, as well Goygol, Maralgol, Zeligol and other mountain lakes.

The national parks serve to the purposes of environmental protection, educational, scientific, cultural researches, etc. protecting environment and serving the educational, scientific and cultural.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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11 January 2018 15:46 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council will be held Feb.15 in Baku, said Azerbaijans Ministry of Energy.

Invitation letters were sent to relevant countries and several international financial institutions. The program and agenda of the ministerial meeting are being prepared, said a message from the ministry.

Earlier, Trend learned from the US Department of State that Acting Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the US Department of State Sue Saarnio will take part in the event.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.



As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

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11 January 2018 12:53 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov discussed the development of bilateral relations with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon during his working visit to Dushanbe, the Tajik presidential press office reported.

The sides mulled the issues of eliminating trade restrictions, simplifying the regime of bilateral trips of citizens, reducing tariffs for moving goods, restoring the existing railway route, cleaning up mined areas at the border, opening checkpoints and other issues related to the state border.

Rahmon stressed the readiness of the Tajik side to strengthen intergovernmental cooperation with Uzbekistan in the use of water and energy resources, saying that Tajikistan has never tried to create problems for the countries of the region on this issue, on the contrary, advocated for integrating the world and regional community in addressing water and environmental issues problems.

They also discussed issues of bilateral cooperation in combating undesirable threats in the region and the world, including terrorism, extremism and other transnational crimes.

Both sides expressed hope for fruitful relations between the two countries in all areas of interest.

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11 January 2018 13:36 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov discussed the construction of the Turkmenabat-Turkmenbashi highway during a working trip in Ashgabat, Altyn Asyr TV channel reported on January 10.

The president put forward a proposal to name the highway running from Amul (Amu Darya River) to Khazar (Caspian Sea) as the Great Silk Road.

This initiative is a real result of practical implementation of the resolutions on transport and transit corridors adopted by the UN General Assembly at the initiative of Turkmenistan in 2014 and 2015, President Berdimuhamedov said.

The Great Silk Road passed through Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan has a rich culture, various natural landscapes and unique archaeological monuments included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.

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11 January 2018 14:48 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev are expected to hold talks at the White House on January 16 during the visit of Kazakh leader to the United States.

The forthcoming visit to the U.S. will be Nazarbayevs first one under the presidency of Donald Trump.

The meeting will focus on the ways to strengthen and enhance strategic partnership on regional security issues and economic cooperation, the White House said in a statement on January 9.

The presidents will discuss Kazakhstans leadership on several international challenges, particularly Afghanistan, during its presidency of the United Nations Security Council, and the legacy of bilateral partnership between our countries regarding weapons of mass destruction and non-proliferation issues.

These issues are relevant in terms of the war in Afghanistan entering a new phase and the ongoing crisis on the Korean peninsula linked to the nuclear dream of North Korea.

In September 2017, Trump and Nazarbayev held a telephone talk during which a number of important events were highlighted, including Expo 2017, Kazakhstans upcoming UNSC presidency and the opening of the countrys IAEA Low Enriched Uranium Bank.

During the conversation, Trump also invited Nazarbayev to pay an official visit to the United States. The presidents also discussed the status and prospects for the Kazakh-American relations development. At the same time, the sides agreed to strengthen the bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Trump and Nazarbayev first met on the sidelines of the Arab Islamic American Summit in Saudi Arabia in May, 2017.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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11 January 2018 17:48 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

The export volume of Russian oil delivered to Uzbekistan in 2017 amounted to 68,200 tons, according to the materials of the Central Dispatch Office of the Fuel and Energy Complex.

In particular, in November, 30,000 tons of oil was sent to Uzbekistan, while in December the figure increased making 38,200 tons.

Earlier, the official representative of Transneft, Igor Demin said that the company plans to pump 50,000 tons of Russian oil in the direction of Uzbekistan in December 2017. Demin noted, that this is just about test deliveries.

As previously reported, in April 2017, during the state visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Moscow, a bilateral memorandum on the delivery of 500,000 tons of Russian oil to Uzbekistan was signed.

Sergei Andronov, Transneft's vice president, said that Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil and Russneft could take part in the delivery of 500,000 tons of Russian oil to Uzbekistan.

On November 20, Kazakh company Kaztransoil began shipping Russian oil to Uzbekistan. Oil is pumped via the KazTransOil pipeline system en route Omsk-Pavlodar-Shymkent- Shagyr oil loading point, from where it is poured into railway tanks and then transported by rail to Uzbekistan.

In Uzbekistan in 2010-2016, gasoline production decreased by 26.2 percent, diesel fuel - by 8.3 percent, while imports of hydrocarbons increased 1.3 times.

In late April 2017, Uzbekistan started construction of a new refinery in Zafarobod district of the countrys Jizzakh region, which is expected to operate using the crude imported from Kazakhstan and Russia.

The refinery has design capacity of processing of five million tons of oil per year, production of 3.7 million tons of car fuel, over 700,000 tons of aviation fuel and 300,000 tons of associated oil products.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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Here are seven updates for ASC leaders to know for Jan. 11, 2018.

Oregon Vascular Specialists building new surgery center

Vascular surgeons Jason Jundt, MD, and Wayne Nelson, MD, are building a new surgery center in Bend, Ore. The 11,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to be complete in June. The building will feature offices and an ASC with two operating rooms.

Allscripts to acquire Practice Fusion for $100M

Healthcare technology company Allscripts signed a definitive agreement to acquire Practice Fusion. Allscripts plans to acquire Practice Fusion for $100 million. The transaction is subject to adjustments for working capital and net debt.

New voluntary bundled payment model aims to improve inpatient, outpatient care quality & cost-effectiveness

CMS created a new voluntary inpatient and outpatient bundled payment model, Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced. Participants will have to redesign care delivery to restrain Medicare expenditures into a defined budget, while also improving on or maintaining performance on specific quality measures. The participants are also required to use certified EHR technology.

Texas Digestive Disease Consultants expands into Houston

Southlake-based Texas Digestive Disease Consultants entered into the Houston market through the recently announced addition of Greater Houston Gastroenterology.

Ohio health system acquiring Southwest Ohio Gastroenterology, Clinton County Outpatient Surgery

Wilmington, Ohio-based CMH Regional Health System will acquire Cincinnati-based Southwest Ohio Gastroenterology and Clinton County Outpatient Surgery in Wilmington, effective Feb. 1. CMH is acquiring the group's three Ohio offices.

Blue Ridge Day Surgery Center files for $816k in financing

Raleigh, N.C.-based Blue Ridge Day Surgery Center filed for $816,000 in equity financing. The center has yet to declare what the financing will be for.

Dr. Richard McCallum receives Texas Laureate Award

Richard McCallum, MD, a professor and founding chair of the department of internal medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, was named a 2017 Laureate by the Texas Chapter of the American College of Physicians.
Marquis Who's Who awarded gastroenterologist Michael Samach, MD, its Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.

Here's what you should know:

1. Dr. Samach has practiced at West Orange, N.J.-based Affiliates in Gastroenterology since 1987.

2. He sees patients out of the practice's Morristown, N.J., location.

3. Before joining Affiliates in Gastroenterology, Dr. Samach ran a private practice for 9 years, he also served as Morristown Medical Center's vice chairman of medicine and directed the endoscopy department.

4. After earning his medical degree from New York City-based New York University, he completed an internship, residency and fellowship at New York City-based Montefiore Hospital Medical Center.

5. He is an American College of Physicians, American College of Gastroenterology and American Gastroenterological Association fellow.
Richard McCallum, MD, a professor and founding chair of the department of internal medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, was named a 2017 Laureate by the Texas Chapter of the American College of Physicians, according to the El Paso Herald-Post.

The Laureate Award is given to Texas physicians who demonstrate "an abiding commitment to excellence in medical care, education or research, and in service to their community, their chapter and the American College of Physicians, according to George Crawford, MD, the Texas Southern ACP governor.

Here is what you should know about Dr. McCallum:

1. He is a board certified gastroenterologist who has researched brain-stomach interactions that cause nausea and vomiting in patients with the digestive disorder gastroparesis.

2. Dr. McCallum's research has appeared in over 450 peer-reviewed articles and 120 textbook chapters. He has edited 14 textbooks on gastroenterology.

3. In 2009, Dr. McCallum joined TTUHSC El Paso as professor and founding chair of the department of internal medicine.

4. In 2014, Dr. McCallum created the RotaCare Clinic in El Paso in partnership with the Rotary Club. The clinic is available to individuals without any other access to healthcare services, and provides first- and second-year medical students with initial clinical experiences under licensed physicians' supervision.

5. Dr. McCallum is the second TTUHSC El Paso faculty member to receive the Laureate Award from the ACP, which has been given annually since 1985. In his acceptance speech, Dr. McCallum noted that the associate professor and vice chair for education in the department of internal medicine Harry Davis II, MD, received the award in 2011.

6. Dr. McCallum received his medical degree from The University of Queensland Medical School in Brisbane, Australia, and underwent fellowship training at Wadsworth Veterans Hospital and the University of California in Los Angeles.

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Children's Mercy Kansas City (Missouri) received two gifts totaling $150 million, representing the largest one-time gift donated to a children's hospital for pediatric research, to support the construction of the hospital's new research institute.

The gifts  $75 million from the Hall Family Foundation and $75 million from the Sunderland Foundation  will kick-start construction of the research institute and accelerate the recruitment of top researchers.

The new 375,000-square-foot, nine-story research institute will house nearly six times more space for pediatric research. In addition, once the institute is staffed, the hospital's research enterprise will grow tenfold.

"Thanks to the unparalleled generosity of the Hall and Sunderland families, our Children's Research Institute will allow us to accelerate even more precise diagnoses and treatments for complex childhood diseases, so we can provide groundbreaking care for the most difficult medical cases right here in Kansas City and around the globe," said Randall L. O'Donnell, PhD, President and CEO of Children's Mercy Kansas City.
Two U.S. Senators wrote a joint letter to leaders of Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health, the 38-hospital spinoff of Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, and Massillon, Ohio-based Affinity Medical Center Wednesday regarding their decision to close the facility Feb. 4, according to WKYC-3 News.

In the Jan. 10 letter, Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, urged Quorum Health CEO Thomas D. Miller and Affinity Medical Center CEO John P. Walsh to "take a step back from its announced closure timeline and instead engage with local stakeholders on potential means to continue operations at the hospital."

The senators said closing the facility will have an adverse effect on patients and leave them with no viable options to receive care.

"We were surprised [by] this announcement, and are concerned that Quorum's current timeline gives the local community  including patients and their families, employees, and other local stakeholders  less than a month to find alternative sources for both critical healthcare services and employment opportunities," the senators wrote. "This announcement and lack of contingency planning and cooperation with the local community threatens the health and financial wellbeing of the residents of Massillon, including the hospital's committed workforce."

Since announcing the hospital's closure last week, several leaders have voiced their opposition to the move. A group of at least seven physicians have also offered to buy the hospital.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress have said they are close to approving a long-term funding deal for the Children's Health Insurance Program, which could come as soon as next week, according to The Hill.

CHIP provides insurance for nearly 9 million low-income children across the nation. Funding for the program expired in September, though Congress approved a short-term spending package in December.

The Congressional Budget Office recently revised their estimate on the cost of long-term funding for CHIP, saying it would take $800 million to finance the program for five years instead of the previously estimated $8 billion.

Lawmakers in the House Energy and Commerce Committee previously fought over how to pay for CHIP, but Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said the reduced cost estimate would eliminate many roadblocks.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said CHIP funding is "highly likely to happen on or about the 19th [of January] when the current continuing resolution expires," according to The Dallas Morning News.
A judge in Pennsylvania overturned a $27.8 million jury award against Johnson & Johnson and Bayer AG over claims their blood thinner Xarelto caused internal bleeding, according to EquitiesFocus.com.

In December, a jury awarded Lynn Hartman $1.8 million in compensatory damages and $26 million in punitive damages after she claimed taking Xarelto for her atrial fibrillation caused gastrointestinal bleeding. The lawsuit is just one of nearly 21,400 Johnson & Johnson and Bayer AG are facing over Xarelto, but this was the first to award any damages.

In three previous cases, federal judges cleared the companies of any liability. Both companies noted the drug's label adequately warns customers of any internal bleeding risk.
With President Donald Trump's 90-day declaration of the opioid crisis as an official public health emergency set to expire Jan. 23, public health officials and addiction treatment advocates are arguing the administration has not fully leveraged resources available under the declaration to address the crisis, according to a report from Politico.

Here are seven things to know.

1. The declaration of a public health emergency differs from a national emergency designation  typically reserved for natural disasters and terrorist attacks  in that it comes under the department of HHS and is finite. By contrast, national emergency declaration comes under the Stafford Act, is overseen by the Homeland Security Department, is open-ended and provides access to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund, which carries a budget of $4.28 billion. The Public Health Emergency Fund available to HHS to address a public health emergency carries a budget of $57,000. The Trump administration has yet to propose a way to replenish those funds.

2. The lack of new funding is a major sticking point for critics of the Trump administration's response to the opioid crisis, as both policy experts and state public health officials have said it will take billions in funds to address the crisis.

"His thoughts and prayers have helped," said Rahul Gupta, MD, public health commissioner of West Virginia. "But additional funding and resources would be more helpful."

3. An unnamed senior White House official told Politico President Trump is in active discussions with Congress about additional funding to address the opioid crisis. The official also said the administration has made significant efforts to address the opioid crisis over the past year. The official pointed to President Trump's use of "his bully pulpit to draw further attention to this emergency that he inherited."

4. The White House official also said the declaration has allowed federal agencies to prioritize the crisis and that the media campaign President Trump called for is in the works. The official also pointed to legislation signed by the president on Wednesday to boost customs' ability to screen for opioid trafficking. However, this legislation was initially introduced in March 2017, well before the president's declaration.

5. While the declaration of a public health emergency can be renewed, it's unclear how much a difference it would make in the administration's response. Most of the administration's actions to address opioid addiction in America have come from outside of the declaration, such as advancing research into non-opioid pain management and issuing guidance to states to expand access to inpatient treatment. Other measures discussed by the Trump administration, such as allowing physicians to use telemedicine to prescribe medication-assisted addiction treatment services, have not yet come to fruition.

6. The public health emergency designation permitted federal health agencies to hire more treatment specialists and reallocate money to focus on responding to the opioid crisis. An HHS spokesperson declined to provide Politico with details on whether the agency has leveraged these capabilities.

7. Patrick Kennedy, addiction treatment advocate and former Democratic congressman from Rhode Island, told Politico the "unfortunate part is that the declaration conveyed to the public that something was being done, when nothing is actually being done." Mr. Kennedy sat on President Trump's opioid panel, which encouraged the president to declare the nation's opioid epidemic a national emergency under the Stafford Act in its interim report issued at the end of July 2017.

More articles on opioids:

Federal judge calls for quick resolution to 200+ opioids lawsuits

Opioid prescriptions down 12% in Pennsylvania: 4 things to know

Pennsylvania governor to issue disaster declaration for opioid epidemic
Hiawatha (Kansas) Community Hospital announced it will close its Home Health Agency by April 30, immediately sparking concern from Kansas public health officials, according to Hiawatha World.

The hospital's decision to cease home health services derived from regulatory and financial barriers set by Medicare that made the sustainability of the program improbable, hospital officials told Hiawatha World.

"It is with a heavy heart and after significant consideration, Hiawatha Community Hospital will no longer continue to offer home health services to the consumers of Brown County and the surrounding areas," said Jeff Shelton, CEO of Hiawatha Community Hospital. "This decision is directly related to the regulatory and financial barriers set by Medicare, which limits the hospital's ability to financially sustain a hospital based home health program."

The imminent closure immediately drew concern from local health officials. Kristin Watkins, Northeast Kansas Multi-County Health Department CEO, believes this will place a greater burden on the already-overloaded Home Health Care Department.

Ms. Watkins said the closure may cause the department to absorb the hospital's home-health patients and noted the department doesn't have the funds nor proper staff level to take care of these patients.

To mitigate the lack of funds and potential patient volume increase, Ms. Watkins is asking for Brown County to provide some funding to the department.
The 11-member stakeholder team convened by Nashville, Tenn.-based Meharry Medical College in November to discuss the future of Nashville General Hospital held a second closed-door meeting Tuesday, the Tennessean reports.

The team has come under fire after panel members refused to share basic details about the meetings. Patrick Johnson, senior vice president for institutional advancement at Nashville-based Meharry Medical College and member of the panel, said the team constitutes "a private entity and just like every private entity we don't hold meetings in the public forum, nor are we required to," the report states.

The multidisciplinary team was created shortly after Nashville Mayor Megan Barry unexpectedly revealed plans to transition Nashville General into an outpatient facility. The decision was reportedly made without informing the hospital's CEO or governing board, according to the report.

Tanaka Vercher, PhD, chair of the Metropolitan Council's budget and finance committee, declined to participate as a member of the team and has openly criticized the way in which the meetings have been conducted.

"If we're going to discuss community wide solutions as it relates to Nashville General Hospital, it needs to be a public meeting where the public can be included," said Dr. Vercher. "[The public] at least need[s] an opportunity to hear the dialogue first-hand in this process."

Dr. Vercher filled her seat on the panel with another individual of her choosing. Dr. Vercher's designee expressed his concerns in an email to her prior to the team's first meeting Dec. 18. In the email, the designee expressed his reservations regarding the team's April 1 deadline to devise policy recommendations with regard to the hospital ahead of the city's budgeting process, according to the report.

News of the team's second meeting comes hours after two Metro Council members proposed a bill preventing any action altering the safety-net hospital's operating agreement with the city until June 2019.

Editor's note: This article was updated Jan. 11 at 9:43 a.m. A previous version of this article said Nashville Mayor Megan Barry created the panel, not Meharry Medical College. We regret this error.
Prince William changed into blue scrubs to observe a surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, according to Today.

Here are four takeaways:

1. Surgeons at the hospital were using Intuitive Surgicals da Vinci Surgical System to remove a tumor from a patients esophagus.

2. The minimally invasive surgery system reduces surgery and recovery time, allowing the prince time to speak with the patient after surgery.

3. Prince William routinely asked physicians how to use the system as well as about the patients diagnosis and procedure throughout the surgery.

4. The Duke of Cambridge is the president of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, a program of robotic surgery for cancer in the United Kingdom.
Medtronic presented a plan to restructure the company at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference and reported some of the details in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

Here are five things to know:

1. The company will create new jobs and allocate resources to support growing market needs through the restructuring program. The company currently has 9,000 employees in Minnesota, making it the state's largest employer.

2. The program aims to improve productivity and integrate manufacturing systems, according to the report. The restructuring will add $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion in charges over the next five years, and half of the charges are expected to be employee-related costs.

3. Called the "Enterprise Excellence Program," the company's leaders hope to drive margin improvement and invest in strategic growth initiatives as a result.

4. Medtronic hopes the restructuring will result in more than $3 billion in annual growth savings by the end of fiscal year 2022.

5. An undisclosed number of employees will feel the impact, however, Medtronic said the total employee count is expected to hold steady.
'The biggest deal during the year was the pre-letting by HMRC of Erskine House on Chichester Street, which is now being built'

October to December last year was the strongest quarter for office take-up in Belfast in two years, according to a new survey.

Agency Savills NI said 2017 saw robust take-ups for the second year in a row - bringing levels back to the peak of 2007.

The biggest deal during the year was the pre-letting by HMRC of Erskine House on Chichester Street, which is now being built.

However, technology, media and telecommunications continued to be the most active sector, accounting for 19 out of 47 deals.

Simon McEvoy, of Savills Northern Ireland, said there had been "positives" during the year though supply of new Grade A offices was a limiting factor.
A church looks set to get the green light for a controversial 3m plan to build 22 apartments in an affluent area of south Belfast.

Windsor Baptist Church has submitted revised proposals for the development at Malone Avenue after a backlash from residents.

The church wants permission to knock down its existing building and construct 22 apartments and associated car parking on the site.

The building was put forward for approval by Belfast City Council planners last month, despite more than 100 fresh objections. But a decision was subsequently deferred until councillors carried out a site visit before deciding on whether to grant approval.

However, after the visit, planners are recommending the building gets the go-ahead.

The committee is due to make a decision on the scheme at next Tuesday's planning meeting.

Since last month's meeting, two further letters of objection have been received.

Planners say they relate to issues such as infrastructure not being in place for the size of buildings, parking, waste and noise, and the development not being in keeping with the townscape character of the area.

"Following presentation of the application, the committee agreed to defer consideration of the application to permit a site visit to be undertaken in light of the issues raised regarding the Malone Conservation Area, height of the proposal and impact on local residents and to allow the committee to acquaint itself with the location and the proposal at first hand," council planners said.

Addressing issues over the size and scale of the building, planners said: "It is acknowledged in the immediate context of the application site, there are lower density semi-detached properties.

"However, this is not the dominant density along Malone Avenue which also consists of HMO (house in multiple occupation) properties and flats contained within the terraces and the larger flatted developments at the Lisburn Road end.

"Therefore, the proposed density would not be out of keeping with the context of Malone Avenue.

"In addition, due to the design of the development which would appear as individual terraced properties, the actual numbers of units would not be visually apparent."

Addressing the planning committee last month, James Stinson, representing the Lower Malone residents, said he was "extremely concerned" about the recommendation to approve the scheme, and said the group had highlighted "significant and evidence-based" reasons why the three-storey development should not get the go-ahead.

Tom Stokes of TSA Planning, which is acting on behalf of the church, said Windsor Baptist Church is planning to move to a new site on the Lisburn Road as it is growing in "size and congregation".

While planners have recommended the apartment building gets permission, there are a series of conditions.

They include developers showing what materials will be used in its construction and demonstrating that there will be satisfactory bin storage and collection.

Windsor Baptist Church is currently transforming the former Majestic cinema on the Lisburn Road, which it will use as its new meeting hall. It is one of the last remaining venues of its kind in the city, but has been empty for several years.
An artist's impression of the new student accommodation

A 430-bedroom student accommodation building looks likely to be given the green light next week.

Lacuna Developments and Watkin Jones Group purchased 26-44 Little Patrick Street last year from UniCiti.

The joint venture is behind three other new student accommodation developments in the city.

The scheme, which had planning permission for 354 rooms, is being put forward for fresh approval at a Belfast City Council planning committee meeting next week.

Planners said the proposed 12-storey building was "adjacent to extant approvals for similar sized buildings".

"In terms of impact on amenity, there are no existing residential uses immediately adjacent to the application site," the planners added.

"However, there are extant approvals for residential apartments immediately adjacent.

"This relationship is not considered inappropriate at this location given the context of approvals in the area."

On their recommendation to approve the Little Patrick Street project, planners said it was subject to a section 76 agreement, relating to developer contributions.

"The current proposal is for a purpose-built managed student accommodation comprising up to 430 beds on the same site which has extant planning approval for 354 units on the same building footprint," they added.

"Prior to setting out the planning assessment, it is important to understand the key differences between the two schemes.

"The main change of note is the introduction of a much increased proportion of cluster beds accommodation (81%) which are smaller in size and take up less space within the building envelope than the previously approved studio apartments plus an additional floor.

"This has resulted in an increase in the number of beds that can be accommodated."

Speaking in July after purchasing the site, Lacuna Developments' managing director Anthony Best said: "We look forward to delivering a fourth student accommodation scheme, and securing more than 100m of investment for the city."
(Credit: Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC) Michael Wolff spoke to "The View" about his book the 'Fire and Fury.'(NEW YORK) -- A day after Steve Bannon unceremoniously stepped down from Breitbart News, Michael Wolff, author of the politically-disruptive book on the Trump White House that publicized many of Bannons frustrations, claimed responsibility for the former chief strategist's ousting.



It certainly wasn't something I expected," Wolff said on ABC's The View Wednesday. "It's certainly not something I feel good about,



Bannon was a key source in Wolffs book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, and offered sharp criticism of the president and others, including his adult children.



Shortly after arriving in this White House, [Bannon] began to understand that  Trumpism and Donald Trump were at a significant distance from each other, Wolff said. I think Steve wrestled with that in very, very tough ways. Ultimately, I was the recipient of his enormous frustration.



So you're the reason he's out? Joy Behar, one of the hosts on The View, asked.



I'm the reason he's out, Wolff responded.



But the tense White House dynamics went far beyond Bannon and the president, Wolff said. From his time sitting on a couch in the West Wing waiting for appointments with different members of the administration -- a position he said he got because he slipped through the cracks -- Wolff said he noticed three "factions."



One of the factions was "Jarvanka," the disparaging term Bannon sued for Jared and Ivanka Trump. The other competing ideas came from Bannon himself and former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.



They regarded -- each of these factions, the 'Jarvanka' side, the Bannon side and Priebus side -- regarded the others as assassins, he said.



Wolff has been on the television circuit promoting the book and an explosive excerpt in New York Magazine since they were published. The book currently sits at No. 1 on the Amazon books best-sellers list.



He has faced a number of questions about his reporting in the wake of the salacious details that have emerged from the book, but has steadfastly stood by his work. White House officials have disputed his claim that he held "something like a semi-permanent seat on a couch in the West Wing," and have called the book "fiction."



Meghan McCain, co-anchor on The View, raised the credibility question to Wolff.



Traditionally, in situations like this, its the disgruntled staffers who arent loyal to their principal that give interviews like this. So Im curious, when you talk about staff, you didnt talk to his cabinet? Did you ever interview Jared and Ivanka? McCain asked.



She also expressed skepticism about the quotes attributed to Tony Blair, Tom Barrack, Kate Walsh, Anna Wintour, all of whom denied their quotes and attribution in the book.



I think you have to look at the other people who aren't denying, a great number of people, Wolff responded.



Last week, the book prompted a cease-and-desist letter from one of Trumps lawyer. In the days following, the president released a Tweet-storm about the credibility of the book and the questions it raised over the presidents own mental stability.



Charles Harder, the Trump lawyer who called for the cease-and-desist, wrote that he was "investigating numerous false and/or baseless statements" about the president contained within the book. He also said it included defamatory statements and could be considered an "invasion of privacy."



In response Monday, a lawyer for Henry Holt & Company, which published the book, responded to Harder, saying there is "no reason to doubt...that Mr. Wolff's book is an accurate report on events of vital public importance" and that Harder's letter "provides no reason to change this conclusion."



"Though your letter provides a basic summary of New York libel law, tellingly, it stops short of identifying a single statement in the book that is factually false or defamatory," the letter, sent on Monday, read. "Instead, the letter appears to be designed to silence legitimate criticism. This is the antithesis of an actionable libel claim."



Henry Holt and Company moved up its original Jan. 9 publication date to last Friday and the book quickly became a best-seller.





Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Donald Trump's former White House press secretary Sean Spicer will be among the line up for this week's The Late Late Show on RTE.

In an Irish television exclusive, the chat show will see host Ryan Tubridy grill the ex-political aide about his time within the Trump administration.

Among the list of topics to be covered will be Spicer's statement that Trump's inauguration in January 2017 was "the biggest ever" - a much refuted claim.

He is also expected to speak about his tumultuous and often controversial six months as the White House press secretary, as well as his thoughts on Michael Wolff's explosive new book on the Trump administration - Fire and Fury.

RTE have said he will also give his take on Mellisa McCarthy's portrayal of him on Saturday Night Live and why he ultimately decided to resign from the White House post.

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"Donald Trumps presidency is one of the most fascinating and extraordinary things to happen in our lifetime," said Late Late host Ryan. "Sean Spicer was right there watching it all in a front row seat.

"I am really looking forward to getting his firsthand account of what it was like to be there in that White House with the worlds media watching and his insights into whats really going on in Trumpland."

Spicer will also talk about coming to Ireland to uncover his Irish roots and explain why he still supports Trump - so much so he believes he will win another term in the White House in 2020.

The Late Late Show is broadcast on RTE One, Friday, January 12 at 9.35pm.
Arlene Foster has told the new Secretary of State that direct rule must be introduced if Sinn Fein "continues to block" the restoration of power-sharing.

Speaking after her first meeting with Karen Bradley at Stormont, the DUP leader said: "The clock is ticking in relation to the government of Northern Ireland. We haven't had a government now for over a year.

"I think she (Mrs Bradley) has heard directly today from people that they want to see government back here and if it's not going to be a devolved administration then it will have to be some sort of an administration direct from Westminster."

Mrs Foster claimed Sinn Fein Northern Ireland leader Michelle O'Neill chose to speak to Mrs Bradley on the phone, rather than meeting her at Stormont as other party leaders did, due to ongoing criticism over MP Barry McElduff's Kingsmill video.

Mrs O'Neill dismissed the claim as nonsense and blamed clashing diary commitments.

She said: "The call today by the DUP leader for the introduction of Tory direct rule makes clear they have no interest in resolving the issues at the heart of the current crisis and no interest in re-entering power-sharing on the basis of equality and respect."

UUP leader Robin Swann told Mrs Bradley that restoring power-sharing was vital. "If there are parties that want to exclude themselves, then they need to get out of the way and stop preventing those of us who want to do the job from doing so," he said.

He urged the government to take action to stop Sinn Fein MPs from claiming expenses while not taking their seats.

Naomi Long said Mrs Bradley appeared "willing to take a fresh approach" to the talks. The Alliance leader said:"Things can be resolved if the will is there and the best way to test that is to appoint an independent facilitator, who can put a fair compromise on the table and see whether the parties will accept it," she said.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: "There is no time left to go through the same failed process between two parties and cross our fingers, hoping things will be different.

"Nowhere is the urgency more clear cut than in our hospitals and schools where frontline staff, patients, parents and pupils are enduring the brunt of the pain because of a failure of politics."
DUP MLA Edwin Poots has said he is looking at options outside of politics due to the "uncertain" future in Northern Ireland.

The former Health Minister told the BBC: "I think it's something most wise politicians would be looking at now that the future is uncertain.

"We need to be looking at other options."

The Lagan Valley MLA was culture minister in 2007 and health minister in 2011.

Mr Poots said that his preference would be to stay in politics with a working Stormont but he revealed he was talking about job opportunities with people on a "regular basis".

Northern Ireland has been without a functioning Executive since last January despite a number of attempts at talks which have failed to break the political impasse.

He added: "The last year has not been a year that has had much fulfilment for any politician."

In addition the leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland said he has been actively searching for part-time work ahead of expected cuts to MLAs' pay.

Steven Agnew told the Press Association he has taken the decision because he has "two kids to care for and bills to pay".

In December the Northern Ireland Secretary was advised to cut MLA salaries by 13,612 in the absence of a sitting Assembly at Stormont.

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Mr Agnew said: "I am not looking out of politics but I have actively started looking for additional work.

"I am looking at offering consultancy work around leadership for social change. I still plan to keep on my role in the Assembly, but reflecting the pay cut I need to seek to make up the income elsewhere," he added.

Mr Agnew said he is still devoting himself full-time to politics but that seeking additional work "is a necessity of making up income".

In December SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan said that he might return to a law career.
'An internal inquiry by the Health and Social Care Board's published yesterday, found no evidence suggesting information had been deliberately removed or that searches had not been carried out properly' (stock photo)

The family of a girl who died from a hyponatraemia-related condition have questioned a Northern Ireland health trust's findings that there was no cover-up after her death.

The long-delayed Hyponatraemia Inquiry was set up in 2004 after allegations that fatal errors had been made by hospital staff administering intravenous fluids.

It investigated the deaths of five children, including Raychel Ferguson (9), who died in June 2001. She died in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children after an operation to remove her appendix at Altnagelvin Hospital.

Yesterday the inquiry published allegations by a whistleblower from the Western Health Trust. According to the BBC, they raised questions over searches of a premises in the Western Health Board in 2004.

However, an internal inquiry by the Health and Social Care Board's published yesterday, found no evidence suggesting information had been deliberately removed or that searches had not been carried out properly.

Des Doherty, the Ferguson family's solicitor, said they believed the investigation was "without merit" and that the family still believe there had been an attempt to cover-up the truth.

The Health and Social Care Board told the BBC a full and thorough investigation had been carried out, which found no evidence to support claims of any "deliberate attempt to remove evidence" or "any deliberate attempts to destroy evidence or equipment".

The board added that it was confident that no evidence was withheld from the Hyponatraemia Inquiry.
A Northern Ireland man is demanding compensation from easyJet after his dream Christmas break in Spain ended with a nightmare journey to get back home.

Jim Montgomery (72) from Portstewart was stranded for two days on the Costa Del Sol after his return flight was cancelled.

Mr Montgomery flew to Malaga en route to Torremolinos on the Wednesday before Christmas and was due to return a week later.

But that's when things started to go wrong.

He explained: "It was a very stressful time. I was at the departure gate at Malaga Airport when the first hint of trouble came.

"The noticeboard said there would be a 15-minute delay, and that became a half-hour delay, which wasn't too bad.

"But then I realised people were walking away from the gate and it was only then that I discovered that the flight had been cancelled."

He says he was told to go back outside the security zone to enquire about what to do next, but staff at first refused to let passengers leave.

He explained: "Once I did get out I went to the desk where I was told there were people who could help me.

"But they directed me to another easyJet desk and by the time I got there I couldn't believe it - there must have been 100 people in the queue. It took me nearly four hours to get to the top of the queue, where I was told I wouldn't be going home until two days later - via Bristol.

"The staff informed me that I would have to make the necessary arrangements through an easyJet app on the phone.

"I told them that I didn't know how to use that and they eventually said they would get me a hotel but that I would have to pay the taxi fare and claim it back later.

"The hotel wasn't exactly close to anywhere I wanted to be and it wasn't until the next day that I was informed I would be staying another night in the same place so I didn't have to move."

On the Friday he boarded a plane to Bristol for a connecting flight to Belfast. He said he had been left 150 (132) out of pocket. EasyJet said the plane was cancelled as a result of an earlier diversion because of snow in the UK.

It added: "Every effort was made to minimise the impact of the cancellations on customers.

"Due to limited availability easyJet transferred some passengers onto flights to alternative UK destinations and then on to Belfast, and they were provided with hotel accommodation where required."
The new Secretary of State visited Belfast yesterday - but answered only three questions from pre-selected media outlets.

Karen Bradley, on her first trip to Northern Ireland, arrived at Belfast Metropolitan College's new campus in Titanic Quarter, commenting that she was delighted to be there.

Despite a large number of journalists turning out for the first chance to engage with her, she took only three questions - from the BBC, UTV and RTE.

Mrs Bradley restated her predecessor James Brokenshire's determination to overcome the challenges at the heart of the power-sharing crisis and restore devolution at Stormont.

The Staffordshire Moorlands MP, who was appointed by Prime Minister Theresa May this week after Mr Brokenshire's surprise resignation on health grounds, said she wanted to work collaboratively with the parties to forge an agreement that will see the Assembly resurrected.

She talked to staff and students at the college and received a tour, before speaking to the media on the Titanic Quarter's fog-shrouded waterfront.

She described it as "fitting" that her first visit to Northern Ireland was to the Titanic Quarter, as it represented the past and future, and said her family was looking forward to getting to know this "amazing country".

"I want to find a way through this because the absolute priority is to restore devolved government as soon as possible," she said.

Asked if she intended to adopt a new approach to the stalled negotiation process, Mrs Bradley stressed she was still in learning mode.

"I am here to learn, I am here to find out, I am here to meet all the leaders, I'm here to look at what needs to be done," she said.

"I know there are challenges, but I am determined we will find a way through those challenges.

"We need to deliver devolved government to Northern Ireland as soon as possible and that's what I am determined to do."

Mrs Bradley said she was also conscious of the need to deliver a Brexit that worked for everyone here.

She said she understood the importance of dealing with the legacy of the Troubles and ensuring a safe future.

"My aim is to work collaboratively to find solutions to those issues that are acceptable to everyone," she said.

She added that the Irish Government would have an "important role" to play in efforts to restore devolution.

A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office told the Belfast Telegraph that there had been limited time for the media.

He said the Secretary of State will be taking part in more extensive media interviews in the future.

Later, Mrs Bradley met DUP leader Arlene Foster.

She spoke to Sinn Fein's Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill on the phone.

She also met UUP leader Robin Swann and his SDLP counterpart Colum Eastwood in person.

Mr Eastwood warned the Secretary of State there was "no honeymoon period" and urged her to convene inclusive talks with an independent chair immediately.

Mrs Bradley also met PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton yesterday, and is due to meet the Republic's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney tomorrow.

Mrs Bradley was elected as the MP for Staffordshire Moorlands in 2010. In February 2014 she replaced Mr Brokenshire as a junior minister at the Home Office. In July 2016 she was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Frederick Boyd is accused of blackmailing her after they met online and exchanged intimate images.

A man allegedly sent sexual photos of a married woman to her husband and teenage son before demanding 700 to prevent further disclosure, a court heard on Thursday.

Frederick Boyd is accused of blackmailing her after they met online and exchanged intimate images.

The 25-year-old, of Mayo Place in Belfast, denies menacing the wife and mother for cash, claiming he was told she was ready to leave her family for him.

He was granted bail but banned from contacting the woman or entering her home town.

Boyd appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court after being arrested for offences allegedly committed on Tuesday.

He faces charges of making an unwarranted demand for money from the woman and disclosing a private sexual photograph or film with intent to cause her distress.

Opposing his release, a detective constable claimed Boyd sent some intimate photos to her husband, 16-year-old son and some of her friends.

"He was asked to desist but demanded 700 to do so," he said.

Although police have seized Boyd's phone, the court heard he has yet to provide the code for them to access the device.

"We don't know where the photographs are stored at the moment," the detective added.

District Judge Fiona Bagnall was told Boyd and the woman came into contact through a "well known website" last year.

Defence counsel Declan Quinn said Boyd claims they met once at a hotel, and maintained contact online.

"She was indicating to him her intention to leave her husband and family and begin a relationship with this man," he contended.

"He indicates there are a number of sexual images she sent to him.

"She was telling him to hold on until the divorce went through."

According to Boyd's case he "reacted" after receiving a photo of the woman and a female friend out with another man.

"He sent images he already had to her husband and her 16-year-old son," the barrister added.

"She then contacts him and pleads with him not to do this, not to disclose any further."

Disputing the blackmail allegations, Mr Quinn argued that Boyd only asked her to pay back 60 owed from a previous encounter.

He said: "The defence case is that the complainant has made a mountain out of a molehill, perhaps for some understandable reasons to deflect attention from her."

Granting bail, Mrs Bagnall also prohibited Boyd from using or accessing any internet devices.

She ordered him to appear back in court in March.
Police have appealed for information after thieves stole heating oil from a respite home for children with disabilities in County Antrim.

Thieves who took heating oil from a special care unit which provides respite to disabled children and their parents were branded despicable.

They must have known what the home was, they must have known what they were taking, they cant have known the very real distress and disruption caused to disabled children, MLA Roy Beggs told the Belfast Telegraph.

Around 1,500litres valued around 1,000 of home heating oil was taken from the Whitehaven Respite Unit in Whitehead over the new year period. It was only discovered when the facility re-opened on Monday.

Staff said five children were set to stay the night in the facility and were very excited and when they were told they couldnt some became very distressed.

MLA Roy Beggs said: Its a home many of the children look forward to visiting. They get a bit of a break from home, they get to meet others and have a social life with friends. It would be very important to them.

Also the parents get a chance to recharge their batteries and this would have thrown everything up in the air.

Theft is wrong no matter who or what it is, but it is all the more despicable when its from a home which provides such a vital service for disabled children.

Mr Beggs added: There is no way those responsible couldnt have known what they were taking and from who. I know it disrupted the service until the supply could be replenished. They probably thought it was easy pickings.

But it couldnt have operated without heat and I am sure it would have been very difficult to explain to the children what happened and why they were having to move.

The children have significant needs and it was probably inappropiate to continue without heat.

Police are investigating and urged the public to ensure home heating oil tanks are secure.
The Abbeycentre has announced it is to charge customers and staff who park for more than four hours

Shop workers at a one of Northern Ireland's biggest retail outlets have hit out after bosses announced they will be charged for parking from next month.

Abbeycentre revealed the change of policy on Facebook yesterday, explaining parking would still be free for up to four hours.

But it added anyone wishing to stay longer should park in allocated spaces and will need to pay 1.50 per day.

A separate letter to store managers at the Newtownabbey shopping centre confirmed the move affected workers.

It said: "The tariff applies to both customers and staff who use the car park."

Faith Clarke wrote on Facebook: "I work in Abbeycentre and can I say that most of the shifts for any staff in this place are four hours, meaning no matter what, every single member of staff will have to pay to go to work.

"Everyone is saying how 1.50 isn't going to break the bank, but at the end of the day the money all adds up, and could be used on a better cause!

"Not to mention, most of us get monthly pay.

"What happens if we are running low at the end of the month before pay day?

"I don't think it's right for us staff to stress about getting parked, pay for a ticket and running to work in case we are late! I think its a joke."

Emma Bruce wrote: "You say it's to make it easier for the customers... what about the staff who work in the shops them customers wish to go to?! So now I have to pay to go to work!

"Where is the loyalty to the staff who keep the centre running? Very disappointing."

Amy Forte added: "What about employees? We now have to spend 9 a week for parking if we work six days! Absolute joke."

Antrim and Newtownabbey Alliance councillor John Blair agreed. "I was shocked when I was contacted by a number of people who work at Abbeycentre about the introduction of car parking charges which will, obviously, have financial implications for staff as well a customers," he said.

"It hardly needs pointing out that many staff taking a hit from these charges are those who work part-time, at minimum wage levels and on zero-hours contracts.

"Whilst this move gives the council a chance to promote the free parking available in our town centres at Glengormley, Antrim, Ballyclare and elsewhere, it does, however, seem a little mean - to say the least - given the serious implications for those who work and shop at Abbeycentre."

The new system, which comes into effect in mid-February, will be run by Smart Parking Ltd, an independent car parking provider. Fines of up to 100 will be issued to anyone who flouts the new rules.

Kieran Smyth of retail workers' union USDAW said he was "gravely concerned" and would be speaking to Abbeycentre bosses about excluding staff members from the new charges.

"Many of these people have no choice but to drive to work because of their shift patterns," he said.

"Early morning and late night shifts for deliveries and things like that mean they have to park there, and will have to pay out simply to go to work.

"We're gravely concerned about this as it will impact on them enormously, so we'll be speaking to the employers at the various stores we deal with and the Abbeycentre itself to see if any arrangement can be made for shop workers."

Abbeycentre manager Mark Stewart said: "We have listened to our shoppers and are aware of the car park congestion issues, especially around holiday periods.

"ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) parking solutions are commonplace in shopping centres throughout NI.

"The car park solution will free up spaces quicker, making it easier for our shoppers to find a spot. The proposed wider car park improvements will result in a safer, greener environment for all of our road users."
Friends and family have been searching for missing Michael.

Police have deployed drones over Cave Hill outside Belfast in the search for a missing man.

Michael Cullen (33) was last in contact with his family on Tuesday at around 2pm. From the North Circular Road area in the north of the city he is described as a well-known beatbox performer who has played in London and Dublin.

Police said his family were growing increasingly concerned and have appealed for anyone who has seen him to get in touch.

Michael is 5"9 tall with dark hair and beard. He was wearing a green puffa jacket, grey jumper and black trousers before he went missing.

Friends have organised through a Facebook group co-ordinated searches and appeals. Teams took to the Cave Hill on Thursday to help with the search effort.

Rory Girvan, organiser of the group, said they "optimistic" during a search of the Cave Hill on Thursday afternoon.

He said Michael was "well-loved" highly intelligence. He said he was probably Ireland's best beatbox performer and his disappearance was "highly out of character".
A PSNI officer has been found not guilty of intending to pervert the course of justice in a case linked to a single punch killing.

Detective Sergeant Cathy Thompson was acquitted last month following a three-day trial at Londonderry Crown Court, but reporting restrictions were only lifted yesterday.

Ms Thompson (34), whose address was given as care of Coleraine PSNI station, was found not guilty by a jury of intending to pervert the course of justice by sending a text message to Ciara McCoy, with whom she was in a relationship, on January 10, 2016.

The text message was sent to Ciara McCoy by the officer on the day Ms McCoy's brother Finbar McCoy killed James McDonagh outside the Elk Bar in Toomebridge.

His single punch caused the victim to fall backwards and strike his head on the pavement.

Mr McDonagh suffered a fractured skull in addition to bleeding and swelling of the brain and he died from his injuries in hospital.

Ms Thompson's message said: "Yeah, don't have anything in the house u shouldn't have as they will land to arrest him. They will then search the whole house for clothing."

The judge imposed reporting restrictions on Det Sgt Thompson's trial until the McCoy trial had ended.

At the Crown Court in Belfast on Tuesday McCoy asked to be rearraigned on the manslaughter charge and pleaded guilty.

He was then remanded in custody until he is sentenced next month.

Following McCoy's guilty plea, the judge yesterday lifted the reporting restrictions which he had imposed on the Thompson trial.

The officer, who is currently under suspension, was found not guilty by the jury following a three day trial at the Bishop Street Crown Court.

When the jury forewoman announced the not guilty verdict, Det Sgt Thompson broke down and wept in the dock.
An Army recruitment campaign criticised for being too politically correct has received a mixed response from a highly decorated former soldier and Assembly member.

The 1.6m 'Belonging' campaign launched by the Army aims to appeal to a broader range of society - stressing a welcoming environment to women and those of different sexual orientations, faiths, ethnic and social backgrounds.

A series of animated adverts voiced by serving soldiers ask if you can be emotional in the army, gay, practice your faith or be listened to as a woman.

Doug Beattie joined the army in 1982 at a time when soldiers could not be gay and women were discharged for being pregnant.

He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery after serving in Afghanistan with the Royal Irish Regiment.

He welcomed the new campaign's inclusive message but said it failed to address the tough role soldiers face.

"I understand what they're all about, the army does have to represent society," he said.

"These are times to reach out to all corners of society and say you can belong regardless of your sexuality, religion or the colour of your skin, ethnic or social background."

"So I think that's very positive and reaching out to people who wouldn't normally look to the army for a career."

His disappointment, however, was that the adverts showed little about the reality of army life.

"It's not just about friendship and belonging, there's a real job to be done. It involves war fighting, war security. There's hardship and danger as well as excitement," he said.

Mr Beattie said it was a strong military tradition in his family that first encouraged him to join in 1982 rather than a recruitment campaign.

"There's people out there and their whole thing in life is to join the Armed Forces regardless and an ad campaign won't make a difference," he said.

"But for people outside the military it can look like a closed shop, but this opens it up and that has to be welcomed."

Criticising the campaign was retired soldier, Major General Tim Cross who said it would distract from the main aim of protecting the country.

"The concern I think for a lot of people... is that you end up with an army that's not capable of doing what you want it to do," he told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.

"You send it away on operations and it's not able to deliver."

General Sir Nick Carter, head of the Army, denied the campaign showed it had gone soft.

"The plain fact is that combat ethos and fighting power remain the British Army's highest priority post Iraq and Afghanistan," he told the BBC.

"I can't remember a time in my career when we've had a more combat hardened army. But what this campaign is about frankly is that we don't have a fully manned army at the moment, that the demography of our country has changed and that we need to reach out to a broader community in order to man that army with the right talent."

He said the traditional recruitment demographic, of white males aged 16-25, had shrunk by 25% in the past 15 years.

"Our society is changing, therefore, it's entirely appropriate to reach out to a much broader base to get the talent we need in order to sustain that effectiveness," he said.
Sinn Fein's Jim McVeigh has announced he is to stand down as a councillor.

The leader of the Sinn Fein group on Belfast City Council will officially step down next month.

He will continue to work as a Sinn Fein and trade union activist.

He said: It has been a privilege to have represented the citizens of Belfast for seven years and to have led the Sinn Fein team in Belfast City Council.

Our team there have championed and promoted equality and respect for all citizens and all communities across Belfast.

We led the drive for an investment strategy which has delivered unprecedented resources for public services and public amenities, creating and sustaining thousands of jobs across Belfast.

I am particularly proud of the role that our Sinn Fein team played in delivering that investment and creating those jobs and I know they will continue to deliver for all the citizens of Belfast.

I am now stepping down in order to concentrate on my work as a trade union official with SIPTU and to help advance workers rights and workers unity across the Island of Ireland.

I will remain a Sinn Fein party activist and will be working with our party Chairperson Declan Kearney to develop and strengthen our party's policies on workers rights, particularly in the North. I am also looking forward to helping deepen Sinn Fein's overall relationship with the Irish trade union movement and working to promote Irish unity.

The united Ireland that I wish to see is not simply a joining together of two states but rather the creation of a new society, one based upon fairness at work and justice in society.
The PSNI is "proactively" monitoring social media and websites belonging to self-styled vigilante paedophile hunter groups.

It comes after the Belfast Telegraph revealed that two alleged paedophiles who were "outed" online had been attacked by loyalist terrorists.

The men, who were named on a Facebook page, both live in the greater Belfast area.

They were targeted by the UDA.

It was reported yesterday that so-called paedophile hunters had brought 77 incidents to police attention since June, and that the Public Prosecution Service was considering three of those cases.

Detective Chief Inspector David McBurney from the PSNI's Public Protection Branch revealed that the organisation was "aware of a number of incidents following these hunter group live streams".

He also said that police were aware of "an incident where a member of the public has been mistakenly identified".

Describing the groups' actions as "a concern", he added: "It is the role of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to deal with those allegedly involved in this type of crime and the subsequent investigations.

"We are the professionals with the expert knowledge and experience to carry out rigorous investigations to the required evidential standard.

"We are the legitimate police service and we are accountable.

"Those involved in this type of vigilante behaviour aren't in a position to ensure safeguarding issues are addressed and their actions could not only harm innocent people, but could also have a detrimental impact on the criminal justice process."

Appealing for the groups to desist, DCI McBurney added: "We would again ask that if these groups are motivated to help safeguard children, they need to bring any information they have about the identity of any person engaged in sexual offences against children to the PSNI immediately.

"These groups should not make arrangements to meet these individuals and should not share that information online.

"We need them to come to us with their information so that we can convert it into evidence and ensure a thorough investigation is carried out, including gathering the best possible evidence to enable effective investigations that produce a charge and successful prosecution."

Last August the potential consequences of publicly exposing alleged paedophiles were revealed when a man took his own life after being confronted by vigilantes in Co Antrim.

And last week another group posted a picture of a car it said had been "wrongly targeted following a sting in east Belfast".

A picture of the white vehicle showed the word 'Pedo' spray-painted on its door. The group said that it had offered to pay for the damage, but that the car was repaired by a garage free of charge, and thanked the mechanic for "being a top lad".

The PSNI said it had received no reports of the incident.

Chief Superintendent Paula Hillman told the BBC that the PPS was considering three of the 77 cases reported by vigilante groups since last summer.

She urged the groups to "stop what they're doing in terms of turning up at people's doorsteps, identifying people, acting as the arresting officer and as the judge and jury".
Lawyers acting for the 14-year-old girl at the centre of landmark legal action against Facebook over revenge porn have criticised the police handling of the case.

Naked photographs of the Northern Ireland girl were allegedly posted on the social media site, which has since agreed to pay compensation to the teenager.

One of the teenager's lawyers, Pearse MacDermott from McCann and McCann Solicitors, told the Press Association that police delays in the handling of the case meant officers were unable to prosecute the person who posted the images, which caused a "detrimental effect" to the girl's mental health.

He added that he hoped the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) had learnt from the case and would in future "act with more haste" when dealing with similar cases.

"The police carried out an investigation, but it took a long time. By the time they got around to investigate, whatever device had the photograph on it was gone. They therefore couldn't substantiate who put (the images) up.

"Had they gone that day and discovered his phone and discovered the image on it, they could have done something, but unfortunately they didn't do something for some time."

He added: "In fairness, this began in 2014 so they may have improved their game since then. But in this case it was difficult to see why they didn't act quicker."

Mr MacDermott said he believed that one of the ways society should deal with these type of cases is for the perpetrator to be "brought to book before the court."

"Certainly the fact it took the police a long time to get involved in the case and to deal with it is disappointing. I would hope that in future they would act with more haste," he said.

The girl's legal team launched High Court proceedings after her photo was allegedly posted on a so-called shame page on Facebook - which has a headquarters in Dublin - several times between November 2014 and January 2016.

She was seeking damages for misuse of private information, negligence and breach of the Data Protection Act.

On Tuesday Facebook reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with the victim.

"The case had a very detrimental effect on (the victim's) mental health. That is why her family decided to seek legal redress," said Mr MacDermott.

He added that the legal settlement has now "moved the goal posts" in terms of how social media providers like Facebook and Twitter respond to indecent and abusive posts and images.

"Had these images been put in a newspaper or on the TV there would be serious repercussions and those same repercussions should also apply to whatever platform is used in the social media world," Mr MacDermott said.

"The case moves the goal posts in the sense that Facebook always said it was up to the individual user to be responsible, not them. It now puts the onus on the provider to look at how they respond to indecent, abusive and other such images put on their platform.

"Whenever an image is put up that is clearly objectionable they should be able to stop that ever going up again. They should use the technology they have to be a responsible provider and remove the offensive post."

He added that the settlement could open the floodgates for similar cases to be taken, but that he would rather see organisations like Facebook taking "moral and social responsibility to make sure these things don't reappear".

"Should there be legislation to regulate the platform providers such as Facebook and Twitter? I think there is a need to look at how social media organisations operate their systems and how they operate the material that comes onto their site," he said.

The PSNI did not comment.
Child serial killer Robert Black was convicted of four child murders but suspected of many more (PA)

A coroner is seeking to trace relatives of serial killer Robert Black to establish if they want to participate in his inquest.

Scottish-born Black, who was convicted of four child murders but suspected of many more, died of heart disease in a Northern Ireland prison in 2016 aged 68.

The loner paedophile from Grangemouth near Falkirk was a delivery driver who stalked the roads of the UK searching for victims.

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At a preliminary hearing in Belfast ahead of his inquest later this year, Coroner Patrick McGurgan said relatives should be offered the chance to give evidence.

I think all efforts need to be made to trace the next of kin, he said.

A lawyer for the Coroners Service said he believed some relations may live in Northern Ireland.

Mr McGurgan suggested lawyers who represented Black in trials prior to his death might be able to help trace relatives.

I think its important that the family are given every opportunity to participate fully in this inquest, he said.

Black was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea after prison authorities in Northern Ireland revealed no one wanted his remains.

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The killers long reign of terror was ended in 1990 when he was caught red-handed by police with a barely alive six-year-old girl hooded, bound, gagged and stuffed in a sleeping bag in the back of his van in the Scottish village of Stow.

He had sexually assaulted her moments earlier.

Once in custody, the predator was linked to a series of unsolved crimes in the previous decade.

In 1994, Black was found guilty of three child murders in the 1980s  those of 11-year-old Susan Maxwell, from the Scottish Borders, five-year-old Caroline Hogg, from Edinburgh, and Sarah Harper, 10, from Morley, near Leeds  as well as a failed abduction bid in Nottingham in 1988.

In 2011, he was found guilty of the 1981 murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, from Ballinderry, Co Antrim.

Black, who lived out his last days in Maghaberry high security prison in Co Antrim, was also suspected of involvement in other killings and unexplained disappearances and had long been the prime suspect in the case of missing 13-year-old Genette Tate, who was last seen in a rural lane in Aylesbeare, Devon, in 1978.

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The killer was put up to be fostered within weeks of his birth in 1947.

A couple from Kinlochleven in the West Highlands who took him in both died within 11 years and Black spent the rest of his childhood in residential homes in Falkirk and Edinburgh.
Kate joined delegates at the event run by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families (Oli Scarff/PA)

The Duchess of Cambridge has made a private visit to a national conference on childrens mental health.

Kate joined delegates during a coffee break at the event in east London, run by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families (AFNCCF), a mental health charity she supports as patron.

It is understood the Duchess wanted to attend the day-long event as a delegate and listen to keynote speakers discussing an ambitious 56 million project that aims to explore and test new ways to improve young peoples mental health and wellbeing.

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Called HeadStart the five-year initiative has been funded by the National Lottery to tackle psychological problems faced by 10 to 16-year-olds by exploring and testing ways to build their resilience from an early age.

A Kensington Palace spokeswoman said: During the conference, the Duchess will have the chance to meet with young people and staff leading the ground-breaking HeadStart programme which focuses on building mental health and resilience in children and young people across the country.

Her Royal Highness will also hear keynote speakers from the field of resilience research; reflecting her interest in early intervention in childrens mental health to help young people get support at an early age to prevent problems getting bigger later in life.

Kates private visit to a public event is not unusual for a member of the royal family.

It is known that the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall attend the theatre and opera, and every year the Queen mingles with the public at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, as a visitor.
Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle will celebrate Waless heritage during a visit to its capital.

Their first stop next Thursday will be at Cardiffs historic castle, which is to host a Welsh Culture Festival.

During a tour of the 2,000-year-old building, the couple will hear performances from musicians and poets, meet leading athletes and learn how organisations are promoting the Welsh language and cultural identity.

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The Prince and Ms Markle will then visit Star Hub, a community and leisure centre in the north-east of the city, to see how sport is being used to engage young people.

They will also see how StreetGames, an organisation with which Harry has previously worked, is helping bring sport to young people of all social backgrounds.

Earlier this week, the couple turned heads during a visit to the heart of Londons Caribbean community.

Crowds gathered outside the studios of not-for-profit broadcaster Reprezent FM in Brixton, south London, and cheered and screamed when they were acknowledged by the hand-holding pair.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove raised eyebrows when he referred to himself as Govey during a radio interview.

The Cabinet minister used the nickname, which often features in BBC comedy programme Dead Ringers, when discussing the Governments new environmental plan.

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Mr Gove told BBC Radio 4s Today programme presenter Nick Robinson: Your challenge and your premise is Ay Govey, you havent done enough.

Mr Robinson responded by saying: I would never dream of calling you Govey.

The incident became a talking point on Twitter, with some users speculating that the Environment Secretary wanted a nickname to rival Foreign Secretary Boris Johnsons Bojo.
Jeremy Corbyn has said there is now a 12-month crisis in the NHS and called for urgent investment.

The Labour leader met NHS staff at a community centre in Swindon, Wiltshire, to discuss additional pressures on the service during winter.

He pledged more funds, the return of nursing bursaries and the creation of a National Care Service, if Labour wins power.

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It is no longer a winter crisis  it is a 12-month crisis in the NHS, he said.

The Prime Minister told the House of Commons that the NHS was fully prepared for all eventualities over winter.

That was three weeks ago. We have had three weeks of crisis.

Mr Corbyn said pressures on ambulance services, as well as accident and emergency wards, were part of a wider problem.

Nurses told him of patients spending 12 hours in chairs while waiting for beds, with up to 20 people in corridors at a time.

Community nurses spoke of having to complete up to 25 visits to patient homes in one shift.

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A mental health nurse described the care system as completely broken.

One representative from the GMB union said paramedics were left stressed by attending calls hours late.

A nurse said she would have been unable to train without a bursary, but had also racked up 12,000 in credit card debts.

When asked what struck him most about the visit, Mr Corbyn said it was the stress reported by NHS staff.

Responding to the accident and emergency waiting time figures, he said they were a symptom of other issues.

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We would put more resources  money  into the NHS straight away but also look into the wider question of why those figures are so high, he said.

It is a symptom of lots of other things. Some of those people come from care homes where there is not sufficient support for them.

Some of those people have come in because of a level of desperation in their lives and they need that support.

There has to be more resources put in.

If youve got a car park full of ambulances, with highly skilled paramedics and ambulance staff in the ambulance trying to treat the patient but cant go in because the A&E is full and there are no beds, then down the line theres a whole lot more patients with chest pains, with strokes, who are not being treated because nobody can get to them.

Very quickly you get into a pretty quick disaster.

Mr Corbyn said the NHS should immediately be given whatever they demand financially to get through this crisis.
Harbans Kaur Lally was last seen in Leeds in 1985 (West Yorkshire Police)

Two pensioners have been arrested by detectives investigating the disappearance of a woman more than 30 years ago.

West Yorkshire Police said a 75-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Harbans Kaur Lally, who was last seen in Leeds in 1985.

Officers from the forces Homicide and Major Enquiry Team also arrested a 74-year-old woman on suspicion of conspiracy to murder when they searched an address in Gravesend, Kent, on Monday.

Both have been released on bail pending further inquiries.

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A force spokesman said a 53-year-old man was also arrested on the same day from an address in the Hay Mills area of Birmingham on suspicion of perjury.

He has been released under investigation.

Mrs Lally, who was also known as Susan and had the maiden name Ranu, was 19 years old when she went missing.

She worked at the head office of the Burton Group in Harehills, Leeds, until April 1985 and gave birth to a daughter in July that year at St Jamess Hospital in Leeds when she was living at an address in the Meanwood area of the city, the spokesman said.

Officers said she was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, and grew up and went to school there. She married there in February 1984 and moved to Leeds some time later.

Police believe Mrs Lally, who was Sikh, returned to Rugby in 1985 and disappeared after that, possibly after travelling to India. As part of the investigation, detectives have also conducted house-to-house enquiries in Bennett Street, Rugby, where she and her family lived.

Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Bryar, of West Yorkshire Police, said: We have recently received information that raises concerns about Harbanss apparent disappearance, which we are now treating as a murder investigation.

We are currently trying to build up a picture of her life at the time she disappeared and we are very keen to hear from anyone with any information that could assist us.

We would like to speak to anyone who knew Harbans, who was also known as Susan, when she lived and worked in Leeds in 1984 to 1985, and also anyone who knew her when she was growing up in Rugby, either through school or in the area she lived. We are particularly interested to speak to anyone who knew her when she returned there in 1985.

We would like to reassure people that we will treat all information in the strictest confidence and would urge anyone who does know something that could assist the investigation to contact us.

:: Anyone with information is asked to contact West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team via 101 quoting Operation Parryton or call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Work in progress at the site of Pakistan China Silk Road in Haripur, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Aqeel Ahmed)

China's plan for a modern Silk Road of railways, ports and other facilities linking Asia with Europe hit a 14 billion dollar (10.3bn) pothole in Pakistan.

From Pakistan to Tanzania to Hungary, projects under President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative are being cancelled , renegotiated or delayed due to disputes about costs or complaints host countries get too little out of projects built by Chinese companies and financed by loans from Beijing that must be repaid.

Plans for the Diamer-Bhasha Dam have been thrown into turmoil after the chairman of Pakistan's water authority said Beijing wanted an ownership stake in the hydropower project. He rejected that as against Pakistani interests.

"Pakistan is one of the countries that is in China's hip pocket, and for Pakistan to stand up and say, 'I'm not going to do this with you,' shows it's not as 'win-win' as China says it is," said Robert Koepp, an analyst for the research firm Economist Corporate Network.

Belt and Road announced by r Xi in 2013, is a loosely defined umbrella for Chinese-built or financed projects across 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and Europe.

They range from oil drilling in Siberia to construction of ports in Southeast Asia, railways in Eastern Europe and power plants in the Middle East.

Other governments welcomed the initiative in a region the Asian Development Bank says needs more than 26 trillion dollars (19.2tn) of infrastructure investment by 2030 to keep economies growing.

Nations including Japan have given or lent billions of dollars for development, but China's venture is bigger and the only source of money for many projects.

Governments from Washington to Moscow to New Delhi are uneasy Beijing is trying to use its Belt and Road to develop a China-centred political structure that will erode their influence.

China's significance to Pakistan as a source of financing increased following US president Donald Trump's decision to suspend security assistance to Islamabad in a dispute over whether it was doing enough to stop Afghan militants.

Among projects that have been derailed or disrupted are:

:: Authorities in Nepal cancelled plans in November for Chinese companies to build a 2.5 billion US dollar (1.5bn) dam after they concluded contracts for the Budhi Gandaki Hydro Electric Project violated rules requiring multiple bidders.

:: The European Union is looking into whether Hungary violated the trade bloc's rules by awarding contracts to Chinese builders of a high-speed railway to neighbouring Serbia without competing bids.

:: In Burma, plans for a Chinese oil company to build a 3 billion dollar (2.2bn) refinery were cancelled in November due to financing difficulties, the newspaper Myanmar Times reported.

"It's probably too early to say at this point how much of the overall initiative will actually be implemented," said Christian Zhang, a BMI analyst.

The stumbles for one of the world's most ambitious infrastructure ventures could help temper concerns Beijing will increase its strategic influence.

"There is a big possibility that China is going to have a lot of disagreements and misunderstandings," said Kerry Brown, a specialist in Chinese politics at King's College London.

"It's hard to think of a big, successful project the Belt and Road Initiative has led to at the moment."

AP
Donald Trump was holding talks on immigration at the White House (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

US president Donald Trump reportedly used profane language to disparage African nations during a meeting with legislators about a proposed bipartisan deal on immigration.

Sources told AP Mr Trump made the remark after Democratic senator Richard Durbin told him a lottery for visas would be ended under the proposal.

Mr Durbin said that in exchange, people from African countries that have benefited from that lottery would be given other access to visas.

Sources said Mr Trump questioned why the US would want to admit more people from "shithole countries".

They added Mr Trump said the US should allow more immigrants from places like Norway.

The White House did not deny the comments.

Spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement that while "certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries," Mr Trump "will always fight for the American people".

He said Mr Trump wants to welcome immigrants who "contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation," and will always reject "temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures" that he says "threaten the lives of hardworking Americans" and undercut other immigrants.
A Russian officer stands next to drones that attacked the Russian air base in Syria (Pavel Golovkin/AP)

Russia's defence ministry has displayed a pair of drones that it said were captured following attacks on two Russian military bases in Syria.

President Vladimir Putin accused outside powers he refused to name of staging the incidents to derail a deal between Russia, Turkey and Iran that is intended to reduce hostilities in Syria.

Defence ministry officials said Saturday's raid on the Hemeimeem air base in the province of Lattakia and Russia's naval facility in the port of Tartus involved 13 drones.

It said seven were downed by air defence systems and the remaining six were forced to land by Russian electronic warfare units.

Of the latter, three exploded when they hit the ground and three more were captured intact, the ministry said.

The defence ministry presented two primitive-looking drones at a briefing, arguing they featured state-of-the art electronics that are less prone to jamming and allow precision strikes.

Major General Alexander Novikov, who heads the ministry's drone department, said the drones used in the weekend's raid differed from the rudimentary craft used earlier by rebels in Syria.

The attack required satellite navigation data that are not available on the internet, complex engineering works and elaborate tests, Mr Novikov said.

"The creation of drones of such class is impossible in makeshift conditions," Mr Novikov added.

"Their development and use requires the involvement of experts with special training in the countries that manufacture and use drones."

Mr Novikov did not blame any specific country but the defence ministry earlier referred to the "strange coincidence" of a US military intelligence plane allegedly barraging over the Mediterranean near the Russian bases when the attack took place.

The Pentagon strongly denied any involvement.

The defence ministry said the drones were launched from al-Mouazzara in Syria's north-western province of Idlib, more than 30 miles away from the Russian bases.

The attack heightened tensions between Russia and Turkey, which wields significant influence with some rebel groups in Idlib.

The province has become the main rallying point for various rebel factions after Syrian government forces won control over large swathes of territory thanks to Russian support.

Moscow has staunchly backed Syrian President Bashar Assad and Ankara has supported his foes, but they struck a deal last year to set up de-escalation zones.

The agreement has helped reduce fighting and improve ties between Russia and Turkey. It also involved Iran, another Assad backer.

Following the drone attack, the Russian defence ministry sent letters to Turkey's military leaders, asking them to deploy military observers to help prevent further attacks from Idlib on Russian assets.

Mr Putin said Moscow knows who helped stage the attack on the Russian bases but he did not identify the country allegedly involved, saying only that it was not Turkey.

He added that he discussed the raid with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier on Thursday, voicing confidence that Turkey's leadership and military had nothing to do with it.

"There were provocateurs but they weren't the Turks," he said at a televised meeting with Russian newspaper editors on Thursday.

"We know who they were and how much they paid for that provocation."

AP
Julian Assange has been granted citizenship by Ecuador

Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after more than five years of living in asylum at the nation's embassy in London, officials have announced.

Foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said officials accepted Mr Assange's request for naturalisation in December and they continue to look for a long-term resolution to a situation that has vexed officials since 2012.

"What naturalisation does is provide the asylum seeker another layer of protection," Ms Espinosa said.

Ecuador gave Mr Assange asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for investigation of sex-related claims.

Sweden dropped the case but Mr Assange has remained in the embassy because he is still subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail.

He also fears a possible US extradition request based on his leaking of classified State Department documents.

Australian-born Mr Assange posted a photograph of himself wearing a yellow Ecuadorean national football team jersey on Instagram on Wednesday and his name now appears in the Andean country's national registry.

The new citizenship status, however, appears to change little for Mr Assange in the immediate future. He would still need to alert British authorities of any movement outside the embassy.

Ms Espinosa said Ecuador is trying to make Mr Assange a member of its diplomatic team, which would grant him additional rights under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, including special legal immunity and safe passage.

Britain's Foreign Office said earlier on Thursday it has rejected Ecuador's request to grant him diplomatic status in the UK.

"Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," the office said.

Though protected by Ecuador, the relationship between Mr Assange and nation's leaders has at times been dicey.

Ecuador has repeatedly urged Mr Assange not to interfere in the affairs of other countries following his frequent online comments on international issues.

The biggest crisis came in October 2016 when the embassy cut his internet service after WikiLeaks published a trove of emails from then-US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign.

He was also a point of contention in Ecuador's 2017 presidential election.

Conservative candidate Guillermo Lasso pledged to evict the Australian within 30 days of taking office while current President Lenin Moreno said he would allow him to stay.

Mr Assange later taunted after Mr Lasso's loss that he would "cordially invite Lasso to leave Ecuador within 30 days".

Mr Moreno issued a warning reminding Mr Assange not to meddle in politics. He has also called Assange a hacker.

AP
On Tuesday, Sinn Fein launched a billboard at Free Derry Corner in Londonderry to mark the first anniversary of the resignation of Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister. Foyle MP Elisha McCallion spoke to the gathering and some other party members held posters left over from the elections last year. One of the leftover posters was about "respect" and there was also one about "equality."

Meanwhile, another Sinn Fein MP, Barry McElduff, was summoned to Sinn Fein offices in Belfast on Monday to meet Michelle ONeill, Declan Kearney and others.

This was in the wake of the Kingsmill video he posted on the 42nd anniversary of the atrocity, when 10 Protestant workmen were picked out and murdered by the Provisional IRA in what was a sectarian massacre.

Such is the arrogance of Sinn Fein and the hardness of their hearts that they clearly saw no inconsistency between the respect poster and the lack of respect shown by their MP. These are people whose consciences have been seared.

Indeed, last year, on the morning of McGuinnesss resignation, Barry McElduff himself, then an MLA, tweeted: We fight for equality. For respect. And for a united Ireland. That is why my comrade is resigning as Deputy First Minister this very day. And a year later, he marks the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre with a Kingsmill loaf. Theres not much respect for the victims in that.

Of course, Barry McElduffs commitment to respect was already blown apart a few days before his notorious video.

On January 1, he was the speaker at the annual republican commemoration for two IRA men, Sean South and Fergal OHanlon. Sean South was an anti-Semitic neo-fascist, as well as being an IRA volunteer, and yet each year he is honoured by Sinn Fein. Where is the respect in glorifying Sean South?

It is clear that Sinn Fein have been struggling with the issue and were probably hoping that a meaningless sanction on the culprit and a short statement from Michelle ONeill would suffice to kill off the story.

However, the sanction and the statement have merely compounded the hurt caused to the one survivor of the massacre and to the families of those who were slaughtered.

But what of the wider reaction to Barry McElduff? And not just here in Northern Ireland?

There has certainly been a very negative reaction in the Irish Republic and that will be of particular concern to Sinn Fein.

It is a reaction against the behaviour of McElduff and also against the way that Sinn Fein have handled it.

That may well have an impact on support for Sinn Fein in the Republic and that will alarm the Sinn Fein leadership, whose strategy is very much directed towards making electoral gains in the Republic.

There was also widespread criticism in the mainland media and the matter has already been raised on the floor of the House of Commons by DUP members. On top of that, a motion has been tabled by a number of MPs, including two Labour members, urging McElduff to resign.

McElduff is a British MP, albeit an abstentionist one, and the victims deserve that his appalling behaviour is roundly rejected and denounced by all political parties in the House of Commons.

Furthermore, a number of people have already written to the UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, who was formerly the Victims Commissioner in Northern Ireland, and is, therefore, well-placed to understand the hurt caused to the victims.

Surely his behaviour constitutes a breach of the code for members in that it brings the House into disrepute?

But, in due course, should this not be taken further? There is only one political party whose MPs glorify those who carried out acts of terrorism on citizens of the United Kingdom.

That party is Sinn Fein. Perhaps, then, it is time to ask the new Commissioner for Standards to consider the role of all the Sinn Fein MPs in IRA commemorations and the orations they deliver on such occasions.

When a Sinn Fein MP glorifies terrorists and murderers, does he, or she, not bring the House into disrepute?
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The details surrounding Jesuss birth became part of the lore of his community. Born in Bethlehem but raised in Nazareth, west of the Sea of Galilee, some said he was conceived while his mother was still a virgin and that his birth was a miracle from God, heralded by angels themselves.1 Others assumed that the timing of his arrivalso soon after his parents weddingmeant that if he wasnt an illegitimate son, then at the very least temptation had gotten the best of his parents before they wed.

Still, it was hard to deny that there was something unusual about Joseph and Marys son. Even from a young age, his wisdom, understanding, and learning mystified the religious leaders when they heard him speak. His own community regarded him as a man who had found favor with God.2 As his parents watched Jesus mature, they couldnt help but see his Nazareth years as a time of preparation for a calling they knew would inevitably lead him away from them.

Jesus was around thirty years old when he left Nazareth to begin his public ministry.3 The first thing he did was journey to Bethany beyond the Jordan to find his cousin John.

John was a preacher who lived in the wilderness proclaiming a bap- tism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.4 Dressed in a camel hair coat like the prophet Elijah, he looked like the child of a feral, violent land, but he spoke as one privy to the mysteries of God. People from all over were drawn to hear him.

His message was simple and pointed: Hope is here. The Lord is with us. Many in Israel responded to Johns message by coming to confess their darkest secretsto begin again a conversation with the Maker who promised to never forsake them.5

It had been a long time since the people of Israel had reason to think God was near, let alone active. Their recent history was a sad tale of sifting through the rubble of exile. Yes, they had come home. But like Job, though they were able to reconstruct much of what fell to the Babylonians and Assyrians who had carried them off, what they rebuilt could not replace all they had lost.6 Neither could it take away their grief. They were poor in spiritmourners, meek and hungry for righteousness. Estranged from comfort and unsure of their inheritance, they wanted to see God, and if not God himself then at least traces of his presence with them.7

Generations earlier, when their ancestors followed Joshua across the river where John now stood, they passed from being slaves in the wilderness to a mighty kingdom built on the promises of their God.8 But now, every Roman sword that clinked against the armor moving through their streets and alleys reminded them that they had again returned to the wilderness of oppression. So when John emerged from the wild, proclaiming the nearness of God, many regarded him more as a guide than a stranger. They came to John, and he led one person after another down into this river that ran through their history as a peopleone bank marking who they had been and the other who they would become. And in those waters, between those banks, he baptized them.

John grew up with the stories of how God opened his own mothers barren womb to bring him into this world. He knew he was born to proclaim the salvation of the Lord.9 He also knew that the Lord had given his mothers cousin Mary a son of her ownonly Marys miracle wasnt that she overcame barrenness to conceive. It was that she conceived while she was yet a virgin.

Back when Mary was pledged to marry Joseph, the angel of the Lord appeared to tell her that the Lord was giving her a boy and he would be called the Son of the Most High God. God was going to give this child Davids throne where he would reign forever over the house of Jacob, and his kingdom would never end.10 Mary would carry in her womb the King of Glory, the Savior of the world.

Johns mother, Elizabeth, used to tell him about the time Mary, whom she sometimes referred to as the mother of my Lord,11 came to visit and how when she entered their house, John leapt inside Elizabeths belly. It was as though he couldnt wait to begin proclaiming the Lords salvation, she told him.

John knew this was his path. He would never be wealthy. He would hold no position of power. He was the courier of the news that God was giving his forgetful creation the Savior he had promised so long ago.12 Johns purpose was to run wild with the hope that the Messiah had come.

Notes

1. Luke 1:2638; 2:821

2. Luke 2:4152

3. Luke 3:23

4. Luke 3:3

5. Deut. 31:8

6. Job 42:1011

7. Matt. 5:26, 8

8. Joshua 3

9. Matt. 3:11

10. Luke 1:3233

11. Luke 1:43

12. Gen. 3:17

Taken from Behold the King of Glory: A Narrative of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, by Russ Ramsey. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus stand at the heart of the Christian faith. For many, however, the story is so familiar that it no longer instills a profound sense of awe and wonder. In this carefully researched retelling of the gospel story, pastor Russ Ramsey seeks to reinvigorate readers appreciation for Jesus Christ by helping believers and nonbelievers alike encounter the truth about Jesuss life, work, and message in a fresh and compelling way. Designed to be read at any time of the year, Behold the King of Glory follows the ministry of Jesus in one continuous narrative, culminating in his dramatic arrest, execution, and resurrection. Creatively written yet rooted in the Bible, this resource will reawaken readers appreciation for Jesus Christ, the King of Glory.
Nancy Pelosi gives up the gavel, Republicans launch investigations into the Biden Family, nearly half of young adults suffer from a mental disorder, a new report ranks the most polluted cities in America.

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For Immediate Release, January 10, 2018 Contacts: Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project, (520) 623-1878, greta@westernwatersheds.org

Patrick Donnelly, Center for Biological Diversity, (702) 483-0449, pdonnelly@biologicaldiversity.org

Chris Krupp, WildEarth Guardians, (206) 417-6363, ckrupp@wildearthguardians.org

Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, (240) 247-0296, kstade@peer.org Conservation Groups Urge Interior Secretary Zinke to Round Up Bundy's Trespassing Cattle Bundy Court Decision Didn't OK Illegal Grazing LAS VEGAS Conservation groups today called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to round up and remove the cattle of rancher Cliven Bundy, who has been illegally grazing his livestock on public lands for two and a half decades. U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro on Monday dismissed all charges against Cliven Bundy and his sons related to the 2014 Bunkerville standoff. Navarro, however, did not exonerate Cliven Bundy for his continued illegal grazing on public lands in Nevada, including Gold Butte National Monument. In 2013 a federal judge ordered the Bureau of Land Management to round up Bundys trespassing livestock on public lands within desert tortoise habitat. Today, decades after Cliven Bundy stopped paying his grazing fees and had his permit revoked, the illegal ranching operation continues. Bundy is still an outlaw when it comes to his grazing actions, and the prosecutorial failings in the Bunkerville case do not excuse him from the decades of unauthorized livestock trespass on our public lands, said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. BLM needs to enforce the law and remove his cattle, which are destroying habitat for threatened species. The court ruled in 1998 and again in 2013 that Bundy or the BLM must round up hundreds of livestock currently roaming 750,000 acres near the Nevada-Arizona line. Much of the land that Bundy illegally grazes on is now protected as Gold Butte National Monument, established by President Barack Obama in 2016. Bundy owes more than $1 million in grazing fees, according to federal officials. The Trump administration is coddling violent zealots and preventing the public from feeling safe to enjoy our new national monument, said Patrick Donnelly, the Center for Biological Diversitys Nevada state director. Zinke needs to stop this illegal grazing, which amounts to theft from the American people and future generations. Our government cant allow Bundy to claim our protected public lands as his personal empire and defend his theft with force and intimidation. Nothing in yesterdays ruling absolves BLM of its duty to protect public lands on behalf of the American people. BLM must remove Bundys trespassing cattle, said Chris Krupp of WildEarth Guardians. We will continue to call for the roundup of Bundys cattle until BLM meets its obligation. The feds shouldnt avoid the chance now to ensure that some justice is served to the American public that is being robbed by this family. Gold Butte and the desert tortoise still deserve protection, said Kirsten Stade of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Click here to view todays letter to Secretary Zinke. Click here to see a chronological factsheet of the Bundys illegal grazing operations and attempts to rein them in.



Click here to read the federal court order directing Bundy to remove his cattle by November 30, 1998. Click here to read the 2013 federal court order entitling BLM to remove Bundys cattle.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/01/2018 (1773 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A multimillion-dollar investment to provide increased broadband connection to First Nations, rural and northern Manitoban communities has a Westman company front and centre.

Based in Virden, RFNOW Inc. is a communications company that has partnered with the provinces First Nations to form Clear Sky Communications, which is in turn taking care of the project.

On Tuesday, the provincial government announced a contribution of up to $20 million toward the project. The total cost is expected to total $63 million.

Submitted Scott Andrew is CEO of Virden-based RFNOW, which has partnered with the provinces First Nations to form Clear Sky Communications, which is expanding internet access to Manitoba First Nations, and rural and northern communities in the province.

The federal governments Connect to Innovate program is putting forward $30 million, with private partners filling out the balance.

Phase 1 will expand internet access to mainly northern communities, but also includes the Westman communities of Gamblers First Nation and Birdtail Sioux First Nation.

This is a great thing for Manitoba, RFNOW CEO Scott Andrew said, adding that theres no limit to what communities can do once theyre linked up with high-speed internet.

Drawing from his own experience owning and operating the Virden-based technology company Custom Software Solutions Inc. as an example, Andrew noted that 90 per cent of his employees dont work in Virden.

Although they used to have a development centre in Saskatoon, he said that he did not want to restrict their talent pool to just one city, so they closed it down.

I didnt want to have bricks and mortar restrict me to my talent pool for application developers, Andrew said, adding that thanks to internet access he has employees working in Brandon, Winnipeg, Philippines and Sweden.

Fibre-optic communications to the north now opens up that whole pool of people to being engaged in the business that we do every day, he said. To me, its huge.

With some households carrying one breadwinner, he said that these internet-based jobs affect more than the one employee and can have sweeping impacts on communities.

This is a tremendous opportunity for Manitoba, he said.

There isnt a clear timeline as to when communities will come on board, with Andrew describing the effort as a long-term partnership between his company and the provinces First Nations.

Its an idea that has been percolating at RFNOW for the past couple years, ever since now-grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Arlen Dumas first met with them, and Andrew said that he suspects it has been in Dumass mind for much longer than that.

Clear Sky Communications is no flash in the pan, he said, adding that his company has a long track record when it comes to maintaining business operations.

His family formed Andrew Agencies Ltd. in 1913 as a general insurance and travel agency in Virden, and has since expanded into a multi-line brokerage selling insurance, financial services, travel and real estate.

The family has always been about long-haul and quality of life in rural Manitoba, he said. Were invested, were not here to start and flip.

Once the initial phase is completed, the broadband project will include 10-gigabit ethernet fibre connections that will provide 72 communities with high-speed internet services on par with southern urban areas. Affected communities include 37 First Nations communities and 18 within remote regions of northern Manitoba.

A release issued by the provincial government notes that this project is part of their follow-through on the Look North Report and Action Plan for Manitobas Northern Economy, which was released in October.

This plan outlined a path that would build stronger partnerships and a brighter economic future in the north, and highlighted greater access to broadband as a priority.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
By David Raleigh

Gardai have arrested a man in connection with the murder of Limerick man Martin Clancy.

The body of Mr Clancy, (45), who was originally from Moyross, was found by a young female relative, stabbed to death in his flat at Little OCurry Street in the city last Sunday.

Gardai arrested a man in Cork city around 8pm tonight on suspicion of carrying out the murder.

The suspect is aged in his mid 20s and is from Limerick, sources confirmed.

Gardai were earlier today granted a further 48 hours in which to designate Mr Clancys flat a crime scene.

Investigators are utilising the services of an expert forensic scientist, in the hopes of finding DNA belonging to Mr Clancys killer.

The DNA expert, who is attached to Forensic Science Ireland (FSI)  an associated office of the Department of Justice and Equality  arrived at Mr Clancys flat yesterday.

The FSI officer is conducting a full sweep of the property as gardai continue to conduct house to house enquiries in the local community.

Daniel Nedelcu, a neighbour of Mr Clancys, told reporters on Monday that he entered Mr Clancys flat unaware he had been killed, and said he saw what he believed to be blood on a floor and on walls inside the flat.

Mr Nedelcu, a Romanian national who has worked as an interpreter in Limerick, said he then left Mr Clancys flat after feeding the victims pet dog.

Superintendent Derek Smart, leading the murder probe, appealed for anyone who has information about the murder to contact gardai at Henry Street (061-212400), or the Garda Confidential Line (1800-666-111).

Meanwhile, gardai also revealed that a FSI scientist has uncovered DNA which gardai believe belongs to the killer of Limerick pensioner Rosie Hanrahan.

The 78-year olds body was found in her Thomondgate home on December 15th last, after an apparent break-in at the property.

Gardai are now liaising with Interpol in an attempt to find a DNA match after the sample did not get a hit from the Irish DNA database, which is operated by FSI.

In 2016 alone, 9,000 profiles from persons were added to the database, which identified 428 hits, and assisted 625 cases in the same year.

There are close to 100 people working at FSI, including mainly trained scientists and analysts, supported by administration staff.

Originally known as the Forensic Science Laboratory, FSI was established in 1975 to provide a scientific service to the Criminal Justice System by analysing samples submitted from crime scenes and providing expert evidence in criminal trials.
Paid parental leave is crucial to ensuring a level playing field for women in work, a Government minister has said.

As a special symposium was held in Dublin to debate the gender pay gap, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys said that despite progress on the issue men are still paid 13.9% more.

"So, closing the gender pay gap makes good business sense, and brings greater profitability to the economy as a whole," she said.

"But, in order to tackle this issue, we need to take an all-of-government approach.

"The Taoiseach has spoken about Fine Gaels aspiration to have paid family leave that can be shared between parents in the first year of their childs life, and how we are determined to make it a reality.

"That, to me, will be a crucial step along the way, as we work to level the playing field for women in the workplace, and close the gap."

Ms Humphreys joined Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan for the event in Iveagh House where they noted government commitments to reduce the gender pay gap.

Delighted to be speaking at this important symposium on tackling the gender pay gap with @CharlieFlanagan. Closing the gap will not only result in a better, fairer society, it will benefit our economy. It just makes sense - business-wise & otherwise! https://t.co/BBM7mUZqfS  Heather Humphreys (@HHumphreysFG) January 10, 2018

Mr Flanagan said: "This year, a century after women in Ireland achieved the right to vote, it is now time for a great stride forward."

He said those invited to the symposium from the worlds of politics, government, business, trade unions, professions, academia and civil society were being tasked with identifying reforms to address the gender pay gap.

Mr Flanagan said that initiatives already under way to tackle gender pay issues include investment in childcare and proposals on paid parental leave.

"Legislation to improve pay transparency will be a key part of the Governments response and the shape of that legislation will be influenced by factors including this symposium," he said.

PA
Etihad Airways owns 21 per cent of Virgin. While stressing he could not talk on behalf of Nanshan, he said the Chinese group was a passive investor in Virgin that would give due consideration to any privatisation offer. Clearly the value of Virgin is not reflected in the share price, even though it's had a bit of a jump in the last four or five months," Mr Wong said. After trading at 49 in early 2016, Virgin's shares had tumbled to a seven-year low of 16 by mid-2017. Talk of privatisation, and the potential for smaller investors to receive a premium for their shares, have seen them shoot up to 27 since November.

Elizabeth Bryan, chair of Virgin Australia, said in November the board was acting in the best interests of allshareholders by exploring privatisation. Credit:Rob Homer There are several pathways to a private Virgin, including the company mopping up the $200 million or so worth of shares in free float itself in a management buyout. Chief executive John Borghetti would sell his shares, worth about $2.7 million at current prices, in that scenario. Takeover rules stop any of the investors immediately snapping up the free float themselves, but they could gradually increase their holding by 3 per cent every six months under "creep" provisions. Going private and no longer being contained by takeover provisions would open the door far more to significant deal making between the remaining owners. That could see one airline taking a controlling interest, subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval.

But some of the key players are facing headaches of their own, which will probably influence if and how Virgin departs the ASX, and what it might look like as a private company. Loading Diogenis Papiomytis, the director of aviation at global consultancy Frost & Sullivan, said one of new Etihad chief executive Tony Douglas' first orders of business upon starting this month would be to reassess its investment in Virgin. The Gulf carrier has stepped backed from the international investment strategy spearheaded by former boss James Hogan, which blew a hole in its earnings and contributed to its $US1.87 billion ($2.39 billion) loss last year. Italian carrier Alitalia went into administration and Air Berlin filed for bankruptcy in 2017 after Etihad withdrew its support for the pair.

Virgin ran at a $224.7 million net loss in 2016 and a$185.8 million loss in 2017. But it is cash-flow positive for the first time in five years and says its turnaround plan is running ahead of expectations. Mr Papiomytis, who was part of the strategy team at Etihad that decided to invest in Virgin, said it was possible Etihad would sell its stake in Virgin in the medium term. Etihad has lost money from the investment ... and theres still a long way to go before they [Virgin] become sustainably profitable," he said. As an investment it does not make sense, but strategically it does because Australias still one of the most important markets for Etihad Airways". Mr Papiomytis said Etihad would be weighing up whether divestment would jeopardise its lucrative code-share partnership, cede too much power to the other airlines who could draw Virgin passengers away from Abu Dhabi and towards their own hubs, or strengthen Emirates and Qantas' partnership.

I don't see a very short-term divestment by Etihad in Virgin, but over the longer term I think that partnership can continue without the shareholding," he said, adding that Etihad would "100 per cent" want Virgin to privatise. Virgin has maintained its code-share alliance with Air New Zealand even after the Kiwi carrier sold out of its 25.9 per cent holding. Corrine Png, CEO of Asian transport equity research firm Crucial Perspective, said that with Etihad looking more like a seller, Singapore Airlines and HNA would be the dominant players vying for control of Virgin. The Nanshan Group owns only the fledging Qingdao Airlines, which has a fleet of 14 aircraft, while Richard Branson's group has been stepping away from its aviation investments. Ms Png said both Singapore and the highly acquisitive HNA would probably increase their holdings if possible.

Now it is a deadlock of shareholdings, so in the end Virgin Australia doesnt get anywhere because the board has so many conflicting interests," she said. Flights to Australia and New Zealand made up 18 per cent of Singapore Airlines' revenue last year, according to its annual report. That made Australia more valuable to Singapore than to other Virgin investors, Ms Png said. Singapore had enough net cash to buy the 80 per cent of Virgin it did not already own outright if needed, Ms Png said, but it only would be interested in increasing its stake to at least 50 per cent so it could command control. At the same time, Singapore could bale out altogether if another airline increased its stake significantly, because it would lose the influence its investment was supposed to deliver. "If theres an overriding airline that has a much bigger stake, then theres no point in the rest of them owning a stake," Ms Png said.
The Minerals Council of Australia has called for the country's prohibition on nuclear power to be lifted. But both critics and supporters see little future for large-scale nuclear power in Australias energy mix.

The man who once famously called for 50 nuclear reactors across Australia, nuclear physicist and NBN chairman Ziggy Switkowski, says "the window for gigawatt-scale nuclear has closed".

Ziggy Switkowski says the window for gigawatt-scale nuclear has closed. Credit:Luis Ascui

A lack of public support and any actual proposals for a nuclear plant had resulted in government inertia, he said on Thursday.

"Government wont move until a real business case is presented and none has been, to my knowledge, and there arent votes in trying to lead the debate," he said, adding that renewables were now a more economically viable choice.
Plans to double public green space and build a water-play area at the controversial West Village site have been lodged as the developer moves towards meeting the government-applied approval conditions.

Brisbane City Council received a development application seeking approval for the development of open public spaces, laneways and community spaces at the West End site on January 3.

The development of the 2.6-hectare former Absoe site had attracted resistance from the community since it was first lodged with the council in April 2015.

Design image of public space, The Common, from the Boundary Street entrance to the West Village development at West End.

When lodged, the developer Sekisui House proposed 1350 apartments across seven buildings ranging from 15 to 25 storeys with 95 per cent site cover.
Thousands of compensation claims have been lodged over Nurofen products that were purported to tackle specific types of pain but which all contained the same active ingredient.

Eligible consumers will be reimbursed for purchases of the Nurofen Specific Pain Range after a class action lawsuit against parent company Reckitt Benckiser was settled last September for $3.5 million.

Products in the Specific Pain range.

Products said to treat specific back, period, migraine or tension headache pain all contained active ingredient ibuprofen lysine 342mg.

A court found products whose packaging referred to a specific pain were no more effective at treating that pain than any of the other Nurofen Specific Pain products.
The death of Brunswick artist and mother Antonia Tatchell, whose body was found at home in the inner-north suburb, is being treated as suspicious by police as residents in her street reacted in shock to the "awful incident".

Antonia Tatchell was found dead at a house in Brunswick.

Emergency services were called to a property in Albert Street, Brunswick, just before 6am on Thursday.

Neighbour Maree said Ms Tatchells son spoke with her this morning.
A four-year-old boy and a 19-year-old girl are both fighting for their lives following a horror crash in WA's mid-west overnight.

The two are the only survivors from the Brand Highway crash, which happened around 10 kilometres north of Dongara on Wednesday afternoon.

The boy has been flown to Princess Margaret Hospital.

It's understood the Toyota Hilux and the Toyota Landcruiser were travelling in opposite directions when the Hilux crossed into the southbound lane.

Police said it was possible the Hilux suffered a tyre blow-out, which could have caused it to veer into the path of the Prado.
Major offshore oil and gas projects have not evacuated their workers as a tropical cyclone approaches off the north-west coast of WA.

The Bureau of Meteorology has advised Tropical Cyclone Joyce is expected to develop around 140 kilometres west south-west of Cape Leveque, and both Shell's floating LNG vessel Prelude and the Inpex Ichthys Explorer are currently moored near the category three storm at the Browse Basin.

An image of where the mining vessels lie on a Earth.nullschool.net wind map of the area.

Both vessels are fixed to the sea floor and unable to move; however, accommodation vessels are still attached and are not fixed to the sea floor.

The Maritime Union of Australia confirmed the accommodation vessels could move in the event of extreme weather and, in rare cases, become dangerous.
Beijing: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has weighed into the row over China's Pacific aid program, criticising loans that "impose onerous debt burdens on regional governments".

China lodged a diplomatic complaint on Wednesday, labelling an attack on its Pacific aid program by Turnbull government minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells as "full of ignorance and prejudice".

International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has been lashed by the Chinese government for saying their Pacific aid program was useless. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Fierravanti-Wells, international development minister, earlier accused China of building useless buildings, white elephants and "roads to nowhere" in the Pacific.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang responded by saying China's aid program had "brought real benefits to local people" and had been welcomed by Pacific governments.
Bangkok: Amnesty International has slammed the first admission by Myanmar's military that its soldiers executed Rohingya villages in Rakhine state, saying it is just the "tip of the iceberg".

In a statement on Wednesday night the military admitted to the murders of 10 Rohingya in the coastal village of Inn Din, about 50 kilometres north of the state capital Sittwe, but described the victims as "terrorists" who were supposedly among a group of 200 people who had attacked security forces using sticks and swords.

"This grisly admission is a sharp departure from the army's policy denial of any wrongdoing," said James Gomez, Amnesty International's regional director for south-east Asia and the Pacific.

"However it is only the tip of the iceberg and warrants serious independent investigation into what other atrocities were committed amid the ethnic cleansing campaign that has forced out more than 655,000 Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine state since August," he said.
Rome: Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi hailed French actress Catherine Deneuve on Thursday for defending men accused of sexual harassment in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

"Catherine Deneuve spoke blessed words," said the 81-year-old Berlusconi, who resigned in 2011 mired in scandal over his wild "Bunga Bunga" parties with young women and under investigation over having sex with an underage prostitute.

French actress Catherine Deneuve in 2009 in Paris. Credit:Christophe Ena

"It's natural that women are happy if a man tries to seduce them," he said in a television interview. "I don't have much experience with this because it's always women who try to seduce me."

Deneuve and 99 other French women on Tuesday denounced a backlash against men, saying the recent international campaign against sexual harassment amounted to "puritanism" and was fuelled by a "hatred of men."
Washington: Democrats are striking out on their own this week over all but one of the congressional investigations into Russian meddling, independently releasing reports and transcripts, and attacking Republicans they accuse of intentionally undermining active probes in deference to US President Donald Trump.

Senior Democratic officials in the Senate, frustrated by what they consider a Republican campaign to discredit the law enforcement and intelligence agencies investigating the president, cleared their members to release the interview transcript of one of the Russia investigation's most sensitive witnesses and, separately, to publish a report detailing the disinformation and intimidation tactics the Kremlin deploys against democracies globally.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Credit:J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE

In the House, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, endorsed a letter sent Tuesday to Speaker Paul Ryan, accusing him of orchestrating a campaign to bury a congressional probe into Trump's alleged ties to the Russian government and defame the agencies investigating those matters.

Throughout the Capitol, partisan divisions have engulfed the Russia investigations, transforming what were supposed to be nonpartisan probes into political flame-throwing competitions, as each side accuses the other of going rogue. And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are bracing for the partisan sniping to worsen.
Latest News How are Australians coping financially? More than a third experienced hardship in last quarter, says NAB

Almost 50% of Australians have lost motivation to save or invest Survey also shows majority think inflation can't be controlled

Many professionals in the mortgage industry will be welcoming the results of a recent report after it suggested a number of key roles in the sector will become highly sought-after over the year ahead.



According to the latest data from recruitment giant Hays, mortgage lenders, mortgage processors and mobile lenders will all be hot job titles in 2018.

If youre a mortgage lender, mobile lender or mortgage processor youre in luck, said Scarlett Pond, of Hays. These are just three of the banking skills that will be in high demand in 2018.

Covering January to June 2018, the Hays Jobs Report provides a guide to hotspots of recruitment activity and is updated twice a year to reflect changing market conditions across Australia.

Released yesterday (11 Jan), the most recent report explained that mortgage lenders are in high demand as banks continue to promote existing performers and backfill vacated roles.

Mobile lenders are also sought after and the study noted that financial services firms will all be vying for the same candidates  a situation that will inevitably drive up salaries for those with the desired skillsets.

Finally, mortgage processors are also going to be in high demand as consistent property sales fuel back office processing and administration requirements.

Nick Deligiannis, managing director of Hays in Australia and New Zealand, said the demand reflects the growing need for non-routine workers in an increasingly digital environment.

The rapid rise in robotics and automation will create highly-skilled roles that require people with particular knowledge and expertise in non-routine and non-repetitive tasks, he said.
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84th Precinct

Brooklyn HeightsDUMBOBoerum HillDowntown

Close, but no ignition

A pair of baddies tried to ride off with a guys car parked on State Street on Dec. 17, police said.

A witness spotted the two punks hop in the 2017 Volk parked near Court Street at about 9:50 am and try to turn it on, officials said. But the jerks couldnt start the engine and instead fled in a gray four-wheeler, but left a phone inside, according to authorities.

Dude, wheres my car?

Some weasel stole a womans car parked on Bergen Street on Dec. 18, police said.

The 61-year-old victim told police she parked her 2014 Honda Civic at 11 am and when she returned at 8:30 pm, it was gone, according to authorities.

Bank robbery

A scoundrel ran off with cash he demanded from a bank teller on Smith Street on Jan. 2, police said.

The teller told police the villain entered the financial institution between Court Street and Boerum Place at about 10:50 am and passed a note that said, 5,000 quickly. The victim complied and gave the lout $1,540, who then fled out of the bank with the note, according to authorities.

Shopping free!

Four baddies swiped a handful of clothes from a Fulton Street store on Jan. 5, police said.

The quartet of punks took denim pants, a white T-shirt, and a black leather jacket from the boutique between Elm and Bond streets at about 7:40 pm, officials said. The store manager tried to stop the malefactors from fleeing with the clothes, but one of the curs pushed him and ran out, according to authorities.

Liquor looters

Some home invaders stole bottles of liquor from a guys Furman Street apartment sometime overnight on New Years Eve, police said.

The 56-year-old victim told police the sneaks crept in through a rooftop door sometime between Dec. 31 at 8 pm and 1 am on New Years Day and stole a Johnnie Walker Blue bottle, bourbon bottle, and Gruppa bottle, according to authorities.

Cleaned them out!

Cops cuffed a woman for swiping a bunch of cleaning products from a Fulton Street drugstore on both Jan. 6 and Jan. 7.

The 34-year-old suspect took five bottles of detergent from the store near Smith Street on Jan. 6 just after midnight, and then the next day at about 4:51 pm, took another three bottles of bleach, officials said.

 Julianne Cuba
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Investigators on Jan. 9 named the man who they say raped a woman in Prospect Park nearly 24 years ago, citing DNA evidence and closing a case that a prominent New York Daily News columnist once loudly refuted.

The revelation finally brings justice to the victim, a lesbian who newsman Mike McAlary slammed as a liar and a hoaxer in the newspaper after the 1994 attack, according to another journalist who followed the case.

She was called a liar by one of the most famous columnists in New York City and shes had to live with that all of these years, said Gabriel Rotello, a former Newsday columnist and one of the womans leading defenders at the time. Shes been vindicated after all of these years, and Im thrilled with that.

Cops linked DNA found at the Lookout Hill rape scene to a 67-year-old man who is currently serving a 75-years-to-life sentence for 1998 sexual-assault convictions. But the statute of limitations ran out on the April 1994 attack, prohibiting prosecutors from charging the man, who is not eligible for a first parole hearing until 2070.

McAlary, who died in 1998, wrote three columns that represented the assault as a hoax, called the then 27-year-old victim a liar, and claimed that she was going to be arrested, prompting her to file suit against the newsman.

The journalist eventually revealed in a deposition that his columns relied on a single source: the then head of the New York Police Departments press office, John Miller, who now runs the Departments counterterrorism unit.

But in his own deposition, Miller disputed his role in McAlarys stories, except to say that police first advised reporters to proceed cautiously on the story as the investigation continued.

Rotello, the former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct LGBTQ weekly OutWeek, interviewed Miller for Newsday, and said the cop claimed that McAlary called him demanding protection after his first column was published.

Can you lock this thing down, can you bail me out, can you do this, can you do that, Rotello quoted Miller as saying. Im like, Mike, what the f is the matter with you  [W]here do you jump to this conclusion that A, its a hoax or B, more outrageously, that shes about to be arrested?

Miller denied making the comments after Newsday published the column, only to have Rotello produce a recording of the conversation  a scoop that made headlines, but ultimately did nothing to help the womans case, the journalist said.

It made quite a splash at the time and the next day John Miller called me up and apologized to me, Rotello said. None of that helped the victim.

The libel suit was dismissed in 1997 and the woman did not pursue an appeal.

The Daily News, which did not respond to an e-mail asking if it stood by McAlarys columns, reported in its 2018 story on the rapists revelation that the columnist relied on police sources, some cops, and detectives.
International Business Machines Corp plans to reassign up to 30% of staff in its 103,000 computer service delivery business this year with job losses through attrition of around 10,000, technology website The Register reported on Thursday, citing unnamed company insiders.

The news site published a slide it said was from an IBM internal presentation, which showed 10,100 jobs classified as "attrition w/o backfill."

IBM, one of the world's original PC producers but now a broad-based producer, integrator and software maker, beat expectations for revenue in its last quarterly results in October after 22 straight quarters of declines.

Spokesmen for IBM declined to make any immediate comment. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
China is seeing its population rapidly age after decades of single-child families. From 2010 to 2040, China will see the proportion of those 60 or older grow from 12% to 28%, according to the United Nations. Pictured is Vanke's 100-bed Beijing elder care center. Photo: Vanke

A rapidly graying China is enticing companies from both home and abroad to roll out senior care facilities, including a major development unveiled in Beijing this week.

The 100-bed care center is operated jointly by a subsidiary of China Vanke Co. Ltd.  the countrys top property developer  and state-owned utility owner Beijing Enterprises Group Co. Ltd.

The center, which opened Wednesday, is in the same tract as a Vanke apartment for the elderly, which offers services to retirees from both the apartment and some top public Beijing hospitals that the project has partnered with.

Since 2009, Vanke has explored getting into the promising elder-care business, followed by domestic rivals that include China Poly Group Co. and Sino-Ocean Group.

Foreign competitors have caught up to local ones in the industry. On Tuesday, the second day of French President Emmanuel Macrons visit to China, two French companies signed agreements to enter the Chinese market with their offerings of telecare, or the monitoring and oversight of health care over a distance.

Telecare firm Senioradom and Sigfox, provider of internet of things connectivity, will roll out a telecare program in 20 Chinese cities, beginning in the southwestern city of Chengdu.

The Chengdu High-Tech Industrial Development Zone has promised an investment of nearly 300 million euros ($359 million) to deploy the program, made up of different movement sensors and door-opening detection, as well as an alert and geolocalization system.

China is seeing its population rapidly age after decades of single-child families. From 2010 to 2040, China will see the proportion of those 60 or older grow from 12% to 28%, according to the United Nations.

As a result, the next generation of the elderly  the majority of whom have only one child preoccupied with their own middle-aged lives  will resort to institutions for senior care.

The senior-care industry is expected by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to reach 13 trillion yuan ($2.0 trillion) by 2030.

The government is operating some elderly-care homes too, but they are so crowded that a retiree finds it hard to secure a bed for a long time, according to an October report by Everbright Securities.

Besides property developers, other companies from the private sector have also wagered in the business, including insurers Taikang Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and Funde Sino Life Insurance Co. Ltd., as well as industrial funds such as Sequoia Capital and Alibaba-affiliated YF Capital.

Contact reporter Coco Feng (renkefeng@caixin.com)
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
The India Today Rankings has released the list of top 25 engineering colleges in India for the engineering stream. The source of research for the ranking survey, as mentioned by the surveyor are the internet, published reports and the Association of Indian Universities handbook. Around 3000 colleges have been taken in the sample size for the survey before picking out the best.

The parameters used to rank were

college reputation

quality of academic input

student care

infrastructure

job prospects

Here is the list of top 25 engineering colleges in India:
Students all over the country are asked one question again and again. "Will you be going abroad for further studies?" The question has become so common that it has become a sort of necessity to have a degree from a foreign country. Almost 2.5 lakh-3 lakh students travel from India to various countries to pursue higher studies.

This rise in students opting for studies in abroad is generally due to the belief that a degree from a foreign country will have greater value when it come stop grabbing a job. Also many universities have unique courses that are to available in India.

The general notion is that USA is the place where most Indian students go for higher studies. But there are many other countries, in other parts of the world where the quality of education is exceptional. Europe is one such hub of education. The standards of living are high and one will find a far easy life in many countries in Europe. Many of the students look out to study in Europe for free.

Here are the top 5 countries for higher studies in Europe:

Netherlands Netherlands, also known as Holland, is a country in the northwest region of Europe and is a member of the European Union. The capital of the country is Amsterdam. Most of the Universities offer a 3 year Bachelors program and a 1 to 3 year long Master's programe, as well as Doctoral programes. The majority of courses are offered in Dutch but there are various courses offered by most of the universities in English, focused especially for international students. Why should you study in Netherlands? Courses in Netherlands are complex and focused on high quality learning

Scholarships are available for International students

Cost of living is high, though hostels and dormitories for students are available.

Opportunities areas like Electronics and Engineering is relatively higher.

The Dutch are friendly and welcoming people

Equality in terms of race, gender, orientation is comparatively high.

If you are a lover of art, then there is the famous Van Gogh Museum waiting for you in Amsterdam. Top Universities in Netherlands are: Radboud University Nijmegen



University of Amsterdam



University of Groningen



Delft University of Technology



Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam



Increase in Indian student visa applications to the Netherlands Germany Germany is situated in central-western Europe. It the most populous member of the European Union and the second most popular country for immigrants. Most German universities are public institutions and offer free tuition. It is the third leading destination for international students. A level B1 certificate in German from a well-established and known institution is necessary Why should you study in Germany? Innovative courses to chose from and exceptional learning methods are provided





Opportunities to work with professionals





Easy access to travel within the country





Country offers various scholarships to international students





Students can stay back for 18 months after the end of their course and look for a job





Top universities in Germany are:

Heidelberg University







Leipzig University







Rostock University







Greifswald University







The University of Berlin







Spain Spain is sovereign state located in southwestern Europe. It is the fifth largest country in Europe and is a member of the European Union. Why should you study in Spain? Spain has a well organized education system









The country is filled with scenic locations.









The cost of living is affordable compared to other European countries.









The tuition is very less compared to countries like USA - courses randing from 5,500 Euros to 12,000 Euros









The people are amiable towards people from India.









Top universities in Spain are: University of Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona)











Universidad Autonoma de Madrid











Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona











University Complutense Madrid











University of Navarra











Iceland Iceland is a Nordic island country. It was ranked 13th in the list of most developed countries in the world. Education in Iceland is free in public institutions. Scholarships are available by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture for international students who want to learn Icelandic or the literature of Iceland. Why should you study in Iceland? Courses in English are available













Many certificate courses for learning Icelandic language are available













Those who plan to stay for more than 3 months have to apply for Resident's permit.













Foreign nationals can avail health care facilities with resident's permit.













Top universities in Iceland are:

Agricultural University of Iceland;















Holar University College;















University of Akureyri;















University of Iceland.















Romania Romania is a southeastern European country and is a member of European Union. Universities and institutes that have special license are only allowed to accept and teach the foreign national students. The students must take up an examination like IELTS to prove their proficiency in any of the subjects from - Romanian/ English/ French in which they will be instructed during the course. Why should you study in Romania? Education from Romania has a world- class reputation

















The tuition fees is very cheap as compared to many other countries.

















The institutions provide a multi-cultural environment

















Transferability to different institutions are flexible.

















Students receive practical education which comes in handy while looking for job opportunities.

















Top universities in Romania are: Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies



















Babes-Bolyai University



















Politehnica University of Bucharest



















University of Bucharest



















Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Also Read: Online coaching classes for GRE/TOEFL/IELTS/SAT/LSAT



Now you have more options to chose from. So what are you waiting for?

Check out these Universities and get an answer ready for the next time you are asked where you are heading for your higher studies.
Update: Multistate Outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 Infections

Media Statement For Immediate Release: Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Contact: Media Relations,

(404) 639-3286 The final outbreak notice is available at https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2017/o157h7-12-17/index.html.

On January 10, 2018, the Public Health Agency of Canadaexternal icon reported that an outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157:H7 infections (STEC O157:H7) they had identified was linked to romaine lettuce appears to be over.

In the United States, CDC, several states, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continue to investigate a multistate outbreak of 24 STEC O157:H7 infections in 15 states. Since CDCs initial media statement on December 28, seven more illnesses have been added to this investigation. The last reported illness started on December 12, 2017.

The likely source of the outbreak in the United States appears to be leafy greens, but officials have not specifically identified a type of leafy greens eaten by people who became ill. Leafy greens typically have a short shelf life, and since the last illness started a month ago, it is likely that contaminated leafy greens linked to this outbreak are no longer available for sale. Canada identified romaine lettuce as the source of illnesses there, but the source of the romaine lettuce or where it became contaminated is unknown.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) showed that the STEC O157:H7 strain from ill people in the United States is closely related genetically to the STEC O157:H7 strain from ill people in Canada. WGS data alone are not sufficient to prove a link; health officials rely on other sources of data, such as interviews from ill people, to support the WGS link. This investigation is ongoing. Because CDC has not identified a specific type of leafy greens linked to the U.S. infections, and because of the short shelf life of leafy greens, CDC is not recommending that U.S. residents avoid any particular food at this time.

Outbreak Summary

In the United States, a total of 24 STEC O157:H7 infections have been reported from California (4), Connecticut (2), Illinois (1), Indiana (2), Maryland (3), Michigan (1), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (2), New Jersey (1), New York (1), Ohio (1), Pennsylvania (2), Vermont (1), Virginia (1), and Washington (1). Illnesses started on dates from November 15 through December 12, 2017. Among the 18 ill people for whom CDC has information, nine were hospitalized, including one person in California who died. Two people developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure.

The Public Health Agency of Canada identified romaine lettuce as the source of the outbreak in Canada. In the United States, the likely source of the outbreak appears to be leafy greens, but health officials have not identified a specific type of leafy greens that sick people ate in common.

State and local public health officials continue to interview sick people in the United States to determine what they ate in the week before their illness started. Of 13 people interviewed, all 13 reported eating leafy greens. Five (56%) of nine ill people specifically reported eating romaine lettuce. This percentage was not significantly higher than results from a surveypdf icon of healthy people in which 46% reported eating romaine lettuce in the week before they were interviewed. Based on this information, U.S. health officials concluded that ill people in this outbreak were not more likely than healthy people to have eaten romaine lettuce. Ill people also reported eating different types and brands of romaine lettuce. Currently, no common supplier, distributor, or retailer of leafy greens has been identified as a possible source of the outbreak. CDC continues to work with regulatory partners in several states, at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to identify the source.

Although the most recent illness started on December 12, there is a delay between when someone gets sick and when the illness is reported to CDC. For STEC O157:H7 infections, this period can be two to three weeks. Holidays can increase this delay. Because of these reporting delays, more time is needed before CDC can say the outbreak in the United Stated is over. This investigation is ongoing.

Advice to Consumers

CDC is not recommending that U.S. residents avoid any particular food given the short shelf life of leafy greens and because a specific type of leafy greens has not been identified.

Symptoms of E. coli Infections

Most people develop diarrhea (often bloody) and stomach cramps. People usually get sick from E. coli O157:H7 three to four days after eating food contaminated with the germ. If you are concerned that you have an E. coli infection, talk to your healthcare provider.

General Recommendations for Preventing E. coli Infections

You can protect yourself by washing your hands thoroughly before and after preparing or eating food. You can also wash counters, cutting boards, and utensils after they touch raw meat to avoid contaminating other foods. Its also important to avoid preparing food when you are sick, particularly if you are sick with diarrhea.

###

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESexternal icon
Cemex to restructure Puerto Rico operations

ICR Newsroom By 11 January 2018

Following its significant fall in domestic cement sales, Cemex Puerto Rico has announced changes to its operations effective this month.



While the company did not disclose further details about the number of dismissals, it aims to protect the highest number of jobs possible.



The cement producer will also modify operations at its Ponce works, which will operate as a grinding unit.



Cemex Puerto Rico President, Jorge Rojas, the current conditions in the local market prevent the company to sustain its traditional operational model. However, Cemexs strategy and position in the market is expected to be maintained.



Cement sales have been declining since 2009, according to the Puerto Rican Development Bank (BGF). Cement sales fell by 70.2 per cent in September 2017 and a further 427.2 per cent one month later. November saw the trend continuing as sales dropped by 15.8 per cent. Total cement demand is currently around 0.4Mt or some 33 per cent of Cemexs total installed capacity at the 1.2Mta Ponce plant.



In addition, high power costs led to the company to considerably reduce exports in 2016.

Published under
Adam Frisch conceding CD3 race to Lauren Boebert

Frisch conceded after most county clerks reported results, showing that he's still trailing Boebert by over 500 votes.
Eight earthquakes struck the Iran-Iraq border area Thursday in apparent aftershocks from a major earthquake that hit the same area in November.

More than 530 people died in that earthquake in Iran. In Thursdays quakes, four people suffered minor injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said seven of the earthquakes hit near the Iraqi city of Mandali, which is just 75 miles northeast of the Iraqi capital. The eighth earthquake struck near Mehran in western Iraq.

The earthquakes all hit within an hour of each other. Six had a preliminary magnitude of at least 5 and two registered at magnitude 4, according to reports. Earthquakes that register as 5 are considered moderate.

Also, according to the USGS, the earthquakes hit at a depth of about six miles.

"It's ongoing activity there," Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the USGS told The Associated Press. "If there was a stressed fault that's ready to move, they happen like that until the stresses are relieved, so it's not too unusual."

In November, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit the same area and killed more than 530 people and injured thousands in Iran. In Iraq, nine people were killed and 550 were injured, according to the United Nations.

Many buildings collapsed or sustained major damage in Novembers quake. Many people are still living in temporary homes and tents.

Iran is located over major fault lines and is prone to near-daily earthquakes. The last deadly quake was in 2003, where a 6.6 magnitude earthquake killed 26,000 people in the city of Bam.

Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com

Publication date: January 11, 2018
Faith in Jesus is Powerful, But Sometimes We Live Like It's Not Powerful At All

Big idea: The church is a bigger deal than you realize. It displays God's multifaceted wisdom to spiritual powers.

As we gather today, I want to tell you that what you're doing right now is a pretty big deal.

I've always liked the words of Annie Dillard:

On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?

The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.

I love that  we should all be wearing crash helmets. What we're doing here matters. It's not safe at all. The church is a bigger deal than you realize. Today we're going to look at one reason why.

For the next few weeks, we're looking at life at Liberty Grace. We're going to get into the nitty-gritty of what we're all about as a church. I'm going to be telling you things I don't think I've ever told you about our church before. I want to invite you in to join and to be a part.

But first we have to ask: why does it all matter? All of this takes lots of time, energy, and money. Why do we even bother? The answer comes back: The church is a bigger deal than you realize.

Let's look at why.

Reason One: The Gospel Is for Everyone

We only have one theme here. We keep things pretty simple. The one theme is Jesus and what he's done for us. We talk about it a lot, and for good reason. It's the center of everything we do.

The book we're looking at today, Ephesians, was written to a church plant like ours. The man who wrote it, Paul, was an enemy of Christianity until he met Jesus, and it changed everything. Once he met Jesus and understood what Jesus did for us, he couldn't stop talking about it. So for the first two chapters of Ephesians, he's been discussing the incomprehensible fact that Jesus died to save us. You can't put it better than Paul did in Ephesians 2.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christby grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

Friends, it doesn't get any better than that. We were dead  not just sick, but dead. But God has acted in Jesus to make us alive and raise us up to new life. We've been saved. It is all of God. It's a gift that we can simply receive, and it changes everything. I want to encourage you to receive this gift if you haven't already. There's nothing more important you could do today than this.

But Paul continues in chapters 2 and 3. Not only does he explain this good news, but he also says that it's for everyone. But it hasn't always been that way.

The story of the Bible is the story of God creating a good world, and of us rebelling against him. Instead of writing us off, God has chosen to save his people. But he didn't choose to work with everyone. He chose to work with a small nation called Israel. He told them back then that he would use this tiny nation to bless the whole world, but they mostly missed this theme. For them, salvation was very much tied to being Jewish  something that leaves the majority of the world out of the picture.

But now things have changed. Paul speaks of a mystery in verse 4. Today, mystery means something that's impossible or hard to understand. But that's not what mystery meant in the Greek world. Back then, mystery meant something known only to the initiated. It means that we've been let in on a secret. The secret is what God has been up to for all of history. Paul says that he finally has been allowed to understand God's ultimate purpose in the world. It's why Paul keeps repeating the word mystery in this passage.

What is this mystery? What is God doing in this world? Verse 6 tells us:

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Here's the great mystery that's been revealed: Through the gospel, Jesus has made it possible for all people to become members of his body, and to share in the same promise. In other words, the gospel is for everyone.

You know why the church is important? Because the gospel is for everyone. In Liberty Village, there are close to 10,000 people. They're all different. I know that people think that everyone in Liberty Village is the same. Just go to Metro one day and look around, and you'll see how different everyone actually is. And here's what Paul says: the gospel is for every single one of them.

It's why we're here. There are 10,000 reasons for us to be here. The gospel is the good news that Jesus saves not just one kind of person, but everyone. The church is a bigger deal than we realize because the gospel is a bigger deal than we realize, and we get to share this news with everyone.

But that's not all.

Reason Two: The Church Displays God's Multifaceted Wisdom to Spiritual Powers

When you read Ephesians 3, you see how much this motivates Paul. Paul can't believe that he gets to be part of the church. He's in jail, and he's still excited that he gets to be part of this. He's so blown away that he can barely finish a sentence because he's caught up in the wonder of it.

Here's why. When Paul looked at the church, he saw what God is going. He understood that God is accomplishing something that boggles our minds. He writes:

...so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. (Ephesians 3:10-12)

The church, Paul wrote, has a much higher purpose than we realize. It's an amazing thing that spiritually dead people are raised to new life, and that God is saving all kinds of people from all kinds of places and backgrounds. This is such a big deal that it is the way that God has chosen to reveal his wisdom in its rich variety.

Think for a minute of all the ways that God could show to angels and demons that he is wise. The human genome shows that God is wise. Scientists are unravelling all the ways that information is stored in our DNA that makes us who we are. It's amazing. The universe shows God's wisdom. I could think of many ways that God could choose to show angels and demons his wisdom.

But look at how God has chosen to reveal his wisdom: through the church. The history of the Christian church has become a graduate school for angels. Demons thought they had Jesus killed once and for all. All of his followers were scattered. But he rose from the dead. But then he left.

You can't expect much from a small group of followers who had never amounted to much. But then Peter  yes, that Peter  got up to preach, and thousands joined the church. Satan and demons threw everything they could at the church, but the church continued to spread all throughout the Roman Empire, so that this obscure, marginal movement became the dominant religious force in the western world for centuries.

The very existence of the church is a sign to demons that their authority has been broken, and that their final defeat is imminent. God shows through the church that his purposes are being fulfilled and they're moving toward their climax. F.F. Bruce says that the church is "God's pilot scheme for the reconciled universe of the future." God has chosen to display his wisdom in all its dimensions through, of all things, the church. It blows my mind.

This is why John Piper can say:

The church of Jesus Christ is the most important institution in the world. The assembly of the redeemed, the company of the saints, the children of God are more significant in world history than any other group, organization, or nation. The United States of America compares to the church of Jesus Christ like a speck of dust compares to the sun ... Lift up your eyes, O Christians! You belong to a society that will never cease, to the apple of God's eye, to the eternal and cosmic church of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Why? Because of the cosmic mission of the church. Because of the magnitude of what the church is. The church is a bigger deal than you realize. It displays God's multifaceted wisdom to spiritual powers.

For centuries, Satan and his demons have been throwing everything they can at the church. They're pretty good at what they do. To make it worse, humans are pretty good at messing things up, and the church is full of humans.

After centuries of this, the church has made plenty of missteps and mistakes. And yet throughout the world today hundreds of millions of people are bowing before the God who has made the mystery of salvation known, brought dead people to life, and turned enemies into family. You're part of that today.

As we begin this series looking at life at Liberty Grace, I want to remind you that what we're doing here really matters. It's worth caring about. It's worth investing in. The church is a bigger deal than we realize because the gospel is a bigger deal than we realize, and we get to share this news with everyone. The church is a bigger deal than we realize because it displays God's multifaceted wisdom to spiritual powers.

James Boice says:

So God let history unfold like a great drama upon a cosmic stage. The angels are the audience. We are the actors. Satan is there to do everything he can to resist and thwart God's purposes. This drama unfolds across the centuries as Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and all the other dramatis personaeof Christian history, both the great persons and the minor persons, are brought on stage to play the part God has assigned them and speak words that come from hearts that love him...

Now you and I are the players in this drama. Satan is attacking, and the angels are straining forward to look on. Are they seeing the "manifold wisdom" of God in you as you go through your part and speak your lines? They must see it, for it can be seen in you alone. It is therewhere you work and play and think and speakthat the meaning and end of history is found.

So let's put on our crash helmets. Let's plug in. I'm going to invite you in to the grand story these coming weeks so that you can be part of proclaiming the gospel in this community and God's wisdom to spiritual powers.

Let me close with these words:

BE ENCOURAGED

So when times get challenging in ministry, remember this grand story. God is gathering a people to himself, and he displays his glory through us in this great mission. May this promise give you confidence as you share the gospel. May this motivation drive your social action.

Finally, let this unfolding story encourage you as you survey your local gathering. See it in light of the bigger picture. As you gather for corporate worship in a storefront, a home, a school, a secret location, or an old church building, remember that you are a microcosm of something greater, something diverse and beautiful, something global and glorious, something in the present that will extend to the futureand beyond to eternity.

God's purpose has always been to have a people for himselfreal people who gather around the Word, break bread together, sing together, laugh together, weep together, pray together, dream together, and do ministry together. God is in our midst, revealing his glory to us, and displaying his glory through us. Let's not lose the wonder of this grace.

Darryl Dash is a husband, pastor, and church planter who lives in downtown Toronto, Canada. You can find him at https://dashhouse.com
Has the World Gone Nuts? Christianity and Civility How do you talk with someone who thinks talking itself is an attack?

How do you talk with someone who thinks talking itself is an attack? That's a question that Americans need to ask of our institutions of higher learning. One great way to worsen our already gaping political divisions is to engage in what Internet chatroom denizens call "nutpicking." That is, the deliberate search for the "nuts" on either side of the political aisle to use as unflattering representations of opponents.

It should go without saying that nutpicking is unfair and dishonest. After all, we Christians don't like it when those in the media portray Westboro Baptist members as typical churchgoers. Picking out "nuts" only reinforces false prejudices and makes us less likely to give those we disagree with a fair hearing.

But when it comes to many American college campuses, the nuts seem so plentiful, you practically need a bushel basketeven in the heartland. And they're peddling ideas that directly contradict what education itself should be.

Take an example: the two professors from the University of Northern Iowa, who recently published an article attacking what they dub "whiteness-informed civility." These professors claim that civility, as practiced and expected in American higher education, is "a racialized, rather than universal, norm," and it represents a form of white privilege that "functions to erase racial identity" and exclude people of color.

In other words, treating others with decency and common courtesy is racist. To quote the inimitable Dave Barry, I'm not making this up.

Steve Salerno points out in the Wall Street Journal that this type of nuttery has become all-too-common, especially in the world of collegiate debate. Not just the rules of decorum, but the requirements that students use evidence and reason are increasingly coming "under siege as manifestations of white patriarchal thinking."

He tells of a formal academic debate final at Towson University in 2014 in which students ignored the resolution on foreign policy to instead give a profanity-laden rant about racism in American societyand they won. Others have won by disregarding time limits, or even challenging the "format, goals and ground rules of debate itself..."

Now, lest we inflame our nut allergies, it's important to note that a number of influential voices on the left arethankfullycalling out this silliness. Writing in the New York Times, Frank Bruni, who is no one's conservative and openly identifies as gay, urged "soul-searching" from his fellow liberals on this issue of civility:

"We're in a dangerous place," he wrote, "when it comes to how we view, treat and talk about people we disagree with." "Madonna fantasizes about blowing up the White House, Kathy Griffin displays a likeness of Trump's severed head"and so-called "protests" at UC Berkeley, Evergreen State and Middlebury colleges erupt into violence and property destruction. Over and over during the last two years, places dedicated to civil debate and discourse have transformed into virtual bonfires.

Just last month, Bruni bemoaned an opinion piece that ran in Texas State University's main newspaper, in which a student wrote to white people, "I hate you...you shouldn't exist."

"What has happened to our discourse," Bruni asks, "and how do we make necessary progresswhen hate is answered by hate, prejudice by prejudice, extremism begets extremism and ostensible liberalism practices illiberalism?"

These are all very fair questions. And the answer is clear: We can't. And things will only get worse and our political divides only deepen until we learn to speak with each other again.

This means that Christians must give up our favorite partisan hobbies, especially nutpicking. It means committing to see those around us as fellow creations of God in need of reconciliation and restoration, not as enemy combatants. And it means that we must never stop proclaiming the truth and getting better ourselves at making the case for that which is true, good and beautiful.

And we ourselves have to demonstrate civility, the willingness to talk instead of fight, even if our ideological opponents disagree.

Going Nuts on Campus: Why Civility and Truth Still Matter



Christians have a wonderful opportunity in this present culture of incivility to be Christlike in our attitudes, actions, and words. Nutpicking is not an option. Instead we put into practice what Christ taught, to treat others the way we'd like to be treated.

First published at BreakPoint.
home World Moscow-led church in Ukraine refuses to bury boy because he was christened in a rival denomination

The priest of a Moscow-led church in Ukraine has refused to bury a one-year-old boy because the baby was christened in a Kiev-led Orthodox church.

Roman Polishchuk said that the priest of the Moscow-led church in the central city of Zaporizhia had refused to bury his 21-month-old child, leading him to lash out in disgust.

"The priest said our baby was unchristened and our church was a sham," Polishchuk said. "My wife cried and threw herself before him on her knees, but this did not help," he added.

According to Daily Mail, the baby died on New Year's Eve after being crushed to death by a suicidal man who had jumped from a building.

Polishchuk witnessed the moment when the man landed on his son. The boy's mother, Anna, was reportedly saying goodbye to her parents after celebrating New Year's with them and only rushed out a few moments after the boy was hit.

"I heard a loud thump and then the boy's mother rushed out," said neighbor Sergey Borisov. "She ran to the ambulance where paramedics were seeking to save the child, and understood everything instantly," he added.

Paramedics said that the baby had "crumpled from the strength of the hit." Senior paramedic Vitaly Reznikov said they tried to reanimate the baby's heart and lungs but he died inside the ambulance.

Priest Yevgen Molchanov said that Polishchuk punched him after he refused to perform burial rites for the baby. A small brawl broke out inside the church before the bereaved family was forced to leave. The baby's body was eventually taken to the church he was christened to perform the burial rites.

Molchanov contended that he was only following the rules of his faith. "I am very sorry. I feel for those people," he said.

"But there are certain lines I cannot cross. A child christened by the Kiev Patriarchate remains unchristened ... And the Kiev Church itself is a hoax," he went on to say.

A spokesman for the Kiev Patriarchate dismissed claims that there are such rules in the Moscow-led church.

"There is no official document from the Moscow Patriarchate saying this must be the case. This is all completely arbitrary and based on some verbal orders that are issued under the guise of secret 'canons,'" Yevstratiy Zorya wrote on Facebook.

The rivalry between Moscow-led and Kiev-led churches in Ukraine began when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The dispute intensified due to the war in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed and Kiev-backed sides that has resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 in nearly four years.

According to Agence France-Presse, the Moscow-led church is much larger and is dominant in Zaporizhia, a city with a population of more than 700,000 people.
Blac Chyna news: Chyna files new legal documents for her lawsuit against the Kardashians

Model, entrepreneur, and up-and-coming rapper Angela White, aka Blac Chyna, just filed legal documents for her lawsuit against the Kardashians. Chyna stated that the famous family of television stars and fashion icons are out to get her by ruining her career.

Chyna bid farewell to the Kardashians and the Jenners when she ended her relationship with Rob Kardashian in 2017. The 29-year-old model recently provided new documents against Rob, social media mogul Kim Kardashian, and mother of the Kardashian - Jenner household, Kris Jenner.

According to reports, Chyna's legal documents reveal one "Unwritten Rule" that has a negative impact on her credibility and career. "The unwritten rule no one told (her) when she began her relationship with Kardashian is that the entire family will come after you if you leave, using their fame, wealth and power to take you down," the document reads.

Chyna took the issue to court back in October 2017 with the lawsuit. The lawsuit included not only Rob, Kim, and Kris but also Khloe, Kourtney, Kylie, and Kendall. Chyna then removed the names of the other family members and left Rob, Kim, and Kris.

The root of Chyna's lawsuit is the cancellation of the reality show "Rob and Chyna" in which she starred in with his ex-fiance. The new legal documents also include remarks about the show being canceled. According to the documents by Chyna, "including getting your television show cancelled (despite great ratings), spreading lies about you, and even funding a bogus lawsuit about a crumbled gingerbread house."

The Kardashians fired back in December 2017 and wanted the lawsuit to be dropped. The family then said that the reason for the show being taken down is the restraining order Chyna got against Rob, which restricts any interaction between the two of them.

Rob, Kim, and Kris have not responded to Chyna's latest legal documents and accusations.
Can Donald Trump  or anyone else  make a difference for Christians in the Middle East?

'Men in suits.'

That is how an evangelical church leader in Cairo described the meeting of Donald Trump-supporting US evangelicals with Egyptian President Sisi in December.

'That does not really excite me  those type of front-of-camera meetings. I am almost sure what the president told them word by word.

'Those are the nice suits meetings that show again a nice language of support for the Christian community. "The government understands the problems", they say. "The government is working to solve them one by one," they will add.

'This nice delegation has taken the fight out of the country and gone home and what stays in the country stays in the country.

'The situation stays the same.'

'Michael's' real name is hidden to protect his identity. That says a lot about 'the situation', as he describes it, in Egypt  a country which was shot up the rankings of the worst to be a Christian. Persecution charity Open Doors said 'unprecedented' violence fuelled by extremists fleeing Iraq and Syria means life for Christians in Egypt is precarious.

Christian persecution across the Middle East has been one of Donald Trump's foreign policy themes, attracting enthusiastic support from his unofficial evangelical advisory board.

But Michael is sceptical. Egyptians are laughing at Trump, he says in an interview with Christian Today. And in general Egyptian society, including Christians, doesn't care about what Trump says or does because however much his supporters talk about persecution, it makes little difference to those actually being persecuted.

In fact, with Trump's decision to move the US Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, American support can actually be damaging for Christians in the Middle East.

It is not only Trump. Michael is convinced that foreign influence in general does little to help Egyptian Christians. Change, he says, must come from within.

'Egyptian society is very fragile when it comes to the issues of Christians and the church,' says Michael. 'It has always been like that and it always will be like that unless change comes from the bottom.

'I don't think change will come from the top,' he says. 'I don't think any body from abroad can help.

'I doubt that any pressure from aboard, from the American administration or another government, will be able to really bring about a drastic change to the situation of the Egyptian Christian community. The pressure from abroad has actually proved to be more damaging to the Christian community than bringing good stuff.'

Describing everyday life for Egyptian Christians, who make up roughly half of Christians across the entire Middle East and 10 per cent of the country's 95 million strong population, Michael says it is one of 'fear and anxiety'.

There is a stark difference, he says, between cites such as Alexandria and Cairo where many are well-educated, and the rural villages where widespread illiteracy allows religious fanaticism to flourish.

President Sisi's many warm words to his country's Christian community, which has been riddled with attacks in the last 12 months, bring little comfort out in deserted villages.

'The dominant powers are Muslim in those villages,' he says. 'Imams are looked at with great respect. They look at him as the ultimate source of truth. So when that source of truth says "Let's burn that church down" or that there is a rumour of a Christian man running away with a Muslim girl, people listen.

'They are easily ignited with anger and run to punish the Christian community. We have seen whole families forced to leave their villages because of a rumour that resulted into a state of disruption.

'In the rural areas there is much more fertile soil for fanaticism and anti-Christian sentiment than in the cities like Cairo and Alexandria.'

He goes on: 'When the local Christian community looks out and see that the dominant control is not really in the hands of President Sisi but in the local fanatical authorities you feel you do not have anywhere to go. You are in a situation where local authorities are expressing pressure daily.'

He adds: 'Your children have to go to the local school, you go to the local hospital for treatment, buy your food in the local shop and in all those places the heavy hand of fanaticism is clearly evident and seen.'

Beneath this everyday discrimination that itself underpins the violent attacks such as the Easter day bombing that killed 49 people last year, are deep levels of misunderstanding about Christianity, says Michael.

When locals hear music and laughter in church they assume illicit sexual activity is taking place, not worship. They believe Christians defile God by claiming he had a son, and so are 'infidels'  those with a bad faith.

Before there will be any reduction of the number of attacks or change in the everyday discrimination Christians in Egypt suffer, there must be a shift in these grassroots beliefs about Christianity, says Michael. And that is something on which US evangelicals or any other foreign power can have little influence.
Microsoft admits new firmware updates to fight off Spectre attacks and Meltdowns slow down system performance

Microsoft quickly addressed the emergence of two major cyber security flaws targeting most modern processors manufactured by Intel, ARM, and AMD. New firmware updates are then released, and the company revealed that PCs and servers will experience a slight slowdown.

The news about speculative execution that deteriorates security of all users recently made headlines all over the world. Google's Project Zero team discovered two security flaws that can allow hackers to gain access to personal computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Apple, Android, and PC are found to be vulnerable to Spectre attacks and meltdowns.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft all released new updates to improve cyber security for all people using their devices. Microsoft recently released an article providing details about the flaws and its new security update. Microsoft's executive vice president of the Windows and Devices Group Terry Myerson took the helm of the explanation. "Last week the technology and many of our customers learned of new vulnerabilities in the hardware chips that power phones, PCs and servers," Myerson wrote. The company then began "developing engineering mitigations and update cloud infrastructure" to resolve the issue.

After the initial testing of the new updates, Microsoft reported slowdowns for servers. Myerson said computers and laptops operating under "Windows 10 on newer silicon (2016-era PCs with Skylake, Kabylake or newer CPU) benchmarks show single-digit slowdowns."

PCs and laptops with older silicon tend to experience "more significant slowdowns" and "a decrease in system performance." Windows 8 and Windows 7 users will also stumble upon said slowdowns according to Myerson.

Myerson also assured their patrons that Microsoft will continue to analyze the issue to distribute better improvements. "Our commitment to delivering the technology you depend upon, and in optimizing performance where we can, continues around the clock and we will continue to communicate as we learn more," he concluded.

Microsoft received mixed reviews from their customers and critics.
'NCIS: Los Angeles' season 9 episode 13 spoilers: Team searches for Hetty in Vietnam

In the next episode of "NCIS: Los Angeles," Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) and G. Callen (Chris O'Donnell) track down a highly skilled assailant determined to avenge her father's death.

The sneak peeks and promotional photos for the upcoming installment titled "Forasteira" were released recently, and they showed Callen and Hanna tracking down a highly trained killer. Their investigation leads them to a bar which was burned down by the suspect. They inspect the charred premises and notice the burnt bodies.

"Someone was waiting around for these guys," Hanna says to his partner. It appears that the killer wanted to get rid of the people there. "She went through a lot of trouble to torch the place," Callen expresses as he goes through the burnt evidence. Hanna also tries to make sense of the crime scene.

Apparently, the killer wants to get revenge for the murder of her father. She thinks that she can do this by killing a Brazilian diplomat who she suspects is the mastermind of her dad's death.

Meanwhile, back at headquarters, tech specialist Eric Beale (Barrett Foa) laments to Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah) and Nell Jones (Renee Felice Smith) that the killer is too crafty to catch on camera. However, Blye tells him to keep at it and not to give up looking for the perpetrator. Beale feels a renewed sense of encouragement.

In the last episode, Hanna and Callen had a hard time believing CIA Agent Joelle Taylor (Elizabeth Bogush) and did not want to help with her case. However, her kids were involved so they relented and agreed to assist in the investigation. In the end, they were able to capture the culprits and bring them to justice.

"NCIS: Los Angeles" season 9 episode 10 will hit the airwaves on Sunday, Dec. 10, at 9 p.m. EST on CBS.
'One Piece' episode 821 spoilers: Luffy will do everything to save Sanji

Long-running Japanese anime "One Piece" excites fans as the fight between Big Mom and Brook progresses. Spoilers reveal that Luffy is finally out of prison, and he will do everything to save Sanji.

To recall, episode 820 featured the fight between Tamago and Pedro wherein Tamago regenerated into a stronger form that is known as Viscount Hiyoko. Meanwhile, Brook is still fighting with Big Mom in the Room of Treasure. Brook failed to pierce Big Mom's skin and he was defeated, but he already managed to damage Prometheus.

In this episode, Luffy broke out of prison. To make sure that Big Mom will not learn about it, Smoothie ordered the floors below them to be blocked off. With Luffy out, he fought against Charlotte Cadenza with the goal of finding Sanji. Luffy choked the pirate to get Sanji's location.

Meanwhile, in the infirmary, Reiju encouraged Sanji to escape. It was also revealed that the bomb cuffs of Sanji are fake. Reiju said that she replaced it with duds, which means Sanji can leave without repercussions.

In the upcoming episode 821, it will highlight Luffy as he will try to move through the hideout of Big Mom. The Straw Hat Pirates leader is full of wrath with the goal of saving Sanji from the wedding. But before he can go to Sanji, he will be fighting with some officers.

The preview of the next episode, titled "The Chateau in Turmoil! Luffy, to the Rendezvous!," hints that Luffy will retrieve Sanji while Jinbe and Nami will be running around inside the castle. Luffy will be in a rush to go to Sanji since he needs to tell him about the secret of the wedding. While fighting with enemy officers, Luffy will see Reiju who will suddenly show up.

Based on the manga, Reiju will tell Luffy that her brother already knows about the plan of Big Mom. She will tell Luffy that Sanji overheard Pudding talking about their plan. After knowing that, Luffy will decide to wait for Sanji to reach to him first.

"One Piece" episode 821 will air on Sunday, Jan. 14, at 9:30 a.m. on Fuji TV.
Pope Francis is taking 2,000 poor people to the circus  and animal rights activists object

Pope Francis is to treat some of Rome's poorest people to a day at the circus today  and animal rights activists aren't happy.

The Vatican has arranged for 2,100 people to attend a show at the Medrano Circus on the outskirts of Rome. Among them are homeless people, a group of prisoners and children from needy families, along with volunteers and caregivers.

However, the circus has experienced negative publicity in recent years. In 2016 a court in Padua handed an eight-month suspended sentence to an administrator after accusations by activists that its animals were mistreated.

Salvatore Mendola, a manager and spokesman for the circus, said the charges were denied and the case was still in the appeals process.

He told Reuters on Wednesday that the circus was now under a different administrator.

'We treat our animals very well. We have to get permission to hold shows in each city and are inspected by veterinarians before permission is given. Our animals are super-controlled.'

Gaia Angelini, who heads the exotic animals division of the Italian animal protection group LAV, said: 'We are surprised to see the Vatican doing this.'

She said the use of animals in circuses was being phased out in many countries, including Italy, because it was now commonly accepted that keeping animals in cages and moving them from place to place was harmful.

'It is a bit surprising that a noble gesture of solidarity like this one will also involve the exploitation of the weakest, in this case, animals,' she told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Vatican said a mobile medical clinic would be on hand outside the circus tent on Thursday to treat visitors' routine health problems.

At a recent General Audience, Pope Francis told the performers of the Medrano Circus: 'Circus performers create beauty... This is good for the soul, for we greatly need beauty!'

The Papal Almoner, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, whose office is responsible for the event, said: 'This gift given by the Circus  who with constancy, effort, and many sacrifices seek to create and offer beauty for themselves and others  will hopefully become for our poorest brothers and sisters an encouragement to overcome the bitterness and difficulties of life, which often seem insurmountable.'

Braian Casartelli, part of the family who has directed the circus for seven generations, said his team 'seeks to give its whole heart to transmit happiness and passion' through their performances, according to Vatican News.

He said Thursday's event would be 'a marvelous evening in honour of the many people of Rome who live in difficulty.'

Francis has made care for the poor one of the hallmarks of his papacy. In recent years the Vatican has set up places for the poor to get showers, haircuts and shaves near the Vatican.

Francis has also offered them a private tour of the Sistine Chapel and last November hosted about 7,000 people for a gourmet meal at the Vatican.
South Sudan: Anglican archbishop attacks military over soldiers accused of rape

An Anglican archbishop in South Sudan is accusing his government of failing to take seriously women who accuse soldiers of raping them.

The Archbishop of Central Equatorial Internal Province in the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Paul Yugusuk, said army officials had not arrested a soldier accused of raping a pregnant woman at gunpoint that his office had reported last week.

The soldier is in the South Sudan army and remains at large, Yugusuk said, free to continue raping women.

'The woman was threatened by gun. The husband was also threatened. One soldier raped the woman. The woman is now in the hospital. She has been in a critical situation,' he told South Sudan in Focus.

It comes after President Salva Kiir ordered the defence minister and the army's chief of staff to execute soldiers who commit rape or murder.

But military authorities are covering up such crimes to shield soldiers from arrest, the archbishop said.

'When the case goes up [to military authorities], this is where it also dies. So it encourages the soldiers to do what they want to do because they will not be held accountable,' he said.

It is not the first time Yugusuk has spoken out the army's record of rape, despite the obvious dangers to his own life.

Last year he heavily criticised the military authorities after four soldiers accused of raping teenage girls in a village in South Sudan were not charged a year after the incident.

President Kiir warned South Sudanese not to send messages that will tarnish the image of South Sudan during his New Year message.

The archbishop responded: 'You [President Kiir] cannot tell me that messages should not be sent out when our people are being raped. So we keep quiet?'
The reason Christians are being persecuted today  and what we can do about it

Open Doors, which monitors Christian persecution and supports victims all over the world, has released its 2018 World Watch List of where Christians are most in danger. It uses a careful system of points to grade each country, taking into account not just violence against Christians but low-level discrimination as well.

There are a few surprises this year  Afghanistan is only just behind North Korea, which remains at the head of the list, but Nepal, a new entrant, has jumped in at number 25.

But what drives this hostility to Christians, and what does it look like on the ground?

According to Lisa Pearce, chief executive of Open Doors UK and Ireland, one of the factors  alongside hostility from groups like Islamic State  has more to do with identity than ideology.

She tells Christian Today: 'In some countries, for example Afghanistan  where the situation is extremely serious  your first identity is with your tribe, alongside your religion. When you turn from your tribe, you're turning away from your communty and rejecting everyone who's invested in you to that point.

'There's a religious association that we can't really grasp in this country. It's aligned to your tribe or nationality, and when they turn away it's a fundamental rejection of those around them.'

She instances new entrant Nepal and India, where a right-wing nationalist party, the BJP, holds sway. 'To be Indian, or to be Nepalese, is to be Hindu. When the country's leaders are behaving like that, it gives local communities the opportunity to behave like that too.' Pearce recalls a man she met on a visit to India who became a Christian: he and his family had to leave his village and no one would employ him.

And while it's incidents of violence where Christians are injured or murdered that make the headlines, she says, the lower-level discrimination Christians face daily can have severe consequences. There can be verbal abuse, lack of access to employment, or a Christian might lose out on promotion to a senior role. In rural settings access to the village well might be prohibited  and even to a graveyard, resulting in Christians having to carry their dead for miles before they can find a place to be buried.

The psychological cost of this stigmatisation is severe. 'Part of our job is to help support people and help them see that their identity comes from who God says they are, not from who their communities or their leaders say they are.

'I've met families in Egypt who race a real struggle. At school, their children pretend to be Muslim, then they come home and they're Christian. In a lot of households, children's mental health is under pressure.'

She tells a heartbreaking story of a little boy in a south central Asian country on his first day at school. His parents were florists and he arrived with a bucket of flowers for the teacher. The head called him to the front of the class and he thought he was going to be thanked for the flowers; instead the head tipped them out and stamped on them, saying: 'This boy is a Christian; no one is to speak to him.'

'What must it be like to know as a parent that it's your faithfulness that is making your child go through that?'

Identifying the problem of Christian persecution is one thing. What can be done to stop it?

It's creeping up the agenda of international agencies and the UK government, Pearce says. 'They're taking it more seriously than they used to. We've worked hard to establish good relationships and there is an increasing awareness of the problem.'

However, there's a need for greater religious literacy. 'I sometimes feel that there is a sense of feeling overwhelmed  knowing there's a problem, but feeling they don't have a right to get involved in religion because they aren't religious themselves. Here, religion is private  the government has not fully grasped how fundamental it is in a geopolitical context, in other parts of the world. But there is a willingness to engage. It's a very difficult job and I appreciate their time and effort  I'd love to build on it.'

As well as Open Doors' advocacy role with government, however, Pearce's passion is to get the church involved in speaking up for and supporting those in need  and she's driven by what she has seen herself as she's travelled the world meeting Christians who've suffered.

She tells Christian Today: 'I feel like weeping, and sometimes I do. I feel so frustrated at the degradation people experience. I feel angry and I have to give that to God, because I get frustrated.'

She's adamant that care for persecuted Christians isn't an option for believers. 'It's not a special interest. We're part of the body of Christ. When a fellow believer is in prison, it's as though you are in prison yourself. I want to wake up the world and get everyone hearing about this and sharing it with the church.

'The scale is shocking and it's getting worse. There are 200 million Christians in the top 50 countries at risk. That should matter to us.'

Christians, she says, can pray, write to their MPs and connect with Open Doors or similar organisations to be equipped with stories of persecution  and give.

'We provide Bibles, safe houses, lawyers, shelter, support for woman whose husbands have been killed  the need is bigger than we can meet.'

And she concludes on a note of hope.

'What never ceases to encourage and amaze me is that in so many countries where Christians are under pressure, the church is also growing. In North Korea they have a saying that when you choose Jesus you choose to die  but the church in North Korea is growing, at some speed.

'That tells me something about what those Christians see about who Jesus is and what he is worth.'

And she's encouraged too by the way the church here is engaging more. 'I really believe connecting our persecuted family is a gift. I really believe our faith will grow if we do that.'

To find out more about Open Doors, click here.
Vatican takes control of scandal-hit conservative Catholic movement

Pope Francis has ordered a Vatican takeover of a conservative Catholic society in Peru whose founder is accused of sexually and physically abusing children and former members of the group.

The move, announced by the Vatican on Wednesday, is the latest in a saga that has damaged the reputation of the Catholic Church in Peru and comes a week before Francis is set to make his first visit there as Pope.

The Vatican said the Pope had appointed an administrator to run Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), whose founder, Luis Figari, a layman, is scheduled to go on trial in Peru later this year for the sexual abuse of minors. Figari has denied wrongdoing.

An internal report by the group last year concluded that Figari, who founded the group in 1971 and headed it until 2010, and three other high-ranking former members had abused 19 minors and 10 adults.

Most of the alleged cases took place between the 1970s and 2000.

The report by two Americans and an Irish expert in abuse, found that Figari liked to watch his recruits 'experience pain, discomfort and fear' and humiliated them in front of others. It said he had forced them to engage in sexual activity with him and each other.

A statement on the group's website said it welcomed the Pope's intervention and promised full cooperation with his administrator. 'We once again reaffirm our absolute obedience to the Holy Father and Holy Mother Church,' it said.

The report described Figari as a charismatic, authoritarian and cult-like leader who publicly humiliated members as part of his strategy to control them.

Peruvian authorities opened an investigation into Figari in 2015 following the publication of a book on the abuse allegations by Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Pao Ugaz.

Salinas himself once belonged to the ultra-conservative Sodalitium, whose members include businessmen, writers and politicians from Peru's upper classes and which was founded as part of a backlash against 'Liberation Theology', which took the side of the poor.

Salinas said he was sceptical about whether the takeover would translate into real reform. 'So far, we've seen gestures, damage control and maneuvers to protect the Church's reputation,' Salinas said in a Reuters TV interview.

The Vatican statement said the Pope had been following the group's situation 'with worry' for years and had taken the action 'after a detailed analysis of all the documentation'.

It said he was concerned about 'the gravity of information regarding the internal system, (religious) formation (of members) and economic and financial management'.

A lawyer for victims said last month a public prosecutor was seeking pretrial detention for Figari and three other former leaders of the group.

The Vatican, which officially recognised the group in 1997, last year prohibited Figari from having any contact with members.

The takeover of the SCV is similar to action the Vatican took against another conservative group, the Legionaries of Christ.

An administrator was appointed to run the Legionaries after its founder, the late Mexican priest Marcial Maciel Degollado, was discovered to have been a sexual abuser with a secret family.

The Vatican said the SCV would be run by Colombian Bishop Noel Antonio Londono Buitrago.

However victims of sexual abuse say Pope Francis is not doing enough to put a stop to it. The credibility of a commission he formed in 2014 has been severely damaged by the defections of senior members who accused the Vatican of dragging its feet.

Additional reporting by Reuters.
Zambia bans church services as it battles deadly cholera epidemic

Zambia has banned church services in parts of its capital city Lusaka, as the nation fights an epidemic of cholera.

The Zambian government announced at the weekend that all gatherings, including church services, were now banned in areas affected by the spread of cholera, according to The Tablet. The Zambian bishops' conference has followed suit to avoid potential disease spread by touch: there will be no handshake of peace in the areas where the Mass still takes place.

The Archdiocese of Lusaka has cancelled all its church-sponsored programmes, while its pastoral coordinator, Fr Thomas Banda, indefinitely banned handshakes at all gatherings and said church meetings should only take place if absolutely necessary. The Seventh Day Adventist Church has also cancelled meetings, advising worship from home instead.

The country has invoked military force to help curb the spread of cholera, which has already killed 57 and hospitalised more than 2,400. In the past decade, Zambia has seen more than 2,000 die from the disease. Two million doses of cholera vaccinations have been donated to the country by the UN Children's Fund.

On January 8 the Council of Churches in Zambia, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, and Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a 'Statement of National Dialogue' lamenting the outbreak and condemning corruption and violence in the country.

It said: 'We pray for God's peace, comfort and encouragement during this time of national crisis. We pray for the various teams working on the ground to fight the cholera outbreak so that this may be overcome quickly and life may be restored to normal.'

The statement also addressed internal political tensions in Zambia.

'Despite the public pronouncements that Zambia is a peaceful country, the reality on the ground is different due to many acts of injustice, a growing culture of corruption, incidences of violence and utterances out of deep-seated hatred.'

Violence was victimising the nation's most vulnerable, the statement said, and 'hurts us Christians because we are essentially brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ who identifies himself with the same poor and the suffering'.
At this late date, Houston will never be mistaken for Hollywood. But the handful of major motion pictures that have been filmed here do tend to stick in the imagination. Too bad there's not more of them.

Factors like favorable tax breaks in neighboring states, such as Louisiana and New Mexico, mean the number of productions filmed in Houston, and the rest of Texas, has sharply declined this decade. With that in mind, it seemed like a good idea to revisit some of the most famous Houston movie sites to see what's still standing.

A couple of ground rules first. To make it interesting, we're not counting anything from Johnson Space Center, so no "Apollo 13," "Armageddon" or "Space Cowboys," among many others. And the locations in the most recent major film where Houston enjoys significant screen time, Richard Linklater's 2015 best picture nominee "Boyhood" - Minute Maid Park, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Houston Museum of Natural Science - are all intact. By the way, a comprehensive list of film and TV productions, at least partially filmed here in the past 30 years, is available on the Houston Film Commission's website.

"Brewster McCloud" (1970)

Astroworld, the Houston Zoo and Hermann Park's Mecom Fountain make cameos, but Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud belongs to the Astrodome - which, besides being so  clean, is practically rural in its feature-film debut. Designed by Bob Harris of "Bullitt" fame, the climactic chase scene speeds from the pearly-white Dome through the pasturelands near Fannin and Old Spanish Trail, along Brays Bayou and through Riverside Terrace near McGregor (land developed to widen Texas 288) before ending up, almost inexplicably, in Buffalo Bayou Park. Judging by the scenery, they may as well be in Brazoria County.

Made immediately after Altman finished "M*A*S*H," the movie follows an eccentric young man who lives in the stadium's fallout shelter while building a pair of Icarus-style wings and may or may not have something to do with a string of murders around town. Altman's cameras roam all over the Dome, even catching an Astros game; the famous exploding scoreboard gets ample screen time.

Elsewhere, Michael Murphy's turtleneck-clad stud detective stays in the Astroworld Hotel's gaudy Celestial Suites, off-limits at the present-day Crowne Plaza-NRG Park. "Brewster McCloud" is debated by film scholars and Altman geeks to this day, but its footage of Houston on the cusp of the '70s is pure gold.

Key Houston moment: The runaway-wheelchair shot rolls through several downtown blocks near Commerce; easily visible is the old Merchants and Manufacturers Building, built in 1930 and present-day headquarters of UH-Downtown.

"Jason's Lyric" (1994)

Doug McHenry's poignant and raw romantic drama often gets overlooked in the discussion of notable movies filmed in Houston, and it shouldn't be. Besides a stellar soundtrack, "Jason's Lyric" is loaded with iconic local brands - Frenchy's, Rap-A-Lot, the Juneteenth Gospel Festival. Lyric, Jada Pinkett's character, works at soul-food eatery This Is It, now the location of Demi's Dog House pet-care parlor. The beloved restaurant can now be found on Blodgett, up the block from the TV repair shop where Jason (Allen Payne) works, which has become a barbershop/beauty parlor.

The Third Ward house where Jason and his ex-con brother Josh live is around the corner from the Ralston liquor store at McGowen and Nagle and still standing, though just barely. A few scenes were shot in the former Freedman's Town area of Fourth Ward, where, even now, condemned shotgun shacks share a fence line with condos under construction.

"Jason's Lyric" is difficult to track down - try the Tubi app - but well worth the effort.

Key Houston moment: Though their picnic at an abandoned bus station is equally romantic (killer mural, too), we'll go with Jason and Lyric watching a downtown sunset on a since-demolished railroad trestle over Buffalo Bayou, near Studemont. Beautiful.

"Reality Bites" (1994)

Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and friends figure out life after college, largely in a dingy Montrose apartment known as "Slack Central." The 1932 red-brick fourplex in Alden Place is still standing, now sharing a street with more modern condos and townhomes. As for the film, Ben Stiller's directorial debut has endeared itself to Houstonians of a certain age, despite its voice-of-a-generation pretensions, jingle-obsessed dialogue and continuity lapses - Ryder rhapsodizes over the Big Gulp, when in fact 7-11 had vacated Houston several years prior.

Scenes shot in Texas and L.A. can fit awkwardly, but Stiller makes good use of locales like Catal Huyuk - a worthy successor to seminal alternative club the Axiom, now sadly vacant - and downtown's Tranquility Park, whose nerve-tonic fountains are finally flowing again. Plus, it's got heart.

Don't miss Stiller's mom, Anne Meara, as Ryder's Houston Chronicle interviewer ("define  'irony' "), and Mattress Mack in the monitor shortly before John Mahoney's pompous chat-show host gets his just desserts.

Key Houston moment: In the post-graduation opening scene, Ryder and company chill on a downtown rooftop surrounded by the skyline's most recognizable peaks, including the Bank of America Center, Chase Tower and old Gulf building.

"Rushmore" (1998)

Of all these films, the places seen in "Rushmore" are easiest to recognize today. The house where Jason Schwartzman's character, precocious 10th-grader Max Fischer, and his dad live now has a much bigger fence between it and the Hollywood Cemetery off I-45 and North Main and I-45, but that's the most noticeable difference.

The modest barbershop on East 11th Street, where both Max and his dad work, doesn't appear to have changed a bit, either. Neither has the panoramic view of Hermann Park from Bill Murray's window, although the hotel he'd be looking out from is the ZaZa, not the Warwick.

"Rushmore" takes place largely at a fictionalized St. John's School, director and co-screenwriter Wes Anderson's alma mater. The renovation and expansion completed in 2015 was done with impeccable continuity, even using limestone from the same Texas quarry as the original buildings. When Max is exiled to public school, he heads to Grover Cleveland High School, aka Lamar, which has the exact same color scheme, if a few more temporary classroom buildings, as in the film.

Key Houston moment: Then, as now, the vast parking lot of Delmar and Dyer stadiums near Houston Independent School District headquarters on U.S. 290 is a fine place for a kite-flying society.

"Terms of Endearment" (1983)

"Birdman" picked "Boyhood's" pocket at the Oscars, so "Terms of Endearment" still stands as Houston's only best picture winner to date.

The Houston part of this tearjerker supreme centers around the tasteful two-story dwelling of widow Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine), located on Locke Lane in a posh but hardly ostentatious section of River Oaks. It's still the spitting image of the house in the film, though the guest house out back may have had a little work done. The next-door home of ex-astronaut Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson) was bought in 2014 and has been extensively renovated. The swimming pool that was the source of so much off-camera mirth is now a koi pond.

Other spots include the stately oaks of the Broadacres neighborhood (also seen in "Rushmore" and recently in the news). And for those inspired by Aurora's and Garrett's spin around Galveston's East Beach in his Corvette, it's still perfectly legal to drive vehicles there - with a permit, of course.

Key Houston moment: Garrett and Aurora also share a memorable lunch at Brennan's downtown ("you need a lot of drinks"), in a part of the restaurant that has been faithfully restored after a devastating 2008 fire and is known as the "Terms of Endearment" room today.

"Urban Cowboy" (1980)

For sheer chamber-of-commerce scenery, no movie made here since "Urban Cowboy" has topped its opening-credit sequence of John Travolta cruising Memorial Drive and I-45 South. Allen Center, City Hall and the Heritage Society houses in Sam Houston Park remain, while Jefferson Davis Hospital, now the Federal Reserve Bank, and Sam Houston Coliseum, demolished to make way for the Hobby Center, are long gone.

Gilley's, the sprawling honky-tonk that made Pasadena world-famous, hung on long after the "Urban Cowboy" craze was over. The club finally closed in late 1989, while a suspicious fire destroyed the building several months later. The Pasadena Independent School District eventually annexed the property; sadly, it's doubtful that Kendrick Middle School, which sits there today, offers any mechanical bull-riding lessons.

Still operational is the refinery, now owned by Valero, where Travolta nearly falls to his death - that tower was removed just this year - and the condos at 2016 Main, from whose penthouse Travolta's socialite girlfriend Pam calls Houston "my favorite city in the world."

Cowboy, the Yorktown Plaza country bar where she shows him the city's more upscale side, later enjoyed a long run as the Roxy, a cornerstone of Galleria-era nightlife. It shuttered in 2013 and remains vacant.

Key Houston moment: Besides that opening, it's hard to beat the first time Uncle Bob (Barry Corbin) takes Bud to Gilley's, showing off its "three and a half acres of concrete prairie" - in all its roughneck glory - as the club's namesake pounds out "Honky Tonk Wine" on the bandstand.
As some Houston-area residents prepare for upcoming road construction delays in 2018, others are getting ready to breathe a sigh of relief in coming months, when local projects start wrapping up.

In Houston's fast-growing areas, like Montgomery County, roads are being widened as quickly as possible to accommodate residents who don't like sitting in endless lines of cars.
Once known as the "capital of capital punishment," Harris County is now doling out more life without parole sentences than any other county in the state.

In the 12 years since then-Gov. Rick Perry signed the life without parole or "LWOP" bill into law, Harris County has handed down 266 of those sentences - nearly 25 percent of the state's total, according to data through mid-December obtained from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

"It's concerning, but this is like economics or engine performance, there's no free lunch," said Houston defense attorney Patrick McCann. "We have far fewer death cases than we used to. That's a tremendous win. But now we have a lot of LWOP sentences."

GRAY MATTERS: A new era of the death penalty in Houston

The county's reliance on the lengthiest sentence available in capital murder cases comes as the Houston area - and Texas as a whole - has shifted away from capital punishment. For the first time in more than 30 years, 2017 saw no new death sentences and no executions of Harris County killers. And although part of that downturn stems from the possibility of life without parole, some experts see possible drawbacks.

"There has always been speculation about whether that has encouraged prosecutors to file capital cases more than they otherwise would because what better leverage do you have in a plea bargaining situation than, 'Agree with me or I will kill you,'" said Scott Henson policy director with the non-profit Just Liberty, which advocates for reducing incarceration. "The government will literally kill you if you don't go for life without parole and there is no stronger bargaining chip than that."

District Attorney Kim Ogg, whose office has overseen less than 25 life without parole sentences since she took the reins last year, pushed back against that suggestion.

"We don't use the death penalty as a plea bargaining tool," she said.

Andy Kahan, the city of Houston's victim advocate, described life without parole as a "saving grace" for victims' families.

MORE: Houston is ground zero for the death penalty

"Like it or not, there's some really evil people out there that commit some horrible atrocities that deserve to be locked up for life," he said. "In a utopian world it'd be great if we didn't have to have it but that's not reality."

While Harris County grabs the lion's share of the state's life without parole sentences, Dallas County came in right behind with 120, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice data through Dec. 18. Tarrant County had 69 of the state's 1,067 total such sentences, while Bexar County had 47 and Hidalgo had 26.

Without more data to compare the percent of slayings charged as capital cases seeking death or LWOP in Harris County before and after the introduction of the law, it's difficult to evaluate whether the sentencing option has had any measurable impact on local death penalty charging practices, pointed out Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center.

"The raw numbers may tell us something and what they tell us is not a surprise," Dunham said. "But the raw numbers don't tell us a lot."

Just over 17 percent of the state's population lives in Harris County, according to Texas Department of State Health Services population projections for 2016. That makes for an LWOP rate of 6 sentences per 100,000 residents, which is higher than in all but two counties with populations over 100,000.

In comparison to murder figures, the relatively large number of life without parole sentences looks less surprising. According to an analysis of DPS data, in 2016 Harris County accounted for 27.7 percent of the state's murders and 22.7 percent of the murders cleared.

And while Harris County accounts for a disproportionate number of total executions nationwide - more than any other county or entire state, except the rest of Texas - it has generated only a small fraction of the total life without parole sentences across the country, based on TDCJ figures and a 2017 Sentencing Project report.

"Where the corporate culture has changed is the willingness to seek death," McCann said, referring to local prosecutors. "Cases that ten years ago would have been death even with LWOP are now charged as non-death," McCann said. "But that doesn't mean that they've stopped charging the LWOP cases."

***

To some extent, Texas' relatively low LWOP use compared to national numbers may stem from the fact that prosecutors have only had the option for life without parole since 2005. Before that, the harshest choices were death - or the possibility of release after 40 years.

"Life without parole became an option because of a turnaway from the death penalty," said Elizabeth Henneke executive director of the Lone Star Justice Alliance. "It was considered a more humane option than the death penalty and increasingly juries seemed to be uncomfortable with death as the only option."

MORE: Conservatives' distaste for death penalty sends support to 45-year low

Texas became the last death penalty state to adopt the option, after Harris County prosecutors dropped their opposition. Initially it only applied to capital murder, but later the law was expanded to include crimes like repeated sexual assault of a child.

From the statute's inception, Harris County was one of its biggest users.

"It's not surprising because Harris County is also the driver of the death penalty numbers and most juvenile commitments as well," Henneke said. "Across the board Harris County is the incarceration county."

Last year, one of the county's most high-profile life without parole sentences was handed down to Shannon Miles, the man who fatally shot Harris County Deputy Darren Goforth at a gas station during a brutal August 2015 ambush. After months of wrangling over competency issues, defense and prosecutors agreed to a controversial plea deal allowing the mentally ill man to avoid the death penalty.

Also in 2017, James Tinsley netted a life without parole sentence after he was convicted of fatally shooting three men at a northside car dealership. Another 19 defendants were given the state's second-harshest sentence last year as of mid-December.

Even though it could save convicted killers from death row, Henneke offered concerns about the medical costs associated with housing a growing cadre of elderly prisoners, especially given their relatively low recidivism rates.

"What it means is that one county is driving a statewide policy with statewide financial implication because the rest of the state is going to be paying for housing these extra long sentences," she said.

Unlike with death-sentenced cases, there's no automatic appointment of post-conviction appellate counsel and no punishment phase of the trial, which makes the whole process quicker and cheaper.

MORE: Texas female prison population rises as male population decreases

"Life without parole was an unintentional gift to major urban prosecutors' offices," McCann said. "It makes it very easy to dispose of a large number of violent and often youthful offenders without any more thought than one would need to toss away a piece garbage."

Shannon Edmonds, staff attorney and director of governmental relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said his group doesn't have an official position on the matter.

"It kind of tickles me that defense lawyers are upset that prosecutors aren't trying to kill their clients," he said. "Even if the punishment was a minimum of 40 years on a capital life sentence, they still complained that prosecutors used the death penalty to get a guilty plea. That's not anything unique to life without parole."
Settlement funds can make or break your application for permanent residence IRCC introduced a 1.4% increase in required funds January 5 Stephen Smith Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Candidates in all three Express Entry economic immigration classes should take special note of recently announced revisions to the amount of settlement funds required by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

A 1.42 per cent increase was implemented January 5, 2018, that raised the minimum amounts required as follows:

Number of family members 2017 amount

(in Canadian dollars) 2018 amount Increase 1 $12,300 $12,474 $174 2 $15,312 $15,530 $218 3 $18,825 $19,092 $267 4 $22,856 $23,181 $325 5 $25,923 $26,291 $368 6 $29,236 $29,652 $416 7 $32,550 $33,013 $463 Each additional family member $3,314 $3,361 $47

IRCC deems these amounts necessary in order for successful applicants for permanent residence to support themselves and their family while they settle in Canada. Family members include a spouse or partner, dependent children and the dependent children of a spouse or partner. IRCC considers a dependent child to be any family member under the age of 22.

When determining the size of your family, applicants must include those who will be accompanying them to Canada as well as those who may be remaining behind.

Small change, big impact

While relatively small, the revised amounts can mean the difference between an eligible and an ineligble profile in the Express Entry pool, or your application for permanent residence being approved or refused.

Furthermore, while only Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Skilled Trades candidates are asked to confirm that they have access to the required funds when determining their eligibility for the Express Entry pool, candidates in the Canadian Experience Class who receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) through the Federal Skilled Worker Class must also prove they have the necessary funds.

It is therefore important that all candidates in the Express Entry pool ensure their Express Entry profile is updated and that they have the required amount of funds at all times in order to act on an ITA quickly should they receive one. Why? Because in order apply for permanent residence, a candidate must provide recognized proof that such funds are readily available to them.

Such funds can be in the following forms:

Cash.

Documents that show property or capital payable to the applicant, such as stocks, bonds, debentures and treasury bills.

Documents that guarantee payment of a set amount of money, which are payable to the applicant, such as bankers drafts, cheques, travellers cheques and money orders.

For proof, IRCC says an applicant must get official letters from any banks or financial institutions where they are keeping money. These letters must attest to details including any outstanding debts such as credit cards and loans and the current balance of their account(s) and the average balance for the past six months.

IRCC stipulates that the funds cannot be borrowed from another person and the applicant will be asked to explain any large, lump sum transfers into an account.

If a candidate is accompanied by a spouse or partner, funds held in a joint account or funds held in an account in their spouses name only can be applied to the required amount. In the latter case, proof must be provided that the applicant has access to these funds.

The only exemptions to the proof of funds requirement are granted to Express Entry candidates who are already working in Canada and have a valid job offer.

Ensuring that your Express Entry profile or application for permanent residence reflects that you have the required settlement funds for the size of your family is vital, says Attorney David Cohen, senior partner at the Canadian immigration law firm Cohen, Campbell. Its little details like this that can result in big headaches if youre not careful. Being diligent with regards to settlement funds is the best way to avoid this kind of trouble.

Find out if you are eligible for Canadian Immigration by filling out our FREE online assessment form

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Mayor Bill de Blasio announced yesterday that New York City is filing a lawsuit against Big Oil, seeking unspecified damages that will likely total in the tens of billions of dollars. The immediate cause for the suit, filed against BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell, is the damage and expenses associated with climate change caused by the oil companies, on this view. In particular, the city wants to recoup the costs of rebuilding from Superstorm Sandy and the $20 billion that it plans to spend on storm resiliency. The fossil-fuel energy industry, the citys lawsuit claims, deliberately engaged in a campaign of deception and denial about global warming and its impacts, even while profiting from the sale of fossil fuels.

Asked about the litigation strategy, de Blasio dismissed the suggestion that it might be hard to prove that the defendants caused the hurricane. I think we are going to win the argument that climate change exists; I feel really confident about that one, he chuckled. And I think its pretty clear these five companies had something to do with it. New York City corporation counsel Zachary Carter described the case as a straightforward tort action, based on damages from Sandy. The theory of this lawsuit, explained Carter, is it exploits our nuisance laws, and that both in terms of public and private nuisance we believe thats a cause of action that . . . gives us certain strategic advantages in litigation. The $200 billion, multi-state tobacco industry settlement, reached in 1998, is the model for the citys litigation, said the mayor. The tobacco analogy is important, he observed, explaining that a cultural change occurred after Big Tobacco admitted to having buried evidence that cigarette use is unhealthy. We no longer assume that the fossil fuel companies are innocent; in fact, if we identify them as guilty, it changes the reality . . . and that can spread like wildfire.

But the analogy between the tobacco and fossil-fuel industries is misleading. Cigarette companies did conduct research on their proprietary tobacco formulations; the findings indicated that smoking had negative health ramifications on their consumers. The companies did suppress or distort their discoveries that smoking causes lung cancer and emphysema. A case can be made that the tobacco companies defrauded individual smokers by addicting them to a deadly product while lying about its safety. Energy companies, on the other hand, sell a product that was an integral element of the historical epoch called the Industrial Age, which has seen the worlds productive capacity expand by multiple orders of magnitude since 1850, and in which billions of people have been eager participants. Fossil fuels permeate every aspect of society, from transportation to manufacturing to food production; whatever our hopes for a green future, modern life for the past 150 years is unthinkable without oil, gas, and coal.

One imagines that the five defendants to this case will ask: Why us? As public corporations domiciled in the U.S., or with U.S. subsidiaries, they make convenient targets, but its absurd to assign the blame for any particular storm on these companies alone. Why doesnt de Blasio sue Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia over the operations of Gazprom, Citgo, Pemex, and Aramcotheir national oil companies? Chinese energy giants Sinopec Group and China National Petroleum are larger than ExxonMobil and dwarf BP or Chevron. Moreover, China emits twice as much greenhouse gas as the United States. According to the mayors office, more than half of the greenhouse gas pollution from the fossil fuel industry has occurred since 1988; what sense does it make not to sue China, which, having expanded its industrial capacity and energy consumption heedlessly in the last 30 years, is surely responsible for a significant portion of those emissions?

It isnt clear whether de Blasio believes that this case will go anywhere, or whether he is simply grandstanding to raise his national profile in preparation for a presidential run in 2020 or 2024. But when a reporter asked if he would cut back his frequent use of SUVs to shuttle him to Brooklyn for his daily workouts at the Park Slope YMCA, his answer was instructive. His convoy cars are hybrids, the mayor said, adding that the city is moving to replace its entire fleet of cars with electric vehicles, which emit no exhaust. Fair enough, but the electricity that powers those cars comes off the grid, and most of that electricity is still generated by oil, coal, and gas. The answer was typical of Mayor de Blasio, for whom gestures and virtue-signaling preempt practical management or governance.

Photo: nycmayorsoffice
Almost the entire human resources department at the Royal British Legion has left because it was dictatorial and not fit for purpose, the charity told an employment tribunal.

The judgment, in the case of Carolyn Bickerstaffe, a case officer at the Legion, found that she was unfairly constructively dismissed after whistleblowing, following a hearing in Southampton in November.

The judgment, published this week, says that Bickerstaffe had complained to HR about the conduct of one of her managers, and had raised issues about another member of staffs decision to sign blank cheques - a decision which was in breach of a directive from their direct line manager. The judgment found she had been ostracised and bullied, and that a grievance procedure had not led to an effective way that she could return to work.

The judgment was critical of the Legions HR department, which it said had shared confidential emails and had handled the process very badly.

Mandy Heal, assistant director of human resources and organisational development at the Legion, told the tribunal that only one member of staff remained from the human resources team which had handled the complaint in 2015 and 2016.

The reason for that was that was that the department was regarded as not fit for purpose, was dictatorial, not impartial and was unhelpful, the judgment said, Heal had told the Tribunal. That was certainly the experience of the claimant. Human resources seemed not to understand the meaning of the word confidentiality.

Bickerstaffes case ran from July 2015 until December 2016, when she resigned, after saying that the Legions grievance appeal process would not allow her to return to work.

The judgment found that James France, one of her managers, had responded to her emails in a way which was more of a threat than supportive and had engaged in bullying behaviour. He also told her that raising the issue of a public interest disclosure  a technical term for whistleblowing  was a sackable offence.

The tribunal found that complaining about understaffing at the Legion was not a public interest disclosure, but that complaining about blank cheques was.

The judge and two lay members of the tribunal ruled that Bickerstaffe was unfairly constructively dismissed and her claim for personal injury succeeded, and that a remedy hearing would now take place at a later date.

Leigion's response

A spokesperson for The Royal British Legion said: "We are not able to comment on the specifics of this case, however we review all grievances to ensure we are continually improving our internal systems and delivering the best support for all of our staff.

"The Legions HR department has undergone changes in the previous 12 months as we continue to modernise the charity in our drive to deliver excellence for all of our staff and ultimately our beneficiaries."


Anti-slavery charity Hope for Justice has taken over Retrak, an organisation which provides services for street children.

Retraks head office has closed, with most staff transferred to Hope for Justices headquarters, both in Manchester.

A spokesperson for Hope for Justice said there were four redundancies at Retraks UK head office during the integration process.

For the time being, the two charities remain legally separate organisations, but the trustees and directors are beginning a long-term transition programme aimed at achieving a full merger under the Hope for Justice name.

The charities say that their missions are complementary because street children are often at risk of trafficking.

Globally, the joint organisation will have nearly 300 staff, including around 50 people based in Uganda and more than 120 in Ethiopia. The charity will be active on four continents: Europe, Africa, North America and Asia.

'Bigger impact'

The charity said it expects its increased size will enable it to make a bigger impact when campaigning and advocating for change at the national and international level, while reducing management and support costs.

Hope for Justice chief executive and co-founder, Ben Cooley, is now also chief executive of Retrak and will lead the fully-merged organisation.

His role will be to engage directly with governments, agencies and relevant organisations to improve the national and global response to trafficking.

Cooley said: We are thrilled and excited to welcome Retrak into the Hope for Justice family. This gives us an opportunity to serve more people in a sustainable and replicable way, and to bring on board immense amounts of frontline experience, insight and knowledge.

This integration gives us the ability to help more adults and more children who have been walking through some of the darkest days  to give them hope and to give them justice. There will be challenges to overcome and hurdles to clear, but we will go forward in strength and unity, because freedom is worth the fight.

Retraks previous chief executive, Sir Peter Fahy, has become director of structural reform at Hope for Justice and will sit on the joint organisations board.

Fahy said the merger brings together Retraks great strength in preventative work with Hope for Justices strengths in rescuing victims and structural reform.

He said: Both charities have strengths in working with law enforcement agencies and state bodies, but at the heart of both organisations is the belief in reintegration through a process of support and restoration.

According to the charities latest accounts, Retrak has an income of 2.1m and Hope for Justice has an income of 1.8m.
As the news industry lurches from one existential crisis to another, one bright spot has emerged for those of us crazy enough to consider it: freelancing. With fewer staff reporters on the ground, freelance journalists have increasingly become the best and sometimes only resources for news outlets to gather the facts, details, and color they need to tell the worlds stories. And for those yearning to report overseas, going freelance has increasingly become the bestor at least the quickestway to do that.

When I attended Columbia Journalism School in 2010, there were no classes or lessons on freelancing. The goal was to graduate and get a job at a respected news organization. Yet after five years in New York, where I worked my way up from production assistant at ABC News, to researcher at NBC News, and finally to producer at MSNBC, I still wasnt satisfied sitting behind a desk in New York. I was learning from some of the most talented people in the business, yet my dream was to write and report from abroad. After meeting with nearly a dozen producers and correspondents who told me that there simply werent enough jobs to go around at foreign bureaus, I realized the only way I was going to make this happen was if I did it myself.

ICYMI: Late last night, a media controversy came to an explosive conclusion

In 2013, I quit my job at NBC News, tried not to listen to everyone who told me I was insane, moved to Tel Aviv, and became a freelance journalist. At the time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Sometimes, I still dont. Yet four years later, Im now writing for publications like Newsweek, Time, Foreign Policy, U.S. News, and Rolling Stone, filing features not only from Israel and the Palestinian Territories, but from Germany, Morocco, Nepal, and anywhere else I decide to write about.

Over the years, Ive learned some important lessons about freelancing. Here are some of them:

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Freelancing is a choice. Decide whether its right for you.

Freelancing requires a certain kind of mentalityor some might say, insanity. Yes, there is the rush of adventure and independence that allows you to choose your stories, create your own schedule, write the way you want to write, report where you want to report, and take vacation whenever you damn well please. Yet you also need to be able to handle the responsibility and hustle that comes with that lifestyle: constantly pitching stories, juggling deadlines, and chasing paychecks from stories already published. For some, this can be overwhelmingly stressful. If you prefer a routine, enjoy going to work in the same place every day with the same people, and find it comforting knowing that stories and assignments will come to you whether or not you search for them, then freelancing is probably not for you.

RELATED: Two dozen freelance journalists told CJR the best outlets to pitch

Save before you take the leap.

Whether you decide to report from home or abroad, you will need to have some money in the bank before you jump off a companys payroll. The first few months will revolve around making contacts with sources and editors, getting the lay of the land of freelancing, and possibly a new country. You should have enough money to live off of while you get settled into this new life, so that you dont quit before youve even given yourself the chance to succeed. Everyone has different costs of living, as do cities, so there is no one rule of thumb. Im personally not great at living frugally, yet was able to live comfortably off of $10,000 in savings for my first six months while I focused on learning the local language, making contacts, and getting to know my territory. And Tel Aviv, the city where I settled, is not cheap. Once you do start making a living from freelancing, you may not be able to save up at first, but if you work diligently, you could start saving again after one or two years of steady reportingeven sooner if youre better at budgeting than I am.

Know, or learn, the local language.

I chose Tel Aviv as my reporting destination for several reasons: I had already lived here for six months while studying abroad in college, earned my first degree in US foreign policy with a focus on the Middle East, and was familiar with Hebrew. Yet I still devoted my first six months to an intensive Hebrew course, because I knew that to really understand this place and its people, I needed to speak its language. There are plenty of foreign correspondents who are based here and dont speak fluent Hebrew, but they are usually working for news organizations that send them out with translators and fixers. When youre a freelance journalist based overseas, you are your own fixer. Of course you will need help at first, and you should reach out to other journalists based there, to guide you and to serve as your community. That community likely will become your circle of friends, but also try to make friends with locals. Some of my best stories emerged from conversations over drinks with natives.

RELATED: Survival strategies of an online freelancer

Find stories everywhere.

Your livelihood as a freelance journalist depends on proactively telling and selling stories, in high quality and quantity, so you will need to learn to find stories everywhere. Whether you find them over beers with friends, sitting on the bus and overhearing a conversation, or attending a rally that serves as the news peg for a wider look at a divisive issue, stories are everywhere. If youre doing your story-sniffing job well, you should accumulate a long list of story ideas, and work through them according to time urgency, importance of the story, and your passion for the subject. Keep an organized spreadsheet of your story ideas that you can constantly update with publication targets, deadlines, and status notes. Its also smart to keep track of the stories that have already been published, including how much you expect to get paid for each story and when. This will help you stay sane and ensure that your best ideas dont get lost in the bottom of your purse or in the pocket of your jeans.

Be a multitasking machine.

Freelancing requires two seemingly opposing qualities: the capacity to thrive without structure and stability, and the ability to organize and follow through on multiple tasks at once with the skills of a professional juggler. At any given moment, I am pitching two to three stories, researching and gathering string on two other ideas, writing two pieces, and finalizing two others. I am the only person responsible for making sure all of this work gets done, and on time. You need to be proactive to keep up this pace and keep track of all the stories you will be working on. Sure, once you start writing for an editor, he or she might assign you stories, but that wont represent the majority of your work. The day-to-day of freelancing revolves around researching story ideas and pitching them, sometimes to multiple editors before you find a taker, all while managing all the other stories youre working on.

Work your network, but do not fear the cold call.

Ideally, by the time you go freelance, youve already been published. This gives you a stable of editors you can pitch to, along with clips to send to editors youve never worked with before. If youve never been published, the best way to start is small. If youre based overseas, start by introducing yourself to the local English-language news outlets. For example, when I moved to Tel Aviv, though Id been published on the NBC News and MSNBC websites, and did some reporting for The New York Times in the US, I hadnt reported from Israel. So I first wrote for Haaretz and Jerusalem Post, simply by reaching out to editors there. Once I felt more comfortable, I started pitching stories to NBC. I then branched out to publications Id never written for, such as Foreign Policy and Newsweek. If I could find a way in through a connection, I did. In cases where I didnt know someone who could give me that information, I found it myself online. Youd be surprised how many people respond to the modern version of a cold call.

Be persistent, and dont let rejection stop you.

Multiply the persistence required to be a journalist by at least 10, and that is how tenacious you need to be as a freelancer, particularly overseas. You may have to follow up twice or three times before an editor responds to an introduction or a pitch, and the same goes for getting paid. Dont be afraid of pestering, but do make sure youre kind and diplomatic in your correspondence. And know this: Your pitches will be rejected. That is a fact of life as a freelancer, and particularly for international freelancers in the age of Donald Trump. But you cannot let those rejections stop you from pitching a storyyou can and should pitch it to other publicationsand it shouldnt stop you from pitching that editor again, either. The first time I wrote for Time, I had already pitched the same editor at least three stories he wasnt interested in. The same for Rolling Stone. I kept trying, and eventually I found the right story for them. Once youve climbed that hill, its much easier to stay there.

If you dont pitch a story well, it wont get sold, and it wont get told.



Understand the importance of the pitch.

I cannot overstate how crucial a good pitch is to the work of a freelance international journalistparticularly at a time when so many news organizations are consumed by Trump-centric storylines. If you dont pitch a story well, it wont get sold, and it wont get told. And as a freelancer, you cannot simply pitch an idea. You must demonstrate to an editor that this idea from a foreign country is in fact relevant to readers, and filled with compelling details and subjects.To do that, you need to conduct quite a bit of research and reporting first. Then you need to sum it all up in a compelling yet succinct way. Contrary to what some might say, your pitch does not need to be a few sentences, nor are you limited to one paragraph. If youre pitching a complex story, the pitch might be three or four paragraphs.

Be ready to do business.

As an employee, I rarely if ever asked for a raise, and never asked for more than I was offered for a job. But as an international freelancer, I learned to know my worth as someone who is based overseas, on the ground, at a time when more journalists do their reporting remotely. Now, as soon as I start writing for a publication Ive never written for, I ask for a contract, and I always discuss my rate before agreeing to an assignment. If Im offered a rate that is less than I deserve, I will ask for more. If a publication isnt willing to pay me what I believe my work is worth, I may not write for them. That being said, if a story is really important to me, and the only publication interested in it pays less than Id prefer, I will agree to that ratebut, only after offering that story to publications that pay more generously. And to be sure, when I first started freelancing, I was definitely not asking for $1 a word. That came later, after Id proven my skills and accumulated clips at distinguished publications. So while its important to know your worth, its also important to properly evaluate what youre worth to an editor when youre less experienced.

Theres always more than one way to tell an international story.

Approach your stories creatively to find different angles that you can pitch to different publications. When you spend two months reporting on a subject and can publish two different stories out of it, that will help you maximize your income from that reporting, and ensure that less of your precious work ends up as scraps on the editing floor. This is particularly relevant for international reporting, where one story could have, say, a policy angle, a travel angle, and a cultural angle.

Consider the risks before you take the plunge toward independence.

Being an independent journalist is fulfilling and exhilarating. Nothing beats the freedom to pursue stories youre passionate about wherever they may be, tell them in your own voice, write for a range of publications, and of course, take vacation whenever you want, without asking anyone for permission. But independence comes with risks. As an international freelancer, you are often on your own when it comes to the risks you may take, you can rarely determine how much money you will make in any given month, and chasing paychecks is part of the job. But if you live to tell stories, discover and illuminate foreign cultures and people, constantly find yourself coming up with new ideas, and see your work as a challenging adventure, there is nothing more liberating.

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Yardena Schwartz is a freelance journalist and Emmy-nominated producer based in Tel Aviv. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Foreign Policy, Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, CBS News, NBC News, and MSNBC. Previously, Yardena was a producer at NBC News in New York.
This week on The Kicker, Meg talks with Ben Brock Johnson, host of Endless Thread, a new podcast from WBUR and Reddit, to discuss the new show, parachute reporting in online communities, and best Reddit practices for journalists. Then, Meg and Pete are joined by CJR Senior Staff Writer Alex Neason to analyze the news of the week. They cover the reaction to Michael Wolffs best-selling account of the first year in the Trump White House and the fallout from a planned Harpers article rumored to identify the author of the Shitty Men in Media list.

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Meg Dalton and Pete Vernon are CJR Delacorte Fellows. Find Meg on Twitter @megdalts and Pete @ByPeteVernon.
The Delaware Supreme Court issued an opinion this week upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit filed over a slip-and-fall accident at a gas station during freezing rain four years ago.

On January 10, 2014, Michael Laine, slipped and fell on ice near a gas pump on the premises of a convenience store/gas station operated by Speedway, LLC in Dover. The driver of a Modern Maturity Center shuttle bus, he slipped when he stepped off the shuttle to fill its gas tank. He sustained serious injuries as a result of the fall.

The ice was caused by light, freezing rain which was falling at the time. Laine filed suit against Speedway, alleging that negligence on Speedways part was the proximate cause of his injuries.He argued that the business should have inspected and warned customers of the ice, or should not have opened at all.

The two questions on appeal, according to the opinion, are whether a business owner that remains open during a winter storm should be able to avail itself of the continuing storm doctrine at all, that is; whether we should continue to recognize the doctrine and whether the continuing storm doctrine applies to the facts of this case.

The Delaware State News reports that Justice James T. Vaughn Jr. issued a 15-page opinion on Monday affirming a Superior Courts finding that Speedway, LLC bore no liability for Laines injurious fall. The Supreme Court cited past case law and the states continuing storm doctrine, which allows businesses to wait until a storm ends to clear ice and snow.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Recovery of Medical Expenses in Personal Injury Actions Generally

To recover damages for past medical expenses in a personal injury lawsuit, a plaintiff must present evidence and prove that the medical expenses incurred were both reasonable and necessary. For more than 100 years, this simple formula was the least complicated aspect of a plaintiffs personal injury case. To get medical bills into evidence and recover them as an element of damage, plaintiffs simply needed to prove:

The plaintiff has paid or become liable to pay the medical bills; The plaintiff necessarily incurred the medical expenses because of injuries resulting from the defendants negligence; and The charges were reasonable for services of that nature.

The law in every jurisdiction allowed plaintiffs to recover the reasonable value of the medical services incurred. Today, however, defendants have begun objecting to medical bills, claiming that such medical expenses are neither reasonable nor incurred by the plaintiff. Lawyers for defendants across the country are now frequently arguing that the bills were not actually incurred by the plaintiff because they were paid by a collateral source (e.g., private health insurance, state Medicaid, Medicare, workers compensation, governmental assistance programs, etc.). A collateral source is benefits received by the plaintiff from a source wholly independent of and collateral to the wrongdoer. The defendants argue that the medical bills are not reasonable because they were reduced or written off by the insurance provider, who accepted insurance payments; thus, defendants argue that the injured plaintiffs reasonable medical expenses and damages should be limited to sums actually paid by the insurer and proof of the full medical charges that were billed (either written-off or paid by insurance) should be excluded. Proving the reasonable value of medical services has become both controversial and confusing; and every state has gone its own way in dealing with the issue.

EXAMPLE: A plaintiff is injured because of the defendants negligence and requires medical treatment for which he is billed $200,000. Thankfully, the plaintiff has private health insurance, and the doctor and hospital accept $65,000 from the insurance company in satisfaction of the bill. The plaintiff sues the defendant and wants to recover $200,000 as the reasonable and necessary medical expenses which he incurred and was billed for. The defendant files a motion asking the judge to limit the plaintiffs recovery of medical expenses to the $65,000 that the health care providers accepted as payment. In this example, what is the reasonable value of medical services? $200,000? $65,000? Or, something in between?

Judges and legislatures struggle to arrive at equitable rules of damages and evidence that take these factors into consideration. The result is a confusing patchwork of laws depending on which state a case is filed in.

Insurance Write-Downs, Write-Offs, and Medical Billing

In years gone by, medical billing was simple. A doctor or hospital would charge a reasonable fee for medical services, and the patient would pay it. However, that is rarely what happens in todays complex health care and insurance environment, where a complex web of negotiated rates, explanations of benefits, contractual relationships, health care coding, hundreds of different billing procedures, and the involvement of Medicare and Medicaid government billing requirements, render the process incomprehensible. Todays health care providers almost always accept a lesser amount in satisfaction of the bill pursuant to these contractual relationships. When a person injured in an automobile crash receives medical treatment, the provider may accept $700 from the patients health insurance carrier for that care even though the providers normal charge would be $1,500. The amount beyond what is accepted in full satisfaction of the bill is considered a discount, write-down, or write-off.

Being treated by a doctor may seem like a two-party interaction, but, its part of a large, complex system of information and payment. While the insured/patient may only have direct interaction with the doctor, it is really a three-party relationship  the patient, the health care provider (doctor, hospital, etc.), and the payer or entity which ultimately pays the bill (health insurer, government, etc.). When a patient receives medical services from a healthcare provider, theyre typically presented with a bill at the end of their treatment. The final bill is created by a medical biller who looks at the balance the patient has, adds the cost of the procedure or service to that balance, deducts the amount covered by insurance, and factors in a patients co-pay or deductible. Medical coders use medical reports to accurately translate medical services into code. It has become a language unto itself. Billers then abstract information from patients medical records and insurance plans to create accurate medical bills. The final amount paid on a $200,000 medical bill  $65,000 in the example above  depends on an entire medical billing industry which involves the complicated overlap of medical billing, diagnosis codes, ICD codes, medical compliance, allowed amounts, capitation, co-insurance, EOBs, and utilization limits. The unpaid balance of $135,000 is either written off, billed to the patient in a practice known as balance billing, and/or passed on to other patients in the system in the form of inflated charges. Note that balance billing (insurance company sends patient bill for balance of services insurance doesnt pay for), usually occurs when a patient goes out-of-network for medical services, and there is no contract between the provider and the insurance company agreeing to the discounted insurance rates. Balance billing for in-network providers is generally illegal. However, it is legal when the patient uses a provider that doesnt have a contractual relationship or seeks services not covered by insurance.

There are 1,068 for-profit hospitals in the U.S. A for-profit hospital is owned by investors, distributes profits to its investors, raises capital through investors, and must pay income and property tax. There are 2,894 non-profit hospitals in the U.S. They must invest all profit in the organization, are exempt from paying state and federal taxes on income and property, and must report community benefits offered by the facility. There are 983 state and local government-owned or public hospitals in the U.S. They are funded by federal, state, and local taxes, as well as donations and grants. Nearly 67% of U.S. hospitals are losing money, particularly when it comes to the treatment of Medicaid/Medicare patients.

The method and amount of reimbursement for hospitalization differs substantially from insurance company to insurance company. It depends on the contractual deal they have in place with the providers. Its not just that the rate is different for each service, but that different payers will reimburse different services. Medicare, for example, bases their reimbursement rate solely on the patients diagnoses. A diagnosis of Ataxia-Telangiectasia will get a fixed Medicare payment regardless of how long the patient stays in the hospital, what tests are ordered, or what treatment is given. Other payers might pay by the day, or based on each individual service the patient receives. Moreover, hospitals do all their bills the same way, no matter who the payer is. So, the best way for them to get paid is to put anything that might be reimbursed by any payer on every bill. Different insurance companies will pay doctors a different amount for the same billing code. The same insurance company will also pay different doctors a different amount for the same billing code depending on the type of policy a patient has. Different insurance companies will also approve and disapprove of different services, so its difficult to know in advance what will be paid. The same insurance company might have several different methods of payment depending on the patients type of policy.

Reasonable Value of Medical Services

In recent years, the issue of what is considered the reasonable value of medical services has become complicated and distorted by the deep discounts demanded by insurance companies, laws that require hospitals to treat patients who cannot pay, and benefits like Medicaid and related state programs that pay a set amount for all treatment of a patient. The result has been an ever-widening gap between hospitals standard rates for uninsured patients and the discounted amounts hospitals accept from insurance companies. Moreover, the types and number of collateral sources available to plaintiffs have multiplied. In addition to the insurance and gratuitous payments that were the subject of early collateral source rules (see below), in todays environment, plaintiffs in personal injury cases may have received benefits from unions, free treatment at a veterans facility, or at a reduced rate at a charity-affiliated provider. Collateral sources include employment benefits offered by employers, workers compensation programs, occupational accident plans and policies, or pensions under special retirement acts. In addition, the pricing, payment, and reimbursement system for health care providers itself has become exponentially more complex. The rise of Managed Care Organizations (MCO) in the 1980s was a partial solution to rising health care costs. In the process, however, patients gave up their freedom of choice among doctors and hospitals in return for slightly better cost control. Managed care has further distorted pricing for health care services, as the deep discounts demanded by the MCOs require providers to offset those discounts by charging higher prices to other patients. Some social legislation benefits eschew the traditional fee-for-service model in favor of pool payments or a set capitation amount for all treatment of a single patient. Hospitals are often legally required to provide treatment for patients who either are insured by companies with whom the hospital has no contractual relationship or who have no insurance at all. Federal statutes prohibiting patient dumping also complicate the valuation of medical expenses. What is reasonable has become less clear and more contentious than it was 50 years ago. As observed by courts and legislatures across the country, these developments have caused the issue of what constitutes a reasonable medical expense to become the subject of increased litigation and legislation. States have generally adopted one of three basic approaches to how much of a medical expense can be introduced into evidence and how much can be recovered:

1. Amount Paid. The actual amount paid approach limits a plaintiffs recovery to the amount paid to the medical provider, either by insurance or otherwise. States adopting this approach generally seek to avoid allowing plaintiffs any so-called windfall from tortfeasors. They take the position that limiting plaintiffs recovery to the amount paid to the medical provider is not contrary to the Collateral Source Rule (CSR) because the rule is not implicated. They feel that limiting damages will help the liability insurance industry and help the business economy of their state. When insurance payments are used to compensate the plaintiffs medical providers, they reason, limiting the plaintiffs recovery to only the amount paid by the insurance company to the medical provider simply permits the plaintiff to recover no more than he has expended.

The leading case on the actual amount paid approach is the California case of Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions, Inc., 257 P.3d 1130 (Cal. 2011). According to the view expressed in Howell, an injured plaintiff whose medical expenses are paid through private insurance may recover as economic damages no more than the amounts paid by the plaintiff or his or her insurer for the medical services received or still owing at the time of trial. The negotiated rate differential is not an expense incurred by the plaintiff, because neither the plaintiff nor the plaintiffs insurer will be expected to pay it. The differential is not an insurance benefit to the plaintiff; it is instead a benefit to the insurer that results from the insurers negotiations with medical providers. Few other courts have chosen to follow this approach. Where they have, the result is often dictated to some extent by statute.

The actual amount paid approach has been heavily criticized. The Howell reasoning  that the CSR is inapplicable to third-party payment of the plaintiffs medical debts, but is still in force for third-party forgiveness of the same debt  has been called schizophrenic and incoherent. McConnell v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 995 F. Supp.2d 1164 (D. Nev. 2014). It is also criticized because of the disparity that results in cases where the victim is insured as opposed to those where the victim is uninsured. The negligent tortfeasor wins the lottery when the victim he injures happens to be prudent and has bought insurance, but is punished when the victim has no insurance. As one court noted, reducing an insured plaintiffs recovery by the negotiated rate differential overlooks the fundamental purpose of the [collateral source] rule,  to prevent a tortfeasor from deriving any benefit from compensation or indemnity that an injured party has received from a collateral source. Acuar v. Letourneau, 531 S.E.2d 316 (Va. 2000). Pennsylvania, Idaho and California are examples of states whose courts have held that only evidence of the amount paid is relevant and admissible. New York, Florida, and Minnesota are states that apply the CSR, requiring a post-verdict reduction of the difference between the amount billed and the amount paid.

2. Amount Billed. (Benefit of the Bargain). This approach permits recovery of the full, undiscounted medical bills, including the write-off amounts, only where the plaintiff paid consideration for the insurance benefits. It gives the prudent plaintiff the benefit of the bargain of having purchased insurance. Under this approach, when the plaintiff is privately insured, the negotiated rate differential is considered as much of a benefit for which the plaintiff paid consideration as are the actual cash payments made by his health insurance carrier to the health care providers. However, courts that follow this approach do not allow plaintiffs to recover the amount of their full bills if they did not pay for the benefit of discounted rates and write-offs.

The benefit of the bargain approach has been criticized as protecting the rich and hurting the poor, since persons who can pay for insurance are the only personal injury plaintiffs who may recover the negotiated rate differential. Stated another way, this approach promotes inherent discrimination among beneficiaries from different programs and insurance companies. Another criticism of the benefit of the bargain approach is that it undermines the CSR by using the plaintiffs relationship with a third party to measure the tortfeasors liability. Leitinger v. DBart, Inc., 736 N.W.2d 1 (Wis. 2007). The CSR ensures that the liability of similarly situated defendants is not dependent on the good fortune of the way each plaintiffs medical expenses are financed.

Appellate courts in fifteen (15) states and the District of Columbia have held that the injured plaintiff may recover the amount billed, and bar the defendant from presenting evidence of the lower amount that the health care provider accepted to satisfy the bill. Most of these courts ground their decision on the common law CSR. The billed only rule applies in Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

3. Reasonable Value. With this approach, plaintiffs may recover the reasonable value of their medical expenses, regardless of whether the plaintiff is privately insured. It should be noted that the courts have approached the definition of reasonable value in different ways, and with different results. Among states that use this approach, a minority defines reasonable value as the actual amount paid, while a majority holds that the reasonable value can be the plaintiffs full, undiscounted medical bills. A few courts use a hybrid method, allowing the trier of fact to consider both the actual amount paid and the full bill in determining the reasonable value of medical services provided to the plaintiff. Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas are examples of states that have decided that a jury may consider both the amount billed and the amount paid in determining the reasonable value of the medical services.

The few states that define reasonable value as the discounted amount accepted by medical providers have generally used reasoning based on comment h to  911 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which focuses on the exchange value of property or services, instead of  920A (CSR). Bynum v. Magno, 101 P.3d 1149 (Haw. 2004). This version of the reasonable value approach is similar to the actual amount paid approach. The Howell court similarly relied on comment h to  911 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Critics of the reasonable value/actual-amount-paid approach point out that  911 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts was never intended to apply to cases involving physical harm. Instead, it is intended to apply in cases where a plaintiff sues to recover the value of property or services the plaintiff rendered to the defendant. In contrast,  920A applies to Harm to the Person.

Some states that permit plaintiffs to recover their full, undiscounted medical bills, believe that plaintiffs are entitled to claim and recover the full amount of reasonable medical expenses charged, based on the reasonable value of medical services rendered, including amounts written off from the bills pursuant to contractual rate reductions. These courts adhere to the traditional CSR. Other states that permit plaintiffs to recover their full, undiscounted medical bills use a hybrid method of presenting evidence of reasonable value to the jury. Using this method, plaintiffs may submit their full, undiscounted medical bills to establish the reasonable value of the medical services received. The defendants, however, may submit evidence that the plaintiffs medical providers accepted less than the full bills to rebut the reasonableness of the full bills, so long as insurance is not mentioned.

In determining the amount of damages to be presented as evidence in a personal injury trial, judges are often called on to decide whether to admit as evidence the higher, billed amount, the lesser amount actually paid as the cost of services rendered after the write-off, or both. They must also decide what final amount the injured plaintiff is entitled to recover as an element of damages. The result is a very awkward collision between the realities of todays health insurance industry, modern medical billing, and a 200-year-old legal rule known as the Collateral Source Rule (CSR).

Collateral Source Rule (CSR)

The modern Collateral Source Rule (CSR) has been called one of the oddities of American accident law. John G. Fleming. The Collateral Source Rule and Loss Allocation in Tort Law, 54 CAL. L. REV. 1478 (1966). It states that if an injured party (plaintiff) in a civil lawsuit receives benefits from an insurance policy or some other source independent of the third-party tortfeasor (defendant), such collateral benefits will not be revealed to the jury or introduced into evidence, and will not be deducted from the total damages awarded to the plaintiff. Such damages paid by a collateral source are also pejoratively referred to by the tort reform advocates as phantom damages. The Restatement of Torts, Second, defines the CSR in  920A(2):

 920A Effect of Payments Made to Injured Party

(1) A payment made by a tortfeasor or by a person acting for him to a person whom he has injured is credited against his tort liability, as are payments made by another who is, or believes he is, subject to the same tort liability.

(2) Payments made to or benefits conferred on the injured party from other sources are not credited against the tortfeasors liability, although they cover all or a part of the harm for which the tortfeasor is liable.

The CSR is both a rule of damages and a rule of evidence. As a rule of damages, it prohibits the tortfeasor from reducing payment of a tort judgment by the amount of money received by an injured party from other sources. As a rule of evidence, it bars the admission of evidence that the injured plaintiff received payment for any part of his damages, usually medical expenses, from other sources. Simply put, the CSR requires the party responsible for causing the injury to compensate the victim of the accident for all harm caused and not merely the net loss suffered by a victim. The rationale behind the rule is that if the plaintiff was himself responsible for the collateral benefit, as by maintaining his own insurance or by making advantageous employment arrangements, the law allows him to keep it for himself. If the benefit was a gift to the plaintiff from a third party or established for him by law, he should not be deprived of the advantage that it confers.

The underlying rationale for this plaintiff-friendly rule is that if the law must choose between allowing the plaintiff to receive more than his actual loss or allowing the defendant to pay less than the damage he inflicted, then the more equitable choice is to allow the plaintiff to receive more than his loss, rather than giving the defendant the windfall of the prudent plaintiff. If the plaintiff has obtained and paid for medical insurance, he should receive the benefit of that bargain: the plaintiffs insurance should not indemnify the defendant. Proponents claim evidence of collateral sources is irrelevant and prejudicial. Even if the insurer has a right of subrogation against the plaintiffs recovery, that right should not inure to the benefit of the defendant. In practice, the CSR never requires the defendant to pay twice, and rarely allows the plaintiff to retain a windfall. The collateral benefits are usually paid for by the plaintiff, subject to a right of subrogation, or both. In states which have eliminated the CSR or modified it by statute, trial lawyers argue that the existence and amount of liability insurance should also be admissible in civil trials, putting all the cards on the table for a jury. They also argue that, if the CSR can be modified, allowing evidence of collateral sources, then the discounted medical bills should be considered proven as reasonable and necessary upon testimony by the patient that the bills were incurred.

History of Collateral Source Rule (CSR). The CSR is a relatively new legal concept in the common law. Before there were significant collateral sources such as health insurance, workers compensation, auto insurance, etc., there was no need for the rule. The concept behind the rule originated from common law in England as early as 1823. It was adopted in the U.S. in 1854. The Propeller Monticello v. Mollison, 58 U.S. (17 How.) 152 (1854). The actual term collateral source derived from language used in a Vermont decision some years later. Harding v. Town of Townshend, 43 Vt. 536 (1871). The Vermont Supreme Court described the rule in terms similar to those used by the U.S. Supreme Court in Mollison, but the Vermont Court for the first time characterized insurance proceeds received by the plaintiff as collateral to any recovery from the wrongdoer. Over time, all fifty states adopted some form of the CSR and followed the rule in its traditional form.

Over time, and especially during the recent era of tort reform, the CSR has received unfavorable press. The impetus for changing the rule came from the perceived crisis in medical costs when medical malpractice litigation proliferated over the past three decades, and medical malpractice litigation was blamed by some as a significant cause. Doctors and their liability insurers were particularly outraged when asked to pay malpractice judgments that included not only very large sums for non-economic losses, but also the doctors own services, corrective services, and additional health care for which the patient had been fully compensated by health insurance programs of one sort or another. Banks McDowell, The Collateral Source RuleThe American Medical Association and Tort Reform, 24 Washburn L.J. 205 (Winter 1985). The emphasis in some jurisdictions began to switch from not allowing the plaintiffs purchase of collateral sources to become a windfall for the negligent tortfeasor, to preventing the plaintiff from recovering twice for the same element of damage (e.g., medical expenses recovered once from an insurance policy and a second time from the defendant). States began to enact collateral source statutes which significantly modified or altered the common law rule.

The common law CSR developed during a time when health insurance and publicly provided health benefits did not exist. Ever-changing circumstances in health insurance and health care billing have prompted reconsideration and modification of the CSR in many jurisdictions. This is especially true with regard to recovering reasonable and necessary damages in personal injury litigation. Tennessee recently established its long-awaited rule in Dedmon v. Steelman, 2017 WL 5505409 (Tenn. 2017). There was hope within the Tennessee Defense Lawyers Association that the present rule, that allowed plaintiffs to submit evidence of the full, undiscounted medical bills as proof of the reasonable value of medical services, would finally end. On November 11, 2017, the Supreme Court declined to alter existing law in Tennessee, holding that the CSR applies to the proof and recovery of past medical expenses in personal injury cases, despite deep write-offs and the payment of the bill by private health insurance. Consequently, plaintiffs may continue to submit evidence of the plaintiffs full, undiscounted medical bills as proof of reasonable medical expenses. Furthermore, defendants are precluded from submitting evidence of discounted rates accepted by medical providers from the insurer to rebut the plaintiffs proof that the full, undiscounted charges are reasonable. They remain free, however, to submit any other competent evidence to rebut the plaintiffs proof on the reasonableness of the medical expenses, so long as that evidence does not contravene the CSR. Three years earlier, the Supreme Court had held that, in the context of the Hospital Lien Act ( 29-22-101), the term reasonable and necessary medical expenses limits the charges to the discounted cost of medical care that is paid by a private insurer or collateral source provider. West v. Shelby County Healthcare Corp., 459 S.W.3d 33 (Tenn. 2014). At the time of the Dedmon decision, three federal district courts in Tennessee had concluded that the West rule applied in personal injury litigation as well. Smith v. Lopez-Miranda, 2016 WL 1083845 (W.D. Tenn. 2016); Hall v. USF Holland, Inc., 2016 WL 361583 (W.D. Tenn. 2016); Keltner v. U.S., 2015 WL 3688461 (W.D. Tenn. 2015).

Statutes. A few states, including Arkansas and Kentucky, have abrogated the CSR to some degree by statute. This is sometimes done as part of broader tort reform legislation, as in Texas and Missouri. Some states, including Indiana, Alabama, Ohio, and Iowa, have legislated a hybrid rule which allows the jury to consider evidence of both the plaintiffs undiscounted medical bills and the discounted amounts, to assess the reasonableness of the plaintiffs medical expenses. States such as Tennessee have abrogated the CSR through legislation, but only in health care liability and workers compensation cases.

Common Law / Case Decisions. Only a few states have limited plaintiffs medical expense damages to the discounted insurance amounts, but it is a growing trend. A few states allow defendants to use the insurance payments to reduce their liability. Both approaches violate the CSR and result in plaintiffs with insurance being treated quite differently from plaintiffs without insurance. Neither approach considers benefits other than private insurance, such as Medicaid, state Medicaid programs, charity, employer benevolence, or gifts. The means and methods of pleading, proving, and recovering medical expenses, however, remain inextricably tethered to the CSR.

The interplay between the CSR and the recovery of the full, undiscounted amount of medical expenses, can be set forth by statute, through common law and case decisions, and frequently through a combination of both. Some jurisdictions have not formulated a clear view, while others have taken inconsistent approaches depending on the facts involved or the court rendering the decision. In some states, statutes act as a rule of evidence, governing what evidence is allowed in proving the reasonableness of medical expenses. In other states, statutes act as a rule of damages, limiting recovery to discounted amounts after write-offs.

Despite becoming a firmly established principle of tort law in most states, many questions have arisen concerning the scope of the CSR: Does it apply to free medical services? Does it apply to services paid by Medicare or Medicaid? Can a plaintiff submit to the jury the amount initially billed for medical services, as opposed to a discounted amount that her private insurance company paid to her health care providers? What are the proper foundational requirements to introduce an unpaid medical bill? Can the defense introduce evidence of the discounted amount actually paid? Can the trial court reduce a plaintiffs damages award to the amount actually paid by the collateral source? Some states have answered these questions, while others havent.

A thorough understanding of how medical expenses are proven and recovered in civil litigation is a necessity for lawyers, legislators, claims professionals, and judges alike. The law regarding what evidence can be used to prove medical expenses and the amount of medical expenses that can be recovered by a plaintiff in cases involving personal injury has been changing from state to state at light speed. A few states have even declared their CSR to be unconstitutional. View chart (begins on page 7) that provides an overview as to the law in all 50 states regarding the treatment of reasonable medical expenses, write-offs, and the collateral source rule.
A Google engineer fired for writing a memo questioning Googles commitment to diversity has filed a lawsuit alleging his ouster was driven by a corporate culture that discriminates against white men and people with conservative views, including supporters of President Donald Trump.

The 161-page complaint filed Monday on behalf of James Damore and another former Google engineer depicts Google as an elitist company that shuns employees who dare to deviate from a liberal agenda embraced by its management and most of its workforce.

The lawsuit was filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court and comes five months after Google fired Damore for writing a 10-page memo entitled Googles Ideological Echo Chamber. In that missive, Damore criticized Google for pushing mentoring and diversity programs and for alienating conservatives. He also blamed biological differences for the paucity of women in tech.

Damore, 28, says he submitted early versions of his memo to Googles human resources department without being reprimanded. Just a few days after Damore posted the memo on an internal message board, it was leaked to a technology blog. Google fired him Aug. 7 amid an uproar among workers offended by its themes.

Now, Damore and his lawyer, former Republican Party official Harmeet Dhillon, are retaliating with a lawsuit that puts a new twist on Silicon Valleys lack of diversity  an issue that has been a prickly subject in the technology industry for years.

Google, Facebook, Apple and their peers have all publicly acknowledged their workforces are out of step with the rest of society because they employ mostly white and Asian men in engineering jobs and other high-paying positions requiring computer programming skills.

As a remedy, the companies say they have been aggressively hiring women, blacks and Hispanics, but they have barely tilted the scales so far.

Dhillon is hoping to use Damores case to prove that Google has set illegal quotas that discriminate against white men like Damore.

The complaint also seeks to be certified as a class action that will represent all current and former Google workers who believe they were discriminated against during the past four years for expressing conservative viewpoints, a group that also could include women.

Google said it looks forward to defending itself against Damores accusations in court.

Dhillon said she has heard from dozens of current and former workers at Google and other major technology companies who say they fear being ostracized or threatened by managers and co-workers if they express conservative views or publicly support Trump  an unpopular figure throughout most of the San Francisco Bay Area.

You shouldnt have to prove you didnt vote for the president to get a job at Google, Dhillon said.

Damore declined to say whether he voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Google never has given any indication that it fired Damore for his political views. Instead CEO Sundar Pichai said Damore had violated the companys code of conduct by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace.

After his memo was widely circulated, Damore said he was verbally bullied and threatened by co-workers. In an Aug. 4 email included in Damores lawsuit, a Google engineer wrote, Youre a misogynist and a terrible person. I will keep hounding you until one of us is fired. The email ended with a profanity directed at Damore.

Google said it doesnt tolerate any form of harassment.

Despite his rancorous parting, Damore said he would welcome the opportunity to work at Google again.I really believe I could improve things there, he said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A Seattle contractor has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of an employee who was killed when a sewer trench collapsed in 2016.

The Seattle Times reports Philip Numrich, the owner of Alki Construction, allegedly violated and ignored safety regulations, leading to the collapse of the trench at a West Seattle home in January 2016 that killed 36-year-old Harold Felton.

The company had dug trenches next to a Seattle home to replace a sewer line. The trench where the worker died was seven-feet deep and just under two-feet wide. There was no system in place to prevent all sides from caving in. Felton was killed when the dirt walls of the trench he was working in collapsed and buried him on a job site in West Seattle two years ago.

According to the states Department of Labor & Industries, one cubic yard of soil can weigh as much as a car and dirt walls can collapse suddenly without any warning, burying the victims instantly.

The agency says its believed Numrich is the first employer in state history to face felony charges in connection with an employees death.

Numrich was also charged with violation of labor safety regulation with death resulting.

A $20,000 warrant has been issued for his arrest. A message left on Numrichs business phone was not returned Tuesday.

After a state Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) investigation of the death, the state cited and fined the company in 2016 for multiple workplace safety violations, including willful violations  the most severe.

A willful violation is one where L&I finds evidence of plain indifference or an intentional disregard to a hazard or rule. A serious violation is one where there is a substantial probability that worker death or serious physical harm could result from a hazardous condition.

Alki Construction was cited for a willful violation with a penalty of $35,000 for not ensuring that trenches and excavations four-feet deep or more had a protective system in place to prevent the dirt sides from caving in.

The company was also cited for five serious violations:

Alki Construction did not have a formal accident prevention program tailored to the needs of the operation and the type of hazards involved in trenching and excavation work ($3,500).

There was no ladder, ramp or other safe means of exiting the excavated trench ($3,500).

Sidewalks and structures that were undermined were not supported to protect employees from possible collapse ($3,000).

Excavated dirt and other materials were placed less than two feet from the edge of the unprotected trench, where they could fall into the trench where employees were working ($3,000).

There were no daily inspections of the excavations to monitor changing soil conditions ($3,500).

One general violation was cited for not ensuring walk-around safety inspections were documented.

Numrich also was fined $51,500 for willful safety violations in the incident. State officials say he appealed and settled, affirming the violations.

As a result of the violations, Alki Construction LLC has been identified as a severe violator and is subject to follow-up inspections to determine if the conditions still exist.

There are times when a monetary penalty isnt enough, said L&I Director Joel Sacks. This company knew what the safety risks and requirements were, and ignored them. The felony charges show that employers can be held criminally accountable when the tragedy of a preventable workplace death or injury occurs.

Excavation and trenching are known to be very hazardous, so there are numerous safety requirements that must be followed, including ensuring that sites four-feet deep or more have protective systems in place to prevent the dirt sides from caving in.

Among other requirements, employers must also make sure there are ladders, ramps or other ways available to safely exit an excavated trench. And there must be daily inspections of excavations to monitor changing soil conditions. Alki violated these and other workplace safety requirements.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
1. Yes. The ordinance goes against state law and is not in the best interest of the cities.

2. Yes. At the very least, it should be amended to give police officers some discretion.

3. No. Voters approved the ordinance by large majorities; the councils cant ignore that fact.

4. No. The petition process has to be given a chance to work. Leave the ordinance alone.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say how the cities should move forward regarding the ordinance.

Vote

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With the U.S. Capitol dome in the distance, a Delta airplane takes off from Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC.

U.S. airlines are on track for their eighth consecutive year of profits in 2017. As they report those 2017 and fourth-quarter profits investors will be focused on whether they can make those profits grow.

Delta Air Lines kicks off earnings season on Thursday, reporting before the market opens. The second-largest U.S. carrier certainly had its share of disruptions in 2017  a series of powerful storms, a nearly half-day blackout at its home airport in Atlanta. But the carrier is expected to post quarterly earnings per share of 0.88 cents, an increase of 7 percent on the year, according to analyst estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters.

The airline, like its competitors, is grappling with higher costs but strong passenger demand. Low fares and higher costs spook airline investors, but airlines need to strike a balance and not raise fares so high that it hurts demand. So far, full planes  as you know if you've looked around you on a flight lately  have not been a problem.

On the eve of airlines' earnings season, investors appear to be pleased, because shares surged. United and American raised their forecasts for how much they expect to make out of each seat they fly a mile, a key industry metric. United shares rose more than 6.7 percent, their biggest one-day percentage gain since August 2016. American and Delta each rose more than 3 percent.

Whether it can continue depends on the outlook for 2018. Here are some key topics to look for as airlines report this month.
Professional body builder turned Hollywood icon turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, visits Jay Leno on Thursday's episode of CNBC's "Jay Leno's Garage," and he brings with him his 2016 Electric Mercedes G-Wagen, a representation of his vision for a cleaner, greener future. The G-Wagen is the first of its kind. The Austrian company Kreisel constructed it for the former governor by replacing its factory engine with an electric one. Happy with the product, Schwarzenegger sent them one of his four Hummers so they could install an electric engine into that as well. As an active environmentalist, he'd already transformed each of them to run on bio-diesel, but, as he tells Leno with a gesture to the hood of his G-Wagen, "This is the best."

Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2016 Electric Mercedes G-Wagen, featured on CNBC's "Jay Leno's Garage" CNBC

The car may be more efficient but that doesn't mean it's weaker. It still has 500 horsepower with the new engine, and it accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, three seconds faster than it had before, which is partly because, without the gas engine, it's about half a ton lighter. But more efficient does mean it's a more expensive purchase. The G-Wagen goes for $1 million. In addition to speed, that buys you a 190-mile driving range and regenerative capacities, meaning the battery recharges when the car is going downhill or stopped at an intersection. "Well, how do you know that?" Leno asks on the show. "The way you figure it out: You just go underneath and you bench press the whole thing," Schwarzenegger responds, before performing a pectoral-muscle dance. "Sure, I could do that, too," Leno assures viewers. "But why embarrass my guest?"

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jay Leno on CNBC's "Jay Leno's Garage" CNBC

Schwarzenegger first made the surprise announcement that he would be running for governor of California in 2003 on NBC's "The Tonight Show," without giving host Jay Leno prior warning. And his passion for protecting the environment is partly what motivated him to break into politics, he tells Leno now. "Jay, when I came over [to the U.S.] in 1968, I had tears in my eyes," Schwarzenegger says, referencing Los Angeles' notoriously smoggy days. He recalls that Ronald Reagan, the governor of the Golden State at the time, had created resources to deal with that and other environmental issues. "I think it's important for people to know that it used to be a people's issue," Schwarzenegger says. "Republicans and Democrats did great work to improve the environment and protect the environment." "Because, you know, there is no Republican air or Democratic air," he adds. "We all breathe the same air, so what the hell."
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks at the Great Hall of the People on January 9, 2018.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the economy is expected to have grown around 6.9 percent last year, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

China's foreign exchange reserves continued to rise last year, while the country's corporate leverage ratio declined at a steady pace, Li said at the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Forum in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on Wednesday, according to Xinhua.
French gendarmes and police inspect a large piece of plane debris which was found on the beach in Saint-Andre, on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, July 29, 2015. French prosecutor announced on Thursday that we can say with certainty that the wing part found on Saint-Andre beach was from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished from radar screens in March 2014, will begin anew this month, Malaysian newspaper The Star reported Wednesday.

The resumption comes after Malaysian authorities took up an offer by U.S. exploration firm Ocean Infinity to continue looking for the plane, the report said.

The company, in a statement, said the search is estimated to last 90 days and it will receive payment only if the aircraft wreckage is found.

"Ocean Infinity's search will focus initially on the zone identified by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau," the company said.

The missing plane, a Boeing 777, was carrying 239 people en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur when it disappeared from radar screens. Search operations concentrated in the southern Indian Ocean, but the aircraft was not found.

Three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found on the western shores of the Indian Ocean, The Star said. But the initial deep-sea search  jointly conducted by Australia, China and Malaysia  was called off in January 2017.

Read the full report from The Star.
The U.S. made a move this week to strengthen its relationship with Taiwan , raising eyebrows in China , which strongly opposes countries pursuing ties with the island-nation.

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed two bills on Tuesday aimed at bolstering "the critical U.S.-Taiwan partnership," according to a statement. One bill, called the Taiwan Travel Act, encouraged high-level visits between Washington and Taipei "at all levels of government" while the second addressed Taiwan's exclusion from the World Health Organization.

Currently, the State Department enforces self-imposed restrictions on official travel due to the unofficial nature of the bilateral alliance.

Once Sino-U.S. ties were established in 1979, Washington cut off diplomatic links with Taipei in adherence with Beijing's "One China" policy, which recognizes the East Asian island as part of China. Since then, no Taiwanese leader has formally visited the White House, but that could change if Tuesday's bill gets signed into law.

Washington still maintains cultural, commercial and security ties with Taipei.

A state-run Chinese newspaper denounced the bill's passage, saying it could shake political ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration.
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South Korea's justice minister said on Thursday that a bill is being prepared to ban all cryptocurrency trading in the country. That news is a major development for the cryptocurrency space, as South Korea is one of the biggest markets for major coins like bitcoin and ethereum . related investing news Cathie Wood adds to holdings in Coinbase, other crypto stocks amid FTX fallout According to industry website CryptoCompare, more than 10 percent of ethereum is traded against the South Korean won  the second largest concentration in terms of fiat currencies behind the dollar. Meanwhile, 5 percent of all bitcoin are traded against the won. "There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges," Park Sang-ki said at a press conference, according to the ministry's press office.

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Bitcoin tumbled more than 12 percent following Park's remarks, before recovering. It was down 0.7 percent on the Coinbase exchange. Ethereum tanked on the news and remained 7.6 percent lower on Coinbase. Park added that he couldn't disclose more specific details about a proposed shutdown of cryptocurrency trading exchanges in the country, adding that various government agencies would work together to implement several measures. Later in the day, South Korea's presidential office said that any potential bill "is not a measure that has been finalized," according to News1, a South Korean news site.

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Reuters further reported that a press official said the proposed ban on cryptocurrency trading was announced after "enough discussion" with other government agencies including the nation's finance ministry and financial regulators. The newswire later added that once a bill is drafted, legislation for an outright ban of virtual coin trading will require a majority vote of the total 297 members of the National Assembly, a process that could take months  or even years. Cryptocurrency trading in South Korea is very speculative and similar to gambling. Major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum are priced significantly higher in the country's exchanges than elsewhere in the world. For example, bitcoin traded at $17,169.65 per token at local exchange Bithumb, which was a 31 percent premium to the CoinDesk average price.

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WATCH: Warren Buffett says cryptocurrency will come to a bad ending
President Donald Trump, flanked by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, January 10, 2018.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday his administration plans to "take a strong look at our country's libel laws," calling the current rules "a sham and a disgrace."

Speaking at a White House Cabinet meeting, Trump said the goal of the effort would be "so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts."

Trump has a long record of threatening to sue journalists who write things about him that he does not like. Just last week, Trump's lawyers threatened to sue author Michael Wolff over his best-selling book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," which was released on Friday.

Wednesday's comments, however, marked a significant escalation of Trump's attacks on the press over what he calls "fake news."

"Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace, and do not represent American values or American fairness," Trump said, reading from prepared notes.

"So we're going to take a strong look at that. We want fairness. You can't say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account ... I think what the American people want to see is fairness."

Trump tweet: We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!

The remarks were startling for a few reasons. One is that they may have been first time that Trump's desire to change the nation's libel laws made it into the president's official written remarks.

Equally striking was Trump's attempt to couch defamation laws in the rhetoric of his populist political movement. According to the president, the current libel laws "do not represent American values or American fairness."

But unless you work in journalism, Hollywood or politics, it is unlikely you will ever have to learn much about defamation law, a patchwork of state laws that govern the crime of publishing deliberately false statements about someone with the intent of damaging that person.

A White House spokesman did not respond to questions from CNBC about what law Trump might actually want to change. Nor did he identify what, exactly, the administration will be "taking a very very strong look at."

That official silence, however, could be due in part to the fact that there is little Trump could actually do to change how libel laws work.

"Trump is not changing  and he never will change  the libel laws in this country, despite his rhetoric," said Richard Roth, a New York-based white-collar litigator and founder of the Roth Law Firm. "These are laws that originated hundreds of years ago in England."

Today, Roth said, "libel and slander are state court causes of action, not federal laws. So there actually is no federal statute that Trump could try to get Congress to rewrite."

Additionally, no single state could change its laws to make it easier for public figures like Trump to win libel suits against the press. That standard derives from a 1964 Supreme Court ruling, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.

"He's trying to usurp the judiciary, and it's not going to work," Roth said.

"If there is any likely change to libel-related laws as a result of Donald Trump the individual or Donald Trump the government official, it is likely to come in the form of increased protection for libel defendants who face a potential increase in frivolous lawsuits of the type he has filed (and lost) in the past," Kevin Goldberg, a First Amendment attorney at Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, told Poynter.

For now, Roth said, Trump's threat to change libel laws is just "another silly declaration" from the White House.
About 100 young undocumented workers urged lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week to permanently fix the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program before it expires in the spring.

The participants, organized by technology industry lobbying group FWD.us, met with legislators and staff on both sides of the aisle Tuesday and Wednesday. The campaign aims to prevent young adults brought to the U.S. as children from losing their work authorization or even being deported.

One of the participants had an urgent plea for her CEO.

Daniella Vieira, 23, said on Tuesday she came to Capitol Hill to draw attention to her plight and that of others like her. She arrived in the U.S. when she was 11 years old, attended Ohio State University and is now a financial analyst for Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company.

"It's very scary to come forward and disclose your status," she said.

Vieira pleaded publicly with Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky to do everything he can on this issue, which affects employees.

"I know that you have access to legislators," Vieira said, addressing Gorsky. "I urge you to bring that up with them and prepare our company to be able to provide support for the employees who are impacted by this, because we don't know what's going to happen next."

Vieira said she had previously communicated directly with Gorsky about DACA.
the highest reading since 2001, when the university first started asking the question.

Americans may not be sold on President Donald Trump, but their view of the economy has dramatically improved. A new poll from Quinnipiac University this week found that 66 percent of likely U.S. voters describe the recent state of the economy as "excellent" or "good"  the highest reading since 2001, when the university first started asking the question.

That's a 27-point swing since a Quinnipiac poll taken right after Trump's election in 2016, when only 2 percent of Americans thought the economy was "excellent." Historical data from Quinnipiac polls demonstrate a stark contrast between the economies inherited by Trump and former President Barack Obama. As the U.S. struggled to dig itself out of the financial crisis in March 2009, only 3 percent of Americans said the economy was "good." Zero percent thought it was "excellent."

Still, Obama gets much of the credit from voters for the improving state of the economy, although Trump is getting more as time goes by. According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, 49 percent of Americans said Obama deserves the kudos, down from 67 percent in March 2017. What was a 48-point gap in March of last year has been whittled down to just a nine-point lead over Trump. However, the gap was narrower in recent months, and the new poll shows a swing back toward Obama.
President Donald Trump sees a healthy U.S. economy as his biggest success in the White House.

But Americans' glowing views of the economy have not yet translated to broad support for the president.

In a tweet Thursday morning, Trump highlighted Wednesday's Quinnipiac University poll that showed 66 percent of voters view the economy as "excellent" or "good." That figure rose from 63 percent in December, and is the highest reading since the university started asking the question in 2001.

Trump: In new Quinnipiac Poll, 66% of people feel the economy is "Excellent or Good." That is the highest number ever recorded by this poll.

The same poll, however, showed that economic optimism has not generated support for the job Trump is doing as president.

Only 36 percent approve of Trump, while 59 percent disapprove, the survey says. In December, 37 percent approved of the job the president was doing, while 59 percent disapproved.

Views on Trump's character traits "may serve to neutralize the optimism" about the U.S. economy, said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Voters believe Trump is not honest by a 63 to 34 percent margin, while they think by a 59 percent to 39 percent margin that he does not have good leadership skills, the poll says. In addition, respondents by a 59 percent to 38 percent margin believe he does not care about the average American.
Industry reaction has been mixed since Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded Obama-era guidelines on enforcing marijuana laws Jan. 4. Some entrepreneurs express concern and fear, while others carry on with business as usual.

But one thing insiders agree on is the move will make it more difficult for cannabis companies to find and secure banking relationships, without which businesses are left with a ton of cash on hand.

Despite being legal for recreational or medicinal use in more than half the country, marijuana is still a Schedule I drug and therefore illegal at the federal level. In 2013, Barack Obama's administration issued the Cole Memorandum, which essentially directed federal law enforcement to allow businesses that are legal under state laws to operate. The memo also signaled banks could do business with these companies so long as they were in compliance with federal guidelines, although many have been hesitant.

In rescinding this policy, Sessions said future prosecutions of businesses and individuals who sell pot in states where it has been legalized will be left up to individual U.S. attorneys.

"The real sticking point here will be banking. Before, banks were very reluctant to do business based on the loosely defined Cole Memo," said Matt Karnes, founder of industry analyst firm GreenWave Advisors. "This raises more uncertainty, and I think there is going to be a pullback."

In a November 2017 report, GreenWave found that about 5 percent, or 368, of all financial institutions in the U.S. are on record with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), but only 1 percent are actually servicing these businesses. Many are credit unions and local and community banks. Karnes also said many marijuana businesses conceal the true nature of their business when establishing relationships, and once they are found out, the account is shut down.

"In the last report from FinCEN, 3,800 accounts were opened, but 3,700 were shut down. It's very short-lived," he said.

A report from Reuters Wednesday also indicated the action taken by Sessions came as a surprise to FinCEN, which was flooded with calls from banks on how to proceed. CNBC reached out to both the Department of Justice and FinCEN for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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Major cryptocurrencies including bitcoin , ripple and ethereum took a hammering Thursday following the news that South Korea could be preparing to ban trading in digital coins.

At 7:25 a.m. London time, bitcoin was down nearly 6 percent, while ethereum fell over 11 percent and ripple took a 9 percent tumble, versus their price a day ago, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. Many of those coins began to pare losses later in the morning. Ripple was up nearly a tenth of a percent by 8:10 a.m. London time. related investing news Cathie Wood adds to holdings in Coinbase, other crypto stocks amid FTX fallout South Korean Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said Thursday that the ministry is "basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges." At around 4.50 a.m. London time, a few minutes after news, over $106 billion of value was wiped off of the entire cryptocurrency market when compared to the market capitalization at the beginning of the day on Thursday. It has since pared some of those losses.

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This fall in prices comes after two major cryptocurrencies hit record highs. Ripple hit an all-time high of $3.84 on January 4. It has fallen over 50 percent since then as of 8:00 a.m. London time on Thursday. South Korea is one of the major cryptocurrency trading markets. It accounts for somewhere in the region of 6 percent to 12 percent of bitcoin trading, according to industry website CryptoCompare. For ethereum, this figure is higher at around 14 percent. Ripple buying in the South Korean won can be as high as 33 percent, depending on the day.

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The country's government did not give concrete details about any potential new legislation. Reuters reported that the proposed ban on cryptocurrency trading was announced after "enough discussion" with other government agencies including the nation's Finance Ministry and financial regulators. Major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are often traded at a premium on South Korean exchanges, meaning that they are at a higher price versus other exchanges in the U.S. or Europe for example. Earlier this week, industry data provider CoinMarketCap even removed some South Korean exchanges from the way it calculates the prices of cryptocurrencies, citing "extreme divergence in prices from the rest of the world." Regulators are taking a keener interest in the cryptocurrency world. Reuters reported Thursday that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing next month with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Major business figures also continue to pour water cold water on cryptocurrencies. "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending," Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told CNBC Wednesday.

WATCH: Bitcoin could be the biggest bubble in history  here's how
People work at the Halfaya oilfield in Amara, southeast of Baghdad.

hit a more than three-year high on Thursday, breaking through the psychologically important $70 a barrel level for the first time since December 2014.

Oil futures failed to hold the gains, selling off as the close of trading approached, with analysts warning that the market might have little room left to run.

Brent, the international benchmark for oil prices, was last up 6 cents at $69.26 a barrel. It earlier spiked to $70.05 in morning trade, touching its highest level since Dec. 4, 2014, when the contract hit $70.60.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude finished the session up 23 cents at $63.80, after breaking through $64 a barrel for the first time since December 2014. The contract topped out at $64.77, a high going back to Dec. 8, 2014.

Oil prices have been supported by stronger-than-expected demand fueled by worldwide economic growth, ongoing output limits by OPEC and Russia and a series of global events that have stoked geopolitical tension.

A rally that began in June accelerated in December, with prices rising about 15 percent over roughly the last month.

"I think it starts to get difficult for us to get much higher from here," said John Kilduff, founding partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital. "I think we're probably in the process of topping out as we speak."

Kilduff forecast last week that Brent would take aim at $70 a barrel and U.S. crude could break into the $65-$67 range. But high prices will tempt OPEC members and other producers to start pumping, he said.

About two dozen oil producing nations are keeping 1.8 million barrels a day off the market to drive down global inventories to their five-year average.
There has always been hypocrisy in politics and government. But several cities in California may be taking that standard to a new level when it comes to their supposed battle against climate change.

Here's the kicker: The people pointing that accusatory finger at the Golden State's top cities are none other than the lawyers for ExxonMobil.

It turns out that Big Oil is trying to turn the tables on Big Government when it comes to a series of public nuisance lawsuits filed by California cities and counties last year.

Those suits are using an argument similar to the successful cases brought against Big Tobacco in the 1990s. That is, they claim the oil companies have long known about the damaging effects fossil fuels have on the environment. They further allege those companies have worked to suppress and fraudulently refute scientific climate data in order to protect their industry and avoid any responsibility for climate change-related damages.

But ExxonMobil's attorneys did some legwork and found something interesting in municipal bond offerings of many of the same cities and counties suing them. Those offerings include several examples of climate change threats being downplayed or even completely ignored.

The Big Oil lawyers also note that:

San Francisco has twice made bond offerings for its Municipal Transportation Agency since 2014 that do not contain the words "global warming" or "climate change."

San Mateo County is suing the oil companies because it says in its complaint that it is "particularly vulnerable to sea level rise" and that there is a 93 percent chance the county experiences a "devastating" flood before 2050. But San Mateo noted in bond offerings in 2014 and 2016 that the county "is unable to predict whether sea-level rise or other impacts of climate change or flooding from a major storm will occur."

Imperial Beach, California claims in the lawsuit that it faces a very high danger from sea level rise and its economic vulnerability from climate change is valued at more than $106 million. But the city has never warned investors that such disasters await them.

The sanctimonious climate change alarmism only gets worse when you throw in the rhetoric some of the political leaders have used recently.

For example, Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina excoriated the oil companies in front of the news media last summer, exclaiming: "They knew about sea-level rise. They knew the damage it would cause, and they should be held accountable!"

I guess Imperial Beach's bondholders could say the same about him.

The California plaintiffs have not yet formally responded to the ExxonMobil countersuit claims, though a few of their representatives have been quoted saying they won't be intimidated or or dissuaded by the company's "attempted end-run around the California courts."

The funny thing is you don't have to look at bond offerings to find blatant cases of state and local governments saying one thing about climate change and doing the opposite when it comes to putting their money where their mouths are.

For example, California is still building its roads and freeways to accommodate more vehicles, not less. Remember the 2011 405 Freeway "Carmageddon," when the state paid almost $2 billion to widen the highway to make way for more cars? Where was the concern for climate change there? Yes, California has the strictest emissions regulations and other policies like pursuing high-speed rail. But the car-based culture of the state, which includes a near-religious to devotion to keeping the overwhelming majority of its highways toll free, is still dominant.

Others note that California still has massive regulations that make it very hard to build residential property in densely populated areas. That leads to more sprawl, more driving, and more fossil fuel use.

Of course California is hardly alone in this hypocrisy. This is a national problem. The civil engineering organization and website StrongTowns.org has long documented the massive costs to our finances and environment caused by almost every state government's reliance on car-centered infrastructure policies. That includes New York state, which has just decided to also sue the oil companies for the same claim of climate change science suppression.

There's also a more widespread problem of dozens of cities and counties not being entirely truthful in all aspects of their municipal bond offerings. The SEC began a major crackdown on that in recent years that continues today.

But the climate change hypocrisy is especially egregious, considering the hyperbole and public shaming the politicians engage in when discussing the environment. It's one thing for climate alarmists and global warming skeptics to fight it out in the political or scientific arena. But politicians warning us about global warming and higher sea level dangers can't keep pretending that reality is something else when they go to the banks and big investors.

We're either in serious danger from climate change or we aren't. Our leaders need to figure out the answer and respond accordingly.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
The news agency added a ban bill "could take months or even years" to pass the country's legislative body.

After the 7 percent comeback, bitcoin was down 5 percent Thursday, according to Coinbase.

South Korea's Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said on Thursday that a bill is being prepared to ban all cryptocurrency trading on the country's exchanges, which drove digital currency prices sharply lower. The price of bitcoin tumbled more than 12 percent from its day's high following Park's remarks, according to Coinbase data. The cryptocurrency then rallied more than 7 percent off its low after Reuters reported South Korea's presidential office said the ban plan "had not yet been finalized" and is just one of the things being considered.

The world may not be ending for digital currencies after all.

Industry experts said fears over the South Korean ban proposal are overblown.

Cedric Jeanson, founder and CEO of BitSpread, one of the largest digital currency market makers in the world, downplayed the developments in the Asian country.

"It is understandable why the authorities are acting in Korea, which is different to other digital currency markets in several respects. Prices of digital currencies there are much higher than the rest of the world because of local circumstances," he said. "Developments like this should be seen in the broader context of the continued evolution and development of digital currencies globally."

Jeanson explained the authorities in Korea are making sure the country's digital currency exchanges have the "proper AML/KYC customer identification, and suitable cyber-security, tax reporting procedures and accounting."

"It is also natural to align the requirements of digital currency exchanges with the requirements of online financial platforms by regulators, as the trading nature of the activity is similar," he added.

South Korea is one of the major cryptocurrency trading markets. It accounts for between 6 and 12 percent of bitcoin trading, according to industry website CryptoCompare.

"In both China and South Korea, what they are doing, they are bringing operations, exchanges and mines, into regulatory compliance. They are not shutting everything down," Malachi Salcido, CEO of bitcoin mining company Salcido Enterprises said on CNBC's "Power Lunch" Thursday. "They are shutting people down [people] that are skirting the system ... tax evading. The things they should be doing. The industry is growing up."

Digital currency fund manager Brian Kelly predicts South Korea's moves will just be another bump in the road for the relentless rise of cryptocurrencies.

"The ultimate outcome in Korea is still unclear, but if they move to regulate similar to Japan then it would be very positive for crypto," Kelly wrote in an email. "The change in the market over the last few months is that the incremental buyer is US investors and Korea has become less of a driver."

Ripple's cryptocurrency XRP also surged off its low as much as 15 percent after it announced it is teaming up with U.S. money transfer giant MoneyGram. XRP is up 3 percent Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap.

 CNBC's Jeff Cox and Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.


The cryptocurrency craze is helping many people rake in money, but it is also putting pressure on the electrical infrastructure of a small county in Washington state.

"Our infrastructure is actually being put to the test. We're full," Ron Cridlebaugh, the Port of Douglas County economic development manager, told CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera on Thursday.

Electricity in Washington state is considerably cheaper than in most places in the U.S. The average electricity price per kilowatt in the state is 4 cents. The national average is 7 cents.

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ripple have skyrocketed in value recently. Last year, those digital currencies surged 1,500 percent and 35,000 percent, respectively.

People have been trying to get in on the action by purchasing these digital assets or by "mining," or creating, them. But the mining process requires a lot of electrical power as computers process gargantuan amounts of data.

Cridlebaugh said the county is building out 100 megawatts (100,000 kilowatts) of infrastructure just in data centers to keep up with demand. "It's going to take some time to catch up because growth has been so quick."
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) speaks during a news conference with House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) (L) and House Democratic Caucus chairman Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) at the U.S. Capitol May 17, 2017 in Washington, DC.

One year ago, as Donald Trump prepared to take office, Trump attorney Sheri Dillon announced that he would "voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotel to the United States Treasury."

Now House Democrats are saying: "Show me the money." They want proof that Trump's company followed through on its pledge.

"We respectfully request that you issue a subpoena to the Trump Organization to produce ... the specific sources and amounts of all foreign government payments, the manner in which these amounts were calculated, and documents demonstrating the manner in which they were donated to the Treasury," Democratic members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wrote in a letter Thursday to committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.

If Gowdy refuses to issue the subpoena, they want to hold a committee vote on the matter, effectively forcing their GOP counterparts to cast a vote not to hold Trump accountable.

A representative for Trump Hotels said the figures won't be available until late February.

The letter is the latest step in a yearlong effort to resolve concerns that the Trump family's sprawling business empire will benefit financially from the office of the presidency. Throughout that time, ethics experts have sounded the alarm about foreign governments using payments to Trump's companies to curry favor with his administration. This could violate a clause of the Constitution that prohibits the president from accepting personal "emoluments" from foreign governments.

Dillon aimed to ease those fears at a January 2017 press conference, nine days before Trump took the oath of office. Trump would move the assets of the Trump Organization to a trust to be managed by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump along with executive Allen Weisselberg, Dillon said. She added that Trump would donate foreign government payments from "his hotel" to the Treasury, without specifying which Trump hotels would do so.

On Thursday, the committee Democrats wrote that they received a "insultingly incomplete" eight-page pamphlet on May 11, 2017, responding to requests for documents related to the Treasury donations. The pamphlet "made clear that the Trump Organization would not attempt to identify all foreign government emoluments" they say are barred by the U.S. Constitution.

Later in May, NBC News reported on this pamphlet, saying the Trump Organization "suggests that it is up to foreign governments, not Trump hotels, to determine whether they self-report their business."

The lack of documentation of donations to the Treasury comes as Trump's Washington, D.C., hotel  which is just down the street from the White House  has reportedly become a hot spot for foreign diplomats. The Saudi Arabian government and others have reportedly hosted events at the venue.

Trump's Washington hotel had turned an unexpected profit for the year 2017, The Washington Post reported in August.

"Our fiscal year ended on December 31, 2017. As typical with businesses finalizing their annual financial reporting, we expect to have information available towards the end of February 2018," said a representative for Trump Hotels.

It is unclear if Gowdy, typically a defender of Trump, will accept the Democrats' request. When he took over the panel's chairmanship, he identified emoluments as an issue that may not fall under the committee's jurisdiction, according to The Washington Post.

A spokeswoman for Gowdy did not immediately respond to CNBC's request to comment.

Article 1 Section 9 of the Constitution says: "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.

In December, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that had accused Trump of violating the Constitution by accepting foreign payments through his hotels and other businesses. The judge said the plaintiffs, including the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, did not have legal standing to bring the suit.
European markets closed lower Thursday afternoon as investors reacted to the release of corporate earnings and economic data.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.34 percent lower, though the U.K. FTSE and some sectors pared losses from earlier on in the afternoon's trading.

Telecoms and retail were the two worst performing sectors, closing down 1.49 and 1.37 percent respectively on corporate earnings.

U.K. retailer Marks and Spencer dropped in afternoon trade to finish Thursday over 7 percent lower, impacted by its fourth quarter earnings report. Chief Executive Steve Rowe described 2017's October to December business as "mixed", with "a weak clothing market in October and ongoing under-performance in our food like-for-like sales."

Britain's biggest retailer Tesco was also one of Europe's biggest fallers, down over 4.5 percent after the firm missed Christmas trading forecasts. Tesco said robust sales of fresh food were offset by lower demand for general goods.

Basic resources was the best performing sector Thursday, up 0.61 percent, followed by oil and gas and banks.

Looking at individual stocks, Hexagon shares surged to the top of the Stoxx 600, closing up 5.75 percent. A Norwegian court cleared the group's CEO of insider trading late Wednesday.

Hays also did well, closing up over 4.2 percent. The British recruiter published higher second-quarter net fees, boosted by strong international business.



Meanwhile, shares of Pandora foundered near the bottom of the Stoxx 600, lower by nearly 11 percent after the Danish jewelry maker said it anticipated profit margins to decline over the next few years. The group's CEO Anders Colding Friis said a challenging U.S. retail environment and unfavorable currency developments had hampered revenues in 2017, Reuters reported.
Legalized marijuana is emerging as a huge growth sector in the U.S. economy, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent turned venture capitalist told CNBC on Thursday.

"Regulated cannabis works," said Patrick Moen, managing director and general counsel at Seattle-based Privateer Holdings, which specializing in seed money for businesses that "lead, legitimize, and define the future of cannabis."

Explaining how an ex-DEA agent ended up in the pot business, Moen said on "Squawk Alley" in an interview: "We're taking money away from criminal enterprises. We're freeing up law enforcement resources. We're generating tax revenue and we're creating jobs. It's good policy."

The buzz around marijuana includes a handful of states that have made marijuana legal for recreational use for adults and for medical reasons including California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

In addition, a growing number of Americans, 58 percent, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll, favor legalized marijuana sales. That number jumps to 79 percent among adults aged 18 to 34.

But Attorney General Jeff Session is certainly not one of them.

Last week, the Trump administration rescinded an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal.

Sessions said the U.S. government will now leave it up to federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules collide with federal drug law, which prohibits pot.

While running for office, President Donald Trump said marijuana policy should be left up to the states.

Moen, who joined Privateer in 2013, said the Sessions move is nothing to worry about. "It's clearly out of touch with what the American people want," he contended, predicting that potential pot investors will unlikely be deterred either.

"We might see a short-term chilling effect on investment and banking," Moen said, as retailers learn how to manage regulations around cannabis. "[But] we're seeing steady and continued growth in terms of access to capital," he said.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A former financial regulator said Thursday that he wished he had invested in bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies back when he was telling everyone to be careful.

Bart Chilton, a former commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, says he's been calling for cryptocurrency regulation since 2012. In the fall of 2017, when the price of bitcoin was fluctuating, Chilton said he would have sought an investigation into the "precipitous price changes" witnessed.

Chilton said Thursday that it's still the "Wild West" outside the regulated futures market, but added that the massive price fluctuations have since "mellowed out."

"I wish I had been investing when I told everybody to be careful," said Chilton, who says he now owns bitcoin and ethereum . "I had a lot of my friends that said, 'You told me not to invest.' They would have been millionaires."

Exchange operators such as CME Group and Cboe Global Markets have opened their platforms to allow bitcoin futures trading.

"There's a shaking out going on in the digital currency world," Chilton said in the interview with CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "There's a lot of craziness out there, but as we go forward on CME and Chicago Board Options Exchange [I think] it is a first step at regularizing."

The price of bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies fell this week after South Korea's justice minister announced that a bill is being prepared to ban all cryptocurrency trading in the country, citing concerns regarding virtual currencies. On Thursday the cryptocurrencies rose, rebounding from the declines.

Additionally, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, recently warned that the recent craze over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies won't end well.

J.P. Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon has criticized bitcoin but recently backpedaled a bit from his earlier comments.
Fiat Chrysler announced Thursday that it will up its investment in the United States and pay some of its employees special bonuses after the recent tax code overhaul.

CEO Sergio Marchionne said in a statement that these announcements reflect the company's ongoing commitment to manufacturing in the U.S. He also cited the recently signed tax bill as an opportunity to share the savings with Fiat Chrysler employees.

The automaker said it will invest more than $1 billion in a Michigan plant and relocate production of its Ram Heavy Duty truck in 2020. That model is currently being produced in Saltillo, Mexico.

Fiat Chrysler said this decision would create about 2,500 jobs in addition to the ones that have been previously announced.

The company said it will also pay 60,000 of its U.S. employees bonuses of $2,000 each. Fiat Chrysler said these bonuses would not include senior leadership.
When Jim Hackett stepped into the position of CEO at Ford , he became the first designer to lead a car company. But Hackett is part of a wave of promotions and corporate success stories that have resulted from design thinking  the creative strategies designers use to come up with innovative solutions. With technological innovation comes constantly changing expectations, so it is getting harder than ever to provide consumers with new and improved experiences. The upshot: Executives with design backgrounds are rising to the top and, in some cases, delivering billions in new revenue. Hackett is close with the founder of IDEO, David Kelley  so close they watch each other's desks throughout the day on camera. Kelley is known for popularizing the design-thinking philosophy, and Hackett plans to integrate it into Ford's operations. "The old way was about disciplines," Hackett told Fortune in September. "The new way will be about projects and understanding what people want." The term "chief design officer" was coined when Ernesto Quinteros was hired at Johnson & Johnson in 2014. Later PepsiCo and Philips Electronics NV would develop that role in their own companies. Nike's designer, Mark Parker, became CEO in 2006, and since then revenue has nearly doubled, growing from nearly $15 billion to $32.4 billion over the past decade. "I think what makes designers most successful is not just being able to visualize the product from a customer's point of view but being able to leverage the expertise of the people that work within the company they are in and bringing that to the customer," said David Sherwin, author of Success by Design: The Essential Business Reference for Designers. That approach is paying off in performance of company shares. The Design Management Institute found that companies employing a "design-centric" operations performed 211 percent better than the S&P 500 over a 10-year period through 2015.

"Having design in an organization as part of the culture just rings something different," said Carole Bilson, president of the Design Management Institute. "It helps improve innovation and helps change the way people think and can help speed up the way people innovate." "A good indicator I look for in a company that has integrated design thinking is their time frame in identifying a customer problem and the time they take to test it," Sherwin said. In a design mindset, you are trying to test problems as quickly as possible. Bilson said designers are problem-solvers, and they are constantly taking in their surroundings. "There's a lot of observation, listening and research as you are developing products and solutions.  They are more likely to be supportive of innovative efforts, no matter where they come from or who they come from," she said.

Design gets its own seat

"We had a very strong culture based around factories, where trade partners would say, 'This is what we want you to do. Go do it,'" said Whirlpool 's vice president of design, Pat Schiavone. "We are moving from that factory-based mindset to a truly global development culture.  Within that culture change, design became a seat at the table. I always talk about a three-legged stool. It's marketing, engineering and design working together to develop a product." Schiavone said he had to prove that design deserved that seat when he arrived in 2010. When his design team had decided to try a charcoal black interior in their Jenn-Air refrigerator model, the marketing and engineering departments originally said it would be a waste of money  no one would want black. "The mistake I made was telling people what we were doing," he said. "Sometimes design just needs to do something we believe in, build it, then bring in people to see it." After the design team built a prototype, the engineering and marketing teams approved it and the product sold well. "That started to help us have a little bit of momentum as a design organization, and people began to believe in us a little bit," said Schiavone. "The next time we came up with something we wanted to show, it was a little easier.  As things started to sell better, we earned that right to be at the table."

When Schiavone's design team first suggested a Jenn-Air refrigerator with a charcoal black interior, the marketing and engineering teams said it wouldn't sell. After building it, the model was approved.

Since Schiavone was hired, Whirlpool revenue growth has increased by more than $2.3 billion by the end of 2016. Design is even overtaking companies where it may not seem as natural a fit. Kurt Walecki came onto the team at financial-planning software firm Intuit in 2012 as vice president of design to create the vision for all TurboTax products and services. At the time, Intuit was outsourcing a lot of its consumer research. "The kind of tenet of design thinking is, you cannot outsource empathy," Walecki said. "Really what this is about is not paying a research firm or just having designers go gain empathy, but having everyone in the projects team get out of their four walls and understand people on their turf." Soon after being hired, Walecki put 500 people from the TurboTax team onto buses to go across different segments of San Diego and talk to people. They gave out Starbucks gift cards and asked people what was important to them. The very last question was about how people were paying their taxes. Intuit discovered it had "fallen in love with [its] own solution" more than consumers, who expressed a preference for software different from the one the company had been making. Long before design thinking became a buzzword, Intuit co-founder Scott Cook would wait for people to purchase the software off the shelf in a store. Then he asked customers if he could go home with them as they installed it so he could learn which parts of the process were too complicated and needed correction. But it didn't get disseminated widely enough until Intuit started placing design leaders throughout the company in 2012. Last month Intuit hired Diego Rodriguez as executive vice president and chief product and design officer, directly reporting to CEO Brad Smith. "We can design all day, but if engineers and product managers don't deliver, it's not going to get delivered into the hands of our customers," Walecki said.

Design thinking is not one-size-fits all
The logo of Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab is seen on the hood of a car in Singapore.

Hyundai Motor Co said on Thursday it had invested in Singapore-based ride-hailing firm Grab, in the South Korean automaker's first foray into the rapidly growing sector as it tries to diversify following a sales slump in China.

Grab has expanded to eight Southeast Asian countries and has said it is the biggest operator in the region's third-party taxi hailing and private-vehicle hailing sector.

The companies will jointly develop services in Southeast Asia, including one utilizing Hyundai's eco-friendly models such as the IONIQ Electric, the two firms said in a statement.

They did not disclose the value of Hyundai's investment and a spokeswoman for the automaker declined to comment further.

Grab's latest fundraising round, which Hyundai has joined, already includes investors such as China's Didi Chuxing, Japan's SoftBank and Toyota Tsusho, the firms added.

Hyundai said on Wednesday it is considering building a car plant in Southeast Asia, possibly in Indonesia or Vietnam.

The company's interest in the region has grown since a diplomatic row between Beijing and Seoul last year hurt South Korean firms that are highly reliant on the Chinese market.

The automaker also announced for the first time a self-driving technology partnership with Silicon Valley start-up Aurora earlier this month, a shift from its usual preference for developing technology itself.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions outraged the legal cannabis industry last week when he rescinded the Cole Memo, which allowed states to implement their own marijuana laws without fear of federal interference. Now, another pot protection is at risk, one that Sessions would like to see disappear.

Sessions was born and raised in Alabama, where he also served as the state's attorney general back in the nineties at the height of America's War on Drugs. The deep-south is not known for its liberal drug policy, however, according to a new survey from the Green Market Report and Consumer Research Around Cannabis, the majority of Alabama's citizens support cannabis legalization.

The survey was given to residents from the Birmingham metropolitan area who have voted in the last year, including 21 counties surrounding the city and not limited to more democratic-leaning urban areas. Of the 788 respondents, 63.8 percent said they support legalizing cannabis for medical and/or recreational use. This is on par with the latest national data from Gallup, which reported 64 percent of Americans support full legalization.

What's more, the majority of Republicans in the area also support cannabis legalization. The survey found 55.3 percent of "conservatives" in the Birmingham metro area are also in favor of legalization. Once again, Alabama was quite close to Gallup's national average which shows 51 percent of Republicans support full legalization.

Evidently, Sessions views on pot are not supported by his home state or his political party. In fact, only 15.2 percent of voters in the Birmingham area are against legalizing cannabis.

Fellow Southerner and Governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, wrote a letter to President Trump on Tuesday regarding the matter. Louisiana is trying to enact medical cannabis policy, and according to the governor, 70 percent of his state's residents support this undertaking.

However, with Sessions' latest move, Louisiana is uncertain about the future of its program. The governor's letter asked President Trump to protect state's rights by renewing the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, which prevents the Department of Justice from using federal funds to prosecute legal cannabis users and business owners. It expires in less than two weeks if not renewed, on January 19th.

The governor notes that an effort is underway at the Department of Justice to eliminate the amendment.

"If this were to take place, it would be devastating to so many men, women and children who are anxiously awaiting access to this treatment option," Governor Edwards wrote.

If the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment expires, Sessions could have the power and resources to federally prosecute cannabis business owners and consumers operating under state law. It's up to Congress to renew the amendment as part of their 2018 omnibus spending package, or take things even further by ending cannabis prohibition once and for all.

According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, 70 percent of Americans are against a federal crackdown on legal pot. Without the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, rogue operators like Sessions will be able to do just that  crackdown. It would not only hurt a growing industry that's creating jobs and tax revenue, but restrict access to patients who need the plant for relief.

Instead of being a representative of the people, Sessions is pushing his own personal agenda against pot. That's not how American democracy works, Mr. Sessions. The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment keeps Sessions and other rogue operators in check. Congress should renew the amendment and protect states' rights.

Commentary by Cynthia Salarizadeh, co-founder of Green Market Report and publisher of the Cannabis Trend Report. Follow her on Twitter @ CynthiaMarie78.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
As companies showed off their latest products at the CES consumer tech expo in Las Vegas, consumers were treated to new looks at robots, drones and more. But among all the recent crop of innovations, livestreaming is one of the technologies that's going to have a major legacy, according to a technology consultant.

Speaking to CNBC, Michael Vorhaus, president of internet and new media consultancy Magid Advisors, offered his thoughts on the latest technology trends, and zeroed in on livestreaming.

"What's really going to be important when people look back is going to be things like livestreaming. I think that live TV like we are having right now is authentic and exciting," Vorhaus said. "The world of TV being heavily produced is over, with news being live and breaking out over Facebook , Tencent and all the major companies that touch consumers."

Vorhaus also discussed developments in artificial intelligence, saying it could potentially spill into mainstream technology within the next 10 years.

"It's finally coming to fruition," he said. "We are already seeing early versions of it in machines and applications, and I think the next decade is going to be incredible in terms of what we discover computers can do."

With the Chinese government funding its domestic companies in the AI market, coupled with the existing market that the U.S. can provide, AI may become China's inroad into succeeding in the world's biggest economy, Vorhaus said.

"I believe that, fundamentally, technology produced in Asia can be found prevalently in the U.S.  AI has a lot of people working on it in both the East and the West. Collaboration will be fruitful for both Eastern and Western companies."
President Trump's approval rating has been hovering around 40 percent for months. There are a whole lot of people who would be very happy to see the controversial leader removed from the White House, but few are making any real progress in unseating Trump.

Tom Steyer is a notable exception.

The Californian has recently pledged $30 million to flip the House of Representatives from Republican to Democrat in the 2018 Congressional midterm elections. He's also delivering copies of Michael Wolff's behind-the-scenes look at the Trump White House, "Fire and Fury," to every member of Congress.

Fire and Fury is required reading for every member of Congress to help them understand their duty to the American people. That's why we're delivering a copy to each and every one of them.



535 hand deliveries takes time! Should we bring you one in DC or LA?

But who is Steyer? And how did he make all his money?

Steyer, 60, is currently worth $1.6 billion, according to Forbes. He graduated from Yale with his a bachelor's degree in 1979 and Stanford School of Business in 1983, according to his LinkedIn page. He launched the asset management firm, Farallon Capital Management, in 1986 and grew the company for the following 26 years.

Farallon Capital Management manages equities for college endowments, charitable foundations, pension plans and wealthy individuals. According to the global company's website, it currently has 180 employees.

In 2010, Steyer signed The Giving Pledge, an initiative co-founded by billionaire buddies Warren Buffett and Bill Gates whereby billionaires publicly pledge to give away more than half of their wealth.

"Almost by accident  we've focused on good investing not making money  we currently have more assets than we could reasonably spend in our lifetime. Our original impetus for saving money revolved around wanting our kids to enjoy the same educational opportunities that we had, so that they could succeed on their own terms, assuming that they worked hard," Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, wrote when they took the pledge.

"We want to leave our kids a different kind of inheritance, an example of at least trying to lead a worthy life," the couple wrote.

In 2012, Steyer left Farallon, and the following year launched NextGen Climate, a non-profit and political action committee focused on environmental issues. In 2017, Steyer expanded his ballot of core issues to include immigrant rights, affordable health care and equality and rebranded the organization as NextGen America.

Steyer is also co-founder, with Taylor, of the Beneficial State Bank in Oakland. Taylor is the CEO of the community bank, which the duo launched in 2007 and which aims to serve those individuals and small business owners who are otherwise unable to get access to loans. The community bank, however, does not add to Steyer's cash pile  the Beneficial State Bank reinvests all profits back into the community.

Currently, the former financier is largely focusing his efforts on impeaching President Trump. So far more than 4 million people have signed a digital record calling for Trump to be impeached through NeedToImpeach.com, which Steyer launched to support his efforts.

Trump threatens our Constitution, our freedoms, and our lives. It's time to begin impeachment proceedings.

"A year ago, people around the country wondered what a Donald Trump presidency would look like. It's now 2018, and we have our answer. Our mission is clear  we have to take back the House," says the homepage for Steyer's personal website. "Our movement is going to take action to stand up to this president in 2018, and demand our representatives stand with us. With the people on our side, we're going to send a progressive wave across the country."

Steyer is aggressive in his attacks on Trump.

I'm not sure Mr. Trump would recognize the Truth if it came up and bit him in the rear end.

This is the nightmare scenario -- a totally unhinged President with his finger on the nuclear button. Trump is mentally and emotionally unfit for office, and it's time for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings. What are we waiting for?

NextGen America is aiming to bring out half a million young voters in 2018 for the Congressional midterm elections, Governor's races and state legislatures. Steyer is putting $30 million behind the organization's efforts in key states, including New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Nevada and California.

I believe 2018 will be a battle for the soul of America, and our mission is clear: we have to take back the House.

"We are really focused on removing this president," Steyer told the New York Times. "I am willing to do whatever it takes to help save our country. I feel the most important task for me is organizing."

See also:

Warren Buffett on the US economy: 'The tsunami of wealth didn't trickle down. It surged upward'

Richard Branson: Trump administration's marijuana move 'a throwback to the worst days of the failed War on Drugs'

Ex-Apple exec: Thanks to Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, we're addicted to tech  and 'they are the only ones' who can fix it
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Oil markets still have not completely balanced supply against demand yet but 2018 will be the year when they achieve this, United Arab Emirates' (UAE) energy and industry minister said Thursday. Speaking to CNBC at the 9th Gulf Intelligence UAE Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi, Suhail al-Mazrouei said progress was being made, but there's more that must be done. related investing news Oil sinks on recession fears, but we're using the decline to add to a high-yielding energy stock "The market fundamentals in 2017 have been good but we're looking forward to seeing another healthy year of production in 2018," he said. "The concern is to achieve that balance between supply and demand, and we're not there yet." But al-Mazrouei believes this year could see the oil markets finally achieve an equilibrium. "I am expecting that we will still see corrections in 2018 and I think it's the year of ... the market fully achieving the balance," he said. Last November, OPEC and 10 non-OPEC producers led by Russia agreed to extend cuts to their oil output in an attempt to push prices higher. Starting in mid-2014, a slide in global demand combined with a boom in U.S. shale production to severely undercut prices.

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'Market needs further correction'

The OPEC/non-OPEC deal is due to run out in December 2018, although the producers will review the agreement at the next producers' meeting in June to assess how it is impacting oil prices and global crude stockpiles. Al-Mazrouei said the markets had further to go, however. "I have no doubt that the market needs further correction. We still have more a than 100 million barrels that needs to be taken care of." He added that the recent rise in oil prices showed market sentiment was good, but that the correction in the market was a work in progress. "There is of course a positive market sentiment that we're seeing today ... The market is balancing and this is what we're saying, the issue is the timing and how long it will take," he said.

UAE Minister of Energy Suhail Mohamed Faraj al-Mazroui attends a press conference on September 25, 2017 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates GIUSEPPE CACACE | AFP | Getty Images

Compliance levels

Oil supply data have shown that OPEC members have largely complied with the agreement to curb oil output, although members Nigeria and Libya are exempt from the deal. Al-Mazrouei said the adherence to the agreement had been a positive sign of collaboration between the group and non-OPEC producers. "The compliance level is important to me," he said. "We achieved 122 percent compliance together and I am confident this will continue. So this group has started something never seen before and they were complying at a difficult time and my expectation is that this compliance will continue to be very strong for the full year" he said. Oil prices were hovering near three-year highs Thursday, supported by a surprise drop in U.S. production as well as lower crude inventories. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $63.51 at 5:30 a.m. London time while benchmark Brent crude futures were trading at $69.11 a barrel.

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Al-Mazroui said that once markets were moving toward a clearing of excess oil supply, investment would be in focus. "The other question is whether we have enough investments, do we have enough coming to the market to bring the new oil that the world is needing in terms of demand growth  The expectation for next year in terms of global growth is strong, so then the expectation is to have new investments coming to the market."

Some softening to come?
People walk past an advertisement for the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone in Berlin, Germany.

Samsung is being sued in France for misleading advertising related to alleged workers' rights violations.



The lawsuit was filed by two non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Sherpa and ActionAid France, in a Paris court on Thursday.

It names Samsung Global, the electronics giant's worldwide parent company, and local subsidiary Samsung Electronics France.

Sherpa and ActionAid France claim to have gathered evidence from a number of sources, including the NGO China Labor Watch, which they say infiltrated Samsung factories in China and South Korea to reveal human rights violations.

Some of the alleged violations include exploitation of children under 16 and excessive working hours, as well as the use of certain chemicals that have led to incurable diseases for some employees.

Samsung is not accused of human rights violations, however, but of misleading advertising because published on its website are ethical commitments that guarantee workers' rights.

"Everything we do is guided by a moral compass that ensures fairness, respect for all stakeholders and complete transparency," Samsung says on its website.

The NGOs argue that Samsung is engaging in misleading advertising by allegedly violating human rights, even though it claims otherwise online.

"The gap between these ethical commitments and the reality in factories as described by the NGOs is unacceptable and should be sanctioned," Sherpa and ActionAid France said in a press release Thursday.

Samsung has not commented on the allegations and has yet to reply to a request for comment by CNBC.

It's not the first time that Samsung's supply chain has been placed under scrutiny. In 2014, it promised to pay compensation to employees who got cancer while working at its semiconductor plants across South Korea, after a nine-year legal battle.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin believes a forum in Switzerland that will feature wealthy business executives, world leaders and lawmakers discussing shared solutions to economic and social problems is not a "hangout for globalists."

"The American team will go over first and talk about the economic strategy," Mnuchin said Thursday of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which President Donald Trump and top economic advisors will attend later this month.

"We're thrilled the president is coming. What we know is that the economy that's good for the U.S. is good for the rest of the world," the Treasury secretary added.

This week, the White House said Trump would attend the event, which carries a reputation as a gathering of wealthy figures. American presidents have rarely attended, partly to avoid the perception of being too close to the elite circle that usually attends.

Trump won the White House on a populist platform that criticized what his campaign described as a class of entrenched politicians and business executives who do not look out for the interests of working people.

He railed against free trade deals that he said robbed Americans of their jobs, and pledged to always put "America first."

The theme of this year's forum is "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World," according to its website. The meeting "aims to rededicate leaders from all walks of life to developing a shared narrative to improve the state of the world," it says.

On Thursday, Mnuchin said he expects a "consistent" message from Trump, pushing for "reciprocal" free trade. The president will "talk a lot about his economic program and the impact on the global economy," the secretary said.
Russia says it has identified the launch location from where a swarm of armed drones began their attack on two of its military bases in western Syria on Saturday.

Ten drones rigged with explosive devices descended over Russias Hmeimim air base while a further three targeted the Russian Naval CSS point in the nearby city of Tartus, according to the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

Russia said it shot down seven drones using anti-aircraft missiles while the other six were taken under control and landed by its military. Three of the drones survived the landing and the Russian defense ministry has posted images of them on its Facebook page.
Some investors report big financial moves, like refinancing their home, to buy a cryptocurrency.

A man looks at ATM machines for digital currency Bitcoin in Hong Kong. Anthony Wallace | AFP | Getty Images

Some investors are taking dangerous risks to get into cryptocurrencies. Roughly 18 percent of people who buy bitcoin use a credit card to do so, according to a new survey by loan marketplace LendEDU. Of those, 20 percent have not paid off their balance. The phrase "buy bitcoin with credit" has been trending on Google for weeks.

Joseph Borg, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association, a voluntary organization devoted to investor protection, said he often hears of people who've made financial sacrifices to own cryptocurrencies. Some are relatively benign: People who have transferred a portion of their money from stocks or mutual funds. But he also hears from people who have gone into credit card debt or taken out home equity loans on their house. That impulse is somewhat understandable in today's economic setting, he said. "We've inundated everyone with the idea that most Americans don't have enough in savings  that they don't have enough to retire," Borg said. "People want to make it up with anything they can. What else is being as hyped as cryptocurrency?"

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But the risky investment can leave people in even deeper arrears, said Joshua Fairfield, a bitcoin specialist at the Washington and Lee School of Law. "People are maxing out their credit cards because they think it's going to make them a lot of money," said Fairfield. "They've been right enough that people are now making ever more risky investments in cryptocurrencies." However, bitcoin should be treated like any other uncertain investment, Fairfield said. "I'd trust it less than Apple stock and probably more than some other members on the New York Stock Exchange," he said, laughing. People should never jeopardize an asset as safe as their house for volatile cryptocurrencies, Fairfield said. Instead, holding on to safer investments can leave room for some risks with other assets.

If next month everyone decides bitcoin is passe and everyone moves to ripple, bitcoin goes to zero. Now you have more credit card debt, and what are you going to do with it? Joseph Borg president, North American Securities Administrators Association

Another problem with going into debt for cryptocurrencies is that people will have to pay back their debt before they see sufficient returns, said Erika Safran, founder of Safran Wealth Advisors. That may require tapping other resources, potentially creating further financial trouble. "If you can stay on for long enough, I believe you will be rewarded," Safran said about cryptocurrencies. "But in the short-term, you may not realize those funds you need to pay your credit card." Plus, there's no promise of profit. At least some cryptocurrencies may soon be worth nothing  leaving people in a pickle, Borg said. "Bitcoin has no underlying value," he said. "If next month everyone decides bitcoin is passe and everyone moves to ripple, bitcoin goes to zero. Now you have more credit card debt, and what are you going to do with it?"

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Social media platforms and search engines like Facebook and Google have had an "appalling" influence on the media landscape, said former magazine editor Tina Brown.

The media mogul spoke on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Thursday and said she is in favor of an "industry-wide pressure" for the companies to "give back something" and "fund real journalism."

"One of the great big scams of digital platforms is that they're able to kind of pretend that they care about the human good, while at the same time taking all the profits and all the revenue from people who are actually doing the work," said Brown, who is also the former editor of publications like Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast and The New Yorker.

"They use all that great work on their platforms and don't give anything back," she said. "It's been a great scam. I'm glad they made out like bandits, but I think it's time they're viewed in the manner they should be."
Consumer hardware guru Tony Fadell is doubling down on his call for tech companies to provide better tools to manage digital addiction.

"Apple is at the core of this, and so is Google," Fadell said to CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Thursday. "They should be able to give us back a 'day in the life' of the user."

"You don't know that you're an addict until you cross the line," he added.

Fadell is a former executive of both Alphabet and Apple , and is credited as a co-creator of the Nest thermostat and the iPod. Fadell is also an alumnus of General Magic, a 1990s technology firm that launched several big tech executives to Silicon Valley stardom, including Android leader Andy Rubin.

Despite his leadership in consumer technology companies, Fadell has acknowledged that consumers and companies need to do more to address addiction to smartphones and social media. He's not alone: Investors Jana Partners and Roger McNamee and virtual reality engineer Jaron Lanier have expressed concern about addictive technology.

"It's a set of unintended consequences," Fadell said. "I just know that I think we need both a digital connection with each other as well as an analog connection with people..... This is actually really easy to build."

Tech companies may not be intentionally causing addiction, but Fadell said that at a platform level, companies should "do the right thing" for the users and provide tools to measure our digital health, not just physical health.

"We need to have the tools so that our families ...[can] maintain and monitor what's going on," Fadell said. "So, yes, I do think sometimes the phones should be put away."

While Fadell is outspoken on this topic, he said he still has an optimistic view of technology as a whole, noting he knows good people at Apple. Since leaving Nest, Fadell has been an advocate of the French tech scene, where he invests in start-ups through his firm, Future Shape.

"I see much more benefits than I see negatives," Fadell said. "Think about all the commerce  all the super powers  that individual users have now .... but there are bad actors."
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin applauded Walmart Thursday for and giving bonuses to some employees, among other benefits, after the passage of new tax legislation.

Discussing new tax withholding tables during a White House briefing, Mnuchin said: "We thought that [tax cuts] would be great for the economy and we are thrilled with the number of companies reacting accordingly. We have been talking with lots of companies for a long time, and we are thrilled with how people are responding."

"Different companies will do different things," Mnuchin said.

Some will invest capital back into their businesses, some will give money back to workers, and overall "lots of things are going on in the economy," he said. "We appreciate what Walmart is doing."

Capital One also revealed Thursday that it would be raising its minimum wage for U.S. employees to $15 an hour. Other companies including JetBlue and Waste Management have reacted to the new tax law, which slashes corporate tax rates to 21 percent, by promising to pay out bonuses. JetBlue said it will give bonuses of $1,000 to crew members, while Waste Management said it will pay out bonuses of $2,000 to its employees.

The question of hiking the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009, was also asked during Thursday's White House briefing. A push for $15 an hour by members of the Democratic Party so far hasn't been successful.

Mnuchin responded that he believes the "most important issue" today is for companies to raise their own wages over time. President Donald Trump has flirted with the idea of raising the federal minimum wage to at least $10, but it hasn't been a priority of his agenda.

Meanwhile, Mnuchin said he expects about 90 percent of workers to see their paychecks increase with the new tax law.

 CNBC's Chloe Aiello contributed to this story.
"They can pay for it indirectly through NAFTA," he told the newspaper in an interview. "We make a good deal on NAFTA, and, say, I'm going to take a small percentage of that money and it's going toward the wall. Guess what? Mexico's paying."

Mexico will pay for the wall  "indirectly," President Donald Trump claimed Thursday. Trump told The Wall Street Journal that the United States' southern neighbor could end up funding the proposed structure on its border with the U.S. if the North American Free Trade Agreement gets tweaked.

It is unclear what mechanism would go into NAFTA that would cause Mexico to indirectly pay for the structure, which Trump promised as a candidate. Last year, the administration floated a possible 20 percent border tax on goods coming from Mexico, before walking back the idea.

Trump has repeatedly said he could withdraw from the pact among the U.S., Mexico and Canada if he cannot secure terms that he deems more fair to the U.S. The president told the Journal that he wants a fair deal, or a "Trump deal," as talks about revisions to the pact continue among the three countries.

He added that he will leave his decision on a deal "a little bit flexible" as Mexico has a presidential election this year, which "makes it a little bit difficult for them."

Trump has called for funding for a border wall in immigration legislation that Congress hopes to agree on soon.

Read the full Journal story here.
President Donald Trump repeated an earlier call for an internet tax, in a thinly veiled shot at Amazon 's Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post.

"The internet  they're going to have to start paying sales tax because it's very unfair what's happening to our retailers all over the country that are put out of business," Trump said Wednesday.

Trump also reiterated concerns about Amazon's effect on the U.S. Postal Service as it struggles to keep up with online orders.

The comments mirror tweets from the president in December that named the e-commerce giant.

Dec tweet

"There's always been a fear for players like an Amazon or a Google that something like this could actually get through," Daniel Ives, head of technology research at GBH Insights, told CNBC. "We believe it's more noise than a real threat."
Bruce Heyman, who was U.S. ambassador to Canada under former President Barack Obama, warned the Trump administration about harming America's strong trade relationship with the world's 10th-largest economy north of the border.

Canada is increasingly convinced that President Donald Trump will pull out of NAFTA, two government sources told Reuters on Wednesday, sending the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso lower. Those currencies were more stable in Thursday trading. Mexico is the third country in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

Despite the report, nothing has changed since Trump has been threatening since the 2016 presidential campaign to exit the deal if the U.S. cannot re-negotiate better terms.

"I think we're playing a bit of Russian roulette. It's one thing to do it with your enemies. It's another thing to do it with your best friend," Heyman told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday.

Government officials are due to hold a sixth and penultimate round of negotiations in Montreal from Jan. 23 to 28 as time runs out to bridge major differences before a March deadline.

One of the arguments by the Trump administration for seeking new trade deals has been the desire to narrow trade deficits.

But according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. had a goods and services trade surplus with Canada of $12.5 billion in 2016. The trade gap with Mexico last year was a $55.6 billion deficit.

"I think it's a mistake in thinking of this in terms of deficit and surplus. It's one thing when it's an extreme when you're looking at China. But when you are looking at North America ... this is the largest trading pact that exists in the world, and I think it's broadly, incredibly successful," Heyman contended.

The deficit with Mexico is a drop in the bucket compared with the shortfall for China. The U.S. trade deficit with China was $309.6 billion in 2016.

The Trump administration is using NAFTA "as a scapegoat" because job loss in the current U.S. economy "is more a factor of automation and innovation and creativity, and not necessarily the old thought of moving plants from one country to the other based on labor," said Heyman, who like many officials in both Democratic and Republican administrations is a Goldman Sachs alum.

(Top Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn was the No. 2 executive at Goldman before joining the administration. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's resume also includes time at the firm.)

The philosophy of the Trump White House runs counter to Heyman's argument because the president has made bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. a top priority.

On Wednesday, Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda unveiled plans for a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Huntsville, Alabama.

President Donald Trump was quick with his praise on Twitter.

Cutting taxes and simplifying regulations makes America the place to invest! Great news as Toyota and Mazda announce they are bringing 4,000 JOBS and investing $1.6 BILLION in Alabama, helping to further grow our economy!

NAFTA was truly a bipartisan effort at the time it went into effect 24 years ago. The free trade agreement was negotiated in the Republican presidential administration of George H.W. Bush. It was later implemented by Democratic President Bill Clinton, who had supported the deal before winning the White House.

 Reuters contributed to this report.
Ben Stansall | AFP | Getty Images

Brexit could result in the loss of nearly half a million jobs and almost 50 billion ($67 billion) in investment by 2030, according to an independent economic report published Thursday. The analysis  commissioned by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan  models five possible scenarios for Britain's looming departure from the European Union. The scenarios range from a relatively seamless exit to leaving on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms without a transition deal, described by the study as a "hard Brexit." The study, carried out by Cambridge Econometrics, said economic output across Britain could be around 3 percent lower by 2030 than if the U.K. were to remain within the single market and customs union  which allows the free movement of goods, people, capital and services between the member states. Meanwhile, London's economic output would likely fall by 2 percent, the report said.

Khan said Britain could be heading for a "lost decade" of lower growth and lower employment. "Ministers are fast running out of time to turn the negotiations around," he added.

Sadiq Khan, mayor of London Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Britain and the EU will soon begin efforts to try to define their future trading relationship after officials from both sides settled the broad terms of their divorce settlement late last year. Nonetheless, an impasse regarding Britain's access to the single market for London's substantial financial services industry is threatening to be one of the key Brexit battlegrounds before the U.K. is due to leave the bloc in March 2019.

'Severe economic damage'
An Iranian man reads a newspaper on October 14, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump is on the front page following news that he has decertified a nuclear deal between the two countries and others. STR | AFP | Getty Images

President Donald Trump is expected to announce this week whether the U.S. will remain committed to the Iran nuclear pact, the abandonment of which could trigger a diplomatic crisis and jolt oil markets. Sources close to the administration cited by the Associated Press predict that Trump will leave the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in place for the time being and waive nuclear sanctions on the Islamic republic as he did on October 13, despite his well-known opposition to the agreement. During his campaign, Trump promised to dump it, calling the it "the worst deal ever." The JCPOA, enacted in 2015 by Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany, allowed the lifting of international sanctions on Iran in exchange for compliance with restrictions on its nuclear program. Between January 12 and 17, sanctions on foreign oil purchases, insurance, shipping, banking, and oil and gas investment are due for waiver.

Oil markets at risk

Any U.S. disruption to the deal could shake oil markets, according to a report by Citigroup's global commodities team published Tuesday. A snap-back on sanctions would cause the "dislocation of at least 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian crude oil exports, especially those going to Korea and Japan as well as to some European countries."

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This would trigger an initial $5 per barrel rise in crude oil prices, Citi wrote, "as customers losing oil under U.S. pressure scramble for replacements at a time when OPEC and other producers have put a lid on their output." In October, Trump left the deal's fate to Congress after refusing to certify Iran's compliance, despite the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reporting in November that the country was "operating within the essential limits on its nuclear activities" imposed by the JCPOA. The U.S. president is required to recertify Iran's compliance to its terms once every 90 days. This time around, Trump is likely to concede that Iran is complying with the deal but that it's not in the U.S.'s national security interest, said Richard Nephew, a former coordinator for sanctions policy at the U.S. State Department and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. Congress then has a following 60 days to either re-impose sanctions on Iran or do nothing.

Non-nuclear sanctions

"The only real outstanding question is what Donald Trump thinks and will choose to do. Contacts within his administration ... have reported that the decision is effectively a 'coin flip' now," Nephew wrote in a commentary for Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy on Tuesday. Voices in both Congress and the national security establishment have been urging the president to safeguard the deal, according to several reports, although new non-nuclear sanctions appear likely.

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"Any deal that comes out of Congress is likely to include tougher sanctions or other punitive measures against Iran given bipartisan support for such measures," Ryan Turner, lead risk analyst at Protection Group International, told CNBC on Wednesday. However, he noted, the U.S. is only one of six international signatories to the deal. "Lawmakers can amend the domestic legislation but cannot change the deal itself without the backing of other parties, which is unlikely to materialize." New sanctions would likely be aimed both at Iran's missile program and its activities in the region, despite opposition from other deal signatories, the Citi report said. Iran's (IRGC) and Shia militant group Hezbollah, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization, are the predominant targets.

The not-so-subtle threat is one that could materialize in a worst case scenario, which could see Iran use Trump's decision as justification to pull out of the agreement and restart its nuclear program. Ryan Turner lead risk analyst at Protection Group International

"Although too small to directly impact the economy, [the sanctions] will serve to further damage much needed investor sentiment towards Iran," Pat Thaker, regional director for the Middle East and Africa at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC Thursday. Iran remains mired in deficit, and while the country's economy grew more than 7 percent in the year following the JCPOA's enactment, foreign investment flows are far from reaching government targets. Thaker expects the state to bunker down and financial sector reform "to go into reverse" in the event of an abrogation of the deal. Still, she said, "I expect the nuclear deal to largely remain intact, with the U.S. instead focusing on increasing non-nuclear sanctions."

Potential for backfire

International bodies are urging the president to tread carefully, as moves to punish Iran could backfire. Iran's Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday that "a reimposition of sanctions by the United States would be a violation of Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers," and that Iran could greatly increase its enrichment of uranium, according to Reuters.

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"The not-so-subtle threat is one that could materialize in a worst case scenario, which could see Iran use Trump's decision as justification to pull out of the agreement and restart its nuclear program," Turner said. The foreign ministers of Germany, France and the U.K. on Thursday issued statements urging the U.S. to remain faithful to the JCPOA, insisting that the agreement was essential to international security. Federica Mogherini, the EU's top diplomat, said that it "made the world safer and prevented a potential nuclear arms race in the region." Still, opponents of the deal argue that a continued suspension of sanctions would only reward a regime that has ramped up its missile testing in recent months and continues to violate human rights. Thousands of Iranians have been arrested at the hands of security forces following more than a week of all over the country, and at least 21 have died. The protests introduce an unexpected dynamic to the Trump administration's deliberations, providing a potential excuse to re-impose sanctions.

The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, a right-wing political action committee, has long pushed for termination of the deal, issuing a statement Thursday saying: "Iran has failed to live up to its obligations under the deal and continues to pursue the development of ballistic missile technology in defiance of UN resolutions."

The 'spirit of the deal'
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is right about cryptocurrencies, and the price of bitcoin will be much lower in the near future, a veteran investor told CNBC on Thursday.

Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway , warned on Wednesday the recent craze over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies won't end well. But Buffett added he would not take a short position on bitcoin futures.

"I wouldn't bet against Warren," said John Rogers Jr., chairman and CEO at Ariel Investments. "At the same time, I continue to see everywhere I go, everyone's talking about [cryptocurrencies]. College students, business school students."

"When everyone's talking about it, it makes me feel like we're probably near the top of a bubble," Rogers said in an interview on "Squawk Box." "I agree with Warren."

Rogers, a longtime Buffett watcher and Berkshire shareholder, said investors could see the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies "much, much lower" in about five years.

Buffett's bitcoin comments to CNBC on Wednesday came a day after J.P. Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon backpedaled his earlier criticisms of cryptocurrencies. In September, Dimon called bitcoin a fraud.

The price of bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies fell sharply Thursday after South Korea's justice minister announced that a bill is being prepared to ban all cryptocurrency trading in the country, citing concerns regarding virtual currencies.

But those declines pale in comparison to bitcoin's more than 1,500 percent surge in the past 12 months.
President Donald Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as "s---hole countries" in a meeting with lawmakers, a Democratic aide briefed on the matter told NBC News.

The Washington Post first reported the news, citing two people briefed on the meeting. The newspaper said that lawmakers had convened with the president in the Oval Office on Thursday to discuss a bipartisan immigration deal.

When lawmakers brought up protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries, Trump asked, "Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here?"

The president then said that the U.S. should let in more people from countries like Norway. Trump met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Wednesday.

On Monday, the Trump administration said that they would be ending the Temporary Protected Status designation for Salvadorans. It made a similar announcement for Haiti in November.

TPS is a humanitarian program which allows citizens from other countries to temporarily remain in the U.S. This special designation is given to people from countries that are undergoing hardships like armed conflict or recovery from natural disasters.

When reached for comment, the White House said in a statement that the president "will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration  two programs that hurt our economy and allow terrorists into our country."

The White House's statement did not deny that the president made those remarks.

"Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people. The President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration  two programs that hurt our economy and allow terrorists into our country. Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation. He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway."

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Dr. Wei Tzuoh Chen is putting his 9,000-square-foot beachfront Malibu home on the market for $45 million.

It's a stunning masterpiece, designed by architect Ed Niles, unlike any other house on the ultra-luxurious strip of California beach. Angles jut out in every direction, most of the walls are windows, and a catwalk crosses the two-story entry foyer connecting the upstairs bedrooms.

Perhaps most unusal, Chen is willing to accept bitcoin as part of the payment from a buyer.

The kidney specialist, who has lived in the United States since the 1970s, says he is fascinated with cryptocurrencies and considers them to be just as legitimate as a dollar, pound or yen.

"I've been interested since it started, and I'm always watching what's going on," said Chen. "It's going to be the future. It just depends which one is going to be stabilized in the current market.

Do his neighbors think he's crazy?
If you want to be successful, you need one crucial trait, according to self-made billionaire Tilman Fertitta: humility.

In this week's episode of CNBC's "Billion Dollar Buyer," Fertitta, who Forbes estimates is worth $3.7 billion and who is CEO of restaurant and hospitality corporation Landry's, meets with the founder of Social Sparkling Wine, a company that sells carbonated wine.

Social markets the product as being the "cleanest alcohol available" because it's organic, gluten-free and only 88 calories a can.

CEO Leah Caplanis, who beat thyroid cancer at age 26, founded the company in 2013 and was inspired to create the drink after she missed socializing with others in her 20s because of her health.

"After going through what I went through with my cancer journey," she says, "I really feel this is my missions to bring a cleaner option so that women can live healthy lifestyles."

But a major issue emerges during the episode: When Fertitta requests a large order of the product for one of his restaurants, Golden Nugget, the delivery, bungled by the distributor, arrives late. And, to the billionaire's alarm, at first the CEO fails to take responsibility.

Angrily, James Kramer, VP of beverage operations for Landry's, calls Social to find out why the order hadn't arrived as expected. "We cannot be in this situation," he tells Caplanis. "This is one restaurant and it's already causing me all kinds of grief."
Ben Tilley, a former administrator for Columbia Public Schools, is getting out of retirement and looking to fill one of the two open seats on the Board of Education.
As we rappel down the Patch Tuesday rabbit hole this month, Microsoft just announced its going to start pushing its January Windows security patches onto AMD processors again. But it neglects to mention which ones. Per a late-night change to KB 4073707:

Microsoft has resumed updating the majority of AMD devices with the Windows operating system security update to help protect against the chipset vulnerabilities known as Spectre and Meltdown. A small subset of older AMD processors remain blocked to avoid users getting into an unbootable state after installation of recent Windows operating system security updates. Microsoft is working with AMD to resolve this issue and should resume Windows OS security updates to this subset of AMD processors via Windows Update and WSUS by next week. For AMD device-specific information please refer to AMDs Security Advisory.

[ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ]

Of course, AMDs Security Advisory has very little information  and no mention at all about which AMD processors were originally removed from the list and which are now apparently back on the patch list.

Conspicuously, this paragraph has been pulled from KB 4073707:

Microsoft has resumed updating the majority of AMD devices with the Windows operating system security update to help protect against the chipset vulnerabilities known as Spectre and Meltdown.

Which makes me wonder if Microsoft is still pointing the finger at AMD, or if the two have somehow come to a resolution of their spitting contest.

Which processors are now getting the Meltdown/Spectre treatment, and which small subset of older AMD processors remain blocked? Who knows.

The only information Ive found about specific models comes from Dr. Adrian Wong on the TechArp site, who lists Athlon, Opteron, Sempron, Turion, A10 and Ryzen processors. He doesnt mention which, if any, of those are now receiving patches.

Thx, @MrBrian.

Questions? Get your Athlon over to the AskWoody Lounge.
Ben Houchen is the Mayor of the Tees Valley.

Over the Christmas period, the sight of your postie walking up the driveway fills many with joy. Armed with cards from relatives and last-minute purchases from Amazon, you can sometimes forget this isnt always the case throughout most of the year. As we enter 2018, it is worth remembering that each day this particular visitor can fill people with stress and anxiety.

In a few weeks time, that dreaded brown envelope containing a council tax bill will land on the doormats of millions across the country. In the Tees Valley, which I represent, our local Labour authorities charge some of the highest rates in the UK. While the average salary here is 18,000 after tax, families in Band D properties in Middlesbrough will be asked to cough up as much as 1,500 a year to town hall chiefs. I neednt remind readers that this figure is considerably lower in well-run, Conservative administrations.

As I worked through the Combined Authoritys budget for the year ahead, I was presented with the option to add a mayoral precept to household bills across the area. I was informed that devolution legislation allows five of the six metro mayors to levy a tax on local people to help fund our functions. Only my good friend Tim Bowles, the West of England Mayor, is without this power  presumably because right-minded Conservatives in the West Country prevented such a clause from being included in their regions devolution deal. Im pleased they had the foresight to do this.

Without a seconds thought, I made it clear to officials there and then: I didnt stand for election to increase taxes  thats not why Im here. Our local Labour councils already charge an arm and a leg, and I will never add to that burden for as long as Im fortunate to represent the area I grew up in and love.

Metro Mayors are a new concept in English local government. With Tees Valley home to ceremonial mayors, parish mayors, and a directly-elected borough mayor, very few genuinely understand or appreciate what Metro Mayors do, and how we differ from other local political leaders. Indeed I spend half of my time trying to communicate what powers I do have, and those I dont. For me, I didnt want peoples first interaction with my office to be a line on a bill demanding cash.

At the election last May, turnout was exceptionally low here. During the campaign, many viewed the role as superfluous and questioned why we needed a Metro Mayor at all. It is clear now as it was back then: people havent fully bought into this brand of devolution. So frankly, to ask local people to fork out even more would not just go against Conservative philosophy, it could threaten the existence of the Metro Mayor model itself.

Theres precedent in my part of the world for the public to turn against directly-elected mayors, as they did in Hartlepool in 2012. I owe it to my constituents, and the governments devolution agenda, to demonstrate some of the fantastic benefits that come with having a visible, outward-facing, regional leader with a war chest behind them to invest in priorities we determine locally.

As they say, sometimes the best powers are the ones you dont use.
Garvan Walshe is a former National and International Security Policy Adviser to the British Conservative Party. He runs Brexit Analytics.

Imagine a set of street protests against the Government springing up, not in the usual left-leaning centres of London and Manchester, but in Dudley and Swaffham, Peterborough and St Ives, Boston and Leamington Spa. Consider the people participating in them had been those the Government considered their core supporters. Now imagine this happening not in a democracy but in a repressive state that expends huge resources keeping tabs on its population and which has been caught totally off guard by a rising from the same social strata that provide the backbone of its police and security services.

Irans regime was caught completely off guard. And its running out of time.

When the Shah was toppled in 1979, it was far from clear the new rulers would be clerics. They emerged on top from a struggle with constitutional democrats and communists, and consolidated their grip thanks to Ayatollah Khomeinis charisma, and Saddam Husseins attack on Iran in August 1980. The eight years of war strengthened Khomeini and pro-theocracy institutions like the Revolutionary Guards but did not eliminate Irans republican institutions.

Since Khomeinis death in 1989, Iranian domestic politics has been dominated by an unequal struggle between the democratic and religious parts of the government.

Despite tilting the field heavily in its favour (insufficiently reliable candidates are disqualified in large numbers; the election in 2009 was rigged, and a peaceful uprising against the faked result violently suppressed with the murder and torture of political opponents) it is not a battle the religious leadership has been able to win decisively.

Added to these dictatorial measures, the principlists  as the religious faction supportive of Ali Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader, is known  have fought a Breitbart-style culture war against reformists that achieved its greatest success with the victory in 2005 of the internationally embarrassing populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the establishment figure mired in corruption Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (Rafsanjani died recently in murky circumstances. A new investigation into his death has just been opened).

The culture war exploited long-standing divisions between the urban intellectual and business elite, and ordinary, for want of a better term, hard-working families. This proved effective in rallying support for Ahmadinejad in 2005, and was still strong enough to blunt the appeal of the 2009 Green Revolution. Allegations of ballot-rigging, evidence of deaths in custody, and sheer police brutality were not enough to counter a still widespread belief that the regime, if not any more on the side of ordinary people, did not, unlike the upper-middle classes, hold them in contempt.

With Irans republican institutions firmly in the hands of Ahmadinejad, the regime was able to devote resources to its regional meddling and nuclear ambitions unhindered by a presidency more interested in economic growth and attracting foreign investment. Crucially, this left Tehran free to back Bashar al-Assads regime in the early stages of Syrias civil war. Iranian troops, money, and military advice from the Revolutionary Guards (several of whose senior generals have been killed) poured into Syria.

Military intervention, however, does not come cheap. To help meet the funding gap, Ahmadinejads successor as president, the reformist Hassan Rouhani, persuaded the Supreme Leader to accept the nuclear agreement with the UN Security Council because of its economic advantages. But, perhaps because of President Trumps harder line on Iran, these havent been as large as expected.

In the most recent budget, subsidies, including vitally important fuel subsidies, were cut, and spending on public services were kept on a tight leash. The protests emerged from the blame game. While the hardliners tried to blame Rouhani (its even suggested the protests were their initiative, but spun out of control) it appears that he leaked documents blaming the spending squeeze on vast funds allocated to foreign adventures and religious foundations. Hence the protest chant:

No to Gaza, no to Syria. I die for Iran

Though, to the extent that reliable opinion polling is possible, Iranians are not unsympathetic to the regimes foreign policy ambitions, theyre much less keen on paying for them.

The culture war strategy, which served to insulate the regimes foreign policy from economic criticism, is coming unstuck. Whereas theyd once posed as the peoples protectors, and justified their repression to that end, theyve now been exposed as their robbers, their security forces beating the very people on whose side they were supposed to be on.

The reformists themselves were taken aback by the protests, which werent organised by the right people. People close to reformist circles that Ive spoken to tended to dismiss them as insignificant. Rouhani himself, however, appears to understand that this is a mistake. They give him the opportunity to escape attacks for the spending squeeze and position himself as a defender of the peoples rights. Theres nothing like the regimes suppression of protests to create a new constituency in favour of civil liberty.

This matters because the Supreme Leader is 78 and seriously ill. The Assembly of Experts (charged with electing his replacement, and the body that perhaps accounts for Michael Goves dislike of Iran) has a reformist majority, and is considering replacing the single leader with a council, or even leaving the post vacant.

The protests are proof that the regimes rule by cultural division can no longer be sustained. The demand for change is unmistakable. The opportunity for change will soon be at hand. Will the regime choose a transition to democracy, or cling to power as a naked dictatorship?
Foster calls for direct rule after meeting with Bradley

Arlene Foster, the former First Minister of Northern Ireland, has called on the Northern Irish Secretary to implement direct rule if talks on reviving devolution continue to stall, according to the News Letter.

The Democratic Unionist leader, whose ten-strong cohort of MPs are a vital part of the Governments razor-edge de facto majority in the House of Commons, insisted that whilst her party wanted Stormont back it was wrong for Ulster to go on indefinitely without a democratically accountable government.

Foster was speaking after a face-to-face meeting with Karen Bradley, the next of Theresa Mays former Home Office colleagues to be deployed to the Northern Irish Office following James Brokenshires unexpected resignation on health grounds. Michelle ONeill, Sinn Feins Northern Irish leader, had been due a meeting but arranged a telephone call instead.

Bradley has been dropped into a difficult brief, but will have to find her feet quickly if shes to shake off the image of her predecessor, whose habit of repeatedly setting meaningless deadlines which passed without consequence had become a running joke.

Mundell criticised by SNP over Clause 11

The Scottish Secretary has been criticised by the SNP for missing a deadline to amend Clause 11 of the Withdrawal Bill, which he had earlier promised to do.

According to The Scotsman, the Government claimed that it ran out of time to make the promised changes. However David Lidington, who is now tasked with negotiating with the Scottish Government over Brexit, is reportedly hopeful of a breakthrough whilst the bill is in the Lords.

The row over Clause 11 is a bid by the devolved legislatures to bull-rush the immediate devolution of a huge range of powers currently pooled by the British Government in Brussels  although predictably it is being spun as its very inverse, a power grab against devolution.

Unfortunately the Scottish Conservatives appear to have struck the same Faustian pact with electoral nationalism that Scottish Labour did before them, and are rowing in behind the devocrat bid to wreck the bill at both Westminster and Holyrood, despite the long-term danger this poses to the Union.

Is the Government truly preparing to stand firm on the issue though? Probably not. It would be a huge break with normal practice for ministers to mount a determined and far-sighted defence of the constitution against the latest round of devolutionary demands, even without the exigencies of Brexit. Expect Mundell to honour his pledge of retreat at some point before 2019.

Row breaks out in Welsh Labour over leadership rules

In what Wales Online are calling a major row, activists in Labour have launched a campaign to overturn the rules for electing the Welsh leader.

They are angry that the partys Welsh Executive Committee (WEC) has elected to retain the tripartite electoral college formerly used by the UK party, rather than shifting to a one-member one-vote (OMOV) model. They also believe that such a decision ought to have been made at the party conference.

Carwyn Jones, the embattled First Minister, is likely to step down before the next Assembly elections in 2021  so this battle over the rules may well decide who eventually succeeds him to become one of the most senior elected Labour politicians in Britain.

Under the electoral college grassroots members only cast one third of the weighted vote for the leadership, with the other two thirds being divided equally between elected representatives and members of affiliated trades unions and socialist societies.

Traditionally the college has been seen as a bulwark against attempted takeovers by the left, although in 2010 it did hand the national leadership to Ed Miliband.

Sinn Fein MP should have been sacked over massacre joke, says ex-watchdog

Sir Alistair Graham, a former Parliamentary Standards Chair, has said that Sinn Fein ought to have sacked one of their MPs for making light of one of the Troubles most infamous acts of terrorism, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

Barry McElduff, who was returned to represent West Tyrone (although in line with Sinn Fein policy he doesnt take his seat) was filmed balancing a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head in the supermarket on the 42nd anniversary of the Kingsmill Massacre.

Despite their abstentionism, the current Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has confirmed that Sinn Fein MPs are subject to the code of conduct and that a formal complaint has been received, although it is not currently investigating it due to an ongoing police probe.

Arlene Foster has demanded that the republican party stop its eulogising of terrorists  although one of her MLAs has triggered a row on Twitter after tweeting a graphic political sketch about the McElduff row. For their Sinn Fein the party has suspended their MP for three months, although they will continue to pay him, according to the Irish News.

UKIP exclude new AM from Welsh Assembly group

The one-time Peoples Army has not prospered since Neil Hamilton seized the leadership of its newly-minted Assembly group after the 2016 Welsh elections, and now they have been wracked by a fresh round of infighting.

According to Wales Online Mandy Jones, the new list AM who is replacing former leader Nathan Gill in the chamber, has been barred from sitting with the UKIP Assembly group.

The reason is that she has chosen not to immediately dismiss Gills staff, some of whom are members of, or have campaigned for, other political parties. Gill had sat as an Independent since Hamiltons putsch.

Whilst it is understandable in principle that the party should disapprove of AMs having staff with potentially conflicting loyalties, it does seem a bizarre thing to split the group over at a time when UKIP is not polling well and should be trying to maximise its impact in Cardiff Bay.
CORNWALL, Ontario  Ferndinand Flaro, 52, of Lunenburg was arrested on Jan. 10, 2018 and charged with public mischief and fraud over $5, 000.

It is alleged on Jan. 9, 2018 the man reported his truck stolen to police and an investigation ensued. During the investigation it was determined that the truck had not been stolen as reported. On January 10th, 2018 the man was taken into custody, charged accordingly and released to appear in court on Feb. 1, 2018.

WARRANT

CORNWALL, Ontario  Kevin Miller, 31, of Cornwall was arrested on January 10th, 2018 on the strength of a warrant. It is alleged on Oct. 28 and 29, 2017 the man removed merchandise from a Marlborough Street store making no attempt to pay for the items as he left the store. Police were contacted and a warrant was obtained for his arrest. On Jan. 10, 2018 the man was located by police, taken into custody on the strength of the warrant and held for a bail hearing.

BREACH

CORNWALL, Ontario  A 20-year-old Cornwall man was arrested on Jan. 11, 2018 and charged with breach of probation for communicating with a certain person, being within 100 meters of that person and for failing to keep the peace. It is alleged on Jan. 11, 2018 the man was located at his girlfriends residence by police. He was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing. His name was not released as the conditions stem from domestic incidents and would identify the victim in the matter.

There were 46 calls for service in the City of Cornwall in the last 24 hours (8 a.m. the previous day to 8 a.m. the day of the release). To see whats happening in your neighbourhood visit our Crime Plot Map @ http://www.cornwallpolice.ca/ . CCPS reserves the right not to post all calls for service in order to protect the identity of the victims.
ONTARIO, Canada  Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group held their second annual Common Kindness Day across Ontario on Wednesday, Jan. 10.

As a part of the Common Kindness Day, Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group pre-paid for 1,000 coffees or teas in 10 coffee shops across Ontario. Each shop had 100 coffees to give away, which could turn into more as customers were encouraged to pay-it-forward by buying the coffee for the person behind them, and keeping the ball of kindness rolling.

Everyone who receives a free beverage is encouraged to find a way to pay that small kindness forward  treat another stranger to their cup of coffee, or find some other way to make someones day a little brighter, Commonwell stated in a media release. Whatever people choose to do, we only hope that they do it with kindness.

Tim Shauf, President and CEO of The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group, explained that Commonwell hoped to promote more community bonds and neighbourly spirit through this program.

We created Common Kindness Day because we firmly believe in the kindness of strangers and the importance of creating strong community bonds, said Shauf. Last year, the kindness of residents in all of these Ontario towns blew us away and kept the Common Kindness Day spirit of paying it forward going long after our event.

The Quirky Carrot in Alexandria was the coffee shop in the United Counties of SD&G that participated in the event this year.
Whatever the role, good communication regarding the duties and expectations of a security professional is key to that persons success. That communication starts with a solid, thorough job description. It will be an important benchmark when hiring for the role, and a touch point for performance once the candidate is on board. The job description is also a baseline that helps security team managers keep pace as many roles evolve.

A good job description will spell out the roles duties and priorities. It also outlines where the role falls in the reporting structure. It should also provide the roles requirements, which could include certifications, skills, experience, and education.

Heller Search Associates This ebook provides a template for writing an effective job description for top security executives. Download your copy now.

As companies face mounting cyber threats, the status of the chief information security officer (CISO) role is rising. Todays CISO needs to stay current with the threat landscape and the technologies used to defend corporate assets. The CISO must also communicate with stakeholders and corporate boards, putting those threats into a business context. Organizations want their CISOs to sell security to the organization, raising security awareness among employees and getting them to carry out best practices.

Ask any recruiter or corporate executive and they will tell you its hard to find an effective CISO who is a good match for the organization. Having a strong, clearly written CISO job description is the essential first step to landing the best person for the role.

[The CISO] is such critical role for companies today, says Kelly Doyle, managing director at Heller Search Associates, a firm that specializes in recruiting CISOs, CIOs, and other IT leaders. Being prepared with the right position description that targets all the key attributes is really important. It ensures that the company is thinking about the right things to protect the company.

It pays to maintain a good CISO job description even if you have someone in the job. If you unexpectedly need to hire a new information security leadersomeone leaves or you decide to upgradethen you have a strong up-to-date job description ready. You dont want to delay your ability to start recruiting quickly, says Doyle.

The CISO job description as a recruiting tool

Prospects will use the job description to determine whether your need matches their own. Its an important first impression of the role, your expectations, and the organization. A poorly written job description will limit your candidate pool.

If you dont have a strong job description, you may miss out on hiring the right CISO or leader for your organization, says Doyle. A big consequence would be missing out on attracting a passive seeker. The goal is to get the candidate excited about the role and the companys commitment to security. A well-written job description shows potential candidates that youve put a lot of thought around the importance of this role to the organization, says Doyle.

Candidates will want to see clearly defined responsibilities for the role and indicators that the organization will support the CISO in carrying out those responsibilities. Board-level interaction is one such indicator, as is a description of how the CISO works with other key stakeholders. Focus and clarity are important, too, as is background on the organization.

If a job description is poorly written, candidates will sometimes self-select out, says Doyle. If the role doesnt clearly articulate the duties or the strategic nature of the role and doesnt really focus on what makes for a good CISO, you could miss out on candidates.

Constructing a CISO job description

The structure of a good CISO job description is simple. The following is summarized from Heller Searchs Ultimate CISO Job Description, a complimentary template you can download at the end of this article. These are the basic elements:

Position title and summary

State the full, exact title. Although referred to as a CISO in this article, this template applies to any top-level security role in your organization, including chief security officer (CSO), and either vice president, director or head of information security.

The section briefly explains the type of security leader you want in the role. It might refer to experience level, particular areas of expertise, or broad expectations. Dont bog down in details here; they will be described in other sections.

About the company and hiring manager

Include a brief overview of your company with a link to your website. Your marketing communications group likely has boilerplate copy you can use here.

Similarly, provide background on the hiring managerthe person to whom the CISO will report. Include job title and a brief bio.

Key responsibilities

List the areas for which you will hold the CISO accountable here. The list will vary widely from company to company, but typical areas include developing a security strategy, risk assessment, staff development, regulatory compliance, security technology assessment and deployment, and establishing metrics for security effectiveness.

CISOs working in industries such as health care, manufacturing, or financial services will have responsibilities specific to those verticals. Every description will be slightly different. If youre hiring for a health care company, theres HIPAA compliance. Theres PCI compliance in retail, says Doyle.

Manufacturing, in particular, will place unique responsibilities on CISOs as they shift to digital. Some companies are, for example, collecting sensitive information with sensors, says Doyle. To make sure those products are secure, [the CISO] needs to be involved at the inception. You dont want to create or modify a product without taking the right precautions to secure critical data.

CISO qualifications

Here, your organization will spell out what it expects a CISO to possess in terms of experience, technical and management skills, education, and certifications. Designations such as CISSP show that a candidate is committed to and invested in security, and to being an expert in the domain, says Doyle. Some companies may pass on candidates who dont have the certifications to show that they are keeping up with changes in security and technology.

You should also outline leadership and influence abilities here as well. A key goal on the searches we have recently completed was finding candidates with the ability to articulate security in business terms for stakeholders, says Doyle. Its the ability to take technical security terms and turn them into business and board level communications. Thats a key success factorcommunication at all levels.

Another key qualification is the proven ability to implement security strategy and best practices across a company. [You want] someone who is able to evangelize your cybersecurity policies across the business and drive adoption, says Doyle. You can implement changes to security, but if there is no adoption, the risk remains.

Location and travel requirements

This might seem simple, but for a large organization with many divisions and locations, its not. Define your expectations for how much time you expect the CISO to spend in each location each year. For some industries, such as those that provide technical services with a security expectation, the CISO might interface with customers as well. Include travel time to customer sites here, too.

Keep the job description fresh

Again, change is a constant for the CISO with new types of threats emerging constantly, along with new technology and methods for addressing them. Turnover in the role is high, too, as organizations compete heavily for the best talent. This makes it imperative to keep your CISO job description current so that everyone understands the expectations and purpose of the role, and the organization is prepared if it unexpectedly has to launch a new CISO search.

Sometimes, certain events can trigger a review of the CISO job description, too. If there is a breach that is widely publicized in the news, other organizations tend to become more focused and serious about their own security posture, says Doyle.

If an incumbent security leader leaves, a company might consider upgrading the position or looking for a different type of security leader. That might trigger a revision of the job description as well. The last two CISO roles that Heller Search filled were upgrades to the position. These clients seized on the opportunity to bring in a security leader with board-level focus and increase security awareness within the company, says Doyle.

Who writes the CISO job description?

The hiring manager, typically the CIO, is usually the person responsible for writing the CISO job description, according to Doyle. Its important [for the hiring manager] to get input from other key stakeholders who work closely with the individual in this role. Its good to have a few sets of eyes on this--HR, legal, audit. She adds that executive search teams can be a big help if you partner with one.
Its every security professionals nightmare, come to life: A security breach that starts with a phishing email. After all, theres no firewall in the world that can prevent an end user from clicking on the latest ploy; losing their cell phone, complete with corporate email addresses; or sending proprietary data using the public Internet.

How, then, can security professionals protect their enterprise, knowing full well that end users pose a potential (if accidental) risk? We reached out to industry influencers and security experts to find out. The answer starts with the end users themselves, and incorporates education, involvement, and awarenessfrom the top down.

Dont rely on technology alone

People are central to any security policy, and companies cant rely on technology alone.

There is no AI better with pattern recognition than trained human beings. Sure, computers perform these repetitive pattern-matching tasks faster than humans, but machines cannot identify anomalies or predict security flaws as reliably as humans, notes Scott Schober (@ScottBVS), Cybersecurity expert, President/CEO of BVS, and author of Hacked Again.

After all, people are behind as many attacks as they are behind the vulnerabilities that make these attacks possible, he says. That is why it is important for people to always be involved with every stage of IT security, no matter how much AI power is thrown at a task. Humans need machines to accelerate their work as much as machines need humans to double-check their overall security effectiveness.

Jeff Cutler (@JeffCutler), technology journalist, agrees that companies cannot rely on technology alone. A people-centered approach is still...before AI becomes hundreds of times better...the best way to determine and ensure true security, he notes. As much as we program automated defenses, they're still susceptible to an organized, well thought-out attack. That's why breaches often happen. Companies are continually letting down their human line of defense and relying on their 'intelligent' technology. If an organization is serious about maintaining a barrier to their network and data, humans still need to be involved.

Improper password hygiene, use of unsecured devices, and mistakenly clicking on phishing emails are just three examples of how busy, overworked and under-informed people commit the exact types of errors that bad actors want them to, says Steve Prentice (@StevenPrentice), Senior Content Producer.

Layer in Training and Awareness

A people-centered approach to IT security starts by training people on critical thinking, time management, and ongoing awareness of how cyber threats seek vulnerable points of entry, he continues. Management must focus more on communicating with IT on how to continually drive home a message of street-smarting employees. Only then can the network perimeter and its access points be made safer.

Jessica Marie (@thoughtcosm), Principal of Product Marketing at WhiteHat Security, would agree. When we take a people-centered approach to IT security, we begin to educate and empower employees to understand the risks and make better decisions, she says. This means that executives and senior managers must lead by example. It is often said that people are the weakest link when it comes to enterprise security. Its not a technical problem, its a people problem, and a mindset problem.

Simply put, ongoing awareness training is mandatory. It is a well-known axiom in the security industry that corporate networks are like candy bars which are hard on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Essentially this means people are often the path of least resistance with regards to data breaches whether because of human error, malicious intent or social engineering, says Robert Siciliano (@RobertSiciliano), Identity Theft Expert and CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com. An enterprise information security architecture that incorporates ongoing security awareness training is an essential component to the dissolving network perimeter.

Education is foundational  but so is changing an organizations culture, says Ed Featherston (@efeatherston), VP Principal Architect Cloud Tech. Partners. One of the biggest challenges and weakest links  we face are the people, he says. This comes from 2 perspectives. First is a culture. There is a tendency to be reactive when dealing with security issues. Instead of a security-first approach which has both proactive and reactive components and processes, many organizations adopt a it wont happen here attitude.

The second challenge, he notes, is individuals quite honestly still clicking on phishing emails. Almost every major breach in last year started there. Both issues are people centric.

Teams, trust, and consequences

A team approach is at the center of any people-oriented approach, as is trust. But so, too, are consequences, say others.

Ultimately, security is a team effort. While unorthodox, using a people-centered approach to IT security is about expanding the team, says Will Kelly (@willkelly), technical writer. When you stand up the right team, the wall between business and IT comes down and they can become collaborators if not even partners. Such an epic change in culture makes it easier to reinforce appropriate security behaviors amongst the business users.

Another outcome is data governance policies become a true collaboration, not a decree from a nameless, faceless IT drone, he continues. Such an environment becomes less about IT enforcing arbitrary security policies to a more balanced IT security strategy because of business and IT engagement enables trust, feedback, and iteration to support security over your network perimeter and business critical data.

Kevin Jackson (@Kevin_Jackson), Director Cloud Solutions & Technical Fellow at Engility Corporation, believes consequences are important. A human-centric approach to IT security requires an organizational culture of trust and enforceable IT governance. The former is difficult to establish and the latter is hardly ever true, he notes. Such a rare environment can only be realized if the penalty for organizational data loss is severe, immediate and independent status or rank.

Foundational security measures

No matter the approach, and the involvement of users, every security professional should use multiple layers to protect the enterprise, starting with the least-privilege model.

Organizations should focus on defining a least-privilege security model for each permanent or temporary role a user may inhabit, and then apply those roles to every device, server, and service that an individual may interact with over the course of each day, says Kayne McGladrey (@kaynemcgladrey), Director of Information Security Services at Integral Partners.

Organizations need to move past the quaint but antiquated concept of a network perimeter and recognize that the only measurable unit of security is the individual. Individuals include employees, project team members, contractors, third-party service providers, customers, prospects, and guests at a minimum. 

From there, Thomas Willingham (@GotTWilling), Product Marketing Leader and Evangelist, suggests a 4-layer approach that includes identity, mobile devices, data, and desktop virtualization.

Identity is how the user is uniquely identified to data and resources, both on-premises and in the cloud, he says. Enable features such as single sign-on and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to ensure user identity is protected. Identity-driven security that monitors for atypical user behavior should also be deployed.

Mobile devices and applications involves ensuring mobile devices and the applications used on these devices are secure and meet specified standards, he continues. Enable features such as conditional access to ensure applications and data are kept secure and separate from personal information on user owned devices.

When it comes to data, ensure that data is kept secure both at rest, and in transit, he says. And last but not least, for desktop/application virtualization? Ensure the user has access to Windows-based applications consistently across all devices and platforms, he notes. Data and resources are not stored on the local device, so even if the device is lost or compromised, data and resources stay secure.

Implementing security across these different layers, he notes, ensures that not only is the user identity secure, but also data and resources.

Forcepointss human-centric cybersecurity systems protect your most valuable assets at the human point: The intersection of users and data over networks of different trust levels. Visit www.forcepoint.com
Somerset Area High School lists honor roll students

Highest, high and honor students for Somerset Area Senior High School have been listed for the first quarter honor roll.
EUR Talking Points:

- EURUSD climbed for a second successive day Thursday as ECB minutes suggested its Euro-Zone stimulus program may be tapered earlier than previously expected.

- However, traders in the pair should prepare for a possible setback if talks on forming a new German coalition government fail.

Check out our new Trading Forecast for the Euro  its free and has been updated for the first quarter of 2018

EURUSD strength may be temporary

EURUSD strengthened for the second successive day Thursday, boosted by a hawkish set of minutes of the last meeting of the European Central Banks Governing Council. The markets interpreted the minutes as meaning that the ECB could start reducing its monetary stimulus program earlier than previously expected.

In response, the Euro rose, adding to its gains Wednesday on a report  later dismissed  that China may reduce or halt altogether its buying of US Treasury notes and bonds. That weakened the US Dollar on a flight to haven currencies despite the support a rise in Treasury yields would normally provide.

EUR/USD Price Chart Five-Minute Timeframe (January 10-11, 2018)

Chart by IG

EUR to suffer if talks fail

Chinas denial of a policy change towards US Treasuries strengthened USD temporarily but EURUSD could weaken much further if talks between Germanys two main political groupings fail. Chancellor Angela Merkels conservative CDU/CSU group is currently in talks with the center-left SPD about forming a new grand coalition government, and the negotiations are certain to be difficult.

She is seen as a consummate dealmaker so the chances are that she will succeed. However, failure would mean a loss of authority, the possibility of a minority government or even new elections. All would be seen as bad news for the Euro-Zone, and therefore negative for the EURUSD pair.

--- Written by Martin Essex, Analyst and Editor

To contact Martin, email him at martin.essex@ig.com

Follow Martin on Twitter @MartinSEssex

For help to trade profitably, check out the IG Client Sentiment data

And you can learn more by listening to our regular trading webinars; heres a list of whats coming up

Check out our Trading Guides: Several new ones are now available including Forex for Beginners, Building Confidence and Traits of Successful Traders
Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company. It engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The company operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking and Wealth; Corporate and Commercial Banking; and Insurance Holdings. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health insurance and commercial general liability insurance on an agency basis and through a wholesale insurance brokerage operation, merchant services, trust and retirement services, comprehensive wealth advisory services, asset management and capital markets services. The company was founded on December 6, 2019 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC. insurance and commercial general liability insurance on an agency basis and through a wholesale insurance brokerage operation, merchant services, trust and retirement services, comprehensive wealth advisory services, asset management and capital markets services. The company was founded on December 6, 2019 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC.
Blackstone Inc. is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services. The real estate segment specializes in opportunistic, core+ investments as well as debt investment opportunities collateralized by commercial real estate, and stabilized income-oriented commercial real estate across North America, Europe and Asia. The firm's corporate private equity business pursues transactions throughout the world across a variety of transaction types, including large buyouts,special situations, distressed mortgage loans, mid-cap buyouts, buy and build platforms, which involves multiple acquisitions behind a single management team and platform, and growth equity/development projects involving significant majority stakes in portfolio companies and minority investments in operating companies, shipping, real estate, corporate or consumer loans, and alternative energy greenfield development projects in energy and power, property, dislocated markets, shipping opportunities, financial institution breakups, re-insurance, and improving freight mobility, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, enterprise tech and consumer, as well as consumer technologies. The firm considers investment in Asia and Latin America. It has a three year investment period. Its hedge fund business manages a broad range of commingled and customized fund solutions and its credit business focuses on loans, and securities of non-investment grade companies spread across the capital structure including senior debt, subordinated debt, preferred stock and common equity. Blackstone Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in New York, New York with additional offices across Asia, Europe and North America.
The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals in the United states and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers workers' compensation, commercial automobile and property, general liability, commercial multi-peril, employers' liability, public and product liability, professional indemnity, marine, aviation, onshore and offshore energy, construction, terrorism, personal accident, and kidnap and ransom insurance products. This segment operates through select accounts, which serve small businesses; commercial accounts that serve mid-sized businesses; national accounts, which serve large companies; and national property and other that serve large and mid-sized customers, commercial trucking industry, and agricultural businesses, as well as markets and distributes its products through brokers, wholesale agents, and program managers. The Bond & Specialty Insurance segment provides surety, fidelity, management and professional liability, and other property and casualty coverages and related risk management services through independent agencies and brokers. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners insurance to individuals through independent agencies and brokers. The Travelers Companies, Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.
Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. It offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; and Jardiance, Trajenta, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes. The company provides Alimta for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and malignant pleural mesothelioma; Cyramza for metastatic gastric cancer, gastro-esophageal junction adenocarcinoma, metastatic NSCLC, metastatic colorectal cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma; Erbitux for colorectal cancers, and various head and neck cancers; Retevmo for metastatic NSCLC, medullary thyroid cancer, and thyroid cancer; Tyvyt for relapsed or refractory classic Hodgkin's lymph and non-squamous NSCLC; and Verzenio for HR+, HER2- metastatic breast cancer, node positive, and early breast cancer. It offers Olumiant for rheumatoid arthritis; and Taltz for plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and non-radiographic axial spondylarthritis. The company offers Cymbalta for depressive disorder, diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain, generalized anxiety disorder, fibromyalgia, and chronic musculoskeletal pain; Emgality for migraine prevention and episodic cluster headache; and Zyprexa for schizophrenia, bipolar I disorder, and bipolar maintenance. Its Bamlanivimab and etesevimab, and Bebtelovimab for COVID-19; Cialis for erectile dysfunction and benign prostatic hyperplasia; and Forteo for osteoporosis. The company has collaborations with Incyte Corporation; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; AbCellera Biologics Inc.; Junshi Biosciences; Regor Therapeutics Group; Lycia Therapeutics, Inc.; Kumquat Biosciences Inc.; Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and Foghorn Therapeutics Inc. Eli Lilly and Company was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Flagstar Bancorp, Inc. operates as a savings and loan holding company for Flagstar Bank, FSB that provides commercial and consumer banking services to consumer, commercial, and government customers in the United States. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Mortgage Originations, and Mortgage Servicing. The Community Banking segment offers various products, such as checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, consumer and commercial loans, commercial real estate loans, home builder finance loans, and warehouse lines of credit. It also provides other financial services, including consumer and corporate card services, customized treasury management solutions, merchant services, and capital markets services, such as loan syndications, and investment and insurance products and services. This segment serves consumer, business, and mortgage lending customers through its branch banking, business and commercial banking, government banking, and warehouse lending. The Mortgage Originations segment originates, acquires, and sells one-to-four family residential mortgage loans through mortgage branches, call centers, the Internet, and third-party counterparties. The Mortgage Servicing segment offers services and subservices mortgage and other consumer loans; and services loans for its loans held-for-investment and loans held-for-sale portfolios, as well as noninterest-bearing escrow services. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 158 full service banking branches; and mortgages through a wholesale network of brokers and correspondents in 50 states, as well as 83 retail locations and 3 call centers in 28 states. Flagstar Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Troy, Michigan.
Suncor Energy Inc. operates as an integrated energy company. The company primarily focuses on developing petroleum resource basins in Canada's Athabasca oil sands; explores, acquires, develops, produces, transports, refines, and markets crude oil in Canada and internationally; markets petroleum and petrochemical products under the Petro-Canada name primarily in Canada. It operates through Oil Sands; Exploration and Production; Refining and Marketing; and Corporate and Eliminations segments. The Oil Sands segment recovers bitumen from mining and in situ operations, and upgrades it into refinery feedstock and diesel fuel, or blends the bitumen with diluent for direct sale to market. The Exploration and Production segment is involved in offshore operations off the east coast of Canada and in the North Sea; and operating onshore assets in Libya and Syria. The Refining and Marketing segment refines crude oil and intermediate feedstock into various petroleum and petrochemical products; and markets refined petroleum products to retail, commercial, and industrial customers through its other retail sellers. The Corporate and Eliminations segment operates four wind farms in Ontario and Western Canada. The company also markets and trades in crude oil, natural gas, byproducts, refined products, and power. The company was formerly known as Suncor Inc. and changed its name to Suncor Energy Inc. in April 1997. Suncor Energy Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
Total Energy Services Inc. provides various products and services to the oil and natural gas industry primarily in Canada, the United States, and Australia. It operates through four segments: Contract Drilling Services, Rentals and Transportation Services, Compression and Process Services and Well Servicing. The Contract Drilling Services segment offers contract drilling services to oil and gas exploration and development companies. As of December 31, 2021, it operated a total fleet of 95 drilling rigs. The Rentals and Transportation Services segment provides drilling, completion and production rental equipment, and oilfield transportation services in western Canada and in the United States. This segment owned and operated a fleet of 79 heavy trucks. The Compression and Process Services segment offers gas compression services; and designs and packages skid style compressors and proprietary trailer-mounted compressors under the NOMAD brand in Canada and the United States, the European Union, Australia, and Mexico. It had 53,800 horsepower of compression in its rental fleet. The Well Servicing segment offers well services. This segment operated a total fleet of 83 well servicing rigs across Western Canada, mid-western United States, and Australia. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
Wirecard AG, a technology company, provides outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payments worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Payment Processing & Risk Management, Acquiring & Issuing, and Call Center & Communication Services. The Payment Processing & Risk Management segment offers products and service for the acceptance or transactions, and the processing of electronic payments and associated processes. The Acquiring & Issuing segment provides settlement services for credit card sales for online and terminal payments, as well as current accounts with prepaid cards and Girocard/Maestro debit cards; processes payment transactions in various currencies; and issues prepaid and debit cards to private and business customers. The Call Center & Communication Services segment offers value added services, aftersales services to customers, and mailing services. The company also provides payment processing solutions that include Wirecard Payment Page, a payment page; credit card processing; direct debit; online banking payment; alternative payment; international payment processing; tokenization; point of sale terminals; and Wirecard Checkout Portal, a payment portal. In addition, it offers mobile payment solutions; risk management solutions, such as fraud prevention, credit worthiness checks, and individual solutions; integration and testing solutions, including enterprise integration, transaction testing, payment hub, customer self-select PIN, and secure mailer solutions; and communication services. The company serves the consumer goods, digital goods, and travel and mobility sectors. Wirecard has strategic partnerships with Poynt, CreditPilot PLC, SunExpress, and Emonvia. Wirecard AG was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Aschheim, Germany.
Credit Suisse Group AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial services in Switzerland, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. The company offers wealth management solutions, including investment advice and discretionary asset management services; risk management solutions, such as managed investment products; and wealth planning, succession planning, and trust services. It also provides financing and lending solutions, including consumer credit and real estate mortgage lending, real asset lending relating to ship, and aviation financing for UHNWI; standard and structured hedging, and lombard lending solutions, as well as collateral trading services; and investment banking solutions, such as global securities sales, trading and execution, capital raising, and advisory services. In addition, the company offers banking solutions, such as payments, accounts, debit and credit cards, and product bundles; asset management products; equity and debt underwriting, and advisory services; cash equities, equity derivatives, and convertibles, as well as prime services; and fixed income products, such as credit, securitized, macro, emerging markets, financing, structured credit, and other products. Further, it provides HOLT, a framework for assessing the performance of approximately 20,000 companies; and equity and fixed income research services. The company serves private and institutional clients; ultra-high-net-worth individuals, high-net-worth individuals, and affluent and retail clients; corporate clients, small and medium-sized enterprises, external asset managers, financial institutions, and commodity traders; and pension funds, hedge funds, governments, foundations and endowments, corporations, entrepreneurs, private individuals, financial sponsors, and sovereign clients. As of December 31, 2021, it operated through a network of 311 offices and branches. The company was founded in 1856 and is based in Zurich, Switzerland.
The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Air Products and Chemicals: 7001 Hamilton Properties LLC, ACP Europe SA, ACP Zolder Invest NV, AJWAA Emirates Gases Company LLC, AJWAA Gases LLC, AP Services South America SpA, APCI (U.K.) Inc., Abdulla Hashim Gases & Equipment Co. Limited, Air Products (Anshan) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (BR) Limited, Air Products (Cangzhou) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Changsha) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Chongqing) Chem-Materials Co. Ltd., Air Products (Dongguan) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Guangzhou) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Hangjin Qi) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Hefei) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Huaibei) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Inner Mongolia) Hydrogen Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Air Products (Jiangxi) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Jincheng) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Jinjiang) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Kunshan) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Linfen) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Middle East) FZE, Air Products (Nanjing) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Ningbo) Hi-Tech Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Qindao) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Rozenburg) B. V., Air Products (Shandong) Engineering Co. Ltd Nanjing Branch, Air Products (Shandong) Engineering Co. Ltd., Air Products (Shanxi) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Shenyang) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Xi'an) Gases Co. Ltd, Air Products (Xia'men) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Zhongshan) Gases Co. Ltd, Air Products (Zhumadian) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products A/S, Air Products Advanced Materials LLC, Air Products Ammonia Distribution AD GmbH, Air Products Ammonia Distribution LLC, Air Products Ammonia Distribution Ltd., Air Products Ammonia Holdings LLC, Air Products Asia Inc., Air Products Bahrain W.L.L, Air Products Blue Energy, Air Products Brasil Ltda., Air Products Canada Ltd./Prodair Canada Ltee, Air Products Caribbean Holdings Inc., Air Products Central Asia Group LLC, Air Products China Inc., Air Products Debang (Lianyungang) Co. Ltd., Air Products Ecuador S.A., Air Products Emirates Gases LLC, Air Products Equipment Limited, Air Products Gas O.O.O., Air Products Gases Holdings B. V., Air Products Gases S.A.E., Air Products Gesellschaft mbH, Air Products GmbH, Air Products Group Limited, Air Products Gulf Gas LLC, Air Products Helium Inc., Air Products Helium Inc. Qatar Branch, Air Products Holdings B. V., Air Products Holdings GmbH, Air Products Huadong (Longkou) Co. Ltd., Air Products Hydrogen Company Inc., Air Products Hydrogen Energy Technology (Zibo) Co. Ltd., Air Products Iberica S. L., Air Products Industrial Gas LLC, Air Products International LLC, Air Products Investments B. V., Air Products Investments Holdings LLC, Air Products Investments LLC, Air Products Ireland Limited, Air Products Israel Ltd., Air Products Italia S. r. I., Air Products Japan Inc., Air Products Japan K. K., Air Products Korea Inc., Air Products LLC, Air Products Leasing B. V., Air Products Llanwern Limited, Air Products Lu'An (Changzhi) Co. Ltd., Air Products Maghreb S. A.R. L., Air Products Majan LLC, Air Products Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Air Products Management BV/SRL, Air Products Manufacturing Corporation, Air Products Manufacturing LLC, Air Products Middle East Industrial Gases Company Limited, Air Products Nederland B. V., Air Products Netherlands Gases B. V., Air Products O. O.O., Air Products PLC, Air Products PLC Branch, Air Products Peru S. A., Air Products Qudra (GICIS), Air Products Renewable Energy Limited, Air Products S.A., Air Products SAS, Air Products San Fu Co. Ltd., Air Products Saudi Investment Company, Air Products Services Europe S. A., Air Products Shared Services Sdn. Bhd, Air Products Singapore Industrial Gases Pte. Ltd., Air Products SinoHytec (Beijing) Hydrogen Energy Technology, Air Products Slovakia s. r. o., Air Products South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Air Products Sp. Z o.o., Air Products Specialized Process Equipment SDN, Air Products Switzerland Sarl, Air Products Taiwan Holdings Co. Ltd., Air Products Ukraina LLC, Air Products West Coast Hydrogen LLC, Air Products Yanbu Limited, Air Products and Chemicals (Anhui) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Banan) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Beijing) Distribution Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Binzhou) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Chengdu) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Chongqing) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Guiyang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Hefei) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Hohhot) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Jiyuan) Onsite Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Lianyungang) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Nanjing) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Nanjing) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Pengzhou) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Putian) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Qingdao) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shaanxi Pucheng) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shaanxi) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Gases Production Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Gasification Technology Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Hydrogen Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) On-Site Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Systems Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shangluo) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shenzhen) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Tangshan) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Tongxiang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Weifang) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (WuXi) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (WuXi) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Xi'an) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Xingtai) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Xinxiang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Xuzhou) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Yichun) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Yulin) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Zhejiang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Zhuhai) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Zibo) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Air Products and Chemicals Inc. of Utah, Air Products and Chemicals Tech Development (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals de Mexico S. A. de C. V., Air Products spol s.r.o., Asia Industrial Gas Company Ltd., Bangkok Cogeneration Company Limited, Bangkok Industrial Gas Co. Ltd., Beer Gas Cymru Cyf, Beijing AP BAIF Gas Industry Co. Ltd., Beijing Shuimu Tongda Transportation Co. Ltd., Blue Ocean Industrial Gases Co. Ltd., Carbolim B.V., Carburos Via Augusta Logistics S. L., Caribbean Industrial Gases Unlimited, Centro Tecnico Indura Limitada, Chengdu Air & Gas Products Ltd., Chengzhi Air Products Hydrogen Energy Technology Co. Ltd., China Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co., Consolidacion Comercial Infra S. A. de C. V., CryoService, CryoService Limited, Dixons of Westerhope Limited, DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials, EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products, EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products Inc., East Coast Nitrogen Company LLC, East Coast Oxygen Co., Far Eastern Industrial Gases Co. Ltd., Gaolu Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Gardner Cryogenics, Gas Direct Limited, Gas Supply Services Ltd., Gas Technologies Ltd., Gases Industriales de Colombia S.A.  Cryogas, Gases Integrated Company Limited (GIC), Gasin II Unipessoal LDA, Gastel Limited, Gazsur S. de R. L. de C. V., Goar Allison & Associates, Green BioFuel s.r.o., Harvest Energy Technologies, Harvest Energy Technology, Helap SAS, INOXAir Products Pvt. Ltd., Indura, Indura Argentina S.A., Indura Holding LLC, Indura Holdings Colombia LLC, Indura Inversiones Limitada, Indura S. A., Indura Sociedad Comercial Limitada, Inner Mongolia Jiutai New Materials Technology Co. Ltd., Inversiones Air Products Holdings Limitada, Jazan Gas Projects Company, Jazan Integrated Gasification and Power Company (JIGPC), Jubail Waves for Gases Company, KRIG Holdings B. V., KRYVYI RIH Industrial Gas, Korea Industrial Gases Ltd., Kulim Industrial Gases Sdn Bhd, Lida SAS, M&M Gases Limited, Markaziy Osiyo Sanoat Gaz LLC, Matgas 2000 A.I.E., NEOM Green Hydrogen Company, NMAP Services Unlimited, Napro S.A., Olin DNT Limited Partnership, Oxigeno Medicinal Domiciliario Limitada, Oxygen & Argon Works, Oxygen & Argon Works Ltd., Oxygen Center Ltd., Oxygen Warehouse Trade (1980) Ltd., PQ Ammonia, PT Air Products East Kalimantan, PT Air Products Indonesia, PT Air Products Indonesia Services, Permea China Ltd., Permea Inc., Procal, Prodair Air Products India Private Limited, Prodair Corporation, Prodair Escravos Limited, Prodair S. A. S., Prodair et Cie S.C. S., ROVI Cosmetics International, S.I.Q. Beteiligungs, SAGA SAS, SCWC Corp., STP & DIN Chemicals Sp. Z.o.o., STS Science Technologies and Services Ltd., Sapio Produzione Idrogeno Ossigeno S. r. l., Servicios Indura Limitada, Shanxi Lu'An Air Products (Hydrogen Energy) Co. Ltd., Sociedad Espanola de Carburos Metalicos S. A., Soprogaz SNC, Stravinsky Investments LLC, Tanasio Industrial Gases Cyf, The Former SR Manufacturers Inc., Union Mobiliere Industrielle S. A.R.L., Vitalox Industrial S.L.U., WuXi Hi-Tech Gas Co. Ltd., Yangnon Industrial Gas Trading Company Limited, Yangon Industrial Gas (Thilawa) Company Limited, Zhangjiakou HyPower New Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Zhangjiakou Jiaotou Hydrogen New Energy Technology Co. Ltd., and Zibo Chuangcheng Design.

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Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a life sciences company, focuses on the provision of preparedness and response solutions that address accidental, deliberate, and naturally occurring public health threats (PHTs) in the United States. The company's products address PHTs, which include chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives; emerging infectious diseases; travel health; and emerging health crises and acute/emergency care. It offers BioThrax, an anthrax vaccine; ACAM2000, a smallpox vaccine; Botulism Antitoxin Heptavalent to treat botulinum disease; vaccinia immune globulin intravenous that addresses complications from smallpox vaccine; raxibacumab for the treatment and prophylaxis of inhalational anthrax; Anthrasil to for inhalational anthrax; reactive skin decontamination lotion kits; and Trobigard, a combination drug-device auto injector product candidate; and Trobigard, a combination drug-device auto injector product candidate. The company also provides NARCAN, a nasal spray for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose; Vivotif, an oral vaccine for typhoid fever; and Vaxchora, a single-dose oral vaccine to treat cholera. In addition, it is developing AP003, a Naloxone multidose nasal spray; AP007, a sustained release Nalmefene injection for treatment of opioid use disorder; AV7909, an anthrax vaccine; CGRD-001, a pralidoxime chloride/atropine auto-injector; CHIKV VLP, a chikungunya virus VLP vaccine; COVID-HIG for the treatment of SARS-CoV2; EGRD-001, a diazepam auto-injector; SIAN, an antidote for the initial treatment of acute poisoning of cyanide; and UniFlu, a universal influenza vaccine. Further, the company provides contract development and manufacturing services comprising drug substance and product manufacturing, and packaging, as well as technology transfer, process, and analytical development services. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Exxon Mobil Corporation is the largest direct descendent of John D. Rockefellers Standard Oil and one of the worlds largest companies. Its earliest roots lie with Vacuum Oil which got its start in the 1860s. Vacuum Oils primary product was kerosene, an important advancement for heating and lighting in rural America. Vacuum Oil was later merged with Standard Oil of New Jersey which was the parent operation of the Standard Oil empire prior to its breakup. Standard Oil of New Jersey would merge with other independent operators over the next few years until settling on the brand Exxon for most of its operations.

Meanwhile, Standard Oil of New York was operating under much the same impetus, merging and growing, until it became known as Mobil. Then, in 1999, the two giants became one with a merger of equals that on paper had Exxon buying Mobil. Now, the combined company operates under the Exxon, Mobil, and Esso brands as an international vertically integrated energy and petrochemical business.

Today, the company explores and produces crude oil and natural gas and their derivative products globally. As of 2022, it was ranked 6th on Forbes Fortune 500 list and 12th on the Global 500 list but it has held positions from #1 to #10 over the years. In terms of its operations, it is the worlds second-largest oil refiner and the largest refiner outside of China. In terms of reserves, ExxonMobil claimed about 18.5 million barrels of oil and oil equivalents at the end of 2021 and was ranked 15th globally.

ExxonMobil operates through three segments that are the Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces oil and oil equivalents and represents roughly 70% of the income. The Downstream segment gathers, receives, stores, transports and refines oil and equivalents and their derivatives. The Downstream segment also markets and delivers fuel products to consumers and businesses. The Chemicals segment produces the full range of petrochemicals including plastics, resins and synthetic rubber.

ExxonMobil is committed to advancing sustainable and carbon-free energy solutions. The company is targeting 2050 for net-zero emissions and its 2030 interim targets are in alignment with the Paris Accord, the EU's Global Methane Pledge, and US Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan. The companys plans include investing $15 billion into reducing greenhouse emissions by 2028.






Maximus, Inc. provides business process services (BPS) to government health and human services programs. It operates through three segments: U.S. Services, U.S. Federal Services, and Outside the U.S. The U.S. Services segment offers various BPS solutions, such as program administration, appeals and assessments, and related consulting works for U.S. state and local government programs, including the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, child support programs, Preadmission Screening and Resident Reviews, and Independent Developmental Disability assessments. This segment also provides program eligibility support and enrollment; centralized multilingual customer contact centers, multichannel, and digital self-service options for enrollment; application assistance and independent health plan choice counseling; beneficiary outreach, education, eligibility, enrollment, and redeterminations; person-centered independent disability, long-term sick, and other health assessments; and specialized consulting services. The U.S. Federal Services segment offers centralized citizen engagement centers and support services; document and record management; case management, citizen support, and consumer education; independent medical reviews and worker's compensation benefit appeals; Medicare and Medicaid appeals; and federal marketplace eligibility appeals. This segment also provides modernization of systems and information technology infrastructure; infrastructure operations and support services; software development, operations, and management services; and data analytics services. The Outside the U.S. segment offers BPS solutions for governments and commercial clients outside the United States, including health and disability assessments, program administration for employment services, and other job seeker-related services. The company was incorporated in 1975 and is headquartered in Tysons, Virginia.
The following companies are subsidiares of CVS Health: ACS ACQCO CORP., ADMINCO Inc., AE Fourteen Incorporated, AHP Holdings Inc., AMC - Tennessee LLC, APS Acquisition LLC, ASCO HealthCare LLC, ASI Wings LLC, AUSHC Holdings Inc., Accendo Insurance Company, Accordant Health Services L.L.C., Active Health Management Inc., Administrative Enterprises Inc., AdvancePCS SpecialtyRx LLC, AdvanceRx.com L.L.C., Advanced Care Scripts Inc., Aetna, Aetna (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co. Ltd., Aetna (Shanghai) Enterprise Services Co. Ltd., Aetna ACO Holdings Inc., Aetna Asset Advisors LLC, Aetna Behavioral Health LLC, Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Premier Plan MMAI Inc., Aetna Better Health of California Inc., Aetna Better Health of Florida Inc., Aetna Better Health of Illinois Inc., Aetna Better Health of Indiana Inc., Aetna Better Health of Kansas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Missouri LLC, Aetna Better Health of Nevada Inc., Aetna Better Health of North Carolina Inc., Aetna Better Health of Oklahoma Inc., Aetna Better Health of Tennessee Inc., Aetna Better Health of Texas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Washington Inc., Aetna Capital Management LLC, Aetna Card Solutions LLC, Aetna Corporate Services LLC, Aetna Dental Inc., Aetna Dental of California Inc., Aetna Financial Holdings LLC, Aetna Florida Inc., Aetna Global Benefits (Asia Pacific) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bermuda) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Europe) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Middle East) LLC, Aetna Global Benefits (Singapore) PTE. LTD., Aetna Health Holdings LLC, Aetna Health Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Aetna Health Insurance Company, Aetna Health Insurance Company of Europe DAC, Aetna Health Insurance Company of New York, Aetna Health Management LLC, Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company, Aetna Health of California Inc., Aetna Health of Iowa Inc., Aetna Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Health of Ohio Inc., Aetna Health of Utah Inc., Aetna HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Aetna Holdco (UK) Limited, Aetna Holdings (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Inc., Aetna Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Aetna Insurance Company Limited, Aetna Insurance Company of Connecticut, Aetna Integrated Informatics Inc., Aetna International Ex Pat LLC, Aetna International LLC, Aetna Ireland Inc., Aetna Life & Casualty (Bermuda) Ltd., Aetna Life Assignment Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Aetna Medicaid Administrators LLC, Aetna Network Services LLC, Aetna Partners Diversified Fund LLC, Aetna Pharmacy Management Services LLC, Aetna Resources LLC, Aetna Risk Assurance Company of Connecticut Inc., Aetna Rx Home Delivery LLC, Aetna Services (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Aetna Student Health Agency Inc., Aetna Ventures LLC, Aetna Workers Comp Access LLC, Alabama CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Alaska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Allina Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, American Drug Stores Delaware L.L.C., Arbor Drugs, Arizona CVS Stores L.L.C., Arkansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Badger Acquisition LLC, Badger Acquisition of Kentucky LLC, Badger Acquisition of Minnesota LLC, Badger Acquisition of Ohio LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Company, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Beauty Holdings L.L.C., Best Care LTC Acquisition Company LLC, Busse CVS L.L.C., CCI Foreign S.a R.L., CCRx Holdings LLC, CCRx of North Carolina LLC, CHP Acquisition LLC, CP Acquisition LLC, CVS 2948 Henderson L.L.C., CVS 3268 Gilbert L.L.C., CVS 3745 Peoria L.L.C., CVS AL Distribution L.L.C., CVS AOC Corporation, CVS AOC Services L.L.C., CVS Albany L.L.C., CVS Bellmore Avenue L.L.C., CVS Cabot Holdings Inc., CVS Cabot Holdings Inc.  Coram Clinical Trials Inc. 99.72%/Aetna Inc. .28%, CVS Care Concierge LLC, CVS Caremark Advanced Technology Pharmacy L.L.C., CVS Caremark Indemnity Ltd., CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C., CVS Caremark TN SUTA LLC, CVS Foreign Inc., CVS Gilbert 3272 L.L.C., CVS Health Applications LLC, CVS Health Solutions LLC, CVS Health Ventures Fund GP LLC, CVS Health Ventures Fund LP, CVS Health Ventures Management LLC, CVS Indiana L.L.C., CVS International L.L.C., CVS Kidney Care Advanced Technologies LLC, CVS Kidney Care Health Services LLC, CVS Kidney Care Home Dialysis LLC, CVS Kidney Care LLC, CVS Management Support LLC, CVS Manchester NH L.L.C., CVS Media Exchange LLC, CVS Michigan L.L.C., CVS Orlando FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS PA Distribution L.L.C., CVS PR Center Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., CVS Pharmacy Overseas Online LLC, CVS RS Arizona L.L.C., CVS Rx Services Inc., CVS SC Distribution L.L.C., CVS Shaw Holdings Inc., CVS Shaw Holdings Inc.  Coram Clinical Trials Inc. 99.72%/Aetna Inc. .28%, CVS State Capital L.L.C., CVS TN Distribution L.L.C., CVS Transportation L.L.C., CVS Vero FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS-SHC Kidney Care Home Dialysis of Austin LLC, CVS-SHC Kidney Care Home Dialysis of Los Angeles LLC, CVS-SHC Kidney Care Home Dialysis of Philadelphia LLC, CVS-SHC Renal Holdings LLC, Campos Medical Pharmacy LLC, Canal Place LLC, Care Pharmaceutical Services LP, CareCenter Pharmacy L.L.C., Carefree Insurance Services Inc., Caremark Arizona Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Arizona Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark California Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Florida Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Florida Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Hawaii Mail Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Hawaii Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark IPA L.L.C., Caremark Illinois Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Illinois Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Irving Resource Center LLC, Caremark Kansas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark L.L.C., Caremark Logistics LLC, Caremark Louisiana Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Maryland Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Michigan Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Minnesota Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark New Jersey Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark North Carolina Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ohio Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Pennsylvania Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark PhC L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Redlands Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Repack LLC, Caremark Rx L.L.C., Caremark Tennessee Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ulysses Holding Corp., Caremark Washington Specialty Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Alabama Mail Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Health L.L.C., CaremarkPCS L.L.C., Central Rx Services LLC, Cofinity Inc., Compscript LLC, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood Tennessee, Continuing Care Rx LLC, Coram Alternate Site Services Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc.  CVS Pharmacy Inc. 75%/Aetna Life Insurance Company 25%, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Alabama, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater D.C., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater New York, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Indiana, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Massachusetts, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Mississippi, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Nevada, Coram Healthcare Corporation of North Texas, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Northern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Utah, Coram LLC, Coram Rx LLC, Coram Specialty Infusion, Coram Specialty Infusion Services L.L.C., Coventry Consumer Advantage Inc., Coventry Health Care National Accounts Inc., Coventry Health Care National Network Inc., Coventry Health Care of Illinois Inc., Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc., Coventry Health Care of Missouri Inc., Coventry Health Care of Nebraska Inc., Coventry Health Care of Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Care of West Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Plan of Florida Inc., Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company, Coventry HealthCare Management Corporation, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., Coventry Transplant Network Inc., Credentials Inc., D & R Pharmaceutical Services LLC, D.A.W. LLC, Delaware CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Delaware Physicians Care Incorporated, District of Columbia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., E.T.B. INC., Echo Merger Sub Inc., Eckerd Corporation of Florida Inc., Employee Assistance Services LLC, Enloe Drugs LLC, Enterprise Patient Safety Organization LLC, EntrustRX, Evergreen Pharmaceutical LLC, Evergreen Pharmaceutical of California LLC, Express Pharmacy Services of PA L.L.C., First Choice of the Midwest LLC, First Health Group Corp., First Health Life & Health Insurance Company, Florida Health Plan Administrators LLC, Garfield Beach CVS L.L.C., Generation Health L.L.C., Geneva Woods Health Services LLC, Geneva Woods LTC Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Management LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Alaska LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Washington LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Wyoming LLC, Geneva Woods Retail Pharmacy LLC, Georgia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., German Dobson CVS L.L.C., Goodhealth Worldwide (Asia) Limited, Goodhealth Worldwide (Global) Limited, Goodyear CVS L.L.C., Grand St. Paul CVS L.L.C., Grandview Pharmacy LLC, Group Dental Service Inc., Health Care Management Co. Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Main Street Pharmacy L.L.C., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arkansas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Colorado LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services of Texas Association, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky LLC, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services LLC, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare LLC, Omnicare LLC  Aetna Inc 0.28%/CVS Cabot Holdings Inc. 49.86%/CVS Shaw Holdings Inc. 49.86%, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare LLC, Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC.

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General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates in five segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; Asia & Latin America; and Pet. It offers ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and salty snacks, ice cream, nutrition bars, wellness beverages, and savory and grain snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the North American foodservice and commercial baking industries; and manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food. The company markets its products under the Annie's, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Blue Basics, Blue Freedom, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, EPIC, Fiber One, Food Should Taste Good, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Go-Gurt, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Haagen-Dazs, Helpers, Jus-Rol, Kitano, Kix, Larabar, Latina, Liberte, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Oui, Pillsbury, Progresso, Raisin Nut Bran, Total, Totino's, Trix, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, Yoki, and Yoplait trademarks. It sells its products directly, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores, as well as drug, dollar, and discount chains. The company operates 466 leased and 392 franchise ice cream parlors. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Humana Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a health and well-being company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Retail, Group and Specialty, and Healthcare Services. The company offers medical and supplemental benefit plans to individuals. It also has a contract with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to administer the Limited Income Newly Eligible Transition prescription drug plan program; and contracts with various states to provide Medicaid, dual eligible, and long-term support services benefits. In addition, the company provides commercial fully insured medical and specialty health insurance benefits comprising dental, vision, and other supplemental health benefits; and administrative services only products to individuals and employer groups, as well as military services, such as TRICARE T2017 East Region contract. Further, it offers pharmacy solutions, provider services, and home solutions services, such as home health and other services to its health plan members, as well as to third parties. As of December 31, 2021, the company had approximately 17 million members in medical benefit plans, as well as approximately 5 million members in specialty products. Humana Inc. was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.
ITV plc, an integrated producer broadcaster, creates, owns, and distributes content on various platforms worldwide. It operates through Media & Entertainment, and ITV Studios segments. The Media & Entertainment segment broadcasts various contents on its family of free-to-air channels, including ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, ITVBe, ITV Encore, CITV, ITV Breakfast, CITV Breakfast, and various related +1 and HD equivalents; and offers television advertising services. It also delivers content through linear television broadcasting, as well as on the ITV Hub, catch up services on pay platforms, and through direct content deals. In addition, this segment offers online advertising, HD digital channel on pay platform, and ITV Choice subscription services, as well as licenses DTT Multiplex A. The ITV Studios segment creates and produces programs and formats that include drama, entertainment, and factual entertainment for its own channels and other broadcasters. It also operates as an unscripted independent producer of content in the United States; and produces content for local broadcasters and international OTT platforms in Australia, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. In addition, this segment engages in formats and distribution ITV's finished programmes, and formats and third-party content internationally, as well as finances productions. The company also engages in the development of platform, broadband, transactional, and mobile services; operation of digital television channels; operation of Freeview Multiplex A; rights ownership and distribution of television programs and films; and scheduling and commissioning of television programs. ITV plc was founded in 1955 is based in London, the United Kingdom.
The following companies are subsidiares of Prudential Financial: 210-220 E. 22nd Street SSGA Owner LLC, AIG Edison, AIG Star, AREF Cayman Co Ltd., AREF GP II Pte. Ltd., AREF GP Ltd., ASPF II - Feeder Fund GmbH, ASPF II - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, ASPF II Management GmbH, ASPF III Scots L.P., ASSURANCE, AST Investment Services Inc., Adlerwerke CB Investment LLC, Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Habitat S.A., Administradora de Inversiones Previsionales SpA, Aoba Life Insurance Company, Aoba Life Insurance Company Ltd., Asia Property Fund III GP S.a.r.l., Assurance IQ LLC, Assurance Intelligence LLC, BSC CP LP, Braeloch Holdings Inc., Braeloch Successor Corporation, Brazilian Capital Fund GP Limited, Broad Street Global Advisors LLC, Broome Street Holdings LLC, CB German Retail LLC, CLIS Co. Ltd., COLICO INC., Capital Agricultural Property Services Inc., Chadwick Boulevard Investment Holdings Co. LLC, Cibecue LLC, Coconino LLC, Colico II Inc., Columbus Drive Partners L.P., Commerce Street Holdings LLC, Commerce Street Investments LLC, Coolidge LLC, Coral Reef GP, Coral Reef L.P., Coral Reef Unit Trust, Cottage Street Investments LLC, Cottage Street Orbit Acquisition LLC, DICKENS AVENUE HOLDINGS VI LLC, DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI Ireland L.P., DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI US L.P., Dale/P Minerals Limited Partnership, Don Cesar Investor LLC, Dryden Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Dryden Finance II LLC, EVP II GP S.a r.l., EVP II Horizon GP S.a r.l., EVP II Sprint GP S.a r.l., Edison Place Senior Note LLC, Essex LLC, EuroCore GP S.a r.l., European Value Partners GP S.a.r.l., Everbright PGIM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Flagstaff LLC, GA 1600 Commons LLC, GA 333 Hennepin Investor LLC, GA BV LLC, GA Bay Area GP LLC, GA Bay Area Investor LLC, GA Belden LLC, GA CLARENDON LLC, GA Cal Crossings LLC, GA Collins LLC, GA E. 22nd Street Apartments Holdings LLC, GA East 86 Street LLC, GA JHCII LLC, GA MENLO PARK INVESTOR LLC, GA Manor at Harbour Island LLC, GA Metro LLC, GA TRITON INVESTOR LLC, GA W Paces LLC, GA/MDI 333 Hennepin Associates LLC, GIBRALTAR BSN HOLDINGS SDN BHD, GIBRALTAR INDIA SOLUTIONS LLP, Gateway Holdings II LLC, Gateway Holdings LLC, German Retail Income CP LP, Gibraltar BSN Life Berhad, Gibraltar International Insurance Services Company Inc., Gibraltar International Service LLC, Gibraltar Reinsurance Company Ltd., Gibraltar Universal Life Reinsurance Company, Glenealy International Limited, Global Portfolio Strategies Inc., Gold GP Limited, Gold II L.P., Gold L.P., Graham Resources Inc., Graham Royalty Ltd., Green Harvest Asset Management LLC, Green Tree GP, Green Tree L.P., Greenlee LLC, Halsey Street Investments LLC, Hirakata LLC, IVP Fund GP LLC, Impact Investments Bridges UK S.a.r.l, Inter-Atlantic G Fund L.P., Inversiones Previsionales Chile SpA, Inversiones Previsionales Dos SpA, Ironbound Fund LLC, Jennison Associates LLC, Kyarra S.a r.l., Kyoei Annuity Home Co. Ltd. Kabushiki Kaisha Kyouei Nenkin Home, LINEUP LLC, Lake Street Partners IV L.P., Lotus Reinsurance Company Ltd., MC GA COLLINS HOLDINGS LLC, MC GA COLLINS REALTY LLC, MC Insurance Agency Services LLC, Manor at Harbour Island LLC, Marble Canyon LLC, Maricopa LLC, Market Street Holdings IV LLC, Montana Capital Partners, Morenci LLC, Mulberry Street Holdings LLC, Mulberry Street Investment L.P., Mulberry Street Partners LLC, Mullin TBG Insurance Agency Services LLC, MullinTBG Insurance Agency Services, National Family Assurance Group LLC, New Savanna, Northbound Emerging Manager Fund A LP, Northbound Emerging Manager Fund II - A LP, Orchard Street Acres Inc., PAI Bay Farm LLC, PAI Bayrock Groves LLC, PAI Belvidere Farms LLC, PAI Big Cypress Farm LLC, PAI Corcoran 640 Ranch LLC, PAI DeKalb Farm LLC, PAI Delano 1500 Ranches LLC, PAI Desert Falcon Farms Manager LLC, PAI Flicker Orchard LLC, PAI Good Hope Farm LLC, PAI Hawk Creek Ranch LLC, PAI Hills Valley Ranches LLC, PAI Holly Hill Groves LLC, PAI Hunt Farm LLC, PAI Jackson Bayou Farm LLC, PAI Lake Placid Groves LLC, PAI River Bend Ranches LLC, PAI Wallula Gap Vineyard LLC, PCP V Cayman AIV GP L.P., PEREF II Co-Invest 1 GP S.a r.l., PEREF II GP S.a r.l., PFI EM-Tech Fund I LLC, PG Business Service Co. Ltd, PG Collection Service Co. Ltd., PG Friendly Partners Co. Ltd., PGA Asian Retail Limited, PGA European Limited, PGI Co. Ltd, PGIM AC Co-Invest GP Pte. Ltd., PGIM AVP IV GP S.a r.l., PGIM Advisory Shanghai Co. Ltd., PGIM Agricultural Investments GP LLC, PGIM Australia Pty Ltd, PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Fund L.P., PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Partners LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Feeder VI LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Fund VI L.P., PGIM Custom Harvest LLC, PGIM DC Co-Invest GP Pte. Ltd., PGIM DC JV GP Pte. Ltd., PGIM DC Solutions LLC, PGIM European Financing Limited, PGIM European Services Limited, PGIM Financial Limited, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund II L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives GP LLC, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives II GP LLC, PGIM Foreign Investments Inc., PGIM Holding Company LLC, PGIM Holdings Limited, PGIM Hong Kong Ltd., PGIM INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM INDIA TRUSTEES PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM IRELAND LIMITED, PGIM Inc., PGIM International Financing Inc., PGIM Investments Ireland Limited, PGIM Investments LLC, PGIM Japan Co. Ltd., PGIM Korea Inc., PGIM LTIF Berlin GP S.a r.l., PGIM LTIF Berlin MLP S.ar.l., PGIM LTIF GP S.a.r.l., PGIM Limited, PGIM Loan Originator Manager Limited, PGIM M Campus GP S.a r.l., PGIM Management Partner Limited, PGIM MetaProp Investor LP LLC, PGIM Netherlands B.V., PGIM Overseas Investment Fund Management Shanghai Company Ltd, PGIM Private Capital Ireland Limited, PGIM Private Capital Limited, PGIM Private Placement Investors Inc., PGIM Private Placement Investors L.P., PGIM QUANTITATIVE SOLUTIONS LLC, PGIM REF EUROPE SCSp, PGIM REF Europe GP S.a r.l., PGIM REF Europe Member LLC, PGIM REF Intermediary Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate CD S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Capital VII GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest L.P., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest SCSp, PGIM Real Estate Co-Invest Holdings LLC, PGIM Real Estate Debt GmbH, PGIM Real Estate Finance Holding Company, PGIM Real Estate Finance LLC, PGIM Real Estate France SAS, PGIM Real Estate Germany AG, PGIM Real Estate Global Debt GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Global Master Fund GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles II S de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles S. de R.L. de C.V, PGIM Real Estate Italy S.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Japan Ltd., PGIM Real Estate Loan Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate Luxembourg S.A., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Management Luxembourg S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Mexico S.C., PGIM Real Estate S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate U.S. CORE Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate U.S. Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate UK Limited, PGIM Scots Limited, PGIM Securities Investment Trust Enterprise, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management (Feeder) I LLC, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management Fund I L.P., PGIM Shanghai Company Ltd., PGIM Singapore Pte. Ltd., PGIM Strategic Financing LLC, PGIM Strategic Investments Inc., PGIM Taronga Investor GP LLC, PGIM U.S. Agriculture Fund LP, PGIM USPF VI Manager LLC, PGIM Wadhwani LLP, PGIM Warehouse Inc., PGLH of Delaware Inc., PIFM Holdco LLC, PIIC Limited, PIISC Holdings UK Limited, PIM KF Blocker V Holdings LLC, PIM USPF V Manager LLC, PLA Administradora Industrial SRL, PLA Administradora LLC, PLA Administradora S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional II S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional S.de R.L. de C.V., PLA Co-Investor LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager I LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager II LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Blue LP, PLA Retail Fund I Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LP, PLA Retail Fund II Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II U.S. Carry/Co-Invest LP, PLA Services Manager Mexico LLC, PLAI Limited, PMCF Holdings LLC, PMCF Properties LLC, PPPF General Partner LLP, PR GA SCP Apartments LLC, PRAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP LLP, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP SCOTS FEEDER LLP, PRECO Account IV LLC, PRECO Account Partnership IV LP, PRECO III GP LLP, PREFG Hanwha Manager LLC, PREI Acquisition I Inc., PREI Acquisition II Inc., PREI Acquisition LLC, PREI HYDG LLC, PREI International Inc., PRIAC Property Acquisitions LLC, PRICOA Management Partner Limited, PRISA Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Pooled Manager LLC, PRISA III Fund GP LLC, PRISA III Fund PIM LLC, PRREF Debt Fund Manager LLC, PRREF II Fund Manager LLC, PRU 3XSquare LLC, PRUCO LLC, PRUDENTIAL CAPITAL ENERGY PARTNERS MANAGEMENT (FEEDER) LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP MEMBER LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP REIT LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE 2 LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE LLC, PT PFI Mega Life Insurance, Passaic Fund LLC, Pine Tree GP, Pine Tree L.P., Platinum GP Limited, Platinum II L.P., Platinum L.P., Pramerica Business Consulting Shanghai Company Limited, Pramerica EVP CP LP, Pramerica Financial Asia Headquarters Pte. Ltd., Pramerica Financial Asia Limited, Pramerica Fixed Income Funds Management Limited, Pramerica Fosun Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Pramerica Holdings Ltd, Pramerica Hong Kong Holdings Limited, Pramerica Insurance Agency China Company Ltd., Pramerica Luxembourg CP GP S.a.r.l., Pramerica PRECAP I GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP II GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP III GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP IV GP LLP, Pramerica Pan European Real Estate Scots LP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I GP Scots Feeder LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I Scotland Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital II Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital III Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Limited, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Scots Feeder LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V Netherlands GP LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital VI Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Scots CP GP LLP, Preco III Scotland Limited Partnership, Pru 101 Wood LLC, Pru Alpha Partners I LLC, Pru Fixed Income Emerging Markets Partners I LLC, PruVen Capital Partners Fund I L.P., Pruco Assignment Corporation, Pruco Life Insurance Company, Pruco Life Insurance Company of New Jersey, Pruco Securities LLC, Prudential 900 Aviation Boulevard LLC, Prudential Affordable Mortgage Company LLC, Prudential Agricultural Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Annuities Distributors Inc., Prudential Annuities Holding Company Inc., Prudential Annuities Inc., Prudential Annuities Information Services & Technology Corporation, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Captive Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Universal Company, Prudential Bank & Trust FSB, Prudential Capital Energy Opportunity Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners Management Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Partners Management Fund IV L.P., Prudential Capital and Investment Services LLC, Prudential Chile II SpA, Prudential Chile SpA, Prudential Commercial Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Equity Group LLC, Prudential Financial Inc., Prudential Fixed Income Global Liquidity Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Fixed Income U.S. Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Funding LLC, Prudential General Services of Japan Y.K., Prudential Gibraltar Agency Co. Ltd. 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Chevron Corporation, through a network of subsidiaries, engages in integrated energy and chemicals operations worldwide. The company is the 7th largest integrated oil company worldwide, the 2nd largest in the US, and has been in operation since 1879. Chevron was part of the original Standard Oil Company and is one of the 34 successor companies that were formed when it was broken up. Today, the company brings in roughly $160 billion in annual revenues and is the last remaining oil and gas component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Originally called Standard Oil Of California the company grew quickly via mergers and acquisitions. It was hailed as one of the Seven Sisters to dominate the US and global production throughout the mid-20th century and became even bigger in 1985 when it merged with Gulf Oil. The merger with Gulf Oil resulted in the rebranding from Standard Oil Of California to Chevron (a brand used by the company outside its California jurisdiction) and then ChevronTexaco Corporation in 2005 when that merger took place. The company rebranded again in 2005 to what we know today as Chevron Corporation.

Chevron Corporation is now based in San Ramone, California, and has operations in 180 countries. The company employs more than 42,500 people who operate 5 refineries and 8,000+ Texaco, Chevron, and Standard Oil service stations in the US alone. The company's Exploration and Drilling operations produced a record 3.1 million barrels per day and its US refineries process more than 1 million barrels per day. At the end of 2021, the company has more than 11.3 billion barrels of proven oil and liquid-equivalent reserves and boasted a 112% reserve replacement rate.

The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment explores new reserves, develops known reserves, produces petroleum and gas products as needed, transports, processes, pipes, stores, and markets petroleum worldwide. The Downstream segment refines and markets the full line of petroleum-based products including but not limited to fuels such as gas, diesel, and aviation fuel, as well as lubricants, petrochemicals, and plastics. The company transports products via pipeline, rail, marine vessels, and truck.

Chevron recognizes the need to lower the worlds carbon output and is working toward that end. The companys strategy is two-pronged and includes reducing its own carbon output while investing in green and lower-carbon technologies. The companys goal is to invest $10 billion or more into lower carbon energy sources and technologies by 2028.

Chevron is a Dividend Aristocrat. The company has been paying a dividend since 1989 and it has raised it every year since its inception.






Pfizer Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic and women's health under the Premarin family and Eliquis brands; biologics, small molecules, immunotherapies, and biosimilars under the Ibrance, Xtandi, Sutent, Inlyta, Retacrit, Lorbrena, and Braftovi brands; and sterile injectable and anti-infective medicines, and oral COVID-19 treatment under the Sulperazon, Medrol, Zavicefta, Zithromax, Vfend, Panzyga, and Paxlovid brands. The company also provides medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, such as pneumococcal disease, meningococcal disease, tick-borne encephalitis, and COVID-19 under the Comirnaty/BNT162b2, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, Trumenba, and the Prevnar family brands; biosimilars for chronic immune and inflammatory diseases under the Xeljanz, Enbrel, Inflectra, Eucrisa/Staquis, and Cibinqo brands; and amyloidosis, hemophilia, and endocrine diseases under the Vyndaqel/Vyndamax, BeneFIX, and Genotropin brands. In addition, the company is involved in the contract manufacturing business. It serves wholesalers, retailers, hospitals, clinics, government agencies, pharmacies, and individual provider offices, as well as disease control and prevention centers. The company has collaboration agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Astellas Pharma US, Inc.; Myovant Sciences Ltd.; Akcea Therapeutics, Inc; Merck KGaA; Valneva SE; BioNTech SE; and Arvinas, Inc. Pfizer Inc. was founded in 1849 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Wells Fargo & Company, a diversified financial services company, provides banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management. The Consumer Banking and Lending segment offers diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses. Its financial products and services include checking and savings accounts, and credit and debit cards, as well as home, auto, personal, and small business lending services. The Commercial Banking segment provides financial solutions to private, family owned, and certain public companies. Its products and services include banking and credit products across various industry sectors and municipalities, secured lending and lease products, and treasury management services. The Corporate and Investment Banking segment offers a suite of capital markets, banking, and financial products and services to corporate, commercial real estate, government, and institutional clients. Its products and services comprise corporate banking, investment banking, treasury management, commercial real estate lending and servicing, equity, and fixed income solutions, as well as sales, trading, and research capabilities services. The Wealth and Investment Management segment provides personalized wealth management, brokerage, financial planning, lending, private banking, and trust and fiduciary products and services to affluent, high-net worth, and ultra-high-net worth clients. It also operates through financial advisors. Wells Fargo & Company was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
New Delhi: Saif Ali Khan's film is one of the first releases of the year, but the actor is more nervous and excited about daughter Sara's debut in 'Kedarnath'.

The 47-year-old actor said he shares the anxiety of a newcomer when it comes to Sara's film, which is slated to release in December.

"Sara has her whole life ahead of her. It feels like it is my debut film that's up for a release. It's her dream, and I hope all her dreams come true," Saif said in a press conference here.

The actor is equally excited and scared for wife Kareena Kapoor Khan's much-awaited 'Veere Di Wedding', but said it would be wrong to call the film her "comeback".

It would be Kareena's first film after son Taimur's birth in December 2016.

When someone called the film Kareena's comeback, Saif quipped, "Had you asked this question to her, she would have probably thrown something at you, like a shoe, maybe. As according to her, she has always been around."

The actor praised Kareena's dedication to her work.

"She's a great artiste, and I have seen how well she has concentrated on her health and fitness," he added.

Asked about the Supreme Court's decision that playing of national anthem in cinema halls before a film's screening is no longer mandatory, the actor said he has always supported the administration, but urged the government to look into Section 377, which criminalises homosexuality.

"The government knows what's better. I have always supported the administration. But there are also many other things that need attention. Please also take a look at (Section) 377," he said.

Saif, who was in the capital to promote 'Kaalakaandi', faced some bizarre questions at the press conference but ever the gentleman, he replied to each one of them.

He, however, looked exasperated when someone pointed out that cuss words in films leave a negative impact on children.

"This is a wrong question. We will not answer this. It is not our job. Our job is to just make films," he said.

The actor said he did not mind the film getting an 'A' certificate from the censor board as the subject caters to an adult audience.

"The film getting an 'A' certificate is justified as sometimes the children should not watch certain films. I agree with the censor board. I don't want my children to listen to abuses," said the actor on a question that the film had received multiple cuts because of expletives.

The movie is directed by Akshat Verma of 'Delhi Belly' fame and releases this Friday.
One of the most innovative and advanced cancer treatments, Immunotherapy with dendritic cells infuses a new ray of hope for the cancer patients in India. Countless research and treatment facilities worldwide have increasingly turned towards this dendritic cell therapy; many modern nations like USA have well accepted and approved this treatment.

India is not far behind as this treatment has already been in use for a while. And now with more advancement where the treatment will be done in one cycle will be provided by Germany based doctor Dr. Frank Gansauge in India.

Treatment with dendtritic cells is often used when conventional therapies have not been successful. This treatment has been recently introduced in India and many patients have been cured with encouraging results under the supervision of renowned Oncologist.

For most types of cancer, however, there exist standard treatments which have been developed over decades. It is recommended to make use of these treatments and supplement them with immune therapy, since it is known that tumour cells damaged by chemotherapy or radiation are much easier to destroy with immune cells than undamaged tumour cells.

In India LDG India has initiated this medical facility in collaboration with the renowned Germany based laboratory Dr. Gansuage.

We are proud of the medical advancements and with Immunotherapy cancer patients are surely going to benefit as this treatment has largely proven its effectiveness worldwide. says Mr. Tapesh Singhal, Director, LDG INDIA who has taken the baton forward to introduce this medical facility in India and Indian Subcontinents (except China).

At present Cancer is taking thousands of lives every year worldwide including India. About one hundred different types of cancer are known in humans, and all are different from one another such as the average age at which they appear, the growth rate and the tendency to metastasize. Therefore, it is rather questionable whether a single main cause for the development of cancer will ever be identified.

Scientists working on immunotherapy have basically taken a diverse route by tricking the bodys own defences into combating the rival cancer within. For centuries, this has been an aspiration of medical scientist which has become a reality.

The effectiveness of a treatment with dendritic cells could be proven in the case of skin, kidney, breast, pancreatic, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer, and other cancers.
Close to 1,400 babies have been given a tuberculosis vaccine that killed five monkeys in medical trials, the Daily Mail reported.

Oxford University scientists gave the children the questionable vaccine that an information sheet described as "safe and effective".

While the babies from South African were left unharmed by the jab, it did not protect them against tuberculosis.

Oxford claim information of the results of the trial test on monkey were given to regulators in the UK, the US and South Africa. The monkeys died because a stronger version of TB had been used.

"We need to develop better and more systematic ways to establish when a drug is ready for clinical trials in humans  and importantly, when it is not," Professor Malcolm Macleod, of the University of Edinburgh told the Daily Mail.

Adding, "Until our institutions recognise that their core purpose is to produce research of value to society they risk a slow decline in their reputation, and possibly a faster and more serious erosion of public trust in science."
Anand (R) reportedly went to Janaki's (L) house on Tuesday night and after an argument he allegedly stabbed her three times with a kitchen knife. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: A 24-year-old woman in Hyderabad was brutally stabbed to death by a stalker at her house in Moosapet in Kukatpally on Tuesday night after she denied his marriage proposal.

The deceased, Bonu Janaki and the murderer Anand alias Ananthappa were working at a supermarket D-Mart in KPHB colony, police said.

According to reports, Anand was harassing Janaki for the last six months and was cajoling her to marry him. However, she had been repeatedly refusing his proposal.

According to reports, Anand reportedly went to Janaki's house on Tuesday night and after an argument he allegedly stabbed her three times with a kitchen knife. Police sources say he had also throttled her.

Janaki's body was found by her roommate Roopa when she returned home from work.

Roopa found Janaki unconscious and took her to a hospital but by then it was too late.

A complaint was received from her roommate, B Roopa, also a salesgirl at the same store, stating that when she came back after her shift, she saw Janaki with stab injuries on her stomach, said V Prasanna Kumar, inspector of Kukatpally, and added that she was immediately rushed to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.

Police have arrested Anand and charged him with murder. A case was booked under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.

Roopa told police that Janaki complained about Anand, who also threatened her with dire consequences if she fails to accept his proposal.

Roopa told police that Janaki had been looking forward to go home for Sankranti or harvest festival. Janaki, who is from Srikakulam district, had come to Hyderabad for work three years ago; she was the only earning member in the family.

The incident comes days after 24-year-old Sandhya Rania was set on fire by her former colleague who was allegedly 'obsessed with her and stalking her'.

On December 22, Sandhya Raina who worked as receptionist in Secunderabad was on her way home from work when Sai Kartik followed her on a motorbike and stopped to speak to her.

When he asked her to marry him she refused; Kartik allegedly demanded to know why she wouldn't marry him.

There was an argument when Kartik suddenly pulled out a bottle hidden under his shirt and poured kerosene on Sandhya. He then lit a match and set her on fire and fled before passersby could do anything, the police said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to appoint a new three-member Special Investigation Team to probe the 186 anti-Sikh riot cases that were closed by an earlier government-appointed SIT without any probe.

A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said the three-member SIT would be headed by a former high court judge and have a former IPS officer not below the rank of IG and a serving IPS officer.

The bench, which also included Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, said it would notify the names of the SIT on Thursday.

The bench passed its order after going through the report of the supervisory panel it had appointed in August last year.

The panel, which included former Supreme Court judges Justice J.M. Panchal and Justice K.S.P. Radhakrishnan, and a retired IPS officer, was asked to scrutinise the decision of the SIT to close 241 cases related to 1984 anti-Sikh riots and submit a report. The panels confidential report was submitted to SC in a leather box with a number lock system.

In its brief order on Wednesday, the bench said the panel has found that out of 241 cases, 186 cases were closed without investigation. Therefore, a new SIT was being set up to probe these cases afresh.

A total of 3,325 people were killed in the 1984 riots. Delhi alone accounted for 2,733 deaths, while the rest occurred in UP, Haryana, MP, Maharashtra and other states. The reopening of the anti-Sikh riot cases could have political ramifications in the run-up to 2019 general elections.

Despite promises made before every election, and at least 12 inquiry commissions and committees, justice hasnt been delivered to the victims of the massacre.

Akalis welcome reopening of probe in anti-Sikh riots

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal hailed the Supreme Courts decision and said, Thirty-three years have been lost. Many witnesses have passed away. Many others have become very old and infirm. We must ensure speedy trials to ensure those who perpetrated the anti-Sikh genocide do not escape justice.

The new SIT, he added, should inquire into the functioning of officers of the Delhi Police who are alleged to have deliberately weakened cases against several Congress leaders.

Amnesty India tweeted, Great news! This Supreme Court order rekindles hopes of justice for the 1984 Sikh massacre. The new SIT must not repeat the first teams mistakes. Investigations must be transparent and time-bound.

The Narendra Modi government at the Centre had constituted a committee headed by G.P. Mathur on December 23, 2014, to examine the anti-Sikh cases pending since 1984. On the committees recommendation an SIT was set up on February 12, 2015, comprising IPS officer Pramod Asthana, former district judge Rakesh Kapoor and additional DCP Kumar Gyanesh.

On March 24, 2017, the apex court had asked the Centre to put before it the files pertaining to the cases of the anti-Sikh riots which the SIT had decided to close. It was submitted that so far chargesheets had been filed in only four cases and there was inordinate delay in the probe. Further, 241 out of 293 cases had been closed by the SIT without any justification.

The Centre told the court that the government has all the right intention to render justice to the riot victims as early as possible. Explaining the inordinate delay and consequent weakening of cases, the home ministry admitted that the lapse of 33-years was taking a toll on collection of documents and case files from police stations and courts.
Fayaz and Siyad, both natives of North Paravur near Kochi, were arrested on Wednesday following investigations based on a complaint by the 25-year-old woman, who was rescued from Saudi Arabia and brought home last year by her family. (Photo: AP/Representational)

Kochi: Two people have been arrested on charges of helping a Muslim man "forcibly" convert a Kerala woman and attempting to take her to Syria to be sold off to Islamic State terrorists.

Fayaz and Siyad, both natives of North Paravur near Kochi, were arrested on Wednesday following investigations based on a complaint by the 25-year-old woman, who was rescued from Saudi Arabia and brought home last year by her family.

The two are friends of Muhammad Riyaz from Thalassery in Kannur district, the prime accused in the case.

"They have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act," Ernakulam Rural SP A V George said, adding a hunt is on to arrest eight more accused, including Riyas, in the case.

He said the police have begun a probe into their alleged link with the Islamic State terrorists.

George said both Fayaz and Siyad were arrested based on the woman's complaint that she was allegedly tortured by them in a house in North Paravoor before Riyaz took her abroad.

The woman had alleged that Riyaz pretended to be in love with her when she was studying in Bengaluru in 2014 and forced her to convert to Islam and married her.

The woman from Pathanamthitta was brought up in Gujarat. She had moved the Kerala High Court last year seeking an NIA probe against Riyaz for attempting to take her to Syria from Saudi Arabia and sell her to the Islamic State terrorists

as a sex slave.

She has also alleged that her marriage was registered using forged documents.
Kawa, who was suspected to be linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba, was arrested from the Delhi Airport. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: A man arrested in connection with the 2000 Red Fort attack case, was on Thursday sent to 10-day police custody by a Delhi court.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat allowed the plea of Delhi Police seeking 10 days custody of Bilal Ahmed Kawa, who was arrested on Wednesday from Delhi airport in a joint operation of the Delhi Police and Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

Three people, including two Army jawans, were killed in the December 22, 2000 Red Fort attack.

According to the police, the Gujarat ATS informed it that Kawa, who had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case, was travelling from Srinagar to Delhi.

Kawa, who was suspected to be linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba, was arrested from the T-3 terminal of the Delhi Airport.

The police said that money to the tune of Rs 29.50 lakh was transferred through hawala in various bank accounts, including those of Kawa, to fund the attack.

Kawa was on the run since 2000 and was hiding in Kashmir, it claimed.
The meeting between the two NSAs took place in Thailand nearly three weeks ago. (Photo: PTI/Representational)

New Delhi: India on Thursday said National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (retd) last month in Thailand, noting that "talks on terror" can go ahead.

Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters that the focus of the "operational-level talks" was "cross-border terror" and ways to ensure the elimination of terrorism from the region.

"India and Pakistan have a dialogue process and we have said terror and talks cannot go together. However, there are other dialogue mechanisms like at the DGMO level or between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers," Kumar said.

"Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of operational-level talks. We have said terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead," Kumar added.

The meeting between the two NSAs took place in Thailand nearly three weeks ago.
Hyderabad: Industries and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Wednesday asked the Centre for National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) status for Hyderabad Pharma City. He also requested Rs 1,500 crore for setting up a comm-on effluent treatment plant at Pharma City.

During a meeting with Union commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu, Mr Rao urged the Centre to release Rs 20 crore towards Nizamabad Spice Park.

Mr Rao said, We appealed to the Centre to allocate funds for the Hyderabad-Warangal, Hyderabad-Ramagundam and Hyderabad-Bengaluru industrial corridors.

Following bifurcation, the mega leather park has been allocated to AP and Mr Rao sought a similar establishment in the sttate.

Mr Rao said the government had invited Mr Prabhu to participate in the Bio-Asia Conference to be held in Hyderabad on February 22 and 23.
Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu dashed out a letter to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday reminding him of the unfulfilled promises made in State Reorganisation Act. The Chief Minister suggested that a special dispensation amount be provided to Andhra Pradesh for specified projects from NABARD instead of loans from external agencies. It should be disbursed as a grant from the government of India so that this will not form part of the state FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) limits. This will facilitate the state government for early commencement of projects and to avail of the SAM announced to our state, the Chief Minister said.

Mr Naidu said six projects required a total funding of Rs 16,725 crore. Of these, the DEA had already approved the AP Roads and Bridges Reconstruction Project and AP Mandal Connectivity and Rural Connectivity Improvement Project (Rs 3,200 crore each) with a proposed loan from Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB). The Rs 4,500-crore AP Rural Water Supply Project, with a loan from AIIB, had not been cleared by the DEA yet.

The cost of another project  Construction of Residential School Buildings  which too was pending DEA approval, had gone up to Rs 3,341 crore from Rs 3,000 crore to as per the latest estimate. This was also supposed to be taken up with a loan from AIIB. Hence, the state government was seeking funds for these projects as Central grant and not through loans from foreign banks. The state government had also submitted two new projects  the Rs 1,484-crore Amaravati Greening Development and Rs 1,000-crore AP Backward Area Rural Development to the Centre for NABARD funding.
Social media was flooded with tweets of students asking for a stress-free time table with humanities students topping the list.

HYDERABAD: Interdisciplinary choices are proving to be costly for Class XII students with the CBSE eaxm date sheet, announced on Wednesday, giving them less time. Humanities students who chose mathematics to prepare for civil services, are a worried lot as both exams are scheduled on consecutive days.

While History exam would be held on March 20, Mathematics is on March 21. Humanities student Shazmi Madin said, Most of the subjects are theory-oriented and Mathematics is completely different. It would be nice to have a gap between the two as both require extensive revision. Mathematics students, who opted for Computer Science are also having complaints  Mathematics is scheduled for March 21 while Computer Science is on March 23.

Teacher Keerthi Rao said, A break between the exams does not ensure that students learn more than what they have throughout the year. It is just to relax.

Their minds will feel well rested and a days revision will help them retain better.

Students who opted for Science have only a days gap after English for Physics.

Social media was flooded with tweets of students asking for a stress-free time table with humanities students topping the list.

Malavika Ravi, a student, said, We have three theory exams back to back without gap. After that we have one day before another main exam. It is so stressful to even think about it.

Students who have set their eyes on premier engineering institutions would also face hurdles as those who have selected Physical Education would have their exam on April 9, a day after the JEE on April 8. While many students have asked school authorities to approach the board for a revised schedule, principals said that students have to accept it the way it is.
Hyderabad: The US governments 2018 travel advisory has cautioned its citizens and employees to avoid travelling to northern Telangana and eastern Maharashtra. The advisory stated that the US government in India has limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens visiting rural northern Telangana (Warangal, Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Khammam) and they would need special authorisation to travel to these areas.

No reason is mentioned why northern Telangana has been red-flagged. Telanganas police attribute it to the Naxal operations in these parts earlier, which no longer exist. The US has put India at level 2  exercise increased caution.

US ready to help visitors to India

A senior police officer who was Superintendent of police in Khammam rural when the Naxal presence was strong there, said, Northern Telangana was highly infested with Naxal activity prior to the states bifurcation. Especially Khammam, the Warangal-Chhattisgarh and Adilabad-Eastern Maharashtra borders, Bhadrachalam and Gadchiroli. Currently, no activity has been detected in TS, but it has been reported on the borders we share with Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

The US consulate in Hyderabad said its Citizen Centre at the consulate will take care of US visitors to India during their stay. The advisory said: Indian authorities report that rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. Violent crime such as sexual assault has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations. Terrorists are active in East Central India, primarily in rural India. Armed forces may attack with little or no warning targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets, shopping malls and local government facilities.

The citizen centre at the consulate helped 32-year-old John Frieser who lost all his travel documents at Kachiguda railways station by issuing him a temporary passport. The centre has also been working with the TS police with regard to the arrest of the India chairman and CEO of Amway, William S. Pinckney.

The US governments advisory for travel to India
Kochi: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who also chairs the State Disaster Management Authority, is entitled to use a copter under provisions of the Disaster Management Act 2005, which his predecessors have used in almost similar circumstances. Whether he could have spared the Ockhi relief fund to fly down for the scheduled December 26 meeting with the Central team, one month after the disaster, is an ethical issue.

Stung by the media expose over the copter ride, courtesy Ockhi fund, Government sources cite the precedent of former chief minister Oommen Chandy using an IAF copter and travelling to Idukki to visit Cheeyappara area on August 6, 2013, where a landslide had occurred the previous day. This cost `28 lakh and was met from the disaster management fund.

Mr Chandys trip, the very next day of the landslide, falls into the category of an unanticipated exigency whereas in the case of Mr Vijayan, the copter ride had come almost a month after the Ockhi disaster of November 29-30. The date of the Central teams arrival was known days in advance, giving the CM ample time to schedule his itinerary, both official and non-official.

In this context, Mr Vijayans trip from Thrissur to Thiruvananthapuram and back, mixing party and official business, does not fall within an Ockhi emergency though the Disaster Act 2005 allows the extension of the emergency spell up to 60 days. But that is technical.

Under official guidelines the period of emergency is primarily defined as 30 days and the State Executive Committee has powers to extend it further to 60 days. Under Section 11 of the Guidelines, the State Executive Committee can utilise up to 10 percent of the State Disaster Response Fund for procurement of essential search and evacuation equipment including communication equipment for response to disasters.

A Government order of 2016 says the financial powers of the State Executive Committee for undertaking disaster preparedness, response and mitigation as envisaged vide the Disaster Management Act, 2005 is hereby delegated to Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue & Disaster Management within the financial limits (presently Rs 1 crore) of administrative department.. for matters related to plan/non-plan funds of KSDMA, SEOC, State Disaster Response Fund, State Disaster Mitigation Fund and other Government of India grants and project funds received by Disaster Management Authority.

Sources say the expenses for the search and rescue operations undertaken by the Navy and Coast Guard would work out to Rs 10 crore, which would also be met from the State Disaster response Fund.
Mysuru: With the assembly polls fast approaching, the rival parties are clearly raising the tenor of their attacks on each other. If BJP national president, Amit Shah was harsh on the "corruption " in the Congress on his visit to the state on Wednesday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too was sharper than usual, calling the RSS, Bajrang Dal and BJP men "terrorists" while speaking to reporters in Nagavalli, Chamarajnagar district.

Responding to a question on his arrival at the helipad, on the saffron parties' claim of the Popular Front India ( PFI) being involved in the murder of a Hindu activist, Rudresh, he assured, "We will examine the documents we have and take necessary action." But not stopping there, he hit out at the saffron outfits, saying, "They themselves are all sorts of terrorists. The RSS, Bajrang Dal and BJP are terrorists. Whichever organisation it may be, whether SDPI, PFI or RSS , Bajrang Dal or Vishwa Hindu Parishat, our government will not tolerate it if anyone indulges in terrorism and communalism and tries to disrupt the harmony in society."

Later, speaking at Hanur, he once again declared, "The entire BJP is communal. The RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP are also communal. There is no doubt about it. We are not afraid of calling the BJP a communal party."

Speaking to reporters before boarding a helicopter at Madikeri helipad Wednesday morning, he said he did not have any information about the alleged threat received by Minister Tanvir Sait from gangster, Ravi Poojari. "I will speak to him (Sait) and ask the police too to investigate if it was a fake call or for real," he added.

Asked if the snake found at the resort where Mr Amit Shah had stayed was an auspicious or inauspicious sign, he shot back, "I don't believe in such things, so will not react to this."

The CM who created history by visiting the jinxed backward district of Chamarajnagar for the 23rd time and Chamajnagar town for the tenth time, said he would become CM again. Addressing a gathering after inaugurating developmental projects in Chamarajnagar, he said: "Rs 4000 crores has been released to Chamarajnagar district in four years. We should not use religion and caste for politics. Humanity matters. Sab ka saath sab ka vikaas should not be restricted to words. No government has kept its word so far. But we have kept our word. Our government has functioned as per the philosophies of Buddha and Ambedkar. We have spent Rs 66,000 crores for Dalits. BJP leaders are involved in a drama by visiting Dalits houses."

Gundu Rao: If you ban PFI, ban BJP & RSS too

Upping the ante against the Sangh parivar, KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao demanded a ban on the BJP and the RSS along with the Popular Front of India (PFI) if it was a terrorist organisations.

Addressing a dharna organised by the Youth Congress to protest against the suicide of a girl following alleged harassment by Bajrang Dal activists in Chikmagaluru district, he backed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's statement in Chamarajnagar comparing the Sangh Parivar to militant organisations. He said Hindu outfits were terrorizing people in the name of Hindutva thus spoiling peace and harmony. The BJP leaders who raised a hue and cry over the murder of Deepak Rao in Mangaluru last week, had maintained a stoic silence on the girl's suicide. The government must ban both BJP/RSS along with PFI to restore peace, he added.
'Indian authorities report rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. Violent crime, such as sexual assault, has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations,' the new India travel advisory said.

Washington/New Delhi: The US on Wednesday issued a new travel advisory for countries including India, which its officials said is "user friendly" as it is based on ready-to-understand level of advice ranging from one to four.

India has been ranked Level 2 (exercise increased caution) while Pakistan has been places in Level 3 (reconsider travel). Level 1 advises travellers to exercise normal precaution, while Level 4, which has countries like Afghanistan, recommends "Do Not Travel".

Now every country has a travel advisory based on this system, which has replaced all the previous such advisories.

"These improvements will provide US citizens with clear, timely, and reliable safety and security information worldwide," the State Department said.

Placing India on Level 2, the State Department identified "crime and terrorism" for Americans to exercise increased caution. However, it asks Americans not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir, except for eastern Ladakh and Leh and not to venture within 10 miles of the India-Pakistan border due to the "potential for armed conflict".

The State Department explained that while it will issue an overall travel advisory level for every country, levels of advice may vary for specific locations or areas within a country.

"Indian authorities report rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. Violent crime, such as sexual assault, has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations," the new India travel advisory said.

Terrorists or armed groups are active in east-central India, primarily in rural areas, it added.

"Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities," it said.

USA issues new travel advisory for its citizens, India at level 2 (exercise increased caution). (Photo: ANI)

USA issues new travel advisory for its citizens, India at level 2 (exercise increased caution). (Photo: ANI)

Ranking Pakistan on Level 3, the State Department asked Americans to reconsider travel to this country due to terrorism.

It advises Americans not to travel to travel to Balochistan province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) due to terrorism.

Americans are also advised not to travel to Pak-occupied Kashmir due to terrorism and the potential for armed conflict.

"Over the past six months, there have been at least 40 significant terrorist attacks across Pakistan, resulting in over 225 deaths and 475 wounded, most of which occurred in Balochistan, KPK, and the FATA. In the past, there have been large-scale terrorist attacks resulting in hundreds of casualties," it said.
India, which is ramping up ties with Vietnam, calls for freedom of navigation in the SCS. (Photo: AP)

Beijing: China on Thursday objected to Vietnam's invitation to India to invest in oil and natural gas sector in the disputed South China Sea (SCS), saying it is firmly opposed to infringement of its rights using development of bilateral ties as an "excuse".

Vietnam's Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh on Tuesday had told an Indian news channel that his country would welcome Indian investments in the South China Sea.

Responding to remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, "China does not object to the development of normal bilateral relations of relevant countries in our neighbourhood".

"But China firmly oppose relevant party to use it as an excuse to infringe upon China's legitimate rights and interests in the SCS and impair regional peace and stability," Lu said.

Ton had also said defence cooperation is one of the important and effective areas of cooperation between India and Vietnam and India can be helpful in expanding Vietnam's defence capabilities.

China has been opposing India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) exploring oil in wells claimed by Vietnam in the SCS for years. India has been asserting that the ONGC's exploration is a commercial operation and not connected with the dispute.

China claims almost all of the SCS while Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims.

Oil exploration in the SCS is a sensitive issue in the Vietnam-China relations. There were anti-China riots in Vietnam when China tried to deploy oil rigs in an areas claimed by Vietnam few years ago.

India, which is ramping up ties with Vietnam, calls for freedom of navigation in the SCS through which trillions of dollars of trade happens every year.
Hollywood films are a huge rage not only in North America but all over the world. Hollywood always had the upper advantage for its films and is the highest grossing film industry in the world. Such is the popularity of movies from Los Angeles that filmmakers from other countries avoid their films clashing with Hollywood tentpoles as they know the clash would crush their films.

These films are superior in terms of quality, CGI, action, acting, script, direction and camerawork. Hollywood has given a lot of memorable films be it indies, arthouse or blockbusters that have entertained generations after generations. A number of these films become instant classics after their release. Here are the Hollywood films that have grossed more than 1 Billion dollars worldwide:

Avatar: 2.7 Billion USD

Titanic: 2.1 Billion USD

Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 2.06 Billion USD





Jurassic World: 1.6 Billion USD

Avengers: Age of Ultron: 1.5 Billion USD

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2: 1.3 Billion USD





Frozen: 1.2 Billion USD

Beauty and the Beast: 1.2 Billion USD

The Fate of the Furious: 1.2 Billion USD

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: 1.2 Billion USD

Iron Man 3: 1.2 Billion USD

Minions: 1.15 Billion USD





Captain America: Civil War: 1.15 Billion USD

Transformers: Dark of the Moon: 1.12 Billion USD

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: 1.12 Billion USD

Skyfall: 1.10 Billion USD

Transformers: Age of Extinction: 1.10 Billion USD





The Dark Knight Rises: 1.08 Billion USD

Toy Story 3: 1.06 Billion USD

Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: 1.06 Billion USD

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: 1.05 Billion USD

Pirates of Caribbean: On Strange Tides: 1.04 Billion USD

Despicable Me 3: 1.03 Billion USD

Jurassic Park: 1.02 Billion USD

Finding Dory: 1.02 Billion USD

Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace: 1.02 Billion USD

Alice in Wonderland: 1.02 Billion USD

Zootopia: 1.02 Billion USD

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: 1.02 Billion USD

The Dark Knight: 1.004 Billion USD




The Telecom Commission of India has given the go-ahead for TRAIs proposals to relax the countrys limits on spectrum holdings.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India put forward proposals in November last year that would ease restrictions on the amount of spectrum that could be held by an operator in a given band, within a specific service area  of which India has 22, known as telecom circles.

The proposals would allow providers to hold more than 50% of the spectrum available in the 700MHz, 800MHz or 900MHz bands in any one circle, but for these bands combined, their maximum holding per circle would be capped at 50%.

In addition, TRAI recommended increasing the overall spectrum holding cap per circle from 25% to 35%. The suggestion is aimed at bringing about more consolidation, although a spate is currently underway following the 2016 market entry of Reliance Jio. The operators free service offers have caused tariffs to plummet, leaving operators burdened with debt.

COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) director Rajan Mathews said: We welcome the decision to increase the overall spectrum cap, as it will facilitate mergers and acquisitions in the sector. The proposal has not yet been approved by Indias cabinet.

An increase in spectrum caps would be of immediate benefit to Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which are currently in the process of merging to create a new market leader. However, there are several issues related to spectrum caps that are creating roadblocks for the $23.2 billion deal.
The WhatsApp security flaw allows anyone with access to WhatsApp's server to snoop on WhatsApp groups and read all messages without the admin finding out about it.

Have you ever wondered whether your WhatsApp group conversations are being monitored by the government? A security flaw in WhatsApp can give access to group conversations to outsiders without the knowledge of the group administrator. A group of researchers from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany described a series of flaws in instant messaging apps including Signal, WhatsApp and Threema, all three of which claim end-to-end encryption of their messages.

While the flaws of Signal and Threema are mostly harmless, their findings state anyone who has access to WhatsApp servers can easily insert themselves into a group conversation without the admin ever knowing.

Although, considering that the eavesdropper requires access to WhatsApps servers makes the flaw a little less dangerous, the implications are alarming. The vulnerability can be leveraged by sophisticated hackers who can break into the instant-messaging apps servers. Even more, the flaw can easily allow government elements or WhatsApp staff to compromise private group conversations by legally coercing the company to give them access.

However, that doesnt ring right with what WhatsApp claimed. The company set a benchmark for mainstream instant messaging app by enabling end-to-end encryption of all chats under the premise that even a compromised server shouldnt divulge details. Messages sent to an individual or a group can only be read by them, not even the servers themselves.

The researchers state the flaw takes advantage of a simple bug that allows the server to add a new member to the group without interacting with the group admin. The phones of every member of the group then shares the encryption key with the new member providing the eavesdropper with complete access to any future messages.

Although, when a new member is indeed added to the group, it will be visible to every participant and even the admin. But the researchers pointed out some tricks to delay the detection. The person with control of WhatsApps server through which he implanted into the group can also use the server to block any message in the group, including the ones that welcome a new member to the group.

The hijacked server can even send different messages to different admins (if there are multiple admins) making it appear that another admin has invited the new member. The spy can also prevent the admin from removing him from the group if discovered.

WhatsApp confirmed the security flaw to Wired but added that its impossible to secretly add a new member to a group. However, to seal the breach of security outlined by the researchers, WhatsApp has to essentially roll back the group invite link feature that allows admins to simply send an invite link to a person who wants to join a group.

The researchers told Wired that they informed WhatsApp about the flaw back in July 2017 and in response, WhatsApp did fix part of the problem by making it difficult to decrypt future messages even after obtaining the encryption key.
We reached out to @fs0c131y who explained the security breach he discovered in the mAadhaar app on Google Playstore.

After an investigation by a leading English news daily in India discovered how Aadhaar details of the entire country were being sold at Rs 500, a French security researcher found yet another massive loophole that allows anyone with basic programming knowledge to break into the mAadhaar Android app and steal user data.

The French-researcher alias Eliot Alderson who goes by the handle @fs0c131y on Twitter revealed in a thread of Tweets how the password to the local database which the mAadhaar app uses to store sensitive information like your biometric preferences, KYC profile data, and user passwords, can be easily acquired. Essentially, if someone has access to your phone, your Mobile Aadhaar PIN can be compromised with ease.

Another day, another security breach

We reached out to the researcher who said that the mAadhaar app uses a local database on the phone to store information like your password, app preferences and the likes. Its a common practice by developers to do so. That local database is protected by a password which is randomly generated. However, @fs0c131y found that the way to generate this password randomly is poorly written.

The #Aadhaar #android app is saving your biometric settings in a local database which is protected with a password. To generate the password they used a random number with 123456789 as seed and a hardcoded string db_password_123 pic.twitter.com/Ty7cPmOjAb  Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 10, 2018

Essentially, the password is generated using a random number with the seed as 123456789 and a hardcoded string db_password_123 which remains the same for every phone. Using this, anyone with access to your phone can break into the app and get your user password and basically, get access to all your demographic and biometric details.

A lot of people asking me how bad is the generation of the local database password in the #Aadhaar #android #app.



I published a small POC here: https://t.co/m2LcIXVYu8



If you start the application multiple times you will see that the generated password are always the same pic.twitter.com/U5TRTHiWen  Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 11, 2018

The researcher even made a proof-of-concept on Github to demonstrate the flaw. He made an application with the same code so that if you run it multiple times, it will give you the same password over and over again instead of the randomised password the app is supposed to generate. You read more about it here.

Storing data in a local database is a common practise in the #Android world.



In the #Aadhaar #android app they store:

- user password data (hash)

- notification

- Ki value

- EKYC Profile Data

- Biometric Prefs

- Bio Lock Timeout

- App Configuration pic.twitter.com/cCfaAKFVkB  Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 11, 2018

The mAadhaar app, @fs0c131y found, stores your photograph on the local database, which is a biometric information by itself, apart from your eKYC profile data, and more. Furthermore, the eKYC profile data stores the user ID, the Aadhaar ID, your name, date of birth, gender, address and your photograph.

The researcher uses an alias Elias Alderson, which is the name of the protagonist of Mr. Robot, a popular TV series about cyber security and hacking. He had earlier found a backdoor on OnePlus devices which granted hackers with root access and other sensitive information with ease.

The researcher even shared the information with UIDAI that supervises the Aadhaar project in the country. However, the last time a reporter tried to inform the authority about a breach in the Aadhaar system, the regulatory body filed an FIR against her. It remains to be seen how UIDAI handles the new revelation and more importantly, what steps the authority takes to remedy the issue and make the app secure.
A trademark filing with the EU IPO indicates that the Asha label has been transferred to HMD global.

HMD Global has acquired the trademark for the Nokia Asha label. First spotted by LoveNokia, the trademark was originally published at EUIPO in November 2011 and has now been transferred to Nokias parent company, HMD Global on January 10, 2018.

The trademark information also reveals that the brand label can be used for Computer software platform used in mobile telephones and smartphones; mobile phones and smartphones, and Wireless communication services namely for computer software used in mobile telephones and smartphones.

Nokia used to release low-cost smartphones under its Asha brand till it was acquired by Microsoft. After the acquisition, the Asha phones were discontinued as they rivalled against low-end Lumia smartphones. It is speculated that Nokia might once again launch new budget smartphones under the Asha brand, which could compete against low-cost 4G smartphones by Reliance Jio, Micromax, Intex and other smartphone manufacturers.

A recent report tipped that Nokia might be working on its Nokia 1 smartphone. The device is tipped to run on Googles recently announced Android Oreo (Go Edition) platform and could be powered by a MediaTek processor with 1GB RAM. It is rumoured to sport an IPS display with 1280 x 720p resolution and an 8GB internal storage. The Nokia 1 could feature a single camera setup and is expected to be priced around Rs 7,000.

If the report is to be believed, the Nokia 1 running on Android Oreo (Go Edition) will make use of the refreshed Android Go apps. These apps are highly optimised and take up to 50 percent less space than their full-fledged counterparts and are slated to run up to 15 percent faster.
Its reported that an Apple device was being worked upon when the battery caught fire. A similar incident happened recently at a Swiss Apple store.

iPhone batteries have caught fire and exploded at two different Apple stores in the past two days. The latest incident occurred at Apples Calle Colon Store in Valencia, Spain and a similar event recently occurred at a Swiss Apple Store. As per 9to5Mac, the Spain incident happened when a technician was working on an unspecified iPhone battery and the Swiss fiasco occurred while removing the battery from an iPhone 6S Plus.

Starting with the battery snafu in Spain, its reported that the incident occurred at 1:30 PM yesterday. As per the report, the store employees threw dirt at the burned battery and vacated the premises while opening the windows to ventilate the emitted smoke. There is no information on which iPhone model was being repaired when this happened.

A similar mishap took place at a Swiss Apple Store in Zurich recently. According to a previous report, an overheating battery started emitting smoke and a store assistant reportedly sustained minor burns, while removing the battery from the iPhone 6S Plus. The Zurich Forensic Institute battery are examining the battery and the smartphone to determine the cause of the issue.

It is speculated that these happenings are the result of hasty battery replacements. Apple recently announced battery replacement programs at reduced prices for all iPhones whose performance dropped due to battery degradation. Apple had issued an update for preventing unexpected shutdown on older iPhones, however, they didnt mention that it will cause hefty performance drops on the devices. The company also issued an apology for not being transparent with their customers and has lowered the price of battery replacements to Rs 2000, from the original price of Rs 8,200.
On Wednesday, three sources familiar with the ongoing NAFTA talks said that Mexico could leave the negotiating table if United States President Donald Trump makes a decision to trigger a process of six months to withdraw from the free trade pact.

Canada was becoming more and more convinced that Trump would soon be making an announcement that the U.S. intends to exit the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA. That news helped to send the currencies for both Canada and Mexico lower and hurt stocks across the entire continent.

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It is indisputable that if the U.S. president announces a withdrawal of his nation from NAFTA, at that same moment the negotiations will end, said Mexicos head of international trade for the agriculture ministry Raul Urteaga.

Two other sources, both of whom are involved with the trade talks but requested to remain anonymous, said Mexico is firm on its current position to leave the negotiating table if the U.S. president follows through with the move.

Although a termination letter for NAFTA would begin the ticking of an exit clock of six months, the U.S. would not be bound legally to quit NAFTA when it expired. Washington might use the move as a sleight of hand when seeking to gain some leverage over Mexico and Canada in the negotiations to update the trade pact that has been in existence for 24 years.

Trump for years has called the treaty bad and says it hurt workers in the U.S. His team of negotiators has set proposals that alarmed their counterparts from Mexico and Canada.

Amongst the most divisive proposals are the plans to have rules of origin for goods where minimum levels would be set for U.S. content for autos, a clause that would end the trade pact if not renegotiated each five years, and ending the Chapter 19 mechanism for disputes.

Though observers in Mexico and Canada are more and more gloomy over the upcoming January 23-28 round of talks in Montreal some are more positive following a speech Trump made to farmers earlier this week where he did not make provocative comments related to the trade pact.

Urteaga, who participated as a member of the original Mexican negotiating teams for NAFTA during the 1990s, says that the speech by Trump was an interesting sign.
Many personalities who helped building and livening up the post-war cultural world have passed away in this 2020. For each of them, we suggest a project, a book, an exhibition, a website, to transfer a small part of the enormous cultural legacy they left us.
Nineteen projects from seven schools in Donegal are among the 550 projects that are being showcased at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition which is being held at present in Dublin.

The exhibition will run for three days, from January 10 to January 13th at the RDS in Ballsbridge.

Among the innovative and creative ideas that Donegal schools have entered is a project from Pobailscoil Ghaoth Dobhair which studies the ecological impact that people have on the Errigal mountain.

Students from Gaelcholasite Chineal Eoghain pose the question, how safe are we on the internet? in a case study which they brought to the capital.

The huge hall in the RDS is full of student projects that normally test science in many different ways.

Students from Magh Ene in Bundoran have brought six projects to Dublin this year.

In the category of Social and Behavioural science, students from Magh Ene investigate the effect of different strategies on success rate in penalty kicks.

Students from Deele College explore the use of Instagram and its relationship to self esteem and a number of background variables.

Three students from the Rosses Community College bring 'Snap Map, To snap or not, to the tables of the RDS.

St. Columba's Comprehensive School have brought a study of coastal erosion on South Donegal (1951 -2017) to Dublin this year.

Meanwhile, Pobailscoil Ghaoth Dobhair explore the subject of bilingualism and if being bilingual could help solve issues or problems quicker.

Colaiste Ailigh have brought five projects to Dublin, in one project students explore the effect that drink has on people's driving.

The Colaiste Ailigh students undertook a project to develop an App that will measure wind speed at the top of a hill from the foot of the hill.

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins officially opened the exhibition at a special ceremony in the RDS this week. Other guests have also taken part in events at the RDS.
Mahindra will retain the 'Rexton' name for its flagship SUV and is expected to be mostly identical to the SUV sold globally. However, Mahindra will tweak the design language by featuring cosmetic changes.

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The tweaks could include a new grille, in line with Mahindra's current crop of vehicles, different alloy wheel design, and subtle revision to its interior. The SUV sold globally gets projector headlights, 360-degree camera, powered tailgate, Nappa leather upholstery, cooled seats and 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

We expect Mahindra to skip some of the above features to keep the price of Rexton competitive. The Mahindra Rexton will rival the likes of the hugely popular Toyota Fortuner and Ford Endeavour and will look to undercut the competition with lower pricing.

So expect the Mahindra Rexton to be priced in the range of Rs 24 lakh ex-showroom. The model sold in the global market is built on a ladder frame with a four-wheel drive system. The SUV draws power from a 2.2-litre diesel engine producing 186bhp and 420Nm of torque and comes mated to a 7-speed torque-convertor automatic gearbox sourced from Mercedes-Benz.

It is to be seen if Mahindra will employ the existing engine of the SsangYong Rexton for the India-spec model or will it employ its mHawk engines. Mahindra will look to keep the cost low and position the SUV as a viable option compared to the Jeep Compass, Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour and the Skoda Kodiaq SUVs.

DriveSpark Thinks!

By not just rebadging the SsangYong Rexton, Mahindra is also revising the design language of the Rexton to give the SUV the company's identity. The Mahindra XUV500 is a well-received product in India, and we expect the Mahindra Rexton to feature similar styling as the XUV500.
After years of decline, the peregrine falcon - a remarkable bird of prey - is returning to the skies of Ireland in healthy numbers once more, according to a new survey.

The bird - which is the fastest in the world - is found mostly in mountainous and coastal areas - such as the Cooley mountains - but can also be found more and more in towns. A favoured spot for the bird is at the tops of churches and cathedrals.

Over 400 breeding pairs have been recorded across the country as part of the survey. The survey involved the Irish Raptor Study Group and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, among many volunteers.

In the 1960s peregrine falcon numbers declined sharply, with many suggesting a pesticide used at the time was one of the major causes.

According to Bird Watch Ireland peregrine falcons are a "bird of prey (raptor) with a short hooked bill. (It is) a species of falcon with a heavy powerfully built body, medium length tail and wings which are broad close to the body and pointed at the tip.

"The female is larger than the male. Male and female plumages are the same, unlike Merlins, the species most likely to be confused with Peregrine. Adults are bluey grey above, with a barred tail; the underparts are white and finely barred, the check, throat and upper breast are plain white and contrast with a black hood and thick moustachal stripe. Juvenile birds are similar to adults but have brownish upperparts and streaked, not barred, feathers on the body."

Bird Watch Ireland also suggest the best place to spot them.

"Look for them on estuaries in the winter. If a flock of waders or wildfowl suddenly fly up, it maybe that a Peregrine has flushed them. If they are about they will often be perched on fences or other vantage points. Walking suitable cliffs in the breeding season may give dramatic views of Peregrines hunting.

So make sure to keep an eye on the sky for this wonderful bird of prey around Dundalk and north Louth.
The People of the Year Awards are searching for local heroes in Co. Louth and across Ireland.

In partnership with Sean O'Rourke on RTE Radio 1, the award organisers are on the hunt for ordinary people who do extraordinary things in the county.

If you know someone who does amazing things that make a difference to the lives of their family, friends, neighbours , work colleagues or local community, this is your chance to help shine a light on their efforts and have their heroism acknowledged live on TV.

A statement from the awards organisers explained: The team behind RTE Radio 1s Today with Sean ORourke is calling out to people in Louth to nominate their heroic partners, friends, parents, neighbours and co-workers that deserve some national recognition.



The winner will be honoured at the 43rd People of the Year Awards, organised by Rehab Group, which will be held on March 3rd.



The organisers also explained: Irelands Everyday Hero can be of any age, from any walk of life and from any part of Ireland but there is just one criterion  they must be really special to be considered.



They can be the essence of community spirit, or they can be the person who puts everyone else before themselves and never asks for thanks.

If you have a special person in mind to nominate for this year's awards, you can do so at peopleoftheyear.com.

A selection of nominators will be brought on air to talk to Sean on RTE Radio 1 on to tell everyone just why the person they are nominating is an 'Everyday Hero.



All the nominations will be considered by the adjudication panel and will be announced live on the People of the Year Awards TV programme on RTE One on Saturday, March 3rd 2018.



The closing date for nominations is Friday January 19. Listen in to Sean O'Rourke's show on RTE Radio 1 from 10am to 12pm for more details on the 2018 awards.



Mo Flynn, Chief Executive of Rehab Group, said: We have vital and important services for people with disabilities around the country, including Dundalk and Drogheda, and we see heroes in communities every day. Everybody knows someone who is always doing something for others.

"These people often go unrewarded and unrecognised . This is a chance to say thank you to them in a unique way, so please nominate your Everyday Hero for a People of the Year Award.



RTE Radio 1 presenter Sean ORourke said: Some of the most extraordinary people I have interviewed over the years are the unsung, everyday heroes. So if you know someone youd like to nominate, please nominate them today.
Guesswork is often involved in predicting the next big thing  butwith CES just a week away, the future is almostnow. The annual international trade show, as well as other industry events following one afteranother  including ITExpo, Gitex, Mobile World Congress and Techspo  means there will be no shortage of product announcements, technologyunveilings, and proclamations about the tech of the future.

However, the truth is that for every hit product or trend in years past  such as the DVDplayer, iPhone or streaming media  there have been plenty of misses. In recent years, 3D made a comeback of sorts, and it was heralded as the future of movies and TVs. Yet few viewers are donning the cumbersome glasses today. Who remembers DivX or the Zune? And whatever happened to WiMAX?

To predict the future, one must not only consider what is trending now, but alsoponder what is missing. 3D didnt take off in 2012 for the same reasons that it was a novelty in the 1950s, again the 1960s, and even in the 1980s.

Technology that truly is innovative doesnt look to solve a problem that isntthere. The next big thing  or things  will address the demands ofconsumers and the needs of businesses, and make life better. Tech innovation could comein many different forms.

Cryptocurrency: Cash in 2018

Digital money, also known as cryptocurrency, was certainly in thespotlight at the end of 2017, thanks to bitcoins meteoric rise. However, bitcoin is just one of the more popular alternatives to traditional cash. Cryptocurrency could be among the big trends to watch in 2018.

We now have something like 1,200 different [digital currency] productsout there, and more every day, said Jim Purtilo, associate professorin the computer science department at the University of Maryland.

This tells me were in for a trough of disillusionment, as morepeople look into this but without the perspective to figure out whenthey are getting value or even to tell when the products work, he told TechNewsWorld.

One downside could be that these technologies arent quite asuntraceable as people may think  but that likely wont dissuade those intent oninvesting in cryptocurrency.

There is spectacular promise in the algorithms, but the markets have alot of shakeout to go through before the promise is realized, Purtilosaid. Well see some of that shakeout in the coming year before somesmart innovator can blend together ingredients for the right secretsauce that everyone likes.

Artificial Intelligence: Even Smarter

It is still doubtful that the machines will rise up against the humanmasters in 2018, but it is likely that artificial intelligence will continue to get smarter and possibly take on new roles.

Humans will feed the machines, said Josh Crandall, principal analystat Netpop Research.

Theres no stopping artificial intelligence and machine learning, he told TechNewsWorld.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence will penetrate furtherinto our lives and impact a lot of the processes that are currentlymanual, said Greg Sterling, vice president of strategy and insights at the Local Search Association.

This will be especially true in online marketing and digital media,he told TechNewsWorld.

However, hype may outpace reality in terms of what exactly computers cando, and many of AIs advances may be evident only behind the scenes.

AI is going to surpass robotics in the publics eye when we discussautomation and work force policies, suggested Purtilo.

That is a little artificial as a distinction, since robotics hasalways been perceived as an AI thing, but AIs increasing power willbroaden the discussion, he said.

In 2018, it wont be just entry-level workers in a fast food chainlosing jobs to a burger-flipping robot, Purtilo predicted. It will be financial servicesadvisors and law clerks losing jobs to deep learning algorithms.

To get there, companies may need to rely on consumers to providethe raw data points that will be needed to improve such systems.

It will be a frustrating year as these assistivetechnologies, which arent quite helpful yet, offer suggestions andrecommendations that dont provide the solutions we are really lookingfor, said Crandall, but dont fret  the technologies will continueto improve and become more personalized.

Wearables: Taking Off?

Another trend that has long been on the cusp has been wearables  yeteven Apple has been only marginally successful with its Watch. 2018could be the year that wearable devices finally go mainstream  but to doso, they may need a redesign.

The [current] form factors are simply too limited to justify whatcontinue to be premium prices for smartwatches and high-end fitnesstrackers, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

But healthy sales of Amazons Echo and Google Home [suggest] werereaching a tipping point for smart hubs opening the door to new homesand office services, he told TechNewsWorld.

That development could require a shift away from wired devices  such as earbudsfor smartphones  to Bluetooth-enabled headphones and speakers.

This could also portend the rise of other wireless peripherals thatleverage smartphone brains for enhanced functions and services, Kingsuggested.

Seeing  or in the case of wearable devices, not seeing  may be believing.

Wearables are going to be more present and more invisible than ever in 2018, said Julie Sylvester, a producer at Living in Digital Times.

Longer battery life, more fashionable form factors, easier to wear, and more sustainability are going to contribute to wider adoption of wearables in 2018, she told TechNewsWorld.

Where wearables are worn likely will continue to evolve in 2018 and beyond.

More and more workplaces will be either issuing wearables to theiremployees or making accommodations for wearables, said Robin Raskin,founder of Living in Digital Times.

They could be used for training, facility access and evenpayment. Glasses may make a comeback in the workplace, for applications such as training,she told TechNewsWorld.

In addition, expect new wearables that involve other senses  haptics,environmentally responsive fabrics, brain stimulators, she said. Were going tosee lots more of those.

Circuits could be woven into the bioengineered materials  thinkleatherless leather  which could be useful for retailersand consumers alike.

Imagine a tag that knows that its real not counterfeit, or that itsleft inventory, or that the owner should get a coupon for shoes tomatch, said Raskin.

Facial Recognition: The Best ID

Putting ones best face forward could be the akin to showing a photo ID. Just as fingerprints can be matched to one individual, the characteristics of ones face also are unique  even though people may seem to look alike. Facial recognition technology could becomefar more widespread in 2018.

Apple already has taken a leap with the release of the iPhoneX, which allows users to unlock the handset by looking at it.

Apples products have pushed wide public adoption of a number oftechnologies, from WiFi to streaming music to virtual keyboards,observed futurist Michael Rogers.

Apple isnt the only company to explore the possibilities.

Facial recognition is already here, behind the scenes in anincreasing number of commercial and public spaces, Rogers told TechNewsWorld. Soon it will show up everywhere from cash registers and ATMs to homesecurity systems and smart signs that tailor content to the viewer.

The ease of simply being scanned to be recognized maycome with a downside, however.

It will represent another significant loss of privacy  this time,public anonymity, Rogers explained. It may be some kind of consumerapplication that actually creates the most public concern  somethingalong the lines, perhaps, of Whos that cute girl?'

Mobile Phones: Video and Convergence

It would be easy to suggest that the years 2007 to 2017  from thearrival of the first iPhone to the latest model  have been thedecade of the smartphone. Apples iPhone and Googles Android operating system helped grow and transform the market, snatching it from previously dominant BlackBerry and Palm.

The smartphone has become the ubiquitous device that is carried byalmost everyone almost everywhere. 2018 wont be the year of thesmartphone, but it could be the year the smartphone does even more.

Video will drive the market for mobile service and devices in 2018,said Steve Blum, principal analyst at Tellus Venture Associates.

Consumer electronics is collapsing into a two-product industry smartphones and big screen televisions  and the balance is tippingtowards phones, he told TechNewsWorld.

The end of Net neutrality will accelerate the shift, as the big fourU.S. mobile carriers use their control over network traffic andservice pricing to sell more content and capture more viewing time,Blum added.

Its likely that an old buzzword could make a comeback.

That is convergence,' said University of Marylands Purtilo.

I base this prediction on the emergence of tools for leanmanufacturing of progressive apps, which are browser-based programsthat work seamlessly across many platforms, he explained.Instead of making one app for an iPhone and a second for Android, abuilder can create a single product for all, and leverage very clevercaching techniques to ensure it works fast too.

That could keep build costs low, while inviting developers to investeffort into designing products that combine the functionality of many smaller apps.

Why have dozens of inconsistent apps on your phone when one servicewith a common interface will offer better value? Purtilo pondered.Consumers will converge on progressive apps because of the utility,and companies will have business incentives to be the ones offeringconsumers those services.
By Jonathan Rosenblum

Its the middle of the frigid, long midnight at Tapkaurak Point, a spit of gravel curling out into the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska. Up in the middle of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the largest remaining wilderness area in the U.S., the sun set weeks ago and wont peek above the horizon until the middle of January.

If you were there now, bundled up against the minus-20-degree chill, you could climb the low bluff at Tapkaurak, turn away from the frozen sea, and in the dim light cast by the moon and the stars youd take in the expansive arctic plain giving way to the craggy Brooks Range to the south. In the middle of the plain, if the aurora borealis is bright enough, you might see poking out of the snow cover an upright postphysically insignificant but utterly out of place in the treeless Arctic landscape.

The post isnt a trivial anomaly. It stands as a warning sign for all of us, advertising the ambitions of Big Oil to turn this place from a wilderness into an industrial profit mill. Wedged into last months $1.5 billion tax cut law, which benefits mostly the 1 percent, is a provision opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to commercial oil drilling.

After decades of being denied access to the refuge, the oil companies have achieved a legislative milestone. And absent a movement of popular resistance combined with legal action, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will join the growing list of places around the world plundered by CEOs and a political elite who put profits before people and the planet. We can and must stop them.

Fourteen summers ago I was fortunate to visit Tapkaurak Point, and saw up close what the future holds for the refuge if Trump, Congress and Big Oil get their way. I landed my kayak at Tapkaurak toward the end of a two-week Arctic refuge paddling trip with three friends. We had gone down the Kongakut River and along the Beaufort coast toward the village of Kaktovik, arriving at Tapkaurak late in the evening in mid-July. We ascended the bluff. To the north, the gravel tidelands of the spit gave way to a lagoon, bounded by a long narrow reef. Beyond the reef lay the Beaufort pack ice. To the south of us spread miles of arctic plain, sedge grass lit up in brilliant gold by the midnight sun. Beyond, the peaks of the Brooks Range, wearing a new coat of white snow, stood out boldly against the blue sky. And then we saw the post.

We walked toward it, through marshy fields of just-thawed permafrost dotted with tufts of wispy Alaska cotton and bladder campiona hardy purple-and-pink-striped Japanese lantern-shaped flower just a few inches high. Red-necked phalaropes, readying for their late-summer flight to South America, bathed in small pools of water.



Alaska cotton is abundant in the Arctic tundra regions. Oil and gas development strips the landscape of vegetation and in the Arctic, destroys permafrost. Jonathan Rosenblum



The delicate bladder campion is a uniquely designed wildflower that blooms in late spring. Jonathan Rosenblum

The tufts of dirt pushed up by permafrost were laced with small animal holes, and the snowy owl feathers scattered around were evidence that the birds had been hunting recently. The thousands of caribou who spend summers on the Arctic coast had already headed south into the Brooks Range, but sprinkled around the plain were antlersshed after calving season, or perhaps the remnants of animals taken by predators.

Approaching the post we saw that it was a solid iron column, welded with the letters, CHEVRON USA INC. This was the KIC-1 drilling site, the secretive test well Chevron was allowed to drill in 1986. Crews bored three miles down, at a cost of $40 million, before capping the site, dismantling the drilling platform and going home.



Chevrons KIC-1 post at the companys secretive test well Jonathan Rosenblum

Chevron executives know what the well found, but they arent telling. Years ago, a court gave the company the right to withhold the information from the public.

Even with Chevrons claim to have remediated the site, half-buried construction trash surrounds the post: Metal cans and grating, cloth, wood, and glass bottles, all of it ever-so-slowly deteriorating in the cold, dry Arctic. Trash does not compost up thereit lingers on.

Compared to the surrounding permafrost marshes, which were teeming with grasses, flowers and low shrubs, the land around the drilling site was mostly a bare brown, compacted from the weight of heavy vehicles and machinery that visited a generation earlier.

A short way to the south, more shapes rose from the plain. We slogged across the swampy ground to investigate. These werent test drilling holes. It was an old Inupiat graveyard. The grave markers, in various stages of decay, were made of wood. Raymond Nanolo, Dead August 12 1933. Another, name undistinguishable, had a 1922 date on it. They were trappers and hunters, people with tremendous ingenuity, self-reliance and stamina who walked lightly on the land, as their ancestors had for the last 3,000 years.

The next night, as we launched our boats off the gravel of Tapkaurak Point and headed west, I looked back at the arctic plain and the iron post. It was a small pinprick on the vast horizon. But even this tiny human experiment had left an indelible mark on the land, with its trashed-out site and barren ground.

What Trump and Congress aim to do is take the human destruction at Tapkauraks KIC-1 site and expand it by many orders of magnitude. Even with new technologies like horizontal drilling, oil and gas production is a big deal, requiring powerful drills chewing through the earth, endless miles of pipes and electrical transmission lines reaching over the horizon, and slurries of mud and other waste. And then there are accidents.

For comparison, you could just look 120 miles west of Tapkaurak, at the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and the 800-mile pipeline that extends from the fields to the south through Alaska. Those fields and pipeline at one point averaged 500 oil spills a year.

Its no wonder that 70 percent of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, oppose drilling in the Arctic refuge.

Why Americans Will Never Agree on Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge https://t.co/5jueNgalae @WWF_Arctic @savethearctic @EU_ARCTIC_FORUM  EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) December 22, 2017

The Trump administrations Christmas gift isnt intended for anyone but a very narrow band of one percentersAlaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who conditioned her tax bill aye vote to the Arctic drilling proviso, and the CEOs and major shareholders of Big Oil, who salivate at the idea of opening up the Arctic refuge to their profiteering.

Yet even with the passage of the law, resistance is not futile; indeed, it must be redoubled and join up with other fights to save the environment from oil profiteers. Two years ago, Shell Oil executives, facing a growing movement of mounting, creative protests and negative publicity, pulled their drilling operations out of the western Alaskan Chukchi Sea.

The Native American-led DefundDAPL movement has persuaded cities, organizations, tribes and individuals to withdraw more than $4 billion from Wells Fargo Bank because of its funding of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Three European banks pulled their funding for DAPL after the mass demonstrations at Standing Rock.

Now, a broad coalition of Native American and First Nation activists, including the DefundDAPL leadership, has launched a divestment campaign aimed at funders of proposed tar sands pipelines in Canada. Through direct actions, including militant bank office takeovers, the movement is building public awareness and pressing banks to withhold capital from these controversial projects.

Activist leaders recognize the need for hardball tactics.

Big Oil, multinational corporations and their financial backers are not persuaded by moral and environmental arguments, explained Matt Remle, a Lakota Nation leader and co-founder of Mazaska Talks (Mazaska is a Lakota word for money). Theyre capitalist and they are persuaded by one thing, money.

Just last month, activists pushed the Los Angeles City Council to disqualify Wells Fargo from doing business with the city.

These boycott movements, led by native peoples and environmental groups like 350.org, are just getting going.

Now, with the latest congressional action, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge joins the list of places to defend with organizing, boycotts and direct action, in addition to legal challenges.

Big Oil and their political patrons are counting on the reality that few people outside of the native Inupiat and the occasional kayak tourist will ever get a chance to stand at Tapkaurak Point and take in the splendor of the surrounding wilderness, or stand in silent awe in the burial ground of a people who lived in harmony with the arctic since before the time of King Solomon, Jesus of Nazareth, or the Prophet Mohammed. Only a handful of us will ever spy that ominous totem standing in the near distance of the Arctic plain, warning us that this all could go away in a handful of years.

But you dont have to go there to recognize that whats at stake is a lot more than the risk of scarred ground, ruined vistas, desecrated grave sites and a polluted wilderness. Rather, the destruction of the Arctic refuge would stand as a totem to the triumph of the capitalist drive for profit over the humane stewardship of our planet. We must not let that happen.

Reposted with permission from our media associate AlterNet.
By Jessica Corbett

A watchdog group that monitors U.S. government websites released a new report on Wednesday detailing serious concerns about censorship and the systemic manner in which the Trump administration is misleading the public about the environment, energy and the climate crisis.

The report, Changing the Digital Climate: How Climate Change Web Content is Being Censored Under the Trump Administration, is the third in a series by the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), an international network of academics and nonprofits that launched shortly after the election of President Donald Trump with the goal of archiving publicly available environmental data and ensuring its continued availability.

One of Trumps first moves as president was to launch a new White House website devoid of any reference to the threats posed by the climate crisis, but since then, other agencies have also made significant revisions to websites controlled by the federal government.

EDGIs report, which documents changes made to content on federal websites during the first year of the Trump presidency, emphasizes how such changes can increase public confusion, make it harder for experts and policymakers to make informed decisions, boost climate denialism and diminish our democratic institutions.

These websites provide the public access to scientific results funded by their tax dollars, support democratic process by serving as an authoritative and easily accessible source for the public to educate themselves on key climate change issues, and provide a bulwark against efforts to obscure or cast doubt on accepted science on politically sensitive topics, the report notes. Alterations to these federal websites can thus have very broad consequences.

The report highlights five key findings:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has notably amended its climate change website in ways that raise strong concerns about loss of access to valuable information for state, local and tribal governments, and for educators, policymakers and the general public.

Several agencies have removed or significantly reduced how prominently climate change information is featured on webpages, documents and entire websites.

The EPA, State Department and Department of Energy have all removed information about the governments international commitments to addressing the climate crisis.

Agencies have revised materials to downplay the harmful impacts of using fossil fuels and the need to transition to renewable energy, while increasing an emphasis on job creation as a top priority.

Language about climate change has been systemically changed across multiple agencies and program websites to replace climate change and greenhouse gases with vaguer terms.

While we cannot determine the reasons for these changes from monitoring websites alone, the report acknowledges, our work reveals shifts in stated priorities and governance and an overall reduction in access to climate change information, particularly at the EPA, which has taken many notable actions to censor scientists since Trump took office.

The EDGI report features a lengthy statement from Gretchen Goldman, the research director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who ties the sporadic but significant website changes to the Trump administrations broader sentiment toward scientific research and policies that involve the global climate crisis.

The scientific community gets the message loud and clear: study of climate change is no longer welcome within the government enterprise, Goldman said. Under the current administration, a federal scientist simply doing his or her job might be viewed as defiant or disloyal.

Pointing to documented cases of researchers self-censoring or second-guessing their work in the age of President Trump, Goldman warns, The frightening long-term consequence of such censorship is that we may have fewer scientists working on one of the most complex and urgent scientific problems of our time.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.
By Jamie Rappaport Clark

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) enacted by Congress turns 100 this year, and has been read by federal agencies, including the Department of Justice and the courts, as protecting birds not just from unauthorized hunting but also from being trapped, poisoned or mangled by industrial operations. Migratory birds are increasingly threatened by land development, habitat loss and the effects of climate change.

On Dec. 22, 2017, the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior issued a legal memorandum reversing the longstanding interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to exempt industryincluding the oil and gas industry, powerlines and wind energyfrom compliance with the U.S. commitment under international agreements to protect migratory birds.



Snow geese.

This new legal interpretation flies in the face of what every administration since the 1970s has held to be true: The Migratory Bird Treaty Act strictly prohibits the unregulated killing of birds. Instead, Trumps Interior Department has gone out of its way to turn the acts straightforward language into a giant loophole for companies whose activities routinely kill birds.

Thursday, a bipartisan coalition of 17 former Department of the Interior officials spanning the last 40 years sent a letter to Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke condemning a legal reinterpretation of the MBTA that could result in the unregulated killing of birds.

The coalition wrote:

The MBTA can and has been successfully used to reduce gross negligence by companies that simply do not recognize the value of birds to society or the practical means to minimize harm. Your new interpretation needlessly undermines a history of great progress, undermines the effectiveness of the migratory bird treaties, and diminishes U.S. leadership.

Birds are, quite literally, the proverbial canary in the coal mine. How birds fare in the world indicates how all wildlife and habitat, and by extension human populations, will fare. It is not just poetry that led Rachel Carson to title her seminal work, Silent Spring. All the past administrations for which we have worked have struck a balance and worked diligently and in good faith with industries that had significant impacts on birds, such as oil and gas, coal, electric utilities, commercial fishing, communications, transportation, national defense, and others to reasonably address unintended take. It can be done. In fact, it has been done.

In a world where connections to nature are becoming ever more tenuous, birds are the wildlife that Americans encounter daily. Whether we are conservationists, birdwatchers, hunters or just citizens who enjoy the natural world, conserving birds is a common interest. In addition, we must consider how our treaty partners in Canada, Mexico, Japan and Russia will view this new interpretation. Only a few years ago, the U.S. exchanged formal diplomatic notes with Canada reaffirming our countries common interpretation that incidental killing of birds was prohibited by the treaty.

Just as Theodore Roosevelt declared and demonstrated, we, as Federal officials, endeavored to strike a balance between development and conservation. We recognized that strict liability must be tempered with common sense notions of reasonable foreseeability and readily available alternatives. We are anxious to explore this balance and provide you with an approach that we can all support, and one that will continue the proud record of U.S. leadership in conserving birds.



Jamie Rappaport Clark

As former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton, I signed this letter because it is shameful that the Trump administration will celebrate the milestone of 100 years of protecting migratory birds by weakening this critical bedrock environmental law at the expense of wildlife.



Jamie Rappaport Clark

From the remotest wilderness to right in our own backyards, birds connect us to the glory of our natural surroundings. We must protect them today, and for the future.

Jamie Rappaport Clark has been with Defenders of Wildlife since February 2004 as executive vice president. In October 2011, she took the reins as president and CEO.
By Brett Walton

State of the State speeches are where governors sketch their legislative priorities and report on the overall health of their dominions. The state of the state is almost always strong and water issues are occasionally mentioned.

Below are summaries of the governors references to water, climate and the environment.

This post will be updated throughout speech season, which concludes on March 12 with Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana.

Alabama

Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican who took office last year after the previous governor resigned, did not mention water or the environment, other than to say that state agencies have improved their communication during disastrous weather.

Because she grew up in a small town in a rural county, Ivey said that rural Alabama is central to [her] legislative agenda. Broadband and health services were two items mentioned.

Arizona

As in past years, Gov. Doug Ducey used his speech to take a jab at a neighbors water policies.

Because in Arizona, we know the recipe for success, the first-term Republican said. Lower taxes. Light regulation. Great public schools. Superior quality of life. And responsible water policies that will protect us from sharing in Californias water crisis.

Not all is harmonious in his own house, though. Ducey hinted at the power struggle between two agenciesthe Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which manages the states main Colorado River canal, and the Arizona Department of Water Resources, the primary state water agencyover which will take the lead on state water policy.

Ducey implied that the agencies should stop quarreling and mimic earlier state leaders who put in place Arizonas landmark groundwater management law in 1980.

We must follow their lead and put forward responsible policies that will ensure Arizona speaks with one voice to secure the states future for generations to come.

Idaho

Gov. Butch Otter, in his last State of the State, dedicated a not-insignificant portion of his speech to recapping the years precipitation, which was the 12th wettest on record in Idaho. Otter, a Republican, also noted an agreement to conserve water in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.

As I said, it was a big year for water, whether it was falling from the sky or being recharged into Idahos largest underground reservoir. Runoff from last years snowpack on top of saturated soils required careful, coordinated management of dams and reservoirs.

The effort successfully reduced flooding and ensured that dam structures were secure. Meanwhile it provided a full allocation of water in the Boise River and Snake River reservoirs and plenty of carryover for use in 2018.

Just as importantly, for the first time since the 1950s we put more water back into the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer than we pumped out in 2017. Water levels in the Lake Erie-sized aquifer had been dropping at an average rate of 215,000 acre-feet per year for 60 years.

But last year the Idaho Water Resource Board worked with private canal companies to recharge 317,000 acre-feet of water. A landmark settlement agreement between surface water users and ground water users resulted in a net gain of another 200,000 acre-feet.

Along with the wet weather, the result was a 660,000-acre-foot increase in water storage in the aquifer. Without our work together on these issues it would have been impossible to realize these historic advances in managing and protecting our most precious and fragile natural resource.

Indiana

As he did in his first State of the State last year, Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, spoke about the need to repair Indianas water systems. A priority, he said is to identify the highest needs for utilities, which a state agency will help accomplish over the next two years.

Its also high time for Indiana to address our aging water infrastructure. State oversight is spread across several agencies, so were going to form the executive branch governance structure needed to manage our operations and long-term strategy.

Were eager to work with lawmakers to get the ball rolling.

In the meantime, Ill direct the Indiana Finance Authority to designate half a million dollars each of the next two years for development of asset management plans for high-need water and wastewater utilities.

Iowa

The former lieutenant governor, Gov. Kim Reynolds, gave her first State of the State address. Like her predecessor, Reynolds, a Republican, stressed the need for cleaner waters. A keystone in the nations agriculture industry and a state within the Mississippi River watershed, Iowa has been a battleground for nitrate pollution for years.

Improving water quality is a shared goal of Iowans. Urban and rural stakeholders have worked collaboratively making great strides.

My hope is that a water quality bill is the first piece of legislation I sign as governor.

Let me assure you, passage of this monumental legislation does not mean the water quality discussion is over; rather it ignites the conversation to implement and scale practices that will continue to make an impact on water quality.

Kansas

In his final State of the State, Gov. Sam Brownback was dreaming dreams. The two-term Republican, ready to leave Kansas for a Trump administration post, had visions of renewable energy and sustainable groundwater use.

I dream of a future Kansas exporting wind electricity across America. A Kansas known as the Renewable State. It could well be that in the future, those who have the wind resource will flourish like those who now have oil. We are growing as an energy state.

Dream with me of an Ogallala Aquifer that never runs dry because the use is sustainable. Of our reservoirs dredged, renewed and supplying the water we need in times of severe drought. Of us having a legal, binding allotment of water from the Missouri River and of an Arkansas River with water in its whole course.

New York

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said that lawmakers must recognize the risks of water pollution.

The two-term Democrat outlined four water priorities: cleaning up a nearly four-mile-long plume of groundwater at a former Northrop Grumman and Naval base that is contaminated with 1,4-dioxane and other chemicals; suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to continue the PCB cleanup in the Hudson River; halting the spread of harmful algal blooms; and addressing polluted discharges at the Niagara Falls wastewater treatment plant.

Second, we face new challenges threatening our safety and quality of life: terrorism, climate change, environmental threats, including to our drinking water, and the growing opioid epidemic, a scourge across our state, that claimed more than 3,000 lives last year

The growing concentration of chemicals and pollution in some areas is literally poisoning the water. In the beautiful lakes upstate, toxic algae is spreading. On Long Island, the Grumman plume carries 30 years of industrial stains and contaminants.

Washington

Gov. Jay Inslee, a two-term Democrat, told lawmakers that they have a duty to focus on our legacy, which can be long. Voting rights, internet access, education, mental health, birth control, opioidsall worthy and weighty topics on their ownwere lead-ins for Inslees big pitch: that Washington state ought to begin taxing carbon emissions.

We must recognize an existential threat to the health of our state, a threat to the health of our children, and a threat to the health of our businesses that demands action, he said. That threat is climate change.

Revenue from a carbon tax, which would start at $20 per ton under the governors plan and bring in an estimated $1.5 billion in the first two years, could help Washington in a number of ways, Inslee said. On the environment he mentioned upgrading irrigation and water utility systems and reducing pollution in waterways.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Circle of Blue.
New York Citys iconic Empire State Building glowed green Wednesday night following two

watershed announcementsthat the city would seek to divest its pension funds from fossil fuel investments, and that it filed suit against five oil giants for contributing to climate change.

The Empire State Building is shining green tonight because its time to put our planet first. #DivestNY, Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio

tweeted Wednesday.

350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, a major campaigner in the global divestment movement, remarked in a tweet about the green lighting, Just this once I think its worth the carbon!

The Belgium-based European Green Party also chimed in and advocated for European leaders to follow the Big Apples footsteps.

Lets join #DivestNY and #DivestEurope for a Green and sustainable future for us and generations to come, the party said on social media.

[instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BdzuCIHl2Lf/?hl=en&tagged=empirestatebuilding expand=1]

The divestment movement has grown in the U.S. and around the world. In November, Norway proposed to sell off all of its shares (about $35 billion) in oil and natural gas holdings.

Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer said they intend to divest New York Citys $5 billion in securities of over 190 fossil fuel companies.

New Yorks lawsuit, filed in federal court, names BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell as defendants. The city seeks billions of dollars in damages and alleges the fossil fuel industry knew for decades that burning fuels drives global warming.

Environmentalists cheered the citys historic announcement.

Today was an incredible day, author and investigative journalist Naomi Klein

tweeted. Hearing the mayor of the biggest city in the richest country on earth announce a lawsuit against 5 oil majors for climate damages AND fossil fuel divestment? Wow. We needed this. We will build on it.
By Katherine Paul and Alexis Baden-Mayer

If nutritional quality and animal welfare issues factor into your egg-buying decisions, get ready for more bad news out of the Trump administrations U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA plans to ditch rules, finalized under the Obama administration, that would have required organic egg producers to provide hens with more space and more outdoor access.

The Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP) Rule was the result of a 14-year effort by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to tighten up animal welfare rules for organic egg producers.

The OLPP was set to be enacted in January 2017. But under the incoming Trump administrations regulatory freeze, the rule was delayed multiple times. Now the USDA wants to throw it out completely.

If the agency succeeds, organic egg producers wont have to follow updated animal welfare rulesrules that the industry fought for, and that consumers overwhelmingly support.

Why would the USDA get rid of this law? To help Big Organic egg producers who already routinely ignore existing animal welfare standards keep pocketing higher profits.

If the OLPP is thrown out, fake organic egg producers will get to keep their production costs low. This will allow them to continue underselling smaller organic producers who follow the rules. At the same time, they capture a big share of the organic egg market by selling their eggs under the USDA Organic seal.

In other words, its a great way to feather their nests.

These practices not only make it more difficult for smaller organic egg farmers to compete, they also cheat consumers who believe certified organic means higher animal welfare standards. Instead consumers are unknowingly buying eggs from producers who run nothing more than industrial-scale operations indistinguishable from factory farms apart from the type of feed they use. The result are eggs of inferior nutritional quality. (Studies show that authentic certified organic eggs have a deeper yoke color which translates into higher levels of Vitamin A, Omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin E and beta carotene).

Better nutrition and better animal welfare standards arent the only benefit for consumers who buy authentic certified organic eggs. Organic eggs produced by ethical farms where hens have real access to pasture, including organic regenerative poultry systems, have far less impact on the environment than those that come from factory farm-type egg operations that pollute with impunity.

Who are the Big Organic egg producers? Cal-Maine Foods and Herbrucks, which was the subject of a Washington Post expose last year. Herbrucks sells some of its eggs under the Egglands Best brand. But the bulk of the eggs sold by these producers end up on store shelves under private label (store brand) names.

In fact, most retail grocery chains that sell organic eggs under their own label (think Aldis Simply Nature, Whole Foods 365 Organic, Trader Joes, Kroger Simple Truth, Costco, Walmart, etc.) get their eggs from huge factory farm-type operations that routinely violate USDA National Organic Program (NOP) rules.

Lobbyists for the Cal-Maine and Herbrucks claim theyll have to get out of the organic market if the new OLPP rule is allowed to stand. Christopher Nichols, third-generation egg farmer in California told the Los Angeles Times thats bunk:

Dont let them fool you. They knew darn well that they were building these buildings out of compliance. And they knew that when this day came, that they were going to have to face this decision. But they probably figured that they had the money and the political muscle to overrule it.

Smaller producers, Nichols told the LA Times, just dont have that.

Is there still time to keep the USDA from scuttling the new rule? Maybe.

The USDA reopened a 30-day comment period. Consumers and others have until January 17 to tell the USDA to enact the OLPP. You can comment here. Please also take action here.
Lieutenant Governor pays tribute to Parish Captain



Hazel Lace was appointed to the role of Captain of the Parish of Maughold in 2004.

The Island's Lieutenant Governor has paid tribute to the Captain of the Parish of Maughold following her death.

Hazel Lace, who was appointed Captain of the Parish in 2004, died on Christmas Eve.

Sir Richard Gozney says her death with be a great loss to the Parish of Maughold.

A new Captain of the Parish will be appointed in due course.
Surgical patients are twice as likely to throw out leftover pain medication when informed of appropriate methods for disposal, according to Journal of American College of Surgeons study findings

CHICAGO (Jan. 11, 2018): Unused prescription painkillers lying around the home have proven to be a major source of drugs supplying the nation's opioid epidemic,1 but a new patient education brochure that describes safe disposal practices of unused pain pills can be a low-cost and effective way of getting patients to properly dispose of their leftover medications, according to study results published as an "article in press" on the website of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons ahead of print.

Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, reported that adult patients who received the brochure were twice as likely to dispose of their opioids properly than those who did not receive the brochure. The study involved 334 patients who underwent operations at Washington University's upper extremity/peripheral nerve clinic from February to September 2017, 170 who received the brochure and 164 who did not. Patients who received the brochure disposed of opioids at a rate of 22 percent vs. 11 percent among those who did not.

"There is strong data indicating that prescription opioid use is a risk for heroin use," study coauthor Katherine B. Santosa, MD, said, citing a 2012 study that found that 86 percent of intravenous drug users reported having misused opioid pain relievers before using heroin.2 "Initiation of misuse occurred through three main sources: family, friends, or personal prescriptions," Dr. Santosa said.

The opioid crisis has been well documented. The Centers for Disease Control has reported that 33,091 drug overdose deaths in 2015 were attributed to opioid abuse, quadrupling since 1999. In 2016, drug overdose deaths overall rose to 64,070, a 21 percent increase over 2015. The nation's health care tab has risen proportionally, to more than $700 million annually for prescription opioid overdoses alone through 2012.3

Opioids are effective for treating pain after operations, but previous studies have shown that people who have surgery often get prescriptions for more pills than they need and end up keeping the medications in their homes instead of throwing them out. Too often surgical patients do not get instructions on how to dispose of unused pain pills. Jessica Hasak, MPH, and coauthors cited a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration finding that nearly 70 percent of people surveyed obtained their most recently used pain reliever or sedative divergently from a friend or family member.4

A team consisting of attending surgeons, a clinical fellow, a nurse practitioner, a research nurse coordinator, and patient service and education administrators designed the educational brochure that describes drug disposal methods based on Food and Drug Administration guidelines and published medical reports. The brochure included key points about the opioid epidemic and the problem with unsafe disposal, step-by-step instructions for proper disposal in the trash, including discarding the empty bottle, and websites that provide lists of drug take-back locations.

Ms. Hasak explained that the self-disposal method the brochure described recommends mixing unused opioid medications with undesirable household substances such as coffee grounds, soil, kitty litter, or dish detergent in a plastic food storage bag and disposing the mixture in the trash. One challenge was to reconcile conflicting disposal recommendations from different government agencies.

"We were encouraged by our findings and have now designed and are testing an even more straightforward one-page brochure to see if disposal will be even more efficient," Ms. Hasak said. The new brochure encourages patients to mix unused opioid medications with liquid dish detergent in a plastic food storage bag. "Our thought was that the simpler and easier for the patient the instructions and disposal method can be, the more likely we as medical practitioners will be to empower them to do something about the problem," Ms. Hasak added.

The Washington University researchers hope that their findings will encourage widespread use of a similar intervention in surgery clinics around the country. "Our big goal is to empower everyone to potentially save a life of a young person by getting a national campaign led from the ground up to clean these drugs out of medicine cabinets," said coauthor Susan E. Mackinnon, MD, FACS. Added Dr. Santosa, "Considering that early exposure to opioid pain medications is a significant risk for future use of illegal substances, we must empower everyone, perhaps through a national campaign, to get these dangerous drugs out of American medicine cabinets."

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Dr. Santosa, Dr.Mackinnon, and Ms. Hasak are with the division of plastic reconstructive surgery, department of surgery, Washington University School of Medicine. Other coauthors participating in the study are Carrie L. Roth Bettlach, NP, also of the division of plastic surgery at Washington University; Ellen Larson of Washington University School of Medicine; and Jean Stroud, RN, MBA, BSN, of Barnes Jewish Hospital.

Dr. Santosa was supported in part from the National Institute's of Health-National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital provided study support.

Citation: Empowering Post-Surgical Patients to Improve Opioid Disposal: A Before and After Quality Improvement Study. Journal of the American College of Surgeons.http://www.journalacs.org/article/S1072-7515(17)32143-9/abstract

1 Dart RC, Surratt HL, Cicero TJ, et al. Trends in opioid analgesic abuse and mortality in the United States. N Engl J Med 2015;372:241-248.

2 Lankenau SE, Teti M, Silva K, Jackson Bloom J, Harocopos A, Treese M. Initiation into prescription opioid misuse amongst young injection drug users. Int J Drug Policy. 2012 Jan;23(1):37-44.

3 Hsu DJ, McCarthy EP, Stevens JP, Mukamal KJ. Hospitalizations, costs and outcomes associated with heroin and prescription opioid overdoses in the United States 2001-12. Addiction (Abingdon, England). 2017 Sep;112(9):1558-64.

4 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. Results from the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings. Available at: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUHresults2012/NSDUHresults2012.pdf. Accessed January 3, 2018.

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 80,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit http://www.facs.org (.)
BOSTON-- While the risk of pregnancy is low after female sterilization procedures, 60 percent of pregnancies that do occur result in a live birth, according to a new study. Researchers looked at data from close to 1,000 pregnancies after failed outpatient and surgical sterilization procedures and found that while neither option was associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, outpatient procedures were more likely to result in a live birth and less likely to result in an ectopic pregnancy, which occurs outside of the uterus, when compared to surgical options.

The risk of becoming pregnant after sterilization is rare, occurring in less than one percent of all women who have a procedure. There is little research comparing the pregnancy outcomes of laparoscopic, requiring surgery, and hysteroscopic sterilization, which generally takes place in an outpatient setting. During laparoscopic sterilization, surgeons clamp, block, or sever and seal a woman's fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy. During hysteroscopic procedures, a tiny device is inserted into each fallopian tube. Scar tissue will form around the device to block the tubes and prevent pregnancy.

Each procedure carries its own risks; this study did not explore or comment on risks outside of pregnancy outcomes after sterilization failure.

Researchers looked at pregnancy outcomes using the MarketScan Database, which includes health data from about half of U.S. women with private insurance. They found women who had outpatient hysteroscopic sterilization were 32 percent more likely have a live birth than those who had laparoscopic surgery. Those women were also 88 percent less likely to have an ectopic pregnancy. Both groups experienced similar risk of having a miscarriage or preterm birth, and stillbirths were rare.

There were relatively small differences overall between women with hysteroscopic and laparoscopic sterilizations, with most pregnancies resulting in a live birth. Researchers say this is data that can help physicians counsel patients who are considering sterilization procedures.

The study was published online in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

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About Boston Medical Center

Boston Medical Center is a private, not-for-profit, 487-bed, academic medical center that is the primary teaching affiliate of Boston University School of Medicine. It is the largest and busiest provider of trauma and emergency services in New England. It offers specialized care for complex health problems and is a leading research institution, receiving more than $117 million in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2016. It is the 13th largest recipient of funding in the U.S. from the National Institutes of Health among independent hospitals. In 1997, BMC founded Boston Medical Center Health Plan, Inc., now one of the top ranked Medicaid MCOs in the country, as a non-profit managed care organization. Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine are partners in the Boston HealthNet - 14 community health centers focused on providing exceptional health care to residents of Boston. For more information, please visit http://www.bmc.org.
Researchers at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) discover that the members of a protein family from the plant internal clock act sequentially to limit the plant growth until the end of the night

The recent award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the three American researchers Hall, Rosbash and Young for their "discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm" has greatly popularized this term -which comes from the Latin words "circa" (around of) and "die" (day)-. Thanks to the discoveries that these scientists did using the fruit fly, today we know that the organisms have an internal clock built of a set of cellular proteins whose amount oscillates in periods of 24 hours. These oscillations, which are autonomously maintained, explain how living organisms adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth's revolutions.

Plants, like animals, also have an internal clock. In fact, the first hypotheses about the existence of a circadian clock in living organisms came with the observation of leaf and flower movements in plants. For example, the leaves of mimosa plants close at night and open during the day. In 1729, the French astronomer Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan placed a mimosa plant in the dark and observed that, despite the absence of the light stimulus, the leaves still opened and closed rhythmically at the appropriate time of the day.

Today's molecular biologists know well that the plant they use the most as a model, the Arabidopsis thaliana, lengthens the stem just before dawn when the days are short (winter). Studies in recent years have shown that this elongation of the stem in the young seedlings is controlled by PIF proteins, whose cellular accumulation depends on sunlight. Thus, light promotes the degradation of PIF proteins during the day. At night, however, PIF proteins accumulate inside the cell and, just before dawn, promote the plant stem growth. But why does the young stalk grow only before dawn and not during the whole night?

The answer to this question came with a work published in 2016 by the group led by the CSIC researcher at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), Elena Monte. That study discovered that an internal clock protein (TOC1 or PRR1) acts as a gate during the night, allowing PIF to act only at the end of the night. Now, a new study by the same CRAG research group, published this week in the journal Current Biology, expands these results. Elena Monte, along with her team and collaborators, has discovered that other components of the same internal clock protein family -the PRR- act sequentially during the day and most of the night to suppress the action of the PIF proteins.

As the clock proteins described by the Nobel Prize winners, the amount of the different PRR proteins (PRR1, PRR5, PRR7 and PRR9) oscillates sequentially in 24-hour periods. At the end of the night, the total amount of PRR proteins in the cell reaches its minimum, allowing the action of PIF proteins, which, due to the absence of light, are at their peak of maximum concentration. Thus, although some PIF proteins are detected during day hours, they cannot promote the extension of the stem until the end of the night, when the gate opens, coinciding with the optimal humidity conditions for the elongation.

"Our results show that the regulation of plant growth has evolved in plants to encompass the orchestrated sequential action of the PRRs. This demonstrates the dual role of the PRRs: as regulators of the central clock components and as physiological repressors of growth", explains Elena Monte. "Thanks to this study, we have learned how the plant circadian clock affects the plant growth, which is an important process at the agronomic level", adds Guiomar Martin, the first author of the work, who is currently at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (Portugal).

CDF5: a new key gene for the stem growth

In the work published this week in Current Biology, the authors carried out an exhaustive analysis of the interactions between the proteins and the DNA of the Arabidopsis thaliana plant. This analysis revealed that the CDF5 gene induces stem growth just before dawn. Researchers have shown that the expression of the CDF5 gene is strictly regulated by the union of PIF proteins (which promote its expression) and by PRR clock proteins (which prevent its expression). In this way, CDF5 accumulates specifically during the pre-dawn phase, when it induces the cellular elongation and, consequently, the extension of the stem.

To verify the function of these genes and proteins, the researchers observed the growth of arabidopsis plants carrying mutations in these genes. Plants that had lost one of the PRR family genes (PRR7) grew longer than their wild-type counterparts. The same happened in plants in which the researchers modified the CDF5 gene so it could be expressed during the 24 hours, independently of the PIFs and PRRs actions.

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About the authors

In addition to CRAG research teams led by Elena Monte and Rossana Henriques, researchers from the Universities of Lancaster and Edinburg (United Kingdom), from the Institute for Plant Molecular and Cell Biology (Valencia, Spain) and the Chemical Institute of Sarria (Barcelona, Spain) have also collaborated in the study.

About the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG)

The Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) is a centre that forms part of the CERCA system of research centers of the Government of Catalonia, and which was established as a partnership of four institutions: the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Institute for Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Barcelona (UB). CRAG's research spans from basic research in plant and farm animal molecular biology, to applications of molecular approaches for breeding of species important for agriculture and food production in close collaboration with industry. CRAG has been recognized as "Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2016-2019" by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.
Found in microbial communities around the world, Aspergillus fungi are pathogens, decomposers, and important sources of biotechnologically-important enzymes. Each Aspergillus species is known to contain more than 250 carbohydrate active enzymes (CAzymes), which break down plant cell walls and are of interest to Department of Energy (DOE) researchers working on the industrial production of sustainable alternative fuels using candidate bioenergy feedstock crops. Additionally, each fungal species is thought to contain more than 40 secondary metabolites, small molecules with the potential to act as biofuel and chemical intermediates.

In a study published the week of January 8, 2018 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by researchers at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, and the DOE's Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), report the first results of a long-term plan to sequence, annotate and analyze the genomes of 300 Aspergillus fungi. These findings are a proof of concept of novel methods to functionally annotate genomes in order to more quickly identify genes of interest.

"This is the first outcome from the large-scale sequencing of 300+ Aspergillus species," said study co-author Igor Grigoriev, head of the JGI Fungal Genomics Program. "With the JGI's strategic shift towards functional genomics, this study illustrates several new approaches for functional annotation of genes. Many approaches rely on experiments and go gene by gene through individual genomes. Using Aspergillus, we're sequencing a lot of closely-related genomes to highlight and compare the differences between genomes. A comparative analysis of closely related species with distinct metabolic profiles may result in a relatively small number of species-specific secondary metabolism genes clusters to be mapped to a relatively small number of unique metabolites."

In the study, the team sequenced and annotated 6 Aspergillus species; 4 were sequenced using the Pacific Biosciences platform, producing very high quality genome assemblies that can serve as reference strains for future comparative genomics analyses. A comparative analysis involving these genomes and other Aspergillus genomes--several of which were sequenced by the JGI--was then conducted, and allowed the team to identify biosynthetic gene clusters for secondary metabolites of interest.

"One of the things we found to be interesting here was the diversity of the species we looked at - we picked four that were distantly related," said study senior author Mikael R. Andersen, Professor at DTU. "With that diversity comes also chemical diversity, so we were able to find candidate genes for some very diverse types of compounds. This was based on a new analysis method that first author Inge Kjaerboelling developed. Moreover, we also showed how to solidify said predictions for a given compound by sequencing additional genomes of species known to produce the compound. By looking for genes found in all producer species, we can elegantly pinpoint the genes."

Study co-author Scott Baker, a fungal researcher at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and a member of JBEI's Deconstruction Division, explained why finding candidate genes for diverse compounds matters. "The secondary metabolites are important because they represent such interesting and novel chemistry with regard to the biosynthesis of molecules that could be biofuels, biofuel precursors or bioproducts," he said. "While it is a significant effort to determine the structures of purified secondary metabolites, it is often relatively straightforward. However, connecting these molecules to their biosynthetic pathways can be quite challenging. We show that using comparative genomics can efficiently lead to reasonable predictions of gene clusters involved in biosynthetic pathways."

Grigoriev added that to date, about 30 Aspergillus genomes have been published, an additional 25 genomes are publicly available from the JGI fungal genomes portal Mycocosm (genome.jgi.doe.gov/Aspergillus), and over 100 genomes are being sequenced and analyzed.

As the JGI continues to fulfill its Strategic Plan of evolving into more of a Functional Genomics-capable User Facility, integrating genomic sequence, expression, computational and metabolic analyses, and biochemical information into a more complete picture of biology relevant to DOE missions, cross-Facility and cross-disciplinary efforts such as this one will become even more important. Characterizing the identity and roles of secondary metabolites, and the genes necessary for their generation, is critical to this effort and can provide potential tools for improving the ability to process recalcitrant biomass into precursors for biofuels and bioproducts.

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Senior author and JGI collaborator Mikael R. Andersen spoke about the project at the 2017 DOE JGI Genomics of Energy & Environment Meeting. Watch his talk at http://bit.ly/JGI2017Andersen.

The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is committed to advancing genomics in support of DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup. DOE JGI, headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., provides integrated high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis that enable systems-based scientific approaches to these challenges. Follow @doe_jgi on Twitter.

EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., EMSL offers an open, collaborative environment for scientific discovery to researchers around the world. Its integrated computational and experimental resources enable researchers to realize important scientific insights and create new technologies. Follow EMSL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

DOE's Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
By exploiting the properties of neutrons to probe electrons in a metal, a team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has gained new insight into the behavior of correlated electron systems, which are materials that have useful properties such as magnetism or superconductivity.

The research, to be published in Science, shows how well scientists can predict the properties and functionality of materials, allowing us to explore their potential to be used in novel ways.

How do you get to a stage where the models are reliable? This paper shows that we can now theoretically model even extremely complex systems. These techniques could accelerate our discovery of new materials. -- Ray Osborn, Argonne senior scientist

Our mission from the Department of Energy is to discover and then understand novel materials that could form the basis for completely new applications, said lead author Ray Osborn, a senior scientist in Argonnes Neutron and X-ray Scattering Group.

Osborn and his colleagues studied a strongly correlated electron system (CePd 3 ) using neutron scattering to overcome the limitations of other techniques and reveal how the compounds electrical properties change at high and low temperatures. Osborn expects the results to inspire similar research.

Being able to predict with confidence the behavior of electrons as temperatures change should encourage a much more ambitious coupling of experimental results and models than has been previously attempted, Osborn said.

In many metals, we consider the mobile electrons responsible for electrical conduction as moving independently of each other, only weakly affected by electron-electron repulsion, he said. However, there is an important class of materials in which electron-electron interactions are so strong they cannot be ignored.

Scientists have studied these strongly correlated electron systems for more than five decades, and one of the most important theoretical predictions is that at high temperatures the electron interactions cause random fluctuations that impede their mobility.

They become bad metals, Osborn said. However, at low temperatures, the electronic excitations start to resemble those of normal metals, but with much-reduced electron velocities.

The existence of this crossover from incoherent random fluctuations at high temperature to coherent electronic states at low temperature had been postulated in 1985 by one of the co-authors, Jon Lawrence, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. Although there is some evidence for it in photoemission experiments, Argonne co-author Stephan Rosenkranz noted that it is very difficult to compare these measurements with realistic theoretical calculations because there are too many uncertainties in modeling the experimental intensities.

The team, based mainly at Argonne and other DOE laboratories, showed that neutrons probe the electrons in a different way that overcomes the limitations of photoemission spectroscopy and other techniques.

Making this work possible are advances in neutron spectroscopy at DOEs Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science User Facility, and the United Kingdoms ISIS Pulsed Neutron Source, which allow comprehensive measurements over a wide range of energies and momentum transfers. Both played critical roles in this study.

Neutrons are absolutely essential for this research, Osborn said. Neutron scattering is the only technique that is sensitive to the whole spectrum of electronic fluctuations in four dimensions of momentum and energy, and the only technique that can be reliably compared to realistic theoretical calculations on an absolute intensity scale.

With this study, these four-dimensional measurements have now been directly compared to calculations using new computational techniques specially developed for strongly correlated electron systems. The technique, known as Dynamical Mean Field Theory, defines a way of calculating electronic properties that include strong electron-electron interactions.

Osborn acknowledged the contributions of Eugene Goremychkin, a former Argonne scientist who led the data analysis, and Argonne theorist Hyowon Park, who performed the calculations. The agreement between theory and experiments was truly remarkable, Osborn said.

Looking ahead, researchers are optimistic about closing the gap between the results of condensed matter physics experiments and theoretical models.

How do you get to a stage where the models are reliable? Osborn said. This paper shows that we can now theoretically model even extremely complex systems. These techniques could accelerate our discovery of new materials.

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Other Argonne authors of the paper, titled Coherent Band Excitations in CePd 3 : A Comparison of Neutron Scattering and ab initio Theory, are Park and John-Paul Castellan of the Materials Science Division. Also contributing to this work were researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia; the University of Illinois at Chicago; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California at Irvine.

Research at Argonne and Los Alamos was funded by DOEs Materials Sciences and Engineering Division of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Research at Oak Ridges SNS was supported by the Scientific User Facilities Division of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Neutron experiments were performed at the SNS and the ISIS Pulsed Neutron Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. Blues, a high-performance computing cluster operated by the Laboratory Computing Resource Center at Argonne, also contributed to this research.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science website.
Health care access nosedives for Mexican immigrants and migrants once they cross into the United States -- and stays that way even if they return to Mexico -- a Drexel University public health study found.

The study, published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved and led by Ana Martinez-Donate, PhD, associate professor in Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health, looked into how mobility affects the ability of people to get health insurance and access health care.

And while roughly 84 percent of Mexican immigrants and migrants were found to have health insurance before they crossed the border, that number fell into the 25 to 50 percent range afterward, the study showed.

Moreover, the ability to get healthcare dropped from 78 percent of all Mexican adults to between 47 and 60 percent once the immigrants/migrants crossed the border.

"Once in the U.S., migrants may have less access than they did in Mexico before they left their communities of origin," explained Martinez-Donate. "And then, after they migrate to the U.S., even when they are back temporarily in Mexico, they may experience barriers to health care access there because they are not covered by the Mexican insurance programs either."

The study used data on more than 1,500 people from a survey of migrant flows conducted in Tijuana, Mexico, a popular border crossing point (between 30 and 40 percent of immigrants and migrants traveled through the city). To get a sense of how the data related to moving in and out of the United States, the researchers broke the data down into different phases to measure health care access in Mexico before they left, what it was like in the United States, and how it was in Mexico once they returned.

"Aspects of health care systems on both sides of the border, such as employer-based health care and minimum-stay requirements for insurance make it difficult for mobile populations to get health care," said Felice Le-Scherban, PhD, assistant professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health who served as a co-author on the study.

Current estimates place the undocumented immigrant population in the United States at 12 million. Much of this population is believed to be young and healthy (as they are largely mobile laborers). And while there is some truth in that notion, the researchers believe that this view of the healthy immigrant/migrant might mask some serious health concerns experienced by a portion of this population.

"Traditionally, we have seen higher rates of occupational injuries owing to the more dangerous types of occupations -- like agriculture and construction -- and less regulated conditions under which this population works," Martinez-Donate explained. "In our ongoing analysis, we are also seeing high rates of obesity and self-reported markers of chronic disease, such as diabetes and hypertension, along with depression, stress and at-risk drinking."

All of this can add up when you forgo regular care, which the study showed a higher rate of immigrants and migrants do. Before they left Mexico, only 6 percent reported doing that, but more than 16 percent who returned said they went without needed medical care.

Additionally, 68 percent of the immigrants/migrants reported having a usual source of care before they left Mexico, compared to just 42 percent of those who returned.

"The lack of access to care impedes effective treatment and, in the case of infectious diseases, may facilitate their transmission to others," Martinez-Donate explained. "For chronic conditions, like diabetes, the lack of treatment may result in complications and the need for more expensive treatments."

Not only were levels of care below what the immigrants and migrants could have expected to receive in Mexico, they were well below U.S. standards. Roughly 74 percent of U.S. adults get regular health care compared to the 47 to 60 percent of Mexican immigrants/migrants.

Martinez-Donate believes that some important changes in policy -- both in the U.S. and Mexico -- can be made to better look after a segment of the population that is critically intertwined with U.S. agriculture, construction and hospitality -- and also sends home $25 billion a year to Mexico.

"Some experts have suggested the development of a portable health insurance program, Matinez-Donate said. "Other options may include expanding eligibility criteria to allow migrants, regardless of immigration status and length of residence, to qualify for the Affordable Care Act and facilitate enrollment in Seguro Popular -- the Mexican insurance program for the unemployed -- if they return."

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Material developed in Brazil measures temperatures in the range of 80-750 kelvin (-193 C to 476 C) and, as described in Scientific Reports, could be used in manufacturing and biological processes.

Can a "thermometer" consist of a thin film or tiny (micrometer or even nanometer scale) particles, operate in real time and in very well-defined regions with a spatial resolution ranging from a centimeter to a micrometer, and be capable of measuring temperatures with exceptional sensitivity in a wide band between 80 kelvin (minus 193 C) and 750 kelvin (476 C)? The answer is yes.

The device, created in the laboratory by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, is described in an article in Scientific Reports. Basically, it is a temperature sensor with practically no effect at all on the temperature of the object.

"Because the device is optical, information on the temperature of the object of interest can be obtained without direct physical contact between them," Zanatta said. "It suffices to project a laser beam onto the sensor and observe how it responds. By measuring the wavelength of the light emitted by the sensor using a detector, the temperature of the object can be determined with great precision," said Antonio Ricardo Zanatta, an investigator at the USP's Sao Carlos Physics Institute and one of project's researchers.

When excited by a laser pulse, the sensor - which consists of a system made of titanium dioxide (TiO2) doped with thulium ions (Tm3+) - emits light at wavelengths that vary depending on the temperature of the environment. A very precise measurement of the wavelength is used to determine this temperature.

The wavelength varies approximately 2 picometers (2x10-12 m) per degree of temperature. Spectroscopy can be used to detect this tiny wavelength variation.

"Variation in the wavelength of the emitted light is absolutely linear between 80 and 750 kelvin, and the device remains integral and stable throughout this temperature range," Zanatta said.

Besides from Zanatta, the project also had contributions from UNICAMP's Gleb Wataghin Physics Institute investigators Fernando Alvarez and Diego Scoca. The research is supported by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP through the Thematic Project "Research and development of nanostructured materials for electronic and surface physics applications", with Alvarez as principal investigator.

A patent application form commercial production has been filed with support from UNICAMP's incubator, the Inova UNICAMP.

Technologic application

Applications of the sensor range from the identification of hotspots in electronic equipment to the detection of viral or bacterial infection in specific regions of an organism. "Because it's capable of measuring a very broad spectrum of temperatures, it can be used in manufacturing - where temperatures sometimes reach very high levels - as well as biological processes, which are highly sensitive to the slightest temperature variations," said Alvarez.

"At this stage," Zanatta points, "we've arranged the material in the form of a thin film. Theoretically, this can be used as a coating for any surface, be it flat or curved, smooth or rough." He says that the material can also be presented as microparticles or nanoparticles.

Although this technological development does not yet exist, in principle, it would be possible to encapsulate the laser emitter, temperature sensor and wavelength detector with a radio communicator inside a small pill.

Swallowed with a little water, the pill would send back temperature data while moving along the digestive tract until its ejection from the organism at the opposite extremity: a futuristic scenario, but not too distant from the science available now.

"A very simple application, which could rapidly be made feasible, would entail coating a plastic substrate with the sensor and fixing it to a patient's skin. It's important to note that titanium dioxide is abundant, easy to obtain, and biocompatible, i.e., non-toxic. It's already used in many medical prosthetic devices," Alvarez said.

As a thin film, the material can be as small as a few square centimeters or reach several square meters for use as a surface coating on components of land vehicles, aircraft or power grid transformers. As micrometric or nanometric particles, it can be dispersed in a liquid medium while remaining solid.

Challenges and the next steps

The need for a dedicated detector is a limiting factor at the present stage, in terms of both the cost and portability of the device.

"The associated instrumentation is costly today, given the need for a laser and a detector," Zanatta said. "We believe, however, that as technology advances, it will be possible to fabricate an integrated device with a semiconductor laser, temperature sensor and detector. And the cost can be considerably reduced when we go from laboratory to industrial scale."

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About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. For more information: http://www.fapesp.br/en.
Clouds are complicated. Each cloud formation depends on the timing of the water cycle--in which water evaporates from Earth's surface, condensates in the atmosphere and falls back down--as well as the types of aerosols in the atmosphere.

In an effort to understand exactly how the micro and macro cloud properties interact with atmospheric particles, a collaborative research team conducted a modeling study analyzing three well-documented weather systems that occurred in March of 2000 over the southern Great Plains in the United States.

The results were published in Advances of Atmospheric Sciences, and included in a special issue on "aerosols, clouds, radiation, precipitation, and their interactions". Scientists from the California Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Arizona and McGill University contributed to the study.

"The results from this modeling study highlight the complexity of the aerosol-cloud-precipitation-radiation interactions that vary on a case-by-case basis," said Yuan Wang, first author on the paper and a research scientist in the division of geological and planetary sciences at the California Institute of Technology. "Aerosols are so small and mutable, so it's hard to quantify their impact."

Aerosols, commonly known as cloud seeds, are tiny particles of things such as sea salt or pollution in Earth's atmosphere.

Researchers found that different simulated aerosols had significant influence in each of the three systems, but other factors, such as solar radiation changes due to aerosol pertubations, also greatly contributed to cloud formation and development.

"This study has shown that studying the aerosol microphysical effect alone is insufficient to assess the changes of clouds in the real atmosphere, as the aerosol radiative effects can also produce profound impacts on cloud development and precipitation processes," Wang said.

In climate predictions, computer program can model global climates based on observational data or theoretical information. According to Wang, the global climate model is a good tool, but it doesn't fully appreciate the influence of aerosols. Its scale eclipses the microphysical properties of aerosols and their impact.

"We are still seeking the right way to represent aerosols and their effects in global climate models," Wang said. "We're interested in the interactions between the microscale model and the global climate model, and we're working to bridge the scales between the two."

Global climate models are used to assess the Earth's future climate, but they may not provide the full picture.

"The impact of aerosols needs to be fully assessed," Wang said. "We should consider the complexities of aerosol-cloud interactions in the global climate model in a smart way."

Wang received his PhD degree from Texas A&M University in 2013. His research expertise includes cloud and aerosol physics, weather and climate modeling. He is the recipient of Early Career Scientist Award of International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) in 2015 and American Geophysical Union James R. Holton Junior Scientist Award in 2016.

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When exoplanet scientists first spotted patterns in disks of dust and gas around young stars, they thought newly formed planets might be the cause. But a recent NASA study cautions that there may be another explanation -- one that doesn't involve planets at all.

Exoplanet hunters watch stars for a few telltale signs that there might be planets in orbit, like changes in the color and brightness of the starlight. For young stars, which are often surrounded by disks of dust and gas, scientists look for patterns in the debris -- such as rings, arcs and spirals -- that might be caused by an orbiting world.

"We're exploring what we think is the leading alternative contender to the planet hypothesis, which is that the dust and gas in the disk form the patterns when they get hit by ultraviolet light," said Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Kuchner presented the findings of the new study on Thursday, Jan. 11, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. A paper describing the results has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal.

When high-energy UV starlight hits dust grains, it strips away electrons. Those electrons collide with and heat nearby gas. As the gas warms, its pressure increases and it traps more dust, which in turn heats more gas. The resulting cycle, called the photoelectric instability (PeI), can work in tandem with other forces to create some of the features astronomers have previously associated with planets in debris disks.

Kuchner and his colleagues designed computer simulations to better understand these effects. The research was led by Alexander Richert, a doctoral student at Penn State in University Park, Pennsylvania, and includes Wladimir Lyra, a professor of astronomy at California State University, Northridge and research associate at NASA's Jet Propulstion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The simulations were run on the Discover supercomputing cluster at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation at Goddard.

In 2013, Lyra and Kuchner suggested that PeI could explain the narrow rings seen in some disks. Their model also predicted that some disks would have arcs, or incomplete rings, which were first directly observed in 2016.

"People very often model these systems with planets, but if you want to know what a disk with a planet looks like, you first have to know what a disk looks like without a planet," Richert said.

Richert is lead author on the new study, which builds on Lyra and Kuchner's previous simulations by including an additional new factor: radiation pressure, a force caused by starlight striking dust grains.

Light exerts a minute physical force on everything it encounters. This radiation pressure propels solar sails and helps direct comet tails so they always point away from the Sun. The same force can push dust into highly eccentric orbits, and even blow some of the smaller grains out of the disk entirely.

The researchers modeled how radiation pressure and PeI work together to affect the movement of dust and gas. They also found that the two forces manifest different patterns depending on the physical properties of the dust and gas.

The 2013 simulations of PeI revealed how dust and gas interact to create rings and arcs, like those observed around the real star HD 141569A. With the inclusion of radiation pressure, the 2017 models show how these two factors can create spirals like those also observed around the same star. While planets can also cause these patterns, the new models show scientists should avoid jumping to conclusions.

"Carl Sagan used to say extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," Lyra said. "I feel we are sometimes too quick to jump to the idea that the structures we see are caused by planets. That is what I consider an extraordinary claim. We need to rule out everything else before we claim that."

Kuchner and his colleagues said they would continue to factor other parameters into their simulations, like turbulence and different types of dust and gas. They also intend to model how these factors might contribute to pattern formation around different types of stars.

A NASA-funded citizen science project spearheaded by Kuchner, called Disk Detective, aims to discover more stars with debris disks. So far, participants have contributed more than 2.5 million classifications of potential disks. The data has already helped break new ground in this research.

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In a technology first, a team of NASA engineers has demonstrated fully autonomous X-ray navigation in space -- a capability that could revolutionize NASA's ability in the future to pilot robotic spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system and beyond.

The demonstration, which the team carried out with an experiment called Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology, or SEXTANT, showed that millisecond pulsars could be used to accurately determine the location of an object moving at thousands of miles per hour in space -- similar to how the Global Positioning System, widely known as GPS, provides positioning, navigation, and timing services to users on Earth with its constellation of 24 operating satellites.

"This demonstration is a breakthrough for future deep space exploration," said SEXTANT Project Manager Jason Mitchell, an aerospace technologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "As the first to demonstrate X-ray navigation fully autonomously and in real-time in space, we are now leading the way."

This technology provides a new option for deep space navigation that could work in concert with existing spacecraft-based radio and optical systems.

Although it could take a few years to mature an X-ray navigation system practical for use on deep-space spacecraft, the fact that NASA engineers proved it could be done bodes well for future interplanetary space travel. Such a system provides a new option for spacecraft to autonomously determine their locations outside the currently used Earth-based global navigation networks because pulsars are accessible in virtually every conceivable fight regime, from low-Earth to deepest space.

Exploiting NICER Telescopes

The SEXTANT technology demonstration, which NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate had funded under its Game Changing Program, took advantage of the 52 X-ray telescopes and silicon-drift detectors that make up NASA's Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer, or NICER. Since its successful deployment as an external attached payload on the International Space Station in June, it has trained its optics on some of the most unusual objects in the universe.

"We're doing very cool science and using the space station as a platform to execute that science, which in turn enables X-ray navigation," said Goddard's Keith Gendreau, the principal investigator for NICER, who presented the findings Thursday, Jan. 11, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. "The technology will help humanity navigate and explore the galaxy."

NICER, an observatory about the size of a washing machine, currently is studying neutron stars and their rapidly pulsating cohort, called pulsars. Although these stellar oddities emit radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, observing in the X-ray band offers the greatest insights into these unusual, incredibly dense celestial objects, which, if compressed any further, would collapse completely into black holes. Just one teaspoonful of neutron star matter would weigh a billion tons on Earth.

Although NICER is studying all types of neutron stars, the SEXTANT experiment is focused on observations of pulsars. Radiation emanating from their powerful magnetic fields is swept around much like a lighthouse. The narrow beams are seen as flashes of light when they sweep across our line of sight. With these predictable pulsations, pulsars can provide high-precision timing information similar to the atomic-clock signals supplied through the GPS system.

Veteran's Day Demonstration

In the SEXTANT demonstration that occurred over the Veteran's Day holiday in 2017, the SEXTANT team selected four millisecond pulsar targets -- J0218+4232, B1821-24, J0030+0451, and J0437-4715 -- and directed NICER to orient itself so it could detect X-rays within their sweeping beams of light. The millisecond pulsars used by SEXTANT are so stable that their pulse arrival times can be predicted to accuracies of microseconds for years into the future.

During the two-day experiment, the payload generated 78 measurements to get timing data, which the SEXTANT experiment fed into its specially developed onboard algorithms to autonomously stitch together a navigational solution that revealed the location of NICER in its orbit around Earth as a space station payload. The team compared that solution against location data gathered by NICER's onboard GPS receiver.

"For the onboard measurements to be meaningful, we needed to develop a model that predicted the arrival times using ground-based observations provided by our collaborators at radio telescopes around the world," said Paul Ray, a SEXTANT co-investigator with the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory. "The difference between the measurement and the model prediction is what gives us our navigation information."

The goal was to demonstrate that the system could locate NICER within a 10-mile radius as the space station sped around Earth at slightly more than 17,500 mph. Within eight hours of starting the experiment on November 9, the system converged on a location within the targeted range of 10 miles and remained well below that threshold for the rest of the experiment, Mitchell said. In fact, "a good portion" of the data showed positions that were accurate to within three miles.

"This was much faster than the two weeks we allotted for the experiment," said SEXTANT System Architect Luke Winternitz, who works at Goddard. "We had indications that our system would work, but the weekend experiment finally demonstrated the system's ability to work autonomously."

Although the ubiquitously used GPS system is accurate to within a few feet for Earth-bound users, this level of accuracy is not necessary when navigating to the far reaches of the solar system where distances between objects measure in the millions of miles. "In deep space, we hope to reach accuracies in the hundreds of feet," Mitchell said.

Next Steps and the Future

Now that the team has demonstrated the system, Winternitz said the team will focus on updating and fine-tuning both flight and ground software in preparation for a second experiment later in 2018. The ultimate goal, which may take years to realize, would be to develop detectors and other hardware to make pulsar-based navigation readily available on future spacecraft. To advance the technology for operational use, teams will focus on reducing the size, weight, and power requirements and improving the sensitivity of the instruments. The SEXTANT team now also is discussing the possible application of X-ray navigation to support human spaceflight, Mitchell added.

If an interplanetary mission to the moons of Jupiter or Saturn were equipped with such a navigational device, for example, it would be able to calculate its location autonomously, for long periods of time without communicating with Earth.

Mitchell said that GPS is not an option for these far-flung missions because its signal weakens quickly as one travels beyond the GPS satellite network around Earth.

"This successful demonstration firmly establishes the viability of X-ray pulsar navigation as a new autonomous navigation capability. We have shown that a mature version of this technology could enhance deep-space exploration anywhere within the solar system and beyond," Mitchell said. "It is an awesome technology first."

NICER is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA's Explorers program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the SEXTANT component of the mission through its Game Changing Development Program.

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Turns out that humans really did cause the extinction of this species

Why do species die out? This is the overarching question being asked by many leading researchers. Knowing more about what leads to a species' becoming extinct could enable us to do something about it. The passenger pigeon is a famous example and the species has been studied extensively.

The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was once found in huge numbers in North America. Records tell of passing flocks that darkened the skies for several days at a time. The species may have peaked at five billion individuals. A more conservative estimate is three billion.

Within a short time, the species disappeared completely.

"Given the huge size of the population, it's simply amazing that the species disappeared so quickly," says Tom Gilbert.

Gilbert is a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Centre for GeoGenetics, but he also has a part-time position as an adjunct professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

The human role

The history of the passenger pigeon is interesting, partly because it can tell us something about how and why species become extinct.

Native Americans also relied on passenger pigeons for food. But at least in parts of the passenger pigeons' range, people had learned to harvest the species at a sustainable level that didn't threaten to eradicate it.

It was common in some parts of North America to only eat young pigeons that were hunted at night, since this did not seem to scare away the adult birds or prevent them from re-nesting.

But starting around 1500, a more aggressive variant of humans came to the continent with the arrival of Europeans. The hunt for passenger pigeons grew and culminated in a massive hunt for the species throughout the 1800s, before the species finally collapsed and disappeared.

So were the Europeans then really the ones to blame for the collapse?

Already headed to oblivion?

In 2014, a study in published in the scientific journal PNAS strongly suggested that humans were simply the final straw in destroying a species that was already vulnerable and headed to oblivion.

The researchers asserted that despite their enormous numbers, the passenger pigeons were already in trouble. The population of the species varied greatly, similar to lemmings, but over a longer period of time.

When the Europeans arrived, the species was already in a strong decline. The population was plummeting long before Europeans arrived, and perhaps Europeans even contributed to a short-term increase in numbers.

Studies of the genetic variation of the species using an investigative method called PSMC formed the background for these assertions. And now we have to concentrate a bit.

From one to many

All of an individual's genes are called a genome. You have a genome, your mom has her own genome, your dog has one and the neighbour's cat has yet another. These can be broken down into chromosomes and genes and base pairs, but you only have a single genome.

So, all of your chromosomes and genes are found in this one genome, but at the same time this genome is unique to just you and only you. Unless, that is, you have an identical twin or are a termite or belong to another species where the individuals are largely identical clones. (In the last case, it's remarkable that you can read this.)

Here is the crux of the matter:

The PSMC method can use the information in the genes of a single individual of a species to map the history of the species.

You should therefore be able to see how the species developed over many generations, and estimate how many individuals there were at any given time, all based on a single genome.

Humans partially off the hook

Using this method, researchers found that the number of passenger pigeons was in free fall even before the arrival of the Europeans.

Although the species might not have become extinct, it would have shrunk significantly in any case, maybe to only a few hundred thousand individuals.

People were just the final factor in their demise. We may have pushed the passenger pigeons off the cliff, but the species was already on its way there.

So - according to the researchers behind the study in PNAS - it wasn't just the Europeans' fault.

It sounds almost too good to be true that you can come up with something so definitive based on information from just one or a few individuals. And in this case it is - at least if we're to believe a new study that has recently been published in the journal Science.

Ineffective for passenger pigeons

The problem is that the PSMC method can't be used on passenger pigeons. The new research in Science provides completely different results.

Leading molecular biologist Beth Shapiro is the main author of the Science article, and Tom Gilbert is one of the study's contributors.

PSMC is based on the assumption that genetic variations occur relatively evenly all along the chromosomes that constitute the genome. That is, genetic changes are equally likely to occur at the ends of a chromosome as in the middle. But this turns out not to be the case for this species.

"Passenger pigeons don't have the variation patterns that we'd expect, because of the strong selection on genes that appear to have been important throughout the species' history. So it doesn't work to use PSMC in this case," said Gilbert.

In passenger pigeons, most of the genetic diversity was found at the ends of the chromosome. The middle of the chromosome showed little variation from one generation to the next as a result of the selection on these genes.

This fact may not sound revolutionary, but it yields completely different results if you try to read the history of the species based on the genome of a single individual.

You have to take into account that variations are greatest in certain parts of the chromosome rather than evenly distributed throughout. This makes the PSMC method unusable in this context.

Used another method

The researchers behind the article in Science didn't use the PSMC method. Instead, they used mitochondrial DNA from 41 passenger pigeons as their starting point. Now we have to concentrate again.

Your DNA is not your only inheritance. Mitochondrial DNA is a distinct, separate inheritance found in certain cells called mitochondria.

Regular DNA is a combination of the inheritance from your father and mother. But mitochondrial DNA is only transmitted from your mother. Variations in mitochondrial DNA also occur due to mutations, and happen relatively consistently over time.

This is a different point of departure for understanding how a species develops over time, and the results can be quite different from those generated using the PSMC method.

In addition, the study presented in Science analysed the entire genomes from four passenger pigeons and compared them with two genomes from band-tailed pigeons (Patagioenas fasciata), one of the closest relatives of the passenger pigeon.

The final result was that the new study ended up with completely different answers about the passenger pigeons and why the species met its demise.

Genetic diversity

The new study is interesting for several reasons. It tells us about the genetic diversity of the passenger pigeon, but also supports an entirely different explanation for the species' extinction.

Scientists previously believed that the larger the population of a species is, the more genetically diverse it will be. But this theory has turned out to be wrong, as the recent passenger pigeon research has shown.

According to the article in Science, the large population size appears to have enabled passenger pigeons to adapt and evolve more quickly and thus remove harmful mutations.

In species with fewer individuals, chance can cause a less beneficial mutation to persist, but chance plays less of a role in species with greater numbers of individuals.

"Mutations that provide a major evolutionary benefit would spread rapidly," says Gilbert.

The fact that beneficial mutations became incredibly dominant so quickly simply led to the disappearance of other genetic variants.

This in turn led to the genetic diversity in the passenger pigeon being surprisingly low in relation to the number of individuals. This may have made the species more vulnerable to changes.

But that was not why the passenger pigeon died out.

Our mistake

"The passenger pigeon died out because of people," is Gilbert's short version.

The passenger pigeon wasn't in trouble prior to Europeans arrival in North America. Nothing suggests that the species was struggling in any way.

Perhaps this isn't that surprising. In the 19th century passenger pigeons were so numerous that there were contests to shoot as many of them as possible during a certain period of time. In one competition, the winner had shot 30 000 birds.

If nothing else, the story of the passenger pigeon has contributed to a greater understanding that even prolific species can become extinct.

Something to learn

The large grasshopper Melanoplus spretus from the western United States suffered the same fate. It went from a population of several trillion to zero in a few decades, possibly because farmers destroyed its breeding grounds. In Norway and across the whole of the North Atlantic, the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) died out after people harvested them in large numbers.

People ate passenger pigeons in huge amounts, but they were also killed because they were perceived as a threat to agriculture. As Europeans migrated across North America, they thinned out and eliminated the large forests that the pigeons depended on. The pigeons lived primarily on acorns.

As the species was already dying out, 250,000 birds - the last big flock - were shot on a single day in 1896. That same year, the last passenger pigeon was observed in Louisiana. It was also shot.

The pigeons were probably dependent on a large flock size to reproduce. Their instincts didn't work when only a few individuals remained here and there.

The last passenger pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.

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Quitting smoking is among the top New Year's resolutions, but is notoriously difficult to do and often requires multiple attempts and strategies.

A growing body of research points to using a harm minimization approach for smoking cessation. Harm minimization recognizes that while quitting smoking altogether is ideal, reducing exposure to harmful cigarette smoke by switching to safer nicotine products like e-cigarettes is beneficial.

A new article publishing in the forthcoming volume of the Annual Review of Public Health focuses on harm minimization and smoking cessation, with alternative nicotine products like e-cigarettes emerging as a promising avenue for people who want to quit smoking. Compared with vaping, smoking is much more harmful and prematurely kills over half of lifetime smokers.

"Studies show that if most current American smokers switched to vaping e-cigarettes over the next 10 years, there could be as many as 6.6 million fewer premature deaths and 86.7 million fewer life years would be lost," said David Abrams, PhD, professor of social and behavioral sciences at NYU College of Global Public Health and the article's lead author.

"The safest course is to stop smoking or, better, never to start. But a harm minimization approach recognizes that demanding absolute perfection is often counterproductive and that, when a harmful behavior cannot be eliminated, we can still dramatically reduce adverse health consequences."

Correcting Misconceptions About Nicotine

When people smoke cigarettes, they consume nicotine in a lethal mix of carbon monoxide and 70 known cancer-causing chemicals; contrary to what some may believe, however, nicotine causes little if any of the health harms of smoking. The toxic smoke inhaled is the culprit and is the overwhelming cause of tobacco-related disease and death.

Many alternative nicotine products have been developed-including e-cigarettes and nicotine gums, patches, and lozenges-that do not burn tobacco and are therefore substantially less harmful.

The authors call for the correction of mistaken beliefs that vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking cigarettes. Most reviews of toxicological, clinical, and epidemiological evidence show that the chemicals found in e-cigarettes are far fewer and well below levels seen in cigarette smoke. In fact, the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom and other systematic reviews of all the evidence to date estimate that e-cigarettes are about 95 percent less harmful than smoking.

E-cigarettes in the "Sweet Spot"

What makes someone use-and continue to use-different nicotine products? In addition to considering the harm they can cause, the authors also consider the appeal and satisfaction of products containing nicotine.

Cigarettes are the most appealing, most addictive, and most toxic of all nicotine products, while nicotine replacement therapies like gum or patches are lowest in harm, but are expensive and less appealing to consumers.

E-cigarettes fall into a "sweet spot" of high appeal and satisfaction, but low harm, making them a promising tool for smoking cessation or switching for smokers who want to use nicotine but want to safely avoid deadly smoke. As evidence of their appeal, e-cigarettes are now used more often than nicotine replacement therapies when smokers try to quit in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

"A smoker who finds an e-cigarette that is enjoyable can switch. Successful switchers have either switched quickly or slowly after a period of both vaping and cutting back on smoking and by trying a flavor other than tobacco," Abrams said.

The Future of Harm Minimization and Smoking Cessation

The U.S. government is taking notice of the evidence on harm minimization. In July 2017, the Food and Drug Administration announced a major shift in its tobacco strategy, including recognizing the role of less harmful products, such as e-cigarettes, for smokers who want a satisfying alternative to smoking cigarettes. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said, "Nicotine, though not benign, is not directly responsible for the tobacco-caused cancer, lung disease and heart disease that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans each year."

"Alternative nicotine delivery systems, such as e-cigarettes, have the potential to disrupt the 120-year dominance of the cigarette and challenge the field on how the tobacco pandemic could be reversed if nicotine is decoupled from lethal inhaled smoke," added Abrams. "E-cigarettes could provide a means to compete with, and even replace, cigarette use, saving more lives more rapidly than previously possible."

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In addition to Abrams, the article's co-authors include Raymond S. Niaura of the NYU College of Global Public Health, Allison M. Glasser and Lauren K. Collins of the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies and Truth Initiative, Jennifer L. Pearson of the University of Nevada, and Andrea C. Villanti of the University of Vermont. The research was supported by Truth Initiative.

About the NYU College of Global Public Health:

At the College of Global Public Health (CGPH) at New York University (NYU), we are preparing the next generation of public health pioneers with the critical thinking skills, acumen and entrepreneurial approaches necessary to reinvent the public health paradigm. Devoted to employing a nontraditional, inter-disciplinary model, CGPH aims to improve health worldwide through a unique blend of global public health studies, research and practice. CGPH is located in the heart of New York City and extends to NYU's global network on six continents. Innovation is at the core of our ambitious approach, thinking and teaching. http://publichealth.nyu.edu/.

About the Annual Review of Public Health:

The Annual Review of Public Health, in publication since 1980, covers significant developments in the field of public health, including key developments and issues in epidemiology and biostatistics, environmental and occupational health, social environment and behavior, health services, and public health practice and policy. For further information contact: jrankin@annualreviews.org
Alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy each have very different sexual effects, from attraction and desire to sensitivity to sexual dysfunction, finds a study by the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at NYU Meyers College of Nursing.

The findings, published in the journal Psychology and Sexuality, suggest that different substances are therefore associated with different sexual risks for users.

Alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy (also known as MDMA, or Molly when in powder form) are among the most prevalent substances used by young adults. While there has been extensive research on substance use as a factor that leads to risky sexual behavior, few studies have focused on specific sexual effects of different substances.

In this study, the researchers surveyed 679 young adults (ages 18 to 25) entering electronic dance music (EDM) parties at nightclubs and dance festivals in New York City to examine and compare self-reported sexual effects associated with use of alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy. The researchers compared self-reported sexual effects of these substances. Of those surveyed, nearly four out of ten (39 percent) reported having used all three.

The researchers found that compared to marijuana, alcohol and ecstasy were more strongly associated with certain heightened perceived sexual effects, including attraction, sexual desire, and social outgoingness (which can facilitate meeting partners).

Increased attraction - both feeling more attractive and attraction to others - was most commonly associated with consuming alcohol, followed by ecstasy. More than six out of ten participants reported feeling more attractive on alcohol (67 percent) or ecstasy (61 percent), but only a quarter (25 percent) felt more attractive on marijuana. Similarly, most participants reported that alcohol (72 percent) or ecstasy (64 percent) led them to be more attracted to others, while marijuana only increased attraction in others in about a quarter (27 percent) of respondents.

Increased social outgoingness - defined as outgoingness making users more likely to meet a partner - was reported by the majority of people who drank alcohol (77 percent) or used ecstasy (72 percent), yet only a quarter (26 percent) of users reported an increase on marijuana. In fact, over a third (36 percent) reported that marijuana decreased their sociability.

"These results align with previous research on the social effects of alcohol use, which link alcohol use to increased feelings of self-acceptance and decreased feelings of social anxiety in social situations," said CDUHR researcher Joseph Palamar, PhD, MPH, the study's lead author and an associate professor of population health at NYU Langone Health.

Ecstasy - also known as the "love drug" - was more associated with heightened sexual intensity, length of sexual interaction, and orgasm intensity compared to alcohol and marijuana. This finding was expected by the researchers; however, they warn that Molly is commonly adulterated with drugs such as "bath salts" so it is unknown how many of these users actually used MDMA.

Among males, sexual dysfunction was most common while using alcohol or ecstasy, yet females were more likely to report sexual dysfunction after using marijuana.

"While alcohol and ecstasy can increase sexual desire, these drugs can actually hinder sexual performance of males," said Palamar. "Alcohol can numb the body, which can delay or prevent orgasm, and impotence is common while high on ecstasy, despite the drug increasing body sensitivity."

Women reported mixed sexual effects when using marijuana. Marybec Griffin-Tomas, a doctoral candidate at NYU College of Global Health and coauthor of the paper, said, "While females may feel more sensitive to sexual contact while high on marijuana, they are more likely than males to report sexual dysfunction resulting from use."

Post-sex regret was most common after alcohol (reported by 31 percent) compared to ecstasy (13 percent) and marijuana (7 percent). Palamar - who was not surprised by this finding - explained, "Alcohol is more commonly associated with regretful behavior such as 'one-night stands.'"

The authors warn that more research is needed as this study had various limitations. For example, recall can be limited, and other important factors such as experience with a drug, amount used, when a drug was used in relation to encounters, and co-use of other drugs was not considered.

Given the different sexual effects of the substances, the researchers state that their findings can inform prevention and harm reduction efforts that take into consideration the motivations and variations in risk among those who use such substances.

"This study focused heavily on the influence of drugs on sexual pleasure. From a public health standpoint, we must consider the role of pleasure in an individual's decision making. Most sexual education and drug use programs do not address pleasure as a reason for having sex - including condomless sex - or using drugs," said Griffin-Tomas.

###

In addition to Palamar and Griffin-Tomas, study authors include Patricia Acosta of NYU Langone, Danielle C. Ompad of NYU College of Global Public Health and CDUHR, and Charles M. Cleland of NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and CDUHR.

Research reported in this publication, "A Comparison of Self-Reported Sexual Effects of Alcohol, Marijuana, and Ecstasy in a Sample of Young Adult Nightlife Attendees," was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers K01DA038800 (PI: Palamar) and P30DA011041 (PI: Deren). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About CDUHR

The mission of the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) is to end the HIV and HCV epidemics in drug using populations and their communities by conducting transdisciplinary research and disseminating its findings to inform programmatic, policy, and grass roots initiatives at the local, state, national, and global levels. CDUHR is a Core Center of Excellence funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant #P30 DA011041). It is the first center for the socio-behavioral study of substance use and HIV in the United States and is located at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing. For more information, visit http://www.cduhr.org.

About NYU Langone Health

NYU Langone Health is a world-class, patient-centered, integrated academic medical center, known for its excellence in clinical care, research, and education. Included in the 200+ locations throughout the New York area are five inpatient locations: Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute-care facility; Rusk Rehabilitation, ranked as one of the top 10 rehabilitation programs in the country; NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital, a dedicated inpatient orthopedic hospital with all musculoskeletal specialties ranked top 10 in the country; Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone, a comprehensive pediatric hospital supporting a full array of children's health services; and NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, a full-service teaching hospital and level 1 trauma center located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Also part of NYU Langone Health is the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, and NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history. For more information, go to nyulangone.org, and interact with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

About the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice. It offers a Bachelor of Science with a major in Nursing, a Master of Science and Post-Master's Certificate Programs, a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and a Doctor of Philosophy in nursing research and theory development.
Smoking risk drops significantly in college graduates when they live near areas that have completely banned smoking in bars and restaurants, according to a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The study found that the bans were associated with high gains in quit attempts by smokers with low incomes.

"Our results suggest that smoking bans may help start the process among people with lower socioeconomic status by making them more likely to try to quit smoking, but that more needs to be done to help translate it into successful smoking cessation," said the lead author and former Drexel doctoral student Stephanie Mayne.

The study linked 25 years of health data collected from young-to-middle-aged smokers to a database on smoking bans from the American Non-Smokers Rights Foundation.

The data showed that the effects of the smoking ban were not uniform. Overall, the bans appeared to be most effective at reducing smoking risk in people with higher levels of education.

Among people with at least a bachelor's degree, smoking fell by about 20 percent if they lived in areas where a ban was introduced. The study also found that bans reduced the risk of becoming heavy smoker (smoking 10 or more cigarettes -- half a pack -- a day). People whose education level didn't reach a bachelor's degree didn't experience a reduction in smoking levels.

However, the introduction of bans did increase the likelihood of trying to quit among lower income people. People in the lowest income bracket were about 15 percent more likely to try to quit if they lived in an area where a ban was introduced.

"An important marker of smoking cessation success is quit attempts," explained study co-author Amy Auchincloss, PhD, associate professor in Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health. "On average, it takes somewhere between eight and 14 attempts to finally quit."

Many studies have shown that smoking bans reduce exposure to secondhand smoke -- and populations with lower education have higher than average exposure to it. So although risk of smoking didn't appear to change for this group of people in the study, bans remain beneficial.

All the same, the study showed that smoking bans don't fully address smoking risk.

"Inequalities in the effects of bans on smoking highlight the need for a multi-pronged approach -- including tobacco taxes and ensuring that tobacco companies do not promote their products to vulnerable populations - as well as providing free smoking cessation counseling and pharmacotherapy," Auchincloss said.

###

The paper, "Associations of Bar and Restaurant Smoking Bans with Smoking Behavior in the CARDIA Study: A 25-Year Study," is available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwx372

Direct correspondence to:

Dr. Amy H. Auchincloss

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,

School of Public Health, Drexel University

3215 Market Street, 5th floor

Philadelphia, PA,19104

aha27@drexel.edu

To request a copy of the study, please contact: Lauren Godwin Lauren.Godwin@oup.com

Sharing on social media? Find Oxford Journals online at @OxfordJournals
New fossil gives fresh insight into the evolution and diversity of the dinosaurs that once inhabited the Australian-Antarctic rift valley 113 million years ago

The partial skeleton of a new species of turkey-sized herbivorous dinosaur has been discovered in 113 million year old rocks in southeastern Australia. As reported in open access journal PeerJ, the fossilized tail and foot bones give new insight into the diversity of the small, bipedal herbivorous dinosaurs called ornithopods that roamed the great rift valley that once existed between Australia and Antarctica. The new dinosaur has been named Diluvicursor pickeringi, which means Pickering's Flood-Running dinosaur.

Lower Cretaceous rocks of the deep sedimentary basins that formed within the Australian-Antarctic rift are now exposed as wave-cut rock platforms and sea-cliffs along the south coast of Victoria. The skeleton of Diluvicursor pickeringi was discovered in 2005 by volunteer prospector George Caspar, eroding from such a rock platform at a locality called Eric the Red West, near Cape Otway.

"Diluvicursor shows for the first time that there were at least two distinct body-types among closely related ornithopods in this part of Australia," Dr Matt Herne, lead author of the new study said.

"One was lightly built with an extraordinarily long tail, while the other, Diluvicursor, was more solidly built, with a far shorter tail. Our preliminary reconstruction of the tail musculature of Diluvicursor suggests this dinosaur was a good runner, with powerful leg retracting muscles," Dr Herne said.

"Understanding the ecology of these dinosaurs--what they ate, how they moved, where they roamed--based on the interplay between anatomy and the environment presents exciting challenges for future research."

The species name honors the late David Pickering, who was Museums Victoria's Collection Manager, Vertebrate Palaeontology. David contributed significantly to Australian paleontology in the lab and field, and tirelessly assisted countless students of paleontology and researchers to achieve their goals. Sadly, David passed away just over a year ago on Christmas Eve 2016.

The site of Eric the Red West has additional importance as it helps build a picture the ancient rift valley ecosystem. Fossil vertebrate remains at this site were buried in deep scours at the base of a powerful river, along with flood-transported tree stumps, logs and branches.

"The carcass of the Diluvicursor pickeringi holotype appears to have become entangled in a log-jam at the bottom of this river," explained Dr Herne. "The sizes of some of the logs in the deposit and the abundance of wood suggest the river traversed a well-forested floodplain. The logs preserved at the site are likely to represent conifer forests of trees within families still seen in Australia today."

"Much of the fossil vertebrate material from Eric the Red West has yet to be described, so further dinosaurs and other exciting animals from this site are now anticipated."

###

Images:

Caption: The late David Pickering on the coastal shore-platform near the fossil vertebrate locality of Eric the Red West, where Diluvicursor pickeringi was discovered. Image credit: Matt Herne.

Caption: The holotype partial skeleton of Diluvicursor pickeringi after it was prepared from several blocks of sandstone by Lesley Kool of Monash University The fossil preserves most of the tail along with the right ankle and foot. Image credit: Steve Poropat and Museums Victoria (CC-BY).

Caption: Artist's impression of two Diluvicursor pickeringi foraging on the bank of a high-energy river within the Australian-Antarctic rift valley. Painting credit: Peter Trusler.

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PeerJ is an Open Access publisher of two peer-reviewed journals and a preprint server. PeerJ's mission is to help the world efficiently publish its knowledge. All works published by PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative Commons license (CC-BY 4.0). PeerJ is based in San Diego, CA and the UK and can be accessed at peerj.com

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HOUSTON - (Jan. 11, 2018) - The terms "handmade" and "high tech" are not commonly found in the same sentence, but they both apply to a Rice University method to quickly produce fibers from carbon nanotubes.

The method developed by the Rice lab of chemist Matteo Pasquali allows researchers to make short lengths of strong, conductive fibers from small samples of bulk nanotubes in about an hour.

The work complements Pasquali's pioneering 2013 method to spin full spools of thread-like nanotube fibers for aerospace, automotive, medical and smart-clothing applications. The fibers look like cotton thread but perform like metal wires and carbon fibers.

It can take grams of material and weeks of effort to optimize the process of spinning continuous fibers, but the new method cuts that down to size, even if it does require a bit of hands-on processing.

Pasquali and lead author and graduate student Robby Headrick reported in Advanced Materials that aligning and twisting the hair-like fibers is fairly simple.

First, Headrick makes films. After dissolving a small amount of nanotubes in acid, he places the solution between two glass slides. Moving them quickly past each other applies shear force that prompts the billions of nanotubes within the solution to line up. Once the resulting films are deposited onto the glass, he peels off sections and rolls them up into fibers.

"The film is in a gel state when I peel it, which is important to get a fully densified fiber," Headrick said. "You twist it when it's wet throughout the cross section of the structure, and when you dry it, the capillary pressure densifies it."

Headrick was dissatisfied with the reproducibility of his initial experiments and discussed the procedure with his father, Robert, an amateur woodworker. The elder Headrick quickly came up with a simple device to support the slides and control the shearing process.

The dried nanotube fibers are about 7 centimeters long; the electrical performance is equivalent to long fibers created by the original spinning method but even more dense with a tensile strength up to 3.5 gigapascals (GPa), better than spun fibers. The researchers expect that nanotubes 50,000 to 70,000 times longer than they are wide will produce fibers of 35 to 40 GPa, about the strength of an individual carbon nanotube.

"We can process all kinds of nanotubes the exact same way so we get optimal fiber structures and properties," Headrick said. "It speeds things up and allows us to explore nanotubes that are only available in small quantities."

Pasquali said the process reproduces the high nanotube alignment and high packing density typical of fibers produced via spinning, but at a size sufficient for strength and conductivity tests.

"We now use this as a quick lab test to assess new materials and to create target properties for the large-scale method," Pasquali said. "We'll know in advance what the material can deliver, whereas before, we could only infer it. This could be especially important for carbon nanotube producers who want to change their reactor conditions to give them quick feedback or for quality control, as well as for testing samples that have been sorted by metallic versus semiconductor type or even helicity."

###

Co-authors of the paper are Rice alumni Dmitri Tsentalovich, now of DexMat Inc., and Julian Berdegue and graduate student Amram Bengio; Matthew Lucas of the Universal Technology Corp. and Air Force Research Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio; and students Lucy Liberman and Olga Kleinerman and Yeshayahu Talmon, a professor emeritus of chemical engineering, of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Pasquali is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry, and chair of Rice's Department of Chemistry.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation and a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship supported the research.

Read the abstract at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201704482/full

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2018/01/11/nanotube-fibers-in-a-jiffy-2/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Video:

https://youtu.be/LiE3VTc0D6w

Video produced by Brandon Martin/Rice University

Related materials:

Complex Forms of Complex Fluids (Pasquali group): https://pasquali.rice.edu

Talmon Group: http://talmon.net.technion.ac.il

Wiess School of Natural Sciences: http://natsci.rice.edu

Images for download:

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/01/0115_FIBER-1-WEB-265biu6.jpg

Rice University scientists have created a method to quickly align carbon nanotubes on a slide, seen here under a microscope. The films can be peeled and twisted by hand into short carbon nanotube fibers for testing. (Credit: Complex Forms of Complex Fluids/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/01/0115_FIBER-2-WEB-1qgg9nh.jpg

Thread-like fibers created with a new, rapid method at Rice University are made of billions of carbon nanotubes that can be quickly aligned by shear force between slides. (Credit: Complex Forms of Complex Fluids/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/01/0115_FIBER-3-WEB-1thz82q.jpg

Robby Headrick uses a device built by his father, a woodworker, that holds one slide stable while the other is moved to create shear forces that align carbon nanotubes between them. The nanotubes form a film that can be peeled and rolled by hand to create short nanofibers for testing. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/01/0115_FIBER-4-WEB-2la1pb5.jpg

Rice University graduate student Robby Headrick peels a strip of aligned carbon nanotubes from a slide. The lab's method for making short nanotubes takes weeks off the time needed to make samples for testing. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/01/0115_FIBER-5-WEB-2fy6uxy.jpg

Robby Headrick rolls a strip of aligned nanotubes into a nanofiber in a Rice University laboratory. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/01/0115_FIBER-6-WEB-2dvplgw.jpg

Matteo Pasquali, left, and Robby Headrick. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.

David Ruth

713-348-6327

david@rice.edu

Mike Williams

713-348-6728

mikewilliams@rice.edu
A little hBN in ceramics could give them outstanding properties, according to a Rice University scientist.

Rouzbeh Shahsavari, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, suggested the incorporation of ultrathin hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) sheets between layers of calcium-silicates would make an interesting bilayer crystal with multifunctional properties. These could be suitable for construction and refractory materials and applications in the nuclear industry, oil and gas, aerospace and other areas that require high-performance composites.

Combining the materials would make a ceramic that's not only tough and durable but resistant to heat and radiation. By Shahsavari's calculations, calcium-silicates with inserted layers of two-dimensional hBN could be hardened enough to serve as shielding in nuclear applications like power plants.

The research appears in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Two-dimensional hBN is nicknamed white graphene and looks like graphene from above, with linked hexagons forming an ultrathin plane. But hBN differs from graphene as it consists of alternating boron and nitrogen, rather than carbon, atoms.

"This work shows the possibility of material reinforcement at the smallest possible dimension, the basal plane of ceramics," Shahsavari said. "This results in a bilayer crystal where hBN is an integral part of the system as opposed to conventional reinforcing fillers that are loosely connected to the host material.

"Our high-level study shows energetic stability and significant property enhancement owing to the covalent bonding, charge transfer and orbital mixing between hBN and calcium silicates," he said.

The form of ceramic the lab studied, known as tobermorite, tends to self-assemble in layers of calcium and oxygen held together by silicate chains as it dries into hardened cement. Shahsavari's molecular-scale study showed that hBN mixes well with tobermorite, slips into the spaces between the layers as the boron and oxygen atoms bind and buckles the flat hBN sheets.

This accordion-like buckling is due to the chemical affinity and charge transfer between the boron atoms and tobermorite that stabilizes the composite and gives it high strength and toughness, properties that usually trade off against each other in engineered materials, Shahsavari said. The explanation appears to be a two-phase mechanism that takes place when the hBN layers are subjected to strain or stress.

Shahsavari's models of horizontally stacked tobermorite and tobermorite-hBN showed the composite was three times stronger and about 25 percent stiffer than the plain material. Computational analysis showed why: While the silicate chains in tobermorite failed when forced to rotate along their axes, the hBN sheets relieved the stress by first unbuckling and then stiffening.

When compressed, plain tobermorite displayed a low yield strength (or elastic modulus) of about 10 gigapascals (GPa) with a yield strain (the point at which a material deforms) of 7 percent. The composite displayed yield strength of 25 GPa and strain up to 20 percent.

"A major drawback of ceramics is that they are brittle and shatter upon high stress or strain," Shahsavari said. "Our strategy overcomes this limitation, providing enhanced ductility and toughness while improving strength properties.

"As a bonus, the thermal and radiation tolerance of the system also increases, rendering multifunctional properties," he said. "These features are all important to prevent deterioration of ceramics and increase their lifetime, thereby saving energy and maintenance costs."

When the material was tested from other angles, differences between the pure tobermorite and the composite were less pronounced, but on average, hBN improved significantly the material's properties.

"Compared with one-dimensional fillers such as conventional fibers or carbon nanotubes, 2-D materials like hBN are two-sided, so they have twice the surface area per unit mass," Shahsavari said. "This is perfect for reinforcement and adhesion to the surrounding matrix."

He said other 2-D materials like molybdenum disulfide, niobium diselenide and layered double hydroxide may also be suitable for the bottom-up design of high-performance ceramics and other multifunctional composite materials.

###

The National Science Foundation supported the research. Supercomputing resources were supplied by the National Institutes of Health and an IBM Shared University Research Award in partnership with Cisco, Qlogic and Adaptive Computing, as well as Rice's National Science Foundation-supported DAVinCI supercomputer administered by the Center for Research Computing and procured in partnership with Rice's Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology.

Read the abstract at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.7b15377

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2018/01/11/white-graphene-makes-ceramics-multifunctional/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Related materials:

Multiscale Materials Laboratory (Shahsavari Lab): http://rouzbeh.rice.edu/

George R. Brown School of Engineering: http://engineering.rice.edu

Rice Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: http://www.ceve.rice.edu

Rice Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering: https://msne.rice.edu

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
In 1854, a curious-looking spider was found preserved in 50 million-year-old amber. With an elongated neck-like structure and long mouthparts that protruded from the "head" like an angled beak, the arachnid bore a striking resemblance to a tiny pelican. A few decades later when living pelican spiders were discovered in Madagascar, arachnologists learned that their behavior is as unusual as their appearance, but because these spiders live in remote parts of the world they remained largely unstudied--until recently.

At the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, curator of arachnids and myriapods Hannah Wood has examined and analyzed hundreds of pelican spiders both in the field in Madagascar and through study of pelican spiders preserved in museum collections. Her analysis, focused on spiders of the Eriauchenius and Madagascarchaea genera, sorted the spiders she studied into 26 different species--18 of which have never before been described. Wood and colleague Nikolaj Scharff of the University of Copenhagen describe all 26 pelican spider species in the Jan. 11 issue of the journal Zookeys.

Wood says pelican spiders are well known among arachnologists not only for their unusual appearance, but also for the way they use their long "necks" and jaw-like mouthparts to prey on other spiders. "These spiders attest to the unique biology that diversified in Madagascar," she said.

Pelican spiders are active hunters, prowling the forest at night and following long silk draglines that lead them to their spider prey. When a pelican spider finds a victim, it swiftly reaches out and impales it on its long, fang-tipped "jaws," or chelicerae. Then it holds the capture away from its body, keeping itself safe from potential counterattacks, until the victim dies.

Today's pelican spiders are "living fossils," Wood says--remarkably similar to species found preserved in the fossil record from as long as 165 million years ago. Because the living spiders were found after their ancestors had been uncovered in the fossil record and presumed extinct, they can be considered a "Lazarus" taxon. In addition to Madagascar, modern-day pelican spiders have been found in South Africa and Australia--a distribution pattern that suggests their ancestors were dispersed to these landmasses when the Earth's supercontinent Pangaea began to break up around 175 million years ago.

Madagascar is home to vast numbers of plant and animal species that exist only on the island, but until recently, only a few species of pelican spiders had been documented there. In 2000, the California Academy of Sciences launched a massive arthropod inventory in Madagascar, collecting spiders, insects and other invertebrates from all over the island.

Wood used those collections, along with specimens from other museums and spiders that she collected during her own field work in Madagascar, to conduct her study. Her detailed observations and measurements of hundreds of specimens led to the identification of 18 new species--but Wood says there are almost certainly more to be discovered. As field workers continue to collect specimens across Madagascar, "I think there's going to be a lot more species that haven't yet been described or documented," she said.

The spiders Wood personally collected, including holotypes (the exemplar specimens) for several of the new species, will join the U.S. National Entomological Collection at the Smithsonian, the second-largest insect collection in the world, where they will be preserved and accessible for further research by scientists across the globe.

All of the pelican spiders that Wood described live only in Madagascar, an island whose tremendous biodiversity is currently threatened by widespread deforestation. The new species add to scientists' understanding of that biodiversity, and will help Wood investigate how pelican spiders' unusual traits have evolved and diversified over time. They also highlight the case for conserving what remains of Madagascar's forests and the biodiversity they contain, she says.

###

Funding for this study was provided by the Danish National Research Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
NEW YORK (Jan. 11, 2018) - New expert guidance released today by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America advises hospitals on determining when they can safely discontinue contact precautions for patients with multi-drug resistant bacteria. The framework, published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, addresses how long hospital staff should use these safety protocols to reduce the spread of potentially deadly organisms within the hospital, in most cases ranging from one to three negative cultures prior to discontinuation. The guidance also outlines the use of molecular testing that is guiding these care decisions.

"Because of the virulent nature of multi-drug resistant infections and C. difficile infections, hospitals should consider establishing policies on the duration of contact precautions to safely care for patients and prevent spread of these bacteria," said David Banach, MD, MPH, an author of the study, and hospital epidemiologist at University of Connecticut Health Center. "Unfortunately, current guidelines on contact precautions are incomplete in describing how long these protocols should be maintained. We outlined expert advice for hospitals to consider in developing institutional policies to more effectively use contact precautions to safely care for patients."

The SHEA Guidelines Committee, comprised of experts in infection control and prevention, developed the recommendations based on available evidence, theoretical rationale, practical considerations, a survey of SHEA members, author opinion, and consideration of potential harm, where applicable. The recommendations for duration of contact precautions, such as gowns, gloves, and masks, are specific to key multi-drug resistant organisms, such as MRSA, Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), as well as Clostridium difficile. The guidance was endorsed by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), and the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada (AMMI Canada).

According to the guidance document, hospital personnel should weigh how much time has elapsed since the last positive culture to determine if contact transmission is likely. The guidance also advises on patient characteristics that could determine the duration of care. For Clostridium difficile infections (CDIs) specifically, the recommendation is to continue contact precautions for at least 48 hours after the resolution of diarrhea and consider extending if CDI rates are elevated despite infection prevention and control measures. At this time, insufficient evidence exists to make a formal recommendation on whether patients with CDI be placed on contact precautions if readmitted to the hospital. The recommendations state that any guidance should be overseen and revisited by infection prevention and control leadership, especially in outbreak situations.

"The duration of contact precautions can have a significant impact on the health of the patient, the hospital, and the community," said Gonzolo Bearman, MD, MPH, an author of the study, and chairman of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Virginia Commonwealth University. "This guidance is a starting point, however stronger research is needed to evaluate and optimize the use."

The authors note that hospitals should carefully assess their institutional risks, priorities, and resources prior to adopting a new policy on the duration of contact precautions, as well as weigh the cost and feasibility of implementation.

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David B. Banach, MD, MPH; Gonzalo Bearman, MD, MPH; Marsha Barnden, RNC, MSN, CIC; Jennifer A. Hanrahan, DO; Surbhi Leekha, MBBS, MPH; Daniel J. Morgan, MD, MS; Rekha Murthy, MD; L. Silvia Munoz-Prince, MD, PhD; Kaede V. Sullivan, MD, MSc; Kyle J. Popovich, MD, MS; Timothy L. Weimken, PhD. Duration of Contact Precautions for Acute-Care Settings. Web (January 11, 2018).

About ICHE

Published through a partnership between the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and Cambridge University Press, Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology provides original, peer-reviewed scientific articles for anyone involved with an infection control or epidemiology program in a hospital or healthcare facility. ICHE is ranked 19th out of 83 Infectious Disease Journals in the latest Web of Knowledge Journal Citation Reports from Thomson Reuters.

The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) is a professional society representing more than 3,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals around the world who possess expertise and passion for healthcare epidemiology, infection prevention, and antimicrobial stewardship. The society's work improves public health by establishing infection-prevention measures and supporting antibiotic stewardship among healthcare providers, hospitals, and health systems. This is accomplished by leading research studies, translating research into clinical practice, developing evidence-based policies, optimizing antibiotic stewardship, and advancing the field of healthcare epidemiology. SHEA and its members strive to improve patient outcomes and create a safer, healthier future for all. Visit SHEA online at http://www.shea-online.org, http://www.facebook.com/SHEApreventingHAIs and @SHEA_Epi.

About Cambridge Journals

vCambridge University Press publishes over 350 peer-reviewed academic journals across a wide spread of subject areas, in print and online. Many of these journals are leading academic publications in their fields and together form one of the most valuable and comprehensive bodies of research available today.

For further information about Cambridge Journals, visit journals.cambridge.org

About Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University's mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

Its extensive peer-reviewed publishing lists comprise 45,000 titles covering academic research, professional development, over 350 research journals, school-level education, English language teaching and bible publishing.

Playing a leading role in today's international market place, Cambridge University Press has more than 50 offices around the globe, and it distributes its products to nearly every country in the world. For further information about Cambridge University Press, visit cambridge.org.
When studying the effect of climate change on biodiversity, it is important to consider the climate near the ground (microclimate) which a plant or an animal actually experiences. Deep shady depressions, dense old forests or places close to water for example are always considerably cooler than their surroundings.

"Knowing where cold climate refugia are in the landscape means we can protect these cold spots and help cold-adapted species to survive a warmer climate. Knowing how colder microclimates are generated means we could even create colder spots by wisely managing our forests", says Caroline Greiser, PhD student at Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences.

The scientists found out that summer maximum temperatures at the forest floor can differ more than 10C over only 100 meters.

"We also found out that the forest plays a dominant role in controlling warm near-ground temperatures in the summer, more than local topography. In other words, the temperature differences between open and dense forest stands are larger than the differences between the sunny and the shady side of a hill" says Caroline Greiser.

The researchers produced forest microclimate maps for an area of 16 000 km2 in central Sweden (covering parts of Varmland, Orebro lan, Vastmanland and Dalarna) with the help of small temperature data loggers, not larger than a finger nail. The data loggers were spread out across the area and measured near-ground temperatures over one year.

They made maps for different months of the year and for both minimum and maximum temperatures, because the microclimatic landscape appeared to be changing across the year. The research group will further investigate what kind of microclimates the species need for survival.The maps can be used not only for further climate and forest research, but also for conservation and land-use planning.

"We hope this study raises the awareness that forest density has a large impact on the microclimatic landscape and that forest management has the potential to slow down biodiversity loss. Concrete steps could be to reduce forest fragmentation or to create buffer zones around cold places so they remain cold, when close-by forest is cut down", says Caroline Greiser.

The article "Monthly microclimate models in a managed boreal forest landscape" is published in the scientific journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016819231730672X

Microclimate is the climate near the ground which can be colder or warmer than in the free atmosphere, depending on local topography (e.g. north vs. south side of a hill, higher vs. lower elevation) and vegetation (e.g. young sparse vs. old dense forest).

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For further information:

Caroline Greiser, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University. E-mail: caroline.greiser@su.se Tfn: +46 76 415 24 85
When scientists have an interesting idea, the result is usually a joint publication. At the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, it has been shown that tracking the dependencies between co-authors, one can not only see the paths along which scientific ideas flow, but also reconstruct the structure of scientific cooperation and detect emerging communities. Interestingly, the proposed method of analysis can be an effective tool to fight terrorists and... dishonest politicians.

Panta rhei, everything flows. If Heraclitus of Ephesus was correct, not only rivers, but also ideas should flow. Tracking the flow of ordinary ideas can be difficult. In the case of scientific ideas, it is much easier: the researchers exchanging them usually produce joint publications. A group of researchers from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow, headed by Prof. Stanislaw Drozdz (IFJ PAN, Cracow University of Technology), has analyzed the structures of links between the coauthors of scientific works forming around such eminent figures of modern science as Harry Eugene Stanley or Edward Witten. Illustrated in the form of graphs, the research results give a unique insight into the various forms of modern scientific cooperation.

"More and more people are now participating in scientific projects, and science itself is becoming more and more interdisciplinary. The scale of difficulty of the scientific issues under research is increasing, and we are also dealing with the rapid development of modern methods of communication. All this means that the links between scientists today have not only a significant complexity, but also constantly growing dynamics", says Prof. Drozdz.

When starting to analyze the structures of scientific cooperation, the Cracow researchers made use of an idea connected with the figure of Paul Erdos, one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century. Erdos was the author and co-author of approx. 1500 publications, with a total of over 500 people working together. Erdos' exceptional scientific activity provoked mathematicians to invent Erdos numbers, reflecting the scientific 'kinship' of a given person with Erdos himself. According to the definition, Erdos was assigned the number 0, the scientist who wrote the publication with him - 1, the scientist who wrote a publication with a person having an Erdos number of 1 - the number 2, etc.

"Our idea was to analyze the scientific connections of several contemporary outstanding scholars in a similar way and to present them in the form of graphs, or sets of nodes and lines connecting them. Naturally, the central node of each graph was a scientist chosen by us; the remaining nodes corresponded to his next, closer or further associates. In this approach, the connections between nodes can be interpreted as flows of ideas resulting in writing a joint publication," explains Prof. Drozdz.

The simplest graph produced according to the above principles would be a graph for Paul Dirac, an English physicist-theoretician who always published his works as the sole author. Dirac's graph would therefore consist of just one node. There would be an equally uninteresting topology in graphs of modern scientific ventures in which hundreds of scientists participate, assigned to many subsequent publications in an often purely administrative manner (this is a common situation in the case of complex, long-term experiments, such as LHC and LIGO gravitational wave detectors). These graphs would consist of a large number of nodes, most of them connecting with all the others. The network of connections here is so dense that it is difficult to find any interesting dependencies.

The graph of Erdos himself also turned out to be moderately interesting: numerous links radiate from the central node to many neighboring nodes, and almost always ended there. Only some of the nodes symbolizing Erdos' associates were connected to each other. The shape of the structure was probably influenced here by the fact that the communication tools existing in the 20th century were much more poorly developed than at present and it was much more difficult for many scientists, especially the lesser known ones, to establish new contacts.

"When Erdos was dealing with the mathematical description of networks reflecting human interactions, he predicted that the connection structure would be quite democratic: most nodes would be in direct contact with a comparable, though not very large, number of other nodes. But at the turn of the century, for the first time, a large network was visualized: the Internet. Suddenly, it turned out that this network has a much less democratic structure: only 20% of nodes have access to 80% of connections. We discovered a self-organization resulting from the operation of a similar power law in the network of Professor Stanley", notes Prof. Drozdz.

Prof. H. Eugene Stanley is an interdisciplinary statistical physicist, co-author of several dozen publications a year. His Hirsch index, reflecting the number and response of scientific publications, is one of the highest in the natural and technical sciences. In the idea flow network surrounding Stanley there are many highlighted nodes, around which there are more nodes, representing scientists developing their own research, and inspired by Stanley's works. Some of them, corresponding to such figures of science as Marcel Ausloos, Shlomo Havlin or Sergey Buldyrev, influenced their colleagues in a similarly creative way, focusing their own communities around themselves. As a result, the Stanley network acquired hierarchical features, in many places demonstrating the self-similarity characteristic of fractal objects.

The hierarchy of the ideas network is neither a universal feature nor is it characteristic of the outstanding figures of today's science. The graph illustrating the scientific connections of Edward Witten, a well-known mathematical physicist developing string theory, turned out to have a general outline resembling a simple star, as was so clearly visible in Erdos's graph. In Witten's, however, the presence of several distinct sub-structures separated from each other is visible. They correspond to communities dealing with specific topics, e.g. the theory of everything or the physics of high energies.

"The mathematical procedure proposed by us makes it possible to detect links between people which are not always perceived at first glance. The existence of some communities only became obvious when, constructing the graphs, we took into account the fact that connections between nodes can have different strengths. Some authors may, after all, publish joint works many times," notes Prof. Drozdz.

In networks of interpersonal contacts, mathematics enables the revealing of the presence of communities connected by common ideas. The methods of analysis proposed by the Cracow physicists could thus be used for other purposes, e.g. to follow the structures of terrorist organizations. But it is possible to imagine other, more peaceful applications. For example, who knows if modern democracies would not function more effectively if, before elections, each of us could see a graph illustrating the network of the candidate's connections with other people next to his or her photo?

The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ PAN) is currently the largest research institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The broad range of studies and activities of IFJ PAN includes basic and applied research, ranging from particle physics and astrophysics, through hadron physics, high-, medium-, and low-energy nuclear physics, condensed matter physics (including materials engineering), to various applications of methods of nuclear physics in interdisciplinary research, covering medical physics, dosimetry, radiation and environmental biology, environmental protection, and other related disciplines. The average yearly yield of the IFJ PAN encompasses more than 600 scientific papers in the Journal Citation Reports published by the Thomson Reuters. The part of the Institute is the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice (CCB) which is an infrastructure, unique in Central Europe, to serve as a clinical and research centre in the area of medical and nuclear physics. IFJ PAN is a member of the Marian Smoluchowski Krakow Research Consortium: "Matter-Energy-Future" which possesses the status of a Leading National Research Centre (KNOW) in physics for the years 2012-2017. The Institute is of A+ Category (leading level in Poland) in the field of sciences and engineering.

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CONTACTS:

Prof. Stanislaw Drozdz

The Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences

tel.: +48 12 6628220

email: stanislaw.drozdz@ifj.edu.pl

SCIENTIFIC PAPERS:

"Hierarchical organization of H. Eugene Stanley scientific collaboration community in weighted network representation"

S. Drozdz, A. Kulig, J. Kwapien, A. Niewiarowski, M. Stanuszek

Journal of Informetrics 11 (2017) 1114-1127

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2017.09.009

LINKS:

http://www.ifj.edu.pl/

The website of the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences.

http://press.ifj.edu.pl/

Press releases of the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences.

IMAGES:

IFJ180110b_fot01s.jpg

HR: http://press.ifj.edu.pl/news/2018/01/10/IFJ180110b_fot01.jpg

Graph showing the flow of ideas initiated by Prof. H. Eugene Stanley. Connections between collaborators show the existence of several clearly visible sub-networks, corresponding to scientific communities focusing on specific research topics. (Source: IFJ PAN)

IFJ180110b_fot02as.jpg

HR: http://press.ifj.edu.pl/news/2018/01/10/IFJ180110b_fot02a.jpg

IFJ180110b_fot02bs.jpg (annotations)

HR: http://press.ifj.edu.pl/news/2018/01/10/IFJ180110b_fot02b.jpg

Graphs showing scientific connections initiated by Paul Erdos, Edward Witten, Marcel Ausloos and H. Eugene Stanley. In the case of Edward Witten there are three clearly visible sub-networks, corresponding to specific topics. (Source: IFJ PAN)
Mount Sinai Researchers have just discovered that patients in the Ashkenazi Jewish population with Crohn's disease (a chronic inflammatory of the digestive system) are more likely to carry the LRRK2 gene mutation. This gene is the major genetic cause of Parkinson's disease, which is a movement disorder. The study's findings, published in the January 10, 2018 issue of Science Translational Medicine, and featured on the cover, could help doctors better understand Crohn's disease, determine specifically who's at risk, and develop new drugs for treatment and/or prevention by targeting this specific gene.

"Crohn's disease is a complex disorder with multiple genes and environmental factors involved, which disproportionally affects individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry," explained lead researcher Inga Peter, Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. "The presence of shared LRRK2 mutations in patients with Crohn's disease and Parkinson's disease provides refined insight into disease mechanisms and may have major implications for the treatment of these two seemingly unrelated diseases."

Dr. Peter and a team of Mount Sinai Investigators used international data from the last decade up to the present to analyze the occurrence of 230,000 coding genetic mutations in the human genome of 2,066 patients with Crohn's disease and compared them to 3,633 people without the disorder. All were of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. They identified mutations in the LRRK2 gene that are more frequently found in Crohn's disease cases as compared to unaffected individuals. When they discovered a link between Crohn's and the LRRK2 gene mutations they went further to assess the possible genetic link between Crohn's and Parkinson's. The team then looked at a much larger sample of 24,570 people including patients with Crohn's, Parkinson's, and no disease at all (each group consisted of Jewish and non-Jewish subjects).

The study found two mutations of the LRRK2 gene in Crohn's disease patients. One of them (called the risk mutation) was more common in patients with Crohn's, while the other (the protective mutation) was more prevalent in patients without the disease. Most Crohn's disease patients who carried the risk mutation developed the disease on average six years earlier than those who did not carry this mutation. The research also shows that more Crohn's patients with the risk mutation developed the disease in the small intestine, compared to those without the mutation. If the disease starts in the small intestine, it becomes more difficult to manage and often leads to complications and surgeries. It's important to note that the effect of these mutations was observed in Ashkenazi Jewish populations and non-Jewish populations.

"Defining the biology of naturally occurring protective mutations is quite important, because they define desired outcomes for potentially new therapies," explained the study's co-author Judy H. Cho, MD, Director of the Sanford Grossman Center for Integrative Studies in Crohn's disease, and the Charles F. Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

"Identifying genetic mutations associated with disease risk is an effective way to better understand disease mechanisms, identify individuals at risk, and develop novel drug targets to treat the disease," Dr. Peter added. "Our research may also help identify individuals who would benefit the most of LRRK2-directed therapies, thereby contributing to the field of personalized medicine."

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About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system encompassing seven hospital campuses, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The System includes approximately 7,100 primary and specialty care physicians; 10 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 140 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. Physicians are affiliated with the renowned Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which is ranked among the highest in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding per investigator. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in four other specialties in the 2017-2018 "Best Hospitals" issue. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked in six out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 12th nationally for Ophthalmology and 50th for Ear, Nose, and Throat, while Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's and Mount Sinai West are ranked regionally.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/, or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
New research, from an international group of health policy experts led by the University of Bath (UK), reports a mixed picture of transparency in public decisions-making around new medicine approvals in Poland, one of Europe's largest pharmaceutical markets.

Despite a troubled relationship with the European Commission, Poland has been hailed as a leader in modernising its assessment systems in establishing whether new drugs represent good value for money and merit significant public investment.

Drawing on comprehensive analysis of over 330 scientific drug assessments, the new findings suggest that the Polish Agency for Health Technology Assessment has reached the 'gold' transparency standard set by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in England.

Surprisingly, the Polish Agency has even exceeded NICE in certain ways, such as providing details of the timing of assessment processes.

But, this is not a complete success story as there are still areas in which the Polish Agency significantly lags behind NICE. The research finds that scientific assessment reports include a high amount of redacted - or blacked out - information on drug prices, which prevents proper public scrutiny of decisions with huge financial consequences.

In addition, the Agency lacks transparency in disclosing potential conflicts of interest of its experts with multinational pharmaceutical giants. It is often unclear how many experts had financial ties to the industry, what their nature was and whether they were appropriately addressed.

The finding is supported by another piece of research, published last month, by the same research group. Based on over 100 interviews and thorough analysis of key policy documents, the study authors identify a 'Fire Exit' syndrome, where low-earning civil servants leave public organisations to take up highly paid jobs in the pharmaceutical sector. It also finds a pattern of Big Pharma co-opting medical experts working in an underfunded public healthcare sector using various incentives such as research funding.

The Polish Agency therefore struggles to access expertise which may not be perceived as biased by corporate interests. To make things worse, the Agency is exposed to strong pressure by patient organisations frequently reliant on pharmaceutical funding, in the absence of appropriate state grants.

Despite regulations being in place to govern conflicts of interest in the Polish context, this suggests these may in fact be counterproductive in that they could encourage attempts at establishing informal access to decision makers. Against a backdrop of widespread acceptance of industry influence on healthcare, it suggests health professionals would benefit from greater education about awareness of conflicts of interests, including at medical schools.

Lead author, Dr Piotr Ozieranski from the Department of Social & Policy Sciences, explains: "Our research suggests that despite the significant progress made in recent years, the assessment of medical technologies in Poland still has some way to go. Achieving full transparency regarding the nature and extent of potential conflicts of interests of medical experts is a key way of reassuring us, as members of the public, that decisions reached on funding of new drugs are based exclusively on the best possible independent, scientific evidence.

"This is important as in Poland both doctors and patients are exposed to powerful mechanisms of influence deployed by Big Pharma. Increased transparency is an important step in mitigating any undue influence.

"These findings suggest that more must be done to protect public health in Poland by being more open and transparent about potential conflicts of interest which could include through new education initiatives at medical schools."

The latest research builds on the previous work by showing how big pharma lobbies in Poland and in the West. It was funded via grants from the Department of Sociology and St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge.

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Some research suggests that millennials are pushing boundaries by not only rejecting traditional distinctions between the sexes, both at home and at work, but also refusing to accept gender categories altogether.

Other studies indicate millennials are idealizing traditional roles where stay-at-home moms are primarily responsible for children.

A forthcoming book from a University of Illinois at Chicago sociologist shows that both are true, so don't expect to find one typical millennial.

"Where the Millennials Will Take Us: A New Generation Wrestles with the Gender Structure" details feedback from more than 100 life history interviews with a gender and ethnically diverse group of millennials that includes transgender and gender queer youth.

Using her theory of gender as a social structure, Barbara Risman, UIC professor of sociology and distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences, provides insight into the minds of today's young adults to uncover the strategies they use to negotiate the unsettled gender norms and expectations facing their generation.

Beyond how gender is embodied by many individuals, she reports on its influences in daily life and its entrenchment within the organization of workplaces, politics and ideology.

"I found that the fear of being stigmatized for challenging old gender stereotypes is still widespread, but far more among young men than women," Risman said. "Still, nearly everyone felt the powerful constraint of gender stereotypes when it came to how to display their bodies -- from the clothes they wore to the mannerisms they used; to what they weighed and where they had muscle."

The interviews show how dramatically the gender structure still constrains life in America, according to Risman, who is an executive officer of the Council on Contemporary Families, a national organization.

"Both men and women, and those who reject being so labeled, all know the presumptions that come with being female or male: the expectations that women be pretty, supportive and nice, and the expectations that men avoid anything that is considered feminine," she explained. "It is not that all, or even most, millennials always meet gendered expectations, but they face consequences for not doing so."

The millennial generation may not inspire a new wave of feminism in spite of the emergence of gender "rebels" who reject categories altogether, but Risman doesn't foresee a retreat to 1950s ideals either.

"Some millennials may be ambivalent about how far to push the gender revolution, but this is not your grandparents' ambivalence," she said. "In my research, what was very clear is that even millennials who make traditional choices are unlikely to accept a political agenda that penalizes people who do not."

The book concludes with Risman's call for a fourth wave of feminism to eliminate not only sexism but also the gender structure itself.

"To achieve a more just society we must overcome gender expectations entirely, so that none of us are constrained by expectations simply because of the sex category to which we were assigned," she said. "Nor should any business assume that some people have caretaking responsibilities and some do not. If women are not expected to care for the young and the old, then we all must be, and workplaces have to change to make that possible."

Risman, who received the American Sociological Association's 2011 award for public understanding of sociology, is author of "Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition" and co-editor of "Families As They Really Are," an edited textbook featuring a collection of research studies on how families function in everyday life.

She is spending the spring semester as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Durham University in the United Kingdom.

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Epilepsy--a condition that affects an estimated 65 million people worldwide--can be a difficult condition to treat. A team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Mayo Clinic have developed a method with the potential to significantly improve the accuracy and reduce the cost and time needed to identify regions of the brain causing epilepsy.

Using probabilistic modeling and artificial intelligence techniques based on real data from patients suffering from epilepsy, Yogatheesan Varatharajah and Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. Greg Worrell developed a model to identify seizure generating brain regions using only non-seizure data. The new approach has the potential to decrease the time of an epilepsy procedure from days or weeks to just a couple of hours.

It has been long appreciated that the epileptic brain regions responsible for seizures generate abnormal activity even when a patient is not having a seizure. It is similar to the sparks that occur before a fire ignites. Worrell and Varatharajah investigated this further.

"When we looked at the data the doctors were collecting, we examined the abnormal activity and using sophisticated machine learning techniques, we were able to actually predict where the seizures were coming from," said Varatharajah, a PhD student in electrical and computer engineering at the Coordinated Science Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"This gave us the idea of utilizing our probabilistic modeling expertise in epilepsy procedures to identify the seizure-generating regions without having to look at the brain activity during the seizures, which typically requires recording brain activity for days to weeks to capture the patients' typical seizures," he said.

As many as 30 percent of people who suffer from epilepsy don't respond to any kind of drug treatment. For those people, surgery to remove the area of the brain causing the seizures is one of their only solutions.

To locate the seizure-generating brain region, surgeons typically implant sensors directly on the brain to monitor the brain activity during seizures. The problem is that this procedure requires patients to have seizures--and it may take days or weeks for one to occur.

"This is a very time-consuming and a costly procedure," said Varatharajah, who is advised by CSL and ECE Professor Ravishankar Iyer. "And it can also be a very traumatic experience for the patients, who have to go through two back-to-back brain surgeries and suffer another seizure."

Varatharajah and his colleagues have proposed a vastly difference experience. Using electroencephalography (EEG) data from the brain sensors, the team analyzed non-seizure activity from 80 patients with epilepsy. To test their accuracy, they compared their results to the seizure EEG data and surgery outcomes from patients.

"We wanted to develop a method to localize seizure-generating regions within just two hours in the ICU," said Varatharajah. "Without encountering a seizure."

If approved for clinical use, patients would undergo surgery to place electrodes on the brain, and then--during the same procedure--the team's algorithms would collect and analyze EEG data for just two hours to determine the seizure-inducing brain region, allowing the doctors to evaluate results and make a decision about removing the area.

The technology, which the team is continuing to develop, is being patented by Mayo Clinic, and they are evaluating the possibility of using it in clinical practice. This collaborative work was made possible by the Illinois-Mayo Alliance and was published in the conference proceedings for the 2017 Neural Information Processing Systems conference in December 2017.

"We believe this technology has the potential to transform the field of brain mapping and epilepsy surgery," said Dr. Greg Worrell. "Our patients will no longer require multiple days of hospitalization to record their habitual seizures, but rather can have a single intra-operative procedure to localize epileptic brain tissue that can then be immediately resected."

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MONTREAL, Jan. 11, 2018 - Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease which attacks the lungs, claims a life every 20 seconds and 1.5 million lives worldwide every year. A cure has eluded scientists for more than a century but, now, a Montreal team of researchers may have discovered a new weapon to combat this global killer. The team is re-programing - or 'training' - immune cells to make them kill TB. These groundbreaking findings are published online today in the journal Cell.

"The current available BCG-vaccine is not effective. The current antibiotic treatments are toxic and have resulted in generating TB-resistance strains. The antibiotics era is approaching its end; we are in serious trouble with this bug if we don't investigate an alternative approach," says lead corresponding author Dr. Maziar Divangahi, a pulmonary immunologist and expert in immunity to TB at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC).

Working with Universite de Montreal geneticist Luis Barreiro and his team at the UdeM-affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre, the researchers were able to dissect and identify the genomic pathways involved in triggering an enhanced innate immune response against TB.

Up until now, efforts in generating a vaccine against TB have been mainly focused on T cells (cells from the adaptive arm of our immune response with memory capacity), with very disappointing outcomes in both pre-clinical as well as clinical trials. Now, Dr. Divangahi's and Barreiro's teams have shown for the first time that when BCG is administered to mice in a way that enables access to the bone marrow, it can reprogram stem cells. These primitive cells are responsible for generating all immune cells including the innate arm of our immune response, the first line of defense in the war against TB.

Cells trained to eradicate TB

The innate system - via stem cells in the bone marrow - mobilizes macrophages, which are a type of white blood cell that swallows and kills invading bacteria like Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) that causes TB. They are the immune system's first responders.

However, Mtb disarms the killing program of macrophages and uses them as a kind of "sanctuary" to replicate and grow. Dr. Divangahi's team looked at that process and aimed to find out how to boost the TB-killing efficiency of macrophages. With this goal in mind, Dr. Divangahi's team vaccinated mice with BCG and in a series of experiments observed that in the bone marrow BCG was able to reprogram or "educate" the stem cells to proliferate and generate TB slaying macrophages.

"Although we demonstrated that BCG educates stem cells to generate trained immunity, we had no idea about the molecular mechanisms that were involved in this protective pathway," says Dr. Divangahi, who is also an Associate Director of the Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases Program at the RI-MUHC and an Associate Professor of Medicine at McGill University.

To find out what those molecular mechanisms were, Dr. Divangahi initiated a collaboration with Dr. Barreiro and his team at Sainte-Justine. Their goal was to dissect the genomic pathways involved in triggering the enhanced innate immune response against TB.

Dr. Barreiro's team demonstrated how the protective programs were imprinted and transmitted from stem cells all the way to macrophages. In addition, they identified the genetic imprint of the protective pathways in educated macrophages that were "turned on" to kill the TB pathogen. "It's really about finding different ways to develop better vaccines, ones that will harness the power of macrophages and finally put the body's innate immune memory to use," says Dr. Barreiro.

"The current vaccine - BCG - was introduced in 1921 and has failed to control the tuberculosis epidemic. This work will completely re-orient efforts to develop a new vaccine for TB," adds Dr. Marcel Behr, director of the McGill International TB Centre in Montreal.

Although researchers and colleagues are extremely hopeful that this novel approach will generate an effective vaccine against TB and potentially other infectious diseases, Dr. Divangahi added a word of caution. "This is only the tip of the iceberg and further research is clearly required to fully harness the power of stem cells in immunity against infectious diseases."

About the study

"BCG educates hematopoietic stem cells to generate protective innate immunity against tuberculosis," by Eva Kaufmann, Joaquin Sanz, Jonathan L. Dunn, Nargis Khan, Laura E. Mendonca, Alain Pacis, Fanny Tzelepis, Erwan Pernet, Anne Dumaine, Jean-Christophe Grenier, Florence Mailhot-Leonard, Eisha Ahmed, Jad Belle, Rickvinder Besla, Bruce Mazer, Irah L. King, Anastasia Nijnik, Clinton S. Robbins, Luis B. Barreiro, and Maziar Divangahi, was published Jan. 11, 2018, in Cell. This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

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About the Research Institute of the MUHC

The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is a world-renowned biomedical and healthcare research centre. The Institute, which is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University, is the research arm of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) - an academic health centre located in Montreal, Canada, that has a mandate to focus on complex care within its community. The RI-MUHC supports over 420 researchers and close to 1,200 research trainees devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental, clinical and health outcomes research at the Glen and the Montreal General Hospital sites of the MUHC. Its research facilities offer a dynamic multidisciplinary environment that fosters collaboration and leverages discovery aimed at improving the health of individual patients across their lifespan. The RI-MUHC is supported in part by the Fonds de recherche du Quebec - Sante (FRQS). http://www.rimuhc.ca

About the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre

CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre is a leading mother-child research institution affiliated with Universite de Montreal. It brings together more than 200 research investigators, including over 90 clinicians, as well as 350 graduate and post-graduate students focused on finding innovative means of prevention, faster and less invasive treatments, and personalized approaches to medicine. The Centre is part of CHU Sainte-Justine, which is the largest mother-child hospital in Canada and second most important pediatric hospital in North America.
By seeing which way the wind blows, a University of Texas at Dallas fluid dynamics expert has helped propose a solution to a Martian mountain mystery. Dr. William Anderson, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, co-authored a paper published in the journal Physical Review E that explains the common Martian phenomenon of a mountain positioned downwind from the center of an ancient meteorite impact zone.

Anderson's co-author, Dr. Mackenzie Day, worked on the project as part of her doctoral research at The University of Texas at Austin, where she earned her PhD in geology in May 2017. Day is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Gale Crater was formed by meteorite impact early in the history of Mars, and it was subsequently filled with sediments transported by flowing water. This filling preceded massive climate change on the planet, which introduced the arid, dusty conditions that have been prevalent for the past 3.5 billion years. This chronology indicates wind must have played a role in sculpting the mountain.

"On Mars, wind has been the only driver of landscape change for over 3 billion years," Anderson said. "This makes Mars an ideal planetary laboratory for aeolian morphodynamics -- wind-driven movement of sediment and dust. We're studying how Mars' swirling atmosphere sculpted its surface."

Wind vortices blowing across the crater slowly formed a radial moat in the sediment, eventually leaving only the off-center Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high peak similar in height to the rim of the crater. The mountain was skewed to one side of the crater because the wind excavated one side faster than the other, the research suggests.

Day and Anderson first advanced the concept in an initial publication on the topic in Geophysical Research Letters. Now, they have shown via computer simulation that, given more than a billion years, Martian winds were capable of digging up tens of thousands of cubic kilometers of sediment from the crater -- largely thanks to turbulence, the swirling motion within the wind stream.

"The role of turbulence cannot be overstated," Anderson said. "Since sediment movement increases non-linearly with drag imposed by the aloft winds, turbulent gusts literally amplify sediment erosion and transport."

The location -- and mid-latitude Martian craters in general -- became of interest as NASA's Curiosity rover landed in Gale Crater in 2012, where it has gathered data since then.

"The rover is digging and cataloging data housed within Mount Sharp," Anderson said. "The basic science question of what causes these mounds has long existed, and the mechanism we simulated has been hypothesized. It was through high-fidelity simulations and careful assessment of the swirling eddies that we could demonstrate efficacy of this model."

The theory Anderson and Day tested via computer simulations involves counter-rotating vortices -- picture in your mind horizontal dust devils -- spiraling around the crater to dig up sediment that had filled the crater in a warmer era, when water flowed on Mars.

"These helical spirals are driven by winds in the crater, and, we think, were foremost in churning away at the dry Martian landscape and gradually scooping sediment from within the craters, leaving behind these off-center mounds," Anderson said.

That simulations have demonstrated that wind erosion could explain these geographical features offers insight into Mars' distant past, as well as context for the samples collected by Curiosity.

"It's further indication that turbulent winds in the atmosphere could have excavated sediment from the craters," Anderson said. "The results also provide guidance on how long different surface samples have been exposed to Mars' thin, dry atmosphere."

This understanding of the long-term power of wind can be applied to Earth as well, although there are more variables on our home planet than Mars, Anderson said.

"Swirling, gusty winds in Earth's atmosphere affect problems at the nexus of landscape degradation, food security and epidemiological factors affecting human health," Anderson said. "On Earth, however, landscape changes are also driven by water and plate tectonics, which are now absent on Mars. These drivers of landscape change generally dwarf the influence of air on Earth."

###

Computational resources for the study were provided by the Texas Advanced Computing Center at UT Austin. Day's role in the research was supported by a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
Toronto - It contains potentially lifesaving stem cells that can treat a host of blood-based cancers and other diseases. Yet the blood found in newborns' umbilical cords is almost always discarded as medical waste, rather than banked for future needs.

A two-year study of expectant mothers in Milan, Italy, however has found that cord blood donations increased significantly when parents received information about the procedure and "prompts" to indicate their interest in donating at both early and late stages of their pregnancies.

"We more than doubled the number of cord blood units that were collected. We learned a lot and we did a little bit of good too so that feels nice," said Nicola Lacetera, an applied economist at the University of Toronto Mississauga, who is also cross-appointed to the UofT's Rotman School of Management and one of the study's four authors. Prof. Lacetera is also a Chief Scientist with the Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR) centre. He conducted the study with Daniela Grieco of Bocconi University, Mario Macis of Johns Hopkins University and Daniela Di Martino of Opedale Buzzi, Milan.

It is the first randomized control study to apply behavioural science "nudging" techniques to cord blood donation. A nudge uses knowledge of human psychology to create a low-key, non-coercive intervention that makes it easier for people to take positive actions they support, but may find hard to do.

People may not donate their baby's cord blood even if they'd like to because they procrastinate -- such as putting off the required paperwork to allow the donation -- or are overwhelmed by the myriad of decisions and plans parents have to make closer to baby's arrival , among other reasons. Parents may also store their baby's cord blood in a private bank, but this is banned in Italy, where the study took place.

The study conditions included no information given about cord blood donation, and information provided early in the pregnancy or late. This could be combined with asking expectant parents about their intention to donate, and, in the case of the early-informed condition, a third-trimester reminder about their intention, plus an opportunity to change it.

The combination with the most nudges had the highest donation rate: just over 21 per cent of women who received donation information early in their pregnancy, an opportunity to signal their intention, followed by a third-trimester reminder and revision opportunity successfully donated. This compared to donations from 2.7 percent of women who received no information and 11.4 percent of women who received it only in their third trimester.

All told, out of 850 expectant mothers, some 57 cord blood donations were made when nudging was used, compared to 18 to 20 without the intervention.

As positive as these numbers are, the study says donations could have been doubled by the removal of organizational and institutional barriers, such as a lack of staff to perform the cord blood collection and inflexible operating hours at the blood bank.

Cord blood donation is a relatively recent option, which may be another reason why so few people do it. Canada opened its first national public cord blood bank in Ottawa in 2013. The Milano Cord Blood Bank, where donations in the study were stored, opened in 1993. Italy's public cord blood donation rate is about one percent. In the U.S., the rate of cord blood donation of any kind is believed to be below five percent.

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The complete study is available at Nature at http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18679-y.

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Does social media coverage of fatal police-citizen incidents act as a virtual contagion? If a member of the public is killed by police, does it lead to future violence against law enforcement? Conversely, if an officer is killed in the line of duty, does it lead to future violence against citizens?

These are some of the questions raised in a new study published today in the scientific journal PLOS ONE by Seattle University faculty William Parkin and Matthew Hickman in the Department of Criminal Justice, Vladimir Bejan in the Department of Economics, and Veronica Pozo, Department of Applied Economics faculty at Utah State University. The research explores relationships between law enforcement killed in the line of duty, fatal use of force incidents and social media activity related to the Black Lives Matter movement. The researchers wanted to know if, at the national level, there is any empirical evidence of retaliation on the part of police or citizens for fatalities occurring in either group. At the same time they wanted to understand the influence, if any, of social media attention to tensions between the two.

Key findings

The study found evidence that when an officer was killed in the line of duty, there was retaliatory violence against citizens by police on the same day. However, the relationship was different when comparing minorities and non-minorities. Specifically, an unexpected increase in the number of officers killed was associated with an increase in the number of minorities killed, but a decrease in the number of non-minorities killed. While the study cannot speak to whether the shootings were justifiable, the findings could signal a racially biased reaction to public killings of police.

The study also found evidence that an unexpected rise in fatal shootings of non-minorities by police were associated with an increase in fatal shootings of police during the same day. But fatal shootings of minority citizens by police were associated with a decrease in fatal shootings of police. These effects were statistically significant, but not as strong as the impacts of increases in officer line-of-duty deaths described above.

Importantly, all of the relationships described held steady while controlling for the daily number of Black Lives Matter-related tweets. These tweets could support or oppose the movement and might have nothing to do with fatal police-citizen violence. The tweets were a proxy for how much attention the topic received on any given day.

"Black Lives Matter-related tweets were associated with increases in both the numbers of minorities and law enforcement officers killed," Pozo says. "This implies that social media can rapidly spread a negative message and act as a contagion."

An uptick in Black Lives Matter-related tweets was associated with increases in fatal shootings of minority citizens, but not non-minorities. The effect of Black Lives Matter-related tweets on officer fatalities was also statistically significant, but not as strong as the effect on minority fatalities.

"Our study provides strong initial evidence of an increase in deaths of minority citizens by law enforcement following an unexpected increase in officers killed in the line of duty," says Parkin. "It also provides initial evidence that unexpected increases in social media posts highlighting the conflict between law enforcement and minority groups are associated with an increased risk of fatal contacts between the two."

Explaining these relationships

One theory that can help explain the findings is called "terror management theory." This psychological theory suggests that when an individual's mortality becomes either consciously or subconsciously salient, they are more likely to defend the dominant worldview. They will react positively to persons associated with "in groups"--social groups with which an individual identifies--of that perspective. They will also react negatively to persons associated with "out groups"--social groups with which an individual does not identify.

If police are made aware of the line-of-duty deaths of fellow officers, which the researchers argue is a form of priming, it may alter how they interact with individuals associated with perceived "out groups," such as the Black Lives Matter movement. Law enforcement officers would tend to view non-minority citizens as part of the "in group." and minority citizens as part of the out group. Engaging differently with members of the "out group" during contacts, compared to the "in group," could explain the opposite relationship in the deaths of minority versus non-minority citizens after an officer is killed in the line of duty.

Parsing the data

Researchers looked at nearly two years of daily data, from January 2015 to September 2016. The data was drawn from the Officer Down Memorial Page, The Washington Post's police shootings database and Twitter. The data was disaggregated on two different categories to understand whether the frequency of fatal use of force incidents varied based on the race or ethnicity of citizens killed (white non-Hispanics and minorities).

The models looked at whether an unexpected increase in any of the variables was significantly associated with a future change in other variables. For example, an unexpected increase in "fatal shootings of police" is defined as more than the average daily murders (by one standard deviation). The models allowed researchers to predict the number of citizens killed by police, as well as the number of Black Lives Matter-related tweets up to seven days following this unexpected incident.

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Read the study, "Primed for Death: Law Enforcement-Citizen Homicides, Social Media, and Retaliatory Violence," at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0190571.
For more than 20 years, farm and ranch groups, Congress, and big agbiz have used the phrase sound science like a sharp shovel to undermine agricultural policy they want to alter or bury.

Ask them to define sound science, however, and youll get no clear explanation. Thats because sound science is a political weapon, not a branch of knowledge.

As such, sound science really is science that sounds good to them if it guts legislation or rules they oppose.

Sound science

This savory device has an unsavory history, writes Christie Aschwanden, the lead science writer for the website FiveThirtyEight.

The phrase was adopted by the tobacco industry in the 1990s to counteract mounting evidence linking secondhand smoke to cancer, she reports.

The strategy, Aschwanden explains in her Dec. 6 post, arose after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed the link in a 1992 report.

Phillip Morris, a big player in big tobacco, responded with an initiative it called sound science, a program meant to discredit the EPA report, she writes, and proactively pass legislation to help their cause.

The linchpin, Aschwanden continues, was that the sound science tactic exploits a fundamental feature of the scientific process: Science does not produce absolute certainty.

In fact, it cant because science is a process that can rarely answer more than one question at a time, and each new study usually raises a bunch of new questions in the process of answering old ones.

That basic truth of good science  that every answer is provisional and subject to change in the face of new evidence,' one scientist tells Aschwanden  became the tobaccos industrys brilliant tacticto turn this baked-in uncertainty against the scientific enterprise itself.

Brilliant, indeed, because While insisting that they merely wanted to ensure that public policy was based on sound science, tobacco companies defined the term in a way that ensured that no science could ever be sound enough. The only sound science was certain science, which is an impossible standard to achieve.

Doubt

Or put more succinctly, Doubt is our product, wrote one Big Tobacco executive way back in 1969 because doubt is the best means of competing with the body of fact and establishing a controversy.

That clever move  creating doubt because the impossible standard of certain science is unattainable  is a political tactic that Stanford University historian Robert Proctor calls, interestingly, agnogenesis, reports Aschwanden, or the intentional manufacture of ignorancedeliberately created by agents who dont want you to know.

The goal, as one merchant of doubt tells FiveThirtyEight, is elegantly cynical: Were the negative force. Were just trying to stop stuff.

That confession  Were just trying to stop stuff.  reveals an even more basic truth about the public fight between open science and sound science.

These controversies are really about values, not scientific facts, writes Aschwanden, and acknowledging that would allow us to have more truthful and public debates.

But dont hold your breath for such debates anytime soon because the GOP-led Congress and the White House are busy taking sound science to never-explored heights.

HONEST Act

For example, on March 29, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed what its sponsor, Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who chairs the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, calls the HONEST Act.

A more honest name for it would be the Dishonest Act because it institutionalizes big tobaccos ignorance-inspiring, doubt-producing sound science standard as the law the of the land.

More specifically, the central part of the bill prevents EPA from developing rules, wrote Ed Yong for The Atlantic, unless all the information it used to write any rule was publicly available online in a manner that is sufficient for independent analysis and substantial reproduction of research results.

Thats a standard that Congress, your seed corn company, machinery company or farm group has never and will never meet.

And thats the point  EPA will therefore not be able to develop any public policy rule.

As troubling as the proposed law  currently in the hands of the Senate  is, even more troubling is that 43 of the 46 members of the House Ag Committee voted for its anti-science sound science ignorance.

Shame, shame.
WASHINGTON  The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and National Farmers Union (NFU) launched the Farm Town Strong, campaign to raise awareness of the opioid crisis impact on farming communities.

The campaign will also provide resources and information to help farm communities and encourage farmer-to-farmer support to overcome the crisis on a new website, FarmTownStrong.org.

Rural impact

The Farm Town Strong campaign comes on the heels of a recent survey commissioned by AFBF and NFU that highlighted how the opioid epidemic has hit farmers and farm workers especially hard.

While just under half of rural Americans say that they, a family member or friend have been directly impacted by opioid addiction, for farmers and farm workers its 74 percent.

A strong majority of respondents also support increasing public awareness of anti-opioid resources and reducing the stigma that surrounds addiction to help solve the opioid crisis.

Hit hard

Farm country has been hit hard by the opioid crisis  even harder than rural America as a whole, or big cities, said AFBF President Zippy Duvall.

He and NFU President Roger Johnson encouraged families and individuals to talk about the issues so others will know they are not alone in fighting the issue.

The lack of services, treatment and support exacerbates the issue in rural areas, and the negative stigma associated with addiction makes it hard for farmers to discuss the problem, said Johnson.

More

The two organizations will also hold public events and launched a social media campaign, #FarmTownStrong, to highlight the crisis and share resources. More information on the campaign can be found at FarmTownStrong.org.
SULLIVAN, Ohio  Black River FFA participated in the District Parliamentary Procedure Contest Dec. 4, at Triway High School.

The senior team placed third, receiving a gold rating, and included: president, Cori Aviles; secretary, Hannah Abfall; members, Cassidy Mrakuzic, Mya Kunsman, Katlyn Kubitz, Anna Shearer, and alternate Shay Ladina.

The junior team placed second, earning a gold rating, and included: president, Alexa Shearer; vice president, Molly Cordonnier; secretary, Chloee Howard; sentinel, Kaitlyn Long; reporter, Kiersten Hendershot; and member, Joe Mennell.

  

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio  Four members of the Zane Trace FFA chapter traveled to The Ohio State University to compete in the Ohio FFA Food Science and Technology career development event.

Junior Cody Clark led the team with a ninth-place individual finish out of 80 competitors. Senior Mike Bell, junior Nick Naumovski and sophomore Dylan Wolfe rounded out the team.

During Dec. 13-15 members of the Zane Trace FFA Chapter sorted and distributed over $25,000 worth of fruit, nuts, cheese and sauces as part of their annual fundraiser.

ZT FFA Coffee and College event connected graduates to 45 current students, Dec. 14. The graduates formed a panel and discussed questions from current juniors and seniors about their experiences in the first few months of post-graduate life.

Zane Trace FFA and Gay-Straight Alliance partner to open the Pioneer Pantry. This past fall, students in the FFA chapter learned that their food pantry partner, Church Triumphant Food Pantry, would be reducing their operations from once a week to once a month by January 2018.

The members converted a storage closet into a pantry. A pack the pantry drive was held during the first week of December and more than 1,100 items were collected during this time, which allowed the pantry to officially open its doors on Dec. 12.
A European initiative on pollinators could be created following news that pollination might be significantly decreasing in Europe.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on a European initiative on pollinators.

Wild pollinators such as bees, butterflies and many other insects pollinate crops and wild plants, so that they can bear fruit and seed.

The Commissions says pollinators are important as an estimated 5 billion of annual EU agricultural output is directly attributed to them.

Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella said: "Scientists have warned us of steep pollinator decline across Europe. We have a good understanding of declines for some pollinators while there are knowledge gaps for others.

"But it is beyond doubt that it is time to act. If we do not, we and our future generations would pay a very heavy price indeed."

'Too important'

Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, said: "Pollinators are too important for our food security and farming communities  as well as for life on the planet. We cannot afford to continue losing them."

The mid-term review of the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy showed that pollination might be significantly decreasing.

Almost 1 in 10 bee and butterfly species is facing extinction according to the European Red List.

To tackle the decline, the Commission is looking to develop a European initiative on pollinators and calls on farmers, businesses and wider society to contribute.

The consultation will remain open until 5 April 2018.
A farmer's images showing her dead sheep has been shared over 10,000 times on social media in a bid to highlight the devastating consequences of livestock worrying.

Karen Hodgson, who farms 2000 sheep in Wasdale Head, near Scafell Pike in the Lake District, took to social media after 11 of her sheep were killed in an apparent dog attack.

The 38-year-old, along with her husband Mark, discovered the dead sheep on New Year's Day.

She posted on Facebook: "Well a great start to the new year this morning. Went to check the ewes in the intake on Lingmell, the main path up to Scafell Pike, up to now we have 11 dead ewes, 3 tups missing and 6 walking wounded.

"Please will people put their bloody dogs on a lead. I have stopped 6 people this morning already with dogs, none on a lead and two people who are not even carrying one.

"Anyone up there this morning can see the carnage for themselves as we spend our New Year's Day dragging sheep out of the fields! Please anyone walking today put your dog on a lead!"

Three tups are still missing since the attack, and six other sheep have been left with a walking wounded.

Despite livestock worrying being an illegal offence in the UK, there has been a significant number of rising cases being reported to the police and on social media.

'Total disgrace'

Chris Nicholson commented on Ms Hodgson's post: Having had this happen to our sheep in the past it is a total disgrace, uncontrolled dogs and ignorant dog owners, remember a farmer can legally shoot any dog running wild among his sheep.

Belinda Beaumont added: What is wrong with these stupid bloody dog owners. Who just dont have a clue how to control their dogs. Just put your dogs on leads when walking where there is livestock. So very sad.

Christine Taylor said: "I think farmers need to start shooting a few dogs to really bring this matter home, it's the only way people are going to learn, might sound a bit harsh but just put your dog on a bloody lead, it's not asking the earth is it!"

The new year has already seen a string of livestock worrying incidents occur around the UK.

North Wales police are searching for the owner of 3 Staffordshire bull terriers which attacked sheep in Great Orme. A video of the attack went viral on social media.

And seven sheep died and two were injured in another dog attack which occurred in Flintshire on 9 January.

Under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953, if a dog worries sheep on agricultural land, the person in charge of the dog is guilty of an offence.
The government's 25-Year Environment Plan has been launched, which includes support for farmers to create 500,000 hectares of new habitat for endangered species, such as meadows.

It will also include helping farmers replenish depleted soils. The plan states Englands soils must be managed sustainably by 2030, calling it an important step in the right direction towards restoring the UKs soils.

Defra Secretary Michael Gove has been vocal on the subject of soil health. He said the UK will see the "fundamental eradication of soil fertility" because industrial farming has "damaging the earth".

The plans will also provide 5.7 million to kick-start the new Northern Forest, which has been touted as a rural economy booster.

A new environmental watchdog is also in the making, which will hold government to account for environmental standards, and setting out a new approach to agriculture and fisheries management.

The plan will seek to embed a net environmental gain principle, so development delivers environmental improvements locally and nationally, enabling housing development without increasing overall burdens on developers.

'Improve within a generation'

The overall aim sets out goals for improving the British environment, within a generation, and leaving it in a better state than it was founded.

It details how government will work with communities, farmers and businesses, and sets out what it will be doing over the next 25 years.

It follows news that farmers will be rewarded for making improvements to the environment under a new system of subsidies which will replace the EU's CAP.

The plan sits alongside two other important government strategies, the Industrial Strategy and Clean Growth strategy.

'Food at the heart'

The National Farmers' Union says farming is in a "unique position" to deliver for the environment, but only if there are productive and viable businesses  where "food is at the heart".

NFU Vice President Guy Smith said: Over the past four decades, farmers have carried out a huge amount of work to encourage wildlife, as well as benefiting the landscape, soil and water and reducing their impact on the climate.

Farming also offers innovative solutions to wider environmental challenges. For instance the Governments current concern with plastics highlighted by the BBCs brilliant Blue Planet series could be met with substituting synthetic plastics with farm produced biodegradable starch-based packaging.

But there must be a coherent approach. British farming has a unique role in producing a safe, affordable and high quality supply of food as well as protecting, maintaining and enhancing 70% of the nation's iconic countryside.

Mr Smith said that only remains feasible, however, as long as farmers run "sustainable and viable" businesses.

Farmers play 'crucial role'

CLA Director of Policy Christopher Price said farmers and landowners across the country will play a "crucial role" in delivering on this vision set out by the Prime Minister.

He said: The plan reflects not only the significant amount these businesses already contribute but also helps us all to understand how much more we can achieve in the future.

The plan acknowledges the range of public goods that are delivered across our countryside. It is farmers and landowners that deliver these goods from investing in improving soil quality, to reducing flooding risks to homes and businesses and managing woodland.

'Hard choices'

However, Mr Price said there is more work to be done to make plans more specific, and signal where the "hard choices" will be made.

He said much of what is proposed will require significant investment from a range of sources consistently delivered over decades.

It also requires us to create market opportunities, whether that be to reward land use that captures carbon, manages water or provides offsets for the environmental impacts of development, he added. This will be a big part of making this successful and sustainable.

Upgrading facilities

Mr Price said farming facilities will need upgrading to promote significant new development.

He explained: We need much greater clarity than this plan provides on the role of the local planning system. If we are to deliver on our environmental ambitions as a nation we have to rethink much of how we live and work.

This requires innovation in house building, infrastructure provision and upgrading of business facilities, especially within farming, and that means promoting significant new development.

Too often the impulse in the planning system is to interpret environmental responsibilities as a need to slow or hold back development, whereas it is by encouraging and harnessing growth that we are more likely to succeed.
A charity which promotes environmentally friendly farming has listed its top ten food safety concerns if a UK-US trade deal is struck.

In preparation for the second reading of the Trade Bill in the House of Commons, the Soil Association has released a report on the potential food safety risks posed by a free trade deal with the US.

Some of the key differences between UK and US production  hormone-treated beef, GM crops and chlorinated chicken  are becoming increasingly understood by British consumers.

Indeed, a senior business representative to President Donald Trump has previously warned that the British public may have to accept chlorinated chicken as part of any trade deal between the UK and the US.

However, a number of ministers, including Defra Secretary Michael Gove, have frequently insisted that the UK government will seek to maintain farming standards in any negotiations.

The Soil Association's report also highlights a number of other areas where products imported from the US could be produced under significantly different standards to British standards.

It uses the examples the inclusion of food colourants that have been withdrawn from the UK, the use of the herbicide Atrazine that has previously been linked with human health risks, and the sale of chicken litter as animal feed which was banned by the EU in 2001.

High food standards

Honor Eldridge, Policy Officer at the Soil Association, said British farming has a reputation for high food safety and high animal welfare.

"It is imperative that any future trade deal does not result in a dilution of these standards for consumers. Nor should any deal competitively disadvantage UK farmers," Ms Eldridge explained.

"We welcome Michael Goves assertion that the UK should not race to the bottom in competing with cheap imports, as well as his commitment to supporting environmentally-friendly farming practice.

"If the UK Government is to achieve its goal of improving and strengthening our food standards, future trade agreements must reflect these commitments. To this end, any future trade negotiations must be conducted transparently and with input from public stakeholders."

'Any day of the week'

The report follows news of US agricultural trade chief Ted McKinney urging delegates at the Oxford Farming Conference to stop the knee-jerk response to US-UK trade.

"We will hold our food safety, environment and welfare standards up against the UK any day of the week and twice on Sunday," Mr McKinney told delegates.

"Let's just get that out of the way. We do hope that your consumers have at least the opportunity - we're not going to force feed anyone - at least have the opportunity to invest in an American turkey or chicken or any other piece of protein that might be of their choosing."

Ted McKinney, who is from a farming family in Indiana, said it was for the UK to decide which course it wanted to take, although he said there was a great opportunity for increased trade between the two countries.

"The UK will never have an opportunity again, at least not in the near future - probably not in a generation - like you have now to get right whatever right means to you. Ideas of regulations, environmental care, animal welfare, opportunities to export."

'Top ten food safety risks'

The report lists the top ten food safety risks the Soil Association thinks a US-UK trade deal poses, all of which are currently banned in the EU and/or the UK.

1. Chlorine washed chicken

Instead of preventing infection in chickens across all stages of rearing and slaughter, the American poultry industry has resorted to chemicals to eliminate bacteria at the end of the meat production chain.

Essentially, chemical washes hope to make up for inadequate hygiene on farms and abattoirs. In contrast, the EU has chosen another approach to fighting meat-borne bacteria through their landmark farm to fork approach which requires steps throughout the production chain to ensure food is safe.

2. Hormone-treated beef

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows a number of steroid hormone drugs for use in beef cattle and sheep, including natural oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and their synthetic versions. These drugs increase the animals growth rate and the efficiency by which they build muscle.

3. Ractopamine in pork

In the US, an estimated 60-80 percent of pigs are fed the beta agonist drug, ractopamine prior to slaughter to increase protein synthesis, which results in increased muscle fibre size, weight gain, improve feed efficiency, and increase carcass leanness in swine.

According to the report, ractopamine has been found to cause the animal serious disability, including trembling, broken limbs and an inability to walk.

4. Chicken litter as animal feed

In the US, chicken litter (a rendered down mix of chicken manure, dead chickens, feathers and spilled feed) is marketed as a cheap feed product, particularly for cows. In the US, the use of poultry litter in cow feed is unrestricted.

5. Atrazine-treated crops

Atrazine is estimated to be the second most heavily used herbicide in the U.S. with 73.7 million pounds of the chemical compound applied in the United States in 2013. It was used on more than half of all corn crops and up to 90 percent of sugar cane.

Atrazine is a potent endocrine disruptor and reduces immune function in both wildlife and laboratory rodents. The chemical has also been found to possibly induce breast and prostate cancer in lab animals.

6. GE foods

In the US, 88% of corn, 93% of soy, 94% of cotton, 54% of sugar beets, 75% of papaya is genetically modified. There are also biotech products created through gene editing technology such as the non-browning Artic Apple.

7. Brominated vegetable oil (BVO)

This synthetic additive is used in citrus drinks to keep flavour evenly distributed. However, BVO is also used as a flame retardant. Public health concerns have been raised since chemically similar flame-retardant chemicals disrupt normal hormone function, leading to problems with brain development in children, fertility, thyroid function, and possibly cancer.

8. Potassium bromate

Potassium Bromate is approved by the FDA to improve the gluten content in baked goods to strengthen dough and promote rising. It has been found to be a possible carcinogen by The International Agency for Research on Cancer.

9. Azodicarbonamide

Azodicarbonamide (ADA) is used as a whitening or bleaching agent for cereal flour and as a dough conditioner in baking. During baking, ADA breaks down to form a number of different chemicals. One of these chemicals is semicarbizide (SEM) that has been found to increase the incidence of tumours in lab rats.

10. Food colourants

In the US, the public can purchase and consume products that include Yellow 5 and 6, Red 3 and 40, Blue 1 and 2, Green 3 and Orange B.
New statistics show an overall decrease of dairy herds in Scotland, down 4817 since records began.

In Scotland, there are now only 918 dairy herds compared to 5735 herds when records began in 1903, which is a drop of a staggering 4817.

January 2018 dairy herd statistics for Scotland released by the Scottish Dairy Cattle Association (SDCA) compared to January 2017 show an overall decrease of 39 herds.

The largest dairying county continues to be Ayrshire, with 35698 cows closely followed by Dumfriesshire, Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire.

However, the statistics show an increase of 5622 milking cows.

The average herd size has now increased to 195, up 14 on the year and is the highest on record. Total milking cows now stand at 178928, the highest since 1997.

Dairy herds that are officially milk recorded have increased on the year by 110 to 657 partly due to an EU incentive but also due to milk buyers and farmers realising the financial benefits of improving milk quality and lowering cell counts, as well as the other benefits of pregnancy checking and disease monitoring.

Commenting, Janette Mathie the secretary of the SDCA said: "During 2018 we know of more herds intending to cease milk production this year but we also know of entirely new herds starting, up as there were during 2017, but the overall trend of less herds and more cows will continue."
A wild boar in the Forest of Dean has bitten off a dog-walker's finger, adding to a growing list of concerns surrounding the animal's public presence.

53-year-old Clive Lilley told the media he was attacked by a wild boar as he walked his dog down a woodland track in the forest, located in Gloucestershire.

The boar then came out of the wooded undergrowth and attacked Mr Lilley, biting off his finger. He described the pain as a 'dull thud' which became 'very painful and stung.'

It is believed to be the first time a wild boar has injured a person in the Forest of Dean, where they freely roam.

Wild boar were once common in England, but were hunted to extinction at least 300-years ago. In recent years small populations of feral wild boar have become established again in the wild as a result of both accidental and deliberate releases from wild boar farms.

The attack on Mr Lilley has added to a growing list of concerns surrounding their presence, in which the pig industry have frequently called them a 'very genuine threat'.

Exotic disease

National Pig Association chief executive Dr Zoe Davies said wild boar's can pass exotic diseases to the domestic pig population.

These pigs are gaining access to waste food when they root around in household bins and at picnic sites. We need to be mindful that in Eastern Europe wild boar have been integral in the spread of the deadly African swine fever (ASF) virus, Dr Davies explained.

If an exotic disease like ASF got into the UKs wild boar population, it would become almost impossible to prove that the disease had been stamped out. This would wreck our burgeoning export market, now worth 350 million a year, with devastating consequences for the industry.

In addition, local businesses and tourism would suffer greatly as the whole area would be under restriction indefinitely. We only need to look back to the last foot-and-mouth disease outbreak to know exactly what impact this can have on local communities.

The pig industry has produced some materials urging the general public and farmers to do everything to keep ASF out of the UK.

Wild boar have played a major part in spreading AFS in Eastern Europe.
Retailers to blame for ongoing egg shortages, NFU Scotland says
Was Shweta Bachchan The Reason Behind Aishwarya's Absence?

It was indeed strange that Abhishek Bachchan attended the birthday bash of Farah Khan sans Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as bothof them, share a great rapport with Farah.

On the other side, Shweta's presence at the Farah Khan's birthday bash, suggested that her presence might be the reason behind Aishwarya's absence at the do.

Shweta-Aishwarya's Awkward Moment Caught On Camera?

Not so long ago, when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan & Shweta Bachchan were spotted together at Anushka-Virat's reception, gossip-mongers couldnt stop discussing about their awkward expression, while posing for the media, all together.

Shweta Bachchan's Absence At Aaradhya's B'day

Even if we ignore these two incidents mentioned above of Aishwarya Rai & Shweta Bachchan, we wonder how will the latter justify her absence at Aaradhya's birthday, where all the family members were seen in attendance except her!

Shweta Also Skipped Family Dinner

Not just that, Shweta Bachchan, who's often spotted accompanying his father, Amitabh Bachchan, was also missing from family dinner during Aaradhya's birthday, leaving us quite suspicious about her alleged spat with Aishwarya!

We Wonder What Went Wrong Between Them?

Going by the rumours, we wonder what exactly went wrong between Aishwarya Rai Bachchan & Shweta Bachchan as earlier, the duoshared a very warm bond and their pictures used to give us major 'nanad-bhabhi' goals.

Coming Back To Aishwarya..

On the work front, the actress is busy with the shoot of her upcoming film, Fanney Khan. Today, early morning, the actress was also spotted at the Mumbai airport, sporting a black outfit.

And.. She Looked Hawt!

Despite keeping it simple, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's airport look always finds its way to the headlines. The Ae Dil hai Mushkil actress looked hot and how!

What Else Is Keeping Aishwarya In The Headlines?

Aishwarya is constantly in the headlines owing to her rumoured upcoming film, Jasmine, in which she is supposed to play a surrogate mother.
Say Or Strip Segment

As per DNA, it was part of a segment called say or strip'. The actress chose to answer and without batting an eyelid, picked Sonam over Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Sonam's Look Was Better Then Aishwarya's

Deepika Padukone said, "I liked Sonam Kapoor's look better than that of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan."

When She Chose Anushka Over Sonam

But When Deepika was asked whose brand she prefers - Sonam's Rheson or Anushka Sharma's Nush - she chose the latter's saying, "Though both are good, I prefer Nush as it is more my style."

Coming Back To Cannes

Those who are unaware, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor, who are regulars at Cannes, were joined by Deepika Padukone as the L'Oreal brand ambassadors in the year 2017.

Deepika On Meeting Aishwarya At The Cannes

Last year, when Deepika Padukone was asked about sharing the platform with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at Cannes, Deepika was all praise for her. She had said, "Our dates are different but if our paths cross, I will definitely catch up with her.''

Aishwarya Represented India Beautifully

''She is someone who has represented not just the brand but India so beautifully for years. I know her otherwise as well and I've always admired the way she conducts herself."

Aishwarya Is The Torch Bearer For Putting India On Global Map

In another interview to a daily, Deepika had said, "Aishwarya, for me, is the torch bearer for putting India on the global map.''

For The Uninitiated

The world's most beautiful woman was the first Indian actress to be invited for the Cannes Film Festival in the year 2002. Aishwarya had made her first appearance in at Cannes in a Neeta Lulla saree, with heavy gold jewellery. It was an elegant and graceful first appearance.

On The Work Front

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is busy with the shooting of Fanne Khan and might sign Raat Aur Din remake as her next film. While Deepika Padukone will soon be seen in yet to be released film Padmaavat.
Kajol Praised The Actor For His Dedication To Cinema

"We actually shot for half-an-hour but it was great. It's always fabulous to work with him. He is a really amazing man to work with because he is 300 per cent involved in whatever he is doing.

"It's great fun because he is such a fine actor that it comes very naturally to work with him and alongside him," says Kajol in an interview to PTI.

Work Is God: Kajol

The actor may have been around for close to three decades in the industry but says her dedication to give it all for work hasn't reduced.

"I've come from a time when we used to work from 7 in the morning till 9 in the night on a daily basis without the comforts of sitting in an AC room. Somewhere down the line, you realise that work is God. You have to take it seriously everyday, it's the most important thing," she says.

Kajol: My Mom Made Me Sweep The House

Much of the discipline, Kajol says, comes from her mother who taught her early in childhood that no work is lesser or bigger.

"As a kid my mother made me sweep the house and clean the bathroom. She said if at any point you don't have servants in your house, you should be able to look after the house. I did it."

Kajol Passes The Same Discipline To Her Kids

"Somewhere it gives you amazing work ethics. Nobody's job is less, one should respect all. I've even made my kids broom the house so that they learn not to litter," she says.
Mining company Base Resourceshas reported steady production in zircon at its Kwale mineral sands operation in Kenya, with a further price increase of the mineral locked in for contracted March quarter sales.Mined volume, however, was down slightly at 2.9 million tonnes, being impacted by shutdowns to allow employees to vote during the Kenyan presidential elections, and the mine was also impacted by heavy rainfall in November.As a result of cash flow generation, the company has reduced net debt by US$21 million to US$65.6 million.An agreement was reached this quarter to acquire the Toliara Sands project in Madagascar, with Base Resources to hold an initial 85 per cent interest before investing a further US$17 million to acquire the remaining 15 per cent.The company launched a capital raise in December, raising $89.3 million, with its retail entitlement offer expected to close on 17 January 2018, to fund the initial US$75 million purchase consideration for the mineral sands project.Shares in Base Resourcesare last traded at $0.26.
Things haven't been going well for Snap (SNAP -3.25%), as the Snapchat parent company approaches the one-year anniversary of going public. Shares trade at just a fraction of the IPO price, thanks in large part to the underwhelming daily active user (DAU) figures that Snap has been reporting each quarter. And DAUs (178 million at the end of Q3) are one of the few operating metrics that Snap actually shares with investors.

It seems that some of the metrics for other key Snapchat features are even worse.

The leaked data look awful

The Daily Beast has obtained a slew of internal data regarding specific Snapchat features, covering a period from April 2017 to September 2017, as part of a report on the company's obsession with secrecy. Beyond the cultural and morale implications of keeping employees in the dark, the figures paint a dire picture of Snap's struggle to grow into a mature social media platform. The vast majority of usage on the service revolves around sending basic photo/video messages, making Snapchat much more of a messaging service than a full-featured social media platform.

For example, just 11% of Snap's user base (19 million) accessed Snap Maps on a daily basis in the month of September, which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in Snap's efforts to turn Snap Maps into a real-time news source. Snap Maps was expensive to build too, since Snap acquired Zenly for $213.3 million last May to develop the feature. That's an awful lot of shareholder money to waste if the intended feature flops with users, whereas the financial downside to internally developing features is much lower.

Snap is working on the most significant interface redesign in Snapchat's history, and plans on separating social content from publisher content that is currently found in its Discover section. However, there's a huge risk that doing so will adversely impact usage of Discover content, which is an extremely important component of the ad business. Jefferies downgraded Snap shares earlier this week, based in part on these same fears. In a separate but relevant data point, Facebook has been testing out a similar segregation in a few smaller markets and publishers have taken a hit.

Numerous media companies have been experimenting with creating snackable daily shows for Snapchat Discover. CNN was among them with The Update, but announced last month that it was pulling the plug in 2018. Snap apparently withholds detailed Discover DAU information from Discover publishers, according to the report, although it does provide publishers with some analytics for their channels. The leaked data suggests that just 20% of Snapchat users look at Discover episodes (called Editions) on a daily basis. There's a good chance that figure falls once the redesign rolls out more broadly, and that could in turn hurt interest among media partners and Snap's struggling ad business.

One saving grace is that users are extremely engaged on the messaging side, sending dozens of photo/video messages daily. But Snap relies on ads and sponsored products to actually monetize the service, while its costs scale hand-in-hand with that usage due to its outsourced hosting model. The company has already burned through copious amounts of cash, including losing $3.1 billion in the first nine months of 2017. If Snap can't put together a viable business, the company may prove to be ephemeral, too.
Investors headed for the exits en masse when it came to Tahoe Resources (NYSE: TAHO) last year. The stock price was sliced in half during 2017 thanks largely to an abrupt stop in silver production caused by disputes surrounding operations at the Escobal mine in Guatemala, which kicked off an epic showdown between the company, an NGO, and the nation's government that continues today.

The significant loss of silver sales from Escobal forced two major gold mines in Canada and Peru to shoulder the burden. Although gold operations alone nearly allowed Tahoe Resources to post positive EPS in the third quarter of 2017, gold production costs that are relatively high compared to the industry average ensure that's not a sustainable long-term solution.

Where did things go wrong for Tahoe Resources in 2017? Should investors expect a turnaround in the year ahead?

Guatemala woes

The stock was incredibly volatile last year as the market forcefully responded to every Escobal update that trickled out. Everything was going fine at the silver mine until an NGO raised issues about the legality of an operating license granted to the company's Guatemalan subsidiary by the country's Ministry of Energy and Mines. A turbulent back-and-forth followed.

The operating license was suspended at first by the Guatemalan Supreme Court, a decision reaffirmed by the Constitutional Court, but then reissued by the Supreme Court. However, the company's export credentials were allowed to expire without a chance at renewal (a decision upheld by the Supreme Court), which effectively knocked Escobal offline indefinitely.

The company's ability to operate the mine in future periods will be determined once all sides present their arguments to the court, which will then attempt to settle the dispute for good. That process was originally estimated to take up to 18 months, or until the very end of 2018 or early 2019. The situation is a mess, to say the least.

A sliver of a silver lining can be found in the company's gold operations, which were on pace to meet the full-year 2017 production guidance of at least 400,000 ounces after the first nine months of the year. That will mark a significant increase from 2015 production of just 230,000 ounces and puts Tahoe Resources well on its way to achieving 500,000 ounces of annual gold production in 2019.

Gold operations alone nearly carried the company to a third-quarter 2017 profit, but suspension costs related to Escobal and a one-time charge for community-related expenses resulted in a net loss of $0.02 per share during the period. On one hand, that's pretty encouraging. On the other hand, it leaves investors wondering what could have been if Tahoe Resources had all-in sustaining costs (AISC) that were closer to the best in the industry.

Management expects full-year 2017 AISC to come in at $1,050 per ounce of gold in the best-case scenario, which is much higher than low-cost peers such as Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining, Goldcorp, and several others that boast costs closer to $850 per ounce. The relatively high costs of gold production make the Escobal debacle sting even more.

Is there hope in the year ahead?

There's always hope that low-cost silver production from Tahoe Resources' Guatemalan operations will come back online in 2018. Of course, that's largely out of the company's control, so let's focus elsewhere.

The Shahuindo gold mine in Peru will be expanded in mid-2018 so it can begin contributing 200,000 ounces of gold production per year by 2019. Meanwhile, the Bell Creek gold mine in Canada is undergoing work to double its production to 80,000 ounces per year by 2020 and tack on another decade of operating life. The first phase of the expansion at Bell Creek will be completed in the middle of the year as well.

Completing the projects on time and on budget will be key to enabling free cash flow-positive operations for Tahoe Resources, which would make the Escobal related issues somewhat less important. That said, the expansions aren't expected to be ramped up and fully contributing until after 2018, nor will announcing their completions be likely to provide the catalyst the stock desperately needs.

In other words, until the company can deliver more clarity on the future of its prized silver mine, investors would be better off sticking to the sidelines.
McAfee to provide security for Customers Identity, Connected Homes and Wi-Fi Connections Apps Software oi -Sandeep McAfee introduced wireless SSD (Solid storage device) along with worlds first smallest USB Flash Drive. McAfee will provide security for connected homes, mobile security and privacy.

McAfee, the well-known cyber security company has announced a new identity theft solution which overcomes the traditional antivirus sysytem. The new security solution is designed to keep consumers stay protected in the wake of recent massive data breaches. With McAfee Identity Theft Protection, the digital world is a safer place to live, work and play claims the company.

McAfee Identity Theft Protection allows users to protect their identities with personal monitoring, financial monitoring and recovery tools. Through new partner innovations with D-Link and Samsung, McAfee delivers security in the areas of the connected home, mobile security and privacy.

McAfee Identity Theft Protection, McAfee Secure Home Platform, McAfee Safe Family and McAfee Safe Connect are said to offer consumers a peace of mind in this digital world fueled by volume, speed and complexity. The global OEM, TEM, ISPs and telecommunications companies are teaming up with McAfee to help keep their customers safe.

Following are the major highlights of this program

Top 10 Tips & Tricks for Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

 McAfee expands into identity theft protection market

 D-Link Wi-Fi Router Powered by McAfee will automatically protect users' connected home devices

 Samsung Secure Wi-Fi with backend technology from McAfee now is now available for Galaxy Note8 customers in Europe

 McAfee delivers products in key pillars of identity theft protection, connected home, online safety for kids, and online privacy

Securing Digital Identity

Identity theft is a major concern all over the globe. Consumers reported that Identity theft is what they fear the most. Despite this concern, only a few numbers of consumers have signed up for an ID theft protection service. With personal monitoring, financial monitoring and recovery, consumers have the tools they need to help keep personal identities safe and secured.

Key features of securing Digital Identity include:

 Cyber Monitoring - Scans the online black market and the Dark Web and alerts users when their personal information is at risk.

 Social Security Number Trace - It delivers reports of known aliases and addresses tied to a users' Social Security Number so they can review for potentially fake identities.

 Credit Monitoring - Sends reports based on lending and credit history, and alerts users to changes to their creditworthiness.

 24/7 Dedicated Agent Support - Allows users access to agents who can answer questions and provide guidance on topics from using credit responsibly to handling identity theft.

One of the recent security breaches that affected various devices are Spectre and Meltdown. The security vulnerabilities affected the modern Intel chipsets causing serious Kernel memory leak issues on the modern computers running Windows, Linux and macOS. The reason for the cause of this bug and the exact problem seems to remain a mystery, however Windows and Linux have started rolling out updates to fix the issue.

For all tech related news please follow www.gizbot.com

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Panasonic FZ950 and FZ800 OLED TVs

The OLED flagship TVs of this year - the Panasonic FZ950 and FZ800 were unveiled at the CES 2018 tech show. This new range of TVs have the similar features such as brighter colors and more striking blacks just like their predecessors. But there are some notable improvements as well.

These new Panasonic OLED TVs support HDR Plus, a new open standard for HDR content. There is a Hollywood-tuned HCX video processor as well on board. The Panasonic FZ950 featurs a Technics-tuned speaker stand with 20W tweeter, 40W woofer, and 20W mid-range driver. As of now, the company has not revealed anything regarding the pricing of these new TV models.

Lumix GH5S

The new Lumix GH5S is a refined variant of the videography-focused GH5 camera. Panasonic claims that the GH5S offers the best low-light sensitivity among the cameras launched by the company ever. This is possible as the camera comes with Dual-ISO that can suppress the noise in images. There is support for 4K video recording at 30 fps or 60 fps. This camera will go on sale starting from the next month in select markets.

UP-UB420 and DP-UB820 Ultra HD Blu-ray Players

Panasonic touts that the UP-UB420 and DP-UB820 Blu-ray players will render an optimized HDR experience to the users. The UB830 player comes with support for Dolby Vision. The other interesting aspect about these Blu-ray players support Ultra HD resolution is that both Panasonic is working with Amazon and Google to bring the Alexa and Google Home support to these Blu-ray players.

The company is yet to reveal the possible pricing of these Blu-ray speakers but it is expected that these will be released later this year.

WXF1 and VX1 Camcorders

Other than the Lumix GH5S, Panasonic has announced the launch of a couple of camcorders at the event. The WXF1 and VX1 camcorders are the ones we are talking about. The company claims that these camcorders have a back-illuminated MOS sensor providing better low-light performance, crisp f/1.8 aperture and up to 24x optical zoom. These camcorders will support 4K video recording at 30 fps. Moreover, these models appear to feature a newly designed ultra smooth OIS system with Ball OIS an Adaptive OIS. These camcorder models are likely to be released in April this year and start from $799.
Samsung Selfie camera smartphones to buy in India Features oi -Harish Kumar

The increase in social media and picture sharing platform has intensified the need to buy a smartphone with a good camera. Further selfies have now become an obsession among the smartphone users. As such handset makers are also launching selfie-focused phones with lots of in-app customization to enhance the pictures.

While the selfie craze is nothing new, most phones claim to offer good selfie cameras. However there are only a handful of devices, which can be actually be counted in our list.

SEE ALSO: Rumoured Budget smartphones expected to launch in 2018

Samsung Galaxy A8+ First Impressions

Besides, Samsung which is a popular brand in the market does offer few smartphones that take the best selfies. And these phones not only offer good cameras but they also offer decent performance and build as well. A few of these selfie phones are good looking and will even up your style quotient.

Having said that, if you are looking out for a new Samsung smartphone with best selfie camera you can go through the list below.

Samsung Galaxy On Max ( 13MP of selfie camera) Buy At Price of Rs 15,900

Key Features

5.7-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD TFT IPS 2.5D curved glass display

MediaTek Helio P25 Lite Octa-Core (2.39GHz + 1.69GHz) 64-bit 16nm processor with ARM Mali T880 GPU

4GB RAM

32GB internal memory

expandable up to 128GB with microSD

Android 7.0 (Nougat)

Dual SIM

Samsung Pay Mini

13MP rear camera with LED flash

13MP front camera with LED flash

4G VoLTE

3300mAh battery Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro (13MP selfie Camera) Buy At Price of Rs 19,900

Key Features 5.5 Inch FHD Super AMOLED Display

1.6GHz Exynos 7870 Octa-Core Processor

3GB RAM With 64GB ROM

Dual Nano SIM

13MP Camera With LED Flash

13MP Front Camera With LED Flash

4G LTE/WiFi

Samsung Pay

Bluetooth 4.1

3600mAh Battery Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro (8MP front camera) Buy At Price of Rs 24,990

Key Features

6-inch (19201080 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED display

Octa Core Snapdragon 652 processor with Adreno 510 GPU

4GB RAM

32GB Internal Storage

expandable memory upto 256GB via micro SD card

Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)

Dual SIM (nano + nano)

16MP rear camera

8MP front camera

4G LTE

5000mAh battery with Fast Charging Samsung Galaxy J7 Max Buy At Price of Rs 16,900

Key Features

5.7 Inch Full HD Display

1.6GHz MediaTek Helio P20 Octa-Core Processor

4GB RAM With 32GB ROM

Dual Nano SIM

13MP Camera With LED Flash

13MP Front Camera With LED Flash

4G LTE/WiFi

Samsung Pay Mini

Bluetooth 4.1

3300mAh Battery Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro (16MP front camera) Buy At Price of Rs 29,450

Key Features 6-inch (19201080 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED 2.5D curved glassdisplay

Octa Core Snapdragon 653 processor (Quad 1.95GHz ARM Cortex A72 + Quad 1.44GHz A53 CPUs) with Adreno 510 GPU

6GB RAM

64GB Internal Storage

expandable memory up to 256GB via micro SD card

Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow)

Dual SIM (nano + nano)

16MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, f/1.9 aperture

16MP front camera,f/1.9 aperture

4G LTE

4000mAh battery with fast charging Samsung Galaxy Note 8 ( 12MP front camera) Buy At Price of Rs 67,900

Key Features 6.3-inch Quad HD+ (2960  1440 pixels) Super AMOLED Infinity display with 522ppi, 18.5:9 aspect ratio

Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with Adreno 540 GPU / Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 9 Series 8895 processor with Mali-G71 MP20 GPU

6GB LPDDR4 RAM with 64GB/128GB/256GB storage

expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD

Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)

12MP Dual Pixel rear camera with LED Flash

secondary 12MP camera with telephoto lens, f2.4 aperture, OIS, 2x optical zoom, up to 10x digital zoom

8MP auto focus front-facing camera with f/1.7 aperture, wide-angle lens

4G VoLTE

3300mAh battery with fast charging both on wired and wireless (WPC and PMA) Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus (8MP Front Camera) Buy At Price of Rs 58,900

Key Features

6.2 Inch QHD+ Super AMOLED Display

Octa Core Exynos 9/Snapdragon 835 Processor

4/6GB RAM With 64/128GB ROM

WiFi

NFC

Bluetooth

Dual SIM

Dual Pixel 12MP Rear Camera

8MP Front Camera

Iris Scanner

Fingerprint

IP68

3500 MAh Battery Samsung Galaxy A7 2017 (16MP Front Camera) Buy At Price of Rs 20,990

Key Features

5.7 Inch FHD Super AMOLED Display

1.9GHz Octa-Core Exynos 7880 Processor

3GB RAM With 32GB ROM

Dual Nano SIM

16MP Camera With LED Flash

16MP Front Camera

4G VoLTE/WiFi

Bluetooth 4.2

NFC

Type-C

Fingerprint Sensor

3600mAh Battery Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 (16MP Front Camera) Buy At Price of Rs 17,990

Key Features 5.2 Inch FHD Super AMOLED Display

1.9GHz Octa-Core Exynos 7880 Processor

3GB RAM With 32GB ROM

Dual Nano SIM

16MP Camera With LED Flash

16MP Front Camera

4G VoLTE/WiFi

Bluetooth 4.2

NFC

Type-C

Fingerprint Sensor

3000mAh Battery Samsung Galaxy S8 (8MP Front Camera) Buy At Price of Rs 53,900

Key Features

5.8 Inch QHD+ Super AMOLED Display

Octa Core Exynos 9/Snapdragon 835 Processor

4/6GB RAM With 64/128GB ROM

WiFi

NFC

Bluetooth

Dual SIM

Dual Pixel 12MP Rear Camera

8MP Front Camera

Iris Scanner

Fingerprint

3000 MAh Battery

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HMD files for Asha trademark; new phones coming soon? News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu

Do you still remember the Asha lineup of feature phones from Nokia? It looks like HMD Global is in plans to bring back this lineup from the past for us. Notably, the Asha brand of phones belonged to Nokia but was transferred to Microsoft after the acquisition. Given that HMD Global has the license to make Nokia phones now, the Asha branding has also been transferred to Nokia. Already, we saw the Nokia 3310 get a redesign in the last year and now it looks like it is time for the Asha brand of phones.

According to a report by NokiaMob, HMD Global has registered for a new trademark at EU's IP Office. The trademark was originally registered at EUIPO in November 2011. Going by the same, it looks like HMD is not going to stop doing better in the future. However, there is no official announcement from the Finnish company regarding the same and it remains unclear how the Asha trademark will be used.

If we take it that HMD Global might come up with the new Nokia Asha smart feature phones in the current era, then these will be focused to fill the gap between feature phones and smartphones. Right now, the mobile market is flooded with a lot of 4G enabled feature phones along with bundled plans from the telecom operators and one such device is the Reliance JioPhone. So we need to wait and watch if the Asha lineup of phones will be successful for the company in this scenario.

Nokia 3310 quick specs and features (2017) - GIZBOT

HMD Global has already launched the Nokia 3310 in 2G and 3G variants and is prepping a 4G variant of the feature phone as well. The company is also rumored to arrive with an entry-level smartphone called Nokia 1 running Android Go based on Android Oreo. This smartphone was recently leaked via hands-on images and is said to feature 1GB RAM and 16GB storage space.

With these devices from HMD coming to fill up the entry-level market segment, we are still clueless if the company will launch new Asha phones or revive the existing ones in the lineup. And, only time can answer this query.

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LG G7 launch delayed; mass production to begin in March News oi -Chandrika Unlike last year, LG will not unveil its 2018 flagship G7 at the upcoming MWC in February.

Last year, LG was the first one to unveil its flagship smartphone G6. This is why the smartphone came with Snapdragon 821 instead of the Snapdragon 835. While the Snapdragon 835 SoC was announced at CES, it was not made available by the time G6 was launched. Since you would usually expect a flagship to feature the latest and the greatest processor around, the G6 failed to make an impact as a flagship device. Yesterday, we came across a piece of information suggesting that the South Korean OEM may take the same route with the upcoming G7. The "Future LG G7" was listed on the company's website with Fast Charge 4.0 support, which is the standard quick charge technology present in 2017's Snapdragon 835.

This gave birth to speculations that LG may launch the G7 with Snapdragon 835 instead of Qualcomm's latest flagship processor Snapdragon 845. We are yet to know if the company is actually planning that, but if the speculations are true, it will disappoint many LG fans out there. On the contrary, South Korean publication ET News has reported that the upcoming G7 will arrive with the Snapdragon 845.

The report has further claimed that the G7 won't be unveiled at the MWC 2018, which is slated to take place in February. The mass production of the smartphone will only begin in March, followed by a launch in April in South Korea. The company has apparently confirmed to have agreed to launch the handset with three mobile communications services in April.

"LG Electronics is not likely to release the LG G7 at MWC 2018," a mobile operator official was quoted as saying to the publication said. "We heard that it was likely to be released in mid-March".

When it comes to availability, the G7 will be released in South Korea after April 20. "Domestic consumers will be able to purchase the G7 after April 20th," said another official.

Coming back to the specifications, if LG does launch the G7 will Snapdragon 845, it will be huge upgrade over last year's G6 since the latter came with Snapdragon 821. So what are the other upgrades we should expect to see on the company's 2018 flagship? Let's find out.

Well, according to this report, the G7 will be sporting a bezel-less design (no surprise there) with an OLED display. The smartphone is said to feature quad cameras, a dual camera setup at both the front and the back. It is also likely to feature 6GB RAM (the LG G6 had only 4GB of RAM).

Other than that, the G7 will also pack IP68 certification for water and dust resistance, LG Fe, wireless charging and Google Assistant. Lastly but most significantly, the smartphone is said to be equipped with iris recognition technology. If this report is to be believed, the LG G7 will be first LG device to feature iris scanning.

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Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ to launch at MWC 2018: Officially confirmed News oi -Samden Sherpa Samsung has now officially confirmed that the Galaxy S9 will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in the month of February.

A lot of speculations were ongoing regarding the possible launch day of Samsung's next-generation flagships. However, there is some good news for Samsung fans as well as tech enthusiasts. The South Korean company has now officially confirmed that the Galaxy S9 and S9+ will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in the month of February.

Samsung's Mobile Communications Business President DJ Koh addressing a press conference at CES 2018 revealed that the first flagship smartphone of 2018 will be unveiled at MWC. The sales date will be announced at the event itself ZDNet has reported.

With this confirmation, the new flagships will be successors to the company's 2017 flagships the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. Samsung is expected to announce yet another two new different variants the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ during the event.

Previous Speculations

Previously it was stated that the unveiling of the new Galaxy series flagship would happen at CES 2018. Later South Korean publication later reported that the company was planning to host a launch event for the Galaxy S9 on February 26 - the starting date of the MWC. And it seems the outlet was right.

In any case, better prepare for MWC as we will be hearing and seeing some great things from the company during the event. Besides, with the launch confirmed we have one less thing to worry about.

Having said that, the smartphones have been doing rounds in the rumor mill for quite some time now. Notably, the smartphones have been rumored to come with features like a thin-bezel, Infinity Display, and a dual camera setup.

Expected features

Further, some of the past rumors have suggested that the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+ would have an improved iris scanner, fingerprint sensor below its primary camera, be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC or Samsung Exynos 9810 SoC and run Android 8.0 Oreo out-of-the-box.

Samsung Galaxy A8+ First Impressions

Samsung Galaxy S9+ is rumored to have 6GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage and a dual camera setup. Both the Galaxy S models will most likely come with a 3.5mm headphone jack and other exciting features.

Other Announcements

Meanwhile, Koh during the press event also mentioned the presence of a foldable phone and hinted that the South Korean giant could launch the device sometime next year. He also stated the availability of Bixby 2.0 later this year and also assured that Bixby virtual assistant would be available on all Samsung devices by 2020.

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Remarks by President Trump on the Strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

August 21, 2017



Fort Myer

Arlington, Virginia

9:02 P.M. EDT



THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you. Please be seated.

Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Tillerson, members of the Cabinet, General Dunford, Deputy Secretary Shanahan, and Colonel Duggan. Most especially, thank you to the men and women of Fort Myer and every member of the United States military at home and abroad.

We send our thoughts and prayers to the families of our brave sailors who were injured and lost after a tragic collision at sea, as well as to those conducting the search and recovery efforts.

I am here tonight to lay out our path forward in Afghanistan and South Asia. But before I provide the details of our new strategy, I want to say a few words to the servicemembers here with us tonight, to those watching from their posts, and to all Americans listening at home.

Since the founding of our republic, our country has produced a special class of heroes whose selflessness, courage, and resolve is unmatched in human history.

American patriots from every generation have given their last breath on the battlefield for our nation and for our freedom. Through their lives -- and though their lives were cut short, in their deeds they achieved total immortality.

By following the heroic example of those who fought to preserve our republic, we can find the inspiration our country needs to unify, to heal, and to remain one nation under God. The men and women of our military operate as one team, with one shared mission, and one shared sense of purpose.

They transcend every line of race, ethnicity, creed, and color to serve together -- and sacrifice together -- in absolutely perfect cohesion. That is because all servicemembers are brothers and sisters. They're all part of the same family; it's called the American family. They take the same oath, fight for the same flag, and live according to the same law. They are bound together by common purpose, mutual trust, and selfless devotion to our nation and to each other.

The soldier understands what we, as a nation, too often forget that a wound inflicted upon a single member of our community is a wound inflicted upon us all. When one part of America hurts, we all hurt. And when one citizen suffers an injustice, we all suffer together.

Loyalty to our nation demands loyalty to one another. Love for America requires love for all of its people. When we open our hearts to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice, no place for bigotry, and no tolerance for hate.

The young men and women we send to fight our wars abroad deserve to return to a country that is not at war with itself at home. We cannot remain a force for peace in the world if we are not at peace with each other.

As we send our bravest to defeat our enemies overseas -- and we will always win -- let us find the courage to heal our divisions within. Let us make a simple promise to the men and women we ask to fight in our name that, when they return home from battle, they will find a country that has renewed the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that unite us together as one.

Thanks to the vigilance and skill of the American military and of our many allies throughout the world, horrors on the scale of September 11th -- and nobody can ever forget that -- have not been repeated on our shores.

But we must also acknowledge the reality I am here to talk about tonight: that nearly 16 years after September 11th attacks, after the extraordinary sacrifice of blood and treasure, the American people are weary of war without victory. Nowhere is this more evident than with the war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history -- 17 years.

I share the American people's frustration. I also share their frustration over a foreign policy that has spent too much time, energy, money, and most importantly lives, trying to rebuild countries in our own image, instead of pursuing our security interests above all other considerations.

That is why, shortly after my inauguration, I directed Secretary of Defense Mattis and my national security team to undertake a comprehensive review of all strategic options in Afghanistan and South Asia.

My original instinct was to pull out -- and, historically, I like following my instincts. But all my life I've heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office; in other words, when you're President of the United States. So I studied Afghanistan in great detail and from every conceivable angle. After many meetings, over many months, we held our final meeting last Friday at Camp David, with my Cabinet and generals, to complete our strategy. I arrived at three fundamental conclusions about America's core interests in Afghanistan.

First, our nation must seek an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the tremendous sacrifices that have been made, especially the sacrifices of lives. The men and women who serve our nation in combat deserve a plan for victory. They deserve the tools they need, and the trust they have earned, to fight and to win.

Second, the consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable. 9/11, the worst terrorist attack in our history, was planned and directed from Afghanistan because that country was ruled by a government that gave comfort and shelter to terrorists. A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including ISIS and al Qaeda, would instantly fill, just as happened before September 11th.

And, as we know, in 2011, America hastily and mistakenly withdrew from Iraq. As a result, our hard-won gains slipped back into the hands of terrorist enemies. Our soldiers watched as cities they had fought for, and bled to liberate, and won, were occupied by a terrorist group called ISIS. The vacuum we created by leaving too soon gave safe haven for ISIS to spread, to grow, recruit, and launch attacks. We cannot repeat in Afghanistan the mistake our leaders made in Iraq.

Third and finally, I concluded that the security threats we face in Afghanistan and the broader region are immense. Today, 20 U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- the highest concentration in any region anywhere in the world.

For its part, Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror. The threat is worse because Pakistan and India are two nuclear-armed states whose tense relations threaten to spiral into conflict. And that could happen.

No one denies that we have inherited a challenging and troubling situation in Afghanistan and South Asia, but we do not have the luxury of going back in time and making different or better decisions. When I became President, I was given a bad and very complex hand, but I fully knew what I was getting into: big and intricate problems. But, one way or another, these problems will be solved -- I'm a problem solver -- and, in the end, we will win.

We must address the reality of the world as it exists right now -- the threats we face, and the confronting of all of the problems of today, and extremely predictable consequences of a hasty withdrawal.

We need look no further than last week's vile, vicious attack in Barcelona to understand that terror groups will stop at nothing to commit the mass murder of innocent men, women and children. You saw it for yourself. Horrible.

As I outlined in my speech in Saudi Arabia three months ago, America and our partners are committed to stripping terrorists of their territory, cutting off their funding, and exposing the false allure of their evil ideology.

Terrorists who slaughter innocent people will find no glory in this life or the next. They are nothing but thugs, and criminals, and predators, and -- that's right -- losers. Working alongside our allies, we will break their will, dry up their recruitment, keep them from crossing our borders, and yes, we will defeat them, and we will defeat them handily.

In Afghanistan and Pakistan, America's interests are clear: We must stop the resurgence of safe havens that enable terrorists to threaten America, and we must prevent nuclear weapons and materials from coming into the hands of terrorists and being used against us, or anywhere in the world for that matter.

But to prosecute this war, we will learn from history. As a result of our comprehensive review, American strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia will change dramatically in the following ways:

A core pillar of our new strategy is a shift from a time-based approach to one based on conditions. I've said it many times how counterproductive it is for the United States to announce in advance the dates we intend to begin, or end, military options. We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities.

Conditions on the ground -- not arbitrary timetables -- will guide our strategy from now on. America's enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out. I will not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will.

Another fundamental pillar of our new strategy is the integration of all instruments of American power -- diplomatic, economic, and military -- toward a successful outcome.

Someday, after an effective military effort, perhaps it will be possible to have a political settlement that includes elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but nobody knows if or when that will ever happen. America will continue its support for the Afghan government and the Afghan military as they confront the Taliban in the field.

Ultimately, it is up to the people of Afghanistan to take ownership of their future, to govern their society, and to achieve an everlasting peace. We are a partner and a friend, but we will not dictate to the Afghan people how to live, or how to govern their own complex society. We are not nation-building again. We are killing terrorists.

The next pillar of our new strategy is to change the approach and how to deal with Pakistan. We can no longer be silent about Pakistan's safe havens for terrorist organizations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond. Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists.

In the past, Pakistan has been a valued partner. Our militaries have worked together against common enemies. The Pakistani people have suffered greatly from terrorism and extremism. We recognize those contributions and those sacrifices.

But Pakistan has also sheltered the same organizations that try every single day to kill our people. We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting. But that will have to change, and that will change immediately. No partnership can survive a country's harboring of militants and terrorists who target U.S. servicemembers and officials. It is time for Pakistan to demonstrate its commitment to civilization, order, and to peace.

Another critical part of the South Asia strategy for America is to further develop its strategic partnership with India -- the world's largest democracy and a key security and economic partner of the United States. We appreciate India's important contributions to stability in Afghanistan, but India makes billions of dollars in trade with the United States, and we want them to help us more with Afghanistan, especially in the area of economic assistance and development. We are committed to pursuing our shared objectives for peace and security in South Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region.

Finally, my administration will ensure that you, the brave defenders of the American people, will have the necessary tools and rules of engagement to make this strategy work, and work effectively and work quickly.

I have already lifted restrictions the previous administration placed on our warfighters that prevented the Secretary of Defense and our commanders in the field from fully and swiftly waging battle against the enemy. Micromanagement from Washington, D.C. does not win battles. They are won in the field drawing upon the judgment and expertise of wartime commanders and frontline soldiers acting in real time, with real authority, and with a clear mission to defeat the enemy.

That's why we will also expand authority for American armed forces to target the terrorist and criminal networks that sow violence and chaos throughout Afghanistan. These killers need to know they have nowhere to hide; that no place is beyond the reach of American might and Americans arms. Retribution will be fast and powerful.

As we lift restrictions and expand authorities in the field, we are already seeing dramatic results in the campaign to defeat ISIS, including the liberation of Mosul in Iraq.

Since my inauguration, we have achieved record-breaking success in that regard. We will also maximize sanctions and other financial and law enforcement actions against these networks to eliminate their ability to export terror. When America commits its warriors to battle, we must ensure they have every weapon to apply swift, decisive, and overwhelming force.

Our troops will fight to win. We will fight to win. From now on, victory will have a clear definition: attacking our enemies, obliterating ISIS, crushing al Qaeda, preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan, and stopping mass terror attacks against America before they emerge.

We will ask our NATO allies and global partners to support our new strategy with additional troop and funding increases in line with our own. We are confident they will. Since taking office, I have made clear that our allies and partners must contribute much more money to our collective defense, and they have done so.

In this struggle, the heaviest burden will continue to be borne by the good people of Afghanistan and their courageous armed forces. As the prime minister of Afghanistan has promised, we are going to participate in economic development to help defray the cost of this war to us.

Afghanistan is fighting to defend and secure their country against the same enemies who threaten us. The stronger the Afghan security forces become, the less we will have to do. Afghans will secure and build their own nation and define their own future. We want them to succeed.

But we will no longer use American military might to construct democracies in faraway lands, or try to rebuild other countries in our own image. Those days are now over. Instead, we will work with allies and partners to protect our shared interests. We are not asking others to change their way of life, but to pursue common goals that allow our children to live better and safer lives. This principled realism will guide our decisions moving forward.

Military power alone will not bring peace to Afghanistan or stop the terrorist threat arising in that country. But strategically applied force aims to create the conditions for a political process to achieve a lasting peace.

America will work with the Afghan government as long as we see determination and progress. However, our commitment is not unlimited, and our support is not a blank check. The government of Afghanistan must carry their share of the military, political, and economic burden. The American people expect to see real reforms, real progress, and real results. Our patience is not unlimited. We will keep our eyes wide open.

In abiding by the oath I took on January 20th, I will remain steadfast in protecting American lives and American interests. In this effort, we will make common cause with any nation that chooses to stand and fight alongside us against this global threat. Terrorists take heed: America will never let up until you are dealt a lasting defeat.

Under my administration, many billions of dollars more is being spent on our military. And this includes vast amounts being spent on our nuclear arsenal and missile defense.

In every generation, we have faced down evil, and we have always prevailed. We prevailed because we know who we are and what we are fighting for.

Not far from where we are gathered tonight, hundreds of thousands of America's greatest patriots lay in eternal rest at Arlington National Cemetery. There is more courage, sacrifice, and love in those hallowed grounds than in any other spot on the face of the Earth.

Many of those who have fought and died in Afghanistan enlisted in the months after September 11th, 2001. They volunteered for a simple reason: They loved America, and they were determined to protect her.

Now we must secure the cause for which they gave their lives. We must unite to defend America from its enemies abroad. We must restore the bonds of loyalty among our citizens at home, and we must achieve an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the enormous price that so many have paid.

Our actions, and in the months to come, all of them will honor the sacrifice of every fallen hero, every family who lost a loved one, and every wounded warrior who shed their blood in defense of our great nation. With our resolve, we will ensure that your service and that your families will bring about the defeat of our enemies and the arrival of peace.

We will push onward to victory with power in our hearts, courage in our souls, and everlasting pride in each and every one of you.

Thank you. May God bless our military. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause.)



END

9:27 P.M. EDT

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A-10s bring thunder, lightning during fight against ISIS

By Staff Sgt. Trevor Rhynes, Air Force Central Command Public Affairs / Published January 10, 2018

INCIRILIK AIR BASE, Turkey (AFNS) -- The 74th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron is wrapping up a deployment that saw heavy involvement in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Upon arrival, their efforts were focused on Raqqa for approximately three months. During that time A-10 Thunderbolt IIs participated in an urban close air support role. Pilots focused on protecting friendly forces as they maneuvered in the city between very large buildings in which the enemy hid and used as fighting positions.

"It was a difficult location to work in and we faced some situations that we have not dealt with before we arrived here," said Maj. Matthew Cichowski, 74th EFS assistant director of operations. "Our weapons and tactics planners have done an excellent job preparing us for the variety of tactics and locations that we use and operate in."

Adapting the squadron to the new location and varied tactical situations fell to the squadron's weapons tactics planners.

"When we showed up we got thrown into this fight essentially on day one," said Lt. Col. Craig Morash, 74th EFS commander. "The fight itself was within the urban complex of Raqqa and the pilots had to get creative to figure out ways to strike targets at the bottom of these five story buildings. There was a lot of learning as this wasn't something we traditionally trained to when we arrived. We reached out to different communities to see what we could learn from them.

"Everyone jumped on board trying to figure out solutions to the problems we faced even though we had long days and a mountain of work to accomplish," Morash continued. "Our intel shop processed an unbelievable amount of expenditure reports to make sure (U. S. Air Forces Central Command) had an accurate picture for what we were doing. Our life support troops were generating equipment and doing it perfectly every single time."

The squadron's intelligence Airmen also provide vital key information to pilots before their missions, enabling those pilots to adapt to threats and challenges on the fly.

"We're trained on what the capabilities of the aircraft are, which allows us to give threat perspectives to pilots with what's going on in the area of operations and how that affects the aircraft and pilots," said Senior Airman Jake Owens, 74th EFS intelligence analyst. "We brief pilots on possible threats they may face while flying missions and we're also tied into the intelligence reporting, where we report targets struck to higher headquarters. There's a lot of battle tracking and predictive analysis."

According to the squadron's weapons and tactics chief, one of the most difficult aspects of close air support isn't physically dropping the bomb, it's making sure the rest of the process has been done correctly. The pilots assigned to the 74th EFS are trained to work through that process correctly, making sure friendly positions are confirmed, any attack restrictions make sense and are adhered to, and they are flying above or are laterally deconflicted with any artillery that may be firing, and avoiding any exposure to threats like anti-aircraft fire or other aircraft.

"Positive identification is extremely important and is something that takes a large team and a long amount of time to get right," said Capt. Eric Calvey, 74th EFS chief of weapons and tactics. "Long before we show up there are individuals who use Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance assets to get an idea of what targets to strike and make sure that what we drop on is in fact a hostile target. We're the last link in the chain and there's a large amount of work done ahead of time to prepare these targets for strike before we employ munitions on them. It's amazing seeing the utmost care that is taken before we employ on these targets."

Although the squadron's deployment is coming to a close, Morash said they are still keen on supporting the ground forces, no matter where they are.

"Every single person in this squadron was and still is mission focused. They are looking at the bigger picture, seeing what solutions to problems could be and mitigating risk to ground forces every single day," Morash said. "The way this team came together, operations and maintenance, to look after each other and to get things done made me proud to be an Airman."

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DoD Owes Taxpayers Full Accounting of Assets, Comptroller Tells House

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2018  A departmentwide audit is important for business reform, for Congress and for the taxpayer, the Defense Departments comptroller told the House Armed Services Committee today.

The process has started for the first departmentwide audit in DoD history, David L. Norquist said. Defense is the largest department in the executive branch and has assets around the world.

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan are fully behind this effort, Norquist told the committee.

While the department has auditors looking at various contracts or processes, this is the first time the department will undergo a full financial statement audit, he said. A financial statement audit is comprehensive and occurs annually and it covers more than financial management.

Audits Purpose

This audit will verify the count, location and condition of military equipment and real property. It tests the vulnerability of our security systems and it validates the accuracy of personnel records and actions, Norquist said.

The department will have 1,200 financial statement auditors assessing the books and records to develop a true account of the state of the department, the comptroller said. It will take time to pass all the process and system changes necessary to pass the audit and get a so-called clean opinion, he said. He noted that it took the Department of Homeland Security -- a much smaller and newer agency -- 10 years to get a clean audit.

But we dont have to wait to see the benefits of a clean opinion, Norquist said. The financial statement audit helps drive enterprise improvements to standardize our business practices and improve the quality of our data.

The audit will provide information and accountability to the American people. The taxpayers deserve the same level of confidence as a shareholder that DoDs financial statement presents a true and accurate picture of its financial condition and operations, he said. Transparency, accountability and business process reform are some of the benefits of a financial statement audit.

An audit will improve accountability, the comptroller said, noting that, for example, an initial Army audit found that 39 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were not properly recorded in the property system. The Air Force identified 478 structures and buildings at 12 installations that were not in its real property system, he added.

The audit should cost about $367 million in 2018, Norquist said, which is about the same percentage of the overall budget that large firms like Proctor and Gamble or IBM spend on their audits. We also anticipate spending about $551 million in 2018 fixing problems identified by the auditors, he said.

Finding better ways to do business will allow DoD to invest in greater lethality for the force, the comptroller said.

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Department of the Army announces upcoming 3rd Infantry Division deployment

By U.S. Army Public Affairs January 10, 2018

WASHINGTON -- The Department of the Army announced today the spring 2018 deployment of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia, to the Republic of Korea.

The 1st Armored Brigade will replace 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division as part of a regular rotation of forces and support the United States Forces-Korea's commitment to our Republic of Korea partners.

"The Raider Brigade has a proud history of answering the nation's call. Our unit recently completed a rigorous training cycle that culminated with a decisive action training environment rotation to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. We are trained and ready to perform our mission as part of a long-standing alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States," said Col. Mike Adams, 1st Armored Brigade commander.

This deployment marks the historic return of the 3rd Infantry Division to Korea. The division supported combat missions of the Eighth Army until 1953 fighting valiantly during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, at the Chorwon-Kumwha area, Jackson Heights, and Arrowhead outposts.

For more information contact the 3rd Infantry Division public affairs officer, Maj. Megan Jantos, megan.l.jantos.mil@mail.mil, by phone at 912-435-9869.

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UN says Boko Haram attacks' toll has decreased in Niger

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 07:22PM

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the toll of attacks carried out by the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists has fallen in Niger.

A total of 141 civilians in Niger were killed, kidnapped or wounded by the terrorist group in 2017, showing a sharp decrease compared to 2016, the OCHA said on Wednesday.

In a new report, the OCHA stated that there were 227 victims of Boko Haram attacks in 2016 as well as 214 casualties in 2015.

The Diffa administrative region in Niger, located in the southeast of the country on the border with Nigeria and Chad, witnessed the most instances of violence.

The Gueskerou district was attacked most, while Kabalewa district had the highest number of casualties, according to the report.

The OCHA report did not give specifics about the number of civilian and military casualties in these attacks.

Boko Haram, which first started its attacks in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, expanded its sphere of terror into neighboring Niger in 2015 after the Nigerian army launched a crackdown against the terrorist group in that year.

The group also operates in other neighboring countries including Chad and Cameroon.

In total, Boko Haram attacks in affected areas of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon have left more than 20,000 people dead and 2.6 million more displaced.

These countries, in response, have launched major offensives against the two Boko Haram factions and their leaders.

Joint troops stationed in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria are targeting Abubakar Shekau in the Sambisa Forest, and Mamman Nur on and around Lake Chad.

On Tuesday, the Nigerian military announced that joint forces had killed scores of Boko Haram terrorists and that hundreds more had been forced to surrender in recent days.

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New Yemeni missile system used to target Saudi-led warplanes: Report

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 03:14PM

A new report has revealed that Yemeni air force and air defense units used a new domestically-designed and-produced missile system to shield residential areas in the country's capital and the northwestern provinces of Sana'a and Sa'ada against airstrikes by Saudi military aircraft.

Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported that Yemeni air defense forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, employed the system to intercept and target a twin-engine, all-weather tactical F-15 fighter jet belonging to the Royal Saudi Air Force in the skies over Sana'a early on January 8.

The development came only hours after Yemeni air defense forces used another battery of the same missile defense system to shoot down a twin-engine and multirole Panavia Tornado combat aircraft as it was flying in the skies over Kitaf wa al-Boqe'e district in Sa'ada province.

At least 13,600 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabia's military campaign against Yemen in 2015. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.

Nearly dozen civilians killed as Saudi jets hit outdoor market

Meanwhile, nearly a dozen civilians have lost their lives when Saudi fighter jets carried out an airstrike in Yemen's Sa'ada province.

Local source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military aircraft bombarded a popular outdoor market in the Kitaf wa al-Boqe'e district of the province on Wednesday evening, leaving 10 people killed and one person injured.

The Saudi-led war has also triggered deadly epidemics of infectious diseases, especially diphtheria and cholera, across Yemen.

According to the World Health Organization's latest tally, the cholera outbreak has killed 2,167 people since the end of April and is suspected to have infected 841,906.

WHO has also warned that at least 471 people in Yemen have contracted diphtheria, a bacterial disease that has been killing one in 10 Yemenis since the outbreak started in the war-torn country in mid-August last year.

The UN agency's spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, made the disturbing announcement last Thursday, adding that the west-central province of Ibb and the western province of Hudaydah were the hardest hit by diphtheria, which is easily spread between people through direct physical contact or the air.

On November 26, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) said that more than 11 million children in Yemen were in acute need of aid, stressing that it was estimated that every 10 minutes a child died of a preventable disease there.

Additionally, the UN has described the current level of hunger in Yemen as "unprecedented," emphasizing that 17 million people are now food insecure in the country.

It added that 6.8 million, meaning almost one in four people, do not have enough food and rely entirely on external assistance.

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Tunisia says 200 arrested, dozens injured in fresh unrest

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 11:13AM

Tunisia says more than 200 people have been detained and dozens wounded in violent protests against austerity measures.

Interior Ministry Spokesman Khalifa Chibani said nearly 50 police officers were injured during clashes in several areas across the country. 206 "troublemakers" were also arrested in the wake of the second night of violent anti-austerity protests, added the official.

He said public property had been damaged and local businesses looted in the suburbs of the capital Tunis.

On Tuesday night, police and army were deployed in several cities, including Tebourba, west of Tunis, where hundreds of youths took to the streets after the funeral of a 45-year-old protester who lost his life the night before.

Police denied any role in the protester's death. And, the results of an autopsy have not been made public.

The central cities of Gafsa and Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the 2011 uprising, were also the scene of chaos and unrest.

Tunisia has seen days of protests against hikes in value-added tax and social contributions introduced at the beginning of the year to reduce the country's annual deficit and satisfy international lenders.

In recent years, demonstrations have been held in the month of January, which marks the anniversary of the 2011 revolution that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The North African country has been hailed for its relatively smooth democratic transition, but it is still experiencing economic and political turbulence.

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Moldovan Parliament Speaker Passes Law Against Russian Propaganda

RFE/RL's Moldovan Service January 10, 2018

CHISINAU -- The speaker of Moldova's parliament, Andrian Candu, has signed legislation appointing seven new government ministers along with a law that bans Russian "media propaganda."

The signings on January 10 took place after Moldova's Constitutional Court suspended pro-Russia President Igor Dodon's powers on the issues and ruled that Candu could ratify the legislation, which was proposed by Moldova's pro-Western government and passed by pro-Western lawmakers in the parliament.

The so-called "media propaganda" law effectively bans the rebroadcasting in Moldova of Russian television programs on news, analysis, politics, and military issues.

The Constitutional Court ruled on January 5 that either Candu or Prime Minister Pavel Filip could sign the bill into law because Dodon had "refused twice to fulfill his constitutional duty to sign the bill into law."

Both Candu and Filip are members of the pro-Western Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM).

On January 2, the court ruled that the same procedure could be used to confirm Filip's nominees in a cabinet reshuffle that Dodon refused to ratify.

Dodon said Filip's nominees were incompetent and that some were corrupt.

Dodon is frequently at odds with Filip and his government, which favors closer ties with the EU and the United States.

Dodon on January 10 said Moldova's seven newly appointed ministers "lack legitimacy." He also said the Constitutional Court helped Filip's government to violate "the principles of democracy and a rule-of-law state."

Pro-Russia political parties in Moldova on January 10 called for street protests.

Russian authorities also have been at odds with the PDM over its attempts to bolster Chisinau's ties with the EU and the United States.

The Moscow city court on January 10 upheld the legality of charges filed in absentia against the president of the PDM, Vlad Plahotniuc.

Plahotniuc, one of Moldova's most influential pro-Western politicians, was charged in absentia in November 2017 in Moscow's Basmanny district court of attempted murder in Russia.

Russian authorities allege that Plahotniuc was behind a March 2012 assassination attempt against German Gorbuntsov, the former owner of banks in Russia and Moldova.

Gorbuntsov was shot several times in east London by a man armed with a submachine gun, but survived the attack.

Aleksandr Nekrassov, a former Kremlin adviser, told the BBC in 2012 that the attack appeared to be linked to information Gorbuntsov claimed to have about the attempted assassination of another Russian banker, Aleksandr Antonov.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa, Interfax, and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova-parliament- speaker-approves-russia-media-law/28966975.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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Amphibious Assault Ship With First Squadron of F-35Bs Joins US 7th Fleet

Sputnik News

22:15 10.01.2018(updated 23:34 10.01.2018)

The US Marine Corps' USS Wasp amphibious assault ship and a squadron of F-35B "jump" jets joined the US Navy's 7th Fleet last Saturday, marking the first time the fifth-generation jet has been deployed on a moving US vessel.

The vessel originally was slated to leave for Sasebo, Japan from its homeport in Norfolk, Virginia, last August before hurricanes ravaged the Caribbean and diverted the ship from its intended route. Instead, Navy officials called on the Wasp to contribute to relief efforts in the storm-struck region, and the ship completed more than 108 missions in support of residents on decimated islands, including the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

The missions led to the transport of more than 1,100 passengers to safety and dropped off more than 328,000 pounds of food and water supplies to help people living on hurricane-impacted islands, Military.com's Hope Hodge Seck noted January 9.

After completing the humanitarian missions, the Wasp made its way to Japan. Three days after Christmas, the ship arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for a quick stop over on the journey, Honolulu's Star Advertiser reported. The Wasp stayed in Hawaii until January 2 before completing the rest of the trip across the Pacific.

Last January, an F-35B squadron arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, but the Wasp's F-35B fleet marks the first group of F-35Bs stationed on a naval platform. The carrier-variant F-35C is still at least a year from reaching initial operational capability.

The F-35 is sometimes described as a "flying computer" that may be more important for relaying mission critical information and data  and even potentially helping the ballistic missile defense apparatus  than dropping payloads on targets. Dakota Wood, senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation and former Marine Corps strategic planner, told Military.com, "I think the Iwakuni deployment was very important because you're forward-deploying all the logistical support that is required for those environments, specialized equipment needed to access and maintain the repair" the jets.

"Actually deploying the squadron aboard a ship, that's a major step forward, because what it means is you've got shipboard versions of all that capability," Wood said.

Another squadron of F-35Bs is deploying aboard the Wasp's sister ship, the USS Essex, later this year. Wood confirmed previous reports that the Essex's eventual role in the US Navy's Middle East operations means it's the most likely place the jump version of the F-35 will get its first taste of combat.

"It's much more likely that the F-35Bs on the Essex, over Syria or Afghanistan, you could potentially see F-35s rolled into [combat] operations," the Heritage Foundation researcher said.

 Sputnik

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Even the Warthog: US Air Force Grounded Dozens A-10s After Hypoxia Incidents

Sputnik News

07:52 10.01.2018

The US Air Force temporarily grounded almost three dozen A-10 Warthog attack jets at an Arizona Air Force base in 2017 following three incidents involving symptoms of hypoxia mirroring similar mysterious hypoxia cases across the Navy and Air Force last year.

Two of the three episodes occurred in November in the air, during flights out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, according to Air Force spokesman Capt. Josh Benedetti. In both cases the A-10's backup oxygen system kicked in allowing the pilots to return safely to base. A third pilot suffered from hypoxia symptoms while he was still on the ground.

The root cause of the incident that took place in the sole aircraft outfitted with the older liquid oxygen system (LOX) was later successfully diagnosed and fixed  the Warthog had issues with the oxygen regulator and cabin pressure systems. But investigators haven't yet determined the cause of the problem on the aircraft equipped with the newer Onboard Oxygen Generation System (OBOGS).

The whole fleet of 28 OBOGS-equipped A-10s assigned to Davis-Monathan had to be grounded for about a week, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported.

All combat aircraft generate oxygen for their crews while flying at altitude. The problem of pilots coming down with hypoxia symptoms has plagued US military aircraft, with similar incidents reported in recent years on the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F/A-18 Hornet, the US Navy's T-45 Goshawk training jet fleet, and even the Air Force's T-6 prop-driven trainers.

Root causes of many of these incidents remain unsolved; they can vary from engines to the oxygen-generating capability of the aircraft itself.

 Sputnik

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Colombia: Reintegrating 14,000 ex-combatants remains a challenge, Security Council told

10 January 2018  Colombia's peace efforts remain challenged by the task of reintegrating 14,000 former rebel combatants, the top United Nations official in the country said Wednesday as he also reported to the Security Council that the UN will 'closely follow' reports of a just-broken ceasefire between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian Government.

"While the building blocks of stabilization are being put in place, we cannot lose sight of the challenges of reintegration," Jean Arnault, the Secretary-General's Special Representative, told the Security Council, presenting the first quarterly report on the activities of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, which he heads up.

The mission, which started its operations on 26 September 2017, was established to verify the commitments of the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) on reintegrating former FARC-EP members into society, and on ensuring security in territories most affected by the decades-long conflict, which was ended with a peace deal between the two sides in November 2016.

Mr. Arnault said that the political reintegration of the former guerrilla organization is on course, noting that the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections this year and local and departmental elections in less than two years will be an opportunity for the new FARC party to gain seats.

"But we continue to view with concern the socioeconomic reintegration of the 14,000 former combatants," he said, explaining that many of them are still in prison and are extremely frustrated with the reintegration process.

President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon has taken the important step of recognizing the need for access to landownership as a major incentive for reintegration.

For their part, many FARC members have demonstrated on the ground that they are willing and able to engage in agriculture, environmental protection and crop substitution.

These are promising developments, but only that. The next few months must be the opportunity to "turn the corner," and make a fragile process more durable.

Regarding a temporary ceasefire between the Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), Mr. Arnault stressed that the clamor for the continued suspension of military action has been unanimous, and reiterated the need to preserve the lower level of violence as seen in the past three months, while also advocating for a clearer and more reliable ceasefire.

"Unfortunately, it was just announced that attacks against pipelines by the ELN have just resumed. We will follow closely developments and keep the Council informed," Mr. Arnault said.

Meanwhile, UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York that the Secretary-General will be travelling to Bogota, Colombia, on 13 January to support peace efforts.

On Saturday, Mr. Guterres will meet with the President, officials of the Government and armed forces, as well as with the leadership of the FARC and the Catholic Church.

On Sunday, the Secretary-General will travel to Meta Department, where his agenda will include a visit to a territorial area for training and reintegration of former FARC combatants.

Asked if the UN chief will meet with the ELN, Mr. Dujarric said "we're concerned by the incident this morning  an attack on an oil pipeline. We're obviously following the developments very closely and we're keeping the Security Council informed."

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Trump: 'Unlikely' Special Prosecutor on Russia Probe Will Interview Him

By Ken Bredemeier, Chris Hannas January 10, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump says it "seems unlikely" that he would need to meet with special counsel Robert Mueller about Mueller's investigation into allegations that Trump's presidential campaign had ties with Russia.

Trump made the comment Wednesday during a news conference after a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

He reiterated his statement that there was "no collusion" with Russia, adding, "It seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview."

"There is collusion, but it's really with the Democrats and the Russians," he said, adding, "the witch hunt continues."

Mueller's team said in December that it is likely to request an interview with Trump as part of the investigation. Trump has called the investigation a "Democratic hoax."

So far, the investigation has resulted in the indictment of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and a guilty plea from former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.

Mueller's team has interviewed a number of Trump aides, including Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former chief of staff Reince Priebus.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump called the investigation "the single greatest Witch Hunt in American history."

Trump also assailed California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, calling her "sneaky" because on Tuesday, she released a transcript of an August interview with the head of a firm that produced a dossier containing allegations about Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. Feinstein is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which received the documents from Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of research group Fusion GPS. Simpson said he gave the dossier about Trump to the FBI because he was "very concerned" about a potential national security matter.

"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," Trump said. He called for a "tough primary" election against her, although she is a Democrat and the Republican Trump holds no sway over Democratic political affairs.

Feinstein unilaterally released a lengthy transcript of Simpson's testimony without telling the majority Republican bloc on the Judiciary Committee.

'Illegal conspiracy?'

Simpson's firm hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to produce the dossier, and that research was paid for by Democrats, including the campaign of Trump's election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

A conservative website had earlier sought information about Trump but stopped its investigation of the then-Republican candidate once it became apparent that he would be his party's nominee. Later, a lawyer for Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee hired Fusion GPS to investigate Trump's past.

"From my perspective there was a law enforcement issue about whether there was an illegal conspiracy to violate the campaign laws," Simpson said.

Trump has dismissed the dossier and repeatedly denied that his campaign colluded with Russia. Trump has contended that the investigations are an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset win over Clinton, a former secretary of state.

Simpson said Steele also told him the FBI believed information in the dossier "might be credible" because they had a source inside the Trump organization who "indicated the same thing."

"It was someone like us who decided to pick up the phone and report something," Simpson said.

Setting the record straight

Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said Simpson requested the transcript of his testimony be released to the public and that the American people deserved the chance to see his words and judge for themselves.

"The innuendo and misinformation circulating about the transcript are part of a deeply troubling effort to undermine the investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice. The only way to set the record straight is to make the transcript public," Feinstein said in a statement.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, objected to Feinstein's release of the testimony. A Grassley spokesman, Taylor Foy, called Feinstein's actions "confounding" and said she had undermined the committee's "ability to secure candid voluntary testimony relating to the independent recollections of future witnesses."

The committee is conducting one of several investigations into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election and possible connections with the Trump campaign.

U.S. intelligence agencies assessed last year that Russia had conducted a campaign targeting the election with the goal of hurting Clinton's chances of winning while boosting Trump. In addition, Mueller is investigating whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI chief James Comey when Comey was heading the agency's Russia probe before Mueller was appointed to take over the investigation.

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Talks to Ease Venezuela's Crisis Set to Resume

By Alvaro Algarra, Nicole Kolster January 10, 2018

Talks to ease Venezuela's dire political and economic straits are scheduled to resume Thursday, even as severe food shortages fuel looting and the president and parliament spar anew over access to humanitarian aid.

"We are on the verge of a social explosion," Jorge Millan, an opposition lawmaker in the National Assembly, said Tuesday in arguing for "palliatives" to the protracted crisis that already sparked four months of near-daily protests last year. The legislature agreed to push President Nicolas Maduro's administration to allow international deliveries of food and medical supplies to ease suffering in the country of 30 million.

Maduro condemned the legislature's move as an attempt to foment foreign intervention.

"It's the same people who want to destroy this country, [who] do not want this country to prosper," he said. "I call upon the Venezuelan people to actively repudiate the National Assembly."

Earlier this week, looters emptied shelves in five stores in Venezuela's southeastern Ciudad Guayana, Reuters news agency reported Tuesday.

Negotiators' goals

To address Venezuelans' desperation, representatives of Maduro's administration and the opposition coalition Democratic Unity Committee (MUD) plan to meet Thursday in the Dominican Republic for two days of renewed talks. On Friday, they're to be joined by international observers: Danilo Medina, the Dominican Republic's president, as well as officials from Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and Nicaragua.

The ruling Social Party's team seeks international recognition of the National Constituent Assembly as well as an end to international economic sanctions that have reduced the debt-ridden country's access to foreign currency. The United States considers the Constituent Assembly  an all-powerful superbody packed with Maduro supporters  to be fraudulently chosen and a threat to the democratically elected National Assembly. Last Friday, the U.S. Treasury announced sanctions against four more former or current Venezuelan officials.

Opposition representatives  led by the National Assembly's outgoing president, Julio Borges  want the administration to respect that legislature, permit foreign humanitarian aid, release political prisoners and commit to democratic elections.

Sides trade barbs

Maduro, who faces re-election in December, has accused Borges of maligning his administration.

"Borges is abroad conspiring so that nobody sells a single product to Venezuela, a ship does not arrive and neither do the necessary imports," the president said in a televised address December 29.

Simon Calzadilla, an opposition lawmaker expected this week at the talks in Santo Domingo, said the MUD was negotiating in good faith.

"We are waiting for an agreement to be reached for the good of the country, to get out of this crisis," he said in a phone interview with VOA. " I hope the government understands that its model has failed, that institutions must be restored through a comprehensive agreement that gives good news to all."

Calzadilla would not comment on whether the Maduro administration's December 24 release of dozens of prisoners stemmed from negotiations earlier that month. "We have agreed to maintain prudence," he said.

Low expectations

Previous rounds of negotiations have left deep fissures in Venezuela's opposition.

The talks are opposed by political leaders such as Antonio Ledezma, the former Caracas mayor who in November fled house arrest for exile in Spain.

"We hope that no one will recognize the National Constituent Assembly or request the lifting of sanctions against individuals accused of corruption and violating human rights," he said on social media last month.

Richard Blanco, a National Assembly lawmaker and head of the opposition group July 16 Fraction, also said last month that he had low expectations for the talks.

"There will be no results of any kind here," he predicted. "Nothing will happen at all."

This report originated with VOA's Spanish service.

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U.S. Senator Ben Cardin Releases Report Detailing Two Decades of Putin's Attacks on Democracy, Calling for Policy Changes to Counter Kremlin Threat Ahead of 2018, 2020 Elections

January 10, 2018

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin

U.S. Remains Vulnerable to Russian Interference without Unequivocal Presidential Leadership, Learning Lessons from European Democracies

Top Foreign Relations Committee Democrat Makes Series of Recommendations to Counter Putin's Asymmetric Arsenal, Bolster Defenses Ahead of Future U.S., European, Elections

WASHINGTON  A Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democratic staff report released Wednesday and commissioned by U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the Committee's ranking member, details Russian president Vladimir Putin's nearly two decades-long assault on democratic institutions, universal values, and the rule of law across Europe and in his own country. The report comes one year after Senator Cardin introduced the Counteracting Russian Hostilities Act of 2017, which served as the basis for the sanctions package signed into law last August, and makes a series of recommendations to adequately bolster U.S. and European defenses and counter the growing Kremlin threat to democratic institutions.

"Putin's Asymmetrical Assault on Democracy in Russia and Europe: Implications for U.S. National Security," finds that President Trump's refusal to publicly acknowledge the threat posed by the Russian government has hampered efforts to mobilize our government, strengthen our institutions, and work with our European allies to counter Putin's interference in democracies abroad.

Never before in American history has so clear a threat to national security been so clearly ignored by a U.S. president, and without a strong U.S. response, institutions and elections here and throughout Europe will remain vulnerable to the Kremlin's aggressive and sophisticated malign influence operations.

"As the extent of Russia's obvious meddling in the 2016 U.S. election continues to be investigated, it is imperative that the American people better understand the true scope and scale of Putin's pattern of undermining democracy in Russia and across Europe. That is why I commissioned this report shortly after the 2016 election," Senator Cardin said. "This threat existed long before President Trump took office, and unless he takes action now, it will continue long after his administration. While President Trump stands practically idle, Mr. Putin continues to refine his asymmetric arsenal and look for future opportunities to disrupt governance and erode support for the democratic and international institutions that the United States and Europe have built over the last 70 years.

"President Trump must be clear-eyed about the Russian threat, take action to strengthen our government's response and our institutions, and  as have other president's in times of crisis  mobilize our country and work with an international coalition to counter the threat and assert our values," Cardin continued.

Across eight chapters and several appendices, the report meticulously details the tools the Russian government has repeatedly deployed from its asymmetric arsenal, and how the Kremlin has learned and perfected its techniques attacking democracy both internally and abroad. Such tools  drawn largely from a Soviet-era playbook, but updated with new technologies  include military incursions, cyberattacks, disinformation, support for fringe political groups, and the weaponization of energy resources, organized crime and corruption.

Putin first developed his techniques at home, against his own people. In Russia, he repressed independent civil society, journalists, and the political opposition, while manipulating cultural and religious institutions, the media, and fueling a corrupt kleptocracy to bolster his regime and increase his net worth. Putin's increasing aggression abroad is directly related to his need to maintain power at home. As he looks to maintain power in Russia, he is likely to step up his attacks on democracies around the world.

Some European countries have shored up their democracies with a strategic, whole-of-government approach: publicly warning Moscow of consequences if it meddles; mobilizing various sectors of society to neutralize and push back against Kremlin disinformation; and confronting Russian efforts to use corruption as a tool of influence. It is time for the United States to take similar actions.

The report includes more than 30 recommendations for the U.S. and its allies. Key recommendations include:

First, Mr. Trump must demonstrate presidential leadership by declaring it is U.S. policy to deter all forms of Russian hybrid threats and begin to mobilize our government in defense. He should establish a high-level inter-agency fusion cell, modeled on the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), to coordinate all elements of U.S. policy and programming in response to the Kremlin's malign influence operations.

Second, the U.S. government should provide assistance, in concert with allies in Europe, to build democratic institutions within those European and Eurasian states most vulnerable to Russian government interference. As part of this effort, the President should convene an annual global summit on hybrid threats, modeled on the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL or the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) summits. To reinforce these efforts, members in the U.S. Congress have a clear responsibility to show U.S. leadership on values by making democracy and human rights a central part of their agendas. They should conduct committee hearings and use other platforms and opportunities to publicly advance these issues.

Third, the United States and our allies should expose and freeze Kremlin-linked dirty money. The U.S. Treasury Department should make public any intelligence related to Mr. Putin's personal corruption and wealth stored abroad, and take steps with our European allies to cut off Mr. Putin and his inner circle from the international financial system.

Fourth, the U.S. government should designate countries that employ malign influence operations to assault democracies as State Hybrid Threat Actors and subject them to a preemptive, escalatory sanctions regime that would be applied whenever the state uses asymmetric weapons like cyberattacks to interfere with a democratic election or disrupt a country's critical infrastructure. The U.S. government should also produce yearly public reports that detail the Russian government's malign influence operations in the U.S. and around the world.

Fifth, the U.S. government and NATO should lead a coalition of countries committed to mutual defense against cyberattacks, to include the establishment of rapid reaction teams to defend allies under attack. The U.S. government should also call a special meeting of the NATO heads of state to review the extent of Russian government-sponsored cyberattacks among member states and develop formal guidelines on how the Alliance will consider such attacks in the context of NATO's Article 5 collective defense provision.

Finally, U.S. and European governments should mandate that social media companies make public the sources of funding for political advertisements, along the same lines as TV channels and print media. Social media companies should conduct comprehensive audits on how their platforms may have been used by Kremlin-linked entities to influence elections occurring over the past several years, and should establish civil society advisory councils to provide input and warnings about emerging disinformation trends and government suppression. In addition, they should work with philanthropies, governments, and civil society to promote media literacy and reduce the presence of disinformation on their platforms.

The full report and some accompanying summary documents can be found at the following links:

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Briefing on the Department of State's New Travel Advisories

Special Briefing

Michelle Bernier-Toth, Bureau of Consular Affairs Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary For Overseas Citizens Services

Via Teleconference

January 10, 2018

MR GREENAN: Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us this morning for an on-the-record with Bureau of Consular Affairs Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Citizen Services Michelle Bernier-Toth. She's going to talk to us this morning about the launch of the department's new Travel Advisories. So I'll turn it over now to Michelle.

MS BERNIER-TOTH: Thank you, Robert. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us. This is, in our world, a very exciting day. As Robert said, we are launching our new travel advisory program. This is a revamping of our Consular Information Program  which, as you all know, because you follow these things, is the cornerstone of our efforts to keep U.S. citizens safe while they travel or live abroad. The purpose of the Consular Information Program does not change. It's again, to provide information to people to make timely decisions about their travel plans and their activities while they're overseas.

But over the years, we've come to recognize that sometimes our various documents were not readily understood. And frankly, I personally was tired of explaining the difference between a Travel Warning and a Travel Alert even to some of my colleagues. So about a year ago we began a very intensive analysis of our Consular Information Program and all the Travel Warnings, the Travel Alerts, how we conveyed information to the public, and we realized we needed to do a couple of things.

First, we needed to make it more accessible to people. And that's why in November we went to a mobile-friendly design for our website. We also needed to make sure that the information was more easily understood, putting it into plain language, making it clearer why we were ranking countries, why we were citing them as a threat or a risk, and making that very obvious to people. And finally, making the information more actionable. We often got questions from people saying, "Well, I've read your Travel Warning, but what does it mean? What am I supposed to do?"

So in the new Travel Advisories, we've done away with Travel Warnings and Travel Alerts. We've done away with emergency and security messages  because, again, that was something that people didn't always understand the difference  and we have gone to a Travel Advisory for every country, including Antarctica. And within that Travel Advisory, we have gone to a four-level ranking system, starting with a Level 1, which is "Exercise normal precautions." Level 2 is "Exercise increased caution," Level 3 is "Reconsider travel," and level four is "Do not travel."

And for each country that has a Level 2 or above, we will specify what we think those risks or threats are, why is it that we're telling people to consider  reconsider travel or to exercise caution or not to travel at all. And those risks and conditions and circumstances are going to be very clearly spelled out with icons  C for crime, T for terrorism, U for civil unrest, H for health issues, N for natural disasters, E for time-limited events such as elections or major sporting events, and O for other, which is our catch-all for the things that don't fit into those other categories. So it's going to be very obvious.

We have interactive maps that you can look at and sort of see where things are. The new Travel Advisories will continue to provide what we used to call the country-specific information about things like entry requirements, special circumstances, health issues perhaps, road safety issues and things like that. That's still all there, but again, it's laid out in a format that is much more readily accessible, much more easily understandable, and I think far more actionable than our old Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, and other documents.

So with that, I will stop and take questions.

MR GREENAN: Thank you very much. We'll now go to our first question.

OPERATOR: And ladies and gentlemen, just a quick reminder, if you do have a question, please press *1 at any time. And we'll go to Arshad Mohammed with Reuters. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Good morning. Thank you very much for doing this and for doing it on the record. I have looked quickly at the excellent and interesting interactive map on your website. Two questions, or three questions. One, do you have anywhere on the website a list that segregates countries that are given a ranking of four  "do not travel"  ranked three, two and one, so that we can see all of those as a group? If you don't have that, I, just quickly looking at it, have counted about 10 countries that I see that are "do not travel": Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Have I gotten all the countries that you advised U.S. citizens not to travel with  not to travel to, or have I missed any?

And then finally, can you explain to us whether  it's my memory that the U.S. Government does not have the ability to bar U.S. citizens from traveling to countries, but can you please explain to me whether that is correct or not, whether you can, for example, say that a U.S. passport is not valid for travel to country X or Y or Z? Although I suppose the  an individual could use another passport or try to travel to that country without a passport.

MS BERNIER-TOTH: Those are excellent questions. No, we don't have a space  a place where we separate countries by their  order of their ranking. That's something that's of interest, I think. I didn't catch all the countries that you listed as a Level 4, "Do not travel." It sounds pretty good. Basically, these are the countries where, under the previous Travel Warnings, we already recommended people not to go to them, places like Somalia, places like Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq. So I'd have to go back and check that list.

But essentially how we assess the threat level in a country hasn't changed. There's still a collaborative process that involves our security experts, the intel community, host governments, our embassies and consulates, the information that we  they feed into us that we then assess and determine how we are going to rank a country. That really hasn't changed. It's how we describe those conditions and set those levels that has changed.

And you're absolutely right, we cannot prevent people from traveling to a country. The "do not travel" is our recommendation. But if you read through sort of what the language says behind that, you recognize that, yes, we can't prevent you from traveling. The exception, though, as I'm sure many of you have  all of you know is that we do have a general travel restriction on the use of a U.S. passport for North Korea. That means that if you  American citizens who wish to travel to North Korea must apply for a one-time waiver and provide justification as to why they need to go, and there's certain criteria that would allow us then to grant those waivers. That is the only country where we specifically say you cannot use your U.S. passport to travel to, North Korea. And as you say, people could use other documents. That would be their choice. But we want to warn them that there are risks involved in traveling to North Korea, and we have made that clear through the GTR.

MR GREENAN: Okay, thank you. Next question, please.

OPERATOR: And we'll go to Nora Gamez with The Miami Herald. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi. Good morning, and thank you for doing this. I just checked the Cuba Travel Warning. The previous warning was "do not travel," and now Cuba is a Level 3. So have the circumstances in Cuba changed? Why the change in classification?

MS BERNIER-TOTH: Yeah. Again, as we were putting all this together, we did a very careful assessment. We talked to all of our experts, and this is where we came out on Cuba. Whenever we  as you all know, we have significantly reduced our staffing at our embassy in Havana. Whenever we do that, traditionally we have always issued a Travel Warning, and that has not changed. This is reflected now in the Level 3 ranking that we've given to Cuba.

MR GREENAN: All right, thank you. Next question, please.

OPERATOR: And we'll go to Laura Koran with CNN. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks so much for doing the call and again for making it on the record. Can you tell me what sort of communications the department has had with foreign governments in advance of this release to advise them on their tier ranking, particularly at those upper levels, tiers three and four? And even though you and your colleagues have said that these rankings are based on security conditions, are you concerned about any pushback or retaliation from countries that don't agree with their rankings?

MS BERNIER-TOTH: An excellent question. Yes. Where we have given our  we gave our embassies authority to provide their host governments with an advance copy of the final Travel Advisory for their country if they thought that that was important to the host government. By and large, I think there have been no surprises. Again, a country that was previously a "do not travel" sort of ranking is not going to be surprised that we've put them at a Level 4. But again, it's  we did brief various host governments in advance. They  we do not give host foreign governments the ability to change the language. These are not political documents; these are simply based on our assessment of the security situation and what we need to tell U.S. citizens who might be traveling or living in that country.

MR GREENAN: Thank you. Next question, please.

OPERATOR: And we'll go to Josh Lederman with the Associated Press. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hey, thanks for doing this, and like Arshad said, thanks for doing it on the record. I wasn't sure I understood the answer to the earlier question on the  on the  Cuba. Regardless of sort of how one previous system transits to the next, I mean, the content of it  like, before you were telling Americans don't go to Cuba; now you're putting them at a level where you're saying something short of that. So can you just be real specific: Have you changed your assessment since the most recent Travel Warning about Cuba about the safety of traveling there? Is this less of a threat level than it was in the previous iteration? Thanks.

MS BERNIER-TOTH: So this was  again, we routinely review our previous Travel Warnings. We will continue to review our Travel Advisories on a regular basis, either because  the Levels 1 and 2 will be reviewed every year, if not more frequently, depending on circumstances. Levels 3 and 4 we review every six months just as we did Travel Warnings. In the process of that review, we will look very carefully and we wanted to make sure that we were being consistent across the globe as to how we were assessing and ranking countries, and I think that's where we had that change in Cuba. It was looking at it very closely to say what is the situation on the ground right now and how are we going to describe that.

The fact of the matter, though, too, is that we have a very small footprint in our embassy in Havana. We have very, very limited consular resources and our ability to help people in an emergency is extremely limited. So that's another factor that plays into it.

MR GREENAN: Thank you. Next question, please.

OPERATOR: And we'll go to Dave Clark with AFP. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi. A practical question for the journalists on the call. In the future, if following a review or following an incident you change a country's ranking up or down, will you issue a statement to that effect to us or will we just have to check this website every day?

MS BERNIER-TOTH: Certain aspects of our information program don't change. When we  when we change  and I should note first, I mentioned earlier the security and emergency messages. We're doing away with those as well. Instead, we will be issuing alerts. They might be a demonstration alert, a hurricane alert, a terrorist incident alert, but they will be alerts. Those will continue to go out through our Smart Traveler Enrollment Program as well as be posted to the website. So if you're enrolled in our Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, you are going to get those messages, as well as updates and changes to the Travel Advisories.

MR GREENAN: Thank you, and we'll go to the next question, please.

OPERATOR: That will be Mark Laiosa with WBAI FM. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Good morning. Thank you for taking this on the record. Will the real-time updates for critical areas be posted simultaneously, mobile and online? And also  follow-up  how often will you assess the countries' statuses?

MS BERNIER-TOTH: Okay. Thank you for that. Yes. I mean, the  when we update to the website, it's updated  we push out over the STEP program as well. That sort of happens at the same time. And again, as I mentioned earlier, Level 1 and 2 countries, we review those every year, at least on an annual basis, unless something happens that prompts us to review it more frequently. There might be a change in circumstances, there might be a new threat, something like that that would cause us to re-evaluate and reassess more frequently. Levels 3 and 4, we continue to review those on schedule every six months, again, unless something happens that prompts us to do it more frequently.

MR GREENAN: Okay. Take the next question, please.

OPERATOR: That will be Dan Peltier with Skift. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks. So I know you've laid out your case a few minutes ago about why you're changing the system and doing away with warnings, but just from my point of view and a lot of people I know, I mean, when a warning was issued in the past, that was very explicit that it's probably not safe to travel somewhere, whereas an advisory might not be safe to travel to some parts of the country but other parts are perfectly safe. So I'm just wondering if you're kind of  some people it might be more complicated, and I know you're trying to make it more simple, but seems like you're stirring the pot a little bit more, I don't know, in terms of throwing out the word "warning." If there was any  if there's any concern about that still that's lingering, that people might have a hard time grasping this at first.

MS BERNIER-TOTH: I think there might be a bit of a learning curve, but I think if you look at the actual advisories  and those countries we'll say "do not travel," it's in red. It's Level 4. It's pretty obvious that these are countries that have a high threat level that we want people to be aware of. And this  actually, we've looked at other  how other countries handle their travel information as well, and this tracks to a degree with them, although in ours I think we have a little bit more detail in terms of what those risk or threat conditions are that are very clearly indicated. So I think people will find it easier to understand than our old Travel Warnings, and again, people often did not understand the difference between a Travel Alert and a Travel Warning, and we shouldn't need to spend more time explaining the difference between those two documents than we do explaining what the threat actually is.

MR GREENAN: Thank you. We'll take the next question, please.

OPERATOR: We'll go to Nick Wadhams with Bloomberg. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks very much. Just two questions. One, can you explain why China I guess is the only country on the map so far with the  its advisory status being pending?

And then also, is there any correlation between the advisories you issue here and the change in status for countries and the precautions that will be taken by embassy and consular staff, or do those staff sort of judge security risks or are they advised about security risks based on a different system or protocol?

MS BERNIER-TOTH: Great questions. China is not up simply because of technical issues. It should be up shortly. It's going to be a Level 2, I can tell you that.

And as far as what advice is given to embassy staff, our entire Consular Information Program is predicated on what we call the "no double standard" policy, and that's if we have threat information that is  it's credible, it's specific, and there's something we can't mitigate against, and we provide that information and recommendations on actions to our embassy personnel, we must provide that to the American community. And so that  when you see something that goes up on a Travel Advisory, it's because we have told our own people very much the same. And as you read through some of the advisories, you'll see that very clearly spelled out. For example, Mexico  I'm thinking of a couple of them where it's very specific as to what the restrictions are on U.S. embassy personnel in that country. Again, we can't tell private Americans what they can  should or should not  what they  we can't prevent them from doing things, but we want them to know what restrictions we've imposed upon ourselves so that if they choose to, they can follow the same guidance.

MR GREENAN: Okay, thank you very much. We'll take the next question, please.

OPERATOR: And we'll go to Tomas Regalado with Radio TV Marti. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Good morning and thank you very much for taking this call. I have a quick question regarding the Cuba change. My questions are the following: There  I see that there is here on the change it says, obviously, review the crime and safety and also avoid Nacional Hotel  Nacional and Hotel Capri.

My questions are the following: When you go to the travel  the new Travel Advisories, you have C for crime, T for terrorism, CU for civil unrest. The Secretary of State has just asked for a whole new investigation as well as what occurred yesterday with the Senate Foreign Relations. Wouldn't this be considered, what happened to the diplomats, as a terrorist attack as well? And why wouldn't T be on there? As well as why the change if diplomats were hurt in this  in these attacks, in these sonic attacks?

MS BERNIER-TOTH: Yeah. I should be clear: There is no change in our assessment of what is going on in Cuba, and I think  to your point, I think there is an  looking at what  there's an investigation into what happened. We don't know what happened, so we're not going to speculate before we have final answers.

MR GREENAN: Okay. Thank you. We'll take the next question, please.

OPERATOR: We'll go to Bart Jansen with USA Today. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hello, thanks for holding the call. I wondered when might have been the last of this kind of a major overhaul for this online service.

MS BERNIER-TOTH: This is the first major overhaul in a very long time. I don't even know when the last one was. We did do some tinkering about 10 years ago with a terminology that we used. As some of you might remember, we used to issue Public Announcements. We did away with those in favor of Travel Alerts. We changed some of our security messaging criteria. But this is the  really the biggest overhaul that we've done in a very, very long time.

MR GREENAN: Okay. Thank you. We'll take the next question, please.

OPERATOR: And we'll go to Arshad Mohammed with Reuters. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Three quick things: Am I correct in understanding that you will continue to issue publicly new Travel Alerts when you make a new decision for authorized or ordered departure at a U.S. embassy?

Second, I still don't understand  and perhaps it's that I'm obtuse  the answer on Cuba. I think on October the 3rd, you said do not travel to Cuba, and therefore I don't understand why you are now saying  why you  why they're not now in Category 4, particularly since you said that, if I understood you correctly, there had been no changes, that those countries where you had said do not travel previously are now  are now Category 4.

MS BERNIER-TOTH: Thank you for that. So on the authorized and ordered departure, again, our policy does not change there. When an embassy goes to authorized or ordered departure, that automatically puts it into either the Level 3 or Level 4 rankings, which would be the equivalent of an old Travel Warning if it's not already there. And we will make that information public through the Consular Information Program, through an update to the Travel Advisory and then again  and then through putting out an alert through the STEP program.

On Cuba, I would note if you read further into what the different definitions or explanations of the different levels are, Level 3 is reconsidered travel, but the message behind that is avoid travel due to serious risks. So I think that does not change from where we were on Cuba previously.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR GREENAN: We have time for one last question.

OPERATOR: And that'll be Jose Diaz with Reforma. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hello?

OPERATOR: Please, go ahead with your question.

QUESTION: Perfect. Yes, my question is regarding Mexico. I see very detailed information on several regions in Mexico. It goes state by state and then very detailed information. Is Mexico a different case than other countries? I see different levels of warning for each of the different states of Mexico.

MS BERNIER-TOTH: That's an excellent question. Thank you. This gets back to a point I made earlier about the no double standards. The differentiation between states that you see from Mexico relates to the restrictions that our mission in Mexico imposes upon U.S. Government personnel in the country: where they can go, where they're not allowed to go, where they can go with very specific security precautions.

We wanted to make sure that the U.S. traveling public was aware of all those restrictions and rules that we impose upon ourself in Mexico. And the Mexico Travel Warning, the previous Travel Warning, had that information. I think it's much more clearly spelled out here in the new Travel Advisory.

MR GREENAN: Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone for joining us this morning. And a special thanks to Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Citizens Services Michelle Bernier-Toth. This (inaudible) call was on-the-record, so we  hopefully we'll see some reporting. And we look forward to another call with you in the future.

Thanks so much.

MS BERNIER-TOTH: Thank you.

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Somalia Launches Digital Counter-extremism Center

By Mohamed Olad Hassan January 10, 2018

Somalia's government has launched a digital counter-extremism center that aims to dissuade young Somalis from supporting militant groups such as al-Shabab and Islamic State.

The Somali Ministry of Information says the center will carry out campaigns on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and state-run media designed to promote stability in the Horn of Africa nation, which has seen little peace during the past 30 years.

"The center plans to raise public awareness campaign on countering violent extremism, security and peace building, good governance, civic education, and implementing programs that can provide confidence to the people by discrediting terrorists' narratives of violence and destruction," said Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman.

During the opening ceremony Wednesday, Osman said the center will specifically target al-Shabab "by exposing their brutality, and hence weakening its following and public support."

The al-Qaida-linked militant group has carried out dozens of suicide attacks in Somalia during the past decade, including one in October that killed more than 500 people.

"This will be an opportunity to contribute to the overall peace and stability in Somalia," Abdurahman Yusuf al-Adala, the director general of Somalia's Ministry of Information told VOA. "We will provide accurate and useful information to young people, which in turn helps them to understand the benefits of democratic institutions in Somalia."

The new center was created in response to criticism from moderate Somali clerics who said the government has not done enough fight extremism and violent ideologies on the internet and social media platforms.

Al-Adala said clerics and elders will be given an opportunity to produce video messages for social media. He said young Somalis will have an "open forum" to talk about terrorism and factors that drive youth to join the militants.

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S. Korea, DPRK start normal operation of military hotline

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 15:53, January 10, 2018

SEOUL, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday started a normal operation of military hotline for direct dialogue between the military authorities.

Seoul's defense ministry was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying the two Koreas test-communicated via the restored military hotline for five minutes from 8:00 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Tuesday).

There has been no special discussion during the test-communications, according to the ministry.

South Korea confirmed the DPRK's restoration of the cross-border military communication channel in the western region after it was informed of the restoration during the Tuesday inter-Korean dialogue.

The communications channel between the two Koreas in the liaison office of Panmunjom, which straddles the inter-Korean land border, was already reopened last week.

The two channels for direct dialogue between governments and military authorities of the two Koreas were severed in February 2016 as South Korea unilaterally shut down the Kaesong Industrial Complex in response to Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in the previous month.

The inter-Korean industrial zone in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong was the last remaining symbol of the inter-Korean economic cooperation, housing over 120 South Korean companies and hiring over 50,000 DPRK workers.

After the first inter-Korean talks in about two years Tuesday, South Korea and the DPRK agreed to hold a dialogue on military affairs without elaborating on when to hold it.

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China 'happy' for high-level talks by DPRK and ROK

People's Daily Online

(China Daily) 07:56, January 10, 2018

Beijing says it "feels happy" to see improved relations between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea after the two sides held high-profile talks. China called on the international community to lend its backing to such efforts.

The DPRK on Tuesday agreed to send a "high-ranking" delegation to participate in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in the ROK as officials of the two countries started their first high-level meeting in two years.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China hopes the talks will be a good beginning for the ROK and the DPRK to improve ties, promote reconciliation and cooperation, and reduce tensions.

Piao Jianyi, an expert from National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the talks went "surprisingly good and smooth" and people can look forward to improvement in the direction of the Korean Peninsula issue.

"Usually the proposal put forward by one side will be rejected by the other," he said. "However, this time both sides have reached more consensus than before."

Ri Son-gwon, head of a five-member DPRK delegation for Tuesday's talks, said in his introductory remarks that he hoped to give a New Year's gift to the people of the Korean Peninsula.

In response, the ROK's unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, said he expects the Olympics to become a peace festival with "precious visitors" from the DPRK. He also said the inter-Korean dialogue had resumed after a long hiatus, calling on the DPRK to continue talks with a firm will and patience.

The DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary on Monday night that Kim Jong-un, top leader of the DPRK, "clarified a bold and compatriotic stand and proposal for improving inter-Korean relations in his New Year's address."

The DPRK's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an earlier commentary that Kim's appeal for detente with Seoul has won overwhelming support at home and abroad.

Russia also welcomes dialogue between the DPRK and ROK, a Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday. "This is exactly the kind of dialogue that we said was necessary," he said in a conference call.

However, Yoichi Takahashi, a professor at Tokyo-based Kaetsu University, said people should not pin their hopes on the talks because the DPRK may not stop nuclear and missile tests, and the potentially explosive tension on the peninsula has not eased.

Piao also said it is hard to predict whether optimism will remain for the future, especially considering that half of the government in Seoul is conservative, and holds a hostile attitude toward the DPRK. "And we can't ignore the role the United States is playing."

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Trump to South Korea: US Open to Talks With North at 'Appropriate Time'

By Peter Heinlein January 10, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump says he is open to talks with North Korea "at the appropriate time".

In telephone conversation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in Wednesday, Trump "expressed his openness to holding talks between the United States and North Korea at the appropriate time under the right circumstances," according to a readout of the call issued by the White House.

"The two leaders underscored the importance of continuing the maximum pressure campaign against North Korea," the statement said.

President Moon's office first reported the conversation, which came a day after North and South Korea held their first talks in more than two years. The South Korean readout said Trump had agreed that there would be no military action while any talks were in progress.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting after the phone call, Trump said Moon had expressed appreciation for his role in bringing the North back to the negotiating table. "He's very thankful for what we've done," Trump said. "It's been reported today that we were the oneswithout our attitude that would've never happened."

Trump expressed hope for a positive outcome. "Who knows where it leads? Hopefully it will lead to success for the world. Not just for our country but for the world," he said.

At a news conference in Seoul earlier Wednesday, Moon credited Trump with helping facilitate the inter-Korean talks by increasing pressure through sanctions on the North Korean leadership.

But the South Korean leader said his approach, which entails reducing tensions through dialogue and engagement, differs from Trump's emphasis on pressuring the Kim Jong Un government with sanctions and the threat of military force.

South Korea, Moon said, wants to pursue denuclearization without risking a devastating war with North Korea that would put at risk millions of Koreans on both sides of the border.

"How can we de-escalate these issues and prevent a possible armed conflict, and while doing so bring North Korea to a dialogue? That is our current dilemma, and that requires a prudent approach," Moon said.

Inter-Korean talks

Moon described agreements reached during Tuesday's inter-Korean talks as a positive first step that could create a pause in provocations and give momentum to diplomacy.

After high-level delegations met for 11 hours, the two delegations agreed to restore an emergency communication hotline between their countries, and to hold military talks to resolve disputes and avert accidental conflict at a time when tensions are high over North Korea's efforts to develop nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States.

The White House also confirmed Wednesday that Vice President Mike Pence would lead a high-level U.S. delegation attending the Winter Olympics next month in South Korea.

Credit to Trump

At his news conference, Moon credited Trump with helping facilitate the inter-Korean talks by increasing pressure through sanctions on the North Korean leadership.

But the South Korean leader said his approach, which entails reducing tensions through dialogue and engagement, differs from Trump's emphasis on pressuring the Kim Jong Un government with sanctions and the threat of military force.

South Korea, Moon said, wants to pursue denuclearization without risking a devastating war with North Korea that would put at risk millions of Koreans on both sides of the border.

"How can we de-escalate these issues and prevent a possible armed conflict, and while doing so bring North Korea to a dialogue? That is our current dilemma, and that requires a prudent approach," Moon said.

While the South Korean leader said his outreach to the North would not violate U.N. sanctions, critics say his engagement approach could reduce international pressure on the Kim government and weaken the U.S.-South Korean military alliance.

Trump had earlier been critical of the prospect of negotiating with a North Korean leadership that has broken past agreements to end its nuclear program in exchange for economic assistance and security guarantees. But this week, Trump called the inter-Korean talks "a good thing" that had come as a result of his "firm, strong" stance.

Brian Padden in Seoul and Steve Herman at the White House contributed to this report.

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Indian Defense Ministry Claims Navy 'Fully Capable' Despite Shortfalls

Sputnik News

02:30 10.01.2018(updated 02:33 10.01.2018)

The Indian navy is "fully capable" of defending the country's maritime interests, India's defense minister said Tuesday, despite having two fewer carriers than the country's naval chief says is necessary.

India plans to operate three aircraft carriers: the currently operational INS Vikramaditya, plus IAC-1, and IAC-2, two ships that don't exist yet, according to the Indian navy's Design Bureau. "That is the basic minimum requirement for performing our mandated tasks in India's areas of maritime interests" on the subcontinent's eastern and western seaboards, Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Sunil Lanba told India Strategic on Tuesday.

The IAC-1 and IAC-2 are domestically built aircraft carriers India's navy expects to be delivered between 2019 and 2032, India Strategic noted.

Ideally, the Indian navy would keep two carriers deployed while the third goes to shipyards for periodic maintenance, the admiral said.

On Monday and Tuesday, Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman toured the INS Vikramaditya as the carrier, three submarines and six other vessels simulated "real conditions" of a "multi-threat" battle exercise, the Ministry of Defense said in an announcement.

"Having witnessed first-hand the prowess of the Western Fleet, I am confident that the Indian navy is fully capable of defending the nation against any form of threat," Sitharaman said.

The exercises featured operational practice in anti-submarine warfare, gun and missile tests, air interceptions and nighttime naval aviation maneuvers.

According to the Hindustan Times, though, the Indian navy's minesweeper fleet is slated to be decommissioned from 2018 to 2020. This potential maritime weakness is amplified in significance by the fact that South Korea and India failed to reach an agreement on 12 new mine countermeasure vessels earlier this week.

"We were unable to resolve commercial complications despite our best efforts. This particular deal with the [South] Koreans is off," an Indian official told the Hindustan Times Tuesday. The country's six minesweepers fall way short of the 24 experts say are needed to secure India's harbors, the Hindustan Times reported.

"The latest setback means that there may be no minesweepers even beyond 2021," HT noted.

 Sputnik

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Iran calls for int'l cooperation to protect JCPOA

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Moscow, Jan 10, IRNA -- Iranian foreign minister on Wednesday called for international cooperation to save the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached between Iran and G5+1 (the US, the UK, Russia, China and France plus Germany).

'We, you and other members of the JCPOA should closely coordinate with each other and ensure that this achievement would be seriously pursued,' Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a meeting with Sergey Lavrov.

He referred to Iran's commitment to the JCPOA, and said that unfortunately, one of the G5+1 member-states has not remained committed to its obligations and has adopted destructive policies in this regard.

Commenting on the upcoming Syrian National Dialogue Congress to be held in the Russian city of Sochi on January 29-30, Zarif said that the summit is a great chance that can promote the UN talks in Geneva and help to establishment of sustainable peace in Syria.

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EU emphasizes JCPOA should be preserved

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Wed / 10 January 2018 / 13:55

Tehran (ISNA)  Declining any speculation on reports over a potential US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, EU spokesperson emphasized that the nuclear deal should be preserved.

""We are not going to start speculating on any kind of scenario; our position in Europe on the nuclear deal is well known. It should be preserved and maintained," EU spokesperson Catherine Ray told a news conference.

"It is bearing fruit and we continue to support this agreement and its implementation," she added.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini will convene a meeting with the foreign ministers of three European countries, France's Jean-Yves Le Drian, Germany's Sigmar Gabriel and the UK's Boris Johnson, as well as Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Brussels on Thursday, focusing on the Iranian nuclear deal.

Ray declined to comment if Thursday's meeting will also discuss the recent protests in Iran.

End Item

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Progress being made on bill to 'fix' Iran nuclear deal: US Senator

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 07:06PM

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker says that progress is being made with Democratic lawmakers in Congress, as well as European allies, on legislation to "fix" the Iran nuclear deal without violating its terms.

"We've gotten to a really good place; now the question is can we get there fully," Corker told reporters on Tuesday.

Trump must decide by January 12 whether he will re-certify the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the United States.

Trump has called the agreement an "embarrassment" to the US and "the worst deal ever negotiated."

Trump will also have to decide whether to continue waiving sanctions lifted as part of the deal. Failure to continue waiving sanctions would likely be seen by Iran as a violation, leading to the agreement's death.

Consequences of Iran deal on Korea negotiations

Corker also warned that withdrawing from the nuclear deal could have consequences for the ongoing crisis with North Korea.

"I hope at some point we're going to enter into a very binding agreement with North Korea, and if it's believed that we withdrew from a military agreement when there aren't material violations  there's some technical violations, but not material violations  then it makes it more difficult for people to believe we're going to abide by another agreement," Corker said.

Democratic lawmakers and other supporters of the Iran deal have argued for months that scrapping the nuclear accord could imperil any diplomatic effort with North Korea by showing the United States cannot be trusted to keep its deals.

White House meeting on Iran deal

Corker and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin visited the White House last week to discuss the issue with US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.

One option under discussion is the possibility of removing the requirement that the US president certify Iran's compliance, something Trump loathes to do every three months. Another possibility, officials said, would be changing the law so that the certification would occur far less often.

The negotiations could only result in face-saving measures that would allow the Trump administration to stay in the nuclear deal, rather than imposing any new restrictions on Iran.

Early last month, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of the adverse consequences of a possible move to step away from the nuclear deal.

"I have reaffirmed the European Union view that continued implementation of the Iran nuclear deal is a key strategic priority for European security but also for regional and global security," she said after a meeting with Tillerson in Brussels.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly verified Iran's adherence to the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) since January 2016, when the deal took effect.

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Zarif, Lavrov discuss implementation of Iran nuclear deal in Moscow

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 06:30PM

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has lauded Russia's role in the conclusion and implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Zarif made the remarks during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday.

He said that Iran, Russia and other parties to the JCPOA needed to closely coordinate efforts to make sure that the implementation of the deal was seriously pursued.

The top Iranian diplomat said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had verified Iran's commitment to the deal on numerous occasions, but a certain party to the JCPOA had failed to fulfill its commitments under the deal, an apparent reference to the US.

"Unfortunately, one of the parties to the JCPOA has not only failed to fully live up to its commitments, but it has also pursued destructive policies in this regard," Zarif said.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council  the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China  plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

US President Donald Trump delivered an anti-Iran speech in October 2017, saying he would not continue to certify Iran's compliance with the terms of the JCPOA -- a central foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama -- and warned that he might ultimately terminate the agreement.

The next deadline for Trump to waive nuclear-related sanctions falls on Friday.

Since the JCPOA implementation, the IAEA has been verifying and monitoring Iran's compliance with its nuclear-related commitments under the accord and has consistently verified the Islamic Republic's compliance.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian foreign minister referred to Moscow-Tehran relations and said mutual cooperation on regional issues served the interests of the two nations as well as international peace and security.

Iran-Russia cooperation has played an instrumental role in the fight against terrorism and extremism in the region, Zarif said.

For his part, Lavrov underlined the significance of the JCPOA and highlighted the IAEA's verification of Iran's commitment to the deal.

"We will continue to defend the viability of this program and its major importance in securing regional stability and solving the issues of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Astana talks on Syria

On the Syrian crisis, Zarif said Iran would continue to work with Russia and Turkey to ensure that the Astana process would yield fruitful results and the Sochi talks would find a political solution to the turmoil.

"We believe that the upcoming meeting in Sochi is the most important opportunity to help the United Nations (talks) in Geneva to reach stable peace in Syria," he said.

On the Syrian crisis, the Russian foreign minister said the "Congress of Syrian National Dialogue in Sochi will indeed help to create conditions for successful Geneva talks in case the fraction of radical opposition that is constantly coming up with pre-conditions will be disciplined by those who control it."

The Astana peace process has been underway since last January with the mediation of Iran and Russia, the Syrian government's allies, and Turkey, which supports the opposition.

The talks in Astana have been going on in tandem with another series of UN-brokered talks in Geneva.

Meanwhile, Russia is promoting an initiative for holding a congress with the participation of Syria's conflicting sides in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The all-Syrian congress would involve drawing up a framework for Syria's future structure, adopting a new constitution and holding elections under UN supervision.

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US resolution on Iran protests unacceptable, reprehensible: Foreign Ministry

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 06:05PM

Iran has strongly rejected as "unacceptable and reprehensible" a resolution passed by the US House of Representatives in support of a recent wave of violence in the country.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi on Wednesday criticized the "unwise and irrational" approach of the US to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, saying it constituted a violation of international rules and regulations.

Nearly two weeks ago, some peaceful protests were held in certain Iranian cities against rising prices and the overall economic condition of the country. Limited numbers of violent individuals, some of them armed, later sought to turn the peaceful protests into street riots. However, the original protesters soon heeded calls by authorities to leave the streets so that their activities would not play into the hands of violent rioters.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution in support of the protests in Iran.

"Measures like the ratification of this resolution and hostile remarks and moves by the (US) administration... against the brave Iranian nation... are well known to the wise Iranian people and are part of a doomed policy," Qassemi said.

He also said the US hostility towards Iran stems from "the greedy and domineering nature of American rulers."

The Iranian official said adopting such resolutions was a "hackneyed, politically-motivated" move, noting that the US government has demonstrated its double standards with regard to Iran by falsely claiming to advocate the Iranian people and at the same time targeting the nation by imposing sanctions and harboring malicious intentions towards them.

Qassemi added that the Iranian nation would give an appropriate response to the US measure at an appropriate time.

The adoption of the anti-Iran resolution by the US House of Representatives was not Washington's first meddlesome move.

US President Donald Trump was quick to tweet strong support for the recent protests in Iran.

In another meddlesome move, the US also called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to address the protests in Iran.

During the January 5 session, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley gave an exaggerated account of the riots and said Washington would remain steadfastly behind the Iranian "protesters."

In response, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that the United States had shamed itself by trying to target the Islamic Republic at the UNSC meeting, noting that Washington "abuses its permanent membership at the Security Council and calls for a meeting [on Iran], and there, the world countries slap the US in the face."

He pointed to the new US administration's mistakes in dealing with Iranian people, noting that the White House "keeps hitting rock bottom in the wrong approaches it has chosen to deal with the Iranian nation."

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Iran interior minister tasked with preparing report on recent violence

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 02:56PM

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says he has tasked the interior minister with preparing a detailed report on the recent wave of violence that hit some areas of the country.

During a cabinet session on Wednesday, Rouhani said he had delegated Abdolreza Rahmani to compile a comprehensive report within one week on the violence as well as the individuals arrested, injured or killed during the course of the unrest.

Nearly two weeks ago, some peaceful protests were held in certain Iranian cities against rising prices and the overall economic condition of the country. Limited numbers of violent individuals, some of them armed, later sought to turn the peaceful protests into street riots. However, the original protesters soon heeded calls by authorities to leave the streets so that their activities would not play into the hands of violent rioters.

General Saeed Montazer-al-Mahdi, a police spokesman, said on Sunday that a total of 20 people, including a police officer, had lost their lives in the violence.

Meanwhile, Iranians took to the streets in large numbers over the course of several days to express their support for the Islamic establishment and condemn the unrest.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rouhani assured the Iranian nation that tackling economic problems and restoring the rights of the people were high on the agenda of his administration.

"The main approach of the administration in the budget bill for the year 1397 (the next Iranian year beginning on March 21, 2018) is to create jobs and move towards uprooting absolute poverty, and following the emphasis of the Leader, people expect all branches of the government, organizations and bodies to help the immediate realization of those goals and restoration of the rightful demands of people through sympathy and friendship," he said.

The Iranian president noted that problems had not been created overnight and they were the result of mismanagement in the past, urging all to join hands to dissuade enemies from achieving their plots and to help the government revitalize economy.

In a meeting with a large group of people on Tuesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said a "triangle" of enemies -- with the United States and Israel comprising one of its sides, a rich Persian Gulf littoral state on its second side and the anti-Iran Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terror organization on the third side -- had been plotting for the past few months to foment chaos and violence in Iran.

The Leader said Americans and Zionists had been working on the plot for several months while the cash came from one of the "filthy rich Persian Gulf littoral states" and the "murderous" MKO helped the plot.

Meanwhile, Iran's Intelligence Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday, saying it had arrested more individuals involved in inciting violence, killing people, vandalizing public property, disturbing peace and attacking religious centers.

It also said that it had confiscated weapons, munitions and explosives from rioters.

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Iran can well speed up nuclear activities, including enrichment: Official

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 10:54AM

An Iranian nuclear official says Iran is capable of multiplying the pace of its nuclear activities  especially uranium enrichment  compared to the time when an international deal on its nuclear program had not yet been concluded, implying that that will happen if the United States violates the deal.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, who is the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said on Wednesday that the body had reported to the country's highest authorities about its capacity to increase the pace of nuclear activities to several times the speed at which they were underway prior to the deal.

The nuclear agreement was finalized by Iran and the P5+1 countries  namely the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany  in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016.

Barring the US, all parties to the deal have been stressing that the accord should stand. US President Donald Trump, however, sees the deal as a legacy of his predecessor  former president Barack Obama  that he should undo.

Trump faces a Friday deadline to announce whether he would certify Iranian compliance with the deal under domestic US law. He has once certified that compliance but refused to certify it another time. If he once again refuses to certify on Friday, the US Congress may decide to reimpose a series of sanctions that have been waived under the deal. That would be a major violation of the agreement.

Kamalvandi said if the sanctions waivers are not extended, Iran "will naturally take necessary measures."

While he did not link potential increased Iranian nuclear activity to the US violation of the deal, that seemed to be the message of his Wednesday remarks.

"Of course," he said, "the speed, and the scale and percentage of enrichment as well as other activities would be dependent on what authorities would decide... What matters is the capacity to implement major decisions, which we enjoy at the AEOI."

Kamalvandi also referred to a recent telephone conversation between his boss, AEOI Director Ali Akbar Salehi, and the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, in which Salehi had had warned Iran would take unspecified measures on the day after the US potentially violates the deal.

Under the nuclear deal, Iran undertook to apply certain limits to its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.

The IAEA, which is the official institution to verify Iranian compliance, has consistently confirmed Iranian commitment to its contractual obligations.

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Iranian Demonstrator Says Anger Still Alive, Even If Protests Have Ebbed

Golnaz Esfandiari, Mohammad Zarghami January 10, 2018

A 19-year-old participant in Iran's recent street protests says that while the wave of public demonstrations has subsided, the antiestablishment unrest in December and early January opened many Iranians' eyes and the underlying anger remains.

"Nothing [the authorities] do will decrease people's anger and frustration," Hadi, the son of a working class family in the northwestern city of Tabriz, told RFE/RL.

Tabriz is one of more than 90 cities and towns where protests were unleashed after a December 28 demonstration in Mashhad, the country's second-largest city, over rising prices and other grievances.

At least 22 people are thought to have been killed in the unrest, which targeted government policies but also featured chants against Iran's clerically dominated system and attacks on police and other official institutions.

The demonstrations have tapered off in the past week amid a pushback by authorities that included harsh warnings and a conspicuous show of force by security troops, the blocking of Internet access and social media, and reports of three deaths in custody and thousands of arrests.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Iranian officials have blamed the flare-up on foreign "enemies."

But President Hassan Rohani took a different tack, leaving open the possibility of foreign influence but adding, "We can't say that whoever who has taken to the street has orders from other countries." Rohani acknowledged that "people had economic, political, and social demands" and said Iranians "have a legitimate right to demand that we see and hear them and look into their demands."

Iranian officials were said to have eased some of the price increases stoking some of the protests.

Won't Get 'Fooled' Again

Hadi, who asked RFE/RL not to publish his last name, dismissed that and other steps as mere attempts to ward off public anger in the short term and said he thought such tactics have lost their effectiveness.

"They may decrease the price of eggs, thinking that they can fool people. But people are now very much aware," Hadi said.

Hadi talked of his own frustration at being accepted into Iran's Islamic Azad University but being unable to afford the school's fees.

"My father says [Islamic Republic of Iran founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] promised that we won't even pay for water, [that revolutionaries] said they would give everyone free housing," he said, adding that four decades later many Iranians struggle to make ends meet.

Hadi said he and dozens of others took to the streets of Tabriz to complain of high prices, poverty, and repression in a country where he says authorities "bully" citizens.

The protests, Iran's largest since a disputed election sent millions into the streets in 2009, were initially fueled by economic grievances and mostly young citizens frustrated by an ailing economy and a potentially bleak future.

Some Iranians envisaged rising prosperity two years after an international deal traded sanctions relief for checks on Tehran's nuclear program, and Rohani campaigned for election in 2013 and reelection last year pledging mild reforms and more jobs.

'Angry Young Men'

A journalist in Tehran who did not want to be named attributed the protests to "angry young men" disappointed by reformists and conservatives, with no hope in the future.

"They have nothing to lose," said the reporter, who had witnessed several protests in the Iranian capital.

The demonstrations morphed quickly into protests against the clerical establishment and the country's leaders. Protesters called for an "Iranian republic" instead of an "Islamic republic," while some complained that the clerics who have been ruling Iran since the 1979 revolution should "get lost."

Many demonstrators also complained of Iran's actions in the Middle East, including its military and other support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and aid to militants in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon. They said Tehran should instead focus its resources on Iranians.

"Where in the world does a government spend its money on another country?" Hadi said. "[Assad] supports Iran because he is investing Iran's money in his country."

Hadi said he was frustrated at Rohani for abandoning social and economic promises: "He should take action, not just talk. He made many promises four years ago, but he hasn't achieved them."

But Hadi primarily blamed Khamenei -- who, as supreme leader, holds the final word on religious and political affairs in Iran -- for the state of affairs in the country, including the ailing economy and corruption.

"He is the main culprit, and his establishment," Hadi said, adding that Iranian leaders "don't know how to rule."

Khamenei was the target of some of the chants, with protesters shouting, "Death to the Dictator!" and, "Death to Khamenei!" in many places.

'Turning Point'

Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said last week that the people and security forces had ended the unrest, which it said was fomented by Iran's foreign enemies.

Former student leader Ali Afshari, who has been tortured in an Iranian jail for protesting against the establishment, also warned that there could be more unrest in Iran's future.

"The forces that took part in these protests are different than those behind other demonstrations we've seen in past years," said Afshari, who now lives in the United States. "They came out because of their basic needs; and since the establishment has serious problems on the economic front, it doesn't have the ability to respond to these needs."

Afshari predicted the latest wave of protests would mark a "turning point" in Iran's modern political history.

"The geographical scope of these protests were unprecedented in Iran's recent history. Within a week, protests were held spontaneously in 82 cities across Iran."

Meanwhile in Tabriz, Hadi insisted that the rage that sent him and others into to the streets won't go away.

"This regime has to go, that's what I want," he said. "In Tabriz, we say that now the regime is even afraid or our silence."

Accounts are just starting to emerge of detainees locked up in connection with the protests, and Iranian officials continue to block many social-media networks and other sources of information, including Western radio and television.

"Even if there are no more protests [right now], it will explode one day," Hadi said. "This is not the end."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-protests-student- hadi-anger-still-alive/28967267.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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U.S. House Expresses Overwhelming Support For Iranian Protesters

RFE/RL January 10, 2018

The U.S. House of Representatives has nearly unanimously adopted a resolution expressing support for antigovernment protesters in Iran and condemning Tehran's crackdown on the two-week-long demonstrations.

Lawmakers backed the measure by a vote of 415-to-2 late on January 9, drawing a fierce reaction from Tehran, which denounced U.S. "interference" in Iran's internal affairs.

The House "stands with the people of Iran that are engaged in legitimate and peaceful protests against an oppressive, corrupt regime," and condemns the government's "serious human rights abuses against the Iranian people," the resolution states.

The House resolution also called on U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to issue new sanctions punishing human rights violators in Iran.

"In standing with the Iranian people, we must explain that they are not the target of our sanctions," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said.

"U.S. sanctions target the oppressive, destabilizing regime, not the people of Iran," he added.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi on January 10 "strongly condemned" what he called the "hostile" resolution.

An Iranian lawmaker said on January 9 that about 3,700 people have been arrested during the antigovernment protests, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that Tehran foiled what he called attempts by the United States and Britain to create unrest.

The number of arrests cited by reformist lawmaker Mahmud Sadeghi is far higher than figures announced by the authorities.

Protesters in dozens of cities across Iran have vented anger about high unemployment and official corruption since December 28. Some demonstrators have called for the overthrow of Khamenei and the powerful conservative clerics who maintain Islamic rule.

U.S. President Donald Trump has praised what he called the courage of the Iranian demonstrators and said that the United States would support them "at the appropriate time."

In a tweet, Khamenei repeated accusations -- rejected by the United States and other governments -- that foreign countries including the United States and its allies were behind the protests.

"Once again, the nation tells the U.S., Britain, and those who seek to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran from abroad that 'you've failed, and you will fail in the future, too'," Khamenei said in a message on his official Twitter account on January 9.

Khamenei said that some of the calls being made by the demonstrators were "honest and rightful demands." He did not elaborate.

At least 22 people have been killed as a result of the unrest and government crackdowns surrounding the protests.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran said it had documented the deaths of three arrested protesters, the Associated Press reported on January 9. One died at Tehran's Evin prison in what Iranian authorities said was a suicide.

Another man detained in Arak, 235 kilometers southwest of Tehran, also died, the center said. His family said their son's body bore an enormous head wound "as if he had been hit with an ax," the center said.

Late on January 9, Iran's judiciary acknowledged a death in Arak via its Mizan news agency, saying an unnamed detainee committed suicide.

The center alleges a third detainee died in custody in Dezful, 460 kilometers southwest of Tehran. The death in Dezful had not been reported before.

Khamenei in his remarks blamed the protests on Iran's enemies. Citing what he said were Iranian intelligence reports, he said that "there's been a triangle pattern activating these events."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-us-house-expresses -support-protesters/28966388.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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German Prosecutors Consider Charges Against Top Iranian Cleric

RFE/RL January 10, 2018

Germany's federal prosecutor's office is examining whether to bring charges against a senior Iranian cleric who has been mentioned as a possible future Iranian supreme leader and who is receiving medical treatment in Germany.

A spokesman for the prosecutor's office on January 9 acknowledged receiving a complaint filed against Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi by a former German lawmaker, whose complaint accuses the cleric of committing "crimes against humanity" during his decade overseeing hundreds of executions as the head of Iran's Justice Ministry.

The prosecutor's office did not say how long it would take to determine whether it will act on the complaint from former Green Party lawmaker Volker Beck.

Shahrudi, who has been mentioned as a possible successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has attracted protesters and sharp criticism during his stay at a neurological treatment center in the northern German city of Hannover.

The mass-circulation Bild daily's front-page headline on January 8 read, "Death Judge In Iran, Luxury Patient In Germany."

The Jerusalem Post reported that the prosecutor in the German province of Lower Saxony, where Hannover is located, is also considering whether to pursue a criminal complaint filed against Shahrudi in that jurisdiction.

About 200 demonstrators showed up outside the Hannover hospital where he is saying on January 6 to protest the executions of an estimated 2,000 Iranians that took place while he was Iran's justice minister.

The complaints against him claim he can be prosecuted under German law for alleged crimes committed in Iran. Shahrudi has not publicly commented on the accusations against him.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said on January 8 that Shahrudi had sought treatment in Germany for a "serious illness" and that his request was granted after "credible health reasons" were given.

Bild reported that if the German government determined that Shahrudi, who is currently a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, is considered to be a government office-holder, he might be granted diplomatic immunity from prosecution.

"It would be a big mistake if the federal government provides diplomatic immunity here to the organizer of mass murders through Iran's justice system," Beck told The Jerusalem Post, explaining the reasons behind the complaint he filed against Shahrudi.

"Germany should not be a sanctuary for such people, who in their country persecute people for political or religious reasons and threaten them with death," he said. "The Iranian regime persecutes women who were raped, homosexuals, Baha'is, Kurds, and atheists."

Shahrudi headed Iran's judiciary for 10 years from 1999 to 2009. Amnesty International said that during that time he carried out more than 2,000 executions, including of adolescents, while overseeing the torture of prisoners and arrests of political and human rights activists.

Shahrudi was a student of Iran's first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and is viewed as a strict disciple of Khamenei.

Besides serving in the Assembly of Experts, Shahrudi currently heads Iran's Expediency Council, which moderates disputes between Iran's parliament and a constitutional watchdog known as the Guardians Council.

Saba Farzan, the German-Iranian executive director of Foreign Policy Circle, a strategy think tank in Berlin, told the Post that "this representative of the Islamic dictatorship shouldn't be on European territory at all," and criminal prosecution was "absolutely the right path to go."

"These human rights violators must learn that they can't deprive their own citizens of their inalienable rights and then receive luxurious treatment  medical as well as political," Farzan said.

Reinhold Robbe, the former head of the German-Israel Friendship Society, said, "It's a slap in the face to exiled Iranians and others to see such a former leader of the Iranian regime being treated in Germany."

With reporting by Reuters, The Jerusalem Post, and Bild

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/german-prosecutors-weigh- criminal-complaints-filed-against-top- iranian-cleric-shahroudi/28966169.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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Aides Said To Be Pushing Trump To Extend Iran Sanctions Waiver

RFE/RL January 10, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump's top aides are urging him to extend relief from economic sanctions for Iran, but the president remains reluctant and has not decided on his next move, U.S. media are reporting.

The Associated Press and Reuters on January 10 cited U.S. officials and others familiar with administration policy as saying that Trump and key advisers will meet on January 11 to finalize the decision, which will be revealed on January 12.

The reports said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster were pressing Trump to sign the waver granting Tehran relief from sanctions as part of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers.

Trump on January 12 is facing another quarterly deadline for certifying whether Iran is in compliance with the deal, which requires Tehran to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

The president is a fierce critic of the accord and refused to certify Iran's compliance with the deal at the last deadline in October. Still, he has so far stopped short of withdrawing the United States from the accord.

Iran on January 10 warned it will pull out of the nuclear deal if the United States leaves.

"In case the Americans exit the deal, we will react in no time flat," Majid Tacht Rawanchi, an adviser to President Hassan Rohani, was quoted as saying by Iran's state-run IRNA news agency.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of the European Union and Iran have scheduled talks in Brussels on January 11 to focus on preserving the agreement amid threat of a U.S. pullout.

The other signatories to the accord -- Britain, China, Germany, France, and Russia -- and the EU continue to support the agreement.

Meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Moscow on January 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vowed that Moscow will defend the agreement as a "key contribution to the regional stability and nuclear nonproliferation."

To counter Trump's reluctance to waive sanctions, sources said, top aides are proposing that the president instead impose new targeted sanctions on Iranian businesses and people related to its ballistic-missile and nuclear programs.

The sources said the new sanctions could hit some people and companies given relief under the 2015 agreement -- a move that would increase pressure on Tehran but would not mean a pullout from the accord.

The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-iran- sanctions-waiver/28967625.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Iran Ready to Speed Up Uranium Enrichment If US Violates Nuclear Deal - Official

Sputnik News

18:32 10.01.2018(updated 18:34 10.01.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Tehran is ready to accelerate its enrichment of uranium in the event Washington violates the multilateral agreement on Iran's nuclear program, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Vice-President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi said Wednesday.

"It is important that we are properly prepared for any circumstances in such a way that if higher management will take a decision on nuclear activity, in particular, the acceleration of [uranium enrichment], we will be ready," Kamalvandi told the IRIB news agency.

Kamalvandi stressed that if the United States decided to restore sanctions against Tehran, the country would be in violation of the JCPOA.

According to the official, in the reports it submitted to the Iranian leadership, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said it was cable of accelerating the country's nuclear activity "by several times," particularly in the area of uranium enrichment.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier this day, said that Tehran regretted that one of the parties to the Iran nuclear deal didn't fulfill its obligations under the agreement but made attempts to hamper its implementation instead.

"The IAEA has repeatedly stressed and reaffirmed Iran's commitment to the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) but, unfortunately, one of the parties to the agreement has not yet fully fulfilled its obligations, while pursuing a destructive policy instead," Zarif said at a meeting Lavrov in Moscow.

"We and other JCPOA members need to work closely together to ensure that this agreement will continue to be implemented," the Iranian Foreign Minister stressed.

During his election campaign, Trump slammed the JCPOA as "the worst deal ever negotiated." Since entering office in January, he had more than once criticized Iran for alleged non-compliance with the agreement. On October 13, the US president announced the US administration's decision not to certify Iran's compliance with the JCPOA.

The statements come after US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Steve Goldstein said on Tuesday that the United States would announce its decision on recertifying the Iran nuclear deal this Friday.

In July 2015, Iran and the P5+1 group of nations  the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom plus Germany  signed the JCPOA. The agreement stipulates a gradual lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran in exchange for Tehran maintaining peaceful nature of its nuclear program.

 Sputnik

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White House Urges Release of Political Prisoners in Iran, Including Protesters

Sputnik News

01:44 11.01.2018

The White House has issued a statement in which it condemned arrests during recent protests in Iran, promising to hold Tehran accountable for the "crackdown".

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States is calling on Iran to release all political prisoners, including those sent to prison for protesting in recent weeks, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The United States calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners in Iran, including the victims of the most recent crackdown," the statement said.

"We will not remain silent as the Iranian dictatorship represses the basic rights of its citizens and will hold Iran's leaders accountable for any violations," the White House said.

Anti-government protests erupted recently in several major cities in Iran, including Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Rasht. The people have taken to the streets to protest against policies of Khamenei and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, as well as against unemployment, poverty, and the rising cost of living.

Around 42,000 Iranians had participated in the rallies, according to Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli. 450 people have been detained and 20 reportedly died.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier that the demonstrations were the result of a US-Israeli scheme funded by a Persian Gulf state, referring to evidence of intelligence. He stressed that the United States and the United Kingdom had failed to create unrest in Iran.

 Sputnik

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Japan  Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA Missiles

Media/Public Contact: pm-cpa@state.gov

Transmittal No: 17-69

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2018 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Japan of Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA missiles for an estimated cost of $133.3 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

The Government of Japan has requested a possible sale of four (4) Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA missiles. Also included are four (4) MK 29 missile canisters, U.S. Government and contractor representatives' technical assistance, transportation, engineering and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistical and program support. The estimated total case value is $133.3 million.

This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of a major ally that has been, and continues to be, a force for political stability and economic progress in the Asia-Pacific region.

The proposed sale will provide Japan with an increased ballistic missile defense capability to assist in defending the Japanese homeland and U.S. personnel stationed there. Japan will have no difficulty absorbing these additional munitions and support into the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF).

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The principal contractors will be Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, AZ (SM-3); and BAE Systems, Minneapolis, MN (MK 29). There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will require annual trips to Japan involving U.S. Government and contractor representatives for technical reviews, support, and oversight for approximately five years.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, pm-cpa@state.gov.

-30-

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US approves sale of anti-ballistic missiles to Japan: Official

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 04:56AM

The US has approved a $133.3 million sale of anti-ballistic missiles to Japan to defend itself against what Washington says is a growing nuclear and missile threat from North Korea, a State Department official says.

The State Department on Tuesday notified Congress of the matter, asking it to approve the sale of the four missiles for the SM-3 Block IIA interceptor.

The official told Fox News that "also included are four Mk 29 missile canisters, and other technical, engineering and logistics support services."

The sale of the missiles follows through "on President Trump's commitment to provide additional defensive capabilities to treaty allies threatened by the DPRK's provocative behavior," the official noted.

The proposed sale, if concluded, would contribute to the US "foreign policy and national security interests," the officials said.

"It will bolster the security of a major treaty ally that has been, and continues to be, a force for political stability and economic progress in the Asia-Pacific region. It will also improve (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's) interoperability with US missile defense systems, and increase the protection for US installations in the region."

The missiles, made by Raytheon Co and BAE Systems, can be launched from destroyers at sea or from a land-based system.

In December, Japan formally decided to expand its ballistic missile system using US-made ground-based Aegis radar stations and interceptors.

The cost of building two Aegis Ashore batteries without the missiles would be at least $2 billion and it was not likely to be operational until 2023 at the earliest, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters in December.

In a phone call on Monday, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Japanese Minister of Defense Itsunori Onodera "condemned North Korea's reckless and unlawful behavior," according to a Pentagon statement.

This comes as North and South Korea held their first talks in more than two years with the purpose of resolving the crisis over the North's nuclear missile program.

Representatives from North and South Koreas began direct talks on Tuesday behind closed doors at the Peace House in the Joint Security Area in the truce village of Panmunjom, at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the divided countries.

The two Koreas have long had strained ties. Tensions recently skyrocketed with repeated North Korean missile and nuclear tests and increased South Korean joint military action with the United States.

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Myanmar troops involved in killing Rohingya Muslims, army admits

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 03:20PM

Myanmar's army chief has posted an announcement admitting that security forces had a hand in killing members of the Rohingya minority group and dumping their bodies in a mass grave.

Last month, Myanmar's army, which has rejected irrefutable accounts of violence against the Rohingya Muslim community in the state of Rakhine, said officers had found a mass grave in Maungdaw township, where some of the worst atrocities committed by the army troops were reported.

"Some villagers from Inn Din village and security members confessed they killed 10 Bengali terrorists," the military chief's office said in a Facebook post about the September 2 killings, using a pejorative term for the Rohingya killed in the village.

The public admission of wrongdoing is the military's first since it launched "clearance operations" against ethnic Rohingya in August, prompting more than 650,000 to flee into neighboring Bangladesh in what the United Nations has called "ethnic cleansing."

In related news a court in Yangon on Wednesday charged two Reuters journalists, who were investigating the mass grave and covered the ongoing state-sponsored crackdown against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, with the possession of "important and secret government documents related to Rakhine State and security forces."

The European Union called on Myanmar's authorities to release the two journalists. The 28-nation bloc, which is a significant donor to Myanmar, said it expected "Myanmar authorities to ensure the full protection of these journalists' rights and to release them as quickly as possible."

Calls from Brussels were also echoed across Europe. France on Wednesday also urged the immediate release of the pair, saying, "Journalists must be able to exercise their profession freely, without fear of being intimidated or arrested."

The world community accuses the military of widespread atrocities against Rohingya, including killings, rapes and burning of homes. However, the military has until now adamantly insisted that there has been no wrongdoing by security forces.

The government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar brands more than one million Rohingya Muslims in the country as "illegal immigrants" from Bangladesh, refusing to accept Rohingya Muslims as its citizens despite living in the country for many generations.

They are widely called "Bengalis" and considered by the UN as the "most persecuted minority group in the world."

Since August 25 Myanmar's military has launched a new wave of violence, forcing the Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh where they live in dire conditions despite the international community's struggle to help the persecuted community.

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Myanmar Military Admits to Killing 10 Rohingya Found in Mass Grave

By VOA News January 10, 2018

In a rare admission of guilt, Myanmar's military says its security forces were responsible for the deaths of 10 Rohingya found in a mass grave.

Myanmar's Defense Ministry Information office released a statement Wednesday stating its forces had killed 10 suspected terrorists whose remains were found in a mass grave in Inn Din village of Maung Daw Township in the Northern Rakhine State.

The Defense Ministry said it will take action against the perpetrators involved in those killings and those in charge of security forces in the Rakhine State.

The 10 suspected terrorists were arrested following clashes with security forces last September, according to the military statement, which added security forces decided to execute them due to a lack of security and man power at the time.

Min Lwin Oo, legal adviser for Asian Human Rights Commission, told VOA Burmese there is a precedent for security forces committing crimes against ethnic minorities and denying any wrongdoing. But now that the crisis in Rakhine has caught international attention, the military cannot continue to ignore such cases.

If vigilantes and security forces premeditated these killings, they could face death sentences under current criminal laws, Lawyer Network spokesperson Thein Than Oo told VOA Burmese.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International demanded Wednesday that all security forces accused of killing Rohingya be brought to justice.

"This grisly admission is a sharp departure from the army's policy of blanket denial of any wrongdoing," James Gomez, Amnesty International's Regional Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said. "However, it is only the tip of the iceberg and warrants serious independent investigation into what other atrocities were committed amid the ethnic cleansing campaign that has forced out more than 655,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State since last August."

VOA's Burmese Service contributed to this story.

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Pakistan reportedly mulls toll tax hike on NATO containers amid Trump rift

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 05:29PM

Pakistan mulls increasing the toll tax of containers carrying military hardware and weapons for NATO troops in Afghanistan, amid a rift between Islamabad and Washington over the so-called war on terror, local reports say.

Pakistani authorities will likely put in place a 100 to 150 percent raise in the tax.

The Pakistani Ministry of Communication is said to present a revision of the toll tax rate on NATO containers to the prime minister for approval.

The government in Islamabad charges $2,500 per NATO container. The trucks use national highways from the southern port city of Karachi to Torkham and Chaman crossings on the Pakistani-Afghan border.

Islamabad is also mulling charging aeronautical fee to NATO for using Pakistan's airspace. NATO used Pakistan's airspace over 350 times per month when the Afghan war was at its peak.

In 2011, Pakistan stopped NATO supplies for several months after an aircraft of the Western military alliance killed over two dozen Pakistani soldiers in an area close to the Afghan border.

Tensions arose in relations between the United States and Pakistan following accusations by US President Donald Trump that Pakistan was harboring "terrorists." Senior civilian and military officials in Islamabad have vehemently denied the charge. Last week, Trump said in his first tweet of 2018 that Washington had "foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years." The United States is also withholding $255 million in aid from Pakistan against the backdrop of the souring ties.

On Tuesday, Richard Olson, a former American ambassador to Pakistan, said the Trump administration's attempt at "humiliating and penalizing" Pakistan for failing to take decisive action against militants is unlikely to work.

Olson, who also served as the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, made the warning in an article published in The New York Times where he assessed the impact of the decision to withhold security assistance to Pakistan.

The harsh truth, Olson added, was that American leverage over Pakistan has been declining. "And as United States aid levels have diminished  reflecting bipartisan unhappiness with Pakistani policy  aid from the Chinese has increased," he argued, referring to China's investment of $62 billion in Pakistani infrastructure under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). "Its magnitude and its transformation of parts of Pakistan dwarf anything the United States has ever undertaken."

"Pakistan, like most countries, reacts very badly to public attempts to force its hand. It is likely to respond by showing how it can truly undercut our position in Afghanistan," Olson said. "For the past 16 years our military efforts in landlocked Afghanistan have been dependent on transit through and especially overflight of Pakistani territory."

"The path of the tweet and highly public aid cuts is not a method that will engender success. The United States can address Afghanistan only with a political initiative," the former American ambassador wrote.

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US: No Official Confirmation From Pakistan on Suspension of Cooperation

By Nike Ching, Ayesha Tanzeem January 10, 2018

The United States says it has not been officially notified that Pakistan has suspended military or intelligence cooperation with Washington.

A State Department official told VOA on Wednesday "we have not received any formal communication from the government of Pakistan regarding a suspension."

A day earlier, Pakistan's Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said there is "... a wide field of intelligence cooperation and defense cooperation, which we have suspended." He made the statement during a speech Tuesday to the Islamabad-based, government-sponsored Institute for Strategic Studies.

But Khan noted the supply lines for NATO troops in Afghanistan, formally known as the Ground Lines of Communication or the Air Lines of Communication are still open.

The statement comes days after the Trump administration announced the suspension of some $1.9 billion in security assistance to Islamabad, citing what it said was the Pakistani government's refusal to take more decisive action against terrorism.

In Washington, when asked about the defense minister's statement suspending cooperation, the State Department said it hopes Pakistan would understand United States' seriousness and "appreciate the value of this relationship."

"We stand ready to work with Pakistan in combating all terrorists without distinction, and we hope to be able to renew and deepen our bilateral security relationship when Pakistan demonstrates its willingness to aggressively confront the Taliban network, the Haqqani Network, and other terrorist and military groups that operate from its territory," Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein told reporters on Tuesday.

Goldstein added the United States is "hopeful that Pakistan will come back to the table" and assist in U.S. efforts to combat terrorism.

Robin Raphel, a former assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, told VOA on Wednesday Washington and Islamabad's current policy of tit-for-tat will not advance either side's interest.

The U.S. announced last Thursday it would not deliver military equipment or transfer security-related funds to Pakistan, suspending the so-called Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and Coalition Support Funds (CSF) but not civilian assistance to that country.

Monday, a Pentagon spokesman said the United States had conveyed to Pakistan "concrete steps" to take before the United States would resume hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, which was suspended after U.S. President Donald Trump said Pakistan had lied and deceived the United States while providing safe havens to terrorists fighting in Afghanistan.

Pakistan says the United States is scapegoating it for U.S. failures in Afghanistan.

In his Tuesday speech, Pakistani Defense Minister Khan also reminded the United States it needs Pakistan in its fight against terrorism in Afghanistan.

"A reminder is in order. Logistics trump strategy," he said.

Pakistan blocked the US & NATO troop supply route for months after a 2011 attack by NATO air force accidentally hit two Pakistani check posts, killing more than two dozen Pakistani soldiers.

Pakistan is considered the safest and cheapest route to resupply NATO troops. Other possible routes that go through Central Asian countries are more expensive and pass through a region Russia considers its backyard. Tensions between the United States and Russia have been high since Russia was accused of meddling in the latest U.S. presidential elections.

"We always look at that," said Goldstein when asked if Washington is assessing alternative routes should Pakistan blocks supply routes to Afghanistan. He added that the U.S. is suspending but not cutting off permanently security aid to Pakistan.

But statements from senior U.S. officials indicate that despite these limitations, the administration is serious in its stance that Pakistan needs to change its behavior.

In a Sunday interview with CBS's Face the Nation, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said "the president has made very clear that he needs Pakistan to cease being a safe haven for terrorists that threaten the United States of America. End. Period. Full stop."

Khan said his country wants to keep engagement with the United States open and would use its leverage after the utmost care and deliberation.

VOA's Urdu Service contributed to this report.

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Sputnik Partner 'Required To Register' Under U.S. Foreign-Agent Law

RFE/RL January 10, 2018

State-supported Russian media outlet Sputnik says its U.S.-based partner company RIA Global LLC has been ordered to register as a foreign agent by the U.S. government.

Citing what it said was a letter from the Justice Department, Sputnik said it was told that RIA Global "has an obligation to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act," known by the acronym FARA.

According to Sputnik, the Justice Department said that RIA Global produces content on behalf of state media company Rossiya Segodnya and thus on behalf of the Russian government.

It said the media outlet was given a deadline of 30 days after January 5 to register.

Among many severe strains on their relationship, Russia and the United States are at odds over the treatment of Russian media outlets in the United States and U.S. media outlets in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law in November that enables the country's Justice Ministry to designate foreign media outlets as "foreign agents."

Moscow says the law, which has been sharply criticized by Western governments and global media rights groups, is a response to what it claims is pressure on Russian media outlets in the United States, including a requirement issued last year for state-supported broadcaster RT's U.S. operating unit to register under FARA.

The United States denies that it has pressured Russian media outlets.

The U.S. law, which was passed in 1938 to counter fears of Nazi propaganda and misinformation, does not restrict foreign media operating in the United States but does require things like accounting registers, corporate documents, and similar records be made available for Justice Department inspection.

Sputnik cited the Justice Department letter as saying that upon registration, "Rossiya Segodnya and RIA Global may continue producing and broadcasting the content of their choosing, provided that each broadcast is accompanied by a requisite disclosure statement."

Late last year, a Washington, D.C., area radio station that had recently taken over Sputnik's broadcasts registered under the U.S. foreign-agent law. The station's owner, a Virginia company called Reston Translator, filed the paperwork with the Justice Department in November.

In December, the Russian Justice Ministry on December 5 declared Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and seven affiliated news services "foreign agents."

While RT and Sputnik distribute their programs freely in the United States, RFE/RL is already subject to severe restrictions in Russia, with nearly all of its radio broadcasts forced off the air by 2012 due to administrative pressure. Neither RFE/RL nor VOA has access to cable TV in Russia.

RFE/RL and VOA are overseen by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a U.S. agency that supervises civilian government broadcasting and media operations. VOA is a federal entity, while RFE/RL is a private, nonprofit organization funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress.

With reporting by Sputnik and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/sputnik-partner -says-required-to-register-united- states-fara-law/28967234.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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Dry Cargo Ship Collides With Russia's Yamal Landing Craft Carrier in Aegean Sea

Sputnik News

14:44 10.01.2018(updated 15:23 10.01.2018)

The Russian Yamal landing ship and Sierra Leone-flagged dry cargo ship have collided in the Aegean Sea. No one has been injured, the vessels then continued along their planned routes, Viacheslav Trukhachev, a Black Sea Fleet press representative reported.

"On December 30, at about 7 a.m., while passing through the Karpathos Strait (9-10 miles south of the island of Rhodes), the Orka-2 dry cargo carrier under the flag of Sierra Leone, carrying out a shipment from Egypt to Turkey, collided with a large landing ship of the Black Sea Fleet "Yamal" in the Aegean Sea, following from Sevastopol from the Mediterranean Sea," head of the Information Support Department of the Black Sea Fleet, belonging to the press service of the Southern Military District, Commander Vyacheslav Trukhachev said.

According to the spokesman, no one was hurt as a result of the collision. The ships remained on the move and continued on to their destinations.

As the commander explained, the collision was caused by the Orka-2 ship, which in violation of the International Rules for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG-72), and "while following a parallel course and overtook the Russian ship on the port side, without making sure that the overtaking was completed, suddenly changed course to the right and caused a collision."

The spokesman noted that Russia had drafted a notarized statement of maritime protest, which described the circumstances of the incident for subsequent actions to recover the damage caused by the perpetrator.

 Sputnik

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Turkey summons US charge d'affaires over YPG support in Syria

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 10:12PM

Turkey has summoned the US charge d'affaires in Ankara over Washington's arming and training of Kurdish forces in Syria.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the top US diplomat in the country, Philip Kosnett, to voice its disapproval over Washington's support for the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria on Wednesday.

A US State Department spokesman also confirmed the meeting took place, adding, "beyond that we aren't going to read out any details of the conversation."

The summoning came following reports that US troops had begun to provide military training to some 400 YPG members.

Turkey is wary of the presence of Kurdish militants close to its borders in Syria, and has been opposed to US efforts to train and arm them in the Arab country. The US has promised to take back the weapons from Kurdish militants once the Takfiri terror group of Daesh, which the Kurds have been fighting, is routed in Syria.

The Kurds remain armed in the territory they have seized while fighting Daesh, nevertheless, even as Daesh is effectively defeated in the Arab country.

Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian branch of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.

The military support first began under US President Donald Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, whose administration provided the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with weapons and training.

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is to continue its military operation in northern Syria to keep Kurdish militants away from Turkish borders.

The Turkish operation comes without the Syrian government's permission, prompting repeated calls by Damascus to stop its military intervention.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.

Moscow has been providing air cover to Syrian army operations since 2014. Aided by the aerial support and Iranian military advisory assistance, government forces began reversing the terrorists' gains.

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US may have been involved in raids on Russia in Syria

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 06:22AM

Russia says it detected an American spy aircraft circling in the skies between Russian bases in two Syrian cities during recent drone attacks on the facilities, implying that the United States may have been involved in the raids.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said 13 drones had targeted the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia Province and the naval facility in the port city of Tartus on Saturday.

It said Russian forces had repelled the assaults by shooting down seven of the drones and gaining electronic control over six others and safely landing them. It said the drone attacks had caused no damage.

The Russian ministry said data for the drone attacks could have only been obtained "from one of the countries that possesses knowhow in satellite navigation," without naming any particular country.

"The programming of systems to control unmanned aerial vehicles and drop GPS-guided munitions requires completing engineering studies in a developed country. Besides, not everyone is capable of calculating exact coordinates using space surveillance data," the statement read.

That technology, the ministry suggested, may have been transferred to terrorist groups in Syria to conduct the attacks. "We would like to stress once again that terrorists did not have anything of that kind until recently."

It said the presence of the US spy aircraft flying near the two Russian bases at the moment of the Saturday assault was a "strange coincidence," strengthening speculation that the country Russia had in mind was the US.

The drone strikes came less than a week after two Russian servicemen were killed in a militant mortar assault on the Hmeimim airbase.

The Washington Post has described the drone and the mortar attacks on the Russian facilities as potentially "the most concerted assault" on Russia in Syria since September 2015, when Moscow launched an aerial campaign against extremist groups inside Syria at the Damascus government's request.

Diverting blame?

The Pentagon on Tuesday denied any involvement in the attacks on the Russian bases in Syria. Marine Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, attempted to implicate the Daesh terrorist group.

He said Daesh had often used armed drones against US-allied forces in Syria and Iraq, adding that small drones are available in the open market.

But Daesh has not claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Russian bases as of yet. Neither has any other group.

Furthermore, an analysis conducted by the British defense consultancy IHS Markit group challenged the Pentagon's characterization of the circumstances.

According to the analysis, most of the Daesh drones used against the US forces had had a range of no more than one to two kilometers. This is while Russia estimated that the drones used in the Hmeimim attack had come from between 50 and 100 kilometers away.

The US and Russia support opposing sides in the Syrian conflict.

Besides its role on the battlefield, Russia, along with Iran and Turkey, has been mediating a peace process between the Syrian government and opposition in the Kazakh capital, Astana, since January.

'Drones came from Idlib safe zone'

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry has said the Saturday drone attacks were launched from an area in Syria's northwestern Idlib Province, where a ceasefire applies to.

The ministry wrote to the chiefs of the Turkish army and intelligence service, urging them to ensure that ceasefire.

Turkey is a guarantor state in the Astana peace process for Syria and acts on behalf of the militants opposed to the Damascus government.

"The drones were launched from the area of Muazzara in the southwestern part of the Idlib de-escalation area controlled by so-called 'moderate opposition' units," the ministry's newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported.

Idlib is one of four de-escalation zones established in Syria last year in a bid to reduce fighting in the country. The Syrian army and its allies are conducting an operation to recapture Idlib from anti-Damascus militants.



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Syrian Army Regains Control of Airbase in Idlib Province - Source

Sputnik News

17:36 10.01.2018(updated 22:17 10.01.2018)

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) - The Syrian government forces have regained control of the Abu Duhur airbase in Idlib province, a source at the scene told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

"The Syrian army has established control over the airfield of Abu Duhur in the province of Idlib," the source said.

According to the source, the forward-deployed units of the Syrian forces entered the territory of the airbase after capturing the fortifications on the eastern side of the base, which had been seized by al-Nusra Front (outlawed in Russia) terrorists in 2015.

Earlier in the day, a source told Sputnik that Syrian government forces had been engaged in heavy fighting against the terrorist group near the airbase.

"Heavy fighting against Nusra militants is now taking place near the airbase, accompanied with intense aviation and artillery strikes," the source told Sputnik.

According to the source, over the past 24 hours, the Syrian army managed to push militants from 12 villages and move closer to the airbase, which was seized by terrorists in 2015.

The province of Idlib, bordering Turkey, is part of the de-escalation agreements brokered by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran, with Turkey deploying observation points in the area. Recently, Syrian troops supported by allied forces have launched an anti-terrorist operation in the province.

However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused Syrian government forces of "attacking" moderate opposition forces in Idlib province under the pretext of fighting terrorists.

Syria has been in a state of civil war for more than six years, with government forces fighting against numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations.

 Sputnik

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Syria: UN rights chief condemns spike in civilian casualties in 'de-escalation' areas

10 January 2018  The United Nations human rights chief on Wednesday condemned an upsurge in civilian casualties in Eastern Ghouta in Syria amid the recent escalation in airstrikes and ground-based attacks by Government forces and their allies, noting that at least 85 civilians have been killed since 31 December.

"The suffering of the people of Syria knows no end," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, noting that residential areas in Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of the nation's capital, Damascus, are being hit day and night by strikes from the ground and the air, forcing civilians to hide in basements.

He stressed that all parties are obliged under international law to distinguish between lawful military targets and civilians and civilian objects.

Since 31 December, at least 85 civilians, including 21 women and 30 children, have been killed and at least 183 injured in Eastern Ghouta, where at least 390,000 civilians have been living under siege for four years, according to information gathered by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

On 9 January, airstrikes and ground-based strikes hit a residential area in opposition-controlled Hamourya, reportedly killing at least 13 civilians. The previous day, two airstrikes and simultaneous ground-based strikes on a residential area near a market in the opposition-held town of Duma reportedly killed 12 civilians.

Armed opposition groups also continue to fire rockets into residential areas in Government-controlled Damascus. On 4 January, a rocket fired into Old Damascus hit the vicinity of a bakery, reportedly killing a woman and injuring 13 other civilians.

The High Commissioner also noted that the failure to evacuate urgent medical cases from Eastern Ghouta runs contrary to its international humanitarian law obligations to collect, care for, and take measures to evacuate the sick and wounded.

In Idlib, ground attacks and airstrikes have escalated as a rapidly-moving Government offensive gains momentum, jeopardizing the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians, said Mr. Zeid, noting that an explosion on 7 January reportedly killed 28 civilians.

Both Eastern Ghouta and Idlib are considered "de-escalation areas" brokered in May by Iran, Russia and Turkey under the Astana process, with the stated aim to put a prompt end to violence and improve the humanitarian situation.

"I repeat my call for the parties to ensure strict adherence to international law including by ensuring the protection of civilians from the effects of hostilities and to allow unhindered access by humanitarian agencies to provide badly needed aid," said Mr. Zeid.

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Syrian Offensive Threatens Turkish Cooperation with Russia, Iran

By Dorian Jones January 10, 2018

Turkey on Wednesday assailed Russia and Iran for failing to stop the Syrian government's ongoing military offensive in Syria's rebel enclave of Idlib, threatening the prospects of Ankara's continued cooperation with Tehran and Moscow in the Syrian conflict.

Reflecting Ankara's growing alarm, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu lashed out, saying, "Russia and Iran must stop the Syrian regime. They should realize their duties as guarantor countries."

Ankara on Tuesday summoned the Iranian and Russian ambassadors and delivered an official protest.

As part of what is known as the Astana Process, Turkey, Iran and Russia agreed to create a "de-escalation zone" in Idlib. As part of the plan, Ankara deployed soldiers in the enclave to monitor a cease-fire between Syrian government forces and rebels. Damascus and Moscow do not consider radical jihadist groups based in Idlib a part of the agreement.

But Idlib borders Turkey, and the Syrian offensive, due to its proximity to Turkish territory, is raising alarm in Ankara.

"When Damascus talks about clearing Idlib, those jihadists will be pushed toward the Turkish border," warned Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region. "There [are] also up to two million Syrians in Idlib, and there might be another exodus again [to Turkey], because those living in Idlib now are already the ones who have moved from elsewhere in Syria. They do not have anywhere to go. They also do not look like they have the character to cut a deal with [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad]. That is why there could be an exodus."

Overwhelmed before election

Turkey is already hosting more than three million Syrians. Observers warn that with growing public unease over the current refugee presence, another major influx would be politically damaging to the government and president. Both face re-election battles within the next 18 months.

But Moscow and Tehran have their own grievances with Ankara over its military presence in Idlib in enforcing the de-escalation zone.

"There is a different understanding of the Turkish motives and the expectations of Moscow and Tehran," said Haldun Solmazturk, head of the 21st Century Turkey Institute, an Ankara-based research organization.

Solmazturk says Ankara's priority is using its military presence in Idlib to monitor and apply pressure to the Kurdish militia, the YPG, in the neighboring Afrin enclave of Syria. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization linked to an insurgency in Turkey.

"Turkey's primary aim is to control Afrin," Solmazturk said. "I can't see any indication that [the] Turkish government [has] any intention at all to deal with jihadists in Idlib. So from the very beginning, there was a point of conflict between Russia and Turkey. There was already a confidence gap between [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, which is now growing."

Entangling alliances

Tehran and Moscow back rival sides in the Syrian civil war, and questions over the sustainability of Ankara's cooperation with Tehran and Moscow have been frequently raised. Some analysts see the current dispute as the beginning of the end of cooperation on Syria.

"This brings us as if toward the end of this episode of temporary cooperation between Turkey, Russia and Iran," Selcen said.

Ankara's cooperation with Moscow in Syria has given impetus to a deepening of relations among the historical regional rivals. The Turkish leadership's growing ties with Russia have caused increasing unease among Turkey's NATO allies. However, analysts suggest that if there is a breakdown in cooperation over Syria, Ankara will likely act cautiously to try to maintain its relationship with Moscow.

"In terms of Russia, Russia does not treat the countries kindly that leave its orbit," warned analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, an analysis firm. "We are really dependent on Russia in terms of energy, so there would be a cost involved. I don't see they [Turkish leaders] have that much maneuvering room."

With limited energy resources, Turkey relies heavily on Russian natural gas.

But analysts point out Moscow also has a vested interest in continuing its efforts to maintain its ties with Ankara.

"The disagreement between Moscow and Ankara will become clearer," Selcen predicted. "It's another priority for Mr. Putin to peel Turkey away from the Western coalition of NATO, so it's in Moscow's interest to keep the three capitals, Ankara, Damascus, and Tehran, in the same boat."

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Turkey warns US to rectify 'mistakes' or ties would worsen

Iran Press TV

Wed Jan 10, 2018 09:30AM

Turkey has warned the United States to make amends for its "mistakes" in bilateral ties with Ankara or the relations will sink further.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told state Anadolu agency on Wednesday that ties between Ankara and Washington had been hit the hardest by Washington's refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen  a US-based Turkish cleric wanted in Turkey  and its provision of arms to Syria-based Kurdish militants.

Turkey says the Pennsylvania-residing cleric is responsible for masterminding a failed July 2016 coup against the Turkish administration. Multiple pleas by Ankara for Gulen's extradition have been turned down by Washington, which says it does not have enough evidence to warrant an extradition.

Ankara has also been infuriated by the US's arms support for and training of Kurdish militants in Syria, who are seen by Turkey as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The Kurds have refused to withdraw from most of the territory close to Turkey's borders in Syria, which they have seized from the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh.

Turkey is wary of their presence there. It has staged an operation in northern Syria to push back against them.

Ankara has said the US promised it last year through Defense Secretary James Mattis to take back weapons from the Kurdish militants once the Takfiri group was routed.

Last November, however, The Jerusalem Post quoted the US military as telling the Israeli daily that the US "continues to provide material support, training, advice and assistance to the SDF in their ongoing effort to defeat ISIS (Daesh) in Syria," referring to the grouping of militants largely comprised of Kurds.

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Erdogan Calls U.S. Iran-Sanctions Case 'Political Coup Attempt' Against Him

RFE/RL January 10, 2018

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the recent conviction of a Turkish bank executive for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, calling it a "political coup attempt" against his government.

Addressing his ruling Justice and Development Party on January 9, Erdogan said the case brought against Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla by the U.S. Justice Department was a joint effort by the U.S. CIA and FBI to undermine him.

U.S. prosecutors and witnesses who took the stand in Atilla's New York trial accused Turkish bank and government officials of taking bribes and participating in a scheme to help Iran launder $1 billion in oil revenues through the U.S. banking system in violation of U.S. sanctions.

One key U.S. government witness said Erdogan himself aided the scheme, though Erdogan has dismissed the accusation and was not charged by U.S. prosecutors.

Erdogan and his deputies have repeatedly charged that the U.S. prosecution was aided by his enemies -- the same people who he said were behind a failed coup against him in July 2016 -- the followers of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who resides in exile in the United States.

U.S. prosecutors have called the accusation "ridiculous."

"Those who could not succeed in the coup attempt in Turkey on July 15 are now searching for a different attempt in our country," Erdogan said on January 9, calling the case against Atilla the latest such "political coup attempt."

Atilla, one of nine defendants named in the U.S. indictment in the case, was convicted of evading Iran sanctions by a U.S. jury on January 3.

His former co-defendant and the alleged mastermind of the sanctions-evasion scheme, Reza Zarrab, pleaded guilty before the trial and cooperated with prosecutors, becoming a star witness in the case against Atilla.

Erdogan last week suggested that state-owned Halkbank might file a countersuit against the United States because the bank's image and reputation were damaged during Atilla's trial, although the bank was not named as a defendant in the case.

With reporting by Reuters, Hurriyet Daily News, and Enter.news

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/turkish-president-erdogan -calls-us-iran-sanctions-case-atilla-conviction- political-coup-attempt/28966267.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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Saakashvili Questioned By Ukraine's Security Service

RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service January 10, 2018

KYIV -- Ukrainian opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili has been questioned by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), his lawyer says.

Lawyer Ruslan Chornolutsky said Saakashvili was held at SBU headquarters for four hours on January 10 and was questioned for about 2 1/2 hours of that time.

Saakashvili told journalists the questioning was related to his political activities in Ukraine, where he has become a vocal critic of the government of President Petro Poroshenko.

He vowed to continue his opposition to the current rulers and to press efforts to establish a new government.

"We will destroy Ukraine's current political system and create a normal, democratic, and progressive Ukraine that will be a superpower in Europe," Saakashvili said.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Saakashvili -- the former governor of Ukraine's Odesa region -- of abetting an alleged "criminal group" led by former President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia after his ouster in February 2014.

They also claim that protests led by Saakashvili in Ukraine are part of a Russian plot against the government in Kyiv.

Saakashvili, who is also the former president of Georgia, has strongly denied all the charges.

Ukrainian police on December 5 attempted to arrest Saakashvili, but his supporters crowded around a police vehicle where he was being detained and managed to set him free.

He was again detained three days later, but a judge on December 11 turned down a request by prosecutors to place him under house arrest.

Saakashvili was president of Georgia from 2004-13. He lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015 when he accepted Ukrainian citizenship and took the post of Odesa governor.

He resigned that position in November 2016, complaining of rampant corruption, and has since becoming an ardent opponent of Poroshenko.

In an interview with Current Time TV, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, Saakashvili said on December 12 that corruption inflicted far greater damage on Ukraine than Russia had.

Saakashvili also faces government anger in Georgia.

On January 5, the Tbilisi City Court found him guilty of abuse of power by allegedly trying to cover up evidence about a 2006 murder case and sentenced him in absentia to three years in prison.

He has also denied those charges and said they are politically motivated as well.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/saakashvili-questioned-by -ukraines-security-service/28967371.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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US Has No Plans to Sell, Transfer TOW Anti-Tank Missiles to Ukraine - Pentagon

Sputnik News

21:27 10.01.2018

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States has no plans to either sell or transfer TOW anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, US Department of Defense spokesman Johnny Michael told Sputnik on Wednesday.

"There are no plans for either FMS [foreign military sales] or transfers of TOW to Ukraine," Michael said.

On Tuesday, local media reported citing the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces that Kiev expects to receive TOW anti-tank missiles from the United States this year.

The statement followed the December announcement by US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, who said Washington planned to provide Kiev with military assistance for "purely defensive" purposes that would not violate the Minsk peace accords.

US media cited officials as saying that the United States planned to sell lethal arms to Ukraine, including anti-tank Javelin missiles.

Russia has repeatedly warned against supplies of lethal arms to Ukraine, saying that such actions would exacerbate the conflict in the country's eastern Donbass region, an argument also voiced by former US President Barack Obama when he rejected similar proposals. Russia's stance has also been supported by a number of European officials.

The TOW, which stands for tube-launched, optically tracked and wire-guided missile, is used to defeat armor and fortifications at long distances, according to manufacturer Raytheon.

 Sputnik

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S-400 Deployment in Crimea Aiming to Ensure Russia's Security - Kremlin

Sputnik News

12:39 10.01.2018(updated 13:03 10.01.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's taking measures to ensure its security should not be perceived as a threat to anyone, the Russian side has the right to such steps, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked to comment on reports on the deployment of the second S-400 air defense missile system division in Crimea.

"We know that the provocative activity on the Russian-Ukrainian border near Crimea continues, and, let's say, subversive activities continue, including the facts uncovered in the last months of these subversive activities, which are well known," Peskov told reporters.

"So certainly the adoption by the Russian side of all necessary measures to ensure its security should not be perceived as a threat to anyone, but should be perceived exactly as ensuring its own security, which, naturally, the Russian side has full sovereign right to," he said when asked whether the Kremlin fears a possible threat on the part of Ukraine.

Earlier this week, the USS Carney Tomahawk-cruise capable destroyer arrived in Ukraine's port of Odessa, situated less than 200 km away from Russia's Crimea, and about 300 km from Sevastopol, home base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. The warship's visit was the first by a NATO vessel in 2018, and is expected to last until January 11.

In December, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian forces had deployed second S-400 battalion in the Crimean city of Sevastopol.

Crimea seceded from Ukraine and reunified with Russia after 96 percent of its residents supported the move in a referendum in March 2014. The vote was held after new authorities took power in Kiev after what many considered to be a coup.

Kiev, as well as the European Union, the United States and their allies, did not recognize the reunification and consider the peninsula to be an occupied territory. However, Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that the Crimean residents decided to rejoin Russia following a democratic procedure. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the issue of Crimea's territorial belonging was "historically closed."

 Sputnik

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US to Remove Constraints on Nuclear Arsenal, Develop New Tactical Warheads

Sputnik News

22:10 10.01.2018

US President Donald Trump has sent his administration's plan for the nation's nuclear program to the country's defense bodies and will soon unfetter the arsenal to include controversial miniaturized nuclear devices.

The new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), a set of White House recommendations issued every eight years, reportedly includes a plan to remove constraints on the Department of Energy and modify the Trident D5 submarine-launched missile to include only part of the original warhead.

The purpose of this policy is to nominally deter Russia, which the US has accused of developing ground-launched cruise missiles that violate the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. Moscow has denied the charge, calling it "fake news."

Pentagon policy along NATO's eastern flank has been informed by this alleged violation, with the theory being that in the case of war between Russia and the US, Moscow would quickly deploy tactical nuclear weapons to even the odds, which would then make the US back down  or so the Pentagon claims.

Hans Kristensen, the director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists, slammed this justification, calling it "ludicrous."

"It assumes that the intelligence community has determined that one or several adversaries out there are gambling that the US would be self-deterred from using a ballistic missile warhead because they have larger yield. That is just not the case. We have never, ever heard anyone say that is so," Kristensen said. "I don't think any adversary  certainly not Russia  would gamble that if they did something with nukes that were low yield, that we would not respond. That's completely ludicrous."

The NPR was acquired and reviewed by special assistant to former US President Barack Obama on arms control and nonproliferation Jon Wolfsthal, who criticized the plan for being too hawkish. He was especially critical of the new plans for the Trident, which he called "totally unnecessary" due to the wide variety of nuclear options already available to the US.

He added that the missiles would even prove a security risk in the case of nuclear war, as launching the ballistic missile would give away the sub's position and make it vulnerable to counterattack.

"We spend $5 billion per submarine to make it invisible and we put a lot of warheads on each submarine and so what they want to do is take one missile, put one small warhead on it and launch it first, so the submarine is vulnerable to Russian attack," Wolfsthal said. "That strikes me as being unsustainable from a naval strategy point of view."

The NPR also expands the scope of situations to which the US would respond with nuclear force, such as non-nuclear attacks that lead to mass casualties, damage to critical infrastructure or targeting nuclear command and control centers.

This policy seems targeted at North Korea, a rival of the US that has developed its own nuclear arsenal despite Washington and the world's objections and has more than once publicly proclaimed its ability to target US soil.

The plan is expected to be revealed to the public after Trump's State of the Union address at the end of January. It is significantly more hawkish than the one unveiled by Obama in 2010. The Obama administration sought to reduce US reliance on nuclear weapons for defense.

"What I've been told by the people who wrote the thing was what they were trying to do was to send a clear deterrent message to Russians, the North Korean and the Chinese. And there is pretty good, moderate-but-strong language that makes clear that any attempt by Russia or North Korea to use nuclear weapons would result in a massive consequence for them and I think that is actually moderate, centrist and probably very much needed," Wolfsthal added.

"Where they go overboard is where they say that in order to make that credible the US needs to develop two new types of nuclear weapons."

However, Wolfsthal also noted that the final NPR was less extreme than the first draft, which included plans to build a nuclear hyperglide: a theoretical hypersonic missile with a mathematically random trajectory, making it nearly impossible to stop.

The original draft also included a removal of the US' pledge to never use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states. "My read is this is a walk-back from how extreme it was early on. It doesn't have as much terrible stuff in it as it did originally," Wolfsthal said. "But it's still bad."

 Sputnik

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GREENWICH  On a frosty blue-skyed morning, construction crews in highlighter-yellow jackets worked to ready the frozen site where a new building for New Lebanon School will be erected.

Where a grove of trees stood a month ago, an expanse of dirt sprawled Wednesday. Rocks the size of trash-can lids, pulled from the earth, were piled in one corner of the site, next to a mountain of top soil. Yellow construction machines hummed around the area or waited to be kicked to life. A red sign on a construction trailer declared 30 days of work had been completed without injury.

Since the groundbreaking for the new school on December 7, construction has been advancing on schedule, without delays from recent extreme cold and snow, said Dan Phillips, project manager.

The New Lebanon Building Committee held its first meeting at the construction site on Wednesday, conducting routine business and getting an update on construction progress.

So far, trees, stumps and top soil have been stripped from the site. Crews are in the process of using drilling machines to locate the contours of rock ledge below the soil, according to Phillips. Rocks removed from the ground will be crushed in the first week of February.

Some rock will need to be blasted away to clear room for the new school. While the blasting was predicted to occur in the first week of January, Phillips said Gilbane Construction is still surveying neighbors about the timing of the blasting in preparation. Those surveys should be completed by January 18 and blasting will follow, he said.

Over the next week and a half, we are primarily drilling and getting ready for the blasting operation, said Phillips.

Some blasting may occur during daytime school hours. New Lebanon School, Byram Shubert Library and neighbors of the property who request notice will be told in advance of blasting times, Phillips said.

"The blasting isnt that loud but you will hear horns initiating the blast when it is all clear, said Phillips.

Workers will develop the footprint of the new school and create a level grade on which to lay the foundation, Phillips said. Gilbane will import some structural fill in order to do so.

We are filling that ravine in some places up to 15 feet, Phillips said, pointing behind the existing school.

Crews will use large heaters to prevent the ground from freezing in the winter temperatures. The foundation will be poured in mid-February.

Beginning in February, the building committee will produce communications on the first of each month updating the public on construction, members said. The newsletters will be distributed electronically through the school district and displayed in the Byram Shubert Library.

The building committee is also working to purchase a camera that will take periodic photos of the site at regular intervals to record construction progress.

The earliest date students could move into the new building is February 2019. Construction, including demolition of the old building, site work and landscaping, will not be substantially completed until August 2019.

emunson@greenwichtime.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
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Panasonic has launched the GH5s, an even more video-focused version of the popular and already video-friendly GH5. The new camera comes with a bunch of changes, most of which are under the hood.

For starters, the GH5s has a new 12.5MP sensor with 10.2MP usable resolution. The extra pixels allow the camera to maintain its diagonal field of view when switching between aspect ratios such as 4:3, 17:9, 16:9 and 3:2. More importantly, the new sensor is optimized for low light sensitivity, a bit like the Sony A7S II, and now supports shooting up to ISO 51,200 without extended ISO. The autofocus also works in -5EV luminance.

The GH5s comes with a bunch of video specific features. It can now record internally in Cinema 4K (4096x2160) at 60p in 4:2:0 8-bit or 30p in 4:2:2 10-bit, making it the only mirrorless camera to do so. It comes pre-installed with HDR Hybrid Log Gamma and Panasonic V-LogL, time code in and out sync, waveform monitor, vector scopes, and programmable zebra patterns. For stills, the camera supports 14-bit RAW files. The rest of the camera is more or less identical to the GH5.

The Panasonic GH5s is priced at $2499 body-only and will be available February 2.

Source
Its not official yet, but the European Commission is expected to approve Qualcomms $47 billion acquisition of NXP. Initially the Commission thought that the combination of Qualcomms baseband processors and NXPs NFC tech will harm competition.

It seems that its in-depth investigation has concluded that this is not the case. Both Qualcomm and the Commission have not made an official comment yet.

This comes as a bit of good news for the Snapdragon maker as its trying to fight off a takeover by Broadcom. Broadcom stated that it wants to acquire Qualcomm regardless of the outcome of the NXP deal, but things may be harder now. Both NXP and Broadcom produce Wi-Fi chips so this additional merger may not sit well with antitrust regulators.

Qualcomm is still in court in a $1 billion battle with Apple (one of its biggest customers). Just months ago Taiwant fined Qualcomm $774 million for antitrust violations (not the first such fine in recent years).

Source (paywalled)
T-Mobile is getting ready to launch a new Buy One, Get One free (BOGO) deal of sorts this Friday. You'll be able to grab two for the price of one if you choose the 64GB iPhone 7, 7 Plus or 8, Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6, V30, or V30+. Whichever combination of two units you pick, you will receive a mail-in rebate that covers the cost of the lower priced one.

If you're into more premium handsets, the carrier has your back once again, though you don't get as much money back in this case. If you go with the iPhone 7 Plus (128GB or 256GB), iPhone 8 256GB, iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone X your rebate will be $700. If you choose the Samsung Galaxy S8+, S8 Active, or Note8, you will receive $750 back through the mail.

To take advantage of this deal, you will need to purchase both phones on installments, and port in at least one new voice line. Additionally, you are required to trade in an eligible device. Here's the list of those: iPhone 5s, iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, LG G5, LG G6, LG V20, Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy S6 active, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, and Galaxy S7 active.

LG V30

If you're only looking for one new smartphone, then you can get $150 off via rebate when you purchase the Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, Galaxy S8 Active, Galaxy Note8, LG G6, LG V30 and LG V30+ with installments. You still have to trade in one of the handsets in the aforementioned list, but in this case you will also get the added value of your trade-in.

Finally, if you want to leave Verizon for T-Mobile the magenta carrier will pay off 13 popular smartphones (up to $650 via virtual prepaid card) when you switch and sign up for the One Plus or One Plus International plan. Five devices have been added to this list today: the Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, Google Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, and iPhone X.

These three deals can be combined on the same account, but not the same line. They will be available "for a limited time" at T-Mobile stores and online.

Source
BRCC Foundation honors top teachers and employees

The Blue Ridge Community College Educational Foundation honored five outstanding employees for their service to the community, the college and its students The 2018 award recipients were announced Wednesday by the Board of Directors of the Foundation. The award winners:



Jack IglemanBusiness Administration Instructor Jack Igelman received the Dr. and Mrs. William D. Killian Outstanding Teacher Award for his dedication to motivating and helping all students recognize their abilities and potential. Jack was recognized for his use of non-traditional and innovative strategies to deliver complex subject matter to his students. He was also commended for his work with Discover Diversity Week and the Inclusive Education Committee.



Peter HemansPeter Hemans received the Dr. Molly A. Parkhill Staff Person of the Year Award. With 20 years of service to the College, Peter currently serves as Facilities Director. Recognized for his exceptional performance and can-do attitude, he most recently coordinated major building projects at the Health Sciences Center and Innovative High Schools with Henderson County while still managing a large multi-faceted, fast-paced department which serves three campuses in two counties.



Tom HayesThomas Hayes received the Dr. Eliza B. Graue Extra Mile Award for his dedicated investment in the lives of students at Blue Ridge Community College. Thomas was praised for his countless hours of teaching preparation in order to help students succeed in classes, especially those with advanced scientific topics. His students gave numerous examples of his efforts to help them succeed in class, their program of study, and their career path. He currently serves as Biology Instructor.

Shelah CombsEarly Childhood Instructor Shelah Combs received the Dr. David W. Sink Jr. Community Service Award. Shelah was recognized for her exceptional service to the community and for passing on her dedication for community involvement to her students. Through her leadership, Blue Ridge Community College early childhood students gain valuable workplace skills by participating in a wide variety of community service activities. She, herself, volunteers in many areas that focus on children and families including Art in the Park, Kindergarten Readiness Rally, and Week of Young Child Conference. She also assists local organizations during the holidays to gather donations of toys and food for area families.



Belinda FrantzdRetention Specialist Belinda Frantz received the Wellness Award. She competed against other employees using a point-based system designed by the College Wellness Committee to encourage long-term healthy lifestyles through friendly competition. Belinda participated in numerous wellness events and challenges throughout the year.

Retention Specialist Belinda Frantz received the Wellness Award. She competed against other employees using a point-based system designed by the College Wellness Committee to encourage long-term healthy lifestyles through friendly competition. Belinda participated in numerous wellness events and challenges throughout the year.
A St Stephen's Day reveller who got into a "foolish fight" with his brother-in-law has been jailed. (stock photo)

A St Stephen's Day reveller who got into a "foolish fight" with his brother-in-law has been jailed.

Patrick O'Leary (39) was drunk and covered in blood when gardai arrived at St Philomena's Court, Ballycool- in, Blanchardstown District Court was told.

Judge David McHugh sentenced him to two months in prison, saying his "time was up" and a jail sentence was "well and truly des-erved".

O'Leary, of Belgree Drive, Tyrrelstown, admitted public drunkenness and threatening and abusive behaviour.

Gda Sgt Maria Callaghan said gardai were called to St Philomena's Court at 1.30am.

She said O'Leary was covered in blood and was fighting with family members.

She said he became very irate towards gardai and refused to co-operate with them.

He also refused to leave the scene.

Reckless

Sgt Callaghan said O'Leary then started throwing punches in a reckless manner at his brother-in-law in the presence of gardai.

The court was told that O'Leary had 35 previous convictions, mostly for road traffic matters.

Defence solicitor John O'Doherty said the scuffle took place in the early hours of the morning after a family party on St Stephen's Day.

Mr O'Doherty said O'Leary had been drinking and got into a "foolish fight" with his brother-in-law.

The court heard that it was a family argument that had got out of hand.

The pair had since reconciled.

Mr O'Doherty said O'Leary was married with four young children.

He asked the judge not to send O'Leary to jail, saying he knew his behaviour was out of order.

He said his client had held his hands up at an early stage.

Judge McHugh refused to suspend any part of the jail sentence.
James Callaghan was helped on to the bus by his victim. Photo: Justin Farrelly

A wheelchair user who sexually assaulted and exposed himself to a schoolgirl on a Dublin bus has been jailed for five months.

James Callaghan (54) told the girl (18) that she was "gorgeous" before touching her hip and trying to pull her towards him while his penis was out.

The victim said she felt "violated" after the assault.

Callaghan, of Decies Road, Ballyfermot, was found guilty after a trial of sexually assaulting the girl on a bus in west Dublin on February 1, 2016.

The case was before Judge David McHugh for sentencing at Blanchardstown District Court after he had ordered a probation report.

Defence lawyer Jennifer Jackson said Callaghan suff-ered a brain injury in a road crash when he was 31.

Register

Ms Jackson said Callaghan would benefit from working with the probation service so he could receive treatment and ensure similar behaviour did not happen again.

Judge McHugh proposed adjourning the case for a year to allow Callaghan to work with the probation service, but the defendant said he would prefer to be sentenced immediately.

Imposing a five-month sentence, the judge also ordered that he be put on the sex offenders' register.

The victim told the court that she helped Callaghan on to the bus and sat beside him at his request.

He told her she was gorgeous, and moved closer to her be- fore putting his hand on her hip.

She tried to "scoot away", but noticed his hand was going "down on to my arse".

The teenager then saw that he was "messing with himself".

"I noticed his d**k was out and at that stage I got frightened," she said.

She jumped up in alarm and told the driver to let her off the bus.
A toddler died after swallowing a tiny piece of plastic, a coroner's court has been told.

The splinter lodged in 19-month-old Stephanie Fazylova's gullet.

She was sleeping in her cot beside her parents' bed at their home in Grace Park Heights, Drumcondra, when her mother heard her cough.

Jelena Fazylova sat up and looked at Stephanie lying in the cot at 6am on June 26, 2016.

"It sounded like she was going to vomit," Ms Fazylova told Dublin Coroner's Court.

"I sat up and looked at her and then saw blood starting to come from her nose and mouth.

"I started shouting. I said, 'Stephanie, don't leave us'."

Her husband, Alexander Fazylov, jumped out of bed and called an ambulance.

He had minded Stephanie and her older brother, Ben, the previous day.

The children had eaten lunch, played on their trampoline and travelled with their father to collect their mother from work.

They ate dinner together, and at 9pm Stephanie was put to bed and she slept the "whole night through", said Mr Fazylova.

Stephanie was rushed to Temple Street Children's Hospital the following morning.

She continued to lose blood and was given a transfusion.

Despite the best efforts of doctors, Stephanie was pronounced dead later that day. The cause of death was haemorrhage and shock due to an oesophageal ulcerative lesion caused by a foreign body of indeterminate nature, according to a post-mortem examination.

"On the inside part of the oesophagus, I found an ulcer trying to heal itself," pathologist Dr Deirdre Devaney told the inquest.

Burst

"The ulcer had become inflamed and caused the lining of the food pipe to disintegrate close to a blood vessel.

"When the blood vessel became inflamed, it burst and caused the bleeding that claimed the child's life."

Pathology staff found tiny splinters of foreign material that appeared to have penetrated the wall of the child's food pipe.

Dr Devaney described the objects as clear pieces of plastic.

The coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, returned a verdict of death by misadventure.
Thanksgiving is going to be expensive. Here's how to save.
How many steps will it take to walk off Thanksgiving dinner?
A ccording to Oxford Dictionaries, youthquake was the word of 2017, describing a bundle of recent cultural, political and social changes driven by young people  and young people are set to continue to shape major design trends in the UK in 2018.

Millennials who came of age in 2000 and shortly after are now joined by Generation Z, who are just finding their adult feet. In London these young consumers are most likely to be renters, looking for lightweight portable furniture, preferably with a dual purpose, and intangibles such as good internet access.

The young are reshaping our lifestyles, confirms Robert Pearce, whose Futon Company has five London stores. They are nomadic and less materialistic, or may still live with their parents but hang out elsewhere.

HOME GROWN AND LOCAL

Nomadic young Londoners like their designers to live similar lifestyles to theirs  maybe running a successful firm from a home desk, or even the sofa.

Take interior surfaces and textiles designer Kit Miles, 29, who has won a string of awards and now has his wallpaper books in Liberty.

At just 26, Charles Dedman has a prestigious furniture Design Guild Mark for his Turner Carver chair. His generation grew up with computers and the internet. Social media has expanded their profiles and orders for their work: Our education has taught us to research, design and communicate from home.

Woolwich furniture maker Sebastian Cox, 31, was in business by his last year at Lincoln University and now has a team of 10. He illustrates the local trend with his label.

Around 90 per cent of my orders come from Dulwich to Dalston, says Cox, who holds a Design Guild Mark for his kitchen by deVOL. He uses British timbers, some sourced from a customers own old cut-down trees.

Go local: Sebastian Cox holds a Design Guild Mark for his kitchen by deVOL

Makers such as Cox and Dedman are fusing craft and technology, adeptly using computer-controlled machines for hand-assembled and hand-finished designs, often with a traditional aesthetic.

CUSTOMERS KNOW BEST

Social media has fostered more individuality. Consumers are now their own curators, says trends agency Nelly Rodi, presenting this theme at next weeks Maison & Objet design show in Paris. Bespoke is a buzzword this year, and individuality will be a key component of London Design Week at Chelsea Harbour in March.

Heals has designed by you, a new service to adjust upholstery, tables and shelving to suit customers needs, while John Lewis makes curtains to measure in only seven days.

SUPERMARKET SWEEP

Exclusive home collections from large retailers are stunning this year. Sainsburys, led by design manager Andrew Tanner, has grown its design team from 13 to 22, offering new products created in house.

Asda, Marks & Spencer, Tesco and online retailer Very all have appealing homewares for spring, while textile designer Martha Coates, 29, is spearheading original pattern design at Habitat.

Internet shopping now makes up a considerable 17 per cent of all retail sales in the UK, and is growing at 10 per cent year on year. We do more of it than anywhere in Europe with the exception of Norway, aided by mobile-friendly apps, one-tap buying and same-day deliveries.

Sophisticated software helps us to plan rooms and colour schemes and chat bots answer our questions. But increasingly real shopping supports the internet. Click-and-collect immediately brings smaller goods to convenient local collection points that often open late. Ikea now has a collection point at Westfield.

GREYS HERE TO STAY

And what of colours in 2018? No one wants a quick-to-date fashion colour for a large purchase, such as a sofa, so grey remains the favoured neutral for interiors.

Lavish green: leaf patterns, banks of house plants and window boxes are set to be even more prevalent this year

But well be seeing more green, popularly expressed in leafy patterns, banks of house plants and lavish planting on terraces and in window boxes.

Pantones Ultra Violet, trumpeted as the colour of 2018, has been trashed on Instagram and will have marginal impact  though maybe it will be used in muted versions or for small accessories.

TECHNO TRENDS

Technology permeates every corner of design, from the way items are made to how they are used and sold.

Surprising futures: QR codes, augmented reality and voice recognition permeate every corner of design

Watch out for touch controls, learned programmes and lots of voice recognition  for example, in new LG televisions.

The connected home features appliances linked to each other via a single control.

Augmented or virtual reality will illuminate shopping choices, and QR codes are set to make a surprising comeback.
It's expensive business to find a customer and win their booking in travel as multi-channel marketing and technology costs rise. Therefore, travel brands are taking loyalty extremely seriously as a key way of improving profitability, but are they succeeding and at what cost?

EyeforTravel is trying to find out with a new survey and we need your help to get to the bottom of the state of loyalty in travel in 2018.

So, if you are consumer-facing travel brand, click here to answer the survey, which is just 8 short questions, so it will take less than two minutes to answer.

As a way of saying thanks, we will send you the results before anyone else, so you can benchmark your performance. We will also send you free copies of the reports on completion, and you can get access to all of the video presentations and slides from our recent Vegas and Amsterdam Summits just by leaving your email at the end of the survey.

We are also investigating mobile marketing and messaging, which you can help us with by clicking here to answer our mobile survey.

About Reuters Events

Reuters Events is a community where the worlds top online travel brands  from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more  come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry.

We know that working in the turbulent online travel industry is as exciting as it is challenging. In this constantly evolving market place, we appreciate that keeping up with the pace of change can be tough, not to mention time consuming. You need the right information, contacts and strategic insight to succeed.

Established in 1997, by Tim Gunstone, we offer a diverse product portfolio including industry analysis, insights, research, webinars, reports and conferences to suit the needs of our clients.

Our clients read as a whos who of online travel. From major hotel brands to new startups, we help our 80,000 strong customer base make better decisions, build better brands, close the most lucrative deals and ultimately sell more of their product. After all, increasing travel brand profit margins in the cutthroat travel industry is the name of the game!

No other online travel intelligence provider has been charting the growth of online travel as long as we have. We were here at the inception of online travel and we know the industry inside out. Whats more, were a small, friendly team. Forget impersonal hierarchies, we like to get to know our customers and work towards their exact needs.

Meredith Pistulka

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When reflecting on the lackluster growth of the travel industry and international travel during the last few years, experts have been pointing to recent geopolitical explanations as the cause for the lack of international travel to the U.S. But the reality is that the answer is economic, as the decline of international tourism has been weak since 2014. The true culprit has been the very strong U.S. dollar that began before the presidential election and continued afterward, making it more expensive for foreign travelers to come to the U.S. As a result, the U.S. travel and hospitality industries weakened. However, over the course of 2017, we've seen positive indicators that inbound travel to the U.S. will begin to pick up again; the U.S. dollar began to soften and tourism was up year-over-year from 2016.

By far, the biggest indicator that international travel to the U.S. will continue to rise in 2018 is the strengthening foreign economies in Europe and Asia. The European economy has recovered from the initial shock and fear of Brexit, leading to the stabilization of the economy in both the EU and UK. We've also seen stronger GDP growth in Europe overall in 2017, a trend that's predicted to continue in 2018 leading to what some are calling a "golden period" for the Euro.

In Asia, the economy in Japan and China are both growing. The third quarter of 2017 marked Japan's seventh consecutive quarter of economic growth. With government stimulus programs in place, unemployment is at a multi-decade low and persistent wage and price deflation have eased. We also saw strong consumer spending in Q2, followed by increased foreign trade in Q3, both of which have buoyed the economy.

The Chinese economy, for the first time, is growing on the shoulders of strong consumer spending. Even with manufacturing weakening, consistent wage growth coupled with a stable cost of living has given rise to a new Chinese consumer, as evidenced by the fact that the service sector accounted for more than half of China's GDP in 2017. Similarly, consumer sentiment in China is up, and the yuan has strengthened while the U.S. dollar softens. Overall, China's economy is maturing from a manufacturing-based to a consumer-based economy, opening up new opportunities for American companies to market their goods and experiences to the Chinese consumer. Additionally, the Chinese Millennials are benefiting from economic reforms and western-style upbringing. These Millennials have more disposable income than past generations and are paying top-dollar for spending more on travel, often spending more than $14,000 during trips to international destinations, according to the results of a survey by Singapore Tourism Board.

While strong foreign economies and a comparatively weak U.S. dollar will largely drive growth in the U.S. travel and hospitality industries in 2018, the domestic economy is also growing. As a result, domestic travel will also play a role strengthening travel and hospitality. We know that millennials value experiences and like to travel, and boomers have more disposable income than any other segment of the population thanks to the fact that they're working longer and that their wages have remained higher than at any point in history. With the opportunity to amass more wealth than any other generation, boomers have more money to spend, a portion of which we can expect to go towards domestic travel.

As we enter 2018, we can expect a good year for U.S. hospitality and travel industries, both from domestic and international travelers. But the major change for the industry will be to refine their focus towards international tourists who often plan trips to the U.S. six months to a year in advance.

Andrew Duguay

Senior Economist

Prevedere
Sometimes, the most common-sense customer service tips are the most important.

A while back, I was talking to my lawyer about the "client service" I experience from him and his firm. It was evident that he was truly interested in my feedback. My response was simple. "I just have one complaint. I wish you would respond quicker to my phone calls and emails."

When Can I Expect Your Call? | By Shep Hyken Photo by Shepard Presentations, LLC.

Many times, he would take several days to respond  to both my phone calls and my emails. For what I was paying him, I felt that he should be giving me a better level of service. Well, it turns out that I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Upon surveying clients of law firms, one of the common complaints is a slow response.

It wasn't long after that chat with my lawyer that I was hired to speak at a large law firm's partner retreat. There were almost 500 lawyers in attendance. The client at the firm who hired me asked me to go over my content for the speech. One of the areas I emphasized was a quick response, specifically to phone calls. He asked me to take that section out. His explanation was that it was too basic and would potentially cause the audience to lose interest over information that was so rudimentary.

The speaker who spoke just before me happened to be their number-one client, who worked at a company in Washington, D.C. that did millions of dollars each year in business with the firm. He talked about how great the law firm was, and then he opened it up for questions. The first question from one of the attorneys in the audience was, "Can you tell us something that we could do to make your experience better?"

Without hesitation, the client said, "Return my phone calls faster."

I glanced over at my client and he had a petrified look on his face. He looked at me and whispered, "Maybe you should put the part about a quick response to phone calls and emails back into the speech." I smiled and gave him the "thumbs up."

Here was a law firm that charged hundreds of dollars per hour for their work. Their clients were willing to pay this, adding up to millions of dollars per year. And, the first thought that came to mind when asked how to improve the experience was basic common-sense: just return calls quicker.

I can't emphasize this simple concept enough. Customers want to know that you are focused on them. Taking three days to call someone back shows a lack of focus, if not a lack of concern, for the customer  whether it's true or not.

So, there's nothing fancy to teach for today's customer service lesson. Nothing technical or difficult. Nothing that really takes practice or role-playing. It's just a simple common-sense tactic that shows you are paying attention to your customer, and that's just to call them back in a reasonable timeframe. Not three days. Not two days. But ideally, the same day. Maybe even within a few hours, if you're available.

Shep Hyken

Shepard Presentations, LLC.

View source
2022-11-16

Business experts, as well as academics, have come to recognise a global phenomenon that has emerged from the scourge of the pandemic and its similarly odious sibling, the current economic downturn  and that is, the opportunity to collaborate and innovate.
On December 28th, 2013, Alabama rapper Doe B was murdered at the Centennial Bar and Grill, along with two other victims  Kimberle Johnson and Timnarious Hamilton . Today, one of the men responsible for the shooting was sentenced to eighty-five years in jail. Darius Thomas, who pleaded guilty for three counts of murder in December, was the first to stand trial for his involvement in Doe Bs murder. NBC news outlet WSFA reports on an emotional day in court, as Darius Thomas was addressed by each of the victims mothers. While all of them expressed forgiveness, they also asked that Thomas be hit with the full range of punishment.

According to the report, Doe Bs mother Shirley Thomas was the first to address the court. Its been a long battle losing our children. I forgave Darius and I want justice to be served. Apparently T.I.s record label, which signed Doe B, actually sent a letter to the judge as well. While the prosecutor expressed that Thomas action had robbed three people of their lives, the defense maintained that Thomas had simply fallen in with the wrong crowd, and requested mercy on the father of five.

When Thomas had the chance to address the crowd, he apologized for his actions. Judge Greg Griffin then reminded Thomas of a meeting that transpired in December, when the judge urged him to take a plea. I told you that was a plea you needed to take because I was 99 percent sure I would otherwise be sentencing you to life without parole, said Griffin. He then told Thomas to address some teenagers in the jury box. Thomas apparently gave the youth some words of encouragement, stating Get a real job, find Jesus, and take life seriously. Be a man, mind your responsibilities and find God in your life. It took me coming here to find God.

Judge Griffin proceeded to hand out a sentence eighty-five years. The other two men involved in the Centennial shooting, Jason McWilliams and Taboris Mock, have yet to stand trial.

[via WSFA]

Doe B
President Donald Trump had an interesting day on Twitter. First, he announced the sale of non-existent planes to the public and now, he apparently come out in opposition to a bill his administration is trying to push with regards to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Those tweets, which are misguided at best, may now have delayed the vote that couldve made that piece of legislature final.

According to Time Magazine, tweets came just hours prior to a much-anticipated vote that was set to go before the House on a six-year extension of what is called Section 702 of the FISA program. These documents allow U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor foreign communications. The programs backers say that it is a vital source of intercepting warning signs of potential attacks and information on terror suspects, while those who oppose it believe that it unnecessarily collection and hoards the communications data of U.S. citizens. Find out how Trump feels about all this below.

https://twitter.com/_/status/951431836030459905

https://twitter.com/_/status/951457382651056128



This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others? Trump tweeted. Theres no real basis for that kind of accusation, one that was taken with alarm and bewilderment by those in his own administration.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who happens to be the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, moved to postpone the vote, citing the irresponsible and inherently contradictory messages coming out of the White House today. Theres been no word on when such a vote might be taking place down the road.

Donald Trump
For the past several months, Drakes been quiet on the music front but has been working on other ventures. Hes previously said that he wanted to spend a good chunk of this year focusing on acting roles but hes still been locked in the studio. Aside from that, hes also been expanding his business portfolio. Today, he announces that he and good friend, Chubbs, have joined forces to launch a new dining spot on the 6ix side.

Drake and Chubbs have formally announced that theyve launched a new restaurant in Toronto called Pick 6ix. The new restaurant has yet to have their grand opening. However, they hosted their first bash of sorts Tuesday night for a private event. According to Canadian media outlet CTV, LeBron James hosted a birthday party for Dwayne Wade at the location where Baka, Charlie B, DJ Meel and Future The Prince were also in attendance.

Drake hit Instagram to congratulate Chubbs earlier today on their venture. So proud of you and proud to be in business with you!!! My brother @chubbsview congratulations on our new stunning venture @pick6ixto, he wrote, I hope the entire city gets a chance to enjoy this beautiful establishment.

Pick 6ix is yet another restaurant Drakes opened in Toronto. Drake has also opened Frings in Toronto along with Angelo Ferraro and Chef Susur Lee.

The restaurant has yet to announce their grand opening but its looking like itll be launching in the near future.

Check out Drakes Instagram post below:
For those who are looking to invest in Drakes whiskey brand, Virginia Black, you may soon have that opportunity.

According to Billboard, the rapper, along with spirits entrepreneur Brent Hocking, have shared their desire to make the whiskey brand public. The pair believe that is is a rare opportunity for investors to capitalize on the strength of the brand and help redefine the whiskey culture in North America as a result.

By buying stocks to raise money, anyone who purchases shares in Drakes Virginia Black spirit will help increase the domestic and international expansion of the celebrated whiskey. The plan is for Drake and Hocking to raise $30 million, with an IPO expected at the end of the first quarter of the year. If youre down to invest from the get-go, potentials can register to receive more info here.

Virginia Black is the perfect combination of exceptionally good juice in exquisite packaging at an accessible price, said Hocking in a statement. From inception, we wanted everyone to enjoy Virginia Black, and are pleased to extend the opportunity to millions of Americans and other investors around the world to become part of the Virginia Black family.

This is the ideal time for the brand to offer up an IPO, seeing as the Virginia Black name reached new heights last year on the heels of a hilarious advert that Drake and his father, Dennis, completed. It just goes to show not only the power of the Six God, but his family members as well, in the marketing scheme of what may become one of whiskeys powerhouse entities.

Drake
Kanye West fans have been pining for the rappers return to the music scene after he kept a decidedly low profile throughout most of 2017. A feature spot and a concert have done little to ease the anticipation among the Yeezy supporters who walk the Earth but, before he drops any new musical material, the mythical hip-hop continues to put family first, getting in a historic museum stop while in Washington D.C. with his father.

Kanye and Ray West hit up the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture yesterday (January 9th), surprising unsuspecting passerby with their presence. In fact, he supposedly distracted a museum tour that was already in progress. However, Ye was totally locked in to what the establishments guide was saying about a specific collection, listening intently and nodding his head once in a while in response to things she would say. You can check out a clip of his visit, caught by a strangers smartphone, below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdvk6SFHwJw



This museum trip is just one of several well-received public appearances made by Kanye in recent weeks. He also made a cancer patients dream come true not long ago, rapping to a fan over the phone before she passed away after a long battle with the disease. The episode wasnt publicized on social media until after the fact, proving that Kanye wanted to keep as low a profile as possible in that scenario.

Do you think that Yeezy is set to drop a new project this year? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

[Via]

Kanye West
Rizzoo Rizzoos been bubbling up for a few years now. The rappers been working consistently and dropping off new music for the fans. Earlier this month, the rapper started teasing a new single and its video on social media called Sauce Aint Free featuring Voochie P and today, he finally releases it.

Sauce Aint Free is the latest banger from Rizzoo Rizzoo and Voochie P. The two rappers connect over a highly energetic tune. Rizzoos and Voochies voice contrast heavily but with the infectious, bass-heavy production, the two of them completely demolish it.

The two of them also released an accompanying video for the song at the same time. While the two rappers mob out with their squad, they get some animations surrounding them that makes the visuals pop out.

Quotable Lyrics

Nothings free with me

You gotta pay the fee

Show me them hunnids, please

She got it off of me
Recently, Adidas announced their Dragon Ball Z inspired kicks, and the internet went wild. For many, Dragon Ball Z was the anime that introduced Japanese manga (which is anime in its original comic format) to them at the base level. There were no captions, instead, FUNimation dubbed the series in English, which fueled the American obsession with the cartoon show. Originally, Dragon Ball began in 1986. Created by Akira Toriyama, the series followed Goku as a child, before he was branded a Saiyan. As the popularity of the series grew, the show shot into the future and reintroduced Goku as a young man with a son. That was the beginning of Dragon Ball Z.

Dragon Ball Z succeeded where Dragon Ball failed. It created much more interesting villains, and allowed for much better-conceptualized character development. The majority of DBZ fans draw their favorite memories not from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT, or Dragon Ball Super, but from the Z series. The best thing about the series, by far, were the villains. Perhaps that is the reason why Adidas chose to release Cell, Frieza, and Majin Buu edition sneakers first. The villains of the series were epic, especially for children. While Dragon Ball Z was not just a childrens show in Japan, it was packaged and sold as a childrens show here in America. Although Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and X-Men cartoons had exciting conflicts with their enemies in the 90s, Dragon Ball Z villains made even the Joker look soft. I remember watching the Joker kill a few Gotham City civilians with laughing gasmeanwhile Frieza is destroying entire planets. Women, children, animals, whatever. The villains in Dragon Ball Z were always ruthlessly killing millions of people on a whim. Such large-scale murder and destruction are like coffee for kids I was addicted to the adrenaline rush of watching Cell rip limbs off, or Majin Buu eradicate planets. Although the villains in the latter GT and Super series didnt leave as powerful of an impact on some, they still made the show enjoyable to watch.

There were a plethora of villains introduced during the Dragon Ball Z series lengthy run, but some bad guys stand out more than others. This list of villains is not in order of strongest to weakest. Nor is it arranged by most violent, or coolest looking. These badasses are arranged by their overall importance to the Dragon Ball story arc. These are the most important villains, the ones the propelled the story or had amazing narratives that stuck with fans for decades. True antagonists. Whether they appeared in the Z series, GT, Super, or the movies, here is our list of the best Dragon Ball villains of all time.

16. Android 17

The twin brother of Android 18 is Dr. Geros seventieth creation. Android 17 was once a man named Lapis, but he was experimented on and programmed to kill Goku. Dr. Gero originally created the androids to challenge and destroy Goku, who had disbanded the Red Ribbon Army as a kid. 17 kills Dr. Gero and takes matters into his own hands by challenging the Z fighters along with Androids 16 and 18. In desperation, Piccolo is forced to fuse with Kami in an attempt to defeat 17, but Cell interrupts and absorbs the android.

15. Raditz

The biological brother of Goku was one of the earliest Dragon Ball Z villains. Raditz flys to Earth in search of Goku, and when he locates him he attempts to recruit him to Friezas army. After Goku refuses, Raditz kidnaps Gohan and holds him for ransom. Frustrated, Goku turns to his enemy Piccolo for help. The two put aside their differences and team up to defeat Raditz. During the battle, Goku sacrifices himself by holding his brother in place while Piccolo shoots him with the Special Beam Cannon.

14. Android 18

The twin sister of Android 17 was once a human named Lazuli. After being kidnapped and experimented on by Dr. Gero, 18 activated Android 16 against her creators wishes. After fleeing the scene, 18 battles Super Saiyan Vegeta and breaks his arm. After her brother is absorbed by Cell, 18 appeals to Krillin, begging him to deactivate her. Krillin refuses, and Cell absorbs 18 after Vegeta allows him to capture her. Fortunately for her, 18 is regurgitated by Cell after Gohan defeats him in battle.

13. Janemba

Janemba is formed when an ogre neglects his duties and allows the Soul Cleansing Machine to explode, causing him to have an evil mutation. Janemba engages Super Saiyan 3 Goku and is defeated, forcing him to transform into a more powerful form. Goku is then aided by Vegeta, who is in Super Saiyan 2 form, but the two are defeated by the powerful demon. Vegeta and Goku decide to fuse, and the combined power of Gogeta finally destroys the villain.

12. Baby

Baby is a parasitic organism that possesses other creatures to survive. He possesses Goten at first, then Gohan, and finally Vegeta. Baby Vegeta challenges Goku, who transforms into the Golden Great Ape to combat his mind-controlled friend. The battle escalates, with Baby Vegeta also transforming into a Golden Great Ape but Goku defeats the parasite when he is forced to flee from Vegetas body.

11. Omega Shenron

Syn Shenron was the last of the Shadow Dragons, a group of evil creatures that were created by the over-use and negative energies built up by the Dragon Balls over time. After battling the Z fighters, Syn senses the only way to beat them is to use his special power. He summons the Dragon Balls to him and swallows them, which causes him to transform into Omega Shenron. Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Vegeta are defeated by Omega Shenron, and fuse in desperation. Gogeta is able to defeat Omega the first time, but the Shadow Dragon regroups after the fusion wears off and once again defeats the Z fighters. Gokus signature Universal Spirit Bomb eventually defeats Omega.

10. Cooler

Friezas older brother wasnt pleased when he heard that a Saiyan killed his lil bro. Cooler tracked down and battled Goku in what, at first, seemed like revenge. Before transforming into a higher form than his deceased brother, Cooler admits that he would have liked to kill Frieza himself. In fact, Cooler is angered with Goku for robbing him of that experience. Nonetheless, Cooler is defeated by Gokus Kamehameha blast and left for dead in space. A giant malevolent machine named the Big Gete Star fuses with the defeated Cooler and creates several Meta-Coolers that attack the Z fighters. Once again, Goku and Vegeta save the day, and kill the Star/Cooler fusion.

9. Future Zamasu

Goku Black and Future Zamasu fused to become a major villain during the Future Trunks Saga. Fused Zamasu believes himself to be a god, and challenges the Z fighters. Goku and Vegeta fuse to become Vegito, and then power up to Vegito Super Saiyan Blue. Their combined effort slows down Fused Zamasu, but once the fusion ends both Goku and Vegeta are easily defeated. Trunk ultimately cuts the villain in half, which kills him.

8. Broly

After King Vegetas failed attempt to assassinate him as a baby, this Legendary Super Saiyan survived the destruction of Planet Vegeta. His father witnessed his son mature into a murdering psychopath, and created a headband to control the insane Saiyan. The headband worked for awhile, until the sight of Goku enraged Broly so much that he broke through the bands control. Broly is only beaten after the other Z fighters give Goku all of their energy, which empowers him to defeat the Legendary Super Saiyan. Nobody stays dead for long in Dragon Ball though, and Broly returns to confront Gohan and Goten in revenge. The two descendants of Goku defeat the villain for good after using the Family Kamehameha.

7. Super Buu

When Evil Buu eats Good Buu, Super Buu is formed. At first, Super Buu kills nearly everyone on the planet except the Z fighters. After, he engages in battle with Gotenks in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and defeats the Trunks/Goten fusion. Super Buu then battles Gohan, Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo. Buu absorbs most of the heroes and becomes even more powerful until a weird plot twist occurs where Buu somehow appears inside of himself and fights the ingested Z fighters.

6. Goku Black

The original Zamasu becomes evil and uses the Super Dragon Balls to switch his body with Gokus. He then proceeded to kill the Goku who was trapped in his body, and remained himself inside of Gokus body. This evil Goku, called Goku Black, destroys half of the universe before Future Trunks is forced to go back into the past and recruit the Z fighters. Vegeta, in his Super Saiyan Blue form, battles Goku Black and with the assistance of Beerus, splits the timeline and defeats the evil Goku.

5. Beerus

Beerus is the most feared god in the universe. He has terrorized many supporting Dragon Ball Z characters, like King Kai, whose planet he destroyed. Once, Beerus sneezed and destroyed two suns, forcing his sensei Whis to manipulate time and fix the situation. One night, the powerful god dreamt of Goku, and decided to hunt him down in an attempt to challenge him. Upon discovering the Saiyan, Beerus is disappointed at how easily he bests the Z fighters. With the help of Shenron, Goku is able to achieve Super Saiyan God form, and gives Beerus the challenge he had searched for. Still, the powerful god defeats Goku, although he gains respect for the Saiyan which later matures into a partnership.

4. Vegeta

Vegeta is the song of King Vegeta, who was the ruler of Planet Vegeta. When Frieza destroyed the Saiyan homeworld, Vegeta and Raditz were off planet. After Raditz is killed by Piccolo, Vegeta arrives on Earth to search for the Dragon Balls and encounters the Z fighters. In a show of power, Vegeta transformed and fought the Z fighters as a Great Ape, but he is ultimately defeated after his tail is cut off and is forced to retreat. Vegeta would return during the Frieza saga to assist the Z fighters in battling his true enemy, and an uneasy alliance is formed. He is killed by Frieza, but is resurrected and reforms soon after. Although Vegeta does remain a Z fighter for the rest of his existence, he has his villainous moments (remember Majin Vegeta?), and his ego continues to cause endless harm (like when he allowed Cell to achieve his final form in order to be truly challenged).

3. Kid Buu

Kid Buu is the strongest, and most evil, of the Buu crew. During that confusing scene where Super Buu appears inside of himself to defeat the Z fighters he absorbed, Super Buu tricks Vegeta into removing Good Buu from inside of him. This causes Kid Buu to form, a completely nihilistic version of every other form of Buu. He destroys Earth almost immediately and dismantled the Z Fighters easily. In the end, Goku destroys Kid Buu with a Spirit Bomb, but a benevolent reincarnation of him is created by King Yemma named Uub.

2. Cell

Originally, Cell is from the future. In his timeline, Future Trunks destroyed the androids, which were Cells main fuel for his evolution. Cell decided to kill Future Trunks, and go back in time to capture the androids while they were still alive. Ultimately his plan works, and Cell transforms into his final form. While in his perfect form, Cell defeats the cocky Vegeta and Future Trunks, and then creates The Cell Games as an exhibition match for Earth. During his match with Gohan, Cell creates baby clones of himself that incapacitate the Z Fighters. This action forces Gohan into a rage that helps him reach Super Saiyan 2 status. SS2 Gohan easily defeats Cell, who self-destructs in a spiteful move to destroy the Earth in his defeat. After Goku uses Instant Transmission to teleport Cell off planet, the villain dies (taking Goku with him) in a destructive blast that also decimates King Kais planet. Somehow, heregenerates from one surviving cell, and returns to Earth to terrorize the remaining Z Fighters. Ultimately, Gohan would defeat Cell for good with a Father-Son Kamehameha.

1. Freiza

This guy never truly dies. Frieza is the true reason behind all of the strife in Dragon Ball. It was his actions that led to the destruction of Planet Vegeta, which sent Goku to Earth. During the Frieza saga, the violent space emperor pushed Goku to the limits of his life, which was the catalyst for the first ever Super Saiyan transformation. Frieza himself has several forms, and evolves while slowly battling the Z Fighters. After being killed by Super Saiyan Goku, Frieza would be resurrected by his father with cybernetic enhancements. On his second coming, the space emperor sought to destroy the Z Fighters in vengeance. Unluckily for him, he was sliced to pieces by Future Trunks before he could finish his task. After being sent to Hell, Frieza appeared as a cameo character in the series for years. Before long, Friezas henchmen collected the Dragon Balls and wished him back to life. This time, the space emperor would train for months before heading back to Earth. Once healthy, Frieza sought out the Z Fighters, and battled them all for double revenge. He displayed his new Golden form to a Super Saiyan Blue Goku, who once again kills the villain.

Dragon Ball Villains
A Christian school in Wisconsin is facing a serious amount of backlash after a 4th grade homework assignment included a section that asked students to list 3 good reasons for slavery.

As reported by Click 2 News in Houston, students in an English class at Our Redeemer Lutheran School were handed a group assignment with one question that read as follows: give three good reasons for slavery and three bad reasons. Many parents were shocked and outraged by the wording of the question. Its highly offensive and insensitive, parent Trameka Brown-Berry said. I was in shock. I couldnt believe they sent something like that home.

Not only was my son in an awful position, but the students who werent black, because its that sort of mentality of not being able to see from anothers perspective and only seeing your lens thats what dangerous. Thats what keeps racism going, shed added.

The schools principal, Jim Van Dellen, did not release any statement to reporters but did admit that the assignment was totally out of line and [] was not, in any way, to have students argue that any slavery is acceptable. The principal said a better effort will be made to communicate the potential teaching of sensitive subject matter with parents before it is brought to the attention of students.

Brown-Berry was the one who originally posted the assignment online and doesnt regret drawing a firestorm of media attention to the school and the community. Speak up, tell your story and voice your opinion because that is how you go about change. And that is what I was trying to model for my son, she stated. Theres no word on whether or not the teacher responsible for the assignment will face discipline from the school.

Wisconsin
errant Malaysian employer has been sentenced to one stroke of the cane for hiring illegal workers in the state of Selangor. Although the law permits such severe penalties, the milestone decision has never been meted out in the state before, said Immigration Department of Malaysias director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali.In addition to the caning, the employer  a bakery owner  will serve six months in jail. He was found guilty of employing 15 illegal immigrants.With this first case, we hope it will serve as a deterrent to employers from hiring illegal foreign workers, Mustafar told the Malaysian press at the opening of the state-level Immigration Day celebration.Malaysian employers who are guilty of hiring more than five illegal immigrants at a time may face up to five years imprisonment, and may be sentenced a maximum of six whippings of the cane.Throughout last year, 80% of employers found hiring illegal immigrants were charged in court, and the rest are still in the process to be brought to court, Mustafar said.In 2017, the Immigration Department had carried out checks on a total of 188,884 employers as part of nationwide operations to curb the practice, reported New Straits Times. The operation resulted in a total of 1,257 arrests.
Many changes will take place in New Zealand workplaces this year, said an employment law consultant, and it these will not be restricted to the minimum wage hike, adjustments to the Equal Pay Act and extension of parental leave.



This will also be the year employers will pay more attention to their employees mental health, Max Whitehead told NZ Herald.



The discussion follows the suspected suicide of 21-year-old Huntly farmhand Colby Harris. Harris mother issued a plea that farmers be allowed to have a life.



"They need to be able to have a life outside of what they're doing. In the last year he had given up all the things he liked to do because the hours were too long. He was absolutely exhausted," the mother said.



There was "a lot of mental illness with some workers and we are pushed harder and harder to do the work faster and faster," Whitehead said.



An earthworks machine operator said a co-worker was demoted upon seeking counselling after a breakup.



He was told to get over it.



Another worker, a dairy farm contract milker, said he had worked on eight different farms and had observed that big landowners did not really care about how many hours the employees put in.



A worker told the NZ Herald it should be up to the employer to keep an eye on their staff's well-being. "Someone who is depressed does not have the wherewithal to approach a boss."




We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
Watch: Dog Clears Way for Herd of Cattle in Snow Storm, Internet Can't Contain Emotions
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Ethiopias parliament has given the green light to legislation banning the adoption of children by foreigners.

MPs said orphans and other vulnerable children should be cared for and supported by local systems, in order to protect them from abuse abroad.

The vulnerability of children adopted by foreign families has been in debate since 2011, when a 13-year-old girl died in the care of her adoptive parents in the US.

The move has proved largely popular, although some have suggested the services available in Ethiopia do not meet the needs of such children.

In 2016, Denmark banned all adoptions from Ethiopia, stating Ethiopian adoption agencies often gave inconsistent information on the origins of children within the system, which could lead to trafficking cases.

Danish social and interior minister at the time, Karen Elleman, said she did not have the confidence that adoptions from the country live up to the requirements we have in regards to the adoption process.

But the 2011 death of an Ethiopian girl in the US has dominated the recent debate on the subject.

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

Larry and Carri Williams, of Washington state, starved and beat Hana Williams, who they adopted in 2008, until she died in the backyard of their home.

Ms Williams was convicted of homicide by abuse in connection with the death of the girl.

The girls father, Mr Williams, was convicted of first-degree manslaughter.

Celebrity adoptions have also raised awareness of the practice. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are among those who have adopted children from Ethiopia, when in 2005 they adopted their daughter Zahara Marley.
Irish Rail is losing its chief executive as a dispute with drivers and rail workers has led to strikes

The country's rail boss is leaving for a job in Australia.

In the midst of a pay dispute with Irish Rail drivers and the company in difficult financial circumstances, David Franks is to move to a new public transport role overseas in the coming months.

He held the post of chief executive for five years.

Frank Allen, Iarnrod Eireann chairman, said: "I want to thank David for his immense contribution to Iarnrod Eireann over the past five years.

"David has led Iarnrod Eireann at a very challenging time for the company and has delivered significant improvements in safety, passenger growth of 24% and new customer-focused systems and processes.

"These changes will benefit the company for many years to come."

Mr Allen said the outgoing chief executive will remain fully committed to addressing challenges at the company as he sees out his notice.

Mr Franks joined Iarnrod Eireann in 2013. He previously worked for Keolis UK, a division of the French national railway company SNCF.

The announcement of his departure follows warnings from unions on Wednesday of industrial action as drivers fight for a wage increase as part of commitments to train new staff.
Pallbearers carry the coffin of Peter Sutherland from the church in Donnybrook

Pope Francis has paid tribute to former attorney general Peter Sutherland for his work on the migrant crisis.

A message from the pontiff was read a t Mr Sutherland's funeral in Dublin, where mourners were told of his passionate devotion to refugees, his hidden generosity and his moral compass.

Mr Sutherland died on Sunday morning at the age of 71 following a long illness.

A career in the worlds of law, government and business culminated in his appointment as the UN's special representative on migration, a role he held as the migrant and refugee crisis in the Mediterranean reached unprecedented levels.

Mr Sutherland was also an adviser to the Holy See.

The Pope extended his condolences in a message to the family through his secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

"With deep appreciation for Mr Sutherland's dedicated assistance to the Holy See, mindful of his many years generous service to the international community, especially in the support of migrants, His Holiness entrusts his soul to the merciful love of our heavenly father," the letter said.

Pope Francis also offered mourners his blessing.

Hundreds of mourners joined Mr Sutherland's widow Maruja, sons Shane and Ian, daughter Natalia, other relatives and a list of dignitaries, political and business figures for the mass in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook.

Fr Noel Barber, a teacher at Gonzaga College where Mr Sutherland went to school in the 1960s, paid a glowing tribute.

"This may seem strange to say of one who had Peter's ambition, wealth, prestige and power in high places. Yet it was his faith and the practice of his faith that gave him his moral compass," he said.

Fr Barber said Mr Sutherland carried out countless acts of hidden generosity with his extensive philanthropy known to relatively few people.

"Then there was his passionate devotion to the cause of refugees that the Vatican and the UN called on and that passion came from a deep religious consciousness," the priest said.

"He promoted globalisation because he saw it was a means of lifting billions out of grim poverty and of countering a narrow nationalism, which avoids global responsibility.

"His enthusiasm for the real benefits of globalisation may indeed have blurred his view of its downside but he rightly emphasised its benefit to the poorer countries of the world."

Among those paying respects were President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, former taoiseach Enda Kenny, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, businessman Denis O'Brien and former Ireland rugby captain Keith Wood.

Judge Garrett Sheehan, a lifelong friend, described Mr Sutherland as a proud Irishman, European and an internationalist whose career was fulfilled in his UN role.

"No longer on any board he found his truest and most complete voice in this work," he told mourners.

"In a sense he no longer belonged to himself. He was constantly searching for new ways to promote the cause of migrants, calling always on us Europeans to try and do that bit more.

"This was what he was called to do and he responded generously and fully."

Mr Sutherland studied at University College Dublin and worked as a barrister for more than a decade before being appointed attorney general in 1981, aged 35, in the Fine Gael-Labour coalition, the first of two spells in the job.

He was described in some circles as a "father of globalisation", having promoted the ideas of free trade and competition after being appointed to the European Commission and subsequently establishing the World Trade Organisation in the 1990s.

Mr Sutherland was also forthright in delivering his opinions. As attorney general, he clashed with the government in 1983 over the wording of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, a contentious issue to this day.

In business he had roles as non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs and BP and chairman of Allied Irish Banks.

Mr Sutherland was buried in Kilternan Cemetery.
Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm's trial has been adjourned for two weeks

The trial of the former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank has been adjourned for two weeks to deal with legal arguments.

David Drumm, 51, has pleaded not guilty to two fraud-related offences linked to his running of the lender.

They surround deposits in the bank in 2008.

Drumm is charged with conspiring to "dishonestly" create the false and misleading impression that they were 7.2 billion euro (6.4 billion) larger than they were.

He is also accused of making use of misleading, false or deceptive accounts with the intention of making a gain for himself and causing a loss for depositors.

Drumm sat in the dock at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court dressed in a dark suit.

On Thursday new jurors were sworn after a number were excused from serving.

Judge Karen O'Connor told them they would not be needed until January 29, when the trial is expected to begin.

She said it was not at all unusual for such a step to be taken.

"It happens so that legal arguments can take place," she said.

She again warned jurors to refrain from searching for related information on the internet or discussing the case with anyone else.

Drumm, from Shenick Avenue in Skerries, Co Dublin, was appointed Anglo's chief executive in January 2005 and resigned in December 2008.
A farmer who suffered crush injuries after he was attacked by a cow on a farm died of multi-organ failure, an inquest heard.

Michael Walsh (65) from Donaguile, Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, died at St Jamess Hospital in Dublin on April 21, 2017.

The man, a retired factory operative who lived on the farm with his brother Martin Walsh, was described as a simple and private man by family members.

He was dosing calves when the accident happened on the farm at Donaguile on Friday April 7, 2017, two weeks before his death.

Dublin Coroners Court heard that some of the calves were suffering from scour and Mr Walsh was treating them with medication.

There were no animal handling facilities at the farm, the inquest heard.

The calves were young and as such were easy to handle, but they had not been separated from the cows for the purpose of dosing.

Mr Walsh was fatally injured when one of the cows rushed at him causing extensive crush injuries. He was brought to St Lukes General Hospital in Kilkenny where he was admitted to the intensive care unit and administered painkillers. Medical examinations revealed he had suffered two broken collar bones and a number of broken ribs. His lungs collapsed due to his injuries and he suffered bleeding around the lungs as a result.

Mr Walsh was stabilised but it was clear he had extensive chest injuries. His breathing deteriorated later that day and he was intubated and ventilated to assist his breathing.

On Sunday April 10 Mr Walsh, was transferred to St Jamess Hospital in Dublin where medics had difficulty stabilising his blood pressure. Part of his bowel was damaged due to lack of blood flow and the damaged tissue was removed. His condition continued to deteriorate and on April 19 the decision was made to place him in palliative care. Mr Walsh died at St Jamess on April 21 2017.

The cause of death was multi-organ failure due to crush injuries following an incident on the farm at Donaguile, Co Kilkenny on April 7, according to pathologist Dr Dorinda Mullen.

Health and Safety Inspector Eddie Wall conducted a full investigation into the incident and concluded that no further action was required and no prosecution was recommended. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a verdict of death by misadventure.

Its a very tragic thing to occur, especially in the context of the familys experience, it must have been an incident of just a few seconds with this tragic outcome, the coroner said.

There were 24 deaths in agriculture in 2017, making it the eighth year in a row that this sector recorded the highest number of work related fatalities, according to the Health and Safety Authority.
Irish factories hit a 10-year high in the throughput in sheepmeat, with 2.9 million animals processed.

Hoggets were up 18pc at over 800,000 processed, while spring lamb surged 6pc to 1.69 million and ewes and rams were up 13pc.

Bord Bia's sheep specialist Declan Fennell said New Zealand and Australia account for two thirds of global sheepmeat trade and pointed out the north/south traffic in live sheep was an "integral part" of the sheep sector and Brexit was a serious concern.

At the start of 2017, prices were back 5c/kg on 2016 at 4.77/kg. However, prices surged from the summer onwards amid tightness in supplies. The average prices for new-season lambs reached a record high of 4.84/kg, a 23c/kg rise on the May to December period in 2016.

Exports soared 12pc to 274m.

Mr Fennell pointed out that Easter would come a fortnight early this year on April 1, while the gap between Easter and Ramadan will narrow.

"When we go to 2019, Easter will be around the middle of April and within two weeks we will have Ramadan," he said.

It is estimated the UK market will have a carry over of around one million hoggets.

However, Mr Fennell said he believed there would be less New Zealand lamb exported into the UK next year.

He pointed out the New Zealand breeding flock continues to decline to 17.8 million.
Tillage farmers have been urged to consider growing sugar beet as a push gets underway to revive the industry with a new processing factory.

Michael Hoey, who is behind prepared foods business Country Crest and Beet Ireland campaign group, told farmers gathered at an Irish Grain Growers meeting in Co Wexford that he felt they were moving closer to reviving the once buoyant sugar sector.

It is understood that a potential site has been located close to the Carlow/Kildare border.

Mr Hoey said the timeline on potentially reigniting the sugar beet industry was up to the suppliers who needed to agree to grow the crop as EU sugar quota restrictions have now been lifted.

The customers are there waiting to buy Irish sugar again, the road is free thanks to the government and all the people who made that happen. We can produce a better product than anyone else, he said, adding they felt they would be able to raise the multi-million euro investment for a potential plant.

If you go out there tomorrow and say we want the Irish consumer to buy our produce and we want to produce it. I believe everybody can stand up and listen and it can happen very quickly in this case.

Mr Hoey said the tillage industry has been sliding for quite a while. With those quotas dropped in October just gone, today if you were to produce sugar on your farm or backyard you are legally entitled to do it, he said, adding there were not limits on it.

There are lots of countries out there, especially Arabian countries, that have a need for sugar.

The recent Oireachtas report on the Future of the Tillage Sector from the Joint Committee on Agriculture called for a review of the potential opportunities in the sugar beet industry.

The sugar industry came to a halt in Ireland over a decade ago after the EU introduced a restructuring scheme for the industry, with incentives for less-efficient countries to exit the sector.

Plants such as Mallow and Carlow were shut, with compensation paid to Greencore and to beet growers.

Chair of the committee, Fine Gael TD, Pat Deering, acknowledged there would be challenges in resurrecting the industry. He said their aim was to kick start a discussions with the wide-ranging report as the tillage industry is at a crossroads.

Bobby Miller from the Irish Grain Growers group said farmers must begin to market their crops better and a positive voice was needed for tillage at the table as negotiations on CAP get underway.

The groups Clive Carter pointed out 3.5 million tonnes of feed are imported into Ireland each year and there were real opportunities there for the industry.

He said there was a need for a quality assurance scheme payment such as that in place for beef and lamb for producing fully-traceable Irish grain.

We are also keen to stress that there needs to be more marketing of Irish grain, he said.

On malting barley, the groups Colm Fingleton said it should be a premium crop that farmers want to grow but the current pricing system for the year ahead was going to ensure growers reduced their acreage.

We are sitting back and letting them have this product for 1pc of the price of a pint, he said.

Mr Fingleton said they intended to lobby as a specialist tillage group led by volunteers representing farmers as they urged people to sign up at a cost of 50.
A landmark study of women working in financial services in Ireland has revealed a "staggering" gap between women and men occupying senior executive roles in the sector, prompting calls for the introduction of gender targets.

The study commissioned by the 30% Club has revealed that 87pc of CEO positions are held by men, despite a 50/50 split of men and women working here in financial services.

In a finding that poses significant challenges to attitudes towards women working in financial services, one in five men said they believed "personal choice" is the biggest barrier to female career progression.

The study, published today, comes as separate research by the Irish Independent found that just 3pc of venture capital in Ireland goes to female-founded companies.

Yesterday the National Women's Council of Ireland called for laws to be introduced that oblige companies to publish pay information broken down by gender and called for the introduction of quotas to increase the representation of women on boards of private companies.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan told a Government symposium on gender pay that, over the past year, the gap has "gripped the public imagination as never before".

Expand Close FBD chief executive Fiona Muldoon  one of only three female CEOs of an ISE-listed company  described the executive divide in Irelands financial sector as 'staggering'. Photo: Damien Eagers / Facebook

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Mr Flanagan said there was an element of "injustice" in the current pay regime and that he was anxious to address that "imbalance".

Writing in today's 'Business Week', FBD chief executive Fiona Muldoon - one of only three female CEOs of an ISE-listed company - described the executive divide in Ireland's financial sector as "staggering".

"We urgently need to pick up the pace of change," writes Ms Muldoon, who says gender balance needs to be addressed more widely at executive level and all layers of management.

The survey, conducted on behalf of the 30% Club by Coyne Research, reveals that parents working in the sector believe flexibility with start and working times - as well as companies facilitating remote working - were the top policies companies should have in place.

But more than four out of 10 are afraid that if they avail of flexible working arrangements, it will harm their career.

The study found that only 3pc of men had taken advantage of a reduced schedule, where available, compared to 31pc of women.

Ms Muldoon said parents must be provided with real choices at all career levels.

The 30% Club survey, sponsored by AIB, polled 23 blue chip companies representing more than 42,000 employees across banking, fund services and insurance. In addition, 1,671 individuals took part.

Carol Andrews, MD of BNY Mellon, Ireland country lead for the 30% Club, said there are clear markers in the report as to how the gender deficit at senior levels in the financial services sector can be addressed.

Ms Andrews said while people are "naturally sensitive" to targets and quotas, they can provide a clearer path towards gender parity at senior levels.

"We believe they should be implemented at all management levels to ensure the pipeline is more balanced all the way up to the most senior executive level," she said.
Tesco experienced its highest rate of market share growth in the Republic of Ireland for five years, contributing to the retailer recording its best ever Christmas sales.

In the Republic of Ireland sales were up 4pc during the Christmas period, while sales were up 3.3pc overall in Ireland in the three months to 31 December.

In the UK like-for-like sales growth of 1.9pc, driven by a 3.4pc like-for-like increase in sales of food, was offset by ongoing drag from general merchandise and lost tobacco sales due to the Palmer & Harvey integration.

"Our trading momentum accelerated across the third quarter and into December, with the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day delivering record sales and volumes in the UK," Dave Lewis, chief executive of Tesco, said.

"Incorporating Palmer & Harvey volumes and complexity during this peak period was challenging, resulting in lost tobacco sales across December and putting further strain into our distribution network, particularly post-Christmas...these challenges have now been resolved, [but] they took the shine off an otherwise outstanding performance for the period as a whole," Mr Lewis said.

Tesco recorded 58 million customer transactions and 770,000 online grocery deliveries in the key Christmas week, according to a trading update from the company.

Outside of Ireland and the UK, the retail giant experienced "positive" like-for-like sales growth of 0.8pc in Central Europe in the three month period, as it improved its customer offering.

However in Asia, sales were down almost 10pc in the three month period, which the company said reflected the ongoing impact of ceasing unprofitable bulk selling activities in Thailand.

Looking forwards Tesco said it was confident in the outlook for the full year and that it was firmly on track to deliver its medium-term ambitions.
FBD CEO Fiona Muldoon, one of only three female chief executives of an ISE-listed firm, says the pace of change must accelerate

A landmark study of women working in financial services in Ireland has revealed a "staggering" gap between women and men occupying senior executive roles in the sector, prompting calls for the introduction of gender targets.

The study - commissioned by the 30% Club, a global organisation that campaigns on the issue - has revealed that 87pc of CEO positions are held by men. This is despite a 50/50 split of men and women working in financial services here.

One level down from CEO, men hold 72pc of leadership roles. It is only four levels down from CEO where women outnumber men at a 54pc female to 46pc male split.

In a finding that poses significant challenges to attitudes towards women working in financial services, one in five men said that they believed that "personal choice" is the biggest barrier to female career progression.

The 30% Club study of women in financial services, published today, comes as separate research by the Irish Independent found that just 3pc of venture capital in Ireland goes to female-founded companies.

Of 781m placed in 153 tech and biotech companies in Ireland last year, just 24m went to a firm with a woman at or near the helm.

Of 132 VC-funded Irish tech firms founded by men, all have a male CEO. By comparison, 12 of the 21 VC-funded Irish tech firms with a female co-founded have a woman as CEO

Yesterday, the National Women's Council of Ireland called for laws to be introduced that oblige companies to publish pay information broken down by gender and called for the introduction of quotas to increase the representation of women on boards of private companies.

Writing in today's Business Week, FBD CEO Fiona Muldoon - one of only three female CEOs of an ISE-listed company - described the executive divide in the financial sector here as "staggering".

"We urgently need to pick up the pace of change," writes Ms Muldoon, who says that gender balance needs to be addressed more widely at executive level and all layers of management.

The survey conducted on behalf of the 30% Club by Coyne Research, reveals that parents working in the sector believe that flexibility with start and working times, as well as companies facilitating remote working, were the top policies firms should have in place.

But more than four out of 10 are afraid that if they avail of flexible working arrangements it will harm their career.

The study found that only 3pc of men availed of a reduced schedule, where available, compared to 31pc of women.

Ms Muldoon said that parents must be provided with real choices at all career levels.

The 30% Club survey, sponsored by AIB, polled 23 leading companies representing more than 42,000 employees across banking, fund services and insurance. In addition, 1,671 individuals took part.

Carol Andrews, MD of BNY Mellon and Ireland country lead for the 30% Club, said that there are clear markers in the report as to how the gender deficit at senior levels in the financial services sector can be addressed.

Ms Andrews said that whilst people are "naturally sensitive" to targets and quotas, they can provide a clearer path towards gender parity at senior levels.

"We believe they should be implemented at all management levels to ensure the pipeline is more balanced all the way up to the most senior executive level," she said.

Yesterday, Orla O'Connor, director of the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI), told a Government symposium on gender pay that an increasing gap still exists - it is currently 14pc - and argued it was time for the Government to take serious actions to close it.

"We must look at addressing wider inequalities for women that feed into the gender pay gap, such as the high proportion of women working in low-paid sectors, such as retail, childcare or the hospitality sector," she said. "Aligning the minimum wage with the living wage, and investing in affordable, accessible, quality childcare will all positively impact greater pay equality."

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan told the Dublin event that over the past year, the gender pay gap has "gripped the public imagination as never before".

Mr Flanagan said there was an element of "injustice" in the current pay regime and that he was anxious to address that "imbalance".

Dr Orlaigh Quinn, secretary general of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, told the symposium that she is just the eighth women in the history of the State to reach such a senior level in the civil service. Dr Quinn said pay transparency exists in the civil service, but that there are issues with women in senior leadership roles. She added that the disparity arises because there are not enough women coming forward for senior level roles.

In August, the Government launched a public consultation paper on how to tackle the gender pay gap. Mr Flanagan said 38 written responses were received. Responses to a question about why the pay gap existed produced a range of responses, from undervaluing of work and skills associated with women, to difficulties balancing work and family responsibilities, including access to childcare.
Accumulated profits at Co Kerry financial services and money transfer firm Fexco jumped by 16m to 304m in 2016.

The company employs 2,000 people in 29 countries across the world and has its HQ in Killorglin, Co Kerry.

Fexco Holdings re-registered as an unlimited company in 2010 and as a result is no longer required to file annual accounts with the Companies Office.

The company's last filed accounts at the Companies Office took place in 2009 for its 2008 performance.

However, it has published a summary financial statement on its website and they show that the company's balance sheet strengthened further in 2016.

The financial statement reveals that Fexco's consolidated balance sheet shows that accumulated profits increased by 16m, going from 288m to 304m in the 12 months to the end of December 2016.

During the same period, Fexco's cash pile increased from 159m to 173m.

At the end of December 2016, the financial statement states that the group was in a strong financial position at year end with new assets of 337m.

The extract from the company's statutory financial statements states that Fexco Holdings Unlimited Company's principal activity is the provision of dynamic currency conversion, bureau de change, investment services, including stockbroking and financial services, managed business solutions and outsourcing, international money transfer and property management services.

It operates in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, South America and Australasia.

Founded and headquartered in Ireland in 1981, Fexco today serves some of the world's biggest brands across multiple industries through a wide range of innovative products and processes more than $10bn in transactions annually.

According to a company statement on its website "Fexco is financially strong and occupies market-leading positions in a number of countries and across various products within its portfolio".
Conor McGregor goes toe to toe on stage in a mock brawl with entrepreneur Richard Branson at the Pendulum Summit 2018 in Dublin yesterday. Photo: Conor McCabe

Conor McGregor got one of the biggest cheers of the day when he made an unexpected appearance at the Pendulum Summit in Dublin.

The crowds roared with laughter when McGregor and Richard Branson both removed their tops and did a mock 'squaring up' to each to each other.

Mr Branson was the much-anticipated guest at the event in the Convention Centre yesterday evening - but McGregor's sudden appearance nearly brought the house down. He came on stage to present Mr Branson with a gift, and said a few words. The UFC star said that key to his sporting success was working hard and remaining true to himself.

The grin stretched from ear to ear on Mr Branson's face.

Prior to that, it had been an interesting chat from the world famous businessman.

"When you are in business you have two critical things, your brand and your reputation, and you have to do your best to promote it and then to protect it," was his message.

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In November last year, Forbes estimated Mr Branson's net wealth to be $5.1bn (4.2bn).

Meanwhile, it was a tour-de-force for all the speakers who graced the stage at the first day of the summit.

There wasn't an empty seat to be had in the Convention Centre, in Dublin, for the event billed as the "world's leading business and self-empowerment summit".

Entrepreneur Michelle Mone held the audience spellbound throughout an engaging and heartfelt talk that traced her roots growing up in Glasgow, to leaving school at 15, and eventually setting up her own Ultimo lingerie company, which made her a millionaire.

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She sold the business a few years ago, but is now planning the launch of new brand which may be called Michelle Mone Intimates, she revealed to the Irish Independent.

She is now touring the world and involved in nine new businesses.

"So guys, how did I get here today from the east end of Glasgow having absolutely nothing?" she asked,

In her speech, she said: "You need balls of steel. We all have our knocks, and those knocks throw us on the floor and make us feel so hurt inside that if we don't dust ourselves down and get up, we will never be able to fly higher and keep growing as human beings. I never ever take no for an answer," she said.

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Hypnotist Keith Barry had the audience on the edge of their seats with his compelling stage performance.

It turns out that big things are on the cards for the star this year.

He will be appearing on prime time television state-side after shooting a new series for Fox, he revealed to the Irish Independent.
The banks are going to have to make up their own mind on what to do and judge customer responses accordingly (Stock photo)

Q: From a customer service perspective how do you view the recent changes in banks where they have removed most of the human contact and replaced it with automated machines, telephone hotlines etc.?

A: A lot depends on the type of customer you are. In today's busy environment, lots of people are really happy to run in and quickly use an automated service or to even go on line from the comfort of their phone.

The problem however, is that might not suit everyone, especially those that are elderly or simply not comfortable with the automated process. The banks are going to have to make up their own mind on what to do and judge customer responses accordingly.

I watched a very interesting video on line recently from Tandem Bank, a relatively new UK bank. In the video, a hidden camera crew took over a pub and replaced all the staff with actors. They then applied typically bank customer service levels and procedures to the pub customers. Some customers found their pint glass chained to the counter, others were asked to sign disclaimer forms before they ordered their dinner, while more customers were left in a shocked condition when chatting to one of the bar staff, mid-sentence, the staff member pressed a Dictaphone which played on hold music announcing "sorry I have to put you on hold, you are on to the wrong staff".

The final line in the humorous Tandem ad was, "you wouldn't tolerate this level of service in your local pub! Why would you tolerate it from a bank!". Clearly this new bank sees an opportunity to offer a much more personalised service which respects customers and seems to put them centre stage. What will be interesting is to see do enough customers respond and make their efforts worthwhile. This will be an interesting case study to follow and perhaps something that the Irish banks will be monitoring closely.

Q: I run a food manufacturing business. I produce over 30 different products, do all my own deliveries and am starting to get more involved in marketing. How do I go about exporting my product?

A: The simple answer to your question is that you engage with Bord Bia who have fantastic supports in the export market and will be able to identify territories most appropriate to your product and provide you with market insight for these territories.

However, before you think about exporting, you need to ask a more fundamental question which is, are you ready to export? You should be praised for where you have got the business to now, but there are clear signals coming from your email that this is a one-man band and that you are stretched to the limit. There is also the possibility, although I can't be certain without seeing the figures, that you could be producing too many products. As a general rule within the food sector "less is more" and by focusing on a narrower higher volume range, it would be easier for you to run the business.

For one moment I don't want to take away what you have achieved, but it would be great if you were to first saturate the Irish market place and ensure you have a very streamlined operation before you even consider exporting.

This would ensure that you have a robust commercial model generating significant revenues before you expose the business to any export risks. The other advantage is that greater sales and profitability might allow you to take on more staff in the business and decrease the current over-reliance on your own role. It would also be a good idea to talk to some existing producers who are further long in their journey and get some advice from them. My overall message is congratulatory on what you have already achieved, but with a slight caution that there is a danger you could over-extend yourself.
Fraudsters making false car insurance claims are getting away with it because they are not being prosecuted, a leading judicial figure said.

Former High Court president Nicholas Kearns warned Ireland has a huge problem with fraudulent motor claims, and there appeared to be no punishment for lying in court.

Meanwhile, insurers have been accused of creative accounting to justify their soaring premiums.

Mr Kearns said there were few deterrents for fraudsters.

"There is a significant amount of fraud permeating the motor claims scenario," he said.

The insurance industry estimates that fraud costs around 200m a year.

But the former High Court president said the true figure was a multiple of this as that figure only represented the levels of fraud that were detected. And it did not account for exaggerated claims.

There were three reasons for the high level of fraud, he told 'Today With Sean O'Rouke' on RTE Radio.

He said settlements for claims were large in this country, which encouraged fake claims; there was also very little chance of detection for those making false claims; and the other factor encouraging fraudulent claims was that few fraudsters were ever prosecuted for perjury.

Mr Kearns said the chances of a fraudster being charged with perjury were "infinitesimal".

But he praised the fact that judges have "rumbled" a number of fraudulent claimants lately.

Mr Kearns now heads up the Government's Personal Injuries Commission, which is looking at levels of award in this country and comparing them to those in other states.

Asked about solicitors taking cases they know to be questionable, he said: "I know the Law Society is very anxious to stamp it out as it does not reflect well on them."

His comments come as a leading critic of the insurance industry accused it of engaging in creative accounting to justify spiralling premiums.

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Dorothea Dowling, who is former chairwoman of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board, questioned the justification for premiums rising by 70pc in the past three years.

Ms Dowling said an official insurance report showed the cost of claims only rose by 3pc between 2013 and 2015.

Her comments came a year after the Government's Cost of Insurance Working Group, set up by Minister Eoghan Murphy, recommended a range of reforms to cut the cost of cover.
Microsoft said fixes for flaws in microchips from Intel and rivals could meaningfully degrade performance. Photo: Bloomberg

Microsoft has said software patches released to guard against microchip security threats slowed down some personal computers and servers, with systems running on older Intel processors seeing a noticeable decrease in performance.

The comments in a blog post were the clearest signal from Microsoft that fixes for flaws in microchips from Intel and rivals described last week could meaningfully degrade performance.

The topic is of keen interest to large data centre operators, which could incur significant cost increases if computers slow down.

Microsoft also said that security updates froze some computers using chipsets from Intel rival AMD, dragging AMD's shares down nearly 4pc.

Shares in Intel, which reiterated on Tuesday that it saw no sign of significant slowdown in computers, fell 2.5pc - taking the loss since the issue surfaced last week to about 7pc or around $15bn (12.5bn) in market value.

AMD shares have gained nearly 20pc in the last week as investors speculated that the chipmaker could wrest market share from Intel, whose chips were most exposed to the security flaws.

Security researchers disclosed the flaws on January 3 that affected nearly every modern computing device containing chips from Intel, AMD and ARM, owned by Japan's SoftBank Group.

"We (and others in the industry) had learned of this vulnerability under non-disclosure agreement several months ago and immediately began developing engineering mitigations and updating our cloud infrastructure," Microsoft executive Terry Myerson wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

Internet and networking equipment maker Cisco Systems said in a security advisory updated on Tuesday that it has identified 18 vulnerable products, including some of its blade servers, rack servers and routers, and expects to have patches for servers in about five weeks, on February 18.

Cisco said it is also looking for problems in nearly 30 other products, including switches and routers. The majority of Cisco's products were not vulnerable because they are "closed systems that do not allow customers to run custom code on the device", it said.

The memory corruption flaws, named Meltdown and Spectre, could allow hackers to bypass operating systems and other security software to steal passwords or encryption keys on most types of computers, phones and cloud-based servers.

ARM Holdings estimated that around 5pc of more than 120 billion chips its partners have shipped since 1991 was impacted by Spectre. It said the number of chips affected by Meltdown was significantly less.

"ARM will address Spectre in future processors but there will need to be an ongoing discipline in the design of secure systems which needs to be addressed through both software and hardware," a company spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Intel and AMD have not disclosed the number of chips affected by the security flaws.

Intel said a typical home and business PC user should not see significant slowdowns in common tasks such as reading email, writing a document or accessing digital photos. The chipmaker said last week that fixes for security issues in its microchips would not slow down computers, rebuffing concerns that the flaws would significantly reduce performance.

Rival AMD had also played down the threat, saying its products were at "zero risk" from the Meltdown flaw, but that one variant of the Spectre bug could be resolved by software updates from vendors such as Microsoft.

But on Tuesday AMD said it was aware of an issue with some older-generation processors following the installation of a Microsoft security update that was published over the weekend.

Microsoft said it was working with AMD to resolve the issues.

Apple also released an updated version of its operating system software on Monday to fix the security flaw. (Reuters)
McDonagh poses with cast members Farrell and Gleeson at the premiere of "In Bruges"

Golden Globe winner Martin McDonagh has revealed he is writing another movie to reunite In Bruges stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.

He added that this time it will be set in Ireland in a previous era.

The two Irish stars won rave reviews when they appeared in the hit 2008 film, which McDonagh wrote and directed.

Now the London-Irish writer, who picked up a Golden Globe at the weekend for his screenplay for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, said he was working on another film to bring the actors back together.

happy

"I've been working on one over the past couple of years, something to try and get - I shouldn't really say it because it will go crazy on the internet - something to get Colin and Brendan back together," he said.

"It's not quite right and I don't want to follow up In Bruges with something that is not as good because we were all happy with that.

"But I'm going to keep working on it and I think it will be west of Ireland set and not set in the present day."

Farrell and Gleeson played two hitmen hiding out in the Flemish city after a job went drastically wrong in In Bruges.

McDonagh (47), who was born in London to Irish parents, is on a roll following the success of Three Billboards, which also won the Golden Globe for best film.

He is being strongly tipped for an Oscar nomination, both as a screenwriter and director. He previously won an Oscar in 2006 for a short film, Six Shooter, which also starred Gleeson.

McDonagh originally shot to fame with his Irish-based plays including The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lonesome West, The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

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Talking of Three Billboards, McDonagh, whose last film in 2012, Seven Psychopaths, starred Colin Farrell, said he wanted to make a female-led movie.

The film stars Frances McDormand - who also won a best actress Golden Globe on Sunday - as a devastated mother whose daughter has been murdered and who is getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of results in the police investigation.

She decides to put up advertisements on three billboards attacking the police.

McDonagh told RTE's Today with Maura and Daithi: "I wanted to write a really strong female lead because the last two films weren't really strong female leads."

The writer and director said he currently had no plans to turn any of his own plays into movies.

"Most films made from plays are awful. Even mine would be awful, it's simply the rule," he said.

Three Billboards also won a fourth Golden Globe for Sam Rockwell as best supporting actor.
The David Drumm fraud trial jury lost seven members this morning after the judge excused them from serving.

The seven jurors had been sworn in yesterday along with eight other jurors to serve in the trial of former Anglo-Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm who is charged with conspiracy to defraud and false accounting. He pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Judge Karen O'Connor had told potential jurors yesterday that the trial could take up to five months which would be a considerable time commitment for jury members.

The 12 member norm for juries was expanded to 15 for the Drumm case to deal the potential problems of jurors no longer being capable of continuing to serve as the weeks go by.

This morning, as the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court sitting got underway, Judge O'Connor announced that she had received correspondence from some jurors about their personal circumstances. She considered their requests overnight and she said she had decided to allow them be excused.

Referring to some of the requests, she said she was excusing them due to the time commitments of serving in the jury. The circumstances of three of the jurors meant it was "completely and utterly acceptable to excuse them."

The judge spoke with three other members of the jury and she also excused them from serving.

A seventh member of the original jury was excused shortly before 11am after a female juror asked to speak to the judge. The woman had told the judge yesterday she had "no excuses" not to serve but today she was allowed to approach the judge and she spoke quietly to her.

The judge then excused her and the empanelling process continued. Almost half of the jury was therefore being replaced today.

The loss of three men and four women from jury necessitated the empanelling of seven more members and the process of filling the empty positions began this morning.

Yesterday, 15 jurors were selected out of 97 people whose names were called by the court registrar. The majority of the 97 offered reasons why they should be excused and those excuses were accepted.

Mr Drumm is charged with conspiring with former Anglo executives John Bowe and Willie McAteer, former Irish Life and Permanent chief executive Denis Casey and others to defraud depositors, lenders and investors at Anglo by dishonestly creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were 7.2bn larger than they were.

Mr Drumm (51), who lives in Skerries, Co. Dublin, sat in the dock of the court today dressed in a dark suit and an open-necked blue shirt.
A husband charged with the murder of his wife Anne Colomines, who died following a stabbing in her apartment in Dublin, has been further remanded in custody pending directions from the Director off public prosecutions (DPP).

The body of Ms Colomines who was originally from France but lived in Dublin for several years with her husband Renato Gehlen was found on the night of October 24 last after she sustained stab wounds.

Gardai in Mountjoy responded to a call at approximately 11.30pm of an incident at the their home at Dorset Square Apartments in Dublin 1.

The senior team leader in PayPal and cat rescue volunteer, who was aged 37, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her 35-year-old Brazilian husband Renato Gehlen, who also had serious injuries was hospitalised for several days, following the discovery of Ms Colomines body.

However, he was remanded in custody on November 13 after he was charged with her murder.

He faced his fourth hearing when he appeared via video-link at Cloverhill District Court today and was further remanded in custody by Judge Victor Blake to appear again on January 25 next for directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions to be obtained.

The accused spoke briefly to confirm he understood and consented to appearing via video-link at his next hearing.

At his first court appearance in November, Garda Sergeant Kenneth Hoare said in response to the charge after caution, he had no reply to make.

A bail application will have to be made in the High Court because he is facing a murder charge.
A desperate mother shouted to her baby girl "Stephanie, don't leave us" as she found the child in her cot with blood coming from her nose and mouth.

An inquest at Dublin Coroner's Court heard yesterday that 19-month-old Stephanie Fazylova tragically died after swallowing tiny pieces of plastic that lodged in the lining of her oesophagus.

Stephanie was sleeping in her cot at her parents' bedside at their home in Grace Park Heights, Drumcondra, Dublin, when her mother Jelena Fazylova heard her cough at 6am on June 26, 2016.

"It sounded like she was going to vomit. I sat up and looked at her and then saw blood starting to come from her nose and mouth," Ms Fazylova told the inquest. "I started shouting. I said, 'Stephanie, don't leave us'."

Her husband, Alexander Fazylov, jumped out of bed and called an ambulance.

He had minded Stephanie and her older brother Ben the previous day. The children had eaten lunch, played on their trampoline and travelled with their father to collect their mother from work. They ate dinner together and at 9pm Stephanie was put to bed and she slept the "whole night through", Mr Fazylov said.

The baby was rushed to Temple Street Children's Hospital. Despite doctors' best efforts, Stephanie was pronounced dead later that day.

A post mortem gave the cause of death as haemorrhage and shock due to an oesophageal ulcerative lesion, due to foreign body of indeterminate nature.

"On the inside part of the oesophagus I found an ulcer trying to heal itself," said pathologist Dr Deirdre Devaney.

The ulcer had become inflamed and caused the lining of the oesophagus to disintegrate close to a blood vessel. When the blood vessel became inflamed, it burst and caused the bleeding that claimed the child's life.

Under a microscope, tiny splinters of foreign material were found that appeared to have penetrated the wall of the child's oesophagus. Dr Devaney described the material as small clear pieces of plastic or perspex that dissolved during the chemical process used to identify it.

"Many children swallow foreign objects like pennies, coins or batteries. This was just extremely unfortunate that a splinter found its way in and damaged the blood vessel wall."

The court heard the baby had been off her food for a few days three weeks earlier. She was taken to Temple Street but recovered her appetite and was well up to the day of her death.

A verdict of death by misadventure was returned.
An 18-year-old youth charged with the murder of a Japanese man in a stabbing in Dundalk last week was not fit to attend a court hearing today.

Mohamed Morei, who was remanded in custody last week after he was charged with the murder of 24-year-old Yosuke Sasaki, is under-going treatment in the Central Mental Hospital (CMH), Judge Victor Blake was told.

Mr Sasaki was fatally stabbed on Avenue Road shortly before 9am on January 3 last.

Mr Sasaki from Ebina, west of Tokyo, worked at National Pen, a call centre in Dundalk, Co. Louth and had lived in Ireland for the past year.

Following his death, an Irish man was injured when he was stabbed a short time later on Coes Road in Dundalk. At 9.40am, gardai received a report that another local man was injured in an attack with a fence pole at Seatown Place.

Mr Morei, whose nationality has to be confirmed, was remanded in custody by Dundalk District Court on January 4 last after he was charged with the murder of Mr Sasaki. Garda Inspector Martin Beggy had said at the hearing that there was an issue with the defendants nationality which was undetermined at present.

A bail application will have to be made in the High Court because he is facing a murder charge.

About 1,500 people crowded into Dundalk town centre earlier this week for a candle lit vigil to remember Mr Sasaki. A fund-raising drive in Ireland has also begun to cover the costs of his repatriation.

Mr Morei was due to face his second hearing at Cloverhill District Court on Thursday, however, when the case was called Judge Victor Blake was informed that he was not able to attend the hearing.

Defence counsel Aoife OHalloran told the court that it was her understanding that Mr Morei was not fit to attend.

Judge Blake said he had been furnished with a letter from a forensic psychiatrist at the CMH where the accused was under-going medical treatment and he was unfit to attend the court hearing. It was the doctors opinion that Mr Morei would also be unfit to come to court in two weeks time, Judge Blake said.

He further remanded the accused in custody in his absence and adjourned the case until January 25 next when the case will be listed for mention. He also asked for an updated letter from the doctor and his team.
1. Register for the CAO. If you haven't already registered for the CAO, do so immediately. Many applicants delay this step as they feel they are not ready to complete the application.

However, no applicant will be at a disadvantage for completing this step early. Applicants can continue to work on their application until the deadline of February. The CAO offers applicants a discounted rate of 30 to register by January 20. The application form is very straightforward and allows applicants to save their work and return at any time. The most difficult part of the CAO process is deciding which courses to apply for and the order in which to place them.

2. Read over course descriptions and CAO student resources

It is likely that applicants have been reading course descriptions and attending open days since September. At this point, it is possible that all that information is starting to merge. Choosing courses is not a light-bulb moment, rather a gradual process. It is prudent to remind yourself of the details of the courses you are considering - this will help with placing them in order of preference at a later date. Applicants should also revisit the student resource section of the CAO website to ensure they have a clear understanding of the CAO process.

3. Check eligibility for HEAR, DARE and SUSI

Applicants may be familiar with these two access schemes and the SUSI grant, but all too often students who should qualify are unaware of their eligibility and don't apply. For example, DARE stands for Disability Access Route to Education, but often students who do not identify as having a disability are covered by this scheme. Double check the criteria, especially the income thresholds for HEAR and SUSI, and indicate your intent to apply on your CAO form where appropriate.

4. Place courses in order of preference

All CAO courses should be listed in order of preference only. In my experience, applicants often have a small number of courses, which will be at the top of their preference list, but after these, things become less clear. It can be helpful to return to the order of preference list a number of times as the process of trying to order courses in itself can force applicants to drill down into the slight differences between courses and colleges. Do this early and revisit often.

5. Make an appointment with your guidance counsellor

This is a very busy time of year in schools. It is likely a large number of sixth-year students will also wish to meet the counsellor before February 1. The counsellor can help in a number of ways: suggesting extra courses based on what you have already found; discussing the pros and cons of your courses; challenging your ideas and helping clarify your order of preference list. Rushed appointments are no help to anyone, so book one early and prepare well for it.

Aoife Walsh is a guidance counsellor at Malahide Community School, Co Dublin
Ireland is in the throes of flu season

Ireland will be flu-hit for weeks to come although the worst may be over, health officials said today.

Around 20,000 people with flu and other respiratory viruses swamped GP surgeries last week.

Flu rates have risen but may have peaked, the HSE said.

However, it is likely to continue to circulate at intense levels for another month or more.

The HSE said that officially the number of deaths from flu is still under ten but it will take time to determine the real toll the virus has had on patients.

Although numbers of cases are high it is not regarded as a severe season.

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Hospitals, which are continuing to struggle with the trolley crisis, saw a surge in flu cases, said HSE 's head of public health Dr Kevin Kelleher.

Around 500 patients with flu and other respiratory viruses were admitted last week to the eight hospitals across the country which are monitored to measure activity.

However, this does not capture the flu-stricken patients in some forty other hospitals, he added.

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The highest rate of flu is now seen in adults, compared to early January when children were most affected.

Dr Cillian de Gascun of the UCD Virus Reference Laboratory as the AH3N2 strain, popularly known as Aussie flu, is proving a threat but the dominant risk is a B strain, not covered by the standard flu vaccine.

Although it does not cover this strain, the advice is to still get the flu vaccine for the best protection.

HSE head of acute hospitals Dr Liam Woods indicated that many hospitals will not be able to carry out regular surgery on waiting list patients until the end of the month.

All urgent surgery is going ahead.
The disruption for schools will be severe if the flu crisis continues for a prolonged period. Stock Image: Getty Images

The flu crisis coupled with the ongoing substitute shortage will cause the 'perfect storm' for schools, principals have warned.

David Ruddy, president of the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN), said the number of available substitute teachers dropped dramatically in recent months. A text register of available substitute teachers around the country for this week showed it was 200 down on the same time last year.

Mr Ruddy said teachers could feel under pressure to return to work despite feeling ill as a result of the substitution crisis.

His concerns were echoed by Peter Mullan of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (Into), who said it feared the flu crisis would severely affect teachers.

Teachers groups have advised members to follow the advice of the HSE and remain at home if they suffer any symptoms of flu.

They are also urging parents to keep children at home to avoid the spread of the influenza, echoing a call made by Health Minister Simon Harris last week.

But the disruption for schools will be severe if the flu crisis continues for a prolonged period.

Mr Ruddy said between "the substitute crisis and now with the flu we've found ourselves in a perfect storm".

Read more: Flu map reveals worst hit areas of Ireland

He said the body was working on getting short-term measures in place to alleviate the problem. This would include lifting the limit of 90 days working for teachers on a career break, lifting on a temporary basis the five-day limit on unqualified people including trainee teachers and easing the requirements on fully qualified teachers from abroad for conditional registration.

"We in IPPN are really worried about the availability of substitutes. Teachers are going to get sick. If you are in a class of 30 and 10 of them are sneezing, within the whole school setup it's rife for infection. We don't have enough subs as it is without this flu crisis," he added.

Mr Mullan said his organisation was concerned that the flu crisis would severely affect teachers.

"We are keeping the situation under review and hoping it doesn't get worse. The advice is very, very clear to teachers - stay at home. If you have suspected flu you should remain at home for five days from when the symptoms began and that's very clear.

"We are in the middle of a substitute crisis for the past number of months, where subs are just not available and teachers are very aware of this. So some teachers with flu will probably try and go in," he added.

Mr Mullan said in light of the "severe substitute crisis" the body was keeping a close eye on how the flu might affect schools.

"We are keeping it under review. We would have concern that this could potentially impact on schools but I think if everybody follows the advice, particularly if parents follow the advice and keep children at home, we can manage this," he said.

"We also recognise that parents are under pressure with regard to childminding and that it can be very difficult for them to get cover for a sick child.

"But the advice to parents is keep the children at home if they are showing signs of it because it will only make the situation worse."

The lack of teachers is said to be due to a number of factors - unequal pay, irregular work and the fact that Irish teachers are in demand all over the world.

"We've huge recruitment of Irish teachers all over the world but particularly in the Middle East," Mr Mullan added.
A murderer convicted of killing a man in Tallaght in 2013 has been found dead in his cell in Mountjoy Prison.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) confirmed this morning that a prisoner was found unresponsive in his cell on Wednesday morning. The prisoner was later pronounced dead.

Independent.ie understands the prisoner was Trevor Corr.

Corr (41) had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of James Humphries (32) at Kiltalown Way in Tallaght on September 22, 2013. This plea was not accepted by the State.

On December 21 2015 a Central Criminal Court jury found Corr guilty by unanimous verdict of murdering Mr Humphries at Kiltalown Way in Tallaght.

During his trial the court heard how Corr fatally stabbed Mr Humphries as he lay in a bed.

In a statement to Independent.ie IPS said that the prisoner's death "will be investigated by prison Management and by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons who examines all deaths in custody.

"The cause of death will be determined by a coroner inquest in due course."
Dog owners are obliged to clean up after their dogs

A Cork councillor has called for stricter dog fouling laws after it was revealed that only four fines have been issued in the county in the past 20 years.

Cllr Ken O'Flynn (FF) said that dog fouling is an "epidemic in every town, city and urban district" in Ireland.

It was revealed by the Irish Examiner that only four dog fouling fines have been issued in Cork in the past 20 years.

All four fines were issued in April and May of last year when Cork City Council ran its Dog Fouling Awareness Campaign, which included art school competitions, the provisions of free dog fouling bags and radio ads.

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The council invested 32,571 into the Dog Fouling Committee but Cllr O'Flynn believes that money could be better spent to tackle the problem.

The Fianna Fail representative suggested that the money could be invested into putting "extra staff on the streets" as there is only one dog inspector employed by the council.

"We don't have a proper, well-organised dog ownership database in the country," he told Newstalk Breakfast.

"The burden of proof is extremely difficult [for the dog inspector]. You'll have people saying 'that's not my dog, I don't own this dog' and how can you prove otherwise?"

Cllr O'Flynn said that dog fouling has become a major issue for wheelchair users and those wheeling prams.

In February, a woman, who asked not to be named, said she suffered bad bruising to her wrist after slipping on dog waste.

"I slipped on waste, badly injuring my wrist. The Blarney Street area was badly littered with dog waste that day, it was everywhere and unavoidable," she told Independent.ie at the time.

"At the start of the following week I presented at Cork County Council and showed litter staff my bruised and swollen wrist and asked for Blarney Street to be cleaned."

She sent further correspondence to the Council - asking why they do not enforce more fines for the offence.

They responded: "The difficulty in issuing fines lies in the fact that the litter wardens must witness the offence or a member of the public must be willing to come forward as a witness and be willing to give evidence in court."

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Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Cllr O'Flynn suggested a system whereby each dog should wear a green tag that matches his name and details to a nationwide dog ownership database.

If the dog is spotted without the green tag, his owner would receive an on-the-spot fine.

Cllr O'Flynn believes that in Ireland the attitude to dog fouling was too "relaxed" compared to other European countries.

He said "in mainland Europe you'd have people shouting down the street after you" if you didn't clean up after your dog.
Australian police have urged the public not to approach an Irishman who they are searching for.

New South Wales Police said that Daniel Twohig is wanted in relation to an outstanding police warrant following several offences, including assaulting a police officer.

They said: "Daniel Twohig, aged 31, is wanted in relation to an outstanding conviction warrant for numerous offences, including assault police officer and resist police officer causing actual bodily harm.

In a post on their Facebook page, NSW Police said they believe that Daniel (31) has overstayed his visa and may have travelled to Victoria.

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He is described as being of Caucasian appearance, of a medium build, with brown hair and brown eyes.

They added that "anyone who sees Mr Twohig is urged not to approach him, but to contact police immediately by calling Triple Zero (000), or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000."
The family of a Wexford man who has been missing for 41 years have issued a renewed appeal for information on his whereabouts after they received word that he may still be alive.

Kevin Williams last made contact with his family in 1976 through a postcard he sent from Sudan. The postcard arrived in Ireland on September 1 and informed the family that Kevin hoped to be in London "within six weeks".

The Williams family never heard from Kevin again.

According to Kevin's nephew, David Williams, the family discovered that he was "alive and living in London in the early to mid-2000s".

However, they have been unable to locate him or confirm whether he is still alive today.

Kevin was born in Taghmon, Co Wexford, on March 24, 1946. He was the fourth eldest in a family of five. His parents, Tommy and Mary Ellen Williams, ran a bakery and grocery shop on the main street.

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He has three brothers, Dominic, Tom and Brian, and a sister, Ann. Tom passed away in August 2012, but his remaining siblings are still alive and living in Wexford.

According to the family, Kevin moved to Dublin when he finished secondary school and then relocated to London in early to mid-1966 where he applied to join the British Merchant Navy and served on the 'SS Oriana' on two round-the-world trips from August 1966 to January 1967.

"After he came back from sea, Kevin returned to London and lived and worked in the city for the next eight years," said David.

"He maintained contact with his family throughout this time, visited home, and was visited in London by members of his family."

Kevin last visited Ireland for his mother's funeral in early 1975 and later that year went travelling again.

It's understood that Kevin left London in September 1975 and hitched through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Iran before settling in Afghanistan for one month.

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After Afghanistan he travelled to Pakistan by public transport where he stayed for three weeks and then travelled to India.

Through letters sent to his brothers, the family discovered that Kevin landed a job as a deck hand on a Greek-Cypriot ship headed for the Suez with a stopover in Sudan.

It was during this stopover in Sudan that Kevin sent his final postcard to his family.

The Williams remain hopeful that Kevin is still alive. He will be 72 this year.

David was born in November 1976, shortly after his uncle last made contact with his family, has no personal memories of Kevin but grew up with fond stories about his uncle. The family recall Kevin as a "kind and considerate person".

"They would dearly love to see him again. For a long time, we all assumed that Kevin was dead. To find out he was still alive in the 2000s, and is possibly still alive today, came as a major shock to the family, and especially to his surviving siblings," he said.

"I know that they would all desperately like to hear from him. Even if he reached out to confirm that he was alive, well and at peace, that would be of considerable comfort."

The Williams family are appealing for anyone with "genuine" information to come forward.

Those with information on Kevin Williams, can contact his nephew David at dave.williams76@yahoo.ie or visit here.
An initiative to make Ireland a leading centre for international legal services following Brexit has been backed by Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.

The plan will seek to bring international legal work currently done in the UK to Ireland.

Major doubts hang over the future of London as a centre for international dispute resolution. Around half of all cases in the London Commercial Court involve disputes where all of the parties are foreign.

But much of this work is expected to leave the UK amid fears judgments will not be enforced in EU member states as easily as they currently are.

Mr Flanagan today launched an initiative by the Bar of Ireland, which is already being supported by IDA Ireland and the legal community, to promote Ireland as a go-to location for settling disputes.

The minister pledged to seek the Cabinets formal endorsement of the plan, under which international companies will be encouraged to use Irish law to govern agreements they enter.

The Irish Independent understands strategies for attracting legal work in various sectors are at an advanced stage of development and financial backing will be sought from the Government to implement the initiative.

Sectors which will be targeted include financial services, insurance, intellectual property and aviation finance.

Mr Flanagan pointed out that Brexit would make Ireland the only English speaking common law jurisdiction in the EU. He said the initiative would help put Ireland on a firmer footing to benefit from any opportunities that arise.

Bar Council chairman Paul McGarry said: International consumers of UK legal services are already signalling that they will move operations. In that sense, the UKs departure from the EU creates a real opportunity for Ireland, not only for the legal services but also for the wider economy.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar arrives to address the media after the first Cabinet meeting of the New Year at Government Buildings, Dublin. Photo: Niall Carson/PA

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has strongly indicated to Cabinet colleagues that a referendum next summer will ask people if they want to allow abortions up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.

While accepting that for many politicians it will be "one step too far", the Taoiseach paved the way for the framing of the referendum question.

He has told ministers they will have three options when the issue comes back on their agenda in the coming weeks.

"He told us we can 'do nothing' which isn't really an option, we can work off the Oireachtas Committee report or we can come up with something new," said a minister.

"Essentially that was taken to mean that we will be basing the referendum around the committee's report."

The report proposed repealing the Eighth Amendment and allowing unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks through a GP-led service.

Mr Varadkar admitted this "went further than many people would have anticipated". "It certainly went further than I would have anticipated a year or two ago," he said.

However, he said that having read the committee's report he understands the logic behind the conclusions "particularly given the widespread availability now of the abortion bill".

"People are getting that over the internet and using it without medical supervision all over Ireland every day," Mr Varadkar said.

"There's a concern understandably among many politicians that the proposal might go one step too far, then again perhaps not - so that's the debate we're going to have over the next few months."

During the two-hour Cabinet discussion, Health Minister Simon Harris said it will be possible to hold the referendum on May 25 if there are no delays during the Dail process.

He received permission from ministers to begin work on potential legislation and come back to ministers at the end of the month for an update.

It is expected that he will have the necessary paperwork ready in early February to clear the way for a referendum.

Mr Varadkar said: "We will come back to Cabinet before end of the moment to decide how we will proceed and it remains our intention to put a question to the people by way of referendum this summer.

"It is very much a private and personal matter, and there is a diversity of views within the Cabinet, the Oireachtas, in every political party and I think in almost every family and household."

The Taoiseach refused to give his personal position on abortion but committed to doing so once the final question to be put to the public is clear.

He said ministers and Fine Gael TDs will be free to campaign on either side of the debate or to stay out of it altogether if they wish.

"This is a private and personal issue. I want to respect everybody's views on it, both within the Cabinet and within the party.

"It is my strong view and I think there is a strong consensus around the Cabinet table that the question should be put to the people this year," Mr Varadkar said.

"People will be able to campaign freely in accordance with their conscience, or not campaign at all if that's their preference.

"I will advocate to people along the lines of the views I express but I'm not going to be ramming my personal opinions down anybody's throat."
Irish writer Aisling McDermott has been remembered as 'courageous' and 'kind'

Tributes have been paid to "clever, kind and very courageous" Irish writer Aisling McDermott, who has passed away following a battle with multiple sclerosis.

Aisling's heartbroken family, friends and many fans took to social media yesterday to pay their respects to her.

Aisling, who was from Celbridge in Co Kildare, co-founded popular Irish blog Beaut.ie alongside her sister Kirstie, she was also a columnist for The Irish Times and penned three best-selling books; The Beaut.ie Guide to Gorgeous, Gorgeous to Go and About Face: The Smart Woman's Guide to Beauty.

Kirstie shared the devastating news of Aisling's death on Twitter yesterday, as she revealed that Aisling's MS had gotten worse recently.

She said: "This is the story of a hair turban and a beauty-obsessed sister. On Tuesday, I bought Aisling a hair turban Id been promising her. I knew Id see her the next day.

"Shes had aggressive MS for 20 years and she was getting worse, but she still looked so glam.

"She loved beauty. We both did. Lots of you know us both because we founded Beaut.ie back in 2006. Lots of you follow us on Twitter still.

"The reason I tweet this now is to let you know that a great originator and founder of Irelands online beauty blogosphere has left us.

"So I never got to give her that turban. But I raise all the lipsticks in the world to someone who fought so bravely for so long and left behind such a legacy.

"Sleep well, Aisling. We loved you hugely."

Among those who fondly remembered Aisling today was author Marion Keyes.

She said: "I just can't believe it.

"I keep reading the words and they won't make sense.

"She was my friend, I loved her very much. She was a person with rare qualities: clever, kind, astute, sweet and very courageous Aisling McDermott has died."

Blogger and businesswoman Pippa O'Connor said: "Dreadfully sorry & sad to hear this. Rest In Peace Aisling."

Beaut.ie said that Aisling will be fondly remembered by those who knew her and enjoyed her work.

They also said that she has helped to shape blogging in Ireland and has created a lasted impact on the industry.

They said: "Our thoughts go out to the family & friends of Aisling McDermott, co-founder of Beaut.ie, a brilliant writer & wonderful person.

"Her talent and personality touched people far beyond the beauty world but she was a genuine groundbreaker in the industry. She will be greatly missed."
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Colette Browne Opinion Every effort must be made to retrieve oral histories of mother and baby home survivors

With three days to go until the Mother and Baby Homes Commission ceases to exist as a legal entity, we are being told that audio recordings of hundreds of witnesses which were deleted may not actually be gone forever. It is another usual twist in a most emotional saga. For decades, survivors of mother and baby homes have been denied a voice and denied autonomy. When they fell pregnant, many through rape and abuse, they were marched to the doors of religious institutions.
2017's overall winner Shane Curran from Terenure College in Dublin pictured alongside Shay Walsh MD of BT Ireland and Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton. Photo: Gerry Mooney

It is time for the annual celebration of the curiosity and innovation of Irish teenagers that is the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE).

The 1,100 second-level pupils filling the halls of the RDS over the next three days are shining examples of what is best about Irish education: encouraging and supporting young minds to ask questions, pursue the answers and, as this exhibition has shown on many occasions over its 53-year history, produce ground-breaking research. A newer kid on the block, the RDS Primary Science Fair, is also running this week.

Pupils and their teachers deserve the highest credit for pushing out the boundaries to embrace a greater focus on student inquiry, rather than a rote approach to learning, as do all others who entered but didn't make it through.

Yes, the competition is tough because there is an abundance of talent and enthusiasm out there. We have seen previous winners take their projects to European and world stages, and return with gold or silver awards. Many have gone on to stellar careers, some as global entrepreneurs.

The exhibition is an occasion of pride for all involved. Perhaps it could be an even more exciting showcase if the education system had responded sooner to the needs of students, through the introduction of new teaching and learning methodologies and the broader forms of assessment in science that are only now coming on-stream at second-level.

Beyond what it might offer the BTYSTE, ongoing reforms are needed if more students are to be encouraged and supported in the study of the Stem subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths - subjects on which society is increasingly reliant.

Time for TDs to outline their views on abortion

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has frankly reflected that TDs' and senators' proposal, to allow abortion up to 12 weeks, does go further than many people would have anticipated. His remarks came after a two-hour Cabinet debate on this difficult issue.

Otherwise, Mr Varadkar has reserved his position in the matter for now. But he is still relying on Health Minister Simon Harris to help deliver a promised referendum on changes to the Constitution by late May or early June.

The issue has periodically bedevilled and convulsed the nation on several occasions over the past 35 years. But it is 16 years since voters last had their say on the matter, and the original Constitutional provision at the centre of the controversy dates back to September 1983.

Our politicians have been trying to make sense of the matter for the past five years. But the time is rapidly approaching when the ordinary citizens must be given their chance to decide the way forward.

It is now vital that Mr Varadkar and his colleagues keep to the timetable already set out. We need clear options outlined in a respectful and measured debate to allow people to make an informed decision.

There will be a free vote on the issue for TDs and senators in both the main parties. But this does not mean that our lawmakers can shirk their obligation to let their constituents know their stance on it.

It is up to every public representative to outline their views as part of a meaningful national debate.
The comments about US President Donald Trump's health, both physical and mental, are concerning. A lot of print space has been devoted to it and the possible ramifications, but little to the level of other reporting.

There are many precedents regarding hidden illnesses in the US presidency - Franklin D Roosevelt with polio, John F Kennedy with Addison's disease and Ronald Reagan with (probably undiagnosed) Alzheimer's disease. A number of leaders in the US and other countries have either hidden or lied about frailties that would have most likely kept them out of the job. Sadly, there are also many apparently healthy who suddenly pass.

Doctors are subject to rules of privileged information and cannot generally be required to divulge patient information. A permitted report could range from "in good health for their age" - basically still alive - through to "has some concerning health issues" - make sure they pay the bill on the way out. The more detailed the report, the more it can be interpreted, with a blood pressure reading of 140/100 being high for most people, although not as much for older people. Any release of information will need detailed notes and explanations for the majority of readers.

Even if there are medical concerns, they probably won't matter unless there is a severe problem with Mr Trump's mental health issue, which probably is not being assessed. The complexities of trying to remove a 'broken' leader generally require the support of both sides, and this is not going to happen.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Melbourne, Australia

SF distaste is setback for unity

A three-month suspension (with full pay) for Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff (who does not do his job) and the blind eye (with full pay) for Northern Ireland's finance minister Mairtin O Muilleoir (who does not do his job) is more proof of Sinn Fein's continuing callous insensitivity to its victims.

Mary Lou McDonald, who justified McElduff's tweeting with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre as "quirky", deems the 'punishment' as "proportionate". I suspect proportionate is a chilling concept, familiar to the relations of Tom Oliver, Garda Jerry McCabe, Robert McCartney, Jean McConville and thousands of other Irish families. "Preposterous" might be more fitting.

This latest Sinn Fein sectarianism comes hot on the heels of the menacing cheers for the IRA at the party's recent Ard Fheis, and its shop's sales of the juvenile "IRA undefeated army" T-shirts. All this in contrived ignorance of the fact that the IRA was defeated - embarrassingly by itself - so riddled was it with informers (at all levels) in the pay of the British.

The irony of this latest bout of sickening bigotry is that it sets back for decades the cause of a united Ireland because, unfortunately for all genuine Irish patriots and for unionists, Sinn Fein still "has not gone away, you know".

Brian Morris

Blackrock, Co Louth

Pay the price for lower sea wall

On previous occasions, the Government has helped with remedial work to houses and businesses where there is a problem with flooding that is out of the control of residents.

Therefore, if residents in Clontarf, Dublin, wish to have the partially built sea wall lowered, then I would suggest it is made clear to them that if they get flooded in future the Government will only fund necessary works such as the roadway and paths, etc, and they will be fully responsible for all other repairs.

M Finn

Portobello, Dublin 8

We're being led a merry dance...

It was mind-numbing to watch the hyped-up programme 'Dancing with the Stars' on Sunday night. Where and who were the stars? The absolutely ridiculous questions and comments by the hosts were embarrassing, to say the least.

I see the entire show was repeated on RTE2 on Tuesday night. Have the scheduling people in that organisation lost their minds? We're paying a licence fee for this? You've got to be having a laugh.

Tom Kelly

Newbridge, Co Kildare

Our troops are being put at risk

On Tuesday morning, Israeli military forces are reported to have fired several missiles and rockets at Syrian army positions near Damascus, in unprovoked attacks. The reports indicate that some of these missiles were fired from Israeli occupied Syrian Golan Heights, where Irish peacekeeping troops are stationed.

Given that under international laws Syria would be entitled to respond by attacking the launch sites of such missiles, this could put Irish peacekeeping soldiers in serious danger. Some of the Israeli missiles were also reportedly fired from Israeli aircraft flying in Lebanese air space, where a further contingent of Irish peacekeepers is based.

The Irish Government should contact United Nations headquarters about these reports and should also ask the UN Security Council to investigate these reported very serious breaches of international peace.

Edward Horgan

Castletroy, Limerick

Saoirse makes us all proud

I wrote the following two years ago after seeing the movie 'Brooklyn':

"Just saw the beautiful Irish movie 'Brooklyn', with the best young actress in the world, our own Saoirse Ronan. The camera just loves this young lady, she is pure magic. We should be very proud of our young talent in this country."

What more can I say? Now she has a Golden Globe and may be in line for an Oscar. Wonderful. I'm looking forward to seeing 'Lady Bird'.

Brian McDevitt

Glenties, Co Donegal

TDs must be held to account

The increase in TDs' salaries is an insult to people living on our streets, those getting eviction orders through our courts, the suffering patients in our hospitals awaiting operations, and the taxpayers who get up early every morning to go to work while Leo Varadkar goes spinning in the gym.

Our politicians reward themselves with huge increases they don't deserve while our country is in turmoil, with little sign of real recovery. We live in an unequal society, one for the rich and nothing for the poor. We, as citizens, are fooled by the sweet talkers in the Dail, who always look after the elite - the bankers, property developers and the landlords of this small country. We should confront the politicians when they come looking for votes at election time.

Noel Harrington

Kinsale, Co Cork
An open letter signed by film star Catherine Deneuve and dozens of other French women about men being unfairly targeted by sexual misconduct claims has led to a backlash in the French press and on social media.

In the letter, published in 'Le Monde' newspaper, Deneuve and about 100 actresses, writers, scholars and artists argued that the "legitimate protest against sexual violence" stemming from the Harvey Weinstein scandal has gone too far and threatens hard-won sexual freedoms. They said men should be free to 'hit on' women and advocated against "puritanism."

Yesterday, French women's rights activists denounced the letter as "a bit like the awkward work colleague or annoying uncle who doesn't understand what's happening."

The activists, including feminist Caroline De Haas, wrote on the Franceinfotv website that Deneuve and other signatories are making sexual violence appear "normal."

Marlene Schiappa, France's junior minister for women's rights, told France Culture radio: "There are in this open letter some things that are deeply offensive and false."

The letter, signed by Deneuve, said some women may see being rubbed against by a man in the metro as an expression of "sexual deprivation" or a "non-event."

Schiappa countered that "it's dangerous to say such things," and insisted that such an act constituted sexual assault punishable with up to three years in prison and a 75,000 fine.

Writer Abnousse Shalmani, who also signed the letter, said she was surprised by the "extremely violent reactions" to it.

"I consider myself to be a grown up. I am capable of receiving a sexual proposition and even more capable of saying no", she said on Europe 1 radio.
TV presenter Elaine Crowley has revealed she's finally come out the other end of her struggles with body confidence.

The TV3 star, who hosts her own eponymous show in the afternoon, has been vocal about her experience with body image and weight struggles, but said turning 40 has been a liberating experience for her

"I am more body confident because I don't give a damn anymore. I remember having a full-on meltdown on my 30th birthday thinking, 'Is this as good as it gets' while looking in the mirror in my size 12 jeans. Yes, 30 was as good as it got," she told RSVP Magazine.

"We are getting older every day, but it is a privilege to get older, not a trial. I don't look anything like I did when I was 30, but if I am not going to get into a bikini now, I never will. My mindset is that if you have a body and you want to put a bikini on it, you have a bikini body - end of story."

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After 18 years on air, Crowley considers herself a "veteran" at Ballymount, but isn't looking to take her foot off the gas anytime soon, although she's envious some presenters on RTE who have more flexible schedules because of their show formats.

"When I say I would like to pack it all in, I mean that I would like to be really, really rich and live in Thailand for a few months of the year. A lot of the shows and presenters in RTE take a sabbatical so they can recharge the batteries," she added.

"We do six topics a day, five days a week and the only time the show doesn't air is on Christmas week. I am never really 'off' which is bad for the mind. Over the next couple of years though I plan to travel more and go on holiadys. I've ticket most continents off my bucket list, but I'd like to go to all the places I've been wanting to visit. And to stop me having a nervous breakdown of course."

While she is aware of her profile, the Cork native said she feels it's "unfair" to be labelled as a role model, and while she does her best not to offend anyone, she can only ever be herself.

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"It is a bit unfair to put that mantle on anybody. I have never looked to be a role model to anybody. I am doing my job, like anybody else does theirs to the best of my ability," she said.

"I am conscious of what I say, but it is not PC all of the time and I am not there preaching to people. We are just normal people who say what we think."
Former King of Spain Juan Carlos I, Former Queen of Spain Sofia, their son Spain's King Felipe VI and his wife Queen Letizia welcome their guests during the Epiphany Day celebrations (Pascua Militar) at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain January 6,2018. REUTERS/Gabriel Bouys/Pool

Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia arrive to attend the Epiphany Day celebrations (Pascua Militar) at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain January 6, 2018. REUTERS/Gabriel Bouys/Pool

Former King of Spain Juan Carlos I and his wife, former queen Sofia, follow their son Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia during the Epiphany Day celebrations (Pascua Militar) at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain January 6, 2018. REUTERS/Gabriel Bouys/Pool

Former King of Spain Juan Carlos I, Former Queen of Spain Sofia, their son Spain's King Felipe VI and his wife Queen Letizia attend the Epiphany Day celebrations (Pascua Militar) at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain January 6, 2018. REUTERS/Gabriel Bouys/Pool

Queen Letizia of Spain attends a meeting at the Fundeu BBVA Foundation on January 10, 2018 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Carlos Alvarez/GC Images)

Queen Letizia of Spain is seen arriving at a meeting at Fundeu BBVA on January 10, 2018 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Europa Press/Europa Press via Getty Images)

Spain's Queen Letizia is kicking off 2018 with her signature no nonsense approach to power dressing.

The 45-year-old royal, considered a workwear inspiration for royal fashion followers throughout the world, wore one of her favourite designers for her first solo appearance of the year. Letizia was at a meeting at Fundeu BBVA, a non-profit which aims which aims to maintain the "unity" of the Spanish language, in Madrid on Wednesday, opting for a grey wool suit by Hugo Boss and a black patent leather clutch by the same designer.

But perhaps the real piece de resistance is her black woven ankle boots, adding some edge to an otherwise conservative ensemble. And no one does jewellery better than a queen as her diamond earrings by Spanish brand Gold & Roses proves.

While other European royals have enjoyed a slow return to their duties, it's been a busy start to the year for the former tv jounralist.

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Earlier in the week, she joined her husband King Felipe and in-laws former king Juan Carlos and former queen Sofia for a glamorous turn at the Epiphany Day celebrations. The dress code requires her to wear something full length and she opted for a navy velvet gown with collar and button detail by Felipe Varela, her go-to designer for the occasion.

Last week, she celebrated her father-in-law's 80th birthday at their residence in Palace of Zarzuela.
The father of an eight-year-old Pakistani girl whose rape and killing shocked the nation has accused police of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing.

The father, Anees Ansari, who was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife at the time of his daughter's disappearance in eastern Punjab, spoke after meeting the province's chief minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Mr Sharif travelled to the city of Kasur to visit the family hours after Mr Ansari returned home from Saudi Arabia to attend his daughter's funeral on Wednesday.

The girl, Zainab Ansari, disappeared last week while going to a nearby home for Koran studies and her body was found in a Kasur waste yard on Tuesday.

Her murder sparked violence on Wednesday as Kasur residents enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city.

Two people were killed and three wounded in the clashes.

Mr Sharif, who had assured Zainab's father that justice would be done, has fired Kasur's police chief over negligence in the case, according to a Punjab government statement.

Three police officers were arrested for opening fire at the mob instead of into the air during the violence.

Zainab's killing, which has drawn a wide public outcry, prompted dozens of civil society activists to rally on Thursday in the city of Lahore.

A similar rally took place on Wednesday in the port city of Karachi.

Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and champion for female education, tweeted on Wednesday she was "heartbroken" by Zainab's death and demanded action against the killer.
Senator Cory Gardner, left, and Senator Jeff Flake, confer as the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere examined alleged attacks on American diplomats in Havana (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Canada has no plans to remove diplomats from Cuba after at least eight people connected to its embassy appeared to have contracted symptoms of a potential illness at the centre of a rift in US-Cuba relations, a senior government official said.

The official said the eight were among 27 people screened following US reports that two dozen American officials and family members in Havana had been suffering a range of unexplained symptoms including nausea, dizziness, headaches and nosebleeds.

The eight were said to have required follow-up treatment but were not hospitalised, and there was no reason to close the embassy in Havana.

Canadian investigators have not come up with an explanation for the illnesses.

There are 20 Canadian families with connections to the embassy and people from half of them came forward to be tested after the US reported that some of its personnel and family members had experienced a range of ailments, some after hearing an unusual sound. For most, the symptoms occurred around May 2017.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is leading an investigation into the situation but has not yet found any evidence that anything was done intentionally to the people who reported symptoms, the official said.

Washington says 24 US government officials and spouses fell ill in Havana in their homes and some hotels starting in 2016.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the symptoms were the result of an attack, but the FBI has found no evidence of one. Neither has Canada.

A different senior Canadian official said the government had not found any evidence that anyone was attacked.

Tillerson has said he is "convinced these were targeted attacks", but the US does not know who is behind them.

The US has withdrawn most of its diplomats from Havana, citing a health risk, and forced many Cuban diplomats to leave Washington.

Cuba has repeatedly and adamantly denied involvement or knowledge of any attacks and has decried the reductions as an unjustified blow to US-Cuban relations that were restored under President Barack Obama.

The lack of answers more than a year after the incidents started has emboldened Cuba's defenders to argue the US cannot be certain anyone was harmed intentionally since no proof has been publicly presented.

But top State Department officials testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week said they were sure it was an attack of some kind.

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A series of new animated adverts for the British army say it is OK to cry, be gay and practise your faith as part of a drive to recruit more soldiers from diverse backgrounds.

A voiceover in the 1.8m campaign, dubbed This is Belonging 2018, asks "Can I be gay in the army?", "Do I have to be a superhero to join the army?" and "What if I get emotional in the army?"

"The British army and the armed forces as a whole have made huge strides in building an LGBT inclusive work culture," a spokeswoman from Stonewall, a UK-based LGBT charity, said.

The British army was about 30pc short of its annual recruitment target last year, with numbers down to about 80,000 troops.

Richard Kemp, a former commander of British operations in Afghanistan, condemned the campaign, saying it would not solve the army's recruitment problem.
Italy's most popular party has dropped a long-held threat to ditch the euro, as the country heads to a general election in March.

The Five Star Movement's change of heart means the election will have a less Eurosceptic flavour than previously expected.

"I believe it is no longer the right moment for Italy to leave the euro," Luigi Di Maio, Five Star's leader, told Italian television.

For years, the party had promised to hold a referendum on the euro if it was elected.

But given its lacklustre performance in the governance of Rome, under the mayoralty of Five Star leading light Virginia Raggi, Italians may have wondered whether the party would be capable of something as complicated as extricating Italy from the single currency and returning to the lira.

On the right of the political spectrum, Silvio Berlusconi announced that one of the parties he has allied himself with, the Northern League, had also dropped its pledge to abandon the euro.

Mr Berlusconi was speaking on behalf of Matteo Salvini, who heads the Northern League.

"Salvini is no longer of the idea that we should leave the euro," Mr Berlusconi said. "He has understood that it would be technically impossible and unsustainable for our economy."

But those assurances were immediately shot down by the League itself. Claudio Borghi, the party's economics spokesman, said that if the centre-right won the March 4 election, then work should begin on leaving the euro.

"One second after the League is in government it will begin all possible preparations to arrive at our monetary sovereignty," he said.

The contradiction exposed a deep fissure between Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the Northern League, which together with a smaller right-wing party are expected to win the lion's share of votes and be tasked with forming a government.

Both men are vying to be leader of the centre-right bloc, ensuring further tensions should they try to form a government.

The centre-right will fall short of an absolute majority so they are also likely to have to rely on the support of a party outside the bloc, heralding yet more instability for the eurozone's third largest economy.

 Daily Telegraph, London

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
The funeral of a Pakistani girl who was raped and killed in Kasur (AP)

The father of an eight-year-old Pakistani girl whose rape and killing shocked the nation has accused police of being slow to respond when his daughter went missing.

The father, Anees Ansari, who was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife at the time of his daughter's disappearance in eastern Punjab, spoke after meeting the province's chief minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Mr Sharif travelled to the city of Kasur to visit the family hours after Mr Ansari returned home from Saudi Arabia to attend his daughter's funeral on Wednesday.

The girl, Zainab Ansari, disappeared last week while going to a nearby home for Koran studies and her body was found in a Kasur waste yard on Tuesday.

Her murder sparked violence on Wednesday as Kasur residents enraged over her death attacked a police station in the city.

Two people were killed and three wounded in the clashes.

Mr Sharif, who had assured Zainab's father that justice would be done, has fired Kasur's police chief over negligence in the case, according to a Punjab government statement.

Three police officers were arrested for opening fire at the mob instead of into the air during the violence.

Zainab's killing, which has drawn a wide public outcry, prompted dozens of civil society activists to rally on Thursday in the city of Lahore.

A similar rally took place on Wednesday in the port city of Karachi.

Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and champion for female education, tweeted on Wednesday she was "heartbroken" by Zainab's death and demanded action against the killer.

AP
Floral tributes outside the Bataclan Theatre in memory of the victims of the Paris attacks

Four former Muslim workers of a French airport security company who were fired shortly after the 2015 Paris attacks because their beards were deemed too long are suing their ex-employer.

They are claiming they were victims of discrimination based on religion and physical appearance.

A labour court just outside Paris is expected to rule on Thursday on whether the security guards were unfairly fired for refusing orders to trim their beards amid terrorism fears.

The four men are asking the court to order security firm Securitas to pay them 53,000 euro (47,000) in damages each for unfair dismissals and discrimination.

Securitas has denied any discrimination and said it is "perfectly legitimate" to require its agents to wear a "short, trimmed and neat beard" because of the security missions they perform.

AP
The court ruled in Huawei's favour over two patents involving fourth-generation phone technology (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

Tech giant Huawei has won a patent infringement lawsuit against South Korea smartphone rival Samsung, according to information released by a Chinese court.

The court ruled in the Chinese company's favour over two patents involving fourth-generation phone technology, according to a notice released through the court's WeChat account and video of the trial.

The judge ordered Samsung to immediately stop selling or manufacturing products using the technology and to pay a small court fee.

The decision by the Shenzhen Intermediate Court is the latest in a series of deepening patent disputes between the Asian smartphone makers, which have filed against each other in the United States and China in recent years.

Huawei's headquarters is in Shenzhen, in southern China across the border from Hong Kong. The company is the dominant player in China's smartphone market, though globally it trails Samsung and Apple.

The court said it ruled in Huawei's favour after finding Samsung "maliciously delayed negotiations" that began in July 2011 and was "obviously at fault".

Samsung said in a statement that it would "thoroughly review the court's decision and determine appropriate responses".

AP
The number of people killed by mudslides in California has risen to 15, but there was a glimmer of hope among the tragedy after a teenage girl was pulled from the debris alive in a dramatic rescue yesterday.

Firefighters were able to free 14-year-old Lauren Cantin from the ruins of her Montecito home after six hours chopping away rubble using 'jaws of life' equipment and other tools.

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She was found alive after firefighters with rescue dogs heard her cries for help.

"I thought I was dead there for a minute," Lauren, covered in mud, said after workers spent six hours rescuing her. She was able to stand up and walk with assistance.

"To be able to have her come out safely and as unscathed as she was, it was pretty phenomenal," said Andy Rupp, a Montecito fire protection district firefighter.

Rescue efforts were expected to become easier after a powerful rain storm headed west and skies cleared, authorities said.

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Rescuers continued searching for victims in Santa Barbara County, where mudslides slammed into homes, covered highways and swept away vehicles the previous day when more than 1.5cm of rain fell in five minutes, far exceeding the normal flash flood threshold.

"While we hope it will not, we expect this number [of fatalities] to increase as we continue to look for people who are missing and unaccounted for," Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown said of the death toll.

The upmarket communities of Montecito and Carpenteria, just outside Santa Barbara, were hardest hit. Montecito is a wealthy enclave of about 9,000 people north-west of Los Angeles that is home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and Ellen DeGeneres.

In the past month, California's scenic coastline was ravaged by a series of intense wildfires that burned off vegetation.

Expand Close Rescuers carry a man from his wrecked home after the massive mudslide smashed down on Montecito. Photo: Reuters / Facebook

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Whatsapp Rescuers carry a man from his wrecked home after the massive mudslide smashed down on Montecito. Photo: Reuters

Emergency workers used search dogs and helicopters to rescue dozens of people stranded in mud-coated rubble in the normally pristine area, sandwiched between the ocean and the sprawling Los Padres National Forest, about 180km north of Los Angeles.

About 300 people were stranded in a canyon. Rescue crews, using borrowed helicopters from the US Coast Guard, worked to airlift them out.

Heavy downpours struck before dawn on Tuesday after 7,000 residents in Santa Barbara County were ordered to evacuate and another 23,000 were urged to do so voluntarily, some of them for a second time since December.

The county set up an evacuation shelter, where people showed up drenched in mud, and also provided a place for people to take their animals.

Fatalities surpassed the death toll from a California mudslide in January 2005, when 10 people were killed as a hillside gave way in the town of La Conchita, less than 32km south of the latest disaster.

December's wildfires, the largest in state history, left the area vulnerable to mudslides. The fires burned away grass and shrubs that hold soil in place and baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground.

Some residents had fled their homes due to the fires and again this week because of the rains.

"I came around the house and heard a deep rumbling, an ominous sound I knew was boulders moving as the mud was rising," said Thomas Tighe, who discovered two of his cars missing from the driveway. "I saw two other vehicles moving slowly sideways down the middle of the street in a river of mud."

Marshall Miller, who evacuated his home in Montecito with his family, returned to check for damage and found his neighbourhood devastated. He never reached his home because two neighbours, an elderly woman and her daughter, needed a lift to the hospital after being rescued.

The pair had left their house before it was submerged under 1.8m of mud, but had become trapped outside in the deep muck.

"It was sobering," Mr Miller said. "I saw them covered in mud and shaking from the cold."

The path of the deluge was graphically illustrated on the side of a white colonial-style house, where a dark gray stain created a wavy pattern halfway up the front windows.

The worst of the rainfall occurred in a 15-minute span starting at 3.30am local time.

Montecito was inundated with more than half an inch in five minutes, while Carpinteria received nearly an inch in 15 minutes.

"All hell broke loose," said Peter Hartmann, a dentist who also moonlights as a news photographer. "There were gas mains that had popped, where you could hear the hissing.

"High-voltage power lines were down, the large aluminum poles to hold those were snapped in half. Water was flowing out of water mains and sheared-off fire hydrants."

Mr Hartmann watched rescuers revive a toddler pulled unresponsive from the muck.

"It was a freaky moment to see her just covered in mud," he said. "It was scary."

 Daily Telegraph, London and agencies

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Pope Francis is hugged by a child as he greets faithful during the weekly general audience at the Vatican (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

Pope Francis is to meet with two victims of Chile's military dictatorship during his upcoming trip and is not ruling out a private encounter with victims of clerical sex abuse.

Spokesman Greg Burke made the comments while announcing details of the January 15-21 trip to Chile and Peru, Francis' 22nd foreign trip and the sixth to his home continent of South America.

The encounter with two victims of the 1973-1990 Pinochet regime will take place on January 18 in the northern city of Iquique.

Mr Burke was asked if Francis would meet with abuse victims and while he said no meeting was planned, "that doesn't mean it's impossible". He added that such meetings are best when conducted in private.

He said it was "clearly an important theme" in Chile, where the scandal has seriously hurt the Catholic Church's credibility.

Just this week, online database www.BishopAccountability.org said it had found 78 priests or members of religious orders credibly accused or convicted of abuse against minors.

Francis in the past has met in previously unannounced encounters with victims of abuse in the Vatican and in the US, but his record in fulfilling his stated "zero tolerance" for abuse has been questioned by survivors.

While Francis never had to deal with the abuse crisis in his native Argentina, he is intimately familiar with the region's experience with military dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s.

History's first Latin American pope was in charge of the Argentine Jesuits during the "Dirty War," when thousands of suspected leftists were killed or "disappeared" at the hands of Argentina's military junta.

In neighbouring Chile, after a bloody coup brought General Augusto Pinochet to power, about 40,000 people were killed, tortured or imprisoned for political reasons.

The government estimates that 3,095 were killed, including about 1,200 who were forcibly disappeared.

Francis studied in Chile in 1960 during his novitiate with the Jesuits and counts some of its churchmen as close friends and advisers.

His aim in visiting Chile and Peru is to highlight the plight of indigenous peoples and the delicate Amazon ecosystem.

In keeping with his ecological concerns, he will be travelling around both countries in used popemobiles, rather than have new ones outfitted, as is the norm.

In Chile, the three popemobiles he will ride in were first used during his 2015 trips to the US and Bolivia while his Peruvian popemobiles were shipped from Colombia after his trip there last year, Mr Burke said.

AP
Fire And Fury was the top-selling book in the US last week (AP)

North Korea has claimed Michael Wolff's bombshell new book about Donald Trump spells the end of the US president's political career.

Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House paints Mr Trump as a leader who does not understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides.

The president and other White House aides have blasted it as inaccurate trash, b ut it was the top-selling book in the US last week and its numbers are likely to grow far higher.

On Thursday, the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, run by its ruling Workers' Party, carried an article about the book's subject matter, how Mr Trump reacted and why it is selling so well.

Its sales reflect "rapidly surging anti-Trump sentiments in the international community", the article said.

"The anti-Trump book is sweeping all over the world so Trump is being massively humiliated worldwide."

The book's popularity "foretells Trump's political demise", the article said.

Last summer, Mr Trump threatened North Korea with "fire and fury like the world has never seen" in an exchange of taunts with the North, which claimed it was examining plans to launch missiles towards the American territory of Guam.

Mr Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have since traded threats of war and crude insults, as the North conducted nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Mr Trump called his rival "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission".

Mr Kim called the 71-year-old president "the mentally deranged US dotard".

In his new year address last week, Mr Kim said he had a "nuclear button" that could target weapons at anywhere in the US, and Mr Trump responded that he had a much bigger and more powerful "nuclear button".

Recently, Pyongyang has taken steps towards improving ties with rival South Korea in what critics call a tactic to divide Seoul and Washington and weaken US-led international pressure and sanctions.

On Tuesday, it had its first formal talks with South Korea in about two years and agreed to send a delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in the South and hold military talks aimed at easing front-line animosity.

But North Korea has not stopped its rhetoric against Mr Trump. Last week, the North's state media called him a "war maniac" and "madman".

After Tuesday's inter-Korean talks, he said during a phone conversation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that the US was open to talks with North Korea "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances", according to a White House statement.

Fire And Fury was released last Friday and had sold 29,000 copies by the end of Saturday, NPD BookScan said.

Digital sales already top 250,000 and audio sales exceed 100,000, according to Macmillan, the parent company of the book's publisher, Henry Holt and Co.

It has raised an initial announced printing of 150,000 to more than a million.

AP
Donald Trump sent out a tweet suggesting the programme was used to collect information that might have been used to "badly surveil and abuse" his campaign (Evan Vucci/AP)

The House has passed a bill to reauthorise a key foreign intelligence collection programme but with an important tweak: It would require the FBI to get a warrant if it wants to view the contents of Americans' communications swept up in the process.

Legislation to renew the programme that allows spy agencies to conduct surveillance on foreign targets abroad passed the House 256-164 and now heads to the Senate.

President Donald Trump has said he will sign the bill, which would extend the programme for six years.

Director of national intelligence Dan Coats called foreign intelligence the "holy grail" that provides insight into the thinking and actions of US adversaries.

However, the programme, which is to expire on January 19, also sweeps up Americans' communications.

Privacy advocates and some lawmakers from both parties want to require the FBI to get a warrant if it wants to query or view the content of Americans' communications that are in the database to build domestic crime cases.

The bill passed by the House would allow the FBI to continuing querying the database, using search terms, for information on Americans, but would require investigators to get a probable cause warrant if they want to view the actual content of those communications.

Earlier, the House rejected a measure that would have imposed stiffer restrictions on the FBI. It would have required the FBI to get a warrant to continue even querying the database where Americans' communications are involved.

Mr Trump's morning tweets caused confusion in advance of the House vote.

One of his tweets suggested that the foreign intelligence programme was used to collect information that might have been used to taint his campaign.

Afterwards, Mr Trump had a phone call with House Speaker Paul Ryan, according to a Republican familiar with the call but not allowed to publicly discuss private discussions.

A short time later, Mr Trump changed his tone on Twitter. "This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land," he tweeted. "We need it! Get smart!"

Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top-ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Mr Trump's tweets were "inaccurate, conflicting and confusing." He suggested that a vote on the bill should be delayed but it went forward.

The president appeared to contradict the position of his own administration.

In one tweet, he linked the FISA programme that his White House supports to a dossier that alleges his campaign had ties to Russia. That caught aides and lawmakers off guard. A short time later, he went further.

"House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,'" Mr Trump wrote, citing a Fox News headline. "This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?"

Last year, Mr Trump accused the Obama administration of wiretapping Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.

He never cited any evidence and top intelligence and FBI officials as well as Republicans in Congress swiftly rejected the accusations as false.

Mr Trump's position on Thursday morning seemed to be in opposition to the Trump administration's position, potentially putting the reauthorisation vote in doubt.

AP
Kolkata/New Delhi, Jan 11 (IBNS): A timely intervention by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) may help the Korbong tribe of Tripura, almost on the verge of extinction, to turn around.

ONGC has adopted Korbongpara village in Western Tripura District to provide basic amenities, including educational support, healthcare, drinking water etc to them as part of the companys CSR activities.

The Korbong tribe, living in the hills of Western Tripura, today has only 31 families.

The ONGC initiative, a first of its kind, is aimed at creating self-sustaining livelihood to revive the Korbong tribe as well as develop it into a Model Village.

Inaugurating the Project, Dr Ranjit Debbarma, Chairman, Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC, Khumulung) said, ONGC has been one of the main partners in the progress of Tripura and improving the quality of life in the state."

ONGC has granted financial support to Korbongpara for providing facilities such as community centre, market shed, sanitation, drinking water and irrigation, internal road connectivity, education centres and provision of quality healthcare.

The project will create income generation opportunities for the villagers through pisciculture, duck and goat rearing, piggery farm and cross bred cattle schemes.

During the inauguration ceremony, V P Mahawar, Director (Onshore) ONGC said, Korbongpara model village is a part of rural developmental programme taken up by the company to develop Indias North East, as envisioned by Honble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. It is indeed a moment of pride for ONGC, offering its first Model village with all the facilities of sustainable livelihood in Tripura."

The Director (Onshore) said that more such initiatives will be taken under CSR.

D.D. Misra, Director (HR) ONGC, who has been leading ONGCs CSR activities, said It has always been a focus area of the company to reach out to the grassroot level in terms of providing support for education, healthcare and skill-development. It is a proud feeling to promote Korbongpara as a model village."

Shashi Shanker, CMD ONGC, said The turnaround of the village into a smart village in one years time is a remarkable achievement. We at ONGC, are committed to the upliftment of the marginalised sections of the society."

According to ONGC, its initiative has already started paying off as has been witnessed by the increase in education standards in the recent exams.

In the year 2016-17, ONGC spent Rs 526 crore on its various CSR projects. Education, Healthcare, Sanitation and water facilities, Women Empowerment and Livelihood creation are its major focus areas.
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IBNS): National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Generation India Foundation (Generation), a non-profit organisation founded by McKinsey & Company to bolster Skill India Mission.

The collaboration, a non-commercial pilot project, includes training, placement and tracking of upto 5,000 candidates by Generation, supported by NSDCs robust network of training partners.

The trainings would be funded through Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), under the Skill India Mission.

The scope of association contains the application of Generations methodology to help improve the outcomes in PMKVY scheme specifically, placement rates and retention rates of its programs in select roles.

With a focus to reach out to unemployed youth, aged between 18-29 years, and skill them through short-term training programs, the project targets job roles such as Home Nursing Aides, General Duty Assistants and F&B Stewards.

These entry-level professions, with a potential for structured career paths, are chosen to cater to challenges such as low skills and high attrition rate amongst the youth. NSDC will ensure a successful rollout of the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) compliant skills training.

Announcing the collaboration, Jayant Krishna, ED & COO, NSDC said, With McKinseys expertise in research methodology, we believe that the project would help in mapping the skill gaps and deliver impactful solutions. We aim to harness the huge potential of the youth in the country and add momentum to our consistent endeavours to strengthen the skilling value chain.

On this occasion, Mona Mourshed, President and Global COO, Generation Initiative said, We are proud to be partnering with NSDC to raise employment with impactful outcomes, and the personal and financial well-being of learners.

Abhishek Gupta, COO, Generation India Foundation expressed, We are committed to support job intensive skill training to Indian youth. We are delighted to collaborate with NSDC to support Skill India initiative and to contribute to this nation development exercise.
Birmingham, Jan 11 (IBNS): Less than a month after Birmingham was confirmed as the host of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, students from across the UK city will be gathering to debate the role of the intergovernmental organisation in the modern era.

In the first in a series of debates held in cities across the country, the event, taking place on Jan 17 at Birmingham City Council House, wants to challenge received opinion about the Commonwealth.

The event aims to position the Commonwealth as an organisation of significance in international affairs among the citys 65,000 students and a positive force for change across the world.

The Commonwealth of Nations was formally constituted in 1949 and today represents 2.4 billion citizens across the world  more than one quarter of the worlds population in 52 countries.

It works to help create and sustain an organisation that is mutually respectful, resilient, peaceful and prosperous, and that cherishes equality, diversity and shared values, which is inscribed in the Commonwealth Charter.

Professor Louise Toner is Associate Dean at Birmingham City University and Chair of the Birmingham Commonwealth Association Education Focus Group, which brings together eight major universities and colleges in the West Midlands to celebrate and recognise the significance of their Commonwealth connections.

She said: The Commonwealth has its roots in the British Empire and for that reason it remains controversial. However, unlike the British Empire, the Commonwealth focuses on harmony, modernisation and the establishment and maintenance of democracy among the former colonies. Plus, research shows that trade between two partner nations is likely be a third to a half more than when one or both trade partners was non-Commonwealth."

Here in Birmingham, we are already looking ahead to the Friendly Games in 2022, but in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games in Queensland this year and the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, also in April, it is more imperative than ever that young people consider what the Commonwealth means to them and how it can help shape their future.

The Commonwealth is of particularly relevance to Birmingham due to the international complexion of the city, where 42 per cent of its citizens are from ethnic groups other than white and many of whom maintain contact with their countries of descent.

Organised by the Birmingham Commonwealth Association and journal The Round Table, the upcoming debate will argue the motion: This House believes that the Commonwealth prevents the UK from moving on from the past and dealing with the future."

It will be chaired by Jaspreet Singh, President of Birmingham City University Students Union. Jaspreet hails from Jalandhar district in the state of Punjab, India and is Birminghams first non-British student union president.



He said: The Commonwealth is very important as it gives a platform for the former colonies of the British Empire to have their voice heard at an international level. However, we young people are living in a very interesting times, where things like trade often take a priority in big debates and toxic nationalism is acting as a curtain to disconnect peers from each other. The future of the Commonwealth, therefore, needs to find a balance between the colonial mind-set and the aspirations of young, enthusiastic global citizens. Within the framework of the Commonwealth, I believe that the future will bring many opportunities and greater experiences for those students who have their own global aspirations."

It was a blessing for me to come from my rural village in Punjab to Birmingham City University. My University and Birmingham in general has acted as an incubator to equip me to work with and learn from the experiences of people from all different backgrounds, but specifically from origins within the Commonwealth," said he.

The Commonwealth should be a way through which young people from the diaspora can shape international discussions and relations, while still keeping in mind the experiences and sacrifices made by their ancestors. I certainly feel a greater sense of belonging to Birmingham after hearing the news about the Commonwealth Games 2022 taking place here in the city.

Proposing the motion will be Nicholas Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and student Alana Tomlin, both from the University of Birmingham. Opposing the motion will be Founding Chairman of the Birmingham Commonwealth Association, Keith Stokes-Smith, along with Darrel Blake, a Black Studies undergraduate student at Birmingham City University.

In 2017, Birmingham City University became the first university in Europe to offer a degree in Black Studies.
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IBNS): The Indian Army has confirmed that none of the three soldiers who fell off a helicopter during the Army Day rehearsal have suffered serious injuries, media reported on Thursday.

The incident took place on Tuesday in the National Capital while rehearsals for the January 15 event was on.

According to media reports, the rope with which the soldiers were practising slithering operations broke.

The slithering boom that was supposed to hold the rope broke off from the Advanced Light Helicopter during the drill, resulting in the accident, reported the Financial Express.
Mumbai, Jan 11 (IBNS) : The shoot of Remo DSouzas Race 3 in Film City, Mumbai, was halted and actor Salman Khan was escorted home on Tuesday after police informed that a group of armed men had entered the studio.

According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, a tabloid, the cops suspect it has a connection to the death threats Salman Khan recently received from Rajasthans gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

A senior cop told the tabloid, The police arrived at the Race 3 set in Film City and told Salman and producer Ramesh Taurani that the shoot had to be stopped immediately as the actor needed to go back to home as soon as possible.

Salman was escorted in another car by six policemen, while his own vehicle was driven back to his residence in Bandra by another group of cops.

According to a Mumbai Mirror report, Salmans appearance in Jodhpur last Thursday in the black buck case led to threats by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

The black buck case -- in which Salman is charged with poaching the endangered animal -- has been going on in Jodhpur for the past 10 years.

Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi of Rajasthan on Thursday issued a death threat to Salman Khan. Salman Khan will be killed here, in Jodhpur... Then he will come to know about our real identity. Now, if police want me to do some major crime, I shall kill Salman Khan and that too in Jodhpur, he told media on January 5.
Jammu, Jan 11 (IBNS) : A lawmaker of Jammu and Kashmir's ruling PDP has triggered a controversy as he described terrorists as "our brothers and martyrs" whose death should not be celebrated, NDTV reports.

Aijaz Ahmad Mir repeated his remark, made on Wednesday, also on Thursday.

"The militants belong to Jammu and Kashmir, they are our children. We should not celebrate their killing," said Mir, who represents the Watchi constituency in Kashmir's Shopian.

When reporters pressed him on whether he believed that the terrorists were "brothers and martyrs", as he had said in the House, Mir replied, "Of course".

He, however, added that he "also sympathized with the security forces and parents of soldiers who were killed."

On Wednesterday, he had said in the assembly that the Government should hold talks with all parties concerned, including separatists, to resolve the Kashmir issue.

The lawmaker himself an attempt on his life three months ago, when militants had thrown a grenade at his home.

His comments were denounced by the BJP, the partner of the PDP in the ruling alliance in Kashmir.

"It is ridiculous, I condemn this statement. It is glorifying terrorism, you are playing with fire...Go and ask families of those who lost people to terror in the past 30 years. This is rubbing salt into the wounds of relatives of those killed in Pakistan-sponsored terror," BJP leader and lawmaker Ravinder Raina said.

Criticising the PDP, opposition National Conference has said that what Mir has said shows that PDP is a party of contradictions.

"There is a contradiction in the PDP, on one side they kill militants and on the other hand such a statement coming from the PDP MLA, this contradicts CM Mehbooba Mufti's assembly statement," senior national conference leader Akbar Lone said.

Image: youtube
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IBNS) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday paid homage to India's second prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, on his death anniversary.

Taking to Twitter, Prime Minister Modi said Shastri's "impeccable service" will be remembered for generations to come.

"We pay homage to Shastri Ji on his Punya Tithi. His impeccable service and courageous leadership will be remembered for generations to come," he said.

Remembering Shastri, Rahul Gandhi underscored the importance of building the unity and solidarity of people.

"Among the major tasks before us, none is of greater importance for our strength and stability than the task of building up the unity and solidarity of our people. My tributes to former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri ji on his death anniversary," Gandhi said.

.Lal Bahadur Shastri , who was born in 1904 and held the prime minister's office between June, 1964 and January, 1966, died on January 11, 1966 in Tashkent in the now-defunct Soviet Union.
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IBNS): Justice SN Dhingra will head the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the 1984 anti-Sikh riots which took place following former Indian Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi's assassination, media report said.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the constitution of a SIT to re-look into 186 cases related to the anti-Sikh riots.

The directive from the top court came after it has found that the existing SIT, formed by the NDA government in 2015, did not function properly.

The apex court's action follows a report by a supervisory committee of retired justices KPS Radharishnan and JM Panchal stating that out of the 293 cases related to anti-Sikh riots, 186 were closed by the original SIT without investigation.

Along with Justice Dhingra, the new SIT will include one serving and one retired IPS officer.

The anti-Sikh riots had erupted in different parts of the country following Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh security guards in the wake of the army operation in Amritsar's Golden Temple to flush out terrorists. The pogrom claimed at least 3,000 lives across the country.
Guwahati, Jan 11 (IBNS) : One hardcore militant belonging to Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) was killed during a gun fight with security forces in Meghalayas East Garo Hills district on Thursday, officials said.

Based on intelligence inputs about the presence of a militant group, the troops of East Garo Hills district and army jointly launched operation in the Kakwaduragre area of the district.

When the troops reached the area, the militants fired upon them prompting the forces to retaliate. One militant was killed on the spot and other members of the group managed to flee from the remote area, a top police official said.

The slain militant was identified as Matchalang M Sangma. He was a close associate of GNLA C-in-C Sohan D Shira.

Security personnel recovered one AK-56 rifle, 97 rounds of live ammunition and other things from the encounter spot.

GNLA is active in Meghalaya and some parts of lower Assam.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati, Jan 11 (IBNS) : The Assam Police have sounded a high alert against a possible militant attack ahead of the Republic Day celebrations in the state.

Following the inputs of Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Assam police have issued a cautionary notice to all district police headquarters, specially those located on the borders of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya, to take adequate measures against such eventualities.

The IB has recently alerted Assam police that several militant groups, including Paresh Baruah-led ULFA (I), are planning to attack security forces and create untoward situation ahead of the Republic Day.

Assam DGP Mukesh Sahay said Assam police had already alerted all district police to take guard against any untoward situation.

Several militant groups have planned to attack security personnel. Apart from this, some militants of ULFA (I), NSCN (K) are also trying to enter into Assam from Arunachal Pradesh border. Following the intelligence inputs we have alerted the bordering districts with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya to take appropriate measures, Sahay said.

Recently two ULFA (I) militants were injured in gun fight with the troops of Assam police and Assam Rifles at Jagun area in Upper Assams Tinsukia district along with Arunachal Pradesh border.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IBNS): Upholding the bilateral ties between the two nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit India in the coming week, media reports said.

Netanyahu is expected to reach India on Jan 14.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani told reporters that Netanyahu will hold a roadshow with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad on Jan 17.

The two PMs will hold the roadshow for 8 kms. Both the leaders are likely to visit Sabarmati Ashram, abode of Mahatma Gandhi.

Rupani was quoted by NDTV: "According to the tentative schedule, Modi and Netanyahu would first visit the Sabarmati Ashram on their arrival here on January 17. Both the dignitaries will be accorded a grand welcome."

Both Modi and Netanyahu will visit two centres of excellency in Ahmedabad and inaugurate one.

In July last year, Modi visited Israel as the first Indian Prime Minister since the establishment of bilateral ties in 1992.

In the later part of 2017, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Ahmedabad and held roadshows with Modi while the two leaders inaugurated the bullet train project.



Image: facebook.com/Netanyahu
Mumbai, Jan 11 (IBNS): All three owners of 1Above Pub, who were arrested in connection with the devastating Kamala Mills blaze on Dec 29, have been sent to police custody till Jan 17, media reports said.

Demanding for their custody, the police told the magistrates court on Thursday that they wanted to question the owners of 1Above and Mojo Bistro together.

The two of the three owners, Kripesh Sanghavi and Jigar Sanghavi, were arrested late on Wednesday. The other owner, Abhijeet Mankar, was arrested on Thursday morning.

The police has registered case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the three men.

Earlier, the police had arrested Vishal Karya for helping Abhijeet to evade arrest.

The Mumbai police on Jan 1 arrested two managers of the restaurant.

The two arrested managers of 1Above restaurant are Kevin Bawa and Lisbon Lopez, who police said, did not discharge their duty.

The eatery was one of the three restaurants housed in the Kamala Mills complex, which gutted in the fire.

On Sunday, the owners of 1Above, which has been named by Mumbai Police in its FIR, wrote to PM Narendra Modi alleging that Mojo's Bistro - another restaurant in Kamla Mills - was responsible for the fire and requested that the case be transferred to CBI.
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IBNS): Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Thursday said national security advisors of India and Pakistan held bilateral talks last month that focused on cross-border terrorism.

NSAs Ajit Doval and retired Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua held a secret meeting in Thailand on Dec 27, said reports.

Kumar said Doval and Janjua also discussed about measures to curb terrorism from the region.

India and Pakistan have a dialogue process and we have said terror and talks cannot go togther. However, there are other dialogue mechanisms like at the DGMO level or between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers," Kumar told media.

"Similarly, the NSA-level engagement is part of operational-level talks. We have said terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead, he said.


New Delhi, Jan 11 (IBNS): The World Economic Forum will honour Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for his leadership in championing children's and women's rights in India on Jan 22.

The forum will organise the awards ceremony on Jan 22 to honour the actor.

The award is to celebrate the achievements of outstanding artists who have shown exemplary commitment to improving the state of the world.

Thanking for the honour, the Bollywood actor tweeted: "Thank u for this honour. I consider my work with these heroic & beautiful women a great privilege as it imparts dignity & purpose to my life. I hope to spread awareness of the unparalleled heroism of these ladies & reach out to others in order to carry this work to its conclusion."

Thank u for this honour. I consider my work with these heroic & beautiful women a great privilege as it imparts dignity & purpose to my life. I hope to spread awareness of the unparalleled heroism of these ladies & reach out to others in order to carry this work to its conclusion https://t.co/i6cEU6go6V  Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) January 11, 2018

Along with Shah Rukh, Australian actress Cate Blanchett and English musician Elton John will also be honoured.

While Blanchett will be honoured for raising awareness of refugee crisis, John will be honoured for his leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IBNS): Etihad Airways has been honoured by readers of Conde Nast Traveller India as their favourite international airline for the second consecutive year.

The national airline of the United Arab Emirates was acknowledged for its hospitality and service in both its Premium and Economy cabins during the 2017 awards ceremony attended by the travel industry and diplomats in New Delhi.

ADivia Thani, Editor of Conde Nast Traveller India, said: The Conde Nast Traveller India awards are a barometer of what the discerning, affluent Indian traveller looks for, and appreciates, when he or she travels. They recognise excellence in all aspects of travel, and on behalf of Conde Nast and the readers of our esteemed publication, I congratulate Etihad Airways once again for winning the Favourite International Airline of the Year award. This is testament to Etihads focus on delivering service of the highest standards that todays travellers so look forward to.

Mohammad Al Bulooki, Etihad Airways Executive Vice President Commercial said: This award is of utmost importance to Etihad Airways as it echoes the sentiment of guests and is a reflection of the airlines commitment to provide guests with the best travel experience at every touch point of their journey. The award is a perfect end to 2017, and a great start to 2018 as Etihad Airways prepares for yet another exciting year of Indian operations.

The annual Conde Nast Traveller awards have set the benchmark in the hospitality and travel industry since their inception in the United States almost 20 years ago.
New York, Jan 11 (JEN): Despite some recent voluntary returns among those displaced in Sudan's Darfur region, lack of security, services and sustainable livelihoods in return areas have become major impediments to returns, the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council Wednesday.

Thus far, the humanitarian indicators illustrate a continuing emergency situation, said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, briefing the Security Council.

Across the region, there are some 2.7 million displaced persons, of whom 2.1 million are in need of assistance, and 1.6 million living in a range of camps and settlements.

In his briefing, Lacroix also informed the 15-member Council that without major incidents overall, the disarmament campaign in the region has been received with mixed reactions and scepticism, especially by the internally displaced persons, while local authorities and tribal leaders consider that it has increased the security among the communities.

In that context, the African Union UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) is engaging the authorities on reported concerns over non-respect for the rule of law and violations of human rights associated with the campaign, while monitoring its conduct in the camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

In the meantime, progress towards achieving a negotiated political settlement to the conflict remains elusive, added the UN peacekeeping chief.

Lacroix went on to inform the Security Council that the first phase UNAMID reconfiguration had finished and 11 team sites had been closed and handed over to the Darfur state governments.

He also updated them on the Mission's ongoing work on state-specific stabilization plans in cooperation with the Darfur state governments and the UN country team.

Concluding his briefing, Lacroix urged the Security Council to consider a new mission concept with adjusted priorities in the context of the renewal of UNAMID mandate in June.

He also called for prioritizing the consolidation of peacebuilding efforts in Darfur in order to safeguard the achievements and to avoid a relapse into conflict.

UN Photo/Loey Felipe


New York, Jan 11 (JEN): Colombia's peace efforts remain challenged by the task of reintegrating 14,000 former rebel combatants, the top United Nations official in the country said Wednesday as he also reported to the Security Council that the UN will 'closely follow' reports of a just-broken ceasefire between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian Government.

While the building blocks of stabilization are being put in place, we cannot lose sight of the challenges of reintegration, Jean Arnault, the Secretary-General's Special Representative, told the Security Council, presenting the first quarterly report on the activities of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, which he heads up.

The mission, which started its operations on 26 September 2017, was established to verify the commitments of the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) on reintegrating former FARC-EP members into society, and on ensuring security in territories most affected by the decades-long conflict, which was ended with a peace deal between the two sides in November 2016.

Arnault said that the political reintegration of the former guerrilla organization is on course, noting that the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections this year and local and departmental elections in less than two years will be an opportunity for the new FARC party to gain seats.

But we continue to view with concern the socioeconomic reintegration of the 14,000 former combatants, he said, explaining that many of them are still in prison and are extremely frustrated with the reintegration process.

President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon has taken the important step of recognizing the need for access to landownership as a major incentive for reintegration.

For their part, many FARC members have demonstrated on the ground that they are willing and able to engage in agriculture, environmental protection and crop substitution.

These are promising developments, but only that. The next few months must be the opportunity to turn the corner, and make a fragile process more durable.

Regarding a temporary ceasefire between the Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), Arnault stressed that the clamor for the continued suspension of military action has been unanimous, and reiterated the need to preserve the lower level of violence as seen in the past three months, while also advocating for a clearer and more reliable ceasefire.

Unfortunately, it was just announced that attacks against pipelines by the ELN have just resumed. We will follow closely developments and keep the Council informed, Arnault said.

Meanwhile, UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York that the Secretary-General will be travelling to Bogota, Colombia, on 13 January to support peace efforts.

On Saturday, Guterres will meet with the President, officials of the Government and armed forces, as well as with the leadership of the FARC and the Catholic Church.

On Sunday, the Secretary-General will travel to Meta Department, where his agenda will include a visit to a territorial area for training and reintegration of former FARC combatants.

Asked if the UN chief will meet with the ELN, Dujarric said we're concerned by the incident this morning  an attack on an oil pipeline. We're obviously following the developments very closely and we're keeping the Security Council informed.

UN Photo/Manuel Elias
Image: twitter.com/LAPDHQ

Carpinteria, Jan 11 (IBNS): The death toll in the devastating California mudslides has risen to 17, with 28 others suffering injuries, reports said.

Additionally, 13 people are said to be missing still.

Earlier, the toll was placed at 13, with two dozens said to be injured.

The calamity was induced by incessant rains that swept the hillsides of California's Santa Barbara County on Tuesday.

California in recent months has witnessed one of the deadliest wildfires in the history of the United States of America. According to experts, the charred lands were quick to form mudslides.

According to officials, more that 100 homes have been destroyed and another 300 have been damaged.

Among one of the affected areas is the upmarket neighbourhood of Montecito, home to Hollywood star Rob Lowe, chat show host Ellen DeGeneres and media mogul Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah, one of the people affected by the mess, shared on Instagram, "Thanks everyone for your prayers and concern. My property is fine.Some mud , and minor damage that pales in comparison to what my neighbors are going thru." (sic)

Image: twitter.com/LAPDHQ
Ottawa/Washington, Jan 11 (IBNS): Canada seems to believe that the United States will pull itself out of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by the end of January, according to Financial Post.

Canada, Mexico and the US are scheduled to meet for the last round of negotiation over NAFTA in January end.

However, Canada feels that the US will pull itself out of the agreement in the last round of talks only, Financial Post reported.

Following the news, both Canadian and Mexican currencies have weakened in respect to the US dollars.

The trade relations between Canada and the US took a turn this week after Canada filed a World Trade Organisation complaint over America's duties against Canada.

The US has hit back by calling the move as "broad and ill-attacked attack".

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently, early in this month, faced heat from US President Donald Trump, who acclaimed the former saying "a nice guy" but also has hit out at his counterpart over their differences on "trade deficit" discussions, media reports said.

Referring to Trudeau, Trump said: "I like the prime minister very much. Prime Minister Trudeau. Nice guy. Good guy. No, I like him. But we had a meeting... He said, 'No, no, you have a trade surplus.' I said, 'No we don't.' He said, 'No, no you have a trade surplus."

NAFTA is an agreement which came into force from January 1994 by Canada, Mexico and United States creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.

For more than two years, US President Trump criticised the agreement and also hinted to take some serious steps being in the administration or at least send some ultimatums.

Trump reportedly wants the treaty to be more fair.

Both Canada and the US differ in the climate change.

Amid the ongoing negotiations in the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, in November, said the country can't agree to extreme proposals put forward by the US, media reports said.

After the fifth round of talk in Mexico city, Freeland told media: "There are some areas where some extreme proposals have been put forward, and these are proposals that we simply cannot agree to."

Freeland even said certain proposals could become detrimental to the Canadian auto-industry.

When asked about whether the country should look forward to have a future without NAFTA, Freeland told media, "..hope for the best and prepare for the worst and Canada is prepared for every eventuality".



(Reporting by Suman Das)

Image: facebook.com/DonaldTrump
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A controversial bill to exempt tribes from federal labor law has been revived on Capitol Hill, sparking divisions between Republicans and Democrats and putting other Indian legislation in doubt.

Without much advance notice, Republicans added the text of H.R. 986 , the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act, to an otherwise non-controversial bill that would help tribes in Arizona and New Mexico with water and economic development issues.

As a result, Democrats who would have otherwise voted for S.140 abandoned the measure in droves on Wednesday.

"Unfortunately, instead of quickly passing these bills and suspensions and sending them to the president to be signed into law, House Republican leadership has decided to take those two bills hostage and combine them with a highly divisive bill that is likely not going anywhere," Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), the top Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources , said during debate on the floor of the House

"This political stunt seems doomed to fail," Grijalva added. "The only thing it will accomplish is wasting everyone's time."

In the end, only 23 Democrats supported the bill, according to the roll call . But since Republicans hold the overwhelming majority of seats in the chamber, they were able to pass S.140 with a total of 239 votes.

"Quite frankly," said Rep. Kristi Noem (R-South Dakota), a co-sponsor of H.R.986, "I believe that subjecting Native American tribes to National Labor Relations Board rules is yet another sign that some still want the federal government to interfere with tribal decision-making."

Kasey Velasquez, left, vice chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, testifies in favor of S.140 at a House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans hearing in Washington, D.C., on November 2, 2017. he said his tribe needs a simple fix to a federal law to let it continue work on a badly needed drinking water project. Photo by Isaac Windes / Cronkite News

As Grijalva noted, S.140 is indeed non-controversial, at least as it was originally written. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent in May , meaning no one objected.

The bill, which ensures the White Mountain Apache Tribe can move forward with a critical drinking water project in Arizona, seemed to be moving forward without issue in the House. A November 2 hearing indicated it was on track to passage and, eventually, to President Donald Trump for his signature.

The tribes current water sources and antiquated infrastructure have been, and continue to be, grossly inadequate to meet the current demands and needs of our reservation communities, Vice Chairman Kasey Velasquez said in testimony to the House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans at the time.

But Republican leaders changed course after returning to work this month. Instead of allowing S.140 to move forward as introduced, the House Committee on Rules added two new sections to the bill at a meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

Section 2 was not a huge issue. It merely includes the text of S.249 , a bill which clarifies that Ohkay Owingeh and the Pueblo of Santa Clara can lease their lands in northern New Mexico for up 99 years for economic development and other purposes.

The Senate passed S.249 by unanimous consent on May 8 , the same day as S.140. Similar bills have been enacted for other tribes so combining the measures didn't seem like much of a stretch.

"S.249 would address the loophole in the 1992 amendment and enable us to enter into long-term leases on our commercially valuable lands," Santa Clara Governor J. Michael Chavarria told the House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs last June

The Pueblo of Santa Clara in northern New Mexico. The tribe supports passage of S.249, a bill to allow long-term leasing of its lands for economic development and other purposes. Photo: Kathy Knorr

Section 3, in contrast, is H.R.986, the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act. Tribes and their supporters say the bill merely treats tribes in the same manner as state and local governments when it comes to unions and federal labor laws.

"Tribes are governments and should be treated as such," said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and one of only two Native Americans in Congress. "The intent of the law was and is clear: Tribal governments supervise the employees within their governments and enterprises, not the federal government."

But Democrats believe the measure is unfair because it treats employees who work in Indian Country differently.

"American citizens, including Native American citizens of our country, don't lose their rights as workers because of the ownership of the organization and company that they happen to be employed by," said Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado).

Republicans certainly have enough votes to advance the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act on its own -- a prior version cleared the House by wide margins in November 2015 . Their efforts this week seemed intent on embarrassing Democrats instead.

"Many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim that they, too, support tribal self-governance, but their efforts today to derail this important legislation paint a starkly different picture," Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-California), the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs , said in a press release on Wednesday that blasted Democrats as "Flip Flops."

But Democrats aren't the only ones being dealt a setback. S.140, the White Mountain water bill, has been championed by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) and Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), both of whom clashed with President Trump and fellow Republicans throughout 2017.

Since the House modified S.140, it has to be sent back to the Senate for consideration again. That chamber has never been able to clear the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act on its own so the bill's future is in doubt for the remainder of the 115th Congress.

Inaction on S.140 would deprive Flake of a key legislative victory before he leaves the Senate later this year. He has decried the type of partisanship that seemed to be on display this week.

We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals, Flake said when he announced he would not seek re-election. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country  the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions; the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected to serve.

For decades, tribes didn't have to worry about the National Labor Relations Act . But in 2004, the National Labor Relations Board said tribal businesses -- especially casinos -- could be subjected to the law because they employ non-Indians and cater to non-Indians.

Since then, the courts have consistently upheld the NLRB's approach so tribes have been asking Congress for parity, noting that states and local governments are able to adopt and follow their own labor laws.

"So the tribal leaders are saying: We should be sovereign. We should be allowed to make these sorts of decisions ourself without the federal government coming in and putting the bureaucracy there," said Rep. Steve Pearce (R-New Mexico), a co-sponsor of H.R.986 who is leaving Congress to run for governor of New Mexico.

From the Indianz.Com Archive: Tribal labor law rider killed by wide margin in House (June 27, 2005) NCAI between 'rock and a hard place' on labor rider (September 13, 2004) Tribal labor amendment fails in House vote (September 10, 2004) Federal labor board expands jurisdiction over tribes (June 4, 2004)

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People say that doing daily soaps is tougher than doing films. What if the lead actor falls sick or needs a leave? The television business is pretty complex, and rightly so.

We never knew what goes behind the camera until recently when the lead pair of Aisi Deewangi... Dekhi Nahi Kahi unveiled the bitter truth. Jyoti Sharma and Pranav Misshra, who play the role of Prem Singh Rathod and Tejaswini Prem Singh Rathod in the serial, have quit the show stating they were made to work inhuman hours.

"We have been exploited since the beginning of the shoot, which commenced in January 2017. We have been working for 18 hours each day. There would be no food, tea or even water during these extended hours. Even though it would get late, they never checked on how I was commuting alone at that hour. There have also been times when I have been called back mid-way, to shoot. The environment is so negative that we don't wish to continue on the show," Jyoti told Bombay Times.

Caption this A post shared by Jyoti Sharma (@jyotidineshsharma) on Dec 28, 2017 at 7:43pm PST

"While my doctor advised bed rest for four days, I was made to report to the shoot the very next day and had to scream during the shoot. We have nothing against the channel and in fact, are grateful to them for the opportunity. The problem is with the production house and the inhuman treatment meted out by them," she added.

"We have been treated worse than animals and are traumatised. Just a day ago, I reported to the shoot despite being unwell. As per the guidelines, one needs a 12-hour break between two shifts. However, I can vouch that we have reported back to the set within five hours at least 250 days in a year. Both Jyoti and I have undergone stress test as advised by CINTAA, and we have been diagnosed with depression, stress and anxiety," said Pranav.

The lead pair had quit the show in January giving two months of notice period. Furthermore, they have raised their concern with Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA).
Saif Ali Khan is back with an all new film. After a string of flops like Rangoon and Chef, the nawab is looking forward to his much anticipated film Kaalakandi.

Screengrab

It's one of a kind cinema with black comedy and some sarcastic dialogues that may leave you in splits. Well, at least Aamir Khan says so.

Screengrab

There was a screening held last night in Mumbai for Bollywood celebs who spoke highly of the film. Aamir found the movie so good that he almost reviewed it and shared it on Twitter.

After watching the film, Aamir couldn't stop laughing and also said that he hasn't laughed this much since Delhi Belly. The film has been directed by Akshat Verma of Delhi Belly fame. In fact, Imran too was at the screening and said the film is a great watch.

Kaalakaandi, which is co-produced by Rohit Khattar and Ashi Dua, also stars Kunal Roy Kapur, Sobhita Dhulipala and Deepak Dobriyal. The film is slated to release on 12 January.
For Indians, this may be reminiscent of the outrage after the brutal gang rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi, in December 2012. Pakistan is seeing similar protests after rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in Kasur area of northeast Pakistan. The protests and riots that followed the event have jolted the nation. So far, two protesters have been killed. According to Dawn, the girl's family had filed a missing report, but she was found dead after the brutal sexual assault.

Zainab was laid to rest amid massive protests in Kasur on Wednesday/AFP

The news sent shockwaves across Pakistan causing widespread outrage with protests erupting in different parts of the country. In the past year, there have been at least 12 such reported incidents in that region, Reuters reports.

The girl's parents were away for Umrah (pilgrimage) in Saudi Arabia and returned Pakistan on Wednesday and were unable to attend their childs funeral prayers. I have nothing to say, I just want justice for my daughter, the mother was quoted as saying by Dawn.

The victim's father claimed that police did not cooperate with the family.

The news sent shock waves across Pakistan causing widespread outrage with protests erupting in different parts of the country.parts of the country/AFP

My relatives and neighbours told me that the police used to come, have food and leave, he told local media. While they didnt do anything, my friends and family spent day and night looking for my daughter, he added.

Clashed have been reported between protestors and police. Protestors have also called out the incompetence of the police at handling child abduction cases in the region.

The condemnable & horrific rape & murder of little Zainab exposes once again how vulnerable our children are in our society. This is not the first time such horrific acts have happened. We have to act swiftly to punish the guilty & ensure that our children are better protected. pic.twitter.com/9f7OM3hYT1  Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) January 10, 2018

The sad reality is that Zainab could be anyone. It could be your sister, your wife, your daughter, or even your mother. Its time we stand as a nation and set an example. Its now or never. #JusticeForZainab  Zaid Ali (@Za1d) January 11, 2018

Heartbroken to hear about Zainab - a 7 year old child abused and brutally killed in Kasur, Pakistan. This has to stop. Gov and the concerned authorities must take action. #JusticeForZainab





Last February, a seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped and strangled to death. "All the cases have resemblances. It looks like a lunatic serial killer is behind these incidents," said Malik Ahmed Ali, provincial government spokesman, citing an initial inquiry, reported Al Jazeera.
If you think your family group chats on WhatsApp are a huge annoyance, always pinging you at the worst possible moments, theyre about to become a much bigger liability,

German security researchers have found a way to crack into WhatsApp group chats despite the apps end-to-end encryption. They announced the exploit at the Real World Crypto security conference in Switzerland.

Paul Rosler, one of the Ruhr University researchers that co-authored the paper, told Wired that it requires the hacker be in control of the WhatsApp server for that group chat. No doubt, this limits the method to a very sophisticated hacker, but its possible nonetheless.

ALSO READ: WhatsApp Just Went Down In India & Around The World & People Don't Know What To Do Anymore!

Once in control of the server, the hacker can then insert any new member into the group chat, without the admins permission. When that happens, each phone in the chat automatically shares its encryption keys with the new person, giving them access to all future messages in the group but not past ones.

The confidentiality of the group is broken as soon as the uninvited member can obtain all the new messages and read them, Rosler said. The team found similar flaws in messaging apps like Signal and Threema, but they were far less vulnerable to exploitation.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp parent company Facebook is denying the exploit is at all a threat. Scary headline! But there is no [sic] a secret way into WhatsApp groups chats, Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos said on Twitter. After all, theres the fact that the members in the group would see a new person joining and know theyre not supposed to be there.
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Hog Prices Red for Weekend Barchart - 1 hour ago The midday hog market is giving back 20 to 82 cents across most of the front months  save for Feb which is $1.02 in the red. The USDA National Average Base Hog Price was down by another $1.36 to $81.76.... HEZ22 : 84.275 (-0.82%) HEJ23 : 95.000 (-1.04%) KMZ22 : 94.925 (-0.60%)

Midday Weakness from Cotton Futures Barchart - 1 hour ago The cotton board is down by 33 to 122 points so far for midday. Futures faded a net 219 points in Dec for the week. New crop Dec is down by 57 points for a Dec-Dec spread of now 741 points. China upped... CTZ22 : 85.59 (-1.67%) CTH23 : 83.95 (-1.56%) CTK23 : 83.27 (-1.33%)

Friday Weakness for Wheat Futures Barchart - 1 hour ago Through midday the wheat market is trading in the red, with SRW down a dime from the earlier higher. The other front month SRW contracts are down by 4 1/4 to 5 3/4 cents for the day. KC wheat futures are... ZWZ22 : 802-4 (-0.53%) ZWH23 : 821-0 (-0.48%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.3673 (-0.59%) KEZ22 : 933-0 (-0.53%) KEPAWS.CM : 8.9129 (-2.47%) MWZ22 : 953-0 (unch)

Nickel Higher Soy Marker Barchart - 1 hour ago Beans are back up by 1/4 to 5 1/2 cents through the midday portion of Friday. That has the Jan contract limiting the weeks loss to 27 cents so far. Meal futures are also back up, with gains of $1.40... ZSF23 : 1426-6 (+0.69%) ZSPAUS.CM : 14.0175 (+0.71%) ZSH23 : 1431-4 (+0.65%) ZSK23 : 1438-2 (+0.68%)

Corn Futures Fractionally Weaker into Weekend Barchart - 1 hour ago So far for Friday the corn market is trading fractionally to 3 1/2 cents in the red. Futures had been higher earlier, but faded from a 5 1/4 cent gain for Dec. Chinas customs data showed 550k MT... ZCZ22 : 667-6 (unch) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.7333 (+0.38%) ZCH23 : 670-2 (+0.19%) ZCK23 : 668-2 (+0.15%)

Crude Oil Continues Lower on Demand Worries Barchart - 1 hour ago Dec WTI crude oil (CLZ22 ) today is down -3.36 (-4.12%), and Dec RBOB gasoline (RBZ22 ) is down -0.0608 (-2.56%). Dec crude oil today is down sharply by -4.12%, adding to Thursday's drop of -4.16%. Crude... CLF23 : 79.35 (-2.52%) RBF23 : 2.3498 (-1.99%)
Three subsidiaries of Munich Re s ERGO Group AG will soon become part of Allianz Group.The German insurance group is selling its legal protection insurance subsidiary DAS Switzerland, as well as assets of DAS Luxembourg and Slovakia, for an undisclosed sum. The ERGO subsidiaries had a combined premium income of 38 million in 2016.The acquisition will make Allianz Suisse one of the top three firms offering legal protection coverage in Switzerland. Allianz Suisse subsidiary CAP, with annual premium volume of around CHF70 million, is currently number four in the very attractive Swiss market while DAS Switzerland is ranked eighth.The legal protection insurance portfolio of DAS Luxembourg, on the other hand, will be ceded to the subsidiary of Allianz Benelux in Luxembourg while the Allianz country subsidiary for Slovakia will absorb the ERGO legal protection insurance branch for that country.Our aim with this merger is to utilise growth opportunities in the non-life business and further strengthen our competitive position, said Allianz Suisse chief executive Severin Moser. This will enable us to create the best conditions for our customers and place us in an excellent position in this growth market.Pending regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to be completed in April. Details about structures relating to employees, brand identity, and sales have yet to be discussed.
A recent Bali accident that left a 24-year-old Perth man with serious head injuries after crashing his scooter has prompted Understand Insurance and Smartraveller to call for increased awareness about the serious risks involved in riding motorcycles when overseas, especially in Southeast Asia.The Perth man remains at the Bali International Medical Centre after undergoing emergency surgery, and now faces hospital bills estimated to exceed $65,000.Accidents and collisions on motorbikes in Southeast Asia involving Australians are almost a daily occurrence, said Campbell Fuller , Understandinsurance.com.au spokesperson. All too often we find ourselves seeking to raise awareness among travellers of the serious health and financial risks posed by choosing to ride a motorcycle during an overseas holiday.Fuller urged thrill-seeking overseas travellers  about three out of four Australians aged 18-29, according to a DFA/Understand Insurance survey  to get insured for risky activities, including riding motorbikes.Travellers need to understand that most travel insurers will not provide cover for high-risk activities such as riding a motorcycle while overseas  particularly if the rider does not hold a full Australian motorcycle licence and is not wearing an appropriate helmet, Fuller said.DFAT said it provided consular assistance to 10 Australians involved in serious motorcycle incidents in Southeast Asia in December 2017; while Smartraveller noted on its website that motorcycle accidents involving Australians are common in the region, particularly in Bali, Thailand and Vietnam.Smartraveller urged travellers to ensure theyre covered when riding motorcycles, scooters, and mopeds overseas, and minimise the risk of serious injury by wearing protective clothing, such as helmets.Australians travelling to Southeast Asia should check their insurance policies before hiring or riding on scooters or motorbikes, Fuller said. Most travel insurers exclude the use of scooters and motorcycles because its a high-risk activity, though some will cover it under certain conditions or for an additional premium. Alcohol and drug use will also jeopardise insurance coverage.In Indonesia, driving or riding a motor vehicle requires an Indonesian licence or an international driving permit (IDP) appropriate to the type of vehicle.Your Australian motor vehicle licence may not be sufficient, Fuller said. Your travel insurer will deny your claim if youre unlicensed or dont hold the correct class of licence in Australia for the vehicle driven.Travellers were also warned that in an accident, foreigners are often assumed to be at fault and may be expected to make restitution to all other parties.
Thanks to recent appointments at Berkshire Hathaway , some believe that the CEO and business magnate Warren Buffett has named his two possible successors.Berkshire Hathaway has named Gregory Abel as vice-chairman of non-insurance business operations, while Ajit Jain was tapped to serve as vice-chairman of insurance operations. Both have long been viewed by Wall Street as the frontrunners to replace Buffett, and those analysts are saying that the decision to promote the two brings them a step closer toward succession.There will be a transition down the road anyway, so why not give shareholders a better view of what that might look like and allow them to shift their focus to the new team that will eventually be in place, Jeffrey Matthews, a retired hedge fund manager and the author of Warren Buffetts Successor: Who It Is and Why It Matters, told USA Today.The appointments seemingly put both Abel and Jain on an equal footing, giving both an opportunity to take a shot at the top spot.They are the two key figures at Berkshire, Buffett told CNBC in an interview, adding that he is still in good health and will continue to work.I know that if I were in the position of those two fellows, I would like to get some experience with supervising a whole group of businesses before I eventually took over.Canadian-born Abel, 55, joined the company back in 1992. He has been serving as CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. According to Buffett, Abel has been instrumental in closing multiple acquisitions, including the US$5.6 billion deal to acquire NV Energy in Las Vegas.The 66-year-old Jain joined Berkshire in 1986, and has been serving as executive vice-president of Berkshires National Indemnity, as well as leading the companys reinsurance businesses. Jain is known in the insurance industry for writing policies that cover unusual risks.
Younger brokers should look to stay open-minded and be confident enough to share ideas with co-workers, a veteran has said.Nigel Thomas, division chief executive  Austbrokers Networks, AUB Group , said that younger brokers should not be shy about sharing their ideas with superiors.Just because you have manager next to your name doesnt mean you have more value to add, everybody has something to add, Thomas told Insurance Business. The industry needs strong voices and they come in all shapes and sizes and from all parts of the industry.Thomas said that younger brokers should look to keep an open mind as they make their way through the industry.It is easy to say no and get stuck in a rut, Thomas continued. It is hard to be open-minded and be prepared to challenge what you do day-to-day.Thomas, who has been in the industry for over 30 years, spent time in broking, underwriting and premium funding before he took a role with AUB Group - but his debut in the industry came by chance.I put my name into the ring for two or three different roles, and got called up for interviews. It was interesting because at 17 I got told I was too old for one of the jobs, Thomas said. I was fresh out of school and it was a bit soul destroying because I thought, if Im too old for a job then I am in trouble!Since then, Thomas has enjoyed a varied career and said that the industry should do more to remove the stigma that surrounds it.Everybody wants a career that provides diversity, Thomas said. This industry has it in spades - we have got to continue to find better ways of promoting that.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is reportedly considering a sale of its majority stake in its Indonesian insurance joint venture, valued at up to US$250 million (SGD$332 million).CBA, which is the largest lender in Australia, is in talks with several investment banks and is expected to bring in a financial adviser to determine the fate of its 80% stake in Indonesian insurer PT Commonwealth Life, Reuters reported.This is part of CBAs thrust to exit non-core businesses, and selling off its stake in the insurer could net the bank between US$200 million and US$250 million, sources said.If the sale is successful, it will become part of a trend of Asia-Pacific banks divesting from the insurance sector to generate capital and focus on their core banking businesses, which are facing tougher regulatory capital requirements.In September, CBA sold its insurance businesses in Australia and New Zealand to AIA for US$3.1 billion (SGD$4.12 billion). Malaysias AmBank is also considering a divestment of its general insurance holdings in order to focus more on banking, it was reported in December.According to its website, PT Commonwealth Life operates in 20 Indonesian cities, employing over 5,000 sales staff serving over 500,000 individuals and group customers. In 2016, its premium income was IDR1.9 trillion (SGD$187 million), growing 4% from the previous year.As the business is quite small, potential buyers of CBAs stake are likely to be other foreign-owned insurers in Indonesia that want to increase their footprint in the most populous Southeast Asian country, the anonymous sources told Reuters.In 2007, CBA raised its stake in PT Commonwealth Life to 80%, from a previous 50:50 joint venture with Indonesian firm PT Gala Arta Jaya.
Qatar Reinsurance Company (Qatar Re) has received authorisation from the Prudential Regulation Authority to operate in the UK, and open a branch office in London.London is the leading global hub for specialty and wholesale insurance, said Gunther Saacke, Qatar Re CEO. Therefore, a local underwriting presence is almost imperative for any aspiring global reinsurer.Only a few days ago, we announced the acquisition, subject to regulatory approvals, of Markerstudy Groups Gibraltar-based insurance companies which underwrite more than 5% of the UK motor insurance market, generating annual premiums of about 750 million.Additionally, Michael van der Straaten has been appointed to lead the British operations, in addition to his current role as chief underwriting officer for long tail and specialty classes at Qatar Re.Van der Straaten joined Qatar Re in 2016 from Chubb Tempest Re where he was deputy head of its London office and head of casualty, overseeing the development of their international casualty and motor portfolios. Prior to this, he held various underwriting positions with a primary focus on casualty lines alongside wider management responsibilities. He began his career at Lloyds as box manager and non-marine property treaty underwriter.
International insurance group Hyperion has today revealed its financial results for 2017, which its CEO called a milestone year for the company.



Revenue for the group increased by 20%, rising from 444 million ($598 million) in 2016 to 535 million ($721 million) in the year ending September 30, 2017. Profitability, measured by EBITDA, increased by 24% year-on-year from 123 million ($165 million) to 152 million ($205 million).



Chief executive David Howden described it as a landmark year for Hyperion  which is composed of broking divisions Howden and RKH Speciality, an RKH reinsurance arm, and underwriting division DUAL  thanks to impressive results delivered by each business.



The group reported organic revenue growth of 8%, remaining flat from 2016, which Hyperion said was regarded by its board as a strong result in a highly competitive operating environment. Howden added that market-leading organic growth and a strong profit margin are critical factors in Hyperions long-term success.



In December, it was revealed that investor Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) had agreed to acquire a significant minority stake in Hyperion, worth more than US$400 million. That investment, alongside additional funds from debt refinancing, will provide the group with significant additional capital to fund future growth, Howden said today.



Hyperion will continue to seek strategic partnerships, make acquisitions, and launch operations in the coming year, where likeminded businesses and people bring specialist expertise to the Group, deliver geographic reach in key territories, and make a positive difference to clients, the company said.



In 2017, Hyperion launched its international retail broking network, Howden One, which it described as enabling the group to provide global solutions for its retail clients.



This network brings together Howdens own offices and those of trusted, like-minded partner brokers, and spans 75 territories with over 5,000 insurance professionals who operate under one set of standards, Hyperion said in a release today.



RKH also built out its international infrastructure in 2017, which included the transferral of marine broking specialist, FP Marine, and wholesale broker, Howden Miami, into RKH Specialty.



DUALs regional management board, formed at the beginning of the financial year, was described as having brought the management of each regional business closer to their carriers, brokers and clients.



The group will also be focusing on innovation this year, which Howden said is necessary in todays business world.



In an ever-changing market, we recognize that we must be at the forefront of innovation using data and technology to enable the efficient and effective distribution of the right products to our clients at the right price, he said. Our investment in technology-led initiatives will be a key focus in the coming year.



Chairman Dominic Collins added: The combined efforts of all of our businesses have resulted in another year of strong financial performance. I extend my sincere thanks to each of the 3,800 employees involved in this achievement.



We enter 2018 with a new high-quality, long-term investor in CDPQ to join us, alongside General Atlantic, on our next phase of growth.





Related stories:

CDPQ invests in Hyperion Insurance Group

Insurance broker Howden to enter Mexico via partnership


A Canadian subcontractor tapped to help build a train station in downtown Miami has filed a lawsuit, claiming it is owed millions for additional unpaid work.Steel contractor ADF International, a subsidiary of Canadian company ADF Group, has named general contractor Suffolk Construction, project architect and engineer Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, and All Aboard Florida, the developer of the Brightline station in Miami.The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, alleges breach of contract by Suffolk and negligence claims against Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and All Aboard Florida.ADF is seeking payment for alleged unpaid additional work valued at $23.1 million, plus 5% interest and reimbursement for legal fees.In the court document, ADF alleged that it was given extra work due to errors and omissions in building plans  oversights that did not comply with the Florida Building Code or the code of standard practice of the American Institute of Steel Construction.ADF attorney Stuart Sobel told South Florida Business Journal that the root of the complaint is a combination of several factors: faulty planning, lack of supervision, and miscommunication along the chain of command.We kept trying to get Suffolk to sit down with us and settle up on the extra costs, and either Suffolk wouldnt put somebody who was up to speed across the table from us, would punt or flat-out refused to meet, Sobel explained.
Already established as one of the nations largest independent distributors of life and health insurance products, Integrity Marketing Group has attempted to spread its net even further with a key acquisition.The firm has made a deal for Neishloss & Fleming, Inc., a national wholesaler of Medicare Supplement and Medicare Advantage products in a move that will see Neishloss & Flemings owners become shareholders in Integrity.Currently the acquired firm has a presence across all 50 states and the District of Columbia having been founded in 1982. As a combined business it will produce more than $725 million in annualized premiums and Integritys national presence will expand to more than 120,00 independent agents.We felt that it was important to align ourselves strategically with the right partner as the Senior Market continues to evolve, and Integrity positions us very well for the future, said Tom Fleming, Chairman of Neishloss & Fleming. Integritys partnership approach is a perfect fit for organizations like ours that are looking to go to the next level.My parents, Alice and Eric Neishloss founded the business on the principle of providing the highest possible level of broker support. Tom and I have kept that broker first commitment as we have grown the business and we cannot imagine partnering with anyone but Integrity for our next phase of growth, added Maggie Fleming, President & CEO. This is an exciting day for our family, our employees and all of our agents.
P&C insurer Spinnaker Insurance has formed a strategic partnership with a California-based insurtech company, allowing the latter to expand to new states.The insurer is collaborating with Hippo, an insurtech company that offers what it calls smart home coverage. Under the partnership, Hippo hopes to bring its coverage to over 60% of the US population by the end of the year.Hippo will leverage Spinnakers admitted platform to offer its home and condo insurance products to an expanded audience nationwide, a release said. Homeowners in Texas will be the first to benefit from the deal, as Hippo had launched its products in the state late last year.Spinnaker is an innovative carrier with a highly respected leadership team that shares Hippos belief that homeowners insurance was overdue for modernization, said Hippo head of insurance Richard L. McCathron CPCU, CIC. It has already proven to be a valuable partnership. Contributing to our groundbreaking and efficient quote process, Spinnaker has helped us solidify a client-friendly underwriting process through our trusted data sources that lowers friction for the end customer.A company release said that Spinnakers collaboration with Hippo is the insurers first insurtech partnership in the homeowners space.Spinnaker is committed to being the conduit between insurtech producers and the reinsurance and capital markets. We find Hippo to have a stand-out team and superior product for todays homeowner, commented Spinnaker Insurance chief underwriting officer Ken Ingrey. The longevity of insurtechs will come down to product innovation, ease of use, and customer service  Spinnaker is thrilled to be partnering with Hippo as we believe the organization reflects the characteristics of a successful platform.
Wintaai Holdings in Ontario has closed its acquisition of a workers compensation company based in Baton Rouge, Florida.Regional workers comp firm Stonetrust Commercial Insurance was sold to Wintaai by Dhandho Holdings, which had originally acquired Stonetrust in 2014.The purchase agreement was first announced on October 11, 2017. The price of the transaction was not disclosed.Stonetrust has about US$70 million in policyholder surplus and US$180 million in assets, a release said. The company is licensed in 28 states, currently operating in regions such as Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Nebraska.Led by president and CEO Michael G. Dileo, Stonetrusts management and personnel will remain unchanged following the acquisition,Were excited about acquiring Stonetrust and are ready to support its plans for continued profitable growth and expansion into new states, commented Wintaai chairman and CEO Francis Chou in a statement.Wintaai Holdings is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chou Associates Management in Toronto, which manages a series of mutual funds such as Chou Associates Fund, Chou RRSP Fund, Chou Europe Fund, Chou Asia Fund and Chou Bond Fund.
WITH THE global business landscape in a state of flux, the warning has been issued time and again that insurance brokers are under threat from myriad challenges, both internal and external. From aggressive consolidation trends to the digital revolution and insurers edging toward direct offerings, there are certainly obstacles in the road ahead. But for some, those challenges are nothing more than veiled opportunities that could herald the rise of a new era for brokers.The explosive growth of technology has undoubtedly been one of the most talkedabout potential threats to the intermediated channel. Digital transformation itself has been inescapable across almost all industries but has presented a specific set of challenges for insurance. While technology has had a positive impact in areas such as productivity, efficiency and analytics, it has also brought with it a stream of new entrants to the industry many of which are focusing on direct models of business. Major insurers, too, have been emboldened by new digital platforms that allow them to cut out the middleman and communicate directly with consumers, a trend that is not music to brokers ears.But while the plates may be shifting beneath them, brokers continue to provide an invaluable service, according to Jose Manuel Fonseca, CEO of global firm Brokerslink. Brokers have a great asset, which is the knowledge of the client and the relationship with the client, and that is critical, he says. If brokers can integrate technology technology and form some partnerships with new entrants, I think there is a lot to do, and I see this as a huge opportunity.The accusation often thrown at insurance  thats it been too slow to adapt to the fast pace of digital change  is an unfair one, Fonseca adds. We are not the fastest industry to change, he admits, but I think there is some explanation for that. Insurance is very much related to nature, to acts of God. You cannot predict or always understand that. I think insurance is much more complex than, say, banking. We deal with nature; we deal with people; we deal with lots of different lines of business.The fast-changing world has not just created new technologies, but new risks, too, many of which are opening up new markets for brokers. The cyber market, for example, was nonexistent 15 years ago but is seeing huge growth globally as cyberattacks on businesses increase in frequency and impact.Thats one of the beauties of insurance  we are always adapting to new risks and to the new behaviors of society, Fonseca says. From natural disasters to terrorism to cyber, they are all becoming more and more important and require a lot of consulting. Brokers have an important role there.Lloyds cyber broker David M. Dickson, head of technology, cyber and media at Safeonline, says its no secret that a number of insurers and MGAs are now going direct to clients, but he adds that in those emerging and niche lines, where coverage and appetite continuously change and evolve, brokers are continuing to add irreplaceable value.While [going direct] might herald some benefits in pricing for the insured, when it comes to specialist or technical lines of business, such as technology E&O, cyber, media and intellectual property, I am confident about the role of the London broker and the value we continue to add, he says. As an industry, insurance is ripe for disruption, and with an increasing number of ways in which insurance products are distributed, clients are undoubtedly benefiting from more options to access the market and coverage. Brokers need to establish a niche and their own distribution platforms to avoid missing out on these opportunities. Ultimately, they are left with two options, he adds: accept and adapt, or deny and die.Given all that change, is the environment for brokers today more challenging than it was 20 years ago? I wouldnt say so  we are still growing; we are still relevant, Fonseca says, pointing to the continued interest in the industry from the equity world as evidence that there is still more growth to come. In fact, the need for knowledge, consulting and advice is even more important today as the world faces up to some increasingly complex risks. I would not dramatize, Fonseca says, but I think [these are] very challenging times.
Maine lawmakers on Tuesday considered a proposal to extend a ban on retail sales of marijuana until May 1 to give the state more time to craft rules about legal pot.

Lawmakers in the state are trying once again to sort out details of the voter-approved law legalizing recreational marijuana. Recreational marijuana use became legal for adults last year, but theres no way to legally buy it because Republican Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a bill created by a bipartisan task force.

The sale of recreational marijuana is technically set to become legal Feb. 1, even though theres no way to obtain the needed license. Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, proposed extending the moratorium, the Portland Press Herald reported .

Katz is the chair of the states Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee. His proposal would allow the committee more time to work on a new bill that will have a better chance of passing than the one LePage vetoed. An attempt by the Legislature to override the veto did not pass.

Lawmakers held a public hearing on the attempt to revise the bill on Tuesday. Several medical marijuana caregivers who testified at the hearing said lawmakers should keep recreational use and medical marijuana programs separate. Medical marijuana already is legal in Maine.

LePage has cited numerous reasons he opposes legalized recreational marijuana, one of which is the fact that it would put the state out of compliance with federal law.

Maine lawmakers are trying to craft laws about legal pot sales following Attorney General Jeff Sessions announcement that he will allow federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules conflict with federal ones.

Halsey Frank, the U.S. attorney for Maine, said Tuesday his office will proceed on a case-by-case basis. Frank, who has spoken out against legal marijuana in the past, also said he does not have the authority to categorically declare that my office will not prosecute a class of crime or persons.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Cannabis Maine
The reluctance of foreign banks to deal with Iran could complicate any compensation payments resulting from the collision last week of an Iranian oil tanker and a Chinese cargo ship, sources say.

The tanker Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tonnes of highly flammable condensate oil, collided with the Chinese dry cargo vessel CF Crystal on Saturday in the East China Sea, causing an oil spill and a blaze that is still raging four days later.

Liability has yet to be established, but lawyers and insurers say, wherever the fault lies, compensation payments risk getting bogged down or even blocked because the tanker and most of its crew were from Iran.

The potential hitches stem from U.S. restrictions on financial transactions with Iran still in place despite the lifting of international sanctions against the country in 2016 following its nuclear deal with world powers, lawyers say.

The Sanchis $60 million cargo of ultra-light crude oil spilled into the ocean and caught fire after the collision in international waters some 160 nautical miles (300 km) off China.

While the CF Crystal has returned safely to port with its crew, dozens of rescue boats from China and South Korea have been battling strong winds, high waves and poisonous fumes to try to find 31 sailors from the Sanchi and tame the fire.

Rahul Khanna, global head of marine risk consulting with German insurer Allianz, said losses from the collision could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The value of the cargo and the value of the hull itself would be one major impact, but I think the oil pollution liability aspects are probably the largest element, he said.

He said the environmental impact would be less severe than for a heavy crude spill, however, as condensate evaporates quickly and would not cause a major oil slick.

U.S. Sanctions

Some lawyers said there would be payment problems whether Iranian parties were the beneficiaries of any compensation, or if they were found liable.

Nigel Kushner, chief executive of law firm W Legal and an Iran specialist, said any compensation process would be complex as there were four different insurance issues at play: the ship itself, or the hull, the cargo, pollution and the deceased.

Thirty of the Sanchis crew are from Iran and two are from Bangladesh. One body has been recovered from the sea but the rest are missing. The vessel (IMO:9356608) is run by Irans top oil shipping operator, NITC.

It will probably be perfectly legal for insurers to pay, but in practice near impossible, Kushner said.

Numerous insurers will be involved requiring multiple payments, he said. I have seen lengthy and frustrating delays for clients previously with respect to insurance payments coming out of the Lloyds [insurance] market when payments are delayed or blocked.

Under U.S. sanctions, U.S. financial institutions and are prohibited from any trade with Iran, despite the nuclear deal struck in 2015, known as the JCPOA.

While non-U.S. banks can do business with Iran, lawyers say transactions involving U.S. dollars can be problematic as they must not involve the U.S. financial system in any way and that can be difficult in practice.

Banks and individuals are still restricted from trade with individuals or entities that remain on a U.S. blacklist, adding to further caution over any business with Iran.

Transactions in other currencies are allowed, but lawyers say large Western banks, for example, are wary of dealing with Iran in case they fall foul of existing U.S. sanctions.

As a general matter, despite the sanctions relief contained within the JCPOA, there is still great difficulty in Western banks processing payments to Iranian counterparties, no matter the currency, said Matthew Oresman, a partner with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, who advises companies on Iran compliance.

For this specific incident, depending on the source of the insurance funds and the process by which it is to be delivered to Iranian recipients, there could be difficulties for the policy holders or other beneficiaries, he said.

Banking Paralysis

In recent years, compensation claims for major oil pollution incidents have largely been handled by the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds) inter-governmental body. It typically steps in to provide compensation for disasters over and above insurance company caps on payouts.

Maritime officials say compensation this time would fall under Chinas far smaller scheme known as the COPC Fund, partly because the oil in question is condensate which is not covered by IOPC Funds.

Xia Jun, a Beijing-based environmental lawyer, said the Chinese government would calculate the losses arising from pollution to the environment and fishing sector.

Protection and Indemnity (P&I) clubs  owned by shipping companies  insure the worlds ocean-going tonnage against pollution and injury claims, typically the biggest costs when a vessel sinks. Separate hull and machinery policies cover vessels against physical damage.

In the case of the Panama-flagged Sanchi, it is insured for P&I by Steamship Mutual based in London.

The vessel is entered with the Club and we have been very busy over the weekend with our emergency response. Clearly a major incident and we are doing all we can to support the members, Steamship said.

Seventy percent of the value of Sanchi itself is covered by 11 international insurers, led by Norways Skuld, with the other 30 percent covered by Iranian insurers, according to Skuld Chief Executive Stale Hansen.

Skuld also covers the Hong Kong-flagged CF Crystal (IMO:9497050) for protection and indemnity while the vessels hull is covered by a Chinese insurer.

The major issue with this case is going to be the banking issue, said a shipping source familiar with the incident. There is a degree of paralysis among banks.

Chinese Banks?

An Iranian government official acknowledged that when it came to the collision involving Sanchi there may be banking issues, though he was optimistic a solution could be found.

Major banks still refuse to do money transactions with Iran but there are tens of smaller banks willing to do such businesses, the official said.

Also, this is an extraordinary situation  Asian banks, especially Chinese banks, will surely help. There are several methods, including using local currencies or paying Irans debts somewhere else, he said.

Chinese banks, however, have become more reticent about doing some business with Iran.

Iranian media reported in October that some had closed accounts of certain Iranian nationals in China due to tougher enforcement by Chinese banks of money laundering rules. FATF, an international body that monitors money laundering worldwide, has kept Iran on its blacklist of high-risk countries.

Andrew Bardot, executive officer of the International Group of P&I Clubs  the umbrella association for ship insurers that provide cover for pollution and injury claims  said any problems with compensation payments from the incident would stem from the banking sector rather than issues about legality.

That being said, there are banks who have been and are able to facilitate Iranian related payments, which in the recent experience of the [International] Group have proved effective, he said.

(Additional reporting by Meng Meng in Beijing, Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, Carolyn Cohn in London and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by David Clarke)

Related:

Topics Carriers USA Energy Oil Gas Talent Pollution China
By Ritah Kemigisa:

The National Drug Authority is not to license any new drug out lets in Kampala and other municipalities countrywide.

Addressing journalists at Uganda media center, the Authoritys secretary Donna Kusemererwa said this is because Kampala and these major towns already have enough pharmacies to meet the populations demand.

Kusemererwa says the authority will only license new pharmacies in private hospitals which have been encouraged to set up drug outlets.

She says licensing is ongoing further warning that all those drug shops that will not have been licensed by the end of this month will be asked to close.

Meanwhile existing drug outlets have been encouraged to move out of the city center to other places that are not densely populated like Kasokoso , Makerere kivulu and other places countrywide .
Qatar Reinsurance Co. Ltd. announced it has received authorization from the UK Prudential Regulation Authority to underwrite business from its branch office in London.

Michael van der Straaten will lead the branch, in addition to his current role as the companys chief underwriting officer for Long Tail and Specialty Classes.

We are very pleased with Qatar Res authorization in the UK, commented Gunther Saacke, Qatar Res CEO.

London is the leading global hub for specialty and wholesale insurance. Therefore, a local underwriting presence is almost imperative for any aspiring global reinsurer, he added. This is particularly true for Qatar Re as proximity to our clients and brokers is one of our proven value drivers.

Britain is a major market of growing importance for Qatar Re, he affirmed.

Only a few days ago, we announced the acquisition, subject to regulatory approvals, of Markerstudy Groups Gibraltar-based insurance companies which underwrite more than 5 percent of the UK motor insurance market, generating annual premiums of about 750 million [US$1.0 billion].

Our local presence allows us to further enhance our access and offering to our UK clients and brokers, said Michael van der Straaten, head of Qatar Res UK branch and chief underwriting officer, Long Tail and Specialty Classes. Qatar Re is looking forward to becoming an important member of the UK insurance community.

van der Straaten began his career at Lloyds as a box manager and non-marine property treaty underwriter. He joined Qatar Re in December 2016 from Chubb Tempest Re where he held the role of deputy head of London and head of casualty, overseeing the development of international casualty and motor portfolios. Prior to this, he held various underwriting positions with a primary focus on casualty lines alongside wider management responsibilities.

Source: Qatar Re

Related:

Topics Underwriting London
What would happen if the U.K. leaves the European Union in March 2019 with no deal on the single market, customs union or transition arrangements? London Mayor Sadiq Khan commissioned a study and the answer was half a million fewer jobs and 50 billion pounds ($68 billion) less investment by 2030.

Cambridge Econometrics analyzed five different Brexit scenarios, from the hardest to the softest form of Brexit, and broke down the economic impact on nine industries, from construction to finance. Every Brexit outcome analyzed would damage the U.K. economy, but the more distance Britain puts between its current and future trading arrangements with the EU, the worse things got.

In the worst-case scenario Prime Minister Theresa May would fail to secure a two-year transition to ease the passage for businesses, a situation that in London alone may create 87,000 fewer jobs and usher in 10 years of lower growth. Negotiations with the EU will resume in March, with the status of banks the new battleground of trade discussions.

The timing of the report is unfortunate for the premier, whos meeting later Thursday with city financiers from companies including Goldman Sachs International, HSBC Holdings Plc and the London Stock Exchange Group to discuss safeguarding their interests post-Brexit. The study said that in a no-deal hard scenario, the industry that fares the worst will be financial and professional services, with as many as 119,000 fewer jobs nationwide.

The report is also likely to be embarrassing for May after Brexit Secretary David Davis confessed last month that the government hasnt conducted a detailed analysis of the impact of Brexit scenarios on different sectors of the economy. A series of much-talked about documents that Parliament insisted on seeing turned out to be statements of the obvious.

Khan, a member of the main opposition Labour Party, announced hed commissioned the report after Daviss admission. Davis was forced by lawmakers to publish studies that hed previously described as containing excruciating detail on the impact of Brexit on the economy but that lawmakers complained had nothing that couldnt be found on Wikipedia.

If the government continues to mishandle the negotiations, we could be heading for a lost decade of lower growth and lower employment, said Khan.

Moreover, the Treasurys own Brexit analysis appears to be a guarded secret even as Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond announced in his Budget that an extra 3 billion pounds will be set aside for Brexit preparations over the next two years to allow for every possible outcome. That is in addition to the 700 million pounds already invested.

Thursdays report found that while all parts of the country would suffer, Londons economy would prove the most resilient, with output 1.9 percent to 2.1 percent lower in 2030 than if Britain stayed in the EU, compared with a decline of between 3 percent and 3.3 percent elsewhere, under the no-deal, hard-Brexit scenario.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Europe Talent London Uk
An Iowa board has approved payment of nearly $1.1 million in a lawsuit by a former state worker who said the state Natural Resources Department fired him because of a work injury.

A judge had ordered the state to pay John Vetter after a jury ruled in his favor in 2015. Hed alleged that the state had not made reasonable accommodations for his work-related back injury and was fired in 2013. Vetter had worked at the agency since 1976.

The state appealed the verdict all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court, which declined in November to hear an appeal of an Iowa Appeals Court decision backing the original verdict.

The Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa Appeal Board agreed Tuesday to pay nearly $1.1 million.

Related:

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Topics Lawsuits Iowa
The Minot Public School District has settled a lawsuit filed by a company over unpaid cleanup expenses resulting from the 2011 Souris River flood.

The case was set to go to trial Monday in federal court, but the two sides earlier reached a $950,000 settlement. School District Business Manager Scott Moum says the money will come from the districts reserve fund.

The school district hired the ServPro company to clean up flood-damaged schools. The Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursed all but $1.9 million of the expense.

The school district contended Servpro had agreed not to charge anything over and above what FEMA paid. ServPro disputed that.

A federal judge last September ruled that the contract had been breached, but he didnt rule on resulting damages.

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Topics Lawsuits Flood
Things just got a bit easier for private personal lines insurance carriers wanting to enter the flood insurance market.

Through its ISO subsidiary, data analytics firm Verisk has launched a new personal lines flood insurance program that is designed to make flood coverage widely available to homeowners anywhere in the contiguous United States. ISO says its personal lines flood program enables insurers to offer flood coverage that is broader and more flexible than that available through the governments National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and offer options in a template similar to the familiar standard homeowners policy.

Citing research by broker Marsh, Verisk contends the private flood insurance market could potentially be worth $40 billion in new business to private insurers. The flood insurance market is currently dominated by the NFIP.

The floods of recent years have highlighted the inadequacy or complete lack of coverage for many Americans, including those who didnt think they were at risk for flooding, said Neil Spector, president of ISO.

ISO began the state-by-state filing process for its new personal lines flood program in December 2017 and said this process will continue throughout 2018.

This program presents a new opportunity for insurers to grow their homeowners book by providing robust flood risk protection to an underserved segment, said Marc Treacy, managing director of flood at ISO, in announcing the product launch.

Treacy said the product allows insurers to offer needed insurance to new customers and fresh coverage options for existing customers.

The ISO product includes coverage for debris removal; reasonable repairs; property removal; sandbags, supplies, and labor; improvements, alterations, and additions; and loss assessment. In addition, it offers a choice of various single, flatdollar deductibles as well as optional coverages and endorsements including: loss of use; increased cost of compliance; ordinance or law; broadened coverage for dwelling and other structures; coverage for personal property located in below-ground areas; personal property replacement cost and others.

ISO said its rating manual for the new personal lines flood program revises traditional flood territories, dividing the country into 57 territories. Through a combination of models developed by AIR Worldwide and extensive analysis of ISO and NFIP data, ISO has designed a comprehensive and actuarially sound rating structure encompassing every address in the lower 48 states, said Treacy.

[ISO launched a commercial lines flood program last August. This program enables insurers to set their own limits of insurance and provide optional coverage for risks not typically covered by the NFIP including certain types of property damage to basements, business interruption, and costs to comply with building code changes. The coverage can be based on actual cash value or replacement cost value. The new program features actuarially sound loss costs based on models developed by Verisks AIR Worldwide business and from ISO data.]

Private Market

A report by the American Academy of Actuaries said that better data analytics and new rating models have already encouraged more private reinsurers and insurers to offer flood coverage in the United States, something common in other parts of the world.

However some regulatory obstacles to fuller private market participation remain, including assuring that private flood policies and their terms and limit will be acceptable to government-backed mortgage lenders. Congress is again considering reauthorization of the NFIP, funding for which is currently set to expire on Jan. 1 along with funding for other government programs. The insurance industry has urged Congress to take steps to encourage more private carrier involvement in the market.

Flood insurance reforms have stalled in Congress, despite efforts by Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Texas and chairman of the House Financial Services that has advanced a series of changes.

Matt Nielsen of the risk modeling firm RMS, writing recently on Insurance Journal, said he believes that if Congress does not enact reforms, the private flood market may flourish in certain states like Florida that have already addressed some of the obstacles, but a country-wide move towards higher flood insurance penetration will stall.

If, however, Congress does enact key reforms, Nielsen says the private market will have to start the process of building flood portfolios, ceding risks from the current NFIP market and test marketing new insurance policies in flood-prone areas. They will also need to use analytics to identify the appropriate grow areas and expansion rate of their flood business, he noted.

Standard & Poors has identified potential in the market for private insures but said even if Congress passes reform, it does not expect to see a surge in private insurers wading into the market; instead, it will take time.

The countrys second largest home insurer, Allstate, has said it might enter the market but only if Congress passes reforms.

The flood insurance situation needs to be completely redone,Allstate Chief Executive Officer Tom Wilson has said, adding that Congress must give insurers more authority to change coverages and align things in ways that conform to the industry.

Some private insurers have braved the flood market even without changes by Congress. Florida-based HCI Group has taken its Florida flood insurance experience and technology into other states including Arkansas, California, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas.

Nancy Watkins, a principal consulting actuary for the actuarial consulting firm Milliman, told Insurance Journals Andrea Wells that the availability of new data is making a difference.

Insurance companies for many years did not have that information, and they didnt have any good way of measuring how risky a house was for flood peril. With catastrophe models over the last few years, and with a lot of big data sources coming available that didnt used to be available, that problem has largely been reduced.

Private insurers have also traditionally been wary of trying to compete with the low premiums of NFIP. But NFIP premiums are no longer low in all cases.

First of all, after the storms of 2005, Katrina especially, the NFIP built up a very big deficit and they started raising their premiums. That really made a big difference in terms of perception as to whether their premiums were too low or not, Watkins said. Once the premiums got higher, more in the range of what a private insurer might be interested in charging, there became real opportunity for private market insurers.

There will always be a need for the NFIP, according to G. Michael Sloane, chief marketing officer of Wright Flood, one of the largest flood providers in the nation. Wright offers federal, excess and private flood insurance.

Sloane believes theres no doubt that some of the accounts now with NFP could be moved out of the federal program, however be believes the real opportunity will come beyond the NFIP.

What I think is going to happen and what is incumbent upon us as an industry and those that are offering a private flood alternative program is to grow that base outside of the NFIP, not just concentrate on whats there already, he told Insurance Journal. Some 25 percent of all flood losses happen in non-required flood zones, or what we call preferred risks. And thats just those that have insurance. There are literally thousands more [properties] that didnt have any type of coverage or thought they had coverage or didnt understand coverage. Thats where we really have to grow as an industry and I think competition and the private market can help stimulate that more.

Related:

Topics Carriers Trends Florida Flood Market Homeowners
A new study suggests if the Houston area continues to boom for 60 years and sea levels rise, a direct hit to Galveston from a massive hurricane could destroy $31.8 billion worth of homes, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Texas A&M researchers looked at possibly building a coastal barrier about 60 miles long from Galveston to Bolivar Peninsula. Experts say potential residential destruction from a storm surge would drop about 80 percent  to $6 billion, the Chronicle reported Saturday.

The idea for a coastal barrier has been floated since Hurricane Ike hit the Galveston area in 2008 but congressional funding remains a problem.

The numbers make sense, said state Sen. Larry Taylor, a Republican from Friendswood whos tried for years to get federal funding for a coastal barrier. This investment is going to pay for itself time and time again.

After Hurricane Harvey struck in late August, Houston and state officials asked the federal government for $12 billion for a coastal barrier.

The Texas A&M study only looked at damage to homes and apartments from a storm surge  not flooding caused by rainfall  and excludes the potential harm to the regions commercial buildings and ports.

Storm relief likely will become part of the negotiations for a 2018 spending bill to be considered later this month as part of funding the federal government, said U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.

GOP Congressman Randy Weber, of Friendswood, said some Republican lawmakers have pushed back against funding infrastructure as part of disaster relief, warning of a bad precedent.

Weber said he hopes to get the coastal barrier included in an infrastructure package if efforts to include it in disaster relief ultimately fail.

This is foolish for us to just keep paying for these disasters over and over and over again, Weber said. How about something to prevent this from happening on the next go around?

Related:

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Topics Texas
Two fraternities at East Carolina University have been closed by their national organizations following investigations into alcohol and hazing infractions.

Local media outlets report school officials announced Monday that Delta Chi National Fraternity will close its local chapter immediately for an indefinite period after an investigation that found actions by members constituted hazing and other violations of the fraternitys policies.

The school also said Tau Kappa Epsilon will close the Lambda Psi Chapter for four years.

The announcement follows the closure of ECUs Sigma Phi Epsilon in May for similar concerns and comes during ongoing scrutiny nationally of the Greek system prompted by hazing deaths and other incidents. Virginia Hardy, ECU vice chancellor for student affairs, said the school supports the decisions by the national organization.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Education Universities
The Kentucky Department of Insurances (DOI) Consumer Protection Division returned over $15 million to Kentucky consumers during 2017, the department said in a statement.

Consumers received over $10.5 million in restitution through the work of DOIs Market Conduct Branch, which conducts examinations of insurance-related businesses operating in Kentucky. The examinations ensure that regulated entities comply with the states insurance code. If issues are identified through the examination process, DOI works to provide restitution to policyholders.

An additional $5.3 million was recovered for Kentucky consumers through the investigation and resolution of consumer complaints.

This year, the Kentucky DOIs Consumer Protection Division received approximately 5,100 complaints and responded to over 13,000 calls. The division assisted consumers with a wide variety of issues relating to health, life, auto, homeowners, and commercial insurance.

We take great pride in the fact that these numbers represent dollars in the pockets of Kentuckians, said Josh Rayborn, Director of DOIs Consumer Protection Division. Our staff understands the complexities that exist in the insurance market, and we strive to handle each complaint with professionalism, understanding, and care.

In addition, more than $600,000 was returned to Kentuckys General Fund as a result of civil penalties and regulatory settlements with insurance companies. In some cases, the division collaborated with insurance departments in other states to reach regulatory settlements.

DOI Commissioner Nancy Atkins said it is important for consumers to contact the Consumer Protection Division for assistance with insurance-related issues.

The department strives to maintain an insurance marketplace that is viable for companies and fair for consumers, said Atkins. Information from consumers allows the department to keep a pulse on the insurance industry and identify current trends and issues that impact Kentuckians.

The Kentucky Department of Insurance regulates the Commonwealths insurance market, licenses agents and other insurance professionals, monitors the financial condition of companies, educates consumers, and ensures Kentuckians are treated fairly in the marketplace.

Source: Kentucky Department of Insurance

Topics Market Kentucky
Criminal manslaughter charges have been filed against the owner of a Seattle, Wash.-area construction.

The King County Prosecuting Attorneys Office filed second-degree manslaughter charges against Phillip Numrich, the owner of Alki Construction, in connection with the death of Harold Felton.

Felton was killed when the dirt walls of the trench he was working in collapsed and buried him on a job site in West Seattle two years ago.

This is the first time a Washington employer has faced felony charges for a workplace fatality, according to the Department of Labor & Industries.

An L&I investigation of the death led to a citation and fine from the state in 2016 for multiple workplace safety violations, including willful violations  the most severe.

There are times when a monetary penalty isnt enough, L&I Director Joel Sacks said in a statement. This company knew what the safety risks and requirements were, and ignored them. The felony charges show that employers can be held criminally accountable when the tragedy of a preventable workplace death or injury occurs.

There are numerous safety requirements that must be followed in excavation and trenching, including ensuring that sites four-feet deep or more have protective systems in place to prevent the dirt sides from caving in. Among other requirements, employers must also make sure there are ladders, ramps or other ways available to safely exit an excavated trench. And there must be daily inspections of excavations to monitor changing soil conditions.

Alki violated these and other workplace safety requirements, according to the L&I.

Topics Washington Contractors
Parents of an Oregon girl who slipped and fractured her back while attempting to walk into school on a snowy day have filed a $1.7 million lawsuit against the Lake Oswego School District.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that Jonathan and Marisa Rockwood accuse the school district of failing to shovel or de-ice the walkway leading up to the school on Jan. 5, 2016. Their daughter, Taylor Rockwood, fractured her L-1 vertebra. The lawsuit states that Taylor Rockwood still suffers from shooting pain down her legs and chronic back pain two years later.

The suit claims that the girls injuries were exacerbated when school officials moved her into a building instead of waiting for medical personnel.

District spokeswoman Christine Moses declined to comment for the district, citing the pending litigation.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Education Oregon
By Daily Nation:

In Kenya: Opposition chief Raila Odinga has opened a new war front with President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom he accuses of abusing his powers by reshuffling top police officers last week.

In his first reaction to the changes announced by the President last Friday, Odinga accused President Kenyatta of taking over the powers of the National Police Service Commission and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority in his appointment

He has described the process as an open recruitment that further paints a pattern of systematic undermining of supposedly independent constitutional offices in a bid to cement dictatorship.

In these changes, President Kenyatta redeployed Joel Kitili, Samuel Arachi and Ndegwa Muhoro, who were the heads of the regular police, the Administration Police and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
Even before the global COVID-19 pandemic shifted much of the financial workforce to working at home, the industry had seen an increasing number of jobs that allow for working remotely. These jobs range from full-time corporate positions to opportunities for independent contractors.

The following is a breakdown of four of the top work-from-home jobs in finance.

Key Takeaways Work-at-home jobs in finance range from full-time corporate jobs to positions for independent contractors.

Independent financial planner, corporate financial jobs, day trader, and financial writer are all examples of roles that can be performed remotely.

These jobs were work-at-home friendly before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many work-at-home financial employees consult or take side projects to bolster their income.

There are tax benefits to working from home.

1. Independent Financial Planner

Independent financial planners and advisors can base their offices out of their homes as long as they provide a professional setting for their practices. A client would expect a financial planner to have a dedicated area for the home-based business. Other issues to consider include parking, access for disabled people, and restrooms.

Financial planners who choose a work-from-home arrangement can substantially reduce their overhead expenses and commuting costs. The compensation range for successful financial planners who work at home will likely mirror the compensation earned by those with similar practices who work in a traditional office, but without the associatedand often highoverhead expenses.

If you dont live alone, then a key factor in deciding whether to work from home as an independent financial planner is whether your significant other or family is willing to share their home with a business and clients who visit.

2. Corporate Financial Careers

These work-at-home jobs encompass several different areas, including financial analysts, certified public accountants (CPAs), tax professionals, computer programmers, and many others. A lot of these jobs are outsourced to independent contractors.

Many computer-based jobs can now be done from anywhere, and some employers may be reluctant to justify using expensive office space to house additional employees. Before the pandemic, some of these corporate jobs required employees to come into the office once or twice a week, for meetings or presentations, and allowed them to do their remaining work at home.

3. Day Trader

A day trader holds positions in stocks for a very short period of time, often minutes to hours, and makes numerous trades each day. In most cases, all open trades are closed before the end of the day.

While day trading does not offer a guaranteed salary or other benefits, it does provide those who are successful at it with potentially huge returns on capital. Being a successful day trader requires much more than lucky guesses; day trading requires specific skills and the use of sophisticated tools, available capital, and emotional stamina.

To be successful, day traders need the following:

A long-term trading strategy and access to up-to-the-minute market information, including real-time quotes

The ability to correctly interpret the short-term movements of the markets

Continuous access to multiple live news sources

Analytical software, which allows day traders to discover trading patterns much faster and reduce trade execution times

Day traders must have the steeliness to weather heavy short-term losses, and they should have ample cash reserves. Some focus chiefly on trading equities, while others speculate in derivatives or foreign currencies. While successful day traders can become quite wealthy, even the best will see substantial fluctuations in their returns from one year to the next. If you need a steady income, this is not the career for you.

Day trading is not for everyone. Losses can mount quickly, particularly if margin is used to finance the purchase of securities. Margin calls are a major risk.

4. Financial Writer

While a career as a financial writer is perhaps one of the least publicized in the industry, talented and experienced writers are constantly in demand. There has been an explosion of financial news, literature, and websites over the past two decades, along with an increased demand for professional financial education and training.

This job is perhaps one of the easiest to do from home because written material is easily delivered electronically. There is rarely a shortage of work for a competent writer, particularly one who can produce good copy under a tight deadline.

While a degree in finance, economics, or journalism may help you command higher pay, it is more important to have professional experience in the financial industry or financial journalism. Some writers have become successful by writing consistent professional-level copy on financial topics that are well-researched and financially sound.

$67,289 The average annual earnings of financial writers in the United States as of April 2022, according to Payscale. Those at the top end average $100,000+.

What Are the Top Work-From-Home Financial Jobs? Top financial jobs that can be performed from home include independent financial planner, day trader, financial writer, and corporate financial jobs. Certified public accountants (CPAs), financial analysts, tax professionals, and computer programmers are examples of corporate financial jobs.

What Credentials Do Independent Financial Planners Need? The most commonly held credential for a financial planner is certified financial planner (CFP), a professional designation issued by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. In addition to financial planning, a CFP requires expertise in taxes, insurance, estate planning, and retirement. Financial planners can also hold other designations, including Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), or Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA). Credentials are awarded to those who pass exams and take part in ongoing annual education programs to maintain their skills and certification, among other qualifications.

How Do I Become a Day Trader? Day trading is not for everyone and involves significant risks. Professional day traders require an in-depth understanding of how the markets work, various strategies for profiting in the short term, and ample reserves. Day traders also need access to a trading platform, real-time news, and data feeds. To be a day trader, you need to maintain minimums in your margin account as well.

The Bottom Line

For many people, being able to work at home gives them the best of both worlds. They have the job security and income of a regular full-time job without the time, expense, and hassle of going to an office. As with other sectors of the economy, the financial industry workforce was becoming increasingly mobile well before the global COVID-19 pandemic.
When it's time for college students to decide their majors, many go with finance or economics in hopes that it will lead to high-paying and relatively stable employment.

It's certainly true that there are career opportunities in banking, insurance companies, and accounting. There also are high-paying jobs in investment banks, hedge funds, management consulting, and private equity. You also could be considered for a job in the financial department of a corporation, a commercial bank, insurance company, accounting firm, or consulting firm.

However, there may come a time that you find that none of the above appeals to you anymore. While you may be worried about exit opportunities, you'll find that there are plenty of other places you can go with that degree in finance or economics.

Key Takeaways Consider your real interests and what drives you.

There's virtually no endeavor that doesn't need people with financial savvy, and it can be advantageous to think outside the box.

The military, non-profits, schools, and government agencies are just a few of the organizations that need someone with sharp financial skills.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects average growth of financial careers from 2020 to 2030.

Depending on where you land, you may even receive a pay increase.

When a Traditional Finance Career Doesn't Suit You

If you're no longer happy with your choice of a traditional financial career, first consider your other interests, even those you may have let go over time. Perhaps it was an art class, a volunteer opportunity, a study abroad program, or community activism that brought you experiences and interests well beyond the world of finance.

This kind of personal reevaluation is not rare among those working in finance. A high-stress job combined with a competitive job market spurs many to think again about their job choices.

The video below illustrates why you don't always need to follow the classic route in order to find success.

1:24 Mohamed El-Erian: Inside Track

Non-Traditional Finance Jobs

Your set of skills is valuable in many endeavors well outside the financial world. Consider matching your personal interests with your finance and business skill sets. If you think about it, virtually any endeavor needs someone on hand who has financial skills.

You might also consider taking your financial skillset to another department of the company you already work for. In the following examples, you will clearly be able to see how your financial acumen can be broadly applied to other roles.

You might also consider switching to a new, non-financial role to get broader experience within your company.

Sales and Business Development

Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, recommends that every business professional undertake at least one sales job at some point. In fact, the novice who shuns a sales job may never be promoted beyond middle management.

On a broader level, a role in sales, business development, or marketing can help you understand your company's products and get attuned to customers' preferences and sensibilities.

Look at the partners at investment banks and consulting firms. Most of their time is spent on client development. Hedge fund managers and private equity partners go on roadshows to raise capital and sell their investments. Executives of private equity shops develop relationships with intermediaries and investment banks that bring them deals.

Startup Employment

In your search for career opportunities, you might come across startups with interesting products. You'll be taking a risk here, as most startups fail within their first five years. However, if you are offered equity, it's vested, and the company sells or goes public, you could see a significant windfall.

In an entrepreneurial environment, you'll probably find yourself multi-tasking across administration, accounting, marketing, and strategy. Based on your personality, you might find you greatly prefer this to a more structured and narrowly defined role in a big company.

Analyst or Associate for a Nonprofit

The nonprofit sector is always in need of financially savvy individuals. There are, of course, high-profile nonprofits like the Ford Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. There are countless others that are in need of the skills you have. This can be incredibly fulfilling work and from a pragmatic standpoint, it looks great on a resume.

Teach or Volunteer

If you want to dip a toe in, you may find that your company offers sabbatical leaves to employees who want to teach or volunteer other skills to a charitable endeavor. Or you may be ready to commit to a new career in education. There are other careers as well that don't require a full-time commitment, such as consulting on financial education materials or helping small businesses, even schools, better understand their financial structures.

Military Finance Officer

The U.S. military has quite as much need for financial skills as the private sector, and if the pay isn't great the benefits are. Roles in the military include contract management, budgeting, and forecasting.

If you consider this option early enough, the military may help pay your education costs and guarantee employment upon graduation. Later on, your military service will be a great addition to your resume no matter where you want to go.

$108,297 The average salary for a financial officer in the U.S. Army, according to Indeed.

Government Financial Analyst

All of the major government agencies, both federal and state, have a need for people with financial skills. At the federal level, financial experts dominate the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of the Treasury.

Working for the government has its perks as well, coming in the form of enhanced benefits packages and retirement schemes.

What Is the Highest Paid Job in Finance? The highest paying jobs in finance are usually those at the CEO or portfolio manager levels. Jobs like these start at an incredibly high base salary, are usually loaded with stock options, bonuses are so frequent they are all but expected, and performance incentives can mean top performers in these positions can make eight digits a year (or more).

Is Finance a Good Career? According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Business and Financial Occupations" are expected to grow at a rate of 8% from 2020 to 2030. This is in line with the average for all occupations and means that a career in finance is not projected to fall behind in terms of growth.

Is There a Future in Finance? As long as money is exchanged, there will be a future in finance. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can pose a risk to certain positions that may rely on computing power, such as risk managers, but those programs will need people well-versed in the underlying sector to manage them. Finance is a broad term and can be applied in many ways, but for the foreseeable future, a career in finance appears healthy and poised for growth.

The Bottom Line

It isn't only New York investment bankers that work in finance. You may find that the career you envisioned isn't what you want, and that's completely fine. There are many positions throughout various sectors, from philanthropy to the military, where you can put your knowledge to good use.
What Is a Clearing Fee?

A clearing fee is a charge assessed on securities transactions by a clearing house for completing transactions using its own facilities. It is most often associated with the trading of futures and includes all actions from the time a commitment is made to the time a transaction is settled.

Transaction fees often include both a brokerage fee and a clearing fee, but seldom include a delivery fee, since the actual delivery of the underlying asset in a future contract is rare. The actual clearing fee cost can be variable, as it is based on the type and size of the transaction. The fees are passed on to the brokers by the exchange where the transaction was conducted.

Key Takeaways Clearing fees are charged by the party that guarantees the trade, the clearing house.

The role of the clearing house is to minimize the impact and concern regarding default.

The fees are very small, but variable, and usually passed along to customers of the exchange along with the commission charges they incur.

How a Clearing Fee Works

To earn a clearing fee, a clearing house acts as a third-party to a trade. From the buyer, the clearing house receives cash, and from the seller, it receives securities or futures contracts. It then manages the exchange, thereby collecting a clearing fee for doing so. In today's automated, high-speed trading world, the need for clearing is often taken for granted, but the existence of the clearing house and its role makes it possible for traders and investors to negate the worry that the party on the other side of their trade will somehow negate the effects of their trade by acting in bad faith.

A clearing fee is a variable cost, as the total amount of the fee may depend on the size of the transaction, the level of service required, or the type of instrument being traded. Investors who make several transactions in a day can generate significant fees. In the case of futures contracts, clearing fees can pile up for investors who make many trades in a single day, since long positions spread the per-contract fee out over a longer period of time.

Why Clearing Fees Are Necessary

Clearing houses act as middlemen in trades to guarantee payment in case either party involved in the trade defaults on the contractual obligations of the trade. The technology, accounting, recordkeeping, assumed counterparty risk, and liquidity is what investors and traders are paying for with their clearing fees. This keeps markets efficient and encourages more participants in the securities markets. Counterparty and pre-settlement risk are often taken for granted because of the role the clearing house plays.

Clearing houses are subject to significant oversight from regulators, such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Since the Great Recession in 2007-2009, new regulations have resulted in far more money passing through clearing houses. As such, their failure could lead to a significant market shock. As of the end of 2017, the three major clearing houses passed liquidity stress tests by proving they could maintain enough liquidity to settle obligations in a timely fashion even if their two-largest members (banks and broker-dealers) defaulted.

Who Charges Clearing Fees?

The three largest clearing houses are CME Clearing (a unit of CME Group Inc.), ICE Clear U.S. (a unit of Intercontinental Exchange Inc.) and LCH Ltd. (a unit of London Stock Exchange Group Plc).

Clearing houses can trace their beginnings to around 1636; the financier of Charles I of England, Philip Burlamachi, first proposed them, along with the idea of a central bank.
Khamenei said: [The PMOI] have been ready since months ago  since several months ago (they were ready) to organize, and meet this person and that; and to select some people inside the country, find them and help them, so they would come and call on the people. They announced their call, and made the slogan No to high prices. Well, this is a slogan that everyone likes. They managed to attract some people with this slogan. And then, they could come to the scene and pursue their goals, and make the people follow them.

During his speech to a group of government clerics and selected agents, Khamenei also showed that he was scared of his people (as every dictator should be) who are currently chanting slogans like Death to Khamenei and Feel shame Khamenei, let go of the country.

The uprising is happening in all Iranian provinces and in 131 cities, but Khamenei dismissed it as fireworks and devious work as if the peoples rightful anger at a system that abuses human rights and steals from its people was a mere spectacle.

He also claimed, whilst acknowledging that the protests are still ongoing, that the Regimes enemies were to blame. To which many have asked, what did you expect when you became the enemy of your people?. Thats right, the Regimes enemies did start this protest because the Iranian people are the Regimes enemies.

A statement from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on Tuesday, January 9, read: The ruling mullahs must learn from their predecessors that these excuses do not work anymore. The only option is what the Iranian people are crying out with all their power: Feel shame Khamenei, let go of the country; otherwise, the people of Iran will send him and his criminal rule to the trash bin of history forever.

A week ago, the IRGC commander Jafari said the uprising had ended, while President Hassan Rouhani said it would be over in two days. In reality, these protests are not going away anytime soon.
The business of business is profit while the business of government is welfare, so why is it that for decades various administrations have relied so heavily on business to solve our housing crisis?

From the late 1980s up to 2008 public-private partnerships (PPPs) between local authorities and developers were the standard way of providing large-scale social housing but it was a catastrophic failure and we still have a crisis.

Why is it that we seem bereft of any ambitious and far-sighted way of tackling it?

Why is it that we fail to take on board or consider seriously methods that appear to be working elsewhere?

We could look to New York, a capitalist and business-friendly city that nevertheless has a long history of providing social housing and limiting the power of landlords to hike rents and evict tenants.

Last November the citys mayor, Bill de Blasio unveiled his new roadmap for building and preserving 300,000 affordable homes by 2026 after surpassing the initial goal he set in 2014.

Under the Housing New York plan, the city has tripled the portion of affordable housing for households earning less than $25,000 (20.800) a year and doubled funding for housing construction and preservation.

The key to the programme is the city authoritys PPP with non-profit housing groups and mission driven organisations. There is no question of relying on developers, speculators or builders motivated solely by profit.

The philosophy behind the programme is that safe, affordable housing stabilises communities and infuses families and individuals with hope for the future.

The opposite is also true. Unaffordable housing is a root cause of social inequality and, on a personal level, can bring huge frustration, upset and even mental health issues.

Consider this tale of two cities: professionals in Dublin have to spend 50% of their income on rent. In Vienna, its 20% and 25% of housing stock is social housing and a further 35% is limited-profit housing-association stock. Subsidised rents are funded by a land tax. Unused sites are taxed higher and there is strong protection of tenants rights.

Little wonder that in 2017 Austrias capital ranked highest in the world for quality of living for the eighth year in a row. In Austria, housing is regarded as a human right.

TDs and activists gathered yesterday outside the offices of the Housing Agency to protest at the re-appointment of Conor Skehan as the agencys chair in light of his comments about homelessness, describing it as a normal thing and claiming that some people are gaming the system by presenting as homeless in order to jump the social housing waiting list.

The protest was understandable as the agency, set up in 2010, has an important function in its advisory role and in liaising with local councils, central government, housing charities and providers.

Yet it is also a side issue and those involved in the protest would be better to concentrate their energies on finding solutions to a crisis that goes way beyond homelessness.
Global security company Bitdefender has done a deal to license networking provider NETGEAR to include its IoT security technology in the latter's networking devices.

Bitdefender says that with advanced threats leveraging vulnerabilities in smart devices, the joint offering will secure IoT devices at the Wi-Fi router level, preventing attacks and protecting sensitive user data from cyber criminals.

Consumers can count on a comprehensive IoT security technology with the capability to detect devices within the NETGEAR Nighthawk Wi-Fi Router network and identify those with vulnerabilities, Bitdefender says.

To be first introduced on the Nighthawk AC2300 Smart Wi-Fi router (R7000P) later this quarter, NETGEAR Armor powered by Bitdefender will be made available for the Orbi Whole Home Wi-Fi system and the popular Nighthawk performance routers later in the year via firmware updates. With Safe Browsing feature in place, this joint solution can block malicious URLs to protect from phishing and online fraud.

Bitdefender is a leader in providing comprehensive security solutions for the connected home. said David J. Henry, NETGEAR senior vice-president of Home Networking.

Together we are providing customers with breakthrough technology to provide smart home security as part of our Nighthawk AC2300 Smart Wi-Fi router. The key benefit of NETGEAR ARMOR, will be to provide a central security solution that protects all the devices in the home against cyber threats.

Ciprian Istrate, Bitdefenders vice-president of Consumer Solutions, said, We are excited about our new partnership with NETGEAR. The integration of our solutions will help prevent damaging breaches and attacks through various types of IoT devices, from doorbells to thermostats to baby monitors to security cameras to smart TVs. Were pleased that our long history of breakthroughs in IT security can now be a part of a new offering that helps protect IoT devices from cyber criminals.
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Investments in the interest of fighting crime was a primary talking point during Police Chief Doug Wright's quarterly police report at the Town of Summerville's Standing Committees meeting on Nov. 7 that saw the public official expound on an Intel Narcotics Detector.. Read moreS'ville PD reports drug enforcement, traffic offenses at Council meet
Residents hoping to bring joy to local children this Christmas are encouraged to partake in the Enhancing the Lives of Families program (also known as E.L.F. 2022)  made possible through the collaboration between The Cane Bay Library and the Dorchester Children's Advocacy Center  that aims Read moreBerkeley, Dorchester groups unite for Operation E.L.F. 2022
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H. Patricia Hynes

| (Informed Comment) |  

My nephew, an Army veteran who spent most of his 20 plus years military service as an officer in South Korea, is now a civilian military contractor living on a base in Afghanistan. Our only conversation about US military pollution in South Korea was something of a non-starter.

These two Asian countries, so disparate in development, economy and stability, have something in common  severely polluted US military bases, for which our country takes little to no financial responsibility. The polluter pays (aka you break it, you fix it) does not apply to the United States military abroad. Nor do civilian workers and most US soldiers stationed at these bases have a chance of winning medical compensation for their military pollution-related illness.

Consider the barbaric military burn pits. In its haste for war, DOD ignored its own environmental regulations and approved open-air burn pitshuge poisonous bonfireson hundreds of US bases in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East. They were sited in the midst of base housing, work and dining facilities, with zero pollution controls. Tons of wastean average of 10 pounds daily per soldierburned in them every day, all day and all night, including chemical and medical waste, oil, plastics, pesticides and dead bodies.

Ash laden with hundreds of toxins and carcinogens blackened the air and coated clothing, beds, desks and dining halls, according to a Government Accounting Office investigation. A leaked 2011 Army memo warns that health risks from burn pits could reduce lung-function and exacerbate lung and heart diseases, among them COPD, asthma, atherosclerosis or other cardiopulmonary diseases.

Predictably, base commanders temporarily shut them down when politicians and high-ranking generals came to visit.

Few veterans exposed to burn pit toxins have won compensation for their severe, chronic respiratory illness. No local Afghani or Iraqi citizen or independent military contractor ever will. Wars may end, bases may close, but our toxic military footprint remains as a poisonous legacy for future generations.

Consider next the 250 barrels of Agent Orange herbicide and hundreds of tons of hazardous chemicals, buried at the Armys Camp Carroll, South Korea, according to the testimony of three former US soldiers in May 2011. We basically buried our garbage in their backyards, said veteran Steve House. Early reports about the US excavating decomposing drums and contaminated soil from the base do not disclose their whereabouts. Environmental studies conducted by the US forces at Camp Carroll in 1992 and 2004 found soil and groundwater seriously contaminated with dioxin, pesticides and solvents. These results were never acknowledged to the South Korean government until the US veterans testimony to news media in 2011.

Camp Carroll is situated near the Nakdong River, the drinking water source for two downstream major cities. Cancer rates and mortality for nervous system diseases among Koreans in the area around the US base are higher than the national average.

I have friends in Asian countries with historic ties to the United States from World War II, countries that are wary of China for its aggressive economic ambitions. While most of these friends strongly resent the US military presence in their countries, a few do express a sense of security having US military bases as a counterbalance to China. However, this does remind me of kids relying on schoolyard bullies, whose tensions and tactics hardly advance childrens maturity not to mention regional stability in Asia.

Our taxes support at least 800 foreign bases, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and military contractors in more than 70 countries. The rest of the world combined has some 30 foreign bases. Consider, too, that the United States is the lead global merchant of military weapons, with $42 billion in sales and an expected increase in 2018. Our governments proposed budget for 2018 increases military defense spending (already more than all domestic spending for education, housing, transportation infrastructure, environment, energy, research, and more) at the expense of cuts to domestic programs.

Not only do we leave dangerously polluted environments all over the world in our global role as top cop while our peddlers of weapons profit from conflict across the world, but we do so at the neglect of our own citizens:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

President Eisenhower, 1953

Pat Hynes worked as a Superfund engineer for the US EPA New England. A retired Professor of Environmental Health, she directs the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in western Massachusetts.

A Conference, on US Military Bases Abroad, held Jan. 12-14,2018, will be live-streamed here (click)

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AP Archive from 2011: Protest outside US base, probe to see if Agent Orange buried there
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Middle East Monitor |  

The stricken Iranian oil tanker in the East China Sea could burn for as long as one month, South Koreas Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries told Reuters on Wednesday, as the blaze raged for a fourth day following a collision with a freight ship.

Dozens of rescue boats battled strong winds, high waves and poisonous fumes to comb a 900-square-nautical-mile (3,100-square-kilometre) area for 31 missing sailors and tame the fire, amid growing concerns the ship may explode or sink.

We believe flames would last for two weeks or a month considering previous cases of oil tank accidents, said official Park Sung-dong.

What we are concerned about at this moment is the bunker fuel, which could contaminate water if (the ship) sinks, the ministry official said.

The tanker Sanchi (IMO:9356608), run by Irans top oil shipping operator, National Iranian Tanker Co, collided on Saturday with the CF Crystal (IMO:9497050), carrying grain from the United States, about 160 nautical miles (300 km) off Chinas coast near Shanghai.

The Sanchi was carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, an ultra-light crude that is highly flammable and to South Korea, equivalent to about 1 million barrels and worth about $60 million.

The Chinese government said late on Tuesday it had not found a large-scale oil leak, and the condensate was burning off or evaporating so quickly it would leave little residue  less than 1 percent  within five hours of a spill. That reduces the chances of a crude-style oil slick.

Still, condensate is highly volatile when exposed to air and water and concerns were growing the tanker could explode and sink. The ministry official said the authorities suspect the tanker caught fire as soon as it hit the freighter carrying grain.

Park said its unlikely the oil will spread to South Korea at the moment because the tanker has moved 100 kilometres (62 miles) to the southeast.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Via Middle East Monitor



Related video added by Informed Comment:

Al Jazeera English: Disaster alert from stricken oil tanker in East China Sea
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The Syrian war limps along at the margins. It is over where it matters but continues in key demographic pockets. The two most significant are East Ghouta near the al-Assad-held capital of Damascus and the province of Idlib in the northwest of the country. East Ghouta probably has some 380,000 people, who are under siege from the regime because the suburb is controlled by rebels. Idlib province probably has about 1.5 million people, i.e. it is similar to Maine or New Hampshire.

The supporters of the rebels in these remaining pockets include Turkey and the Gulf states, and perhaps France and some other European countries (but not the EU as a whole and especially not the Czech Republic).

Despite Trumps one-off firing of missiles at the Shuayrat base near Khan Shikhoun over the regimes use of chemical weapons last spring, the US appears to have ceded Syria or at least the populated West Syria portion, to Russia. Most of the rebel guerrilla forces have signed up for the Salafi or hard line Muslim fundamentalist ideological line, making them unsympathetic to a Western audience. Some have had relationships with terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda (to the distress of Gulf patrons, who tried to get them to cut that out). Many of the actual residents of Idlib, however, are just Sunni small town or farming families, not very ideological, who dont deserve death from the skies because some guerrillas have taken over their area.

The Syrian war is over as a matter of sheer military strategy. There is no viable pathway for the rebels to overthrow the Damascus government. Supported by Lebanons Hizbullah, Iraqi Shiite militias, and Afghan cannon fodder Shanghaied by Iran on the ground and by the Russian Aerospace Forces in the air, the Syrian Arab Army has reasserted itself in much of the country, even if weakly.

The only real question is whether the regime will simply reconquer East Ghouta and Idlib, or whether these holdouts can get a better deal than that. The Russians keep holding out the prospect of a better deal in their negotiations with the rebels. The al-Assad regime seems intent on reconquest.

A cease fire was supposedly reached with East Ghouta last fall and it was designated a de-escalation zone by Russia, Turkey and al-Assad. But fighting continues. East Ghouta is dominated by Saudi Arabias proxy, the Jaysh al-Islam or Army of Islam, hard line fundamentalists who have threatened to massacre Shiites and impose a Wahhabi-like government on Syria, akin to that in Saudi Arabia. Regime shelling and bombing of rebel positions in East Ghouta for the past two weeks is indiscriminate. The Syrian Arab Army and its allies take no care to avoid civilian casualties. Hence they have been killing about 7 children, women and noncombatant men every day for the past two weeks. The Syrian government is within its rights to fight rebels near the capital according to international law. It isnt within its rights to hit bakeries while ordinary folk are buying bread. This tactic of total war, also used by the Saudis in Yemen and by the Israelis in Gaza, really must be fought by those hoping for a world of laws.

Idlib is also a deescalation zone. It is dominated by Salafi fundamentalists grouped in the Syrian Conquest Front, composed mainly of the old Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda affiliate, now branded the Council for Syrian Liberation, and the Freemen of Syria, also Salafis but representing themselves as more flexible. Nusra/Council have asserted themselves politically, virtually dismantling the other groups, and, Nabih Bulos of the LA Times reports, giving rise to charges that they have deeply weakened the provinces defenses. Turkey and the Gulf have tried to put a security umbrella over Idlib to forestall a frontal regime conquest of the sort al-Assad undertook in east Aleppo.

But one corner of Idlib province has a road running through it from the largest Syrian city, Aleppo, down to the capital of Damascus, and the regime wants that road open. So the Syrian Arab Army and its auxiliaries have attacked the Idlib rebels holding a military base near the road, and reportedly are holding part of the base, which they had lost to the rebels in 2015.

The wider Idlib offensive isnt just about the base or the Aleppo-Damascus road; rather it appears that al-Assad intends to mop up and take Idlib entirely. Pro-Damascus forces have taken hundreds of square miles recently, sparking an exodus of 130,000 new refugees toward the Turkish border (rugged, frigid territory this time of year).

Turkey is furious about the reneging on the de-escalation zone pledge. Russian air craft have taken damage at their base in neighboring Latakia province from rebel drones, giving them a reason to want to clear out the nearby rebels.

It would be better if there were a negotiated end to the war in which the regime felt that it had to make some concessions with regard to its Stalinist one party state form of rule. The Syrian government tortured 10,000 prisoners to death and documented it with photographs that leaked. It is a horrible regime and guilty of crimes against humanity. That it should come back full force from the popular challenge mounted to its Draconian rule is unfortunate.

But, Syria seems headed in the direction of Algeria, another authoritarian state that survived an attempt at revolution and then a civil war. Of course Algeria has oil. But Syria gets billions in strategic rent. Apparently these authoritarian oligarchies can limp along, despite having been weakened, for decades.

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Related video:

Al Jazeera English: Turkey: Iran, Russia should adhere to Syria ceasefire
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwired - Jan. 10, 2018) - Erdene Resource Development Corp. (TSX:ERD) ("Erdene" or "Company") is pleased to report the highest-grade gold intersection encountered to date at its 100%-owned Bayan Khundii Gold Project ("Bayan Khundii") in southwest Mongolia.

"We are excited by this intersection, not only because of the ultra high-grade nature but by the continuity that continues to be demonstrated within multiple, high-grade gold domains within a broad lower-grade halo throughout this 1.4 kilometre long system," said Peter Akerley, Erdene's President and CEO. "The continuity of these high-grade gold bearing veins, that extend from surface and up to 150 metres vertically, provides an excellent base for advancing the project. These results clearly demonstrate the continued exploration upside potential of this relatively new gold discovery. They also support further detailed exploration targeting gold bearing structures not only within the Bayan Khundii deposit area but also within the larger district which we are confident will lead to additional discoveries."

HIGHLIGHTS

(see attached plan maps, cross-sections and drill core photograph for reference)

Drilling in the North Midfield Zone returns highest gold result to date, 2,200 g/t gold (70.7 oz/t) and 948 g/t silver (30.5 oz/t) over 1 metre (BKD-231).

Drilling in the North Midfield Zone, 65 metres north of BKD-231, returns 22 metres of 8.3 g/t gold, within 36.5 metres of 5.6 g/t gold (BKD-232).

Drilling within the Midfield Zone returns 25 metres of 5.8 g/t gold within a 127.5 metre interval of 1.8 g/t gold (BKD-230).

Structural interpretation by Dr. Armelle Kloppenburg provides greater understanding of controls on gold mineralization at Bayan Khundii and improves targeting of ultra high-grade zones and district-scale targets.

Additional results pending for Altan Arrow and Altan Nar gold projects.

SUMMARY

The exploration program reported on herein was developed by the Erdene technical team in conjunction with an independent expert's review to identify high priority structural targets within the Bayan Khundii project area. This included: testing the recently discovered North Midfield Zone with more detailed, closer-spaced drilling and testing structural concepts and extensions at depth; testing the Midfield area for the presence of shallower zones of mineralization; testing the continuity of broad mineralized zones in the central portion of the North Midfield target area; and testing the southeast extension of the Striker Zone.

Six holes (BKD-229 to BKD-234), totalling 1,192 metres, were completed at Bayan Khundii in November and are included in this update. Three holes were completed in the Midfield Zone (BKD-229, 230, and 233), two holes were completed in the North Midfield Zone (BKD-231 and 232), and one hole was completed along the southeast end of the Striker Zone (BKD-234). Table 1 below includes drill result highlights of these six holes, followed by a description of results.

Table 1. Bayan Khundii drill highlights

Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Interval (m) (1) Gold (g/t) BKD-229 3 8 5 2.39 and 22 30 8 0.61 and 56 156.7 100.7 0.74 incl 100 147 47 1.31 incl 113 114 1 14.4 and 133 147 14 2.41 incl 144 145 1 18.9 BKD-230 31 158.5 127.5 1.80 incl 73 98 25 5.84 incl 95 98 3 36.8 BKD-231 118 193 75 0.35 and 193 207 14 158.3 incl 193 194 1 2,200 and 207 230 23 0.34 BKD-232 90.5 127 36.5 5.62 incl 102 124 22 8.29 incl 102 112 10 11.7 incl 102 103 1 15.5 and 106 107 1 13.4 and 110 112 2 31.1 and 120 124 4 10.8 and 138.4 146 7.6 1.75 BKD-233 26 33 7 1.43 and 38 45 7 0.43 and 65 66 1 2.01 and 72 78 6 4.12 incl 72 73 1 22.5 and 94 104 10 0.49 and 113 132 19 0.72 BKD-234 3 7 4 1.54 and 40 55 15 1.03 and 76 104 28 0.84 incl 79 93 14 1.19

(1) Reported intervals are not true width. At this time, there is insufficient data with respect to the shape of the mineralized system to calculate true orientations in space. They represent drill intersection widths from holes drilled at a dip of -45 to -85 degrees and oriented to the north-northeast. The Bayan Khundii mineralization is interpreted to be moderately dipping (approximately 40 to 50 degrees to the southwest).

Two plan maps, two cross-sections, and a photograph of the high-grade intersection from hole BKD-231 have been attached for reference:

Bayan Khundii Plan Map #1



Bayan Khundii Plan Map #2



Bayan Khundii Cross-Section #1



Bayan Khundii Cross-Section #2



Photograph of high-grade intersection in BKD-231



DISCUSSION OF DRILL RESULTS

NORTH OF MIDFIELD ZONE

Two holes (BKD-231 and BKD-232) were completed in the North Midfield Zone to test the down-dip extension of the high-grade gold intervals in this area.

Hole BKD-231 intersected one metre of 2,200 g/t gold and 948 g/t silver within a 14 metre interval of 158 g/t gold at 193 metres depth (140 metres vertical depth). The mineralization was hosted by multi-phase quartz-adularia-specularite veins and hematite breccia, with abundant fine-grained visible gold (see attached photo of drill core). The 14 metre interval is enveloped by a 112 metre wide interval of gold mineralization starting at 118 metres depth, ranging from 0.1 to 2.8 g/t gold. This high-grade intersection confirms strong continuity down-dip from earlier holes, including BKD-110, 30 metres north, which intersected 1 metre of 115 g/t gold and 1 metre of 108 g/t gold, and BKD-111, 30 metres northwest, which intersected 1 metre of 44 g/t gold and 1 metre of 33 g/t gold. The discovery of this high-grade vein represents an important new target area that will require additional, closer-spaced drilling in 2018.

Hole BKD-232 was completed approximately 65 metres north of BKD-231 and 100 metres north of the Midfield Zone, within an area that previously had 80-metre hole spacing and relatively lower grade results. This hole returned 22 metres of 8.3 g/t gold, and included multiple zones grading over 10 g/t gold (see Table 1 above). The top of the mineralized interval was intersected at 90.5 metres depth (74 metres vertical depth).

MIDFIELD ZONE

Three holes were completed along the south and southeast end of the Midfield Zone (BKD-229, 230 and 233). Hole BKD-230, completed near the center of Midfield, intersected a continuously mineralized 127 metre interval starting at 31 metres depth (24 metres vertical) that averaged 1.8 g/t gold, and included a 25 metre wide interval that averaged 5.8 g/t gold.

Two additional holes (BKD-229 and BKD-233) successfully intersected high-grade gold mineralization, and in the case of BKD-233, although lower grade, expanded the southeast boundary of the Midfield Zone which remains open to the east (see attached plan map for drill hole locations) while BKD-229 intersected gold mineralization at the shallowest levels to date.

STRUCTURAL INTERPRETATION

In Q4-2017, Dr. Armelle Kloppenburg conducted a comprehensive structural study of the Company's gold projects in southwest Mongolia and the broader metals district. The results of that study provide new insights into the Bayan Khundii gold project. Gold mineralizing events are believed to be late Devonian - early Caboniferous and are interpreted to exploit dilational structures in a belt-parallel extensional zone. At Bayan Khundii, northeast-trending extensional faults have intersected a northwest-trending basement structure that is proposed to be a conduit for gold-bearing fluids. In this area a relay ramp structure developed and promoted further local faulting, fracturing and dilation to focus fluid flow, and veining for mineralization. In relation to the specific high-grade domains at Bayan Khundii it is thought that the most prospective areas of these structures would typically be in proximity to the intersection of the major, deep-seated faults, and locally in the hanging wall, and at the ends of the bounding structures (fault tips or extensional stepovers). These areas were the focus of limited drilling during the Q4-2017 program but will be the focus of future drilling and of regional exploration along trend exploring for similar structural environments. District-scale targets for gold mineralization are in areas where the dilation, steepening or intersection with other major structures or more competent units occurs.

2018 TECHNICAL PROGRAM

During Q1-2018 the Company's technical team will assess results of the 2017 drill and exploration programs to determine what additional drilling may be required prior to an independent resource evaluation. Timing of the eventual resource studies for both Bayan Khundii and the Company's neighboring Altan Nar gold-polymetallic project will be influenced by that determination, however, it is anticipated that the studies will be completed in 2018.

REGIONAL DISTRICT EXPLORATION

In addition to drilling at Bayan Khundii, the Company completed significant exploration work during Q4-2017 within the larger, gold district, including the evaluation of targets within the 11.4 km long Bayan Khundii license. A particular focus was placed on the Altan Arrow (3.5 km north of Bayan Khundii) and Khundii North (3.2 km northeast of Bayan Khundii) target areas, and also on the Ulaan (immediately west of Bayan Khundii) and Altan Nar (16 km northwest of Bayan Khundii) license areas.

The northeast-trending faults outlined above are part of a larger network of regional northeast transverse faults that are present throughout the Khundii prospect area. The thoroughgoing structure at Bayan Khundii can be traced 4.6 km northeast to the untested Khundii North prospect where areas of quartz stockwork, chalcedonic quartz with hematite breccia clasts have returned rock sample results up to 22.7 g/t gold.

At Altan Arrow, detailed soil and rock chip sampling has returned highly anomalous gold assays, with up to 27 g/t in rock chips in an area south of the main northeast-trending Altan Arrow structure. The Altan Arrow gold prospect area is also located at the intersection of proposed major deep-seated structures.

A three-hole, 450 metre drill program was also completed at Altan Arrow as part of the Q4-2017 drill program. Drilling included two holes designed to test coincident soil geochemical and geophysical targets, and one hole was oriented to test a potential down-dip extension of high-grade gold mineralization encountered in the 2016 reconnaissance drilling program at Altan Arrow.

The Company also completed a three-hole, 450 metre drill program at the Altan Nar deposit as part of the Q4-2017 drill program. Holes were oriented to test lateral and down-dip extensions of gold-polymetallic mineralization within both the Discovery Zone and Maggie Zone.

Additional analytical results for Altan Nar and Altan Arrow are expected to be released by February 2018.

BACKGROUND ON BAYAN KHUNDII GOLD PROJECT

In Q2-2015, Erdene conducted an initial exploration program on the southern portion of the Company's 100%-owned Khundii exploration license in southwest Mongolia, including an initial rock-chip sampling program which revealed multiple very high-grade surface quartz veins that returned up to 4,380 g/t gold. Since that time, drilling has revealed the presence of very high gold grades, with up to 2,200 g/t gold over 1-metre intervals, within broad mineralized zones, with up to 131 metres of 3.9 g/t gold, including 80 metres of 6.0 g/t gold. Since the first drill hole in Q4-2015, the Company has completed 234 diamond drill holes, totaling 38,072 metres. In addition to drilling, the Company has completed a comprehensive exploration program at Bayan Khundii that has included: geological mapping; soil geochemical surveys; additional surface rock chip sampling; a ground magnetic survey; gradient array and dipole-dipole induced polarization surveys. In addition to this work, a series of detailed follow-up studies have also been completed, predominantly on drill core and surface outcrop, including: petrographic and mineralogical analyses; a fluid inclusion study; SEM gold composition analysis; Short-Wave Infra-Red Analysis (SWIR); structural analysis; and overall petrogenetic analysis. Detailed studies indicate the mineralized zones can be characterized as low-sulphidation epithermal, quartz-illite-adularia type mineralization.

In Q1-2016 and Q3-2017, the Company completed metallurgical test work on Bayan Khundii master composites that indicated gravity concentration and cyanidation of the gravity tails yield very good overall gold recoveries, with 91% to 99% gold recovery on a range of gold grades from 0.7 g/t to 25.9 g/t gold.

The Bayan Khundii license has a 2% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR Royalty") in favour of Sandstorm Gold Ltd. with a buy-back option to reduce the NSR Royalty to 1%.

QUALIFIED PERSON AND SAMPLE PROTOCOL

Michael MacDonald, P.Geo. (Nova Scotia), Vice President Exploration for Erdene, is the Qualified Person as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. All samples have been assayed at SGS Laboratory in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In addition to internal checks by SGS Laboratory, the Company incorporates a QA/QC sample protocol utilizing prepared standards and blanks.

Erdene's sampling protocol for drill core consisted of collection of samples over 1 metre or 2 metre intervals (depending on the lithology and style of mineralization) over the entire length of the drill hole, excluding minor post-mineral lithologies and un-mineralized granitoids. Sample intervals were based on meterage, not geological controls or mineralization. All drill core was cut in half with a diamond saw, with half of the core placed in sample bags and the remaining half securely retained in core boxes at Erdene's Bayan Khundii exploration camp. All samples were organized into batches of 30 samples including a commercially prepared standard, blank, and either a field duplicate, consisting of two 1/4 core intervals, or a laboratory duplicate. Sample batches were periodically shipped directly to SGS in Ulaanbaatar via Erdene's logistical contractor, Monrud Co. Ltd.

ABOUT ERDENE

Erdene Resource Development Corp. is a Canada-based resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of base and precious metals in underexplored and highly prospective Mongolia. The Company has interests in five exploration licenses and a mining license in southwest Mongolia. In addition to the Bayan Khundii project, other deposits and prospects within these licenses include: Altan Nar - an extensive, high-grade, near-surface, gold-polymetallic project located 16 kilometres northwest of Bayan Khundii that the Company is actively advancing; Altan Arrow - an early-stage gold-silver project 3.5 kilometres north of Bayan Khundii; Ulaan - a recently acquired copper-gold porphyry prospect adjacent to Bayan Khundii; Khuvyn Khar - an early-stage, copper-silver porphyry project with multiple drill targets and significant copper intersections; Nomin Tal - a narrow, high-grade copper-gold discovery; and Zuun Mod - a large molybdenum-copper porphyry deposit. In addition to the above properties, the Company has an Alliance with Teck Resources Limited on regional copper-gold exploration in the prospective Trans Altai region of southwest Mongolia. For further information on the Company, please visit www.erdene.com. Erdene has 145,963,086 issued and outstanding common shares and a fully diluted position of 156,592,160 common shares.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 11, 2018 / Gungnir Resources Inc. (TSX-V: GUG, OTC PINK: ASWRF, FSE: AMO1) ("Gungnir" or the "Company") has received final approval for five exploration permits in the Norrbotten District in northern Sweden. These new exploration permits complement Gungnir's existing gold and base metal property portfolio in Sweden.

Company assets:

$4,000,000 advance royalty stream; next annual $1,000,000 payment due April 30, 2018

Knaften property: near surface gold mineralization (including 2.92 g/t Au over 13.0 metres) and new drill discovery of copper-nickel bearing sulphides

Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget properties: 70 million lbs of nickel in historical resources

New Norrbotten permits include reported grab samples with copper (up to 2.3 % Cu), gold (up to 7.7 g/t Au) and silver (up to 380 g/t Ag)

The Company plans a larger second phase 2018 drill program and prospecting activities and will provide more detailed exploration plans and timing once they are finalized.

Norrbotten samples noted above are historic surface grab samples of boulders/blocks and may not be representative of mineralization hosted on the permits. Assays results are from the Swedish Geological Survey (SGU) data files. The Company has not verified this data. Also, a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates above as current resources and Gungnir is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources.

Mr. Jari Paakki, M.Sc., P.Geo., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Paakki prepared the technical information contained in this news release and has approved its disclosure.

About Gungnir Resources

Gungnir Resources Inc. is a Canadian-based TSX-V listed mineral exploration company (TSX-V: GUG) with gold and base metal permits in northern Sweden within a region hosting 12 million ounces of gold delineated in existing and mined resources plus several past-producing and producing base metal mines. The Company's key gold project, Knaften, is situated at the southern extension of the "Gold Line" which hosts a number of gold deposits including Faboliden and Svartliden (Dragon Mining), and Barsele (Agnico Eagle and Barsele Minerals). The Company also has permits covering two nickel deposits in Sweden, Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget which collectively host 70 million pounds of nickel in historical resources (see NR dated February 24, 2015). Gungnir additionally holds a $5,000,000 royalty stream and received the first annual payment of $1,000,000 on May 2, 2017. The next annual payment of $1,000,000 is due on April 30, 2018. Further information about the Company and its properties may be found at www.gungnirresources.com or at www.sedar.com.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Mining Finance Corp. (First Mining or the Company) is pleased to announce that after accumulating 25 properties over the past two years through eight transactions, the Company is changing its strategy and name going forward, and will focus on advancing its existing properties to maximize shareholder value. In connection with this new strategy, Mr. Jeff Swinoga has been appointed by the Companys Board of Directors to succeed Dr. Chris Osterman as the Companys Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective as of January 15, 2018, and Dr. Osterman will assume the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Company to focus on project development. Mr. Patrick Donnelly, the President of the Company, will continue in his current role and will work closely with Mr. Swinoga.

Mr. Swinoga is a highly accomplished mining executive with over 25 years of executive and management experience in the areas of finance, project development and project construction. Most recently, he was Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Torex Gold Resources Inc. (Torex) where, during his four-year tenure, he led the US$400 million financing of Torexs US$800 million El Limon-Guajes gold mine on the Morelos property and led his team during Torexs transition from an exploration and development company to a mid-tier gold producer. Prior to Torex, Mr. Swinoga spent four years as the CFO of North American Palladium Ltd. (NAP), during which time NAP financed and constructed the underground Offset Zone expansion project for the Lac des Iles Mine and acquired and built two gold producing mines in Quebec. In addition, he spent three years as CFO of HudBay Minerals Inc., a company which, from its initial public offering in late 2004, grew to a market capitalization of over $2 billion in 2008. Jeff also spent seven years at Barrick Gold Corporation as a senior officer with responsibilities that included project financing of Barricks Bulyanhulu and Veladero projects. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Toronto as well as a Bachelors degree (Honours) in Economics from the University of Western Ontario.

Keith Neumeyer, First Minings Chairman, stated, On behalf of our Board of Directors and our employees, I would like to congratulate Jeff and welcome him to the First Mining team. His people-focused leadership style and industry expertise will be key for the next stages of First Minings development as we move our flagship assets towards production. Mr. Neumeyer further stated, I would like to thank Chris Osterman for his contributions in advancing the Company to this point and for accepting the COO position. With the Company planning to aggressively advance its attractive portfolio of gold properties, Chris can now focus his efforts solely on advancing our projects.

Dr. Chris Osterman stated, I am very pleased with the addition of Jeff Swinoga and look forward to working closely with him to realize our shared vision for the Company. His extensive experience both in capital markets and developing projects will be of tremendous benefit to First Mining. I am excited to devote all of my efforts on moving our flagship assets forward to production.

Plans for 2018

The following are First Minings plans for 2018:

The Company will be re-branding and changing its name to  First Mining Gold Corp. , a name which better reflects our new corporate identity and strategy. Our new brand will illustrate the ongoing evolution of the Company to maximize shareholder value. Our shares will commence trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the TSX) under our new name as of market open on January 11, 2018. The Companys ticker symbol will remain as FF and will not be impacted by the name change.



, a name which better reflects our new corporate identity and strategy. Our new brand will illustrate the ongoing evolution of the Company to maximize shareholder value. Our shares will commence trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the TSX) under our new name as of market open on January 11, 2018. The Companys ticker symbol will remain as FF and will not be impacted by the name change. Focus on advancing the permitting and development of our 100% owned Springpole Gold Project (Springpole) located in north-western Ontario following the positive results of the independent Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) announced in September 2017, including commencing the environmental assessment process.



A minimum of CAD$5 million has been budgeted for our Canadian mineral properties which includes 7,000 metres of in-fill and exploration drilling at our 100% owned Goldlund Gold Project (Goldlund) located near Sioux Lookout in north-western Ontario.

2017 Highlights

The following are the highlights of the Companys achievements in 2017:

In September, First Mining released the positive results of an independent PEA for Springpole. The PEA estimates an initial capital expenditure of US$586 million and its base case production scenario utilized long-term metal prices of US$1,300/oz gold (Au) and US$20/oz silver (Ag), and yielded an after-tax Net Present Value (using a 5% discount rate) of US$792 million, and an after-tax Internal Rate of Return of 26.2%. The (Life-of-Mine) average annual payable production is projected to be approximately 300,000 ounces Au and 1.6 Moz Ag with all-in cash costs (in addition to cash costs including initial/sustaining capital and mine closure) estimated at US$806/oz of gold equivalent. The technical report for the Springpole PEA, which was prepared by SRK Consulting Inc. in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101), and is titled Preliminary Economic Assessment Update for the Springpole Gold Project, Ontario, Canada and dated October 16, 2017, was filed by the Company on SEDAR.

In January, First Mining released an independent initial mineral resource estimate for Goldlund. The technical report, which was prepared by WSP Canada Inc. in accordance with NI 43-101 and is titled Technical Report and Resource Estimation Update on the Goldlund Project, estimated a pit-constrained indicated mineral resource of 9.3 million tonnes (mt) at 1.87 grams per tonne (g/t) containing 0.56 Moz Au and an inferred mineral resource of 40.9 mt at 1.33 g/t containing 1.75 Moz Au. The report, dated January 27, 2017, was filed by the Company on SEDAR.

In June, First Mining graduated from the TSX Venture Exchange and our shares began trading on the TSX.

In May, First Mining completed an initial in-fill diamond drill program at Goldlund. The drill program comprised a total of 100 holes (24,300 metres), of which 87 holes intersected intervals of significant gold mineralization. Drilling continued into the winter with deep holes to test the ore body at depth, and in 2018, the Company will start to drill along strike where gold showings are evident.

Jeff Swinoga stated, "I am very honoured to join Keith, Chris and Patrick at First Mining. During my 25 years as a mining executive I have learned that great companies are built upon quality assets and exceptional talent which is why I was drawn to First Mining. I look forward to building value for our shareholders with First Mining's attractive flagship assets in mining friendly jurisdictions, a highly competent team, and a Board of Directors that is committed to advancing these excellent projects towards production."

Readers are cautioned that the Springpole PEA is preliminary in nature, it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Actual results may vary, perhaps materially. The Company is not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other issue which may materially affect this estimate of mineral resources. The projections, forecasts and estimates presented in the PEA constitute forward-looking statements and readers are urged not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Additional cautionary and forward-looking statement information is detailed at the end of this news release.

Qualified Person

Dr. Chris Osterman, P.Geo., of First Mining, is the qualified person for the purposes of NI 43-101, and he has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this news release.

ABOUT FIRST MINING FINANCE CORP.

First Mining has evolved from a holder of mineral assets to a project developer. The Company currently holds a portfolio of 25 mineral assets in Canada, Mexico and the United States with a focus on gold. The core assets include the Springpole Gold Project, the Goldlund Gold Project, the Cameron Gold Project and the Pickle Crow Gold Project, all located in Ontario, and the Hope Brook Gold Project in Newfoundland.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calibre Mining Corp. (TSX-V:CXB) (the Company or Calibre) is pleased to provide an update as the Company and Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX:CG) (Centerra) continue to advance the Siuna Project, Borosi Concessions, Northeast Nicaragua. Centerra can earn a 70% Interest in the Project by investing $7.0 million in exploration on the property before December 31, 2019.

Highlights

Drilling at the Cerro Aeropuerto gold deposit in drill hole CA17-045 returned a weighted average of 77.78 metres grading 1.09 g/t Au with a second hole CA17-052 intersecting high-grade gold mineralization of 1.38 metres grading 54.80 g/t Au (uncut)

with a second hole CA17-052 intersecting high-grade gold mineralization of The 2017 Diamond Drilling Program on the Cerro Aeropuerto Deposit funded by Centerra included 3,526 metres completed in 8 drill holes.

Additionally, diamond drilling on the Siuna Project tested newly identified and defined gold anomalies associated with the 8  10 kilometre long El Dorado Trend located in the north central portion of the 253 square kilometre Project. Final results are pending.

Additional fieldwork consisting of IP surveying was completed in Q4 2017 on the northernmost target at El Avion

President and CEO, Greg Smith stated: The 2017 drilling program at the Cerro Aeropuerto gold deposit continues to expand the mineralization intersecting both wide zones of gold mineralization and narrower high grade zones of up to 54.8 g/t Au over 1.38 metres. The on-going exploration and drilling program on the Siuna Project continues to test exciting new targets in the El Dorado Trend portion of the northern Siuna Project and define new high-quality gold-copper targets at El Avion.

2017 Diamond Drilling

The recently completed drilling program at Cerro Aeropuerto consisted of 3,526 metres in eight drill holes. Drilling tested the continuity and orientation of the previously identified primary gold-bearing structures as well as step outs to the south and down dip. Results are detailed in the following table:

Hole

ID From

m To

m Length

(m) Au

(g/t) Ag

(g/t) Cu

(ppm) Zn

(ppm) CA17-045 111.15 188.93 77.78 1.09 7.6 161 449 including 179.60 188.93 9.33 5.60 29.9 641 150 2nd Zone 269.92 286.70 16.78 1.09 2.2 51 321 3rd Zone 408.70 413.27 4.57 1.18 21.1 275 7,106 CA17-046 130.00 183.50 53.50 0.35 3.2 244 146 including 130.00 133.60 3.60 3.89 39.4 329 181 2nd Zone 314.46 323.70 9.24 1.13 19.2 3,206 2,326 CA17-052 143.35 160.12 16.77 0.88 8.9 83 337 including 147.92 155.55 7.63 1.77 18.1 54 84 HG Zone 377.18 378.56 1.38 54.80 12.6 202 22,100 CA17-054 57.00 259.64 202.64 0.25 4.2 531 403 including 57.00 59.47 2.47 1.59 12.2 863 3,046 and 124.85 131.87 7.02 0.94 9.1 195 1,155 and 137.25 138.77 1.52 2.79 262.0 2,013 12,900

Notes:

- Intervals are core lengths / true width are estimated to be 80-90% of lengths

- Length weighted averages from uncut assays.

The 2017 Cerro Aeropuerto drilling tested the mineralization over approximately 400 metres of strike length and to depth of 350 metres below surface.

Drill holes CA17-043 and CA17-044 were drilled in the northern edge of the existing Cerro Aeropuerto deposit testing the along strike extension of the deeper portion of the system. Intercepts included 4.83 metres grading 0.77 g/t Au in CA17-043 and 18.68 metres grading 0.21 g/t Au in CA17-044.

Drill holes CA17-045 and CA17-046 tested down dip portion of Cerro Aeropuerto under drill hole CA15-20 which intercepted 71.05m grading 2.89 g/t Au. Intercepts included 77.78 metres grading 1.09 g/t Au, a second zone of 16.78m grading 1.09 g/t Au and a third zone of 4.57m grading 1.18 g/t Au in CA17-045 while CA17-046 intercepts include 53.50 metres grading 0.35 g/t Au and a second zone of 9.24m grading 1.13 g/t Au, 0.32% Cu and 0.23% Zn.

Drill holes CA17-047 and CA17-048 were drilled under the southern extension to the deposit testing the down dip extension of the system intercepted in CA16-047 which included 16.77m grading 0.39 g/t Au. Intercepts included 4.83 metres grading 0.77 g/t Au in CA17-043 and 18.68 metres grading 0.21 g/t Au in CA17-048.

Drill holes CA17-052 and CA17-054 were drilled 50 and 250 metres respectively south of the Cerro Aeropuerto deposit. Intercepts in CA17-052 include 16.77 metres grading 0.88 g/t Au, a second zone of 27.30m grading 0.39 g/t Au and a third zone 63.50m grading 0.34 g/t Au and 0.05 % Cu which included 6.67m grading 1.80 g/t Au and 0.10 % Cu and a lower intercept of 1.38 g/t Au, 12.6 g/t Ag, 0.02 % Cu and 2.21% Zn. Intercepts in CA17-054 include a broad mineralized zone of 202.64 metres grading 0.25 g/t Au, including higher grade structures of 2.47 metres grading 1.59 g/t Au and 12.2 g/t Ag, 1.52 metres grading 2.79 g/t Au with 262.0 g/t Ag, 0.20 % Cu and 1.29 % Zn and 10.96 metres grading 0.58 g/t Au.

Geologic interpretation of drill holes to date has identified a gold-bearing hornblende diorite porphyry body bounded by shear zones containing serpentinized basic to ultrabasic rock and calcareous metasediments. The strongest mineralization is located near the serpentinite-diorite contacts where sulphide bearing quartz-carbonate veins and silicified hydrothermal breccias correlate well with high grade gold values.

Q4 2017 Exploration

In Q4 2017 two diamond drills on the Siuna Project tested newly identified and defined gold anomalies associated with the 8  10 kilometre long El Dorado Trend located in the north central portion of the 253 square kilometre Project. Assays are pending.

The third area of active exploration within the Siuna Project is the northernmost target at El Avion. The zone is defined by a multi-element anomaly in soil and rock sampling which covers an area 2.5 kilometres by 3.0 kilometres. Work completed in December 2017 included ground geophysics completed by Zonge Geophysics consisting of 49.6 line kilometres of Dipole-Dipole Induced Polarization (D-D IP Survey).

The technical content in this news release was read and approved by Gregory Smith, P.Geo, President and CEO of the Company who is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

2018 Exploration

Additional exploration on the Siuna Project will commence in January of 2018. Primary targets will be the northern half of the 8  10 kilometre long El Dorado Trend and continued advancement at El Avion with initial drilling expected in the first half of the year.

About Calibre Mining Corp.

Calibre owns a 100% interest in over 413 km2 of mineral concessions in the Mining Triangle of Northeast Nicaragua including the Primavera Gold-Copper Project and Santa Maria Gold Project. Additionally the Company has a Joint Venture with IAMGOLD (176 km2) and optioned to Centerra Gold (253 km2) concessions covering an aggregate area of 429 km2 and is party to a joint venture on the 33.6 km2 Rosita D gold-copper-silver project with Rosita Mining Corporation. Major shareholders of Calibre include gold producer B2Gold Corp, Pierre Lassonde and management.
VANCOUVER, B.C., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Medgold Resources Corp. (TSX-V:MED) (the Company or Medgold) is pleased to announce results from ridge-and-spur soil sampling near Medgolds Tlamino gold project in southern Serbia.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Two large gold targets identified for follow up work,

The targets measure 3 km by 1 km and 2 km by 1.5 km and are located northwest and north of Tlamino, respectively, and

The targets are part of the Crnook Licence Group.

Dan James, President of Medgold, commented: We are very pleased to see early success from a major regional sampling campaign with the identification of two quality exploration targets. We are beginning to identify what appears to be a regional exploration play, with mineralization associated with a major flat-lying detachment fault, and which is continuous for over 50 km and is thought to be a significant control on gold mineralization at the previously sampled targets of Barje and Karamanica. We have already identified high-grade gold mineralization in a similar setting at the Tlamino Project, and are now aiming to identify new detachment-related targets based on what weve learned at Tlamino. These excellent gold-in-soil results demonstrate that our targeting work is proving very successful and were looking forward to getting on the ground to explore them in detail in the Spring.

The Crnook Licence Group

Medgold holds five exploration licences, each approximately 100 sq km in area, in southeastern Serbia, close to where the country borders both Macedonia and Bulgaria. Two of the licences (Donje Tlamino and Surlica-Dukat) are part of the Tlamino Gold Project optioned to Fortuna Silver Mines. The remaining three licences, Ljubata, Crnook and Radovnica, are wholly-owned by Medgold.

In the Fall of 2017 Medgolds field crews completed a program of ridge-and-spur soil sampling and collected 2,096 soil samples at a sample spacing of 100 m along lines covering the trend of a major detachment fault. Medgold has interpreted the fault to have an important association with both gold-silver and lead-zinc mineralization in the region. The fault separates the Vlasina Schists from the underlying basement rocks of the Crnook Dome. It is a low-angle structure, continuous for nearly 50 km, and rings the Crnook Dome. The detachment fault is thought to be a significant control on the distribution of mineralization which is believed to occur along the fault hosted in breccias (e.g. at the Barje Prospect  part of Tlamino), and also in high angle structures (e.g. Karamanica  10 km northwest of Barje) parallel and proximal to the detachment.

The program identified two areas of strongly elevated multi-element geochemistry:

A 3 km by 1 km Au+As+Pb+Zn anomaly, with 10 samples assaying greater than 100 ppb Au, located on the western flanks of the Crnook Dome, and within the Ljubata licence. It occurs in proximity to a calcareous schist, of the Vlasina Unit, and also a young porphyry unit, considered to be of a similar age to the mineralization in the region, and appears to be geologically similar to the Karamanica target, located approximately 15 km to the southeast.



A 2 km by 1.5 km Au+As+Cu+Pb+Zn anomaly, with 4 samples assaying greater than 100 ppb Au, located on the northern edge of the Crnook Dome, also with the Ljubata licence.

Maps showing the anomalies are available on Medgolds website at: https://medgoldresources.com/projects/crnook

Work will continue on these areas, as well as following-up other smaller anomalies, in the Spring once the snow has cleared. Programs of grid-soil sampling will be undertaken, and if justified, ground geophysics.

About Medgold

Medgold is a European-focused, TSX-V listed, exploration and development company targeting gold properties in Serbia. Run by a highly experienced management team with a successful track record of building value in resource companies, Medgold is aiming to become a leading European gold exploration company.

Qualified Person

Mr. David Clark, M.Sc., P.Geo., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Clark approved the disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

Medgold follows industry best practices for its prospecting and geochemical sampling campaigns. Samples are delivered by Medgold personnel directly to the assay laboratory facilities in Bor, Serbia. Soil samples are analysed by ALS Chemex using analytical method codes AuME-TL43 for gold and multi-element analysis. Medgold inserts regular field duplicate samples into the soil sample stream.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gold Standard Ventures Corp. (TSX:GSV) (NYSE AMERICAN:GSV) (Gold Standard or the Company) today announced results from three reverse-circulation (RC) drill holes at Jasperoid Wash, on claims recently added to its 100%-owned/controlled Railroad Gold Project in Nevadas Carlin Trend (please refer to the following link - https://goldstandardv.com/lp/jw-jan2018-drill-maps/). Jasperoid Wash is located approximately 6 km south of the Pinion Deposit and 7.5 km southwest of the Dark Star Deposit. These three holes are a portion of Gold Standards 2017 US$15.5 million exploration program (see February 2, 2017 news release).

The Jasperoid Wash drilling was designed to (1) follow-up on results in JW17-01 which intersected 103.7m of 0.56 g Au/t, including a higher-grade zone of 30.5m of 0.93 g Au/t (see October 5, 2017 news release; and (2) target structural zones and elevated surface geochemistry within a 2km by 0.5 km block of pervasively oxidized and altered debris flow conglomerate in the favorable Pennsylvanian-Permian host section. All three RC holes intersected thick zones of near-surface, oxidized mineralization, effectively increasing the size and grade of the shallow oxide gold zone drilled in JW17-01. The new deposit remains open in all directions. Results from seven additional RC holes and one core hole are pending.

Jonathan Awde, CEO and Director of Gold Standard commented: Jasperoid Wash appears to be emerging as another important deposit for Gold Standard. These results remind us of the early days at North Dark Star where we encountered the same style of mineralization with similar grades and thicknesses. We plan to drill this target aggressively this year with the aim of reporting a maiden resource in 2018. Clearly the additional claims we acquired last year to the south of our Pinion and Dark Star deposits are proving to be an important strategic benefit to the Company and its shareholders.

Key Highlights

In the southern portion of Jasperoid Wash, JW17-04 intersected 54.9m of 0.89 g Au/t including two higher grade zones of 9.1m of 1.25 g Au/t and 12.2m of 1.66 g Au/t . Mineralization begins approximately 10m below the current topographic surface. The intercept is approximately 100m southeast of the JW17-01 intercept of 103.7m of 0.56 g Au/t . Mineralization in JW17-04 is open to the west, south and east.



. Mineralization begins approximately 10m below the current topographic surface. The intercept is approximately 100m southeast of the JW17-01 intercept of . Mineralization in JW17-04 is open to the west, south and east. JW17-10 intersected two thick zones of near-surface oxide mineralization including 77.7m of 0.48 g Au/t and 30.5m of 0.31 g Au/t. These intercepts are approximately 390m north-northeast of JW17-04.



JW17-08, which is approximately 250m north-northeast of JW17-10, intersected 30.5m of 0.73 g Au/t including a higher-grade zone of 9.1m of 1.41 g Au/t . Mineralization begins approximately 20m below the current topographic surface and is open to the west, north and east.



. Mineralization begins approximately 20m below the current topographic surface and is open to the west, north and east. Gold cyanide shake tests on mineralized pulp samples indicate Jasperoid Wash is generally oxidized mineralization.



Current drilling by Gold Standard and historical drilling by Westmont drilling have outlined a zone approximately 750m long (striking north-northeast) by 350m wide (east-west) of near-surface, shallow, oxide gold mineralization that remains open in all directions. Gold Standard has acquired the necessary permits to conduct an aggressive exploration program on this high-value target in 2018.



The 2017 drilling has continued to establish the Pennsylvanian-Permian age carbonate rocks as an important gold host on the Carlin Trend. Regionally, this highly prospective carbonate host section intersects the Carlin Trend in the southern portion of Gold Standards Railroad property. The gold mineralization at Jasperoid Wash, Dark Star and Dixie occurs in these favorable host rocks. The results at Jasperoid Wash appear to increase the potential for a further discovery at Dixie.

Jasperoid Wash drill results are as follows:

Drill Hole Method Azimuth Incl. TD (m) Intercept (m) Thickness (m) Grade (g Au/t) JW17-04 RC 90 -50 199.7 13.7-68.6 54.9 0.89 Including

Including









27.4-36.5 9.1 1.25 44.2-56.4 12.2 1.66 79.2-83.8 4.6 0.17 125.0-131.1 6.1 0.21 138.7-140.2 1.5 0.14 JW17-08 RC 90 -50 339.9 0-21.3 21.3 0.18 Including



















27.4-57.9 30.5 0.73 38.1-47.2 9.1 1.41 70.1-76.2 6.1 0.26 80.8-96.0 15.2 0.20 100.6-102.1 1.5 0.16 106.7-108.2 1.5 0.14 123.5- 137.2 13.7 0.26 141.8-149.4 7.6 0.18 178.4-179.9 1.5 0.17 190.5-192.0 1.5 0.15 202.7-204.4 1.5 0.15 208.8-210.3 1.5 0.16 JW17-10 RC 90 -50 521.3 24.3-27.4 3.1 0.23 36.6-38.1 1.5 0.18 42.7-120.4 77.7 0.48 123.5-125.0 1.5 0.16 129.6-135.7 6.1 0.20 138.7-141.8 3.1 0.15 147.9-178.4 30.5 0.31 202.7-204.2 1.5 0.15 205.8-207.3 1.5 0.16 228.7-230.2 1.5 0.20 257.6-259.1 1.5 0.15

** Gold intervals reported in this table were calculated using a 0.14 g Au/t cutoff. Weighted averaging has been used to calculate all reported intervals. True widths are estimated at 70-90% of drilled thicknesses.

Mac Jackson, Gold Standards Vice President of Exploration stated: We are successfully applying our Dark Star exploration model in targeting a Pennsylvanian-Permian debris flow carbonate hosted gold system at Jasperoid Wash. As results from these holes show, Jasperoid Wash is looking very similar to our shallow Dark Star oxide gold deposit at this early stage of exploration. The Jasperoid Wash deposit remains open in multiple directions, and we are well positioned to grow this new deposit in 2018.

Sampling Methodology, Chain of Custody, Quality Control and Quality Assurance

All sampling was conducted under the supervision of the Companys project geologists and the chain of custody from the project to the sample preparation facility was continuously monitored. A blank or certified reference material was inserted approximately every tenth sample. The RC samples were delivered to either ALS Minerals or Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories preparation facility in Elko, NV where they were crushed and pulverized. Resulting sample pulps were shipped to either ALS Minerals or Bureau Veritas certified laboratory in Sparks, NV or Vancouver, BC. Pulps were digested and analyzed for gold using fire assay fusion and an atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish on a 30 gram split. All other elements were determined by ICP analysis. Data verification of the analytical results included a statistical analysis of the standards and blanks that must pass certain parameters for acceptance to insure accurate and verifiable results.

Drill hole deviation was measured by gyroscopic down hole surveys that were completed on all holes by International Directional Services or Minex of Elko, NV. Final collar locations are surveyed by differential GPS by Apex Surveying, LLC of Spring Creek, Nevada.

The scientific and technical content contained in this news release have been reviewed, verified and approved by Steven R. Koehler, Gold Standards Manager of Projects, BSc. Geology and CPG-10216, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

ABOUT GOLD STANDARD VENTURES  Gold Standard is an advanced stage gold exploration company focused on district scale discoveries on its Railroad Gold Project, located within the prolific Carlin Trend. The 2014 Pinion and Dark Star gold deposit acquisitions offer Gold Standard a potential near-term development option and further consolidates the Companys premier land package on the Carlin Trend. The Pinion deposit has a resource estimate prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 consisting of an Indicated Mineral Resource of 31.61 million tonnes grading 0.62 g/t Au, totaling 630,300 ounces of gold and an Inferred Resource of 61.08 million tonnes grading 0.55 g/t Au, totaling 1,081,300 ounces of gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.14 g/t Au. The Dark Star deposit, 2.1 km to the east of Pinion, has a resource estimate prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 consisting of an Indicated Mineral Resource of 15.38 million tonnes grading 0.54 g/t Au, totaling 265,100 ounces of gold and an Inferred Resource of 17.05 million tonnes grading 1.31 g/t Au, totaling 715,800 ounces of gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.2 g Au/t. The North Bullion deposit, 7 km to the north of Pinion, has a resource estimate prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 consisting of an Indicated Mineral Resource of 2.92 million tonnes grading 0.96 g/t Au, totaling 90,100 ounces of gold and an Inferred Resource of 10.97 million tonnes grading 2.28 g/t Au, totaling 805,800 ounces of gold, using a cut-off grade of 0.14 g Au/t for near surface oxide and 1.25 to 2.25 g Au/t for near surface sulfide and underground sulfide respectively.
USDA-funded multi-robot farming project to aid in increasing world's food supply

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018



Use of robotic farming on highly sloped land is the focus of a nearly $1.2 million project led by Kansas State University's Dan Flippo. | Download this photo.





MANHATTAN  The world will be required to feed an estimated 9 billion people by 2050, but annual percentage crop yield increases are currently only half those required to meet these projected food needs. This pressing issue is being taken on by a team of researchers at Kansas State University whose aim is to increase arable land acreage considered too steep for use with conventional equipment.



Enter the robots.



"Multi-Robot Farming on Marginal, Highly Sloped Lands" is a three-year, $1,178,191 grant project from theU.S. Department of Agriculture's National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots, headed by Dan Flippo, assistant professor in the biological and agricultural engineering department.



This project will explore use of multiple small robots to farm highly sloped land. The robots, the size of a common wheelchair, will work in groups to accomplish fieldwork by unconventional means. Strap-on hardware modules will be designed to allow the small vehicles to plant, manage and harvest wheat on hills with slopes as great as 55 percent, or 30 degrees.



Joining Flippo in the endeavor at Kansas State University are Stephen Welch, professor, and Antonio Asebedo, assistant professor, both in agronomy; Arnaud Temme, associate professor of geography; and Sanjoy Das, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.



"The outcome will be a total agriculture farming system melding unmanned aerial flyovers of the field and robotic planting-management-harvest systems to provide the extra yield needed to meet the 2050 dilemma," Flippo said. "The system will be scalable, configurable and foreshadow the future of agricultural automation."



The small autonomous vehicle farming concept is brand-new, allowing engineers and scientists to rethink cropping operations. It has the potential of not only increasing yield for an enlarging population but to do so in a sustainable way that will allow continued feeding of the world.



An intensive geographic analysis has shown an additional 4 percent of the Great Plains could be brought into production using this farming technology. Though a seemingly small increase, the area is a global power in wheat production and currently hits those production rates on not quite 7 percent of its land.



"This new approach and the research that must accompany it have the potential to help Kansas State University meet and exceed its 2025 goals by placing us at the forefront of small autonomous vehicle agriculture," Flippo said.






A 68-year-old Kilkenny patient had to call for a taxi home from Waterford University Hospital after no transportation was arranged for the woman, the Kilkenny People can reveal.

The patient was sent to Waterford UH from St Lukes in Kilkenny for an urgent scan and was later discharged but soon realised neither hospital had arranged a way home for her.

Fianna Fail TD, John McGuinness, described the situation as the human consequence of the ambulance situation.

Deputy McGuinness said: She went to St Lukes and needed an urgent scan in Waterford UH.

There was no ambulance. The woman was quite ill. After a big fight in the hospital they sent her down to Waterford by taxi. She was an urgent case. She was down there all day until 7pm. There was no train or bus home.

St Lukes sent her down in a taxi and made no arrangements to get her back home.

The taxi driver who drove the patient from St Lukes to Waterford UH had given the woman a business card. She called the taxi company number when she was discharged and presumed the hospital would pay for her journey home.

Deputy McGuinness said: When she got home the taxi driver looked for the 86 fare and in fairness, the driver took the hit.

Its understood the driver  who drove from Kilkenny to pick up the woman - told her he would try and get the fare from one of the hospitals.

The woman has not received any bill from the driver or the hospital.

A spokesperson for Waterford UH said patients are expected to make their own transport arrangements following discharge.

They added: However in certain exceptional cases where patients are unable to secure private transport, the hospital can facilitate the use of taxi services.

It should be noted that taxis are normally only provided when patients have no other means of transportation.

In a statement, the Ireland East Hospital Group  of which St Lukes is a member  said: We can confirm that it is not standard practice for patients to be billed for taxis.

Taxi companies used by St Lukes General Hospital bill the hospital directly in terms of journeys ordered by the hospital in respect of patients who need to go to another hospital for treatment.
USA Today reports:

It may soon be a criminal offense to be an atheist in Egypt.

Shortly before New Years Day, the Egyptian Parliament considered enacting a law that would make it illegal to profess no belief in God. It is already against Egyptian law to insult or defame religion, and blasphemy arrests are on the rise. A conviction can bring up to five years in prison.

The new measure would criminalize the act of not believing in God  no insults or defamation of another faith required.

The legislation was proposed Dec. 24 by Amro Hamroush, head of the Parliaments committee on religion.

It must be criminalized and categorized as contempt of religion because atheists have no doctrine and try to insult the Abrahamic religions, Hamroush said in announcing the proposed law.
This is the sixth in a series of interviews with international experts on Korea to discuss pending issues surrounding the nation on the occasion of the beginning of 2018  ED.



Labor market reform urgent to raise productivity



By Kim Jae-kyoung



SINGAPORE  Fitch Ratings has warned that South Korea's growth potential will see significant erosion in the coming decade unless it copes with issues caused by the aging population and low productivity.



The global credit ratings agency is calling for Asia's fourth-largest economy to double up efforts to push for reform in both the labor and corporate sectors to tackle such challenges.



"Fast population aging seems the most important drag on Korea's potential growth in the decades ahead," Thomas Rookmaaker, director of Sovereigns and Supranationals Group at Fitch Ratings, said in an interview.



He pointed out a number of Korea's peers in Asia face similar demographic pressures, but Korea's birthrate is the lowest among 40 countries tracked by the OECD. The population aged over 65 is also growing at the fastest pace.



According to the latest report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Korea's working age population, those aged between 15 and 64, will drop by nearly 19 percent between 2017 and 2037, which is feared to reduce production and consumption thus hurting the country's growth potential.



Rookmaaker said policy measures dealing with these structural issues, such as labor market reform, could support GDP growth in the years ahead.



"The government still has time for an effective policy response to population aging, for instance to deal with the upcoming fiscal pressures," he said.



"To support GDP growth in the longer run, labor market reforms could for instance help improve productivity."



He believes strong economic growth could be sustained by reforms that increase productivity, as well as improvements in governance standards.



"The extent to which the government's supply-side reforms  aimed to strengthen innovation and create a better level playing field between chaebol and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)  will improve Korea's relatively low productivity," he said.



He remains skeptical about the government's attempts to create more jobs in the public sector because this is not a long-term solution to improving productivity.



"Some measures, such as an increase in government jobs and subsidies to SMEs, do not necessarily point to enhanced productivity," he said.



In his view, reforms that increase transparency and generally encourage greater separation between the government and the corporate sector could structurally improve governance standards.



"The fact these issues were a key part of President Moon Jae-in's election platform and the broad public support for change bodes well for the chance of implementation of governance reform," he said.



Rookmaaker expects Korea's real GDP growth to remain strong at 3 percent in 2018 on the back of a strong fiscal stimulus by the government and a global industrial pickup.



"Demand is likely to be supported by the administration's focus on job creation and income-led growth though a raise in the minimum wage, the hiring of more civil servants and an expansion of the social safety net," he said.



"So far, heightened geopolitical tensions on the Korean Peninsula have not held back spending, with consumer confidence sitting at elevated levels."



But he forecasts GDP growth to gradually slow to 2.7 percent in 2019, although economic activity is likely to benefit from a fiscal stimulus.


Abe may boycott PyeongChang Olympics



By Kim Rahn



President Moon Jae-in called on Japan to make a sincere apology to Korean victims of its wartime sex slavery, saying the 2015 deal between the two countries over the issue was flawed because it excluded their views.



He said the government would pay out its own money to support the victims, and not use the 1 billion yen Tokyo provided under the deal.



Moon made the comment during a New Year press conference Wednesday, a day after the foreign ministry announced Korea would not seek to renegotiate the verbal agreement but would ask Japan to acknowledge its past wrongdoing and make a sincere apology to help heal the victims' pain.



"The government measure was not satisfactory but was the best choice in reality because it was a diplomatic issue for which the two nations made an official agreement under the former (Park Geun-hye) administration," the President said.



But he said breaking the deal and demanding a renegotiation may not be the answer in resolving the issue. "Basically I believe the issue can be addressed only by the truth and justice. When Japan acknowledges the truth, makes a sincere apology to the victims, and, learning lessons from it, makes efforts with international society not to repeat such behavior, then the victims will forgive Japan and that will resolve the issue completely."






As I look back at the political battles of 2017, Im reminded that our state does better when we all work together for the shared values of stronger communities, opportunity and fairness for all. In short, Wisconsin does better when we all do better.

Despite other states rebounding from the Great Recession, Republican policies have shrunk Wisconsins middle class, shifted more costs onto working families and created an 111,000 jobs deficit.

Seven years of failed Republican budgets are felt every time we drive over a pothole or cast a ballot for a school referendum. We feel it in our pocketbooks as our wages remain stagnant, while 47 millionaires receive a new tax break.

Wisconsin families are working harder than ever but cant get ahead because Republicans continue to favor the wealthy and foreign corporations. Gov. Walker and legislative Republicans are draining resources from our schools, roads and local communities in order to fund the largest taxpayer giveaway to a foreign corporation in U.S. history.

Instead of pitting families against one another and favoring out-of-state corporations at the expense of home-grown businesses, we should work to level the playing field and make sure everyone who works hard has an opportunity to succeed.

In 2018 Democrats remain united in our values to create a more fair economy, expand opportunities and strengthen communities.

Democrats have offered dozens of forward-looking solutions to expand access to affordable health care, invest in infrastructure and improve workplace flexibility for hardworking Wisconsin families. Weve introduced bills to address the sky-rocketing costs of childcare, expand the family medical leave act, provide student loan debt relief, and invest in our local schools.

These are the issues that impact families across Wisconsin and these are the issues that families want fixed. By focusing on policies that encourage growth and drive innovation, we can expand economic opportunities and move Wisconsin forward.

I know we can do better. If we want to grow our middle class and help our next generation succeed in a competitive global economy, we need to invest in our state and retain the best and the brightest. We will continue to fight for common-sense solutions to lower student loan debt, expand access to child care, raise family wages and increase retirement security.

Onward, upward and forward to 2018.
Garda say burglaries rose until October when the targeted deployment of police under the winter phase of Operation Thor saw the rate of the crime, particularly in rural areas, decline.

Provisional Garda figures show that burglaries nationally fell by by nearly a quarter in November and December when the Operation swung into action.

Gardai say there was rise in burglaries for a number of months up to October 2017. The Laois-Offaly Division is part of the Eastern garda region. Figures show that burglaries dropped by 29% in these counties.

A special unit was deployed in Laois Offaly in November after string of violent robberies. These included an raid by a gang on the home of a bachelor farmer in south Offaly. Richie McKelvey was beaten with bars and tied up.

In the same week a garda car was rammed near Monasterevin after a gang was pursued by gardai accross a number of counties.

In the South Eastern Region there were 40% less burglaries reported in December compared to October. I the west of Ireland burglaries fell by a quarter while the rate was down by 22% the Southern Region. It was18% less in the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR), and 15% less in the Northern Region.

Gardai say it has been established in Ireland and elsewhere that a surge in burglaries of about 20% is likely to arise in the winter months, when daylight hours are at the lowest level, in the absence of effective preventative measures.

"Having observed an increase in burglaries in September and October 2017, An Garda Siochana prepared an operational plan for a Winter Phase of Operation Thor, involving the undertaking of targeted enforcement and preventative activity, designed to prevent potential burglars from exploiting the reduced hours of daylight in the months November 2017 to April 2018.

"A key part of the Winter Phase of Operation Thor has been the targeting of organised crime gangs involved in burglaries. In recent weeks members of OCGs have been arrested on a number of occasions in circumstances where high powered get-away vehicles were identified and intercepted.

"The fact that ten (10) targets who have recently been arrested in the course of Operation Thor, have accumulated a total of one-hundred and fifty-five (155) criminal convictions reflects the extent of the challenge facing An Garda Siochana in tackling the criminality involved," said a statement.

RAIDERS DISTURBED BY WOMAN IN HER HOME

Gardai say a critical element of Operation Thor is preventing burglaries from happening in the first place. In this regard, they say the public have a crucial to role to play in enhancing their home security.

Gardai advised people to 'Lock Up and Light Up' as most burglaries occur between 5pm and 11pm in winter months and over 50% of burglaries take place either through the front or back door.

John ODriscoll is Assistant Commissioner, Special Crime Operations.

"We are particularly aware of the vulnerability of older people for whom a burglary can be a very traumatic experience and we are determined to identify and apprehend those who exploit their vulnerability. The positive start to the Winter Phase of Operation Thor is encouraging and we intend achieving more success throughout the remaining months, he said.

Earlier this week, Assistant Commissioner ODriscoll met with the most senior detectives in each Garda region to review activity undertaken to date under Operation Thor and plan additional actions to be taken in 2018. The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) was also at the meeting.

Gardai say Operation Thor, which led to a 30 per cent reduction in burglaries following its introduction in November 2015, is a multi-strand approach to tackling burglaries with an emphasis on preventing the crime from happening in the first instance.

Operation Thor actively targets organised crime gangs and repeat offenders through co-ordinated crime prevention and enforcement activity based on intelligence and the latest burglary trends.
A Laois mother-of-two, who stole over 460,000 from a financial services firm to keep her ill husband's struggling business afloat, has had her 18 month jail term cut to 12 on appeal.

Lisa Lynch (33), a former director of AGL Logistics, whose home at Southfield, Ballinatubbert, near Athy, Co Kildare but located in Co Laois, is due to be repossessed by the banks in April, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing the money from Bibby Financial Services over a three-month period in 2013.

She was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment by Judge Martin Nolan on December 12 last. However, Judge Nolan deferred sentencing until the new year with the result that she appeared before the Court of Appeal on bail, having not been in custody at any stage.

The Court of Appeal suspended the final six months of an 18 month term today, Thursday following a successful appeal and Lynch was lead away to begin serving her sentence on Thursday evening.

Giving judgment in the three-judge court, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the circumstances in which Lynch found herself to be in charge of AGL Logistics, a Co Kildare based company involved in the transport business, were unusual.

Two days after the birth of her son, her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of mouth cancer. He had previously been the mainstay of the company he inherited from his father and, due to his illness, he became seriously depressed and withdrew from operations.

Lynch took over the business. It was accepted that she was ill-equipped for the task and really out of her depth. AGL was a struggling company and, with a view to keeping it afloat, Lynch issued 93 false invoices on foot of which payments were made by Bibby Financial Services which resulted in a loss to it of 460,660.

The Circuit Court heard that AGL and multinational Bibby had a deal whereby the larger company would purchase AGL's debt by offering short-term loans at high interest. When AGL was owed money by a customer, Bibby would give AGL 80 per cent of that debt, on the agreement that the money would be repaid whether or not AGL's customer paid their invoice.

Mrs Lynch, a mother-of-two young children, was 33 at the time of the sentence. Mr Justice Birmingham said she was likely to remain the breadwinner in the family due to her husband's difficulties. Her husband is on a back-to-work scheme, the family have substantial debts and the family home is due to be repossessed in April, the judge said.

When asked by Bibby what was happening, Mrs Lynch talked them through what had occurred. When the matter was investigated by gardai, she made immediate admissions and entered an early guilty plea.

In the four years between the matter coming to light and coming to court, Lynch had secured work with her brother-in-law and although the salary was relatively modest, she had on a weekly basis put 50 aside with a view to assembling a compensation fund.

Mrs Lynch's barrister, Lorcan Staines BL, pressed for non-custodial disposal. However, the Circuit Court judge felt the offence was of such seriousness that he couldn't accede to this request.

The sentencing judge commented that he could not detect the presence of personal greed. Her motive was to secure the survival of the company in a situation where she felt she had an obligation towards its 70 employees. He noted the mitigating factors as Mrs Lynch's co-operation, her admissions, early guilty plea and her lack of previous convictions.

In addition to those mitigating factors referred to by the sentencing judge, Mr Staines said there was also Lynch's efforts at recompense, the loss of reputation, the delay of four years in the matter coming to court and the extraordinary damage that would be caused to Lynch's family by imprisoning her for 18 months.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the Court of Appeal would have liked to have seen a headline figure nominated by the sentencing judge before applying a discount for mitigation. It was particularly desirable in cases where there were significant mitigating factors present.

He said the Court of Appeal agreed with Mr Staines that having a pending prosecution hanging over one's head was a matter of some substance. For someone who had not previously come before the court, the fact a prosecution was pending was likely to be a source of anxiety.

Furthermore, he said the 8,000 that had been saved by Lynch for compensation, while small, was a significant sum for a family in straightened circumstances and her efforts over a four year period indicated genuine remorse.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the failure to identify a headline sentence coupled with the fact there was no mention of Lynch's efforts to assemble a compensation fund, persuaded the Court of Appeal, not without hesitation, that it should intervene.

He said the court agreed with the Circuit Court judge that it was a serious case involving a course of wrongdoing, duplicity and criminality. It could not be forgotten, Mr Justice Birmingham said, that the case involved the theft of almost half a million euro over a significant period in a systemic fashion.

Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice John Edwards and Mr Justice John Hedigan, said the court would sentence Lynch to 18 months imprisonment but would suspend the final six months.

Lynch was lead away to begin serving her sentence that evening. The court heard that she wanted to begin serving her sentence immediately, rather than having to go home again before being sent to jail.
As you probably have heard, RSV is hitting early and hitting hard this year. Here at Winona Health, my fellow caregivers in Pediatrics and Family Medicine and I are fielding many questions from concerned parents and child care providers. We are always happy to be your resource!
Students from Laois and other parts of Ireland are being encouraged to take advantage of free interrail tickets being offered by the EU to travel around Europe during the summer.

The scheme allows young people to apply for one of 20,000 free interrail tickets once they turn 18. This project, initiated by the European Parliament, provides a unique opportunity for young Irish people to explore Europe over a period of up to three weeks at a time of their choosing.

Interrail tickets can cost upwards of 300 depending on the length of journey, so this is a tremendous initiative for any young person to apply for.

Ireland South MEP, Liadh Ni Riada sits on the Culture and Education Committee

This initiative will be of huge financial assistance and make travel much more affordable for young people in Ireland.

More details on how and when the scheme will be launched are due in March.

"My office is open to anyone interested in applying for tickets once the scheme is launched. Happy travelling.
Trolley usage fell significantly overnight in Portlaoise hospital after almost doubling in the space of 72 hours, while the number of people waiting for beds at its sister hospitals remains high.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation figures for Thursday, January 11 show that there were just two trollies deployed in the Emergency Department (ED/A&E) of the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise.

The figure also means that the Laois hospital had the lowest number of trollies of any acute facility in the country with an Emergency Department. The HSE wants to close the A&E in Portlasoise.

In Portlaoise, on Wednesday, January 10 there were 22 people temporarily accommodated on trollies while waiting for a hospital bed. All were deemed in need of admission. There were 18 waiting on Tuesday and 12 on Monday.

ABBEYLEIX COUMMUNITY HOSPITAL CAN HELP TROLLEY CRISIS

Meanwhile, the numbers also remain high at Portlaoise's sister hospitals in the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. There were 28 people waiting in Tullamore hospital while Tallaght needed 29 trollies. The number required at Naas doubled to 20 while there was a 100% increase to 16 trollies at the country's biggest hospital - St James' in Dublin.

Nationally 544 trollies had to be used on Wednesday - 389 in Emergency Departments and 155 on wards. The main hospitals in Limerick, Galway and Cork cities were worst affected on Thursday - Limerick had 53 people waiting for a bed.

The HSE has advised that the impact of influenza is likely to increase this week and peak.






A District Court Judge has this adjourned a case against a young man accused of a sexual assault to allow prosecuting Gardai to consult with the DPP over it.

Having heard an outline of the basics of the case against the young man at Naas District Court this morning, Judge Desmond Zaidan was surprised that the charge was one of sexual assault rather than a more serious one of rape.

The judge heard that the evidence would be that the victim is a woman who had met the man on a dating website. On the second date it will be alleged that the pair, who are both in their early 20s, were in his bedroom and she rebuffed his sexual advances on a number of occasions by pushing his hands away. It will be the evidence of the prosecution in the case that she pretended to be asleep to deter him and it is alleged that he penetrated her with his finger. The court heard that the woman had made a complaint about the alleged incident later the same night.

Judge Zaidan was surprised that this came before him as a charge of sexual assault rather a rape. He was of the view that the charge of rape could include digital penetration and as such should be tried in the Central Criminal Court. The prosecuting detective said he understood that it was sexual assault.

The judge said that he was not comfortable proceeding to accept the charge. After some discussion, the Judge adjourned the case for two weeks to allow the Gardai consult with the DPP on the matter.

He said he would consider whether to hear the case at the next hearing or to refuse jurisdiction, thus forcing it up to a higher court.
Tributes have been pouring in for the late Kildare horse trainer and former jockey, Vivian Kennedy, who passed away earlier this week.

He died on Tuesday night, January 9 at the age of 75. The Curragh resident passed away in hospital in Basildon after spending the Christmas in the UK visiting family.

His daughter, Sylvia Insole paid tribute to her late dad on Twitter.

"Tonight we lost our amazing Dad, Vivian Kennedy. We are totally devastated! Great jockey, great trainer and the best father in the world! RIP Dad!" she wrote.

Brian Kavanagh of Horse Racing Ireland said; "Very sorry to hear of the passing of Vivian Kennedy. A shrewd trainer and a good man to have dealings with. A stalwart of the Curragh. Deepest sympathies to Kathleen and family."

The Irish Jockey's Association said; "Saddened to hear the news of Vivian Kennedys passing. A great character, quick witted and a thorough gentleman. May he Rest In Peace."

Many more big names in the horse racing industry also expressed their sympathies.

Very sorry to hear that Vivian Kennedy passed away last night. A great Jockey and a shrewd trainer he was part of the Curragh for as long as I can remember.  Paul Hensey (@HenseyPaul) January 10, 2018

Very sad to hear that Vivian Kennedy passed away last night,a great jockey,trainer and a lovely man.My thoughts are with @WTKJockey @JamieInsole @SylviaInsole and all his family  Sally Ann Grassick (@sagrassick) January 10, 2018
Once upon a time, 165 million years ago, there lived a spider who looked like a pelican. About the size of a grain of rice and just as quiet, the pelican spider tiptoed under foliage in the leafy parts of the world, looking for prey to impale with the fanged, beak-like pincers at the end of its long neck. Its favorite meal: other spiders.

The happy ending to this tale (for arachnophiles, at least) is that pelican spiders still exist today  and in much greater variety than biologists previously thought. According to a new paper published today (Jan. 11) in the journal ZooKeys, there are at least 26 known species of pelican spiders (family name Archaeidae) still creeping around Madagascar and South Africa alone, 18 of which have never been described before. [5 Spooky Spider Myths Busted]

"I think there's going to be a lot more species that haven't yet been described or documented," Hannah Wood, curator of arachnids and myriapods at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and author of the study, said in a statement. After years of collecting pelican spiders from Madagascar and studying them in museum collections, Wood and colleague Nikolaj Scharff of the University of Copenhagenin Denmark described the bizarre hunters in unprecedented detail.

Pelican spiders use their beak-like pincers, called chelicerae, to impale their prey at a safe distance. (Image credit: Nikolaj Scharff)

Spider assassins caught in the act

How the pelican spider got its name is no mystery. When not hunting, the spider often folds its fanged pincers, called chelicerae, down against the long, neck-like appendage connecting the arachnid's head to its body. As a result, the pelican spider looks more like a bird than a spider in profile. Unlike a bird, however, the spider's mouth is situated at the bottom of its neck, putting the opening at perfect range to feast on whatever the spider manages to catch on the tips of its chelicerae.

Pelican spiders are active hunters, the paper said. Rather than spinning their own webs, they prefer to stalk the trails of silk left behind by other spiders scuttling around their leafy habitats. At night, pelican spiders follow these silky bread crumbs, moving slowly and often upside down through the leaves. While the spider's back six legs do the walking, their front two legs sweep through the air, feeling for prey. After finally reaching the edge of another spider's web, pelican spiders can wait for hours for the right time to strike (earning them the moniker "assassin spiders").

Then, they strike with deadly efficiency. The spiders swing their chelicerae away from their bodies in a rapid, 90-degree arc tojab the pincers into their prey. Thanks to the spider's long necks and pincers, they keep their prey held harmlessly at arm's length while deadly venom pumps through the predators' chelicerae and into their victims.

"Then," Wood told Science News in 2014, following publication of a previous pelican spider study, "they pull out one chelicera and leave the other one hanging out there with the spider prey impaled on it." Feasting follows.

Pelican spiders are unusual, even by arachnid standards, the statement said, but their methods are time-tested. Wood calls today's pelican spiders "living fossils," as the arachnids appear remarkably similar to species preserved in the fossil record dating back up to 165 million years.

Most modern specimens of pelican spiders have been collected from Madagascar, South Africa and Australia. This wide distribution suggests the species' arachnid ancestors once lived on the supercontinent Pangaea before it began breaking apart roughly 200 million years ago.

Originally published on Live Science.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

From medieval witch hunts in Europe to contemporary "witch doctors" in Tanzania, belief in witchcraft has existed across human societies throughout history. Anthropologists have long been fascinated by the phenomenon, but have struggled to study it with quantitative methods  our understanding of how and why it arises is therefore poor.

But a study we conducted of one Chinese region provided an opportunity to test the most common hypothesis  that witchcraft accusations act as punishment for those who do not cooperate with local norms. According to this theory, witch tags mark supposedly untrustworthy individuals and encourage others to conform out of fear of being labelled. However, some empirical studies have shown that witch labelling instead undermines trust and social cohesion in a society.

Our study is based on 800 households in five villages in south-western China. We examined the social behaviour of those who were labelled with a "witch" tag, and compared it with those who were not. The work, published in Nature Human Behaviour (opens in new tab), was the basis of a long-term collaboration between scientists from University College London, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Lanzhou University.

To determine the social networks and cooperation between households, we conducted house-to-house surveys, asking who had children, marriages and partnerships with whom. We also collected data on gift-giving, and on working groups on farms during harvest and planting seasons to see who was helping other households with their farming. All these measures gave rise to four social networks between households based on kinship, reproductive partners, gifts exchanged or farm work.

Magic poison

While in the area, we were occasionally warned not to eat in certain households, as women there were believed to be supernatural "poison givers". The label they used  "zhu" or "zhubo"  is sometimes also translated as "witch". It was common knowledge which homes were so labelled and we were surprised to find it accounted for 13% of the households.

The tag was one of the strongest predictors of assortment on social networks. Those from tagged households rarely had children or partnerships with those from untagged households, nor did they exchange gifts or work on each others' farms very often. However, tagged households were helping each other and reproducing with each other, which mitigated the costs of exclusion from mainstream social networks.

We also played an "economic game" in the villages, where each person was given a small sum of money and asked to donate any proportion of it they wished to the village (to be divided among all the players). We found no evidence that those tagged as "witches" were any less cooperative in this game than any others.

In fact, we found that labelled households were very similar to other households, except the tagged households were more likely to be headed by women and were actually slightly wealthier than average.

We also discovered that the process of acquiring the label was opaque. Even victims often did not know who had started a rumor about them, they may just begin to notice others avoiding them. Some sources report such tags running in the family, with daughters inheriting the status from their mothers. Hence the origin of the slur could have occurred long ago.

Interpreting the results

Anthropologists who believe that the fear of loss of reputation (by witch labelling or other reasons) can be a huge driver of cooperation in the wider community often back their arguments (opens in new tab) with laboratory experiments using economic games. Such experiments also show that those who punish transgressors can gain reputational benefits themselves.

However real world examples of this are hard to come by. Most studies of witchcraft are not quantitative and do not examine social networks as we have done. While this study suggests there is no evidence that those labelled with this harmful tag were uncooperative, it does not fully explain why such accusations stick in some cases and not in others.

Our conclusion is that witch accusation has evolved from competition between households. Labelling may have become a way for people to get ahead of their rivals and gain a competitive advantage in reproduction or resources. However, the sources of competition may be different in different cases.

There are other explanations that may apply too. All around the world conceptions of witchcraft share many common features. For example, middle aged women are the most common victims, and accusations of poisoning are frequently involved. But there are also many differences. Another idea for the origins of witchcraft denunciations is that they are common when patriarchal institutions are trying to establish dominance over matriarchal ones. This could possibly also apply in this case as Buddhism, the most common religion in the area, is more male-dominated whereas the traditional social structure in the region is "matrilineal", where descent is usually traced through the female line.

A patriarchal dimension to witchcraft accusations could also explain the prevalence of women as victims both in traditional societies, and even in modern contexts that can resemble "witch hunts", such as online bullying specifically targeting women.

The more research we do, the closer we can get to understanding and tackling the mechanisms behind these practices that can be devastating for women across the world.

Ruth Mace, Professor of Anthropology, UCL

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Local News, Crime, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: January 11 2018

State Effort to Seize Fake IDs Hits Record High for Third Consecutive Year.

Albany, NY - January 11, 2017 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a new record for the number of people arrested in 2017 attempting to use fake identification to buy alcoholic beverages under the legal drinking age. As part of the state's year-round Operation Prevent initiative, investigators from the Department of Motor Vehicles and the State Liquor Authority work with state and local law enforcement agencies to conduct underage drinking and fake ID sweeps at bars, restaurants, concert venues, and alcohol retailers across New York State.

"This administration is firmly committed to helping our young people avoid making a mistake that could ruin their life and the lives of others," Governor Cuomo said. "Underage drinking often leads to avoidable tragedies, and in order to help keep our communities safe, New York will continue to crack down on illegal behaviors in every region of the state."

Fake identification arrests and the number of licensee's charged for the sale of alcohol to minors in 2017 by region include:

In 2017, the Department of Motor Vehicles' investigators charged 843 people with possessing fake identifications in an attempt to purchase alcoholic beverages. In addition, 171 people were cited for violations of the Alcohol Beverage Control law by drinking when they were not of legal age. In 2016, 818 individuals were charged with possessing fake identifications. In 2015, that number was 758.

In addition, the State Liquor Authority issued 1,031 penalties to licensed retailers for underage sales in 2017. The SLA also promotes compliance through the Alcohol Training Awareness Program, a training focused on reducing sales to minors and intoxicated patrons. The number of ATAP trainings completed by licensees and their staff increased from 5,803 in 2011, to 18,881 in 2017. This includes nearly 400 business owners and over 500 employees who received free ATAP training hosted by the SLA in collaboration with the Empire State Restaurant & Tavern Association as part of Governor Cuomo's continued efforts to combat underage drinking announced in August of 2017. The total number of fake IDs seized dropped last year from 862 to 762 as fewer people were caught with multiple fake identifications and more were charged with trying to use another person's identification.

"We will continue to work to deter underage drinking," said Terri Egan, Executive Deputy Commissioner of the State DMV and Acting Chair of the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee. "It should not be a surprise to find our investigators checking IDs, so don't take the risk of getting arrested by trying to buy alcohol with a fake ID or by using someone else's identification."

SLA Chairman Vincent Bradley said, "Keeping alcohol out of the hands of underage youth is a top priority at the New York State Liquor Authority. Under Governor Cuomo, we have significantly augmented our resources by coordinating our efforts with state agencies including DMV, OASAS and the State Police to help keep our communities safe by cracking down on these illegal sales."

Under Governor Cuomo's leadership, the state has focused on deterring underage drinking and preventing the purchase of false identifications. On August 26, 2015 the Governor warned returning college students about the dangers of purchasing fake IDs over the Internet.

New York State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II said, "The State Police will continue to work with our partners to stop underage drinking and prevent the needless injuries and deaths it can cause. Safety is our top priority. Together we are working to discourage, detect and apprehend underage users of alcohol and most importantly, are saving lives."

"Underage drinking is a dangerous behavior that can lead to serious health problems, including addiction later in life," said New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Arlene Gonzalez-Sanchez. "Underage drinking is particularly dangerous if it is combined with driving a car. I applaud Governor Cuomo for recognizing that it is not simply a mischievous rite of passage for teens and taking serious efforts to prevent it."
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause

By Legislator Anker's Office Published: January 11 2018

On Saturday, January 6, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker joined Boy Scout Troop 161 at St. Marks Church in Shoreham for an Eagle Scout Ceremony honoring Ryan Doolan, Ryan Ledda, Tyler Offut, Charles Vesely, and ...

Shoreham, NY - January 11, 2017 - On Saturday, January 6, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker joined Boy Scout Troop 161 at St. Marks Church in On Saturday, January 6, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker joined Boy Scout Troop 161 at St. Marks Church in Shoreham for an Eagle Scout Ceremony honoring Ryan Doolan, Ryan Ledda, Tyler Offut, Charles Vesely, and Dominic Vesely. Eagle Scout is the highest rank that a scout can receive and requires the scouts to earn 21 merit badges, complete a community service project, and undergo a lengthy review process.

Shorehams Troop 161 is one of Suffolk Countys largest scout troops. Eagle Scout is a prestigious honor achieved by only 5% of all Boy Scouts across the nation, said Legislator Anker. Its an honor to recognize the young men who have worked hard to help others and make Suffolk County a better place. They are role models for their peers and leaders of our community.
by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 10, 2018

Leonid Bershidsky, a Berlin-based Russian journalist and columnist for Bloomberg, made an interesting observation in an opinion piece titled "If Google Is Biased, So Are Its Algorithms." It ran this week in Bloomberg.

Bershidsky makes the point that if Google's policies are biased, then we need to look at how "its work culture and internal rules" influence its algorithms that serve up most the world's information in its search engine. After all, they are written by the engineers who work for the company and follow the rules and culture.

Two of those engineers -- James Damore and David Gudeman -- filed a discrimination lawsuit against Google, their former employer, this week. Damore alleges he was fired for penning a memo against Google's diversity policies, and Gudeman alleges he was fired for his conservative views.

The real issue here is not about how Google's work culture and company rules influence its employees, but how the company's culture and these rules influence the world. And they do -- because of the nature of Google's business. Opinions are the cause of bias in machine learning.

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And sometime those opinions are a little too opinionated and the culture made a little to public. The culture within Google at times seems a little creepy, according to some of the screen shots that Damore provides in the lawsuit documentation. What happened to manners and representing yourself with honor and respect? The internet seems to have eliminated that type of culture.



The algorithms, designed by the engineers who build the code to surface the data, influence people who search for information. The culture and rules also influence the decisions made by marketers trying to reach consumers to share products, news and services from their brands. And ultimately, the culture and rules influence consumer decisions.

As Bershidsky points out, Google is the owner of the world's biggest conduit to information, with a 69% global search market share. Algorithms and artificial intelligence lead people to this information.

Google is aware of the problem of algorithm bias, and published a video on YouTube describing the initial coding process. The narrator in the video says "just because something is based on data [it] doesn't automatically make it neutral. Even with good intentions it's impossible to separate ourselves from our own human biases, so our human biases become part of the technology we create in many different ways."

Google does acknowledge that it takes a lot to train algorithms not to perpetuate human bias, but in Bershidsky's opinion piece, he writes that "if the Damore lawsuit correctly describes an aggressively leftist culture at Google, the human input into the algorithms can be expected to favor the leftist worldview. That may lead to overcorrection -- and to the burying of alternative views, noxiously right-wing or even mainstream conservative."

Bershidsky provides this example. Type "the earth is" into Google's search engine, and the first suggestion is "flat." He refers to it as a likely "manifestation of algorithmic bias," but doesn't want it to be overcorrected.

Again, the biggest issue is not the correctness within Google, but how the company's rules and culture influence the world.

"[Google's] mission as a neutral conduit is more important even than workplace cohesion," Bershidsky wrote. "Silencing any kind of views, no matter how offensive, undermines that mission."
While TV network group Turner is hoping for a faster conclusion to its parent companys Time Warner deal with AT&T, John Martin, chairman/CEO of Turner, says there is another concern.

Speaking at the CES event in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Martin says: The advertising industry needs to move with a much greater sense of urgency. We are competing against platforms that are non-advertising supported ... My fear is that when the industry finally figures out addressability, everyone is going to be watching video on Hulu and Netflix.

He adds: We need to move where we are network-agnostic, data-agnostic, demographic-agnostic and age-agnostic.

Turner has been moving in this direction to accommodate the needs of TV marketers. We, at Turner, have had a data strategy for four years now. We have had addressable products in the marketplace for four years; 5% of our business is addressable. It is about selling audiences.

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Martin adds that the slow-moving regulatory process of the AT&T and Time Warner deal is critical. At this point, everyone wants a bit of clarity and certainty ... this cant close fast enough.

Reflecting on the growing nature of new entrants in the field, Martin says traditional TV companies are dealing with powerful players -- companies like Netflix, Amazon, Google and Apple.

What the government is missing, looking at these mergers, is were competing in the land of giants, said Martin. If you dont think Google and Amazon are giants, think again.

As evidence of this, Martin says Netflix is budgeting some $8 billion a year in TV-movie content production, Amazon is committing around $4 billion, and Apple is adding a few billion.

Time Warner and Turner already have large big production budgets -- with HBO spending around $2.5 billion and Warner Bros. at an estimated $1.5 billion.
by Ray Schultz , January 11, 2018

Up to 30,000 Florida Medicaid recipients may have had their records breached, according to Floridas Agency for Health Care Administration.

In compliance with state and federal law, the agency is warning potential victims that an employee was the target of a malicious phishing email last November, the agency says in a post.

The possible exposure includes highly sensitive personal information.

It is possible that Medicaid enrollees full names, Medicaid ID numbers, dates of birth, address, diagnoses, medical conditions or Social Security numbers were accessed in part or full, the agency continues.

The agencys leadership was notified of preliminary findings on the November 2017 breach on January 2. The agency has conducted a review of its ITS data to determine the circumstances, and initiated new security training, it says.

The agency is providing victims with a years membership in Experians IdentityWorks program.
Applications to become Wisconsins next Alice in Dairyland are due Thursday, Feb. 1.

This one-year, full-time contractual position starts June 8. The job is headquartered in Madison and involves traveling throughout the state to cultivate relationships with television, radio and print media outlets, writing and delivering speeches and utilizing social media to tell the stories of Wisconsin agriculture.

Additional duties include developing and executing marketing plans, delivering classroom presentations, giving news media interviews and networking with industry professionals.

Alice in Dairyland is a guest and speaker at many Wisconsin events, including the Wisconsin State Fair, World Dairy Expo, county fairs and dairy breakfasts and conferences.

Applicants should have an interest in Wisconsin agriculture; at least three years of experience, education or training in communications, marketing, education or public relations; and public speaking experience. Applicants must be female, Wisconsin residents and at least 21 years old.

Serving as Wisconsins agricultural ambassador has allowed me to share the story of Wisconsins diverse agriculture industry to a multitude of various audiences across the state, which broadened my view and deepened my appreciation for the industry, said Crystal Siemers-Peterman, 70th Alice in Dairyland. If you have passion and excitement for agriculture, education and communications, this position is a great opportunity to take those enthusiasms to the next level and to make long-lasting career connections in the industry.

The 12-month salary for Alice in Dairyland is $45,000 and includes holiday, vacation and sick leave as well as use of a vehicle for official business.

Reimbursement is provided for an individual health insurance premium up to $450 a month, as well as professional travel expenses.

To apply, submit an application form, cover letter, resume, three professional references and summary of qualifications to the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Application materials are available at https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/Growing_WI/BecomingAlice.aspx

Qualified applicants will be invited to a preliminary interview Feb. 16. Top candidates will be required to attend a two-day program briefing and press announcement March 15-16, and the three-day final interview process at which the new Alice will be selected will be held May 17-19 in Adams County.

Questions regarding the position or application process can be directed to Alice in Dairyland Program Director, Ti Gauger at 608-224-5115 or Ti.Gauger@wisconsin.gov.
An innovative approach to cancer treatment utilizes a compound found in stinging nettles. While its early days, the new treatment could offer more effective and more specific cancer treatment.

Share on Pinterest A compound found in stinging nettles may help in the fight against cancer.

A platinum-based drug called cisplatin is often used in the fight against cancer. Though it can be effective, there are significant shortfalls.

Over time, many cancers become resistant to the drug, and its ability to kill cancer cells diminishes.

Another issue is that cisplatin attacks healthy as well as cancerous cells, leading to a range of side effects.

For these reasons and others, more efficient cancer treatments are constantly being searched for.

Researchers at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom recently studied a new compound to assess whether it might be useful in the fight against cancer, particularly ovarian cancer and prostate cancer.

Prof. Peter Sadler, a medicinal chemist from the University of Warwick, explains their focus, saying, Platinum compounds are the most widely used drugs for cancer chemotherapy, but we urgently need to respond to the challenges of circumventing resistance and side effects.

Our lab, he continues, is focused on the discovery of truly novel anti-cancer drugs which can kill cells in totally new ways. Chemo-catalysts, especially those with immunogenic properties, might provide a breakthrough.
With up to 70 percent of pregnant American women reaching for acetaminophen to treat pain, infection, and fever, debate about the drugs safety is ongoing. New research has brought further risks to light. Share on Pinterest Acetaminophen is generally regarded as safe during pregnancy, but more evidence pointing to the contrary is coming to light. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) always recommend consulting a doctor prior to using any pain medication during pregnancy. Acetaminophen  also known as paracetamol  is a widely available over-the-counter (OTC) painkiller, used by 6570 percent of pregnant women in the United States. But it is also a component of many other drugs, such as those used to treat symptoms of the common cold or flu, allergies, and sleep problems. Research into the drugs safety during pregnancy is ongoing, with little in the way of definitive conclusions. The FDA point out that severe and persistent pain that is not effectively treated during pregnancy can result in depression, anxiety, and high blood pressure in the mother. However, it is important to carefully weigh the benefits and risks of using prescription and OTC pain medicines during pregnancy, the statement continues. As an expectant mother myself, Ive been keeping a close eye on any studies into the drugs effect. Evidence of a link between attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy has been steadily mounting over the past few years. In the past week, two new studies have joined the ranks, and they point to the potential effects on fertility and language development after acetaminophen use. Here is what you need to know.

ADHD and behavioral problems While there have been many efforts in the past to untangle a possible link between ADHD and acetaminophen use, the FDA have been critical of many of these. According to their latest statement , from 2015, [W]e found all of the studies we reviewed to have potential limitations in their designs; sometimes the accumulated studies on a topic contained conflicting results that prevented us from drawing reliable conclusions. Last November, we brought you a study from the journal Pediatrics that asked nearly 100,000 mothers about their acetaminophen use during pregnancy. Almost half of the participants had used the drug. The researchers revealed that the risk of having a child with ADHD symptoms significantly increased when mothers took acetaminophen for more than 7 days. Use of the drug for 29 days or longer doubled the risk of having a child with ADHD, regardless of whether the reason for taking the OTC drug was fever, infection, or pain. These results are in line with a study we covered in 2016 that showed that acetaminophen use was linked to behavioral problems. The team  from the University of Bristol and Cardiff University, both in the United Kingdom  found that when mothers took acetaminophen at 18 weeks of pregnancy, their children were more likely to have conduct problems and symptoms of hyperactivity. When the drug was used later on in pregnancy  at 32 weeks  these same traits were observed, but the risk of emotional symptoms and total behavioral difficulties was also higher. New research published in the past week further incriminates acetaminophen, but this time, the effects are on fertility and language development.

Fertility affected across generations A few years ago, we reported on a study that showed a potential link between acetaminophen use and fertility problems in male offspring in a mouse model. The research team  from the University of Edinburgh in the U.K.  showed that three daily doses of acetaminophen over 7 days caused the levels of testosterone in male mouse babies to drop by nearly half. Last week, a review of studies looking at the effects of acetaminophen use and fertility in female offspring concluded that the last weeks of the first trimester may be a critical time window. Data obtained from rodent studies indicate that acetaminophen may disrupt normal development of the female reproductive organs, causing symptoms similar to premature ovarian insufficiency syndrome in humans. Data from three independent studies, cited in the review, revealed that when rodents received acetaminophen, their offspring produced fewer eggs. What is more, in one of the studies, this was passed on to the next generation, even if no more exposure to acetaminophen took place. Senior paper author David Mbjerg Kristensen, Ph.D.  an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark  says, [A]lthough this may not be a severe impairment to fertility, it is still of real concern since data from three different labs all independently found that paracetamol may disrupt female reproductive development in this way, which indicates further investigation is needed to establish how this affects human fertility. Prof. Kristensen urges that further research is needed. [] by combining epidemiological data from human studies with more experimental research on models, such as rodents, it may be possible to firmly establish this link and determine how it happens, so that pregnant women in pain can be successfully treated, without risk to their unborn children. Prof. David Mbjerg Kristensen

Acetaminophen and language delay A new study  published just yesterday  adds another dimension to the potential hazards that acetaminophen may cause. Shanna Swan, Ph.D.  who is a professor of environmental and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, NY  and team studied early language development in children whose mothers took acetaminophen during the very early stages of pregnancy. Writing in the journal European Psychiatry, Prof. Swan used data from the Swedish Environmental Longitudinal, Mother and Child, Asthma and Allergy study. This included self-reported data on acetaminophen use in early pregnancy  meaning between the point of conception and enrolment in the study, which typically occurred at 813 weeks of pregnancy. The data also included a measurement of acetaminophen levels in the urine of all participants at enrolment. The results found that 59 percent of the 754 women in the study took acetaminophen during early pregnancy. Language delay in children  meaning the use of fewer than 50 words by the age of 30 months  was assessed by specialist nurses and a follow-up questionnaire. The authors also explain in the paper that it is an early marker of impaired cognitive development. In all, 10 percent of the children experienced language delay. This was greater in boys than in girls. However, when mothers took six or more tablets of acetaminophen during early pregnancy, the risk of their daughters showing signs of language delay was increased by almost six times. Acetaminophen use was not linked to language delay in boys in this study. Commenting on the findings, Prof. Swan states, [G]iven the prevalence of prenatal acetaminophen use and the importance of language development, our findings, if replicated, suggest that pregnant women should limit their use of this analgesic during pregnancy. Its important for us to look at language development, she adds, because it has shown to be predictive of other neurodevelopmental problems in children.
Believe us or not, but Paris is the uncontested ruler when it comes to being the most romantic city in the world. Paris is responsible for giving birth to some of the most beautiful love stories. Paris was also the place where Kangana Ranaut wanted to go and visit the Eiffel Tower with Rajkummar Rao for her honeymoon in the movie 'Queen'. While, Ranaut had to go on her honeymoon alone and did not get to fulfil her love story, a certain Juliana Corrales got her own romantic moment at the Eiffel Tower, but with a complete stranger.

via GIPHY

Juliana, an 18-year-old from California, who was on a school trip to Paris, reportedly made a pact with herself that she will enjoy a kiss on top of the Eiffel Tower and she did exactly that by kissing a complete stranger. Apparently, on the last day of her trip, Juliana's friends helped her find the guy who will agree to this task. Honestly, it is stories like these that make us burn with jealousy, because forget the kiss, most of us might get thrashed for merely approaching them.

Although Juliana got her romantic moment, her love story reached a dead-end because she did not get his number.

via GIPHY

Had this been a Bollywood movie, the girl would have possibly gone and waited at the same spot for YEARS and the camera would have zoomed in and out within seconds and then show her as an old woman. But, this is the real world and thanks to social media, tracking has become faster than expected.

On days, when Twitter is not busy cracking jokes or making memes, it utilizes its time to help track down people. She took to her Twitter fam for help and wrote, Kissed this great guy on the top of the Eiffel Tower, biggest regret is that I didn't get his number, Twitter can ya help a girl out?

 Twitter Juliana Corrales

Soon Twitter flooded her with messages asking for the back story and she obliged.

I need the backstory of this. pic.twitter.com/iZYl4DfQtf  Jules. (@spycharmed) January 9, 2018

 Twitter Juliana Corrales

 Twitter Juliana Corrales

 Twitter Juliana Corrales

 Twitter Juliana Corrales

But the real star, however, turned out to be the boy's super cool mum, who urged her son, whose name is Gavin, to kiss Juliana again. Oh god, if this does not count as parenting goals, we wonder what does?

 Twitter Juliana Corrales

Well, soon enough Twitter tapped into its inner Sherlock and did manage to track down Gavin for her.

He went to the Eiffel Tower with his mother. His MOTHER!! Girl marry him. Good luck girl. L. I'm in California but I'll ship him to you if I see him. ?  Dee is finally seeing Harry ? (@Unreliable_liar) January 9, 2018

God I hope this girl find this boy, (Even though I'm jealous cause he's so freaking handsome lol) but God seriously, help this girl to find him, amen. pic.twitter.com/OXDj4ay0rM  Miranda (@astrithMJ) January 9, 2018

IM LITERALLY LOOKING ON EVERY SOCIAL MEDIA  stevie nicks sit on my face (@signsofthehs) January 9, 2018

What day was this taken? You could find him by checking the posts on Instagram with the location tagged as the Eiffel Tower  Maha (@hometomaha) January 9, 2018

after an extensive Facebook search there was literally 6 Gavin's in Paris during this time frame and none of them are the boy in the vid ?  678-999-8212 (@BelieveAcoustic) January 9, 2018

sis this is his mums insta and his is gav_gavv!! pic.twitter.com/p1fjyK0Yi8  mia (@runnfromIove) January 9, 2018

THIS IS HIM HE USE TO BE MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR LET YOUR LOVE THRIVE pic.twitter.com/zgyhHmINl1  Pocahontas (@sopapilla101) January 9, 2018

Can we say that Twitter is possibly the best thing that could have ever happened to us? And probably the best detective in the whole f**king world. And we guess this person agrees with us.

this thread is wild.



like, I truly believe that the inspectors in this thread could collectively find & cure cancer within 24 hours if someone made a post asking for a cure.

?



Y'all wasting y'all investigative talents.  ?? (@HairWeave) January 9, 2018

But, Twitter was in a state of shock when it realized that our hero Gavin might already be taken.

when I saw he has a girlfriend pic.twitter.com/QMcHfyldig  tanjil (@tanjilnewkirk) January 9, 2018

Y'all he has a Girlfriend... Men ain't shit once again. pic.twitter.com/S1npdUlY0m  Jules. (@spycharmed) January 9, 2018

However, Juliana was so touched by Twitter's gesture that she thanked them for helping her out and remained unfazed by the fact that he might have a girlfriend.

 Twitter Juliana Corrales

 Twitter Juliana Corrales

Source: The Sun
Chinese manufacturer Vivo teamed up with Synaptics to launch the first ever device to have an in-display fingerprint scanner at CES 2018. If you remember, last year was filled with rumours about in-display fingerprint scanners, especially about Apple, coming up with an in-display fingerprint scanner in special anniversary edition iPhone.

The 6-inch bezel-less smartphone, which doesn't appear to have a name yet, make use of the Clear ID FS9500 sensor within an OLED display. Vivo, which says the phone will enter a full consumer production run, has positioned the sensor in the most logical place, where Home buttons once resided.

Synaptics has said the sensor takes just 0.7 seconds to authenticate the fingerprint, and that seems to have played out in various hands-on tests at CES.

 Vivo

This latest fingerprint scanning technology enables users to unlock their smartphone through one-touch fingerprint scanning directly on the smartphone display while solving the industry's challenge of providing high screen-to-device display ratio and positioning of the fingerprint scanner. Last year Samsung was forced to move the fingerprint scanner to the back in a very uncomfortable position because the front had to accommodate the huge glass display. We saw the same problem arise in the iPhone X, though Apple ultimately decided to skip Touch ID.

Users can press the fingerprint graphic on the screen to perform unlocking, payment and other operations. When fingerprint recognition is not required, the UI will be invisible and will not disrupt the overall visual experience.

 AndroidHeadlines

Synaptics told Digital Trends the sensor is equal to, if not more secure than a sensor not set in the display. Vivo hasn't tested it with mobile payment systems yet, though, so we can't say whether it will support any at launch. Android Pay is not available in China, Vivo's main market - hence it not being an immediate high priority.

"With our efforts in extensive consumer research and long-term R&D investment, Vivo is well positioned to pioneer the development of fingerprint scanning technology. We first presented a prototype of our fingerprint scanning solution at MWC Shanghai 2017 based on an ultrasonic sensor, and have remained committed to realizing our vision for future smartphones," said Alex Feng, Senior Vice President of Vivo.

The company said that it will announce the availability of its first smartphone with an in-display fingerprint scanner in early 2018, though a date was not specified.
Samsung fans will have to wait for another month before they get their first official glimpse of the new Galaxy S9 and S9+. The 'iPhone X killers' will make their debut at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), the company revealed.

Industry insiders predicted that Samsung's next flagship phone will be teased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) tech conference being held in Las Vegas this week, but that wasn't to be.

The company's smartphone chief, DJ Koh, confirmed the launch to ZDNet at CES yesterday. Koh didn't offer a specific date, but MWC will run from February 26th to March 1st this year, so expect the unveiling to fall somewhere in that time frame.

 Quartz

What would set the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ apart, though, would be the fact that Samsung launched the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ in March with the phones going on sale from April. The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, it seems, will be available at least a month sooner.

South Korean outlet The Bell stated last month that the company is planning to host a launch event for the Galaxy S9 on February 26 - the starting date of the MWC. The Bell's report also pointed out that unlike the Galaxy S8 launch that happened in March last year, the smartphone maker is looking at an earlier schedule this time due to the swift growth of the iPhone X.

 Samsung

While core hardware specs will obviously see an overhaul, it is said that the Galaxy S9+ may have a whopping 512GB storage variant for select markets. Back in December, Samsung announced that it had started mass production of the first 512GB flash storage drive. A few weeks ago, Samsung also announced the Exynos 9810 Chipset that is even faster and better than the current 8895 chipsets powering Note8. Though it is manufactured on the same 10nm FinFET architecture, it houses different specifications that will make the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ even better than the Galaxy Note 8.

Samsung has been making multiple variants of it's S series smartphones for quite some time now. The ones sold in America are powered by the latest Qualcomm processor while other regions receive the Exynos unit. We are also looking forward to seeing the new Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor that will sit below thick displays to provide an invisible 'under the display' fingerprint scanner.

Reports have also suggested that Samsung could finally change the location of the fingerprint scanner and place it under the camera sensors not beside it, like the S8. When it comes to the display, there have been rumours that Samsung has further cut down on the chins, delivering a screen-to-body ratio as high as 90%.

Source: ZDNet
Military Update: The Department of Veterans Affairs published a revised rule Jan. 9 that allows payment of hundreds of thousands pending claims for private sector emergency care that veterans' other health insurance covered in part but not in full.

Some pending claims for non-VA emergency care were filed as far as back as 2010 and were kept alive by appeal. In some cases, individual reimbursements owed will total tens of thousands of dollars, for example for emergency heart surgery or other complex procedures not covered well by alternative health plans.

The revised rule says it won't allow retroactive reimbursements for non-VA emergency care claim decisions that became final before April 8, 2016, the day VA lost a landmark federal court fight with Air Force veteran Richard W. Staab.

Staab faced roughly $48,000 in unpaid private hospital bills after emergency heart surgery in December 2010. At the time VA had told Staab, and any other veteran forced to use outside emergency care, that the department would have covered the cost of such care if he they had had no other health insurance.

But Staab was eligible for Medicare, and because Medicare paid a portion of his emergency care cost, VA under long-standing regulations, had no obligation to cover remaining private sector emergency costs.

Staab's attorneys argued that VA, when it revised regulations in 2012, ignored the clear intent of a statute passed in 2009 to correct VA's convoluted interpretation of its payment obligations for outside emergency care.

Staab won a few lower court decisions, which VA appealed. Final victory came in a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in April 2016. The appellate court said VA had ignored the "plain language" of the 2009 law requiring "VA to reimburse a veteran for that portion of expenses not covered by a health plan contract."

For more than a year VA pondered another appeal. But VA Secretary David Shulkin last June accepted defeat and said the regulation would be revised to comply with the court's decision. One reason for the long delay was money. VA had estimated if the Staab decision were allowed to stand, it would have to pay almost $2 billion on pending claims and more than $10 billion for a tidal wave of private sector emergency care claims expected over just the next decade.

The Jan. 9 rule specifically expands eligibility for reimbursement of non-VA emergency treatment to any veteran who receives only partial payment for such care from a health-plan contract. It also establishes a reimbursement methodology for payments. They are to cover "reasonable costs," to include hospital charges, professional fees and emergency transportation including ambulances.

By law, VA said, it cannot reimburse for co-pays, cost shares or deductibles required by other health insurance that veterans have. More information on the revised rule and related guidance is available here. The rule notice can be read in its entirety.

The rule explains that when a judicial decision invalidates a VA regulation or how it interprets a law, it "cannot affect prior final VA decisions," citing two earlier federal court decisions. Therefore "VA will not retroactively pay benefits for claims [that] were finally denied before April 8, 2016, date of the Staab decision. In other words, VA can only apply the [rule] to claims pending on or after April 8, 2016."

Since the Staab decision, VA had suspended action on any claim for non-VA emergency care. By Sept. 29 last year, claims "held in abeyance" totaled 822,000.

VA is now processing those claims using its revised rule.

Barton F. Stichman, one of Staab's attorneys, agreed with VA's contention in its revised rule that final denials of earlier claims -- from Feb. 1, 2010, the effective date of the law that expanded VA payment obligations, to April 8, 2016, the date of Staab appellate decision affirming that intent -- can't be re-filed or reimbursed.

In an earlier version of this column, Stichman was quoted as disagreeing with VA's finding in its revised rule that Staab could not be used by veterans whose claims for non-VA emergency care became final before April 8, 2016. Initially, he said final claims could be re-filed based on "clear and unmistakable error."

But having reviewed the two court cases VA cited in its rule, Stichman said he now understands that he erred. VA is following case law correctly, he said, in finding that Staab does not benefit veterans whose claims for non-VA emergency care became final before the decision date.

Courts have interpreted the "clear and unmistakable error" route for reconsideration of claims as not valid if based "on a new court interpretation of the law," Stichman said. Therefore, VA doesn't have to apply Staab retroactively to claims finally denied before that decision.

This column was updated Jan. 11 to reflect Barton F. Stichman's change to his earlier statements.

To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120 or email milupdate@aol.com or twitter: @Military_Update.

# # # #

Tom Philpott has been breaking news for and about military people since 1977. After service in the Coast Guard, and 17 years as a reporter and senior editor with Army Times Publishing Company, Tom launched "Military Update," his syndicated weekly news column, in 1994. "Military Update" features timely news and analysis on issues affecting active duty members, reservists, retirees and their families. Visit Tom Philpott's Military Update Archive to view his past articles. Tom also edits a reader reaction column, "Military Forum." The online home for both features is Military.com.

Tom's freelance articles have appeared in numerous magazines including The New Yorker, Reader's Digest and Washingtonian. His critically-acclaimed book, Glory Denied, on the extraordinary ordeal and heroism of Col. Floyd "Jim" Thompson, the longest-held prisoner of war in American history, is available in hardcover and paperback. Buy Glory Denied from Amazon
A military appeals court is standing by its decision to void the conviction of a Marine whose prosecution may have been tainted by influence from the commandant of the Marine Corps.

The United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals decided today it would not reconsider its November decision in the case of former Staff Sgt. Joe Chamblin, according to documents reviewed by Military.com.

Chamblin was one of a handful of Marine Corps scout snipers filmed urinating on Taliban corpses during a 2011 deployment to Afghanistan. The video spurred outrage when it was uploaded to YouTube in early 2012.

In total, eight Marines would face punishment in the fallout. Chamblin was sentenced in December 2012 to 30 days' confinement and demoted to sergeant for his participation, a sentence that would ultimately spell the end of his Marine Corps career.

But in November, five years after the initial sentence, NMCCA found that then-Commandant Gen. James Amos had taken a number of steps that would erode the public's trust in the fairness of Chamblin's trial.

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According to sworn testimony from then-Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, who was initially appointed to oversee the sniper prosecutions, Amos met with him and told him the defendants needed to be "crushed" for their actions.

Waldhauser said he did not plan to send all of the Marines to general court-martial, and Amos allegedly told Waldhauser he could have him removed from his oversight role. Shortly thereafter, Waldhauser was replaced by another general.

According to Waldhauser, Amos said at the time that he had "crossed the line" in his previous conversation and was removing Waldhauser as a remedy.

"The highest-ranking officer in the Marine Corps told [Waldhauser] that the appellant and his co-accused should be 'crushed,' " the court wrote in November. "This is an unusually flagrant example of [unlawful command influence]. We find that UCI this direct, and occurring at this level, is highly corrosive to public trust in this proceeding."

On Dec. 11, the government filed a motion asking the court to reconsider the ruling that overturned Chamblin's conviction, asking to submit documents, including an affidavit from retired Marine Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, who took over supervision of the sniper cases from Waldhauser.

The decision released by NMCCA today denied the motion to attach, as well as the motion from the government for the court to reconsider the case, as a whole or through a panel.

In a 13-page document opposing the government's motion, a military lawyer for the defense, Navy Lt. Drew Austria, takes the government to task for producing new documents -- not brought to light during Chamblin's trial -- in its request to reconsider.

It also argued that evidence submitted by the government, including a Department of Defense Inspector General investigation that failed to substantiate UCI against Amos in 2014, was not binding on the court. It also argued that Chamblin's guilty plea during his criminal trial was not fully informed and voluntary because documents were allegedly withheld.

"The Government just made its case worse. Not better," the defense motion on behalf of Chamblin concludes. "Staff Sergeant Chamblin respectfully requests this Court deny the Government's Motion for En Banc/Panel Reconsideration."

Military.com did not review the documents submitted in the government's motion; a request for comment from the government, submitted after business hours, did not receive an immediate response.

Chamblin declined to comment on the court's decision. But John Dowd, an attorney who represented another Marine caught up in the sniper scandal, Capt. James Clement, and who now represents President Donald Trump, told Military.com the decision represented a massive win for the Marines caught up in the scandal.

At the time of the urination incident, the Marines had been completing a costly, and largely successful deployment.

One of the snipers punished in the scandal, Sgt. Rob Richards, had been on track to receive a Bronze Star. That award was sidelined after the video surfaced. Ultimately, Richards received a demotion, but secured a military retirement due to severe war wounds received on a previous deployment.

Richards died in 2014 at age 28 of drug toxicity to his prescription medication and received a military burial in Arlington Cemetery.

"I think if this sticks, if it becomes final, I think everything that happened to Joe and the snipers will be wiped off the record," Dowd said. "This is a huge win in so many ways."

The government has two months to decide whether to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, or CAAF, the next-highest appellate court, to consider the case. For the military, CAAF is the final appellate step before the Supreme Court.

Editor's note: This story was updated to correct a reference in the last paragraph to the amount of time the government has to appeal the decision. It is two months, not two weeks.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
More than two dozen A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, didn't fly in late November after two pilots reported they experienced hypoxia-like symptoms while flying.

In both incidents, which occurred the week of Nov. 27, "the aircraft's backup oxygen supply system operated as designed and the pilots followed the correct procedures to safely land the aircraft," said Capt. Joshua Benedetti, spokesman for the 355th Fighter Wing.

Benedetti said one of the aircraft was equipped with the Onboard Oxygen Generation System, commonly known as OBOGS, while the other was equipped with the Liquid Oxygen System, or LOX.

"An additional pilot reported a ground incident associated with the A-10's oxygen system that same week," he said.

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The Air Force "quickly determined the issue with the LOX-equipped aircraft was related to a malfunction with the cabin pressure and oxygen regulator. Those issues were fixed immediately," Benedetti said.

To properly inspect the OBOGS-equipped aircraft -- 28 of the total 85 A-10s on base -- the service grounded those jets for about a week, he said.

Despite those efforts, the service is still seeking answers to figure out how the incidents occurred.

"At this point, we have not determined a root cause," Benedetti said.

"During the course of the investigation, we have identified how we could better maintain the system by cleaning the water separator drain and associated piping with pressurized air, which may help prevent corrosion found in some of the piping. Additionally, we made the pilot preflight OBOGS procedure more prescriptive," he said.

While the 28 aircraft stood down operations, missions on base continued with the remaining 57 LOX-equipped aircraft.

"We resumed flying with all LOX and OBOGS aircraft less than a week later, and there have been no incidents since," Benedetti said.

He added, "The Air Force takes these physiological incidents seriously, and our focus is on the safety and well-being of our pilots."

Officials at Davis-Monthan said they will continue to share information on the OBOGS aircraft with other A-10 units so proper precautions may be taken.

In June, the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, halted operations for all F-35As there after pilots complained of hypoxia-related issues.

In succeeding days, the Air Force established initiatives to keep pilots safe and to avoid experiencing symptoms -- shortness of breath, confusion, wheezing -- in flight.

Those initiatives include a backup oxygen system, wearable technology to monitor pilots' oxygen levels, and a restriction on how high pilots could take the craft.

The F-35s at Luke resumed flight that same month. Currently a total of 61 F-35As are assigned to Luke.

A root cause for those incidents has not been found.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
Officials say the device was known as an "unexploded ordnance," or an explosive weapon that did not explode and still posed a...
The U.S. Army announced Thursday that the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade will deploy to Afghanistan this spring to train and advise Afghan Security Forces.

The 1st SFAB, based at Fort Benning, Georgia, is one of five SFABs the Army intends to stand up in the active force. The service also plans to create one of these specialty brigades in the National Guard.

The service has chosen Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as the home of the 2nd SFAB.

"Security force assistance brigades are specialized units whose core mission is to conduct advise-and-assist operations with allied and partner nations," Gen. Mark A. Milley, chief of staff of the Army, said in a Jan. 11 press release.

"These units will help us achieve the national security objectives by, with, and through allied and partnered indigenous security forces for the next 25-50 years."

The brigades are the service's first permanent units whose core mission is conducting security cooperation activities, allowing quick response to combatant commander requirements, Army officials said.

Until now, the service has deployed regular combat units to train, advise and assist security forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and other partner nations, a practice that has put a strain on readiness, officials maintain.

"SFABs are made up mostly of volunteers, who are then specially trained in a range of skills to provide combat advising at the tactical level," said Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., commander of Resolute Support forces and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. "They will enable us to help the Afghans with their operations simultaneously in multiple corps."

Soldiers applying to SFABs are screened based on qualifications and experience, and their units receive the best, most advanced military equipment available, the release states.

SFAB soldiers receive special training through the Military Assistance Training Academy, which includes language instruction, foreign weapons and advanced medical training.

"Our team is honored to make history as the Army's first purpose-built SFAB to deploy in support of our national security objectives; as combat advisers, we stand ready to train, advise, assist, accompany and enable our Afghan National Security Forces partners to secure peace in Afghanistan," said Col. Scott Jackson, commander of the 1st SFAB.

"I am proud of our advisers' hard work to build and train this unit, and I am confident in their skills and ability to get the job done. I couldn't ask for a better team to fight alongside," he said.

The announcement came a day after the Army tapped two armored brigades and two headquarters elements for upcoming deployments to South Korea, Europe and the Middle East.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- B-1B Lancer pilots and crew here know questions linger within the military community after an investigation concluded a ground team and aircrew were to blame in a 2014 friendly fire incident in which five U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan.

A B-1 on station, responding to the team under fire from the Taliban, dropped two 500-pound bombs overtop of five U.S. soldiers and one Afghan soldier in the vicinity of Arghandab on June 9, 2014. The soldiers, including two Green Berets, died in the accident.

The investigation, headed by then-Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, deputy director of operations for U.S. Central Command, found that the Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) and ground force commander mixed up the friendly troops' and enemy fighters' locations. Harrigian is now a lieutenant general and the Air Forces Central Command commander.

But a recent "60 Minutes" report again raised questions of whether equipment onboard the B-1 was the real culprit: the Sniper Pod, which cannot detect the infrared strobes, or "marking devices," that the troops below had turned on.

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"The issue is not unique to the B-1 -- the issue is part of the targeting pod system and, frankly, just how electro optical systems work," said Lt. Col. Christopher Wachter, who noted he doesn't believe that recent news stories about the June TK incident have been accurately reported.

Wachter is director of operations for the 345th Bomb Squadron here. The incident, he said, happened a week before he became the deputy commander of the 379th Expeditionary Operations Group at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

"This instance all revolved around a situation where very small, infrared flashing lights on helmets were not seen by an aircraft up at 25,000 feet," he said during a roundtable interview with officials here on Dec. 18.

The Sniper Pod -- fitted onto aircraft such as the B-1, F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-15E Strike Eagle -- provides improved long-range target detection and identification with high-resolution imagery for non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, according to the Air Force.

Some of its features include mid-wave forward-looking infrared (FLIR), dual-mode laser, HDTV quality video, laser spot tracker, laser marker, video data link and a digital data recorder.

Military.com saw the Sniper Pod in action during a Dec. 19 training flight at the installation.

Maj. Charles "Astro" Kilchrist, chief of training for the 9th Bomb Squadron, followed a truck in the New Mexico desert to show how clear and crisp the target looked from only a few miles away.

Kilchrist noted, however, that no matter how much detail the Sniper Pod gives -- a person, for example, could be seen from seven miles away, a vehicle 10 to 15 miles away -- B-1 crews always verify that coordinates match up.

"If the JTAC on the ground tells us it's a [colorful] house, we can't see [that]," said Kilchrist, also a B-1 pilot. "He's got to do better than that. But if he says it has a fence, a roof, and two cars -- while all the houses around it have one car --- in the driveway and it matches our coordinates, we can see that. And we go with that. And we verify over and over to make sure."

The offensive weapons systems officer runs the pod. During Military.com's flight, that was Lt. Col. Erick Lord, also the 9th Bomb Squadron commander.

The pod can pick up some things on its infrared spectrum, Lord said, adding that "it depends on the wavelength." But he wouldn't specify what could be seen, or how clearly or faintly it could be picked up by the pod's sensors.

It also helps, Lord said, if there's no thermal crossover for the pod to seek out targets.

The device sometimes "picks up the sun" in the early morning or in the early evening -- but not dusk or dawn, he said during the flight. He didn't go into further detail.

The B-1 community believes the 2014 incident cannot be blamed on the Sniper Pod.

"Yes, the B-1 can't do it [see IR strobes] because of the pod, but anybody else who has that pod has the same [limiting factors] that we do," said Lt. Col. Dominic "Beaver" Ross, director of operations for the 337th Test and Evaluations Squadron.

"It wasn't B-1 specific. If it was an A-10, or an F-15 or F-16 in that situation, they would have had the same issue. I think it was just a misconception," he said.

Training between JTACs and aircrew was improved to avoid a similar mishap in the future, officials here at the base said.

To date, there is no one aircraft system, pod or sensor that can see strobes on all types of the infrared spectrum.

"The Sniper Pod can detect IR emission, but at a higher wavelength than what is emitted by the ground force IR strobes," an Air Force JTAC told Military.com on background, echoing Lord's comments.

"Just not this particular IR strobe because of its emission strength," the JTAC said during a telephone interview Wednesday.

The IR strobes the troops employed during the 2014 incident were more often used for inner teaming, or for teams to identify one another at close range, he said.

"When we start talking about targeting pods that we put on aircraft, there's quite a few of them out there. Sniper is one of the more capable. But there's certain ranges in which it can see things," the JTAC said.

Night-vision goggles, for example, assist in seeing the marking devices. But during the 2014 mission, there were limitations there, as well.

"You had B-1 pilots who had [night-vision goggles]; however, in the orbit that they were flying, they were not close enough to visually see [them] ...on the ground," the JTAC said.

"The ground party and the aircraft gave each other false positives on things they couldn't see," the controller said.

In the wake of the incident, "Air Combat Command expedited upgrades to improve B-1 sensor fusion with the Sniper Pod, weapons systems and moving map, specifically the Avionics Control Unit (ACU) data feed and the Sniper Pod Operational Flight Program (OFP) upgrades," Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Military.com on Monday.

Its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin Corp., recently told Military.com, "Lockheed Martin continuously updates the Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) to provide additional capability to the warfighter per the U.S. Air Force requirements."

Lockheed spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said, "To date, Sniper ATP has and continues to perform as designed."

Stefanek added, "There are no upgrades related to this issue [infrared strobes] planned for the Sniper Pod at this time."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
Is it missing? What went wrong? Who's to blame?

Big questions remain unanswered as officials remained tight-lipped about a billion-dollar satellite that could be somewhere in orbit -- or crashed into the sea.

To recap: Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, on Sunday launched a secret U.S. military -- or possibly intelligence -- payload, code-name Zuma, on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

And while the launch was deemed successful, the payload -- a satellite manufactured by Northrop Grumman Corp. -- failed to reach orbit, according to unnamed officials who spoke to Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal.

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Despite widespread media attention on the mission, defense officials don't want to weigh in. Various spokespeople in recent days -- including during a press briefing Thursday at the Pentagon -- have repeatedly declined to discuss the mission, citing the classified nature of the program.

They also wouldn't confirm whether the launch was a success or failure, and referred questions to California-based SpaceX, headed by Elon Musk, knowing the firm has given only partial comment on what occurred.

"I'd have to refer you to SpaceX, who conducted the launch," said Dana White, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, during a briefing with reporters Thursday.

When Bloomberg News' Tony Capaccio said that answer did not suffice, White said, "I understand, but that's the answer. Again, I would have to refer you to them [SpaceX] -- that's the answer."

"This is a billion-dollar satellite. It's been four days. Was it a success or a failure, and what's the fate of the satellite?" Capaccio continued.

Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the Pentagon's Joint Staff director, was equally unresponsive. "We're not going to be able to give you any more information," he said.

Others in the briefing room noted it wasn't a commercial launch in which SpaceX was the owner of the mission.

Capaccio pressed on. "Accountability is one of your keystones here. [Defense] Secretary [Jim] Mattis said this repeatedly. I'm asking you from an accountability standpoint ... can you give us a sense of whether you consider it a success or a failure as a mission?"

White again referred reporters to SpaceX.

"But you're the government. You paid for it. You're the overseers, and you're asking us to go to the company who may have been partially responsible for the problem? That doesn't make any sense," Capaccio said.

When asked if the Pentagon could provide statistics on how officials are holding themselves accountable for lost or botched multimillion-dollar programs, White said she would take that for the record for a later time.

SpaceX has stated that its rocket was not to blame.

"After review of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night," SpaceX told CNBC. "If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will report it immediately.

"Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false," SpaceX's statement continued. "Due to the classified nature of the payload, no further comment is possible."

There are differing explanations floating around for what might have happened: One official said the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket failed, while another said Northrop's satellite never separated from the rocket, according to the Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal articles.

When asked about the misstep, Northrop told The Verge it would not publicly comment on a classified mission.

While the mission was livestreamed for viewers, the feed did not show the payload directly because of the mission's secrecy.

And it's still not clear which government agency was ultimately responsible for the effort.

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, an intelligence agency that falls under the Defense Department and initially believed by some observers to be connected to the mission, wasn't involved, according to a spokeswoman.

"The launch payload was not associated with the NRO," Karen Furgeson told Military.com on Tuesday.

United Launch Alliance LLC, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., which SpaceX competes against for military launch business, is scheduled to launch a satellite later Thursday for the National Reconnaissance Office from a Delta IV rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

-- Richard Sisk contributed to this report.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
Willem Van Roosenbeek considers himself lucky, as a transgender individual, to have been raised in the Roman Catholic faith.

Although that may seem like an odd comment, considering the Catholic Churchs traditional view of the gay community, it is perfectly logical to the 49-year-old Van Roosenbeek.

I grew up in a time when they said God is love, Van Roosenbeek said Thursday as the main speaker at a meeting convened by the Mental Health Coalition of the Greater La Crosse Area.

Thus, he didnt experience negative feelings toward members of the LGBTQ community, although that acronym didnt even exist at the time.

A transgender man who was raised female and initially identified as a lesbian, Van Roosenbeek said he has a close nun friend with whom he recently reconnected and whose response to his coming out was, I love you and I always will love you.

Such positive reactions help LGBTQ members navigate the otherwise stormy waters roiled by people who dont know about or understand the gay community, he said during the meeting, titled, The Intersections of LGBTQ+ Identities and Mental Health.

Gender identities and the acronym have evolved, with the plus sign a more recent addition to signify an awareness that identities abound beyond the LGBTQ without going overboard with letters, said Van Roosenbeek, who directs LGBTQ+ Programs and Services and the Pride Center at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

A significant example of that evolution is the term queer, said Van Roosenbeek, who gave the attendees a Cliffs Notes version of terms and their meanings.

Queer, historically, was used against them as a method of ridicule and disdain, he said. Young people dont have that background.

So the term seems natural and acceptable to the younger set, some of whom use it, while others dont, he said.

All the same, For somebody not in the LGBTQ community, I wouldnt use it, he said.

Were so lucky in La Crosse to have the LGBT center downtown, he said of The Center: 7 Rivers LGBTQ Connection, which was founded in 2004 and serves 11 counties in the Coulee Region.

The center struggles, though, because people dont want to donate to it  its not like the Childrens Miracle Network. Some people donate anonymously, Van Roosenbeek said.

The centers sponsors include the La Crosse Community Foundation, the Otto Bremer Foundation and other organizations and businesses listed on its web site.

The center sometimes is the target of hateful actions, such as the fact that its rainbow flag has been torn down twice, he said. Among other signs of animosity from some quarters are hateful comments that readers post under stories in the Tribune and TV station web sites, he said.

Such reactions are based on a lack of education and/or awareness, religious beliefs, negative messages from parents and society and lack of experience, he said.

Asked how to reverse such feelings, Van Roosenbeek said the best method is like the approach one might use with any other minority and/or marginalized group: Once you get to know somebody and talk with them and realize Youre kinda like me, there is a huge change.

LGBTQ concerns also need to be addressed in schools, especially in health classes, and among health care providers, some of whom never have learned about issues that may arise, he said.

He cited a 2015 study by GLSEN, which formerly stood for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, that found LGBT students do not feel safe in Wisconsin schools, the majority had heard negative comments from other students and/or staff and 17 percent had heard homophobic comments.

Students dont have access to LGBTQ information on the internet because schools routinely block such topics.

Among those who felt bullied or harassed, 53 percent said they would not report the incidents because their complaints wouldnt have been taken seriously, and only 38 percent of those who did report such cases believed they were handled effectively.

LGBTQ individuals face mental health issues in addition to being bullied and harassed, including being assaulted and being targeted with verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

Murders of LGBT people simply because they are gay  17 were reported in the United States last year  are especially brutal, often including eyes gouged out, repetitive stabbing and mutilation, especially of sex organs, he said.

Religious and spiritual rejection can be particularly damaging, because it says youre wrong, youre bad, he said.

The results include depression and addiction, as well as related issues such as homelessness after running away because of familial rejection, Van Roosenbeek said.

He mentioned trauma some students feel when they are deeply involved in LGBTQ education and activities on campus but are at a loss when their parents ask what they have been doing.

If they havent come out to their parents, they feel the need to make up activities, he said.

Terminology changes so often that something can be out of date even after this meeting, he said before explaining some terms.

A common misconception is that everything boils down to sex, but the issues are more complicated, he said.

For example, gender identification is how people feel  some identify with their birth genders, while others do not. Gender expression, on the other hand, involves how people dress and activities they prefer, which may or may not be aligned with their outward appearances.

Sexual orientation may or may not include actual sexual activity, or it can be emotional, he said.

Each category contains a host of subcategories, Van Roosenbeek said, which is why the LGBTQ+ is considered the umbrella.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford called his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, following a swarm drone attack on a Russian air base in Syria earlier this week, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the Pentagon's Joint Staff director, said only that Dunford and Gerasimov, the chief of Russia's General Staff, had a "frank and cordial exchange of views," but the phone call came after the Russian Defense Ministry suggested the U.S. may have played a part in the drone attack.

While declining to characterize the phone call, McKenzie stressed that "the U.S. had nothing to do with the attacks on the Russian air base and that's a flat assertion, and I want to be very clear on that."

Russia's Ministry of Defense said Monday that its vast Khmeimim air base in Syria's northwestern Latakia province had been the target recently of a series of attacks by small unmanned aerial vehicles carrying miniature bombs, including at least one swarm attack.

The Russian naval base at Tartus was also the target of the drones, the ministry said.

The ministry said there were no casualties or damage from the attacks by "small-sized air targets of unknown identity."

Seven were shot down and three others exploded after crashing on the night of Jan. 5, the ministry said.

The drone attacks were the first time that "terrorists" had employed a "massed drone aircraft attack launched at a range of more than 50 [kilometers] using a modern GPS guidance system," the ministry said.

The attacks came about a week after two Russian troops were killed in a mortar attack on Khmeimim.

On Wednesday, the ministry said the launch site for the drones was in the southwestern region of Idlib province, to the north of Khmeimim, where several rebel groups operate in the ongoing war against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

While not directly accusing the U.S., the ministry charged that a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft flew over the general area at the time of the drone attacks, calling it a "strange coincidence."

The ministry also said that those behind the attacks would have needed help from "countries with high technological capabilities."

However, it noted that Turkish forces also operate in the general area from which the drone attacks allegedly were launched.

The ministry said letters had gone out to the Turkish forces stressing "the need for Ankara to fulfill its obligations to ensure compliance with the [Syrian] regime for the cessation of hostilities."

At the Pentagon, McKenzie said Dunford's phone call to Gerasimov was one of numerous channels that the U.S. uses to "deconflict" American forces operating in Syria in partnership with the anti-ISIS Syrian Democratic forces from the Russian air and ground forces backing the Assad regime.

"We maintain communications with the Russians on what goes on in Syria at a variety of levels," he said.

"We believe that deconfliction is an effective technique to allow us to pursue our goal of destroying" the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, whose remnants have been reduced to holding isolated areas of Syria's middle Euphrates River Valley, McKenzie said.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
The Army couldn't find on its books 39 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters that are actually out there flying, and the Air Force had no listings for 478 buildings, the Pentagon's comptroller told Congress on Wednesday in pressing for the completion this year of a first-ever Defense Department audit.

To get a grip on waste, and finally account for taxpayer dollars, the military simply has to know how much it has and how much is being spent on it, down to boots and rifles as well as big-ticket items, Comptroller David Norquist said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

To illustrate the problem, Norquist said that in the run-up to the promised audit this year, "The Army found 39 Black Hawk helicopters that had not been properly recorded in its property system.

"The Air Force identified 478 buildings and structures at 12 installations that were not in its real property system," he said.

In addition, the service didn't know how many of its airmen were on four-year contracts, and how many were on six-year contracts, he added.

Although the DoD has been under federal mandate for more than two decades to produce an audit, it's never happened.

But Norquist declared to the committee, "We have started the audit. This is the first-time, full financial statement audit" of the DoD ever conducted.

He said that, by this summer, about 1,200 auditors -- some in-house and some contractors -- will be out in the field doing the counting worldwide at a cost of nearly $1 billion.

About $367 million will be spent on the audit process itself, he said, making a lowball estimate that problems uncovered by the audit would cost at least $551 million to fix.

The $551 million figure was arrived at "from talking to the services about what funding they have planned for this year and whether they have it in the budget to address these requirements," Norquist said.

Members of the committee from both sides of the aisle gave Norquist encouragement mixed with skepticism that he would actually be able finish the unprecedented audit.

Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, likened the task to that of the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned to push a boulder up a hill for eternity, only to have it roll back down every time he neared the top.

On the Army's 39 missing Black Hawks, Conaway said he assumed that "the pilots flying them knew they were there."

Yes, they did, Norquist said. "Those had been delivered by the vendor but hadn't been reported in the property system," he explained.

Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the committee chairman, noted that the DoD has been promising an audit since 1990. "This issue is important" and getting it done is crucial for the warfighter, he said.

"Members of this committee hear evidence every week that we are not providing our military with the funding they need to carry out the missions they are assigned," he said.

"We must spend more," Thornberry said, and a reliable audit would cut the waste from the funding provided.

"It seems to me that an essential requirement of spending money smarter is knowing with certainty how the money is spent," said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, the ranking Democrat on the committee.

"I know it's a lot of money, I know it's a big bureaucracy, I know there's a lot going on, but we ought to be able to do an audit that tells us where we're spending the money. It's just that simple," Smith said.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-North Carolina, cautioned Norquist that he'd been hearing promises of a DoD audit for 22 years.

"I'll never forget Rumsfeld," Jones said of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld pledged that he would "account for every dollar. He might've meant well, but it never happened, obviously," Jones said.

This time it will be different, Norquist pledged to the committee. He said that President Donald Trump has "embraced the audit," and he also has the full backing of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.

Still, there is the unhappy precedent of the Marine Corps, which prematurely patted itself on the back in 2013 after completing what it claimed to be the first limited financial audit conducted by one of the services.

The DoD's Office of the Inspector General initially agreed.

Then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was ecstatic and set up a ceremony in the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes to present the assistant commandant with a massive framed display honoring the milestone.

"I know that it might seem a bit unusual to be in the Hall of Heroes to honor a bookkeeping accomplishment but, damn, this is an accomplishment," Hagel said.

However, in 2015, the IG's office reversed course on the Corps' accounting. It revoked the audit clean bill of health and said the service had failed to include accounts within the Defense Finance and Accounting Service that had not been properly assessed.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
'12 Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers' is a new movie about the U.S. Special Forces team that was the first unit into Afghanistan after 9/11. On Friday 1/12 at (approximately) 12:25pm ET, we going live on our Facebook page to interview Mark Nutch and Bob Pennington, the real veterans who inspired the characters played by Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon in the movie.

Major Mark D. Nutsch (retired) was (as a Captain), the team leader and commander of ODA 595, one of the first Task Force Dagger combined Special Forces teams to infiltrate Northern Afghanistan in the days immediately following 9/11.

CW4(Ret) Bob Pennington also served with ODA-595. Together with Northern Alliance Commander General Rashid Dostum and his force, they were credited for the liberation of over 50 towns and cities, destroying over 200 enemy vehicles and bunkers, and killing or capturing over 5000 Taliban fighters during their campaign.

Mark Nutsch and Bob Pennington at a January 11, 2018 event in Atlanta, GA for the movie "12 Strong."

Both Mark and Bob now work with American Freedom Distillery, a veteran-owned, craft whiskey distillery brand, in St. Petersburg, FL.

We'll ask both guys about the movie, what it's like to see your real-life experiences portrayed on screen and try to find out why their names weren't used in the movie.

I'm also hosting a Q&A with the guys tonight at an advance screening in Atlanta. Follow us on Instagram to see photos from that event.
Woyome Not Bothered At All By The Appointment Of Amidu As Special Prosecutor
Miss United Nations 2017 and Miss Ghana 2015 runner-up, Rebecca Asamoah, celebrated part of the holiday season making donations and also spending quality time with disabled persons in Awutu Senya.

This was part of a partnership programme between Ghedocare Foundation, led by Rebecca Asamoah, and Nenyi George Andah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Awutu Senya West, who is also the Deputy Minister of Communications.

Among items she donated to the disabled in the constituency included bags of rice, toiletries, Forever Living aloe vera gels for cleansing and detoxification, energy drinks and clothing.

Rebecca and her team also visited the Bawjiase Clinic maternal ward and promised to help refurbish the ward, which is in a deplorable state.

Women in labour find it difficult to use the ward because of its deplorable state. The facility lacks good beds, and there are also no incubators, wheel chairs, drip stands, delivery set, electrical vacuum extractor, among others, for women in labour.

The MP of the area threw a challenge to the Miss United Nations to assist by picking up the project of refurbishing the Bawjiasie Clinic, which he said is dear to his heart. Rebecca and her team accepted the challenge and promised to return at a later date to commence work.
People living in Dambai and its environs are in joyous mood following the posting of the first medical doctor to the Health Centre at Dambai in the Krachi East District of the Volta Region.

Attendance to the facility was said to have increased exponentially since Dr Abigail Annan reported at the Health Centre last November.

The Ghana News Agency was told that cases which were usually referred to facilities in Kete Krachi, Worawora and Nkwanta were now attended to at the Health Centre.

A few natives who expressed happiness described the availability of a doctor at the facility as a good omen to expectant mothers in the catchment area.

Dr Annan called for support to improve conditions at the maternity and other wards, and the theatre.

She also appealed for an ambulance, staff accommodation, and the establishment of a blood bank at the facility.
Some members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) communication team of the Brong Ahafo Region have called on the Regional Youth Organiser, Kwame Baffoe popularly called Abronye DC to declare his stance publicly as to whether he will seek for re-election or do otherwise.

The New Patriotic Party has officially given the timetable for the conduct of Polling station, constituency, Regional and National executives elections. It is therefore imperative for every party member in good standing who so desires to serve the party to declare his or her intentions to contest.

In press statement issued on Tuesday, January 9, 2018 and copied to the media indicated that, "We would like to therefore call on Mr. Kwame Baffoe (Abronye DC) to take immediate steps to make a bold declaration of whether he indeed desires to put himself up for a Regional position and to name same".

Early last year, Abronye DC hinted that he may contest for the National Youth Organiser position but an authentic information at ModernGhana's news desk indicating there is a heavy pressure on him to contest for the Brong Ahafo Regional 1st Vice Chairmanship position by the majority of the party members in the Region.

According to the communicators, "All Regional Executives of the NPP in BA played diverse but important roles which eventually resulted in the massive win the NPP recorded across the Region and we salute them accordingly".

They described Abronye DC as a gem, a mover and a powerful politician in the Region hence calling him to declare his intention as soon as possible.

"His energy, passion, love, unflinching commitment and dedication to the NPP never and can never be in doubt", they testified.

Below is the full statement

In politics, an early declaration of ones intent to contest sets the agenda clearly and makes a good case for how well prepared such an individual is. Dr Busia once said that the progress party believes that true progress is made when the future is built on the best and tried foundations of the past.

All Regional Executives of the NPP in BA played diverse but important roles which eventually resulted in the massive win the NPP recorded across the Region and we salute them accordingly.

The NPP added 7 new parliamentary seats to the 13 it had and going into election 2020, the aim is to annex 5 out of the remaining non- NPP seats.

It is also our aim to increase our presidential percentage up to about 70% in the region. In order to achieve these ideals the NPP regional executives must be made up of capable, dedicated, passionate, efficient and energetic members who can mobilize and marshal up all NPP faithful for a resounding Victory in election 2020.

Mr. Kwame Baffoe (Abronye DC) is one individual who collaboratively played a major role in the constituency, Regional and National campaign for election 2016.

As the Regional Youth Organizer of the party, he was seen almost everywhere a campaign was organized and was also seen actively partaking in the national campaign of then-candidate and now President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

We, the under listed party communicators in BA, believe that as the NPP intends to assemble its best and most efficient executives in preparation for election 2020, a gem, a mover and a powerful politician like Mr. Kwame Baffoe (Abronye DC) must contest for any of the Regional Executive positions available in the party.

His energy, passion, love, unflinching commitment and dedication to the NPP have never and can never be in doubt.

We would like to therefore call on Mr. Kwame Baffoe (Abronye DC) to take immediate steps to make a bold declaration of whether he indeed desires to put himself up for a Regional position and to name same.

The time is fast approaching and people in the party and beyond would like to know what his intentions are towards the impending Regional elections.

We urge him to make his intentions known based on the fact that he has been and still remains a very potent political asset for the New Patriotic Party nationwide and we believe that he still has a lot more to offer to the electoral fortunes and development of the NPP in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Long live Ghana

Long live NPP

God bless us all.

KWAME BENKAE (BONO NII BA BENKAE)

ASARE BEDIAKO SETH (ABS)

GABRIEL KORANG  ABABIO (GABBY)

ABUBAKAR YAKUBU (BABA AMANDO)

TWUMASI EMMANUEL (TWUMASI)

RANDY ASHRAF (RANDY)

OPARE NARTEY (OPARE)

ISAAC KYEREMEH (ODUMODU)

WINIFRED AIDOO (WINNIE)

BOAFO KWADWO DESMOND (MAD LION)

OWUSU BOAKYE SAMUEL (OBS)

PETER KOFI OWUSU (OPK)

ABASS SADIK (ABEN WO HA)

MOHAMMED SULLEYMANA (SULLEY KOTOKROM)

KWASI ADU GYAMFI (ICE T)
The Minority Leader has painted a gloomy picture of the one year anniversary of the New Patriotic Party government describing the president as a lawless leader superintending over lawless vigilante groups.

According to Haruna Iddrisu the Akufo-Addo government, the most vindictive government spent the better part of its one year in office dismissing all civil and public servants perceived to be NDC.

So vindictive was the government that even NPP persons who showed the traces of being NDC were sent home, the Tamale South MP alleged.

This is a betrayal of national values and the promise by the president to create opportunities for all Ghanaians, Iddrisu told Joy News Elton John Brobbey on the one year anniversary of the New Patriotic Party government.

Delta Force

The Minority Leader says vigilantism has assumed absurd levels with the coming into office of the NPP government.

He did not understand how the Delta Force vigilante group, with allegiance to the NPP, marshaled forces and stormed the courts to free their colleagues who were on trial.

That he said was the height of lawlessness in the country.

But it wasnt only the vigilante groups who were lawless. According to Haruna Iddrisu the president is himself a walking lawlessness after he failed to ratify the stay of the two GITMO fugitives who are being sheltered in the country.

Akufo-Addo swore to uphold the constitution he said, adding, He should explain why he should not be cited for contempt.

The two detainees were smuggled into the country in 2015 by the John Mahama administration with no approval by Parliament.

The Supreme Court said their two-year stay could only be legal if ratified by Parliament. With the initial two years up, the Minority leader said the president must send the two GITMO detainees back to where they came from or he must come to Parliament to ratify their continued stay in the country.

Free SHS



On education, Haruna Iddrisu was less than impressed with the performance of the NPP government.

He said the famous free senior high school education policy was a rushed introduction of a noble policy with a lack of adequate policy blueprint and funding arrangement.

For a country that was yet to fully implement a free basic education, as enshrined in the constitution, have arrears in school feeding, arrears which he admitted were left by his party, Iddrisu said the country was not ready to implement the free SHS policy the time it did.

He was however magnanimous with a praise for the NPPs foreign policy initiatives over the last 12 years.

Rebuttal



In a reaction to the claims by Haruna Iddrisu, a Deputy Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says a recent poll conducted by the University of Ghana political science department betrays the position and assertions by the Minority Leader and his party.

The poll suggested that 52% of Ghanaians were ready to vote for the NPP if elections were held in December 2017.

The poll even gave the NPP government a 62% approval rating.

On the GITMO two controversy Mr Oppong Nkrumah quoted Article 75 (2) of the 1992 Constitution, insisting it is Parliament that has the responsibility to ratify the stay and not the president.
Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako has registered his disappointment with a Republic Day suggestion made by the Speaker of Parliament, describing it as a needless distraction.

The senior journalist said he is struggling to appreciate the real political and policy value of Professor Mike Aaron Oquayes suggestion for a change of the Republic Day celebration.

July 1 is celebrated every year in Ghana as the Republic Day.

But the former political science lecturer, now Speaker, has asked for it to be scrapped and celebrated on January 7 because the 1960 Constitution was set aside following the overthrow of Ghanas first president Kwame Nkrumah.

On every January 7, we should celebrate the cause of freedom and of right. In the years that a president is not being sworn in, we should still dedicate the day to the most priceless of all Gods gifts to humanity  freedom and justice, he wrote in an article.

But in a Facebook comment Wednesday, Mr Baako said there is no serious historian in the country who will deny the fact that Ghana achieved full political sovereignty on July 1, 1960.

Marking July 1st is not a celebration of the First Republic which was overthrown on February 24, 1966, he clarified.

Although he held the venerable Speakers suggestion may have some academic or intellectual value, the ace journalist said he believes it has no political or policy value for Ghanaians.

Hence, my view is that it is a NEEDLESS DISTRACTION, he wrote.

Professor Oquaye has not shied away from controversial issues since his election as the Speaker of the seventh Parliament.

Making a presentation at a public lecture held last year by the [email protected] Committee, the speaker suggested August 4 to be celebrated as the Founders Day and not the September 21 marked as Founders Day.

While his presentation received plaudits from supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), pro-Nkrumahist saw that as an attempt to rewrite Ghanas history.

Professor Oquayes latest suggestion has courted the displeasure of some Ghanaians, with Mion Member of Parliament (MP) Mohammed Abdul-Aziz saying the Speaker has a great dislike for late Nkrumah.

Very akin to the Speaker of Parliamenthis anti-Nkrumahism is very clear and at the least opportunity he will want to espouse those traits in him, he said on the AM Show on JOYNEWS channel on MultiTV.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | M: Austin.p[email protected] | Instagram: @realbrakopowers
More than 10 percent of Wisconsins approximately 600 licensed lobbyists may be flagged in a state Ethics Commission audit of whether they met state disclosure requirements, according to the commissions administrator, Brian Bell.

The review found some lobbyists may have been trying to influence legislation or administrative rules before they and their employers, the groups for which they lobby, had properly notified the state and public.

Commission staffers have completed their work on the audit, Bell said.

The commission may address it publicly during its Thursday meeting.

The audit findings come forward even as Republican state legislative leaders are threatening to force Bell out of his position as the commissions top staffer.

Bell said the audit is a sign the commission is heightening its oversight of lobbying  one of three areas of state law it oversees, in addition to campaign finance and ethics.

Hopefully, a result of this type of audit will be to remind the lobbying community of their requirements under the law, Bell said.

Commission chairman David Halbrooks has said any information released Thursday will not name specific lobbyists or lobbying groups examined in the audit. Its not yet clear if such names could be released later.

Professional lobbyists  those who, for pay from an interest group, seek to influence lawmakers and other public officials on matters of policy  must obtain licenses from the Ethics Commission.

The groups and businesses for whom they lobby, known as lobbying principals, also are required to register with the commission and authorize each of the lobbyists working on their behalf.

The latter step  authorization  is the focus of the audit, Bell said. It was conducted by comparing when lobbyists were authorized with when they reported having first lobbied on behalf of their principals, Bell said.

Lobbyists must submit reports to the commission every six months detailing their lobbying activities, including time spent each day lobbying and payments received for the work.

A leading Wisconsin attorney on election and campaign finance law, Mike Wittenwyler, whose work includes representing lobbyists, said the fact that the audit is based on information reported by lobbyists shows there likely was no intent to violate disclosure requirements.

How is this brought to their attention? Its when they try to comply, Wittenwyler said.

Bell has described the audit as unlike anything previously done by the commission or its predecessors.

Past audits only scrutinized whether lobbyists reported their activities on time, not whether they met registration and authorization requirements, he said.

Bell declined to discuss what the commission will consider during a closed session portion of the Thursday meeting.

But Bell said its standard practice for commission staff, having completed an audit, to present it to commissioners and seek their direction on how to respond.

The commission determines what, if any, next steps to be taken, Bell said.

Repercussions for violating the requirements could include the commission issuing lobbyists and lobbying groups a warning or offering them a settlement that would include paying a fine.

Currently the commission handles lobbying authorization violations on a case-by-case basis, Bell said, though commissioners are set to discuss Thursday whether to adopt a more standardized approach.

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, threatened to hold a Senate confirmation vote Jan. 23 on Bell and the administrator of the state Elections Commission, Michael Haas.

Fitzgerald has said the GOP-controlled Senate will not vote to confirm Bell and Haas, which Fitzgerald says would oust the administrators from their positions.

Fitzgerald and Vos said Bell and Haas have lost the confidence of our caucuses to be an impartial administrator.

Both worked for the predecessor to the commissions, the former Government Accountability Board, which Republicans viewed as biased because of its involvement in a now-concluded probe of Gov. Scott Walkers 2012 recall campaign.

The Ethics Commission, made up of three Republican and three Democratic appointees, recently reviewed Bells performance and concluded that he had exceeded expectations in his first year on the job.
President Akufo-Addo has presented letters of credence to Ghanas High Commissioner to Malaysia, Akua Sakyiwa Ahenkorah, at a brief ceremony at the Flagstaff House, Wednesday.

In his remarks, after the swearing-in ceremony, he noted that Madam Sakyiwa Ahenkorah, a career diplomat, who becomes Ghanas first female High Commissioner to Malaysia, is deserving of the appointment and eminently qualified to represent Ghana.

He reminded the High Commissioner of the fact that the image of our country is high in the comity of nations, and Ghana is a considered a beacon of stability and democracy on the continent of Africa and beyond.

"It is an image that you have to do everything possible to guard and uphold.

The President recalled the historical account of Malaysia procuring her first palm kennel seedlings from Ghana. But, today, this crop has become the mainstay of that countrys economy, producing millions of tons of palm oil annually, whereas Ghana has not gained much from the cash crop.

It is in line with the Presidents vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid that he urged Akua Sakyiwa Ahenkorah to be focused on her mandate, maintain a cordial working relationship with her staff and the Ghanaian community, as well as secure investment into Ghana.

In her acceptance remarks, Madam Afua Sakyiwa Ahenkora thanked the President for the great honour done her, and assured him of her determination to justify the decision by Government to enhance the involvement of women in the development of this country.

She promised to deliver on her mandate in achieving the overall government objective of improving the well-being of the good people of Ghana.

The High Commissioner assured the President of her responsibility to drive private sector investments into Ghana to help in achieving the governments flagship programmes of One-District-One-Factory, One-Village-One-Dam, Planting for Food and Jobs; and the overall objective of developing Ghana Beyond Aid.

She further promised to safeguard, protect and promote the image and interest of Ghana at all times, adding that she will strengthen the already cordial relations not only between Ghana and Malaysia, but also with the countries of concurrent accreditations such as Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines; and also explore areas of effective cooperation.

Akua Ahenkorah thanked the President for the great honour done her by this appointment as High Commissioner of Ghana to Malaysia, and expressed her gratitude for the confidence reposed in her, and assured the President of her loyalty to the government and people of Ghana in the discharge of her duties.

Present at the ceremony were the Chief of Staff, Hon. Akosua Frema Osei Opare; Minister for Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botwey; Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charles Owiredu; officials of the Presidency and Foreign Ministry, and family of the High Commissioner.
CEO of the Ghana Investments Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant, has confirmed the entrance of international oil giant Exxon Mobil in the countrys oil and gas industry.

The company showed initial interest in the country's sector when it wanted to take up Kosmos energy but failed.

Yofi Grant in an interview with JoyBusiness said Exxon Mobil and other international oil companies have now invested in the exploration of Ghanas hydrocarbon development.

Exxon Mobile is expected to sign a petroleum agreement with the government and GNPC next week to exploit petroleum resources in the offshore deepwater cape three points.

According to research, the company is touted as the worlds largest integrated international oil company with daily production of about 4 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) and with revenue stream worth $218.6 billion as of 2016.

The government said two firms had cautioned that the exploration of the field was risky because of its depth.

But now, government has considered the Exxon Mobil bid vital, given the firms experience and capability in deep-water operations.

Impact on FDIs

Mr Grant said this move, when operationalized, would mean an increase in Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) for the country  a situation that could go a long way to make the GIPC exceed its target.

Employment

The GIPC boss says the companys participation in Ghana will open up more job opportunities for Ghanaians in the oil and gas sector.

He says, the interesting thing though is that there is a worry when foreign direct investors come in; they come and they dont engage indigenous people.

"But I experienced and our research is telling us that a lot of the Foreign Direct Investors, who come into Ghana, actually would prefer to even employ Ghanaians than they want to employ expatriates. This is because it is expensive when they want to employ expatriates.
The Krachi East Municipal Chief Executive Hon. Patrick Jilimah organized an annual get together for all the New Patriotic Party Executives, chiefs and the various opinion leaders in the Municipality to formally announce to them that Krachi East is no longer a District but rather, it has been raised to Municipal status.

According to him, he received a green card last week Thursday from the Ministry of Local Government to change all letterheads and documents bearing the name District Assembly to Municipal Assembly which is a great achievement by all the people in and around Krachi East. He therefore, used the opportunity to congratulate all the chiefs, the clergy, various departmental heads, members of the New Patriotic Party and all the people of Krachi East for their quoter contributed in achieving this great success.

According to 2010 Population and Housing Census report, the population of Krachi East then was 116,804 representing 5.5 percent which shows that Krachi East was qualify to be Municipal.

Nana Odame Djanfi chief Asukawkaw who double as chairman for Krachi East chiefs, adviced the MCE to collaborate with the chiefs around him so that they also give him the necessary counsel whenever he called on them.

The chief of Adeele community of Dambai Nana Ntemere also urged the MCE to always remember the people in the municipality first in case there's any contract due to the unemployment rate among youths in area because they did their best in raising the District to Municipal status.

In an attendance were Nana Kwaku Beyenor ll, Nana Acheampong, the chief of Addo Nkwanta, Nana Nsia Esel Akans chiefs, chiefs from the Muslims community and many others.
11.01.2018 LISTEN

To better serve their customers and make their services easily accessible, the Electricity Company of Ghana today 10th January 2018, commissioned a new customer service centre in the Bogoso main town, the Capital of Prestea Huni Valley Municipal Assembly.

The Bogoso District Office of ECG some few years back was moved from the main town to the New District Office near the Municipal Assembly and as a result of that made it very difficult for most customers to conveniently pay bills, register for meters and access other basic services provided by the Company.

Western Regional Public Relations Officer for the Electricity Company of Ghana Mr. Philip Osei Bonsu noted the need for the company to refurbish the old office and use it as a customer service centre to better serve the people of Bogoso and its surrounding towns.

Mr. Osei Bonsu in his address at the short ceremony which lasted less than half an hour stated

"You would recall that some few months ago we Commissioned the Wassa Akropong Office and today we are happy that a team from the Region led by Mr Aidoo together with the District Management team are here to officially commission the Bogoso office.

Mr. Osei Bonus further stated " this is to bring our services to the door steps of our cherished customers and make it accessible to those who could not afford to travel all the way to the main District office.

The Regional Materials and Transport Manager Mr. John Aidoo who officially commissioned the office implored the staff who will operate the office to handle the facility with care to prolong its life span to better serve its purpose.

Mr. Ebo Sagoe, the Bogoso District Manager of the ECG on behalf of District staff and management thanked the Head Office and Regional Office for the renovation works and assured the Regional management team the office will be put into a very good use so as to prolong its life span.

Among the Regional team were;

Mr John Aidoo(MATERIALS AND TRANSPORT MANAGER) leader

Mr Alex Awonbo

Mr Nimo Afriyie

Mr John Quesin Dadzie

Mrs Florence Wenidi (HRM)

Mr. Philip Osei Bonsu (PRO)

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Apostle Richard Kwami Adanu, first Vice-Chairman, Great Commission Church International (GCCI), Ghana National Council, has urged Churches to establish funds for Evangelism and Mission work.

"We must rethink our financial and material support in particular, and the Mission Department as a whole," Apostle Adanu stated in his report at the 27th Annual General Council Meeting of GCCI Ghana, at Shai Hills in the Dangbe West District of the Greater Accra Region.

"There should be conscious allocation of funds for evangelism and other responsibilities of the Mission Department. Sight must not be lost of the fact that the Mission's Department is the thrust of the Church," he added.

The four-day meeting, which was on the theme "Imitating Christ" was attended by more than 160 pastors and presiding elders of the Church across Ghana.

Apostle Adanu said to give meaning to the Great Commission in Ghana and beyond; Churches must now be more international in targeting the unreached people's group in their Church Planting programmes.

"While we reach out to new people and new areas, we must not forget to work to bring about numerical and other growths in existing congregations," he stated.

He explained that this would help overcome the small-congregations syndrome, with its concomitant problems such as financial difficulties and the lack of human resources.

He lauded the GCCI Men's Ministry for the establishment of Mission's Fund, as part of their contributions towards fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.

On his service in the Lord's Vineyard, Apostle Adanu said: "I thank God for the grace and ability he gave me to serve him and his people in this capacity, these years as the first Vice-Chairman in-charge of Mission.

"Thanks, once again, to the entire membership of GCCI for giving me the opportunity to serve God's people in my capacity as the first Vice-Chairman in-charge of Mission for GCCI-Ghana."

He recounted that: "Five years ago, you, working through your representatives to the 2013 General Council Meeting, elected me overwhelmingly into this office. God bless you.

"It has not been easy; sometimes I felt like quitting. However, God, through the Holy Spirit, his word - both written and current revelations, and the consideration of the flock of God, has enabled me to come this far."

Apostle Adanu in an emotional farewell said: "God bless you all. Let us continue to strive for Christlikeness, fulfilling God's call upon our lives, and to enter heaven".

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
Traders and hawkers have bounced back onto the streets of the Central Business District of Cape Coast shortly after the Christmas.

This is despite numerous ejections and public education by the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) for them to vacate the streets, the Ghana News Agency has observed.

Pedestrians, hawkers and shoppers have overflowed the walkways, narrowing the lanes as pedestrians compete with drivers for space, a situation road users blamed on traders' indiscipline.

While traders displayed their commodities on the streets and walkways, others engage in brisk hawking in the Central Business District (CBD) from Tantri through Kotokoraba, Mfantsepim Junction, Kingsway and the Abura High Streets.

This is regardless of the fact that, selling on the streets posed a great threat to the lives of the commuting public and traders themselves.

The situation has aggravated the already chaotic human and vehicular traffic congestion in the metropolis.

Some commuters in an interview with the GNA complained of increased human and vehicular congestion coupled with petty stealing.

Mr Daniel Ayisi, a second hand clothes dealer at Kotokoraba market expressed his frustrations about the situation, admitting that their lives were in danger but could not resist selling on the streets.

He said selling on the streets was more profitable than in shops and boutiques where people seldom buy.

Mr Emmanuel Forson, a driver also complained of stress as they sat for long hours waiting for traffic jams to ease, a situation he indicated had affected sales returns.

He urged city authorities to as a matter of urgency resolve the situation before any catastrophe befell any road user.

The GNA news team also observed that gutters were chocked with solid and liquid waste.

It was disgusting to see overgrown weeds and plastic waste scattered all over the new Kotokoraba market, while waste containers were buried with garbage.

Traders were seen selling foodstuffs, vegetables and other commodities close to gutters and in unhygienic places.

They blamed the rising insanitary conditions on the inability of the Assembly to collect the waste regularly, and called on the city authorities to remedy the situation.

Nonetheless, Mr Richard Yeboah, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of CCMA in an interview with the GNA admonished the hawkers to 'comport themselves' in spite of the grace period given to them.

He advised all traders who had abandoned their shops in the new market and were selling on the streets to go into their shops ease the congestion on the streets.

The PRO added that the Assembly would soon begin effective and well-coordinated educational campaigns to sensitise the traders on environmental cleanliness to ensure sanity within the business district.

That notwithstanding, he assured that the Assembly would vigorously enforce its bye-laws to the latter, to ensure that indiscipline was reduced to its lowest minimum.
The Omanhene of Lower Dixcove traditional Council, Nana Kwesi Agyemang IX has admonished fishermen to desist from fishing along the nation's oil rigs.

According to him such practices pose potential life threats to themselves and also impede oil exploration activities.

He gave the admonishment was the call was not intended to deprive Fisher folks of their livelihood but rather, avert any disaster on the rig.

"Before we started oil explorations our fishermen were already fishing in these waters but because the petroleum industry had installed equipment in these areas, it has become imperative for fishermen to refrain from fishing close to these rigs as first hand security measure.

Omahene Nana Agyemang IX was speaking in response to concerns expressed by a security officer from Tullow oil at the Third Local Dialogue Forum on the Voluntary Principles in Mining, Oil and Gas in Ghana in Takoradi in the Western Region.

The forum, which was organised by the West African Network for Peace building, in collaboration with the Fund For Peace sought to attract stakeholders in the Mining industry, Civil Society Organisations, Chiefs, District Assemblies, the security agencies and Assembly members to brain storm and deliberate on ways to utilise the nation's resources without jeopardising the environment and issues on security.

Mr Albert Yelyang of WANEP-Ghana said his outfit together with the Fund for Peace was committed to supporting Ghana to implement the Voluntary Principles.

He however commended the stakeholders for making significant input and said those would inform policy makers and the Government to make better decisions for the mining and oil sector.
The Agogo Youth Association has called for the government to move quickly to forcibly evict Fulani herdsmen and their animals from the Agogo portion of the Afram Plains to forestall any further bloodshed.

They said the herdsmen had crossed all red lines and the expectation was that the coercive powers of the state would be used to throw them out.

A press statement signed by Mr. Emmanuel Asare Kwakye, President of the Association, in Agogo said anything short of that could force the people to take matters into their own hands, to protect themselves and their investment.

The call comes on the heels of the ambush and shooting of three soldiers and a police officer by suspected Fulani herdsmen near Aberewapon in the Asante-Akim North District.

The injured officers are part of a combined team of military and police personnel detailed to maintain law and order in the area amid rising tension between the herdsmen and the local population over the destruction of farms and water bodies by herds of cattle.

One of the three injured officers was treated and discharged by the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital and the remaining transferred to the 37 Military Hospital for treatment.

The statement said the people had had enough of the atrocities of the Fulani and could no longer tolerate the lawlessness and impunity.

It added that it was time the order to evict the herdsmen by a Kumasi High Court in 2012, was enforced.

The association said the people of Agogo had run out of patience with the herdsmen and their cruelty and warned that they were ready to violently clash with them should the authorities 'fail to act and to act fast'.
Ministry of Energy has reacted to some claims made by the Minority in Parliament through their spokesperson on energy, Mr. Adam Mutawakilu that the Energy Ministry and government are meddling in the affairs of the the PURC contrary to law.

Mr. Mutawakilu also said that the PURC is contemplating a major increase in electricity tariffs.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, January 9, 2018 and signed by the Head of Communications at the Energy Ministry, Nana Damoah indicated that the statement by the Minority is false and added that Mr. Mutawakila is being dishonest hence urging him to get his facts right.

According to him, "We however wish to underline the fact that this allegation is false and that the Minority and Mr. Mutawakilu are either being dishonest in this matter or were not diligent at all in their search for information".

He also added, "In this light and in compliance with the law, the Ministry has, on behalf of Government, submitted a proposal for the consideration and examination of the PURC. How does that amount to meddling in the affairs of PURC?"

"On this note, the Ministry of Energy wishes to assure the general public that it is continuing to work hard in the interest of Ghanaians", he assured.

Below is the full statement

MINISTRY OF ENERGY REACTS TO CLAIMS OF MINORITY

Accra, January 9, 2018: Our attention has been drawn to news reports on some claims made by the Minority in Parliament through their spokesperson on energy, Mr. Adam Mutawakilu.

We are of the understanding that the Minority is making three basic claims, that;

1. The Ministry and for that matter Government, has not made any proposal to the PURC for a reduction in the electricity tariffs, contrary to what was stated in the 2018 budget;

2. The PURC is contemplating a major increase in electricity tariffs; and

3. The Ministry and Government are meddling in the affairs of the PURC contrary to law.

We wish to respond as follows;

1. The Minority and Mr. Mutawakilu are obviously peddling an untruth in this matter. If indeed they had checked, they would have been informed that the Ministry in November 2017 submitted proposal to PURC.

Indeed we will want the media to also follow up and verify whether this claim of the Minority are true or otherwise. If indeed the Minority and Mr. Mutawakilu did any checks, then they were not diligent in their work at all. As a Minority, they have a myriad of means available to them to get information when needed.

Mr. Mutawakilu could have checked personally at either PURC or the Ministry if he had been minded to do so. We however wish to underline the fact that this allegation is false and that the Minority and Mr. Mutawakilu are either being dishonest in this matter or were not diligent at all in their search for information.

2. The PURC has not communicated its intention to increase tariff. A major review of tariffs does not necessarily mean an increase as misunderstood by the Minority. In any case, our understanding of the factors that determine tariffs for electricity point to a reduction.

3. We also consider this charge of meddling in the affairs of PURC as shocking. The Minority and Mr. Mutawakilu are aware or should be aware of section 3(b) of the PURC Act 1997, Act 538, which states that one function of the body is to examine and approve rates chargeable for the provision of utility services.

In this light and in compliance with the law, the Ministry has, on behalf of Government, submitted a proposal for the consideration and examination of the PURC. How does that amount to meddling in the affairs of PURC?

We are also minded of section 18(4) of the same Act which states that, the commission shall before approving any rates provide as far as practicable the public utility and consumers affected by the rates a reasonable opportunity of being heard and shall take into account any representation made before it and as such have left the PURC to conduct their affairs in the manner they deem fit without any pressure from the Ministry.

So again we ask how does this amount to meddling in the affairs of the PURC?

On this note, the Ministry of Energy wishes to assure the general public that it is continuing to work hard in the interest of Ghanaians.

It is mindful of the promises it has made and will redeem them in due time and also within the laws as it exists today.

..Signed...

Nana Damoah

(Head, Communications)

Source: Daniel Kaku
11.01.2018 LISTEN

Western Regional New Patriotic Party Treasurer hopeful, Miss. Anna Horma Akaisi Miezah has scored the Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party government high marks as it turns one year in office.

According to her the measures and interventions the government has rolled out are clear manifestations of its unalloyed intention to emancipate the country from the spectre of mismanagement that characterized the administration of the previous Mahama government.

For example she noted that when the NPP was in opposition one practice the party argued often lead to corruption was sole sourcing.

Horma Miezah said so the President Nana Addo has appointed a Minister in charge of Public Procurement to ensure all procurement are done devoid of any corrupt practices stressing this commendable step can only come from a government that has the supreme interest of the country at heart.

She also mentioned the school feeding program, restoration of allowances among others which have brought great economic relief to Ghanaians as her basis for scoring the NPP government high marks.

But Horma Miezah is imploring Ghanaians especially women to exercise patience since many of governments programs of interventions are yet to run their full course.

Addressing traders of shed 5 at the Takoradi Market Circle in Seekondi-Takoradi as they celebrate their one year anniversary, Miss. Horma Miezah assured the market women 2018 will witness rising profits and full employments due to the good policies of the government.

She urged them to continue to be resilient and pray that God will continuously grant the president and his appointees the wisdom to rule.

The Regional Treasurer hopeful in a later interaction with Skyy news about her political ambition said the position is not just about someone who will keep the partys money but someone who can equally raise and attract funds for activities.

The treasure position is not just about keeping the money. It is about looking at profitable and proven avenues to invest in the partys resources to generate enough funds to finance the partys activities

Because we are not going to wait till 2020 before we start looking for funds to support the party we are going to start now, get people together and whatever money we have and luckily because of my financial background we will know what to do in terms of investing the money to make sure we get enough funds before 2020.

So my administration will take a professional approach, she revealed.

Source: Skyy power fm
MINNEAPOLIS  An environmental study exploring the viability of high-speed passenger rail service between the Twin Cities and Milwaukee has been shut down after two Minnesota Republican legislators said it was a waste of taxpayer dollars.

In December, Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, and Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, objected to the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) accepting federal grant money to complete the study  largely because Wisconsin opposes high-speed rail.

Minnesota should not be squandering precious tax dollars  whether local, state or federal  on a wasteful project actively opposed by other states whose support is necessary to proceed, the legislators wrote in a letter to the commissioner of the Department of Management and Budget. Torkelson and Newman are chairmen of transportation committees in the Minnesota house and senate, respectively.

Dan Krom, director of the MnDOTs Passenger Rail Office, confirmed that work on the study has stopped after just over $1 million in state and federal money had already been spent on it. Torkelson and Newman were objecting to a final $181,682 grant that was expected from the Federal Railroad Administration.

The news upset advocates pushing for enhanced passenger rail service between the two Midwestern cities, now served by Amtraks Empire Builder line.

Thats regrettable, said Janice Rettman, a Ramsey County commissioner who chairs the Minnesota High Speed Rail Commission. We fight so hard for dollars from the feds.

Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, who serves on the Transportation Finance and Policy Committee, called the decision extremely unfortunate. Do they only want people to have cars and drive? They have a complete disregard for other modes of transportation.

The news comes as the Trump administration and Congress contemplate a big federal program to improve the nations infrastructure. How this will affect passenger rail service is unknown, although President Donald Trump had suggested eliminating Amtrak routes like the Empire Builder last year.

Since 2010, high-speed rail has been a hot-button political issue in Wisconsin. GOP Gov. Scott Walker declined $810 million in federal stimulus money for a Madison-to-Milwaukee line, saying it would be too expensive to build and maintain.

The money was part of the Obama administrations $10 billion investment in high-speed passenger rail nationwide. But Republican governors in Florida and Ohio turned away the money, too.

Walkers opposition to the service remains unchanged, according to Torkelson. It would be rather inappropriate for us to spend federal funds when theres no chance of it going forward, he said. (Walkers office did not return phone calls.)

Krom said the study was intended to create a framework for the environmental process moving forward and start looking at some general issues. We didnt get to any detail, this was just the initial money to get the project started. A request for funding to pay for a more-detailed study likely would have followed.

Theres no standard definition for high-speed passenger rail, which was pioneered by Japan in the mid-1960s. Generally speaking, high-speed trains are capable of sustained speeds of 150 mph or more  which is the case in Europe and Asia. Some trains in China, which has bet big on the high-speed rail, whisk along at 220 mph.

The U.S. has no true high-speed rail service. A report by the Midwest High Speed Rail Association attributes this to a lack of funding, the difficulty of getting state, local and municipal governments to agree on a plan, and outdated safety regulations and infrastructure. The majority of Amtrak trains share track with freight. And theres Americans storied love of their automobiles.

Disasters such as the Amtrak crash near Tacoma, Wash., in December may also dampen public enthusiasm for speedier rail service, although federal investigators have not formally pinpointed the cause of that crash. The Cascades 501 train was traveling 78 mph in a 30 mph zone when it crashed, killing three people and injuring dozens of others.

Studies like the shuttered MnDOT effort are intended to determine if faster  not necessarily high-speed  passenger service can be achieved. Amtraks Acela Express, which links Boston to Washington, D.C., is the fastest train in the United States, traveling up to 150 mph in spots.

Still, its not high-speed rail, even though some people call it that, said Richard Harnish, executive director of the Midwest rail association. Its really just fixing the existing track so you can run things faster and more frequently.

Harnish said stopping the Minnesota high-speed project is shortsighted because it prevents what he called a basic assessment to understand whats needed.

In the Midwest, work continues to upgrade track, crossings and stations between Chicago and Detroit and Chicago and St. Louis so that trains can travel up to 110 miles an hour along certain stretches, according to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

While speedier service and more-frequent trains help build ridership, reliability is the most-important attribute for luring more passengers, Magliari said.

On that front, MnDOT is part of the charge to add a second daily round-trip passenger train to existing Amtrak service between the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Chicago. With funding and political support, the second line could begin operating in 2022.

Torkelson said hes not opposed to anything that is economically viable. You need to use resources in a fashion with projects that actually have a chance of getting done.
A citizen from the Volta region has made a humble appeal to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and the Ghana Tourism Authority to consider ways of implementing the Aliens' Registration Regulation , 1974 (Legislative Instrument .856 ) .

The issues revolving around Fulani herdsmen in Ghana has become a nationwide problem that requires all hands on deck to fight this problem that has bedeviled the country over these few years .

This has caused our farmers across the length and breadth of mother Ghana to harbour fears in them and which in turn prevent them from undertaking farm activities at periods deemed necessary on the farming calendar .

Geographical locations of such circumstance cannot be mentioned devoid of Agogo in the Ashanti Region where three soldiers in addition to one police officer were shot recently , Kwahu in the Eastern Region where nine (9) people were killed during clashes , and Sokode Ando( my holy village) in the Volta Region where one person was beaten to death and farming activities disturbed .

The Legislative Instrument with respect to the registration of aliens and their regulation in Ghana , would provide details of their nationality , and the geographical locations of these Fulani herdsmen . This legislative instrument will also go a long way to regulate the activities of Fulani herdsmen in the county .

Another school of thought would also assert that , there is no need for such implementation ; rather , a harsh way of handling this issue that has befallen the nation . Indeed , taking this step would rather place the security of the nation at risk other than the safer side .

One will ask , how is this going to be achieved ....???

The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and the Ghana Tourism Authority should instead of hoteliers per the details of the L.I , peacefully collaborate with chiefs and opinion leaders from the various communities so to provide details of aliens in their communities (mainly the Fulanis) since these Fulani herdsmen do not in most cases lodge at hotels .These chiefs must be made to sign bonds so not to take the credibility of the law for granted .

This problem if not well solved may disrupt our beneficial agriculture policies in the coming days or years including the planting for food and jobs policy which has come to create some form of stability in the agriculture sector.

Alongside the amicable cooperation mong the chiefs , the Ghana Tourism Authority and the Ghana Immigration Service must liaise with government to employ the services of "operation vanguard" that has chopped so many successes in the area of the long embattled illegal mining .

Our people are losing their lives , our lands are getting degraded , our farmers are in fears and our farm products are being deteriorated by the influx of these Fulani herdsmen .

This is my humble suggestion to mother Ghana and never in any way should anyone in this country politicise this issue of national concern .

Columnist: Bedza Oscar Komla
A 78-year-old prelate is likely to play a key role this year in shaping the future of one of Africa's most important and volatile states.

The man in the spotlight is Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, archbishop of Kinshasa and de-facto leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo's powerful Catholic church.

For decades, the cardinal has spoken out against the violence that has swept through parts of the sprawling country, including successive civil wars that killed millions.

His outspokenness has now turned him into a rallying figure for protest against President Joseph Kabila, whose regime is tarred with a reputation for corruption, repression and incompetence.

Last week, Monsengwo placed himself on a potential collision course with Kabila over a New Year's Eve crackdown on Catholic demonstrators demanding an end to Kabila's 17 years in power -- more than a year beyond his constitutional term.

'Barbarism'

"We can only denounce, condemn and stigmatise the behaviour of our supposedly courageous men in uniform, who, sadly... are channelling barbarism," Monsengwo said in an outraged statement.

The cardinal went on to dedicate his mass on Thursday to the victims of "police brutality," whom he likened to the martyrs of the country's independence. He is to lead a mass on Friday to commemorate their deaths.

"It's time that truth won out over systematic lies, that mediocre figures stand down and that peace and justice reign in DR Congo," he declared.

Witnesses said troops and police unleashed tear gas in churches and fired bullets into the air to break up gatherings. An AFP reporter at a demonstration in the central city of Kananga saw a man shot in the chest by soldiers who opened fire on worshippers.

Cardinal Monsengwo is famous for his combative stance in a country mired in poverty, corruption and lawlessness

The protest organisers said 12 were killed, while the UN gave a toll of at least five dead, 92 injured and 180 people arrested -- a figure that it said could be "far higher," as its investigators had been barred from visiting morgues, hospitals and detention centres.

Monsengwo's remarks stirred a near-immediate rebuke from the government, which demanded the church be neutral in politics.

"Monsignor Laurent Monsengwo has made insulting remarks about the leaders of the country and the forces of order," the council of ministers said -- a choice of words that, for some, were a reminder that under DRC's penal code, people who insult the military can be prosecuted.

The government "cannot accept that such statements come from a minister of God", the government added, which hammered home "the secular nature of the Congolese state."

Monsengwo's fury comes on the heels of a failure last year to implement a church-brokered deal aimed at averting a bloodbath.

Under the December 31 2016 agreement, Kabila was allowed to stay in office provided new elections were held in 2017.

After months of silence, the authorities said the vote would be held in December 2018 -- a postponement that has angered Western nations, but one that they have reluctantly had to accept.

Ally in Pope

Monsengwo is reputed to have a close ally in Pope Francis

Born into a royal family in the Sakata tribe in 1939, Monsengwo first became known for playing a major role in forcing dictator Mobutu Sese Seko into moving the country -- which was known as Zaire from 1971 to 1997 -- towards a multi-party democracy.

Monsengwo was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, and later named one of nine cardinals chosen by Pope Francis to play a part in Vatican reform.

Those close ties were reflected on Saturday. The Vatican's envoy in Kinshasa, Luis Mariano Montemayor, an Argentine close to the Pope, attacked the "disproportionate reaction" of the security forces in crushing the New Year's Eve march.

DRC is rich in minerals, especially cobalt -- a critical metal for lithium-ion batteries used in mobile phones and electric cars -- but is hampered by great inequality and a history of violence.

Roughly half of its 80 million people are Catholics. The church helps to provide education and healthcare to millions of people in the absence of state services and is one of the few institutions to enjoy broad credibility across the country.
Some traders from Accra have appealed to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to release their goods which were seized during the recent decongestion exercise in the capital.

They trooped to the premises of Citi FM on Wednesday to complain about what they also described as unfair treatment from the AMA.

The traders showed receipts from the AMA, which they said were issued, granting them permission to sell on the streets of the Metropolis.

We pay 50 pesewas all the time. We have packed a lot of tickets, one of them said.

Thus, they accused the city authorities of bad faith after the seizure some of their wares.

Mercy Zadake, who led the traders, told Citi News that she and her colleagues were pleading they be at least given their goods back.

We are pleading with the government. They should have pity on use. We'll even come and carry our things ourselves, she said.

They [AMA] seized our wares and take them to thier office. They should have been patient. It is so frustrating to get them [our wares] back even if you are fortunate enough.

We pay our tolls regularly so they should please let us be or how else will we pay our children's school fees. These are not small [school] fees. How am I going to pay? she pleaded.

The Metropolitan Chief Executive of the AMA, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, on Monday led a team of officers from the Assembly, including metro guards and police officers, to clear hawkers off pavements in the metropolis.

Mohammed Adjei Sowah (C) with some officers during the decongestion exercise

The activities of the hawkers and the traders on the shoulders of roads and on pavements are noted to impede human and vehicular traffic.

This also contributes to the waste build-up along streets.

While confiscating some wares and materials belonging to traders, the team locked up some businesses that were operating illegally and those that had been sited at unapproved places.
More than 200 people have been arrested and dozens of police hurt during clashes in Tunisia, the interior ministry said Wednesday, as anger over austerity measures spilt over into unrest.

The North African country has been hailed for its relatively smooth democratic transition since a 2011 revolt that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings, but seven years after the revolution, tensions over economic grievances are high.

Tunisia has seen rising anger over hikes in value-added tax and social contributions after a tough new budget was applied at the start of the year.

Interior ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani told local radio that 49 police officers were wounded during a second night of clashes across the country Tuesday to Wednesday and that 206 "troublemakers" were arrested.

Properties were damaged, he said, including a branch of the Carrefour supermarket chain in a suburb of Tunis that was looted.

After a calm day on Wednesday, residents said demonstrators in the evening took to the streets of Tebourba, a town west of the capital Tunis where a man in his 40s died in unrest Monday night.

On a visit to a nearby town, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed condemned acts of "vandalism" that "serve the interests of corrupt networks to weaken the state", pointing the finger at a leftist party that called for protests.

Map locating towns and cities affected by unrest.

Fresh clashes broke out Wednesday night in the northern town of Siliana, where youths threw stones and molotov cocktails at security forces. Police responded with tear gas, an AFP correspondent said.

There were similar scenes in Kasserine, a town in Tunisia's neglected central region, with protesters burning tires to block roads and some throwing stones at police.

The army has been deployed around banks, post offices and other government buildings in the country's main cities, the defence ministry said.

There have been no figures given for the number of protesters injured in the clashes.

Stones, tear gas

On Tuesday night, hundreds of young people took to the streets of Tebourba for the funeral of the man who died.

Tunisian protesters clash with security forces in the town of Tebourba on January 9, 2018, following the funeral of a man who died the previous day in a demonstration over rising costs and government austerity

Police have insisted they did not kill him. Health Minister Imed Hammami said that results of an autopsy would be made public on Thursday.

Unrest was also reported in the working-class neighbourhoods of Djebel Lahmer and Zahrouni on the outskirts of Tunis, the central cities of Gafsa and Kasserine, and the northern town of Jedaida.

In the central town of Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the protests that sparked the 2011 uprisings, youths blocked roads and hurled stones, and the police retaliated with tear gas, an AFP reporter said.

A representative of Tunisia's Jewish community said two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the entrance to two Talmudic schools on the Mediterranean island of Djerba, but their interiors were not damaged.

Friday protest

The recent unrest started with peaceful protests against the austerity measures last week, but escalated into clashes with police in the night of Monday to Tuesday.

Tunisian police track down protesters in the Djebel Lahmer district of the capital Tunis early on January 10, 2018 after austerity measures ignited protests in the North African country

Activists have called for a massive demonstration on Friday against the austerity measures, which are expected to increase the cost of living.

They have demanded a revision of the legislation behind the VAT and social contribution hikes, as well as better welfare for struggling families.

"There are acts of looting and robbery but also a political message from a section of the population that has nothing to lose and feels ignored" seven years after a revolution demanding work and dignity, said political scientist Selim Kharrat.

He said that many public buildings have been targeted while the government has "taken a pretty strong stance against the protesters".

Tunisia's economy has struggled since the 2011 revolution, which was fuelled by unemployment and graft.

Protests are common in the North African state in the month of January, when Tunisians mark the anniversary of the revolt that unseated dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

January 2016 saw the biggest wave of public discontent since the uprising as the death of an unemployed protester in Kasserine sparked days of unrest.

In December, unemployed protesters and activists marched through the streets of Sidi Bouzid, angry over the lack of jobs and opportunities that continue to plague residents.

In a report released Thursday, conflict analysts International Crisis Group (ICG) warned the country's political class against succumbing to "authoritarian temptation".

While politicians had so far resisted the urge to backtrack on reforms, ICG said "in the context of an economic slump, the nostalgia for a strong state, like the one that the former regime claimed to defend, is spreading".

The revolution in Tunisia began in December 2010 after street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire and later died in a protest over unemployment and police harassment that spiralled into Ben Ali's overthrow.
The five-member ad-hoc Committee constituted by Parliament to investigate the alleged extortion of expatriates who participated in the December 2017 Ghana Expatriates Business Awards (GEBA) will begin public sittings on the matter today [Thursday].

The members of the Committee previously sat on Monday to set out the modalities for their work.

The Committee's sessions will be open to the public, with the members of the Minority who had called for the probe into the matter, the Ministry of Trade and other parties expected to give testimony.

'Terms of reference'

The Minority had expressed concerns after Parliament's emergency sitting last week that the terms of reference for the Committee had not been spelt out by the Speaker when it was convened.

But the Member of Parliament for Adenta and a member of the Committee, Yaw Buaben Asamoah, indicated that the Committee was working with clearly defined terms of reference which had originated from the motion submitted by the Minority themselves.

The Committee is expected to submit its report to the House as soon as possible, one day after our recall which is 24th [January 2018].

The Committee has three members of the Majority namely Ameyaw Kyeremeh, Majority Chief Whip, who will Chair the Committee, Dr. Assibey Yeboah, Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, and Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, MP for Adentan.

On the Minority side are James Klutsey Avedzie, Deputy Minority Leader, and Dominic Ayine, the MP for Bolgatanga East.

Background

The Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, first made the extortion allegation in Parliament.

Mr. Mubarak said the fees charged at the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards (GEBA) were not approved by Parliament, adding that the monies were also not accounted for in the Internally Generated Funds [IGF] of the Ministry's accounts.

The issue was further reinforced by Mr. Ablakwa, who suffered verbal assaults from Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah over the matter.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry initially dissociated itself from these allegations.

The Trade Ministry, in a statement, said it played no role in determining prices for seats at the event and clarified that it only facilitated the implementation of a new initiative by the Millennium Excellence Foundation.

But the Ministry after an order from the President to probe the matter clarified that an amount of GHc 2,667,215 was realized from the event.

The organizers of the Awards had also explained that no one paid to sit close to the President and that the amount raised was gotten from sponsorship through a fundraising at the event.
Students of Karaga Junior High School in the Nanumba North district of the Northern region have been forced to study under very deplorable conditions.

The structure housing the JHS students can best be described as a farm shed, which school authorities have said is home to all sort of reptiles.

Mr. Abdulai Alhassan, the assistant headmaster of Karaga JHS, lamented to Citi News that studying under these conditions affects teaching and learning negatively at the school.

These are dangerous teaching in this condition. Sometimes lessons have to be disrupted because of the reptiles invading the school. When lessons are going on, you will see students looking above just make sure that they are not hurt or bitten by the reptiles. Masters and students are always on the alert and this does not help at all, he said

Abdulai Alhassan further explained due to the challenges faced by the school, many students prefer to attend other, more distant educational institutions in the region.

The school is serving several communities around but because of the structure, it is not attracting enrollment. People prefer traveling daily to Bimbilla to attend classes and come back to their communities instead of enrolling in the school. Again due to nature of the structure blackboards and furniture of the school are left on the mercy of the weather, he lamented.

He, therefore, appealed to the government through the Nanumba North district assembly and other civil society organizations to come to the aid of the school by providing the school with a modern classroom block.
The Bono East Youth Alliance in conjunction with the Coalition of Chief For the creation of Bono East Region as set to hold a Mega Bono East Youth Conference In Techiman on Sunday 14th January, 2018 at the Techiman Methodist School Park.

The President of the Bono East Youth Alliance, Nana Yaw Korang Antwi-Boasiako in an interview on Agyinkwa FM "Ghana Mpontuo" radio program and on "The Pundits" at Winners FM, Techiman affirmed that all the needed arrangements have been put in place to host the Techiman Bono East Youth Conference.

According to the President, the prime objective of the Conference is to sensitize the people of Techiman and the entire Bono East area on the urgent need for the creation of the Bono East Region. He added that the conference will also rally the Youth of Techiman and its surrounding communities to volunteer their time and energy to support the Campaign towards the creation of the Bono East Region.

He reiterated that the conference will also serve as a platform to educate the people of Techiman Traditional area and its adjoining communities on the Benefits of the creation of the Bono East Region and the role and responsibilities of people in the proposed Bono East Region.

The conference will bring together Traditional Authorities, former and current Ministers of State, Civil society Groups, Development Partners and youth from all the Traditional Areas within the Eastern part of the Brong Ahafo Region to champion the creation of the proposed Bono East Region.

The Secretary of the Local organising Committee, George Antwi-Boasiako pointed out the Guest Speakers for the conference will include: Oseadeeyo Akumfi Ameyaw IV, Paramount Chief of Techiman Traditional Area to speak on the Topic: "The role of Traditional Authorities in the creation of Bono East Region".

Professor Ameyaw Akumfi, Board Chairman of Ghana Infrastructure and Investment Fund who also double as the Executive Secretary to the coalition of chiefs For the creation of Bono East Region. Prof will speak on "The road map to the creation of Bono East and the contribution of the Traditional Leaders in all the Traditional areas within the Bono East catchment area".

Hon Martin Agyei Mensah Korsah Deputy Minister of Regional Re-organisation will also talk about "The role of government in the creation of New Regions".

The Organizer of the Local organising Committee Mustafa Mohammed further indicated all organized Groups and Associations including Tribal Associations, Keep Fit Clubs, Political parties, and all the Tertiary institutions in Techiman such as Valley View University, Techiman Campus, Holy Family College of Nursing and Midwifery and Krobo College of Nursing.

Also invited to the conference include National Service Personnel, and Senior High Schools in Techiman North and Techiman Municipal.

He again said all the nine (9) radio stations in Techiman will also cover the conference live. He added that "We have also invited all the major TV stations in Ghana to telecast the conference".

Nana Yaw Korang Antwi-Boasiako, concluded that "We are expecting more than five thousand (5,000) people to attend the conference on Sunday 14th January, 2018 at the Methodist Park to prove to the Commission of Enquiries and all Ghanaians that the good people of the Eastern Part of Brong Ahafo Region are in high demand for a new region (Bono East Region) to widen the political and Socio-economic potentials of the area".

He posited that he is optimistic that Bono East will record more than 70% Voter turn out during the referendum and over 90% 'YES' endorsement vote based on the universal support the sensitization Committee has received from the people of the Eastern Part of Brong Ahafo Region.

He outlined that Bono East Region when created will be the 2nd largest Region in Ghana with a Total Land Size of 24, 017sq.km (ie 61% of Brong Ahafo Region and 10% of Total Land size of Ghana). Bono East has a current population of 904,156 (ie. 39% of Population of Brong Ahafo Region).
11.01.2018 LISTEN

The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry has called for strict enforcement of legislations on second hand goods such as handkerchiefs, underpants, mattresses and sanitary ware.

A statement from the GSA reminded all importers and the general public that Legislative Instruments (L.I. 1586) of 1994 and (L.I. 1693) of 2001 were still in force.

It said the reminder had become necessary following recent media reports on the illegal activities being undertaken at some entry points.

By this announcement, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is put on notice to strictly enforce the law at all the entry points, it said.

LI 1586 covers the Imports and Exports (Prohibited Goods) (No. 2) Regulations, 1994, states that No person shall import for commercial purpose or in commercial quantities any of the following goods which are second hand or which have been used  handkerchiefs; men and women and childrens underpants; mattresses and sanitary ware.

A person who imports any goods contrary to the regulation above commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding GHC500,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both and the goods in respect of which the offence was committed shall be liable to be seized and forfeited to the State.

L.I. 1693 covers the Export and Import (Prohibition of Importation of used LPG cylinders) Instrument, 2001 says In exercise of the powers conferred on the Minister responsible for Trade under sections 12 and 13 (a) of the Export and Import Act, 1995 (ACT 503) this instrument is made on this day of July, 2001.

Prohibition of importation of used LPG cylinders. The importation of Used Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Cylinders is hereby prohibited.

The public can contact the Public Relations Department of the Ghana Standards Authority for any further information, the statement added.
There are grounds to say that any states attribute presupposes the existence of law. State power operates over a certain territory: its orders and instructions extends to the people living within the states borders and those outside who hold allegiance to the state. An inalienable attribute of state power is sovereignty, i.e. The Republic, which is the legal expression of the supreme power held by the people, of their independence of any other state authority either within the country or on the international plane.

The independence of Ghana on March 6, 1957, marked the birth of our nation with the British crown still parenting. Independence in this regard was nascent; in that it could only partially manifest the idea of a self-governing state.

There is an adage in northern Ghana which says that when your parent give birth to you, you must also give birth to yourself. Thus, one must grow to have self-responsibility and maturity. Concomitant to this local aphorism was the reason why we demanded the Republic which came into being on 1st July 1960, which has been earmarked historically as the Republic Day.

The Republic Day of July 1 is unique, there could not be any other day like it. It marked the day that the transition of parenting to maturity assumed full sway. It embeds within it the ingredient and the soul of Ghanas sovereign state endowed with the full responsibility to self-governance.

According to the article written by the Right Honorable Speaker of Parliament, What is the Republic Day in Ghana, he generally asserted that we have had the First Republic, Second Republic, Third Republic and Fourth Republic. Each one had its own Constitution which was different. There is no single continuum in any of the Constitutions. Each was an era of its own. When constitutional rule was restored after each military intervention, a new constitution was established.

Indeed, his observations fly in the face of epistemology. This is because the Constitutions after coup detats of previous Republics constituted the presupposed laws of the state and they reflected the strength and weaknesses of the former Constitutions. The reason stems from the notion made from historical jurisprudence that laws are found but not made.

The issue is that each Constitution that instates a Republic seeks to achieve the aspiration of the people at a period. Following the renowned statement of Justice Sowah in a Supreme Court case of Tuffour v Attorney General, he said: The written constitution like that of the 1992 Constitution is a living organism which has a letter of the law and equally has a spirit. It also embodies the will of the people and mirrors their history. It contains in it the aspirations and the hopes of the people for a better and fuller life.

Herein, what can be deduced from the dictum is that, ideally, like every living organism, there will be death of the body but not the spirit. The Fourth Republican statutes carries within it remnant constitutional provisions which include the First Republican Constitution. The past is embedded in the present and therefore it would be illogical to distance 1st July from the present.

The article by the Right Honorable Speaker of Parliament has sought and is seeking to falsify history by attacking 1st July, destroying the basis and enthroning farcical reactionary position.

The Republic day on July 1, 1960, ushered in the First Republican Constitution of 1960 proclaiming Ghana a Republic, which symbolically serves as the basic norm from which subsequent Republics and Constitutions inheres from.

By:

Michael Sumaila Nlasia

Research Fellow

Centre for Data Processing and Geo-Spatial Analysis

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 0548455071
A Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Isaac Owusu-Mensah has denied claims that a survey conducted by his Department which gave the government largely favourable scores after its first year, was paid for by members of the current administration.

The survey noted that 62% of Ghanaians were pleased with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) governments performance so far in office.

It also revealed that 64% of respondents backed the creation of the Special Prosecutors Office, with 49% of the 5000 voters sampled, endorsing the Free Senior High School [SHS] programme while 37% approved of the campaign against illegal mining.

Some critics of the government have expressed scepticism about the results suggesting that the department might have been induced to skew the findings in favour of the government.

Others have even suggested that the government funded the whole research, compromising the objectivity of the findings.

However, Dr Owusu-Mensah brushed aside these claims stating emphatically that the government had no influence over the results of the survey.

He noted that the criticism of the survey results was expected, with various groups choosing to accept the findings depending on whether it favours them or not.

The government had hand in it whatsoever. No government functionary gave us one cedi as far as this survey is concerned. When we do a study, people will bastardise you no matter what. In 2016, we told NDC that they were trailing the NPP by nine percentage points. When the results came, they lost by exactly nine percentage points. If somebody says that I sit in my chair and determine the results [they are mistaken]. I dont have a hand in fixing the results. No amount of money can buy my reputation, he said on Eyewitness News.

No one should be happy

A number of sympathisers of the governing party have expressed delight with the findings, stating that it is an indication of how well the government has performed in office so far.

However, Dr Owusu-Mensah believes the survey results showed that Ghanaians arent pleased with either the New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the opposition Nation Democratic Congress (NDC) with both parties recording lower percentage points than in 2016

Nobody should celebrate the findings because it isnt good for any of them. These people we interviewed, 56 percent voted for NPP in 2016. If elections are held today, 52 percent said they would vote for NPP. So the NPP has dropped by four percentage points, the NDC has dropped as well so neither party should be happy, he added.
Former CHRAJ Boss, Justice Emile Short has cautioned against appointing a Special Prosecutor, perceived to be a loyalist of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The Special Prosecutor by law will be appointed by the President through the Attorney General upon the approval of Parliament.

Critics have however said this mode of appointment may compromise the Special Prosecutor in his or her line of duty.

In agreeing with such views, Mr. Short said: If the person appointed is seen as loyal or having political leanings towards the current government, then skeptics will not be convinced.

He however also argued in a Citi News interview that a loyal member of the NPP government who discharges his or her duties without fear or favour will win the confidence of Ghanaians.

Even if he is not perceived as really independent, and it is clear to the general public that he is carrying out his functions without fear or favour then it will reassure Ghanaians and he will be able to discharge his functions independently and he will be able to even prosecute members of the sitting government.

It won't be independent  NDC

Members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have argued that the office cannot be independent since the Special Prosecutor will certainly be someone aligned to the NPP.

General Secretary of NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, had warned that the Office risks being a lame duckif the official expected to lead the office is not independently appointed.

I want to remind them that if they are going to appoint another NPP lawyer as the independent prosecutor, then you would have wasted the nation's time and resources in making that law. It is because of the difficulty of an NPP lawyer as the Attorney General trying to prosecute offenders within the NPP government that we decided that, let us get an independent prosecutor, the NDC General Secretary added.

Despite these concerns, some members of the NPP, including the Acting Chairman of the party, Freddie Blay have assured that the office of the Special Prosecutor will be free from any interference.

According to him, not even the President will be able to meddle in the affairs of the office.

It will not be subject to any control by anybody, not even the president's office, and that is what the president has decided to happen, he had stated.

President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, January 2, 2017, appended his signature to the bill setting up the Special Prosecutor office after it was approved by Parliament in November 2017.

About Special Prosecutor Office

The Office of the Special Prosecutor marks the fulfillment of a major campaign promise of Nana Akufo-Addo in the run-up to the 2016 elections.

The Bill defined the modalities for the appointment and operations of the Special Prosecutor, which will have the mandate to investigate and prosecute cases of alleged corruption under the Public Procurement Act 203 Act 63, and other corruption-related offences implicating public officers, political office holders and their accomplices in the public sector.



By: Marian Ansah & Caleb Kudah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Special prosecutor shouldnt be a party loyalist  Emile Short appeared first on Ghana News .
Government is seeking to raise GH11,133.91 million in the first quarter of 2018 through debt securities.

Of the amount GH8,961.30 million will be used to rollover maturities.

The remaining GH2,164.61 million will be used to meet Government's financing requirements for the period.

A statement issued by the Debt Management Office of the Ministry of Finance stated that about 5 billion cedis in 91 day treasury bills will be issued in January, February and March while a total of 1.8 billion cedis in 182 day treasury bills will also be issued through the period as well.

Meanwhile 1 year and 2 year notes amounting to about 2.5 billion cedis will also be auctioned.

A three year 600 million cedi and 5 year 1 billion cedi bond will be auctioned in March and February respectively.

This years figure is much lower than the figure raised by Government in the same period last year.

In the first quarter of 2017 Government announced it will raise 17,400.00 million cedis through bonds and treasury bills and other government securities.

The cash was to be used to rollover forecast maturities, meet Government's financing requirements and build buffers for liability management.

Economists assert the reduction in this years figure reinforces Governments move to reduce the countrys debt stock.



By Vivian Kai Lokko/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post Govt to raise GHc11bn in first quarter of 2018 appeared first on Ghana News .
Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe was ousted by a "military coup" that forced his resignation, former cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo said in an interview with the BBC broadcast on Thursday.

Moyo, a former higher education minister under the last president and an ardent Mugabe loyalist, said Zimbabwe's new President Emmerson Mnangagwa stole power and was leading an "illegal regime".

"Mnangagwa and (Vice President Constantino) Chiwenga, they know only too well that they have come into power via the bullet and not the ballot," Moyo, who is in self-imposed exile, told the BBC's Hard Talk programme.

It was unclear where he gave the interview.

"We have a... constitution that the people of Zimbabwe made for themselves and it has been broken and it has been broken via a coup," he said.

"The constitution of the country has been subverted and there has to be a return to constitutionalism."

Moyo said the army acted unconstitutionally when it briefly took power from the government in November.

"The army deployed itself in Zimbabwe when the constitution says only the president can deploy it," he said.

The commanders involved in the campaign to seize power and ease Mugabe from power, which included then-general Chiwenga, insisted they were targeting criminals around Mugabe.

That was widely seen as a reference to Mugabe's wife Grace and supporters of her apparent desire to succeed the 93-year-old statesman -- efforts that riled many in the military establishment.

Moyo also said that the new government under Mnangagwa was an "illegal regime" that had struggled to assert its legitimacy.

He pointed to Mnangagwa's visit last week to ailing opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as evidence of the new president's efforts to assert himself politically.

"We know that when Mnangagwa and Chiwenga went to Morgan Tsvangirai's house they pretended that they were concerned about his health but we know they wanted to negotiate with him to postpone elections for at least three years," he alleged.

"They are afraid of elections. They do not want to have free and fair elections let alone credible elections."

He accused Mnangagwa and Chiwenga of involvement in the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s that claimed the lives of around 20,000 regime opponents, including children and women, in the country's southwest.

"Right now the cabinet of the Republic of Zimbabwe is led by the most feared people in the history of this country. They are feared because they associated with every atrocity that has happened," he said.
Ghana's newly appointed High Commissioner to Malaysia, Akua Sekyiwaa Ahenkorah, has promised to live to the task set for her by President Akufo-Addo.

The president had charged her to intensify efforts to bring investments into the country during her swearing-in at the Flagstaff House yesterday.

He described her appointment as 'very deserving' because he had worked with Madam Sekyiwaa Ahenkorah when he was Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs in President Kufuor's New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

I'm in a position to testify to your competence, your ability, and loyalty to the Ghanaian nation and its government and capacity for hard work; as far as I am concerned, you are very fit and deserving of this appointment, President Akufo-Addo spoke highly of the envoy.

As a career diplomat, he, therefore, expressed the hope that the new high commissioner would discharge her duty with finesse.

As a country with the same historical antecedent as Ghana  having attained independence in the same year (1957) and the claim that Malaysia got its first palm nut from Ghana  President Akufo-Addo expressed worry that Ghana is still lagging behind in its development.

He, however, stressed the belief that there is still a great deal of lesson Ghana can learn from its relations with Malaysia and therefore, charged Madam Sekyiwaa Ahenkorah to pursue that vision.

Whilst thanking the president and the government and people of Ghana for the honour done her, Madam Akua Sekyiwaa Ahenkorah, articulated, As the first female to be appointed as High Commissioner to Malaysia, it is my determination to justify the decision by your government to enhance the involvement of women in the development of this country. I promise to deliver on my mandate in achieving the overall government objective of improving the wellbeing of the people of Ghana.

I am grateful for the confidence reposed in me, and I assure you of my loyalty to the government and people of Ghana in the discharge of my duties.

She pledged to strengthen the already cordial relations not only between Ghana and Malaysia but with missions and countries of concurrent accreditations such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines and explore areas of effective cooperation.

Chief among her objectives, she said, is to drive private sector investment to Ghana to achieve the NPP government's vision of 'One District, One Factory,' 'One Village, One Dam,' 'Planting for food and Jobs' and the overall objective of building a Ghana beyond aid.
Dr. Thomas Mensah Presenting a plaque to Prez Nana Addo

11.01.2018 LISTEN

The Famous Inventor of Fibre Optics; Dr Thomas Mensah on December 20th, 2017 paid a Courtesy visit to the President of Ghana; His Excellency; Nana Addo Danquah, Akuffo Addo during his visit in Ghana to discuss Infrastructure Modernization plans that can move Ghana into to 21st Century. He wanted to brief the President on his meetings with the various Sector Ministers as requested by the President during his New York meeting after the exceptional Speech of the President at the United Nations.

Dr Mensah informed the President that the Minister of Railways and his Deputy must focus on building a High-Speed Rail from the South of the Country, Accra, Takoradi through Kumasi to Tamale near the Northern Border using an approach similar to the one used by Kenya that moves Freight and People. This model will provide a high-speed rail at the cost of $2.8 Billion instead of the $22 Billion needed to Rehabilitate existing antiquated legacy rail system. The System can be built in 3 years by the Chinese.

This System is in line with the President's goal of moving Freight to the Landlocked Countries such as Burkina Faso. These Countries can help pay for this Rail Line to move their containers from Tema to their countries as well as help passenger travel in Ghana. The cost to passengers on the New Rail Line is 50% of the current cost by Bus travel. The other Model used by Ethiopia run on Electricity is equally good.

Morrocco has already attracted three Car manufacturing companies; Renault, Peugeot and BYD of China after building their High-Speed Rail. Ghana can benefit from attracting auto manufacturers in the US and Germany to locate in Ghana and accelerate its One District One Factory Strategy. To provide employment to the youth and other citizens of Ghana.

Dr. Mensah also discussed the Aviation Maintenance Facility to be located in Kumasi. This Facility will service planes from the Entire ECOWAS Region instead of planes travelling to South Africa, Amsterdam and Ethiopia and fits the Sustainable Goals of the President.

Source:Charles Ntiamoah-Mensah/ www.3gmediaonline.com
Does Prof. Avoke, hereinafter referred rightly to as interdicted VC, honestly believe that by sponsoring scare-mongering, smear campaign and creating fear and panic publications, he would return to office as the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW)?

If the interdicted VC was a Professor in the real sense, and a patriotic citizen of this country, he would have either stayed silent and deployed a competent legal team to fight his cause or stay silent, but this time, using only respectable people in society in positions of influence, behind the scenes, to plead with the appropriate authorities to temper justice with mercy.

The short answer to the above 'Prof. Avoke'/Ackorlie/Bekoe, etc sponsored article is that they should go to court and seek an order restraining the Council Chairman and Ag. VC from further interference in the management of the UEW Chapter of the Ghana Universities Staff Superannuation Scheme (GUSSS), if any interference exists in the first place, instead of behaving like brawling street yobs and huffing and puffing around like emotionally disturbed bunch that they really are.

The long answer to the interdicted VC and his rag-tags, is that the award of those contentious contracts was void abnitio, that is, illegal from the on-set, so nothing can change the illegality status of those contracts, therefore, works on the said contracts, remain suspended.

Some brief facts on one of these suspended GUSSS projects, would do at this juncture.

Following the advert for the Construction of the GUSSS Hostel Block - Kumasi Site, 5 bids were received from Santa Baron Ventures Ltd, Ghc 49,809,595.07; Berock Ventures Ltd, Ghc 55,523,963.85; Nickseth Construction Co. Ltd, Ghc 51,959,139.31; Antarctic Contract Works Ltd, Ghc 44,928,829.33; and Proteus Ltd, Ghc 84,887,278.38.

This is where it gets interesting. All five (5) tenderers, were disqualified for failing to meet some or all of the requirements as stipulated in the tender documents.

Antarctic Contract Works Ltd and Proteus Ltd did not even make it to the Evaluation stage, because of a failure to meet some fundamental requirements.

Interestingly, the eventual 'winner' of this contract, was Proteus Ltd, which was not even evaluated, with the highest read-out tender price of Ghc 84,887,278.38.

Magically, this over Ghc 84m read-out tender price of Proteus Ltd, which was not considered for Evaluation, was awarded the contract in question, based solely on the conjured 'Prof. Avoke'/Ackorlie read-out tender price of Ghc 45,719,523.56.

The answers required from the interdicted VC and Ackorlie are: Based on what relevant laws of this country, was the read-out Tender Price of Proteus Ltd, drastically reduced from over Ghc 84m, to just over Ghc 45m?

Secondly, even though awarding the said contract to Antarctic Contract Works Ltd, would have been illegal because it was also not evaluated, and subsequently disqualified, Antarctic Ltd, had the lowest read-out Tender Price of Ghc 44,928,829.33.

Why was this contract not awarded to Antarctic Contract Works Ltd?

Over to you 'Prof. Avoke'/Ackorlie/Bekoe/Nsoh/Jinapor/Quarshie/Dusu Jnr/Kaakyire/Adhzalie/Agbevivi/Ziga, etc.

Was it the Council Chairman or the Ag. VC who asked the interdicted VC and his hired 'assassins' to illegally award this contract to Proteus Ltd?

Face the facts, NOT baseless and unsubstantiated, dreamed up and cooked stories.

The interdicted VC and his blind followers, owe a duty to discerning Ghanaians to explain why in a previous article released by Prof. Victor K. Owusu on 3rd November 2017 and titled, "Kennedy Agyepong's Useless Rantings on UEW Impasse", and published on modernghana, (https://www.modernghana.com/news/814287/kennedy-agyapongs-useless-ranting-on-uew-impasse.html) Prof. Victor K. Owusu, one of ghost names deployed by the interdicted VC to do his dirty bidding, stated emphatically: "Let it be known to him (Kennedy Agyepong) that if it is the GUSSS projects he is targeting then he is in for a long haul. This is a private voluntary pension scheme of its own board. It has nothing to do with the public and any attempt to play with it will lead to massive withdrawal and thus total collapse of the scheme". Emphasis mine.

In the article that has warranted this rejoinder and authored by the same faceless psychopaths of the interdicted VC (this sounds cool as compared to an Associate Professor or Pro-VC), Eric Appiah among several others stated: "Now this pension scheme is under serious threat and imminent danger. The government needs to act quickly". The government that was advised by the same interdicted VCs foot soldiers to stay off the GUSSS, is now being asked by Bekoe "to act quickly" to save the GUSSS.

Reasonable Ghanaians require some clarification from the interdicted VC with regards to this change in his camp's position towards the GUSSS. For example, the law that has recently been enacted, amended or repealed, between 3rd November 2017 and 9th January 2018, that probably served as the basis for this shift in their GUSSS policy stand, that is, the latest call on the government to save the GUSSS.

This is what will make the interdicted VC regain some credibility in the eyes of most Ghanaians.

Addressing the Council Chairman as 'Associate Professor' or the Ag. VC as Pro-VC, has no impact at all whatsoever in their capacities to perform their legal duties. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge the legal authority of the Council Chairman and the Ag. VC, can see Dr. Atintono for counselling.

The interdicted VC and his sidekicks continue to cry foul that they did no wrong, even in the face of these damning revelations being churned out by the son of the upright peasant farmer. If so, why the recent contact with Lord Commey, Director of Operations at the seat of government, imploring him to plead with the Hon. Alexander Afenyo Markin, to spare them the ordeal of going to jail?

It is provided under section 22 (3), of the Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663) as amended: Any requirement established pursuant to this section stated in the tender documents or other documents for invitation of proposals shall apply equally to the tenderers".

It was a requirement of the tender documents that all tenderers (equal application of the law) should submit financial statements for the past three (3) years and proof of line of credit among several other requirements. Proteus Ltd failed to submit financial statements for the last three (3) years, and also failed to submit proof of line of credit, and yet was awarded the contract for the Construction of the GUSSS Hostel Block - Kumasi Site.

Section 22 (4) of Act 663 as amended, goes further to provide that: "The procurement entity shall evaluate the qualifications of candidates in accordance with the criteria and procedures stated in the documents referred to in subsection (3)".

The documents here refer to the tender documents, and the procedure refers to doing due diligence on receipt of tenders, by scrutinising the documents submitted by tenderers to ensure compliance with advertised requirements and going further to consider the price quotations to ensure value for money.

Section 22 (3) and (4) of Act 663 as amended, were clearly breached by the interdicted VC and Ackorlie in the award of the said contract. Probably their decision was based on an unknown Procurement Law in Ghana, therefore, to stop the son of upright peasant farmer from making further noise that the interdicted VC and his battalion of nation looters circumvented Act 663 as amended in the award of several contracts, they only have to quote that law, and rest their case. Is this too demanding for a so-called 'Fool Professor' with an 'impeccable' record?

To wind up, I implore the interdicted VC and his doomed course, to look in my Accra residence for the documents (Consultant's Reports) that they vainly sought to steal from my office at the south campus.

The stand fan, microwave oven and the footwear that were taken away have no effect on me.

As at 5pm on Wednesday, January 10th 2018, five (5) different friends had already promised to replace the stolen items with brand new products. The interdicted VC and his bunch of selfish individuals should write useless articles urging the friends not to replace those items for me. The stealing of a radio set and an extension board in another colleague's office to disguise the theft as random and not a targeted one aimed at only me, can only be bought by the interdicted VC and his defeated lieutenants.

I am not stupid like the interdicted VC and his gang, to keep such documents in the office.

The course some of us are defending cannot be derailed by thefts, threats, injury or death. There are several extremists in the wings, so eliminating the son of the upright peasant farmer, would NOT put an end to the cleansing of the rot at UEW.

Suffice is to say that the death of Osama Bin Laden hasn't ended terrorism in the world.

The agenda of the interdicted VC to flood the media of his lack of legal arguments articles, and therefore, bog me down in terms of responding, is short-sighted.

It is NOT flooding the media with smear campaign articles that will free the interdicted VC from the mess he has roped himself in. Sound and solid legal arguments is the remedy.

I can give one short and clever answer to all the mad rantings of the interdicted VC sponsored smear campaign articles, that is, "go to court", to borrow the words of Dr. Afari Djan.

Alhassan Salifu Bawah

(son of an upright peasant farmer)
11.01.2018 LISTEN

Trust is an essential tool in life and since no individual can do everything by himself we will always need others to help us achieve our goals.

You therefore need people you can trust and the more delicate the job the most trusted person you need and one of such persons is the WATCHMAN.

He must be someone you can really really trust since you need him most when you are half dead or let me use the right word fast asleep.

The Watchman knows when you leave home and knows when you get back in fact he sometimes washes and park your cars when you are probably out of the country.

The basic work of the watchman therefore is to protect you and prevent burglars from breaking into your home.

Now if the watchman become the burglar that breaks into your home you can imagine what will be left of you, trust me nothing because he knows when to break in and knows where every item is situated including your waist n power bitters in fact he will sweep the whole compound and leave safely without any trace.

This is what our Creative industry is now suffering from, our watchmen have become the burglars and it's so pathetic, they have no principles, they have no shame and they define that "stupidly" as smartness.

Just like Esua sold his birthright to Jacob for york3gari because of hunger our fore bearers have sold our rights to our neighbours called Naija in exchange for their peanuts that only satisfies their greedy & selfish pockets.

Every industry has fore bearers and if those people are weak any smart business man will walk into that industry buy them and take control of that industry.

From day one we have never complained of Naija songs entering into our system until it was being institutionalised and that's when those who see into the future started complaining.

Under the institution of marriage Ghana Music Awards was introduced and it was owned by a Nigerian and anytime we complained the excuse was that he is married to a Ghanaian. Anyone who complained bitterly about the scheme was eliminated and am looking forward to perhaps an elimination at the end of this writeup . Worse of all a couple of institutions were also eliminated and one of such was the Producers Association of Ghana and no one came to their defence.

Musiga a body that is suppose to be the leader has become a follower for fear of also being eliminated and all this is happening because we have been sold by our fore bearers.

Fact is no serious country will sit down for another country to host it's biggest awards except Ghana, ask around.

Obviously if they are investing in it then they will put their interest first so every year a new breed of their Acts are injected into our system.

They fly them in, pay them good money to perform fly them out and peanuts is given to our local acts down here. Now their Acts are so rich and indeed buying some of our Acts on credit.

Another way they tried introducing their comedians into our system was via a concept called "a night of a 1000 laughs" which had majority of the comedians coming from Naija but thanks to our comedians they have managed to stop that "foolishness" NOT because they are funnier than them BUT made them realise that this is our territory. Most of our comedians now have jobs to do.

One concept that I cannot till date understand is the Ghana Meets Naija concert which is held every year in Ghana.

They bring their artist down here in the name of competition and before they leave back to their country their music is left here. One will wonder why we have never had Ghana meets Ivory Coast or Ghana meets Togo or Ghana meets Zambia or Naija meets Ghana so we can also send our Artist to Nigeria to market them but it's always Ghana meets Naija in Ghana in fact the last one that was held out of Ghana was held in a Ghanaian community in London and I guess only Empire Ent. can help us understand this one sided concept.

The last one that broke the camels back is the recently held CAF awards in Ghana which had 7 Artist from Naija and 2 artist from Ghana.

With the Ghanaian Artist 1 sung the national Anthem so no one knew who she was, the second one sung to empty chairs and the third one realised he was being underpaid so he took the money, stayed at home and played PS4.

CAF had requested for a regional balance which did not happen and has therefore asked for investigation into why all the artist came from one country and not even the host country.

According to the Artist booking agent the committee had proposed more Ghanaian Artists for the program since it was being held here but our Forebearers deleted our names and left the names of their paymasters there.

They paid the Naija Acts in the range of $100,000 and 130,000 and paid our GH Acts in the range of $1,000 and $30,000 for the same platform and isn't that ironic.

The only way Shatta realised he was being ripped of by our own people was because he was at the same CAF awards in Naija last year and he was paid far more than what our people were presenting to him this year in his own country.

He said last year he was paid months before the program and his ridder had been sent and arrangements made before the main day but here our people just informed him 2days before the program and tried to convince him with some money. So the question right now is where is the balance of the monies if any but let's wait for the CAF findings.

One shocking news was when Juliet Ibrahim was told at the program by one of the organiser that she was the one suppose to have co hosted the program with Drogba but when they inquired for her number our forebearers said they had no idea so they had to fly someone in from south Africa wow it's shocking because last year when CAF held it in Naija their people over there were able to get in touch with Juliet, fly her in, pay her well and fly her back but in her own country her own people couldn't locate her wow this is PHD to the highest level and it's pure madness a case of eb3ko goal dier ka nk) corner.

As for the Major sponsors AITEO I will not blame them since every smart businessman will always love to work with morons he can cheat because if you can sell a commodity that can cost me $100,000 for $1,000 so I can give you some commission won't I be happy?

Like I said CAF says they are investigating and AITEO has rendered a wanzamic apology, also that booking agent who does not sign contracts and does not have the riders of the Artist he books has also apologised.

We are yet to receive even a Useless apology from our own people who ripped us off and created this mess to the extent that they allowed Naija to serve the water under the program and we all know that water is under the national security and therefore must not be handled by just anybody not to talk of a foreign national but it happened right under the nose of the President of the Country.

I know that yes they will not apologise because they do not and will never respect us because we have allowed it. I guess we now know why Naija songs keep dominating here even though we keep calling for its play to be reduced.

I believe Ghana must not leave the investigation to CAF alone but must also investigate it as well.

Moving forward I believe this modern day slavery by these forebearers and slave masters must end.

The government also has a major role to play since what happened here with the CAF awards was supposed to be under the National Commission on Culture, Min of Tourism, Ghamro, Musiga and a proper and legal Creative Arts Council and the rest but because they the government have rendered these sectors handicapped we ended up Not showing our Culture but rather a different countries culture.

Musiga must also wake up from their laziness and take charge since most of our Artist are loosing monies due to their laziness.

Yes our major awards over the years have been organised by a foreigner I believe it's time we owned it and I believe Ghamro, Musiga, Publishers and all the stakeholders have a major role to play in this

In conclusion we must make all the necessary institutions work including the immigration service so that work permits are acquired before people come in to transact business in order to protect our musicians and to also eliminate Selfish forebearers Senior Payola takers from the system.

The Watchman must now be arrested.

#VhimMoveMent
EDMUND KYEI, a Communication Member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has descended heavily on ex-President John Dramani Mahama, accusing him of leaving behind a total mess.

According to him, the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, led by Mr. Mahama, had been characterized by mismanagement and excessive corrupt acts by top government functionaries.

He opined that Mr. Mahama's poor leadership style had led to the high rate of unemployment among the youth, a weak Cedi, hopelessness and total hardship among the Ghanaian populace.

Mr. Kyei nicknamed 'Edmundo', stated that luckily for Ghanaians, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP, won the 2016 polls, which helped to save the country from sinking further through the NDC's poor leadership.

According to him, President Akufo-Addo had used a chunk of his first year at the presidency to introduce pragmatic policies and programmes to clear the huge mess that Mr. Mahama had left behind.

The NPP communicator therefore admonished Mr. Mahama to desist from casting insinuations on President Akufo-Addo because Nana Akufo-Addo is rapidly clearing the mess that he (Mahama) left behind.

Speaking in an interview with the DAILY GUIDE, Edmundo, who is the Asokwa Communications Director of the NPP, said I am highly surprised about the weird attitude of Mr. Mahama and his supporters, so far.

You were voted to manage the affairs of the state and you failed miserably, leaving behind adverse poverty and total mess; luckily Nana Akufo-Addo is solving the problems that you left behind for Ghanaians.

Ideally, Mr. Mahama should have bowed his head in shame, kept mute and even offer support to Nana Akufo-Addo for gradually returning the country onto the path of prosperity and hope, once again.

But sadly, Mr. Mahama is doing the contrary as he has started organizing Unity Walks for the NDC, which he has been using to spill venom and invectives on Nana Akufo-Addo and his administration.

Edmundo, without mincing words, stated that the NDC is now a divided party, which is very weak from the foundation to the top, so he urged Mr. Mahama to use his energy to heal the lame horse NDC party.

According to him, President Akufo-Addo and his team of competent appointees, has the wherewithal to fix all the rot that Mr. Mahama and his team of incompetent ministers had left behind, after eight years of mismanagement.

In this regard, Edmundo stated categorically that Nana Akufo-Addo and his Veep, Dr. Bawumia, are focused and determined to restore hope to the state so Mr. Mahama's distractive acts would not succeed.
The Sunyani Technical University (STU) will offer twenty (20) new 4-Year Bachelor of Technology programmes as from the 2018/2019 academic year. Besides, preparations are underway to begin one Masters Programme (M-Tech in Construction Management) this year.

This follows the completion of assessment by the National Accreditation Board (NAB) about the universitys preparedness to start 4-Year B-Tech programmes.

The University is currently running eleven Top-up Bachelor of Technology programmes.

This was contained in an address delivered by the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Ing. Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, at the maiden Home-coming summit held in Sunyani.

He said enrolment for 2017/2018 academic year increased by 45% over the previous academic years figure.

Ing. Adinkrah-Appiah said the university issued admission letters to 3,101 prospective students to pursue various programmes in the University ahead of the 2017/2018 academic year.

From this number, 2,226 accepted the offer. I am happy to inform you that this year has seen an appreciable increase in students enrolment. Student enrolment which stood at 1,532 last year, has improved to 2,226, this year, a total of 2,226 students were matriculated, representing a 45% increase over last years figure, he added.

The Vice-Chancellor attributed the increase in the enrolment to the new 2-Year Top-Up B-Tech programmes that were introduced at the beginning of this academic year, since it came to give academic progression relief to our HND graduates.

Touching on academic collaborations, Ing. Adinkrah-Appiah said the University had signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with two Universities in Germany and the USA respectively.

The MoUs focus on Academic Exchange programmes between the STU and the UMES, Maryland, USA and Fochoschole Dortmund, in Dortmund, Germany to exchange faculty staff and students. In the arrangement, students will be allowed to take at least a semester in Germany or Maryland in the USA and their credits will be transferred to the STU when they come back. Students on our Pharmacy Technician programme, after completion, will also have the opportunity to enroll on a 3-year Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm-D) programme at the UMES, USA, to be able to practice as professional Pharmacist after their training.

Also, summer vacation employment has been arranged for Tourism and Hospitality students of STU at Ocean city in Maryland, USA, a world class tourism centre, to help them gain practical experience and international exposure in the Hospitality and Tourism industry starting from June, 2018.

The Department of Agric will also have the opportunity to send 6 staff to the UMES for training under the sponsorship of a US federal governments sponsorship.

On infrastructural development on campus, the Vice-Chancellor disclosed that two laboratories had been constructed for the Dispensing Technician Programme which are Chemistry and Pharmaceutics laboratories with a microbiology laboratory still under construction whilst a water laboratory is about to start for the Civil Engineering Department.

Besides, work on the Science Park Project is on course but due to delay in payment by the GETFund; work has slowed down.

The 1st Phase for the completion of the 2-storey Stores Block Project for the Development Office has been done and the 2nd Phase has also commenced.

Richard Kofi Boahen, Sunyani
GHL Bank has signed up for the world's largest remittance service, Western Union Money Transfer in the build-up to become the foremost bank for wealth creation.

GHL Bank, which was launched recently in Accra, has joined many partners of Western Union to provide a fast, reliable, secure and convenient way of remitting funds from the country and abroad to beneficiaries.

Executive Director of Business at GHL Bank, Kojo Addo-Kufuor stated in an interview that Western Union offers one of the easiest ways by which family and friends can send and receive money and stay connected to their loved ones.

With over 437,000 agent locations worldwide, Western Union is definitely one of the institutions to partner in creating the platform to conveniently serve our clients.

With a robust banking system, GHL Bank will expand its frontiers to enable as many partners to drive the bank's focus for digital and convenient banking in Ghana.

Our reliable technology customer centric platform and excellent customer service ensures fast and efficient receipt of funds from abroad. The good thing about this is that, you don't need a bank account to receive money from anywhere in Ghana, Mr. Addo-Kufuor said.

Non-resident clients servicing mortgage facilities with GHL Bank can now do so with Western Union, irrespective of where they are in the world.

With an unrivalled customer service, customers can be assured of swift seamless transaction with minimal traffic and waiting time in the banking hall.
A Republic state is defined as a state in which the supreme power is not inherited, but rather rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote, and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them. Others also define it as a type of government that has no king, queen or other monarchy, and where the people are sovereign. Every Republic has its constitution.

Ghana attained her independence in March, 1957, but she was not considered a Republic until she attained her Republican status in 1st July, 1960 after various negotiations with the Queen of Great Britain. Actually, Ghana was not deemed to be a Republic between March, 1957 and July, 1960 because she was still under a partial control of Great Britain's Monarchical system of government, and as such did not make her a Sovereign State because the Queen was still her Ceremonial Head. Example: Laws passed by Parliament of Ghana had to be assented to/accepted by the Queen before they could be used.

In all, Ghana has experienced four different Republics.

The First (1st) Republic of Ghana started from July, 1960 and had the Convention People's Party (CPP) with its leader Kwame Nkrumah as the first party elected under it. It was guided by the 1960 Republican Constitution. This constitutional/democratic form of governance lasted until it was overthrown through a coup in 1966, meaning it only lasted for about six (6) years.

The 1st Republic was overthrown through a coup d'etat in 1966 by the National Liberation Council (NLC) headed by Lieutenant General Joseph Arthur Ankrah. Lt. Gen. Ankrah was later replaced by Lt. Gen. Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa. Ghana then came under an NLC Military form of governance/Military Junta until it paved way for general elections in 1969.

The Second (2nd) Republic started in 1969. The People's Party (PP) under the leadership of Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia won the first election under it. After the election, Dr. Busia became the Prime Minister and Edward Akufo-Addo became its Ceremonial President. It was guided by the 1969 Republican Constitution. This democratic form of governance lasted until it was overthrown through a coup in 1972, meaning it only lasted for less than three (3) years, it was approximately about two and a half years.

The 2nd Republic was overthrown by the National Redemption Council (NRC) under the leadership of Colonel Ignatius Koto Acheampong through a coup d'etat in 1972. He headed the military form of governance of Ghana until he was overthrown through a Palace Coup in 1978 by the Supreme Military Council (SMC) headed by General Fredrick Akuffo. He also ruled for only about a year then he was overthrown by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) headed by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings in June, 1979. Flt. Lt. Rawlings allowed for general elections in September, 1979.

The Third (3rd) Republic started from September, 1979, it was guided by the 1979 Republican Constitution. The People's National Party (PNP) under the leadership of Dr. Hilla Limann won the first election under it. This democratic form of governance lasted until it was overthrown through a coup on 31st December, 1981, meaning it lasted for only about two (2) years.

The 3rd Republic was overthrown by the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) under the leadership of Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings through a coup d'etat on 31st December, 1981. His military form of governance lasted until 7th January, 1993 despite him paving way for general elections in November and December, 1992. Before the November and December, 1992 general elections, a referendum in April, 1992 was held under the watch of Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings to verify whether the citizens of Ghana either wanted a military or a constitutional form of governance, and also the approval of the 1992 Constitution that had been drafted.

The Fourth (4th) Republic started on 7th January, 1993, and as at the time this article was written (January, 2018), there has been no obstruction to it, meaning it has lasted for twenty-five (25) years. It is guided by the 1992 Republican Constitution. So far (as at January, 2018), there have been 7 successive governments under this republic, below is the list;

1993- H.E J John Rawlings (NDC)

1997- H.E J John Rawlings (NDC)

2001- H.E John A Kufuor (NPP)

2005- H.E John A Kufuor (NPP)

2009- H.E John A Mills (NDC)

2013- H.E John D Mahama (NDC)

2017- H.E Nana A Dankwa (NPP)

According to the 1992 Republican Constitution, each person has a maximum of two (2) terms/tenure [eight (8) years] to lead the country as its President, with a four (4) years duration for each tenure.

A careful analysis of the table above shows that only two political parties [National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP)] have ruled under this republic sequentially in an eight (8) years interval. The table again indicates that H.E John Mills and H.E John Mahama (both belong to NDC) have only finished one of their two terms they are entitled to, H.E Mills died and H.E Mahama did not get the nod for the second time as the people failed to re-elect him. It also happened to them in a sequence, first was H.E Mills and immediately after him, it happened to H.E Mahama. The 4th Republic is yet to experience a political party govern for only four (4) years or twelve years or more before its removal from power.

More over, there have been many assumptions as to what might have caused Flt. Lt. Rawlings to allow for a change of rule from a Military one to a Democratic one, but below are some of mine;

i. International pressure from United Nations (UN), the Bretton wood institutions and other super powers like United States of America (USA) and Britain.

ii. Local pressure from groups like Movement for Freedom and Justice(MFJ), other Civil Society Organisations (CSO), Catholic Bishops Conference, Christain Council of Ghana, other Religious Organisations, and individuals like Prof. Adu Boahen, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Kweku Baako, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Rev. Amoako, Archbishop Peter Kwasi Sarpong, Johnny Hansen and others.

iii. The regional forums organised from 1990 by the National Commission for Democracy (NCD) to solicit for the citizens' views on what kind of rule they wanted, and its subsequent approval of the 1992 constitution and the appropriate kind of governance the people wanted through the April, 1992 referendum.

[Referendum: when a legislative act is referred for final approval through a popular vote by the electorate]

iv. The acceptance by H.E Jerry John Rawlings to allow for a change from a military to a democratic form of governance.

Further more, from my point of view, below are what might had demotivated or prevented, or may be demotivating or preventing a coup d'etat from 1st January, 1982 through to the time this article was written (January, 2018), especially under the 4th Republic;

i. The inclusion of some members of the former ruling party, the former opposition parties, technocrats and others such as H.E Kufuor, Hon. Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah, Prof. Kwesi Botchwey, Mr Harry Sawyerr, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu by Flt. Lt. Rawlings in his military form of governance from 31st December, 1981-7th January, 1993.

ii. Most International and local laws are not in favour of coup d'etat and military form of governance.

iii. The tolerance and vibrancy of the opposition political parties and the citizens of Ghana.

iv. The liberalism, independence and vibrancy of the media.

v. The intensive and extensive education of the citizens by the CSO, Media, National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Schools, Family, Friends, International Organisations and others on the bad effects of coup d'etat and military form of governance.

Hhhmm, may God be praised always

Nana Kwadwo Akwaa

00233246913905 / 00233209676413

Member, Critical Thinkers International (CTI)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

i. Sumani S.Sunaba

HOD: Social Science Department-SESHIS

(Political Analyst)

ii. Boateng Richard K D

(Political Watcher)

iii. Sir Charles Gyasi Berkoh

(Historian)

iv. Adiepena Mirekua-Akwaa

Member of CTI, NPP Activist, Political Pundit, Feminist Advocate

REFERENCE

i. List of heads of state of Ghana, Wikipedia

ii. Republic, Merriam-Webster

iii. Republic, Simple English Wikipedia

iv. Republic, Dictionary-English, Apple App Store
As an alumnus of UEW I know the corruption that was planted like a tree by few unscrupulous charlatans who thought that UEW was their patrimonial inheritance. When I was a student on campus I cautioned authorities to be mindful of their criminal dealings which were detected by some of us but because they were bent on plundering and spinning the university funds, they turned a deaf ear to it.

-Why would a Search Committee for the appointment of VC allow CY Mensah and Theophilus Akorlie to manipulate them with bribes and appoint a joke of Professor-Leader Avoke?

-Why did Akorlie and Avoke and CY Mensah seek the intervention of Allotey Jacobs to perform gymnastics at Flagstaff House to influence the appointment of Avoke?

-Why did the VC, FO & Registrar travel monthly on business class and claim $10,000 EACH at UEW expense?

-Why did the top Management secretly take 5% of interest on investment of public funds?

-Why was Management constantly buying Mercedes Benz and land cruisers when there were no students hostels and lecturers offices?

-Why were the payments of lecturers claims unduly and deliberately delayed?

-Why did UEW continue to flout Procurement and other laws of Ghana in doing business?

Today an assemblyman and a citizen of Ghana is teaching those bandits a reasonable lesson which they will never forget in their lives.

Yesterday I read an article that was attributed to one Victor K. Owusu and I must declare that, a time will come when the title professor" will not command any respect in our society. Why on earth should a professor throw his intelligence away in such a cheap manner? I have resisted many attempts to describe him as somebody who might have been suffering from *multiple personality disorder*. After reading his senseless article yesterday, l think I am in a better position to refer to him as such. People like his calibre should not be part of the academia. I cannot understand why a "professor" cannot go ahead and speak to the substance of the issue currently hanging on the necks of the embattled VC and the FO but will quickly resort to attacks on the acting VC and the lawyer who represented his client in court in getting those people interdicted by the university council and the high court.

The case was about appointments by defunct Governing Council and procurement irregularities and l expected Prof. Victor K. Avea Owusu to have maturely done justice to the issue by countering what is already in the public domain which has criminal elements attached. Kofi Supi Kwayera has indeed done well and l want to assure him that, some of us will continue from where the matter has gotten to as alumni of UEW.

I am patiently waiting for the report from the Fact Finding Committee of the University Governing Council and at the end of the day, the establishment of criminal misconducts on the part of the interdicted individuals will see them stand trial at the law court. Mawutor Avoke and Theophilus Akorlie should start real fasting and prayers because, the positive vibration will soon hit their "roof top"

Dawda Eric( Equity)

Citizen for vigilance

An alumnus of UEW

11th January,2018
Majority of Ghanaian voters applaud and back the government's decision to create the Office of the Special Prosecutor as part of efforts to curb corruption in the country, a research by the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana has revealed.

Out of 5,000 voters polled in 250 constituencies across the country in 2017, 3,000, representing 64 per cent, described the creation of the Office of the Special Prosecutor as a step in the right direction.

The respondents, however, called on the government to adequately resource the office to enable it to perform its mandate effectively and efficiently.

The research, which involved 25 researchers, was conducted mainly to gauge Ghanaian voters' assessment of the incumbent government's performance in terms of its ability to implement its policies and programmes to raise the living standards of Ghanaians.

It also assessed the commitment of the citizens to participate in democratic processes, as well as the extent to which the opposition parties had performed their functions, especially in holding the government accountable.

Dissemination

The department held a forum in Accra on Wednesday to disseminate the results of the research.

The forum, which was on the theme: Assessing democratic governance in Ghana: what the voters say, was sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, a German political foundation.

In a presentation on the findings of the research, the Head of Department of the Political Science Department, Dr Bossman Asare, said: At the national level, it appears that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) enjoyed 100 per cent backing of the voters for the Office of the Special Prosecutor, while voters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) appear they won't vote for it.

But on the ground, the rank and file of both political parties considered that the creation of the office is a step in the right direction, for which reason they will support it.

He stated that while the voters strongly believed that the office would be able to address corruption in Ghana, they expressed mixed feelings about its character.

Half of the respondents said the Office of the Special Prosecutor was not established to hunt down enemies of the NPP, 26.4 per cent were indifferent and 21.6 per cent said it would not be used for witch-hunting purposes, he said.

On whether to pursue corrupt officials of the incumbent government, Dr Asare said 41.1 per cent of the respondents from both the NPP and NDC believed the Office of the Special Prosecutor would scare potential fraudsters from engaging in corruption and the office would not serve the interest of the government but the nation as a whole.

New regions

With regard to the government's intention to create new regions, Dr Asare indicated that majority of Ghanaian voters, representing 54.6 per cent of the respondents, approved the creation of new regions, while 64.6 per cent considered it necessary.

Although the numbers are not overwhelming, we think Ghanaians have given the government the mandate to create additional regions, with 31.6 and 30 per cent believing it would enhance efficiency and foster development respectively, he said.

Dr Asare noted that response to the government's popularity showed that there were still issues the government needed to address to meet the aspirations of the people.

He indicated, however, that when voters were asked which political party they would vote for if elections were held this year, he said, Fifty-two per cent said they vouched for the NPP and 33 per cent said they would vote for the NDC.

Economy

Dr Asare further stated that the respondents were divided in their opinions concerning the improvements in the economy, adding that: It is not a good omen to the government's management of the economy.

Only 44.9 per cent of the respondents said they had observed improvement over the past one year, while 42.6 per cent discounted any claims of economic improvement, he explained.

He indicated that 45 per cent of the respondents said they had not seen changes in their living conditions since last year, while 27 per cent said living standards had become bad.

Additionally, he pointed out that no clear majority was recorded for the government's efforts to change the unemployment situation in the country.
The war of ideas is a Greek invention. It is one of the most important inventions ever made. Indeed, the possibility of fighting with words and ideas instead of fighting with swords is the very basis of our civilisation, and especially of all its legal and parliamentary institutions. - Karl Popper

I don't actually subscribe to the view that power corrupts. But absolute power when secured on the back of massive parliamentary majorities, which don't reflect the balance of political opinion in the country, corrupts absolutely. - Charles Kennedy

DO INDULGE ME, AND BE I INDULGED for taking the reader back into time for using words that are old and archaic, and do not bring bread to the table. I do this, because I am a student and teacher of language (s), including English, and sometimes some of the words get regurgitated: they, get expelled from the brain, not the oesophagus, and I would like to share them, because I am kind. Look at 2018 Cometh; 2017 Wendeth. In modern English, it may be rendered as 2018 Comes; 2017 Goes. So, you see the origin of the past tense of 'go' (went); In old English, 'to wend' has the third-person singular simple present as 'wends', (he wends). 'Spake' is the past tense of 'speak', and nothing stops the dear reader from substituting 'spoke' for it: 'speak' is from Old English 'specan': to speak, utter words or hold a discourse with other persons. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Israel that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea And the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore criest thou unto me.

25 And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire 26. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians. (Exodus 14 King James Version).

The speaker of Parliament, by Article 95 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, 1992, shall be elected by the Members of Parliament from among persons who are Members of Parliament or who are qualified to be elected as Members of Parliament. He is expected to carry out his functions moderating debates in a pluralistic parliament, making rulings on procedure, announcing the results of voting et all. He is assisted in the performance of his function by two deputies. Even though the present Speaker is from the NPP, he is expected to be fair to all (other party members) and be unbiased, in his judgements.

In a resolution championed by Alhaji Muntaka and Okudjeto Ablakwa, they chided the Ministry of Trade and Industry for involving itself in the 'sale' of seats to foreign men of industry, during an award ceremony. They requested the speaker to summon an emergency meeting of Parliament last Friday, and the speaker did exactly that.

There was a heated debate. Muntaka prayed the house to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the matter. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, the Majority Leader, thought the letter addressed to the speaker showed 'a clear case of misrepresentation' where it was stated that the underlisted persons had appended their signature; but the signatures were missing.

But the Speaker upheld the view of the minority, saying that the issues raised were 'procedural irregularities' that could be corrected. The Speaker announced: We should be careful of the rights provided us so that it does not become a tool for promoting that which is frivolous, vexatious or otherwise an abuse of the process of Parliament, Our good nature cannot be allowed to sink into insecurity and confusion, and that is why I have allowed this to come on notwithstanding the incompetence and irregularities. 'A Daniel come to judgment' as in Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice': A Daniel come to judgment! Yea, a Daniel! O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!

The Speaker would not 'teach bloody instructions' Macbeth says: If it were done when 'tis done then 'twere well it was done quickly But in these cases we still have judgment here, that we but teach bloody instructions, which being taught, return to plague th' inventor

A five-member committee, comprising three NPP members (Ameyaw Kyeremeh, Majority Chief Whip, as the Chairperson, Dr. Assibey Yeboah, The Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, MP for Adentan) and two NDC members (James Klutsey Averdzie, Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Ayine, MP for Bolganta East).

In his inaugural address on 7th January, 2017, Professor Mike Oquaye had announced: Those who sit in front should please learn to look behind them to allow others to contribute and remember that whereas they cannot normally see from the back of their heads, I have been placed on this platform so that everyone can catch my eye. I intend to be fair to all and, therefore, seek your understanding in advance. There is, however, the need to be guided by high ethical consideration so that we do not relapse into ultra majoritarianism, a symptom of the tyranny of the Majority.

You and I were not there when Thomas de Hungerford became the first Speaker in the Parliament of England in 1377, but some of us were there when Honourable Emmanuel Charles Quist (Paa Quist) another fine gentleman like Mike Oquaye from Osu, Accra was running the show as Ghana's first Speaker of Parliament. Having been born before independence, I could recall the song sung in his hour: 'Mmra-nim-foc Quist'.

As an alumnus of Akuafo Hall, the honourable Speaker is enthused about the Motto of Legon Hall Cui Multum datum est, Multum sperandum, a pick from St. Luke's Gospel Chapter 12:48: But he that knew not and did not commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required, and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

Honourable Mike Oquaye has used his discretion reasonably. In so doing, he has proved, just as Jeremy Corbyn advocates, that Parliament is supposed to be serious. It's not a place for jingoistic cheering. Last week, I made mention of 'precedent'; most people were expecting the Speaker, Mike Oquaye, to dismiss the minority petition, the same way as the Speaker in NDC controlled Parliament of the old 'regime' dismissed the then minority petition over the alleged gift of a Ford vehicle by the Burkinabe, Djibril Kanazoe, to President Mahama. That would have been the 'precedent' and nothing would have stopped the Speaker from following the 'precedent'. Someone says even if the majority will have their way, the minority must have their say, after all, we need to counter-balance and check possible excesses and abuses of the exercise of state authority.

Honourable Speaker, Dr. Kaakyire Frimpong and I are proud to have sat at your feet to be tutored in Political Science at the Masters level, specifically: The Military in Politics. We were taught to be tolerant in our role in governance. We are grateful for the privilege of sharing the privacy of your home in Haatso, and of making rough intrusions into your private library. Edmund says in 'King Lear': Thou hast spoken right. 'Tis true. The wheel is come full circle

[email protected]

Africanus Owusu-Ansah
ICM (Ikeja City Mall) is a shopping center located at Alausa in Ikeja, Lagos State. Its the first of its kind on the mainland metropolis of Lagos and includes specialist facilities for department stores, banks, cafes, bars, restaurants and hairdressing/beauty salons as well as a 5-screen cinema for movie viewing pleasure.

There are many reasons why ICM is one of the best things to happen to Lagos but Jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency, shares 4 of these reasons.

Its Easily Accessible

Aside having multiple entrances, ICM is in a relatively centralized location on the Mainland metropolis of Lagos which makes it easier to access from any location on the Mainland. This works well for many considering the center is a hub for engaging and relevant commercial as well as leisure activities (as highlighted earlier).

It's a Hub for Commercial Activities

The shopping center is home to over 90 stores which include restaurants to enjoy varieties of delicious meals, fashion outlets for clothes and accessories shopping, a large groceries store packed full of an array of groceries and household items from different parts of the world, hair and makeup stores, banks, pharmacies, specialist clinics and even spas for catering to your body and health, as well as gadget shops for the sale and repair of varieties of gadgets and gadget accessories, etc.

It's a Great Place to Relax and Unwind with Family and Friends

With so many facilities offering the promise of various interesting and engaging activities, ICM is indeed a great place to meet up with family/friends and have a good time, it was after all created with the aim of becoming a destination point that caters for all members of the family. Be it morning or night, there is something to do at every point in time for every type of person.

Its Home to a Number of Local and International Brands

This is great because it makes it easier to get products directly from the brand owners, thus reducing, if not totally eliminating the risk of purchasing fake or counterfeit items.
11.01.2018 LISTEN

A Corp of medical practitioners from the United States is in the country to extend medical care to children in a number of underserved communities within the Greater Accra region.

The team of about 25 medical personnel, comprising Ophthalmologists, Dentists, and Obstetricians as well General Practitioners (GP), is being supported by local volunteers to deliver healthcare to thousands of households.

The exercise, which commenced in Ashaiman on January 8, was extended to communities in the Ningo-Prampram district, with the support of the Sentse [regent] of Prampram and the MP for the area, Mr Samuel George Nartey.

The group is expected to end its medical mission trip on Saturday with a visit to the Sekondi prison where they will donate sanitary items to female inmates.

Beneficiaries in the Lekpongunor community and its environs on Tuesday, January 9 received attention for various medical conditions including conjunctivitis, worm infestation, ulcers, and malaria, among others. They were also given free dental and ophthalmological care.

This is an annual exercise which has run for the past three years and is coordinated by the Amazing Grace Childrens Foundation (AGCF), an America based charity led by Mrs. Gloria Nimo.

The organisation, whose ultimate goal is to help reduce infant and maternal mortality rates in Ghana, is already engaged in an ongoing project to build an ultra-modern Childrens hospital in Prampram towards attaining this goal.

This is a project in which the MP for the area has shown profound interest and is partnering with the traditional authority in the area to bring to fruition.

This hospital, which would be the second such facility in the country after the Princess Marie Louise Childrens Hospital in Accra, would also serve as a research centre for paediatrics in the country.

MrsNimo, speaking to journalists on the third day of the medical outreach held in Lekpongunor, stressed the need for Ghana to increase efforts at reducing infant and maternal mortality to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

She said, in order to have healthy adults in the future, special attention ought to be paid to the medical needs of children and must be top of the health agenda of successive governments.

She bemoaned the alarming rate of infant and maternal mortality in the country, attributing it to the lack of specialized facilities and personnel.

Childrens healthcare is very delicate and requires special attention and training. This, however, seems to be lacking in this country, and our mission is in response to the situation, she said.

Adding: Adults know where to go for specialist care but parents do not know where to take their children for such

She further stressed the need for the establishment of medical facilities across the country to deliver quality healthcare, particularly to women and children, saying that would help Ghana reverse the trend of infant and maternal deaths.

Miss Jessica Jaffe, a volunteer on this years mission told of her excitement at being a part of the exercise and was pleased with the amount of information she had gathered from the communities.

She also said she looked forward to more of such opportunities in the future.

Madam Dora Narh, a nursing mother, expressed her gratitude to the outreach team for giving her child medical care which she otherwise would not have had access to.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Nimo has said her foundation shall work hard to mobilise resources to see to the completion of the hospital.

She has thus called on the government of Ghana, Corporate bodies and other NGOs to come on board to help complete the project.
11.01.2018 LISTEN

I have perused the Evaluation Data and Award Recommendation by the Evaluation Tender Review Panel titled CONSTRUCTION OF GUSS HOSTEL BLOCK-KUMASI SITE. The said evaluation panel finished its work on 22nd April,2016 and submitted report in accordance with the dictates of the Procurement. In the said document, five entities were listed as having submitted their tender for the award of the contracts and were all rejected of due to failure to meet the pre-qualification criteria as stated in section 22(1) of the public procurement Act 2003( Act 663). The companies were Santa Baron Ventures limited, Berock Ventures limited, Nickseth construction company limited , Antatartic construct work limited and Proteus limited. These companies couldnt meet the pre-qualification criteria and for that matter, the tender evaluation panel disqualified them in respect of section 29(1) of the public procurement Act,2003( Act 663).

Interestingly, the VC and FO went ahead to award the contract to Proteus Ltd with the highest tender price even when Proteus had been disqualified by the Evaluation Panel. We have this going on in a public university and when a bold citizen with his lawyer govto court to get the said officers who awarded the contract in a breach and in contravention of the public procurement Act to face the law, people like Prof. Victor K. Owusu and Eric Appiah senselessly attack Hon. Alex Afenyo Markin who only represented his client in court. Since the surrogates of the interdicted personalities dont want to read, let me use the opportunity to refer them to Section 92(1) of the Public Procurement Act Which their paymasters breached for them to know that, indeed their conduct in the media will force some of us to accelerate the criminal prosecution of Mawutor Avoke and his partner in crime Theophilus Akorlie. Let me quote the explicit provisions of the said section here for the attention of readers and especially Avoke and Akorlie:

*Offences relating to Procurement*

92. *(1) Any person who contravenes any provision of this Act commits an offence and where no penalty has been provided for the offence, the person is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 1000 penalty units or a term of imprisonment not exceeding five years or to both*

It will be in the best interest for Avoke and Akolie to advise their surrogates to be careful with the way they are conducting themselves concerning this matter. Their contemptuous attacks against the Winneba High Court judge, Council Chairman and the Acting VC as well as the lawyer for the plaintiff will only land these interdicted individuals in jail. Let me assure them that, I will face them at the office of the special prosecutor to ensure that, they are thrown to jail for acting criminally in the award of the said contract to their cronies.

Dawda Eric( Equity)

Citizen for vigilance

An alumnus of UEW

11th January, 2018
Mali's army is to deploy patrols in an operation to fight jihadists in the country's restive centre, according to documents and sources consulted by AFP, as the government expresses concern over extreme instability in the area.

Newly-appointed Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga said last week "urgent measures" were required to address Al-Qaeda-linked groups who control territory in the area.

The eventual deployment of around 1,000 soldiers is aimed at "assuring the security of people and goods as well as fighting the jihadists," a Malian defence ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A security plan will include foot and motorbike patrols in the community, copying the modus operandi of jihadist networks in the area, according to a document outlining the measures.

Meanwhile a "mobile government" would provide basic services to populations excluded from access by living in at-risk areas, notably in the education sector, the document seen by AFP said.

The defence ministry source said the inclusion of foreign forces operating in the country could not be ruled out, though the United Nations mission, French troops and soldiers from the G5 Sahel nations operating in Mali have not confirmed they would take part.

Long-simmering inter-ethnic tensions have been exploited by Islamists in central Mali as the state has retreated, propogating violence that was once limited to the north.

In March and April 2012, jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda seized control of the arid north of Mali, including celebrated ancient cities such as Gao and Timbuktu, centres of trans-Saharan trade and learning.

The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but large tracts of the country remain lawless.

The UN's Mali mission is the world's most dangerous active deployment, with more than 140 peacekeepers killed since its launch, 89 of them by enemy action.
11.01.2018 LISTEN

The Head Pastor of House of Faith Ministry, Rev. Alfred Nyamekye, has challenged the people of Ghana especially the leadership to surrender the nation to the authority of the Lord God Almighty and his son Christ Jesus.

Doing so according to pastor will make God give Ghana a better future in spite of the numerous promises of doom for the country in 2018.

He said God controls all things and hence surrendering the nation to him would make things better.

Rev. Nyamekye noted that if only the leadership of the nation will not take it into an alliance with idolatry, occultic powers and things that are so demonic, the glory of God would be released unto Ghana.

Rev. Nyamekye made these statements in an interview with some journalists during the launch of his latest book entitled 'The Supreme Jesus, making him known to the nations' in Kumasi.

Speaking about his latest book, he said he has come to the realisation that many pastors and churches have abandoned the core mandate of the church which is the Great Commission.

"Jesus Christ before his ascension gave a commission to the church to take the good news of salvation to the ends of the earth but churches have now become monuments" He stated.

According to Rev Nyamekye who has been in ministry for the past 46 years, most Christians have been preoccupied with either building sophisticated architecturally proven buildings costing millions of whiles the lost world that Jesus died for is abandoned.

'The Supreme Jesus, making him known to the nations' is a book on missions, evangelism and soul winning.

The book is supposed to put some fire in the hearts of believers to rise up to their spiritual responsibilities and take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Rev. Nyamekye encouraged everybody to get a copy of the book saying 'I trust the Holy Spirit to bridge the gap for everyone who reads this book to understand what he has for his children'.
A human-rights lawyer representing English-speaking Cameroonian separatists said Thursday the group had been arrested by Nigeria's secret service and were being held "illegally", calling on the government to probe their disappearance.

Femi Falana said Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the president of the anglophone separatist movement in Cameroon, and nine others were detained at a hotel in Abuja last weekend.

"Armed operatives of the State Security Service (Nigeria's secret service) invaded the venue, abducted our clients and took them away to an undisclosed place," he said.

The intelligence agency has denied any arrests but rumours have swirled about the men's possible whereabouts.

Nigeria's foreign minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Wednesday told reporters he had met the security agencies and said questions remained about the identity of those detained.

"I don't know whether to call it an arrest or it could be people just called in for questioning or whatever. The investigations are ongoing," he said after a cabinet meeting.

Falana, however, called for his clients to be either released from "illegal custody" or charged within 48 hours, threatening court action "to secure the enforcement of their fundamental rights to personal liberty".

The leaders have not been in contact with their families or legal team, he said, adding he had "confirmed" the government in Yaounde had asked Abuja to repatriate the men.

"Our clients are not illegal immigrants in Nigeria as some of them have been granted political asylum by the federal government while others have valid permanent resident status in Nigeria," said Falana.

Refugees arriving

On October 1, the breakaway anglophone movement issued a symbolic declaration of independence for "Ambazonia", claiming autonomy over English-speaking regions in the country.

Cameroon's President Paul Biya fiercely opposes secession and has met the agitation with a crackdown, including curfews, raids and restrictions on travel.

The UN refugee agency on Thursday said it had registered just over 8,000 Cameroonians, who have fled across the border in to Nigeria to escape the violence, since October last year.

Most have been registered in the southeastern state of Cross River, the UNHCR said in a statement.

"The situation could worsen if a solution to the crisis in Cameroon's anglophone region is not found," it added.

"The UNHCR is concerned that as the crisis in Cameroon continues and the government adopts extra security measures, more asylum seekers will arrive.

"Political dialogue is also needed, as it will help end the current crisis."

International monitors say at least 20 and possibly 40 people have been killed in clashes since late September, though the Biya government fiercly disputes the death toll.

The anglophone minority dates to the emergence of Cameroon in 1960-61, as France and Britain wound down their colonies in west Africa.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Thursday he would seek EU help to settle a row over his country's deportation of Sudanese who were allegedly tortured on their return home.

Michel's coalition government has faced an uproar since his immigration minister Theo Francken invited officials from Khartoum in September to identify Sudanese migrants and then deported around a dozen of them.

"I will undertake initiatives at the European level to trigger debate on this subject. This appears fundamental for the future," Michel told the Belgian parliament.

Last month, his government suspended the expulsion of Sudanese without proper documents to allow officials to complete a probe into allegations several deportees were tortured.

Under international law, countries are required to grant asylum to people who can prove they risk persecution if they are sent back to their home countries.

The debate has surged across the European Union in the last three years as it has been gripped with the worst migration crisis since World War II.

Belgium's centre-right coalition government, which includes Flemish separatists like Francken, has faced accusations from the opposition and human rights groups of collaborating with a dictatorship, the government of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and war crimes related to the conflict. He denies the charges.

Fueling the outrage is testimony compiled by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, which alleged several Sudanese were tortured upon their return to Sudan.

The four parties making up the Belgian coalition have rallied behind Francken while the opposition has demanded his resignation and accused Michel of being hostage to the N-VA Flemish separatists.

Michel, a French-speaking Wallon from the liberal party, said he would like the EU to debate article three of the European Convention of Human Rights, which protects people from torture or degrading and inhumane treatment or punishment.

Lawyers have used the article to win Belgian court decisions against their expulsion.
11.01.2018 LISTEN

iWatch Africa fully backs President Akufo-Addos nomination of Martin Amidu as the first Special Prosecutor in his effort to fight corruption in Ghana.

The former Attorney General has demonstrated irrespective of his political leanings an unquestionable impartiality when it comes to the fight against corruption.

Martin Amidu waged a relentless campaign against the payment of questionable judgement debts to individuals and institutions in 2013 and obtained a Supreme Court ruling ordering the retrieval of over 40 million Euros from an international company which had earlier convinced government to pay the said amount.

iWatch Africa is convinced that the appointment of Martin Amidu especially at a time when many Ghanaians seem to have lost confidence in the fight against corruption will restore some hope in a move to reduce he canker to the barest minimum.

He has clearly chosen to put the national interest beyond and above personal gains and we salute him for sticking to and believing in the rightness of his convictions, especially against corruption.

iWatch Africa also commends the President for the decision to nominate the former Attorney General and it is our expectation that Mr. Amidu will continue to demonstrate his professionalism and impartiality in the discharge of his responsibilities after he has received Parliamentary approval.

Director of Policy Analysis

Gideon Sarpong

iWatch Africa
11.01.2018 LISTEN

The nomination of Mr Martin Amidu by the executive for the position of the Special Prosecutor is, indeed, a befitting new year present to all patriotic Ghanaians.

Readers would bear with me that corruption is a serious economic, social, political and moral impediment to nation building. Therefore, corrupt officials must be held accountable at all times without fear or favour.

Corruption, as a matter of fact, is found in all countriesbig and small, rich and poorbut it is in the developing world such as Ghana that its effects are most destructive.

Given the corrosive effect of corruption, no patriotic Ghanaian should ever shrill and thrill over the spate of sleazes and corruption in the country.

Well, it would appear that in Ghana, the justice system more often than not, descends heavily on goat, cassava and plantain thieves, and let go the remorseless criminals who hide behind the narrow political lines.

I must confess, though, I was over the moon when the Supreme Court of Ghana once returned a favourable verdict in the case of Occupy Ghanaversus the Auditor General . The Supreme Court made it clear that the Auditor General is obliged to retrieve the embezzled or stolen funds from the culprits without fear or favour.

Disappointingly, however, , my excitement became ephemeral, like the life span of a fly, when the Auditor General later claimed that some culprits have already returned their loots, albeit without the essential prosecutions.

Obviously, the benign and somewhat ineffective approach would not circumscribe the widespread sleazes and corruptions which have been retrogressing Ghanas advancement thus far.

How on earth would individuals turn away from their misdeeds if the only punishment for stealing public funds is a mere plea to return the loot?

Let us be honest, much as the paradox of exposure is somewhat relevant in the fight against corruption, it is never an isolated tool, it goes hand in hand with prevention and deterrence.

Regrettably, though, the justice system tends to clampdown heavily on goat, cassava and plantain thieves, and more often than not, let go the obdurate criminals who hide behind narrow political colorations.

Well, if we are ever prepared to beseech the fantastically corrupt public officials to only pay back their loots without any further punishment, we might as well treat the goat, plantain and cassava thieves same. For after all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Verily, reported cases of political criminals misdeeds often leave concerned Ghanaians with a gleam of bewilderment.

And what is more, when it comes to the prosecutions of the political criminals, we are often made to believe: the wheels of justice turn slowly, but it will grind exceedingly fine.

Yet we can disappointingly recount a lot of unresolved alleged criminal cases involving political personalities and other civil servants.

Where is the fairness when the political thieves could dip their hands into the national purse as if tomorrow will never come and go scot free, while the goat, cassava and plantain thieves are often locked up?

Indeed, it beggars belief that individuals could form an alliance, create, loot and share gargantuan sums of money belonging to the state and would eventually slip through the justice net.

Well, I will venture to state that the deterrence for political criminals has been extremely disappointing. For, if that was not the case, how come political criminals more often than not go through the justice net, despite unobjectionable evidence of wrong doing?

In fact, some of us cannot comprehend why the people we have entrusted with the national coffers could team up with shifty individuals and steal gargantuan sums of money belonging to the nation without facing any stiff punishment.

Regrettably, despite the fact that corruption slows down the nation building, some corrupt officials are nonetheless bent on siphoning our scarce resources to the detriment of the poor.

Corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organized crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish (UN 2003).

For the poor, women and minorities, corruption means even less access to jobs, justice or any fair and equal opportunity (UNDP 2016).

Let us however keep our fingers cross for the arrival of the indefatigable Martin Amidu and pray that the corrupt public officials are brought to book without fear or favour.

Indeed, it will be gratifying to witness Mr Amidu exerting dint of effort and retrieving most of the stolen monies, which obviously collapsed Ghanas economy.

We are eagerly hoping that Mr Amidu will go after the greedy politicians and other public servants who have shamefully stolen from the national purse.

Of course, the suspects and their apologists will grumble and squall over Mr Amidus lawful interrogations.Nevertheless, there will be no mercy for the wrong doers. We shall claw-back all the stolen monies which were meant for various developmental projects without fear or favour.

Make no mistake, the right antidote to curbing the unbridled sleazes and wanton corruption is through stiff punishments, including the retrieval of all stolen monies, sale of properties and harsh prison sentences.

It is, therefore, our fervent hope that the unwearied Mr Amidu will exert dint of effort and work assertively so as to put tabs on the almost insurmountable battle against the wanton sleazes and corruption that have delayed our development thus far.

K. Badu, UK.
principal residences

properties rented for at least six months of the year

properties that are eligible for one of eight exemptions

With less than a month left before theyre due, some 103,000 Vancouver property owners have submitted empty home tax declarations, according to data from the citys government. The figure represents over half (55%) of all those who are required to declare.The government introduced the measure last year as it sought to boost rental supply and encourage proper use of housing. There are some 25,000 empty and under-occupied properties in the city.Those who fail to declare by the 2 February deadline will have their properties deemed vacant and will be subject to the tax at a rate of 1% of the propertys 2017 assessed taxable value. The owners will also be fined $250 for the non-declaration.In the midst of this affordable housing crisis, Vancouver housing must be for homes first and investments second, said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.With the Empty Homes Tax, we are encouraging the best use of all our housing and working to boost rental supply for people who live and work in Vancouver. With 45% of property owners still required to declare by February 2, we are urging all property owners to submit their declarations as soon as possible.A broad majority (93%) of those who have submitted declarations did so online, compared to those who preferred to use the phone (4%) or submit in person (3%).According to the government, most homeowners will not be subject to the levy, as it does not apply to:
Metro Area Temperature Spread (Degrees Fahrenheit) Winter SFR Price Summer SFR Price Price Decline / Savings Omaha, Neb. 50 $78,100 $115,000 -32.1% Chicago 48 $185,000 $250,000 -26.0% Hartford, Conn. 44 $153,000 $205,500 -25.5% Columbus 43 $131,000 $175,000 -25.1% Seattle 24 $389,500 $517,000 -24.7% Washington, D.C. 42 $265,000 $349,900 -24.3% New York, N.Y. 43 $309,000 $405,700 -23.8% Cincinnati 44 $85,500 $110,200 -22.4% Grand Rapids 47 $110,000 $140,000 -21.4% Minneapolis 56 $163,800 $205,000 -20.1% Buffalo 45 $119,900 $150,000 -20.1% Detroit 46 $132,000 $165,000 -20.0% Kansas City 48 $100,000 $124,900 -19.9% San Francisco 12 $1,037,500 $1,285,000 -19.3% Sacramento 29 $280,000 $345,000 -18.8% Charlotte, N.C. 37 $127,000 $155,000 -18.1% Philadelphia 42 $123,000 $150,000 -18.0% Dallas 39 $167,000 $201,900 -17.3% St. Louis 46 $91,100 $110,000 -17.2% Portland, Me. 27 $286,700 $345,000 -16.9% Salt Lake City 46 $217,800 $261,300 -16.6% Louisville 43 $94,000 $111,600 -15.8% Atlanta 36 $115,000 $135,000 -14.8% Miami 16 $205,000 $240,400 -14.7% Houston 30 $145,000 $168,500 -13.9% Rochester, N.Y. 45 $120,000 $138,800 -13.5% San Jose 20 $823,500 $950,000 -13.3% Providence, R.I. 42 $200,300 $230,000 -12.9% Raleigh, N.C. 38 $169,000 $192,500 -12.2% Boston 44 $290,000 $330,000 -12.1% Pittsburgh 43 $75,200 $85,000 -11.5% Las Vegas 41 $208,500 $235,000 -11.3% Memphis 41 $81,000 $91,200 -11.2% Tampa 23 $120,000 $135,100 -11.1% Nashville 40 $156,500 $175,000 -10.6% Milwaukee 50 $100,200 $112,000 -10.6% San Diego 17 $492,500 $550,000 -10.5% Los Angeles 18 $537,500 $598,000 -10.1% Denver 39 $311,000 $346,000 -10.1% Oakland, Calif. 19 $490,000 $545,000 -10.1% Sources: HomeUnion Research Services, Maponics

Real estate investors looking for the best markets to buy single-family homes for the rental market should head to Nebraska according to a new report.The HomeUnion report looks at where investors can buy single-family rental (SFR) properties at bargain prices during the winter months of 2018.The investment and management firm found that buying during the winter of 2017/18 meant buyers paid on average 6.6% less that they did in the spring/summer buying season of 2017."For the second year in a row, our study found that the wintertime is the best season to acquire rental properties," explains Steve Hovland, director of research for HomeUnion. "Median home prices drop substantially during the colder months, while rent losses remain marginal for landlords.Hovland added that on average, investors can acquire higher-yielding properties in cold-weather markets like Omaha, Neb.; Chicago and Hartford, Conn., as well as Charlotte and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.Rental properties in our top 10 metros are discounted between 20% and 32% in the winter months, representing a significant savings for investors," says Hovland.Prices are often lower in the winter as families are less likely to move during the school year.HomeUnions top 40 best markets to buy rental homes in the winter are:
Since President Donald Trump took office, Congress has yet to consider major legislation directly affecting the natural gas and oil operations. (Executive regulations, of course, are another matter entirely).

Still, when it could, the oil lobby scored wins with Republican lawmakers. When the GOP turned to overhauling the tax code, for example, oil and gas companies succeeded in expanding tax breaks and securing the long-sought right to explore the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil.

Now that the legislative conversation has turned to an infrastructure bill, the American Petroleum Institute (API) - the largest oil and gas lobbying group, which represents all corners of the industry - issued a reminder to lawmakers who attended its annual luncheon on Tuesday. They included Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Oregon.

The message: Pipelines count as infrastructure, too.

"We're all for the highway bills. We're all for bridges and roads," Jack Gerard, API's president and chief executive, said at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, just blocks from the White House. "But when you look at the two together, I like to remind people this private-sector investment in the energy arena is literally twice as large as what they're talking about in terms of the highway bill. This is a big deal. It's a big opportunity. We're trying to remind people: Keep us part of the broader infrastructure plan."

The oil lobby does not want much in terms of money, per se. "We're not looking for a government program," Gerard said. "We're not looking for funding."

Instead, its wish list includes something seemingly more mundane: faster permitting for pipelines and other projects.

For that, API wants changes at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to streamline the review of proposals to build liquefied natural gas terminals and interstate natural gas pipelines.

FERC's critics say the independent five-member panel, which gained four Trump-chosen members during the president's first year in office, has a cozy relationship with the oil and gas sector.

This week, the oil industry notched a win, for example, when FERC unanimously rejected a Trump administration proposal to prop up nuclear and coal power plants - a decision renewable advocates also supported. Even before Trump took office, over the past three decades, FERC approved all but two of hundreds natural gas pipeline proposals, according to a recent investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and StateImpact Pennsylvania.

"There are definitely needed reforms" said Kelly Martin, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, "but streamlining and making it easier and quicker to approve pipelines is not one of them."

Martin endorses some ideas floated by FERC's longest-serving commissioner, Cheryl LaFleur, an Obama nominee. Currently, FERC considers whether a gas pipeline has secured contracts to sell fuel as a sign of whether there is an economic need for it - even when the company is selling gas to itself. LaFleur has written, FERC should consider the "specific end use of the delivered gas within the context of regional needs" - that is, whether consumers really demand more energy - as evidence of economic need.

The fiercest pressure, though, to stop major fossil fuel infrastructure, such as the oil pipelines Keystone XL and Dakota Access, has come not from federal officials but from local protesters. Environmental activists successfully lobbied the Obama administration to halt construction of the two projects, only to be reversed in one of Trump's first executive orders. That decision was the first in a series of long-sought policy wins for API and other oil interests in 2017.

On Tuesday, Gerard singled out New York, where activists and the administration of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo have sought to stop pipelines that would deliver gas from the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania to New England, a region with frigid winters but no substantial fossil fuel resources of its own.

When temperatures fall during cold New England winters, energy officials there blame soaring heating bills on the lack of gas pipelines.

"During this past winter," Gordon van Welie, chief executive of ISO New England, which oversees operation of the electric grid in the region, said in 2014, "New England faced severe natural gas pipeline constraints that drove gas and electricity prices to record levels."

Gerard made an appeal not just to Washington officials, but to New York's governor, a possible contender against Trump in 2020.

"FERC has an appropriate role; the states have an appropriate role," Gerard said. "But if the systems are used, if you will, to obstruct the development of much-needed infrastructure, then we will push, as I know others will, to make sure there's certainty and predictability in the process."

He added, "Our hope and expectation is Governor Cuomo and others will look at the impact of their decisions on many Americans well beyond their borders."